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maochira · 8 months

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Hi hi hi! I looove your writing! And I’d love to request for platonic!male reader who’s new to the Bastard Munchen team with Ness and Kaiser?

Thank you! I ended up writing about some other BM characters as well :] also, if you don't have ü on your keyboard, it's spelt Bastard Muenchen! (ü can be spelt as ue)

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Tags: male!reader, reader is new in Bastard München, this is like a year before Blue Lock, Kaiser doesn't have a that big ego (yet) so he's not an ass here, Gesner makes one dick jokes (nobody is surprised)

It's been weeks since you received a letter from Bastard München, and you immediately agreed to join that club - it's been your dream for years, after all. But now that the day of your first practice with your new team is coming closer, your anxiety about it has been rising as well.

You're used to being the best player on your previous team, but you're well aware of how you're skill will only be seen as average among your new teammates.

And knowing the Michael Kaiser will be one of those teammates doesn't help your anxiety at all.

But surprisingly, the moment you enter the practice field, all of your anxiety is gone and has been replaced by confidence. You don't exactly know why, but it's nothing to complain about.

The coach isn't there yet, so you're just cluelessly standing around. A few of your teammates are on the field already, but none of them are paying attention to you so far. They probably noticed you already but don't know how to approach you, or simply don't want to.

Well, until two other teammates enter the field.

"No one told me we have a new one!" One of them yells excitedly while running up to you. The other teammate follows him, but he seems rather worried about how this interaction will go.

You know almost everything about Bastard München, so their names are no mystery to you. These are Erik Gesner and Benedict Grim.

"Hey, new one", Gesner reaches his hand out for you to shake. "What's your name?"

"(Y/N)", you answer during a somewhat awkward handshake. The only thing that makes it awkward is that Gesner is continuing it way longer than a handshake regularly is.

"Wow, nobody told us we're getting a new teammate", Gesner finally lets go of the handshake, "I'm Erik, and that's BeneDICKt", he points at Grim, who's only been observing the situation until now.

While Gesner laughs at his pun, Grim lets out a little sigh before turning to you. "I'm Benedict, but you can call me Ben." Then, he turns to Gesner and says "Also, I already told you to not introduce me like this anymore!"

"I don't care. It's funny. He probably thinks it's funny as well", Gesner says while first pointing at you, then he looks at you again, "You also think it's funny, right?"

"I guess...?" Is all you manage to answer before the rest of your teammates and the coach enter the field.

Your coach briefly introduces you to everyone, and then practice starts. It's a lot more difficult and exhausting than what you're used to from your previous team, but you're enjoying every second of it. After being the best for so long and slowly getting bored, now there are new challenges coming towards you.

But throughout the entire practice, you can't help but feel like none of your new teammates is actually interested in you being there. None of them talk to you and they don't pay much attention to you either. Well, except for Gesner and Grim.

It's only at the end of practice when two other of your teammates finally approach you.

"Hey there", Kaiser's voice immediately startles you. Out of everyone, he's the last person you would have expected to talk to you. And as always, he's accompanied by Ness.

You don't manage to get a word out, so Ness continues the conversation. "Welcome to the team! Your name was (Y/N), right?"

You're about to open your mouth to respond, but then Ness pulls you into a short but tight hug.

"I've got to admit, you did very well during practice", Kaiser continues speaking, "You seem to fit into the team, skill-wise. What's your position again?"

It takes a short moment for you to gather the right words to respond. "I'm usually a midfielder, but I've also played as a forward on my previous team."

"Great, that means we'll work together on the field!" Kaiser smiles and starts walking towards the locker room, so you and Ness walk along with them.

While walking, you continue your little conversation about positions on the field, which helps you get more confident around Kaiser and Ness. Just as soon as you enter the locker room, that conversation gets interrupted.

"Guys!" Gesner says excitedly and walks up to you, Kaiser and Ness. Kaiser's expression immediately changed to a less happy one.

"We're having another team hangout at the restaurant of Ali's parents later, are you coming as well?" Gesner continues and gestures over at Ali, who's currently packing up the rest of his stuff.

After Ness and Kaiser (slightly reluctantly) agree, you accept the invitation as well. After all, it sounds like a good way of getting to know your new teammates. Since most of them didn't seem interested in you during practice, you figured maybe it'll be different in a different setting.

And you were absolutely right about that. Hanging out with the team in the restaurant feels almost as if they're an entirely different group. It's much easier to talk to them and they show genuine interest in who you are. Although, a few of them (Igor, Bachman and Birkenstock) aren't participating in the conversations much. Sometimes they even seem annoyed, but only when Gesner makes another cock and balls joke. That's also something you're going to have to get used to.

But this was only your first day with the team, and you already feel very comfortable being with them. Joining Bastard München was the right choice.

#💟 maochira writes #blue lock #bllk #blue lock x reader #bllk x reader #michael kaiser #alexis ness #erik gesner #benedict grim #michael kaiser x reader #michael kaiser x you #alexis ness x reader #alexis ness x you #erik gesner x reader #erik gesner x you #benedict grim x reader #benedict grim x you #bastard münchen #bastard muenchen

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power-chords · 2 years

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You knew it was coming… I’m like, actually overjoyed. I have not seen Collateral on the big screen since I was 15 years old, when it first came out in theaters. I have definitely seen it about 800 times on my flatscreen television. But it deserves the theater, and I got so much more out of the experience than I bargained for. I knew it would be fun and exciting and communal and cathartic. I did not expect the emotional impact to be that much more pronounced, or to derive yet new insights as a result. (More on that later. You knew that was coming, too.)

It was also great to see it as an adult, in a room full of similarly enthusiastic and appreciative adults who could share in those moments of surprise and delight. When I saw the original release, it was at the tail end of its theatrical run, and the place was practically empty. It was me, a couple of friends from Browning, and a handful of UES septuagenarians. The collective response barely moved the needle. At MoMI, everybody was gasping, laughing, and white-knuckling in unison. It was so enjoyable and also strangely vindicating.

For example: right after Agenda Item #1 falls on Max’s cab, he scrambles out into into the street and says, “My man, you all right?” It’s a darkly, incredibly funny moment. In 2004, I was too stunned to register the humor — the dead guy dropping out of the sky was that shocking. But this afternoon, the whole audience erupted into laughter. We knew it was coming, and the grim slapstick hilarity took center stage. The comedic beats were ten times as rewarding, and there are so many of them. Unlike Heat, which I adore but is occasionally quite unintentionally funny, Collateral’s marksmanship is deliberate and flawless. Its dexterity impresses me to no end, the way it seamlessly delivers on every thrill a good movie can offer: comic, tragic, horrific, romantic, intellectual, existential.

And more than any other Michael Mann movie, there’s this immediate, irresistible rhythm that drives it. It has a backbeat. It’s got a groove. Most of his work is overtly musical in some way or another, but in Collateral, that quality becomes a defining feature. The amps are turned up to 11. It’s easier to miss when you’re watching it at home, but in a movie theater, it’s impossible to.

P.S. I am 99.9% sure they screened a different cut of the movie. The nightclub scene was noticeably longer. There were a number of scenes that I swear were slightly different edits, a couple with different takes (!!!). I have to go back to my UHD copy to confirm I’m not insane. But I would put money on it. I would put $600 on it.

#collateral #collateral (2004)

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aati-coach · 9 months

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TOP 10 Lessons From The Book: GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY: Overcoming Self-Defeating Behavior by Mark Goulston, M.D., and Philip Goldberg

1. It is better to begin in the evening than not at all. Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday. There are, of course, many reasons people procrastinate: self-doubt, boredom, fear of failure, the feeling of being unready or unprepared and so on. But these feelings, by themselves, don't necessarily lead to procrastination. Often what tips the scales is going through them alone, with no one to help you, bolster you, or cheer you on. Loneliness , . , is and. always has been the central and inevitable experiencee of every man. The key to overcoming loneliness-based procrastination is to enlist the support of other people.

2. Empathy is a priceless commodity because it invariably defuses hostility. It is psychologically impossible to be angry at someone if, at thc same time, you feel what he or she is feeling. When people iust don't underctand you, get them to feel

what you're feeling.

3. It often takes a tragedy to make us look honestly at our lives. Tragedies trigger reevaluation and regret, sometimes too late to make things right. You don't have to wait for someone to die before you realize what's important,

4. If you want what you never got fnlm your parent, become your own gandparent.

It takes courage to be your own grandparent. You have to be willing to give what you might sorely need yourself, with no guarantee of a return. However, it might be your best hope for gening the love, pride and acceptance you have always wanted. At the very least it will help prevent the anguish that a patient of mine expressed so well:

5. A true friend unbosoms freely, adttises justly' assists read:ily, ad,aentures boldlg, nkes all patientlit, fuIerle courageously' and continues a frriend unchangeably. If your friends are not in this list, GET OUT OF YOUR WAY!

6. No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched. Anger is a short madness. Convert the anger to conviction and act on the basis of principle. fhenever you can transcend your personal feelings and uphold strongly felt values, you gain something far greater than the thrill of retaliation: the courage and power of conviction.

7. There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it. We forgive when we no longer need to blame; we forget when we no longer need to remember.

8. When you accept someone's generosity, you might take on a debt you do not even know you owe, and if you fail to pay it back, you will be punished for reasons you cannot comprehend. Try to determine at the outset whether the act is a gift, a favor or a loan. Don't kid yourself into thinking you are a saint who gives to others and wants nothing in return. If you :ue not clear about what you really expect, you can jeopardize relationships by seeing yourself as a victim.

There are always strings attached.

9. Don't look wherc you're going, go where you're looking. Try to turn your fears into oppornrnities.

10. if you think you're always right you can't learn anything new. You're closed down because knowing and learning can't occur at the same time. Having to be right all the time just isn't right. It isn't just, it isn't fair and it isn't even possible. It will bring you contempt, not power and esteem.

Follow Evans Mozurunyem Ministries for action-provoking posts every morning!

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xsecretblastsx · 4 years

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1x08 - Seventeen Candles

It took me longer than intended (again) but here’s the recap for this episode, which is another of my all time faves.

Once again posting under a break because this got way too long.

Thoughts I had while watching the episode:

The start of this episode is hilarious. There’s being melodramatic, and then there’s Blair Waldorf, guess that’s what happens when one surrenders their virtue to a self absorbed ass.

Seriously the way she describes the whole thing to the priest is so funny. Also 20 minutes? wow girl. Thank god he’s a total pig who will act as if it never happened... yeah

Vanessa? Serena. To be honest I wouldn’t put it past him

One wants to be open minded and be kinder and objective with characters I hated the first time around, but God Vanessa is so annoying

Blair coming out of the church, exchanging her little facinator for those glasses, “one week of danger” playing in the background is just one of those scenes that really got stuck in my mind, girl’s killing it

“Would you consider avoiding me over breakfast?” this is so one of my fave scenes of them, it sets the mood so much.

Nate’s parents are so patronizing

Remember when mp3 players were a thing?... somethings never change though, like parents having to deal with teens isolating themselves via earphones.

I still don’t like the Vanderbilt Ring, also llike “im not asking you to get engaged son, but please give your girlfriend this engament ring” and the way Anne say’s it, Nate’s mom is such a pro at emotional blackmail.

Blair jumping around in her room, thanking God because her boyfriend bought the diamond necklace, aww. Also this is so relatable, the jumping around obviously, not the diamonds.

I sort of have a soft spot for Chuck standing akwardly behind the door not knowing how to deal with his best friend..,this is such a disaster waiting to happen and I’m loving it

Smooth Chuc, hiding the little gift back before Nate notices it (gotta confess I didn’t notice he did this the first time around, oh the pleasures of a rewatch)

Typical, your best friend that never pays attention for once is catching up on the little facts, like you shouldn’t know he broke up with his girlfriend

Though... If the town car was waiting for Nate to take him to Victrola, and it’s Blair the one that ends up using, shouldn’t have Nate realized that Blair and Chuck saw each other last ninght

The good old days when Chuck cared only about three things “Money, the pleasures money gave him, and Nate”, and even then when he’s saying it, is already kind of a lie.

He may have his own agenda, but yeah regardless Nate did needed to put a stop with his parents

She’s been in like three episodes and she already has invated herself to like two UES parties already, wow Vanessa.

“you wish, no you wish” and then the butterflies!!!!! This is a scene that admitedly I’ve seen more than once already and I love it every time. Chuck’s a delight here.

The real first of one of those shared moments of Jenny and Nate... the fist tase I would said.

“Blair about Vanessa being like This is such a problem” you don’t know the half of it.

That little wage was so pointless, as if Chuck would have left Blair alone.

Watching them play guitar hero is making me so nostalgic.

“You didn’t tell her?” she may say it wiht a smile and innocent eyes, but no Vanessa, I don’t buy it, and it was bitchy.

You get grosser by the minute, and you get older” :’) also, that’s a really pretty cake.

Happy Birthday B! What a bitch

Nate finally growing some spine and putting a stop to his parents manipulations.

Seriously how pretty is that necklace. Also I’ve never really thought it but Blair probably wore that dress (which I love) and her hair up because her previous call to the jeweler.

Serena’s face in the end is prceless is just like “oh god no, what a mess”

I missed Lily

Honestly 1x07&1x08 are some of my favorite episodes in the whole series. And this rewatch hasn’t changed that. While 1x07 is in some ways the turning point of the show, this is the first episode that Chuck and Blair are one of the main plots, and since the start it doesn’t dissapoints.

One of the things I love about this episode is how teenage-ry it feels. The focus of the episode is typical teenage drama: break ups, hook ups, a bit of jelousy between the girlfriend and the best friend. Made me a tad nostalgic, and much more interested in the storylines involving the young cast. In part because I honestly don’t care about the Humphrey family drama, and by this point is obvious how shitty Nate’s parents are. Also there was no rufly which I’ve enjoyed a lot the past few episodes.

So, this episode is the one where the little animosity between Serena and Vanessa comes to an end, and it just shows that in the end Serena is very understanding and also really friendly, I do like that it never actually evolves into a catfight, seriously is a shame to see girls fight for a guy, worse if the guy is Dan Humphrey. There was also Nate and Jenny, which I enjoyed because this was the first real tease of what could be between them... it’s also the moment where Nate finally decides that the best for him and Blait is to break up, so far my main issue with Nate is that he lacked the nerve to really do what he needed to do, from breaking up with Blair to standing up to his parents, he does both this episode. Finally

Obviously Chuck and Blair were my favorite part or the episode. Lowkey is a very telling episode about how they see each other, and their eventual dynamic.

One side there’s Blair. Beyond how hilarious it is to see her confessing at church after sleeping with Chuck Bass, one line in her tirade is quite interesting: “he’s a pig who will act like it never happened”. If one thinks about what we been showed of Chuck so far this is in many ways a very logical conclussion. To Blair’s surprise he does no such thing: he seeks her out for breakfest and it’s clearly no interested in pretending it never happened, he’s actually embracing it, Blair wants to go back to how things were before; the only life she knows

Sure last night she realized that her relationship with Nate had reached it’s end, and that there was much relief in that because in many ways her failing relationship with Nate was a constant reminder of all her insecurities, and that relief led her to just be and do whatever, and what she did well that wasn’t on the plan at all. “No one of my friends would understand” and I guess in a way she doesn’t understand her impulses either, and Blair doesn’t deal well with change, and so she goes into denial mode, and that means gaining her boyfriend back.

And so the episode goes and we see her on and on trying to grasp to her Nate once more, and Chuck is constantly there telling her basically two things: 1) let’s do it again because what happened yesterday won’t leave my mind, and that’s weird and 2) accept reality, in this case you and Nate are done. She stubornly holds to her ideas until everything crashes around her, and once it does Chuck’s still there, and she finally sees him, listens and gives in. And just like the song last episode in retrospective is almost a preview of how their relationship is going to play out, their behavior this episode is also a preview of what ends up being a predominant dynamic their whole relationship, the details and circunstances are going to vary, but Blair’s going to hold with eveything she has to what she believes her life should be, the script she wants that it’s probably best without Chuck and him trying to prove her wrong and that best option is them.

Whereas Blair’s actions are consisten to what we know of her so far, Chuck’s actions doesn’t. So far he’s been a giant asshole to all the female population, a self absorbed womanizer who once he got wanted is like “thank u, next”. Sure he and Blair are close friends but still, to him sex is just sex and she knows how he is, that’s why he asked her if she was sure. That’s what we know and what we could have expected of him. Instead he seeks her out, and when he rejects him, he still doesn’t hesitate her and he goes out a buy hers the gift she’s expecting from her boyfriend. Who happens to be his best friend

From the episode where Nate gets tricked by Carter we learned how loyal Chuck is to Nate and that their friendship is really important to him. And yet he doesn’t hesite to try to stir him far far away from Blair, sure the advices he gives him is good for Nate but he says more in the vain of keeping Blair single rather than in Nate’s best interest. Chuck schemes,we know but up until now it was hard to picture him scheming against him.

The more interesting bit for me is however the first scene between him and Blair at the balcony; not only because it points to the fact that these characters are equals “you forget who you’re talking to, so do you” but mainly because of the answer he gives when Blair ask him if he likes her, he doesn’t denies it he even admits to having butterfies and sure he claims he is ashamed and suprised by it even bactracks a little but it’s a very quick admission anyway, and it makes me wonder the why of it. Why is he so eager to explore this? It’s not his style and if he wanted only sex he knows he could achieved that easily some where else

It’s obvious they had chemistry between them, and that in itself may be a good reason, but to me it’s probably because on some subconcious level he liked her even before this. It’s not that I picture him pining for her in the background for her waiting sadly for the day she dumped Nate, more like he was lowkey always fascinated by her, on the earlier episodes there is more than one shot of him in the background watching her closesly, with a knowing smirk and amused by whatever she did.

So there’s this girl he finds interesting, extremely atractive, and also a close friend that he gets along really well to the point of being the one he takes to see his first business venture, and know she’s unattached and he also enjoyed quite a lot having sex with her, and for the first time he really stops to think about it and it’s quite obvious there was something there, fluttering, he’s just noticing it now because he can.

That scene where he gaves her the necklace he has being somewhat in smarmy mode before but when he see she’s hurt he tries to make her happy and as honest as he can be, last episode when it was just a dare between friends he tells her she’s ten times hotter than the dances, this episode he says “something this beautiful deserves to be seen on someone worthy of it’s beauty” the diference in sentiment is amazing because now there’s feeling behind it, and it’s such an honest and tender moment, this is the moment when the posibilty of Chuck and Blair finally takes root in both their minds (also that shoulder kiss is one of my favorite details ever through the show)

For the longest time I didn’t believe he felt something for her pre limo, but the more I think about it especially the way things happen later, for him to be that into her since the first moment and how it hit him when things went wrong it had to be because it was something he had felt in some way for a time, he’s not surprised because he felt something for the first time, I think he’s surprised by how much and because he quite can’t believe it’s a possibilty, this something he never dared to really think about.

Random bits:

Silas was the creepy monk in the Da Vinci Code right?

They actually used the demo version of “one week of danger” in this episode, I’ve heard the actual finished one, but I’m ruined and prefer the demo one.

Search TM, because we can’t use google’s name

Falling like Britney at the VMA’s, it’s hard to think that was so long ago.

I love Serena’s dress, chic and comfy.

#gossip girl #gossip girl rewatch #gossip girl recap #chuck x blair #1x08 #seventeen candles

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livayl · 4 years

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Tusks and Training

Aka- the promised bad-ass-Orc-warrior-woman-sneeze fic. xD You might know Azra from her previous story: https://livayl.tumblr.com/post/189575537427/tusks-and-comfort But you don´t need to read or know anything else to have fun with this one. :)

It starts out with a (hopefully gripping) fight that melts into an unexpectedly close combat. Which gets even more intimate when Arza feels irritated by the dust she´s covered in. No injuries or real harm done to anybody but a mention of blood. Also they´re a little rough because Orcs. Please only re-blog to other sneeze kink blogs, thank you! <3

The dry air smelled of fights, dust and sweat. Heavily underlined with the ever present scent of slick weapon oil and this distinct metallic odor of thoroughly forged weapons one could almost taste. All distilled under the cruel, burning blaze of midday sun which honed the orcish warriors even further. It was a blood boiling, temper rousing blend and Azra loved every single nuance of it. Reddish clouds of powder wafted through the flickering summer air. Stirred from the auburn colored sand that was only a fleeting carpet to the bone breaking floor of the vast arena. Plumes of dust wafted upwards by fluent motions and blistering winds. They richly stuck to every inch of exposed, sweaty skin and coated ones lungs with every inhale. Though slightly rusty in shade by nature it´s color had deepened richly with spilled blood and broken dreams over the years. Decades that had added a lingering, potent iron perfume deeply associated with battle, triumph and painful disappointment.

Azra fluently dodged a sharp, vicious swing of her opponents ax and met it with her own only a heartbeat later. The ringing clash of steel split the air as both Orcs forcefully leaned into the motion before parting to resume their hazardous dance once more. Despite her supreme height and muscle mass Azra was known to be swift and deadly on her feet. But so was her adversary. The two orcish soldiers stalked each other with predatory agility, clashing and parting in a rhythm so refined it was as beautiful as it could be deathly. As a sudden gust of parching wind swept up a new billow of concealing, sense numbing sand Azra took her chance to dive beneath an already low aimed blow. She managed to quickly kick her opponents legs aside with enough force to make the massive Orc stagger and than roughly tackled him towards the floor. She held him down with her whole body as her own ax came to rest right at his throat: The sharp, slightly curved blade did cut in just enough to draw a fine cut. A slowly withering stream of crimson trickled down his grayish, strongly muscled neck and spilled over the mirroring edge. Red beads glistered on the dangerously grounded weapon that had come to a steady rest despite Azras panting breath.

The attack had happened swift and with apparent ease but the female warriors body language spoke of an ongoing stress that had now lasted for several hard hours. Her muscle cords were clearly visible and strained under a gleaming layer of sweat. More than a few droplets were running over the rugged, scarred and firm landscape that was her body. They sprinkled the sand and left countless round, fast vanishing dots that accompanied the fewer blossoming red ones. Her luscious mass of hair had come loose and now cascaded down- enveloping both fighters in it´s dark shroud. "You give up?" She asked. Her voice as well as her expression stayed eerily emotionless and blank. Steady and adamant as her grip. Still tightly trapped in her oppressive grasp the other Orc could feel her weight as well as every shallow gasp for air stroking his heated skin. Scattered, salty beads of sweat that had first trickled over her body now dabbled his own. Her rival swallowed forcefully against the blade. A motion that made his adam´s apple bounce and forced the narrow cut open a bit more. The gash felt seething hot in contrast to the cool ax.

Just about to yield he stopped as he noticed a subtle change in Azras facial features. He was trapped underneath the other warrior with her face hovering right above his own and had a perfect view: Her nostrils, which had formerly merely pulsated in rhythm with her steadying breath, now started to crinkle open a lot further. They widened and flared backwards irritatingly- exposing her septum and it´s many glittering adornments. The layered, fine argent rings shook slightly as her nose crinkled with a wet sniff. He could see the swollen and damp inner membranes of each nostril with every opening motion. Azras thick brows had drawn together deeply. A movement akin to frustration or anger that in truth must have been an answer to a fierce, unpleasant stimulation. He watched as her former piercing gaze slowly lost it´s edge while her black lashes started to flutter erratically. Against her will Azras mouth trembled slightly. Her upper lip curled back in a snarl that exposed a sharp row of fangs in addition to the already present tusks. That unusual display left the fierce warrior open and more vulnerable than the other had ever been privileged to witness. Now her breath started to quaver and deepen in an irregular pattern. Gasping deeply again for another reason than exhaustion. Stray wisps of hair danced around her chiseled and now grimaced face with each increasingly helpless hitch. He felt each breath stroking and tickling his skin as her leather clad chest began to rise and fall with irregular rhythm as well. Ready to be overcome by an urge entirely unfit for a fight. In truth the whole build up had probably happened very fast. Yet to him every subtle and then obviously growing sign of irritation had been a precious first and thus seemingly extended and stretched time.

Both Orcs startled out of their shared stupor at the final, deep and voiced gasp that crested in a sudden and rushed sneeze: "hhHH- HUHR-EIZSSSCH-ue!" Azra had tried to angle her head to the side but with their close contact it was impossible to spare him a rather different kind of baptism. He felt the fine mist coating his shoulder, neck and left cheek as well as the newly mounting urge to sneeze that made her body go rigid with anticipation. The defeated warrior watched as Azras head titled back and her neck strained with another enormous inhale. He managed to get a last glimpse into teary red eyes before they tightly closed. The sneeze trembled at the cusps of release a moment longer, trapped her face in a longing grimace. Then it caused her head to snap aside in a motion similar to a whiplash with a harsh sounding, almost growled sound: "HUHR-ERRSSCH-hah!" Again accompanied by a fine yet clearly visible cloud of spray and a full bodied shudder. Her hand had held his shoulder in an adamant grip before and now clenched deeply into him with barely suppressed force. He felt her claws pierce his flesh.

These small discomforts aside- the conquered warrior could not remember a recent time where he had been equally thankful for years of hard training and discipline. Despite being almost completely distracted and undone by that sudden tickle: Azras weapon, still deadly nestled against his throat, hadn't even flinched while the rest of her body shook. It still pressed on firm as she recovered with some much needed sniffs. Then he felt the sharp edged pressure lift at once. "Ugh.... Fuck. I´m sorry." She mumbled and fluently moved back to first melt into a crouch and then rub at her still deeply blushed, slightly runny nose. He could see Azras many piercings move and wiggle with the massaging motion that was accompanied by clearly audible sounds of wetness. "Gesundheit. I assume the "sorry" is for nearly cutting open my throat?" He grumbled while sitting up- much less graceful but not really angry. Undeniably achy? Maybe. "No. For sneezing on your face." Azra replied. Fully standing, almost towering above him now. He could see her squint and twitch with leftover irritation as she extended a calloused hand to help him up. His likewise rough, sweat slick skin met hers as she lifted him to an upright position as well. Again, the intimate and close contact lingered for longer than needed.

"Those are some strange priorities you've got there." He countered with a wry grin that exposed his own impressive set of teeth and painted friendly wrinkles around is dark blue eyes. "Nooh- hhh- not really. Beheading is a common thing in fights and should be expected. Sneezing- iihhh-" She broke off and slightly turned to one side. He could see her profile beginning to contort with a beginning sneeze. Felt her shoulder brush against his own as her breath and grip on his hand tightened. And saw the annoyance as it left her with unfulfilled duty. "... Sneezing isn't." Azra finished lamely, voice thick and speech dulled with congestion. She now used both hands to rub over her face and audibly swollen nose. And somehow managed to look cute and absolutely miserable at the same time. "Are you unwell?" He asked, a tad bit worried now. The male Orc had not noticed any lapses or signs of weakness in their prolonged fight but knowing the other that did not mean much. "Nu-huuh-...." Her breath hitched behind protectively raised hands and teased her palms with stuttering flutters."No... Ugh... Just itchy... Hhh-hold on-" Azra then explained before turning away from him completely. He watched as her shoulders first tensed than rose and fell with another series of fruitless hitches that ended in a deeply vibrating, angry growl. It was strangely exciting and endearing to witness her in such an uncommonly soft, control-less state.

Both had now completely forgotten about their fierce training and weapons bedded to rest in the grinding sand. Utterly distracted albeit for slightly different reasons. He gently stroked sweat damp waves of midnight colored hair aside and kissed the soft parts of her shaved nape. "Let´s go and wash that grime off." His lips mumbled against her skin- words more hummed than spoken. It made her shiver with pleasure as tingling goosebumps blossomed all over her back. She felt his fangs and protruding tusks lightly scratch her and would have enjoyed the soft tease if not for the much more demanding one buzzing inside her sinuses. Azras mouth turned into a feral snarl with both rising need and kindled annoyance. "Fuuh--fucking shit!" She cussed as the growing prickle spread once more and forced tears into her eyes. It lingered for a few heartbeats, right on the verge of tripping from "almost" to "finally enough" only to draw back again- displaced by the surprisingly smooth lips against her neck. "Hold on!" Azra almost snapped, more sincerely and completely in command this time. "Sorry- I can´t focus on both. Wa-hhheh-haaiit a moment." She then added, speech already discordant but not unkind sounding. Arza halfway turned around and felt almost disappointed at the retreat of fondling and advance of... That cursed...Feeling...Right there.... Just a bit more... He watched as her body shook in silent, gasping struggle and felt something not unlike curiosity. Even anticipation as she used an outstretched claw and hooked it in one of her septum rings. And definitely shock while witnessing her yanking said jewelry down almost brutally. The harsh trigger caused an exploding stimulation, a mixture of exquisite tease and stinging pain. Azras eyes squeezed shut under desperately knitted brows right after while her mouth and nose opened for a deep inhale. She felt a building pressure rising through her lungs, straining her chest. Finally enough to fuel the much needed, throat scraping sneezes: "Huuuhr-RRRSSCHooh!- HAH-ERSSSCHH-ue!- HUH-EIZSSCHhah!" The finally released force had bent her almost in half while making her stumble slightly. Clearly audible throughout the whole arena, the rushed sneezes left both eyes and nose damp and her head finally cleared. Albeit more than a bit dizzy. She absent minded rubbed the space between her breast where a not uncomfortable pang still echoed the previous outbursts.

"Huh.... Finally..." Azras almost moaned relieve was accompanied by a good humored chuckle and rewarded with a hard, passionate kiss. Now she would have much more attention left to revel in her victory as well as in the surely following and very eagerly presented prize.

#my fic #my oc #Azra #Orc #female #monstersnz #sneeze #sneezing #dust #I had a lot of fun writing this #hope you´ll like it! :)#formatting was mean again- hope that doesn´t show x.X

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deltaengineering · 5 years

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Winter Anime 2019 Part 3: High on Concept

If you wait long enough, you’ll find something good to say.

Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue / My Roommate is a Cat

What: Misanthropic mystery author picks up tough stray cat, both get healed.

✅ The cat acts like a cat, the misanthrope acts like a misanthrope.

✅ The approach of telling the same simple story from the perspective of two characters that can’t really communicate effectively is interesting.

✅ This is very basic, but it works. I like both characters, and it's generally inoffensive. Pretty much Barakamon with less of a focus on telling you exactly what to feel. Might watch more of this.

❌ I see we’re now at the point where shows get localized titles that sound like lazy translations of bland Japanese names even when the Japanese title is not that bland to begin with. Lovely.

Dimension High School

What: A bunch of kids press XXX and YYY and are sucked. Wooow.

✅✅ The wraparound segments look extremely realistic. If there was more lensflares and shots of feet I’d almost say someone has finally beaten KyoAni in making anime look like a cheap, egregiously overacted J-Drama.

❌❌ Sadly, the puzzle dimension they end up in just looks like homemade MMD animation, because it is. I mean, at least it’s mocapped, but apparently with a Kinect.

❌❌ E.g., they make jokes about clipping and they kinda have to because everything clips into everything else all the time.

❌❌ Did I mention that all they actually do is solve lame puzzles and fail to be funny about it? It’s really getting to the levels of the dreaded “barely animated voice actor improv podcast” at these points.

♎ Suwabe’s in it, and that’s never an outright bad thing. He’s voicing the quizmaster, in the process proving he’d do anything for a paycheck. I wonder if he has a fiverr acocunt.

Domestic na Kanojo

What: Highschooler loses virginity to one night stand, finds out that it was the sister of the teacher he has a crush on. Incidentally, the mother of both also just married his father. Zany!

✅ This is presented like a low-key, slow drama, and it’s not even bad at that. Some good directing going on here, at least in the beginning.

❌❌ Really just too bad that it’s impossible to take seriously with a setup as contrived as this, not to mention taking it as seriously as it apparently wants to be taken. It’s also not exactly original.

❌ I’m not gonna say that sketchy relationships can’t work (it worked fine for KoiAme, for example), but embedding your suddenly also incestuous pupil-teacher affair in the setting of a harem comedy, complete with other sister walking in on attempted drunk blackout kiss, is not giving me confidence that this has the chops to pull it off.

❌❌ The show this reminds me the most of is Love and Lies, and that’s a real bad calling card to have.

Girly Air Force

What: Girl-shaped fighter jets fall in love with a dude.

❌❌ It’s just another military-hardware-is-cute-girls-actually show in the vein of Strike Witches, the kind where they think that having a few plane CG models is already thrilling content.

❌❌ But then it doesn’t even turn out to be that in practice, because most of the episode is taken up by lame “worldbuilding” (i.e., coming up with excuses for why your fanservice show has to be the way it is) and trying to make your bland harem lead interesting, which is a futile endeavour.

❌ The most interesting part is still the CG dogfighting, such as it is. It’s not great either. Also, girly planes are pink.

♎ Honestly got a laugh out of them randomly picking a Gripen as heroine unit in addition to actual JSADF hardware, because that’s a sleek-looking plane. The biggest prank the JSADF ever pulled on the otaku industry is buying the chubby F-35, which is nowhere to be seen here.

Go-toubun no Hanayome / The Quintessential Quintuplets

What: Empoverished highschooler is hired as a tutor for some rich quintuplets with large breasts.

❌ This is a blatant harem setup that would make a 2003 bishoujo VN blush.

✅ However, in practice it’s much better than it sounds. It knows it’s a wacky romcom with a dumb premise and it does not pretend otherwise.

✅ So it’s lighthearted, but it’s also surprisingly classy. In fact, it’s classier than Domestic no Kanojo, which is a show that’s actually trying to look respectable and failing.

✅ The relationships are also very feisty, with an energy that a comedy needs. There’s a lot of sass to go around here. Probably the best of these I’ve seen in a while, so I’ll give it three eps.

Kemurikusa

What: After getting pulled off the sequel, the Kemono Friends crew made their own version. Presumably there are blackjack and hookers in this show’s future.

❌ If you are a fan of KF’s “charms”, fear not, you would not be able to tell these people made another anime before. It's still total amateur hour.

❌❌ It’s not even the “looks”, though those certainly are not a highlight. The design is okay and the animation is bad, but I’m not incapable of enjoying shows with bad animation. What really kills it is the editing. I usually don’t comment on editing because that’s almost always competent and only very rarely great, but Kemurikusa has uniquely lazy and badly timed editing. Every shot being seconds longer than it needs to be is already an annoyance in low-key dialog scenes, but the alleged action is laughable and allows you a long, unblinking stare at every frame of bad animation. I really do wonder why they even bother with it when it’s so terrible.

✅ The setting seems alright, even though it’s just a reskinned Kemono Friends. At least it’s not gijinka nonsense this time (which makes one wonder where the gimmick characters are supposed to come from, but I digress), and it’s more upfront about what it actually is too. I’d call it mildly intriguing.

❌ I don’t mind mystery and certainly prefer it to exposition bombs, but instead of that this episode quickly establishes the most basic facts... and then repeats them over and over and over some more. Combined with non-editing, this makes for horrible pacing.

♎ I had no opinion on KF’s longer-term qualities, because the first episode was so boring I never got any further. I won’t have an opinion on this show’s long-term qualities for the same reason.

Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka

What: Magical girls are tragic, shoot gun’s.

❌❌ Yo bro, what if magical girls but dark? Surely such a thing has never been attempted.

❌ The particular source of grim here is that these girls are war vets and fight with semi-realistic weaponry, so there’s a fair bit of the ol’ milwank in this one as well.

❌ The best part of the entire show is that the enemies they originally fought looked like cute teddy bears. Of course, this is dropped in favor of just slicing and dicing some random terrorists in the main narrative. I guess “dark magical girl” is still too outlandish a concept, gotta go with ripping off The Punisher again.

❌ The characters so far are nothing special, you got your PTSD Rambo and the generically cute tomodachis she swears to protect. Such contrast!

❌❌ If you must make these 80s action movies with some otaku gimmick pasted on top, would you mind making the action look good at least? Because I don’t care how many gallons of blood you paint in your dramatic but conspicuously non-moving pans.

Meiji Tokyo Renka

What: Spiritually sensitive lonelygirl gets kitsuned to the Meiji era, which is full of delicious beef and some handsome men too I guess.

✅ This isn’t an outright comedy, but it goes all in on everyone’s fabulosity level to a degree that it’s really already three quarters to Dame x Prince.

✅ Similarly, the lead is not quite as unimpressed with these hams as Ani was, but she certainly has a lot more interest in roast beef than in these guys always trying to pull her into sparkly chin-holding poses &c.

✅ Meiji Tokyo Renka doesn’t seem to be anything special, but it gets the tone right and is expressive enough to not become boring.

♎ While certainly watchable right now, with these there’s always the chance that it decides to launch into real drama in the long run, which in turn almost always goes wrong.

Yakusoku no Neverland / The Promised Neverland

What: An orphanage’s happy daily life gets upended by the realisation that they’re just pizza rolls for some demonic entities.

✅ I watched this right after Kemurikusa and let me tell you, it sure helps if you’ve got professionals on the team. This is a highly competent show as far as cinematography and editing is concerned. While there isn’t any reason to go all out on the action sakuga, this show looks real good.

❌ I’m not feeling the character design, to be specific I think everyone’s chin is too big. This sounds like a real assholy nitpick, but be aware that this will impact around 90% of the time you watch this.

✅ The premise is workable for a shounen manga, even if hardly original (remember Owari no Seraph?) At least it’s not kids with superpowers spamming beams at each other while discussing the nature of heroism, and seems to be going for a more mindgames-based approach in the vein of Death Note. The characters are just barely good enough so far. In the end it’s not so much the premise, but how well the production values are able to sell it. And that’s what Neverland is good at.

❌ It’s specifically a Weekly Shounen Jump manga, and that is huge red flag. Sure enough, while the visuals and mood deliver, the dialog writing justifiably assumes the reader is a moron. Almost every line in this is either straight universe exposition or someone reading someone else’s character sheet back to them. It’s insane and not even necessary because their actions establish all of this just fine, but hey, WSJ readers amirite?

❌ Also, since it’s a successful WSJ property, don’t expect an ending or be prepared to watch this show for years. Most likely both.

♎ This seems like it could be entertaining once the exposition is out of the way and the real meat of the narrative starts. Then again, at that point pacing would come into play, which is yet another achilles heel of WSJ-style shounen manga. Against my better judgement, I’ll probably have a look how this develops, but I don’t expect much.

#anime #winter2019 #impressions #meiji tokyo renka #yakusoku no neverland #the promised neverland #Doukyonin wa Hiza Tokidoki Atama no Ue #My Roommate is a Cat #dimension high school #domestic na kanojo #girly air force #go-toubun no hanayome #the quintessential quintuplets #Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka

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kevin-bacani · 5 years

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Walk rotoscope animation

27 October 2019

Our last lesson before we go for our one week break we shot in a green screen room to take a video of ourself or someone else walking a cross the room to make a rotoscope animation during the break.

In this first animation I took the video I shot and cut them into two half to make it easier to animate.

I ues rough Animatior app on my iPad to import the video I took and create a new layer for me to put all of my tracing on.

I started deleting some frame that I didn’t need from the video to make it easier to draw as it would have taken much longer to draw.

Taking frame out made no difference to the overall results.

After I completed all of the drawing I then imported all of the frame on to procreate to make an MP4 and Gif .

For the first half of the animation I mainly drew the out line of myself walking when I got the used to it the second animation I did I put more detail on my drawing and I made it longer and put more frame to make it smoothe. the first animation I did got 69 frame the second animation is 95 frame.

The overall frame of this animation is 95 frame the one thing hard about doing this animation is how long it had taken I have never this many frame but it great to see all my drawing come together to make a walking animation.

Doing the process of making this animation I have learn how to make a realistic walk rotoscope and learn way more than I expected about animation. I really want to do more animation like this and try out different way to make an animation using different styles.

the program I was using in this animation was Rough animator

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andymull · 5 years

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WWE NXT Takeover Toronto 2019 – Preview & Predictions

Adam Cole (c) vs Johnny Gargano – NXT Championship 2 Out Of 3 Falls Match

The third big match of their rivalry takes place tonight, and truthfully mostly everything has already been said about both guys. The extra touches to this feud recently have been some great video packages put together by the NXT team, the Cole celebration tour video visiting Gargano’s father as well as his gym, and this weeks hype video were both awesome in adding the extra touches to make this feel different to the other matches.

Now the added difference here with the 2 out of 3 falls stipulation is both guys getting to select their own stip to one of the falls, and NXT GM William Regal adding one for the 3rd fall if needed. A straight one on one match as well as a street fight have already been chosen by the competitors, but come on this is blatantly going 3 falls so all comes down to Regals choice. The smirk/grin that Regal gave during this weeks show when talking about it had got me thinking one of two things, either we go completely comedic to confuse everyone and Regal names the 3rd fall as musical chairs. Or, they go 1-1 and both guys are yelling at Regal to make a bigger stip like a first blood match for example, Regal must beat it and announces, ‘loser leaves NXT’. The crowd will pop in confusement and shock and both wrestlers will love the chance to vanquish the other, then we can have them regret the decision very quickly after allowing some interesting promos after by Regal in regretting the decision but HAVING to go big. Maybe just a cage match with weapons....

I don’t see the result here going any other way than Cole walking out as champion as I need Gargano to be out of the title picture as he has bored me a fair bit lately, out of NXT or not I just need him doing something fresh for awhile – COLE

Shayna Baszler (c) vs Mia Yim – NXT Women’s Championship Match

Ive been saying it for months but is this actually the time to take the title away from Shayna and close out her second title reign? The women’s division does need a change as she’s mowed threw most of the women she’s faced, but, I don’t really rate Yim that highly.

After Mia came in I said to friends that I don’t rate her but gave her time to show me more in her NXT run, but she really hasn’t done too much to impress me sadly. The story is there for her, the video package was great, but her in-ring isn’t my favourite (not saying she’s awful in the slightest) and calling herself the HBIC is dreadful. If you’re outside of the WWE and a heel then great the Head Bitch In Charge is a decent gimmick to sell shirts from, but in the WWE the Head Baddie In Charge (or Blasian) just sounds stupid especially as she’s a face lol

But as I mentioned I still think they have her take the strap, more on Shayna later, then we move to Io moving into the title scene and quickly taking the belt herself – YIM

Pete Dunne vs The Velveteen Dream (c) vs Roderick Strong – NXT North American Triple Threat Match

This match should be great, all talented guys that will be around for years growing and growing, and for this match I see Roddy being the guy to shine. He’s been such a monster in the ring for quite awhile now and goes so far under the radar its unbelievable, if the guy was a foot taller he’d be in main events on Raw or Smackdown destroying people.

I did originally want a longer Dream title reign but to be honest he’s a character that really doesn’t always need a title to defined him and his character, so its not a big loss if he does indeed lose. And we don’t really know about Dunne and if he’s over in NXT for awhile or just a one off, I lean to him being around for longer and being the next challenger for this title but really he should be on Smackdown making an impact right now for me – STRONG

The Street Profits (c) vs The Undisputed Era – NXT Tag Team Championship Match

Another match I sadly see as being pretty easy to predict, with the Profits being on Raw weekly they really are just counting down the days with NXT until the move is a full one, and the final chapter they need to close is that of having the tag titles. But the main thing here is that they NEED to have a top notch quality match tonight to see them make the move more smoothly, if they stink up the joint they may see their NXT stay extended (they wont, don’t worry).

Will be nice to see them make the jump to Raw but really are a team that needs more seasoning for another year as the top guys in the division, as they really haven’t had a long run on tv compared to others as they seem to have been slightly streaky in their appearances for awhile. Plus, I think the company is missing a trick by not having them both make the jump with Bianca Belair at their side, all three as equals making an impact all motivating each other to success, would be a super positive stable.

Sadly the Undisputed Era don’t seem to be close to getting called so while in NXT I need them all in main events as much as possible, I don’t think they fully know what they have with the group until they don’t have them. These guys are vital in getting newer wrestlers tv ready as well as giving them vital in-ring experience working with great wrestlers. Plus the key thing for me is that if you hadn’t noticed this show will finish with ALL of the Undisputed Era holding gold to close the show…… - UE

Candice LaRea vs Io Shirai

A second women’s match on a Takeover, at last, this match should be really fast paced and passionate with both women being great. Io’s new heel character is undoubtedly awesome and if your more than just a WWE viewer you’ve most likely seen her before and know the damage she can produce. And isn’t it nice that Candice finally is getting the chance and a bigger spotlight to shine her-self, as she really hasn’t had the focus she deserves since joining the company (Hi Keith!)

A one-sided match this should become but that doesn’t mean it wont be fun along the way, Io takes the win and moves higher up the card. Man, how much better and more passionate though would this have been if Kairi hadn’t have been called up and Io had turned on her? – SHIRAI

This should, as usual, be a really fun NXT Takeover, albeit a heel heavy winners side.

I have a feeling there may be afew callups in the near future and some of the results tonight may make it clearer as to who will be gone soon or who will be wound down slightly over the next month before leaving. Dream/Profits/Shayna are the main people im thinking about and the ones to keep an eye on, I expect the Profits to take a round of applause after their bout similar to Ricochet and Black did previously.

As well as the matches announced I think they may still do something with Riddle/Dain after them not having their match on this weeks tv, maybe a quick match or another big angle to setup something for tv perhaps?

The depth they have currently is massive when you cant guarantee a Matt Riddle match, let alone having Keith Lee under contract and not really doing anything solid with him in a year, or Kushida who hasn’t been a focus the past few weeks after being focused on pretty heavy since his debut.

And to lead on from that Im not sure we really need more guys coming BACK to NXT from the main roster, Breeze/Dango/Crews and potentially more. While it does give them the chance to alter their gimmicks and regain some confidence from how they’ve been handled the past few years on the main roster, they really just are taking tv time from others that need it more. The problem we have is that the company aren’t releasing people anymore with AEW as competition so many guys are just backstage during Raw watching the show or eating in catering, at least the guys mentioned are guys that have requested to move down to help theirselves better what they do, but at the same time they’ve had the opportunity and haven’t been able to cling to it while others are desperate for that same opportunity. But hey, this is a topic we could talk on A LOT more another time.

Enjoy the show folks and keep your eyes peeled, I smell a breakout guys invasion with Stokely looking for someone to manage.

Bye for now

Andy

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finnpeach · 6 years

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Rainy Day

Synopsis: This is a college AU with Lance and Keith wherein instead of Keith leaving for 2 years with his mom, he took 1 year off from school to go backpacking/traveling with her around the world. He and Lance were dating before then, though when he left they didn’t have a great goodbye and there’s a lot of things left unsaid. Now Keith’s been back for a month and they still don’t know how to really act towards one another, until Keith comes down with a cold.

Featuring fet!Lance of course

Ship: Klance

Word count: 3.3k

This also shifts in and out of Keith’s and Lance’s perspective so sorry about that :/

***

When Keith’s body aches in protest when he wakes up on a dreary, pouring Wednesday morning, he blames it on his crappy mattress. When a deep, throbbing pressure reverberates through his sinuses when his toast pops out of the toaster, he decides he must’ve not slept well that night. When the sneezing starts, though, he realizes it may be more than just a bad night’s rest. He hasn’t gotten a cold in almost a year. He decides to check his temperature just to make sure; though if the way his throat feels scratchy and raw is any indication, it can’t be good. He enters his bathroom and squints at the light as the pressure in his temple increases. To make matters worse, the tile is ice-cold beneath his feet and sends a shiver up his spine that chills him to the bone.

Keith raises his arms behind his head and ties his hair back, watching his reflection in the mirror. He eyes the pink, feverish flush on his cheeks with a sigh and opens the medicine cabinet for the thermometer. Maybe it’s just a small fever. A headcold, right? He tries not to think about it as he sits on the edge of the bathtub, waiting for the thermometer to beep beneath his tongue. He hates this feeling. The thermometer is cold beneath his hot, dehydrated tongue. He can’t breathe through his nose and has to keep his mouth closed for an accurate reading, the tub is too hard beneath his thighs, and he hates how itchy his nose is. Lance used to rub his back when he took his temperature because he knew how much Keith hated it. 101.3 Is that high? It can’t be too bad. He only has one class today, and it’s with Lance. They haven’t spoken much since Keith returned from his trip. Only some hugs here, a cheek kiss that Lance chanced a week ago. They don’t know where their relationship stands anymore. Keith can’t completely blame him, though. To have your boyfriend leave for an entire year with barely any notice beforehand and no communication, and then to just come home the next fall semester as if nothing happened? How can things return to normal after that? Keith hates thinking about how upset Lance had looked when he told him he’d be leaving the next day. How Lance had tried to hide his disappointment and be supportive, but Keith could tell there were melancholic thunderstorms brewing in Lance’s mind. He pulls on his jeans and gets his backpack ready, muffling harsh coughs into his shoulder as he ties his shoes. His mom had said time would heal them both, but he’s been home for over a month and now he’s not so sure. His apartment is only a five minute walk to campus, though he instantly regrets his decision when the rain chills him to the bone and the harsh wind slices his cheeks. You trekked through the Himalayas, camped in Siberia, and almost died in the Sahara. You can’t handle a rainy walk to campus? He thinks to himself, gritting his teeth. When he finally makes it to class, Lance is already there with a seat saved for Keith. He walks up silently and plops down in the seat, suddenly aware of how tired he feels.

Keith doesn’t see that Lance greets him with a smile that quickly turns to a frown at the sight of a damp, pale Keith. Lance also notices that Keith’s hair is pulled back, too. He only ever does that if he’s really exhausted.

“Hey,” Lance pulls his earbuds out and pauses the music on his phone. “You look soaked.”

“Really? I thought I was dry, acgtually.” Keith replies stuffily, leaning forward on the table in front of him and resting his head in his arms. He doesn’t mean to be so snappy, but he’s not in the mood for Lance to annoy him today.

Lance rolls his eyes and decides to just leave Keith alone. Whatever, maybe Keith doesn’t want their relationship to be what it used to be and just wants to be a pill until the end of time. Why should he care.

He’s about to put his headphones back in, but stops when he hears a shuddering, hitchy breath come from Keith. Lance almost mistakes it for sobs before —

“Hh’ihZzsh’ue! H’NGKSHh!” Keith doesn’t look up and instead just sniffles back his congestion, letting his tired eyes slip shut. He wishes he hadn’t come to class. He’s just going to sneeze during the whole lecture, and everyone’s going to look at him, and Lance probably hates him, and he’s so cold, and god fucking damn it he wishes he’d stayed in bed.

What makes his mind finally stop racing is Lance poking his shoulder. He straightens up, expecting Lance to tell him to go blow his nose or cover his mouth next time, but instead he’s slipping out of his own jacket.

“Gimme your hoodie.” Lance demands, reaching out his hand expectantly.

“What? No. It’s soaked, why do you want it?”

“Just gimme it, Keith.” Lance tugs at the hood of Keith’s hoodie, clearly not taking no for an answer.

Sighing but deciding it’s easier not to question why Lance is so weird, Keith pulls it over his head and hands it over before Lance puts his own jacket around Keith’s shoulders. It’s warm, a lot warmer than his hoodie.

Lance notices the surprise on Keith’s flushed face and smiles, doing his best to control any smugness. “You think I was just gonna let you sit there and shiver all class? I can see right through you, mullet.” He pushes his hand up under Keith’s bangs, feeling for a fever. “You’re sick.”

Keith tries not to sink too much into Lance’s hand, which feels so warm and comforting against his cold skin. His entire body seems to scream in delight at the affectionate touch, but he pulls away anyway and stares at Lance’s notebook, eyeing the old K+L circled by a heart that Lance had drawn on the cover last year. Suddenly, desperation wells up inside him.

“I didn’t think it was that bad.” He replies softly, refusing to meet Lance’s gaze. Normally, he’d deny any illness until he was dead, but the fever is starting to make him a little delirious and Lance’s touch, something he’s craved since he’s returned home, has pushed him over the edge.

Lance can sense a shift in the air as he watches Keith rub at his nose. Suddenly, it all comes back to him, a million memories that had been swept under a mental rug for a year. How itchy Keith’s nose got when he had a cold, how much he hated taking his temperature, how he tied up his hair so messily and Lance always had to fix it for him to keep it off his sweaty face. How Keith hardly ever slept well and even worse when he was sick, which explains the dark circles underlining Keith’s waterline.

Whatever awkward grievance they’d had towards each other dissipates in that moment. Lance wants to take care of his boy, right now.

“Let me take you home after class. You don’t look like you can last much longer.” Lance reaches out and rubs Keith’s back, hoping he isn’t overstepping any more unspoken boundaries than he already has.

But Keith hardly seems to notice his touch as he turns to cough into his elbow. Deep, harsh coughs that seem to wrack his whole frame. “M’fine. Besides, you hhhave..”

Keith’s eyes slowly slip shut as his hand raises to cover his mouth, jaw hanging slack, his breath drawing into a series of needy, short breaths. Finally, he searches for the bright lights from the ceiling to push him over the edge, and—

“H’iISShh!.. Hh’iehSSh’UE! Hh..— Heh’EhZSsh!” He covers his mouth with his palm as each sneeze pitches him forward, leaving him with little relief in his sinuses and an even sharper headache.

Lance is currently trying to ignore the heat pooling in his abdomen. Fuck, Keith’s sneezes are so hard to ignore. He’d almost forgotten how much they riled him up.

“Bless you. Those sounded…” Sick? Harsh? Exhausting? He’s not sure what a normal response is or where he was going with that and instead rifles through his bag for an opened packet of tissues inside. “Here. Sorry you aren’t feeling great.”

Keith sniffles and takes the tissues, folding one around his nose before blowing. When he’s finished, his nose is an even brighter pink that makes Lance’s insides squirm. “Thangks… I just wanna go hombe.”

He sounds so congested and sad and tired that Lance almost leaps up from his seat and throws Keith over his shoulder, but class is starting. He gets one last look at Keith before the professor calls for their attention.

Thank god it was only a 50 minute class. Lance isn’t completely sure Keith would’ve lasted much longer in the stuffy lecture hall, where he had to pinch his nose for every sneeze and leave a couple times to blow his nose out in the hallway. A few times he nearly fell asleep and started snoring, to which Lance had to shake him awake. He made sure to make detailed notes for Keith to copy down later.

Finally, class is dismissed, and Lance tosses everything in his bag with little care before poking a dozing Keith again.

“Hey, Keith, c’mon.” He says, slinging Keith’s backpack over his shoulder too. The poor guy looks worse than when he came in. His hair is even more disheveled, his flush deeper, and his voice is starting to fail on him a little bit, too. He may as well be a spokesperson for a NyQuil commercial.

Keith stands from his seat, though the movement is apparently too fast and too soon because as soon as he straightens up, he begins to wobble and Lance has to catch him before he falls.

“Woah, hey, I didn’t think this grizzled, cooler Keith would be so unstable after a year long backpacking trip.” Lance helps him balance again though pulls away reluctantly. Not only because he’s worried about Keith stumbling again, but because he rarely gets to touch Keith anymore. “Are you okay?

The sickly boy huffs and shakes his head, which contradicts what he’s about to say. “I’m fine. Just tired.”

Lance isn’t so sure, but doesn’t push him anymore and instead keeps an eye out for the mullet. The rain has subsided for a moment as they walk to Lance’s car but he can see Keith trying not to shiver when the wind hits. What was Keith going to do without Lance? Just walk home and get soaked again?

“Do I need to stop at a CVS? Or do you have stuff at home?” Lance asks as he starts the car, sparing a glance at Keith. He can’t help but stare when he sees the same, unfocused, sneezy expression from earlier.

This time, it only lasts a second. “H’mptSShh!” He presses the first one against his wrist (very ineffective, Lance thinks). Another sharp inhale, more desperate and demanding, and — “Hh’iEhSSh! Hih’IhTSsh!!” Keith sniffles and sighs, his hand lowering to his lap, his gaze becoming a bit more focused as the ticklish feeling seems to leave him. His shoulders relax beneath Lance’s jacket. Unfortunately, the peace lasts for only a few seconds before he’s reeling forward again, his hand flying to his face. He curses, hating his sinuses for the never ending torment, his lips parting again. Short, erratic breaths escape his chest before — “Heh’EhZzSH’ih!! Sndf.. fuck, ow.” The last one is much louder than the others and seems to exhaust Keith completely. He rubs his nose again and sniffles. “I think I have some Tylenol at home.”

When Lance doesn’t respond (mostly because he’s trying to process the unexpectedly hot scene he just witnessed), Keith slumps against the seat and looks over at him, as if he’s expecting something. It only takes an instant for Lance to remember how he used to always kiss Keith’s forehead after a fit, or tease him, or give him a warm hug because they always left him chilled. That’s what he’s looking for, like Pavlov’s dogs expecting food after a bell.

It takes everything in Lance’s power not to throw Keith in the backseat and have his way with him. Trying to ignore how, um, interested he is, Lance reaches across the console and takes hold of Keith’s hand as he pulls out of the parking spot, hoping that it will suffice for what Keith’s searching for in Lance. The small touch is enough to soften Keith’s features and make everything seem all right, even for a short moment.

Keith waits in the car while Lance runs into CVS, staring at the raindrops running down his window. They haven’t been this close in ages. To see that same sparkling affection in Lance’s eyes whenever he looks at Keith sends warm waves of endearment through his veins, heating him up from the inside. He never realized how much he missed it when he was away with his mom.

Lance returns with a much bigger bag than Keith expected, filled to the brim with tissues, cold medicine, cough drops, cans of soup… Keith begins wondering how he’s going to pay him back for it when he only has about $10 in his wallet.

“Lance, you didn’t have to get all that.” He protests as Lance buckles himself in.

“Don’t be dumb, of course I did. You’re my boyfr--” Lance stops himself and quickly stares down at the steering wheel. Right, they aren’t really boyfriends anymore. “I mean... You’re sick. You’d do the same for me, or at least I hope so.” He starts reversing the car.

Keith stiffens at nearly being called Lance’s boyfriend. Fuck, he hasn’t been called that in so long, and it pulls his heart down to his stomach. Deciding to let it roll off his shoulders for the sake of not making things more awkward, he addresses Lance’s latest idea with a scoff and a smirk. “As if. You’re so clingy when you’re sick, I could never even leave the couch without you whining, let alone drive to the store.”

“Hey. You’re one to talk. If I ever got up for a midnight snack, I’d turn around and see you right behind me when I was in the fridge!”

“Had to make sure you weren’t eating all my food.”

“Or you just missed me.” Lance looks over at Keith with a big grin, expecting him to retort or deny it, but Keith is smiling softly at his lap. He’s remembering how Lance would shuffle into the kitchen as late as 3 am to search through the fridge, how Keith would wake up without him in bed and would come up behind him and hug him and sleepily ask him to come back to bed. Then Lance would abandon his food mission and lead Keith back to his room and stroke his hair until he fell back asleep again. He always misses Lance, even when he’s nearby.

They finish the drive in silence. Lance carries everything up to Keith’s apartment, refusing to let Keith carry anything once again while Keith follows him. It’s been so long since Lance has set foot in Keith’s apartment, but for some reason, there’s nothing awkward about it. He still remembers where Keith puts his cups, his forks, his spare dish soap. Nothing is out of place from where he last saw it.

“Okay. You go shower, warm up, get into some dry clothes. I’m gonna get all this stuff ready for when you’re done.” Lance says. Keith, thankfully, doesn’t argue and trudges off to the bathroom. He waits until he hears the water turn on to start unboxing the contents of the bag. Medicine, check, cough drops, check. He turns the kettle on so Keith can have some tea to soothe his throat after his shower.

Keith, unlike Lance, is able to shower in five minutes flat, and reenters the room right as Lance is steeping the tea. He’s dressed in old sweatpants, a baggy shirt that used to be Lance’s, and is still wearing his jacket. Though he still looks just as sickly as earlier, he at least looks a little warmer. But fuck, if he doesn’t look so cute right now. The way Keith’s wet hair flops in his face and how he’s wearing Lance’s clothes just makes him fall in love all over again.

“Better?” Lance asks as Keith takes a seat on the couch. He brings over the tea, tissues, and medicine before his eyes start scanning for a blanket.

“Mhm.” Keith replies sleepily, his head sinking into the couch cushion. “You’re missing class for me, aren’t you?

Lance bites his bottom lip as he grabs a blanket off the back of the couch and tucks it around Keith. “Just one. But it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” He pulls the blanket up to Keith’s collarbone and the back of his hand grazes underneath Keith’s chin. Goosebumps race up his arm.

Keith doesn’t seem to notice and grumbles something about how Lance is a bad student before closing his eyes, feeling sleep start to tug at him like a slow wave.

Lance notices immediately and touches his face again, cupping the side of his jaw. The touch seems to wake him up enough for him to open his pretty eyes up at Lance. God, how he missed this.

“Uh uh, Keithy-boy, don’t sleep yet. Medicine first.” He sits down beside Keith and passes him the dose of Dayquil, watching it go down and taking the empty cap from Keith afterwards.

He’s not sure where to go from here. Maybe he could just turn on the TV and watch something until Keith falls asleep, or make him some lunch with the soup he bought and just keep him company. Just as he’s about to reach for the remote, Keith releases a shaky breath as his eyes slowly start to close, and then…

“HhiehTSsh! Heh’Zzsh’ih! Hehh.. ihh-h… H’iZSsh! H’EhTSHh’iew!” He covers the lower half of his face with the blanket, hitchy breaths sporadically slipping past his lips. There’s a short pause, a moment where he can recollect himself, before he’s lurching forward into the blanket again with two sneezes that tumble breathlessly over each other. “Hh’iehShh!’idtshue!” Tears brim at the corners of his eyes as the pressure in his sinuses refuses to subside.

“Wow, bless y--”

“Hh’ihZzsh’ue! Hihh.. H’ihTSHh!!” Keith groans, expecting there to be more, but finally rubs at his nose when the tickle is gone. One hand flies up to cover his nose and mouth to hide the mess on his upper lip. “Uhmb, Landce, can you pass mbe the…?” He looks at the tissue box and sniffles again, though it doesn’t sound it like does any good.

Lance tries to ignore the heat pooling down south and snags a handful of tissues before passing them to Keith, hoping he isn’t blushing too hard. That had been… way too hot.

“Bless you. Are you okay?” That was a normal thing to say, right?

Keith nods behind the tissues and blows his nose, falling back into the couch again with an exasperated sigh. He shivers and Lance guesses that the fit had left him chilled, as they always do. This time, though, he doesn’t wait for an expectant look from Keith and scoots closer to wrap his arms around the blanketed boy, pulling him to his chest. Keith doesn’t protest either and simply rests his head against Lance’s collarbone, too exhausted to question it and too eager for this kind of affection to reject it.

“I missed you.” Lance breathes into his hair, squeezing him tighter. The way Keith fits into his arms feels so natural, like muscle memory.

“Mmm…” Keith hums, and although Lance can’t see it, he’s smiling. “Thanks for taking care of me, Lance.”

At this, Lance smiles and kisses his temple, nuzzling his wet hair. Outside, the rain resumes again, cold and unrelenting, but in here it’s warm and dry and he has Keith in his arms, which is all he needs.

#sickfic #my fic #fet!Lance #can u tell i didn't know how to end it

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ull · 4 years

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How to get a NIE card if you don’t have a Spanish work contract?

It took me a lot of time and nerves to get my NIE/Certificado UE as a person who is not working in a Spanish company. You see, I own a company in another EU country and I don’t intend to change this situation any time soon.

Why do you even need a NIE card? I’m not expecting many people here to ask this question, but in case you need this explanation, here it goes. First of all, you need it to legally live in Spain. You are obligated to get it within 3 months from the moment you start living in Spain, so there may be some legal consequences if you don’t have it. But there is also a very practical reason for getting your NIE card: you won’t be able to sign service contracts (eg. for the internet) nor purchase things online from many Spanish shops (not everything you need is available on Amazon) without providing your NIE number. So if you plan on living a comfortable life in Spain, you definitely need to get the residency aka NIE card.

In my journey to NIE card, I had a lot of help since day one, but unfortunately all of the people who wanted to help me had work contracts or were registered as autonomo (self-employed) here in Spain. Some of them had been the residents for so many years, they no longer knew how the process looks these days. Of course, there are also companies who can help you to get your NIE, but I wasn’t feeling like paying €200-€300 for getting registered as a resident, which as an EU citizen I’m entitled to get for free (well, almost, but I’ll get to that).

My process of getting a NIE card (mind that NIE CARD is equal to Spanish residency and NIE number is just a fiscal number) was long and bumpy, also because COVID-19 came to Spain right when I decided I finally needed to get it done. So right after I printed everything out and got a cita previa in a town almost a 100 km from where I lived, the lockdown was upon us and they cancelled all of the appointments. But that actually saved me some time and helped me get everything more or less right.

It is extremely hard to get a cita previa (at least in Barcelona) mostly because of the companies that charge people for helping with the process. They have employees clicking through the website all day and I have some conspiracy theories on how they are able to take over all of the available appointments, but let’s leave them be. As long as there are people willing to pay them and it’s not illegal, they will be there.

So, the first thing that you should do is getting all of the necessary documents. Only when you have them all printed out, copied and packed in a folder, you can get to the mindless clicking festival.

So what do you need to apply for a NIE card, when you are earning your money outside of Spain and don’t plan to change this:

1. EX-18 form filled and signed - original and copy. In part 4, pick the option No activo con recursos suficientes y seguro de enfermedad. You might want to print it out when you already know when your cita previa is, so you can fill in the right dates. I had filled my form in on June 21, but had my appointment on June 30 and they asked me to cross out the incorrect date and write the current one on top.

2. A passport and its copy (not the whole thing, just the part where all of your data is, for me it was the first page).

3. TASA 012. Remember when I mentioned that NIE cards are almost free? Well it costs you €12. Fill it in, make sure to check the box next to Certificado de registro de residente comunitario o Tarjeta de residencia de familiar de un ciudadano de la Unión. Then print it out, sign it and go to the nearest bank office to pay for it. You can make them charge your account or pay with cash, it’s up to you. The bank assistant will print a bunch of strange numbers in the middle of the document and you’ll get back 3 out of 4 pages that you brought to them. Don’t make any copies of this document.

4. Health insurance. If you’re paying for the public insurance in your country of origin (in the EU), you would need a document (S1, E106, E109, E121 or other) that’s not older than 3 months and says you are fully covered by the public insurance. A proof of the most recent payment can help too.If you don’t have public insurance, you would need to get a private one in Spain. It has to have the adnotation sin limites ni copagos, which means that it covers everything including hospitalizations without additional payments. I got mine when I was opening my bank account. I told the bank assistant that I’m going to apply for a NIE card and he offered to get me the proper insurance too. So I took it. But you can get one from any of the insurance companies in Spain accredited by the government. Now, I copied my health insurance card (both sides) and they took it along with my application, but that wasn’t enough. You need a document with condiciones particulares, that has all your details and mentions the sin copagos part. You will also need a proof of the last payment or your bank statement printout that shows it (I had the latter).

5. €5.538,40 on your bank account, confirmed with Certificado de Banco. The official recommendation says that it can be any European bank, but I’m not sure if banks in other EU countries issue such documents. I have an account in one of a few banks that allow you to open an account with your passport (Banc Sabadell). I’m sure you can find another one, but most of the banks would ask for your NIE to open an account (that’s what I call a paradox!). Keep in mind that issuing Certificado de Banco can take time. In my case, 48h. Apart from the certificado, I also had my bank statement printout ready and it became handy, when they asked for a proof of health insurance payment.

6. Printed confirmation of your cita previa. Of course you will get this one later, but I’m including it in this list to make sure that you won’t forget to print it out and bring it with you. It’s not enough to have it on your smartphone!

So now, when you have all of the documents ready, play some nice music or an audiobook, go to SEDE website and start clicking. First screen asks you for the province that you live in. Then you need to click on the second drop-down TRÁMITES CUERPO NACIONAL DE POLICÍA and pick POLICÍA-CERTIFICADOS UE. The third screen is just the information, so scroll it down and click Entrar. The next one asks you about your personal data. Pick Pasaporte/Documento de identidad and fill it in with your passport number. Make sure that in Nombre y apellidos section you provide all of the names that are listed in your passport. If you have a second name in the passport, you should include it in this field too. Then pick your country of origin and teach the captcha. LIFE HACK: you can use the autofill (most browsers have this option built-in). It saved me a lot of time. Make sure the autofill option has your full name, phone number and email address. It should learn your passport number after a few tries. Next screen gives you four options, but you just need to click Solicitar Cita.

If you are lucky and/or live in a place where there are not that many foreigners, you might get a cita in the next screen. If so, just fill everything in (autofill helps). In the last section I just wrote Certificado UE. The last screen gives you the date and time and you’re good to go. Print it and show up for your cita with all the documents you already collected. Congratulations!

If you are like me, living in Barcelona or one of the other popular provinces, in the next screen you will most likely get the information that there are no appointments available at this time (I don’t remember the exact wording in Spanish, sorry). Then you have to repeat this process many times, at different hours of day and night (yes, they are sometimes getting available during the night!). At some point you will be successful, but you just need to keep trying, as often as possible. Don’t give up!

Remember that you can get your cita previa nearby, but more often than not, you’ll get it in another city in your province. Book it anyway.

Also, a few times, I was ecstatic when the website showed me the information that there is a cita previa available. Then I filled all of the information in and on the next screen it said that there are no citas that I could book. I don’t know why this happens. Is it a glitch of the system? No way of knowing this. But keep trying, eventually you will be rewarded.

I saved you a few dead ends I came by while trying to get my NIE card. The process I described should help you get yours as soon as possible. If you come across any problems that I didn’t mention, make sure to describe it in the comments section and I will look into it.

Good luck!

EDIT:

After we did the procedure for my husband, we learned that sometimes they would ask for the documents from the bank and insurance company to be stamped. It didn’t matter that both of them had little captions saying that they don’t need a stamp to be legit. Yeah, Spaniards... We got lucky, because both the bank and the insurance company’s office were a walking distance from the police station, so we were able to make it in half an hour. But if you want to be extra safe, just go to these places in advance and ask them to put a stamp on your documents. You can always have two copies, in case your official wants one without a stamp.

Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash

#spain #livinginspain #spanishresidence #spanishNIE #niecard #citaprevia #nospanishcontract #foreignerinspain #certificadoUE

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megareviews · 5 years

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Winter 2019 1st Episode Impressions

Back again after Issues prevented me from doing these 1st impressions last year. New year new me new season, let’s try to get all four seasons reviewed in a timely manner.

3D Kanojo: Real Girl 2: I would prefer less self-insert otaku protagonist romances in general, which includes those shows getting multiple seasons.

Ameiro Cocoa sideG: I don’t know how a show that’s entire 1st season was 30 minutes long could bore me so I don’t expect them to retain me as a watcher for 5 seasons.

B-PROJECT: Zecchou*Emotion: The second season of what looks like male idols, so… hard pass.

BanG Dream! 2nd Season: When I get fully into idol anime, this will be near the top of the watchlist. I’ve seen the scenes from the first season and this one and there is a big upgrade in quality, not that it was particularly difficult given the rough 1st season.

Bermuda Triangle: Colorful Pastrale: As far as I can tell this is a mermaid slice-of-life anime with characters based off of the card game Cardfight!! Vanguard. I’m interested as far as most shows are not about the supernatural creatures that are mermaids, but there isn’t really anything else that’s pulling me in as of the first episode.

Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019) (Boogiepop and Others (2019) / Boogiepop Never Laughs (2019)): I cheated on this one and watched two episodes before writing this, because the first two episodes premiered at the same time. Good thing I did because episode two explains pretty much everything that was barely set up in episode one. One threw a bunch of names and story bits at the viewer between romantic rooftop chats between the titular character Boogiepop and some guy. Two showed the viewer everything that Boogiepop was vaguely describing and introduced us to the main spookies of the show. Overall the animation felt stiff and generally revealed actions of characters rather than showing them, though the few supernatural events peppered in looked relatively nice. The concept is the only thing keeping my attention on it for the time being, but that’s a weak lifeline.

Circlet Princess: When I saw VR e-sport in the description, I was excited, but if the sport doesn’t progress beyond the 1v1 duel that was showcased in the first episode, they I probably won’t care. The show starts out by accidentally introducing the main character to a new sport by fighting an ace in it, and then progresses to her transferring to the school where the sport originated from, only to find out that the school no longer has a club for the sport. From this I’m going to guess that the show will just be her struggles to revive the game at the new school with friends she’ll make and train for a rematch against the ace, since their first bout ended in a tie.

Date a Live III: As somebody who’s watched all the previous material for this show (two seasons, two OVAs, and a movie), I was surprised at how good the second half of this episode was. The first half was a fairly normal slice of life x harem hot pot scene to reintroduce the main cast minus my favorite character. After that came the introduction of the newest addition to the growing list of enemies that will eventually join the harem, codenamed Witch. Her main abilities seem to be transformational powers, changing her enemies weapons into much less lethal objects and disguising herself. After the main guy accidentally angers her, she decides to use these powers to ruin his life, which I won’t spoil because that’s the best part of the episode. Overall, I can’t really recommend this series but if you’ve made it to season two, the art style might be different… again, but keep going.

Dimension High School: There are many shows that I struggle to fully classify as anime, and this one is probably one of the oddest, as about half of the show is live action, with 3D CG for the other half. The premise is very simple: solve the puzzles of the sphinx or lose what’s the most precious to you. If the main cast was more interesting or if it wasn’t trying to be purely comedy, this could be a fun show to watch, but there’s just a lot going on that doesn’t really work well together

Domestic na Kanojo (Domestic Girlfriend): Another show with a premise that theoretically could be interesting, but I am fairly certain is just going to be pseudo-incest garbage. So we got a main character who has a one night stand with a girl he meets at a mixer, and then it turns out that his father is getting re-married and the girl becomes his new step-sister. I think there is some promise in this as a concept, as that is just supremely unlucky and not really anybody’s fault for how awkward that is, but the key visual and title of the show looks like it’s going to be a romance after these high school kids become family. Oh yeah in addition the main character has a crush on his teacher at school who becomes his other step-sister due to the re-marriage.

Dororo: A modern adaption of an old manga (by Osamu Tezuka) about a child trying to get back the pieces of his body that his father traded away to demons in exchange for successful leadership of the lands he lived in. The first episode was pretty introductory to the main character, who hasn’t been named yet, and the titular Dororo, a very young but talented thief. The action has been pretty cool so far, and the full body prosthetics of the other main character are a nice touch, though I’m not sure how that will continue as he defeats the demons to reclaim his body.

Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue (My Roommate is a Cat / Sometime, Your Roomate is on Your Head): An eccentric writer who works as alone as possible because other people are just too loud, while visiting the grave of his parents and finds a cat that inspires his new work. At first he loves this cat for being so inspirational, but ends up getting annoyed with having to balance taking care of it while writing his book. From his perspective it’s a bit of a boring story with a goofy twist at the end, but then when we watch the same events narrated from the cat’s perspective, it’s quite a bit more interesting. Only somebody who really likes cats, or this cat in particular, could make it through this whole show, as I’m expecting ~50% of it to be a slog to get through.

Egao no Daika (The Price of Smiles): We’ve got a princess who’s just turned old enough to start taking on more of her kingdom’s duties and the people supporting her in different divisions. While she just wants to put a smile on everybody in the entire world’s face, that’s a tough job for a space 12-year old to do. That’s the plot from the first half of the episode, while the second half is a decent mech battle between some new additions to the kingdom’s defense force, and the ace of the force, who happens to be a childhood friend of the princess. There’s a lot of places that this show could end up going, so I’ll be sticking with it for at least a little while.

Endro!: So, the heroes defeat the demon lord, the credits roll, and wait hold on there’s still another 17 minutes left in the episode. We’re suddenly back in adventure school teaching the heroes how to be proper adventurers, and the new teacher for their class is… the demon lord? The demon lord got sent back in time and now tries to stop the heroes from becoming strong enough to beat them in the future, and fails so much that they end up advancing the heroes’ progress. I can only describe the artstyle as saccharine, which is the main thing holding me back from watching it in season, but if you can stomach it this looks like a fun show.

Fukigen na Mononokean Tsuzuki (The Morose Mononokean Continued): Season two of something that I didn’t find interesting.

Girly Air Force: Two childhood friends escape Shanghai due to alien attacks that are mainly focused in China, only to have the ship they’re fleeing on be attacked by aliens. Like most media with alien invasions, standard military force is useless against them, but Japan has the secret weapon to deal with them. There’s a squadron of planes piloted by artificial humans programmed to overcome the technological advantages the aliens have, which happen to be based near the protagonist. He apparently is a stabilizing factor for the artificial humans, who are all female by the way, and gets recruited into this secret branch of the Japanese air force as a support unit. Based on the first episode, I bet this is going to be a harem with the pilots, or at least a bad romance, which I’d rather not spend time finding out if I’m right.

Gotoubun no Hanayome (The Five Wedded Brides / The Quintessential Quintuplets): When a poor genius meets a family of rich, nearly failing, quintuplets, that sounds like a win-win situation, except the guy manages to get on the bad side of four of them before realizing that they were who he needed to tutor. It’s also framed as a flashback for this guy’s wedding with one of the five, so it can’t be a harem… right? So far it’s pretty lighthearted and I can get behind a guy who orders a yakiniku set minus the yakiniku because it’s the most cost effective item on the menu.

Grimms Notes The Animation: In a world where everybody’s fate is written down on an individual book and there are many worlds based off of fairy tales, there also exists beings known as “Chaos Tellers”, who seek to destroy these worlds by rewriting people’s fates. Fighting to keep the stories intact are a group of people whose books of fate are blank and can take on the forms of famous story figures. The first episode shows an example of this fight through the story of Red Riding Hood and has a unique take on fate by framing it through these fairy tales.

Hulaing Babies: If you thought this show was about babies doing hula, you’d be 50% right. It’s about high school girls trying to make a hula club, and other than that all I can really say at this point is the art is uniquely soft and springy, so I’d recommend checking it out purely for that at this point.

Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen (Kaguya Wants to be Confessed To: The Geniuses’ War of Love and Brains / Kaguya-sama: Love is War): Instead of having one character that’s too embarrassed to confess to the other for a rom-com, this show is about both characters too proud to do so. The show is incredibly dramatic for the characters bouts of wit to try and force each other to confess first, while being incredibly oblivious to each other’s and even their own feelings. In addition to following the thought processes of the main characters, there’s the narrator who sounds like he should be in a shounen battle anime rather than a rom-com, but he fits in perfectly with the ridiculous tone of the show.

Kakegurui xx (Gambling Addiction xx): Horny gambling is back for a second season, and guess what, everyone’s still horny and gambling. This season reminds you of this with an advanced game of chicken, which includes a finger guillotine and the opponent betting on the fact that the protagonist has the ability to feel fear, which the viewers show know by now, she does not.

Kemono Friends 2: After the director was fired during the success of the first season, the second season feels lackluster compared to the previous one. If you liked season one, check out Kemurikusa right below this for where the animation studio and director for this went.

Kemurikusa: A post-apocalyptic survival of a group of siblings living on a chain of islands and fighting against “Red Bugs” who appear from “Red Mist”. They all have some form of supernatural power, but struggle to find enough resources to live, and while gathering water from a lake, they run into a human who ends up being able to sense the Red Bugs. It’s done by the people who formerly made Kemono Friends, and it definitely looks similar, but the genre is quite a bit different, so try it if you like the genre or the staff, you might find something that broadens your horizons.

Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai (The Kotobuki Squadron in the Wilderness): Once you get past the weird way that some characters are 2D and others are 3D, this is a great show. It’s about a squadron of pilots fighting to protect a cargo blimp, and the fighting scenes that take up a good chunk of the first episode are amazing. Even watching on a pretty small screen, it felt like you were actually flying around in a plane with how the camera was used, and while I’d assume there’s not usually music playing during a dog fight, it was never obtrusive and sounded right for how it was used.

Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka (Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka): After a large war against creepy stuffed animal aliens, the five out of eight surviving magical girls return to dealing with humanity, as their enemies are no more. We follow one who swore to quit being a magical girl at the end of the war and is just trying to reintegrate into society. This is an issue due to the PTSD she suffers from, her former superior officer trying to recruit her to training future magical girls, and outbreaks of terrorism in Japan. My enjoyability of this show will be determined by if they go down the “help soothe the girl who fought wars in middle school’s PTSD” path which would be great or “Maybe the real evil in the world is humanity” path, which would be… less great.

Manaria Friends: Cygames is bringing back it’s Rage of Bahamut characters for one more anime, which I’m up for. It looks like a slice of life in a girl’s academy, and that’s about all I got from the first episode. It’s got a dragon girl as a main character (yeah it’s Grea), so I’m willing to see if there is any sort of a plot, or if it’s just gals being pals.

Mannaka no Rikkun (Rikkun in the Middle): Well… this show was supposed to have aired by now, but I can’t find any traces of it on the internet.

Meiji Tokyo Renka: I knew from approximately 3 seconds in that this was adapted from an otome game, and just kept going. Our main character has ~2 personality traits which was more than I expected given the source, a love of roast beef, and depression stemming from the lack of interaction with other humans since her friends found out she could talk to ghosts in elementary school. After the setup of those traits, she gets transported to the Meiji era by a hot dude magician, nearly gets run over by a carriage containing two hot dudes, and then goes to a party with roast beef and more hot dudes. Oh yeah and the main character and hot dudes can see the ghosts that the main character has been talking to since she was a child.

Mini Toji (Mini Katana Maidens): A series of shorts for people who liked the character designs from Toji no Miko, but couldn’t get into the story/fights/CG. Shows the off time of the characters and helps develop some others who didn’t get as much screen time in the main series.

Mob Psycho 100 II: A good episode to get back into the Mob Psycho 100 flow, showing how Mob uses his powers with people and against spirits, brings back some characters the viewers might have forgotten about, and revealing at least one interesting secret.

Pastel Memories: A slice of life-looking show that morphed into a steampunk action show in the last two minutes. After the shutdown of the manga and anime industries, Akihabara becomes a normal city, with only vestiges of the otaku hub it once was remaining. The first episode introduces us to the cast of characters working at a café with daily customers in the single digits, and a request in their guestbook to read a certain series. This prompts a search of the entire district to find all the volumes from the last bookstores open. There’s a whole swath of character archetypes showcased and a couple of motifs that seem odd, at least until the genre shifts right at the end to how some enemy is destroying the existence of the same series that the cast worked so hard to gather.

Piano no Mori 2 (Forest of the Piano 2): I’m not suffering through ugly CG fingers and hair for whatever the story here might be, I’ll get the story from a printed form instead.

Revisions: During a kidnapping incident in elementary school, the protagonist and his friends are told that they will be the people to save the world in the future by a mysterious hooded figure who helped them. Since then the protagonist is the only one in his group to still believe in those words, and lives in a battle ready state all the time, only for their school to be teleported into the future with a giant robotic being to terrorize, capture, and / or kill the students and teachers. Helpless to save the people he cares about, the hooded figure shows up again, without memories of the protagonist’s group, but still offers the protagonist a secret weapon because she recognizes his name. It’s all in CG, but it’s a mech show so it actually looks decent, and those last facts are probably the deciding factors in whether a person should watch this show.

Rinshi!! Ekoda-chan: A short about a poor girl living in the city and working multiple jobs to make ends meet? The episode is 23 minutes long like a TV-length show, but most of it is an interview with the director and voice actor for Ekoda, because it changes with every episode. Kind of an odd way of doing it, but if you enjoy the ‘behind the scenes’ of other movies and shows, this show packs that in the main show, otherwise you can just watch the first couple of minutes for the animated story part of it.

Star☆Twinkle Precure: Pretty Cure is a monster of a series that I may or may not ever watch any of.

Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (The Rising of the Shield Hero): With a double length first episode, a lot happens, and a lot of red flags are raised for me. I’ll try to keep the length of this similar to others by streamlining what occurs which is: four heroes are summoned from different realities to save a kingdom from invaders, each with their own legendary relic, three of which are weapons, and our main character gets a shield. Due to him not playing a game in his world that function like this world, and the lack of being able to wield a weapon, nobody joins him except one lady who dumps a fake rape accusation on him while stealing his stuff, causing him to lose trust in others, and leads to him buying a 10-year old demi-human slave. There’s just so much reasoning that’s either damaging to real people or downright nonsensical to fuel this guy’s persecution that I can’t reasonably find a way to enjoy this.

Ueno-san wa Bukiyou (How Clumsy You Are, Miss Ueno): Starring a super genius middle school inventor trying to confess to her crush through “testing her inventions” with him during science club meetings. Unfortunately he is incredibly dense and when given the opportunity of (arguably) most boy’s dreams, he gives reactions of either confusion or scientific boredom. The tests as of episode one are somewhat perverted and since they’re middle schoolers, so I generally don’t feel too comfortable watching them.

Virtual-san wa Miteiru (Watching Virtual-san / Virtualsan – Looking): A show featuring a large cast of Virtual YouTubers (VTubers) which is executed as a large series of shorts like episodes from their respective channels. For some of the more knowledgeable about VTubers, the main cast are some of the more popular characters, while missing two of the most popular, Kizuna Ai and Kaguya Luna. The animation and art quality vary rapidly between the signature styles of various VTubers, and overall it feels like watching a bunch of hyperactive kids interact. They do promote lesser known characters, in sections where they give brief introductions and ask for viewers to send in their own characters to promote.

W’z: It’s listed as a sequel to Hand Shakers, which I found an odd premise with clashing art between great 2D are and hideous 3DCG.

Watashi ni Tenshi ga Maiorita! (An Angel Flew Down to Me!): A show that was relatable for about a minute before becoming creepy for the rest of the show. It’s about a shy, cosplay crafting college girl who… falls in love at first sight with her 5th grade sister’s friend. I thought UzaMaid last season was a creepy enough show starring a pedophile, but somehow we’re already on another level of creepy. It almost alleviated the main issue I had with UzaMaid (College student with an elementary schooler is still illegal, but closer in age than an ex-airforce pilot) but introduced quite a few problems, such as bribing the target with sweets to wear certain clothes and take pictures in them, and the target agreeing to come back as long as she gets more sweets, since they’re homemade by the college girl.

Yakusoku no Neverland (The Promised Neverland): The other of the two shows that I’ve read the source material for, and as of episode one it looks like it will be a great adaption of the original. The story takes place in an orphanage where the kids train their minds by constant testing, and their bodies by playing tag in the forests. There’s a decent amount of spoilable plot that goes on other than that so I’ll just leave a recommendation to watch. The music and shot composition just often enough hint at the viewers that something is wrong before the big reveal at the end of the episode.

#Megareviews #first episodes #anime review #Winter 2019

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megfournier-blog · 6 years

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we had to hike

after being at the coast the weekend before, sophia, emily and i were pumped to see our friends, so naturally when they asked if we wanted to hit up shot me on thursday night, we couldn’t resist, even though we were planning to hike pasochoa the next morning. they came over to my house to pregame before alex and jack came to pick us up for shotme. we got there early, so we hung out, danced, and drank in jack’s car while we waited for everyone to get to shot me. well, for reasons unexplained, people decided against shot me for the night, and instead we ended up on jack’s roof, over dressed and over intoxicated. it was a somewhat rough night for our dear friend emily, and we went back to my house to share my bed after a brief and loud episode of trig-pulling in the bathroom. the 8am alarm the next morning was turned off without discussion.

it was 10 by the time we actually got ourselves together and got out of the house. as we were sitting on the bus, almost to rio coca, emily leaned over to sophia and i to say that we needed to get off right there or she would puke on the bus. i think it was then that i realized she probably would not be joining us at pasochoa.

sophia and i continued on to la marin, the bus station in old town, and hopped on another bus that absolutely reeked of incense headed toward pasochoa. we bought a packet of fried sugar-covered dough balls just as the bus was about to take off-the perfect way to fuel up for a hike.

after passing through several cute small towns, we got to the end of the bus route and found a taxi to drive us up to base of the mountain in the back of his pickup truck. upon arrival, we discovered that the hike was about 5-6 hours- just slightly longer than the 2-3 we were expecting- but decided that at that point, we would do it anyway. i am not totally sure why we felt so strongly that we had to hike today, considering we were both exhausted and mildly hungover. naturally, we were unprepared, and when we stopped for a snack, we discovered that we had one pack of oatmeal cookies and the end of a bag of peanut butter paste. que triste.

after a significant effort and strong rain, sophia and i made it to the top of the mountain that was still safe enough to climb, as the final climb to the mountain’s peaked and been blocked by a landslide earlier that afternoon. we climbed back down, hopped back in the pickup truck, and returned to the small town where the bus stopped. the area wasn’t exactly touristy, and as literally the only non ecuadorians in sight, we stuck out like sor thumbs. though sometimes uncomfortable, these are usually my favorite types of places, as i get to see how life works between ecuadorians, for ecuadorians, without the touristic influence. starving, we scarfed down a choclo con queso each and still hit up the panaderia for pastries and coffee before getting back on the bus.

after a long but fun day, i returned home once again looking like a sad, wet dog, and could not have been more appreciative of a hot meal, diy mocha, and night of storytelling and laughing with my host fam.

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terrancedkennedy · 7 years

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AWE Wages Picture is Worse Than It Looks; Why Is The Curve Still So Flat?

“Down Goes Frazier! Down Goes Frazier! Down Goes Frazier!” --Howard Cosell

I used to have a colleague that would giddily exclaim, “Down Goes Frazier!” anytime he was short a bond that flashed, “HIT” on the broker screens. Since he was pretty good at his job, it became so ubiquitous on the desk that it was easy to forget where it originated.

Those of us that grew up in the 90s remember George Foreman as a lovable middle aged man that made a living beating up mediocre boxers and selling indoor grilling equipment. But in the 70s, he was a total badass. Foreman pummelled the champ into virtual submission, knocking him down six times before the ref stopped the fight midway through the second round.

So that was the phrase that went through my head when I saw that negative NFP print. The unthinkable has come true….A seven year streak of positive prints is over.

An awful number, even looking through the noise from the hurricane? Not by a long shot. UE continued lower, indicating there was no easing of labor market conditions. More importantly, average hourly earnings grew faster than expected, and continued a trend higher that has been intact since early this year.

I’m always a little suspect of YoY numbers since they are by definition dependent on what happened a year ago--a look at annualized AHE over the last three months, seasonally adjusted paints a rather surprising picture:

Pretty clear picture there. Three periods of recent history--2010 to 2015, when wages bumbled around 2%....2015 to early 2017, when they bounced around 2.5%. Now one could reasonably infer wages are set to find a new range at or above 3%.

And yes, the Fed has hiked interest rates, and has the torpedoes armed and ready to deploy in December. Yet the curve remains amazingly flat--no doubt in part because of this year’s low headline inflation prints implying we may be near the end of the economic cycle. But with the recent prints in payrolls/wages and some good arguments for why headline CPI is understating financial conditions, seems like 2/5s should be a little closer to the steeps than the flats, when there is little evidence the Fed is going to waterboard the economic recovery with an aggressive hiking cycle.

And we all know what USD has done this year--until the past few weeks anyway.

Why does the curve refuse to steepen? This chart is from Kashkari’s diatribe last week. The FOMC’s most dovish voice says,

“I believe the most likely causes of persistently low inflation are additional domestic labor market slack and falling inflation expectations…..I will argue that the FOMC’s policy to remove monetary accommodation over the past few years is likely an important factor driving inflation expectations lower.”

I think the above evidence takes an ax to the first leg of Kashkari’s labor market argument. And the second? The clear implication is that the combination of tapering asset purchases, hiking rates, and eliminating SOMA re-investments (that is, reducing the balance sheet) has over-tightened monetary conditions.

I think Kashkari has misidentified the source of lower inflation expectations. Market-implied inflation expectations fall by definition when there are buyers of nominal rate bonds relative to inflation linkers. Without kicking the hornet’s nest of term premium arguments, the NY Fed’s ACM term premium model shows a steady if unspectacular increase in short-term forward rates with the term premium still solidly in negative territory.

Source: New York Fed

The bottom line is that there is a ton of demand for assets relative to the marginal propensity to consume. Global investors want to buy more long-duration assets relative to the quantity being issued by either the government, or corporate borrowers, forcing down future returns. That doesn't foreshadow lower inflation. It illustrates easy financial conditions.

That demand for assets extends not only to foreign corporations and individuals, but also to central banks. Remember a year ago when smart people we saying there was a floor below which the PBOC’s foreign reserves could not sustainably fall? If it ever existed, it is nearly $100 billion in the rear-view mirror now.

And the Chinese aren’t the only ones--the US current account deficit combined with resurgent manufacturing demand has put foreign central banks into overdrive to limit the appreciation of their domestic currencies. Foreign central banks have purchased roughly $200 billion of treasuries this year.

One might think that reflected a global interest in buying US Treasuries--but foreign private investors have added a modest $24 billion this year. Any chance that money is going into spread product???

Which brings us nicely back to this:

The Economist gives us about one of these per year. It just shouts out “contrary indicator”. Twitter practically had kittens.

Take the time to read through the article, it’s actually pretty good. They go through a number of arguments for how we got here and what might happen next. Only one did I find rather dubious--the suggestion that we are near the endgame because there are more people in developed markets starting to retire, and as they burn off assets real interest rates will be forced to rise.

That ignores billions of people in emerging markets. Not only are they in a better demographic situation--they are living longer as their standard of living increases.

A recent paper by the San Francisco Fed shows that it is actually life expectancy rather than demographics that has driven real rates lower over the past thirty years.That means as people in EM countries increase their living standards, they are not only making more money, they are hoarding more of it in anticipation of living a long and fruitful life, which pushes global real interest rates lower. More on this subject later this week.

We can parse this market in practically any way we like--bemoaning the lust for cov-lite, sub-investment grade bonds, Argentine bonds with comically long times to maturity, levered short vol positions, or private equity, but at the end of the day there is a ton of money chasing assets, and not enough scary stuff happening in the world to convince them to change course.

History tells us these trends don’t end well. But we don’t know when the music stops. The Fed doesn’t want to be the villain that breaks the market--but there’s a ton of evidence I’ve noted here that argue financial conditions are too loose, and even by its own measures, core inflation isn’t telling the whole story. I just can’t get away from the memory of 2004-2006, when the fed hiked 25bps every meeting for three years and still armed the greatest financial weapon of mass destruction history has ever seen.

To the Fed Governors...I know you guys love your jobs but look at your own numbers...to borrow from Reagan…”Doctor Yellen, Steepen this Curve!”

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edgewooduniversity · 7 years

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What kind of events do you think this rp will have?

Hey, nonnie! I have to admit this is a very challenging question since I’d like to have a healthy mix of fun, philanthropic and generally Greek-life related events. Since I don’t have all of them mapped out quite yet, we’ll start off with the Fall Rush. Typically, rush begins with an on-campus BBQ, a day of house tours, continues with planned events, followed by Blue Chip dinner, and then Bid Night. And brace yourself, this is about to be a long response.

We’re going to have themed mixers (such as Zip-ties and Mai-Tais, Candy Shop, Thrift Shop, Ugly Sweater Social, My Tie, Speed Dating, Decade Mixers, Blacklight party mixer, ABC and many more, depending on what the members feel like doing at that particular moment in time), then of course, the houses will be doing certain philanthropic events such as playing some kind of a sport to raise funds for a certain foundation, for example. Then we can also have like Date Auctions, again for the purpose of raising money for some kind of a research, let’s say. Our Greeks can also be having charity involvements every few months when they go and serve food to the abandoned children in shelters etc.

We are going to be dedicating attention to the sports in terms of if your character is a player of a certain sport on our list, we can organize tryouts, tournaments (like for example, my character will be on the basketball team) so we can bring that true competitive spirit into the roleplay! Also, if they have away games, we can have the team and their cheerleaders travel for a week. And we will have excursions for all characters, carnivals etc. All upcoming holidays will be done as well. This is why it’s very important that if you are choosing a character with a position in a house (e.g. president) please make sure that you can dedicate some time to that position. Not too much, just to kind of keep the house spirit going and make a mention out of it.

AND! We will also be choosing a Fraternity Sweetheart! In our case, we will be voting for a week and then whoever the person chosen, will be the Fraternity Sweetheart for the second semester in a year (starting January or so).

This got a little longer than expected so I apologize, but this is a very rough overview of the possibilities. I will NOT, of course, use all of them but I will consult the members to see what do they want to do. Team work :)

#college rp #university rp #oc rp #greek rp #new rp #Anonymous

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ericbarkman · 7 years

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Chrono Hustle #42 Limited Information

Melinda Summers paced back and forth on the bridge of the UES starship Destiny as it was travelling through superspace. “Could you do me a favor and not wear a hole in the floor of my bridge?” Captain Bonnie Jefferson asked. “Sorry,” Melinda said. “I’m just feeling a bit impatient. It’s been a few days since we lost contact with our people, and I’m just getting worried.” “We’re getting you there as fast as we can,” Bonnie said. “I know it sucks not knowing what happened, but there’s not much you can do until we get there. How much longer until that is, Lieutenant Gilden?” “We’ll be there in about another fifty minutes or so,” Lieutenant Nicole Gilden said. She was the pilot. “Fifty minutes,” Bonnie said. “The rest of your team is relaxing in other areas on the ship. Feel free to do so yourself. We have various different recreation rooms aboard.” Elsewhere on the Destiny, in one of said rec rooms, Jack Masterson was bowling with Mary Bishop and Imhotep. “So, you had bowling back in ancient Egypt?” Jack asked as Imhotep went up and picked up a bowling ball. “It wasn’t exactly the same game, but throwing a ball to hit a target, or targets, isn’t exactly an uncommon game in various different cultures,” Imhotep said as he threw the ball and it went down the lane, before knocking down some of the pins. “What about the wild west?” Jack asked. “Did you have the game there, Mary?” “I know of the game,” Mary said. “Although I’ve never actually played it. I wish Abigail was here, she’d probably be enjoying this.” “Yes, well, that situation is definitely complicated,” Jack said. “I certainly hope she won’t actually have to stay in the Cretaceous until she leaves the long way, but until we understand more of the situation of how she replaced Sesla we don’t want to risk jeopardizing the timeline.” “Yeah, I know, I know,” Mary said. “I just feel bad for her having to stay back at base while we’re out here on a mission.” “Eh, it’s not too boring back at base,” Jack said. “Why is it so boring here at base?” Abigail Esau asked as she sat down in the cafeteria. “I think it’s nice, personally,” Philip Wilson said as he looked up from eating his macaroni and cheese. “It’s good to get a break from going out on crazy dangerous missions.” “Well sure, but not when you can’t leave,” Abigail said. “I mean, I understand why I should stay here, because otherwise it will alter the already altered timeline in ways we can’t possibly predict. But that doesn’t make this any easier.” “I thought your big thing was research. Can’t you do more of that while being stuck here?” “I mean, I suppose. Back home I would spend days in my room just reading stuff on my computer, only occasionally stopping for sleep.” “And food?” “If I remembered to.” “So, what’s different now?” Philip asked. “I mean, other than working for a time travel organization headquartered in the Cretaceous?” “The fact that I have a girlfriend now, and she’s out on an adventure, and I’m stuck here. Like, if Dorian was off doing some mission and you were stuck here, wouldn’t you hate that?” “I mean, I probably wouldn’t be bored, but maybe worried.” “Yeah, I’m a bit of that too,” Abigail said. “I mean, I know Mary can take care of herself, but you keep getting into danger and eventually you’ll get yourself killed. Unless you’re me apparently, and will live for tens of millions of years.” The Ghost of the temporal duplicate of Jack Masterson was holding the punching bag in place as Ohm was pounding away at it. They too were on the Destiny. “So, what do you think we’ll encounter when we get there?” Ghost Jack asked. “I have little idea,” Ohm said. “You probably have a lot better idea than me. I’m not sure why I’m even on this mission.” “What do you mean?” “I’m just the big, dumb muscle. And I don’t think punching Chronos into submission is going to work.” “I mean, technically we don’t know for certain that it’s Chronos that’s behind the planet Kyklos disappearing.” “A planet, which he possibly created in the first place, disappeared after he was asked about it,” Ohm said. “I’m dumb, but not that much.” “You’re really not though,” Ghost Jack said. “Like, you are a Neanderthal, and the most advanced technology where you are from is what, pointy sticks?” “Essentially, yes.” “And yet after just a couple years, you’ve become fluent in English, learned all sorts of stuff about more advanced technology and even have a basic understanding of time travel.” “Very basic.” “Maybe, but I mean, most of us only have a basic understanding of time travel. What I’m saying is that you learn at an amazingly fast rate. You’re not stupid.” “You’re just saying that because you’re interested in me,” Ohm said. “See, you’re also really perceptive.” Melinda was still on the bridge of the Destiny when they arrived at their destination, although she had stopped pacing by this point and was sitting down at one of the auxiliary science stations. “Report,” Bonnie said. “We’re at the location,” Nicole said. “But sure enough, there’s no planet here, just like long distance sensors showed.” Melinda looked through the sensor data on the console in front of her. “Hmm, readings seem mostly normal,” she said. “Then what do you want us to do?” Bonnie asked. “This is your mission.” “Have your scientists comb through all sensor readings for this area, for anything abnormal,” Melinda said. “They are obviously better trained with your equipment than I am, plus there’s a lot of data to go through.” “Can you tell us what to look for?” Bonnie asked. “Abnormal is a pretty vague description.” “I don’t know exactly what we’re looking for,” Melinda said. “And what I do know is classified, so abnormal will have to suffice.” “Understood,” Bonnie said, with a frown on her face. Jack, Mary and Imhotep had gone to an observation room, and were looking out at the empty space where a planet should have been. “Are your knowledge powers telling you anything?” Imhotep asked. “Not yet,” Jack said. “I mean, not anything relevant to this anyway. These days they are almost constantly telling me something though.” “I know we’re assuming Chronos is behind this, but could it also be related to the alternate universe stuff Deanna was doing on the planet?” Mary asked. “It’s certainly possible,” Jack said. “I mean, putting a planet in another universe would be a good way to hide it. Especially if it was a universe without people out in space.” “Are we also assuming the planet was moved, and not just destroyed?” Imhotep asked. “If it was destroyed, there would be debris or something left,” Jack said. “Even if it was completely obliterated, there would have been some sort of energy discharge we would have picked up.” “Unless it was destroyed in another era,” Mary said. “Maybe,” Jack said. Elsewhere, Nikola Tesla was pacing back and forth, as well as he could in the pitch dark room he was in with ERK-147 and the other scientists that had been with them on Kyklos. “So, this room is a perfect cube,” Nikola said. “Yes, that is what my sensors said,” ERK-147 said. “Which means the only way in or out is teleportation,” Nikola said. “And we don’t know who it was that appeared before us, and presumably brought us here.” “I believe he may have been a Greek God,” ERK-147 said. “Although more powerful than any I have ever encountered, but what little I could detect of his genetics fits that theory.” “It’s got to be Chronos,” Nikola said. “He could easily be behind not just this, but the creation of the planet itself. The only question is, how does that help us?” “Anything yet?” Jack asked Melinda as he sat down with her in the mess hall. “Nothing, it’s like the planet was never even here,” Melinda said. “There’s no trace of it.” “What about in other eras?” Jack asked. “Like, let’s say this is Chronos. We went to talk with him in 1984.” “Harkon sent teams to other eras, and the planet seems to be gone in all of them, but the stuff that we know that happened on the planet, still seems to be part of the timeline.” “Hmm, so presumably he wanted to make sure that those parts of the timeline were left intact for some reason. But we don’t know anything about his reasons for any of this.” “Which means that has to be our next move if we can’t figure out anything else here,” Melinda said. “We need to find out why he’s doing this.” “How are we supposed to do that? Talk with other Progenitors?” “Exactly.” “You wanted to see me, sir?” Abigail asked as she entered Harkon Smith’s office. “Yes, please sit down,” Harkon said as he put down his computer tablet. “I just got a report back from Agent Summers’ team.” “Did they find anything?” “They found nothing, which means we’re going to need to come at the problem from another angle.” “Oh?” “We’re going to try reaching out to other Progenitors and seeing if we can learn anything.” “Is that wise?” “Maybe, maybe not, but it’s the best course of action we have at the moment. Do you want to get started on looking into the identities of other Progenitors and where we can find them?” “Of course,” Abigail said. “I’d be happy to.” Melinda entered Bonnie’s office. “Have your people found anything yet?” Melinda asked. “Not yet, and I’m finding it increasingly unlikely that they will,” Bonnie said. “And I know my ship is on loan to you for this mission, but how long are we expected to be out here. Earth doesn’t exactly have a whole lot of ships.” “If we could stay out here a few more hours,” Melinda said. “We’re starting to look into a few other options, but we still want to be thorough in this area.” “Of course.” “So, we’re trying to figure out a list of Progenitors?” Dorian asked. “Yep,” Abigail said. “The more the better. So far, other than Chronos, the only one we’ve encountered so far is Yahweh, I think.” “I mean, it was just Jack and Deanna that encountered him,” Philip said. “And based on what Jack’s said of that encounter, I don’t know if we want to go to him again if we can help it.” “Which is why we need to figure out others,” Abigail said. “For instance, I’m pretty sure for the Norse pantheon it’s Ymir.” “I’m thinking Nu for the Egyptians?” Dorian said. “Makes sense, I think,” Abigail said. “What about, let’s say, Roman? I mean, that’s pretty hard to track down with the complex relationship between Roman and Greek mythologies.” “I got nothing for that,” Dorian said. “Me neither,” Philip said. “But maybe for Shinto mythology we have Amenominakanushi.” “Yeah, that sounds right, other than your pronunciation” Abigail said. “A friend of mine from back home used to date a girl who’s family practiced some elements of Shintoism.” “It’s just hard to tell for so many of these,” Dorian said. “In so many mythologies, especially as you get earlier into the family trees of deities, it becomes more complicated to figure out what the difference is between a being and a concept.” “Yeah, but at least we’re making some progress,” Abigail said. “I think.” Back on the Destiny, Melinda joined Jack, Ghost Jack, Mary, Imhotep, and Ohm in a meeting room. “Have we found anything yet?” Jack asked. “Still nothing?” Melinda said. “We’ll be heading back to Earth shortly. Abigail, Philip, and Dorian have been attempting to put together a list of Progenitors and seeing if they can track any down.” “I mean, if we need to, I do know where Yahweh is living,” Jack said. “Although I’m not sure if I want to go have another chat with him.” “How many others have they found?” Mary asked. “Last I heard they had a short list of names,” Melinda said. “But no locations yet.” “They aren’t exactly easy to track down,” Jack said. “It took a decade for me to do so. I mean, if we want I can do some long term searching again. With our increased time travel options, it’s even less of an issue for me to do that now.” “If we have to, we might take advantage of that,” Melinda said. “But for now we’ll see what we can come up with the regular way.” “Okay, so we haven’t figured out many, but we’ve possibly figured out a few of the Progenitors,” Abigail said. “So, we’ll work with that for now. Next up we need to figure out where and when we might be able to find them.” “Are we wanting to limit ourselves to after 1984, since that’s when Chronos become a problem from?” Philip asked. “Or 2017, since that’s when we were interacting with the planet Kyklos…sort of? “Does it even matter?” Dorian asked. “I mean, Chronos is a God of Time. It’s not like causality works the same way with him as with us.” “Maybe not, but other Progenitors aren’t necessarily the same way,” Abigail said. “So yeah, probably best to try for times of 1984 or later, 2017 or later if we can manage.” “So, how do we figure that out?” Philip asked. “There’s so little about them in the historical records.” “Then let’s go outside normal historical records,” Abigail said. “Who would know about things like this, Merlin, Aphrodite, Sesla. Any of them might be able to help.” “Aphrodite has rarely been helpful,” Philip said. “But we can try questioning her, I suppose. Don’t know about how cooperative Merlin will be, and either way we’ll need to wait for Ghost Jack to get back here to talk with him or Sesla, unless you know another way of communicating with someone in a coma.” “All valid ideas, although we’re not just limited to actually questioning them, are we?” Dorian asked. “With Merlin as our prisoner, somebody could go to his home and look through what he has,” Abigail said. “That’s a good point.” As Melinda and her team returned to Earth, she was given an update on what Abigail’s team had been figuring out. “Jack and I will go search Merlin’s place,” Melinda said to the team. “I should go with,” Ghost Jack said. “There are all sorts of magical security systems in place.” “You’ll have to just tell us about them, since you’re the only one of us that can talk to Merlin or Sesla,” Melinda said. “So, that determines that.” “We can take Imhotep with though,” Jack said. “He may be able to help with disarming the security.” “Agreed,” Melinda said. “Okay, I’ll tell you everything I am aware of,” Ghost Jack said. “And hopefully that’ll be enough.” “How long have we been here by now?” Nikola asked. “It’s been thirty-five hours,” ERK-147 stated. “You are worried about dehydration and starvation?” “Surprisingly no,” Nikola said. “I am feeling neither hunger nor thirst.” “Me neither,” one of the others said. “Yeah, I hadn’t even noticed, but I’m fine on that,” another one said. “Hmm,” ERK-147 said. “A scan of your bodies does indicate that you are properly hydrated and fed.” “Well, if Chronos can create a planet, he can surely ensure that his prisoners are kept in good health,” Nikola said. “The question is why?” “Hello Aphrodite,�� Abigail said as she sat down on a chair outside her cell. “You’re a new one,” Aphrodite said. “My name is Abigail, I’ve been here for a little bit, but I haven’t had the need to talk with you as of yet.” “Oh, I know who you are, dear. I’ve met your father before.” “Don’t try playing that game with me,” Abigail said. “You’re not going to convince me that you’re my mother.” “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. The woman that raised you is indeed your mother. The man who raised you however, that’s not the father I was referring to.” “I don’t care, that’s not what I’m here for.” “What are you here for? More intel? The last time you people wanted intel you had to do a favor for me. Are you willing to do that again?” “How did that work out for you, anyway? You’re still our prisoner.” “For now,” Aphrodite said. “Certain things can take a while, but it’s only a matter of time until I’m out of here.” “We’re looking for one or more of the Progenitors.” “The what now?” “Chronos’ siblings.” “Couldn’t help you there, even if I wanted to. But feel free to pay me another visit if you ever want to learn who your real father is.” Ghost Jack entered the dream of the comatose Sesla. It was very different than the last time he had been here. He was on a massive balcony overlooking an ocean. The sky was sunny, with a few fluffy, white clouds dotting it here and there. Sesla was standing by the railing at the edge, looking out at the ocean. “Is my new body ready?” Sesla asked without even turning to look. “Not yet,” Ghost Jack said. “We’re still working on growing it.” “I’m sure you are,” Sesla said. “So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit then?” “We’re looking for information on Progenitors, the original generation of Gods.” “Oh?” Ghost Jack explained the situation with Chronos. “Hmm, very curious. I am aware of a few, but tracking them down might prove difficult.” “Any help you can provide would be much appreciated,” Ghost Jack said. Imhotep cast a spell to get rid of the magic lock. It was not especially complex, although the sort of spell you would not know to cast if you had not been told. The door opened before them. Jack and Melinda followed him into the lab. “So, what exactly are we looking for?” Imhotep asked. “Notes, files, anything he might have,” Jack said. “You don’t become one of the most powerful magic users out there without knowing at least a bit about the competition,” Melinda said. “Hopefully in his case, that includes one or more of the Progenitors.” Melinda quickly found a computer, which she started looking through. Jack was mostly just looking at the various mystical artifacts. And Imhotep located some old journals, which he started looking through. They were in a variety of languages, but Imhotep had a simple text translation spell he could use for that. The journals were full of a variety of different information. A lot of it was about spells, or artifacts, but there was a bit here and there about Gods and other magical entities. Nothing on the Progenitors that he had found yet though. “This,” Jack said as he picked up an old oil lamp. “What about it?” Melinda asked. “Don’t know yet,” Jack said. “But my knowledge powers just kicked in. It’s something important.” He started rubbing it, but nothing happened. “Not a Genie, I guess.” “I think I saw something about that in one of these journals,” Imhotep said, as he started turning back through the pages. “Aha, here it is. That lamp can be used to track powerful beings.” “That could certainly help,” Melinda said. Even though he did not need to breath, Ghost Jack took a deep breath to calm himself as he prepared to enter the cell where the comatose Merlin was being kept. “Are you sure you want to do this?” Doctor Jeri Quill asked. “Not really,” Ghost Jack said. “In fact, I kind of really don’t want to do this, but we need to get as much information as we can.” “You already got information from Sesla, and Melinda’s team may have found something as well,” Jeri said. “Sesla gave some intel, but we need more.” “You don’t want to wait for Melinda’s team to return?” “It’s not like Merlin can do anything to me in there,” Ghost Jack said. “I think,” he added before he entered the cell, and entered Merlin’s dream. This was the first time he had entered Merlin’s dreams, so he did not know what exactly to expect. But what he found was a small bar. He looked around. There were a few customers talking and drinking and eating. He did not recognize any of them, nor did he recognize the bartender. In the back though, there was a piano being played, and the player was definitely recognizable. “Hello Merlin,” Ghost Jack said as he approached. “Good day,” Merlin said without even looking up. “I was wondering if you’d ever pay me a visit.” “We need information. We’re trying to track down Progenitors.” “Who?” “The original generation of Gods.” “Can’t help you there. Maybe if you wake me up, I can help you then.” “Can’t do that, sorry.” “You’re really not,” Merlin said. “Yeah, you’re right, I’m really not sorry. And if you can’t help us, then I’ll just be on my way.” Ghost Jack tried to leave Merlin’s dream, but for some reason it did not work. Merlin, still playing the piano, grew a rather large smile on his face. Melinda, Jack and Imhotep returned to base, where Mary and Abigail were waiting for them. “Did you guys find anything?” Mary asked. Jack held up the lamp. “This might help,” he said. “What, is there a genie inside it?” Abigail asked. “No, but it can possibly be used to track down Progenitors, amongst other powerful beings,” Melinda said. “Did Ghost Jack find anything?” “He’s talking with Merlin right now,” Mary said. “But he got some potential leads from Sesla. A starting location.” “And I talked with Aphrodite, but no help there,” Abigail said. “That’s to be expected,” Jack said. “What kind of leads did Sesla give us?” “What did you do?” Ghost Jack asked. “I may be comatose, but within my mind, I am still in charge,” Merlin said. “So, what’s your plan? Just keep me trapped in here with you?” “Misery does love company, but no, I have grander plans than that.” “What kind of plans?” “You know me better than that, I’m not going to just slip up and give you leverage.” “Maybe not that easy, but give it time, it’ll happen.” “Are you certain of that?” Merlin asked. To be continued…

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