#and it’s like JESUS CHRIST I UNDERSTAND THE GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION NOW

[alphacrone]

it’s so wild being a kid and watching media where children have to wield swords or fight villains and you’re like. yeah obviously that makes sense. and then you see it again as an adult and are FUCKING HORRIFIED

#this isn’t even about children’s media #i’m rewatching the battle of helms deep and they’re showing the kids being fitted with swords and helmets #and it’s like JESUS CHRIST I UNDERSTAND THE GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION NOW

[moon-ursidae]

THE MANDALORIAN 3.01 SPOILERS

IT’S BEEN SO LONG SINCE I’VE SEEN MY BELOVEDS

this ep is only 36 minutes???

i wonder how they’re gonna break my heart in 36 minutes

or maybe they won’t idk

i’ve been conditioned to expect tragedy by tlou

ANYWAY

okay i hear forge sounds

THE ARMORER???

okay slay

GOD I LOVE THE MUSIC THANK YOU LUDWIG

SHE’S MAKING A HELMET ISN’T SHE

YUUUUUUUP

SLAYYYYYY

it’s small….

omg i thought it was gonna be a flashback to little din but paz is there

i kinda love that they’re showing this process

gives a bit more gravity to din’s situation

THIS IS THE WAH✨💅🏻

oh? what’s going on?

HOLY FUCK????

THAT’S A BIG CROC

GODDAMN.

seeing all these mandalorians is so sick

THAT HELMET SHOT??? SO GOOD

omg this really is a big croc it hit the death roll

OMG THE ARMORER???

YEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

THAT’S MUTHA FUCKIN DIN DJARIN

I KNOW THE SOUND OF THAT FLUTE

I’M CRYING BYYYEEEEEEEEE

THE APOSTATE???????????

GO AWAY I’M A MESS

people that didn’t watch the book of boba fett are so confused right now

i’ve missed din djarin and grogu so goddamn much

HE’S WEARING HIS CHAIN SHIRT😭😭

he’s really like “yea girl i know what the fuck is up. i can redeem myself”

i’m SO HAPPY TO HAVE MY BOYS BACK

IS HE NAPPING?????

FUCK OFF

i’m gonna cry this is so sweet

the music is amazing oh my god

THE CINEMATOGRAPHYYYYYYYYY

THE WAY HE CRAWLS INTO DIN’S ARMS GET AWAY FROM MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

NEVARRO NEVARRO NEVARRO NEVARRO

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

“here to meet an old friend” god i love him

I LOVE SEEING THE WORLD FROM GROGU’S PERSPECTIVE WITH SUCH BRIGHT CHEERY WHIMSICAL MUSIC PLAYING UUUUUGH

the ig statue😭

“you remember your old friend?” STOP IT RIGHT NOW

GREEF!!!!!

high magistrate??? slay

the droids carrying the trail of his cape lmao

SETTLE DOWN??😭😭😭😭😭

“his name is grogu.” “if you say so.” HAHAHA

using the force for snacks oml i love him

pirates????

din leaning on the tree HAHAHA

he’s so ready for shit to hit the fan

karga is like “omg stop acting like ur 5 just come have a drink in my office”

“is there a problem here magistrate?” 💅🏻✨

he’s so ready to put these bitches in their place

are they really gonna have a shootout in front of a fucking school bc shit changed? please grow up

din is so ready oh my god

this is so western i love it

“try me” OOOOOOOOO

oh he’s good

hittin his hand like that

DIN LEANING HAHAHA

OH HE WAS READYYYYYYYY

this is so classic hollywood western

the framing and close up on karga, the lighting on his face, the music in the background UGH it’s so good

wait where’s the kid?

where’s grogu??

oh there he is jesus christ i got so scared just then

OH THEY’RE ADDRESSING CARA DUNE WAIT

“she was recruited by special forces” ahhhhh i see

i didn’t think they would kill her off like that

the way din shakes his head after learning gideon was sent to a tribunal :(

omg din as a lawman PLEASE

the idea of din being a marshal is so AHH

i love how greef is trying to get him to settle down rn

he’s really been domesticated since reinventing nevarro

“i need him back.” HUH?????? WHAAAAAT?????

IS THIS ACTUALLY GONNA HAPPEN???

“i need a droid i can trust to help me explore mandalore.” okay so he still has trust issues w droids

“and he’s that droid.” PLEASE HE SOUNDS SO SOFT UUGGHHH😭😭

i love when they prove all the himbo believers wrong

din djarin is literally so smart and clever i do not understand people that unironically believe that he’s dumb

to be a bounty hunter, and considered the best in the parsec?? you have to be damn smart for that

put some respect on the name PLEASE

omg grogu being right next to din while he’s working 🥺

i hope he wakes up omg plz

NOOOOO :(

you tried din :(

AND SUCCEEDED???? I SAW HAND TWITCHING

OH MY GOD😭😭😭😭

din djarin i know you’re at least somewhat smiling under that helmet

THE GIDDY LIL BOUNCE HE DID SHUT UP😭😭

OH SHIT. OH SHIT.

THIS IS HORRIFYING OH MY GOD???

“now that’s using your head.” DIN PLEEEAAASSEEEE LMAO

“if things go skud.” adding that one to the vernacular right away

sometimes i forget that star wars has slang in it

WAIT WAIT WAIT I JUST REALIZED IS THIS GONNA FUCKING BE BABU FRIK

NO. FUCKING. WAY.

i don’t think it’s babu?? BUT OH MY GOD

“uhhhhhh… okay.” I LOVE HIM SO MUCH HAHAHAHA

he’s always asking people if they speak huttese LMAO

THE WAY HE’S CROUCHED IN HERE OH MY GOD THAT MEANS HE HAD TO FUCKING CRAWL IN THERE HAHAHAHAHA

I LOVE DIN DJARIN

“this one is my friend.”😭😭😭😭

“i got it.” SO SASSY

“he says you should get a new one.” AND THE GLARE. I FEEL THAT GLARE THROUGH THE VISOR AND INTO MY SOUL

GROGU OH MY GOD HAHAHA

WHAT IS HE DOIN💀💀

THE APOLOGETIC HAND GESTURES “sorry about that. he’s young.” LMAOO

the way that grogu kept trying to grab him after din took him away HAHA

HE’S PISSED.

din djarin: ceritifed dad

teaching grogu about being a mandalorian and piloting a ship😭😭😭😭

i’m taking notes on this shit so i can be prepared when i daydream later🫡

bro what is this guy’s problem

GROGU STRAPPING HIMSELF IN ON DIN’S BANDOLIER SHUT THE FUCK UP RIGHT NOW😭

I’VE MISSED WATCHING DIN DJARIN OUT MANEUVER BITCHES

HE’S SO SMART

THE MUSIC???

I LOVE THIS SEQUENCE

oh shit. that’s a big ass ship.

“dank ferrik.” YYEEEAAAAAAAA

MANDALORIAN CASTLE???

getting flashbacks to kamino rn

so thiiiis is where bo katan is

“i’m here to join you.” oh??

“where were you then?” a child probably??

he’s so slay for that

he really said “FINE. i’ll do it myself AND prove you wrong” and sashayed away

“goodbye din djarin.” when did she learn his name? i don’t remember. everytime i hear someone say his name in the show i’m like THAT’S INSIDER INFORMATION HOW DO YOU KNOW?

what a fun first episode!! i’m super excited for the rest of the season and what’s to come next week!!

MORE MANDALORE WOOOOOO

STARRING PEDRO PASCAL YUUUUP

he is running the world rn i’m so proud of him

i’m so so so so happy to have mando back though. star wars means so much to me UGH <3

see ya’ll on sunday for episode 8😳 of tlou! if not sunday then next wednesday! <3

kate sackhoff is gorgeous lemme just say

OH HE WAS REEEEAAADDDYYYYYYYY

the mandalorian means so much to me uugh i’m so excited and happy to have my loves back

#the mandalorian spoilers #the mandalorian #star wars #din djarin #grogu #pedro pascal

[financialsmatter]

Jesus, Take the Wheel…

Have you ever been to a point in your life when you felt like saying “Jesus, take the wheel?” If you’ve never felt that way than you’re probably not human. Because life has a way of throwing curve balls at you…trying to get you to strike out. But if you have felt that way then you were probably in a situation where it was difficult impossible to process all that was happening around you. The good news is – for those who are believers – when you submit your feelings to a Higher Authority * – in my case, Jesus – you should expect to see amazing results. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. ~ Romans 1:16 ~ ( * Note: This email is not about religion…well, maybe it is…kinda, sorta) Right now you may be thinking “What does this have to do with investing?” But stay with me. Because for far too many people, money is their God. Take the Wheel And when unexpected events happen – that can have devastating effects on your money – is when you’ll want to cry out, “Jesus take the wheel.” Ironically (or NOT) the two major driving forces in the markets are FEAR and GREED. READ: No One is Immune to Fear and Greed  June 26, 2018  AND: Fear of Death or Fear of Losing Money  July 13, 2020 But while you can’t control the markets, you can control how fear and greed affects you. And the best way to control the F&G is to prepare for them well in advance. Huh? It’s the same principle as preparing your everyday life for the unexpected events that take you by surprise.   And it’s so simple to do that you have to have someone help you misunderstand it. Are you ready for it?   Don’t violate the laws of nature AND the laws of faith. Example:  If you violate the law of gravity by jumping off a 10-story building you will die. Rest assured Fear and Greed will sneak up on you like a thief in the night. And in the Political Chaos of 2023 we’ll see a lot of both. But when you understand the laws that govern them you won’t have to cry out, “Jesus take the wheel.” Learn more about how to apply these principles in our February edition of “…In Plain English” (HERE). You’ll thank us later. And share this with a friend…regardless of their beliefs. They’ll thank YOU later. As always: We’re Not Just About Finance But we use finance to give you hope. *********************************** Invest with confidence. Sincerely, James Vincent The Reverend of Finance Copyright © 2023 It's Not Just About Finance, LLC, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Read the full article

[lasclswiss]

Lyrics sara bareilles i choose you

#Lyrics sara bareilles i choose you tv#

Much like her 2007 breakout hit "Love Song", the tune is a fiery kiss-off to people who like to "tell you all the things you’re doing wrong," the singer explains. Released in 2010, the Kaleidoscope Heart single earned Bareilles a Grammy nod for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. It’s your hope for every single song, and it doesn’t happen every time." "King Of Anything" "It’s a very exciting thing as a songwriter when you get to watch a song take on a life of its own. "I’ve seen people talk about it in terms of grief or addiction," says Bareilles.

#Lyrics sara bareilles i choose you tv#

You go past it and through it and grow from it."Īlthough "Gravity" has soundtracked romantic moments in TV shows like Community and The Vampire Diaries, not everyone views it as a song about love. "It's talking about that first real heartbreak where you’re like, 'I don’t think I’m gonna ever get over this,' then of course eventually you do," she explains. Of course, Bareilles eventually got over the guy, but the song reflects her state of mind right in the middle of the situation. it felt like a force that was bigger than a person." I could not remove myself, I couldn’t move on, move out, move forward. And then I went away to college, and every time I came home, he was just a magnet for me. "I had a high school boyfriend who I was madly in love with, and we broke up my senior year and got back together. "'Gravity' was born out of a high school relationship falling apart and me being a drama queen about it," Bareilles says, laughing. The third single from Bareilles' 2007 debut album Little Voice, "Gravity" is a haunting ballad about returning to a person over and over again. Now, Bareilles is opening up, and walking Bustle though the real stories behind eight of her most personal songs, from heartbreaking teen romances to one of U.S. Yet even as her success has skyrocketed, the 39-year-old has managed to keep a low profile when it comes to things like her mental health and romantic relationships, preferring to let her honest, intimate songs do the talking. "It's been six years - I’ve just done so many things, and so much has changed in my life." That's for sure since 2013, Bareilles has earned a handful of Grammy noms, hosted the Tonys, published a book, and performed on Broadway, just to name a few things. It’s been a long time coming, clearly," says the singer with a laugh, sitting down at Bustle's New York office a few days before the record's release. Nearly six years later, a new album, April's Amidst the Chaos, is here - and Bareilles, understandably, is anxious for people to hear it. The last time a real Sara Bareilles record arrived was 2013, with the release of the Grammy-nominated The Blessed Unrest. And yes, there was NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert! concert album in 2018, on which she sang as Mary Magdalene, but that was alongside the rest of the show's cast. There was 2015's Waitress soundtrack, featuring songs written and sung by Bareilles, but that was for a Broadway musical, not herself. The ballad served as perfect background music as the proposals took place.It's been a long time since the world got a new Sara Bareilles album. Their girlfriends would arrive with their eyes covered to only find out Sara Bareilles at the place, beginning to sing 'I Choose You'. Then, Matt and Aly would, respectively, set up real nice engagement parties with all their families and friends gathered. She first picked two couples (the one making the proposal answered a petition made by Sara on her Facebook), one heterosexual and one gay. We all knew how perfect this song was for an engagement proposal situation and that's exactly what Sara has done in the video for 'I Choose You'. The perfect-for-engagement mid-tempo ballad, written by Sara, Jason Blynn and Pete Harper, has received a pretty coherent music video. Whatever the case, we don't care about the delay, we're just happy we got the 'I Choose You' video today. It's been so many months since 'I Choose You' was announced as single, we were actually afraid Sara had forgotten about shooting a music video, or was perhaps considering ditching 'I Choose You' and release a third single already. (We didn't think this day would come!) Sara Bareilles' music video for the ' Brave'-follow up single 'I Choose You', from her Grammy-nominated fourth studio album ' The Blessed Unrest', premiered on VEVO on Monday, May 5th.

#Lyrics sara bareilles i choose you

[faeriebcrne]

     ♡  starter for @ohfiendangelical​ !!

It started as a drunken suggestion while cuddling on the leather couch in Zero’s house; It was dark outside, drizzling even, they sat nestled into each other, naked, a luxurious fur blanket draped over them while they enjoyed their drinks. Zero had mentioned something in that ever-so-threateningly playful way of his about hunting Felix for sport while sighing dreamily into his pomegranate cocktail. And Heather, in her infinite wisdom, had mentioned how that would be fun. “ Give me a gun and put me out in the woods and I think it would be a great time! ”

Everything was a blur after that; Zero got up, and when he returned he was wearing clothes, ( that's not like him? ) pulling her naked frame off the couch and taking her outside. Something was put into her hands, two items, but she wasn’t given the opportunity to look.  She was told to close her eyes, and she did, not thinking much of it. She was told to count to ten. And she did.

   “ Okay what are we doing out here, baby? ”   she opens her eyes, squinting to focus in the darkness. The drizzling was getting harder, cold droplets stinging her bare skin. She was naked still, she forgot to put on clothes before they left, or she wasn’t given enough time; she doesn’t quite remember which. But a little rain never hurt anyone, and being naked in the woods wasn’t exactly something she was unfamiliar with. She looks down to the objects that were given to her; a gun, an ornately decorated gold pistol with intricate  filigree, a mother of pearl handle etched similarly. The other object was the gun’s clip, filled only with six bullets.

   “ Zero? What’s happening? ”

Then the realization hits her. She’s being hunted, her boyfriend is hunting her in the woods while she is naked and drunk and only has six bullets to defend herself. She drops to the ground, heartbeat pounding in her ears, stomach churning with the understanding of the gravity this situation has now.

   “ Jesus Christ, Zero! It was a joke! I was joking! ” 

She needs to find somewhere to hide.

Bullets left: 6/6

#heather is Naked and Afraid of her boyfriend lmaoooo #ohfiendangelical

[maniacwatchestheworld]

The DA Y/N OC Hunger Games Part 1

Part 2 | Part 10 | Part 11

Is it wise of me to be posting this at like... 4:45 am? Probably not. Am I doing it right now anyway? SURE AM!

So here we are at the first annual (or rather only/ever) DA Y/N OC Hunger Games. A horrible struggle for survival is taking place. Our combatants are in the arena and ready for battle. Time for round 1!

Gray ( @without-celine ) isn't sure whether to cry, laugh, or tear their hair out.

Seth ( @who-killed-the-da​ ) wishes they could go home.

Link ( @eddeha ) hums a song to himself.

Mike ( @ask-mike-the-da​ ) fails to grasp the gravity of the situation.

Great start. Completely understandable for said parties.

Dee's bad brain turns them into a horrible person...

Oh no! Bad brain strikes! Dee is now Devious! Deevious? HAHA! THESE ARE THE JOKES, PEOPLE!

??? ( @youraverageauprocrastinator​ ) could get used to this place.

... Now what the fuck, ???? DON’T YOU BE GETTING USED TO THIS! YOU‘RE SUPPOSED TO BE SUFFERING! How dare.

Athena (Pre-WKM) ( @withjust-a-bite​ ) wasn't looking and fell off a cliff...

Fucking oof. The trophy for first to die goes to Athena! Someone had to do it, and unfortunately it was you. Hopefully your future self fares better!

Y/N ( @purple-anxiety-blog​ ) looks on the verge of snapping.

Celine tries to get others to notice her.

Can I just imagine that Celine is trying to seduce Y/N (purple-anxiety-blog) here...? Actually they would be pretty cute together. But Y/N (purple-anxiety-blog) isn’t taking it very well. At all. But I mean... Fair. Celine was pretty complacent in the whole mirror thing.

Eerie ( @eerietheda​ ) attacks Y/N ( @ask-the-wkm-group​ ) from behind and murders them!

So... Uh... Remember how you said that Y/N (ask-the-wkm-group) wouldn’t last a single round...? Well... Unfortunately you were right! Very sorry to see them go. *Sad canon shots.* To be fair though, Eerie may just be one of the most terrifying contestants in this game. And at the very least, you can continue to watch your roomies/buddies live on and fight in your place. u.u

Damien really doesn't want to, but he finds himself having to get rid of Link ( @eddeha​ ).

Uh... Jesus fucking Christ, Damien? What the actual fuck!? What did Link do that was so bad that he needed to be killed!? Was his humming really THAT heinous!? And they were so cheerful a moment ago too! APPARENTLY DAMIEN’S OUT FOR BLOOD TONIGHT, KIDS! You had best watch yourselves!

Or maybe he just isn’t taking Y/N (ask-the-wkm-group)’s death very well and has immediately decided to go feral.

(Actor) Mark is only looking out for himself.

But I mean... Isn’t he always...?

Moria ( @xshatteredreflectionsx​ ) tries to kill Arthur ( @arthur-the-district-attorney​ ), but Arthur retaliates and kills her instead.

Woof. Very sorry to see you go, dear! Better luck next time! Whispers and Arthur is usually so nice too... I suppose that’s just the way it goes sometimes. This really is turning out to the quite a bloodbath isn’t it? Even though it’s only the first round!

Abe feels strong enough to handle anything.

Alice ( @chelseareferenced​ ) is being adorable as always.

Alright. Alright. We got two A’s doing A-okay here!

Wilford Warfstache isn't sure whether to cry, laugh, or tear his hair out.

Yeah. That sounds about right. Pretty average day for him, really. He probably hasn’t even realized that a deathbattle has started around him yet. I’m sure he’ll be delighted once he finds out!

Rosie ( @lostanddrowned​ ) sobs quietly...

Bethany ( @ask-bethany-and-dark​ ) looks for someone dumb enough to believe her.

William wonders about the future.

Well, Will, if you would take a look to your right, you can see exactly what your future has in store for you! Apparently mostly just sitting on a rock and losing your mind, it seems.

Y/N ( @the-tragic-hero-and-you​ ) fails to grasp the gravity of the situation.

And hey! Would you look at that. Y/N (the-tragic-hero-and-you) has exceeded all of your expectations and has survived past the first round! Congrats! (However, in all of practice matches I did before this they actually did immediately die in the first round. So lucky day for them!)

Abe wants to end things once and for all with Y/N ( @dormats-town​ ).

Abe bites the dust!

And the “How Dare You Kill Abe He Did Nothing Wrong” Award goes to Y/N (dormats-town)! How dare you. Did you even know him!? I feel like the two of you would have gotten along great! Well, too bad. He’s dead now.

Veridia ( @ask-the-femaleda​ ) finally snaps!

Veridia is now frenzied!

Well... You had best watch out for her! Veridia is out for blood! (I guess she’s just following Damien’s example to its natural conclusion.)

Dylan ( @the-mirror-realm​ ) finds a slingshot! How quaint...

Might be useful in a pinch.

Hey hey hey! Lucky day for Dylan! They’re the first one to find an item! (Even in the practice matches your Y/Ns are just really randomly good at finding shit. Real weird...)

Lillian ( @indic0lite​ ) tries to get others to notice them.

Hey! Why don’t you hang out with Celine and the two of you can try seduce each other!? Or you could seduce literally... Every one else. But together! ... Actually the two of them would be really cute together as well... Aaaaaand now Grifters by Charming Disaster is in my head again!

Arthur ( @arthur-the-district-attorney​ ) tries to kill Seth ( @who-killed-the-da​ ), but Seth retaliates and kills him instead.

Huh. So I feel like Arthur may just deserve an award for being the person to go from killer to killee the quickest! And in round 1 no less! Congrats on your even score sheet, Arthur! But also how dare you make Seth kill. They are babby.

Athena (Post-WKM) ( @withjust-a-bite​ ) won't give up so easily.

Well given how your past self JUST died, you had better not!

Y/N ( @ask-the-mirror-da​ ) calms down for good, no longer subject to the whims of a changing brain.

........... Huh. So apparently Y/N (ask-the-mirror-da) has IMMEDIATELY stopped being a madlad the MOMENT they stepped into the arena. They are no longer a lunatic. So sad. A shame, really. This must be some serious shit going on right here.

Darkiplier mopes around uselessly.

HAH! Worthless edgelord.

Daffodil ( @shattered-da​ ) finds some leather scraps, just enough to patch together some rudimentary clothing.

It looks rather caveman-like.

Very primitive. But adorable. Gotta love it.

And that is the end of round 1! 6 dead. 24 remaining. Who’s going to die next? Who’s going to thrive in the field of glorious battle!? Find out next time in Round 2 of the DA Y/N OC Honger Games!

#DA Y/N battle royale #hunger games simulator

[thebad---catholic]

My problems with AOS

Well here I am, 10 years late with an opinion no one asked for, but I have to write this down and throw into the void so that I can be at peace. I’ve been salty about this film franchise for a very long time now. This will mostly focus on Star Trek (2009) with the other two movies sprinkled in.

1. Starfleet

Honestly where do I even begin? In TOS, Starfleet was modeled after the navy (idk how accurately, but Roddenberry was in the air force so I’m assuming he’d know how all that works). You can get a feel for the chain of command, and everything feels natural with character ages and things like that. There’s a procedure for everything.

AOS Starfleet feels more like a high school club than an interplanetary exploration organization. Jim is supposed to be twenty-five when he gets the rank of captain- after he was almost expelled for cheating. He has no idea how to operate or run a starship. TOS Kirk moved through the ranks of Starfleet and was promoted on merit and leadership skills- he worked for his position.

Why was Jim the only person who knew what was happening when Nero showed up? Was there any requirements to joining to Starfleet other than get on the shuttle? Why did the linguist not know the difference between Vulcan and Romulan when they’re the linguist? How did Pike bypass the chain of command to appoint Jim Kirk as First Officer which was an obvious show of favoritism to someone was about to be thrown out of the academy? Why the fuck was he allowed to keep the title of captain? What the fuck?

Speaking of Jim.

2. Jim Kirk’s Character

I...don’t like Jim’s character in this film. It’s not terrible for a younger version of Kirk, but like I said though, there’s no reason Kirk should be this young. And in this one he’s just kinda a douche.

We know from TOS that Kirk gets around, but he genuinely cares for his exes, and in general respects women. He uses sex appeal as a strategy, but more than anything this comes off as a subversion of the femme fatal trope bc Kirk is a man. In the movie, he’s just a standard action movie protag who has lots of sex just because.

The scene when the Orion woman says she loves him and he replied “that’s so weird” is just...so weird? Like I can’t imagine Kirk doing anything in that situation than backing off and explaining that he doesn’t feel the same way. The scene continues with him hiding under the bed when Uhura walks in. Watching how the camera angle makes Jim out to be a voyeur made me uncomfortable then and it still does. It could be explained that Jim is trying to figure out Uhura’s identity or that he’s listening in and people look at who they’re listening to but like...she was in her underwear. You shouldn’t look at people while they’re getting undressed, especially when they don’t even know you’re there? Is that a hot take? Apparently.

In TOS there’s this really nice scene in This Side of Paradise(S1E24) where the whole crew is high (again) and has abandoned ship, leaving Kirk to tend to things. We see Jim move around the ship with a little clip pad and make the proper checks. This is a captain who knows his stuff. That is the Kirk we should have seen if we’re going to see Jim become captain.

AOS kirk goes through a standard “stop being an asshole” arc commonplace for male protagonists, but this happens well past the point he should stop being an asshole. Either the AOS series should’ve been a prequel with Jim becoming captain at the end of the trilogy, or he should’ve been older with a completely different arc- maybe coming to terms with his rank? Imposter syndrome? Learning to trust his crew and building trust with them? Building a friendship with Spock and McCoy? There’s a lot to work with here.

3. Spock and Uhura’s relationship

Why. Like why. For what. Por Que.

I like giving Uhura a bigger role, I don’t like making her a love interest to do that.

It doesn’t make sense for either of their characters. Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, linguist expert who handles all transmissions to and from the enterprise- an icon of black women’s representation is now demoted to Spock’s nagging girlfriend. This bothers me more than a little bit.

It manages to make even less sense for Spock. A hallmark of Spock’s character is his duality. He struggles to combat his emotions and the human half of him. His repeating character arc in TOS is coming to terms with humanity while upholding the Vulcan way of life. Having him in an established romantic relationship before this arc is supposed to happen just makes for a boring romantic subplot about a relationship that shouldn’t happen and that I don’t care about.

TOS Vulcan culture is kinda shitty. Explicitly patriarchal and stuff, and also kinda racist against humans. The source of Spock’s inner conflict is not himself but a society that views him as lesser for being half human. However, one thing that I can certainly understand from a “logical” (logic in quotations bc racism and sexism is fucking stupid) people is ritualized arranged marriages. It just...makes sense to me that Vulcans would simply have their mates chosen for them and then marry that person and be done with it. Neat. Logical. Conformity.

This makes Spock and Uhura’s relationship even stranger. Why would Spock go so against conformity that he dates someone before he truly comes to terms with himself? Even if they throw out ponfarr and arranged marriage, it still doesn’t work but now it especially doesn’t work.

My personal theory is that Spock and Uhura’s relationship was established purely to make shippers shut up. It’s no secret Spirk is the most popular ship from TOS. I have no doubt they knew this while writing the movie. So to quietly wrap a no homo on Spock and Kirk’s friendship, they use Uhura as a prop to do so.

The teacher/student dynamic should only be relegated to fan fiction and the throwaway line about oral sensitivity makes me cringe. Every. Time.

4. McCoy

Karl Urbans performance is easily my favorite part of this movie. He captures DeForrest Kelley so well it hurts. He made Leonard Nimoy cry. His chemistry with Pine made McKirk go from the most underrated triumvirate ship in TOS to rival Spirks popularity in AOS. His scenes with Zachary Quinto are just *chefs kiss*.

So why doesn’t he have more of a role? The triumvirate is missing a third.

In particular, there’s a scene where Uhura, Kirk, and Spock make their way down to a planet to talk to a Klingon. I can’t remember which movie it was or why, but Spock and Uhura were bickering and Kirk remarks “can we do this later?”

The line was funny. It would’ve been golden if it was McCoy and not Uhura.

A fantastic performance by an underutilized character in a movie where that character should’ve been at the forefront.

5. Representation

I am skeptical of any movie that advertises diversity. Nonetheless, it made me happy to know Sulu was going to be gay. This is Star Trek after all, known for its diversity and large LGBT fan base, and an homage to George Takai who’s a gay man irl. So whatever.

The fact that I wasn’t expecting much says a lot about the current state of LGBT rep in media but this blink-and-you-miss-it shit is really starting to get to me.

I mean he jus- he doesn’t even give his husband a KISS. Like why.

6. Destroying Vulcan

WHY. Oh god why.

This isn’t Star Wars, JJ. We don’t do that here.

Imploding Vulcan was the most god awful shock value bullshit plot device I’ve ever seen in a movie and it was done entirely to make Spock sad. Besides the gaping plot hole of “why did Nero go back in time to destroy Vulcan when he could’ve just saved Romulus” I’m just grasping to find a purpose for this particular event. New fans don’t care at all about Vulcan while I was enraged that they would do Amanda that dirty.

It’s not just that they did that, it’s more that they did it like that. Vulcan’s destruction should’ve caused a federation wide meltdown as the biggest catastrophe in the entire franchise. If they were gonna make the stakes so pointlessly high, they should’ve treated the destruction of Vulcan exactly how they would treat the destruction of earth. There a million ways to treat that event with more gravity and million better plot lines that don’t involve G E N O C I D E

7. Miscellaneous petty bullshit because I’m a baby

-lower the fucking stakes Jesus Christ

-Don’t like the set. It’s bright and white and boring and gives me a headache. You don’t need a remake of the old set but like have fun ya know? Shit looks like an Apple store.

-Christine and I are the same in that we are both soft and are thirsty for Spock. Imagine my surprise to learn she wasn’t fucking there. Same with Janice but I’m more pressed about Christine. I don’t even remember the name of that blonde doctor lady who is Not Christine but i didn’t want her.

-The costumes in AOS look boring but still don’t feel like a uniform either. I deadass think Chris Pines outfit in the SNL skit looked better than the actual movie (minor adjustments needed)

-I didn’t notice this at first but someone pointed out that women’s uniforms don’t signify rank and now I can’t not see it. I don’t...think this movie treats women good? Or McCoy? Or just people who deserve better?

-Lens Flare

-I get why they did it but I don’t like that they misquoted the opening theme to say “no one” instead of “no man”. I probably wouldn’t have even notice except they gave the line to Uhura. Comes off as just a touch too “yay feminism” which is really rich coming from that treated Uhura like an object to be looked at when she wasn’t too busy being Spock’s emotional support gf, and completely cut two women from the main cast.

8. Conclusions

If I could describe these movies in one word it’d be generic. Which sucks because Star Trek far from generic.

They’re fun to watch but not think about. It was nice that I got to see a Star Trek movie in theaters. I just wish it as the same Trek I saw on TV.

#star trek the original series #star trek tos #star trek aos #star trek alternate original series #jj abrams #jim kirk #captain kirk #dr mccoy #bones mccoy #spock #mr spock #lt uhura #nyota uhura #hikaru sulu #star trek #star trek headcanon #trekkie #trekker #star trekkin

[jenchase]

You're the one that I want

Can I interest anyone in a 2k Shoni High School AU in which Shelby plays Sandy in a performance of Grease? Also available on AO3 right here:

Toni is not a musical theatre kid, she is not even a fan. But, well, Shelby is. So when auditions for the spring play production of Grease come around and her best friend unsurprisingly gets the part of Sandy, the pure joy on Shelby’s face is enough for her to know she will be watching every single one of her performances. And when they find out, not a minute later, that Andrew, Shelby’s asshole of an ex-boyfriend, got the part of Danny, Toni without hesitation signs up to help out behind the scenes, so Shelby will not be forced to spend time with him on her own.

The weeks leading up to opening night are both Toni’s best and worst weeks of her life. Shelby only broke up with Andrew shortly before the production started, so Toni takes full advantage of the fact that she finally gets to spend time with her best friend again. However, Andrew is dead set on getting Shelby back and uses every opportunity to rehearse with her one on one. “You know, just so we have the appropriate chemistry on stage.” He claims and it makes Toni want to puke. As lame as Andrew’s attempts are, Shelby always seems to find a way to include Toni in the “scene rehearing processes”, which makes him behave as best as he can. Toni has broken his nose before and at this point, the whole school knows that she is not hesitant to do it again. In fact, there are a couple of times Shelby actively has to keep Toni from punching Andrew, when he makes a particularly stupid comment or claims that Danny should definitely be touching Sandy for some ridiculous reason. Their drama teacher, Ms Klein, reminds him that Danny and Sandy must not touch until the grand finale of the show to build up and keep the romantic tension and Toni cannot remember a time she has been more grateful for their teacher’s artistic “visions”.

The night before opening night Toni lays in her bed, wide awake and anxious. Which is absolutely ridiculous, she thinks, because she is not even going to be on stage herself and all she will really have to do during the performance is check that all the probs are where they should be backstage. But Toni also knows she is not nervous about what she will have to do tomorrow, but rather, what Shelby will have to do. It is her first leading role and Toni really wants her to nail it. Which she definitely will. Toni has seen her act at rehearsals and while she might not know shit about musical theatre, she knows that Shelby is the best actress and singer their school has seen since probably ever.

But fuck, why does the whole thing have to involve kissing Andrew? Toni really thought that her days of being jealous of that asshole were over, but here we go again.

Right before her thoughts can go spiraling down a path of trying to figure out ways to take Andrew’s place instead, Toni hears her phone vibrate on the nightstand.

Shelby: You awake?

Toni: Yeah, but why are you?

Shelby: Can’t sleep, can I call?

Instead of texting her back, Toni calls her best friend who picks up after the first ring.

“Hey,” Shelby says and sounds a little breathless.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Toni asks as she sits up in her bed.

“Nothing, nothing, just… nervous, I guess?” She hears the other girl take a deep breath. “I’m just a little scared that I’ll screw up.”

“No reason for that.” Toni answers quickly and adds with all the certainty in her voice. “Cause you won’t.”

She can practically envision how Shelby is starting to protest on the other end of the phone, so she does not even let her say anything. “And I do know that. You wanna know why?”

It takes a moment before Toni hears Shelby’s hesitant “yeah” over the line.

“Because you’ve rehearsed so much for this that you do not only know all of your lines by heart, but the whole fucking play. You could do all the dances if being dragged out the bed at 3am, which I know because you made me fucking do that to you.”

She hears Shelby giggling quietly and cannot help the smile that spreads over her face.

“So yeah, there is no way that you’ll screw things up tomorrow. You’re so well prepared, there could be an earthquake during the performance and you’d still nail it.”

“Thank you, Toni.” Shelby says and to Toni’s relief sounds a bit calmer.

“And you know what. Even in the one to a billion chance that you do mess up, it’s not going to be a big deal, okay? You’re just human and we fuck up all the time. It’s not going to make you any less of a great performer and it sure as hell doesn’t make you any less of a great person. Puke on stage, for all I care, I’m still going to be your number one fan.”

Both of them stay quiet for what feels like an eternity to Toni. So long she starts to fear she has overstepped the line of platonic love and accidentally let Shelby know that she feels way more for her than a best friend should. Her heart feels like it is beating out of her chest when Shelby speaks up.

“I love you, Toni.”

“I love you, too.” She answers without hesitation but knowing full well that they do not mean the sentiment in the same way. “You think, you can sleep now?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Shelby says after a pause.

“Okay, good.”

Neither of them hang up the phone and Toni is just content listening to Shelby’s steady breathing on the other end of the line, letting the familiar sound calm her.

“Thank you, Toni.” She mumbles and Toni can tell she is about to fall asleep.

“Anytime.” She nearly whispers into the phone and waits until Shelby’s breath sounds deeper and there is a little thud indicating that her phone probably dropped onto her pillow before she hangs up and goes to sleep herself.

***

Shelby nails it and Toni even has to discreetly wipe away some tears after watching her perform “Hopelessly Devoted to You” from the side of the stage.

She is so enamored by Shelby’s on-stage presence, she does not even realize when the girl is walking directly towards her after her last solo performance in the play.

“Come on.” The blonde grabs her by the writs and drags her along to her changing room. “I need your help to get into all that leather.”

She trips over her own feet and nearly falls on her face even though this should have not even been a surprise to her since she knew Shelby made her personally responsible to help out with costume changes. Toni tries her very best to not look and keep her thoughts at a best friend appropriate level while she helps Shelby into her leather pants.

Fucking leather pants. Jesus Christ.

“How do I look?” Shelby asks nervously, looking at herself in a mirror and ruffling through her own hair to make it look messier.

“Hot.” Toni answers quickly without thinking.

It is not like she has not seen Shelby in this outfit before. She helped picking it out for crying out loud, but Shelby is oozing with confidence right now and she has been amazing throughout the whole play and Toni is just so fucking proud of and very much in love with her. Who could blame her for losing it a little bit.

“Way too good for Andrew.” She says still impulsive but significantly quieter and definitely not with the intention to have Shelby pick it up.

She knows Shelby heard her anyways when she meets the blonde’s eyes in the reflection of the mirror.

“I’m not trying to look good for Andrew.” She starts and Toni immediately shakes her head.

“No, I know, of course not.” And Toni, still without a filter as it seems, adds, “I just hate that he gets to kiss you soon.”

Shelby raises her eyebrow at her and this end-of-play-Sandy confidence is truly doing nothing to help Toni think straight.

“You jealous?” Her best friend asks her and Toni cannot tell if she is joking or not.

Not that it would matter because Toni’s “yeah” slips out before she can fully process the gravity of the situation.

It is not until Shelby turns around and towers over Toni, with the added height from the heels she is now wearing, that Toni understands what she just admitted.

Her heart rate quickens and she knows her face is as red as Shelby’s lipstick.

“I-“ she starts, ready to take it back and apologize but Shelby interrupts her.

“You have nothing to be worried about.”

Toni stares at her with wide eyes and a slightly opened mouth, uncertain what exactly she means with that statement.

“Shelby, you ready? You’re up in a minute!” They hear Leah, the stage manager, yell into the changing room.

Toni swears she sees Shelby’s gaze drop to her lips before she steps away and follows Leah back to the main stage. Still in a haze, Toni trails behind them.

She is even more focused on Shelby for the rest of the play, only looking away when she knows it is time for the kiss between Danny and Sandy.

They get standing ovations and Toni’s hands start hurting from how hard she claps them together when Shelby’s name is called and the audience goes just as crazy as she does. And because she is absolutely whipped for the other girl, she even lets her drag out when they call her name for the behind the scenes credit. She flees the stage after a quick awkward wave at the audience and an attemptto bow and rushes to pick up her opening night gift for Shelby which she carefully hid in an unknown corner behind the stage.

Toni does not move back to her regular place at the side entrance to the stage where she knows all the actors are going to leave soon to head to the dressing rooms. Instead, she stays at the back, carefully watching the crowd of performers for Shelby.

She is one of the last people to leave the stage, together with Andrew, who tries to get her attention but the Shelby seems more interested in looking around in search of Toni. She smiles brightly when she spots her and makes her way over, not giving Andrew a second glance, who thankfully and finally acknowledges his defeat and walks to the dressing rooms.

Toni’s heart leaps in her chest, as her best friend comes closer and for a second she thinks the bouquet of Shelby’s favorite flowers was a really bad idea, especially with the potentially friendship ending behavior she has displayed earlier.

“What are you doing back here?” Shelby asks with a puzzled look but an unwavering smile.

Toni’s words get stuck in her throat and before she can chicken out, she brings out the flowers from behind her back and holds them out to Shelby.

“You were great.” She miraculously manages to get out and takes a little pride in the way Shelby’s cheeks turn red.

She takes them from Toni with all the tenderness in the world but holds them to the side to pull Toni in for a hug.

“Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome.” Toni says with her head buried in Shelby’s neck.

“Come on.” Shelby says and for the second time tonight drags her to her dressing room.

With the brighter light and lack of time pressure, because Shelby does not have to be on stage again in a couple of minutes, Toni cannot help but take in Shelby’s entire appearance with more detail. All that leather clearly distracts her enough to miss how Shelby locked the door and by the time Toni’s eyes reach her face, she knows she has been caught.

“Are you going to help me out of these? Or would you rather keep staring?”

Toni is sure that the amount of blood rushing to her face right now is enough to make her head explode. She panics before she can see the smug smile on Shelby’s face.

“I’m so sorry, Shelby.” She looks everywhere but at her best friend. “I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable. I’m gonna go.” She says quickly and heads to the door with a lowered head.

Unfortunately, Shelby is blocking her escape route and contrary to what Toni expected, the blonde does not seem to want her to leave at all if pressing her up against the door is any indication for that.

“Shelby?” Toni creaks out and does not even recognize her own voice with her best friend staring her down intensely.

“You know, for someone who used to talk a whole lot about their flirting game, you sure are oblivious to it.” She says, pinning Toni to the wall with her hands on her hips and their faces mere inches apart.

With Shelby’s warm breath hitting her face, Toni is too paralyzed to do anything but stare at the lips she has wanted to kiss for so long now.

Shelby starts leaning in and Toni is pretty sure her heart has stopped beating at this point. She closes her eyes as their lips meet in the faintest brush and nearly whimpers as Shelby moves them from her mouth over her right cheek to her ear.

“Don’t you get it.” She whispers and shivers run across Toni’s entire body. “You’re the one that I want.”

#the wilds #shoni #shelby x toni #shelby goodkind #toni shalifoe #fanfic #grease

[imnotoverlyobsessive]

Looks Like Someone Picked a Whole Bushel of Oopsie Daisies: Chapter One

ooo chapter one! chapter two is on the way! big thanks to @edward-or-ford for all the help brainstorming and editing!

Chapter One: The Dating Issue   

What a tragic attraction; what’s the point of romance?- Neon Trees, Teenager in Love

Mabel Caroline Pines, age 17, had never had a boyfriend.

It’s not like she didn’t want one. She totally did. Her parents were both super encouraging. Sometimes she thought they might even be pushing her into dating.

There were two problems with this. The first was that Mabel had a soulmark, and nobody wanted to go on a date with somebody who had a soulmark. Why bother? Clearly their soulmate is already in their life, so there’s not much point.

Mabel had always had a soulmark. For as long as she could remember, there it was, on her wrist. Taunting her. Mocking her. Hahaha, laughing at her inability to find her stupid soulmate, wherever he’d run off to. She’d just come home from preschool one day and there it was, her mom had told her. Whoever her soulmate was, she didn’t remember him. He obviously went to her school (her lack of withdrawal symptoms told her that) and she was forever trying to peek at boys’ wrists to see if it was them. It wasn’t, but she tried anyway.

The second problem was that Mabel was desperately, hopelessly, stupidly, ridiculously in love with someone already. She’d been in love with him for years, which was the opposite of smart, because he was the last person in the world who would ever look at her that way. Like, ever. Ever ever.

Even so, she waited eagerly for each of his texts, staying up late more often than not just to talk to him. He’d put a beehive in her stomach, and the bees went freakin’ nuts whenever she was around him or even thought about him (which was basically all the time, Christ, get it together, Mabel!). So basically her stomach was all buzz buzz buzz all day long.

He made her so nervous and so happy, but he also made her incredibly sad. She knew he couldn’t see her like that. There was no way. So she’d been stuck pining after him since she was, like, fourteen. Which, whatever. She was used to it.

She was on her way to see him, as it happened. Or rather, she and her parents were. Her parents always accompanied them, and watched them together constantly.

Mabel went to visit her brother (yeah, okay, she’s in love with her brother, shut up, it is what it is) in Gravity Falls, Oregon (or Mount Hood for a ski trip if it was warm) multiple times a year. Usually once every few months. She didn’t know Dipper as well as she would’ve liked to. At least, not in person. Sure, they texted all the time, and they even Skyped a decent amount, but she didn’t get to hang out with him unless her parents were watching them. Which was suuuuuper weird, but her parents had always been weird about some stuff.

Most parents didn’t want their daughters dating. This was not the case with Mabel’s parents. They always seemed annoyed when she didn’t have a date for Homecoming. On Valentine’s Day, Mabel’s mom always asked if any of the boys had confessed to her (they hadn’t; everyone knew Mabel had a soulmark at this point, despite the social taboo against discussing such things), and was visibly disappointed at Mabel’s annual response of “no”.

Mabel got the feeling that if a boy did ever ask her out, her parents would expect her to go out with him whether she liked him or not.

“Just give him a chance, honey,” her dad had told her once when she asked what to do if a boy she didn’t like asked her out.

Mabel’s mom had nodded, saying, “you might like him more than you thought!”

Mabel didn’t have much of a desire to give anybody a chance if she wasn’t interested. Why waste each other’s time? Frankly, she’d been longing after Dipper so long she didn’t think she had it in her to even try thinking about another boy that way.

Her phone’s text tone sounded, and Mabel felt a smile grace her lips.

Dipper: are you here yet?

She stifled a giggle and texted him back.

Me: not yet, silly. I think we’ve got like fifteen minutes left, so we’re close

Dipper: well hurry up

She was thinking of a reply when several minutes passed and he texted again.

Dipper: I miss you

She smiled. It was really freakin’ hard not to feel hopeful when he said things like that. He doesn’t see you that way, Mabel! Get over it!  

Me: I miss you, too, Bro Bro!

“Mabel,” her mom said, getting her attention. Her head snapped up.

“Yeah?”

“You sure you’re good to stay at your friend’s tonight?” Mrs. Pines asked. “We don’t want to impose on the Chius, and it’s your first night here since last year.”

Mabel bounced excitedly in her seat at the thought of a sleepover with her friends as soon as she got into town. Her friends, Dipper, Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford, Dipper- all her favorite Gravity Falls peeps in one place!

“Absotively, Momster!” Mabel nodded emphatically. “It’s been waaaaaay too long since I’ve gotten to hang with my GF GFs! Plus, I’m seventeen now! I’m old enough to properly find my soulmate, y’know!” She learned forward conspiratorially, her seatbelt locking against her neck and completely missing the way her parents flinched. “And I know the girls have got some major boy talk to dish out that they’ll only share in person!”

“Remember, Mabel,” said Mr. Pines firmly. “No-““Touching the Dipster, yeah yeah, I know,” she grumbled. “Stupid I’ll-die-if-I-touch-my-twin allergy.”

Mrs. Pines rolled her eyes as they pulled up to the Mystery Shack. “Okay, let’s go say hi.”

Standing in front of the Mystery Shack, however, was Dipper, one hand in his pocket and the other scrolling through his phone.

He looked up when they pulled into the clearing the Shack was in, and a huge grin split across his face when he saw their car. Mabel unlocked her seatbelt before the car had fully stopped.

“Mabel, wait-“ before Mrs. Pines could even finish her sentence, Mabel had opened the door and jumped out of the car. “...until the car has stopped.”

Mabel had barely even heard her, tripping over her feet to get to her brother. Squealing, Mabel stopped several feet away from Dipper, squirming excitedly.

“Dipper!” She squealed.

He put his phone into his hoodie and shoved his hand in his pockets. “Hey, Mabes,” he grinned at her.

His eyes were kinda twitchy, and he wasn’t looking right at her. He was kinda… looking over her shoulder, or at the car, or at her parents, but never her. Was that… nervousness? Nah, of course not. He’s got no reason to be nervous. Unless maybe he got her or their parents a risky gift and he’s not sure how they’ll feel about it? But no, Dipper knows what they like, he’s got no reason to be nervous.

Mabel dismissed the thought.

The thing about Mabel one must understand is that Mabel is a hugger. She hugs everyone, and not being allowed to was very difficult. Risk of dying or not, this no-touching thing was the absolute      worst    . Not being able to hug Dipper after not seeing him for months was awful. Her parents had been super extra adamant about it this time, too. Even more so than they usually were.

One time, Mabel saw an episode of this show where this guy brought dead people back to life by touching them and if he touched them a second time they died permanently, but the guy had this girlfriend he wanted to hold hands with and stuff and they worked around it. Why couldn’t they do something like that? Mabel’s parents had said no, though.

Which sucked because Mabel really wanted to touch Dipper. Like, she really     really wanted to touch Dipper. Seeing him now, being just a few feet from him, not touching him felt… wrong. All wrong. There was something very very wrong with this no-touching situation.

The longer she stood there not touching him, the more it felt like there were needles under her skin, poking at her from the inside.

Their parents stepped out of the car after what seemed like an eternity (in reality, it was about thirty seconds or less), breaking Mabel out of her stupor. “Okay, kids, let’s bring the presents inside,” said Mrs. Pines. “Dipper, can you help? I’m going to go tell your uncles we’re here.” Dipper nodded, walking around to the back of the car with Mabel in tow.

“Ugh, Dip,” Mabel groaned. “The drive was so long and after school just got out yesterday sitting for the whole freakin’ car ride was the worst!”

She was trying really hard not to blush. Honestly, she was! It’s just that from behind, she could see his butt so well when he walked, and he had just the nicest butt ever and it was soooooo hard not to stare at it. Anyone would’ve stared! Really! It was physically impossible not to.

“I know, you were telling me that the whole way here,” he turned to face her as they reached the trunk, a grin on his face.

Ugh. Not that grin! No, anything but that grin! It made her heart flutter and the bees swarm! Dammit, Dipper, couldn’t you be a little less attractive? Just a little bit? For the good of humanity! Okay, really just Mabel, but she was part of humanity and she deserved a normal brother/sister relationship that didn’t involve her staring at his butt when he walked, right?

Mrs. Pines had opened the trunk, grabbed a meticulously wrapped present, and stepped back, waiting patiently. Reaching into the trunk, Mabel went to grab the same present that Dipper did. They were so close, standing side by side, and their hands nearly touched. They both pulled back abruptly, each looking down to mutter a quiet apology.

It was so hard to resist inching closer to him. Even with years of practice, somehow, it had gotten harder. God, how had it gotten harder? She’d gotten used to ignoring the suffocating need to touch him, hadn’t she? Jesus, Mabel, get a grip, girl!

He smiled slightly at her again, and Mabel thought her heart might stop.

#gravity falls fanfiction #gf fanfiction #pinecest #mabel pines #dipper pines #fanfiction #fanfic #looks like someone picked a whole bushel of oopsie daisies #my writing

[tfw-no-tennis]

the animorphs continues, david trilogy style

here we are...we finally arrived....the david triology

I did remember a good amount of these books from when I read these when I was like 11. but I also forgot a lot an hooooly shit 

WHERE TF DO I EVEN START. so that shit slapped obvs. it really felt like the series has been leading up to this - all the characters have had to make really difficult no-correct-answers decisions, and it leads up to this - the ultimate shitty situation with absolutely no good, clear solutions, and everyone gets to contribute to the awful conclusion! 

one thing that really stood out to me is that with David's inclusion as this kind of ‘outsider’ within the group, even though none of it was from his POV, we still get a huge sense of the animorphs being an extremely well-oiled team, who all know and trust each other very well - especially w/Jake as the leader - Jake has to make a lot of decisions in these books but the other animorphs always listen to him 

this all probably didn’t help David, who was already thrown into a completely crazy situation, and who now has to deal w/this group of kid superheroes who work very well together. it also doesn't help that David doesn't really try to find his place on the team 

anyways I love how much wild shit happens in animorphs always. like they try to steal the blue box as birds and then David chases them off w/a bb gun? and then they end up in this huge alien showdown with visser 3 and his troops in David's house? batshit

also the hilariously 90s part w/the email...lmao. like its the 90s so there's no way to shut off the automatic email remotely, they HAVE to go to David's computer, and they also can just unplug it...lmao they should've just taken out the phone lines tbh

also I completely forgot about the whole plot w/the world leaders meeting and the yeerks and stuff. that really served to ramp up the tension and also make it obvious that David was an outsider as he consistently fucked things up then played it off

also KAA did a masterful job of making David juuuust a little sympathetic in book 20, but still Off enough that you're like ehhhh I don't know about this guy...then he goes full awful creep and it becomes obvious that there’s no way they’ll be able to let him stick around in any capacity 

the bit where David kills the crow for no reason is the first Real indication that this is gonna go seriously wrong. but even before all that, his conversations w/Marco gave me like, school shooter vibes 

these books are full of some REALLY good tension. the whole end of book 21 was so tense - they've been gearing up for this mission for days now, and they’ve had to do some crazy stuff to get where they are, so the realization that it’s all a trap is completely chilling 

and then when David tried to betray them to visser three...the gravity of that decision is unmistakable, because then the yeerks would find out that the animorphs are (mostly) human children, and they’d even know who they are, and that would be the end

I loved the part where David tries to act like he was just setting up an ambush w/his betrayal to the visser, and Jake immediately has everyone play along - and they do. earlier in the series someone - probably Rachel or Marco - likely would have ignored Jake bc of how slimy David was acting, but they've basically become a highly efficient military squad at this point, and it was a perfect slow slide into that over the last 20 books, and now is the time when the reader kinda realizes this (at least for me)

even if they don’t agree w/Jake and think they should just address the David problem right then and there, they all trust Jake as their leader to make that decision 

also the fact that these are the first books to do the ‘to be continued’ thing rather than wrapping the plot up...it really made it feel all the more tense 

in other books I normally look at the page count and go ‘ok so this conflict will be solved in this scene cause there are only 15 pages left’ (which is st I do a lot I now realize lmaooo I can pretty much gauge what’ll happen based on how many pages are left - and I do this when I read fanfic too, by looking at where the scroll bar is...anyways)

BUT w/these books its totally up in the air cause they can end anytime and just get continued next book, which makes it so much more tense imo

also I fucking loooove the part in book 21 where they’re hiding out with that little pool of yeerks - and I actually bookmarked some pages for these liveblogs, so I have quotes, this one from Jake - 

‘There was something wrong about killing defenseless slugs. I was pretty sure about that.’

Oh, Jake, that opinion is gonna change someday....

it is a little ironic considering he jacuzzi’d those yeerks in like book 7 or w/e. but alas its still a fantastic line that serves to show in the end how much things have changed 

also I love that the decision not to kill those defenseless yeerks end up helping them later - the yeerks check the pool bc they’re so certain that if the andalite bandits HAD snuck in, they surely would have killed the helpless yeerks. but they didn’t, so that means the andalite bandits didn't sneak in....

I like when the characters do a morally good thing and are then rewarded by the narrative for it - it’s pretty rare in this series, where there are usually NO morally correct choices (such is life) or they’re actively punished for making a ‘good’ decision (one could argue that the decision to make David an animorph instead of letting him become a controller was a morally good decision, but it had dire consequences). 

Ok and the part I have to talk about w/these books of course - everything w/Rachel. bc damn Rachel really goes through it in this trilogy. I absolutely LOVE the character development she gets, and I especially enjoyed the way her and Jake's relationship was developed

anyways, one of the best and most fucked up quotes of the series, from Jake’s POV in book 21  - 

<Ax? I think Tobias is dead,> I said. <I think David killed him.> <That would be a most terrible thing,> Ax said.  <Yeah. Get Rachel. If David’s killed Tobias, we may have to do a terrible thing, too. Get Rachel.>

AUGHHHHH fucking chills I swear. also eternal love for them saying dead/killed/etc and never shying away from it. it really wouldn't have the same impact if they used the normal kid-safe PG words 

but yeah Jake asking for Rachel when he thinks that they may have to hunt down and kill David? phewwww. 

and the significance of this is never downplayed. this essentially confirms that Jake sees Rachel as the one who is willing and able to do the dirty work - and specifically in this case, it’s also likely bc it was Tobias who was ‘killed’ and he knows how Rachel feels about Tobias

but like, that’s so fucked up, I love it. they give this situation the exact amount of weight it requires - ch1 of book 22 has this part from Rachel - 

‘If David had hurt Tobias, I would... But what was the point in making threats? I didn't need to make threats. I knew what I would do. So did Jake. That’s why he’d sent Ax for me.’

at first, it seems like Rachel is on the same page as Jake, but when it becomes clearer later that Jake sent Ax specifically to get Rachel bc she could do the terrible thing that had to be done - instead of just bc they needed reinforcements and she was closest - then things change 

but even when Rachel gets rightfully upset later over this, you get the sense she still never really sees any option other than to kill David. it’s not even the ‘killing David’ part that upsets her, it’s that Jake, her cousin, immediately thinks of her as the person to do the deed 

so, another fantastic quote from Rachel - 

‘Tobias was dead. Jake might still die. And I was going to have to go after David. I was going to have to hunt him down.  I was going to hunt him down and destroy him.  No, not destroy. That was a weasel word. It was vague, meaningless. I was going to kill him.’

fucking WOW. like really. that bit right there is just perfect quintessential dark animorphs. it just subverts the classic kid-friendly phrasing, using words like ‘hunt down’ and ‘destroy’ instead of kill. But Rachel says it like it is. she’s not going to destroy David, she’s going to kill him. 

But then a few pages later, after Ax tells her the quote where Jake asks for her specifically - 

‘It definitely made me feel strange. Jake had called for me specifically. Because he wanted someone who would do precisely what I was planning to do.  Like I say, I’m not big on feelings, but something about that felt wrong.’

I say it a lot but wow do these kids need So Much Therapy. these are like...8th graders. jesus christ. when I was in 8th grade I was busy planning sims-playing get-togethers w/my fellow 13 year old friends. christ animorphs 

and fuck, the part where Rachel threatens David’s family, and shoves a fork in his ear? jesus. and the fact that Jake knew that Rachel was going to threaten David and let her go do it...

and then afterwards, Rachel says - 

‘I felt...not exactly ashamed. But I knew I never wanted to talk to Cassie about what I’d just told David. Or Tobias. Or even Marco.’

I'm gonna make some leaps here but I think it’s really interesting that Rachel even mentions Marco here, and says ‘or even Marco.’ like, the ‘even’ seems to imply that Marco would otherwise be somebody she WOULD talk to about something like this.

which...kinda tracks, tbh. Marco is Mr Ruthless, he’s a cold, pragmatic strategist when he isn’t cracking jokes as a coping mechanism. it makes sense that Rachel would talk to him about things like this - he would make jokes, but he’d also understand 

I'm just so interested in all the highly varying dynamics that exist within the group okay 

and then right after Rachel says - 

‘But I swear at that moment I hated Jake far more than I did David.  I should have told them all what had happened. But Jake already knew, didn’t he? Jake, the smart, determined leader, already knew all about me.’

that's fucking daaark okay. It paints this picture of Jake having become this master manipulator who knows all about Rachel’s violent tendencies and is using them to his full strategic advantage

Oh my god okay and then all the stuff w/Saddler, christ. I had completely forgotten about that plotline but there was so much fucked up stuff there, too

and the scene where Rachel gives some good life advice to her little sister, and it’s a good bit to remind the reader and characters of the world outside of animorphs conflict...and then David speaks up. 

that was such brutal mood whiplash, when you realize that David is morphed and hidden in Rachels room somewhere...fucking chilling 

that whole scene just oozes disgusting creepiness. David’s fixation on Rachel specifically, and his rage at being ‘bested’ by her, really feels like misogyny to me. while David butted heads w/Marco, you never got the same sense of anger and disgust that he displays towards Rachel.

and the line where he says ‘hey, enjoy your shower’ made me shudder in disgust. christ. there are a lot of revolting, dark implications there.

also, book 22 obviously does a ton of fantastic character work for Rachel, but it does the same for Jake, too. and Cassie, but ill get to that later

we get to see so much of Jake as a leader and a strategist here, and pitting him and Rachel against each other (so to speak) makes for some excellent characterization, like when Rachel starts questioning why he asked for her - 

“I thought David had killed Tobias. I thought he might kill me. I wanted...firepower.”  “I see. You wanted me for my morphs.” It was a good answer. It could have almost been true. 

and then we get a brief pit stop at the children's hospital where the fucked up parade continues - David morphed Saddler, Rachel and Jake’s injured/dying young cousin, and is pretending to be him, miraculously recovered from his accident

and meanwhile he DUMPED THE REAL SADDLER’S BODY DOWN AN ELEVATOR SHAFT. I literally cant, what the FUCK. 

and they never really follow up on it but the whole family and all the Drs think its this miraculous recovery against all odds, but then obviously David disappears and therefore so does Saddler - do they ever find his real body? how completely fucked up that must have been - so much worse than if saddler had just died from his injuries - the miraculous recovery completely overturned by a bunch of stuff that doesn’t even make sense to anybody except Jake and Rachel....

anyways, after all that completely fucked up bullshit, we have the Jake and Rachel confrontation, Jake’s whole speech about Rachel is amazing, but here are my highlights - 

“I think you’re the bravest member of the group. I think in a bad fight I’d rather have you with me than anyone else. But yeah, Rachel, I think there’s something pretty dark down inside you. I think you’re the only one of us who would be disappointed if all this ended tomorrow.”

I mean, christ. imagine your fellow 13 year old cousin saying this to you. oh MAN. and I love so much that Jake isn’t wrong, but he also is? he understands what Rachel will do, but not why she’s doing it. and I talked abt it before but Rachel has found herself in this box of ‘the brave/reckless blood knight,’ and feels pressure to live up to that reputation. 

so how much of it is a façade that she puts on bc she’s expected to, and how much of it is how she really feels? well, she got that reputation initially for a reason, but she gets pushed more and more in that direction as the series progresses, both bc of the unintentional pressure to live up to her role as the Xena of the group, and bc it’s really, really useful to have somebody like Rachel on your side

Then Rachel says -

‘I tried to look at myself the way Jake saw me. Was it true? Did I love this war?’

I'm gonna lose it, these poor fucking middle schoolers. Rachel, listen, you’re 13, you’re a child soldier, of course you don't love the war you’re fighting...I need every child therapist on the block to come here right now

like jesus being 13 is hard enough without all this nonsense. it’s such a tenuous time in development, and add something like this - someone like Rachel, who is somewhat pigeonholed by society as ‘vapid, pretty blonde who loves to shop’ would of course flourish in an environment where she gets to show how much of a 3-dimensional Person she is - she can love shopping and also kick ass! nice! but also, like, trauma. 

So then Rachel says this about Jake - 

“Jake, you’re a leader now. You make life-and-death decisions. All the time. You’ve learned to do that. And,” I added bitterly, “you’ve learned to use people. You use them for their strengths and their weaknesses.” 

Fucking read, wow. I feel like Rachel is absolutely correct here, if not simplifying things a lot. like, yes, Jake does make these unfathomable decisions on the regular, but he’s got tons of conflict over every single thing he does, and there was a lot of uncertainty and trial-and-error leading up to this. but she is correct that he’s learned, and is clearly a lot more comfortable in his role as a military leader now. 

I just love the contrast these two have. Rachel, with the burden she carries as the bravest - the fighter of the team, who must be relied on in battle and to do the things that nobody else will do - and Jake, the leader, who has to make decisions knowing that he could get his friends killed at any time, and still trust that they’ll listen. 

And then Jake says - 

“But everyone draws their own line[...] For example, see, I used to think my line was drawn at using my friend, my cousin, to do my dirty work. Guess that turned out not to be true. Sorry, Rachel.” 

And then they hug and vow to murder David together, as a team. Heartwarming cousin bonding! Again, so much therapy. 

So yeah I love that scene. especially when you take into consideration Rachel’s ultimate fate, and Jake’s part in it. excuse me while I go weep. 

Anyways, to the end. THE ENDING....it gets me every time. I’ll never be over it. I don’t remember much about animorphs from when I read it at age 11 but I really really remember the ending to book 22. The way they masterfully set David up, the rat morph, the pipes, THE LEGO, the reveal that they planned the entire thing, the moment when David realizes what’s going to happen to him....oof. It’s not something I could forget, even w/my notoriously horrible memory when it comes to media 

Also I feel like there was more subtle misogyny when David insists on humiliating/subjugating Rachel, just because she proved earlier that she was stronger and smarter and better than him...eugh David is just such a disgusting creep that you don’t even end up feeling bad for him even though he’s a middle schooler being handed a fate worse than death. I mean, he tossed a dead/dying kid’s body down an elevator shaft in a children's hospital. I’m pretty sure he deserves this. 

And here’s the part where I talk about Cassie. because even though she didn’t get a POV book in the David trilogy, she still got some brutally fantastic character development. here we see David starting to realize what’s happening - 

‘Cassie was crying.  David hadn't asked who the mastermind of the plan was. Who it was who had so accurately appraised his emotions, his need to build his ego, the fact that he would choose me to be his “companion.” Cassie, of course. Cassie had worked it out, step by step, after Jake and I had failed to come up with anything.  For Cassie, it was an improvement over the alternatives. See, no one was going to have to die.  But David’s life would end, just the same.’

CASSIE. The dark horse, except not really, bc this is perfectly in line with what we know about her, especially coming off book 19, her last POV book before this. in that book she makes some absolutely awful decisions, all to avoid having to kill somebody. 

After all of Jake and Rachel’s badass vows to take David down, it’s Cassie who finds the solution. 

To a lot of people, David’s fate could be considered worse than death. To Cassie, it’s a better alternative. That speaks volumes about her, and I love it. 

Also, the MANIPULATION. Cassie in the David trilogy really gets to flex her interpersonal manipulation skills, which I love to see. It’s such a fascinating aspect of her character; a really interesting use of empathy

Like the scene in book 20 where David freaks out as a roach and she manipulates him into not giving them away by pitting him against Marco, someone who David doesn’t get along with, by saying ‘if Marco can do it, can’t you?’ because she knows he’ll fall for it. And he DOES. 

And then the part in the cafeteria where she basically plays the ‘good cop’ to everyone else in the group’s ‘bad cop.’ Not ONLY does she manage to get David to shut up and listen to her, she also posits her theory that he wants to blue box to trade it for his parents - which his reactions to her questions confirms as true. and nobody else in the group suspected this. 

She lures him into a sense of security by talking kindly and quietly about how she understands how he feels, then hits him with what she knows and gets him to confirm it, which then allows Rachel to accurately threaten him. 

And then Cassie, offscreen, comes up with the entire plan on how to trap David as a rat, because from the beginning she had him figured out. David didn’t pay much attention to Cassie - more misogyny tbh, as Cassie is the girl on the team who isn’t an aggressive, feminine blonde - and that ended up being a huge reason for his downfall. 

David also didn’t pay much attention to Tobias, and clearly didn’t see him as human at all, and that made Tobias very valuable after David assumed he had killed Tobias. 

Ok, back to the ending - the fact that it was Rachel and Ax who stayed there to wait the two hours for David to become a nothlit....

Rachel says - 

‘Jake’s a good leader. He knows when to use us. He knows when to protect us. He knew he had to protect as many of his people as he could from what was going to happen.’ 

fucking brutal. TWO HOURS of listening to this awful kid beg and threaten and barter. I can’t even imagine. 

And Ax too! He gets overlooked a lot as an alien, and it’s probably true that all of this impacts him differently than the other human animorphs, it can’t be in any way pleasant to have to sit there for two hours and act as a living timer to count down this kid’s life. Ax is a kid, too, and an isolated one at that, being the only Andalite on the team. 

So yeah that scene is awful. Rachel even says - 

‘Two hours. But that two hours of horror will last forever in my mind. If I live a hundred years, I will still hear his cries, his threats, his pleading, each night before sleep takes me. And beyond sleep, in my dreams.’

I know I’m beating a dead horse here, but jesus christ, THEY NEED SO MUCH THERAPY. The fact that one of the constants in all of the POVs is the nightmares that all the animorphs consistently have....geez

Okay so I know in my last two liveblogs I ended them by comparing animorphs to another series - hxh and mtmte - but I honestly am drawing a blank for this...

I guess the only thing I can think of is to compare it to mob psycho 100, which is another very good, very subtly subversive series 

In mp100, the entire Point is that the very powerful psychic middle schoolers DON’T end up using their powers to fight life-or-death battles against adult enemies in order to save the world and whatnot. the Point is that that’s fucked up, and these kids shouldn’t be responsible for something like that, no matter how powerful they are 

and basically the character who says all that is Reigen, an adult who actively prevents the middle schoolers from joining what would be some very traumatizing fights 

basically my point here is less to compare the two shows and more to say - the poor animorphs could really use a Reigen huh. like, they seriously need an adult who’ll step in and say ‘wait a second, these kids are doing WHAT? hold the fucking phone, no way, get some actual adults in here to solve this shit. not today!’

the closest they could've come to an adult figure in their lives is Elfangor and he dies like 5 minutes after giving them superpowers, soooo....

man mp100 slaps I should rewatch it. anyways yeah the theme of this post is ‘the animorphs need therapy and also a stable adult figure in their lives to help them not get traumatized all the time’ thank you for coming to my ted talk

#this is like a whole ass thesis lmao i have quotes and everything look at that #lj reads animorphs #had to fix that tag bc it used to say 'read' instead of 'reads' smfh #animorphs

[the-world-of-jo]

Perseus Gambit - A Lancer TTRPG

A story I wrote for a game I play... It won't make much sense if you don't play, but I am actually proud of this piece, so. (And it's too big to put in our discord, so. >.>)

When you realize how serious things are, you aren’t prepared. As soon as Doc gives you permission, you zip into the medical wing to snag a slate, indicating you’ll be keeping it with you for a couple of days then head to your favorite reading spot in Hydroponics. It’s there the gravity of the situation hits you, and you slump back in your seat, shocked with a feeling of helplessness washing over you.

And then you realize, you’re a geneticist. This is your wheelhouse, you *know* how to repair something like this on a cellular level. And then you’re cancelling your counseling session for that afternoon, promising to circle back with her to reschedule as you head back to the labs.

You manage to avoid her for about a month before Dr. Marchand shows up in front of you. Coincidently, you’re coming out of Noah’s quarters and it’s first thing in the morning, so you have a feeling you’ve been ratted out. You give Sparky a healthy dose of side eye, but you can’t help but spare a bit for Noah as well.

They both look way too innocent for your liking.

*_*_*

You have no fucking idea how to fix this. Not a single one.

Every sim you run comes back not only with bad results, but with *fatal* results. There are over 150,000 genes in a single human, and only 5% of them on average are coded. The Kennedy’s seem to have an additional 3%, all of those enhancing their strength, speed, sight, hearing, smell…

They were also disease resistant, so whatever was affecting Elias was almost absolutely genetic. But Doc had that much figured out.

The jarring ***”BONG”*** of another failed sim is followed in rapid succession by three more, and you sigh and close your eyes for a moment. Then, you get back to work, filing away the results and setting up new sims.

There was still time. Not a lot, but you intended to make the most of it. You ‘steal’ a few other unused computers and begin running sims on those, corralling a few sub alts to move them into what’s been coined as “Lee’s Area”. Someone even made a little paper sign and it made you chuckle.

You sat back and logged into a ninth research station, beginning to look up any new research methods or new genetic information that might have come available since you left Union Space.

It doesn’t surprise you that what you and Doc have been doing is light years beyond anything you find in published works.

*_*_*

The clock in your head is making ‘tick-tock’ noises at random times, and you know it’s an auditory hallucination, but god fucking damnit it needs to quit. You make sure to keep this away from both Drs. Marchand and Lakani, and for the most part, you succeed.

But now, signs of degradation are showing up in Noah. ***Your*** Noah.

You begin snagging more computers as they sit idle. One sub-alt has been stationed near your area for a couple of weeks now since you always seem to request him. Yes, him. You’ve named him Bruce, after Bruce Banner. It’s a nerd joke and it makes you smile, but nobody else seems to understand.

That’s okay though.

Doc tried banning you from the labs until you got some decent rest and food. And you tried, you really did, but.

In less than two hours, you were moving through the ducts, army crawling at times. You pulled a screwdriver out of your back pocket and undid the screws holding a grate in place, and moving it aside you dropped gracefully into the middle of your area.

Right in front of Doc.

Nodding at him in greeting, you pulled a sandwich and a bottle of Galaxy Dew from your backpack and set it at your research desk, then sat your butt down and resumed working. You left your slate on it’s home screen purposefully since your background was a picture of Noah holding Sparky (that you’d taken with permission).

Doc didn’t miss the gesture and instead of ordering you back out, he had Raum lift the restrictions on you and gave your shoulder a gentle squeeze.

You hear the doors whoosh open and in trots Sparky, a bag of granola and a bag of trailmix held in his mouth. He puts his paws on your knee and looks hopeful that his offering will be accepted. You can’t help but smile and pet him gently. “Thanks for the snacks buddy. I forgot to get dessert.”

Sparky looks quite happy as you add the baggies next to your sandwich.

You do actually eat everything.

*_*_*

Eventually though, one night, while you’re alone in the labs, the last ***”BONG”*** still fresh in your mind, you look up at the ceiling and ask Raum for help. You just need a direction, to know *where* to look. This random shooting in the dark bull shit is getting everyone nowhere and fast.

In your experience, ‘mad scientist’ types have a signature, a way they do things or a way they code things. You’ve been able to figure out which high profile geneticist has written a certain piece in journals, not by their wording but by their projects, and you can’t think of anyone more infamous than Cyrus Jacobi.

Or, as the medical world knew him - Josef Mengele.

If anyone from HA had even mentioned him, and that person had anything to do with their cloning programs, it’d at least, at the ***very least*** point you in a direction, because mad scientist types had a signature, and they liked paying homage to their heroes.

And then one day, Tane asks you “If you could have anything…”

And you tell him. You give him a laundry list of things that could assist you, and you realize if this information ever got into your hands, you’d be very very close to being arrested and tossed in the brig for *life*.

You think *Three squares a day, an actual bed to sleep on...If I handled Milaniko for ten years, I can handle that for life.*

And you wait.

***”BONG, BONG, BONG”***

The sound begins to haunt your dreams.

*_*_*

Noah is the only one who can coax you out, and he does so every day to have dinner with you and make sure you get some rest after.

The guilt gnaws at you when you slip out of bed well before your alarm goes off, and head toward the labs. But time is running out, and that fucking clock is getting louder and louder. It doesn’t matter that people are staring at you, and the fact that your clothes are pretty damn loose doesn’t matter either.

Your nutritional profile has been met each and every day thanks to protein shakes and bars, and Sparky is...suspicious. He’s not advanced enough to know you’re effectively working the system, but he knows *something* is not right. In his view, you should not be losing weight.

Well. You are. But it can be remedied once you figure this shit out.

Doc has been forcing you to take breaks, just for an hour. When your schedules align (and they do at least once a day and you know Doc is doing that on purpose and you love him for it), you spend the time with Noah in his office, grabbing a snack or dozing in one of the extra chairs.

The times you don’t line up with Noah, you head to the mech bay and straight to Beauty, always bringing an offering of donuts or some type of potato dish. Opal is kind enough to not turn you away, Beauty’s hand lowering to lift you up to the cockpit. You’re always sure to thank Beauty, then you sit next to Opal, your offering balancing on both your knee and hers.

She doesn’t question you, doesn’t make you talk, doesn’t comment when you know you’re muttering out loud. Sometimes she leans against you, her shoulder offering quiet support and those are the hardest times, when you have to clench your jaw shut to keep from openly sobbing and admitting how scared you are. How you’re not sure if you can figure this puzzle out, and as a result of your own incompetence you stand to lose not only a dear friend, but the love of your life.

You have a feeling she knows what thoughts run through your head, and you’re grateful that she doesn’t say a word. She doesn’t even comment on the tears that track down your cheeks only to fall from your chin.

You are so, so grateful for that, and you somehow draw strength from sitting with her.

It’s enough that you can head back into the lab yet again.

*_*_*

The next time the Dvorak drops out of near light, you’ve all but moved into the labs. You don’t notice the whoosh of the doors opening at first, but that’s because you’re all but actually absorbing the data on one of the doctors involved with HA cloning, who did indeed cite Jacobi as an amazing scientist.

When the sub-alt rolls up, you mistake it for Bruce, but then Raum’s voice is piped into your brain via your shunt.

A gift. From Tane.

You look at the isolated slate, then take it from the alt, thanking Raum profusely. You stare at it for a moment, the device seeming so small in your hands.

You rip the privacy screen from your own slate (and you may have actually broken the screen - Marcus will be pissed if he has to replace another one) and slap it onto the new one and begin devouring the information. There’s so much here, too much, enough that you have to ask Raum to help you sift through it all.

But...but...when he flags pages he thinks you need, your heart races.

Schematics. Not of the Kennedys, but of prior models.

Maintenance records, upkeep recommendations. Nutritional requirements, formulae for a metabolic stabilizer…

And then you see it. Written by the doctor who quoted Jacobi.

***Genetic coding information***.

You rip through the document and as you read, you begin to babble.

“Jesus fuck, it’s in the junk. They actually put it in the junk DNA, where nobody would fucking think. We need to change everything, absolutely everything, did he work on the...Ken...He did, he fucking did, he worked on the Kennedys, okay, so if that’s the case I’m betting he put them in the same places but there’s probably different locks, different fail safes but if we find one we can tweak it to fit other locks and we need to rethink everything christ we don’t have enough *time* and -”

Hands on your shoulder make you look up, and instinctively you pull the slate against your chest, protecting it. Raum has gone quiet in your mind.

“My boy,” Doc says. “You’re speaking in tongues.”

“We need to change where we look,” you blurt out. “They put the locks in the junk DNA. We need to change course, we need more computers, we need -”

“What? Brawley…” Doc’s eyes stray to the slate and you pull it closer to your chest. He knows there’s something on there that you shouldn’t have and he’s silent for a moment.

“Are you sure?” he asks, shaking you just a bit for emphasis.

“Yes.” Your voice doesn’t waiver.

He nods, then turns from you and begins barking out orders to other assistants and all the screens go black. It takes but a moment for them to reboot, blank screens ready for new directives.

You log into each one individually and set up sims, directing the machines to paw through almost 125,000 pieces of DNA.

You still need more machines.

*_*_*

A few days later you zip into the lab only to find your area almost empty. Your heart lurches from your chest into your throat, but Doc is there, turning you to the right and giving you a nudge forward.

There’s a new section in the lab. Huge, with bright lights, tons of computer banks, frosted windows and a door with a keypad and retina scanner for entry. And the name plaque reads “Brawley Stonehurst”

You pause only enough to look back at Doc and offer him a grin, but then you’re rushing forward, Sparky right behind you, the door opening with a quiet whoosh. There’re more computers than you’ve ever dared ‘steal’ on the main floor, but you quickly commandeer each and every one, setting them up for various sims.

The grating ***”BONG”*** is still the sound you’re constantly hearing.

*_*_*

It’s been a bad day. There’s talk of ventilation for Elias, and he really needs to come off of active duty, but he’s fighting tooth and nail to remain.

Noah hasn’t been able to really lead his classes, nor has he been able to spar with Masek at the level they’re both used to. Sparky has taken it upon himself to spend most of his time with Noah. When he asks you if this is acceptable, you say it is and rearrange his priorities to put Noah first and yourself second.

Doc finds out and he’s in your office questioning the decision, pointing out that Noah and Elias aren’t the only ones deteriorating, and you’re about to call him out on the pot calling the kettle black, but…

But…

***”BING”***

You both stop, staring at each other, and it takes you almost a solid minute to realize one of the sims has finished.

And the text, it’s not *green*, it’s not a *success*, but it’s...not a critical fail. The text is yellow, telling you that you’re on the right track but you need to tweak things and you can do that, the data is promising and you look at Doc and you can feel yourself grinning and -

***”chime”***

Again, you both stop and you know your eyes are huge, you know this because his are as well. It doesn’t take nearly as long for you to begin looking around frantically -

***”chime”.......”chime”......”chime”***

One by one, five different screens light up with green text.

*_*_*

Dr. Anath Lakani is fucking amazing. There’s a reason you’ve been starry eyed since he said he’d take you on as a resident. Your mind is quick, and you know this, but his…

Christ on a cracker, watching that man work is breathtaking for a science nerd like you.

He takes your findings and spins the results into formulae and then spins those into an actual therapy faster than anything you’ve ever seen. And you watch, because this is porn for you, this creating something to save a life from numbers and codes and this and that. In theory, you can do this as well, but not this quickly.

Doc’s skills come from years of experience, and you are nothing short of a captive audience.

Arrangements are made to have Elias come in the very next morning and he’s agreeable. His words were something along the lines of “What have I got to lose?”, and that just…

Your breath leaves you as if you were punched in the gut, and *gods*...

“Please let this work,” you whisper to yourself as you head home.

To Noah. Who is resting in his quarters and only quirks a brow as he looks up from his slate when you come in, then lean back against the door, just looking at him.

He’s pale, too pale, with shadows under his eyes. And you’re not sure if it’s fact or if it’s your mind playing tricks on you, but his cheekbones seem even more pronounced today than they did yesterday.

“It’s early,” he murmurs, and it is, not even gone 20:00 yet. “Have you eaten?”

“No,” you say, your voice coming out in a whisper. “I wanted...shower,” you finish lamely.

Legally, you can’t tell him. This is Elias’ business, not Noah’s.

But there’s that soft smile, the one that’s just for you. “Go on then,” he says. “I’ll have a sub alt bring something from the mess.”

“You gonna eat too?”

“I’ll have something.”

He knows you’ll pester him. Even though he really doesn’t have much of an appetite.

While in the shower, you think about the sims running for Noah’s treatment. You’re jumping the gun, but Elias’ is almost completely mapped out, with only one part of the therapy being in question. In theory, even if that fails, the results will tell you and Doc where to go next, but that clock is still ticking, loud as ever.

You must have been in there a lot longer than you thought, because the next thing you know Sparky’s sitting outside the shower stall looking up at you. Once he sees he has your attention, he sends a query, checking on you.

*Just lost in thought,* you reply.

*Supper is here! KenKen has lounge coverings waiting for you. They are nice and warm!* And with that, Sparky dashes out of the bathroom.

After drying off, going out to get dressed (and you don’t miss the appraising look Noah gives you, but you ignore it because no, you don’t look your best and you realize this but that’s not what he’s concerned about) and eating, you curl up with him, your head on his shoulder.

It’s quiet in a way that ships are, which is to say it’s not *really* quiet, but there’s no voices, no computers, no bonks or bings or chimes or anything. Just the sound of Noah breathing, and if you hold your breath, his heart beat.

“Elias is starting a new therapy in the morning,” you whisper and you feel Noah go still against you. “The projected success rate of the first two rounds is 98%, but the third is hovering around 80%. Even if the third is a failure, we’ll know by the results which way to go. Doc is prepping the bases tonight and tomorrow, but it’s still going to be close, I think. Depends if it fails if it causes any domino effects.”

He’s staring at you now, so you continue.

“I’m running your sims in my office, and two have finished. They weren’t successful, but they weren’t failures. I’m going off the assumption that since you and Elias are from the same...batch,” (that term burns in your throat) “that you’ll need similar therapies.”

“How,” Noah starts, his voice raspy. He clears his throat, then resumes. “How did you…?’ He can’t finish the question, and you don’t know if it’s because he doesn’t know what to ask or if it’s because he can’t ask, but you look up at him.

“Please don’t ask me that,” you whisper. He’s head of security, and even if this would save his life, he would be duty bound.

His eyes leave you and move to your backpack, the forbidden slate hidden inside. He’d seen it, before, noticed it wasn’t yours or one from medical and asked about it. You’d pretended not to hear him, raising your head and blinking, bleary eyed (that wasn’t a lie, at least).

*Raum,* you send out over the comms and his reply is almost instant.

*Taken care of.*

You know the next time you pick the slate up, it’ll be blank. But that’s okay. You also know the information is someplace safe, and all you have to do is ask Raum in order to access it.

When Noah’s eyes return to you, you’re already asleep, curled protectively around him.

*_*_*

When Elias’s third round fails, it is almost catastrophic and both you and Doc are scrambling to keep him stable until the last formulae can be finished. The two of you work well together, both talking over each other and accessing various machines via your neural connections. Nobody will be able to convince you that was the only reason Elias was stabilized as quickly as he had been - while neither of you is super humanly fast, you’re faster than the average person and with both of you working, it’s...harrowing, but it could have been worse.

Much, much worse.

But, the now fourth round is administered and it works, it works so beautifully. Further degradation is essentially halted, or at the very least slowed to a crawl and not only that, but Elias’ body can begin repairs. His stem cells are fine, and with that vital system working as intended, modern medicine only needs to give his respiratory and cardiac systems a boost to get healing started.

Noah’s therapies go so much smoother, and you feel a little guilty for that. Elias doesn’t give a fuck, and the day he’s taken off his oxygen feed his smile stretches from ear to ear.

Noah wears one similar to it, and you finally know what people mean when they say their hearts are so full that they’re bursting.

Physical therapy is something Elias is eager to start, and you’ve got your hands in that as well because you cannot and will not leave either of these men alone it seems. But in this case, it’s not a bad thing because while you’re in the gym with Elias, you’re working on your own fitness regimen as well.

His upper body strength comes back slowly, but his lower body is a bit slower still, if only because he’d been in a wheelchair for an extended period of time. Hydro therapy was a thing for a while, but eventually, Elias began trying to stand.

You’re hella impressed at his determination, and his positive attitude makes you smile. You’re there with him when he stands on his own for the first time, the sub alt holding his chair steady in case he needs to sit back down quickly. You’re aware Cap is in the room as well, but your attention is solely on Elias. It’s a bit of a struggle, and his face is flushed and his breathing slightly labored (his oxygen saturation is at 98%, so you’re not in the least bit worried), but eventually, he’s standing. He takes a breath, finds his balance, and lets go of the supports.

His legs don’t buckle. He looks down as if he’s having trouble believing it, then he looks up at you and grins that infectious grin and you can’t help but smile back.

Then you notice Cap, who’s watching, and you’re not sure, but his eyes look suspiciously bright. He looks to you and nods with a smile, and you look back to Elias and move to help him sit back down, then step away as father and son have a moment, Cap moving closer and speaking softly to Elias.

*_*_*

You’re sitting with the entire group, including Noah (because you asked him to come have dinner and he said yes because he loves you and he also loves Masek’s cooking because who does NOT love Masek’s cooking???) when the alert chimes at the door. It takes a minute for it to open, but when it does, Elias is standing there, grinning, and he walks in under his own power.

That night, the only sound haunting your dreams is laughter and you’ve never slept better in your life.

#Space Shenanagains #Brawley Stonehurst #Noah Kennedy #Elias Kennedy #Lancer #Perseus Gambit #I cannot spell but I did use spell check

[trying-write-fanfics]

Hitoshi Shinso X Reader part 24

Y/n didn’t come to school for a few more days. She was on her retreat, so Shinso’s avoidance was kinda pointless. He still didn’t practice his quirk control because he’s afraid to ask someone to practice his quit on someone. 

Sonny and Benny went to the gym with class A. They were mostly just lifting weights and cardio. He never seen them really train their quirks, but then again that’s probably what their hero teachers are for. 

The door opened to reveal Y/n in casual clothes. She held Benny’s workout bag. There was a clear reason why she came, to drop off something of her friends. Shinso still didn’t even know what to say to her. ‘Hey how have you been, last time I saw you you were getting harassed.’ 

Sadly/luckily someone else caught her attention. Bakugo had ran up to her. 

“Where have you been, dumbass? Avoiding a rematch?” He asked her hitting her shoulder. 

No one was really expecting that from Bakugo. They couldn’t tell if he wanted to see her or smack her. Shinso looked around and couldn’t find Benny or Sonny anywhere. 

“I was on a training retreat.” She told Bakugo, but her voice didn’t seem right.

“Are you gonna fight me or what?” Bakugo asked. “I’ve been making new moves.”

“I-I guess we can.” She said putting the bag down. 

Shinsou zeroed in on her hands and saw them shaking. Bakugo and Y/n went outside to the front of the gym. He knew something wasn’t right. Through the glass he was able to see the beginning of the fight. They got in their stances and then charged. Bakugo aimed for her head, but she was able to duck quickly. However it was a trap. With his other hand. Bakugo grabbed her wrist which was covering her face. The look in her eyes was the same terrified look she had, she wasn’t prepared. Bakugo couldn’t see it, he just thought he was winning. He let the explosion go off and threw her into the cement. Shinso rushed outside. Y/n was on her side, her limbs vibrating. Her arm covered her face.

“What? Get up. You can’t be going easy on me. You dodged that last time.” Bakugo said, walking towards her. 

Aizawa also came out of the gym after hearing explosions. It was a quick patch up of the story looking at the scene. 

“What were you doing?” Aizawa asked Bakugo, getting time the girl’s side.

“I asked her to a rematch. She can’t be hurt, last time she-“

Bakugo stopped as he saw Aizawa lift her arm up. The skin on her wrist was scorched. Her eyes were tight shut and tears were pouring out on her cheeks. Her teeth were clenched. 

“(Last name), can you hear me? Can you get up.” Aizawa asked. 

She nodded her head, but her facial expression remained the same. Shinso got to her side.

“Let me help.” He said. 

“I don’t understand she was fine-“

“Bakugo now is not the time!” Aizawa growled. 

Getting tossed into the cement didn’t help his case. She hissed in pain as Shinso tried to peel her off the sidewalk. 

“I’m fine!” She cried, still her eyes sealed shut.

Shinso remembered why she wanted to hold on to the strong act. If anything goes wrong she would probably lose all hope of becoming a hero. Bakugo got tired of how this gentle act was going to take forever. So he took her by the arms and pulled her to her feel. She winced, but didn’t complain.

“I’m gonna call recovery girl, get her to the gym’s back office.” Aizawa said.

Shinso and Bakugo went under her arms and dragged her without making a scene. Y/n probably didn’t even know who was helping her since she kept her eyes shut. They sat her on the couch in the back office.

“What happened! I’ve seen you do way better than this?” Bakugo asked crossing his arms. 

“That’s what matters right now?” Shinso growled.

The muffled sobs stopped their bickering. Y/n covered her face with her hands trying to be as silent as she could, but both males were trying to listen for a response from.

“Let me look at it.” Bakugo said, reaching for her burnt wrist. 

“Bakugo, you’ve done enough.” Shinso said. 

“I’m fine….”she whispered out a sob.

 This only irritated Bakugo. Now she was lying to him? He grabbed her arms and took them out of her face.

“You’re clearly not! Look I’m-“ bakugo yelled.

Shinso went to try and pull Bakugo off Y/n, but the door slammed opened. It was Sonny. She saw the teary face of her (nickname) and her expression harden. Benny stood behind her.

“Out! Now!” Sonny yelled.

“You’re not the-“ bakugou yelled.

“Did I stutter?” She took bakugou by the shirt “you too Shinso!” She barked. 

They didn’t remember being on the other side of the door, but there were, with Benny who was eating a protein bar. 

“What the fuck!” Bakugo groaned.

“She got all mama bear on you two.” Benny said. “What happened?”

“Bakugo hurt Y/n.” Shinso hissed at the blond. 

“She agreed to a rematch.”

“Jesus Christ. She’s only been home for probably like a half hour.” Benny sighed. “Listen next time don’t challenge her after she used her quirk for a long time. She can’t think straight and she’s always gonna say yes because she wants to prove herself.” Benny said. 

“That’s her fault for agreeing.” Bakugo argued. 

“Put someone else’s need first for once. She doesn’t exactly have the most stable path to becoming a hero! You already have name recognition and a school with endless resources to help you succeed.” Benny said. “Everyone is trying to talk her out of being a hero so she can just be some miracle healer at a hospital. Every wrong step, every loss, feels like a sign to give up,  but guess what she’s still trying.”

Bakugo looked away and sighed. It wasn’t that he believed she ddI t have what it takes to be a hero, it was that he didn’t know how to talk to her. She wanted to show off her quirk to him and even sparred with him. What’s he do? Blast her into the ground. 

“She’ll forgive so don’t pout too much. She  had a lot of patiences, but if you use too much, I’ll make you blast your own face off.” Benny said. “What were you doing Shinso?”

“I was just worried about her.”‘ Shinso said. “Her hands were shaking.”

Aizawa came back but not with recovery girl.

“I couldn’t get ahold of recovery girl, but there’s a first aid kit in there.” Aizawa said.

“Can it deal with burns?” Benny asked.

“Yeah, it’s part of the training to become a teacher here.” Aizawa explained. 

Aizawa went into the room to find Sonny comforting her friend. The short glimpse Shinso got gave him an image of Y/n with her face in her friend’s lap as she pats her hair. 

He wasn’t special. The only reason why she called him that night verse Sonny, Benny, and Bakugo was because the first two would get there in time and Bakugo would be asleep. She called Shinsou knowing he would be awake and nearby. If anyone saved her, she would share the bed and cuddle whoever. Not because of anything wrong, but that was who she was. She needed affection. She needed to be told things would be okay with a head pat. 

“Where’s thst healer that works here?” Sonny asked.

“Probably in bed.” Aizawa said. “I can help though.”

“She’s gonna scat.” Sonny said.

“Even if recovery girl made it, (last name) would scar anyway.”

“I’m fine, really.” Y/n said, clearly in pain. 

Aizawa already knew the situation she was in. It was why he tried getting her to UA in the first place, but after the first year he would never be able to prove UA was a safe school. He was also to figure out the nature of Y/n’s quirk with her around more. It wasn’t exactly a healer’s quirk, but rather a body manipulation quirk or a cell manipulation quirk. Healers can only close wounds or at best fix broken bones. The hospital’s board thinks soon Y/n will be able to get rid of tumors. It’s not terrible, but it’s too much pressure on a high school student. He did have a selfish reason for wanting her to become a hero, a quirk like hers on the battle field would be able to help more accidents. If she could heal heros, they wouldn’t take up medical staff at hospitals. 

“Just relax.” Aizawa told the girl as he began cleaning the burn wound. 

Sonny held her ex’s free hand as she choked on the pain.  Sonny sighed knowing a scolding was hopeless. Her friend had always been insecure about her fighting abilities, even when she was catching up she couldn’t use her quirk to defend herself. She’d have a to take up a weapon or a fighting style, which both she has done. But it was hard for her to watch how effortlessly her friends can harm another with their brute force. Benny using his gravity quirk to sink his opponents to the ground, while Sonny could just light them on fire. If a punch isn’t hard enough or a kick isn’t swift enough against someone rally strong, Y/n would be done for. So she improved her mobility in order to dodge attacks and tire out her opponents, but she was still relying on her teammates to finish the job. It was stupid to accept every chance to fight, but then again she was fried from her retreat so she wasn’t thinking clearly. 

“You need to give yourself a break, (nickname)” Sonny commented. “No school, no work,  no training and maybe you’ll figure yourself out some more. Learn what you need to.”

“I’d fall behind if I did that.” Y/n said.

“You won’t be useful to your friends if you exhaust your quirk though.” Aizawa said.

“Oh are you apart of girl talk now?” Sonny asked.

“(Last name) shouldn’t have to drop everything, but she does deserve a break. You’ve been healing a lot of heroes I heard.” Aizawa said.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.” Sonny said. “Trying to increase your overall endurance?”

Y/n nodded. Destroy the body’s pushing it to the limits to have it regrow into a stronger vessel. She was always told she was perfect by so many strangers, job, schooling, training, a perfect balance. But honestly she was afraid to relax and let go. Even on her off time she feels like she’s never doing enough and she’s running out of time. Her act was going to be up soon and everyone will know she’s a fraud faking under pressure. 

“Recovery Girl offered to mentor you. If you don’t mind me prying, why didn’t you take it?” Aizawa asked.

Over a year ago, Y/n revived her recommendation to UA, something she was not planning. A lot of heros were her family’s clients. They met the young girl, surprised by her healing quirk. Her parents weren’t exactly happy someone went behind their back trying to get Y/n to become a hero. It was a steadier deal to become a doctor/healer. However they still made her tour the school where she met Eraserhead. Sure he looked weird, was kinda stiff, but he tried to get her to consider instead of telling her she didn’t have the heart. Then she met recovery girl, the kindest, wisest woman. Having similar quirks, she offered immediately to mentor Y/n. Y/n’s initial reaction was to reject it, she didn’t want to grow up too fast. She didn’t want things to change even though they already were. Her friends were going to different schools, people wanted her to spend her time healing more people!  Recovery girl said the offer still stands.

Weeks went on and Y/n felt like an idiot. Her friends weren’t picking their schools because of Y/n so why should she pick her future around her friends? The answer was she was scared. She was scared she wasn’t the healer the world thought she was. She just didn’t want to be looked at or seen the way she’d always been. 

“You’re so rotten.”

It was how she fell for Sonny. They’d been close for so many years. Sonny was one of the first to get into fights with Y/n and call her out for her timid flaws. She was commanding and demanding. If she didn’t get what she wanted then she fought for it. Y/n was utterly shocked how her friend was just so different from her. But she also feared Sonny was the only one real with her. People wanted a healer so the world could be a little less painful. They would say anything to make Y/n feel confident in herself, even if it was a lie. But Sonny told her the first thoughts that came into her mind. There was no filter, there was no concern for altering the future. 

“If you have people using you for your healing powers just let them suffer, honestly, you’re not a god Y/n.”

She wasn’t the sweetest most nurturing person in the world, but her words would lift some pressure off Y/n’s shoulders. They started working out together. When jogging and boxing Y/n felt more of the pressure release. She was moving, moving for herself and on her own. While working out she was able to discover more about her own thoughts. She hated waiting for someone to heal, it’s like a slab of meat being thrown in front of you being told to fix it. She’d rather hunt for it, heal because she would feel the need to, not because it was thrown into her face. But that’s how she learned she could heal in more ways than one, so it wasn’t totally useless. 

“You’re bad person, but not because of your complicated feelings toward your quirk, but because you refuse to acknowledge what you do to those around you.”

Y/n had always been “nice”. Maybe even “guibile” and “doll-like”. She’d do anything to lessen another’s pain and would do anything told to her. Because she was losing herself in other’s commands, she didn’t feel much, but they sure did. If she would have just said “no” instead of falling in line to a steward way of life she wouldn’t break so many hearts, confused why she cared so much about their happiness to only not love them back. She only cared because they didn’t know her quirk and they asked for her. 

“I felt like the hospital needed me more.” She lied. 

Aizawa accepted the answer, even though he knew she was lying. She wasn’t one of his students, but he knew her enough. He wouldn’t take it personally, already knowing the pressure she’d be under with such a blessing of a quirk. 

Benny and Sonny took Y/n home. It’s been awhile since all three were together, like old times. No dating drama came up either. She looked at Sonny. Sonny has some hurtful things I’ve the years, but also some of the most special lines. Maybe they were losing meaning(l, but Y/n decided that it would be best to let it go, the idea Sonny would love her forever whether Y/n wanted her or not. Those lines would have special places in her heart, but also wanted Sonny to find happiness even if it wasn’t Y/n. Because it wouldn’t be fair now that her heart was beating for someone new.

Aizawa basically gave Bakugo the don’t let your ego get too big. Context matters when it comes to challenging someone. He also gave Shinso a scolding that he needed to trust his gut more to stop things form getting bad. Y/n would be fine, but she would have a scar from the last battle. 

Both male students went up to their dorm in silence. All Shinso wanted to do was protect Y/n from any sort of pain, and he just watched Bakugo blow her up even though he knew it wasn’t right. He just remembers her hand twitching. Shinso opened his door and sighed. He looked over and Bakugo. He slammed his door loudly. He heard a muffled scream covered by the walls.

At least he didn’t mess up as bad as Bakugo.

#hitoshi shinso x reader #hitoshi shinsou #shinsou hitoshi #shinso hitoshi x reader #xreader #bnha #bnha x reader #bnha fanfiction #series

[ask4mynemo-blog]

Celestial Chemistry

Written by Benny Millar

Homeward Bound

My patriarchal blessing quotes a scripture that I love, “I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.” (Doctrine & Covenants 82:10)  I prefer looking at verses 8-10 together for a more complete perspective on this wonderful verse in modern scripture:

And again, I say unto you, I give unto you a new commandment, that you may know my will concerning you; or, in other words, I give unto you directions how you may act before me, that it may turn to you for your salvation.  I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.

I’ve been thinking about this in relation to our walk on the covenant path and it made me realize how much our Heavenly Father loves us and wants to stay “bound” to us!   We individually might say, “I, Benny, am bound to the Lord when I make and keep sacred covenants in His temple; and when I do what He says, I may claim His promises.” 

I am developing a new analogy that I call “Celestial Chemistry.” It conceptually focuses on the idea of hydrogen bonds, ionic bonds, and covalent bonds in relation to faith, obedience, and priesthood covenants. I would love to share it with you. Please understand that I am not promoting these ideas as doctrine, but simply laying out my personal thoughts that emerged as I pondered and studied the doctrine of making and keeping priesthood covenants.

Hydrogen Bonding and Water

Water is the classic example of hydrogen bonding.  On the basic atomic level, there exists partial positive charges and partial negative charges which hold two hydrogens to one oxygen.  This creates an attractive polarity within each H2O molecule and an even more unique bonding association with many other H2O molecules nearby.  Water is composed of a molecular neighborhood wherein each hydrogen atom is actually bonded to two separate oxygen atoms though more strongly to one. The bonding in liquid water is such that the closest neighboring H2O molecules form a tetrahedron which is 90% electrostatic and 10% covalent.  

Perhaps this is pushing the spiritual chemistry analogy too far, but the tetrahedral bonding formation of liquid water could represent the baptismal covenant.  This covenant is like a bond requiring five separate contributing parts:

The individual making the covenant 

God the Father

Jesus Christ

The Holy Ghost

Authority of the Priesthood

Hence, there are five bonded parts in one tetrahedral structure. I find it interesting that five parts (or five words) is a common theme in our covenant relationship with deity.  When children of God desire to live through covenant obedience they must demonstrate a willingness to follow God’s directions which will show them how to “…act before [Him], that it may turn to [them] for [their] salvation.”  Nephi personified this willingness when he said, “I will go and do.”   Living by this five word mantra qualifies an individual to become connected to heaven and prepares her/him for making and keeping sacred priesthood covenants.  

Another five word symbol of advanced covenant relationships can be found when we think about the inscription on every temple built in the latter-days, “Holiness to the Lord, The House of the Lord.”  One day after a temple recommend interview with a member of our stake presidency, my sweet wife asked the counselor a question.  She asked him what he understood to be the meaning of the phrase, “Holiness to the Lord.”  His answer was profound.  He told her a story of a famous national news reporter who interviewed a prominent member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Boston, Massachusetts.  The two men sat on a bench not far from the Boston temple and the interviewer asked if he could ever go inside the temple himself. “Of course,” the brother explained, “if you qualify by meeting the standards of holiness to the Lord.” Then he reverently shared with the journalist all the temple recommend interview questions.  The reporter was astounded and replied, “You mean to tell me that every member of your church who is granted entrance into that temple answered every one of those questions?  I don’t think I could honestly answer any of them myself.  That is remarkable!”  Holiness to the Lord is a personal preparation to enter His temples.  “The House of the Lord,” (another five word mantra) stands as the designated place for Heavenly Father’s family to enter into the higher covenants of salvation.  Inside the temple, the pattern of fives is repeated in special and perhaps subtle ways that cannot be shared in this essay. Look for them on your own as you worship in The House of The Lord. Now back to some chemistry.

If hydrogen bonding in water were too strong, life could not be sustained at lower temperatures and if the bonding were too weak then life could not be sustained at higher temperatures. There exists a “Goldilocks Principle” of not too strong and not too weak which keeps water and life sustained over a wide range of temperatures.  If the bonds in liquid water break, they quickly reform as long as the tetrahedral molecules remain close and actively engaged.  This is like enduring repentance and faithful service which is life sustaining and reminds me of the two great commandments.  As we strive to love God with all of our heart, soul and mind, and strive to love our neighbor as ourself, we are able to retain a remission of our sins and maintain the unique spiritual hydrogen water bonds of our baptismal covenant.

Water is “sticky” because of the easy and abundant hydrogen bonds throughout the liquid structure which creates surface tension.  This is how a skin forms on the surface for insects to walk upon, how humans can easily drink water through a straw, and how plants can draw up a column of water through roots and channels against gravity!  Perhaps we need to appreciate the “stickiness” of our baptismal covenant, too.  Baptism is the ordinance of immersion in water being surrounded completely by hydrogen bonded water molecules and represent the first step on the covenant path.  The hydrogen bonding interactions serve as a spiritual analogy of how this baptismal covenant guides our actions and strengthens our influence on those we minister to. We must interact with others in sticky, up close, and personal ways: mourn with those that mourn, comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all places, repenting quickly and interacting through love continuously.  This spiritual bonding stays connected and true through a wide range of trials and situations sustaining spiritual life as we know it.

Remember in water, each hydrogen atom is bonded to two separate oxygen atoms one more strongly than the other.  So it is with our baptismal covenant; the bond with God is stronger than the bonds with our neighbors, but both are crucial to maintain the spiritual life giving properties of the water covenant.

In simple chemistry terms, there is a hierarchy of bond strength: hydrogen bond < ionic bond < covalent bond. This progression lends itself to further understanding in my spiritual chemistry analogy and has obvious covenant path symbolism.

Ionic Bonding and Salt

Salt (sodium chloride) is the classic example of ionic bonding.  The transfer of electrons between two atoms is called electrovalence.  Atoms that gain electrons become positive cations and atoms that give up electrons become negative anions creating electrostatic attractions between the two. This attraction leads to the formation of an ionic bond that is stronger than a hydrogen bond but weaker than a covalent bond.  Ionic compounds like salt form crystalline structures that can break neatly and can be dissolved in water dissociating ions into solution. 

Take sodium chloride for example. When this ionic compound dissociates in water, such as in food preparation, a small amount of salt will savor a large amount of the solution. In Matthew 5:13 the Savior said to his faithful followers, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?”

Like the special properties of ionic bonds, various types of relationship bonds can be formed between neighbors, class and quorum members, ward families, missionaries and investigators.  Perhaps a spiritual ionic bond is established through righteous priesthood service and when faithful disciples bear humble testimony to others.  Subsequently, righteous spiritual electrons are transferred to another individual flavoring their experience and promoting the formation of a medium strength bond between the two persons — an empathetic give and take relationship of savory spiritual influence.

“Ye are the salt of the earth.” This responsibility pertains to all faithful disciples of Christ who have been baptized and confirmed—men, women, youth, and children. It also has direct implications for priesthood holders and holds them accountable to savor the earth by sharing their “ionic” personal influence with everyone they meet by virtue of the priesthood, and in the name of Jesus Christ.

Although these bonding interactions certainly strengthen relationships, congregations and communities, they are not strong enough to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.  Spouses, nuclear families and extended families across the generations must be bonded more strongly than this, even welded and sealed for time and all eternity.

Covalent Bonding and the Temple

Temple covenants are like celestial covalent bonds sharing electron orbitals (power in the priesthood) across both sides of the veil. They are the strongest chemical bonds and the strongest spiritual bonds, especially when linked or welded together in a generational chain.

Perfection, sanctification, pure conversion cannot happen on our own merits of obedience, but they require the grace of God to cure and finish the process. The bond must be two ways and must invoke heavenly, divine, celestial powers overlapping with our own righteous offering in order to manifest the powers of godliness now and through the eternities. Christ is symbolically represented by the temple, specifically the veil of the temple (see Hebrews 10:20). So I propose that the following phrases are mostly synonymous: “in the name of Jesus Christ” and “through the veil.” Consider covenant making and keeping as the method of forming a celestial covalent bond between God and His children through the power of Christ’s priesthood and the gift of His grace. 

I will now emphasize a play on words which is not gender specific and should be extrapolated in its entirety to women and men.  The electrons traveling around both atoms form a shared orbital which makes the strongest covalent bond between the two atoms.  Think of this as two “Adams” one seeking holiness and the other a divine “Man of Holiness;” one on each side of the veil with the electron orbital passing “through the veil.” This power transfer through the veil happens by virtue of, and in the name of Jesus Christ. Thus, the power of godliness is made manifest “through the veil” in this fashion thus binding the mortal covenant keeper to her/his God. This is the power that must rest upon us now and forever. It is the manner in which Christ not only reveals us to His Father but binds us to Him, saving us and perfecting us in the process. “We believe that through the atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.” (The Third Article of Faith) Please notice another five word mantra here, “through the atonement of Christ.”

In chemistry the strongest single covalent bond occurs between carbon and fluorine C-F making CF4 (carbon tetrafluoride) a very stable covalently bonded molecule. How interesting that C could stand for “covenant” and F could stand for “faith.” Molecules that bind multiple carbons in a chain with multiple fluorides are especially strong and in theory almost unbreakable.  A cross-generational family or a Zion community covalently-bonded through consecrated keeping of sacred temple covenants can and should be virtually unbreakable.

For weeks, I have been pondering the meaning of the Savior’s words found in Matthew 11:28-30:

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

His yoke represents the sum of all the covenants that we make in His name. Hence, we take upon us His yoke when we make our personal covenants and each Sunday we renew that yoke as we worthily partake of His sacrament. When we learn of Him, we actually learn about Him, learn from Him, and through faithful covenant relationships learn to be like Him. 

Rest is an interesting word.  It has etymological origins to re-stand or re-turn. His rest, the rest that He gives us and the rest that we hope to enter into one day, represents the “promise" of entering into the kingdom of God to receive eternal life and exaltation. Entering into His rest is synonymous with standing again in the presence of the Lord. 

Rest can also be a verb.  In this way “rest” refers to power placed upon mankind such as the Spirit of the Holy Ghost, Priesthood Power, and in some instances Priesthood Keys. You can’t spell Restoration without “rest.” The eternal purpose of restoration in the plan of salvation is to bring Heavenly Father’s sons and daughters back into His “rest.” This is why the Priesthood keys and sealing power had to be restored to the earth. It is no wonder that Moroni quoted Malachi’s prophecy to Joseph Smith on each of his four first visitations to the boy prophet. 

Being “bound” is a two way eternal “covalent” connection that depends upon us loving God enough to obey His commandments or follow His directions.  This includes making and keeping temple covenants. The power of the Priesthood and the Holy Spirit of Promise bring celestial power into a common orbital that surrounds the covenant (covalently) bound mortal and her/his immortal Father in the strongest known bond.  This covenant bond cannot be broken except by disobedience on the mortal side of the veil. Thus, as righteous keeping of the covenant is maintained, the covalent celestial bond permeates across the veil for time and all eternity. 

Bound is synonymous with other words like: seal, turn, weld, plant, graft, and remember.  Whenever you see such words in the scriptures, I encourage you to think about covenants.  When we do what Heavenly Father says, this represents making and keeping our covenants and enduring to the end so that the celestial covalent bond will endure forever as well. 

Being perfected is the process of complete conversion accompanied by sanctification. It happens in conjunction with a righteous combination of love, obedience, faith, repentance, covenant making and keeping, and a constant nourishment through the grace of Jesus Christ. The process must be in line with the keys of His priesthood authority which eventually “unlock the gate of heaven and let us in.” (There is a Green Hill Far Away, Hymn 194) 

Pointing Our Souls to Christ

When we are resolved to see that everything points us to Christ, we will also see that all good things point us to His holy house.  All directions, instructions, and commandments work for us to our salvation as we learn of Him, and through His grace transform our eyes, our hearts, our souls asymptotically ever to be like Him, “…then when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he is...” (Doctrine & Covenants 130:1, Moroni 7:48)  The process of considering the scriptures in context of how they pertain to our temple covenants, will make our eyes to see more clearly, our hearts to feel more strongly, and our minds to understand more completely. Take Matthew 7:7-8 for one powerful illustration of this method.  The Savior said:

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

We must individually desire further light and knowledge, and we must recognize our lack of wisdom then eagerly go to the true source to find it.  True asking is to converse with God in the name of His Son.  True seeking is being willing to wait for a divine message in return which surely will come through true messengers of the Father (this could be missionaries, ministering sisters or brothers, Church officers, family members, or from the Holy Ghost himself).  We must seek to hear when He speaks for the Lord declared, “…whether by my own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.” (Doctrine & Covenants 1:38)  When we have ears to hear Him, and we strive to faithfully obey His voice, then at a certain place that will be shown to us, we shall have the opportunity to knock and it shall be opened unto us to let us enter into His rest. 

If we are to be homeward bound on our journey through mortality, we must faithfully walk the Lord’s covenant path. The bonds we make with our neighbors, our families, and with our God, will enrich our lives, enhance our joy, and bring us to our celestial home “through the veil” or “in the name of Jesus Christ,” to re-stand in the presence of the Lord, and to claim the promises associated with our covenants.  

[dailyaudiobible]

05/28/2019 DAB Transcript

2 Samuel 13:1-39, John 17:1-26, Psalms 119:81-96, Proverbs 16:6-7

Today is the 28th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today as we take the next step forward, settle into this week. Yesterday in the book of second Samuel, we read of Nathan, the prophet's confrontation of David for the matter of Uriah the Hittite having him killed and taking his wife Bathsheba to be his own wife. And we mentioned yesterday that this is the turning points in David's family. It's like he's lost respect at this point and we’ll begin to see things spiral for David as we begin to move forward. So, we’re reading from the New International Version this week. Today, second Samuel chapter 13.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we can see a clear distinction between life before Bathsheba and life after Bathsheba in David's story before David took Bathsheba and her husband killed. And, so, in today's reading from second Samuel some pretty terrible things happen in David's personal life, things that no one, like no father would ever want to experience. His daughter, Tamar was raped by her brother Amnon. Amnon was then killed by his brother, Absalom, in revenge. Absalom was then exiled in Geshur for three years. And this is fascinating. Absalom's mother was the daughter of the King of Geshur, which is in the north on the Sea of Galilee. It would later be known as Bethsaida, which is a city that some of the disciples of Jesus made as…called home and that Jesus did ministry in Bethsaida. So, we covered some ground, several years in today's reading. And Absalom had been staying in Geshur and Amnon, of course, lost his life for raping his sister. And, so, after several years, David began to long to see his son Absalom again. And that's where we leave the story. He will see Absalom again but things…things are not well between them and we will carry on with that story tomorrow.

And then in John's Gospel, I mean, we’re nearing the end of the Gospels and where we’re situated now is the Jesus is having the last conversation with his friends at his Last Supper and we concluded this conversation today with a prayer. Jesus prayed a prayer over his friends, and it's one of the most heartfelt prayers in the Bible and one of the most engaging things Jesus ever said. “This is the way to have eternal life”, Jesus said, “to know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.” It's just simple. The way to eternal life is to know God, not to know about God, not to gather more information about God, not to get more the theology, not to get more doctrine, not to do more things on behalf of God, but to know God. The study of God and work for God, these are important, this is what we engage in everyday, it's a natural outpouring of a life with God, but it's not the other way around, right? Like, all of our activity for God isn't necessarily making us closer to God. We actually draw near to God and all this activity is a byproduct. So, fundamentally, foundational, like bedrock in our faith, we must understand that knowing God in an intimate relationship and friendship is our primary purpose on the earth and leads us into eternal life. And then Jesus as he’s praying, and this prayer is known as His high priestly prayer, he says, “I'm not asking you to take them out of the world. I'm asking you to keep them safe from the evil one”. So, Jesus prayer wasn't to ask the Father to remove his friends from planet Earth but instead to send them into the world armed with the truth of God's word and the Spirit of truth within. And notice what Jesus said, “just as you sent me into the world I am sending them into the world.” Think about it. According to Jesus we are commissioned and sent into the world in the same way Jesus was. So, don't listen to that…or don't go back and reread that and diminish that as a metaphor for something that's lesser than it really is. We are sent into the world as the Father sent Jesus. So, are we living from that place? Do our lives reflect that reality? And unless we think that this high priestly prayer is something that Jesus prayed over his disciples, and so that was like that put them in a different place and they have a different status and they got a commissioning and they got like a better version of the Holy Spirit than we can ever have, we just have to listen to Jesus, His own words. “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in Me through their message.” Jesus was praying for you. He was praying for me. We are them. And here's what Jesus prayed over us. “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one as you are in Me, Father, and I am in You. And may they be in Us so that the world will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory You gave Me, so they may be one as We are one. I am in them and You are in Me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.” I mean, are we getting what…this is our Savior here speaking…like are we getting what he is saying because we subtly diminish the reality that Jesus is praying for all of the time. Most the time we look at this prayer for unity among us, like this is a prayer of unity, and it is. This isn't just about getting along and playing nice together, this is about union. Jesus gave us the glory given to Him by the Father. That is mind boggling, but it was for a reason so that we could have union with God through Jesus. This is how Jesus said it, “as you are in Me, Father, and I am in You, I am in them and you are in me”. This is what being intertwined looks like. This is what union with God looks like. This is what collaboration and friendship and relationship looks like. This is what a relationship with God looks like, and it leads to eternal life. So, I mean, we’ve been examining what Jesus had to say at the Last Supper from the Gospel of John in depth over these last couple of days because this is the last time we’re gonna cover this territory and because it covers some of the most iconic verses in the Bible. After this, as we’ll see as we go forward in this week, Jesus will go to the garden of Gethsemane, He will be arrested, and we know how that story goes. So, this isn’t a bad time to, maybe on your own time, just go back and read John 13 through 17, reread this…all that Jesus has to say to His friends before He goes into His time of suffering in its entirety because the implications of what Jesus is saying here should irreversibly change us from the inside out. Like we should never look at the world the same again. It's that big of a deal in our faith. And we should also consider the gravity of this conversation. This was the last time Jesus could have an intimate quiet conversation among friends. This is what He chose to say with the last moments of freedom He would experience. And what He had to say changed everything for them and we are included in it and it should change everything for us.

Prayer:

Jesus we take these things to heart, that You are in the Father and the Father is in You and the same is true for us because You are within us, that we are commissioned to go do what You did, to be Your hands and feet in this world, to be Your body in this world, to be operating in this world as You did, one body multiplied over and over and over encompassing this world becoming the body Christ. Allow us to get the eyes and the ears of the kingdom on this and begin to allow it to settle inside of us, who we really are and why we are really here. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, is the website, home base, certainly where you check in and find out what’s going on around here.

It's where the Prayer Wall lives, it's where the Daily Audio Bible shop, where there are resources available for this journey through the Bible in a year.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. The link is on the homepage. Thank you humbly for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or if the mail is your preference, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request or comment there are a number of numbers that you can use depending on where you are in the world. If you are in the Americas, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial. If you’re in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to call, and if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to dial.

And that is it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey guys, this is Amy from Arkansas. I was just listening to some of you…to some of your prayer requests coming in and so many people are…the enemy has and with depression and anxiety and loneliness. And, you know, we just can’t let him win. We just gotta stand up and do what he wants us to do. I’ve been there before and the other day I was talking to somebody about credit card or something __ and I said, “I just want to tell you the Lord loves you so much and has great plans for you.” And they said thank you and hung up and then a few minutes later my phone call...my phone rang and I answered it and they said, mam did you say that to me…da…da…da” And I said, “yes.” And she said, “I had to go to the bathroom you just don’t know what that did. I was praying last night and you answered…oh my goodness. Ahhh!!!” She was so happy. And that me maybe probably feel better than her. I mean, it does your heart so good when you minister to others and help them realize __ the Lord. So, I just want to encourage you all to go out and pray for people and tell them how much the Lord loves them. Sometimes you get a word and sometimes you’ll get a prophetic word, which would be awesome. And that will bless so many. And I just pray, there’s so many people hurting and that there’s so many people. And I just want to know…want you to know how much…how important you are and how much I am praying for you.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family, this is Homeward Bound, God bless you all, God bless you all so much for your prayers and for your requests and for how the Spirit of the Lord moves through all of our combined prayer. It’s just glorious. I would like to ask prayer for my daughter-in-law. On Mother’s Day it came and announced they were pregnant. They’ve been waiting for five years to have a baby and the news was just so overwhelming, it was such a once-in-a-lifetime celebration. The next day when they went to the doctor they found out the baby wasn’t getting blood flow and a week later the doctor said the baby had died. Anyway, they’re doing pretty good, the Lord is giving them strength, but she’s still carrying the deity and hasn’t miscarried it yet. It’s been two weeks and the doctors waiting for that to happen. So, could you please pray for my daughter-in-law. She’s still working full time and we live in…we all live together and we all move in two weeks. And nothing, she’s having no signs of miscarrying. Thank you for praying for her. I know it’s an emotional time and physical time for her as well. Thank you so much for your prayers. I know the Lord will work it all out for good. And with your prayers, I know that His will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God bless you all. This is Homeward Bound. Thank you. Bye.

Good morning my Daily Audio Bible family, my name is Isaiah, I’m from New Jersey and I’ve been listening for a few years now, called a few times, but I’m just calling in reference to the woman that called in on Sunday, March…I’m sorry…May 26th about her grandchild that was born premature. And I just wanna let you know that I was born premature. I was born a few months early and I also was 2 lbs. 2 oz. having been my mother’s first child. So, I want you to know that we serve a God who works miracles. And I am 36 years old. I am very healthy. I live a great life. God has definitely blessed me. So, I want you to know that I am a testament of, you know, that you being born premature and, you know, just the prayers of the saints and of my parents and just declaring the scripture over me that I shall live and not die and I shall declare the works of the Lord and that is exactly what I am doing. So, right now Lord I just pray for her grandchild Lord, that You have brought her grandchild into this world for a reason, for a purpose Father God. And we know that the grandchild has a great destiny to be fulfilled Lord. And I pray that You just bless the mother, bless the Father, bless the family Lord in knowing that the child’s life will come to pass and will come to fruition. But we thank You for the life Father God, for the pro-life Father God. We thank You for giving her this child Lord. And Lord, we offer the child up to You Father God with thanksgiving and with praise. And we love You and we thank You and we praise You. Be blessed Daily Audio Bible family. I love you guys. I continue to listen and pray, to intercede on your behalf and have a blessed Sunday. Take care. Bye-bye.

Rising up early seeking your favor today is a very important day So I ask you my father to strengthen my hand and bless me as I go on my way I’m going to the lift you up father glorify your name and that the whole world know that I’m no longer is the same you’ve blessed me completely and even though I’m blind you’ve given me a new life with a totally made up mind a mind that wants to serve you and do only your will standing on your promises my calling fulfilled glorify me father strengthen my hand let the world know that I’m truly a man the message I bring is one of salvation an escape from the world with its vile degradation so many doctrines so many beliefs so much hatred so many griefs no one seems willing to seek a higher better way the insanity only escalates day after day help me my father to represent you well let your world know that I have a story to tell a story of mercy a story of grace a story where everybody everywhere has their own place open honest and seriously trying without grief and guile treachery and lying so help me today father to let my little light shine and also let the world know that it’s your light and not mine so I’m seeking your favor as I start my day please bless me my father as I go on my way

[email protected]. Like to give a shout out to Lee from New Jersey and Viola. Haven’t heard your voice lately. Know that you are in my prayers daily and I pray God’s blessings upon you continually. Once again Brian in the Hardin, family thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flowin’ y’all. Oh also…

[callie-the-snarky-geek-blog]

RvB16 Episode 2 Review: Incendiary Incidents

(Old Blog Repost)

Last time, not a lot happened other than going out for food, Donut unlocking his true potential as a contortionist, and alien Norse Gods are a thing that exist. Nothing that unusual for this show. We got the setup, so what’ll they do with it now as the pizza quest continues? Lets find out!

Overview

To the shock of no one, Grif crashed the ship. He rushes everyone through the insults and sidenote to Kai’s… so does she actually have regular contact with their mom? Makes me really wonder about where Grif stands with his family. Anyways, good news is the pizza place isn’t far off! They just have to go through some ominous woods! Grif however opts to go through the less than ominous woods which would take longer, but isn’t… well, ominous. This gets Simmons attention. Enough that, as they make their way through, he pulls Grif aside to find out what his deal is. My shipping heart is happy to see Simmons noticing that something’s not right with his not-boyfriend and getting to the bottom of it… please tell me I didn’t accidentally write an innuendo,

So you knwo that ‘new science’ Grif mentioned last episode? Well here’s that new science: laziness… sort of! So when stuck on the moon (I THINK he called it Iris? So… after Michael and Lindsay’s daughter/Geoff’s goddaughter? AWW!), Grif found a book that Jax left behind about story structure. He found out about ‘incendiary incidents’, which are incidents that jumpstart a plot essentially I tried to look it up to see if that’s an actual term… and all I got was a bunch of fire safety websites. But I’ll take Joe’s word for it and say it’s an actual term. So Grif cutting off Jensen before, crashing the ship deliberately as it turns out due to a message from Locus, and avoiding the ominous woods is to avoid getting into an incident that would jumpstart a plot, and therefore lead them into another adventure. IDK if this is clever fourth wall breaking but… wow. WOW. Even Simmons gets chocked up about how much effort Grif put into doing nothing. It’s counterproductive when you think about it, but still!

Unfortunately for Grif, he IS in a webshow with plot structure and the powers to be aren’t going to let them get out of it that easy. Caboose discovered a glowing lake. And a figure emerges form it. Now the episode summary describes a thought to be deceased team member returning. Oh my Gd, that… that’s crazy! It could anyone! But why?! Tex? Flowers? Shelia? Church? Alpha Church? Yellow Church?! The guy who got killed during one of those 360 videos?! The possibilities are endless! It could be anyone! Who knows what kind of shocking twist it cou.. it’s Donut. Who we all knew was alive. Yeah… well I’ll give them this, it had me hyped for the episode.

So Donut… Jesus Christ. No, seriously, Donut is now Jesus. He walked ont he water for crying out loud! Donut says that he had been taken through time and that they have to go into the past to stop a great danger… and absolutely no one buys it. Now to be fair, Simmons makes a good point later. They already went through a time travel story and it turns out it was just a simulation. So them being skeptical about this happening again, especially since only Caboose saw the body horror last episode and I imagine that he forgot by now, is pretty understandable. But yeah no one buys it and Grif feels relieved about avoiding the story bomb… until Simmons points out that refusing the call is an actual story trope. See Grif? There’s no escaping!

So the Reds and Blues make it to ton and… yeah, it’s been totaled. After talking to Jeremy Dooley… I-I mean a cop… no, I’m 90% sure that was Jeremy. Anyways! After that, Donut tries to convince them of time travel again, and this time has actual proof. He has this new gun which he uses to open a portal to a few days earlier. How did he get this? Well to put it simply, after he got hit by Loco’s machine he got sent back in time and his body got wrecked, but God found him and fixed him. IDK if he means the Christian God or one of these alien Gods, but they’ve picked the Reds and Blues to be his time traveling warriors and has sent back four more guns for them to use to go back in time with. The portals can also only fit two grown humans at once.

Unfortunately, things go downhill quickly. So you guys remember the four armed guy from the trailer? Well the sky goes dark and he appears… oh sorry, typed that wrong. I mean that SHE appears. Yes everyone, we have a legit female villain at last!! I couldn’t get her name, but part of it sounded like Callie… which is my name… UGH… anyways! Yeah, she starts causing chaos and destruction. Donut uses a bubble shield, telling the others to use the portal guns and get away. They comply with everyone pairing off: Cabbose and Lopez, Tucker and Sister, Grif and Doc, and Sarge and Simmons. Donut remains behind, though I assume that he’ll follow them later. Huggins, who has been following the group, chases after Grif and Doc by going through their portal. We follow Sarge and Simmons as they land in… what looks like ancient Egypt. Could be wrong, but we’ll have to wait and find out cause that’s the end of the episode!

Review

Well all of that escalated quickly!

So… gonna talk about Grif first! Cause yes, he’s getting a character arc! I mean I guess it could have ended here since his plan failed, but since Huggins went after him and Doc we could get something on that front. Anyways, so I was right and Grif is actively trying to keep them out of getting into adventures. To the point that he’s putting effort into maintaining laziness… that’s the kind of logic I expect form this show. It wasn’t how I expected it, but I expected it. It’s also good to see that he does still have some hangups from the moon. He seems a lot more… what’s the word? High-strung than normal? He’s also still talking in pretty large bursts compared to normal. I don’t know if that’s just me reading into it too much, but it seems like Joe is trying to show that Grif still has hangups from his self-exile. Which hey, if it means more Grif focus, I am not complaining!

The episode is more about plot than the last one. Last week was the setup, and now the payoff is here. So first, Donut. He was written SO WELL. One of the issues last season was that Donut was pretty much a background prop and they even forgot to put him in scenes. Joe must have realized that this was a problem cause he’s already fixing it BIG TIME. Donut’s had shit happen man! He comes off as slightly mroe serious and competent in a sense that he actually knows the gravity of the situation. But he still feels and acts like Donut, which is good! It shows that he CAN be useful and competent, but without sacrificing his personality. Heck he only spouted out one innuendo and it was just to prove that it was really him. I am digging this new direction!

So turns out that the four armed guy si a terrifying alien goddess of death… I dig it! So someone pointed out that this character is similar to Hela from Thor: Ragnarok. SO it REALLY seems like Joe is basing the villain off Norse mythology… or just the Marvel Cinematic Universe verisons of them. Either way is fine. So I’m not sure if… Kali-Ra I think is her name? Anyways it doesn’t seem like she’s with the same group as Huggins cause I imagine that she would have reacted. I also don’t think that this chick is the main villain since DOnut referred to a ‘devil man’, but still she is terrifying and badass and I LOVE it. We finally got a female main villain guys! Joe is the hero we’ve waited for! Yay! Also Sarge asking he rot marry him, Of course he’d want to marry a violent death goddess… I’ll totes ship this!

Alright, time travel! SO ever since Joe mentioned it in that post a while ago, I’ve… been skeptical. Time travel in pretty much every show tends to be confusing and create tons of plot holes. It even happened in RvB before with Season 3 before Burnie retconned it as a simulation. Didn’t save my head from imploding, but still that’s a fair excuse. Hopefully Joe has a VERY good idea on what he’s doing with this, but I’ve been warming up to the idea since then. It’ll be fun to see the guys in different time periods at least! Form how it looks, Sarge and Simmons may go tomb raiding it it really is Ancient Egypt. I mean Sarge vs mummies, there is no way that cannot be epic!

So the gang is being split up, and the pairs are interesting! Sarge and Simmons sin’t that much of a surprise and tbf it’s been a long time since they had some one-on-one time. Simmons has also grown out of being a kissass quite a bit, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. Caboose and Lopez are together… so I’ just going to assume that in every animated RT production, Burnie is just meant to be stuck with/get annoyed with Joel in one way or another. Cause that is the impression I’m getting. Tucker and Sister are together, so I imagine flirting… okay I’m good with that! Hopefully Sister gets some focus to herself that isn’t just Tucker trying to hit on her, but still I’m good with this!

And finally Grif and Doc… that one is gonna be interesting. Grif in particular seems very grudgey against Doc for the betrayal and we just saw Doc save Grif form getting crushed by tackling him into the portal. Which props to Doc for that BTW. Still with that and since they’re 100 on an adventure now, Grif’s not gonna be a happy camper. Also if O’Malley gets active and starts going into Grif’s past issues like in S13, I… imagine that’ll be rough for our favorite orange boy. Also Huggins chased after them, so I assume that they’ll be discovering her soon. Which if she pals up with them…t hat could be really cute tbh! I am all for Grif and Doc shenanigans with a a ball of light! But yeah, this could lead to a LOT of things and I’m very interested in seeing how this plays out.

Final Thoughts

It was great! Admittedly this is a lot mroe bizarre than RvB has been in a while but it’s also RvB where Grif still being alive after getting hit by a tank and having Simmons organs thrown into him improperly isn’t ever questioned. Alien Norse Gods? Ia m all for it! Donut being Jesus? Awesome! More setup for Grf having a character arc? HELL YEAH MAN. It was a well done episode, progressing the plot without wasting any time, gives us a glimpse at how dangerous our villains our, gives us a badass female villain, and sets up everything for the episodes ot come. There’s definitely a feeling of epicness compared to last time, so it looks lie Joe is taking the armature gloves off and giving us one Hell of a story. I am very excited to see where it leads!

#rvb #rvb16 #rvb reviews #old blog repost

[spacemilkies]

Jesus Christ, I’m just gonna embrace the sin. How about “Mine, mine, mine...” with John Seed and Rookie?

This was a metaphorical ride while I attempted a variation of style. I hope it makes sense! I like to tackle new projects to improve my writing ability.

The musk of the underground encampment sticks to every surface and the amount of trapped heat in juxtapose with the alarming body count is more than enough to fog the modicum of comprehension Rook is able to grapple on to. Piecing together even the current date requires fighting a sharp pang in rebuttal of their body demanding time to recuperate.

The last mission feels like a distant memory, a gasp too far to even maintain cognition. Prospect of capture is high enough to encompass any region possibility. Though the hazy smog is gathers as evidence towards one in particular.

A hiss of breath forces itself past their lips at the sensation of an arm pressing forcefully against their chest. In tandem a second brings a hand to their hip, and the pressure uncovers the identity of the chair they’re strapped to. They know this chair.

God, it’s John. Always fucking John.

Out of all his siblings, he never seems to develop a strategy that doesn’t require the deputy’s  iminent capture. The Seed brother’s instistance made meeting the rising demands difficult within his territory, and with the number of hostages rising as bait avoiding was no longer an option.

Suddenly the pieces were beginning to fall from the sky like glass, shimmering glimpses of broken memories. Somehow Rook had ended up in the church, always a church, but-

They brief wonder what was used to incapacitate them this time. The effects of bondage progressively getting stronger with each attempt. There was no recession of the throbbing pains rattling against their skull seeming to take on an echo that bled into other senses.

Rolling the heaviness of their head back, Rook manages to bring the man back into their field of vision though they wished they hadn’t. The was a new spark developing behind the shadows of those bright blue eyes. Once it reflected unadulterated hate and resentment but now- now the deputy couldn’t quite comprehend the emotions swarming behind those baby hues.

John’s jaw is taut, an implicit claim prickling the softness of his lips yet he never gives away to the urges. Or perhaps he does? The strength required to hold of their head gives away once more as gravity bring it forward but their chin  never quite catches the breadth of their sternum.

It takes Rook seconds too long to formulate the reason behind the heated exhalation against their pulse point. Their awareness crawls slowly along the languid jumps of their heartbeat. The drag of teeth over the column of their neck is enough to set off sufficient red flags to reboots their brain.

“Wha-… what are you..?”

“Shh.”

A hand catches their slackened mouth, the curving grip around their jaw confusing them to a point of dizzy awareness. The brush of lips feels stuttered, similar to the methodology behind Morse code. There is no rhyme or context and the only continent is the providential avoidance of their lips. Rook feels like their laced with bliss because it feels like their almost able to comprehend the transmitted message. .

The lack of screams seems to echo louder in the silence. They briefly wonder what decisive tactic this is and what though process developed it as the ideal solution. Over the last few weeks they’d built up an intense rivalry, feeding on the abundant desire to see to the others demise.

Or perhaps that perception was more one sided than the deputy previous considered. Suddenly Sharky’s nonsensical commentary was becoming more prevalent in less opportune situations.

“ I’ve never seen you so quiet. I haven’t even asked you to say yes.”

Rook dares not to open their eyes, still clinging on the thread of a bliss induced state over the probable reality. However, the newly placed pressure behind their ear made justification difficult.

The youngest Seed brother’s words somehow managed to trade validity with his conflicting ministrations, making it difficult for the deputy to escape the calculating plague that plea to decrypt the cipher.

Their eyelids fluttered against the coercion, the pressure singing a coherent tune.

Not, not a ‘Y’ but an …

“My family doesn’t seem to notice the poison spreading in the garden. They simply see it as a bud to be neutered.”

The corner of the eye was next, almost a necessity as to not miss a centimeter.

‘M’

“But you’re more of a weed. Your sins are too great for them, they’d never understand.”

Rook dared peek, momentarily taken by the blaring red light before a contrasting blue filled the spectrum. He vision faded out in place of a kiss upon the high arc of their cheekbone

‘I’

Blinking again, eyes welcomed an astral absent sight. The persistent agony along their skull was beginning to feel less like an accusation toward bliss and more probable in respect to a blunt assault to the head.

“ A more … personal touch is required. Weeds must be plucked from the soil to allow room for a more promising growth.”

This time the attempted to avoid the closing figure, only to be reminded of the ghost grip along the jaw. The unfinished code felt near to completion and in turn they reluctantly accepted the displaced affection to the side of their temple as a silent plead for it to stop.

‘N’

“But fear not, I know the path to your salvation.”

The heat of airflow never left but the intensity never quite felt so heavy, a hair’s breadth from the lips.  Wrinkles formed along the thin flesh of their eyelids as the squeezed tight in a last declaration of a cease of fire, a plea for a better actuality.

‘E’

The contact was brief as John pulled but the mark had already been branded.

“I will be your savior, and you’ll just be-“

There was a smile in the next breath against Rook’s perspiration skin. Teeth drag against the column of their neck.

‘Mine.’

And the unorthodox code cycles through transmission again.

‘Mine, mine, mine…’

#john seed imagine #iamanemotionaltimebomb #I’m a tad worried this is too abstract #be honest guys it helps me be better #far cry 5 imagines #far cry 5 writing