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365days365movies · 3 years

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May 1, 2021: The Prestige (2006) (Recap: Part One)

What’s that old Arthur C. Clarke quote again?

Not that one, although that’s...that’s fantastic, and I need to know more context to that conversation. But no, no, not that. The other one.

Not that one, although that’s...horrifying. Let me explain something first, then. Clarke was the author of the classic science-fiction novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, which definitely didn’t go on to become one of the most widely regarded films of all time. Anyway, he was a big-shot in science fiction, and was even knighted for his prominence in pop culture in the UK and across the world.

Fellow famous sci-fi author Isaac Asimov is well known for three rules of robotics, but Clarke has three rules of his own. A futurist, his laws describe conjecture about scientific development in the future of out societies. Those laws are:

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Magic, huh?

God, I love Weird Al. Anyway, as a child of the ‘90s, I am well-acquainted with the boom of stage magicians that appeared during that time, and during the early 2000s. David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear, David Blaine coughed up a live frog, Criss Angel freaked minds; lot of stuff back then.

And yet, despite other recent magicians like Penn and Teller or Dynamo, the greatest age of stage magic isn’t even CLOSE to the 90′s. No, no, to really see magic in its heyday, we need to go back to the late 1800s and early 1900s, to the days of the stage illusionist.

Obviously, the first person that comes to mind is Harry Houdini, a man whose feats have lasted the test of time, and may have led to his death. Not only did he get buried alive, not only did he escape from a straitjacket in chains underwater, NOT ONLY did he hold his breath inside a water-filled milk can inside of a wooden chest repeatedly for FOUR YEARS, but he was also the greatest enemy of spiritualists and mediums everywhere!

Yeah, despite being a stage magician, Houdini was OBSESSED with exposing those who claimed to be actually supernatural. After all, as a showman, he was interesting in exposing tricks that were meant to defraud the innocent public. Dude was awesome, is what I’m saying. He died from a burst appendix, which miiiiight have been caused by a student who punched him in the stomach after asking if he was actually resistant to abdominal damage. Yeah, not a great death. And he wasn’t the only illusionist to die of tragic circumstances, but that’s a discussion for another day. Because of this is sci-fi month...why am I talking about magic? Well...imagine a lighter.

Now image that you went back 5,000 years, to any civilization, and showed them a lighter. The ability to create fire with seemingly nothing but your bare hands? You’re basically a wizard! Fire from no visible fuel? TEACH ME YOUR WAYS, O SORCERER OF THE FLAME!!! And that’s just a goddamn lighter.

What about a light bulb? Light from energy you’ve harnessed from metals and from the air itself? Jujube! A camera? With the ability to capture a moment in time in the form of a tangible image? WITCHCRAFT!!! A smartphone? A FUCKING SMARTPHONE???

And so, in celebration of the blurring of magic and science...why not start this month with an unconventional form of science fiction, huh? Something that blurs magic and science in a way that’s indistinguishable. And so, I can FINALLY watch a movie that I’ve wanted to watch for YEARS!

I am so excited, and this is a hell of a way to kick off the month! Why this? Well, I’ll explain that later. But for now...LET’S DO THIS.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Recap (1/2)

There are three acts of magic.

First is “the pledge”, where the magician shows something normal. Then, there’s “the turn”, which is when the ordinary becomes extraordinary. And finally, there’s the act of bringing the show full-circle; bringing back a disappeared object, in a new way and with a new technique. That final act, the showmanship, the establishment of the mystery, is called “the prestige”.

So is told to us by John Cutter (Michael Caine), keeper of canaries and stage engineer to magicians, via narration abut magic. Intercut with that narration, and with a disappearing canary trick, is the presentation of an act being performed by Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman). In it, he turns on a machine using electricity, with lightning bolts flying freely. He steps inside of it, and disappears.

Meanwhile, coming from the audience, a man pretends to be part of the act, and goes backstage and underneath the machine. There, he witnesses Angier fall through a trap door into a water tank, unable to get out, panicking and drowning. Which is just super fun to watch, lemme tell you! And that is where the story starts.

The man from the audience was Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), who is quickly put on trial for the murder of Angier. A rival of his during the 1890s and early 1900s, Borden is sent to jail, and sent to death by hanging. This is as his young daughter watches on. In court, Alfred testifies against Bruce Wayne on how he murdered Wolverine, because this is all I could think of the entire time. Anyway, the court asks for more details on the trick that killed Angier, called “the Transported Man”. He refuses to divulge it publicly, but agrees to tell it to one of the judges in secret.

In prison, Borden’s visited by a representative of a wealthy collector of items, Lord Caldlow. He asks if he will sell him his most prominent trick, the “Transported Man”. But Borden also refuses, as it’s HIS trick. Still, in response, the man gives Borden a journal of Angier’s’, and asks him to think about selling the secret. And from there: flashback!

Angier is on a train, heading to Colorado Springs, where he’s surprised to see that the whole town has electricity. His plan is to go up the mountain, which is closed for scientific experimentation. Which isn’t ominous at all! That completely banal revelation is followed by a walk up the mountain in the fog, past a fence that says no trespassing and LITERAL WARNING SIGNS.

There, he’s greeted by Alley (Andy Serkis), the assistant of the estate’s owner. Apparently, said owner made a machine for Borden, and Angier wants to learn the secrets. Another flashback, and we learn that Borden and Angier, rival magicians now, met a long time ago at the show of another magician, both volunteering to tie up the female assistant, Julia (Piper Perabo). Which would be creepy out of context, and then is creepy IN context when Angier kisses her thigh. Ew.

Anyway, they drop her into a tank, with a pretty stereotypical trick. After the show, we also learn that these two men are actually working for the magician, Milton (Ricky Jay), which makes that thigh kiss less creepy. Talking to Cutter and Julia, Borden mocks Milton’s trick, noting that the old magician won’t even try something like a bullet catch. Cutter mocks this idea, and asks if Borden has any better ideas. It’s around this time that Cutter suggests seeing Chung Ling Soo. Huh. I won’t say anything about that until later.

Or right now! And, uh...oh shit, this is extraordinarily awkward. Here’s the thing: this is NOT Chung Ling Soo. I know this for two reasons. One, Soo didn’t really pretend to be crippled, as Borden and Angier suggest. Wasn’t really his bag. But something that IS interesting about the guy is how he died! BULLET CATCH TRICK!! Yup! He tried the bullet catch trick, and he died when the bullet actually fired at him! Yeah, awkward.

And you know what else is awkward, and really different from this story? Chung Ling Soo was...not Chinese. Even a little bit. His real name was William Ellsworth Robinson, he married his assistant, cheated on her with another assistant, never divorced and still married his new assistant illegally, etc. He was an interesting guy. Ignoring, y’know, the whole disgustingly shitty yellow-face thing. Different times, unfortunately.

Borden’s frustration with an act he considers boring and obsolete erupts during one of Milton’s shows, where we see him KILL A BIRD, FUCK ME MAN. Yeah, I get it, Borden, this is terrible! This coincides with meeting a young woman and her nephew, who is also upset to see a bird die in front of him. The woman is Sarah (Rebecca Hall), and the two start a romance. Meanwhile, the romance between Angier and Julia is a straight-up marriage, making that thigh kiss fare more understandable. And, the two are about to have a baby, to both of their delight! Nothing bad will happen now!

We flash forward to the future, where Cutter is showing the judge what’s what with the device. He claims that a wizard built it, and that the machine can actually do what magicians have only pretended to do for years. They also look at a tank, and Cutter reveals that the tank has a terrible history, especially for the two magicians.

Flashback again, to a night of yet another show. That night, Milton and the group go through with their trick, as per usual. However, Borden decides to make it a little tougher and more exciting by tying a different knot this time. And unfortunately...Julia can’t untie it. They try to get her out in time, but alas...it’s too late.

Julia dies, and Angier blames Borden, who isn’t even entirely sure if he tied the knot that killed Julia...allegedly. Not a big fan of Borden right now. The act is over, and Borden decides to split off and do his own act, calling himself “the Professor”. Now having a child of his own with Sarah, he decides to do a bullet trick, with the help of new stage engineer, Fallon. But this is a tricky trick to perform. And the understandable mental breakdown of Angier causes its own problems.

See, during one of Borden’s shows (which is going TERRIBLY), a disguised Angiers shows up and loads a REAL bullet into the gun for the trick, and BLOWS OFF TWO OF HIS FINGERS FUCK ME!!! Borden’s not exactly happy about this, but he recovers quickly. Shortly after, Cutter finds Angier at a bar, and offers him the opportunity to make a new show of his own. Reluctantly, he accepts, and takes up the moniker “the Great Danton”, a name that his late wife suggested.

With a new bird/cage trick, one that lets the bird LIVE (THANK YOU), they’re almost set. But they also add a new assistant, in the form of...Black Widow. I mean, sorry, Olivia Wenscombe (Scarlett Johansson). Yeah, um...Wolver, Alfred Pennyworth, and Black Widow are working together in competition against Batman. Also, Gollum is in the movie, too. God, what’s next, David Bowie?

Anyway, the show is on once again, and Angier asks for some volunteers in the audience. But, uh oh! One of them is Borden in disguise, and he sabotages the trick in front of EVERYBODY, breaking an audience member’s fingers, and killing the bird, completely fucking up Angier’s career, in revenge for his fingers. Oh, also, MOTHERFUCKER YOU KILLED HIS WIFE (maybe)!!! Doesn’t justify Angier shooting off your fingers, but you could’ve just let bygones be! No wonder you’re rivals in the future! Batman’s a dick (which, given Christian Bale, isn’t that surprising).

Well, since his trick, Angier’s fucked. They’re kicked out of the theater, and in need of a new act. Cutter suggests that Angier goes to the upcoming science exposition for ideas. And yes...that’s where the science fiction angle starts in. See, like Clarke said, any science that’s sophisticated enough LOOKS like magic to audiences who don’t understand it. And Borden has the same idea, as he also heads to the expo.

It’s there that a presentation of a massive electrical generator is being held, with the machine having been invented by...Nicola Tesla! YO!

I don’t think I need to tell anybody about Tesla at this point, but he was a brilliant physicist and inventor from the early 1900s. His legendary Current War with Thomas Alva Edison for the current to be used by the United States (Tesla’s DC vs. Edison’s AC) is the stuff of science legend...and is a conflict that the far less charismatic Tesla lost. Still, his mastery of electricity (such as the above Tesla coil) is remembered today. If you want to go sightseeing, check out New York! In Niagara Falls, he’s got a massive statue overlooking the falls; and in Bryant Park in NYC, you can sit on the bench where he fed his beloved pigeons. Yeah, he loved pigeons, which I respect.

Anyway, the expo’s shut down due to presumed danger of the exhibit, possibly spurred on by Thomas Edison and his PR team. Which is pretty accurate, not gonna lie. Still, the experiment interests both Angier and Borden. Still, Angier doesn’t do much with this information. Right now, anyway.

Flash forward to Angier in Colorado Springs, and a group of men from Edison’s employ are there for some reason. But undeterred, Angier heads back to Tesla’s lab, where Alley shows him a gorgeous sight: lightbulbs dotting a field, making a gorgeous grid of light. He reveals that the source of the electricity is 15 miles away, as a testament to Tesla’s scientific genius. Stellar.

A great place to pause. See you in Part Two of this Recap!

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queen-of-the-avengers · 4 years

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Worth the Wait

Characters: Bucky Barnes x Reader, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff

Word Count: 2,494

Warnings: smut, begging kink, sexual frustrations, jealously

Summary: You and Bucky like each other but won’t do anything abut it until this night... this very hot and heavy night.

Squares Filled: begging for @mcukinkbingo // taking charge for my second card for @star-spangled-bingo // enemies to lovers for my second card for @avengersbingo // “kiss me” for my second card for @buckybarnesbingo // bite off more than you can chew for @as-the-saying-goes-bingo

Author’s Note: If you have any requests, please send them in! This is unbeta’d and any and all mistakes are all on me.

Feedback the glue that holds my writing together

Tags at the bottom

The party Tony threw is meant to be a distraction for you. He threw it because, well, it’s Tony and he really loves people telling him how awesome he is. For Natasha, this party means getting drunk and maybe bringing someone home if she gets lucky, and when has she ever not gotten lucky? For Steve, this party is a way for him to get to know other people and recounter what he lost. For Thor, this party is a way for him to show off just how strong he is, and how no one but him can pick up his special hammer (if you could pronounce it, you would). For you, it’s a distraction and nothing else. It’s a lame distraction, but you’re just trying to make it work.

All week you’ve been building up tension in the worst way possible. Physically, you’re fine, it’s emotionally that has you in a wreck. All week, you’ve been trying to ignore the one thought that has been filtering through your mind about a certain Avenger wandering the property.

Bucky fucking Barnes. That man is going to be the death of you.

It’s not what he does to you, it’s what he doesn’t do that ticks you off, and that is revealing his feelings for you. You know they’re there because you overheard him talking with Steve about you. To be fair, you have the exact same feelings and are doing nothing about it, but you know he’s close to his breaking point.

Most people think you and Bucky are enemies because every single conversation you have ends with one of both of you screaming at each other. For no goddamn reason, apparently. It’s just so infuriating when the man you want to the most behaves and acts the way he does without consequence. One man shouldn’t possess the power to look and act the way he does, yet, he’s doing it. Just thinking of his name is sinful enough, so saying it is even worse.

“Where’s Bucky?” Natasha asks you after her third drink of the night.

“Really? You’re asking me? How the hell should I know?”

“You’re the one who can’t stop eye-fucking him. Figured you knew where he might be,” she laughs.

“Yeah, well, I don’t. Why don’t you go hit on that man? He looks as if he doesn’t want to kill himself. Go make him want to,” you say.

“You’re mean,” she sticks her tongue out at you and leaves your side.

She knows you’re only teasing her, but she heads over to him anyway at the thought of bringing him back to her bed. Now that you’re alone, you sit on the barstool and watch the party liven up without you. Tony’s house is normally empty save for the few Avengers walking around, but this time, not an inch of floor isn’t uncovered by someone doing something they love while you’re just sitting at the bar like a fucking loner.

You should be up and mingling. You have nothing to be emotional about. Your life is going exactly the way it’s supposed to, and there isn’t a single thing out of place. So why do you feel like the smallest thing will piss you off? This is a party, and parties are meant to be filled with fun and excitement. However, your eyes just landed on the one guy who makes your blood boil. He’s with Steve right now, and he’s wearing the biggest smile on his face. Why should he smile like that when you’re over here with a scowl? He knows what he’s doing to you, and he has the audacity to act like he’s Mr. Innocent.

Fuck this, You’re going to have fun tonight. Jealousy and pent up frustration fuels your body right now, so you may not have the best intentions with what you’re about to do, but you can’t think of a better way to agitate Bucky even more. You could tell Bucky how you feel and just fuck, but messing with him is so much better. You kind of want to see what he will do when he breaks because you know it’s coming soon.

You down the rest of your drink to give you the courage you need and head over to the duo. Steve is the first to see you, and he tenses just a bit which gets Bucky's attention. The other man turns to face you, and he rolls his eyes lightly.

“No, I won’t dance with you,” Bucky assumes what you might have to say to either of them.

“Good because I didn’t come here to ask you,” you sneer and turn to the blonde man. “Steve, will you dance with me? I absolutely love this song.”

“Excuse me?”

“What?” Bucky says at the same time his best friend does.

“Please? It’s rude to turn a lady down.”

“You’re no lady,” Bucky mutters.

“Sure,” Steve says and you lead him to the dance floor.

“You’re treading into dangerous waters,” the super soldier shakes his head as a particular nasty song comes on.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just want to dance with my friend,” you chuckle and turn so that your back is facing his front.

“Then why haven’t you taken your eyes off him since we left,” he chuckles.

Damn, you’ve been caught. Bucky’s eyes are full of fire, and you can’t help but grin at what might happen when that fire explodes into something uncontainable.

“What, I can’t look at him?” you ask as you move your hips sexily.

“You’re biting off more than you can chew. Bucky is not someone you want to make jealous.”

“I can fight my own battles, thank you very much. Now, let’s just see how jealous he can get.”

At the best part of the song that’s on, you start to slide down Steve’s body so that the back of your head is right next to his dick. You slowly start to stand up, but you keep your lower half bent until your ass presses into his growing cock. You feel bad for using him to get back at his friend, but what’s a girl gotta do?

Something seems to snap inside Bucky’s head because he’s storming over to you and Steve as soon as he sees you dance like that. He doesn’t say a word as he grabs your wrist and yanks you off his best friend. Steve can only shake his head, but he lets you go off with Bucky.

This is it. This is the part where you and Bucky go off to have secret hot sex that will leave you wanting more… or at least, that’s what you want to happen. Or maybe he’s here to cuss you out for corrupting his best friend. Bucky leads you into an empty bedroom on the other side of the goddamn tower, and you grin when he locks the door.

“What’s your problem, Barnes?”

“You! What the fuck was that?”

“I was just dancing with a friend,” you shrug.

“That was not dancing. That was seducing. I know what you’re doing,” he glares and takes a step toward you.

You take one back, and this little game is played until your back is pressed against the bedroom door. His face is so close to yours that you can smell the alcohol on his lips. His pupils are wide with desire, and you know you hold the key to lock his full potential.

“What am I doing? I was just dancing,” you whisper.

“You’re trying to make me jealous,” he accuses.

“As if I’d want that.”

“Your body betrays you. Your cheeks are flushed and your hands clenched from the temptation to grab at me. Tell me I’m wrong.”

“Kiss me,” you demand, but Bucky is way ahead of you.

He cuts you off before you can finish what you wanted to say. His lips push against yours feverishly, and his hands grab at your waist. You first your fingers into his hair and tug, and that seems to release the beast inside him. He pulls away from you and picks you up only slightly. He tosses you onto the bed only to put all his weight on you so that you can’t escape.

It’s not like you would if you could.

“If you want to act like a slut, then I’ll treat you like one. You want everyone to see you and hear what you have to say. Well, I say let’s give them a show.”

While keeping his weight on your body, he reaches down with his flesh hand and slides it into the front of your shorts. Your panties are already soaking, but that comes to no surprise as the man can make you wet just by a thought. He bypasses your throbbing clit and to your dripping center. He slides in two thick fingers, and you arch your back as much as you can.

“Fuck! Bucky!” you moan his name.

“Let me hear you purr,” he whispers into your ear.

His fingers cause a surge of pleasure to coarse through your veins, and he doesn’t even try to hide his satisfaction. He knows exactly what he’s doing, but it’s not like you mind. He shoves his fingers deeper and starts to scissor them to open you up further. He wants to make sure you’re nice and ready for his cock.

With his cold metal hand, he rips your shorts and panties in half but you're not even fazed by it. All you can focus on is his fingers and his hot breath on your neck. The tip of his metal finger grazes your clit, and you jump from the sudden change in temperature. He’s using his greatest loss to his greatest advantage.

Your entire center is hot and throbbing, but his hand is so cold and calculating. He presses your clit with his finger, and you all but jump away from him. He just chuckles and bites your neck to keep you where you are.

“Where do you think you’re going? You’re not leaving here until you come all over my fingers. You want that? Huh? To come and watch me suck off everything you have to give to me? What if I made you suck them? Would that turn you on even more?”

Your response isn’t verbal at all. Instead, you squeeze his fingers tightly as if you don’t ever want him to leave the comfort of you. You tip your head back and let out a guttural moan at the thought of sucking your release off his fingers.

“Yeah, I knew you’d like that. Now, why don’t you be a good girl and come,” he bites your neck once again after he finishes.

You can’t help but do as he says, and your release spills onto him. Some even drip out, but he’s got that covered. He slides down your body and replaces his fingers with his mouth, and you can feel another wave of pleasure surge through your body. He licks up every drop of your release until there is nothing left for you to give him.

“I knew you’d taste delicious,” he chuckles darkly.

He reaches up and shoves his two flesh fingers into your mouth, and you welcome them. Tasting your own orgasm off another man’s body part is something you will never not find sexy. You can only imagine what you’d taste like on his cock. Your eyes are trained on his until you pop his fingers out of your mouth.

“Do you like the taste of yourself?” You nod faintly. “No, use your big girl words. Do you like the taste of yourself?”

“Yes, sir,” you take a risk with the title.

You’re not sure what he likes and what he doesn’t, but judging the way his eyes dilate until his eyes are almost completely black, you know he likes it.

“Do you want me to take care of you? Hmm?”

“Please!” you beg.

You’re loving the way he’s taking charge and taking you the way he wants to. You’ll gladly let him use you however he wants to as long as you get his cock. He smirks and strips off the rest of your clothing before turning on himself.

You drink in his body the more it’s being revealed to you. You can’t believe you’ve been too stubborn to get with him until now. Just think of all the good times you two could have had. But then again. think of the good time you’re having right now.

His cock springs free as soon as it’s released from it’s denim prison, and your mouth physically waters. All you want is to have him rest against your tongue, but he has other plans.

“Get on your stomach. Ass up,” he demands.

Who are you to deny him? You roll over when he gives you the chance, and your ass automatically sticks into the air. His metal hand pushes your head down into the bed, and his flesh hand grips the base of his cock. He runs the tip through your folds twice before sinking himself into your warm center.

Your eyes roll to the back of your head when you feel him bare. He can’t have children since he’s been sterilized, so you don’t have to worry about getting pregnant tonight. He pounds into you from behind with the only thing you can hear is his skin slapping against yours. The pressure builds up inside you with every thrust, and you know your second orgasm isn’t that far behind.

His sweaty chest presses against your back, and his hand comes around your front before settling on your bundle of nerves. He presses hard circles onto your clit, and that combining with the pleasure coming from his cock is too overwhelming. Your walls clench around his cock tightly, which gives him the sign you’re close.

“Come, baby girl,” he growls.

You listen, and you release all over him. He shoots his load into you, and you milk him for everything he’s worth. Your body is sweaty, your pussy throbs, and your mind is tired. The build up of frustration is so worth the wait. It wouldn’t have been like this if you hadn’t.

He pulls out of you and watches his come drop down your thighs. He wants to shower with you later, but he needs to catch his breath right now. He falls next to you as you roll onto your back.

“You know I don’t like Steve right? I did that just to get back at you.”

“Get back at me? For what?”

“For not telling me that you have a thing for me. I know you do. I heard you tell Steve.”

“Why didn’t you come to me then?”

“Making you jealous has its payoffs. This was fun,” you laugh.

“Well, from now on, I’m the only one you dance like that for.”

“Deal,” you grin.

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tomeandflickcorner · 3 years

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Falcon and Winter Soldier Episode 1- My Thoughts

Under the cut due to potential spoilers:

Sam’s plotline:

So, despite Steve’s obvious endorsement of him as his successor, Sam is feeling unworthy to take up the mantle of the new Captain America. So he donates the shield to the Smithsonian, where it is placed on exhibit. But he’s still apparently doing work for the military/air force as Falcon in stopping terrorist hijackings and the like (which leads to a pretty amazing areal action sequence.) I’m guessing the stupid Accords were put through the shredder after the events of Infinity War/Endgame? At least I hope so, because that was a mess and a half. Also, he’s now got a friend and ally, Joaquin, who is working to stop some other terrorist group called the Flag Smashers that apparently thought Thanos had the right idea, and that things were better during the five years where all those people were dusted. But Joaquin’s attempt at putting a stop to this group’s attempt at a bank heist(?) ends pretty badly, as the guy who I guess orchestrated the bank heist is apparently super strong and effortlessly kicked Joaquin’s butt. My first thought was that this guy was one of the other Winter Soldiers, as we know Bucky wasn’t the only person Hydra turned into a brainwashed pawn. But I then read something abut how they were all essentially unceremoniously killed off. If that’s true, I don’t remember that particular detail, but it’s been a while since I watched the movies. So I’m hoping they eventually explain who this tough guy is. Did the Flag Smashers manage to get their hands on their own version of the super serum, or is there another explanation? Looking forward to seeing how this will develop, as I imagine the Flag Smashers will be the main Big Bad in this series.

Meanwhile, Sam’s got some normal civilian drama to deal with, as we meet his sister and two nephews. (Can’t remember if it was stated, but was Sarah Sam’s younger sister? If so, that must be awkward since Sarah might be older than Sam now. It’s heavily implied she and the two nephews remained while Sam was among those lost in the Snap. They have a family-inherited fishing business that Sarah has been trying to keep afloat (no pun intended), and Sam was supposed to be assisting with it, but he’s been gone for the past five years (through no fault of his own). Now, the family fishing business is having some financial issues, and they could even lose the house if they can’t make ends meet. Sam has an idea on how to save the business and the house by starting up a boat charter business on the side. But they have to get a loan from the bank in order to make it happen. And even though the banker is clearly a fan of Sam (or rather his Falcon identity), he can’t give them the loan they need, because.... some explanation involving how Sam didn’t have any form of income for the past five years. Which, again, wasn’t his fault because he literally didn’t exist during those five years. Not like that matters to the bank, though, as there were a lot of people who were wiped out of existence and then came back, so the banks have their hands full with those cases. Here, we get some social commentary on how difficult it is for Black-owned businesses to get an advantage. Rather bold of the MCU series to go there. I’m impressed. There’s also even more social commentary on how military veterans can get the shaft. Because that’s exactly what Sam is. He served in the air force for a time. And he still has some government contracts and whatnot. Plus, he was one of the Avengers and literally helped save the world on more than one occasion. But despite all that, the government doesn’t properly compensate him financially. Meaning he gets all these people thanking him for being a hero, and even posing with him for selfies. But that’s pretty much all the thanks he gets. When he needs help getting back to everyday civilian stuff, he’s more or less on his own. Again, rather bold of the MCU to address that.

And of course, we get the final scene, where it’s revealed that the American government has decided to select a new Captain America. Of course, you get the feeling that they just selected him to be a mascot for the public to rally around rather than an actual hero (which is kinda what they were using Steve for in the beginning.) Even so, I do agree with people who see this as rather scummy. Because when Sam turned over the Shield to the Smithsonian, they told him that he was doing the right thing. And now they just take the Shield and hand it over to some random White guy? Even if you ignore the whole racial aspect, it still is practically spitting on Steve’s legacy, considering Sam was his chosen successor, not this guy. Of course, this new guy is apparently John Walker, who did appear in the comics as someone who briefly held the mantle of Captain America. But it’s too soon to tell how closely the MCU John Walker will resemble his comic book counterpart. That being said, I fully expect the series to lead up to Sam realizing he does deserve to be the next Captain America and take back the title.

Bucky’s Plotline:

Interestingly, even though Bucky and Sam share equal billing with this show, Bucky’s plotline was more of a side note in this first episode. Not that it wasn’t important to his characterization, of course. Since the events of Endgame, he’s received a full pardon from the government for the things he’d done as Hydra’s brainwashed assassin and is now trying to adjust to living the life of an ordinary man. He’s even going to therapy! Which is a really good thing, as goodness knows he needs it. But I don’t much care for his therapist. She seems like a pretty crappy therapist, to be honest. Personally, I think Bucky should find a different one, but I think it was mentioned this therapy was mandated as part of his government-issued pardon. So maybe he doesn't get a say in who his therapist is. Anyway, Bucky is still haunted by the things he was forced to do as the Winter Soldier. And he’s trying to make amends for the things he did during that time. Because even though none of that was his fault, he still remembers everything and feels guilty because of it. In this episode, we see him forging a friendship with this old man. At first, I was slightly confused on who this old man was. I briefly wondered if this was supposed to be one of the other Howling Commandos who Steve and Bucky fought alongside in WW2. But as the episode progresses, it’s revealed that the old man was the father of a young man Bucky killed as the Winter Soldier. And Bucky has been trying to figure out how he can make amends to the father, who is clearly haunted by the loss of his son. Man, that is really dark. Not to mention messed up. How does one make up for something like this? Especially since the dead son wasn’t even the Hydra-appointed target. He had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. (And yes, the fact that the dead son and grieving father are Asian makes it slightly more uncomfortable due to the recent events down in Georgia. Though I don’t think we can blame the show creators for that. They could hardly go back and refilm everything with different actors in those roles. Not without pushing the show back who knows how long.) Anyway, I’m curious to see how Bucky continues on from here, and if he can find the peace of mind he deserves. Oh, also, he does go on this impromptu date with a woman who works at a sushi restaurant. That was rather cute, but also a bit awkward since Bucky is still a bit closed off, for understandable reasons. And this woman clearly doesn’t know who he is and how much he went through. She doesn’t even know about his metal arm. Still, props to Bucky for trying to adjust and move forward. (And I literally laughed out loud when he tried to stop the beckoning cat statue from moving). On a side note, the flashback/nightmare he experiences about the night he killed the old man’s son was both chilling and well done. Especially with the inclusion of the Winter Soldier theme that is playing throughout the scene. The fact that you also can hear it when Bucky is listening to the old man talking about his son was a really great touch. Anyway, I just really want to see Bucky get the hug he deserves.

#falcon and winter soldier #falcon and winter solider series

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mikauzoran · 4 years

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Marichat/Adrienette/Adrichat: Serendipity: Fifty Marichat and Adrienette Kisses: Kiss Twenty-Three

Read it on AO3: Serendipity: Fifty Marichat and Adrienette Kisses: ...as a lie.

Three-way calls were really difficult when you were two out of the three participants.

Adrien had learned this the hard way when, a week into dating both Chat and Adrien, Marinette had thought it a good idea for all three of them to talk. Regularly.

It was a headache.

He had to switch back and forth between Adrien’s phone and Chat Noir’s communicator, muting and unmuting the lines as he went so that there wasn’t an echo that would give him away.

It was kind of fun roleplaying both Chat Noir and Adrien, though, creating a relationship between them, coming up with pet names and inside jokes, deciding what their dynamic would be, how they interacted with one another.

Flirting with himself was a little awkward at first, but he was a good actor and quickly adapted to his dual roles.

The hardest part was making sure that the right guy responded on the correct phone line. It was such a pain when Adrien and Chat Noir had to talk to one another, and he was kind of worried that he was going to get busted because his voice sounded the same.

Little did Adrien know that three-way calls were only the beginning of his nightmare trip through the land of identity porn.

The three of them had been dating going on three weeks when, one night, Marinette had an idea: “We should hang out sometime. As a couple.”

Adrien blinked at his phones, debating whom he should make field that comment.

“Whom do you mean, Princess?” Chat Noir inquired.

“Haven’t both of us been spending pretty much time with you lately?” Adrien added.

Marinette chuckled as if she thought he were being silly. “Well, yeah. I meant…you know. The three of us.”

“The three of us,” Adrien repeated, brain stalling.

“Yeah. I mean, we are all three dating, so…I was thinking we should spend some time together as a couple.” She said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Adrien had a thing about being fatally oblivious.

“Right,” Chat Noir laughed, managing to sound halfway normal and not like he was internally panicking. “Of course. That would be great. I’d love to have my two favourite people together at the same time.”

“Yeah,” Adrien chimed in, trying to sound enthusiastic. “Cuddling with the both of you would be epic. It might be a little hard to find time in our schedules, though. Chat Noir and I are both kind of overscheduled. We see each other mainly at night when we’re supposed to be asleep, but your parents’ ‘no boys in the bedroom after midnight’ rule would get in the way.”

“Pretty Boy and I will compare schedules and get back to you with possible dates,” Chat promised.

“Okay. Sounds like a plan,” Marinette agreed, the excitement painfully evident in her voice. “I’m really looking forward to this,” she giggled.

Adrien’s plan to not be able to find a date and time that worked immediately crumpled and burst into flames.

He was going to have to come up with some way to be in two places at once…or, rather, the same place twice, because he couldn’t disappoint his girlfriend.

“Sorry, guys. I’ve got to go feed Plagg. I’ll talk to you later?” Chat wrapped up the conversation early, too distracted to continue.

He worried he might slip and speak as Chat from Adrien’s phone or something while in his current state.

“That’s okay,” Adrien replied. “I actually have to go work on Chinese homework anyway. I’ll talk to you soon. Love you guys.”

“Love you both too,” Marinette responded, a big, warm smile still in her voice.

Adrien hung up, detransformed, and slumped back against his bathroom counter.

“You are so screwed,” Plagg snickered, phasing through the door out into the rest of Adrien’s room.

Adrien sighed. “Maybe, but I’m at least going to try.”

He would do anything to keep from letting his girlfriend down.

Chat Noir awkwardly cleared his throat.

Ladybug arched an eyebrow worriedly. “Is everything okay, Chaton? You said you had something urgent you needed to talk to me about?”

It had taken him a week to come up with this plan and convince himself to try to put it into action. Now, as he sat next to Ladybug on the roof of Sainte Chapelle, what had seemed like a genius, foolproof plan before was starting to feel ridiculous and untenable.

He took a deep inhale. “So…” he began but then chickened out, looking away.

“Chat Noir, you’re scaring me. What’s wrong?” she demanded.

“Are you still militantly against people finding out our identities?” he finally spit out.

She blinked then nodded. “Absolutely. We don’t know what lengths Papillon is willing to go to. It’s essential to keep our identities safe, Chat Noir. You can’t tell anyone, no matter how much you might trust them.”

He blew out a breath. “Okay. So, here’s the deal. My identity is on the verge of being discovered. If you don’t want that to happen, I have a plan I need your help with.”

She nodded eagerly. “Of course. I’m in. Just tell me what you need me to do, Chat Noir.”

“You’re not going to like it,” he cautioned.

Ladybug rolled her eyes. “I’ll get over it. I’m willing to do anything to keep you safe, so just tell me.”

“Someone is very close to figuring out my identity,” Chat reiterated. “It’s someone close to me, someone who knows both of me, and in order to throw them off, I need them to see both of me together.”

Ladybug nodded, remembering her trick with Multimouse. “And what’s your plan to make that happen?”

He gulped, looking her in the eye with a pleading expression. “I need to borrow the Fox Miraculous. Long term. I don’t know how long this will go on, but I might need to borrow Trixx for weeks or months even.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off.

“I know. It’s dangerous to have the Miraculouses out in the world right now. Papillon could do a lot of damage with the Fox Miraculous in particular, but…you trust me don’t you?”

His eyes bored into hers, and she couldn’t respond. How could she argue when he played the trust card? Of course she trusted him. She trusted him with her life, her heart, her everything.

“I’ve kept Plagg safe all these years. I would keep Trixx safe too,” he pressed. “If we ever needed Rena Rouge for a fight, it would be just as easy for me to go give the Miraculous to Alya and collect it from her afterwards as it is for you to go get the Miraculous and give it to her. It would be faster even because I would already have the Fox Miraculous on me.”

She pressed her lips into a thin line of disapproval. She wanted to tell him why this was a horrible idea, but she couldn’t come up with an argument that held water.

Seeing her hesitation, he went in for the kill. “I mean, I trust you to keep all of the Miraculouses safe without question…maybe you could trust me to protect this one?”

Ladybug sighed sulkily, grumbling, “I don’t like this.”

“I told you you wouldn’t,” Chat snickered.

She shook her head, fixing him with an intent gaze. “Chat Noir, you know I trust you, right? This isn’t about trust.”

He nodded, a sympathetic smile curling up the edges of his lips. “It’s about you not liking to give up control.”

His words were like a physical blow, and she was struck by how right he was.

“I get that,” he continued gently. “Everything is always chaos around you, so you do everything you can to exercise control over everything that you can. I understand, My Lady. I really do. My girlfriend is like that too, and I get that it’s not about me…. So, it’s your call, Guardian.”

Ladybug tensed as she was forced to confront a truth about herself that she wasn’t sure she liked. Was she really that much of a control freak as both Marinette and Ladybug?

She took a long, slow inhale and blew it out. “Wait here,” she instructed, opening the interdimensional pocket inside her yoyo and pulling out the Horse Miraculous.

She slipped on the glasses, combined Kaalki with Tikki, and opened up a portal.

“I’ll be back with the Fox Miraculous in just a minute,” she assured with a smile.

Adrien took a week to test the bounds of how long he could sustain the Mirage and to practice coordinating his eight limbs. Once he felt like he had things under control, he scheduled a Saturday night date at Marinette’s with both Chat Noir and Adrien in attendance.

“Show time,” Chat whispered, back pressed against the little wall of chimneys abutting Marinette’s balcony. “Mirage.”

Adrien appeared, looking like he’d just stepped out of a photoshoot in tight, tan corduroy pants and a wine-red cardigan that made the green of his eyes sizzle.

He looked at Chat Noir and shook his head, chuckling, “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

Chat gave a snort. “You and me both.”

“Anything to make our girlfriend happy.” Adrien shrugged helplessly.

Chat winced. “When she finds out, she’s going to be livid…and disgusted by how dumb we are.”

Adrien cringed. “I can just imagine her annoyed face as she flatly demands what we were thinking.”

“Oh well,” Chat sighed, scooping Adrien up into a bridal carry. “We’ll deal with that hurdle when we get there.”

Adrien held on tight, arms encircling Chat’s neck as the superhero jumped up and over the wall, doing a backflip into a ten-point landing on Marinette’s balcony railing.

Unfortunately, Chat’s tail nicked one of the flowerpots, sending it to its doom and getting dirt and azaleas all over Marinette’s balcony.

“Darn,” Adrien and Chat muttered in tandem.

Marinette’s head popped up through the skylight, and both boys smiled sheepishly.

“Sorry! It was an accident,” they explained in stereo.

Marinette rolled her eyes. “Trying to show off for your boyfriend, Minou?”

Chat gulped. “Sorry. He’s pretty, and I want him to think I’m cool. I’ll buy you new azaleas and a new pot too. A better pot.”

“Deal,” Marinette agreed with a grin that revealed how little the broken flowerpot bothered her. “I’ll clean it up tomorrow, so don’t worry about it. Hurry up and get down here.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Adrien snickered. “Let’s go.”

With a nod, Chat Noir followed their girlfriend down into her room and carefully deposited Adrien onto the bed.

“There you go, Pretty Boy. I trust your journey was pleasant,” Chat flirted, laying it on thick for Marinette’s sake as he nuzzled Adrien’s ear.

“I will never get tired of travelling by rooftop,” Adrien informed Marinette in exhilaration before turning to Chat Noir and smiling sweetly. “Thanks, Nyan-chan. You’re my hero.”

He leaned in and gently pressed his lips to Chat’s.

It had taken some practice to get the coordination down to be able to make out with himself (Plagg had teased mercilessly and laughed until he cried), but Adrien and Chat were now able to kiss seamlessly without any awkward bumping of heads, unintentionally bitten lips, or injured noses.

Marinette’s eyes widened.

Up until that point, she’d been a little jealous of how in sync Adrien and Chat seemed, but watching them kiss was… She could definitely watch them kiss for a substantial amount of time. Maybe it was a good thing that she’d agreed to share them with one another.

Chat and Adrien’s lips unlocked, and then Adrien was smiling lovingly at Marinette. “I think he deserves a reward. He rescued me from the tower where my evil stepmother was keeping me prisoner. Don’t rescuers usually get to live happily ever after with the princess?”

Marinette gave a half-snorted laugh. “Nathalie isn’t your stepmother, and it’s your father who’s keeping you locked up…. Are you the princess or is that me?” she added curiously.

Adrien’s innocent smile morphed into a cat-like smirk, and he reached out to pull her down on top of him. “Both of us,” he tittered against her skin before pressing his mouth to hers.

Chat Noir joined in, and soon they were a jumble of lips and limbs, rumpled clothing and tussled hair, love bites and swollen lips.

Twenty minutes later found them a breathless heap. Chat’s gloves, Marinette’s sweater, and Adrien’s cardigan had all been discarded, and the trio basked in the skin-on-skin warmth.

“This…was a great idea,” Marinette giggled, pulling her loose hair ties the rest of the way out and tossing them to the floor with their clothing items. “Group make-out sessions need to become a regular thing.”

“That could be arranged,” Chat Noir snickered, nuzzling and nipping at Marinette’s bare shoulder.

Adrien buried his face further into the crook of Marinette’s neck, giving her throat a kiss. “Anything to make you happy, Ohime-sama.”

Chat gave a snort. “You say that like she’s the only one enjoying this. You’re blissed out of your mind right now.”

“Because her fingers are magic,” Adrien moaned as Marinette continued rubbing gentle circles along his scalp. He was on the verge of purring his head off.

“I’m just happy that, for once, I’m not the only one getting worked up,” Marinette laughed, giving Chat Noir’s hair a pet too so that he wouldn’t feel left out.

Chat blinked, lifting his head to inspect the doppelgänger for signs of arousal. It was kind of hard to tell with Adrien’s pelvis pressed up against Marinette’s thigh, but…

In general, Chat was in direct control over the Mirage. It wasn’t like when Rena had used her powers to create insubstantial illusions. The Adrien Mirage was solid and took quite a bit more concentration to maintain. When Chat’s focus wavered (like when he was distracted by making out with his amazing girlfriend), the Mirage continued to operate on its own, sometimes in ways that Chat didn’t necessarily intend…like, apparently, by getting hard.

“Oh?” Adrien hummed, giving Marinette’s neck a lick. “You like it when I go to pieces?”

“Exceedingly so,” she giggled, pressing against him and, inadvertently, away from Chat.

Chat who was suddenly feeling insecure because he was very much not hard, and this was going to be a huge issue in their relationship.

He watched as Marinette and Adrien kissed and wondered if he could keep her happy with the Mirage. If he couldn’t meet her needs himself, maybe she’d work with him. Maybe it would be enough that he loved her. Maybe he would be enough and she wouldn’t leave him for a man who could make love to her as often as she wanted.

Suddenly, Marinette was kissing him, fingers snaking through his hair and massaging his cat ears. “What are you thinking about, Minou?” she whispered against his lips.

“That I can’t make you happy. That this isn’t going to work. That I’m going to lose you and it’s going to kill me.”

“That I’m not good enough,” he replied in a small, scared voice.

“My Love,” she cooed, eyes dark and full of desire. “No. Not at all.” She sighed and shook her head. “I wish you could see yourself the way I do. I wish you could see how amazing you are.”

He smiled sadly. “Sorry. Self-esteem issues.”

“I can relate,” Adrien hummed, carefully climbing over Marinette and Chat to snuggle up against Chat Noir’s other side.

This was a little surprising because Chat hadn’t told the Mirage to do that.

Still, it was nice to have another warm body at his back, wrapping his arms around Chat protectively.

“It’s okay, Minou,” Marinette soothed, lightly caressing his cheek. “Let us love on you, and we’ll see if you feel better afterwards.”

“What if I don’t?” Chat laughed a little as Marinette’s lips tickled his throat.

“Then we’ll love on you until you do,” Adrien informed with a mischievous smirk, tugging down Chat’s bell to unzip the suit and gain access to more real estate.

As he let his eyes slip closed and lost himself in the blur of lips and hands, Chat noted that the warmth and weight of another body against his really was incredibly comforting. It might be beneficial to bring out his doppelgänger to snuggle after a rough day when Adrien needed a hug more than anything but couldn’t escape to seek solace in his friends or girlfriend.

“Feeling better?” Marinette giggled once some time had passed and their kisses grew languid.

“Actually, yes,” Chat purred, giving Marinette’s jaw a fond nip.

“Don’t move,” Adrien pouted against the skin of Chat’s back between his shoulder blades. “I’m not done marking you with my initials.”

Chat’s eyes suddenly flew wide. “Oh, crap. Marks!” he squeaked.

Marinette arched an eyebrow. “What about them? I don’t think they’ll give your identity away; lots of people have hickeys, and the ones we left on you aren’t particularly unique. I mean, besides Adrien’s initials, so maybe don’t go around taking your shirt off, but…”

“No,” Chat groaned turning to Adrien (ruining his masterpiece). “Photoshoots.”

Adrien’s lips rounded into an “o” of understanding. “Shoot. I guess this is what concealer is for?”

Chat clicked his tongue. “Yeah, and you’re going to need a bucket full of the stuff. Your father is going to kill you.”

“Not if my superhero boyfriend saves me.” Adrien smiled innocently, playfully batting his eyelashes.

Chat rolled his eyes with a grimace. “Your superhero boyfriend is going to be busy being murdered by his own controlling father.”

Adrien bit his lip. “So…I guess it’s up to Marinette to save us.”

Chat smirked. “I think we’re in good hands.”

“Not at the moment,” Marinette snorted, rolling onto her back. “I don’t expect my beautiful ace boys to understand, but making out with smoking hot guys is thirsty work, so I wouldn’t trust me with any part of you, least of all your virtue, right now.”

Adrien quirked an eyebrow. “…Is ‘thirsty’ a euphemism?”

Chat shrugged. “I think so, but keep in mind that I’m a sheltered baby too.”

Marinette sat up, shaking her head. “Oh, my sweet dorks. Yes. …Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go refresh myself.” She paused and looked at them tentatively. “…Unless you guys feel comfortable going a little further tonight?”

Adrien and Chat turned to look at one another, a flicker of horrified panic shooting across their faces before they could get their emotions under control enough to put on identical people-pleasing smiles.

Adrien nodded as Chat replied, “Sure. If you want to. I mean, we’d be happy to try, if that would make you happy.”

Marinette’s tentative expression scrunched up into a scrutinizing frown. “Guys. Don’t. Seriously.”

The boys blinked in tandem, sharing a look before turning back to Marinette in confusion.

“Don’t…what?” Adrien inquired cautiously, afraid that he’d messed up and ruined everything.

She shook her head, reaching out to cup Chat’s cheek with her left hand and Adrien’s with her right. She took turns looking them each in the eye. “Don’t ever force yourselves to do something you’re not comfortable with. Please, please, please. I know you guys think it’ll make me happy, but it won’t. If I find out later that you pushed yourselves for my sake, I’m going to feel awful.”

“Oh,” they breathed in sync, shoulders slumping.

“I need to be able to trust you two when you say you’re okay with doing stuff,” she explained patiently, leaning in to give them both a bolstering kiss. “Just tell me the truth. I promise I won’t get mad if you’re not comfortable doing something.”

“Okay,” Adrien agreed as Chat nodded in accord. “Sorry. We—”

“—It’s okay,” Marinette cut him off. “No apologies necessary. I get it. You two meant well, but…”

“…Okay,” Chat sighed, resigning himself to being as honest as possible…and losing her because of it.

Marinette pinched his cat ear. “No feeling bad about yourselves. You’re not disappointing me or not good enough or whatever other negative thoughts are going through your heads.” She gave Adrien a pointed look. “I love you both, and I want to make this work just like I know you guys want to make this work. We’re just going to have to be patient with each other and ourselves, okay?”

“Okay,” they chorused, smiling tentatively.

She leaned in to kiss each of them. “Those are my boys.”

“That’s our girl,” they chuckled in return, Chat nuzzling her ear while Adrien leaned across Chat to kiss Marinette’s nose.

“Thank you,” Chat whispered breathily, touched at her willingness to put her own needs aside for his.

“Of course,” she stressed. “I love you two.”

“And we love you,” Adrien replied, and Chat nodded vehemently. “It means a lot that you’re backing up your words with actions.”

Chat smiled wistfully. “We get told that people love us a lot, but you’re one of the only ones who’s proven it.”

“My boys,” Marinette whispered, a deep sadness in her tone. She wrapped an arm around each and pulled them into a tight hug. “I don’t know that I’ve done a good job of proving it. I feel like I have so much to make up to the both of you…but I’m trying.”

“We appreciate it,” Adrien assured.

They slowly separated, burgeoning smiles on their lips at the sense of serenity surrounding them.

“Okay,” Marinette sighed. “I’ll be in the bathroom just off the kitchen freshening up. I’ll be back in, like, ten minutes, so don’t get into trouble while I’m gone.”

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t knock things off ledges or terrorize your yarn collection,” Adrien promised.

Chat gave his double a solid fwap on the arm. “And I’ll make sure he doesn’t take his clothes off and start posing on anything.”

Adrien gave Chat a dirty look. “I don’t even like modeling.”

“And I don’t like destroying everything I touch,” Chat snapped back.

“Okay. Time out,” Marinette decreed, making a T with her hands. “Why don’t you two just continue making out while I’m gone, and then, when I get back, we can snuggle and watch a movie?”

Adrien and Chat shared a look before answering, “Deal,” in sync.

As soon as he heard the bathroom door on the floor below close behind Marinette, Chat Noir let the transformation drop.

Adrien slumped back against Marinette’s giant cat pillow and sighed.

“I’m exhausted,” he muttered, fishing out two carrot sticks for Trixx and a hunk of Camembert for Plagg, despite the fact that Trixx was the only one doing any work.

“Mentally or physically exhausted?” Plagg snickered. “Making out looks strenuous. Or were you talking about the mental effort of convincing your girlfriend that you’re two different people?”

“Both,” Adrien groaned, throwing an arm over his face. “Leave me alone. I’m just trying to make the woman I love happy.”

“You should tell her the truth,” Trixx advised neutrally as he munched on his carrots. “I mean, I understand why you haven’t, but…this is more than a little bit ridiculous.”

“If Tikki were here, she’d scold you for using the Fox Miraculous for personal gain,” Plagg added in amusement, as if he knew something Adrien didn’t.

“Is it really personal gain when I’d rather reveal my identity to my girlfriend and go on dates like other couples?” Adrien grumbled sullenly.

“He has a point,” Trixx allowed with a shrug. “This charade is only prolonging his suffering.”

Plagg looked at his tired kitten, and the amusement left his eyes. “…The fox has a point, Kid. Maybe you need to tell her before this goes on much longer.”

Adrien shrugged. “She refuses to know my identity, and she’s got valid reasons. Knowing very well could put her and the people she loves in danger. She’s afraid, and she has every right to be. This secret is a huge burden, and I can’t just force it upon her against her will just because it will make my life easier. How selfish would it be of me to do that to her?”

The kwamis fell silent.

When Marinette returned, Adrien and Chat Noir had straightened their clothing and were cuddled up together on top of the covers, Chat purring softly as Adrien petted his hair.

Marinette grabbed her laptop and joined them, and they all snuggled up to watch Porco Rosso.

The next Saturday, Adrien, Chat, and Marinette met for making out, Chinese food, and video games.

Somehow, Adrien neglected to factor in Adrien and Chat Noir having to play against one another, so video games were a bit of a clown fiesta. Marinette had fun laughing and making fun of how bad and uncoordinated Chat and Adrien were, though, so that was a plus.

The boys even joined in the laughter when Marinette cackled so hard that she rolled off the couch and landed roughly on the floor.

The resulting crash brought Sabine up to check on them, and when she caught sight of Adrien and Chat Noir together on the couch, she blinked rapidly, rubbed her eyes, and gawked.

Adrien and Chat grimaced, waving to their (hopefully) future mother-in-law and greeting her in Mandarin.

“How are there two of you?” she returned bluntly, confirming that, yes, Sabine did know.

Marinette stopped laughing and sat up to look interrogatively back and forth between her mother and her boyfriends.

She understood the demanding tone and the fact that Sabine had asked a question, even though she didn’t understand all of the words. She guessed that her mother had asked what the two of them were doing there and answered in French, “Maman, I told you I was having friends over. You said it was okay.”

“It is, Sweetie,” Sabine assured with a warm smile. “I just didn’t know it was Chat Noir and Adrien you had invited.”

“I can explain,” Adrien quickly replied in Mandarin, making Marinette frown.

“It’s magic,” Chat joined in. “I swear this is necessary to protect my identity.”

“It’s complicated,” Adrien sighed. “Please, please, please don’t say anything.”

Sabine pursed her lips but eventually nodded. “All right,” she responded in French. “You kids have fun. I’ll be downstairs if you need anything.”

As her mother left, Marinette’s frown intensified. “I need to learn Chinese. What were you talking about?”

“Uuuuhhh…” Chat’s brain stalled out.

“Your mother was making sure our intentions were noble,” Adrien jumped in.

Chat really hated the moments when he lost control of the Mirage’s mouth.

“Her daughter’s alone with a leather-clad catboy and a male supermodel; any mother would be concerned,” Adrien explained in a tone approximating that of a reasonable person, thus cementing Chat’s desire to smoother his doppelgänger with the Dupain-Chengs’ tastefully-designed couch cushions.

Marinette burst out laughing again. “Right,” she snorted. “Maybe any mother who didn’t personally know you two dorks.”

Chat turned to Adrien with a hurt pout. “She doesn’t think we’re a threat.”

Adrien smirked. “She will regret underestimating us when we pin her down and tickle her.”

A wide grin slowly took form on Chat’s face. “Have I told you how much I love you lately?”

“Okay!” Marinette sprang to her feet and retreated to the kitchen. “Well, now that that’s settled, why don’t I get a start on those maraschino cherry sugar cookies while you two keep sucking at video games?”

Adrien and Chat Noir stared at Marinette. Slowly, their heads turned, and they shared a look.

“I mean…cookies,” Chat whispered.

Adrien nodded. “We can always pin her down and tickle her later. Cookies are more important.”

Chadrien turned back to Marinette with twin grins and chorused, “Sounds good!”

Marinette’s brow gradually scrunched into a frown of suspicion. “You guys aren’t…like…related or something, are you? I promise I’m not going to judge your incestuous queerplatonic relationship or anything.”

The boys laughed nervously.

“I mean…I already told you about my brother Félix,” Adrien reminded. “Don’t you think having more than one secret brother is a little much?”

“Obviously, we’re the same person,” Chat added jovially, very much wanting the lying to be over with already.

Marinette’s eyes narrowed, her brow crinkling as she really looked at them for a minute.

Adrichat held their breath.

For a second, he really thought she was going to call him on it…but then the moment passed, the look of suspicion faded, and she laughed, rolling her eyes.

“You two are ridiculous,” she snorted. “Fine. Don’t tell me you’re secretly cousins or whatever. I’ll find out someday after Papillon is defeated. Go back to self-destructing at Ultimate Mecha Strike.”

Adrien and Chat sighed in unison, turning back around on the couch to resume their doomed game.

In their defence, it was really hard to keep straight which set of fingers controlled which mech on screen. This was made even harder by the fact that Chat and Adrien had the same favourite character—a fact that Marinette knew from having played with both of them separately in the past.

Add in the fact that he had to strategize for both combatants at the same time…it was like playing chess against yourself. He knew what he was going to do ahead of time, rendering his strategy useless because his opponent was literally inside his head. It went by too fast. He needed to go home and practice just like he’d done with making out. He’d get it eventually, but, as things presently stood, playing against himself took the entirety of his concentration.

Therefore, it was quite understandable that when Marinette asked, “Adrien, how many cookies do you want with cherries, and how many should I make snickerdoodle?” Chat Noir answered, “Um…maybe three of each?”

There was a beat, and then it struck Chat that he’d made a mistake. He turned to look at Marinette who was blinking at him in mild confusion.

Adrien winced and put a comforting hand on Chat’s arm. “I think she meant me.”

Chat bit his tongue to keep from saying, “Thank you, Captain Obvious”.

“Wait,” Marinette breathed. “No way.”

Chat braced for impact.

“You’re both named Adrien?” Marinette gasped.

He wanted to cry.

Adrien laughed unconvincingly. “What? No,” he denied in a manner that clearly indicated he was lying. “I mean…how ridiculous would that be?”

Chat really wanted to smoother his double just to put them all out of their misery.

“I can’t believe this,” Marinette laughed a tad hysterically, struggling to process her new reality. “What are the odds of falling in love with two guys named Adrien?!”

“Not as good as you think,” Adrichat muttered under their breath.

That evening, Adrien collapsed onto his bed feeling tired and resigned.

Plagg and Trixx looked on in pity.

#Marichat #Adrinette #Adrienette #Adrichat #Miraculous Ladybug #Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction #Adrien Agreste #Chat Noir #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Plagg #Trixx #Ladybug #Kissing #Writing Prompts #Mikau's Writings #Serendipity: Fifty Marichat and Adrienette Kisses

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pants-jones · 3 years

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Outer Wilds is the best exploration adventure literally ever.(Story Review)

Outer Wilds is a small space exploration game that came out on May 28, 2019, developed by Mobius Digital. It’s gotten multiple awards and there isn’t a second of someone’s voice in the game. I personally found out about it thanks to Jacksepticeye, and he does this thing where he doesn’t explore things in a game enough for me to be satisfied, and it really frustrates me even though I love his content. So, like a normal person, I held that frustration deep within my soul for an entire year until I got my own ps4 and I noticed that they were selling it on the PlayStation store. I remembered very little about the game at that point and going in blind was literally the best part. Ever since I was little, every time a game came out promising endless gameplay or a large world to explore it pretty much never happened.

Like Disney Infinite or whatever that shitshow of a game was called. Surprisingly finite, believe it or not. Same thing with No Mans Sky, even though I’ve heard that it’s improved recently. But this game is perfect when it comes to space exploration. The solar system you reside in isn’t too big, so going from planet to planet isn’t a pain in the ass like No Mans Sky. Each planet has so much to explore, on top of everything you can see in the ice comet that flies through, or the sunstation orbiting the sun at like 40000000 miles an hour, or the literal ghost moon that disappears when you look away. Each planet is extremely unique and has their own dangers, and I could talk for literal hours about each location in the game and the story behind each. Before I actually get into this, there is this one youtuber that has a channel about this game, and he actually explains a lot of the stuff that I didn’t understand or just got wrong on my first playthrough. He’s called The Lore Explorer. You can click his name to go straight to his YouTube channel.

This is going to be on the story of Outer Wilds. Because I want to talk about the gameplay separately.

In this game, you play as a member of an alien race called the Hearthians, residing on an earthlike planet called Timber Hearth. Your race is small, but they devote their time to science and exploration of the solar system they reside in and the universe. They want to know the secrets of the universe, to understand it. They’re a peaceful people, like space hillbillies, They don’t have a specific gender, they refer to each other with they/them unless requested otherwise, You are a rookie in their space exploration program, Outer Wilds Ventures. You wake up early at your campfire, eyes looking up at the sky, the giant planet Giants Deep above you. The ancient alien space station orbiting said planet explodes, and a small purple light launches out into the night sky. (This is the best picture I could find)

You get up and meet Slate, a Hearthian that was roasting marshmallows in the campfire next to you. You exchange some dialogue, and you learn they’re the one who made your ship, and that this is gonna be your first voyage into space. They tell you that you have to go to Hornfels, one of Outer Wilds Ventures’ lead scientists, to get the launch codes. You spend some time exploring the small village that your people reside in. You meet up with your old teacher, who taught you about everything you’ll endure up in space. You do one last no-gravity test, before heading up to the Observatory at the highest point of the village. The first thing that greets you is a statue, made by a strange ancient race named the Nomai.

You move on to Hornfels, get the launch codes and walk out the same way you came in, when you freeze and the statue opens its eyes and faces you. It’s eyes light up, and it’s almost like your memories of today are being played back at you. (below is the best picture I could find.)

A Hearthian who works at the observatory watches all of this and approaches you, claiming in shock that they had no idea that the eyes could even open, neverminded that they can grow.

You move on, on to your ship. You enter and where you go first is up to you, the player.(obviously.) Personally, I decided to do what I think most people would ignore, and explore the planet we all start on, Timber Hearth. And of course, I found some stuff, but that’s for later.

Anyways, it doesn’t matter what you do, but most likely you’ll be going to Timber Hearth’s moon, the Attlerock. It’s an asteroid like moon that you’ll probably see in the sky orbiting the planet from it’s surface. There’s a Hearthian named Esker up there, and they give you their first goal: Find and meet the five founders of Outer Wilds Ventures. You’ve already got one down, since Esker is one of those five. But, ignoring all this, lets assume you made the mistake everyone makes (and I promise you it’s everyone) and you didn’t land where Esker grew trees for oxygen, and you made the dumbest decision to just, forget your space suit. Well, you’d die obviously. Air is important. You obviously suffocate. Dummy.

I genuinely can’t find a way to show you how dying looks in Outer Wilds. Or, the post death. Pretty much, every moment you just experienced gets played in reverse, up until the very moment you wake up. Then, this Nomai mask is the last thing you see, before you wake up on Timber Hearth again.

I think anyone with an IQ above sand knows that this means you’re in a time loop. It’s obviously because of the statue, and when you go to look at it, it’s eyes are still open. There’s a mystery here, and you will most likely not have any clue how to solve it.

You’ll go back into space. And you’ll choose any of the five planets in this small solar system to explore. It doesn’t matter which. You’ll learn things abut the Nomai, you might even meet one of the astronauts you were told to meet. None of this matters. Because in 22 minutes after you wake up, you hear a strange loud noise, look to the sun, and realize its collapsing in on itself and exploding. You barely have time to react before you die again and wake up in your village again. And that’s pretty much the opening of the game. If you wanna see the sun explode, click here. It’s pretty cool.

First I wanna start with the fact that this solar system is pretty small, but each planet has so much stuff you could do. I didn’t even mention all the stuff in the observatory, like the rock that moves when you don’t look at it (which is VERY important), the Nomai text that you can translate with the device Hornfels gives you, or the fucking creature that they call an anglerfish that they hold in a tank (which is also very important). I didn’t tell you about the Planet Locator on the Attlerock, or the fact that you can see the ship you use in the Alpha of the game. I want to talk about each planet and location but it would genuinely take me way too long, because the story itself is way way way too long but it’s literally amazing. This game is probably the closest thing to real life in one way; it doesn’t matter what you do. You could throw your ship into the fucking sun and it won’t matter. Inevitability is one of the biggest themes of this game.

You learn of the Nomai, an ancient race that came to your Solar system on something called The Vessel, but they got split up when they had to use escape pods because of some tragedy. You learn that they’re looking for something called The Eye Of The Universe, an entity older than the universe itself. That space station that blows up every time you wake up? That’s their Probe Launcher, that’s them trying to find that Eye. You learn how they made warp technology and how Black Holes work, you can even create a paradox and break the universe (this is very loud, I’m warning you.) This game takes environmental storytelling to a whole other level, because this race of Nomai is dead and long gone, but their underground catties and escape pods and ships and every piece of research that they have is left behind. They left a fucking Sunstation that orbits the sun at the speed of something really fast, and if you’re good enough at flying (i am not) you could land on the damn thing. Or you could teleport to it using the Nomais warp tech.

I think it’s there that you learn why the sun is dying. Your goal this whole time was to learn why the sun is dying, maybe you can reverse whatever the Nomai did. But the Nomai didn’t do this. Sure, they wanted to make the sun explode, but that was to power their time loop machine, so they could find the Eye easier. But it didn’t work. The sun station was made to blow up the sun and it didn’t work. The sun isn’t blowing up because of the Nomai, it’s dying because it’s just old. It’s old and there is no saving your people or your solar system. You then realize that its not just your solar system that’s dying, but others too. You can see it all the time.

When you’re out in space and see stars suddenly start to glow brighter than before, if you zoom in, you can see that they’re exploding. And not only that, once you find the Nomai’s Vessel (which is hard to do), you can find transmissions from modern Nomai, claiming that the entire universe is dying. There’s nothing you can even do about it.

Before I talk about the Eye itself, I need to explain what a Quantum Object is. A Quantum object is an object that exists in all possible ways until viewed by a conscious. The rock in the observatory I mentioned earlier is one of these objects, and there’s tons of items just like them

They usually look like this black shard above. The Nomai found these and studied the actual hell out of them, and they learned three things they labeled the rules of quantum objects. The first being, if you are making physical contact with one of these objects and you turn off the lights or lose your vision, you will become quantum like the object. Technically it means until you can see again, you will be everywhere and anywhere at random.

The next rule is that if you take a picture of the quantum object and look away, it will not move. I think this is self explanatory, you’re still technically observing it even if it’s just a picture. And the last rule has more to do with the Quantum Moon. The Quantum Moon is supposed to be the Eye’s moon, but since it’s a quantum object it always appears orbiting random planets in this solar system.

The Quantum Moon won’t be on any map of the solar system, and it’s by far the second most difficult location to enter and navigate. You’ll only know how after exploring multiple Nomai ruins with text on the walls teaching you the three quantum rules. If you just fly into it, You’ll simply go through the grey smoke and end up on the other side, You need to enforce the second quantum rule (this is called Quantum Imaging btw) and take a picture of it. Then you’ll be able to land on it, though what you find first may be different depending what planet it’s orbiting.

It mirrors the planet it’s orbiting, like when it orbits Timber Hearth the surface of the planet is going to have a lot of trees and grass. If it’s on Giants Deep, which is mostly an aquatic planet with lots of tornadoes and storms, it’ll have a lot of water and smaller tornadoes in the distance. Eventually, you’ll make your way to the Nomai tower on the North Pole of the moon.

From the inside of this tower, you’ll be able to travel with the quantum moon, even getting close to the Eye itself. The Nomai always say that when the moon isn’t visible in this solar system, it has to be at a sixth location, and since the Eye orbits our sun from lightyears away, it’s safe to say that the sixth location is actually the Eye of the Universe. When you enter the tower, you’re going to be turning the lights off and opening the door a lot, since the only other way to tell where you are inside the tower is a mechanism on the wall. But when you’re orbiting the Eye, you won’t be able to exit the tower, since the door will be blocked by the same material that the quantum shards are made of. If I remember correctly, you need to have the tower appear on the South pole of the moon. Then, when you get to the moon’s version of the eye, You can leave the tower and see what it’s like.

On top of that, you can actually meet the last Nomai. Her name is Solanum, and she is the only Nomai to get this close to the Eye of the universe. The same way that the moon has a sixth location it goes to, she is the secret sixth astronaut that you can meet. She doesn’t speak your language, or at all, which means the Nomai didn’t speak. They communicated using the blue swirls you can see next to her. Those are the swirls that you translate to learn everything they’ve done through out the game.

Meeting Solanum is a bitter moment, since she claims that she believes she’s been in some sort of in between death and life state for years now. She theorizes that being in such close proximity to the Eye has made her a quantum object, which is why you can find her ship and dead body on all the other locations the Quantum Moon can be at except this one. Above Solanum is a wormhole, where all the clouds are falling into. When you try to enter this wormhole, you fall back into one of the other moons locations, Solanum’s body at your feet.

Now the Eye of the Universe itself is the most difficult location to get to. It took me around three hours of trying over and over again, because we need to get to it before the 22 minutes run out and the sun explodes. You first need to waste 7 minutes getting a power core from the machine that runs the time loop, so if you die you technically die for good. Then you need to enter the 5th planet and the one I despise the most, Dark Bramble.

Dark Bramble isn’t a planet. It’s the remains of an icy planet, destroyed by the bramble. Nobody knows where the bramble came from. Nobody knows how it even exists. But it’s there, and it should be the last place you want to enter, because it’s the only place with an actual creature that want to hurt you: The Anglerfish.

The Anglerfish are giant, blind space fish that will eat anything and have super sensitive hearing. You need to fly past these things in your ship, and you never know what lights are anglerfish and which lights are just more nodes to enter deeper into this pocket dimension. In Dark Bramble, you can find one of the 3 Nomai Escape pods. The other two landed on planets outside of Bramble, but this one had a much darker fate.

This is Escape Pod 3. The Nomai in this escape Pod used audio tech to find the distress signal the Vessel was emitting, but there was a problem; they frequency was coming from two different places. The Nomai were scared and running out of oxygen, so they headed towards the closer frequency, leaving lights behind as a trail so they didn’t get lost. Unfortunately when they reach the frequency...

All they find is a seed. The frequency is coming from it, but they went the wrong way. They can’t fit inside it and it hasn’t grown enough for it to be a node they can pass through. So they all died there, floating motionless. You can shoot a scout through the seed, and it’ll land on the Vessel. Now you have a way to get there.

When you bring the power core, you have to pass through the Anglerfish nest, so you’re pretty much gonna be gliding through the whole thing reaaaally slowly. You can’t outrun the anglerfish, and I never tried touching their eggs so I don’t know what’ll happen if you try that.

After a lot of slow gliding, you’ll find The Vessel.

You can put the power core inside, and once you enter the coordinates that you can find from the space station orbiting Giant’s Deep, the Vessel will warp to The Eye of the Universe, with an overhead view of it.

You can take as much time as you like here. You’re way too far for any supernova to affect you. The planet you can see isn’t the eye itself, but it’s more like an orb of the same material that the quantum shards are made of. All the clouds and lights surrounding it is the Eye. I’ll leave a video of someone getting to the Eye right here. When you warp onto the planet above the Eye, you’ll start on the north pole, and start walking towards the south, where the Entrance to the Eye is. When you walk under the clouds, it’ll be dark, with lightning strikes briefly lighting up the area, with random objects appearing due to the eye being the origin of quantum objects.

(What the wormhole looks like from the outside vs. the entrance.)

I can’t really explain what happens when you fall into it, so I’m gonna leave it at that. This game is a solid 10/10 for me. It is the best exploration space game I’ve ever played, and I’d buy it at full price again just to support those who made it. Also the soundtrack and credits song are amazing. I 100000% recommend it

#outer wilds #review #gaming

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youdirtylittlebitch · 3 years

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Hey Dirty Bitch,

Today is Feb 26, just so you know. I’m awake, it’s 3:51. For the past three days, I could say that I slept for a total of 4 hours … maybe more but, the gist is … I’m sleeping way too little. I can feel my head throbs, my nape feels tight and I’m way too paranoid. I’m not sure why this is happening to me though. I’m sure you have no idea as well, but it brings back that memory from two years ago … I didn’t sleep well and I started to get really bad headaches, you remember that? That wasn’t good isn’t it? What is wrong with you? Why are you sleepless? Are you worried abut something? Tell me … diagnosed me you little bitch. Give me a answer, I want to freaking sleep for ten fucking hours. Give that to me, otherwise, you will be hearing a lot of this …

Well, since we are awake and we have nothing to do, or can’t think of better things to do, I will tell you about my day, you don’t have a choice on that matter so here it goes, it started fine, or should I say my shift ended okay, last day of the shift from work. so normally, I should have plans right? Well there was a plan, it was planned weeks ago by our boss, I hate saying no to them so I had to go, I dreaded it because I hate socializing and I’ve never really met them that quite yet, we met once for breakfast but that’s it. it was an hour breakfast and I left so quickly. If you’re wondering why I never met my boss before that one breakfast, well you nosy little bitch here’s why … There is a pandemic, don’t be surprised it’s been happening for a year now, the world is fucked.you can’t go outside or else you’ll die, so we’re stuck inside our homes, and our day job that you used to hate so much, was taken to our home. You little bitch started working from home. You heard that right you little dirty bitch, you’ve been working from home since July of last year. You loved at first, but now, you FUCKING hate it, or at least that’s what you tell yourself, you are conflicted about it, you hate it but you also don’t hate it, see? You are one fucked up dirty little bitch. You have a problem inside that dirty little shithead of yours. You need help. You need professionals to see you. But … you’re broke, so that’s not an option.and when the fuck did you start wring in third person you little fuck????? Where was I?

I had to read you again to see what I was talking about … anyway, I was talking about my day. What transpire to this ole fucking day. We met for a Korean barbecue, I saw my old teammates and then we went to anti polo for a coffee and a bit of a joyride. It was quaint. I didn’t expect that I’d enjoy it. But I did, I speculated it. I did loved it. We talked, we got to know more about it other and now I’m boring even myself. What the fuck. It was nothing out of ordinary. I always overthink everything, or should I say We always overthink everything, because you are me, me are you. You dirty little bitch. I fucking hate you. I want to love you but fuuuuuuucccck!!!!!!!!! I can’t!! Maybe the reason why hate everything is because you hate yourself so much.wow, what a turn around. As I type all the thoughts I can tell, if someone reads this will either laugh or cry of pity, because you little bitch is pathetic. You are a liar, you lie to yourself, you lie to everyone, and now, you’re even thing of crying because you think it’ll be more dramatic if you do. You orchestrate everything, romanticize everything, what the fuck is wrong with you????

Do you notice when you’re talking your friends doesn’t listen, well they do sometimes, you know it, but sometimes you are often cut off—you know why? Because you tend to talk to much, you talk to much and they find you arrogant and full of yourself. You talk nothing but about yourself, you observed this because you are hurt every time it happens, when you started talking about yourself they sometimes pretend there’s a connection problem, like they can’t hear you—they even say your line is breaking — like WTf, there is no internet problem, but sometimes there is … but on that particular day there isn’t, wow. Your self pitying so hard right now, I really felt like crying, you did did you? I want to laugh but I guess I sympathize. Sometimes, you can really be arrogant and selfish. Okay, not really sometimes, it’s your normal. And I hate to say it you little dirty bitch but it’s the truth. Stop it though, there’s nothing you can do about it, on the lighter side of things, your friend loves you. You feel that sometimes, but why did my a little voice inside my head whispered about them loving you because they need you—there was a proof of that—but also, they loved you even before you started earning more money. When you have nothing. You’ve been friends for awhile, this is your best friendship by far so don’t ruin by thinking about these things, there’s a truth in it. but there isn’t… maybe who knows, you don’t really know it.

Now, I want you to go back inside your room and try to sleep. Don’t think too much. You think you journaling this is productive or helpful isn’t it??? They said it does, so maybe it really does. And you know what, it is you who will decide that for yourself. YOU DIRTY LITTLE BITCH.

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elliethesuperfruitlover · 3 years

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tw/rant

im really not great at the moment. i want to put out more fic and things, but I don’t want to burnout and fuck myself over. I have requests to get into, yet I just can’t get into writing anything besides short drabbles. I also wouldn’t call myself mentally stable at the moment. One second, I’m fine, but the next I’m just tunneling again and I hate it. I don’t tell anyone how I feel about anything because I don’t want them to worry. That ends up with me bottling up all of my feelings, and I also invalidate my feelings. I tell myself that I shouldn’t be complaining because I have this or that, and at least I can do this or that. Yes, that’s true, but I shouldn’t let it get to this point. I absolutely hate myself and I wish I wasn’t like this. I think I’m fat, I hate my feet (and how big they are), I hate my hair,(because I wish it would grow some) I hate my fucking skin discoloration, and I can’t do anything about it. People say “oh just practice self love” BUT I PHYSICALLY CANT DO THAT BECAUSE I HATE THE FACT THAT I HAVE TO LIE TO MYSELF TO BELIEVE SOMETHING. Writing feelings down doesn’t help, whatsoever because I think it’s pathetic that I can’t get my ass up and talk to someone about how I’m feeling like a normal fucking person. I hate the fact that I have too much anxiety, and can’t have regular thoughts without something awful coming after it. I wish I could take jokes, and understand why people play punch people like a normal person, but instead I get offended by literally everything. I don’t let other people touch me, I have to touch them, but in reality, I really want to them to be there because it means they care abut me. I think it’s foolish that I think people don’t care about me when they clearly do. I feel like I accidentally offend people, then hate myself because I might be causing them distress and I’m really not. I can’t share my own opinions with my family because my dad thinks being gay isnt in god’s light, my brother makes jokes about trans people, and my mom thinks gay people should “fit in with the rest of us and not be as obvious”. I hate the fact that I’m not a normal fucking straight kid who doesn’t have anxiety and overthinks, writes about characters on the internet. I sometimes just wish I wasn’t this much of a person because there’s so many things pointed against me from the beginning, but I just had to fuck up and admit to some more. My fucking boyfriend broke up with me last sunday and said he still loves me, but he isnt ready for a relationship which I totally understand, but I feel so fucking messed up about it. Are there rules for this shit? I can’t hear a plane without having dread course through my system, I think everything is loud, wven if it’s not. I hate the fact that I’m sensitive because how the fuck am I supposed to do things if I don’t understand things everyone does. I don’t even want to think about school because I DONT REMEMBER ANYTHING FROM DECEMBER. and we have state tests coming up in april and im completely lost, and dont know what to do. I stick out so fucking much, why do I have to talk differently and dress differently. like different things than everyone else, listen to different things?? I feel like an outsider in my own fucking race because of the things I like and I fucking hate it. I hate myself for every single thing I do, and I can’t even be happy with my own fucking heritage. I have to fucking change and be different. I’m constantly upset, and if I’m not, I’m thinking about when I’m going to be upset next. I feel so out of place everywhere and I don’t know what to do about it. Every fucking fandom I’m in, I feel like the only black person, only black girl, I feel LIKE SHIT ABOUT IT. Why can’t I just like regular things for kdis my age? I’m younger than everyone on here, my brain is fucked up, I JUST DONT KNOW ANYMORE. And I know suicide isn’t going to fix anything because everyone’ll be sad that I’m gone and everything. I just feel so fucked up and lost. I lost two friends because I was too fucking blind to see the signs of it being toxic (me being part of it) and I hate myself for it. I can never keep friends, and the ones I have, I can’t even fucking see them. And it’s my fault, I can’t keep friends because I can’t take certain things, or be a certain way. I can’t fucking take jokes (even if theyre racist ones and i shouldn’t take them but i hate myself for it anyway) It seems every time something seems to be on the uptick, life has to punch me in the gut and go “fuck you” and I’m back at square one. And I just can’t get a break long enough to unpack all of this. I’m so tired of all this. I need help.

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wrestlingisfake · 4 years

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Final Battle preview

Rush vs. PCO - Rush is defending the ROH world title. As far as I can remember, Rush is undefeated in Ring of Honor. The only singles loss in ROH that I could find for PCO was his last shot at the world title. It is probably worth noting that each man’s contract is expiring at the end of the year, and there has been little word on whether either of them plans to re-sign.

Rush is probably the hottest star in wrestling that isn’t signed to WWE, AEW, or New Japan. You see his entrance and you can tell this guy is a big ass deal, far beyond anything else going on in ROH. I’m still surprised they managed to sign him. Pierre Carl Ouellet, meanwhile, is a minor name from the 1990s enjoying a cult resurgence as a monster brawler with a Frankenstein gimmick. At 51, PCO isn’t a hot prospect bound for the big leagues, but he’s a can’t-miss draw at the super-indy level. So this is arguably the biggest match ROH could deliver in 2019. It reminds me of a big match from ROH’s early days, where a WWE fan wouldn’t get the appeal but hardcore indy fans saw it as a dream match.

Even someone like me, who only half pays attention to ROH, can see the appeal of this match. Rush’s matches are fast and intense, and he quickly destroys guys with big explosive moves. PCO’s matches are about how he feels no pain and keeps getting back up to do increasingly insane spots. This is, fundamentally, the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. I can’t believe we’re getting such a match from “The guy who taught Tetsuya Naito how to be cool” versus “The Mountie’s tag team partner,” but such is wrestling in 2019.

Ring of Honor has really fallen off a cliff this year. The core of their star power left to found AEW, and their alliance with New Japan seems to be at its lowest ebb. The whole controversy of CMLL firing Rush and Dragon Lee, who have become key figures here, would also seem to be a bad sign for the ROH/CMLL alliance as well. So it’s been a rebuilding year for the company, and frankly I haven’t been impressed with what they’ve rebuilt. Except for this one match. This is very symbolic of their one shot to turn things around for 2020. I hope they don’t blow it; I expect that they will somehow.

My gut tells me Rush is moving on to greener pastures, whereas PCO probably can’t do much better than being a big fish in a small pond. Wild as it sounds, I think we might get a title change tonight.

Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe vs. Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham - This is for the Briscoes’ ROH tag team title. The biggest question mark here is that Lethal broke his arm back in October, and although he’s vowed to make it to this match it remains to be seen if he’ll be healed enough to really go.

I haven’t followed the story closely, but Lethal and Gresham were friends until Gresham decided that he needed to cheat to get ahead, and then they fought over that, and then they reconciled, and now they’re both whacking the Briscoes with chairs. I’m still not sure if the Briscoes ever officially turned babyface this year. So to me this is a pretty standard 2019 ROH story, where there are no heroes and everyone’s an asshole.

In theory this should be a down-and-dirty brawl between two teams that would prefer to fight than wrestle. But since it’s not officially billed as a street fight or anything, what we’ll probably end up with is a basic wrestling match where they just sneak a few weapon shots and low blows behind the ref’s back. That’s fine to build to a bigger, wilder spotfest later, but not so much to be a featured tag match on Final Battle. I guess Lethal and Gresham will win the belts with shenanigans to set up a rematch.

Shane Taylor vs. Dragon Lee Ryu Lee - Taylor is defending the ROH television title. Dragon Lee had been a big name in CMLL, and a frequent representative of the company in New Japan, and of late he’s been getting involved in ROH through his brother Rush. But since CMLL suddenly fired him, and they own the rights to the name, he’s now adopted the name “Ryu Lee,” using the Japanese word for “dragon” to honor his new deal with New Japan. Lee’s preference among those three companies is to work for New Japan, so now that he’s got that contract I am very curious whether he remains a ROH regular. I suspect this match will be the first clue. Taylor has been a dominant champion but Lee has friends in high places, so the one they want to push should be very telling. I’m kinda thinking Taylor retains.

Matt Taven vs. Vincent - Vincent used to be Vinny Marseglia, a member of The Kingdom stable with Taven and TK O’Ryan. I’m not sure what happened to O’Ryan after Taven lost the ROH world title, but Vincent turned on Taven and has gone all in on the gimmick of being a horror movie slasher. This means Taven is doing the “asshole champion you come to respect drops the title and then improbably turns babyface” thing. I’m not sure I buy that, but I guess ROH kinda has to make the best of what they have to work with. All I know is when I see Taven plugging his DVD I’m just reminded of when TNA put out that Jeff Jarrett retrospective as if he was Triple H or something. Anyway, I guess the King of Kings King of the Mountain King of the Kingdom needs to win this match.

Mark Haskins vs. Bully Ray - This is being billed as a street fight, so the match cannot end by count-out or disqualification. Bully Ray has been playing the bitter veteran bullying young guys for the better part of two years now. He was mainly feuding with Flip Gordon, but even after they blew that off he just kept doing it, and when Flip turned heel they just sort of switched to Haskins. They’ve even got Bully going after Mark’s wife like he did with Flip’s wife. It’s the exact same fucking thing. Which, I suppose, means Bully has to win this match to generate more heat for more rematches. I would literally rather be escorted into a room where Bully bitches me out for being a bad fan than watch this crap one more time.

Marty Scurll & Flip Gordon vs. Bandido & Flamita - All right, so months ago Juice Robinson came to ROH to found a stable called Lifeblood, with the goal of elevating some new stars to replenish the roster after the AEW exodus. Well, in an apt metaphor for ROH’s fortunes in 2019, Lifeblood quickly fell apart with half the team disappearing from ROH, leaving Bandido, Mark Haskins, and Tracy Williams. They tried to recruit various guys to fill the void, but nobody has stepped up and Flip Gordon even turned heel on them to join Scurll’s Villain Enterprises. Then Flip blew out his elbow during the heel turn. Anyway, Haskins has his hands full with Bully Ray, and I don’t even know where Williams is, so now Bandido is starting a new tag team with Flamita and this is the closest we get to blowing off the Lifeblood/Villain Enterprises feud.

Scurll’s contract with ROH actually ended a couple of weeks ago, but he has a handshake deal to work this show and the one on December 15. The big questions now are which company he’ll sign with and how ROH will write him out of the company. But presumably those questions won’t be answered until the 15th, so even at this late date we’re still in a holding pattern, and I’m guessing they’ll keep acting like everything is normal.

Logic would suggest Scurll should do the job so ROH can put over Flamita and Bandido. Then again, it wouldn’t shock me to learn that Bandido is getting ready to leave, so you never know.

Jeff Cobb vs. Dan Maff - This is basically a battle of two big mean guys. Cobb is just back from a month-long tour with New Japan. Maff is a recent acquisition, and notably filled in for Brody King to help Marty Scurll and PCO defend the ROH trios title. That kinda makes me wonder if Maff could end up playing a role in the final fate of Villain Enterprises, but that probably won’t affect this match.

Cobb is--say it with me this time, folks--expected to have his contract come up soon, and may or may not be getting ready to leave. If he’s staying, he should probably win this match to build him up for whoever is champion going forward. If he’s leaving...well, Maff seems to be a budget version of Cobb, so it would make sense to have him be the guy to send Cobb packing. We’ll just have to see what happens.

Angelina Love vs. Maria Manic - Love won the women’s title at the last ROH show I watched, but it turns out she lost it back to Kelly Klein shortly thereafter. Then Klein suffered a concussion, which turned into a pretty big story abut ROH not taking care of her and letting her contract expire, and I don’t know what’s going on with the women’s title anymore. I occasionally wonder if they’ll even continue to have a women’s division after this show. Manic is clearly their big new project, but apparently they almost let her go to NXT before locking her into a contract.

The story of the match is that Manic is a big mean monster and Love is terrified of her. Usually in this kind of story the heel gets to demonstrate that they can come up with some clever way to outwit the monster, and the match is about whether that works or not. But as far as I know they haven’t given Love anything--she seems to just be a lamb led to the slaughter. It’s possible Love is preparing to leave and this is the blowoff for her character. If so, I’m not sure who will be left to fight Manic. There’s only like five other active women in the official roster, and I haven’t seen any of them wrestle in months.

Dalton Castle & Joe Hendry vs. Silas Young & Josh Woods - This is scheduled for the pre-show. Young and Woods are apparently calling themselves “2G1T” (“Two Guys, One Tag”), which is possibly the most alarming sign of the creative energy left in this company. I think Castle and Hendry have been passive-aggressively feuding and teaming for months and I’ve kinda given up trying to figure out where this is headed. I guess Castle and Hendry win.

Rhett Titus vs. Kenny King - Another match set for the pre-show. Titus and King were a tag team ages ago, but now King is a wannabe top heel and Titus is a prelim guy. Well, I guess they’re both in the pre-show so technically they’re both prelim guys. I assume the point is to give King a win, but if this guy was ever going to be something in ROH, he would already be well beyond the point that beating Titus would mean anything.

#roh #ring of honor #final battle #rush #pco

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blackarmyslave · 5 years

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//déjà vu//

And once again, I’m late *sigh* Anyways, here’s Day 3 for Ray’s appreciation week! I honestly had no idea what to right josnxdjbvt

@ikerev-appreciation

➵ Theme: Spellbound

➵ Pairing: Ray/Reide & Alice/Charlotte (you’ll see~)

➵ Genre: Fluff

➵ Word count: 1350 words

A burning passion, raging worse than wildfires, consuming her very soul and drowning her heart in it.

That would be figure skating for Charlotte.

Born into a family that had, in their own separate times and sport, joined the Olympics, Charlotte knew from the moment she could walk she’d have to decide on her own sport. Balance beam? No, she sucked at it. Archery? Oh, her aunt would be infuriated and just accuse her of being a copycat. Badminton? No, not quite. Athletics? Why, how she hated running.

Figure skating... now that was her match.

The moment Charlotte’s feet had a taste of skating shoes, she knew it was just right. Not quite tight like running shoes, and oddly warm against her soles despite being in the ice for hours. Well, of course it had made her feet go numb from the cold several times, but something about being in those particular kind of shoes made it much more... appetizing.

She drowned in the feeling of gliding across polished ice for hours, the sound of blades cutting through the thick frozen floor buzzing pleasantly in her core, soul dancing in sync with the piano music she’d skate to. For years and years on end, Charlotte trained and trained. Practicing twirls and acrobatics and leaps and telling a story through her every moment. From every tilt of her head down to how much she’d bend her body to the left of right, Charlotte learned how to make her heart dance.

Today, in the neighboring city’s skating rink, she drowned once more in her fiery passion. La Terre Vue Du Ciel was playing; a favorite piece of Charlotte, while she was practicing on how to nail to a Quad Salchow. It’s been going on for almost a week now and her progress was quite impressive for anyone - anyone but herself.

An impatient perfectionist, and frustrated with how many times she’d been doing this already, the girl momentarily lost focus. One foot landed rigidly and caused her balance to fall.

‘Ninth time this day,’ she growled at herself.

Charlotte pushed her blonde-brown hair out of her face and huffed. The pain of the fall ignored almost completely by her every muscle by now. Blue eyes normally filled with burning passion have now been replaced by hate - hate directed at none other than herself. Yet unbeknownst to her, a pair of green eyes half-covered by a mop of dark hair had been watching by the sidelines. He was wearing a simple enough outfit: jeans with a winter jacket and gloves, earphones plugged in one ear and blasting Green Day, silently watching the lone skater who was not contented by her crazy-high level of talent.

Well, not just that, actually.

Something about her seemed familiar to him. The moment he walked into the building, he’d been drawn to her like a moth to a flame. Her aura soft yet powerful, like a queen; elegant, unyielding, bewitching. The way she was bending her body as if she was effortlessly cutting through the wind, her fair hair flowing like ocean waves, every flick of the finger in perfect sync with every piano key... it grasped his foot and held him there in place before he can even take a seat. Her entire presence a magnet stronger than any other, forbidding him from looking away.

The only word to describe him: spellbound.

Right now, watching her try again once more, he found his own heart racing, rooting for her, silently wanting her to nail that jump she so badly craved for. With her every spin and every sway of her body, she seemed more ethereal, like a light that captivated him, and never had he been quite as frozen and confused as he was right now.

He definitely knew her. Something in the back of his mind had been screaming that. In some time, somehow, wherever that might have been. He was so sure of it.

Something abut her passionate blue eyes startled him, because it was like looking at someone he knew almost as well as himself. Her hair, a mix of brown and blonde, was so familiar like he’d stared at someone with the exact shade of hair color for countless times a day. Her skin tone, her petite body, how beautifully curved those eyelashes were... too familiar. So familiar it was spellbinding - and frightening, at the same time.

But how could he have forgotten such a person?

Could it be when he had visited London back in 2015? Or was she classmates with him back in middle school? Had they bumped into each other at the Louvre last month?

‘No, no..! Something else.’ They just didn’t seem right. Unconsciously, he began snapping his fingers, wracking his brain for an answer. Even just a clue. She was so familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time. Something, something...

“Oh my gosh. can your fingers be any noisier?”

“...Huh?”

He’d been pulled from his ocean of thoughts by a voice - a voice that was also too familiar. A voice that soothed and bothered him all the same. Yet he didn’t have much time to ponder. The skater was now just meters away from him, an irritated look on her face, perfectly pink lips forming a pout that he felt like he’d already seen before.

‘For real, this is freaking me out now. Just who is she?’ he thought.

“My bad,” he amended.

She looked at him from his boots to the single earphone plugged in his left ear, and her eyebrows furrowed. Her eyes mirrored his own; confused. With that affirming his suspicion of knowing one another, he couldn’t hold back a smile.

“You too, huh?”

She seemed to snap out of it, replying, “What?”

“You seemed familiar to me - very familiar. I was actually snapping my fingers ‘cause I was trying to remember where I’d seen you, but... nada. I guess you feel the same way, too?”

“Well... Actually, yeah,” she admitted after two beats, eyes softening from a steely, defensive blue to a calm one. Shivers ran down his spine. And this time, he knew it was from the way she looked at him and not the icy stadium.

“Do you know, then? Where we met, I mean.”

“Doesn’t matter,” she shrugged. “If we both can’t remember, it was either unimportant or an unpleasant experience.” imma just hint at some angst here dont mind me

“Ouch. Sharp tongue, ain’t ya,” he smirked.

“Or you’re just a softie.”

For a long time, he left out a chuckle, green eyes narrowing to curve to a happy smile. It surprised both him and the girl. He’d never felt so relaxed around a stranger. And never had someone’s laugh make her heart twinge, like it was a sound her soul had been unknowingly searching for.

‘It’s official. I need to know who this handsome bastard-- I mean this little shit, is.’

“So, who might you be? Harry Potter? Ray Blackwell?”

His eyebrows rose. “Ray who now?”

“Just the black-haired, green-eyed guy Alice ended up with in the book Alice in Wonderland II.” Her blue eyes danced in amusement.

He just let out a snort. “Sorry, but I’m not a wizard nor do I know someone named Alice. The name’s Reide.”

“Fair enough. I’m Charlotte.”

A handshake was shared between the two, and although both hid it well, neither can deny that a spark electrified them. Not just their skin but also a part of their soul. Like how a once dormant part of them them came back to life without being aware that it was dormant in the first place. Messy and confusing, it had been, knowing they’d met before but not really remembering when or where. Both familiar yet a stranger in the other’s eyes at the same time.

But both were just contented right now, being simply comfortable with the other’s presence, and knowing their name - even if it’s only the first name. Who knows? Maybe Reide will visit the rink again, and Charlotte can talk to him. Maybe they’ll be friends through a bit of drinking.

Or even something more.

Like how it had been in another world, in another time.

#MOST RUSHED THING EVER #IM LATE AGAIN GAAHHHH #rayxappreciationweek2019 #i have a thing for ending fanfics this way huh #i honestly dont know what is this #like brUh #ierev #ikemen revolution #ikerev ray #reincarnation

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m-rphy · 5 years

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We can text if you can’t talk

Summary: When Matteo sees David dance with and kiss Leonie at Sara's party, his world begins to crumble, and it's like he's plunged into darkness. This is the aftermath. TW: This fic deals with slight themes of transphobia and self-harm/depression.

Notes: I apologize in advance if I handled any trans issues in an insensitive matter in this fic. Please let me know if that's the case and I'd be happy to change those parts.

Matteo had stopped caring about which day it was. He woke up when it was already light out and went back to sleep long after the sun had set. His curtains were drawn closed pretty much 24/7 anyway, so it wasn't like it mattered if it was day or night.

First, he had been able to excuse his behavior to Hans and Linn and his boys with just wanting to relax a few days after his first couple of exams. Then he had lied that he got sick and needed to rest. But at this point, he had run out of excuses. He basically only left his bed to take a piss or get something to eat (which all tasted the same anyway so it was frozen pizza after frozen pizza) and he knew he worried Hans and Jonas especially, but he couldn't help it. It just... got overwhelming. Matteo wished nothing more than to be able to... take out his brain and replace it with a new, normally-functioning one, or to just disappear, or to never being born at all.

He had put on some comedy on Netflix in hopes of it cheering him up, but he couldn't even begin to concentrate on the movie so instead, he was playing games on his phone at the same time. Just as the leading lady in the movie fell into a pool, his phone buzzed with a message.

Jonas, 20:17 Hey bro what are you doing?

Matteo inhaled deeply. He had been ignoring Jonas for two days already and he knew it was unfair but the thought alone of trying to string together words for an answer drained what little energy he had left. He plopped his head down on his arm again, dropping his phone back onto his mattress.

Man, this movie was shit.

Matteo blinked awake. Deep pink light fell through his windows, half-swallowed and muted by his curtains, but still tinting his room a warm hue. His laptop still stood on the edge of his bed, the led light that indicated it was in standby mode blinking. Matteo closed it and rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling.

His mind wandered to all the times this has happened before. Most days, it was just an underlying feeling of sadness mixed with apathy, something people around him tended to call a “laid-back” or “I don't give a fuck” attitude. But some days and weeks, it got bad. Like, bad bad. Sleeping-for-15-hours bad. Not-showering-in-four-days bad. Banging-his-head-against-a-wall-to-numb-the-inside-pain-with-outside-pain bad.

His phone buzzed again, but he didn't even bother to look at it. His stomach rumbled. Matteo inhaled deeply, debating how much longer he could put off making some food since he had been hungry already before his nap. His stomach grumbled again, contracting painfully.

Matteo sighed and rolled over to get up, not bothering to change the sweater he had been living in for the past three days, or to put on proper pants. The WG had seen him in his boxers plenty of times already so whatever.

He padded over into the kitchen, painfully aware of the disheveled state of his hair and how easy it would be for any of the others to tell something wasn't alright. He didn't care. He simply took a pizza from the freezer, put it on the oven rack without backing parchment and closed the oven door, setting the temperature to 200°C.

“Hey my little butterfly,” Hans greeted him as he entered to kitchen and went over to the fridge.

“He,” Matteo replied, and God, now he even failed at forming full words? And sure enough, Hans turned around to look at him, the fridge door hanging open behind him. Matteo avoided his eyes and looked down at his feet.

“Pizza again?” Hans asked, obviously trying to make conversation, but Matteo didn't see the point in replying. Obviously pizza again. He just did a half-shrug-head-shake instead. Hans didn't say anything else for a few seconds, and then, “How about we cook something together tomorrow evening? A nice potato gratin with loads of cheese. Hm? What about that?”

Matteo looked up at Hans for a moment and said “Whatever” with another shrug before he looked at his feet again. Hans made a small noise of discontent.

“You need a pick-me-up,” he concluded before he shut the fridge and left the kitchen again, leaving Matteo to stare at the spot where he just stood.

A soft knock on his door caused Matteo to look up.

“Matteo,” an even softer voice came muffled through the door and Matteo's heart skipped a beat. He felt paralyzed. “Can I come in?”

Matteo just stared at the door, a thousand emotions swelling up inside him and constricting his throat, making it impossible to reply anything. Not to mention the fact that he wasn't even sure if he wanted him to come in or not.

A soft thud against the door made Matteo think that he leaned against it on the other side and some of the tension left Matteo's body, only to come back tenfold when his phone buzzed with a message from him.

David, 21:09 Can I please come inside?

Matteo blinked and felt a tear fall from his eyes. Fuck. Why were emotions a thing? He stared at the message through the tears blurring his vision and his fingers hovered over the screen.

Matteo, 21:10 Ok

There was some rustling on the other side of the door and after a moment of silence, the door creaked open. Matteo held his breath.

David entered his room hesitantly, half-hiding behind the door, and looked over at Matteo who realized that David would totally be able to tell he had been crying, even from where he stood. Quickly, he wiped his cheeks dry with the sleeve of his sweater.

“Hi,” David said quietly, not moving, waiting, giving Matteo room. For some reason, this made everything worse.

“Hi,” Matteo finally replied and David took this as a sign that he could close the door. Afterwards, he came over to the bed, but stopped at the end of it, biting his lip. This close, Matteo – who couldn't help but study David's face – saw that he didn't seem to be doing so well either. There were dark circles under his eyes and his hair looked a lot messier than usual.

The silence filled the room when neither of them knew what to say next. Matteo was glad he didn't need to talk because the lump in his throat was still there and he was afraid that his voice would break if he had to say more than one word. As the silence went on he watched as David pulled his phone out of his pocket and started typing, before his own phone buzzed. David looked over at him expectantly. Matteo unlocked his phone.

David, 21:12 We can text if you can't talk

And, a second later...

David, 21:12 It's what I do when everything gets too much

Matteo stared at the messages as a feeling, so very different from everything he had experienced in the past days, started to spread through him. The closest he had ever come to feeling like this was when he spent time alone with Jonas, but it was different still. His phone buzzed again.

David, 21:13 I will just stay here a bit okay? And when you're ready you can tell me whats wrong

With this, he sat down at the end of the bed and took of his jacket, revealing a soft black hoodie, his headphones still looped around his neck, like always. Matteo knew David was looking over at him, but he just continued to stare at his phone, at the message David had just sent.

The clattering of pots and pans carried over from the kitchen, and somehow it felt like an invasion of privacy, even though Matteo was perfectly aware that all of his flat mates were decent enough not to listen in on others' conversations. Well, except maybe Hans.

Matteo tried to breathe through the lump in his throat as he started typing a reply to David. He didn't know where to start, a thousand thoughts flooding his brain. After a moment of hesitation, he started with the one he was surest about.

Matteo, 21:15 I like you. I cant explain it but i do and i think ive never felt the same for anyone else and its terrifying. Because life is horrible and shit like at saras party happens and it rips ur fucking heart out nd theres nothing u can do abut it

The tears were back and he hated hated hated it. He hated himself so much in moments like this. Matteo screwed his eyes shut and dropped his head against the wall he was leaning on with a bit more force than he had planned and suddenly he found himself in David's arms who pulled him away from the wall and held him tight.

“Stop,” he whispered in Matteo's ear, no heat behind it, so very different to how his Dad had reacted when Matteo had first shown signs of self-destructive behavior as a child. And when David's fingers brushed gingerly across the back of his head to soothe the pain, instead of grabbing his wrists in an iron grip like his Dad telling him to snap out of it, Matteo realized was true concern looked like. Since his Dad had left, he had begun to realize that his father's actions had always come from a place of annoyance, but it hadn't been until just now that he knew what difference a reaction could make.

And with this realization, Matteo slumped against David and hugged him back, held him so close that he thought he'd crush him, but David just let it happen. And like this they sat until the clatter and chatter from the kitchen fell silent, the others back in their rooms, and his room dark save for the lamp on his bedside table. The tears had stopped, though his nose was still runny, and finally he felt ready to pull back.

He met David's eyes, the other boy's eyebrows knitted together sadly.

“I'm sorry,” he murmured, dropping his gaze for a moment. “About Sara's party. I don't know what came over me. It's just...” He inhaled deeply. “You remember that joke you made about Hans's friend, the trans girl from that one party who you said “Still totally looks like a dude”?”

Matteo blinked at him in confusion before he nodded.

“Well, it's just that...” David hesitated again, taking another shaky breath. “I'm trans, Matteo.”

Matteo felt his face fall. Fuck.

“David, I –” he started but David cut him off.

“My parents decided to move since I was bullied at my last school because of it, so I never told anyone here because I didn't wanna go through the same stuff again. And then you came along and I fell head over heels and then... well... then you said that.” He looked down at his lap where he picked on his thumb's cuticle with his fingernail. “And it made me doubt everything that happened between us. And then Leonie was at the party, and I know she has a crush on me, so I just said to myself, why the fuck not? I just wanted to feel good for one night.”

Matteo stared at him, his thoughts a mess.

“David, I'm sorry,” he finally said, because what he had just heard put everything else into perspective. “I never meant to hurt you, I'm sorry.”

“Well, shit happens,” David said with a sad chuckle and looked at Matteo again. “After you said that, my thoughts just spiraled and I... well... I ended up convincing myself that you'd never want to be together with me because I'm trans.”

“No!” The word broke out of Matteo with such force that he was a bit surprised himself. “It's... well I'd be lying if I said it's not a bit weird right now, but... it doesn't change anything for me, David. I like you because you're you. Because you get me.” And when he saw the look on David's face, he added, “I meant it's weird because I'm a stupid bastard and I don't know shit, and I don't want to hurt you ever again with something I say.”

“Don't call yourself that,” David said in a small voice.

“It's true though. I hurt you, so that makes me a bastard.”

“You were just joking around,” David tried to trivialize it. “You didn't know any better.”

But Matteo was having none of it. “That's not an excuse. It was still shitty.”

He thought David would continue to protest, but he said something else instead. “Do you know why I'm here?” Matteo shook his head no. “Because Sara texted me. Apparently she had the suspicion you're gay and have a crush on me after you dumped her, and then Hanna texted her earlier about how you've been down the whole holidays and she remembered what happened at the party and put two and two together.”

Matteo couldn't help but be amazed. He knew he had hurt her deeply, but that she still found it in her heart to care about him like that... he hadn't expected it. At the mention of the party, Matteo couldn't keep himself any longer from asking a question that had been on his mind since David had arrived.

“So you're not interested in Leonie?”

The question hung in the air for a moment before David laughed, and Matteo's heart tugged warmly at the sight of it.

“Matteo. I'm gay. I'm in love with you.”

Whoop, there it was. David's mouth fell open when he noticed what he had said and Matteo was aware that he looked just as thunderstruck.

“You what?” he asked, not able to stop the smile from spreading across his face. It took David a second longer before a similar smile lifted the corners of his mouth as well.

“I'm in love with you.”

“God, stop being cheesy!” Matteo laughed and shoved David so that he almost fell backwards. For a moment, they jostled around until both of them needed to catch their breath and Matteo noticed that their fingers were entwined. Suddenly, the air in his room felt heavier again.

“So, you still like me?” David asked, the uncertainty still audible in his voice.

“Yes,” Matteo answered without missing a beat. “I still like you, dumbass.”

And God, the smile that lit up David's face just then, it could've blinded the whole world.

#druck #matteo x david #my art

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lightsandlostbells · 5 years

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Skam Austin season 2, episode 1 reaction

Finally, Skam Austin returns, this time without Julie Andem behind the wheel. Honestly, no matter your opinion on this version of Skam, I’m actually quite curious as to where they’re going with this. Noorhelm, American-style? In the #MeToo era??? Will this season be a pleasant surprise and a sensitive rewrite of the original season, or will it just raise my blood pressure?

Episode 1

Clip 1 - Less dance, more cupcakes please

Big establishing shots of Austin and Bouldin High, a “national outstanding high school” according to a banner. Abby talking a selfie with her girls. Tyler and his boyfriend sloppily kissing??? Congrats on being the first gay couple to get the S2 opening clip makeouts! Also, just gotta say, nice that a gay couple can engage in the same PDA as a straight pairing at a high school in a red state, although Austin’s less conservative than a lot of Texas.

Megan and Grace observe the makeout, as well as Shay sitting by herself on the stairs. Megan feels bad for Shay. When Grace asks why, Megan says she’d feel bad if Grace had a boyfriend. HMMM FORESHADOWING. Also, gay. Megan, the solution is to go be Shay’s girlfriend so she’s not alone. (For real, I have kinda mixed feelings on Megan and Shay actually getting together, because while I love their longing looks and hand holding, Shay betrayed Megan’s confidence in a huge way that would require tons of effort to repair the relationship, and I can only really buy it during a Shay season where there’s lots of focus on them. And I think it’s more likely they’ll give Shay an Even who’s brand new. But I wouldn’t object if there was a good story arc for Megan and Shay!)

Grace thinks Tyler’s boyfriend has a long tongue, Megan thinks Marlon’s is longer … well, that statement feels loaded. Like, we-won’t-need-Jonas’-Blue-Monday-power-walk kinda loaded.

Megan and Shay exchange an awkward wave. Almost a year later and things still aren’t normal, I guess. Shay fucked it up.

Josefina has tried to do her own hijab, I guess? Zoya helps her do it properly. It’s really cute. Jo is my MVP of this show. I adore her. They need to make sure to do Shay and Zoya seasons on time so we can squeeze in a Jo season before they graduate.

Kelsey runs up. She made it onto the Kittens! I guess that’s one way to not have a dance team anymore. Some of the Kittens got busted for cheating on tests and got kicked off the team and L M A O obviously this wasn’t planned but I love this development happening now with the college admissions cheating scandal featuring Felicity Huffman and Aunt Becky.

Jo wants to tattoo Kelsey’s eyebrows, continuing the thread of her using Kelsey’s face as her cosmetic guinea pig from the first season.

Kelsey is excited because she can be on both the Kittens and the girl squad dance team. LMAO, so that WAS a thing. Did they actually dance??? It sounds like it. Apparently the team unofficially disbanded when Grace stopped going to the games and parties to focus on the school newspaper.

But I do love Grace being on the school paper; I worked for my campus newspaper so I am unreasonably excited to see where that goes. I’m assuming Noora’s Constitution Day article will become a column that Grace/(Daniel) writes for the newspaper?

Grace says she loves working at the newspaper and Kelsey tries to guilt her because it’s junior year and it’s the year colleges look at, you need to have extracurriculars. You can’t just be good, you have to be amazing. Well, that’s true, junior year is a big deal and the pressure to have a million extracurriculars is real. But lmao, newspaper is an extracurricular, as Grace points out. Kelsey thinks Grace needs more than “repetitive feminist essays” and OK, rude, and I also feel personally attacked. But if you’re going to get on Grace’s ass, Kelsey then what are your other “amazing” extracurriculars? By the same logic, wouldn’t you need more than dance teams? (I should not expect logic from Kelsey when it comes to dance teams, I know. Or Daniel.)

Jo gives this conversation the attention it deserves, which is minimal, because she has a cupcake. Her priorities are accurate. She says it’s the best cupcake in Austin so her search is over. Lmao, that Instagram content paid off. Now she should take on her quest for other top desserts. Megan can assist her in finding the best smoothie in Austin.

They’re talking about spring break. Kelsey needs to get her body ready, a hint toward her body image issues and concerns over her weight. Then Daniel’s voice comes out of nowhere to tell Grace that juniors can’t park in the senior lot. Grace says it’s not a big deal, Daniel says it is. Zoya, BLESS HER, is like, “So what are you going to do? Kick our ass?” YESSSSSSS someone besides Grace is not taking Daniel’s shit.

It is downright uncomfortable how much Kelsey is trying to cozy up to Daniel playing hall monitor and how Daniel just ignores her when she’s right there to flirt with Grace. He says he hasn’t seen Grace in a while. At first I thought they did have their infamous date during the long hiatus - can you imagine not including that scene in a Noorhelm remake - but as it turns out, it still hasn’t happened. He asks about Grace’s boyfriend, and Kelsey blows Grace’s cover by saying Grace doesn’t have a boyfriend. Grace tries to save it by saying it’s her ex. So that’s how she got Daniel off her back. You know, if you lie about a fake boyfriend, that should be a giant clue to back off, dude. But instead Daniel knows she’s single so you know he’s gonna go after Grace again.

Kelsey tells Daniel she’s a Kitten and wants to take a pic with him. God, this is cringe-worthy. Someone stop Kelsey from doing anything. Ever. And it is so deeply awkward how the girls just stop and watch as Kelsey snaps some selfies of her with Daniel. In front of Grace.

Something super interesting in the comments: a few people commented how it didn’t feel like a Julie Andem clip. I assume people who recognize Julie Andem by name are fairly involved in the fandom, but I’m not sure how widespread the knowledge of Julie’s departure was. I wonder if they guessed it on their own.

Clip 2 - First rule of being an Eskild: never lock your door

Grace is cutting up vegetables for dinner. And dancing. I like they had her do this, it’s goofy and humanizing, and in line with her characterization from season 1. Noora would sing to Justin Bieber, Grace loves dancing like a fool. The irony of course being that Grace doesn’t give a fuck about the dance team, lol. She dances for herself and HERSELF ONLY (and sometimes Megan, when Megan needs a pick-me-up).

She talks to Megan, who is with Marlon. Megan told Marlon about what happened with Grace and Daniel, so errrr, thanks Megan? But Grace says she’s going to tell Kelsey everything, presumably about her and Daniel’s deal, so Daniel won’t have anything over her head. Daniel holding something over Grace’s head? Grace thinking Daniel might tell Kelsey something incriminating? Trust is an essential foundation of a relationship, just saying.

Megan asks Marlon for his opinion and this dude clearly could not give a single shit about Grace and Daniel and Kelsey, he just says that if a girl isn’t into you, you just leave her alone. Not looking at the phone (and Grace) at all, just giving Megan some Looks, in my opinion. Based on later clips where he’s got a new girl, I think he’s trying to communicate that he no longer has feelings for Megan, but that Megan keeps hanging around and clinging to him. That would go along with Megan not getting it and saying maybe the guy doesn’t want to be left alone, showing she doesn’t get it (right after Marlon says “I don’t see why he doesn’t get that”). Also Marlon seems to be checking his phone during this chat so he’s not fully invested - my mind went to Jonas looking up other girls with Eva during the original version of this clip.

I will say, good on Marlon for knowing to leave girls alone if they don’t want you. Which is more than I can say for some characters in the Skam universe. Marlon’s probably my least favorite Jonas so this is a point in his favor, even if it is a low bar, lol.

But also IDK if he’s being Woke or if he’s just swapping out Daniel and Grace for him and Megan and hoping Meg gets the picture.

Megan thinks Grace doesn’t want to be left alone and Grace goes into a rant about how Daniel isn’t her type, he’s not smart, doesn’t read, needs to check his white male privilege etc. Tbh it’s kinda cringy and on the nose in execution, like all of that is true and they’re solid reasons for Grace to not want Daniel, but I feel like they’re just stacking up ideas to be debunked about him. We’ll probably learn that Daniel is actually some sensitive dude who reads books and has political opinions and is a secret genius or whatever.

Grace notices her pasta is gone and waltzes into her cousin Eve’s room while Eve is engaged in some foreplay with her lady guest. Gee, Grace, that’s awfully bold considering you didn’t know what state of undress they’d be in. At least their underwear is still on … and Eve’s shoes … why does she have shoes on??

Anyway, LESBIAN ESKILD. Eve immediately establishes that she is some sort of hipster artist and kicks out Grace so she can go back to hooking up with her girl.

Daniel texts Grace that she’s cute when she gets caught, and thanks her for sending him her class notes when he was in the hospital. What was he in the hospital for? I don’t think that was stated on SM, or did I just miss it? (It’s on the Bouldin Beat Instagram: he had a football injury.) Grace said there’s no need to thank her because the teacher asked her to. He makes a joke abut football players not being able to read, which makes Grace smile, so you know ... she’s not so opposed to him as she lets on. But then he suggests they hang out tomorrow and her amusement fades, because that’s pushing things too far. We end before Grace answers.

Clip 3 - Why are we still talking about Daniel? Zoya’s words, not mine

They’re at SXSW for Marlon’s show. The banner says SX Sessions. I was confused as to why Marlon’s garage band would be playing here but looking at the banner for the event, I see something about all Austin bands, so if it’s an event featuring local talent, it makes more sense as to why Clout is playing.

A girl is talking to Marlon. Grace notices and seems to check in with Megan. Who does look great, by the way, in her leather jacket, her peer-reviewed ensemble. Megan’s still hung up on Marlon after almost a year, it seems. But also … lol, barely anyone wants them back together. They’re one of the least popular Eva/Jonas pairings. Possibly the least.

Kelsey is still talking about Daniel because he texted her and invited them to Penetrator Jo’s beach house for spring break. Grace is like mmmm … that sounds far away. I mean, would you want to be in her shoes, stuck at a beach house with the guy who won’t take no for an answer, where people will be drinking, where you probably couldn’t relax and even go swimming because that dude is definitely going to be looking at you in your swimsuit? Megan tries to help Grace by saying Marlon invited them all to a party. Josefina wants to go to be around mostly naked guys while they are also mostly naked. Kelsey and Zoya do not seem to be happy with the mostly naked part. Grace is like, we can just stay at my place and bake cookies instead! That would be my preferred option.

Kelsey wants some quality time with Daniel (is any time with Daniel quality time)and guilts Grace into going. I love that she’s like “We can talk about the dance team in the car” as if that would make Grace want to go. Grace reluctantly agrees and Kelsey tells Daniel the good news. He responds right away. He also texts Grace right away that they’ll be hanging out. No one notices the suspicious timing of the texts.

Kelsey wants to know if Daniel might like her, Zoya wants to know why we’re still talking about Daniel. THANK YOU. Megan goes off to talk to Marlon and block that girl from getting too close to him, like she literally squeezes between them. Zoya lays out what a rude ass Daniel was to Kelsey and Kelsey is like, but he genuinely apologized!!! And she’s a Kitten now!!! Kelsey loves how direct Daniel is and how he knows what he wants. Yeahhhh, about that. He does go after what/who he wants. It’s just not you.

Also, lol, they conveniently didn’t have to film an actual concert for this scene.

Clip 4 - Newspaper time!!!

Grace is doing newspaper stuff at school with a guy (Nic) and Poonam. Poonam!!!! That girl spoke her first line and I remembered how much I enjoyed her overachieving ridiculousness.

Kelsey texts the girls that she had a dream where Daniel asked her to prom. She was wearing her Kittens uniform in the cafeteria and Daniel came up, knelt, and offered a dozen roses. Lol, I don’t think Daniel would do that shit even if he did like Kelsey. But also … Kelsey. Dear. You’re so embarrassing. Being a Kitten is not going to make you a Daniel magnet.

They talk about the launch, so I guess the newspaper is a new thing? Or they’re adding a new feature? Poonam is nervous about the launch and what people will think of her. Grace says she doesn’t care what people think of her. (Or so she thinks ... I think Grace certainly wants people to think she doesn’t care and that she’s strong and independent, for example.) Poonam says if it fails she’ll pretend not to know Grace. Lmao, classic Poonam.

Grace slides over to Nic, the dude who’s there. According to the Bouldin Beat Instagram, he’s the cartoonist for the paper, but their conversation makes me think he does some graphics design, too. He’s listening to a Hamilton mixtape. Grace didn’t know he likes Hamilton, so she obviously didn’t see that Bouldin Beat IG post where it says Nic has the Hamilton soundtrack on heavy rotation. She brings up that her friend Kelsey likes the Hamilton mixtape. (I’m sorry but LMAO, because on the one hand I do find that totally believable, but on the other hand, my God, imagine someone with Kelsey’s level of racial sensitivity being a Hamilton fan.) Nick knows Kelsey and thinks she’s funny. So I think either he’s going to be the Magnus, maybe, as far as being Kelsey’s eventual love interest (although ... lol, see above comment about Kelsey’s level of racial sensitivity), or Grace will see him as a potential love interest for Kelsey and try to hook them up to get Kelsey’s mind off Daniel.

Shay comes in. It is instantly awkward. Grace: “I like your hair.” Shay: “It’s not real.” Lmao. I missed you, too.

However! In the most depressing development ever, Shay is here to see Nic. He gets up and kisses her on the mouth. It is bleak. Shay looks so not enthusiastic. She was staring at Grace in a pretty hard way, too, what’s that about? Did she know Grace saw her texts and showed them to Megan?

Shay’s “BYE” is passive-aggressive as hell. Grace sits there in shock as Poonam is like, they seem like a cute couple. LMAO GOD.

Just throwing this out there: best acted scene of the season so far, however brief. The power of La’keisha Slade.

Anyway. NOOOOOOO. Shayyyyyyy. It’s not unexpected, considering the trajectory of the Isak character in S2, but I thought, since Shay seemed to have an awareness of her sexuality at the end of S1 - she knows she likes girls and she was OK with telling Tyler about it - that maybe we could skip this stage. There’s something really dark about this, too, because Tyler is out there making out with dudes, it’s not like she thinks her friend group is completely homophobic (and yes, people can view gay guys and lesbians differently and have varying levels of acceptance, but I doubt that’s the case with Shay’s friends) so it’s not just about putting up a show for her friends.

What does Tyler think about Shay dating a guy? He’s not the nicest guy overall but he does care about Shay, and he knows she likes girls, possibly that she likes only girls depending on what she told him in the past. Now I’m wondering if Shay started dating Nic in part because Tyler has his boyfriend now, and Shay presumably feels like she’s left out, as Megan said. Damn. Shay needs a hug in any case.

Clip 5 - Cookie baking

Grace’s J. Didion (as in writer Joan Didion) sweatshirt is a nice touch and exactly the kind of thing I think her character would wear.

I enjoy Eve on principle because lesbian Eskild fuck yeah, but I also feel like her delivery is very ... TV-ish. Like someone who has watched a lot of teen dramas and is channeling the same flow/energy of how those shows present dialogue. I don’t think she’s bad, it’s not that, it’s just more when watching this show I feel like I am watching a typical scripted TV show rather than the very natural Skam style - not just with Eve, a lot of the show, even compared to the first season. I just thought of it with Even because when she entered here, it felt more like a wacky TV neighbor kinda entrance, like she was Kramer or something. Is that because Julie isn’t working on the show anymore?

Anyway, Eve tells Grace about some girl who is lighting dildos on fire and that’s the real story here, I want the clip about the dildo pyre.

Eve sees a text from Daniel on Grace’s phone and says he sounds like a blast. I refuse to believe this lesbian would be impressed by Daniel in the fucking slightest.

He did send a cute dog picture to Grace so that’s one thing he has going for him. Grace has a cute dog, too. If their romance was just them walking their dogs, I could warm up to that. Gradually.

Grace says Daniel is some stuck-up asshole and Eve looks him up on her phone, saying she knows him. His brother was in her grade, a wild athlete who broke records, and his sister had some tragedy attached to her. The mention of tragedy gives Grace pause.

Actually, a point in Skam Austin’s favor: if they talk about toxic masculinity and rape culture in high school/college athletics and how jocks are favored and get let off the hook for heinous actions, that would be extremely culturally relevant. I mean, a football player in Texas? Treated like a god. And there have been some high profile rape cases involving athletes. Daniel’s brother has likely graduated and gone on to college, maybe playing college football if he was that good, but it would be a way to make the S2 sexual assault storyline even more suited to American culture.

Clip 6 - Daniel’s going to be on Investigation Discovery one day, mark my words

The girls are at Grace’s house. They must have had a sleepover. There’s a nice nod to OG when the girls mention using a Ouija board the night before. So I guess we’re not getting that cabin episode (understandable because American school timelines would not allow for it, probably). Jo was afraid the ghosts tried to pluck her unibrow. NOOOOO GHOSTS, LEAVE IT ALONE. IT’S MAGNIFICENT.

Grace comes out with nachos and offers them to the girls. Kelsey looks at that plate and is like, shoot, I can’t do cheese, or chips, or beans. And I know this is Kelsey and she has an eating disorder, but like … people have legit problems with cheese and beans, lol. To her credit, Grace doesn’t make Kelsey eat the nachos or call her out. She offers to make Kelsey a kale salad or a turkey wrap, but Kelsey shuts that down, too. (She was also doing jumping jacks while the other girls were reminiscing about ghosts, just saying.)

Megan is upset because Marlon left her on read, probably because he has that new girl, not that Megan knows yet, and Daniel is texting Grace about when she’s leaving. Daniel then texts Kelsey the same thing. Grace texts Daniel to stop using Kelsey to get to her. Daniel is like, wouldn’t have to if you’d answer me! Grace says he’s messed up. I mean, yeah. He is messed up. Grace doesn’t owe him a response, sorry.

While the other girls are talking, Kelsey mentions that she didn’t pack a swimsuit because she doesn’t like swimming, while Jo says Kelsey loves swimming, so another hint about Kelsey’s body image problems.

Daniel tries to call Grace and she declines the call, so then of course he immediately calls Kelsey. Oh my God, it IS messed up for him to do this. It’s so damn manipulative! (I know this all happened in Skam but we get to live this mess all over again, yayyyy.) And of course Kelsey is excited, but then he wants to talk to Grace. Ughhhh.

Daniel says Grace is messed up, and he knows what he’s doing is also messed up, but they had a deal. Oh my God. YOU NEVER OWE SOMEONE A FUCKING DATE. This is such a dangerous idea! You should always be able to back out of a romantic commitment! If Grace had been like “I will buy you something off the Taco Bell value menu if you apologize to Kelsey” and Daniel was calling Grace to be like “I want my fucking cheesy rice and bean burrito already” then I would find that more sympathetic than this. But dating is something you should NEVER have to set in stone, sorry, and I think this is where some of the split comes between Daniel/William defenders and his haters, because some people think a deal is a deal and some people (like me) think a date should not be ironclad under any circumstances. That mentality contributes to rape culture. (The disconnect between S2′s sexual assault storyline and William’s behavior is wild, tbh. But this is discourse that has been hashed out a million times already.)

Daniel whines that he apologized to Kelsey almost a year ago and that Grace made up an imaginary boyfriend so she didn’t have to hold up her end. No, actually Grace making up a fake boyfriend is what women do to get men off their backs because said men will not leave them alone and it’s a sad fact of life. Because men respect other men’s “claim” on their property (aka women) more than women’s ability to say no.

Daniel sounds like a goddamn serial killer when he’s all “just keep your word and go on a date with me.” Grace sounds downright defeated when she agrees. And of course when Grace hands the phone back to Kelsey, Daniel cancels on them for the beach house. Jesus, so we didn’t even get cute girl squad beach antics? Boooooo.

And actually, how shitty is it that he uninvited them to the beach house? I get that William uninvited them to the party, too, but that was just a party. These girls got packed and ready to drive several hours to a beach house, like imagine if they were on the road when Daniel called, or if they’d already spent money on gas and other stuff for a beach trip, or canceled other Spring Break plans with their families or friends to go hang out with these dudes. Beach house was a bigger time/money commitment for them than just a party, and he uninvited them (via a completely obvious lie that he took no effort to hide on social media) just because he got his date out of Grace. Selfish as hell, dude.

Jo complains that there’s too much girl juice happening and not enough sausage, and Megan is like, “You had sausage this morning.” Lmao. Literally all of these girls should embrace the “girl juice” because there is not a single viable male option so far. Nic from the newspaper seems nice but he’s bearding for Shay at the moment.

Good closing song, though (“Nail in My Coffin” by The Kills).

One of the best things about Skam Austin are the comments, and this clip did not disappoint. Some of the highest-rated comments were things like (paraphrased):

“Daniel is being manipulative”

“Grace doesn’t owe Daniel anything”

“you can see the fear in Grace’s eyes when she’s talking to Daniel on the phone, red flag”

“Daniel sounds like he’s threatening her life”

And my utter favorite comment from this clip, verbatim: “daniel reminds me of those guys in criminal minds who call people on the phone and tell them what to do otherwise someone they love will die - aka a creep lmao”

Social Media/General Comments:

I don’t know what the big holdup was with S2 - probably having to do with Julie’s departure - but it was a big mistake to wait so long, imo. I don’t think it was great for building fan momentum, although I notice that the first full episode of S2 has more views already than some of the episodes from last season that have been out for almost a year (not sure if Facebook was hyping this season or not like they did with the series premiere). They’ve also minimized time for future seasons. We can get Shay and Zoya seasons if they get one in for this fall and next spring, provided the show is renewed for those, obviously.

Anyway, Julie’s no longer the director. The director is Phillip J. Bartell, who has a pretty interesting track record: he was the editor on To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, Dear White People (both film and TV series), and G.B.F. Feels like a decent background for someone to take on Skam; he has experience with teen films and with more diverse fare than just straight white people. He also edited a shit ton of low-budget gay films, most notably the Eating Out series, including directing and writing Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds, and I have to include this excerpt from the Wikipedia plot synopsis: The five then start scheming to out Jacob, the closeted leader of the ex-gay ministry, to his mother by tricking him to have sex with Octavio, another member of the ministry, in a portable toilet on wheels. Jacob finally comes out to his mother (after he inadvertently ejaculates on her coat as his sexuality is revealed), and flees with Octavio.

I did get more of a traditional teen drama vibe from this episode, and I do already miss Julie’s style of filmmaking: it was one of the best things Skam Austin had going for it. However, I’m going to give the sloppy seconds guy a shot. Although admittedly, this season of all seasons is one where I’m most apprehensive about handing the material over to a male director, no matter his track record. (Then again, a woman created Noorhelm in the first place, soooooo.)

I feel like Skam Austin more than other remakes has a large percentage of the viewers who watch the whole episodes rather than the clips, or who don’t understand the real time structure (correct me if other remakes have drastically more viewers for the full episodes than the clips). Each clip is flooded with comments telling the show to make the episodes longer or asking where the rest of the episode is. Tbh I find that really interesting because no doubt Facebook wants Skam Austin to be the hip new way to consume media in real time (I mean, assuming you have not seen the original show) but a large portion of the audience does not want to consume the show this way, lmao. And a lot of them cannot figure out how to watch the show! I blame some of that on the confusing Facebook video format, like the original Skam website felt so clean and easy to follow compared to Facebook’s ... everything.

Prior to the season’s start, there was a lot of SM stuff that set up stuff for this season, such as Jo’s epic quest for the best cupcake, Daniel’s car, the Kitten scandal, Abby is dating some football dude who’s one of Daniel’s friends, etc.

They made a point of it being Daniel’s birthday and him turning 18, I wonder if that will be relevant to the plot at all? Because now he’s legally an adult. Maybe if he beats the crap out of someone, like with the Yakuza guys, it’ll matter because he’ll be charged as an adult vs as a juvenile.

Abby’s new football player boyfriend is named Hunter. He has his own Instagram. I’m not sure why so much focus on this guy? I have nothing against him, just not sure why he of all people has an Instagram, compared to like Poonam or another supporting character. Would he be the Niko character since we already know Daniel has a brother? I guess maybe Daniel could hypothetically get in a fight with him over some Yakuza dude? Will Hunter end up dating one of the girl squad instead of Abby? Or does he not have much of a role except to be another of Daniel and Pen Jo’s social circle, lol?

Some information from the Bouldin Beat Instagram:

Grace is a staff writer, Poonam is a researcher (???? do they mean copy editor? if she’s researching stuff wouldn’t she just be a staff writer since ... they all do research ...) and Nic is a cartoonist. And Poonam’s full name is Poonam Para, love me that alliteration. (There’s also a Sullivan Smith and a John Jackson.)

Poonam does write the advice column. She manages to include a reference to Frozen in at least one piece of advice, to no one’s surprise, lmao.

In between reminding students about the 2018 midterms and an active shooter drill, the newspaper took the time to do the most important piece of all, Who Knows Daniel Williamson The Best.

His favorite movie is Dumb and Dumber which is not so subtly a connection to Grace’s IG name (Mary Swanson is a character from that film). So either it’s a thing they genuinely have in common, or he’s been trying to get on Grace’s good side. Or I guess he stalked her, watched the movie, and legit enjoyed it as Isak did with Romeo + Juliet for Even.

Penetrator Jo knows Daniel the best out of those questioned. Hunter does not know Daniel that well. Foreshadowing? Hunter’s a fake friend?

There are lots of horoscopes but I don’t know how to connect them to the characters since I don’t think we know their birthdays.Oh, except Daniel’s a Pisces, but I don’t know if him being so sensitive and “feeling all the feels” fits his personality that well.

The girls took part in the climate strike on March 15 and I do like the show acknowledging youth activism. I’m not sure it’ll play a huge role in the show itself, although frankly it would be a huge missed opportunity to ignore #MeToo considering the content of this season (based on the original).

Meg posted a pic of her with Grace captioned “me and wifey” and I don’t even ship them compared to other Eva/Noora pairings, but that’s just cruel.

There’s a text message and it confused me at first because Daniel says he apologized to Kelsey, and my eyes had glazed over that it was from last June, at the end of season 1. We get a rare glimpse into older texts that happened during a prior season - usually don’t see that with Skams, letting us see what was happening when the previous POV character couldn’t see it.

Anyway, back in the day, Daniel invited Grace for a picnic, she called him a cliche, they bantered, but it seems like she was a little torn about not being into him. He told her he apologized to Kelsey. Eleven days later he asks about their date and Grace says she’s in Dallas all summer and he says that wasn’t part of the deal. She asks if he seriously needs a date as incentive for baseline human decency, GOD, THANK YOU. A Noora finally said it. (Or at this point, it might not be the only Noora who said this. I’m still elated that Grace did.)

In September he texts her “shame about that boyfriend” so either she had a real BF and broke up with him at some point, or she just lied about it. I think it’s possible she said she had someone in Dallas which would be an easy way to keep up the lie. The “my girlfriend who lives in Canada” of Texas. And so that brings us up to now, where he notes she got caught and asks her out again. Daniel, fucking LISTEN to what she said about baseline human decency.

The girls’ group chat is Los Losers, an obvious reference to OG Skam’s girl squad. I got nostalgic as hell reading that, it was a sweet gesture.

I mentioned above that they didn’t stage the actual concert from Clout, which on a practical level I completely understand. But in-universe, it’s pretty far-fetched that there were no concert pics or videos from any of the characters on social media. I guess one of the hazards of Skam’s realism and social media format is that sometimes realism is too expensive to film, lol.

Daniel, Pen Jo, and their crew were all about the beach/spring break selfies this week so LMAO at how people were expecting the girl squad to chill at the beach later and just … that didn’t pan out.

Instead of going to the boys’ beach house, the girls did sheet masks, which is way more fun and also yields terrifying pictures.

If you got this far, thank you for reading!

#skam austin reactions #skamus reactions

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onwardtoprocess · 5 years

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So I have a girlfriend

so I have a girlfriend. It’s funny because out of all the places to meet and find loved ones ... we met on an online dating app. It’s weird to tell people at first, but online dating is becoming more ubiquitous in today’s society. Anyways, for the sake of privacy and if she ever finds out about this blog, i’ll call her “Mulan”. Mulan isn’t your normal every day girl and I found that quite clear in our first interactions. Anyways, my “1″ post was regarding Mulan and it was quite messy. I just want to let you guys know more about who this girl i’m ranting about is. Let’s talk about her and organize this post a little.

First thing you guys need to know abut Mulan: she’s a huge kpop fan. She obsesses over a specific boy group, BTS, and even has a social media account solely focused on everything BTS. Some of her posts consist of selfies and close up shots of her bias and expresses how she wants to kiss and hug him etc. What do I think about this? Half the time It’s okay, but the other half i’m uncomfortable. To be fair, she doesn’t know I know about her account, but at the same time it popped up on my related. Also, when she’s not texting me - which occurs often when she’s free - she’s posting photos and illustrating the immense amount of obsession she has over her beloved boy band member. Don’t get me wrong, I love BTS, they make great music and I connect a lot with their songs. However, the whole idol culture and obsessing over everything about the members I never got into that and it turns me off when I see her like that.

Second, Mulan is a really bad communicator. When we first talked, she was pretty fast in her responses. Yet, it’s pretty much different now since we are dating. She takes sometimes hours to respond now, but she’ll be active on text for a while. I’ve actually brought it up in the past and she says that’s basically who she is. She claims that she’s not used to talking to someone constantly. Also, Mulan can be quite a bland texter. Sometimes her responses are so bland and vague that it seems like she doesn’t want to talk. Not to mention, she hardly ever asks me questions back. So no “how’s your days” or “what you are doings”. This makes the conversation one-sided. She said that a lot of her friends feel like she’s mad at them, but to her that’s not the case. I guess I can see that, but you know since we are dating you shouldn’t distance yourself from your partner... shes been improving though, but sometimes it gets to the point where I question if she’ll ever change? I guess I need to understand her communication style, but you know how can I tell her my feelings and how my day is if she never asks or wonders? I can’t always be the one initiating. Sometimes I get the feeling she doesn’t like me or that maybe she doesn’t like me on the same level.

Overall, there’s so much I can talk about with her. Regardless, I really love this girl. I sometimes think I come off as clingy and it’s sad. I devote a lot of my time thinking about this girl. I hope it wears off because I don’t want to depend on her and have my life be about her. My life should be about myself.

#girlfriend #my girlfriend #relationship #kpop #bts #kpop girlfriend

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love4kpopstars · 6 years

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Hidden feelings- Jungkook

AN: Sooo Im back with one shot and I hope you’ll enjoy it. Sorry for any mistakes.

Genere: Romance

WC: 3407 (hehe) ENJOY

Summary:

(CR TO OWNERS< GIF NOT MINE)

Jeon Jungkook- everyone knew this name. The mst popular guy at school and of course capitan of the school’s football team. Jeon is the exact opposite of you. Shy, nice and not wantig to be in the centre of other’s attention. It was cliché but every girll dreamed about him. He was charrming, handsome and sexy. No matter how much you wanted o hide it from yourself you also had a crush on him. But how can you not when he looks so good everyday and his smile is to die for. Jungkook always dated the popular girls -obviously- but it never was longer than 3 months. Everyoe in the school including the teachers loved him. Fortunately or maybe unfortunately you were in the ame class so even if you tried to forget abut him or uncrush it was simply impossible. You and him never really talked besides that one time when in your sophomore year you two had to do a project together. that’s when you two talked and spend a lot time together and also this is the time when you started having crush on him. Now it was only a little glance in the corridor or question if he can brrow a pen. It didn’t really bother you because as a person that doesn’t like too much attention you knew that it was better to kee away from JungKook before some stupid girl will start to get n yur nerves and taunt you.

You started our day as usual, You woke u at 6:20 am and started gettig ready. You did your everyday gentle makeup, wore your gasses and just like any other day wore jeans withwthe top and some black jacket. At 7:20 you were ready to go out. School was only 10 minutes away from your home so you took your time and went to grab a coffe. When you got to school you saw your best friend Jun.

- Hi Jun. How are you?- You asked as ou came up to your friend

- Ah Y/N hi. I’m great and you?- He greeted you with a big smile.

- I’m good too.- You smiled back at him.

- God it feels like I haven’t seen you in weeks.- Jun laughed.

- Yeah we haven’t seen each other for 2 day.- You said sarcastically.

- It’s way too long. Oh I see you bought me coffe.- He said as he took your coffe away.

He was right though you alwayss bought coffe but could only drink a lttle bit and then he would finish it. You two went inside and waited for the first lesson to start. You still had 10 minute beforee it would start so you tarted reading a book you were currently in the middle of. You don’t know when but the bell ran and the teacher was already in the classroom. Soon you heard thee door open and you lifted your head and saw no ne else but him. Jeon Jungkook. You felt your cheek started getting hot and you quickly looked down. He sat in his seat right behind you. You lifted your head again only to see Jun making fun f you. He knew about your crush on Jungkook and he loved teasig you about it.

- Jun focus!- Ms. Lee scolded him and you stuck your tongue out.

After the class ended you went on with your day as usually. Nothing outstanding really happened. It was finally lunch break, you and Jund were talking about everythng and nothing. In about 5 minutes you saw one f Jungkook’s friend coming in your direction.

- Hi Jun, Y/N.- The boy greeted both of you. You were surprised that he remembered your name.

Jun was this person that got along with everyone and had a lot of friends. He was friends with some of Jungkooks so that’s probably why he knew your name.

- Sup Minjae.- Jun greeted him back and you simply smiled at the boy.

- So Jun I don’t know if you heard but this weekend there will be a party. It’s my birthday and I wanted to invite you. And you too Y/N.- He informed while smiling.

You almost chocked when you heard him say that you are invited.

-That’s great. We’ll be there.- Jun assured his friend.

- Great. Saturday at 8pm sharp.- He smiled for the last time before going back to the resst of hiss friends.

- Are you crazy. I’m not going anywhere. I don’t even knw them that well. No way I’m no going.- You started telling Jun.

- What? Come on Y/N. Minjae invite you himself. You never go ut on weekedns. Come with me it will be fun I swear. They are really fun.- Your friend tried cnvincing you.

- I have nothing to wear and you know I’m not the party kinda girl.- You tried telling Jun.

- We will go shopping and if you’ll be bored or uncrmfortable we’ll leave.- He looked at ou with puppy eyes.

-Ughhhhh...Fine.- You finally agreed.

- Yes!- He was really happy.

As the day came to an end you decided to go to the library to do your homework. You sat at the table alone and fell into your world of boks and thoughts. You had yur headphones on and your favourite songs playing. After 20 minutes you decided to take a brak and just relax. You closed your eyes and sat there for a little bit. Then you heard some shuffling arunf near you. You stopped the music and opened your eye to see Jungkook sitting in front of you.

-Hope it’s okay if I sit here- He smiled at you. Half asking and half saying.

-Ummm… yeah of course.- You answerd quietly.

You didn’t really konw what to do. You just sat there like a fool and stared at him. You noticed that he was looking at you too and it wasn’t just a normal look. You don’t really know how to decribe it but it was different. After a while you took your things an left, you could swear that you saw hm smile at you as you were leaving.

The rest of te week went smoothly, othing happend and before you knew it was aleady Friday. You and Jun greed to go shopping so that you can buy omehing for yourself you wear to the party. After 2 hours of looking you wanted to give up there was nthing that caught your attention. You and your friend decided to get something to eat and look again.

- I can’t belive that after 2 hours you still haven’t found what you’re ging to wear.- Jun nagged jokingly.

- Well sorry that everything that we looked at didn’t suit my style.- You answerd.

- Don’t worry I’m sure we’ll find something.- He tried to cheer you up.

- I hope so.- You said and the two of you started eating.

- Oh look Y/N it’s Jungkook.- Jun pointed with his head and you looked behind.

- Yeah.- A little smile fund its way to your face as soon as you saw him.

- Stop blushing.- Jun teased.

-I’m not. - You rolled your eyes at his response.

- Anyways are you going to do anything? - Your fried asked.

-About what?- You asked confused.

-About your crush on Jungkook.- He looked at you with a questioning look.

-Why would I. It’s not like he likes me back or anythng.- You looked sad.

- Hey okay let’s not talk about this and let’s look for something again.- Jun said as he grabbed you and yu two started walking towards the shops.

Finally after another hour you found something that you liked. Sleeveless, white top and and blak leather pants. It looked really good n you and you already had planned n how to complete this look. You thanked Jun for helping you and after saying your godbyes you went home. For the rest f the day you were watching movies and reading books. When you woke up on Saturday you cleand your room and did your homework. Around 5:30 pm you started getting ready. First you took a shower and then did your hair. You went for little beach waves. After that was ready you did your makeup. You wore contacts so you decided on adding some eyeshadow and dark lips. You finally put on your outfit, you completed th look with a black leather jacket ad white slip ons. After you were ready you called your friend and asked if he was ready to go. You met with him at 7:40, he asked his brother to give us a ride and we were at Minjae’s place at 8 pm sharp.

As soon as you went inside you noticed all of Jungkook’s frieds and him. He looked like a star and as if the light was only on him. He saw you and you two made eye contact. When you and Jun were coming up to say hi to his friends everyone looked so shocked when they saw you. ‘You look amazing’, ‘Wow’, were only a coupe of thing thath people sad when they saw you. At first you felt uncomfortable but then you gained confidence and started enjoying yourself. After couple of hours of dancing and meeting new people you had to go to the bathroom. After you finished your buisness you saw staris thath led to rooftop. You decided to go up and get se fresh air. As you tood thereand looked at the view you heard some noise, at first you got scared ut as you looked what it was you saw Jungkook standing at the edge of the rooftop, it looked as if he was abou to fall over so you quickly ran up to him and held him. He turned around and met your eyes.

-Y/N...- He mutterd and smiled.

- Yes it’s me. Jungkook you’re drunk. Let’s go sit somewhere.- You sugessted.

You took him to the corner of the rooftop and sat there with him. The two of you stayed like thath for a while in a complete silnce. Then you heard Jungkook humming. Even th sounded so angelic. You looked at him and he looked at you.

(recomed listening to this while reading this scene)

-Yoy know this song?- He asked and started singing.

- Yeah.- You whisperd.

-Good. I love this song.- He said with his big, beautiful smile.

- Me too.- You smiled also.

You could feel his eyes on you, you tried to ignore it but it was hard.

- We should go back.- You said as you looked at him again.

- Let’s stay a little longer.- He grabbed your hand.

You stumbled a litte and fell on him. As you tried to move away ou felt soething wam on your lips. It took you a second to realise what is happening. But when it struck you, you didn’t konw what to do. He was kissing you. Jeon Jungkook was kissing YOU. After a while you pulled away frm him, shocked at what has just happened. You quickly stood up and ran downstairs. When you found Jun you told him you wanted to leave, he saw that you were jittery. He took his and your jacket and you two left. Bfore thath you informed Minjae about Jungkook being on the rooftop. On your way out you bumped into someone, quickly mutterd sorry and left. On your way home you told Jun what happend with Jungkook on the rooftop and all he could say was ‘wow’. After you got home you changed into pj’s and went to lie on your bed. You culdn’t stop thinking about Jungkook and his lips on yours. It felt like a movie but also like a dream thath you’ll wake up frm in a little bit. You decided to talk with him on Monday about it. You were hoping that maybe...maybe there will be something more. Sunday was a lazy day for you. You did what you always do. Read books and watch some movies.

Next day you woke up pretty early. You were nervous but also excited. You couldn’t wait to meet Jungkok and talk with him. When you got to school you tried looking fr him but it was unsucessful. At the lunch break you saw him in the corridor. He was alone. Perfect opportunity to talk. You went in his direction and saw him looking at you and cleary he saw you but as soon as you were about to say smething he just turned arund no ‘Hi’ n smile no nothing. It hurt you. He was like that for the rest of the week, and the next week, and the week fter that. After a month yu couldn’t belive how childish he was. He igored you for a moth. You were heaartbroken and couldn’t belive how stuid you were to think there could be something more between you two. You slowly started to forget about him and the crush you had.

- I can’t belive how selfish and childish he is.- Jun was annoyed at Jungkook’s behaviour.

-I know, but it’s also my fault thath thought, like a fool, thath he might like me.- You agreed with your friend.

- I mean how could he do something like thath to you and then just ignre you!- Jun was getting more angry.

- Jun calm down, it’s fine. I’m over it now.- You assured your friend.

-Umm...Hey, can I intrrupt you?- You heard a male voice, both you and Jun looked at the person that said it.

- Yes.- You smply answerd.

-Can I talk to you Y/N in private.- The guy asked.

-Sure.- You stood up and followed him away from Jun.

-I’m not sure if you know me but well I got a question.- He started.

- I do know you Shin. You’re Jun’s friend. I remember we met some time ago and I bumped into you at the party.- You smiled.

- Well i’m glad then. I wanted to ask if it will be alright if I ask you to go out on a date with me?- He looked at you with worried look.

-What? Me? Really, I’m surprised. I didn’t know you liked me.-You couldn’t hide your confusion.

-Yeah I really like you, I think you are very pretty and funny.- He bluhshed.

- Sure, why not.- You patted his shoulder and smiled.

-Great. I’ll pick you up at 6 pm.- You never saw a bigger smile than his.

You went back to Jun and told him that Shin just asked you out and thath you agreed. To wich your friend reacted positively. Shin seemed to be a really sweet guy and you wanted o do something that will help you forget Jungkook definetevly.

-Guys you won’t belive it. She agreed.-Shin annoucd t his friends.

-What are you talking about?- They asked simultaneously.

-Y/N, I asked her out and she said yes.- He answerd happily.

When Jungkook hearg thath smething broke in him. He got angry and jaelous. Hecouldn’t belive how you could’ve said yes. He wanted to talk to you about this but he cold not find you anywhere. The truth was Jungkook liked you. A lot. Ever since the project you two did together but he was too scaared to tell you. He cared too much about his reputation and also that you wouldn’t want to date. But he just realised how stupid he was. Even though he was drunk thath night he remembers what happened between you and him.

Later that day you started getting ready for your date with Shin. You chose a simple dress with floral dress and slip ons. You did a gentle makeup and tied your hair in a ponytail. You went with Shin to a nerbay coffe shop. You talked a lot with him. He wa actually very sweet and gentle. He ade forget about Jungkook for a long while. After the date ended he walked you home and kissed your forehead. Around 9 pm you heard knocking on your door. You thought it might be Jun but oh boy were you wrong.

-Y/N we need to talk.-Jungkook said as you opend the door.

-What are you doing here?- You asked with annoyend and surprisein your voice.

- I want to talk to you.- He repeated.

- Well I don’t s go away.- You wanted to close the door but he stopped you.

-About what happed at the party...- He started.

- HAHA the party….nothing happened. When I wanted to talk you avoided me and ignored me. Now after 2 months you can go and fuck yourself. You know wha I knew you were an asshole but I never imagined you would be thath awful. I was such a fool to fall for you. But you know what I’m glad thath I’m over you so stop coming here aand trying t talk to me at school.- You straight up told him what you think about him and closed the door.

Jungkook did as you wishd he didn’t get in your way anymore and it went back to the way it was before. You two didn’t talk nor look at each other.You started spending more time with Shin and really started to like him but the only problem was that not in the way he would want.

-Shin, listen to me. You are great, ou are sweet, gentle and loving and I reall like you...- You started.

-But you don’t like me in that way, you like me as a friend.- He finished.

-I’m sorry...-You looked at the ground due to the bad feeling you had inside you right now.

-Truth is Y/N the day I asked you out, I did it to make Jungkook realise his mistake. I knew you loved him and I know that you tw kissed at the party. But I also knew that he wouldn’t do anything about it. I really do ike you I ner lied about that but I just knew that I had no chance. I just wanted to help my friend.- He explained.

- Shin you….you are amazing. But why would you help him.-You conyinued t ask.

- Because he loves you too Y/N, ever since thath project you two did. He fell for you but wast to sacred to say anything.- Shin looked at you with a warm but sad smile.

You hugged him and thanked him for telling you the truth. You went t look for Jungkook and mt with Jun on the way. You asked if he has seen him but he couldn’t answer becasue he was interrupted by an annoucment cominf frm the school’s speaker.

I know I’m stupid and that you don’t want to listen r see me. Bu please listen to this at least. I know you may think I’m a jackass and a coward fr avoiding the topic oof what happend between us. And I know you’re probably right but when I see you I caan’t help but act like a fool and try to act cool but that’s because I love you. I feel for you head over heals whe we were assigned to do the damn project. Ever since then you are the only one on my mind and I can’t go on with my day if I don’t see you. I loe seeing you smile and laugh but when someone else makes you laugh i get jaelous and when I see you with other guys I just wan to came up to you and screaam thath you are mine and that i don’t want to lose you. Y/N did you hear me? I LOVE YOU AND I DON’T WANT TO LOSE AGAIN!!

You were standing there lika a fool with tears in your eyes. You wanted to run and when you turned you saw him. Standing there with smile on his fac, looking at you.

-And what are lauging at you fool?- You asked while smiling.

- Just happy to see you.- He answerd.

-Are you going to just stand there and smie or will you finally do something.- You laughed and so did he.

He quickly came up to you, grabbed your head, looked you deep in the eye and….Kissed you.

-I love you Y/N.- He said while caressing your head.

-I love you too Jungkook.- You said back and smiled.

-I’ve been waiting for this so long.- He truly felt happy that he revealed his hidden feelings.

REQUEST ARE OPEN. GIVE ME IDEAS!!!!

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amisbro · 6 years

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A guide to “Stand my Heroes”

Hey you...yeah yo that MIGHT be reading this post and going “Ya know what I have never played? A Match 3 game with an Otome element to it!” BOY DO I HAVE A GAME FOR YOU! We’re going under a cut cos this is going to be LOOOOOOOONG!

The name of the game is called “Stand my Heroes” and it is just what I described in the beginning of this post: A match 3 Otome game where you the player will guide a maxium of 3 teams from beginning to end and conquering different types of puzzles throughout the course of the game with the HOPE of getting a 3 star rank at the end of every level...this becomes more and more important as we progress through the game BUT let’s start talking about shall we The game was created by Coly games and is arguably my FAVORITE game to play on a tablet. We got characters and story and all else and its SO MUCH FUN to play...not only that but we have cast members that you MIGHT know from other Animes and such that get introduced through the course of the game that you MIGHT grow attached to First thing we need to establish is that there are FIVE units in this game and they are named as follows Narcotic Agent Police Revel Tsuduki Brothers Kujo Family These five units in the game are represented by different symbols on their cards and they go as follows Narcotic Agent = Pill Police = Gun Revel = Feather/Quill Tsuduki Brothers = Comedy Mask Kujo Family = Crown This part is KIND OF important to remember because if you are making level 1 groups to start the game (more on that in a minute) you probably want to keep Narcotic together ,Police ,Revel and Kujo...you can mix the Brothers in since there ARE only 2 of them in the game. Cards in this game come in 4 rarities and thus 4 star ranks Normal - 1 Star Rare - 2 stars Super Rare - 3 Stars SSR - 4 Stars These rarities are important because the way this game works on scouts you can NEVER have a duplicate of a card. I’ll discuss that in a few minutes. Every card in the game no matter rarity has at least 1 ability and those are important when I show you one of the first game boards. The LEADER typically will have two but it will be his Leader ability used for the level and not his support skill. you need to pay attention to the card you are sending into battle in the game. If a level DOESN’T have something in it that will allow you to use a card’s ability it will have a yellow circle around it with an “!” in a caution sign. This means the card MUST be switched out (although you CAN continue on with the level but I’m not sure if it gets complete credit or not.) Now that we discussed Rarity...let’s talk about the actual game and I’ll tell you how we get the cards for our teams.

When you first start the game you have to put in your name. Now if you are like me and don’t know how to switch over your keyboard to Japanese letters (its possible I just can’t be arsed) that’s no problem cos English letters are allowed in the game. Just type in the bottom circle and VIOLA!

Next screen looks like this

This is the date entry and this is important. IF you log on on the date of your birth the game will credit you with a special reward! You also get 5 gems every day you log on AND if you log on for a certain amount of consecutive days you could get a VERY SPECIAL card to aid you in your game...just remember that one rule I told you Alright so we put in our name and we entered our birthday...NEXT! Next you will get this screen

THIS my friends is your Home Screen and its actually very simple to navigate So what the left side shows us is very simple Top pink button is “presents”. This is where you go to get your login bonuses PLUS any goodies that come from special ranking/event games...this is important The button below that is for the events and will take you directly to them BUT we have another way that I will tell you about in a second Next to your Home Screen characters head is your lives counter. When you first create your game you get the initial 10 plus two packs of 5 so if you use them then you max 20. Below that are your gems and they are important in two ways and I will explain them in a very short time. Next to that are your, what I learned are called “Edies” but we will call them “Handcuffs” and they also serve two purposes...again they will be explained later on Below that is basically another way to get to special events. The one that is being shown in this screenshot I will explain again soon because we have to explain actually a lot and this is JUST the home screen Button on the left below that changes the background for the home screen and the button next to that gets us to the mode select and again more on that in a minute. The buttons on the bottom have functions that are pretty self-explanatory Pink button is your “Scout” button and there are different types of scouts to go through Blue Button is your “Story” button. I’ll explain THAT when we get talking about the actual gameplay cos its tied to that The Yellow button is your squad formations. Remember you can only have three teams and you need to switch out characters every so often so remember this button The green button is a button that takes you to an exchange for more hancuffs. The items you get we’ll explain HOW that happens in a second because its TIME to finally talk abut the different events to go through in the game

There are three different types of game modes in this game This one I call “Season” where the player guides the squads through many different types of levels to get to the boss that awaits at the end of it. As you will see soon we have a very interesting way about handling this

Level Type 2 is a fun one because this is where “Events” and the daily levels can pop up. The Events are seasonal but let me explain how the daily works Every day at 10:00 AM EST (11:00 AM when in Daylight Savings on the East Coast) the levels switch a day and so does the house. This is important because of a feature we haven’t talked about yet with the cards but I’m going to wait and do a separate post for that. These “Daily Levels” change up depending on the “House” that shows up and each house has a different color crystal. This is again important because when it comes to rarities of the cards ONLY Super Rare and SSR cards can use them! Normal and Rare CAN NOT! Now you will notice on the levels they say either “New” or nada under the name right? IF a player can successfully complete ALL THE LEVELS with a 3 star rating the segment is marked as “complete” BUT you can still play the levels for gems or whatever the item du jour is in the event for rankings and other goodies...those are a lot of fun trust me Now that’s that level type BUT THERE’S ONE MORE

Tab 3 shows 4 individual characters you can play levels for but for these you are playing them from 0 on up. Again its a 3 star deal but something to keep in mind as you play the game Oh and I should tell you this also While I said the game has 3 seasons currently you noticed Season 2 and 3 were blacked out. To play them the player MUST make it to Level 50 and clear it (So Act 5 of Season 1) AND CLEAR IT to open the other two seasons up...sorry we earn our keep around here NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT THE HEART OF THE MATTER: THE LEVELS

When you start playing you get this screen in Season 1. Act 1 technically DOESN’T start until you get to Level 4 but the main thing to remember here is that you have that big meanie sitting in Level 10...that is who you have to beat to clear the Act. Now you will also notices that there are 3 stars under the levels. Remember what I just said about completely levels and acts? Here its even MORE important because of something that pops up at the END of the Act...more on that coming

NOW we get ready to start the game proper and we do that by tapping on level 1. Here we see the goal, number of moves (or time) alotted and your team. IF one of the members would be considered “illegal THIS is where you would get the warning on the character in question...since we don’t have that problem here we can move on to the level

NOW we get to the Level proper...this being the first level its basic BUT its going to serve our purpose Left hand side: Number of moves (represented by donuts), your leader and his team. You can get more donuts by making matches next to them BUT depending on the state of the donut you can get a set number back I should explain those numbers on the characters Each character (as I have explained already) has special abilities that aid you in the levels. The number on the character is the number of turns that the character needs to get their ability to be used. Be careful though because unless its the leader the supports can only use their abilities one time while the leader can use his as many as needed...plan accordingly Right side is your target (which we saw in the goal screen also) and the meter that tells you how close you are to getting 3 stars. Remember that you want to max out if possible all the time because of the fact that there is something that happens at the end of each act and you need to have the stars to do it Alright so I cleared a level...now what?

Now you see...THIS! There are two parts to your level clear screens. This one you ALWAYS see first and this tells you the number of stars (and by proxy gems) you get for clearing the level. 3 Stars = 3 Gems...pretty simple right? After we tally this we go to the SECOND PART of the level clear

This is where we level up our characters as well as see our other goodies we get in the game You will notice that each character has a level under their picture. This is important because each level of card has a max it can attain and as you reach certain milestones something special happens and I will show that in the next screen shot. Now you might notice 2 sets of “handcuff” numbers and a heart Remember that screen I showed where the player got his goal? Well each level in the game costs 2 hearts to play save a SPECIAL CONDITION That I will explain in a second, Anyways in this cas you got back 1 heard and 23 Huandcuffs...how? The first # is an easy one to understand because that one is standard in a level. The second one comes from any “Last Hurrah” style things that happen after successfully clearing a level and then of course I explained the heart...allow me to explain that other condition before I explain the thing with the cards I told you that every level costs 2 hearts right? Not quite! After act 1 the game gives you a timed level at the start of each act. These cos FIVE HEARTS to play BUT if you are good enough you don’t have much to worry about cos you get back a couple at least for clearing them...nothing too terrible (although I do hate the levels myself trust me) Now for this treat

THIS is telling the player that one of their characters reached a special milestone and can play their affection story. There are MULTIPLE versions of these depending on the Level and the rarity of the card you have. It is ALSO possible because of the “Gacha rule” that a card might never have to play and STILL rank up to the point where they get this screen...its possible! Now I mentioned at the start that some of the characters in this game have VAs that were from UtaPri right? WELL... The character that has been featured prominently in this part of the guide (there will be more I promise) is named Aoyama Itsuki. His Character Voice? Tomokazu Sugita! Yes kids...THAT’S RAGING FROM UTAPRI! Hold up cos we ain’t done and the rest will be done by Unit Narcotic Agent Yui Kotaro - Hanae Natsuki Seki Daisuke - Tomoaki Maeno Before I do the next one: “HEY VER I GOT A MEGANE FOR YA IN THIS GAME!” Natsume Haru - Kaji Yuki Imaoji Shun - Daisuke Namikawa Watabe Satoru - Kousuke Torumi Police Arakida Sosei - Tomohito Takatsuka Asagiri Tsukasa - Kakihara Tetsuya Sugano Natsuki - Yamaya Yoshitaka Hattori You (My boy I’m not gonna lie on this one) - Eguchi Takuya Tsuduki Brothers Makoto Tsuduki - Takeuchi Shunsuke Tsuduki Kyosuke - Nishiyama Kyoutarou and lastly Kujo Family Yamazaki Kaname - Yamashita Daisuke Shindo Kiyoshi - Masuda Toshiki Kujo Soma - Sawashiro Chiharu Kirishima Koya - Nakajima Yoshiki Go Miyase - Umehara Yuichiro Now ho do we get ALL of these lovely cards? Remember that Gacha I talked about? Yeah that’s how

So this is the Gacha game and it has two versions: This one which costs about 25 Gems for a YOLO and 225 for a 10 shot and then there is a bronze one that uses the handcuffs you get in the levels. The way this works is simple: You pull back the crystal like a slingshot and then fire it off if it goes in straight line then its just a rare IF it expands one time however the background changes and you get a Super Rare BUT There IS an off chance it could do that TWICE...what then? IF THAT HAPPENS the player is blessed with a 4 star card and you will find out what one by a special screen and then in big gold (or prism it its an SSR) you’ll see what card you got! Believe me there is NO FEELING BETTER than pulling an SSR ESPECIALLY if its a YOLO! Now I should mention that there is the chance a character is in a hot air balloon and you could hit it...I’m not 100% what happens if you get that to happen though. Anywho...freaking hell I think I got this exhaustive and comprehensive guide done for ya. IF YOU want to play it you can through QooApp OR Google Play North America if you have a tablet that CAN run it! Enjoy...and happy crime busting my friends

#Amisbro #Stand my Heroes #Guide #I THINK there is some other stuff I left off #but I'm saving that for a guide on the special levels so let's go with that #take care everyone

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darkspine10 · 4 years

Text

GF Fanfic - A New Course

A New Course (1829 words) by darkspine10

Chapters: 1/6 Fandom: Gravity Falls Rating: Teen and Up Additional Tags: Beach City, Sea Monsters, Maps, Monster hunting, Twins, Aged-Up Character(s), Reunions, Missing Persons, Dipper and Mabel solving mysteries, Bows & Arrows

Summary:

People are going missing from the beach town of Sapphire Bay. College students vanishing by the dozen with no obvious cause. Dark spectres haunt the forests and beaches, but no-one in town wants to talk about it.

May Pines, renowned activist and trouble-maker, has made it her mission to save the town. Calling on the help of her brother, the twins must reunite to work together to solve the mysteries of Sapphire Bay.

The small beachfront house stood alone at the barrier between forest and sand. Waves lazily sprayed against the beach out below the house which hung over a small slope. From behind, the leaves of the trees rustled, a soft wind blowing in from the sea. Stepping out into the sunset light, Dipper Pines shielded his eyes and spotted a reclining figure on the wooden balcony.

Shutting the car door, he gave a deep sigh. This was still something he wasn’t yet fully used to. Meeting up with his sister as a regular thing, rather than it being an aberration. Time and new perspectives had healed the cracks that had led to their separation, but it still took some adjustments to his mindset.

Forgetting his initial wariness, he strode over and yelled out. “Mabel! I’m round the front!”

Out on the balcony her saw her stir – or fumble to get up rather – and disappear inside. He took a last look at the surroundings, building up a picture of where he’d be based for the foreseeable future. It would help to know every little detail, so any differences would stand out all the more clearly.

The wall of dark trees inland was much like what he knew from Gravity Falls, but the unmistakeable tang of salt ever-present in the air made him aware of the Pacific just a stone’s throw away. Dipper sensed this was a different kind of forest entirely. The chances of running into a cryptid were almost certainly lower for one thing.

A muttered cursing from behind the front door was followed by the sound of locks being unhinged. A single heft and the door was pulled away, leaving a grinning Mabel, sunglasses perched on her forehead, leaning against the frame affecting a cool air. “Yo yo yo, welcome.” She wrapped herself around Dipper in a side-hug, then gestured him inside. “Come on, park your keister, bro. I bet you’re tired from the drive. It’s great to see you.”

All his concerns from before melted away. There divide he feared between them was nothing but a bout of undue anxiety. Mabel was happy to see him, as she’d always be from now on. “Great to see you too,” he said with a grin. “So, this is where you’ve been chilling out for the last few weeks.”

Mabel had a habit of moving around a lot, never in one place for long. Often his attempts to contact her would fail, his letters arriving after she’s already left or spotty connections keeping them apart. The only constant was that she’d always call from someplace else than before, some new exotic locale where she’d parked her special brand of troublemaking.

In the past he’d resented her for this. In his eyes she was just running away from any kind of responsibility. Now he sympathised more with that wanderlust. To simply take what you could carry and head off into the unknown.

Mabel’s newest abode was hard to make out with the sunlight glinting through the wide bay windows. Squinting, he saw the interior of the rustic cabin. It was airy, with an open sitting area dotted with pillows and comfy sofas abutting a kitchen with cabinets of painted wood.

Donning her sunglasses, Mabel grabbed a bottle of beer from the counter took a deep swill, before guiding Dipper out onto the balcony. “This is the life, eh.”

He sat down on a chair overlooking the sea and slowly nodded. “Yeah, I could get used to this. Not quite got the same…” He drifted off, an expression of warm remembrance on his face.

“Same what?” Mabel asked.

“Not got that same thrill as home though, does it.”

Mabel leant over the balcony as memories of the hundreds of adventures they’d gone on as a pair or trio with Pacifica. Her smile grew into a smirk, something Dipper didn’t fail to notice. “Well… you might be surprised.” As he raised an eyebrow, Mabel’s tone grew serious. “Let’s talk.”

With the sun now long set over the distant horizon and reheated pizza scattered around the living room, Mabel spread a bunch of papers across her kitchen table. She tapped a basic map of the coastline. “Nearest town, that’s Sapphire Bay. About 20 minutes on foot. They got beaches, boardwalk, carnival stuff. Perfect place for a getaway.”

“Is that the reason you brought me out here?” Dipper crossed his arms sceptically. “To unwind?”

“Hold your horses, I’m getting to the important stuff.” Mabel sifted through the documents and grabbed a pamphlet of local hotspots. “Most tourists that pass through are college kids, visiting for their spring breaks or whatever.”

“Lemme guess, lots of young adults getting wasted and partying all day and night.”

“Not all of us go on boring walking vacations like you.” Then she shrugged. “But yeah, you’re not far off.” With her black crop-top and colourful tattoos Mabel looked every bit the part of a small-town rebel, sticking it to the man and living life to the full on the beach. She fit in perfectly.

“That why you’re here then? A rest.”

“You could put it like that.” Mabel lent back in her beanbag, oddly pensive. “Needed a break from all the travelling. Last year was totally intense, as you well know. And with Zera off in space with that budding phase of her lifecycle, I thought I’d take some Mabel time to myself.”

Dipper detected a hint of reticence. Mabel’s relationships had never been easy to define – let alone when her partner wasn’t even from Earth. “You two still all good?” he asked gingerly.

“Oh yeah yeah, fine. This is something she’s gotta do, I understand. She’ll be back in a month or two.” Mabel sipped from another bottle of beer. “Anyway, how about you? Pacifica really chose to stay home watching the kids? Don’t tell me she’s gone all maternal at last?”

Dipper snorted with laughter. “You really think? No, she just doesn’t care to drive all this way on a whim.”

“Ha, that sounds like her. When you get home tell her she missed out on all the fun.”

“You bet. I gotta say, moving back to the Falls permanently was a great idea.” It had been a hectic few months deciding to finally return to the West Coast. The work of moving had left little time for their traditional Mystery Hunts or journal time. But Dipper wouldn’t have given up one second with his new family for the world.

“Pacifica’s certainly got her hands full. Merrise is struggling a little; still a new environment for her and all. Plus someone’s gotta look after the baby.” He set down his own drink and bent over the table. “Anyway, enough about me. I know you; we could be stuck on gossip all evening. Tell me why you need my help.”

Mabel leant back, melting into the beanbag, puffing out her cheeks. She was deep in thought about where to start. Stretching up out of her cocoon, she grabbed a single sheet off the pile strewn on the table.

“I got here a few weeks ago. My last protest kinda went south, you know, the one in Paris, with the unions, and I wanted somewhere to crash.” Dipper nodded. He remembered seeing his sister’s face on a news channel, though thankfully only in passing as part of a crowd. Mabel was getting better at keeping a low profile these days. To minimise the consequences should her actions suffer repercussions that might affect him and his family. Still utterly devoted to the cause, but mindful of getting others caught in the crossfire.

Mabel turned the sheet around to show Dipper. There was a grainy shot of a young man with name and identifying features beside it. Traditional chiselled features of your average jock visiting the beach. At the top of the poster was a single word, underlined in red:

Missing.

Dipper felt a pit of dread in his stomach. He knew where this was going.

“Spotted this on the boardwalk,” Mabel continued. At first I thought it was nothing. One lost kid, what can you do? Then more people started disappearing. Almost all the cases have been tourists. Like I said, lots of college kids passing through, having fun… and never going home.”

“And you think there’s something linking them?” Dipper cautiously asked.

“Lotsa kids vanishing, all recently, within the last few months as far as I can reckon. Normally I wouldn’t call you for something like this, but there’s something else on top.”

Her next document was a blurry polaroid. Dipper could make out crashing waves and a bulky shape in the water, but it was vague enough that it could have been anything, a boat, driftwood. Seemed to him that most cryptids were naturally camera shy.

Mabel was deadly serious however, and he was there right along with her. “You took this?” he asked, but she shook her head.

“Local paper. Last Tuesday. And there’s more.” She rifled around for a list of witness testimonies, but Dipper held up a hand.

“I get it. This is more than a simple missing persons case.”

Dipper pondered the facts. There was something oddly haunting about unsolved mysteries quite like this. Mundane in some ways, but the thought of people just disappearing off the map without a trace still gnawed at the back of his mind. Maybe, he considered, it was parenthood. Being responsible for his own kids, imagining a myriad of potential fates for these lost youths got to him.

Mabel tossed the paper down, her face contorting into an angry scowl. “I’ve tried figuring out what’s going on, but nobody likes talking about it. The cops certainly don’t care; to them it’s just a bunch of out-of-towners getting overwhelmed partying. ‘Can’t handle the lifestyle’, that’s what they say, before dropping all investigations.”

From her tone, Dipper could guess this was a common point of contention for her. She’d probably attended a number of riots protesting against the very corruption she was outlining right now. As a whole, she preferred relying on herself to sort things out.

“I know it’s not some grand conspiracy to solve or anything big like that. But it’s real, Dipper, and it’s happening to innocent people.”

Immediately he assuaged her doubts. “You don’t have to worry. I know how important this is. Besides, after everything we’ve been through in our lives we deserve to take it small-scale. Do some practical good.”

Mabel’s resulting grin was infectious. The spark of adventure was already spreading. “Right then!” She stood up decisively and tucked away her messy pile of collected evidence. “Tomorrow morning we can head into town. I’m already friends with a bunch of the locals, we can work on getting some pointers.”

“I’m sure once the Mystery Twins set up in town we’ll have this cracked in no time.”

“Cheers to that.” They clinked their bottles together, ready to solve this thing as soon as the sun rose.

#gravity falls #gravity falls fanfic #dipper pines #mabel pines #AO3 fanfic

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