#dude that motto alone would make me want to join them

[cherripeach]

Chapter 14

Little Match Maker

Summary: Your life motto is “I have the power of god and anime on my side, don’t mess with me,” and you stand by that with your life. No human, magician, or random creature could ever stop your firm belief in it.

However, getting transported to this world that seemed to turn your already bad luck worse was not what you wanted to be in your life story, but you made the most of it. Making friends, enemies, and disasters, you were in your prime in this world, and so you decided to help as many people as you could flourish, at least what you believed to be.

Chapter 1:11-12 good credit, bad credit, you dead: ghost credit

Running to the store on campus, so cute.

Warnings: Curse words, implied violence

Words: 3.1k

Relationships: developing but future twstxreader

Ace groaned while face planting on the counter, “We finally finished peeling them all!”

Deuce moaned in pain, “My arms hurt…” He, then, stretched his arms and popped some of his knuckles while rolling his neck. 

You agreed with the two boys, “Yeah, I don’t wanna move for the next decade.” You made your seat on one of the stools next to the counter to take a break after standing for what felt like hours. 

Trey chuckled at your reactions, “Great work. I’m sure that your hard work will all be worth it.” While you three were sulking, Trey began cleaning up as much as possible by putting things away and putting things in the dishwasher. 

Grim grumbled, “I’m getting hungry just by the smell, yanno.” The cat had tried to take as much of the ingredients as possible while you were preparing, but barely managed to get any.

Trey took a sheet of paper out from a binder and sorted some of the ingredients next to some cooking utensils, “The marron base uses butter and sugar. And then, I also added some oyster sauce as a secret ingredient.”

Ace and Deuce jumped up from their positions of dread in shock, “Oyster sauce?!”

Trey placed the sheet down and grabbed a bottle of the sauce,  “Exactly. The savory flavor of the chestnuts gives the cream a rich flavor. And then, to make it better, I use this,” He motioned to the sauce in his hand,  “‘Walrus-brand young oyster sauce’.  There’s no famous pâtissière who doesn’t use this for their tarts, you know?” He ended it all with a closed eyed smile. 

Deuce mumbled, “Really…? It’s a pretty salty sauce, isn’t it?”

“You know how they put chocolate in curry, too?” Ace gave an example,  “It kinda makes sense…”

You were,  on the other hand, not having it, “Naw, dude. It doesn't; sweet can't just nullify salt or reverse. It’s practically impossible.” You shook your head while the two idiots were just pouting in their confusion. 

Trey chuckled while clutching his stomach, “You're right! I was just joking! There’s no way I’d put oyster sauce in a dessert, you know? How’d you know?”

The two idiots never would have guessed that. 

Ace’s hand’s shot up in his defense, pointing at his senior, “What the heck!? Are you making fun of us!?”

“It’s obviously impossible if you think about it a little.” Trey’s lighthearted giggle switched to a more wise old lecture, “The moral lesson here is that you shouldn’t believe anything you’re told. Learn to doubt a bit, okay?”

You nodded your head, “See, Ace. I don’t gotta learn that because I knew right away.” 

You were a genius. In all eyes besides Ace’s, that is. 

Ace snorted, “I bet it was a lucky guess.”

You fought back, “Pshhhh. No way.” You knew this was just the start of one of your many squabbles. 

Grim whispered to you behind his hand, “This guy looks nice, but he’s the type who can tell lies with no problem, huh…”  

“I guess so.” Your eyes widened at Grim’s statement. 

Trey rallied you all together to begin the next step, “Next is the fresh cream!”

A shrill scream ran through the air.

Ace bounced up and questioned Trey, “What’s wrong?”

You joined Ace with your question, “Are you okay?”

“I got carried away with the chestnuts you picked that I went overboard with making the marron base.” Trey laughed at himself and rubbed the back of his head, “We’re a little short on fresh cream.”

Deuce offered, “I’ll go buy some. Do they sell it in the school store?”

Trey explained,  “That shop sells pretty much anything, so I’m sure it should be there. Can I ask you to buy some other stuff while you’re at it? Two packs of milk, two cartons of eggs, silicon cups, and five canned fruits…” He writes down the list of items and hands them to Deuce. 

Deuce reads the list before commenting, “I don’t think I can carry all of that alone…” 

This was your chance, “I’ll come! I need to see if they have uniforms there, anyway.” Maybe you could find some uniforms or even some other clothes for a nice price as if you had any money. 

Grim interjected,  “I’m going, too! I don’t wanna mix more dough!” He raised his little paw as far as his body would allow it. 

“Understandable.”  You did not need to lose your arms over baking. 

The three of you began your walk to the grocery store on campus with only some light chatter about how excited you all were to taste the finished product and how Grim shouldn’t steal it all. 

The grocery store was the size of a drug store, but apparently from what Trey said it had everything anyone at this school needed. It’s gotta be a magic store.  

“We sure this is it?” You questioned Deuce because he was sure to know more than you, right?

Deuce pointed out, “I haven’t heard of any other shops here.” 

Grim quickly agreed, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let’s get a move on!”

While still warry, you approached the place behind the two overexcited shoppers, both who had stars in their eyes as someone from a novel would say. 

Deuce gazed around the place with wide eyes after opening the door where a little bell rang, “Pardon us! Whoa, what an amazing shop… Crystal skulls, magical texts, and… wh-what sort of animal is this…?” Deuce motioned to an animal’s skeleton that was just laying out on one of the shelves. Grim and Deuce took two steps closer to inspect the animal while you took two steps back. 

Grim, who began to travel by himself around the store, questioned Deuce and you, “Can we really find some fresh cream here?”

“I’d be surprised if we couldn't find it.” You opened a box that was filled with dusty books while nodding to Grim. 

Out of nowhere came a voice near the counter,  “Hey! Little lost lambs, what can I help you with? Welcome to Mr. S’s Mystery Shop.” The man had one of the oddest outfits with a bright pink shirt but then a black and dark purple jacket. His fashion sense was certainly new, but his vibe was what shocked you the most. Almost like he knew too much. What is it that you wish for today? A charm against cheating?” He pulled out a slip of paper from his chest pocket, “ An ancient king’s mirror?” a small mirror from his sleeve,  “Or maybe, some cursed tarot cards?” He even pulled a box out of thin air. 

Grim was frozen in shock for a moment and joined the conversation with a breath, “Ah, you startled me!”

You added on, “He reminds me of those characters from video games and movies that are just normal store owners or vendors that have some of the oddest items.” Looking at his shop, you believed yourself for a moment. 

The three of you made your way to the little counter at the back of the store. 

Deuce took out the list from his pocket and handed it to the man, “Um… We would like to buy the things written on this note.”

Grim used his arms to pull his face onto the counter as to be seen and begged,  “And I also want some canned tuna!”

“With what money?” You waved at him in disbelief,  “And I have a question for you, Mystery man.”

Deuce pushed Grim off of the counter,  “No! We will not buy any canned tuna!” which only caused Grim to growl at Deuce. 

The male scanned the note while tapping his finger in his chin,  “Mhmm. What do we have here? Fresh cream and eggs… Oh, my! What a pretty sweet line-up” He gave Deuce a thumbs up, “OK! I shall bring them out now. And I’ll get back to you in just a minute.” The male nodded at you with a small wink at the end of his sentence. 

Totally an odd vibe.

Deuce gasped in disbelief letting go of Grim’s fur,  “Whoa… Will he really have some here?”

You voiced your thoughts, “Maybe the back is just really big?”

The man returned with five bags full of items on your list, “Here, thank you for the wait. It is rather heavy, so are you sure you can carry them all?” The male, then gestured to a sign right next to the cash register about a special bag to carry all the items, “If you act now, I can throw in a special bag to carry all of those things for 30% off of its original price!” Deuce took out the money Trey gave him and handed it to the shopkeeper. 

Grim blurted out, “What did you say? Hey, that sounds interesting!” The cat grabbed your clothes as he normally does pointing at the sign to get your attention focused on it. 

Deuce shook his head while grabbing three of the five bags, “We. We will have to decline! Let’s go, Grim!”

“But why?! I wanna play more!” A pointing Grim was not resulting in a good day for anyone, but at this rate you couldn’t spend money on any food. 

“About that question,” You brought it up to the shopkeeper. 

The off-vibe man nodded,  “Ok, what's the problem, little lost lamb?”

You asked, “Do you sell uniforms or at least know where I can find one?”

“I should have some, but they're all used ones. I’ll even cut the price because of how damaged they are.” He then told you the price which was great for uniforms but as someone who owned no cash, not the best.

You thanked the male as you picked up the last two bags while the other two began to walk out, “Thanks! I’m gonna come back once I have the money, but please save them for me.” 

“Ok! of course, little lost lamb. I’ll have them in stock just for you.” He winked at you again, and at this point and time you’re just gonna assume it’s normal for him. 

“Thank you so much!!” You responded while finally walking out of the shop. 

Once outside, Deuce began a new conversation, “That was a very amazing shop, in a way…”

Grim was still pouting at the two of you for not giving him free food, “Boo, you two are so stingy.” His arms were snuggly crossed over one another and even his ears were flattened against his head. 

Deuce swung around to ask Grim, “Who are you calling stingy?!” This, however, almost resulted with Grim getting a concussion because of how the bag of canned fruits and heavy cream knocked Grim to the ground. 

Deuce quickly apologized, “Sorry!”

You placed your bag to check on Grim by feeling on his head for any bumps or any scrapes from the bag,  “Well, no one would give a brat what they want now would they? I know you want some tuna, but money is tight right now and I can’t get you any for a while. Once I save up enough, I promise I’ll get you some.” You brushed back his hair before flicking at his forehead, “Just remember to keep that ego in check. Soon, who knows, maybe I can even buy a hairbrush and maybe even a phone.”

 Deuce coughed before fixing the bags in his hold to reach his hand out to you, “The bag with the milks is heavy, isn’t it? I’ll hold it for you. I’m experienced with carrying heavy loads.”

You shook your head, “No way, lover boy, I can handle myself just so you know. And besides that's an odd area of expertise. Any reason why?” You kept walking to distract the male from taking your bag.

Deuce flushed red before starting his explanation, “Yeah, Mother always takes me with her during timed sales. She buys a lot, so I end up helping her with the bags. I’m the only man in the family, so I’m used to helping a lot with hard labor. Ah, I’m sorry… I keep talking about myself.” His face flushed even darker. 

You rolled your eyes, “That is incredibly sweet of you, Deuce. Don’t be scared to talk to me about anything. We’re friends. You must care for your mother a lot with how you talk about her.”

Deuce stuttered, “No… That’s not true at all. I… Mother was…” Deuce flies back onto the ground after connecting with someone’s chest, “Ouch!”

All of the materials that Deuce was holding fell to the ground, but the biggest problem was that the eggs were now completely broken and leaking everywhere on the sidewalk. 

Grim gasped and fell to his knees to try and save the groceries, “Ah, the eggs!!”

“Hey, you ok?” You reached out your hand to Deuce who grabbed it so that you could pull him up onto both of his feet. 

Deuce locked eyes on the bag of now broken eggs and cursed, “Damn it!” He picked up the bag of eggs and began to check to see if any of the eggs were not broken and could be used, “All the eggs in the carton broke! The plastic bag’s now reeking with eggs…!” Deuce tossed them in the trash while Grim squirmed to grab the bag from him. 

A white haired familiar looking male scoffed at the three of you, “That hurt! Where the hell’re ya lookin’ at,” His eyes darted to each member of your little group before continuing, “Wha? You’re the guys who ruined my carbonara’s soft-boiled egg during lunch today!” 

Another familiar red haired student was right on his side, “Damn, it’s you guys again. Ya better give us a break.” 

You grabbed as many bags as you could carry that Deuce had before, and you snorted, “And I thought I already crushed your egos, but I should have known you can't break a brick for a brain.”

The white haired boy snickered at the three of you, “Well it seems the little supervisor can’t even get us in trouble so no need for fear. You can’t harm us.” 

Deuce had been standing in place for the last couple of seconds with his eyes on his feet, “…Aren’t you the ones at fault for bumping into me?” His sharp gaze met that of the duo of delinquents, “Even during lunch. The egg wasn’t really that badly harmed, but you made a huge scene out of it. Our carton of eggs is totally ruined, though.” Deuce rolled up the sleeves to his jacket. 

Grim agreed standing as tall as he could across from the two upperclassmen, “He’s totally right!”

You walked over to where Deuce and Grim had made their little fighting stance, “Let’s just leave. They’re not gonna listen and we shouldn't get into a fight with idiots.” To further get Deuce’s attention, you pulled into the shoulder of his jacket to motion toward the bags, “We can always replace them. Let’s just get what we have back.”

The white haired boy swore, “The hell? You sayin’ it’s my fault, then? And idiots? I’m much smarter than any of you. Respect your elders!”

Deuce paid no mind to you or your constant poking on his shoulder, “Yes, please pay us back for the eggs. And also, please apologize to the chickens.”

“Hah?” The red haired boy quipped at Deuce, “Makin’ a ruckus over eggs, are we?”

Deuce grunts, “Hah?” before turning to you, “Remember the promise right?”

You nodded at him. 

“Then, back up.” He lightly pushed you to make you back up, “And don’t get involved.”  You locked eyes with the male only to see his eyebrows furrowed and a large scowl on your face. And as much as you wanted to help him and get him out of this situation, there’s nothing you can do against magic users. At least not yet.

The two other students did not realize how ready Deuce was to make this physical or how personal this was. 

The whit haired boy groaned, “It didn’t hit the ground so you can still eat it. Stop makin’ a fuss over little things.” The boy slapped his friend before whispering something to him. 

The other boy snickered before adding, “Ya better be thankful they broke inside the plastic bag!” 

“Not only are they dumb, but blind too,” You mumbled to yourself which Grim could hear from his small chortle. 

Deuce still had not lost his eye contact with the other two boys, seemingly eyeing them down to wait for the perfect moment. 

Both of the boys let out the largest giggles possible that a teenage boy could without sounding like girls gossiping with their heads thrown back and their hands clutching their stomachs. 

“Laughing at something that is surely your fault.” You rolled your eyes while trying to get the boy’s attention on Deuce who was in your eyes about to murder a bitch, “I think you should just pay us back for it. Maybe some extra too for having to deal with your terrible attitude to even it out.” 

Neither student responded to you only grunting out stiffles of laughter for the next couple of seconds. 

Deuce muttered to himself breaking eye contact with the two to gaze down at his hand which was clenched like in one of those TV shows when a character is going to do something he regrets, “... Mess with me, will you…”

White haired kid raises his eyebrows in confusion as Deuce looks to be slowly going insane,  “Huh?”

Deuce exploded at the two, “I told you to stop laughing, damn it!!” His feet began to move closer and closer to the two who just stood in horror for the boy who was once silent, “You ain’t got no choice but to apologize for something that’s your fault! These eggs will be used to make a delicious tart in place of turning into chicks, bastard!! Do you understand me, huh!?”

“Wh-what’s with him all of a sudden…?!” The red haired boy was backing away from the approaching student and had a look of disbelief on his face. 

Deuce grabbed his fist in one hand and cracked the knuckles of the other one, “If you’re not gonna pay me back for the 6 eggs, I got no choice but to beat the hell out of you six times.”

The white haired male faltered, “Huh!?” before seeing the blue haired male coming straight for him with his fists in a fighting position. 

 “Grit your teeth, you little bastards!!” And with that Deuce began his little fight by pulling at the kid’s clothes and punching them a little too hard.

“Where does that phrase even come from?” But what could you do besides stand there and wait even if you didn’t want the two to get hurt going into the fight now would be harmful.

You really need to stop getting involved in fights. 

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twst #twst x reader #twst grim #deuce spade #trey clover #ace trappola

[teamsarawatshusband]

Word Of Honor - 1st watch insta thoughts - Episode 4

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

In case you haven't read my previous episode summaries, you should know that I now refer to alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy as Baby Xu (because he gave the name Zhou Xu), Wen Ke Xing is Smirky Xing, Ke Xing's female travelling companion is referred to as purple love of my life (because she rocks).

Alright let’s get started with Episode 4:

:O WHAT? Smirky Xing is qi-gong-balling nuts? Is he the red masked nut guy??? WTF? Is that why he said he's terrifying? Is that why he wasn't there at first during the fight in the dusty place? Waaaahhhh

Aww, he stilll wants Baby Xu and himself to be on first name basis. Giving horses as gifts. He's so determined.

Oooh the beggars caught up. And they openly state they're with 5 Lakes and want to bring the kid back to... some guy, I already forgot. Hmmm. The kid is instantly scared and hides behind Baby Xu. Baby Xu looks worried too. Nobody trusts 5 Lakes. Smirky Xing also doesn't trust them.

Wow, that's a lot of beggars.

Oh no, Smirky Xing insulted the talky beggar guy. And now they wanna fight.

Woahooooo, Baby Xu is pissy at Smirky Xing, but he trusts him to take care of the kid while he throws himself into the fight. Nice.

Less than 6 minutes in and we already have a million times more action than in the last episode. Thank you.

I see what smirky Xing meant when he called Baby Xu elegant. He is a VERY elegant fighter.

Offering nuts again, lol. Doesn't he know that the kid never wants to eat?

But jokes aside, the way Xing and the kid don't even go far but stay close enough to watch shows really well that smirky Xing is super confident in Baby Xu's fighting skills...

Oh no, they broke the alcohol jars, Baby Xu is gonna be so pissed.

And Smirky Xing is kind of an ass, teasing Baby Xu about his promise to keep an eye on the kid, while the beggar is chasing the kid around and Baby Xu is doing all the work.

Ahhh, it's cause he wants Baby Xu to admit that he needs him. Hehe, smart. Evil but clever.

:O The beggars got swords in their sticks! Cheaty little fuckers.

Baby Xu is fighting a bazillion beggars at once, no problem while the kid is almost caught.

Oh no, Baby Xu is mouthbleeding. That's never a good sign.

Oooooh, Smirky Xing notices and instantly steps in. No more teasing.

Oh how the turntables. Baby Xu and the kid flee, while Smirky Xing takes on the beggars. Nice. Sharing the workload. Like good husbands. Smirklord ftw!

Oh no, Baby Xu is worried about being a loser. And now he's doing the smelly meditation thing again. Awww :(

Meanwhile Smirky Xing has killed all the beggars, and it's not even shown on camera. Like... he probably did it with a determined look, some nut throwing and a snap of a finger or something. Impressive.

LOL, the purple love of my life comes on screen, looks around and has this, "Aww, dangit, he's on a killing spree again" look on her face. So this happens a lot, I gather.

She's concerned about the cleanup and the aesthetics, lol. My queen.

Whoa, what's that? Two tied up girls on a boat. And a jerk. I don't even know him but I know that much. Character introduction 101.

Oh wait, my purple love stops him. She knows him. He's one of the mountain ghost guys? And she knows him? There's a connection. That probably means that Smirky Xing really is nut guy. :O :O :O

She's striking a deal. And I didn't catch what she asked jerk guy to do in return for keeping him tying up girls a secret. But he leaves to do it.

Wow, Baby Xu knows how to cook. And offers the fish to the kid. And the kid ACTUALLY TAKES it. Impressive. I thought he hates food.

Ah, no, he spit it out. Okay. My worldview has been restored. And Baby Xu is not a good cook after all, lol.

My purple queen shows up and explains how to cook fish, lol. Yeah, they wish they had her cooking skills.

Oh, and baby Xu actually asks about Smirky Xing's whereabouts and looks longingly towards the boat where my queen points to.

Very lovely scenery, with Smirky Xing plaing the flute on the boat, and the two girls (who were previously tied up, I think, I still suck at recognizing faces) are enjoying his company, preparing drinks and listening.

Clearly Smirky Xing is playing just for Baby Xu. And then jumps off the boat with a flute twirl (clearly a Wei Wuxian fan, and who isn't?!) and then fly-jumps over the water to the beach and Baby Xu.

Heh, tempting Baby Xu with alcohol and good food, Smirky Xing is really trying everything.

LOL, you can't sit with the cool kids Smirky Xing.

But he never gives up and recites poetry again. Okay, now some story about historic white cloth. And a sword. Wait, is the "white cloth" the sword? Oh, and Smirky Xing is hinting that Baby Xu's sword is so bendy that it might be the legendary sword.

Always digging for info. Always noticing everything.

Oooh, Baby Xing compares their relationship to the fish he threw away, calls it "raw/unrequited". Nice pun. BUT, the fish wasn't raw, you literally discussed with the kid that is was cooked through, you little liar. I see what's going on there. Unrequited my ass. Smirklord setting sails.

Baby Xu explains that he doesn't know himself and couldn't care less about knowing Smirky Xing.

Smirky Xing is such a sweet talker. This whole "I hurt when you hurt" spiel... blergh.

He called him "My A-Xu" awww, cute. Also super invasive.

Some dark figure is playing headach inducing music. Huh? What is going on?

My purple queen and the kid are affected and Smirky Xing, stops them from running off by placing his hands on their backs. How? What?

Wait, Baby Xu plays the flute as well???

Everybody's a musician.

Oh, it's a music fight. The acoustic waves are hitting each other.

And the girls on the boats are jumping off, because they don't have Smirky Xing's hands holding them back.

Whooooooo, Baby Xu's flute sound lawnmowers the grass and the other musician down. Nice skills.

Oh, it's an assassination skill. The one that the dark figure used. :O A music assassin!!!

LOL, Baby Xu apologizes for getting Smirky Xing's flute dirty. Honey, he 100% won't mind your spit.

Why is the kid puking? He hasn't even eaten anything. Oh, he's lacking martial arts skills to defend against the attack, got it, got it.

Awwww, the one who dislikes you is the one who is really good to you. Of course you would live by that motto Smirky Xing, you lovesick boy.

Okay, the kid wants to learn martial arts now. Wants to be Baby Xu's disciple. And he's kind of agreeing, even though reluctantly, because he... doesn't wanna look good in front of Ke Xing?

Oh a camp of assassins. Pretty girl assassins. One of them is getting a leg massage. Nice. Being an assassin has perks, it seems. Ooh, and she gets touchy with some victim guy.

Did that guy just kill the several-times-stabbed victim by throwing a bone at his head? lol

Oh, the music assassin is one of this group, k, got it.

What? Smirky Ke Xing playing this special meditation song means he has a pure mind? I'm with Baby Xu, I would never have thought so. So, he's not nuts guy? WHAT IS GOING ON?

Dude, he does NOT look like of pure mind while playing that flute at all. It looks very... not pure. This looks like a mating ritual to me.

Wait, is he telling my purple queen to kill the two girls she saved? I'm so confused.

Aww, he LIKES Baby Xu. Not that it's a surprise. But he admitted it. Heh. And, once again, my purple queen gets it.

Aww, Smirky Xing plays for his boy all night long. And Baby Xu finally gets some rest. Nice.

And Smirky Xing finally gets to sit next to his crush after all.

But he doesn't get to hold his hand yet. I see how it is.

LOL, tough women can't resist clingy men, what? Is Smirky Xing ever talking about anybody other than himself and Baby Xu?

Ahaha, Smirky Xing is such a bad liar. But really good at making Baby Xu feel guilty. Yes, yes, you poor man driven off the boat, aching from all the flute playing, riiiight.

LOL, he ends up the coachman. Nice.

Oh no, the grandparents are fighting nice undies tree master guy and the mini Wangjis. Why can't they be friends?

Why are they all after that stupid glazed armor, this is so annoying.

Oh no, now pleated skirt soldier boss guy is joining in as well. Which side is he picking?

Okay he's fighting the grandparents, but is he on friendly terms with undies tree guy? Because I don't think so. But the mini Wangjis knew him and seemed to trust him. So confusing all of this...

Okay and there's another new guy. In green and gold with a tiny mustache. Is he the one they were supposed to bring the kid to? Ah yes, okay. Uncle Zhao.

Wait, the leader of the something something sect is chased. Who was that? Undies tree master? I need a name chart mind map or something. I should make one and add on to it as I go along.

Anyway, end of episode.

Okay this was interesting, what have I learned? Baby Xu can't get rid of Smirky Xing, no matter what. The kid wants to be his disciple. My purple queen is 100% a smirklord shipper. There's a bunch of assassins out there to hurt... I don't know, everybody, possibly. Everybody seems to want the glazed armor. Except for Baby Xu who just wants to be left alone, and Smirky Xing who just wants Baby Xu. I feel like I'm getting the hang of this. Except I STILL don't know how everybody is truly connected. And Smirky Xing might be nuts guy but also maybe not because he's pure, but I mean, who are you kidding?

Goals for future episodes: I should really actually make that character name chart mind map thing.

Also, we have officially reached the moment, where I wanna continue watching, even though I'm tired and have other stuff to do. I bet the point of no return strikes during the next episode. I can feel it coming.

#word of honor #1st watch insta thoughts #word of honor ep 04 #smirklord

[cameronspecial]

King of CSCC (Prologue)

Pairing: Rich Kid! Tom Holland x Reader

Summary: When Y/N gets a scholarship to attend Collegialiter Schola Currere Cucurri, a prestigious boarding school in England. She’s very studious and organizes, everything needs to be a certain way for her to be happy. Tom is the resident fuckboy at school and,  with his daddy being the richest man on earth, he practically owns the school. What happens when Tom falls completely in love with Y/N, but she doesn’t want to be with him because of his reputation.

Words: 2 159

Y/N stands in front of the massive brick building with beautifully and neatly done cobblestone tiles on the roof. From where she stands, Y/N could see that two big towers and two smaller ones are attached to the main building of the school. To her left, a soccer field and to her right, a rugby field with an outdoor running track. Behind the soccer field, she could see a big rectangle building that, from what she read about the school, must be the school’s gymnasium. Y/N couldn’t believe that she is actually here in front of Collegialiter Schola Currer Cucurri which is Latin for something she couldn’t remember anymore. It’s the best school in the world, the only people that could attend the school are the elite, rich and famous, but once every year, the school awards a scholarship that covers everything (laundry, meal plane, books, uniform, etc) to one lucky student going into their 11th school year. The chosen student has to be the best and brightest out of all the applicants and this year, it just so happened to be Y/N L/N. She has been working her whole life for this and now her dreams for a better future are finally coming true. Her home life in Toronto wasn’t the best in terms of education. She didn’t learn enough at the public school she went to, so when she saw the opportunity to attend the most prestigious boarding school in the world, she jumped at the chance to apply. It also helped that she’s always wanted to live in England. She finally manages to shake off her nerves and walks into the school.

Upon entering the school, Y/N notices how much cleaner and how the equipment is so much better than what she had back at home. The hallways were empty seeing as it was the Saturday before school started, so she is all alone in the school. After a few minutes, she manages to find her way to the principal’s office while struggling to bring all of her bags with her at the same time. The new student gently arranges her bags near the door to make sure they are not in the way, then she lifts her hand to the door and knocks. “You may enter,” an authoritative voice instructs her. Y/N enters to see a middle-aged woman sitting at her desk looking over some documents with her glasses balancing off of her nose. The older woman looks up at the sound of the door closing and motions for Y/N to sit on one of the chairs in front of her desk, “You must be Miss. L/N, our scholarship winner.” Y/N nods her head to show her agreement, she isn’t going to lie, but she is a little intimidated by the principal. “Alright, classes start on Monday at 9:00 a.m. sharp. Miss. Daniels should already be at the front office waiting for you. She’ll be your guide for the day. Here is your schedule and some other information you might need. If you have any questions, then you may ask Miss. Daniels and I would also like to inform you that if your marks slip even by a percent that you will lose your scholarship. Is that clear?” Ms. Sinclair informs the pupil. “Yes,” Y/N answers quietly because she’s slightly terrified with how cold the principal seems. “Good, you may address me as Ms. Sinclair and nothing else. You are dismissed,” Ms. Sinclair demands. Y/N quickly gets out of her chair and goes towards the door.

Y/N grabs her bags a little bit more easily now that she knows how to handle all of them and makes her way back towards the front of the school where she saw the front office. When she gets to the front of the school, she notices a girl around her age waiting in front of the office. The teen notices Y/N approaching and immediately rushes to help her with a smile on her face.  “Hi, you must be Y/N L/N. I am Delilah Daniels and I’ll be your tour guide. I’ll give you a tour of campus, then I can help you move into your dorm if you’d like. You don’t have to worry about your bags, I’ll call the concierge to come get them and bring them to your room. Now, the first stop is going to be the science labs where you bio and chemistry,” Delilah introduces herself. Y/N notices that Delilah has a British accent that is as smooth as butter.  The girls place the bags near the entrance and shake each other’s hands, “I am Y/N. Nice to meet you. And the science lab sounds like a great start.” Delilah makes a quick call to the concierge, then they walk down the hall to the left and up the stairs to her biology lab. “Now, upstairs to the left is the science wing, so you have all the science labs up here. Your bio lab is in room 203 and your chemistry lab is in room 220,” Delilah starts off, “Let’s head over to where you are going to be taking geometry and algebra, which is on upstairs on the right side of the also known as the mathematics wing. This term you’re only taking geometry, algebra, biology, and math. Next term you’re taking media arts, English literature, French, and psychology, right?” Y/N nods along to what Delilah says, “That seems right. Your last names Daniels right? As in your parents are Anna and Maurice Daniels, Daniels? They own practically every chain hotel I can think of.” “Yep, those are my old folks. They could be a little hectic and gone, but they have always been there for me when I need them and I know they love me. That’s all that really matters, right? So what do your parents do for a living? You live in Toronto right?” Delilah questions the new girl. “Yeah, I do. My mom works as a social worker, she tries to help kids in the system. My dad is a baker, we actually live on top of the bakery he owns. My little sister and brother always like to head down to the bakery at the end of the day and steal whatever leftovers are left. Do you have any siblings?” Y/N explains. “No, I am an only child. It gets a little lonely sometimes, but that’s alright. I would love to live over a bakery! The smell of freshly baked pastries would waft into the house and it could smell like freshly baked croissants every day. The math wing is just around the corner,” Delilah rants a little as they head over to the math wing.

When they rounded the corner, two other people were rounding the corner at the same time. A collision would have happened, but Y/N’s quick reflexes stopped them from crashing. In front of the two girls were two boys about their age wearing Versace, Prada, Gucci, and some other clothing brands that Y/N could never dream about owning. The boy on the left is taller than the boy on the right, he has dirty blonde hair and clear blue eyes. He’s handsome, but the boy on the right is the show stopper for Y/N. He has dark chestnut brown hair that matches his eyes. His nose is a little cricked and his lips are a little thin, but she liked how the nose made him look rugged and how his lips still looked perfect to kiss. His jaw looks so sharp that she believes is she were to run her finger along it she would cut it. No matter how badly the young girl wanted to go on a date with him, she knew about who he is and what his reputation is. He’s the infamous Tom Holland or as the tabloids like to call him, Holland the Lady Killer. His motto is hit then quit it and that really isn’t what Y/N is looking for. “Hey, just who we were looking for! I told Haz that you’d be showing the scholar bee around the school. You’ve always loved to meet new people. Thought we’d come join you seeing as this year’s scholar bee is a female and not another boring ass dude. So does the little lady have a name?” Tom inquires slyly as he makes his way over to Delilah and slings his hand around her neck. “My names Y/N. What’s it matter to you?” She snarls not liking what he said at all. “Damn, you got a mouth on you. I like a girl who isn’t afraid to talk back. Well, I guess it’s my turn to introduce. I am Tom and this div beside me is Harrison,” Tom tries to say in the most charming voice he could. Y/N just scoffs and keeps walking, “Whatever. Nice to meet you, Harrison. Now, let’s head over to the mathematics wing.” “Looks like we finally found someone who can resist Tommy’s charm,” Haz whispers to his two comrades as they follow Y/N down the hall.

After finishing the tour of the campus, the four newly acquainted friends headed over to Y/N’s dorm so that they could help her unpack. “Okay, everything is labelled clearly so it shouldn’t be too hard trying to figure out where everything should go,” Y/N elucidates while tying her hair back and picking up one of the boxes that was labelled closet- Hoodies and Shirts. Everyone went to work on cleaning out the boxes while they worked they talked, reminisce about old stories, joked around, and listened to some music. Symphony by Clean Bandit played on her phone and Y/N started swaying to the music. “I’ve been hearing symphonies before all I heard was silence. A rhapsody for you and me, and every melody is timeless,” she sang as she organized the books onto her bookshelf. Tom looks up from the clothes he was folding for her and stares in awe of her voice. To him, she sounded like an angel and all he wanted to do is listen to her sing all day. He may not have noticed it, but the whole afternoon he found himself noticing little things that he liked about her and he just wanted to be closer to him. He liked how she had all these random facts and how she could joke about anything and everything. He liked how organized she is and how she hasn’t fawned over her this whole afternoon. Y/N places the final book onto the shelf and looks over at everyone, “Alright, I can finish putting the clothes away after dinner. Why don’t we get something to eat? I read on the board that it’s taco night.” Everyone voiced their agreement and started to make their way over to the door, but before Y/N could leave, Tom gently tapped her on the shoulder and asked if he could talk to her. “Sure,” she tells him. Tom stands straight and fixes his jacket nervously, “I was wondering if we could restart. I know, I was a jackass, but I would really like to be friends with you. Plus, I know you, Deli, and Haz get along well and I really don’t feel like being kicked out of my own friend group.” Y/N smiles at Tom to show him that everything is alright. “Tommy, it's fine. Sometimes people start off on the wrong foot and that’s fine. Let’s start, over. Hey, I am Y/N. I don’t believe I got your name,” Y/N says nicely as she sticks her hand out for Tom to shake. He chuckles and takes her hand, “It’s Tom, Tom Holland. You may have heard of me. My dad owns the world’s best phone company as well as several other companies you may have heard of.” “Okay, now you just sound like cocky. How about we just head over to the mess hall and call it a day?” Y/N suggest as how she links their arms and walks off to the mess hall.

When dinner was over, Y/N was feeling a little jet-lagged so she headed back to her dorm to get some sleep while the other three decided to head to the game room. They were playing pool when Harrison decided to bring up the conversation. “So you and Y/N…” he wonders out loud as he aims the queue at one of the balls. Tom leans on the wall and retorts, “Nothing is going on between us. We are just friends that’s all.” Delilah snorts and laughs, “Yeah, right! I noticed your side glances at her, but I’ll let you deny whatever you want if it helps you sleep at night.” Tom just shakes his and continues the game without mentioning Y/N again, but that night when he was trying to get to sleep all he could do was think back to the conversation they had in the game room and Y/N’s angelic singing voice.

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I hope you guys enjoyed and I would love to hear what you guys thought!

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#tom holland #tomholland #tom holland imagine #tom holland imagines #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland fic #tom holland fuckboy x reader #tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #tom holland x y/n #tom holland x yn #fuckboy! tom holland #fuckboy! tom holland x reader #fuckboi! tom #fuckboy! tom #fuckboi! tom holland #KoCSCC #richkid! tom #richkid! tom hollland #richkid! tom holland x reader #tom holland richkid x reader

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More Than Meets the Eye 2012 Annual - None of These Guys Know How to Be Nice to Others or Themselves

Hey, so you remember how every kids’ show until basically 2006 had a Fantastic Voyage episode, where they explored the inside of one of their friends’ bodies? We’re opening up with that.

Rodimus and a few pals are busy trying to clear out a nanocon infestation from none other than Ultra Magnus himself, and are doing it in the most convoluted way possible because Brainstorm wanted to try some new invention out, and I guess Ratchet just can’t say no to that faceplate. Whirl’s in there, which seems like maybe not the best idea. Wonder how Magnus feels about all this.

Oh my god he’s been asleep this entire time.

There’s this thing that doctors are supposed to do before performing any medical procedure on a lucid patient, and it’s called informed consent. It would appear that it didn’t happen here. Ratchet, your medical license, please and thank you.

Things start getting hairy for the Fantastic Voyagers during their throw-down inside Magnus’ mouth, and Ratchet’s forced to do something drastic: he has to ask Ultra Magnus, king-sized stick-in-the-mud, to smile.

Woof, that’s rough. Don’t worry, buddy, you’ll get the hang of it eventually.

The sudden engagement of the smiling pistons is so violent that they explode, thus destroying the nanocons entirely and utterly. Great!

Word gets out that Ultra Magnus smiled. Not so great.

Atomizer’s all about them crossbows, so I’m going to make a call and say his design aesthetic is probably rustic chic. Of course, rustic chic for a bunch of space robots probably looks a hell of a lot like brutalism. What I’m saying is, I don’t think Atomizer’s work before the war was too hot.

Everyone Magnus runs into and tries to inflict his job upon makes fun of him. Magnus is a sensitive soul, so he takes it to heart. Poor baby.

A bit later on, in the double page spread with layering issues, Chromedome wakes up from a nightmare.

Rewind has to think about this and double check his database to make sure that Chromedome hasn’t in fact tried to commit suicide by way of ingesting space napalm, and I think that says a lot about Chromedome from a mental health standpoint that even his husband isn’t 100% sure what all he’s tried.

Chromedome hasn’t tried this particular avenue of suicide, which means that his flashback nightmare is the result of one of the many mnemosurgery autopsies he’s performed over the years. Turns out digging around in someone’s memories has a few side-effects.

Meanwhile, Tailgate’s inviting Cyclonus to his Autobot graduation ceremony, because while Cyclonus pulled a real bastard move last time we saw him, Tailgate still seems to think he’s worth having around. Tailgate really wants to be liked by people. Cyclonus doesn’t even respond, and Tailgate decides to leave him alone to stare out at the free-to-use image of space that’s currently in their window.

Then there’s Swerve, who’s down in the engine rooms looking for his roommate, Red Alert. Yep, that’s right; Red Alert somehow ended up sharing a room not just in general, but with Swerve, who we established in issue #1 as being maybe not his favorite individual.

Swerve stops by the corpse of Ore, who I guess they haven’t scraped out of the side of the quantum drive yet for whatever reason, and he take a moment to pay his respects.

OH MY GOD.

Everyone looks like they’ve got retainers in for this issue too! What an oddly specific design choice to see repeated by multiple artists. And on that note…

The 2012 Annual was drawn by two people, Jimbo Salgado and Emil Cabaltierra, both of whom seem to only have this singular contribution to the Transformers franchise. Salgado appears to have been employed by DC Comics, and Cabaltierra’s most recent work seems to be on  the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics. There isn’t a ton of information on either of them, so I suppose we’ll have to take the art here at face value.

Over in Rodimus’ inexplicably not-pink room, he and Drift are discussing talking points for Tailgate’s graduation ceremony. Well, Drift’s talking while Rodimus half-listens. We get a taste of Rodimus’ motto for the series.

Drift thinks that less might be more in this case, but the saying, much like a majority of Rodimus’ personality, is based in feelings of inadequacy. Optimus says it- though not nearly as often- and if it’s good enough for Optimus Prime, surely it’s something to emulate. Rodimus, feeling a bit snippy over being called out on his hero-worship, accuses Drift of not actually caring about the ceremony and just wanting to get to the part where they hit up Crystal City to join up on the Knight Quest. Drift, admittedly, is excited to see the Circle of Light again, which is surprising considering what happened the last time he was in Crystal City.

I dunno, I just feel like things would be awkward.

Magnus walks in, demanding the whole crew be thrown out because they’ve been making fun of him. Rodimus tries to help Magnus see the lighter side of things, saying that a little harmless ribbing means that the crew is starting to warm up to him, but Magnus doesn’t see it that way.

There’s also the issue of the Lost Light still not having made contact with the Circle of Light. Magnus is concerned about the sect of religious zealot-pacifists having been attacked, but Drift fills Magnus- and the reader- in on the bad-assery he witnessed back in the Drift miniseries.

It’s later now, and Tailgate’s ceremony is about to start. In the audience, Jackpot takes bets on how long it’ll take for Rodimus to say the Thing, and Whirl confides in First Aid about the graffiti he left inside Ultra Magnus. Wonder what sort of violation that is. Defacement of personal property? Medical malpractice? Assault?

Rodimus kicks things off, Whirl wins a bet, and we get word that all the dead bodies they just keep stacked up in the medibay started moving and clutching at their heads as if in pain. Apparently First Aid doesn’t know proper ceremony etiquette, because he’s fully leaned over the seat in front of him, in a crowd that honestly isn’t nearly big enough to hide what he’s doing, to whisper to Skids about the whole thing.

Well well well, if it isn’t Mr. Grumpypants himself watching from the wings. Glad you could not-join the party, you night-creature. If you’re attempting to be a nice person, Cyclonus, the person you’re attempting to be nice to needs to be aware of it.

Rodimus makes his speech, reflects on his own right of Autobrand, and Tailgate gets his very own temporary Autobot badge.

Or not.

Rodimus, who didn’t mean to fuck up Tailgate’s paint, doesn’t even know what he just did. Rewind steps in to translate the gobbledygook, while Tailgate has a minor crisis over his ruined beauty, saying that it’s Old Cybertronian for “let me out.” Drift and Ratchet run out of the white void behind the stage, both touting their own theories on what just happened, and both at odds with one another. Skids interrupts the debate of science vs religion before it can start, stating that Swerve’s on the horn about that Duobot not being dead.

Ore being alive poses a problem, because he’s still stuffed into the quantum drive, and if he freaks out he could set the thing off and having them bouncing all over space. They just got to Theophany, home of the Circle of Light, so bouncing around would be really inconvenient.

But wait, there’s more! The Galactic Council has come calling, wanting to know just what the hell everyone’s favorite war-mongering race is doing on their turf. Rodimus is a rude little shit, because bonding with the Matrix doesn’t really do much for your skills in traversing delicate political situations. Luckily, Magnus steps in before Rodimus can cause a galactic incident.

Magnus, because he’s the Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord- Tyrest being seen as a neutral party by both the Cybetronians and the Galactic Council- is received much more warmly by such a bureaucratic organization. They have what might be considered playful banter to them, and an agreement is reached.

Ooh, that’s a spicy take there, Rodimus!

We get a brief explanation of what exactly the Galactic Council is- a coalition of sentient races who organize treaties between species and police the galaxy in an attempt to keep the peace. Obviously, they don’t much care for the Transformers.

Before we can get terribly deep into the history of galactic politics, there’s a bright flash of light that consumes Rodimus-

-and we cut over to Swerve and his zombie pal.

Hey, who wants to see some high-level self-sabotage of one’s sense of worth? Because if you do, you’re in luck, because Swerve’s apparently got it down to a fine art. After failing to identify himself, Ore- who cannot see or feel anything at present- thinks that he’s speaking with Pipes, and Swerve proceeds to offer up that thing that happened in issue #6 on a silver platter to the guy who apparently doesn’t like him a whole lot already.

Swerve, please, practice a little self-love, my dude. Don’t subject yourself to this.

Down on Theophany, the boys are driving towards Crystal City, and are none-too-impressed by what they find.

Rewind, what the fuck do you think you’re doing? You can’t do that, it’s been established.

It’s looking like Crystal City’s been proper fucked, and Drift’s none too happy about it.

Back over at the pity-party, Swerve’s ruminating on the difference between peace and happiness, and how he doesn’t think he’s cut out for either of them. Ore adds that they’ve only just ended the war, and it may take some time to settle into the new normal. Swerve worries that he’s wasting his bold new tomorrow by playing pranks on Red Alert when he could be using his medical degree for something useful and important. Poor Swerve, caught in the trap of “you’re only worth something if you’re productive”. We’ve all been there, man.

Because it’s trauma, and you don’t owe anyone to be perfectly healthy and fine when you’re traumatized by warcrimes and atrocities! Every single member of the Cybertronian population is chock-full of trauma, and they need, just, so many more mental health services in order for it all to be processes and dealt with.

Also, Ore is very scary and bad to look at, so I’ve cut him out of the capture for this little bit of dialogue.

Back in Crystal City, the boys have made the rounds, and determined that a fight did indeed happen, but there aren’t any bodies to speak of. Odd, that. Drift is a little on edge, as he snaps at Rewind that he’ll cut his camera off of his head if he doesn’t shut up, then decks Whirl for playing the name game.

Then Drift gets mad at god, and things go about as well as you’d expect.

Later, bitches!

Over on the Benign Intervention, the Galactic Council ship, we see where Ultra Magnus’ gotten to, as he has a meeting with a representative. The Council is offering Magnus a seat at the table, because he’s about the only member of his race the Council respects.

Back with Drift, the lads have picked themselves up from the fall and have found themselves a nice little surprise.

Ratchet and Skids up there just straight-up disrespecting gravity. Can you tell I’m not a huge fan of the art here? Because I’m not.

The fellas climb up on this giant’s face, Swerve shows up for a panel, and Rodimus has everyone jump down the Metrotitan’s throat to go find the thing’s brain.

Lot of vore-adjacent action this issue. Gotta love an Annual.

Once inside, they find a very big brain, and Cyclonus reflects on his faith. See, back when Metrotitans weren’t so rare and Cyclonus hadn’t spent 6 million years in the Dead Universe, he would worship in their shadow. Rewind, because he’s a history nerd, asks for a taste of that action, and Cyclonus indulges him, probably because he’s once again realized that he misses connecting with other people, and still doesn’t know how to handle the Tailgate thing.

This is where the Guido Guidi art kicks in, and it’s so friggin’ pretty. So pretty, in fact, you might almost miss Roberts slipping this into the lore dump.

An urgency, you say, which- stop me if I’m wrong- resulted in the creation of life.

Honestly, I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.

Anyway, this is where the Guiding Hand came to be- the five gods of Cybertron.

Now, back in The Death of Optimus Prime, it was established that the Guiding Hand were ancient, lost knowledge, only known to the Matrix and its bearer. Cyclonus is really fucking old, but I’m thinking that this discrepancy is simply a case of early-installment weirdness that’s now being rectified, so it isn’t too odd when members of the crew are revealed to have faith.

So the gods hung out, made a bunch of babies asexually, gave them the gifts of thought and feeling and being able to turn into tanks and shit, and it was pretty sweet for a while.

The Mortilus got a bug up his butt about killing things, and the Transformers found their true purpose in the universe- war. Mortilus was eventually defeated, but only after every other member of the Guiding Hand had been reduced to abstract sculpture art; Primus became Vector Sigma, Solomus became the Matrix- which, considering what happened to that thing prior to MTMTE, uh, yikes- and Epistemus and Adaptus became the basis on which the modern t-cog and brain module were built.

Because the god of death is no more, the Transformers were made immortal, which explains why it takes so much to fucking kill them. A bunch of the first generation of Transformers decided to fuck off into space to spread the good word about their pretty-much-dead gods, coming to be known at the Knights of Cybertron. The end!

Ratchet doesn’t appreciate the tale that Cyclonus just told, because Real Atheist Hours are 24/7 for him, and that fight that Skids managed to put a stop to starts up again.

Then Drift brandishes a sword a Ratchet, because this is how we deal with our problems when we’re Drift, and hiding behind a façade of being a happy-go-lucky flowerchild fails. Rodimus breaks the two of them up before someone gets stabbed, and drags Drift away as Chromedome sets up to do his thing on a brain the size of a school bus.

Skids comes up and starts chatting him up, and Chromedome reveals a little bit about himself as a person.

Chromedome, I’m happy that you found someone you love who loves you just as much, but I’ll go ahead and say it- I don’t think telling the dude with short-to-midterm memory loss to look for a relationship is the hottest idea you’ve ever had.

In a place that isn’t the inside of the Metrotitan’s skull, Drift asks Rodimus about his faith. Rodimus is a believer, then proceeds to put the guy on a pedestal as he make the claim that “everything will depend on him.”

Then Chromedome stabs his needly little fingers into a giant brain- much to Rewind’s chagrin- and all hell breaks loose.

Oh man, y’all are going to double space-prison for that one.

Magnus’ meeting gets interrupted, of course, and the Council’s automatic response is to assume they’re being attacked, and they break out the big guns to take down to the planet’s surface. Magnus, seeing the writing on the wall, teleports back over to the Lost Light awith the intent to call Rodimus to try and see just what’s happening now, when the entirety of the ship is encased in a forcefield, and not one courtesy of Trailcutter.

Back planetside, Chromedome’s flat on his back as he explains that the Metrotitan is screaming its friggin’ head off in a frequency they can’t hear, mad as hell that it can’t answer the call of Vector Sigma to come home. This frequency can also apparently raise the dead, and do a bunch of other really weird shit. Chromdome wants to dive back in.

Chromedome, are you sure that statement about being suicidal should have been past-tense?

The whole planet is a-rockin’ and a-shakin’, as the Council troops make their way towards our dear friends. Rodimus, thinking quickly, orders Whirl to take a few friends and keep the Council busy while Chromedome wraps up. Rodimus wants all that good, good Cybertronian history, and figures that they need to rip it all out of the Metrotitan’s brain while he’s still kicking. Brainstorm offers to shrink the guy, seeing as he brought along his mass-displacement gun, but Rodimus seems intent on using the method that could kill Chromedome and might not even get them what they need before the Metrotitan dies.

Before a decision can be reached, Ultra Magnus gets through to Rodimus. Turns out that forcefield the Lost Light’s in is an incineration shell, and things are about to get spicy for everyone on board. Said shell is also draining the power cells, so they can’t quantum jump to safety. Rodimus has an idea though.

Over with Swerve and Ore, the conversation turns to religion. Swerve is a man of faith, whereas Ore has a much more straightforward view of life- you live, and it’s odd and wonderful and terrible, and when you die that’s it. Ore does not believe in the afterlife, and believes that what you get is what you get.

This is about the time that Rodimus calls Swerve to have him set off the quantum drive by killing Ore via shock, by telling him the truth about his predicament.

Swerve just shoved those orders so far up Rodimus’ ass, he’ll probably blow them out of his nose in a minute.

So, the Lost Light’s done for, thanks to the power of standing up for yourself. I guess Scott Pilgrim got that one wrong. Chromedome asks Rodimus what he wants to do with the Metrotitan, and Rodimus says to let him free.

And then everyone died. That’s a series wrap, folks!

What do you mean we’ve got 49 more issues? Okay, let’s see where this goes.

So Brainstorm blasts the brain, everyone is enveloped in a bright light, and we smash-cut to Swerve talking at Rung’s headless body in the medibay, as he recounts the outright religious experience he had.

Ore’s gone, and Swerve believes that Primus came and took him to the Afterspark, the Cybertronian afterlife, and so it was that Swerve’s faith was strengthened.

Over in Rodimus’ office, we tear down that miracle with some equally unrealistic sci-fi bullshit. Brainstorm’s mass-displacement shrunk the Metrotitan down enough to allow himself to teleport, and some theorized psychic link with Ore allowed the Lost Light to piggyback to safety.

Still no clues as to what happened to the Circle of Light, though, which is troublesome. Probably kidnapped, or some such. Going off of that hunch, the Lost Light will be following some reports on Decepticon activity- because we haven’t gotten to the point of nuance with our former enemies just yet.

Rodimus has decided that winging things isn’t really working out like he’d like it to, so he’s going to try to be a better captain. Which, y’know, thank god. Let’s make an effort to keep everyone kicking.

We get a brief flashback to just what happened during Magnus’ meeting with the Galactic Council, and as it turns out, he turned down their offer, saying that he was needed on the Lost Light.

The Council is disappointed by his decision.

Oh well dang, I wonder who that mysterious figure could possibly be. Surely he will in no way factor into the entirety of every single problem ever faced or made by the planet of Cybertron and the galaxy it resides in. Oh, surely not.

While I got you here, let’s take a gander at the section blurbs.

We’re getting yet more mindsets about god and faith, from folks not in the narrative but adjacent to it. Alpha Trion is a well-respected, learned robot who has no doubt spent a vast majority of his time taking in literature and theory on the subject of religion. In contrast, we have Beachcomber, who in this particular continuity doesn’t have a ton of characterization, but does seem to be pulling from his hippy-dippy persona from the ‘80s cartoon at least a little for his excerpt here. New-age, we’ll call him.

And then there’s Megatron, who’s just straight-up torn the cover off of Karl Marx’s A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right and is trying to pass it off as his own, but let’s look more at the actual meaning of such a quote.

Now the problem with that is, much like in real life, we aren’t seeing the entirety of the quote, instead having only kept the last little bit to play with. 

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people".

Now, for Megatron here, we should assume that the front-end of this quote from Marx isn’t applicable, seeing as we seem to be operating as if it doesn’t exist. 

So, “Religion is the opium/engex of the people.” It’s a comfort, a drug, something to keep one docile. We’ll see the logical conclusion to such a mindset much later on in the series. As is, it gives us another glimpse at the creature that is pre-war Megatron. 

And now you know why the Annual subtitle was Primus: You, Me, and Other Revelations.

#transformers #jro #jro punches me in the face #maccadam #Hannzreads #text post #long post #comic script writing #overthinking about robots

[bunny-doyounq]

Taeyong sighed, putting his phone down and leaned his head back. He heard a notification come through and lifted his phone up to check. Rolling his eyes, he opened the text and smacked his lips.

Once he replied, he tossed his phone aside, not caring whether he gets a response or not. He closed his eyes before he heard his name being faintly called from down the hall.

He dragged himself off his chair and walked towards his door. Opening the door, he yelled, indicating his presence. Taeyong saw Jeno’s figure turning the corner and stopped in the middle of the hallway. They both stared at each other, until the younger boy asked, running his hand through his hair. “Have you eaten dinner yet?”

Taeyong shook his head, leaning his body weight on the door frame. “Did you want to eat..together?” He asked, breaking the silence. Jeno’s head nodded before he mumbled if it was okay with him because you wanted them eating together. Taeyong gave a small smile and pushed himself off the wall, making his way towards the boy.

When Taeyong reached Jeno, Taeyong noticed Jeno’s tired appearance and patted the boy’s shoulder, lingering his hand there for a few seconds. “You must be tired from juggling school/homework and helping out the diner. I’ll heat up dinner and you can go clean up.”

— — — —

Taeyong and Jeno sat across from each other awkwardly eating in silence before Taeyong began to speak. “So what’s up with y/n and the diner?” Jeno gave him a questioning look before Taeyong clarified. “She’s 24 and owns a diner? How’d she managed to do that?” He sipped the soup, looking into Jeno’s eyes.

The boy let out an ah before placing his spoon back into the bowl. He smiled fondly, thinking about how to answer. “Well, our parents actually owned the diner. Y/and I grew up helping out with the diner for fun. We couldn’t do much so we would dance around the diner and sometimes customers would join in too!”

Taeyong smiled at him, putting his cheek on his hand with his elbow propped on the table to fully invest himself in the story. Jeno pushed aside his bowl and scooted closer to the table before continuing. “We both loved seeing our parents giving customers a piece of home away from home. That’s the motto of the diner as you know.” Jeno proudly mentioned, smiling with a quirked eyebrow. “Customers always leave happy and would come back for more. This lead y/n to take dance more serious because she wanted to  bring joy to others watching.” There was a slight pause and Jeno started to twirl his spoon in his lukewarm soup. “But then, one day, our parents died in a car accident.”

Taeyong’s breath hitched in his throat and he straightened up in his seat, trying process at what Jeno just said. The tired younger boy paid no attention as he resumed. “Y/n was only 18 and I was 12 when that happened. We didn’t have relatives who wanted to take us in and Y/n fought the system to allow me to stay with her. She stopped dancing and rejected college acceptances so that she can run the diner because it’s what she knows best.”

Jeno looked at the older boy who’s mouth was slightly opened and unblinking eyes. He nodded to Taeyong as if he knew what Taeyong was thinking. “It was really hard for the both us - especially Y/n. A good amount of the workers there didn’t believe she could do run the diner so they ended up quitting, but y/n ended up taking care of everything. She was gone from 7am until midnight, and cleaned up. I would be at the diner so that she could watch over me and to force me to do homework..” Jeno chuckled at the last statement and looked at the kitchen. “I fall asleep in the office until we are ready to lock up and go home. But when we do go home, well, she goes into the kitchen and starts making the next day’s breakfast and lunch for us.”

Taeyong lifted his hand up to stop Jeno from continuing. “How did she do that.. all alone?” Jeno shrugged before making a joke. “She’s crazy, dude. She’s a workaholic.” He then dismissively waved his hand and smiled at Taeyong. “She wants to make our parents proud with the diner and for me to have a good life. Once she sets her mind to something, she will stick with it.”

Jeno leaned back on his chair and crossed his arms. “But she wasn’t entirely alone though. I’d help out to the best I could and once Mark turned 16, he started to work part time and Jisung actually just started to do part time just last year. Their parents try to help us once in a while too. So we weren’t fucked that much.”

Taeyong stayed silent and Jeno gave him a small smile. “I know it’s a lot to take in.” Taeyong shoot him a bewildered look and ran his hand through his hair, letting out a sigh. “It’s just amazing that she did that at such a young age and is still doing it.” He threw up his hands in exaggerated motions. “I’m just speechless.”

The youngest let out a light chuckle and nodded in agreement. “My sister is awesome. You won’t meet anyone like her.” Taeyong let out an airy amen as Jeno’s phone started to ring. He excused himself to answer, allowing Taeyong to process his thoughts.

Taeyong had already been amazed by your work ethics at the diner and your responsibility towards Jeno, but to hear everything that happened to lead up to this moment, he doesn’t think he can see you the same - in a good way. The respect he has for you grew five fold, but his heart sank in realization.

How the fuck is he supposed to get you to sell your parents’ diner that you worked so hard to maintain? 

His thoughts were interrupted when Jeno came running back into the diner, breathless. “Taeyong!! Y/n fainted at work!!”

— — — —

cloud 9 | chapter 7

pairing: taeyong x reader

genre: fluff/angst

synopsis: when taeyong realizes he has outgrown his hometown, taeyong becomes restless and started to travel the world. maybe that’s why he couldn’t stay in the same city for more than two weeks. the feeling of being in the sky and going to a foreign place gave him euphoria.

But when taeyong visits his friends, he loses his passport and belongings, forcing him to stay put for more than two months. Upon that, he meets a waitress and starts to realize that cloud 9 could be closer to the ground than he thought.

au masterlist

a/n: wrote this before I head off to bed ❤️ good night from me to you & enjoy. ❣️

also, if you want to be added on a taglist,,, pls let me know! 💖

taglist: @sugasheart @theloouiisee @neocultishtech @cazziamo @t-k-b-z @maediseun @mariamaravilla @hannahdinse8 @oliverose137 @zeus-jpg @ki-aechan @my-chaos-in-stars

#taeyong #taeyong x reader #taeyong social media au #taeyong social media #taeyong fluff #taeyong angst #taeyong fics #taeyong imagines #taeyong texts #taeyong au #taeyong text au #taeyong texts au #nct fluff #nct angst #nct fics #nct imagines #nct texts #nct texts au #nct au #nct social media au #nct social media #nct scenarios

[weakeninghope]

Solve me, solve you

Pairing: Pannacotta Fugo/Narancia Ghirga

Rating: Teen

AO3 link here

Summary:   It came out as a simple request— and Fugo was not willing to oblige. For the sake of his — and Narancia’s — mental health.

“Fugo. Tutor me.” Narancia said, and there was some kind of finality in his voice. The boy always knew what he wanted and pursued it, went after it blindly. Don’t think, feel. That was his motto. But not Fugo’s.

They were too different. Fugo wonders why they were even friends.

Notes: Hello! I've been wanting to write Fugonara for ages dude, but I didn't feel confident enough and I didn't have any ideas either... but here I am!I've been thinking about the tutoring thing and I definitely feel that it would have been hard for Fugo to accept.Some notes:- I wrote this with manga Fugo on mind! also his backstory is the one on PHF - in this, Fugo has depression. I highly think he has it. And this is lowkey me identifying myself with Fugo too (I have depression, and I also have a high IQ and also felt lonely and like I had to live up to other's expectations) - I'm sorry for the ooc and for grammar mistakes. I'm not a native! (I'm from Spain)If you want to contact me, you can do so in @weakeninghope (tumblr) and @Shirotxpoison (twitter)!Comments and kudos are much appreciated <3

fic under the cut!

It came out as a simple request— and Fugo was not willing to oblige. For the sake of his — and Narancia’s — mental health.

 “Fugo. Tutor me.” Narancia said, and there was some kind of finality in his voice. The boy always knew what he wanted and pursued it, went after it blindly. Don’t think, feel. That was his motto. But not Fugo’s.

 They were too different. Fugo wonders why they were even friends.

 It had been a few months since Narancia Ghirga had joined the gang, since he had the potential, he saw Purple Haze that day in that alley after all, so he passed the test. Bucciarati had gotten them a two-room apartment and they were living together in Naples.

 They didn’t see each other too much at first, since Fugo would leave Narancia alone in his room and desert in favor of the library, his retirement. He always felt like there he could be himself. And… it wasn’t as if he didn’t trust Narancia — he did— if Bucciarati did, he did too. But…

 He was afraid to be around people. After the course of many years of violent outbursts and what had happened at the university, Fugo understood that he wasn’t meant to mingle with society.

 That he only existed as a tool to obey others and that would eventually rot and die a hopeless death.

 He didn’t want to mingle with anyone… except he did.

 When he helped Narancia.

 But there was something in those eyes —he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what— hopelessness, maybe? But he kind of… felt identified with the despair of being alone, with not knowing what could possibly happen to him…

 He just… had to do something. He felt like he would eternally berate himself if he didn’t, and he was fed up already with his regrets. So he made a mental list of things he didn’t want; and feeling bad for not helping this boy was at the top. And then he asked Bucciarati to order a plate of food for him; and when Bucciarati gave the boy his plate of food, Fugo smiled.

 He remembers feeling really weird… it had been a lot since the last time he smiled, he didn’t even when Bucciarati got him out of the cell.

 He couldn’t help but feel bad for Bucciarati. Fugo was just a burden; what could be good of bailing him? Why would someone do that? He had, after all, hit a professor with a dictionary, screwing up his future and not living up to the expectations of his family.

 But honestly… after having had this violent outburst he didn’t feel bad for the professor, he didn’t feel bad for his family…

 He just felt like he was an utter failure. A worthless piece of garbage.

 And that day he swore he would stay away from everyone as much as possible.

 But he broke it by helping Narancia out.

 He broke it by eventually becoming Narancia’s friend; recommending him books, laughing when Narancia couldn’t make his way through them, reading it along with him, spending afternoons strolling around with him, talking with him about whatever…

  “Fugo, are you listening to me?” Came Narancia’s question. He was kind of annoyed since it was evident that Fugo wasn’t paying attention to him. Seriously, what could he possibly be thinking?

 “No.”

 “No to ‘are you listening to me’ or to ‘tutor me’?”

 “To both.”

 “To both.” He mocked, imitating (or trying to, at least, Fugo’s voice). Narancia’s voice had gotten quite a lot of life since Bucciarati had sent him to the hospital to heal his eye, and since he had joined the gang. Narancia seemed to be quite cheerful these days, and Fugo was really glad.

 But he was also scared. What if something happened to Narancia?

 Oh god. He was the one who introduced Narancia to Bucciarati. He was the one who introduced Narancia to the mob…

 “Fugo! Stop spacing out, or I’m going to get angry at you!”

 “You don’t want the opposite to happen, trust me.”

 “What?” Narancia asked as he sat in the bed, next to Fugo. He somehow felt that he needed to be closer to Fugo.

 He knew that there where days in which Fugo didn’t feel well.

 Those days, they would spend them together in silence or casually speaking about something until Narancia left so Fugo could be alone. He didn’t want to bother him after all.

 But one day Narancia realized that he wanted to… be like him. Not to copy him, but be smart… so that’s why he thought about Fugo tutoring him, hence gone to his room to ask him if that could happen.

 But Fugo didn’t seem willing to make it happen.

 “I have terrible, violent outbursts. I’m short-tempered. Narancia, do you even know why I entered the gang?” Fugo confessed. He didn’t know if Narancia knew, he possibly could have asked Bucciarati about it. But he didn’t want Narancia to grow scared of him for what has happened, but…

 He lived with him. he knew how sometimes he didn’t even get out of bed. He knew how some nights he would lock his door to cry himself to sleep. He knew how he would leave without giving any explanation to Narancia.

 But did he know why everything happened? Did he know that he felt extremely guilty for allowing all of this to happen?  Did he know that he only wished for the best the best to happen to Narancia?

 “Dunno, you copied in an exam?” Narancia asked, looking straight at Fugo. His voice was so innocent that Fugo couldn’t help but to giggle a little bit. Narancia was so raw, so honest… so utterly beautiful.

 “This is serious, Narancia.”

 “Man, I said I dunno… but anyway that was in the past, y’know? I care about the present Fugo. The present Fugo is the one who… saved me. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Bucciarati. If it weren’t for you. You’re violent? Okay, then come at me, you bastard.” Narancia rambled. At that, he opened his arms to Fugo.

 Hesitantly, Fugo sat up on his bed and dove straight to Narancia’s arms. The hug felt warm, comfortable… like anything he had experienced before. He could only compare it to when his grandmother would hug him or ruffle his silver hair. But then his grandmother died and the only home for Fugo’s solace had disappeared as well.

 Except it had… seemed to come again.

 Fine… he could try to tutor Narancia.

 “Okay… I’ll tutor you.” He muttered against Narancia’s shoulder, feeling Narancia’s sweat clinging to him. He’d have to take a shower.

 “Really? Thank you, Fugo, you’re the best!” Narancia exclaimed as he hugged Fugo tighter. “I’m gonna be smart, I’m gonna go to school someday!” He let go with excitement. Fugo felt his face grow hot and his heartbeat race. He couldn’t believe he was helping someone… he couldn’t believe Narancia still wanted to be around him even while being aware of what could happen.

 “Fugo?”

 “Hmmm?”

 “You’re still hugging me, man.” Narancia observed. At that, Fugo reluctantly distanced himself from the dark-haired. He had felt too good enveloped in Narancia’s hug, though…

 “S-sorry! I just... lost track of time…” The silver-haired apologized. You were just too warm… He thought.

 “Hey, don’t apologize? I actually like it to, hehe. Hug me more if I get my math right, okay?”

 “I wouldn’t object to that…” Fugo whispered, his face felt too hot. Crap, what if Narancia saw it? What would he think of him? Would he think he’s weird?

 “Yay!” Narancia threw his arms to the air and got off Fugo’s bed. “Can’t wait for tomorrow to come!” He said.

 Tomorrow, huh…?

 -

Fugo checked his desk. Okay. It was clean enough.

 So today he was supposed to tutor Narancia, in a few minutes he’d come to his room and the tutoring would start.

 His heart was pounding, and he couldn’t seem to focus; he could just… obsessively check his surroundings because he wanted to know if everything was clean enough. Was it clean enough? Although Narancia wasn’t one to care about his room being clean, he had seen Narancia’s room, and had yelled at him to tidy it up a few times, to no avail though.

 A knock on the door.

 “Fugo!” He heard Narancia’s voice from the other side of the door. Okay, time to answer…

 But Narancia barged in.

 Fugo felt his anger boil. But he wasn’t going to screw up. So he clenched his fists and forced a polite smile on himself.

 “Oh, Narancia, I wasn’t expecting you here this early.” He said, mentally counting to ten. He wasn’t going to screw this up, everything was going to be fine.

 Narancia then closed the door and sat on a chair that Fugo had previously prepared for Narancia to sit onto.

 “What are we going to do today?” Narancia asked. He seemed too eager. It was obvious that he didn’t know what failure of a teacher —of a human being, really  — Fugo was.

 “Addition. I’m going to scribble a few problems for you here, okay? Wait for me.” Fugo calmly instructed.

 So he grabbed the sheet and wrote a few problems, not too hard, really, considering that he had to explain Narancia what was wrong if he got them wrong, which Fugo supposed he should be prepared for.

 But… what if he wasn’t?

 He felt his hand tremble against the paper.

 His whole life flashed into his eyes. His siblings bullying him. His parents expecting way too much. His obligations. His grandmother dying. The professor.

 His mind then pictured an image of Narancia failing, failing something so simple that he could do with his eyes closed. Failing…

 Failure was definitely not an option.

 “Fugo?” Narancia asked when he felt Fugo’s teeth clacking. Was… everything okay?

 I definitely can’t do this. I’m sorry, Narancia…

 Fugo then stood up of his chair and left the room. He didn’t pay mind to Narancia’s worried screams for him to return, he just did what he always did when his anger got the best of him.

 Run away.

 So he left the house and, once he was on the street, he took a moment to think and look at himself.

 He was pathetic.

 -

 “Narancia asked you to tutor him.” Bucciarati said in his calm voice.

 In the end, Fugo had ran off to the only place he knew he could be okay and understood — Bucciarati’s house.

 Fugo nodded.

 “And you ran away because you thought you were about to punch him.”

 Fugo nodded again.

 “You left the apartment. In your pajamas.”

 “If you want to laugh at me for being pathetic, I’ll understand.”

 “See how your anger management isn’t going that bad?”

 “Bucciarati… I’m not in the mood for sarcasm.”

 “But it isn’t sarcasm.” Bucciarati said. “I could swear you’ve gotten better. That’s why I’ve teamed you up with Narancia.” He finished.

 “So you did it on purpose?”

 “You could say I did.”

 Fugo abruptly got up. What?

 “Bucciarati, I told you I wanted to be alone! You said that me being with Narancia, living with Narancia was strictly necessary, but it was to check up on me?” He shouted. He was feeling his anger boil. Oh my god he was going to snap.

 “Fugo-“

 “I’ve had enough!” He shouted as he slammed the door shut behind him.

 And he found himself on the street again, not knowing where to go. He should go home, but he wasn’t about to do that. But he passed by, in front of his apartment, and there he found Narancia. He looked from afar, but Narancia seemed worried and his eyes looked puffy. Had he… been crying?

Fugo hesitantly tried to reach out until his mind told him to stop. That he deserved to be alone.

 But when he heard Narancia desperately screaming his name (some people turned to look at him) he had to go.

 “Narancia-“

 Narancia threw himself at Fugo’s arms, hugging him tightly, sobbing in his chest.

 “Fugo! You’re- here…” Narancia whispered.

 Fugo hesitantly brought his hands to Narancia’s hair (it was soft) and started petting it softly… he owed him an apology.

 “I’m sorry… I didn’t want to snap at you.” He said. He felt he was about to cry, but maybe… he needed it?

 “Let’s go home and we’ll talk about it, okay?” Narancia said, distancing himself from Fugo but not completely so, as he grabbed one of the silver-haired’s hand and clasped it with intent.

 Fugo did not protest at Narancia’s handhold and went home with him.

 Once they got there, they went to Fugo’s room and sat together on the bed.

 After a few minutes of silence and a few hand squeezes from Narancia, Fugo felt ready to speak.

 “I have high intolerance to failure. I was raised to believe that it has no place in my life, that you have to succeed, always, in everything you do. My siblings bullied me for all the attention I received. My grandmother was he only person in my family that saw me as who I was, but then… then she died.” Fugo said in between ugly sobs. “And then I had nothing. I began to distance myself from everyone, even though I didn’t have to make much efforts since everyone seemed to hate me already…”

 “Shhh. It’s okay, Fugo. You’re okay now, okay? You’re… not alone anymore.” Narancia said.

 “You’re not, either.” Fugo started. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tutor you.” He finished.

 “Hey? Who said you’re not tutoring me?” Narancia playfully asked. He had a goal and he was going to fulfill it, even if that meant he was going to be stabbed with a pencil, a fork, or whatever.

 “But…”

“No buts.” The dark-haired squeezed their linked hands.

 “Narancia… can I ask you something?” He asked. Narancia could say no, but he had to ask it…

 “Hmmm?”

 “Could you… hug me?” He asked, his cheeks ablaze. He felt so small, asking that to the other boy…

 “Only if you promise to tutor me.” Narancia teased; his voice was in between something serious and a trace of mockery, but Fugo knew he was safe with him.

 “Narancia!” “Okay, okay… don’t have to promise.” He opened his arms, facing Fugo anew. “Come here?”

 Fugo didn’t have to be told twice. He just… launched himself to Narancia. And once he was in his chest… he let himself cry. He cried his heart out, all the while Narancia petting his hair. He didn’t know how much time he spent like that until he felt that he could put a bit of distance between himself and Narancia. The closeness felt too good, after all, and Fugo felt like he could be himself when he was with Narancia…

 “Are you better now?” Narancia asked as he wiped some leftover tears in Fugo’s cheeks. The stark contrast between his wet cheeks and Narancia’s dry fingers made Fugo feel weird. But a good kind of weird.

 Fugo didn’t answer verbally, he just nodded. He seemed to have lost his voice, but it wasn’t as if he needed it right now.

 Right now, he was sharing an intimate silence with Narancia — his hands had gone from wiping the tears away from caressing Fugo’s cheeks, and without knowing what was happening… they both got closer, closing the gap between them. Fugo’s eyes fell closed and he was prepared for feeling Narancia’s lips on him until he felt a sharp intake of paint and something bump against his nose.

 It was Narancia’s nose, too. They had bumped against each other.

 He should have expected it… that this was going to be Narancia’s first kiss too…

 Suddenly, Fugo felt a fit of laughter bubble inside his chest. This situation felt too ridiculous… He had just cried his eyes out while being enveloped in Narancia’s hug, they had made up (it wasn’t as if they had fought in the first place, but still) they were about to have a magical first kiss only to be spoiled with a bump of noses.

 But it felt so genuine, so welcoming, so Narancia, that Fugo had to laugh.

 “What if I teach you how to kiss before I tutor you in math?” Fugo asked. He was crying again, but this time it was because he had laughed too much... really, being with Narancia was quite an experience. An experience he never wanted to end.

 “If you want to teach someone something, you have to be good at it first.” Narancia murmured, still clutching his nose.

 “Who has told you that I haven’t kissed anyone?”

 “Hmmm, you? Right now?”

 “Narancia, copying your words from yesterday: ‘come at me, you bastard’.” He was going to add, “but take care with your head first, we don’t want a second nose bump” but Narancia’s lips crashed into his own, and it felt…

 Out of this world.

 They spent a few seconds with their lips pressed against each other, until Fugo took the initiative to move them, sliding his lips against Narancia’s. His hands came to Narancia’s hair, and Narancia’s went immediately to Fugo’s face, mapping the surface lovingly. Narancia’s hands were rough, but felt impossibly softer against his face. Fugo never wanted this moment to end; he still couldn’t believe that this was happening, he had, after all, ran away because he was scared, but… Narancia still thought of him…

 Fugo knew he wasn’t the best teacher, really. He wasn’t the best person to begin with. His life was a whole series of problems he had to solve, but he wasn’t alone anymore. He had someone to help, someone to be with, someone to laugh with. And even though the fear of losing Narancia was there, Narancia’s kiss, the feeling of them being there, touching each other gently and the promise of more time together, made Fugo want to live for a future, made him want to become the best version of himself that could possibly exist.

#jjba #jjba part 5 #vento aureo #fugonara #pannacotta fugo #narancia ghirga #mywriting

[numba99]

Hate to Love You Part 8

Part 1  Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

Summary:  You and Jimmy have never gotten along. To say you hated each other would be an understatement. But when a night at a party takes an unexpected turn, things between the two of you change forever. Word Count:2,225

Warnings: Smut, some aggression 

“Jimmy,” a faint voice pulled you from your sleep. At first you thought you were dreaming, shutting your eyes again to rest some more. But then you heard it again.

“Jimmy?” It was Brady, and his voice was louder. Closer. You and Jimmy must have made the realization at the same time shooting up from the bed together. Your eyes went wide looking at each other. Fuck this is not good, it sounds like he was right down the hall.

“Get under the bed,” Jimmy whispered, walking over to his door. You quietly dropped to the floor, rolling under his bed. You stuck out your hand, snatching your pants from the floor and hiding them under the bed with you.The second you were completely out of sight Jimmy flung open his door.

“Dude you woke me up, what do you want?” Jimmy asked casually, you could only see from the ankles down, your heart pounding as another pair of feet joined his.

“Well good morning to you too sunshine,” Brady teased.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Jimmy huffed before repeating, “What do you want?”

“I just wanted to say sorry about last night,” Brady replied, “What did you and y/n end up doing?”

“We just got dinner,” Jimmy said plainly.

“Ooh you two had a little date?” Brady chirped.

“God, no,” Jimmy scoffed, “We were just hungry after having to wait for so long.”

“Oh please,” Brady replied, “You must think I’m some idiot. I see the way you look at y/n.”

“With annoyance? Disgust? Hatred? Those are about all the looks I have for her,” he shot back, but it sounded forced. You barely believed what he was selling, you doubted Brady would.

“You can keep lying to yourself Jimmy,” Brady continued, “But I know the two of you don’t hate each other like you say you do. Anyone with eyes could see you’re into each other.”

“I think you’re just on a romantic high your night with Gracia,” Jimmy deadpanned.

“Nothing romantic about holding someone’s hair while they throw up,” Brady chuckled.

“Gross, you need to shower.” You could tell by the way their feet moved that Jimmy pushed him back a little. You knew he was trying to get him in so you could go.

“That you are right about,” Brady replied, “But we aren’t done with this conversation.”

“Of course not,” you practically hear Jimmy roll his eyes as he closed the door in Brady’s face. Neither of you moved until you heard the water start. You rolled out from under the bed, quickly jumping into your pants. You and Jimmy didn’t say anything to each other. A few weeks ago you would have teased the hell out of him for the comments Brady just made but now... You couldn’t. You felt the same way, but you didn’t want to go there. Not now.

You both quickly crept to the front door, only turning back to look at him when you safely stepped out into apartment building hallway. There it was again. The tension of your eyes connecting. The will they won’t they. Everything in your head was screaming at you to kiss him. But instead, you turned and hurried down the hall to the elevator, listening to the door shut quietly behind you.

What the fuck just happened. It was finally hitting you that what just occurred between you and Jimmy was... different. Obviously it wasn’t the first time you had sex, but that wasn’t just some hook up. As much as you had tried extract your feelings from the situation you just couldn’t. You didn’t even bother trying to convince yourself you didn’t have feelings for Jimmy.

“Fuck,” you said out loud to no one in particular. That drew a few strange looks from the people near you on the sidewalk, but you didn’t care. They were the last thing on your mind. You were so stubborn it pained you to admit you liked Jimmy, even if it was only to yourself. It went against everything you forced yourself to believe these last few years. It was a weird, freeing, and annoying feeling all at the same time. 

Then there was what Brady said. He all but said Jimmy liked you too, but Jimmy denied it of course. You didn’t expect him to not, especially with you right there. You would be lying if you said you didn’t pick up on what Brady was saying. You sensed a shift between you and Jimmy. Sure, you still shit on each other a little but it was different. There wasn’t any real venom behind your words anymore, it was just like you were keeping up appearances so your friends wouldn’t realize what was going on.

Still, you were never going to tell Jimmy how you felt. What if you were wrong? And Brady was wrong? The thought alone of telling him how you felt and him not reciprocating made you cringe. You’d never be able to show your face around him again. Brady would definitely find out and everything would become a mess. You weren’t ready for your life to possibly change like that.

Maybe your new motto needed to be ignore your feelings, just have sex, you thought to yourself bitterly. You didn’t even know if you were capable of that. In fact, the more you thought about it, the more you thought this was a bad idea. You couldn’t see this ending any other way than in disaster.

I’m gonna end it, you thought with finality. That was the only option. You were going to say that almost getting caught by Brady again freaked you out, and you weren’t interested in risking that anymore. It’s the perfect. It has to be done.

Yet you couldn’t bring yourself to do it. Every time you grabbed your phone to tell him over the next few days you should ended up staring at the screen and tossing the phone back down with a groan. It would be weird to text him that out of the blue like that anyway. At least that’s what you told yourself. You’d wait until the next time he texted you to come over and then tell him.

And then it happened. Seeing Jimmy’s name pop up on your screen made your heart pound for a couple different reasons You opened his message, mentally preparing yourself for what you were about to do.

I need you

It stopped you in your tracks. That was different. Normally it was ‘brady’s out come over’ or ‘i need a quickie i’m coming over’ or some vulgar message about what he was thinking about. Never I need you. You had a sinking suspicion it was about the game they just played. Jimmy had a tough game and you imagined his father had a lot to say about that.

Maybe it was just three little words, but they felt vulnerable. He needed you. It was amazing how easily three little words from Jimmy was able to chip away at your resolve.

I’m coming over

Your heart was pounding the whole way over. Not even from nerves, you weren’t nervous about being with Jimmy anymore because it felt so right. More so, it was excitement. You’d been losing sleep the last few days wondering how Jimmy felt about you and dreading having to break things off to protect yourself. But as you entered his building, you felt hopeful. Maybe there could be a future with Jimmy.

Jimmy answered the door nearly a second after you knocked. 

“H-” You could even get your greeting out before he was pulling you inside, his lips on yours. You melted into his touch, feeling his hands pull you closer to him as he kicked the door closed. You’d kissed him countless times before but this was different... it felt freer. 

Jimmy’s hand slid down your back, giving your ass a firm squeeze signaling for you to jump up. You hopped up, locking your legs around his waist as he held you steady. He effortlessly carried you back to his room.

“Wait where’s Brady?” you asked suddenly, having totally forgotten about him. As much as you were enjoying being with Jimmy, you weren’t sure if you were ready for that conversation yet.

“Out with Kevin,” Jimmy replied, kissing down your neck, “Don’t worry he’ll be gone for awhile.” That was all you needed to hear, pulling at Jimmy’s clothes, desperate to feel him close. You both stripped yourself fairly quickly, taking little breaks to kiss again, until you were both free of clothes.

“I want you to sit on my face,” Jimmy instructed, pulling you body up towards his face.

Your face flushed, “You sure?” 

“Positive.”

You nodded, scooting up to face. A mix of gasps from you and groans from him filled the room as you lowered yourself on to his mouth. His tongue was somehow everywhere, making your head spin. You had to grip the headboard for stability, quickly feeling your thighs shake as lapped at your pussy.

“Fuck just like that Jimmy,” you said breathlessly as his tongue fucked into you. He wiggled his face slightly, his nose nudging at your sensitive clit. You rolled your hips over him slightly gasping at the added friction.

“Shit,” you moaned, your body shaking as your orgasm hit you fast and strong. You swore you were going to rip a chunk out of his headboard because of how tight you were gripping it. You gasped breathlessly as he flattened out his tongue, collecting every bit of wetness. 

You slid off of him when you couldn’t take it any longer, your thighs still shaking slightly. Jimmy smiled, wiping the wetness on his chin off on the back of his arm. The way he looked at you made you ready to go again. You climbed on top of him, stroking at his cock as he dug in the drawer of the bed side table.

“Fuck I’m outta condoms,” Jimmy grumbled.

“I’m on the pill,” you replied quickly, “I mean, I don’t mind if you don’t.”

“Are you sure?” Jimmy asked, surprise evident in his voice.

“Yeah, I wanna feel you,” you insisted. Jimmy smiled softly, but his eyes clouded over with lust. You to wrapped your had around the base of his cock, slowly lowering your on to him. You both let out soft hisses, still not fully adjusted to each other after all this time.

Your hands landed on his chest and you bounced up and down on his length. Jimmy’s hands trailed up and down your outer thighs and hips. He bit his lip, loving the way you looked riding him.

“Yes, god yes, you feel so good y/n,” Jimmy groaned. His hands were on your hips now, helping you keep your rhythm. His eyes were on you, but this time you didn’t want to look away. It made your heart flutter and some how amplified the pleasure you felt.

“Jimm- shit- I’m close,” you hiccuped. You rolled your hips harder desperate for the high you knew was looming. 

“Come on baby, cum for me,” Jimmy replied, pressing his hips up against yours. He hit deeper inside you, making your eyes roll back. Jimmy’s name spilled from your lips as you came, your pussy tighten around his cock. He let out low curses, cumming along with you. He kept his hands tight around your hips, keeping you rolling over him.

You stayed on top of him even after you both finished, pressing kisses to his chest and neck. You both stayed like that for awhile, lazily kissing. As much as you wanted to stay, it was getting late and Brady would be home soon.

“So are we going to talk about the reason why you needed me over here?” You asked, eyeing Jimmy as you pulled your shirt back on.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he replied flatly. His tone suggested otherwise.

“Is it about your da-”

“I said I didn’t wanna fucking talk about it.” You were taken aback by the sharpness of his response.

“I’m sorry, but you don’t have to be such a jerk about it,” you grumbled, “I just wanted to help.”

“Why the fuck do you care anyway?” Jimmy fired back, his tone bordering on accusatory.

“Because you were upset and I wanted to help,” you replied defensively, “You were the one that said you needed me remember?”

“Yeah for sex, nothing else,” he replied. His words stung, but also enraged you.

“You’re a fucking dick. I don’t need this shit from you of all people,” you snapped, trying to only sound angry and not upset.

"Right as if you actually give a shit about me? I don’t need fucking pity especially not from someone like you,” Jimmy fired back, his words cutting you deeper than you cared to admit.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” you questioned. 

“It means you’re just the girl I call when I need to get off. So save your fucking bull shit sympathy for someone who cares because I certainly don’t,” he shot back.

You stared at him for a moment, in disbelief of what he had just said. “Fuck you Jimmy,” you said finally, your voice cracking against your will. You snatched up the rest of your things, getting ready to leave.

“Wait I-” he went to reach for you but you swatted him away.

“No! Do not fucking touch me,” you cut him off venomously, “Next time you need someone don’t bother with me. I’m fucking done with you.” With that you left him, tears streaming down your face as you stormed out.

#j vesey #hate to love you #jimmy vesey smut #jimmy vesey imagine #new york rangers imagine #new york rangers smut #nhl imagines #nhl fanfiction

[scourgadow]

OC Masterpost

I need an organized place to put info about all my OCs so that’s what this post is gonna be for!

In addition to basic bios and some reference images, I’ve also got links to Spotify playlists for every character, because music is a strong association with personality for me. (If you don’t use Spotify, or if you know of a streaming platform more easily accessible than Spotify, send me an anon and I’ll duplicate the playlists to that service then add a link here!) I also have moodboards for every OC.

This post will be rather long so I’ve put in under a readmore for the sake of convenience.

It’s also important to note that my OCs exist in an AU where some things are a little different. For example, Infinite in this AU is 17 and that’s definitely not because I assumed he was an edgy teen like Shadow, and after Robotnik’s defeat in Forces, the Resistance became the Restoration. All the troops who had been battling were reassigned to rebuilding whatever town they happened to be in at the time of victory, with extra troops being redistributed as needed (leading to the formation of small roving teams traveling from place to place to help out).

It’s a little bit of an unorganized info-dump at some points, but I’ll update it to be more organized at some point.

Updated 01/20/2019

Rhys the Serval

Spotify playlist | Moodboard

Rhys was designed by @creative-sanic and she also came up with most of his backstory!

Rhys is a gender-nonconforming cis gay dude. He was born to a ‘feral’ mother in the wilderness closest to Central City (between the City and Mystic Ruins, far enough away from civilization to be undetected for a majority of his early life). At age 7 or 8, a massive fire swept the forest, putting him and his mother in massive danger. Officials sent to contain the fire discovered that she and Rhys were living alone in the forest, and took the two into protective custody while working through the devastation caused by the fire. The city pressured Rhys’s mother to join civilization, but she adamantly refused, and as a consequence, Rhys was stolen from her and put up for adoption, leading to her having a violent breakdown. She was moved to a containment facility and hasn’t seen Rhys since; he has only the faintest memories of her. He was adopted at age 13 or 14 (having been shuffled around in foster care before then) by a family of bears, and went on to be a fairly average Mobian citizen, working as a waiter at Penne For Your Thoughts. That’s where he met Vitriol, who is now his boyfriend. After dating for a few months, they decided to move in together, with Vitriol moving into Rhys’s apartment, which was the larger of the two. Rhys is now roughly 19 years old (18 or 19).

Rhys and Vitriol have a steady relationship relatively devoid of problems. They love each other enough that no problem is too big for them to tackle, and when Vitriol became part of the Restoration (the collective effort to undo the damage done by Robotnik and the Resistance), Rhys moved with him all over the world, glad to have a reasonable excuse to travel. Neither wanted to attempt a longstanding long-distance relationship; their being separated briefly during the Resistance was frustrating enough for the two of them.

Rhys is unaware that he possesses Empathic abilities, and simply assumes he’s very good at figuring people out/being sympathetic, but in truth, the forest fire in his youth served as the catalyst for his abilities. Since his Empathy doesn’t require the same physical drain as, say, Vitriol’s Strength, Rhys mistakes his Chaos-Energy-related fatigue after using his powers to be emotional exhaustion. When he’s that tired is roughly the only time he can show unprovoked anger, but he’s also in-tune enough with himself to recognize when he’s being needlessly mean, and he’ll usually apologize right away. This happened most frequently during the events of the Resistance, where Rhys was tasked with helping to get survivors to safe places; he was very good at comforting those who may have lost friends/family in the attacks. From that, he’s begun to entertain the idea of becoming a therapist someday, though he’s not sure how he would afford the college degree for that. 

He gets along very well with Unknown due to them both having rather upbeat personalities. Though Unknown can be a little overbearing sometimes, Rhys likes talking to them and sometimes they’ll gush about how cute Vitriol is. 

As mentioned previously, Rhys doesn’t conform to typical gender norms; he’s a fashionista of sorts and doesn’t care what gender clothing is associated with. He thinks skirts are cute and feel nice, and he thinks makeup is a lot of fun, though he doesn’t do either every single day, just every now and then. For the most part, unless he’s feeling adventurous, he wears a hoodie and jeans, though his work outfit is a fancy suit. So, it’s often nice for him to just wear something low-effort. That being said, he always jumps at every opportunity to do his boyfriend’s makeup, and though Vitriol isn’t the biggest fan of it, he likes seeing Rhys smile, so he usually gives in.

Rhys often prompts Vitriol to keep up with his health, and the two go on camping trips whenever Rhys can convince Vitriol to go. He’s very good at camping; he can build a shelter easily, knows which plants are edible, etc.. Vitriol, by contrast, is pretty clueless, but Rhys is more than happy to teach him. 

When speaking, Rhys normally has a somewhat-formal tone, and he uses little to no slang (usually just words like “gonna,” and he almost never drops the G’s at the end of words). He’s very polite by nature (and some of the formality was ingrained by his job), and he tends to not talk a lot. When he’s really comfortable around someone (like Vitriol), he can chatter a lot, but if he catches himself, he’ll get really embarrassed about it. He has a soft, lilting voice that many find pleasant to listen to and soothing. When he gets excited, or raises his voice, it gets slightly higher in pitch. He’s not an anxious person (as in, he doesn’t have an anxiety disorder) but he’s rather shy and awkward around new people. He’s more of a reserved person than an anxious one, and he is by no means meek; having been raised (post-adoption) by a family of bears taught him how to roughhouse and hold his own against bigger enemies.

For the most part, Rhys isn’t bothered by his past. His life in the forest is far enough away, mentally, that to him it doesn’t feel like it even happened to him. However, the fire was a traumatic event for him, and to this day he has a deep-seated fear of fire. It’s rare, but on occasion, he will have nightmares about that day, and he doesn’t handle that well when alone. Fortunately, Vitriol is fairly helpful to Rhys—his simply being there is very comforting, even though he never really knows what to say.

Toxic the Porcupine

Spotify playlist | Moodboard

Note: while this character started out as a sonicsona of sorts, they’ve somewhat evolved from that and I don’t see them quite so much as “me” anymore. They do, however, share my name (or rather the name I’m using currently, as I write this). To further complicate things they also look the way I do right now and I use them for vent art lmao so, if I happen to draw myself as a mobian ever again I’ll tag it as #not oc. That way it’s clear what’s Toxic the OC and what’s Toxic the...uh, human being I guess. 

Toxic is an agender porcupine who hasn’t settled on their sexuality yet--they know they’re asexual, but they haven’t thought any further into their romantic orientation. They were born in a tiny unnamed village settled in the shadow of Scrap Brain Zone, and only recently did they leave after a majority of it was burnt to the ground...by them. They showed signs of being trans at a young age, and were subsequently bullied quite harshly by both their peers and their family. They came out to their family at age 17, which only deepened the rift already forming, and subsequently Toxic ran away for a week, spending that time in Scrap Brain Zone. That was their first overnight foray into the Zone, something that would eventually become a staple of their life.

At age 19, they discovered an abandoned prototype Wispon in Scrap Brain Zone (devoid of Wisps), which they then decided to retrofit with the flaming spouts from Scrap Brain Zone to make their own strange hybrid flamethrower. A few nights later, after a particularly awful verbal spat with their family, they decided to fake their own death by setting fire to their own room. However, things quickly got out of hand, and the whole town ended up in flames. They fled, unsure if anyone made it out alive that night...and a little less than sympathetic if they didn’t. (Fortunately, a majority of the little village’s populace wound up trickling into neighboring villages and towns)

Since then, they’ve been absolutely destroying almost everything in their path. With no direction and no impulse control, they are a complete loose cannon throwing a wrench in both Eggman’s plans and Sonic’s adventures. They live by a motto of recklessness and “I’m here for a good time, not a long time.” Being an un-powered Mobian, they can’t do much of anything with the Wispon taken away, but taking that Wispon away is much easier said than done. Shortly after their ‘debut’ as a villain-of-sorts, Eggman reached out to them with a message essentially reading, “hey, do you want a direction in which to burn everything down (that is preferably not my everything)?” Since joining forces with Robotnik, though, their chaos has become much more controlled, and now incidents of mass fires can usually be linked to Eggman sending them off somewhere. They are a persistent thorn in the Freedom Fighters’ sides as they just love to fight and don’t really care who they fight.

They will not, however, attack civilians directly. Their fires might pose a threat to cities, but they don’t outright attack people unprompted--their chaos isn’t fueled of malice but rather of recklessness and an extreme lack of forethought. If harassed, however, they aren’t above punching someone in the face, and civilians are warned to just stay the hell away from Toxic. Their behavior overall is best classed as “more of a danger to themselves than others, even when provoked.”

Toxic only owns one jacket and one pair of boots, as well as no other accessories save for the spiked bracelets and collar, since everything else was burnt. One item they are occasionally pictured with, but rarely wear, is a long ankh necklace, the origins of which they refuse to elaborate on. However, it’s clearly important to them… Prior to burning everything, they often wore ripped jeans, loose half-torn-up tank-tops with a variety of detailed patterns, and lots of bracelets. They despite feminine-coded clothing and would rather die than wear it. Overall, they’re fond of clothes that look like they’re being held together by safety pins and hope.

Their speaking pattern is completely all-over-the-place. Their accent is untraceable, they mix slang from a variety of regions, and mix pidgin street-slang with oddly formal sentence structure or complicated words. They alternate between dropped G’s at the end of words and dropped H’s at the beginning, but inconsistently; rather than being a sign that this accent is faked, it’s more a reflection of how scrambled they are on the inside. Toxic’s voice is prone to cracking, especially when they yell (which is very often), and it has a certain hoarse quality to it most of the time. It rests in a midrange between stereotypically “male” and “female” voices, and can be mistaken for a young boy or slightly-older girl interchangeably. This irritates them to no end—they’re no stranger to yelling in demand for their proper pronouns to be used.

Toxic has frequent nightmares, but never speaks of them. They often suffer from broken sleep, only getting a few hours at a time, and on occasion are struck with insomnia. During that time, they doodle or write, dealing with rather dark subjects, but never share this willingly. Oddly enough, they have a rather intense fear of fire (ironic given their Wispon) and of heights. Strangely they seem to use their fear as an adrenaline boost of sorts, embracing it to use as a motivation. (It’s somewhat similar to how Batman uses bats as his main motif, despite having been traumatized by an experience with bats in his childhood.)

They cannot be swayed to being “good,” because they truly believe they are an awful person who could never be good even if they tried. So, they just do what they want out of a very specific, Nihilistic worldview, and truth be told they’re simply a chaotic being who’s in way over their head. Despite being a villain, however, they are a big fan of Sonic and his friends, and they consider it a huge honor to be able to fight him. They’ve created an odd sort of parent-child bond between themselves and Robotnik, adopting him as their dad (he didn’t really get a say). Robotnik isn’t exactly doting but he does view them as his child in a sense, and often makes them new weapons to use alongside their Wispon (which they refuse to part with; he repairs it fro them as-needed). 

Vex the Cat/Fox Cross

Spotify playlist | Moodboard

Vex is a bigender aroace genetic experiment who most closely resembles a fusion of a fox and a cat. (Any pronouns are applicable to them, but I use she/her most, because I have a lot of “he” and “they�� OCs already) She has lived roughly 17 years, the first 14 of which were spent in the facility that created them. Partway through what would have been the 15th year, a catastrophe occurred at the facility, giving Vex, Vitriol and Unknown a window to escape. During this process, Vex and Unknown became separated from Vitriol, escaping the facility and winding up on their own. They traveled in a world absolutely foreign to them for months, eventually, through a strange turn of events, joining a thieves’ guild in an attempt to forge new identities. They had great success as a thieving duo up until the unfortunate disappearance of Unknown, after which Vex abandoned the guild to search for them. Instead of Unknown, however, Vex ended up reconnecting with Vitriol in Central City, after which the two worked together to find Unknown, eventually finding their sibling in the Resistance. Since finding each other, the three have not been separated, and now form Team Motley.

Vex is generally regarded as the smartest of the trio, having a sharp wit and capacity both to plan ahead and think on their feet. Her Manipulation ability makes negotiations and covert ops very easy for them, with its one flaw being that it doesn’t work on others with similar abilities, such as Empathy. All three experiments possess low natural levels of Chaos Energy, below what is healthy, and their bodies cannot contain it well, so their abilities rely on the Energy around them, both in the environment and other people. Mobians often report “a strange sort of tiredness” after being Manipulated by Vex, as her power functions by draining a bit of Chaos Energy from the target and matching its wavelength.

Due to her affinity for making others do as she says, Vex is the leader of Team Motley, and, despite being the ‘middle child,’ the other two often go to her for advice. She is the organizational backbone to the team, a natural leader with a kind heart hidden behind a few layers of selfishness. Vex values family and friends above all else, and has a keen sense of right and wrong, even if she doesn’t always do what she knows to be right.

Vex is aware of her Manipulation ability, and does her best to curb its effects when she isn’t intending to use it, but given that it’s activated by her voice, sometimes she can’t control it very well. In addition to that, Vex is more than a little greedy; coming from a background where she didn’t even own her own life, Vex fell in love with her life in the thieves’ guild, mainly for the riches they earned and the thrill of the escape.

She’s a fan of loud, gaudy jewelry, luxurious metals, and other frivolous high-class things, though she doesn’t wear them in public. During their time in the thieves’ guild, Unknown and Vex lived in a network of caves, where many of the things they stole during their heyday are still hidden. While she misses those days, she doesn’t regret leaving them behind, and rather considers it an... option for future employment, once the Restoration is all said and done.

Despite her love of jewelry, Vex prefers not to wear clothes at all. They’ll wear their binder or a sports bra, and that’s about all; if necessary, they’ll wear baggy army-pattern pants or a baggy jacket. They don’t like the feeling of most fabrics on their fur, and don’t care a lot about fashion, but they tend towards more masculine clothing, often for its less-skin-tight properties. They also don’t mind skirts, but only wear them casually, as sometimes the extra fabric can get caught on things or be uncomfortable for them to sit on.

All three experiments tend towards more formal speech, but of the three, Vex has been trained out of that habit the most. She’s a real smooth-talker who adapts her speech patterns to mirror those of the person she’s talking to. When speaking casually, Vex is fairly neutral and doesn’t have any specific quirks to their speech pattern. When she’s comfortable around someone, she speaks in a rather husky voice, but not a very deep or gruff sound. It’s more of what would be described as “butch,” because their voice is closer to the stereotypically “feminine” sound than the stereotypically “masculine” sound.

Vex’s main phobia is having their mouth covered by something—anything from someone’s hands to fabric to a muzzle. This is because when her Manipulation was discovered by the scientists who created her, they immediately recognized it as a threat and she was kept muzzled for extended periods of time. The muzzle had supposedly been ‘humanely designed,’ but if at any point she frustrated her keepers, they were no strangers to shutting or covering the air-intake of it until she cooperated. Of the three, Vex has dealt with her trauma the least, and her sleeping pattern is just as broken as if not more broken than Toxic’s, and she tends to grind her teeth when she sleeps as well. She doesn’t speak of it much, but she and Vitriol have really bonded the most over their shared trauma. He is, essentially, the only person remaining who knows what they went through. 

Because they’re aroace, they have little concept of how flirting works other than when they’re using their Manipulation ability (which isn’t really calculated, more an instinctive knowledge that saying or doing certain things will achieve the effect they want). In other words, they’re extremely oblivious. The only thing they really care about is family, and they will do anything to protect them--when fighting they have no qualms about “fighting dirty” and will use anything to their advantage. Unusually, Vex has the ability to climb along walls quite easily using their claws, practically like a lizard. This combined with their night vision makes them quite formidable to fight in the dark. 

Vitriol the Ferret/Porcupine Cross

Spotify playlist | Moodboard

Vitriol is a gay cis guy who most closely resembles a fusion of a porcupine and a ferret. He has lived roughly 18 years, the first 15 of which spent in the facility that created him. During the calamity leading to his escape, Vitriol separated from Unknown and Vex in order to give them a chance to get out, taking on the officials sent to stop them. He ended up leaving via a different route, resulting in him coming into this world in a completely different place from Vex and Unknown. Vitriol spent the next half-year wandering across Spagonia’s countryside, often stopping to spend a night or two on a farm in exchange for helping its owners, who never questioned why a mysteriously-strong stranger would be wandering the wilderness. Many took him to be some kind of nature spirit, and treated him kindly; he realized through this little pilgrimage that he quite liked helping people out, though he never stayed more than a week in one place. Searching for his siblings was his main priority.

Eventually Vitriol came across a little town, the port of which was a dock for ferries to and from Central City (primarily used by high-end citygoers for transportation to their summer homes). He was told that Central City was a place many people lived and an even larger number of people visited; Vitriol resolved that, if Vex and Unknown were to wind up anywhere, it was likely a place like that--a place people are expected to wind up at. Not understanding the concept of having to pay for things, Vitriol snuck aboard, and managed to go undetected for the entirety of the trip by packing himself nicely into a tiny corner belowdecks. The night before the trip was to end, he snuck off the boat and swam to shore in Central City. Immediately enraptured by the city’s many brilliant lights, Vitriol decided to stay there and do his best to keep an eye out for his siblings.

He spent his first two weeks sleeping on the streets and wandering through the city, until one evening, allured by the glowing neon signs on the inside, he found himself inside a rather lively nightclub/bar. One thing led to another and Vitriol ended up breaking up a fight, catching the attention of the bar’s owner (who was, at the time, half of the staff, as well). Vitriol was offered the job of security officer, no questions asked, and, having begun to come to terms with the fact that money wasn’t just something that one town invented, Vitriol accepted. For the beginning of his ‘career’ he still lived on the streets, but eventually he saved up enough for a tiny postage-stamp of an apartment. It’s only enough space for him to just exist, but that was plenty of space for him. Over time he earned enough money to live comfortably—comfortably enough to get gauges and a septum piercing, both of which helped him in his line of work immensely (as most of his ‘security’ work was simply to look scary enough to keep people from misbehaving). 

Vitriol worked there for roughly the same amount of time that Vex and Unknown “worked” as thieves, and it was during this time that he met and started dating Rhys, moving in with him after roughly three months together. He only reunited with Vex upon happening to run into her when wandering the town one weekend night. The next day he quit his job and left to travel with her, searching for their last remaining sibling. Now that the three are reunited, Vitriol serves as the muscle of the team, doing all the heavy lifting and door-kicking necessary. While he vastly prefers sitting on the couch and watching TV with plentiful snacks nearby (preferably cookies), he’s not the type to shirk responsibilities. He’s just looking forward to going back to relaxing in Central City with Rhys when the Restoration is over (and, though he won’t admit it, he does miss when his only job was looking mean).

Vitriol doesn’t have a lot in his wardrobe. His usual staples are a crop top and leather pants, though he also wears skinny jeans and ripped t-shirts. Sometimes he wears pants without a shirt, and, overall, he doesn’t care a lot about fashion. He just picks up what he thinks is cool, which is usually a t-shirt or crop top with a few words on it (his favorites are “BORN FOR HELL” and “LIFE RUINER”). From there, he’ll often tear off the sleeves of the t-shirt, or cut holes and slits into the body of it. The only thing he always wears are the red fingerless gloves with lightweight chains dangling off the backs. 

He tends to mumble the most when he speaks, unless he’s angry or using his “Work Voice.” His “work voice” is the particular loud, gruff tone he takes that he picked up from his job; an intimidating deeper and more snarling version of his voice, often accompanied by a very stern or frightfully blank expression. This is made more intimidating by the fact that all 3 of the genetic experiment characters have a habit of needing to initiate conversation through eye contact, much in the same way that a small child might gently rest their hand on the arm of an adult whose attention they want, albeit much more unsettling. So often if one of the three wants to speak to someone, they’ll stare very intently at the person’s face until acknowledged (Vex has adapted the most of the three and therefore only does it to the other two and Rhys). When not using his “work voice,” Vitriol has a rough undertone to his voice, not necessarily a snarl so much as a growl. His voice is naturally deep, and lends itself well to singing his favorite music—rock music.

Vitriol often suffers night terrors and nightmares* linked to his trauma. When living alone, after waking from a nightmare, Vitriol would pace his apartment or wander around Central City to cool off, but after moving in with Rhys, he’s processing his trauma a bit more as opposed to just avoiding it. He hasn’t told Rhys much, just that he came from “a horrible place, where [he] was trapped,” and Rhys doesn’t pry; oftentimes it’s enough to just be reminded that he’s free for Vitriol to calm back down. 

Despite his prickly exterior (both literally and figuratively), Vitriol is much more cuddly than Rhys is. Perhaps it’s from being touch-starved in the facility for so long or perhaps it’s just part of his nature, but either way, Vitriol is no stranger to snuggling up against Rhys (most often) or his siblings (slightly less often as Vex is somewhat touch-averse). Rhys isn’t exactly annoyed by this, and often finds it endearing, but on occasion Vitriol has been known to act like a housecat--flopping down right in Rhys’s way to get his attention. He’s also a bit of a jokester, but only around Rhys and his family.

His deepest fear is of being helpless. He doesn’t tend to show much external emotion besides smiling at Rhys or his siblings, or glaring if he’s annoyed by something, but if he’s being dragged along the floor—especially if he’s being dragged by his underarms, as was his keepers’ favorite way of moving him from place to place—he will absolutely lose his mind in a panic. He also panics if cornered, lashing out with uncontrolled strength to get away, which usually doesn’t end well for his captors.

*Nightmares are your standard bad dreams that occur during REM sleep. Usually when waking from a nightmare, the person remembers what they were dreaming about. Often someone suffering from a nightmare will toss and turn, and maybe sleep-talk. Night terrors, however, are somewhere between dreaming and being awake; someone suffering a night terror might yell, thrash, kick or scream, or sit upright in bed with eyes wide open. They cannot, however, see or be woken from the night terror, and will flop back down anywhere from ten minutes to a half-hour after initial panic. They can often be confusing to the person suffering them, and only a vague recollection of what was going on remains when the person wakes up.

Unknown the Raccoon/Hedgehog Cross

Spotify playlist | Moodboard

Unknown is an agender bisexual polyamorous genetic experiment most resembling a fusion of a hedgehog and a raccoon. They have lived roughly 16 years, only four of which have been spent outside. When Vex and Unknown ended up on their own, Unknown took on a role of the silent intimidator between the two. Vex’s Manipulation came in handy most times, but when necessary, Unknown could provide some intimidation.

Unknown was a vastly different person then from who they are now. They were far more focused, and taught themself parkour, as well as having put themself through rigorous training to maintain a good physical health. They rarely spoke, and refused to give themself a new name, unlike Vex and Vitriol. They weren’t interested in the riches, though they did suffer from a bit of a hoarding impulse, enjoying the feeling of owning something. They didn’t care for jewels or finer things, unlike Vex; they were more participating for the adrenaline rush. At that point in time, they fully understood the brevity of their power, and it was imperative for them to keep a calm demeanor at all times; they were far less animated than they are now.

Then, about a year and a half after they’d escaped, Unknown abruptly went missing. A heist went sideways, the two became separated, and suddenly Vex couldn’t find them. A few months after that, Robotnik began taking over the world, and shortly after that, Unknown awoke in a dumpster somewhere in Park Avenue, with no memory of any life prior to that. They gathered all the information about themself from this police flyer:

From there, Unknown wandered the city amidst the chaos, confused and curious. Through that, they met Sonic when they helped him fight off a few robots. Impressed with their skills, he asked them to join the Resistance, which they cluelessly agreed to, definitely not because a cute boy was offering it to them. Unknown ended up being quite helpful to the Resistance, despite presumably having no Chaos Powers. They got along well with virtually everyone save for Omega and Vector, as they have a slight fear of people taller than them.

After being reunited with Vex and Vitriol, Unknown has stayed relatively close to them; the three are inseparable, traveling in a group for the Restoration. Shortly after the final battle, as the Resistance members were celebrating for the night, Unknown stumbled across Infinite while walking home. Unsure whether to turn him in or not, they decided to take him home and let him heal from his wounds first, then figure out who to turn him in to. In the end, after two weeks of Infinite recuperating (during which he revealed his name to be Zero), Unknown decided instead to keep Infinite in their home, unsure what would happen to him otherwise. For a short while, they didn’t tell anyone else, but once they told Vex and Vitriol, they were urged to tell the Resistance as well. It wasn’t taken well at first, but eventually the issue was settled—Unknown would take care of and reform Infinite, because having him close by and watched over is better than having him roam around unsupervised. Despite that, Unknown doesn’t treat Infinite like a child or prisoner but rather a friend. Currently, Infinite resides in the home Unknown was occupying during the Resistance, which was rather close to the site of the final battle.

Unknown’s usual ‘work clothes’ are a leather bodysuit of sorts with buckles similar to an airplane seatbelt’s buckles (and a hole for their tail) and combat boots as well as padded gloves that help absorb shocks), but in the past, they would wear a large cloak. It’s not clear where this went during their disappearance. In their free time, they prefer to wear clothes with deep v-necks to let their neck/chest fluff breathe, and they often wear ripped clothing like Vitriol. Unknown’s thick fur makes them more prone to overheating, but despite that, they enjoy running as a hobby and a way to stay fit. They often wear fitness clothes (a tank top and gym shorts) when they’re in an urban area, though if in the wilderness, they’ll just wear running shoes.

Typically, their voice has a bright and happy tone to it, all the time, and they’re very good at faking it when they’re actually not okay. Vex and Vitriol can usually pick up on when they’re lying, but most others can’t, something Unknown is actually very happy about. When it comes to negative feelings, Unknown is very secretive, but with positive feelings, they love to share—and overshare. (The only exception to their secrecy is anger; an angry Unknown is frightfully quiet and cold, and painfully obvious.) Oftentimes they don’t realize they’re oversharing, but Vex (or Sonic, if present) is more than willing to quickly interrupt and divert the conversation. Unknown tends to use overly-familiar language with just about everyone, especially words like “buddy” or “pal.” It’s unclear if they’ve picked this up from Sonic. 

They often suffer from night terrors, similar to Vitriol, but they claim it has no effect on them, as they don’t remember the trauma giving them nightmares. In the beginning, this was the truth; however, they refuse to open up to anyone, even their siblings, about what’s going on in their head. They’re well aware that they’re the most positive of the trio, and part of them doesn’t want to ruin that idea. Another thing they never tell anyone is that they often suffer from sleep paralysis*, wherein they often see strange things from their past, but existing still in the present. They don’t really know how to verbalize the experience to anyone else.

Unknown doesn’t have many fears, but they are downright petrified of needles and electricity—not in the sense where they’re scared of electronics, but they’re more frightened of visible electricity, like a fizzing outlet, lightning, or the Electric Wispons.

That being said, they do have a few insecurities, namely their sharp teeth. They’ve accidentally frightened people with them in the past, so when they first meet people nowadays, they try to smile with their mouth closed only. The anxiety dissipates eventually, as they’re more concerned about first impressions. 

*Sleep paralysis is an event where a person is mentally ‘there’ but unable to move or speak at all. It occurs when they are falling asleep or just waking up, and episodes usually last less than a few minutes, but can occur multiple times, not just once. It’s thought to be linked to a dysfunction in REM sleep, and is caused by sleep deprivation, psychological stress, or a poor sleep schedule.

Extra stuff:

Files from the experimentation: Basic knowledge on Vex, Vitriol and Unknown, as they would’ve been presented to their guards.

Scrap Brain Zone (writing from Toxic’s perspective)

Unknown meets Infinite (Comic) Part 1 | Part 2

Experiment origins (Flipnote) [old] (Flashing light warning)

Unknown waking up (writing from Unknown’s perspective) [old] 

OC Voiceclaims (video)

Chaos Vision (superemeralds’ idea) doodles | Click bold text to see his post on his blog.

Chips Ahoy (goofy non-canon animatic that im just really happy with)

Test animation for Toxic (Flicker warning)

Pride (doodles of 4/5 OCs for pride [toxic didn’t exist yet])

Moebius AU (Drawings with short description) | Moebius!Unknown video (Flash warning)

First Punch (Animated comic feat. @creative-sanic ‘s Aurora) | Still version

Rough concept writing - Toxic’s powers [will be removed when I decide on their abilities and how they get them in canon] (Writing)

Character Turn-Arounds (Comic/Animation ref) (Includes colour hex keys!)

#my ocs #sonic the hedgehog #sonic the hedgehog oc #sonic oc #sonic original character #sonic the hedgehog original character #sonic fan character #sonic the hedgehog fan character #sonic fc #sonic the hedgehog fc #my writing #reblogs are vastly appreciated ! #rhys the serval #vex the cat/fox #unknown the raccoon/hedgehog #vitriol the ferret/porcupine #toxic the porcupine #my oc #my art #references #oc reference

[victoriousscarf]

Okay so it may have been somewhat obvious that I'm riding super high on Dragon Age feels and that's because I decided, like an idiot, to replay all three games jumbled up like mess, including the DLC for DA2 for the first time (shit Legacy is really good and after like four playthrough without Sebastian he's actually a bit of an adjustment and God the dog is so good). Which means I've like gone from Legacy to the Siege of Adamant to the Landsmeet in Orgins basically on different nights this week and it's been a ride and I have a lot of various thoughts but

One thing that constantly stands out to me is how lopsided the Warden vs Hawke choice is in Inquistion. Like I know a lot of people when confronted with Allistair like love Allistair (and no lie I'm fond of him even tho I've thrown him under various buses in my five playthroughs possibly more on that later) but like he'll never hold a candle to disaster dumpster child of my heart fucking Hawke.

But even more so narratively the Warden sacrificing themselves vs Hawke sacrificing themselves does not feel equal for several reasons.

One it feels like a betrayal of Hawkes story and arc, a sad, bitter end in a life full of bitter defeats and more than anything he's alone. Varric may or may not be there but Hawkes story was about their friends, their family, and to end alone in the darkness feels like it just spits on so much da2 was actually about. (I feel like YMMV here for sure but it doesn't sit right for me, being able to casually kill off the protagonist of a whole game and it feels more like a bitch move against the bad reviews da2 got than something that made narrative and emotional sense. I'm not saying Hawke wouldn't and shouldn't sacrifice themselves at some point, just man, not like this).

But on the flip side it does feel like a more satisfying end to basically any of the warden's stories. In no small part because bioware has been doing it's best to make us forget warden's short lifespans, plus, their whole motto is literally about sacrifice.

Okay so. Allistair abd Loghain both become wardens in Origins which is roughly ten years ago from the beginning of Inquistion, Inquistion is about three years long (?) so Allistair has been a warden longer than Loghain but they're both at the very least a decade into their wardenship. Pretty sure Origins doesn't mess around when they say wardens have about fifteen years to live post joining which means they're both dangerously close to the point where the taint is gonna start taking over their bodies and the calling becomes too loud to ignore (I think inquistion did weird things with the calling as being the only peril to wardens: uh no the point is the taint consumes them the calling gets louder and they go to the deep roads to die fighting rather than become a ghoul twisted by their poisoned blood. But of course that's a larger story about Inquistion trying to walk back a lot of the fucking weirdness and terror of the earlier games. Aside from Envy they somehow made fighting an army of blood mages dull I still don't get it). So what I'm saying is the Origin wardens don't really have that much more time. We don't know when Stroud joined but it was probably as long if not longer ago. Hawke meanwhile is probably somewhere between 30 and 40 and doesn't have a five year will probably be dead window.

Now this is the first time I've played Allistair as the warden so I'm not really through his bit yet so I can't speak to it entirely (tho I admit I find him sorta annoying? Like after all this time and you're as childish and victimized as ever. Ten years of being a warden and you can only complain? Ok. I get wanting to keep a character recingizable but I feel like what character development he gets in Origins is sorta ignored). But even so a dramatic sacrifice after being betrayed /again/ feels like a decent enough ending for his years as a warden. A redemption for an order he loved from the start. Stroud meanwhile is such a non character it's almost irrelevant to talk about him except to quote the warden motto: In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice. You might as well do the dramatic sacrifice to save others that's your job as a warden.

Loghain is last here because I actually think sacrificing himself in the fade is the best ending to warden!loghain's story you can actually get. (Also unlike Allistair who is upset and whiny about being hunted Loghain takes this with his usual grim humor like ah yes I'm still not one of them fancy that and I'm sorry I love him and his redemption arc so fucking much leave me here). Because like, he was the farmer turned poacher turned revolutionary turned war hero turned traitor turned king turned warden. He believes completely in his goal in front of him to the exclusion of things like sensibility and morals. He's loyalty was never to people but to Ferelden itself... Except sometimes he tripped on the way and then his lionheart tendencies go into overdrive. Marric. Anora. He loves selectively because he loves somewhat completely. He calls the Warden friend here in Inquistion something that makes me drop my controller and clutch my chest (and this last playthrough I actually earned a lot of approval from him so we actually /were/ just about friends... All you have to do is compliment Anora and you get +6 to +12 very quickly he's such a proud papa fucking kill me). Loghain doesn't have a lot of friends! He was never truly accepted by the wardens! He should have died during the Blight ten years ago! He's basically been living (and fighting) on borrowed time since then.

But here's the other thing: he doesn't have a lot of friends. The Warden. Marric.

Hawke.

He calls Hawke friend. (How did they meet??? Why don't we get along? How does mage!purple!Hawke and Loghain become friends??? I need to know!) This is a dude who cares for very few people but he and Hawke refer to each other as friends.

He's been living on borrowed times. He's been fighting all his life and he's betrayed and been betrayed and has done horrible things and made up for it as much as he can with his blade and blood and he's been hearing the calling scratch with it's claws at the back of his mind for months...

And if it comes down to him or Hawke let him sacrifice himseld for one of the few friends he's ever had. Let him make the choice to live up to his warden oath to eke out the tiniest bit more redemption open to him. It would have been a relief to him to die during the Blight, imagine how much more it is now, knowing he's protecting one of the few friends he's ever made. Knowing despite Hawkes furious yells this is better, because Hawke is a survivor and they're going to make it out of this too.

Tldr leaving Hawke in the fade seems a terrible end to their arc, leaving the warden makes narrative sense considering like warden lore but fuck me up it's like Loghain's best possible ending and I'm really emotional him and Hawke are friends wtf bioware you can't just say that and then never show me how this happened

#loghain mac tir #i have been emotionally compromised by dao #vs does a text post #vs yells about dragon age

[nickireadstfc]

The King’s Men, Chapter 8 – Baby, Now We Got Bad Blood

In which Neil’s birthday surprise bloody sucks, I have opinions about the Terrapins’ naming choices, Matt is too good for this world, and the Twinyard’s first attempt at Actual Human Interaction doesn’t quite go as planned.

Sounds good? Then it’s time for Nicki to read The King’s Men.

(This is a longass chapter and lots of shit happens, so this is a longass update. I’m sorry in advance.)

             Neil flipped his phone open to stare at the date. It was Friday, January 19th. “Neil Josten” was supposed to turn twenty on March 31st. Today Nathaniel Wesninski turned nineteen years old.

OH SHIT IT’S HIS BDAY!!! HAPPY BIRBDAY MY BOY!!!!!

And we almost made it in time as well! 12 days late, but still – happy late birthday, my dude.

Actual footage of my baking disaster ass making a cake for our birthday boy.

Sadly though, Neil doesn’t care much for his birthday, and because he tragically keeps his mouth shut about it for most of the chapter, neither can anyone else.

I love birthdays. How dare you deprive me of some good good festivity. This is a gosh darn shame, Josten.

             Neil knew he went to his classes, but he didn’t learn anything. He wrote down what his teachers said but didn’t absorb a single word.

In other news, when will Neil in uni stop being such a goddamn #MOOD.

Exam season is hitting me hard right now folks, and while I’m tryinfg to play catch-up on my notes this just feels like an unnecessary callout post to my lazy past self.

In other other news – it’s time for Orange Sportsball again!

Our Foxes are playing a home game against Belmonte which, if you’ll all kindly remember, resulted in The Most Epic Move Andrew Has Ever Pulled, Ever last time we played them.

So, you know, no pressure.

Before Neil can pop a boner about being on an actual game court again though, he has a little birthday surprise waiting for him, and it’s, well, how do I put this –

A bloody hell of a situation.

             It exploded in his locker, triggered by the door opening, and Neil recoiled as it cascaded over everything insde. (…) The bag looked big enough to hold at least two gallons; it was more than big enough to destroy every single piece of gear Neil owned.

WHAT THE FUCK.

For all y’all non-American folks, two gallons are about 7.5 litres. SEVEN POINT FIVE LITRES.

For further reference, that’s about as much as would fit in this bucket.

Yeah.

THAT’S A FUCKLOAD OF BLOOD.

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON.

             Neil wrenched the broken bag off the hook. When he turned to throw it Andrew caught his wrist. Neil hadn’t even heard Andrew cross the room toward him. (…)

             “It’s ruined,” Neil said, voice ragged with an awful rage. “It’s all ruined.”

Yup – his entire gear, complete with helmet and shoes, now looks like it played a supporting role in the Red Wedding, and really took on some method-acting for it.

But we’re not done here, oh hot diggity shit no.

             Matt’s startled voice echoed off the bathroom walls. “What the hell?” (…)

             Written in blood across the tile was a bold message: “Happy 19th Birthday, Jr.”

OH SHIT.

OH SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT.

DAD’S HOME, FOLKS.

I am decidedly NOT FUCKING LIKING THIS.

I don’t even want to think about what this means.

If this is the Raven’s doing (which was what I thought about the blood), then that means they’re more in touch with Daddy Wesninski than we thought, which is super bad.

If this is Daddy Wesninski’s own doing, then he’s way more in touch with Getting Revenge On Neil than we thought, which is super super bad.

Either way –

(I also immediately regret calling Wesninski Senior ‘Daddy’. Please remind me to bleach my eyes at the next convenient time.)

             He grabbed the fledgling sense of panic and buried it deep, the same way he’d smothered his broken heart long enough to burn his mother’s body. He would have to react to this later, but if he did it now with all of the Foxes as his witnesses he was going to lose everything.

And bury it he does – Neil, that badass motherf*cker, just buries oh, y’know, the realization that his childhood abuser and indirect killer of his mother is figuratively right behind him,  somewhere in his brain and moves the fuck on.

What a dude.

             “Can you play?” Kevin asked.

             “I’m pissed off, not injured,” Neil snapped. “I’m not going to let this keep us from winning tonight. Are you?

GO GET EM, MY BOY.

WHAT A DUDE.

             “I will give you one chance tonight,” Wymack said. “If I think your head isn’t in the game, I will pull you so fast you’ll get whiplash.”

HSM basketball gifs will never not be appropriate for this team.

In the cleanup process of the Bloody Hell of a Situation, Matt steps out to grab some underwear for a half-naked Neil, and when he comes back he takes the opportunity to remind us all again what a genuinely great character he is – lest we forget.

             Neil opened the door just far enough to realize it was Matt in the hallway and was startled into saying, “You knocked?” (…)

             It wasn’t the first time the Foxes had gone out of their way to accommodate Neil#s privacy issues, but they usually had time to think it through. Matt was late for warm-ups because of Neil and shaken by Riko’s awful trick. Despite that he’d remembered not to barge in.

Matt, you sweet considerate spikey black Billie Joe Armstrong, LET ME LOVE YOU.

And now that Neil is all suited and booted (and had his anger horn tooted), let’s fucking go.

             The ghost of [the blood incident] egged him to go harder and faster. Kevin didn’t warn him to scale back, and they crashed into their backliner with an unusual aggression.

To the Foxes, what the fuck is unusual aggression?? Instantly fucking murdering a dude right there on the field?

“Unusual Agression” is pretty much those guys’ team motto, folks.

Unsurprisingly, our Foxy Sportsball Squad totally rules the following game, no biggie.

Nothing like a bit of blood, childhood trauma and accidental nudity to get fired up before a big game.

             Two minutes later, the Foxes got the chance they needed. A Terrapin striker got around Matt and raced at the goal. (…) Andrew was outside of his box in a heartbeat, and he body-checked the striker hard enough to floor him.

GET REKT.

Also, to remind y’all non-Native English speakers (like me) what a Terrapin is, it’s these cute lil fellas.

Not exactly a threatening opponent.

Not so much a fast one either. Who the fuck thought that naming choice was a good idea, like “yeah, sure, let’s call our skilled Sportsball team after fucking turtles”.

The Team of Poor Naming Choices gets what they deserve, in any case – the Foxes run right over them and celebrate an epic 8-5 victory.

             Wymack and Abby were waiting for them, Wymack with a toothy grin and Abby all smiles.

I love me some supportive Fox Parents.

However, the party is pretty much over instantly as the Foxes are back on their infighting bullshit.

             Allison (…) kept her eyes on Neil. “I’ve hit the limit of what bullshit I’ll tolerate this week, let alone this year. I need to know how much worse this pissing contest between you and Riko is going to get.”

Can we have literally….. 5 seconds of happy celebratory peace up in this bitch, thank you.

At least Wymack feels me.

             “I’m instigating a new rule where everyone is required to be happy after a win. You downers are going to suck the life out of me before my time.”

Thank you, my man.

Allison is kind of right, though – they do need to really fucking talk about this.

             “First off: the massacred elephant in the room. Massacred birds, rather. I called in a favour with the faculty and got Abby access to the microscopes in the science labs.”

Oh, that is morbid.

If that Bloody Hell of a Situation was the Ravens’ doing, then that is the most macabre symbolism I’ve seen in a while.

If it was Wesninski Sr’s – then I don’t want to think about the symbolism, quite frankly.

Which reminds me of an interesting point: Everyone is automatically assuming Riko did this. This makes sense considering almost no one knows of the existence of Neil’s dad, but Neil does not only seem to be playing along, but he seems to have the same opinion. The writing on the wall clearly said “Junior” – why isn’t he considering the fact that it could have just as well been his dad?

Obviously, don’t get me wrong here, knowing their power situation Riko/Tetsuji are still behind all of it and would know of what Neil’s dad is doing to Neil. But to me, this doesn’t sound like Riko’s style. Gallons of blood set up like a crude school prank and words written in blood – this sounds much more like a man who calls himself The Butcher than a rich sleek featherfucker.

Unsurprisingly, Neil isn’t exactly a fan of presenting his entire life story to his team. However, a certain someone who is still massively Salty™ at Neil for ratting him out to his girlfriend intervenes.

             “They’ll never find proof that Riko was involved in this,” Aaron said, “but they might find you, right? (…) Your looks, your languages, your lies – you’re running from something or someone.”

Ohhhhhhhhhh shit.

This is CALLOUT CULTURE.

While the team is busy collecting their jaws from the floor, Neil makes a weak attempt at sassing his way out of this situation.

             Keeping his voice calm took every ounce of energy he had left. “You know, I expected low blows and backstabbing from the Ravens. I thought Foxes were better than that.”

Don’t generalize, my dude.

Dan, Matt and Renee would never.

Neil then does worm his way out of this situation, though – by making a Bad Callout Situation a Worse Callout Situation, Like So Much Worse, Oh God.

             “I’m still waiting for a thank you,” Neil said. “From both of you, to each other. You’re even now, aren’t you? So why can’t you just wipe the slate clean and start over? (…) You don’t want me to be right, because if I am it’s your fault she’s dead.”

             Andrew finally joined the argument. “No. It’s always going to be her fault.”

Oh no, honey, please don–

             “I told her what would happen if she raised her hand again. She had no right to look so surprised.”

DID YOU JUST.

             Wymack pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled noisily. “Could you at least let us leave the room before you confess?”

Same, my dude.

Also hah, nose puns.

             It took Aaron a minute to find his voice again. He still sounded angry, but there was a muted edge to his, “You wouldn’t even look at me. You wouldn’t say a word to me unless I said something first. I’m not psychic. How was I supposed to know?”

             “Because I made you a promise,” Andrew said. “I did not forget it just because you chose not to believe me. I did what I said I would do, and fuck you for expecting anything else.”

And this paragraph right there, this is so, so important because it just sums up both their worldviews perfectly.

Aaron is still the more “normal” one of the twins – hard and bitter, but eventually the more grounded, the more realistic brother. But he also never really got to know Andrew, the real Andrew – whether out of fear of him or out of Andrew’s refusal. Andrew didn’t talk to him, and Aaron never learnt who exactly he was dealing with, so how was he supposed to know?

Andrew, on the other hand, makes promises and sticks to them, absolutely no matter what. He doesn’t care about the means to achieve his goals, he is colder and more ruthless than Aaron – or any sane person – ever could be. And in his world, this all makes sense – legit murder isn’t out of proportion, nothing can be, when it comes to keeping those he cares for safe (lizziedunbar99 made an excellent point on this the other day). When he protects someone, he protects them, all or nothing, and fuck anyone for expecting anyone else.

Yes, hello, I love these idiots.

             There it was again: a hint of that infinite anger at Andrew’s core. (…) He put his hand up between [the twins]. A heartbeat later Andrew’s expression went dead. Neil regretted his intervention immediately. No one could let go of that much rage that easily; Andrew had simply buried it where it could hurt only him.

And the moment that anger finally, healthily (!) breaks free will be the happiest day in this goddamn series.

Or, y’know, everything will go up in flames, but them’s the risks when you’re dealing with our favourite Murder Maniac.

In other news – in case you forgot (which I did), the other Foxes are still present, and they do kind of want answers at this point.

             “Is [your past] going to be a problem?” Dan asked.

             “No,” Neil said.

             Allison arched a brow at him (…) “Are you sure about that?”

I want Allison to please barge into conversations like this always, her head appearing over the scene John Cena-style.

This meme is long dead, but watch me give no shits.

             “Riko knows who I am because our families operate in similar circles, but he is a Moriyama in name only. He doesn’t have the resources to do more than threaten me.”

             “Damn, Neil,” Matt said. “Your parents must be something else if even Riko’s got to follow the rules.”

Oh hon, oh my sweet summer child, you have no idea.

And with that, the conversation is blissfully over, and we have only two tiny things to get to before this monster of a chapter is finally done.

First, Neil gets a text message:

             He didn’t recognize the number or the area code. He understood the message even less: “49”. Neil gave it a minute, but nothing else was forthcoming. He deleted the text and put his phone away.

Ah well, I’m sure this ominous and vaguely threating thing was merely a wrong number and is totally not going to come back to haunt our asses a few chapters from now.

And second, the Normal People Squad still has some opinions on the Murder Situation:

             “Just like that,” Matt said dubiously. “You’ve always known what he’s capable of, but you said he’s never given you a real reason to be afraid of him. What the hell are your parents into, if you can glide past murder like it’s no big deal and get in Riko’s face all the time?”

OH HON, OH MY SWEET SUMMER CHILD.

Also, me a few books ago.

Oh, how far we’ve come.

Unsurprisingly, yet to my great delight, Renee is not as shellshocked as Dan and Matt about Andrew’s confession, and offers some much-needed insight.

             “We cannot understand the situation entirely, Dan. We will never know Andrew’s frame of mind at the time or how bad life with her was for them. All we can do is make a choice: believe that he was protecting Aaron or condemn him for taking the most extreme path. I would rather go with the former.”

Mic drop, sweet smile, Renee out.

God, I love this girl.

If you like what I do here and you want me to continue writing fun things for you, why not buy me a coffee? Every lil bit helps, getting me through uni and all that jazz. Thanks so much!

#tfc #aftg #the foxhole court #all for the game #andreil #tkm #the king's men #nicki reads tfc #nora sakavic #LOVED THIS CHAPTER COME LOVE IT WITH ME

[perfectackeracy]

Shingeki no Kyojin chapter 97 review (+ theories)

What a chapter!

This one packs several points of view and not just Reiner’s. In fact, Reiner’s occupied a good half of the chapter and even then, it was divided into several segments. This one is so content heavy it’s going to be hard to make a brief post. But at least the quality was overall better than last month.

This chapter closed the flashbacks of Reiner, Bertolt and Annie infiltrating the walls till Trost’s attack and introduced the main actor of the Liberio festival: the head of the Tybur clan, Willy Tybur. In the meantime, Falco met that strange amputee who revealed himself to be Eren under a fake name, further leading to the possibility of a scenario where the world declaration is going to get sabotaged, making it the most explosive moment of Marley arc. With chapter 98 being the last chapter of volume 24, either something big ought to happen or mark the beginning of a new sub-arc.

While I’m having an idea of what might happen in the future, the picture isn’t exactly clear in my mind, knowing there’s new plot holes that need to be resolved: the ones I addressed in the past and the new ones opening themselves in this chapter.

Follow me under the cut!

Before Wall Rose gets breached

Reiner’s suicide attempt

Eren and Falco

Willy Tybur

What next?

Starting with a short WTF CR: all those grammar mistakes. Looks like they’re rushing their translation as always. Good think Kodansha checks the panels.

Before Wall Rose gets breached

The plan aiming to breach Wall Rose - Ch. 97

The chapter starts with Annie, at 16, gathering intel from her nights in the capital. Despite joining the training ground, she never stopped collecting information. That explains the slacker attitude she put up during training and furthermore her annoyance over Reiner, since she’s the one collecting what Marley needs while Reiner and Bertolt do buddy-buddy with the trainees. Combined to the military training, Annie does the double of the work.

Last chapter showed she was the only one to enter the capital. @plain-dude’s correction here clarified it was because she could enter it as the Female Titan, implying she didn’t take the classical route. This chapter confirms she goes through sewers to find a path. That must be tiresome when it goes on 5 years, while smashing the gates only takes a couple of minutes.

Annie also experienced her second Ackerterror. Despite escaping Kenny, she still fears what he might do to her in the future. She further adds it’s because of Kenny she’d rather keep her distances within the MP. Even when Eren was revealed to be their target, she still picked the MP as her branch. Probably because she couldn’t stand Reiner’s warrior motto anymore, and she was getting used to the interior, her element. This chapter nails Annie as this character who keep pushing everything away so she can retreat herself in a safer position, from Reiner’s direction against Marley’s trial, the interior against the training grounds and the SL, to the crystal against death and torture by Paradis’ forces.  

Annie and Reiner’s relationship - Ch. 97

Annie and Reiner’s relationship is still as sour as ever. I wonder if Reiner being harsh with his words doesn’t come as a payback for how Annie almost broke his face and spirit. One thing is sure, she only told him to keep his distances. Not even cooperation brought them close, but Reiner did apologize for his behavior and Annie warned him about his new friends dying under the assault, just in case.

P.S.: No matter how much you look at it, their interaction was golden:

Annie’s terrible sense of humor - Ch. 97

You also have Bertolt looking at them in the background, probably wanting the two of them to stop fighting but not knowing what to do. The conflict between the two of them makes him uneasy and was powerless from the start to stop them.

“The Hanged Man“ - Ch. 97

And Bertolt is the one with seer superpowers considering the pose he made the morning Annie came back was nothing else but “The Hanged Man”.

I’m perplexed about the meaning of this card, or anything related to tarot and astrology, so I’ll try to see what I can flesh out according to external sources. I think it’s best to dedicate a whole post apart for Bertolt and that card, but there’s definitely some similarities between the meaning of The Hanged Man and Bertolt’s character arc; particularly in the terms of letting go (his defeatist attitude), suspension (his abilities as a marksman, a living nuclear bomb, his blowing but late development, him telling Reiner and Annie his recurring dream in this chapter…) and sacrifice (Reiner against the mission). We also don’t know if it’s a message meant for the general population, because description says, “We “win” by surrending”, which would end Paradis’ history for good if they just handled the Funding Titan, ensuring (mainland) Eldians’ future.

Bertolt’s dream - Ch. 97

Furthermore, it could mean Bertolt simply has trouble letting go of the past, considering he keeps dreaming about the hanged man, or Marco when their deaths have been left aside for a very long time. I wrote more about the hanged man here  and here, but there’s a chance that Reiner and Annie have hanged this man themselves, so Reiner could absolve Bertolt from the guilt of achieving somebody already under mercy.

Reiner waking Bertolt up - Ch. 97

Do I need to mention how sweet Reiner is when he wakes Bertolt up? He really puts Bertolt on another level compared to Annie: praising him when he breaks the wall, never looking at him right in the eyes when he’s reproaching him something, never gets tasked with “the dirty work”…

As expected, Reiner had no choice but to go on with his plans to break each wall till the Founder shows itself. Even with a good panel of data, he still wants to accomplish the main goal. Little does he know the following events at Trost is settling him on a path of regrets over the mistakes on the trainee days…

Reiner’s suicide attempt

Reiner trying to kill himself - Ch. 97

This is without question, the most disturbing panel of the chapter, and the moment where we return to the present, cut between moments where Reiner remembers the most disturbing moments of his chronology and that scene where he helps Eren.

First, we all know Reiner’s mind deteriorated since he came back from Paradis alone: he lost weight (12 kg), became distant, risks his life in battles and stays close to the kids when he can. Hell, it may not even be his first tentative, but hearing him going back in Paradis triggered something within him: a long story of failures and deceptions. That’s how we’re seeing Reiner’s life scrolling as he realized he should’ve stayed distant with those cadets.

The comparison between Eren and Reiner and Bertolt and Reiner - Ch. 97 & 94

The conversation between him and Eren is oddly reminiscent of him and Bertolt in the past. The moment where Eren kneels complaining about how he’ll die unaccomplished makes Reiner click with him. That scene also shows the advice Reiner could’ve given to his younger self, now that he’s older. Despite being dragged into the mud, Reiner never gave up and kept moving forward at the expense of his own sanity. The advice he’s giving to Eren underlines their common point: moving forward. That adds even more fuel to the fire when Reiner happens to be the Armored Titan, because everything Reiner told him turned out to be sour. In return, Reiner wished he never told him those words.

Unlike Reiner however, Bertolt tried to make Reiner think about his choices, arguing how short his life would become, whereas Reiner believed in Eren’s capacity to kill all the titans.

Reiner and Bertolt’s last goodbye - Ch. 97

It’s not a coincidence the last panels of Reiner’s life are about him seeing Bertolt for the last time, while giving Eren a push to kill all the titans to fulfill his desire of revenge. Eren became fueled up because of it, and he accomplished it by taking down the person dearest to him in the warrior unit. He kept having flashbacks of Eren extracting Bertolt away from his titan and for a good reason. At that point, he’s expecting the worst to happen to Bertolt and tortured himself for four years because of it. He misses him a lot and feels responsible for his fate, yet unknown to Reiner.

Dead inside - Ch. 97

Reiner showed no hesitation: his sparkle of life was gone during the second where he pulled the trigger, till Falco banged to the wall, defeated again by Gabi.

Reiner still must hold on for their sake. They’re probably the ones fishing him away from his depression after Paradis.

Eren and Falco

Eren and Falco at the hospital - Ch. 97

Falco meets an Eren in a strange shape. Their first meeting was Falco helping him as Koslow made fun of Eldian amputees and fixed his armband -even though Eren already spotted Reiner and the kids back in Fort Slava-. During their second meeting, Eren stays vague about the details but reveals he’s here for something.

First, he claims he doesn’t want to go back home and it was too hard to face his family. Of course, Falco understands his family living in Liberio, but his home is in Paradis, which leads us to think he can’t face Mikasa, Armin and the others. He chose a specific way to infiltrate Marley, something that not everybody in the SC can, further implying he came alone (hacking a regenerable leg and eye, being alone in that hospital). With those two elements, you can safely assume the EMA separation already occurred.

Mikasa telling Eren goodbye - Ch. 1

So maybe that panel was meant for Eren departing to Marley after all.

Of course, the double implication could be he has trouble facing his brother, Zeke, since he’s technically family.

Eren is glad Falco can’t become a warrior. I guess his first impressions were indeed good: a kid related to the person helping his father join the revolutionaries and who is willing to cover for him. Not only that, but upon hearing his reasons to become a warrior, two things resonated within him: Gabi getting the Armor instead of him, like how Eren envied Mikasa who could perform everything on the first try, and his words, like what Eren told Reiner.

Now that seems familiar... - Ch. 97 & ch. 90

The last thing Eren told Falco is the whole classical freedom speech, sounding exactly like the one Kruger told Grisha, or what Grisha told Keith. Add a couple of lines from Eren’s speech to Armin as he tried to justify himself into having Levi inject the latter and that’s exactly how it sounds. Eren truly inherited the philosophy of the possessors of the Attack Titan.

What’s up with the bearers of the Attack Titan and their romantic speeches capable to charm people by just telling them to throw their heads into hell? That works perfectly on people: Grisha, the revolutionaries, Keith, the trainees… and now Falco. But at least he’s feeling better about it? He’s ought to have a breakdown about that “lovely” amputee, Eren “Kruger”, soon.

Doesn’t help that Reiner just noticed that Falco hides something, implying we’re up for a Eren and Reiner meeting soon. I fear for Reiner’s reaction considering his tentative of suicide.

Willy Tybur

The Tybur family - Ch. 97

At the right timing, the Tybur family comes inside Liberio to act for the future of Eldia, just after Zeke made a call in his room for the current warriors.

The Tybur family is a family of aristocrats who don’t need to wear the Eldian armband to show their affiliation, they have their own guard and the whole family is full of spoiled brats picking fights and stuffing themselves with too much cake. They also have housemaids, which is nice.

Magath meets Willy, the patriarch of the Tybur family and their whole game ended up on figuring he was the current holder of the Warhammer Titan. They mention Helos, the hero who defeated the Eldian devil, of Marlean origin. The snarky comment Magath made about the statue being hollow reflects the current role Marleans occupy in the warfare of their continent: only a few of them get to experience the bloodbath on the frontlines, making Marley unstable on the long term. Particularly in a time where you can no longer rely on titans for power.

Willy also confirms the Tybur clan rules Marley behind the shadows, just as the Reiss family ruled Paradis. Well… that just validates my theory of the 9th shifter ruling Marley. In other words, nobody hates Eldia much as Eldians themselves, to put it simply. That further confirms Marley needed help from descendants of Ymir to regain their independence. This act of atonement is exactly as Zeke describes it, after all. The memories granted by the Tybur line allows Willy to see how damaged the Eldians on the continent were as they did nothing except being spectators. So, was Zeke’s version of the history correct after all?

Willy and Magath passing an agreement - Ch. 97

This festival allows Willy to play his role as an actor against Paradis and the revolution stirring there after all. What could possibly occur on the island at that moment? Does Eren know something neither Paradis not Marley does?

What next?

I suppose we will go on with the festival and how Eren could possibly sabotage it by himself. He didn’t go on Liberio to rampage immediately around: he has specific targets in mind and even he knows he’s powerless against 5 experimented titan shifters. He still knows how to trigger the coordinate. All he should do is to invite Zeke over and touch him. And for some reason this is going to be more complicated for him than initially planned.

For starters, Falco goofed: Reiner saw Falco was trying to sneak up a letter for a stranger. That act alone could cause Falco trouble, but also Reiner to check the letter contents through some way or another (through vice-captain permission), cue him to become increasingly worried if he recognizes the handwriting. Eren must not reach Zeke.

I feel like Eren would also target the Tybur clan due to their status: the ones responsible for sending warriors on Paradis while being Eldians themselves. People have sensed the parallels between the Tyburs and the Reisses and thus would expect Eren, the current holder of the Attack Titan, to exterminate them in the same fashion Grisha did.

Eren also holds a grudge against Reiner because of the events from Shiganshina and because he personally deceived him. He holds nothing except but disgust for him and would feel satisfied into watching him die.

Flashbacks-wise, I don’t think this is over: we still have a part on Paradis to cover, and it’s the whole part about Zeke’s arrival and that 2-month hiatus. I need confirmation about Reiner and Bertolt making it back to Paradis with Ymir or not. Besides, it would be a good time to switch perspective about these: not making them about Reiner alone any longer, but alternating with Zeke. I still need to know about these “Strongest” and “Armor” serums Rod got and how Zeke mass-administrated his spine fluid to the village inhabitants.

Concerning the state of the SC, it’s hard to tell. Maybe they rebranded, but something happened, aside from Eren fleeing them. After all, Eren had a reason to escape them, didn’t he? Supposing the EMA separation already happened, Armin, Jean, Floch and the others stayed in their respective positions and Mikasa quit the SC in the meantime. Isayama specified the three of them would go into different directions after all, and Mikasa leaving a life as a civilian is appropriate: no longer bound to Eren, and no longer bound to military duty either. Armin and Eren had diverging opinions and Armin’s current role forbids him to flee.

#snk 97 #snk spoilers #reiner braun #willy tybur #eren yeager #falco grice #theo magath #bertolt hoover #annie leonhart #zeke yeager #snk meta #snk theory #snk #attack on titan #reiner #falco #zeke #eren #magath #willy #bertolt #annie #kenny ackerman #kenny #meta #theory

[hyolosupport]

Hyoyeon @ KBS SuJu Shindong’s Podcast

translated by  @ch0sshi

- They talked about how snsd used to have a fixed concept for each member, instead of being more fluid with roles in the group. hyoyeon said that was better off during their rookie days bc it was easier to memorize things. but as time goes on, that becomes so solidified that it doesn't seem that great. like, all trainees learn to sing/dance/act. but when she's constantly set as the dancer of the group, it kind of made her think like, 'I can only dance. I must be bad at singing.' She said it has its pros and cons.

-  I guess they were told hyoyeon's specialties are dance and speaking Chinese.. hyo: these talents are kind of old. lol

-  Shindong said when they were trainees, hyoyeon and choi siwon went to china to study abroad.  Lee sooman always said that china would be like an important place for advancements(?) early on, so he made everyone study chinese.  They'd even have Chinese song singing contests, and if you won, youd get to go and study in China for 2~3 weeks.

-They mentioned how hyo's blood type is AB. She said people usually think she's either type O or B, and they get surprised when she says she's AB.

-  Hyo kinda likes childish jokes, & she said fans call her kim choding, kim yeolsal/10-years-old. other nicknames like [snsd's] dancing queen.  One nickname that is a bit more familiar is kim choding. She said kim yeolsal makes it seem like she's really ten, lol.

-  Shindong asked what hyo's nickname was as a kid, she said she was really well-behaved. she said kids used to call her 'trainee'.  Asked hyoyeon how kids at school reacted since, time-wise, she debuted while she would've been in school. but she didn't really get to  experience that bc she went to study abroad when she was in middle school. so she came back to korea and took a qualification exam.

-  Hyoyeon said she's kinda homely..she's really neat, well-organized, and tidies up well.   Shindong: what about cooking? Hyo: I'm..gonna do that slowly. I'm gonna start with getting organized.  Said she's also good at taking care of others.

-  Hyoyeon said she started properly dancing after joining sm and learning. the first time she saw herself dancing was in sm's I AM movie.  She said whe watched thinking, 'so thats how I danced for my audition'. She hadn't learned to dance at the time of that audition.  When she was in like elementary school, she just enjoyed copying dances. She only officially started learning to dance after joining sm.  So that dance team hyoyeon was in and when she danced with min, it was all after she had joined sm.  She wasn't that into dancing, but an instructor saw her popping, and told her to learn it properly. so she just went there for like 2 years.  Even shindong said he assumed she was at that dance team first and then got cast in sm.

-  Something else surprising she said is that her dad wanted her to be in this line of work, so he sent a photo he took of hyoyeon around roses in a park to sm. said she was too timid atm to do something like that herself

-  All those dance competitions that hyoyeon got recognized participating in when she was younger..she went without telling sm.  Shindong said those things used to release on vhs bc the internet wasn't that huge..but later, those clips started getting shared online.  The other dj dude said he watched her dancing online.. Hyoyeon: I watched them online too

-  They named her schools and gave exactly how long she trained at sm.. Hyo: you guys are really detailed here. lol

- Hyoyeon said she really likes ddeokbokki, could eat it for all three meals of her day. and while she's promoting all the staff will probably have to eat nothing but ddeokbokki bc of her lol

-  Hyoyeon said she likes spicy foods. she said she only eats one brand of ddeokbokki, sinjeon. shindong said laboum is their cf model.  Hyo: they have a cf model?; Shindong: laboum is doing it.; Hyo: oh, congratulations.. lmao

- Hyoyeon said it's been a while since she weighed herself. she said she uses her jeans as a way of being conscious of her weight.  She said she even washes her jeans all at the same time since they can stretch/shrink.

- Hyoyeon wrote her height really accurately: 160.45 cm xD

- Hyoyeon's alcohol tolerance: it's gradually increasing.

-  Shindong said once Hyoyeon was walking up the street like, in the middle of the night..he said she must have been really drunk bc she didn't even recognize him. Said she was walking alone, Hyo said she's usually not alone...so she must have really been drunk.  He even called out to her, but she just kept walking past him lol. said she doesn't really like the taste of alcohol.  Shindong said that one time was the first and last time he saw her drunk. 

- Hyoyeon said when she drinks champagne, she loses her voice.

- A 'body secret' she has is her stomach fat..said there's a connection, since she's been drinking a little more.

-   Hyo's favorite song when she goes to karaoke: Jessica h.o's 인생은 즐거워/life is good

-  Hyo's hobby: playstation. she likes playing rayman. didn't really like gaming, usually only played things like tetris or mahjong, lol  She said she got into super mario, and then got introduced to to the playstation and said rayman was similar.  Said she could lose sleep to play it, and she always has to get the gold medal.

-  She said she recently went to a pc bang, and had fun. Overwatch gave her motion sickness. she said she's going to put that sticker  behind her ear to help with that next time she goes lol. she said she just played the game adults like....go-stop. lmao

-  Hyoyeon said she relieves stress by having a drink with (non-celeb) friends..she said she never had any interest in like meeting  friends/having a drink early on bc they were so busy anyway..but now it becomes like a time of healing.

- Hyo's role model: Rihanna. 

- Hyo's goal/dream: perfection, like, self-contentment

-  Asked what her goal for this promotion is. said there's a picture she has drawn out, so she hopes that transfers onto the stage.

-  Hyo's ideal type: Yoo Ah-In. for his looks/style, and like his voice.

-  Hyo's motto: no matter what you do, become an honest person who does your best. she said this is something her dad made  her and her little brother memorize since they were little.

-  She said she got in a lot of trouble by her dad when she dyed her hair and got her ears pierced...yet he got her into sm, lol

-  Words that supported hyo: think positive things.

-  'if i got 24 hours to myself without a manager'- i think she wrote it happens often, lol.

-  She said compared to the number of members, the amount of managers they have isn't that large. hyo said she's a bit impatient and doesn't really like waiting around once things end. she said it's not good to do, but sometimes she'll just leave first after they get done with things. she said it could be a good thing for managers, having one less person to take care of.

-  If hyoyeon got 100,000 won out of nowhere, she'd go and eat yukhoe/beef tartare with friends. said she really likes it.

-  If she didn't become a celebrity, hyo said either dancing in the US/japan, or study and become a fashion designer.

-  Said she used to have an interest in fashion design. but now, she said the more you think about it, the more you realize how difficult it is. She said there are those times where you think your style is the best and you know everything, but you really don't, lol.

-  After doing shows regarding fashion, she said she realized 'there's a reason why there are specialists [in these fields]'

-  Shindong asked if dance is naturally acquired..she said the groove/soul you have with dance is something you're kind of born with.  But she said it's something you can overcome with effort/hard work.

-  Hyo said Shindong to her is just an oppa she's known for a long time. shindong said that is true, bc they don't share any memorable moments.  Hyoyeon said there are some oppas that she's awkward with, even if she's known them for a while. but that's not the case with shindong. 

-  Asking her what like a special skill she has [like something to show on a variety show] hyoyeon's response: sorry. lol  If she goes on variety shows, bc there were so many members, there'd be fixed questions for each of them..and she usually just danced lol  Hyoyeon: whether it rained or snowed, i just danced. lmao

-  They played just the first 10s of 'wannabe', so it was just the instrumental/her voice didn't even come on.  hyoyeon: is this bc of copyrights or are you just teasing me? lol. they said it's to give people just a taste/they're going to play more

-  Asked when the album comes out for their anniversary..she said since it's their 10th anniversary, there should be a meaningful present..?  The other dj said he recently interviewed yoona, and she said an album comes out this year. hyo: did she say it? oh, she said it. lmao  the dj dude went on saying yoona said they'll be releasing something in the summer, hyoyeon seeming unaware that she said these things.. Shindong said she can just continue to act like she doesn't know anything..hyo: are they releasing something without me? xD  dudes: you're not really unaware are you? hyo: i've been getting my news through articles. lmao

-  Hyoyeon said seohyun has become a bit more chill and whatnot than before..got influenced by her unnies lol

-  Hyoyeon said she used to do track in school. she was good at long-distance running and even went out as her school representative  for schools in incheon. she was so unaware of things like having the proper shoes for running. so she took her lightest pair: ballet shoes.  In the qualifying round, she got 4th place. but at the finals, she was so nervous that she got an upset stomach and didn't do as great.

-  Said how she wants to get married early and have about 5 kids. said she really likes kids. in the past, she always said  her dream was to become a good wife, without really knowing wtf that was. lol  now, she said she just wants to keep working hard while she can lmao.

-  Asked if she still wants to have a lot of kids, and she said she thinks it would be good to have more. other dj: you should rethink that..xD  hyoyeon: i think i'm saying this bc i haven't had any kids yet dj: yeah, i'm currently doing that [has a kid]..

-  hyoyeon said now that the podcast is coming to an end, she's getting kind of scared bc it feels like she talked without much filter lol

-  shindong's scenario: you get an offer to become a cf model for yupki ddeokbokki..you can eat other brands, but just have to film their cf.  asked if she would do it. hyo: of course. other dj: what if you can only eat yupki ddeokbokki? hyo: then i'd order it [secretly]... xD

-  They asked hyo which sinjeon ddeokbokki location she usually orders from, and she said she pretty much knows where they all are  bc she'll order it when she's in like a broadcast station's waiting room and stuff. she'll order through apps, or go there herself.

[misterbitches]

Im not intelligent at all. In the conventional sense. The ramblings of a girl who just has sooo much going in in her head it's constant. But im not a genius. Or that confusing.

It just sounds like I am bc fandoms have this issue where they can JUSTSO point out the issues in soletiing. They can pick and prod and go oh problematic! But then you go to name the problems and the difficulties within society like for ex: the idea of representation in general. Salivating over it. How fucking sad that is. How we are trained to accept it. So in a BL and also RACE in the bl genre they exploit viewers naivete both domestically and internationally. Ive seen tons of people liken being asian to being a person of color. However, in their predominantly homogenous society (or intentionally publically homogenous society), they are not "poc" (also name the of color; i dont use bipoc idc if u do but it's called being asian guys cos yall aint talkin about black ppl lmao)

They as humans seeing other humans who look like them everywhere, engage with the world differently than an american in asia or asians living outside of their home country (like bae doo nanwhen she worksnin the US is not the same as the bae doo nanworking on a korean program) I dont complain about it in everything i see bc ppl say it ALL THE TIME. but it is NOT the same. Being a person of color is very distinctly an american concept. This is all stuff people will get to know on their own if they choose to dig more.

I do my best to underline what my ugly little eyes process. How i figure things out as a black female american artist too! Im hard on shit cos i should be. I take it seriously. And even if i dont take it seriously bc THEY dont then thats their problem.

I know this is a complaint that I am not alone in. I know it's the internet. I just don't get how people can write really heavy analysis but they refuse to actually probe the underlying issues. Not everyone is me, or like my friends, but if there's way fewer people talking about this stuff it seems absolutely glaring when theres few people engaging in the way i do. It seems like im the glitch but I am thinking just as much just differently.

I really loved where your eyes linger but there was little deep class analysis. I remember few convos a bout it. I know a lot about korea (sigh being a black ex kpop fan lol mess) and i love the history but all ofnit matters! Korea's relation to labor!

People bringing up thai actors snd actresses leaving the industry and doing acting as something quick. As an artist~ who went to film school with insanely wealthy ppl and isnin tons of debt you have to understand how shitty that is. People have monetary access and they just fucking do whatever just because they want to. Meanwhile you have young people being coerced into this bullshit mainstream life to LITERALY just make money bc they dont come from a rich background. The wealth gap in thailand is BAD, theres a dictatorship, they had a fucking coup. The governments like here do not respect their people. Their marginalized groups. Trans thai women, black thai ppl, poor thai ppl. And it LITERALLY CANNOT DO ANYTHING EFFECTIVELY IN CAPITALISM. No nothing can be perfect but if it's going into our eyeballs and we can view the worlld critically then why the fuck not!???

I dont say the things i see are wrong always. I reply when i think i need to. I try and engage with others but not to kuch avail. I just want to rb stuff and tdhink lajfhhdjwhjej.

But like yea theres a lot of just wrong or misguided stuff. A lot of the times it is just historical inaccuracy in framing or idk. A refusal to think outside the box. I dont care. Theres more to life than just sort of looking and not thinking especially for othrr artists.

Idk im sorry. I dont see how i can change how i view things. I really wish people would expand their palettes too and go deeper into other means of art from places! Things not in the mainstream! Theres a lot of good thai artists and a lot of them critical as fuck about their country as they should be. Authority, austerity, patriarchy, capital, racism etc like that is central to a power thats interested in growing gains and fiscal and social power. Theres rly radical or left leaning etc ppl out there in the world and these countries in these communities. So they exist. No people in these countries dont have NO clue whats going on. Cultural relativism is alsos something people should understand. I had a good talk with ppl on here a while ago about that. Talking about shit, critiquing, but being respectful to a group. Part of thay is realizing these groups CLEARLY know their own issues and all our cultures share the same goal. Guess what it is. It rhymes with acquiring wealth. Money means you hurt people. In the post, we talked about use of "wife" and "husband" which is a stupid joke that has been "explained" a billion times and yet the explanations still dont seem to answer or justify a minor problem (it's very funny to me that a language that doesnt have gendered pronouns is now very specific about two men. Hmmm wonder why. It is annoying.)

So im not the only person on the planet doing this. Or the few ppl ive seen that do. Im not new my thoughts arent new. Ive gotten to see another side to a culture i knew not much about and that means i can put the context of my beliefs and life and try and understand thheirs. For ex i learned from ITSAY because of a sign that said 'french food' that they were the only country to not be colonized back then. Do you know how integral that history is to their region? That was an interesting detail (i didnt finish itsay bc ihad a lot going on and i was rly upset that i would see hownrich they are and i hate that.)

Anyways thats my complaint. It used to feel like a sting of rejection. I left online for months in 2019, i started organizing more, joined a union, trying to do some panther work shit like that. I learned a lot in those months and it changed my life! But when I came back, I felt so isolated. It wasnt my true friends tho sometimes theyre ANNOYINGGGGG (love u) but it was me being like "if we are going to complain guys then lets put our money where our mouth is" lets be fucking serious about it then. No say it with your chest dude. It isnt difficult. Go with the fucking flow, talk about it, critique it, think. You can still fucking like itnor love it.

I am BLACK ok and i love rap. I am a black woman. I will continue to clown black men that cant seem to not clown themselves and listen. No i wont support monetarily: drake is a creep and i hate him but i bump that niggas song. Thats fucking LIFE. I got so sick of hiding myself and it became clear that it wasnt that i wasntthinking well or hard enough. They just didnt like that i said we need to commit class suicide and inspect out middle class sensibilities and middle class wealth hoarding (google it) if thats what we engaged with. Every part of you, antagonize it. I still have my privileges; class, skin color, even my father being a nigerian immigrant, me being cis, im not str8 but not a lesbian and those are differences.

Insecurities in general but some shallow thoughts (?) on discussion in "fandom" space. FYI, this will most likely stay the same. I tend to stay in my own bubble socially IE me and my friends are similar in our views. During this awful year while running my union's account, im surrounded by like minds. Me and my friends? We changed together. We grew up and saw what we didnt like and what we want. We do our best.And i CHOOSE my life to be that way bc it should be. There is no solution. I dont believe in solutions because the solution is to abolish capital or just divest. Abolishing capital and labor are a huge one and i will die before that happens (but so help me as long as im alive? Black women to FREEDOMMMM is my motto!) so making your own path in life is the best thing an artist can do IN MY OPINION.

However with technology and stuff this puts another layer onto things. Tech, social media, this shit....it THRIIIIIIIVESSSSSSS off of conflict and shallow readings of the world. We are literally primed for it. Engagement in bites. Impossible for me with my brain; i got used to it and i paid for it by limiting my scope. Not being encouraged to THINK AND READ before just speaking

(For ex i am in iww, i helped form a branch here. It is a radical union. Unionism is imprative to me-if ur interested u should read up on some. Look up peter cole! Google inthesetimes Ilwu. Gives you some understanding. Ive always been progressive and now i am....very left idk ic ant label myself. But even in my progrssiveness i had the gall to tell my white friend, whoa has her privileges but i had mine with our class disparity, that we dont need unions, i have WORKED retail. Ive done barista work for sonoing and i do gig work. So i wasnt out of touch. I had been stiffed even with a shoot i was working on by rich kids. So i had a frame of reference . But i didnt know what the FUCKa union was and why it is imperative. Then learning about anarcho syndicalism and all these other things. It changed my fucking life but two years earlier i was this idiot spouting shit like that making one of my best friends fucking upset. We DO AND CAN CHANGE. Think!!!!)

So were i a creator for tv id just constantly try and push the buttons if i need big money. Make them sell into me (thank you sonic youth!) theres Endless possibilities guys which means theres SO MUCH TK EXPLORE!!!! When i wanna have fun with it i just have fun. When i want to think i do. I dont understand why we are so dedicated to upholding things and doing mental gymnastics to end up in a space you dont need mental gymnastics for. What about these critiques makes you uncomfortable? Saying we're all part of the problem as spectators? Im sorry but we will always be. Thats LIFE. God fuck. Fuck me. I feel so fucking worthless and stupid sometimes. I know I am not. I know i am talented and intelligent. I know my friends and family. I know how to approach ppl. I know how to tell people if they are rich but want to be progressive whatsup. I choose how i live part of that is being ok to say what i want.

Ironically consrrvatives say this shit alot. But they arent ever alone bc their ideology is default. But yea it does feel shitty. It even feels shitty when ur in left circles but people STILL dont even wanna do that. These perspectives really arent ss many as they should be. I dont want to feel so alone with it. I know there are more. I just love art and the world so fucking much, endless possibility. Endless pain but endless good.

[ecotone99]

[SP] Button-Up Brigade

Two young men clad in bright, floral print button-ups stand together with perfectly coiffed hair and drenched Persian arrogance, wafting into the air around them to serve cease and desist letters to their "haters." Squad goals dictated that they meet up outside of Del Playa Boulevard. Just to prove that they weren't afraid of the infected. Because members of SAE embody the motto "True Gentlemen."

​

Bryson turned to Jarrod before looking at the wreckage from Del Topia, six months had passed, but there was still a fleet of burned-out cars in the street. An overturned coach bus served as the centerpiece of the destruction. The UCSB emblem was still clinging to the side with an uncharacteristic ferocity to most of the school.

"I heard there's a safe haven up in Canada. The infection hasn't made it there yet." Bryson offered.

"And?" Annoyance sparked through Jarrod's tone.

"You'd just have to make it to Manitoba to be safe!" Bryson said enthusiastically.

"Are you even listening to yourself, Bryson?! Manitoba? I'll take my chances here. At least we have hair products and smoothies. Besides, they have nature up there." Jarrod's tone darkened. "And that's the real apocalypse."

"But Jarrod!-" Bryson's hair quivered anxiously.

"But nothing! Give it six more months, and this whole "infection" thing will burn itself out. It's just like the Kardashians. Eventually, the Earth will get tired of it."

"I'm not sure that example works... Aren't they still going to film their new show?"

"Just stop. You're really negative right now."

"I'm just worried about getting caught by one of those things, though..." Bryson said, lifting his head to scan the street.

"Well, are you still doing your CrossFit exercises?" Jarrod asked with the tone of a disapproving fifties housewife.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure how doing box jumps, and muscle-ups are going to help."

"It's all about improving your explosiveness. We'll be like those Russian parkour guys if we run into those dumb meat bags," A smug grin crossed Jarrod's Ken doll features.

"Wouldn't it be safer to leave, though?" Confusion marked Bryson's voice.

"And give up prime beach realty? You're not thinking long term, Bryson. I'm beginning to think you didn't pay attention in our economics classes. Buy low, sell high. It's that simple!" Jarrod waved his arms in frustration as the two of them failed to notice one of the bushes shake down the street, in spite of a windless day.

"This isn't a class, though! There are actual monsters out there. I even heard people had seen weird creatures in the ocean lately. I think it would just be safer to get out of town." Bryson shuddered.

"Creatures in the ocean? There aren't any infected in there. Don't be stupid. It was probably just some inner-city kid who's never seen a seal before." Jarrod's affectation when saying "inner-city kid" gave the mental image of fine china and stiff necks.

"Can we just get out of here?" Anxiety crept into Bryson's voice like a twelve-year-old about to meet Hannah Montana.

"Dude, nobody else is here yet. We can't just bail on the gang like that. What would Brody, Skyler, Lance, and Chad think? What's wrong with you? First, this nervous talk, now you're trying to break the bro code? Not chill, Bryson. Not chill." Jarrod fumed as he thumbed the black screen of his dead iPhone.

A closer bush began to shake in the distance. Jarrod turned to look at the beach, leaving his back to the street.

​

Bryson's knees started to knock together like an overly affectionate couple when the next bush began to shake. He tried to channel his inner James Bond, but he wasn't British, sophisticated, or capable. The only thing they had in common was binge drinking. He turned to warn Jarrod when two figures shot out of the bush. A shriek escaped Bryson as he wrenched Jarrod's arm towards him.

"Gotcha!" Lance laughed as he and Brody slowed to a walk. Their similarly coiffed hair was still in immaculate condition.

"Did one of you scream, or was that a bird dying?" Brody asked, wiggling a finger in his ear.

"I'm surprised your pants didn't get a Taco Bell special," Lance smirked.

"Not chill, guys, not fucking chill." Jarrod paused before laughing. "Bryson almost died of fright. We don't want a repeat of Rush week if there isn't a toilet around." Bryson fixed his eyes on the ground. Red-tipped ears betrayed his shame. Rush was three years ago, but they still liked to reference their laxative donut prank. They had him eat one right before a game of Edward forty hands. Shit stained shame marked his soul. He'd never forget that walk home with bottles of malt liquor still taped to his hands. He learned at that moment that things come in go in life, friends, girls, even God. But you can always rely on one thing. Khakis will never lie.

​

"Funny stuff, guys," Bryson said, gritting his teeth. "Where are Skyler and Chad?"

"Yeah, weren't they supposed to be headed here with you two?" Jarrod asked, looking back down the street.

"They're not here already?" Lance asked and shared a confused look with Brody.

"Do you see them here?" Jarrod's alpha gaze snapped back into place.

"Well, no... But I don't know, man, we just got here. They left before Lance and me. They were stoked to be back on the beach." Brody offered.

Bryson looked back down to the beach when he saw a ragged looking Skyler stumble out of the dunes. Alarm bells went off in Bryson's mind when he noticed Skyler's hair had lost its coif.

"Guys... I think I found Skyler." Bryson said, pointing towards Skyler's new shuffle.

"Well, that figures. What a fucking rookie! I heard all the freshmen in Alpha Tau Omega were all turned. Everyone got their paddles?" Jarrod growled as he dug his wooden paddle out of his backpack. The group did the same as they kept their eyes on the beach.

"Woah! Didn't you drill holes in your paddle, Bryson? Come on! Sometimes I don't understand how you got into Sigma Pi. You never follow the rules!" Lance chastised Bryson as the group shook their heads.

"Can we talk about this another time? It looks like Skyler heard us." Bryson said as he stepped away from the beach. He took another quick step back when he saw Skyler wasn't alone. A group of infected moved towards the button-up brigade with their mangled bodies and gore covered clothes.

"Paddles up, boys!" Jarrod's voice cracked with fear. Lance and Brody flanked Jarrod as the infected started to reach the beginning of the street. The three of them made their best interpretation of the Spartans at Thermopylae. Only, their training was in indulgence and avarice.

Thoughts of Edward Forty-hands, paddle practice, and bathroom bullying flashed through Bryson's mind. His hands tightened on his paddle and raised it behind Jarrod. He took a breath, and the blank rage died as he laughed at the stupidity of it all. Zombie apocalypse ravaging humanity and thoughts of revenge were still in his mind.

He turned and ran. But not before giving Jarrod a push towards the infected.

He heard his scream, shortly joined by Lance's and Brody's as he sprinted down Del Playa. He'd be damned, but he thought it sounded like freedom.

​

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[latestnews2018-blog]

There Were Zero Things Better This Week Than Beto O&#039;Rourke&#039;s Post-Hardcore Band

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There Were Zero Things Better This Week Than Beto O'Rourke's Post-Hardcore Band

Welcome to Good Stuff, HuffPost’s weekly recommendation series devoted to the least bad things on and off the internet.  

The single greatest thing I learned this week is that Beto O’Rourke, the Texas Democratic challenger to Ted Cruz for his Senate seat, once played bass in a post-hardcore band called Foss with one Cedric Bixler-Zavala on drums. And he kind of went hard? Harder than Mike Huckabee anyway.

If you don’t know Bixler-Zavala’s name, you will not care, and I don’t blame you. But for the small contingent of us who do, it is the single most random thing ever. By far. No competition. HOLY MOLY I’M GETTING EXCITED ALL OVER AGAIN. WHAT!?!? 

Bixler-Zavala would go on after Foss to become the lead singer of two bands that defined my childhood, the Mars Volta and At the Drive-In, making this a perfect melding of my teenage self and whatever the hell you would call my current state. ― Maxwell Strachan

“Kim’s Convenience”

Between “Crazy Rich Asians” and “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” August has been such a landmark month for pop culture featuring three-dimensional portrayals of Asians that there’s a hashtag for it: #AsianAugust. (If you haven’t seen either of those, go do that!)

“Searching,” a thriller starring John Cho, the first Asian-American actor to headline a mainstream, modern movie in that genre, joins the party this weekend before rolling out to more cities next Friday.

And don’t sleep on “Kim’s Convenience,” a Canadian sitcom about a working-class Korean-Canadian family that premiered in 2016 but is now available in the U.S. on Netflix, which added it in July. In between reveling in how wonderful “Crazy Rich Asians” and “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” were, I watched a few episodes last weekend and was immediately hooked. It will definitely be relatable to anyone who comes from an immigrant family. But it also has the classic conventions of any great, slice-of-life family sitcom, with endearing characters and an abundance of irreverent jokes. ― Marina Fang

My Colleague’s Love For “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before”

On the evening of Tuesday, Aug. 17, my colleague and dear friend Claire Fallon watched “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” for the first time. “It fucking wrecked me,” she tweeted of the now-beloved Netflix rom-com. By the time I saw her at work the next morning, Claire had watched “TATBILB” three times already. She seemed… different. There was a twinkle in her eye, a bounce in her step — the unmistakable signs of a woman in love.

Claire confirmed as much with her bombshell story: “Report: I’m in Love With Netflix’s ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,’” and she didn’t stop there. She RTed every article horny for the film’s romantic male lead, Peter Kavinsky, adding commentary like “i am hurting myself every time i watch it and realize he isn’t real.”

Before long, Claire’s husband was drawn into the fold. “They say you should include your partner in your fantasy life so I made my husband watch to all the boys I’ve loved before with me,” she tweeted on Aug. 18, a time she would later describe as “the most romantic weekend” of her life. This marked her fifth viewing of the film and potentially, I foolishly thought, her last.

Claire is now up to 10 viewings and shows no sign of slowing down. On Monday and Tuesday, when she normally live-tweets “Bachelor in Paradise,” Claire instead posted six GIFs of Peter Kavinsky — in a hot tub, on a school bus, smiling all sexy in a bathrobe. Where am I supposed to get my snarky “Bachelor” commentary now, Claire?! Her obsession became my obsession. Thanks to Claire, I now find myself talking incessantly about a movie I haven’t even seen, filtered through the lovesick gaze of my talented co-worker.

“If you’re wondering, i did watch it last night,” Claire slacked me today, unprompted. “I do little else.” If this post was a rom-com, this is the part where I’d declare my love for Claire and suggest that instead of Peter Kavinsky she take notice of the girl working at the desk across from her all along — fave-ing her tweets, offering her goldfish, casually suggesting they open the mail together. But it’s not, and Claire is married and I have more journalistic ethics than that! ― Priscilla Frank

The Greatest Sentence In The History Of Language

This was a bad week ― all weeks, now, are bad ― but at least we were blessed with one of the great sentences in the history of language.

“Suck my dick and balls I’m working at NASA” is a literary delight, nine words strung together so perfectly that there’s no way to misread them or misinterpret the emotion they intend to convey. The person who wrote them, who had the misfortune of directing them toward someone who oversees NASA, apparently lost out on an internship opportunity at the space-exploring government agency. This is a shame, not just because no one should be fired over a tweet but especially because no one should ever be fired after penning such a beautiful tweet.

Homer Hickam, the former NASA engineer who was best known for writing “Rocket Boys” but will now enter history as the man who elicited the greatest piece of writing humankind has ever produced, is apparently helping our glorious author find an even better opportunity in the aerospace field. But the real hope here is that one day our dear friend ascends to the top of NASA, resumes the shuttle program or some other form of space exploration, and paints our new motto on the side of whatever sort of craft eventually finds other forms of life out there, so that our newfound alien friends’ first brush with the English language is the English language in all its glory. And if we’re not going to cure cancer or solve climate change or find aliens or do any of the other cool shit science is probably capable of, we should put all of our resources and expertise into finding a way to project “Suck my dick and balls I’m working at NASA” onto the moon. ― Travis Waldron

Temi Oni’s Latest Poem

I see a lot of my experience in Temi Oni’s latest poem. I walk a lot. I’m catcalled far too frequently. I’m always minding my business. I’ve been hit on by teenagers, men my age, men my father’s age, men his father’s age. I’ve been asked if I suck dick, if I wanna fuck, if I want a dick in my ass and much worse. My initial silence has agitated the men harassing me to the point of them getting too close — just like Oni’s decision to at first ignore the man who asked her if she sucked dick irked him to the point of walking up on her. Like her, I’ve wonder who the fuck these dudes were talking to. I’ve wished my homies or my man was around because I also have a tendency to fly off the handle when I’ve been disrespected. I size the man up. Sometimes I say something smart, ask him who he’s talking to. Sometimes I don’t say anything at all.

And then, it happens: They threaten to rape you. It freezes you. You want to defend yourself, but you don’t know if you physically can. You want him to die because he thinks it’s funny. You’re paralyzed by your anger, but within moments your guts will churn and you’ll start to realize that you may very well be in danger.

You feel bad for this black person. You want better for them. But you also want to feel safe. As Oni says, seeing the police won’t calm you. Black women are constantly put into compromising positions by black men, but the most harrowing is the decision of whether or not we should sacrifice our own safety for theirs by not calling the police. You don’t want a black person to die at the hands of the police, even though they just threatened to harm you. On the flip side, the police often don’t even see black women as worth saving.

In these moments, I often feel a sense of loneliness that is much deeper than me being harassed while I am literally alone. Whenever a black man has walked up to me on the street or tried anything, no one has ever defended me. People can be around and yet no one does anything. At their best, they ignore it. At their worse, they watch. It induces a rage I still can’t explain, a fear I often feel and a pain that seems generational.

It’s the black woman’s Catch-22. ― Julia Craven

“Support The Girls”

Magnolia Pictures

Lisa (Regina Hall) often reminds people that she works at a “family place,” insofar as the Hooters-type watering hole she manages does not allow the predominantly male clientele to harass waitresses. As it turns out, the establishment is family-like, at least in the way its female staffers protect and fortify one another — a fitting theme for a movie titled “Support the Girls.”

Andrew Bujalski’s new film is one of those indies that comes out of nowhere and lights up the screen, the perfect cap to a wobbly summer. When a sports-bar chain comes to town, the forces of capitalism threaten to nullify Lisa’s mom-and-pop restaurant. The hourly-wage sisters who maintain the Texas joint are doing it for themselves, and they’re lucky to have the patient, affable Lisa as a lodestar amid the careless dudes in their paths. Hall gives an Oscar-worthy performance, delicately screaming into the void alongside Haley Lu Richardson (“Edge of Seventeen”) and Shayna McHayle, better known as the rapper Junglepussy. When she’s finally had enough, Lisa tosses a middle finger to the sky, a rare release for someone who’s burdened herself with always needing to keep it together. We’re right there with her. ― Matthew Jacobs

Bowen Yang

Bowen Yang may not be a household name, but you may as well learn it now.

The comedian and Vulture host became a viral sensation this week after a handful of celebrities — including Chrissy Teigen and Sarah Silverman — tweeted out some of his lip-syncing videos.

Yang has been uploading clips of himself lip-syncing various pop culture moments since May. But his most recent video, of him imitating Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly in “The Devil Wears Prada” is what has put him on the map. It’s flawless, funny and just a delight to watch. ― Saba Hamedy

Terrific Human Mariska Hargitay

Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank got married this week. She looked lovely in Elie Saab with custom Christian Louboutin shoes. Her husband looked dapper. There was a tap dance! The wedding looked like it was ripped right from a high-class Pinterest page. But the best part of Hilary Swank getting married this week was actually Terrific Human Mariska Hargitay.

One of the photos featured in a Vogue gallery on Swank’s wedding shows Hargitay lurking in the background, seemingly holding up Swank’s veil as part of her duties as maid of honor. Swank and Hargitay are known BFFs, but still, could you imagine having Hargitay around on your wedding day? To give you pep talks, or hold up your dress while you pee or dab the sweat off your forehead after dancing too hard? For sure she’d make sure your Champagne hand was never empty. Congratulations on that, Hilary Swank. ― Paige Lavender

The R-Rated Puppet Movie That No One Liked

DAMON DAHLEN/HUFFPOST

Priscilla Frank with her date at a press preview of “The Happytime Murders” on Monday in New York. 

Some critics have deemed “The Happytime Murders” the worst movie of the summer, if not the whole year. Other people, like my colleague Priscilla Frank, have called it “the only movie that mattered, and the only one that ever will.” Listen, I probably won’t see the film, but I will scroll through photos of Priscilla and her Puppet Boyfriend performing nose kisses in an empty theater at least a couple times this weekend. You should, too. ― Katherine Brooks

Christian Covington’s Very Lifelike Madden Character

Guess I have to accept the fact that I’m ugly now…. Say it ain’t so Madden…. smh pic.twitter.com/fTcmitdrEw

— Christian Covington (@thetangibleC4) August 22, 2018

Who knew you could play as Shrek on Madden?

The difference between how Texans DE Christian Covington looks in real life and how he looks on Madden is basically the same as photos you post vs. ones you’re tagged in… if people were to draw faces on garbage cans and tag you in them. And like ogres and onions, this thing has layers: Is it so sweaty because it knows it shouldn’t be here? Does it look like a thumb? Is that mean to thumbs? With all the attention this has gotten after Covington poked fun at it, it’s only a matter of time before Madden tries to take this away from us like a bunch of Farquaads. So before that, farewell sweet prince. Like Shrek, may you live happily forever after. ― Bill Bradley 

Read last week’s Good Stuff.

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