#honestly my main concern if/when he does kick the bucket is making sure that we (me mom & sis) have the (my) dog

[steveshair-robinshood]

a not-so brief analysis of possible deaths in s3

G’day mates! (I’ve been watching too many interviews with Dacre lmao). I’ve been wanting to make this post for awhile. I basically will go through each Stranger Things Season 3 main character’s chances of whether or not they will die - because we all know one of them will. Here it goes. 

The Party

Mike - Mike has always been one of the leading protagonists of the show. He has been well received by pretty much everyone, having little or no haters. I think it is unlikely Mike will be the one to die because he is so important to the plot and the other characters’ (and fans’) emotional value. However, Finn Wolfhard is an incredibly busy young actor and ST’s shoots last months so he might want to clear his schedule. Also, Mike’s death would have a serious impact on the others, especially Will and Eleven. It might prove to be a strong force of motivation for whatever finale the show has.

Eleven - I honestly don't see how killing El would do anything other than break the hearts of fans all around the world. ST is said to have another two seasons after s3 and quite frankly the show just wouldn't be the same without her. I won’t be too worried about Eleven until the last season (and then I'll be terrified).

Lucas - Lucas has gotten a lot of unnecessary hate from the fandom because he didn’t trusts Mike’s judgement when the latter hid a strange girl with super powers in his basement without telling his parents. It’s easy to see this as stand-offish behavior, but Lucas is actually the reasonable one. Yes, he’s cautious, much more so than Mike or Dustin, but people seem to forget he goes and spies on the lab by himself, figures out they’re being watched, alerts his friends, and forgives Mike, all while persevering in his search for Will. Still, Lucas is most people’s least favorite party member. He would seem like a poor character to kill, because not many fans would care very much, even though everyone on screen would be devastated. Hopefully, after s3 Lucas gets the love and appreciation he deserves. 

Max - Max is still pretty new to the show. She is well-loved by the fans and the characters on screen. Plus, her new friendship with El has everyone super pumped; their would be riots in the street if she was killed and that ended.

Dustin - Okay, but does anyone actually not like Dustin? He may not be everyone’s absolute favorite, but no one actively hates him. And why would they? He’s smart, quirky, adorably, nerdy, and provides the vast majority of the comedic relief. The show wouldn’t  be half as fun without him. The show writers know this too. I think Dustin’s pretty safe for now, at least from death (the end of the second trailer did NOT look good for him). 

Will - Sweet, darling, innocent Will. Precious Will who’s never been given any sort of break from that goddamn writing team. Although I think Will is in for more (largely undeserved) pain and strife, I don't think he will bite the dust just yet. 

The Teens

Nancy - Nancy is one of the primary female characters, as well as Mike’s older sister. She’s previously been through some real shit, lost her best friend, lost one boyfriend, gained another boyfriend, and will be struggling with misogyny in s3. Nancy has gained some haters, but they are often overlooked because her fans are fierce. I don’t think the Duffers or Netflix want an army of feminists showing up at their door because they killed off Nancy Wheeler. She is shown in mortal peril in the second trailer, and her death would greatly impact Jonathan, Mike, Steve, and the entire fandom. I personally think she will pull through, but it could really go either way.

Jonathan - Will’s only brother, Joyce’s support system, Nancy’s boyfriend, Jonathan has a lot on his shoulders. Not many people know him, but those who do love him dearly. His death would hugely impact many main characters, without damaging the plot. Yeah. This might not end well for Big Brother Byers . . .

Steve - Oh, Steve. We love Steve. Things were not looking good for everyone’s favorite babysitter/Single Mother Supreme after the first s3 trailer dropped. I would be seriously concerned, however one of the lead writers stated that the day Steve Harrington dies is the day he walks off the show. And, to the best of my knowledge, the writer is still signed on. 

Robin - Robin is a completely new character. We have been given very little info on her whereabouts in the show. This has not stopped fans from immediately falling in love with her though. It is highly unlikely they would kill off such a new and popular character.

 Billy - The new host of the mindflayer. Doesn’t sound too good, does it? But Will survived. Most people seem to think he’s doomed, but I personally believe he’ll make it out. Mentally fucked? Hell yeah. Dead? Not today. 

Heather - . . .  let’s all take a preliminary moment of silence for Heather. Seems like she’ll be taking a page out of Barb’s book and dying before we even get fully introduced to her character.

The Adults 

Hopper -  Hop appears to be in trouble. Fans are already speculating his death. It would be devastating, but . . . so many issues would be created. Where would El go? Probably the Byers. But who would deal with all the crazy Upside Down bullshit? That’s harder. David Harbour’s extreme commitment to the show acts like a shield protecting him from death. 

Joyce - I think she’ll be fine. Worried, frazzled, constantly smoking like always, but she wouldn't die, would she? Will and Jonathan still need her. Plus, what would Stranger Things be without Winona Ryder?

Bruce - Following the B Name trend (Benny, Barb, Bob) he will most likely kick the bucket before the season’s finale. Very little has been revealed about his character, but I already kinda want him dead.

Murray - He’s fucking hilarious and I hope he's okay. I don’t know though. He helped expose the lab. That can’t sit well with some folks.

Mayor Kline - Still not sure what his point is. I really don’t know. He lives?

And also 

Erica - She lives, or I’m suing. ’Nough said. 

Phew. Long post. I think the Party’s safe for now, and the adults are probably fine for the time being as well. The teenagers all seem to get themselves into sticky situations and they can’t all be getting out safe, amiright? 

Basically, in danger: 

Mike

Nancy 

Jonathan

Heather (RIP)

Hopper

Bruce

Murray

That’s all for now folks! 

#stranger things #stranger things season 3 #mike wheeler #eleven #lucas sinclair #dustin henderson #max mayfield #will byers #nancy wheeler #jonathan byers #steve harrington #billy hargrove #jim hopper #joyce byers #erica sinclair #long post #like whoa #this took a while

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 134

I’m just imagining Toriyama having this same discussion with his editor. 

On the flip side of things, Dr. Gero is struggling to convince 17 and 18 that the Z-Fighters are a clear and present danger.    The problem is that they were never exactly loyal to Gero in the first place, which was why Gero was so reluctant to activate them.   But Vegeta destroyed Android 19 with ease, and Piccolo damaged him pretty badly, and Future Trunks is a complete mystery to him.    Also, Gero worked Krillin over pretty well on the way here, and he’s still on his feet.    Like it or not, he needs 17 and 18 now.   

Thing is, 17 and 18 don’t really need Dr. Gero.    At this point in the story, all we really know about these two is that they never fell into line with Gero’s authority.   My personal assumption is that they resent him for turning them into cyborgs against their will.   I feel like there’s lore about how they don’t remember their former lives as humans, so maybe I’m wrong.   

The point is that they only really ever got along with him because he had devices like the remote that could shut them down.   17 seemed pretty angry about that in the previous episode when he destroyed it.   They may have other beefs with Gero, but they seemed especially frustrated with the way he could just “put them to sleep” at any time, for any duration.    Now they’re finally awake again and it turns out Gero built a nineteenth androids in the meantime, and then he had 19 rebuild Gero in the twentieth android.   To Gero, that’s old news, but to 17 and 18, it only goes to show how long they’ve been out of commission.

18 wonders aloud why Gero based himself and 19 off the “older” energy absorption model, as opposed to the “eternal energy” model she and 17 are based upon.   I think she hit the nail on the head.   Gero suspected that 17 and 18 were unruly because they were too powerful.  I don’t know if he’s right, but he wouldn’t have trusted either of them to rebuild him into an android body, so he built 19 in a way that he could trust.   I’m not sure why he didn’t have himself made into an “eternal-energy” type, though.  Was he afraid he’d betray himself?    Did he think it would drive him insane?  He’s already an evil mad scientist, how much worse could it get?

So 17 and 18 tell Gero that they’ll deal with the Z-Fighters later, when they get around to it.   Without his controller, he doesn’t have much leverage over them.   Really, even if he did have the controller, he’s in no position to use it.   17 and 18 are the only thing keeping him alive right now.    If he shut them down, he’d be the first one to die.   

Instead, 18 wanders around the lab to see what’s changed since she was last active, and notices another chamber containing an Android 16.   She’s curious about this one, since he’s an unlimited energy model like herself, only he seems to be much larger, indicating a different design.   But Gero gets upset at the very idea of turning him on.    Back at the door, Trunks is just horrified to learn of a fifth android.   

While they bicker, the Z-Fighters just sort of stand at the door and watch.    Krillin suggests they retreat while they’re distracted, and Vegeta plans to stick around no matter what.   Inside, Dr. Gero tries to pull 18 away from 16, which is pretty dumb, since she’s much stronger than he is.   I mean, this is why he reactivated her in the first place, after all.   

It’s pretty fun watching Gero struggle like this.  He was so confident in his plans and backup plans when he first showed up, but now he’s trapped between Vegeta and his own misfit creations.   The funny thing is that 17 and 18 will be kicking the crap out of the Z-Fighters very soon, but not nearly soon enough to do him any good.    Right now all they want to do is screw with his stuff.

18 points out that all the Androids up to #15 aren’t present in the lab.    I suppose this is why Movie 7 introduces 13, 14, and 15 in the sub basement.   18′s point here is that it doesn’t make sense that Gero considers 16 defective.  If he were truly as dangerous as he claims, then why keep him in tact at all?    Really, you could ask the same question about 17 and 18.   They represent the high water mark of Gero’s android research, and maybe he thought he could work the bugs out of their systems, but they’re clearly not going to help him, so wouldn’t he have been better off dismantling them?

Gero starts flipping his shit, warning them that turning on 16 could get them all killed.   17 scans 16 and concludes that 17 has a higher power level, so clearly 16 isn’t a threat.    Gero keeps arguing with them,  and threatens to turn them off, but he doesn’t have the remote, so he can’t.    All he can do is threaten to build a new one, like anyone’s gonna stand back and let him do that.

Finally, as 18 pushes the button on 16′s chamber, 17 attacks Gero and kills him.   This was the big moment Trunks spoke of when he first warned Goku about the android threat.  He said they killed Gero when they were activated, and now it’s finally come to pass.    It’s not clear how things played out in Trunks’ timeline, but in this one it just took a little longer to play out.  

Krillin is shocked that 17 would kill his own creator like that, but Vegeta thinks it’s very similar to the Saiyan way of doing things, which makes the Earthlings the oddballs in the universe.

Then Trunks blows up the whole mountain because he’s been quietly freaking out over all these androids while this scene has been playing out.    I’m pretty sure he didn’t expect that blast to kill 17 and 18, since he never managed anything like that in his own time, but he probably hoped to destroy 16 at least, and any other secret weapons Gero left lying around.

But yeah, no, they’re all fine.   Vegeta scolds Trunks for wasting his energy on a pointless attack like that.    18 goes back to turning on 16 like nothing happened.

So they let him out of the chamber and he’s a big ol’ feller.   17 and 18 ask him why Dr. Gero was so uptight about activating him, but he has nothing to say.

But when they ask him if he was also created to kill Goku, he says yes, and I guess that’s enough for them to bond over.  18 says it was rude for Gero to deem 16 a failure, since he seems to be on board with the whole “kill Goku” agenda.  

As for 17 and 18, they’re not particularly inclined to folllow Gero’s instructions, but they need something to get them started, so hunting down Goku is as good an objective as any.    So they fly off together to plan their next move.  

So the reactions to this development make a pretty good lesson on characterization.   The Z-Fighters are all on the same side, but they’re not all of one mind.    So when something like this happens, it’s a good chance to show them all reacting differently.   Tien just wonders where they’re going.     He’s the practical sort.   He didn’t expect them to leave, so he wants to know why they left and what they’re up to.  

Piccolo’s more of a strategist.   He’s mostly interested in what the Androids aren’t doing, which is rampaging through the nearest populated area, which was what Trunks says they do in his timeline.    For him, the main issue is that the Androids aren’t behaving the way he anticipated, which makes it harder to plan around.   

Krillin thinks with his heart, which often leads him to make logical leaps, but he’s pretty sharp at the same time, so a lot of times he gets the right answer.    This is has been about Goku from the start, so it makes sense that they’d go after him, especially if they’re not interested in attacking the other Z-Fighters or destroying cities.    It’s the only thing left on their bucket list.

And Vegeta’s an egomaniac.    As far as he’s concerned, this is all about him, and he’s offended that he stood here, ready to fight the Androids, and they didn’t even notice.   

And Trunks is just way in over his head.   Right now all he wants to do is wait for Goku to recover from the heart virus so they can regroup and figure this mess out.  He definitely does not want to go off picking fights with 17 and 18, because they were too much for the Z-Fighters in his own history.   In this timeline, they now have backup, and he has no idea what 16 is capable of.    But Vegeta doesn’t care, and he chases after the androids anyway.

The problem here is that Trunks doesn’t understand Vegeta’s attitude toward Goku.    He doesn’t see him as a valuable ally, he hates him worse than he hates the androids, and as far as he’s concerned, he wants to kill the androids first, then finish off Goku later.   So he punches Trunks and leaves.

Then Krilin reminds Trunks that if the Androids really are headed for Goku’s house, they’ll run across Gohan and Bulma along the way, since they sent them there a couple of episodes back.  So now Trunks realizes they have to intercept the Androids, or else he might lose both his parents.

Speaking of Bulma, Gohan was flying her, Baby Trunks, and Yajirobe back to Goku’s house, but in this episode they’ve stopped somewhere and built a campfire for some reason.     This is one of those weird things in the anime where some subplots seem to take much longer than the main story.    I’m pretty sure it’s only been an hour or so since the attack on Amenbo Island.  I guess it could have been longer than that, since Gero had to travel all the way from South City to North City, but he’s pretty fast.    Anyway, the idea that Gohan’s group had to land and rest long enough to build a fire seems kind of weird, like this whole saga has spanned most of the day.   

Anyway, it’s been a while since we’ve had a small boy in this series, so Toei’s gonna return to its roots and show baby weiners.  

At Goku’s house, Chi-Chi’s coping with the crisis by cooking.    She figures Goku will be hungry when he recovers from the virus, and she does this cute impression of him while she thinks about it.    I love this, because this is exactly what they did in the dub version.   Honestly, the subs and dubs match up a lot more often than they don’t.   I won’t deny that the dub got a lot of stuff very different, and some of it flat out wrong, but one of the reasons I wanted to watch the whole thing in Japanese was to see just how different it was, and it’s not that far off.  

I mean, this is a visual medium, first and foremost.    I see Team Four Star talking about the directions they want to take the characters in with the DBZ Abridged series, but the fact of the matter is that they’re pretty much confined to the footage they have to work with.   Funimation had the same constraints in the early 2000′s when they dubbed this part of the story.    The way I heard it, they didn’t have access to the original Japanese scripts, so they had to write the English version based on Spanish dubs instead.    And sometimes they would ad lib things to punch up the story or fill long pauses without any dialogue.    You can debate whether that’s a good idea or not, but the bottom line is that there’s only so many ways you can spin a scene like this.   Chi-Chi’s clearly not cooking all that food for Yamcha.    I’m sure he can have some, but that’s not what’s on her mind right now, and any dub that ignores her concern over Goku is missing the point.   

All TFS can do is try to make it funny.   I’m pretty sure they didn’t use this scene, probably because there wasn’t a good way to make it funny, but they’d still have to acknowledge the fundamental premise that Chi-Chi is cooking food because she’s worried about Goku.    You could go in an absurdist direction and have her say “hehehe im putting p00p in this food because i h8 my husband lol XD”   But that’s pretty cheap.   Any idiot could tell that joke.  

See?   

Yamcha reminds Chi-Chi that the virus might be contagious, so he tells her that they should both take some of the medicine.    I feel like that should have already happened by now, but whatever.   I seem to recall in the dub, Chi-Chi tells him he has to buy his own bottle, which is kind of petty.    Like I said, the dub does take some liberties, but it mostly sticks to the story.   

Meanwhile, Vegeta’s butthurt that everyone trusts Goku to solve this crisis, even though he’s at least as strong as Goku now.     He seems to be missing the point that he can Goku probably need to work together on this problem, but whatever.

Elsewhere, 17 leads his group to a highway, because he wants to steal a car and drive it to Goku’s house, as opposed to flying straight there.   While they wait for a car to drive by, they ask 16 if he was based on a human, like they were, and he explains that Dr. Gero constructed him from scratch.

And this is where the whole Android/Cyborg/Artificial Human thing sot of falls apart.   #20 is clearly a cyborg, because you can see Dr. Gero’s brain in the dome on op of his head.    17 and 18 are cyborgs, because, as they say, they were built from human beings.    A lot of fans just refer to them as cyborgs for that reason, but 16 is not a cyborg, because he’s purely artificial.   Since he’s a robot that closely resembles a human, that makes him an android, literally, by definition.   

I’m less sure about #19.   The dome on his head looked like it had a bunch of computer parts in it, but that could just mean Gero transferred his brainpatterns to a CPU, or he may have cut out 19′s cerebrum entirely, killing the human he was based upon, but still using organic parts in his final design.   16 might be the same deal, really.    He looks and acts a lot like the Terminator robot, and those guys were just robot endoskeletons wrapped in cloned human flesh.   The T-800′s are cyborgs, even though they don’t have human brains or human consciousness.   

Anyway, that’s why I use “android”.   It’s incorrect, and I know it’s incorrect, but it’s what the dub used, so I’m used to it, and there doesn’t seem to be a more “right” term available that covers all of these characters.   

This revelation makes 17 wonder why Gero ever bothered using humans in his experiments.  If he could build an android fighter from scratch, why did he abandon that design to make 17 and 18?   

This is something I like about the androids.   You’d expect the higher-number ones to be stronger, but instead Toriyama introduced them in reverse order.    16′s the strongest, then 17 and 18, then 19 and 20.   Movie 7 takes that idea one step further by having #13 be even stronger still.   The implication is that Dr. Gero had his perfect killing machine ready to go a long time ago, but something about #16 worried him, so he went back to the drawing board and made something weaker.   Then 17 and 18 proved too hard to control, so he went back to the drawing board again and made #19, and then he decided to turn himself into an android, which is kind of stupid seeing as he’s the lynchpin to this whole operation.  If Gero fights Goku himself and loses, there’s no one left to build the next wave.  

I don’t know if this is about Gero being a perfectionist, or realizing that power couldn’t be the only factor in his design, or what.    You’d think the ideal android would combine traits from 16 through 20, but he seems to have abandoned one idea and moved on to another.    Why not build a cyborg with unlimited energy and the power to drain people’s ki?   Well, we can’t as Gero now, because 17 killed him.

Anyway, Vegeta finds them and challenges them to a fight.  

18 asks 16 to fight Vegeta first, because she wants to see what he can do, but he refuses.  So 18 decides to take care of him herself, because fuck this guy.   I’m a Vegeta fan, but come on.   Fuck this guy.  

Seriously, when has anyone ever said this and won a fight?   Like, in Iron Man 2, Happy Hogan tries to go easy on Black Widow because she’s disguised as a secretary and he doesn’t know she can kick his ass, and she kicks his ass.     No one ever goes “Well, I’ll probably win because you’re just a dumb ol’ girl,” and actually wins.  

Seriously, this is just ingrained in my head after a lifetime of watching pop culture stuff.    It always seemed surreal to me when I play Street Fighter II as Chun-Li and she loses, like she’s just supposed to automatically instakill her opponents.     My default assumption is that if I ever got in a fight with a woman, any woman, that she would probably win, because that’s what happens on TV.   I don’t know exactly how they’d do it.    I’m not very tough, so it’s not like I’d be hard to beat anyway, but if I saw a woman in a coma in the hospital I’d be like “Yeah, I better not mess with her, she could probably kick my ass.”    Is it a stupid way to live?  Maybe.    It’s also healthier.   

I’m just saying Vegeta should watch more TV.    He doesn’t have to learn everything the hard way. 

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #androids saga #vegeta #piccolo #tien #krillin #android 16 #android 17 #android 18 #android 20 #dr gero #goku #chi chi #yamcha #trunks

[allykat4416]

Trip Report: Canada’s Wonderland

Dates: August 14-15, 2019

ocean man take me by the hand lead me to the land that you understand

Let’s set the scene here:

It is August 18, 2011. It is about 2:30 in the afternoon. Your mother is back at work, but you aren’t back to school. You’ve had massive surgery on your jaw 17 days earlier, and you’re staying with your aunt during the days because your mouth is wired shut and you’re a choking hazard to yourself. You’re finding out a lot of things you like, and one of those are roller coasters. Yes, you really like those. You check your trusty website, Screamscape, and see that a park you’ve only vaguely heard of before has announced something very big and very fast.

Color yourself interested. In your ever-growing quest to know more about these steel (and wooden!) beauties, you click the link to the video. The music begins, the green-tinted footage begins to play, and you are horrified at the thought of being 306 feet above ground. This looks amazing, but you’ll never get to go to Canada anyway and you’re terrified of heights.

This is my park now! It proclaims.

Congratulations, friend! You think. I don’t think our paths will ever cross.

It is July 17, 2013. You have just been 310 feet in the air. It scares you shitless. For the first time, you understand “Roller coaster hype.” It is this day you fall hopelessly and unchangeably in love with Intamin’s finest creation, Millennium Force. You swear that you will meet all the other gigas and you will protect them with your life. (But you won’t love them quite as much as you do Force. She’s special to you.)

It is May 9, 2015, and you remember about halfway up a 325-foot-tall lift hill that 306 used to scare you shitless. It still scares you shitless. It will be many years, but eventually, you will not be scared shitless of being 300+ feet in the air. But regardless of how much shit has been scared out of you, it is this day you fall madly in love with B&M’s finest creation, Fury 325. It is this day, really, when your thirst for Leviathan begins to go into overdrive.

It is August 14, 2019, and you’re riding out of Toronto with a tray of poutine in your lap when you see teal steel on the horizon. You know Kings Island is about to drop a giga that you don’t think you could love unconditionally. You are going to make the absolute most out of your time in Canada and milk every last hour of calling yourself “giga trash” without an asterisk while you still can. You can only choke out two words: Ocean Daddy.

Disclaimer time, I’m going to say it. Canada’s Wonderland is straight up my favorite Cedar Fair park. I am so enamored with this place that it isn’t funny. Everybody is so nice, and while the wait times are hot garbage, I think the park is worth it. I want to try more food there, but the treat we had was delicious! My only complaint with this park is the waits. Even the operations are really good, it’s just mobbed with people constantly.

My first international credit was Mighty Canadian Mine Buster. I was interested in trying this because it’s a clone of Shooting Star at the old Coney Island in Cincinnati. Shooting Star is originally what Beast at KI was meant to be before it became the icon it is today. I personally liked this ride more than I had expected to, and it makes me wish I had a chance to ride the OG Shooting Star. It can be a little bumpy at times, but it had some pretty good air since it had a chance to warm up through the day. Refurb and retrack it, but don’t RMC it. Please.

Behemoth is my second-favorite B&M hyper now, still behind SFOG’s fantastic Goliath. It has a lot of great, sustained floater, and it wasn’t trimmed to death. It’s very smooth and it does everything I like about Diamondback even better. The weird double-helix at the end was a unique finale, and I always like to award individuality in B&M hypers. I had heard that it was running kind of poorly this year, and if this is “poor,” I’d probably die from how good it is at the top of its game. I lost my shit when I saw the CN Tower on the lift as well. We liked it enough to ride it again on our second day back, despite the crappy wait. It’s my second favorite in the park.

From there, we went to Time Warp. This ride sucks, plain and simple. It both looks and feels like a Medieval torture device. I don’t know why this exists, but I’m pretty sure it violates the Geneva Convention by existing. Vortex is probably my favorite suspended coaster that’s still in operation (RIP to the Wolf!!) I enjoyed the part at the top of the lift behind Wonder Mountain. The rest of the ride is a little uncomfortable, but makes up for that with amazing scenery and cool interactions with the new neighbor. I would definitely ride this one again.

Wilde Beast is okay. It’s much rougher than MCMB, I think. The layout was pretty good, but not crazy memorable. If any wooden coaster here gets Schilke’d, I would vote for this one. It still isn’t awful, I just want to keep MCMB as is because of Shooting Star. Dragon Fyre is an inoffensive Arrow looper. Not the worst, not my favorite. My real main drive for this was to pad my count for Leviathan to be a quasi-milestone and to get good views of the ride I’ve been salivating over for the past 4 years.

Let’s flash back to last year, when I rode Cedar Point’s lackluster Valravn. The vest restraints killed my enjoyment of an otherwise-passable ride. Griffon had spoiled me. When Canada’s Wonderland announced their own dive coaster at the end of the 2018 season, we all collectively shrugged, said “lol okay and?”, and went on with our lives. Because Valravn was garbage, and this really couldn’t have been much better. My expectations for Yukon Striker were incredibly low, and we even put off this ride until the next day because we didn’t feel like waiting in line that long for a vested dive coaster.

I underestimated this ride. While I still prefer Griffon because of the old restraints, the vests aren’t nearly as bad on this. If it had the old restraints, Yukon easily would be my favorite dive coaster. The layout is very good---I didn’t think that Son of Beast looking ass loop would work, but it did, surprisingly well---and the ride has an amazing amount of speed that you can feel even when you aren’t in the front. It also feels like you’re hung up at the top longer than Valravn or Griffon.

I still really don’t like the name, but it’s more like a TwiTim or Mystic situation where it’s an ugly name for an otherwise very good ride. So fuck off, Yukon. I really didn’t want to like you as much as I did. You smug little shit. You Tesla-driving prick. You smarmy bastard with your popped collar and sweater vest. I really, really like you. Ugh.

But now it’s time to address the fish in the sea, isn’t it? The driving factor for me getting this damn passport? The most beautiful man in the RailChasers world (aside from maybe SFGAM Goliath)?

I incredibly like Leviathan. I knew I was going to like it a lot because up until the 15th I had a blindingly-strong giga bias, but I really didn’t think I was going to like it this much. While yes, on technicality, it still is my least favorite of the four, it’s better than the majority of coasters that I’ve ridden. 

I still can’t tell if I prefer the back or the front with this one. I assumed I would prefer the front because that’s what I like on Fury, and you really do feel the speed so much more up there, but the back has more kick to it. Where Leviathan can’t really fall back on its length, I think I do prefer the kick to make the most of my short time.

And being short truly is Leviathan’s only flaw; while it actually is a few hundred feet longer than 305, Intimidator makes up for that with sheer aggression. You feel like you’ve been on it longer because the ride tousles you around. Leviathan is more like Force and Fury where he’s a very graceful, speedy boy, so it seems like it’s over much faster because the ride focuses on the feeling of “we are going really quickly as we finesse down Weston Road and go down as G-O-D.”

But honestly, aside from that one thing, this ride is fucking amazing and it was everything I hoped it would be and then some. I anticipated it to be my new second favorite B&M over Goliath but under Fury, and I was right. It’s a little closer to Fury than I honestly thought it would be. I’ve always been a little anxious about meeting rides that I’ve been stoked for ever since I was let down so severely by the shitshow that is Steel Vengeance. Thankfully, Leviathan didn’t break my heart like that. There was only happiness, Tim Horton’s coffee, and listening to a lot of Drake while we talked about our feelings.

Yes, I sobbed like a fucking bitch on the brake run. I love him so much. Dammit. Leviathan is so good. It almost (almost) makes me have hopes that Orion won’t be as bad as the layout suggests. And hey, at least all the North American gigas still have awesome names.

It is August 15, 2019. As you leave the park, watching that ride fade out of the rearview, you feel some really weird sense of peace. You realize there’s only two “bucket list” rides you have left in North America: any RMC Raptor you can get your paws on, and Outlaw Run. But you’re not worried about blazing rails or lassoing villains or being the sane Herschend RMC right now. Your only concern is when you get to see the most lovable sea monster you’ve ever met again.

#I love my canadian fish boyfriend and you can all eat shit #update I really don't even mind orion at this point thanks to the GTAs lol #trip reports

[arminkirschtien]

Good Old Fashioned Theatre Boy Chpt 3

YEET sorry this took so long my ass couldn’t write for shit this past month. Modern Au, Rated M (language). Inspired by @dapperbunns Jearmin Tangled Au that has literally given me an excuse to create and smile. Thank you~~~ Thank you @katiebug445 For looking this over for me and agreeing to be my beta-bae <3

Ao3

“Alright Armin, I’ll pick you up around 8:30, do you have everything you need?

“Yes Grandpa, you’ve asked like, twenty times.”

“List off what you have.”

“I have my leggings, I have my leotard, I have my hair bands, I have my dance socks, I have my dance shoes, my sweatshirt, a winter coat just in case, jeans to wear over my leggings at school and my spare shirt.”

I list off the items, picking them up to show off to my grandfather as proof of me having the items. He hums in approval as he wanders over to me, pausing before smiling. “Have a good time, call me if you need anything.” He quickly hugs me, patting my back a couple of times before pulling away. “Have a good day Armin, call me if you need anything. I will be having a meeting with Dr. Jaeger and see if I can get a job with his group.”

I nod, walking to the door, telling him good luck before walking out the door to get to class.

On the bus, I decided to sit down next to Marco, who was quite happy to see me today. “Hey, may I sit here with you?” I asked Marco before the bus shut the front doors, starting to move down the hill. Marco’s eyes lit up.

“Of course!” The brunette grinned before patting the seat beside him, “No need to ever ask, sit with me whenever! I enjoy your company.”

The compliment made my cheeks turn a rosy shade of pink. “Thanks,” I reply, sitting down and setting my backpack by my feet and my gym bag in my lap.

“You going to the gym after school? That’s new.” Marco asked me.

“Oh, no. Well, kind of I guess? Bertholdt after school is going to help me with my flexibility. Since I’m going to be using what is most likely a harness and I’m going to be dancing a lot, I asked him for some advice. He said he’d help me with flexibility, which is a great place to start and help me and some of the others like Jean.”

Marco’s eyes light up again. “Wow, that’s so sweet of him! He’s always been the one to go to for help. It always shocked me how tall he was and how he could do all of these flips and tricks, splits and bends. It’s insane!” Marco pointed out, sighing out loud while rubbing the back of his head nervously. “I can’t even touch my toes.” I chuckle. “It’s ok, being flexible is something everyone can achieve, it just takes time. Well, time and a tolerance for pain.”

“Which I have neither. Armin, I got stung by a bee and I had to call home. And being so busy with after-school classes and band, it’s hard to catch a breathe around here.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I got a papercut so bad once I used a hot glue gun to burn my leg so something hurt more than my finger.” I retort, pointing at my leg to show where the burn mark still shows to this day.

“So if you don’t mind me asking, did you ever talk with Jean?” Marco asked me, his eyebrow quirking up in question.

“We said hello and told each other congratulations on our roles, but we didn’t speak much after that. He seemed to want to go backstage quickly, and I let him leave after the outbreak my friends and I saw right before we got into the building.”

~~~

“Mom, I’ve said it twice, and I’ll say it again! I don’t care, he can die for all I’m concerned with, maybe when he does kick the bucket the life insurance we have for him can buy my childhood back!”

My head spun around, my eyes widened hearing those words that make my heart turn.

I don’t care.

“Don’t look at me like that Springer, you know how much I hate-” “I know, dude. Just- can we not talk right now?” The young teen beside the man snapped at him, his golden eyes barely visible to us, but he was getting emotional by the looks of it. The shorter man looked away from the tall brunette, watching us and sighing in embarrassment at his...friend? Brother? Boyfriend?. “Some other people seem to want to get in as well, let’s just go in before we attract attention, I’ll text Sasha that we’re inside.” He insisted, picking up his phone, locking eye contact with me. I open my mouth to talk but he starts looking away from my gaze. “Whatever, I’m going inside and going backstage, I don’t want to be here when my father’s on his way, I don’t want to look at his stupid face, I don’t want to see him anymore. Next time I see him I’ll shove my foot up his ass until he WISHED he pulled the trigger on himself back when I was 10!” He shoved the doors open, startling his friend. “H-Hey! Come back you dumbass!” He yelled, before stopping to look at us in a worrisome way, a look a mother would give after losing her child.

“S-Sir! You gotta help my friend, he’s not in the best mood but he tends to listen when adults ask him to tone it down, h-he’s not violent he’s just got a temper!” The small teen ran over to Eren’s dad, who smiled caringly. “Of course, my son is just like that as well, leave it to me.”

Eren was going to poke at his father for the comment, but Dr. Jaeger was already tracking inside, looking for the angry young man. We all turn to look over at the teen when he lets out a deep, embarrassed sigh.

“I’m so sorry you had to see that, he has a bad connection with his dad. Daddy issues are something you usually see at play around here anyway, am I right?” He laughed and surprisingly, I laughed with him, along with Eren, Levi, and Mikasa.

“We understand. Have we seen you around here before?” Eren asked before sticking out his hand. “I’m Eren Jaeger, and thi-”

“I’ve heard of you Jaeger, I’m Connie Springer. We had the same homeroom back in middle school, but our class was so big like anyone really knew each other. You were the loud one who always spouts about joining the military, I could never forget.” He chuckled, pulling out his phone and clicked a few things on his screen, ending up on a picture of their class graduation from middle school.

“I don’t know your friends though, who are these guys?” Connie asked, pointing at Mikasa, Levi and I. I smile and put my hand out next, Connie quickly shaking it and grinning from ear to ear. “I’m Armin Arlert, I’m Eren’s best friend since kindergarten,” I say.

“Hey...aren’t you the kid who today got sent-”

My body goes stiff and I’m sure Connie felt it since he was still holding my hand from shaking it. Connie quickly went from goofy to serious and guilty as quickly as a lightning flash in April.

“H-Hey whoa whoa I’m not here to tease you about it! I actually was super pissed I didn’t step in this morning, I was the one to go grab the teacher cause I couldn’t do anything on my own. Sorry all that happened, I always told Reiner he’s got to get better friends.”

“You got the teacher? That’s not being a coward, that probably kept things from getting worse. If Reiner went any further, people would have gotten hurt badly.” Mikasa chimed in, walking over to shake Connie’s hand. “For that I thank you, I’m Mikasa Jaeger, Eren’s adopted sister. Though most still call me by my birth name Mikasa Ackerman. It’s good to meet anyone who isn’t an asshole at school.”

“Awe well, wouldn’t go that far, I can be pretty stupid and ride sometimes,” Connie admits, rubbing the back of his head. He holds his hand out to Levi, who reluctantly takes it and shakes his hand.

“Levi Ackerman, third year. Before you ask... I’m not related to Mikasa. We simply have a common last name.”

Connie chuckled and placed his hands in his coat pockets. “I’ve met other Springer’s before, I understand having a common last name.”

Honestly, I completely forgot about Jean that day, his outbreak never crossed my mind again until I was asked what we talked about. Something inside me wants to know what happened to Jean’s father, why the bad blood between father and son? It hurt hearing him yell at his father like that, especially since I would kill to see my parents again.

~~~

“Ah, my apologies, I was only curious. Jean doesn’t talk to people out of the blue much, so I didn’t know if you two had a history. What was his outbreak about? He didn’t tell me much, he was too busy talking about how...nervous he was about having the main role.” Marco looks over at me, crossing his legs and sitting his arms in his lap, up and paying attention.

“He uh, was upset at someone over the phone, yelling about his father.” Was all I said, heck, all I wanted to say. It wasn’t my business to spout out Jean’s family issues without him here.

“Wow, his dad huh? It’s been a while since he’s spat at him, he rarely calls Jean anymore. They don’t get along very well as you can tell, but I feel like it’s been years, and they should talk over dinner sometime. Especially since his dad is trying to be different this time around.”

I nod at Marco's words, barely listening at this point. My parents were clouding into my mind, fogging my senses up so much it was hard to pay attention to much else. Jean is fucking lucky to have two parents who are willing to change for him so he’s happy, yet he’s unwilling to let one back in. I would love for my father to call me every week, tell me he’s changed and that he and mother want to talk it over dinner. I started to tear up, my parents’ words floating around in my head, pushing at my lips for me to say their words out loud as they did to me.

“I asked for a child, not...not this!”

“Armin? A-Armin! We’re here! C’mon get up!” Marco shook my body, waking me up from my thoughts.

                       *****

I was off all day today, my mind just really didn’t feel like functioning. Usually, I’m all over math and science and writing, but today I couldn’t move my pencil. I had to use the restroom twice just to splash water in my face to wake up, I wonder if I should call Bertholdt and cancel this meetup…

Though it would be rude to cancel something 5 minutes beforehand, might as well go.

“Armin! Hey, wait up!”

I turn around to see Eren running up to me, waving his hand in the air as if his first call didn’t deafen me. I would have told him not to yell at me again, my headache throbbing from his call, but I see that someone was walking with him.

Jean.

Fuck.

Jean was wearing a skin-tight black compressed shirt that showed off every curve and feature of the young man; his baggy sweatpants were fitting with his chill fitness theme. He had his backpack lazily slung over his shoulder, wearing a dog tag necklace and today he was wearing a few piercings on his ear and one on his lip. Fuck, I’m not going to be able to walk straight after looking at him.

“Hey sorry, ran into him on the way to class. You said you were going to meet up with Bert for practice, well Jean was going to help look over the script. Mind if I tag along while Mikasa is in martial arts with Annie?” Eren asks, wrapping his arm around my shoulders, pushing up my glasses in a playful intention. I blush, a little embarrassed by his actions, and that hopefully, he won’t see how red I was from just looking at the ash blonde behind us.

“I-I uh, I guess you can come along, as long as Bertl doesn’t mind-”

“I already asked him bud, no need to worry. He says he’s ok with Jean and I were there.” Eren interrupts me before I even have a chance to finish my sentence. Not much has changed between Eren and me, I begin to talk, and Eren stops me, repeats what I say and everything claps for Eren’s idea. Though I wouldn’t have it any other way with him.

It wasn’t a long walk, down the street of the schoolyard to the dance studio the cheerleader's practice in by the field. Today was the day were the cheerleaders were actually not practicing today, and since Bertholdt’s mom owns the building as the teacher he has the key to the building. I thought we were supposed to be alone and have it be just Bertholdt and me, but since Eren and Jean are here, I may have to leave early. My head was already aching from all the questions that everyone is going to ask if I’m ok or not.

I opened the door to the studio, the warm air of the heated building gave me the slight warmth of comfort that I needed after a day like this. Taking a deep breath I walked down the familiar hallway, following the faint beat of the music.

“You’ve been here? Do you know where you’re going?” Eren asked me, pausing his conversation with Jean.

“I know the area yeah, I also hear music which probably means Bertholdt is in that area. He’s the only one in here, as far as I know, it’s closed today.”

I knock on the door of the dance room the cheerleaders practiced in, hearing the music in the room quiet down and a quiet, “come in!”. I open the door slowly to see Bertholdt just getting up from stretching his legs out. He looks up at me and smiles, and when I smile back he can already see something’s wrong.

“Armin, is everything alright? You look...exhausted.” Bertholdt asks, setting up some chairs for Jean and Eren to sit down in, which they both gladly take and look at me.

“I’m just...tired I guess. Had a talk with Marco today and it got me thinking of some sorrow thoughts, they’ve been in my head all day and I almost went home early. It’s nothing that can’t go away, so I should be fine before setup today.” I say, opening my bag so I can put my school clothes in. I remove my shirt that covered up my leotard and quickly grabbed a hairband to put my hair up a bit better.

“I’m sorry man, you don’t have to tell me anything, but I may have something that can help if you would like?” Bertholdt offered to me. I nodded and the tall brunette rushed over to his backpack and rummaged around for a bit.

“Usually I save these for later every once and a while, but I think someone needs them more than me.” He said before tossing a plastic bag at me. I catch the bag, almost tripping over my clothes in the process. I gaze in what was in the bag, seeing what looks to be one of my favorite treats in the world.

“How did you know!?” I yell enthusiastically, opening the clear bag to color filled gummy worms. These are my absolute favorite candy, getting them from my grandfather every time I got a perfect score on a test. I look up at Bertholdt, already shoving a few of the gummy candies in my mouth, the flavors melting in my mouth feeling like heaven.

“Who doesn’t like gummy worms?” Bertholdt smiled, zipping his bag back up and jumping around before touching his toes in a stretch. “Also...Annie kinda has the world's biggest sweet tooth, and Reiner and I like to have a few things for her once and awhile. It’s what we do.”

“That’s so sweet! Wish Eren would do something like that for me.” I peer over at Eren, who shakes his head and chuckles. “Yeah, well we rarely ever see each other in school. Also whenever I get you gifts, you never take them.” Eren said, going over to me to push me lightly.

I finish taking off my school clothes and putting them in my bag, my dance clothes finally free. I walk over to Bertholdt and touch my toes with him, my knees already aching from the stretch, it’s been so long since I’ve properly stretched out. I stand up and grab the back of my knees, mumbling a few curse words while trying to sooth the pain. Bertholdt just looks over and laughs.

“It’s been a while I’m guessing?” He joked at me, looking over at Eren and Jean, who I could I already hear Eren’s laughter over the throbbing pain in my legs.

“Y-Yeah, that and I’ve been stressed so I’m a little tense already. I don’t know how you can do anything while stressed.” I say, Bertl just smiling brightly at me. “Well instead of trying to push away my stress when working, I make it apart of who I am. Then I just think of all the places it got me. Y’know, without having my panic attack and falling out of the tree during cub scouts, I would have never met Reiner? He was there in the infirmary with a total stranger, and yet he treated me like family. So I just...have a knack for making things positive.”

I stop and think about his words, trying to remember a time where my panic attacks got me somewhere while sitting down to stretch out my legs. “If...If I didn’t stay with my grandfather after my parents left, I-I never would have met Eren!” I grin, looking over at the tan brunette, who smiles back at me, probably reviewing the memory in his head all over again.

When my parents dropped me and my stuff off, my grandfather talked with Eren’s dad, saying his grandson just moved in with him and that he would get along great with him and Mikasa. We met up once my room was finished and it was one of the greatest days of my life to this day. They never found me odd for liking dancing and theatre or being not as masculine as most guys around us. Even for my birthday that year they both got me an oversized sweatshirt from the beach that I still wear to this day and weren’t ashamed to get a pink one for their best friend who was a guy. It always meant the world to me that they never went to change me...they not only loved me for me, but they never went to change who I was and even encouraged me to be different.

“If it wasn’t for my mom passing, my father wouldn’t be the amazing doctor is he is today. Her death inspired him to do more in the field of science and help thousands of others with cancer and other diseases. It also brought Mikasa, dad and I a bit closer. And Armin, without you, I don’t know how we would have made it through that time.”

Eren plays with the hem of his shirt, slowly looking up at me to show he was getting a little red in the face as if he was about to cry. I finally got myself into a middle split without too much pain before looking at the floor, recalling Eren calling me at 3 am to say his mother passed. It was a rough night for his family, and it took a week for Eren and Mikasa to come back to school and even longer for either of them to smile again.

“She was awesome Eren, still one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met to this day. Your father is working harder than ever before and you have your future leveled out and planned. Mikasa a home and a family to call her own and her cooking skills are definitely going to get her far. I’ll be first in line to her new cooking show when she’s famous.” I chuckled, trying to get Eren up and smiling again.

“Heh, good fucking luck buddy, I’m gonna beat you to first in line, she’s my family after all.” Eren fights back, the loving family fire already sparking back in his eyes. I smirk leaning over so I’m laying on my stomach while still in a split, my lower back starts to ache, but I’m too distracted by Eren’s claims than the pain.

“Are you kidding? I’ll be there before set-up is ready, helping her with her outfit and her hair. She trusts me with her looks way before she would even think of you helping. You’d be knocking stuff over and yelling at guys for getting too close to her, now who’s treating who like a snot-nosed toddler, huh Eren?”

“Oh you little- I’m technically her older brother! If she ever needed me first I’m first on her call list in her phone. You’re a sad third, right below a blonde, hot-headed Russian girl.” Eren retorts, sticking his tongue out at me in a teasing manner.”

Bertholdt kicks in with a cocky smile. “Well then Eren, what is she calls Annie first? You may be able to keep all the guys away from her backstage, but Annie is not only a girl, but she’s stronger than you by a million. What if she’s called first? Girl's are girl's, Mikasa can’t talk to her brother about everything.”

“What about you Jean, what do you say about all this,” I ask Jean, who’s been silently laughing at us this entire time, not even butting in once. The young man sighs and looks at all three of us, stopping his gaze on me.

“She’d call Armin first, sorry Jager.”

Eren turned to Jean and punched his shoulder in anger. “You-You betrayed me! You asshole! I’m her brother!” Eren yells, obviously not too hurt, but I guess he wasn’t too much expecting Jean to go on my side. “You just went for Armin cause he’s cute you sleaze!”

“Ey! Watch it, I didn’t!” Jean yelled back, his face turning a rosy shade of pink from being called out from Eren. I wasn’t too much farther behind Jean, my face a little pink as well, did he really think I was cute? It’s not the first time I’ve been called cute, but I’m usually called that because I’m mistaken for a girl.

“C’mon Bert, help me call out Jean here!” Eren asked Bert, who was walking over to Eren and laughing, going into their own little world of fighting back and forth. While Jean rolled his eyes and peered back over at me with a sly look.

“Can’t take Eren anywhere,” I mumble to Jean, who chuckles as he glances at Eren. He looks back at me and looks at me up and down, reminding me of the position I was in. I remembered what I was doing, kind of happy the pain went away while Eren and I were fighting, though I’m not sure I can feel my legs anymore. Though this also can explain why Jean was quiet the entire time, was he staring at me!?

That little-

I slowly pull my legs forward again, getting up from my stance to shake off the odd sore feeling in between my legs from stretching. I was obviously embarrassed by Jean’s eye on me, but I can’t complain too much because I would rather have him doing it than not, he was attractive, and the attention wasn’t bothering me too much today.

I got down on my hands and knees, letting my hands slide forward so my back could arch properly, reaching out as far as my arms would let me. The cold floor felt oddly nice against my hot cheeks, slightly gross, but relaxing at the same time. Not only did I need to stretch my back and torso a bit, but this was a position that I’m sure someone wouldn’t mind looking at. To check, I turn my cheek over to see that he is most certainly staring at me, his cheeks a tinted pink and his mouth slightly covered by his hand, his eye color barely visible from his pupil dilation. Fuck. Is this what it’s like to be looked at this way? Having someone attractive stare at you like a goddamn meal after a drought felt...rewarding almost. I was quickly starting to sweat staring at Jean’s reactions to my body, though I lost it when I saw him cross his legs over, hiding an obvious tent in his pants.

Fuck

Fuck fuck fuck.

I’m in leggings, shit this is bad.

“Alright Alright, sorry Ar, shall we get to-”

“H-Hey Bert, silly question, is there a bathroom in this building?” I don’t even look at Bertholdt, trying to hide my shame quickly from his or Eren’s view.

“Oh of course! Out here than just down the right hall.” Bert explains to me, getting out his phone to check the time.

“When you’re done I’ll have to go too,” Jean states, looking away from me and from everyone else, hoping that they don’t find anything suspicious. This is bad, really bad, I need to do something or it’s never going away, I can’t have anyone thinking anything gross of me, especially Bertl and Eren who know me for being innocent. Fucking Kirschtein! Why did I do that, why did I make it worse?! What kind of Idiot and I?

“Oh, it’s an open one so both of you can go, While you guys are gone let me look up to see when you guys get your script and what songs to listen to,” Bertholdt remarks, Eren also pulling out his phone to message someone.

Jean and I quickly look at each other and stand up, quickly walking out of the room while they were distracted.

We finally left the room and let out a long held in a sigh, that was fucking close, we could have never heard the end of it from those two.

“S-Sorry about that, I honestly couldn’t handle them bickering back and forth anymore, it was starting to-”

The room quickly went as silent as the dead, the sound of a slap echoing through the empty halls in a crude manner. Of course, It was my hand against Jean’s face, a slight red print already forming there.

“Hasn't your mother ever told you not to stare?!” I snap at him, crossing my arms. Obviously, it was still sort of my fault, but he didn’t have to feed the fire with his lusty gaze like a horny rabbit. I have things to do, dammit! We just met two days ago and he’s already treating me like eye candy.

“Well hasn’t your mother ever told you to tease a guy in public? We could have both gotten in some serious shit back there cause of you” He retorts back, rubbing his cheek in pain, giving me an angry glare. The mention of my mother caused my heart to curl, the feeling almost painful.

“Well, I guess we’re even then on the scale that our mothers taught us jackshit. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to use the restroom, go handle your issue somewhere else. I actually do need to use the restroom while your problem can be fixed by just going downtown, so piss off” I spat, turning on my heel towards the men’s restroom before being stopped by Jean’s voice again.

“Well I’m sorry princess but you could clearly go downtown as well and find a whore yet I bet the only way you’d get laid is if you crawl up a chickens ass and wait long enough!”

I open the handicap/family restroom where it’s for only one person, so I can slam the door and lock it shut, but before I do that, I stare Jean right in the eyes.

“Well, YOU’RE the one to talk! Call me back about my daddy issues when your father does, in fact, stick a gun in his mouth as you want him to!”

I slam the door shut, the rough and noisy bang ringing in my ears even after a minute of shutting the door.

Of course, when I’m behind the closed door, I panic.

“Why did I slap him? Why did I say anything!? I’m such an idiot! My day just got ten times worse and I don’t know how to fix it!” I whisper to myself while starting to sweat, turning on the faucet and splashing cold water in my face, the chilly droplets pouring down my face praying this is all just a really bad dream. My stupid side got in the way of my vision again and I lose my part for getting on the bad side of my partner. I have to pretend to fall in love with him for the play when behind the scenes I have a big crush on him and just did the biggest ‘wtf’ in history.

I begin to cry, this is what it’s like to quickly lose control and be so confident one minute... then lose it after realizing what you’ve done. My tear starts to mix with cold water still sticking to my face.

“If it makes you feel any better, I would have slapped me too.”

I turn to the bathroom door, seeing that no one was there, yet I heard Jean’s voice on the other side, meaning he was indeed talking to me. I sit down by the door, leaning against it just as I suspected Jean was doing.

“You’re not an idiot, I was kinda being a perv, I’m kinda having a rough day too. I just found out my dad moved back into state and is trying to be a better father after all that he’s done to me and my mother. It’s been taking me down a bit, and you took my mind off of it for a bit...and I honestly forgot that was you and your friends overhearing my fight with my mother.”

“I would kill to see my father again…so I guess I was just envious your father was willing to return home to see you, Hell, that he even remembered he was a parent.” I respond, curling up into a ball. My father would beat the shit out of me finding out about today and how I reacted, but I would be just fine because he would be here, remembering he has a son who misses him dearly. He's found a way to give me advice, and my mother would find a way to make me smile wide again.

“I guess that’s something we have in common, shitty childhood,” Jean says, his head banging against the door where mine was, probably just now relaxing his head against the door.

“Hey uh, Armin…”

“Yeah?”

“Can we start over?”

I was first a little confused at what he asked, before slowly standing up and unlocking the door, pulling it open to see that Jean was sitting down against the door. He turns around to see me standing up, then follows through standing up himself to face me. I take a deep breath and look up at him, his eyes showing guilt and depression, but I swear I can see a glimmer of shine here and there. He sticks his hand out.

“Hey, I’m Jean Kirschtein and I’m much more than a dumbass lying pervert, I’m also kinda an asshole.”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little at his reintroduction, holding my hand up to shake it while trying my hardest to hide my laugh, but obviously failing as he also starts to laugh.

“Hello Jean, I’m Armin Arlert and I can do way more than complain and stretch, I can also figure out a mystery murder movie in the first 10 minutes of the movie and probably fall asleep just about anywhere.”

We both let out one last chuckle and agree that nothing happened beforehand, that this was our first meet up.

We can at least agree on something.

#jearmin #jean kirschtien #jeanxarmin #armin arlert #arminxjean #aot #ao3feed #ao3fic #ao3 #ao3 update

[randomnoteforfuturereference]

Aftermath: Bombshell

So… this story and its counterpart was made at the beginning of this year. However, 4.2 and 4.3 ended up revealing that Dex and Nursey weren’t back in Maine/NYC during Game 7, but in Samwell/Providence. Because I’m a neurotic mess who likes my stories in a single canon-complaint headcanon-verse, I have zero qualms about going back and retconning. I continue to thank @kleeklutch for helping not only beta the changes but make the whole thing flow better.

**Warning: this fic contains explicit homophobic language, bullying behavior from an adult, mention of past physical trauma, anxiety, and allusion to the current opioid crisis.**

Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13320069 

There some moments in your life when you know that something catastrophic is coming but there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

You have to bear that feeling of helplessness despite your mind tearing itself apart playing out all of the possible scenarios that could unfold.  Despite the constricted breaths, sleepless nights, and twisted insides weighing on your body as you get closer to zero hour. Despite everything, you just have to suck it up.

I’ve done it before. I can do it now.

I’m with over half the village crammed into Aunt Trish & Uncle Jim’s diner, and all eyes are fixed on the diner’s new bigass screen; where my former captain is about to make a seventh-game overtime shot that will earn the Providence Falconers the Stanley Cup.

I know who is going to win as this scene already played out over a week ago. Championship games tend to finish late, so we just record them so we can focus on work — in the process, we do our best to avoid to avoid news — until we all get together for a community watch party. After all, unless there’s a personal investment, there’s no point in losing productive sleep before a work day.

This year though, I was able to not only watch the game live but did so in Providence.

Unlike the alumni who had seats with Bitty, I held down the fort with Chowder and Nursey at Jack’s apartment. Though I bet that any stranger could have waltzed right in and eaten our snacks right next to us without being noticed. While I can recall the play-by-play, that night still went by in a cuss-laden blur. The only lasting evidence of how I felt were the scratch marks along my arm and slight crescents in my palms. I do know that we never let our eyes leave the screen as it went into fucking overtime.

Through overtime, I never noticed how much I’ve been holding my breath until Jack made the shot that brought the Falcs victory. At that moment, that held breath exploded out into a scream and joined the screams of my friends into a collective holler loud enough to be heard back in Samwell.

We were still celebrating — as was everyone else, evident by the chorus of shouts and honking of car horns pouring in from outside — when we saw Bitty running across the ice right into Jack’s arms. Because of course. Still, even as I rolled my eyes, I smirked and raised my bottle to them. Jack not only deserved the Cup; the two deserved all the happiness they can get.

Still didn’t prevent me from wanting to make a chirp out of Ransom and Holster probably being bummed that they can’t charge fines anymore.

Then the chirp died in my mouth, a horrible weight settled in my stomach, and blood drained from my face as realization hit.

Bitty was leaning back and gazing straight into Jack’s eyes. Something was said, and the serious look between the two turned into smiles.

Then they kissed.

Not the affectionate pecks that garnered so many fines. No, it was the intense lip-locked version that they indulged in whenever they thought nobody was watching; their expectation was frequently not the reality, but hey.

After the game, I didn’t say anything about what happened on the center ice. The state of Bitty’s phone was testament to the fact that he and Jack already had enough on their minds. And everyone else was so happy and showing them support. Nobody needed me barging in with the kind of issues that will just raise all kinds of questions.

In any case, that scene is about to be replayed here.

As the puck goes into the net, the diner erupts into cheers. Even if my village didn’t know that Jack was my captain, the Falconers being a New England team is reason enough to root for them. But honestly, I think they’re making a bigger deal about this championship than prior ones because of my connection to the Falcs.

As I add my voice to the collective cheer despite having been spoiled already, a part of me hopes that connection won’t cause them to make a bigger deal about other more personal concerns.

Though maybe they won’t have to.

As footage transitions to the postgame, I take my chance and scramble for the remote. With the focus now on celebration and general conversation, nobody should notice me turning  the television off.

As I mash the remote’s buttons, the room goes silent.

They’ll probably tell me off for messing with the controls. I don’t care. It’s not like there’s anything to watch now since it’s just the post-game. All I’m doing is keeping the electricity bill down.

Then I see the blue light reflected off the countertop.  No. This isn’t happening. Nonono…

As I raise my head, my stomach drops.

In grabbing the remote, I hadn’t turned off the television. I only muted it.

A delusional part of me still hopes that the camera will cut away. That those fucking journo seagulls will find something else to focus on other than my two friends being able to happily embrace without fear.

Of course, the cameras don’t turn away.

So I turn away instead.

And immediately regret my decision.

Everyone in the diner has their eyes locked onto the screen. There’s no more joy on their faces.

Just shock.

For some, their surprise is muted and hints that they got the news beforehand one way or another. However, even they watch the scene unfold in disbelief.

A disbelief being expressed in wide eyes and frozen expressions.

I steel myself for what will come after that shock. I hope that they’ll accept Jack and Bitty. I hope that they will accept the player they were cheering on just minutes beforehand. Either way, at least I will know where they stand.

Finally, Pa breaks the silence:

“Huh.”

… What.

I wait for him to add onto that. Any kind of elaboration. Anything. Anything!

Uncle Miguel looks in my direction. As does everyone else. Dammit, anything but focusing on me.

“The blond boy…” he notes, “that’s your captain next year, aye?”

I almost gag in my attempt to get my throat unstuck. “A-ayuh.”

“… Huh.”

Oh for FUCK’S SAKE!

Aunt Meg chimes in: “I mean, from what you told us about the blond one, I can kind of see it? Didn’t you say he’s a bit…?” She makes a limp-wrist gesture.

I’m saved from answering that by Uncle Jeremy. “Yeah, no surprise there. But Jack Zimmermann?”

By now, the whole diner is overcome by a low chorus of questions, bafflement, and speculation… most of which is aimed at me as if I have all of the damn answers. That’s not getting into those damn noncommittal grunts, as well as a bucketful of confusion from my younger cousins; one just asked me if that means Bitty is the girl.

While there are some comments of disapproval about how Bitty and Jack are making a scene, nobody’s explicitly disparaging or condemning the two. Which I guess is good? But nobody’s offering notes of support or at least acceptance either; though I suppose the comments about the “gutsiness” of the move count as a positive.

Overall, nobody seems to know what to think about this. If they do know, they certainly aren’t letting their thoughts be heard.

It’s pissing me off.

“So Zimmermann’s gay,” states a cousin.

“Bisexual,” I correct.

“Huh.”

Okay, that’s it! I all but throw my hands up as I move for the exit.

“You knew.”

The hissed accusation stops me in my tracks. It’s from the one person who would have a stance. I turn to see Uncle Owen glaring right in my face.

“I… I—“

“I’m not just talking about l… that." He punctuates his statement with a grimace of disgust and gesture at the screen. “You knew those two were screwing each other.” Each syllable is accompanied with him jabbing his finger into my chest.

In this moment, it doesn’t matter how much hockey has built me up. I feel like I’m a scrawny ten-year-old again, and each jab forces me backwards. With each step back, the diner gets more and more quiet as all attention focuses on the two of us.

“How long, boy?” he spits. “How. Long?”

“Since…” I hate how small my voice sounds. I hate how those around me, even though they downright loathe Uncle Owen, are curious for an answer. I hate how part of me wants to give more information than they expect but… can’t. “Since December.”

Actually longer, but nobody needs to know.

Nobody needs to know anything.

“Only two years in that libtard ‘school’, and you’re just full of surprises,” Uncle Owen muses. “Wasn’t the captain elected unanimously by the team?”

“Yes.” Shit! My answer comes out just as I realize why he asked that question. But it’s too late to take it back.

“So you knew the little shit’s a pervert and still voted for him?”

“He’s not a pervert.” I grit out as my hands ball into fists.

“So you say,” he sneers. “And I hear you’re spending the next year in the same house.”

A small part of me feels relief that he doesn’t know that I’m going to room with Nursey. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to control myself right now if the shit he spews goes in that direction. “The rent’s better.”

“Hah. Of course that’s your excuse: ‘The rent’s better.’” There’s a gleam in his eyes that’s too knowing for my liking. “What other faggy secrets—“

“That’s enough, Owen,” Pa growls while shoving his way through the crowd. “Leave my son alone.”

My father may be leaning his cane and may have kept his right arm back home. But in this moment, he looks ready to kick any able-bodied asshole’s ass.

Uncle Owen sputters, “You’re willing to let this Cultural Marxism—“

“I don’t give a flying fuck if Billy has a Little Red Book in his back pocket. You say another goddamn word to him tonight, and I’ll convince Shannon to finally cut you out of her life for good.” Pa doesn’t even raise his voice, but it’s enough to make everyone take a step back. “That will be after I rearrange your face to be as ugly as mine.”

I don’t know how long the standoff lasts. I only know that Uncle Owen is the one to back down and storm out… and that the bloody crescents in my palms are going to last a bit.

As if to enforce a sense of normalcy, the collective conversation picks right back up where it left off. This is despite the subject of the conversation being anything but normal. Pa nods to the door, and the two of us take our leave to begin the walk back home.

As the sounds of the diner fade, I check my phone. Besides the general rambling of everyone, Nursey’s making cryptic suggestions to check the national business news in the coming week.

Finally, I look up from my phone and back at Pa. “… You do know I’m no tankie, right?”

Pa chuckles. “Ayuh. Was just making a point.”

Heh, yeah. A point.  He’s just saying that he’d love me no matter what. But would his love really be so unconditional if I actually started spouting commie, nazi, or beardie propaganda? I know mine wouldn’t.

So then why did he bring it up?

Uncle Owen was the one who said ‘Marxism’ first, and Pa was just taking the statement to its logical conclusion. Don’t think too much of it.

But did Pa rebuke Uncle Owen because what was being said was wrong? Or was it just because I was attacked?

If Uncle Owen made his language just focused on “them gaysexuals”, would Pa make the same statement except with the Little Red Book replaced by a rainbow flag? If he did, would that mean he considers being queer as bad as a communist?

I know that I should really be giving my father more credit than that, and there’s a heavy weight in my stomach at the fact that I would even have doubts. But still…

Pa nudges me. “Something on your mind?”

“Just…” Okay, deep breaths. “Just thinking about the coming year.” Which is technically the truth.

That gets a nod from him. “It will be interesting. No doubt about that.”

Yeah… interesting.  I can just see the attention Bitty will get between him being Jack’s boyfriend and the first out NCAA ice hockey captain. Media may even come to Samwell.

People will know Bitty lives at the Haus. People will know where the Haus is; even if the media doesn’t divulge the location, it’s not like it’s hard to find due to all the damn kegsters.

What if we get paparazzi waiting for Jack whenever he comes to Samwell? What if there is paparazzi obsessed with Bitty himself? What if we get assholes who decide that spewing shit in a comment feed won’t cut it?

We don’t even keep the door locked. But even if we get the Haus secure, we have to walk to campus. Even in school, it’s not like they gate off the campus and limit access.

We should put in new locks and give out a limited set of keys. Convince the frats to install a surveillance system along the whole street. Maybe we’ll even have to stop hosting kegsters so often.

We should do something. We need to do something. We need to do something now! We need to try to keep several steps ahead of them even though they’ll keep trying to find a new way. That includes at our games.

The away games. Fuck. I forgot about the away games. FUCK!

Shit. We’re fucked. We’re so f—

“Billy!”

Pa’s voice forces me to stop walking, and it’s then that I see that I’m at least twenty yards ahead.  Billy, you fucking idiot. Hell of a son you are.

“Shit,” I blurt out while rushing back. “I-I’m so—”

Pa cuts me off: “Enough of that. Right now, I just need you to breathe.”

It’s only at his request that I realize my breath are coming in rapid gasps. I try to do as I’ve been taught but can’t seem to get anything under control as my vision blurs and pressure builds behind my eyes. Oh, now you’re gonna cry about it? You gonna cry, you fucking little p—

A gentle pressure settles around my wrist, and I feel my trembling hand firmly pried away from my arm. The action forces me to look up and see Pa heaving deep even breaths to focus on. It’s not easy, but eventually I force myself back on track.

Once stability’s restored, Pa tentatively asks, “What’s the matter, Billy?”

This time, I don’t have to make the truth a technicality: “Just wondering how the school’s going to deal with the media and security issues.”

Pa nods and thankfully doesn’t ask me to elaborate. “I’m sure they’ll figure something out.”

I’m also thankful that he leaves it at that and doesn’t try to further any reassurance as we continue walking in silence.

A silence which only lasts for another few minutes. “So… your captains are together.”

When Pa comments like that, without the crowds around, the situation feels even more naked than before. 

Maybe I can get something out of it though.

“Ayuh,” I mutter. “Did you know? Before this?”

He shakes his head. “Didn’t have time to read the news.”

While I believe that he didn’t find out until now, I have a harder time accepting his explanation why. However, now’s not the time to get into that. “What do you think?”

My question comes out as a whisper that keeps any emotion in reserve.

Pa looks off at some unspecified point. “Well, I can say that my bombshell doesn’t compare to the one they set off,” he remarks with a wry smile and a waving of his forearm stump around the right side of his face.

Jesus Christ… “Jesus Christ, Pa.” It’s not like he hasn’t made similar jokes before, but I still fail to find them funny.

Pa rolls his eye and thumps me on the back. “To answer your question… I don’t know what to think. Though it’s not like it affects us,” he states with a shrug.

It affects us more than you think. “You know that a lot of queer folk come Downeast, right?” Hell, everyone here knows about, and plenty attend, the pride event in Bar Harbor.

“Ayup, and I know they help keep this economy afloat. Make great music too. Most are still just passing through. I mean, sure, there are plenty staying up in Mount Desert. But still…”

So is that how it will be okay? As long as distance is maintained?

“Well one's going to be officially leading me.”

Pa creases his brow. “He is, isn’t he.”

“The other  did  lead me, and it’s not like he became magically bi after graduation.”

“Hm…”

My jaw clenches.  At least it’s not fucking “huh”.

Our porch light shines into view and guides us inside. Once we get to the kitchen, Pa takes his prescribed painkillers while I watch; I know it’s irrational of me as he hasn’t gotten hooked so far, and it’s not like I’m here all the time, but I can’t help it after a few recent cases.

As he sets his glass down, Pa sighs, “Look, Billy. I know they’re your friends. So maybe I don’t get it. Doesn’t matter. I trust your judgement.”

It does matter.

But still…  “Thank you.”

“Hell, they’re welcome to stop by.” Pa barely finishes his statement before barking out a laugh and shaking his head. For a brief moment my stomach clenches until he murmurs, “Like a Falconer would come here…”

I hide my relief with a huff: “You never know. You saw how full of surprises they are.”

That gets a much warmer laugh from him. “Ayuh. They really don’t do anything halfway, do they.”

For once, I allow myself to join in on the laughs. Maybe everything can be alright. Maybe it will be alright.

Maybe… just maybe…  “Pa, I—”

“Anyways, I’m not sure if I can handle any more surprises,” Pa chuckles before looking up at me. “You say something?”

… it will be a disaster.  “Nothing. It’s nothing.”

I say goodnight, Pa pulls me in for a one-armed hug, and I make the obligatory noises of protest when he kisses my forehead.  

Then I walk to my room and shut the door to whisper into the darkness enveloping me:

“Nothing at all.”

#william poindexter #check please #omgcp #omgcheckplease #FFR Makes Prose

[shinobi98]

I'vee written this from episode 29 through 32-ish and I want to dump a quick review of what I think of the characters at this point. Just for the lols for when I finish the show and I find I was completely wrong on most of them! Im using a compiled list on Google drive for the characters, so following that order they are split into clans.

Here we go.

Wei Wuxian. I really liked him at the beginning (what a funny cinnamon roll) but ever since he went missing into Burial Grounds I'm not sure...I see his points -especially when he criticised the Jins and stood up for the Wens- , but I can't believe he doesn't see he's being corrupted. Like come on. Just let the others help you for once, this is just looking for troubles. On thin ice. Used to be 9/10

Lan Zhan. Didn't like him much - or at all - when he was introduced in Clouds Recessess. I thought he was a stick in the mud and I wasn't too fond of him. He's missing for good chunks of the story. As my opinion of WWX deteriorated, I like him more or more because he's the one making sense out of the two, this gets him a passing score, even if barely. 6/10

Jian Cheng. He was my sweet sweet baby. Unparalleled sibling energy with WWX, cute angsty ship with Wen Qing, likable personality, the drama with the core. He had it all. But at some point...I don't know man. I just don't agree with anything he says anymore, and he's just becoming more and more sulky about his inferiority complex as a Clan Leader. I feel that, not counting the 16 years later part I didn't watch yet, he should get the title of co-protagonist rather than Wangji, since he's much more involved in the plot. Used to be a 8/10, still pending.

Jian Yanli. I like her. I feel like a dumb ass for getting attached and only remembering halfway through the flashback part that she's going to die, as per the first few episodes. I'm hating every second of it, like why killing her when the show is full of unpleasant people? Poor Li. Also the ship is a big plus. This kind of drama is just *chef kiss*- (and edit: after I watched the last episode of the night and she died...it's fine I'm not crying.) 8/10

Jian Fengmian. I don't really care much about him one way or the other. A little whipped by his wife - not that it is bad per se, but she really is bad so - , didn't particularly like that he favored WWX over JC. I think he could have been better, but he was pretty decent. 7/10

Madame Yu. No. 1/10

Lan Zichen. Possibly the last dude I 100% trust in this show not to let me down - as long as he isn't influenced too much by Mang Yao. I like him in a sort of uninvolved way. Don't look forward to see him on screen, don't wonder where he is or what he is doing, pleased when he shows up and does his sensible thing and then disappears again. Kept me on my toes after he escaped from Could Recesses though, but really took him so long to come back I almost forgot I was worrying about him. Way to go Zichen. 7/10

Lan Qiren. He's alright? I don't care much. Pretty dope when he took a stand against the Wans when they attacked, but I find him to be a little too much sometimes. 6/10

The files lists some juniors I haven't seen yet. They seem baby? Cute. I assume they are going to be so-and-so 's children, like in a Boruto way. Looking forward to see all the characters paired up.

Jin Guangshan. I thought he was annoying because he had a bunch of illegitimate children that I lost track of but then he became even more annoying with his very transparent power grab -and the fact that no one seems concerned is baffling to me. Overall I think I would have pretty much liked it more if the son Zixuan was clan leader and we didn't have to deal with this piece of work. 2/10

Jin Zixuan. As I was writing this post this man went through all sort of things. From proposing to having a child to being murdered. Honestly, we didn't start off the right foot when he booked the inn where WWX & co wanted to stay. I kept wishing he would kick the bucket because I hated how he treated Yanli, and I thought he would wind up to be a minor villain...while it seems he was the only normal member of his family. I feel bad for hating him so much. 8/10.

Jin Ling. Biggest reason why I thought his dad would be a bad guy. For the first part, I thought the Jins would be the villains because of him, and not the Wens, though in the end I wasn't that off the mark in a sense. He was just a cartoonish villain. I have yet to see him again after the flashback part, but his first introduction was awful. 3/10

Meng Yao. So the thing is, I was really partial towards him at the beginning. The bit at Cloud Recesses? The part with the Nie family? Perfect. Felt so bad for how everyone treated him. I started to excuse what he was doing like "it's ok, the head of guards is a dick to him" "it's okay he was double crossing the bad guys eheh" "it's ok he is...murdering civilians?" But seriously he let me down so hard. Also his face looks so different I didn't recognise him at first. At the beginning I thought I could maybe have a cute ship with Zichen but to tell the truth I don't want Meng Yao anywhere near him now. I seriously thought he wanted to murder infant Jin Ling at some point there to climb the ladder and become Clan Leader. I'm sure he set WWX up and schemed to murder the last dregs of the Wens and Zixuan. 1/10

Jin Zixun. Pretty inconsequential. Could have done with him imo. I'm only including him because I love when WWX goes "I don't even know who you are" like three times and that's a mood because where the heck did he come from.

Mo Xuanyu. I don't get why he looks like WWX. I sort understand why they used the same actor but story-wise I don't understand. How can random people look at him and recognise WWX? Also, he is kinda stupid for giving up his life to be possessed by a bad guy to get revenge but whatever floats your boat I guess. 4/10

Nie Mingjue. I don't care much for him. He bullies his brother too much and his short temper is annoying even though often justified. I thought I could kinda always rely on him to be the voice of reason despite not liking his character but then he said the stupidest thing in the show "I'm not sitting on that chair" and left it to the Jin Sect Leader...look how that worked out. Love how he basically disappeared after that, I think because he knew he screwed up big time (jk). 6/10

Nie Huaisang. Funny. Definetly underused. I hoped he would be part of the main gang. When he stopped showing up, the show took a terrible turn in its atmosphere. Please come back as sect leader in the 16 years later part (I mean, who else is there? I hope he didn't die in the meantime because he isn't showing up in this final battle). I wish I saw him swing a sword at the least once but alas. 7/10.

Wen Ruohan. I mean. What can you expect. Typical bad guy sitting on top of a lava pond that controls zombies. Wasn't expecting much development from his character and he surely didn't deliver. A good 2-dimensional bad guy to kill without thinking too hard about anything I guess. Awful person tho. 4/10

Wen Xu. I didn't even realize there were two young Wens. I thought he was his brother at first, but without the spice. Literally why was he there. 4/10

Wen Chao. He sucks, don't get me wrong. But watching him coming up with all sorts of awful things is very entertaining. 2/10 as a person, 9/10 as a villain. Cheered when he died.

Wen Lingjiao. Same as her lover, but more annoying because she got on my nerves sometimes. I was so glad when she got it. The (1) good thing coming out of WWX's corruption. 2/10

Wen Zhuliu. I really want to know what drove him to serve Chao with such devotion. His technique was kinda cool. I think he would have been an okay guy but sadly he associated with Chao. 4/10

Wen Ning. I thought "No, poor Ning is dead" ten times already and still counting. Please WWX just let him die. He is/was just a sweetheart and I loved him with all my heart. His death and everything that came after it filled me with rage, when i thought he died I was brokenhearted, and the fact that he gets blamed for killing people when it's arguably WWX's fault is so unfair. We didn't deserve Wen Ning. I don't really like that he became the Ghost General tho. 10/10

Wen Qing. I liked her. Same as her brother, how their story ended up upset me. I hoped they would get to live peacefully in their commune in the woods. That part of the story was *chef kiss*. The romance with JC lacked closure imo but I understand that they both had things going on and they would need to stretch the story too much to get the together or at the least talk about their feelings. I hoped till the end she wouldn't be killed because I knew Ning came bad 16 years later, so they must have avoided being executed, but more realistically I guess he's just a zombie and she's just dead. I lowkey shipped her with WWX though I feel this would be an unpopular opinion in the fandom -when I learned WWX has a different endgame ship I was kinda bummed sorry. I thought we would get a sort of love triangles with JC, I can't say I'm disappointed because it would have been a terrible plot. They really have a good platonic relationship, I loved to see them build that village. 8/10

Song Lan/ Xiao Xingchen / Xue Yang. What's the deal with them? They seemed to be set up to come back but only Song Lan does a passing appearance. Are they coming back? What was their significance? So weird because the untamed usually doesn't introduce characters to just drop them when the episode's over.

#the untamed #mszp

[the-desolated-quill]

Face The Raven - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

FINALLY! A GOOD EPISODE!

And no it’s not just because Clara dies at the end. Sarah Dollard has done an excellent job in creating a compelling mystery story that piques your interest throughout. After all the crap I’ve had to put up with from Series 9, Face The Raven feels like having a bucket of cold water being chucked on you during a hot summer’s day. Shocking, but refreshing.

Rigsy from Flatline is back and he has a strange tattoo on the back of his neck that is counting down to his death, and he has no memory of how he got it. Already I’m intrigued. After the number of dull and predictable stories we’ve been getting this series, it’s nice to be able to watch an episode where I genuinely have no idea where they’re going with this. Did Rigsy in fact kill someone? If so, what was the reason? If not, why would someone try to frame him for it? It’s a great mystery story that grabs you by the lapels and refuses to let go until the end credits. While he wasn’t terrible in Flatline, Rigsy wasn’t exactly the most interesting character ever. Here Joivan Wade makes the most of the extra material he’s been given and does a really great job. He’s not just tagging along for the ride anymore. He’s an integral part of the narrative and that makes all the difference.

I also love the idea of the trap street and everything that takes place inside. The whole refugee camp is handled with much more subtlety than The Zygon Invasion/Inversion managed, and it’s infinitely more interesting too. The amount of tension and paranoia hanging around the street is practically tangible. You get the sense that there’s a knife-edge between peace and total anarchy as the refugees become more and more wary of each other. To the point where even with the prospect of Rigsy being innocent, they’d rather he died in order to give the street peace of mind and maintain the balance. To them, catching the real killer doesn’t matter. So long as someone is seen to be blamed and punished, everything will be fine. It’s much more complex and nuanced than anything that’s come before in this series, and thus makes it all the more watchable.

I will say this episode does suffer slightly from the curse of 45 minutes. As much as I love the scenario of the trap street, it would have been nice if we could have spent some more time actually getting to know some of the refugees. But in some ways this minor criticism is actually a testament to how intriguing Sarah Dollard’s story is. Whereas before in episodes like Sleep No More and The Witch’s Familiar, I was more than happy to see the back of them by the end, here I actually wanted to stay a bit longer and delve into this environment further. I particularly liked Letitia Wright as Anahson. An alien with two faces, one that can see into the past and the other the future. I would have liked to have learned more about her.

And who is in charge of this trap street? Ashildr of course! Yeah this didn’t come as much of a surprise and while I did find her dialogue at times to be a bit too smartarse-y on occasion, I quite liked her here, and Maisie Williams continues to do a good job playing a character who’s much older than she is. Plus I loved the slow peeling of layers until we get to the revelation that Ashildr was the one that engineered this whole situation to capture the Doctor for some unknown client. Again I’d just like to reiterate how refreshing it is to be able to watch a Doctor Who story and not have the slightest idea where it’s going until the end where all the pieces of the puzzle come together with a satisfying click.

Right. I suppose I can’t put this off any longer. Let’s talk about Clara’s death. I’ve made it no secret how much I despise the character, and you’ve probably got mental images of me throwing a party when she did kick the bucket. Well as a matter of fact, I didn’t. Throw a party that is. In all honesty I was rather lukewarm about the whole thing. Like I said, I’ve never liked Clara very much so it’s hard to really muster up the energy to give a shit about her death. That being said, I will admit that her death scene was written, performed and directed well enough that if you did give a shit about Clara (God knows why), I imagine you were most probably moved to tears. However there are several issues with this, and I should point out none of this is Sarah Dollard’s fault. These are all problems that have been carried over into this episode, courtesy of Moffat.

Like with Amy and Rory in Series 7, Clara really serves little to no purpose in Series 9. She doesn’t grow or evolve in any meaningful way and she often felt like an afterthought in most stories. Oh sure Moffat has given the illusion that Clara has been undergoing this whole arc, but she hasn’t really if you think about it. The Doctor is worried that Clara is becoming more like him, but before this episode, the only time this was addressed was back in Under The Lake, and even then it was less about Clara and more about the Doctor (as if the Doctor hasn’t been scrutinised enough during the Peter Capaldi era as it is). Face The Raven is supposed to be a culmination of everything that’s come before, but it doesn’t feel like that because Clara has never really been the focus of her own arc. It’s all been about the Doctor. The Doctor’s fears. The Doctor’s concerns. The Doctor’s vengeance should Clara ever come to harm. It’s never been about Clara, which ruins the impact of her death.

Something else that ruins the death for me was the stuff building up to it. Clara persuades Rigsy to give her the tattoo, but it feels less like a selfless sacrifice or an act of kindness, and more like just another example of her smug bravado, which is something that has always really irritated me. She just doesn’t behave the way a normal person would act and often comes across as really unsympathetic. She cares less about helping people and more about showing off. They keep making the excuse that it’s because Clara is becoming more like the Doctor, but the thing is the Doctor isn’t really like that. He’s compassionate. He cares. Clara doesn’t. Just look at Flatline. Anyone else would have been slightly upset that they failed to save everyone. Clara meanwhile was too busy boasting what a great Doctor she was. Why should I care about her?

But my main reason why I was positively unmoved by her death was because of Moffat’s track record. How many characters have died in the Moffat era? And when I say died, I mean died and actually stayed dead. Virtually none. Nothing has ever been permanent in the Moffat era. This combined with the fact that Clara has seemingly died two episodes before the finale, and I’m suspicious. Moffat has pulled the bait and switch so many times now that i straight up don’t trust anything I’m seeing anymore, and that’s a big problem. I honestly don’t think Clara is dead (and remember this is the first time I’m watching this series, so I have no idea if I’m right or not), but even if it turns out this is the real deal this time, the fact that I’m questioning the validity of her death, and thus robbing it of its potential impact, shows just how bad Moffat’s Who has gotten. It’s The Boy Who Cried Wolf effect. This could very well be a genuine death for all I know, and yet I’m sat here stony faced, refusing to get too invested, just in case Moffat might be bullshitting me again. This is what happens when you feel the need to constantly wrong-foot your audience. Do it too often and after a while they just stop caring altogether.

While I think Clara’s original departure planned in Last Christmas would have been a much stronger ending for her, I did still really enjoy Face The Raven for the most part. It’s most definitely the strongest episode of Series 9 by a considerable margin and I hope to see more Who stories from Dollard in the future.

#face the raven #sarah dollard #doctor who #twelfth doctor #peter capaldi #clara oswald #jenna coleman #steven moffat #bbc #review #spoilers

[the-rolling-libero]

Pulling Down the Sky: How Heaven’s Arena Grounds HxH

I’m going to do some necessary meta right now and it’s going to explain why I like Hunter x Hunter so much; basically, it’s able to continue after the first arc, and it’s able to do so in a cohesive and natural way. This, I believe, is almost entirely a result of how the Heaven’s Arena arc is carried out. Can I talk about this? no? cool! 

The Hunter Exam is easily the freest arc we get. There’s breathing room in how the story can be told, because the world hasn’t really been established yet. Are there flying spider eagles? Sure! Can there be a swamp that exists purely to deceive you? Hell yeah. Is it possible to have A, B, C, X, and its cousin, Y? Why not? -- and that’s really the question that lives in the Hunter Exam Arc. When there’s no reason ‘why’ things should be a certain why, Togashi has the ability to ask that question as much as he likes. Why not? It’s the height of HxH’s fantasy feel, bright, whimsical, and just all around a fun place to be. 

That’s not to say that there’s no darkness or rules in the arc at all; the character’s base personalities and abilities are laid out here, as well as some basics about the world itself, especially in Trick Tower and Zevil island. What we discover through this arc, though, are mostly the roles that people play within the world rather than the “rules” of the world. The Hunter Exam arc exists within a bubble, so we don’t really get to know this world for a while. We don’t learn the ‘why’ or ‘how’ of anything; in the Hunter Exam Arc. I would argue that as we’re thrown into the story, we see the effect of this world upon our characters, whereas in the Heaven’s Arena arc, we see the cause. 

The Heaven’s Arena arc acts as a grounding arc in several ways; by ‘popping the bubble’, so to speak, and planting us in a real world setting (although the arena is still somewhat isolated, I’ll concede, compared to York New), by establishing rules (especially in regards to Nen), and by taking down Gon and Killua a notch-- and this, in particular, is especially important to creating sympathetic characters. 

The Setting of Heaven’s Arena

This is the view we get of Heaven’s Arena; it is not clean or brightly colored or sleek, as many of the buildings we’ve seen up to this point are (Whale Island, Trick Tower, the airship etc.) It is monochrome and bulky. What stands out are the various parts stuck together like some steampunk frankenstein monstrosity, reaching out into the sky. This is as close as we get to the Tower of Babel, and it’s pretty ugly. Does this have symbolic meaning about how as people in this series try to reach higher things just get uglier and uglier? Maybe. Maybe it’s just a nasty building. 

But it does have a gritty, street feel to it, like it was picked up and tacked together cell at a time. We see once we get into the arena itself that that’s not necessarily the case, that the rooms higher up are actually quite nice, but we also see the stark division that exists in the Hunter x Hunter world: the weak and the strong; the poor and the privileged; background faces vs The Characters. 

The upper floors are what we’ve already seen to an extent in the hunter exam, the world where the best live. But we see the streets-- the normal world-- for the first time now, and how it interacts with that upper echelon. These streets aren’t a great place to be if you’ve got enemies up high. Where is the law, when Zushi (below floor 100, therefore not elite) is abducted? Where is law when people are broken in their nen ‘baptisms’ when they reach the 100th floor? Where is rule of law when Killua threatens the lives of several 100th floor occupants? Nowhere, because, honestly, what are the police going to do? As we’re introduced into the world of nen and get to more closely observe the interactions between the common and the elite, we begin to realize how horrifically unfair this whole world is, and how self contained and unregulated the sphere of Hunters really is. 

The idea of self policing and vigilante justice will prove hugely important in upcoming arcs. This is why all Hunters must have basic combat skills, as is said in the 2nd hunter rule; fighting is an essential part of what it means to be a Hunter, because there is no one else to defend you should someone dangerous (and with nen, who isn’t?) decide to go after you. There is no calling the police. Can you imagine trying to take someone like Illumi to court, who could manipulate judge and jury without a second thought? The civil system of laws that we common people know cannot exist within the Hunter system as it is presented in Heaven’s Arena. This kind of lawlessness will feed into the cowboy-style justice that Gon delivers, based not on any strict code but on what feels right according to his personal morality. That’s...concerning, considering how stable powerful hunters tend to be (read: not at all).

It’s one of the things that leaves such broad swathes of gray morality left for our characters. For instance, later in the case of Kurapika. We see that the police cannot do anything to stop the Phantom Troupe from attacking the auction. Neither can the Mafia. So in order to get justice, Kurapika must take on a vigilante role and commit murder. If not justice system is in place, is it truly murder, or an execution? Who has the right to make those decisions? Hunters are absolutely terrifying both in their enormous power and lack of civil restraints on that power. They can do pretty much anything they like, as long as they’re either a) strong enough to fight any challengers (Ging), or b) generally approved of, so they go unchallenged (Kurapika). This tiny, elite society with exclusive access to many resources and very little oversight has only the flimsiest of rules, and those rules do little to protect the common person. Hunters are not allowed to hunt each other, but everyone else is fair game. Great! When you’re faceless man #7 walking down the street, you’ll be really glad that Hunters operate by such strict rules right before getting accidentally blasted sky high as collateral. 

The difference between the regular world and the Hunter world is made abundantly clear, as in this arc, Killua and Gon make that transition and go through all the accompanying shocks. 

The main shock is, of course, nen.

Nen, Rules, and Expansion

It’s been remarked upon before that nen is the ‘magic’ of this world, and it brings with it an essential component of popular shonen anime-- the ability to expand. Most series that involve fighting will bring in a fantasy component at some part, because as cool as punching and kicking are, after awhile, they tend to get boring. Every arc, and in some cases, every fight brings new revelation to the character’s abilities. Part of this shows growth in the characters. Part of it is largely just entertainment value-- if every fight brings something new, then we’re always kept guessing. You’d be hard pressed to find an anime that does this better than Hunter x Hunter, in my opinion, because it circumvents one of the most problematic aspects of this trope: the miracle cure. 

Often within this idea of constant expansion is a sort of deus ex machina, a last minute discovery of the power or object that lends our protagonists new abilities. It’s the miraculous evolution halfway through a fight, the stumbling upon the artifact that just barely lets them use the next level of their powers. Due to the nature of nen in Hunter x Hunter, this is almost impossible. 

And when it is, there’s serious consequences. 

This version of Gon is the one that gained power quickly and recklessly. Or consider Gido, severely handicapped as a result of having undergone nen baptism-- another form of gaining power quickly and recklessly.

Let’s instead examine how the Heaven’s Arena arc establishes the concrete, but encompassing rules of nen. Being one of the reasons that Hunter x Hunter stays so dynamic, nen has fairly simple and well followed rules. These rules are sometimes expanded on, but they’re never really broken in an ‘aha’ moment by anyone-- there’s no, ‘but what you did not know was that--’ scene where the rules are twisted in half by a villain. Nen exists as it exists, in a sensical and almost instinctive way. 

Wing explains nen to be a manifestation of will-- something that our two protagonists have in bucket loads. Therefore, it makes sense that they’re prodigies; past experiences have proven that Gon has exceptional willpower (the fight with Hanzo still fresh in the viewer’s memories) and that Killua possesses strength of mind equal with that of his body (extensive torture that he reacted to nonchalantly). Nen takes great discipline, and that’s what makes it immune to miracle cures; beyond the initial burst of power our leads get, they’re placed in a world where power normally takes years to attain. Though they’re exceptional, it slows their growing to a sustainable rate-- more on how nen affects Killua and Gon later, though. 

Nen gets a lot of exposition in this arc, it’s true. Some of it may feel overmuch at times (and let’s be real hxh adores exposition) but it’s all necessary. It sets clear, firm boundaries of what nen can and cannot do-- within those boundaries, a lot is possible, but not everything. And there’s a price for everything that nen brings. 

Heaven’s Arena grounds nen within rules, and creates a solid foundation for the characters building their abilities. They first must master the basics before moving on to some of the really spectacular abilities that their hatsu lets them develop, and cleanly transitions the world of Killua and Gon from the mundane to the magical. After Heaven’s Arena, nen is a given. Without this introduction, both they and we, the viewer’s would have been surely lost. Can you imagine the York New arc bogged down by explanations of nen all the time? The Heaven’s Arena arc is the beach for nen’s ocean-- though it must be kept it mind that even this shore has its sharks. It presents the basic level of nen in a way that is both gently immersive and high stakes simultaneously. Not once do we doubt the seriousness of the fights that happen in Heaven’s Arena. Gon’s life is legitimately at a risk because of the learning curve that nen offers; that too is important for how Heaven’s Arena progresses the story.  

Killua and Gon

When our protagonists enter Heaven’s Arena, they raze the competition. I mean, it is actually comedic how easily Gon and Killua tear through their early matches, advancing up to the 100th floor in no time at all. This is how things have been throughout the series so far; Gon and Killua are exceptional, the kind of rookies that pass the Hunter Exam without real difficulty (barring one or two unpleasant situations). So far, we’ve seen that they’re on another level from the common man, but we haven’t yet seen what that level looks like; Heaven’s arena opens our eyes. At the same time that it grounds us in what the real world looks like, it also shows us by merit of contrast what the nen-user’s world looks like; the view from the 100th floor. For the first time, Killua and Gon are weak, and it’s the best thing that Togashi could have done for our characters. 

This is especially relevant to Killua’s character, whose struggles have been for the most part internal. We’ve not seen him break a sweat in a physical situation ever (I personally count his fight with Illumi as mental). But with nen, suddenly he’s as much a beginner as anyone else, as weak as someone ‘naked in the snow’. We can finally root for Killua now as a protagonist rather than a distant-but-badass supporting character. We get to see him grow and improve; but first what’s necessary is to tear him down to the ground and plant him there like Heaven’s Arena does. There’s no tree that grows without roots. 

Meanwhile, Gon’s doing the same thing, growing and fighting at a pace with Killua. Not only is this significant because it’s the first time we’ve seen Killua have anything close to a peer, but it means that Gon and Killua grounded together. The inherent inequality of their relationship was presented throughout the hunter exam arc. It’s most evident in the scene where rankings are revealed for the final exam and Gon is listed far above Killua. Killua’s jealousy reveals a narratively-unsustainable truth to the viewer: Killua is much stronger than Gon, even if he lacks in that fundamental trait of likability. The Heaven’s Arena arc sets them side by side, creating a more sustainable dynamic for their friendship. 

Going forwards, this means that we can empathize with their struggles as they fight to grow stronger. While Killua’s distant prodigy and Gon’s wild-child routine are fantastic and fun in the Hunter Exam arc, people like to see a protagonist experience something familiar, even if the framework around it isn’t. Everyone’s gained a skill through hard work, experienced both the frustration and incredible rewards of when it pays off, the human experience of growth; that’s what Heaven’s Arena is to the characters of Gon and Killua: a chance to be human for the first time. 

Now that they can start from the bottom, they have somewhere to go. The grounding of this series gives it room for expansion, a direction for the personal development of the characters, and a world for all of this to take place in. What’s important to take out of this arc is that it situates the rest of the series. York New may be in many ways more active and exciting-- I certainly enjoy the development of Kurapika’s arc in York New-- but it rests heavily on Heaven’s Arena. Just like supporting characters are essential to a good story, so are supporting arts. Respect Heaven’s Arena. Appreciate Togashi. Wait for hiatus to end.  

#hxh #hunter x hunter #hxh meta #gon freccs #killua zoldyck #OOF THIS TOOK A WHILE #lol no one's going to read this because it's too long but idgaf #important meta #mun speaks #if u want to understand how i think about hxh this is it lmao #in essays #im not even editing the last section im done with this nonsense #sorry if it turns to shit but enjoy my meta

[oddferalair]

characterization quotes

Robin Support   See, now you're just not thinking logically. We've killed countless people in this war— what's a few more souls on the ledger? Seems like an arbitrary line to me... But all right. You're the tactician! No more unholy summoning sigils. Heck, I always obey orders! Well, except for stupid ones like "don't fight the enemy." If someone tried to tell me that, I'd cut 'em in half and feed them to the crows! Lissa Support If you don't rest up before a battle, you might find yourself resting up in a grave.   That does seem like a problem. War is killing and death, ya know? Keeping people you care about alive means making the other guy dead. Nya ha ha! Just a little touch of Henry's Super Sleepy-Time Magic! ...The nonlethal version. First you don't want any allies or enemies to die, and now BIRDIES are off the table? ...You're a strange one, Lissa. Nya ha ha! Me? Sweet? That's a new one. Besides, you're the one who's always concerned about people dying and stuff. I don't know how you do it, honestly. I couldn't go a week! I'm not much of a mood guy, I'm afraid, unless we're talking gruesome bloodshed... Well, how about this: I did get you a ring! Will that work? 

Frederick Support

I want my dying thought to be about blood! ...Or maybe ichor. H-hey, Frederick! Easy with the bear hugs! These little bones might snap like...Oh, whoa! Are you CRYING?! You really think people notice what I do around here? 'Cause I doubt it. I mean, what kind of things do they say about me now? Nya ha ha! If you lay it on any thicker, I'll be smothered to death! But I'm not training to make myself look good in front of my comrades, you know?   Well, because the more I practice, the more stuff I'm able to do. I like being good at lots of things. Sully Support Absolutely! I'll need a pound of flesh, seven fingernails, and your left kidney. Nya ha ha! I jest. A single hair will do just fine. Yep yep! That's it, all right. I can curse till I'm blue in the face, but if their will's stronger than mine? Pbbt. Aw, you're going to make me blush. I'm nothing special. Miriel Support You have? That's great! I cast hexes all the time, and I've never come up with ONE theory about them. Nya ha ha! Oh, stop it, Miriel! You'll make me blush. Although it's pretty much true. When it comes to hexing folks, I'm the master. Why, this one time at mage camp, I killed 100 people with one curse! Er, I don't remember when. ...Or where exactly. But it totally could have happened. Henry: Well, you know that town we passed through a few days ago? I saw a pregnant lady on the main street with a load of cheese and fruit in her arms. She looked pretty tired and worn out, so I stopped to help her carry her wares.     Right?! Anyway, the more I thought about it, the more I realized pregnancy is dumb. So I'm planning to help the mothers of the world by inventing a special curse. I'm gonna create a hex that conjures new kids right out of thin air! Sumia Support I'm a mage! I just wave my wand and mutter a little incantation... Humina humina humina... Presto! The busted bowls are busted no more! Yeah, it's just a temporary hex, unfortunately. Tomorrow they'll be in pieces again. But at least folks won't have to eat out of their hats tonight. Oh, that spell can certainly be used for evil. All it does is reverse time. See, so if something bad happens to someone and you cast it on them... They have to experience that same tragedy over and over again! Nya ha! Isn't it obvious? You're me, and I'm you! Clever curse, eh? Well, you're about as magic as an old sock, so this was the only way. And while you cast some hexes, I'm going to ride your pegasus all over camp! Woo-hoo! I'm gonna swoop down on people and drop stuff on their heads! Ricken Support Oh? I thought word had gotten around. Yeah, Gangrel was toppled before I got the chance to fight any real battles. A shame, too. It would've been fun to face off against the Shepherds! Then there was Mustafa. He always gave me a bag of peaches whenever I visited. He said I reminded him of his son and that I should consider myself part of his family. Yep. Dead as driftwood, they are. And it was you Shepherds who killed 'em! Their friends and families are probably still crying their eyes out. No! I'd be very sad and angry. And I'd find out who did it, hunt them down, and exact bloody revenge! ...Oh yes. There would be blood. When I was with Plegia, I didn't think much about this kind of thing. Maybe because in that army, I didn't have real friends like I do here. I guess, sure. Honestly, I'm not much good with touchy-feely stuff. You know what I'd rather talk about? The next battle! Maribelle Support Talking to the flower. She says she's very grateful that you spoke to her. Also, she says she'll stay strong as long as you do, too. I'm not feigning anything. I'm just really in touch with the natural world. I can talk to any living thing you want. Trees. Flowers. Maggots. Ooooooh... Maaaggots... Meh, not to me. Everyone kicks the bucket at some point, so why fret? See, now that I can understand. But get this—I've got a special curse ready, see? Been working on it for a while now. If you're mortally wounded, it kills you off before you suffer any pain! Just...poof. Off ya go! It's 'cause I'm not scared, Maribelle. Fighting is actually pretty simple. I just have to kill the other guy before he has a chance to kill me. Panne Support That's not very neighborly, now is it? What difference does one's religion make? I just want to be friends! Ylisse is weak enough as it is. If the exalt were assassinated, I worried they'd lose the war in a week! That would have been a terrible waste of a perfectly fun war. Er, the beast half, I guess. I love animals! I wish I could be one. Even a half one would be okay with me. My parents abandoned me in the woods when I was little. So it was mostly the nice animals there who raised me. I still love their smell. It relaxes me in a totally nostalgic sort of way. So if I went out and killed them all, could we be friends? I'm not that young, and I don't think I'm stupid. But hey, who knows, right? Cordelia Support Oooh, lucky guy. I wish someone would make ME a nice cozy scarf! Ooooooooooooooooooooooooh. Say, what if the wife was dead? Could you give it to him then? That's kind of like making yourself sad on purpose, isn't it? You want help? 'Cause I've got a curse that'll REALLY make you miserab— I asked Lissa for advice, and she told me to take you on a big shopping trip. She said a few hours trying on dresses and armor would fix that broken heart, pronto! I don't really get all this "feelings" stuff, but if you say so. Er, but if you're REALLY grateful, you could join me for a fruit pie... Nya ha! No, it's a scheme to make you fall in love with me. Nowi Support Yep! They're probably quivering in fear under their beds and crying like babies. But no worries! There'll be more victim—er, that is, village kids—at our next camp. Right. You can't actually touch her. My magic is good, but not THAT good! Hey! I spent a lot of time and effort on this, you know! Tharja Support Hee hee! Smiling? This is how I always look. Sorry! Nothing sinister over here. I'm just a hale and hearty mage. Nope! Not me! Although I do own a cloak and a couple daggers. Aw, I don't get into politics. I just want to toss fireballs at bad guys. Hey! Tharja! You forgot to remove the curse! Oh, well. I suppose it'll fizzle out eventually. La la la... Do you need a death curse? Please say you need a death curse. Yeah, dispelling curses is kind of my specialty. Right now, whoever cast that curse must be in one confused pickle! Too bad we can't be there to see it. That would be swell! Oh yeah. I guess so, huh? Although you didn't really need to put a truth curse on me, you know? I don't have anything to hide, and I've never told a lie in my life. Olivia Support You're a crazy lady. Why would I do that? I love doggies! I want to save his life! Right, boy? Who's a good boy? Aren't you glad the crazy lady wants to help us? Yes you are! Hey, that's a medical condition! Show some respect! Oh, will you look at that? It's blood! ...Wonder where it came from? *Lick* ...Oh, hey! It's MY blood! Nya ha! I must have been wounded in battle! Oh man, good times. Oh, I've got a high pain threshold. It's a genetic thing. Nerve damage. I've had a lot worse than this! When I was a kid, my parents put me in this exclusive wizard school. Well, as you can imagine, some of the experiments got a biiit out of hand. Once, I almost set my face on fire! Nya ha! Those were the days... Meh, my parents didn't care what I did as long as I wasn't expelled. Heck, the whole reason they sent me to wizard school was to get rid of me. But hey, no worries! I turned out fine! That's what all my psychiatrists said. But nope! Not true. I'm just a happy guy. Look, crazy lady. I like you. I really do. But you have GOT to let this go. I smile because I'm happy, all right? There's nothing more to it. Olivia? H-hey, Olivia. ...You being crazy again, Olivia? Olivia?! Aw, come on, Olivia! You can't die now! NOOOOO! OLIVIAAAAAA! Come back to me, Olivia! Stay out of the light! STAY OUT OF THE LIIIIIIGHT! Cherche Support Sure have! She's as cute as a button, that one. ...Well, if buttons were cute. We had wyverns in Plegia, you know, and also the occasional fell beast. But we didn't have a single wyvern that was as pretty as Minerva. Yep! I make four-legged friends wherever I go! And even some two-legged ones. I'm also pals with a three-legged bear, but that's a story for another time. Well, when I was young, my best friend in the entire world was a giant wolf. My parents ignored me most of the time, so that wolf became my whole family. Then one day she came to visit me, and some hunters in the village... They shot her full of arrows. Killed her on the spot. But they paid... Oh, how they paid... They paid in BLOOD. Er, but yes. None of my magic could bring my beautiful wolf friend back. So I guess that's why I hang out with you and Minerva. 'Cause it reminds me. I know I'm here a lot, but I always feel safe and happy when I'm with Minerva. Kellam Support I think I get it now. Seems to me you're barking up the wrong tree, tin man. Visibility isn't the problem—you're just lonely! So all we gotta do is find a way to make you stop feeling lonely! It's true. When I was a kid, my only friends were wolves, so they ended up raising me. Thing is...that made it tough for me to learn about basic human warmth and affection... Like just now. I tried to be nice to you and show you that I care and stuff, right? But I got it all wrong and instead made you freak out. Sorry about that... Gaius Support Not many, no. Back in Plegia, we hardly have any cakes or sweets at all. We don't get the plentiful harvests that Ylisseans and Feroxi enjoy. So the dishes we make are kind of basic, you know? Nothing like those, anyhow. Yup. It's hard to make cakes out of turnips, though that doesn't stop people trying! Anyway, the point is, I've never seen so many tasty-looking treats all in one place! Well, thanks for showing me your treasures, Gaius. It's been lots of fun! ...Oh, I almost forgot! I brought something to show you too! Yeah...something like that! They're baked in special ceremonies as offerings to Grima. Never eaten one myself, but as you're the expert, I figured you'd like to try it! Libra Support Like, I dunno...you're a priest, but you wield a weapon and smash people with it, right? I bet it causes you all kinds of anguish to have to splatter the life out of others! Aren't you overthinking things a little? A weapon's just a tool for killing! Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier to just accept that and move on? Who knows—you might wind up like me and start to really savor the joys of slaying! I mean, when you get down to it, aren't you and I both doing the exact same thing? I mean, I guess it's hard for an altruist like yourself to respect an egoist like me, but... They do, huh? Well, I don't believe in the gods, so it doesn't really matter what they think! (in response to Libra calling him out for saving other people) ...

#long post #blood mention #abuse mention

[i-amusemyself]

All 100 Questions.

Bloody hell okay thank you!!! 😄😄😄

1. Is a kiss considered cheating?Yeah, Id say so.

2. Have you ever faked orgasm?Aint never had anyone to fake it with 😂 Ngl tho its the sort of thing id do (which is terrible i know)

3. If you could have one super power, what would it be?Mind reading.

4. Do you think youre gonna be rich in 7-8-9 years?I’d be worried if I didnt have more money than I have now, but idk.

5. Tell us some funny drunk story?Oh jeez erm, I don’t really have any 😂 My friends occasionally remind me of the time at the school christmas ball one of the business teachers turned up and I quickly ran away while aggressively whispering “oh no he knows im a lesbian, aimee told him”.

6. Why are you no longer together with your ex?We work better as friends, its less stressful.

7. If you had to choose one way to die what would it be?See I’m really torn with this question. Part of me thinks itd be nice just to go in my sleep, with a heart attack or something. Its quick and painless you know.But equally I wonder if it would be better to maybe, like, have something where I knew I was gonna die. Because then I’d have time to try and do everything on my bucket list and say goodbye to everyone. Also maybe at that point I’d welcome death lmao.

8. What are your current goals?Idk? Im waiting on A level results which I really hope I’ve done well in.I hope to make lots of new friends at uni and learn how to look after myself quickly I guess. I dont know.

9. Do you like someone?I like a lot of people 😆

10. Who was the last person to disappoint you?Im really not sure??? There arent many people I expect anything from and even then my standards are pretty low. So like, I dont really get disappointed by people, only occasionally by situations.

11. Do you like your body?I could hate it a lot more, but I wouldnt say I’m happy with my body or general appearance. I struggle a lot with my features and my weight and the scars I have (which is ridiculous but thats what mental illness is)

12. Can you keep a diet?I mean if I wasnt on the diet im on rn (with lots of restrictions) id probs be in hospital 😂

13. If the whole world was listening to you right now, what would you say?Honestly id pass out under the pressure of it 😂 idk, id tell them all to take a chill pill but no one would listen.

14. Do you work?Nah, i had 3 jobs at once last yeah but now I’ve ended up with none.

15. If you could choose only one food to eat for the rest of your life what would it be?Either garlic bread or chocolate I cant decide!

16. Would you get a tattoo?I’m v much planning on getting one in the near future so yh!!

17. Something you dont mind spending all your money on?Plane tickets.

18. Can you drive?Yeah! I havent driven since I passed my test, but hopefully I havent forgotten how to that quickly!

19. When was the last time someone told you youre beautiful?…I cant remember. Thats depressing (not that I blame them).

20. What was the last thing you cried for?Argh I have no idea why I was crying, my brain just wasnt doing its job so everything made me stressed and sad.

21. Do you keep a journal?I keep a blog for diary posts but besides that nah

22. Is life fun?If you allow it to be, yeah

23. Is farting in front of people irrelevant?Tf is that supposed to mean? I guess if you know the person well it is.

24. Whats your dream car?I dont know about Dream Car, id have to research it loads to decide what my absolute fave it. Although rn I’d really love a ‘67 VW beetle bc theyre small and cheap on insurance 😂

25. Are grades in school important?My own grades are super important to me, (to the point its probably unhealthy) but in terms of how the people around me do, it doesnt really matter to me. I mean, I want everyone to do well, but I dont judge people based on it.

26. Describe your crush.She’s funny and all around awesome and interesting and good at deep convos and beautiful and way out of my league.

27. What was the last book/movie that really impressed you?The last one I read called The Bell Jar. It was unlike anything I’ve ever read and made me think about a lot of things. Also I related a lot with the main character.

28. What was your last lie?Eh, probably “im fine”.

29. Dumbest lie you ever told?Idk?? I only keep track of the good lies 😉

30. Is crying in front of people embarrasing?It shouldnt be but yeah, I try my best not to.

31. Something you did and are proud of?Umm, idk im p proud of playing basketball and representing my region/training with england. But i quit that so 👏 dicks out for my regrettable decisions 👏

32. Whats your favourite cocktail?Never had one

33. Something you are good at?Annoying people and being clingy 😂 also maths ig

34. Do you like small kids?It depends on the child, the day of the week, the lunar cycle, my menstrual cycle, how hungry I am…Yh legit sometimes I hate them sometimes I love them.

35. How are you feeling right now?Great omg I just got my best friend to watch mamma mia and now shes high on life next to me.

36. What would you name your daughter/son?🤐 there are a couple of names for girls I like and like 2 boys names? But i dont wanna say bc theyre embarrasing.

37. What do you need to be happy?Good company, good food and possibly music.

38. Is there someone you want to punch in the face right now?Theres always at least 3 people I would love to punch 😂

39. What was the last gift you recieved?My best friend got me a necklace and I almost cried its so beautiful

40. What was the last gift you gave?The gift of my company @only-slightly-dangerous 😉😉😉

41. What was the last concert you went to?I went to to see Amber Run in february

42. Favourite place to shop at?Um, as in shop? A place called blue banana probs (england’s hot topic smh)

43. Who inspires you?Kaitlyn Alexander bc they helped me to understand who I am and how I feel and to be loud and proud about it.And Luke Cutforth bc he’s so open about his mental health and struggles with self harm but hes so happy now.

44. How old were you when you first got drunk?18 lmao

45. How old were you when you first got high?It aint happened yet (and i dont really want it to)

46. How old were you when you first had sex?It aint happened yet smh

47. When was your first kiss?As far as im concerned never

48. Something you want to do until the end this year?What….does this mean….? Idk???

49. Is there something in the past you wish you hadnt done?It’s more stuff I wish I had done tbh. I suppose I said things I shouldnt have or got too involved in drama, but you kinda need all that secondary school shit to learn from it

50. Post a selfie.Lmao nah fam

51. Who are you most comfortable around?My best friend by a mile. Privacy who?

52. Name one thing that terrifies you.Abandonment without explanation.

53. What kind of books do you read?Anything non fiction about medicine/being a doctor/disease/psycopaths.Besides that whatever has been recommended.

54. What would you tell your 12 y/o self?1. Youre gay2. You and I both know you arent joking about being “a dude trapped in a girls body” stop laughing it off and confront it.3. Stand up for yourself.4. Chill out.5. Laugh a lot more omg

55. What is your favourite flower?It’s between petunias and roses

56. Any bad habits you have?Not answering peoples messages unless theyre Certain Person A or Certain Person B.

57. What kind of people are you attracted to?Ones that are out of my league and could kick my ass apparently. Also ones that are kind, listen and think a lot I guess

58. What was the last thing you cried for?Already answered

59. Is there something you dont eat? A food that truly disgusts you?I dont eat loads of stuff bc my guts hate me 😂 but besides all that I’m actually the worlds least picky eater. The only thing I dont like is raw tomato. Thats it.

60. Are you in love?I wish

61. Something you find romantic?All the clichés ngl 😂 just anything that says “i love you” or “i was thinking about you” really

62. How long was your longest relationship?Like 4 months? Barely long term.

63. What are 3 things that irritate you about the same sex?Oh jeez i hate these theyre so stereotype-y1. Bitching2. Not supporting each other3. ….?

64. What are 3 things that irritate you about the opposite sex?1. Not supporting each other2. Massive egos3. Yelling

65. What are you saving money for?Uni so I dont starve to death!

66. How would you describe your bad side?Hmm, idk, it depends what someone did to get on my bad side. I’d say stubborn, bitter and angry tho usually.

67. Are you actually a good person? Why?I could be wrong but I think so long as someone has morally good intentions they are usually a good person, whether they always succeed or not. So yeah, I like to think I am.

68. What are you living for?My friends and the hope I have for my future.

69. Have you ever done anything illegal?Piracy? Thats it.

70. Do you like your money?….did I type this question wrong or??

71. Have you ever made someone feel bad about themselves intentionally?Okay, the honest answer? Yeah. When I was a lot younger and less mature and someone said something that hurt me, I tried to retaliate with equally hurtful comments. I like to think I wouldnt do that now.

72. Ever sent nudes?Lol no

73. Have you ever cheated on someone?Hell no

74. Favourite candy?All candy hates me 😂

75. Is there a blog you visit everyday or almost every day? Tag them.Yeah @oneshappyplace knows I regularly spam her with notes in search or Quality Memes (im so sorry)

76. Do you play any computer games? Whats ur fave?Nah, as if I have time 😂

77. Favourite TV series?Argh I canny choose? I love the IT Crowd, I love supernatural, I love Sherlock, I love in the flesh…

78. Are you religious? Does God exist?I’m not religious and personally I don’t believe there’s a god or higher power but I could be wrong.

79. What was the last book you read? Did it impress you and why?The Bell Jar. See 27.

80. What do you think about vegetarians and veganism?I respect it I guess? At one point I was p much a vegetarian until I had to restrict my diet sooo. Tho I could never be one now, let alone a vegan.

81. How long have you been on tumblr?Too long 😂😂😂 Like 3 or 4 years?

82. Do you like chinese food?Love it!

83. McDonalds or Subway?(Never been to subway so) McDonalds.

84. Vodka or Whisky?(Never had whisky so) Vodka.

85. Alcohol or Drugs?(Never had drugs so) Alcohol.

86. Ever been out of your country?I’m currently in the USA so yeah 😂

87. Meaning behind your blog name?It’s p self explanatory and also v true

88. What are you scared of?Abandonment, deep water, knives, toys with battery packs.

89. Last time you were insulted?Ugh, probs like when I met up with a load of school friends for our leaver’s ball.

90. Most traumatic experience?I’d rather not answer that lmao (plus itd take a long time to type)

91. Perfect date idea?Chilling and listening to each other’s favourite songs while coexisting and eating fast food 😂 that or ikea ngl

92. Favourite app on your phone?Tumblr. Even though I hate it, it also keeps me sane.

93. What colour are the walls in your room?White and blue.

94. Do you watch youtube? Who is your favourite youtuber?I love so many youtubers omg. Lukeisnotsexy, mileschronicles, realisticallysaying and filthy frank are faves

95. Share your favourite quote.Pick your fights.

96. What is the meaning of life?To live life to the fullest so youre happy and have minimal regrets. Also to be kind and helpful so even if you dont change the world you might help someone else to.

97. Do you like horror movies?I think….? But I’m not good at watching them alone 😂

98. Have you ever made your mum cry? What happened?Eh…again, would rather not answer (we got some nice supressed memories here)

99. Do you feel lucky or special in any way?I’m still totally in awe of how lucky I am to have met my best friend from 3000 miles away. Like, the probability of it was so so slim and yet here we are.

100. Can you keep a secret?I think so yh! It’s something that I consider super important.