#i always liked the idea that the wrestling competition was some school event

[leulahart]

Some more pre-canon doodles!

Alternative title: Katniss and her blondies :)

#hey look colored sketches #in my head district 12 everyday school clothing is akin to mid 20th century school fashion #i always liked the idea that the wrestling competition was some school event #and katniss pretends she doesnt notice but madge is like hmmmm #my art #thg #mine #artists on tumblr #sketch #doodles #katniss everdeen art #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark #madge undersee #primrose everdeen #everlark #pre canon

[slutforstabbings-archive]

cowboy!corey hcs... what u got?

Sorry for taking a week on this 😅 without further ado ~

pre-accident:

Corey grows up watching old westerns, Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons, etc because Joan doesn't want him watching any of that raunchy, degenerate current TV, it might give him ideas about girls and a girl could take him away from her.

Little does she know he's still getting ideas about leaving. Go west, young man! Haven't you been told? California's full of whiskey, women, and gold 🤩 Corey heavily feels his father's absence, so the cowboys and farmers on TV become his Daddy. That's what A Man is. That's what Corey should be, would be if his fucking mother would lay off. That's what would make his father proud, if he had lived, the kind of boy he would've raised Corey to be, Joan be damned.

As he gets into his teens, he gets more interested in science and math in school and science fiction in media. Joan allows him Star Wars and Star Trek. He puts the cowboy thing to bed and decides to become an engineer and he works really hard junior and senior year of high school and in his two years at the community college.

But then the accident ruins that plan, and his daydreams find their way back to farms and rodeos and shoot outs. Except Corey always used to picture himself as the US Marshall. Now he imagines himself as the bank robber or the cattle rustler. Less Lone Ranger, more Jesse James.

post-accident, pre-Michael/no Michael:

Maybe in a universe where he gets away before he meets Laurie and Allyson and Michael, he packs a backpack full of clothes, rolls up a big wad of cash he's been hoarding and leaves in the middle of the night while Joan and Ronald are asleep. He takes a bus to Chicago and then a train to Montana or Colorado or Wyoming.

Maybe he gets a job at a horse stable. He doesn't know anything about horses, he's never even seen one in person before. But he mucks stalls and whatever other grunt work they give him and he learns how to ride after his shift is over. He's good with horses, he gets horses. Big, scary, powerful animals that are afraid of everything. They're fascinating.

Turns out he's got a knack for breaking horses that buck of that habit, so someone at work is like why don't you try this amateur bronc riding competition that's coming up? It's a pretty different skill but Corey's okay at it. It only takes him a couple of events to make it the full 8 seconds. The day he makes it, he's wearing a new hat. That's his lucky hat from then on, and it never lets him down.

post-Michael:

If Allyson left with him when he called and said 'we need to leave' I could totally see her going country with him. She would look so cute too, wow 🥺. But I think her presence would keep Corey more grounded and more normal, so I don't think his trajectory in this situation would be that much different.

However, survivor!Corey or a Corey that diverges from canon later than the phone call isn't gonna be mucking any fucking horse stalls, and he rides bulls, not broncs. The kind of targeted fury that drove his murder spree is gone, but he's still pissed the fuck off, he loves violence, and he hates himself.

He signs up for an amateur bull riding competition. They tell him he should practice on the mechanical first but he doesn't give a shit. He makes it the 8 seconds easily. When they give him his prize he just stands there glowering.

But the glower doesn't mean he doesn't like the attention. Corey loves the attention.

If this Corey isn't on the run from the cops, he's going pro, and he's like, a wrestling heel but for the rodeo. He wears all black, he always looks pissed, he never no scores - he wishes you had to stay on the bull for 10 seconds or 12 or 16. Some of the other cowboys think all the hype around him is blown out of proportion, but the ones who've actually spent any time with him, the ones who've seen his darkened eyes and eerie stillness as he mounts the bull before the gate opens, they know he's a scary motherfucker.

If he IS on the run from the law he's not going pro but I don't think he can stay away from the amateur competitions. He just registers with a fake name, wears a bandana over his nose and mouth like a bandit. It's easy money and it helps him get the violent impulses out.

@cordelium @toxicanonymity @ethanhoewke @heartrot666 @mutlifandom--mess @hersweetrevenge @rebel-blue @wolvesandvampires

#corey cunningham #cowboy!corey cunningham #thoughts #mine #ask

[polar534]

Hockey AU

Hi! I wrote an AU... that's not really an AU. Just a bunch of things and scenarios I think would happen in the future for Lumity revolving around one central idea:

Amity in a hockey jersey. (The Feral Brain though that started it all)

Sooooooooooo. Here we go. This first post is mostly about the Hockey Portion of the AU but like I said, it's ended up being alot of different scenarios. It is equally a (short term) future AU as it is a sport AU. I do eventually plan on making all of this into a chapter by chapter fic on Ao3, but if this gets some good reception I'll keep posting updates on here. I've already got multiple scenarios summarized and 4 fully written chapters.

ok but enough of that. Here goes:

Facts and World Building:

- This is about a year and half after the events of the show. (The girls be about 15-16)

- These girls are just dating. There's no drama. They are incredibly happy together. Which they deserve.

- Amity and Luz are living in the human world with Camilla.

- They spend weekends with Eda at the palace.

- Lilith and Eda are currently trying to restructure the entire Boiling Isles coven system. They have overthrown and taken down Belos and the Clawethorn sisters were named to lead in his stead. To the majority of The Owl Fam's surprise.

- Luz and Amity help them in their free time going around and helping everyone adjust and heal from the tyrants rule.

- The portal remains in the castle under protection. The Owl Fam and friends of The Owl Fam are welcome to use it, but any others must go through Luz. (Eda's decree)

- They attend Hexside during the day and homeschool themselves on human subjects before they go to bed.

Hockey Overview:

- Firstly. Amity's team is called the Otter's. She specifically chose that team because she knew the name would make Luz happy.

- Secondly. The entire team adores Luz. She's at almost every practice and is there for every game. So although she's useless on the ice, she is just considered a member of the team.

- Thirdly. Amity is extremely careful to stay within the rules of the game, but she doesn't hold back. Her role on the team is mostly defense. Her job (which she mostly assigned herself) is to keep the path clear for her teammate with the puck. If that means absolutely bodying anyone who comes near, then she does just that. (I mean, let's be honest she played heavy support in the grudgeby match we saw her participate in.) Amity has to really struggle with keeping her competitive/perfectionist side under control and not wrestling the puck away from the strikers every chance she sees an opening that others don't. It's a left over from her time playing Grudgeby.

- Fourthly and most importantly: Amity has tried to teach Luz to skate. Many times. Luz cannot skate. Luz cannot even operate on ice. If she is on the ice, she is clinging to Amity.

Summary/Timeline Thingy (under a read more cut because... oh my god I have a problem):

At first when Luz starts going (purely because she wants to support Amity), she's pretty silent. Just working on either school work, her glyphs or making a meal plan for both Eda and her mother because both are too busy/crazy to seem to take care of themselves. The team doesn't mind, and finds it pretty sweet actually. Especially when Luz will randomly look up and compliment one of them on a shot. Or how the girl seems to just stop mid-work to stare transfixed as the new blood is practicing.

Now that's just cute. Nobody can deny that.

Or that the newbie completely changes demeanor from stone cold and calculating to absolutely flustered and soft as soon as her girlfriend slides clumsily onto the ice to greet her at breaks and after practice.

Also. Cute.

All that slowly changes though because Luz is like... SUPER excited about Amity being on a sports team. Especially Hockey. She stays mostly quiet during practice because this is Amity's thing and she wants to respect that, but as soon as they get off the rink together Luz is excitedly discussing new plays and strategies or the best ways to hit the other players so they stay down longer. It's Amity's favorite way to wind down after practice. She's usually too tired to keep up with Luz's energy but she listens and relaxes into just how excited her girlfriend is.

Amity always takes into account her girlfriend's post practice discussions and will often put them into play at the next practice or game. It's extremely noticeable. Despite being new to the sport, and frankly seemingly still surprised by alot of "normal" customs and rules, Amity is getting really good. Not only is she skilled and strong but she's also catching on to strategies and plays that even the coach doesn't seem to always get. (Rec league because official coaches and team games sound boring honestly)

She starts to get approached by her teammates, asking her for advice or tips. While she can answer some of them, she normally just yells up at Luz (sitting on the bleachers) out of nowhere asking for her opinon, to which Luz somehow always has an immediate response prepared. Most often not even looking up from whatever she was doing to answer it.

Whenever someone asks her about they know so much about sports. Amity usually shrugs and just replies, "We're a team." Sometimes with a quip about how Luz makes them watch too many movies or something about Azura. That's when the team starts approaching Luz equally about stuff, and insist she start sitting on the sidelines with the team rather then the bleachers. Whenever they ask Luz why her and Amity know so much, Luz just gets a huge shit eating grin and waves her hands in front of her face as she says: "It's magic~".

Since keeping Amity's witchiness a secret is one of their biggest priorities, this always makes Amity really nervous. Not to mention she knows Luz is also referring to their relationship as magic which makes her get immediately flustered as well.

Its a win-win for Noceda. She gets to have fun with a secret only they know, and gush about Amity at the same time.

Soon enough, while Luz never actually goes out onto the ice, she's just a part of the team. Amity gets voted team captain, much to the current team captain's relief and while Amity keeps a monitor as to how her team is doing on the ice, Luz keeps a monitor as to how their plays are doing from the sidelines. They work together to switch members out at perfect moments and the Otter's go from a very basic team to being one of the top teams of the area.

Random Facts (read: I have no category for this stuff but it's important):

- Luz will often steal Amity's jersey, because its really baggy and comfortable and because it's Amity's. Amity has a STRUGGLE every time it happens. 1. It's way too cute. And 2. "Luz, I need that." "You going to come and take it Blight?"

- Regardless of how bad she is on the ice, Luz is really good with the hockey stick and surprisingly accurate with her shots. Her and Amity will often practice together in a field, and, when they're sure no one's watching/visiting Eda, they'll add their own magical twist to the game and have a 1v1 witches hockey duel.

- Luz loves it when Amity checks the shit out of players on the ice. She is one of THOSE hockey fans. And her girlfriend is brutal.

- King and Amity have a really good relationship in Hockey AU. They are both vent buddies. While Amity is in much healthier place and doesn't put as much pressure on herself anymore, she still gets easily frustrated. King, being the little dude he is, is also easily frustrated. Every week they get together for a vent session in which they chill out and watch a stupid movie in the background and complain about it to get the night going. It always ends up that they pause the movie before it's over because they're too busy going off about other things bothering them.

- Lilith and Eda share mentoring roles for both girls. It's not an, Eda for purely Luz and Lilith for purely Amity situation.

- Camilla is incredibly proud of her two girls and is incredibly supportive as well... but she can no longer go to any games or practices. The first time Amity got hard checked by an opposing player during a game, Camilla nearly stopped the entire match demanding she go down and look her over and make sure she didn't have any injuries. When Luz and Amity approached her that night, after she was asked to leave the game, she was grateful for the excuse. "You know I love and support you both, but I cannot watch... that. With good conscious. You'll just have to make sure you come to me if you're actually hurt. Ok?" She'll still come to Amity's big games, despite her anxiety.

- Amity has a scar from an injury she received in her first season's Semi-Final game. (I have ALOT of notes on this... it is one of the 'scenarios' I listed at the top.)

#toh #the owl house #lumity #toh au #the owl house au #Hockey AU #still figuring out tags #all the apologies #will post more if people like it

[nothisis-ridiculous]

Take Me Home Now: Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen: Country Roads, Take Me Home

Set after the events of ME3.

A rewrite.

FemShepxKaidan

"Hey Shepard," Kaidan smiled broadly, shuffling over to a side table, "there you are."

"In my apartment?" Mary teased. Appreciating the cable knit sweater Kaidan sported. It was a little tacky, white and covered with blue reindeer, but she loved the gaudiness.

Her obvious comment dismissed with the wave of a hand and the rolling of his eyes, "if we're done sassing, I brought you something."

"Not up for it today, Alenko?" It was no longer necessary to refer to each other by sir names, but it became a game. Once one started, the other joined in. Competition didn't deter Mary from approaching the biotic, glancing over his shoulder on tiptoes.

His jump wasn't expected, "I'm always up for it, Shepard, but you are being a little difficult." Kaidan's head tilted back and over his shoulder, leaving Mary to take the initiative.

Mary closed the distance with a chaste peck, leaving her jaw to rest on his shoulder, brushing against his back. They had forced their relationship to rebuild slowly over the months, no explosive sex, no sleepovers... just lots of talking. Sharing. Opening up about things they never had the time to talk about and the time after the Reaper War. It was a strange kind of intimacy when she let her arms encircle his waist, a test of what they would both accept.

"Difficult? I'm not sure what I've defied yet," her gaze briefly wandered to the package in his hands, "is something up?"

Kaidan chuckled, pressing his lips against her skull, "maybe I'm striking preemptively; you never know. But I have something you for- my mom made it so be nice."

She yoinked the package from him, falling ass-first onto her bed before she tore impatiently into the package. Out tumbled another sweater, a plain grey turtleneck with a doubled-up cuff. Best of all, it was huge, Kaidan likely playing a part in that. Mary grinned up at him, "this is nice."

"Well, hurry up and put it on," he urged.

Mary took her turn at the eye-rolling, "for what, Alenko? Yes, Canada is cold, but I'm inside."

"What if we're not staying inside?"

"Really, Alenko?" she half whined, but it was a show. She was excited to go outside, it was starting to snow and she felt restless.

"Come on! Let us celebrate your official release, I had to convince everyone else that breaking you out was grounds for war. Something about assaulting an Alliance Base being a terrible idea..." his grin widened, "though, Garrus had some solid plans."

"Fine," Shepard didn't fight the grin as she wrestled on the sweater. It was much bulkier than she expected, even the sleeves far too long, and the neck threatened to swallow her face. She let it rest below eye level, lumbering over to Kaidan.

The pure silliness emanating from the woman tugged at his heart; this was a much different person from the Officer that commanded the Normandy.

His hands took her face, lowering the fabric to kiss her gently, "looks good, Shepard."

"It might be a bit big."

He caught her eyes wandering to the sweater he wore and his chuckle escaped," you'll have to ask."

"You didn't," her face turned brighter under his touch, only the trace of a scar left along her jawline.

It was another game they had played aboard the Normandy- as high school as taking your lover's clothing was, Mary found simple pleasure in it. In the privacy of her cabin, it was comfortable to wear something a few sizes too large and his subtle smell on the clothing made it better. She'd pretend to steal an article of clothing here and there, or he'd forget to take something with him. Kaidan enjoyed occasionally finding her wrapped up in his shirt and her signature pooh bear PJ shorts. It was a rare human moment for the Commander- Captain, hopefully, less rare in the future.

"That's stealing," she harrumphed.

Kaidan retook her lips, she froze for a moment from the surprise but eagerly complied. God, he loved this woman.

"And I can't have you going out looking that hot," she murmured on his lips, "we'll just have to trade."

"A little possessive there-," he pulled the sweater off, revealing his shirtless form, "at least take me to dinner first."

She was a little distracted but followed suit, tearing her gaze away, "I know a place with steak."

"Heh. Now, now that is how you butter me up."

"Kaidan," Mary faltered on three beats, "this look better?"

Those weren't the three words he expected, "beautiful as ever, Mary." He carefully trained his gaze on her pretty blue eyes, watching them sparkle brighter for a second. She wouldn't acknowledge the compliment, but it was her favorite.

"Where we going?"

A classic Shepard deflection.

"You did mention steak."

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

With full bellies, Kaidan guided them through the decorated square. Christmas music drifted gently from all directions mixing with the sounds of life. Deep laughter, feet on fresh snow, and the wafting smells emanating from the food stands. Mary grew a little quiet, so he gently took her hand.

"Is this too much?"

She shook her head, "I just remembered what tomorrow is."

He nodded, December eleventh, the day of the final push on the Reapers. Three years from the day, there was a lot to mourn and as much to celebrate. Mary just struggled to remember the latter, often caught in the sacrifices made to get to and on that day.

"Do we need to head back?"

Mary shook her head.

"You sure."

"It's fine," the smile was only a little forced, "just let me center."

"Sit down, and I'll be right back."

"Really-"

"Mary, please."

"I don't want to ruin-"

"You're not, but sit."

The Captain sighed heavily but parked her ass on a bench. Distracting herself as she studied a nearby pine tree all decked up in lights. The bright blue lighting of the home fabrication building. Watched the people walk by, comforted in a moment of invisibility to let the knot in her chest loosen. It was too much to expect it to disappear, but it could be made less heavy. If life could return to normal for all these people, it could for her.

The Major returned with two paper cups, steam rising from the vent, "drink."

"I'm pretty full."

"Just drink. It will help you focus on something else," his frown grew a smidge.

Her mouth was met with sudden sweetness; hot chocolate was not her jam, even when seasoned with cinnamon. Kaidan seemed satisfied, even if she grimaced.

"Mary, I just-"

"Kaidan," her interruption hinted with exasperation, "is something up?"

He reeled, forcing out a grumbling chuckle, "what do you mean?"

"You've been acting a little strange."

"I mean," he rubbed at the back of his neck, eyes pinned on the ground, "hell, Shepard. Can one part of this relationship be normal?"

"You didn't have to drag me out here just to break up with me," her voice came out small.

"No- I'm not," he suddenly turned to look at her, running a finger along a cheek and rested it on her lip, gently taking up her chin. Once his drink was in no danger of spilling her held her other hand, "that's the last thing on my mind. It's the future. Mine. Yours. "

"I feel like I am missing something."

His smile drooped, and his head turned away, staring straight into the building in front of them, "what do you want, Mary?"

Freedom was a hell of a thing. After spending so much time in duress, were forging forward for the future was the only option. That freedom was foreign, alien. Her career had also taken a lot of her choice, and she was content with that life. Now, with her field wide open, she didn't know how to run. Her family would be scattered, irrevocably. If she stayed with the Alliance, could she be with Kaidan? If she didn't retire from the Spectre life, her priorities were further in shambles. Mary didn't want to return to further solitude, making her way without companionship and connection. But the thought of returning to active duty terrified her- she had seen and caused enough bloodshed for one person. So much seemed in question. In reality, it was hard to admit what she wanted—a peaceful place to return home to more often than not.

Her time aboard the Normandy had been the closest to calling anything home since Mindoir, almost twenty years ago.

Did Kaidan want that with her? That was the biggest hurdle, deciding to start that process alone and hoping he caught up... if that is what he wanted. She knew her name wouldn't give her all the time in the world to delay a decision.

It hardly helped that the biotic didn't look at her, completely removed from her in all ways. The tangle in her heart spread into her throat, pathetically as it echoed; nowhere would really feel like home without him. Not for a long time anyway. As challenging, heartbreaking, and frustrating her time with Alenko had proven to be-, he had remained stable. A solid foundation.

"You," the word spat out, "I still love you and-"

The Shepard bravery only went so far with emotions, her hand stopping inches from his thigh. It was a boundary she was afraid to cross. She was already too bold.

Kaidan's gaze left the building, returning suddenly to her. Mary retracted only to be stopped by Kaidan yanking both of them from the bench, pulling her tightly into his arms. His nose nuzzling her cheek before moving to her ear, a hand cradling the base of her skull, "I've always loved you, through all these years, through..." his voice a whisper, "through everything. I'm the luckiest man alive. I don't know where all of this will go- our careers, our lives, but I want to be with you. No matter how slow I have to take things. If that's a no, or a not yet, I promise it won't hurt me."

Mary titled her head and furrowed her brows, a no?

Kaidan chuckled, his belly rolling as the laughter overtook him. Forcing him to step away from her, needing his forearms to counteract his balance as he crumpled inward.

"Kaidan?"

Shepard watched him compose himself with growing impatience, arms folding tightly across her chest. Whatever joke she was the butt of, it wasn't funny. Not now.

"Mary," Kaidan's voice turning to the graveled cadence that made her tummy flutter. The man closed the distance between them again, turning her body in the direction of the storefront, "you don't have to decide now. We don't have to go in, and you can even tell me to get lost."

Oh. OOH.

The home fabrication company. The home fabrication company she had been sitting in front of for the last several minutes.

"Kaidan..." it must have been the snow prickling at the corner of her eye.

"Shepard, Mary- I can't promise to know what happens next. I just- I just want a place for both of us. I have some property and I thought... hoped that it could," he took in a steadying breath, the pressure of his hands a somewhat uncomfortable, "that we could make it our own. Somewhere soft for us to land, whenever we can make the time."

"Or as much as possible?" Mary pivoted, hooking her fingers into his pockets, "we could both quit, everything! Retire and watch every sunset!"

Kaidan stole a kiss, "I'm not sure the Shepard I know could sit still that long."

"You'd have the time to teach me," Mary kept him close, practically grinning into his mouth.

"You know, I think I'd have better luck potty training Kalros," Kaidan mused, wisely knowing what Thresher Maw Mary could handle mention of, "but I think I get your meaning. You'll try to stick it out with me?"

"I can handle an outdated L2."

"Outdated!? Ouch."

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

"Everyone would understand if this is too much," Kaidan murmured beside her, "and if you want company, I'd rather be with you."

Mary slowly turned to look at him, the flickering of the white string lights illuminating the contours of her face and the flash of annoyance in her eyes. That was fair, it felt like the millionth time he had beat around that bush. He wanted her to feel comfortable, to not push her into anything that might trigger a reaction. Yes, she could handle herself, but he had to ask. To make sure.

Kaidan had made sure springing the party on her wasn't an utter surprise. Spilling the beans shortly after they had left Alliance Headquarters. Shepard seemed genuinely excited, and he was hopeful; her time sequestered away had chipped at the edges exposed after the war. By all means, she had been cleared by the professionals, but that didn't mean complete freedom. He knew that from experience.

"Traynor better have brought along another bottle of Serrice Ice," she grinned, "Chakwas and I have our tradition to fulfill."

Mary grabbed his hand, pulling him another few steps through the snow and closer to his parent's place. Already it was lit up, and the drifting of music wafted over the otherwise quiet plot. She paused within casual eyesight of a window, watching the figures within with a soft sigh. Kaidan slowly put an arm around her waist.

The glitter of snow in her hair was beautiful.

"You were right," she said with a snort, "I found a way."

"I never doubted you," placing his lips firmly against her temple.

Her head tilted up at him, eyes drinking him in, "I have an answer to your question."

Kaidan waited.

"Jane was me, before the Alliance. My original name... before Toombs took pity on a Batarian's slave," Mary's glance softened, "I thought you deserved to know."

"If-"

"It's long dead and gone," Kaidan believed her, even if he burned with questions, "Alenko, I want to drink. To hug my friends again- I'm looking forward to my hangover tomorrow, so I have something else to be miserable about instead of the past. Maybe, even a tad excited to further disappoint your mother."

#fshenko #shenko #kaidan alenko #mass effect fancition #uugggh #take me home

[supercasey]

TF2 RED Headcanons by an idiot that can’t pay attention well enough to read the comics

Back on my bullshit, because I apparently can’t shut up tonight. This is gonna be a big, possibly in-cohesive mess, and will probably have more focus on Scout, Pyro, Sniper, and Spy since they’re my favs, but I still felt like writing down all my dumb headcanons/ideas regarding everyone’s favorite mercenaries (at the moment at least; I might make another post like this later on, hopefully after I’ve read the comics)! Sorry if any of these seem OOC, I’m just goofin’! (Putting this under a readmore because WOW this got LONG)

Every Sunday afternoon, Scout, Pyro, and eventually Sniper when he tells everyone that he's a trans guy, hold a makeshift “Trans Buddy Club” meeting, which mostly consists of Scout mindlessly rambling about drama on base, Pyro nodding along, and Sniper occasionally adding his two cents/spilling tea as well.

Scout can speak fluent French, on account of his mom making sure to teach it to him so he could have more of a connection to his dad, but no one found out until a little after Spy told Scout he was his dad. It wasn’t long after this that Scout revealed that this entire time, he’s known every single thing that Spy's ever said to him in French, but he didn't say anything because he thought it would be funny to keep the ruse going (also because he really liked being praised in secret). Cue Spy freaking tf out because oh no, now his kid knows that he's secretly a huge softie for not only his son, but his whole team.

Sometimes Spy and Scout talk shit in French right there in front of the team, but no one has any fucking idea what they’re saying and to be honest it’s pissing Soldier off the most, much to the father and son duo’s amusement.

Pyro secretly has a little black rabbit named Lucifer (Lucy for short) in their bedroom, which they only take out to get some fresh air and hop around very early in the morning, before anyone else is awake. The only people who know are Medic, Spy, and surprisingly enough Soldier, whose raccoons became friends with Lucy.

Sniper has a goldfish in his RV, but it died three months after he joined the team; he has no idea though because Miss Pauling replaces it every time one passes away, so now Sniper is convinced he has the world’s oldest goldfish.

Scout and Soldier both really want a dog, but they're not allowed to have one on-base. :(

((Heavy plans on sneaking a dog in next Christmas and no one can stop him. It’s gonna be a Border Collie named Bandit, and it gets the most attached to Scout and Heavy.))

Demo is no longer allowed to make mixed drinks for parties; the last time he did, he got everyone so shitfaced that they had to cancel work for three days in a row in order to recover from it.

Continuing off of that: drunk headcanons.

Demoman: Unassuming drunk. Acts like he usually does, unless he’s gotten particularly shitfaced for a party/event, in which case he’ll be slurring so bad that no one can understand him anymore.

Pyro: Giggly drunk. Is just laughing the whole fucking night at nothing in particular, which scares anyone who’s still sober. If they’re too far gone, they’ll start mumbling something that sounds like it’s in Spanish.

Spy: Party drunk. An absolute fucking mess, he’s trying to impress everyone and keep their attention on him, which usually leads to him standing on tables and dancing until he falls and passes out.

Sniper: Sleepy drunk. Out like a fucking light at the slighest bit of alcohol. If he wakes up and keeps drinking though, he’ll just be slurring like Demo, only with a lot more anger in his voice. Let him sleep, or he’ll fucking stab you to death.

Scout: Clumsy drunk. Bumps into anything and everything; eventually has to be given a sippy cup for his alcohol because he dropped three glasses in a row. Talks even faster than usual, until he accidentally fucking pukes on someone.

Soldier: Calm drunk. Instead of getting loud and aggressive like most would think/fear, he’s just… chillin'. Just watches the shitshow as it happens, not even laughing when people get hurt/fall down. Kinda terrifying if we’re being honest here.

Engineer: Depressed drunk. His depression goes through the roof if he has too much, so he doesn't drink more than a few beers if he can help it. If he does accidentally drink too much, he'll be sobbing his eyes out in no time flat.

Heavy: Cuddly drunk. It’s very, very hard to get him drunk, since he’s really good at holding his liquor, but if you do, he’s gonna be hugging and carrying everyone he can get his hands on; you can expect him to have Medic and/or Pyro on his lap once he’s drunk enough.

Medic: Angry drunk. He wants to start fights with fucking everyone, all his rage coming out once he’s had a few too many; god help anyone who tries to stop him. Luckily for all involved, Heavy is more than capable of holding him still until he tires himself out.

BONUS Miss Pauling: Dumbass drunk. With too many bottles in her, she’s gonna be the one shouting and encouraging Spy to act reckless, while also encouraging Engie to drink more because quitting is for losers. Will pass out within an hour or so of downing her first drink.

BONUS The Administrator: Stereotypical drunk. Slurring, stumbling, she’s got the whole nine yards, but she’ll be damned before she let’s anyone see her that messed up. Secretly sips wine at work.

Okay, back to my rambling.

My personal headcanon names and ages for Scout’s older brothers, going from oldest to youngest: Grant 34, Timothy 32, Jacob 31, Arthur 31, Patrick 30, Malcolm 27, Curtis 26, and Jeremy (Scout) 23.

((Also, I’mma go off on my headcanon personalities for them, which are based off of how I’ve tried portraying them in my "Jeremy" fic.))

Grant - 34 years old - Bisexual - Occupation: Veteran/Construction worker - Personality: the oldest of the bunch, he takes it upon himself to keep his little brothers in line/help Ma out as much as he can. Enlisted in the Air Force after he graduated high school, and still takes a lot of pride in his veteran status after serving overseas three separate times. The family peacemaker.

Timothy - 32 years old - Homosexual - Occuptaion: Cartoonist - Personality: the gentlest of his brothers, he often gets roped into helping Grant keep the pack from running too wild. Bit of a softie; loves his husband and loves his job. Closest relationship is with Scout. Doesn’t approve of Scout being a merc but is too scared to say so. The family heart.

Jacob - 31 years old - Heterosexual - Occupation: Freelance guitarist - Personality: the firstborn of the only set of twins, Jacob is a lot more abrasive and instigating than his twin brother. Can’t grow a beard for shit, which pisses him off. Doesn’t get along well with Timmy, despite them both being talented and devoted artists. The family sword.

Arthur - 31 years old - Pansexual - Occupation: Carpenter - Personality: the second born of the only set of twins, Arthur is far more outgoing and nonchalant than his twin brother. Has a beard and loves it more than life. Secretly has a boyfriend, but is too nervous to come out. Gets along better with Jacob after they’ve become adults. The family shield.

Patrick - 30 years old - Heterosexual - Occupation: Hairdresser - Personality: probably the least social of all of the brothers, he prefers staying out of sight and out of mind tbh. Used to practice cutting everyone’s hair when they were kids. Doesn’t talk to his brothers that much, mostly due to being busy/forgetting to call more. The family shadow.

Malcolm - 27 years old - Heteromantic Asexual - Occupation: Wrestler - Personality: the most aggressive and physically competitive of his brothers, there’s nothing he won’t do to win a fight, save for using weapons/lethal force. Hard to get along with, but he still loves his brothers to bits, and was overprotective of Scout when they were younger. The family instigator.

Curtis - 26 years old - Heterosexual - Occupation: Bartender - Personality: was a total fucking mama’s boy growing up, and constantly got in trouble with his brothers for tattling on them. Still argues with Scout every time they see each other. Wants to make Ma proud, but it’s hard for him to keep a job for very long. The family drifter.

Jeremy - 23 years old - Transmale Pansexual - Occupation: Mercenary - Personality: (This is mostly for how he was as a kid) was constantly following his brothers around (especially Malcolm) in hopes of getting in on the fun. Was always treated as the family baby, so everyone was a bit scared to wrestle/fight with him for fear of getting him hurt. Very close to Timmy and Ma. The family runt.

No one on RED team can fucking drive well, save for MAYBE Sniper, but even he hates doing it. Spy gets so goddamn mad within two seconds of driving, Pyro can't stop swerving, Scout drives like a 16 year old who hasn't realized their own mortality yet, Medic jumps at every little inconsistency on the road, Heavy shouts at other drivers for being too slow/fast, Demo's depth perception is shit, Engie drives like a 90 year old grandmother, and Soldier is fine except he will literally shoot at other drivers for tailgating him/cutting him off.

The whole team has designated “Team Bonding Days” thanks to Miss Pauling, which involves playing board games, card games, and video games (in a slightly more modernized AU) together… this, of course, goes badly sometimes. The worst incident they ever had was a bad game of Monopoly that almost ended Heavy and Medic's friendship.

Uno is forever banned from Team Bonding Days. No explanation is needed.

Off the battlefield and in the base, Miss Pauling had the team set up a chore wheel, which is only occasionally followed. Engie is the most dedicated to following it, while Demo and Sniper try everything in their power to avoid cleaning the base.

Spy sometimes disguises himself as other teammates in order to get out of doing his chores, which has led to a lot of shouting matches that ended in Spy being forced to admit it was his fault.

Spy's favorite teammates to disguise himself as are Engie and Scout. He likes being Engie because he gets to be more affectionate with people without being found out, and he can act as Scout incredibly easily due to knowing him so well (tbh he's so good at masquerading as Scout that it's scary).

For Halloween, everyone put their names in Soldier's hat, then proceeded to pull out other teammates’ names to dress up as for their Halloween party. I dunno exactly who would be who, except that Scout traded around to get Spy, steals one of Spy's suits, and just goes around the party bonking people with a plastic baguette he bought online and speaking in a purposefully bad accent.

Spy: Mon fils, you can speak perfect French and you fucking know it. Please stop making a fool of ton père.

Scout: Hohoho, wee wee, I am a fucking frog that gets pegged by baguettes, hoho!

((Spy is this fucking close to committing filicide.))

Everyone can actually cook pretty well, but only very specific things for each merc: Demo can mix and blend drinks (not just alcoholic ones) like it's nothing, Pyro and Heavy like baking, Medic can barbecue anything, Scout knows how to make a lot of shit from scratch (thanks, Ma), Spy and Engie can grill like the true dads they are, Soldier will deep fry every piece of food he eats, and Sniper makes the best soups and stews imaginable.

In order of least to most messy bedrooms: Spy, Heavy, Engie, Sniper, Pyro, Demoman, Medic, Scout, and Soldier. You'd think Scout's would be the worst, but Soldier's room looks like a literal fucking war-zone.

Even when they're not working but get injured in some way (namely from shenanigans/horseplay), people will straight up kill themselves in order to respawn without the injury. The pettiest thing anyone ever respawned off-duty for was Medic suiciding over a tiny ass paper cut.

Demoman is scarily competent at the weirdest of times. For instance, Engie was once trying to figure out how to fix an issue on one of his turrets, only for Demo to stumble over, completely shitfaced, and point out the problem as well as the solution, before passing out under Engie's worktable. Demo doesn't remember this at all.

The first time Engie swore in front of the team in excess (due to dropping a hammer on his foot while he was tinkering), everyone was absolutely horrified because they had only ever heard him say “fiddlesticks” and the like.

Medic's room may not be the messiest, but goddamn is his office a fucking bomb waiting to go off 90% of the time. No one but Medic can find anything in the mess, which is just fine by him.

Heavy likes to sing (mostly just to Sasha) when he's cleaning her in the locker room. The others try to be within hearing range when he does this, because holy fuck, Heavy is a very good singer! He mostly just sings soft songs/lullabies, so his singing is sometimes used by the team insomniacs to help them get some much needed rest.

Okay, another group one. The mercs during shopping trips together:

Demoman: Sneaks a shit ton of alcohol into the cart when no one's looking. Starts complaining if he has to be at the store for too long; will try and sneak away to go home at least once during the trip. Accidentally bumps into a display case and makes a huge fucking mess.

Pyro: Sits obediently in the cart the whole time, occasionally nabbing candy and stuffed animals off of nearby shelves. Will puppy-dog eyes their way into getting everything they grabbed, no matter how much it is.

Spy: Somehow managed to steal an employee uniform and he pretends to work at the store the whole trip; the other mercs keep accidentally falling for it and asking for his help. This all goes to shit when a Karen starts shouting at him over something he didn't do, and he straight up slaps her.

Sniper: King of forgetting wtf was on the list and just grabs shit on the grounds of “Doc said we needed milk, right?” and other such excuses. Knows where everything is despite never having come here before.

Scout: “Gimme the list, I can get everythin' in, like, ten minutes!” Wants to speedrun grocery shopping due to years of shopping with his mom and brothers. Will run loose if left unsupervised and accidentally bust ass on some spilled milk.

Soldier: The one who spilled the milk that Scout busts his ass on. Insists he knows where he's going, but doesn't. Gets into a fistfight with a soccer mom while everyone's waiting to check out; the soccer mom won.

Engineer: Has a full, printed list of everything the team needs, which is organized by aisle number. Is the one who gives into Pyro's begging. Team Dad; keeps an eye on everyone and stops the soccer mom from murdering Soldier.

Heavy: Pushes the cart the entire time. Spends way too money on stuff in the protein shake aisle. At one point runs the cart down the aisle and let's go because Pyro wanted him to, and it ends up crashing into Demo.

Medic: Argues with the pharmacists at the pharmacy counter. Got lost with Soldier until they found Scout unconscious, so he had to perform CPR in the dairy aisle and a fucking paramedic criticized him the whole time; the paramedic hasn't been seen since.

BONUS Miss Pauling: Tries to more or less chaperone this shitshow of a shopping trip. Starts out cheerful and happy, ends up threatening to put child leashes on every last one of these dumbasses.

After Spy taught him how to dance in Expiration Date, Scout goes to him occasionally for advice, such as how to change a tire, how to cook certain things, how tf to do laundry, etc. Spy secretly loves that Scout does this, and tries to help him as much as he can.

Everyone on the team has called Engie “Dad” at least once, even Spy and Medic. No one comments on it.

Medic has been known to go on hour long tirades about anti-vaxxers, with Engie sometimes joining in.

Heavy buys Pyro stuffed animals during his trips to visit his family, which has started a tradition of everyone buying Pyro stuffed animals/toys when they go somewhere without them. Pyro's room is starting to look like a preschooler’s dream bedroom.

Scout calls his mom every other Friday, and he’ll occasionally let his teammates talk to her. Soldier always goes on and on about how good a soldier Scout has been (Scout cries like a baby), Medic tells her about Scout’s latest injuries (Scout damn near chokes him over it), Sniper is just glad to talk to a mom who won’t scold him for the whole phone call, Pyro hums music while Scout’s Ma sings the lyrics for them, Heavy talks about living in huge families with her, Demo asks her how she’s doing and if he can help her out at all, Engie is polite and also praises Scout, and Spy just tells her he’ll call her later before hanging up (Scout punches him for being rude to his mama).

Spy calls Scout's mom on the Fridays that Scout doesn't, mostly to check on her and sometimes to get into some, uh, “steamy” conversations over the phone. Sniper overheard a conversation between them once and now he can't look Scout or Spy in the eyes anymore.

And that's all I've got for right now! I hope you all liked my stupid headcanons!

#tf2 #tf2 scout #tf2 spy #tf2 pyro #tf2 sniper #tf2 soldier #tf2 engie #tf2 engineer #tf2 heavy #tf2 medic #tf2 demoman #tf2 demo #tf2 ms pauling #tf2 mercs #tf2 administrator #tf2 scout's mom #dad!spy #dadspy #spydad #tf2 headcanons #i'm sorry for once again infodumping on main

[nightmaretyrantvantas]

 Ok guys its finally finished!!

Introducing the last two main families in my anxciet au!

Please meet the princes

The Prince family

( from left to right)

Rebecca Prince

The boys’s Mother, goes by the names Mother, Ma, and Bec-bec

Her and Diana have been married for 7 years at this point, and been together for about 10(they met and started dating on and off since high school until they got back together permanently during college)

Punk mom punk mom punk mom punk mom punk mom-

She raised roman on her own for his first year before remus was born, in which she started dating Diana again more seriously

She majored in nursing and later in  sociology in college before dropping out to take care of her boys and raise them right

Shes currently going back to school for the sociology degree inbetween her current job

She works as nurse and receptionist at a doctors office in town

Shes in her mid forties current time( where roman is 22, remus is 21, and kingley is 14)

Shes a pretty tough love kinda parent, and doesnt mind rough housing with her boys when they get too out of line and rowdy( they all enjoy the playfullness of it)

But compared to Diana she is not the scary when angry parent, and she can actually be pretty lenient with the boys depending on the situation

She also tends to be the one who gives into their requests and in kingley’s case, puppy eyes, though she puts on a tough front when she does

Rebecca is such a softie for her family I just i cant she loves them so much

She makes dad jokes just to annoy and embarrass her sons, but only makes either classic dad jokes or purposely really bad ones

100% supportive of her older boys’s relationships, and loves to tease Roman about Patton all the time

She also enjoys building things, and helped build the play structure and treehouse that are in the backyard.

Shes probably the reason Remus has no filter, as she has little filter herself

Her hair is naturally honey brown but she dyed it recently to make a statement to a shitty coworker so currently her hair is purple blue and pink

Shes usually pretty reserved around anyone thats not her family, so its a bit of a shock when people see her playful and rowdy compared to her reserved, professional front

Remus prince

The middle child at 21 but hey he can (legally) drink!

Wild feral trash man no matter what, but now hes got a switchblade and two brothers hed fucking kill for( though he wont admit it about roman)

Hes dating Logan and shows a slightly softer side to him only, and hes ride or die with his boyfriend

He tried college but it didnt suit him, so he ended up dropping out and instead getting two part time jobs: one as a vet assistant and one as a bartender, both located near his current apartment

Hes been best friends with Ethen for as long as he can remember, they grew up together and he considers Ethen a brother practically, and remus would probably be in a bad place without him and Remus recognizes this

He has a love for theater and acting that he shares with his older brother Roman and was in pretty much every school performance growing up, and even majored in theater for a bit when he was in college

He also writes alot of original short horror stories 

Hes an adrenaline junkie and loves doing reckless things for the fun of it( usually dragging Ethen or Logan along with him)

He doesnt have a youtube channel of his own but he pops up frequently enough on Ethen’s channel when joining him for explorations that Ethen’s subscribers know him well, and love seeing him in videos

Hes only got two filter and their names are Logan and Ethen 

He wants to get a snakes as pets just as much as Ethen but Their apartment has strict rules 

That did not however stop him from bringing home a in rehabilitation small fresh water turtle home from work one day, and its the only exception to the no pets rule because Remus fought tooth and nail over the fact it was part of his JOB DAMMIT HES KEPPING THE TURTLE IT NEEDS CONSTANT CARE--

ahem. anyway the turtles name is Sir snappy and he adores her

He LOVES teasing both his brothers, even if it means getting teased back he can usually take what he dishes out

usually.

He also has a drivers license but does not currently have a car as he is trying to save up to buy a motorcycle 

Kingley “King” Prince

The youngest of the family!! The also the shortest!!

He goes by the nickname “ King” and has for a couple years now

Hes fourteen and hes very upbeat and cheerful!

Hes also one of Andy’s best friends( He isnt crushing on andy dont listen to remus) and theyve been friends since second grade

Did I mention that they have sleepovers as often as they can? Because they try to. Usually King, andy, and Liam are nearly glued to the hips unless they cant be

Hes got a wild imagination and lots of ideas that he loves to share and try to put out as songs, stories, drawings, etc

He has severe ADHD and takes medication to help him narrow his focus more, as well as to keep his energy levels more consistent so he wouldnt be hugely energetic in the morning and dull and falling asleep by noon. But the medication doesnt effect his creativity sometimes it even helps boost it because he can focus better on his ideas instead of getting too many ideas at once to focus on and work on

His hair has blonde highlights in the winter and looks nearly fully blonde in the summer

Hes got his mama’s caramel brown eyes and tanner skin, as apposed to his ma’s more peachy skin and green eyes

This boy loves to wrestle and roughhouse, hes got alot of energy that needs to be ran out by bedtime and what better way then wrestling his older brothers for the tv remote when they visit? Or playing games at the park or in the backyard until the sun goes down 

He also loves to sing and draw, he can usually be caught humming and you can find doodles all over his homework and school assignments

He also got braces when he was 12 and he loves them and always gets new colors for them as often as he can convinces his parents to agree to

Roman Prince

The eldest brother at 22!

He works at the local theater as a theater tech and assistant director and also performs in a good chunk of the plays put on as well

He loves his job, especially when they put on musicals

He has a college degree in directing and one in music composing

Hes known his boyfriend patton since they were kids since their families are really close, 

He also writes his own short plays and stories that are sometimes performed at his work!!

Oh and this boy our boy roman can cook, hes learned all his cooking from his parents and absolutely loves cooking and learning new recipes and experimenting with old recipes! He also brings extra food into work to share with his coworkers and the actors in case someone doesnt have food with them or the money to buy something( as some of the workers there are broke college students or high schools trying to get experience) He and Patton share this hobby and sometimes have playful cooking competitions in their kitchen!!

Hes got a huge dvd collection that fills tree shelves of a bookshelf in their apartment 

He also holds some acting lessons to younger workers at the theater in the case someone is struggling with a role or performace

Roman is also a very smooth motherfucker in the romace department when he wants to be. Hes romantic and pays alot of to little details and goes all out for date nights, whether theyre at home dates or going out dates he tries to make it as perfect to you as possible

Also he speaks spanish and likes to sing to Patton in spanish to swoon him on a bad day

Diana Prince

The boys’s other mother! Goes by Mama, Mum, and baba

Shes in her late thirties early fourties

did I mention theyve been married for years? I did? Good good

Diana is a blunt sweetheart with a bubbly, snappy personallity and a fiery temper

Shes really good with kids and has a degree in child psychology and works as a guidance counselor at the local high school

She also helps out at their neighborhood’s church with events and sometimes helps with services as an organ player

She plays piano and has been since she was young, she can also play the guitar

She absolutely adores her family but watch out if they break a rule or get themselves into trouble she is the stern one and does not let them get out of trouble. Puppy eyes are wasted on her you do the crime you do the time and the extra chores no arguing.

That is not to say that she wont listen and hear her boys out though, its just normally after hearing them out theyre still in the wrong( pray for remus is he ever got arrested for anything cough cough the homecoming incident cough cough)

Shes been friends with Emile since high school and sees his boys almost like her own, and cares for them as such. 

She speaks spanish and told Roman and the others from a young age, but Roman is the only one who kept with it strongly, Remus only uses it when he angry and King is still learning

Shes an amazing cook, on par or even better than Emile( a statement that has been yet to be confirmed)

She is also a confirmed lover of making big meals 

She loves being outdoors and playing with her kids

She also enjoys doing embroidery as a relaxing hobby

And lastly introducing...

The Daniel family!!

(from left to right)

Olivia Daniels

Logan and Liam’s mom! Shes a psychology professor at the local college! 

Shes been going by the name Olivia for about 16 almost 17 years now and shes never been happier!

Olivia is technically their step mother, as she joined the family after Logan and Liam were born, but very early in their lives( Logan was 10 and Liam was three)

shes in her mid thirties

Her and richard have been married for 12 years and are still going strong!!

olivia is more of a gentle soul kinda person, shes peppy and softer spoken and has a very soothing and trusting presence to her. Shes easy to make laugh and loves making people smile

She also enjoys bringing treats to her classes for her overworking students

Shes not much of a cook but she does try dammit

Looks super sweet but shes a force to be reckoned with if you fuck with her children let me tell you

She wouldve made an excellent therapist had she gone into that field, shes good at listening and offering solutions

She also paints in her spare time!! And sells her paintings at local art shows!!

Shes got the worst sweet tooth ever Richard has to hide sweets in the house

She also works at the same college Logan attends, same with his father

Shes the only blonde in the family with green eyes

 Logan Daniels

Out sassy skeptic! He’s 20 years old and currently attending college with a biology major and a astrology minor!

Hes pretty reserved at first glance, being the calm and common sense to both his best friend Virgil and his boyfriend Remus

But hes such a dork when you get to know him. He could go on for hours and hours about his interests(something Remus loves listening to)

He lives in a single person dorm on campus and works in the student union as well as does tutoring sessions for high schools for extra credits

Hes been dating Remus for a good four almost five years , and they met in freshman year of high school

His dorm room is covered in various posters for astrology and bands he enjoys, as well as a few old theater posters from Remus’s old performances

He was  goddamn punk during high school, and Virgil loves to bring this up to embarrass him

He likes to always wear business casual unless hes staying in, and even then sometimes he keeps to his fashion habits a little too hard

Hes a decent cook, but he doesnt refuse the offer of someone else cooking for him either( or even going out to eat now and then) 

Hes a very large and firm skeptic and greatly enjoys debating with virgil different aspects of his beliefs and paranormal experiences, and functions as the one between them to reason away happenings with logic as a way to ease Virgils nerves. 

But he IS willing to see his best friends side of things if he is provided solid proof. 

He also makes plenty of appearances on Virgil’s channel for a variety of reasons, and his fanbase really likes him

Hes also a very protective older brother, and is not afraid to verbal destroy anyone who hurts his little brother(much to Liams angsty horror) 

He does have a car that he put Remus on his insurance for, so if his boyfriend ever DID need to drive it he would without complications

Logan also does join the boys on explorations, though this is a more rare occurance as he’d rather help them edit the videos and put them out in a timely manner

Hes pretty good at managing his student budget, but he has those moments of splurging randomly for things( as we all do sometimes)

Hes got a really REALLY nice laugh that not too many people outside his inner circle have heard

His eyes are a dark blue just like his dads, and he keeps his dark brown hair messy but practical

Liam Daniels

Logan’s baby brother! Our boy is 13 years old!!

Hes andy’s other best friend, and the final link to their little trio

Hes the more stoic of the three, as he is entering his rebellious angsty teen years a couple years early. 

He loves space and the ocean, and wants to be a marine biologist someday.

Hes not the best at being social, thats why hes got King as their talker and hes the snarky fighter

This boi is alot fiestier than he looks but only his friends and family know that, and he will throw down if you even just look at his loved ones the wrong way( despite his height)

He doesnt always get social cues either which makes him come off kinda rude in situations but I promise he doesnt mean it 

Someone got his mothers sweet tooth but cant have too much sugar because it messes with his body too much

like when he crashes from a sugar high he crashes hard and its BAD

Hes the shortest of his friends, just barely half an inch shorter than Andy

He always looks half tired and like he needs coffee but he cant have coffee so...

he loves to read and his room is filled with so many books!!

He also has a stuffed animal collection but shush about that its a secret

Hes also a spicy food lover( at least to a point, nothing too extreme) 

He likes baggier clothes because theyre more comfortable, and he prefers comfort of fashion

His eyes are a brighter blue and he keeps his hair alot neater than his brother’s

Hes also very snappy, with a comeback for almost everything

Richard Daniels

The dad!! He works as a chemistry professor at the college and a part time physics teacher at the local high school( switching days)

Hes very tall at 6′2(compared to the rest of his family)

He looks really strict but hes surprisingly laid back about alot of things( though rules and discipline are NOT one of those things) 

He is in his early fourties

He took care of the boys on his own for logans first ten years and Liams three before he met Olivia

Hes got the scolding parent look and The Tone mastered and sometimes even uses both on his students to get them to behave, with wildly successful results

Hes very logical and skeptical of things “unrealistic”

Was a stressed out stick in the mud before he met his wife, as he was a new single father trying to secure tennure in a teacher job

Hes the cook in the house, and is really good at it.

hes a more silent understood supporter of his children, as he is much more reserved than his wife

But he as the biggest soft spot for her 

He always tries to raise his boys with a strong balanced set of values and manners

He also can play lacrosse, and was considered the best player back in school

He doesnt have a good relationship with his family aside from his mother, so the boys have only met their grandma on that side, as he doesnt want any toxic mindsets or ideals influencing his children( especially Liam)

compared to Olivia  he isnt soft spoken at all but he would rather dissolve issues with communication and clarification, not anger or violence( yeah LIAM)

He also enjoys watching documentaries and doing casual photography from time to time

And its finally done!! All for families are complete and posted!!

Im really proud of these!! Especially the prince family photo! It took me days to figure out the poses...

All art referenced is credited to @aimasup @underdog-arts and @fangirltothefullest !!

Anyway i hope you guys enjoy! And hopefully soon ill be posting some writings for this au too! And posting more drawings! Enjoy!!

Taglist

@phantommoonpeople

@sweetsweetemo

@leesacrakon

@amazable01

@starbucks-remy

@jemthebookworm

@max-is-tired

@seriously-a-dragon

@sar-kasstic

@soupspam

@strawberryjellystuff

@aimasup

@unsocialchapeau

@underdog-arts

@fangirltothefullest

#my art #sander sides writing #sander sides au #sander sides #sander sides art #anxciet au #anxciet #remus sanders #sympathetic remus #deciet sanders #roman sanders #ts roman #ts remus #king sanders #king creativity #logan sanders #ts logan #logic sanders #intrulogical #remus x logan #deceit x virgil #sander sides youtube au #youtube au #human au

[ego-driven-one-wing-angel]

Send a number | Answers

Thanks again for 250 followers!!!

What’s one animal you wish you could have as a pet but can’t?

A penguin. I love them so much.

Favorite thing to wear to sleep?

Sometimes I wear one of those “drug rugs” or baja hoodies. With shorts. And sometimes knee high socks. I HATE pajama pants. So if I’m cold I find alternatives. 

What song really gets you going?

Right now, Drinking Alone by Carrie Underwood. But usually Tranz by Gorillaz.

Where do you usually eat your meals?

At my dining table or in the family/living room with my mom.

Favorite meal: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?

BRUNCH

Most embarrassing habit?

Sometimes I’ll pick my nose at the most inconvenient times like a child.

Chocolate or fruity candy?

Chocolate

Soft or hard tacos?

When I ate meat regularly, soft, with carne asada. 

Worst way to break up a fight?

Throwing a pan at them? Dude I don’t know. Wrestle them to the ground? I feel like either of those are terrible.

Best thing to say in an elevator of strangers?

“You’re all probably wondering why I gathered you all here today.”

What color/design are your bedsheets?

Teal. And my comforter is a black/white diamond pattern.

Any hidden talents?

I was a dancer for roughly nine years. So I’m pretty good at that.

Favorite thing to drink out of (mug, glass, etc.)?

My Star Wars Luke Skywalker lightsaber water bottle. 

Socks or bare feet around the house?

Bare feet man. Those who wear shoes in the house are weak and will not survive the winter.

 Favorite board game?

Clue!

Do you sleep with the fan on or off?

I don’t even own a fan.

Heat on or keep it cold with lots of layers?

Heat at 67.5 and a sweater. Perfection.

Do you sing in the shower?

Who doesn’t?

Favorite song to belt out at the top of your lungs when you’re alone?

Tranz by Gorillaz. All time favorite song EVER.

Last thing you cried about?

Watching Zack die YET AGAIN in Crisis Core. I don’t think I’ve ever watched that scene WITHOUT crying.

At what age did you first have alcohol?

15ish. Wine.

Relationship status?

Single

What’s the most amount of money you’ve spent on a single item of clothing?

249$ A Guess coat that I absolutely adore.

What do you typically wear to formal events?

A modest dress. Heels. And a Louis Vuitton bag to match.

Favorite memory?

Probably almost getting arrested with my friends back when I was 17. We were at a closed park, after hours, past curfew, and it was like 3 am. We bought 64 tacos from Jack in the Box and pigged out in the venue. Super rad.

Gum or breath mints?

Gum

Favorite shoes?

Probably my Guess sneakers. I don’t wear them often, but I love the design.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

My chubbiness. I’m not fat per say. But I’m not skinny either, but I want to look more like a classic, 1950′s pinup model more than anything.

What is the natural state of your hair?

My hair has very soft curls. Naturally, there more like “beach waves”

Have you ever had braces?

YES. WORST YEARS OF MY LIFE

Most dangerous thing you’ve ever done?

Ghost hunting. I was illegally trespassing, and the building was real sketchy. 

Most embarrassing thing your parents have caught you doing?

I’m just an embarrassment through and through. What haven’t they caught me doing. But I guess writing porn is a close first.

Last time you had an orgasm?

I’m a virgin who has never experienced anything remotely sexual. 

Celebrity crush(es)?

Sebastian Stan, Bill Skarsgard, Sam Claflin, Karl Urban, Sebastian Stan

Windows or Mac?

I’ve never owned a Mac, so I’m biased when I say Windows.

How old were you when you learned to ride a bike?

Six, seven? I was still quite young.

Makeup or natural?

MAKEUP

What color do you wear the most?

I wear a lot of neutral colors like gray.

Favorite season?

Winter.

Umbrella or rain coat?

Umbrella.

Have you ever fallen out of a tree?

No

First car you ever owned?

A 2002 Toyota. Super old, and the chip was painting off. My trunk also broke. Oil leak. Y’know, a traditional first car.

What time do you usually go to bed?

Anytime between 11-1 am.

Are you a competitive person?

Yes.

Least favorite color?

Orange.

First pet you’ve ever owned?

A cat :)

Sweet or salty?

Sweet

Favorite pasta dish?

Ravioli 

Favorite kind of chips?

Cheetos

Talk about something you’re passionate about.

Writing. I love being able to put my ideas on paper, let my thoughts and emotions run free in a world where I have to act a certain way. I can be anyone while writing!

What are some of your hobbies?

Writing

Drawing

Watching too much television

puzzles

Caffeine? If so, what kind?

I’m a tea gal. But I LOVE coffee. Especially mochas and caramel. With extra pumps of espresso. Hell yeah.

Favorite kind of pizza?

Ranch and Chicken or just plain cheese.

Fast food or sit-down restaurant?

Sit-down

Lots of acquaintances or a handful of close friends?

I love having a large circle, but I choose my best friends wisely. I only have about two or three of those and they’re the one’s I keep close to my heart.

Something that ruins your appetite?

This is a bit more dark, but my dad and I don’t bond outside video games. And he’s the type that believes it’s his way or no way no matter what. So if you get him angry he acts like a two-year-old who just got a toy taken away, and will try to push your buttons until you’re the same way. I saw the signs years ago, but whenever his anger is targeted at me I just don’t want to eat. I write instead. 

Favorite labels about you?

As in names? It’s near 1 am while writing this so I might have just gone stupid. But I love it when my friends call me cutie. Or my good friend Charlie calls me Smarties. And he’ll pull out a smartie from his pocket when he does it. I also get called Reid, as in Spencer Reid, a lot.

Are you a religious person?

Yes. I try to be at least. I’m Christian.

Night out with a bunch of friends in public or night in with one friend having deep conversations?

Night out. I spend too much time indoors with one friend as is.

What size shoe do you wear?

9

Favorite thing about yourself?

My confidence, or my keen fashion sense. 

Have you ever told someone you loved them first?

No.

Have you ever had sex on the first date?

No.

Heroes or villains?

Villains. (Sephiroth, Bucky Barnes, Loki, etc.)

Favorite fruit?

Pomegranates. 

Least favorite fruit?

Bananas. I’ll eat them, but there are a lot better choices honestly. 

Favorite vegetable?

Broccoli

Least favorite vegetable?

Brussels sprouts

How many plates can you eat at a buffet?

About a good three. First is salad. Second is fruit. Third is desert. 

Favorite dessert?

Ice cream. Bubble gum flavor is my favorite!

Do you play any sports?

Nope.

Age you learned how to swim?

Seven or eight.

Tell a funny story.

Maybe this is just funny to me, but earlier today my cat was trying to lick her coat but she set her front paw on a piece of paper and anytime she bent over to lick herself she slid and she would have to readjust herself. She did this like four times before she decided to move.

What’s one interesting thing about your culture?

As someone who is a part of the Navajo tribe, something neat is the more fat you have on your bones the more people respect you because they believe you have money.

What’s one annoying thing about your culture?

We can’t touch cold-blooded animals. It’s said if you touch the scales of a snake, or even breath in the same air, you’ll get the same skin as them.

What job would you be terrible at?

Accounting. I can’t do math to save my freaking life.

Would you rather watch a TV show or a movie?

TV shows.

What’s your favorite compliment to give?

“Cute Outfit!” or “Love the Hair!” You have no idea how many people light up on either of these, male/female/nonbinary. Looking good is a happiness found across all the spectrums. 

What’s your favorite compliment to receive?

“Cute hair.” Or “Love your makeup/nails.” 

Has your opinion changed on something recently?

I can’t remember. Like I said, it’s close to bedtime where I’m at and boi, it’s hard to concentrate right now.

Do you always order the same thing at a restaurant or order something different each time?

I order the same. 

What’s something you’ve always wanted to try but haven’t yet?

This sounds awful, but I’ve always wanted to try ecstasy. I have buddies who’ve taken it and say, if you do it right, the first time is pretty bomb. 

If you could learn to do anything right now, what would it be?

Singing. I can’t carry a tune.

Favorite physical feature about yourself?

My eyes.

Least favorite physical feature about yourself?

My wide hip/waist ratio. If my waist was thinner I wouldn’t mind as much.

What’s one amazing thing you did that nobody was around to see?

OKAY. I scored a strike on Wii bowling while i was on the toilet one time. Two rooms away and not even looking at a screen. Just using my heart and determination and it was SUPER COOL AND I WISH PEOPLE COULD HAVE SEEN THOSE SKILLS.

If you could change your height, would you?

Yes. Everyone is a good foot taller than me. So I would most definitely want a few more inches.

What’s something you would rate 10/10?

Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s Character concept for Sephiroth. The eyes, the height, the hair. WOW. In love.

Heels or flats?

Heels

What’s something you wish you had more knowledge about?

Politics. I want to get more involved but every time I do I get so confused.

Would you want to be famous?

I wouldn’t mind. But I value my private life.

What’s something you would get arrested for?

Well I already almost got arrested for eating tacos in a closed park at 3 am. So maybe that.

What’s your spirit animal?

A cat. 

What’s the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to you?

The fact that I graduated high school. I was developing anxiety and literally had no idea what the frick was happening with me and no one told me what it was. So I ended up skipping loads of school for that reason. 

Are you the type to have an organized mess, or no mess at all?

Organized mess. Or just a mess. 

Do you tend to make decisions based on the past, present, or future?

The future.

Are you a planner or a more spontaneous person?

Planner. I hate when things are sprung on me last minute. I have to emotionally prep up before a social event so 5-10 business days are needed.

Thoughts on the oxford comma?

I was taught to use it, but it’s literally so useless? I found myself either not using it or just doing it on instinct. So in one story you could probably find multiple instances where I use it and where I don’t use it, maybe in the same paragraph. I just do whatever fits that moment I guess.

What do you hope never changes?

My squad. I love them to pieces and it would break my heart if at some point they’d want to split.

How would you celebrate your 100th birthday?

Something extremely dangerous like skydiving or zip lining across a canyon. 

[metalchick19-blog]

The Bowers Gang: How the Guys Would Behave with an Athletic S/O (Requested by swagmoneypatrick)

* In a scenario where the gang members’ partner runs track.

* Any and all credit for this idea goes to the requestor.

Belch: Even though Belch would be fairly indifferent about having an athletic s/o, he would think it was cool all the same - it would certainly be something he admired about his partner, but, for the most part, it probably wouldn’t factor into the important parts of their relationship (as would be the case for the rest of the guys too). If his s/o participated in a specific sport that was important to them though, Belch would make a point of asking about it constantly just so they knew he cared; in the event that his s/o ran track, Belch would want to know why his partner ran, what went down at their meets, and whether they won or lost when they raced against other schools (winning would always mean a celebratory joy ride complete with large milkshakes from anywhere in town, courtesy of our favorite teddy bear). In a lot of ways, Belch would just want to make sure his partner knew that what mattered to them, mattered to him, and would do whatever he felt he had to to get that point across - he’d even help his partner condition for each new season if they asked him (i.e. he’d hold the stopwatch while they ran around the block). After a while though, some of his s/o’s active mindset might genuinely start to rub off on Belch on a higher level; he might start working out more to keep up with his partner’s “get moving” life style, and would probably find he enjoyed it enough to be down with the idea of becoming a “gym rat” couple down the line.

Henry: Even though, in general, Henry wouldn’t say much about having an athletic s/o, he’d secretly love the living hell out of it - not only would he live for the fact that his partner was constantly in the best shape of their life (many, many cringe-inducing comments to the guys), but he’d also love that his s/o would be physically capable of kicking some ass for themselves if they needed to. Being that the only sport Henry ever watches is wrestling, he basically figures that if someone plays any sport at all, they’re fit enough to engage in a Chuck Norris-level fight - because of that, he’d see his partner as a hard-bodied badass like himself, and would enjoy treating them as his “equally vicious” partner in crime (even if they were actually a delicate flower on the inside). If his partner ran track, Henry would show up to a good amount of their competitions, but always with the guys in tow - despite the fact that he would truly be interested in watching them race, Henry wouldn’t want to make it obvious to his partner how much he really cared about what they were doing, and so would basically just bring the gang along to make it look like he wasn’t all that invested. While the guys talked and laughed in the stands though, Henry’s eyes would stay fixated on the track, deeply concerned with whether his partner was ahead or behind. He would make fun of his s/o mercilessly afterwards every time they lost (”I thought you said this is something you practice at.” *Face-melting glare from s/o* “... Just sayin’.”), but would have to stifle a smirk from the stands each time he saw them win. Really though, a big part of Henry would feel a genuine sense of pride towards his partner no matter what - being that he’s never felt an intense drive to do something before, and, in general, lacks a sense of purpose, Henry would deeply admire his s/o for their passion to do what they do. He would think it was cool that they loved something enough to work at it, whether or not he ever said it out loud (which he definitely wouldn’t).

Patrick: Outside of the physical benefits of having an athletic s/o (aka: a hawt body), for the most part, Patrick wouldn’t care at all about the fact that his s/o played sports. He wouldn’t ask about what sports they played, wouldn’t ask about the sports they played once he knew what they were, and just generally wouldn’t acknowledge it as something important about who they are. However, he would make an effort to show up to his partner’s competitions and track meets regularly, both because Patrick loves an opportunity to wreak havoc (he’s already been banned from Derry High’s basketball and volleyball games), but also because he’d expect to get laid afterwards. Although he might show up with the guys every once in a while, Patrick would, more often than not, come alone so he wouldn’t have to inhibit himself (correct - believe it or not, the way he behaves with the guys is Patrick being inhibited); he would scream-cheer the entire time (85% of what he said either profanity or something sex-related), mess with the people sitting around him incessantly, and likely do a “grand finale” type thing that would get him banned from track meets for good. This could be anything from jogging next to his s/o and talking to them while they raced, to sprinting onto the track and getting in the other runners’ way to help his partner win. Streaking would probably be involved at some point or another (again, “helping” his partner win). Really, Patrick’s s/o would just learn to understand that having Patrick involved in the sports sector of their life would always, always, end up being far more trouble than it was worth.

Victor: Like the rest of the guys, Victor wouldn’t think much of having an athletic s/o; for the most part, it wouldn’t affect their connection, but he would be supportive x2,000 if he found that something his partner played was important to them. Out of all the guys in the gang, Victor would be the most genuinely interested in what his partner did, and wouldn’t feel the need to hide it whatsoever. He’d ask them about their track meets, remember important dates for competitions and award ceremonies, and would be 100% down to give them a pre-game pep-talk whenever they needed one. He’d also help them condition (building a little stamina himself in the process) and would attend his partner’s competitions religiously. Really, Victor would just love the feeling of being invested in something for his partner; like Belch, he would like making it clear to them that the things that mattered to them, mattered to him, and would never fail in making his s/o feel backed up in what they loved to do. Victor would also appreciate the simple fact that his s/o had devoted so much of themselves to doing something positive and non-destructive (something he’s not at all accustomed to); in a lot of ways, it may have made his partner feel like a new breed of human to him when they first started dating. When it comes to his s/o’s competitions, Victor would always try to come alone so that he could be who he really is (aka: a soft boi), and would sit quietly in the stands as his s/o did their thing. He would stand up, a “proud Dad” smile on his face, and clap as loud as he could every time he saw his partner cross the finish line - win or lose. The only bad thing would be that Victor, hands-down, would walk down to the track and argue with the coach every time he thought he made a bad call about something where his partner was concerned. This would happen often enough to annoy the rest of the audience, but Victor honestly wouldn’t care - he’d shove the whistle down someone’s throat in defense of his s/o’s honor.

#Henry Bowers #patrick hockstetter #belch huggins #victor criss #The Bowers Gang #the bowers gang headcanons #it

[queen-scribbles]

Character Interview-Mallory

Tagged by @haledamage​, who wants to see one of my Wayhaven girls specifically. I’m all too happy to oblige(actually was planning on doing it with at least AJ and Mallory at some point anyway, so being tagged just bumped it up the priority list ;D)  Fabulous new art courtesy of lovonne

1. What is your name?

“Mallory Denney.” She gives a slight nod and sits with her hands folded on her desk. “Nice to meet you, I suppose.” While the words sound true enough, she looks less than entirely comfortable with the prospect of being interviewed. 

2. Do you know why are you named that?

She smiles slightly, fondly, the stiffness fading from her shoulders. “I think Mum just liked the name Mallory, and Dad was so in love with her and excited to be starting a family he agreed. My middle name’s for his mum, though. I do know that for sure.” The smile shifts more toward wry. “Of course, given… some recent events, having a name that means unlucky seems more than a tad ironic.”

3. Are you single or taken?

The stiffness is back and she shifts ever so slightly in her chair, gaze dropping to her hands as one thumb picks at the other. “I… That doesn’t seem relevant. But, to humor you, I’ll say work is important, and I have a lot on my plate, especially as liaison to the Agency, so there’s not really time for anyone outside that.” She glances at her computer screen. “Which I suppose would make my answer that I am single.”

4. Have any abilities or powers?

She almost seems relieved at the change in topic. “I know a couple different martial arts, so I can handle myself quite well in a fight. I’m a bloody good shot, very determined, and quite good at deductive reasoning.” She snorts softly. “Much as I wanted to join the army, I do have to admit to being well-suited to my current career.” 

5. Stop being a Mary Sue.

She cocks her head, arching one brow, and laughs. “If you think I’m lacking in flaws, I can give you the names of several people who will  be all too happy to change your mind.”

6. What’s your eye color?

“Hazel.” She gestures vaguely toward her face. “They trend toward the green end of the spectrum most days, but under certain conditions I’m told they’re more golden-brown.” A wistful look flashes through her eyes, there and gone so fast it would be easy to miss. “Mum says they remind her of Dad’s.”

7. How about your hair color?

“Black.” She runs one hand through the loose, silky waves that hang down her back, gathering them forward over her shoulder with a half-twist. “That I got from Mum.”

8. Have any family members?

“There’s Mum, but she’s the only one I’m close to, however tricky that’s been with her job.” She rolls her eyes. “A few relatives from Dad’s side who’ve stayed just enough in touch they felt free to make their opinions known when I started planning to join the army….” A snort. “Probably why I don’t talk to them much any more.” 

9. Oh? How about pets? 

She shakes her head. “I’ve thought about it a couple times, but I work such long hours it wouldn’t be fair to a dog, I’m allergic to cats, and my immediate neighbors are not the type to enjoy knowing there’s a rodent or snake  living next door, so those are out in consideration of them.” She absently gathers her hair in a loose ponytail, which she leaves hanging over her shoulder. “I did come rather close to getting a bearded dragon, but they grow enough to require a tank larger than I’ve room for.”  

10. That’s cool, I guess. Now, tell me something you don’t like?

“Being lied to. Being used. My authority and/or competence being questioned.” A wry smile twists her lips. “Being treated like a bloody child, usually just b’cause I’m shorter than most.”

11. Do you have any activities/hobbies that you like to do?

“The martial arts I mentioned are both for self defense and enjoyment.” She cracks her knuckles, thinks moment. “People watching, camping, sports or exercise of any kind, really, but particularly swimming.”

12. Have you ever hurt anyone in any way before?

“Certainly,” she shrugs. “Both professionally and personally. Some I regret, others” --she smirks--”Others I do not.”

13. Ever… killed anyone before?

“Not so far, though I have come close on a couple occasions.” There’s a flicker in her eye that hints at this not strictly applying to the line of duty.

14. What kind of animal are you?

“I have been informed on many occasions that I remind people of a wolf. It’s not always meant in a complimentary fashion.” She shrugs. “If that’s the case, I I would like to further clarify that I am either a lone wolf or an alpha; fine working on my own or with a team, but in the latter case, definitely prefer being in charge.”

15. Name your worst habits?

“I’m too stubborn by half, short tempered besides, and competitive enough for it to be my undoing someday” She smirks. “There’s more, but those are the worst.”

16. Do you look up to anyone at all?

“Mum, obviously. Her job’s not easy, but she does it to keep people safe. And she’s done her best to keep in touch with me despite it keeping her busy and being a massive bloody secret.” She runs her finger over a slender ring that circles her pinkie. “We’re not always as successful at keeping in touch as we’d like to be, but it’s enough. I know she cares, and she’s doing a damn hard job. Can’t help but admire that.” She thinks for a second. “I also admire Tina’s optimism and Felix’s cheerfulness, even if I can’t quite share them.”

She leans back in her chair, staring at the ceiling and clearly biting the inside of her cheek as she wrestles internally with something, before sitting forward again with a groan. “Never, ever tell him I said this--and I mean EVER--but….. despite how arrogant and condescending he can be, Adam’s commitment to protecting people no matter how low his personal opinion of them is extremely admirable.” She groans again and tugs on her ponytail. “I’ve had to do that before, just once and for only a couple days. It’s hard, especially when the person you’re protecting validates your opinion.”

17. Are you gay, straight or bisexual?

“Straight.” She arches a mildly judgmental brow. “Not that I see why it matters.”

18. Did you attend school?

“I did. University was a struggle, if I’m honest; I’m more of a hands-on learner than a classroom type, so voluntarily doing the latter was… not the most enjoyable experience.” 

19. Ever want to marry and have kids one day?

“It’s not something I’ve ever really thought about, if I’m honest.” She purses her lips. “I don’t have a problem with the idea of a family, but I would be worried about putting any children through the experience of losing a parent in the line of duty, having been through that myself. I suppose you could say I haven’t ruled it out, but it would require a lot of careful consideration before I actually did it.” 

20. Do you have any fangirls/fanboys?

Her gaze narrows and darts toward the front desk, specifically the young officer slouching in the chair to play some sort of game on his phone. “Unfortunately.”

21. What are you most afraid of? 

Her expression closes off, face going rigidly neutral, save the dark look in her eyes. “Failing at my job. I’m supposed to protect people.” She rubs her arms, gaze going distant as she murmurs, “and there is no feeling in this world more awful than not being able to do that.”

22. What do you usually wear?

She shrugs, relieved at the lighter topic, but something still lingers in her eyes. “Something practical and comfortable. Usually that means something like this”--she gestures at her t-shirt and cargo trousers-- “with Old Faithful there and a pair of sturdy boots.” She nods toward the beat-up and clearly well-loved leather jacket hanging on a hook by the office door.

23. What’s one food that tempts you?

“Anything from Haley’s Bakery,” she says with a wry smile. “I realize that’s far more than one food, but, really, that woman is entirely too good at what she does. I suppose if I had to pick just one, though…. Strawberry rhubarb pie.” 

24. Am I annoying you?

She presses her lips together and arches a brow. “No comment. Captain Sung thinks this is a good idea for PR, so it doesn’t really matter what I think about it, does it?””

25. Well, it’s still not over!

She flicks one wrist in a semi-dismissive gesture. “Then let’s keep going.”

26. What class are you (low/middle/high)?

Her brow furrows in thought. “I believe we would count as middle? Not scrambling to make ends meet or anything, but I’m not exactly rolling in money, either.”

27. How many friends do you have?

“Not many.” That wry smile is back again. “I’m not particularly social, and not the easiest person to get along with, both of which are rather significant obstacles to a large circle of friends.” She pauses, lips moving as she silently counts. “At least four, though.”

28. What are your thoughts on pie?

“Pie?” She cocks her head. “Depends on who made it. If it’s one of Haley’s, I’ll eat the entire thing myself, regardless of type.”

29. Favorite drink?

“Tea, particularly a good strong cinnamon chai black tea.” 

30. What’s your favorite place?

“The gym.” She cracks her knuckles. “Working out’s my preferred method for handling stress, thinking through problems, things like that.”

31. Are you interested in anyone?

Her expression locks down again, but her ears are going red under her hair. “I… We already established that I’m single and too busy to change that, didn’t we? That I don’t have bloody time for anything outside detective work and the Agency.” The fingers of one hand curl against the opposite bicep and a muscle in her jaw twitches. She shakes her head to pull out of the encroaching memory and arches a brow. “Who would you imagine I’m interested in, anyway?”

32. That was a stupid question…

“I wouldn’t call it stupid,” she says carefully. “Perhaps redundant. I know personal details are a large part of what interests people in interviews and articles.”

33. Would you rather swim in a lake or the ocean?

“A lake, I suppose,” she replies after a moment’s thought. “Riptides are bloody terrifying, and they’re not a threat in a lake. Unless it’s a very large lake.”

34. What’s your type?

She clears her throat and glances toward her computer screen as if hoping for a distraction. “You’re really determined to get something about my love life out of me, aren’t you?” She sighs. “My type… Honest. Stands by his convictions, willing to protect people, no matter how thankless a job it can be at times. Y’know the saying about actions speaking louder than words? Someone like that, who’s more interested in doing the right thing than just saying the right thing.” She makes a face. “I dated a sweet talker at university; pretty words do not a good relationship make. Trust me. Other than that… Green eyes are nice. Unless they belong to arrogant, condescending blonds who think they belong in charge by default and refuse to let anyone get a word in edgewise.” Despite her scowl and the tight set of her jaw, there’s no real heat behind the words.

35. Any fetishes?

She smiles, gives a small shake of her head. “Sorry if that disappoints you.”

36. Camping or outdoors?

“Both are quite fun, though I’m confused by that ‘or’ as camping usually takes place outdoors, doesn’t it?” she says playfully. “I do enjoy outdoor activities like hiking and such. The woods around here are quite lovely and peaceful, for the most part. And I love camping.”

Her computer chimes and she glances toward the screen. Her expression turns serious at whatever she reads. “Unfortunately, I have some important, time sensitive information I need to discuss with our pathologist, so we’ll have to end things there. I hope what we got through is sufficient, and I trust you can see yourself out.” 

Without waiting for confirmation or farewell pleasantries, she closes out her email, grabs a file from her desk and her jacket from its hook by the door, and is gone toward the basement steps. 

#tagged #character interview #mallory denney #twc #the wayhaven chronicles #this is either between book one and two or very early book two #how many different ways can she attempt to skirt admitting she *likes* the 'arrogant condescending blond?' :D #the answer may surprise you #there was some other note i wanted to add but i can't remember now shoot #oh well

[thesportssoundoff]

“A little solid regional afternoon card” UFC Fight Night in Denmark Preview

Joey

September 23rd

What to call this fight card. Hmm. Does weirdly good apply? It feels like a weirdly good card. UFC events in the middle of the day tend to have this extra level of good or bad on them. If it's good then it feels even better because it'll be done before 11 PM and you can go about your day happily. If it's bad then it feels extra bad because mid day MMA almost feels like having to be in school on a Saturday. This card is headlined by a pretty damn good fight at 185 lbs which feels weird given that its a dude who flamed out at 205 lbs vs a guy who got swamped by Cezar Mutante. Jack Hermansson vs Jared Cannonier being a) a headliner and b) a genuinely compelling fight tells the story of how quickly shit turns around at the higher weight classes but also how good fighters can find their way to adapt and evolve with time. The whole main card is pretty damn spiffy; you got two solid fights at 205 lbs with under the radar Polish LHW Michał Oleksiejczuk getting the big step up vs OSP, Ion Cutelaba vs Khalil Rountree figuring to be violent if nothing else, Gilbert Burns vs Gunnar Nelson the sort of short notice wacky fight at 170 lbs that people might be surprised by and an interesting fight pitting Brazil's Alex "Cowboy" Oliveira vs Denmark's Nicholas Dalby. There seems to be some confusion on what the fifth fight on this main card is as I've seen Alan Omedovsky/John Phillips, Mark Madsen/Danillo Belluardo and Macy Chiasson vs Lina Lansberg all listed but here's hoping it's the WBW fight since it's a fine challenge for Chiasson and a "prove it again" for Lina. Prelims are pretty good too with Lando Vannata vs Marc Diakiese and the return of Siyar Bahadurzada as stand out stuff. It's not a great card but something tells me this fight night will be more than alright.

Fights: 13

Debuts: Nicholas Dalby, Mark Madsen, Makhmud Muradov, Jack Shore, Giga Chikadze

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 3 (Peter Sobotta OUT, Makhmud Muradov IN vs Alessio Di Chirico/Danny Henry vs Mike Davis CANCELLED/Thiago Alves OUT, Gilbert Burns IN vs Gunnar Nelson)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 8 (Jared Cannonier, Jack Hermansson, Gunnar Nelson, Cowboy Oliveira, Lina Lansberg, Ovince St. Preux, Lando Vannata, Khalil Rountree)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 2 (Ovince St. Preux, John Phillips)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 5 (Jack Hermansson, Jared Cannonier, Michał Oleksiejczuk, Gilbert Burns, Macy Chiasson)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2017 (in the UFC): 32-19

Jared Cannonier- 3-3 Jack Hermansson- 6-1 Gunnar Nelson- 2-2 Gilbert Burns- 5-1 Ovince St. Preux- 4-4 Michal Oleksiejczuk- 2-0 Khalil Rountree- 4-1 Ion Cutelaba- 2-1 Mark Madsen- 0-0 Danilo Belluardo- 0-1 Nicholas Dalby- 0-1 Alex Oliveira- 4-4

Fights By Weight Class (yearly number here):

Middleweight-  3 (35) Welterweight-  3 (55) Lightweight- 2 (62) Light Heavyweight- 2 (37) Women’s Bantamweight-  1 (18) Bantamweight- 1 (50) Featherweight- 1 (48)

Women’s Strawweight- (24) Flyweight-   (14) Heavyweight- (27) Women’s Flyweight- (29) Women’s Featherweight- (7)

2019 Number Tracker

Debuting Fighters (27-52-1)-  Nicholas Dalby, Mark Madsen, Makhmud Muradov, Jack Shore, Giga Chikadze

Short Notice Fighters (25-35)- Makhmud Muradov, Gilbert Burns

Second Fight (49-29)- Allen Amedovski, Nohelin Hernandez, Danilo Belluardo

Cage Corrosion (Fighters who have not fought within a year of the date of the fight) (20-33-1)-

Undefeated Fighters (31-34-2)- Jack Shore, Macy Chiasson, Mark Madsen

Fighters with at least four fights in the UFC with 0 wins over competition still in the organization (11-8)-

Weight Class Jumpers (Fighters competing outside of the weight class of their last fight even if they’re returning BACK to their “normal weight class”) (26-18)- 

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- Is Hermansson about to become the latest victim of MMA chaos?

2- The story of Jack Hermansson is a fun one and another example of why activity will never burn you as a fighter. Hermansson was one of the guys who was winning impressively against not so impressive competition until the UFC put him against David Branch in March. He subbed Branch without much issue and his reward for that was a short notice replacement opportunity after Yoel Romero pulled out a fight with Jacare Souza. The UFC thought so little of Hermansson as an opponent that they not only promised Jacare a title shot if he won (for taking the fight) but ALSO moved it off of ESPN and to ESPN+. Despite the short notice call up and the quality of competition, Hermansson proved himself over five rounds as he pretty much effortlessly kept Jacare's crazy ground game at bay while taking the Brazilian down and boxing him up on the feet en route to a decision. Hermansson, like the ultimate "Just keep fighting" dude Michael Bisping, never had lingering losses because he always seemed to be fighting the next week. In so many words, Hermansson outfought his losses and kept a steady stream of wins coming so he was always in the radius. Now he's potentially one fight away from a title fight. Crazy sport sometimes.

3- So Hermansson should look in the mirror for every reason why he needs to take Jared Cannonier with 100% seriousness. Hermansson was looking to fight Kelvin Gastelum or Paulo Costa and both fights fell through, opening the door for him to basically HAVE to fight Jared Cannonier in order to fight at home. Cannonier has "earned" this fight by way of smelting David Branch and beating up on an aging Anderson Silva so there's really not much to his resume at 185 lbs that would give him a main event opportunity. That's basically what folks said about Hermansson when it came to the Jacare fight.

4- Are we officially out of the "Gunnar Nelson is a future title contender" phase? What say y'all?

5- Speaking of potential bandwagons, how about this Khalil Rountree one? We on it or off?

6- Gilbert Burns had a pretty impressive return to 170 lbs when he edged by Alexei Kunchenko on short notice in a pretty contentious fight. He gassed out late but he looked as fast as he normally does and his strength was impressive. I have no idea if he will stand much with Gunnar but this could be a pretty fun grappling contest if it comes down to it.

7- Nicolas Dalby was once compared to Martin Kampmann by folks prior to his UFC debut. After making said debut, Dalby just never found a way to make good on that upside. He looked like his so-so athleticism was exploited at the UFC level and he became more and more hittable as his tendencies were found and broken down. Unfortunately for Dalby, a 1-2-1 run against the likes of Elizeu Zaleski and Darren Till led to him being released---where he immediately lost to Carlo Pedersoli. Since that fight, Dalby's gone 3-0-1 and wound up getting signed on what seems like it's more about where Dalby's from than anything. HE draws Alex Oliveira on the main card open.

8- Speaking of which, do we have ANY update on Cowboy Oliveira's legal issues?

9- How is John Phillips still in the UFC? That just seems weird. He's 0-3 and been finished twice.

10- We all might've gotten a bit ahead of ourselves on Ismail Naurdiev but I'm not hopping off the bandwagon just yet. He shocked the world as a short notice fill in vs Michel Prezares but then came up short against wrestle happy 170 lber Chance Recountre. The holes in his game got exposed and his lack of substance to balance out the sizzle stood out down the stretch of that fight. He's back vs a similar-ish guy in Siyar Bahadurzada although Siyar hits way harder than Chance Recountre.

11- The UFC signed Giga Chikadze to fight Mike Davis but then Mike Davis got yanked off the card so the solution to that was to just keep Giga and have him fight Brandon Davis. MMA is weird. Chikadze is sort of not good at MMA but he vs Davis should be violent while it lasts.

12- How many wins away is Macy Chiasson from getting the Aspen Ladd treatment where she's put in a #1 contender fight that may be way above her preparedness level?

#MMA #UfC #Denmark #Hermansson #Cannonier #OSP #Fights

[shaylaraquel-blog]

Is Cheerleading A Sport?

Ever wonder who thought of the idea to have girls cheering with pom poms in front of fans at a football game? Would you be surprised that it was accidentally founded by a man in 1898. Since early 1900’s  women have dominated cheerleading and have since incorporated the 4 elements that make up cheerleading; Dance, Stunting, Tumbling and Jumps.

Despite all of the hard work it takes to be a cheerleader there is still a large controversy on if cheerleading is a sport. So what makes a sport a sport? And can something that was not intended on being a sport develop into one? My answer is absolutely. Have you noticed that there are some “Sports” at the Olympics that you have never seen or heard of before? That doesn’t mean they are not a sport. Some may argue that there is not a Cheerleading event at the Olympics therefore it is not a “real” sport, well there are so  many other sports such as Football, lacrosse or the “American Sport” baseball who are not included in the Olympic games. Does this mean that they should not be considered sports but rather “ Activities”. Maybe it's the bias stereotype that cheerleading holds that it cannot be taken serious enough to be considered, maybe not making it an official sport is protecting the sport itself or maybe it doesn't meet the qualifications for it to be considered a sport, but if so what are the qualifications to have a sport considered an “official” sport? 

So what is a sport? Well according to The oxford dictionary it defines the word “Sport” as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment”  Let's break this down, “an activity involving physical excretion”, cheerleading is very active between the four  major elements it contains. Dancing: which is movement of the entire body and uses a lot of cardio. Tumbling: being able to through your body into the air over your head and being able to land back onto your feet. Stunting: which is using your body to hold and keep another cheerleader in the air and catching them on the way down. “ Skill in which an individual or team competes” Cheerleading does involve skill and not everyone has the skills to be a cheerleader. This is why competitions started, to judge the skill level of a cheerleading team. These skills can be tested on both a school- sponsored and all star competition level as they have different rules for each. “Others for entertainment” Cheerleading started to encourage the crowd whose team was down or apart of a losing streak. As all things evolve, it became known as purposely for entertainment on the sidelines and performing during timeouts and half-time breaks. I mean part of going to watch basketball or football games is the entertainment such as the “ Laker Girls” or “ Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders”  you get to enjoy their presence and you can always count on the cheerleaders being there to be the entertainment on the sidelines regardless of how the game is actually going. Most half time performances involve cheerleaders or a collaboration with the cheerleaders and another form of entertainment. So according to the oxford dictionary’s guidelines, cheerleading is considered a sport. 

With all sports there is a risk of injury and cheerleading is not different. The American Medical Association thinks, “in the name of safety that cheerleading should be considered a sport”. Cheerleading is the only physical sport that its surface changes. Cheerleading can be done on a mat (Competition) on a hard surface such as cement ( Parade), hardwood (basketball) or track flooring (Football) and risk of injury changes depending on the surface.Part of cheerleading is stunting which has cheerleaders hold other cheerleaders above their head and even sometimes on one foot, there is definitely a high risk for injury with gravity not being on our side. Did you know that Cheerleading accounts for 65% of all direct catastrophic injuries to girl athletes at a high school level and almost 71% at the college level according to a report from the American Academy of pediatrics in 2012. Those numbers alone should draw concern to how dangerous cheerleading is and it needs to be taken more seriously. So with an activity that is potentially so dangerous why has this not been considered a sport yet? 

Unfortunately since it is not considered a sport, schools nor colleges support or claim to be liable for the safety of cheerleaders who are cheering for their own school. Did you know that there is no insurance provided to cheerleaders by the NCAA at a college level. All collegiate cheerleaders are required to have private insurance or if the school is wealthy enough the private “Club” will have insurance that is ran by their own organization or boosters. Cheerleaders are at risk of the same injuries that could happen to a football, soccer or basketball athlete that is covered by the NCAA, but they do not consider cheerleading a sport due to its “supportive, noncompetitive role in galvanizing fans to support other athletes” (A direct quote from the NCAA) while that is true, the job of a college cheerleader is to cheer on and support other athletes as well as encourage fans and student body, but in the second statement given by the NCAA is false and college cheerleaders also compete against other college cheerleaders in the college championships and therefore should be recognized as a sport.

  Could cheerleading not being recognized as a sport have something to do with the fact that it would be one of the only sports with men and women on the same team and not divided by their sex? The only other sports are pairs ice skating, pairs tennis, and luge. But unlike those sports cheerleading does not have to have an equal male to female ratio for a team to compete against another team. Maybe it's because cheerleaders are 97% women? If we look at this at a sexist standpoint, it could be because this sport is made up of mostly women.If it was recognized as a real sport more men would be inclined to join and the percentage would change. May come as a shock to some but  Cheerleading was invented by a man named John Campbell in 1898. John was very enthusiastic at a college game and on the spot made up the first ever “Cheer”.  After that cheerleading became huge first within the college community but it then grew to high school and youth levels. How exciting as that is, it was not until 1923 that they even allowed women to be cheerleaders, and women have been fighting for equality in this sport ever since. Some may argue that gymnastics is also mostly women which is also true, but 21% of gymnasts are males unlike in cheerleading where there are only 3%. So maybe cheerleading needs more men to have it be considered a sport. But if that's the case its setting women equality back 100 years.

  Some people think that cheerleading is not a sport because they think they don't have rules and regulations like traditional sports do. Cheerleading may not have a referee to enforce rules but cheerleading does have rules just like any other sport. There are time limits, legal moves, and you can be disqualified the same way you would be for a red or yellow card.  Cheerleading in fact has its own safety association called American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators ( AACCA)  as well as NFHS. They decide what stunts, tumbling and moves are legal from year to year. Movies such as a the “Bring It On” saga dramatize the rules that real cheerleaders have to follow, so all of the 3 men high stunts, belly rings and crop top uniforms are not allowed in traditional school level cheerleading.  Bring it on also makes it seem like a club and not a sport because it doesn’t show a coach but just like any other sport, cheerleaders have to have a coach. There is a try out process, practices, summer boot camps, dress uniforms, and uphold academic and honor codes. There are other rules such as; all routines can be no longer than 2 minutes and 30 seconds, there are specific stunts that they cannot do on certain surfaces ( football track vs basketball hardwood) they can stunt and tumble while the ball is in play at football games but not while in play at basketball games and those are just a few of the rules that cheerleaders have to abide by, just like any other sport.

Some people in the cheerleading community are happy that cheerleading is not officially considered a sport. Most high schools have a limit on the amount of hours a team can practice or gather together each week, since cheerleading is not considered they do not have a limit. Besides taking time to learn dances, cheers, stunts and tumbling cheerleaders have to set aside time to make posters for their school and school athletics. They prepare and plan school events such as pep rallies, homecoming, alumni and end of the year dinners. Did you know that cheerleaders do not just cheer for football and basketball but also volleyball and wrestling which makes cheerleading a year round sport. If it was considered an official sport and had the limited 12 hour a week practice/gather time limit on it, cheerleaders would not be able to do half of the things that they do for their school and their schools athletics. 

I believe that cheerleading is a sport because it requires an amazing amount of athleticism. From practices to competitions, cheerleaders face the same physical, mental and emotional obstacles that all other athletes in recognized sports face. It may not be in the Olympics or recognized by the NCAA but cheerleading is a competitive sport that will continue to evolve until the world recognizes it as what it is, a SPORT

[beingallelite]

Nearly twenty years after the end of the “Monday Night Wars,” the landscape of professional wrestling is on the precipice of a massive shift.

The catalyst for the seismic change is All Elite Wrestling, the upstart company founded by Tony Khan, son of Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, and professional wrestlers Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega and Matt and Nick Jackson — better known as the Young Bucks.

After holding four shows — two pay-per-views and two free events — all eyes will be on the upstart wrestling company this week as it debuts its live television program, titled “Dynamite,” on TNT.

“I guess you could say there are a lot of nerves because going live you face that fact that anything could happen,” Nick Jackson told Yahoo Sports. “You just never know if something wrong is going to go down, like someone getting hurt. Knock on wood, hopefully everyone just kills it and we have a great time. We’re just hoping everything goes right.”

The birth of All Elite Wrestling

Wednesday night represents a culmination of a months-long effort by the Bucks, Omega, Rhodes and Khan, among others. On the heels of their successful independent show, “All In,” in August 2018, the group announced the creation of All Elite Wrestling in January and the buzz immediately started.

What started as a conversation on his back patio between Matt Jackson, his wife and Khan had finally become a reality.

“With the feedback right away we knew it was something that could be big,” Nick Jackson said. “As soon as we announced Chris Jericho, then people knew this was real and it could be as big as anything we’ve seen over the past 20 years. Right off the bat we knew. When we hit a home run with [May’s event] ‘Double or Nothing,’ that was further proof that this was going to be the next alternative.”

While the concept of All Elite Wrestling kicked into high gear over the past nine months, the Jacksons recognize that their YouTube series, “Being the Elite,” served almost as a training ground for the production aspect of AEW.

“I don’t think we would have ever guessed that it would get this big,” Matt Jackson said. “When we first started it, it was just a fun little project that was Nick’s idea to document our day-to-day activities for the fans to help us connect on a more personal level. The fact that it became what it became is really crazy to us. We’re hoping to keep it around.”

Since its inception in 2016, “Being the Elite” has grown to include several other members of All Elite Wrestling’s roster and has served as a conduit to further storylines in between events. As AEW grew, inching closer to the October debut, the Jacksons’ responsibilities expanded and ultimately, the brothers admit that the hit series may change.

“We’re hoping to keep it around,” Matt Jackson said. “I don’t know what that means though exactly, it will depend on what our schedule looks like. We have a huge following, it’s too big to just go away. I think we’ll be going through a transitional phase here soon while we figure out what ‘BTE’ will look like.”

‘My sleep schedule hasn’t been great’

The biggest adjustment for the Jacksons has been juggling dual roles. In addition to being two of the marquee talents on AEW’s roster, the brothers serve as executive vice presidents for the company.

It’s one thing to have to prepare for your own match ahead of a show, it’s an entirely different beast to ensure every aspect of the production is firing on all cylinders.

“I’m learning that it was a lot easier just being a wrestler, especially with this whole project,” Matt Jackson said. “The biggest adjustment for me has been being on the phone every second of the day, trying to be a dad also. Trying to stay fit, trying to do all of my other daily things.”

“A few months into this my phone never stopped ringing and I never stop getting text messages. It’s been a non-stop work pace since June. I love it, but at the same time I will admit that of course I’m struggling with balance. We’re an upstart but I have my own family too. Juggling a billion things at once, my sleep schedule hasn’t been great.”

Juggling their time is just one part of the equation for the Jacksons.

As All Elite Wrestling continues to grow, there’s inevitably going to be the perception that if they are continuously booked at the top of the card that the Jacksons — along with Rhodes and Omega — are putting themselves “over.”

The Jacksons are attempting to squash the issue before it starts.

“That’ll always be a concern,” Nick Jackson said. “Matt, myself and Kenny, we’ve made this a rule where you cannot talk about our position in the office on camera. You’ll never hear about anything that we do outside of being in the wrestling ring when you watch an episode on TNT. The only way you’ll know that is if you’re really a true insider, a huge wrestling fan and we want to keep it that way.

“If we’re the most popular act on a show, then that popular act should win,” Nick Jackson continued. “If we aren’t getting the biggest reaction, we should lose. We just have to know better and what’s right and wrong. I feel like Matt and I are pretty thoughtful in a selfish business.”

Making a place for tag-team wrestling

The Jacksons are one of the best — if not the best — tag teams in the world, so it’s no surprise that All Elite Wrestling is placing a huge emphasis on the format.

The early success of “Dynamite” will hinge on a number of factors, but one of the most important will be the tag-team tournament that will inevitably crown the promotions first champions.

“We’ve always fantasized — we never thought we’d get to do it — but if we had the book, we would make tag-team wrestling a priority,” Matt Jackson said. “Every team that you see with us, they were hand-picked by Nick and I. We’ve either worked with them elsewhere or have been watching them. We asked ourselves, ‘Who are the teams we want to work with?’ We figured, if we could have a good match with these wrestlers, the other teams could as well. A lot of it was almost selfish, us saying, ‘Who can we tear the house down with? OK, sign them.’”

There’s obviously an old-school feel as AEW goes up against WWE — by far the biggest competitor in the wrestling industry — but putting tag-team wrestling front and center is a sign that the company hopes to take the business even further back than the “Monday Night Wars” of the 1990s.

“Tag-team wrestling historically has been big box office,” Matt Jackson said. “In the old territory days, the Rock ‘N’ Roll Express was the main event in every town. It was clearly something that worked. Even as recently as the TLC era, Matt and Jeff Hardy were the biggest box office draw in tag-team history. They’re brothers, there’s a lot of parallels. I don’t know why it hasn’t shined as brightly in the past 20 years, but it’s time for it to take its spot back.”

With teams like the Young Bucks, Lucha Bros. and SCU, among others, it won’t be difficult for AEW to sell tag-team wrestling. Anyone who has watched a match involving these teams knows that there is no shortage of death-defying and jaw-dropping spots.

While some teams may alter their style with the move to weekly television — there’s a belief that wrestlers want to save certain moments for bigger shows — don’t expect that in the early going from the Jacksons.

“Matt and I have built a career off doing everything every day and every show,” Nick Jackson said. “I don’t think we’re going to change that philosophy. You might see that change with other wrestlers, but Matt and I are going to go into it thinking, ‘Let’s do what we do and keep doing what got us to the dance.’ Maybe during commercial breaks we’ll take it a little more easy.”

“Now is not the time to hold back,” Matt Jackson said. “Now is the time to show the world what we’re capable of. This may be the moment where everyone wants to sample our product and we may just have 15 seconds to gain some viewers when they are flipping through the channels. Now it’s the time to show the world what AEW looks like.”

And if fans are hooked, they’ll get to see tag-team wrestling in the biggest time slots.

“I don’t want anybody to be surprised when tag-team matches headline and main event a bunch of our shows,” Matt Jackson said. “There’s nothing more beautiful than a good tag-team wrestling match.”

The billion-dollar question

AEW is far from the first wrestling promotion to try and compete with Vince McMahon and WWE.

After Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling and Paul Heyman’s Extreme Championship Wrestling were purchased by McMahon, the wrestling landscape has been dominated by WWE.

Smaller promotions such as Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, New Japan Pro Wrestling and Total Nonstop Action have all operated over the past 20 years, but none has gained a large enough share to truly pose a threat to McMahon’s behemoth.

With AEW debuting on TNT — the same channel that aired “Monday Night Nitro” in the 1990s — things feel different. WWE has also moved its NXT brand, which more closely resembles the independent-adjacent style that AEW will have, to air on Wednesday nights in the same exact time slot as “Dynamite.”

“Of course [competition] is a conversation [we have],” Matt Jackson said. “I feel like the entire group of guys, we’re all so tunnel-visioned on what our idea is and what we want our show to look like, we have a vision of what we want AEW to be and we can’t stray too far away from that.

“Obviously, it’s smart to survey, see what the competitor is doing and what’s clicking or not clicking. A lot of this is going to be organic. If one week they are putting on something similar to what we have planned, maybe we change that. If they have a huge match planned and we didn’t, maybe that changes things. I think all it does is breed competitive nature in all of us, makes us all step up our game and put on the best show possible. It’s corny, but the fans win in all of this.”

At the end of the day, AEW’s ability to compete will boil down to the in-ring product and its production value.

Although the members of the AEW roster have vast experience in the professional wrestling world, there’s a significant difference between working on the independent circuit and putting on a live television program every week.

“We need to learn how to tighten up the show and tell our stories in 90 minutes,” Matt Jackson said. “The other thing is it’s going to be on live television, so we’re working with commercial breaks. I think we will gain our footing. This is all new to us and we’re a brand new company. We’re expecting hiccups but the best thing will be for us to pivot from those things and learn from our mistakes. We’re learning on the job but we also think we’re the most qualified team.”

Much like wrestlers calling a match in the ring, everyone involved in AEW will also need to be able to change things on the fly.

“We have an idea of where we want to go, but we also have to be ready to switch gears,” Matt Jackson said. “In wrestling, things just kind of organically happen. I always use this example, but we didn’t have a clue that after doing four shows that having a guy who dresses up as a dinosaur be one of our most over acts. Happy surprises happen. One thing we need to be ready to do is shift things and go with the flow.”

Saying goodbye to the old Young Bucks

In August, the Jacksons said goodbye to the independent circuit with a main event match against Private Party in Queens, New York. The show, put on by House of Glory, was in a venue that held maybe 1,000 people.

For comparison, “Dynamite” will take place at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. — a 20,000-plus seat venue that sold out in minutes.

“The one thing Matt and I will certainly miss is how close we were to that fan base,” Nick Jackson said. “We’re not leaving them, but it felt so intimate, being in a smaller venue.”

It’s not just moving to a bigger venue for the Jacksons, it’s leaving behind the part of the business that helped make them who they are today.

“It’s an environment for being able to really thrive, be creative and try new things, take risks,” Matt Jackson said. “That’s one thing I miss. Every match we have there’s a lot of pressure, it’s high stakes, we have to hit a home run every time. It felt good to do independent shows because that’s where we really crafted our act and created these characters that everyone has come to love now.

“[Now we’re] realizing that that part of our career is over and I’m not sure if it has really sunk in for us.”

On arguably the biggest night of their careers on Wednesday, it will.

#the young bucks #nick jackson #matt jackson #all elite wrestling #aew #posted on: 9.30.19 #aew on tnt #aew dynamite #wednesday night dynamite #article #yahoo sports

[doeeyeddarlingxo]

Myriad Misadventures - Chapter 50

The Myriad Misadventures of a Midgardian Queen-In-Training - Chapter 50

AO3 | Previous | Next

Word Count: 1471

Pairing: Loki/Reader

Rating: T

Myriad Misadventures - Chapter 50

And so it comes to pass that you do return to the palace, after all. And it seems that people have taken notice. On Good Evening, America, they do a little rewind to some of the earlier moments filmed of the remaining contestants, and you’re surprised to see this included:

“Now, I’m not going to lie, Ashley—I’d almost forgotten about Little Miss (Y/N). As the only teen left in the competition, I didn’t think she was even old enough to be homecoming queen, let alone queen of an entire planet, but looking back, her interactions with the crowd at the train station really blew me away, let me tell you.” Footage plays of you with that little girl, and you’re shocked by how much younger you look on camera—was that really just a few years ago?—bending down to sign her notebook. “Isn’t that sweet?”

********************************************

You’d be lying if you said you didn’t fear things would be a bit awkward after your last conversation. But if anything, the opposite seems to have happened. Things are normal. Perhaps a bit too normal.

Like on your second day back, when he asks you for advice on a date with Irina. You must have stared at him for a full five seconds before shutting your jaw and thinking enough to give him a proper answer (horse-riding, of course). 

You knew he considered you a friend, but this? Really?

And then the day after that, he invites you into his office for tea. And you find yourself wondering if this is maybe a date of your own, until you end up talking again about a date for one of the other girls. You wonder: is he trying to make you jealous? Or is he really just that oblivious? 

Which option is worse?

There is a third option you’ve considered, which is that he’s giving you room to consider...well, consider the capacity in which you want to stay in the competition. Which, to be fair, is very sweet. 

But that means he’s probably expecting you to make a decision. Soon. 

So, again: which option is worse?

********************************************

On top of that, the return to the palace has done nothing to improve your friendships with the other girls. If anything, it just seems like it’s made them more conscious of the competitive element of the competition. Rosa’s outfits are more carefully coordinated than ever, and she’s perfected her already razor-sharp conversation skills. Rhea’s previously motherly air has taken on an edge that makes her seem even more formidable than before. Irina hasn’t changed much, actually—she keeps her head down and rides her horses and seems normal. But she’s here, and that alone is enough of a statement that she, like the others, doesn’t plan on going anywhere before the competition is done.

And you? You are determined to work harder than ever. Because if you’re going to choose to be here, you’re going to do this right.

 (What is “this?” And how exactly do you plan to do it “right?” Unclear. But it’s good to have a sense of purpose all the same).

Etiquette classes continue; and of course you attend. But you find yourself drawn more than ever to the library. You try to study the basics of a foreign language or two—for when you’re no longer under the protection of a language spell. With some difficulty, you begin to reteach yourself the math and science you’ve missed or forgotten since high school. And you find that, if you mention an interest in a particular topic, a slew of modern books on the subject will appear on your usual corner table, neatly stacked, the next day. Computer science. Literary analysis. Ornithology, ichthyology, other “ologies” you’ve never heard of— you do your best to dabble in a bit of everything. In case, you know, you want to go to college. Once all this is through. 

Honestly, it feels as though most things you do these days are on the assumption that you’ll be gone from the palace eventually. Definitely sooner, rather than later.

********************************************

“So the hair comb with the pearls for Rhea…”

He purses his lips, and walks around the board, frowning slightly. “You’re certain it won’t be overkill?”

It’s become a habit, this. Meeting in his office. Advising him on speeches, dates, and everything in between. And it’s easy, really. Light. Simple. Friends.

“I think love can take many forms. Friendship is one of them,” you always remember, and always you push the thought back. Sure, friendship is a form of love. He’s right. You know that.

It’s just not the form of love you’d hoped for.

“Overkill?” You look at him incredulously. “How so?”

“You yourself have told me numerous times that  you found the initial provisions of jewelry and clothing to be excessive.”

You roll your eyes at that. “It’s a palace. Everything is excessive. Besides, this is practical: she never leaves her room without her hair done up. She’ll get a ton of use out of it.”

He holds up his hands in defeat. “I defer to the wisdom of my superior.”

“Superior? I like the sound of that.” You launch yourself off the front of the desk to walk around and sit in the head chair behind it. “So tell me, inferior, what else is on the agenda for tonight?”

He looks at the board again. It’s like an old-fashioned blackboard, with gift ideas for the three girls scrawled across it in both your handwriting and his (and smudgy in places, where you wrestled with the chalk). “The anniversary ball is in a little over a month, Lady Amara has been sent the options for the decoration schema, the tokens for Ladies Rhea, Rosa, and Irina have been selected…”

You push out your lower lip in a show of faux-disappointment. “What, and no gift for me?”

Instead of the chuckle you’re expecting, a small smile rises to his mouth. “As a matter of fact…”

Wait, what?

You’d been joking about the gift. And even if he did have a gift for you, you’d expect for him to present it to you at the anniversary ball alongside the other girls. Instead, you see him reach into his pocket and produce a small, slim rectangular box. He presents it to you.

“You didn’t have to,” you say, feeling suddenly guilty. He laughs at your tone.

“You might want to open it before feeling too bad,” he teases. You hesitate. “Go on.”

You slip the lid off the box and lift off a layer of pale green tissue paper to reveal… “Oh my God.”

“Do you like it?”

“You’re joking.”

“I’m afraid not.”

“It’s incredible.” You lift the fish fork out of the box and turn it over in your hand, regarding it with no small amount of amusement. “Did you make this out of solid gold or something? It’s so heavy. No, wait.” You point the fork at him, preventing him from speaking another word. “Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.”

His cheeks are slightly pink, and his smile, though small, clearly reaches his eyes. “You like it?”

You bring the gift to your chest and tilt your head at him. “I love it. Love it. You should have given it to me before dinner. I would have loved to see the look on Lady Amara’s face.”

He tsks playfully. “I should have known you’d use my gift for evil.”

“Oh, hush. I’m sure, if anything, she’d just be pleased to see how dedicated I’ve become to my studies.” A yawn escapes, and you clap a hand rather ungracefully over your gaping mouth. He smirks. “Shut up,” you warn him.

He shrugs, lifting his hands (though the smirk stays exactly the same). “Not a word.”

“I suppose that’s my cue. See you at breakfast?” He nods. You head towards the door, when you hear him clear his throat behind you.

“Although…” 

You turn to face him. “Although?”

“Well. Apparently there is supposed to be some sort of astronomical event happening tonight.” He jerks his head in the direction of the window. “A starfall.”

“What, like a meteor shower?”

“Is that the Midgardian term? Yes, I assume so.”

“Ah.” You pause, waiting for him to continue. “And?”

“And. Well, I wondered if you wouldn’t join me in the garden? Just for a short while, perhaps. Unless you wish to return to your room, which would be understandable, as well—”

“Yes.” You realize, with a burst of embarrassment, that you’re grinning. “A walk in the gardens sounds lovely.”

He stops rambling, then, and rewards you with a shy smile of his own. “Well, then. Shall we?”

He extends an elbow, just as he did that night on the beach. And you take it. "Okay."

You're both still smiling like idiots as you walk out the door.

#loki #loki/reader #loki fanfiction #doeeyeddarling #myriad misadventures #fish fork

[daleisgreat]

Hulk Hogan’s Unreleased Collector’s Series

In recent years on this blog my wrestling entries have been dedicated to recent releases from the past year or two. I am dipping deep into the backlog today however by covering a 2009 WWE Home Video release: Hulk Hogan’s Unreleased Collector’s Series. I purchased this upon its release just over a decade ago and finally viewed it this past week. I remember the peculiar timing of this release because a couple weeks before its scheduled release TNA announced the signing of the Hulkster for his four year run there. That did not stop the WWE from still releasing this match anthology which at the time in 2009 consisted of previously unreleased matches on home video spanning Hulk’s entire career. Since 2009 some of these matches here have appeared in other collections and many can be tracked down conveniently on the WWE Network. Throughout the 80s and well into the 90s WWE filmed major-market live events and only aired them in that market around their original recording. A lot of these old-school cards either feature c or d-list announce teams or no commentary at all. I have seen interviews and reports from and about WWE’s archivists over the years on how they take tremendous care of their video library and the result here is 27 matches and six promos/interviews comprising the collection.

Since past Hogan DVD releases featured matches dominated by PPV and supercard main events we primarily associate with Hogan’s career, Unreleased Collector’s Series specializes in the aforementioned major-market live events and long forgotten TV main events from Nitro, RAW and Smackdown. There are brief 30-to-60 second narration packages setting up the next match and quickly touching on major moments that happened in Hulk’s career such as various world championship reigns and switching promotions. I greatly appreciate these quick video packages setting the table for Hulk’s next rival and showing where he was at in his career at the time. Another nice touch is each match has a quick graphic at the beginning listing the commentators. This compilation has one of the most diverse line of announcers ever. A lot of the major-market live events that feature c and d-list announcers are names I can barely recall, and some surprise past wrestlers I had no idea who take a stab at announcing. Here is a quick list of some of the announcers present throughout – Vince McMahon, Nick Bockwinkel, Bruno Sammartino, Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schivane, Jimmy Hart, Alfred Hayes, Mongo McMichaels, Eric Bishoff, Michael Cole, Tazz, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. What stands out is that WWE brought in Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross to record all new commentary for three of the older matches that saw Hogan square off against Bob Backlund, Andre the Giant and Kamala. Both provide great insight on Hulk and how he evolved in those early stages in his career.

As far as highlights from the 27 matches included I will touch on several that stood out the most for me. There are four matches from Hulk’s first run in WWF in 1979 as the “Incredible” Hulk Hogan. Aside from a couple squash matches, there is that previously mentioned bout against Bob Backlund I highly suggest checking out which features all sorts of school technical prowess until Backlund winds up on the wrong end of an airplane spin. There is also a pre-Wrestlemania III encounter against Andre the Giant from 1980 that has a far-less broken down Andre and Hulk deliver a more intriguing match than their carefully paced Silverdome ‘epic.’ I was a little bummed to see only one match from Hogan’s AWA run included, and it is regrettably a dud handicap match against Bockwinkel & Heenan that sees lots of villain tomfoolery. The Hulk-a-Mania WWF era is unsurprisingly where the bulk of the content is. There is a must-see match against a fresh in his WWF run Macho Man from 1986 that marked the first time I saw a pinfall from a common ‘lift-the-leg’ counter to a top-rope move. Big Boss Man and Rick Rude also face Hogan here early in their WWF runs and have fairly good matches on the Hogan curve and mix in interesting spots with handcuffs and an impromptu arm wrestling contest, respectively. I had no recollection of seeing a Killer Kahn match before, so seeing him against Hogan was fascinating. What was not fascinating was about several of these matches have the standard formula of Hogan’s early fired up offense followed by a long villain beat down until eventually Hogan ‘Hulk’s Up’ for his comeback and hits the leg drop for the W. Some of the latter matches in this collection however found fun ways for Hulk’s opposition to counter his finishing sequence to freshen things up a bit.

I was delighted to see one of Hogan’s matches against Ric Flair towards the end of 1991 in Flair’s first WWF run. This took place during a run of several untelevised matches the two had only on live events to prepare for their expected Wrestlemania VIII battle until plans changed and opponents for both were swapped in the final weeks leading up to the event. I am still bummed those two never had a PPV clash from this moment in their careers, but was glad to finally see this match get resurrected from the archives. It is not paced like a traditional PPV headliner like one would assume, but instead as a brawl with the two frequently dueling outside the ring and exchanging more fists, chops and chokes than traditional holds. It resulted in a fired up encounter I was on board for from beginning to end. Definitely make that 1991 clash between the two one of the first to see from this collection. From there the Unreleased Collector’s Series transitions into Hogan’s WCW run. Unlike WWE, WCW did not film many of their live events/house shows from this time so the five WCW matches are from WCW PPVs and episodes of Nitro that were not released on WWE Home Video before. Highlights include the ’95 Slamboree main event I never saw before with Hogan & Savage taking on Vader & Flair with Arn Anderson and The Renegade as special ringside enforcers. There are two Nitro main events against Sting in 1995 and Bret Hart in 1998 that both feature actual good wrestling, but have screwy finishes that dominated Nitro at the time. I believe this Bret Hart match was the first time the two faced each other in the ring in singles competition and it was disheartening to see the ridiculous over-booked catastrophe it turned out to be.

From there the collection wraps up with four matches from RAW and SmackDown from Hulk’s first WWF return in 2002. For a well-aged Hogan at this point, he still managed to have watchable and borderline good matches against Ric Flair, Triple H and Kurt Angle. The match with Hunter stood out the most from his WWF return matches. Sadly, no matches from his 2003 run as Mr. America are included, or his handful of matches he did for WWE in 2005 and 2006. Also interspersed throughout the collection are six Hogan promos/interviews. A few of them are vintage backdrop solo promos from syndicated shows like Challenge where Hogan is in full on ‘Hulk’ mode which only Hulk can pull off and got me amped up reliving them again for this collection. In the bonus features are eight additional promos/interviews. Some of them are more Hogan nonsensical shouting against rivals like Sid Justice and Vader, and others have Hogan donning a creepy costume taunting the feared Dungeon of Doom. Part of me wanted more of these whacked-out solo backdrop Hogan promos, as I am obviously super nostalgic for them, and for younger fans unaware of them I highly suggest going down a YouTube hole of them immediately! Hulk Hogan’s Unreleased Collector’s Series is mostly a gratifying compilation of previously unreleased gems from Hogan’s career. There are certainly a few duds sprinkled in throughout, and it can be a bit of chore seeing several of the standard Hulk-Up comeback formula matches in a row. Other than that however I dug the variety of opponents and see Hulk evolve over the years and eventually barely hang in there for his 2002 return. I have a few more ‘Unreleased Series’ DVDs WWE released over the years I would like to cover soon that have been sitting in my backlog for a while. These are for Shawn Michaels, Randy Savage and a recently released one for Roddy Piper so be on the lookout for more entries in this series in the near future!

Past Wrestling Blogs Best of WCW Clash of Champions Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2 Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3 Biggest Knuckleheads Bobby The Brain Heenan Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes DDP: Positively Living Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials ECW Unreleased: Vol 1 ECW Unreleased: Vol 2 ECW Unreleased: Vol 3 Eric Bishoff: Wrestlings Most Controversial Figure Fight Owens Fight: The Kevin Owens Story For All Mankind Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection Impact Wresting Presents: Best of Hulk Hogan Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story The Kliq Rules Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman Legends of Mid South Wrestling Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story Memphis Heat NXT: From Secret to Sensation NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1 OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History Owen: Hart of Gold RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Scott Hall: Living on a Razors Edge Sting: Into the Light Straight Outta Dudley-ville: Legacy of the Dudley Boyz Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder Then Now Forever – The Evolution of WWEs Womens Division TLC 2017 TNA Lockdown 2005-2016 Top 50 Superstars of All Time Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season True Giants Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches Warrior Week on WWE Network Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition Wrestlemania 28-Present The Wrestler (2008) Wrestling Road Diaries Too Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money Wrestlings Greatest Factions WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017

#Wrestling #WWE #awa #wcw #hulk hogan #Randy Savage #Andre the Giant #bob backlund #Bret Hart #ric flair #vader #Triple H

[welcometophu]

Not Your Love Song: Chapter 32

Marked Book 2: Not Your Love Song

Chapter 32

[ Previous | First | Next ]

Kit’s room is quiet. Peaceful. It’s easy to work in because there’s no one else randomly wandering through. Hayworth has a completely different feel than Douglass. It was built as apartments, so Kit’s room is actually a tiny efficiency, with a kitchenette when you walk in, a daybed/sofa along the side wall, and a bureau and television against the other wall, next to the door to the private bathroom. He lives on a floor with one other efficiency as well as three two bedroom apartments, and a four bedroom apartment at the very end of the hall.

People stay private in Hayworth, the doors always locked. There is no open door policy.

“It’s not that we don’t like each other,” Kit explains as he unlocks the door Wednesday night to let them in for Rory’s second visit to the dorm. “It’s that we only socialize when we plan to socialize. There are floor events, and whole dorm events where the floors compete against each other. Trey, who lives in the other efficiency, is a good guy who spends most of his life doing competitive gaming when he’s not deep in a coding project. One of the apartments upstairs is all girls from SigPsiE who wanted to live together, but not in the house, and not off-campus. It works.”

“I like it.” It bridges the difference between having a real apartment off-campus, like Thorne’s, with all the strange little quirks that it has, and living in a dorm. Rory wonders what his chances would be of managing to get one of the efficiencies for himself as a sophomore, and if he can use his need to cook proper vegetarian meals as an extenuating circumstance. The more he gets to know Thorne’s roommates, the less he thinks he wants to join them in their apartment.

Not that there’s a room next year anyway, and Thorne doesn’t seem to want to actually move.

Rory’s aware that he should have made a decision about where to live next year long before now, but he keeps putting it off. Right now he’s thinking trying to beg his way into Hayworth wouldn’t be a bad idea.

They settle onto the daybed, and Rory brings up a stream for a TV series that he started watching on and off a few years ago, after they bought the rights to use a Phoenix Rising song in one episode. They have halfway decent representation, so he periodically catches up on the new seasons after they go online. It’s nice to take break and watch something because he wants to instead of for a class, and it’s comfortable with Kit a line of warmth pressed against his side.

Kit moves slightly as he draws, the pad of paper perched on his knees, the pencil held loosely in his hand. The sketch is of the front of the Madison Center, created in broad, soft strokes of light pencil. Rory watches curiously. When he leans into Kit and lets the magic flow between them, that warmth surrounds them both, and Kit starts drawing faster, in a flurry of frenetic energy. The pencil sketch comes to life quickly, the strokes depending, solidifying.

It’s not in color, but by the time Kit stops abruptly, dropping the pencil to the bed, the picture has taken on the quality of a faded photograph. Kit holds the edges of his art pad gingerly. “That’s—”

“What?” Rory tilts toward him again, touches the paper lightly. “You’re a good artist. This is amazing.”

“I was always better at sketching than Carolyn, but we’re both decent. This is—” Again Kit cuts off, shakes his head before he sets the pad of paper aside. “That is definitely the best thing I’ve ever drawn. And the easiest. It’s like… all of a sudden I was filled with this need to put it on paper. Like I couldn’t possibly fail.”

“When I touched you. When our bond—” Rory gestures between them to finish the statement silently, and Kit nods. “Huh,” Rory says. “Is your art magical?”

Kit laughs. “Hardly. Carolyn and I grew up drawing because it was part of being predictive. It was expected. We had to draw every layout we did when we were little. We drew Tarot cards, to get the feel for them and fix them in our minds. It made it easy when we started doing science labs for school; I could sketch anything we had to. But it’s just sketching. It isn’t magic.”

There’s a thought coming together in Rory’s head, and only part of it is fully formed. It needs testing. “I think maybe that’s changed,” he says, and if that’s true, things may be very tangled up. “Can we try something?”

“Sure, yeah.” Kit picks up the pad of paper again when Rory gestures, and he starts sketching. At first, Rory isn’t sure what he’s seeing. A face, maybe, no, not just a face. A body curled around something, hunched over while sitting. It’s all circles and rough lines.

Then Rory leans against Kit. He puts his arm across his shoulders, lets his hand fall just below the line of Kit’s short sleeve, fingers brushing bare skin. The cocoon surrounds them, and Kit inhales roughly. His pencil moves with more surety, and Rory loses track of time as he sees himself come to life as an image on Kit’s paper.

No, not to life. It doesn’t move, it doesn’t seem to shimmer off the page in some magical way. But it is beautiful art.

Kit lowers the pencil and paper, puts them aside and turns to face Rory, so they’re both sitting cross-legged on the bed. The show has stopped in the background, and when Rory glances over he sees that enough time has passed that the streaming service asks if they want to continue rather than moving on automatically.

His stomach growls; he ignores it.

“What are you thinking?” Kit asks.

“A lot of things,” Rory admits. He raises his hands, lowers them again because he has nothing to hold onto, nothing he can fret like a guitar to put his nerves to rest. “Your art is magical,” he says, because it seems like the simplest place to start. “Your Lineage is Predictive, but you aren’t. Your Talent is still about art, because you’re the flip side to Carolyn’s Emergence. You’ve Emerged in your own way, recently. You create art from magic. She brings it to life.”

Kit looks at the pad of paper lying there, Rory’s image hunched over a guitar as he plays. Kit reaches out, flips the pad closed, hiding Rory from himself. “Why do you think my art is actually Talent?”

“Because I think that sensation that we feel between us,” Rory gestures from himself to Kit and back again to illustrate, “isn’t just a part of the soulmate bond or something. I don’t think we can blame the marks. I think we can blame me. And the fact that my soul recognizes yours or something, and wants to give you energy every time we touch.” He hesitates before continuing, because this is something he’s been wrestling with for a long time. “The same energy I take. But I struggle giving it during rituals. You, however, I want to give it to as soon as I touch you. I don’t make your Talent stop. I enhance it. From the way you fell into that, I’d say I enhance it a lot.”

“Okay.” Kit exhales. He reaches out, and Rory bridges the distance between them, clasps both of Kit’s hands with his.

“When I first met Mattie, I was holding her with my innate Talent,” Rory says quietly. He thinks Kit’s heard this story, but he can’t remember when or in how much detail. “Pawel trapped her, but I stopped her from being able to slip into the shadows. And she swore that if she ate us, I’d be the sweet dessert, to be sipped delicately. And she said that I glowed with all the Talent that I had stolen, and I thought she was lying because I don’t steal Talent, I stop it.”

“And now?”

Rory runs his thumb along Kit’s hands. “It doesn’t happen every time I touch someone. Stopping Talent, I mean. I have to think about it. Just like it always feels good when we touch, and we gravitate toward each other, but we don’t get that rush. But when I think about it, it’s like it surrounds us. Like there’s a wellspring inside and I’ll never run out of energy. And you take it as fast as I can give it. So I guess she was right.”

“And then I magically create art,” Kit mutters.

“Which Carolyn can use to travel to places.”

“Or people.”

Right. Or people. Rory remembers that. It’s a small detail and he has a feeling that there is something just out of reach that is important for him to remember. But he’s not there yet.

Instead.

“Maybe you should try working with Carolyn on your independent study project,” Rory says quietly. “Thorne’s definitely not the right fit for you, and if your Talent meshes with—”

“My Talent also meshes with you, and yours meshes with me,” Kit points out. “Which makes you a perfect partner for it.” He holds his hands out, palms up, and Rory lays his hands atop them. Kit’s thumb strokes along the side of Rory’s hand as his fingers close to hold on. “If Carolyn wants my help—if she wants my art—I’ll help. I’ll help her design rituals around using our new Talents. But I’m happy helping you do what you feel like you need to do to help Darrik. I don’t want to change away from that now.”

“Do you think this can help us at all?” Rory can feed energy into Kit, but he’s pretty sure that sketching ultra-realistic images isn’t the key to reaching Lora. And he’s not sure if Kit can channel the energy in any other directions. “You were using the pictures you created as a focus for the ritual, but that seems more like something Caro—” He cuts off when Kit’s grip on him goes tight.

Kit shakes his head. “I don’t want to get her involved. She’s got her own project, and it’s separate from this one. She’s got….” He hesitates, shakes his head again. “I just think she’s going in a different direction. We’ve got Del. It’ll be fine.”

He licks his lips, and Rory feels the tension sliding from his skin. Rory shifts to lean back against the wall again, offers his arm for Kit to tuck in close. Peace settles over them, and Kit relaxes.

“You really don’t want to involve Carolyn.” Rory thought about not asking, but he knows it’s going to linger in the back of his mind, and he’ll end up asking at another time anyway.

“I don’t want to involve Carolyn,” Kit confirms quietly. “Are you asking me to try to explain why?”

“If you think you can.” Rory doesn’t want to push, and he understands if it’s not something that Kit has words for yet. But he’d like to know, in part so he can avoid future mine fields in conversation.

“We’re twins,” Kit murmurs. “When we were very little, before I could express that I was male in a way that everyone understood and believed, everyone treated us as interchangeable. Even as I got older, most of our extended family and friends still treated us that way. We were Kit and Carolyn or vice versa. If one wasn’t available, grab the other one. I love Carolyn, and yes, she’s my twin. She’s like the other half of my soul, in a totally different way than you and I might be. And she’s doing this independent study with me, which is great. I love her for that, and I love the support, and I want her to learn traditional ritual. But she’s still Predictive, and she has something to fall back on. I need to prove that I can do this on my own. That I can work without her.”

“What if your powers are linked and they’re meant to work together?”

Kit’s hand flattens against Rory’s chest, then twists in his shirt as he clenches his fingers. “I’ll deal with that when I get there. Right now I want to be me, and I want her to be her. That’s part of going to college, learning how to just be ourselves, rather than the Merrill twins. I don’t want to be interchangeable any more. Because when we’re that, I’m always lesser.”

Rory can see how this new situation could make things worse. “And now you think that magically creating art is lesser,” he says.

Kit shrugs. “Maybe. I don’t know. It’s just art.”

“She can’t travel without it, right?” It seems obvious to Rory that their new Emergent powers are codependent in some way. “In some ways, it’s like she needs you even more than you need her.”

Silence for a long, drawn out moment. Kit reaches for the abandoned remote, places it on Rory’s chest. Rory wakes up the television and looks at where they are in his series. They’ve somehow missed two episodes while Kit was in his art fugue, and Rory suspects it’s far later in the day than he thinks it is. Rory switches back to the first episode they missed and starts it over again.

“I don’t want people to see me as just an extension of Carolyn,” Kit whispers into Rory’s shoulder. “And I really don’t want them to see me as an alternate for her. It trips the dysphoria in a very bad way.”

Rory turns toward him, kisses the top of his head while stroking his shoulder. “Anyone who looks at the two of you can see that you’re different. It doesn’t take much observation skill. And if your family can’t see that, they’re blind.”

“Thanks.”

Rory squeezes his shoulder again, and lets the conversation drop. Kit slowly relaxes, going quiet and soft against Rory’s side.

Rory doesn’t want to address the idea that their own Talents are somehow linked, that Kit’s art and Rory’s ability to stop Talent are interwoven. He doesn’t want Kit to think that he can’t stand on his own.

“I could get used to this,” Kit murmurs, and that brings a smile to Rory’s lips.

“Yeah, I could get used to it, too.”

[ Previous | First | Next ]

#welcome to phu #welcometophu #not your love song #phu marked #marked

[closetofanxiety]

Show Review: Constitution State Wrestling

Last night,  I went down to beautiful Groton, Conn. (”The Nuclear Submarine Capital of the World”) with Mark, Mike, and Joel to see a show put on by an indie promotion that was totally new to us. It was, in many ways, a prototypical Local Indie Experience. Let’s count the ways:

National Anthem

This, in many ways, is the earliest and most significant sign that you’re attending a Local Indie as opposed to a National (For Lack of a Better Term) Indie (the national anthem might be played before a Shindie, too, but that’s another subject entirely). Local indies always make everyone stand up for the national anthem, national indies do not. The local indie maintains, at least in vestigial form, a connection to the idea that this is a sporting event, and sporting events begin with the anthem. In this case, the anthem was a pre-recorded instrumental track, but people clapped after it was over anyway.

Public Venue

Unlike a National Indie, which will be in a bar or a rock club or a private fraternal organization’s event hall or a Catholic church with an absurdly Catholic name (New York City national indies only), the Local Indie show will take place in a high school gym or a town hall or a rec center or some other building they can get with a discounted rental fee because of political connections. In this case: Ella T. Grasso Technical High School, a magnificent example of 1970s brutalist school architecture. It was an air-conditioned gym, though, which you wouldn’t expect on the Connecticut shoreline, so kudos to the Constitution State Wrestling folks for that choice.

Advertising and Local Celebs

It’s not a Local Indie without a program, and this show had a program listing the entire card, providing some detail on the two main events (there can be only one main event in reality but whatever) and listing all the local sponsors of the show. As a bonus, there were also signs leading to the venue that just said “Wrestling” with an arrow pointing vaguely in the direction of the school. I cherish these signs of Local Indiedom! There was also a woman from a rock radio station on hand, whose duties were limited to introducing herself and then, later, introducing the women’s match. It’s not a Local Indie without an appearance from a random local celeb: TV meteorologists, disc jockeys, mayors, and others are all perfectly acceptable. 

At Least One Wrestler Who’s in the Military

In our case, that was “The Soldier of God” Ronnie Ribbs, which is absolutely one of the best Local Indie names I’ve ever heard in my life. Ronnie Ribbs! “Soldier of God” is a little weird, though. Kind of a Taliban vibe there. Also, since that’s a lot of verbiage to put on your ring gear, that meant Ronnie Ribbs had the acronym “SOG” on the seat of his red, white, and blue trunks which, if you didn’t know what it stood for, could be a little embarrassing. Anyway, he was introduced as a soldier in the U.S. Army, always good for a patriotism pop at a Local Indie. Groton, though, is a Navy town, and when Ribbs was rolled up by opponent “Sensational” Scott Levesque with help from cheating heel manager “High Class” Rich Bass, a guy behind me said, “Just one more reason the Army sucks at everything.” 

Event Name That is Not a Cool Pop Culture Reference

Constitution State actually fell down on the job here, as this event did not appear to have a name at all. But a key distinction between a Local Indie and a National Indie is that the latter will usually go with some impenetrable hip pop culture reference (or, worse, just use numbers for each show, like they’re the UFC), whereas local indies are still committed to calling things, like, “Final Showdown” and “Summer Smash Up” and “Brattleboro Brawl” (Brattleboro local indies only) and, of course, “SEASON’S BEATINGS.” 

Random Ex-WWE/F Guy

In this case, that role was filled by Gangrel, who really should be getting some of the indie wrestling nerd attention being lavished on PCO. Gangrel is a blast to see live; he gets insanely into it, and takes bumps that are ridiculously bad ideas for a man of his age. He was in the main event here, and the crowd was pretty exhausted by the time it started, but he got them right back into what was really kind of a straightforward brawl with southern New England bad guy Trigga the OG, accompanied, of course, by evil schemer “High Class” Rich Bass, who I’ve never seen before. The crowd was NUTS for Gangrel. When he won, the pop was huge, although it was slightly disappointing that only Joel chanted “Fang and bang! Fang and bang!” Gangrel loved that though. He pointed to Joel and did the throat-cross-into-the-hook-’em-horns thing. 

Local Wrestling Academy Students’ Match

Often, this is a battle royal, but thank God that was not the case here. Instead, we saw Matt Taven trainees Joey Bones and Todd Harris, the latter working a “rich prick from Newport” gimmick. Both guys were decent, show real promise, and, notably, had really good gear. Invest in yourselves, aspiring wrestlers! You’ll stand out from the pack. 

A Comedy Match That Isn’t Funny

I like comedy wrestling. I know lots of people don’t, but that’s why they make different kinds of ice cream. However, there’s a Chuck Taylor/Orange Cassidy comedy match, and then there’s a Local Indie comedy match, which is basically like a Three Stooges short mixed with some inexplicable Attitude Era flourishes. In this case, it was the awesomely-named Necromancer (short, stout guy with Papa Shango face paint and no apparent ability to speak to the dead) vs. 2Buff w/ The Buffdad, a legitimate father and son duo whose gimmick is that they are not, in fact, buff, but that they constantly do that thing where they put their hands behind their heads and swivel their hips, kind of like a Chippendale dancer would do on an episode of “Designing Women.” Laughs were notably absent, at least from the four of us. Mercifully, this match was broken up by James Ellsworth, who was booked as a random ex-WWE guy but is now, once again, an actual WWE guy. What must he have thought, staring out at the 250 or so people in a high school gym, knowing that in three nights he’ll be facing Asuka on live national television in front of maybe 12,000 people. Anyway, Ellsworth issued an open challenge, and another classic Local Indie thing happened: some loud music hit, and a guy walked out to answer the challenge, but instead of the “Oh shit you gonna get it NOW” reaction from the crowd, there was puzzlement, as no one knew who the challenger was. It didn’t help that he looked like just A Dude in red basketball shorts and a white t-shirt. Later we would learn that he is Wildman Kongo and he would go on to have a bad match with James Ellsworth in front of a tired crowd.

Excitable Fans

Hot crowd, especially before the intermission! At the start of the lone tag team bout, which pitted Brutal Bob Evans and “Tough Tim” against two guys called Riot City’s Most Wanted who looked like indie wrestlers circa 2003, one young fan became so enraged at the heels that he jumped the rail, the first time I think I’ve ever seen that at a show. He was about 11, though, and his friends quickly pulled him back over, so we were spared the sight of Brutal Bob having to PROTECT THE BUSINESS by breaking a child’s jaw. Local indie fixture the Fogman was also there. He’s not really excitable, necessarily, but he’s a fan. We talked to him during intermission and, I mean, he’s an OK guy. He’s his own biggest fan, but what’s so bad about a little self-confidence?

A “Ladies’ Match”

Never a women’s match or just “a match,” on a Local Indie it’s always a LADEEEEES MATCH, the segregation compounded here by having the radio station woman do the only thing she did all night by announcing the competitors, Isana and Jawsolyn. The regular ring announcer was a rockabilly guy, complete with Rev. Horton Heat necktie and suede shoes. He was fine. Isana is a big lass but mobile and specializes in suplays, while Jawsolyn’s gimmick is that she is a shark. That should have gone over better in a coastal town, but people were mostly politely indifferent to this match which, in fairness, was slow and clunky. 

One National Indie-Caliber Match

Increasingly, the people who promote and book Local Indies are fans of national indie wrestling, or Japanese wrestling, or British wrestling, or what have you. In this, their tastes diverge from those of their fanbase, which mostly consists of normal, blue collar Americans who just want a fun night out instead of weirdos arguing about BOLA lineups on Reddit all night or people who will slash your tires if you so much as say a disparaging word against Kenneth Omega. To try to satisfy their own creative longings, the promoters and bookers usually put one match on the card that could be on the card of a PWG show or Beyond show or AAW show or whatever. This is normally received by the Local Indie crowd with the same quiet endurance 205 Live is received by WWE crowds, but tonight was an exception. Matt Cross and JT Dunn, meeting for only the second time ever, had a tear-down-the-house 20-minute match that had the good blue collar people of America’s Nuclear Submarine Heartland going absolutely nuts and bananas. This was, indeed, a great match, one of the best I’ve seen all year: neither guy worked heel, but both of them wrestled as though they were actually trying to win an athletic competition, which is rarer than it should be in pro wrestling. Dunn dominated the first half of the match by keeping Cross on the ground and softening him up with wear-down holds to try and create openings for hard strikes. In the second half, Cross was finally able to take to the air, and made his spectacular offense seem credible and devastating. There were, by my count, three “This is awesome” chants, a “Both these guys” chant, and a “Fight forever” chant. People LOVED this match. YOU SEE, VINCE? PEOPLE ACTUALLY LIKE WRESTLING WHEN ok I’m not going to start with that. But it was nice to see a normal American wrestling crowd go nuts for a match that would not be out of place in Reseda or wherever the hell PWG shows are now. 

#show reviews #indie wrestling #indy wrestling #Constitution State Wrestling