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melanatedbruh-ff-blog · 6 years

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Shoot Your Shot

Damien

Ass and titties, titties and ass. The strip club had two of my favorite things, and all I had to do was throw a little money to get the women to do a dance for me. It was a frequent stop of mine when my fiance, at home, was getting on my nerves, or when I needed to detach myself from my family. Recently they’d been on my case about proposing to Mariah before actually telling them about it. I would have told them, but they never liked her from day one. My mom mainly said she was a gold digger, and was only with me for the money promised to me. They didn’t see her like I did, and that made it awkward between all of us.

Tonight I needed to get away from all the wedding planning. The day was filled with looking at venues, flowers, and tasting nasty cake. What made it worse was that my brother Dante was blowing up my phone trying to get me to take on another client. Currently, I was managing a rapper, a girl group, and an Instagram thot. The IG vixen was one of most recent mistakes, in my mother’s eyes, but she was holding up her end of the bargain by bringing in good money for me. I wasn’t the fuck up that my family thought I was.

“Maaaaaaan, all this wedding planning shit is meant for the females. Just let me take care of my tux, best man, and vows. She can handle all that other shit. Talkin about should we have periwinkle flowers.” I scrunched up my face. “Fuck is a periwinkle.” I laughed with the boys.

“You the one got on that bad knee, and proposed.” My homebody Gavin from college chimed in.

“This bad knee will still cross ya ass up.” We laughed.

My circle was small, and stayed the same when I graduated college. My father always told me that users sought after people with success, and that I had to be careful who I brought around. It was a life lesson I would always keep at the front of my brain.

“I think that’s the new girl they were talking about.” The group of men looked up on stage.

Anabelle

It was my first night, and my heart was pounding through my chest. I still couldn’t believe I was getting ready to do this, and make my dad turn over in his grave. I had to get those thoughts out of my head if I planned on making any money tonight, because I’m sure they could smell the fear like a predator sniffing out their prey. I took a shot of Gin, and walked out onto the stage seductively when “Brown Sugar”, was announced.

The music started playing, and all the eyes that were on me disappeared. My body began moving as if I had been trained to move in this way. To everybody gathered around the stage my thickness was a gift that they wished their girl at home had. As I started popping my rump the money started falling, and I could tell that they liked when I threw it in a circle. At first I wasn’t sure I was going to like money being thrown at me, but as the song played out I started to like it more and more.

I’d made it to the pole, and by this time the liquor started to settle in. Not hesitating, I showed out on the pole making sure all the whispers about me not being ready backstage were going to be put to a stop by the time I finished. They didn’t think I had it in me, and I didn’t know I did.

Damien

Shorty was thick, and it looked like she wasn’t a newbie to the strip game. She was doing an amazing job, but it was going to take more for me to shower her in dollars. When she slid down the pole we made eye contact, and I could tell she realized I hadn’t made it rain on her yet.

“Gotta do more than that baby girl.” I said out to her.

That’s all it took for her to come off the stage, and make her way over to me. I sat back in my chair, and spread my legs to give her enough room to do her thing. When the ass hit my lap it was softer than I expected. Shorty wasted no time showing me how she rides the pipe, and I took it upon myself to give her ass a tap. That only excited her, and she really gave me a lap dance that made it impossible to not shower her with all of my money. Whoever Brown Sugar was I was going to need her to keep working here.

Wifey: I’m going to sleep. Be safe, and I love you.

I wasn’t aware of how late it was until my girl texted me. It was hitting four in the morning, and way past the time I should have been in the house.

“Aight yall I’m outta here.” I got up from my seat.

After the lap dance I got the rest of the night went by smoothly. Brown Sugar was nowhere to be found, but the usual faces made sure to show me a good time. It was a loss on her part, because I was ready to show the new girl what she had to look forward to if she stuck around.

“Damn, my bad I wasn’t looking.” My head shot up after I collided with the girl in front of me.

“Your good, I should have been paying attention.” She looked up at me.

It took me a minute to realize who it was. “Brown Sugar, right?” I smirked.

“Yeah that’s me.” She giggled. “You’re the lap dance guy right?”

“I look different outside the club or sunthin? Lemme know.” I chuckled.

“No, I was just making sure I had the right guy. At some point the faces all look the same.”

“Let me guess dollar signs?”

“You must have been a stripper before or something.” We laughed together.

“Nah, I just frequent them a lot.”

“Oh, well I’m sure I’ll see you again sometime soon.”

“Most definitely. Be safe out here.”

I walked off to my car. Once inside I got in, and rolled the window down.

“What do you mean you can’t come get me? What was the whole point of me letting you keep the fucking car tonight if- Hello?”

I heard her from my car, and by the sounds of it she was stranded. After the performance she gave tonight it was only right that I help her out. I put the key in the ignition, and pulled up to the entrance.

“You need a ride?” I rolled the window down.

“I’m good. I’ll just get an Uber.” She smiled, but I could tell that was the last thing she wanted to do.

“I aint no creep or nothing, and I’m only gonna ask if you sure once. You sure?” It was going to be up to her if she wanted to get in the car. I was ready to be in my own bed, and was only helping because I felt like it was my duty as a citizen. Plus, she was easy easy on the eyes.

She hesitated at first, but then walked towards the car. “Ok, but just to let you know this purse ain't just for show. I have all kinds of tricks in my bag.”

I snickered, but could tell she was serious. “Damn, it be like that for you?”

“Can never be too sure with the creeps, or the bitches at theses clubs. Aint about to catch me slipping.” She put her seatbelt on.

“I feel that.” I glanced over at her, and then pulled off.

Desmond

“What do yall think?” I opened my arms, and spun around the open area of the club.

Today I was showing my parents the recent piece of real estate that I purchased, and letting them in on the ideas that I had planned for it. I knew my mother was going to look at it as a business move, but my dad was going to see it as me stepping out on my responsibilities at the real estate company. I wasn’t planning on going out on my own just yet, but this was going to be my foot out the door. They just didn’t know that yet.

“It’s nice, and spacious. The location is good, but I think the interior needs a little remodeling.” Vivianne scanned the room with her eyes, and nodded in approval.

I had a feeling she was going to be with the masterplan, but my father was going to play hardball. Anything I did he over analyzed it, and gave me a hard time before he agreed to it.

“How long before it’s up and running?” He spoke finally.

“I’m banking on a few months.”

“Employees?”

“Not yet.”

“Permits?”

“Working on them.”

“The menu, DJ, or security?” He grilled me, and I could tell I wasn’t pleasing him with my answers.

“I just bought the place a few weeks ago, and with all my work with the family business I haven’t had the time.” I knew bringing up my workload at the real estate company was going to get him started.

“So you’re saying you put too much on your plate? You do this every time Desmond, and bite off more than you can chew.” He shook his head, and his face read disapproval.

“Pops, you be wanting me to have all this stuff right off the bat knowing it takes more than a day to have these things ready. Cut me some slack man.” This argument I was standing my ground, but also trying to get him to be patient with me.

“Because we’ve been down this road before. You get these grand ideas, and then they end up falling to the wayside never to be touched or looked at again. I’m just asking the questions your yes team won’t.” He glared at me.

I hated that stare, because being the oldest I received it my entire childhood. He always expected me to be great, and perfect. My brothers didn’t understand the pressure it put on my shoulders, and how drained I was. It took one failed business attempt, and now when I tried to do something he threw it in my face.

“When are we going to stop bringing up the restaurant? Gah damn, man.” I exhaled angrily, and threw my hands up in defeat.

“Fine, you want to act like a baby and throw a tantrum that’s on you.” Fed up with me, he walked away from the discussion. “I’ll be in the car.”

I was irritated beyond measure, because this was actually something I had a vision for. The club was going to be a big success, and even though I told myself it didn’t matter if he thought it was, it did.

“Baby calm down. Your father is just extra hard on you, because seeing you fall and crumble is hard for him. You’re a grown man, and coming to save you every chance he gets can’t happen anymore. He’s just making sure you’ve thought it through that’s all.” She looked at me with warm loving eyes.

“That’s fine, but come with a positive attitude so I’m not second guessing my decisions.” I was annoyed, and wasn’t even excited about the club anymore. I walked over to the bar, and took a seat on the stool.

“I’ll talk to him, and try to at least get him to be open to the idea. Alright?” She smiled, trying to get me to return one.

“What’s the catch?” I raised my eyebrow. I knew my mom too well. Majority of the time she was on my side, but this was a little much. There was another agenda.

“There’s no catch, but I would like you to go on this date I already told this young lady you already said yes to.” She spoke fast as if that would change what I heard.

“Ma, what?” My eyes got wide, and I couldn’t believe her. “Ma, no. I’m good with the whole dating thing right now.”

“C’mon you’re practically 40, with no kids, and have never been married. I want grandkids, so it’s time for you to get out there and mingle.”

“But on my terms. The blind date thing is a dub. I’m not going.” I dismissed it immediately, because if Chloe found out about it that was my ass.

“Dezzy it’s tomorrow, and I already made reservations at The Rooftop and you know how expensive it is.”

“That ain’t my problem. Go ahead, and call her to let her know I won’t be able to make it.” My foot was firm, and planted on the ground for this one.

“I can’t, because she also just flew in from LA. Also, I have to run to a meeting. I’ll have my assistant email you the details.” She walked up to me, and planted a kiss on my cheek. “I love you.” She smiled, and exited the club.

“My mother is trying to kill me forreal.”

Dante

It was late, and creeping past midnight. Initially I planned on only being at the office until 10, but that changed when one of my clients went psycho on social media. Reality stars were the worst to manage, because anytime something didn’t go their way they threw a fit on the internet. Now promoters were questioning if they were a good look for their business. A headache that I didn’t want to deal with, but had to.

“Knock, knock.” A soft voice entered the room.

“Wassup, you still here?” I looked up, and smiled when it was Rai.

“Yeah, I don’t leave until the boss does. Can I come in? I brought food.” She held up the bag.

“Always when there’s treats involved.” I laughed lightly, motioning for her to enter the room.

I’d been working with Rai for a couple days now, but still hadn’t gotten a chance to speak to her one on one. Most of the time she was out with my mom, and today when she was in the office I was handling an emergency.

“You know you could have left when everybody else did.” I reached over, and grabbed the plate of food she offered me.

“I know, but I wanted to make a good impression and show you that I’m serious about my job.”

“I’m the last person you have to prove anything too.”

“Not really since you’re one of the princes around here.”

We laughed together, because hearing that out loud was funnier than I’d imagine it to be.

“Then you bring buffalo wings, and fries. Who told you my favorite?” I squinted my eyes at her with a smirk on my face.

“I might have asked around a bit.” She giggled, opening up her container filled with three well stuffed tacos.

“And she knows how to eat. You’re looking more, and more like my type of chick.”

“The body fools everybody, but I’m sure I could out eat you.”

“No doubt.” I nodded in approval. “Let’s go sit over there.”

I rose up from my desk, and carried the food over to the seating area to the left of the room. I had this brought into my office for nights like this. Before my divorce was final I spent many nights here just to escape the toxicity that was my ex wife. It became my second home even when I didn’t want it to.

“You must don’t have a man to go home to if you’re working hours like this.” I asked, taking a fry into my mouth .

“No, I’m single because most men don’t appreciate a hardworking woman. They want me home catering to them as if doing both isn’t possible.”

“All I know is a woman doing both. Look at my mom.” I chuckled, happy that there wasn’t a guy in here life I was going to have to push out eventually.

“She is a rockstar.”

“She aight.” I chuckled. “You live close tho, right?”

“I’m a big girl. You don’t have to worry about me.” She brushed her hair behind her ear.

“But I am.”

“You don’t have to though.”

“But I want to.”

For a second we just looked at each other, and then started eating again. Hopefully she was catching my drift.

#trey songz #big sean #keith powers #chance the rapper #trey songz ff #big sean ff #keith powers ff #chancetherapper ff #urban fanfic #urban ff #ff #fanfic #fanfiction #chapter 2

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getitoverwith-ff · 7 years

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ACT 1: part time lover x 1

yo yo yo. this is split into acts, so to speak. this is the beginning of the story, and the first arc of several. enjoy.

1 | part time lover | demetri

“So, who’s this trying to Facetime you and interrupting our last day together?” Lita’s holding my phone in her hand while I’m stirring spaghetti sauce, and it’s honestly nothing I’m too worried about.

I don’t mind her going through my phone. I’m more worried about possibly burning this sauce, since we both opted out of anything more than two Oreo McFlurries and a large fry to share earlier, before we got back from ripping and running in the streets of Downtown LA.

I look over my shoulder again and watch her put the passcode in, and shrug my shoulder. She’s not going to find shit that I haven’t gotten her hip to, or that doesn’t concern her if she goes looking around. I could have swore that I put my phone on do not disturb, though.

I heard it go off and just assumed it was hers, but now that I know that it wasn’t, I’m still not in a rush to see who it was. I wasn’t really in the mood to entertain anyone else, especially not someone with the generic, default tone anyway.

But, she’s quiet as hell, so now, I am curious though.

“Who is it? Let me see.” I ask, but she doesn’t approach me.

I suck my teeth softly before moving away from the stove and trying to see what she’s into. From the way she said it, it wasn’t out of annoyance, but yet surprise. Is it bad that I don’t really care too much about it, though?

This time is about her. Not about whoever the fuck managed to get through do not disturb. If I set it, that is. If I didn’t, I will when I get my phone back from her. We’re spending our last few hours of the small break before finals together being domestic, and an interruption from anyone is something I’m not really feeling right now. I know she doesn’t give a fuck about who’s trying to get in the middle of us, but since she asked, I figured it’s gotta be somewhat important.

Maybe.

I take only a few seconds to look up at the open iMessage with the image of a frowning girl looking back at me, and smack my lips together. She tried to Facetime me and I missed it, and she won’t really keep calling, but she wants me to know how she feels about me not picking her up. I look at Lita’s face, and her eyebrows raised with knowing, but she wants to hear me say the other girl’s name.

“Monica.” Who, admittedly, is saved in my phone as the facepalm and side-eye emoji.

“What, she can’t sleep in your bed without you or some bullshit like that now, huh?” She asks real teasingly with her eyebrow still up as I watch her start to cut tomatoes for a salad.

My face goes blank and I slide the phone to do not disturb and sit it back on the table. I turn around to continue cooking, and slide herbs into the sauce and then turn it down to simmer, and lean against the counter once I’m done.

“So you’re gonna ignore me, Meech?”

“‘Cause, you always tryna annoy me when it comes to her. She doesn’t sleep in my fucking bed, Li. You have to remember, this is the same person that plotted on, and trapped me for a hot second, Li.” I add, and she rolls her eyes at me.

“That girl ain’t trap you.” She insists like she just fucking knows everything, and I tilt my head sideways at her certainty.

“She did,” I move around the counter island to get closer to her, and steal a tomato from the board. She licks her bottom lip and furrows her brow again as she thinks about it.

“How?”

I don’t know how to answer that without being at fault too, but I do anyway.

“Because,” I start, realizing that she hasn’t brought Monica up in a while.

The school year kept both of us busy, and as much as I wanted to tell her about everything, Facetime had to suffice when I couldn’t meet up with her in her sister’s rental property in Vegas, or make it out to her Grandparents Family Ranch in New Mexico.

When we were talking, I wasn’t thinking about Monica then, and neither was she. I’d bring her up on occasion, but she’s never been the topic of discussion for too long. Me and Lita have so many other things to discuss that are way more important than a part time, wannabe lover.

I’m more interested in continuing my campaign in getting her to move out here with me for good after she finishes her Associate’s Degree program at the Community College she’s enrolled in right now. I was still trying to convince her to come back to USC with me and everyone else, like we planned years ago, back in High School.

I talk to her damn near every day, and attempt to convince her to make things work out, every day. The longest we’ve ever gone without speaking was two days, once, when her phone was off and I couldn’t wire her any money. Fall semester finals for sophomore year are right around the corner, and it’ll be May in the blink of an eye. I needed things to be squared away so I would be able to move out of the loft when the semester ended, somewhere just for the two of us.

We needed to be on the same page before then, and this weekend was yet another preview of what life could be like if she just got it over with, stopped playing games, and finally made it back to me. I was hoping I could convince her, and if I could, it meant that it would be the end of this all of ripping and running… and the end of Monica’s interference, too.

Having her in Los Angeles for this three day weekend was good, but it wasn’t enough, and that’s probably why I forgot what the fuck she asked me. I’m genuinely too busy worried about trying to get her back here with me than to discuss someone I’m not even fucking with like that.

“You blacking out? Because what? And don’t tell me it’s because ya’ll all live in the same space, either… is it really that easy?” A tomato hits me in the face, and I grimace.

It took a long time between Lita linking up with me out here, and having someone fill the space that came with her absence. Usually, we’d make the drive to Vegas, where her older sister owned a couple of real nice homes that she turned into AirBNBs, or I’d say fuck it and drive all the way to New Mexico for her.

It’s been a minute since I’ve been able to just have Lita to myself though, and I kind of want to, and honestly can, blame Monica for that. At least as a factor in it, anyway.

My living situation was chaotic. With three girls and three guys in one loft space, it was too damned much from the beginning to try and make Lita feel comfortable in, even if four out of six of us weren’t strangers. I knew we would need privacy when we were around each other, and I wasn’t going to get it there. It was just going to be fucking awkward, simply because of the quickly fleshed out history between me and Monica.

Ever since I found out the girl that I picked up at a club and slept with, thinking it was a one night stand kind of situation, was meant to be my future roommate, that’s all it’s really been.

Awkward.

It’s been an awkward adjustment that I hadn’t left Lita out of the loop about, but she hadn’t been face to face with Monica for damned near four months until she came through last month, and that was only briefly. She came and surprised me on a fucking Tuesday, shortly after meeting up with her Dad for lunch for his birthday. I’d already given him his gift earlier in the week - an all expenses paid voucher to a damned good spa, so he could the best massage money could buy.

Monica was with me at the loft, with us just coming back from grocery shopping, when Lita popped up. Everyone else was doing their own thing, so that made it that much more hectic then, with nobody to push Mo off on. It was awkward tension right off the bat, and always is in the few rare times when I’m in the middle of both of them in real time.

I don’t make an effort to bring up them up to each other, and shit, this time, I didn’t even know Lita was going to make the drive to come and visit her dad. Usually, he makes the trip out to New Mexico for the whole week. I was really partially convinced in Mo’s efforts to fool around that day too, so yeah, it was awkward, having the two of them standing in the middle of the kitchen, both eyeballing me, but, naturally, Lita got all of my attention.

She got fucked in my room real quickly too, and, I know Mo heard it. I’d just rather get it off with the one I knew I’d be thinking about when I was fucking her, as opposed to fucking her and thinking about someone else, you know? We just knew better than to bring it up after the fact, though. I didn’t need to tell Lita how pissed off Mo was with me after that, for damned near two weeks.

There’s always other shit we can talk about. It’s not like they really care about each other for real either...

Lita’s mentions of Monica are more teasing than it is questionable, most likely validating something The Twins or Kenny’s shit starting ass has said. She doesn’t follow the girl on social media, but I know Mo’s all over Lita’s shit to the point to where Lita has toyed back and forth with blocking and unblocking her at random. Mo’s just jealous though, and it really makes me only bring Lita up when we’re arguing, just trying to get her to leave me the fuck alone.

It always works, too.

Lita’s still looking at me, and snaps her fingers in front of me, and I roll my eyes at her. She’s done with the salad, and I curl my lip up at her impatient face. She doesn’t really care about the latest development in the “well, isn’t this awkward?” saga between me and Mo…

I don’t think, anyway.

“Damn Meech, you’re just gonna forget about our conversation like that?” Lita asks, pushing me in the chest a little. I exhale and grab her hands, stopping her from hitting my side.

“I didn’t think you cared about whatever bullshit Mo was up to for real, Li,” I kiss her softly, and she bites down on my bottom lip, and shakes her head at me as she pulls back.

“I asked, didn’t I?” She wedges her tongue in her cheek, giving me full attitude.

I shake my head and sit down on one of the stools pulled up to the island. She’s really waiting for me to explain the situation to her too, and I can’t help but smile at the combination of curiosity and overprotection she’s displaying right now.

“It’s been rough, for real. You know it’s been rough since the beginning, while you actin’ like you don’t, too, girl. She still ain’t got over the fact that she’s really just there to kill time until I get you back. ‘Cause, shit, after we got over the whole awkwardness of the one night stand and the fact that she sleeps on the opposite side of the wall from me, she was still trying to get with me then, and she really hasn’t stopped her attempts.” I admitted, loving to drag out the story of how Mo and I came to end up in this fucked up arrangement of sorts anyway, and Lita loves to hear how she’s never going to be fucking replaced, by anyone.

That’s why she’s smirking and not saying anything, because really, I’m in love with an asshole.

“But, you know I was still trying to work shit out with you… if you didn’t curve me with that whole, not yet, just wait, shit. She capitalized on your absence after you left us after midterms last semester, and now she thinks we’re together. We’re not.” I shook my head, and Lita sucked her teeth softly.

“She capitalized on my absence? Who the fuck are you tryna sound like? But...tccch, This bitch…” Her eyes roll dismissively, and she waves off someone who’s not even there.

“Yeah, I mean… I’m not going to lie. We had sex a couple of times and I tried, and still am trying, not to make it anything more than a friends with benefits until you bring your ass back to me kind of thing. I’m not making excuses for it either… Facetiming and driving back and forth to meet up with you is cool, but, it’s not enough. We both know that. I’m trying to get her to understand that too, ‘cause, shit, we’re supposed to talk when I get back, but not on a serious note. She’s probably drunk now, Facetiming me to either be nasty for me or curse me out since I’m here and not in Sacramento with her.”

I shrug, and watch Lita continue to prepare our dinner, and laugh. Her curiosity is sated, and, I feel kind of conflicted about it. I need to do something with my hands, in the meantime…

I start tearing pieces of bacon to go into the salad that we’re meant to share, and relax in the comfort between the two of us. I don’t feel nervous about this discussion, do I?

“She’s coming to your parents house for thanksgiving this year?” I look up and realize she’s scrolling up, in our thread now. I shrug gently. I offered, but all she hit me back with was a fucking emoji.

“Yeah, I guess.”

I only invited her because she said her parents wouldn’t be in Sacramento this year, but I’m not looking forward to it. I’m really waiting to see if she’ll find some way to talk herself out of it. She has in the past when I’ve invited her back to my parents’ home for long weekends or holidays, especially if Lita’s coming.

“I invited her to eat, since she said she had nowhere to go. Her parents are supposed to be going to visit family in Connecticut and I don’t think she wants to travel if she’ll end up there again after finals.” Until I said it, I never really tripped off of how much attention to detail I paid to the things Monica said to me.

Lita’s eyebrow goes up in surprise as she sits the phone down, and I get up to grab plates for us.

“You love her?” Lita asks, and my face slowly turns into a grimace. There’s not much to think about there, and my response is quick. I quickly try to recall if i’ve said that in the texts, but I know that I haven’t, and it makes me roll my eyes.

“No. It’s not that deep for me. She tries hard to try to make herself into someone that I should and could fall in love with, but… I stop myself short from taking it there. It’s just familiar.” I admit, and she knows this.

“She ain’t you, though. Don’t even fuckin’ joke…” I think she just likes to either hear me remind myself of it, or… She’s fucking with me.

“I’m just checking,” She teases me, and I swat her on the ass as she throws it back to me. She turns quickly, and I pin her against the island.

“I’m not trying to take advantage of your emotional vulnerability, or nothing like that.” Lita teases again, like I haven’t taken advantage of every chance I could get her alone to get inside of her since she came through to doors of the apartment.

“What makes you think I wouldn’t let you? That’s all we’ve been doing as long as we’re alone anyway...” I insist, and she smacks my arm. My eyebrow raises to challenge her at the same time stomach growls as she pulls me closer to her, wrapping her arms around my back.

“See, I would tempt you, but I know how you get. And I’m hungry. That McFlurry was early dessert. So, shut up and make our plates, Meech. I want you to eat dinner before you try and eat me instead.” She nips my bottom lip softly and I palm her ass, but my stomach is definitely blocking.

I can’t stop myself from kissing her though, even after her stomach growls too. She laughs into my mouth as she pulls back, still laughing, and pushes me away from her. I make her plate and my own, and we sit on the couch, making the most of it.

Outside of my inner circle, no one really understands how important this is to me. I’m really trying to stretch out every little bit of this three day weekend, but I know tomorrow when we wake up, she’ll be going back to Albuquerque, and I’ll just be here, waiting on her to call me at her halfway there, Gas Station stop.

Or, shit…

I might just say fuck it, and drive out with her, and drive back to make it back on campus right before my 10 o’ clock class...

“Stop looking at me like that,” Lita says, snapping me out of being lost in my head.

“I’m just trying to figure out the plan tomorrow. I fucked up big time tonight,” I watch her face twist as I shake my head and fix my wording, not wanting to confuse her.

“Naw, I’m saying, like… I’m too comfortable right now. I know we won’t have long until midterms is over, but we’re about to be busy as fuck before Thanksgiving Break. And for real, I can’t wait for Thanksgiving, you know? Just… it’s going to be a motherfucker.” I say, paying no attention to the shit on TV, or anything else but her, and the spaghetti and meatballs nearby, as she eats off of my plate and I laugh.

“C’mon, chill, you gettin’ out of pocket with this plate sharing shit,” I gently push her fork back onto her plate as she laughs and turns away from me.

My phone goes off again, and I roll my eyes, but only momentarily. We’ve been talking and laughing and kissing so much throughout us making dinner that I totally put the most important thing on the backburner: our daughter.

I think Lita did too, ‘cause I can see the immediate reaction that reads, “oh shit.”

She got tucked in more than an hour ago with her tablet and YouTube Kids set on a timer, to be inactive after thirty minutes. Spending the day with “Uncle Q and Tee-Tee Queenie” should have worn her ass out, especially after she twisted our arm to opt out of dinner just to hit up McDonalds and play at the outdoor PlayPlace until it closed. She should be knocked out, but, this is definitely our kid.

She’s inquisitive and curious, and weary and anxious, a good combination of the two of us. Even though my phone is on do not disturb, she’s on my Emergency Bypass list, but she knows better.

I guess it’s better than her just walking in here, though...

I don’t hesitate to answer the call. Lita’s face is smashed against mine as I answer the call for ‘MeMe’ with my eyebrow up. It’s past her bedtime, but I know something’s gotta be up for her to Facetime me. Yesterday, it was “Daddy, Uncle Luke said there are monsters out in the streets and I gotta be safe but I gotta make sure there’s no monsters under my bed,” and the night before, “Daddy, I wanna go see Nana and Papa and Papi right now, is it tomorrow yet?”

“Daaaaaaddy,” The tiny voice starts off, and I smile.

“Demetriaaaaaaa. Whatchu want, babygirl?”

“Tell Mama I can’t sleep,” Our four, almost five year old demands, and two seconds later, Lita’s up on her feet, and dragging her hands through her hair as she walks down the hallway and tends to our insomniac toddler.

“Daddy can’t put you back to sleep?” I ask, and she shakes her head no.

“Daddy can’t sing, I want Mama to sing to me, Daddy..” She explains like it’s common sense, and I laugh and shake my head as she hangs up once Lita opens the door to the bedroom.

Knowing she’s in there handling the situation makes me smile, but it also makes my stomach dip. I already feel shitty, holding up in this two bedroom apartment that Luke rarely uses, playing house with Lita and our kid. It’s temporary, and it’s the last thing I want out of my life right now - temporary permanence bothers the fuck out of me.

I didn’t expect her to bring Demetria, only because her niece’s birthday is this weekend too, and I expected Demetria to be a part of that fun instead of being up here with us, which I would have been okay with. But, when Lita told me that Juju had other plans for Monae’s birthday this year, and it wouldn’t be that bad since everyone would be doing their own thing, she didn’t have to say anything else.

I was more excited to see my daughter than I was to see her Mom, for a while. Both my phone, Lita’s phone and Demetria’s instagram page was filled with images and videos of me and her enjoying our time together, and I knew we both had to make the most of it. It’s really hard to be a parent when your child is miles away from you.

It’s like a custody agreement of sorts between me and Lita, that I really wish didn’t have to be. She gets her the majority of the year, which makes sense, considering the circumstances of how she ended up in New Mexico. I can go and see her whenever I want to, which I limit mostly to long weekends, which I’ve crafted my entire undergrad schedule around. But outside of that, I get her by myself for short breaks, like a spring break or a holiday break. We try to switch back and forth for Summer and Winter Break, even though we always end up with the three of us all together.

I had her last summer and she broke my damned heart when it was time for her to go back to Albuquerque. I got so many “first day of school” pictures though, so many “daddy, I wanna come and go to school with you,” facetimes… I know I’m not the only one who’s ready for this separation period to be over, but at least she understands to the best of her ability that it’s necessary for now.

When it comes to Demetria, I’m extremely private about her. She’s the one thing I’m the most proud of, but rarely broadcast on my social media accounts. Shit, to be honest, my roommates who haven’t been my friends since childhood don’t even know about Demetria.

They don’t need to either. My child is a sore subject, or at least, the story of her creation and separation is. Actually, it’s more of one of those, “It’s a long story,” kind of situations, that can’t really be told by me, anyway. Still though, just being here with the two of them for the little bits and pieces that I can get really makes my desire to get Lita back up here that much more important. But, with Demetria being better taken care of by her while she’s in school and in New Mexico with her paternal grandparents, who can help her take way more care of her than the two of us alone up here ever could, it’s just something I have to deal with.

I could have transferred to the University of New Mexico. I could have said fuck school and just took the offered job on the farm that was offered to me when I was still in High School, really. But, Lita talked me out of it. She made me promise to follow my dreams of following in my Daddy’s footsteps and eventually playing for the 49ers, which we all know now, has long gone off course, but I’m still going to make my parents, and everyone else proud of me.

I just want to do right by the both of them, and Lita knows this. That’s why I have to keep convincing her that I need her here, shit, I need both of them here, really, but I know we’re not ready just yet. We’re thankfully in a position to have a strong ass support team on both ends -- my parents are just as supportive as her grandparents and Dad is.

This woman, who, I can hear singing our daughter back to sleep as I sit and steal a meatball from her plate because she has more than I do, means so much more to me than words really can express. Lita is my best friend, my first love. I’ve loved her since I was seven years old. She is my partner, my co-parent, my everything and more, The One I Gave My Heart To and never expected anything in return from…

That’s why Monica is a non-factor, really.

I suck my teeth when I glimpse down at my phone and yeah, she’s drunk. Fourteen texts are waiting, and two of them are from Demetria, who can really only spell a couple of simple phrases and resorts to emojis and bad selfies. She sent “sleep” and “daddy”, with several emojis to follow.

The rest are from Monica, sending me invisible ink nudes, and audio messages I won’t listen to. Her presence only complicates the situation more between not only me and Lita, but everyone else around us. She’s not what I want. We are not together.

I’m not interested in anything long term unless it’s me getting back with Lita. We have history, longevity, a connection -- but we’re not together either. We’re co-parenting and we always attempt to make the long distance situation work, but I can’t call her my woman right now. As much as I want to, and should be able to, it’s just not that easy. She’s not anything I can call mine, but what’s understood doesn’t have to be explained, and I personally feel like now that it’s getting closer and closer to her making a decision about coming to USC for her junior and senior years, and… me and Mo aren’t on…

I mean, yeah.

Eventually, I’ll get her back, full time. Not some part-time type shit, as everything else seems to be that revolves around her. When she comes back, I know she’s having those same thoughts I am about making this more than temporary, and I get it, I really do.

Instead of saying anything though, I go back to eating my food and acting as if she’s not heavy on my mind right now. She plops down on the couch and looks at me, and I think the guilt is all over my face. She stares at my plate, and then hers, and then frowns at me.

“Something is off,” Her eyes narrow, and I look at her. I shrug, and keep eating.

“You took my fucking meatball?”

#keith powers ff #act one: part time lover #keith powers #keith powers fanfic #chapters

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lovelydeceitff · 6 years

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Chapter 6

If it comes to keep pretending, its getting harder everyday

Shay

“Oh so now you talking to me... Now I exist all of a sudden.” Keith said to me after we walked to his room. It was almost 3AM and he woke up to let me in. I let Kammy use my room so here I am. I honestly would have been here regardless, I always sleep next to Keith after a long night of partying. He knows this.

“To be real, you were the one ignoring me this whole weekend. So do not start. Hello to you too, thanks for letting me in. Tonight was pretty whack, but it was still cool.” I said to him as I began to take my clothes off.

“So you’re here because your night was weak, ha. Got it. You drunk?” He asked, finally looking at me.

“No, just a little tipsy if anything. Do you not want me here or something Keith? If there is an issue, I can leave.” I said. I really don’t want to argue with this man right now. My night was pretty weak, but I still had a good time. I just wanted to end it with my boyfriend. Sheesh.

Keith sighed. “No Shay.. I’m sorry. I want you here. I’m just annoyed cause you look so beautiful and I haven’t seen you, yet everybody else has. We barely even talked so just understand my frustration.

“Baby, I was frustrated too. YOU ignored me like I did something wrong. When we did talk you were dry. You didn’t seem like you wanted to talk to or see me so I just went with the flow.” I said as I laid on his bed and cuddled him.

“Well, I’m sorry. You do look real good though, too good.. You can’t go out like that no more” He giggled.

I didn’t have on anything major but this white t-shirt dress with the sides cut off a little and these thigh high boots. I was cute though and I definitely could’ve pulled tonight. Luckily for Keith, I wasn’t checking for nobody but him. I let Kammy and Ashley do all the pulling tonight. Plus I knew all those guys, they weren’t new to me. Nobody but a whole bunch of dudes that play girls. I’m fine being in my relationship.

Keith and I continued to talk a bit more, turns out he was the one drunk. Our friend Travis came over and he and his roommate Damon drank at the crib. He had just barely fell asleep before I called to come over. We soon fell asleep wrapped in each others arms. My favorite place.

After Kammy and Ashley left, it was back to the real world. homecoming was over. I spent my Sunday cleaning my room and doing some RA work. Being an RA was cool but it was annoying as hell. Like forreal. It was SO much work. Sometimes I struggle with how I manage my time, ya know, homework, social life, and my job. Like I rarely hang out anymore! I remember last year, my sophomore year, I had people asking me if I still went to the school cause I was never around. It sucked. It still kind of sucks because I don’t really know anybody anymore other than my residents, my coworkers, and my few friends. I still know people of course, but now most people are just acquaintances.

I had a lot of time to myself today. It’s Sunday so Keith doesnt come over today because I work night shift at the desk from 12am to 3am... that’s his sleep schedule so..

I hate not being able to see him so much. Like regardless of what went down this weekend, we really don’t ever hang out. It sucks but thats just his schedule. I get lucky some nights when we have time to watch an episode of Shameless on netflix. Thats our show, we literally love it. Some days we might even get a movie in. Dont get me wrong, I love that time that we get together, but I want more. I want to talk for a while after the show, not just go to sleep. But, it’s something I should be used to honestly. He hates it as much as I do.

My thoughts were interrupted by my loud iPhone ringer. It was Ashley. I don’t know why this girl calls me so much. She’s my bestfriend but she literally calls me everyday for no reason somedays.

I’ll use this as my cue to take my butt downstairs to the desk.

“Whats up bitch?” I answered as I exited my room.

Hopefully I dont fall asleep at the desk tonight.

#chris brown fanfic #keith powers fanfic #fanfic #chris brown ff #keith powers #chris brown

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fill-me-with-your-memes-daddy · 3 years

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Watching the Rise of the Titans movie and I'll be documenting all of my thoughts/reactions here. [Spoiler Warning]

So instead of reblogging every new update, I'm just going to have this post up on my phone as I watch and type my reactions in a bullet list format.

Nari's human disguise is so cute. As someone who does have a cottagecore aesthetic, I want to cosplay her so bad

Are Skrael and/or Belroc non-binary coded? Regardless, I'm also obsessed and I want to fuck Skrael and be Belroc.

STEVE CARING ABOUT JIM BEING HURT YESSSS!!! My god his redemption has probably been one of the greatest there is because he doesn't just suddenly go from being a bully to a completely good person. You can see the gradual shift in learning better throughout the shows which is awesome.

IN NEW YOOOOOOORRRRRRRK!!!!!! CONCRETE JUNGLE WHERE DREAMS ARE MADE OFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!

The mugshot montage reminded me of season 1 of trollhunters when toby and Jim were arrested at the museum.

STRICKLER PUT A RING ON IT??? HE'S THE ONLY DILF IVE EVER ACTUALLY AGREED WAS HOT WYM I CAN'T HAVE HIM??? well I'm still really happy about his arc over the series probably one of my favorite character growths.

Eli my guy got his growth spurt!!! As an 18 year old who is still 5'0", I'm happy but envious for him

So I went into this movie without watching any trailers or promo, but I doubt anything could have prepared me for the existence of mpreg. In fact, I wasn't going to document my reactions until I saw that.

NAMURA!!!!!!!!! MY BELOVED!!!!!! I CAN STILL THIRST FOR YOU WITHOUT GUILT

The coach teacher just called the kids zoomers so I have to dock one point from my final rating just because of that. Unforgivable

Those husky animation models suck lmao

Oh fuck the titans got power ranger zords!!

God why did they include the mpreg??? This movie would have been perfect without it.... After that plot point being revisited only one time I'm already beyond done with it

Like it's bringing me back to the v*ltron days where they're was a suspiciously high amount of klance omegaverse and mpreg fics and art created and it physically hurts because Steve and Keith's voice actor is the same person meaning this is especially cursed to me since I was unfortunately in the v*ltron fandom and remember all of that

But like on another note, how old are these characters again??? I haven't checked any wikis because of spoilers but is Steve an adult??? I know aja might be technically a lot older than 18 because alien but is whatever age she is equivalent to an adult as far as emotionally and physically in Akaridion development??? IS THIS A TEEN (M)PREGNANCY IN A KIDS SHOW????

Like bruh I saw a singular post on here before going into the movie that was like "rott spoilers without context" and there was a pregnant belly but I was absolutely not expecting the actual context of it. I'll find the post after I finish and edit this post to tag the creator right here: @makoden

This entire post is just gonna be me ranting about mpreg huh

Anyway I love the whole roundtable allusion to the legends of king arthur (not the toa version but the one he's based off)

THERE'S 3 TO 5 BABIES????? I need to take a break bruh this is just too much

Alright I've taken a 30 minute break got some food and did some things i love (decompressed by tactile stimming with some owl plushies and watched some videos on my favorite owl, Garu. He lives in Japan with his owner and is a domesticated eagle owl who basically just acts like a sky cat. If anyone else needs some eye bleach, here is their YouTube channel)

Blinky and ARRRGHHH!!! saying their "if one of us doesn't make it" talk my god one of them is going to die I can see it and I will be utterly crushed. Jim can't lose another father figure and Toby can't lose his wingman again I will riot if this happens

On a similar but unrelated to the movie note, can we just talk about how toa started with Jim having 0 dads and (if strickler and blinky live to the end) will end with 2 dads? Like I just really feel happy for him that he has two dads who actually figured out how to put the past behind them to not have any infighting between them so that both of them are healthy father figures. Jim has already been through literal hell and back losing his actual humanity in the process so if he loses one of them, I'm going to be really pissed because at this point, this is just Jim torture porn. Y'all know how as SpongeBob SquarePants went on, the show just became Squidward torture porn? It's starting to feel that way for toa and I really hope they cut the shit by the ending

Jlaire is such a good ship but like I feel like it's too perfect they never disagree with each other

YESSSSSSS Someone finally doesn't treat toby like a fat waste of space who messes stuff up!!! I think out of all the characters that would have been most deserving of a rewrite, it's Toby. Sometimes I just feel he's only comic relief and any heartfelt moments he's had in the series was also born of stupidity (ie his flour baby project being unharmed was seen by him as divine intervention from his parents but was actually just Eli and Steve behind the scenes).

Ohhhhh yesssssss Archie's father!!! I was hoping I'd see him again because we got so little of him last

Ooooooooooh Asian trollmarket!!!!!

Oh never mind slavery trollmarket

Bruh titanic camelot

I feel like we're not seeing enough of the villains because I completely forgot about the power ranger zord things

NAMORA NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MY LAST CRUSHHHH

STRICKLER NO NOT YOU TOO PLEASE

WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE ONLY TWO CHARACTERS I SIMP FOR ON THIS SHOW DIED WITHIN FIVE MINUTES OF EACH OTHER

THAT WHOLE ASS RANT I WROTE IS COMING TRUE FUCK THIS MOVIE THIS SERIES IS JUST JIM TORTURE PORN

WAIT JIM'S SPERM DONOR INFO?

Oh thank God I don't want to know anything about that person

For the record, I call that man Jim's sperm donor because he has no business being called a father to him. All he did was donate some swimmers to the creation of him and give him abandonment issues

Oh another blind troll elder???? This fucker is just if vendel was a bad guy

Bruh I was grieving

PACIFIC RIM WITH GUN ROBOT VEX AND THE BELROCZORD? I've never seen that movie but I know the reference

Bruh Blinky doesn't read horoscopes? Does he realize conspiracy theories are just the manly version of horoscopes?

NO DON'T KILL VEX STOP KO-ING FOUND FAMILY MEMBERS

Oh thank God he's okay

NO NOT ARCHIE AND CHARLEMAGNE OH MY GOD

oh never mind they're just gonna coup de tat I believe in them :))

But I want to see him again

But I'm glad to see vex

Yay they're in arcadia!

But yeah I wondered why the trolls and Merlin didn't keep the whole "daylight doesn't hurt trolls" feature from the eternal night but now Guillermo del Toro I see you were playing the long con in that just to kill my girl Namora :(((

Oooooh I love the animation of the Narizord over Chihuahua!! It looks very good and realistic (if only they could have put some of that into those huskies from before smh)

Bruh the character designs of the arcane order are so good I want to be them

Nari making sure the Skraelzord doesn't crush the bus

DAMN DOUBLE HOMICIDE

Bruh I'm just glad we finally have an answer on why arcadia had everything going on as opposed to literally anywhere else!! I always found that as a weird coincidence for plot convince.

BRUH WERE BACK TO THE MPREG IM SO JEALOUS I FORGOT ABOUT THAT EVEN THOUGH IT WAS BECAUSE I WAS GRIEVING THE LOSS OF MY LOVELIES.

Oh that's real convenient that the ninth configuration meant all of them. Way to not decide which character gets more attention. Though it probably was a smart way to not have any infighting in the fandom between each character's stan group.

Bruh I just realized where is Barbera did they just ditch her on the Camelot ship???

And where are the other trolls that migrated at the end of trollhunters s3? They said something about new jersey but obviously Jim and the other main characters got on Camelot instead.... This feels like a plot hole

And we never learned the process of how changelings are made and bonded to humans and stuff. We just know it's super painful but I'm curious ffs!!!!

THE DONT THINK BECOME HERO SPEECH ALL SAID TOGETHER!!!

BRUH THEY REALLY HAD TO SHOW HIM GIVING BIRTH??????? WAS THAT AN ABSOLUTE MUST??????

Plus the main audience for this series is little children (the rating for the movie is literally TV-Y7) so even though my adult ass is not in the target audience, I STILL DONT UNDERSTAND WHY WOULD MPREG AND ANAL BIRTH WOULD BE AN IMPORTANT THING TO 7 YEAR OLDS???? THIS IS A LITERAL FETISH HIDDEN IN KIDS CONTENT ITS ELSAGATE ALL OVER AGAIN Y'ALL 😭😭😭😭😭

Though it's probably hypocritical of me to think fetishes don't belong in kids tv when I've openly admitted to thirsting for strickler and namora

HUZZAH

NEW AMULET WAZ GOOD????

STAB THAT BITCH JIM

WAIT NO I SAID STAB NOT GET STABBED

Alright good job just missed the directions at first but you fixed it

SEVEN KIDS?????????

T O B Y ????????????

W A I T NO

N O

IS HE ACTUALLY

OH MY GOD THERE'S HOPE

NO THERE ISN'T

F U C K THIS SHIT THEY REALLY JUST HAD HIM TO BE BULLIED THEN KILLED

Y'ALL IM ACTUALLY CRYING THIS NEVER HAPPENS

I NEVER ACTUALLY GET SO EMOTIONAL OVER MEDIA THAT I CRY IT ONLY HAPPENED ONCE AT THE END OF VOLTRON BUT AHHHHHHHH

W A I T

HE'S GONNA BE BROUGHT BACK?????

HOLD UP THEY'RE JUST GONNA BRING ALL THOSE DEAD PEOPLE BACK??????

WAIT IS HE

BLINKY CALLED HIM A SON

HOLD ON IS THIS GOING TO BE A CLIFFHANGER???????????

BRUH THEY REALLY JUST CAN'T END THE SERIES WITHOUT CLIFFHANGERS like there's always an open ending

TROLLHUNTER TOBY????? You know what forget the whole rants I had on how toby was written they just redeemed it all

And that's all! I'd rate it a 6.5/10 because it's definitely the weakest of all the sequels but still had amazing animation and some good plot points. It's just really hard to look over the bad stuff enough to rate it any higher.

#tales of arcadia #rise of the titans #trollhunters #rott #rise of the titans spoilers #rott spoilers #toa #3 below #athena's own original post!#jim lake jr #claire nuñez #toby domzalski

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classicmarvelera · 2 years

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Groovy Kind of Love: Reed and Sue

Love is complicated. It also undergoes changes to norms over time. What maybe acceptable back then, maybe unthinkable now and vice versa. However, somethings remain relevant, important or central to this day. In this case, it is the love between a man and a woman and how it culminates into ‘family’ but what is a family? By definition, it’s a social group made up of parents and their children but does it stop there? Stan Lee and Jack Kirby may not have known what they really ended up creating. A family. A reader would find his/her mom’s reflection when they see Sue Storm in the panels and how she, a humble housewife having super powers, would work hard day and night to keep the family together. Stan and Jack’s FF are certainly a joint family. There’re are Uncles Johnny and Ben, one’s related by blood while the other isn’t and Susie is managing through tantrums and temperaments of not just her husband, her children but also of these two. Not an easy job but that’s what makes women so special

And yet, despite ups and downs in their relationship, despite their age difference; Reed and Sue remain together. Their wedding issue is one of Marvel’s highlights and both play an important role even at moments of crisis that affects most of Marvel Universe. This is how writers positioned them perfectly through the years

How beautifully this couple and their lovely relationship has been illustrated over the years. Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Keith Pollard, George Perez, John Byrne and Alex Ross are credited to have captured the couple in the best way imaginable

That’s the beauty about FF. Take out all the super powers and action and it’s still going to resonate with many. Why? Because at the heart of it are Reed and Sue that make it work just like any loving husband and wife

Marvel Comics has produced many couples over the decades. Even within FF, there’s Johnny and Chrystal, Johnny and Lyja, Ben and Alicia but somehow, no one seems to eclipse the position which Marvel’s first couple enjoys to this day

Happy Valentine’s Day, Classic Marvelites! ❤️

#fantastic four #reed richards #susan storm #Valentine’s Day #marvel comics #marvel age #stan lee #jack kirby #Alex Ross

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wicoppi · 3 years

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what do you head canon as the origins for the blade of marmora ? like all of the lore n stuff. im curious to know your thoughts on all of this :)

In s7 with Macidus, Krolia has some very interesting lines circling around safe houses and old secret communication codes that make me think she and Kolivan are founding members or, at most, second generation leadership. I tend towards them being og because with Keith taking over after them it ties in thematically with other leadership transitions in the show.

In s2, there’s a line from Ulaz while introducing the Blade of Marmora about how their members are Galra who became disillusioned with the empire. Meaning they were at some point on board with Zarkon and his expansion.. probably before the casual, regular decimation of planets- something we know Zarkon started doing early on based on Lotor’s story about colonizing a planet in the name of the Galra Empire.

And in s3 during Lotor’s introduction scene Throk says, “We’ve fought be Zarkon’s side forever, and now we are passed over by this exiled brat.” So 1. Lotor, who is approx. 10,000 years old, is relatively young compared to Throk and most high ranking officers and 2. said officers have been doing Zarkon’s work for a long,, long time.. since before Lotor.. since before the rift. Hell, when Honerva jumps realities + back in time to young!Lotor and Zarkon, we see a version of Sendak that supports this. I.e. many of the key Galra we encounter are old, older than this war. And served under Zarkon at some point.

These are the main points that lead me to believe the Blade of Marmora is not that old relative to the Galra Empire or even Zarkon’s reign.

Furthermore, it is interesting that one of the first planets conquered by the Galra Empire, Planet Feyiv, home to the Kral Zera, is shown as kept intact (read: not decimated) and sparse of intelligent life-forms. It reminds me of sayings like “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and “Evil isn’t born, it’s made.”

There’s hints across canon and specifically within Coran’s story about the paladins of old that leads me to believe both Alteans and the Galra were spreading their culture before the destruction of Daibazaal, but after Alfor tried to destroy the rift, the Galra had to be more earnest in their conquest because they needed a new home.

So what’s likely is that as the Galra Empire rose from the ashes and grew beyond expectations and various acceptable limits, blade!Galra hit epiphany moments where they realized how unsustainable Zarkon’s methods/actions were, gained perspective, and felt a call to action to correct things.

And it’s unlikely these epiphanies happened at the same time. What are the chances scores of Galra just woke up one day and said “this must stop” and all set out to find each other?

So for headcanons, I see the Blade of Marmora as having formed quite organically and informally before finally accumulating enough members and independence to pull together in person and establish protocols, bases, chain of command, bitchin’ uniforms, etc.

Going more into personal headcanons:

I would wager the BoM started more as a “we need to course correct” movement before hitting the “oh. oh, no. we gotta stop this shit full tilt” realization and forming a proper organization.

Galra, as a species, are opportunistic as fuck. It’s not unique to empire-loyal, “evil” Galra. Lotor didn’t get all that shit from Honerva. Kolivan and other Galra probably started out as individuals lying in wait, gathering information, maybe making small sabotages, and keeping their ears open for others sympathetic to stopping the empire for the good of the universe (as opposed to Galra who were interested in sabotage in the name of taking control for themselves.)

Basically, there have always been mutinous, self-serving, power-hungry Galra who did not agree with Zarkon’s version of the Galra Empire and felt they could do it better. Just look at how they all behaved at the Kral Zera ffs.

But Zarkon had the respect, fear, and/or admiration of his people despite being a HIGHLY liberal Galra: in the early days he worked with rather than over non-Galra, he allowed Alteans onto Daibazaal and gave them a foothold to do dumbass science on what was destroying their planet. He married a non-Galra for crying out loud.

But Zarkon also ended an endless war that spanned generations (think about how long Galra live), he made peace with their planetary system, he unlocked the secrets of Altean technology in order to advance Galra tech faster than they could have on their own. Zarkon kept his people alive, carved them out home in the universe, lifted and expanded their empire at a time when they were at their lowest. Under Zarkon, the Galra Empire not only survived, but thrived.

Of course his people, blade!Galra included, would learn to look past Zarkon’s liberal oddities, his murderous tendencies, would make him the exception to their prejudices while shaming half-breeds, would find ways to justify his imperialism.

And speaking of half-breeds, let’s talk about a part of the Blade of Marmora’s foundation: recruiting. Yes, the Galra love the fuck out of their pure-bloods. And the BoM had to be in keeping with that culture if they wanted to successfully infiltrate the highest parts of the command chain (see: Thace, Krolia). But Keith is also brought into the mix. Goes on missions with Regris who has a prehensile tail. Kolivan’s right-hand man, Antok, is of atypical, stocky build also with a tail. Clearly the blades did a lot of recruiting within marginalized Galra communities.

Back to origins, I can see a story where the original gambit was to identify the Galra who agreed the empire could be doing things better than straight up destroying planets, enslaving populations, casually committing genocide.. and started spreading doubt and raising concerns through Zarkon’s ranks, found the ones close to Zarkon who could try to sway him with reason. Only for that mission to end with Zarkon condemning those advisors and Haggar creating her first robeasts out of them. Leaving Kolivan, Krolia, and crew to firmly break away and formally gather, creating the Blade of Marmora.

Ultimately, I kind of like that the Blade of Marmora remains shrouded in mystery; it lends to their aesthetic. But I also crave their backstory, even if it were just a comic series or whatever. I want to know who/what “Marmora” was to the Galra; that name has to be tied up in symbolism in a similar manner as “vrepit sa” and “palen bo.” I want to know how Kolivan and Krolia met. See interactions between Krolia, Ulaz, and Thace. How did the BoM operate before they found Slav? How did Kolivan become their leader? What did he do to earn that respect over others? If the empire values strength (Victory or Death) and that’s how they choose their leaders, what does Kolivan know (Knowledge or Death) that put him in the top echelon?

#blade of marmora #bom #galra #voltron #vld #voltron legendary defender #oh sweet anon thank you for encouraging me to bring my ramblings back on main #i really do have a lot of feelings about the bom #i thought this resonse was going to be just a few paragraph #there's like.. 5 meta that could spin off from this #krolia #kolivan #go loose coppi #vld.schematics #vld.hc #vldgen

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lesbianklance · 3 years

Note

broke: modern au where nyma is lance's toxic ex who chained him to a tree and drove off when they broke up

woke: modern au where nyma and lance are good friends(who may or may not be exes) with a friendly-flirty relationship and one time during a game of truth or dare(that lance and nyma where both playing) nyma was dared to chain him to a tree (later, out of pity, hunk dared keith to unchain him)

idk these are my headcanons anyway

YES KAI THESE!!!!

i mean the chaining lance to trees part is funny but come ooon the whole ooh poor lance nyma used him and was so toxic:(((

as a lance stan: get out of lance's ass he is not a child you dont have to baby him and hate on women that did not take his shit and his flirting you're just being misogynistic (same goes with people that hate on allura ffs)

fics that lance and nyma are besties tho>>>

they would be so powerful pls imagine them gushing to each other about plaxum/allura (for nyma) and keith (for lance)

#ask #kai tag🐟#NYMA RIGHTS BITCHES

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oklcmc · 1 year

Text

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀،̲،̲⠀𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐁𝐀𝐓 ❪chapter seis：fortune favors the bold❫⸝ pt. 𝟐╱𝟐 [𝟏𝟖+]

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀〝⠀I’m TRYNA be a LEADER⸝ but shit⸝ I’m FALLIN’ in⠀⠀⠀MY PAST⸝⠀〞 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀✱ Tory Lanez — Adidas ❪2020❫

ׂ ̣ ○ . ° ♰ 𓈒 ॱ 𓂂 WORD COUNT⠀⦂⠀5，057

ׂ ̣ ○ . ° ♰ 𓈒 ॱ 𓂂 PAIRING⠀⦂⠀street fighter!black!male oc ❪keith powers❫ ✕ black!female oc ❪kelis rogers⸝ circa ‘99❫

ׂ ̣ ○ . ° ♰ 𓈒 ॱ 𓂂 FOREWARNING⠀⦂⠀This chapter will contain use of strong language and gore ִ 𖤠 Read at your own discretion.

ׂ ̣ ○ . ° ♰ 𓈒 ॱ 𓂂 AUTHOR��S NOTE⠀⦂⠀⠀⠀‘’⠀⠀⠀I’ve been working on this chapter progressively throughout these past few months of ‘22 and yet，I still don’t like the way it turned out. Given that it is just a filler chapter to give you guys hints on what everything’s leading up to in the next act，I still feel as though I could’ve put forth more effort with it to make it even more intriguing，but I’m not trippin’，’cause I really didn’t want to bring this chapter into ‘23 with me. Having this finally completed has been a huge weight lifted off my shoulders，you guys have no idea，so praise God for that! I can finally start the process of cracking down on my other hobbies besides writing this month，going into ‘23. As I would say back in my Wattpad days，show support by liking，reblogging or even commenting! I’m appreciative of every little interaction y’all give me，but more specifically with this piece of work here! Muah!⠀⠀⠀‘’

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀〝⠀MY THOUGHTS MUST BE RELAXED⸝ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀BE ABLE TO MAINTAIN ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀‘CAUSE TIMES IS CHANGED ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀AND LIFE IS STRANGE

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀THE GLORIOUS DAYS IS GONE ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀AND EVERYBODY’S DOIN’ BAD ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀YO⸝ MAD LIVES IS UP FOR GRABS!⠀〞

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀-ˋˏ⠀VINEGAR HILL⸝ BROOKLYN ⠀⠀⠀⠀SATURDAY⸝ OCTOBER 𝟖ᵀᴴ⸝ 𝟏：𝟏𝟕 AM ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀TYREE’S PAD⠀ˎˊ˗ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀🐉系🍱🥢🥡💮𓈒𓄹

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𝐎𝐌𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐓

ㅤㅤㅤ“𝕺KAY⸝ SO I’M FULLY AWARE that I’m late arriving to our Kung Fu Watch-A-Thon, but the great news is that I’ve come bearing gifts to make up for the time lost!”

After a forty-minute commute to the Soldier crew’s habitual dining place of Louie & Ernie’s Pizza back in The Bronx and weaving traffic for nearly the same amount of time, Kei and Lamar had successfully made it through the door of Tyree’s Vinegar Hill pad where Isaiah had been patiently anticipating their arrival on an empty stomach.

He sat slouched within his favorite seat within the apartment, arms crossed with his traditional attire of wrinkled baseball Jerseys and white crew neck T-shirts while The 36th Chamber of Shaolin aired on the 55″ flat screen television. The camouflage A Bathing Ape brand bucket hat he was then sporting had been slightly tilted down over his mahogany eyes, making it damn near difficult to tell on whether or not he had actually been watching the film or whether it had been watching him the entire time, especially beneath the dim directional lights of the front room.

They both had received an answer to their question when Isaiah went to adjust himself in the recliner at Kei’s bribery.

“Ah, I knew you couldn’t resist a good bargain,” Kei conveyed rather vivaciously, swiftly slipping from out her Cinderellaesque PVC pumps and leaving Lamar to fetch them like the mutt he was. She went to safely place her glass bag aside on the entertainment stand before taking the pizza boxes from his possession and going to approach Isaiah, kneeling before him in her authentic Thierry Mugler frock. “So what will it be tonight, Zay, plain cheese or Margherita?”

Without so much as a single utter, Isaiah didn’t hesitate when hungrily outstretching his hands for the box with the all cheese pizza stored inside of it.

“Now how’d I know you’d choose that one? More Margherita for me then,” She shrugged, placing the box of Margherita pizza on the coffee table before going to stand on her own two, facing towards the hallway in which their bedrooms resided while finally getting the opportunity to take down the high ponytail in her head that seemingly gave her a make-shift face lift and migraine throughout the course of the night. “I’ma go wash this makeup off and slip into something a little more comfortable. Keep my se—”

“Thank you.” An indistinct baritone voice muttered, causing Kei, as well as Lamar to pause dead in their tracks.

“Lamar, y-you said somethin’?”

“Hell nah!” He exclaimed, putting up a minor fight with the can of Red Bull he had managed to snag from the tall freestanding larder fridge while attempting to get it open. “I think that little nigga just talked!”

“Oh my God, Zay! You can talk?!?! It’s a miracle!” Kei exclaimed in excitement, clasping her hands together and bringing them up towards her gloss coated lips before turning to face Isaiah who had a bashful grin ghosting his full lips.

“That nigga hasn’t spoken in like five years!” Lamar stated, gently going to grab Kei up by her upper arm before catapulting her towering stature towards his own by his free hand. “Ay, whatever voodoo you performed on him and T, you need to try on me.” He blew a kiss in her direction in which she rejected by kissing her teeth and rolling her eyes before snatching away from him.

“It’s called “Decorum,” weird ass. You oughta learn more of it. Now if you’d excuse me, I’d like to go change unlike some people ‘round here. I ain’t gon’ name no names, and keep your hands out my pizza!”

“I bought the shit.” Lamar retorted, falling back onto the leather sofa.

“Yeah, with my man’s money!” Kei shot back once in the safety of her and Tyree’s bedroom before going to slam and lock the door.

“You, as well as I know that that’s bullshit, aight, Kei?! My mans owes me for all the babysittin’ I’ve done with you and Zay these past six years and countin’, for you, a month and countin’! Fuck else you think I’m gettin’ paid for? To sit ‘round, lookin’ pretty? Oh, I must’ve forgot, that’s you and Bianca’s responsibility, right? ‘Cause I ain’t tryna step on anybody’s toes!” Lamar shouted sarcastically in response from the living room area, mouth then full of cheese pizza.

“Tuh! Won’t ‘fend me none!” Kei sibilated once her high quality jewelry was removed and stored safely inside it’s organizer.

She opted her vintage Thierry Mugler frock for casual attire that was far less overstimulating, that being a graphic camisole top and a pair of loose fit denim shorts in which she had to fold the band over in order to keep them up on her waistline for the time being. She slipped her pedicured feet inside her green Marni Sabot mules with a very high priority of showering straight after dinner before retreating to the bathroom to rid her face of any makeup.

She was in the midst of drying her face with a few disposable Bounty quilted napkins when an obnoxious crash could be heard coming from the living room area, causing for her to pause all action completely. She thought nothing of it in that spare moment of silence, resuming with her nightly regime, chalking it up to being nothing more than Lamar’s ass horseplaying around with Isaiah, per usual, until it came to her name being shouted by Lamar, despair lacing his tone. She was sure on disposing the used napkins before rushing to his aide with her heart in her throat.

Kei knew something was off that night. Her intuition led her to believe so, and the blood smearing on the open door, staining Tec’s hands and all tracing back to the once white T-shirt of Tyree that was then soiled in it further proved that she should’ve stuck with her first instinct instead of putting her faith in his. She couldn’t bare the thought of losing another.

“TYREE!” Kei shouted unto him, knees collapsing at his side by the leather sofa in which his tremoring body was then laid upon. “Tyree...” She whimpered, tucking her quivering bottom lip between her teeth only momentarily as a tear fell from the tip of her tinted nose. She wasn’t afraid to get her hands or attire dirty when carefully going to bring his body closer to hers. She assumed the only way they’d receive any explanation on this at all was if they’d remain calm while going about it. “Tyree, baby, tell me what happened. Who did this to you, hm? C’mon...” She sniffed, damp forehead falling against his as she caressed his face for comfort though it did anything but that. “Please talk to me, baby. Just... Please!” She wept, losing patience as he convulsed within her arms.

By this time within the night, Tyree’s 6′2″ frame had succumb to severe pain due to the gunshot wounds that penetrated his shoulder and side. The amount of blood he had lost from the train station to right there on the sofa had him feeble and delirious. He could barely distinguish illusion from reality. A desperate cry for help would only resort in more blood being spilled, so was there even a point in entertaining the thought of it? If this were his fate then he was damn sure accepting of it.

“Tec, what happened tonight?!” When Kei couldn’t pry the answers from her boyfriend, she instead found herself inquiring the next person in line for the job. Her glossy eyes fell on Tec who paced at the center of the living room, bewilderness set into his expression as the events that took place well over an hour ago still played out in his head on a constant loop.

His blood-stained hands trembling with panic as he skillfully attempted to ignite the backwood tucked between his lips even in the condition of an sprained wrist. He couldn’t quite wrap his head around how none of them seen it coming, and on the other hand, he couldn’t help but to place blame on himself with how Tyree and Soldier ended up. So many “If’s” and “Maybe’s.” If only he had took his own truck instead of pooling with Soldier that night, it would’ve bought them more time to escape the Jakes with him. He could’ve gotten Tyree home much more quicker than what the train had, not to mention them having to walk blocks from the crime scene in order to catch that.

“Shit, I don’t know, Kei!” Tec bellowed in agitation once pulling the blunt from his lips, halting his pace only momentarily in order to gather his thoughts. “We was only supposed to be hittin’ The Heights to celebrate T’s win tonight. Couple bottles, some sesh, a few bitches, y’know? The usual. Shit took a left turn in Soldier’s whip once we found out them opp niggas was following us from the venue. Ra had to have been wit’ them niggas—”

“Ra?! As in Raphael?!” Lamar interrogated, head jerking back and eyes narrowing in disbelief. “Nah, no way.”

“Nigga, I’m tryna tell your ass, Ra was wit’ them niggas! Who the fuck else you think was bustin’ shots in T’s direction first?! In the front seat of our whip, at that?!” Tec sniffed, swiping his thumb beneath his frigid and tinted nose in anger by use of his dominant hand. “I saw the shit myself! Next thing you know, an old school Cadillac Coupe DeVille that them niggas was rollin’ in pulls up next to us and starts firing more shots. We all ended up crashin’ somewhere on 125th and Lex, but it ain’t end there. Tyree called himself hopping out to go after them niggas... Alone. Meanwhile, I’m left to tend to Soldier even though I’m just as fucked up as he is at that point,” He took a swift pull from his blunt, his vacant eyes wide open and set on nothing in particular as he went to close out his story. “I’m still not even a hundred percent sure what went down in that station earlier, shit, I’m not even sure if I want to know. I’ll let T tell y’all that part. All I do know is that Ra’s on the run, Soldier’s in the slammer and we out here.”

“Soldier’s in holding?” Kei questioned empathetically as if that had been the only statement she excerpted from his vent.

“Ain’t no fuckin’ way half these niggas jumped ship, Soldier’s in the can and we out here outnumbered, crippled or damn near dead! Let’s get Tyree to the nearest hospital so that we can go get back at them niggas!”

“Nigga, are you dumb, stupid or slow?! Did you not hear what the fuck I just said?! The streets is mad hot right now for any of us, that including Kei! It was mad surveillance cameras in that one spot. The best we can do right now is lay low ‘til it all blows over.”

“What?! And let him bleed out?!” Lamar questioned, extending his arms out in the direction of Tyree.

“I feel like you got somethin’ you wanna say, Lamar...” Tec stated, walking up on Lamar.

“You guys, is now really the best time for all this?” Kei questioned softly.

“Fuck that. I’m makin’ a housecall to Dr. Moore. He’ll clear all this shit up. C’mon, Zay. You ‘on’t need to be seeing all this.” Lamar stated, grabbing the back of Isaiah’s neck in a brotherly manner once he was in close proximity of him before they would both make their way to the back of the apartment.

“Yeah, you call that strung out ass nigga. I’m headin’ to the rooftop. I need some fuckin’ air.” Tec announced, slamming the door on his way out and leaving Kei on her lonesome.

Flatbush，Brooklyn

A very eager and even more anxious Jasper Valentine sat positioned in genuflect as he laced his Adidas with unsteady hands before his own son who laid fast asleep and bundled within the comfort of his own car seat warmer, on the porch of none other than the Lewis’.

It was well past midnight and New York had hit it’s lows as far as the fall weather was concerned which would explain their hefty getups, but Jasper had deep meaning to go a lot further in his.

“Ay, little man, it’s daddy here,” Jasper glanced down at his five-month-old son’s full face for what could potentially be the last time, his NUK brand pacifier being latched on sporadically throughout the infant’s deep slumber. “I realize... I realize that you’re far too young to comprehend just what I’m about to tell you, but I feel as though I at least owe that to ya dukes since your grandparents couldn’t exactly do the same when it came to us. I’m going away for a minute. Going to find your Titi Kei along with your Tío Antonio. It’s uncertain to me on just how long we’ll actually be away or if we’ll even be returning at all with the way things are lookin’ right now, but the really dope part about all this, is that you’ve got angels in your corner, ready and willing to protect you at any given cost, that including your abuela, your madre and even ya Tía XiXi, so you be a good boy for them ‘til papi gets back, hm? And just remember, no matter what happens after tonight, I love you, Joie Valentine. Never will stop lovin’ you.” He kissed his teeth with a wink, giving his son a gentle chin check that caused the infant to slightly stir in his sleep before standing to his feet and going to adjust the strap of the brimming The North Face jester backpack on his right shoulder which so happened to be considered Joie’s makeshift diaper bag since birth as well.

His right hand latched onto the handle of Joie’s car seat before finally facing towards the front door of the Lewis’ Flatbush brownstone and proceeding to ring the doorbell with whatever pride he had left in him.

Mrs. Lewis’ dainty stature would soon appear at the interior craftsman doors of the vestibule of her brownstone in a satin bonnet while tying her terry cloth bath rope closed over her muumuu nightgown with her eyes halfway closed shut.

“Jasper,” The elder woman exhaled deeply in relief, bringing the young man into her tight embrace almost as if she hadn’t been expecting his company. He would’ve done the same if it weren’t for him clutching on the handle of Joie’s car seat as well as the strap of his diaper bag. “Thank God you made it here safely,” She pulled back, clasping her hands together before bringing them up towards her full lips as she batted her natural lashes in his direction. “How you been holding up?”

“I’ll be at ease once I know Kei’s back home safe,” Jasper stated, a little hostile than he probably initially intended. This all stemming from their very first encounter with the police. Seemed as if everyone had questions, but no one had answers, so he was setting out to find them on his own. “Look, Mrs. Lewis, I... I just wanted to personally thank you for doing me this solid again. I really don’t know how me and mines would’ve even made it this far without the support of you and yours. The Tsangs included.”

“Jasper Valentine, there’s no need to thank me,” She insisted, grabbing at both of his brawny upper arms. “You just thank the Lord above for binding us together in trying times such as this and for giving you the strength and protection to carry on day to day, you hear?” Her fingers slipping beneath his chin affectionately in order to lift his head up in confidence so that they were seeing eye to eye had him smiling through the pain. “The only thing you need to do for me is to be sure Kei gets home safely, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” He nodded his head in agreement. “And I know you didn’t ask for anything in return, but I still left $500 in cash, my EBT card and the keys to the apartment in Joie’s diaper bag just in case I don’t make it back in time and he ends up needing more clothes, diapers, formula or anything else for that matter. I know you’ll be checkin’ in on mi abuelo as well though he’s pretty self-sufficient, but just in case, his SSDI check comes in on the third of each month and that’s usually what we’ll use to pay the rent with after getting his necessities.”

“I know you’re good for it, baby,” Mrs. Lewis assured, taking Joie as well as his diaper bag from his possession around the same time Antonio made an appearance at the vestibule in his coordinating black assemble. Boy, was she a strong woman to be her early sixties. “Now you two go and find your sister. I’ll be praying!” She shooed the young adults away from her stoop.

They would get halfway down the street before they’d open their mouths to say anything.

“You never told me where we’re headin’ first.” Antonio stated, lacing his favorite range of metallic silver Nike Air Force Foamposite Pro sneakers.

“We’re going to see a man about a horse.” Jasper informed nonchalantly, not willing to make further conversation than that as he would yank the hood of his pullover over his freeform locs at the signal of the crosswalk light.

Bloomingdale，New Jersey 3：16 AM

Jasper and Antoino’s excursion from the gutters of Flatbush, Brooklyn to the suburbs of Bloomingdale, New Jersey by use of the Q train was a straight shot that only took a two-hour duration if you included the bus rides in between. Their destination of the night was on the porch of a three-bedroom townhome complex located in a predominantly residential area. To say that they both felt every bit of out of place, especially dressed in all black while being Black, at this time of night, was an understatement, but they both knew that they were there to serve a greater purpose, so there was really was no use in turning back at that point in time. Plus the Rap music pumping from the inside told them otherwise. This had to have been a safe space.

“Yo, bro, just a reminder that when we get inside, let me do most of the conversing. Remember I told you on the train ride here that I’ve known these cats since high school and how they ain’t too fond of new people comin’ ‘round.” Jasper forewarned, ringing the doorbell to the townhome as instructed before stepping back to where Antonio stood, carelessly rolling his preferred strain of sour diesel into a fronto leaf just to calm his nerves since he couldn’t find the time to do so earlier.

“I gotchu, bro.” Antonio reassured, not even bothering to glance in his direction as the panel door before them flew open without even so much as an interrogation on their identities while standing on the opposite side, a thick fog of marijuana smoke following shortly after. Their choice in the likes of Baby Keem’s discography weren’t as muddled then with the door being wide open. They could make out every word being shouted within the sidebar conversations of those who occupied the living room area inside. Though it seemed too late within the night to be making plans to go anywhere far.

They could only guess who actually answered the door for them as their eyes fell onto a kid, no older than eight years old and evidently of mixed race just by the loose curl pattern of his untamed natural, standing in the doorway in Marvel thermal long johns and crew socks while rubbing his puffy eyes in closed fists.

“Ay, little man, your parents—” Jasper began to interrogate the boy on his parents whereabouts when the answer came stumbling into view.

“Blaze,” Though clearly inebriated, the woman was courteous enough to hiccup into her fist before clutching onto the door for some stability. “What’ve I told you ‘bout opening my door without permission from me or your dad, huh?!”

“Sorry, mommy...” Blaze sulked with his head hung low.

“There won’t be a “Sorry” next time. I’ma just start putting a belt to your ass, how ‘bout that?! Huh?! Now go to bed like I asked! You know good and dang on well you not supposed to be up at this time of night!”

“Yes, ma’am.” Blaze remained courteous throughout his mother’s dispute, turning on his heels to retreat to his bedroom, her eyes following him every step of the way.

“I’m sorry ‘bout that. These ki— Jasper?!” The young mother would cock an eyebrow, an inviting smirk ghosting her full lips as her hands fell to her waist at the sight of an old friend.

“Shawnee, hey,” Jasper greeted once coming to realization of it being his former friend from high school as she reached out for a hug to which he happily accepted. “Long time, no speak. It’s good to finally see you again. That’s you?” He asked, referring to the kid who had seen himself up to his bedroom.

“Um, yeah,” She nodded once pulling away from him and going to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Me and Juul’s. I heard you had one too. Congratulations.”

“Why, thank you.”

“The fuck is Juul?” Antonio muttered, only expecting for Jasper’s ears to hear until the back of Jasper’s hand came flying into his solid chest, nearly knocking the wind from him and the blunt from out his hand.

“Um, this is my brother-in-law, Antonio, but we call him Juice. I bought him along fo’ the ride.You think Juul’ll mind?”

“Course not. He’s been expecting your company, actually,” She stated, stepping aside to give them access to the townhome. “Upstairs, first door on your left.”

“Thank you.”

The duo would enter the townhome with great precaution, moving with stealth as they passed the kitchen, dining and living room areas that housed two more beautiful women— One sporting a bleached pixie cut and the other sporting a side swoop— Who indulged in their choice of marijuana or liquor while sparking up a conversation on the company as they passed by in order to reach the staircase.

They were hardly able to make it past the threshold of their designated bedroom within the townhome without firearms being pointed in their direction, causing for them to throw their hands up in defense.

“Yo, Juul, Paris, Sol? Chill! It’s just me, Jasper, from prep school, remember?” Jasper sputtered with his chest heaving as the trio hesitated to lower their weapons. He pondered on if this paranoid behavior came routine for the three, especially with a child being involved. Surely, these weren’t the same people he once considered running with back in prep school.

“Shit, Jasper,” Juul exhaled, running a clammy hand down his speckled face before being the first of the three to lower his weapon, surprisingly. “You gotta speak up next time. We almost blew your damn lid off,” He drawled, his ocean blue eyes scanning the room to catch his two colleagues still in defense mode. “They good.”

“They ain’t good ‘til I say they are,” Paris stated, glancing back at Juul.

Sol was an exchange student deriving from Japan at their time of prep school. He verbally spoke a lick of English and was more on the mute side either way which lead other people to push their own narratives about who he was as a person. Except for Paris. Paris was patient, ready and willing to protect Sol at all costs, study his culture and vice versa, so Sol would always feel the need to coincide with him, good or bad. They were the true definition of yin and yang. Before The Notorious 3 were even established, there was Paris and Sol, bonding over their passions for hypebeast fashion and music.

“I know that’s Jasper, but who the fuck is this Mr. T lookin’ motherfucker to the left of him? Nobody sent for him.”

True, Jasper thought.

He should’ve asked before stringing him along. He knew that they kept a knit operation and an outsider could cost them everything, so he couldn’t really blame them for being cautious.

“This is my brother-in-law, Antonio. We call him Juice. He’s just here lookin’ for the same answers as me, man.” This statement evidently put everyone’s racing minds at ease, causing for Paris and Sol to finally lower their weapons before Jasper and Antonio did the same with their hands.

“You should ask next time.” Paris suggested.

“No doubt.” Jasper agreed, hesitantly going to take a seat in the loveseat alongside Antonio.

“Y’all mind if I light this joint?” Antonio asked, making himself comfortable by removing his Supreme brand backpack before holding his fronto up to their eye level to prevent further suspicion.

“Yeah, man, knock yourself out.” Juul approved, taking a rip from his own form of antidepressant which so happened to be a vape.

“Now that the dust has settled, can we get down to business on my sister’s whereabouts?” Jasper inquired, irritation evident within his tone as he clasped his hands together.

“Course, bro. That’s what we’re all here for, right?” Juul stated with no particular response. “You know I’ve never beat around the bush with any of y’all, so I’ma just come right out and say that the reason the cops couldn’t find Kei is because she’s now apart of an underground street fighting ring.”

“She’s what?!” Jasper exclaimed in disbelief, leaping up from his place on the loveseat as if it would somehow obliterate the anger he’d been carrying all this time. He promised himself that he wouldn’t get riled up, no matter the circumstances that she were in, but he couldn’t seem to wrap his head around the fact that his baby sister had been engaging in an underground street fighting ring of some sort and how it only took Juul’s less than ten minutes to tell him so while it took the New York Police Department more than ten days to even identify XiXi’s lifeless body on a dead end street. They were useless! “Why y’all ain’t just tell me this shit on the phone earlier in the night, huh?! We could’ve been at these niggas’ spot!”

“Bro, don’t shoot the messenger, aight?! We just attended the spot earlier in the night after months of being absent from the scene. It would’ve been mad suspicious of us to go snatching Kei up without an actual plan in motion. Plus Kei didn’t seem to be in any immediate danger at that moment in time. What more do you want us to do?”

“To do your fuckin’ job, how ‘bout that?! Do exactly what I paid y’all to do! It’s not that fuckin’ hard!”

“And it ain’t that simple either, Jasper!” Juul’s reciprocated Jasper’s energy, pouncing up from his seat in the office chair before walking up on him. “And what you’re not about to do is come inside my crib and try to bitch me in front of our boys or my son while he’s lying in the next room! We beyond all this shit!” Being the bigger person out of the both of them, he gripped Jasper’s shoulder in order to compose him. “Look, I get your determination on getting your sister back home, Jasper, I truly do. I’d flip out if my sister was in a ring too, but you gotta keep in mind that these people we talkin’ ‘bout are just as lethal as us three, if not, more and on a much larger scale; therefore, we gotta be strategic on how we move.”

“Then what exactly is it that you suggest we do, Juul? ‘Cause I’m losing my patience. I’ll take them niggas on myself.” Jasper gritted, shooting daggers in his direction.

Truth be told, Juul hadn’t really had any particular plan in order. This was one of those plan-as-you-go situations, but he wasn’t about to let Jasper know that.

All previous tension within the room seemingly came to a standstill when all three of the women from earlier came bombarding the already crowded place with their inebriated spirits and the causes of them, sparing Juul some time to think this through.

Shawnee would stumble her way over to Juul before going to wrap her flimsy arms around his torso the best way that she could while her friend sporting the blonde pixie cut found a comfortable seat inside of Paris’ lap and the other replaced Jasper’s spot on the loveseat beside Antonio.

“Jasper, I’m sure you remember Shawnee,” Juul reintroduced his fiancée to his childhood friend as if they hadn’t already had the honor of doing so before he or Antonio had even stepped foot inside the townhome. “That’s Paris’ girlfriend, Phylum and their best friend, Angel, who’s pretty familiar with the underground scene, am I right, Angel?”

“Um, yeah,” Angel hesitated to answer, Seagram’s Escape Sangria wine cooler clenched within her hand. “Given I haven’t been in a few months.”

“That’s it!” Juul exclaimed, snapping his fingers.

“What’s it?” Jasper queried in irritation.

“Angel! We could use her as a decoy at the next street fight happenin’ at The Chop Shop in Queens! She can easily side with Kei, get the details on where they’re crashing at and from there, you and Juice’ll have y’all way on getting Kei out.”

Jasper didn’t know whether or not Juul’s plan was actually foolproof, but he didn’t think he had much of a choice at that point. He wasn’t familiar with that territory or it’s kindred, only Kei, so it was best to let him do his job, cause if the circumstances were up to him, he would’ve walked in, guns blazing over his sister.

“Aight, fuck it,” Jasper sighed out, giving in. “What’s the soonest you can get this all lined up?”

“Shit, tonight, but that doesn’t change the fact that the next street fight ain’t scheduled ‘til the end of the month.”

“Ain’t no sense in wasting time then. Let’s make it happen.”

“I’m on it, bro. You got my word.”

ׂ ̣ ○ . ° ♰ 𓈒 ॱ 𓂂 AUTHOR’S NOTE⠀⦂⠀⠀⠀‘’⠀⠀⠀Just to make one thing perfectly clear，I came up with Juul’s name way before this episode of Euphoria aired. I’m talkin’ year ‘20，so don’t even try me，ma’am. I’ll hopefully be seeing y’all the top of next year with a new chapter if my job and other hobbies don’t interfere with that，fingers crossed! Love y’all! Thank y’all for tuning in wit’ me. 'Til next time.⠀⠀⠀‘’

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ziggy baitinger as 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐙𝐄

⤷ occupation：juul and shawnee’s biological son

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀jasmine cephas jones as 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐖𝐍𝐄𝐄〝𝐍𝐄𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐄〞

⤷ occupation：juul’s fiancée and blaze’s biological mother

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀jada pinkett smith，circa ‘95 as 𝐏𝐇𝐘𝐋𝐔𝐌

⤷ occupation：paris’ long-term girlfriend

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀meagan good, circa ‘06 as 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋

⤷ occupation：shawnee and phylum’s girlfriend

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀angus cloud as 𝐉𝐔𝐔𝐋

⤷ occupation：1╱3 of the notorious 3

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀pharrell williams and tomoaki〝nigo〞nagao, circa ‘06 as 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐒 and 𝐒𝐎𝐋

⤷ occupation：2╱3 of the notorious 3

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀YOU’LL DISCOVER...

⁰⁰⁰.⠀⟆⠀ACT II：〝IMPERIAL OVERSTRETCH.〞 ⁰⁰⁷.⠀⟆⠀CHAPTER SIETE：〝THE MARATHON.〞❪COMING SOON❫! ⁰⁰⁰.⠀⟆⠀PINTEREST BOARD. ⁰⁰⁰.⠀⟆⠀MASTERLIST. ⁰⁰⁰.⠀⟆⠀TAGLIST.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀HERE!

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⨳𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐃𝐈𝐀 🐚⋆ Ꮺ ָ࣪ ۰ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀❪taglist❫

@neeville @dtedani ✯ @negative-azure @aubreysgraham ✯ @itzkee ✯ @prettienee

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ⓒ oklcmc⸝ 2022.

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funky-boat-zone · 3 years

Text

since today is one of many possible dates that technically qualify as thomas’ birthday, i’m gonna liveblog magical birthday wishes. yes, i’m a year late, no i don’t really care.

thomas and the ants:

- ah yes, my favorite location on sodor, blank white void

- just gonna say this real quick: i love rob rackstraw’s voice for james. however, they have him doing literally every male character except thomas’ voice, and he can’t make percy sound young/endearing to save his life. percy sounds more like a woefully uneducated gremlin than childlike young lad, and that’s terrible. - those are some freakishly large ants, percy should be more concerned with that tbh - they’re bringing back the gold dust? weird, considering how the cgi era basically tried erasing tatmr out of canon (except diesel 10) - i do not like that thomas can jump now.

thomas and the balloons:

- thomas has absolute power over reality itself and can wish to alter it just by willing such, why is nobody talking about how terrifying this is? - they’re making engines transport fully inflated, helium-filled balloons again? have we learned nothing from the impracticality of “up, up, and away”? - how is he grabbing the balloons. how did he tie them to his buffers. - also imagine what his poor crew would be thinking if they were in this, imagine just trying to work and your engine just starts casually altering reality and decides to fly 20 feet off the ground. i’d quit on the spot

too many thomases:

- does every engine get magical wishes on their birthday or is it just thomas? - who the fuck is making nia do a job meant for ten engines by herself on a time limit? - how to instantly simultaneously fix this short and also make it a million times worse: make all the clones different incarnations of thomas (ie. rws, model era, hit era).

thomas the submarine:

- cranky’s voice makes him sound like a chain smoker. - actually, a tank engine can go underwater. they shouldn’t, but they can. - y’know what would’ve been kinda fun (and more marketable)? if thomas actually turned into a submarine/helicopter/whatever instead of just getting his funnel modified. - how is he propelling himself without a rudder. how can he talk to fish now. can submarines talk to fish in the ttte universe.

super bubble thomas:

- finally, a short with james. james is the only character in these shorts that rackstraw regularly voices, but even his james performance sounds kinda strained? i don’t blame him for sounding kind of off though, because they made him voice literally every male character except thomas i can’t get over how ridiculous that it when it’s clear that he doesn’t have the range for some of these characters - why is it james’ job to clean the station when he doesn’t even have any visible cleaning supplies? at least give the man a sponge or sth - i get that the message is “helping friends good :)” but thomas you’re allowed to wish for something for yourself. my dude you can find another engine to help your friends, you don’t have to solve literally all their problems with wishes you only get once a year.

thomas and the monkeys:

- “maybe they’ll follow a banana” thomas. are you gonna turn yourself into a banana. don’t do that - oh thank god, he just turned invisible - thomas, you didn’t actually get the monkeys back in their enclosure. they could climb back out and leave at any time.

thomas the giant:

- “he could be anywhere, we’ll never find him” maybe check the other side of the hill first? - thomas, you could just shoot up a flare or something. you didn’t have to potentially put henrietta in danger of being crushed. - i was right, toby was on the other side of the hill. this whole short could’ve been skipped if they just looked on the other side.

thomas the helicopter:

- what happened to my boy’s voice. - harold looks suspiciously pristine for a helicopter who presumably broke down mid-flight.. maybe he heard about the birthday wishes from everyone else and is exploiting this to make thomas do his jobs for him. - according to all laws of aviation there is no way that thomas- (dissolves instantly) - finally, humans! where have they been all this time?

thomas the rescue engine

- thomas ffs a bakery is on fire and all you can think about is if it’s your cake? you can’t even eat cake - where did all the gravel come from? - thomas you forgot to put out half the fire? this is “fiery flynn” all over again

thomas and the lighthouse:

- who left skiff undocked while he’s in the ocean? he’s gonna drift out to sea - speaking of skiff, he sounds like an adult doing a deliberately annoying impression of a child - “thomas fucking blinds skiff and other stories”

thomas full speed ahead:

- the more thomas talks about how many wishes he’s used and how he only wants to use them to help people, the more it sounds like he’s lying to himself. thomas. you’re being dumb as hell in these shorts but you deserve to have something for yourself just this once, it’s your birthday - i don’t know whether to be surprised that they actually remembered and referenced “thomas and gordon” or to be annoyed at the context in which it’s being referenced. - just because keith wickham was pretty good as james’ va doesn’t mean that rob rackstraw is good at being gordon’s va - are you telling me gordon broke down and decided to sleep instead of trying to call for help or have one of his passengers get help? - i can’t imagine how motion-sick those poor passengers must feel.

thomas the rubber band:

- where’s sir topham hatt been all this time? topham please save us from this alternate universe of chaos and despair - “a wall could hurt him” i mean, gordon also crashed face-first into a station wall once and he was relatively fine.. - the image of thomas being stretched out is one of the worst images from licensed material that i’ve ever seen.

thomas the elephant:

- this is it. this is the one. quite fitting that the most cursed short of them all is the thirteenth in the sequence. - emily’s scottish accent is cute, i hate that i’m hearing it in this context though. - that being said, twitter has already made all the jokes and invoked all the horror i possibly could, so i have nothing more to say on this short tbh

thomas & the birthday surprise:

- it’s the end. we laughed, we cried, we yelled at thomas for being dumb. i watched all 14 of these in one sitting and i will never be the same again. - fun fact: aside from nia and thomas’ voice actors staying the same, this whole set of shorts only had 2 people voicing all the characters. - you could just watch this short and ignore all the shorts before it. this one’s not great by any means, but it raises the fewest questions out of all of them. - except for how thomas and friends are gonna eat that cake. i imagine their crews just yeeting it into their fireboxes. - the moral of the story is that thomas needs to establish some boundaries, cranky needs to quit smoking, gordon is lazy, sir topham hatt is terrible at assigning jobs and has no idea what’s going on with his railway, captain joe shouldn’t leave skiff unattended, and percy is a fool.

#ttte #thomas and friends #shitpost #reaction tag #aka i yell at a fictional steam engine for making stupid decisions

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thebibliomancer · 3 years

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Essential Avengers: Avengers #235: Havoc on the Homefront!

September, 1983

Welcome to the Wizard’s Mansion of Mechanized Mayhem!

This cover has got it going on!

Where “it” is “multiple things.”

Still, I love covers that are just like ‘here’s a couple things happening today’ and this is a great version of that concept with the things being viewing screens that the Wizard is looking at.

He’s watching the Avengers in various peril channel.

This is a good cover!

So last time: uh, a couple things. Wasp called Vision and Scarlet Witch in as reservists when Annihilus tried to blow up the universe with an invisible dome. The two basically contributed nothing but Vision was thrown into a robotic coma.

Wanda and Vision in a tube moved into the mansion while he recovers and Wanda recapped her entire backstory including new retcon that Magneto is totally her dad.

Then she had a Dr. Strange crossover. Since it also involved Monica, two Avengers makes it notable enough to synopsize in brief. And its titled Assault on Avengers Mansion! so its like its baiting me.

Dr. Strange astral projects to bother Wanda when she’s trying to get some grief reading in. He wants to find the Darkhold and she’s the last known possessor or vice versa because thats when she was possessed by Cththon and had to be saved with a care bear stare from the Avengers. But Dr. Strange really wants the Darkhold to stop Dracula from getting it. Yes, Dracula.

Since the Darkhold is being stored in a vault at Avengers Mansion after Beast brought it back from Wundagore, Dracula’s cult attacks and manages to break into the Mansion. Dr. Strange, Wanda, and Captain Marvel all fight off Dracula’s cult and then Dr. Strange trolls Dracula by teleporting the Darkhold somewhere else.

Also, Avengers Mansion got trashed in a break-in in Fantastic Four #257. Dammit. Whats with all the intertextuality in this era?

So that story there is: mostly a lot of Galactus eating the Skrull homeworld and fallout from aforementioned Annihilus story. Only the last two pages are relevant.

Mr. Fantastic shows up to Avengers Mansion to check on Vision, Wanda goes to make him tea, and then he’s teleported to a space trial leaving a giant melted hole in the mansion.

Honestly, I don’t know why FF got asterisked instead of the Dr. Strange issue. They both messed up the mansion but the Dracula cult was more of a break-in than someone leaving a giant hole in the wall. Although that’s more mysterious.

Anyway, with two different ‘read this also’s between issues that messed up the mansion, no wonder the opening splash has to be devoted to a repair crew patching things up.

Wasp is putting her size-shifting to good use to literally micro-manage. Zipping around at tiny size telling everyone how to do their job.

Captain America who is also supervising and impressing people with how buff he is gets annoyed and goes to tell her to stop but stops himself.

Captain America: No... No. She’s in charge here, and I have to let her handle things as best she can. Her methods do seem to bring results... They’re just not my methods, that’s all. Yeah...

And then he sulks off, ignoring Wasp when she asks what he’s muttering to himself.

Hm. The new leader honeymoon period is off, it seems. Cap was Wasp’s biggest supporter as chairperson and now he’s grumbling and second-guessing.

Dang.

I hope this isn’t snapback to Wasp not being leader because she’s flighty and silly. I hope we’re not just going to do that.

Cap wanders over to where Vision-inna-tube and Wanda are. Wanda is still glued to Vision’s side. And either Wanda can read minds or Cap says something between panels because we have Cap wondering in a thought bubble whether if Vision has shown any signs of improvement and then Wanda answering that he hasn’t shown improvement or worsened.

Cap(tain) America: “Well, don’t let yourself get too worried, Wanda. That husband of yours has been through worse scrapes than this. He’ll pull through!”

Scarlet Witch: “When you say it, Cap, I can really believe it!”

Inspirational Cap! Charisma rolls: Very.

Still, Wanda is sad because Vision is lying in a tube helpless and she can’t even touch him.

Cap wanders off again, without even saying goodbye (rude) while musing how much it sucks.

Cap: Blast it! Those kids were just starting to make a life for themselves, and this had to happen! Why was it that of all the Avengers who went up against the threat of Annihilus -- it had to be a couple of reservists who suffered most?

And then starts musing how weird it is that Scarlet Witch and Vision as reservists since they were active Avengers for so long!

Remember, Wanda joined the Avengers not very long after Cap did! Only a couple months in-universe! She was one of his Kooky Quartet!

Cap: At times I wondered if the Avengers would survive -- but somehow, through all the tumult and changes, the team not only survived -- it grew stronger! I pray it always will... with the menaces we so often face, we can’t afford to weaken. We’ve gone through so many changes lately. We’ve picked up two fine new Avengers in Captain Marvel and the She-Hulk, but we’ve lost Hank Pym... and now we’ve lost Iron Man, too. Even Thor has taken himself off the active roster to pursue a personal mission. I hope he won’t be gone too long.

Cap is clearly in some sort of dour Mood.

A dour and monologue-y mood.

And what’s Thor up to leaving the team roster OFF PANEL?

(Sigh)

Well, since the asterisk is telling me to see Thor #334... oh geez, Don Blake is under suspicion of killing Jane Foster. Thor, and Lady Sif take Keith Kincaid (the non-Thor love interest of Jane) on a trip to get the Runestaff (long story) and restore Jane Foster (long story).

Annoyingly, the Thor issue does show him telling the Avengers he’s going to be gone for a while and to take him off the active roster. And borrowing a Quinjet.

I think that it would have been nice to see at least a panel of that. Or something. I don’t want the book bloated with ‘see alsos’ but I’m confused why it put the most emphasis on the FF one when it was literally two pages where Reed manages to ruin the wall while getting kidnapped.

Whatever.

Anyyyyway.

Even though he thinks the new Avengers are good, Cap worries about having both Thor and Iron Man off the team.

Especially Iron Man.

He was their science/technical guy. And on the current team, the only one with any sort of science expertise is new trainee Starfox.

Who is busy making out and not being on time for his daily training session.

At least he remembers that he has a prior obligation.

And he’s only two minutes late. Or to put it another way, he’s a whole two minutes late. And Cap(tain America) is a notable stickler for punctuality.

Cap: “Punctuality may be an anachronism in this day and age -- and, for all I know, it may be unheard of on the planet Titan -- but in my day, it was something that was expected of people!”

Wow, Cap really pulled a ‘in my day.’

Frankly, I’m surprised he doesn’t pull that more often.

Starfox does seem contrite and apologizes for putting pleasure before business which sends Cap into an introspection about why he’s really being so harsh on Starfox.

Protip: It’s Tony. It’s almost always Tony.

Cap: Pleasure versus duty, that’s what it always comes down to. It was Tony Stark’s ‘pleasure’ which led him to giving up his Iron Man identity... leaving the Avengers. Some ‘pleasure’! He’s crawled so far into the bottle, he may never get back out. And there’s nothing I can do to pull him out... Nothing any of us can do, unless he lets us. That’s what’s really bothering me... isn’t it?

And he accepts the apology with a “just don’t let it happen again.”

You sound so old sometimes, Cap.

Meanwhile, She-Hulk is off on a jog through New York, listening to some Beach Boys’ California Girls.

An overeager driver scoots forward and cuts her off at the crosswalk and (I assume) in frustration, she punches the hood of the car.

And given it’s She-Hulk, she kinda punches a hole IN the hood. And probably engine.

The guy being either an idiot or incredibly unperceptive runs after She-Hulk to grab her arm and yell at her.

She does not care for that at all.

Like, why would you? She’s seven feet tall and green and just punched a hole in the hood of your car.

Luckily for the guy’s skeletal integrity, Spider-Man pops out of nowhere to be Friendly Neighborhood and mediate this conflict.

They both air their grievances.

She-Hulk: “This creep grabbed me!”

Creep: “Hey! She... she crunched the front of my car!”

She-Hulk: “That was you who cut me off in the crosswalk? You’re lucky I didn’t rip out your axle!”

Spider-Man: “Now, now! Let’s keep this friendly! Sounds like you’re in the wrong, chum! The lady had the light!”

Creep: “Lady?!? She’s no --!”

Spider-Man: “I wouldn’t say that if I were you! That’s the She-Hulk, dummy! Remember what she did to your car? Well, just imagine what she could do to you!”

Creep: “Oh yeah.”

And with the power of Spider-Man’s bomb-ass mediation, the guy realizes that he was in the wrong, apologizes, and leaves in a hurry.

(Her skeptical glare cracks me up for some reason)

Moral of the story: Don’t be a jerk. Stay behind the line when the little man is lit up.

After the guy takes off, She-Hulk praises(?) Spider-Man’s amazing mediation skills by saying he should have been a lawyer. And then they catch up.

She-Hulk is still having trouble adjusting to the East Coast lifestyle and lack of beaches so Spider-Man suggests checking out the Jersey Shore.

She-Hulk: “My big problem right now is housing. Avengers Mansion is nice, but I want a place of my own.”

Spider-Man: “It’s tough -- rents are pretty steep.”

She-Hulk: “The real trouble is finding a place I like. With the thousand a week I get as an Avenger, rent’s no big deal.”

Spider-Man: “I guess not, if you’re making a... a thousand A WEEK?!? I passed up a chance to become an Avengers, and they make $1000 a week?!? Oh, NO!!”

Ha ha, that ol’ Parker luck.

Maybe Thor should have mentioned the money when he tried to recruit Spidey.

Meanwhile, at a federal penitentiary in Vermont, a scene change.

Bentley Wittman, aka the Wizard, aka the Wingless Wizard, aka the adult man who thought the best use of his time was bullying a teenager, is being questioned about Plantman Sam Smithers’ escape from jail.

The Wizard claims that he knows nothing about Plantman’s escape and that he barely knows the guy anyway. They were airlifted from Ryker’s in the same helicopter and that’s it.

But a convenient x-ray tells a different story.

And that story is that “the Wizard” doesn’t have any skeleton bones.

... Were we really at the point in 1983 where we didn’t know about the dangers of overexposure to x-rays? They just causally scan both “the Wizard” and the guy questioning him?

Anyway, the ruse being rumbled, the fake Wizard rips the bars out of a window and jumps out to his death.

Or it would be death if he wasn’t just animate wood wearing a fake skin suit.

Kinda gross if you think about it.

Anyway, where is the real the Wizard?

Obviously, he escaped jail a while back. Not only is he a sinister criminal mastermind who has sinister masterminding to mastermind but also he was tired of the prison hair code. Because dammit, he wants to rock the goatee!

(Literally a comment he makes, calling the prison barbers butchers)

The Real Wizard gets a BLIP-BLIP-BLIP priority alert that informs him that the plant-him has been discovered which means that the authorities will be looking for him now.

Wizard: Now every law officer in the nation will be looking for me. Well, let them! They’ll not find me, unless they look here! And if they do look here, they’ll have a fight on their hands! The Wizard will not bolt and run like some common criminal! My home is my fortress! They’ll never get me out of it! Never!

Anyway, within an hour of the discovery of Plant-Wizard, a disgruntled agent of the national security council named Mr. Sirkorski receives a briefing.

Usually, this problem would be Gyrich’s problem but he’s busy somewhere else, probably making mutants miserable if I had to guess.

-checking- Yup, he’s over in the X-books, being involved in Project: Wideawake, the project that will later accidentally shoot Storm with a demutantifying gun that will take away her powers, leading her to kick Cyclop’s ass, leading to him leaving the team and feeling sad about being happily married.

Wow, Gyrich, you’re the worst.

Anyway, since the Wizard is tied to the presidential hostage crisis via Plantman, that makes it Serious Business.

Hence, Mr. Sikorski’s serious business.

And he hates it.

He hates this bonkers superhero universe. He just wants to live in a spy thriller universe without all this specific nonsense.

Mr. Sikorski: “Oh, great! Plant-Men... criminal scientists... prison breaks! Don’t they think I have enough to do, just keeping track of what the Russians are up to?”

Also Mr. Sikorksi, on the following page: “And it’s up to me to call in the appropriate parties. I feel a little weird doing this! It’s hard enough for me to believe there are such things as Avengers! I certainly never thought I’d be calling them for help!”

This guy is great. I hope he becomes a recurring and just continues to be low-key pissed about what genre he lives in.

SCENE CHANGE TO AVENGERS MANSION’s actually looking cooler than ever meeting room.

The table looks enormous and theres a giant viewscreen that they can display stuff on.

Only misstep in my opinion is that the seats don’t have personalized icons on the back.

On the big viewscreen map, Cap(tain America) is displaying for Captain Marvel known properties and hideouts that the Wizard has used in the past.

And then big boss the Wasp comes in with She-Hulk to start the meeting.

Since the government has requested that the Avengers help search for the Wizard, Captain Marvel suggests that she could zoom around and check off the whole list in no time flat by using her lightspeed.

Cap(tain America): “You probably could, C.M. -- that’s up to Jan to decide, of course. It would save us some time. After all, the Wizard could be in any of these places... or none of them!”

Wasp: “You think so? If I’d escaped from prison, I’d want to go home. But that’s just me, I suppose.”

Cool contribution, Jan.

I don’t mean to mock, its just she makes a goofy face.

(Hey, I wonder if her new costume was inspired by the FF’s negative zone’d ones. It’s kinda got a similar palette and rough design)

Anyway, Scarlet Witch asks whether she can be excused from superheroing for the day to keep an eye on the Vision.

Wasp: “Why, Wanda! I should say not! You agreed to fill in for Thor while he’s off in space, and I intend to hold you to that! I’m the chairwoman, and I’ll decide who goes where!”

In fact, since somebody does need to watch the Vision, Wasp chooses the most reasonable candidate.

Captain Marvel!

Who needs her to get the task done in five seconds! She can watch the coma-robot.

You make interesting decisions, Jan!

The remaining Avengers will split up into squads.

Captain America will take Scarlet Witch and She-Hulk to check the hideouts on the east of the map. Wasp and Starfox will check out the western ones.

She-Hulk: “You and Starfox, huh? That’s rich... the All Flirt Squad!”

Pfft.

Cap(tain America) isn’t feeling the humor and tells She-Hulk to save her jokes for when they don’t have a job to do.

Minutes later, the Avengers land a Quinjet on the front drive of the Wizard’s Long Island estate. He has one of those.

Cap: “Come on Avengers -- let’s get this over with!”

Good attitude, Cap.

Wanda notes that the grounds look neatly tended considering that the estate has been empty for the past several years but She-Hulk thinks a gardener was probably kept on retainer.

The Wizard was stupid rich.

When they get inside, Cap changes his tune. The place looks too tidy and ready for occupancy to be empty so maybe the Wizard is here.

So he pulls a ‘lets split up gang’ and splits up gang with each Avenger taking a wing.

Cap: “Oh, and She-Hulk, try not to break anything if you can help it. This is private property!”

Priorities!

Granted, She-Hulk is known to break things. Why just today she broke some dude’s car.

The Wizard is watching all of this on his home security system and springs individual traps on the individual Avengers.

She-Hulk finds herself in a series of identical small non-descript rooms, each more identical than the last.

So identical that its the same room, looping.

Wizard: “Through the circuity in that doorway, I’ve activated a dimensional matrix which will keep your walking back and forth ad infinitum through the same room!”

Except without seeing herself leaving which you’d think she’d be able to see.

It’s a smart way to trap a Hulk, provided they don’t run out of patience or get frustrated and smash something.

Meanwhile, Cap gets locked in a chamber where an anti-gravity field has been activated, leaving him flailing through the air.

Oh, and dozens of high-intensity laser torches pop out of the walls and start trying to carve up Cap.

Meanwhile, Scarlet Witch’s individualized trap is the most individualized of all.

Because She-Hulk’s and Cap’s could be used on any number of people really. But Wanda’s feels like it was created to counter Wanda. Pretty on the ball from the Wizard considering he doesn’t often fight the Witch.

When Wanda enters the room she suddenly starts spinning out of control, flies across the room, and lands in a chair.

Wizard: “Marvelous! I’ve ensnared the Scarlet Witch within something against which her astounding hex powers are useless. My field effect devices have generated a pocket of non-causality within that test chamber! Within the area, all actions have an equal chance of occurrence. Therein, all probabilities are skewed. She won’t be able to stand, much less cast a hex!”

Wow! That’s some high octane comic book nonsense science!

The point being that every time Wanda tries to do something, something random happens instead because its all equally likely. She tried to walk into a room and ended up standing on the roof. She tried to back out of the room, she started spinning. She tried to stop spinning and she flew into a chair.

Sure.

With the Avengers all trapped, the Wizard turns his attention to deciding how to dispose of them.

Except, as cleverly foreshadowed by my snide comments, She-Hulk’s trap is only as good as Jen’s patience.

Which is good forrrrrrr. Two dozens loops.

At that point, she’s sure some bullshit is up and scratches the wall with her nails to leave a tangible mark. When she sees the same mark in the ‘next room’ her suspicion is confirmed.

And now that she knows someone is jerking her around, she decides to ignore Cap’s suggestion to not break private property by breaking private property and rips the doorframe (and the dimensional matrix) to crap.

There’s a backup trap that drops slabs of six-inch omnium steel around her but yeah she’s a hulk and she’s not playing considerate anymore. She starts KRUNGing the walls with her fists.

Meanwhile, Cap uses physics to get out of his jam. He throws his mighty shield to break some lasers so action/reaction will propel him backwards and he can jump off the wall, grab his shield back, and uses one of the broken-off lasers against the others.

Also, meanwhile, Scarlet Witch tries to figure out her own, incredibly specific trap.

Scarlet Witch: This is like a nightmare! Whatever I try to do, something else happens. Just in making the attempt to call on my hex power, I wound up falling flat on my face! I can’t even... wiggle my fingers? I... I can! Oh, but only very close to the floor! Whatever is causing my actions to go awry must be weaker near the room’s outer surfaces! Then there’s HOPE -- !”

Wizard must have gone cheap on the pocket of non-causality projector for that room if it’s not completely covering the area. Sure, the area it doesn’t cover is relatively small but now what’s about to happen is going to happen.

So Wanda gets as low as she can go to the floor and uses her probability-altering powers.

This causes the non-causality field to reverse because why wouldn’t it? And causes feedback through the circuitry which causes the master control to shock the Wizard.

It also causes every logic circuit in the master control to overload and the whole dang thing explodes, Wizard barely flying out of the control room in time.

Right in She-Hulk’s path.

She’s not happy. He’s not going to like her not being happy.

She-Hulk: “After what I’ve been through, it’s gonna be a real pleasure to pound that helmet down around your ankles!”

Wizard nopes right out of her way and decides to abandon fortress.

Then Scarlet Witch probability alters his battlesuit flight controls to malfunction to halt his escape and make him crash to the-

...

I’m pretty sure his neck is broken now.

I mean, it’s apparently not because he keeps talking and moving and living but he look at that panel. Guy should be dead as movie Zod.

Y’know, if the Avengers are going to kill the Wizard, the FF should really get them back and kill one of their villains. I suggest Grim Reaper.

Anyway, surrounded by Avengers, Wizard pulls his trump card.

Wizard: “Your confidence is ill-founded, Captain America. There is one resource I can yet draw upon. There is a thermonuclear devise beneath my house -- powerful enough to destroy half of Long Island and make the remainder very unpleasant for a very long time. Much as I hate to see this place destroyed, I would press the button, so to speak.”

“You being such renowned public heroes, would hate that even more. But unless you allow me to go unharmed, I shall active the timing sequence of the bomb’s detonator.”

And Cap is like ‘do you mean this detonator’ and pulls out one he prepared earlier.

HAH!

You know, ironically, if he had just hidden in a safe room or on the roof or something, the Avengers probably would have came and went without noticing him. Springing traps on them really backfired in oh so many ways.

The threesome return to the mansion, presumably after turning Wizard over to the authorities, and Wasp comments that it sounds like they had a bit of excitement (Starfox grumbling to himself more excitement than he had searching the Bronx with the Wasp ha ha).

Cap(tain America): “You’ll be glad to know, Wasp, that your instincts were correct. The Wizard had indeed gone home. He gave us all a pretty good challenge... a welcome challenge, I dare say.”

Wasp: “Looks like I assigned the right people to search the right place, huh?”

Cap: “Yes, Ms. Chairwoman, I’d say you did!”

And elsenow, Wanda goes to the medical bay to check in on Vision and relieve Captain Marvel.

Scarlet Witch: “Can you hear me, darling? I hope you can. I was feeling awfully blue today... And I was given a duty that first seemed annoying, and later became dangerous. But I didn’t give up... I came back, and I won. I know that you can come back, too, darling! It’s just a matter of time... and hope.”

“It’s funny! I thought the Wasp was silly for sending me on that mission. But -- in a way --it was something I need. I think the others needed it, too!”

Captain Marvel: “Then that’s why she sent you, Wanda... because she knew what you needed! And that’s why she leads the Avengers!”

Secret friend mastermind Janet van Dyne sends you out for punch therapy when you need to punch something.

Reminds me of when Captain America picked a fight with Goliath Hank Pym to lift his spirits. Except with a lot less fighting her own friends and more pointing them in the right direction.

Something I love about this era of Avengers and with the big shift in Wasp after Hank’s court-martial is that while her character has changed she’s still recognizably and uniquely herself. She’s still a bit goofy. She’s still playful. And on top of that, she’s proven that she’s a good leader for the Avengers. It’s not mutually exclusive.

Cap (previously Wasp’s biggest supporter as leader) started this issue grumpy and even had his own ideas what the best tactic for searching for the Wizard would be, but by the end he agrees that Wasp made a good decision.

Despite playing the ditz for a long part of her career, Wasp isn’t dumb. And she’s got a good head for the interpersonal challenges of running a team too.

I’m reminded that during the much later Busiek run, when the Avengers need to expand and modernize to match up to expanding challenges, Captain America turns the leadership of the team over to the Wasp.

My point being, I was worried that there’d be snapback on Wasp being leader because she is flighty and silly. But instead, she can be flighty and silly and still a good leader.

I’m pleased with this take, Stern.

Follow @essential-avengers because there will probably be more Wasp being a good leader. Fingers crossed. Also, like and reblog this post maybe if you also like Wasp being a good leader.

#avengers #the Wizard #the Wasp #Captain America #Captain Marvel #Monica Rambeau #Scarlet Witch #She Hulk #essential avengers #essential marvel liveblogging #the great feud between witches and wizards #wasp does a leadership #Cap be like hey don't break this supervillain's doom fortress its private property

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f4liveblogarchives · 4 years

Text

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #198 & #199

Mon Aug 26 2019 [12:46 AM] Wack'd: It probably bares pointing out that this story is being billed as "The Greatest F.F. Epic of All!". I disagree [12:46 AM] maxwellelvis: I thought that kind of hyperbole on the covers died out with the Silver Age [12:46 AM] Bocaj: I wonder what the greatest FF epic of all is [12:47 AM] Wack'd: Thus far I'm not sure anything's topped the Lee/Kirby epic of the Four being trapped in Latveria, if only for its sheer manic energy as it ping-pongs wildly from one twist to the next, only to end on a shaggy dog note when Doom gets bored and lets them leave [12:47 AM] maxwellelvis: Some people would argue it's the original Galactus Trilogy. [12:48 AM] Wack'd: I mean. If you define "epic" as "more than two issues". Otherwise it's probably the Thomas/Conway/Buscema one where a janitor gets a sentient cosmic cube to turn the world into a bonkers 50s mashup [12:48 AM] Wack'd: Isn't Galactus just 49-50? Otherwise I guess you could include that [12:48 AM] maxwellelvis: Man, that story got kinda last-episode-of-The Prisoner-y in the middle when they're both captured. [12:49 AM] maxwellelvis: People count the Silver Surfer stuff in #48 as part of it. [12:49 AM] Wack'd: That's probably fair [12:49 AM] Wack'd: Anyway! Reed has the Pogo Plane and is going to get Doctor Doom [12:50 AM] Wack'd: Weirdly, he figured this out because only Doom could've designed all the neat stuff he saw at his new job, funded the rocket that got him his powers back, and captured his friends so easily [12:50 AM] Wack'd: And not because his boss is the spitting image of his old college roommate [12:51 AM] Wack'd: Seriously there's one bit where it looks like Reed might recognize Son of Doom and instead it's like "that face? where have I seen that face?" [12:51 AM] maxwellelvis: How could he know what Victor Von Doom looks like? WE barely see his face even in flashback. [12:51 AM] maxwellelvis: I just assume he always has a shadow around that he lurks in. [12:51 AM] Wack'd: Pffft [12:52 AM] maxwellelvis: Like, from what I remember from his origin story, we see his face when we see him as a boy, but as he grows to college-age, his back is turned to us or his face is obscured more. [12:52 AM] Wack'd: The Four have left Latveria alive. Numerous times. But okay.

[12:53 AM] maxwellelvis: When did Doom start hiring goons? I thought his only human employee was Boris. [12:53 AM] Wack'd: We've seen him have human goons numerous times! [12:53 AM] maxwellelvis: Oh [12:53 AM] Wack'd: Just last issue a human goon he had in the 60s came back! I made a joke about what a ridiculous continuity pull it was and everything! [12:54 AM] maxwellelvis: Right [12:54 AM] Wack'd: Okay this feels like a little much but I'm sure everyone will forget he could do this soon enough

[12:54 AM] maxwellelvis: It's just weird because I'm used to him having an army of robotic henchmen, aside from the Doombots even. [12:54 AM] Wack'd: He does run a country. It'd be weird if there were no federal jobs [12:55 AM] maxwellelvis: These guys, to be specific. His Servo-Guards. [12:55 AM] Wack'd: I never said he didn't have robots

[12:56 AM] Wack'd: Man, those are some Tony Stark lookin' goons [12:56 AM] maxwellelvis: Wow, they look way less efficient than the Servo-Guards. [12:57 AM] Wack'd: Anyway Reed tries to rewire one of the robots and as a safeguard it explodes, knocking him unconscious and into a nearby lake [12:57 AM] Wack'd: Yeah, Reed's gonna die less than halfway through the issue, I buy this

[12:58 AM] Wack'd: "Face down in the water." Keith Pollard wins yet another art award [12:59 AM] maxwellelvis: Don't they write the scripts after the art is drawn? [12:59 AM] maxwellelvis: This could be on Marv's head. [01:00 AM] Wack'd: To the extent that this wasn't a myth perpetuated to justify Stan's writing credit, it was dying out by the 80s as comics became more of an auteur medium [01:00 AM] maxwellelvis: Ahh [01:00 AM] Wack'd: So possible, but unlikely [01:00 AM] Wack'd: Last time Doom was thwarted when someone pointed out he probably didn't want to destroy all the historical artifacts in the building so he's learned literally nothing. Very in character for him

[01:01 AM] maxwellelvis: This is the same guy who burned an original Renoir because he didn't like looking at it. [01:02 AM] Wack'd: Also apparently the statue Alicia's sculpting is "a gift to the UN when they vote not to condemn Latveria for its...more aggressive policies" [01:02 AM] Wack'd: Presumably also why Doom's "stepping down"--makes him look good in the run-up to the vote [01:03 AM] Wack'd: Little does he know the UN has no power and any condemnation they issue is basically just to make themselves look good! A rare day one manages to get one over on Doom [01:04 AM] Wack'd: Doom's also convinced the spaceship explosion killed Reed. For some reason. Even Sue has to point out that's a really dumb assumption [01:05 AM] Wack'd: Love me a good "Ben doesn't know when to quit" moment

[01:08 AM] Wack'd: Love a resistance. Don't love that they're big into hereditary monarchy

[01:08 AM] maxwellelvis: Especially because the guy Doom overthrew was a genocidal monster. [01:09 AM] maxwellelvis: Or maybe Doom just does that thing were every Latverian nobleman he undermined and disposed of, in his mind, he always saw the face of the man who killed his father. [01:09 AM] maxwellelvis: Y'know, like Batman. [01:10 AM] Wack'd: Possibly. Marvel Wiki says Rudolpho appeared in person occasionally through the 70s but doesn't mention anything about him being the guy who killed Doom Daddy [01:10 AM] maxwellelvis: I didn't mean to imply that. [01:11 AM] maxwellelvis: But Doom IS the kind of guy who would probably hold him just as accountable as that man was. [01:11 AM] Wack'd: Fair [01:12 AM] Wack'd: So we get to see a bit of the statue carving and the back of Doom's head looks like he's melting and Ben says he "has a puss that makes mine look like Robbie Redford's" [01:12 AM] Bocaj: I wonder if Doom will ever do a T'Challa and make Latveria a democracy so he doesn't have to put in the hours anymore [01:12 AM] maxwellelvis: Never [01:12 AM] Wack'd: Is basically every interesting or sympathetic aspect of this guy besides his origin a massive retcon [01:12 AM] Bocaj: Historically, Doom has walked away from ruling the world at least once because he found it tedious [01:12 AM] maxwellelvis: He loves being in charge [01:12 AM] Wack'd: I'm starting to feel like it id [01:13 AM] maxwellelvis: That sounds more like he didn't realize how much work the entire world would be compared to Latveria. [01:13 AM] Wack'd: So Son of Doom shows up and is like "it's time for the transference" [01:13 AM] Wack'd: I feel like we can all see where this is going [01:13 AM] Bocaj: Whats funny is that I think Doom keeps trying to conquer the world after the Emperor Doom story [01:14 AM] Bocaj: I guess wanting is better than having [01:14 AM] maxwellelvis: He's transferring his mind into his son's body, isn't he? [01:14 AM] Bocaj: He also definitely had some airs of ennui during God Emperor Doom in Secret Wars [01:14 AM] Wack'd: I also guessed this but apparently not [01:14 AM] Wack'd:

[01:15 AM] Wack'd: He's gonna give Son of Doom all the Four's powers [01:15 AM] maxwellelvis: Ah [01:15 AM] Wack'd: Minus one [01:16 AM] Wack'd: hahahahaha

[01:16 AM] Wack'd: This is basically a Superdictionary entry [01:16 AM] Bocaj: HAY THAT MACHINE [01:16 AM] Bocaj: THAT’S THE SAME MACHINE HE USED AS A SKRULL DETECTOR IN AVENGERS EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES [01:17 AM] Bocaj: "It does more than one thing. SHUT UP!" [01:17 AM] Wack'd: Huh! [01:17 AM] Wack'd: Deep cut! [01:18 AM] Wack'd: Love me some casual mook dialogue

[01:18 AM] Wack'd: God so much of this issue is just letting Reed show off [01:19 AM] Wack'd: "How will we climb this mountain?" "I'm a rope now!" "How will we hide from this drone?" "I'll make myself look like part of the mountainside!" "How will we cross this moat?" "I'm a bridge now!" [01:20 AM] Bocaj: So him giving Reed his powers back is thus implied to be not about Doom's self-serving definition of a fair fight but to fill that fourth bubble? [01:20 AM] Wack'd: Probably yeah [01:21 AM] Wack'd: Marv Wolfman: Should I pace this slower so that everyone that's been complaining about Reed not stretching has time to nut? [01:22 AM] Bocaj: pfft [01:22 AM] Wack'd: I fucking love these two

[01:24 AM] Wack'd: I would watch a sitcom about these people [01:25 AM] Wack'd: ...weren't you trying to put a king back on the throne?!?

[01:25 AM] Bocaj: Maybe they don't know what democracy means [01:26 AM] Wack'd: Latveria doesn't seem to have a robust education system [01:27 AM] Bocaj: But they do have a robot education system [01:27 AM] Bocaj: Every latverian schoolchild is taught how to make a Doombot [01:27 AM] Wack'd: So all of the rebels but the main one get trapped between sliding doors and gassed, thus massively simplifying the plot [01:28 AM] Wack'd: Zorba is distressed his men might be dead but Reed reassures him they can still win, which I'm sure was his main concern [01:29 AM] Wack'd: So it turns out Hauptmann is the brother of the original Hauptmann, who died in that Latveria epic [01:29 AM] Wack'd: I forgot [01:29 AM] Wack'd: He's totally on board with overthrowing Doom since his brother...was killed by Doom? Died on Doom's watch if nothing else. [01:30 AM] Wack'd: FINAL SHOWDOWN TIME [01:31 AM] Wack'd: I like that Doom assumes this was a clever ruse on Reed's part and that he did not, in fact, almost die

[01:31 AM] Wack'd: Anyway not final showdown time I guess! Cliffhanger time!

[01:32 AM] Wack'd: Boy the "soul-shattering secret" thing kinda makes me wish I hadn't looked him up

Mon Aug 26 2019 [01:32 AM] Wack'd: FANTASTIC FOUR VOL 1 NO 199: [01:34 AM] Wack'd: I like that Doom plays the piano. That it's just a thing he does and incorporates into his plans just because he likes it. It's a nice little thing

[01:34 AM] maxwellelvis: That's an organ setup [01:34 AM] maxwellelvis: Just as cliche and ten times as bombastic [01:34 AM] maxwellelvis: Which suits Victor [01:36 AM] Wack'd: Anyway Zorbo is...back outside, now? And he's leading a mob? [01:37 AM] Wack'd: Doom tries to fire on them with his suit weapons but the entire mob pulls out guns and draw on him [01:37 AM] Bocaj: Normal guns? A trifle for one such as VICTOR VON DOOOOOM [01:38 AM] Wack'd: You'd think [01:38 AM] Wack'd: But he backs down and redoubles on his promise to retire [01:38 AM] Wack'd: The mob has formed, essentially, because they don't believe him [01:39 AM] Bocaj: Do they know his plan to put his son on the throne? [01:39 AM] Wack'd: Yes [01:39 AM] Wack'd: Zorbo is threatening to expose the "dark secret" behind Son of Doom [01:39 AM] Bocaj: So they're fine with that but they just don't believe Doom is really retiring? [01:40 AM] Wack'd: Well, they don't know what it is yet [01:40 AM] Wack'd: Zorbo is keeping us them in suspense [01:41 AM] Wack'd: stupid 👏🏼 baby 👏🏼 word 👏🏼 games

[01:43 AM] Wack'd: So apparently UN is threatening to expel Latveria [01:43 AM] Wack'd: This is a weird set of circumstances to slowly unfold over the course of the story but I'm digging it [01:44 AM] Wack'd: Meanwhile: Reed punches out of his sphere and frees the others while Doom is distracted with statue stuff [01:45 AM] Bocaj: Ego is his downfall as happens [01:46 AM] Wack'd: I hadn't thought about it until now but it's very interesting to me that this arc ends not with Reed learning to value his other virtues in lieu of his powers (before of course getting them back) but with him completely forgetting his midlife crisis and reforming the team

[01:47 AM] Wack'd: Like in modern comics there'd be some kind of character beat before the big return but nah, Reed can stretch again! All problems are solved forever! [01:49 AM] Wack'd: Anyway they fight some mooks, dodge some lasers, the usual, before reaching Doom. And Alicia, who is being threatened with a dislocated finger

[01:50 AM] Wack'd: So naturally the Four surrender [01:50 AM] Wack'd: Doom's speech here has big Mother Gothel energy

[01:51 AM] Wack'd: Zorbo frees the Four and Alicia. Quick turnaround time, but then the arc is ending [01:52 AM] Wack'd: The Four show up, reveal Son of Doom as a clone, fight fight fight [01:53 AM] Wack'd: ...huh. Did not see this coming

[01:54 AM] Wack'd: So anyway Son of Doom declares he has no interest in his dad's petty cruelty and thirst for revenge, and the two duke it out [01:55 AM] Wack'd: It's...pretty cool

[01:56 AM] Wack'd:

[01:56 AM] maxwellelvis: I don't think I've ever seen Doom have a breakdown like this before. [01:56 AM] Bocaj: "Learn some self-care, Doom!" "NEVER" [01:57 AM] Wack'd: As with the thing with Agatha and Nick Scratch I kinda wish the hammer had dropped sooner so we had more room to explore this dynamic [01:58 AM] Wack'd: But we definitely get some good mileage out of it in the final moments

#1978 #Marv Wolfman #Keith Pollard #The Main Book

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snkpolls · 5 years

Text

SnK Chapter 113 Results

The chapter poll closed with 1,355 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

RATE THE CHAPTER 1,319 Responses

While still highly rated, last month’s chapter was a hard act to follow. The number of 5 ratings were down nearly 17%.

I find myself getting waaaaay religious whenever a new chapter comes out

Floch is annoying, Gabi is annoying, Eren is annoying, but I can't wait to see where this all is heading.

I could feel the ground shake and hear Zeke's agonizing screams and almost, almost really felt for the poor guy, falling victim to something worse than the angel of death itself.. gosh, I don't think a manga ever gave me such goosebumps before..well done Isayama, well fucking done.

Everytime I think Floch has reached the maximum level of assholery, he ups the game to inconceivable levels. I still can't believe poor Marlowe had to die for this.

Can I have a break from suffering? Thanks.

Forget opening a tea shop, Levi should open a sushi bar instead

Seriously how about Levi just go solo the whole world and win because he's so damn OP and save all Eldians and just end the story in the next episode

JUST TELL ME HOW ZEKE AND EREN MEET ALREADY!!

WHAT WAS THIS CHAPTER’S MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT? 1,331 Responses

It was hard to choose a favorite moment. “All of it” was the top pick (21.5%) followed by “Levi’s face when he resolved to kill his comrades” (17.1%). Third place was “Levi slicing Zeke’s feet and legs” (10%). Levi’s Angel of Death moment was the most popular write-in. In retrospect it should’ve been included as an option.

Levi looking like a goddamn Angel of Death.

Nothing I am invested in happened this chapter, but Levi emerging from the trees like an avenging angel was pretty cool!

This is the First chapter where I have trouble choosing one Option. This was a real rollercoaster.

Levi kicking Zeke’s a** is quality entertainment

Kinda bummed by this chapter, though it was good. As a Mikasa stan (lmao) I was looking forward to seeing her post-emotional destruction, but we didn’t see her face vs. the rest of the 104th which makes me think she isn’t crying, but has gained some resolve and will pull open the bars or some shit. Also FUCK Floch.

Thank you Levi for finally ripping Zeke apart.

CHAPTER 113 IS CALLED “SAVAGERY.” WHICH CHARACTER DID YOU THINK BEST EXEMPLIFIES THIS TITLE? 1,322 Responses

Close to 70% of the fandom believes Levi was the most savage this chapter. Floch was a distant second (18.2%). The most popular write in was “All of them!”

I think the title "Savagery" does refer to Levi, because I think he can be the monster he needs to be to survive. And I love it.

Paradis island. The whole chain of command is out of the window; the residents are becoming savages (those who drank wine becoming mindless titans, trainees beating up Shadis, Yeagerists promoting anarchy, etc.) They are becoming literal savages (they're all sociopaths because they're a little more savage than others lul)

Keith Shadis & Floch would be the obvious choice. But I interpret the title as describing the overall savagery of war, as seen in all the different parties.

Walls were built to protect titan from Levi, amen

While it very much could be a direct description of Levi's brutal actions aganist Zeke, I believe everyone engaged in this conflict is being savage one way or another by inheritence, as war in itself is savagery.

Zeke did nothing wrong. Levi did nothing wrong. Floche is the worst.

SINCE HANGE AND PIXIS HAVEN’T SPOKEN, HOW DID PIXIS KNOW ABOUT THE WINE? 1,321 Responses

Most respondents (42.8%) believe that Pixis does not know about the wine specifically, but deduced that Zeke's scream had something to do with what happened. 24.8% believe that he is just a smart dude, but 23.2% think that he might have been tipped off by Yelena.

Pixis knows alcohol. He knows when something's up.

Imo Pixis , Eren and Zeke are all working together , so Pixis gained knowledge of the wine from Eren , although after he drank it.

He was willing to surrender to the Yeager brothers, maybe Zeke or Kiyomi told him beforehand.

P A T H S

SINCE IT’S BEEN CONFIRMED THAT PIXIS AND NILE HAVE CONSUMED THE TAINTED WINE, DO YOU THINK THEY ARE DESTINED TO BECOME TITANS? 1,325 Responses

While the majority is unsure (42.7%), more than a third (34.4%) believe Nile and Pixis are destined to become titans. Only 22.9% think they will die another way be just fine.

I really hope Pixis doesn’t become a Titan I’ve always liked him.

I think that Zeke has a plan, probably he wants that Levi takes him to Sina with the Paradis high commands (Pixis, Nile, etc) to use his scream with they to turn them to titans. We saw in this chapter that Zeke's scream doesn't work with enough distance, that's the reasson that Zeke wants to go with them.

LEVI HAS LOST ANOTHER SQUAD, THIS TIME BY HIS OWN HANDS. HOW BADLY DO YOU FEEL FOR LEVI? 1,327 Responses

79.4% of people responding to this question: Levi lost his entire squad (...again). He didn’t lose 20% of his squad. He didn’t even lose 50%. He lost his whole squad (...again). Look at what it’s done to him. You can see the death in his eyes, but he keeps on going. This is why Levi is one of my favorite characters.

If I have learned nothing else, I have learned that the world has destined Levi to be a soloist. Every time he has a squad something goes wrong.

Man, Levi's face was just pure resignation. He knew he had to, once again, he had to take lives in order to protect others. Gut wrenching, but just completely real.

Ffs, just let Levi retire. Like, look at the PAIN in his eyes when he remembers the conversation with his subordinates. It's even worse when his expression changes to "knowing exactly what to do".

I think he will be correct that everyone’s deaths amounted to nothing in the end

That panel if Levi falling while all his comrades are trying to kill him; this guy can't catch a break

THERE’S BEEN SOME TALK IN THE FANDOM ABOUT LEVI BEING TOO OP. WHAT DO YOU THINK? 1,333 Responses

53.3% of the fandom agree that Levi is OP but they are a-ok with it. 20% thinks he’s powerful and not OP at all. Only 10.3% of respondents indicated that Levi’s extreme power hurts their enjoyment of the series.

It doesn’t matter to me that many think Levi is OP; whether you agree with that or not, come on, give Levi a break. He at the very least deserves a happy ending after all he’s been through

Levi is too overpowered. I didn't want him to die here but at least I want him to have a more difficult fight. Him getting a serious injury for example. Every fight he had he didn't even get injured (except against the FT and that was because of Mikasa). This is one of the reasons that for me Levi is a VERY boring character.

Levi destroying Zeke was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. I think he stands a fair chance against Eren if he still has thunder spears.

Seeing all the Levi hate, because of the ""OP"" thing was kinda unexpected and annoying to me lol Without Levi's help for example in the female titan or RtS arc wouldn't be some characters where they are right now *cough* Mikasa would be dead *cough* I think Zeke underestimated him and that's was the deal at least.

Not sure the arguments about Levi being too OP make much sense. He was in the forest of giant trees, which has already been established as the best environment to use 3DMG. I really thought Levi was toast after last chapter just because Zeke utilizing the element of surprise, but I forgot how strong he was. Good to see him in action again.

I know a lot of people have had issues with Levi being too OP or with Levi being too cruel uwu but ffs have we forgotten who this man is? Levi fucking Ackerman, who is *supposed* to be OP af, who has the curse of having one of the worst fates in the series. Seriously, everybody around him is dying, he was born in a shit world that just keeps getting shittier, and he is no close to that pristine tea shop than he ever was, possibly ever will be. Sure he's Hella strong and survives all his battles with barely a scratch, but does it give him a happy life? No it fucking does not.

Levi isn't OP you guys are just mean

LEVI=GOD

DO YOU THINK LEVI’S QUICK DEFEAT OF ZEKE WAS UNREALISTIC? 1,332 Responses

Just over half the fandom (50.8%) say no, Levi’s quick defeat of Zeke was not unrealistic. Only 8.6% answered “Yes” to this question.

I know 90% of the Fandom has a hard-on for Levi but I wish the fight with zeke was more even.

Levi's fight against Zeke was fun but at the same time it felt like some sort of repetition of him fucking Zeke up back in RTS (I guess that was part of the purpose, lol), so it ended up not being very appealing to me after a couple of days.

Being Intelligent and being Smart are different things and yes Zeke might be good at planning strategies but he is a dumbass when it come to fighting and understanding other people.

Seeing Levi vs BT 2.0 gave me some serious highs. Was literally shaking while reading the leaks. I just realised how Levi truly is the perfect foil to someone like Zeke. The world could be crumbling, but give Levi any task, and you can trust him to deliver it 99.9% of the times, with the 0.1% being but the benefit of the doubt.

BEFORE READING THIS CHAPTER, WHO HAD YOU THOUGHT WOULD WIN THIS ENCOUNTER? 1,327 Responses

At nearly 40%, a majority of respondents thought that Levi vs Zeke Round 2 would be a more even fight than their first encounter, with a close 34.7% thinking that Levi would prevail again. Only 21.1% believed Zeke would win.

Anyone who thought Zeke had any chance of facing Levi and winning mano a mano (even with titans) is not reading the same manga I am.

The "Farewell, Heicho" leak made me think Zeke won.

I thought Zeke's plan wouldn't be enough to kill Levi, but enough for him to escape. I still wasn't surprised lol.

If it came down to a straight battle, I knew Levi would win because we've seen him win against greater odds. The difference is that I didn't think the encounter would become a straight-up battle so quickly, I assumed Zeke would have some other distraction or escape plan other than literally just yeeting out of the scene

I hoped Zeke would escape or Levi would at least struggle instead of Ackerhaxing his way through 20+ Titans and still managing to catch up to an escaping Zeke and effortlessly defeat him, but no.

The outcome was fairly expected considering all the factors that stood in Levi's advantage (big ass trees, thunder spear, zeke's miscalculationsTM/underestimation...etc) so I wasn't surprised when he easily whooped his ass.

Bolting away while screaming was such a solid plan. I'm shocked it didn't work.

IF ZEKE HAD EXPLAINED HIS PLAN TO LEVI, DO YOU THINK THERE’S A CHANCE LEVI WOULD’VE UNDERSTOOD? 1,327 Responses

42% of respondents think it’s possible that Levi might have been open to Zeke’s plan, but equally possible he wouldn’t have listened. Nearly 40% are certain that Levi has no interest in anything Zeke has to say. A small 13% of respondents think that Levi would have been open minded if open communication had been present.

whether Levi would have "understood" the Jeagerbros' plan is irrelevant. I think Levi still lives by "make the choice with least regrets" and so would not have changed his mind, even if he had understood their motivations.

Poor zeke , Poor Levi , we wish Levi will understand zeke's point of view...😔😔

WILL LEVI FACE NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES FOR STOPPING ZEKE AND DELAYING THE YEAGERBRO’S PLAN? 1,324 Responses

Half of respondents believe that Levi will not be able to bask in his victory for long before the story throws him another wrench. 30% aren’t sure if he will or not and 15% are confident that Levi’s victory is solid and will be rewarded.

I believe Levi has now somewhat of an advantage over the Yeagerists as he's holding the key and core to their plan captive, without Zeke the plan just won't proceed. Unless Eren suspected something might happen to Zeke and has a plan B up his sleeves, Levi has the upper hand now, and he can easily finish Zeke off any second. If he were to encounter Eren & co. on the way there's no doubt he'll use Zeke as a bargaining chip. I'm exceptionally excited to see how things will play out between them.

God I hope not, but knowing Yams, something terrible awaits Levi after the brilliance of this chapter.

not sure but SERIOUSLY people need to stop with the lies and secrets.

I think something we're not expecting might happen.

Why would he? If there are any negative consequences coming his way, it is because he didn't kill Zeke . Zeke seems like the type to come up with double plans -- for example, Levi could unintentionally be leading Zeke to his meetup with Eren.

I wouldn't say "negative consequences," but he definitely stalled their plans. Considering the fact that no one other than the two know what those plans are, I feel like Levi's victory over Zeke would allow some space in the story for these "plans" to finally be revealed and explained, whether it be to the characters in the story, or to us readers.

Zeke can regenerate anyway so I think he might get away with it

I'm afraid for Levi. He did what he did to Zeke with the best intentions, but I fear he's now inadvertently ruining the plan the brothers had so carefully orchestrated. I'm afraid he's gonna face Eren in a next chapter, who's going to do everything to prevent his brother from being eaten.

WHERE DO YOU THINK LEVI IS HEADING? 1,317 Responses

Historia’s Farm was the most popular option with nearly half the vote (49.7%). Shiganshina was second with 20%. In retrospect we should’ve included Rakugo as a potential destination since the theory that he’s heading there to feed Zeke to Connie’s mom is gaining popularity.

Historia's Farm or Ragako

Levi's smart enough to figure out there were probably more individuals on the receiving end of the tainted wine. With that in mind, he'll be very cautious with where he goes to ensure no more transformations occur.

Unless he has some titan serum in his pockets going straight to Historia would be a bit pointless. Meeting with Pyxis first seems likely.

Taking Zeke to Shiganshina or anywhere where everyone else are is too risky. Zeke could get away and pull out his screaming card and shift onto his beast titan form.

The horses don't seem to be moving. So maybe he's just chilling out in an open field

To Erwin’s grave

Dear snkpolls. How about cutting out with this unfunny Zevi bullshit for sociopaths and including real ships some people actually like instead? I mean pairings. Not the actual ships. I don't want Titanic in the next poll.

Honestly, the Zevi getaway option gave me a much needed laugh after the chapter.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT LEVI’S SLICE AND DICE OF ZEKE’S LEGS? 1,330 Responses

A tiny fraction (3.1%) of the fandom was upset or disappointed with Levi’s actions, the rest were fine with it. “I don’t blame him” and “cruel but understandable” comprised the thoughts of 70% of the fandom. 20% wish Levi had done even more.

I thought it was unnecessarily cruel and completely in-character for Levi. God I love this man

He didn't want Zeke to transform, what's so difficult to understand?

Honestly I’m not sure why zeke was so surprised that Levi came out alive lmao. Like he’s literally seen - up close and personal - what he’s capable of. He’s humanity’s strongest ffs.

I get it and it's hard to say there's not a little justification, but I think it's a very natural human response to wince at ANYONE suffering enormous amounts of pain. Most of us would cringe even if we were witnessing Hitler himself being tortured, no matter what we might think right now. It's just a natural, innate reaction to human suffering.

Unnecessarily cruel and it's gonna bite him in the ass.

I have not been able to eat celery since

DID ZEKE’S INTERNAL MONOLOGUE AFFECT YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT HIM? 1,328 Responses

44% of respondents were not swayed one way or another about their stance on Zeke after hearing more of his perspective, while 29% continue see him as a total enigma. 23% have started to see Zeke more positively.

Zeke shows he lacks fundamental understanding of human compassion

BABY ZEKE LOOK AT HIM ISAYAMA WHY DO YOU DO THIS

Zeke is officially an idiot and Eren is a bigger one for trusting him above his friends.

I kinda don't want Zeke to have some tragic background. Zeke as the series Joker who just wants to see everyone destroy each other no matter who they are, that is a far more interesting direction for me than more of the same 'Marleyans aren't evil, just misunderstood' rubbish that we have been force-fed for over a year

Zeke deserves life, love, and his glasses.

One other thing that really pleased me in this chapter is that Levi managed to give a reply to each of Zeke's annoyingly patronising statements. Zeke has always made me furious with his ""aww you naïve creatures, you don't understand"" bit, and I adored the fact that Levi actually shut him up while he fought him. About goddamn time someone shut up that monkey.

Zeke worrying about his glasses is a big mood because as a fellow glasses wearer, I would do the same

DO YOU BELIEVE SHADIS TAUNTED THE NEW RECRUITS IN AN EFFORT TO PROTECT THEM/HANGE? 1,329 Responses

A huge majority (74%) agrees: Keith Shadis is a good dude, and wanted to protect the recruits and/or Hange with his boast. A minority (7.6%) believes he severely overestimated himself (oof), while everyone everyone else (18.4%) was not sure.

I didn't before, but I do now, you monsters!

Respect for Shadis for what he did.

Also, somebody please kill Floch already.

Shadis deserves only good things

Shadis is sick, anyone who says he isn't is trippin

I wish Shadis had head butted the shit out of Floch

I can't believe that Shadis roasted Floche to a crisp and sent him to the Burn Unit lolololol

YOUR THOUGHTS ON FLOCH ARE BEST SUMMED UP AS: 1,318 Responses

Floch will not be winning any popularity contests in the near-future, with 67% of respondents selecting the most negative options: that they want him to burn (44.5%), or that they just simply love hating him (22.5%). In contrast, only about 10% of respondents view Floch favorably: 3% say they are fully on his side, while 6.4% still reluctantly support him.

A character such as his is destined to die while Eren looks at him emotionless. Eren doesn't give a shit about him and this little boy will learn it the hard way. He's a prime example of the "brainwashed, vengeful" character who dies a horrible death.

He's just a pawn. I have no feelings for pawns.

I'm really sad that Shadis got pulverized, but do still think that Floch is trying to help Paradis the only way he knows how (even if a tad misguided).

Floch is correct about needing to be more proactive, but he & Yeagerists are going about everything the wrong way. I do not support the Yeagerists.

Shadis' assault was absolutely unnecessary and savage for all the wrong reasons. Floch is basically on a power trip here and it was sickening to read. I hope he dies a slow, painful death, that dickwad.

I don't think there's a definitive answer as to who's right here. Marley's coming and if Eren is the right leader, then fine. But it's not given.

I hate him, but wonder if he might have a point

I wish someone would use P A T H S to rip the fabric of their reality open and that that would lead to Mount Doom, just so they could then toss Floch's ass into it. That would be great, thanks.

Now I'm not saying anyone is truly evil in snk... but Floch is sprinting in that direction so fucking fast.

WHICH CHARACTER(S) DID THIS CHAPTER MAKE YOU FEEL MOST SYMPATHETIC TOWARDS? 1,320 Responses

Levi easily takes first place this time around after losing yet another squad, this time at his own hand. He’s followed by Shadis (did he really deserve that, Floch??), Hange, and the rest of the 104th. Zeke’s short flashback garnered some empathy as well.

Levi, Zeke, Mikasa, Armin and the 104th, Hange, Shadis, Every single character in this chapter. Even Floch and the cadets.

I feel a lot of sympathy for Falco, waking up naked in a robe in front of strangers. What, they were in THAT much of a hurry?

I feel sympathetic to all of them - even Zeke a tiny bit. This whole thing is a clusterfuck of mamoth proportions.

Zeke might join the list, but depends on next chapter, I need his flashbacks to give me a valid reason to why I should sympathize with him, which I think they will as his past looks just as crappy and angsty as the other characters'.

Levi, Zeke, Mikasa, Armin and the 104th, Hange, Shadis, Eren. He looks miserable even though he's SOOO FREEEE~

IN LAST MONTH’S POLL, ONLY 17% OF RESPONDENTS BELIEVED THAT EREN IS IN CONTROL OF HIS ACTIONS. WE WANT TO KNOW IF THIS CHAPTER CHANGED YOUR OPINION. WHAT BEST DESCRIBES HOW YOU VIEW EREN’S CONTROL OF HIS ACTIONS? 1,324 Responses

The percentage of respondents who believe Eren is fully in control of his actions jumped from 17% to 23% this month. 29% percent still believe that he’s fallen victim to a combination of Zeke’s manipulation and previous titan holders’ memories. 16% remain confused and don’t want to make assumptions either way, 14% believe that the titan power is controlling Eren, and a small 8% actually think it’s the other way around and that Eren is manipulating Zeke.

I think what he said to MA is ultimately to protect them, but like Connie said - the eren we’ve seen since Grim Reminder 2.0 in Liberio isn’t the eren we once knew.

Eren is and always has been kind of a jerk. I think he's 100% free to make his own choices. However, I wouldn't discount the idea that the memories he's inherited and whatever selective knowledge Zeke has imparted are influencing those decisions. They're in no way forcing him though. This is all 100% organic Eren BS.

He is being only influenced by the previous titans, which is messing up with his mental state. This causes him to make decisions not regarding human life out of wanting to fight for freedom.

Eren is the master manipulator! Mark my words, guys!

Zeke and Eren are both misguided. Perhaps the rumbling is a lie, or they have a plan that only they would get, but I suspect that the rumbling isn't a simple concept, just like Marley and the Helos story.

Eren is definitely being influenced by previous titans. After he consumed the hammer titan some changed about the way he acts.

He's definitely not being controlled by Zeke, but I still think there is something off/wrong with him.

Eren's doing what he thinks is best for his people, and chose this path based on the memories he gained, the experiences he's had, and the information he's come to know. Its possible some of this information was skewed by Zeke, but other than that Eren is in control

I personally believe he is being influenced by the many titan powers he holds as well as the many memories of the people that held these titans before him however, I believe that these powers are not completely dominating him and he’s able to make his own decision. Eren is also probs not being manipulated by Zeke as I believe that these two bros will stay together.

Influenced to an extent but still in control in that the various factors we're considering has warped how he thinks the situation should be handled. I feel like Eren thinks his unpredictability gives him the most control because he'll probably try to do what's most advantageous on the fly as forks in the road appear (because he never really struck me as someone who can spearhead planning ahead). He's in control of his actions but I think he's still incredibly susceptible to manipulation by those who can plan as a result.

DO YOU THINK EREN IS REALLY WORKING WITH THE YEAGERISTS? 1,322 Responses

Half of respondents believe that Eren is actively working with the Yeagerists in order to achieve a larger goal. 17% aren’t convinced he has anything to do with them aside from tagging along on their road trip. Almost 10% of respondents believe Eren will eventually backstab Floch and isn’t on their side at all, and 9% feel that Eren has been the one giving orders all along.

Maybe he is, but I still have some hope for him that what he did was to protect the people he loves. I hope he still cares about them.

Eren is using them (he doesn't give a fuck about them) and the Yeagerists are using Eren. Eren will backstab Floch. I don't think Eren's aware of everything Floch's doing while using his name but, at the same time, if Eren "cared" about what they do he would ask/wonder... he's too dead inside for that tho

I hope he backstabs them but damn am i confused and a lil angry about this situation

Whether he is working with them or not, he did nothing to stop them but rather act as their leader and that makes him partially responsible for their actions.

Dammit Eren you better not be behind Shadis' beating, he's a good man

I have this feeling Eren doesn't really give a titan's ass whether they're on his side or not, as long as Big Bro got his back he will carry on with the plan either way. They sort of just formed this faction on their own but Eren isn't stupid not to take advantge of that. After all, who knows what might happen and keeping his own small army at arm's reach sure is helpful. But Eren did mature into this very prideful and confident rebel with that "aint need nobody bitch" attitude so.

They seems to be a different faction led by Floch, and Eren is exploiting this.

I think he is working with Zeke (whether they have the same end goal or not is something I’m not sure about) but I don’t think he is working with the Yeagerists and doesn’t even fully know about them or what they are doing

Zeke and Floch are on one side and think they are working with Eren. Eren is currently working with them solely as a means to reach an end and will go his own way after they initiate the rumbling.

PREDICTION TIME!! WHO IS MISTER XAVER? 1,328 Responses

Almost all respondents (81.9%) speculate that Mister Xaver is the holder of the Beast Titan that preceded Zeke, and 25% believe he was affiliated with Eren Kruger in some way. 21% think that he is a family friend of the Jaegers, while 8% believe he was an actual member of the family. There are all sorts of other creative ideas floating around about who this bespectacled mentor figure might be:

Titan Scientist

Pitcher and pinch-hitter for the Liberio Warhammers.

Zeke’s father figure

Zeke's only childhood friend

I think he’s the person who inspired Zeke’s plans

A member of the royal family

Kiyomi and Kruger's ally in the plan to restore Eldia in order to destroy Marley, hated by the three of them

I think he might be an “Ackerman” or someone from the Hizuru clan that secretly remained in Liberio to watch over the members of the royal family there (Dina, then eventually Zeke as he grew up). I also think he was working with Kruger to “groom” Zeke for the ultimate plan that is beginning to unfold now in the most recent chapters (whatever that plan may be idk) (just as Kruger’s influence and memories “groomed” Grisha, and perhaps Eren for what’s happening now as well) P A T H S.

Xaver runs a school for mutants.

PURE SPECULATION, BUT DO YOU THINK XAVER INFLUENCED ZEKE TO TURN IN GRISHA AND DINA? 1,324 Responses

Just over half of respondents believe that Xaver had some influence on Zeke, and that influence contributed to his choice to turn his parents (and the other restorationists) in to the Marleyan government. 33% are not sure, while ~16% believe that Xaver had no hand in that decision.

It would be interesting to see Zeke's flashback, I think you could be onto something, that Zeke himself is a victim of childhood indoctrination, and was manipulated by Xavier (a true honorary Marleyan) to turn in his parents and be loyal to Marley. He clearly thinks of him very fondly, and he seems to be the only one confirmed to be in Zeke's good books. He may or may not be the former beast titan, but I think that however he died is a major reason and key to understanding Zeke's current actions and main motive.

Since he has been shown comforting Zeke after he snitched on his parents, their relationship obviously goes way back and it drives me to think he was a close family friend/relative whom Zeke found some kind of comfort in to battle the neglect, pressure and brainwashing of his parents. From the final panel it doesn't look to me that Xaver wanted Zeke to become a warrior at first, hence probably why he infuenced him to turn in his parents, but obviosuly sth happened that changed that. I do believe he's the ex-BT, even if he wasn't, surely his death was a major factor in why Zeke decided to become a warrior. Dang it I should stop writing nonsense I just wanna KNOW WHATS UP WITH THAT MONKEY MAN

WHO DID IT BETTER? 1,326 Responses

Almost half of respondents thought both our Ackermans brought the thunder equally! Levi, however takes the title this time, with 31% choosing him over Mikasa when it comes to blowing up titans. 18.8% thought she still did it best.

OUR TRANSLATORS APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN CHANNELING STAN LEE. WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE SFX FROM THIS CHAPTER? 1,300 Responses

“Splat” edged out “ba-BOOM” for the win with just under 20% of the vote. “BSHHT” was third and “baKRAK” a close fourth.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST HOPING TO SEE NEXT CHAPTER? 1,330 Responses

These last few hard hitting chapters have amped up the pace of the story, and most people are looking forward to further plot progression. 46.2% and 42.7% are hoping this comes are some sort of flashback related to Zeke or the Yeager bros, respectively. Historia and the warriors bring up the rear, and there’s always people hoping for something more specific in the write-ins:

I miss Reiner and Historia...bring them back please.

this chapter lacked a significant amount of Reiner, and i am tired of not seeing him

I'd take an entire chapter of Levi chopping Zeke up, please

Show me my Mikasa!

Missing Option: Mikasa, Armin, and the 104th

Literally a thought from Eren.

Gabi and Eren Talk

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give Annie ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

Someone killing Floch. Anyone. Please.

Let it be contain one panel of the best girl Yelena 😭

Prison break for the SC and equipping the 3DMG in preparing to battle

More Floch Greatness. All Hail The New Eldian Empire!

I can safely assume next chapter will be 75% Zeke flashbacks which is what I've been waiting for.

JUST GIVE US ANSWERS ISAYAMA!!!!!

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 1,286 Responses

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE CHAPTER?

Floch needs to — and I can’t stress this enough — die an unholy death.

Zeke should not have grown his facial hair back before all his skin lol

A very aptly named chapter, where there is savagery and violence, without glorifying or romanticising the brutality. Violence obscures understanding and communication, as seen with the inability for Levi and Zeke to understand each other, despite them being more similar than they realize. Levi kills all his titanized comrades but he is emotionally and mentally unravelling — it is not true victory, only loss and fading of hope. Floch’s violence through abuse of power only breeds cruelty and the reiteration of oppression — it is not true revolution, only regression. Zeke and Eren’s actions intentionally bring war upon Paradis — it brings death and destruction. And yet violence is necessary - it is an unavoidable truth in a world that refuses to listen, only fight, because of fear. The themes in this chapter have so many layers to them; it was a tough one to read because of how dark and brutal it was, but very thought provoking. As readers we look forward to action and fight scenes, but here Isayama deliberately and skillfully delivers it in such a raw and uncomfortable way.

Floch will forever be Manneke Pis. Shadis has been through enough. Eren is hot but needs to die. Falco needs some clothes. Where was Gabi? I fear for Historia's unborn child. Warriors when?

Regarding Zeke, seeing him tear up while thinking of Xaver hurt me a little bit. It's one of the few times (the first time, even? not sure.) that we've seen him show any strong attachment and fondness (and borderline remorse) with regards to his actions. He isn't the "absolutely evil" character in this series.

This kind of chapters are like "ok" to me but frustrating as hell. It will be nice to see it animated in 2030 nonetheless.

I still thinks Eren is a jerk but i still love him. Plus: Floch can be canceled i don't care. Plus+: I want my babies Armin and Mikasa free of the jail, They don't deserve that crap from Eren.

I think it was a waste of time if I'm being honest. We learned nothing new other than from the few pages with Zeke.

I think this chapter made me realise that I don't really care about Levi anymore.

I waited until the last day to fill this poll out because I honestly don't know how I feel about this series right now. While there's plenty of entertainment to be found in these recent chapters, I don't think I really like the direction the story has taken. I'm bored. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I was surprised to see people genuinely being concerned about Levi surviving after the last chapter/when spoilers were dropping. Levi got plot armour thicker than a tank. He already took out a whole row of titans at far worse odds. He wasn't going to die.

I'm excited for what's coming. I wanted a high stakes story and I'm anxious, but in a good way. Still giving Eren the benefit of the doubt, he has to have info that he's not sharing (from having the memories of 3 titans).

I'm so dead inside due to having an awfully emotional week of being very sad about Zeke and celebrating the survival of Levi. I love both of them so much, this chapter exhausted me greatly.

It was nice to have a more action-packed chapter this time around, I've been missing those. It looks to me like at least half of next chapter will consist of Zeke's childhood flashback, then after that I would like to see Historia again. Please Isayama it's been half a year I miss my queen! :((((

Oh my god Xavier yes yes yes I thought Isayama had completely forgotten about the “mystery man”

I'm so glad Levi won and got Zeke tied up! Now Armin's got to find a safe way to do a titan jailbreak! Hange needs allied more than ever!

No Pieck, no party. Things are just heating up, and it’s still somehow a shitshow?

It's nice to know that characters such as Levi exist in a very morally grey world, and that of all the people given extraordinary powers and abilities, it's someone with that kind of mindset. It makes me feel positive that the series would end in an overall good note, even if this may include some heartbreaking deaths and turn of events.

I liked finally seeing a little more inside Zeke's head.

THIS is how you subvert expectations. Introduce that Levi is watching Zeke back in 106 and doesn't trust him then, and then showing their conversation in 110 to further building the tension. Because of the reveal of Zekerets and that Zeke had been working with Eren as well as the fact that Levi won his first encounter against Zeke - it makes sense from a storytelling standpoint for Zeke to win his next encounter against Levi. 112 plays into this expectation due to Zeke's sudden attack on Levi with a cliffhanger heavily suggesting that Levi would die. Instead 113 was the complete opposite, with Levi utterly decimating Zeke and making the story take an unexpected curve. This chapter is brilliant.

The story is progressing extremely fast right now. The Endgame arc is approaching its climax with all the players taking their stance in preparation for the Ragnarok…

Floch needs to be taught not to miss around with adult affairs that are way beyond his basic childish comprehension. I don't hate the guy but I will be satisfied to watch him shit his pants in a fiasco made of his terrible life choices.

okay but when will best boy jean finally read flock the riot act

there is no transparency in this arc, only suffering

#snk spoilers #snk 113 #snk poll #snk polls #poll results #snk chapter 113

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getitoverwith-ff · 7 years

Text

part time lover x 2

2 || take care

“Are we cooking lunch, ordering food, or going out before we hit the road?” Lita asks as she puts the finishing touches on packing Demetria’s bag, and I shrug.

I could go for food, but the thing about going with a toddler is kind of tricky. All of the three choices are sensible, but, will she even eat anything? We shared a tub of yogurt a little while ago, and she ate all of her breakfast… she might not even be hungry.

But if she is, is it worth going out for? Will she get distracted and want to talk more than she wants to pay attention to the food in front of her? Will she want something, and then, when me and Lita food comes, ignore her food in order to eat off of our plates like she always does? As a matter of fact, we always end up sharing anyway. Even if I know her order and Lita’s order by heart, they always end up on my plate.

I know my daughter though. At the end of the day, she probably doesn’t want to go anywhere. She never really does on the last day we have to spend together. She tends to just be up under me, and doesn’t want to leave my side, or Lita’s, really. We just huddle, hover, and be there.

It can’t hurt to ask though.

Nine times out of ten though, if we ask her, we’ll either be eating chicken nuggets, or Papa Diablo’s pizza. Which is fine, even if Daddy wants Chinese and Mama won’t care because she’ll eat anything, really.

“I wanted to go get some Chinese, but… what you think, Meme? What are we eating?” I ask as I secure the last purple barrette onto the end of the second of the two french braids I put in her hair. I’m always on daddy duty with no complaints.

“You done, Daddy? I wanna see,” I pass her the Barbie themed mirror and she smiles at her reflection.

“What’s for lunch, Meme?”

She shrugs softly just like I do, but then turns around and goes, “Daddy, I want pizza.”

I’m not surprised. I watch Lita laugh before going back into the stack of circulars on the living room table to find the Papa Diablo’s circular.

“Pizza it is then. Go make sure your bed is fixed and all of your toys you’re taking with you are packed up, please.” She hops down from the stool and goes back into the bedroom we designated as hers for when she’s out here, and I watch Lita motion for me to come over as I clear the kitchen island counter of hair accessories.

“You goin’ to this?” She motions towards a flyer for a R&B Karaoke night that Luke is hosting tonight, and I almost forgot about it.

“Yeah, I almost forgot. I gotta figure out what I’m wearing,” I sit next to her, and she puts her foot in my lap. I make my fingers spiderwalk up her long, smooth legs and ignore the fact that she’s set to leave in a couple of hours.

“Don’t wear that leather vest and them boots either, you ain’t a member of Jodeci.” Lita teased, and I laughed.

“That was last time, damn. I dunno. Might just channel my inner Ronnie Devoe and go as Bel Biv Devoe,” I muse, and Lita laughs.

“Kenny gon’ be Mike Bivins again?” She asks, which immediately causes me to bust out into laughter. Kenny got one role as Michael Bivins -- did damned good in it, and it took him months to break character. I know he wouldn’t mind doing it again.

“You know he’ll be hype to put that damned character back into use. Fuck yeah. We’re doing it. I gotta call Max, he’s gonna be our Ralph. I’ma make sure you get the videos and pictures too.” I smile, hype about it as I pull my phone out of my pocket and begin correlating the plans, while she smiles at me and starts to complain softly about missing everything, which makes me sit my phone down.

“You don’t have to. You still haven’t figured out anything?” I ask, as she shrugs her shoulders.

The plan was simple, at first. She would graduate with her associate’s degree, transfer to USC, and when we graduated, we’d be married. Very simple, but, we don’t seem to go on the path of conventional milestones.

We had a lot of turbulent drama, we had a kid, and we fell apart… only to quickly make sure we would always stay true to each other, even when we couldn’t fully have each other. So, the desire to get back with each other started to become more and more important, but, the ease of the situation was long gone.

Somewhere along the line that spiraled into, okay, but where’s Demetria’s going to go to school? Where are we going to live? Off-campus living and commuting will make it a little harder to get around with a kid. We need to find her a good daycare, too… and a bunch of other things that made sense. She was worried, but for good reason, and all of her worries put a pause into progressing something I initially assumed to be hella easy, but it turned out to be anything but.

“I know we can find a nice apartment easily, but it’s the other factors that we need to finalize. Give me until Thanksgiving. I’ll have something then,” She insists, and I purse my lps together. It’s not that far off, but shittt….

Now, I’m going to be sitting up, rushing that time to get here even more.

“Shit, If we could stay here that would be nice, but it’s too ducked off. You're right though, we’ll figure something out. So.. does that mean you and Meme are coming up here for Thanksgiving?” I ask, those plans not really being confirmed either.

I had Thanksgiving last year, and we shared Christmas. I get Demetria for Winter Break this year, and Thanksgiving is always either here or there, a few times, both places. Demetria loves the scenery of the car rides back and forth, and now, with my job at Gold’s Gym and a couple of coaching gigs, I definitely make enough to keep my tank filled to make the trip.

“Yeah, I think we will. I wanna see how Monica’s gonna do in the kitchen anyway,” She says, and I immediately wince.

“Oooh shit. I didn’t even think about that. Mo can’t cook.” I laughed more at Monica’s impending misfortune than anything if she really showed her face.

Internally, I also winced because fuuuuuuck. For a woman who really tried her damnest to try and fit in, I knew if my Momma and lil’ sister didn’t give her hell immediately, my cousins and aunties would, and that would be before Lita even got up to cook.

It’s a production in my family when it comes to holidays, and I know damned well Mo ain’t ready. I didn’t even think about how much of a setup it sounded like it was shaping up to be. Oh well. Lita starts talking about how it’s going to be a hot ass mess, like she can read my mind.

I get distracted in the drama that is Bad Girls Club on the screen, and kinda tune her out, until she grabs my face, and pulls it back towards her.

“You better quit zoning out on me,” She demands, and I smile.

I just don’t wanna amp her up. If Monica does come, I know it’s going to be a shit storm. And I don’t have to think too hard to know that she’s definitely going to make sure nothing stands in the way of her coming.

“I’m not, I’m also sitting here thinking about how it’s gonna end up..” I start, and she shakes her head at me.

“She was a damned good mother, she was my professor, she was… a murderer,” My head whips towards the TV in slow motion as I hear a familiar voice, and look at the face of death staring back at me as a mugshot.

I freeze.

For a minute, everything feels like is happening in slow motion.

“Anya Jones was just your average, hard working mother who would do anything to make sure her teenage daughters were able to live the best life possible. But, a hidden past life ripped everything Anya knew away from her, including her daughter and husband, who was left for dead…” The promo for the next episode of Snapped starts to play, and I push my tongue into my cheek as Lita quickly starts to dig into the couch for the remote.

“Shit.”

“I didn’t think it would have the promos up for this so soon,” I quietly admitted as Lita pressed her lips together, and looked over at me.

“This is the first time I’ve seen them on TV, actually. Do you wanna-”

“You don’t have to stop watching what you’re watching boo. It’s cool.” I tell her, and she looks a little defeated before she nods, and then switches positions so she can lean her head on my chest.

It’s quiet now, and the mood’s kinda fucked up...

We don’t talk about Anya Jones. We just don’t, because, there’s not going to be anything good to say about her. Lita’s Mom is the she who must not be named in our shared households. Five years ago, she started down the path that would ruin not only the lives of her two daughters, and her husband, but would ripple into my life, my parents’ life, and the life of my then unborn daughter as well.

I can tell you how it all got kicked off, but I can’t tell you what happened following the climax. At least, not in my own words. It’s been four years since I lost a chunk of my short term memories. It’s been four years since what everyone just brushes off as the most traumatic event of my life, but… I’m here.

The events that went down four years ago really changed everything I knew to make sense to me. It’s been four years since Lita left to go to New Mexico, a place where I thought she’d never return from. It’s been four long years since my then girlfriend disappeared in the middle of our sophomore year, after a life changing situation for the both of us.

But, that’s behind us now.

I’m just glad I’m still here. In the process of things falling apart, there was chaos, there was a lot of fighting, and there was murder and attempted murder as well. I almost died in a car accident that caused a head injury for me, and Lita’s Dad damned near lost the usage of his legs. That I do remember. Anything immediately after that, it’s like I’ve mentally blocked out the events that happened from my memory. I ended up with memory loss brought on by psychological trauma, which gave me a case of short-term amnesia, among other things.

But, I do remember that that accident was worth getting into. We needed to get to the hospital. I remember that. I just didn’t think we would end up in the hospital, because Anya was trying to kill not just her husband, but me too.

On the night Demetria was born, she almost lost her Daddy and her Papi, as she calls him, but I’m glad the both of us survived. I get pissed off every time I’m reminded about how I missed the birth of my first born child. It was almost a fair trade; my life for my daughter’s, but in the end, I just ended up sacrificing a large majority of my memories instead.

I remember bits and pieces of what happened that prior to and following month, but not everything. I’m not too out of sync when it comes to someone else telling me their version of what happened, but who knows which one is really the truth?

All I know for a fact is these three things: Lita’s going to be back for good after the semester ends, I’m here for a reason, and soon, I’ll feel as complete as I used to, once I figure out everything that really happened to me.

For a long time, the woman sitting next to me, talking to our daughter about customizing the Pizza we’re gonna have for lunch, was unreachable to me. There’s a lot of twists and turns in our story together, with bits and pieces still being unpacked to this very damned day. The most constant part of every version of the narrative pins her mama as the big bad in all of this -- that I know is factual without anyone having to back that up.

I haven’t seen Anya Jones since I googled her name and had the story confirmed that was told to me about how she had been caught up in a scandal, ran away from Los Angeles with her oldest daughter and her then unknowingly pregnant teenage daughter in tow, and how she tried to kill me and her husband when we set out to go and rescue her.

Dealing with Lita has been the reason for what I can say was definitely the most traumatic, most straight out of a lifetime movie moment I’ve had in my entire life. And being able to barely remember an accurate account that wasn’t written by a journalist, covered and dissected on someone’s blog, featured on an episode of Snapped that I declined to participate in, or churned through a rumor mill… fucking kills me.

To this day, yes, I have trust issues.

I only trust in the woman sitting next to me, and less people that I can count on my two hands put together. I’m paranoid sometimes. I have separation anxiety when it comes to her, but I’ve gotten a handle on that. I’ve learned how not to let the distance overwhelm me. I have trauma induced PTSD -- there’s a laundry list of things wrong with Demetri, but that’s why I need my anchors, and I know she’s the heaviest one I have on my side. It’s been four years and I don’t know what to believe -- anyone could be lying to me, really -- but with her here by my side, I know there’s less of a chance of that happening to me.

That’s why I know I need to do whatever I need to do in order to make sure she stays. I could watch the episode when it premieres, and I will. I want to. I just didn’t realize it was this close to airing, because I remember them shooting it; I remember keeping Demetria while Lita and her Dad did the recorded portions for it around this time last year. I declined to take a part in it.

But, I’m going to watch it. I know it’ll help, and my therapist can agree that it will, if it doesn’t get too damned triggering in the wrong kind of ways. I’m hoping it will. I’m hoping that means I’ll be one step closer to being able to really answer, What Happened To You?

I wish I knew everything. It feels more like I’m imagining a story that someone told me - which very well may be the case. But, I know I don’t want to spend the summer obsessing over it.

I have to start small though. I’m one step closer to having Lita and my baby girl back, and that’s enough, for now…

I just don’t know how long it’s going to last.

“Stop crying,” I instruct Demetria for the fifth time in the last couple of hours. She just woke up from a nap, and even though she’s eating cold pizza before she climbs into her seat in the back of Lita’s Jeep, there are tears streaming down her face.

“You’re gonna see me again for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year,” I remind her as she smiles softly and I wipe her face. She smells like pepperoni and baby, and I don’t want to let her go, but I have to.

“I love you Daddy,” She squeezes the fuck out of my neck, and I hold her just as tightly. I smile as I put her into her booster seat and kiss the top of her head.

“I love you too, Meme.” I close the door, and round around the back to close the cargo door.

Lita’s still standing on the outside, staring at me. I stretch my hands out for her to fill the space and she laughs and slowly approaches me to fill the space. I slide my hands down her back and grip her ass as I hold her close to me, and kiss the top of her head, then her cheeks on both sides, and then her lips.

“I’ma be expecting a call six hours in,” I wrap my arms around her back, and she laughs into my neck.

“I’ma be glad when you won’t have to anymore. I’ve been talking to Juliani, trying to come up with a plan. I’ll keep you posted…” She softly says as I mumble soft sounds of agreement, but I don’t want to let her go, either.

“Please behave yourself at this party tonight,” She starts, and I exhale softly. “It won’t be long before we’re together again, but I’m not trying to wake up to no surprises..” Lita sternly insists, and I laugh into the mess of curls on top of her head as she hugs me a little tighter.

“One of us has to let the other go, Meech.” She utters, and I scoff softly. This is the hardest part.

“Okay,” I hear her, but I don’t. She lets me go after another long kiss, and then a long exhale.

“I love you,” She thumps me in the forehead and I laugh, and I know she’s trying to break the tension that always comes with a goodbye, and I appreciate her for it.

“I love you too, ya’ll be safe. Call me.” I instruct as she nods and it takes a minute before she starts up and pulls off, blasting Q’s latest as she heads out.

It takes me a couple of minutes before walking back to my own car, and just sitting in it. I get a little paranoid about driving. I have to check the backseat a couple of times, check to make sure there’s nothing tracking my path, or nothing out of the ordinary.

Once I’m satisfied, I get into the car just to sit in it, really.

It doesn’t take long for my phone to start ringing though, and with it being off of Do Not Disturb, I debate answering the Facetime call from Monica. I’ve missed six calls and have seven ‘call me’ texts that seem to have sobered up in comparison to how she filled my damned inbox last night. She’s not going off of Do Not Disturb, though.

Monica does the most to get my attention when we’re in off mode, and I hate it. She comments on all of my instagram photos. Sends me posts on Facebook Messenger, or writes on my wall -- but she can’t now, because she’s been blocked for a good two months now. I just haven’t cared enough to block her anywhere else just yet. She tweets me, filling my mentions with emoji eyes, or she favorites random tweets of mines, or just DMs me with pointless shit.

I see all of it, and ignore it.

It’s not going to change anything though. It’s fucking annoying, but even though I’m just sitting here, I won’t call her, which I know would get her to stop. She doesn’t want to really hear about my weekend. She doesn’t want me to twist the knife deeper into her side, knowing whatever I say about Lita and I will immediately make her annoyed and aggravated due to jealousy and whatever the fuck’s wrong with her.

And, thankfully, or really, as we get closer and closer to Thanksgiving, unfortunately for her, she doesn’t know about Demetria, and I know that will kill her. More and more, I’m not really wanting to use that kind of information to put a true end to Monica’s persistent attempts to get all of me, but… I’m thinking about it. Trying to wean her off of me? Harder than I thought.

She’ll be home to annoy me soon, so, instead of hitting her up and possibly falling right into a trap, I opt to head home, and hope she hasn’t made it back yet.

It takes roughly twenty seven minutes in LA traffic to get home. I pull up to the student housing building known as The Trojan Lofts and try my hardest to see if Monica’s windows are open and her curtains are drawn back. I can see her windows when I drive into the parking lot, and thankfully for me, they’re dropped and the windows are closed, meaning, she’s not there....

Hopefully.

I can only cross my fingers and brace myself for when she confronts me, because I know it’s going to be a motherfucker. I’m not really in the mood to argue over dumb shit either, so, whatever she’s constantly hitting me up about, I’d rather not really deal with it unless it’s quick and painless.

Making my way towards the building, I press my lips together as I see other people in the midst of departing and coming back home, anxious to get midterms over with so they could have another tiny break of freedom before finals pop up. I definitely understand the rush. I smile at a few faces, and get asked about my weekend as I get my mail from the designated box. I bite down on my bottom lip as my phone buzzes in my pocket, and I pull it out and see who it is, and exhale softly, knowing it’s not Lita, but someone just as familiar.

Kierra Rogers: How as the weekend with the wife and kid?

I smile as I look around the lobby, and spot her sitting in the sitting area designated for guests. Instead of going up, I walk in her direction and sit across from her, and accept the hug she gives me. When we pull apart, her eyebrow is up, and I’m smiling.

“It was okay, but, I’m ready for a major distraction tonight.” I respond as I slide my phone back in my pocket, and she smiles.

Kierra’s special to me. Whereas everyone knows Lita has my heart, mind, body, and soul, sometimes, we bump heads, we spiral out, and we go on breaks. I still get my daughter, I still love her mother, and, I understand the frustration of being twelve hours apart and wanting other things to keep us busy -- I don’t fault her for that. There have been others for her, and there have been others for me, but, I’ve always been open and honest with them, and with Lita about them, and I never allow myself to fall in love, or be put in a position to where I can’t walk away.

I didn’t think the separation was going to get us like it did, but in the beginning, it was hard as hell to figure out a medium. We were still in High School after the dust settled, and, until senior year, I wasn’t driving anymore. We attempted the long distance thing, but, it was just too much for the two of us, with so many other issues at the time to stick it out.

Honestly, it got so bad at one point that Lita had another boyfriend, and me, well… I had Kierra, who I met during my junior year of High School. As high school came to an end and I went off to college, Kierra was a student at USC as well, friends first, before anything else. While me and Lita were still trying to figure out the best methods to stay together, and Kierra found the occasional boyfriend, I also managed to get my hoe phase out of my system. But, out of the four girls that I really fucked with heavily, Kierra was the most permanent fixture.

“Monica’s been looking for you,” She smirks a little, making the corners of her lips rise knowingly as I wedge my tongue in my cheek.

“She’s back already?” I ask, and Kierra shakes her head.

“Nah, but she’s been texting me in the group chat, being fucking annoying about you not going to Sacramento with her and everyone else.” Kierra rolled her eyes as she slid her phone my way, and I clucked my tongue at Monica’s almost frantic inquiries about wanting to talk to me when she got home but not knowing what to say or how to say it, and, it being easier to do if I came with them.

“I didn’t make any promises to go to Sacramento though,” I tell Kierra, who lives across the hall from me, and also opted out of the road trip to Sacramento with Monica, our other roommate Noelle, my other best friends, Queenie and Jacob, to shoot episodes of Queenie’s online web series.

“She thinks you should have. What the fuck did you do now?” Kierra questions, and I shrug. Honestly, you never really know with Mo’s ass, so, I guess I’ll figure it out when she comes back.

“Ain’t no tellin’ with her, and you and I both know this. But, enough about that, you coming to The Den tonight, right?” I ask, and Kierra smiles.

“Me and Erykah are gonna be Sherane and Sydney,” She says, and I groan softly.

“How long has Erykah been back, and why hasn’t she called me?” I ask, curious about Kierra’s best friend, and sometimes, a third party in our situationship.

“Not long, and, I don’t know. I mean, I do know, she has a girlfriend now, so... looks like you won’t be fucking that,” Kierra says, and I laugh softly as I watch the lobby begin to fill with familiar faces that I know are following Quentin, another one of my best friends, home to kick off the party tonight.

“Yeah, well, neither will you. But yo, I’m about to catch up with Q… come pregame with us before we go, alright? Gimme some love,” I pick Kierra up from her seat as I hug her, and grip her ass in my palms. She pushes me upside the head and promises that she will, and that’s all I need to get out of the slump.

It’s loud in the lobby now. Quentin James is home and has brought a couple of familiar faces with him, who hug and smile at me as I dap him up, and stare back out of the wide windows that show the parking lot.

“They ain’t back yet,” He laughs, and I twist my mouth up. “I know you’re looking for Mo’s crazy ass, but she ain’t out there. I did, however, scoop Jayde up for you…”

His head motions back towards the door and the girls carrying overnight bags as they follow us towards the elevator. I’m quiet, while Q smiles like he’s offering me a million dollar prize, and I exhale softly as my dick twitches when Jayde hugs me. I’m thankful for the distraction, for real.

This is honestly the only way I know I won’t spend all night constantly ignoring everyone around me with my head stuck in the screen of my phone, and he knows that too. Lita knows it too, and, I know he’s asked for permission for a setup of this magnitude just to keep her in the loop too. There was a time in which she uses to wake up to a lot of surprises all over social media, but we’re better than that now.

I still cluck my tongue when I get a text from her, and she questions:

LOML: Jayde, Kierra, and Erykah? Lmfao. And Mo too? You better wake up in your bed and not anyone else’s, I’m not fucking playing with you…

Just tryna get some head and head don’t count right?

LOML: Better be just that… I’m about to bring back the group chat, on that note.

I wince a little. It’s been a while since anyone’s responded in the group chat Lita started after the whole, “I’m up here to meet all your side chicks,” pop up visit from freshman year. I’m all for peaceful, meet in the middle, mediums until she comes home to me for good, but she’s not for the shit tonight, and I wonder what she knows that I don’t.

As we get off the elevator, my phone buzzes, and I notice Jayde look down at hers, and then meet my eyes. I shrug my shoulder gently as we walk into the unit, and everyone immediately goes into getting comfortable and leaving me and Q to linger around the door, just watching.

“This gon’ be a long, strokeless night.” I groan as Q laughs and shakes his head.

“You know your limits, Meech. Just don’t have Lita ready to hop on I-40 to come and beat your ass tonight.” Quentin winked at me, and I pushed him in the chest.

“When you gon’ stop giving me shit about that? That was one time,” I stress as he laughs.

“And with the way tonight is set up… it might be a second one. You better go pray,” Q insists as Jayde pulls off her hoodie, and we both shake our head in appreciation of her frame.

“‘Cause you’re damned sure gonna need it…”

#keith powers ff #keith powers #keith powers fanfic #chapters #luke james #woody mcclain

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