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zee-rambles · 1 year

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Lets. D0. This.

(Please note: Post will be updated as I find more resources and think of more strategies)

(Please do not re-use gif without permission…unless it’s to save Rise…)

Mutant May

YOU can watch Season 1 and Season 2 of RISE right HERE!

So I’ve seen a a lot of people still wondering if Rise of the TMNT can be saved.

There’s is a lot of hope, especially with the boom of fans joining the fandom after the movie dropped last year, people making more art on tumblr, twitter, tik tok, and so on. But also a a lot of doubt, especially after JJ Conway’s post on twitter.

BUT…I still think there is a chance…a GOOD chance. WITH ORIGINAL CAST AND CREW! Why?

We live in the internet. Information is more then easy to get out now thanks to social media. There is all kinds of ways to get the word out to people. Let’s abuse it. 😎

Fans have brought back shows before.

We need a MAJOR push through social media, more fans, more art, it’s up to us…and I think we can do it!

Fans convinced Netflix to bring Sense8 back for a finale

Fans convinced fox to bring back “Futurama” after it was cancelled in 1999.

Hey Arnold got the jungle movie thirteen years after the show was cancelled

Animaniacs got a 3 season revival 22 years after it stopped airing.

Brooklyn 99 was cancelled in 2018, and the fans convinced NBC to pick up the series.

Arrested Development was canceled after 3 seasons, but AFTER it was cancelled, it grew an audience and they made it come back!

Fans saved the original Star Trek in the 60s with letters.

They did it. Why can’t we?

So what can we do?

Well…

1. PETITIONS TO SAVE RISE that we can all sign…

PETITION 1 (The strongest one, but the more petitions signed, the better!)

PETITION 2

PETITION 3

PETITION 4 (save the content that was cut/we missed)

PETITION 5! (Make an ROTTMNT season 3)

2. Pester Nickelodeon and Netflix on social media (THE BIG ONE Y’ALL, THIS IS THE MOST DIRECT AND IMPORTANT)

Be polite, be non-toxic (don’t be rude or mean, the boys would not want that, and the Nick/Netflix won’t listen), but be LOUD, PASSIONATE, AND ANNOYING! Ask for DVDs of the show/movie, and then BUY THOSE DVDs!

MAKE SURE TO ASK FOR THE FULL ORIGINAL CAST AND CREW TO COME BACK, INCLUDING ANDY SARIANO AND ANT WARD.

Sample DM/Letter (but try to come up with your own. Too many repeats and they will ignore it)

“Dear Nickelodeon/Netflix/Viacom, I can’t tell you how much Rise means to me, and I really love that you put the show on air. But it was not fair that the show was cancelled before it got the chance to reach the audience it deserved, only because of a few bad reviews and a lack of advertising. The show is great, there’s tons of fans, tons of art, and people, including me, want so much more! Please bring it back! We want the original crew to come, Flying Bark, for the show to get it’s full second season restored, and it’s five season run like it was originally intended. People hated the 2012 TMNT when it came out, but it got it’s chance and now there are people that love it. Why can’t Rise of the TMNT have the same? It’s clear that the creators love their work and there’s a growing fan base for it. Rise just came out at the wrong time, but it deserves it chance to shine.”

The more personal you made the letter, the more you say what Rise means to you, the better.

As for me? I’m sending them a picture of Pizza Pigeon with the #wewantmoreriseoftheTMNT and #saverottmnt

Request movies/seasons on Netflix.

Ask for Rise Season 2, another season, another movie. Just keep asking!

Nickelodeon’s facebook page (Look, I know that facebook is a relic at this point, but the more people go there and PESTER Nickelodeon, the better!)

Rise’s facebook page

Leave good reviews. Share. Leave TONS of comments

Nickelodeon’s instagram

Nickelodeon’s Twitter page (treat carefully, there be Musks out there…only use if you are over 18)

Nickelodeon’s TikTok

Niceklodeon’s letter inbox

Nickelodeon, 1515 Broadway, New York, NY 10036

Rugrats was brought back because fans bombarded Nickelodeon with letters saying they wanted it back. Might as well cover our bases. This one is a BIG DEAL!

Nickelodeon’s Corporate Number

1-212-846-2543 Call them! Annoy them! Ask how we can get their attention! Tell them why you love this show! Why it deserves to come back.

Contact Paramount

Paramounts Request form

Official Fan Page Rise’s Instagram

The more followers the better.

Netflix’s instagram

Netflix’s facebook

Netflix’s Twitter (Treat carefully. There be MUSKs out there…only use if you are over 18)

SPAM NICKELODEON’S EMAILS!

[email protected]

If anyone has any more, any deeper more direct points of contact, or more ideas, please share!

3. Leave good reviews for Rise anywhere and raise awareness everywhere you can!

One of the key reasons Rise did not do too well because it was unfairly review bombed before people could give it a chance…so get out there on tik tok, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and ESPECIALLY youtube.

Make reviews! Analysis! JOKES! Support other content creators! When the Rise Reanimated video comes out, share it like no tomorrow!

No one paid attention when How to Train Your Dragon came out, but word of mouth and people saying it was good, made it the success it was. Let’s repeat history!

Anytime there is NEW RISE CONTENT on Nickelodeon’s YouTube channel, watch it, share, spread it.

Share this post on social media, across various sites, use the information here to spread awareness about how people can help and what they can do. Be relentless! (Like Leo in Lair Games)

Ask influencers to review, react, and give RISE a chance without placing judgement.

4. Make. ART!

Draw, Write, TWEET, Make MERCH, Sell MERCH, Make Tik Toks, Videos on YouTube, posts on instagram, discord, what pad, demanding more Rise, spreading the word, and just showing how much you love this show! Not only will it attract attention, but it’s also good for all of us. There will be more Rise content either way.

Make sure to @ nickelodeon on ALL of your art! SPAM THEM! ANNOY THEM! DROWN THEM IN LOVE FOR THIS SHOW! Demand DVD’s and Blue rays of the SHOW AND THE MOVIE! It’s not fair that we can’t have access to it!

PLAY THIS GAME!

If you see official Rise MERCH in the while, buy it if you can! Also support as many rise content creators as you can. If you can’t draw? Write! If you can’t create! Like! Share! Comment! Support each other!

Rise April ART Challenge

Keep in mind…there WILL be pushback.

Companies as big as Nickelodeon and Viacom care about their bottom line: $$$…money. BUT pushback, whether they are taking down your videos on Tik Tok, striking artists on twitter, mean that they’re taking NOTICE. So don’t. Give. UP!

One last thing to remember: DO NOT harass fans for enjoying other versions of TMNT

Even though Rise is the first and only TMNT I have ever loved, I don’t believe in shaming other fans for looking forward to, or enjoying other TMNT series. Gatekeeping like that was what stopped Rise from (heh) Rising as high as it should have. All Rise fans are welcome, and all TMNT fans are welcome. Rise deserves to reach more fans, it deserves another season, and it does not need to knock down other TMNT series to do it. Show them your love and your need for more Rise, without making other TMNT fans feel unwelcome.

Share, spread the word, give it your best shot! A village can move MOUNTAINS! SO let’s do it.

So that in the near future…we can MAKE THIS JOKE!

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kingdomoftyto · 9 months

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I'm crying laughing, the DVDs are even worse than I remember... Season 1's menus are silent with a single static jpg of the same key character art they use for everything else, and the episodes on the Season 2 discs don't even match what's listed on the box! Absolutely stunning lack of shits given. Truly unparalleled. But I really shouldn't be surprised given... well... everything about how this series has been treated since the very beginning.

Time for a quick ~✨PHANDOM HISTORY LESSON✨~ to give newer/less hyperfixated folks more context for why the graphic novel being as great as it is is such a HUGE deal:

Danny Phantom was one of Nickelodeon's MAIN cartoons, in its time. It was a central pillar. One of the top three or four of their lineup, which is saying something when the competition includes the cultural juggernaut that is Spongebob.

Despite this, and despite its superhero theming making it perfectly marketable, it got basically ZERO official merch.

What little we did get was often ugly and very, very cheap. The dedication at the start of the graphic novel that jokes about collecting the Burger King toys? That's because it was some of the most notable merch the franchise EVER had. (I sadly do not have any of it. There was no BK in my hometown. Here's a pic from the internet, though, to give you an idea.)

If you think I'm exaggerating about that being the most significant physical merch to come out of the series, consider that the first video game had an entire menu option specifically for the Burger King promotional tie-in:

That video game, by the way, was one of only two ever based on the show. The first was an adaptation of "The Ultimate Enemy" in the style of a short sidescrolling beat-em-up, and the second was themed around "Urban Jungle" and (as far as I can tell--I've only played the first couple levels) was an arcade-style scrolling shooter. Both were for the Gameboy Advance, and both are...... fine, as far as cash-grabby video game tie-ins to kids' shows go. This was pretty normal for the time, so I suppose we did okay in that department, actually. They're not GOOD, but they're playable and have at least a bit of effort put into them.

But besides those two video games (plus a handful of simple, long-defunct Flash games on nick.com)? In the decade and a half since the show ended?

Nothing.

No books, no games, no comics, no web shorts--unless you count mega-crossovers with every other Nicktoon (a la Nicktoons Unite), or soulless promotional material like "Fairly Odd Phantom" (which, trust me, despite being the first new DP animation in over 10 years was not even worth the effort of watching).

...I think there was a limited edition FunkoPop once?

So yeah.

A Glitch in Time is not just the first cool, well-made thing we've seen from the franchise in a while. It's the first THING we've seen since the show. PERIOD. And arguably the first worthwhile supplementary material to EVER come out of the show, depending on how you feel about those GBA games and the Nicktoons crossovers.

This franchise is widely beloved even now, almost 20 years after it first aired, and it feels like that fact is now, finally, FINALLY getting some official recognition.

PLEASE read A Glitch in Time. Tell other people about it. The series--no, the fans--deserve this (and more of this, if the folks in charge see enough of a response and decide to grace us with any followup). It's LONG overdue, but better late than never.

#Danny Phantom #this is why I've been losing my mind repeating ''please buy it'' over and over btw #this is the FIRST and maybe ONLY time we'll ever get to directly show support for the series #it is a uniquely huge deal for this fandom #it's totally fine if you can't (or just still won't) buy it of course but I am begging folks to consider it IF they can.#not for any moral guilting or anything just.... for me. for the fandom. (for yourself because it's a cool story lmao)#long post

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hollandsfavbabe · 2 months

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Peter's Precarious Polyjuice Potion - part 1

pairing: peter parker x stark!reader

synopsis: in which you and peter are forced to take extreme lengths to protect your secret relationship with the help of your shape shifting powers

warnings: a little suggestive language, lot's of fluff, lack of impulse control, extreme secrecy

word count: 5.7k

masterlist

a/n: Just a quick psa: this is going to be the first of two parts and the second is nearly finished! I tried to make it a one shot, but it was wayyy too long. There are some mentions of Harry Potter, obviously by the title, but no major spoilers and I want to make it very clear that I DO NOT support JK Rowling nor her transphobia. Trans women are women and trans men are men🏳‍⚧! That being said, I have another little surprise in the works that may have something to do with the wizarding world...

If you want to know what it is (and maybe get a sneak peak) comment your favorite character from the series and make a guess as to who you think mine might be. I'll reveal it with the next part of this series.

Thanks and enjoy!

Was there anything better than a chilly winter morning with the one you love most? Absolutely, a chilly winter morning with the one you love most and Harry Potter in the background. That’s all you could think of as your fuzzy sock clad feet padded across the campus floor.

The festive season’s aroma invaded your senses as you managed to steal the first four films from your father’s extensive DVD collection without being caught, the cover of the first one glinting in the light that flooded in from the wall of windows encasing Avenger’s campus as you admired how young the cast used to look and made your way to your boyfriend’s bedroom.

Suddenly, the usual quiet of the campus in the early morning was disturbed by the sound of footsteps of another Avenger in the distant halls and using your powers you immediately concealed the DVDs into a stack of school notebooks and a folder of overflowing miscellaneous papers as a facade. It wasn’t unusual for you to use your gifts this way.

It was only five years prior during a mission in the Czech Republic that you were introduced to Peter Parker and while everyone had expected the two of you to get along as teens of the same age, no one knew just how close you and Peter really were. The rule had initially started at Stark Tower as a branch off of one of your father’s household rules: no dating superheroes. You thought he would be less strict as your life became centered around them, as did his, but you had no such luck. There was little chance Tony Stark would ever change the rules set for his little girl. So you were left to bend them instead.

While you and Peter seemed like close friends, you only started out as a platonic couple before your relationship escalated faster than either of you could’ve anticipated into something more fulfilling than you could’ve ever hoped for. Peter became your everything. Before you knew it, he was your rock. He was the first person you wanted to share a new dirty joke with or an unlocked childhood memory or even complain to when your father became too restricting. It was so much easier for the both of you to be together during high school. Being a college sophomore made your relationship much more complicated. Especially seeing as Peter stayed close to home at NYU and you left town to attend MIT (your father would never let you go anywhere else).

With campuses that were over a 4 hour drive away from each other, you and Peter only got the occasional three day weekend to spend with each other and that was only when you were able to evade spending time with your dad by making up an excuse as to why you couldn’t come home and held your ground until you had to eventually cave to his demands. The only time you and Peter really got together was during holiday breaks when you two could both be at the campus and sneak around like smitten teenagers all over again. With only three weeks, you were determined not to waste a single second with so little time, even if it meant using your shapeshifting ability to disguise wizard school movies as chemistry homework. What could be suspicious about two close friends sharing notes about stoichiometry?

You felt your heart start back up as Natasha passed you in the hallway instead of your father, shooting you a smile.

“Morning, y/n.” she greeted pausing to look at your stack of folders with a look of confusion.

“Uhh, good morning.” you croaked, praying that there wasn’t some defect in your ability that allowed her to see a portion of the one of the movies you were disguising. Thankfully, your facade held.

“Homework? Really? This early on a saturday?”

You gulped as you nodded.

“You know me,” you forced a smile. “I’m actually on my way to wake Peter up so we can review together.”

“Good for you,” she nodded, impressed. “Breakfast should be in a couple hours if you two want a break. Try not to get bored!”

“Thanks?” You shrugged before continuing off to where you knew Peter’s room was, conveniently all the way on the other side of the building from your own. Soon enough you were at Peter’s door, turning the knob and entering without knocking, quick to shut it behind you to prevent anyone else from seeing how eager you were to ‘study.’ Surrounded by the comfortable closed walls of privacy, you let your platonic friend disguise fall and set the stack of papers on the edge of Peter’s bed.

Your boyfriend was still tucked beneath the covers, as was expected. You two had made your marathon plans ages ago and after losing several rounds of rock paper scissors, Peter’s room was made the place of the marathon meaning it was your job to wake him up. Overall you thought it best as you were more natural at lying (literally as you were aided by shape shifting powers) and a little more strategic when it came to social interaction and plotting.

You neared the stirring boy, his sleep disrupted by the clatter of the discs and the movement of his bed as you sat down to kiss him.

“Peterrr…” you whispered, hovering above him with an unshakable grin etched upon your face. “Wake up.”

You awoke him by placing a soft kiss on his nose and smiling down on him as he furrowed his eyebrows in aversion. It wasn’t until his eyes fluttered open that he grinned as he saw you and craned his head up to kiss you properly, his lips soft against yours, slipping a hand up from under the covers to cup your cheek.

“Morning.” he greeted, smiling affectionately as he sat up against the wall behind his pillow, pulling you into his lap so that he could kiss you once more. That was until he took a look at what you had brought, books and paper for studying. He cringed, pulling you closer and kicking up his covers in disgust.

“Oo no. I refuse to study on a Saturday. Can’t we save that for the last minute like every other time we’re together?” his lips turned into a sly grin as they neared yours once more.

You laughed as his complaint sparked many memories, most of you both tangled up together out of what started as procrastination, but ended up in unbridled desire that poured out after being built up each time you were away from one another for too long.

“Nice try, Parker. And here I thought we’d have a nice time today. Don’t you remember our plans?”

As you gesture to the folders and notebook on the edge of his bed they instantly shrunk back to their original form. All of a sudden, instead of the obnoxious red notes and blue folders filled with paperwork were the four DVDs with their easily recognizable covers that screamed nostalgia. Peter’s face lit up instantly, a mix of excitement and relief as his morning amnesia faded away. But even still, his seductive grin returned as he slid you further up his lap.

“We can’t start just a teeny bit later?” he teased, his fingers sending chills down your spine as they glided up the sides of your thighs. One of the downsides of how long you two had been together was that Peter knew exactly how to bend you to his will. “I think I’d rather spend our first morning together a little differently.”

He leaned in for another kiss, but instead of meeting your lips in the middle, his mouth was met with your finger as you pulled away and sat next to him, placing a chaste kiss on his cheek before shuffling into his comforter. It was by luck that your Stark genes made you extraordinarily stubborn and resistant to his persistence.

“Maybe later. Right now I am seriously craving a Hogwarts escape,” you lightly pushed Peter towards the DVDs, hinting that he would have to be the one to pop it into the reader. You teased him as he left his bed, grinning wickedly. “Besides, Harry’s wand is way bigger than yours.”

Peter’s head whipped around as the previews started to roll on the flat screen TV behind him that could be found in every resident room on the campus.

“Hey,” he pouted, though there was still enough of a smile left that you were sure he knew you were only kidding. He settled beside you, tucking an arm behind your head so you could rest on him as you normally did when you shared a room. “It’s hard to compete with 11 inches.”

After skipping through each advertisement for movies that had come out over a decade ago and finally selecting the play option on the movie menu, Peter planted a soft kiss on your forehead as the movie finally began and the familiar notes of the main theme played from the speakers.

“I think you should wake me up like this every morning.” he mumbled into your skin.

“I think that would be nice.” you agreed and nuzzled closer into him.

You two spent the entire first movie just like that, two nerds wrapped up in each other so close that you could hear each other's heartbeats, but so involved in the film that you didn’t get distracted by the distant pulsing of them.

“I think I'd make a great chaser.” you confessed during Harry’s first quidditch game.

“No, I think you’ve got it all wrong,” Peter argued. “I’d make a great chaser. You’d definitely be a beater. I mean legally hitting people off of flying brooms in a competitive wizard sport? If that isn’t right up your alley, I don’t know what is.”

“You’re right.” you agreed right before Harry crash landed into the sand, the golden snitch popping out of his mouth.

It was after the first movie that you started feeling peckish and by the way Peter squirmed to change positions every few seconds, you could tell he was feeling the same. Two hours awake without any food was an abnormal event for you and as a result your stomach was growling loudly. As you had other needs to attend to, you excused yourself and offered to grab the two of you something from the kitchen to snack on during the rest of your marathon.

“I’ll get it babe, you can stay in bed.” Peter offered, sitting up with you as you stood from his bed.

“That’s alright,” you assured him, handing him the disc to the second movie and the sleek black remote that controlled the monitor. “I’ve got to go to the bathroom so I’ll grab it on my way back.”

Peter laid back, his hands coming behind his head on the pillow as he eyed you on your way to the door. You smiled at him in confusion, wondering why he was admiring you so when all you were doing was fetching food.

“What?” you questioned, sliding on a sweatshirt over your pajamas.

“Sometimes I can’t believe we’re together,” he admitted. “You’re way too good for me.”

You giggled at his honesty as you moved towards the door.

“Are you still trying to sleep with me?” you teased.

“No,” he admitted, shaking his head adamantly. “...but I’m not opposed to the idea.”

You rolled your eyes playfully as you turned to leave, chuckling to yourself.

“I’ll be back soon. You can save the sweet talk for then.”

Though you couldn’t see his face, you could picture Peter’s smile as you shut the door behind you and meandered to the bathroom closest to the Avenger’s kitchen before starting towards the food.

As promised, the breakfast feast awaiting you smelled gloriously of hot buttered pancakes, sweet maple syrup, and so many other wonderful items. You prepared a lie to explain Peter’s absence as you entered the kitchen and grabbed a plate, when suddenly, the voice of your dad sounded from behind you.

“Ahh, y/n!” he startled you, causing you to drop your plate back on the stack of white porcelain where you had just barely plucked it from.

“Hi dad,” you forced a smile, turning to face him. “What’s going on?”

“I’ve been looking for you. C’mon, it’s family meeting time.” he stated casually. You realized then that the dining hall was eerily empty for a Saturday morning. The weekly buffet was normally packed with superheroes or at least a starving Thor. You furrowed your brows in confusion, never before having heard of any such meeting as you followed after your father.

“Family meeting? What about breakfast?”

“It can wait. I’ve got something we need to discuss.” you dad explained as he opened the tempered glass door to one of the many meeting rooms at the campus which was normally reserved for more professional causes.

“Okay. I’ll get Peter.”

“No time, come with me. Peter’s not invited to this one.” your father informed you as he grabbed your arm, pulling you with him inside of the meeting room where every chair was already filled by various heroes who also resided at the campus. You gave a small wave to those who cared to acknowledge your arrival and wandered to stand in a corner at the back of the room while your father took up the front. From what you could tell, everyone else was as confused as you were. You pulled out your phone just before it commenced, giving you enough time to shoot Peter a quick text explaining your prolonged absence.

I might be awhile

That’s fine. Take your time.

You fought the urge to smile at your boyfriend’s message as you slipped your phone into your pocket and looked up to your father who was commanding everyone’s attention.

“Thank you for coming, everyone. Really, I appreciate it.”

You recognize a feminine scoff from the right of the table, Natasha shaking her head, a fearful gesture from your main combat trainer. It was a general rule around the Campus, along with don’t introduce Steve Rodgers to ASMR: don’t get Natasha Romanoff angry unless you want to be dead.

“Cut the bullshit Tony. We’re all too tired and hungry to be here for longer than necessary. Get to the point. Why are we here?”

Others voiced their agreement and Tony put his hands up.

“Fine. I prepared a nice little welcome speech for you all, but I guess I’ll skip to my main point. You’re welcome by the way.”

Natasha rolled her eyes.

“The reason I’ve gathered you here today is to discuss a serious matter concerning one of our youngest recruits who I’ve purposefully made sure is not in attendance - ” he stated as he pressed one of the buttons on the controller to the meeting room monitor, the picture popping up on the screen of a face that was all too familiar to you with tousled brown hair and chocolate eyes. “- Mr. Peter Parker.”

Your heart stopped as you heard your boyfriend's name roll off your fathers lips. From a lifetime of knowing him you were sure whatever he wanted to discuss couldn’t be good. You tried your best to not look so shocked and managed to keep a neutral expression as you mirrored Bucky who did not care for the conversation whatsoever. In fact, his expression resembles that of someone who was desperate to deck someone.

“Ah yes! The Man of Spiders!” Thor called out, quite possibly the only Avenger who seemed to be not in the least bit irritated.

“Yep, that’s the one. Here’s the thing,” Tony began as you braced yourself. “It has been two years since he graduated high school. That means he’s had two whole years of college life to get out there and make some new connections, to be a kid! But instead he comes home late every night and is always so exhausted. He’s working way too hard. So I propose that we help our little spiderling find someone he can lean on and turn to. Someone who can really help him slow down and start to be himself. It’s time we help Peter get a girlfriend.”

Your eyes shot open as his words hit you, you had to force your hands to stay down and try not to react too much. You looked around at the reactions of the others, searching for someone who may agree with you, but much to your disappointment, no one seemed as against it as you were. It seemed the topic of helping Peter made the annoyance of the meeting more tolerable and many Avengers were nodding their heads in agreement. Thor especially as he hollered in his seat in clear support.

“Yes! Wonderful idea! A lady spider! Tis like those Midgardean movies that are so popular around this time of year! What do you call them? Wrong-Cons?”

Everyone looked around in confusion.

“Thor is referring to the movie genre of romantic comedies or rom-coms.” Vision explained. With the confusion cleared others started agreeing more.

“Yes, the boy needs a break,” Wanda concurred. “And I love a good rom-com.”

“He works too hard.” nodded Nat.

Others started muttering to their neighbors how they also agreed as you shook your head in utter disbelief.

You pushed off from your place on the wall, quickly gathering the attention of the others as you joined your dad at the front.

“Are you guys crazy?” you laughed nervously. “Peter doesn’t need a girlfriend! Yes, he can be hard on himself sometimes and I agree he needs a break, but that doesn’t mean you should try and shove something in his life that he has never shown any liking towards.” you explain, trying your best to sound as unsuspecting as possible.

Here in the crowd of adults, you were only Peter’s best friend and you wished to keep them in the dark for as long as possible, especially considering your father forbid you from growing a closer connection to Peter.

To your surprise, another Avenger stood to back your point as the Winter Soldier himself took on the crowd.

“She’s got a point, Tony.” Bucky agreed.

“Yes! Thank you!” you smiled, gesturing at Bucky a little too excitedly.

“We shouldn’t force the boy into something if there’s no confirmation of his own interest,” the Winter Soldier restated, earning a nod of encouragement from you. “There’s probably a reason he hasn’t gotten a girlfriend and I think we should leave him to discover himself if you know what I mean.”

“No, no that’s not what I meant,” at once you started refuting his claim. “Peter’s not gay, he’s just not interested in dating.”

“So he’s asexual? Is that what it’s called nowadays?” Steve asked, his tiny notebook of modern definitions at the ready as he pulled a pen from the pocket of his flannel pajama bottoms. He too had only just woken up.

“No. I mean yes that is a real and valid sexual identity and some people don’t have a desire to be with someone romantically, but that’s not Peter. He’s interested, just not right now.”

“How can we trust that the Tiny Stark knows what she says of the Man of Spiders?” Thor quirked a brow at your claims. You nearly blew up at him as he asked, glaring at the rest of the room on the edge of insanity from the thought of them shipping off your boyfriend to be with another.

“I’m his best friend, okay?! And I know him better than any of you so I know for a fact that he doesn’t need a girlfriend right now!”

Your father grasped your shoulder gently, a weak attempt at calming you down.

“That was exactly my next point. You’re his best friend and you’re right. You know him way better than any of us.” your father agreed. You gave him a thankful smile, glad to finally have him on your side.

“Thanks, dad-”

“That’s exactly why you’ll be out intel and our connection to Peter in ‘Operation Pair Parker.’ That way he won’t suspect anything.” he interrupted with a proud expression.

You stared at him with wide eyes.

“You already named it!? You’re kidding right? You have to be kidding. You all know this is just unbelievably crazy right?” you asked the crowd.

“I don’t see a reason why not. It’ll be good for the kid to have someone.” Natasha disagreed and by the disapproving looks from the others, you could tell her opinion was shared by the majority.

“Exactly. See everyone gets it and we need you to carry it all out,” your father continued. “I already have a few people in mind that I can pair him with. The only reason to not to would be if you know something we don’t. Peter isn’t seeing anyone, right y/n?” your father eyed you, suspicious of your relentless attitude towards his thought out plan. You knew you couldn’t own up to it, the risk of discovery was much too great, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything you could do to shut down Operation Pair Parker.

“Well, I didn’t want to expose Peter since he’s only just barely told me-” you began, hardly believing the words were leaving your lips. “-but he has been seeing someone and I think it’s getting pretty serious.”

“Oh really? And who is this girl?” your father interrogated.

“Or boy.” Bucky added.

“It’s a girl,” you clarified, hurrying to think of exactly you could pin Peter’s secret relationship on without creating too much damage. “Her name is um, MJ!” you exclaimed as the name came to you. It was perfect too as she was one of your best friends and someone Peter could’ve easily hypothetically gotten with ages ago.

“You mean the overwhelmingly unenthusiastic girl that Peter has only ever talked about once?” You could tell by his raised eyebrow and narrowed eyes that Tony didn’t believe you, but there was still time to convince him. And you would do anything to end this scheme.

“Yep,” you gritted your teeth, letting out a fake laugh that you hoped sounded convincing enough. “That’s the one, good old MJ. You know what they say, opposites attract.”

Tony wasn’t fazed as the intensity of his suspecting expression lingered on.

“You sure he isn’t seeing someone he’s closer to? You’re not dating him right?” he questioned, reminding you of the age old rule. Under no circumstance were you and Peter allowed to see each other. No matter how many battles you had fought together nor how many times he had protected you from harm. Not even if the world was on the brink of collapse. Never.

“Yeah, you’re acting pretty suspicious.” Sam chimed in.

“Is something up, y/n?” wondered Nat.

You burst into nervous laughter as you thought of a plausible excuse and your web of lies deepened.

“Oh, you guys are too good. You’ve got me! I have been seeing someone.”

“I knew it! Lady Stark is with the Man of Spiders!” Thor pointed accusingly towards you.

“You did not know that.” argued Wanda as Thor had been the least suspecting of all the Avengers up until your false confession. It didn’t help that he was also the most gullible.

“No! No, no, not Peter,” you scoffed, choking out a laugh. “His name is um… Flash!”

Your face burned red as you realized who’s name had just slipped out of your mouth. Oh why hadn’t you said Ned? At least you actually enjoyed spending time with Ned. But as your father’s face shifted and your lie began to work, you knew it was too late to go back now.

“Flash? You mean that boy who’s been mean to you and Peter since you were kids?” your father knew exactly who he was through years of his name popping up in counseling sessions Tonty provided to help you figure out how to defend yourself in public without using your powers.

“Yeah. He’s actually really nice once you get to know him and we’ve been together for a little while now.” you tried, changing your voice to match the same doting pitch it took on whenever you talked about Peter.

“Huh,” Tony pondered, but eventually shrugged the confession off as your lies snapped into place. He turned off Peter’s image on the monitor, leaving a blank black square in its place. “Well, in that case, the operation is off.”

“Alright, I guess that means I can go…” you smiled, ready to sneak off to finally grab some breakfast and more hidden moments with your real boyfriend.

“And date night is on!” Tony cheered unexpectedly.

Your eyes widened as your stomach dropped in realization of what you had just done. You and Peter were really in trouble now and it was all because you couldn’t admit the truth.

“Date night?” you repeated uneasily.

“To celebrate my children finding love, I want you both to invite your sweethearts over and we’ll have a big dinner so we can get to know them. Let Peter know he has to invite MJ.” specified your father which could only mean he expected you to invite Flash.

Oh shit. There was no getting out of it now.

“What a splendid idea.” deadpanned Vision who you could’ve sworn knew the truth about you and Peter as his room was next door. You almost glared at the android, but caught yourself.

“Yep, sure thing,” you grimaced, knowing that your lies would soon catch up to you. “And when is this whole thing supposed to be?” you asked, hoping it would be after the break so you and Peter could retreat to your separate schools instead of owning up. By then, you’d probably be able to come up with two break up stories so heart wrenching that the Avengers would understand why you would never want to date again.

“Let’s do tomorrow if we can. The sooner the better.” Tony proclaimed, pulling out his device from his pocket so that he could put the dinner into the following day’s agenda, scheduling it as a mandatory event.

You felt like you were gonna pass out.

“Great! I’ll just go tell Peter then. We’ll be ready!” you fake laughed as you walked off, truly dying inside as the crushing weight of what you had just done hit you.

Once you were out of sight of the Avengers (all of which started voting on what theme your dinner would be), you completely spaced picking up something to eat and sprinted down the hallway to Peter’s room. You stumbled in when you arrived, closing the door behind you and leaning on it, gasping for air from the rush.

“Hey baby,” Peter welcomed you back from his bed, lifting the remote to turn down the TV volume by a couple notches. “I hope you don’t mind, I started the second one, but we can totally rewind if you want…”

Confused by your lack of a reply, Peter looked at you and immediately sat up in bed, ignoring the film with a worry riddled face. The remote fell from his grasp and into the twisted sheets of his bed, never to be found again.

“Are you okay?”

You shook your head as you caught your breath, sliding down the door until you collapsed on the floor.

“No, Peter. Something terrible just happened and it’s all my fault.” you cried and curled to tuck your head into your lap. You weren’t quite to the point of tears, but it was enough distress to alert your boyfriend.

Peter sprung off his bed with a start, swinging his legs to the edge so that he could fully face you, but he was apprehensive about approaching your sullen form.

“Is it your period? Is that why you took so long? I knew I should have come to check on you…”

“No, I’m not on my period and I didn’t spend all that time in the bathroom. This is so much worse than that.” you lifted your head to speak so the words didn’t come out jumbled, but as soon as you had finished, your face returned to your lap.

Peter stood and neared you slowly, placing his hands on your forearms and squeezing you comfortingly as you lifted your head.

“I’m sure it can’t be that bad,” he assured you. “What is it?”

You inhaled deeply before rushing out a summary of the events that had taken place only moments before.

“Long story short, my dad was trying to hook you up with someone because he thinks you're so sad and lonely lately so I tried to get him off your back and now he thinks that you’re dating MJ and I’m dating Flash and we have to invite them to a big dinner with all the Avengers tomorrow.” you sputtered in one breath, gasping by the end.

“WHAT?!”

“I KNOW!”

“How are we supposed to do that? I mean maybe MJ would agree if she were even in town… maybe, but we can’t invite Flash here!”

“I know!”

“Why didn’t you say Ned?!”

“I don’t know! That’s not the point, Peter. What I’m saying is that we need to come up with something fast.”

“I think we should just tell him.” Peter confessed, not one to share your disregard for the truth. Instead, he imagined a future where he could be more open with his teammates about the love you shared, maybe even rub it into Sam and Bucky’s faces as the three held a long standing rivalry since an opposing battle at a German airport. “Better fess up now.”

“NO! Peter, my dad will KILL US if he finds out we’re together!” you shut down his suggestion, too afraid of the consequences to even contemplate telling the truth. “We’ve got to come up with something better, I can’t let him win this.”

“Ugh, you Starks and your stubbornness.” Peter groaned. While he was well informed of your father’s rule, he didn’t understand why the two of you were so competitive, especially when it came to ethicality.

“I just wished there was a way we could pull it off without inviting either of them.” you pouted, staring off into the distance when the scene playing on the screen caught your eye.

The meeting had lasted so long that while you were gone, Peter had managed to watch up to Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s secret potion escapades in the abandoned girls’ bathroom.

“Add the hairs.” directed Hermione as the golden trio sprinkled the strands into their separate goblets of green sludge, so young in only the second film in the saga.

“You're right,” Peter sighed, his attention turning to the movie at the same time as you. “Things would be so much easier if we were wizards and could make Polyjuice Potion.”

Suddenly an idea popped into your head.

“Peter! That’s it! You’re a genius.” you exclaimed, pulling away from his hold and running across the room to his closet, flipping excitedly through his collection of colored flannels.

“Thanks,” Peter blushed, moving to sit on his bed once more. “Why exactly am I a genius this time?”

Your smile widened as you came upon it, Peter’s darkest flannel that distantly resembled something your dear friend MJ would wear. You pulled it on and discarded the hanger, throwing it haphazardly to another corner of the room as you looked at your boyfriend. You beamed at him as if you had just won the lottery. For a skilled liar, stringing together a new fake story was almost as accomplishing.

“Can I borrow this?” you asked.

“Of course,” Peter obliged. “You know how I feel about you wearing my clothes. Can I just ask why this in particular?”

“We can’t ask MJ or Flash to attend themselves so we’ll just have to become them instead!”

“What do you mean?” Peter asked.

You closed your eyes and concentrated, picturing MJ in your mind and spreading your arms out from your body as the familiar tingling sensation started and your body began to change from the will of your shape shifting powers. Before long, you began to resemble the quiet girl from your school. Your hair grew longer and curled into her familiar pattern as your jawline sharpened and your limbs lengthened until the girl standing in front of Peter was no longer his girlfriend, but the one and only Michelle Jones.

You opened your eyes that now resembled her dark brown ones and smiled at him, something MJ would never do. Peter’s own face lit up as he realized what you meant.

“That’s even better than Polyjuice Potion!” he grinned, watching you nod as you looked yourself top to bottom, satisfied with the extent of your abilities.

“I think we can make this work.” you stated, moving towards Peter who was gazing at you with admiration.

“You just need to master her facial expressions. MJ would never smile that much.”

You closed your eyes again and took a deep breath as you let your smile fade away to capture MJ’s unwavering neutrality.

“That’s perfect.” Peter complimented once you had mastered it. You chuckled out of pride as your usual smile carved back onto your face along with an affectionate look as you glanced at Peter. You leaned into him, lips at the ready to peck his perfect pretty face until you were stopped by his outstretched hands.

“What?” you questioned, unused to being denied by your boyfriend.

“As much as I would love to kiss you right now, you still look like one of our best friends.” Peter explained with reddened cheeks.

“Oh right.”

Quickly, you shook off your disguised form and shifted back into yourself. Wrapping your arms around his neck, you kissed Peter and allowed him to pull you in closer by your waist, his hand sneaking up to meet the skin under his flannel. It seemed at last he would get to have his own rendition of a perfect first morning with you.

After a few moments, he lifted away from your lips with a heavy breath to ask, “Does this mean I have to be Flash?”

You sent him a guilty smile.

“Sorry babe, but we’ve gotta do what we’ve gotta do.”

part two coming soon!

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gentlebeardsbarngrill · 3 months

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02/10/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Long Post is Long. Cast & Crew Sightings; David Jenkins; Matt Maher; Clowning; Rhys Darby; Rosie; Samba; Max Trolling Reminder; Coyote Vs Acme Cont'd / Articles; Watch Party Reminders for Feb 11; SafeSpaceShip; Art Director's Guild Nominee; We Need to Be a Lighthouse! Game; AdoptOurCrew Choose Your Own Adventure; Love Notes; Daily Darby / Today's Taika;

= Cast & Crew Sightings =

Well as you can imagine, the David Jenkins IG is the big news of today. The clowning forecast has gone up significantly. Dad posted one of the late-blooming SaveOFMD banners in NY and attached Elton John - Candle In The Wind to the post. This song has some very specific significance to our fandom.

Apparently back when we lost Lucius in Season 1, Chaos Dad posted this song to Nathan Foad. Src @cptn_brightsky's Twitter Post

Now ADD to that... David Jenkins ALSO added this picture of Matthew Maher standing in front of a saveOFMD flyer found out on the street.

NOW OF COURSE, we are all clowning, but I think as usual Chaos Dad is trying to give us info without giving us info since the fandom pays so much attention to every little detail.

@saltpepperbeard has a theory that I'm down to clown with until I turn blue in the face. Src.

So yeah, as always take the clowning how you will, but I'll be honest, this looks like great news to me. It really does. CLOWN ON MY FRIENDS.

= Other Cast & Crew Sightings =

Rhys Darby's going to be at The Bourbon Room Hollywood next Friday, 2/16 at 8 PM PT.

== Rosie ==

Since doing cute stuff just doesn't stop in the Darby houshold, tonight I wanted to make a special shout out to Rosie Carnahan Darby, Rhys' Wife who has been active the last couple days. First and foremost, she knit a little blanket and hat for Samba's baby!

Second apparently she's restocked the Awesomeness Comedy website with more Buttons McGinty books and Comedy Special DVD's in case you're interested.

Oh and by the way, Samba loves the blanket:

= Vico Ortiz =

Tonight Vico was out performing with Them Fatale Drag Kings at their last night at their home bar Redline! Just some shots from their IG stories, feel free to check out more.

== Max Trolling ==

Gentle reminder luvs, if you're going to IG, or Twitter to troll Max posts, let's try to remember not to post OFMD/Negative comments on any posts that are celebrating underrepresented groups. We want to support those groups. Please note however, if you'd done it previously and didn't know, don't beat yourself up! We all make mistakes, just please try to keep it in mind going forward! (If you can delete your previous posts, great, if not, again not the end of the world).

== Coyote Vs Acme Cont'd / Articles ==

Why Deleting and Destroying Finished Movies Like Coyote vs Acme Should Be a Crime

This article is from yesterday but this blurb was pretty damn specific so I wanted to make sure if you missed it you got to see some of the reasons why Max did cancel OFMD.

"Some of the company’s tactics post-merger were garden-variety ruthless, like eliminating 87 series from its streaming platform Max, so that they won’t have to pay union-mandated residuals to the talent that created already-existing programs or pony up funds to produce more seasons of existing ones (such as “Our Flag Means Death,” one of the company’s most popular and critically acclaimed comedies—canceled after just two seasons)."

= Watch Party / Event Reminders =

Feb 11: Q+ and AdoptOurCrew Season 2 Live-Rewatch Party

Times: 2PM GMT, 9 AM EST, 6 AM PST

Watch Party Hashtags:

#OurFlagMeansBBC

#OurFlagMeansRewatch

#SaveOFMD

#AdoptOurCrew

= Feb 11: Relax I'm From the Future Watch Party! =

Sunday February 11th, 1 PM PT. 4 PM ET, 9PM GMT

Watch Party Hashtags:

#PiratesFromTheFuture

#SaveOFMD

#AdoptOurCrew

== In Person Events: San Diego CA ==

February 11, 2024 at 4 PM at Maritime Museum of San Diego

Costumes & Cosplay Encouraged! Location: Maritime Museum of San Diego 1492 North Harbor Drive San Diego, CA 92101

Hashtags:

#SafeSpaceShip

#SaveOFMD

#AdoptOurCrew

= Art Director's Guild Award Nominee! =

Sorry, I forgot to add this one yesterday!

Ra Vincent - Nominee for Half-Hour Single - Camera Series. Src: @AdoptOurCrew and ADG

Check out the Design Presentation: OFMD_s2_art.pdf

== We Need To Be A LightHouse! ==

Have YOU heard of this awesome new Monkey Island Inspired Point and Click Adventure Game by @blueberreads and @eldawee? They've been working on it for months and it's FINALLLLLLLY HEEEERE!

These folks are so incredibly talented! Please go check it out here! https://dawee.itch.io/lighthouse If you're using a MAC OS you'll most likely need to download an executable at the bottom of the main page. Just FYI! If it prompts you with the "you downloaded this from the internet" error just click OK. I already started playing with it and I'm in love.

I pushed Ed and he asked if I wanna do something weird xD Okay no more spoilers, GO CHECK IT OUT!

== AdoptOurCrew Choose Your Own Adventure Game!==

In honor of the s2 watch party with Q! tomorrow, @adoptourcrew did a really adorable choose your own adventure game on twitter today! They did polls and let the majority pick which direction they wanted the story to go!

Since it was a lot of pictures I made a separate post so you can see the whole story: @adoptourcrew Choose Your Own Adventure here on tumblr. Please check it out!

== Love Notes ==

Alrighty lovelies. It's been another busy day. Lots of clowning, lots of hope, lots of emotional roller coasters. I hope you had a good time and generally it was more positive than negative. I have a lot I want to say, but my brain is still pretty foggy. So I'll make this short.

Sometimes when things go well, our brain gets excited and then they overcompensate when we calm down. It starts to think a lot more negatively because it had so much extra dopamine for a time. When that happens, little things can be really devastating. I just want you to remember that we all make mistakes and YOU, you beautiful imperfect being are not your mistakes. They hurt, and we learn from them, but they don't define us. Try not to listen to your brain if it's telling you otherwise. You are so very wonderful.

Anyway, I hope that makes sense.

Here's a picture I found today I thought really applied to all you wonderful people. Thank you to all the folks who reached out to me and checked in and sent me love when you knew I was struggling (there are too many to list and I don't know if you want to be tagged so please just know how much I appreciate you). I love you all so much, and I'm so lucky to how found people who make me feel like it's ok to be me.

== Daily Darby / Today's Taika ==

Tonight is once again animal themed. I wish I'd made that Taika gif last night for the lovebirds theme, but here we are.

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shinki26 · 11 months

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The Sims 2 Disc Installation and fix guide for Windows 10/11 PCs

I’ve been seeing around the internet people demonizing the discs and saying they are “bad” “old” “unsupported” “buggy” “ancient” and a bunch of other bad words and also outright refusing to give support to disc users.

I’m writing this guide to hopefully instruct people on how to properly install, fix and run their disc based The Sims 2 game and also educate you on why the discs are not as bad as everyone makes them to be.

Just a warning: I’m a Windows 10 user, I don’t know if exactly everything is going to be 100% accurate to Windows 11, but the game SHOULD work the same on it.

First things first, some clarifications about common misconceptions of both the Ultimate Collection and TS2 disc games I’ve been seeing being tossed around:

1. The Ultimate Collection has compatibility patches for modern hardware:

This one is actually kinda true? The UC did have some patches made to it compared to a fully patched disc game but no one has been able to tell what exactly it did.

A fully patched, fixed and correctly installed disc game should work the same as the Ultimate Collection, with no difference in compatibility or game performance.

2. SecuROM doesn’t work on modern OSes so you can’t run the game off the discs:

Totally untrue. People who says SecuROM doesn’t work on Windows 10/11 haven’t actually tried running a game that uses it at all. It 100% works even on Windows 11. What doesn’t work on modern OSes is SafeDisc, which all packs released before Bon Voyage used. So if you install BV and any pack released after it, the game IS going to run normally as it’s using SecuROM instead.

3. But SecuROM makes the game lag:

True, for some machines it does happen. But as I will explain in the guide, you can uninstall SecuROM with the official removal tool and just use NoCD executables to have it not install itself again.

4. The discs requires Flash and it’s been deprecated:

No, the discs DO NOT require Flash. The only thing that uses it in the setup is a pop up that used to ask you if you wanted to register your game. Since of course you can’t register it anymore, you can just close it and it WILL NOT affect anything.

That out of the way, let’s get to the guide!

What you are going to need:

-All original TS2 patches released by EA back in the day: They’re all hosted HERE on ModTheSims.

Please, be aware that there may be multiple variatons of a patch. You need to pick the right one for your game. If you have The Sims 2 Base Game DVD version, you will have to download the second option where it says “DVD Patch Notes”, for example. For Pets and Seasons the “DD” patches mean Digital Download, so if you have them on either CD or DVD them both are going to use the “Disk Patch” If you seem to be not able to download them, right click the download link and choose “Save Link As”.

If you have The Sims 2 Deluxe / Double Deluxe / Holiday Edition / Other compilations you’re not going to need the Base Game patch as those versions are already updated!! You also don’t need the Nightlife patch if you have Deluxe or Double Deluxe!! The same thing applies for the Collections: You don’t need to patch their EPs!!

-Grumpy Loader: Get it HERE on ModTheSims.

-If you have Bon Voyage and/or packs released after it... SecuROM Removal Tool: Get it HERE.

-If you have Mansion & Garden Stuff... Sims2RPC: Get it HERE on ModTheSims by @lazyduchess! If you DO NOT have this pack, you’re going to need to source a NoCD executable of the game based on your latest installed pack.

-If you DO NOT Have Mansion & Garden Stuff... 4GB Patch: Get it HERE.

-Graphics Rules Maker: Get it HERE.

Having downloaded everything, you can start inserting your Base Game disc one! Or your Base Game DVD!

Installing the Base Game:

There’s no mystery in this part, install your game normally as you would back in 2004 following the instructions of the setup.

Three of the biggest problems I’ve seen people have when installing the Base Game is:

1. I get a red pop up saying “This app has been blocked for your protection”

This happens usually on Double Deluxe games and later EPs such as Bon Voyage, FreeTime and Apartment Life.

There’s two ways you can circumvent this. First one is the one that I personally prefer:

-Open the Task Manager -On the top left, click “File” -Click “Run new task” -Click “Browse...” -Now go to your disc drive in your PC and open it, select Autorun.exe -The target box should be pointing to “D:\Autorun.exe”. The “D” letter changes depending on what letter your disc drive is set to in your PC -Check the “Create this task with administrative privileges” box -Now click OK.

The setup is going to run normally now. When you are installing EPs that show you this error, you can do the same thing to every one.

The other way is just to change your PC’s date to somewhere before 2020. This is going to work too, I can’t explain to you why though! Something about licenses expiring!

2. I get a Flash pop up when I try to install!

As I explained earlier, you can just close it and the installation will continue normally.

3. The setup just hangs at a specific percentage and won’t progress anymore!

This is mosty probably the setup asking you to swap discs! DVD users do not have this problem. What happens sometimes is that the setup GUI is supposed to make a pop up window appear in front of the GUI asking you to swap to disc 2, but on modern OSes it doesn’t appear sometimes. Actually, it does. It just is in the background, if you minimize every open window on your machine you’re going to see the little pop up! Just swap to disc 2 and press “Ok” on the pop up and it should resume installing. The same thing can happen when having to switch to Discs 3 and 4.

After installing the Base Game:

Yay, you did it! See how the discs aren’t the devil??

So, after installing the base game you are going to need to patch it.

Open GrumpyLoader, on the top left select “Load...” and on the window that opens, choose the Base Game patch’s executable you’ve downloaded and open it. It’s going to automatically patch your game, if you are on the 4 CD version of the game you may have to swap discs. Sometimes GrumpyLoader throws errors when updating, especially when it ends. But you can just ignore it.

After patching, your Base Game is FULLY installed and properly patched, congratulations!!!

But if you didn’t already try, you will see that you can’t run the game as it doesn’t open. That’s because the Base Game uses SafeDisc that doesn’t work on modern OSes as I said earlier.

Installing Expansion and Stuff Packs:

It’s the same process of installing the Base Game. Follow the setup instructions. After installing each one, PATCH them with GrumpyLoader. For example: you just installed University! Do NOT immediately install another pack right after. Follow the same GrumpyLoader patching process you did on the Base Game but choose the University patch instead. Do the same thing to ALL EPs and Family Fun Stuff.

Also, there has been some info online about installing packs out of release order can mess up your game.

I personally don’t think it’s true as I never had any problems but I prefer to be better safe than sorry.

If you want to, Install them in this order:

-University (or University Life Collection) -Nightlife (skip if you have The Sims 2 Deluxe/Double Deluxe) -Christmas Party Pack (I don’t recommend if you have Happy Holiday Stuff or The Sims 2 Holiday Edition) -Open For Business (or Best of Business Collection) -Family Fun Stuff (or Fun with Pets Collection) -Glamour Life Stuff -Pets (skip if you have Fun with Pets Collection) -Happy Holiday Stuff (skip if you have The Sims 2 Holiday Edition) -Seasons -Celebration Stuff (skip if you have The Sims 2 Double Deluxe) -H&M Stuff (skip if you have Best of Business Collection) -Bon Voyage -Teen Style Stuff (skip if you have University Life Collection) -FreeTime -Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff (skip if you have Best of Business Collection) -IKEA Home Stuff (skip if you have University Life Collection) -Apartment Life -Mansion & Garden Stuff (skip if you have Fun with Pets Collection)

If you’ve installed all packs, great! You can even launch your game from SP9′s (Mansion & Garden Stuff) disc and executable as it uses SecuROM which WORKS on modern OSes.

Getting your game to work properly:

Your game is fully installed, patched and even running if you have Bon Voyage and later released packs!

But you probably noticed very heavy lag, crashing, bad graphics and things not running as they should. That’s because, just like the Ultimate Collection, the game is a PITA to get running properly on Modern OSes! If you have Bon Voyage and/or later released packs: I HIGHLY recommend you to uninstall SecuROM from your machine. This is going to help greatly with game performance. Use the SecuROM Removal Tool I’ve linked earlier and remove it from your PC. Do NOT open the game again as it’s going to install itself again if you do so.

If you have Mansion & Garden Stuff: After uninstalling SecuROM, you’re going to need to install Lazy Duchess’ Sims2RPC Launcher I’ve linked earlier. Follow their instructions on the download page and be sure to apply the 4gb patch in the launcher as it’s going to GREALTY help with the crashing.

Or... if you DO NOT have Mansion & Garden Stuff: Get an appropriate NoCD executable for the pack you are using to launch your game and apply the 4GB patch to it. Open the 4GB patch executable and use it on your game’s exe.

After doing all that, all that remains is fixing your game performance, resolution and graphics!

Install Graphics Rules Maker and open it. Firstly, you’re going to have to add your Graphics card to the game’s database. To do that, go the “Device Info” tab and add it there.

Back to the “Settings” tab, be sure your game is set to “The Sims 2″ and is properly recognizing where your game is installed, if for some reason it isn’t, click “Browse...” and point it to your latest installed pack’s folder. For example: “C:\Program Files (x86)\EA Games\The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff”.

-Force Texture Memory: Use the auto-detect button and it should automatically calculate the best value for your graphics card.

Check “Disable texture memory estimate adjustment” and “Enable driver’s memory manager” boxes. If you have an AMD Radeon HD 7000 series, also check the “Fix AMD Radeon HD 7000 series recognition”. If you have Intel integrated graphics, check the last two boxes. Now you can set your resolution! Choose your default (which one the game is going to start with) and maximum resolution your game is going to support.

After doing all that, you can click “Save Files...”

And... Done! You got your disc-based The Sims 2 game fully working, properly patched and fixed!!!

Any Feedback on how to improve this guide is very welcome!

Happy Simming, y’all!!! :)

#ts2 #sims2 #ts2guide #guide #discs #help #sims 2 #the sims 2

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libraryofloveletters · 1 year

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Chapters From An Old Book

Sebastian Vettel x Fem!Reader

Warnings: alcohol and the consumption of, being cheesy, mentions of pregnancy and birth, britta being over seb’s nonsense, horner mention lmao, jenson being a little match maker, a trip down memory lane, mentions and references to sex, it’s giving anti ferrari for a slight second there, mark cameo + lance and sara cameo!, heart felt conversations, talks of his retirement.

Word Count: 6.8k

Author’s Note: once again, i'm writing a flashback fic and are we surprised ? no. also shut up i’m emotional over this 35 year old german guy. -- based on this ask - one

italics are flashbacks!

----

The door to the girls’ bedroom shut behind you quietly, you made your way down the stairs slowly so it wouldn't creak.

“Sebastian?” You called into the empty house, he was somewhere around here. He had been ‘nesting’ so to speak; trying to figure out what’s to come next.

This was a big decision and it had been weighing heavy on him.

You can hear the thumping coming from the basement and a groan, you follow the sound down to find your husband sitting on the floor with a bunch of storage containers and boxes.

"Hi honey,” he glances at you, patting the spot next to him.

You join him on the floor. “What’s all this?” You ask, peeking into the box in front of him. He pulls out a stack of photos, held together with a rubber band.

“Just going down memory lane.”

Sebastian wasn't one for looking to the past, good nor bad; so you knew something was up if you found him down here.

He was flipping through the pictures when you found a CD in the box. “What’s that?” He asks, you make your way over to put it into the DVD player you had in the basement.

“No clue, but we're about to find out.”

You hit play and return to Seb, the two of you looking at the screen. It’s a copy of his first win, Monza 2008; there’s a few scratches on the CD because it jumps a bit but you glance at your husband.

“That’s one of the greatest moments of my life.” He smiles, his eyes fixed on the screen.

“Why only one of the greatest? Why not the greatest?”

Sebastian turns to face you. “That might be the one that started it all, but I won four championships, and don't forget that I met you and we got married, and we have children. Those are the greatest moments of my life.”

You can’t help but smile, your hand cupping his jaw, “I love you.”

“I love you,” he smiles, leaning over to kiss you.

He flips through some of the photos in his hand when he stops on one of them, showing you. “Remember this ?”

The photo was of you and your best friend, Lia, squished in between Jenson and Sebastian outside of a club in Barcelona.

“How could I not remember that?” You laughed, taking the photo from him and you glanced down at the picture. “That was the night we met.”

Barcelona, 2009.

The club was packed; drivers, crews and other partygoers squished into the building. Your best friend, Lia, pulls you onto the dance floor with her when her favourite song comes on.

You weren't even supposed to be in Spain, you should be home studying for your midterms during your reading week. Lia’s parents were huge fans of F1 and her father’s side of the family came from money so they always attended races. Lia and Jenson met earlier in the season and hit it off, they weren’t officially a couple yet but they basically were.

So when Jenson invited her along to the Spanish GP, of course she brought you along. Not that Jenson minded either, he was always a ‘the more the merrier’ type of guy.

Jenson had done remarkably well that weekend, starting in pole and ended up winning the race with his teammate, Rubens, in second which gave Brawn a 1-2.

You were trying to cram in a little studying; how boring of you honestly.

Jenson and Lia had other plans, basically kidnapping you from your room and dragging you to the club with them to celebrate Jenson’s win.

Lia and you were on the dance floor for a bit before she dragged you back up to the booth they had, finding Jenson talking to an extremely blonde guy who clearly caught your attention and your friend noticed as much.

“That’s Sebastian,” she tells you, sitting next to you. You glance over at her, “okay so ?”

Lia laughs, nudging you with her shoulder. “I can see the look on your face, you’re into him.”

“Whatever.” You roll your eyes.

Across from you two stood the two drivers, Sebastian kept glancing in your direction and Jenson noticed. He gives the younger driver a smack on the arm, “don’t look at my girlfriend like that.” He teases.

Seb gives him a smile, taking a swing of his beer. “Who’s the girl with her?”

Jenson follows Seb’s line of sight, “that’s y/n, her best friend.” The Brawn driver puts two and two together; even if he was currently drunk, he wasn't stupid.

Sebastian was into you.

“C’mon!” Jenson shouts, grabbing Sebastian’s arm, “I’ll introduce you two.”

Sebastian tried to pull away from Jenson but it was too late. The two of them sitting next to you and Lia, you and Sebastian next to each other. “Hi,” you look over at him.

He smiles, “hi.”

“Y/n, this is Sebastian Vettel. Seb, this is y/n.” Jenson gives you two a quick introduction and he’s off to the dance floor with Lia, the two of them beyond drunk and shouting the lyrics to the song. You and Sebastian sit there for a while, looking around a bit before you end up locking eyes. “So uh, what team do you race for ?” You ask, you didn’t even know this man and Jenson left you with him. “If you do race.”

“I race with RedBull.” He says and you hum, nodding. “So you’re Mark’s teammate?”

“Most people know him as my teammate.”

“Oh, that’s cocky of you to say.”

“It’s true,” he says, flashing you a smile.

You laugh, shaking your head. “Whatever you say, Sebastian.”

The two of you ended up sitting there, chatting for the rest of the night over a half full bottle of tequila. When it finally finished, you went looking for Lia and Jenson.

No surprise that they were outside, making out. “Okay, break it up.” You push Jenson off of her. He rolls his eyes but quickly smiles when he realizes you were with Sebastian.

“Let’s take a picture!” Lia shouts, handing her camera off to some random guy standing outside the club. You get pulled by Lia into her side, Jenson to the left of her and Sebastian to your right with you and her squished in the middle.

“Smile!” The man calls from behind the camera.

All of you are messy, skin sweaty and sticky, there’s a weird orangish glow from the street light, a bunch of smiles and nothing but good memories behind the photo.

“I can’t believe how cocky you were.” You nudged him with your shoulder and Seb rolled his eyes, “I was not cocky!”

“Oh, they know him as my teammate,” you mocked your husband, earning a laugh from him.

Sebastian doesn’t take you on, he knows you get enjoyment out of teasing him. You had always been that way, even when you two had just started dating and kept things pretty low key, you still found ways to tease him.

“Oh my god, look!” You showed him a picture.

Sebastian's hands rested on your butt in the picture, the man holding you up against him with your legs wrapped around his waist and your arms over his shoulders as you kissed him.

It was taken by the Red Bull photographer at the time, just as Seb returned to the garage post championship win.

Abu Dhabi, 2010.

Lia and Jenson were still dating, you often joined her for races but you found yourself sneaking away from them. The nights when they offered for you to join them, you did one of two things.

One, you joined them and headed back to the hotel earlier than they would; or two, you didn’t go at all.

He had you wrapped around his finger and frankly, he was wrapped around yours.

You found yourself spending more and more time with the German driver, hanging out with him after races, the two of you hidden away in a hotel room; away from all the nosy reporters and flashing cameras.

Just the two of you in your little bubble.

Of course, you and Lia sat in the McLaren garage; Jenson and Lewis now teammates and Sebastian still at Red Bull.

It was the final lap of the final race of the season, you were standing next to Lia, her hand in yours as she searched out for Jenson. The two of you followed out the mechanics and pit crew, climbing up on the fence to watch them cross the line.

While they were all looking for the silver and red car, your eyes were fixed on one car; the navy blue car that just crossed the line.

Your heart was pounding out of your chest, the screams and cheers of the RedBull crew just one garage over warmed your heart. Proud didn’t even begin to explain how you felt.

The sound of Lia screaming pulled you back to reality.

Lewis crossed just behind Sebastian and Jenson followed which gave McLaren a double podium alongside the race winner. Lia pulled you down with her to watch the podium, Jenson blew her a kiss when he stepped up onto the podium and you looked over at your best friend, the girl watched her boyfriend like a love sick puppy; it was adorable.

You were almost certain you had the same look on your face. You wiped away the tears you felt on your cheeks when you stared up at Sebastian, the smile on his face whilst the German anthem played was like none other. You were proud, he was proud, the team was proud.

Proud as an understatement.

Sebastian broke records tonight.

He is the world champion.

He’s also now covered in champagne and being hoisted up onto the shoulders of the two McLaren drivers as he does his signature one, have a laugh as he looks out into the thousands of people cheering him on.

Nothing beats that feeling in that moment.

Everyone was making their way back to the garages, attempting to pack up as quickly as possible so the party could begin. Lia had run off to congratulate Jenson, you followed behind her and gave him a quick hug. You stopped and congratulated Lewis as well before you stepped out.

Despite it being nighttime, the heat sticked to your skin as you wandered over to the RedBull garage. You peeked in, the place packed with everyone who worked for them.

“Y/n!” Mark shouts, hugging you when he sees you. “Hi!” You smiled, hugging the Aussie back.

“I know you’re not here for me,” he laughs, an arm over your shoulder before he points towards the middle of the crowd. “He’s over there.”

You smile at Mark, thanking him as you step through the crowd to find the new world champion.

Sebastian’s back was turned to you, race suit hanging off his hips and you can see how his fireproofs were soaked; champagne or sweat? Probably both.

You touched his back softly and he turned, he recognized your touch faster than you expected. "You,” he smiles when he turns to face you. His arms wrapping around you. Sebastian picks you up, your legs wrapping around his waist and the stickiness of his fireproofs cling to your bare legs.

“I’m so proud of you,” you tell him, a hand on his cheek as you smile at the man.

“Thank you,” Sebastian tells you, holding you in the middle of the Red Bull garage like you two were the only two in there. The cameras are constantly flashing and neither of you care, Sebastian’s hands rest on your ass as he holds you against him and you lean into your boyfriend.

He kisses you; it catches you off guard.

Not that he kissed you but that he kissed you there.

Publicly announcing to the world that you two were a thing.

He lets you down, his arms still wrapped around you and yours wrapped around him. “Champion of the world.” You laughed in disbelief.

You were 100% sure in Sebastian and his skills but it felt so unreal.

He nods, smiling. “Champion of the world.” He says, leaning down to kiss you again.

“I never heard the end of it, they teased me all the time.” Sebastian complained and you laughed. “I know, I told them to tease you.”

The man rolls his eyes, something he did often in your presence. Not that either of you took it seriously. You were flipping through a few more pictures from another box while Sebastian re-stacked those into the box they came from when you found another picture.

You show your husband, “I always wondered where that shirt went.” He says, eyeing the RedBull polo you had on in the picture.

“Forget the shirt, do you remember how pissed Britta was?”

Sebastian laughs, “yeah but it was worth it.”

He pulls you into him, kissing you once more. The picture falls beside the two of you onto the floor as he pulls you onto his lap. His hands sliding down to rest on your ass, mimicking the picture on the floor.

Brazil, 2011.

Interagos.

The track where magic happens as you had deemed it.

It's the final race of the season and it’s race day.

Sebastian wanted to head in extra early, he needed to go over race strategies with his team and you were trying to get him to relax. You two are holding hands as you walk in, cameras flashing and people shouting for him as you pass by. Seb has got on his usual red Bull polo and a pair of shorts, sunglasses pushed up in messy hair. You've got on a little black skirt and one of his RedBull polos with his name on the back and number one in the middle.

“Seb, baby. Don’t stress yourself out. Your hair will fall out and you’ll look like an egg, but not even a cute one.” You joked and it fell flat.

Your boyfriend looked worried and you weren’t even sure why. He stopped you in the middle of the paddock, turning to face you. “Do you think I'll win?”

“Sebastian, I know you’ll win. Do you need me to tell you the stats so you stop asking?” You laughed but his eyes met yours and you sigh softly; there’s security in numbers.

“You’re currently at 374 points going into this race. Jenson is behind you with 255 points. Regardless of if you win or if you DNF, you will be world champion this year. Don’t stress yourself out.” Your hand rests on your chest, looking at him.

Sebastian nods, sighing. It’s almost like you can see the tension on his shoulders. “One hundred and nineteen.” You say to him and Seb’s brows furrow.

“119 -- that’s how many points you have over Jenson.”

Your boyfriend smiles, pulling you into him. His hand rests on your ass and you just know the stance is like tossing blood to sharks, you can hear the shouting and feel the cameras flashing behind you. Sebastian kisses you, “thank you.” He mumbles against your lips and pulls you a little closer.

This isn’t the first time they’ve caught you and him like this. You had sorta become the IT couple; that’s what happens when you’re dating the world champion. If the photographers weren’t hassling you two, it was Lewis and Jenson with their girlfriends.

You and Sebastian had become quite the staple couple in the paddock, always together. Not that you clung to him, Seb always hid from press duty by hanging out with you.

He’d stop what he was doing to pass by just to get a kiss from you.

Sebastian was cheesy like that.

The hand on your ass pulls you even close, the skirt hitching up a little too high to be suitable for work. Nothing except for your thigh was exposed but imagine the scandal it would be.

Or it had already become.

You and Sebastian didn’t have a care in the world, he was a shoo in for the championship and he did win that year. Despite his teammate, Mark, winning the race, Sebastian was far enough ahead that he won regardless.

It wasn't until after that Britta caught wind of the scandalous picture going around.

She gave you both a lecture about behaving yourselves in the paddock to which Seb just laughed and you nodded along, trying to listen to the woman but between all the championship press, the picture got lost and all was well in the world.

You get up and Seb’s eyes follow you, “where are you going?” He asks, watching as you sit in front of a storage container you pulled out of the closet.

“I think I still have that shirt, I know I saw it somewhere.”

Digging through the container, you find the shirt and pull it out. You hold it up against yourself. “I don’t think it’ll fit now but I knew I had it.”

Sebastian smiles and you two tumble through a few more boxes on your own. You reach into the container and pull out something that feels like papers. You thought it was more photos you hadn't found albums for but turns out it wasn’t.

In fact, it was a manual for a toaster oven.

“What is that?” Sebastian calls, you toss it over to him.

“A toaster oven?” He reads the pamphlet, flipping through it. “Why do we have this?”

You try to think of how that ended up in the storage container and it finally pops into your head.

Monaco, 2012.

"Where should I put this?” He asks, carrying in a box into the kitchen.

You and Sebastian have just moved into your first place together. It was day 6 of unpacking because you two kept stopping because you were either too lazy and couldn’t be bothered or Sebastian’s wandering hands caused you two to end up in bed.

Sebastian holds up the box to show you, “that’s not mine.” You tell him, brows furrowed.

“It’s not mine either.” He says, “why would I own..” he peeks over the box to read it, “a toaster oven?”

You notice an envelope taped onto the side when Seb puts the box down. You pull it off and open the envelope. There’s a card with a note inside of it.

‘Woman at the store said this was a good thing to get, so enjoy it!

xo, JB and Lia.’

“That’s the most random thing I've ever gotten as a gift. We already have a toaster,” you tell Sebastian, showing him the card.

Sebastian was already tinkering with it, plugging it in as he unwrapped the plastic around it. “How does it work?” He asks you, opening the little door.

“I’d assume it's just a toaster but like.. oven style? I don’t know, let me see.” You check through the box for a pamphlet.

Sebastian doesn’t wait. He sticks a bagel in there and hits 4 different settings whilst you read over the pages of the pamphlet. The toaster oven starts to smoke and the kitchen smells like burnt bread.

“Seb!” You laughed, opening the window whilst fanning the thing. Sebastian unplug the toaster oven and opens the little door. The bagel was now black and hard like a rock.

He holds up the bagel, it clicks in his brain that it’s hot and the circular piece of bread falls to the floor. “Hot!” He flings his hand around and you chuckle, grabbing his hand and blowing on it before kissing it.

“Better?” You ask and the man puckers up, leaning towards you. Rolling your eyes, you give your boyfriend a kiss.

Sebastian smiles, satisfied. “Better, though I don’t think we can eat the bagel.”

“Jense and Lia sent us a toaster oven when we moved into our first place,” you remind him. His mouth forms an O, tossing the manual into another box as you rejoin him by his side. You lean into your husband’s side, his arm comes around to rest over your shoulders.

You were a picture hoarder, you couldn't bring yourself to let go of photos so they all sat in your basement. There had to be thousands of pictures spanning over the last 15 years.

There’s a few stacks of pictures from races and what not, some from his championships and from other races as well. From your vacations to the kids’ first day at school, family trips, random pictures taken throughout the house. Not all of them were taken by you. The photographers always gave you a big stack of pictures at the end of the season so you kept them all. You couldn’t bare to sort through them and get rid of some.

Sebastian was always looking forward but you loved to look back.

There’s one in particular that caught his eye. “I didn’t know you had a copy of this,” he shows you the picture. You had the same one framed in your bedroom; Sebastian was leant over and kissing your stomach, your hand on his cheek and you smiling at him.

Germany, 2013.

Sebastian’s home race, you were beyond nervous. Not like it was any different than before.

His focus was on winning.

It always was.

“Are you okay?” Mark rests a hand on his back when he finds you at the back of the garage. You glance over your shoulder, looking back at the man. “Fine, just nervous.”

“He’ll be fine. Well he won’t be.. when I win.” Mark says and you laugh, “okay Mark, whatever you say.”

Sebastian was walking back into the garage when Mark lets you go, Seb eyeing the two of you for a moment as you walk over. Your boyfriend wraps an arm around you, pulling you against him. He was looking behind you and at Mark and you smack his arm softly, the man looking at you now.

“What?” He asks.

“I have to tell you something.” You whisper to him and Seb pulls you off to the side of the garage, the two of you hidden away by a wall. Sebastian looks at you, “what’s up baby?”

You had to laugh at the phrase, the word making you giggle.

Seb eyes you, “what?”

You blurt it out, there was no other way to say it. “I’m pregnant.”

Sebastian was quiet, your eyes fixed on his face, trying to read for any sort of reaction. Finally he says, “you are?”

You nod, looking at him, still waiting for a reaction. Sebastian picks you up and spins you around, your arms over his shoulders as you laugh, the man putting you down before pulling you into a kiss.

A hand rests on his cheek, “I take it that you’re happy ?”

“So happy.” He says, his forehead rests against yours.

It was still early, you decide to keep it to yourself for the time being. You were only a month along so there was no need to make a big deal yet. “Be careful, okay?” You tell him, kissing him.

“Always.”

You give him a hug, wishing him good luck before he walks off to get ready for his race. You were settling in beside the mechanics when Britta came looking for you. “What’s wrong?” You ask her, she shakes her head.

“Nothing, he’s asking for you.”

You follow her to the grid, your boyfriend already in the car when you got there. You bend down, looking at your boyfriend. “What’s wrong love?”

Sebastian pats the side of his helmet, they were minutes away from lights out and your boyfriend was asking for a kiss. You laugh, leaning over to kiss the side of his helmet where his cheek would be.

There’s a little red kiss mark on the side of his helmet and you pat his head, Seb reaches up and gives your hand a squeeze before letting you go.

You and Britta get back to the garage just in time for lights out. Lewis was on pole with Seb in P2 and Mark in P3. Your fingers were crossed hoping your boyfriend can fight his way into P1 over the course of the 60 laps.

Within the first corner, Sebastian was able to gain the lead and hold it for the entirety of the race, coming across the checkered flag victorious.

Everyone was pushed up against the gate, looking up at the German driver on the podium, the smile on his face shines brighter than the sun; nothing beats winning his home race.

The man winked at you, tipping the champagne bottle in the direction of the team before taking a swing.

Once everyone returned to the garage, your boyfriend found you the moment he got back. You were by the pit wall, talking to Christian when he hugged you from behind, swinging you around. His skin sticky and wet, the race suit soaking the back of your shirt.

“Congratulations, baby.” You smile, turning to face him when he puts you down.

At this point, you two are in the middle of the pit line, his hands resting on your lower back when he leans down and kisses your stomach.

Of course, the photographers around were eating this up. Sebastian kissing your stomach points towards one thing and one thing only; you were expecting.

“Ted said that’s when he knew we were in love.” You tell Seb, looking at the picture.

Sebastian laughs, “he told me the same thing. Said before was puppy love and this was real. Having a kid always makes things real.”

“Oh so we were fake before?” You joked and Seb rolled his eyes, “that was a terrible joke.”

“You’re terrible at jokes, you started telling dad jokes before I was even pregnant!”

“Whatever.”

There’s a few more pictures from that race in the stack, you come across a picture of him waiting in the garage after practice. You studied the pattern on the matte black helmet that sat on top of his head like a mushroom from Mario. The gold ran along the sides and the top, the RedBull insignia stood out against the black and gold in a shimmery red. There’s a single red and black stripe across the top, blended in with the gold to make up the German flag; something Sebastian almost always worked into his helmet designs.

“Do you still have this one?” You ask your husband, showing him the picture.

Sebastian gets up and pulls a few more boxes from the closet you had, opening a few before he pulls out a large dust bag, you see the smile on his face when he peeks into the bag.

He pulls out the black and gold helmet, showing you. “It’s one of my favourites.”

“Mine too.”

Sebastian sets the helmet down on the table, looking back into the box before pulling out something. “Is this yours?” He holds up the blue dress, holding it against himself.

“Looks like it’d fit you.” You smile, earning a chuckle from him. “Yeah, says maternity on the tag.”

You try to think back to when you would have worn that and it pops into your head, making you laugh out loud.

“What?” Your husband looks at you, confused as to why you’re laughing by yourself.

You take a breath, regaining your composure. “We went to headquarters after the last race, when I was pregnant with Meg, remember ?”

Sebastian tosses the dress at you. “You gave me a heart attack that day.”

“Please, I was preparing you for fatherhood.”

England 2013.

Today you were officially 26 weeks pregnant, which was roughly around 6 months. You were under strict orders by your OB that you are not allowed to fly anymore. So the flight back to England would be the last for the next little while.

You had begged your OB to give you the clearance to join Sebastian for the last race of the season and she did; you joined him for the Brazilian Grand Prix and you watched him win his 4th championship.

Nothing made you more proud than seeing him up on the podium.

After the stop in England for a few days, Sebastian would be driving you two to Paris for a few days of relaxation before he drives you two back to Monaco to wait for the birth of your baby girl. It was a seven hour drive to Paris from England and then another nine hours from Paris to Monaco. Your mother-in-law and OB tried to talk you into staying in England and having the baby there but you were dead set on having the baby in Monaco like intended.

Sebastian gave in to you because you had him wrapped around your finger.

He held your hand as you two walked into the building, they were doing a little thing to thank the team and to show off the new trophies they brought home over the season.

“Oh good, you’re here!” Britta calls, walking over.

“Sebastian, you’re needed in the head office. Y/n, come with me.” The woman was already pulling you away from your boyfriend and you glanced over your shoulder at him, he just smiled and waved you off.

The team had put together a little basket for the baby; Well wishes attached to the baby clothing in the basket. Shirts, shorts, sweaters, shoes, hats, all in various sizes and the bull embroidered into all of them with different variations of the RedBull logo.

You thank the team, walking around the building with Britta for a bit as she showed you some of the things in the front foyer. You were drinking some water and a bit of it spilt on the floor when you cracked the bottle open, the water splattered on your dress but you didn’t bother drying it out because it was water, it’d dry itself out.

“Babe!” Sebastian shouts, running towards you and you turn to face the man, confused as to why he looked so full of concern. Christian was right behind him when Sebastian reached for you and you were really confused now.

You glance between the men and Britta, “what?”

“Did you water break? Do we need to go?” Sebastian asks, looking down at the floor and your dress.

You follow his line of sight and put two and two together. “Oh!” You laughed, Britta realized what he was freaked about and started laughing.

“I spilled some water, it’s fine.” You wave him off. Christian peeks out from behind Seb, “so just to be clear, you’re not in labour ?”

“No, I'm not.” You laughed.

“God, both you and Christian were mortified, so worried that you didn’t let me do anything for the rest of the afternoon.”

“We were just worried,” he pushes some of the boxes into the closet again. “It's possible to go into labour that early.” He tells you.

“Possible but unlikely.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes, “that’s why Christian said you aren’t allowed to visit while you’re pregnant anymore.”

You huff, arms folded across your chest as you looked at the man across the room. “I didn’t get pregnant for the rest of your RedBull days though.”

“Surely you remember the next time you got pregnant,” he says, making his way over to you. The twinkle of mischief in his eyes says that he fully well remembers how you ended up pregnant the second time.

“Yeah, whose fault was that?”

Sebastian drops down next to you, pulling you by the chin to look at him. “Mine.”

“Glad you know.”

Hawaii, 2018.

Things were good in terms of the championship. Sebastian was second in the standings going into the break and you knew he needed a break, physically and mentally.

He had a habit of being hard on himself but he was always laughing and smiling, no one ever noticed that something was off. You were his wife, you knew him like the back of your hand. You talked him into taking a little vacation, just the two of you.

Megan was with your parents while you two spent a week in the sun, trying to relax and decompress.

It had been the last three days just rolling around in bed. Since you two have checked in, you've barely left the room to eat, even then it was just going to the door to get the room service. It had been nothing but rolling around in bed, room service and piles of clothes scattered throughout the room; you weren't even sure why you bothered to get dressed at this point.

“C’mon,” you groan, pulling your husband by the arm. “Let’s go to the beach.”

Sebastian sits up, pulling you to him. You’re standing between his legs as you look down at him and you feel his hands on your ass, pinching the exposed flesh. The little green bikini didn’t cover much, not that he minded.

“We only have a few days left, we should do something other than have sex, Sebastian.”

“Why? The sex is great.” He pats your ass, making you roll your eyes.

“Sebastian, c’mon. Just a few hours.” You pull away from him but he grabs your hand, and you’re right back where you were moments ago.

“Once more,” he mumbles against your stomach, kissing up to your chest. Your hand tangled in his short blonde curls as you pulled his head back so you could look at him. “Then we can go.” He says, smiling.

He was so handsome, he knew you were wrapped around his finger.

“Fine,” you sigh, letting him pull you into bed again, his hands making quick work of the strings on your bikini. “Just once more.” You tell him, your tone is serious.

Sebastian nods, “just once more.”

“It’s late,” you say, getting up. “We’ll clean up tomorrow.” Your hand stretches out for his and he gets up, the two of you making your way up the stairs and onto the first floor before making one more check of the house, double checking all the doors and windows are locked.

Sebastian’s voice catches your attention as you head up the stairs towards the bedroom.

“I wish I could’ve done more, with Ferrari.” He says, following you up the stairs and you hum.

You knew your husband’s feelings towards the red team, it broke your heart to think about how they made him feel about himself.

Like he had failed.

“If I had won a championship with them-” “You have four, Seb.” You remind him before he gets the chance to spiral.

“I know,” he sighs, “I had set out to win one with him and I feel like I failed. I should have won.”

“You didn’t fail, Sebastian.” You turn on the step to face your husband, holding his face in your hands. “They failed you if anything.”

The sadness on his face makes you want to light a match and toss it at the factory but you hold back the urge to say the bitter words that come to mind.

“You are a four time world champion, Sebastian. Things don’t always go to plan but you have a legacy, you left behind a mark that will always be there, regardless of how it got there. I will always support you and always love you but don’t you dare, even for a second, think you failed; because you never did.”

Sebastian kisses the palm of your hand, “thank you, for everything.”

“No need to thank me, baby.”

You two make it upstairs and Seb checks on the girls while you head into the bedroom. You were changing when your eyes caught the green frame hung on your bedroom wall.

There’s a collage of pictures in the large green frame from the first official Aston Martin pre season photoshoot.

England, 2020.

You watched as your husband posed for the camera, both you and Britta holding back laughter from how uncomfortable Sebastian looked.

He was sitting on a chair in his race suit, foot propped up on a tyre. “Mrs. V,” the photographer calls, “go and join him.”

You shook your head, “no, no. I’m good.”

“Oh c’mon. I’ll send these to you plus, I've got some time to kill until Lance gets here.” He nods towards Seb and you give in after Britta nudges you off to him.

How ironic that you just so happened to wear a green sundress that morning.

“Where do you want me?” You ask, looking at the photographer. “Uh - try the tyre. If it's uncomfortable, we can move.”

Sebastian moves his foot and you sit on the tyre, fixing your dress before your husband leans in his seat to rest his chin on your shoulder, your hand coming up to rest on his cheek. The two of you are smiling and the camera flashes a few times.

“Give us a kiss!” The photographer shouts and you laugh, Sebastian shakes his head. “Come on! It’ll be cute!” He shouts from behind the camera and Sebastian looks at you, waiting for your go ahead. You smile and he takes it a yes.

He pulls the hat he had on, off before leaning in to kiss you but at the last second, just as his lips meet yours, he holds the hat up and blocks the two of you from the camera.

You can hear the photographer laugh and your eyes meet Seb’s. “I love you.” He whispers. “I love you.” You smile.

Lance and Sara arrive a few moments later and the photographer gets a few group shots. You and Sara lean over your boyfriend and husband’s shoulders, one of the 4 of you standing together, and he even manages to talk Lance and Seb into giving you two their race suits for a photo, posing back to back, Charlie’s angels’ style.

Seb’s hand touches your back as he walks in and you smile at him, joining him in bed. He looks over at you when he gets into bed with you.

“Do you think I did the right thing?” He asks, ever so cryptic.

“What do you mean?”

“Retirement; did I do the right thing?”

Sebastian had announced his retirement the weekend before summer break and you supported him 110%. You knew he had been thinking about it since the end of his Ferrari days.

“You’re the only one that can answer that question.” You tell him and he hums, looking at you. You take that as your chance to go on; “but I know you love this sport. It’s given you so much and you put everything into becoming the driver you are and have always been. You are formidable, my love.”

Sebastian lived and breathed racing. It was in his blood, his DNA; it’s the way he was wired. It meant everything to him and you knew that.

Anything he wanted to do, anything he set his mind to, you stood by him and supported him as much as humanly possible.

The retirement decision was weighing heavy on him. You knew his feelings once he joined Aston Martin. He loved the team, they gave him his happiness back, he was at ease.

Sebastian had always looked towards the future then looking back and unlike you, he knew when it was time to go. The time was now.

He felt like he needed to step aside to make room for other drivers, he had gotten 15 amazing years from racing, and while it was his whole life, life also keeps moving regardless of what you want. There was more than just racing in his life now; he had a wife, kids, a family. They deserved the love and focus he put into racing.

There was more to life, and that he was missing out on you and kids’ lives by being away so much.

Of course he will always be a champion to you, and to millions of people out there.

“It’s time.” He says softly, reaching over to hold your hand. “My life is here.”

You smile, nodding. Sebastian chuckles, his own internal dialogue making him laugh. “Maybe I'll make a comeback in a few years, when I get bored; like Michael or Kimi, or Fernando.”

“Maybe you could take Christian up on that offer to rejoin RedBull hm?” You laughed.

“You'll be the first one I talk to if I do it.” He says, smiling at you.

Nudging him with your shoulder, you say; “the car’s a fricking rocket ship, you’d definitely win number five.”

“Five championships for driver number five does have a nice ring, doesn’t it?”

“It does.” You smile, leaning over to kiss your husband.

----

taglist: @diorleclerc @timetoracewrites @lickmeleclerc @halsteadssneakylink @dragon-of-winterfell @benedictscanvas @elisaa-shelby @hnmaga-blog @czechoslovakiandisco @dr3lover @troybolton14 @Lovingroscoee @compulsiveshit @somanyfandomsbruh @damnyoulifee @barzysreputation @vickyofalltrades @yeolsbubbles @barzysreputation @thybulleric @valkyrie418 @ricsaigaslec @idkiwantchocolatee @sessgjarg @molliemoo3 @bisexual-desi @sunf1owerrq @alwaysclassyeagle

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survivalove · 6 months

Text

Thinking about why I like Kataang so much

so a lot of my posts/asks lately have been about things I dislike so I decided to balance it out by talking about something I actually do like! ofc I immediately thought of kataang and started thing about why i like them so much compared to other couples in media I watched growing up.

first thing is, I don’t actually like romance in visual media. I much prefer it in books but having to actually watch it gives me the ick idk why. also when i first watched atla I was like 5, so the romance really had no appeal to me and I was super focused on katara and the other girls on the show because they were girls! i would completely block out the boys and all the ship scenes for years after that because my attitude to romance never really changed.

right up until I was about 11/12 and became aware of romance from hearing people my age start to talk about crushes, boyfriends/girlfriends, kissing etc. suddenly I had entered this phase in real life where romance was suddenly relevant among my peers and this made me start paying attention when it played out in the shows I was watching like Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, etc. this also included ATLA as my dad and I would rewatch it together on DVD throughout the year.

as I watched with my katara blinders, like I always do, for the first time I started to notice the boys in the show, particularly aang, (yes I finally started focusing on the main character after 6 years 😭) and certain interactions katara had with him that I never noticed before.

*dramatic pause*

and the way I consumed media would never be the same.

jk, but really tho.

fast forward to now, and I’ve recently started watching anime after consuming a bunch of western media my whole life from cartoons and disney shows to contemporary literature and Y/A movies/TV shows. and one thing that stands out to me with kataang compared to most of the romance i see in shonen animes (one of atla’s biggest inspiration as a TV show) is the way katara and aang develop in a way that is realistic, yet too good to be true.

let me elaborate:

starting from the very first episode, katara and aang have that classic meet-cute interaction. the music is playing, their eyes are widening, aang’s acting like he’s never seen a girl before and katara is impressed by literally every single thing he does. this is pretty much how every ship is set up, anime or otherwise, and kanna basically spells out their imminent connection when she sends katara and sokka off and sokka even explicitly says the word boyfriend seconds before that. obviously, these two characters are gonna get together at some point and it’s just a matter of when.

this is where it gets more than that:

the more katara and aang spend time together, the more they start to get on each other’s nerves.

I’m sure everyone’s had a crush at some point, where you see someone for the first time and go “oh they’re so cute” and you feel the butterflies blah blah. you either fantasize about them for a while and move on, or you pursue the crush and start to actively make moves to get to know them better.

and as you get to know them, you notice some things about them that kinda piss you off. the way they pick their nose, the way they bounce their knee, the way they chew. it’s always something. it can even affect friendships because that’s life. we are humans, not concepts. no one is perfect, there is nobody on this planet that you will 100% agree with or like about them. it just doesn’t work like that. and for some relationships, there is that one irritating thing about them that breaks the camel’s back and it doesn’t work out. you learn what annoys you and move on to the next relationship. or you have the lucky ones who actually stay together and the relationship continues to blossom as you get to know each other better.

similarly, kataang in the beginning are completely enamored with the other. until they’re not. throughout season 1, we see katara becoming more and more disillusioned with aang going from “aang’s so brave. he’s the avatar!” to realizing he’s just a boy with insecurities and flaws just like her. some of which get on her nerves BAD. similarly, aang goes from trying to impress katara and going along with every single plan she has, to disagreeing with her and even getting annoyed by her as the seasons go on.

despite this, it doesn’t stop that thing they have for each other from growing and flourishing. that is the magic part. watching two characters fall in love as they continue to annoy and irritate each other more and more. the more katara and aang butt heads throughout the seasons, the more and more unambiguous their romantic interactions become.

aang bluntly telling katara she’s not funny like he didn’t just ask her to dance with him in a candlelit cave in front of dozens of people a few days ago? katara constantly getting annoyed at aang’s antics to turn around and ask him for his opinion on the way she looks or kiss him on the cheek? right.

this is what makes them stand out from other fictional couples I’ve seen, where the girl and guy’s opinion on the other never changes significantly from that first interaction they have. one person, usually the girl because of course, worships the ground our main character walks on, meanwhile he seems to barely notice her apart from that first scene where she looked pretty and his jaw dropped or something. and even if they do interact a lot, their dynamic hardly evolves from that initial setup. they never get upset with each other or at the least, visibly annoyed. their dynamic is static, stagnant, mostly affected by major events in the plot rather than personal characteristics and minor misgivings the characters may have.

there’s no juice. it’s stale. and for me, very unrealistic.

I was watching this video about writing couples in media and one comment stood out to me in particular:

What you said about charm is so true. Entertaining chemistry to watch ≠ chemistry that pairs people together. A lot of sitcoms try to pair opposites romantically or as best friends, because opposites are good for comedy and conflict, but I find myself not understanding why they’re so into each other.

instantly i was reminded of the way people call kataang vanilla/boring, in favor of pairings that are far less similar. and while katara and aang do fight a lot, fundamentally they are very similar which is why they are so believable and realistic. I love watching them slowly become disillusioned with the idealized version of each other they had in the first episode to seeing all the ways they manage to piss each other off, and still being drawn by that initial mutual attraction.

katara learns the hard way that aang isn’t the infallible savior from her grandma’s stories, but she never stops believing in him. aang comes to discover katara’s flaws and conflicting opinions, but he still encourages her belief in hope, affirms her as a waterbender/healer and yes still calls her beautiful every chance he gets.

and what I love about this, is, it gives them reasons to fall in love that go beyond the superficial reasons that drew them towards each other in the first place.

they don’t fall in love with each other in spite of those little minor flaws, but because of them.

katara doesn’t love aang because he’s the avatar. she loves him because he is the goofy fun boy that allowed her to be a kid while taking up this heavy responsibility. aang doesn’t love katara because she’s beautiful. he falls in love witnessing those moments of her being determined, speak up for herself and others, and even going to great lengths to inspire hope in everyone she meets.

#atla #kataang #katara #aang #whoa this is long #my bad #too tired to add pics lol

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astoundingbeyondbelief · 2 months

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Kaiju Week in Review (March 3-9, 2024)

Shin Ultraman took an eternity to reach home video, but Godzilla Minus One will proceed as a more reasonable pace (by Japanese standards). Toho will release roughly one billion different editions on May 1, with Amazon- and Godzilla Store-exclusive physical bonuses both on offer. Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color is included with some of the pricier versions, or you can buy it as a standalone Blu-ray or DVD.

The black-and-white version of Shin Godzilla, SHIN GODZILLA:ORTHOchromatic, also hits Japanese home video on May 1. Like Minus Color, no 4K edition, just Blu-ray and DVD. A handful of new bonus features about ORTHOchromatic are included.

As is standard for Toho, none of these releases will be English-friendly. But given the films' popularity (and the lack of any legal way to watch Minus One since it left theaters), expect bootlegs to circulate at light speed.

Unsurprisingly, Godzilla Minus One cleaned up at the Japanese Academy Awards, with eight victories out of eleven nominations: Picture of the Year, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Sound, Best Art Direction, and Best Lighting. That's one more than Shin Godzilla, and pretty much guarantees that the Toho Godzilla series will keep the prestige pictures coming. Strange times!

We'll see if Minus One can also capture Best Visual Effects at the American Academy Awards tonight. The Creator remains its biggest competition. The Gareth Edwards film is better-positioned by the usual metrics, with a second nomination for Best Sound and five wins at the Visual Effects Society Awards, but the enthusiasm gap for the films themselves may prove decisive. I'll be doing a much lengthier analysis during Wikizilla's Oscar stream tonight, which will start at about 6:00 PM ET, an hour before the ceremony begins.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire tickets may not be on sale yet, but Cinemark theaters have rolled out the above merch (much more efficiently than Target and Walmart have rolled out the toyline, if my local theater's any indication). I have a suspicion those plushies will be worth a mint a few years from now, small as they are; don't know about the other stuff. I bought the larger popcorn tin when I saw Dune: Part Two on Thursday. The promo image is deceptive, as the green area is transparent plastic and the Titan image is on the opposite wall of the tin, so that popcorn's either defying gravity or being held up by a hidden insert. There are Kong and Skar King variants as well, the latter revealing his height (318 feet). Poor Shimo; being the "secret" villain really narrows the amount of merch you get.

The other interesting GxK news this week (apart from the endless TV spot variants, which I'm not even trying to keep track of) is a collaboration with the American Red Cross, of all institutions. Donate blood, platelets, or AB Elite plasma from March 25 to April 7, get a free T-shirt. And for completion's sake, I'll mention the Roblox and Call of Duty cross-promos too.

Chibi Godzilla Raids Again, an unexpected delight last year, is getting a second season starting April 3. The official site revealed that Minilla is joining the cast, while those silhouettes to his right look like Titanosaurus (unjustly neglected in recent years), Gigan, and Gabara. Expect to follow the first season in being uploaded to the GODZILLA OFFICIAL by TOHO YouTube channel with English subtitles.

youtube

Here's another chance to watch Tsuburaya and Toei Animation's Kaiju Decode short, originally released in 2021. (It goes away at the end of the month, because every Japanese studio is apparently hellbent on making short films ephemeral, so download it now.) It's the basis for a recent mixed reality game for the Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest Pro, hence its return to the spotlight.

UniVersus, a collectable card game predicated on pitting characters from various franchises against each other, is going all in on Godzilla after offering a couple of Minus One cards through highly convoluted means last year. They're releasing a couple of Godzilla Challenger Series (preconstructed decks) on June 21, one based around Godzilla and Mothra, the other around King Ghidorah and Rodan, with Mechagodzilla thrown into the mix for both. I've never played this game in my life, but the prospect of a shiny Godzilla card with James Stokoe art is sort of tempting.

#kaiju week in review #godzilla minus one #shin godzilla #home video #oscars #chibi godzilla raids again #godzilla x kong the new empire #king kong #kaiju

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too-antigonish · 2 months

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Hmmm....Which version of Endeavour am I watching?

Cut scenes? Different music? Turns out there are actually up to 4 different versions of every episode of Endeavour!

What are they you ask?

Here you go...

UK Initial Broadcast version: What went out over the airwaves when the episode premiered. In most cases this does not differ from other UK versions of the episode. However, certain pieces of music—such as Dean Martin’s song Sway in the S2E3 episode of the same title—were so expensive to license that the production was only able to afford the original song for that first broadcast. Repeats had to make do with a substitute piece of music composed to replace the original. In the case of Sway, the replacement piece was at least specifically commissioned and written for the episode. It was not purchased as a generic composition from a production music library, which is usually what happen in this situation.

This version is only available if you recorded it at the time or know someone who did.

UK Version (Repeats and DVDs): The UK Repeats and DVDs are the definitive versions. Nothing is cut from the original broadcast and they have the soundtrack from the original broadcast—with a few exceptions, like the one mentioned above.

International Version with Cuts (PBS Masterpiece Theater version, both streaming and some DVDs): This version is what I would consider the “worst” option. First, each episode is cut for length by 5 to 8 minutes so that it will fit into the PBS time slot. Second, this version also uses the international version of the soundtrack. Most of the classical music from the UK version remains the same. However, most of the popular music (i.e. Rolling Stones, Kinks, Velvet Underground, etc.) was too expensive to license internationally and was replaced with generic production music. It’s a standard practice in the industry because music licensing is incredibly complicated and pricey, but it still sucks.

International Full-Length Version (Amazon Streaming, iTunes, etc.): These are at least the complete episode. None of the content is cut. The current exception to this may be S9, which is still only available on Amazon via the PBS streaming service. However, at this point, I’m not sure if PBS made the usual cuts to S9. For all other seasons, however, I know for sure that the version on Amazon is complete. It does, however, have the international and not the UK soundtrack.

Other stuff:

If you are looking to purchase physical DVDs, it’s important to be aware of 1) which version you want and 2) which version you can actually access. Most of the DVDs for sale in the US will only play in US DVD players and most for sale in the UK will only play in UK DVD players. If you want to be able to play DVDs from anywhere, you need to purchase a region-free DVD player.

Even then, however, you need to be careful about which version of the show is on any given DVD set. In the US, at least, it can be very difficult to tell from the packaging or purchasing information whether or not a particular set is the full-length version or the one with cuts. The good news is that most of the DVDs are full-length. The bad news is that there are a few sets that are not and I haven’t gone through one-by-one to identify which ones those are—so just be careful.

As far as I know, the DVDs for sale in the US all have the international soundtrack. If you want to hear the UK soundtrack, you’ll have to get that region-free DVD player and the UK versions.

I think that’s it. If anyone knows of something I’ve missed or if I’ve made any errors, please let me know!

#itv endeavour #endeavour morse #soundtrack #dvds #version control

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textfromthelookout · 2 months

Note

Did you hear of the news?

I have. :(

Everyone else has their tributes so, here, a summary of my experience with Dragon Ball.

I was in fourth grade art class. A kid had the February 2005 issue of Shonen Jump, back when Shonen Jump was still physically printed here. I recognized Atem on the front cover because the Blockbuster around the corner from our house had DVDs (I think they were DVDs and not VHSs then since I distinctly remember it having a menu and special features) of some of the later episodes of Duelist Kingdom and my brother and I watched them on repeat. So I was like oh, hey, what's this? They make books of that stuff? I don't remember the conversation but the kid ended up giving me that issue, and I took it home with me.

There were a LOT of significant, groundwork things happening in that issue, now that I think about it. We were just beginning to see Sanji truly in action against Pearl. The Dark Tournament was in it's early stages still with Roto fucking around and finding out against Kurama. Sakura shears off her hair in a move that rearranged sexualities the world over. The reason Atem was on the cover was because Yu-Gi-Oh Millennium World was just debuting its first and second chapter. Bleach wasn't even serialized yet. And Dragon Ball, of course, was also there, about a hundred and fifty chapters ahead of everybody else.

Keep in mind that this was my first experience with manga, period. So my very first experience with Dragon Ball opened on this:

and ended on this:

Yeah. Truth be told, at the time Yu Yu Hakusho piqued my interest more than Dragon Ball (a guy fighting with plants? how creative!) but I never did forget these chapters. I thought the art style was so different from the others.

At some point after this, probably between several months and a year and a half, the TV happened to be on one evening when Toonami was airing Dragon Ball Z. Oh hey, I said, I recognize that art, I know those characters. So I hung around and watched some of episode 281. Two things about watching that episode stick with absolute crystal clarity in my mind to this day. Firstly: Buu choking Vegeta out with his arm freaked me the FUCK out as a child. I could not tell you why I had a fear reaction to it but hey, there you go. The second is this:

Specifically I remember 'You died once. If anything happens to you now, you won't exist anymore. There'll be nothing I can do to bring you back.' Not precisely word for word over the years, but Schemmel's tone of voice on this particular lineread. If I had to guess I'd say it was because at that point in my life, uh, death was kinda permanent? So wait, what do you mean died ONCE. Doesn't that apply to everyone?

This still wasn't enough to get me super invested in it though, it just didn't seem like something that would appeal to me that much. So a couple years go by, I don't think about it all that much, and then of course, TFS hits the scene and drops DBZ Abridged. So you know. As a shithead middle schooler with a shithead sense of humor I thought it was the best damn thing since sliced bread. (My biggest character flaw is that I still think a lot of Season 1 is genuinely funny)

And that was really the extent of my interaction with the franchise for the next several years. Say what you will about DBZA but they did manage to put it all together such that someone who had a nonexistent concept of what the original context was could grok it with not a lot of effort. Some time in high school, I think I was around 15, I decided to bite the bullet and read all the manga, as much to increase the funny factor of DBZA as sheerly for the sake of being able to say I had. Stick it to the other weebs, y'know. Now they can't say I didn't know anything about good anime. This was unfortunately at a time when all that was available online were dirty poor-quality scans and questionable translations, but read it I did. I went 'yep, that sure is about what I expected', and proceeded to get on with my life. GT came and went, I looked up and saw Battle of Gods coming out and went 'oh hey that's still a thing huh', kinda was peripherally aware of all the divisiveness of Super as it was happening, didn't really pay it much attention, just stuck to DBZA and quite a lot of wiki-ing.

And then, this time of year about three years ago now, in the middle of conversation with @prophecydungeon, Dragon Ball somehow came up. Something to do with 'Even though I'm not hugely into DBZ's story or whatever Toriyama does have some great character designs' (yes I was referring to Vegeta and Future Trunks at the time, no i will not stop being predictable, yes i am a parody of myself). They eventually brought up the DBS Broly movie and said, and i quote: 'that was a solid 1.5h of unbelievably fun and wacky animation'. Having seen the Gogeta vs Broly part of it on twitter and been like 'damn that animation's kinda off the hook actually, good for them good for them', my response was to be like. Oh word? I've got a spare hour and a half to kill, sure, fuck it, why not, time to watch DBS Broly.

I think that movie was precision crafted to hit me in the hyperfixation, if we're being honest. Opening on a solid 20 minutes of Lore and Worldbuilding and then having most of the rest of the runtime being mindless slobberknocker fun by way of some of the hardest animation flexes ever? I was done for.

In summation. I have been aware of Dragon Ball for a lot of my life, in that its presence was pervasive and enduring as I grew up. I may have been late to the game of actually wholeheartedly enjoying it, but enjoy it I do. Dragon Ball is the roots of a vast tree of anime, and in reading it I began to understand why that is. I respect it for that, and I love it for that. My current fixation may have shifted, but as far as time devoted to one individual thing goes... it took me a year and a half to watch my way through all of the anime and read all of the manga. ALL of it. So there's something good in there, I'd say.

#rip to a legend #text from the mod #tangentially related: i am not actually dead #it's just that between school and my job and the pirate brainrot #(the previous four months of which was feverishly consumed with a 16k word project)#i have had neither time nor impetus to make dragon ball funnies #there is also the fact that my stupid autism brain is still fuming over the website changes #that have fucked up the Aesthetique of the text posts and made them much more annoying to get in a usable form #thus adding steps to what was a simple and comfortable process #and aforementioned idiot dumb brain has not stopped pitching a bitch fit over the inconvenience.#i know it's a stupid hangup. believe me i am fully aware. but there is so little i can do about it #so i am sorry about my long absence. i really truly am.#especially to the asks that have been chillin in my inbox for all this time now #it's just that they're interesting questions that deserve me giving 100% of my brainpower to them ya feel #i want to devote appropriate attention to these little funnies and not phone it in or half ass it LOL

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despairingdivas · 3 months

Text

Just a little something I'm putting out there, I have Spy X Family Season 1 Part 1 ln DVD and theres 6 episodes on 1 disc 6 on another and almost every night I put the first one on before bed and fall asleep watching it and when I wake up in the middle of the night I put the second one in and fall back asleep watching that one, it makes me really happy since Spy X Family is my favorite and comfort show and it's just so special to me:)<3

#spy x family #yor forger #loid forger #anya forger #twiyor #spy family #sxf #yuri briar #fiona frost

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frogychu · 1 year

Text

Antirrhinum Ch. 3

ellie x gn!reader

ch. 3 of 4

other parts: 1 / 2 / 4

word count: 2.5k

Hanahaki (花吐き病) ; disease affecting the lungs, proven to be caused by keeping one's true feelings hidden for too long Or Where you and Ellie have been friends for years until she finally slips up, coughing up petals in front of you.

a/n: of course its also posted on AO3 here if u wnna read there instead 🫶 ty for the love and all the reblogs!!

You and Ellie had spent almost all night on your roof, talking and watching the stars. You learned that green was her favourite colour, that her favourite season was fall, plus when and where she got all of her scars.

Much as you liked to hear her talk, she was insistent on asking you things and learning more about you. Her eyes would light up as she listened to you rant about something you liked or anything that was bothering you.

At one point, you figured that if you were really going to let your guard down around her, she would have to learn something crucial. “I have something else to tell you.”

She shoots you a look of genuine worry. “What's up?”

“I watched Curtis and Viper the other day.”

You watch as her soft expression quickly turns into a shit-eating grin. “Yeah? Without me and everything? I'm impressed, did you even like it?”

“Yeah, I did,” you twiddled with your hands, “I mean, now I'll have to watch the second one.”

Honestly, you wanted to watch it with Ellie, you wanted her to pick up on your hints at least a little. Who knew if she even liked you back, it wasn't really asking her out on a date, you just wanted to spend time with her.

You both cut each other off trying to speak.

“Did you want-”

“I was wonder-”

Ellie panicked. “Fuck, sorry, go ahead.”

“No, no, it's fine! What did you want to tell me?” You answer, trying to be polite.

“Uh,” you can tell she's nervous by the way she plays with her hands, “You could come over and watch the second movie. With me I mean.”

Your eyes lit up at her advance. “Yeah, that’d be fun, when were you thinking?”

“I was thinking like, maybe now? This is nice but it's fucking freezing.”

You nod your head. “Yup agreed.”

She gets up and pats the snow off of her pants and extends her hand to help you up. You can't help but feel your face get flush while you hold her calloused hand; somehow it's still warm despite her complaining about the cold.

You both get down from the roof safely and she walks you back to her garage, still holding onto your hand as you made your way over. You immediately warm up once you get through the door, her fireplace roaring in the corner.

Her small house is still exactly the same as a few hours ago, blunt still put out in the ashtray from earlier. You couldn't help but wince as you remember your argument from earlier, even if you've already made up.

Ellie motions for you to sit on her bed and crouches in front of her TV, trying to find the DVD on her shelves. You sit at the edge of her bed nervously, legs and hands stuck together, scared to take up too much space in the room. Even if you two were closer now, you couldn't help but still feel a little awkward.

She takes out a movie from her shelf after a while of rummaging and looks at your awkward posture. “I'm not gonna bite you know.”

“Oh, sorry.” You answered, as you moved back to lay on the bed more comfortably, your back resting on the headboard. She quickly joins you in bed after setting up her tv and sits beside you, leaving about a foot between the two of you.

Awkward.

The two of you watch the movie mostly in silence. Sometimes you'll give an offhand comment about something that happened, or Ellie will try to make you laugh with a stupid joke, but most of it was just the two of you sitting stiffly beside each other.

About halfway through the film, you notice your movie-watching partner slowly start to nod off, eyes droopy and head having a hard time staying upright. She eventually gives in and lets her head droop onto your shoulder, causing you to jump.

You sat there, not daring to wake her up; she looked too peaceful. Besides, she has had quite the day so you decided to let her rest, even if by this point the movie was over and it was just the blue screen of the TV keeping you company.

Eventually, you couldn't help but be lulled to sleep by her presence. Her soft snores and warm body, now clung onto you from her lack of awareness, force you to fall asleep with her by your side.

You jolt awake from strange sounds coming from the bathroom. Somehow you had made it under the blankets, and Ellie was no longer beside you. You start to get worried as you deduce that the weird sound was loud hacking and wheezing, and it was definitely her making those sounds.

Before you had the chance to knock on the door to make sure she was okay, the door opens slowly and you pretend to still be asleep. The bed creeks and you feel it sink in on her side as she sits on the edge for a while. She lets out a shaky breath before getting back into bed with you, pulling herself into the crook of your neck, and wrapping her arms around your waist.

Faint sobs fill the silence of the room as she cries into you, feeling the hot tears on your neck. You don't know what's wrong, you wish you could help but you don't know how, she won't tell you. So, you sit there, letting her get it all out before she falls back asleep, without her knowing that you're here for her.

You don't know if it would make it better or worse.

Oddly enough, you have a dream while you're asleep.

It's about the first time you and Ellie had ever met.

You're back as your 16-year-old self, just getting used to living in Jackson. Though your body isn't your own, you're still able to think your own thoughts. This particular vision is of you moving into your house, slowly unpacking the contents of your frayed backpack with the very few items you owned, making you feel appreciative of the things you have now.

Then, the time jumps; you’re with Maria. She’s telling you about all of the possible jobs available for you to do. You had chosen gardening to start, before moving on to patrol. Your heart feels full and warm as you reminisce on your gardener days, hands always dirty trying to make a nice patch of flowers nearby, even if you weren't really supposed to.

Snapdragons, or Antirrhinums, a wildflower native to the surrounding area. Even if they were everywhere, it felt nice to take care of some of your own, they smelled nice and were easy to take care of.

As soon as you blink, your hands are out of the soil, a knife in hand instead. It was your first patrol with Ellie, you had never talked to each other beforehand. The sun is warm on your skin, making you miss spring. Ellie was easy to talk to, you immediately felt comfortable around her and you were glad to finally talk to someone your age other than Jesse.

Maria had given you an easy patrol route to start you off, passing through a lot of scenery to help you get used to this line of work. She had thoroughly explained to you the route and even showed you a map, so when Ellie decided to stray off the path to show you something, you were afraid.

That is until you got to where she wanted to go, looking out into a field of flowers.

Antirrhinums scattered through an opening of trees, dense and lush with all of their different colours. You can see Ellie behind you smiling at you softly, proud of her find, saying she noticed how you liked growing them. The amount was definitely exaggerated, but you knew that it was because your brain liked the memory. A time before the fighting started, when you were simply happy to gain a new friend who cared about you.

It was serene.

For the first time in a while, you wake up peacefully, Ellie in your arms and soft light coming through the window warming your face.

Up until you remembered you both had morning patrol. Although this time, it wasn't a race, it wasn't a battle, there were no arguments; simply the rush of getting there on time.

You wake Ellie up quickly, nudging her a little hard until her eyes open, and hastily tell her that you were both going to be late for work. She wasted no time getting up, not acknowledging the fact that you were both sleeping together, and got ready.

You grab your coat and sprint to your house for your backpack, not even bothering to change clothes while you were there.

Ellie greets you at the door as you leave, startling you a little.

“You ready?” She asks.

“Yup, yes, let's just go.” You reply, hurriedly making your way over to her.

She wasted no time running out into the street, you quickly followed behind, until you ran into the crowd of people already working in town. Neither of you think anything of it as you interlock hands, weaving through everyone in your way.

You're pretty fond of all of this physical touch that's been happening between the two of you; whatever the meaning behind it was you’re just glad she's getting comfortable around you. Once you get to the stables, Jesse looks at the two of you holding hands with a puzzled look. Ellie notices and lets go, slapping her hand against her thigh very loudly.

“El, can I talk to you for a sec,” he turns to look at you, “privately.”

She clears her throat. “Yeah, sure”

They talk for a while. Who knows what they're even talking about, it couldn't possibly be because you were late, he would have scolded you both and move on. To make matters worse, they keep shooting glances at you, which only makes you look at the ground and play with your hands as to avoid their gaze.

After what feels like forever they part ways and Ellie walks back over to you with your gun in hand. “Here,” she hands you your gun and brushes past you to grab Shimmer. “Jesse just said we're doing the upper neighbourhood trails.”

He could've just said that to both of us.

‘Oh, ok.” You answered a little dryly.

Something was totally up, but none of the pieces were connecting together. It was bothering you, gears constantly turning in your head over what your patrol partner could possibly be hiding from you.

Ellie brings out your horse and hops on, extending her hand with added flare to help you up. “My liege.”

“How chivalrous!” You laughed.

She shrugs, “I felt like being nice.”

You hold onto her tightly as you set on course for patrol yet again.

There's light conversations happening during the route. Ellie asks you if you enjoyed the movie last night and you say yes despite not being able to recall any of it. Even if your crush on her was still very new, she clouded your mind simply by being around you. Even now as your arms are wrapped around her, you can't help but think of how it felt to lay together, bodies intertwined.

Though the moment was bittersweet since she had cried for god knows how long. You didn't want her to be upset anymore, you can't stand it. You're thinking of bringing it up.

You want her to feel safe around you and talk to you about these things.

“So…” you nudge her side, trying to get her attention.

“Hm?”

“Do you want to tell me what's up with you? First, you're skipping out on patrol, then you're all weird and sick, even Jesse has been super weird with me lately. You promised you'd tell me why you skipped out anyway.”

“Can we maybe not talk about this while we're on patrol? Besides, we're here.”

There are a few houses and a gas station, but it's quiet. There probably aren’t even any infected in any of these buildings but, it's your job to check anyway. She was probably just trying to deflect from the conversation.

Typical.

“Alright, fine.” You give in anyway and hop off of the horse.

You tie up Shimmer on a tree and quickly follow Ellie across the street to the gas station.

“You do the house, I'll take care of this place.” She orders you.

“Shouldn't we go in together? You know, teamwork?”

“We’ll be fine, besides we both have our guns, just in case.”

“Okay, fine.” You relented and made your way over to the small house besides the gas station.

It was quiet, but you were still cautious when you opened the front door. The exploration was short since the house was so small, and just as you thought, there was no infected inside.

Ready to call this an easy win, you made your way out of the house with a little pep in your step, until-

Pow, pow.

Gunshots.

You felt the world go in slow motion as your mind suddenly clouded with adrenaline, sprinting towards the nearby building as if your life depended on it. Your whole body trembling with fear as you pulled out your gun and held it in front of you as you swung the door open at full force.

There were two runners still alive in the building, one coming towards you as soon as you came in, you wasted no time shooting it down. You quickly shot the other one coming for Ellie, finding herself helpless against the wall.

Only sounds of gurgling infected and your ragged heavy breathing filled the silence until reality hit you.

“Ellie!” You ran to be by her side, worriedly checking her body for injury, “Are you bit? What the hell happened?” Her head was still facing away from you, she didn't speak for a while, “Ellie? Look at me, say something please!”

You forcefully grab her cheeks and turn her to make her look at you. Her face is full of blood and-

Petals.

Tears start streaming down your face, mouth agape as you stare at each other. You're unsure of what to say, words are too much and not enough all at the same time. She leans her head back onto the wall as you let go of her face, tears pooling in the corner of her eyes.

Hanahaki. You swore that sometimes it didn't even feel like a real thing. You understood even less why anyone would hold back their feelings for that long, it was so easy to avoid if you were honest with whoever you loved.

But, as you stared at the petals for longer, even studying a fully intact small bud, everything started to come together. You would recognize those flowers anywhere.

Fucking Snapdragons.

a/n: r u screaming crying throwing up yet anyways the part after this one im guessing will be the last one!! ty for all of the love on this fic🫶🫶

tags: @champagnelovers101 @florenceisacoolname @cherriesnwatermelons @sufloerfs @sawaagyapong @kayler-23 @ciaireredfleid @boosaye @kyootsies @intrnetdoll @zoddiachead @blairfox04 @roarriita @prrimordiais @addisonnie @sparkleswonderland @minustwofingers @trilogyss

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