#she is old and has an aura of a grandma

[boiohboii]

The Tattoo Sleeve (Neymar Jr. Soulmate au)

Chapter 1

Prologue

I am currently sleep deprived, so I am really sorry for any mistakes.

I hope you enjoy, and please let me know what you think!

Warning: curse words

Taglist: @itzz-me-duh

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"I need something to cheer me up that doesn't come from a vending machine," y/n took a seat beside the young children "you got any ideas?"

Three pairs of confused brown eyes looked to their left, seeing a white coat before tilting their heads up to see an unfamiliar face. Anyone passing could feel the peculiar atmosphere; the young lady having a relaxing aura while the three boys looked uncertain of the question itself, much less how to answer.

"Don't worry," reassured y/n "I am a doctor here, my name is y/n."

With a look to each other, the three decided to trust the long piece of clothing along with the card hanging on her neck, and introduced themselves.

"Thiago"

"Davi"

"Mateo"

"You boys have such nice names." Cooed y/n.

"Thank you."

"We are not babies!"

"Don't talk to an adult like that! Papa and Mama told us to be nice."

The two brunet boys reminded her of tom & Jerry in that moment, they were currently arguing about whether to be polite or to not trust strangers. Both rules taught to them by their parents, and both were correct - well, some would argue about always being polite rule, but that's not the current issue.

"A hug." A timid reply came as the blonde boy admired his swinging feet.

"Well, who's the lucky person that you hug?"

"Papa and mama," Lucca smiled. "My grandma too! She gives the best hugs!"

Y/n smiled at the small boy's enthusiasm as he talked about everyone that has hugged him with a wide grin on his face.

"What about me?!" Exclaimed Thiago. "I hug you too!"

"Yeah, but you're shorter than me!"

"Hey! My brother isn't short! He is big and strong!"

A laugh escaped y/n as she watched the three boys argue over the fact that a person is short doesn't mean they aren't strong. Oh they are so cute! I want to squish their cheeks so bad!

Going through her pockets, y/n searched for a few candies to give to the boys as a thank you for cheering her up, she always loved talking to kids they had the most genuine and entertaining conversations, especially with each other. However, as she was digging around she felt a smooth, slightly wet smudge on her fingertips, no no, please god I don't want to stay in a small cubicle for 10 minutes to reapply anything!

Looking at her wrist, the concealer's tone was bright and clear against the white sleeve margins, y/n groaned and rolled her head backwards.

"Miss, are you okay?"

Came a small voice, making y/n realise that the three boys have stopped their back and forth and watched her intently, not sure if they should move away in case she wanted to rest; Davi remembered his mother telling him of how hard doctors work and study to be able to help him, or if she was hurt and they should call someone.

"Ahh yes," y/n smiled reassuringly. "Just my coat got a bit dirty and I have to go change."

She wasn't about to tell them that her connection to her soulmate was writing on skin, and that her soulmate was obsessed so she had to wake up nearly before all and any gathering or meeting or work appointment by 3 hours to cover up tattoos that her soulmate placed on his skin with no consideration of the consequences that will occur to her nor her request at 23 years old asking him to please, stop.

Yes, she was and still is bitter about it, she can hold a grudge. (She, in fact, can not hold a grudge for more than 2 hours.)

"Is that a tattoo?" Mateo frowned with knitted eyebrows as he tried to get a better look at the drawings under her sleeves.

Wide eyes and a stumped smile on her face, y/n nodded, wondering how such a young boy knows what tattoos are. Well, there is internet everywhere. However, unlike her thoughts, the little boy had recently been obsessed with his father's right arm, looking at the black ink with the occasional question.

"Papa has that!" Raved Thiago as he looked at his brother and friend with shinning eyes and a wide smile. He had rarely seen any women with tattoos, only a few and he has no idea why, but it was something new to him and it made him want to sit with the doctor for much longer.

"Yes! Uncle Leo and papa have tattoos!" Gushed the blonde boy with his friends before asking y/n if there was more.

Not seeing any harm in showing three little boys the small uncovered part of her uncontrolled tattoo sleeve, she lifted a bit of her coat, just a layer really. And as soon as she had done so, the only blonde gasped as his eyes widened, freezing in place.

He looked familiar, very oddly familiar, and she knew that, she knew that she saw him before, she saw him nearly everyday in black ink on her forearm. She was desperate for the thought in her head to be wrong, to just be her mind playing tricks on her or for her to just currently be going through a romantic drought that she is making things up.

But, she was so, very wrong.

"That looks like papa's!" Davi exclaimed as soon as y/n showed her arm.

Well, holy shit. I am not insane. I'm right!

Oh. I 'm right.

Chapter 2

#lionel messi #neymar #neymar imagines #neymar jr x reader #neymar jr #neymar x reader #neymajr #neymarjr #neymar x y/n #neymar fluff #neymar angst #brazil #football soulmate reader #football imagine #football x reader #neymar soulmate #neymar soulmate fic #neymar x soulmate reader #neymar x oc

[forthegothicheroine]

Best Fragrantica reviews of (some of) my favorite perfumes, Part II

First installment here

Maison Martin Margiela By the Fireplace

Careful not to be worn by this perfume instead of being you the wearer. Not that it is oh so powerful, but it may be too bold of a statement piece for, ahem, some. Wearing BTF when you don't look the part and don't give it sense will have you smelling borderline unhealthy. Like your organs inside have worn off and darkened (and burned out, I guess). Truly as weird as it sounds. The raw thing smells very exciting. I love it ashy. I don't see myself daring any soon, however. And I don't find that it worked for the men I know either, as they have (and I cringe to say) whiter auras and don't fit the "handling cognac by the fire" thing. So I've yet to see it really work, which I'm sure will be great. It's a lovely perfume.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Bewitched

This is the smell of a witch's brew. She made a special tea for you to drink. You pass out. When you awaken you find yourself in her garden full of poisonous berries, patchouli, weeds, clary sage, and flowers whose petals have been plucked. This is an herbal scent, like walking inside a shop selling only herbs. It's medicinal and like a tea. Not always easy to take in...The smell of sage and musk give it a unisex/masculine quality. I would say that it's more of a guy's type of cologne than a woman's. I would wear it for Halloween with a witch costume or as Morticia Addams. It's really a very engaging scent but it's linear and simple. It's a little green tea and berry. It's got a bite but it's witchy and dark, but not a strong cologne either. For a niche indie frag, not bad.

TokyoMilk Gin & Rosewater

I was in a boutique that carries the Tokyo Milk Curiosite & Bon Bon lines, and I was entranced by this. Florals are not usually my thing, by the way, because I get monster headaches from most of them. Suddenly the salesgirl is RIGHT NEXT TO ME leaning in conspiratorially and says in an awed tone that 'Blake Lively LOVES this one'. OMFG, Blake Lively, you say??!? Like for serious, the real Blake Lively?? OMFG, do you have like, more in the back?!? I'm totally going to buy every bottle you can shove in my basket because BLAKE LIVELY would hang out with me if we ran into each other and then my life could end. Um, not. I almost DIDN'T buy it because of the salesgirls then going into a tizzy about how amazing Blake is. I could not care less, although I'm sure Lively is nice enough. But it did smell cool, so home with me it came, along with the matching lotion.

Serge Lutens La Fille de Berlin

It’s an overwhelming fragrance that smells like the bottom of my grandma’s small square leather purse when we went to mass (her old dried up lipstick💄 the powder compact, the newspaper, the pack of strawberry-ish scented kleenex, the peppermints). It’s vintage, it’s a bit suffocating and I have it printed in my memory 4 ever.

Juliette Has a Gun Magnolia Bliss

Anastasia Steele, no longer a virgin. In her Audi A3, the smell of her new car, first edition books and a new life... That's what comes into mind with this perfume. The night Christian took her for the first time on his helicopter. I can imagine this is exactly what she smelled like that night. With Ellie Goulding's Love me like you do playing in the background. 

Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge 540

I’m too embarrassed and ashamed to wear this in public just in case a fragrantica influencer comes out of a bush and starts pointing & laughing at me in front of everyone

Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille

what all the hot daddies in every lana del rey song smell like

Jo Malone Velvet Rose & Oud

If your family was religious, traditionally Asian, or both, you'll know this scent. This is the scent of a temple. This is the scent of an altar. Personally I can never wear this because smelling this brings back so many memories of burning incenses, visiting funerals, and saying prayers and wishes. My bottle is literally sitting on an altar.

Perfumer's Workshop Tea Rose

Speaking of the devil. This scent is the one with the Prada's shoes.

4160 Tuesdays Doe in the Snow

This is borne on a Christmas Eve, under the moonlight, a baby fawn just out of it's mother's womb. The moon is full light casting blue shadows snow lightly falling delicate flakes each one unique on the nose of the new born... Pure fresh Christmas morning air stillness not a sound blanketed with drifts of snow that is Doe In The Snow... pure white innocence...velvet petals so delicate under the driven snow...I have seen this in a dream... Another love... I get it...

#perfume

[kingwuko]

Do you think Wu and toph would become friends ? I want him to collect all the old ladies and have tea with them

UH Wu and Toph are ALREADY friends you can't convince me otherwise. Toph for sure likes Wu. in like. a Toph way, you know?? She's like 'this twink is alright in my book'. She let him hug her she totally could have stopped him but she didn't!!! It's the badgermole whisperer radar.

Collecting all the old ladies 🤣🤣🤣 I'm trying to picture Wu hosting Yin, Toph, Katara and I'm really not sure how it would go lmao. Mostly because Toph is... toph and Yin is like, obsessed with Wu so Toph would be herself and say something that could be interpreted as rude or insulting and Yin would be scandalized that toph would be so brazen to the King.

I need Wu to meet Katara now, actually. I think she would really like him. He's kind of got that upbeat positive silliness that might remind her of Aang or Sokka.

I think old ladies and maternal types are drawn to Wu because he just has this aura of a guy who didn't have a loving female/maternal influence in his life, from being raised by Hou-Ting. Moms and grandmas can't resist the urge to dote on him because of it.

I think Toph and Wu should actually have tea with some badgemoles instead of other old ladies, now that I think of it.

#wuko #mako #prince wu #king wu #answered ask #anonymous

[jadeylovesmarvelxo]

Under Your Spell 💫🎃🍁 🔮

Eddie meets the new librarian, who he discovers is a witch. They find comfort in one another that turns to love.

Not sure how many parts this will be but this is just the first meeting. 💞

I don't give anyone permission to copy my work 💞

Librarian, witch reader x Eddie Munson

💞❤

Yn had recently moved to Hawkins, for the last three months it had been her home and she was working in the newly built library.

Being surrounded by books was her favourite thing in the world and she loved the simplicity of being able to curl up in a comfy armchair, near a cosy fireplace and lose herself in one of her favourite works.

When her family first moved here she thought it was just a simple town, nothing exciting until she began to pick up the energy around the town.

She was the third witch in her family descended from her great-great-grandma and had been developing her powers since she turned sixteen with help from her grandma and mother.

One of her abilities was that she could sense the auras of people, places and Hawkins was a vivid orange that for a long time used to be blood red.

Death, decay then the blossoming of hope was felt around the town, she didn't know what had happened but it was big and it left its mark on the town.

She shakes the thoughts away and carries on with her task of cataloguing each book losing herself in the task, once she's done she plans to sort out the fantasy shelf as a lot of people have put other books on the shelf.

Then she's going to have a cup of tea and finish reading the grimoire that her grandmother passed down to her.

She read a lot of grimoires, loving learning about new ways to use her magic.

The library door opens and she peers up noticing that the cute guy who always heads to the fantasy section has come in again.

He spent a lot of time in here, he was always the last to leave and she knew his name was Eddie. There was sadness surrounding him and his aura was hard to pin down.

He made her heart skip a beat whenever he looked her way and she wanted to get to know him better.

💞

Eddie had been coming to the library for months now. He loved being here when he needed to quieten his mind.

Uncle Wayne and Henderson were great, they helped him after he survived the demo bat attack.

Nightmares plagued him most nights and he would wake up crying, picturing the way Chrissy's body was broken, her bones snapping. He shivers.

Sometimes he dreams that the bats killed him, that he was left in the Upside Down, and that Dustin and Steve didn't come back for him.

No matter how many times he told himself that Vecna was gone, that El closed the Upside Down for good, it still didn't help.

He would still have panic attacks from time to time and it was hard to get past some of them, he spent a lot of time strumming on his guitar, thinking up D&D campaigns and then coming to the library.

He loved the solitude here, finding a comfy armchair and reading for hours, working his way through the fantasy section.

Today he was craving some old favourites and wanted to read some J R.R Tolkien.

First, he would start with The Hobbit, then read The Lord of the Rings trilogy. He catches the eye of the librarian, she was eighteen he overheard her say to Joyce Byers, quiet, shy, beautiful...

He sighs, there's no way he could talk to her and get her involved in his shit. She knew nothing about the Upside Down so how could he even begin to explain what had happened?

💞

Once her shift is over she picks up the grimoire and finds the cosiest armchairs which are at the back of the library.

Eddie is sitting on one of the armchairs, lost in Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the ring. She admires him for a second, watching the way his eyes scan over the pages and he mouths the words, the paragraphs that he knows best.

He looks up, doe brown eyes softening as he notices she's watching him.

"Hi, sorry. You just looked so relaxed. I didn't mean to interrupt" or stare like an idiot she says in her head.

"It's alright sweetheart. I'm Eddie" he offers her his free hand that isn't clutching the book and she takes it feeling all tingly and his gaze widens.

"I'm yn" this is the longest conversation that they have had and she feels her heart race.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" He nods and she settles in the chair opposite him.

She's itching to do her usual routine, light a few candles with just a flick of her hand, make some chamomile tea, and read up on some new spells that she wanted to learn.

Her favourite spells involved nature, she loved doing spells involving flowers, different plants, etc.

The newest magic she had been experimenting with involved potions.

"What are you reading?", Eddie asks her and he leans over quirking an eyebrow.

"Grimoire? Uh is that like witches? Spells?" he asks softly looking very curious and she is surprised by how relaxed she feels with him.

"Yeah, it's my grandmother's, it's been passed down from generation to generation" he looks even more intrigued now.

"Can you do magic for real?" he asks her excited and she giggles and conjures butterflies and an array of flowers.

He gapes.

"Jesus H Christ, I've seen some things in my life but I've never met a real witch, that's so fucking badass sweetheart"

She smiles at his reaction, she's had some bad reactions from people before when she tried to broach the subject and they just didn't understand or think she was joking.

"Some people think it's freaky, called me a freak, you don't even know me but you've been so sweet".

He places his book down.

"I know the feeling, been called a freak for most of my life" her heart aches as he says this because she barely knows him but she can tell how kind he is, there's a loneliness to him though, something she recognises in herself too, kindred spirits.

"I don't think you're a freak," she tells him and he offers her a sweet smile, showing off his cute dimples.

"I should get back home, my uncle Wayne will be wondering where I am, it's been really nice talking to you sweetheart" he picks up the book and she stands up wanting to bid him goodbye, kinda wishing that he could stay.

"Until next time milady" next time? There will be a next time? Her heart skips a beat as he takes her hand and kisses it gently.

She sees him out and he turns back to her before he gets in his van.

"Good night, beautiful" a giddy feeling envelops her and she wishes him goodnight, as soon as he has driven off and she has locked up she lets out a squeal that startles her cat Mr Pickles and she collapses on the armchair wondering if this feeling is what its like to fall for someone.

💫💫💫💫

Likes or reblogs, etc are always appreciated 💞

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x witch!reader

[rhythmic-idealist]

Have I posted about Rika Lives AU? Thinking so much about Rika Lives AU.

Gojo shows up after something dramatic happens with Rika. Both of her parents have mysteriously died in her company—maybe it's finally her grandmother, this time. Or maybe it's something else. Yuuta had just walked her home, after their usual long back and forth over "now I'll walk you home" "but we just walked you home!" "and who will walk with you?" "Rikaaaaaa, your grandma will be mad if you're late" - and after dallying a block away from home with about twenty minutes of this, she'd kissed his cheek and he'd tenderly kissed the top of her hair like it's the most delicate task he's ever had, like at this routine parting he's really, seriously worried about whether they're going to see each other tomorrow.

And then there's Rika in the rubble of her grandmother's death, and there's Yuuta, winded, sprinting back because he heard a noise.

And Rika cries on him, a little panicked, a little bloodied, I don't know what happened, Yuuta, do we have to call the police right now, can I sleep at your house tonight— and a voice that doesn't sound at all sorry for interrupting apologizes for interrupting.

It's a tall blindfolded man. Both jump, though Yuuta yelps and jumps harder, before placing himself immediately in front of her, shaking on his little twig legs.

Satoru Gojo explains the sorcery that has just gone down here. He also explains what happens to kids who have a rough time controlling it, but that's not fair, right? Good news is there's a school where no hair-triggered old men have any say-so over the students inside. Does she want in? It's... prooooobably the better option.

Yuuta stands his ground and reaches behind himself to take her hand. Then he turns to face her, because he wants to say it really does sound like it might be a good idea, Rika. I'll go with you. (His voice hardens on that last bit, and he casts a look back over his shoulder at Tall And Blonde.)

Satoru Gojo goes haha oh man yeah you're definitely going with her. Hey Rika out of curiosity. Can you see that? (Gestures in a vague, wide circle around Yuuta's, like... aura.) ...No? Interesting.

So they're off to Jujutsu Tech.

It's better that they're together.

It's better that Yuuta is there, that that isn't changing. Somehow, it's weird for Yuuta to be there during the bad. He's proven himself more than willing to be there during the bad. He goes and negotiates with his parents every time Rika wants to spend the night, even though she's starting to get too old for it to seem innocent even if she's sleeping in the living room (when she is, they usually both are—falling asleep on the couch, Yuuta usually slumping against her and drooling first. He scrambles apart in the morning and tells her she should have woken him, what if his parents came out?). It's better that they're together—that Rika happens to her family again and well, this time, there's no one left of them to decide if they're still willing to tolerate their child, but Yuuta still wants her. They're still a duo.

Cursed spirits—she's learned that they're called—never bothered them when Yuuta was around, so yes she'd assumed he was a little special too, but she didn't really assume it was in the same way. She clung to him because he is Yuuta, because she loves him and he loves her, and the only thing they need is each other. But she did dally on going away from him because the cursed spirits that hate her seem to leave him alone. She didn't know he was in on that world. He wasn't; he says he hasn't seen one before. Gojo thinks this is because they're scared of him. That's funny to both Yuuta and Rika, admittedly.

It's better that they're together. It's better that Yuuta would have come along whether he was a sorcerer or not, probably would have fistfought that creepy guy if he'd had to, and Yuuta has never been in a fistfight.

It's weird for Yuuta to be let in on her one big secret from him.

#jjk #jujutsu kaisen #rika orimoto #yuuta okkotsu

[caernys]

car jacking and other crimes

relationship: derek hale x stiles stilinski, romantic pairing (part one— kmart grandmas)

summary: derek’s life is hard, okay? it’s more difficult than it looks. especially when a hot er tech tries to coerce him into stealing his own car.

notes: also posted on my AO3 account, kitkat_katsuki

Look, it’s annoying when people say it, and he knows it’s annoying; but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a little bit of truth to it. Derek’s just going to say it. Good looks are a pain, okay? They’re insufferable. They cause problems at every turn and you can’t go anywhere without middle aged women objectifying you in filthy, filthy ways. (It’s a sad bit of truth that the most action he’s gotten recently was a 53 year old kindergarten teacher calling him a “hot chunk of ass” at the downtown K-Mart.)

His good looks are a special breed of annoying, though, seeming to solely attract complete psychopaths. There was that whole mess with Kate, where she tried to burn his fucking house down, and then Jennifer, and then Jeremy, which was a whole other thing. Laura calls him romantically cursed. He calls Laura stupid, but it’s not like she’s actually wrong.

It’s also horrible for going under the radar in any way whatsoever. He just doesn’t like talking with strangers, okay, and having every single one turn around and point at him when he’s walked past isn’t exactly likable either. And putting on a baseball cap and a mask just makes him look like some jerk-ass C-list actor who had his  Daddy pay for acting school, so.

It’s a lose-lose.

There’s also this weird thing with teenagers asking him out, hoping to live out some weird dating-an-older-guy thing, he guesses? It’s creepy, is what it is, and Derek is not trying to go to prison. He’s too emotionally unpredictable and picky for life behind bars. (He doubts prison guards have an average of 45 minutes a week to listen to their 27 year old son moan about being forever lonely. Truly, his mother has a gift.)

But, anyway, when the skinny looking kid approaches him, he supposes it’s another one of those deranged teenagers. It’s not a difficult assumption, going off of his superhero t-shirt and worn flannel. He also just has that general annoying aura that Derek usually associates with them. Like tragedy is about to strike at any given moment and all the peanut butter cookies are gone.

Then again, that’s kind of the vibe that he gives off, so maybe he can’t judge.

The guy’s moving alarmingly close, though, quickly moving past hey-let-me-go-get-a-better-look to hey-let-me-go-interact and Derek does not like that development. He tries to veer subtly to the left and pulls his leather jacket slightly tighter around himself. The kid is not deterred. Damn.

He whirls around and flails slightly when a hand lands on his shoulder. The nerve.

“Look, I don’t want to go out with you, kid, so一”

“You look like you know how to steal a car一”

“What.”

“What.”

#derek x stiles #derek hale #stiles stilinski #teen wolf #teen wolf fic #teen wolf au #teen wolf fanfiction #derek and stiles #romance #derek is a dick #stiles is a bad criminal #because he always gets super guilty last minute #derek can’t stop getting objectified by women who are more than twice his age #it’s getting to be an issue

[howlingday]

ok, imagine this, jaune is having his third confrontation with cinder and at a point where she has the advantage, she asks him something like "so… what is the purpose of a knight in an era where power rules" and jaune he just has this little memory of his grandmother telling him "the purpose of a knight is to be the noble light that illuminates the earth" but jaune doesn't answer him he just smiles and they keep fighting since the only one who needs to know the answer is jaune himself.

------------------

okey, imagina esto, jaune esta teniendo su tercer enfrentamiento con cinder y en un punto donde ella tiene la ventaja, ella le pregunta algo como "entonces... cual es el proposito de un caballero en una era donde el poder manda" y jaune simplemente tiene este pequeño recuerdo de su abuela diciendole "el proposito de un caballero es ser la noble luz que ilumina la tierra" pero jaune no le responde simplemente sonrie y siguen luchando ya que el unico que necesita saber la respuesta es el mismo jaune.

Jaune shook his head as heat enveloped his entire body. Any closer Cinder's fire, and he wouldn't be worried about the sweat stinging his eyes anymore. She continued her usual tactic of using her magic to keep her airborne, swooping down upon him like a bird of prey. For anyone on Team RWBY, or even Nora and maybe Ren, they would have a much easier time. For Jaune, however, he was in the actual worst case scenario for him.

Cinder swooped down once more, launching a fireball at his armored boots, forcing him to back away. If he was hit, his aura would protect him from the flames, but it would be weakened against the follow-up swinging of her glass blades. She always came from the front, as if to derive some sickening pleasure from the frustrated look on Jaune's face.

She launched another fireball, and jumped back away again, heat flaring over his body that he felt like he was facing an oven. It was bigger, so he stepped further than before, looking down for the briefest moment to determine the extent of the flames.

It was here, he realized, that he made his fatal mistake.

As he drew his eyes up from the inferno, his orbs widened in shock as he watched Cinder charge through the flames, a wicked grin on her face. He drew his shield close to him, but it was in vain, as Cinder jetted to his side at an angle and drove her sword into side under his sword arm. Blood launched from his mouth, flecking onto the dark-haired woman.

"I finally got you." She said, panting.

She pushed further in, and Jaune could feel himself cooking on the inside. He took a step back, but Cinder pushed forward, trying to curve her blade upwards. Tears rolled down as Jaune's breathlessly screamed from the agony. Cinder chuckled darkly.

"So long you have been a thorn in my side," she stared into his eyes, as a revolting glee danced in hers, "and now I am free from your burden." She snapped off her blade, and the rest shattered in her hand. Jaune fell to his knees as light began fading from his eyes. "Farewell, Mr. Knight..."

---------------------------------------------------

"Oh, damn it all to hell!" Jaune watched as his grandmother groaned on her bed. In her hands was an old video game controller, and in front of them both was the dead hero she was controlling. "That shadow is a real piece of work."

This had become a routine for the two of them. While his sisters were outside playing with their father and grandfather, he sat inside with his grandmother, watching her play a number of video games. Sometimes it was the super fast cat, and sometimes it was the jumping construction worker, but his favorite was the knight he watched on screen.

Mythos of Elaine was an exciting adventure for him to watch over and over again. The game's story was simple, as it followed the life and heroics of the young squire turned knight. Solving puzzles, slaying monsters, and saving villagers was never a dull moment for him. He watched grandma play for hours, until he had to go home, but then a curious thought came to his mind.

"Grandma," he asked as she restarted the game, "are you the only one who can do this?"

"Oh, do you want to play?" She asked, pausing the game.

"No, I mean," he pointed to the screen, "are you the only one in the whole world who could do this?" She unpaused and continued playing. "Is there anyone else who could?"

"Well," she said, "as far as I can tell, I'm the only knight in the kingdom, so, yes."

"Can it be anyone else?" Jaune continued. "Couldn't someone else fight?"

"I suppose, but," she swiped down a set of trees blocking the way, "I don't think they'd get very far."

"Why's that?"

"Well, I'm a knight, and that's what knights do." She continued until she reached the boss, where the shadow waited for her, it's sword drawn. "A knight serves to protect the kingdom, and her people." The battle was intense, as she rolled aside and struck from behind. "And in doing so, he protects her people and fights off evil that would harm them."

Suddenly, the boss summoned a black barrier, and all further attacks were in vain. The knight kept up their shield and blocked, as the shadow's blade struck again and again. Hearts fell in threes by every hit that stuck. In was looking hopeless.

"What if you can't win?" Jaune asked, his fingers gripping the sheets.

The battle paused, and in the distance, an old man with a wooden leg hobbled into view, holding a white bow with golden arrows. He fired and struck the black barrier, dispelling it.

"Then you inspire others to." His grandmother smiled, quickly shaking his shoulder before continuing the battle.

---------------------------------------------------

Cinder turned away, ready to fly off to her next victim. The battle costed her much aura, but it was a heavy blow to Ruby's allies. Of all her little friends, this one was the biggest nuisance. He was.

She felt a sudden tug as she moved forward, and saw the battle was not over. Struggling to his knees, blood dribbling from his mouth, but an iron grip in his hands, he stood ready for another round. His aura slowly recovered and the battle began anew.

"Hey!" Just in time for reinforcements to arrive.

#rwby #jaune arc #cinder fall

[thebindingofpillo]

Talk about your babygirl (Judas) more, a treat from me to you (~ uwu)~

Judas my babygirl the blorbo supreme, thank you for asking about him because I have SO MUCH to say about the man. I’ve already talked about him (at length) in a different post some time ago, and while it’s a bit old, most of it still kinda holds up. Anyway here’s even more stuff about him (AND A WARNING! MENTIONS OF SUICIDE BELOW!!) (this is gonna be very scattered too, I’m just gonna write stream-of-consciousness style)

Judas (or at least Judas in this current life) comes from a British family of middle-lower class. Both his parents died in a car accident when he was too young to really remember them, and he’s been living with his grandmother ever since. He’s always got a pretty terrible relationship with her. She was always the first to point out any flaws in him (perceived or otherwise) while being absolutely unbearable herself, never putting in the effort to ask for help while still expecting her grandson to drop everything and come to her every call and not speaking to him for days if he failed to do so. Suffice to say, they’re not really close as of right now.

Judas grew up an unbearable kid, considering basically everyone to be beneath him while at the same time being incredibly insecure. He found himself in middle school without a single friend, but he convinced himself that he didn’t need them anyway, so he buried his nose in every book he could find and patiently waited to school in general to be over. This is around the time he met Isaac and Magdalene, who apparently weren’t intimidated by his abrasive attitude and the three quickly became inseparable, with Judas even managing to grow up and not be a prick anymore. The trio stayed strong throughout highschool and college (when Azazel also came into the picture, but I’m not gonna delve into all of his relationships now). He’s currently working on his archeology degree, but kinda put his studies on hold to work so he could support Maggy’s writing. He’s a librarian.

Personality wise he’s… polite. Distant, even. He grew out of being a prick, but he still has a condescending aura about himself, like the whole world is bothering him on his lunch break. This is not true to his partners tho, who have first hand experience of the more chaotic and passionate sides of his personality. He’s also a pretty witty person, and oozes sarcasm from every pore, but doesn’t really like talking to people he doesn’t know, so only his close friends have seen him crack jokes and actually smile. With that being said, Judas would lay down his life for the people he loves, and the fact that in his first life on Earth he had a hand in the murder of his best friend eats at him immensely. So much so, that he usually cannot bear the guilt and usually ends his life before due time. Every single time. In the roughly 2000 years his soul has roamed the Earth, Judas has never reached old age. Belial is also a major factor in his suicides every time, and you can read more about him here bc this is getting long enough already lol.

Speaking of Belial, while not being overtly religious, Judas had a passing interest in the occult that kinda morphed into a quasi-hobby. He likes to collect weird artefacts, ancient tomes and the like, that he stashes in his studio, right next to his school books and dissertations. This interest of his actually meshes pretty well with his passion for ancient history, and he has written quite a few essays about the portrayal of demons, angles and God throughout the ages. He might have tried to use a Ouija board when he was a kid, but it never went beyond that. The only true dangerous artefact in his possession is the Book of Belial, a magical tome that seems to find its way to Judas every single life. He doesn’t even remember where he found it this time, maybe he’s always had it.

More stuff that I didn’t know where to put so you get it here lmao

He sounds incredibly posh when he talks. Dear old grandma thought his accent was too lower-class (and by extension, hers too, but she would never admit it) so she was quick to point it out every time he spoke and ridicule him. With time, she managed to beat it out of him, but his accent still comes out when he’s very stressed or angry. He hates it.

He is also freakishly strong, but as durable as a wet paper bag. He could easily punch a hole in a wall, but would shatter all of his bones in the process. Couple this with a sour attitude and a complete disregard for his own safety and safe to say he’s been in quite a few fights. He’s won some of them, even if he woke back up at the hospital a couple of times.

His hair loss is supernatural in nature, due to the influence of the BoB (and tied to his body being weaker and more fragile that a normal person’s). His hair started to fall out around highschoo, but it’s not a case of simple alopecia like Isaac’s, Judas is completely hairless, doesn’t even have eyelashes.

Cannot stand to have anything around his neck. He even stopped buttoning his shirts all the way up because it was too uncomfortable. Just the lightest touch on the neck is enough to trigger horrible flashbacks and send him into panic

Despite knowing both God and Jesus exist (and the devil too) he considers himself more of an agnostic. For him, knowing God exists and having faith are two completely separate things. This goes the other way too, he doesn’t really believe in Satan either. And if Azazel is to be believed, the guy sucks and isn’t really worth praise anyway.

Tea is also one of his interests. He could talk for hours about the right temperature for brewing and the like, and has to be physically stopped from filling the cupboard with nothing but tea.

Isaac is his best friend, he loves him like a brother. Seeing how things are going with Magdalene, they might even become brothers-in-law too.

Speaking of Maggy, the two of them started dating after highschool and are still going strong. They seem to gravitate towards eachother in every single life. Judas is convinced it’s because they lived in the same period, Maggy prefers to think it’s destiny and stuff like that.

#reincarnation au (working title) #tboi reincarnation #tboi judas #i need to make a ref for him sometime #him maggy and azazel will be my main priority once the next comic is all done #I’m sure I’ll think about more stuff i wanted to say after i post it but i have to go now sorryyyyy #ask tag

[razieltwelve]

Lightning’s Quirk (Final Rose x MHA)

So... Lightning dies of old age and gets reincarnated into My Hero Academia. What sort of quirk does she have? That’s an easy one: she gets Saviour. Remember, Semblances are expressions of Aura, which in turn comes from the soul. In general, a reincarnation from Final Rose is going to keep their Aura and their Semblance although they will have to unlock their Semblance again and regrow their Aura.

I can imagine Lightning being born into a middle-class family. Both her parents have quirks. Her mother might have a minor reinforcement quirk (e.g., the ability to temporarily enhance or strengthen the objects or people she touches), and her father might have a physical enhancement quirk. Both could have become low level heroes but opted for a civilian life. Her mother is a teacher, and her father works in construction.

Enter Lightning.

Due to a quirk (heh... the pun) of fate, her parents both have black hair... but her grandmother has pink hair. Lightning ends up looking pretty much the same, much to her amusement. Sure, the shades of her eyes and hair aren’t exactly the same, but they’re not too different. Her grandmother on her father’s side was a hero who fell in the line of duty, back when things were much more chaotic. Her grandma’s physical enhancement quirk was much more powerful, enough to make her a pretty decent hero. She was called Steadfast, the Unwavering Hero because of her determination and resolve. She died saving a lot of people during a disaster. Due to her exhaustion, she could not maintain her quirk and was crushed by a collapsing building.

Lightning is the oldest kid although she does pick up three younger siblings later on. She is aware of her past life from the start and spends her early years scowling and glaring about it and learning more about the world around her. She finds it almost amusing that the worst thing to happen in this world is the era of chaos followed by an era of peace brought along by All Might. The lack of world-ending monsters who can kill planet and star systems is a welcome relief.

But seeing as there still villains and Lightning can’t ever see herself settling into a normal life, she decides to become a hero. Why not? She did it before, and they seem to have a system for it here. It’ll give her wealth, power, and the influence to make any changes she might want, provided she is strong enough.

With little else to do, Lightning spends her childhood years training, going to school, and trying not to stick out too much. She explains her Aura as her quirk, which gives her the excuse she needs to work on it whenever she wants. And she works on it. A lot. She was one of the greatest warriors to ever live in her last life. She won’t settle for anything less in this one.

At school, Lightning finds things really awkward. She’s a kid with the mind of a legend. Out of sheer exasperation, she starts showing some of her intelligence because if she has to sit in another friendship circle with a bunch of five year olds, she is going to kill someone. Seeing that and seeing her rapid progress with her ‘quirk’, she is put in touch with, you guessed it, the Rat.

Nezu finds Lightning fascinating, especially when her annoyance ends up with her getting into a debate with him about heroes, their place in society, and how best to deal with villains. Nezu finds it so entertaining that he agrees to let her use the facilities and introduces her to the support staff who are intrigued with some of the ideas she has talked about. Yeah, Lightning didn’t make as much stuff as Diana, but she did design her own weapon, and she got to see firsthand what Vanille and Diana got up to.

Fast forward to when Lightning is ten.

She and her family (mom, dad, a younger brother and a two younger sisters) are on a trip to the aquarium when villains attack.

Cue Lightning having PTSD flashbacks when her family’s lives are put in danger.

Saviour awakens.

The only reason the villains aren’t dead is because Lightning has better control this time around. Thankfully, she’s got Nezu on speed dial. Thanks to the friendship they’ve built up and the ‘capital’ she has acquired via sharing her designs and ideas with the staff at UA, Nezu is more than happy to clean things up for her.

Lightning ends up taking more and more advanced training via Nezu, and she ends up becoming a ‘problem solver’ for him, much to All Might’s dismay. But it’s hard to argue with results. Lightning works like a seasoned pro, and Saviour is perfect for dealing with problems since it can be disguised in any number of ways. Eventually, Lightning joins UA as part of class 1-A to establish a ‘proper’ hero identity while continuing to work behind the scenes with Nezu.

Publicly, her quirk is a form of enchantment that applies to both her body and weapons she wields. Saviour’s other powers are something she typically only uses when doing side work. She plans on using the name Guardian for her public hero work and Saviour for her private hero work.

As part of Class 1-A, she ends up serving as a teacher’s aide to All Might since he hasn’t got much experience teaching and she doesn’t mind helping out. The explanation for this is that she has been training with Nezu from a young age (technically true).

#final rose #my hero academia #fanfiction #lightning farron

[ahoge-fish]

Hello :3

Hope ur doing ok over there (i know we interacted not so long ago but im still asking)

I have a few questions that i been wondering for a while one about carlos (god i hope i got the bbys name right) and the other about alex (pls feel free to answer one if u want)

Ok first for our lil new member in the kujo family (part 4 i mean):

So i know that carlos got very attached to alex and became instant bond with Jolyne but im curious about jotaro how was the lil boy with him at first? Was he shy around him? Was he intimidated by him?

Second: What are alex's favorite and least favorite food? Does she have any alergies?

Sorry for the long ask! Also dont feel forced to answer if u dont wish too i know ur taking a break so i dont wish to bother u!

Thank u for ur time and patience!

HIII! :D It's always good to ask that, but yes luckily I'm still good and I hope you too! 💖💖💖

Oh I'll surely answer your questions, because I LOVE asks like this!! And thank YOU for asking them, you're not bothering me at all 😌 You're so sweet tho, thank you for your kindness💖💖💖

Also whoopsies the boy's name not Carlos but Luis, don't worry about that tho! You should see me when I try to remember some characters names, I totally go the opposite way HAHAHAHAHAH But anyway! Here you go the answers ;)

How did Luis react to Jotaro?

When they first found him at the old house, Luis felt safe enough to hug Alexandra, as Jotaro was inspecting his father's dead body in the other room. When they took him at the SPW, Luis only talked to Alexandra, not because everyone else was being rude to him, but because she was the one to first calm him down, and so he felt more at ease with her.

Did Jotaro try to talk to him while he was still at the SPW? Yes, he tried. He grew up from being the rebel teenage boy to the educated man that he was at that moment. But as we all know he still has a very intimidating aura, with his cold face and always frowned eyebrows. So you can imagine how a child that just got out from the situation that he was could've react.

He was not scared of him to the point of screaming, he simply kept his mouth shut and didn't even look at him. Jotato however tried to talk to him with the most gentle tone of voice that he could've do, getting nothing in return.

Jotaro was not mad or upset about it, he knows that he doesn't look like the frendliest guy at first sight. But things started to preoccupie him when him and Alex decided to adopt little Luis.

The little boy walked away from the room where the man was, when they had breakfast/lunch/dinner he always seated at the opposide sit from Jotaro, when Luis and Jolyne had to go to school and Jotaro took them there with his car, Luis stayed silent the whole ride (and if Jolyne seated in the back seats with him, he always hugged her arm).

Alexandra and Jolyne noticed it, and they talked about that with Luis too, but he just didn't feel comfortable with the scary man.

So, what did Jotaro do to gain his trust? Something that if someone reminded to him, he would've punched them straight in the face (jk, but almost)

That was obviously Alexandra's idea, and Jotaro being desperate just accepted to do it. So one day, to make Luis understand that Jotaro is a gentle giant, they both made him and Jolyne wait in a room. And when they opened the door, the children immediately bursted into a loud laugh.

Their parents where both wearing a dolphin costume, making especially Jotaro more ridiculous. But did he do it only for his new child to trust him? Yes. During the entire evening they all played together and even shared some facts about dolphins.

In the end it was worth it, because Luis started to feel more at ease with his father.

What are Alex favourite food and least favourite?

Alexandra would eat anything comestible that she has in front of her eyes, but the dish that she fell in love with is "gnocchi al pesto".

The earliest memory that she has is her grandma giving her a big plate of gnocchi with pesto, and she digged in it because she just enjoyed it very much. From that moment, she always asked her mother if she could've do only gnocchi with pesto, at which Isabella laughed but made that dish very often.

Her father Michael, always being the pIECE OF SHIT THAT HE IS- always has to ruin any joy that Alex has :) So because one evening he got mad at Isabella for making the same dish, and because "Alex gained weight and become more ugly that she already was", she stopped doing it for a long period of time. Alexandra understood the situation, so she didn't ask for that dish anymore.

And one dish that she hates? It's not because she doesn't like the taste, but because it was Michael's favourite. It is miso soup, a dish that always brings Alex the memories of her father, that's why she hates it.

Does she have any alergies?

She is allergic to kiwi. She discovered it one day she was at Jotaro's house, and Holly had some fruits to give to the young friends.

She started to feel her throat getting tighter and tighter, until it was visible that it was swollen and red. The two friends didn't know what to do, since they were only 11 at the time and that Holly went out to buy some food for dinner, so they both rushed to Alexandra's house.

Luckily there was only Isabella, that immediately brought Alexandra to the ER. Jotaro went with them and was very nervous, but Isabella calmed him down telling him that she was alright and that they came just in time.

Later Alexandra was indeed alright and she was diagnosed with an allergy for kiwi.

Jotaro for a period of time was very paranoid with this, and so made sure that even the most obvious foods didn't have kiwi in them.

#•🐠 answers• #jotaro kujo #alexandra parker #luis kujo #jjba #jjba oc

[houseofzoey]

Plot

Much like the crux of Hidden's plot was "be normal", Revealed is centered on "wait and do nothing."

When the mayor was found dead at the campus gates and police blamed the school, the response was to go on lockdown and wait for the police to investigate.

When Zoey and co. expressed suspicion that Neferet was responsible for the murder, the response was to wait for her to reveal herself.

When wondering how they would prove that Neferet was to blame for Charles' death and not a victim herself, the response was to wait for her to lose her cool and either admit to killing him or kill someone else.

Even the subplot with Dallas was largely passive. Everyone knew he was dangerous. He made it clear he had ill-intent against Rephaim weeks ago, and now he openly blames Zoey and co. for Erin's death. Shaylin has expressed on more than one occasion that Dallas' aura is very bad. But no one did anything about this - no one was watching him to step in if he attacked someone, he wasn't sent for any kind of counseling or assessment, the people he was most likely to target weren't placed under guard. The only reason anything happened with this subplot is because Dallas attacked Stevie Rae, which then led to him being captured and executed. But if he hadn't acted, nothing would have happened to him! Nothing would have changed!

Moreover, Zoey's entire subplot with the Seer Stone was also completely passive - or we're supposed to believe it was. She was the passive victim of the influence of Old Magick, which amplified her negative emotions and caused her to become increasingly volatile until she lashed out violently. But this is a sequence of events that Zoey has no agency over. She does nothing until the Seer Stone makes her do something.

Even Aphrodite’s intervention after having a vision of Zoey's spiral out of control is largely passive. Watch Zoey and wait for her to explode. That's the plan.

And Neferet! The framing of most of Neferet's scenes are that she's resting in a grotto, powerless to stop the memories as she relives them. She's passive in the recollection of her own backstory - most of which is about sitting around and waiting. Neferet never does anything about her unhappy relationship with Alexander; she waits for the problem to take care of itself when he commits suicide. Neferet never seeks information about her dreams; she waits for it to fall into her lap in the form of a Cherokee prophecy. Neferet doesn't actively strive to create an army in the form of undead fledglings; it's an ability she accidentally stumbles upon after becoming High Priestess of the Tulsa House of Night.

This is an entire book about waiting around and doing nothing. That's just as boring and tedious as it sounds.

And now for the timeline.

I mentioned in the Plot wrap-up for Hidden that the timeline appeared to be immediately contradicted in Revealed, and I can now confirm that this is true. In Hidden, the open house was slated for that Saturday, which they announced on local news on Wednesday. Grandma was rescued on Friday evening. There's no indication that they planned to postpone the open house - especially given that they were working on organizing the event while knowing Grandma had been captured - and they would have had less than 24-hours notice to reschedule everything. Revealed makes no mention of the event being postponed because of Grandma. However, at the beginning of Revealed, Zoey says it has been a little over a week since Grandma was rescued, which can't be true because she also indicates that it's Thursday. That's only six days since the end of the previous book.

TL;DR: The author once again has no sweet clue what the hell is going on in the timeline of her own book.

Day One: Prologue-Chapter 3 [Thursday]

Day Two: Chapter 4-13* [Friday]

Day Three: Chapter 15-22 [Saturday]**

*I'm skipping a Neferet flashback here because I don't know where it falls within the timeline.

**The book ends on a Sunday because Zoey attacks the two men and Neferet massacres the church on Sunday morning. However, this counts as one day because morning is when vampyres go to sleep. It won't count as a new day on my tally until about 5 or 6pm

Also, the timeline inconsistencies don't just exist between this book and the previous one. There's also tons of screwiness within Revealed. Some highlights:

Zoey thinks Dragon has been hiding the weapon stash from Neferet for a very long time - even though the HoN with the cache has only existed for five years.

Stevie Rae was attacked at sunrise and didn't get any kind of treatment until sunset, when Rephaim turned back into a human. That's roughly 11 hours without medical intervention while in the ICU.

It somehow takes Kalona and Stark two entire hours to catch up to Dallas and then bring him back to campus, despite both of them being supernaturally fast.

The class schedule changed. Like, it just randomly changed. Instead of having first hour through to fourth hour before lunch, it's just three periods in the morning. Which means that lunch has either shifted to 11pm, or classes don't start until 9pm.

#house of zoey #revealed #final thoughts

[nyotasaimiri]

Arc Two (redux) 30

“The old lady that runs the show here is everyone’s grandma, so you play nice,” Zoya warned. “Oh, I mean that metaphorically. But seriously, keep it polite.”

“I will,” Nyota promised.

“Not you. That little human there.” Zoya flicked a hand at Hadley, who stuck out her tongue. “See what I mean? Got the aura of troublemaker all over her. I bet she gives you the hardest time, doesn’t she?”

Nyota was too busy laughing at the accurate read to answer. Hadley made an impolite gesture, which got Zoya laughing too.

“There, exactly what I mean. Absolutely no respect for authority.” Her tone might have been indignant or disparaging if it weren’t for the deep rumbling belly-laugh under her words.

“Joking. Do any of you have a huge respect for authority?” Arrowmail asked. “I mean… this is an apex rebel camp.” His eye-lights flickered and he hummed a low, uncertain tone. “Anxious. I mean no offense.”

Zoya’s eyes seemed to glow in a moment of inner fire, her grin fierce and wild. “It seems you have not spent enough time with our Blake. Now there’s a woman who will command your respect, no matter what you think.”

“Uncertain. You are quite intense about that.” Arrowmail shuffled in place before realizing he was getting left behind. A few rebels looked up from a game of snow-checkers as they heard his feet clanking along the cold rocks.

“We all are, about things we care about,” Zoya said. She turned back toward the well-trodden path. “Maybe I don’t look it, but I’m nearly fifty years old. That’s old, for a rebel. …old for an apex, really,” she added with a snort. “I’ve been here longer than Blake’s been alive, and I like what she’s done with the place, so to speak. We’re… closer now than we ever were.”

“You mean… to winning?” Oldarva asked, and flinched back a little when Zoya glanced toward her, but the golden apex’s eyes were gentle this time.

“Yes, but to each other as well.” There was a deep, nostalgic distance in Zoya’s voice. “I think that this is more unified than the rebellion has ever been. And so much of that is because of her.” She stopped, laughed, and shook her head, suddenly back in the moment and smiling as if her guests had cracked a joke. “But you really didn’t come here to listen to my rambling, now did you? Here we are at last. Aly’s just down here.”

Nyota’s crew climbed down the ladder Zoya showed them one by one. Nyota went last and paused at the top rung. “You will have to tell me more about that someday,” she said.

Zora sat on a snow-free patch beside her. “About what exactly?”

“About Lana. I want to learn more about her, and… not through the Miniknog’s eyes,” Nyota explained.

Zoya’s sharp barked laugh almost made Nyota lose her grip on the ladder rung. “Oh ho, so you are on first-name terms with the Commander! Ha!” The wild, fierce grin reappeared, stained with delight. “Geo owes me a donut.”

Scarlet flushed across Nyota’s ears. “You’ve been betting?” Stars, how obvious are we?

“Of course!” Zoya waved dismissively. “It’s not every day that Blake comes home sparkling like that. Geo said something about you, and I’m not quite as thick as I look.” She caught the mortification on Nyota’s face and patted her hand. “Don’t worry. It’s not like the whole rebellion knows. Just Geo and me here, and your brother, of course. Maybe Grandma Aly, because she’s smart like that, but she’s no gossip.”

Relief seeped out of Nyota’s bones and took her strength with it. “Whoa there!” Zoya cried and grabbed her wrist as her hands slipped on the rung. “It’s not that embarrassing, is it?”

Nyota held tight, gasping, for a long moment before she could find the thought to speak. “That isn’t… I was relieved,” she murmured. Shame caught her throat as she realized how that must sound.

Zoya’s stare sharpened. “Relieved? Why?”

Nyota kept her eyes on her hands, knuckles whitened with the force of her grip. The metal rung groaned under her fingers. “It’s not that I don’t care about her… I love her, Zoya.” A small shock ran through her as she realized this was the first time she had said that out loud. “But… think about what that must look like. You saw—heard—Mera’s reaction to me. If you had not been there, it might have gotten ugly.”

“It still got ugly,” Zoya muttered darkly. “She’s got some nerve.”

“And she proved my point. Think of how it will go for Lana. In love with the enemy. I know—” Nyota braced herself and raised a hand. “You will say I am not the enemy anymore. But will enough people care? You’re close now. The rebellion—you said she brought you together. …I can’t break that.”

The silence felt like half a lifetime. Finally, Zoya said, “I’ll keep your secrets. She’ll understand if you tell it to her like that, but she won’t like it. You know you can’t keep it forever.”

Nyota sighed. “I know. Nothing ever does stay hidden forever, but I can at least minimize the damage I’ll do.”

She didn’t expect that reckless grin to come back. “You know how you do that?” Zoya asked. She leaned in close. “You be the best damn rebel you can be.”

Cold wind bit into Nyota’s lips as she bared her teeth in a matching grin, excitement too hot in her chest for her to feel the chill. “I plan to.”

“Good. And then…” Zoya leaned in even closer to whisper in Nyota’s ear. “When you have your nice audience and maybe the Miniknog Council at your feet, you kiss her for all you’re worth.”

Her cheerful laugh followed Nyota down the ladder shaft, bouncing off the metal walls and into Nyota’s blush-red ears as Nyota tried very hard not to smile too widely at the thought that left behind.

#arc two #repost

[aajjks]

omggg his mother is named ayra and ayra resembles his mother aka her grandma omgggggg 🥺🥺🥺

TC!dad!JK

jungkook tells the woman everything. from you hiding your pregnancy all the way to your emotional outbursts, the yelling, everything. “hmm” the old woman thinks “sounds like she has what i like to call ‘the baby blues.’ your mother was very emotional after your birth. she struggled to sleep, eat, and had very bad dreams all of the time”

however, jungkook’s father, the previous king, did not help ayra to heal through her postpartum depression. instead, he made it worse by constantly berating the poor woman but like she’s done for ayra she will do for you.

while the woman explains to jungkook how she will help you, you are struggling to get any sleep. you’re in constant distress about your son and the pain in your groin area only gets worse. its been a week since you’ve gotten proper sleep and as the days go by, you’re growing more and more sensitive to everything.

you’re crying all of the time and when your son cries in the middle of the night because he needs to be fed, you’re practically crying with him. you’ve been so emotional lately and you’re blaming yourself for everything, all of it.

but you’re a big girl, you can handle this. jungkook is probably waiting for you to submit to him and you won’t let him think he has the upper hand on you.

after feeding jinseoul, you go to bathe your infant son, lather him, and clothe him. once he’s finished, you assign a maid to tend to him while you freshen up for your first day back as the queen. you take jinseoul from the maid’s arms and head to your office to tend to some paperwork of your own. paperwork you’re still struggling to understand but you got this, or so you say.

when you go to handle other matters that you’re in charge of, like the consorts, you’re given nasty looks from the women and others whisper about how bad of a queen you are. when the pressure becomes too much, you rush back to your bedroom and take a breather but even then you don’t feel that great.

you’re so mad at yourself about everything.

‘it’s all your fault’

‘no one to blame but yourself’

‘you did this’

‘you always ruin everything’

‘you’

‘you’

‘you’

you don’t know how or why but you find yourself knocking on jungkook’s door with tears down your eyes. you need a break and you’re scared to leave any of the maids with your son for longer than 5-10 minutes. however, if there’s anyone you trust more than the maids it’s jungkook.

“h-hi” you sniffle “can you please watch him? i just need 10 minutes and i’ll be back to get him. i promise”

“oh? is this the wife you speak of? my, my, she’s beautiful”

“oh, i didn’t know you had a meeting. i apologize” you bow and try to scurry off but jungkook takes hold of you and reassures you that he isn’t busy. he even invites you inside to meet the woman that helped his mother.

~🫧

ball is in YOUR court alina!! i’m thinking this woman is good with witchcraft but idk? i’m curious to see just how this ‘mysterious lady’ helped cure his mother 🤔

Isuel watches you, and she’s not disappointed-

Meanwhile jungkook is really eager for you to meet his almost mother like mentor- even for a brief time. “Yn meet my 이슬 어머��!!!! And I’ll have one of the maids bring jinseoul.” He feels so bad that you have been crying- you definitely need Isuels guidance.

She gets up from her place as you nod your head in response, she likes you already, Isuel can read people’s aura and as she stares at you trying to read your aura, yours is a mix between golden and beige. Which represents simplicity, comfort, wisdom and trust. And the golden being the fact that you are now a queen and the future queen dowager.

But the thing about your colors are they keep on changing as she closes her eyes, the golden and beige disappear, and now she’s seeing something else.

You just need assurance and someone to understand your grief. She can sense the hint of blue as she opens her eyes and gazes upon your face. She sticks out her hand for you to take, to further her analysis. “my dear- would you mind holding my hand?” She waits for your response..

She knows a few magical things to say to you and you’ll be perfect.

His mother knew Isuels magical secrets, even Jungkook or the late King wasn’t aware of, You are reluctant as expected, she can sense your deep depression and lack of certainty.

You need someone to understand you- you need love.

And as soon as you shake her hand, she moves her fingers, she can only help you if you want to be helped. “What a beautiful woman you are, my Queen.” She says as Jungkook proudly watches her interact with you and just then a maid comes in with Jinseoul in her arms.

“Oh that’s my son!” Jungkook claps his hands together and takes his baby. Cuddling the baby close to his chest as he peppers him in kisses.

You smile and that’s when she feels your love for your complicated husband. She closes her eyes and can see the colors of pink and red changing into each other.

This is a really good thing.

“Your…” she whispers as she sees the colour of green suddenly, the colour which represents good luck, fertility and harmony and good luck.

You’re going to give this kingdom a lot of these things.

“Nice to meet you my queen.”

She finally leaves your hand.

“I need to talk to you in private.”

#ask: tc!jungkook #she is kind of magical- she can see emotions in the faces of colors.. kind of weird but it works out in fiction #Can you guess what are the colors of tc jks emotions and aura? #And yes his mother’s name is ayra-even the actual fic! #That’s really cute. I thought it would be fun so it’s kind of like an Easter egg. hehe

[napiersworldzero]

Session Summary of 8/25/23

We began the session in Alamontyr. They find the city with fortified walls defending it, several watchtowers, and an oppressive atmosphere that seems to suck the magic out of the city. After talking to a local child about their opinion of the Griffon Knights, Rome approaches a Knight and is directed to guard tower that resides near the castle where the Shield Duke rules from.

When they arrive at the guard tower, they meet Commander Jerl Kriv who informs of them the current situation: there is a new thieves' guild in the town. They have stolen from everyone but the shops, focusing on the market. This had started three weeks ago and he does not know what ties them together. But he fears it is the Red Wizards trying to corrupt them.

After interrogating the Commander about whether or not he was involved and what to do if the party discovered it was related to the government, they set out into town.

There are large markets and vendors through the town along with the temples. They are finesmiths, woodcarvers, potters, glaziers, jewelers, and tailors.

During their investigations, they learn that girl clothing, toys, small blacksmith items, and green and blue jewelry have all gone missing except from one stall: The Iln's tailoring stall. They report to the adventurers that their daughter Preen Iln, a small, light purple tiefling girl, has gone missing a little over three weeks ago.

Rome had found a Griffon Knight doll walk up to the blacksmith's open forge, steal two scraps of metal, and then run off to disappear into the sewers.

Now, a little side adventure occurred that let Mavi find the girl. Mavi has a fascination with being a pirate so they bought a fish, took Ten's Miasma Wisp Stick (cite. TikToker @luckyinks), lit it and put it in the fish's mouth and pretended it could speak. Ten grew annoyed, took the fish, and threw it into the market square. Miasma gives the smoker two uses of Stinking Cloud. So, when the fish hit the pavement, it puffed out like a smoke bomb and filled the square with a stinking cloud.

Mavi was spotted as the source and ran, hiding away as an old grandma until trouble left. As she explored the back alleys, she found that the sewer grates had a green, cloud aura around it. So, she changed into small tiefling boy and slipped into the sewers, shifted back into a grandma. Following the green cloud trail, she found the girl, pinky-promised her that heroes would return and a magical green flash snapped in front of her when she did, before she then rushed back to her party.

The party then made a plan to explore the sewers, following Mavi's guidance. They came across a collapsed tunnel but when they looked up, the dirt ceiling was completely intact. They continued on, climbing over the rubble or using a spell to climb on the ceiling.

Among the rubble is splintered and broken wood, scattered metal pans and pieces of rotted and wet cloth. There are broken class and ceramic. They explore the decaying structure and find in the farthest, deepest part of the structure the body of a small girl. The child is Preen Iln. Surrounding her are all of the stolen items, creating a kind of border or treasure horde about her. The dolls appear around the girl's trapped body, standing a safe distance away. The girl speaks to the party, her green spirit trapped with her body as she moves like a ghost, trying to get out as if she is still alive.

They ask her what happen and she tells them a story of a strange, dark-skinned man promising to show her magic tricks. He had dreadlocks, metal in his head with strange stiff strings that went from them to under his shirt, and wore strange clothing. He brought her dolls to life, made her friends, made illusions come to life, but something went horribly wrong. There was screaming and crashing and horrible noises and then her house collapsed around her, burying her beneath the ground with her new friends. They survived but the man was gone; the dolls go get her toys and clothes as she called for help and continues to call.

As the talk to her and try to determine how to unbury her, Ten takes out his Cruor Blade and hold it towards the doll. He had taken it out to see what it thought of the magic being drained when they first entered the city and it shook violently so he put it away but now the dagger wanted to stab the doll. Ten managed to resist the urge and put the blade away.

Ever since the green flash bang, Mavi had been scared she was going to die at dawn. A doll approached her and held out its toy hammer where green letters were inscribed: "You Will Not Die". Mavi chose to not believe it.

Throughout this time, it is discovered that Mavi is the only one that can sense this green magic beyond Preen's spirit and that Preen thinks it's 1385. The party knows it to be 1398. So Rome hurries back to the surface to ask the guards and then Commander what year it is to which they all answer it to be 1385.

Rome visits the parents of the missing girl and learns the family had put out a call for someone to come train their daughter since she was having magical outbursts to which the strange man, they learned was named David O'Sullivan, answered. He would spend time with their daughter, teaching her what he knew before the horrible accident happened. The mother had been in the house at the time and after the house had calmed down, rushed to her daughter's bedroom to find David step out and say her daughter had run off, taking nothing but a painted doll. They all found it strange that he was questioned by the guard and then left town the next day, even after putting some kind of spell on the house. Rome reported that the Commander thought David was a family friend to which the husband claimed to have started that lie. David, to him, had just been a good man from Derlusk and didn't want him to suffer for his daughter running away.

Rome returned to the party and connected the two locations together, realizing the rubble was underneath the Iln's house. When Rome mentioned the missing doll, Preen informed them she had it and they asked to see it. Ten took it and stabbed it but nothing happened. Rome quickly mended it and returned it.

#dnd #dnd campaign #dnd homebrew #dnd stuff #dnd5e #ten #mavi #rome #rome the gnome #romethegnome #dungeons and dragons #dungeonsanddragons #dnd one #napiersworldzero #worldzero #napier's world zero

[hxroic-wxlls]

(This is just for fun. The Yakuza boss Grandma.)

An old lady with her hands behind her back was walking along while shaking her head. "Are these what qualifies as monsters? So, so, weak. But it wouldn't be good if I stole the rewards so I'll let others finish you off." What did that mean? Any monsters in her path were left near death till she was out of sight. "Be grateful for what little time you have left. For I am not your end." Were the last words one would hear.

“ Oh…oh my god, hi, grandma! “ She knew that face from anywhere. That aura of authority, strength, confidence, and pure, unfiltered, badassery… God, just how long has it been since she’s seen her? Way too long, as far as she was concerned… And thus, she’d practically jump into the older woman’s arm, like an overly energetic puppy.

#{grouchy sister: ic} #{ask answered} #{fgo!au} #warriorsofcrimsonrealms

[goeie-morgen]

Gossip Guy podcast with Willem De Schryver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYjtRYOGS00

translated by @jackfrostsander @bruisingknees @lblogss @yousmina and me :)

-

E: I do have another present for you.

W: Oei oei oei, presents.

E: I do that every week. I give something to my guest of the week.

W: Oei oei oei. Do I slide it?

E: Here in the front is a flap that you have to fold upwards…

[Intro]

E: Wassup people, welcome to a new episode of the Gossip Guy podcast. My name is Ender Scholtens and today I’m here with Willem De Schryver. Everything ok?

W: Sure sure (In Dutch sure is used as a confirmation to a question).

E: Is this your first podcast?

W: Yes, this is my first podcast.

E: Stress?

W: No, it will be fine, right? Relaxed.

E: I don’t know… (laughing). For the people who don’t recognize you, from where could they know you?

W: Hmmm, probably from the youth series WTFOCK where, in the third season, I play the role of Sander.

E: And we are allowed to talk about it in this podcast.

W: Yeah I also heard that. Yes, it’s over.

E: Was it a difficult chapter of your life to close?

W: Yes, I still clearly remember the last moment… Like really the last last scene at the sea… That was an emotional moment because you went through a lot as a group, you did a lot together, and emotional scenes, intimate scenes. But yes, I think, if I speak for the whole group that it was a goodbye to the series but not a goodbye from each other. We still keep in contact. Mainly through WhatsApp.

E: Yeah, the end of the series was beautiful. I sat next to my girlfriend when it just came online. Because there were a few scenes that we hadn’t seen yet and we were just watching them… And we refreshed and the last episode was online… The last piece was online… So, I thought… I really cried… It caused quite some emotions.

W: For many people… Also under the cast and even the extras that were present for that last scene… Even among them. I can remember that they got emotional because it really was over over. I think that we, WTFOCK, have been able to impact a lot of young people in Belgium. So, it’s beautiful… We closed it beautifully…

E: I don’t doubt that. I really liked the end. What is your favorite memory from your whole WTFOCK experience?

W: Hoh, hmmm. Do I have to choose one? Difficult to choose one… I think that the most enjoyable moments… At the end of each series… Almost… We were at the sea or in the Ardennes, as a group, for a vacation. Away together. And those moments… Away with the whole cast and crew… Being away for a whole weekend. And in the evening, talking late into the night and that creates a special connection and I think that, in general, was the most enjoyable… Yes, it affects me… You share, as a young person, a common dream or something we want to realize as an actor to succeed and everyone who works so hard for that… That’s nice to see.

E: I recently talked to Veerle and I know that if she sees Nora, like somewhere, say at a party… Then they stay together for the whole evening… Do you have that? With who did you have the best connection throughout that whole experience?

W: Yes…

E: That doesn’t mean that the rest is not chill or so…

W: No the rest is all stupid… There’s only one person… I hate you all! (joking) No! Yes, hmmm, I think that I definitely have the best connection with Willem. Just because we have been through a lot… I always compare the WTFOCK crew a bit to my own friend group, aside from the cast. I mean, I know to whom I can go for what. I know I can go to some if I feel sad, to talk and I know who I can go to to have a laugh. And who I can go to to have a general chat. And everyone has their qualities or like their own aura around them… Where I love to hang around. So, it differs from person to person. So, it’s hard to choose one person but Willem then in the sense that, if you jump naked together in a swimming pool and if you have intimate scenes together… That creates a connection, of course. So, yes, if I have to choose one person…

E: Is there a barrier that you have to overcome to play such scenes? Because they are very intimate, indeed. And I, personally, couldn’t imagine… I can’t act… But, to empathize with a role… To play such scenes… Is that difficult for you?

W: Huh, yes, that’s a question I get often. I mean like… Yeah and you have to empathize with that character… But yes, you step into that project with a certain professionalism and you say “okay, we are going to create a story and bring it to the public with certain values and that we want to tell something and show something” …So, yes, you don’t really think about it. So, it’s not like I thought “Ooooo, I am kissing with a boy but I am interested in girls”. That was not a problem for me because it really is about telling the story and making that together and if the story requires that then you just completely go for it.

E: That’s cool. What are your future acting ambitions? You now have played in a series, is that something you want to do more in the future or do you like theatre more or movie or…

W: I find it difficult to choose between theatre and film, for example. After WTFOCK I played in Déjà Vu, which you can see on Streamz and later this year on Channel 4… And I study theatre at KASK. And I notice the difference, due to the recordings, I am really in the field and I am busy and I work, while at school I learn new things about theatre… So, in my opinion I have more experience in television work because I actually have done projects for that and I haven’t yet for theatre, which is still school and learning. So, I think it’s currently hard to choose but I think, maybe it’s a cliché answer, but the combination is maybe ideal, of course. But I am still exploring and I will see how it goes…

7:02

E: What is your favorite food?

W: My favorite food?

E: Yes.

W: Hmmmm, in the past I was really a basic guy… Like spaghetti bolognese or so… But now, generally after my exams, I go to a restaurant with my grandma. She always buys. That’s always amazing. I am a fan. And I always take steak tartare with fries. That remains a bit of a guilty pleasure.

E: How long, do you think, would it take you to eat five full plates of spaghetti bolognese?

W: Hoh, hmmm. The thing is, my stomach is rather small…

E: Small?

W: I think that I would have to schedule in… Okay, after a certain time I would have to throw up and then eating further…

E: You’re allowed to take a break. You’re allowed to say… Okay, I take a few days…

W: No, no, not that…

E: You’re going to do it in a day?

W: Look, two plates… Three if I really push…

E: You get preparation time so you know like a week before… So, you can like…

W: Train yourself?

E: Yes, train…

W: Hoh, alee say about four hours…

E: Four hours?! Five plates, he? Like five really big plates…

W: Yeah but yeah, four minutes… I am exaggerating… Let’s say a day… In a day five plates…

E: Ok, that should work. Then you basically have every meal… Breakfast… Lunch… Dinner… and in between… pasta…

W: Pasta as breakfast…

E: One day should definitely be feasible.

W: Yes, indeed.

8:49

E: What is, according to you, the reason you were placed on this planet?

W: Fuck (laughs).

E: Existential crisis, okay? Have you never thought about what the purpose of life is and what…

W: Yes, certainly… Hmmm, I'm someone who worries a lot. When I'm in bed in the evening I start to think about questions like that and then I think “what am I doing? Willem… where do I want to go to and…” Hmmm, why was I put on this planet? Hmmmm… (speechless followed by laughing). This is really bad… It’s like I don’t value myself…

E: Noooo, but I didn’t expect a deep philosophical answer. Well, if you had one… really good but…

W: Okay I’m going to think about my philosophical answer… but no. If you want… No! Yes, now I'm really going to sound philosophical but… (crosstalk) Everyone who is on earth has a certain reason to be here and everyone… I for example have that… I really feel that… I never liked going to school. Especially, in lower and high school. I… I actually, on purpose, put my fingers in my throat in the morning to throw up…

E: Wow, that’s heavy…

W: And then going downstairs to say “papa I’m ill, can I stay home?” I don’t know why but that whole system… Sitting behind a desk all day… And those classes… that was not for me. And then I discovered my passion for acting and discovered that it really suited me. And that’s the thing… A lot of people often ask me like “how did you start?” and “I also would like to do that and where do I start and I have been rejected does that mean I am not good enough?” but I think that sometimes you shouldn’t rush to find your passion. It can take longer then you would like it to take. I think that if you too intensively search for "what am I good at?" and “I have to find something that I am good at” and… For me that’s happened unexpectedly. I did take acting classes on Wednesday afternoons after school and I kind of got into it like that… I think it differs for everyone and that everyone has their own purpose here on earth.

E: And would you say your purpose is acting?

W: Yeah…

E: There isn’t a right answer but how does it feel for you at the moment? Is that the thing you love doing the most or do you see yourself doing for a long time?

W: The thing is… I’m a person who gets tired of things very quickly. I’ve had a lot of hobbies.

E: So maybe next week you want to garden or something?

W: No, no I wouldn’t say that. No the thing is, with acting that isn’t the case. Since I was twelve… well first on amateur level…

E: How old are you now?

W: 19.

E: Oh wow I thought you were my age. 19… damn bro you’re three years younger than me.

W: 2001 represent.

E: That’s literally… you’re the same age as my brother! What the shit. Alright, no okay.

W: In November so almost 2002. I’m really a latecomer.

E: What?! You look like you’re the same age as me and everything.

12:14

W: But that’s honestly – thank you for saying that! I always used to be the “little guy.” None of the girls wanted to be with me cause they just thought I was cute.

E: I see.

W: And they came to me to talk about their love lives.

E: Oh, okay.

W: So I was always that guy who was like: “I’m in love with you.” “Oh, how cute! You’re so cute!” So I was always like: “Okay then, I’m never going to find anyone, I’m always going to stay… short. I’ll be all alone.” And then all of a sudden I –

E: Do you think height matters in regard to your chances with certain… people?

W: At this age I don’t think it does anymore, but I do think that – I think at – I just remember in high school that the romantic idea of what love was supposed to look like was very: a boy and a girl, and the boy has to be taller and stronger and bigger than the girl. But I think that now it’s more… I mean, at my age I’m convinced it’s more fluid than that, and it doesn’t have to be that way. So it doesn’t have to be an issue anymore.

E: But still, when you go on Twitter, short guys are still –

W: Yeah.

E: Totally annihilated.

W: I have notice – I have noticed – Yeah, it’s still… It’s still this… general thing that people get stuck on. Like: “Oh, a short dude. That’s not okay.” Or whatever.

E: Or like the guy has to be taller. But no, we’re – we’re – not… not all relationships… we’re really generalizing here. But I get what you mean.

W: Yeah.

E: No, it’s – I do think it’s still important. I think that when you’re, and this is really harsh, but that a lot of people look at you differently when you’re taller. I have this dude in my friend group, Louis Ledegen, and he’s close to 2 meters tall, and just some girls look at him and they just think that’s so… attractive or whatever. And I just can’t even imagine.

W: I don’t get that either.

E: That that makes them go like: “Wow!”

W: I was in the train just now and this dude walked by me and he was honestly like 2 meters tall and I was just thinking: “When you’re that tall, and you’re with…” I mean, the girl almost has to get on a stepping stool to reach him for a kiss! And girls are like – I mean, I’ve heard before that girls think it’s attractive when a man is really tall.

E: Yeah.

W: And yeah, I don’t know… I don’t totally get it.

E: No.

W: Maybe it’s cause I’m not that tall myself, that I’m like trying to protect myself and be all: “That’s not necessary!”

E: Yeah! If anybody knows the answer, do we, being shorter guys, have less of a chance?

W: Let us know, please.

14:53

E: Please let us know! We need some answers! Now in the show, wtFOCK, your hair’s a different color.

W: Yeah.

E: Yeah. Is that something… So that was actually – it wasn’t really blonde?

W: It was completely bleached.

E: Bleached.

W: It was more to the… But the thing is that they had to do it twice, cause the first time… I got there, for the first table read with the director and Willem [Herbots] and they were like: “Hey, Willem. We wanted to ask you something. We’d like to bleach your hair for the role.”

E: Yeah.

W: And I was like: “… Okay.”

E: Okay.

W: “And why?” No. “Just for the character and stuff.” So I was like: “Okay. That’s fine.” The thing is I had to be at the hairdresser for 4 hours for this.

E: Oh wow, heavy.

W: It was like this and this product, and it had to sit for a long time. It had to be bleached all over. And I got out of there the first time and I was completely yellow – but yellow like an egg.

E: Oh, shit!

W: And I… My mom dropped me off, and I texted her: “I’m done, will you come get me?” And I saw my mom approach and she just passed me by.

E: Oh wow.

W: She didn’t – she almost didn’t recognize me anymore. Like halfway - she was like – and then she was like: “Oh! Willem!” Like she hadn’t seen –

E: Oh shit.

W: That it was me. That I looked completely different. And then I arrived for another table read and Tom [Goris – director] was like: “Yeah… We’re not gonna go this route… This is too yellow.” So then I spent another 4 hours at the hairdresser. After that I had to be there for four hours almost every month. I did think it was cool to have bleached hair, but… You have to be at the hairdresser for so long, so that really wasn’t… my thing. I mean, I had some really cool moments with Mitch [Fabry – hair & make up wtFOCK]. Thanks, Mitch.

E: Would you ever dye your hair again?

W: Uhm.

E: Maybe another color?

W: Yeah, I don’t think so. I’m quite happy with my hair color, actually, I don’t know.

E: Alright.

W: Now it’s also like… Everyone always asks me: “So this is your natural hair color?”

E: Yeah.

W: And then I have to tell them: “Yeah.” And it’s like: “Oh, okay!” It’s this switch. But no, I’m happy with my hair. It’s fine.

17:03

E: I can also tell that you’ve got an earring? You can’t really tell on camera, but –

W: I’ll come a little closer [to the camera]. Yeah, I only got it recently, four weeks or something.

E: Yeah. Was it an impulsive, drunken decision, or something you wanted… for some time?

W: I’ve wanted it for a long time, but I was a little anxious about it like: “It’s not gonna look good on me,” and then after a while, a couple of months ago, I was like: “Fuck it, I’m just gonna do it.” And if it didn’t look good I could still just take it out, so it doesn’t really matter. But all in all I was pretty happy with it. My father, my parents – my mom: “Oh, so nice!!” And it was like – at first they give you a stud and then after four weeks you can change it to a hoop. And I really wanted a hoop, and I even asked the people in the (piercing) shop: “Can’t I please just get a hoop straight away?” And they were like: “No, sorry, it doesn’t work like that. For hygiene reasons that’s not okay.”

E: Okay.

W: But okay, so I had to wait four weeks and then eventually I could change it to the golden hoop. So I get home and the first thing my father said was: “Wow, you look like a douchebag.” That was the first thing out of his mouth, that I looked like a douchebag.

E: Is that the look you were going for?

W: No, not at all! Not at all!

E: I think it looks cool.

W: Thanks.

E: Cause a little while ago I wanted one, and so I put on my girlfriend’s earring – because even if your ear isn’t pierced it sticks a little –

W: Yeah.

E: And so I just put it on there for a day or something, and then I was like: “Okay, that’s quite enough.” I don’t know if I’d want it for longer than that. Recently I’ve been getting into rings and stuff though.

W: I wore rings for a long time, but I don’t have any anymore. I actually want – I like them too. But I have to –

18:47

E: If I’d known, I would’ve brought you a gift!

W: Go shopping. Goddamn!

E: I did bring you another gift though!

W: Another gift? Oei oei oei, gifts!

E: This is something I do every week,  I give my guest of the week something.

W: Oei oei oei. 

E: It’s just…

W: Do I just slide it –

E: There’s a little hatch over here, that you have to lift, and then you can just lift it like that. There we go.

W: There we go.

E: White hairspray.

W: If I’d want to go back to – there we have it. Too good.

E: It can be washed out really easily as well. So this way you don’t have to be at the hairdresser for like four hours. And then when you’re sick of it, you can just get rid of it again!

W: That was the thing… Thank you, by the way.

E: You’re very welcome.

W: Now I can go back – Now I can go back to my past life. No, that was the thing as well. People who – people who - after wtFOCK came online, people really recognized me with the white hair. I mean, it’s pretty noticeable, when I’m walking through Ghent station – if someone with bleached hair. I mean, if you watch the show, I can imagine that when you see someone with bleached hair, you immediately connect the two and think: “Oh, that could be him.” And then you run in to some people who ask for pictures. After that my hair was really short, cause the people from Déja-Vu were like: “We’re not gonna do this, just go back to your natural hair color.” So I cut it all off, and there was this time where… nobody came to talk to me anymore. I was able to just be myself again. It was as if – looking back on it, it was actually really nice that for wtFOCK I was able to completely get into a different character with different hair. And the first time I got rid of the hair I really noticed that was no longer being associated with the character.

E: Hannah Montana vibes! Your hair changes color and nobody knows who you are anymore.

W: “Who are you?”

E: “Who the fuck are you?!”

W: “Does anybody want to take pictures with me? It’s me! It’s me! I swear!”

E: “I’m that dude from wtFOCK! I’m that dude from wtFOCK!”

W: So if people don’t recognize me anymore I can just… *pshhht* in the morning.

E: Exactly! If you want to take some more pictures, you can just…

W: No, no. That’s fine. No, yeah.

E: It’s kind of crazy, actually. Because, honestly? The very first time I saw a flash of you, with this hair color, I also thought: “I recognize you from somewhere…” But I think I’d already gotten in contact with you through social [media] and I didn’t put two and two together that you…

W: Yeah.

E: “Aaah!”

W: “Aaah! You’re that guy!”

E: Yeah, so…

W: But that’s the whole thing. If someone recognizes me, which doesn’t happen that often by the way, it’s always – I think it’s funny to be like: “No, that’s not me.”

E: No.

W: People really start doubting themselves, it’s very: “Uhm, can I ask you a question? Are you that guy from wtFock?” “Me? No.”

E: “No!”

W: “That’s not me.” And people will often be like: “Oh? What? But I recognize you…” That doubt on their faces is pretty funny but yeah, then I tell them it’s me.

E: Just the reaction of someone being like: “Huh, do I know you from somewhere?” “Do you watch porn?”

W: The confrontation.

E: “Oh… qmdkjg.” And it’d be even better if the parents were right there as well. “Argh!”

W: “Yes, Jürgen, care to explain yourself, young man?”

E: No, it’s just funny to joke about. But you’ve never – Do you just get: “Hey, are you that guy from wtFOCK?” Or have people also asked you: “Do I know you from somewhere?” Or: “What do I know you from?”

W: Yeah, it depends. The thing is – I go to school in Ghent and when the [popular place where college students go out] was still open before Covid-19, not that I went there often because I didn’t really like it there –

E: No.

W: - in the sense that the combination of young people who –

E: Watch wtFOCK.

W: - watch wtFOCK and alcohol – and people who’ve had alcohol to drink –

E: And are horny?

W: - their limits or boundaries are just gone. “Oh my god!!! You’re that dude from wtFOCK!! Can I kiss you??” Things like that!

E: Oh, fuck!

W: And I was really like: “Okay…?” I’m just a regular dude and I’m trying – and I actually thought it was less annoying for myself, but I thought it was more disruptive for my friends. Like even when we were just walking down the street, we got recognized a couple of times, and I was just like: I just want to have fun with my friends, and not have to spend too much time thinking. That’s another thing I was subconsciously thinking about. Imagine I drink way too much.

E: Yeah.

W: And I end up in the gutter somewhere, and people start filming that… So yeah, that made… So because of that I spent more time in friends’ dorm rooms just having dorm parties.

E: And since your bleached hair is gone, have you gone to a party?

W: When my bleached hair was gone corona was already a thing so I haven’t been able to enjoy it. But it’s starting to come back [the parties] so that’s nice. I’m looking forward to… tomorrow I’m going-

E: Are you going as well?

W: Are you going to Plein Air by Fuse?

E: Tomorrow I’m going to Jaimie Lee who-

W: …Is going to DJ at three festivals.

E: Yeah at three festivals and I will be backstage I guess.

W: Okay.

E: One of those festivals?

W: Yeah I don’t know. I have tickets for Fuse Open Air in Brussels.

24:19

E: I honestly have no idea where I’m going. Anyway, I’m excited. And I always asked, what’s the first event you went to ever since it’s allowed? Did you go to We Can Dance festival?

W: No I was studying.

E: Was today your last exam or yesterday?

W: Yesterday was my last exam in the morning. I was stressing so much, because I thought I would fail, but eventually I think it went relatively well. If you’re watching professors, let me pass please. No I think it went well.

E: Are you someone who is stress resistant?

W: Uhh no.

E: No?

W: I let it take over my body.

E: You get physically unwell?

W: I will be laying in bed and I’m tossing and turning and sweating. And I think about how I’m not gonna pass tomorrow. And the combination with my worries is really not good. It makes me stay up really late. The thing is with stress resistant, I for example made my own play at high school about a kid with divorced parents for my final work and the whole audience was filled with my family and my parents. That’s pretty confronting to tell a story that’s also a little bit of their life and is pretty personal. I’m always stressed for things like that. Then it’s weird – from the first word I spoke I had a lot of stress and worries and the first sentence that I said was something like “I don’t know what to do”, and then it’s all of a sudden poofff. The train has left.

E: You said you didn’t really know what to do now.

W: That’s the first sentence of the text that I wrote and the moment I said that sentence I thought in my head “the train has left, there’s no way back now” and then the stress disappears automatically. But before the final rehearsal there was a moment that I was moving around heavily and I was throwing with chairs. And afterwards I had to pack moving boxes, which was okay. But from moving around and the combination of stress it made me almost gag in the box from the stress so I almost puked. So at these moments it gets pretty heavy.

E: Did other people notice or were you hiding it?

W: Yeah the final rehearsal was luckily not with an audience, but my teachers were like “Everything alright?” and I was like “Yeah I’m good. It’s a bit much”. But when it comes to stress, a lot of people always say – I’m even a little stressed right now actually.

E: Really?

W: Podcasts, oh no no.

E: Oh shit. You have to be (stressed)

W: A lot of pressure on my shoulder here. No, but a lot of people say that it doesn’t look like that I’m stressed even though I really am dying from all the stress.

E: Only now you can hide it really well. You should become an actor.

W: A lot of people have said that to me often, but it’s not my interest. Also not much work in the field.

E: That too, fuck. Are you someone who constantly pretends like you’re okay?

W: Yes.

E: Even when you have a lot of shit going on in your head and you’re processing other things?

W: I'm one person. One person?

E: "I'm one person" [laughs]

W: I am one person. No, but I'm someone who often keeps their stuff to themselves, so that I can listen to what others need.

28:15

E: That was my next question. You listen more to other people’s problems and you’re the person people come to with their problems?

W: I think, at least I hope, that a lot of my friends do know that they can always come to me for a talk or a phone call. I'm someone that will shove away their happiness for someone else, which isn’t always positive of course.

E: It is a beautiful characteristic, but it shouldn’t take over indeed.

W: In the past it has happened that I was falling apart, but I kept pushing it away, because I wanted to take care of someone else. I noticed this a lot during the divorce of my parents. My parents had a hard time with the divorce and I remember that I came home as a little boy and I saw my mom sitting and I felt the duty to comfort her and to be there for her, even though I was 8 or 9 years old. That’s not something you expect to do or think from an 8 year old. It really broke me and now I can openly speak about it, because I have had enough conversations with my parents about it, about how it was for me. And I made a play about it, as I told earlier, so it’s been a whole process and that has scarred me till at least my 16th. My parents got divorced when I was 5 or 6 years old. It took me a long time to open up because of that. I notice it a lot in previous relationships, that I walk away from fights, because I would find the confrontation too heavy to get into a fight and to discuss. The divorce and fights with my parents scarred me so hard that I didn’t want that again. I wanted everything to be rainbow and sunshine, but life doesn’t work like that. And that was partly a misconception from me, that I thought that a relationship had to be perfect, if there is a fight, then it’s not going well. Now I realize that fights are part of a relationship. And also part of steps you take into accepting each other, listening to each other and understanding each other. It’s needed for a stronger connection. You can’t, well you can, but in my eyes you can’t be with someone for a long time without ever having had a conflict. Even if it’s a discussion, because then you’re adapting too much to the other, and then you say okay, I’m adapting to the demands of her and I suppress my own things or things I want to do, only to avoid the discussion, and that’s something I learned. And that’s how everyone learns their own things along the way.

E: You still see it in the youth, those romantic movies, where everyone is so in love and it always ends with a kiss or something and it’s always good and then you think, this must be the case in real life. Why can’t I find Gabriella Montez for my Troy Bolton. Even though that was a shitty relationship too, they were constantly fighting. No, but that gives a wrong image about relationships and for other things because of movies. And the reality is just different.

32:16

W: Yes. I recently for the first time -this is kinda embarrassing because it’s a must see- watched The Notebook.

E: Me too! What did you think?

W: It has been a few weeks ago. Or a few weeks, maybe 3 or something.

E: I watched it last weekend.

W: I almost cried.

E: Really?

W: I’m a really emotional person. I can really cry. I can really get lost in a movie. “No not the puppy, why?!” Those things, where I think "Willem, act normal". But no it was a beautiful movie.

E: Yeah I have a different opinion, because I just fell asleep. I fell asleep, because it all went so slow, it started so slow. I didn’t even watch the kiss in the rain scene.

W: The moment. It’s in literally every romantic movie. In the rain, it happens everywhere.

Ender: Yeah mate, it’s such a cliché actually, but yeah.

W: I bet you that they’re just standing there with a garden hose.

E: Definitely.

W: It can’t be that they’re waiting, “is it gonna rain today? We need to do that scene now”.

33:27

E: Checking the rain alarm while everyone is inside. There are definitely sprinklers there. It’s in a lot of romantic movies. Now that we’re talking about it, the filming you did with wtFock, you sometimes had scenes outside. Here we have those (light) spots, I assume that you don’t carry them outside. How do you guys do that?

W: Sometimes we do have spots outside, but as long as the light from the sun is okay – with a binocular (telescope), well it’s not a binocular, it’s a round thing you can look through and with it they can determine the brightness of the sun and if the sun is too bright for the lightning they need, then it gets shielded, the same that is in front of your lamps. With that they can dim the lights. Or when there is not enough they use isomo plates, that’s really weird. Sometimes there are really intimate scenes in a series where it looks like it’s really close to the skin of the actors. There is a camera with a plate on it and a stick for the sound above it, it sometimes made it really hard for me to focus, because everyone is sitting there and the director and I’m like “yeah, okay okay”. So it takes a lot to get it all professional.

E: Was there a crazy moment where you forgot your lines? That you’re laying in bed and you’re like “which sentence do I have to say now?”

W: Yeah we’ve definitely had a lot of bloopers. Yeah forgetting lines or.. the thing is, as long as the director doesn’t say cut, you have to keep going. It’s a matter of "how do I improvise myself around this scene to get to the point we actually have to get to", because you have a scene and you have your lines, but if you forget something, then you do know the main lines of where the scene has to go to. You know the scene will end in a kiss or something and these subjects will be spoken about in the conversation, so when you forget your lines, you try to work your way through it as best as possible. And when the director says it wasn’t good, then we’ll do it again. I’ve had a lot of moments where I forgot my lines and I was laying in bed with Willem and we would look at each other and we’d know that I had to say something, but I was stuck, so there would be a 10 seconds silence, hoping for them to say cut. Yeah so those kinds of moments a lot or moments where I… I also had that with Déjà Vu. I remember… by the way it was amazing to work together with such big names as Natali Broods and Koen De Graeve. And Koen, lovely person, was kind of the father figure on set and we had a scene, next to the bed, a quite emotional scene. And the camera was focused on me, close up on my face. And I still remember that, the sound was going, everything, and Koen had just told a joke, or made a face that made me laugh. So, I had to laugh really hard, but I had to act very sad. It was an intense scene of goodbyes. All the time, starting to laugh about everything. I still remember for wtFock we made a video with bloopers and those are very fun to watch back.

37:03

E: Are those bloopers ever published somewhere online?

W: I don’t think so.

E: I think if you’d be able to release them somewhere that a lot of people would be interested in them.

W: Yes, yes. I don’t know why, indeed. The fans would be happy with those.

E: I think a lot of people- because we were just talking about your biggest fan.

W: My biggest-

E: Your grandma.

W: My grandma, yes. Big shout out to my grandma.

E: Do you think she’s watching right now?

W: She’ll definitely watch, I hope so.

E: What’s your grandma’s name?

W: Micheline.

E: Micheline, thank you very much for watching Micheline.

W: Micheline.

E: I appreciate it.

W: Women in power. She deserves a special place. No really, she follows all the fan accounts of wtFock. And then sometimes, or very often, we call and she gives me an update of what’s being said on the internet. Or yes, I also remember, when scenes come out and there’s things being said and she’s like "Willem, is that true, what are they saying?" And I say "Grandma, it’s nothing, it’s all from the show." "Ah okay, okay." So yes, very sweet grandma. She’s like the grandma where everything was allowed. I think that’s the same for everyone. At home, there are a lot of rules, and then you got to sleepover at your grandma’s and it was like: "Oh, I get to stay up later, and she made pudding for me." Her vanilla pudding-

E: That good?

W: Grandma, if you’re seeing this, please make some vanilla pudding when I visit.

E: Dude, everything’s falling out of my pocket.

W: You’re letting everything fall out of your pocket? Maybe you need to buy another pair of pants.

E: The chair is too comfortable that I’m kind of sinking in it, and now I constantly get-

W: The conversation’s too comfortable-

E: It’s just my phone, it’s vibrating, I think it just vibrated out of my pocket. So, silent, great. Eh, what were we talking about? About your grandma.

W: About my grandma.

38:46

E: Now, totally different subject. If you were a fish, what color fish would you be?

W: A fish?

E: Which color do you identify most with?

W: Eh.

E: And you’re a fish too of course.

W: Identify with which color. The thing is, I’m in the scouts. And in the Jins, that’s the last year before you become a leader, we were given a color totem, and the whole group decided on a color that fits you.

E: All right.

W: And mine was mango orange.

E: Wow, that’s cool.

W: Yeah, I thought it was cool too. And it means, if I have to think back, mango has quite a hard peel, relatively, but the fruit itself is quite soft. And that refers to my personality. I’m someone that lets people in fast, around me, but in the beginning, suspicion is a little strong, but kind of like, testing. Let’s say that. But once- From the outside I might look a bit hard. A lot of people say that when I have my straight face-

E: Resting bitch face.

W: That I’m angry. I was once told on the subway by a dude, and I was just listening to music, staring in the distance, and I think, suddenly a dude comes up to me, in French: "C’est quoi ton problème, heh, tu regardes come ça, c’est quoi ton problème." And I was like: "I’m sorry". Apparently, I was looking in his direction with my-

E: Bitch face.

W: Bitch face. He must have thought I was looking for problems. So yeah, that’s why the mango, a little hard on the outside, but once you get to know me better, a soft, sweet boy. So that’s why, orange. So, an orange fish then.

E: A little bit of Nemo vibes.

W: Yes, Nemo then. But let’s, what’s that theory. Did you hear that?

E: Theory?

W: About Nemo.

E: What’s the theory?

W: Haven’t you heard that? I keep seeing that online. I’m having a crisis. So the thing is, your childhood will get ruined.

E: Fuck man.

W: The thing is-

E: But there really are, no keep going, I have something I want to say afterwards.

W: The thing is, I’ve heard, that Nemo is Latin for nobody, and that the father is imagining that he still has an egg left, but that that fish doesn’t actually exist.

E: Oh fuck.

W: And that Dory joins him, and he sees, we’re actually not looking for anyone, but because he has memory issues, he constantly forgets that they’re not looking for anyone. So, they’re actually looking for nobody. And I saw that online and I was like.

E: Damn, so all the eggs are eaten, but he imagines that someone still has to be there.

W: Yes, something to keep living for.

E: Fuck man, that’s very brutal. That’s very fucked up.

W: Sorry to everyone for who Nemo is ruined now.

E: There’s a similar theory about Phineas and Ferb, and then Candice, their sister, is based on a true story about a girl that lost her brothers and still imagines that they're still doing stuff in the garden. And she keeps telling her mom: "Look, look, they are still here, they’re doing that." And that the mom says: "They’re not there." And that’s why she can never see that. You get it? Brutal right?

W: My whole childhood is ruined. Fucking hell.

E: That’s going to be the title of this podcast.

W: Childhood ruined.

E: We’re ruining your childhood.

42:17

W: We’re ruining your childhood. No but that’s good because, thankfully, I have a half-sister, but I say sister because I think half-sister is an ugly word, of seven years old. She thinks she’s 16. She’s a real diva.

E: Oh wow, okay.

W: She’s very, I’ll tell you a story later, but the thing is, I experience all those things with her again. In the beginning it was like, turning the tv on, Bumba, again. And I could secretly watch with her without feeling guilty. I was like, I’m watching Bumba and secretly I’m enjoying it, but sssh, I’m just watching it with my sister.

E: That exactly.

W: And now it’s Ketnet, like Hoodie, those series that she’s watching. And yes, I notice that because of all the technology today, she has an iPad, she’s on YouTube, she’s watching those self-made crafts.

E: 7 years old?

W: 7 years old, yes.

E: Wow.

W: She watches those- where people are playing with Barbies and they make a little play with them online on YouTube and they do stuff. Yes, a tablet. She has an iPad that’s bigger than her head. That makes me think- well, an iPad is usually bigger than everyone’s head. Or well, almost.

E: Not if you have a mini of course.

W: Her head isn’t that big.

E: Okay.

W: She’s on it a lot though. But she’s a real diva. I think the best story I have, there’s multiple. I remember the story, we were sitting at the table and she was having another moment of "I’m the princess, and everyone can leave because I do what I want and fuck you all". But the thing is, there’s five kids at home. I have a brother and two stepbrothers. So, she has four brothers, and she knows very well that she has four brothers. And that makes her feel even more like she’s the princess at home. So, we were sitting at the table. And she kept staring at my dad like this while throwing her cutlery on the ground. Like "what are you going to do". And my dad was like: "Liv," because her name is Liv by the way, "stop that."

E: That wasn’t nice of Liv. (Liv sounds the same as lief which means nice in Dutch.)

W: No. Not nice of-

E: Haha. Sorry.

W: Badam pam ts. Can’t we put that under here. Yes.

E: No, sorry, keep going.

W: So, he was like: "Liv, stop that, stop that." He started to get annoyed, because she kept going. "Liv, what is so hard to understand about no." And then it got silent at the table so I thought, okay, it’s done. The o.

E: Oh wow.

W: 7 years old and she drops that.

E: Oh wow.

W: And I thought, okay.

E: Damn bro.

W: The o. That she even dares to say that. Yeah, and she has those moments. She was sitting at the table, with her mask on, eating. So, she pulled her mask down to eat, and then she was chewing with her mask on. And then I asked: "Liv, why are you wearing your mask?" "Yes, you came back from Ghent, you’re not in my bubble."

E: Okay, okay.

W: So, then I said: "Okay, that’s fine." It’s crazy how that goes around among young children. Because my sister came back home from school crying once. And I asked her: ‘Liv, what’s wrong?’ "Yes, my friends didn’t let me play with them." So, I was like: "Why?" "Margot says I’m not allowed in her bubble."

E: Oh wow.

W: See, that’s becoming the new- we played with Pokémon cards on the playground and now it’s about playing games in bubbles because it’s so-

E: Damn.

W: Yes, you’re only allowed to have four people in your bubble so we don’t play with more than four.

E: Oh wow.

W: So I found that kind of crazy, or confronting that it made me think like, even at such a young age it has an impact. And I know that the-

E: That it leaves an impression.

W: Yes, and I know that my dad-

E: It’s sad that children have to think about it.

W: Yes, exactly.

E: Well, it’s not that- everyone should think about it of course.

W: Yes, yes, of course. It’s also that I know the way my dad feels about raising, that he tells Liv straight up about things that are happening in the world. He doesn’t make things seem nicer, or saying, eh, yes, no, but that’s- The classic story of how babies are made, with the cauliflowers, and what not.

E: I also just think-

W: How am I going to explain that to my kids?

E: If you don’t make it a taboo to start with, is it that bad? It’s just- it’s just. Oh well, that’s a whole other conversation.

W: Yes, no, definitely.

E: But straight up just telling what’s going on to your kids. I think I would prefer that to making up a story about the flowers and the bees.

W: Yes, yes.

E: Because the story about the flowers and the bees, I don’t even know how you actually- pollinating and stuff, is that what that means?

W: You do it like this, pollinating.

E: Yes, no, exactly.

W: Yes, but well, children, that’s still a long time from now.

E: Do you want kids, you think, later?

W: Yes, please.

E: Do you think you would be a good father?

W: I hope I would be a good father. Despite my parents’ divorce, I really do… I do look up to my parents. I’m proud of the way they raised me. So yeah if I would be a good father… sometimes, but maybe that’s the age, kids frustrate me. I’m a leader in the scouts for the Welpen and Welpen -great guys- but they can also be annoying and say “I’m not participating” and “that’s a stupid game, can we do something else?” and I’m like “we invest so much time in this and so much preparation, please participate” so sometimes that bothers me. But I would prefer not to have just one (child). Certainly more than one because… are you an only child?

E: No I have a little brother.

W: Yeah only child… with all due respect to people who are only children but sometimes I think… for example, I’m very happy that I have a brother. Not that it wouldn’t be fun without a brother per se, but I don’t know, the contact I have with my brother is nice.

E: The thing is, you don’t know what you’re missing so it’s hard to miss it I guess. But I do think that my brother has been a great added value to my life.

W: Yeah, yeah.

E: In the same way, I never really had grandparents. They all died before I was born and the grandfather I did have was quite old when I was actually aware that I had a grandfather. So I’ve never really had the grandparents experience that you see with family gatherings and stuff. But I don’t feel like I’ve missed anything but I still know how much other people benefit from having grandparents. Also what you just said about how often you call each other and stuff. I think that’s the same with being an only child. If you don’t have any brothers or sisters, you don’t know what it’s like to have that, what you’re missing. But if you do have it, it’s an added value I think.

W: Yes, exactly. No that’s true. My brother is very helpful to me now. I know that I can count on him.

E: Older or younger by the way?

W: Older.

E: A lot older?

W: 21.

E: 21.

W: Oh boy I had to think about how old my brother is. Embarrassing. Love you man. No but we had - maybe you had that too – but when we were younger, we really fought.

E: Physical?

W: Real fighting. Yeah, it’s has now gotten much better. I think we understand each other a lot better, but it used to be real… we had Catch WW on the Wii and we reenacted that on the couch so that was… “In the right corner Ramy Stereo” and we were bare-chested and both had one boxing glove on and fighting each other until one of us cried, bled or gave up. Usually it was me.

E: That’s just the fate of the little brother.

W: I always went… I’ve never admitted that actually, [whispers] it’s a confession. I’ve never admitted it, but afterwards I always went to my parents and cried “Kwinten hurt me”.

E: That’s really… that’s the moment, you feel it coming and you think “ah fuck no, if I hit again it’s probably over but I want to…” [cross-talk] “no no no don’t tell mom! Don’t tell mom!” I think I was a pretty nice big brother. We often did shit together. We were at home playing on the couch together and Olaf bumps into a large box that was standing there and the box, bigger than Olaf back then, fell down on his hand.

W: Oh shit.

E: So Olaf broke his hand. And I thought “I made him jump over those chairs” and then you have to say “sorry sorry don’t tell them, don’t tell them!” but yeah if your hand is fucking broken, you’re not gonna stop crying because your big brother says “don’t cry”. Yeah, that are…

W: Yes, but the relationship [between Willem and his brother] has improved. Okay we still have our discussions but... I think moments like when we’ve both been to a pub or something and we come home at the same time and we’re always hungry and standing in the kitchen making sandwiches. Those are great moments. I don’t necessarily need to have emotionally heavy of deep conversations with my brother to know that he’s there and that I can have a good time with him. So I think that’s the added value of having a brother or brothers in general.

E: Do you guys also have a specific sense of humor? Or like those moments when the two of you are laughing and your parents or people around you think “what the fuck is going on?”

W: Yeah we speak some slang to each other for fun. Like “stu stu” and [my slang knowledge is very limited so I have no idea what he’s saying here lol], those kinds of things. Typical slang from Brussels and Leuven. It’s funny because my parents are always like “why are you talking to each other like that?” and recently, I was leaving and my mom said “stu stu!” so they are adopting those words and then my brother and I can’t stop laughing.

E: Also if your mom suddenly says “are we going to chill later?” and I’m like [laughing] “what? Mom!”

W: “Okay??”

E: It’s kind of cute. Yeah it’s fun. And what are… I almost want to go deep like…

W: That’s okay.

E: Is there a particular interaction or experience you’ve had with your brother that sums up your relationship right now? Or are those the moments when you’re laughing and eating at night? It doesn’t have to be a super deep or emotional moment.

W: I think it’s an accumulation of those moments and emotional moments too. For example, after it was over with my ex. I was really down back then, it hit me pretty hard. Those are the moments when I can walk into my brother’s room in the middle of the night and he’s there for me. I know that dude is always going to be there when something’s wrong, no matter how much we argue or how much we shit at each other. I just know, and I hope he does too, that I can call him 24/7, walk into his room 24/7 and he will be there or ready to listen. I think that’s just something… the fact that we know that about each other, that creates that bond. And the thing is, if only he would do his best and go to work, earn real money… because we went on holiday together and he still hasn’t… he still has some work to do but we’ve already planned something. I’m really looking forward to it. We’re planning to go surfing in Portugal together. Those are moments I just know I can go somewhere with him and have the time of my life without-

E: …That you can remember for the rest of your life what you did together.

W: Yeah, absolutely. Those moments that I want to cherish or want to keep or experience.

E: My little brother is also just the most annoying dude on this planet who I love the most.

W: Exactly that combination. Annoying, but you love them.

E: Of course. The cameras are back on. That means we’ve been at it for over 50 minutes.

W: 50 minutes? It feels like we’re chatting for 20 minutes.

E: Exactly.

W: Pleasant.

E: That’s good. If it’s pleasant and the stress is gone.

W: Do you actually like me? “No I hate you. We’re going to finish. It has been good.”

55:29

E: No we’re not going to finish yet, but before we do, is there anything you’d like to send out into the world before we finish? On average there are 10 to 50 people watching. Is there anything you want to say to them?

W: To the 10 to 50 people?

E: Yes.

W: 10 to 50 people, you are awesome. No, what I’m saying… maybe a little deep but it doesn’t matter. Very often in your life you are going to encounter that you run into a wall, that you’re going to have setbacks, that you think “I don’t want to anymore, I can’t to this anymore, life is all one big shit show” but I think that there is a certain… at least I believe that – everyone has their own opinion of course- that a certain path has been mapped out for everyone. Not necessarily that things are set in stone but there is a road that you are going to take and that road is going to have curves, is going to have hills, is going to have valleys, is going to have everything. Maybe it’s a gravel path, maybe rocks you stumble over but -it sounds a bit stupid- put on your best walking shoes and just walk that path the best way you can. Just try to live life with complete joy and euphoria because you’re 100% worth it. No matter what other people say or think about your ideology or style or way of life. Everyone is entitled to it or should be given the opportunity to be appreciated for who they are. I think that’s something we do too little in this society, but yeah.

E: Just don’t be too hard on yourself in the end?

W: Yeah, don’t be too hard on yourself. A lot of people blame themselves too much. Or “oh I’m like that and I don’t fit in because of that” or something. Then I think: so be it.

E: Do you sometimes feel that you should do more or have achieved more at this age? Of course you’re already doing a lot of cool shit but social media, I know there is a highlight reel of all people’s achievements and that sometimes it’s very difficult to filter between what is real and how much is that person actually sitting on the couch doing nothing. Do you sometimes feel that because of social media of because of your environment or I don’t know, that you’re not doing enough?

W: Gosh, sometimes I think my life is too full.

E: Too full?

W: Not that I’m saying “oh I have so many things to do” but I’m like... I’m letting that grow organically or so.

E: Not putting too much pressure on yourself?

W: Not putting too much pressure on yourself. I’m doing a course now that I’d like to finish because I’ve had those two projects and there are friends of mine who say “why are you still studying? You’ve had your opportunity, you’re going to get new opportunities right?” and I say “hey! I’m also only 19”. Sometimes I think “fuck Willem you should have achieved more already” but I also think I’m only 19. There was a conversation at school… I really think that’s one of the added values of the course. We receive an observation report twice a year, 5 pages where the teacher writes about you and how they see you, what they think about you, what your qualities are, what you still need to work on. It’s always spot on. So strange how they can just see right through you, even though I sometimes try to hide it. Yeah, where was I going with this… we had subsequent conversation about it and I said to my teacher “sometimes I feel like I’m too young for this course” that I have too little life experience. There are people in my class who are in their 20s or older, who have already studied something else before this, have read a lot more, seen a lot more than me, a lot more experience and I think “fuck, I don’t have anything”. People talk about certain topics and I don’t follow at all. I mentioned that I felt too young and she [the teacher] said “you’re young, but that also has its advantages. Your youthfulness can actually be an interesting tool in this course and look at it from a different perspective”. So I’m convinced: don’t be too hard on yourself, don’t think “whew, I’m already 20 and I haven’t achieved anything yet” so to speak. I even saw a video recently where… “if you don’t make it in your 20s, you might make it in your 30s and if you don’t make it in your 30s, you might make it in your 40s”. There are so many… there really are a lot of people… people often forget that there are people who only find out what they want to do or discover their passion later in life.

E: And also just… I think it’s so ridiculous that you set certain goals for a certain age or something. That it’s so expected that by 18 you must have completed high school and by 25 you must have had your first job interview, by 28/30 you must have a house and a serious relationship where you’re committed to for the rest of your life and by 40 you must have already had a promotion, that you can provide for yourself and fix your pension. All those fucking predetermined milestones. I think that’s kind of bullshit, you know?

W: Absolutely.

E: If that were the case, then I should graduate in a few years so to speak while I’m clearly not studying here because I have – fuck normally I have a re-exam today. And here we are.

W: Here we are.

E: I knew I was doing this but I mean that’s just… there’s so much time. I’m 22 now and I’m doing some shit, if I go nuts now or people don’t want to listen to this podcast anymore, don’t want to see what I do online, okay then I have to look elsewhere. But I did this and I went for it and I tried. I’m 22. Even if I go nuts now and it’s all gone, I’m only 22. There are still so many ways it could go. A lot of people don’t have a job at 22. If I started looking for a new job or something now, hopefully I’ll have one by 25. Then it’s still okay because I’m only 25. I don’t know, I always find that… I could go on for a long time about this. I think those predetermined milestones/goals of things that you must have achieved by a certain age, I just think it’s bullshit.

W: I sometimes make the comparison that people too often see life as the sports world. Football players who are good until 35 and then they are done. As if you must have already performed before that age. That’s not how it works. You really have all the time and you really don’t have to stress. I also notice that many people… you mentioned re-exams. That people say “fuck I have re-exams, oh no I’m not going to pass, oh no you have extra…” chill. You do your best, but suppose you have to repeat a year, that’s not a disaster either, is it?

E: What I also think is crazy is how many people have studied law and you eventually hear that they ended up in a marketing agency because they found it much more interesting. When I talk to some people who… I was seeing a social media manager recently [laughs] “seeing”, I was talking to him.

W: “seeing” okay [laughs].

E: I was talking to him.

W: [joking] Ender has something to say.

E: And I asked “what did you study?” and he said biochemistry. “How the fuck did you end up here?” Him: “uh yeah that just wasn’t the right fit for me. I have a master’s degree but I started working here because I found it much more interesting”. I thought: why am I pretending that the degree I’m trying to get is going to determine the rest of my life, you know?

W: Absolutely.

E: If there are so many people now… because he was only 28 or something. So I thought “aah okay so you’ve been studying biochemistry for so many years and now you’re here – I don’t know if I’m talking about the correct position – but now you’re just sitting here making content. Cool. But why do I attach so much importance to that one direction I’m studying right now that doesn’t even have anything to do with media or anything. I mean I’m very interested in media, I’m studying economics. Which is also interesting, but that’s not what I see myself doing in the coming years.

W: Yeah, yeah.

E: Anyway enough about me. Do you think you could win in a fight against a cow?

W: [laughs] I really like that. You can switch to totally different shit like that. Like before you suddenly asked what color fish do you want to be. Okay. That’s nice. Win… I’ve heard if you knock over a cow it dies. That it has a heart attack then. We don’t want to kill cows okay!

E: And purely hypothetical, you’re just standing in a kind of meadow so it’s not super big so you can’t go in all directions. There is a limited domain. You come face to face with that cow and you have to begin. No weapons. You’re standing there and the cow stands there and you both know you’re going to fight.

W: It knows that too?

E: It knows that too.

W: [makes mooing noises] okay ca va.

E: It’s not a bull but it does have horns so in fact it would-

W: I would shit my pants. I’d give up already. I would lie on the ground, come on. Really crazy, I saw Jackass recently. Those guys, that Wee Man, who was in that link with the bull and he’s being catapulted, so to speak.

E: I don’t understand how those guys aren’t all dead yet.

W: Yeah they are really crazy.

E: There was also a rumor that Wee Man died from a bowling ball during… but apparently that wasn’t true.

W: I don’t know.

E: Fucked up shit. Would you win against a cow?

W: Would I win against a cow? No, I wouldn’t win against a cow. I don’t think I would win against a cow.

E: I think I would. I think just like with a bull I would try to jump out of the way like that and once you’re on the side it’s just a matter of pushing. If what you said is true, it’s game over when it’s down and you know, that’s your tactic.

W: But the thing is, a cow is heavy, isn’t it?

E: True.

W: You can’t just push it over like that, can you?

E: Sure, but it’s a matter of life or death, isn’t it? The adrenaline rush. You have to image, a cow just comes running towards you. The adrenaline that goes through your body. You shouldn’t underestimate the power you have then.

W: Just find the best patch of grass and when it’s there, sneaky knife in the back. No, now people are going to think I’m that kind of person.

E: That you’re just a snake.

W: Snake. Definitely and I admit it. No, that would be fucked up.

E: I’m going to do one more thing that’s important. I’m going to find a Twitter shout out and in the meantime, I already asked you what your message is to the world and that was a beautiful message. Got something more banal that you’d like to share? Something that you want to share from your social media or something?

W: What do you mean from social media?

E: Where they can follow you. You can say something if you have a really good video that you want to share. “Check me everywhere”.

W: No I don’t have… people should do what they feel like doing. Do you think I’m cool, do you think I’m fun, follow me on Insta. No really doesn’t matter. Doesn’t really matter.

E: Alright, I’m just going to scroll and you say stop. I’ll go back and forth and you have to say “yes that’s the one who gets to have this week’s shout out”.

W: Exciting huh. Stop.

E: [reads twitter account] M. Verschuren.

W: M. Verscheure.

E: Is that…

W: [reads quote] “If you were never sad, you wouldn’t know you could be happy”.

E: Wow. Damn bro.

W: I’m going to edit my quote.

E: “If you were never sad, you wouldn’t know you could be happy”. Wow. If you didn’t have shitty days, you wouldn’t know what the best days of your life were.

W: Exactly. But what if you get stuck in your shitty days for the rest of your life?

E: That won’t happen. That’s my biggest fear.

W: Me too.

E: Looking back at your life and thinking-

W: …Fuck I’ve never been there again.

E: …That’s where I peeked. Hope that doesn’t happen. Anyway M. Verscheure thank you very much for listening, I really appreciate it. You as well, I think?

W: Absolutely, absolutely. How much were you going to pay me?

E: 50 euro.

W: Then I’ll come… awesome. Super cool.

E: Thank you so much to everyone who listened. I appreciate it. If you want to hear more you can always subscribe to this channel. It’s also good for my ego. I’ll just put your Instagram link in the description, for people who are interested. Okay, that was it.

W: Thanks, it was fun.

E: There’s an audio only episode on Spotify every Sunday and the video comes out on Monday. That’s it. See you next Monday. Or Sunday. Peace.

#wtfock #willem de schryver