#their backs must hurt like hell for carrying this show throughout three entire seasons

[wonjaekook]

Request: 63 and 84 from the writing prompts + Renjun if you have the time♥️♥️♥️♥️ 😊

63. “What do you mean? It’s exciting!”

84. “I can’t believe you talked me into this.”

A/N: !! thank you for requesting !! and, oops, I got a little carried away (drabbles are not supposed to be 2k words long,,)

Word Count: 2.0k

Genre: fluff, horror (?)

Warnings: kinda spooky ig? there’s ghosts lol

“No. No, no, no, a thousand times no.”

“Come on, Y/N. For me?” The puppy eyes and slight pout Renjun gives you has you making a pained face, like he’s shooting arrows straight into your heart, because that is basically what he’s doing. Huang Renjun is not the type to act cute and he is not the type to beg, so on the rare occasion that he tries to suck up to you to try to get you to do something you really don’t want to do, it hurts in the best way. Even as his girlfriend, you rarely see this side of him.

“Injun, it’ll be cold and dangerous and-”

“Please? It’s my birthday.”

“Not until the end of the month!”

“Y/N,” he says, straightening up and turning serious, “I’ll go alone if you don’t come with me.” “...I hate you.”

That’s how you find yourself walking up to what is supposedly a haunted house at midnight with Renjun. As the most superstitious person you’ve ever met, his excitement is on the complete opposite level of yours. He even managed to sneak away without his manager noticing.

“I hate this. I hate this so much,” you grumble to yourself, arms crossed tightly over your chest.

“What do you mean? It’s exciting!” Renjun says, hopping the crumbling stone fence surrounding the creaking, decrepit building. He offers you a hand to help you over, but you ignore him, stubbornly climbing after him. As you get closer to the building, you shiver. Did the temperature drop a couple degrees, or is that just you? He stops in front of the door with you just behind him. He glances back. “Ready?”

“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” you say. He offers you a sorry-but-not-sorry smile, extending his hand for you to take again, but you frown in response. With a sigh, he reaches out, opening the door. The door gives no resistance, opening with a quiet click before it glides open much too smoothly for an old, worn-down house. A type of resounding silence seems to come from the house, an empty blackness that bids you to step inside. All you can see from your position in the doorway is the outline of stairs, a hallway, and a few pieces of furniture farther in, almost indistinguishable in the dark. It feels wrong being here. However, before you can voice your concerns, Renjun is stepping inside and the door is starting to close behind him. Terrified out of your wits, you quickly follow him. The door shuts. Your breath fogs in the air, but you can barely see it because of how dark it is. Trying to shake off the bad feeling you have, you try to fill the void with your voice, but your question comes out far more timid than you had intended. “Did you at least bring flashlights?”

He digs around in the small bag he brought before producing two flashlights, handing you one. You flick it on as quickly as possible, revealing that the room is covered in dust and cobwebs. To your relief, you don’t see any live spiders because of the season, but spiders are also the least of your worries right now. “Alright,” Renjun says, seeming much too unbothered by the situation, “let’s explore.”

“Why are you so relaxed? Aren’t you the one who believes in ghosts?” You trail after him, watching for floorboards that could trip you up and noting the peeling wallpaper. The flashlight you have in your hand doesn’t illuminate nearly as much as you would have liked.

“That’s exactly why! I’ve never experienced ghost activity for myself, so I wanted to go somewhere that’s confirmed haunted.” He stops, turning towards you. “I heard… that a burglar broke into this house and suffocated the man who lived here. I’ll spare you more details. But! Then, too stricken by grief, the wife killed herself. Both of their spirits supposedly wander the building to this day.” On an ordinary day, you would’ve scoffed at his story. Now, the combined atmosphere of the house and the way he looks far too certain at the tale’s truth makes you bite your tongue and shiver. He turns around, continuing to walk.

“So, are we… looking for one of these ghosts, then?”

“Yeah, or both if we’re lucky.”

Suddenly, from behind Renjun, there’s a clattering sound from deeper in the house and you jump, instantly moving forward to cling to his arm. You ignore the smug look he gives you, opting to just squeeze his hand tightly. “That doesn’t sound so lucky to me,” you whisper. The air is too still.

“It’ll be okay. Come on, let’s go look.” Your boyfriend’s hand in yours is the only thing keeping you grounded right now, a piece of warmth in the cold, scary house. You walk forward slowly, only moving at all because Renjun is pulling you.

“I’ll never understand why you didn’t bring Chenle or Jaemin or, hell, even Mark, instead of me,” you whisper, worried about disturbing the air around you.

He frowns, glancing back at you. “Because I like you more than any of them? You wouldn’t catch me holding any of their hands right now.” Despite yourself, you find your cheeks heating up at his comment. You know that’s his way of showing affection - and you couldn’t love it more. You’ve found that even the smallest things about him fill you to the brim with adoration, even in this dark, terrifying house. Just as you’re about to make a comment back, the hallway you’re in comes to an end and you see what used to be a living room of sorts, old couches, chairs, and a table spread throughout. There are stacks of boxes here and there, as if someone was only half done with packing up the room before they left. On one wall, there’s a fireplace and a painting of a man and woman together hanging above the mantle. Layers of paint are barely clinging to the canvas in places and the color is faded from years of disrepair, giving it an eerie look. Renjun approaches it, trying to get a better look, and you follow, one hand still in his and the other firmly grasping your flashlight, standing next to one of the two couches that rests perpendicular to the fireplace. “Wow,” Renjun breathes, staring at the painting, “that must be them. They were so young.”

“Yeah. That’s… kind of sad.” For the second time since entering the house, the feeling of crippling fear leaves you entirely. You imagine a cleaner, brighter house, with sunlight coming in through windows that are now firmly shuttered. There’s a young man and woman unloading boxes into their new house, where they’re to spend their lives together. They’re laughing and smiling, holding hands much like you and Renjun are right now. You blink and the image is gone and you’re just looking up at an old, peeling painting in a dark room that no light has touched for a long while. “Renjun,” you say, “I think we should leave.”

“I want to look around just a little more, I-” He starts, also tearing his gaze away from the painting and beginning to turn around. You feel him stiffen next to you, so you turn around as well. There, in the next room over, is a glowing man. At least, he seems to be glowing, as his clothes and what skin you can see of his appearance is a chalky white. A sack of some sort covers his head and there’s a baseball bat in his hand, all that same white.

Your heart practically stops in your chest. You wish you hadn’t come here. You wish-

Renjun takes a step forward, in the direction of the ghost. You barely have time to think before you feel a hand on your ankle, trying to pull you to the ground. Whipping your head around, you meet eyes with a woman, that same glowing white, her hand wrapped around your ankle. In her eyes, you see your death. Her ghostly nails dig into your skin, drawing blood, and you yank your ankle out of her grasp, screaming and stumbling into Renjun. “Renjun, run!”

When he sees what you see and the beads of blood starting to form around your ankle, the grip he has on your hand gets impossibly tight and he starts to move, backtracking towards the hallway you had come from, pushing you to run in front of him. You run faster than you had ever run in your life down that long, dark hallway, your blood rushing in your ears, until you and Renjun are ramming straight into something in the parlor you had entered the building through. You both fall, screaming as you do, and shutting your eyes tight.

You realize your throat isn’t being torn out and your limbs are all still intact, so you cautiously open your eyes, seeing that a third body is on the floor with you. Renjun seems to do the same thing at the same time as you and he sits up, looking at the person. “Mark-hyung?”

Mark is on the floor with you, cursing under his breath. “What the hell? Why are you guys running?”

“I… there… we…” You try to say, but you just can’t find the words, your heart practically beating out of your throat. Mark slowly stands up.

“Why are you here?” Renjun asks, starting to get up. You press a hand to your chest, wanting to just curl up and cry, so he offers you a hand. You take it, getting to your feet. You glance behind you, unsure if anything is following you.

“Our manager is looking for Haechan and, apparently, I’m in charge of finding him. He told me he was coming here to “mess with some idiots” yesterday, but I didn’t expect you guys to be here. A haunted house is a little bit of a weird place to have a date.” The new information slowly sinks in and the pieces start to connect. You and Renjun meet eyes before looking back down the hallway. “What?” Mark asks.

A moment later, you hear some very familiar laughter. The three of you fall silent as the sound gets closer until, finally, Donghyuck, Jaemin, and Chenle step out from the hallway and into your flashlight beams. Jaemin is covered in what, at a closer look, seems to be white body paint, and he has a painted baseball bat and sack of some sort in his hands.

“Would you say we got you guys?” Donghyuck says, way too proud of how successful his prank was.

Renjun responds before you can. “I’m going to murder all of you.”

“Please don’t kill me, it was their idea!” Chenle says in quick Chinese to Renjun, who just crosses his arms.

“Hey, you can’t get out of this by speaking Chinese!” Jaemin says, nudging Chenle a little too hard to be considered gentle.

As the boys bicker, Mark just looking on in confusion, your adrenaline starts to slow down, making you realize that your ankle is throbbing. Looking down, little drops of blood are dripping down your skin and into your sock, dying the material red. Reaching down, you wipe at the blood, wincing when it hurts even more. The boys start to quiet down, so you look up, furrowing your brows at them. “Which of you guys grabbed my ankle? It really hurts.”

They look at each other, appearing just as confused as you. “We didn’t grab you? We just did this stuff.” Jaemin raises the items in his hand and the other two nod in agreement.

“Then, who was…”

From deeper in the house, a woman’s tortured shriek rises in the air, the sound resonating deep in your bones. Renjun’s first instinct is to grab your hand again and pull you closer.

“Huang Renjun, you owe me the best present ever when it’s my birthday,” you whisper, shrinking next to him.

None of you spend much longer in that house.

#renjun fluff #nct fluff #nct drabbles #nct imagines #renjun drabbles #renjun imagines #what else do i tag this lmao #wonjaekook

[sailor-cresselia]

The Great Ex-Aid Rewatch: Ex-Aid & Ghost, Part Two

Okay, back to it for part two of who-know-how-many of my Dr. Pac-Man liveblog!

Time for more gamers, doctors, ghosts, and terrible examples of science that people should in no way, shape, or form try to emulate!

––– –––

When last we saw our doctor heroes, they were escaping from Dr. Pac-Man with the victim-of-the-week, and the Ghost team was coming to their aid, leaving Shinnosuke back at the precinct.

We pick back up with Emu, Asuna, and Tougo running, but being blocked from one direction by Doral and Giril, and a still very glitchy Dr. Pac-Man on the other.

Turns out, the Pac-viruses aren’t technically bugsters at all – they’re just… er. Viruses, I guess, that Dr. Pac-Man used to set up a virus detection program. Specifically, to track the Bugster Virus, so that he could hunt down Tougo, who’s a carrier of a new strain.

Wait, so, the fevers that are hitting the people throughout the city aren’t the game disease, then? Or are there more forms to it than the bugster virus? …I may have to go into this in my fics at some point, but not now.

But anyway, it’s a new strain, one that comes from Hatesate Puzzle, so naturally the GenmCorp systems wouldn’t have any information on it – it’s not one of their products, so there’s no reason to expect it to spawn a bugster of it’s own.

Takeru, Akari, and Onari show up, with Takeru accusing Dr. Pac-Man of being Zaizen Michihiko. Fortunately for all of us, he is, and admits such as soon as Takeru brings it up. This means I no longer have to type ‘Dr. Pac-Man’ nearly as often, and we don’t have to deal with his squeaky voice changer anymore.

That thing was obnoxious.

Zaizen, who should have died six years ago, has managed – somehow – to revive as a Bugster. Which, as we know now, is foreshadowing for what happens down the line in-show. (Actually, this might be where Kuroto got that particular plan from in the first place.) He’s come back to finish his plans from back then.

He and his ‘team’ were working on a ‘genome project’, to create a new life form via operating on a patient infected with the game disease. A project to create a bugster.

But things went wrong.

Something happened, and we see the ‘patient’ – his face tactfully hidden by scenery the entire time – bucking on the table, the four ‘doctors’ drawing back in surprise. As a swarm of orange lights emerges from him and form into the shape of a person, lines of light form a game area around the room, while the four ‘doctors’ are dissolved into fragments of data.

And now? Now they’re back from being banished to the shadow realm game world, and ready to fulfill their ‘master plan.’

Emu – sweet, blissfully unaware, ten-episodes-in Emu – says that he may not know anything about this so-called master plan, but to use Pac-Man for this, to endanger all of these people… how can they call themselves doctors?! Doctors are supposed to help people!

Zaizen declares that anyone who stands against him must die, and Hatena – the latest Bugster – summons a massive number of enormous falling blocks. That would be bad enough, since said blocks are approximately person sized, and could easily crush someone.

Except that Hatesate Puzzle is a match three puzzle game. When three blocks of the same color line up? They explode.

Makoto and Alain show up from… somewhere, just in time to see Takeru make a dive to cover Akari with his body to protect her from another wave of blocks.

They are both caught up in the explosions. When the smoke clears, Takeru manages to wake Akari up, barely.

They both start to turn transparent, bursts of static crackling across them, at which point Akari passes back out.

Takeru, having had some very traumatic experiences with being transparent, makes the very natural assumption that they’ve both just died.

Fortunately, Emu is there, and able to yell that no, no, you’re not dead, that’s the bugster virus, please calm down!

Well, they’re not dead yet, according to Hatena, who says that unless someone manages to defeat him in the next 24 hours, they’re done for. This, naturally, pisses Makoto and Alain the hell off, and they go on the offensive.

I love civilian outfit fights, because you can get more of a sense of how the characters really move. I hold to the theory that putting on Rider armor, in any series, enhances the wearers usual abilities, so while you can see how they fight, you can get a far more accurate idea of it when they fight out of suit.

Against Giril, for all that the first part of the fight is more of a dance between her, Makoto, and Alain, you can tell that they’re skilled at this – that they’ve been through battles. They do eventually wind up getting hit – her fighting style is very different from the ones they’re used to facing, and Alain in particular takes some nasty palm strikes and kicks to the chest, but they’re still putting up a good show. (Especially for a pair who lost the majority of their effectiveness in battle once they joined up with Takeru, but that’s a complaint for a whole different season.)

On the other hand, Emu’s fight against Doral can barely be called a fight. He’s getting beaten, badly. Doral barely has to move to dodge Emu’s punches, and when they do connect, he doesn’t even flinch, moving with the punch to soften what little damage there would be.

Emu takes numerous blows to the torso, and I’m pretty sure at one point he just barely avoided a groin shot. He does manage a sweet flip and a roll, but it looks to have been accidental, given he then very quickly gets thrown several meters through the air.

Compare this to his first fight in-show, when he’d just gotten the belt, and had no idea what he was even getting into. In level one, he didn’t take a single hit from the Bugster Union, and when he fought Salty directly, he got hit maybe two or three times, but no more than that, and they didn’t effect him at all.

Early Emu has no idea what he’s doing in a fight, without actively being Ex-Aid.

Onari and Asuna carry Akari off to the hospital, escaping, while Makoto and Alain manage to literally hold Giril back, telling Takeru to ‘take care’ of Hatena.

Takeru’s punches do nothing, aside from make his knuckles hurt, and make Hatena chuckle. CHUCKLE. Not even LAUGH, just a quiet chuckle.

Emu gets grabbed, and Doral is trying to choke him out,  when freaking Tougo – who is, admittedly, in a bit of a bad way, seeing how he’s rather see-through at the moment – yells at Emu. He’s a doctor, right?! Then why isn’t he saving him?!

You know, never mind that you said it was pointless earlier, or that Emu’s getting his ass kicked and currently is having a bit of trouble breathing, just go ahead and guilt trip him. That’s totally a way to make people like you.

Oh, and then Zaizen tells this asshole that nobody can save him, and pulls Tougo into a bugvisor. Because that totally makes sense.

All four riders present – Emu, Takeru, Alain, and Makoto – get hurled down by their respective opponents, Emu internally apologizing to Tougo. Doral advances on Emu…

And is met with a spin-kick to the face.

Kiriya, Hiiro, and Taiga have arrived. Here’s their basic reactions to the scene:

Kiriya: More research data! Yes! (Also, time to save the Ace, because he’s the only person in this show who has even remotely tried to be a decent person, and was the only one who bothered trying to trust me.)

Taiga: Okay, shows over, freaks. (Why do people keep using Protogashats?! Are they all just stupid?!)

Hiiro: You look pathetic, intern. Also, here’s the new Legend Rider Gashat, the CEO wanted you to have it, for some reason.

Doral’s all ‘oh, so you want to fight, do you?’, and he and Giril pull out their gashats. Kiriya gives a sarcastic whistle, before Makoto and Alain shove their way in front, saying that this is their fight. I mean, it’s not, technically, but I get their reasoning. Also, Makoto literally shoved Hiiro to the side, and Hiiro takes a moment to come back to facing front, looking incredibly offended. Kiriya tries to point out to them that they’re already pretty beat up, and maybe they should take a back seat for a bit, but let if never be said that Makoto and Alain are anything but stubborn.

Giril takes off one way, Makoto and Hiiro in pursuit, while Doral goes the other, with Alain, Taiga, and Kiriya chasing after. Emu is still on the floor, slightly dazed, and presumably very confused.

–––

Hiiro and Makoto Vs Giril.

Makoto’s fighting style here is very… I dunno, like he’s a brawler? I guess? It’s not really refined, there’s a sort of brutality there. He uses the mooks momentum a lot, at one point pulling one of those ‘roll with the grab and use it to do a spin kick while on the mooks back’ tricks.

Hiiro, meanwhile, is quick and efficient, focusing on disabling mooks by going for the torso. Once again, he’s weaponizing CPR, just like when he originally used Doremifa Beat. At one point, he actually just flat out does a chop to the back of one mooks neck, which I find hilarious coming from Hiiro, of all people.

Eventually, Giril transforms, and Makoto hastily follows suit. Heh, suit. Because they’re transforming heroes. Hiiro, who saw full well that Specter isn’t exactly in prime condition, tries to tell him to wait, and heads into level two to join the fight.

–––

Taiga, Kiriya, and Alain vs Doral.

Taiga and Alain’s fight styles aren’t too different, outside of suit. They both favor quick blows that are still slightly showy. The main difference is that Alain’s more willing to rely on both his arms and legs for attacks, while Taiga’s more likely to dodge attacks. Kiriya… may as well be street dancing. Like, there’s a lot of streetdance type moves going on there.

…Dark Toei, give me the forbidden streetdancer Kiriya lore.

Eventually, Alain starts getting into a slightly more berserker style, Kiriya is getting somehow even flashier, and Taiga…

Taiga stole the sword off of one of the mooks.

…SWEET.

Doral transforms, and Alain angrily follows… and immediately starts doing worse. Seriously, the Necrom suit is a definite hindrance for Alain. He was great when he was in civilian attire – because he could move. Loose fitting clothes are far better suited for his personal style than the tight, controlled movements he has to use as Necrom. I mean, he really shouldn’t keep the scarf on in battle, but it doesn’t seem to slow him down, so I guess it’s okay.

Taiga looks a little disappointed that Alain just rushed in there like that, and once again it’s Kiriya who says that he’s getting ahead of himself.

The two of them transform, and Taiga visibly enters level two, doing a sweet flip over a fire projectile before getting into the battle. Kiriya says he’s leveling up, but we don’t actually see it, or him.

–––

Takeru vs Hatena.

This fight is not going nearly so well as the others. Takeru is getting shoved around like a ragdoll by Hatena and his staff, but still struggling back up, despite the copious pain he’s in, because he’s going to save Akari, dangit!

Emu’s still down on the floor, just barely getting around to picking himself back up in order to stop Takeru from advancing.

Zaizen says that all these struggles are useless. Without Ghost’s power, they can’t possibly beat Pac-Man, and he’s going to make them fear just how powerless they are!

He then proceeds to fire his bugvisor into the air, a massive swarm of Pac-viruses emerging from it… and then they all form into a GIANT PAC-MAN. The version with arms and legs, no less, before it pulls those into itself and becomes the more classic Orb Pac-Man.

Then it sort of… shudders, and glows a bit red, and oh look, everyone, Pac-Man’s got a mouth of fangs now!

Wisely, Takeru and Emu realize that being faced with a two-or-three story Pac-Man, who is clearly intent on eating them, is the point where they should be running away.

–––

Pac-Man chases them outside. They manage to avoid his barreling into them, but also he takes a bite out of a building, so there’s that. They’ve both fallen from their dodge.

Takeru pushes himself back to his feet, struggling to walk forward to fight.

Emu tries to hold him back, because it’s too dangerous, he’s too hurt, if he tries to fight like this, he could die-

Takeru shoves him off, saying it doesn’t matter if he can still transform or not. Yes, he doesn’t want to die, but if he can save Akari, then that is far more important. He’s going to do this. He has to do this!

Ghost’s powers are intimately linked to Takeru’s emotional state. They always have been, as far back as his first episode. His resolve summons the Ore Eyecon back to him from Dan Kuroto’s desk (because of course he didn’t give that to Hiiro to bring back), and the Ghost Driver reappears around Takeru’s waist.

(The, uh, the handle on that thing’s looking a little worse for wear. You guys couldn’t have, I dunno, wiped it down or something? Given it a little touch up?)

“HENSHIN!”

:cue fangirl grin:

Takeru gets to fly again! In base form, no less! …You know, outside of the first episode, and his guest previews in Drive, I don’t think Takeru actually got to use his levitation in his base mode more than maybe once or twice until after his season. I’m pretty sure he didn’t even get to do it in his own movies, outside of the finishing blow to the giant Ganma from the Ghost & Drive film. I don’t recall him levitating at all during Ichighost. If he used that power outside of the final battle in 100 Eyecons, I don’t remember it, and I know that time it was in Infinite.

Basically, I’m in the ‘Let Takeru Use His Powers’ camp. Also, I’m thinking that this might be where he basically… re-unlocked that for his base form? I dunno, just a thought that I might use in ReUnited, might not. Hard to say.

Anyway, Ghost! He’s flying around, kicking Angry Emoji Pac-Man while dodging storms of Pac-Viruses. Emu, in the meantime, is having a slight crisis of personal faith. He’s been getting his ass handed to him all day, even more so than usual, with people berating him left and right for not being good enough at his job – as a doctor or as a Kamen Rider.

Screaming to the sky, he somehow finds his resolve. Pulling out the Kaigan Ghost gashat, a breeze blows his hair back, and he transforms.

…Okay, yes, it’s a level ONE form right now, but he still gets to fight in-air with Takeru, both of them with that cool orange glow effect, so it’s worth it!

–––

At the Next Genome Hideout, Zaizen and Hatena arrive just in time for… Uh. What was his name again?  Ah, there we go. Kuruse Soji, also known as the Robol Bugster. For consistencies sake with the rest of his group, I will be referring to him as Robol from here on.

So, those two arrive just in time for Robol to finish the… I don’t even know what it is, some sort of genome re-mapping design.

Hatena is the one to ask Zaizen “Hey, are you sure about this whole ‘using yourself as a lab rat’ thing? You’re putting your life on the line, here.”

But nope, Zaizen’s determined to carry out his plan, and he’s fully intent on becoming a life form ‘to surpass creation.’

Hatena’s response is basically a silent “Well, okay then, it’s your funeral,” before raising his reality-warping staff up, and starting what is basically a reprogramming process on Zaizen.

Additionally, Zaizen seems to very quickly have at least a few regrets with regards to his haste, or at least didn’t think Hatena was going to just go ahead and start immediately. Having ones genetic structure re-written is not exactly painless.

The thing is… I don’t know what Zaizen doing this to himself would prove for any sort of proof of concept. We find out later on that his plan is to do this all over, and yeah, most people won’t survive, but the ones who do will be stronger for it. Which is all standard mad scientist stuff. However, he’s already a Bugster. He’s said as much, so his base makeup isn’t the same anymore. He has no way to prove this will actually work on a normal human! I mean, yeah, he’s trying it on Tougo simultaneously, albeit a little differently, but Tougo’s infected with the bugster virus already, so there’s good odds that the alterations are working with that more than anything else.

Basically, Zaizen, you’re a terrible excuse for a doctor and a scientist, and you should be ashamed of yourself for so many different reasons.

–––

Back at the Giril fight, Makoto uses all three of his regular Legend Eyecons to try and take her down, and even at one point using Houdini’s chains as whips! It gets to a point where we have Specter with Nobunaga preparing a finisher, and Giril sending energy slashes at him, only for Brave to use the ice mode of his sword to freeze the attacks in place so that Makoto can shoot through them.

Seriously, Hiiro, why can’t you use tactics this cleverly more often in show? It’d have gone a long way toward making me like at least watching you fight, even though it wouldn’t do anything for you as a character. The only times I can think of that were anything like this were the few occasions you used the sword to make an ice path to hold enemies still, your first time using Doremifa beat, and the way you got Taddle Fantasy by basically emulating some of Emu’s tactics, in using the energy items to your advantage.

But I digress. The two Riders switch into Deep Specter and Doremifa Beat to try and finish the fight.

–––

Brief cut to the Doral fight, where everyone is still in base forms, until Necrom gets knocked down and swaps into Grimm. I am reminded of why I would vastly prefer him to be using an eyecon at all times, because the helmet for Necrom is AWFUL without a cover.

Lazer and Snipe are still in level one and two respectively.

–––

Back to Giril.

Everyone launches finishers, starting with Specter, who doesn’t have much effect, but knocks her back a bit. Brave and Giril launch simultaneous ones, which create a huge chain reaction explosion that results in all three participants getting kicked out of their transformations.

Giril is still okay enough to run away.

Hiiro and Makoto are struggling on the ground. Makoto tries to get up to give chase, but collapses. Hiiro, in not much better state, tries to wake him.

–––

Back to Doral.

Necrom is using Sanzo for a bit, before getting dropped back down to normal. Okay, so, I may hate the transitional phase of Necrom, but it’s not fair to Alain for him to go the whole series without an upgrade. It’s even less fair for him to finally get one after the show… in the Specter V-Cinema. At which point he gets his ass kicked. By Specter. To make matters even more devastating? The single upgrade Alain gets is called Yujou Burst. FRIENDSHIP BURST. It’s ugly as all get out, and he only uses it in a single scene, in which, as mentioned earlier, he gets his ass kicked by Makoto. And you can’t even really see it in that scene, because it was so dark, which was not helped by Yujou Burst being black and gold.

ALAIN DESERVED BETTER, IS ALL I’M SAYING.

Okay, okay, lost potential complaints aside, the fight scene. Lazer and Snipe both enter level three, and I’m fairly certain Kiriya curses the day he blackmailed his way into getting a Driver, because he still has to go through the bike form anyway to get to higher levels.

Necrom and Lazer launch their finishers – Necrom with an energy punch projectile, and Lazer with that gloriously massive rain of arrows. This is followed by Snipe’s finisher, which involves a jetpack and LOTS OF BULLETS.

Man, if Jet Combat weren’t so hideous, I’d probably love it.

Doral gets knocked out of his transformation, and runs off. Necrom and Lazer drop theirs willingly, at which point Alain apologizes to Takeru, and drops to the ground, out cold.

Taiga lands. Specifically, TAIGA lands, dropping his transformation MID DESCENT and landing in a three point touchdown. He sneers, saying that Alain’s an idiot who over did it.

Well, at least the three of you came out of your transformations on your own, unlike the actual secondaries of the two seasons, who both got knocked down.

I mean, I really didn’t expect to find more evidence that Hiiro’s not nearly as good at this Rider thing as he thinks he is, but it sure looks like I did!

–––

Okay, over at the FIRST main fight, with Ex-Aid and Ghost versus a literally two story tall Pac-Man, two lads in black and orange land.

Ghost pulls out the Ex-Aid Eyecon, and we get an incredibly chaotic shot of Takeru entering Ex-Aid Damashi, and Ex-Aid leveling up his Ghost form.

Hnnnn I don’t like either of these legend rider forms. I think it’s in the eyes. Takeru winds up with Ex-Aid’s eyes on his faceplate, which makes sense, because that’s what his Legend Rider forms do. He gets their helmet’s appearance on his. It’s just weird with Ex-Aid’s eyes, is all. I’ll give credit to the jacket for being way better than his one for Drive, though.

The Ex-Aid Legend Rider forms, though… are so incredibly cursed. His chestplate takes on the appearance of whatever’s there on the OG rider, which. Okay, fair. I went to go look at his form for Drive, and the tire just Does Not Translate well to 2d. But the real problem is the helmet.

See, I’m okay with the helmets in Ex-Aid. I don’t care about the anime eye aesthetic, I’m all for it, because they manage to make something this ridiculous look good. Right up until that’s not what’s there anymore.

The helmet takes on an appearance similar to a slimmed down version of the legend rider, which I would be fine with… if it didn’t keep the frames from around Ex-Aid’s eyes. It’s unsettling, and invariably cuts across the eyes of the helmet it’s imitating, which just makes the whole thing uncomfortable.

And, of course, he still has the duplicate faceplate on his back, which makes it really weird when he’s facing away from the camera in the upcoming scenes, because we’re still getting Ghost looking at us. I don’t know why it doesn’t bug me nearly this much with Regular Ex-Aid, but this is really unsettling with a different rider’s helmet.

–––

Okay, okay, sorry, back to the show.

Emu’s gotten Ghost’s ability to levitate, and Takeru’s picked up Ex-Aid’s jumps. So they’re still able to bounce around Pac-Man, but they aren’t both flying anymore.

And then he eats them.

Like, I’m not even kidding, Pac-Man opens his mouth, they get pulled in, and WHOOPS suddenly they’re falling toward a suspiciously familiar maze!

Oh, man, I wish I were better at screencapping, but this goes by too fast for me to catch it. When they land? Takeru has a color-burst effect right out of one of Ex-Aid’s special effects. Nice touch!

Oh, and the walls of the maze, along with the dots, are an appropriate size for a two story tall Pac-Man. So, you know, the lads are a bit dwarfed by the scenery.

If you look carefully, you can see that when Pac-Man’s chasing them through the maze, the dots he passes by aren’t there anymore! He’s still actually playing by his own rules! … right up until they jump out of his way when they’re backed against a wall, and he just plows on through.

(Pac-Man, noooo! You can’t do that! That’s illegal!)

So they just start trying to slash at Pac-Man amid the rubble from the wall he just broke through – and then he starts shooting out beams of light every which way?

I don’t remember that being part of the game…

While they’re jumping and dodging, Emu’s still got Ghost’s glowing effects, and Takeru still has Ex-Aid’s impact stars, so that’s cool. They do that neat cross slash, where one rider goes horizontally around the Giant Kaijin and the other goes vertically… and it’s still not the finisher.

Emu, sweet, game-loving Emu, tells Pac-Man that it’ll just be a little longer. (Emu, he’s currently trying to KILL YOU. You don’t even know if the Regular Pac-Man is IN THERE, for all you know this is just an evil duplicate!)

So, actual finisher time.

Interestingly, the visual flairs when Emu puts the Kaigan Ghost gashat into his finisher slot and pushes the button are all orange. Nice touch. Even nicer is the touches on the emblem that appears behind Takeru when he does his finishers. Usually it’s a glowing orange, or rainbow, in the case of Infinite. But this time it’s pixellated and pink.

(please ignore the awful neon blue lines in the background, those are part of the maze.)

I’d say that “lasers don’t chase people like that” and “jumping doesn’t let you curve in mid-air”, but I don’t think the laws of physics actually apply to these two in most battle circumstances. Also, they’re about to kick Pac-Man in the face because that’s just what we’re doing today, I guess!

They land back out in the real world, where Pac-Man slowly changes back to normal.

(THE BACKS OF THESE SUITS ARE SO CURSED)

Pac-Man dissolves into the air.

Takeru, sweet precious cinnamon roll that he is, is still only thinking of saving Akari.

“I have… to save Akari…”

He falls to the ground, out cold.

–––

Asuna and Onari make it to the hospital, with him carrying the unconicious Akari, to see specks of yellow light streaming down to the infected patients.

Asuna thanks Pac-Man for curing those who were hit by his strain of the Game Disease.

–––

On a nearby rooftop, music from 2012 plays as a man with rings steps into view.

––– –––

Well, that seems like as good a place as any to cut off, narratively speaking! I’m about halfway through the movie at this point, so this should only take one or two more installments to finish.

I have work the next three nights, so I’m not going to be able to pick this back up until Saturday, at the earliest. It sucks, because I really, really wanted to watch this movie again, preferably a lot faster than this whole “three to four hours to get twenty five minutes” deal, but I guess that’s just how I’m watching Ex-Aid, now!

(Disclaimer before anyone gets on my case: Yes, I switched order of those last two segments. Partly it’s to have a better liveblog ending, and partly because that’s the order they should have been in, dang it! It flows way better to have the Pac-Man Fever subplot end before Haruto first shows up, instead of awkwardly inserting him between the last two related scenes.)

#kamen rider ex aid #kamen rider ghost #sailorcressy says

[zoeekar]

Going through all Lena Luthor scenes with my best friend (season 3 edition, pt 2)

At this point I’ve caught her up on who is who, she knows about Reign and everything else she has to know without me giving anything away.

03x04 The Faithful

Her: What happened to her (Lena’s) wardrobe? She used to dress so nicely, now she looks like a grandma.

*Sam: What should I bring? Lena: Booze. Just- no tequila, okay? Please.* Her: I heard “boobs”! *dies laughing* And why no tequila? I wanna know now.

*girls’ night* Her: It’s so nice to see her (Lena) with the rest of the group. They were never all together, I thought everyone still hated her.

Her: I’ve decided that I like her better with her hair down.

*Kara: I’m actually still getting over a relationship.* Her: It’s been months! They weren’t even together for that long, how much do they expect us to think she loved him??

*Alex: Actually, we’re not gonna have kids.* Her: She wants kids.

*Lena: Put me down for another cool aunt.* Her: I want her to be my cool aunt.

*Kara takes off her glasses* Her: *laughs* Why does she always do it like that? No one is so dramatic when taking off their glasses! And how long does it usually take her to get ice? She needs to up her excuse game.

Her: She (Sam) is sooo skinny, look at her legs.

Her: Objectively speaking, Lena is such a good friend!

Her: She’s used the word badass twice in two episodes. It’s her new favorite word *laughs*

*girls dancing while dressed as Supergirl* Her: This is so cute and so cringey.

*during Ruby’s song* Her: Oh no, Aleeex. See, I told you she wants kids.

03x05 Damage (it’s Τhe Episode™, guys! Again, we watched the whole thing (she may have cried over Sanvers, and then she got mad about it), but these are her comments only on the Lena parts. It’s quite lengthy, she had a lot to say, hahah)

Her: I take back what I said about her clothes. This outfit. I like it! (did I blur the rest of the picture for maximum Lena? Yes, I did. Does she look tiny in it? Yes she does, omg look at her!)

Her: Oh no, that douche is back? Who asked for this? I thought he’d be all the way to China by now.

*Edge: Lead poisoning.* Her: Fuck. Off. Why is he coming for her like that? Because she bought that magazine and now he can’t defame her? What is he, five?!

Her: You know he probably did it himself just to blame her. Because he’s just that big of an ass. Watch me be right!

*Lena: Where the hell do you get off?* Her: Go ooooff.

*Edge’s snake story* Her: So like… he poisoned children, right? That’s what I got from this.

Her: He (Edge) needs to go. He’s had enough screen-time as it is.

*Edge: But I didn’t poison children. That was you.* Her: Okay, first of all, yes you did. And second of all, she (Lena) looks like she’s about to cry and I am not okay with this.

He: Have you noticed that she (Katie) talks really fast when she’s supposed to be anxious or emotional? It’s kinda funny.

Her: I… don’t see how they (Lena and James) can be together when they don’t even like each other?

*Lena saying she will step down from CatCo and L-Corp because “helping people must be the focus”* Her: She’s so good. Why is the entire universe against her??

*Guy comes in looking for Lena* Her: If he hurts her, I’m quitting this.

Her: Oh no, the poor thiiiing… (at this point she has her head on my shoulder and she’s hugging me, probably cause she can’t actually hug Lena herself 😂)

*Lena: I want your best reporter reporting this. I’m not hiding anything.* Her: Just say Kara, we all know who you prefer.

*Lena: And set a press conference for later today.* Her: Those never end well for her…

Her: Awww, cuties.

Her: Kara is so anxious for her.

Her: She’s about to cry again, I caaan’t. 

Her: Guuun! I still know she’s not gonna die, but dammit.

*Lena: Your faith is something I have worked harder than you may realize to keep. And the fact that I might have lost it, breaks my heart.* Her: She’s done so much and yet no one has really appreciated it. And they are all so quick to blame her for everything, poor thing! If she snaps, I won’t blame her.

Her: Is this the casualest of Lenas we’ve seen so far? I like it.

*Sam: See? This is what friends are for.* Her: Her too??

*Lena: If Ruby was sick, would you still be my friend?* Her: My heart is breaking.

Her: We’re about to get drunk Lena, aren’t we? I’m ready!

Her: Oh my gooood.

Her: That is one gigantic ass wine glass she’s drinking out of.

*Lena: You know, you’re terrible at hiding thins from me.* Her: Ummmmmm… Hello?? That’s like the tenth times she’s said that, she knows!

*Lena’s drunken speech* Her: Aw, poor baby is a sad drunk, awwww. She needs to stop being so hard on herself, she really is so so good, she doesn’t deserve any of this!

*Lena: That is one of the things I love about you…* Her: So we know that they love each other, they’ve both said so. Why is- Why isn’t this a thing yet? (you can tell she’s new and inexperienced on how the CW works, poor baby…)

*Lena: I am… not worth it.* Her: What is this shit, noooo. Why isn’t she (Kara) hugging her??

Her: Awww cutie.

*Lena and Kara phone call* Her: That company is owned by that weasel Edge, isn’t it? And she (Lena) is about to be stupid.

Her: Of course, she went there by herself. Probably without telling anyone, cause yeah. That’s not gonna go wrong. 

Her: Okay, can I just say that I’m loving her clothes in this episode? And her hair. I love that messy ponytail.

*Edge: Lena. You look horrible.* Her: Are we seeing the same Lena or…?

Her: I like how she says “pools”.

Her: Punch him, we know you can. *Lena pulls out gun* Or that. That works too. 

*Lena: When that mum shot at me, I knew she was doing the right thing. Because whoever was responsible for this, they deserved to die. No trial, no jury. Just erased from the world. Her: Oh shit, this is getting dark. I like dark Lena.

*Lena gets knocked out* Her: No, not her head again! Poor thing…

Her: Ohhh shit, that’s not good. And she’s afraid of flying too, isn’t she? Ugh.

Her: Ooh, they wanna throw them (the chemicals) in the water, right? This shit is getting intense.

Her: *laughs* Of course she (Kara) knew it was Lena after hearing only like half a word.

*Edge: Bring the plane up by three degrees.* Her: I hope she won’t try to actually pull the barrels back or something… *Lena uses the metal pipe-thingy* Okay, that was pretty smart, good.

Her: Quit staring at each other and stop the plane, daaamn!

Her: The plane’s gonna get cut in half, isn’t it?

Her: Called it.

*Lena falls* Her: Did she- She had like a minute to strap in, what was she doing? Me: Staring at Kara, probably. Her: *laughs* I knew you’d say that. You’re not wrong.

*Lena: Save the chemicals, not me!* Her: So selfless… So, of course, she’s evil at heart, duh. It’s so obvious! Sarcasm aside, we all know she (Supergirl) is gonna save both, though.

*Supergirl: Climb, Lena! Climb!* Her: Can… she not tell that that’s Kara?! And since when is Supergirl calling her Lena and not Miss Luthor?

Her: *laughs* So dramatic.

Her: That was a cool save, I liked it! But. Did she carry Lena and the plane all the way back like that? 

Her: What is she (Lena) doing back at work? She’s supposed to be at home!

Her: Oh. They (Lena and James) are on a first name basis now. Cause they’re friends. Not that he was actively against her all throughout this episode. Hm.

*Lena: I probably also should apologize to you. I’m lucky you’re still speaking to me.* Her: Ummm… What? She didn’t do anything wrong, why is she apologizing??

Her: …they really just pulled the sisters card, didn’t they? Damn… Also, that laugh (Lena’s after Kara called her her sister) sounded so fake *laughs*

Sia watches the Lena Luthor Show Season 2          Season 3 Part 1 (x)          Part 1 (x) Part 2 (x)          Part 3 (x) Part 3 (x)          Part 4 (x) Part 4 (x)          Part 5 (x)  Part 5 (x)          Part 6 (x)   Part 6 (x)          Part 7 (x)                          Part 8-?~Coming Soon

#lena luthor #katie mcgrath #supergirl #supercorp #Sia watches supergirl #Sia watches the lena luthor show #Post #Sia tag

[shervonfakhimi]

What I Learned From Attending Lakers-Thunder

When I was sitting on my family’s couch on the night of December 28th, 2019, I had no idea what awaited for me as my brother had been touting a gift that would knock my socks off, to put it lightly. Turns out, he was right, because he helped get me (and himself) tickets to see my beloved Los Angeles Lakers play the surging Oklahoma City Thunder on January 11th, 2020, my first live sporting event of the new decade. I was much more thrilled then than the afternoon of the game itself, where we both learned that LeBron James (my brother is quite the LeBron stan) would not play due to the flu on the second night of a back-to-back after another stunning performance against the Luka-led Dallas Mavericks. Learning that Anthony Davis and Danny Green would not play a few hours later seemingly set the stage for what looked to be a potential blowout of the Lakers, but we drove through slight elements anyway to one of the most shocking results of the season at essentially its midpoint, with the Lakers stunning the Thunder, on the road, on the second night of a back-to-back 125-110. It was a blast. Not only did we have a great time, but I learned a thing or two that I didn’t quite know for sure beforehand.

Forgot About Kuz

As Kyle Kuzma went to the free-throw line after getting fouled on a jump shot, the stadium ops at Chesapeake Energy Arena briefly played the ‘Forgot About Dre’ instrumental by Dr. Dre featuring Eminem, surely referencing Kuzma’s Slim Shady-esque blonde hair. Well, that only got him going as he went full renegade mode, dropping a season-high 36 points. What was most impressive was the variety of the buckets he served on the Thunder defense. Pick-and-pops, transition, put-backs, even being the primary ball-handler at times. He was electric and filled the gaping scoring hole LeBron and Davis left behind and showed exactly why either the Lakers shouldn’t trade him or did them a favor by boosting his trade value. I’ve always been in the camp of the former, for a myriad of reasons: 1) he’s still only on the third year of his rookie-scale contract with restricted free agency coming in the summer of 2020. Having young players in tow is key to sustain great teams and I believe he can be a part of those said teams. 2) Because he is on that contract it is hard for the Lakers to match salaries to bring back an impact player for him. 3) He has a skill-set the Lakers could very much use. Consistency has been an issue for Kuzma throughout his brief NBA career, but I’ve seen him have games like this and now just saw one live to reinforce my belief in him. The trade talk surely must be inescapable for him if even fans in the arena were chirping him about in the game. Who knows what will happen between now and the trade deadline. I understand Kuzma is not a perfect player and why he can be had in trade talks. But at least for one night, Kyle Kuzma showed his game, his worth and his potential as an impact player… for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Playoff Rondo Lives?

Rajon Rondo has not been all that great this season. Some nights, he’s been flat-out bad, a caricature compared to the mythical ‘Playoff Rondo’ figure who rears his head in April, May and sometimes June. Well, Saturday gave perhaps a sneak preview, as Rondo out-floor general-ed longtime buddy Chris Paul to the tune of a near triple-double with a 22 point, 12 rebound, 8 assist outing, repeatedly pushing the ball and setting his teammates up for success. He did most of his scoring damage in the first quarter but slowed down in that area in the second half (In the third quarter, he apparently injured his finger, which I didn’t know until after the game had ended. He also shot an airball on a three, which prompted the esteemed gentleman sitting to my right to proclaim ‘we know Rondo can’t shoot!’ as he proceeded to put a dip of tobacco in, which I guess is allowed in NBA arenas?). Scoring from the perimeter has been the glaring weakness of this Lakers team this season and Rondo has been the unofficial poster boy from fans, myself included (I repeatedly nudged my brother, asking him ‘where the hell has this been!’ when Rondo is pouring bucket after bucket early on. I still think the Lakers need another perimeter ball-handler capable of creating his own shot, though Quinn Cook stepped up big in that role as well alongside Kuzma and even Troy Daniels running off screens and hitting timely shots. Maybe Rondo is saving himself for the postseason, where the last two times he’s been a participant he was a major positive for the New Orleans Pelicans and Chicago Bulls. I don’t know. But the fact he let me and the world know he still has it and can change a game for the better was quite the welcome surprise.

The Lakers Defense Is Real and Is Spectacular

It was fascinating to watch the Lakers defend in real life. To hear the communication and watch them swarm from one defender to another, to help and make the proper rotations, etc. Anthony Davis is *the* major factor as to why the Lakers are dominant on that end, but they truly do defend on a string. Watching Jared Dudley as the backline of defense from the back of their basket recognize in an instant he had to protect the rim to alter the shot of a rampaging Hamidou Diallo was amazing. They were tremendous. Sure, Oklahoma City shot just 29% from three and missed shots they normally would make, but the Lakers did everything in their power to make those as difficult as possible. Saturday Night was the crowning jewel of the Frank Vogel Coach of the Year campaign.

Lakers Team Depth and Chemistry

The Lakers’ depth has been brought into question this year, but this performance should quell some of those concerns. Perhaps the Thunder took this game lightly after James, Davis and Green were ruled out, but the Lakers withstood a late Thunder push when they made it a 12 point game. The Lakers played 10 players and all of them made an impact. They can use another piece or two, but the Lakers have plenty of guys right now outside of the dynamic duo who can contribute. But outside of that, what really stood out was the team chemistry they have. Any time someone would do something the bench would get up. They played together as a team knowing they don’t have their two best, most dynamic players. LeBron even got up off the bench to whisper something to Alex Caruso during the game as if LeBron was a coach. Anthony Davis interviewed Rajon Rondo after the game for the local Los Angeles TV crew. They’re a legit team through and through, on and off the court.

Shai’s Got the Goods, Dude

I mean, two teams did in fact play, so I might as well talk about the other team. The Chris Paul / Danilo Gallinari two-man game was able to put the Lakers’ defense in compromising positions, but the biggest thing to me was how easy Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was able to score. He’s one of those guys who can just glide to wherever he wants to go and score at any level. That is especially impressive to me considering I believe his playmaking is at the very least on the same level and perhaps better than his scoring ability. He is going to be very good for a very long time.

(By the way, I typed this *BEFORE* Shai delivered a 20-20-10 performance in his next game)

A Brief Soliloquy on Load Management

When fans and analysts would go after players and teams for their load management tactics, I would normally just shake my head in disgust because they would not put the players’ health in front of their own self-interests. And then… LeBron James and Anthony Davis didn’t play in a game I went to in very large part to see them do their thing. Load management is real, y’all. After this game, the only time this regular season the Lakers will play in an area close to where I live in Fayetteville, Arkansas is in Memphis on February 29th. I don’t mind and very much understand why they did, in fact, sit out: Anthony Davis hurt his butt (of course he did) defending a Julius Randle shot at the rim and LeBron conveniently caught the flu the night before when he played the Mavericks. To say our mood was shot getting the news neither would play was an understatement. I even offered to just stay at home and not risk travel through some snow that came down the night before in the Arkansas/Oklahoma area. I still very much wanted to go because the Lakers are the team that I’ve rooted for my entire life but I felt especially bad for my brother, the two little kids I met at the end of the game who also traveled from Fayetteville and the numerous others in attendance who wanted to see LeBron and Davis play. It sucks, but that’s just the way it is. Teams don’t have us fans in mind when gauging whether their players should play on a back-to-back in January; they have their players’ health and championship quest as their priority and rightfully so. I don’t know what the solution is. At least we knew LeBron was not playing before we left and pretty much knew Davis would follow suit. You have to figure if the NBA were to lower the amount of regular-season games and carry on with their sort of ridiculous in-season tournament that no one seems to want that there still would be *some* back-to-back games. My brother didn’t know that two weeks after he bought the tickets that Anthony Davis would injure his butt and LeBron would get sick essentially the night before we wanted to see him. I really wanted to see them play, but even just seeing them, in general, conversing with teammates was really cool to see. Even going made my night, personally (especially since it had been over half a decade since I had gone to an NBA game live), but I don’t know if I can say the same for everyone else. The fact that the Lakers won *without them* made that night even more special for me. It was a blast and was a night I don’t think I’ll ever forget. Go Lakers!

[3one3]

The Sequel - 817

Omaha

André Schürrle, Juan Mata, other Chelsea/BVB players, and random awesome OC’s (okay they’re less random now but they’re still pretty awesome)

“This show really blows. They need to stop letting the Americans bid for things. Did Schü call? I wish I had taken my phone with me. It was so boring over there. I could have done with some tunes,” Christina remarked resentfully as she kicked off her stirrups and slid down to the ground from her tall and rotund Hanoverian stallion. Nick seemed to be enjoying the reclamation of his place in her competition rotation after the intermediate-length absence from the circuit. He was a happy boy when he landed in Omaha, as if he hadn’t just spent 11 hours in a box on a plane. Rio, his traveling companion, was always thrilled to be getting off a plane, but his happiness was usually heavily made up of relief and not much excitement. Christina and Tom could tell the difference. Nick was perky and affectionate right away. Rio acted as if stress was melting away. He never flew particularly well, and a trip that long was hard on him. Nevertheless, the Brazilian bred warmblood was sitting in second place in the World Cup Final after the first round on Thursday night, and was calm and relaxed in his stall with plenty of hay and his favorite stuffed animal on Friday afternoon when his rider returned Nick to Tom after a brief hack. Nick only had one competitive event the entire week, and it was Saturday, so Christina took him over to the schooling ring to stretch his legs that afternoon before the dressage final started.

The only two redeeming qualities about the horse show venue in Nebraska were the ambient temperature inside, and the food. It was warm enough to ride in a long-sleeve top without additional layers, which was why she didn’t have her phone with her, and there was a vendor right in the convention center part of the facility with standard Midwest-ernized German food. Many Americans in the Midwest fancy themselves the children of generations of German immigrants, whether they really are or not. As a consequence, lots of flyover territory is full of vaguely German restaurants with food that sort of nods at authentic cuisine but definitely Americanizes it. An American bratwurst is nothing like one at Signal Iduna Park, for example, but Christina loved both kinds. She loved the potato pancakes that were closer to a McDonald’s hashbrown than her dad’s kartoffelpuffer. Tom looked like he’d had too many of them when she handed over Nick’s double set of reins. She furrowed her brows at him, silently inviting an explanation for the positively perturbed look on his face. He exchanged her iPhone for the reins.

“I think there is some bad news,” he replied, apologetic. Oh no, his rider thought. Is he not going to play? She was eagerly waiting to hear from André about whether or not he was fit enough to be in the team for the match against Schalke on Saturday. Obviously everyone wanted to play in the Revierderby. He really, really wanted to play because he scored two goals for Germany the weekend before and thought he could carry some momentum over. His wife was rooting for him. Unfortunately he was also carrying over a painful knock sustained early in that match, and hadn’t been able to train with his club again yet. She thumbed the Home button and quickly scanned the variety of notifications on the screen, expecting Tom to provide an explanation for his response. He was supposed to answer if André called.

“Oh no.” Her own response was more grave than the disappointed version of the one she said in her head a few seconds earlier. “Juan Mata could be out for the rest of the season? What? What the hell?” She swiped urgently at the Bleacher Report notification to find out what was going on, and tried to deduce it while the news article loaded. What could have possibly happened to him in training today that he’s already diagnosed and going to be out forever? Did someone break his leg or something? What the hell.

“Did he call you or anything?” her new stable manager questioned. He was already trying to get the big warmblood into his grooming stall so he could untack him and put him away. He knew her more than well enough to know that she would be very upset for the Spaniard if he were really going to miss the rest of the season, and he knew her more than well enough to know that a serious injury to the player likely would have come up as a talking point between them if she knew about it. Christina told him nearly everything on her mind when they were alone on the road, especially when they were together so much. Almost none of her friends were in Omaha. She spent nearly all of her time hanging around the stalls, except for meals, which she sometimes shared with Marcus and Ludger instead since Tom was often working while she was free to eat.

“Bleacher Report says that he had groin surgery today. How? I just talked to him last night! It must be a mistake. I’m calling him.” She furiously but absently stroked Nick’s nose while she waited for her friend to pick up, and then growled aloud when she got his voicemail. “Is it tomorrow in the UK already or something?” she asked, forlorn. “Is it April Fool’s Day already? This can’t be right. Is it all over Twi-“ A text interrupted her rant and the loading of the Twitter app on her phone.

“I’ll call you soon,” Juan told her.

“He would have said it’s wrong and he’s fine if it were wrong and he’s fine. He just said he’d call me back. Maaaan. If he got hurt today he couldn’t possibly have the surgery today too, right? Nobody does that.”

“I don’t know. I wouldn’t think so. He didn’t say anything about an injury?”

“Not a word. We talked last night before I rode, and he texted me this morning to congratulate me.”

“Maybe he didn’t want to worry you. You are talking about someone who lied to you about Seven being put down the last time we were at one of these,” Tom pointed out. He too was guilty of keeping things from her so as to keep her plate clear, so to speak, but that hypocrisy didn’t seem to matter to him, or was outweighed by his longtime dislike of Christina’s relationship with the Chelsea man.

“Nothing from Schü though?” They can’t both be injured. Jeez.”

“Nope.”

“I’ll wait for Juan to call me back and then I’ll call him, so I don’t end up with both of them at the same time.” Shudder.

“Whatever. Take your helmet and your boots off and relax. There is nothing you can do for injured football players on another continent by worrying about them and staring at a phone.”

That is a reasonable point. I’ll go change, she thought before dropping a kiss on her pretty stallion’s nose and leaving him and his handler to their business. I have to put the watch that I won for this last year on anyway before I go to the autograph table. Bleh. I appreciate fans and all but this isn’t a sport for or funded by spectators, and I’m forever afraid I’m going to get sick because they all want to hug me and shit. Or I’ll get Lukas sick. These Midwestern American folk are all really huggy. I bet nobody tries to hug me in Mexico City. Oh! Phone!

“Dude, what’s going on?” she sputtered into Juan’s ear while simultaneously tripping over a lunge whip and her own foot.

“I had a bad pain in training some days ago, we decided the surgical option to fix it is best, and now I have a while to recover,” he explained like a father trying to reassure his very young daughter that yes, the dinosaurs did go extinct, but her stuffed one survived and is fine, and no, he doesn’t miss his extinct family. He sounded very calm. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to distract from what you’re doing there, and because I’m fine. I’m disappointed that I won’t play for a while, but I’m feeling okay and there is no need for you to worry, or try to come home, or be overwhelmed with sadness on my behalf.”

“But how long is a while?” Christina despaired.

“Three, four weeks.”

“Oh. Well, gosh. The Internet made it sound like an eternity! I’m so relieved, Juanin, you have no idea.” She released a long, pent up breath and plopped on her tack trunk. Heiner’s familiar whistle was audible somewhere up the aisle and she was glad to be on the phone because it meant he might not try to talk to her. The Germany boss had been annoying her all week with mini-interrogations about her life, her training, and why she was systematically severing ties with various advertisers. He’d been so hands-off with her throughout the winter that there was a gulf between her willingness to open up to him and his willingness to advise her. Even she knew he was asking the questions so that he could help her or guide her through if she was having some kind of problem that made her want to scale back her associations with brands. It was just difficult for her to do a heart to heart about it. The rider thought of all their broad-spectrum conversations as a process- as her warming up to being able to unload the full state of the union address on him, so to speak.

Tom overheard a lot of those talks, and he was encouraging her to let the chef know exactly what was going on with her, from her homesickness to her questions about Dirk’s form and fitness, and even her relationship struggles. The groom was even more intimately acquainted with her problems than in the past since he was with her every day instead of just at competitions. He was an observant creature, like Christina, and didn’t need to have things spelled out for him. She argued that it couldn’t possibly be wise to clue the team coach in on all of her problems a few months before he would sit down with Holger to make a final decision on the Olympic team, and Tom argued back that she needed to let go of the idea that Heiner was like a supervisor she needed to avoid while sneaking out early at the end of the day, or coming back from lunch 15 minutes late. He said she needed to stop treating him like an enemy that she had to negotiate with explicitly and with subtle diplomatic maneuvers in public. Tom said Heiner was there to help, and that he sought information so he could be most useful to his riders, not so that he could use it against them. Christina didn’t 100% believe that, but she accepted that it was mostly true. She’d been burned by the man before and didn’t think she needed to share everything with him when everything included information that would make it harder for him to pick her.

“It’s just a little thing, cariña,” Juan reiterated reassuringly. “Just a small hernia. Two weeks to rest, and then I can start a little training.”

“Okay,” Christina replied, her voice quiet and private. I want Heiner to realize I’m on the phone, but I don’t want him hearing what I’m saying, she thought. Private. Her eyes were on the curtain concealing her in the stall. “Who is taking care of you? Did your mom come? Is Paula there? Is someone bringing you juice and making you food?”

“Yes, my mom was here anyway, and she’s looking after me,” the player chuckled. “It was a routine thing- the surgeon does a few every day. I’m just resting and watching TV. Do you want to speak to her to verify that everything is fine?”

“No. I trust you. I was just scared. You didn’t tell me,” his friend complained. “I was more concerned for your heart than your health. I was worried you’d be so upset not getting to play forever,” she mumbled. Her own heart felt a little funny, as it always did when she recovered slowly from a shock or a scare, real or imagined.

“My heart is fine, my head is fine, and my abdominal wall is reinforced and extra fine! Don’t worry about anything. Focus on what you’re doing there.”

“I miss you,” she said even more quietly. He had to have surgery and the time out is terrible news even if it’s only three weeks, and he’s thinking of me and my needs and my head. He’s such a good person. And a better one than me. I’d be wanting him to come take care of me and talk me out of wallowing in woe. I would want him and Schü both to wait on- Hey, wait-

“I miss you too, but I’m free to watch all of your riding now. What time tonight?”

“Is Taylor there? She probably doesn’t want to watch show jumping...”

“She’s with friends in Manchester.”

“She didn’t come back? Did you tell her?”

“We don’t see so much of each other right now. I told her, yes, but I don’t need her here to watch me rest either.”

“Oh.”

“I can’t talk more about that right now, cariña,” the recovering Spaniard added, his voice quiet too. “Another time.”

“Okay...” Are they done? He never talks about her anymore, regardless of who is sitting next to him on the couch.

“What time tonight?”

“2 am.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” Christina laughed, forgetting the question on her mind. Juan sounded so thrown off. “You’re excused. You don’t have to watch. If it’s a great round, I’ll send it to you in the morning.”

“I’ll call you back again before you ride, okay? I have a few other people to get back to now.”

“Okay. Call or text any time if you’re bored resting. Love you.”

“Love you too, baby girl. Talk to you later.”

I bet his mom or dad or Toni or somebody was coming and going from nearby during that conversation, she reckoned. He was all quiet and hiding some things but then not others. Whatever. At least he’s okay and he isn’t going to be out of commission for the rest of the season. Phew. Now, boots and helmet off, and-

“Chris!”

Here we go. Heiner joined her in the tack room stall to chat while she changed her footwear and brushed out her hair. He just wanted to discuss a person he’d just met- an American trainer who he thought she might know, or know of. Christina knew the man well enough to say hello and how are you, and she knew enough of him to be able to give a decent account of his reputation up until she lost touch with the East Coast show scene not long after she moved to London. By the time André called to catch up and tell her that he wasn’t going to be in the team for Saturday, his girl had to head to that solo autograph session for the FEI. The line to meet her was ridiculous, and it didn’t flatter her at all. It simply made her groan into the phone about how long it would take to sign that many programs and posters. He told her to call him back after if she could. He was having dinner with his friend Dominic, who he’d known for at least twice as many years as he knew her.

“It’s going to be between 3 and 4 in the morning that she rides,” he told this friend, whom he met at his hometown youth club. Dominic lived in nearby Düsseldorf, and provided a companion with which to do things when Christina wasn’t around. Usually there was a third member at their boys’ dinner, but the other friend was unavailable on Friday since he did still play lower league football and had a match coming up. “I don’t know if I should try to stay up or if I should go to sleep early and then try to wake up.”

“You’re not going to stay up,” Dominic replied, assured. He was an inch or so taller than André, and spent more time lifting weights and less time running like his life depended on it. He easily reached across the table to point down into the other German’s wine glass, as if to say that the wine was going to put him to sleep.

“I could call Mel and make her talk to me so I don’t fall asleep,” André countered.

“When is the baby expected?”

“Next week. She’s having trouble sleeping now. That’s why I know she’ll be up. Her husband is with her but he’s supposed to go to the same shows as Chris after this weekend. He’s even more senseless than she is. Why would you go overseas when your wife is about to give birth?”

“You have no idea what it’s like to be around a woman about to give birth,” Dominic chuckled. His long time girlfriend’s sister had three kids, and André talked to him about where to take children in the area for fun or interesting outings when he was alone with Lukas. Dominic and the girlfriend did a decent amount of kid-sitting, so he figured he’d know.

“I don’t think Chris was bad enough that I would want to go away if I didn’t have to. I talked to her every day on the phone. She was frustrated and whiny but not that much more than usual, and she definitely didn’t have sleep problems. All she did was sleep and watch TV when she was this close. And tell my mom to leave her alone. I still regret that I wasn’t with her during the last weeks, and when Lukas was born.”

“Don’t schedule the next one to come during a tournament, then.”

“I don’t know if there is a next one.” André lowered his eyes from the conversation and grasped his chopsticks with more intent than before. “I know Chris wants Lukas to have a sibling, and she’s said many times that she wants the brother or sister to be around the same age. I don’t see her putting her riding on hold again any time soon.” Or wanting to have another baby with me while she’s walking around not even sure that we’re going to be together in the future, the BVB player added more bleakly to himself. He thought things were really feeling better between them when he left for international duty. That was nearly two weeks in the past, however, and as usual, being apart left room for doubts and disappointment. Hearing about how much fun was had trying to fit as much of Berlin as possible into two days with Juan, for example, was a small blow to the confidence with which André left Christina. Her constant reiteration that she wished Daniel were in Omaha was another annoying detractor from the sense of progress. He kept reminding himself that those things didn’t have to matter, or mean anything. He knew his relationship with her could be just fine even when she was having lots of fun with Juan, so he knew he shouldn’t worry that her having a good time with the Spaniard and her being happy with her partner might be mutually exclusive. He knew there was nothing going on between his girl and her teammate, so he knew he shouldn’t be upset that she just wished her friend were at the World Cup too. It was just irritating to be away from her, and unable to observe her and glean whatever he could from her behavior and demeanor the way he’d been doing at home. Paying attention to her and moderating his own behavior and demeanor instinctively in response was really helping to stamp out the accidental fights and flashpoints.

“I thought you want at least two?”

“I do, but who knows,” André shrugged, hoping to change the subject. “Which country to do you think has the most restaurants in the top 10? The big list, that everyone respects.”

“The US?” Dominic guessed. His right eyebrow dipped to indicate his surprise at the turn in conversation. André was waving a tuna roll around between his chopsticks, but it wasn’t like they were eating at the world’s best Japanese restaurant and had been discussing food. After deciding what to order, nobody even mentioned food.

“Spain. Chris told me that today. She’s lining up a pitch to spend our summer holiday taking the boat around Spain and Portugal. I don’t think she has any idea how big Spain is,” the player smiled, more to himself than his friend. “She wants to go to San Sebastian, which is practically in France but on the top, and Estoril way over there. They have a competition there.”

“The restaurants?”

“No, the horses, in July right after the Confederations Cup. Does Lena ever just start randomly bringing up things about places you think she might want to go to, while pointing out reasons to be there? Like every couple of days?”

“No. She picks a holiday and tells me where we’re going.”

“Oh. Actually...Chris does that too, but she also does the hints, for...lots of things.”

“You talk about her a lot more lately.” Dominic’s observation was plain and lacking any indication about how he felt about the fact he was relaying. André knew the reason he was amidst his third Christina conversation of dinner was that thinking about her, and her very name, was no longer igniting rage and hurt in the pit of his stomach. His partner wasn’t stressing him out so much anymore. He was able to think of her randomly throughout the day and focus on a positive or at least neutral issue or context rather than just negative ones. That actually marked a huge change from the last time she went away. It meant his state of mind stayed generally more neutral or positive, in spite of his boo-boo keeping him out of team training and the matchday squad. André found that encouraging as he thought it over and finished his sushi.

“I love loving you,” he tapped out to send to Christina when the plate was empty. Loving her can be so hard. Right now it’s just nice, I think.