#like i said i got to over the half way point on the ps4 t and yes it was hell bc of the lag and frame drops and the amount of

[4giorno]

im starting my 5 day mental preparation program for starting patho 2 again this weekend

#yknow when like 2 years ago or something i had just gotten to the part where the inquisitor comes to town #but then the ps4 gave me irrepairable damage to my brain and spirit by chugging and crashing the game even more than it already did #maybe this time my immunity wont be gone immediately bc loading screens took 10 seconds and froze my controls #but the immunity still kept going down while it loaded 💀💀💀💀💀💀 #oh no now talking more abt it is giving me war flashbacks and making me lose enthusiasm to play it again HDJFKDJDJ #no but rlly its such a cool game and im rlly looking forward to playing it in a playable state #and its one i think everyone should play. but its SO inaccessible #you need a very high end pc or. well i havent played it on the ps5 but the ps4 is not enough #like i said i got to over the half way point on the ps4 t and yes it was hell bc of the lag and frame drops and the amount of #extra items you had to use bc of the lag but then i had to stop bc at the same point on that day it crashed everytime i reached it again #which was frustrating bc i had finally gotten to the point that artemy wasnt starving 24/7 despite eating 4 2-course meals a day LMAO #but yeah starting it again is so daunting bc of the reputation of the game of course #but i need to keep reminding myself that the gameplay wasnt THAT difficult like at the end of the day i got through it and wasnt stressed #but that the thing that made me rip my hair out was the lag and the crashes leading to lost progress #which hopefully will be fixed when i play on the ps5! #i just finally after such a long time got the desire to play it again and i have to use it while i can

[kyotakumrau]

A thread with the 1st slot report from azifxxx, Zepp Tokyo with Kyo and Shinya

F: Hello everyone at Zepp Tokyo! I'm DIR's manager Fujieda.

T: I'm manager Takabayashi.

F: today in Tokyo it's the last day (...) now I'd like to invite two band members to start the talk event! Give them applause!

Shinya arrives, then Kyo.

Kyo wore a black beret and big glasses, blackish grey jacket, some yellow badge on the left side? and grey denim. Shinya (Yamo-chan) wore all black, double jacket? it looked very soft. When entering the stage Kyo did 'Fujifuji pose' to F...

F: today Kyo and Shinya came to the event! How are you doing, the two of you?

S: I'm always fine. 24h a day. Just got bit foolish in Sendai due to snow...

K: yeah... I'm also good...

F: for both of you it's your second time, going straight to the point what's the most impactful/memorable thing in 2020 for you?

S: not COVID?

F: from the band's point of view it is.

S: it didn't feel like being in a band. There were no concerts at all.

F: for you, Kyo? (pretending to eat)

K: PS5.

S: I see.

K: I couldn't get it. That's all I can think about.

S: I want it too, but not that much... can you play Dead by Daylight on PS5? having ps4 edition?

K: you can.

S: then I want it. I also applied for it, but as I wasn't contacted I don't think I won.

F: there's nothing besides PS5?

K: the fan who said in the message they're getting it next day, they are probably playing right now..  I get angry again when I think about it. And not just a bit....(F: what would you do if after you got PS5?) Eh? I have to say it each time？💢 (makes dissatisfied sound and turns away, for a while stays silent) 

F passes them the merch items.

S&K: ... (silently checking the items)

When prompted to say something

S: mini water bottle.. is for when you go out for a bit...

K: is that a pig?

S: it's a bear

But it has 3 fingers? The hoofs? 

S: a bear isn't like that? 

K: but only 3 fingers?! 

K: you draw 3 or 4 fingers for a bear! A horse gets 2! is the claw here (between the fingers?)? the claws come out here (pointing back of the hand)? 

S: there are no fingers there (in the back of the hand) 

K: and it is listening standing in front of the speaker? Its ears will get bad! Listening to such loud sound in front of the speaker! you will go nuts! 

F: so Kyo, you were praising the choker a lot in Osaka. 

K: ... (looks at the choker) ...(starts to tie the choker)...(puts the choker in front of F) 

F: it can be tied up? Is that a good point? Ah, you mean that it can be displayed like this? It's a very popular item so everyone please get one! 

Today there are only two tables, on the right (kamite) sits Shinya with Takabayashi, on the left (shimote) Fujieda with Kyo 

F: any no-no topics for the questions? (S says nothing) I hope it’ going to be interesting... what kind of outfit are you wearing today? 

S: I’m wearing black... the hood is...(hesitates) like Penyu 

K: (smiling😊) 

S: I realized today that it’s like Penyu. Not because Kyo came today as well. 

K: suddenly getting closer, feels bad 

F: Kyo... today you’re also wearing a total outfit idea? 

K: you think there’s a theme? 

F: a bit... like in an older coffee shop.... cafe... like sitting in a coffee shop... 

K: it’s monochrome checkers! 

F who got told it's checkers went 'i see~'

K: what, so today's theme is let's have a smoke or let's go to a cafe?

The usual atmosphere... like Kyo who always corners F until he's lost what to say

Ta chooses a question: 'what's the memorable small (v-kei) venue for the band members?'

S: Area or Cyber recently got closed, right? I really don't remember... didn't we only play at Rock-may-kan? I think no small venues [we played at] are left in Kansai? only Cowboy or Muse Hall.

K: I guess only Rock-may-kan.

Ta: how about for Shibere Bajiru?

K: with going straight to Shibire (like paying too much attention?), is that a shoulder pad. No? I wanted to see~

F: Cyber, Area is a very sad news... K, you don't have any [venues]?

K: not really...

Ta: 'what's the book you've recently read or a movie you've seen?'

S: ehm... nothing much... I also don't really read manga. But I've seen Demon Slayer. I got into it after watching anime.

K: heh, about Demon Slayer, I ordered the comics to be delivered, but only volumes 4~8 came. Am I supposed to start from vol 4? Wouldn't it be horrible? don't wanna start there

K: there's this thing I have, only get into it after it stops being so popular. I also didn't watch yesterday.

F: what kind of books do you read?

K: I read various things ... but I'm really excited about the new story from the Innocent.

Ta: 'what's your kanji of the year?'

S: 心・kokoro from 心夜・Shinya

Ta: isn't that the same every year?

K: for me... nothing really.

Ta: what was it this year (officially)?

S: 密・mitsu・crowd/carefulness, right?

K: (still trying to think) ...nothing really.

F: 'if you were to play on a different position in a band?'

S: by elimination only the guitar is left.

K: not the vocals? You're going for the guitar??

S: I'm not going for the vocals...

K: but you sing in karaoke?

S: I can't sing...

K: there's emotional singing! You're often angry!

S: I haven't gotten angry in 10+ years

K: but you sing the chorus!

S: but there's only short phrase with the chorus...

K: but you're doing lotsa of choruses

S: well... I'm practicing...but vocals are the most impossible for me...

'If you done something else than vocals?'

K: Takumi's position is good, watching the band members from the side, if it's something else than vocals then from the side is good.

S: but you like bass? That's the only idea I have for you.

K: that's only when song writing though!?

S: but you've been playing everywhere, right?

K: where everywhere? I haven't!

S: you have that time... (=sukekiyo)

Ta: aren't we going fast today? 'is there any country you'd like to visit?'

S: if possible I don't want to go...

K: but you're always going somewhere alone. To play board games etc

S: it only happened because I was already going.

Ta: Kyo doesn't want to go like "I'm!Not!Going!"

K: I'm playing a bit online games (Fortnite), but I'm told I suck at it. When you suck at something it's usually better to quit, I'm told so, many times, why is this guy going that way or is he going to the enemy's site on purpose? I'm told things like that from 6:30 in the morning sometimes.

K: if I (my heart) get broken by that how should I continue living?

S: I'm being told 'how are you living?'. I'm using the pig character but it feels like I'm living like a pig. I can block out the talk, but I'd rather hear those terrible opinions.

K: but it's hard

S: it is really hard.

K: when I played with Fujieda it was going well! He told me, get down or make your nose bigger

S: it also went well when we played, don't go there, let's go there and so on.

K: but the fights take about 20 mins in DbD, right? I'm dead in Fortnite in about 10 seconds

Ta: 'what do you like about F?'

S: he's always full of energy and almost never gets sad

K: his nose? Doesn't it get bigger as you look at it?

F: is that a praise?

K: it's easy to breathe and the mask stays on. Hands down it's your nose.

F: 'what song would you like to listen to very loudly?'

S: I'm not good with loud sounds... I prefer to listen quietly.

F: what do you listen to nowadays?

S: our new song(s)

K: I also don't want to listen (loudly), not really...

F: how about a song to listen quietly?

K: nothing special

F: Fujifuji!x

K: (ignoring him) (removes invisible dust from his shoulder)

Ta: 'what would you ask Santa for?'

S: it would be PS5?

K: Me? After all of that, I don't need it anymore, don't come. How does he get inside? There is no chimney. Is he picking a lock? Is Santa like a cockroach? Pretending to be dead when they're not... but maybe Santa is fine with all of that.

K: in the past, when I was in elementary school I was happy when Santa came, but then at some point he stopped coming. Wasn't that a crime (Santa's visits)? and parents also don't know how he comes in, isn't that scary? And from that time he doest come. I don't want him to come anymore.

'What song do you want to play when you can do concerts again?'

S: And Zero. I saod that in Sendai as well, but if it's not mode of Arche we probably won't...

Kyo: I don't really have one..

F: Do you want to play new songs?

K: I haven't listen to it (them). Isn't it how it is that you listen to them even when you weren't planning to? you dot feel like listening so much to the song you made yourself, no?

S: I also haven't listened to the new song(s) much.

Ta: Fujieda is listening to new songs a lot, in a car.

K: isn't that a bit narcissistic?

F: you don't want to perform new songs?

S: I already did while filming the music videos... doesn't that count?

'what time you go to bed and wake up?'

S: I go to bed at 6 and wake up at 1pm. It's my cycle.

K: I go to sleep at 1 and wake up around half nine. Should be around then? So there's someone who wants to know information like this?

F: they want to imagine (their lives)

K: and for what? Even if they know the time they don't know what we do

K: what time you wake up and then what time do you make coffee, make a toast, I don't understand why asking that, what's the point?

F: Shinya, is there something you'd like to know about Kyo?

S: I want to know everything.

K: I hate it that this person is called a doctor.

F: when the band has just started you two have met as first, right? What was your impression then?

S: I thought he's a really good person.

K: ...Oh?

F: And did you hit it off/became friends?

K: he didn't speak like this then. He spoke one or two things a day. He had long black hair and earrings.

S: You've bleached that black hair for me.

K: and, he said 'thank you' but... he said his kanji of the year is 心・heart, but he's the one without one. For over 20 years all band members are saying that he's like a robot or humanoid. When you go to his house he will reply with 'what is it?' with the chain on the door.

S: this is because when a certain member came some things happened...

K: But when I came over I was nice! I want to  visit! Remodel stuff! (with enthusiasm)

S: remodeling... (like the certain member) there are issues like that and that's why you're banned...

'is it weird if your mother comes to the concerts?'

K: isn't it okay?

S: and brings dad...

K: I'd love to see mother headbanging. The deep one when you start from waist!

F: do your parents come to the shows?

S: mine often come.

F: your parents as well, Kyo?

K: sometimes.

F: is it something you welcome?

K: yeah.

And then F asked when they came last time but probably T said nlt to ask something like that

About the avatar Music Clip for the 12/31 stream.

S: the video looks like PS2 game..

K: like that from Virtua Fighter.

The last comments

Shinya: Thank you for today. I think we won't be able to meet for a while, but there will be the nye stream and also a knot calendars, I hope you will spend the next year using them. Let's meet again.

Kyo: We couldn't meet at all this year, but after this long time seeing everyone's faces I calm down. I think it's a good thing. Everyone knows through social media what others are doing, but it is important to meet in person. We will be looking into concert plans, hope you stay tuned and thank you.

#dir en grey #kyo #京 #shinya #the world you live in #zepp tokyo

[puffmamaa]

Rated E for Extra Petty.

Hey y’all! Here’s a random, little one-shot loosely based on this meme I saw a while back. Everytime I listen to Fantasia, it’s all I can think about lol.

Pairing: Erik ‘Killmonger’ Stevens x Black, Dark-Skin, Plus Size Reader. (Always💛)

Summary: No amount of 2K or Anime is a match for you when you’re on your bullshit.

Word Count: 1.6k

Warnings: Cussing. Use of N-word. Corny jokes. Reader being a major brat. Mention of smut. Erik being...a nigga lmao.

A/N: Song is “Free Yourself” by Fantasia, just in case someone doesn’t know it.

Also, I love me some Tasia so any shade towards her singing is all in jest. 😉

——

“IF YOU DON’T WANT ME, THEN DON’T TALK TO MEEE...”

Erik paused the TV and placed his elbows on his knees. His right leg bounced up and down aggressively. Sighing loudly, he threw down his PS4 controller and laid all the way back on the bed. You’d been blasting that same song for the last 20 minutes. Erik tried to tune it out but between Fantasia’s loud ass crooning and your off-key screeching, he couldn’t take it. He let out another breath as you continued to scream out ad-libs about how ain’t shit he was.

Let you tell it, this moment of supreme pettiness is what Erik deserved. You had come home late from work, tired and worn out from being around d’wights all day. All you wanted to do was curl up with your boyfriend and watch Love & Basketball. But Erik was in the middle of a game of NBA 2K19 and didn’t want to stop for your impromptu movie night.

EARLIER...

“What you mean not right now?” You asked with an attitude. You had changed out of your work clothes and into a black crop top t-shirt and black fitted shorts. Your big, kinky hair was pulled into a high puff.

“Baby, I’m trying to finish this game. We can watch the movie afterwards. Aight?”

“But I want to watch it now.”

“Well, I’m busy right now. Just watch it without me, if you can’t wait.”

“But we always watch Love & Basketball together, you whined as you poked your bottom lip out. “You don’t wanna hang out with me?”

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

You sauntered over to him and sat on his lap, straddling his legs. You wrapped your arms around his neck and gently played with the tail of his black du-rag.

“Then why not now?” You cooed into his ear.

Erik groaned lightly as you ran your nails against the back of his neck. “Look, I’ll only be like an hour. I’m sure you can find a way to entertain yourself until I’m done.”

You squinted your eyes at him. Usually, you had Erik wrapped around your finger. Your whine alone would have him rubbing on your booty all night. And a whole lot more. But this time, he wasn’t letting up. Your pout quickly turned into a frown. You hopped out of his lap and stood in front of the TV.

“So this dumb ass game is more important than me?”

“Y/N.“

“Nah, that’s basically what your saying. You rather play this shit than be with me. I can read between the lines, Erik.”

“Girl, you trippin’ right now. Chill out.”

“Fuck chill! All the times I’ve sat up and watched those stupid ass anime shows with you?

“Stupid?” He stood up, cocking his neck back in offense. His gray sweats hung low on his hips. “I thought you said you were starting to like anime.”

“I don’t even understand that shit! I watch it because its something you like to do. But, do you return the favor? Nooo. You rather sit in front of this fucking TV and play some wack ass game made for 14 year olds! Witcho cornball ass!”

Erik’s eyes bulged. He clenched his jaw and moved towards you.

“Watch ya mouth, princess. I don’t know who you think you talking to but I’m not sum nigga in the street. You need—“

“I need to what, Erik?” You cut him off, placing your hands on you hips and moving closer to him. His large frame towered over yours but you still managed to look him right in the eye.

“You know, maybe I should get me one of those other niggas. I’m sure they would love to do much more than watch a movie with me.”

Erik’s eye twitched. You knew the thought of you entertaining some one else would get under his skin.

“You better calm all that down before we have a fucking problem,” he lowered his face to yours. “I mean that shit.”

“Then turn the game off,” you whined again, crossing your arms over your chest.

“Hell no.” Erik mirrored your actions. Normally, he’d let you have your way by now, but you were being more of a brat than usually. Plus, you had disrespected his favorite genre and game. No fucks were given on his end at this point.

The two of you glared at each other for a minute.

Erik huffed and rolled his eyes, “I’m not finna do this with your bratty ass. Take that bullshit somewhere else, bruh.”

He sat down on the bed and grabbed his controller, starting his game back up.

You stood there, burning a hole in the side of his head as he continued to play like you weren’t in the room.

“Ok,” you hissed, “OH-Kay.”

You stomped out, slamming the bedroom door on purpose.

—

Erik heard the song start over again.

“If your unhappy then your free to go onnn. Cause I don’t want you stayin’ arounndd, if I make you so miseraablee,” you and Fantasia sang brashly.

“IF YOU DON’T WANT ME THEN DON’T TALK TO MEE,”

“That’s FUCKING it.” He said as he shot up from the bed.

He swung open the bedroom door and stomped down the hall.

“I swear to GOD...” he murmured to himself as he made his way to the living room.

You were sprawled out on the couch, one leg thrown over the back while you leaned your head on the arm and sang. An open bottle of wine and half filled wine glass sat on the coffee table. You eyes drifted to Erik as he barged into the room. He was silently fuming; his naked, scarred chest heaving in and out. You gave him a dry look and grabbed your glass, taking a long sip.

“This love thing is fuull of scandaaaals, so you’re WELCOME TO WAALK.”

“Yo. Kill all this fucking noise, ma.” Erik said, pulling on his sweats.

You gave a him a stank once over, rolled your eyes, and kept singing.

“If you don’t WANT me, then dont TALK to me.”

“I’m serious, Y/N. You being mad childish right now.”

You turned the volume up on your speaker.

“Then GO ahead AND free yourSEELF.”

Erik clenched his jaw, “All this over a damn movie?”

You glared at him and walked towards the kitchen. He was right behind you, huffing and puffing the whole way. You opened the pantry and grabbed a big bag of kettle popcorn. You strolled over to the kitchen island and sat down on one of the stools.

“Look, stop all this and I’ll watch the stupid movie with you.”

“Time and time again, I tried it over and over,” you sang between bites. “But the love I had inside, has died.”

“Come on now, this shit is ridiculous,” he moved to your side of the island and sat down, trying to grab at you. You pulled back and perched yourself up on your knees to sit over him.

“Go. Ahead. To. Someone. Else.” You chanted, tapping your index finger into his forehead with every word.

Erik grabbed your wrist, getting more agitated with you, “I’m warning you, Y/N. You better stop.”

You kissed your teeth and snatched your hand back. With all the dramatic energy you could muster, you threw your head back and your arms out, bellowing out with the screaming songstress.

“IF YOOUU DON’T WAANNT MEEE THEN DON’T TAALK TO MEEE. GOOO AHEAAD AND FREEEE YOURSEEELFFF!”

Erik winced at your screaching. You threw your hand up at him and shook your head side to side.

“I had to take it there, I had take it there. Cause I’m TIRED.“

He flared his nostrils at you. That right leg started bouncing again.

“IF YOU DON’T WANT ME, THEN DON’T TAALK TO M—.”

“Goddamnit, Y/N!” Erik yelled. He quickly scooped you up and walked you over to the couch. You yelped as he plopped both your bodies down and leaned over you, a scowl on his face.

You blinked up at him innocently. His eyes scanned over your chubby, brown face. He sighed, still sneering a little.

“Why do I even put up with your ass?”

Fantasia continued to croon in the background as you stared back at him, batting your eyelashes.

“Cause you love me...” You said with a shy smile.

Erik let out a soft chuckle and dropped his head. He was lowkey happy to hear you say something besides those damn song lyrics. Reaching around you, he turned the speaker off.

He shifted both of your bodies sideways and laid behind you. He snuggled his head in your neck, causing you to whimper a little.

“Cue the damn movie,” Erik said, wrapping an arm around your waist.

You giggled, grabbing the remote off the table and turning on the TV. The opening scene of Love & Basketball faded onto the screen. You moved your head to face his and smiled, running your nails through his beard.

“You are something the fuck else, I swear.” He mumbled as he peppered kisses up your neck and along your face. He captured your lips into a full kiss as he pressed himself against your backside. “Spoiled ass.”

“E...” you moaned, pushing back against him.

Erik pulled back and sent a hard smack to your ass, causing you to squeal.

“I’ma watch this shit with you now but I got something for that ass later on,” he said with a smirk while he rubbed the sting away. “You ain’t really start singing yet.”

“The neighbors gon learn my name today or whatever Trey Songz said.”

——

Alright, I hope y’all got a good little chuckle out of this.

Let me know what ya think! 😁

#killmonger #killmonger x reader #killmonger x OC #erik killmonger #erik killmonger x reader #erik killmonger x oc #erik stevens x reader #erik stevens imagine #erik killmonger fanfic #erik killmonger imagine #erik stevens #killmonger fanfic #killmonger fanfiction #black panther fanfic #black panther imagine #black panther #michael b jordan

[smokeybrandreviews]

Some Assembly Required

If you know me, you know I'm a Marvel shill. I love that universe. Spider-Man is one of the three staples of my childhood; Spider-Man, Godzilla, and Transformers. I've seen and own every film in the MCU except for Doctor Strange. I don't really like Doc Strange. Love the character, kind of hate the movie. I think its because of what they did to Dormamu. The PS4 Spider-Man game is one of my all-time favorites and i even own that sh*tty Venom movie. I am a committed Marvel Apologist. All of that said, this new Avengers game looks like sh*t.

I don't like Kamala Khan. She has no presence, no character, in the books. She got the push because she is a woman, Muslim, and brown. I've heard the term Mary Sue thrown around but, in the books, that's not the case. Gwenpool is more a Mary Sue. I'll give Kamala that; She is, at least, written like a person and not some OP asspull. In this game, not so much. Kamala is the POV character but, because of that, this narrative revolves around her. The Avengers, the ones we know, are supporting characters to HER story. I don't like Kamala enough to spend hours seeing this world from her perspective. That's whack. She's whack. The writing can save this but i am skeptical. And don't start with all of that sexism  or “I hate her because she's a woman” or the like. I'm actually a massive fan of America Chavez and, if you recall, she got the same amount of heat Kamala did when she was released. The difference between the two? Miss America has a character. She's not just a self insert OC.

Another massive issue i have with this game is how f*cking ugly it is. This game is supposed to take place in the same universe, Earth-1048, as the Spider-Man game. Pete actually references the Avengers during downtime banter. How can one game nail the aesthetic so effortlessly and the other look like a pasty, hairy, ass? Spider-Man is one of the most beautiful games i have ever seen in my entire life. All of the costumes, tech, bosses, character models, and especially the faces, have such a unique, complex, flair. The models and aesthetic of the Avengers title is middling at best and this is AFTER it went back to the lab for more cooking. I remember, very specifically, people complaining about the Black Widow facial model. They were saying how ugly it was. Instead off actually fixing that, they just slapped a domino mask over half her face! I get that there was a graphical overhaul or whatever but this is the best we’re gonna get? Really? That was a MASSIVE point of contention when the original footage dropped way back when and hose character models were still straight up bogus!

The biggest problem i have with this title, and the most egregious fact of all in my book, is the fact that MODOK is the threat chosen for this title. F*cking MODOK. Dude is a joke! He’s been a joke for at least thirty years and this f*cker is the one you choose to be the big bad, Avengers level threat?You can’t be serious. The Avengers have a plethora of big bads to choose from, unique to their narrative. You’re telling me The Masters of Evil weren’t good enough for your narrative? Kang the Conqueror? F*cking Ultron?? You expect me to believe that Korvac and Graviton are less of a threat than f*cking MODOK?? I have a Thor and a Hulk on my team and MODOK is the threat? Really? Come the f*ck on Crystal Dynamics.

This little Avengers expose deal has me real apprehensive about the title. There’s a ton of other sh*t that concerns me; The fact that costumes are locked behind paywalls, that it’s flirting with being a live service, that it appears to be a Destiny clone, the fact that the story revolves around Kamala and MODOK, the game play looks stilted and mechanical, but most of that can be mitigate through game play My biggest concerns are the above three but, combined with these other little nit-picky shenanigans, it feels like this game might be boring and that’s probably the greatest sin any video game experience can commit. Especially one based upon the eighty year history of Marvel Comics. This game feels generic. It feels like a cash grab. It feels commercial as f*ck. Coming off that excellent PS4 Spider-Man title, this sh*t is a complete let down.

#Marvel #Sony #Crystal Dynamics #Marvel's Avengers #The Avengers

[tyrustrash]

Chapter 3 of Sibling Rivalry

RJ sat in his room playing his PS4. He has his own special gaming chair that was blue with gold accents. His headset and controller matched with the chair. His PS4 was the limited edition Spider-Man cover and it was in a protective case. RJ's even wearing his favorite dinosaur onesie because he's playing the new Jurassic Kingdom game. The super elite deluxe edition to be exact. People thought it was weird for him to coordinate outfits for whichever game he would play, but he loved to fully emerge himself. Right now, he thinks he's the mighty T-Rex. He, like always, is over exaggerating every moment. Even when it's simply moving to the side to avoid a fallen branch, he would swerve with his character and shout at the scream. Whenever an enemy appeared, RJ hyped up and started roasting them. The boss levels were really exciting as he drunk his Monster Energy Drink and went sicko mood with his roasts. When one of the villains took some health from him, even if it's only 1 HP, RJ would rage out and jump out of his chair and scream at the screen. His over the top emotions when playing games is the reason TJ doesn't play in the same room. TJ is laying on his bed, texting Cyrus. He monitored what he says carefully because he wants everything to be perfect for his even more perfect boyfriend. Their six month anniversary is coming up and TJ is trying to get Cyrus to say what he wants as a gift without explicitly asking. He's been planning an amazing date, but it can always be better. "DAMNIT!" The shout could be heard throughout the entire house. Luckily their parents were out getting groceries or else RJ would've gotten soap in his mouth. Although he was 18, he's still living under their roof. TJ hopped off his bed and made his way to his brother's room. He knocked on the door. The brothers have this rule where they don't barge in on the other due to what happened when TJ accidentally walked in on RJ. The door opened and a frustrated RJ stood in front of TJ. "What do you want? I'm busy." "Can you quite it a little bit? I'm trying to text." "Since when do you need silence to text?" "Please. I'm trying to think of what to say to Cyrus." "Leave. Go somewhere more quite if you can't handle me." TJ stomped his foot. He knew his brother is like this whenever he's in gamer mode, but it's always annoying. "Why don't you care about me?" RJ huffed and rolls his eyes. "I do care about you, baby bro. I'm in a really important match right now." With that, RJ slammed the door shut. TJ stood in the hallway, on the brink of tears. He stomps to his room and slams his door even harder. Once in his chair, RJ puts his headset back on. He resumes his game. "I'm back. My brother was just annoying me about some stupid shit about his boyfriend or something." TJ could still hear his brother through their thin walls. His mouth was open in shock and his hand gripped his phone. He tried to believe that his brother really did care about him, but these days seem to be changing. RJ has been spending more time on his games and less time with him. The day passes by and TJ finds himself in the kitchen, eating a whole bucket of strawberry ice cream. His phone keeps binging from the messages Cyrus sent. RJ enters the kitchen and opens the fridge. He grabs one of their dad's beers from the back and starts drinking. He walks to the back door and takes off his shirt. "I'm going to work on my tan. Come get me on forty-five minutes." TJ waves his hand and RJ walks out. TJ's eyes widened and ran off upstairs. TJ reaches RJ's room and went inside. He marvels at all the games he has. He's jealous that their parents only agreed to buy one console and placed it on RJ's room because he's older. Why they didn't put it in the living room was simply because their parents didn't want all that noise. He searched through all the games, which was more than 200. He found his favorite game: Dino Rumble Super Charge (Rainbow Edition). He ejected RJ's disc and put in his. He spent over an hour and a half playing since he got so caught up in the fun. When he finally checked the time, he quickly replaced the games to make it seem like nothing happened. He went full Road Runner mode as he ran downstairs and exited through the back door. He saw RJ laying in his stomach in the reclining lounge chair. TJ shakes him awake. When RJ gets himself together, he checks the time one his phone. Without missing a beat, his face turned red. "You had one job! Now my skin won't look great for my girl." "I'm so sorry! I forgot about the time." "What were you even doing?" "Jus-Jus-" RJ sighed as he walked towards the door. "Probably texting your little boyfriend." TJ followed him. "What's your problem with him?" "You seem to care more about him than me!" TJ's now in shock. He waited a second to process what he just heard. "Are you the pot or the kettle? You're the one who doesn't seem to care. You care too much about your games. I've tried to spend time with you and play some two player games but you always push me away! That's when I started spending more time with Cyrus." RJ stopped. He turned to his little brother. "At least I'm normal." With that, RJ made his way inside the house. TJ stood on the lawn, tears coming down his face. He kicked the chair and knocked the potted flowers off of the windowsill. He stormed inside and almost broke the door from how hard he slammed it. As soon as TJ entered the kitchen, all he could hear is screaming. The screaming increased, letting him know RJ is approaching. RJ reaches the kitchen, his face redder than humanly possible. "You little prick! What have you done!" TJ shook his head. "What're you talking about?" "When I went to play my game, the mission I was working on was gone! I've spent hours on that and now I have to start all over! I know you did something because your game wasn't in its usual spot!" "I'm so sorry, I don't now I did that! I just wanted to play one of my games since you've been hogging the PS4 lately. I'll do anything, please don't hate me." RJ noticed TJ's phone on the table. He picked it up, which made TJ freeze. "You're not going to have to do anything." "RJ, what're you doing?" RJ ran up the stairs, TJ following him. RJ made it to his room and locked the door. TJ ran into it and repeatedly banged on it. "RJ! Give me my phone!" "Not until I'm done!" RJ opened the messages app and went to Cyrus's section. He read through all the previous texts and chuckled. He started typing. Had so much fun last night. I didn't know your body could do all that. Oops, sorry. That was meant for Kira. RJ opens his door and TJ fell inside. He threw the phone down. TJ noticed what he had done and started crying harder than ever. "How could you! Do you not realize what you've done!" "I could ask the same thing!" "You can always get back to that point in the game! This might cause my relationship to end and have Cyrus hate me forever!" A bing rang through the room. TJ looked down and saw a new message from Cyrus. OMG!!!!! What the actually freak!! I knew I shouldn't have trusted her. Just like I shouldn't have trusted you! We're through!! I never want to see your cheating face again!! TJ cried as he tossed his phone to the side and started punching RJ's chest. RJ grabbed his fists to stop the blows, but he felt no difference because he was too buff to feel any of the hits. Overcome with emotion, TJ kicked RJ in the groin. The move causes RJ to release his grip and fall to his knees. This allowed TJ to make some more punches, this time at RJ's head. RJ covered his head. "Bro, chill out!" "Don't call me bro! You're no longer my brother! A brother wouldn't mess with the others relationship and wouldn't say that they weren't normal." The sounds they were making were so loud that they didn't hear their dad enter the room. He pulled TJ away and pinned him to the wall. "What's going on!" TJ squirmed around and tried getting out. "Him! He made Cyrus break up with me!" "Only because he deleted part of my game!" Their father grunted. "You two hug and apologize." "You think that's going to work?" TJ huffed. "Try again." Their dad let him go and walked out. "I tried." TJ stuck his chest out as he got in RJ's face. He tugged his shirt to pull him closer. "I never want you to speak to me ever again. You're dead to me." TJ shoved RJ and left. RJ stood up and went to the gaming case. He picked up the controller and threw it across the room. He found his phone and dialed a number. An hour had passed and TJ sat in the middle of his bed, crying his eyes out. He went through six boxes of tissues. He started to hiccup and shoved a pillow over his face. A knock from his door caught him off guard. "Go away, RJ!" The door slowly started to open, which alarmed TJ. He squared up with his pillow in one hand. As the door opened some more, the pillow started going down. Soon, TJ could see the full body of who was entering. He wiped away his tears as Cyrus entered his room. "What are you doing here?" TJ asked as he got off the bed. He tries to hug Cyrus, but stops himself. "I'm glad you are, but I thought you never wanted to talk or see me again." "That was what I wanted, but things change." "What happened?" "RJ happened." TJ growled and kicked his desk. "Don't mention him." Cyrus places a hand in his shoulder. "No need to be angry. RJ called me and explained the situation. He said things to me that he wanted to say to you, but he says you hate him." "I do! He texted you that and said I wasn't normal." "He wants to apologize, but he thinks he can't." “Good. He shouldn’t have said and did what he did.” “Just hear him out. For me?” TJ started into his eyes. He lifted his Cyrus’s chin and kissed his cheek. “For you, ill do anything.” TJ walked out of the room and went to RJ’s door. It’s closed. He raised his hand to knock, but instead grabbed the handle. He turned it and opened the door. He stepped inside, gently closing the door.

#andi mack #tyrus #fanfiction

[kiruuuuu]

No worries, anon from a previous post! I got you ♥♥ (Rating T, fluff, ~1.5k words)

.

Thermite is kissing Castle. And panicking.

It’s a little like tripping and falling, one moment he’s walking normally without paying any attention to doing so, his subconscious, his muscle memory more than up to the task of carrying him safely where he wants to go yet the next, he stumbles over something and now he’s on the ground and confused as to how he got there. Only in this case, he wasn’t walking but rather basking in Castle’s presence after they spent the day carrying moving boxes. Thermite’s last flat wouldn’t have allowed pets and since he’s planning to adopt a dog soon, he was forced to move – he normally hates doing it, gets exhausted even thinking about all the effort involved and doesn’t trust himself not to cut corners and end up with twenty unmarked boxes which either rot away in a corner while he proceeds to buy everything that’s buried somewhere again because he can’t be bothered to look for it or he just dumps all their contents into a drawer and forgets about it all till he has to move again.

This time, Castle helped him with organising all his belongings, made sure to pack the breakables in a way that they’re not going to live up to their name, labelled each box clearly, ensured none of them ended up too heavy and even assisted in taking Thermite’s furniture apart for transport. He’s been there throughout the entire journey, advised Thermite in choosing a new bed frame, asked around until they could be sure enough people would be around that day to help carry and transport everything, and stayed long after everyone has left just so Thermite can comfortably live in his new apartment for a few days while unpacking.

So they’ve been doing that, just walking around in the large flat which is much bigger than Thermite is used to but since it’s on the outskirts of the city, it’s even cheaper than the one he was in previously, talking and joking, Castle making a few last, highly appreciated suggestions on where to put what and then Thermite stumbled over something and now he’s kissing Castle and confused as to how he got there.

A thumb is brushing over his ear, warm fingers are in the nape of his neck, soft lips slide over his and it’d be lovely if Thermite’s brain wasn’t going fuck fuck fuck non-stop. They’re in the middle of his corridor, somehow got stuck on each other, the rooms around them silent, and Castle’s tongue licks over his lower lip, asks for entry which Thermite grants and touches his with an almost electric feeling, charging Thermite. The litany inside his head upgrades to FUCK FUCK FUCK and when an arm snakes around his waist to pull him a little closer, he panics.

.

“I kissed Miles yesterday evening”, Thermite says.

“Honestly, just shove them somewhere onto the shelf, Jordan doesn’t care if they’re sorted by author”, Ash directs Pulse around the room and earns a pained expression – the idea of not sorting books by anything makes Pulse visibly uncomfortable.

“Where is Miles, anyway? Shouldn’t he be here by now?” He reluctantly sets a second book down on the wooden surface and uncertainly looks back at Ash to see whether it gets her approval.

Thermite is getting irritated. This is a big deal and both of them are just ignoring him. “Did you hear what I just said?”

“Yeah. What do you mean, kissed, is that some sort of euphemism? Oh my God Jack, if it kills you to not put them in order, just sort them. Make a spreadsheet for them too, if you like.”

“What? A euphemism? No, I literally kissed – are you even listening?”

His annoyance must be audible because Ash pauses, stops rummaging around in a half-empty box and turns to him. “I’m sorry. It sounds important, so go on. I’m listening.”

Thermite blinks. “That’s it. I kissed him. I don’t know what to do now.”

She cocks her head inquisitively. “I’m not sure I follow. Did anything else happen?”

“Anything else? Fuck’s sake, Liza! I frenched Miles completely out of the blue, isn’t that enough? What more do you want?”

Both his friends are quiet now, halting their movements and looking at him strangely. “What’s that supposed to mean?”, Pulse wants to know. “Do you normally not kiss? Does either of you not like it?”

Thermite is starting to feel like he’s in the twilight zone. “No, we normally don’t kiss, we’ve never kissed, we’re just friends. Am I supposed to tongue wrestle with all my friends?”

“Oh”, says Ash and something is odd about her tone of voice. “You’re not -” She breaks off and only continues once Thermite’s eyebrows lift. “You’re not dating?”

What. “Why would you think -”

“You regularly sleep over at each other’s place”, Pulse points out matter-of-factly.

“Yeah, he has a PS4 and I have an Xbone, it’s just easier that way, we can stay up later and play more.”

“You also spend almost every waking minute together.”

“Yeah. Like I said: I have an Xbone, he has a PS4. What else would we do?”

“You danced together on Blitz’ birthday.”

“We were both drunk.”

“When Miles was injured, you refused to leave his side and even hid under his bed.”

“No one deserves to be alone in a hospital.”

“You touch each other all the time. He adjusts your clothing, you steal his sunglasses, he makes that rasping noise with his gloves and your beard that you love so much, you sleep on his shoulder whenever you can.”

“Look, we’re just really good friends, alright?”

Ash fixes him with a scrutinising stare. “Except for the fact that you apparently frenched him.”

Thermite is starting to get a headache. “Did everyone think we were dating? Does he think we’re dating?”

“I’d say that depends on how the story ends. What happened after you kissed him?”

“I threw him out.” Pulse snorts while Ash pinches the bridge of her nose. Apparently that wasn’t the correct answer. “Look, I was in a panic, I didn’t know what was happening, so I told him I didn’t need his help today after all and good night and thank you.”

“Why did you even kiss him in the first place?”

“He smelled nice.” Now Pulse is openly laughing whereas Ash regards him with exasperation. “Look. He’s handsome and smelled nice and I haven’t kissed anyone in quite a while and he was there.”

“You’re a fucking idiot”, the redhead tells him while rolling her eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that you’re being almost painfully obtuse.”

“Oh, are you insinuating what I think you’re insinuating? Because you’re wrong.”

“Whatever you say, Jordan, I’ll just continue unpacking your stuff. Hey look, it’s the pictures you took with Miles when you went on that weekend trip to London. I didn’t know you had them framed.”

“I like this book series”, Pulse adds and points to a trilogy which has quite obviously been extensively read. “Miles does, too, he’s the one who recommended it to me.”

“Wasn’t it Miles who got you these Superhero themed shot glasses?”, Ash asks sweetly. “They’re your favourite, aren’t they?”

Thermite’s headache is getting worse. Clearly, inviting them over was a mistake. “You know what, if you’re gonna be like this, I’ll just do my own thing. Somewhere else.” He drags one of the boxes to the other end of the expansive living room while shooting his friends a dirty look which is met with amused grins. This is not something he wants to figure out right now, he’s had a stressful few days and still so much to do. He’ll think about it once all of it is over. When he has the time. He opens the box and is greeted by his Xbox, sitting innocently next to a row of games that he’s almost never played alone.

Wordlessly, he gets up and walks towards the door and when Ash asks him where he’s going, he doesn’t answer.

.

Thermite is kissing Castle. And smiling.

It’s a little like tripping, falling and being caught by someone, one moment he’s walking normally and the next he’s stumbling all over himself, his feet having forgotten how this ‘walking’ thing is supposed to work, he’s frantic and flailing, looking for support and now he’s in someone’s arms and deeply grateful for it. Only in this case, he wasn’t walking but rather saying things that should’ve been said much earlier, unsure as to how to put them, frantic and flailing and now they’re kissing for the second time and he’s basking in Castle’s presence.

This time, he doesn’t panic when he’s pulled closer. This time, he reciprocates and his tongue asks for entry and Castle is also smiling now.

#rainbow six siege #thermite #castle #thermite/castle #fanfic #oneshot #request #castle is a big ol softie

[sqideychelle]

Expect the Unexpected - Chapter 4

Expect the Unexpected - Chapter 4

Hands

Work Summary: Harley’s been living on his own for three years now; after coming home from school one day to see both his mother and sister gone. No word, no note. He stayed there for a whole week - until he ran out of food to eat - and there was still no sign of either woman. He tried contacting Tony as a last resort, but never heard anything back (which he later finds out is because he wrote the wrong address down).AKA where Tony fosters Harley, and Harley meets Harry - all while trying to not stumble over his words - at Tony and Pepper’s wedding reception.

CH. 1 | CH. 2 | CH. 3

Ao3

Harley was terrified, to say the least. He’d never even found a guy worth taking interest in, let alone asking him out on a date. And then there was the thought that maybe Harry didn’t think it was going to be a date. How dressed should Harley be for a cafe date/possibly-not-date, anyway?

Peter could sense the tension within Harley just as the younger boy passed him in the kitchen upstate. Harley went straight to the fridge to get himself a cup of water, only to be met with an intrigued look from Peter as he sat up on the counter eating a banana. “Where are you off to? You look… nicer than usual.” Peter commented, mouth half stuffed.

Harley took a gulp of water and glanced down at himself. He was wearing a simple red t-shirt with a loose jacket and jeans. Did it really look like he was trying too hard? Maybe it was the hair. Harley knew he should’ve just tucked it under a hat like he normally does. “No, I don’t. Do I? These are just my regular clothes. I’m just going to the… library. You know, study with people and whatever. Have a project coming up.” he shrugged, and it seemed like Peter bought it, judging by the way he tilted his head. “This late? Wow… I hope it’s a good group, then. Don’t let them make you do all the work or anything. We both know that you’re probably the smartest student there.”

“Yeah, right, Peter.” Harley scoffed lightly, leaning against the table. “Maybe in the group, yeah. But definitely not the whole school. I just wish I could go to Midtown with you guys.” he took a few more sips from the cup, easily finishing it. “So you’d rather wake up at the crack of dawn just to make it to Manhattan on time rather than just waking up twenty minutes before school starts like you do now?” Peter teased with a smirk. Harley rolled his eyes in response and put the cup in the sink, shrugging. “That’s like the one perk of going to school up here.” he headed for the door, pausing momentarily once he heard Peter hop of the counter.

“Hey, Harley, listen - I know we haven’t really talked about the wedding --” “Don’t worry about it.” Harley said quickly. “It was nothing. Just a spur of the moment thing or whatever. No hard feelings. Or awkwardness. I swear.” he managed to give Peter a crooked grin. “You gonna be staying here tonight?”

Peter wasn’t sure whether or not to believe Harley’s words, but maybe he was right. Maybe Harry and Harley already talked through things and decided not to take any further steps. Or maybe they just never talked to each other and ignored the whole situation. It wasn’t Peter’s place to step in, but Harry hadn’t talked much about the whole interaction either, which was odd. He’d have to subtly bring it up.

“Uh, no. May’s making her baked ziti. I should actually head back home. Guess I’ll see you next week. And remember what I said about your group.” Peter gave him a small thumbs up, to which Harley rolled his eyes at. “I can handle myself.” he huffed lightly. Which was a big lie. That’s where not going to the same school came in handy. Peter didn’t actually know just how bad things could get for Harley sometimes. But of course Harley did his best to shrug it off; he’d been dealing with bullies his whole life. He knew moving to New York wouldn’t change anything.

“He’s onto us.” Harley said once him and Harry were settled in a small booth at the cafe. The table was off to the side of the building, in a somewhat separate section from the rest. There were only four other tables in the side room, and Harley managed to snag his favorite table - by the window - just before the dinner rush picked up. The two were currently waiting for their buzzers to go off, sitting across from each other as people passed by the window.

“Who is?” Harry asked after a moment, taking the time to shed his light jacket off. He was definitely more dressed than Harley - only in a simple black button up with black jeans and boots - having stopped at Oscorp before meeting Harley. “I didn’t even know there was an ‘us’?”

Harley gave him a slight look from across the booth, leaning back as he glanced out the window. “I - I mean there doesn’t - I was just saying that Peter might know we’re… hanging out.” he cleared his throat, slowly bringing his gaze back to Harry. “And that’s a bad thing?” Harry almost challenged him, the pink of Harry’s cheeks more noticeable now. Harley let out a breath and shook his head, gaze dropping to the table momentarily. “No - just an observation.” And as if on cue, the buzzer for their order started to go off and Harley was out of the booth within moments to go collect their food.

Upon returning, Harry had gotten himself more comfortable in the booth, now sitting at more of an angle with his leg propped up. He typed away at his phone, but put it down moments after Harley placed their plates down and sat. “Just work stuff.” he excused easily and apologized, straightening himself out in the booth - as if to put his Harry Osborn™ facade back on. The younger boy noticed the change in demeanor but decided not to comment on it, mostly too focused on the food in front of him; he couldn’t remember the last time he had a meal that looked this good. Even at the tower it was mostly just pasta since it was quick and easy to make with barely any hassle. Harley was clearly being fed in all aspects of life at the current moment, but Harry didn’t seem to think so.

Only when Harley stumbled over words and was visibly flustered would he smile, a true unfiltered smile. But Harry was sure that he just wasn’t enough for the younger boy - that Harley was only into this for the physical aspect and not everything that came with a relationship. Granted, Harry was thinking way too far ahead and into things, but that was just his nature. Harley, on the other hand, was sure that Harry wasn’t too impressed with his “poor kid from Tennessee” personality. What would an Osborn want with some kid? It just didn’t add up to Harley; he figured Harry would leave him just like everyone else did. That’s why he tried his hardest to not get attached - to not feel. Especially not tonight.

“How are you getting home?”

They were standing outside the cafe now, Harley scuffing his heels into the ground as his hands found the depths of his pockets. “Was just gonna take the subway. Going upstate.” Harley said simply with a shrug of his shoulders. “It’s not a big deal, really, I took it down here. The ride actually isn’t that --”

“I’m taking you home.” “What?” “I have a car. I’m not making you pay for a ticket if you don’t have to.” “It’s so out of the way for you, Harry. It’s fine. I don’t want you to take the long drive up there just to come back down here.” “Then I guess I’ll just have to spend the night.” “...oh.” Harley was thankful for the night sky, it hid the pink in his cheeks. “I mean, if you’ll let me.” Harry added after a few moments, the air between them clearly holding some awkwardness and… tension.

“No, no, yeah. It’s fine. Totally fine. We have guest bedrooms and stuff if you want to stay there instead I just - no one’s ever really - it’s fine.” Harley cleared his throat and started walking towards the parking garage across the street. Harry reached out to grab his arm and pulled him in closer. “I didn’t park there.” he told him with a small grin and nodded his head down the block to the right. Harley let out a breath of a laugh as he gave him a small smile, letting his hand find Harry’s once Harry’s left his arm. He took in a soft breath as he did so, glancing around. He could practically feel his heart about to burst out of his chest. He’d never done anything like this, and it was literally just hand holding. But it still managed to drive Harley through the roof.

The two of them took advantage of the long car ride, stopping about halfway to grab milkshakes (Harley’s favorite) to get them a little more energized. Harley eventually brought up the topic of the two of them, and what they were going to, or should, be. That conversation led to Harley blurting out the question that had been on Harry’s mind since the date started; “So then do you want to date me?”

The tone was harsher than he intended, causing him to curse and drop his head to his hands immediately after the words left his mouth. Harry only grinned over at Harley and gave him a simple, “yes” before adding on that they should just test the waters first - not jump into things too soon - especially with Harley not being officially out. They’d have to essentially sneak around for a little while.

Despite that conversation, Harley still found himself very much being the big spoon up against Harry in his bed once they got settled for that night. Harley offered up his bed since it was more comfortable than any of the guest beds (yes, he’s tested), but Harry insisted that Harley stay in the bed. That turned into the classic “Well what if we just both stay in it?”, which led to this position. Harleys heart was beating rapidly, but he was able to keep his breathing manageable to the point where it didn’t alarm Harry at all. Harry currently had the remote for Harleys PS4 and was scrolling through Netflix, Harley’s eyes half closed from exhaustion. But then Harry was moving against him, which got a startled yet pleased noise from Harley, who was immediately mortified. His cheeks turned pink and he tried not to think about it too much. But Harrys hips were moved right against his and his body just had a natural chemical reaction to said movements. And Harry definitely felt said reaction, even if it was just for a moment.

“I guess hiding our relationship isn’t going to be the only hard thing in the morning.” “Shut the fuck up, Harry.”

#harry osborn #harley keener #Harry Osborn/Harley Keener #Harley Keener/Harry Osborn #bisexual harry osborn #peter parker

[bubblet-ea]

something foreign but altogether completely familiar

“the fuck?”

“please?” jimin all but whined, head tucked comfortably atop yoongi’s lap as both sets of fingers moved rapid-fire against his ps4 game controller.

“no,” yoongi’s green humanoid blob managed to shove jimin’s blue twerky thing to go plunging to his doom off a rotating blimp. 

”hah!” taehyung’s screech could be heard through his headset. “team taegi wildin’ out!”

“come on, just one time,” jimin’s eyes remained glued to the tv screen where he adamantly tried to body flop his way over taehyung’s yellow goop man that tried to throw him off again ”hoseok! you fuckin’ suck! you’re supposed to have my back!”

the only response received was a high pitched cackle-scream hybrid that had jimin flinching, probably bursting one of his eardrums as well. hoseok’s little red floppy dude went plummeting to his doom all on his own at the opposite end of the screen far from the melee going on between the other three players.

“yoongi please,” jimin was just that close of chucking his controller at the tv, nostrils flaring with annoyance at how crap he was at this game. “three hours, tops.”

“fuck no,” yoongi effectively managed to nudge both jimin’s and taehyung’s characters off the blimp, sacrificing his own partner with no remorse. (”hey! what the heck!”). “what part of no don’t you understand?”

“but i said please,” jimin finally tossed his controller and waved his metaphoric white flag of surrender. he opted for rolling flat on his back and lifting his gaze to stare up at the underside of yoongi’s chin with the softest puppy pout he could muster. “i thought we were bros.”

“no,” yoongi somehow managed to continue playing with a single hand, freeing the other to produce a swift flick on jimin’s forehead (”ow.”). “i am your elder, and you are a pint-sized peanut stuffed full of teenage gay angst and i don’t know why i put up with you.”

granted, jimin supposed that was true. yoongi was technically two years his senior. but they’d been practically biffles for life since childhood because their dads were fishing buddies. and jimin would rather have every last one of his teeth pulled out with steel pliers than to actually admit, but he picked this university for the sole purpose that it contained one min yoongi.

because.

best bros.

“but i thought you were my fam,” jimin plopped his body like deadweight and stretched his full height across the couch. “my homie for life, piña to my colada, the half to my whole, soy to my latte-”

“you can fuck right off with that.” 

 “and after all i’ve done for you,” jimin swooned, arm tossed over his eyes in a dramatic effect. he snuck a peak to glance up at the pointy end of yoongi’s nose.

the elder’s eyebrow was in serious danger of shooting up and out through the roof. if jimin didn’t know any better, and he liked to think he knew better than most, yoongi’s expression was definitely in danger of being permanently fixed the way it was, what with yoongi’s constant skepticism and no-fucking-nonsense-stick-up-his-ass-you-mess-with-me-i-will-shove-this-lamp-pole-up-your-fucking-dickhole attitude.

“pray tell, what exactly have you done for me?”

“like that one time,” jimin started, straightening out from his maiden’s swoon and poking up at yoongi’s left piercing. “you were thirsting over taehyung hardcore like the dehydrated prune ass bitch you are. and i had to step in and play cupid so you could finally man up the courage to tap dat.”

“damn boiiiii!” hoseok screeched.

“exposed!” taehyung followed. “i know i’m hot shit and all but daaaaang!”

“i will literally set your hair on fire, you oversized carrot top,” yoongi gritted through clenched teeth where jimin caught a muscle twitch. (”you love my glorious orange hair, don’t lie.”)

jimin could truly say that episode had been one helluva fuckin’ ride, an experience. to be honest, yoongi seemed to be hellbent on pretending the entirety of last winter holidays had never happened, it was that embarrassing. in the end, jimin’s efforts had been in vain and yoongi snapped right the fuck out of it when he realized taehyung was not the soft, sweet cotton fluff he thought and a whole lot of nasty, panty dropping extra that could not be contained.

yoongi shot him a brief, tight lipped smile that looked more constipated than anything else.

“it’s true though,” hoseok’s mirth was clearly visible even through the shitty wifi connection. “jimin did do you a solid.”

“the sex was really good though, you gotta admit.”

“first of all, you piece of shit,” yoongi’s game controller went to join jimin’s across the coffee table. “i did not thirst after taehyung-”

“you were so thirsty your skin was flaking,” jimin smirked, shortly before he was shoved off the couch to land in a puddle at yoongi’s feet. “ow, fuck that really hurt.”

“i am the king of gang beasts!” taehyung’s shrill deep voice echoed in jimin’s ears. “all hail king tae! bow, peasants, and kiss my feet!”

“the fucking disrespect,” yoongi’s toe nudge into jimin’s side, making him jerk sideways half under the table. “it was mid winter and i have eczema you snot rag. second of all,” yoongi continued on his tirade and jimin wheezed with laughter. “what you managed to do was set everyone up for fuckin’ centuries of cringeworthy humiliation that is bound to have my descendants curling in misery.”

“you’re so dramatic,” jimin smiled fondly, rolling back out from under the table and sitting himself up. he rested his chin along his arms crossed on the edge of the sofa by yoongi’s knees. “i totally helped you get dat ass. i am the best wingman.”

“you are a fucking nightmare, is what you are,” yoongi deadpanned, ruffling jimin’s already mussed up, pitch black hair.

“i know, but please,” jimin tried again, throwing on his best sulk face and capitalizing on the best asset god bequeathed him with. his plush, pouty lips. “just this one time,” he bat his lashes, just for good measure. “how often do i ask for favors?”

“all the fuckin’ time!”

“like when do you not?”

“did i ask for your opinion?! i think the fuck not!” jimin straightened out like a snapped spring and bellowed into his headset mic. through his peripheral vision, he saw yoongi take of his own headset and slowly rub at his temples.

“why do i put up with all of you,” yoongi let out a long suffering sigh.

“because you lo-”

jimin turned off the tv, remote arm out, cutting hoseok off mid-sentence. yoongi looked at him like he might kiss him. or not. with a shrug, jimin tossed the remote on the carpet by his feet.

“back to the subject,” he licked his lips, settling against the coffee table with his knees drawn to his chest. yoongi let out another heavy sigh, but that didn’t deter jimin. “just one time please. one date,” he attempted the most forlorn look, like stepped on flowers, run over a dog’s tail, cookies got burnt disconsolate. “taemin is gonna be there.”

“how do you even know this,” yoongi sighed. again.

“with jongin.”

jimin pouted extra hard.

“who the fuck is jongin,” yoongi rubbed his temples with his middle and forefinger, as if he was warding off an oncoming migraine. which is nonsense. because jimin is the light of yoongi’s life. he could attest to this.

“who is,” jimin's face crumpled. “who the fuck. jongin!” his arms shot up into the air. “kim jongin! the third year ballet twink with the good ass thighs and facial structure crafted by the gods! dance prodigy jongin!” jimin’s voice escalated with every syllable, in speed, pitch, and volume.

“that kim jongin. the one taemin dumped me for,” jimin was now truly feeling really sad. this was not how he’d anticipated this conversation to go down.

it still hurt. three weeks had passed since the evening that shall not be spoken of. and jimin’s chest still throbbed with an empty longing at the memories of how taemin had broken up with him at their favorite mom-and-pop cafe that had been the center point of almost a year’s worth of happy memories. the sacrilege, how dare?

“i found someone else,” taemin had said.

“well good riddance! ‘cause i was gonna break up with you first!” jimin’s brain to mouth filter completely went on vacation, leaving him with utter regret and despair. but why stop there? “i found someone else too!”

the look of surprise on taemin’s face had almost been worth it.

almost.

now jimin was stuck with empty words and no boyfriend to show for it.

“please,” jimin tried again, clutching at yoongi’s artfully ripped jeans, which was saying something as they were so tight they clung to the elder’s very legs like second skin. “i just gotta prove to him that i do have somebody else and i’m not like desperate-taylor-swift-binge-eating-sobfest-heartbroken.”

“you are heartbroken,” yoongi muttered, pulling off his headset and running a hand through his soft brown hair. “there’s nothing wrong with that. the asshole literally broke your heart. i’m pretty sure that’s the definition of heartbroken.”

“just to prove i have a boyfriend,” jimin could sense victory in the soft sigh leaving yoongi’s lips.

“but you don't.”

“minor detail,” jimin waved a nonchalant hand.

“i’d say that’s a big fucking detail,” yoongi replied gruffly, rubbing his face with his open hand.

“i’ll buy you dinner,” jimin enticed, coming up to his knees and peering up into yoongi’s face.

“it better be a good fucking dinner,” yoongi sighed, finally relenting.

success.

--

“i can't believe i let you talk me into this,” yoongi shook his head, jimin chancing furtive glances over his menu to look for that familiar face.

“just,” jimin finally caught taemin and his new boyfriend at the far side of the cafe, tucked away in a discreet corner booth. “pick something to eat while i do some recon.”

“fucking ridiculous,” yoongi released a long, deep breath but picked up his own menu and began to look through the list of foods. “recon,” yoongi snorted, a crease forming in between jimin’s brows as he tried to subtly, not so subtly, crane his neck as if he could actually catch what the other two were talking about if he stretched far enough.

he didn’t even notice as the waitress stopped by to take their order, squinting as he attempted to lipread what taemin was saying to jongin.

damn, it was hard to see exactly what words were being exchanged from this angle and distance.

but what wasn't too difficult to see, even for jimin from this length of space between, was the brilliant laughter playing on taemin’s lips and the way his eyes curved into that precious moon smile that was jimin’s favorite and had always been reserved for him and him only.

the dull thud in his chest echoed like a bucket dropped all the way to the bottom of an empty well.

he watched, breath held, as taemin pulled the other’s hand and pressed butterfly kisses along every knuckle. something he used to do for jimin too.

it felt as if he’d fallen into that empty well along with the bucket.

it hurt.

like a fucking bitch, it hurt.

he really thought he could do this. but he couldn't. not when taemin looked for all the world like a man completely smitten. and the other person wasn't jimin.

a sharp kick to the shin finally jolted his attention away from the other couple, a startled whine escaping through his parted lips as a bright hot pain traveled up his leg from the point of abuse.

“what the fuck,” jimin’s expression puckered, rubbing at the sore spot on his shin that was very likely to bruise. yoongi’s brow quirked, arms crossed over his chest looking bored as hell while jimin’s world came crashing down around his feet for what was probably the thousandth time since he’d been dumped.

“you’re supposed to be having a good time,” yoongi’s face softened when jimin bit down on his lower lip that had started to quiver. he blinked repeatedly, forcing back the burn that had begun to emerge around the corners of his eyes. it was becoming somewhat hard to breathe.

“do you want me to take you home?” the elder asked gently, and jimin shook his head faintly. “then what do you want to do?” yoongi enquired, head tilted to the side.

inhaling a shaky breath, jimin willed himself to calm. “can you just,” he answered after a moment of silence. “talk. just talk. about anything, i don't care. just please,” jimin didn’t really know what he was begging for. he just needed the pain in his chest to stop.

so yoongi began talking.

he started with a teacher aide in his music comp class that none of the students liked because he was a total pompous bitch. he talked about his latest assignment that was due in a few day’s time, but he’d procrastinated up until now because who fuck care anyways? he commented on the weather, about Pokémon GO, about a new movie that had come out, about the upcoming spring break and how their mothers expected them back home because yoongi’s older brother wanted him to meet his fiancé’s family and how jimin was going to come with him or else he’d die of boredom and the younger owed him a favor after this anyway.

the words flowed freely, and jimin was content to just listen to that deep silken voice wrap him softly like a bandaid over a wound.

he listened and he ate as yoongi talked, gradually forgetting the reason that he was here in the first place and began to actually engage in the conversation.

“do i get a free meal out of it?” jimin tipped his head to the side, popping a french fry in his mouth and licking the bit of ketchup off the end of his middle finger. at that, he thought he caught a near imperceptible dip in the elder’s adam’s apple. but he waved it off as just his imagination.

“freeloader,” a hand leaned over the table to ruffle jimin’s hair before he could swing out of yoongi’s reach.

“knock it off,” jimin huffed, batting the hand away. “and no i’m not.”

“you are soft as fuck,” yoongi laughed at the excitement that lit up jimin’s face. “yes, you’re getting a free meal out of my brother so you’re ass is coming.”

“okay.”

“and you act like you never get a free meal whenever you come banging on my doorstep anyway,” yoongi said in a deadpan tone, sliding his credit card into the check folder the waitress brought over. “you know how much my mom loves you.”

“i can’t wait to play with holly,” jimin hummed with a content smile, sipping on his watered down coke zero.

--

“thanks for, you know,” jimin stared down at his feet, scuffing the point of his right shoe against the concrete. he glanced up to see yoongi shrug, hands tucked away into the pockets of his jeans while they stood outside of jimin’s dorm.

they’d done this a million and trillion times before in the past. but why did jimin feel somewhat nervous?

yoongi was as familiar to him as his own right arm, or his favorite blanket back home.

there was something different though, hanging in the crisp night air between them... something that was never there before.

“thank you for being the best fucking bro in the whole fucking world?” yoongi prompted when he’d paused for long enough, jimin snorting with amusement and retuning somewhat back to planet earth.

“yeah, that,” he conceded, fingers clasped behind his back for lack of anything better to do with them. “thank you.”

something warmed inside jimin’s chest at the soft grin that spread across yoongi’s face, eyes traveling down his side profile as the elder looked up into the starry deep sky above.

when their eyes met again, it was as if jimin hadn’t known yoongi his entire life, since toddlerhood, something foreign yet altogether completely familiar thrumming in his chest.

“’night.”

“good night,” jimin licked his suddenly dry lips. he watched as yoongi turned, breaking into a light jog as he moved back towards his car parked in the no-parking zone with the emergency lights flashing.

what the hell?

--

“i’ve been doing some thinking.”

silence.

“can i ask you something?” 

the only response jimin received was a muted grunt.

“and hear me out, okay? don’t just completely write this off,” jimin continued, staring at yoongi’s back from his current position of lying perpendicular across the elder’s bed, head hanging upside down over the edge.

yoongi didn’t even glance up from the composition project he was working on. the one he’d procrastinated on for weeks now. the one that was due within the next twenty-four hours, holy fucking shit rest in pieces.

“i think we should try kissing a go,” jimin blurted out, body tensed, as he watched for yoongi’s response.

there was the briefest of pause in his constantly moving hand, the soft pen scratches going even quieter still until it had completely stopped.

jimin held his breath, if only to not break the utter silence. the room was so thick with it, he thought he could put a knife right through it and cut a slice straight out of the air.

cricket cricket bitch.

after several minutes had passed, jimin was about to laugh it off as a joke when yoongi finally responded, “don’t be stupid,” and resumed his work once again as if jimin hadn’t said anything at all.

“but i’m being serious,” jimin rolled over onto his front, chin propped up on his clasped fingers and boring holes in the elder’s back between his shoulder blades.

yoongi finally turned, shooting jimin a long, searching look that had him squirming to the very tips of his toes.

without another word, the elder lobbed a crumbled up composition sheet that landed squarely in the center of jimin��s forehead.

“ow what the fuck?!”

--

“i cannot believe,” yoongi exhaled a sigh of resignation, glaring up at the ceiling flashing technicolor strobe lights as if it had done him some personal great injustice.

“is that jongin over there? can y’see him? i can’t tell if it’s him or not,” jimin was just this close to overbalancing and tipping over the barstool with how far he was stretching his neck to catch a glance of the familiar looking couple dancing amongst the drunken crowd.

he’d lost count of how many shots of tito’s he’d downed in the past few hours they’d been camped out at the congested bar. jimin was a man on a mission. and yoongi’s palm was warm against the small of his back, propped there to prevent his fall, made all the warmer by the inebriating flush that spread across his cheeks.

nibbling on his parched lips, jimin leaned even further out to squint at the blond haired man that looked kind of like taemin and kind of didn’t, only breaking his stare when taehyung dipped by to pass him another shot of something or other.

“drink bitch!”

“i think not,” yoongi swooped in before jimin could reach to intercept the small glass rimmed with salt.

“ooh tequila?” jimin pivoted on the stool without warning, nearly knocking the drink out of yoongi’s hand and quite suddenly placing the elder to stand in between his legs. 

“but i have limes!” taehyung’s boxy smile stretched so wide, jimin couldn’t help but grin back as he tried to grab the shot.

“i think you’ve had enough,” yoongi stretched his arm away from jimin’s circumference of reach.

“but i have limes!” taehyung repeated as if that tidbit of fact made it even more important. and quite frankly, jimin couldn't help but agree.

“give it,” he pouted, one hand grasping onto yoongi’s shoulder and the other reaching out making grabby hands at the glass.

“why you gotta cock block?” taehyung whined, having already downed his own and cramming the lime wedge into his mouth.

“no,” yoongi said in a no-nonsense tone that should've brooked no argument.

but jimin was buzzed and had no shits to give at the moment, completely forgetting that his best bro for life had promised to please, please, please play designated let’s-not-let-jimin-do-anything-utterly-stupid-whilst-in-his-intoxicated-state.

however, that was besides the point.

what was the point again?

instead, jimin opted for wrapping his legs around yoongi’s waist to bring him even closer, extending his wiggling arm to the best of its somewhat stunted abilities to reach, reach, reach...

oh.

“shit!”

“ow.”

“y’okay?”

the stool ended up tipping over, both of them landing in a puddle of confused limbs and pained grunts. but jimin’s fall had been miraculously cushioned by yoongi’s chest, the elder having fallen flat on his back against what jimin could only imagine was the disgustingly alcohol-sticky tiled floor. gross.

yoongi groaned, his voice barely audible over the pounding bass intermixed with taehyung’s loud shrieking.

“hey,” jimin rested his chin on yoongi’s chest, his already muddled brain just a tiny bit overwhelmed by the stale and bitter scent of beer that lingered on the other’s lips. “you’re kinda cute, how did i never notice before.” 

yoongi snorted, groaned, jimin couldn't tell which.

“i’m gonna kiss you,” jimin said before his consciousness could actually catch up with his brain. “y’know, not because we’re best bros or anything, but like because you’re kinda cute right now and i’m kinda drunk and i couldn't think about anything but this for the past few days since-”

“just fucking shut up,” yoongi leaned up and pressed his lips onto jimin’s. 

it tasted bitter, but it was warm and soft. and it tasted like something foreign but altogether completely familiar, like a promise of the past and present and future.

it tasted like home.

“literally you are such a piece of shit,” yoongi smiled fondly when they finally came up for air.

yup, definitely felt like home.

#yoonmin #bts fic #pre-relationship #fluff #mini mini mini angst #slice of life #literally have no idea what this is #there's a lot of cursing involved #past 2min

[dontshootmespence]

Christmastime with Kids

A/N: Day 5 of my 25 Days of BAU Christmas. This one is a contrast between Christmas morning with the LaMontagne Family and the Simmons Family. What’s it like with 2 kids? What about four?

“Mommy! Daddy! Wake up!” Jake, David, Chloe and Lily pushed the door open and jumped onto their parents, still sleeping after staying up late eating “Santa’s” cookies. 

Matt smiled in his half-awake state, pulling the covers over himself and Kristy. “Five more minutes.”

“But it’s Christmas!” Lily screamed, sitting her tiny, 40-pound body on his side. “It’s time for presents and looking at the tree and pancakes!”

Kristy began to stir, almost ready to get up, but Matt wanted to tease the kids for just a few more minutes. He so rarely got these uninterrupted times at home, so he wanted to take advantage of the little moments. “But Daddy’s sleepy,” he mumbled into the pillow. When they were a little older, he’d get to sleep in a little - at least he kept telling himself that.

“Pancakes! Pancakes! Pancakes!” The children started to chant causing Kristy to giggle and push herself up. Despite the messy hair, she still looked beautiful, and their children were all happy and healthy; he couldn’t have felt more blessed. 

Just as he was thinking about how truly lucky he was, Kristy started to chant too. “Pancakes! Pancakes! Pancakes!” They were his job.

“Alright, I’m up!” He laughed, grabbing his girls, one under each arm and and squeezing them tight. Standing up, he stretched out and got ready to bolt. “Last one downstairs doesn’t get any pancakes!”

Kristy just rolled her eyes. He really was a giant child. 

JJ and Will had been up late doing...things, the night before, so they were both startled awake by the boys banging on their bedroom. “Mom! Dad!” Henry called. “Michael is crying! He thinks Christmas isn’t coming because you won’t get up! Get up!”

Immediately, JJ bolted out of bed, with Will close behind, and ran into Michael’s room. “Hey, little man. Christmas is already here! Mommy and Daddy were just tired.” The three year old stopped crying, sniffling just a little bit as he looked at his big brother.

“That’s what I told him, but he wouldn’t believe me!” Henry already looked exasperated. At nearly 11 years old, he was starting to get to that age when dealing with a little brother was trying, but since it was Christmas, the tired parents could tell he was attempting to hold back his irritation. “Will you believe me next time Michael?” He nodded, his hand still holding the blanket that he was using to dry his tears. “Good, do you want bacon and waffles now?” That  he was interested in.

While JJ and Will trailed closely behind, hand in hand as they walked down the stairs, Michael and Henry hurried downstairs by the tree. Henry sat at the table, but Michael had other ideas. There was a pile of presents from Santa and he needed them now. “Michael, why don’t we have breakfast first?”

“Yea, I’m hungry,” Henry laughed. His stomach growled just at the right moment as if to scream ‘feed me.’ 

JJ looked between her boys. Christmas should be celebrated how people were comfortable and considering the age gap between them, it made sense to start doing things slightly differently. “How about we bring out the camera and you and I can take turns filming Michael and cooking breakfast for Henry? Then when Henry’s done eating, he can have the camera all to himself.”

“I like that idea,” Henry said, smiling at his mother. “You know how much the camera loves me.”

“You’re such a ham, boy,” Will laughed as he ruffled his son’s hair and brought out the waffle iron and a pan to fry the bacon. “You take the first turn with Michael, JJ.”

“Ready to open your first present?” JJ asked, watching as Michael impatiently waited for permission to open his first gift. 

Suddenly, the wrapping paper went flying.

Matt didn’t even try to sit down. He just ate pancakes right off the griddle as he passed them off to his kids and wife. “Is everybody full of pancakes now?” He laughed. The boys had chocolate chip residue all over their lips, and the girls resorted to each with their hands. But they all seemed content. “First things first, everyone needs to wash their hands and faces.”

“Otherwise Santa’s gifts will get all covered in chocolate,” Kristy laughed. 

It took a little bit longer for everyone to cleaned up than Matt had imagined, but that was Jake and David’s fault. They thought it would be fun to use the removable faucet on the sink to spray their parents, sisters and each other, so they all needed to change into dry clothes before opening their gifts.

As was tradition, Matt brought out the camera and handed his first gift to his wife. Mom always got to open the first present. “Matt it’s beautiful,” she said, staring down at the top. It was a brilliant white, cashmere cardigan. “It’s so soft. It’s amazing. I have no idea how much you spent on it.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell you,” he laughed, putting the camera down for a moment to lean over and kiss his wife. “Alright, each of you take one gift from the pile and wait for me to film. I want everything on camera.”

Once the children had a gift, they all went crazy, ripping the wrapping paper to shreds and throwing it in the air. It was almost like a cartoon, where the paper came down slowly enough to block their reactions to everything. “It’s a football!” Jake cried. He’d been wanting a professional one for a while now. David liked soccer more, so it was a soccer ball for him.

Little Lily loved basketball, always admiring the women she saw on tv, so Santa brought her a basketball, and last but not least, Chloe unwrapped a sketchpad and colored pencils, an avid drawer since the day she could hold a pen. “Okay, the next presents you open, you all need to chill,” he chuckled, “I wanna see your faces when you open them.”

As the four kids lunged toward the pile of gifts again, Kristy beamed. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“Yea, me either,” Matt replied.

“Only one more present from Santa, little man,” Will said as he pushed the final package toward his youngest son. Michael had had entirely too much fun opening gifts, but he nearly had as much fun playing with the wrapping paper. As the paper went flying one more time, Michael’s face lit up. 

“Rocket ship,” he whispered, his eyes sparkling like the stars. It was an impulse buy. A $100 inflatable tube that was painted to look like a space ship and big enough for him to sit inside it. He’d been obsessed with space lately, so it seemed like a good bet. “Can I play in the rocket ship?” He lisped. 

“Of course you can. Daddy just needs to set it up,” JJ laughed. “Now Henry, it’s your turn.” The older child rubbed his hands together and ran to sit at the base of the tree. Unfortunately, a classmate had ruined the illusion of Santa for him the year before, but when he came home, he asked if that meant that she and Will had bought their gifts. When she said yes, he replied with, “That’s even better because that means you bought it with your own money. Santa just gives gifts to everyone, but that means that you and Daddy did it especially for us.”

JJ couldn’t have been more proud of him. “Remember,” she whispered, “”Since you’re older, your gifts are a little more expensive so there are less of them.”

“I know, Mom.”

Reaching over, he grabbed the first package and ripped the paper open. “It’s a rocket ship model!” He exclaimed, showing his gift and enormous smile to the camera. “Maybe Uncle Spencer could help me build it.” Ironically enough, Uncle Spencer was the one to tell JJ to buy it; he did know his godson well.

One by one, the gifts were opened and cherished. They’d bought him a few smaller things, like the model set, a nerf gun, and a basketball hoop for the back of his bedroom door, and two larger gifts. The first one he’d opened was a Star Wars lego set of the Millennium Falcon. Spencer was definitely going to want to help with that one. “Last one, Henry.” 

He rubbed his hands one more time, flashed the camera a cheesy smile and grabbed the final gift. It was in a giant box. “What could it be?” The year before, they’d bought a PS4 for the family, so this year they got him his own special chair. It was $150, but the look on his face was worth it. “Wait! Wait! Does this chair have speakers? I can use it to play my video games?”

“That’s what it’s made for,” Will said, as he put the final touches on Michael’s new rocket ship. “It’s really comfortable. I sat in one of them at the store before.” Henry hastily ripped the box open and dragged the chair out.

“Oh my god, this is amazing!” Henry ran into JJ’s arms and whispered, “thank you,” before going to do the same with his father. “I’m gonna go play games now!”

The opening of gifts was always over far too quickly, but every year, that hour or so was worth all the aggravation, money and time spent. A little later on, they’d be heading to JJ’s parents house for dinner, but for now, the house was quiet save for a few shots going off from Henry’s video game, and the giggle of their three-year-old, already on his way to space.

“Alright!” Kristy said, trying to project her voice over the chaos of a house with four children. They’d already opened almost all their gifts. “Each of you has one gift left. Jake, you first.” 

In an instant, the paper was on the floor. It was like he was The Flash or something. “It’s a skateboard! Can I outside and play with it?”

“In a few minutes,” Matt replied, “and you need to put on a coat. It’s cold outside!”

“Okay, I’ll go get changed!” The oldest boy ran up the stairs at the speed of light. Next was David. 

The younger boy’s eyes lit up. A set of connectable, giant foam blocks. He could make a fort with them. “I’m going to play with this now,” he said softly, turning the package away from his parents and little sisters. “I’ll be in my fort.”

Finally, were the twins, Chloe and Lily. Lily was their little tomboy. “Basketball?” 

“It’s a hoop for your room!” Kirsty said happily, pointing at the picture. A small play hoop could sit in her corner of their room, and she could shoot hoops until her hearts content - and she was old enough for a professional hoop. “You like?”

Lily nodded and turned to her father. “Can I put it in my room?”

“Once Chloe opens her last gift, I’ll help you.” That seemed to be enough, because she sat back and stared at her sister. 

Chloe had gotten almost all art-related gifts, and this last one was no different. In addition to loving art, she loved animals, so when Matt saw a giant paint by numbers in the store of elephants in the wild, he knew he had to buy it for her. “Elephants are my favorite!” She cried as she opened the package.

Matt spoke under his breath. “Score one for dad.”

While Chloe ran to the table to start coloring, Kristy and Matt picked the slew of wrapping paper up off the floor. After dropping it off in the garbage can outside, they both got changed so they could watch Jake play with his new skateboard. “Another successful Christmas morning, I’d say,” Kristy said softly, leaning her head on her husband’s shoulder. “They’re already getting so big.”

"True, but that’s the great thing about Christmastime. It doesn’t matter how old we get. When Christmas comes, we’re all kids again.”

@unstoppableangel8 @coveofmemories  @iammostdefinitelyonfire26 @jamiemelyn @sexualemobitch @rmmalta @lukeassmanalvez @reddie-for-mileven @original-criminal-fanfics @sassygeek77 @rt8815 @amarislestrange @sarahkay-19 @bagelsofdoom @xxfeelmylovexx @psychoticantisepticeye @emllyprentiss @dsgirl4987 @captainreid @teatimewithtiya @queenanneslace4 @the-awesome-one-with-pigtails @tippy06 @ultrarebelheart @static-001 @remember-me-forever-silent-angel

#25 days of bau christmas #criminal minds #jennifer jareau #william lamontagne jr #henry lamontagne #michael lamontagne #matt simmons #kristy simmons #dontshootmespence #christmastime with kids

[smokeybrand]

Some Assembly Required

If you know me, you know I'm a Marvel shill. I love that universe. Spider-Man is one of the three staples of my childhood; Spider-Man, Godzilla, and Transformers. I've seen and own every film in the MCU except for Doctor Strange. I don't really like Doc Strange. Love the character, kind of hate the movie. I think its because of what they did to Dormamu. The PS4 Spider-Man game is one of my all-time favorites and i even own that sh*tty Venom movie. I am a committed Marvel Apologist. All of that said, this new Avengers game looks like sh*t.

I don't like Kamala Khan. She has no presence, no character, in the books. She got the push because she is a woman, Muslim, and brown. I've heard the term Mary Sue thrown around but, in the books, that's not the case. Gwenpool is more a Mary Sue. I'll give Kamala that; She is, at least, written like a person and not some OP asspull. In this game, not so much. Kamala is the POV character but, because of that, this narrative revolves around her. The Avengers, the ones we know, are supporting characters to HER story. I don't like Kamala enough to spend hours seeing this world from her perspective. That's whack. She's whack. The writing can save this but i am skeptical. And don't start with all of that sexism  or “I hate her because she's a woman” or the like. I'm actually a massive fan of America Chavez and, if you recall, she got the same amount of heat Kamala did when she was released. The difference between the two? Miss America has a character. She's not just a self insert OC.

Another massive issue i have with this game is how f*cking ugly it is. This game is supposed to take place in the same universe, Earth-1048, as the Spider-Man game. Pete actually references the Avengers during downtime banter. How can one game nail the aesthetic so effortlessly and the other look like a pasty, hairy, ass? Spider-Man is one of the most beautiful games i have ever seen in my entire life. All of the costumes, tech, bosses, character models, and especially the faces, have such a unique, complex, flair. The models and aesthetic of the Avengers title is middling at best and this is AFTER it went back to the lab for more cooking. I remember, very specifically, people complaining about the Black Widow facial model. They were saying how ugly it was. Instead off actually fixing that, they just slapped a domino mask over half her face! I get that there was a graphical overhaul or whatever but this is the best we’re gonna get? Really? That was a MASSIVE point of contention when the original footage dropped way back when and hose character models were still straight up bogus!

The biggest problem i have with this title, and the most egregious fact of all in my book, is the fact that MODOK is the threat chosen for this title. F*cking MODOK. Dude is a joke! He’s been a joke for at least thirty years and this f*cker is the one you choose to be the big bad, Avengers level threat?You can’t be serious. The Avengers have a plethora of big bads to choose from, unique to their narrative. You’re telling me The Masters of Evil weren’t good enough for your narrative? Kang the Conqueror? F*cking Ultron?? You expect me to believe that Korvac and Graviton are less of a threat than f*cking MODOK?? I have a Thor and a Hulk on my team and MODOK is the threat? Really? Come the f*ck on Crystal Dynamics.

This little Avengers expose deal has me real apprehensive about the title. There’s a ton of other sh*t that concerns me; The fact that costumes are locked behind paywalls, that it’s flirting with being a live service, that it appears to be a Destiny clone, the fact that the story revolves around Kamala and MODOK, the game play looks stilted and mechanical, but most of that can be mitigate through game play My biggest concerns are the above three but, combined with these other little nit-picky shenanigans, it feels like this game might be boring and that’s probably the greatest sin any video game experience can commit. Especially one based upon the eighty year history of Marvel Comics. This game feels generic. It feels like a cash grab. It feels commercial as f*ck. Coming off that excellent PS4 Spider-Man title, this sh*t is a complete let down.

[vivaciouswordsmith]

look an update

Finally got around to finishing Chapter 11 of Four-Legged Fiend! Man, it has been a weird couple of months since graduation, plus my graduation gift was a PS4, and I’ve been working on a super ultra mega secret project for RTX, so...yeah, didn’t work on my fic all that much.

As always, you can read it here or beneath the cut. Enjoy!

Somehow, Los Santos managed to lose much of its ghetto look at sunset. 

It could have been the way the shadows concealed the cracks in the concrete and the half legible graffiti. Maybe it was the lack of gunshots and running feet echoing through the streets. Perhaps it was the way the natural slimy underbelly of the city lay down in its mire and let the people breathe for a few moments. Whatever it was, the change was start, and for many residents, most welcome.

Jeremy spent a good deal of the walk trying to slow Ryan down, but it was no use. The wolfdog was determined to go his own way, and Jeremy’s shoulder was throbbing by the time he stopped resisting. The apartment building faded into the darkening horizon, and Jeremy was led into unfamiliar streets.

Nearly an hour of walking later, Ryan finally stopped in his tracks. Jeremy rubbed his upper arm and looked around. He blinked several times. No, his eyes were definitely not lying. They were in a park. There were trees rustling in the wind and grass crunched beneath his feet. Ryan snuffled at the roots of a sapling before turning and lifting his leg. Jeremy politely deflected his gaze to a nearby sign with “Mirror Park” written on it in bold green letters.

“Did you really drag me all the way here to piss on a tree?” he asked. Ryan finished his business and walked back over to Jeremy. His eyes briefly flicked over Jeremy’s torso and arms before locking onto his face. He swallowed, disconcerted by the intensity in those two blue eyes. “Sometimes I swear to God you’re going to open your mouth and blow my fucking mind.”

The wolfdog yawned.

“Very funny.”

Ryan then tugged on the leash, and Jeremy followed him through the park. No-one else was there at this ungodly hour, but even so, Jeremy eyed the growing shadows dubiously. The grass crunched beneath his feet, Ryan panted just a little bit, and a light breeze rustled the leaves on the oak trees. He stumbled when they happened upon a small hill, but regained his balance and ascended without further problems. Once they reached the top, Ryan spun around in a few circles and laid down in the grass. He gave Jeremy a pointed look, and then looked down at a patch of grass near his hindquarters. Jeremy snorted, but complied and sat down.

It might not be as quiet as other cities, but Los Santos had one problem that was universal. When Jeremy looked up at the sky, it was nearly impossible to see the stars. The brightest did their best to pierce through the city’s skyline, but the others were drowned out completely. Still, they did their best, and Jeremy could appreciate that. Ryan put his paws into Jeremy’s lap, and Jeremy lifted a hand and scratched the back of the wolf’s head.

He didn’t know how long they sat there and watched the stars. It had to have been a while, because when a car drove by, he barely noticed it, but he did notice when someone stomped up to him and practically screamed, “Finally! There you are!” He nearly jumped out of his skin, while Ryan barked and leaped to his feet.

Geoff, at the very least, managed an embarrassed smile and a shrug. “Sorry. Thought you guys saw me comin’ towards you.”

“No,” Jeremy panted, “I didn’t. Jesus.”

Geoff laughed a bit and paced in place. A few moments passed. Ryan growled and tugged at the hem of Geoff’s jacket. His left forepaw edged worryingly towards Jeremy’s junk. Geoff coughed. Ryan yanked down on Geoff’s jacket, and the crime boss ended up flat on his ass with a curse.

“Uh…sorry, I probably shoulda…um. Sorry,” said Jeremy.

“It’s not a problem. He would’ve found a way to do it anyway.” Geoff settled in the grass and frowned at the slobber soaking his jacket. “Asshole.”

They were silent again for a good few minutes.

“So, uh, I, uh, we, I mean, we’re not exactly a smooth crew, you know?”

Jeremy blinked. “What?”

Geoff huffed. “We’re fucking criminals, all right? We’re abrasive and horrible and shit. None of us mean anything by it.”

“Oh, the short stuff? I kinda figured.” Jeremy shrugged. “I’ve heard it all before, so I’m used to it by now.”

Geoff blinked. “Huh?”

“Something up?”

“I, uh, I thought you, um, I thought you stormed out because you were mad.”

“No, I stormed out because I thought Ryan would tear my fucking arm off if I didn’t.”

“God, I know what you mean. When he wants something, you fucking give it to him.” Geoff patted Ryan’s flank, and laughed when the pup gave him a withering look. “You’re a spoiled bitch and you know it.”

They both laughed, and much of the tension between them faded into the darkness. Ryan huffed and rolled off their laps. In the distance, a siren wailed. Ryan’s ears twitched. Then he sat back on his haunches, lifted his muzzle to the sky, and howled. Jeremy winced, and then, to his amazement, realized he was trying to mirror the wail of the siren.

“Goddammit, you see, this is why I wanted a penthouse as far off the fucking ground as possible. Do you know how many fucking heists we had to do half-asleep because of this dickhead?” Geoff poked the wolf’s furry side. “I’ll tell you. Too many. Too fucking many.”

“Is…is it a wolf thing, or?”

“We looked it up, and apparently it is. He’s lucky he’s cute, otherwise I’d have tossed him out on his hairy ass a long time ago.” The siren finally faded into silence, and Ryan finished howling. His ears lifted off his neck, he stretched out on the ground, and promptly rolled on his back. He gave Jeremy a pointed look from in between his lanky salt-and-pepper limbs. “Now he’s begging for belly rubs like it’s no big deal. Fucker.” There was no heat in the insult. If anything, Geoff sounded fondly resigned. Jeremy wove his fingers into the coarse belly fur and scratched the pup’s underbelly. One sock-clad foot kicked at the air for his troubles.

“So, just so we’re clear, no hard feelings about the baby stuff, right?”

Jeremy shrugged. “I’ve heard worse.”

Geoff visibly relaxed. “Thank God.” He looked down at Ryan and rubbed his skinny chest with both hands. “How about you, bud? Any hard feelings from you?”

Ryan’s pink tongue lolled out of his mouth, and his leg kicked harder than before. Both criminals grinned down at him. He grinned just as widely back.

“Good. Now that we’re clear on that, let’s go home and get some rest. We’ve got work to do tomorrow.”

As it turned out, Geoff had not been kidding when he said there was work to do tomorrow. At the asscrack of dawn he roused everyone to prepare for what he termed “Operation: Don’t Fuck with the Fakes”. Jack went off to secure a cargobob for them, while Michael prepared for his assault on Zancudo. Despite their best efforts, they couldn’t convince him to take the safer route of calling Merryweather and securing the tank that way, so Geoff eventually broke down and gave Michael his blessing. He had been practically rubbing his hands together in glee ever since.

“And what am I doing?” Jeremy asked.

“You and I are going shopping,” said Geoff.

Jeremy blinked. “But…I thought you were gonna stay here with Gavin and pull the plans for the buildings.”

“Yeah, well, Gavvers and I talked about it, and we’re in agreement.” Geoff’s index finger jabbed at Jeremy’s worn t-shirt. “If you’re going to be a part of this crew, you need new clothes. Your old ones got ruined, and this…” He poked the t-shirt again. “This doesn’t fit the whole ‘eccentric villain’ thing we’ve got going on here.”

“And everything else?”

“After this. They gotta know who they’ve fucked with.”

“Will Ryan be coming with us?”

Upon hearing his name, Ryan looked up and trotted over to the pair. He sat at Jeremy’s feet and craned his neck to stare at Geoff. His stumpy ear twitched.

“He’ll probably have to sit outside, but yes, he’s coming with us. Gav can’t work when he’s around.”

“Does he bother him or something?”

Geoff snorted. “If only! Fucker can never stay focused on his goddamn work when Ryan’s around. I’ll find them wrestling, or he’ll be feeding him all my fucking mignons, and he’ll just squawk and go ‘Wot?’ whenever I ask him what the fuck he’s been doing!” He threw his hands up and scowled at the ceiling. “No matter how many times I shove pens up the little fucker’s ass, he doesn’t get the message.”

Jeremy chose to ignore that last comment, and said, “I guess it’s okay if it helps Gavin focus on his work.”

“He’d better,” said Geoff. “Otherwise we’ll be fucked.”

That was the end of that, as Geoff hustled him towards the door and urged him to get Ryan ready to leave. He got the wolfdog into his harness and leashed by the time Geoff had returned. A set of keys whirled on Geoff’s left index finger, and he seemed to be in a better mood now. Ryan’s eyes zeroed in on the keys. A big puppy grin stretched over his skull-marked muzzle.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re going for a ride, buddy.” Geoff ruffled the pup’s ears, his grin only slipping a little when Ryan’s tongue lapped over his tattooed hand. “Goddammit. You better not slobber on my new suit, asshole.”

“I mean, what’s a little dog spit to us? It can’t be worse than bleeding all over it.”

Geoff fiddled with his bowtie and glowered down at Ryan. Ryan stared right back. His tail thumped all too innocently behind him. “I may not look it, but I do have some standards, Jeremy.”

He led them out of the penthouse and into the elevator. He thumbed the key for the underground garage and leaned back against the railing. Ryan snuffled around the edges of the elevator before settling at Geoff and Jeremy’s feet. He stretched out as far as he could, back paws hitting the opposite end of the elevator, and put his head down. Tinny muzak played over the hidden speakers, backed by the occasional ding of the elevator passing the other floors of the apartment building. Jeremy shifted against the rapidly warming rail and buffed his nails on his t-shirt. Geoff pulled out his phone and tapped at the screen.

It was a great relief when the elevator finally stopped moving and the doors rolled open. Ryan jumped to his feet and tugged Jeremy out into the dim garage. He’d long since learned not to fight Ryan, not when he really got going, and instead resigned himself to follow the wolf wherever he went.

“Jesus, you must really like car rides, Ryan,” he said.

“Have you ever lived with any dog, ever? They all love fucking car rides, man.” Geoff moved in front of them, pulled out a key fob, and pressed a button. There was a pause, and a trio of beeps echoed through the garage. “Okay. This way.”

Jeremy didn’t know what kind of car he expected the Fakes’ boss to have, but it definitely wasn’t even close to the eyeblindingly bright pink Felon waiting for them near the end of the row.

“Nice, right?” Geoff patted the car’s hood and grinned. “Brand fucking new, too.”

Jeremy continued to stare. Ryan moved to the passenger’s side and scratched at the door. Geoff scowled and let out a “Hey!” and the wolfdog slowly dropped back down to the ground.

“Jesus fucking Christ, I’ve only seen these online. How much did it cost?”

Geoff shrugged and popped the door open. “Not much. Only around $90,000 or so.”

“Ninety thousand dollars?”

“No, ninety thousand cents. Of course ninety thousand dollars! These babies are imported.”

Jeremy pulled the door open and gently eased himself into the leather seat. While he fumbled with the seat belt, Geoff reached over and opened the back door. Ryan jumped into the backseat and snuffled at the edges of the seats. His tail beat against the window and cupholders, and Jeremy swore to sweet Jesus he was making the entire car shake.

“That…sounds like a lot of money,” he finally said.

Geoff was quiet for a few seconds. “I forget you little guys aren’t spoiled by the high life like we are,” he said, and started the car. The engine purred into life, and Geoff started off on their errands.

Jeremy ignored the ‘little guys’ comment, and decided to press on the cars thing. “Yeah? How so?”

“Ninety thousand isn’t the most we’ve spent on our vehicles. Have you ever seen Michael’s fucking Adder?”

“I think the astronauts on the ISS can see it,” said Jeremy.

“Yeah, no shit. Anyway, that car cost him a sweet million, and that was before he turned it into a fucking disco ball.” He grinned at the dumbfounded look on Jeremy’s face. “Hey, if you impress us, Li’l J…you can blow millions of dollars on cars you’ll wreck at least once a week, too.”

They exited the garage and peeled off into downtown Los Santos. A click sounded from behind them, followed by a mechanical whirr. Something whacked Jeremy’s shoulder repeatedly, so he finally turned around to look into the backseat.

Ryan had managed to roll the window down and stuck his head out into the open air. His ears flapped and twitched in the wind, and he paid no heed to the way Geoff swerved around cars, or to the cacophony of horns sounding off in their wake. His eyes squinted into slits, and his lips pulled back into a massive grin.

“I just wish he could roll the windows up,” Geoff lamented. “He can roll them down all fucking day, but he hasn’t figured out up yet.”

“You’re not worried about him losing his head or anything?”

“He’d fucking deserve it if he did.” Geoff took a corner far too sharply, which jerked Jeremy’s seat belt taught, and caused Ryan to shift a few inches backwards. Jeremy’s heart pounded fearfully, but aside from the soft grunt of surprise, Ryan didn’t react. “However, I’d lose my fucking head if anything happened to him. Jack and the others love the fucker way too much for me to let anything happen to him.”

“Fuck, I don’t want anything to happen to him, and I barely know him!” Jeremy swatted Ryan’s hindquarters and failed to dodge his wagging tail.

“He can take care of himself, you know. He’s got his own track record down at the LSPD.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep.” Geoff took one hand off the steering wheel and painted a broad arc in the air between himself and Jeremy. “Says something like ‘Warning: Dangerous Animal. Reports that Fake AH Crew has been seen with large black dog. Identifying as having white markings on the face, purportedly like a skull. Considered incredibly dangerous.’ I had Gavin pull it up a few weeks back. We’re all very fucking proud.” A little bit of the mirth slipped out of Geoff’s face at the last word. “Though, personally, I’m not too fond of the ending.”

“C’mon, it can’t be that bad.”

“Yeah, ‘Shoot to kill on sight’ is fucking amazing.”

Jeremy flinched. “Okay, yeah, that’s pretty bad.”

There was a slight scrabbling from behind them, and Ryan’s large furry head pushed its way in between the two of them. His nose flicked over the touch screen for a few seconds, which Geoff very much did not appreciate, and then his tongue lapped over Jeremy’s cheek.

“Agh, Ryan! No!”

“Fucking fuck, he’s started the fucking navigator!” Geoff tried to push the wolfdog out of the way and frantically jammed his fingers into the screen.

‘Head east, then make a right,’ said the robo-voice before Geoff could do anything.

“Fucking – shut up!”

Jeremy covered his mouth with both hands, desperately trying to muffle his laughter. His reflection steadily turned redder and redder. Ryan grinned up at him and winked. His snorts grew louder and more hysterical.

God, he wasn’t even in the main six yet, and he already didn’t want to leave.

“Fucking Christ, you look like Prince vomited on a traffic cone,” said Geoff.

Jeremy ignored him for the time being in favor of looking himself in the mirror. His new Stetson rested proudly on his head, and stood out in stark contrast to his crisp purple jacket. That, in turn, clashed beautifully with his neon orange slacks. Was it horrific to look at? Of course it was. Was it memorable? Of course it was!

“C’mon, Geoff, that’s the point! What was it you said? You’ve got a…fucking…eccentric villain thing going on, right? If this isn’t eccentric, I’ll eat this fucking hat.” He pushed his Stetson up with his thumb and beamed.

“We’re a bunch of weirdos, yeah, but…” Geoff jabbed Jeremy’s chest with his index finger. “That outfit can be seen from fucking space. Even we’re not dumb enough to wear stuff like that.”

“Guess that just makes me really fucking dumb.”

Geoff stared at him for a few moments before sighing. “You really will fit in with this crew, Dooley. None of those fuckers listen to me, either.”

Jeremy grinned and tugged on his lapels. “Speaking of, aren’t they supposed to be back now?”

“Yeah. Hopefully they got everything for tomorrow.”

He blinked. “Tomorrow?”

Geoff walked past Jeremy and patted him on the shoulder. “Didn’t I tell you? We’re heisting tomorrow.”

Jeremy’s stomach dropped down to his feet. His throat tightened until he thought he was going to puke. “Tomorrow? But…didn’t we just get everything together?”

Geoff shrugged without turning around. “No use sitting on it for too long. It’ll just let the rumor mill circulate too much, especially since Michael decided to break into Zancudo to get the tank. The last thing we want is for those fuckheads to bail on us, or worse, have a way to defend themselves. I want this to be revenge, not a goddamn suicide mission.”

For a few moments, Jeremy couldn’t speak. He knew they would be enacting their revenge soon, but he thought he still had some time to prepare. He thought he’d have a week, or at least a few days to collect himself before standing beside his idols and tearing their enemies a new asshole. This revelation was especially jarring. He felt like a kid who’d been surprised by a sudden midterm out of nowhere.

“I…I guess that makes sense,” he finally said.

Geoff turned and looked at him. His smile had slipped somewhat, and he moved to clap Jeremy on the shoulder again. “Hey, don’t worry about it. You’ll be fine.”

Jeremy mentally shook himself and smiled again. “Yeah, I know, it’s just, uh, you know, jitters or some shit.”

“Hey, look at it this way. By tomorrow, you’ll be blowing up shit all over Los Santos and striking fear into the hearts of the bastards who hurt you.”

“Thanks, Geoff. That’s really helpful.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He waved his hand and opened the door to Jeremy’s temporary room. “Dinner’ll be in an hour. Then we’ll go over the plan again, and break for the day. Sound good?”

“Sounds great, Geoff.”

With that, the Fakes’ boss left the room. Jeremy was fully prepared to lay on the bed and contemplate the next day for an hour, but after only five minutes, something scratched at the door. Jeremy laughed, got up and opened the door. Ryan sat in the threshold. His paw lowered back to the ground, and he stared up at Jeremy with wide blue eyes.

“Dinner’s not for an hour, buddy. Besides, I don’t exactly think I have full access to the penthouse yet.” Ryan didn’t relent. He moved forward and pawed at the hem of Jeremy’s jacket. “Okay, I don’t speak wolf. The fuck do you want?” He leaned down and rubbed behind Ryan’s ears. The pup whined and pawed him again.

Something in Jeremy’s brain clicked. “Is this about the heist? Are you worried about us?” Ryan’s tail wagged, and he put his paws on Jeremy’s thighs, forcing his face right up against Jeremy’s. “We’ll be fine. You’ll get the penthouse to yourself, too. Well, almost to yourself.” Ryan whined again. His eyes bored into Jeremy’s. “Oh. That’s it, isn’t it? You don’t want to be left behind.” Ryan let out a bark.

Geoff and Jack had reached this particular decision when he and Jeremy got back from their errands. Jack didn’t want him in the chopper in case it went down, and Geoff didn’t want him going deaf from listening to the tank firing. And neither of them wanted Ryan to suffer avoidable injuries. Thus, while the main crew went heisting, Ryan would be staying at home with some members of the B-Team. Now that he thought about it, Jeremy realized Ryan had been antsy ever since then.

“Is he bothering you, too?” Jeremy flinched and looked up. Michael stood in the hallway. His arms were folded over his chest, and he jerked his head down at Ryan. “He’s been going door to door for fucking hours now.”

“I think he’s upset about being left behind tomorrow,” said Jeremy.

“Of course it is. Asshole hates being left at home.” Michael reached down and patted Ryan’s rump. “He’s as much a part of the crew as anybody else.”

“You think he’ll be okay staying here?”

“He’ll be fine. It’s Matt and Trevor I’m worried about.” Before Jeremy could ask, Michael said, “He’s always been a dick to his babysitters.”

“That’s not surprising.”

“No kidding.”

Jeremy bit his lip and finally gathered enough moxy to speak. “So, uh, how do you feel about tomorrow?”

“What do you mean?”

“Uh…well…okay, here’s how it is, right? Tomorrow’s my first fucking heist with the crew, and if I don’t make a good impression…” He sighed. “I’ve been watching you guys for years now, and I never thought I’d get as far as…this.” He gestured around the room. “I guess…I’m scared of losing it.”

Michael considered him for a few moments. “That’s fucking dumb.”

Jeremy blinked. “Excuse me?”

“You’re going to be fine, Li’l J! You managed to fly a fucking plane while shot full of holes, and crashed it right into our fucking penthouse! If you can do that, there’s nothing you can’t do.”

A warm feeling ignited in Jeremy’s chest. “You, uh, you really think so?”

“Well, nothing might be the wrong word for it, but…well…” Michael shrugged. “Just don’t worry about it.”

“Sure. I’ll get right on that.”

Michael laughed and headed back down the hallway. As soon as he was gone, Jeremy went and flopped down on his bed. Moments later, another weight sank down upon it, and Ryan’s wet nose pressed into his cheek. His lips twitched for a second, and let his hand rest on Ryan’s stubby ear. He shut his eyes and did his best to relax into the bed.

Tomorrow was going to be a long ass day.

#man i'm hyped for rtx #then adult life begins #yay for me #fanfiction #achievement hunter #ao3 #wolf!ryan #wolf!ryan au #can't wait to show off the SUMSP #i'm super proud

[venusyprime]

MS E3 2017:

I'm glad that after the first half an hour, MS got out of the way and largely let the games start speaking for themselves, I think that's the best trailer to talking ratio of pretty much any MS conf.

Still, other than Crackdown 3 and Super Lucky's Tale (both of which are Xbone/UWP exclusive), I'm not sure what here I'd actually play on Xbone (and like FH3, I'd probably be alternating between console and PC depending on what kind of mood I'm in).

Until it's clear how fun Sea of Thieves is solo, I'm not buying it. Cuphead is on Steam. Ori and the Blind Forest is on Steam, so it's a pretty good guess that Ori and the Will of the Wisps will be (and I still need to play the first game). I'm guessing that Tacoma will be on Steam, though the xbox.com page isn't up yet to double check. I'm pretty glad I was less enthused by The Last Night trailer than a lot of people were, since the creator's a jerk! No interest in the array of post-apocalypse games, or in Forza Motorsport 7 (I only like the Horizon series), or in Shadow of War. Anthem looks like it could be cool - I like those kind of jetpacks in games - but is in no way exclusive.

Cross platform Minecraft with everything other than Sony consoles is pretty cool (the rejection here is on Sony's side, hence why there was a Switch at the MS conf), but I'm not sure how anyone can say that seeing Minecraft in 4K blew them away.

On XB1X: I would have preferred Scorpio as a name, but I can see why they didn't go with it (the Xbone S abbreviates to XB1S, so there would be some confusion there if they called it Xbone Scorpio). However, you could see people on stage failing to enunciate "Xbox One X" properly and making it sound like they said "S" at the end, so this name isn't ideal in that respect either.

I think $499 is probably too much, though admittedly I was under the impression that PS4 Pro was $349 rather than $400, and it was pretty surprising that XB1X is actually the smallest Xbox. Still, it's £450 over here, and a 1TB harddrive really isn't going to go a long way with games needing textures designed for 4K. I would be looking to upgrade my TV before I got one.

Original Xbox BC is cool, particularly as I felt that Rare Replay should have included Conker: Live & Reloaded as well as Bad Fur Day - you might prefer BFD's multiplayer, but L&R's single player has a whole bunch of fixes compared to the original (as well as the additional censoring, which isn't great - but they could have fixed that if they still had the original audio; the Rare website used to host a download of the uncensored version of L&R's Sloprano).

But with OG Xbox BC on 360, there was a pretty limited selection of games available there, so I'm curious about how many they'll get now - particularly as more publishers have gone defunct and franchises changed hands.

Was surprised by the complete lack of VR; even though MS has that array of cheap(er) VR headsets which should work with XB1X. Particularly when I saw that the red tail belonged to Lucky and not Conker - because the original Lucky's Tale was a game designed to show off the Oculus Rift.

I'm guessing that might be their thing next year, since they said earlier this month that they believe console VR should be wireless - and we're certainly not at that point just yet.

#e3 2017 #ms conf #xbox one x #xbone #xbox scorpio #xbox

[dustin-parrish-blog]

Discoveries | Dustin & Quinn

Date: Saturday, 7th January 2017

Dustin didn’t exactly have friends over all the time. In fact, he couldn’t really remember the last time anyone from school had come to hang out at his house. He was pretty sure the last time had been for a group project, although they would generally rather meet up at the library and not his house. Now, the first order of things was to make his room people-friendly. Or rather, friendly for those not knowing about the supernatural. While he didn’t keep any magical herbs in his room – his mother had made sure of that, but she didn’t know about the ones stored in the back of his wardrobe – there were some pretty harmless books on healing magic and simple spells in his bookshelf that needed to be hidden before Quinn would come over. As well as the newly printed out pages about lore involving shadows and shadow creatures. Dustin shoved everything into one drawer of his desk. He was wondering about whether or not it was appropriate to keep the dream catcher in the open when suddenly, the doorbell rang. “I’ve got it!” he yelled as he made his way down the stairs, only to be beat by his 14-year-old sister who had managed to get to the front door before him. “Hey,” Lea said unimpressed after opening the door.

Quinn didn't really know the rules for hanging out at people's houses. He'd only done it a few times, and never at his own place. Most of his interactions were online with people, even if he had hung out with Dustin before Christmas. Still, he was pretty nervous for some reason. Quinn shouldered his backpack and bit his lower lip as he looked at the door in front of him. Easy enough, just knock or ring the bell. Shifting again, Quinn heard bottles clink in his bag and frowned. He had brought some beer, in case they wanted to drink, but he didn't know if Dustin really did that. So he didn't want him to know he had brought it if he didn't want to drink. Maybe he was thinking far too much about this. Quinn rang the doorbell, finally, and waited until the door was opened by a girl. "Ugh... I'm here to see Dustin," he said, looking past her and smiling when he spotted him.

Dustin returned Quinn’s smile and took a step forward when he heard his sister chuckle and turn around to face him. “What demon did you summon to get a Senior to hang out with you?” Apparently Lea knew much more about the population of their high school as Dustin would never have been able to tell someone’s Year just from looking at them. Dustin rolled his eyes. “Apollyon, and now fuck off, Lea.” He motioned for Quinn to come inside, praying that Lea would leave them alone. He didn’t annoy her when she had her friends over either. “I see you made it without getting lost,” he grinned, now ignoring his sister. “That’s good. Wanna take off your shoes?”

Quinn quirked an eyebrow at the demon summoning. It wasn't like he was popular at all. Not like the other seniors or anything. "Apollyon?" he asked with a small smile. "I didn't know you were so into demons," he teased, scratching at the back of his neck. Quinn walked in and smiled at Dustin. "Yeah, I'm pretty good at not getting lost if I know where something is in relation to something else. Plus I dropped you off before," he said, slipping his shoes off and grinning. "So... ugh... thanks for having me over," he said with a smile.

Dustin shook his head. “I’m not, not really. I just remembered a few names, that’s all.” It didn’t help that after seeing that weird shadow thing the other day, pretty much all he had done since then was research, and that research also heavily featured demons. He needed to know what that thing had been and what it had done to him. “Uhh, no problem,” he replied, smiling back at the other boy. “How about we leave the children here,” he glared at his sister for a second. “And go up to my room?” He didn’t exactly fancy running into his parents. Both his dad and mum could be weird and embarrassing in their own ways.

Quinn shrugged. "I was just teasing," he said with a laugh. He tended to remember a bunch of useless facts as well. Quinn grinned at Dustin and then his sister with a nod. "Yeah, sure," Quinn laughed with a smile as he moved a little closer to Dustin. "I'm down for whatever. I'm pretty easy," he wasn't though, and was actually pretty picky with what he liked doing. But Dustin and he seemed to have a lot in common.

"Well, you wouldn't be the first person to think it's a little strange," Dustin replied. He was glad that Quinn hadn't stood him up or came up with an excuse why he couldn't come over after all. He really hadn't had much else planned for the weekend and as much as he told himself that he was fine doing stuff on his own, it was sort of exciting to hang out with someone who shared a lot of his interests. "Well, the rest of the house is pretty boring, but I can always give you a tour at some point," he offered as he moved a little closer to the stairs. "Wait, do you want anything to drink or something?" he asked. God, he was so bad at this. Why did he never have people over?

"I'm a little strange," he teased with a soft laugh. If Dustin only knew about everything he did as Q. Quinn moved towards the stairs and nodded. "Yeah, I mean, it's whatever you want to do," Quinn said with a nod. A tour wasn't really all that necessary as it? Was that something that people usually did? "Ugh, no I'm fine thanks," Quinn said with a smile. "I had tea before I came over," he said with a smile. "So we can just, go do whatever?" Quinn suggested. Why was he so bad at this? Why was he nervous about this?

"We're all a bit strange," Dustin shot back and chuckled. If only Quinn knew how strange he really was. If only he knew about the herbs and books hidden in his room. If only he knew about the contents of his mother's locked study. When the other boy told him he wasn't thirsty he started making his way up the stairs. "Just, tell me if you change your mind," he told him and moved towards the door of his room, pushing it open. "Yeah. I mean, no. I've got a very tight schedule planned for us. Got every little activity worked out, including bathroom breaks," he teased him.

"That sounds like something I'd see on a T-shirt or something," Quinn teased with a laugh. "Yeah, I'll let you know if I need or want or just generally desire something," he rambled a bit, laughing as he did so. "Do you?" Quinn asked, amused. "Well I hope it's all good stuff. No knitting lessons or anything schedule in there right?" he asked. "And as long as I get to pee every hour on the hour I'm fine,"

Dustin laughed. "Kind of a lame t-shirt, I think," he replied. Thank god Quinn would actually let him know if he needed something because Dustin had no idea how to be a good host or how to think read off a guest's wishes from their mind. "Actually, I've told my mum to teach us," he joked as he stepped inside his room. Biting his lip, he wondered what Quinn would think. If he thought it was too cheesy or nerdy with the framed picture of the IC 1848 nebula over his bed and the dream catcher hanging in the window that his sister had made for him when she had been in primary school. He walked over to his desk to lean against it. "Sorry, we've only got time for that every four hours or so. We don't have infinite time so I had to prioritise more important activities," he teased.

"There are a lot of very lame t-shirts," he said with a small shrug. "Like, most t-shirts with sayings on them actually," Quinn added with a soft chuckle. Quinn looked around Dustin's room, curiously but trying not to seem like he was inspecting it. He liked his room. "You've got a nice room," he said with a smile. "Damn, every four hours?" he asked, standing in the room, unsure of what to do with himself now that he was here in his room. "It better be lots of games and stuff then. And can I at least get a bottle?"

"Yeah, maybe. Some of the stuff on them is pretty lame. I don't really wear any shirts like that," Dustin replied, glancing at Quinn out of the corner of his eye as he looked at his room. "Thanks," he said softly when the other boy complimented his room. "It's not much. I mean, I've got my own computer in here and my own TV and PS4 so it's not like I should complain." He chuckled. "Oh yes, lots of games. You wanted to play games, right? But we can do other stuff, too. Anything you want." He knew that Quinn was sort of a giant nerd as well but he didn't want him to think of this as lame and boring. "Sure, we can get a couple bottles," he joked and laughed.

"Yeah I'm... not good with fashion," Quinn admitted. He was usually just a solid colored t-shirt kind of guy. Maybe some sweaters in the winter. That was about it. "Yeah you've got a slightly better gaming set up for friends than I do," Quinn said, looking at the TV and ps4. "I mean I've got a great computer, but no console," he said, pulling his bag off and setting it gently on the ground. "Yeah, games sound great to me. But I'm down for whatever," he said, shuffling idly. "Games or movies or anything,"

"Well, but you look good wearing what you're wearing, so I don't think you really need that kinda fashion stuff," Dustin replied in a casual tone, hoping it was an okay thing to say. "Maybe I do, so it's good you're here and I finally get to try out some multiplayer stuff." Trust him to have a great console and games but no friends to actually play with. Dustin moved from where he was perched against the desk and walked over to his bookshelf. Which was only half books since the other half was games and DVDs. "Uh, I got Netflix but also some DVDs here if you wanna watch a movie," he said. God, how would they decide what to do? He didn't want to say anything because he really did not mind and also he was afraid Quinn would hate his suggestions but go along with them to be polite.

Quinn felt his face heat up slightly at the compliment and looked away. "Ugh, thanks," he mumbled with a small smile. Quinn finally moved from the doorway over to where Dustin was standing in front of the doorway. He looked over Dustin's shoulder at the stuff he had on the shelf. "I don't mind either way," he said. But it seemed like both of them had been saying that. So Quinn was going to make an executive decision and hope that Dustin wouldn't mind. "Let's do a game then," he said with a definitive nod.

"You're welcome," Dustin said quietly, running a hand through his hair. It didn't lie as flat as it sometimes did. As he hadn't yet gone outside today, he hadn't felt the need to wear a beanie today. "A game it is," Dustin said and glanced back at him. "I mean, we can always watch a movie later when we feel lazy." He grabbed a couple of games he knew they'd be able to play together - Black Ops 3, Diablo 3, FIFA 16 - and presented them to the other boy. "What do you think?" he asked. "Diablo's not too bad, is it?"

Quinn nodded and smiled. "Yeah video games and then movie. Sounds perfect," he laughed. Quinn looked over the selection of games. He wasn't a big sports game fan, so that was a pass. And Black Ops 3 was alright. "I definitely vote Diablo 3," he said with a nod. It was more his speed. Quinn moved back towards there the television was, plopping down in front of it with a grin. "Ugh... is sitting here good?" he asked, unsure.

"Great." Dustin was glad that they had found a game they would both enjoy playing. Unless Quinn had only said that because Dustin liked it, but he honestly didn't think so. Moving towards the TV, he put in the disk of Diablo 3 and got out the two controlers. He looked back at Quinn, laughing. "Oh no, you can't sit on my floor," he replied, shaking his head. "Who do you think you are? You have to stand the entire time, of course."

Quinn flushed slightly when Dustin teased him. "Yeah well I dunno if there was somewhere you wanted to sit or anything," he mumbled, flushing slightly as he reached out to take a controller from Dustin. He hoped that he wasn't making a fool of himself right now. Quinn pulled his feet under him and waited for Dustin to get everything ready and sit down. "I haven't played Diablo in ages. It's a great game,"

Dustin plopped down next to him on the floor. "You're so easy to tease," he mumbled, chuckling to himself as the game started. To be fair, you could still see the TV screen well from his bed so they could have sat on his bed, but he wasn't sure if that was weird or anything. He didn't really know the rules for when hanging out with other guys. "Really is. And same for me. Can't actually remember the last time. What are you playing at the moment? I mean not right now, but like, at home."

"Yeah well...," Quinn rolled his eyes. He wasn't the best at social interactions. Quinn was glad that Dustin sat down next to him, and turned to smile at him. "Yeah I had a really good Wizard character. He was totally overpowered late game though," Quinn laughed. "So I definitely wanna do something different this time," he said with a nod. "Um, I'm still doing a lot of the Witcher 3. There's a lot in that game to do. So that's sort of it for now,"

Dustin smiled. "Oh, I've played as a wizard before. But I remember sticking with my Demon Hunter for some time, too. Do you like wizards?" he asked, raising one eyebrow at him. God, if only Quinn knew. Knew that maybe video games and real life weren't as separate as people suspected. "What are you thinking for this time then?" he asked. "Oh yeah, that's cool. I love games that last a long time. I know they make games sometimes that are supposed to last you like three hours, and to be honest I think that would really be a waste of money for me."

Quinn laughed. "Who doesn't like wizards and magic? I'm pretty sure everyone wanted to use magic at some point, or imagined it and pretended," he said with a smile. He wondered if those were real too. "Demon hunters were fun, but the magic part was too cool. Plus wizards do ridiculous damage," Quinn mused. "I'm thinking a witch doctor. That'll be fun you know?" Quinn just nodded. "The longer the better. Usually. I mean, some short games are great, but if it's that short then I'm gonna wait until it's on sale on Steam or something," he said with a nod, picking out his character and smiling. "Okay, I'm ready when you are,"

"Yeah..." Dustin smiled to himself. Sometimes, he thought that he was really, really lucky. But also, casting magic was never as easy as it appeared in games. Or as exciting. Closing small cuts over and over again and healing tiny bruises could get boring sometimes. "I think I'll go with a wizard then," Dustin replied and grinned. "So I can be overpowered." He also selected his character and glanced at Quinn. "I remember playing Life is Strange and being really disappointed when it was over so soon," he told the other boy. "I was born ready."

Quinn nodded. "Good, that'll be a little balance since mine is more CC," he said with a nod. Though early on in the game it didn't really matter. Well, it didn't matter at all in diablo really. You could have any combination. "I never played that game," he said with a shrug. "I never could get into those pure plot ones, like the TellTale games or anything," Quinn mumbled, scratching the back of his head slightly as he started up playing.

"Birthday present from my sister," Dustin mumbled, staring at the screen as the game began. "Wasn't too convinced at first but let me tell you, I got really emotionally invested in it," he admitted, biting his lower lip as they played. It certainly felt different to be playing with someone else beside him on his PS4 instead of alone. It was good though. Very good. He'd nearly forgotten how much fun it was to comment on everything out loud instead of inside his head.

"My sister usually gives me computer stuff too," Quinn said with a nod. It was the easiest thing to get him. Usually it was in the form of a Steam gift card though. Which was fantastic for him. It was nice to play with someone else that wasn't on another computer though. It was easier to talk to Dustin as well, since he wasn't just a stranger. He hadn't even realized that several hours had passed.

The last thing Dustin was thinking about playing video games, especially if he was having fun, was time. Not having realised just how many hours had passed since they had started playing, he was taken aback by the sudden knock on the door that was followed by a woman sticking her head inside the room. Or rather, his mother was sticking her head inside. Even though her hair was coloured a dyed red instead of the natural dark blonde of Dustin's and Lea's hair, no one could say that she didn't resemble her children. "Darling, I'm going to leave for my late shift in a couple of minutes," she announced. Then, her gaze left her son and swept over to the boy next to him. "You must be Quinn?"

Quinn didn't notice the woman at first when she stuck her head into the room. He was too absorbed in the game to notice her until she spoke. He looked up, pausing the game and flushed. He had forgotten that he'd probably meet Dustin's parents today. "Oh, um, yeah," he said with a small smile. "I'm Quinn," he said, not sure whether he should stand up or stay seated. He ended up shifting forward a bit but staying down on the ground. "It's nice to meet you," he said pleasantly.

"Very nice to meet you, Quinn. I'm Laura," his mother replied with a smile. Dustin sighed, trying to silently communicate with his mother that he'd like to be left alone. She didn't seem to understand him though. Or she simply ignored it. "Don't forget to eat, boys, there's plently of options down in the kitchen. Now, I won't be back until very late in the morning. You got your spray right here, right? And if it's getting bad again go bother your dad or call me on my cell." Dustin internally groaned. He was /fine/. Just because he'd had an asthma attack from running from this monster - which she didn't know about - didn't mean he'd get another one playing video games with Quinn. "Anyway, night, munchkin." When she walked up to them and bent down to ruffle his hair and press a small kiss to his head Dustin tried to move away, flushing a bright red.

Quinn listened as Laura spoke. Most of which was focused on Dustin exclusively. But he smiled, watching as she moved into the room and biting back a laugh as Dustin flushed away from his mom. "It was nice meeting you," he said quickly, putting a hand in front of his mouth so she didn't see him smirking. "Munchkin?" he asked with a grin when she finally left.

The door shut behind her and Dustin desperately wished for different parents. For anyone but her to be his mother. At first, he didn't dare look at Quinn. But when he did, he found the other boy with a grin on his face. "Oh shut up," he shot back at his comment and shoved at his shoulder, careful to not put too much force behind the movement. He just wanted to make a statement, not hurt the other boy. "As if you've never been called any bad nicknames."

"I think I'm gonna call you Munchkin now," Quinn said with another laugh, letting himself get shoved and grinning. It made no sense, of course, since Dustin was quite a bit taller than he was. But he laughed again, nudging his shoulder against Dustin's and turning back to look at the game. "I haven't had any bad nicknames," he said, thinking to himself if he had any. "Your mom seems nice though," he said with a small laugh.

"Don't you dare." Dustin shot him a glare, but it didn't turn out as threatening as intended when he had to grin in the middle of it, feeling Quinn nudge his shoulder. "Well, then it's time you get some. Don't you agree, pumpkin?" he asked and laughed. "Nah, she only has to be nice because you're a guest. You should see her when she's disappointed or angry. Practically turns into an evil witch, I tell you." He had to chuckle at his own joke. If only Quinn knew. "Soo..." he looked back at the game. "Do you wanna continue or do something else?"

Quinn laughed at Dustin's attempt at a threat, before pouting at the nickname. "If you do that we'll sound like a couple," he replied, feeling his cheeks blush again slightly. "Well I think most parents are pretty bad when they're angry or disappointed," he pointed out, scratching the back of his head again. He looked at the game and shrugged. "We could do a movie or something?" he suggested, glancing over to his bag. "I brought, ugh, beer if you want?" he asked tentatively, trying to make it seem like it was no big deal. "I dunno if you drink or anything,"

Dustin quickly glanced away, embarrassed. He hadn't meant it like /that/. "I'm pretty sure no couple would seriously use those nicknames," he retorted. "And it's not like I would have called you that at, like, school." He wasn't sure if Quinn was gay, but reading his blog a while ago he sort of had a feeling that he was. So it would probably be a very bad idea to joke about stuff like that where others could hear, especially if they thought Quinn was gay, too. "Movie sounds good," he mumbled. His thoughts were quickly pulled away from the other boy's sexuality when he mentioned the beer. "Oh my god, my parents would kill me," he exclaimed, glancing towards the bag. He shot Quinn a grin. "Hell yeah I want."

"I dunno...," Quinn said, feeling a little less shy. "I guess they are pretty bad," he laughed. Quinn just shrugged. He had no clue about Dustin's sexuality, other than a passing mention on his blog if he remembered from a while ago. It wasn't like he cared though. Definitely not. Quinn looked at Dustin again, unsure about whether or not it had been a good idea to mention the beer. But then Dustin wanted it and he grinned. "Okay cool," he said with a smile, pushing himself up and walking over to his bag. He pulled two out and handed one to Dustin. "They aren't exactly cold anymore," he mumbled with a frown. He hadn't thought about that bit. Regardless, he uncapped the bottle, they were twist off, and smiled.

"Like, I don't get nicknames at all, unless they are really personal. Or unless that person has a really, really horrible first name," Dustin told him. Other than his parents' nicknames, no one had ever called him by anything other than his name. It wasn't exactly easy to turn Dustin into a nickname without calling him fine particles of matter. Smiling, he took a beer from Quinn, unsure how to open it without a bottle opener but then Quinn twisted the cap off just like that and he followed his example. Taking a sip, he tried not to grimace at the foreign taste. He couldn't exactly tell Quinn he'd never had beer before, could he? "Yeah, but it's not like we can just go downstairs and pop them into the fridge for a small bit." He laughed.

"Yeah, that's a good point," Quinn said, sipping on the beer with a hum. He hated warm beer. It wasn't like he drank beer all the time, but it was nice to have a fake and be able to get it for times like this, as rare as they were. "It's hard to make one for my name anyway," he said with a shrug. Other than Q, and he didn't let people associate him with that. "Yeah, that's true. Parents suck sometimes," he mumbled, biting his lower lip and humming. "So, movie? What do you like to watch? Cause I'm pretty open to whatever,"

Dustin took another sip of his beer. He wondered what it would taste like if it wasn't so warm. "Are you sure about that, Quinnie?" he teased and quickly pulled a face, vowing to never call him that again. Setting the beer down onto his carpet, he got up and wandered over to his bookshelf again. "I've got a couple movies here, or Netflix," he suggested. "But if you're into chick flicks I'm going to have to disappoint you, unless you wanna borrow a movie from Lea."

"Ew gross. Quinnie? That's horrible?" he wrinkled his nose. By the look on Dustin's face he didn't like it either. Quinn watched as Dustin went over to his bookshelf again, and he followed, looking over the movies with a shrug. "You pick. It's your house," he said with a nod. "But I'm totally not into chick flicks, so I think we can at least agree on not that,"

"I know, right? I didn't realise how bad it was going to be until the words left my mouth," Dustin admitted. "Okay, no chick flicks. Since I don't actually own any that doesn't narrow down my list at all. Especially since I can't remember talking with you about movies before." He let his finger drift over the titles. "I've got some classics, like Blade Runner and 12 Monkeys. Or newer stuff like The Martian." He glanced at Quinn. "Or something scary? I think I got a couple horror movies somewhere in my wardrobe." Away from the eyes of his parents.

Quinn hummed softly with a nod. "Yeah it's shitty," he said with a laugh. Quinn frowned though, and hummed. "Sorry, not very helpful," he laughed, looking over the titles quickly. He wasn't really into anything older, so he looked past those movies quickly, and he'd already seen The Martian. I'm down for something scary," he said with a grin. "Those are always pretty fun,"

Dustin nodded and moved towards his wardrobe. He tried to ignore the mess inside - he had the habit of cleaning his room by simply throwing lots of stuff from the floor inside - and felt around until he reached his secret DVD hiding place. A couple of DVDs in hand, he closed the doors again before Quinn would come over and help him look. He also hid other things in his wardrobe as well and he didn't want to explain that the herbs in there were not, in fact, weed. "So, I got The Witch, Conjuring, [Rec], Let Me In... but we could also look for movies on Netflix if you want," Dustin offered.

Quinn had made to move over to where Dustin was looking into his closet, but paused. It was one thing looking at his bookshelf, another to look through his closet. So he waited for Dustin to call out a few names. "Ugh... how about the Conjuring? I don't think I've seen that and I heard it's good," Quinn suggested, sipping on his beer. "I know Netflix usually just has shitty movies now though, so I dobut we'll find something there,"

Dustin nodded. "The Conjuring it is then." He nodded, throwing the back of his DVDs back into the closet before closing the doors. He really should think of a better hiding place for his stuff. His closet was basically overspilling with clothes and anything he didn't want in the open in his room. He made his way over to TV and popped the DVD into the DVD player. "Prepare to be scared. Uh... do you want anything to eat from downstairs?"

"Is it actually scary?" Quinn asked. He'd heard it was, but that didn't mean it actually was. He shook his head at the question, moving over and sitting on the floor in front of the bed, leaning against the bed. "Nah, I'm pretty good," he said with a smile. "I had a pretty big lunch," he added, smiling as he watched the movie start up on the television. "You're not gonna be too scared are you?"

"Uh, I hope so? I haven't actually gotten around to watching it yet," Dustin admitted. "I mean, it's a horror movie. Also there's kids, apparently. Kids are always scary." He'd been wondering where they were going to sit. He didn't have a couch in his room so normally he would hang out on his bed when watching a movie, but that was too awkward for two guys hanging out, right? Luckily Quinn sat down in front of the bed then so he simply plopped down next to him, reaching for his lukewarm beer. "Me? Scared? I don't get scared."

Quinn laughed. "Well that's good then. I'm glad I picked that one," he said, watching as Dustin sat down. "Oh! I'm gonna hit the lights," he said, darting up and shutting off the light switch and then moving back to sit down. As he sat, Quinn felt his arm brush against Dustin's, flushing slightly, he pulled away a bit. "Yeah, well. I'm pretty sure most things on TV won't scare me anymore," Quinn said with a small smile.

"Yeah, but it's not like I'd mind watching the same movie twice," Dustin replied. Actually, maybe it would have been better if Quinn had picked a movie he'd already seen. That way, he would be prepared for all scary scenes and jumpscares. He watched the other boy hit the lights and then sit back down, their arms brushing for a second before Quinn pulled away. Dustin glanced at him. What was an acceptable distance for sitting next to one another? "Well, I guess we'll find out now if you're telling the truth," he teased him.

"Yeah, but scary movies aren't as good the second time," Quinn pointed out. They just weren't scary anymore. "I guess I will," he said, turning his attention to the movie as things started up. It actually was scary, far more than he thought it would be. Quinn jumped a few times in the first few minutes. He glanced over to Dustin when he finished his own beer. "Want another?" he asked, reaching into his bag and pulling out two more beers with a smile.

Every time Quinn jumped beside him, Dustin glanced over to him. Truth be told, the premise of this movie did look terrifying. Hopefully it wouldn't get much worse than this. He really didn't want to noticeably jump from any of the scary moments. "Yeah, sure," he replied, finishing the last sip of his first beer. "I can't decide if you wanna get me drunk or make me piss my pants from this movie." He chuckled.

Quinn just laughed, eyes focusing from Dustin to the movie. He twisted off the cap of his beer and took a long sip. He was fine, totally fine. The alcohol was dulling things anyway. He wasn't really used to drinking, so one beer was starting to hit him a little. "Maybe both?" he laughed, before wrinkling his nose. "Okay, maybe not both. Or either. Are you actually not feeling it?"

Dustin accepted his second beer from Quinn and took off the cap. "Yeah, please not both," he replied and grinned. He took a sip from his beer. The taste wasn't too bad, actually. At least, it was getting better. He shrugged, looking at Quinn instead of the movie. "I don't know. Am I drunk? I really don't think I am. I mean, I feel a little strange, but-" he was about to ask if that was what it felt like to be drunk but then he remembered that Quinn actually had no clue he'd never been drunk before. "I guess I can definitely handle another beer though."

Quinn smiled softly, turning to the movie. He quirked an eyebrow at him, jumping slightly at a jump scare, before focusing back on Dustin. "I dunno. Are you?" he teased. He had a feeling that Dustin hadn't been drunk before. "Well good," he said with a wry grin. "Because I brought a bunch more and wouldn't want to have to drink them all by myself,"

Dustin chuckled when he felt Quinn jump next to him. "Oh my god, you scare easily," he teased him. "You need to chill." He knocked his shoulder against Quinn's. "Oh, shut up," he mumbled. "But yeah, I'll help you, if that's the case. Because I'm such an awesome friend." He didn't even think about what would happen if his parents caught them drinking. His dad wasn't likely to bother them and his mum would only get back from work at around 5am.

"I've just had a not so great couple of weeks okay," Quinn mumbled, letting the words slip out before he actually thought about them. He opened his mouth to try and say something to take that back, but couldn't think of anything. So instead he just closed his mouth and looked at the TV, taking a long sip of his beer. "Well I'm glad my awesome friend is helping me drink the beer that I brought," he teased.

Dustin was taking a big gulp of beer when he heard the words leave Quinn's mouth. His mouth started forming a frown. He didn't want to force the other boy to watch anything he didn't like watching. "I can put something else on if you'd like," he suggested in a quiet voice. "Or... if you wanna talk about it?" He took another sip of beer. "Like, I'm also awesome at listening, not just at drinking beer."

Quinn flushed slightly, looking at Dustin before shrugging. "You... ugh... wouldn't believe me," he said, taking a rather large sip and watching the movie for another moment. "Have you ever wondered if shit like in this movie actually happened?" Quinn asked after a moment? "You know, ghosts, supernatural, all that shit?" he asked, feeling stupid for even asking that.

"Try me," Dustin simply replied. Holding the bottle of beer in one hand, he nearly spilled it over his carpet when he heard the next words coming out of Quinn's mouth. He couldn't... or maybe he could. Had Quinn seen the smoke monster, too? "All my life I have," Dustin said quietly, turning to face him. "Why, have you found any proof that they exist?" he asked, his tone serious.

Quinn blinked, looking at Dustin curiously. Did he actually believe him? Or know about all these things. He opened his mouth, about ready to spill about the absolute proof he had, of his sister, despite the fact that she thought she was just a superhero, before closing it. He promised he wouldn't tell anyone about her. "I saw... I dunno what it was. I got attacked by it. It was like a giant bird and had a human head," he winced at how weird that sounded. "And then another creature too, big, creepy, but it turned back into a human," he said, careful not to let on that it was Neven.

Opening his mouth in shock, Dustin stared at the other boy. Despite having grown up with magic inside his house, despite knowing that vampires were real, despite being touched by the scariest creature he'd ever seen, Quinn's words still felt so unbelievable to him. This was real. Actually real. "Where did you see them?" he asked Quinn. "And... they didn't hurt you, did they?"

Quinn looked like he did believe him, which gave Quinn a bit of hope. "Ugh, yeah. I mean, no, not really," he said with a small shrug. "I got away from the bird thing, and the other thing scratched me but turned back before anything else happened so," he shrugged, biting his lower lip. "I'm okay though. Do you believe me? That this stuff exists?"

"I'm glad you got away from the things, even if that one thing scratched you," Dustin replied, hoping that the scratch was just a scratch and nothing serious. "Where did it get scratch you?" he asked. He kept looking at him before giving him a small nod. Should he tell him the truth? The whole truth? Tell him that he was a warlock and that this wasn't very new to him? But his mother kept saying that no one else should know and besides, he was getting along really well with Quinn. He didn't want him to suddenly treat him different because of it. Didn't want him to talk to him like he wasn't normal. Or just talk about his magic from now on. "Yeah, I believe you," he told him in a low voice. "Of course I do. You don't look like you're kidding and besides, it would be strange if I didn't. Yesterday, I sort of got chased by this strange creature? It looked like it was made out of nothing but black smoke, but it had those eyes. Really creepy, white eyes."

Quinn smiled, holding onto his left shoulder. "Ugh, yeah, it scratched me here," he said pointing to where it did, but he didn't pull up his sleeve or anything. Quinn paused, wondering and hoping that Dustin actually did believe him. He wanted someone to talk to besides his sister. It was weird, learning about this and not knowing anything really. He wanted someone who actually knew about this stuff. "Really?" he asked, eyes going wide and turning slightly to face Dustin, sipping his drink again with a small smile. "Oh shit," he face dropped, eyes growing wider. "That sounds actually horrifying," he shuddered. "I haven't seen anything like that though,"

Glancing at Quinn's shoulder, Dustin took another sip of beer. "Does it still hurt? Or did it heal alright?" he wanted to know, not sure why he was asking. He didn't want to reveal his secret and also, Quinn seemed fine. Besides, it was difficult treating injuries that hadn't happened recently. Dustin smiled when it seemed like Quinn actually believed him. "Yeah, it was really scary. It just touched me and then left? I'm glad you haven't seen it. But yeah, I've been trying to just... ignore that happened because I don't want to think about why it was there or what it might have done." He took a big gulp of beer. "Sorry. I didn't mean to make this all about me. I just- I need you to know that I believe you. Like, one hundred percent believe you."

"Um, yeah it's healed pretty well," Quinn said with a shrug. "I think there's a little scar but that's about it," he said with a nod. They'd gone to the hospital afterwards and gotten it patched up. He hadn't told Karen or Jared. Quinn nodded, biting his lower lip as he looked at Dustin as he spoke. That actually did sound terrifying, and he hoped that he wouldn't find anything like that. "Thanks," he said slowly, finishing off the beer he had and pulling out another. "You didn't, just, thanks for believing me,"

"Oh, that's good." Dustin nodded, then smiled. "It's actually kind of badass, you know? Having a small scar from fighting some big, creepy creature and a giant bird. That's practically a dragon," he told him. He watched Quinn take out a third beer. Shit, he really should keep up. He didn't want the other boy to think that he couldn't, so he quickly gulped down the rest of his second beer, grimacing at the taste of the warm liquid. "No problem. I mean, not too long ago I tried to get into a vampire bar. But the bouncer wouldn't believe I was 23..."

"I don't really know about badass," Quinn said with a small flush, but he grinned anyway. Did Dustin think he was badass? He tried to stop smiling stupidly. Quinn sipped on the beer thoughtfully, nearly choking when he heard about Dustin trying to get into a vampire bar. "You what?" he asked, sputtering slightly. "They have those things?" he asked, eyes narrowed. "But... I mean, you don't exactly look 23. Do you even have a fake?"

"Well, I think it was," Dustin argued. "So if anyone asks you got that scar from fighting a dragon. I think that is badass." He held out his hand and smiled at him, silently asking for another beer. "Apparently they do. But I didn't know it was a vampire bar when I tried to get in," he explained. "Um, I definitely look like 23, what are you talking about?" He laughed. "You mean fake ID? Uh, no, I haven't. I tried telling the bouncer that I'm doing my own laundry, though."

Quinn smiled again, feeling his cheeks darken again, glad they were still sitting in the dark. He grabbed another beer and passed it over to Dustin. "That's weird. I mean, that they have those things here. I'm gonna have to stay away from there then," he added. "Yeah, totally," Quinn laughed, feeling far better than he did before. "Ah, yes, the old laundry test. The best way to determine if someone is over 21," Quinn said, leaning back against the bed and grinning. They'd missed a bit of the movie, but that didn't really matter all that much.

"Thank you." Dustin tried to uncap the beer in the dark, which wasn't that easy since the only source of light was coming from the movie, which got quite dark at times. "Um, the laundry test is foolproof. Like, I'm sixteen and I couldn't do laundry if I tried. I'd ruin everything," he admitted with a chuckle, glancing at Quinn. "It really sucks that I didn't get to see a vampire though. I really want to see one." He frowned. "You're- you're human, right?"

"Definitely," Quinn laughed, shaking his head and sipping his beer. He was starting to feel it a little bit more. It had been a while since they started drinking, and they hadn't really taken any breaks. "I tried once, and it was a mess. Karen won't let me do it anymore," he grinned. "I dunno, vampires sound pretty scary if they're real. And, like, what bits of them are real? Like is it Twilight vampires or Dracula vampires?" he asked. "Yeah, of course I'm human," he laughed, before pausing. "You're human right?"

"Wish I could have seen you try." Dustin laughed. He was feeling really good and relaxed, better than he had been in a long time. Besides, Quinn was really nice and funny. "Oh, I hope it's the Twilight vampires. They're kind of cool," he admitted. "Oh, a little bit disappointing that you're human." He looked right at Quinn, trying to keep a straight face as he answered his question. "Nope. I'm secretly half-mermaid."

"It was not particularly fun. And seeing Karen get angry like that wasn't great," he shrugged. Well, more disappointed and frustrated than angry. "Nah, those are so lame!" he laughed. He'd never seen the movies, but Quail had and loved talking about them when they were younger. "But scary ones would suck too. I think I've seen enough scary creatures...," Quinn's eyes went wide for a moment. "Wait really? You are?" then he paused, realizing that Dustin was teasing him. "Oh, fuck you," he pouted, but laughed. "Where's your tail then?"

Dustin continued sipping on his beer. If it made him feel good, why not continue? "Parents always get angry. If I had a dollar for every time my mum got angry with me, I'd be rich enough to move out," he told him. "They're not lame!" he argued. "They've all got very interesting backstories and personalities! And they're more than just monsters." He had to snort when Quinn actually seemed to believe that he was a mermaid. At least for a second. And then he was laughing. "Oh my god, I can't believe you just bought that!" he exclaimed, then raised one eyebrow, chuckling. "You don't wanna know."

“My parents don't get terribly angry," Quinn said, letting the word slip out. It was sometimes easier to just refer to them like that. Plus he was drunk. Anything that made things easier. "Okay, yeah but most people have interesting backstories," he pointed out. "Even if they are vampires," he laughed softly. "Yeah well, I'm sorry I'm thinking about all this stuff and maybe thinking it's possible you are," he huffed. "I don't know anything about this,"

Dustin nodded. "Then you got really lucky," he mumbled. "Mine are really strict sometimes," he told him. "Or maybe I just mess up too often." He shrugged. "Well, yes. So you shouldn't diss Twilight. The books are actually really well-written," Dustin told him, drunk enough not to feel ashamed to point it out. "Okay, fine. I could have been a half-mermaid. But I'm not. I'm human. Promise." He looked at Quinn. This wasn't even a lie. He was human. Warlocks were still human.

"I guess I did," Quinn said with a small smile, leaning back against the bed. His adoptive parents were great. "I'm sure you're fine," he said with a laugh. "And your mom seems nice," he smiled, sipping his drink again. "I heard the books were shit," Quinn. "Wait, did you read them," he teased, reaching out and poking Dustin's side. "Well that's good to know," he said with a nod, laughing. He wasn't really paying much attention to the movie now though.

"Uh, no, who you just met was oh-we-have-guests-let's-​be-nice mum. You should see Dustin-why-is-your-room-​such-a-mess or did-you-get-an-F-in-Fren​ch mum," Dustin told him and shook his head. He opened his mouth in offense as Quinn complained about the books before realising that yup, he had just gave away the fact he'd read them. "Maybeee," he admitted and looked away, letting out an indignant sound at the other boy poking his side. He was ticklish as hell. "There's nothing wrong with reading Twilight!" He reached out with his hand to poke Quinn right back.

"Well that sounds like you're just not doing what you should," Quinn said with a laugh, not that he should talk. "Maybe you're just a secret bad boy," he teased, before bursting into laughter. Quinn didn't know Dustin that well, but he could tell he wasn't the bad boy type. "They're pretty shitty from what I hear," Quinn laughed, poking Dustin again, before grinning. "I guess there could be worse stuff. Like 50 Shades of Grey or something,"

Dustin chuckled, raising an eyebrow. "Well, of course I am, clearly," he replied, pointing at the bottle of beer in his hand before taking a long sip. "But you can talk. You're the bad influence." He stuck his tongue out at Quinn as the other boy laughed. "She wouldn't have been so nice to you had she known what you were hiding in your backpack." He rolled his eyes. "Maybe you should read them." He gave him a poke back in the stomach. "But no, I'm not into 50 shades. I don't think 12-year-old me would have liked the, uh, the sex." He giggled at the word.

"I'm not a bad influence!" Quinn gasped in mock shock. "I'm a perfect angel," he teased. He shrugged at his backpack. "Yeah, but you're glad I did bring it right? And I would have been able to hide it. My parents never find it when I bring stuff home," not that it was often. "Well that's good," he grinned, laughing as well. "Apparently it's based off of Twilight fanfiction or something," he wrinkled his nose.

Dustin snorted. "Yeah right. Perfect angel, yup. Exactly how I'd describe you. A perfect angel sent from heaven bringing beer into the houses of 16-year-old boys who don't even own fake IDs," he replied, grinning at him. "Of course I'm glad you brought it. But the fact you're good at hiding beer from your parents just means that you're the bad boy and the bad influence, not me." He shook his head. "Ugh, but I don't think those two have much in common."

Quinn just laughed at the image. "You make me sound like a pedophile like that," he laughed shaking his head and sipping on the beer. "Yeah but...," Quinn countered. "You don't clean your room," he said, before bursting out into laughter. "I dunno. Apparently it's all about sex, and isn't there sex in Twilight or whatever? Bed breaking sex or some shit?"

"I mean, you are older than me," Dustin pointed out and laughed. He pouted, glancing at his room. "It's not that bad!" he protested. Thank god Quinn hadn't seen the inside of his closet yet. "I think there was bed breaking sex in the fourth book, yes," he replied slowly, grabbing his beer and taking a sip. His head felt so fuzzy. But good fuzzy. "But that's okay. It didn't break from kinky stuff, just supernatural strength. I think."

"Only by a year," he pointed out. At least, from what he knew. And he was turning eighteen in a few months. Quinn just shook his head, leaning against the bed and feeling Dustin's arm against his. "Okay, that sounds pretty fucking kinky if you ask me," he giggled, enjoying the alcohol now. "So I think it was probably both," he replied, making a judgement on nothing more than that.

"Yeah, but that's, like, 12 months," Dustin argued, eyes flicking towards Quinn when he felt their arms brush against each other. He could faintly make out the generic horror sounds from the TV, but he hadn't paid attention to the movie in a while. "What, are you saying that you think supernatural stuff is a kink?" he wondered out loud.

"That's not all that long is it?" Quinn asked, flushing slightly. He didn't really see much of a difference in age really. Quinn's eyes were watching the movie, but he was acutely aware of the warmth coming from Dustin's arm against his. "No," he said with a laugh. "Everything I've seen has been pretty dangerous," he said, wrinkling his nose. "I don't like that," he mumbled. "Do you think super strength is?"

"Maybe not that much," Dustin mumbled, relaxing and leaning back a little against the foot of his bed, his arm still pressed against Quinn's as he swallowed the rest of his third beer he was holding with the hand attached to his other arm. "So, no giant bird kink?" Dustin asked and chuckled. "The only thing I've seen is that smoke monster and it didn't exactly make me horny." He had to giggle, then thought about the last question. "Maybe it's a little hot," he mumbled, flushing slightly.

"See?" Quinn said with a grin. "Totally not a pedophile or creep," and he just laughed, shaking his head. It's not like he talked to enough people to even qualify as creepy, right? That was totally a thing. You had to talk to people to be creepy. Quinn shuddered, immediately thinking of sister. "No, definitely no bird kink. Gross," he wanted to get that image out of his head. "That sounds more scary than anything," he mumbled, finishing off the beer. "Super strength would kind of be hot," he smiled.

Dustin shook his head. "You're definitely not creepy. How can a 'perfect angel' be creepy?" he teased him, using Quinn's words from earlier. He set down his empty beer bottle and looked at Quinn. "Scary can be hot, though," he said. "But not like /that/. I like how we're on the same page about super strength."

“I guess that's true. I mean, perfect angels are definitely the best thing ever. Everyone should like them," he laughed. "Can it?" Quinn asked, frowning. "Maybe I should be scary then," he grinned playfully, before feeling his cheeks heat up as he realized what he had implied. "Yeah, good to know. Just gotta find a guy that's super strong now," he laughed.

"Yeah, no. Perfect angels are boring," Dustin argued. At the next words leaving Quinn's mouth, he was a little stunned. Had Quinn just...? He couldn't be sure. His thinking seemed to not function very well at the moment. Something was numbing his neurons, probably. He quickly looked away, only to be surprised by his next words. Quinn wanted to find a guy. So he was gay, like he suspected from his blog posts. Unless this was part of the joke...? "Uh, can I ask you something?" he wanted to know, not quite looking at him.

"Really? That's so lame. Do you think I'm lame then?" he pouted playfully. Quinn didn't think anything of the words he had said. He wasn't used to hiding that aspect of himself. It was hard enough hiding Quinn, it wouldn't do well to have too many secrets of his own. His sister's didn't count. Quinn glanced over at Dustin, curious and nodded. "Yeah, of course,"

Dustin shook his head. "I thought we'd already established that you are most definitely not a perfect angel, so you're, like, not lame at all," he muttered and shrugged. Now that he had permission from Quinn to ask a question, he wasn't sure how to say it. He opened his mouth. Would Quinn think it was weird he was asking? Maybe, if it hadn't been for the three beer, he wouldn't have asked at all. "Uh... just... are you gay? 'cause you just said... and then the grindr thing," he mumbled.

"Augh, fine. At least I'm not lame. That's the important bit," he laughed. Quinn blinked at the question, feeling his cheeks flush a little bit again. Why was that happening so often? "Oh, yeah, I am," he said, looking away, before glancing back at Dustin. "Is that, ugh, a problem?" he asked, but made no effort or motion to move away from where he was sitting. He hoped it wasn't.

It's didn't come as a big surprise to Dustin that Quinn was gay, he'd already suspected as much from what he'd read on his blog. He finally moved back his head to look at him. What was a surprise was the way he just... admitted it. Like it was nothing. Suddenly, Dustin realised that he hadn't answered the question. "Oh, no," he quickly told him, shaking his head. "Not a problem. Like, not at all. It's cool." Was Quinn thinking he was just saying that to not make things awkward? Hopefully not.

Quinn looked at Dustin curiously, waiting for his answer. He hoped it was a good one. Quinn liked hanging out with Dustin. A lot. He didn't want to lose that at all. Biting his lower lip, he smiled slightly, drunk enough to fully believe Dustin without any worry. "Okay, cool," he said with a grin.

Dustin looked back at him and returned the smile. "Yeah, cool," he said, hoping that he suddenly hadn't made things awkward. But that question had been on his mind a couple of times in the last hours, and now he finally knew. "Sooo..." he said, his drunk mind letting him ask more questions instead of keeping him silent. "Do you have a boyfriend? Or do you really meet guys from grindr?" he asked him.

Quinn shifted slightly, his arm brushing against Dustin's again but he didn't move away. "So?" he asked with a laugh. "Oh, ugh, no. I don't," he said shaking his head and biting his lip. "And, yeah, no I don't actually have grindr. I was just...," he mumbled, realizing how foolish he had been acting when he was trying to... He didn't even know what he was trying to do with Ricky then. "Yeah, I've never used it or anything,"

Dustin's eyes flicked to where their arms were brushing against each other and then back at Quinn, but he didn't pull away. He didn't mind at all, Quinn's arm felt nice and warm. "Yeah?" he asked, chuckling slightly as the other boy tried to explain. Maybe it was like when he had told people who didn't know him well that he'd had many girlfriends before or lied about having had his first kiss. Sometimes, you didn't exactly tell the truth about how pathetic your love life really was. "Can I... can I ask you how you know? That you're gay, I mean, not that you've never used grindr before."

"Yeah," Quinn replied with a small shrug. "I kind of figured you didn't mean grindr," he laughed, reaching into his bag and offering Dustin another beer before opening one for himself. "Ugh... I just did. Like, I didn't ever like girls so...," Quinn just gave him a sheepish smile. "The internet helped a lot too. In a lot of ways," he felt that familiar blush creep up his cheeks again. "I haven't done anything with a guy or anything," Quinn was rambling now, "But I just know I don't like girls,"

Smiling, Dustin took the beer from him and twisted off his cap. His head already felt funny, but it wouldn't get any worse if he drank more, right? He took a big sip, but snorted when he heard Quinn's words, spilling a bit of beer on his jeans. "Tell me, please, in exactly which ways did the internet 'help' you?" he teased him and grinned. "So you... haven't done anything with anyone? Ever?"

Quinn groaned, realizing he probably should have just stopped talking at some point. "Shut up. That's not what I meant," he whined. Well, maybe a little bit, but Dustin didn't need to know that. "Ugh, no I haven't," he said, flushing again. Was he really that inexperienced compared to other people. "Have you?" he asked, turning to look at Dustin.

"I will never shut up!" Dustin laughed when he heard Quinn groan. "I bet it's exactly what you meant," he told him and grinned. There was no way Quinn didn't go on the internet for 'help'. No way. Dustin smiled when he heard the other boy admit that he hadn't done anything before. It felt good, not to be the only person who was inexperienced because from the way people at school talked, it seemed like almost everyone was dating or had already dated or kissed many people. "I haven't, no," he admitted quietly, the alcohol helping him be more honest. "Not anything."

Quinn just groaned again, shaking his head and hoping that Dustin would drop it. He really didn't want to talk about that right now. "Oh," he said with a small smile, when Dustin admitted to not having any experience either. "Okay cool," he said, feeling a little better and smiling. True, Dustin was a little younger than him, but it was still good to know. "Are you, ugh, you know. Into guys too or just girls or...," Quinn trailed off.

Dustin smiled and rested his head against the back of his bed. Him and Quinn seemed to have more and more in common, and it felt really good to be hanging out with someone who was really similar to yourself in some ways. He gave him a small, tired, drunken smile, except suddenly Quinn asked a question that made him fall out of his relaxed state and nearly drop his bottle of beer. "Uh," he started, staring at Quinn. He didn't know how to answer this. He literally didn't know how to answer it. And the other boy expected an answer, clearly. He opened his mouth to say that no, he liked girls, he liked girls very much, when he closed it again. The thought of lying to Quinn about this made him feel almost sick. "I think I'm going to piss my pants if I don't get up now," was what came out of his mouth instead of the lie. Putting his beer down, he pulled himself to a standing - or rather, swaying - position.

Quinn blinked as he saw Dustin react to his answer. He was drunk, definitely, but even still he could tell his question had made the other feel awkward. Shit. That wasn't what he had wanted. He didn't even know why he had asked that. "Oh," he said, blinking, watching as Dustin stood up. "Yeah, you should go and do that then. Don't want that," he gave an awkward laugh, glancing down at his bottle and drinking again.

Dustin basically fled from his room, slowed down by his legs which seemed to not work as well as they usually did and the fact that it was completely dark. Only the fact he'd navigated his room before in the dark helped him avoid crashing into anything as he pushed the door open. It was far too bright in the hallway as he stumbled towards the bathroom, too drunk to even be worrying about his father or sister seeing him. Seeing as he had in fact drunk three beers, he did use the toilet and then started making his way back, pausing in front of his door. This was awkward. Why couldn't he just tell Quinn the truth? But maybe the truth would make things even more awkward, and he didn't want that. Slowly, he pushed the door open again and stepped into his dark room.

Quinn felt stupid, very stupid. He shouldn't have asked that question. He was drunk and curious and maybe Dustin just looked kind of cute and he liked the way their arms had been brushing a little too much. He groaned, pulling his legs up a bit and resting his head on his knees. Quinn was stupid. And he had no clue how Dustin was even feeling. All he knew was that he had run off to the bathroom without another word. Grabbing the beer, he took another long swig, turning his eyes to focus on the movie.

Dustin leaned against the wall next to the door for a second, watching Quinn who was lit up only by the faint light of the television screen. He looked sort of adorable with his head resting on his knees. Sort of really cute. But now he'd made things awkward. And he didn't want things to be awkward. Pushing himself off the wall, Dustin stumbled closer only to plop himself down next to him, reaching for his shoulders when he nearly lost his balance. "Hey."

Quinn didn't notice when Dustin came in until he started walking over to him. Looking up, he watched as Dustin moved back to sit next to him. At least he wasn't freaking out or anything. "Hey," he said with a small laugh as he watched Dustin stumble over to him. "Sorry, I was stupid, I shouldn't have...," he trailed off, sipping his beer again.

Dustin shook his head, frowning. He didn't want Quinn to think that he was stupid, or that he shouldn't have asked the question. It was his own fault, Dustin's fault, that things got awkward. "You weren't stupid," he replied. "And you can ask me anything, I just..." He didn't finish the sentence. He wasn't sure what he'd even meant to say. "You're not stupid," he said again, for good measure.

Dustin didn't seem angry, which was something. "Yeah I am," Quinn mumbled, looking up at the movie for a moment. "Should I go? I should probably go," he mumbled, his words slurring a little bit. The last beer was starting to hit him again. "It's getting late right?" Quinn asked, not even sure what time it really was. "I've been here long enough. Don't want to be a bother or a pain,"

"No, you're not," Dustin argued. "You're not," he repeated. He didn't like the thought of Quinn leaving, it made him a little sad. Especially because Quinn probably wanted to leave because Dustin had made everything awkward. He put a hand on his arm as if he could prevent him from going that way. "You're not a bother or a pain." He shook his head again. "I like you here," he added quietly.

Quinn paused when he felt the hand on his arm. He looked down at is and shifted so he was sitting again. "Okay, if you're sure," he mumbled, glancing over at Dustin and smiling. "I kind of like being here too," he mumbled, leaning back against the bed. "Maybe when this is over drunk video games? They're the best," he said with a grin.

"I'm sure." Dustin had to smile back at him when he saw the other boy smile, happy that he wasn't leaving and that he liked hanging out with him. He was a little bit confused by his next words. When what was over? "Ooh, you mean the movie," he replied and laughed. "I kind of forgot we were watching that," he mumbled, then nodded. "I like to try drunk video games, please."

#quinn #chatzy #discoveries #touchofchatzy

[operationrainfall]

Title Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 Developer Inti Creates, ArtPlay Publisher Inti Creates Release Date July 10th, 2020 Genre Platformer, Retro Platform PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One Age Rating T for Teen – Blood, Violence Official Website

One of the most blockbuster reveals recently was the announcement that Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon was getting a sequel. The first game was a very faithful retro platformer, set in a similar style to Castlevania III. But I never in my wildest dreams imagined we’d get a Curse of the Moon 2! Though in many ways CotM 2 follows in the footsteps of the original, it also sets itself apart in a few ways. For one, there’s a new team of demon hunters joining Zangetsu on his mission. For another, overall I found this to be a meatier experience. The real question then is, was Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 better than the first game? Or was it merely a glimmering echo?

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

First things first. If you played Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, you might have certain expectations after hearing that Dominique is playable. All I will say is put your expectations aside, because Curse of the Moon 2 constantly surprised me as I played. While Zangetsu was playable in the first game, here he’s playable the entire time. Other than Dominique, joining him are newcomers Robert and Hachi. Robert is an expert marksman who can snipe foes from half a screen away, crawl through narrow apertures and wall jump, but is otherwise incredibly frail. Hachi is literally a flying mecha operated by a corgi. No, I’m not sure how that happened either; all I know is Hachi is amazing. He can hover and utilize weapon points that other characters need for subweapons to make himself temporarily invincible. That sounds overpowered, but you’ll really learn to rely on it. He can also smash walls to open up new pathways. Also, since this was already revealed by Inti Creates, I can confirm the other demon hunters from the original game, Miriam, Gebel and Alfred, return at a certain point. I won’t reveal where, other than to say their portion was my favorite part of the entire experience.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

One thing that Curse of the Moon 2 does exceptionally well is make every teammate count. Nobody is a clone of anyone else, and each has their strengths and weaknesses. Some are physically stronger, others are faster, some jump higher and others can play crowd control. The first time you play, the end of each boss fight will be punctuated by the arrival of a demon hunter, who slays the boss in epic fashion. After you’ve recruited the core group, the game starts to change things up, and really forces you to alternate wisely and strategically between them. Thankfully that’s done easily by pressing L or R to shift between the group, and it freezes time for a brief second while it happens. A good example of how this mechanic works is against the gigantic mummy boss. He forces you to avoid spears and lightning while trying to scale moving platforms so you can reach his weak point. To do so, I went invincible with Hachi, then got up close and personal with Dominique’s spear, and if the boss ran, I would snipe him with Robert. This system isn’t overwhelming either, and rewards you for being creative. There’s more than one way to skin a cat, so to speak. That said, this game is inspired by hardcore retro NES games, so do expect to get frustrated by several bosses. Thankfully there was nothing here I couldn’t figure out how to overcome.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I will say, I really grew to appreciate Dominique during my first playthrough. Her healing spells and powerful attack magic, along with her multifaceted lance, made her a true MVP. This turns out to have been a deliberate choice, since later on you won’t have her at your disposal. I really don’t want to ruin any of the story beats here. All I will say is that you won’t see the true ending for Curse of the Moon 2 for a while. To unlock it, you’ll first have to unlock various episodes and beat them. While you can beat any of the episodes in about 4 hours, my total playtime was around 14 hours. And I should mention, each episode has different quirks that make things a bit more interesting and challenging, such as harder attack patterns for bosses. Hell, one episode even practically turns the game into a Metroidvania, which I enthusiastically approve of. The main thing that changes in each episode is the final boss fight. Outside of that, you’ll have about eight stages to get through each run, complete with branching paths and hidden goodies, including items which permanently power up your team’s stats.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Though Curse of the Moon 2 is made with a certain audience in mind, it’s also approachable to less confident or patient gamers. Though I played on Veteran, which keeps features like enemy knockback, you can play on easier modes that are much more forgiving. Regardless of mode, you can earn extra lives by scoring enough points from collecting items or defeating foes. Either way, the controls in the game are well implemented, and each attack has a distinct audio cue and range. You’ll grow to appreciate the various subweapons at each character’s disposal, such as Robert’s dual lances, Zangetsu’s burning scrolls or Dominique’s wall-crawling lightning. With the exception of Hachi and Gebel, each character has a variety of subweapons they can use. The controls all work marvelously, so you can only blame yourself when you fall into a pit or get skewered by a foe. One nice modern convention is you’ll come across candles that serve as checkpoints. They keep you from having to play entire levels over from the beginning once you die (and you will die). But like in the first game, each character essentially serves as an extra life, so you won’t have to use a continue until your entire team perishes, which will restart the stage.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Speaking of bosses, all the bosses in Curse of the Moon 2 are epic. I’ve always appreciated Inti Creates’ artistic flair, and whether using pixels or sprites, they do incredible work. Each monster is complex and full of detail, and there’s some nightmarish beasts here. Take the first boss, which is a green wyvern. At first it looks somewhat standard, until the red skeleton parasite lodged in its throat breathes fire, or its eel-like tail spits electricity at you. Besides looking epic, all the bosses pose a significant threat, and will force you to learn their patterns and act quickly. Thankfully, I feel the bosses here are more well balanced than in the first game. Some of the original game’s bosses were near impossible without the right demon hunter, and many were hard even with your full team. I didn’t have nearly as much trouble with these bosses, with the exception of the numerous final bosses you’ll face. Those will stress you to the maximum, many with multiple phases, and will require every bit of skill and strategy to defeat. That said, these battles were definitely a highlight of the experience.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The exploration in the game is also a step up from the first game. Many stages are built with dual paths in mind, and some won’t be accessible til you get the entire team of demon hunters together. These paths show off how expansive the stages are, and there’s plenty of hidden rooms full of rewards as well. Every stage is bristling with monsters, and they will do their level best to kill you, especially on Veteran. I got knocked into bottomless pits more than once by flying foes, and raced frantically across disappearing platforms. I will say, Hachi really helps you safely explore, since not only can he hover over pits, he can literally crush deadly spikes underfoot. While his large size makes him an easy target for foes, he’s still pretty invaluable. It’s a lot of fun switching between characters to help you explore stages and combat threats.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Visually, I never have any complaints with Inti Creates, and that doesn’t change with Curse of the Moon 2. Not only is the artwork reminiscent of classics I love, but it is full of its own personality. Take the way each character poses after beating a boss, such as Zangetsu rapidly sheathing his sword or Hachi bouncing out of his mech to bark triumphantly. Even when you’re on the map screen, you’ll see the team interacting on the bottom. One of my favorite moments was traveling to an ice stage, with Hachi shivering until Robert put a blanket on him. These little touches just go to show the attention to detail present, and I love it. I already said how amazing the bosses look, but that goes for every other element of the game too. While it might not be completely faithful to NES restrictions, I could care less. I love how the game builds drama with background animation, such as sinister shadows watching you and then flying off to cause mayhem, or lightning strikes revealing hideous sea monsters. Thankfully, the sound design is also tremendous. There’s lots of distinct sounds that help differentiate the stages, and the grunts of your team lend them lots of personality. Each foe has audio cues as well, and the bosses roar demonically and make lots of noise to show how powerful they are. Honestly, the visual and audio design here is some of the best work I’ve yet seen from Inti Creates, and it’s a large reason why I keep coming back to their titles.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I honestly have no real complaints about Curse of the Moon 2. It doesn’t trip over itself or make any obvious mistakes. The closest I could come to one is saying that it may be too challenging for some gamers, but that’s really not a problem. No game is for everyone, after all. Besides that, the only minor quibble I have is that I feel the true final boss of this game was somewhat less impressive than the first game. But in every other aspect, Curse of the Moon 2 outdoes its predecessor.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Curse of the Moon 2 is great however you slice it. It’s not quite perfect, but it’s so damn close that it barely matters. For $14.99, it’s a bit pricier than the original, but still a great bargain. I enjoyed all the time I spent with the game, especially since there’s more to unlock. I have two mystery modes I’m working to open up, but even then there’s a lot of replay value here. You have multiple endings, as well as plenty of ways to progress through the game, and if a friend is close by, you can also enjoy the co-op mode, which looks really fun. You’ll even unlock cool features like the ability to play as Ultimate Zangetsu, who is even more of a badass than usual. While I would have appreciated a feature like an art gallery or bestiary showing all the enemy names, there’s very little to complain about here. If you like classic platformers and love Castlevania flavor, you absolutely need to own this game. Now I’m just hoping to get an announcement of a Curse of the Moon 3, cause frankly I enjoy these side stories more than Ritual of the Night.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4.5″]

Review Copy Provided by Publisher

REVIEW: Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 Title Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2

#ArtPlay #Bloodstained #Castlevania #Curse of the Moon 2 #Inti Creates #Koji Igarashi #Retro Platformer

[megadads]

Matt T. Wood (Game Designer, Artist, Programmer)

Matt has been creating video games for over 2 decades, getting his start in 1997 when he joined 3D Realms as a level designer and worked on games such as Prey, Duke Nukem Forever and Max Payne. In 2003 he moved to Seattle to work with Valve where he helped to create some of their most iconic titles including Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead, Portal 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. He recently departed Valve and formed his own company, Double Dagger Studio, where he is working to create his next games. Matt lives in Seattle with his wife, three children, 2 cats, and leopard gecko.

What is the first video game that you remember playing?

“This is a tough one. I have so many memories of playing games when I was young, but I don’t recall which was the very first. In the arcade, it was probably Pac-Man or Centipede. I remember playing a lot of Centipede in particular. I think I just really enjoyed spinning the trackball around. It’s funny, thinking about this now brings back all of the memories of where these arcade cabinets were located. I can vividly see them in the pizza parlors, the sub shops, the bowling alleys, the corner shops and of course, in the arcades with kids just hanging out together and watching each other play. Those were good times.

I spent a lot of time in the arcade when I was growing up. My dad worked in the department store at one end of the mall, so I would wander around the arcade with my pockets empty, watching all the bigger kids play. Sometimes I would go up and down the aisles checking the coin return slots for quarters and sometimes I would get lucky, but most times not. Haha.

The first game I played on console was definitely Pong. It was at my grandmother’s house and I don’t recall whose console it was, but I distinctly remember spinning those big dials to play. What a special day that was!”

What are your favorite games of all time?

“Honestly, my list is way too long! But here are some that have impacted me in various ways throughout my life.

Zork, Enchanter, and Planetfall (and most other Infocom games) were very pivotal for me and had a big impact on me early on. Experiencing these games and the “feelies” as they called them, which were all of the supplemental things they put in the box, I think were what made me want to make games. I would pore over all of the text included in the box and imagine all the things I could do if the parser were more robust. I wanted to do what Marc Blank, Dave Lebling and Steve Meretzky were doing. To me, they were making magic.

Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, and Quake gave me the inspiration and the tools that I needed to start making video games. Up until that point, the closest I had come to making games was when I entered them into a computer line by line by copying out of a magazine. I had no idea what I was doing and all the books that I picked up on programming were over my young head. So when these games had tools that you could use to make ACTUAL levels…..wow, I was so hooked! Plus, Quake was an industry exploding phenomenon. It’s hard to imagine where gaming would be today if Quake hadn’t happened.

Some of my other favorites in no particular order are Dwarf Fortress, Sim City 4, Dark Souls, Morrowind, Half-Life, Baldur’s Gate 2, Diablo 2, Final Fantasy 3, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, World of Warcraft, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and Counter-Strike.”

Which hobbies or pastimes do you enjoy besides gaming?

“At one point when I was younger, I thought I wanted to be a movie special effects and prop maker. So now, sometimes, for fun, I’ll build and paint models and props and things. I’m thinking about growing out my mustache and getting a pipe too. Just to complete the dad hobby cliché look. Haha.

But with my current game and the kids, I don’t have as much time for that anymore. Now we try to do more things together as a family. We like to travel together when we can and we recently started doing a board game night at our house.”

Do you and your children play video games together?

“Yes! All three of my kids have been head over heels in love with Minecraft for years. Every time they play, they ask me to play too and it’s always a blast. What I love about Minecraft is that all four of us can be working together on a house one minute, and then the next minute, we can go off in different directions and explore. I love watching them work together and discover together.

Speaking of working together, we love co-op games. Any game that we can play together on the same team to solve problems or work together is a big win in our house. Some of my kid’s favorites right now are Castle Crashers, Battleblock Theater, Overcooked 1&2, and Mario Maker. My youngest son is really looking forward to a game called Moving Out where you work together to move furniture out of houses. He’s been asking me about it almost every day since he first played it at PAX.

Some other games we like to play together are Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the new Spiderman on PS4, Mario Kart, Donut County and pretty much any Mario game.

In addition to playing games, we also work together to make games too. I have a whiteboard in my home office where the kids will write up ideas or drawings and we’ll work together to turn them into little games. We make them in Unity and that experience has been really great for us.”

How do you make time for gaming with a busy family life and career?

“The kids go to bed relatively early every night. My wife is pretty militant about their bedtime and I support that. On the bright side, my wife’s unwavering mission to make sure the kids are getting as much sleep as their bodies need also means there’s consistently a good chunk of time in the evening for game time! But yeah, sometimes it can be pretty tough. The gaming is usually the first to fall off the list and I still have a huge backlog of games that I want to play that I’ll probably never get to. Something to look forward to in my old age, I guess. Haha.”

What is your proudest moment as a parent?

“Again, too many to talk about! But there are a few that I’ve been thinking about recently. They might be small things, but they made me really proud: moments when they demonstrate maturity, compassion, and kindness.

All three of my kids are dancing in The Nutcracker this year and I was helping wrangle the little “party boys” backstage. To begin the show, they all have to line up single file and grab the shoulders of the kid in front of them and trail their “nanny” out onto the stage. They didn’t have a specific order and when my 5-year-old son grabbed the shoulders of the boy in front of him and another little boy just about had a breakdown. HE wanted to be behind that boy! There were only a few seconds before they needed to go out onto the stage and I was about to intervene when my son put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and said, “It’s ok! You can go” and stepped back so the other boy could take his spot. So proud of him for that.

More Nutcracker: my daughter (age 11) was asked to fill in at the last minute for a child who had gotten sick. She put in extra hours at added rehearsals for this part but on the day of the performance, the other child was well enough to perform, so she didn’t end up performing the part. We asked her how she felt about the situation and she said she was just happy for her friend to be well enough to dance because she knew how devastated she would be if she got sick and missed her performance. *heart swells*

Another thing that happened with my 8-year-old son recently was when he was with some of his classmates and they all had to choose a bandana. They were all different colors and one of them was pink. It was the last one to get picked and the boy who was left with it loudly exclaimed that he wasn’t going to take the pink one! Pink was for girls! My son looked at him and said, “Oh come on. It’s just a color!” and he gave that boy his and took the pink one for himself.

Also, in general, I’m proud of how much my kids love to read. Our house is full of books. They stack up in piles on the stairs and in corners and are sometimes used as makeshift desks and writing surfaces. The kids devour books and I’m really happy about that.”

Gamer Spotlight: Matt T. Wood Matt T. Wood (Game Designer, Artist, Programmer) Matt has been creating video games for over 2 decades, getting his start in 1997 when he joined…

#fatherhood #parenting #Spotlight

[thornburgrealty]

Gymnast and considered times body outgrew

I ‘t want him playing 85 http://www.officialnhlcanucksshop.com/alex-biega-jersey-c-1_22.html percent, reinjuring the hamstring and then this thing lingers all year. What are some of the policies and laws that need to wholesale jerseys from china be changed? We evaluated the power forward’s game with a complete shift-by-shift log, a technique that permits to have a very deep nba basketball jerseys report of his actual play. I missed it. He has scored touchdowns the last four and his last nine he has 26 catches for 442 yards and five receiving touchdowns to go along with one rushing touchdown. We just gotta And Alan Branch Jersey his feelings about contract numbers around the league: The point I was getting across to everybody was, when I got five years, million, everybody ‘Oh, he ‘t deserve it. He broke down defenders off the dribble, delivered on-target corner kick with one hand and confidently stroked a show-and-go pull-up jumper just inside the arc. Mariota be a weak cheap nfl jerseys paypal QB2 that put up numbers purely on his athleticism alone, but the growing pains figure to outweight the positive his rookie campaign. The mask, painted by airbrush artist Poitras, also features depictions Potvin on side of the mask , as well as silhouettes of the Leafs logo used during Potvin’s time with the team. Ht: 5 Wt: 208 pounds Class: Hometown: Wilmington, DE.. Otherwise, click Subscribe to create a new Newsday account. He later said it was tough to beat such a great friend that way. Relying on ‘s defense to protect them, the other Celtics were allowed to play their men aggressively, after all if they were beaten, they knew that was guarding the basket.

This move came clearly to the detriment of Adams, who only plays first base, and hits from the same side of the plate as Carpenter. If we move as it appears we are a direction where we lose our ice road and our wind cheap nfl jerseys paypal sled, a part of what has made life interesting and special here go away, said Childers. He was born in Seattle, Washington. I would guess that to get Bourne even at the same money it would mean a Major League contract and that would mean wholesale jerseys from china exposing another prospect off of the 40 roster? The wholesale jerseys from china Jets’ list of players on injured reserve continues to grow, with right guard Winters and linebacker Mike Catapano being the latest additions. These players are included in the list below, bringing the total number of players entering the draft Charles Barkley Authentic Jersey with eligibility remaining to 84. Played 70 for the U.S. Today, Alford has said, Dreams, whether they’re ready or not, are happening quicker. The funny thing is, I’m getting all these chances but I know for a fact it’s going to be something ugly around the net. But 2012 Gore upped the scoring ante by scooping up a fumble and returning it nine yards for a score against the New England Patriots a thrilling 41 win. Five Braves reached double digits points led by A.J. Let us talk about average middle-class families with both parents or http://www.authenticpenguinssale.com/antti-niemi-jersey-c-1_20.html one parent the workplace; their income stagnant or worse; with a mortgage and car payments; and having their kids child care, with each place costing more than $8 a year and the Conservatives’ -called child care benefit providing less than $1 a year after taxes.

The conversation should only intensify as 2017 unfolds. Hopefully you see him take a Rafalski path. Are you sure nba basketball jerseys about that? Over the past two and a half decades, Mr. As , obviously source for such things, there are at least 15 varieties of vampires. The 49ers, however, began to sour nba basketball jerseys on Acker as a starter late the year, and he was buried under a slew of cornerbacks when the offseason began. 1 overall draft pick 1952 out of Vanderbilt, played 13 seasons the NFL – seven with the Los Angeles Rams and the Bears . He’s taken a few liberties with the numerous characters, but has tightened the story line that it all works seamlessly. I have had the pleasure of collaborating with on a few corporate initiatives the past year. The thing is, he got real good football and started scoring touchdowns. Just him returning … it’s a good sign, Flames coach Gulutzan said.

If I can get out and play some golf, come home and play with 3-year-old and then she lets me play PS4, I’m good. If you ask me one of the guys Dupree or Chickillo should start opposite preferably Dupree but game whoever appears to gets hot or provides the most pressure is who would stick with. Since that moment, from the outside it’s looked like smooth sailing. Tags: Calais Campbell, contracts, Freeney, Jerraud Powers, salary cap, Tyrann Mathieu Posted Blog | 16 Comments Posted by on 30 – 5 pm The Cardinals made no more trades. This unique movement, seen traditional pitchers, allows the body to move down the mound longer and aids to increase cheap nfl jerseys paypal a pitchers momentum. Heck, he might not be able to handle the limited pounding he would take the traditional role of a smaller back. The first example looked like a under Andrew Adams Womens Jersey trained police officer who got spooked and fired. The Jaguars have named Marrone their new HC. By posting your comment, you agree to allow Orange County Register Inc.

from WordPress http://www.thornburgrealty.com/2018/07/07/gymnast-and-considered-times-body-outgrew/

#Uncategorized