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arytha · 1 year

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orchid, cactus, bamboo, abelia, daffodil, mahonia, chia, camellia, jasmine, ivy, chamomile, aloe vera, palm tree, taro for get-to-know-me asks?

orchid ⇢ what’s a song you consider to be perfect?

I. So I don't consider things by 'perfection' honestly but Fuck is CLASS::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE; a song that will forever kick my ass. Absolute favourite song of all time.

cactus ⇢ something you’re currently learning (about)?

Waves my little Chinese Mandarin language learning app 'Hello Chinese' that helps (but with how i remember to do stuff i keep forgetting to do things) me remember that I actually did take 2 years of Mandarin in school.

bamboo ⇢ do you change into a different outfit when you get home?

Yeah I generally change out of my scrubs and into pjs. Usually a tank top and shorts 👍 be comfy

abelia ⇢ do you have a particular piece of jewelry you always wear or can’t part with?

Nope. Actually I used to wear a ring all the time, and then I lost it. And I used to wear a necklace all the time but I kept putting it in my mouth and it wore off the cheap silver coating. (for reference these were both while i was in middle school). I can't stand wearing jewelry daily anymore, it gets in the way.

daffodil ⇢ do you have siblings? if yes, in what ways do you think you’re similar to or different from them?

Yep, two younger brothers. I don't get along well at all with the older one (nothing in common at all), but the youngest has a similar humor as me and we're pretty good friends..

mahonia ⇢ what place, thing, activity inspires you most and how do you express yourself when it does?

Ehhhhh. Mainly reading inspires me the most honestly. Sometimes a song will also give me the executive function to create too, but it depends on whether I have the time to draw or write at the time!

chia ⇢ what’s an inside joke you have with someone else?

Logan and I have an adage we quote all the time which is simply: Don't worry about it.

Character is showing a weird side in a show we're watching? Oh, don't worry about it.

I make a weird noise? Don't worry about it.

Didn't catch the last half of a lewd joke or simply just a sentence he's said? Don't worry about it.

Its used more maliciously (in jest) than anything but its the funniest fucking thing we've let become a running joke.

camellia ⇢ what were you like when you were younger? do you think you’ve changed a lot?

Ah. Well, I basically wasn't a human being until 2018 or so, so.... Trauma (and clinical depression and overwhelming anxiety) did a number on me. Its actually rather hard to remember my life unless I focus on really trying to remember things. I was a lot quieter tho, read books to escape reality, and had like. No friends. I tried to validate myself through internet 'friends' and made a lot of mistakes in the pursuit of being a human. I have changed a lot (and I better have, i've healed and matured quite a bit), but I do think I still hold some of my core. qualities i think.

jasmine ⇢ do you have a movie or book you loved but will never watch/read again?

I'm never reading The Series of Unfortunate Events again. You can't make me. I LOVE the books. I cannot read them again. I Own the books (in nice shiny hardcover with the original printing, too), they are never going to be anything more than used space on my shelf.

ivy ⇢ what are your ‘tells’ for your emotions and moods? how can someone tell you’re happy, annoyed, upset or tired?

Uhhh my state of attentiveness I think. Logan says I enter 'screensaver mode' when tired but I'm not sure what actually changes. They can usually pinpoint it straight away tho fhdjs

Like if I'm more attentive and listening and engaging with you (ofc this is more for real life/voice call) im usually in a better state, I tend to tune things out when i get upset or tired or annoyed. Idk.

chamomile ⇢ what kind of things do you like receiving as gifts?

I have suuuuuch a soft spot for plushies. Its insane how soft I am over even just. a little guy. I don't even collect plushies but they always end up being my favorite present somehow. My coworker gave me a really soft Pusheen last year for my birthday(? or xmas) and god that thing lives at the end of my bed now but i was holding on to it daily for Months.

aloe vera ⇢ what’s something (mundane) you really want to experience in life?

Living in a house and not having anything in it that would deter me from. wanting to go home?This is a genuine first thought don't look into it too much..

palm tree ⇢ do you have a fictional villain you shouldn’t like but love regardless?

am i allowed to like the little shit that is Asahi from ffxiv (the answer is no. I love him tho (and Fandaniel))

taro ⇢ if someone called you right now to catch up, what’re the things you’d tell them about?

(if they're close enough) I'd probably talk a bit about my recent art for Era and Lorne? I don't have a life that's bery interesting unless you are willing to let me babble about my recent hyperfixations...

#me looking at this: oh you just sent me almost all of them #GO LISTEN TO THE SONG #ALSO THANK! YOU FOR THE ASK! ITS FUN #mara's shit

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iwannawritelots · 2 years

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Aloe

Originally written August 2022

Masterlist

Genre: fluff

Ship(s): Cinna/Simeon (Cinna/Asmodeus and Cinna/Barbatos mentioned but not active)

Timeline: 151022-A

Trigger/content warnings: lesson 76 spoilers

Headcanons/notes from the author: They are at Simeon’s human world home here. I already complained about my sunburns and they’re mostly better I think but like ugh. So mad at myself. I started writing this right after I got them lol

Brief Blurb: Simeon helps Cinna put aloe vera on their burns.

Simeon furrowed his eyebrows at Cinna after they muttered a swear. “Cinna?”

“I got sunburnt while we were out…” Cinna muttered, frowning at their shoulders. “I need to get the aloe. That’s all.”

“Aloe…?”

“Oh, um…” Cinna made a nervous laugh. “Aloe vera is a plant here that can be made into a lotion to soothe sunburns…” They sighed and began to inspect their shoulders again. “This is such a bad sunburn too. It’s going to hurt later…” Their eyes widened, and they facepalmed. “You weren’t wearing sunblock either, were you? Shit.”

Chuckling, Simeon told them, “I’m probably fine.”

Inhaling deeply, then exhaling short, Cinna told him, “Maybe, but you’re not really fully human or angel so I’m worried about how much the sun exposure can affect you. You probably won’t burn but if you’re human enough you could get skin cancer…” They rubbed their face and groaned into their hands. “Next time I’ll remember to get you some sunblock.”

Simeon couldn’t help smiling the tiniest bit as he approached them and gently laid his hands on their biceps. “Let’s worry about that later.” He didn’t touch the burns, inspecting them with only his eyes. “Let me help?”

“Th-That’s okay. I got it…” Cinna carefully stepped away from his hold and hurried to dig into their toiletries bag on the other side of the room. Once they had collected the aloe vera lotion, Simeon picked them up by their legs, causing them to squeal out in surprise. “Simeon!”

He helped them bend over his shoulder before hurrying to the bathroom and sitting them on the counter. “I’m helping.”

“I-I’m a grown person!”

Simeon hushed them and took the aloe lotion, ignoring their fussing about how they could do it themself. “Let’s properly take off your top, now.” He helped them do so, still ignoring their grumbling. “You rarely wear crop tops, let alone tank tops… I can’t believe the one time you do, this happens.”

Frowning, Cinna muttered, “Same…”

“Well, it’ll be okay.” Simeon kissed their nose and traced their hairline for a moment before opening the bottle. He managed to get a nice glop out of it before smearing the green goop on their less burnt shoulder. He watched them relax a bit, the coldness soothing them. “Asmodeus and Barbatos are going to murder me for letting this happen.”

“I’m a grown man,” Cinna mumbled. “It’s not like I was regressed.”

“No, but you’re forgetful when it’s taking care of yourself or when you’re excited about something.” Simeon chuckled as he rubbed in the substance. “Hopefully it’ll all be healed by the time they come over.”

“Hopefully…” Cinna hissed and sighed with relief when the heavily burnt shoulder was touched by Simeon’s aloe coated fingers. “I’m sure they’ll be more frustrated with me than you.” Simeon finished massaging in the lotion before putting the bottle down and washing his hands. Cinna closed the bottle and held it in their hands. They began to fumble with it, feeling a bit embarrassed of themself. “You three really like to take care of me. It’s weird.”

“Weird to you.” Simeon dried his hands before resuming his full attention on them. “It may be a bit odd for Asmodeus, because he is more self-absorbed than Barbatos and myself, but even he has proven to care about those around him very much.” He gently cupped their cheeks and tilted their face upwards, so they would look at him. “We love you. I love you.”

Blushing, Cinna muttered, “I love you too.”

reblog divider

#fluff #cinnaroll #cinna/simeon #obey me! one master to rule them all #fanfiction #fanfic #darlingficsbycinna #iwannawritelots

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tunsta · 3 years

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Kuumat ajatukset, 2017, osa 2

Lisää kuumaa jaksosta 2. Alunperin Tunsta Serveriltä. Hot thoughts on episode 2. Originally posted on Tunsta Discord.

-Rakasta näitä kotikuvia, ne ovat hyvin suhteellisia maaseudulla asuville ja sellaisille taloille.

-ROKKA SISÄÄN. Ylistys.

-Susi änkyttää, awww. Ymmärrän miksi nämä kaksi nähdään parina. Heidän ystävyytensä on erittäin suloinen. -Mies, joka pelaa Rokkaa, on niin hyvä. Niin hyvä näyttelijä. Halusin selkeästi pelata todellista suomalaista sankaria.

-Rokka The Musical: DDDD

-Lehdon pieni taputus Riitaojan selkään ... Hän on kuin lapsi, joka ei osaa olla ystävällinen. Sydämeni. Ymmärrän miksi ihmiset yhdistävät heidät. -Säiliöt!!!!!!! -Laukaukset ovat paljon vähemmän selkeitä kuin vuonna 1955, säiliöt näyttävät enemmän kuin he liikkuvat todellisen metsän läpi eivätkä vain kuvata hyvältä. Molemmat toimivat, mutta tämä on luonnollisempaa. -Joo suosikkini otti säiliön! Jännitys ja nopea keskittyminen paljastavat paljon kirjan kohtauksen tarkoituksen. -Pommitetun kylän tutkiminen muistuttaa minua tekemästä samaa airsoftin aikana pelatessani ensimmäistä maailmansotaa. Näyttelijät ovat onneksi erittäin hyviä, muuten tämä tunne olisi kuvattu LARP. -Lotta! Lisää Lotta! Rakastan sitä, miten tarina näyttää heidät sellaisina kuin miehet näkisivät heidät, upseerin käsivarsilla tai poissa taistelusta tai sairaanhoitajina.

-Rakasta humalan juhlaa, jonka vastakohtana on siisti paraati, jota vain upseerit katsovat.

-Kiusasiko se vain Hietanen/Rahikainen !?

-Hietasen roolissa oleva näyttelijä on tuskin siinä vaiheessa, että hän on liian vanha rooliinsa. Mutta hän on erittäin hyvä saamaan "hämmentyneen hyvän pojan" esille, joten hän on edelleen hyvä. -Rakasta, miten tämä sopeutuminen todella koskee "Emme todellakaan halua sinua tänne, mutta olet valloittava armeija, joten emme voi sanoa ei" epämukavuutta kohtauksessa Veran kanssa. -OMG VERA. -Kun hän suuteli häntä, se toimii hyvin

-Se ei ole yhtä huolestuttava ja surullinen kuin alkuperäinen, tehokkaampi näytöllä. -Sulaan siitä, kuinka söpö tämä on.

-Lyhyesti sanottuna, parin nyt Rahikainen/Hietanen. English -Love these home front images, they are very relatable to someone who lives in the countryside and those kinds of houses. -ROKKA ENTERS. PRAISE BE. -Susi stutters, awww. I can see why these two are seen as a couple. Their friendship is very sweet. -The guy playing Rokka is so good. Such a good actor. Clearly wanted to play the True Finnish Hero. -Rokka The Musical :DDDD -Lehto’s little pat on Riitaoja’s back… He’s like a child who doesn’t know how to be kind. My heart. I see why people couple them. -TANKS!!!!!!! -The shots are a lot less clearer than 1955, tanks look more like they’re rolling through an actual forest rather than just being filmed to look good. Both work, but this is more natural. -Yay my fav took out a tank! The suspense and quick focus does a lot to show the point of the scene in the book. -Exploring the bombed-out village reminds me of doing the same during airsoft while playing WWI. The actors are luckily very good, otherwise this would have the feeling of a filmed LARP. -Lotta! More Lotta! I love how the story shows them as the men would see them, on the arms of an officer or away from the combat, or as nurses. -Love the drunken revelry being contrasted by the neat parade, which only the officers watch. -Did it just tease Hietanen/Rahikainen!? -The actor playing Hietanen is just barely on the cusp of being too old for the role. But he’s very, very good at getting the ‘confused good boy’ across, so he is still good. -Love how this adaptation really goes for the ‘Well we don’t really want you here, but you’re the conquering army so we can’t really say no’ discomfort in the scene with Vera. -OMG VERA. -Having her kiss him works well -It’s no less poignant and sad than the original, more effective on screen.-I will melt from how cute this is. -In short, I now ship Rahikainen/Hietanen.

#tuntematon2017 #ahvenasquad #kuumat atjatukset #2017 #Soumi #English

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ariel-seagull-wings · 3 years

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OC INFO: AUNT MASHA

FULL NAME: MARIA ILYINA YAKOVLEVA

FACECLAIM/FACE CANON:

Costumes and hair inspired by Vera Baranovskaya in the 1926 film adaptation of The Mother:

Mixed with Maria Ouspenskaya:

Who, in the 1970s, would most likely be played by Mary Morris:

NICKNAME(S): MASHA

BIRTH: JULY 29th 1847

DEATH: DECEMBER 13th 1922

ZODIAC SIGN: LEO

SEXUALITY: HETEROSEXUAL

GENDER: FEMALE

PLACE OF ORIGIN: TULA, RUSSIA

NATIONALITY: RUSSIAN

FAMILY: KONSTANTIN ILITCH YAKOVLEV (HUSBAND); SERGEY ILITCH YAKOVLEV (BROTHER-IN-LAW); TATIANA SIDOROVA YAKOVLEVA (SISTER-IN-LAW); MIKHAIL SERGEYEVICH YAKOVLEV (NEPHEW); SOPHIA SERGEYEVNA YAKOVLEVA (NIECE); LIEV ROSENFELD YAKOVLEV (GREAT-NEPHEW); LEAH ROSENFELD YAKOVLEVA (GREAT-NIECE).

WEAPON OF CHOICE: A RIFLE

CHARACTERISTICS:

+extroverted, optimistic, empathetic, merry, playfull, empatetic

- can sometimes be controlling and stuborn

OTHER PERSONAL INFO:

Having not birthed children of her own, Aunt Masha raised her nephews by marriage, Yakovlev and Sophia, as her children.

Is the fifth generation of a family of competent midwives.

Was raised to be a devout christian, and always believed that faith in something divine and bigger than humanity gaved sense to life, wich is why, when the revolution camed, she initially prefered the mensheviks (whites) who mostly were god believers, and because was frustratred when her nephew and niece chosed the bolsheviks (reds), becoming atheists in the proccess. Aunt Masha later camed to say she didn’t liked the mensheviks anymore, because of learning that if they continued in power, then laws prohibiting her nephew Yakovlev of marrying Rebeca (a jewish lady, who Aunt Masha loves as her own daughter) would still exist. But she still keeps trying, and failling, to convince her nephews to believe in God, usually asking for Rebeca’s support in the matter. There is something she can tank the bolsheviks tough: making Russia get rid of the Tzar, whom she hated for constantly making wars that tooked the lives of her husband and brother-in-law.

In her devotion to God, Aunt Masha takes her own interpretations of the Bible. Once she declared her belief that, if Adam and Eve didn’t becamed ashamed of their nudity, then there would be no original sin. Nudity becamed a sin only because they saw it as one. The priest of the church she frequents was not amused to say the least. He only didn’t excomunicated her because she sends a very good bread to the church. Thankfully, the priest doesn’t know that Aunt Masha is a admitely too lazy to enjoy cooking, and sayed bread is actually made by a neighbour of her...

Speaking of nudity, if an artists asks Aunt Masha to pose nude for a painting, she will accept, and even says that the artist has complete freedom to take the picture for the museum, because in her words: “What is beautifull is to be shown”.

When Rebeca and her sisters losted their father, during the funeral, even tough they were not jewish, Aunt Masha and her niece Sophia offered to follow the tradition of cutting a side of their clothes as a sign of grief, even tough they were not jewish. “The Good Rabbi sayed that all woman in the family must tear their clothes. And, since you are married to my nephew, we are family”. Was what Aunt Masha sayed.

Was accepting of her niece Sophia and her apprentice Lilia coming out to the family as girlfriends, only asking then to be carefull in the street, to avoid violent atacks.

Loves to sing and play the gusli.

#maria ouspenskaya #mary morris #vera baranovskaya #nicholas and alexandra 1971 #period drama au #oc info questions #my ocs #fanfiction #fandom musings

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ferallymine · 4 years

Text

Worldbreaker Part 2

A/n: Hi i exist sometimes.

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

“You burned?” Shoto caressed Mardea’s back gently. He wasn’t one for great amounts of physical affection unless she instigated it.

Her left arm stretched out, “You can’t see it now, but there were black burned scars all up and down my arms. It was so painful to move. Healing it was even worse- which was why my body ached and skin was so tender.”

“And the easy bruise,” Shoto’s fingers ghosted her collarbone, the black and blue visible from her tank top pajamas- still fresh from hours before. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there…”

“We couldn’t have known,” Mardea slouched forward, face resting in the crook of his neck. “Honey I’m so scared and tired…” Tears escaped and landed on his cotton t-shirt.

He froze, not knowing where to put his hands. Does he hug her? Rub her back? Sometimes she likes head pets… Shoto settled on a hug, careful to his placement of his arms to not startle her.

“Don’t let go.” A whisper of longing. He knows that she knows his limits with physical affection. He can stop and she’ll understand. But what would that make him- just like his father? He shouldn’t abandon his love when she gets scared, which wasn’t often, if ever.

“I won’t.” Resolve to be here, in this moment, just doing his best to comfort her.

A cool draft whisked through his room. Shoto pulled one blanket from the end of the bed up to cover their legs and feet. Another one was behind Mardea’s head. Slowly reaching over, he was able to drape it over her shoulders.

“Thank you,” She pulled him closer, entirely eliminating the space between them. The thought that she held him this way for fear of either of them disappearing tugged his heartstrings.

-----

Hello, pumpkin.

A knee-jerk reaction, Mardea teleported from Shoto’s sleeping embrace to near the closet door. She landed with a thud on the floor. That’ll definitely bruise.

Aw, how cute.

Mardea’s ears couldn’t hear anything in the room besides her own thundering heartbeat. Where was the source of this voice? Was she here? If anything happened to Shoto then nothing in this world would protect that stranger from Mardea’s red fury.

I’m outside. Come walk with me.

“Fucking hell,” Mardea whispered, standing up as quietly as she could. Was it risky doing what this woman said and not telling anyone? Yes. Was it equally as risky to not obey? Yes, and it put the others in danger.

Mardea threw on a sweatshirt and pants then slipped out the window, landing on the fresh earth. It was cold against her bare feet. The night air was still, as if afraid of what lurked within itself.

Leaves crunched around the back corner of the dorm. A bolt was in her hands, illuminating the area as Mardea jumped out ready to attack. But nothing was there.

“Pumpkin, don’t be so reckless.” The change to lilac was instantaneous as the woman appeared behind her. “Still a bit afraid, aren’t you?”

Mardea stayed silent; the bolt desummoned from her hand as the woman walked around to face her.

Her hair obstructed most of her face, “You’ve got much to learn if you want to control energy instead of it controlling you. Like your lilac right now.”

“You need to leave me and my loved ones alone.” Crimson strands.

“Ah, little one, you’re so closed minded.” The woman let out a little laugh, “You think this is a villainous endeavor?” She placed a gloved hand on the coarse brick. “This is purely about you bettering yourself. And unlike the fools in there who are trying desperately to train you with no idea how, I know exactly what you need and how to strengthen you.”

“…how do you know?”

An unsettling grin, “I am so glad you asked.”

Her gloved hand quickly swiped over the brick. Where her hand had been was replaced with brown energy. With a snap of her fingers, the energy turned into a view of the dorm rooftop.

Mardea just stared, “…wha-” A shove and she went through.

“That, little one,” Mardea turned to see the woman walk through and snap again, closing the brown energy circle, “…is one of many things I can teach you. My name is Vera, and I was the first person with an energy manipulation quirk.”

Her brows furrowed in a vain attempt to understand the situation, “If you were the first, I’d have heard about you in classes, right?”

Laughter. The woman, Vera, slightly bent at the waist, wiping a tear from her eyes hiding behind her hair. “You have too much faith in your education, little one. People like us don’t fit the narrative, so they write and write and educate and brainwash until we simply no longer exist. Your teachers didn’t even know energy quirks existed until you showed up, didn’t they? Have you gotten any education, training, or even advice about how to control your quirk?”

“I… uh…”

“No, they push you to the side and tell you to figure it out.” Vera straightened and walked to the front edge of the building. “You have no one too look up to for help. When you get positive results, you’re praised, but when you struggle, they put you in a ‘meditation room’ so they don’t have to tell you how to get better.”

“Izzy has All Might…..guess Bakugo has him too… Shoto has Endeavour, technically speaking…”

Vera turned suddenly, holding her arms out wide, “And you, Miss Lin, could have me as your mentor, if you wish.”

Was this Mardea’s future if she didn’t accept? Her work and efforts all made on her own- no real guidance to set her straight. Full potential never achieved due to her own ignorance, or willful neglect of an offer right here on this cold dreary rooftop.

Sure, Aizawa tried his best and knew how to calm her down- but he wasn’t always there. She couldn’t count on him in a battle if things got rough with her energy. Midnight didn’t exactly offer great teachings either, instead focusing on Mardea’s….er… natural charisma to aid in battle. Fucking All Might himself can barely assist because he’s so focused on his own charade and helping Izzy take his place.

What did she have to lose?

“…Okay.”

“You accept my offer?”

Mardea stepped forward until she was within arm’s reach of Vera, “Yes, I accept.”

A smirk, “First lesson, show me what you got-“

And then Mardea was shoved off the roof.

-----

It felt that time slowed down as Mardea descended towards the ground. Was this a cruel joke? Had she just made a disastrous mistake?

She glanced at the dorm as she fell. There was a bird’s nest by the window of Kirishima’s room. A robin was asleep in it.

Bird.

Wings.

Hawks.

Summoning the memories of that night with the number two hero, Mardea’s hair turned white.

-----

Vera leaned over the edge, hoping she needn’t save her new student. A blur of white pushed past, nearly knocking her over. It flew through the clouds.

“Farther along than I thought,” Vera snapped her fingers, creating a platform to meet her in the sky.

-----

It’s quiet up here.

A cloud trail followed her into this space above the clouds- nothing but the stars and the moon keeping her company in the purple twilight. Mardea never fully thought and meditated on the ivory glow now outlining her fingertips and eyes.

Angelic.

“You’ve done well.” Vera’s voice broke the serenity Mardea found in the silence.

“You pushed me!”

“I would’ve saved you if you didn’t react.”

“Teachers don’t jeopardize their students’ lives.”

“Please, you jeopardize your lives every day in that school. You do so even more when you search for your brother.”

Crimson.

“Don’t get angry with me, little one. I came with good intentions and speaking only truth.”

Mardea’s wings collapsed, the energy reforming to match Vera’s platform. “I didn’t trust you much before that stunt, and that level certainly didn’t go up after.”

“Aw, pumpkin. Find solace in the fact that you’re farther along than I originally thought.” She crossed her arms, “I didn’t think you’d have figured out how to make wings work.”

A shrug, “Guess you should start giving me more credit.”

The platform shifted with each step Vera took away from Mardea. She had to walk with her to keep from falling again.

“I’ve seen the footage of your UA tournament battles. You have an…average range of colors.”

“Average?”

“There was bystander footage of your development of white, too. I’m glad to see that your body does react to the different pulls of energy in the world.” A sudden stop. “What’s curious is why more haven’t manifested at this point.” She turned to face Mardea, moon perfectly centered behind her, “Do you suppress your emotions or do you intentionally try and connect them to things outside your mind?”

A pause, “…I allow myself to feel things but it never occurred to me to try that.”

A cheeky grin, “That is your first lesson, pumpkin. Now go get some sleep!” Vera’s gloved hands clapped twice.

Green glowing energy outlines Mardea’s figure. Suddenly, she was back in Shoto’s dorm, laying on top of the blankets he’d gently pulled above her just hours before.

But he wasn’t there.

“Shoto?” Mardea tried to whisper to not wake the neighboring students. Or Aizawa. He’d kick their asses for breaking the bedroom rule. Feet touching the wood floor, she tiptoed to the door and opened slightly, peering into the hallway.

At the end of the hall, the elevator door opened. Shoto stepped out, looking concerned.

“Shoto!” A harsh loud whisper to get his attention. He seemed to perk up after seeing her in the doorway, and quickened his pace.

“Where did you go? I thought you went to your room.” Shoto closed the door behind him, taking Mardea’s hand with his free one. He felt colder than usual.

“She called out to me.”

“The woman from yesterday?” Brief panic “I didn’t hear anything…”

“No it was… like a mental connection. Telepathy, I guess? She talked to me for a bit. Anyway it was a lot and I’m really tired. I’ll tell you and Aizawa everything in the morning, okay?”

“…okay.”

“Shoto, is something wrong?” Mardea pulled him forward, letting them both sit on his bed.

Just talk to her dammit

“No.” Eyes drifted to the floor

“Don’t lie to me, Shoto.” Her hand squeezed his briefly, “You don’t have to tell me now, but don’t lie to me.”

Just TALK TO HER GODDAMMIT

“…I woke up… and… you were gone…”

“Did that-“

“You scared me.” Eyes still finding the floor fascinating. “You usually…” a breath, “Fuck, I know what I want to say but it won’t come out!” Shoto stood up in frustration, leaving Mardea on the bed. Both hands rolled through his hair.

“Shoto it’s oka-“

“No it’s not!” He realized how loud his voice was getting. He knelt to the floor, “Dea…” A shakier breath. Mardea knelt down to the floor beside him, giving him time to speak. “I want to… I want to help you and protect you but how am I supposed to do that when this woman can just… talk to you and bother you whenever she wants?”

There was genuine pain in his eyes. It made Mardea’s heart hurt.

“What am I supposed to do if she hurts you?” A single tear ran down his face.

She placed a hand on his face, thumb wiping away his tear, “I don’t know, Shoto.”

Ice seized his right side, leaving an intricate layer of frost. His breathing became uneven, ragged. Pupils constricted; eyes wide. Panic attack on the floor of his dorm at 3 in the morning. Panic. Panic. Panic panic panicpanicpanicpanic-

“It’ll be okay, love.” Mardea pulled him close, letting him lay on her as she leaned against the bed. The weight of his body on hers helped ease her racing heartbeat. “We’ll find a way to make it safe.” She kissed his hair, using her free hand to rub his unfrosted back. “You’re not going to lose me, Shoto.”

All the words she hoped he needed to hear. Hoped he could hear amidst the intrusive thoughts racing his mind.

As the minutes went by, they both calmed down. Too tired to move, Mardea used her quirk to teleport them to bed for the last remaining hours of nighttime.

#mardea lin #shoto todoroki #oc #original character #mha #bnha #my hero academia #if you look closely you can see where i picked up inspo from into the unknown from frozen 2

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64-bitsims · 5 years

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Here are eight female sims for download inspired by @gloomfish’s Songs as Sims challenge. I have always loved the song God Bless America- And All of the Beautiful Women in it by Lana Del Rey because it really feels like a feel good girls anthem about how we all need to stick together and lift each other up which I strive to do.

For these sims I really tried to do many different body types-- Nikki is very much a pear shape whereas Noelle and Naomi have more of a slender build, for example-- and have many different races and ethnicities, too. Noelle was originally going to have more Hispanic inspired elements in her features, but in the end I think she looks more Native American. I really did try and make them all have their own personalities and stuff like that, so I hope they shine through.

For the nitty gritty details:

the tray files are separate for each girl on sfs

each girl will have their own cc lists under the cut (as i decided to upload these i tried cutting back on cc but the ones from the beginning when i was just going to do an edit have more than the others fsafdsaf)

feel free to use them in any way, and please do show me what you do with my babies by tagging me!

unfortunately i can only mention so many cc makers bc tumblr limits mentions so if I don’t tag everyone, thats why! i’ll still mention them but it wont link-- however you’ll still be able to use the direct post link in the (x).

CC lists and download [sfs, no adfly ever] under the cut!

CC used for all sims: Smoothish II skin, TIT-E, Yume Eyes v2, No EA Lashes mod

Alexis Chance- Download

Chief of Mischief aspiration; Bro, Kleptomaniac, Vegetarian

CC Needed: @toffeetip‘s Girls Girls Girls Blush (x), @cherrypiesims‘ Sunshine Blush (x), @prxnce‘s Mami Eyeliner (x), @weepingsimmer‘s Apricot Blush (x), @pictureamoebae‘s Real Lips revisited (x), @simlaughlove‘s Love Me Knot top (x), @solarlemonade‘s Simple Eyeshadow 1 (x), @blogsimplesimmer‘s Rachel Hair (x), @tukete’s MH Button Tank recolor (x), @hollowsprings’ Leah Shorts (x), @nolan-sims‘s Witchy Dress (x), @trillyke’s Puzzle Pants (x), @rusty-sims’s Nightwear Top (x), @sagittariahx‘s Giulianna Lipstick (x), @aristavyr‘s Pure Gloss Lips (x), @wildspit‘s Angelic Hair v2 (x), @pickypikachu‘s Sabrina Pumps (x), @grimcookies‘ Catty Eyeliner (x), @mysteriousdane‘s Too Faced Natural Eyeshadow (x), @heihu‘s Overlay Collection [forehead] (x), @bustedpixels‘ Kylie Lipstick (x), @renorasims‘ Greta Shoes Recolor (x)

Packs used: Get to Work, Spa Day, Bowling Night, Get Together, Parenthood, City Living, Luxury Party, Seasons, Movie Hangout

Blair Mead- Download

Master Mixologist aspiration; Insider, Perfectionist, Goofball

CC Needed: @ratboysims‘ Roxie Blush (x), @trillyke Latata Shorts AND Bra with straps (x), @femmeonamissionsims Timothy Glasses and Sunglasses [you need both] (x), @sagittariahx‘s Dolly Eyeliner (x) Norvina Eyeshadow (x) Sultry Eyeshadow (x) and It’s Cold Outside Baby Blush (x), @bookwormsims‘ Roxanne Eyeliner (x), @weepingsimmer‘s Sephora Lip Stains (x), @wondercarlotta‘s Leila (x), @heihu‘s overlay collections [mouth crease] (x), @mortimergth‘s Cindy Heels (x), @simtone‘s Sharp Heels (x), @deetron-sims‘ Spring Dress from Spring Fling Stuff (x), @cabsim‘s nose freckles (x), @joliebean‘s Pumpkin Latte Coat [the one with the same colored sleeves] (x), @foursims‘ Madeline Top (x), @renorasims‘ Pearl Hoops (x), @shespeakssimlish‘s Carli Hair (x) and Okurrrt Hair (x), LunarLake’s little hoops found at @losts4cc‘s blog (x), @forgiveusoursims‘ 300 Follower Gift Lipstick (x), @cakenoodles‘ Thorne Top (x), @blogsimplesimmer‘s Leaf Earrings [both] (x), @stephanine-sims‘ Alexia Jeans [ripped] (x), @simlaughlove‘s Funky Sneakers (x), @sim-sa’s Kick It To Me Eyeliner [deactivated; I’ve included the file within the Zip download for this sim; if you are Sim-sa and wish for it to be removed please just ask!], @lehgaming‘s DA:I Brows [i think its #1] (x), @wildpixel‘s and @aharris00britney‘s Phoebe Dress (x), @leeleesims1‘s Up and Out [short] (x)

Packs used: City Living, Jungle Adventure, Outdoor Retreat, Spa Day

Carly Hawk- Download

Friend of the Animals aspiration; Non-Committal, Dog Person, Creative

CC Needed: @madlensims Vera Boots (x), @sagittariahx Berry Stain Lipstick (x), @nords-sims AH00B Choker Recolor [black] (x), @heihu‘s overlay collections [mouth crease] (x), @dkirko-n-wuciwuger Blush 1 & 2 (x), @squidinkbook’s [deactivated] Rough Stone Earrings (x), @crypticsim‘s Goddess Collection [you need both items] (x), and Passionfruit Liner [I have the merged version] (x) @cabsim’s Younzoey Beanie Recolor [there IS a working link to the needed mesh on the post] (x), @lightdeficient‘s Natural Eyelid Tint [I think it’s been taken down as its nowhere to be found on google or the blog itself; I’ve included it in Carly’s Zip folder-- @lightdeficient if you would like me to remove it and give a working link I will be happy to update this list and the file!], @leeleesims1‘s Takes Me Back Swimsuit [Full Body] (x), @sentate‘s Sassy Pumps (x), @blogsimplesimmer‘s Leaf Earrings [both] (x), @solarlemonade‘s Angelic Blush (x), @sondescent‘s Sim Stretch Leggings (x), @kotcatmeow‘s Eyeliner (x), @stephanine-sims‘ Phi Outfit (x), @pictureamoebae‘s Real Lips revisited (x), @alf-si‘s Eyeliner 4 (x)

Packs used: Get to Work, Spa Day, Get Together, Luxury Party, City Living, Fitness Stuff, Seasons

Miranda Holt- Download

Super Parent aspiration; Jealous, Music Lover, Clumsy

CC Needed: @crazycupcakefr‘s Shades of Red Lipstick (x), @aharris00britney‘s Em Hair (x), @leeleesims1‘s City Living Jean Recolors (x), @wyattssims‘ Athletic Jacket + Sweater from Winter Wear Stuff (x), @prismaticsimmer‘s Very Berry Eyeshadow (x), @imvikai Marion Hair (x), @heihu‘s Overlay Collection [forehead] (x), @cakenoodles‘ Daisy Jeans (x), @dogsill‘s Millie Hair (x), @pinkzombiecupcakes’ Madlen Cosette Recolors (x), @colorfulplumbobs Classy and Chic Shirt (x)

Packs used: Get Together, Jungle Adventure, Vintage Glamour, Movie Hangout, Spa Day, Backyard

Monique Dupree- Download

Leader of the Pack aspiration; Insider, Dance Machine, Gloomy

CC Needed: @its-adrienpastel‘s Rosie Blush (x), @crypticsim‘s Blue Honey Eyeshadow (x), @lightdeficient‘s Natural Faded Blush [I think it’s been taken down as its nowhere to be found on google or the blog itself; I’ve included it in Monique’s Zip folder-- @lightdeficient if you would like me to remove it and give a working link I will be happy to update this list and the file!], @mysteriousdane‘s Nude Tude Eyeshadow (x), @storylegacysims‘ Famous Skinnies (x), @theweebsimmer‘s Hey Cupid Jeans (x), @voidboredom‘s Simple Liner (x), @alf-si‘s Eyeliner 3 (x), @blushchat‘s Begonia Jacket (x), @crazycupcakefr Eyebrow Mega Set [5] (x), @deetron-sims Sample Pants from PTS Happy Apple Day (x), @elisaisms‘ Sunset Lipstick (x), @forgiveusoursims‘ 300 Follower Gift Blush (x), @grimcookies‘ Lipstick 1 (x), @hazelios Taylor Top (x), @heihu‘s Overlay Collection [forehead] (x), @leeleesims1‘s Folding Under Pressure (x), @renorasims‘ Greta Shoes Recolor (x), @sagittariahx‘s Superstar Lipgloss (x), @blogsimplesimmer Camilla Hair v2 (x), Aurora-sims4 Vitiligo [potentially lost? unable to find a link; this has been included in Monique’s Zip folder. If you are Aurora-sims4 and would like this to be removed from the file and provide a working link, I will be happy to remove it!] @wondercarlotta‘s Lola hair (x) and Sonia hair (x)

Packs used: Get to Work, Outdoor Retreat, Laundry Day, Get Together, Spa Day, City Living, Vintage Glamour, Seasons, Fitness Stuff

Naomi Vo- Download

Computer Whiz aspiration; Art Lover, Ambitious, Romantic

CC Needed: Dachssims’ Lemonleaf Blush converted to S4 (x), @blogsimplesimmer Accessory Shirts and Jackets [Sleeveless cardigan] (x), @nords-sims‘ Tenderpuff Lipstick (x), @mangosimcc‘s Seesaw Blush (x), @bookwormsims‘ Roxanne Eyeliner (x), @bustedpixels Spa Day Bikini (x) and Kylie Lipstick (x), @storylegacysims‘ Famous Skinnies (x), @trillyke‘s Latata bikini bottom (x), @misskweell‘s Petrose Leggings (x), @mysteriousdane‘s Color Pop Pressed Shadows (x), @grimcookies‘ Nina Dress (x), @heihu‘s Overlay Collection [forehead] (x), @hypergnomesimblr‘s No Nyans shoes (x), @forgiveusoursims‘ 300 Follower Gift Blush (x), @sulestial‘s Bella lip (x), @sagittariahx‘s Lilith Lacquor Lipstick (x), Warmy Jeans (x), Pink Lip Stains (x), Planet Pastel Goth Eyeliner (x), and Honeycomb Lipstick (x), @cabsim‘s Moles (x), @teanmoon/PTS’ Sarahtacular Bowstrap Shoes (x), @amygdelights‘ Glossy Lipgloss (x), @saurussims’ Lucian Shoes (x), @kotcatmeow‘s Eyeliner (x), @leeleesims1‘s Bean There Done That Beanie (x), @isjao‘s Maple Hair (x), Mol Top (x), Molly Dress (x)

Packs used: Get to Work, Outdoor Retreat, Get Together, Spa Day, City Living, Seasons, Movie Hangout

Nikki Zavala- Download

Friend of the World aspiration; Outgoing, Genius, Childish

CC Needed: Dachssims’ Lemonleaf Blush converted to S4 (x), @shinasims’ [unable to tag?] Oh So Sweet Dimples (x), PTS Cottage Garden Stuff Movie Hangout Boots Recolor (x), @joliebean‘s Robin Top (x), @nolan-sims‘ Freckle Overlay (x), @simandy‘s Lomri Eyeliner (x), Niranin’s Duality Eyeshadow (x), @purrsephonesims‘ GTW Shorts Recolor (x), @crazycupcakefr‘s Huda Inspired Lipstick (x), @wyattssims‘ Loose Jacket and Turtle Neck from Winter Wear Stuff (x), @sagittariahx‘s Geometric Shorts (x), Burnt Wood Lipstick (x), It’s Cold Outside Baby Blush (x) Planet Pastel Goth Eyeliner (x), @mangosimcc‘s Seesaw Blush (x), @streneesims‘ Stiletto Straps (x), @onceabluemoonsim‘s Ellie Eyeliner (x) and Autumn Blush v2 (x), @bustedpixels‘ Jefree Star Lipstick (x), and Mesh Top Recolor (x) @krispycandymoon‘s Mafer hair (x), @pinkzombiecupcakes’ Madlen Cosette Recolors (x), @greenllamas‘ 90s Crop from Pool Party Stuff (x), @pixelunivairse‘s Sunny Swimsuit (x) and Axe Leggings [a must have tbh] (x), @weepingsimmer‘s Julianos Eyeshadow (x), @bramblefinch‘s Lace Layers (x), @lightdeficient Low Maintenance brow [I think its #2 but I have the merged package so I dont know for sure] (x), @magicallyspicedsugar‘s Peekaboo top (x), @flafullsims’ Basic Liner (x), MissParaply’s Luna Top (x)

Packs used: Get Together, City Living, Season, Spooky Stuff

Noelle Craven- Download

Archeology Scholar aspiration; Loves the Outdoors, Active, Cheerful

CC Needed: @bookwormsims‘ Roxanne Eyeliner (x), @simtone‘s Daughter Jeans Shorts (x), @dogsill‘s AnnaSophia hair (x), @wyattssims‘ Multi-Bracelets from the Menswear Pack (x), @ridgeport‘s Monstera Top (x), @squidinkbook’s [deactivated] Rough Stone Earrings (x), One-Shoulder Dress Get Famous Recolor [solids] (x), @nolan-sims‘ Pros and Cons Top (x), @voidboredom‘s Smokey Eyeshadow (x), @heihu‘s Overlay Collection [forehead] (x), @sagittariahx‘s Warmy Jeans (x), @saurussims’ Lucian Shoes (x)

Packs used: Spa Day, Get Together, Parenthood, Seasons, Vintage Glamour, Outdoor Retreat

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fail-boat · 6 years

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There are so many cats in my house right now. 😂

Vera has become a permanent resident. Billie’s untimely passing meant I could keep this little ball of disastrous health and still maintain a “four permanent cats” claim. The one silver lining although I do miss Billie’s fluffy butt a ton.

The MARVELous kittens have grown and will be spayed and neutered in the coming month. 🤞🏻

Added to that, I now have five of the six feral cats from my backyard indoors and getting socialized. Four of the five are black cats, so I wanted to get them indoors before Halloween for their own safety.

Handsome, the dad of the feral kittens is ALL ABOUT being an indoor cat. He’s been slow to warm up to the other cats, but he’s loved getting pets and belly rubs from me on day one. Dude is a TANK as well. He was a tomcat (before TNR) and is somewhere between 3-5 years old. He originally had MAGNIFICENT cheek pads, but they’ve decreased since he was neutered. That said, his face is still rather round. But I liken him to the cat version of a pit bull. He’s small, muscular as all get out, and the biggest mush ball of love. ❤️ I’m so excited to find a good home for him.

In the feral kitten category: Night was the friendliest when they were outside, but is the most skittish now that they’re adjusting to indoor life. He stopped hiding though and hangs out near me, so we’re making progress. He’s okay with me petting him as long as he has no advanced warning of incoming pets.

Fury was the feral kitten that socialized the fastest. We still have some work to do, but he occasionally comes up to me for attention.

Toothless has become buds with Vera but still remains somewhat skittish. If I can put my hand on him before he notices, he’s all about the pets. But if he sees the hand coming? He’s gone.

Final kitten is Kevin/Patrick. When I named the first three, I reached out to my sister because the three black kittens were named, but I still needed a name for the tuxedo. “Kevin,” she deadpanned. “PERFECT.” And so he was Kevin for a few months. Until I brought him inside. Once he was inside I’d forget his name and want to call him Patrick. I’d recognize that wasn’t his name and then I’d try to call him Neil. For a little while, he was NPK (Neil Patrick Kevin), but it got to the point that I figured the mental block related to Kevin not being a good fit for him. So he’s Patrick now. And he is an uber-soft skittish little love.

#gif #national cat day #cats #kittens #fosters #adopt don't shop

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gwinnetts-archive · 6 years

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// bit of headcanon pondering, because i’ve never stopped trying to look past dean’s unreliable narration of the situation between him and sinclair towards something more like what actually happened —

when you ask dean what his problem with sinclair is, why he’d cling to this grudge for two hundred years... he answers talking about sinclair being self-righteous, being unshakeable, of having an ego, of thinking he was better than him. of how sinclair always looked towards “the bright, shining future in everything.” he talks about wanting to bring sinclair down to his level, how you can’t always get back up — which, yeah, dean has a highly sensitive ego, and that grudge was the purpose that kept his mind clear, kept him sane for two hundred years, but like...

dean was right, that sinclair originally built the madre for himself. sinclair set the entire madre up as a trap for dean, because he knew dean was plotting against him, and knew that vera was helping him, even before vera told him. we learn that through the entries at the end of the dlc, and see it in old world blues in the facility where the holograms were being made, because sinclair sat in on that himself, especially wrt the creation of the vera hologram

i’ve seen it posited over the years that dean and sinclair used to be friends, but knowing dean, and how dean isn’t really the type to make friends, even before he was a ghoul... it may have been a sort of amiable working relationship. a “same hat” kind of situation — vera fell in love with sinclair for his kindness to her and his focus on the future, but that little nugget of idealism sounds like it was a coping mechanism, especially with how dean talks about sinclair never seeming shaken by anything that happened to him. given how much fuckin’ money sinclair sunk into the madre to trap dean, even if he agreed to let the think tank put experiments into it to help him build it... that’s still. y’know. a vicious streak as wide as dean’s

i think that “same hat” situation is what all this is founded on. dean and sinclair could see past each others’ masks to the truth behind them, because they wore similar masks themselves. even if that meant they could never trust each other, there still could’ve been a kind of kindredship there. which, then, as the years went on, dean watching sinclair, who he knows is as godawful as he is, hold his head high despite whatever was happening, and thus consequentially looking down on him?

yeah, this wasn’t just some idle, off-handed slight. this was personal. which is always the impression i’ve gotten, that it’s not just dean being nasty because he took offense to something minor — which he does, all the time, and holds grudges for and plans to kill people for (see: the barter check), and yeah, dean is being nasty, there’s no way around that, it’s part of who he is — this isn’t an excuse, this is backing it up. it has meaning. but dean isn’t the type to acknowledge something like that, something with a softer component

#headcanons ;; so we’ll pick back up on that on another page #muse : dean domino ;; give me envy; give me malice; give me your attention #;; long post #// the thing that both saves and dooms sinclair though #// is his genuine love for vera #// he's SO pissed at her bc he did love her #// and he thought she was genuinely going along with dean's plan because she wanted to #// because he thought she was taking advantage -- which was more personal than the thing with dean #// he tried to save her... but it was too late #// and she would have died in that vault anyway #// bc he set the madre up to fail #// and didnt take the time to make sure the broadcast system was set up properly #// in the end... dean DID get sinclair where it hurts #// in a way he didnt get up from #// but this wasnt the way he wanted it to go at all #// bc in the end that nugget that cared about sinclair -- even in his own twisted way #// was still there #// and finding out what happened to vera -- who he also had genuine affection for. in his twisted way #// this wasnt actually what he wanted #// he won. he got what he wanted. but not really

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starsinger · 5 years

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@atseipl tagged me, and I am late with this

Rules: Answer 21 questions and tag 21 people you want to know better (make a separate post)

1) Nickname Uh, depends on who ya ask. I go by Vera due to liking it as a name I gave a character. That's mainly online though. Irl I dont really have a nickname except "Sammy Sam" which a coworker calls me sometimes and I accept.

2) zodiac Gemini

3) Height 5ft 7in

4) Last movie I saw Spiderman : into the spiderverse and I highly recommend

5) last thing googled “Blanca meaning"

6) Favorite musicians Pink, Natewantstobattle

7) Songs stuck in my head Pretty Girl - Cheat Codes x Cade Remix, Mi Gente,

8) Other blogs @mockingjaywriter @mockingjayplayer @ask-the-oc-fam @flowered-angel @ask-nerdynatemare and I help with a couple other blogs.

9) Do I get asks Not a whole lot

10) followers 156

11) following 718

12) amount of sleep Dunno. I sometimes go to bed between 10 PM to 1 am and wake up between 9 am to 11 am.

13) lucky number Dunno really, I'd say 5

14) What I’m wearing A red hooded shirt with a silver heart and says love on the strings, a red tank top that says do not disturb under, blue jeans and red converse.

15) Dream job Baker, cake decorator, chemistry teacher, singer

16) Dream trip Ireland, South Korea, Japan

17) Favorite food Chicken

18) play any instruments I was in piano class in high school years ago, and in band playing trombone even longer ago than that. I can still make noise with them both.

19) Favorite song Currently a lot. Pretty Girl, Mi Gente, Sunflower, also loving Thomas' cover of Breathin and found a new one which is a cover of Feel Good Inc that is so good.

20) Random fact Uh, Otis Redding did the original version of Respect.

21) Describe yourself as aesthetic things .........I have no idea honestly. My roommate suggested pastel emo and I guess that is pretty fitting.

Tagging Peeps: If y’all wanna do it, go for it. I would like to know more about pretty much anyone who is comfortable with sharing xD

#i had to scream when i noticed how many peeps they followed #and the fact that they decided i'm worthy of being followed #like how

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Best Horror Movies Streaming on HBO Max

https://ift.tt/36Q0Lpl

Editor’s Note: This post is updated monthly. Bookmark this page and come back every month to see the new horror movies on HBO Max.

Updated for October 2020

What ever would we do without horror?

So much of our daily life is built around logic and known, verifiable facts, and for some, the rest of the time must be supplemented with comforting reassurances that everything is going to be alright. Well if the last year has taught us anything… that’s not the case. Perhaps this is why horror hounds know the best way to face abstract fears is to confront them head on… and preferably with a screen in the way.

So, with Halloween around the corner, we figured it’s time to get in touch with our illogical, terrified animal brain. That’s where horror and horror movies in particular come in. Gathered here are the best horror movies on HBO Max for your scaring needs.

Alien

“In space, no one can hear you scream,” the tagline for Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi/horror epic promised. Well maybe they should have screened this thing in space because I’m sure all that audiences in theaters did was scream.

Alien has since evolved into a heady, science fiction franchise that has stretched out for decades. The original film, however, is a small-scale, terrifyingly claustrophobic thriller.

Altered States

What if you could tap into the vast swaths of the brain you never use? What if you did and didn’t like what we found? And what if it was an absolute psychedelic rush of a cinematic experience?

All three questions are answered in their own way during Ken Russell’s Altered States, a wild sci-fi thriller. In the film, William Hurt stars as a psychologist who begins experimenting with taking hallucinatory drugs while in a sensory depravation tank.

Yes, he manages to expand his consciousness; he also begins to expand his physical body as it transforms beneath his skin. Or does it? Well that’s yet another good question…

An American Werewolf in London

Arguably the definitive werewolf movie, John Landis’ 1981 horror masterpiece has the single greatest on-screen lycanthropic transformation in movie history… and that’s only one of its appeals.

Peppered with loving references to the werewolf movies that came before it and a few legitimate laughs to go along with the scares, An American Werewolf in London is remarkably knowing and self-aware, without ever flirting with parody.

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Not enough can be said about Rick Baker’s practical effects, which extend beyond the aforementioned on-screen transformation and into one of the most gruesome depictions of a werewolf attack aftermath you’re ever likely to see. A classic of the era, it still can get under the skin whenever Griffin Dunne’s mutilated corpse rises from the grave to warn his friend to “beware the moon.”

The Brood

I bet you never thought placenta could look so tasty, but when Samantha Eggar’s Nola Carveth licks her newborn clean you’ll be craving seconds within the hour. She brings feline intuition to female troubles. We get it. Having a new baby can be scary. Having a brood is terrifying. Feminine power is the most horrifying of all for male directors used to being in control.

David Cronenberg takes couples therapy one step too far in his 1979 psychological body-horror film, The Brood. When it came out critics called it reprehensible trash, but it is the writer-director’s most traditional horror story. Oliver Reed plays with mental illness like Bill Sikes played with the kids as Hal Raglan, the psychotherapist treating the ex-wife of Frank Carveth (Art Hindle). The film starts slow, unfolding its drama through cuts and bruises.

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Best Horror Movies on Netflix: Scariest Films to Stream

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Katharine Isabelle on How Ginger Snaps Explored the Horror of Womanhood

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Cronenberg unintentionally modifies the body of the Kramer vs. Kramer story in The Brood, but the murderous munchkins at the external womb of the film want a little more than undercooked French toast.

Carnival of Souls

Carnival of Souls may be the most unlikely of chillers to appear in the Criterion Collection. Hailing from the great state of Kansas and helmed by commercial director Herk Harvey, who was looking for his big break in features, there is something hand-crafted about the whole affair. There’s also something unmistakably eerie.

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The story is fairly basic campfire boilerplate, following a woman (Candace Hilligoss) who survives a car crash but is then haunted by the sound of music and visions of the ghoulish dead–beckoning her toward a decrepit carnival abandoned some years earlier–and the acting can leave something to be desired. But the dreadful dreamlike atmosphere is irresistible.

With a strong sense of fatalism and inescapable doom, the film takes an almost melodic and disinterested gait as it stalks its heroine to her inevitable end, presenting images of the walking dead that linger in the mind long after the credits roll.

The Curse of Frankenstein

Hammer is probably best remembered now for its series of Christopher Lee-starring Dracula movies. Yet its oddball Frankenstein franchise deserves recognition too. While Hammer’s efforts certainly pale in comparison to the Frankenstein movies produced by Universal Pictures in the 1930s and ’40s, the Hammer ones remain distinctly unique. Whereas the Creature was the star of the earlier films, so much so the studio kept changing the actor beneath the Jack Pierce makeup after Boris Karloff got fed up three movies in, the not-so-good doctor leads the Hammer alternatives.

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By Kayti Burt

Indeed, between bouts of playing the almost sickeningly pious Abraham Van Helsing, Peter Cushing portrayed a perverse and dastardly Victor Frankenstein at Hammer, and it all begins with The Curse of Frankenstein. It isn’t necessarily the best movie in the series, but it introduces us to Cushing’s cruel scientist, played here as less mad than malevolent.

It also features Christopher Lee in wonderfully grotesque monster makeup. This is the film where Hammer began forming an identity that would become infamous in the realm of horror.

The Conjuring 2

Making an effective, truly spooky mainstream horror film is hard enough. But The Conjuring franchise really nailed things out of the gate with a sequel that is every bit as fun and terrifying as the original.

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring 2. This time the Warrens head to Great Britain to attend to the Hodgson family, dealing with some poltergeist problems in their Enfield home. The source of the Enfield haunting’s activity contains some of the most disturbing and terrifying visuals in the entire Conjuring franchise and helped to set up a (sadly pretty bad) spinoff sequel in The Nun.

Doctor Sleep

Let’s be up front about this: Doctor Sleep is not The Shining. For some that fact will make this sequel’s existence unforgivable. Yet there is a stoic beauty and creepy despair just waiting to be experienced by those willing to accept Doctor Sleep on its own terms.

Directed by one of the genre’s modern masters, Mike Flanagan, the movie had the unenviable task of combining one of King’s most disappointing texts with the opposing sensibilities of Stanley Kubrick’s singular The Shining adaptation.

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Doctor Sleep Director Mike Flanagan on the Possibility of The Shining 3

By John Saavedra

Movies

Doctor Sleep: Rebecca Ferguson on Becoming the New Shining Villain

By John Saavedra

And yet, the result is an effective thriller about lifelong regrets and trauma personified by the ghostly specters of the Overlook Hotel. But they’re far from the only horrors here. Rebecca Ferguson is absolutely chilling as the smiling villain Rose the Hat, and the scene where she and other literal energy vampires descend upon young Jacob Tremblay is the stuff of nightmares. Genuinely, it’s a scene you won’t forget, for better or worse….

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave

Hammer Films’ fourth Dracula movie, and third to star the ever reluctant Christopher Lee, is by some fans’ account the most entertaining one. While it lacks the polish and ultimate respectability of Lee’s first outing as the vampire, Horror of Dracula (which you can read more about below), just as it is missing the invaluable Peter Cushing, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave arrived in 1968 at the crossroads of Hammer’s pulpy aesthetic. Their films had not yet devolved into exploitative shlock as they would a few years later, but the censors seemingly were throwing up their hands and allowing for the studio’s vampires to be meaner, bloodier, and sexier.

Movies

Taste the Blood of Dracula: A Hidden Hammer Films Gem

By Don Kaye

In this particular romp, Dracula has indeed risen from the grave (yes, again!) because of the good intentions of one German monsignor (Rupert Davies). The religious leader is in central Europe to save souls, but the local denizens of a village won’t go to a church caught in the shadow of Castle Dracula. So the priest exorcises the structure, oblivious that his sidekick is also accidentally dripping blood into the mouth of Dracula’s corpse down the river. Boom he’s back!

And yet, our fair Count can’t enter his home anymore. So for revenge, Dracula follows the monsignor to his house and lays eyes on the patriarch’s comely young niece (Veronica Carlson). You can probably figure out the rest.

Eraserhead

“In Heaven, everything is fine,” sings the Lady in the Radiator in Eraserhead. “You’ve got your good things, and I’ve got mine.”

You may get something short of paradise, but the insular world David Lynch created for his 1977 experimental existential horror film is a land of mundane wonders, commonplace mysteries, and extremely awkward dinner conversations. Lynch’s first feature film is surrealistic, expressionistic, and musically comic. The minor key score and jarring black and white images bring half-lives to the industrial backdrop and exquisite squalor. At its heart though, Eraserhead is poignant, sad, and ultimately relatable on a universal level.

Buffy: The Animated Series – The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Spin-Off That Never Was

By Caroline Preece

Games

How Scorn Turned the Art of H.R. Giger into a Nightmarish Horror Game World

By John Saavedra

Jack Nance’s Henry Spencer is the spiky-haired everyman. He works hard at his job, cares deeply for his deformed, mutant child, and is desperate to please his extended family. Lynch lays a comedy of manners in a rude, crude city. The film is an assault on the senses, and it might take a little while for the viewer’s brains to adjust to the images on the screen; it is a different reality, and not an entirely inviting one, but stick with it. Once you’re in with the in-laws, you’re home free. When you make it to the end, you can tell your friends you watched all of Eraserhead. When they ask you what it’s about, you can tell them you saw it.

Eyes Without a Face

“I’ve done so much wrong to perform this miracle,” Doctor Génessier (Pierre Brasseur) confesses in the 1960 horror film Eyes Without a Face. But he says it in French, making it all so much more poignant, allowing it to underscore everything director and co-writer Georges Franju did right. We feel for the respectable plastic surgeon forced to do monstrous things. But the monster behind the title character is his young daughter Christiane (Édith Scob). She spends the majority of the film behind a mask, even more featureless than the unpainted plastic Captain Kirk kid’s costume Michael Myers wore in Halloween. The first time we see her face though, the shock wears off quickly and we are more moved than terrified.

Like Val Lewton films, the horror comes from the desolate black-and-white atmosphere, shrouding the claustrophobic suspense in German Expressionism. Maurice Jarre’s score evokes a Gothic carnival as much as a mad scientist’s laboratory. After his daughter’s face is hideously disfigured in an accident, Dr. Génessier becomes obsessed with trying to restore it. We aren’t shown much, until we’re shown too much. We see his heterograft surgical procedure in real time. A woman’s face is slowly flayed from the muscle. The graphic scenes pack more of a visceral shock after all the encroaching dread.

Godzilla

As the original and by far still the best Godzilla movie ever produced, this 1954 classic (originally titled Gojira), is one of the many great Showa Era classics that the Criterion Collection and HBO Max are making readily available to American audiences. And if you want to watch one that is actually scary, look no further.

In this original uncut Japanese form, the movie’s genuine dread of nuclear devastation, as well as nightly air raids, less than 10 years since World War II ended in several mushroom clouds, is overwhelming. Tapping into the real cultural anxiety of a nation left marred by the memory of its dead, as well as the recent incident of a fishing crew being contaminated by unannounced hydrogen bomb testing at Bikini Atoll, Godzilla encapsulates terror for the atomic age in a giant lizard.

Movies

Godzilla: First 15 Showa Era Movies Ranked

By Don Kaye

Movies

Godzilla 1998: What Went Wrong With the Roland Emmerich Movie?

By Jim Knipfel

And unlike the sequels there is nothing cuddly or amusing about this original Kaiju with its scarred body and legion of tumors. This is the one Godzilla movie to play it straight, and it still plays today.

Horror of Dracula

Replacing Bela Lugosi as Dracula was not easily done in 1958. It’s still not easily done now. Which makes the fact that Christopher Lee turned Bram Stoker’s vampire into his own screen legend in Horror of Dracula all the more remarkable. Filmed in vivid color by director Terence Fisher, Horror of Dracula brought gushing bright red to the movie vampire, which up until then had been mostly relegated to black and white shadows.

Culture

The Bleeding Heart of Dracula

By David Crow

BBC/Netflix Dracula’s Behind-the-Scenes Set Secrets

By Louisa Mellor

With its penchant for gore and heaving bosoms, Horror of Dracula set the template for what became Hammer Film Productions’ singular brand of horror iconography, but it’s also done rather tastefully the first time out here, not least of all because of Lee bring this aggressively cold-blooded version of Stoker’s monster to life. It’s all business with this guy.

Conversely, Abraham Van Helsing was never more dashing than when played by Peter Cushing in this movie. The film turned both into genre stars, and paved the way for a career of doing this dance time and again.

The Invisible Man

After years of false starts and failed attempts at resurrecting the classic Universal Monsters, Universal Pictures finally figured out how to make it work: They called Blumhouse Productions.

Yep, Jason Blum’s home for micro-budgeted modern horror worked wonders alongside writer-director Leigh Whannell in updating the classic 1933 James Whale movie, and the H.G. Wells novel on which it is based, for the 21st century.

Movies

How Jason Blum Changed Horror Movies

By Rosie Fletcher

Movies

How The Invisible Man Channels the Original Tale

By Don Kaye

Turning the story of a man who masters invisibility into a horrific experience told from the vantage of the woman trying to escape his toxic violence, The Invisible Man becomes a disquieting allegory for the #MeToo era. It also is a devastating showcase for Elisabeth Moss who is compelling as Cecilia, the abused and gaslighted woman that barely found the will to escape, yet will now have to discover more strength since everyone around her shrugs off the idea of her dead ex coming back as an invisible man…

Lifeforce

Most assuredly a horror movie for a very acquired taste, there are few who would call Tobe Hooper’s career-destroying Lifeforce a good movie. There probably aren’t even many who would call it a fun movie. But for those with a singular taste for batshit pulp run amok, Lifeforce needs to be seen to be believed: Naked French vampire girls from outer space! Hordes of extras as zombies marauding through downtown London! Lush Henry Mancini music over special effects way outside of Cannon Films’ budget!!! Patrick Stewart as an authority figure possessed by said naked French space vampire, trying to seduce an astronaut via makeout sessions?!

Movies

Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce: Space Vampires, Comets, and Nudity

By Ryan Lambie

Movies

The Mummy and Lifeforce: The Strange Parallels

By Ryan Lambie

… What is this movie? Why does it exist? We don’t know, but we’re probably more glad it does than the people who made it.

Magic

As much a psychological case study as as a traditional horror movie, for those who like their terror rooted in humanity, Magic may be the creepiest iteration of the “killer doll” subgenre since this is about the man who thinks his dummy is alive. Starring Anthony Hopkins before he was Hannibal, or had a “Sir” in front of his name, Magic is the brain child of William Goldman, who adapted his own novel into this movie before he’d go on to do the same for The Princess Bride (as well as adapt Stephen King’s Misery), but after he’d already written Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Marathon Man.

In the film, Hopkins stars as Corky, a down on his luck ventriloquist who tries to get his life together by tracking down his high school sweetheart (Ann-Margret). She’ll soon probably wish he didn’t bother once she realizes Corky believes his ventriloquist dummy Fats really is magic… and is determined to get him to act on the most heinous of impulses.

The Most Dangerous Game

Before King Kong, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack released The Most Dangerous Game, one of the all-time great pulp movies, based on a short story by Richard Connell. This classic has influenced everything from Predator to The Running Man, The Hunger Games to Ready or Not.

It’s the story of a big game hunter who shipwrecks on a remote island with an eccentric Russian Count who escaped the Bolshevik Revolution (Leslie Banks). The wayward noble now drinks, studies, and charms his apparently frequent array of unannounced guests, including two other survivors from a previous (suspicious) wreck. The film quickly boils down to a mad rich man determined to hunt his guests as prey across the island for the ultimate thrill.

Movies

The Most Dangerous Game That Never Ends

By David Crow

Culture

Why King Kong Can Never Escape His Past

By David Crow

Man hunting man, man lusting after woman in a queasy pre-Code fashion, this is a primal throwback to adventure yarns of the 19th century, which were still relatively recent in 1932. Shot simultaneously with King Kong, this is 63 brisk minutes of excitement, dread, and delicious overacting. Let the games begin.

Night of the Living Dead

“They’re coming to get you, Barbara!”

The zombie movie that more or less invented our modern understanding of what a zombie movie is, there is little new that can be said about George A. Romero’s original guts and brains classic, Night of the Living Dead. Shot in black and white and on almost no budget, the film reimagined zombies as a horde of ravenous flesh-eaters, as opposed to a lowly servant of the damned and enchanted.

Movies

Night of the Living Dead: The Many Sequels, Remakes, and Spinoffs

By Alex Carter

Games

The George Romero Resident Evil Movie You Never Saw

By David Crow

Still visually striking in black and white, perhaps the key reason to go back to the zombie movie that started it all is due to how tragically potent its central conflict from 1968 remains: When strangers are forced to join forces and barricade in a farmhouse to survive a zombie invasion, the wealthy white businessman is constantly at odds with the young Black man in the group, to the point of drawing weapons…

Ready or Not

The surprise horror joy of 2019, Ready or Not was a wicked breath of fresh air from the creative team Radio Silence. With a star-making lead turn by Samara Weaving, the movie is essentially a reworking of The Most Dangerous Game where a bride is being hunted by her groom’s entire wedding party on the night of their nuptials.

It’s a nutty premise that has a delicious (and broad) satirical subtext about the indulgences and eccentricities of the rich, as the would-be extended family of Grace (Weaving) is only pursuing her because they’re convinced a grandfather made a deal with the Devil for their wealth–and to keep it they must step on those beneath them every generation. Well step, shoot, stab, and ritualistically sacrifice in this cruelest game of hide and seek ever. Come for the gonzo high-concept and stay for the supremely satisfying ending.

Sisters

One of the scariest things about the 1972 psychological thriller Sisters is the subliminal sounds of bones creaking and muscles readjusting during the slasher scenes. Margot Kidder plays both title characters: conjoined twins, French Canadian model Danielle Breton and asylum-committed Dominique Blanchion, who had been surgically separated. Director Brian De Palma puts the movie together like a feature-long presentation of the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. The camera lingers over bodies, bloodied or pristine, mobile or prone, with fetishistic glee before instilling the crime scenes in the mind’s eye. He allows longtime Hitchcock composer Bernard Herrmann to assault the ear.

Movies

Ready or Not Ending Explained

By David Crow

Movies

Best Horror Movies on Amazon Prime Right Now

By Alec Bojalad and 3 others

De Palma was inspired by a photograph of Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapova, Russian conjoined twins with seemingly polarized temperaments. There may be no deeper bond than blood, which the film has plenty of, but the real alter ego comes from splitscreen compositions and an outside intruder. The voyeuristic delight culminates in a surgical dream sequence with freaks, geeks, a giant, and dwarves. Nothing is as it seems and an out-of-order telephone is a triggering reminder.

Jordan Peele’s debut feature Get Out was a near instant horror classic so anticipation was high for his follow-up. Thanks to an excellent script, Peele’s deep appreciation of pop culture, and some stellar performances, Us mostly lived up to the hype.

Movies

Us Ending Explained

By David Crow

Movies

Us: How Jeremiah 11:11 Fits in Jordan Peele Movie

By Rosie Fletcher

The film tells the story of the Wilson family from Santa Cruz. After a seemingly normal trip to a summer home and the beach, Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o), Gabe (Winston Duke) and their two kids are confronted by their own doppelgangers, are weird, barely verbal, and wearing red. But then Adelaide is not terribly surprised given her own personal childhood traumas. And that’s only the beginning of the horror at play. Fittingly, Us feels like a feature length Twilight Zone concept done right.

Vampyr

A nigh silent picture, Vampyr came at a point of transition for its director Carl Th. Dreyer. The Danish filmmaker, who often worked in Germany and France at this time, was making only his second “talkie” when he mounted this vampire opus. That might be why the movie is largely absent of dialogue. The plot, which focuses on a young man journeying to a village that is under the thrall of a vampire, owes much to Bram Stoker’s Dracula as well as F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu from some years earlier.

Yet there horror fans should seek Vampyr out, if for no other reason than the stunning visuals and cinematography. Alternating between German Expressionist influences in its use to shadows to unsettling images crafted in naturalistic light, such as a boatman carrying an ominous scythe, this a a classic of mood and atmosphere. Better still is when they combine, such as when the scythe comes back to bedevil a woman sleeping, trapping us all in her nightmare. Even if its narrative has been told better, before and after, there’s a reason this movie’s iconography lingers nearly a century later.

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narcisbolgor-blog · 6 years

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3 Reasons ‘Sweating For The Wedding’ Is The Worst Idea Ever Betches

If there are two kinds of people who have ruined the internet, it’s those who post about their workout routines, and those who constantly flaunt their engagements. There’s nothing that makes me smash the “unfollow” button like an unnecessary gym selfie or a hand unnaturally posed to show off an engagement rock. When you combine these together, you get the absolute worst person to follow: a bride-to-be who is sweating for the wedding.

Like, are these people even just trying to get skinny? Or are they just part of a months-long campaign to remind the world that they exercise and convinced someone to agree to spend the rest of their life with them? Anyway, sweating for the wedding is actually the worst idea ever, and here are a few reasons why. (Besides the fact that your fiancé is probably crushing craft beers and getting a head start on his dad bod while you’re sweating your self-tanner off at hot yoga.)

Sidenote: I would just like to point out that “sweating for the wedding” is a slant rhyme, and only rappers can really pull those off. It does not look cute on the faux gold foil tank top you bought from Etsy or Charming Charlie, and it certainly does not need to be Instagrammed. Okay, here we go.

You Are Literally Paying To Have Your Dress Altered

In Bride Wars, there’s a line where Anne Hathaway’s character gets told, “You don’t alter a Vera to fit you, you alter yourself to fit Vera.” I mean, yeah, this is kind of funny in a romantic comedy, but it’s bullsh*t when applied to real life.

Brides usually have about three dress fittings to make sure that their wedding gowns are perfectly altered to their body. There are literally people whose entire job is dedicated to helping you find a dress that you will look amazing in. Sure, I’ve never needed to fit into a wedding dress, so I may be naive. But I have had a crop top and denim shorts outfit that I really wanted to wear to a Wiz Khalifa concert once, and it didn’t look good, so I wore something else. Feels like a pretty solvable problem, no?

Restricting Your Alcohol Intake Could Ruin Your Wedding

Again, I have never been married, but I have completed a cycle of the Whole30 diet. And do you know what it taught me? That I effing love to eat grains, and that I never want to go an entire month without drinking alcohol ever again. I practically almost died the first time I drank after eating leaves and raw fish for a month, and if you take these measures to prep for your wedding, you’ll probably black out and ruin the entire night right after the Champagne toast. I personally believe that you should dedicate the weeks leading up to your wedding to building your tolerance so you don’t embarrass yourself. Puking at your own party is a lot worse than having a flabby armpit over your strapless gown.

Even if you’re not really concerned about ruining your alcohol tolerance, think about what’s going to happen to your delicate stomach when you try cake for the first time in months at your reception.

It’s Not Even A Good Way To Get Fit

I’m not a fitness expert, but basically every time one of them talks about debunking exercise myths, they mention the fact that fitness scams and quick ways to lose weight don’t work. Shocking, right? Who would have thought that a juice cleanse or cellulite cream would be anything less than effective? It’s fine to want to make changes to your lifestyle in order to improve your health and appearance, but unless you’re a beauty blogger making bank off a waist trainer, it’s counterproductive to try quick fixes.

If you’re serious about making a change, it should be a realistic lifestyle adjustment that not only makes you feel confident wearing a crop top to spin class, but makes you feel better overall, too. As a general rule of thumb, remember this: if a Kardashian is getting paid to promote it, it’s probably not legit.

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Original Article : HERE ; This post was curated & posted using : RealSpecific

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morganbelarus · 6 years

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3 Reasons ‘Sweating For The Wedding’ Is The Worst Idea Ever Betches

You Are Literally Paying To Have Your Dress Altered

Restricting Your Alcohol Intake Could Ruin Your Wedding

It’s Not Even A Good Way To Get Fit

Images: Giphy (3)

Original Article : HERE ; This post was curated & posted using : RealSpecific

=> *********************************************** Article Source Here: 3 Reasons ‘Sweating For The Wedding’ Is The Worst Idea Ever Betches ************************************ =>

3 Reasons ‘Sweating For The Wedding’ Is The Worst Idea Ever Betches was originally posted by 16 MP Just news

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murkymuse · 7 years

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I did not plan to ever write for the YOI fandom but I got this idea and next thing I knew I was writing it. Also I don’t know how realistic this is because, while I’ve been researching, my knowledge of figure skating is limited. I’m hoping I hit the right range of impressive af but not completely unbelievable in terms of the OC’s initial abilities.

Title: Having The Faith To Soar

Fandom: Yuri On Ice

Ships: Gen

Warning: child neglect and minor character death

AO3

Chapter One - The Ice Tiger Of Russian Meets A Stray Kitten

“She’s pretty good. I always hate running her off the ice.”

“She’s terrible,” Yuri snapped as she fumbled the combination. However, the girl quickly pushed herself up and continued. “Who the hell is coaching her?”

“No one. She’s self-taught.”

During one of the worst weeks of Yuri Plisetsky’s nineteen years, he stumbles across an amateur figure skater and inadvertently becomes her mentor of sorts.

For Vera Kotova, who has been dreaming of figure skating since she was eight but never been able to scrounge up the money for proper lessons, it’s like an answered prayer.

(Or: local grumpy cat takes on a stray kitten apprentice)

Vera was eight years old when her life changed.

The house was unsettlingly quiet. She turned on some music – a song from some American Broadway that her father had always loved – to chase away the silence as she fixed a bowl of cereal. With food made, she then climbed on the cough and flipped through channels in search of cartoons. However, the sight of a sparkling outfit suddenly caused her to pause.

“Here’s Russia’s next generation, Yuri Plisetsky. He is skating ‘On Love: Agape’,” The tv announced.

Then the skater glided and twirled and soared like he was born to fly across the ice. Vera’s heart pounded, and her eyes were glued to the screen. The commentators seemed excited but all she could truly hear was the music. A longing bloomed in her chest.

Vera wanted that. She wanted to do that.

When the routine ended, Vera set her untouched cereal on the coffee table and then skittered down the hall. She wasn’t allowed to use her mother’s laptop but it’s not like her mother was there to stop her.

Vera watched the rest of the skaters while she googled and prayed that there was an ice rink nearby.

A Few Years Later

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

The condolences were repeated again and again. Yuri was sick and tired of hearing them. He’d cussed out Viktor and Katsudon when they’d called to check on him and said that dreaded sentence. Yuri was very tempted to repeat that – the offensive words on the tip of his tongue – but he swallowed back the bitterness when Lilia put a hand on his shoulder.

Funerals were awful.

It’s a small funeral; just the family, grandpa’s friends and neighbors, Yakov, and Lilia. As soon as they began tossing dirt into the grave, Yuri turned and stormed away. He ignored the burning in his eyes and how his vision was starting to blur.

“Yuri,” Yakov said as they caught up to him, “Take a few more days off.”

He whipped his head to glare at his coach in disbelief. “What?!”

“If you get on the ice now, you’re going to hurt yourself.”

Yuri huffed. He wanted to skate. He wanted to pour all his grief and anger into the ice until he couldn’t feel anymore.

Yakov stared at him knowingly. “I’m not letting you on the ice with that mindset.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to fly up?” That was the first thing Otabek asked when they skyped later that night, after the train ride back to St. Petersburg.

Yuri’s frown deepened. “…Focus on training. We’ll see each other soon enough.”

Otabek nodded but worry still creased his face. If anyone else was giving him an expression like that, Yuri would be tempted to throw something at them. Since it was Otabek and since Yuri couldn’t throw anything all the way to Almaty, he let it go.

Yuri switched topics after that and was silently grateful that Otabek went along with it. Talking late into the night about movies and the plan to visit the Beijing Zoo during the Cup of China helped him forget, if only for a few hours.

Yuri woke up the next morning before dawn. Pure habit had him nudging his cat over so he can climb out of bed. It wasn’t until he was brushing his teeth that he remembered Yakov had barred him from skating for the next few days.

Yuri muttered a string of curses at that.

He got ready anyway to go on a jog around the city. The way everyone was going about their morning business – ignorant that there was now a gaping hole in his life – only pissed Yuri off. He glowered at anyone who had the misfortune of glancing at him.

By the time lunch rolled around, Yuri found the idea of staying in the city sickening. He ate a sandwich mechanically – without tasting it – and then grabbed his keys.

On his first trip to Almaty, during the off season after his senior debut, he had convinced Otabek to teach him how to drive a motorcycle. He’d eventually bought his own as well.

Yuri hopped onto his bike and revved it. Then he drove away from St. Petersburg. If Yakov wouldn’t let him pour his grief onto the ice, then dammit he was going to pour it into driving far far away.

It’s only when he needed to fill up the gas tank that Yuri stopped. He pulled into some rundown gas station in a small town of somewhere hours west of St. Petersburg. The sun was starting to dip below the horizon, coloring the sky in red and purple. It’s picturesque enough that Yuri briefly considered taking a photo.

He didn’t.

Yuri was about to get back on his motorbike when he noticed the sign for an ice rink just down the road. He was slightly surprised a town like this even had an ice rink. While he had no intention to skate, like a magnetic pull, he couldn’t help but drive over to it.

Looking at it from the outside, it wasn’t very impressive. He parked his bike and went up to the entrance, skimming over the times on the door. Apparently the rink would close in about fifteen minutes. Yuri walked in anyway.

The inside wasn’t very impressive either. Not only was the building old but all the equipment was obviously out of date. Small town, Yuri reminded himself. The manager gave him an odd look from his place behind the counter. Yuri ducked his head, hiding his face beneath his coat hood.

“We’re closing soon.”

“I won’t stick around long”, he replied before marching straight toward the rink.

There was only one person on the ice. The skater was a young girl with earbuds in her ears and sweaty from exertion. She rose a slender arm to the sky as if reaching for something grander.

Yuri stopped dead in his tracks. He knew that pose. He recognized the choreography that she slid into. It was his senior debut short program, On Love: Agape. She shifted her momentum in time with the musical cues that Yuri couldn’t hear but still knew by heart and muscle memory even years later. The girl glided across the ice as light as a feather and yet there was a heavy weight to her movements. It was as if her skating was a prayer laid bare on the ice.

(In the back of his mind, Yuri thought of the way Katsudon drew people in so that they couldn’t look away.)

Yuri frowned. Despite that, the girl’s technical skills were riddled with mistakes. She barely managed the first jump, a single axel in place of his triple.

The manager walked up beside him. “She’s pretty good. I always hate running her off.”

“She’s terrible,” Yuri snapped as she fumbled the combination. However, the girl quickly pushed herself up and continued. “Who the hell is coaching her?”

“No one. She’s self-taught.”

Something twitched inside Yuri. She was butchering a scaled down version of his program but for her to be good enough to even attempt it without coaching…

Yuri’s frown deepened as he watched her struggle through the program, absentmindedly noting all her faults. Finally she entered the ending pose, clasped hands raised to the heavens.

The manager glanced at his watch and then yelled, “Vera! It’s about closing time!”

The girl dropped her arms and turned to look at them with a pout. She then glided over and yanked her earbuds from her ears. She eyed Yuri warily as she slumped onto the nearest bench and began unlacing her rental skates.

“Brat,” Yuri said, “What’s this I hear about you not having a coach?”

She glanced back up at him and stared intently. Yuri wasn’t surprised when her hazel eyes went wide in recognition a split second later. She yelped and leaped into the air like a startled cat.

Yuri looked down at her and managed to hold back a laugh. The girl pinched her cheek.

“Ouch. Okay, not dreaming.” She then looked over to the manager. “Why is Yuri Plisetsky here?”

The manager’s jaw dropped as he spun to Yuri. “Yuri Plisetsky?!”

“I was passing through and happened to stop here,” Yuri answered with a shrug, “I saw you skating.”

The girl’s face went bright red, and she suddenly found the floor very interesting.

Yuri then listed off every single mistake she made: the barely savaged landing of her single axel and the other jumps she’d messed up, her bad posture during the basic spin she did, and the missteps during the step sequence.

She stared back up at him wide-eyed. Water pooled in the corner of her eyes.

Yuri paused mid-sentence. Shit, Lilia would murder him if she heard he’d made a little kid that was clearly a fan of his cry!

The girl rubbed her face and scrambled up to dart away. Yuri was about to call out to try to salvage the situation; offer a selfie or autograph or both. However, the girl didn’t go far. She stopped in front a beaten and battered school bag to pull out a notebook and pen.

Then she came back.

“Um, can you repeat that please? I want to take notes…” She asked, looking at him in a way that reminded Yuri of how his cat would just stare when she wanted something.

“I will, but first I want to know why you don’t have a coach?”

A look of sad resignation passed across her face. “…Can’t afford one.”

Yuri remembered what it was like to be unable to afford things he wanted. He’d originally only gotten lessons because an old friend of his mother’s had agreed to coach him at a discount. Up until he won his first competition at least.

Eventually he’d been able to support his family and career through prize money and sponsorships but if he didn’t have that initial connection… He probably wouldn’t be where he was now.

“Can you come back here tomorrow?” Yuri asked.

She frowned, thinking for a moment, before nodding.

“Good. If it’s okay with your parents, I’m going to give you a private lesson.”

For the briefest of seconds a dark cloud covered her eyes, but then she lit up like a Christmas tree.

Yuri found a cheap motel nearby. The second he shut the door to the room, he pulled out his phone to call Yakov. His coach answered on the second ring.

“Yuri?”

“I need you to come to-” He paused and had to look up the name of the town before relaying it.

Yakov let out a long, tired sign. “Please tell me you didn’t do anything stupid?”

“What? Do you think I’m in jail?”

“…..”

“I’m not!” He shouted before taking a deep breath. “Look, I found this kid with potential but no coach. I want you to come watch her skating and see what you think.”

After getting back to the house, Vera had jumped and danced around until she’d finally burned enough excited energy to fall asleep on the couch.

When she woke up the next morning to the beeping of her alarm, the lights were still on. The house was silent and empty. Vera frowned. Her mother hadn’t come home again.

Vera pushed herself off the couch to get breakfast and then get ready for the day. The promised skating lesson later on put a hurried edge into her step. It was still hard to believe that the afternoon before had been real! THE Yuri Plisetsky had offered to spend a few hours teaching her!

…There had to be a catch, right? World famous figure skaters just didn’t teach random kids for an afternoon, right?

Vera decided that she didn’t care. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up. But first she had to get through the school day.

Yuri was waiting at the ice rink when the girl, Vera, bounded inside. She stopped short about a meter in front of him, bouncing on her heels and staring at him.

Fuck. What had he been thinking? Yuri wasn’t a coach; he had no idea how to teach figure skating. He could give tips to other advanced skaters but this was different…

She continued to stare with those big kitty-cat eyes, waiting for him to say something.

Screw it, Yuri thought with a huff, it was just for an afternoon.

“Go get your skates on,” he said.

She nodded and hurried to comply. Soon enough Vera was on the ice, while Yuri hung back and gave her instructions. Not to keep Yakov’s order to stay off the ice but because he didn’t have his skates and really didn’t want to use old, smelly rentals.

“Remember what I said about your posture. Fix it.”

“Hold your arms closer. There, like that.”

“Lift your leg higher before going into the jump.”

Vera listened to him like she was lost in a burning desert and he was offering water. Now that she had explanations for what she was doing wrong, it was obvious how much focus she was putting in to fix the problems. Sweat beaded for forehead; and, her muscles were straining from the effort.

“Take a breather,” Yuri said after a few more minutes.

Vera turned to him with an expression that was oddly familiar. “I’m not tired yet. I can keep going.”

Yuri picked up a water bottle and held it over the rink wall toward her.

“You need to stay hydrated.”

She pouted but skated over and took the bottle from him.

“Have you ever thought about competing?”

Vera nearly dropped the water bottle at the question. She then took a long drink before forcefully setting it on the side of the rink.

“I can’t afford it.”

Yuri frowned. “But if you could, is that something you would want?”

Vera glanced down at her feet as her ears turned red. Her voice was a whisper, “I just…want to skate like you do…”

Yuri knew he had become an inspiration and aspiration for kids the world over, but how the hell was he supposed to reply to that?

He was saved from coming up with an answer when the door was pushed open, signaling Yakov’s arrival. He gave Yuri a stern glare before turning his attention Vera. She looked at him hesitantly, almost like she hadn’t decided if he was a threat or not.

“This is my coach, Yakov.”

“...I know.”

“And this is Vera Kotova.”

Yakov glanced between them and then raised an eyebrow. “Let’s see it then.”

“Ready to run through the whole thing?” Yuri asked.

Vera nodded and then glided toward the center of the rink. Yuri moved over to where his phone was plugged into a speaker and hit play. The moment the music began to drift across the rink, Yakov recognized it.

“This is-!”

“Watch.”

Yuri had been a little worried that skating in front of him and his coach would make Vera too nervous to do well. However, once she began to skate, it was as if her world had fallen away to nothing but the ice and the song.

A few hours’ worth of guidance would never be enough to iron out the bad habits she’d unintentionally formed. That would take months of hard work under the tutelage of a good coach. However, it was enough for her to smoothly land the first jump. Her one foot spin was just a little tighter too.

Next up was the combination. Her momentum as she leapt into the salchow had a note of elegance. However, she slipped the landing of toe-loop. Her hand touched the ice but she didn’t let it faze her and continued without missing a beat. Her next jump, another toe-loop, was flawless and led seamlessly into the step sequence. While it was a simplified version, her feet moved with the grace of someone who poured their entire being into each motion.

“You said that she’s self-taught?” Yakov asked as if he couldn’t quite believe it.

“Unless you count the tips I’ve given her the past hour or so.”

“Hmm.”

Vera shifted into the last spin. It was a little sloppy; the exhaustion catching up to her. Then finally she reached for the sky as if pleading to the heavens.

There was a moment of silence before Vera let her arms drop and turned to them, red faced and panting for breath. This time Yuri held back his critique (for now) and settled for an approving nod. She beamed as she skated back over to them.

“Are you sure you never took lessons?” Yakov commented.

Vera shook her head. “This rink used to have a coach but I could never afford lessons and then he moved…”

“Are you’re parents here? We might be able to work something out.”

“Really?!” Her excitement then faded into a grimace. “I can call my mom.”

Not bothering to remove her skates, Vera thumped over to her bag and pulled out a cell phone from the side pocket. She fidgeted as the other line rang. Eventually she signed as she looked back at them.

“Sorry, it went to voicemail.” She then turned away from them to speak into the phone. “Um, mom, could you come down to the ice rink before it closes? There’s, ah, a coach here that wants to talk to you. Please?”

Vera hung up and turned back around with a smiled that seemed forced. “She’s probably covering an extra shift for someone at her work.”

“Alright, we might as well go over your mistakes while we wait,” Yakov announced, “Yuri, get on the ice but no quads.”

“I don’t have my skates,” he flatly replied.

“They’re in my car.”

So while they waited, Yuri went through his practice. Part the way through Vera called out asking for him to do a triple toe-loop. On a whim, Yuri did the jump. Vera then called out another and another.

Until finally she asked, “Can I try a double?”

Yakov sighed the sigh of a coach whose students rarely listened to him. “All athletes need to understand their limits and know when to stop before they hurt themselves.”

“Why are you looking at me”, Yuri demanded.

Yakov spoke again to Vera, “You need to build on your basics more first.”

She huffed but reluctantly nodded.

It was almost closing time before the manager brought in Vera’s mother. She had a too large coat over a waitress uniform; and, the same shade of not quite blond but not quite brunette hair as her daughter. She glanced around the rink with a deepening frown before walking toward them.

“Vera! Why did you call me at work over this?” She sounded annoyed. Like her daughter’s hopes and dreams were something trivial that should be cast aside.

Yuri hadn’t been oblivious to all the sad and dark expressions that had passed over Vera’s face whenever her parents were mentioned. Even now she wore a mask of blank resignation, as if she’d been fully expecting her mother’s reaction.

Did the kid have anyone who cared enough to support her? Something inside Yuri snapped at that thought. He growled and stomped his foot down.

“Your daughter has the talent and drive to become a world class figure skater! Like hell will I let some old hag let that type of potential go to waste in some stupid backwater town!”

“Yuri!”

Yuri whipped his head around to glare at his coach.

“Let me talk to Mrs. Kotova, privately,” Yakov ordered.

As his coach led the rather stunned woman off, Yuri felt a tug on his coat. He glanced down to meet Vera’s hopeful eyes.

“Did you really mean that?”

Yuri smirked. “I don’t spend time giving advice to just anyone.”

“When I told you to take a few days off,” Yakov said later, after most the details had been figured out, “I never imagined you’d find a stray to adopt.”

“Shut up.”

Vera was eleven years old when her life changed again.

#Murky writes stuff #yuri on ice #yuri plisetsky #yoi fanfic

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