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gottaluvharry · 10 months

Text

sleepless months

carlos sainz jr x mclaren worker reader

summary: you had always felt like more than a friend to carlos, and when he noticed you’re being overworked he steps in to help

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Carlos had always loved you. Ever since you were 2 young hellions, he would pull your curly locks to get a kick out of you, and when you would cry he would feel bad instantly. Same is true today; when he goes on and on about how ferrari is better just to see you get angry and defend McLaren. There was no tension between you because of your competing teams, it almost seemed as if nothing could get between you two- but in your eyes there was one small thing that could ruin things. The fact that you had always felt more towards Carlos was known by many except the man himself. You didn’t want to voice your feelings, just in case they aren’t reciprocated. You would be lost without Carlos, there was no way you could risk your lifelong friendship; he meant too much to you and knew you too well. Thats exactly how he found himself curled up with you asleep in his arms.

He had been starting to notice you at the track way more than usual. It seemed as though you always arrived before him, and always left way after him. When Lando and Carlos shared a podium, the entirety of both teams went to a club to party. The entirety of both teams minus you. He was starting to see less and less of you. You went from stopping in the paddock to chat with him, to you buzzing by him with hundreds of papers in your hands. You used to ask him to coffee after work or to hang out with him and his driver friends on friday nights during weekends, but now you were nowhere to be seen- except for work.

On this specific day, it was a rainy Thursday evening at Silverstone. All of the driver’s media duties had been carried out, and they were all on their way back to their houses to prepare for the upcoming race. While Carlos was on his way out, he couldn’t help but notice that you were still bustling about in the McLaren part of the paddock- always with a seemingly never ending stack of papers balanced in your hands.

“y/n!” Carlos called out from outside the building, trying to get your attention. You were too tired and too worked up to hear him as you kept scurrying about the room. As he entered through the McLaren doors he could tell in the way you were shaking that something was wrong. “y/n?” he repeated, hoping for a reaction this time. You spun around at the sound of another persons voice, you thought everyone had already left. “C-carlos? what are you doing here?” you questioned, your grip on your papers slowly slipping. “I got here a bit late so i had to stay longer to finish up a few things and on my way out i saw you were still here. Why are you still here?” he questioned back. “I have more work to do” you simply replied, your grip returning to your papers as you turned around to continue your current task.

Carlos knew from years of friendship that something was wrong. He also knew that something had been wrong for months. The pieces in his mind suddenly clicked- you joined the team at McLaren 3 months ago, you were always here longer than anyone else, you always had so many papers in your hands, and you always seemed to be busy. “y/n, how long have you been working today?” he asked, trying to seem nonchalant. “I don’t know, Carlos” you replied with a sigh, still focussed on your task. “Probably since, like, 6 maybe?”. He gaped at you when his eyes returned from his watch “y/n, you do realize it’s 9:30 at night, right?” Your eyes went wide as you looked down at your own watch, how had it gotten that late so fast?

“Oh my god” you mumbled, more to yourself but Carlos still heard. “Oh my god. It’s almost 10 and I still have so much to do. Oh my god, what am I going to do?” you set your papers down on the nearest table so you could hang your head in your hands. As Carlos watched the girl he had always loved and tried to protect fall apart right in front of him, there was nothing he could do to stop himself from pulling you into a warm embrace. “Carino (dear) what’s wrong?” he asked softly as you leaned into his warm touch. “I just, I still have so much to do and the day is almost over. H-he’s going to fire me if i d-don’t meet his expectations. I’m just n-not trying h-hard enough” you said, trying to choke back your emotions. Much to your dismay, Carlis pulled back from the hug and took a hold on each of your shoulders. “y/n” he started. “listen to me, you are trying hard enough. you are trying harder than anyone else here. I see how you are the first to arrive and the last to leave. I see how you are always spending your free time doing work, okay? I see you” he said, looking down so that his large puppy dog eyes met your sad watery ones. All you could do was nod your head and wipe your eyes, trying your hardest to keep yourself together. “How much sleep did you get last night bebé (baby)? You look tired” he said, pulling back a strand of lose hair and tucking it behind your ear. “I don’t know, barely any” you replied, embarrassed at your lack of self care. “When was the last time you got a full 8 hours of sleep?” he asked you, concern hidden in his voice. With a sigh, you replied “not since i started this job probably”

Without another word, Carlos picked you up. You wrapped your legs around his waist and snaked your arms around his neck out of instinct. “Carlos, where are you taking me?” you asked, too tired to put up a fight. “Somewhere where you can finally get a full nights sleep” he simply stated. As he carried you, you eyes slowly drifted shut and your head leaned into the space between his neck and collarbone. Carlos smiled at the feeling of you nuzzling against him, happy to have his girl finally calm. He carried you to his car and put you in the passengers seat, making sure to reach across you to buckle you in before going to the drivers side of the car. As he drove you towards the 5 star hotel he was staying at, he smiled and the sound of your soft breathing. When Carlos pulled the car up to the valet, he went around to unbuckle you and pick you up bridle style. Groggily, you wrapped your arms around his neck for the second time that night and leaned into his chest. The next time you opened your eyes you were inside of a luxurious hotel room, so it surely wasn’t yours. “Carlos, where are we?” you asked, your voice scratchy from your previous state of sleep. “My hotel room, do you want different clothes to sleep in?” he asked. As you looked down, you realized that your jeans were probably the last thing you would want to sleep in. With a nod of your head, Carlos turned to his suitcase to pull out a pair of sweatpants and a big shirt. “Arms up” he said when he made his way back to where you were sitting on the bed. Following his instructions, you lifted your arms up so he could peel your McLaren work shirt off your head to replace it with one of his many black t shirts. While they are usually form fitting on his strong chest, it is extremely lose on yours, and almost goes down to your knees. “Do you want me to put these on you, or do you want to do it yourself?” he asks, holding up the pair of grey sweatpants. “You” you mumbled, unable to keep your eyes open. He grabbed your hands and lightly pulled you up. You used him as a beam to lean on while he carefully unbuttoned your pants and pulled your jeans down. While he would normally jump at the idea of undressing you and spending the night with you, this was not the time for him to get excited- and he knew that. This was about him taking care of you, and he didn’t see it in a sexual way at all. He hoped you knew that he wouldn’t take advantage of you in this state, and you did know that. As he slid his larger sweatpants onto your smaller legs you smiled at the idea of him taking care of you. He tied the waistband tight enough so that they wouldn’t fall down, but the band of your underwear still peaked out until he dropped your shirt so it cascaded down until your mid thighs. Carlos led you to the bed and pulled back the covers for you, tucking you into the comfiest bed you’d ever felt. Your senses seemed to quicken though as you saw him turn from you and start walking. “Wait” you said sitting up. “You’re leaving?”

Carlos smiled at the sight in front of him. His beautiful girl sitting wrapped up in the covers of his hotel bed, wearing his clothes and asking you to stay. “No carino, i’m just going to get myself a change of clothes” he smiled. Your cheeks heated as you laid back down. All you could do was nod your head and try your best to stay awake until Carlos got into bed. When he did, he instantly pulled you to him as if you two were magnets. You snuggled into his neck and he wrapped his large arms around you, using his body as the comfiest blanket you’d ever felt. You hummed happily as you put one leg in between his and moved impossibly deeper into his embrace. One of his hands moved up to stroke your hair as he whispered sweet nothings to you about how much you mean to him and how important you are.

That night, as you were enclosed in Carlos’ arms and entangled with his body, you got the best nights sleep of your life.

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i am clearly so deprived of affection 😶

just a reminder that my inbox is open! if there’s anything specific you’d like to see for any other driver (or anyone really) feel free to suggest!

#imagine #fluff #scenarios #carlos sainz #f1 fandom #carlos sainz jr #carlos sainz x you #carlos sainz x female reader #carlos sainz x y/n #formula 1 #formula one #formula 1 imagine #formula one imagine #f1 fic #cs55 #cs55 x reader #ferrari #ferrari boys

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onboardsorasora · 10 months

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Absolutely obsessed with ur tennis AU. Cannot wait for more instalments.

🥺🥺 omg hi! I cherish every ask I get about this au (honestly because I don't expect them) incidentally I wrote this yesterday during the Ladies' Finals.

Part 7 | Part 9

Pt 8 (how have we gotten here already?!)

Daniel wiped the sweat off of his brow as he cycled, in an attempt to cool down his body. He made a face when he felt the grit of clay still on his palm from when he had fallen onto his back in relief of his success.

He'd made it to the semis, by the skin of his ballsack. His opponent had a lot of unforced errors in the last few sets, mistakes he made that gifted Daniel with the points needed to gain advantages.

He felt Michael clapping him on the back, no doubt breathing a sigh of relief that they made it through.

"That was a fuckin' close one." Daniel greeted.

"But you made it. We live to fight again." Micheal, ever the optimistic one.

"C'mon, let's get you through media." Blake chimed, looking up from his phone to smile.

Daniel nodded blearily, exhausted. The match has gone on forever, they had been fairly evenly matched. His opponent tended to have more bad days than good and it was unfortunate for Daniel that today was one of his good ones. They made a charismatic pair though, so he knew at the very least, they gave the world a show.

Clambering off the bike, he accepted a cool towel from Micheal and dragged it down his face and neck in appreciation. He traded his sweaty match worn shirt (designed to look like one of his favourite party shirts) for a dry version of the same and the three men followed a volunteer down the maze of hallways to meet the media.

Sitting behind the desk of a thousand microphones, Daniel drank some of his electrolyte drink from a sponsor approved bottle and smiled winningly at the crowd. The questions at the very least were all easy, mentally he knew he couldn't manage anything more taxing. They asked him about his opponent, how he felt about all of the exciting long rallies of the last few sets and how he felt about his opponent's outbursts.

"It always sucks to knock out a fellow Aussie, Nick and I'll have a pint later."

"Those rallies were some of the best I've had all year, I can always count on Nick to bring the heat haha."

"I mean, with Nick I know there's a possibility for anything, so I just focus on me and my own game."

He felt good, they didn't know who his opponent would be, that deciding match up not happening until tomorrow. So Daniel felt confident that they'd let him go about his way with no more questions to ask.

"One last question, if I may." Came a voice from the back of the room. Daniel smiled for the female journalist to continue. "This match up created a social media frenzy as one would expect for the two charismatic Australian players that everyone love to talk about. And we couldn't help but notice that you seem to have collected a new fan base. Outside of the usual tweets and messages from footballers, cricketers and other tennis players, we also saw an uptick from the motorsport community. Have you found some new friends?"

"I was wondering where we were going with this," Daniel chuckled which brought out a smattering of laughs from the group. "That was a long question, but yeah I guess I have. I was at the Monaco Grand Prix a few weeks ago and I started collecting new friends like Pokemon." He stretched his arms behind his head, flexing his biceps a little in his amusement.

"A few world champions too, Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso to name a few." She continued, open ended.

Daniel's smile twitched at hearing Max's name in the context of tennis. At hearing Max being spoken about by people who didn't know him in his sport. He was sure he caught his reaction before anyone else clocked it but it definitely threw him for a second. He was tired but his media brain was always on auto, especially after that 'Australian Open' fiasco.

"They get the best tickets." He replied with a laugh. The assembled group of journos laughed with him and then he was allowed to leave. He did so gratefully, eager to get away from all the cameras and hot mics.

Michael greeted him with a bottle of water and Blake with his phone, the device still vibrating intermittently. Daniel could only imagine how uncontrollably it was going off just twenty minutes ago.

The brain rot guided him to the middle of his notification panel to his text thread with Max. His dick twitched heart flipped seeing that his last received message was an image. Surly Maxy Max wouldn't send him nudes while he was playing for his life!

Surreptitiously he looked around before opening the text thread, his heart thundering in his ears so much that he was not listening to whatever more than likely important information Blake was giving him. The messages loaded up and it was actually two photos. Both not nudes, disappointingly.

The first was a picture from above of Max, still in his driver's suit, folded down to his waist, sitting in his motor home and watching his phone screen intently. Past the brim of his ever present hat, Daniel could make out the brown of the clay of the Roland Garros courts on the rectangular device.

He couldn't fight the tender smile that bloomed on his face even if he wanted to. Something bloomed in his chest, an itch that he'd been starting to associate with Max.

If he couldn't fight the smile at the first picture, he sure as hell wasn’t planning to stop the happy grin from dominating his face at the second. A screenshot of ticket confirmation for the Men’s Semifinals at Stade Roland Garros with Max’s name peered up at him from the screen.

“What’s got you so chuffed?” Micheal asked warily.

“Max is coming to the semis.” Daniel grinned at the two men who rolled their eyes in fond exasperation. He deserved it, he knew he’s been insufferable lately. But he just couldn’t help it.

“You sure you can focus without making googly eyes?” Blake teased.

“I’ll be focused I swear!”

“DR not sure if you know this but you can’t suck his dick while you play.” Micheal deadpanned, smirking as Daniel doubled over in honking laughter, drawing the eyes from people lingering in the wide hallway.

“Oh shit, what if I have to play Novak…maybe he shouldn’t come…” Daniel stopped walking, his face going through multiple complicated emotions. He wanted Max to watch him play for sure, but if he had to play Novak he wasn’t sure if he’d want Max there for the possibility of him being destroyed.

“Let’s not think like that, you don’t even know if it’ll be Novak. We cross that bridge when we get to it, besides, you can beat Novak.” Blake with the logic ladies and gentlemen.

“Just have Max promise you like a blowjob if you win or something. Give you that extra bit to play your heart out.” Aaand trust Mikey to bring the extra logic.

#tennis!dan #tennis au #tennis player!dan #maxiel #max/daniel #dr3 #mv33 #my ficlets #au drabble #drabble #answered #anonymous #thank yoouuu #❤️❤️❤️

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claireelizabethsblog · 8 months

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~ August's Books Reviewed ~

The month started out strong with me riding a Sanderson high, then I did a thing that I objectively hate and know will 9 times out of 10 have me reading less, which is started several books at once.... as of the end of August I was reading three books at once, yet none of them were finished so none of them get included in August's round up... look forward to that in September I guess!

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

(763 pages)

The stress I felt reading this was unreal... which is simply evidence of how good it is. It genuinely was pulling actual visceral reactions from me and I physically could not put it down at points. I know this is a shorter review than usual, but I can think of nothing else to say.

I gave this book 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

(748 pages)

An amazing conclusion to a really really good trilogy. The twists and turns of this were so well executed and completely shocking in exactly the right way. The ending in particular I never could have seen coming. If this were a spoiler review I'd be able to go on more, but for now, I leave with simply the promise that if you love fantasy novels, Sanderson novels, epic twists and/or social/religious/political commentary then you should definitely give this series a try!

I gave this book 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

(585 pages)

I was gifted this book and admit to being a little wary before committing to reading it, as a general rule books that blow up exclusively on social media tend to be a let down to me after the copious amounts of hype they've received. I'm pleased to say that was not the case with this book. If anything, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. It was extremely uniquely written; it was emotional, clever and beautiful. The characters were all so complex and felt genuinely so real. I would say that was the highlight of this book, the characterisation. Every character you could relate to a real person. You sympathised with their decisions, or at least understood them. Like real life, there was no villains and heroes. Bad people and good people and somewhere in the middle people, sure. But also like real life, the last group was the most prevalent, and the first two groups different to each individual's opinions. I would actually really recommend this book to almost everyone I know who reads, I'm pretty sure everyone could find something in it that keeps their focus, be it the mystery, the love story, the characters....

I gave this book 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The twist of a knife by Anthony Horowitz

(373 pages)

I am like 90% sure that this was not the first book in a series, however it stood well as a stand alone book too! Like the other Horowitz book I read earlier this year, I found this novel a little slow to pick up at first, however I did get into it in the end. I found it clever and quirky and I loved the meta elements. Ultimately, it was exactly what it was advertised as - a light, humorous murder mystery - and actually, I'm not mad about taking a break for something silly every so often!

I gave this book 3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio

(422 pages)

After the success of The Seven Husbands, I felt brave enough to try another recent social media favourite book. I'd seen mixed reviews over this one, however my flatmate strongly recommended it and as usual, our tastes in books aligned and it was extremely good. Despite the predictability of the plot, I was fully engaged the entire way through which speaks to how well the characters were depicted that I was willing to look past the predictability of it all just to read more about the people. In fact, I would like to make this a formal call for more people to start writing fanfictions for this novel because I want to read even more about these characters and am being denied that currently based off the limited options on ao3 (if anyone has any good recommendations please let me know!) I think, if I had read this in another month it would have received five stars, however it was let down by the fact that it was read within the same weeks as Sanderson and The Seven Husbands which meant I could not in good conscience give it full marks when the plot was just a little too easy to see coming for me. Therefore....

I gave this book 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#book review #book reccs #claireelizabethsblog #brandon sanderson #mistborn #the well of ascension #the hero of ages #taylor jenkins reid #the seven husbands of evelyn hugo #anthony horowitz #the twist of a knife #m l rio #if we were villains

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devildom-doll · 2 years

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Explaining the Commotion of AX2022

Some don’t really know the context of this so I will give my firsthand experience with what happened. Hehhhhhh….

The commotion had to do with the autograph tickets for the Obey Me Boys:

The staff was probably not expecting so many people but…

This was the amount of people at the booth on Day 3 at AX. There were a lot more behind me when I took this as well.

We actually thought there was a line but there was another line heading in our direction being just as confused as us.

Staff looked rather stressed and I felt pretty bad, cuz they were telling people to move out the way for the rest of the Exhibit Hall but we didn’t want to loose our spot in the “line”.

Essentially we were playing musical chairs for whenever the booth was gonna hand out the tickets.

Apparently, about 75 tickets were going to be given out, and clearly that wasn’t enough. (I found out about this later and I had a hissy fit in the panel line, not really, I was just pissed and shocked, pishoked if you will).

Anyway, I left before they gave this announcement (I just knew there was no chance of me getting it), but they postponed the giveaway.

I don’t think anyone knew when they were coming back but plenty of us either left or gone to wait at the line for the panel.

So, this was outside the convention… Plenty of us were already at the panel line.

I was with a fellow MC cosplayer and her friend, her friend got out the line to hopefully get a ticket for her but turns out, the line to get the tickets was already long when he got there.

Surprise surprise, tickets sold out. Plenty came back defeated cuz of it, but for a good reason that were revealed days later:

Scalpers. This was a rumor I was skeptical at first but it turned out to be true. At the cosplay gathering I overheard someone saying that a man tried to sell them an autograph ticket for $300. There was even a rumor that someone tried selling the autographs they got on eBay but I could find anything. (Must have been an actual rumor)

(Haven’t Confirmed) No RAD profile was given:

So it goes: Because the tickets were not given by the staff, anyone could have gotten the tickets (aka scalpers).

I don’t have confirmation mind you, it would be nice if someone who actually got the tickets can confirm if this was the case. If you had to show your RAD profile.

One of the first things they did at the panel was apologize for the commotion. The team says that next year it’ll be better managed, so there is that.

Then this was posted on their social media later on.

That’s about it I believe, if there is more I shall update ( ._.)

Extra Stuff:

💕 Personal opinion: I don’t think 1 DV is enough as compensation…? I’d really like to know if that’s valid or if I’m just being ungrateful.

💕 There is a Premier Fan Badge at Anime Expo (essentially a VIP badge) that can give people access to the Exhibit Hall (where the booth was at) earlier than regular attendees. For regular attendees, it opens at 9:45 am ish.

If the Commotion didn’t happen, I think the number 1 complaint would be that the people with the money would have gotten them first, so it would be unfair for us regular attendees.

💕 Before the Panel

💕 Side Characters showing up in the first episode Live Reaction

💕 Me actually meeting some of the Boys

💕 Panel Recordings

I still got content so I might post more of it soon ( .~.)…

#I actually had a good time in the end #few complaints but not enough that it was awful #staff was actually really nice bless them #the obey me boys BLESS THEM #obey me #obey me shall we date #shall we date #obey me anime expo

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midnightactual · 2 years

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So what exactly would your reaction/thoughts be if Kubo came out on klub or social media and proclaimed Yoruichi straight? Would you accept it or rebel against God's judgement? Thanks for reading.

Some people have it in mind that an author can never write their own creations out of character because they created them. That is completely wrong just on the face of it for a wide variety of reasons, such as the author changing their own outlook and intentionality over time and having particular goals that the character can actively resist through a number of means. Furthermore, anyone who espouses that point of view is very literally trying to sell you something.

I think that the broader fandom sphere has absorbed this lesson pretty well due to the “efforts” of the author of a certain wizarding world: the original creation of a character (let alone holding the licensing rights to them or their likeness) does not make the person or entity in question God when it comes to understanding or interpreting said character.

The character exists independently of their creator or (inevitably) corporate owner. Canon in the capitalist sense is a concept designed to move copy and nothing more. It has no bearing on quality or propriety, only visibility and reach (and thus profitability).

So my thoughts with making Yoruichi straight would be that Kubo had lost the plot. And of course he would have: he has to keep several hundred characters in mind in a commercially viable franchise and doesn't have the luxury to truly deeply interrogate any given one of them, nor any reason to care to do so. She is just another piece to move around to him.

As for Yoruichi herself, if you want to look at her in the most purely canonical lens possible, then she is probably a grey ace demiromantic lesbian (with eyes only for Kūkaku if anyone at all). And honestly, most of the characters in Bleach fall into being grey ace because Kubo doesn’t care about relationships or sexuality if they are not of imminent plot relevance.

We know by comparing his very detailed answer in the Bleach JET Artbook interview on economics (question 14) with his very ambivalent answer about marriage among the Captains for question 9:

Q.9: I started reading bleach, and when I realised it, I had already become of marriageable age. Come to think of it, what’s the marriage situation like for the old-timers among the captains? Kubo: Now that you mention it, I’ve never given it any thought. —— J: That Byakuya was forthright about being married among other things, and for a cool/good-looking character of that sort found in manga to actually be married, it’s surprisingly a rare sight. Kubo: I guess I do get the feeling that they could all be married, but that sort of ambiance doesn’t seem to apply to the captains all too much…. Even so, I’d feel sorry if someone like Genryūsai, for instance, wasn’t married (laughs). —— J: Would their children come into contact with Kazui and Ichika? Kubo: The thought of perhaps a son belonging to Genryūsai sounds like a rather interesting topic to explore. I reckon he’d be quite formidable.

In other words, if he suddenly came out and said Yoruichi was straight, I’d view that as being about as serious and credible as a certain someone saying wizards shit on the floor and magic it away after spending a lot of time talking about their toilets.

#Out Of Character #Bleach #Meta #Asks #anonymous

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d2kvirus · 3 months

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17/1/24 Fact or Fiction

Statement #1: John Wick: Chapter 4 was the best movie of 2023. ABSTAIN - As I haven't seen it (or, you know, John Wicks 2 or 3) I can't say whether it is or is not the best film of 2023, though I can say it would have to be pretty bloody spectacular to dislodge Oppenheimer, Godzilla Minus One or Suzume (due to the UK release being in 2023, it counts) from my personal top three. Thought there is one way to say John Wick 4 was the best film of 2023, and that is if I say that The Stray's was my second-favourite film of 2023, with literally every other film (including ones I haven't seen) ahead of it. You get the feeling that I thought The Strays was an irredeemable pile of shite, don't you...?

Statement #2: You want to see more “experimental” horror movies after the success of movies like Skinamarink and The Outwaters in 2023. FACT - Although hopefully not "experimental" as a euphemism for "half-baked crap carried by its visual style", because I don't want another Cosmopolis and/or Crimes of the Future experience if I can potentially avoid it

Statement #3: Moving forward, the MCU needs to pivot away from the Kang character and the “multiverse” in general. FICTION - The MCU definitely needs to pivot, as 2023 was the year where people caught on to how it is the very definition of "content" in the reaction channel definition of the word, but what it needs to pivot towards is something that shakes the formula up. Oh who are we kidding, this is Disney we're talking about, so they'll just do an MCU/Star Wars crossover

Statement #4: The Last of Us was the best TV show of 2023. FICTION - It was good, in fact it was very good, but Inside No 9 takes the crown for me, because which other show can have people raging about an episode being bumped for a gameshow and then getting wrongfooted as the gameshow was the episode? And that's barely scratching the surface...

Statement #5: The only thing left worth watching on network TV is live sports. FICTION - Partly because Inside No 9 is on network TV in the UK, and partly because live sports is either the dregs that Sky or BT don't want such as darts, snooker, darts, crown green bowls and darts, Six Nations matches other than England home games (which are on Sky, along with the one song their supporters sing when England are at least 10 points up with five minutes to go...) and because the live football is almost inevitably Manchester United's match in every single round of the FA Cup until they're eliminated

Statement #6: The producers of the Scream franchise need to do whatever it takes to get Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega back. Barrera already met with Spyglass Media a week or two ago, and that meeting lasted all of 45 second between her walking in and walking out again. In other words, Spyglass need to accept that they fucked it and put the franchise on the backburner

Statement #7: You find it annoying that streaming TV series can have any random number of episodes per season and new seasons can sometimes take years to come out without any explanation. FICTION - In terms of streaming platforms, there are far more annoying things they can do with shows, such as cancel them after a season or two, or what Crunchyroll did a couple of years ago and put 95% of their shows behind a paywall with zero warning, while All4 found a new way to be annoying in 2023 by heavily advertising a couple of shows but neglecting to mention that they'd be leaving the platform within a month. So if anyone would like to let me borrow their Apple TV account so I can finish watching The Girl from Plainview...?

Statement #8: We won’t see any theatrical events in 2024 like we did in 2023 with Barbenheimer or the Taylor Swift concert film. FICTION - Guaranteed somebody will try to manufacture one like that at some point in 2024. Actually, scratch that, attempts at forcing another Barbenheimer have already happened as we saw desperate attempts to make Saw Patrol a thing with Paramount even tweeting about it, though we were robbed of ExorSwift when Universal lost their nerve. That being said, if a cinema did happen to show Oppenheimer and Godzilla Minus One at the same time, there is still time to make Godzenheimer a thing. Come on, people!!!

#fact or fiction #factorfiction #barbenheimer #marvel spam

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signeficunt · 5 months

Note

can i hear all u have to say on 9/11 please i am way too interested in it also

omg ofc i'm always happy to infodump about my special interests lol!

(sorry this took a while this post became really long lmao)

i first became interested about 9/11 through the lost media community, when i saw ppl talk about the "LOL superman" video (supposedly an old shock video showing close-ups of the jumpers lying dead on the ground) though i personally don't believe it exists. but it was through that discussion that i found out about r/911archive, which is an amazing resource for anyone interested in 9/11, as it not only mostly factual (speculation does happen there ofc but conspiracy theories generally aren't tolerated) but it's also filled with thousands of kind and helpful people who are just as interested in it as i am lol

recently i've been watching lots of archived footage of the events, mostly news footage but some home videos too, and the naudet brothers who were filming a documentary about firefighters when 9/11 happened (they actually have footage of the first plane hitting the north tower! highly reccomend checking it out on youtube if you have the time!) i actually have a playlist with currently 28 videos in it that i can share if u want! i would say that the absolute best footage of that day comes from eyewitness news. This footage specifically (i hope the link works) is really, really good imo, as they actually caught the collapse of the south tower while standing basically a few meters away from the WTC, absolutely incredible footage imo!

Other footage which i find really interesting is from (i wasn't aware of them before since i'm not american and also born after 9/11), the way you can hear the audiences reaction to the news really hammers home how shocking this actually was, i can only speculate but it really feels like there was this attitude that the WTC, the pentagon and america in general were untouchable, and 9/11 kinda spelled out to people that this wasn't the case at all...

i will add one more video which i found interesting (otherwise this post will go on forever) and that's . i've often heard people who were alive when it happened say that they felt like the world stood still, and after seeing that video i think i understand.

people often trivialise 9/11 by making fun of peoples reactions to it and what not (and i agree that 9/11 has been used to justify awful things) but now that i've seen so much footage from that fateful day i just can't stand that kind of behaviour. and i've joked about it too in the past, in fact if you went through my archive right now you could probably find some post from last year mocking the event, but i really regret it tbh. like nearly 3000 people died (and many more died in the following war) so it's just not funny to me anymore

there's lots of footage which i find interesting but for the sake of this post not being super long i won't go on lol, but u can always send another ask or DM me if u wanna talk more c:

#askbox #op

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potteresque-ire · 3 years

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This post is Part 5 of the five-part meta series on the Zhang Zhehan (張哲瀚) Incident, based on what has transpired up to 2021/08/22.

1) The 2nd Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) & the Yasukuni Shrine 2) Post-War Sino-Japanese Relations; “Every Chinese should visit the Yasukuni Shrine” 3) The Summer of 2021: The Brewing Storms for One 4) My Thoughts on Zhang’s Incident, Part A 5) My Thoughts on Zhang’s Incident, Part B

5) My Thoughts on Zhang’s Incident, Part B

As a highlight to the mob nature leading to Zhang’s downfall, please consider the timeline immediately before and after Zhang’s losing his endorsements on August 13th (or, why August 13th really mattered):

August 12th, evening: Zhang’s 2019 attendance of a wedding at the Nogi Shrine (乃木神社) went on Weibo hot search, and into public awareness. The Nogi Shrine (乃木神社) is of far less fame than the Yasukuni Shrine, but was named after a Japanese general of the Imperialist Japanese Army who was also the governor-general of then colonial Taiwan.

August 13th, ~ 2 am: netizens uncovered photos of Zhang’s 2018 visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, which were spread onto Weibo and made the hot search.

August 13th, 1:39 pm: Zhang posted his first letter of apology that began with: “Today, I’m ashamed of my once ignorant self, and furthermore, wants to apologise deeply for my past inappropriate behaviour.” (今天我為曾經無知的自己而羞愧，更要對之前不當行為深刻地道歉。)

August 13th, 2 pm: Nabuo Kishi, Japan’s current Minister of Defence, and a right-wing member of the House of Representative, Yasutoshi Nishimura, made an un-announced visit to the Yasukuni Shrine. The date was 2 days earlier than the 76th anniversary of Emperor Hirohito’s surrender speech (August 15th), as customary for Japanese officials to avoid visiting the shrine on significant anniversary dates of the war.

August 13th, 4:39 pm: People’s Daily (人民日報) published an online critique of Zhang’s apology. “… As a public figure, to be so lacking in historical knowledge, so unfeeling towards the suffering of the nation, it’s too inappropriate. On matters of righteousness of the nation, testing is not permissible, challenges are definitely not permissible. If knowingly committed, one would pay a heavy price.” (。。。身為公眾人物，對歷史常識如此匱乏，對民族苦難渾然不覺，太不應該。事關民族大義，不容任何試探，更不容有任何挑戰。若明知故犯，就得付出沈重代價。)

August 13th, 5:05 pm: CCTV News (央視新聞) posted the video of Nabuo Kishi’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine.

August 13th, 5:33: Zhang was dropped from his first endorsement. He would be dropped by all 27 of them within the next 5 hours.

August 13th, 5:35 pm: Zhang responded to People’s Daily’s critique piece, stating he shall repent and learn his lesson, and that as a Chinese, he loves his country and the CCP.

August 13th, ~6 pm: S. Korean news reported that the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs had summoned the Japanese ambassador in Korea to protest the visit of the Japanese Defence Minister to the Yasukuni Shrine.

August 13th, 6:26 pm: CCTV News (央視新聞) critiqued Zhang’s apology. “Whether to take photos in front of the Yasukuni Shrine, or to attend a wedding at the Nogi Shrine, Zhang Zhehan touched the wounds of history, hurt the feelings of the nation. It cannot be blamed on “once ignorance.” Just now, a Japanese Minister went to the Yasukuni Shrine for “demon worshipping” (Pie note: demon, from guizi 鬼子), China firmly opposes to this wrongdoing of Japanese high officials…” (無論在靖國神社前合影，還是到乃木神社參加婚禮，張哲瀚都觸碰了歷史傷痕，傷害了民族感情，不能簡單歸咎為「曾經無知」。就在剛剛，有日本大臣到靖國神社「拜鬼」，中方堅決反對日本政要這種錯誤做法。。。)

August 13th, 9 pm: China’s Ministry of National Defence answered press questions regarding the Yasukuni Shrine visit by Nabuo Kishi and Yasutoshi Nishimura.

Not only did Zhang’s incident happened in August, 2021, it happened on pretty much the worst day for him in August, 2021; the latest of his incident interleaved the unfolding news of the Japanese high officials’ visit to the Yasukuni Shrine.

What I’d like to call attention to, however, is this: Zhang’s endorsements didn’t begin dropping until *after* People’s Daily criticism.

If the companies had been genuinely offended by Zhang’s action, why was the wait necessary? If their Chinese feelings were genuinely hurt, why hadn’t they moved earlier, in the morning of August 13th, when Zhang’s visit went on hot search? Were these companies also ignorant about history, the significance of the the Yasukuni Shrine? The Chinese government has far more important things to worry about than an idol, but what about these companies that had paid good money for their spokesperson? That watch the public opinion, the market carefully?

Even if they didn’t care about the war themselves, why hadn’t they dropped Zhang based on the expected public opinion? What does that say about what these market experts believed, or knew about the public opinion? What does that say about their assessment of whether their potential customers would, as their actual selves, stop spending money on their products because of Zhang’s Yasukuni Shrine visit?

Were the act of dropping Zhang, then, more an act of performative patriotism than anything else? Once the first company started, the rest raced to follow for fear of being the slowest one, viewed as the least patriotic one. Hence, the 5-hour storm of endorsements abandoning Zhang. This herd ... mob behaviour, in which actions were either not taken or all taken at the same time, was also observed in the timing of different online platforms removing Zhang’s works, and fandom content with his name.

A “bingo card” for netizens to cross out Zhang’s endorsements as the sequential drops happened. Similar cards for Kris Wu had circulated in July.

Were WoH and Zhang’s other group projects removed because Zhang was unpatriotic, or was it because the online platforms (and the tech giants behind them) were trying to protect themselves? Youku explained WoH’s first-time removal as a technical glitch but then, as reports of other platforms removing Zhang’s content poured in, the series was removed again.

How much is real when it comes to the thunderous online declarations of love and betrayal against China?

Related to this: turtles may remember the Xinjiang cotton incident in March, 2021, how Chinese netizens harassed anyone who used, endorsed Nike. One may assume, with that outcry, that rage, that anyone with a reputation to keep, with ties to the Chinese state, in particular, have severed their ties with the brand.

As it turns out, the teams of the Chinese Super (Football) League, for example, have kept their Nike kits. The Chinese Football Association (CFA), which, despite being officially non-governmental and nonprofit, is managed by the State General Administration of Sports (國家體育總局), issued a statement on March 27th on Weibo that only criticised Nike’s “wrong actions in choosing its cotton source” (對耐克公司在棉花原料選擇上的錯誤行徑表達了譴責), and reserved “its right to further deal with contract with Nike” (保留進一步處理同耐克合同的權力). It never cut off the contract with Nike: a 10-year sponsorship, signed in 2018, which amounts to 3 million RMB (463,000 USD) in funds from Nike for each football club every year. The CFA statement was later removed from Weibo. Photos of the football players have simply had the Nike Swoosh covered up, or photoshopped away.

Photos from the Shanghai Shenhua football club, with and without the swoosh (Source).

Life is practical in China … and darkly humorous, at times. As a Mao-founded regime should be, perhaps.

I got Asks wondering then: will our non-Zhang-related favourite stars and CPs, dramas and fandoms get affected by the incident?

At the moment, my guess leans towards a no. My basis is this: in the critique piece against Zhang, published on 2021/08/16, by 中纪委 Central Commission for Discipline Inspection—the CCDI, by the way, is the highest anti-corruption, rules and regulations body in China—I believe the reason Zhang was disciplined was clearly stated:

對於所有「拜鬼」行為，中國都堅決反對。但如果我們國內的公眾人物去靖國神社都不被譴責和追究，我們又怎麼挺直腰桿要求外國人不去呢？

“Regarding all “demon worship” behaviour, China holds firm oppositions. But if our own public figures going to the Yasukuni Shrine get no reprimands, no investigations of responsibility, how can we straighten our backs and demand foreigners to not go?”

This has led me to think the state has no ulterior motives in targeting Zhang: Zhang’s “sin” was limited to his visiting the Yasukuni Shrine as a well-known, public figure, and/but that was enough. And the punishment had to be given in a heavy-handed, high profile manner, given the “news “of Zhang’s visit broke out on August 13, 2021. The following observation may be my being over-sensitive, but in the timeline above, Zhang was reprimanded, and his first round of the punishment in full swing (dropping of endorsements), before the China’s Ministry of National Defence talked to the press, which happened later than it had to be (compare the timing with S. Korea’s). Short of removing Zhang’s hot searches—which netizens would’ve noticed—this ordering of events was necessary; otherwise, the Chinese government issuing a formal complaint against Japan for their Minister of Defence’s visit to the shrine would’ve co-existed on the hot search with the report of China’s own celebrity visiting the same place. I therefore believe the state’s reaction had nothing to do with how Zhang achieved his fame, the past and present projects he was involved in, the CPs he was coupled with. Other state agencies and media would likely be careful about not attaching these topics to Zhang’s case as well, so not to distract from the central message of the government that … the Japanese are very bad people in the summer of 2021.

(Whether they’ll attach them to the Clear and Bright campaign is another matter.)

Another Ask ~ Will Zhang be able to make a comeback? In five years? Ten?

Looking that far ahead is difficult, but one thing has to happen for Zhang to return—the Japanese have to stop being very bad people according to the Chinese government, which isn’t likely to happen soon. The Japanese government has shown few signs that they shall soon revise their attitudes towards their World War II history (Yasutoshi Nishimura, who went to the Shrine with Japan’s Minister of Defence on August 13th, is associated with a historical revisionist group), while China’s escalating military aggression in the Indo-Pacific region will be seen as a growing threat to Japan, likely push the country towards the right.

And 5, 10 years later, Zhang will be 35, 40 years old. Even if he’ll be able to work in the industry again, it’ll be difficult for him to achieve the fame he has before. Also, just because the government no longer bans him doesn’t mean production companies will be willing to hire him; he’ll be considered high risk—policies of China are volatile, after all, and the decision to un-ban can be easily reversed.

(I’m so sorry, Anon, I wish I have a better answer for you.)

And... here’s a thought I’ll finally end this meta series with. I don’t see Zhang as the only loser in this incident. I don’t really see any winners in this incident at all. An industry is dangerous for its every worker if its narrative, its list of guilty is penned by cyber mobs and in the name of patriotism; if the accused cannot speak for themselves, aren’t allowed to grow; if its rules of appropriate conduct are every-changing (The Reporter in 2017 = OK; Zhang in 2018 = Not OK); if its workers are penalised not by their own deeds but their associations (the rest of the cast and production team of WoH and other Zhang-associated projects).

The think tank for the National Ratio and Television Authority (國家廣播電視總局; NRTA, ie, the Chinese visual media censorship board), in their criticism piece about Zhang, hinted at even rougher waters ahead, in light of Zhang’s (and Kris Wu’s) transgressions:

明星頻頻「犯事」，說到底還是行業內對明星藝德約束不夠嚴格。據瞭解，電影行業正在籌備全國電影界道德委員會，將對電影從業人員道德規範提出更高要求，並提出，要將明星藝德納入法治化的軌道中來，給明星藝德約束加一道法規之鎖，明確明星的責任和義務，將明星的個人行為與職業利益掛鈎。 “The ultimate cause of stars “getting into trouble” frequently is that the industry has not tied a sufficiently severe bind on the stars’ artistic virtue (Pie note: roughly, = professional ethics). Based on reports, the film industry is preparing a National Film Industry Morality Committee that shall raise the moral requirements for film industry workers. The industry has also suggested that the stars’ artistic virtue shall eventually be governed by laws, to add a lock of legality to the bind of artistic virtues for the stars, to make clear the stars’ responsibilities and obligations, to couple a star’s personal behaviour with their professional (monetary) gains.”

My interpretation of this: should the suggestions become reality, it shall be written in future film contracts that a star who commits an act that the state considers immoral will have to pay the investors the production cost of their projects, and possibly, the projected profit.

To put some dollar signs to this interpretation: a high-profile star may work on one or more projects with a price tag in the order of 100 million RMB (~15 million USD); box office, merchandise sells, and long term profits expected from online streaming can raise that number by several fold. This is a sum that even the most affluent stars will have a difficult time affording—and that’s before considering the endorsements, for which current contracts already require the stars to pay the damages.

The key word here is that the offending act only has to be considered immoral, not criminal. Immoral acts range from not liking the CCP enough—an easy-to-understand offence—to deviation from the society’s 公序良俗 (“public order and fine customs”), which includes just about anything that disagrees with the state-defined mainstream values.

Stars are stars because they invite the imaginations of their audience, because they break boundaries: from the seemingly insurmountable humdrum of daily life, to something that can be much, much more.

Stars should, of course, be law-abiding; they should be patriotic. But a star who’s mainstream in every way? Are they still a star, something we regular people wonder about, dream upon?

Bind and lock, the NRTA think tank referred to these suggestions. It reminders me of a quote by the famous Chinese director, Feng Xiaogang (馮小剛), who, in 2014, complained to BBC—perhaps in a slip of tongue—that Chinese directors could be like “dancing with fetters” (戴著腳鐐去跳舞) when working with the country’s censorship system.

Yeah. It’s kinda like that.

===

The Zhang Zhehan Incident Meta Series:

PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 5 <- YOU ARE HERE

#pie metas

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shihalyfie · 3 years

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What went down with the DigiFes situation, from the community and translator perspective

I think the events of the last few days have gotten everyone in a huge fuss, and because everything got caught up in a lot of chaotic social media stuff, there’s been a lot of questions about what came from what and who knew what at what time. Fortunately, I happen to be:

Someone who’s a veteran in this fanbase and thus has a small handful of friends in this community, who also have their own friends

Someone who understands a little Japanese (although not as much as others in this community do) and therefore can read things in Japanese myself to some degree without needing someone else to translate it for me

So hopefully I can shed some light on what kinds of things were being discussed, and what was known and not known at what time in this fanbase with all of this.

The most important thing I want to establish is that there was no organized coalition or smear campaign. (Kind of ironic I have to say this when the topic at hand has so much to do with conspiracy theories.) I’m a veteran, I know friends who are veterans, they know other friends who are veterans but don’t know me at all. My friends usually agree with and like the same things I do, and I give them advice and assistance with my skillset when I can, and they return the favor. We pass things along through the grapevine, not through some super-secret club grapevine, just via the nature of social relationships and some Discord servers (multiple; again, not everyone knows each other). So these are my impressions of what happened, based on said grapevine.

How it all started

Konaka’s blog is long. Like, really long. Which is only natural, because he was recapping basically the entire 51 episodes of Tamers in excruciating detail, so no translator in this fanbase would be able to translate all of that and not lose their mind! So for the most part people who couldn’t read Japanese had pretty much given up on reading it (with maybe a few dedicated people using machine translation), and some people who understood Japanese would point out parts they found interesting, but for all intents and purposes it remained untranslated and not super-accessible to the mainstream. (Even the Japanese fanbase itself wasn’t super aware of the blog’s existence.)

So when that first post in May about 9/11 dropped, the people who did read Japanese started going “uh...”

At the time, the DigiFes stage reading hadn't been announced yet. So, in other words, everyone reading it only knew it as, functionally, him namedropping an alt-right YouTuber and praising his observations. The reaction from anyone reading the blog at the time was something along the lines of “disappointed and mildly concerned.” (Note the mildly.)

The posts in June about the Great Reset and the anti-vaccine sentiment were when people keeping an eye on the situation started to get really worried about how far this was going to escalate. At this point, I want to make something clear that may not be apparent to those who weren’t keeping up or who are outside the fanbase: Most of the translators and Japanese-reading people deliberately chose not to be too public about this at this time.

Why?

This is the irony surrounding the fact that said translators are now being accused of trying to further “cancel culture”: cancellation was absolutely not what anyone wanted back then! If anyone wanted to create a smear campaign, 9/11 conspiracies, the Great Reset, and anti-vaccine statements are already more than enough to make a starting case. But at the time, this was a blog that very few people (Japanese or otherwise) knew about, translating it would basically just boost its platform more than it would have had in the first place (which would be counterproductive), and -- well, let’s be real, it’s not hard to imagine that people might get reactionary over it, and people would go nuts. Was there any real benefit that would come out of that? Not really, no.

So at the most, those keeping an eye on it might have vented a bit on their personal accounts, but some even tried to self-censor with “[redacted]” or vagueposting, because this was a matter that needed to be handled with delicacy. Thus, there were “mild rumors through the grapevine” about what was going on, but those who knew were trying to hold back with restraint and mostly inform people quietly in the hopes of this not needing to become some kind of huge social media campaign.

(Also, to be a bit blunt about it, it’s really hard to be in front of someone who loves Tamers and is gushing about it and showing admiration for Konaka, knowing all of this and wanting to say something, but feeling like a jerk if you pop their bubble like “also, he’s probably an alt-right conspiracy theorist now.” Not to say that the ignorance-is-bliss concept is always a good thing, but...)

But since the blog posts in question were discussing the prospect of having his sentiments in fiction, everyone reading them was on edge anticipating what might be in store for DigiFes. The hope was that it might blow over. Hopefully, everything would be in the form of subtle themes with plausible deniability, it would all stay within the realm of “it’s not worth causing a fuss over this,” that would be the end of it, and we’d all move on with our lives.

Unfortunately, “Political Correctness is activating Cancel Culture” isn’t exactly subtle.

DigiFes and the aftermath

I think it’s too easy to assign too much responsibility to the fansub group that was indirectly responsible for breaking the news for all of this, but actually, the truth is, this would have gotten out anyway.

Even when the stream itself was going on, there were Japanese livebloggers, and there were also English speakers who caught on that something was happening with “the Tamers fighting political correctness”. Some hours later, an upload of the stream went live on YouTube, and quite a few people started watching it and caught onto what was going on. If the fansub group that released the now-infamous version hadn’t done it, I’m absolutely certain someone else would have eventually (perhaps in a different language first, but nevertheless). And even before then, information about what the hell was going on was already starting to circulate in broken and incomplete forms. That fansub solidified what was going on, and perhaps accelerated the moment the bomb dropped on everyone, but if it hadn’t been there, it would have happened much more gradually and chaotically.

On top of that, while the use of Western alt-right rhetoric (seriously, please do not try to bring the “injecting Western politics into Japanese media” argument here when all of us are asking him to take the Western politics out) meant that it went over most of the Japanese audience’s heads (hence your answer to “who approved this?”), there was at least one Japanese person who was politically savvy enough to call it out for what it was in disgust. (I’m not linking them here because I’m not dumb enough to fling them in a place where some of you trigger-happy people will go after them.) They didn’t even need to be super in-tune with Western politics to get it; they understood enough to tell that there were some pretty alarming extremist views in there. If they understood that much, it was naturally going to follow that the Western side was definitely going to become aware one way or another.

Even all that aside, at the very least, said fansub is accurate; imagine how much worse this situation would have been if someone else had taken it up and confused things further with a misleading translation, or, worse, deliberately messed with the contents. Basically, this debacle could have easily been a lot worse.

I don’t think anyone expected this to get as big as it did (as in, to the point mainstream anime reporters outside the fanbase picked up on it). There was a similar tri. reading back in 2016, but even a lot of the hardcore fanbase barely remembers it exists! These aren’t even supposed to be canon, either! But when you have that disclaimer at the front, and the contents are really like that, it was probably inevitable for it to become a social media sensation. I mean the contents...sure are a thing.

One thing I should point out about the disclaimer is that it only mentions the program itself. It doesn’t bring up the blog, and it doesn’t bring up who wrote this scenario, just the fact that the program contains alt-right rhetoric and conspiracy theories. Because it does! It’s not even technically praising or condemning the content within, it just says “we don’t agree with it”! What the group did condemn was...approaching staff about it (and especially starting a fight). Because, in the end, that’s what the disclaimer was for: a heads-up about what was in there, and an added reminder that the people translating this are just translating it for the sake of informational purposes. Or, in other words:

It was a content warning. Even without the disclaimer, there were many, many people who would have recognized the contents for what they were and been caught by it unawares, and become upset by it. There were many people who said that they were glad to have that there because it at least gave them some time to mentally prepare for what they were about to be slapped with!

It really, really was a disclaimer. When you have something that level of extremely politically charged stuff, it’s only natural to start suspecting that the translation group had an agenda (official translations tend to get this a lot when content is remotely political). But no, the translation group did their due diligence, even if their opinions were starkly opposed to what was in there.

I was not personally involved in that translation, but I’ll give you this (copy-pasted with permission, from someone who wasn’t technically involved directly in it but was privy to discussions while it was being done):

no we brought up all of those questions like the fact that Yamaki's clearly off his rocker and this isn't supposed to be taken seriously in the first place or that maybe if we're lucky he'll just sound like a fake woke boomer but no matter how you slice it the plot is about him "convincing" the unbelieving Takato and co. into rallying up against the true enemy of Political Correctness and that's just literally the alt-right playbook in a nutshell

the thing even made it to YouTube, we were basically racing against the clock

I mean I really want to say this is plausible deniability but I don’t know how you can get any less subtle than this, this is not something you can mince words

like I really wish we could pass this off as “as long as you don’t know the blog you can take this innocently as political commentary or something” but I honestly don’t think this is something you can take innocently even without context

tbh the Political Correctness part is the most cringeworthy but Yamaki’s rant about fact checkers being evil and all that is probably a lot more worrying when you think about it

tbh I’ve never felt as conflicted about what’s the right thing to do as I do now

So in other words, it was not a reckless decision to just tack on a political label; it was done after a lot of consideration about the consequences to put the label on and what people would think of it with or without context, whether there might be a glimmer of light possibility to try and pass this off as more innocuous as it was, and eventually a determination that, in the end, there was indeed alt-right rhetoric in the program, and should be labeled accordingly.

The result was that, of course, everything broke out on social media, chaos burst out, a lot of hearts were unfortunately broken, and a lot of alt-righters started invading spaces accusing people of proving him right with cancel culture. Ironically, my personal observation is that, while there were exceptions, most people in the actual fanbase did honor the requests to not harass people about it, and this may actually be the most solidarity I’ve ever seen from the Digimon fanbase in my life, which is saying a lot considering how we usually tend to be a drama magnet most of the time. The ones who were actually directly messaging him were his newfound supporters locking down on offering him “support against people trying to cancel him” (I think they were more heartbroken and upset at him than anything...), and most of the harassment came from alt-righters not even in the fanbase, namesearching and sending harassing, accusatory messages to anyone involved for as much as expressing mild dismay. (You want to talk about harassment and being attacked for having an opinion? Pot, meet kettle.)

This leads us back to the question of the blog: if you’ll remember, I just said that the fansub in question did not bring it up at all. That’s because, at the beginning, there was no intention to bring it up if it wasn’t necessary; this was not intended as a smear campaign. The warning was attached to the DigiFes program because it was about the DigiFes program. But the resulting chaos had a lot of people bring up the blog because it better contextualized what was going on, and discussion led to people looking it up themselves and posting fragments of it on social media, sometimes even using machine translate.

Ultimately, that’s the reason this document was released: it was the same reason as the fansub being released at the time it was, which was “if it hadn’t been released, the alternative was watching things get disseminated more slowly and chaotically.” I will say outright that I was one of the people who got to lay eyes on that document before it was publicly released (and even helped out with some advice here and there); it’s no secret that it was being quietly passed around as an internal memo prior to the outbreak. The original version of the document had a request to not post it on public social media because of the chaos it would cause, and while I don’t know how many people got to see it before it was released, I’m under the impression that it was enough people that I was quite surprised everyone who saw it respected that request.

Why does the document contain a ton of analysis and debunking on top of just the translations? Well, when you’re translating those blog posts, you’re technically giving it a bigger platform (which was one of the reasons it was originally considered better to not post it publicly). Since the document exists primarily to inform people, especially about why certain things that may seem innocuous actually have wider context behind them, it’s going to need to contain an analysis like that.

The summary

There were a lot of decisions involved by a lot of different people through all parts of this ordeal. I think it’s fair to criticize whether they were the right decisions in retrospect or whether certain things should have been done slightly differently (including my small role in this), but nevertheless, it was one where the risks involved were thought through and taken into account in every step of the situation, with a desire to avoid chaos, or at least prevent it from getting too much worse. When you have contents like this, a controversy honestly is inevitable -- how on earth are you going to be able to put contents like Yamaki reciting off all the typical alt-right YouTuber talking points and ending in Political Correctness activating Cancel Culture and not expect that to make a stir at some point? -- and so, in the end, this wasn’t so much a conscious attempt at stirring the pot as much as it was the dam finally breaking, and a desire to keep it from spilling over too much. Nobody coordinated this! I think everyone just really hates drama.

Knowing all the steps and thoughts that went on behind all of this, I think being reactionary or accusatory for clout is the last thing anyone involved wanted to be. Considering just how many of these steps above could have easily been made into exposure, from the posts all the way back in May and June to the internal memo document that was made to keep friends quietly informed but could have been leaked to the public with only one bad actor, there was an active, common desire among people who didn’t even know each other to try and minimize the potential damage as much as possible. When you look at the situation now, of course it looks awful and hardly like something that came out of “trying to minimize damage”, but in reality there’s only so much you can do when the contents really are like that, and I personally believe everyone involved was doing what they thought was their best option as the situation kept changing.

I can’t speak for anyone else, especially since I don’t even know most of the people involved, and I didn’t have much of a role in all of this, but I think everyone involved, myself and my friends and everyone who’d been keeping tabs on this situation for months, has been going through a lot of heartbreak and conflict over what to do next, so please understand that there was a lot of thought put into all of it, and that it really was a difficult situation no matter how you look at it.

#digimon #digimon tamers

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sleepy-belphie · 3 years

Note

I just found out that you're doing hc requests and i hate that i just found out now👀

How about "the brothers find out that MC is an idol"

Idk if you've done something like this before, but still wanted to ask anyways :')

I haven’t done something like this so thank you for sending this in Ley! <3 I hope you enjoy this lovely!

Tags: @kawaiiblack

~~~~~

Lucifer:

Extremely supportive

Shows up to your rehearsals when he’s not busy with Devildom responsibilities

Shows up to all your concerts no matter what

Ends up becoming an unofficial security guard

A fan is getting a bit too excited around you? He is right behind you, looking down at them with cold eyes

9 times out of 10 they immediately freeze up and relax to a tolerable level

Is the reason paparazzi keep their distance when they see you

He once punched and knocked a pap out cold because they asked a really invasive question

Will try to fuck you senseless after your concerts

Something about seeing your onstage persona gets him going

Likes your provocative songs more than your cute ones

More than happy to accept your invite onstage during one of your shows

He’s the Avatar of Pride, you think he’ll turn down a chance to have you give him a lap dance in front of thousands of envious fans?

Lol funny

Mammon:

Immediately wants to know how much money you make a year

Pouts when you refuse to let him “borrow” a portion of your income

When your popularity in the Devildom skyrockets he’s getting you booked for only the best of the best magazines

If those magazines want you to pose with someone, guess who you’re calling?

He won’t say it out loud but he doesn’t agree to all the shoots just because of the Grimm he gets

It was nice to have his pockets jingling but he was happier to have moments with you immortalized

He has all your magazine covers

The ones you both feature in, he puts them on his wall

He says it’s because he looks good, it’s just chance that you happen to be in those pictures too

He’s a liar, but he’s also a tsundere so what do you expect

He hates the portion of your show where you bring a fan on stage for a lap dance to one of your racy songs

You get tired of him and Levi bitching about it so you bring him onstage one night

You’ve never seen his face so red or his body so stiff

He no longer complains out loud

Leviathan:

You think he was a mega-fan for Sucre Frenzy?

Oh you have seen nothing yet

Becomes a one-man social media team for your Devildom presence

You’re pretty sure he sacrificed a goat or something because how quickly you blow up in the Devildom is insane

It’s only a month before your Devildom shows have to be moved to the biggest hall in town because the demand for your tickets is otherworldly

He is at all your shows and rehearsals

He knows all your choreography

He owns all your merch

He refuses to take it for free too

He has to support his normie! Take all his Grimm!

Also gets very jealous of the part in your show where you invite a fan on stage for a lap dance during a more racy number

But then you bring him on stage one night and he almost passes out the moment you’re in his lap

Just like Mammon, he doesn’t complain anymore but inwardly grumbles to himself

Satan:

Has never read a tabloid in his life because it’s not factual, it’s garbage

However, he can’t help but read the ones you’re mentioned in

Tries to put a curse on any “journalist” who writes a bullshit story about you

You constantly have to stop him because “Satan you can’t take away someone’s ability to write just because they wrote a lie about me”

Always at songwriting sessions because his neverending knowledge is really useful

He has a way of making really raunchy lyrics sound almost poetic

Makes you take tea breaks so you don’t overwork yourself or get too annoyed if an idea wasn’t coming out how you want

Has this look of awe in his eyes whenever he sees you on stage

He doesn’t mind spending his usually quiet nights in at a venue with thousands of people if it means he gets to see you dance and look indescribably happy for two hours

Asmo teases him about it because who the hell goes to a concert to just stand still? (besides Lucifer, he’s a special case)

Satan is unbothered as always though

Asmodeus:

Really curious about your daily life

Also into the gossip that circles around the celebrity life

You can always count on him to tag along to any party you find yourself having to go to

Also can count on him to help you pick the best looks for all your late-night TV show appearances

Is right behind Levi in terms of posting you or about you on social media

His captions of praise make you wanna sink into the floor sometimes

He’s too sweet

He actually helps you settle into the sexy persona you need for your more provocative numbers

You can easily find him when he’s in the crowd because he’s always dancing from his place in the front row

Much like Lucifer he happily lets you take him on stage

But unlike Lucifer he doesn’t sit passively, he almost flusters you with how his hands gently rest on your waist

And how his hips move in time with yours when you grind against him

But you should’ve expected this with Asmo, he gives you the energy you give him

Plus he was the one who you practiced with during rehearsals

That night there was some much needed post-concert sex

Beelzebub:

Doesn’t really have a reaction besides “oh, that’s cool MC!”

Gotta keep an eye on him at events because he will eat all of the food

The glitz and glamour doesn’t appeal to him one bit

The provocative songs don’t bother him either

Though he does blush when you look him in the eye while performing them

What he cares about most are your safety and happiness

Especially your safety

During one of your shows, a portion of a ramp on stage collapsed and you took a tumble

He’s by your side in an instant, picking you up and taking you offstage before anyone can even comprehend what happened

You were, thankfully, not hurt besides a scrapped knee and a cut on your arm

Beel, however, insisted he carried you home and you sit in his lap in the van

Belphegor:

Idol life is wayyyy too busy for him

He is always napping in the van on the way to and from different scheduled events

Though you have to stop bringing him to certain ones when he curses out a guy whose hand was too low on your back for his liking

Puts your album on and lets them play while he sleeps

So he knows the lyrics to all your songs

How does he learn songs while sleeping? It’s a mystery

What you do know is it’s cute seeing him sing-along from backstage

Sets up little sleepover parties in the planetarium for your midnight music video premieres

It’s supposed to be just you, Belphie, and sometimes Beel if he wanted to come by

The other brothers do crash them sometimes but as long as you stay next to Belphie he’s willing to let them stay

Sometimes need a little reassurance that his sloth habits aren’t holding you back

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me headcanons #obey me fluff #obey me lucifer x reader #obey me mammon x reader #obey me levi x reader #obey me satan x reader #obey me asmo x reader #obey me beel x reader #obey me belphie x reader #levisnormie

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horansqueen · 3 years

Text

Stuck With You - Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Break My Heart

🡪chapter 1 🡪chapter 2 🡪chapter 3 🡪chapter 4 🡪chapter 5 🡪chapter 6 🡪chapter 7 🡪chapter 8 🡪chapter 9 🡪chapter 10 🡪chapter 11 🡪chapter 12 🡪chapter 13 🡪chapter 14 🡪chapter 15 🡪chapter 16 🡪chapter 17 🡪chapter 18 🡪chapter 19 🡪chapter 20 🡪chapter 21 🡪chapter 22 🡪chapter 23 🡪chapter 24 🡪chapter 25 🡪chapter 26 🡪chapter 27 🡪chapter 28

College Enemies To Lovers AU

characters // masterlist // instagrams // mood board

You say my name like I have never heard before I'm indecisive but this time I know for sure I hope I'm not the only one that feels it all Are you fallin'?

Center of attention You know you can get whatever you want from me Whenever you want it, baby It's you in my reflection Now I'm afraid of all the things it could do to me If I would've known it, baby

I would've stayed at home 'Cause I was doin' better alone But when you said, "Hello" I know that was the end of it all I should've stayed at home 'Cause now there ain't no letting you go Am I falling in love With the one that could break my heart?

I wonder when you go, if I stay on your mind Two can play that game, but you win me every time Everyone before you was a waste of time Yeah, you got me

click here to be on the update list

NIALL

I let my finger slide on the strings of my guitar but my eyes were on Devon and my head was thinking about her, too. She was laying down on the couch, her legs on my thighs, reading a book, and the way her eyes moved into a frown or opened more into slight surprise was mesmerizing me. We hadn't really talked in a few hours but it didn't matter, I still felt completely at ease with her. We were sort of used to it since it happened a lot when we were in our room at college, but here, in my apartment, it felt even better.

We had taken a walk earlier, got caught by snow and grabbed food on our way back. We ate together with a glass of wine in the kitchen and when we got up to relax in the living room, I realized that It was my favorite day in a very long time. It had started amazingly but I had to admit the sweet moments with her were hard to beat. I knew we'd have problems if we stayed a few more days away from everyone, especially with our classes and school projects, but I wanted it so bad it made my heart twist in my chest when I thought about it.

Would we go back to be only friends? Would her stupid ex still be around? Would he message her again? Would she push me away the way I pushed her away when we met? I liked to believe that everything would be exactly like it was now but I couldn't be sure. It felt different here, like we were in a parallel universe, or alone on an island. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to stay here with her, and I was ready to put everything else on hold and risk my school year to make sure things wouldn't change between Devon and I. That thought was scary and I closed my eyes, trying reason myself. I couldn't fall again so hard for someone. I became dumb and blind when it happened and I knew it wouldn't end well.

I got out of my thoughts when Devon's phone beeped and she groped around to find it, her eyes never leaving her book. I checked the title and my lips curled slightly on the left when I realized it was a book about famous painters and their history. Why wasn't I surprised? It made me wonder what the painting she had started in the guest room looked like but I would never invade her intimacy by looking at an unfinished piece of art without asking her.

"Oh, god." Devon let out, checking her phone and chuckling nervously. "Our friends are so stupid."

Immediately, I knew she was talking about Louis and Lewis and I raised my eyebrows.

"What do they want?"

"See for yourself." she just replied, handing me her phone.

I frowned and grabbed it, noticing they had left comments under the pictures of me that Devon had posted earlier in the day. The first few were comments about the fact that I was almost naked and I rolled my eyes with a smile, but when my eyes found one specific comment from Lewis, I raised my eyebrows and chuckled.

'I dare you two to fuck!'

I re-read it a few times before checking Louis' answer that simply said. 'I bet they already have!'

I groaned and glanced up at Devon who was looking at me with an amused smile. Finally, I continued reading their interaction with my nose raised up.

'Do you know how long it took them to be friends? They definitely haven't fucked yet.'

I couldn't pretend he was not right but it was slightly annoying to see your friends discuss of your love and sex life on a public social media under pictures of you in boxers.

'Lewis, touché. Niall & Dev, I double dare you'

I waited a few more seconds and just held out her phone to Devon, making her chuckle. She took it back and put it away before moving her upper body slightly up, her book placed on her stomach but still open to keep her page. My eyes roamed on her and a bunch of nasty thoughts appeared in my mind.

"It almost makes me want not to fuck so we don't give them what they want." I admitted, raising my eyebrows.

"Almost?"

"Almost."

This time, my lips curled as she laughed and I did the same. My smile fell slowly as I looked at her, turning into a fond look. They were right about something, it really had taken us a while to become friends, and It made me wonder how many moments we had lost while I tried to hate her. I normally could contain myself quite well but when it came to Devon, it had been difficult for me since day one. I had kissed her randomly and maybe a bit roughly a few times because it was stronger than me, because I didn't hate her and I knew I never would. And she had answered my kisses every time, giving me back all the feelings I tried to communicate her, probably even more.

"Devie..." I whispered, licking my lips nervously as her eyebrows raised. "You remember when we got locked in the library for the night? You grabbed my notebook and It was not our school project so I just.. took it back?" she nodded slowly with a frown and I cleared my throat, twisting the fabric of my sweatpants as my other hand grabbed my guitar tighter. "I was writing a song. I was writing a song about you."

Her lips parted and she remained motionless for a while, just staring at me as my heart thumped so hard in my chest I felt like it was going to explode or escape. I waited for an answer or a move, any reaction coming from her would be fine, but nothing happened and I breathed in, taking my guitar better as I started playing.

"Like the rain on a sunny day There's a shadow behind your face Tell me what you're running from I don't know what made you so afraid Don't you know you got the best of me? Yeah, you're everything I want

Anyone can see Anyone can see You're hiding, hiding You can talk to me It's more than skin deep But I'm trying, yeah

Since we're alone Yeah, you can show me your heart If you put it all in my hand No, I swear No, I won't break it apart Since we're alone Show me all that you are And if you get lost in the light It's okay I can see in the dark

All your thoughts running through your head The things you think better left unsaid Just wanna know where you came from Why would you wanna play someone else I love you best when you're just yourself Yeah, you're everything I want

Anyone can see Anyone can see You're hiding, hiding You can talk to me It's more than skin deep But I'm trying, yeah

Since we're alone Yeah, you can show me your heart If you put it all in my hand No, I swear No, I won't break it apart Yeah, since we're alone Show me all that you are And if you get lost in the light It's okay I can see in the dark"

When I was done, my eyes met hers again and her head was tilted. She was tearing up and I didn't know why but the fact that she seemed touched made me feel better. She moved her upper body up slowly, holding herself with her elbows and her book slipped from her stomach to the ground but she didn't give it a second glance. She simply reached for the front of my shirt, grabbing it in a fist and pulling me with her slowly. I held my breath and my lips parted. I couldn't take my eyes off of her and she brought me on top of her. My guitar fell on the carpet in a thud, joining her book, as I lied down on top of her. My lips met hers and immediately, she whimpered in my mouth, grinding her hips up against me. Her hand slid on my back and she moved my shirt over my head. I helped her by moving slightly up and as I was throwing it away, she reached for the bottom of hers and took it off too. It got caught in her hair and I pulled on it gently, letting it fall on the floor. My eyes ran on her and I noticed she held her breath but I was not sure why. She reached the sides of her pants and squirmed beneath me to take them off, pushing them down to her legs before one of her hands reached behind my head and pulled me closer. Our lips touched again and I groaned low as her hand gripped my hair.

I could barely believe she was finally completely naked around me and that simple thought excited me more than I thought it would. I felt her reach between us, grabbing my cock over my pants and without thinking, I pushed my hips against her hand, impatient to be inside her. I could pretend I didn't know if that's what she wanted but by the way she was kissing me and touching me, I was sure about it. I brought one of my hands to push my pants down and this time, she's the one who helped me. I struggled to take them off completely and when I grabbed them to throw them on the floor, I did the same with hers. It got stuck under my knee and I squirmed more as she giggled a bit and I smiled too when I was done, moving back over her and looked in her eyes.

"I really want you." I whispered, making her smile disappear.

"Me too, Niall." she replied just as low before pressing her lips together. "That time in the elevator... I thought we were going to do it right there on the floor."

Her confession made me raise my eyebrows and I chuckled in surprise. "You would... you would have wanted to?"

"Mmhm, yes. I wanted it just as bad as I want it now."

As if to prove it, she moved her knees up around me and I felt the tip of my cock slip inside her. Her eyes rolled back and she closed them as her back arched a bit. I remained motionless but I could feel her throb around my tip, proving me how horny she was. It turned me on even more and I moved closer, running my tongue on her jaw before reaching her neck. I started sucking on her skin as I pushed myself slowly inside her and her grip tightened in my hair.

"Fuck, stop for a second or I'm gonna cum." she whispered, gripping my hair so tight it could have hurt if my cock was not buried deep inside her.

I started nibbling on her neck, feeling slightly dizzy from her confession but from the way her body reacted, I knew she was not lying.

"You feel so fucking good." I admitted low, moving my head up slightly to suck on her ear. "Love the way you clench around me."

She whimpered and I let my mouth travel until hers before kissing her gently but deeply. Her grip in my hair loosened and I started moving in and out of her so slowly it was barely bearable. It only took half a minute for her to start shaking under me. Her back arched and she closed her eyes tight, making me reach between us to rub her clit through her orgasm.

"Fuck, Niall, oh my god." she whispered as I watched her cum.

The sight was amazing and when she finally stopped shaking, she relaxed beneath me and I kissed her again. "Was good?"

"I'm so sorry." she apologized in a breath. "I couldn't stop it."

"Why would you want to stop it?" I asked as I started moving again, my lips still pressed on hers. "I want to make you cum as many times as I can."

I had no idea how long I would last for our first time but I still planned on making her cum a second time and when I started going faster and a bit harder, she started squirming.

"Fuck you're so wet." I admitted low, feeling her juice all over her inner thighs. "This is driving me fucking insane. Your pretty little cunt is so fucking perfect, did I tell you that before?"

Her lips parted but I frowned when she moved slightly, trying to reach for something on the coffee table. My heart skipped a beat when I realized it was her camera and she brought it up to snap a picture. I had no idea what it would look like but I liked it.

I couldn't help it and started fucking her harder, feeling my chest rub against hers as I held myself with my arms on each sides of her head. I slipped my fingers in her hair as I thrusted myself deeper and harder inside her.

I never thought our first time would be like that. In fact, I imagined it a lot rougher and dirtier, but it was perfect like that and somehow, I hoped that she understood all the feelings I had for her.

I heard the camera again and for some reason, I felt like she was simply taking pictures of whatever she could reach with her arm up. She seemed focused on what we were doing but I appreciated the effort and I kissed her lips as I heard the camera again.

"Mm, yea? You like my pussy? It's all yours." she let out near my ear. "Please make me cum again."

Her words brought a rush to my brain and I moved myself up on my hands, pushing my hips against hers to go balls deep. My eyes followed her hand as it ran on one of her breasts and then the other before it reached her clit. She started rubbing it and the sight brought me close to an orgasm. I tried to hold it until she started cumming again and when she did, she moaned louder than the first time, wiggling in front of my eyes and her pussy clenching even more around my cock.

"Fuck, Devie.."

My fingers curled against the fabric of the couch and I pushed myself deep in her as I came. It didn't seem to stop and when I pulled out, I realized I was still cumming. It gushed a bit on her pussy and she brought her hand to my cock, stroking it and making my orgasm even stronger. Once again, I heard the camera but didn't think much of it.

"Jesus.. fuck." I whispered, shutting my eyes tight and finally letting myself fall back down.

We panted for about a minute and I finally moved to lay down next to her but on my side, facing her. I brought her closer and my lips found hers, kissing her deeply and slowly. She tasted amazing and I groaned low in her mouth. She finally pulled away and my eyes fluttered open only to see a soft smile on her lips.

"Is that how you get girls in your bed?" she asked with a giggle, letting her eyes roam on my face and making me smile.

I buried my face in her neck and left small kisses on her skin. "Let's say it's the first time it ends up like this." I admitted with a chuckle, pulling her body flush against mine.

"Mm, and definitely not the last time."

I pulled away enough to be able to look in her eyes as one of my hands ran slowly on her back, along her spine. "So when I sing you an other song I wrote for you, we'll have sex again?" A small smile appeared on her lips and an amused one on mine. "Does that mean I have to write a new song every time I want to get my dick wet?"

She laughed and pushed my arm gently, making me laugh too. "Shut up!"

"Okay!" I just replied, moving closer and kissing her again.

Her arm wrapped around my waist again and I felt her body press against mine. I loved everything about this, even the fact that we were laying down on my couch and not in bed. Her hair was a mess and I could only imagine mine was pretty much the same. We were sweaty and exhausted but we still took the time to kiss each other slowly and deeply, as if we both didn't want this moment to end. In fact, I wanted this moment to start over every fucking day from now on. The more we spent time together, the more I wanted her to stay, and the more I realized my real feelings for her. Most of the time, I tried to push that thought back so I didn't have to deal with it, but right now, it was not an easy task. I knew she didn't want a relationship, but would telling her the three little words make her run away?

"Does that mean you're gonna write more songs about me?" she asked in a murmur when we stopped kissing.

Her eyes were still shut and her lips still so close I could feel them brush on mine. "Devie, I already wrote a few more songs about you." I admitted in a whisper, moving my head up and down extremely slowly to let our lips brush together again. "And I'll write many many more."

She swallowed hard and her eyes roamed on me. For some weird reason, it seemed like she felt guilty and she breathed in, licking her lips. "I spied on you." she confessed quickly, making me frown. "A few days after we met, I heard you play the piano and I just... I watched you while you wrote a song." My traits softened and she pressed her lips together. "The first time I heard you sing... fuck, Niall. You... you have no idea of all the feelings it brought inside me. Your voice just does something to me. That's... that's why I teared up earlier when you sang to me. Your voice just does that to me. You. You do that to me."

I moved my face closer and brushed my nose very slowly against hers.

"Your art does the same to me. Devie, your art moves me in a way nothing else moves me, except... except you." I admitted in a whisper. "The day I told you that you had paint on your face... I walked to your painting class and searched for the painting with that shade of blue. Nothing else brought so many feelings in me. It made me compose a song in half an hour."

"My... art moves you?" she repeated, raising her eyebrows. "I move you?"

"Yes, you do." I confirmed, staring in her eyes to be sure she understood I was seriously. "All of you." I paused and shook my head. "Devie, I-"

She cut me by crushing her mouth against mine but I was not sure if it was to stop me from confessing my love or simply because of an intense need inside of her. I chuckled against her mouth as her hand slipped to my butt before moving up on my back.

"You're gonna have to show me those pictures."

"I will." she promised as I kissed her lips again. "Tomorrow."

#niall horan #niall horan smut #niall horan fluff #niall horan fanfic #niall horan fan fic #niall horan fanfiction #niall horan fan fiction #niall horan story #niall horan writing #niall horan au #niall horan college au #niall horan enemies to lovers #niall horan uni au #my fanfics #swy

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badwolf-winchester · 3 years

Text

Ancient Bloodlines

Pairing: Loki x Emy Nightstar (OC)

OC Summary: Emy is the newest Avenger. She specializes in Magic and close range attacks/ weapons. Her heritage is unknown to her as she was left at an orphanage door step when she was a young girl with only the memory of her name. She goes by her nickname Emy but has never told anyone her full name as its a reminder of her being abandoned. Emy can see through any illusion and Magic no matter how powerful they are or how strong the magic is and is unaware of this. Her powers include Telekinesis, Elemental Control, True Sight (as stated above) Enhanced healing and Shifting (she wont discover this till much later in the story). She loves to read, listen to music, play violin, sing, and draw.

Story Info: Takes place after infinity wars. Tony and Natasha are alive Steven comes back from the future after giving back the infinity stones. Vision is alive and living with Wanda in the tower. Thor and Loki live in the tower with the rest of the Avengers and for the sake of the story Himedall is alive and living with the rest of the Asgardians on earth in New Asgard (you will find out why later)

One last thing: Please do not repost my work on any other site or social media, however reblogging on here is fine. I work hard on all of my fanfics and it’s disappointing when people take my work as their own. I am the creater of all my OCs such as Sora Nightstar, Emy Nightstar, and Lithium Nightstar. My inbox is open for any and all requests as i am a multi fandom writer. Let me know how you like the story and i will do my best to answer any and all questions. As always i encourage any and all feedback as it helps with my writing. I hope you all like it!

The Beginning

They say that your parents are there to teach you the rules of the world, but what happens when you have no parents? Who will teach you then? The world is cruel but people are crueler. Ive learned this first hand when the person i trusted most in this world left me on the door step of the St. Trinity’s Orphanage. I was 9 when my mother told me she didn’t want me anymore and i guess I couldn’t really blame her. I mean who could love someone who couldn’t control the powers that grew with each passing year. Someone who started fires out of thin air when they had nightmares, conjured whirlwinds when startled, unfurled earthquakes when angered, spring forth rain showers when sad, and levitate objects when riddled with anxiety. I will never forget that day for its seared into my mind like its own person brand echoing with every beat of my heart. A monster thats what she called me, her own flesh and blood was a monster in her eyes, and i could see the relief when she ran from the solid oak door finally rid of the burden she had to put up with throughout the years. An abomination she cried as she reached the cobblestone sidewalk eager to be rid of me and by the pace she was going at i could tell she had more spring in her step than on the walk over from the bus we exited from. Unnatural she bellowed as she disappeared around the corner a ghost of a smile springing from her lips as she disappeared. These where the last words i would ever hear from my mother, if thats what you would call her.

Emy’s POV

Tonight was just like any other. Crisp cold air submerged the city in a blanket of dark and silence while it settled into your bones. I never minded the cold in fact I welcomed it, it reminded me of the cabin i found one year after running away from one of the many abusive foster homes i was forced to stay with. I’ll admit it was one of the times I was able to avoid the social workers for longer than a week and the happiest I had ever been in my life up until i was captured by Hydra. When I had a flair up with my powers, which usually ended up being fire, i would immediately get sent back to St. Trinity’s but this time i ran before they had the chance to toss me aside. The staff there used to place bets on how long i would stay with a family, they would joke saying i was cursed or jinxed but i knew the truth, no one wanted me. Once the parents found out about my abilities I was sent packing. I was labeled as a flight risk and a danger to others which only deepened my anti socialism.

Walking through the streets of New York i pull my dark purple jacket on and my dark brown hair in a pony tail as I get closer to my destination. Because i don’t feel the effects of the cold weather Tony, being such the dad figure he is, has made it his priority to make sure i still wear one just incase so here i was walking home in black ripped up jeans, a black v neck T-shirt, black and purple checkered vans and a light weight dark purple jacket. With my headphones in my ears and “I like it heavy” by Halestorm blasting I make my way to the place i call home, Stark Tower. Walking through the front doors i make my way past the receptionist who always greets me with a bright smile. As I walk towards the elevator I give her a small smile back and a head nod. After entering the elevator and pressing the button for the penthouse I start to reflect on how i got here.

By the time i was 15 Hydra found me in that cabin and took me away. I went from hopping from family to family to being used as a science experiment, constantly being poked and prodded just so they could get a reaction out of me. As a child my powers where very unstable mostly flaring up with my emotions, its no wonder that Hydra caught wind of me its not like i was hiding it very well or more so that i couldn’t hide it. They tried to wipe my memory to gain control of me “a blank slate” is what they wanted, but for some reason, they failed as I wasn’t susceptible to their conditioning methods no matter how much time i spent in the chair. However, I could tell they were scared of me I could see it in their eyes. This didn’t last long though as they used what they called their perfect weapon code name Winter Soldier to beat me into submission. After that first meeting that left me with a broken arm and a fractured ankle i started to obey, since then Ive met the Soldier a couple of times but if he remembers me he dosent let on and I dont blame him, he has been in that chair so many times Im genuinely surprised he can even remember how to walk. He is stronger than the others as most of the other test subjects had turned to vegetables after the 4th mind wipe, he was on his 10th the last time i saw him with Hydra.

Another test was done on me and this one was different. They used a teseract? If thats what they called it I can’t be sure nor did I care all I could feel was pain like as if someone injected lava in my veins. After they injected me I started screaming after a while I couldn’t even hear myself anymore, my throat was so sore and horse from the constant roar of my agony I just wanted it to end. How long was I out for? Seconds? Minutes? Hours? Days? Years? They didn’t keep clocks there or at least not in the dungeon like cell they had me in. When the fire faded i was left with this numbness and after further tests I realized that I was immune to fire. I can literally stick my hand in fire and i will be left untouched and unscorched. They did the same test with freezing temperatures to see if they could subdue me at least in some way. I must have been out longer than just a couple of days as during the tests i didn’t recognize any of the Doctors. In that moment I realized something, if they were trying to contain me then something must have happened to the soldier. It was time to plan my escape.

Back in my cell i could hear footsteps approaching me and then stop short. One of the scientists frantically trying to talk some sense into someone just out of my line of sight. “She is immune to anything we throw at her sir. We have done every test we could there is nothing left for us to do.” One of the goons in a lab coat stated to what i assumed is a higher up. “Bolden If her powers keep growing at the rate they are it could be days in which she will be unstoppable and with the soldier gone we dont have anything that can keep her in line. She broke Mandy and Rays arms the last time we tested her. She is getting too strong.” Brining a hand up to his chin the higher up Bolden stepped out of the shadows and looked at me with deep interest before he turned to looked at the man and scoffed. As he walked away i felt a cold chill ran down my back as I anticipated what was to become of me; I knew it was nothing good i had already broken their rules. His next words only confirmed what I feared. “ Its simple. Break her spirit or kill her Doctor. And when i say break her i mean in anyway means necessary.” His sadistic laugh is the last thing i remember before everything went black.

Its been 2 years since i have escaped and now I’m living in the avengers tower. I don’t remember what happened after that night in my cell its all a blur of red, screams, and gunshots. When i woke up next i was in a 6ft crater where I was being held captive without a scratch on me. Trees were uprooted and fallen over as if a bomb went off. Luckily the Avengers showed up not long after me waking up and took me to their base where i met Directer Fury. With his permission and 24/7 surveillance provided by Tony Stark via FRIDAY and training sessions to get my powers under control i was allowed to join the Avengers and fight for good. Little did i know that by agreeing to this I would end up in the path of a certain God or Gods who were also taking residence at the tower.

With the sound of a *ding* the elevator shook me out of my mind and back to the present. As i exited the elevator I pulled my head phones out of my ears and was instantly met with the sound of Tony losing his mind. “Where did she go? She knows she can’t be out this late. She could be taken again! Its 5 minutes past her curfew!” Rolling my eyes I roll my headphones up and shove them in my pocket and round the corner. “Tony it takes 5 minutes to get from the lobby to the penthouse calm down. I bet she will walk through that door anytime now.” Came the sweet voice of reason of none other than Pepper Potts. “I’m Home.” I said in a deadpan voice as i walked by the couple only for Tony to stand up and intercept me by placing a hand on my upper arm. “Where did you go and why didn’t you tell me you were leaving?” I looked at him and raised an eyebrow pushing his hand off me. “Tony its Wednesday. I have training with Strange on Wednesdays and I had Friday alert you as I was leaving but you were in the lab with Bruce.” Not sure what to say next Tony mumbled a small apology. “Sorry I was just worried about you. I know you are grown enough to make your own choices as you are 25 but I just want to make sure you are safe. How was the training with The Wizard?” Sighing and shaking my head just wanting to go the library and read I decided to just let it go. “Strange is a hard ass that much you already know. It wasnt bad actually I think I’m warming up to him. I didn’t spontaneously throw him to the wall when he snuck up behind me as i was going over the ancient texts so i call that improvement.” I said sheepishly while side stepping around him. “I’m gonna go to the library now and grab some light reading before bed you guys have a good night.” With out waiting for a response I quickly made my way towards my new destination only to have Tony saying something about guests in the house but I ignored him.

Pushing open the library door I make my way to the poetry section to grab my usual copy of Edgar Allen Poe that I read before bed. As my had reached for the spot i knew i put the book in i find that its not there. “Wait what? Where is my book? I know I put it back here before I left for training so where did it go?” Frustrated I stomp back over to the entrance and rip open the door ready to go on a murder spree while shouting down the hallway. “CLINT! You better give me back my night time book or I’m breaking all your arrows again! No one reads in this tower but me! How stupid do you think I am!?” Straining my ears I listen for any type of movement but was met with dead silence. After a minute I finally hear movement through the vents coming from the west part of the tower and I take off sprinting. Sliding around a corner I barely miss colliding with Steve and Bucky who look like they were on their way back from a mission. Offering a quick apology before I continue my pursuit I hear Steve yell “Hey! No running in the tower!” Not faltering in my hot pursuit of the Hawk thief I continue to zip through the tower ignoring the Captains words until i was almost to the vent that lead to the 2 level family room. Using the railing for the steps leading down to the family area to give me more height i jumped as close to the vent as possible and conjured my signature Scythe to slice through it while twisting in the air kicking the vent free and off its track. A shocked and terrified scream resonates from the vent as the culprit falls to the ground with a thud and a grunt. I landed in a crouched position and slowly straightened to my full hight. “What the hell Emy?! When did you learn to do that?!” Clint yells as he sits up rubbing his left shoulder that he landed on. I started stalking towards him with the blade of my scythe scrapping across the ground as i went while giving him a death glare. “Give me back my book Barton.” At the mention of his last name his head snapped up to me fear replacing the pain from his fall. “Oh shit last name not good.” Scrambling up on his feet he turns and runs towards the common room that connects to the elevator with me hot on his tail and my scythe trailing behind me in my right hand.

“Shit shit shit shit shit shit SHIT!!” He yells as he makes it fully to the room only to fling forward as i jump and kick his back tired of all the running. Twirling my weapon around I place it at his neck sneering at him. “I will not ask you again.” I said placing pressure on his neck with my blade. Sensing a fast moving object coming from my left from the kitchen I move my head back 3 inches as what looked like a hammer flew by me embedding itself in the wall. Turning my head slowly in the direction of the flying object, I confirmed it was indeed a hammer that was thrown at me. Irritation flared through me as i released Clint from the end of my scythe and turned fully to the kitchen to face my attacker. There stood 2 men that i did not recognize, one tall oak of a man with blond short hair, blue eyes and tan skin in blue jeans, a red T-shirt ,and grey jacket. the other shorter man made me stare at him and faultier for a second as he was so different from anyone i have ever seen, dark blue skin covered his entire body with darker almost black symbols and piercing red eyes, long black hair with black jeans, a green dress shirt and black jacket. Tearing my gaze away from his own curious one i looked between both men before i clenched my jaw letting my irritation settle back in. “Which one of you threw that hammer.” I said venom dripping with every word. “Whoa its ok Emy thats just Thor and Loki they are the asgardian Gods that live here in the tower part time when they are not in Norway.” Clint said standing up quickly. Not moving from my position i narrowed my eyes and flicked them over in Clint’s direction. The ground started to shake as my irritation and annoyance grew to anger remembering what i was doing before being interrupted by the Gods. Throwing his hands up in surrender he then quickly reached into his back pocket and retrieved my book. “Ok ok dont blow a fuse Em.” He said while tossing me my possession stopping me from causing an earthquake. Catching it in the air with my left had I inspected the book to make sure it wasn’t damaged before I let go of my scythe, with a wave of my hand it disappeared back to the pocket dimension I keep it in then looked back at Clint as the tremors stopped. “Touch my things again and i will be wearing your guts like my mom’s pashmina.” I said to the thief before walking out of the room and disappeared down the hallway not giving the Gods a second glance. As I entered my room i could hear a silky voice ring out from the kitchen. “Well isnt she interesting.”

Part 2 coming soon

@nickkie1129

#loki x y/n #loki odinson #loki series #loki #loki x reader #loki x you #loki (marvel)#loki laufeyson #marvel #avengers x reader #the avengers #clint barton #tony stark #doctor strange #thor odinson #steve rogers #bucky barns #pepper potts

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impossiblelibrary · 3 years

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Today's rant brought to you by: Queer Eye Japan, can we all just try to be as kind as they try to be?

After watching the Queer Eye Japan super short season, I wanted to google to see the overall reaction to the show, make sure that my western eyes were correct in seeing the care that was given to the culture. Were cultural taboos, other than being outwardly gay, crossed? So I find this article in the top results and other than the perspective, why tho? Tokyoesque.com had an article with a higher reading level, with surface level appreciation but at least better written.

I can't get over this hate article though. Unfounded, dumb, wrong and incorrect. Do not go forward unless you like that blistering kind of anger from me.

But the reasons just get weaker as the article extends: "Hurts the country it set out to save?" Looking for white savior much? They did not go to save Japan, they gave some free shit to like 4-5 people, think smaller.

Their culture guide wasn't gay enough.

You want to suggest any lgbt insta models or celebrities, use your platform to raises some up?

"There is a growing sexless culture in Japan for married and unmarried people, and it is perilous watching Queer Eye present this without any context behind what is driving this behavior."

Sexiness is what the fab 5 embrace, unfortunately and it was probably discussed behind the scenes of how much talking about sex was allowed or polite and the conversation of not having sex is closer to the tip of the tongue rather than the feeling of sexiness. The West is not the ones blasting that information. It is across multiple Japanese printed newspapers and online stories by now and the "context" is still being discussed and debated amongst Japanese. So I don't think any outsiders should be weighing in or "explaining" this phenomenon. We can repeat what we have been told but guessing at the reasons is not our place. The reasons illustrated by the author of the article seem lacking, a take but not the only one, but who am I to speak on that being in a sexual relationship with someone who pulls from that culture?

Kiko begins to lecture Yoko-san on how she “threw away her womanhood” (referring to a Japanese idiom, onna wo suteru) by going makeup-free and wearing drab, shapeless clothes.

The mistranslation by the subtitles fixed by this author was necessary information. But Kiko didn't lecture her on it, it was brought up by Yoko before any of them arrived, that was her theme, that was what she had decided to focus on. Meanwhile, if you watched Jonathan, he understood there was no time to spend on makeup and skincare so provided her a one instrument, 3 points of color on the skin to feel prettier. That and the entire episode being the 5 treating her like a woman on a date, not trying to hook her up, which is what they did in American eps.

"In teaching a Japanese woman, who already struggles to find time for herself, how to make an English recipe, Antoni is making great TV and nothing more."

So Antoni shouldn't have taught her apple pie because it's too exotic for a Japanese woman. (Can you smell the sexism?)

He didn't make an apple pie, altho Yoko did mention her mother made that for her when she was a kid. He made an apple tartine after going to a Japanese bakery who makes that all the time. Then highlighted the apples came from Fuji in true Japanese media fashion. Honey, American television doesn't usually highlight where the ingredients come from. A Japanese producer told him to do that. So all worries handled within the same ep. She got Japanese ingredients, had the recipe shown to her and then made it for her friends in her own house. Did the author actually watch this show or nah?

"beaten over the head with his western self-help logic. “You have to live for yourself,” he says."

The style of build up the 5 went for was confrontational but in a "I'm fighting for you" way. It's hard to describe, but the best I can say is, a person has multiple voices in their head, from parents, siblings, society, and maybe themselves. By being loud and obnoxious, American staples right there, they are adding one more voice. You deserve this, you are amazing, you are worth it. I know this is against most Japanese cultural modesty, but maybe it shouldn't be.

Sarcasm lies ahead:

Apparently: mispronunciation is microaggressions, not just someone who had a sucky school system. Yea okay, They're laughing at the language not at how stumbling these monolinguals are with visiting another country. Mmhm. Japanese don't say I love you and don't touch and that should stay that way instead of maybe, once in awhile, feeling like they can hug. Yeah, let's just ignore Yoko's break down that she had never hugged her lifelong friend after hugging strangers multiple times. Maid cafes are never sexualized in Japan ever, just don't go down that one street in Akihabara where the men are led off by the hand sheepishly blushing. Gag me. And Japanese men love to cry in front of their wives and would never break down once the wife leaves. I have never seen a Japanese movie showcase that move. Grr.

"I identify as many cultures."

So you're a Japanese man when it's convenient for you to get an article published? Are you nationally Japanese or just ethnically or culturally?

Homeland is an inherently racist word?

"After the Bush administration created the Department of Homeland Security after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a Republican consultant and speechwriter Peggy Noonan urged, “the name Homeland Security grates on a lot of people, understandably. Homeland isn’t really an American word, it’s not something we used to say or say now.”

Yes, let's use a Washington Post article rather than a etymology professor. Yes, the google search results increased after 2001 Homeland Security was used but the word has been around since the 1660s and I've read multiple turn of the century lit on white people returning to their homeland, i.e. the town off the coast they were born in.

"But" is not disagreeing. I think the repeated offender for the author is the not acknowledging the makeover-ees feelings. But, that is how LGBT have decided to deal with the inner voices that invade from society. They are just that, not our own, they are the influence of society, and we can choose, we have to choose, to be influenced by someone, anyone else.

Karamo can't speak about being black when an Asian is speaking about being Asian, even though the Asian gay man was feeling alone. It's called relating bitches, and I'm done with people saying that is redirecting the conversation, it's extending the conversation. That's how we talk, the spotlight is shared, especially when someone's about to cry and doesn't want to be seen as crying, time to turn the spotlight.

The gay monk wasn't good enough, you should have invited the gay politician.

Yeah, causes I'm sure a politician has all the time in the world for a quick stint and cry. They picked a Japanese monk who travels to NY because they had a guest who travels to the West too. Did you want him to stop traveling back and forth? Did you want a pure, ethnic and cultural Japanese gay man who has no ties to the west to talk to this Western educated young man? Seriously?

This is just not how it works in Japan.

Being in a multi-cultural marriage between two rebels, discussions on facets of culture are plenty in my household. Culture should be respected enough to be considered but not held on a pedestal like we should never adjust or throw some things out. LGBT being quiet and private for instance. "Being seen" was Jonathan's advice, and a good one especially for a Japanese gay man that was called feminine since he was a kid. Some gay men can hide, but as Jonathan said, he couldn't hide what he was, he couldn't hide this. So fuck it. Don't hide. It's actually more dangerous for a feminine man to come off as anxious rather than gay and proud. It makes you more of a target if they think you won't fight back. Proud means, Imma throw hands too, bitch.

This is also from the civil rights playbook going back to Black America: never hold a protest or a fight without the cameras, without being seen. LGBT have found the more seen they are, in media, in the streets, the better off we are. When LGBT Americans were being "private" about our lifestyles, we died, a la 1980s. They won't care if you start dying off if they never saw you to begin with.

And hence why I think the author's real anger is from these 5 being seen dancing flamboyantly in Shibuya, in Harajuku, afforded the privilege of doing this safely because of their tourist status, cameras and very low violence rate in Tokyo, loud and obnoxiously. Honestly, they wouldn't have been invited or nominated if they didn't want that brash American-ness coming into their home, just for a taste, at least.

Here's my real anger, my own jealousy: Japan's queer community currently does not have marriage or adoption rights. US does, so we have progressed further. But we are also not that many years from being tied to cow fences with barbed wire, beaten with baseball bats and left for dead overnight. If things are so bad over there, maybe take a few pages from the civil right playbook we took so much time to perfect and produced by the Black Americans who fought first. But so far, I only hear loss of jobs and marriages, which we still have here too. Stop trying to divide us, we are one community, LGBT around the world and we are here to try to help. Take it or leave it, it's not like we're going to go organize your own Pride parade for you.

Rant over? I guess. Is this important enough to be put in the google results along with his. Hell no, anyone with half a mind can see he's reaching more than half the time. And any argument about: this wasn't covered! There are a shit ton of conversations that are not covered in the 45 min they have. They are not a civil rights show, it's a makeover show, doing their best in that direction anyway. Know what it is.

Next blog post, what research I would guess was happening behind the scenes for each of the 5? I'm pretty sure I saw Jonathan doing Japanese style makeup there...

#queer eye #Queer eye Japan #original #rant

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pl-panda · 3 years

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To Marry a Vigilante: Part 9

MASTERLIST || First || Previous || Next

To Marry a Vigilante: Part 9

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The Gala. The Wayne Gala. The Wayne New Year’s Gala. The Wayne Gala to celebrate the New Year.

“I can’t do it!” Marinette screamed. “What if I trip and fall on Mr. Wayne and then he will break his leg!? Or what if I accidentally babble something I’m not supposed to and make it a disaster!? Or what if Lila makes a mess and I get blamed for it in front of thousands of people!?” She started breathing heavily. “Or maybe I’ll just look awkward and people decide that I’m useless and Mr. Wayne decides that I should leave Damian to spare him the embarrassment?! I can…” Tikki slapped Marinette when she didn’t respond to any of her pleas.

“Marinette! Breathe.” The Kwami instructed her.

“Sorry Tikki. I’m really nervous. I know that making the announcement today is the best option since we’re starting school soon and the news would break anyway, but it’s just so… I’m not used to all that.”

“I know Marinette. But you must accept that your beloved lives in these circles and you must respect some of the needs. He’s changing for you, but you can’t just demand he abandon his old life.”

“I know… I really want to make this work. He… I know I can trust him like nobody else. Even… even you… I love you, but you’re not…”

“Human?”

“Yes! I’m sorry Tikki. You’re still my partner and my best friend. Don’t tell that to Chloé though.”

“My lips are sealed.” The kwami giggled. “You’re my favorite chosen too, Marinette. You have the true creation inside you.”

“Thanks, Tikki.”

“Not get on and show them what you’re made of!” The little goddess cheered.

“Yes! I’m going to rock! I’m great!” The girl said confidently and put on the purple mask with golden lines.

-------

Damian waited impatiently for his beloved to come. The guests were already filling in and his father and brothers went to greet them. Tom and Sabine, dressed in their MDC original outfits, were already on the dance floor, showing everyone that they could still move even in their forties. Cass was probably somewhere with Bourgeois, stealing cookies or something. The two seemed to bond over being the third wheel and treating Sabine like their new mother.

“Wassup Dames?” A voice startled him and Damian whirled around with a punch that stopped an inch from Jon’s nose.

“Tt. Aren’t you supposed to be downstairs? With the guests?” He grumbled.

“Nah. Mom and Dad are with your dad, going over the safe questions to ask your wi…” Jon didn’t get to finish that word because Damian lunged at him and covered his mouth.

“Tt. Shut up. The last thing I need is drama caused by your big mouth.”

*muffled sounds*

“I don’t care. Mouth shut or I’ll test the new Kryptonite dusters.”

*more muffled sounds*

“I did get them. Want me to try them out right now?” Jon shook his head. “Good. We’ve got an agreement?” A nod. “Fine.” Damian let him go.

“You’re very violent, you know that?”

“Tt. Shut up.”

“I’m just saying.”

“I told you to…” Damian’s words died in his throat. Marinette entered the scene.

“Shall we?” She asked, handing him a sleek black mask with gold details. When light reflected from it, a very subtle purple gleam could be seen.

“It’s incredible, Habibti. Just like the rest of my suit.” He was dressed in a pure-black three-piece, a white shirt underneath, and had a black tie. He screamed style and power.

-------

All in all, the trip was not yet a disaster for Lila Rossi. Her lies were slowly taking root in the people around her. Like the clerk at the Hotel. Soon, she would have them all wrapped around her fingers. Only Maribrat and Chloé seemed to be completely immune to her charms. But that girl was too goody-two-shoes for her own good and Bourgeois was hated even before she started her work.

There was also that exchange student, Grayson boy… Darren, Damien, something like that. She couldn’t believe she thought that guy was Damian Wayne when he first walked into her class. She went as far as stopping Alya from being mean to him. From her research, all Waynes were kind and helpful. Damian Wayne supposedly volunteered at an animal shelter. The press described him as ‘cute in a special way.’ Blasted Waynes and their no-pictures policy. The guy in her class looked a bit similar to Bruce Wayne, at least at first glance. Then, she noticed that his skin was darker (not just solar tan), his nose was a bit different too. And his eyes were green. It was the only constant with the Waynes. They all had dark hair and blue eyes.

As such, she dismissed him as unimportant and focused on her more important goals. Making a deal with Gabriel Agreste, or rather Hawkmoth, was risky. In the end, it worked out for her in many ways. She gained a foothold from which she made her small empire. And Agreste boy was nice arm candy for a while. Until he went all psycho on Maribrat that is.

Now if she found one of the Waynes, she could start working on worming her way in. Blasted masks! They appeared too good in the media not to have a big dirty secret to exploit. Blackmail wouldn’t be new for her.

The Gala was slowly starting when all the lights turned off. Two stage flood lights focused on the stairs leading to the second floor of the manor. Two people appeared on them. First was a young man, about her age, dressed all black. He radiated money and influence and she was sure what he wore was in fact an MDC original. But he was nothing next to his companion.

Her dark-purple dress shone in the light like a thousand diamonds. It hugged her figure perfectly and while she was most likely the same age as her companion, she still looked stunning. The high collar was embroidered with a golden thread that formed intricate patterns around her slender neck. The sleeves went down to her arms where they seamlessly merged with gloves. The line was blurred by twin bracelets that each had a symbol of a bat with flowers. A nod toward the Bats of Gotham while keeping it original. From the waist down, it opened on the side, giving her the freedom to move while still keeping the near-royal appearance. With each step, it flowed slightly, revealing the golden underlining. Her legs were also covered with the same material down to ballet shoes in a deeper shade of purple finished with golden lining.

Her blue hair reached slightly beyond her shoulders and matched her eyes perfectly. All the gold and purple served to make everyone focus on her.

Lila cursed under her breath. There was no chance anyone would notice her with someone like that parading around. Something had to be done. Lila checked her own dress. It was pretty, but when compared to that, it came plain.

All her scheming came to the halt when the pair walked over to Bruce Wayne and got him to stop speaking with Gotham’s mayor. They knew him. A realization dawned on her. It was Damian Wayne and his date. They had to be. But his eyes… they were green.

“No…” escaped the Liar’s lips. The woman she was talking to noticed and followed her gaze. Some part of Lila’s brain noticed she also checked her dress and was saddened. At least her reaction was not out of place.

Bruce Wayne walked with the two back to the stairs where the stand with a microphone was prepared before the lights were turned back on. Sensing a juicy story, all the journalists and bloggers swarmed as close as possible. Some even lost their masks.

“Can I have a moment of your attention?” The billionaire asked. His eyes swept over the crowd. “Before I start, I wanted to remind you that there is a strict no-photos policy on the gala. We’ve hired a photographer with an exclusive contract and any pictures taken not by him will be considered a breach and will be met with a lawsuit.”

The murmurs broke all around the crowd. It was a known fact that taking unsolicited photos at Wayne Galas was forbidden. There was no need to remind anyone about it unless it was a really juicy piece. The last time Bruce Wayne took time to remind everyone about this was when Jason Todd turned out to be alive and well, only slightly amnesiac.

“Now. First I wanted to welcome everyone to this year’s Gala. We’re closing another year and I thank everyone for showing up to celebrate with me and my family.” He raised a small glass of champagne. “In particular, I wanted to welcome a class from Paris that is participating in the year-long exchange program funded by the Thomas Wayne Education fund. I hope you enjoyed Gotham so far.” The journalists were frantically noting everything down. Either for publishing or just to put it in tabloids with some conspiracy theories. “Now, onto the main reason for the announcement. You know I’m not good at speeches.” He grinned and the crowd exploded into laughter. “Since my son just returned from Paris, I’m well aware that this news would break anyway when he returned to school. I ask you to respect their privacy and… well, at least try not to bother them. May I introduce Damian Wayne and his girlfriend, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Everyone started to either whisper or frantically make notes and think of questions to ask. The fact that Damian Wayne, dubbed Ice Prince of Gotham, got himself a girlfriend serious enough to be introduced to everyone was already front-page news for many of them. Even just the dress she wore was front-page news. Any journalist that dabbled in celebrity fashion would recognize an MDC original by now, at least from Jagged Stone or Clara Nightingale. The two refused to even consider anything else.

“Tt. Against my better judgment, I know that teenagers are walking gossip machines so you would all learn it the moment we entered Gotham Academy.” Damian started his speech. “As such, I want to clear any and all confusion before it can start. This,” he motioned at Marinette, “ is my girlfriend. We met in Paris and clicked immediately. I expect you to show her the same respect you show my family or I will challenge you to an honor duel.”

Damian was not even trying to hide his distaste for journalists today. He could see that Marinette was uncomfortable with this attention even more than he was. He grew up used to attention while simultaneously being taught that newspapers were at best a propaganda tool and at worst trouble to be dealt with. Obviously, he disliked them, even more, when he became Damian Wayne. Usually, he tried to remain civil to the journalists unless they were irritating. Today, he didn’t bother. Not that they didn’t know he was a private person. A certain paparazzi with a blade going through his camera would attest to that.

“Angel, do you want to answer their questions or should I?” He whispered.

“Um… shouldn’t you first tell them more?”

“No. It’s better if I only answer what they want to know.”

“Um… Maybe you start.”

“Fine.” He turned back to the microphone. “I will be taking the first question.” He pointed at Clark who had his hand in the air.

“Clark Kent, Daily Planet. Could you tell us more about how you met?”

“I joined Marinette’s class for the exchange program my Father mentioned. The only free seat was next to her, so that’s where I sat. What got my attention first was her willingness to stand up to injustice and forgive those who slighted her. She was open-minded and didn’t back down even when I was… Ehm… a bit rude.” He admitted. “I managed to ask her out and she showed me the side of Paris you don’t usually see with a tour guide. We share a passion for drawing and she shared with me her favorite place in Paris. No, I won’t reveal it. After that, my respect for her only grew when she was willing to accept an apology from a girl that bullied her in the past, helping her actually change her ways. Next question?” He pointed at a different journalist. He really hoped he picked right. The masks were making it harder than he assumed. A flaw in their plan that they overlooked.

“Vicky Vale, Gotham Gazette” The woman introduced herself and Damian resisted the urge to curse. His Father’s ex was not exactly the most favorable toward them after their breakup, even if she tried to stay professional. “What more can you tell us about the mysterious girl behind the mask? So far we know she’s from Paris and likes to draw, plus some traits.”

“May I answer this?” Mari asked Damian, thinking it was high time for her to step up and help. He nodded and stepped back so she had free access to the microphone. “Hi. I'm Marinette. Mostly, I’m just a normal girl with a normal life…” She started. What followed was quite a long introduction where she gave the press enough to satisfy them while keeping private the parts she wanted.

There were many more questions. About family, plans, dreams, etc. The young couple answered some while dismissed others as too personal and rude. Finally, after over an hour they ended the event and told those who would stay to move on with the gala while several journalists were removed. In total, ten photographic devices were confiscated and Chloé got the honors of handling everything with Tim. He was there for a technical site, she was there for intimidation.

One of the particularly irritating paparazzi tried to argue, but then Chloé started to rant until he was cowering in the corner. Pretty much everyone around them was now glaring at him with a hateful gaze. After that, they mostly behaved.

-------

“Well… that was exhausting. And it’s only ten pm?” Marinette and Damian were resting next to the snacks table. They were enjoying a moment of peace once the initial wave of well-wishers passed. Jason was keeping an eye on the class to make sure they were stopped from making anything worse for themselves and everyone else. So far they were too stunned to deal with it. He was pleased to see that Alix girl was finally doing something and pointing out many flaws in their reasoning. The problem was Lila disappeared in the crowd for the moment. Chloé was on the hunt though. She was a master of dealing with a rich crowd, probably surpassing even Drake.

“Here you are!” A voice startled the couple. Marinette and Damian turned to see a group of four people. Jon was one of them. There was also a girl with blonde hair pulled into a long braid and a boy in a blue suit with medium-long black hair and blue eyes. The fourth one made Marinette’s blood run cold. Her eyes went wide and she acted before anyone caught the wind of it. A strong straight punch sent the boy looking like Adrien flying onto the ground.

Chatter around them died in an instant. Marinette tried to lunge at him, but Jon caught her. He was probably the only one strong enough to hold her back.

“Let me go! Don’t you see he is a criminal?!” She was doing her best to get out of his grip. Damian suddenly was holding the blade to the neck of the blonde boy.

“You have five seconds to speak.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not my moronic cousin. Would you please let go of me?” He asked with a thick British accent.

“Tt. Prove it.” Damian scoffed.

“Ugh. I’m really tired of dealing with everyone taking me for a criminal just because I look like him. Ask my mother!”

Indeed, a blonde woman in a gray dress was making her way through the crowd. “Felix sweetie!?” She kneeled next to him while glaring daggers at Damian and Marinette. Reluctantly, he took away the sword but didn’t put it away. Dick and Tim also arrived.

“What happened?”

“That twit attacked my Felix!”

“Tt. He shows up and looks just like a known criminal. You should’ve really chosen something other than a black mask and a black suit.” Damian frowned. He didn’t exactly feel bad about the incident, but the press would jump on that.

“It’s alright mum. I admit I’m partially at fault. I forgot the reaction Parisians have to me right now.” He bowed his head. “Please accept my apologies.” His lower lip was bleeding.

“Um… here. Let me help you.” Marinette pulled a tissue from her pocket (of course her dress had pockets) and handed it to him. Nodding, he wiped the blood.

“Tt. I’m still not convinced.”

“Damian! That’s rude. I remember Felix. He was in Paris once.” Then, she mumbled under her breath. “Caused a triple akumatization.”

“I am sorry for that…”

“Felix joined our class this year. You left the day before he came.” The blonde girl explained.

“It was all just one big misunderstanding folks. You can move on.” Dick took control of the crowd and allowed the teens some breathing space. Except that’s when the class finally decided to start speaking up.

“Yeah right! Marinette is just a big bully! I’m in her class and she was mean to Lila from the beginning. I wouldn’t be surprised if she dated Damian Wayne just for money.” Alya had to babble. The rest of the class (minus Alix) was either nodding or giving their own confessions, real or not, and always against Marinette.

So far the Waynes avoided any accusations about gold-digging. The one journalist that tried to pick up the subject (subtly at first) was silenced by Damian’s evil eye. Now more people murmured. And the number of people able to respond was greatly limited as Damian, Chloé, Jason, and Sabine had to be restrained from hurting people.

To everyone’s surprise, it was Cass who jumped on the table.

“Shut…! Up!” She shouted. Or what stood for her shouting, which was only slightly louder than normal people’s speech. Still, it got everyone’s attention. “Cousin Nettie is… kind. Good. Sel… Selfless. She is my family. Not… digger.” She glared at several people that were still muttering. “Saw her… date with Damian. She did not let him pay. Not digger!” There was a dangerous edge in her voice. That was enough to shut people up. Except for the class.

“Of course you would protect her!” Kim stared at her. “You’re probably…” He didn’t finish because Alix covered his mouth. The girl noticed that Bruce, who was restraining Jason Todd was about to let go. She wasn’t sure exactly what would happen, but she wasn’t willing to find out.

“I think it’s time for you to leave. Where is your teacher/chaperone?” Bruce asked, also glaring at them.

“Um… Madame Bustier is…”

“Madame Cheng is right there!” Mylene pointed to where Tom was doing his best to stop his wife from grabbing the Bag and cutting the class into tiny pieces.

“I… I don’t think it would be healthy for us to go with her right now. She is very emotional right now.” Alix offered. She was trying to act like the voice of reason. Something this class lacked.

The teacher was quickly located flirting with one of the musicians invited to the gala. She was completely unaware of what her charges did.

“I’m sure it was just some misunderstanding. Marinette indeed started acting out a bit this year. They probably overexaggerated a bit.”

“Tt. You mean she stopped being a doormat?” Damian huffed.

“As I said, it’s time for the kids to leave,” Bruce said in a harsh tone.

“Oh… Okay. I’m sure Sab…”

“Caline. You’re the one responsible for taking care of them. You’ll take them away when Mr. Wayne asks.” Tom then pointed at his wife, who he was holding a few inches above the ground to keep her from doing something stupid.

“Um… Of course.” The teacher sighed. “Kids. Gather your things. We must leave.”

As they were walking out, people applauded. After Alfred closed the doors behind them it was finally safe to let the more violent part of the family free. In all that mess, nobody noticed that a certain sausage-haired girl was not with them

“Now, Wayne.” The blonde started. “Want to explain why we had to learn about you having a girlfriend from a press conference?”

“Or why did Jon know her before us?” The boy added.

“I would also appreciate hearing how my bloody cousin earned your ire,” Felix added.

“Oh! Sorry.” The girl turned to Marinette. “I’m Allegra and this is Claude. You already know Jon and Felix. We’re Damian’s friends. Or the closest thing he had to such.”

“Tt. I don’t have friends.”

“Bro. Not cool.” Claude argued.

“Shut up. Claudius.” he huffed.

“You wound me.” The teen gasped and put a hand on his chest. “Dami.”

Felix and Marinette watched from the sidelines how the quartet bickered. Jon tried to help Damian sort things out.

“For what it’s worth, I am sorry,” Felix said after a moment of silence. “My cousin is a daft git.”

“That we can agree on,” Mari said absentmindedly while trying to keep the eye on Damian. She hoped he didn’t bring the kryptonite dusters tonight.

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Masterlist // Next

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eurovision-del · 3 years

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I’m back home after watching Eurovision with a friend, and I want to get my thoughts down!! (This is going to be a long post)

Top 5

Italy: Wow! I thought they could do it, but seeing them actually pull it off and win the whole thing is incredible! I can barely describe how happy I was when they won, I definitely found the voting a lot more stressful when my fave had a real chance at winning, but the payoff when they were announced as winners was worth it all! I’ve been a fan of Måneskin for a few years now, so seeing a band I like go from there to competing in Sanremo, to making it to Eurovision, to winning the whole damn thing is undescribable! Zitte E Buoni is such a fantastic song, and it’s going to continue to be one of my all time favourite Eurovision songs for many years to come!

Italy’s third victory was a long time coming, they’ve been consistently great over the past decade, but I’m very glad it was this song that did it for them! I also like it when a winner shakes up the perception of what a winning song should be, like Portugal 2017. This is the first time since 2006 that both a group and a rock act have won Eurovision, and personally I’ll be very glad if this causes a resurgence in both over the next few years. It’s also notable for being a song not sung in English, but I’ve got more to say on that later.

I always think it’s best when the televote winner is the overall Eurovision winner, so I’m very glad to see Italy topping the televote, and they did it by a decent margin, just over 50 points!

France: A very deserved second place. Barbara performed wonderfully and brought the magic to the Eurovision stage, she should be so proud of what she achieved. She was just unlucky that there was a better song this year, in another year Voila could have easily won. I wouldn’t mind seeing her, or especially her co-writer, Igit, who I’ve liked since he did Destination Eurovision in 2018, make a return to Eurovision, either as singers or songwriters.

Switzerland: I liked Tout l’Univers well enough based on the song, then it grew on me even more in the second semi final, so I was very happy to see it do well! Like Barbara, Gjon gave a brilliant performance tonight, and should be very proud of his third place! It’s great to see Swizterland, a country that struggled so much throughout the 2010s, pull off two top 5 finishes in a row at the turn of the decade. I’m hoping for more good things from them in the future!

Iceland: It’s such a shame that Daði and Gagnamagnið missed out on the chance to perform live in Eurovision, but thank goodness they were able to get that second rehearsal performance done as well as they did! The song and performance are so heartwarming, they utterly deserved this result. I’m really excited to see where Daði goes from here, I’ve actually already got tickets to see him live next year!

Ukraine: Like Italy, Ukraine managed to achieve the same result in the actual contest as they did in my personal ranking! I was worried the song would be too divisive, but the performance was perfect and elevated the whole thing, and Kateryna’s vocal perforamnce was flawless. Very pleased to see them achieve second place in the televote!

I’ve watched Eurovision since 2014, and I can say with confidence that this is the first time since that year that I’ve had no complaints about the top 5. I’ve also gone back and watched every Eurovision ever, and I’m struggling to think of a year that I’ve been this happy with the top 10, every place from 1 to 9 I think is either well deserved or better than I was hoping for! It’s not until you get to Greece in 10th place that I reach a song I think is mildly overrated in the results.

Other Countries

Finland: I won’t do a full run down on Lithuania and Russia, two of my other favourites, as I’ve said it all by saying I’m so happy with the top 10, but I want to give a special mention to Finland. For a second I was really worried when their televote result was so high, as I thought it might indicate the vote for the two rock songs had been split. I’m so thankful to be proven wrong, and for these results to show that not only is there a place for all kinds of rock and metal music in Eurovision, but that they can exist alongside each other and do well. I also really want to congratulate Finland on achieving their second best result ever! While I like it when countries switch things up I won’t complain if Finland look at their previous results and decide that they’ve found their niche in rock and metal music.

The Netherlands: My biggest disappointment in terms of result. I wasn’t too surprised, based on the neutral to negative reaction of the fans at large and the odds, but I still don’t really understand it. This song deserved a lot more than 11 points! In my ideal Eurovision I’d say this should be the sort of song juries reward, they should have the time to look at lyrics and composition and cultural influence and reward songs as good as this one. But apparently it wasn’t to be. I really hope no one gets discouraged by this result, and I’d be very happy to see more artists representing their stories and their non-European cultures at Eurovision in the future.

United Kingdom: Look, I have to talk about my own country. I’m honestly more worried about the backlash the media here is going to have than I am disappointed in this result. But I am still a little disappointed. I don’t think this song was the worst in the final, sure, it was definitely in the bottom half, but I can think of serveral songs worse than this. And the nil points was totally undeserved. That marks our second nil points, the only other being Cry Baby in 2003, and this song is leagues better than that ever was, putting them in the same category feels like an insult. That said, I can’t complain too much. This year was very strong, and I’m not actually sure where the points would have come from. Embers is a nice song, but it’s not strong enough or interesting enough to be anyone’s favourite, maybe it should rank in the middle for everyone, but why would it rank in their top 10?

I’ve seen an idea that maybe the BBC should just give the competition to ITV for a few years, and while I don’t think that would solve our problems, we do need a shake up. The BGM deal seemed like a good move, but if it’s only going to continue to produce ‘nice’ songs rather than ‘impactful’ songs, it’s not going to help us on the scoreboard. I fully believe that there’s no reason the UK shouldn’t do well at Eurovision. In an ideal world, we’d organise a national finla filled with unique entries, not the drivel that our last national final contained - I don’t think our strength is actually going to be in our pop industry at Eurovision, I think it’ll be in our less mainstream stuff. I’d love for us to also try sending a song in Welsh, Gaelic, or even Scots, something that’s full of cultural identity and couldn’t come from anywhere else in the world. It might not be a winner, but I think a song like that would have a far better song of catching people’s attention and doing well at the contest than songs our current strategy produces ever would.

Other Thoughts

This year was a victory for the unique and artistic, there’s not a single song in the top 9 that could be classified as a straightforward pop song. I also want to note that the entire top 3 is non-English, Italian and two French entries. This is the only time that’s ever happened since the language rule was abolished, and since the last few years of that produced English podium placing songs, it’s the first year it’s happened since 1995. I really hope that sends the message out loud and clear that songs in native languages can and do succeed at Eurovision!

In 2019 I talked a bit about the Juries vs the Televote, and how I wasn’t too keen on the Jury results that year. This year, aside from overlooking The Netherlands, I’d say they did their job pretty well. The combined results seem very fair, better than both the Televote and the Jury results individually, and I think that shows the system is working at its best. I’m very glad to see Portugal score well, I thought the whole entry was brilliant and it deserved the boost the juries gave it. Likewise I thought Lithuania deserved a top 10 result and was glad the televote responded to it enough to put it there. The best countries, however, scored well in both, I was happy to have a year without a surprise jury favourite. Switzerland was definitely a fair jury winner.

Closing Thoughts

Eurovision 2021 has been brilliant! We got a really strong set of songs, some fantastic performances, and a set of results I generally really agree with, completed by my ideal winner! Maybe when the buzz has died down I’ll reconsider, but right now I’m very confidently calling this my favourite of the contests that I’ve watched live - maybe my favourite contest ever? Either way, it’s been a good one, and I’m already eagerly anticipating next year!

#eurovision #esc2021 #alright it's 2:30 am BST as I finish this which means it's even later in the rest of Europe #so probably no ones going to see this until tomorrow #I'm going to be riding the high of tonight for a long time though #I'll look at semi final results tomorrow and probably write thoughts about that then #then that will probably conclude esc2021 #however! I have plans to keep posting over the summer #I've got a look at my ideal winners with some very specific constraints I want to share #then I finally want to do my winners ranking which I've been meaning to do ever since I made this blog #That should last me until September roughly when I'll take a little break #then I'll be back with national final rankings when FiK rolls around #unless someone else (maybe Eesti Laul?) gets there first!

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