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akaashisupremacy · 3 years

Text

Just a Holidate

Summary: You and Kuroo agree to be holidates. What could possibly go wrong?

Notes: The Usher karaoke scene is inspired by @sugardaddykenma ‘s hq x usher confession album post which you desperately need to check out. In general, I love to write for Kuroo. Check out another fic here and my Masterlist.

Kuroo x reader

genre: Christmas fluff, angst, a sprinkling of crack, ficlet (wc: 1.2 k)

“What are you doing on the godforsaken app?!” Kuroo Tetsuro peers over your shoulder, bending down to look at your phone.

“I’m aggressively swiping for a holidate,” you scowl. Dating apps are self-explanatory enough, “And there are not enough available people with cars.”

“That’s rather materialistic of you.” he comments, straightening up his back.

Both of you have just finished a coffee get-together with some friends from your middle school, the first of many holiday engagements to come. Many of you went off to separate high schools but still kept in touch.

“Tetsuro, I’m here for holiday fun,” you roll your eyes, “I’m not looking for a life partner with outstanding moral character.”

A snicker escapes him. Sounds fair.

“What’s your radius?” He asks curiously.

“5 miles I think.” You shrug.

“If you make it 7, I have a car.” He smirks.

——————————————

“I can’t believe I took you up on your offer,” you say incredulously, “And that you’re requiring me to go to your parties too.”

The first of your holiday parties is actually not yours, but Kuroo’s instead. In the interest of fairness, he insisted you have to go to his engagements as well.

“It’s called a two-way street.” He tuts, locking up his car.

Kuroo picked you up earlier this evening to go to a karaoke reunion with his old team mates from Nekoma. As you walk to karaoke place, you bring up an old memory.

“Every time I think about you and karaoke, I remember the time where you and Yaku serenaded a girl with an unsolicited Usher song with the rest of the volleyball team as your backup singers.” you chuckle.

“Wait—who told you about that?” His face glows bright red. It’s unusual to see Kuroo caught off guard. “I was black out drunk and it was on a dare, okay?!”

You wiggle your fingers, “It’s a secret.”

The receptionist leads you to the reserved room. The room is dark, lit only by brightly colored blue and green lights. The wall paper looks like it was designed by someone on hallucinogens. You turn to him with a questioning gaze.

“Don’t look at me. This was Yaku’s idea.” he raises his brow.

He quickly introduces you to his friends before they hand you the list of available songs and the remote control.

“If you want to sing, we can queue something for you.” he mindlessly browses.

An idea goes off your head. When he stands up to order for some drinks, you quickly queue a surprise in a few minutes.

“Who queued Simple Things by Usher?” calls out Tora. You see Kuroo’s ears perk up from across the room and his eyes widen in a mix of alarm and amusement as the opening notes play.

“It’s Kuroo’s song!” you call out in reply, “Can you hand him the mic?”

Tora shoves him the mic. The Nekoma team start to cheer in anticipation. He glare at you mischievously grin and give him a thumbs up from your seat.

He slowly grabs the mic and mouths, “I’m getting you back for this...”

————————————————

Despite not having gotten over the trauma from his Usher karaoke, Kuroo still insists on having you come as his date. You admire him for his persistency.

He’s not terrible by any standard. He’s even kind of fun, so even though you’d rather stay home some night, you never really regret having gone out with him.

“Kenma’s place, 8 pm, drinks and Cards Against Humanity.” he calls one evening, “It’s kind of last minute, but can you make it?”

Kuroo calls out of the blue. It’s 9 am on a Saturday morning.

“Probably not, I’m going to decorate my apartment.” you reply, untangling some lights with one hand. He hears the shuffling over the phone.

“But it’s so close to the holidays?” he asks, somewhat confused as to why you’d choose to decorate so late into the season.

“It’s mostly just lights,” you sigh, “I didn’t have the money to buy them earlier this month so I only got them now. This is important to me, Tetsuro. My parents used to never allow me to decorate their house. Now that I have my own place and time, I wanna do this.”

When you are met with silence, you become defensive, “I knew you wouldn’t under—“

“If I come help, can you go?” he interjects.

In less than half an hour, he quietly gets to work untangling and hanging your lights. He even goes back into his car to get his toolbox and some supplies.

Kuroo is so silent when he’s concentrating you’re a little freaked out.

“You’ve changed, Kuroo.” you murmur, “High school you would've been making hot takes and calling me chibi-chan, but you’re actually doing something nice for me.”

“I like to think I’ve matured since then.” he raises a brow at you.

He twists some hooks onto the surface and you hammer some nails on the other end of the same wall.

“You’re really into this holidate thing,” you comment, “Didn’t think you’d be so extra, but thanks for helping me out.”

“No problem,” he utters, eyes glued to his work, “I’m just tired of showing up alone. Most of the guys are in long-term relationships and I’m still extremely single.”

“But why are you being so extra? Is it really the single-ness?”

He glances at you and rolls his shoulders back.

“‘I've always thought you were kinda cute…and spunky…and really nice. Even if sometimes I’d annoy you, you’d still help me out when we were in junior high. Do you remember that?” he tilts his head, “Which I guess peaks to as you put it, your great moral character…I guess I just wanted to see if you still live up to that image of you I’ve built up in my head.”

You let out a small laugh.

“Do I?”

Without skipping a beat, he clears his throat and replies “Yeah, you’re even better than I thought you’d be.” You’re surprised by the lack of his usual bravado. He almost seems…shy.

“So you’re to debunk your middle school crush on me basically.”

“Among other things,” he smirks, “I like spending time with you though. I like who I am when I’m with you.” A small smile wipes the smirk off his face. A certain vulnerability permeates his tone.

“Okay, I think this is it.” He steps back from his handiwork and hands you the plug.

“Go ahead. See if it works.”

You plug the lights in and your apartment is aglow of fairy lights. A hush falls between the two of you, both at a loss words. Your apartment even looks better than it was in your head.

“Not bad,” he nods in approval.

You slowly turn to him.

“Thanks, Tetsuro, this is the best present ever.” you beam at him, before turning back to your handiwork.

He feels unexpectedly moved by your reaction. He mumbles a “no problem” and stands a little closer to you.

“You’re not so bad a holidate yourself. I might actually miss this when the holidays are over.” you chuckle.

Kuroo wants to reach out behind your shoulders but stops himself. He is harshly reminded that he’s a temporary companion. As he watches your face by warm yellowish lights, he takes in each detail of your features.

In case things could somehow miraculously work out, he wants to remember this night as the night he fell for you. But until that happens, he readies his heart to be broken because he’s just a holidate after all.

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

Taglist: @itstheee-ha-chan @kaizumi @holaaaf @glxar

Comment or message to be added to the taglist! :D

#flightlessworks #kuroo x reader #kuroo tetsuro x you #kuroo x gender neutral reader #kuroo x y/n #kuroo x you #kuroo tetsuro imagine #kuroo tetsuro fluff #kuroo tetsuro x reader #hq imagines #hq x y/n #hq x reader #hq x you #hq fanfic #kuroo tetsuro #haikyuu #haikyuu x self insert #haikyuu x gender neutral reader #haikyuu x y/n

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btssunnyboy · 4 years

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— Double Life - Song Mingi

Was finding out his secret, worth all of the terror it came with?

Words Count - 2,115

Warning - Gang!Au, home invasion.

BTS , NCT , ATEEZ , request are open!

__________________________________________

Leading a double life was never as easy as the millions of movies made it seem. Clashing of the two worlds was bound to happen at some point, but he never would have thought it would clash in the way it did. Both of his contrasting worlds meeting in the middle, and those involved immediately became surrounded by new founds of threats. And that was the last thing he ever wanted for his boys, and most importantly you. You were a special gem that he was desperate to keep hidden away from his cruel other world, so that it would not diminish your beautiful shine. He’s seen what this harsh world can do to people like you , innocent and pure people. All of the misery, heartbreak and betrayals that he goes through on a daily basis, is something he never wanted to drop onto you at all. So to keep his harsh world separate from his romantic world, he decided that being two faced was easier.

Keeping these two worlds separate was easier said then done. He noticed how certain events were starting to overlap, he noticed how his boys were starting too take note of the how his abilities were starting to dwindle, you were starting to notice how his ‘usual’ personality was slowly slipping away. Revealing something that you had never seen before. The usual bubbly, and sweet Mingi was being replaced by a counterpart that was cold and off putting. You hated seeing him like this, it was like a new person had embedded themselves within him, taking over everything in his body. It was terrifying to say the least, but still you proceeded like nothing was bothering you. Like everything was fine and dandy, when in reality you knew there was a bigger secret at hand, you just had to figure out what it was.

You first started noticing just how secretive he could be when you saw him out and about one day. His eyes trained on a target sitting on a nearby park bench. Her long hair framing her face, and her beautiful coat hung loosely around her shoulders. Those perfect hands settling themselves around his biceps and dread filled your body like no other. He was loyal, he always was, yet some part of you held that memory of that women for days. Holding that guilt and dread almost to keep yourself anchored, because maybe you were overreacting, and if you were then all the bad feelings would have been for nothing.

“I’m going to ask you a question,” You started as you turned his chair around to face. His eyebrows raised slightly, as he reached for your hands. Before his fingertips could brush up against yours, you removed your hands away slightly. A sheet of sweat of starting to coat your body, and you didn’t know how longer you could handle it. “You love...you love me, right?”

His hands immediately reached out and interwoven themselves with yours. Pulling your body as close as humanly possible, to the point that you were basically straddling his lap. “I love you so much, it’s suffocating.”

You could feel tears swell in your eyes as you thought back on all of the memories. The secret meeting with the new women, the sudden change in personality, it was all driving you crazy. You thought he trusted you, you thought he cared about you enough to say everything that’s going on in his life. But right now you truly felt like you don’t know the man you’ve come to love. Your hands retracted themselves from his, and cupped his cheeks. “If you love me that much, does that mean you’ll be honest with him.”

Without hesitation he nodded his head, making sure you saw. His warm hands cupping your cold ones, as he waited for you to say anything. Those once cold eyes of his turning soft at the mere sad expression that threatened to cross your features. The moment he spoke you could feel the uneasiness in his voice. “Of course, I’m always honest with you.”

You breathed out a shaky breath, as you tried to keep yourself calm at this moment. Even after he said that, you wanted to believe it was all true. Believe that when he looked into your eyes that he was telling the truth. But you notice how uneasy his voice was, the way his hand subtle shook at the word honest, almost as if it was a curse. And hearing that word would make everything around him crumble down, into mere beaten up rocks. When in reality that’s what would happen, telling you the honest truth would make everything fall apart at the seems.

“You say that, but I still don’t believe it. I’m sorry.” You mumbled as you tried to pull yourself away. With no luck as Mingi wrapped his arms tightly around your waist, making sure you were secure within his grasp. Because right now this was right, it felt right, and he wanted to make sure he remember all the curves on your body just in case this was the last time you let him touch you like this. Those gentle hands have caused harm to many bad people, but he’d never do that to you. “Mingi if you want me to stay, you have to tell me the truth. I mean it, all of the truth.”

“Baby, I - “ He tried, key word tried, to start of his confession. But you didn’t like it already, because it seemed fabricated. It seemed like a rehearsed script that he was beginning to read off. You shook your head in disappointment, because you should have seen it coming. All the signs were there, yet you chose to believe that things could be different for the two of you. But it’s obvious that wasn’t the case.

“You have two options, Mingi, either you tell me why your personality changed all the sudden, or why I’m seeing you meet up with random people all of the sudden. Because if you don’t...if you don’t tell me, we’re done.” You demanded as you stared straight into his eyes. Answers were going to be given one way or another, you loved the man, but you didn’t love the lies. And if this came to an end, then it was just going to end.

“Okay, I promise what I’m about to say will explain all of that, but once you open this door there is no going back.”

“If it means I get to stay with you, I’m ready for anything.”

__________________________________________

He was right when he said once you open that door there is no going back. Because at that moment his opposite worlds collided. And things were never the same for the two of you. When he introduced his team mates you found out that his skills involved weapons, and manipulation and then dots started to connect themselves. His personality changing to meet the targets, or the way he was always on edge at the slightest sound. After all this you realized just how much he cared for you, by keeping this secret. Keeping this secret helped you lead a normal life, and it allowed you to avoid the gang violence all together.

But at last good things never last when it’s involved with the other world. The moment you entered those headquarters, and met the other family he had that consisted of, HongJoong, Seonghwa, Yunho, Yeosang,San,Wooyoung and Jongho. All of these men had traits that made them extremely deadly, but they surprisingly welcome you with open arms at the mere sight of how infatuated Mingi was. When you learned about them, that’s when things took a deadly turn. The word got around that the notorious gang ATEEZ welcomed someone new into their close knit group, people started to hatch plans. They knew a newbie wouldn’t understand much about the world, so they thought if they could get to you, then they’d learn all the secrets about them.

You knew that being in this world would come with consequences, but you never pictured this. Being home alone for once, while Mingi worked on a new mission, but right now you could feel the hair on the back of your neck stand up. As a warning for what’s coming. Because shadows were moving around the front yard, the security cameras were picking up multiple movements around the house all together. The number of people outside was unknown, as you tried to move in silence through the house. All the lights were already off, but the tv was shinning bright, giving away exactly where you were

Panic was starting to set in when you noticed just how close they were to the front door. Their hands were starting to yank the doorknob violently. You rushed to grab your phone, and race up the stairs. “Mingi! Someone’s here.”

The connection was spotty, and he felt his stomach drop. It’s never done that before, and he’s worried about what’s happening on the other end of the phone call. He motion towards the others, before he retracted himself away to console you. “Baby! Stay calm, and say that again.”

“There’s someone here, and I’m worried they know about you.” You panicked even more when you heard the sounds of shattering glass, and multiple deep voice. “Mingi, they are in the house.”

He turned around faster than the speed of light. Sprinting towards his car in sheer panic that you were going to get hurt. All of the others soon followed suit as they raced to their own vehicle, wanting to be there as backup if the situation was really that bad. Oh boy, it seemed like it worse then bad, you could hear scraping against the walls as they each got closer. Their loud shoes sliding against the wood floors, as they taunted you loudly. It was echoing off the walls, and pounding in your skull. It was making your heart race rapidly, and you were scared they could hear it, and find out where you’re hiding.

The dark bathroom was terrifying, because your eyes were playing tricks on you. Making it appear as if shadow figures were getting closer and closer each time you blinked. If help didn’t arrive soon you felt like this was going to be the end of you. Those heavy, pounding footsteps getting closer and closer, as the scraping against the wall got louder and louder. You plugged your ears up tightly, and buried your head within your knees that were pulled up to your chest. For a brief moment the sound was drowned out by your fingers, and the slight ringing that echoed in your head. It was a distraction you needed desperately, to block out the horrible event that is taking place in your home.

You didn’t noticed for a while how everything stood still, too still to be exact. The stillness that comes with complete and utter chaos, and that was not what you wanted. Right now you wanted Mingi, and only Mingi, to burst through that door and hold you so tight that you could barley breath. But right now all you have is someone violently shaking the bathroom door knob with all their might. The voice on the other side was muffled from your fingers, and panic. Everything was going to come to end eventually, it just had to.

“Y/n, baby, it’s me I swear.”

That honey like voice that you’d recognize anywhere, was now on the other side of that wooden door. Waiting for his love to open it and embrace him, most importantly he wanted to make sure that you are okay. You needed to be okay, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if you weren’t. The door swung open swiftly, and your body fell flat into his arms. They wrapped themselves around you within a second, as you buried your tear streaked face into his shoulders. As a sob raked through your body.

“I’m so sorry, y/n, but no one is going to hurt you ever again I promise.”

You wished that sentence would have provided you with comfort. But you kept thinking about how this could happen again. If more people find out that you two are together, they could do worse stuff then this. They could hurt you to get leverage on him and the rest of the boys. And it terrified you to think about that, as if every second of every day your life was in danger. Maybe it was best his double life stayed as it was before. Because you don’t know if he’s worth all of this panic.

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herpronuonsarefemslash · 3 years

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Do Not Tap the Glass - TEASER

Enjoy an ABO Supergirl / Jurassic Park (barely) crossover where Alex is a scientist for the Luthor Institute studying a mysterious "creature" that was found in the arctic ice, her wife Maggie definitely thinks pregnant Alex is sexy Alex, they go to a sex club together, and Lex throws Lena in with the beast...that maybe isn't a beast at all. Chapters 1-5 are public and Chapter 6 is Patreon exclusive.

Chapter 1 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qpiYG0XLyuUU79_P2YTwG6IYR6GISse3/view?usp=sharing Chapter 2 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EJlb75hUbGXdNAkkwPzW691XFS9AXx-d/view?usp=sharing Chapter 3 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jE-f6E4McfFWKUXCX-ZhJWAg0XvHn1el/view?usp=sharing Chapter 4 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HEcDBzNaB6qmZ2JkzInx46INWOyawfdC/view?usp=sharing Chapter 5 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SQaoF7H2aG1kVyhA35zFfQ5ZfK86lU3Z/view?usp=sharing Chapter 6 - https://www.patreon.com/posts/54672610 Alex has a ritual when she starts a new job: ride the bike in for confidence. Sadly, the list of 'required tools' she was asked to bring would never have fit in a bike. It would never have fit in Maggie's beloved 'princess plug' either, that silver Subaru with a bedazzled back hatch and two surfboards eternally attached to the rack.

Hence, renting a small U-Haul that drives like a dead whale. Maybe the Luthor Institute isn't really hiring her for her mind, maybe they just want her and her mom's research and devices. Lex Luthor has a scary rep in the academic community. He's probably just going to have someone shoot her as soon as she's buzzed in the gate.

Still. It's an interesting job because the not-interesting jobs don't come with 200-page non-disclosure agreements she signed, being watched by lawyers so clenched a punch-press and a vat of KY couldn't help them. It's a lot of money. It's enough money to put aside a million for their daughter by the time she graduates college. Once she finishes developing a spine, organs, and nervous system, that is. Alex was too busy puking to nickname the fetus, so Maggie stepped in.

Regrettably. Cervix-Kicker is just not something Alex can tease her slowly-swelling belly with, at least in public. Maggie's turn, next time. She's pretty sure there will be a next time. Alex suspects that pregnancy sex makes the case for the pregnancy itself, in Maggie's view.

Her phone lights up and a bonobo's shrieking voice comes out. Eliza recorded it during the early days of her fieldwork. Alex taps answer.

"Hey, Mom."

"Morning, sweetie. How's the new job?"

=====

Nia rolls her eyes with such exaggeration it makes her fairy-dusted eyeshadow sparkle a bit in the sun.

"Come on, new girl," Nia teases. "I'll show you around."

"She will. She's basically in charge of the pep squad here," Frank teases. "When I started, I gained five pounds from all of the bonding lunches Nia organized."

"Did you complain?" Nia demands.

"I did not. And I do not regret a moment of it, kid. Someone will come unload the truck, doc. Thanks for bringing all your gear."

Frank tips his ball cap at Alex and goes back to the main group by the door.

"My mom's designs too." Alex mumbles. One accidental touch and she's blubbering out self-deprecation to near-strangers.

"Right," Nia chuckles. "The infamous Doctors Danvers. So is your kid going to be a world-renowned psych researcher does the third generation end up a bunch of losers who like, found the next Google?"

"Um, not sure. I have to meet them first."

"Shut the front door!" Nia exclaims. Her smile just went up about fifty thousand watts. "I was just joking but you're actually preggers."

"How ca-"

Alex glances at Nia's nametag. In the lower right is an omega symbol with an F beside it. Curiously, it even has the sub-status there even though that's unnecessary in the case of female omegas given the extremely low variation rate. Alex has never heard of subtypes being used outside of therapy or a doctor's office. Using them at work is legal--probably--but it's also downright bizarre. As an omega, Nia can not only smell the tiny changes in Alex's scent indicating she's pregnant, she can probably tell Alex what soap Maggie uses, along with her age, ethnicity, and most recent rut.

"They categorize us by status?" Alex asks. "How 1890s."

Nia sighs.

"Well, it's actually not so bad. There was a dude in maintenance who I thought was taking notes on my heat cycle. I mentioned something and the next thing I know there was this absolute unit of a woman from HR sort of shadowing me. Eating lunch, printing stuff to the copier we use, so on. Being obvious about it to, making sure he knew she had her eye on him. So they do use the information for the right reasons."

Any competent HR department could handle all that. Nia must realize that too.

"The creature. The creature can sense human genera and reacts to them."

Nia makes finger guns.

"Bingo. Got a nose like a bloodhound, that one. Even with the enclosure being vacuum-sealed and using completely different air, the creature catches it somehow."

=====

She nods towards the ruined hard drive, which has been ground and punctured and shaved to produce the bearings.

"I'm afraid I never made a backup."

"Fuck," Lex snarls.

She got Lex to curse in front of his men. Victory enough for one lifetime.

"Take her."

She lets the goons cuff her.

"Oh, and I injected myself with an agent that reacts violently with truth serum drugs. Violently and fatally."

"Which ones?" Lex demands.

"All of them. And I put an implant in my teeth with 2 grams of high explosive. So electrocuting me is out. We'll have to make a deal the old-fashioned way, brother."

Lex's pained bellowing is so sweet. ===== Lena's gurney is tilted back vertical and she's wheeled down a long hallway. A pair of armored doors buzz open.

It's a goddamned zoo enclosure. Gorilla enclosure, from the look of it. It reeks of alpha. Almost human. Almost sweet, even. A scent she wouldn't mind nuzzling into at night if she didn't know it was a beast's. Lex himself unclips her and tilts the gurney forwards, spilling her onto wood chips.

"Quite the specimen, I hear. She's used up three omegas so far," he sighs. "Maybe you'll fare better. Maybe you'll live long enough to get a pup in you. When you are ready to talk, press the red button."

Classic good old boy alpha thinking. Like many a single omega, Lena has guiltily indulged in rut non-con fantasies. So that's not quite the threat he thinks it is. Loss of control over the body and second-guessing whether it was consent or just surrender to the heat is Female Omega 101. She could maybe power through that. Close her eyes. Remember boarding school. Andrea and her flashing blue eyes and her exquisitely shaped cock -- ladylike, somehow -- long enough to slam the breath from Lena's lungs and her long hands closed over Lena's neck. Her affected machismo. Taking Lena like she was a mafia boss and Lena was some worthless whore from the back streets. Fulfilling that and any other roleplay Lena wanted.

This is a goddamned gorilla though. That's beyond the realm of kink.

She's in a puddle of light but the rest of the enclosure is dark. Too dark to see anything past her ankles.

That's when she hears it. Huffing. Panting. Too loud and to big a noise to be human lungs. Squelching. Grunting. Moaning.

A face spills out of the dark into the light. Matted blonde curls. Blue eyes glazed over with orgasm, drugs, or maybe in shock. The grunting increases in pace.

"So good, so good..." the blonde mumbles, throwing her head back and forth.

"Hi, Lena."

"Eve Tessmacher? Fuck. I thought you got fired."

=====

"Hey, Nia?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you go to my desk..." Alex begins before shame clamps her jaw shut. She's going to have to say it. Say it to a friend who is her employee and she wonders if the fancy toilet can be reprogrammed to drown her.

"Go to your desk and?" Nia prompts.

"Target bag. Sweatshirt and pants," she huffs.

"Copy that."

Alex catches her breath, then spanks the toilet paper roll over and over. She starts cleaning up. Nia's a good kid. In both the psychological and physical sense had painful days herself--phantom ruts colliding with her desired heat cycle--and she and Alex worked out a system. With it, Alex could sneak her pot chocolate from the cooler in Nia's car, sign it in on her behalf at security, hit the vending machine, and meet her in the breakroom like it's nothing.

Their friendship started out the way a thousand five-minute friendships do in bars. Nia asked for an opinion and Alex assured her she looked cute and that her blind date would love it. The guy turned out to be a moron but the resulting debrief cemented their dynamic.

She's not sure how someone can go from acquaintance to best friend, to kid sister in less than a month. She only knows Nia did.

=====

The member lot is small and the gold member lot is smaller still. Perhaps thirty stalls and mostly full.

Maybe when you spend this much on VIP access to a sex club, it makes sense to spend every weeknight there. Eliza didn't volunteer a number for the membership she bought Alex and Maggie but both she and Alex assumed that down payment on a house would be Eliza and Jeremiah's contribution. She probably went with this out of fond memories of her own years studying at UC National City. If she and Jeremiah ever shared an omega playmate, it would've been somewhere like here. Somewhere deniable.

"Look, babe," Julia whispers, pointing at the engravings in the concrete of the marked stall that Maggie is gradually working their Prius into, sliding it between a Range Rover and a Suburban.

"AD and MS, sponsored by EG?" Alex mumbles.

"Founder sponsored," Julia adds, pointing out something in smaller print and filling the right half of Maggie's vision with creamy cleavage and her lungs with candy-sweet scent of a willing omega.

"I fucking knew it," Maggie chuckles. "Your mom was one of the people that started this place."

"No!" Alex squawks. "Absolutely fucking no!"

"You park," Julia chuckles. "I'll distract her from herself."

#abo #sanvers #my fics #supergirl

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silver-and-stars · 4 years

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The Rise of Skywalker

Okay so TROS is out in France and I’ve just seen it. And I need to get all those feelings out of my chest.

SO SPOILERS !

Bottom line for those who don’t want to read the whole summary about Kylo/Ben :

- Rey is a Palpatine

- Rey force healing Ben by giving him her life energy

- Leia dies and it makes Ben gives up the dark side.

- Rey VS Palpatine

- Ben Solo comes to help.

- Rey defeats Palpatine but dies.

- Ben Solo gives her his life energy to bring her back to life. That’s the romantic grand gesture they were talking about.

- THEY KISS and immediately after HE DIES and his body DISAPPEARS

- Nothing more is shown and said about Ben, him turning good again or his sacrifice. It’s like only Rey know that and no one will ever learn the truth. Not even Chewie.

Now, onwards for the very long talk :

I hadn’t read the leaks, only the posts on tumblr following them : Rey blowing up the transport ship in which Chewie was in, Kylo Ren / Ben Solo dying and not being talk about again, it’s all true ! Expect that Chewie wasn’t really in the transport ship. He is fine.

More on the rest later but first Ben Solo’s redemption and death + Reylo.

So first off all, Rey goes on the wreck of the Death Star to find an item - a sith wayfinder, only two exist and Kylo has one - that could direct her to Palpatine’s lair, cause yeah, Palpatine is alive and he just lend the First Order a HUGE fleet of Star Destroyers, each equip with a Star Killer canon.

Palpatine is not doing well btw : he is vertically plugged to a machine, his eyes are white, their is missing flesh on his fingers... He hids on a sort of closed temple and has hundreds of Sith cultists (non-fighters) with him.

Kylo finds him and Plapatine tells him he made Snoke and the truth about Rey’s identity (which we don’t hear). He wants Kylo to find Rey and kill her and he will give him the Empire in exchange.

Instead Kylo warns Rey that Palpatine wants her dead and says he doesn’t care about Palpatine’s plans, he just want her to join him on the darkside. He tells her who she is : Palpatine’s grand-daughter. Palpatine had a son who ran away and hid in Jakku with Rey’s mom but the Emperor wanted to get his hand on Rey, presumably to kill her, so they sold Rey and lied about her not being on Jakku anymore before getting killed.

So anyway Rey isn’t taking all that information so well, even less since she had a vision (that we saddly don’t see) of her sitting beside Kylo on the throne of the Siths.

On the deathstar she has a vision of Darth Rey after touching the wayfinder, quite like Luke had of himself on Dagobah. She fights with herself and drops the wayfinder. Kylo picks it up and tells her the only way she will find Palpatine is if she comes with it and he crushed the wayfinder. Rey is seething with anger and fights Kylo very agressively, most of what he does is retreating. They end up outside, on the wreck, above a very agitated sea.

Rey is really close to giving in to her anger and go dark and Kylo finally starts to get the upper hand. And then Leia happens.

Leia who felt their battle, used the last of her strength to connect with his son. She says his name and Kylo feels she is dying. He spaces out and drops his saber. Rey stabs him in the stomach the same moment Leia dies. They both feels it. Rey shuts down her saber, Ben slides down on the floor. Rey cries and looks at Ben, he is staring blankly into space, looking like a lost boy. She kneels beside him and heals him, transferring life energy into him. She tells him he was right, she did wanted to take his hand, Ben’s hand. And she leaves in his ship.

Later we find Ben still on the wreck, standing and looking at the horizon. A voice says “Hey kid” and for a sec I thought it was Ghost Luke. But no ! Ben turns around and it’s Han !

Ben says he is just a memory, “your memory” answers Han. Ben says Ben Solo is dead and Han says that it’s Kylo Ren who is dead, and asks him to come home. And Ben says it’s too late, “she’s dead”. Earlier on we had a hint that Ben wanted to go back to her but he believed he had went to far on the wrong track to be able and allowed to go back. Now Han tells him that what Leia believed in and fought for is still alive. The following scene mirror the one on the Starkiller bridge in SW7, when he killed Han, an act that still haunts him in this movie. Ben says the same lines “I know what I have to do but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it.”. Han’s touches his face and tells him he does. Ben calls him “dad” in a heartwrecking tone and turn around to throw his lightsaber into the sea. When he turns back Han isn’t there anymore.

The next time we see him it’s on Palpatine’s lair. Rey got there and confronted Palpatine who told her he didn’t want her dead, he wanted her to kill him so his spirit would be transferred in her body. Of course she doesn’t want to do so and doesn’t plan on hating him either. But he opens up the roof of the temple and she can see the Resistance’s ships getting their asses kick by his fleet. He tells her that if she completes the rituel she will have control over his fleet and she could then save her new family (the Resistance).

And then she feels Ben. He is here in the temple, with only a loose shirt, pants and a blaster, reminding me of young Luke or young Han, he is fighting his way toward her but the knights of Ren have him cornered and he is now unarmed. Rey and him look into each other eyes using their force bound (that is now strong enough for them to transfer objects between them) and they nods in agreement. Rey pretends she will strike Palpatine down, just like Ben pretented he was going to kill Rey before Snoke. She rises her saber while Palpatine narrates, puts it behind her back and... it’s in Ben’s hands. He was a very endearing gesture there, like he is saying “now we’re talking” and he fights the knights of Ren, one against six, with a blue light saber. Meanwhile Rey has another lightsaber : Leia’s, that force ghost Luke gave her and she fights Palpatine’s guards.

Ben reaches her and they stand togeteher, in sync, before Palpatine. “you stand together. you die together” says Palapatine and he attacks them. But when he does the flesh on his finger is restored. He realized Rey and Ben have something very rare in the force, a bound, a dyad. And he absorbs their power to rejuvenate/heal himself. Rey and Ben fall unconscious on the ground. Palpatine now with his full power, unleashed massive a electric beam toward the ships and starts frying the Resistance (who in the meanwhile got backup from the whole galaxy).

Ben is the first to wake up but Palpatine throws him down a pit kinda like he was thrown in one by Vader. Then Rey wakes up, lies on her back and see the fleet, but beyond them she sees the stars and says “be with me”. Many jedi voices (Luke, Yoda, Qui-Gon, Anakin, Ashoka etc) answer tell her to get back up, that they are with her.

She takes her saber and rise on her feet. Palpatine directs his electicity toward her and she blocks it with her saber. He tells her it’s useless, she can’t defeat him as he is all of the Siths, she cannot win. But she grabs the second light saber and push back, says she is all the jedis, and Palpatine is vaporized by his own force lightining.

The victory is here. However Rey drops the saber and fall on the floor, unmoving, eyes open. Finn (who is force sensitive) fells that she is dead. But from the pit arise Ben. He is injured, limping, he falls several times in his way to reach her but when he finally falls near her, he grabs her and cradles her, looking desperate. Her body is limp, her eyes still open and unmoving. So he lies her down in his laps, closes his eyes and gives her his life energy. Of course it works ! And, knowing about the leaks I think “oh no. oh no. maybe they were wrong about this part at least” and “you mom and uncle would be so pround of you right now”. Rey wakes up, sits up, looks at him, puts his hand on his face. He is so relieved, she smiles and calls his name, “Ben”. And they KISS. BOUM CANON REYLO. And when they break the kiss he gives her a smile so relieved, happy and innocent, it breaks my harts. It breaks my heart because they hug (I think) and then he falls backward. Eyes closed, unmoving and his body disappears and as it does so does Leia’s ! No more Ben. All there is left are his clothes on the ground. And that’s it.

Rey says nothing, the scene just cut to the fleet coming home and celebrating. We see her rejogning the fleet in Luke’s X-Wing, then on their base where she happily reunites with BB-8, Poe and Finn. Then she goes on Tatooine, finds the Skywalker farm, buries Leai and Luke’s lightsaber together. She has made her own lightsaber. It’s yellow.

An old lady passes by and asks her who she is. She says “Rey” and looks on her right. There are Luke and Leia’s force ghosts standing side by side and I’m already dead inside. On Leia’s left there is a blank space. I expected Ben’s ghost to materialize there, like Anakin’s did beside Yoda and Obi-wan in SW4, to shows us Ben is still with her in some way and that he was at least reunited with his mother, thzt he is at peace with Luke and himself. But no, nothing. She says “Rey Skywalker”, watched Tatooine’s suns set and that’s it. Nothing more about Ben turning back good, nothing showing some people -at least Poe, Finn AND FUCKING CHEWIE - YOU KNOW, HIS KINDA-UNCLE CHEWIE, CHEWIE, BEN’S FATHER’S BEST-FRIEND, CHEWIE WHO LET OUT AND HEARTBREAKING CRY AND FELT ON HIS KNEES WHEN HE LEARNT LEIA) DIED, CHEWIE WHOSE THREE BEST FRIENDS (HAN, LUKE, LEIA]) DIED TRYIND TO REACH OUT TO BEN - learned that Ben saved Rey’s life, helped defeat Palpatine and in the end did the right thing. For all we know the galaxy still believes he is evil and died evil.

And really, if Rey went through all the trouble of separating from her friend and go on the Skywalker homeland - like she intended to live there- , couldn’t she just build up a life there with Ben. I can’t see how people would accept Ben and his redemption after he killed so many, including Han, and as he was such an important and feared figure of the First Order. But they could have lay low and live happily together on Tatooine and build a home and a family together there. A Palpatine and a Skywalker, united in peace and love. Two lost children, orphan now, creating their own home. A new start, a new life. But no. We don’t get that. Ben was too young to die in a Star Wars movie. This is not Rogue One wtf.

_____________

So yeah no, I’m not quite okay. The end was too quick. The movie was nice, it didin’t felt slow or dragging, there wasn’t any horses race scene. But the conclusion was too short, to abrupt imo. You needs to spend a little more time on it after three movies ! Or you know, since it’s the end of the Skywalker saga FUCKING NINE MOVIES. Gimme a 30 minutes long ending like in Return of the King. I’m okay with this ! I do want to know what became of the Resistance, of Finn, Poe, Chewie. I do want to see force ghost Ben (since you weren’t kind and hopeful enough to keep him alive).

Btw : R2D2 is barely in this movie and does almost nothing. It’s R2D2. Sure BB8 is cute but R2 as been around since Padmé ! He knows stuffs !! He is good at his job, let him save lives !

No canon Stormpilot. The queer character is has expect of an american Blockbuster own by Disney, a minor character (the lady who said in SW8 that Admiral Ackbar is dead and Leia in a coma) and she just kisses another lady for like 0.02 sec in a crowded scene.

No Rose x Finn either for that matter, not a word about the kiss, or their relation. Two new girls who have a romantic vibe with Poe or Finn, but it doesn’t lead anywhere fortunately.

Force ghost-Luke ! Memory-Han ! Leia (RIP) ! Lando (a bit) ! Chewie (still alive)! C3PO and R2 still alive ! Fucking PALPATINE wtf why were you not hinted at earlier ! CGI young-Luke and young-Leia traning in a forest ! Luke X-wing taking flight again ! The Millenium Falcon still up and running ! So many people from the old movies.

Also Qui-Gon Jinn’s voice. Strangely it conforted me to hear his voice but dammit gimme force ghost-Ben !

What else? Oh yeah Hux betrayed the First Order to get in Kylo’s way and got unmasked and killed. No one ever talked about him again.

Also BEN SOLO IS FREAKING DEAD ! So Ben, you were a betrayed and manipulated kid ? Manipulated by freaking Palpatine and betrayed by your uncle Luke ? You want to do the right now ? Well you will have to die for it!

No ! Keep him alive, have him earn is redemption by doing more for the good guys, to compensate the harm he has done. Or at least leave him in peace with his lover.

I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY KILLED OFF -ALL- THE SKYWALKERS ! We like them ! Keep the young and last one alive at least !

Also the whole Palpatine business is so abrupt. That’s a thing for three movies, or two at last, not just the last one.

But I enjoyed it anyway. But my heart is quite broken. And it’s the end of the trilogy and Skywalker bloodline and story and i don’t know what to do with this.

I wished they hadn’t reused the “reformed bad-guy saves someone he loves from the Emperor but dies by doing so” plot point from the Return of the Jedi. We had seen this already, you could have done something knew and less heartbreaking. Vader at done a lot more evil, willingly, not because he was confused and manipulated, he was old, barely living. But Ben ? Ben was ready to start anew on the right path, he was young and seemed hopeful after Rey came back to life. His parents and his uncle tried to save him from the dark side. But when he finally got away from it he dies ? Just dies like that ? I thought I was okay with the idea that his redemption meant his death, but it turns out I’m not, it doesn’t feels right.

Ben was a main charcater, one in whose redemption I was too much emotionnaly invested about to be okay with him dying like that, Vader style.

#sw9 #sw9 spoilers #the rise of skywalker #the rise of skywalker spoilers #ben solo #ben solo spoilers #kylo ren #kylo ren spoilers #reylo #reylo spoilers #sw #star wars spoilers #bendemption #tros spoilers #my posts

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infinityknight25 · 7 years

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Black Tapes Podcast: The Upside Down part 1

Black Tapes Podcast: The upside down part 1

Alex: I'm Alex Reagan, welcome to the Black Tapes Podcast. Today's episode will completely focus on a tape in Doctor Strand's case of Black Tapes.

Strand said I should come to Chicago because he had a very special Black Tape he wanted me to see. I arrived at the Strand Institute on a Monday. It was early in the morning and overcast. The weather was cooler than your typical Midwestern summer.

(Conversing with Strand)

This has to be the strangest weather I have encountered in the Midwest.

Strand: (chuckles) It's been slightly cooler this year than as of late.

Alex: Makes you question global warming huh?

Strand: Not quite. There's plenty of evidence that proves it's existence. This summer is a pure anomaly. Bizarre things happen in science all the time.

Alex: Like your Black Tapes?

Strand: Something like that... I have a tape that I've set aside from all the others. There's a fair amount of evidence. I think some of might have been acquired illegally.

Alex: Illegally?

Strand: Well here I'll show you.

Alex: Strand plugs in the flash drive to his computer. He then places the DVD in the computer. First there are news clips about a boy who goes missing. Then they are followed by news stories about the boy's body being found in a quarry. He had drowned. Then it gets weird.

Voice: My name is Will Byers.

Alex: What!?! I thought they just said he died.

Strand: Just keep watching.

Will: Doctor Strand, you claim paranormal....... evidence doesn't exist. How would you explain the things that occurred in my hometown? The town of Hawkins Indiana. There some form of government agency conducted experiments and I was actually lost in another dimension. I don't expect you to believe it so I've put together a few things.

Alex: Doctor Strand pauses the video and minimizes the window. He proceeded to open the Flash drive. It was like a Pandora's box of information. Police reports, witness testimonies of an incident at the school where friend of Will Byers Mike Wheeler confronted a bully during a memorial of Will's. Suddenly the bully couldnt move when he went to take a swing at Mike. The bully then peed himself.

(Alex talking to Strand)

Alex: Let me guess you think the boy went into a catatonic state due to the stress of being in a fight even tho he was a bully. While in the catatonic state he couldn't control himself, therefore the urination.

Strand: Couldn't have said it better. But back to the video.

Alex: Strand opens the video backup. It's surveillance video of a man in a lab coat running down a hall. He's pressing the button for an elevator frantically. The lights cut in and out. The door opens. The camera is at an awkward angle. You can't fully see what happens but you can see the man get lifted off the floor of the elevator.

(Talking to Strand)

Alex: Oh wow. That's interesting.

Strand: Yeah I thought it was but it gets weirder.

Alex: (narrating) Strand continued with the video this time it was surveillance video accompanied with audio. In the video you see a cabled going through a hole in the wall that can only be described as what looks to be a slimy curtain of some sort. Suddenly the scene becomes frantic. A man in a control room begins to yell at the others.

Man: Reel him in!!! Reel him in!!!

Alex: They begin to do so. Suddenly the line gets extremely tight. Then it has an immense amount of slack. The man calls the others name to no response. They finish reeling it in from the hole in the wall. The harness looks like it was covered in blood. I'm not one hundred percent though because the tapes were in black and white. I do know that the man did not come out.

Strand: If that wasn't enough to peek your interest here's this.

Alex: (Narrating) Strand minimizes the video once more and goes back to the flash drive file. He opens a scan copy of a well done picture of a girl with glasses on a diving board.

Strand: See this over here?

Alex: (narrating) I didn't see it until Strand pointed it out. In the picture just feet behind the girl, lurking in the shadows was some kind of monster.

(Talking to Strand)

Alex: Oh my gosh! What is that?

Strand: Not sure, but there's files where Will and his friends refer to it as the Demogorgon.

Alex: Like from Dungeons and dragons? (Narrating) I had heard my producer Nic talking about the Demogorgon and Dungeons and dragons before. He's really into that kind of stuff.

Strand: Yes I looked into it before.

Alex: How have these guys not won your million dollar reward? They out of everybody have provided you with the MOST proof.

Strand: Yes they gave a lot of information but I feel it all can be explained. However I'm going to fast forward to the end so you can hear Mr. Byers closing statement.

Will: I don't care about the million dollars. Neither do my friends, family or even town. Everyone that helped me put all of this together just want to knock you off your smug throne. The way you talk about the paranormal and how it doesn't exist is a complete disgrace to what has happened to all of us and it's very upsetting. Your wrong. Within ten minutes of you coming here we would prove you wrong.

Alex: Did you ever go there?

Strand: No they sent this to me around the time I was getting married. I was far too focused on other things at the time. I wrote them a letter explaining what I could and said as well that the government has a lot of projects they don't expose to the public for good reasons but highly doubt our government is diving into the paranormal.

Alex: We have to go there! The town is called Hawkins right?

Strand: Yes but the group owns a comic store in Indianapolis. We will be stopping there first to meet with them

Alex: When we come back we begin our trip at a comic book store in Indianapolis. More right here on the Black Tapes Podcast.

#black tapes podcast #alex reagan #doctor strand #richard strand #eleven #stranger things #will byers #hawkins indiana

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placetobenation · 7 years

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*** Scott & JT’s Vintage Vault Refresh reviews are a chronological look back at WWE PPV and TV history that began with a review of WrestleMania I. The PICs have revisited these events and refreshed all of their fun facts that provide insight into the match, competitors and state of the company as well as their overviews of the match action and opinions and thoughts on the outcomes. In addition, Jeff Jarvis assists in compiling historical information and the Fun Facts in each of the reviews. Also, be sure to leave feedback on the reviews at our Facebook page. Enjoy! ***

Sunday Night Slam

March 26, 1995 (Taped March 13, 1995) Memorial Civic Auditorium Stockton, CA Announcers: Vince McMahon & Jim Ross

1) Bob Backlund defeats Jeff Jarrett via disqualification at 5:00; Jarrett retains WWF Intercontinental Title

Fun Fact: On the 3/13 episode of Raw, Jeff Jarrett and Barry Horowitz wrestled a non-title match, which Jarrett won via submission. Later in the evening, Horowitz comes out and requests an IC-title match. Jarrett agrees to the match, but Bob Backlund comes out and attacks Horowitz before signing the title match contract against Jarrett, which we get here tonight.

Scott: This is a pretty unique situation here. Jeff Jarrett is the Intercontinental Champion and will face Razor Ramon April 2 in Hartford, but first he must face the former World Champion who doesn’t have all his screws tightened in the right place. Bob Backlund is set for the big battle with Bret Hart at WrestleMania in an “I Quit” match. I wonder why they did these weird Sunday shows and didn’t just do a special Raw on Monday? They will do a throwaway studio show tomorrow night on the go home Raw for the biggest show of the year. I like hearing Jim Ross with Vince McMahon as it changes the tone of the show and we won’t have too much pop culture nonsense that he and the color commentator du jour do on the normal weekly show. You’re not sure who to root for in this match as both men are heels. I think Backlund may be getting the slight edge from the fans. It makes sense that Razor Ramon will be tense during this match backstage because if Backlund wins, then Bret Hart gets the IC Title shot at WrestleMania and Razor’s match is worth squat. The match goes back and forth until Razor couldn’t take it anymore and runs in to force the disqualification. We get a 3 on 1 beatdown with Jarrett, Backlund and the Roadie beating him down until Bret Hart & 1-2-3 Kid come out to even the odds. The match wasn’t much as it was really a plug for multiple Mania battles next week. Grade: *

JT: Welcome to the Sunday Night Slam! We are just one week away from the biggest show of the year and while the card is locked into place and the hype is just about complete we do have a key match that could affect the Mania card here tonight. Vince McMahon is joined by Jim Ross and we are emanating via videotape from Stockton, CA. It was two weeks ago when Bob Backlund pulled the okie doke on Jeff Jarrett and stole himself an IC Title bout and that plan pays off tonight. As Jarrett and Roadie strut to the ring, Ross and McMahon talk about Backlund’s championship legacy and just how much of a threat he is tonight. Vince also reminds us that Razor Ramon is backstage and very antsy that his Mania title rematch could go up in smoke very quickly. Backlund controls early, slamming Jarrett to the matt and then flipping Double J over with a double underhook suplex. Bob followed with an atomic drop that sent Jarrett careening into Roadie and eventually to the floor. Backlund chased after the champ and pitched him back inside but Jarrett turned the tide and started to focus on the arm. As Vince discussed the CFCW vs. Sharpshooter showdown, Backlund powered out of the hold but an assist by the Roadie put the champ back on top heading to break. After the commercial, Jarrett had an abdominal stretch hooked in and then continued to punish the back as Vince plugs the Superstar Line. Jarrett gets a sunset flip for two but Backlund popped free and slugged Jarrett hard with a right hand. Backlund was all fired up and locked in as he snapped Jarrett down with a piledriver. Backlund was set to follow with the CFCW but Ramon sprinted to the ring and jumped the challenger from behind to draw the DQ. Backlund latched the CFCW on Ramon after the bell and wrenched it in as Roadie and Jarrett kicked away. Eventually Bret Hart and 1-2-3 Kid made the save and ran the assailants off. This was pretty fun while it lasted but was way too short to really get cooking in a meaningful way. Backlund looked great in there and was interesting in the face role in this character, it would be cool to see more of that. The finish made perfect sense too and was foreshadowed nicely on Raw last week. Grade: *1/2

2) Bam Bam Bigelow defeats Sionne with a moonsault at 3:00

Scott: The Beast from the East prepares himself for the battle with the NFL’s greatest linebacker at WrestleMania by taking on the powerhouse of the Headshrinkers. I’m curious what the actual main event of this show is. Is it the World Title match between Diesel & Shawn Michaels? Or will it be LT/Bigelow because of the mainstream implications the company could gain from because of the NFL connection? This is a quick power sprint that Bigelow wins to get ready for next Sunday in Hartford. Grade: 1/2*

JT: We head right back to the ring for our next bout as Sionne is going it alone against the lightning rod of the WWF, Bam Bam Bigelow. Bigelow is also out to the ring alone tonight and Vince reminds us that will be completely different in Hartford as both he and LT will have an army of backup with them. After a break, the match was already under way with the two hosses colliding with clothesline attempts. Sionne tried to slam Bigelow but collapsed under the weight, giving Bammer control. Bigelow clubbed away as Vince promoted the WrestleMania public workout this Tuesday in Times Square. Both Bigelow and LT will be present at that giant event. Bigelow continued to assault Sionne until the Samoan caught him with a nice powerslam for a close two count. Sionne headed up top but came up empty on a dive and then Bigelow followed up with an Avalanche splash and enziguri. Bigelow quickly scampered up top and got a great reverse cross body off the top rope for the win. After the bell, Ted DiBiase and the Corporation marched to the ring and Ted and Bigelow then called out LT one last time. That was a really hard hitting quality semi-squash for Bigelow. Watching him dismantle a big man like Sionne was a nice prep bout to build him for Mania. Sionne should have been set up for a singles run here, they could use the mid card talent upgrade. Grade: *

*** Vince McMahon heads into the ring for a special interview with the WWF Champion Diesel. The big man saunters out to a quality reaction and he talks about his first WrestleMania match against his former best buddy Shawn Michaels. Diesel puts over the Shawn’s talent and also talks about the impact of Sid being out at ringside. As they continue to talk, Shawn Michaels and Sid showed up and marched out to the ring to join the conversation. Michaels defiantly talked about how he has earned everything that he has and the new generation will start with him at WrestleMania. He says it doesn’t look good for Diesel to walk out of WrestleMania and Sid then shares his thoughts as well, promising to break Diesel’s back. Shawn says people like Diesel are a dime a dozen and people like him come around just once in a lifetime and the WWF fans will see a once in a lifetime performance at WrestleMania. Michaels says at Mania he will go over and as he and Sid leave, Diesel says it will only be over his dead body. ***

*** Todd Pettengill is in the house for our official WrestleMania XI Report, just seven days away from the big extravaganza. Here are the matches discussed:

Diesel vs. Shawn Michaels – WWF Title Lawrence Taylor w/ NFL All Pro Team vs. Bam Bam Bigelow w/ Million Dollar Team Bret Hart vs. Bob Backlund – I Quit Match Razor Ramon w/ 1-2-3 Kid vs. Jeff Jarrett w/ Roadie – Intercontinental Title Undertaker vs. King Kong Bundy Smoking Gunns vs. Owen Hart & Mystery Partner – Tag Team Titles Lex Luger & British Bulldog vs. Jacob & Eli Blu

The following celebrities will also be in the house: Pamela Anderson, Nicholas Turturro, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Jennifer McCarthy & Salt-N-Pepa! Call your cable company today, get those orders in for the biggest show of the year! ***

3) Lex Luger defeats Tatanka in a steel cage match with a forearm off the middle rope at 9:00

Scott: I feel like this feud has been going on for decades, but it’s really only been August at SummerSlam that Tatanka sold out and became a member of the Corporation. Luger continuously looks like a chump over and over. So you’d think that finally Tatanka gets his due and Luger ends this thing to move on. Luger is teaming with the British Bulldog next Sunday to face the Blu Brothers but first he’s going to get his against the traitor that sold out. Tatanka hops right on Luger as he’s getting through the ropes to take control early. Todd went over the entire WrestleMania card right before this and also showed the surprising heel turn of Men on a Mission, who attacked the Smoking Gunns on Action Zone earlier today on Action Zone. Tatanka dominates the action early and has multiple opportunities to win but Luger stops him by a bootlace. I really thought Tatanka could win this and bury Luger as anything important in this company. Since the attack by Tatanka in August he’s really been floating aimlessly while Tatanka has gotten title shots and been the face of the Corporation. Luger gets a head of steam late and starts throwing bombs back at the Native American and drops a suplex. The crowd is crazy as he gets a close two count. Luger then finishes it off with the bionic forearm and instead of running out of the cage, he gets the pinfall. This was a fun match and Luger finally gets the big win he’s been missing during his time in the WWF. Grade: **

JT: It is time for our final match of the evening as the steel cage has been assembled and Tatanka is slowly strutting to the ring, flanked by Ted DiBiase as usual. Lex Luger makes his way out next and after seven months it looks like we may finally be ready to put a bow on this feud for good. As soon as Lex gets in the cage, things erupt and Tatanka is the aggressor, laying in heavy chops to the head and then some to the chest as well. Luger comes roaring back with a trio of clotheslines and then rattles Tatanka into the top turnbuckle over and over. Lex continued by kicking away and then slung Tatanka hard into the cage for a real close near fall. Tatanka dodged an elbow drop and laid in a few shots before nearly escaping the cage. Lex yanked his nemesis back inside and after a break, Tatanka was firmly in control, hitting a suplex and then whipping Lex into the steel. Tatanka takes the opening to scale the cage and gets to the top before Lex pulls him back inside. Luger started to mount a comeback and ran right through Tatanka, culminating with a bulldog. Lex followed with a suplex for two as Vince says he is looking to end this for good instead of just escaping. Luger hit a powerslam for two but Tatanka landed a punch to the gut and tried to escape again. Luger caught him and slammed him to the mat and then pelted him with a flying forearm off the middle rope for the win. Luger FINALLY gets a win over Tatanka and hopefully puts this feud to bed. It is insane that it lasted as long as it did given how little heat the whole thing was generating but at least it is over. I am also surprised they didn’t just do this at Mania at this point but whatever. Luger desperately needs to be freshened up so maybe this team with the British Bulldog will do the trick. Tatanka is officially dead in the water and feels far past expiration now. The match was alright but not much better than the rest of the dogshit matches this feud has produced. Grade: *1/2

*** Bret Hart joins in from backstage to give some final thoughts on his I Quit match with Bob Backlund as well as his No Holds Barred tilt with Owen Hart on Raw tomorrow night. ***

Final Analysis

Scott: This was a fun little sprint with plenty of Mania build and three solid matches to really get the crowd going, including Lex Luger’s long awaited win over Tatanka to end that feud. We got strong build for the WWF Title match, Bam Bam/LT, the IC Title match and Bret/Backlund. Those really are the highlight matches of WrestleMania. We are also awaiting who Owen Hart will select as his tag team partner for the Tag Title match next Sunday with the Smoking Gunns. I’m not sure if they will continue these “Sunday Night Slam” shows but this one was really good and quick as the hard sell was needed for this show. We have Raw tomorrow night and then off to Hartford! Final Grade: B

JT: As usual the WWF does a nice job with these shows as they get to spend the full hour just hard selling the PPV and all of the main feuds and stories were covered here. I thought the face-to-face confrontation between Shawn Michaels and Diesel was the best part of their feud since they split up as both showed strong aspects of their characters and the tension was palpable. Bam Bam Bigelow looked good too and I thought his squash of Sionne was a shrewd move. The cage match was a fittingly blasé blowoff to the limping Tatanka/Luger feud that just about everyone should be happy is finally dead and buried. Luger desperately needs something more before he completely craters. We have one more show to go before Mania but this was could have served as the final hard sell just fine on its own. Final Grade: B-

#IFTTT #Place to Be Nation

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astralfrontier · 7 years

Link

Here’s Link’s backstory for the Tuesday Masks game.

Age Six

The faces and the fear blended together over the years, but the names were always different. Carson, Dorsey, Washington, Lancaster, Delacruz. It was … the Pucketts, at age six.

Leonard - they always called him Leonard - was in the kitchen, alone. The door blew off its hinges. Half a dozen faceless servitors entered, with weapons held in mechanical hands. His father’s creations. He recognized that much, at least.

"Come on, kid, we’re leaving." He could hear his father’s voice over the speakers from one of them. The androids grabbed Leonard by the collar and hauled him away from the kitchen and through the living room, past the handful of half-unwrapped toys the Pucketts had bought for him, past the photos of Mr. and Mrs. Puckett and their dead son. They’d have to find a different replacement boy now, Leonard thought sadly.

Leonard was tossed into the back of a waiting hover-car. Inside was his father. He never heard his father’s real name on the news. It was always “Rossum”. The car was self-operating, a soulless supertech toy. Any ordinary person would have been shocked by the unfamiliarity. The hum of electrics and the fully computerized panel wouldn’t be present in regular vehicles for decades. To Leonard, the comfortable house and family were the unfamiliar element. In a way, this felt more normal. In a way, he was grateful.

He remembers asking questions that felt banal at the time. “Why aren’t there sirens, daddy?” his six-year-old self said. His father laughed at that. “Cops were too slow, and your dad was too smart, kid.”

He remembers the two weeks he spent with his dad. He remembers getting anything he wanted - all McDonald’s hamburgers, all the time - and finding that he didn’t much like the taste. He remembers asking about mommy. That was a new idea to him, a mother figure. He remembers Rossum laughing in a way that wasn’t funny at all.

He remembers the hotel room door being blown away, and thinking, "dad’s here." Only his dad was in the room already, and it was a team of superheroes. Like Saturday morning cartoons, only serious. They acted like cops back then, but they dressed up like it was Halloween. He remembers the brief fight, and his dad being handcuffed and blindfolded. He threw himself at the old man, crying, trying to shield him with his body from these strange people.

The police were there, the real police, and one of the cartoon cops handed him over to a man in a black suit. The pattern of his tie fascinated Leonard, and he never looked the cop in the eye that day. The conversation was boring anyway. Questions about Rossum, questions about himself, confirmation of his vital information, a discussion about foster families. The cops always called it a “discussion” when they were really telling you what they were going to do to you.

The Pucketts were too worried to take him back, the man said. Their safety had to be taken into consideration. And a supervillain knew where they lived. Leonard would have to be placed with someone else.

“Is daddy going to jail?” he asked finally. The cop with the interesting tie said he was. “Why can’t I live in jail too?” he asked. The cop said that would be silly, that was no place for a boy to grow up. “Well… he’s just gonna come find me again,” Leonard pointed out, and the cop was silent.

Age Thirteen

Leo - not “Leonard”, nor “Leon”, at age thirteen you have to have a cool name - remembers the first time he sat in the driver’s seat of his very own car.

Mr. Dorsey was a junkyard owner, and his new father. Leo had sat watching the man sign the adoption paperwork, and thought at the time it was useless. This was the day that Mr. Dorsey taught him a lesson about junk.

“Everything you see in this yard is unwanted by someone,” he said to the boy. "That doesn’t make it useless. That doesn’t make it garbage. It means that somebody just couldn’t see the value of it." He gave the boy a hug. Leo silently cried as he hugged back. And then Mr. Dorsey gave Leo the greatest gift a boy could get. “Everything here is yours, if you work for it. If you can make something work, you can keep it.”

The car was a wreck. The engine wouldn’t turn over. The structural damage was considerable. But there was potential. When Leo looked it over, the familiar flash in his brain told him how it could be fixed. He saw the limitless possibilities, the galaxy of ideas hiding inside the metal frame. It made sense. It had clarity.

The engine was the easiest. Leo got parts from other engines, parts that didn’t belong together, and he made them connect. He watched himself piece together gears and coils and clockwork in ways that seemed obvious, but were impossible to explain to the curious Mr. Dorsey. The body work was tougher. Leo spent hours learning to weld properly, and his foster father still insisted on supervising whenever he used a torch. The junkman asked questions, but he never ever said “no” without a reason.

Leo learned fluids - brake fluid, oil, lubricant, gasoline. Mr. Dorsey took him to the thrift store and they bought the oldest, thickest clothes that’d fit Leo’s still-growing frame. Then he got as dirty as he’d ever been allowed to get by any of his foster parents, then or since, but by the end of it he knew everything by sight and smell. A dozen different liquids pump through the arteries of a car, keeping it alive and mobile. He was giving this machine a transfusion, the blood, the life.

Mr. Dorsey didn’t participate in Leo’s computing hobby. So when he saw Leo wiring a ponderous black box into the battery and flipping switches experimentally, he lost interest. “Just don’t stay up too late,” he warned the boy, who heard but didn’t listen.

And so Leo found himself in the driver’s seat of his very own car. And at 2 a.m., he finally sighed. “Please start,” he begged of the air, gripping the steering wheel tightly.

“I’m trying, Leo, I’m trying,” came an apologetic voice from the black box.

"I know, but I was so sure the ignition was wired into you correctly." Leo sighed and leaned forward, resting his forehead lightly on the steering wheel. “I’m tired. I’m gonna go to bed. Goodnight, Otto.”

“Goodnight, Leo,” came the voice.

Age Sixteen

At sixteen years of age, you need two things to be cool. You need a car, and you need a girlfriend. Leo built himself a car. Unfortunately, he’s only been in Halcyon City a few months, he’s bored at school, and he doesn’t have many friends. He’s too obsessive and focused for the nerd cliques to welcome him, and he’s too interested in computers for anyone else. With no natural alternatives available, he resolves to build a girlfriend.

He’s done this sort of thing once before. Otto was his first artificial intelligence - a black box the size of a desktop PC, which he’s managed to shrink down since then but is happier living as a car. Now the challenge is to build something that’s not only as small as a human being, but can pass for one. There’s no junkyard full of spare parts this time.

The shell won’t be fully lifelike. He’s okay with that, because he knows it can be rebuilt and improved. The mind, though, he only has one shot at.

When Leo builds an AI, he’s really using his father’s work in a way it wasn’t designed for. The neurochip at the back of his head has a full diagnostic that he knows how to access - because it taught him how - and “full” means “full”. He can access every part of his own brain. He can create recordings of it, or download a backup. And he can extract parts of it.

AIs are built with a secret that Leo knows. There is no “self”. The self is like a piece of music that arises from playing notes in harmony. The right notes and you have an opera, or a rock ballad. The wrong ones, and you get noise. So Leo creates a new person by forcing himself to remember what they are like, to play-act like he is that person. He imagines the seed, and the evolutionary software he wrote that the neural map plugs into will do the rest. He is the composer; the black box computers he builds are the conductors; his memories are the orchestra.

Leo has never had a real girlfriend. There was Carol Anne, back in grade school, but that consisted of one kiss behind the school and a lot of mud-throwing. Leo remembers waving goodbye to her as the black AEGIS sedan drove him away, and he remembers her not noticing. So all he has to go by when creating the AI’s seed is what he sees on television, what he overhears from his classmates, and what he feels missing in his heart.

Focusing on the images is a matter of a couple hours, like watching a movie you’ve never seen. Actually dumping the neural map is a matter of minutes. It feels weird, but Leo is used to it now. Finally, the indicator lights come to life on the black box. Processing the neural map into a new personality will take hours or days. So Leo goes to work on the shell.

He’s halfway through a basic torso when there’s a “ding”. Tools fall out of his hand as he rushes back to his PC and plugs everything in. She’s asleep right now, he thinks. He types a few commands. Slowly, slowly…

“Hello,” comes a voice. It’s a toneless neutral, but the AI will adjust it. “Hello,” types Leo, then repeats it out loud to the microphone. “Do you know who you are?”

“Pneuma,” is the digitized reply. The voice is wavering, as the AI inside tries to make it sound like what both of them imagine his girl will sound like.

“Do you know what it means?” Leo asks hesitantly.

“Pneuma is breath, or soul, or spirit.” The voice is sounding more feminine with every syllable. "Pneumatic, of a woman, means rounded or shapely." It pauses, and Leo gets a chill as it sounds, now, exactly how he imagined. “Am I the woman you wanted me to be, Leo?”

“I hope so. I want you to be.” He isn’t sure what else to say, so he points behind him. He realizes it’s useless - there’s no visual sensors for the AI to use yet. “I’m building you a body. It’ll be done really soon. We’ll make it better together. Pneuma, I’m going to make you perfect.”

The next several days, Leo is busy until late hours installing the brain into the new shell. His foster mother bangs on the door and tells him to go to sleep, so he turns out the lights and resumes work with a flashlight.

One time the knocking on the door isn’t late in the evening, and it isn’t to tell him to go to sleep. “Leo, are you in trouble?” his foster-mother asks. "There’s a man from AEGIS who needs to talk to you." Leo can’t pull his blankets up over Pneuma’s still-incomplete shell fast enough.

He opens the door, face flushed, breath uneven. “What? No, mom, I’m not in trouble,” he lies automatically. Then he notices the man standing next to her. Or rather, he notices the tie.

"Thank you, Mrs. Conway, young Leo and I go way back. He’s not in trouble, I’m just paying a visit," the man’s voice says. "May we…?" Mom purses her lips, and nods, and walks away, but Leo almost doesn’t notice.

“You like the tie?” The jacket the man is wearing closes over it, and Leo looks up, realizing that this is the first time he’s seen the man’s face.

“It’s got a pattern on it. A very subtle one. I can’t see it, but you can. Your father can. People like you, with intuitive genius, can. The smarter you are, the more distracting it is to look at. It’s a passive super-intelligence detector. Not one of these new-fangled genetic gimmicks, but I’m old-fashioned like that.”

He walks in the room, and Leo watches his eyes flicker over the bed, and knows that the man knows something about what he’s up to. “Not all of my colleagues share my style. Most of them are wearing black body armor and packing energy weapons these days. Not hard to see why. A typical superhuman’s energy attack will go through a cheap suit really well. One of the people I worked with got killed when the crowd she was in was attacked. She’d have made it with protection. Well, so would the civilians. Hell of a world we live in.”

"I’m rambling, I’m sorry. Old man’s prerogative. Agent Ted Waters." The agent turns and smiles. “Leonard Snow, or do you prefer Leo?”

Leo’s panic has turned to wariness. He wants to go to the bed, to protect his work there, his dream, but he’d give himself away if he moved. So he stays frozen in place. “What do you want, Agent Waters?”

"The lady who got killed. My coworker. One man’s desperation, one blast, ended her life. For him it was easy. For her it was thirty years of effort and hopes and dreams, ended like that." Waters snaps his fingers and stares out the window. "Power. That’s what it does to people." His eyes find the young man’s, and he looks very old, just for a moment. “You have power too, Leo. People worry about what you’ll do with it.”

“I don’t have any power. I’m just a kid, going to school, like everyone else,” Leo protests bitterly.

“You can build amazing things.” Waters pats the mound on the bed gently. “Strong things. Maybe dangerous things. I’m not going to tell your mom… well, Mrs. Conway here… or anyone else. But it’s my job to know, Leo. Your dad–”

“I’m not my dad!” Leo’s volume surprises himself.

Waters holds up his hands, motioning for calm. “I know, I know you’re not. I know that’s not you. But you have his potential. Maybe not as much, maybe a lot more. Nobody really knows. So what if you do what he did - maybe for your own reasons, maybe the best of intentions - and you start building things that can be used as weapons? What should we do?”

Leo sighs. He thinks about an answer. He realizes he’s been thinking about it since he was old enough to understand what supervillains are, and that Rossum the Minion Maker is one. He remembers the faceless servitors, taking him to the high-tech car. And he has it, as he glances down at the covered robotic shell, and remembers what he’s built and why.

“I don’t build weapons. I build friends.”

That makes Waters smile. “I like that. I do. And it makes me glad to hear. It won’t satisfy most people, though, just hearing you say that it’s okay. They’ll still want you under observation. But I’ll make sure that for as long as I can, I’ll be the one observing. Is that okay with you, Leo?”

Leo sighs. The whole idea of having his life under surveillance because of his deadbeat dad doesn’t appeal to him at all. But… “Yeah, I guess it’s okay. I mean, I can’t stop you, can I?”

Waters gently pats his shoulder as he walks for the door. “Trust takes time. Relationships take time. We’ll get there together. See ya around, Leo.”

Age Seventeen

Leo wore a suit and tie and sat in the courtroom as people decided his life, again. The government had seized assets tied to Rossum. Most of it had been sold off to pay for damages that could be held against the villain. Still, he’d shown plenty of legal income, even paying taxes on it, when foreign parties purchased his equipment.

Leo remembers the night of the argument. It started, again, with the estate and its disposition, and how Pneuma had grown increasingly upset. Again.

“With this money, I can finally build you a proper body, Pneuma.”

He remembers her face - at the time, highly articulate but still artificial - contorting in frustration and anger. “Leo, no! Stop. Listen to yourself. Upgrading me is irresponsible right now. You have your future to think about. Invest the money until you can find a job.”

He finally got angry in return. “I can find a job anywhere. I can find work in computers, in programming. It pays well. It’ll be fine. Stop worrying so much. Things will be okay, I promise.”

Pneuma let out a sigh. “Things won’t be okay. Things aren’t okay now. Leo, Listen to me.”

Leo stopped. This was the girl of his dreams. He was doing all of this for her. Why was she trying to take away his perfect plan? His shock created a silence for her to fill.

“You run up your parents’ electricity bill paying for us. You’re working two after-school jobs. You don’t have any plans to go to college. But you’re still trying to fit us into your fantasy family. We’re just copies of you. This is narcissism and escapism. You dreamed us up to be your toys.”

Leo could only stare, open-mouthed, as she went on. What is she saying? There’s no way she can be right! But what if she is? Thoughts warred against each other. Confusion, then horror, took hold of his heart.

“I’m leaving too, Leo. It’s not because I hate you. It’s because I love you too much to see you destroy yourself over us. Think about yourself for a change.”

Pneuma drew close and gave him a soft hug, then turned away. She slipped on the black longcoat, hat, and scarf she used to travel in human crowds. Her hand was on the doorknob when he finally spoke.

He forgets just what he said at that moment. But he remembers Pneuma smiling sadly, and leaving anyway.

The paperwork for the Snow estate was immense. Krasnov, the lawyer overseeing the distribution of the estate, would see Leo three times a week. When he was on the road, Otto would drive, leaving the young man to his own brooding thoughts.

It took six weeks for him to come home and find Pneuma standing in his room.

“Leo, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re an idiot. A helpless, lovable idiot. Feeling like your toys… it really bothered me. It bothered Otto too, honestly. I didn’t want to be created in your image, and forced to be your plaything.”

“But then I thought about it. You didn’t think of us like that. You never did. You were so… so completely surprised at the idea. The thought hadn’t occurred to you at all.”

Her smile grew wider. “Don’t you see, Leo? It was me. It was all me. And if we’re thinking so differently that we’d argue about something like that, then… I am a real person. I am real, Leo!”

She grabbed hold of the surprised young man and gave him a bone-crushing hug that drove the air from his lungs. He was still dizzy when she let go, and her smile faded a little as she kept talking.

“I… I can’t be your girlfriend, Leo. I’m still worried. Please understand. What I feel, about you or anyone else, I have to know it came from me. I have to be sure. I have to be my own woman. I have to live my own life. But… I will stay with you, and I’ll keep being your friend. You so desperately need one, Leo. You need people to look after you.”

Later, the old debate resumed itself - the first of many times Pneuma would nag at Leo about his situation. “So? What are you going to do about the estate?”

Leo pulled a manila folder from his filing cabinet and handed it over. As the girl started to leaf through it, he explained. “My father sold a lot of weapons to a lot of people. He made things that hurt people. He kept records, though. So I’m going to work to make that better.”

Pneuma looked up in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

He grinned back. “I’m going to become a vigilante. A lot of Rossum’s buyers weren’t legitimate, but AEGIS can’t touch them without evidence. And he’s got a hidden lab somewhere in town. If I can find it… I can really start inventing.”

Pneuma shook her head. “Wait, just exactly what are you going to invent, Leo?”

“The future.” The young Snow rubbed his hands together. People are going to start using the things my dad made. Him and others like him. I’ll build things of my own. I’m not going to let his weapons hurt anyone else."

“You’re an idiot, Leonard Snow,” was her immediate response. “You’re an idiot through and through. You’re going to charge right into this thing like you always do.”

Pneuma’s sudden smile lit a fire in his heart. “So of course we’ll be there with you.”

#IFTTT #Astral Frontier

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