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#Me just narrating those rant asks from last week
clanwarrior-tumbly · 2 years
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Saw requests were open
How about a small fic/headcanons about reader successfully getting to say the password into the not stanley ending? Maybe last minute, right as narrator is about to yell suddenly he hears a very unfamilar desperate voice speak the code into the door which startles the man a bit,
And like, most i can say for anything to help more context wise is just "will it work? Will it not? Does player still end up in the ceiling? Does player now have the ability to talk after the next reset but fails? Wins? Does narrator finish his story? Does player absolutely break the game? Endless possibilities just choose what ya want to write most "/lh
-salt anon
Oh yes there are endless possibilities with this one XD Also I'll forever feel lowkey embarrassed that I genuinely believed I could use my mic-
Also this small fic became long ghsdhghs
.........
"And beyond all probability, he knew the passcode. He had seen it on his boss's computer just last week: Night-Shark-1-1-5. Was this the code to open the door? Would it still work? There was only one way to find out."
All was silent as you furrowed your eyebrows, wondering if it was possible to actually talk in this game. You didn't recall it asking you to test your mic input..which was strange considering upon several start-ups, it asked you to adjust random sliders that had no in-game effect.
Narrator added how Stanley was trained to "never speak up", but now worked up the courage to do so and thus expected you to do the same.
Quickly, you paused the game and double-checked the settings menu, but found nothing relating to audio input. Weird.
You resumed, approaching the receiver and clicking on it. Then you made an attempt: 
"Uh, Night-Shark...1-1-5?" 
Nothing happened. The receiver didn’t respond. 
Suddenly, Narrator cleared his throat and practically ordered Stanley to speak the code, pointing out where the receiver exactly was even though you had him standing as close to it as possible. His impatience and petulance were already showing.
You tried again without any hesitance, slower and clearer. “Night-Shark-1-1-5.”
And again..nothing.
"I'm sorry, is there a problem? You didn't mishear me, did you? Please speak the code into the receiver, otherwise we can’t get on with the story. This is a crucial step!”
You tensed as Narrator directly spoke to you, feeling the anxiety in your gut growing. It was there ever since he became aware that you existed and were the one behind all of Stanley’s decisions. He quickly got accustomed to it despite this mere revelation distorting the game’s rooms. His attempts to continue the story like normal only made things messier, as he wasn’t even supposed to be aware of you, the player.
Now you were stuck at this point in the boss’s office, unable to proceed further because he was asking for something impossible out of you. Something that proved you weren’t in total control over Stanley like he suspected. You couldn’t give him a voice.
Narrator, however, wasn’t understanding that. From his perspective, you were just standing there, disobeying him on purpose just like all those other times.
But how could you convince him you were genuinely trying? And you weren’t ignoring him on purpose?
Adjusting your headset, you set your mic input volume up to maximum and tried again. “Night-Shark-1-1-5."
Still, nothing happened. 
This seemed to be a cruel trick, and the Narrator’s patience had finally ran out. "Okay. Fine. You're not going to do it. But you know what? It's pretty humiliating to bring you this far only for you to-"
"Night-Shark-1-1-5!!" You suddenly spoke louder out of desperation, practically begging for the game and him to hear you.
And amazingly enough...it worked. 
The receiver beeped, its screen showing “Access Granted” in green letters. And the room rumbled to life as the secret entrance to the elevator opened.
Narrator ceased his rant, and you could hear him faintly gasp in shock, before attempting to continue his narration. “But with a great shout..Stanley....oh..who am I kidding? That wasn’t him. That was you! Hahaha!”
Hearing his soft laughter made you smile a bit. You made him happy! And he heard you, too!
Unfortunately, this seemed to be the last straw for the game, as when you approached the elevator, the “narrative contradictions” have distorted it horribly to where you couldn’t enter it. You pouted. “Damn it..well, that was all for nothing.”
"Nonsense! We have both gained something from this, dear player!”
You jumped in your seat, realizing he actually heard what you said. This was shocking, and you were completely unsure of how to respond to him. But he didn’t seem too worried about his story literally falling apart when he was previously scrambling to salvage it. He seemed more excited to speak with you.
After an awkward pause, you spoke again as a test. “Um..hi, Narrator?”
“Yes! Yes! Hello, you! Must I say, you have a lovely voice.” He chuckled. “It’s been so long since I’ve heard somebody else speaking for once. Please, do not stop talking.”
“Oh uh..okay then.” His compliments flustered you, though you just sighed, deciding to give him what he wanted regardless of what consequences could follow. “I’m sorry if it seemed like I was ignoring you. This game doesn’t support mic inputs so I wasn’t sure if I could use the receiver.”
“...ah, is that why? Well, it’s a shame the developers never thought to consider that. I suppose it’d make this game less complicated, but...it gets so lonely sometimes, with me being the only one talking and Stanley just listening. No words, only actions. So for me to receive a verbal response from somebody on the outside is refreshing. It’s liberating!”
Hearing the overwhelming relief in his voice made you smile. Yet your heart also ached for him, knowing he’s probably been alone for years, aware of the cruel reality of being a video game character.
At least for now you could keep him company in his isolation.
“Now I know we’ve had our little..setbacks, but we can let bygones be bygones, right? You and me, deciding Stanley’s choices together! Endless possibilities await us! Who needs this dumb story anyway? I’d rather stay here awhile and get to know y-”
In the middle of his excited rambling, the screen abruptly cut to black and left you in an uncomfortable silence. 
You frowned a bit, disappointed that the game chose to rip this happiness from him. No loading bar appeared to indicate it was resetting, so you waited.
Then suddenly you found yourself in a peculiar place: above the ceiling of the two doors room. You were still controlling a character, floating over the game’s map, though the invisible borders didn’t let you go too far.
You looked down at Stanley, who stood in that room, completely unmoving. And you could hear Narrator’s muffled voice begging him to make a choice, pleading for him to do something instead of nothing in such a desperate tone--very much unlike his passive-aggressiveness from before.
“Narrator?”
“Huh? Oh, thank god. You’re still here, dear player.” The sadness in his voice didn’t waver a bit as he finally noticed you. “Please keep talking to me. The silence..it’s..it’s almost crushing me. I need to hear you..I need to talk to you. I know you people have an actual life to attend to but..please stay for a little while. At least until Stanley makes his choice.”
“I..I’m having trouble understanding you, but I don’t think he’ll be moving anytime soon.” You shook your head even though he couldn’t see it. “This game went too far down the rabbit hole to save. I broke it. I need to return to Stanley. I’m gonna have to restart-”
“No! I can’t go back to that! Not to the loneliness that has threatened to swallow me whole!” His desperation was growing, his voice becoming more choked up by the second. “I’ll forget you and Stanley are different and..a-and I simply can’t do that, dear player. What if the game doesn’t allow us to speak to each other again?! What if...i-if-?!”
“I’ll find a way around that, Narrator. I promise." You couldn’t guarantee that without worrying about breaking the game. You could always go down this same route again now that you knew how to get here, though it would end the same..and you refused to put Narrator through that kind of torture.
He’s a victim of this parable just as much as Stanley is. To you, his feelings were real, genuine.
How could you mess with him like that?
He was silent for some time, and you grew worried the game will just cut you off without warning again. “I’m sure there’s another route or ending where I can properly communicate with you. Maybe the game will be more stable or-”
“Don’t bother..”
“Huh?”
“It’s all pointless. Why am I clinging to you like some child? Am I truly that miserable?" He droned on and on with exhaustion. “I’m the one who brought this mess upon myself...because I was so enthralled with the idea of talking to a real person and trying to take you along for the ride. But that’s not possible. This game is not about either of us, it’s about Stanley. And we should play our parts the way we’re supposed to--with me speaking and you guiding him. That’s the way it’s always been..and the way it should be.”
Of course, you knew of Narrator’s pessimism. In many of his narrations it became clear as day and had you concerned for him. But this was on a whole different level; this was borderline nihilism.
You couldn’t change his mind. You couldn’t hug him and tell him it’s all going to be okay. But you could give him one last bit of happiness. You didn’t wanna restart this game on such a sour note.
“Maybe that’s true, but before we go back..is there anything else you’d like to know about me?”
“I don’t think it will matter, since I’ll forget about all of this in a few moments, but...perhaps your name? I see your gamer tag but I’d love to know your real one.”
“It’s [y/n].”
“[Y/n]..ah, that’s a wonderful name.” Narrator chuckled sadly. “Well [y/n], just know that whatever choice you decide to make next, I-”
But he didn’t get to finish as the game once again interrupted him, restarting and putting you back in control of Stanley.
Sighing, you wandered through the same rooms and hallways as usual, trying to decide your next course of action as you listened to the usual narrations.
Then you came across a slightly ajar door labeled “New Content”, and hummed with curiosity. ‘Is this a clue? Is he trying to show me something?’
There's only one way to find out.
Maybe you’ll get to chat with him again after all.
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bisexual-horror-fan · 4 years
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Bex has opinions. They are bad.
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writer-panda · 3 years
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Hit on the groom and what became of it - chapter 2/Take me out maybe (with a sniper rifle)
Disclaimer: I don’t own Miraculous or Batman (and other DC characters). This is just a fanfiction. 
Chapter 1  -|-  Next
--------
As much as Marinette disliked the meeting with the female entourage, when the time came to start working on Adrien’s suit she wanted to scream. She could clearly see that he was uncomfortable with even the gentlest touches. She did her best to make it as non-invasive to him as possible.
They had absolutely no privacy whatsoever. The Bodyguard (Gerard; His name was Gerard) and Nathalie observed their every move. Marinette was half-convinced it wasn’t her who was under watch. 
The professional atmosphere was far cry from her usual working environment. When Uncle Jagged, Clara Nightingale, or even Diana Prince came to her for clothes, it was always very informal. They would joke, gossip, or exchange stories while she worked. Now? Now she was wary of even speaking with Adrien. 
Likewise, the boy refused to meet her eyes or open his mouth. 
At some point, when she was trying to find the right shade of white for the undershirt, she noticed a make-up stain that was not there before. 
“I’m sorry, but I will need to request you remove the makeup. It is staining my materials.” She informed Nathalie and Gerard coldly. It was all she could do to resist calling the police there and there. Sadly, the commissioner was good friends with Gabriel, so it would most likely just end her career and make it worse for Adrien. 
“I was assured it would not leave stains on materials. Please accept our apologies. We will cover the costs of destroyed materials,” Nathalie informed her in an equally cold voice.
“I see…” Marinette’s lips thinned. Inside, she was screaming. But there was nothing she could do. The hit was in place. Soon Adrien would be safe. It would go without a hitch. It had to. 
As the group was leaving, she could’ve sworn the Bodyguard gave her a mournful look. As if he shared her sentiment, but was powerless to stop it. She’d know that look. She saw it in the mirror all too often.
---------
The Wedding (even the narrator started to capitalize it) came faster than Marinette wanted to accept. And there were still no words about the kidnapping. She made sure to specify that they were to take him before he was married or no payment. Did she not make the money enticing enough? Were there already attempts that were stopped without media coverage? Maybe she forgot to check some boxes?
A million scenarios ran through her head as she wandered through the alleyways.
The whole event was happening in Gotham Botanic Garden. Whatever the weak excuse was given to the press, Marinette knew the real reason: it was one of the few places in the world where Gabriel could marry his son to Lila legally without messing with courts. And bribes were said to be cheapest there. 
As the designer for both the bride and the groom, she was invited to the main ceremony. 
Lila was kind enough to even give her a seated place… right next to Chloé Bourgeois.
Marinette had a hard time deciding if it was bigger punishment to her or the mayor’s daughter. Ultimately, the two girls did their best to not look at each other during preparations. At first, that is, because the first chance she got, Chloé to drag the designer to a remote garden gazebo in a secluded corner when she was least expecting it.
“Wha-!” Marinette was about to protest, but the blonde covered her mouth. She seated her on the bench and took the seat on the opposite side. 
“I’ve been friends with Adrien since we were kids.” She announced in the usual ‘I’m-better-than-you’ tone. “I also know that you’re not always an idiot.”
“Gee! Thanks, Chloé… I’m honored with your praise.” Marinette deadpanned, interrupting the heiress. “Now get to the point”. She really hoped her dress wasn’t damaged or she might just turn to murder. 
“Fine. You worked with Adrien on his suit.” She paused, and for a moment, just a brief moment, her mask fell. That was not what Marinette expected. She has never seen Chloé so… so… The designer’s brain lacked the word to describe how her childhood bully looked like. “How is he?” The blonde asked, her voice almost trembling. 
Marinette opened her mouth, but no sound came. 
A moment passed.
“Not good.” She finally admitted. “During the measurements, he winced even at delicate touches. Plus I was called in last week to make some adjustments to his garments. He lost weight between then and now. And he wore makeup on his right arm. On both occasions.”
“Makeup?” Chloé’s eyes widened. 
“Yes. I would’ve probably missed it if I didn’t soak my fabric into makeup removed beforehand.” She thought back fondly to her brilliant idea. 
“They hurt him!?” Chloé burst out after few seconds. “I will show those… those…”
“Believe me, I share the sentiment.” Marinette nodded sagely. She needed plan B and needed it fast. There had to be something… “I slipped him a burner phone on his way out. I doubt they found it. If it gets really bad, he can try calling the police.”
“You are devious sometimes, Dupain-Cheng.” 
“Thanks. I try.” 
“So… they are coercing him into it?”
“I think so. He is resigned to his fate it seems, but he tries to show some rebelliousness. It wasn’t his father’s idea to hire me and Lila would rather walk to the altar naked than wear anything by me.” Marinette cringed. Any interaction she had with the Liar made her feel almost dirty. And forcing politeness was physically painful sometimes. 
“I got that much from the fact he hasn’t reported it yet. That burner phone was a good move, but Adrikins was always too obedient.”
“And I’m sure you had nothing to do with it,” Marinette muttered, but Chloé didn’t hear her. The heiress somehow managed to derail her rant into telling the story of her entire childhood.
Marinette listened only with one ear, filtering the information for something useful. The rest of her consciousness focused on something else. She started to seriously entertain the idea of using Miraculous to get Adrien out. She would need a combination of several powers though. Trixx was the obvious choice. Illusions would be a great asset. Maybe the Tiger, for the Power Up? If Roaar didn’t exaggerate her power, she would be able to put a distance between them and the city before anyone even realized what happened. She would need to time her illusion right though. And there were the American Heroes to watch out for…
If she didn’t use miraculous immediately, she might get a drop on the bodyguard(s) and then make an exit using Kaalki’s power when they were alone. Disable cameras, take out the guards, get in, portal out. It was feasible but still involved too many risks. If anyone connected miraculi to the operation, Ladybug would be in great trouble. She couldn’t endanger Paris like that… not even for her partner and best friend. 
Then, there was the most dangerous plan. Don’t use Miraculi at all. She was confident enough in her skills to enter undetected. Maybe even sneak out. The question was, would Adrien make it. She could sneak him Plagg’s ring. Chat Noir would have no problem leaving any prison. But… there would be the same risk as when any other Miraculi was connected and the whole point was not to use them in the first place. 
“Ugh!” She let out an angry sound that startled Chloé. 
“What’s with you, Dupain-Cheng! Don’t you see I’m opening my heart to you!?”
“Shut up, I’m trying to do something productive.” She snapped at the blonde. 
“Why, I…”
“Silence. Your tale was entirely unhelpful. Let me focus.” 
Gotham. What was in Gotham that could help her? The most corrupt city, famous for its high crime rate, mad villains, and eternal gloominess. Even now she could feel some of it resonate in the air. As if the whole city was one big Akuma. Probably no help from the establishment… The police were more likely to put a bag on her head and deliver her to one of the crime families… 
“What in Gotham can help…” She voiced her musing loudly, causing Chloé to peak up.
“Waynes!” She proclaimed. “That serial adopter would jump at the chance to get another orphan…”
“Adrien isn’t an orphan… Yet.” Marinette grumbled. “But he will be married by then, so I would need to plan a double homicide… Meh. No great loss.” She said without a shadow of care. It was like the thoughts about the murder were completely normal for her. 
Chloé shivered. “Remind me not to get into your way when you’re in that mood.”
In the distance, the orchestra was starting to play, signaling the guests that the ceremony would start soon.
“Ugh! Hawkmoth it!” Marinette raged as she ran to the clearing. She no longer had the time and if she was the only one missing, Lila would make her prime suspect for anything that happened. Blast it. She would get one more chance. Screw the career. She could survive living somewhere in Argentina if it all went to hell. 
-------
Adrien already accepted his fate. His father and Lila made sure that all avenues of further rebellion were closed. He exhausted everything there was. 
To this day, he was grateful for that burner phone from Marinette. He made sure to hide it but always have it somewhere nearby. It became a form of a lifeline for him. A one-off save-your-life ticket. It would only work in short term, but at the rate everything was going, it could potentially save his life…
He missed his life before the mess with The Wedding started. 
Hell! He even missed Plagg’s stinking cheese. He would maim for some camembert.
“Adrien,” Gerard spoke solemnly. There was no need for more words. They both knew what was about to happen and Adrien took just a bit of solace in the fact that he was not entirely alone, even if no one could help him. 
“I’m ready.” He spoke, barely above a whisper.
Before he realized it, the ceremony was undergoing. Lila, in her stunning dress, held the attention on herself like a pro. No one even thought about looking anywhere but at them. The dress was similarly just so… Lila. It made all of her features all the more proponent. Yet, there was just a small, barely noticeable, stitch that said Marinette. A smile ghosted his face. There was some good out of this. He managed to make his friend famous. After today, no one would deny her style. 
“Should anyone present know of any reason that this couple should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace.” The marriage officiant spoke. Adrien didn’t even care what convention the wedding was in. 
The silence swept across the garden. 
No one dared to even breathe loudly.
Adrien lowered his head. Here, the last…
There was a rustle somewhere close to the front. He looked up, a small glimmer of hope appeared in his eyes. 
Marinette was standing there, her backs straightened and one finger held up. “I…”
She felt the gaze of hundreds of guests on her. They were the most influential people in the world of modern business. Waynes. Luthor. Queen. Burgeiose. Agreste… And they all kept staring at her. 
She tried to swipe the hall with a glance, but something attracted her attention. A glint of light somewhere in the distance.
“Watch out!” She shouted, tossing a chair she was sitting on just a moment ago. 
The metal item sailed through the air until it crashed in the middle of the alley.
With an arrow sticking out of it.
For a second (which felt much longer) everyone stared at it.
Then the mass panic started. People got out of their chairs and started trying to get out of there. They trampled one another as each considered themselves to be the most important, hence first to evacuate. It was chaos.
Among the mass of people, Marinette tried her best to make it to the altar. She saw that Gerard and several other hired bodyguards were of similar minds. 
She managed to squeeze through the crowd the fastest, only to find Lila knocked out and Adrien and the Officiant missing. Adrien’s cousin (best man) and Alya (bridesmaid) were both nowhere to be found. They probably ran away. There was still no trace of the Groom. That is until she saw a giant mass of brown mud dragging the boy away. 
The sad thing? Adrien wasn’t really protesting much. 
Gerard was the next to make it through. He noticed Adrien a tad quicker and tried to chase whoever it was that tried to kidnap Adrien, but a fist made of mud slammed into him, sending him flying away. 
“Holy Hawkmoth!” Marinette cursed once more. Okay, so far, it was only a curse for her, but he deserved it. 
In the distance, police sirens could’ve been heard, but with how fast the mud was escaping, Adrien would be long gone before the police arrived. Marinette had to do something.
Wait… Why am I trying to stop the kidnapping I ordered? She suddenly questioned herself, freezing in place. 
Two guards rushed past her and started firing at the mass, but the bullets seemed to be about as effective as Parisian police when dealing with Akuma. 
The last Marinette saw of Adrien he was being taken into the sewers.
-----------
After the police arrived, Marinette was of course first to be interrogated. (“Gee… Thanks, Lila”). They wanted to know how she noticed the arrow, did she see the attacker, how did the kidnapper looked like, and dozens of other questions. By the end, she was exhausted. Somewhere after the sixth question, her phone pinged. Luckily, the police didn’t bother with checking it and believed that it was just a worried friend. 
Not the kidnapper trying to contact their employer.
Finally, after the police released her and informed her that no further information was needed, she could contact her Maman.
“Sweety? Are you okay? I’ve seen the news!” Was the first thing that came through
“Yeah. Don’t worry. I’m perfectly fine. The police held me back for questioning a bit. I’m going back to the hotel and be back in Paris first flight tomorrow, okay?”
“Stay in Gotham! I’m coming to pick you up!” Her mother informed her.
“Wha-!? But there is no need! Seriously Maman! There’s no need to trouble yourself.”
There was a silence on the line for a moment and Marinette could feel that her mother was trying to glare at her through the phone. It worked. 
“Fine… I’m at Wayne Plaza, room 30-14.” She relented, not wanting any more arguments. She would still have several hours to sort the mess with Adrien. What could possibly go wrong?
Trying her best to be careful, Marinette left the site of crime and traveled to the industrial district. The taxi driver couldn’t be bothered less about why she wanted to go there. He just wanted to get paid and leave. 
The only-slightly-creepy aura of the completely silent area full of factories and warehouses served as a perfect background to contacting the kidnapper. Marinette, after making sure she was truly alone, activated the voice-scrambling app on her burner and dialed the number that sent her the text about successful work. Her Maman showed her that, thinking she wanted it for a prank. Or that’s how Marinette presented it anyway.
“Who is this?!” A voice on the other side of the call asked.
Marinette took a deep breath before answering. “I was led to believe you have what I wanted.” She tried her best to channel Chloé into her voice. 
“Ah… Yes… There’s been a… complication.”
“What do you mean ‘complication’?” She hissed into the phone call. 
“Um… I had the package… But then someone stole the stolen package…” Whoever that was informed her. 
“Who?” She demanded. 
“Last I checked, Lawton was the one who had ‘im… But it might’ve changed. But don’t worry, Boss… lady?” They asked. Marinette didn’t give either confirmation or scolding, so they continued. “I’m still in the game.” With that, they hang up. 
“What did I just get myself into…” She moaned. Then, the realization hit her. “What did I just get Adrien into…”
Elsewhere, Adrien was starring into a pair of curious sea-green eyes. 
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popculturebuffet · 3 years
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Uncle Scrooge by Don Rosa:  The Isle at the Edge of Time (Thank You Comission For Rosie Isla)
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Hello all you happy people! Today’s review is a bit special as it’s the result of another review. See I had trouble finding a translation of the subject of last weeks’ mother’s day special, Family Ties. 
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No not that one. I have Paramount+. I can watch all the Family Ties I want and that’s a fact that i’m pleased as punch about. 
No it was the story 80 is Prachtig, called Family Ties in the copy used, Della’s first major comics appearance and one that explains what happened to her in the classic continuity, one that clearly served as the foundation for her far more fleshed out 2017 versions personality and backstory. It also had Pinocchio in it for some reason, and spent most of it’s large run time on a meta comedy plot that had nothing to do with the reason anyone wanted to read this story in the first place.
But despite being a vitally important story, it never got an english translation, something that baffled me till I read the story and found cameos of the racist indigenous stereotypes from Peter Pan. In 2014. You may commence booing. Even with how weird the story was I simply couldn’t find the story googling it and the Della tag is too vast and deep to go spelunking in.
So what’s all this have to do? Simple I put out a post last month when neither I nor Kev, who wanted to comission it as part of Moons, Millionares and Mothers, my coverage of all three season 2 Ducktales story arcs, could find a copy and offered a review to whoever found it.  Weeks passed I got nothing.. then in the 11th hour I got a break as the lovely @rosieisla​ found a translation that was on this very site, one she seemed to have helped with. As a result I could do the review and as a man of my word, offered it up despite her clearly having not seen that part of the post and simply having done this to be nice. Still she gladly took up the offer and offered me my pick of two stories: The Carl Barks Story Back to Long Ago or this one. 
As for WHY I picked this one Back To Long Ago didn’t seem bad, i’m just not a fan of “The Cast is put in the past as their own ancestors” type deals. Or in some cases put the cast as people from that time period. It’s just not for me and is most often done in TV where it can get really goofy, Beverly Hills 90210 being a prime example of this, though Girl Meets World was no slouch in being embarassing... that being said I really need to finish that show and miss it. 
So yeah when put up against a story with two intresting hooks and FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD, even if i’ts not the version that’s my boy, it was no contest. So what are these hooks you ask? Well join me under the cut and find out. 
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We open with a weird stylistic choice: This story has a narrator complete with caption boxes. Now for those of you familiar with comics or pastiches of comics in tv and film, this probably dosen’t seem like a big deal. It was a common thing in comics from their inception to 90′s to have caption boxes, big boxes of text narrating the action to help move things along faster. It did start to fade out by the 80′s and was gone by the end of the 90′s for the most part, replaced instead with first person narration. It’s the kind of thing you’d see most often in the Golden and Silver Ages, with stuff like tihs
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It’s not a BAD device, it’s good old cheesy and bombastic fun and some writers did get clever with it.. like that time Chris Claremont used the narration to yell at a greiving cyclops after he lost a teammate early in his long and storied run on the uncanny x-men. 
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This is a objectively weird scene that’s still somehow effective by the by. On the one hand it does come off as Chris Claremont essentally bullying Cyclops who already feels guilty for a death that was not in fact his fault as Thunderbird was told the plane he was attacking with fleeing villian Count Nefaria was about to explode and refused to listen.. and that they needed to get rid of either him or Wolverine as both served the same purpose and chose the non-white guy. 
On the other htough it comes off just as much as Scott beating himself up in his grief and anger over the event and his perceived failings as a leader. It’s good stuff and shows why this run caught on as this was only three issues in. Also the rest of the issue features the X-Men fighting a giant cyclopian demon that Cyclops accidently freed in his rage by destroying the stone thing keeping him imprisoned. No really here’s the cover
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Huh so tha’ts what Nifty’s dad looks like. Neat. Also I REALLY hope we get the X-Men fighting aliens or demons in the MCU. Unlike the XCU the MCU isn’t alergic to getting batshit.. and for the record Deadpool and New Mutants are the exception, not the rule.
My point that I swear I do have is that this was common practice for most comics.. but never really for Disney Duck comics. It popped up ocasionally, like with Scrooge’s introduction, but Barks and those after him never really used them that much. Sure they’d have caption boxes for flasbacks and what not but Barks and Co geninely only used this sort of thing to set up a story. The most i’ve seen it in a duck comic is life and times and even then i’ts usually only used for gags or to set up the passage of time, as the story IS covering decades and thus often needed to have montages to show time passing, and in the case of chapter 11, had to cover decades in the span of a single chapter, so it’s not like they had many other options. So even Rosa as a personal quirk didn’t really use these often. 
Rosa used this specifically because he felt the plot was complicated by the use of the international date line. As for what it is, it’s essentially a line marking calender dates from one side of the hemisphere to the others. To use the offical defentition from the National Ocean Service I found via a quick google:
“The International Date Line, established in 1884, passes through the mid-Pacific Ocean and roughly follows a 180 degrees longitude north-south line on the Earth. It is located halfway round the world from the prime meridian—the zero degrees longitude established in Greenwich, England, in 1852.
The International Date Line functions as a “line of demarcation” separating two consecutive calendar dates. When you cross the date line, you become a time traveler of sorts! Cross to the west and it’s one day later; cross back and you’ve “gone back in time."
Despite its name, the International Date Line has no legal international status and countries are free to choose the dates that they observe. While the date line generally runs north to south from pole to pole, it zigzags around political borders such as eastern Russia and Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.”
Rosa felt this made the story complicated.... and that... really isn’t remotely true. The narration is mostly used for gagas and really dosen’t clarify anything. it’s mostly used well in the opening.. but the actual explinations for the date line are clear enough in the story that even if I hadn’t looked the thing up, I still would’ve got it and i’m sure a kid would’ve too. It just feels like a weird thing to ruminate on, especially because he’s got actual things to make up for: while to his credit the native american characters he cribbed from carl barks are sympathetic, their culture respected and treated decently and used for a green aseop, their dialouge is stitled and sterotypical something he dosen’t even comment on (And these trades ewren’t THAT long ago) 
And of course it dosen’t help that he dosen’t even comment on using a common device in american superhero boooks.. in the same volume where he ONCE again makes an unwanted and outdated diatribe about superhero comics. I’ll probably cover the Super Snooper Strikes again so I can throughly tear this apart but higlights include: Calling superhero comics “Unwanted” just because he dosen’t like them personally, when people like me would disagree and they’ve lasted through a LOT of highs and lows, outdately saying they took over the American market as the only suitable comics which while true for a TIME,but by 2015 when this book was printed is laughably out of date, as non superhero works like The Walking Dead, Saga, and Scott Pilgrim were massively popular, one of my faviorite comics that is entirely slice of life and would go on to bea huge hit, Giant Days, re-debuted that very year. He also has the fucking gal to insult The Uncanny X-Men by name and I swear to god I did not know this when I made those references earlier, but as you probably guessed REALLY god me livid. 
And this is just on his COMMENTS on the story I can’t imagine just how bad the content itself is and having read the first few pages which come off as Rosa using Donald to essentially do an “old man yells at cloud rant” about superhero comics, I really don’t want to. Might make htis a patreon exclusive or again would do it on comissoin. You all make the call.... the point is I don’t likes his elitist bullshit about superhero comics, and this is clearly something that gets my hackles up as I just spent a good two paragraphs of an entirely unrealted review yelling at the guy for it. I don’t like when he does this and this authors notes entirley felt like an excuse. I GET the dark age of comics were bad, they REALLY were that bad, but I will NEVER accept painting an enitre genre as bad just because one work in it is bad. And I wont accept it from someone who himself writes about an often throughly unlikeable anti-hero for a living.  Scrooge may not have a gun on his gun on his gun or get to stabbing or have pouches, but he DOES finacially abuse his nephew, scoff at people’s personal troubles, and often refuse to use his wealth to help others in general. So yeah in conclusion Rosa really needs to say less about this subject. 
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Okay so where were we.. right the story hadn’t even started yet. Jesus. 
Okay so our story begins with the narrator. Whose going on about time and what not. The main point of this speech about time is that it’s night in Duckburg and Scrooge is going to bed as, even being the workhorse that he is, he can’t keep going 24 hours. While he’s snoozing though something major happens and it’s the hook that made me pick this story along with the international dateline one.. an island rises thanks to volcanic erruption.. and the lava is GOLD. That’s just pure unabashed classic Duck Stuff: a mysterious treasure or phenominon of gold bound to bring scrooge in. 
But Scrooge isn’t stupid: the sun comes up and the world still spins while he sleeps, so he set up a satalite to monitor for this sort of thing. The thing naturally goes nuts.. and even more naturally breaks down becasue Scrooge bought cheap parts. A nice gag and a fully in character way to bring our antagonist into the picture, as the Satellite of Loaded falls in the middle of South Africa... right on the property of my boy Flintheart Glomgold. 
This is something Rosa brought up in his commentary for the story i’d never thought about. It turns out Glomgold being a citzen of Duckburg WASN’T an invention of the original Ducktales but the comics: some overseas had understandably moved him from his home country of South Africa. Him bieing in the same town as Scrooge instead of half a world away allows for easier setups and more intresting ones.
Rosa however being obdient to Barks Version of things, ketp Glomgold in South Africa like barks did, which was an .. ifffy decision given Apartheid had JUST ended at the time of this story. Not so much in the reboot as not only had apartheid been long gone by the time of the reboot, but that’s more fair. Still we do get some gorgeous vistas as a result as Glomgold’s minon goes to look at it and finds it’s from McDuck Mining company... Glomgold’s reaction is obvious. 
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So on that note we cut to Scrooge rushing to Donalds house and forcing him awake and not telling him anything at first. Look his Ducktales Counterpart straight up kidnapped his donald in my last review, I’d call this a win. He also tries to dress Donald while explaning both his panic to find the crashed satlitle and what it found: the golden island. The end result of him dressing donald is worth a chuckle
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So after Donald puts his shirt and little hat on our heroes get rollin rollin rollin what keep rollin rollin rollin who to Manilla. On the plane we get the scene I mentioned: The boys make a quip about Scrooge having lost a day and the group go over the international date line. It’s a fun little scene especially Donald trying to get paid early at the end. Classic scrooge and donald stuff without the abusive undertones some of their classic stuff has. 
Meanwhile Glomgold works out the data and finds out about the gold island, and his excitement accidently wakes a giraffe outside.. welll it was nice knowing him, Giraffes are the deadliest species known to man.. here’s an educational video t back that up....
youtube
So at Manilla Airport, Scrooge finds out abotu the south african crash, figuring he’ll get a laugh out of glomgold being there ... only for Donald to spot the Jet. Scrooge figures this can’t be anything good... now come on man maybe he’s just promoting his energy drink. 
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As super sayin god super sayian as my witness, I will never get tired of Ultra Instinct Glomgold here. 
Scrooge isn’t so nice about that though and figures he better find out if Glomgold knows about the island and bribes one of the fueling crew for his uniform. He sucesssfully eavesdrops on Glomgold talking to his pilot, finding out from him exactly WHERE the island is. He ends up hilariously botching the mission though: when getting ready to leave Glomgold complains abotu the price of gas and that naturally causes Scrooge, just as cheap, to join in... and Glomgold to find out it’s Scrooge. The two wrestle outside the plane but before this can progress to a game of Naked Robber an airport security guy comes up and Scrooge cleverly claims that Glomgold’s plane has an infestiation, requring it to be quanrantined and allowing Scrooge to jet on.. thoguh not with an actual jet. With Glomgold seemingly dispatched, he can afford to save some money and take his time with a seaplane and I know just the man for the job. 
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Oh nope looks like he’s busy. So one time related rambles later we meet Keoki, their asian pilot from the tiny island of Wookawooka.. and no that’s not a real place i checked... and no Fozzy dosen’t own it his check bounced. That being said it is a very well done represntation of someone from a smaller country: he’s doing this job to try and bring money back home, but being a seaplane captain just isn’t enough and his island is dying. Scrooge naturally is about as sympathetic as you’d expect, having apparently never even heard of the idea of a bonus when Huey, Dewey or Louie suggests it. 
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Even less suprising is that Glomgold streaks by in his Jet:turns out Manilla was already overun with the bugs Scrooge claimed and Donald rubs it in that had Scrooge got a JET this wouldn’t of been an issue. 
So Glomgold easily beats them there, and to add insult and actualy injury to a cash based one, our heroes get blasted by golden lava on the way in and crash. Should’ve gotten launchpad... got the crashing professional. Keoki is dispondent as this means his people are doomed. He also dosen’t know waht staking a claim is when Scrooge mentions it and the boys bring him up to speed with the poor guy saying he wish he could for WookaWooka. Donald also makes a valid point about how greedy and heartlress scrooge can be.. and really billiionares in general.
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No no YOUR the Grouch who refuses to have one drop of emapthy. Donald’s just pissed at your general selfish and terrible behavior. 
Glomgold glomgloats and has seemingly won... but naturally that rant that seemed extranious at the time about the date line comes into play: turns out the Island is on it, and since glomgold put his marker int he west, Scrooge simply puts his in the east which is a whole day before. Now GRANTED there’s nor eal legal prescendice for the intetaoinal date line itself , as noted above... but there’s enough witnesses in Scrooge’s favor that it simply does not matter anyway. Scrooge SEEMINGLY wins.
But Huey, Dewey Or Louie instead backs another claim: Keoki’s from earlier. While it was made in gest, he and the others along with Donald back it as witnsses instad. WookaWooka is saved and SCrogoe ends the story yelling at the narrator.
Final Thoughts: Don Rosa.. did not like this story, feeling it wasn’t one of his best and apologizing for it. I however.. really loved it. It’s not PERFECT: the narration feels not entirely necessary and the gag isn’t as funny as he thinks, though the payoff of scrooge saying “it’s time for this story to end” is fucking hilarous. I also feel it’s a bit too compressed: the story is only 16 pages and was only THAT long because Rosa added a few for exposition, a worthy addition. This feels like one of his 30 page adventure stories but slightly crammed into half the length. I also feel the golden island bit was BADLY underused as it’s such a cool setting but barely shows up in the story. 
But despite that.. it’s still a fun story: as is standard for Rosa the art is gorgeous and the humor is great. And unlike some stories where Rosa casually ignores how terrible scrooge is, here it’s his own greed and hubris that do him in: had he actually agreed to help Keoki, the boys likey would’ve let him keep the island but his own cold refusual to be a human being does him in, just as his cheapness nearly did. Flintheart is also decent here.. not the deepest foe but frankly most classical duck antagonists really aren’t all that fleshed out, and we still get some good bits with him. The dateline bit, while telegraphing that it will be important, as I said REALLY isn’t that hard to understand. All in all while i’ll agree with Rosa this isn’t his BEST, it’s still a really damn good story and one he shoudln’t be ashamed of. 
Tommorow: Green Eggs and ham is back for some train shenanigans! Kay. 
Saturday: The Tom Retrospective returns for it’s last detour! Eclipsa and Moon team up to stop meteora but grapple with diffrent wants: One to save her daughter.. the other to stop waht she clearly sees as an out of control monster. The result.. will only lead to tragedy and a hell of a two parter. 
If you liked this review consider joining my patreon, patroen.com/popculturebuffet. At as low as 2 bucks a month you get accesss to my patreon discord, exclusive reviews, and to pick a short when I do one of my shortstragavanzas, a marthon of theatrical shorts honoring a characters birthday. And given Donald’s is next month, now’s the time to get on board. 
But if you go up to 5 you get a guaranteed review of whatever you want every month, and will get me to my next milestone, which will give everyone including yourself a monthly public darkwing duck review, reviews of the two Ducktales minis’ I haven’t covered (Time is Money and SuperDuckTales) and a reivew of the Danny Phantom film the Ultimate Enemy. So please join today and if you cannot, like this review, subscribe and give me your opinions on it bellow. Or even if you can feedback is always appricated and I will see you at the next rainbow. 
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haberdashing · 3 years
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Transparent Closet
Jon and Georgie, both of whom are bi, come out to one another... in a way.
Written as part of @jonsimsbipride for the prompt “Solidarity”. Inspired by this post, though it portrays Jon as pan while this fic has him as bi.
on AO3
One of Jon and Georgie’s first dates was watching a series of mediocre supernatural-themed horror films together.
One of the things they’d first bonded over was their shared interest in the supernatural, after all (though Jon had never dared tell her of his first-hand experience with such things... and years down the line, Jon would learn that Georgie hadn’t dared share her own with him either), and what were schlocky movies for if not watching them together with someone you care about and talking trash loudly enough that the actual movie could barely be heard?
The lights were turned down (though not entirely off), Jon and Georgie sat pressed against each other on a couch that was either too small or just the right size depending on one’s perspective, and the movie marathon began.
After the night in question was over, Jon quickly forgot most of the details of the movies they chose to watch then--the titles, the storylines, even the number of movies they managed to fit in before conking out for the night--but one bit from the marathon stuck with him.
There was a lead actress in one of the movies who was pretty, but in a way that was clearly Hollywood trying to make her appear down-to-earth. The woman in question wore full makeup in every scene and was skinny and conventionally attractive and wore clothes clearly fitted precisely to her body shape, but her long brown hair looked a bit untamed and there was a speck of dirt placed just so on her cheek, so clearly she was just a regular person, right?
(In Jon’s opinion, the attempt fell well short of the mark, but he wasn’t terribly surprised; what Hollywood executives thought was normal and what regular people thought was normal were clearly two different things. Regardless, the actress didn’t strike Jon as his type.)
A few minutes into the movie, screams came from within a mansion that had been rumored to be haunted, and while most of the characters froze up or ran away, the lead actress took off her high heels and ran towards the mansion, her bare feet squelching in the mud with every step.
When that happened, Georgie tapped Jon’s arm and said in a stage whisper (as if they were in a movie theatre with others to disturb with their speech, instead of it just being the two of them snuggled up on that small couch), “Sorry, Jon, think we’re gonna have to break up now, that woman just earned my hand in marriage right there.”
Jon diverted his attention from the movie and looked over at Georgie, and he saw on her face when the realization hit her that she’d never actually confessed her attraction to women before. She didn’t look scared that Jon would reject her for it, though--that was one thing Jon always admired about Georgie, that she was never scared, never filled with the fear that consumed Jon’s own mind so frequently. But she watched Jon’s reaction to her statement almost as closely as he was watching her now.
“Surely we can work out an arrangement.” Jon replied after a brief moment. “She can have you on the weekends, perhaps?”
That careful scrutiny apparent on Georgie’s face melted away in an instant, replaced with a gentle smile. “Don’t be selfish, Jon. You can have me on the weekends. She gets the weekdays.”
“It’s hard not to be selfish when something so precious is at stake.” Jon reached for Georgie’s hand and gave it a tight squeeze. “But you’re right, fair is fair. Switch off every other week, then?”
“Hmm...” Georgie pressed the hand that wasn’t being held by Jon against her chin, as if she were deep in thought.
“And she can have you for the holidays.”
“Alright, sold.” Georgie pressed her lips against Jon’s cheek, and though the contact only lasted a moment, the warmth from the kiss was still enough to carry Jon through the rest of the night, his mind now filled with anything but the cinematic schlock still playing in front of him.
.
Jon was sitting on Georgie’s couch, listening to her rant about her troubles with a recent biology assignment, before she suddenly switched gears and asked, “So what have you been working on lately, Jon? Can’t be as bad as all that...”
Jon didn’t need to think twice about which of his assignments to discuss, not when one of them always seemed to be in the back of his mind at any given moment. “No, it’s quite interesting, actually. I’ve been working on an analysis of the book A Separate Peace--have you ever read it?”
Georgie hesitated for a moment, wrinkling her nose in thought before shaking her head in response. “The name sounds familiar, but I’ve never read it, no.”
“Alright, so-”
Just those two words emerging from Jon’s mouth were enough to put a wry smile on Georgie’s face--she knew what was coming, knew that Jon was getting ready to ramble on about one of his latest interests, and it warmed Jon’s heart to think that she was clearly looking forward to such rambling, a far cry from how his grandmother’s eyes had always glazed over when he’d tried to explain his passions to her.
“It’s about the narrator, Gene, returning to a boarding school he used to go to and reflecting on his time there, and specifically on his relationship with another student there, Finny--er, not relationship like that, they were friends and, and rivals... though actually, maybe like that too? There do seem to be certain- certain undertones, though maybe that’s just me projecting on Gene a bit too much there...”
Georgie raised an eyebrow. “Would you want to have a relationship with Finny, then?”
Jon looked down at the couch to avoid Georgie’s gaze. “Well, uh, I doubt Finny’d be interested in me to begin with, he seems out of my league...”
“You underestimate yourself, Jon.” Jon looked back up at Georgie just in time to catch the playful twinkle in her eye. “Besides, it’s a hypothetical. If the option were available, would you date Finny?”
“And if we weren’t already dating?”
Georgie let out a snort of amusement. “And if we weren’t already dating, too. Don’t worry, Jon, I’m not going to get mad if you’d date a fictional character.”
Jon thought about it for a moment. “...probably, yes, I would. Though he’s, uh, he’s sixteen. And dead by the end of the novel. So...”
Jon could swear he saw Georgie’s face blanche for a moment, but it was fleeting enough that he wasn’t sure it wasn’t just his imagination running wild or a trick of the light; the color returned to Georgie’s face in an instant, and any uncertainty in her expression was replaced by an exaggerated wrinkling of her nose. “That does tend to put a damper on potential relationships, doesn’t it?”
“Just a little bit.” Jon said, a bit of laughter sneaking into his voice.
“So how did this Finny die, anyway?”
“Well, it’s pretty much the climax of the novel, so to get into that, I’ll have to explain the rest of it first-”
Jon launched into a detailed explanation of the plot of A Separate Peace, and Georgie watched him with interest the entire time.
.
Jon didn’t entirely realize the implications of him admitting that he’d date Finny if given a chance until later in the night, when Georgie brought it up again during a lull in the conversation.
“So, if you’d date Finny-”
“Given all those hypothetical caveats, yes.”
“Right. And you’re dating me-”
Jon raised an eyebrow, schooling his face into his best semblance of surprise. “I certainly hope we’ve established that much.”
Georgie swatted at Jon with one hand, though the motion was slow and gentle and ended up coming just short of actually making contact with him.
“So you’re into both guys and girls, then. Do you identify as bi then, or pan, or-”
“Bi, yeah.”
Georgie’s face lit up at the words, her mouth stretching into a wide grin. “Same here! High-five? Wait, no--bi-five!”
Jon and Georgie both giggled a bit at that pun, and when Georgie extended her hand in Jon’s direction, Jon high-fived it without hesitation.
“Say, come next Pride, you can use the face paint I’ve got if you want, if it’s got cooties I dare say you’d have them already...”
Jon shook his head. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m not exactly a fan of face paint.”
“Really?” Georgie wrinkled her nose. “Ah well, more for me, then. I do have some old pins you could have if you want, too!”
“Only if you’re sure you don’t want them.”
“Oh, I’ve got plenty to spare. Fun fact, covering a hat entirely with pins is not nearly as fun or practical as it sounds. Learned that one from experience.”
“Wait, you’ve got a hat covered with pins and you’ve been hiding it from me this whole time?”
“I used to have a hat covered with pins. Ended up taking them all off, and I had to throw out the cap underneath because it was so riddled with holes, and now I’ve just got all these pins hanging around...”
As Georgie kept talking about how she’d covered a hat with pins before and why she ended up taking them all off, a smile sneaked its way onto Jon’s face.
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beneaththetangles · 3 years
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Reader’s Corner: Demon Slayer, Nerdy Nurse, and Play It Cool, Guys
Date A Live, Vol. 1
Having enjoyed the Date A Live anime, I was curious to check out the source material, and the first volume didn’t disappoint. It’s a high school harem romantic comedy…that takes place in a borderline post-apocalyptic setting full of mystery, absurdity, and tragedy. There are plenty of sweet or humorous moments, but the narrative never lets one forget its darker side. Some regard the “Spirits” (mysterious girls whose extradimensional incursions bring cataclysm) as monsters and try to kill them, but protagonist Shido rejects this in favor of a more peaceful approach. Aided by a bizarre paramilitary group commanded by his little sister, Shido seeks dialogue and coexistence with Spirits. In practice, this means Shido must get to know them, ask them on dates, and get them to fall for him. Shido is a deeply compassionate person, and as one reads of his efforts to save a Spirit — choosing love over death, reconciliation over enmity, forgiveness over resentment, other over self — the Christ parallels practically write themselves. I can’t deny Date A Live is weird, but somehow it works, and the positive themes underlying the story are excellent. I certainly plan to continue reading this series. ~ JeskaiAngel
Date A Live (vol. 1) is published by Yen Press.*
The Wavering of Haruhi Suzumiya
Seven words: “The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00.” Kyon’s description of the SOS Brigade’s video for the North High cultural festival is the most humorous story in volume six of the Haruhi Suzumiya series, a high point both for this book and the series in general, and by itself makes Wavering a worthy read. The remainder of the volume—if not on the same level as its opening chapter—continues with the unusual brew of school life, romance, comedy, sci-fi, and mystery that makes the franchise special. However, be warned that most of the volume feels mundane, almost like side stories,with nothing much of consequence happening, at least not patently so, until the intriguing final chapter, “The Melancholy of Mikuru Asahina,” which not only functions as a nice bookend to the volume but comes just when it seems that Asahina’s counterpart, Nagato, has received far more attention and character development. It’s fulfilling to read the Asahina-focused material in both stories mentioned—though be warned: You may get knocked flat by an adorable (and possibly dangerous) Mikuru Beam! ~ Twwk
The Wavering of Haruhi Suzumiya is published by Yen Press.*
Play It Cool, Guys: Vol. 1
This was A LOT of fun! It’s been some time since I chuckled/laughed this much when reading a manga. After finishing, I actually went back and reread some of the pages just so I could laugh again, because I was enjoying it so much! However, Play It Cool, Guys is different than I expected; I didn’t realize that each of the guys are a different age. Considering they are different ages, I wouldn’t have expected for all the stories to really flow in transition as well as they did, but the mangaka does a fantastic job of doing just that! Where one story ended, another began, but without a feeling of being jilted due to a shifting too quickly to a different character’s voice. The colored pages were also AMAZING! The way color enhanced the pages was awesome! And the art of course is gorgeous! I’m really interested in reading the next volume, and know that this will probably become a manga I will read again and again if I need a pick me up or a good dose of laughter. These guys are just hilariously cool! ~ Laura A. Grace
Play It Cool, Guys (Vol. 1) is published by Yen Press.* See a video review by Laura here.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Vol. 21
Demon Slayer is pain, especially the latter volumes as the series nears its conclusion. Volume 21 opens with the defeat of Upper Rank Kizuki number one but at enormous sacrifice; this immediate rush into highly emotional material indicates how the series, developed for so many chapters, has been and continues to be in its climactic arc, one that’s full of extreme violence, gore, and death. Shades of black cover these pages more than any other previously, indicating how much blood is spilled as the remaining Hashira fight Muzan in what continues to appear to be a losing battle. However, part of the beauty of Demon Slayer is that while it’s full of action and hyper violent, it’s a sensitive story and well-written—these chapters are the very natural output of all that’s occurred before, and as such the chaos is imbued with all that’s come before—a whole lot of heart. Coincidentally, the structure of this volume also feeds into that assessment, starting emotionally, and further, giving readers a chance to mourn for character deaths before progressing to the tenacious action of the middle portion, before closing with a story that functions as important context for the entire manga and presumably for the conclusion, ending this violent volume with a gentle whisper, and reminding us why this series is so very good. ~ Twwk
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is published by Viz*
Do You Like the Nerdy Nurse?
From a cover like this, I was expecting this to be Nerdy Nurse to be spicy manga that could, potentially, be something I would recommend our readers avoid. I was wrong. Guess judging books by their cover isn’t a great idea. I feel like that should be an expression. Anyway, the titular “nerdy nurse,” Nijiko Momoyama, has all the boys at her school falling head over heels. However, while she loves her students in a maternal sort of way, she has no interest in children romantically. Her primary focus, instead, is on her geeky hobbies. She’s a huge manga, anime, and gatcha gaming otaku. She can’t get enough of it! In fact, one of her students discovers her geeky hobbies and ends up spending a lot of time helping out in the nurses office. It’s obvious he has a crush on her and makes it relatively known from time to time. That said, overall Momoyama is very professional and doesn’t ever give him an indication that she would reciprocate his middle school crush. Overall, she just talks to him as a fellow nerd and, frankly, that’s okay. Volume one was cute and, in answer to the question, yes, I did like the nerdy nurse. ~ MDMRN
Do You Like the Nerdy Nurse? is published by Yen Press.*
The Sorcerer’s Receptionist, Vol. 3
The highlight of The Sorcerer’s Receptionist continues to be its tsundere narrator. Yes, I know tsundere characters are a dime a dozen, and so are light novels with first-person narration, but this is the only light novel I’ve encountered with such a blatantly, amusingly tsundere narrator. It’s entertainingly exasperating hearing protagonist Nanalie’s perspective on the story. The other highlight include how Alois, the guy she deems her archnemesis, continues to practice love toward her. Happily, a big relationship upgrade occurs. My only complaint with this volume is that the obnoxious memory wipe trope rears its ugly head. Thankfully, it does not befall the romantic leads, at least. I usually hate this plot device, have ranted about it before, and hate it here, too. That said, despite my grumbling, I quite enjoyed this volume, and would still recommend this series. ~ JeskaiAngel
The Sorcerer’s Receptionist is published by J-Novel Club.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse, Vol. 4
Two down so far for 2021! I have read two different Alternate Universe (AU) Neon Genesis Evangelion manga—the second of these, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse, is by volume four beginning to pain the angels as now, basically, vampires. But as the story progresses, more is also revealed about the world setting. It turns out this AU retains the concept of Rei as a clone from the mainline story, but also embraces the concept of an AU multiverse by this, the last volume of the series. I kind of wish it had another volume or two to really finish up the story because by these chapter, Campus Apocalypse was becoming more immersive. The first two volumes were great setups; however, it’s clear the series’ days were numbered as the second two raced to get across the finish line. I could have used a little more before we got there, but it is what it is. ~ MDMRN
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse is out of print, but originally published by Dark Horse Comics.
Your Lie in April, Vol. 1
For the month of April I’ve decided to do a reread of Your Lie in April, and let me tell you, I am already glad I have. The artwork from Naoshi Arakawa is gorgeous and incredibly expressive. The first chapter alone provides better introduction and storytelling than some manga accomplish in an entire series. The introduction of Kosei and his first encounter with Kaori is such an amazingly well crafted moment that it continues to stick with me after three watches of the anime and now a second readthrough of the manga. If you want a teenage love story that also tackles topics like depression and abandonment in a very real way, combined with gorgeous art, check out this series, and feel free to join me in reading it in April. ~ MDMRN
Your Lie in April is published by Kodansha.
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Reader’s Corner is our way of embracing the wonderful world of manga, light novels, and visual novels, creative works intimately related to anime but with a magic all their own. Each week, our writers provide their thoughts on the works their reading—both those recently released as we keep you informed of newly published works and older titles that you might find as magical (or in some cases, reprehensible) as we do.
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tfw-no-tennis · 3 years
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mtmte liveblog issue 15
death awaits!
oh god the cover. I aint ready 
the cover of overlords open mouth w/rodimus floating inside or w/e,,,,the overlord mouth fixation continues i see
and of COURSE its by nick roche. of course
oh god the tension and dread in the first page, as we get overlords sinister promise to murder everyone, starting with rewind, and then seeing chromedome rush over to open the door, and knowing that 30 minutes have passed already...
that full page spread of everyone vs overlord is amazing
also I always thought that ambulon was trying to kick overlord but now that I look closer he’s actually jumping away from overlord, having just crashed one of those hover...thingys....into him...which is honestly cool as hell. also I'm never over the fact that ambulon kinda looks like he’s smiling here, just having a grand ole time as overlord tries his best to murder everyone
and chromedome just seeing this and saying ‘rewind?’ is fucking killing me thanks
PIPES NO DONT DO THIS. YOURE JUST RUBBING SALT IN THE WOUND. PLEASE don't talk about how much fun you're having on your wacky space adventure oh god, that’s just asking to be murdered,
GOD AND THERE HE GOES, DRIVING TO HIS DOOM. PIPES NO
AUGHHHHHHHHHH AND THERES OVERLORD WITH HIS GIANT FOOT. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
PIIIIIPES ;_; 
his messed up goodbye thoughts are brutal...plus the final shot of him laying all busted up....god :( 
that guy seriously had some awful luck this trip. rip lil guy
BUT he sounded the alarm!!! so good for him!! that's a pretty amazing final act right there
oh my god I forgot abt this scene where rewind is like ‘so brainstorm why is my husband saying your name in his sleep :))))’ and brainstorm is like ‘haha idk its certainly not because we’re working on a secret project together, so jot that down!’ lmao brainstorm....
also dw rewind brainstorm is not fucking ur husband, just look at his evidentially extensive collection of perceptor-style microscopes...my man is microscopesexual 
I forgot abt the metabomb omfg
‘some of my favorite words are monosyllabic’ rodimus ily, himbo of my heart,
fort max :( rung :( 
oughhghghg I forgot abt the scene of tailgate making cyclonus a new horn ;_; and then cyclonus materializes menacingly bc tg dared to volunteer their room for movie night hvbfshdjkfbaskj cyclonus anti-social icon
AUGHHHH GOD THE PANEL OF RATCHET TALKING ON THE COMMS AND OVERLORD IS JUST, RIGHT BEHIND HIM, WITH HIS BIG STUPID LIPS, OH MY GOD
what the fuck, is drift a flying car??? hello??? what the hell????
seriously he’s got like, rockets and shit, what the fuck
anyways, the entire exchange b/w ratchet and drift here kills me, for multiple reasons.... ‘my faith and my sword’ lmao love it. and then ratchet refusing to leave drift and calling him his friend ;_; aughhh
rodimus w/the squad like ‘lets go gays!!!’ 
also I guess cosmos WAS on the lost light lol, totally didn't remember that, I'm guessing he left at some point to go be in the other series lmao 
I'm sorry but ‘amazing. you speak entirely in name’ is so fucking funny, but also like stfu overlord you're not allowed to be funny
MAGNUSSSSSSSS
now I'm confusing myself lmao, rodimus DID know abt overlord, didn't he??? wasn't that the whole thing???? I don't remember if he was involved w/the whole mnemosurgery plan but he at least knew that overlord was there...but we haven't been told that in-story yet so now I'm questioning that lmao
oh god I forgot that overlord almost kills magnus, jeeeeesus. good thing he’s a russian nesting doll otherwise he probably would've died fr 
also damn that's gotta be scary for everyone else, bc magnus is The Big Guy, and a renown fighter...plus drift got all fucked up...yall are in for a bad time 
tailgate gettin his panic on I see
swerve w/the meta narration lmao 
cyclonus ily sm.......
rodimus charging at overlord....ohhh my boy not your best idea
cd and rewind both saying ‘I thought you were dead!’ HHHHHHHH I'm destroyed fuck it all
rodimus (inadvertently) saving the day by saying ‘til all are one’...iconic!!
FORT MAX IS HEREEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
drift just casually chillin w/no legs
chromedome going into extreme detail about all the mnemosurgery he’s been doing on overlord for WEEKS while rewind is Right There....my dude.
this issue has a LOT of completely white backgrounds but I cant even rlly blame milne bc this seems like more drawing work than usual
oh god cd don't say ‘we’ll finish this conversation later’ at a time like this, that’s never a good idea,
rewind no don't do it :( :( :( 
that panel of cd’s arm getting cut off...AUGHHH
GODDDDDDD IM FUCKING CRYING. AUGHHHHHHHHHHH I.....
so incredibly fucked that cd does what’s best for rewind by blowing the pod up....hhhhh god 
and then that last panel of cd laying on the ground....fucking destroy me!!!!!!!!
also I love that at the beginning of the issue we see whirl with the missile launcher thing, and that’s what cd uses at the end here....good bookends. jro is really great about putting stuff in the story that just seems like innocuous filler/fun character building but turns out to ALSO be plot relevant later
HOLY SHIT I forgot about the cast page with the big red X’s thru the dead people’s profiles....jesus christ 
AUGH this issue was a rollercoaster, phew...and the emotionally devastating conclusion to this arc is still yet to come! 
I will say that it’s super interesting looking back on this, in the sense that rewind & chromedome are introduced as the first ever gay tf couple, and a few issues after we get told this explicitly, rewind is killed. this doesn't really end up being an issue representation-wise bc literally everyone is gay and there are a bunch of other significant gay characters/relationships later on, AND rewind comes back later 
but still! it’s interesting to think about how, at the time this came out, the phrase/concept ‘bury your gays’ wasn't really something that was talked about a lot (or like, it was, but not as often as nowadays, and not really under the term ‘bury your gays’ iirc), but at the time of publication this would have fallen under that trope (though rewind coming back later negates it imo). I think it would've been tough for this story to come out nowadays due to the backlash that would've occurred from rewind’s initial death (it also makes me wonder if there was any backlash when this DID come out) 
to be clear, this isn't a writing criticism - in fact, the reason this is able to work at all is because of the crazy amount of representation mtmte has. it’s like, youre able to kill off gay characters without it being ‘bury your gays’ if literally all your characters are gay by default, and there are a bunch of significant gay relationships happening - technically speaking, any death in mtmte is bury your gays lmao 
this is a completely disjointed rant but my point is like, if this issue came out in 2020 people would probably be pretty put off by rewind dying (understandably), but in the context of the series as a whole I don't consider this to be bad writing/bad representation/bury your gays 
and like, WERE people really mad about this in 2013? I am curious now, bc I would definitely feel kinda betrayed if I didn't know all the stuff that happens later 
but its pretty nice, because now I'm free to enjoy the writing and be emotionally devastated by rewinds death in a normal way, and not a ‘I'm angry at the writers for killing off one of the only gay characters’ kinda way
anyways I'm tired as hell so I'm going to bed, ill continue the emotional devastation later, phew
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calleo-bricriu · 4 years
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"Why are you like this?"
(( I’d apologise for him, @absintheabsence but we both know that’d be an entire lie. A continuation of 1986. ))
Grindelwald had asked him that question more than once in the past few weeks, and it hadn't escaped Calleo that he'd asked the same thing a good forty-ish years ago as it was difficult not to. Half the time, the things Grindelwald had said or done, even with explanation, were things Calleo hadn't been able to ever fully wrap his head around.
Then again, wrapping one's head around someone else's madness is often difficult.
This time, he decided to answer what held a good chance of being a rhetorical question.
"Do you have any idea," Calleo briefly glanced up from a stack of papers he'd been going through, if only to gauge the general mood of the room, "when the last time I had any time at all away from work was?"
"1945. Early May," back to the papers, "and even now, I'm still working. It's impossible to get away from it entirely; I'm not sure what I'd do if I could at this point. Director Yandle retired, you know." The topmost piece of paper was signed and disappeared.
"Not dead retired, retired retired. 1976, about the time Voldemort was finally starting to be taken seriously as some sort of threat. Said he didn't want to deal with that sort of thing again and I ended up with his job." The way he was talking sounded more like a narration than a conversation in which another person was involved, likely on account of Calleo's main focus being clearly on the stack of papers he was still looking at. "Out of the three he hired to replace the three of yours he sacked, two of them fucked right off when told it would be their only opportunity to do so if they were leaning that way. Pity, really; if they'd stuck around a bit longer they might have realised--"
Dry laughter stopped him momentarily, even if it was more than a little inappropriate. "I told them if I found out they were, they'd find out how much worse I could be, which they took to mean they were free to leave unharmed; I forwarded their information up to Crouch who, I might add, ended up being demoted to a useless paper pushing job after that war for how over the top vicious he was in his belated response to Voldemort. A lot of executions and life terms in Azkaban without trials or with trials but without any evidence."
"So, that takes up a lot of time, all the overhead of running even a small department and doing the job I was doing prior because I'm not inclined to get the three I have now killed by handing it off entirely." Three more papers disappeared. "After that was over--it wasn't."
"I don't know how much you've heard over the past few decades, but there were a handful of things about Voldemort's death that didn't seem to alarm anyone, really; well," for the moment, Calleo did stop working on whatever he was working on and looked up, "not anyone who should have been alarmed--no, no, that's not accurate either. Nobody in a position that should have been alarmed was alarmed."
"I was alarmed; they never found a body, and that kid had the cast pattern of a killing curse burned onto his face. That's not supposed to happen. There are very, very few ways that could happen, even if it had backfired, it should have burned HIM, not his target. Anyway, it was less of a backfire and more of a 'Despite the high probability that I've done some extremely detailed and high level blood magic to make sure it's incredibly difficult to actually kill me, I never learned the basics and didn't even consider the possibility of protective blood magic stopping me from killing a child in front of his mother' sort of thing most likely."
He smiled brightly, "But, really, who would listen to the Librarian of Obscure and Terrible Things? Why would you even bother to ask someone like that if they might have some sort of idea there when it's so much easier to go with 'well, he's clearly dead because there were four people in the house and only three bodies, living or otherwise, nothing strange here.'" Whether he was being sarcastic or not wasn't immediately clear.
"Albus Dumbledore (( @everyheartbesure is 100% not allowed to lecture Calleo on his choice of vacation spots. :) )) noticed though, and I know he noticed because he wrote me in the immediate aftermath all but asking me to tell him he was being irrational and a bit insane for thinking that Voldemort wasn't merely or most sincerely dead,” Any seriousness or weight what he’d said to that point might have carried was dampened by the fact that he sung that last bit of phrasing, “which I couldn't do on account of what I said just prior to--" Calleo stopped and blinked at nothing a few times before laughing, "You know, I don't think I ever mentioned that we've been friends since about 1930! First and only person in my entire career to write me telling me he'd read some of my papers and followed that up with Transfiguration and not Dark Arts! You have no idea how tired I was and still am of people only ever having read THOSE papers and never the much less horrible, much more interesting ones I've done on Transfiguration!"
"At any rate, it was an invitation to collaborate on research if I wanted to. Which I did, obviously, and it turned out we got along exceptionally well! Well enough that Fawkes was trying and succeeding to preen my hair within thirty seconds of meeting him as well. Still does, which is odd, most animals avoid me," Calleo shrugged and part of his attention drifted back to the dwindling stack of papers in his lap, "Anyway, he wrote me about it primarily because he's always known where I work and what my work's primary focus has been, it'd just never really been a topic of discussion because it wasn't of interest to him and I don't care to push that sort of thing on people; he's still managed to never even look into the things I'm more well known for writing and by that point I'd asked him not to, at least, not while I wasn't around for a whole hell of a lot of reasons, chief of which being that it's all rather horrible and I would absolutely feel the need to explain myself through every terrible thing I've had published."
"But, the point is, he knew it was my area of expertise and the likely reality was--because of that expertise--likely a lot worse than he'd imagined, and he's not really wrong, I'm just so desensitised to it that it hardly registers as anything other than textbook knowledge half the time which meant it wasn't all that difficult to convince him to let me handle that side of the whole mess."
Another couple papers disappeared, "And it is a mess, make no mistake about that; the Ministry is adamant Voldemort is dead and any mention of the contrary all but gets a coordinated campaign of discreditation started against whoever won't toe the line. Unfortunately for them, the general view is that anyone working in the Archives is already a little bit to moderately mad, so it has no effect on me and I know a lot of people who either owe me a whole hell of a lot of favours or who have a vested interest in not letting another slightly genocidal Dark Lord get a foothold in continental Europe again. Goblins, mostly," Calleo grinned at his papers, "you didn't get them all, you know, I had three left by the end and only rebuilt from there. I still work just as closely with Lagraff, Koggot, and Aldig and they'd already started before Albus asked when I could GET started!"
"But, the most interesting thing I'd caught was while Voldemort was still counted among the living: The scraps of your little empire, the ones who hadn't been locked away for life or executed, they initially watched Voldemort with mild interest that quickly turned to open, hostile disdain as he kept flailing against an already ineffective, disorganised, panicked government and made no substantial public or political progress while trying to sell himself as something--better--to them. An odd number of them also hold positions in various governments and have either worked with me for years now which is, in some cases, exactly as awkward for them as you might imagine, or owe me a substantial number of favours or debt."
"And this?" Calleo twirled a finger at the ceiling of the dreary, depressing, and rather dim tower cell, "This is the closest thing to a holiday I've had in over forty years, and even then, even you have to have noticed that I routinely have to hop outside that window and away from the magic smothering nonsense of this building because if I'm muted or 'fuzzy' for too long, too many people notice and get a tiny bit alarmed."
"That's why I'm 'like this'! I haven't had a day off in forty six years and the last time I had any time away from work it was STILL up a tower locked in a room with you! Now that I think about it, every single time I've been away from the Ministry for any extended period of time, it's always ended with me somehow being stuck somewhere with you! You're the human equivalent of one of these things!" Calleo dug around in his pockets while he wrapped up that minor rant and pulled out--something--that was whipped across the room, aimed directly for Grindelwald's forehead.
It was--sticky and soft and a thin thread of it led back to Calleo's hand. The end that wound up on the side of the cell Grindelwald was on looked a bit gummy and a lot hand shaped.
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Tyrus Month: Wedding
Renewal Of Vows (AO3)
A/N: This is the last of the prompts for Tyrus Month and I just want to say how much fun it was to participate! I know I didn't do all of the prompts due to my own busy life schedule but I'm so thankful to everyone who took the time to read and enjoy what I've put out!I'm looking forward to what else this show has in store for us!
It was a warm sunny day. The sun was shining. The birds were singing. The kids were out playing. And Cyrus and TJ were on the playground swinging.
The two friends talked about everything and nothing, at the same time.
TJ talked about his summer math tutoring. Cyrus relayed ideas for his future screenplays. TJ narrated stories about the kids at work. Cyrus shared his anxiety about the upcoming school year, as he was finally entering high school.
“High school is a completely different territory from middle school,” Cyrus ranted as he kicked his legs in the air to gain a little more height (just a little). “The halls are probably more crowded and the classes are harder and the social status quo is stricter! I don’t know if I’ll survive!”
On the swing next to him, TJ let out a chuckle. “I can definitely attest to the crowded hallways. There are a lot of tall seniors and they’ll just push past you to get to class. If you need a bodyguard, I’ll volunteer.”
Cyrus blushed. In the two years he had known TJ, the older boy always seemed to say the sappiest things. Considering he was, at one time, a scary-basketball-guy to Cyrus, the younger couldn’t seem to get used to his flirtatiousness. He often wondered if the athlete’s words meant more than simple playfulness.
Sometimes, he even allowed himself to hope that his feelings for the older boy were reciprocated.
“Oh, look at that,” TJ’s voice broke through his thoughts.
Cyrus slowed his swinging and shifted his head in the direction the other boy was pointing at.
A group of kids were gathered around a little girl and a little boy standing side-by-side, their arms linked. They were standing by the sandbox and little girl was holding a bunch of flowers they probably pulled from one of the beds around the playground. In front of them was another little boy, holding a book upside down.
“Awww, they’re having a playground wedding,” Cyrus realized, a smile on his face. “I remember having one of those.”
At that, TJ chuckled again. “You married someone on a playground?” he asked, genuinely amused.
Up ahead of them, the two kids exchanged candy rings.
“Yeah.” Cyrus began to reminisce. “It was back in kindergarten. I was the new kid and I didn’t really have any friends yet. But there was this one kid who played with me and one day, he asked me to marry him on the playground." He let out a soft chuckle. "That should have clued me in that I was gay when I didn’t see anything wrong with it and said ‘yes’.”
“Awww, that’s cute,” TJ said, his lips quirked into an amused smile as he kept swinging. “Who was it?”
The memory of a blonde-haired kid with pretty blue eyes and played dinosaurs with him on the sandbox floated in Cyrus' memory. The other boy had proposed with a blueberry ring pop and another kid married them in front of all their plastic dinosaur toys.
“His name was Tyler," Cyrus narrated. "He was so cool. But, a week later, he moved and I never saw him again.”
He remembered being so upset when Tyler didn’t show up to school after that and then his teacher told him that he had moved. That was probably his first time experiencing heartbreak yet he didn’t even realize.
Meanwhile, beside him, TJ had dragged his feet on the ground as his head swiveled to Cyrus. His eyes were wide with shock and disbelief.
Cyrus furrowed his brows. “What?”
“Where did you go to kindergarten?”
Odd question but okay. “Maple Heights Nursery and Kindergarten. Why?”
TJ swallowed. “I went there too. When I was 6, my dad got a new job and we moved. Then, when I was 9, he lost his job and we had to move back here.”
Cyrus smiled, excitedly. “Really? Wow! Maybe we were in the same class!”
The older boy managed a smile. “Before we moved, though, I also married this kid on the playground. But I can’t remember his name. I felt so guilty for not telling him I was moving. But, I remember that I really liked him ‘cause he was fun to play with. And, he had a mole on his cheek… like you.”
It took Cyrus a moment for TJ’s words to sink in. And when they did, his eyes were wide and his words were caught in his throat.
“Do you know my full name, Underdog?” TJ asked.
Cyrus swallowed and shook his head.
“Tyler Joseph Kippen. People didn’t start calling me TJ until the first grade because there were three Tylers in my class and it just stuck.”
Cyrus’ breath hitched. “T-Tyler? Y-You're... Tyler?”
TJ smiled. “Hi, husband.”
His heart fluttered. “B-But… your hair… and your eyes… they’re different.”
TJ shrugged. “Hair got darker. Eyes changed color, I guess.”
Cyrus’ mind was blank at that point and all he could seem to do was look at TJ. As in, really look at him, trying to find glimpses of his kindergarten husband. Granted, his memory of the time was hazy since he was only 5 back then and TJ had changed a lot. He still felt skeptical.
TJ must have sensed his skepticism as he added, “I proposed to you with a blueberry ring pop and I kissed your nose. And I told you that when we grew up, I would marry you for real and we will have a house with a giant swimming pool and-.”
“And a dolphin named Flipper,” Cyrus finished, bits of the memory coming back.
TJ smiled. “We still have a lot of growing up to do but I don’t think we can have that dolphin.”
Cyrus felt himself glare. “You left me.”
TJ’s smile dropped. “I’m sorry.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t remember my name! Or me!”
“I remembered you! I just suck at names!”
Cyrus huffed. “What kind of husband just leaves his husband without saying goodbye?! You should make it up to me!”
“Okay, I will. Anything you want.”
“Good. You should marry me again,” Cyrus said, absentmindedly before his words registered and the horror sunk in. “No, wait, that’s not what I-.”
“Okay.”
Cyrus blinked. “Okay?”
TJ was grinning as he got on his feet and walked in front of Cyrus’ swing. “Where do you want it? Here in the swings or over by the sandbox like old times?”
“TJ, I was kidding.”
“I’m not. Because I like you, Cyrus.”
Cyrus blinked again. And again. And again.
He heard the words. He could comprehend the words. But those words only existed in his dreams. Surely, no way in real life did TJ just confess his feelings to him… right?
His silence made TJ’s smile falter. “If… If you don’t feel the same way, then you can forget what I said. I can buy you baby taters and a milkshake if you want.”
But, he did. Cyrus liked TJ. He liked him a lot.
“H-Here,” he managed.
It was TJ’s turn to blink and stare, blankly.
“I-I… want the wedding here,” Cyrus continued. “And… I like you too, TJ. I like you a lot.”
That was all it took for TJ to take Cyrus’ hand and pull him off the swing and into a tight hug. Cyrus’ heart was beating faster than ever and he felt his head swirling with so many emotions that he couldn’t say another word.
Because not only was TJ ended up being Tyler, his childhood husband, he also liked Cyrus back.
He liked Cyrus back!
“So… about that wedding…”
Cyrus briefly pulled away from the hug and beamed. “Don’t you worry. I have it all planned.”
The wedding march blared out of Andi’s smartphone and she was kind of glad that they had chosen a late afternoon when most kids and their parents were not around to witness this or else they would be getting so many strange looks.
She couldn’t believe that she actually agreed to spend one of her summer days at the swing set of the children’s playground, a small notebook in her hands, and watching Cyrus and TJ walk down a pretend aisle towards her, their “minister”.
Buffy was next to her, acting as witness and ring bearer. She had not stopped rolling her eyes since the “ceremony” began.
“Is this really for real?” her athletic friend whispered. “So they found out they were each other’s kindergarten husbands. Do they have to get married again?”
Andi chuckled. “It’s a renewal of their vows since they found each other again.”
“But…” Buffy trailed off when the two reached them.
Cyrus was practically vibrating with excitement and TJ had the softest look on his face that the two girls had never seen before. How their friend managed to get the normally cool and serious jock to agree to this, was a total mystery. The two's entire relationship was still a bizarre mystery to them, but at this point, they knew Cyrus was happy. Who were they to get in the way of that?
Andi cleared her throat as she opened the notebook that Cyrus had prepared for her and began to read. “Friends and… well, friends, we are gathered here today to witness the renewal of vows between Cyrus Goodman and… Tyler Joseph Kippen?”
She looked up at the two boys in confusion but both nodded so she continued. “Do you, Cyrus Goodman, take Tyler Joseph Kippen, as your playground husband, again, to have and to hold, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health? Wait, where’s the ‘til death do you part?”
“That’s a little too morbid for a playground wedding so I got rid of it,” Cyrus answered. “And, yes, I do.”
Andi pursed her lips. “Okay then. And do you, Tyler Joseph Kippen-.”
“Yeah, I do,” interrupted the older boy.
Andi flashed him a glare for the interruption and was surprised at herself for actually taking her position as minister, seriously. “Okay then.” She quickly scanned the next part of the instructions, raising her eyebrow at the ridiculousness of it. “Buffy? The rings, please.”
With a resigned sigh, Buffy stepped forward and handed her two packs of ring pops.
“Which flavors do either of you want?” Andi asked the two boys. “There’s blueberry and green apple.”
“I’ll take the blueberry,” Cyrus said with a knowing smile at TJ.
“Green apple for me then.”
So, Andi gave the blueberry to TJ and the green apple to Cyrus. She and Buffy watched as the two opened the packs and slipped the candy into each other’s fingers.
“By the power vested in me by… well, Cyrus,” Andi continued and she couldn’t help her smile at the next line. “I now pronounce you playground husbands, again. You may now kiss.”
Grinning, Cyrus closed his eyes. TJ leaned down and pecked his nose.
Andi resisted the urge to squeal because no matter how absurd this pretend wedding was and they were getting way too old for these games, it was still so darn cute.
Cyrus opened his eyes, beaming at his new boyfriend slash husband.
“I… kinda want our first kiss to be a little less… public,” TJ said, side-eyeing Andi and Buffy who were still watching them closely.
The younger boy let out a giggle before reaching into his pocket and throwing a plastic bottle on the ground before stepping on it.
“I’d step on glass but it’s a hazard to the children and I don’t want to clean it up,” he stated at everyone’s questioning faces before picking up the plastic bottle again. “It’s the symbolism that counts. So… Reception at The Spoon?”
“Finally!” Buffy exclaimed. “You two are so weird but… congrats.” She sent a glare at TJ. “Don’t hurt him, Kippen.”
The older boy chuckled. “Wouldn’t dream of it, Driscoll.”
Hand-in-hand, the two led the way to the diner, their intertwined hands swinging between them.
Meanwhile, Andi and Buffy were still standing together, staring at them and unable to believe that they actually just did that.
“Well… that was a lovely ceremony,” Andi stated.
“He better not hurt Cyrus or I'll hurt him,” Buffy said with a secret fond smile.
“Come on, we both know TJ wouldn’t do that to Cyrus. His crush was so obvious! Can’t believe it took him remembering Cyrus in kindergarten for him to make a move.”
Buffy sighed. “I guess. Anyway, they promised us free taters and milkshakes. So, let’s go!”
Arm-in-arm, the two girls followed after the happy new couple.
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The Magnus Archives ‘Absent without Leave’ (S03E15) Analysis
A harrowing and sad tale of being unable to leave the war really does seem to reflect the feel of the archives at this point.  Martin … Martin isn’t doing well, and I really want to reach through my computer and slap every single character working at the Institute who isn’t him.  Come on in to hear what I think about ‘Absent without Leave’.  Quick warning, this one may have devolved into a bit of a rant.  A fairly sweary rant.  See, I’ve got some fairly strong feelings about this episode, particularly how certain characters are acting, and they involve rather a lot of expletives.
I think this episode may tie ‘A Sturdy Lock’ for one of the saddest yet.  And it’s not just sad because of the statement, although that has a dreadful sort of nihilistic doom that makes me think we’re seeing a crueler aspect of the End in this tale.  The way the war haunts the narrator definitely struck a chord in Martin, enough so that he broke down crying afterwards.  He doesn’t seem to quite realize yet that he might not be able to stop recording the statements, as much as he hates it.  He’s scared and he’s alone, and still has literally no idea what’s happening around him or to him.  And it seems as though no help is forthcoming from any quarter.
Now, don’t get me wrong. This makes certain narrative sense (although at this point we’ve been playing in all-characters-are-emotionally-isolated-from-one-another territory for so long it’s beginning to feel a bit old). This is a solid way to build tension and audience sympathy, but I am rapidly running out of patience with literally everyone employed at the Institute whose name isn’t Martin K Blackwood. Martin apparently being the only one of them with more emotional maturity than a grapefruit, or at least the only one who understands that people other than himself exist and have needs and they’d probably all be safer and happier if they looked after one another.
My immediate knee-jerk reaction is GODDAMMIT JONATHAN SIMS, YOU CAN BE CONSIDERATE OF GEORGIE BUT COMPLETELY IGNORE CHECKING IN ON THE WELLBEING OF YOUR OWN ASSISTANTS WHO ARE GOING TO BE FORCED TO DIE FOR YOUR UNGRATEFUL FUCKING ASS?!  And that jerk of my knee is blossoming into something fairly chronic, believe you me.  But before we get to a long-winded rant about the Archivist pulling what seems to be the biggest dick move in the show’s history, I figured I’d address the others who are also stuck in the Institute.
It seems like everyone currently trapped in the Archives, with the exception of Martin, is completely incapable of seeing past their own personal situation.  They have people on every side of them who are in the same boat, who could offer support and help, but they’re blinded to it.  Tim, who continues to have the worst-timed and most unhelpful breakdown ever, is probably the most glaring example of this.  He’s not the only one trapped, and certainly not the only one screwed over by this situation, but he’s convinced he is.  He’s convinced that, because Martin isn’t outwardly breaking down, because Melanie and Basira seem to have accepted the situation with healthy amount of pragmatism, he’s the only one of them who’s actually suffering. He’s always had a bit of callousness about him, previously papered over by good humor, but without that humor, his lack of empathy for the others has become fairly stark.  Sasha seems to be the only one he’ll admit to caring about at all, and she’s dead.  Maybe that makes her safe to care about.  Maybe he’s afraid of betrayal.  Maybe he’s just trying to keep his distance, in case he gets the chance to break free of the Beholding and it happens to mean killing his fellow assistants to do it. Honestly, if Stranger offered him a chance serve it, I get the feeling he would say ‘yes’ as long as the restrictions were gentler.  And that makes me more afraid of Tim than Elias at this point.  Elias is predictable, and relatively sedate now that everything’s going his way.  Tim is backed into a corner, and I don’t know how he’ll lash out to get free.
Of course, Tim’s opinion on his situation, and the importance of what they’re doing might be different if he knew something about the Stranger, or if he understood anything about the Unknowing, but he doesn’t.  His anger might be softened if he felt even a little bit valued, or that his inevitable death would have any sort of meaning to Jon.  Given Jon’s actions rather than his words, I completely understand why Tim believes that Jon wouldn’t care.  He’s given absolutely no indication that the sacrifices that might be demanded from his assistants even register, let alone would matter to him.
But we’ll get back to Jonathan Sims and his colossal fuck-ups later.
Melanie is apparently only in the Archives to work.  I get that, because she’s only known this lot for, what?  A week or two?  It feels longer to us because time gets stretched out in these weekly increments, but it’s clearly not been enough time for her to form bonds.  And honestly, all we’ve ever heard of her interactions with the others is being annoyed by Martin and Tim being worried about her. Melanie, as we know, can be abrasive. We genuinely can’t tell from her few appearances what her capacity to care for others might be.  Would she be willing to place herself at risk, even just emotionally, to help out her new colleagues?  Or is she just basically going to fetch research materials and avoid anything else?  
Again, her actions might be different if she knew about the Unknowing, or the Stranger, or what happened with the Hive, or anything really.  She might be able to understand how important working as a team could be for her own survival.  She might understand why Martin and Tim seemed so horrified when she was hired. But again, she doesn’t know anything beyond what books Jon wants from the library.  
But we’re not talking about Jonathan fucking Sims and why him banging on about protecting his assistants and mourning Sasha seem to stand in stark contrast to his actions toward said assistants, and his lack of actions preventing something like what happened to Sasha from happening to one of them.  Not yet.
Basira seems much the same as Melanie (so much so that I’ll be interested to see how those two characters get differentiated in their personalities and roles going forward). Given that she seems to have no actual job description aside from ‘hostage’, she just sits and reads.  And again, I get that.  She’s not only stuck there, but she doesn’t know any of these people. Although it does unsettle me that, when faced with a tear-streaked and jumpy Martin, she either doesn’t notice or deliberately ignores his distress.  Maybe she’s in shock.  Maybe she’s trying to be polite.  Maybe she’s trying to keep her emotional detachment up because she figures they’ll all die soon anyway.  No matter what, her actions really aren’t selling me on the idea that she’s going to be any more help at pulling this team together than the rest.  
Of course, she might put forth a little more effort if she knew how nigh the end actually was, or how damaged they all were.  She might engage a little more if she understood the stakes.  But that would require input from the only guy with any information about what’s happening, but apparently he can’t be bothered to do more than poke his head in and demand resources.
Right, screw it.  Enough with the others, because as frustrated as I am with the little ways the rest of them could pull together and aren’t, even Tim’s behavior pales in comparison with JONATHAN FUCKING SIMS.  After everything that’s happened to them, after Elias took all of them hostage to his own life.  After the worms and the terror and the manhunt and Daisy waving a gun around. After Melanie was hired.  After Basira was forced to sign the contract. After literally everything, he didn’t even bother to properly check in.  He stuck his head into the archives, asked for some resources for tracking down Breekon and Hope, and fucked right off.  
Any hope I had in his ability to proactively care about other people died a little this week.  He clearly cares about Georgie, sure, but as for the people who are working with him?  Who are in horrific danger and don’t even know about it?  Who he knows have a high risk of death due to the job?  Not even a word.  Hell, he didn’t even stick around long enough to find out that Martin is recording statements, and is riding the edge of a nervous breakdown or worse while doing it.  
Georgie now knows more about the dangers that face the Archival staff than the fucking archival staff do.  Let that sink in.  Georgie knows about the Unknowing!  She knows about the Beholding, the thing that holds them all in thrall.  She’s heard the entire saga from Jon’s point of view.  But those directly affected by the Beholding, who are directly threatened by the Unknowing, who might even be killing themselves slowly with statements?  Not a clue.  And while I understand confiding in an old friend, not even bothering to assess the danger posed to those who are your direct responsibility smacks of idiotic negligence at best, and unconscious malice at worst.
If it hasn’t become abundantly clear, I’m pissed.  Again, not at the writing, because it remains painfully in character that Jonathan Sims continues to be a human disaster who will get everyone around him killed through his own inactions or missteps.  Likewise, Tim tendency toward no-one-has-suffered-as-I-suffer angry breakdown still seems to fit what we know about him.  But like I said earlier, we’ve been stuck in this emotional isolation for a long time, and it’s wearing on me, particularly seeing last week that Jon is capable of caring.  Contrasting that with what feels like a slide back into season 2 self-obsessed Jon feels like the worst possible character backslide.
And Martin is the one paying the price, it seems.  Jon’s failure, more than Melanie or Basira or Tim, leaves Martin trapped and alone and terrified, recording statements because he’s compelled to do so, without realizing what that compulsion is or where it comes from.  And yes, the fact that Martin’s not asking for help is contributing to the problem.  Martin has been conditioned to put others’ needs before his own, and it’s very possibly killing him, while said others remain oblivious.  But honestly, there’s been very little indication since mid-season 1 that reaching out for help will result in any help forthcoming for Martin. Tim throws it back in his face, and Jon just ignores it.  
But honestly, the onus for reaching out, for making sure the others are as safe and as happy as they can possibly be given the situation, is on Jon.  Jon left them without a word.  Jon stalked and spied on Tim.  Jon takes advantage of Martin’s desire to please without even thinking about it, and places him in danger because of that.  Jon has a ton of information about the threats they face, and hasn’t even thought about his assistants enough to warn them.  There’s literally no circumstance in which not talking to them somehow ends favorably, and yet he didn’t even try.  
These people are tied to him without any ability to stop.  Given that, he has a duty of care toward them that he is either somehow forgetting or deliberately ignoring.  I was really hoping we were on an upswing with Jon this season from the utter ass he was last season.  But I’m back to where I was at Jon’s worst last season, wanting to slap him for his careless disregard of these people who are his responsibility.  Honestly, I can’t remember ever being as legitimately angry at Jon’s character as I am right now, because there’s no Not-Them induced paranoia clouding his judgment.  This is purely him, a man who’s been shown to be able to care for people and to do genuinely kind things, not caring in the least for Tim or Martin or Melanie or Basira. Or maybe it’s just cowardice. Maybe he knows he’s done profound damage to all of them, and instead of stepping up and helping out, he’s willing to leave them in danger in order to avoid an emotional confrontation.  Which, on consideration, is not only cowardly but also massively dickish.
Yes, finding information is critical, and he’s being driven by the Archivist’s hunger for stories.  Yes, he’s having a breakdown regarding his own humanity.  But they are his assistants, and if he goes on like he is, he’s going to come back to the Archives to find them all dead, having been killed by something he didn’t even see fit to warn them about.
Again, I want to emphasize that I’m thinking that this is probably a deliberate writing choice.  Because giving us nice emotional closure with Georgie, giving the audience proof that Jon can care, only makes him turning around and becoming the worst iteration of himself toward the characters we’ve known and cared about since season 1 even worse.  So, yeah, kudos to the writing and acting, because mission accomplished, to the point I’m fairly certain this is going to be one of those rare episodes I can appreciate on every technical level, but will probably skip on relistens.
Conclusions
This one hurt.  Very well written, and beautifully performed by Alexander Newall, who continues to be the low-key standout performance in a show that’s full of great performances.  Martin has a unique ability to make me give all the shits about his wellbeing, moreso than any other character.  Driving him to this weepy, jittery mess has done more to make me genuinely pissed at the other characters than almost any other action they’ve taken.  That’s some seriously phenomenal acting, and some very deliberate writing.  
It’s definitely shaken any respect I had regrowing for Jon as a character.  Because what he’s doing right now, consciously or unconsciously? It just keeps reminding me that Gertrude Robinson got all of her assistants rather deliberately killed.  I want to believe Jon is better than that, and he keeps banging on about protecting them and feeling terrible when yet another person gets dragged into the Institute’s sphere of influence.  His mourning for Sasha seems genuine.  But every one of his actions right now indicate that he wouldn’t even notice if something else tried to do that to his other assistants.
Much as I like Georgie, and Melanie, and Basira, I really need the characters in the Archives who have been there since the first season to finally sit down and level with one another. I need Jon to stop paying lip service to protecting his assistants and actually fucking do it.  I need him to do anything at all to take steps toward Tim forgiving him, or toward proving Martin’s unwavering loyalty seem anything more than tragically (and possibly fatally) ill-placed.  They’ve been emotionally isolated for over a season now. Something’s got to give.
I need our team to have a win.  Not on a grand scale, but on a small emotional scale.  Because on a grand scale, they’re pretty much inevitably screwed. All victories have to be on the small emotional scale, in the interpersonal relationships that the Beholding doesn’t care about, and Elias can never understand.  That’s why this sort of thing hurts more than any big reveal of a villain or injury taken when collecting statements.  Because this is the one area they could regain ground, and they’re just spinning their wheels instead.
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The Christmas Con
Angel’s 2017 Christmas Drabble #5 (Christmas Drabbles List)
Request: @plaidstiel-wormstache said: OMC OMC OMC - Dean, the impala, mistletoe hanging from the rearview mirror.  Pairing: Dean x Reader Word Count: 1,820 Warnings: Dean is being a bit of a Grinch. Kinda relationship angst/kinda fluffy? Flangst maybe? Reader is a bit maudlin at one point, but I’d call this fluffy and cute...idk, you guys tell me. Author’s Note: This image in my head was great, and I wish I had a gif of it. Thanks for always providing such great inspiration to my writing, Jess. :) Also, it was almost painful how many times I messed up while trying to switch to first person narration on this fic, but I wanted to try on your favorite style for your request. 
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Even from the beginning, I knew life on the road with the Winchesters wasn’t always going to be easy.
Frankly, they both could be rather grouchy, Dean especially. Around the holidays it always seemed to be worse.
Don’t misunderstand--I love them both, but sometimes….
“Dean, seriously? That’s the third time!”
The three of you had just checked into yet another off-putting hotel for the third time so far this December. No case this time, at least not yet, just moving on to a new spot after the conclusion of a last one before the local cops started asking too many questions about the paperwork.
And at all three hotels, Dean had made a point of sneering at the clerk’s “Merry Christmas�� greeting and accidentally knocking over or damaging some piece of Christmas decoration in their lobby. Sam was doing his best to ignore it, picking his battles I guess, but I’d about had enough of this Grinchy-behavior.
“What?” His voice was immediately on the defensive as he dropped his suitcase on the bed closest to the window. Sam had made a bee-line for the bathroom, the coward, as I squared off against my boyfriend.
“‘What?’ nothing. You know exactly what I’m talking about, Ebenezer. And don’t even!”
His mouth had been open, the words ‘bah’ and ‘humbug’ hovering on his lips when I’d preempted him.
“What exactly is your beef against Christmas anyway? I know you and Sam fought off that pagan Christmas deity pair, and you didn’t have the greatest Christmases growing up, but does that mean you have to stomp over everyone else’s good mood on the holidays?”
My hands were on my hips, and I was even surprised myself at how vehemently I was arguing the issue. Dean’s attitude must have been bugging me more than I’d realized.
He looked genuinely surprised by my rant too, sitting down on the bed and pulling me close to him.
“Why does it matter, Y/N? Christmas is really just another day on the job for us anyway, and it’s not really the holiday mood I have an issue with, it’s people who are cheery for no reason whatsoever. They bug me the other 11 months of the year too, but you don’t call me out about it then.
“So the real question, Y/N, is what’s got you so hot and bothered?”
If he had asked it in a condescending way, or accusing, I probably would have kicked his ass on principle. But a sincere Dean Winchester was a hard thing to resist or get mad at.
I rested my hands on his shoulders and took a deep breath, trying to figure out what was bugging me so much. It didn’t take long.
“I’m new to this hunting game, Dean. I didn’t grow up in it like you--Hell, I didn’t even know monsters were real until I was an adult. My childhood… it wasn’t perfect, but I can remember Christmas being amazing, and a part of me misses it. Decorating, shopping for the perfect gift, the excitement on Christmas morning, going sledding and ice skating, quiet time with family, making snowmen and snow angels….”
My voice drifted off as I lost myself in memories for a moment. Dean brought me back to Earth with a gentle squeeze on my hips through my sweatshirt and denim.
“Babe, that sounds nice and everything, but we don’t really do Christmas. It’s all for tourists--with the wrapping paper and the shopping and the nativity scenes. It’s not really part of the hunter lifestyle, you know? Sometimes you just have to let those things go.”
I eyed him, judging if he meant it or not.
Maybe he was right. Hunting didn’t leave time for much caroling or candy canes. Maybe this was just another adjustment I’d need to make.
“Okay, Dean. I’m going to take a shower and get to bed. I’m tired.”
Sam had emerged from the bathroom, apparently having judged our volume as safe-enough-to-risk-it, and I stepped back out of Dean’s reach, grabbed my toiletry bag, and claimed the bathroom.
A hot shower, no matter what the water pressure in this crap hotel, was sure to be some improvement on my maudlin attitude. There wasn’t much sense in wishing for childish things… what was that poem again?
I sat on the toilet and googled, my mind tugging at a remembered phrase about childhood and childish things, until I found the poem by St. Vincent Millay. I skimmed it, nodding to myself.
Yes, I’d left that particular kingdom behind the same day I’d met the Winchesters, grieving over the horrible deaths of my parents. And the holidays were the time I missed them most, remembering the fun they always put into the season, the closeness, the warmth, no matter how cold it got outside.
I felt the tears welling up in my eyes, and I put the phone down, internally scolding myself. I reached over, turning on the hot water before turning on my phone’s music to drown out the sound of the groaning pipes.
Moping would solve nothing. I had a new family with the Winchesters, after all, and a new purpose in hunting.
And that would have to be enough for all the holidays to come.
“C’mon, Y/N, wake up, sweetheart.”
I groaned and tugged on the blanket. There was no telling how long I had actually been asleep, but my internal alarm clock was reading “not long enough”.
Stupid Dean didn’t get the message.
“Y…… N……” Dean’s voice was particularly annoying right now. He apparently was okay without having sex again anytime soon if he kept that shit up.
“C’mon, gorgeous, you’ve got to get up. We’ve got to get some coffee in you and get on the road. We’ve got a new case.”
I groaned, recognizing his tone. Dean was in hunter mode--relentless and impatient. There was no way I was getting back to sleep this morning.
“Fine. I’m moving. But if I don’t have a coffee cup waiting for me by the time I get out of the bathroom, you won’t be.” My voice was grumpy grumble as I rolled out of the bed, heading for the tiny bathroom. I dimly noticed that Sam wasn’t in the room and Dean was sitting by his computer.
As I shut the door I heard Dean chuckle, “that’s my girl.”
When I came back out five minutes later, marginally awake but still in desperate need of caffeine, Sam had returned and was bearing Starbucks, the saint that he was.
I made grabby hands until he laughed and passed one over, “good morning, Y/N.”
“Hmmph.”
I sipped slowly at my hot beverage, barely listening as Sam and Dean continued a conversation they’d apparently started last night or this morning.
“We can’t just not help Garth. We owe the guy, and besides--I’d feel bad if he got killed.”
Sam shook his head, “but we can’t ignore Bobby either. I say, divide and conquer. I’ll take care of Garth, you two follow up on Bobby’s lead.”
Dean frowned, then nodded, the plan making sense to him. “Why not? We should both get done quicker that way, maybe meet up in a couple of days at Bobby’s place.”
“We might even make it in time for Christmas.” Sam smiled, but Dean rolled his eyes, his mind apparently not changed at all since last night.
I finally felt alive enough to interject, “when are we leaving?”
Dean eyed me up and down, a smile on his face. I probably still had bed-head or something, but at least he was too smart to say anything about it.
“Just as soon as you finish that coffee.”
Ten minutes later, I had packed my duffle and thrown it in the trunk of the Impala. Sam was going to wait at the hotel for Garth to give him a ride while Dean and I followed whatever lead Bobby had given him while I’d been asleep.
I sighed a bit as the festive decorations on the front lobby of the little hotel caught my eye. Hunting a monster wasn’t exactly how I had wanted to spend the last few days before Christmas.
But life was change. I’d adjust soon enough.
Dean was already behind the wheel, and I could practically feel his impatience to get started, so I opened my door and slid in.
And immediately stopped.
“Dean, what is that?”
“What’s what?” Dean’s voice was carefully hiding something--amusement? Excitement?
“This.” I reached out and tapped the small bunch of mistletoe hanging from the rear view mirror. Maybe it was some kind of warding, but it hadn’t been there the last time I got in the car.
“I’m shocked, Y/N. Don’t you know what hanging mistletoe is for at Christmastime?”
I finally tore my eyes away from the plant to see Dean’s mischievous smile. I hadn’t seen that smile since the time he’d put benadryl cream in Sam’s toothpaste tube.
“You bastard.” I whispered as it all clicked in my head.
He laughed then, pulling me across the seat to kiss me under the mistletoe.
I kissed him back briefly, then pushed at his chest to get some space. “So all that talk about Christmas not being a part of the hunting life? It was a prank?”
He shook his head, his hand threading through my hair.
“No, not really. I haven’t paid much attention to Christmas since Sam was a kid.” His other hand reached for the charm that always dangled around his neck.
“But if it matters to you, I have no problem indulging. And it might be fun.” And the way his eyebrows waggled at that last sentence clued you in about another layer of this elaborate hoax.
“So this case that we’re on….”
“Isn’t a case. Bobby’s loaning us one of his hunting cabins for the rest of the week. Sam’s going to meet us at his place on Christmas day and we’ll have a family get together. Sound good?”
I smiled, touched that he’d apparently put all this together, noticing how I felt about Christmas even before last night.
“It sounds perfect, Dean.”
“Good.” He drew me close for another kiss which I was much more enthusiastic about now, and he was the one who had to pull away for breath, turning the key in the ignition and starting the growl of the Impala’s engine.
“I can’t believe you set up this ridiculous con though. I love a surprise, but really Dean?”
He put his arm on the back of my seat, looking over his shoulder as he backed out of the parking space, his mouth twisting into a pleased grin.
“Yeah, but you should have seen your face, babe. Now, that was a good Christmas gift.”
I elbowed him lightly, but he only chuckled as he pulled out of the lot, headed for a Christmas getaway that I suddenly couldn’t wait for.
This fic will have a sequel! Keep an eye open for it!
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sithlordintraining · 6 years
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Knight of the Night (Modern Superhero/Vigilante Au!Matt)
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A/N: It’s December 31, the end of a horrible year. The good thing, being my last year in high school and meeting all you amazing people. Last week I was at 400 followers and now I’m almost at 650, that’s so cool. Special thanks to everyone and have a Happy New Year and many more stories to come!
Summary: Matt Organa-Solo, a 21-year old psychology student at Academia: University of First Order. He was the only child of Senator Leia Organa-Solo and Retired Chief of Police Han Organa-Solo. It was a problematic community, but not as terrible as some other towns and colleges. But somehow, he always found himself always somehow saving someone, literally. After a crazy night, will Matt dare venture to become the hero this place needs?
Knight of the Night Collection
Vol. #4- The Man in the Mask
Matt finished the last of cleaning up his old abandoned childhood home. Another cough fell from his plump lips as another wave of dust fell from the wallpapered walls. As a force of habit, he moved his mouth into the crook of his elbow even though the black surgical mask kept it from spreading in the atmosphere. A ring from his phone brought him out of his daze, with long strides he retrieved from the table next to the bottle of Gatorade. Putting in the code, he saw a message from Hux: ‘I don’t know where you are, but I’m taking the girls to the theatre now.’ He mentally cursed forgetting he was meeting up with the three of you to see a live version of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. A smile tugged at his lips about one of the nights during rush, in your passionately drunk state expressed how much you LOVED the Rocky Horror Picture Show and it wouldn’t be Halloween without seeing it. Matt had found a local theater in town that put on the production and bought the tickets for the four them.
Packing everything up, Matt locked the mansion doors and strolled through the secret passageway. It was dark now and a little chilly, so he zipped up the slightly oversized black hoodie he was wearing and trekked to the theater. He constantly blinks his eyes due to the uncomfortable dryness of his contacts. He groaned when he dug into his pockets and couldn’t find his eye drops. He could only blame himself; he knew shouldn’t have been wearing his glasses everytime he decided to go out on is “crime-fighting sprees” and one of those time a guy punched him right in the face breaking his glasses. Turning the corner, he walking into the local drugstore to pick up a bottle of eye drops. The automated doors slid open as his right foot met the threshold. It didn’t take long for him to find and soon he was at the register getting his items rung up.
His large hands fumbled to find his wallet in one of his pockets. His brown eyes lifted to the screen to read over his price. “200-what?!” The bottle shouldn’t have been more than $8. “Well...it’s what you bought.”The woman behind the counter pointed shakily at the screen. Matt rolled his eyes and began to read the contents of the screen. The first line was his eye drops, but the other items weren’t items at all. Help for $17.00, Robbed for $15.00, Gunpoint for $85.00. His heart beat hard against his chest as he tried to think of a way to get the woman and him out of harm’s way. He reached into his pocket and pressed emergency call. “Oh, can I get one of the razors in aisle 7,” Matt asked. Hesitantly, the woman walked around the counter. Stealthily, he handed her the phone. He placed his palms flat on the counter before he peered over. The man jumped up, trying to smack Matt with the gun. Matt caught his arm and strained upward, making him shoot into the ceiling. Matt landed a punch right on his nose, as he slightly fell limp. With all his strength, he pulled the man from behind the counter. The man dropped the gun and Matt kicked it as far as he could. “Did you call?” Matt yelled as he tried to hold the man down. The woman came into view shaking her head with tears in her eyes.
The man jolted forward, putting Matt in a headlock. His fingers gripped at the man’s arms as he tried to pull himself loose. A few deep breaths left his pink lips before he flipped the man over. The woman gripped her chest as she let out a loud gasp. Matt towered over the man, who squirmed and groan due to being dropped on his back. He started to catch his breath but kept his eyes on the man who seemed to make no sudden movements at this point. “FREEZE!” A voice boomed behind him; he slowly turned his hands up. One officer had its gun pointed at the robber and the other at Matt. He cursed himself, not only was he going to miss the show, he was going to get arrested, and would probably hear a shit ton from his parents. One of the officers went to the lady and checked if she was alright, as she began to ramble that he had saved her. The officer that was approaching Matt quickly turned his attention to the man on the floor. Matt stood, chest heaving, examining the situation determining that these officers were definitely not trained by his father: “Never turn your back, anyone.” With that thought, Matt sneaked through the door and ran towards the theater.
It took about fifteen minutes before Matt was bursting through the door and the whole theater turned to see the lanky Blond awkwardly make his way down to the seat which coincidentally had been the first row in the middle. He mumbled a few curse words under his breath as he finally made to his seat, where he saw your bright shining (y/e/c) eyes looking up at him. “Come, come, come!” You whispered, hands pulling him down to the seat next to you. A blush rose to his cheeks as you began to tell him how worried you were thinking he wasn’t going to make it or even show at all! “Yeah,” Was all that he could muster out due to the running and you making him flustered. “It’s ok, you didn’t miss anything.” Your lips brushed against his ears and when you pulled back he saw that beautiful smile. His ears moved slightly and a soft giggle escaped your lips. “I knew this one was the perfect Rocky for me when he busts through those doors.” A voice boomed through the air from the omniscient narrator, who most likely sat in the tech booth. A blinding light was set in front of the couple as they both covered their eyes with the back of their hands. Before Matt could register, he was being pulled up on stage.
Hux snickered, pulling out his phone. “Best show ever.” Phasma sat confused because she didn’t even see Matt enter. The stagehands, who were dressed as party guests, disappeared with the audience members and the show started. It was a while before Rocky appeared, which had you gnawing at your bottom lip. You also couldn’t help but laugh at yourself for being worried that Matt would somehow be in trouble. But it seemed it was only minutes later the ‘Time Warp’ was being wrapped up and Dr. Frank N Furter was stepping onto the scene. It was finally time that the group of friends was waiting for; Hux had his phone ready, Phasma was still trying to figure out when he got there and you were just ready to see Matt. And it was definitely worth the wait. Matt rose out of the large rainbow tank, awkward as usual, wearing nothing but gold biker shorts and socks. Whistles, gasps, and rather provocative words consumed the theater. Caught off guard was an understatement as your eyes were glued to his body. “Woah, that dude is shredded.” One voice rang out and a blush hit Matt’s face instantly. “Matt has an eight-pack?” Phasma questioned and Hux scoffed, putting away his phone. “Phasma,” you called out in a daze. “Did you know this?” Phasma shook her head, just as shocked as you were. Everyone thought Matt was some lanky nerd because of how he dressed and looked. “He’s thick, like with two C’s. THICC!” You emphasized to your friend as your eyes followed Matt’s every move. “I should go work out with him later tonight.” You didn’t think you actually said your thought aloud until you felt a pop against the side of your head. “No! Bad Y/N, don’t!” Phasma scolded you as both continued to watch the show.
When it was over, the three of them waited outside by the stage door to wait for their friend. With hands in your jean jacket pocket, you said nothing as you noticed a large crowd of girls waiting as well. And of course, when Matt exited they were throwing themselves at him. You rolled your eyes and scoffed, turning your back toward him. You told yourself you shouldn’t have been jealous that almost every straight girl and some guys at the theater were throwing themselves at him and you shouldn’t have been upset that ‘Janet’ was getting handsy with him. He wasn’t your man and you were friends. “Hey, guys!” He waved after making it through the crowd, he greeted his friends. Phasma was the first to greet him; all the while she was talking and Hux’s snarky remarks, he noticed that you didn’t talk or even look at him. Your shining eyes were hidden behind the large black sunglasses as you leaned against the wall. He frowned at you. What had changed between then and now? “Hey,” He nudged you as he spoke softly. “Hi,” With your voice just above a whisper. Narrowing his eyes, he looked you over once more, he couldn’t decipher what could make your attitude change. “Alright, let’s get something to eat.” Hux clapped, leading the way. You pushed yourself off the wall before feeling a tug at your hand. Matt had softly grasped your hand and pulled you towards him. “Did you enjoy the show?” He asked. You felt like an ass, he did this nice thing by buying you all tickets because of one of your drunken rants. “Yes, thank you, Matt.” A slight smile presented itself on your lips, that made Matt’s tug upwards. Craning his neck, his plump lips softly brushed against your knuckles with a kiss. You bit your lip to suppress your laugh that still escaped and Matt’s face was painted with a wide smile.
It wasn’t long before the group was nestled into the booth of a gastropub that wasn’t too far from the theater. Matt and Y/N sat on one side, holding hands underneath the table. You stilled stayed quiet, but it was a comfortable happy silence. “I couldn’t see his face because he had his hoodie up and wore a black mask, but he didn’t hesitate to help me get to safety.” A female voice from the TV behind the bar caused most of the customers to turn and watch the screen. Matt inhaled as he noticed the woman on the screen to be the one he had saved. Everyone watched completely engaged to the story of the heroic stranger who mysteriously disappeared. “Unfortunately, Patricia never got to say thank you or find out who this masked mysterious hero clad in black was. But, we have one clue, he gave Patricia his phone and in a few minutes we will able to find out who our hero is.” The reporter exclaimed. “Shit! H-Hux, can I borrow your phone to call my mom? Mine is dead.” Matt released your hand and reached across the table. “Here, you can use mine.” You began to slide it over. “No, Hux has it saved because I forget it.” He said embarrassed. Hux rolled his eyes as he handed him the phone. “What person doesn’t remember their mother’s number.” Hux snarled.
Matt went to the farthest corner of the restaurant. Matt specifically wanted Hux’s phone because he knew Hux loved to code and hack. His long fingers tapped away at the screen. On multiple occasions, Hux would wipe out or turn off Matt’s phone at times. His brown eyes constantly moved from the TV; quickly he inserted the random inputs that Hux had once taught him. “Ok, the phone is turning on and the detective will have our mystery solved.” The camera moved to the detective. He furrowed his brows as he had a little under a minute to shut it down. ‘Completed’ popped up on the phone and his eyes moved back to the news. “Well...wow...that was unexpected. Guess our ‘Dark Knight’ will just have to remain a mystery.” The reporter smiled as it turned back to the newsroom. Wide steps took him back to his seat. “Is everything alright?” You asked as he handed the phone back to Hux. “Yeah, my mom just wanted to speak to me before her conference,” he said. Hux continued the story and you gave him your full attention again. You felt something slide along your thigh and claw at your hand. Looking down, you saw Matt’s large pale hand engulf yours. From the corner of your eye, he too was listening to Hux. With a gentle squeeze, a tight lip smile was worn by both Matt and Y/N, unknowing to everyone around them.
tagged: @kylo-renne @btw-imalex
P.S.: HAPPY NEW YEARS, MAY YOUR YEAR BE MERRY AND  FULL OF BLESSINGS!!
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exxar1 · 3 years
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Episode 6: My Resolutions
12/31/2020
Resolution.
It’s an interesting word. It denotes both “end” and “beginning”. On this, the last day of the year, I’m sitting in my parents’ living room, glass of iced tea close by, MacBook open in my lap, reflecting on 2020. But…I think we all have done enough reflecting of this dumpster fire of a year, so I’m just gonna skip that part. Let’s look ahead to 2021.
Seriously, though, as I’ve said in previous posts, 2020 was a year of monumental personal change for me. So, with that in mind, here’s my resolutions for 2021:
1.     I want to be a better Christian. There’s a lot packed into this resolution, but, basically, I want to have a better relationship with God. For the last few months I’ve been using work as an excuse for not having enough time each day to do personal devotions and prayer. And while I have been super busy with two full time jobs, I have had a few minutes here and there where I could have spent some time reading in the Bible app on my phone. I surfed social media instead. I also have had some time at the end of the day before bed when I could have done a devotional and some praying, but, again, I either surfed social media or watched a half hour of something on Hulu or Netflix.
So, for 2021, I am resolving to read my Bible more, pray more, and build up my relationship with my Lord and Savior. A month ago, on black Friday, I purchased a couple different study Bibles that were on sale for the app on my phone and iPad. One of them is a men’s study Bible that is designed and set up as a one year, daily devotional Bible. Each night, before bed, I will use that half hour to read and pray.
2.    In that same vein, I am resolving to join a church in 2021. I’ve been doing a little research of local churches online, and I found a Lutheran church here in Vegas that appears to be gay friendly while, at the same time, doctrinally sound. By that I mean that it appears to be close to the same doctrinal beliefs as the Baptist church that I grew up in. My religious beliefs/convictions are very much Baptist, with the exception of their view on homosexuality. However, I don’t want that to be the only criteria for my selection of a church, obviously. And this will be predicated on whether or not life as we know it goes completely back to normal this coming year. That means no statewide lockdowns and no mask and social distancing mandates. Soooooo…yeah, this might be one resolution that doesn’t get fulfilled until much later in the year, or maybe even in 2022. Ugh! (But still keeping my fingers crossed.)
Also, my secret hope is that by completing this resolution, I will also be well on the way to completing Resolution #5.
3.    I resolve to explore further the issue of homosexuality and Christianity. Due to my hectic work schedule I haven’t been able to devote anywhere near the time necessary to the study and research that this issue requires. But, in 2021, I will be devoting more time to this project. I’m thinking that the more time I devote to Resolution #1, I will also be making progress on this resolution. Stay tuned for updates on here…
4.    As part of Resolution #1, I am resolving to be more compassionate and understanding with everyone around me and those I meet in my daily life. For the last week or so, as I’ve been up in Idaho on vacation, I’ve had more time to think and reflect on this past year. Looking back through my posts on social media, especially on Facebook, I realized that I have been VERY judgmental of people – both on my friends list as well as the various politicians and leaders who have been involved in the many social and political issues that have plagued our nation in 2020. I allowed myself to get caught up in the political storm, and I did more than my fair share of yelling, screaming, and smug finger-pointing that I have often despised in others over the last few years.
One of my favorite albums by Amy Grant is her 1988 Lead Me On. If memory serves, I first bought that CD around 1990 or 91, and, as with everything else in her library since 1985’s Unguarded, I had the entire Lead Me On LP memorized by the end of junior high. Later, as an adult, when I burned or downloaded all her albums in iTunes, I would “dust off” those songs every once in awhile over the last couple decades, revisiting old, familiar lyrics and memories while commuting to work or at the gym. One of the songs on Lead Me On is called What About The Love. The narrator spends most of that track pointing a finger at others and judging them for not showing the love, compassion or mercy of Christ. Then, in the last verse, the narrator looks in the mirror and realizes that he/she has been guilty of the very sin that he/she has been judging others for committing.
That’s how I’ve been feeling for the last couple weeks. I have stood on my pedestal, looking down upon the world, judging and smugly condemning everyone around me on social media for being ignorant, or uninformed, or just downright stupid simply because they believed differently than I on this or that issue. I have shaken my fist at the sky, ranting and raving about COVID-19, the national election, BLM, and many of the other social and political issues that tossed and turned our nation inside out these last 9 months.
For 2021, I resolve to be less judgmental, less angry, and more compassionate and understanding. That doesn’t mean I’m going to no longer stand up for my beliefs or convictions, and I will continue to speak my mind, but I will not do as much angry yelling as I’ve done in 2020. One of the major changes for me, personally, in 2020 was that I woke up from my 20-year complacency. Before this year, I never cared much about who was sitting in the White House, or what laws congress passed. But now, I care very much about those things, and I believe it’s important now, more than ever, for ALL American citizens to care as well. For this coming year – and from now on – I promise to be less confrontational and judgmental in my social media posts. Instead, I’m going to be more professional, calmer and understanding while stating my opinion. I’m also going to pause and ask myself the following before posting something: is this just to poke the hornet’s nest, or do I honestly have something to say and/or contribute to this or that debate?
Along those same lines, I resolve to be more sympathetic and understanding with the people I meet in my daily life. One of my biggest weaknesses is my impatience and judgment of others, especially my customers. Nothing infuriates or exasperates me more than trying to help an elderly man/woman who has no idea how to go about accessing their bank statement online. Or when people ask what I consider to be dumb or redundant questions. Or people who insist on splitting up what should be a simple, 2-minute transaction into a 10-minute, 5-part transaction. Or people who –
You get the idea. For 2021, I resolve to stop silently cursing and judging those people. Instead, I will take a deep breath, smile, and be more sympathetic and understanding. I have always had to remind myself that not everyone is as adept as me at current technology, or maybe they don’t know as much about the products they’re purchasing as I do. I’ve been selling money for 8 ½ years now. I’ve used the same script for explaining a payday loan every day, multiple times a day, for 8 ½ years. I sometimes forget that new customers are not as versed as I am, and I need to be more patient and understanding with them.
I also need to be more kind and patient with my co-workers for the same reason, especially the new people. Another of my weaknesses has been my impatience with those to whom I’m tasked to teach new things. (This is the main reason I had to quit my job as a computer assistant at an elementary school in 2012. I made too many young children cry. Literally. I’m not kidding.) For 2021, I resolve to be more patient and understanding with my co-workers. I will keep my frustration and exasperation to myself. Instead, I will pause, take a breath, and try to see the situation from their point of view. There’s a meme I’ve seen a lot on Facebook recently that says something to the effect of, “Treat everyone you meet today with kindness and love. Everyone is going through something in their life, and you don’t know what it is. So be nice.” I promise to take that advice to heart every day from now on.
5.    I want to find a man. And not just any man. I have a specific set of criteria, both physical and characteristic, that I want in my future husband. To me, dating is no different than applying for a job. I have a position that I’m seeking to fill, and all prospective applicants need to meet a certain set of standards and qualifications. (And let’s be honest: is there really much of a difference between dates and job interviews? Other than the fact that some dates might end with sex?)
But, seriously, folks, I want someone to love. I’m honestly not sure why this has become such a hunger for me these last few months, but I’ve been longing for some time now to share my life with someone special. The funny thing is, I’ve never cared about this before. I was perfectly happy just doing my own thing, but, lately, I’ve had a very strong yearning for all that clichéd relationship crap, or, as I saw in a social media meme awhile back, “…that special someone you want to annoy for the rest of your life.”
I could write a whole blog post about this (and maybe I will at some point), but I think I’ve officially discovered the 10th circle of hell: online dating. I’m sure Dante wrote a whole ‘nother book about it, but his publisher at the time thought it too frightening for the 13th century common man, so it was left out of The Divine Comedy. I’m honestly not sure that anyone in real life has ever found their soul mate – or even a normal, well-adjusted person – on eHarmony, Tinder, Plenty of Fish, or Match.com. I’ve even resorted to using Facebook’s dating section, which I didn’t know about until a month ago when a co-worker mentioned it. So far, no luck. The main problem I have with most of the major dating apps out there is that you have to plunk down anywhere from $30 - $150 just to be able to respond to ads and/or private messages. I gave Tinder, POF, and Match.com a single month’s subscription trial, but I didn’t meet anyone worth more than a few words in DM, let alone anyone who came close to meeting even the basic of my standards and criteria.
I’m scared that my only chance for “true love” is to meet someone in real life, and that’s not good. I work for a payday loan company and Walmart. I can tell you with absolute assuredness that those meet-cutes in every stupid Hollywood rom-com NEVER happen in real life. Never! Ever! Never ever! And I dare any of you to challenge me on this. The customers and co-workers that I interact with every day are not eligible soul mates, and since I have never been anything close to a social butterfly (even before 2020 when anything social and extra-curricular was shut down), my chances of meeting that special guy face to face are pretty slim.
But, as part of Resolution #1, I’ve decided to put this resolution in the hands of God. If it is His will that I meet that special guy, He’ll find a way to bring him across my path. I just hope that I’ll be ready. In the meantime, I have decided to be patient and just live my life as normal. If the absolute craziness of 2020 has taught me anything, it’s patience. Life is unpredictable, and you never know what each day might bring.
So there they are: my New Year’s resolutions. I can tell you right now that I will fail at some point throughout the year with each one of these (except maybe #2). But the point of resolutions is to commit to the struggle, even – and especially – when we fail. I’ll keep you posted on here on my progress, and I hope this encourages all of you to commit to your own resolutions.
After all, a struggle – like fine wine – is best shared with friends.
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the-real-xmonster · 6 years
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Figure Skating and the Media
I’d like to build on Chibura​​‘s notes after Cup of Russia, which I shared the other day, and which I’d highly recommend you to go through if you have the time. My favorite part is her take on the media, which is as scathing as it is fair, and makes for an enlightening read. 
I am not trying to justify the media's questionable practices, far from it. However, I want to point out that in this day and age, when the impact of an article is measured less by its ability to inform and more by the number of clicks it attracts, it should be to nobody’s surprise that sensationalism dictates a large part of the media’s modus operandi. The same is true for all kinds of sport journalism (if you can still call that journalism), but is even more prevalent in coverage of figure skating, a sport whose judging system is frequently viewed as esoteric, whose chance to be in the spotlight of public interest comes only once every 4 years, both of which factors serve to render it, at best, exotic, and at worst, incomprehensible and therefore uninteresting. 
It is no secret that skating, for all the rise in popularity it enjoys in the East, has gradually lost its traction in the Western world. There are many different ways one could take to revitalize interest in skating among the North American and European audience. It just so happens that among those, sensationalism is the fastest and overtly most effective, at least in the short term. It’s too much work to educate the public on the technical requirements and too highbrow to discuss the artistry. Perception of esoteric, remember? We don’t want to perpetuate that. Now the drama, the rivalry, the glory of the title Olympians, the honor that comes only once in a lifetime, the nationalistic pride, in short, the narratives, those are much easier to, yes, narrated, and, if need be, conjured up on demand.    
Moreover, from the media’s perspective, we are, as of today, already in the short term. The Winter Olympics is barely half a year away and that sets a definite deadline for them to rack up points for figure skating in the mass’ popularity index, that which would eventually transform into the oh-so-precious increase in viewership of TV broadcasts. The media might even manage to trick itself into thinking that it is doing good for skating. After all, what harm can come from attracting more viewers to the sport? The end justifies the means, right? Sure, once the Olympics is over, the adrenaline spent and the temporary curiosity satisfied, figure skating will recede once again to its obscure spot, but that would be somebody else’s problem. It is also easy, in between Olympic cycles, to pen heartfelt pieces lamenting the decline of a once beloved sport and berating the ISU for its inefficiency. It is even easier to find another non-mainstream sport to push into the spotlight. Look, isn’t that Tokyo 2020 rounding the corner? 
So, for this entire skating season, do please brace yourself for a barrage of historical trends being misinterpreted, statistics being misrepresented, rivalry being forged from the most tenuous of contexts, controversy being made up and then dramatized and then blown out of proportion, kings and queens and rising stars and has-beens being crowned and then denounced and then crowned again just as quickly after each competition. I have lived through Torino, Vancouver, Sochi, and I can tell you the exact same cards have been laid down in the past, are being picked up this year, and will be played again 4 years later. The only significant difference between now and Torino is in the speed at which (mis)information is being created and disseminated, and together with it, an ever-increasing pressure on journalists to strive for the latest updates, the hottest news, the most scandalous stories, and a corresponding deterioration in their sense of responsibility and their ability to care. Not all journalists are like that, but their reaches are being overshadowed by those who are.
So, for this entire skating season, as fellow skating fans, may I be so bold as to invite you to, together with me, look at everything the media reports with a grain of salt, to be more cautious with what we are being led to believe, and to try our best in discerning fact from alternative facts? 
I should also point out, however, that the media cannot be blamed for everything. They are for profit organizations, and their promotional strategy for figure skating, from a business point of view, is legitimized by the fact that there are not a small number of people out there who watch this sport for the stories and who are thrilled not by the jumps and spins and steps themselves but by the associative heroics and the dramatic undercurrents. I was pointed by @the50-person, the other day, to a post where the blogger essentially say that they don’t want to see Yuzuru Hanyu winning, through no fault of his own, but rather because him winning is boring and does not fit their preferred narrative (the original post has since been deleted, but as we all know, The ‘Net Remembers). 
If you happen to be one of those people, well, listen, may I politely suggest the possibility that watching real life sports is not the most suitable form of entertainment for you? I’d think what you are searching for is no sporting action, but a story with a sport background. Think about it and let me know if I am not wrong, and then message me, if you want, I’d be most happy to recommend you works of fiction in any form you prefer (books, TV shows, movies, manga, anime) which cater exactly to your entertainment appetite. If you are partial to a certain type of plot, say for example one where the underdog miraculously prevails against a challenging opponent, I can also point you to specific titles containing such story line. In return, I ask only that you say this out loud and then keep it in mind: real athletes are NOT fictional characters. See, it’s not that difficult, isn’t it, to stay sane, rational, and disentangle fantasy from reality?  
I’d like to make one final point, and I should warn you that this will appear entirely counter-intuitive: please, if you have the means, contribute financially to your sporting news outlet of choice, preferably a primary source. To echo John Oliver from one of my favorite Last Week Tonight episodes, the less we are willing to pay for the work of journalists, the more their business has to rely on ads revenue to survive, the more callous they have to be in generating contents whose sole aim is to attract the most number of views, which lowers the quality and in turn makes us even less willing to pay. It’s a vicious, toxic cycle which would not stop unless we consciously make the choice to break away.    
*please visualize an adequate apology for ranting and long post here because I have run out of them*
P.S. This week my updates will be sporadic and I’m not going to be very responsive to asks and messages *visualize another apology here please* because I’m rather tied up with selling my soul to capitalism (an activity more commonly known as working).
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newtonmediagroup · 3 years
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youtube
Free Association
If your mind goes blank, use a technique called free association to generate a response. These are words that immediately come to mind upon hearing something. For example, if someone talks about cats, practice free association with the provided exercises, and you’ll be able to come up with answers more quickly and easily. Conversation as a whole is just a series of interrelated responses and stories, so free association is practicing conversation flow. Regardless of who you’re talking to, you’re likely to be asked the same set of generic questions. These include what do you do, how was your day, and others like these. You’ll want to have two separate answers prepared for such questions, one of which is interesting and unique (the layman explanation), while the other is more informative (the expert explanation). Being too esoteric upon first meeting someone isn’t always helpful, and can confuse and render others speechless. Finally, learn to give good compliments. This is also deceptively easy. Compliment things that people have control over, or made a choice about. Don’t choose genetic qualities like height or eye color; instead choose things that people actively put effort into. People feel comfortable and flattered, and then start to open up. The Art of Witty Banter: Be Clever, Quick, & Magnetic By Patrick King Read the show notes and/or transcript at https://bit.ly/social-skills-shownotes Get the audiobook on Audible at https://bit.ly/WittyBanterKing For a free minibook on conversation tactics, visit Patrick King Consulting at https://bit.ly/pkconsulting For narration information visit Russell Newton at https://bit.ly/VoW-home For production information visit Newton Media Group LLC at https://bit.ly/newtonmg
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Practice Free Association
There are times when it doesn’t really matter how good a speaker you are, or how interesting or engaging you might be as a person—or for that matter, how interesting and engaging the person you are speaking to is. Sometimes conversations just get stuck. It’s no one’s fault; it just happens.
We can get stuck in topics we don't care about, or a conversation can turn into what feels like an interview, making it feel shallow and awkward. We might discover that we have very little in common with the other person. When we try to think of different things to talk about, it becomes difficult, like trying to climb out of a hole.
When we find ourselves in a conversation where we’re tangled up in a tough or impossible topic, we end up feeling frozen and trapped, which creates anxiety and frustration. The more we try to get out of the rut of the conversation, the more stuck we feel.
So let’s simplify conversation.
Conversation is a series of statements, stories, and questions. After one person contributes one of those elements, the other person responds in kind, either on the same exact topic, or a topic that is in some way related to the original one.
That’s where free association comes in. This is the practice wherein you say things that immediately come to mind when you hear something without trying to filter it in any way.
Isn’t conversation just a series of free-association exercises?
For example, if someone says something to the effect of, “I love cats soooo much!” and you know nothing about cats, you might find it difficult to contribute anything to the conversation. If you absolutely hate cats because a cat blinded your right eye when you were a child, this might just be a conversation killer, or it might launch you into a bitter rant that will also murder the conversation.
You might not have anything to say about cats, but what if you took away the statement and context and focused on the word and concept of cats?
With simple free association, you can find a way to quickly and efficiently breathe new life into the conversation, regardless of how deeply stuck it may feel.
Just free associate five things about cats. In other words, blurt out five things (nouns, locations, concepts, statements, feelings, words) that flashed into your brain when you heard the word “cats.” Allow your mind to go blank and zero in on the word "cats." Stop thinking of the word "cats" as a trigger to past experiences and memory. Instead, start looking at it as a fresh concept unconnected to what you've experienced before. Play a word association game with yourself. What does "cats" make you think of? We're just talking about purely intellectual connections.
It doesn't matter what you feel, what your emotions are. It doesn't matter what your experiences were, whether you were traumatized or not. It has nothing to do with that. This is just a purely intellectual challenge to try to rapidly fill out a list of what "cats" as a concept can be tied to.
For most people, when the word "cats" is mentioned, they think of kittens, cuddles, sand boxes, cheetahs, lions, fish, sushi, fur, dogs, allergies, the musical, etc. Keep in mind that there is no right or wrong answer here. It’s all free association. What's important is that you're rapidly filling out that list of things that you can intellectually connect with the word "cats."
You’ll notice that doing this is much easier than coming up with a responsive statement or question to the declaration, “I love cats sooo much.” Yet, your task and challenge is exactly the same—where do you go with what the other person said? With that framework and perspective, it’s much easier to disassociate from the actual statement and free associate with the subject matter.
Doing this will train your brain to think outside the (cat) box, approach conversation in a non-linear way, and see the many possible directions one simple concept or word can take you.
For instance, you may respond to the statement, “I love cats sooo much” with any of the following replies:
“I’ve always wondered whether cats enjoy cuddle time as much as dogs seem to do.”
“Have you heard of these hypoallergenic cat breeds?”
“So would Cats, the Musical be something you’d enjoy watching?”
Now suppose that someone proclaimed their love for car racing, and suppose that you know nothing about that either. What are the top five or six free associations that come to mind for car racing?
For me, it’s a mixture of (1) NASCAR, (2) gas, (3) tires, (4) The Fast and the Furious movies, (5) Japan (don’t ask me), (6) Mustangs. Here’s the magic part—each of these six associations are perfectly normal topics to switch to that are still in the flow of the conversation.
“I love watching car racing! It’s so fun!”
“You mean like NASCAR, or illegal street racing?”
“I always wondered what kind of gas mileage those cars get.”
“Do those cars have specialized tires? I don’t think my car’s tires could take that!”
“So are The Fast and the Furious movies your favorites?”
“I heard they do some kind of drift racing in Japan—do you mean like that?”
“I always imagine car racing happens with huge, powerful Mustangs. Is that the kind of car races you watch?
Try free association with the words “coffee” and “trains” and think about how much easier it is to construct questions and generally converse about something once you can form a mental map of the subject and its related topics.
You just feel unstuck.
Of course, the best way to do this is not to try it the first time when you're in an actual conversation. Free associating is the easy part, but utilizing the things that come to your mind in an ongoing conversation can sometimes be tricky. Practice free association consciously several times throughout the course of a week. The more you do it, the better you get at it.
Here’s how to practice: on a piece of paper, write five random words. They can be anything—a noun, verb, memory, or even an emotion or feeling. Suppose the first word you write is “napkin.” As quickly as possible, write three associations for that word. Take the last word you came up with, and then as quickly as possible, write three associations for that new word. Repeat three times, and then move to the next set of words.
Napkin        -> table, spoon, fine dining. Fine dining -> France, Michelin Star, butler. Butler          -> Jeeves, white gloves, Michael Jackson. And so on.
Practicing free association is an excellent foundation for good conversation because conversation is about relating unrelated ideas, making connections, and going with the flow of topics. Next time you're struggling for something to say, take a step back and tap into your previously practiced free-association skills.
Just as with anything else that has to do with conversation skills, you can only master it if you try it enough times. The best part of all this is that you can do it instantly. You get caught in a stream of consciousness flow. Always remember there is no right or wrong answer. If you believe there is, you’ll be putting unnecessary pressure on yourself.
In case you find yourself in a hole with the free-association technique for any reason, one alternative you can fall back on is to simply ask the other person to elaborate about what they said. So if someone claims to love cats or racing, nudge them to speak more about it. This will give you more material to work and free associate with. For example, common reasons for liking cats include them being cute and independent compared to dogs. If someone cites these reasons, you now have more things to free associate from—cats, cuteness, and independence. Use this abundance to come up with good responses. Flow achieved; silence averted.
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cxndyhexrts · 4 years
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Fake Arrangements~ Penry
The next day was supposed to be a calm day. He had sent multiple messages to Amanda not to bother him with anything, he told his parents that he wouldn’t be waking up for breakfast-both him and Nikki would be a sight, being hungover. He snuck in the kitchen to get a few bottles of water and something to eat to shake off whatever had happened the previous day, and in every way. For sure, he had brought a lot of projects with him to work on and he felt lucky that this was a legit excuse. Locking the door behind him, his next move was to turn his laptop on and place the tray he got on the side. The day passed pretty quickly and he seemed to be sobering up pretty soon: his walls were definitely up again, but something was bothering him. Penelope Matthews: he’d never thought that this girl would ever cause any problem in his life, but there she was. They had to talk before she arrived, because all this might turn extremely suspicious in no time. Suddenly, a Skype call notification popped up and he gasped with the coincidence of it all. Clicking on the green phone button, he smiled at his cousin: “Speak of the devil”, he smirked at her.
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Penny’s jaw dropped with the way Henry greeted her. “Oh my God-is everything okay?”, she asked. He had never talked to her like that and it felt very weird. After a few seconds, she realized why he actually said that and nodded. “Ah...right...I see...yes”, she pouted, trying to be serious, a look that her students had recognised since they met her. She was never a person that got angry easily and when she had to discipline someone, it felt really hard for her. “I don’t think it will be hard, you know. We have been acting like a couple while we were in New York. A lot of people have mistaken us for one”, she widened her eyes. “Do you remember that time in Olive Garden? With our small breadsticks food fight? We were cute, they weren’t wrong”.
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Henry let her realize what he meant and  tried not to roll his eyes-not that he wasn’t having fun with her or she was wrong, but he’d never expect Nikki would be in the picture or any picture for that matter. “First of all, just a warning, keep your voice down, as much as you can. Please”, he said, knowing that Penny might start squealing any time now, repeating the word “cute”. “Secondly, how are we even going to do this? What about my parents? How are we going to act around them? Should we kiss? I don’t want to kiss. And at the same time, I am caught in this plan and I want it to be believable. Why did you agree to this?”, he ranted, throwing all those questions at her. “I wish I knew it before...I wish you told me something before, so that we’d plan it better”, he made a pause just to catch his breath. “I hate this-what has Amanda told you?”, he finally asked and decided to let Penny talk.
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Penny blinked fast, trying to assimilate and probably answer all the questions at once. Taking a deep breath, she lowered the tone of her voice to almost a whisper: “I know that yesterday you were going to play a game and everything will be revealed”, she shrugged. “So, I didn’t know earlier than you”, she furrowed her eyebrows. “Amanda has been telling me about her best friend since we met each other. Nikki is like a friend of mine, as well even if I’ve never met her-and now I do want to meet her even more”, she said excitedly, sitting up on her chair. “Your parents are on board-Amanda said that Aunt Lizzie is going to act like I’m your bride-to-be, probably throwing shade at you that you aren’t the one who’s getting married”, she giggled. “Also, I don’t think we should kiss-I mean..yuck”, she wrinkled her nose. “And we don’t have to prove to anyone that we are a couple-they have no right to tell us what to do and what not to do publicly. We do show each other affection, we don’t kiss in public, and they still consider us as a couple”, she smiled wider. “Ding-ding”, she said triumphantly. She was so eager to help out and honestly, she didn’t have anything to lose from all that. Besides, it was one of those rare times that she saw Henry being that flustered. “Tell me more about her, though. You’ve never talked about her to me-I thought she was only Amanda’s friend. And Amanda preferred to let you talk about it to me”, she rested her head on her hand, feeling way too excited to hear what Henry had to say.
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“Oh my god, are you crazy?”, Henry exclaimed. “Do you know what she will think after you actually meet face to face? After what Amanda has told about you, she’d definitely hate you. Don’t expect her to be instantly friends with you”, he widened his eyes. “Of course”, rolling his eyes, Henry reached for his coffee mug and took a sip. “Mom is just playing around...I hope”, he pouted. Henry chuckled a little before making a buzzer sound. “Wrong-we have to prove that to Nikki, now. It’s our only goal....I guess”, he shrugged, trying to hold himself not to seem as freaked out as he thought he was. “But, yeah, it won’t mean anything if we don’t kiss”, he looked down. “We were great friends. Nikki, I and Amanda. Until...I went to college and...not many months later, I learned that Nikki’s boyfriend passed away”, he swallowed, still not looking at his laptop’s screen. “It’s truly sad and it hurts sometimes, I wasn’t really able to talk to her about it”, he frowned and found the strength to raise his head and look at Penny. “Anyway, the first summer back from college...something happened....a lot of things happened”, he felt his cheeks so hot. “And she left for college without saying anything. Amanda actually informed me she had left-I sent her multiple messages and then I gave up. If she didn’t want to continue this, I was...”, he sighed deeply, trying to keep his cool, “I wasn’t going to push it”, he looked down again. “You know the rest. I’ve told you about my previous relationships and how they went”, he sucked on his lower lip hard, so that he could find the strength and continue talking. “Until I learned from Amanda that Nikki has a boyfriend...I forgot to say that I never told anyone...that’s why I have never mentioned her to you. I was afraid that if I did, the flood of what...I am feeling will betray...all that”, he pouted. “ And that’s when I told Amanda. She hasn’t told her either. I don’t know when she will”, he rubbed his eyebrow with his finger, facing Penny again, that seemed like she was watching a chick flick, she didn’t want to be interrupted from. “Now that I saw her, it all came back-it’s crazy”, he chuckled nervously. “I don’t...want to cause any break up-it’s not me but still...I felt like nothing has changed from her side, as well”, he chuckled. “I even joked that she was the one pretending to be in a relationship instead of me”, he pressed his lips together, kind of relieved that he let that all out. “Needless to say that we fought...and I hated it...every bit of it. But...I am a little angrier about than I thought I would be...if I ever met her after that summer fling”.
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Penny didn’t want to interrupt Henry-she always took advantage of people wanting to talk about something. It showed her what kind of people they were and Henry was very adorable and she’d never get enough. Once she was sure, he had finished narrating his story, she took a deep breath and smiled widely. “Oh my God-you are so cute”, she shouted intentionally. “I really really mean that”, she said excitedly and too into her role she was given. “ADORABLE”, she sang and made an impromptu dance to it. “Anyway”, she tried to act like she didn’t acted like that. “She does sound very confused, if you’d ask me. Maybe, if you give her time...although I don’t know if that would be cool with someone else in the picture. But, it would be super fun if it was revealed that her new boyfriend is a fake, as well. What.a.mess.indeed”, she sang the last sentence. Her expression changed to the pretentious serious one: “Also, I can’t believe you haven’t talked about me and let Amanda do all the talking”, she said and instantly giggle. She really couldn’t keep that cover. “Okay, I really need to go now and from what I can see”, she made a pause, just to squint her eyes to look at Henry’s background, “you are in your room. I know she could be listening to us right now-so...”, she said in a whisper and stood up, leaning closer to her laptop’s screen. “ Edible underwear, just like you like them”, she said rather loudly. “I need to show them to you in about one and a half week that I will be there. You’d looooove them”, she said and faked being unable to wink properly, hoping Henry would get their inside joke. “Henry Anderson....Good luck”, she sang and turned off the Skype call. What an adventure that will be...!!!
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Henry’s face became even hotter with the way Penny reacted. He definitely said no shouting and that made his heart pound much faster. It took him a few minutes to realize what she was doing and chuckled nervously. “Right”, he nodded. When she said that she was leaving, he sat up quickly on his chair and tried to stop her from doing that, but her next sentences took him completely off guard. His jaw dropped too and stared at her for a long moment, until she turned off their chat. He started laughing with how the conversation went, and suddenly, it hit him how Penny and him had a random, completely non sexual conversation about edible underwear. He covered his face and felt slightly helpless for a second, but at the same time, Penny was Penny and he trusted  her that she’d follow Amanda’s mission. Also, he felt slightly lighter from opening up about that. He leaned back on his chair and let his head hung, trying to review what was going to happen. Hopefully, everything would turn out fine and a small part of him made him extra curious if Nikki might have heard anything Penny had said louder. He smirked at that and sat up again, trying to pull himself together-he had a lot of stuff to do and surprisingly, that was a nice distraction from it.
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