#also don't want to post anything day of/right before season eight

[tortured-demigods-department]

an unhinged (and unofficial) dissertation on the pjo fandom

so i don't usually post anything that isn't my-works-related, but i had a...mildly heated discussion with a fellow film student tonight about the pjo show and it's got me thinking. bear with me, we'll be here awhile.

as we all know, the first season of pjo has ended. i've stayed relatively OFF tumblr and other social media during this time, but i know there are a lot of OG fans who are (in their words) "massively disappointed" in the show. most of the complaints i've heard have been during in person conversations though, so this post is mostly going to be referencing real complaints i've heard.

i've been a part of this fandom since i was thirteen. that's nearly eight fucking years of my life that i've devoted to the pjo universe. i have written and consumed YEARS' worth of fanfiction, i have read and reread every book so many times i can quote them forwards and backwards, and i went to the bookstore every single year on the new books' release dates to pick up my copies in-person. this fandom, these characters and this world have brought so much joy to my life, and i don't think i could ever fully articulate that in words. when i think of this series, i genuinely feel nothing but happiness.

but a few years ago—around the time i started college—i started distancing myself from the fandom for one glaring reason. this fandom can be such an...angry place? like, genuinely, i don't know how far it goes back—maybe all the way to the release of HoA, honestly—but i wasn't here pre-HoA, so all i know is that i very much remember how much people hated ToA when it came out.

here i was, having the TIME of my life with apollo and his silly little haikus, and people are going to war over how the series' writing quality has gone to shit and how everything was better before, blah, blah, blah. IN SPITE of everything that series gave us—discussion of the repercussions of child abuse and ptsd, representation of lgbtqa+ characters, and deep psychological messages that really teach young readers, i think, how to better understand themselves and their emotions and deal with them in healthy ways. and it just wasn't fun to be in a fandom where, as soon as you go "hey, did you read the new book?" they scoff and roll their eyes and only want to talk about how terrible it is. (i also missed all the discourse on the sun and the star when it came out—PHENOMENAL read, btw—but i've read some things that lead me to believe that it wasn't well received either, in spite of how lovely it was.)

so...it's dramatic to say i "left" the fandom, but i certainly withdrew from it. deleted my pjo ao3 and tumblr, started over with a different fandom. but the love has always been there, and the show starting really helped spark it fully back to life.

but now, the same thing is happening again, i'm noticing. remember back in the day, when we only had the shitty fucking movies, and we were like "man, ANYTHING would be better than this garbage. literally just give us actors who are the right age and we'll be happy." well, now we have PHENOMENAL kid actors who genuinely are having a good time playing our beloved characters, and instead of supporting them, we're STILL complaining about them not being "portrayed correctly"?

i've talked to so many people who complain that percy is "too smart," which is kind of a bullshit insult to percy's canon character. in the books (at least the first five) we're seeing things ONLY from percy's pov. he's a kid who's struggled with learning disabilities and been told he's an idiot all his life by everyone except his mom—but as others have pointed out way more eloquently than i could, percy is a very intelligent and powerful individual while maintaining his goofy fun personality, which is WHY so many people love him so much. he's complex, and i think they managed to capture that really well in the show even amidst all the changes.

don't get me started on the fucking racism towards leah sava jeffries—i'm honest to gods ashamed that there are racists who call themselves pjo fans. she is so talented, and everything we ever could have hoped for in an on-screen annabeth. ALL of the kids are—there's literally no argument to be had there.

and then, if people aren't complaining about the casting, it's the series' writing. or there's too much exposition. rick is changing too many things. the directors don't know what they're doing. it's not a TRUE book adaptation. (someone said that to me, and i genuinely laughed because i thought they were joking. when the MOVIES exist, they wanted to make that comment about the show.)

are there some things i would change about the show, given the opportunity? god, yes. the set design for the underworld was horrendous. (in my opinion, of course.) but here's the thing. i have spent eight years of my life waiting for this show to happen, and in that time, i've learned a lot about how much goes into successfully producing such a complex series. how much money and time is spent, and how many people have to be on board to make it happen. it's genuinely kind of miraculous that we're even getting this show at all, considering all the ways it could have failed before it even made it out of pre-production.

and i think we, as fans, sometimes forget that we aren't owed this. we don't own the percy jackson franchise. it makes me so sick and tired when authors or artists in any capacity feel like they have to cater their works to the masses, because they know they'll get thrown into the fucking fire if they don't. rick and becky riordan didn't have to got to the trouble of producing this show for us. they chose to—everyone involved chose to—because they wanted to make something fun and enjoyable not only for the fans, but everyone who chose to be a part of it.

do you know how insane it is that, when you read pretty much any interview of pjo bts, everyone talks about how fun the production was? i've been on film sets. they can be ABSOLUTELY miserable when they're not done right. but eight months into production, the kids were still laughing and having a good time, everyone's still giving 100%, they're excited, it's fun. walker was willing to go into a diving tank for a full fucking day in order to get one scene—i know i would never have that kind of dedication, and i bet 99% of you wouldn't either.

i know this has gotten really long-winded, but i've said all of that to say that...i'm kind of tired of fans trying to bring down the show, and more than that, trying to bring down each other for having a good time. as i've said before (many times, i'm sure), i waited eight years for this, and i have had SUCH a fun time watching it. assuming we get a season 2 renewal, there are going to be even more new fans coming in than we've already gotten from season 1, and i want this fandom to be a fun and positive place for them. for all of us. we don't have to miserable and angry all time. we can critique the show, sure—it's not perfect, and it was never going to be—but we have to remember that television is an art form, and that art is subjective even when it involves our favorite characters. and we can accept that and still have a good time, because it's just more fun to have fun, you know?

this fandom has always had so much potential to be the BIGGEST, most supportive and kind and loving fandom. with how much representation this series has, with how much content we've been given, with the SHEER massive number of us...i've always thought we could be a really, really great community. maybe it's impossible to hope that we could be the best fandom on earth, but if nothing else...could we all try to just be a little bit kinder? genuinely, as cheesy as it may sound...it's just nicer when we're nice to each other. and when there's so many real things in the world to be mad about...i would much rather this be a place where we can come to at the end of a long day and just...feel at home. personally, i just think that would be really, really nice.

#percy jackson #percy series #percy jackson tv show #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson fandom #heroes of olympus #trials of apollo #pjo show #pjo fandom #pjo series #me ranting for five million years #i wish i could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy... #she doesn't even go here #with all of that said i'm going to bed #i have class at 8am tomorrow and really should NOT have spent this much of my night writing this

[zorasthoughts]

some thoughts for the holly jackson fandom

so, some people have been wondering about when the agggtm show might be coming out and i've been thinking *deeply* about it. also, the universe is laughing at me, because i had an urge to check ig last night, and holly had posted a reel joking about everyone wanting to know when the trailer is coming out, which makes me think that she knows that everyone is (im)patiently waiting, but it might be still be a hot minute before we get anything. anyway, these are my thoughts. this is all speculation, with a little bit of logic, so don't take this as gospel

on the show's release

first things first: a couple of weeks ago, holly reposted a reel from one of the bbc accounts on her ig story where we got our first look at pip (she's in a dark room with lots of pink and blue led lights, i think this could be from the calamity party). this reel was a montage of clips, that you also see on tv that the bbc show during the holiday period to advertise shows coming out in the new year. from memory, these are usually for shows that are coming out in the first half of the year, so the show might come out in the spring, like april

why april? well, if you've read the book then you might remember that it all starts in april (the andie & sal case happens in april 2012), so if the show came out then, it would be a neat tie-in to the book

another reason why i think it could be april is because of another tv show: heartstopper

obviously, there are differences, hs is a netflix show, so is available to watch all over the world, agggtm is made by bbc so is only going to be available to watch in the uk (and i think also the us). it may become available to stream elsewhere later on, but that's another story

anyway, hs and agggtm are both ya book-to-tv show adaptations set in britain. hs had eight episodes per season with episodes being roughly 30 minutes each. agggtm is going to have six episodes, roughly 45 minutes each. so hs totals around 4 hours of content, agggtm will have 4 and a half hours of content in total. pretty similar

i did some further research (a lot of scrolling through instagram) to try and calculate when we might get some content. the hs ig account posted some stills on 1 march, just giving a first look at the main characters

on 16 march, they released some more stills, with some of the other characters, and also released the teaser trailer later that day

the full trailer came out 13 april, and the show came out april 22

sooooo, this is all speculation, and bbc will probably have different ideas from netflix to promote their show, but if the dates are similar and agggtm were to come out in late april like heartstopper (again, this would put it around the dates of the andie & sal case from the book), but i reckon we could maybe expect content to start dropping in march. we will see.

a final thought, which i'd forgotten earlier: if the show is successful, which i think it will be, then it would probably get renewed for a second season, then they'd want to film over the summer (the majority of events in ggbb happen in april/may, after the andie & sal memorial, which happens around the six-year anniversary of their deaths, which happened in, oh yeah, april)

some other thoughts:

holly posted on her ig grid a few days ago, mentioning stuff that will be happening this year, and i have a couple of ideas about that

her new book, the reappearance of rachel price is coming out on 2 april (this made me wonder if the show would come out later so that one isn't overshadowing the other, but the people deciding when a book is published and when a tv show comes out are going to be two different groups of people, and if i'm right with my guess, then start of the month and end of the month releases gives trorp enough time to get the hype it deserves)

book tour for trorp/holly doing appearances at book festivals this year. holly and her books are popular, and this popularity is probably going to increase after the show comes out, so i could see this being pretty likely

lastly, and there is no real evidence to suggest this, but it could happen: film adaptation of five survive. i'm not the first to say this, but it would be a great thriller, and as people have joked, would be pretty low-budget given that most of the action happens in an rv with just six people. if we do get this though, it would be probably be much later in the year

#holly jackson #a good girls guide to murder #agggtm #a good girls to murder tv show #agggtm tv show #the reappearance of rachel price #trorp #five survive

[galactidiot]

Okay, I don't usually make vent posts, I usually try to keep my personal life private, but I'm so pissed off right now and I wanna post something

(CW: Long rant ahead, business and work related, read if you want or scroll on by. I'm on mobile right now where formatting is nonexistant, so sorry that I can't cut the post)

So for those who aren't aware, I am currently a senior in high school, and this is gonna be the last holiday season with my family before I graduate. My dad's a contractor working with the government, and they just started a contract with a new company this month. Now, this company has already given us the middle finger when it comes to insurance, which is bad considering we have a lot of medical expenses, but that's not why I wanna commit a felony at the moment.

My dad, with past companies, usually gets a decent amount of vacation time. He likes to work a few extra hours per week, so over time he accrues extra vacation time. He usually takes most of, if not the entirety of December off for Christmas. (He's a really big family guy, we tend to do stuff together a lot for the holidays.)

This new company? Eight. He has eight vacation days. Until JUNE.

IE, he's not even gonna get a full week off for Christmas, because if he wants to help at all with college prep and graduation, he has to sacrifice it from his family time now. Did I mention his vacation time is also his sick leave?

Now, I'm not blind, I know there are families that would do anything for the kind of vacation time I'm complaining about, and that I'm speaking from a place of class privilege. But, at the same time, this is my last year home with my family, and my dad deserves better for how long he's worked, how hard he's worked. He doesn't deserve to be so depressed over how little off-time he's getting.

I've seen some tiktoks lately (I know, ew, but hold on) from a business owner talking about how we can do better, and some companies are doing better. She was talking about how her company gives massive amounts of paid leave, one of her employees taking four months off to take care of serious health issues. That's four months of paid leave.

If companies can start caring about their employees, realizing that these people have families, and actually *gasp* want to spend TIME with them??? Then maybe their employees wouldn't be so depressed, so stressed out.

My dad deserves better, my family deserves better, and whatever your situation, chances are, yours do too.

I don't say this often, but sincerely, screw capitalism and screw corporation culture. This isn't healthy.

#vent post #not a shitpost

[sp4c3-0ddity]

Oh!! If youre still doing the au thing, neighbors plance au? Everything is still canon compliant but pidge and lance have known each other since they were in diapers (imagine The Angst when pidge disappears after Kerberos and reappears at the garrison and lance has to lie to hunk about “pidge gunderson”)

possibly not quite what you wanted and a bit more than five headcanons (a fic of nearly 3000 words…) but i hope you like it!! sorry it’s a bit of a mess

(also i made up some stuff about the Garrison and the timeline may be a little off)

“Whothe heck is Pidge Gunderson?”

Predictably Hunk shrugs, as baffled asLance is…thoughlikely not as disappointed. He hopedhis comm specialist would be any of the last five girls he had a crush on, andyet—

“Righthere.”

The familiar voice squeezes his chest andmakes it difficult to breathe for a second, but when he recovers - no way, it can’t be her- he spins on his heel to face his and Hunk’s new teammate.

But the round face and petite frame areunmistakable despite the uneven haircut and glasses. Lance doesn’tknow who Pidge Gunderson is, but it’s not the girlstanding before him.

Katie Holt.

***

Lance lay on his side glaring at theGarrison recruitment poster tacked to his wall, well-aware that he was sulkingbut unwilling to do anything about it. He deservedto sulk after Commander Iverson released their class ranking andclassification. Dreams shattered, hopes dashed, his future as a hero andprodigious heartthrob flushed down the toilet and piped all the way to thebottom of the Marianas Trench for the moray eels to make snacks of…

Score: 82.15Ranking: #11Pilot Class: Cargo

The kicker was that his score was a fraction of a point lower than thelowest ranked fighter pilot.

“Thinkof it this way!” Veronica had saidin that peppy voice she took on when he sulked.“You’re top of the cargoclass!”

“Bigwhoop,” Lance had grumbled. “Cargo pilots don’t go on explorationmissions like to Kerberos…”

No, missions like that would be reserved for Keith and James and all the rest at thetop of his year, while he’d be stuck at the bottom of a barreldelivering instant meals to colonies on the moon.

A sharp knock sounded from the door.

“Whatdo you want?” Lance called without turning around. “I’m doing homework!”

The door’s hinges creaked. “That’s a lie.”

He bolted upright, his heart, heavy withdisappointment, lightening when Katie peeked around the door. “Katie!What’re you doing here?” Lance wondered.

She walked in, shutting the door behind her(which his mother wouldn’t be too happy about for some reason…itwas just Katie, their neighborand his friend since forever) and perching on his desk chair. “Iheard from Veronica that you didn’t make fighter class,” she said, scuffing herbare feet against the carpet. “I’m sorry; I know how much you wanted it.”

Lance sat up and waved a hand. “It’snot a big deal,” he said without meeting her eyes. “I mean, at least I made something, right? And if someone in fighter classwashes out I’llbe the first one in line to replace them!”

Katie raised an eyebrow at him, theslightest smirk perking up her lips. “You know that almost never happens, right?”

He slumped, heart weighed down all overagain, and admitted, “Right, well, a guy can hope! Oryou can make it, shoot through the ranks, and change the rules so that the top eleven make fighter class?”He winked at her, oddly pleased when a hint of pink colored her cheeks.

But she rolled his eyes and retorted, “Itdoesn’t really work that way, Lance, and by then it’ll be too late for you.”

“Iknow, I know.” Lance leaned back against his headboard, hands behind his headand ankles folded in front of him. “You couldjust keep some other sorry rank eleven pilot cadet from suffering this samegrave injustice.”

Katie snorted. “You’reso dramatic, Lance.” The bed sank underneath him as she sat beside him andpulled her feet up. “I can tell you’re upset though.”

“Who?Me? Upset that I didn’t get the thing I wanted most in the whole dang universe?Obviously not!”

Katie shot him a flat, unimpressed frown. “Atleast you still get to fly,” she pointed out. “You did reasonably well inflight school, so it’s not like you’ll lack for missions later, even if they’renot glamourous.”

“Easyfor you to say,” Lance mumbled. He covered his face with his arm. “Your dad andbrother are on the mission of a century.”

“Neitherof them is a pilot,” Katie pointed out.

“I’mnot a multi-talented genius like you,” he said, peeking at her from under hisarm. “You can easily get in as a comm specialist or an engineer withoutfinishing school. You can probably get in as a pilot too if you did flightschool first!”

Katie shifted in place, looking suddenlyuncomfortable judging by how she glanced away, and Lance decided to drop thetopic.

“Whatabout you? Going to join me at the Garrison soon?” He grinned, quirking ateasing eyebrow. “Sure, you have to get through at least two years of highschool first, but that’s exciting too, right?”

Katie stuck her tongue out and said, “Please,if I have to suffer more than two years of incompetent teachers and meanclassmates I’ll steal a rocket from the Garrison and launch myself to Kerberoswithout a helmet.”

Lance laughed, but when Katie didn’tjoin in his eyes widened. “That bad?”

She shrugged but rested her chin on herknees, staring at the same spot on his wall that preoccupied him before shearrived. “It’snot a big deal,” she said. “I know there’s an end to it, so I can live with itfor now.”

“Don’tworry,” Lance said. He sat up and slid forward, feet touching the floor, torest a hand on her shoulder. “The Garrison’s better.”

“Easyfor you to say,” Katie said. “You make friends easily and aren’t super smart—”

“Iresent that!” he squawked, hand springing to his chest in offense.

“—soyou fit in.” She smiled apologetically and added, “Sorry, I meant that as anobservation, not an insult.”

“Iknow.” A grin pushed at his lips, and he flicked a strand of her long hair thatfell into her face, unsecured by her ponytail. “But lots of people are supersmart at the Garrison, so you’ll fit right in!”

Probably better than me, he thought with a twinge in his gut.Everyone at the Garrison was just so spectacular…

“Speakingof super smart people,” Lance said, “you heard anything from your dad andbrother lately?” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and added, “I know youtalk to them behind the Garrison’s back…”

Katie’s eyes widened in surprise. She grabbedthe front of his shirt, shocking himinto yelping and his heart - did her face have to be so close? - into racing, and said, “No one’s supposed to know about that!”

Lance raised his hands and stuttered, “Sorry!You’re just not careful around me!”

Katie frowned but let him go. “Don’ttell anyone,” she said.

“Hey,your secret is safe with me,” Lance promised. He straightened his shirt andsighed in relief. “So…is that a yes?”

Katie beamed, the expression radiant andwarming him. “Actually,they’re only a few days away from Kerberos…”

***

“Pidge”avoids Lance just like Katie did after the mission failure, but unlike thattime, when her red-eyed mother answered the door with an apology or the pebbleshe lobbed at her bedroom window went unacknowledged, the truth of it stares himin the face.

So he chooses to confront her.

When she opens the door to her dorm, hesticks his foot in the gap before she can slam it back in his face.

“Ow,”he hisses, the shock of it shooting through his foot and forcing a wince fromhim.

“Whatdo you want?” Katie - Pidge? Isn’t that the nickname her brother gave her? -demands. “I’m busy.”

He refuses to budge, despite his stomachdoing somersaults and his heart pounding an uneven rhythm against his ribs. “Ineed to talk to you.”

“Ihave nothing to say to you outside of class,” she retorts tartly.

His chest tightens, but he scowls andinsists, “You’veavoided me for the last few months, Pidge,so I think I at least deserve an explanation.”

Her eyes widen - no longer hidden behindthose big lenses - while a flicker of shame crosses her face before she sighsand opens the door. “Fine,” she says, waving him in. “Let’s make this quick; I havework to do.”

“Work?”Lance snorts, accepting her reluctant invitation. “It’s the second day of thesemester!”

“Ihave more important stuff to do than classwork, Lance,” she grumbles.

Before he can ask what she means, she slamsthe door shut with enough force to rattle the window.

Clothes and books and manuals litter herfloor, a sharp contrast from her relatively tidy childhood bedroom, but despitethe fact that she seems to have made herself quite at home, nothing gives awayanything…personal. No stuffed animals propped against apillow on the bed, no photos of her family pinned to the wall or sitting inframes on her cluttered desk, no stickers or posters or comic books lining thelittle free space on the shelves….

The sight of it makes his chest ache withsomething like regret.

She - really, what should Lance call her? - stands in the middle of the almost hiddenfloor with her arms crossed and her glower fixed at some point past him. “Sowhat do you want?”

“Totalk,” he says, the adrenaline that sustained him up to this point fading as hurt took over. “Why did you ghostme, Katie?”

“Don’tcall me that here,” she snaps, a hint of fear crossing her face so quickly hemight’ve imagined it.

So that answers one question…

“Allright, Pidge,” Lance says through gritted teeth, “whyhaven’t I seen you in months?”

“I’vebeen busy.”

“Busygetting into the Garrison under a fake name?” He mirrors her pose, adding aneyebrow raised in skepticism. “You’d get accepted here as yourself with youreyes closed.”

“I’mnot here for academicreasons,”Pidge says. “I’m here for—look, it doesn’t matter toyou! I’ll be out of your hair soon enough anyway.”

And as much as it pained Lance when sheignored him every time he tried - and failed- to visit her after her father and brother were declared dead, as much as it hurt for her to attempt to blow him offnow, he really didn’tlike the sound of that.

A frown pulls at his lips. “Whatdo you mean?” he wonders.

“I’m…tryingto switch to a different team,” she admits. And she even has the audacity tolook abashed, her eyebrows drawn together and herfingers wringing the hem of her uniform jacket.

But her admission doesn’thurt like it should, not when his chest burns with anger and he snaps, “I don’tknow what you’re up to - and I sure hope you’ll tell me! - but I would never expose you when you’reobviously in disguise.” He rolls his eyes, scowling at the floor, and mutters, “Icovered for you with Hunk already. He sensedsomething odd when I ‘met’ you.”

Of course he had, when the sight of Pidgeand her big brown eyes made his breath catch and his tongue stick to the roofof his mouth and left him speechless.

Really, all his primary school teachersthat bemoaned how talkative he was inclass should’veemployed Pidge disguised as a boy if they wanted him to keep quiet.

“Hedid?” Pidge’s jaw drops. “A-and it’s not that I think you’ll report me,” shecontinues after clearing her throat. “It’s that…I can’t risk being exposed fromsomething so trivial as I’m too friendlytowards someone I just met. Your sister would catch on in a—”

“I’msorry,” Lance interrupts, rolling his eyes, “but that’s the dumbest thing I’veever heard. And look, I knowyou’renot used to making friends”—he doesn’t miss her grimace at the reminder—”but lots of people are really friendly with peoplethey just met, so don’t give me that excuse.”

“I—”Pidge sighs, gaze drifting down to the floor between them. “I just…I don’tknow.”

Lance, suddenly exhausted with all thisincluding the months of her avoiding him, drops onto her bed. “Whyare you going to all this trouble anyway? Your dad works - I mean, worked - here, so can’tyou just…waltz in if you wanted?”

Pidge shakes her head and confesses, “Igot banned from the premises.”

His head snaps up in shock. “Wait,what?”

She sits heavily beside him. “IfI tell you…”

“You’llhave to kill me?” Lance suggests when she trails off, staring into space.

She smiles fleetingly, but he counts it avictory anyway. “No,but you can’t tell anyone else.”

He draws an X over his chest and says, “Crossmy heart. As long as I don’t have to die for this secret…”

“Youcan’t even tell Hunk,” Pidge insists with a glare.

He raises his hands. “I’malready way ahead of you in that…but it’ll get harder,” he says, rubbing theback of his neck sheepishly.

Her eyes flit from his face to the floorand back again. “Itwasn’t pilot error,” she almost whispers.

He leans closer, unsure he heard her right.“What?”

A familiar ferocity enters her eyes,sending a shiver up his spine, as she says, “The pilot didn’t crash and my father andbrother aren’t dead. Something tookthem.”

Lance gapes at her. “Areyou…really? How do you know?”

“ClassifiedGarrison footage I wasn’t supposed to find,” she tells him shortly. “They’relying about what happened.”

“W-whatcould’ve taken them?” he wonders while dread ties his stomach into knots. Buthe forces a laugh and feebly jokes, “N-not aliens, right?” When Pidge doesn’treply, his jaw drops. “Pidge, what did you see?”

“Isaw enough to know there’s more to what the Garrison said publicly,” shepronounces, “but I’m here to find out as much as I can.”

“Anddo what?” Lance asks. “Expose the Garrison’s lie?”

“Maybe,”she says, frowning. “It…depends on what I find.”

“But,Pidge—”

And before he can wonder what she plans todo next, she cuts in, “I’msorry, Lance.”

At this rate, he’llhave a premature heart attack thanks to all the shocksshe’sdealt him.

“What?”

“Ishouldn’t have shut you out like that.” She pulls her feet onto the bed andhugs her knees. “I just didn’t know what to do after the mission failure, so Ithrew myself into investigating that rather than wasting time on other things.”

“Aw,thanks, Pidge,” he says, rolling his eyes despite the disappointment weighinghis heart down anew. “I’m glad that’s what I am to you.”

Her cheeks darken, and she waves her handfrantically to backtrack, “N-no, I didn’t mean it like that!”

“Oh,really?” He raises a skeptical eyebrow. “You mean I wasn’t trying to waste your time?”

“Th-that’snot it at all, Lance,” she says. She rests her forehead against her knees so hecan’t see her face. “It’s just…it was too tempting to use your connection and I didn’twant you to get caught up in this mess after you applied for the spot thatopened up in fighter class so I kept it to myself.”

Lance frowns, convinced that, for all thetruth in the statement, she hides something else, but he can’thelp quipping, “How thoughtful of you, Pidge.”

But then—

“Wait,how did you know about the spot that opened up?” he wonders, instantlysuspicious. “That happened a while after you started avoiding me.”

Pidge’s shoulders stiffen. “I don’t remember,”she says. “I might’ve come across it while I was hacking into the Garrison’ssystems and assumed you’d try for it.”

Lance doesn’t call her out on her obvious lie, notwhen relief fills him that her silenceis finally at an end and…well, maybe they can’t resume theirfriendship as it was before the mission failure, but they won’t have to startfrom scratch.

“Howcan I help?”

Pidge’s head whips around, her eyes bulging inbefuddlement. “What?”

He shrugs, feigning nonchalance despite hisheart pounding and the voice in his head that reminds him he’salready on thin ice in the Garrison’s eyes, and waves a hand. “You know, withyour…investigation.”

“Um…”She blinks once, twice, three times before saying, “Pretend like we didn’t knoweach other before.”

His heart plummets anew at that. “Why?”

“Ialready explained,” she says. She jumps to her feet and faces him, arms thrownout and eyes fixed on the ceiling. “It’s bad enough yourecognized me, so what if someone else does too?”

“But—”he tries to protest, but Pidge plows right through him.

“There’s…nothingyou can help with, Lance,” she says with a heavy exhale.

“ButI’m your friend!” He stands, flailing his arms and gesturing around her messyroom. “I can at least watch your back while you do your sneaky spy stuff!”

“I…maybe,”she concedes grudgingly, “but right now the best lead I’ve got requires I be asinconspicuous as possible.”

“D-doesthis mean you’re still switching teams?” His breath sticks in his throatpainfully at the thought that they can repair their friendship only for it tofracture moments later.

He grew up with Pidge; she’sas dear to him as…well, not a sister, exactly, but the last few months withouther - undoubtedly while she hurtand stewed over her father’s and brother’s not-deaths alone exceptfor her mother - left him almost listless with how much he missed her.

Pidge’s brown eyes bore into his as she says, “No,I guess that’s not necessary.” A slight smile finds its way onto her face,reassuring and warmingLance as much as her words. “Knowing one of my teammates is reason enoughto stay.”

#plance #pidgance #lidge #flirtyrobot #aksj;fkj;fsdf i tried i dunno how i did #i wonder if i've lost my touch BUT oh well #how come i post two fics in one day?? #WELL this is the only one i wrote today SO #voltron #reem writes fic #Anonymous #also don't want to post anything day of/right before season eight #because i know people will be preoccupied with that #qna

[lokiondisneyplus]

After spending over 30 years in the world of makeup design for film and television, Douglas Noe landed in the time-defying, creative playground of Marvel Studios' Loki. Serving as the Disney+ show's makeup department head, Noe not only designed the characters' individual looks, but continued to be Tom Hiddleston's makeup artist. Noe has worked on Hiddleston's Loki since 2012's The Avengers, carefully evolving the God of Mischief's look over time.

Loki isn't the first time Noe has spearheaded a makeup department for a Marvel Cinematic Universe production. Previously, Noe served as the makeup department head for Thor: The Dark World's additional photography -- making up approximately 20% of the film's final looks. He's also no stranger to the magic of prosthetic work and the intricate details needed for Marvel's epic adventures, having a creative hand in bringing both Captain Marvel's Skrulls and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Kree to life on-screen. In the industry, Noe is also known for specializing in palettes for actors of color and has worked on stars like Jackie Chan.

In an exclusive interview with CBR, Noe discussed what it was like bringing The Avengers-era God of Mischief into Loki and his approach to doing makeup on a production stuffed with special effects. He also shared which MCU stars have graced his chair and his advice for makeup departments looking for practical ways to de-center whiteness.

Loki's Makeup Evolution

CBR: One thing that I noticed -- which I'm excited to pick your brain about -- when we first see Loki, he has a really pale complexion. His hair is greasy. As he evolves, his skin gets a warmer look. Was that an intentional progression from when we first see him as a villain-ish and how he grows within the MCU?

Douglas Noe: Yes, that's a very astute observation. Of course, at the beginning of The Avengers, he's kind of a wreck, isn't he? And as he settles and normalizes, his pallor then indeed calms down. It was very nuanced. It was only a matter of maybe one or two shades difference, but you definitely caught something most people have not.

That was 10 years ago, but it was a very minor detail we decided would be important as the narrative and the dialogue and the intellect of that character evolved into the storyline. It became important to kind of mainstream and refine his appearance.

Since Loki kicks off from that earlier version of Loki, did you think about bringing any more of that paleness to his look? How did you decide on how you wanted to show him from Loki's time period/first episode?

Oh, that's a good question. The truth is, from the end of The Avengers also shot again in Avengers: Endgame, we change nothing.

We did exactly what we did on Endgame that we did for The Avengers. And in turn, that's how we started the Loki series. It was that that look from Endgame, which, of course, is the look from The Avengers. No alterations were made, other than -- and I can already tell we're not getting anything past you -- we did warm him up. We did bring some more flesh into him... The truth is, that was Tom's idea. I get it because it was an unspoken understanding between us that there's greater accessibility to Loki if he looks more like most people. Now, those are my words. Not his. But, he definitely wanted us to warm it up just a skosh.

How Loki's SFX Affected Its Makeup Design

With Loki, there's a ton of visual effects. With makeup, it's so dependent on lighting -- it can change everything. What was the biggest challenge about working on a show like this that has so many special effects being added in post?

What you just said, it's working on a show like this. Marvel gets it and they do it right. There's almost an aspect where we lean into these kinds of things. And we change nothing to take into account the constantly evolving and changing lighting effects. The approach was to keep everybody natural, or naturally beautiful. Whatever happened happened. [We] knew Marvel is going to give it the once over once it's all done. And if there was anything to address that did happen because of lighting, it would have happened in post.

But, to my knowledge, nothing was addressed. We just accepted that. At certain times, people would be pink because of the light. They would be blue because of the light or purple and we accepted that and didn't try to make any attempts to balance it or right it in any way. We leaned into it and accepted it made it part of the story. It was its own character, if you will.

Sylvie's Makeup Was Always Meant To Be "Natural"

Building off what you said about a natural look for Loki's actors, did you always know you wanted Sylvie's makeup to have a natural look?

Absolutely, absolutely. The approach there was less is more. We didn't want to bury her in beauty makeup. It would have been very easy to do, because Sophia Di Martino is gorgeous, of course. But, the idea was let's do just enough to keep her naturally beautiful.

Practical Ways To De-Center Whiteness In Makeup Rooms

You designed Hunter B-15's look, and you're well known in the industry for specializing in makeup palettes for people of color. Since you've been in the industry for so long, what are some practical things that people within the makeup department, or its heads, can do to make it less white-centered?

That's a great question. Get out of the way. You have room for everybody, especially with today's explosion of content. But I would say to those who are going to hold tightly that they may as well just squeeze it out of their hands, "Just understand color theory." And, have it in your head that if somebody wants someone to do their makeup that closer represents how they look, get out of the way. It really is that simple. As you said, I've made it a specialty, a rite of passage to learn the ins and outs of all color tones. For me, I bring that to the table, so I don't have to get out of the way; but I know enough to know when it is time.

I have an anecdote that relates. I just did the Netflix series [True Story] with Kevin Hart and Wesley Snipes for eight episodes. And Tawny Newsome [who portrays Billie in the upcoming series] was our leading lady, a beautiful African American woman. I could have done a bang-up job, but that wasn't the right decision to make. She needed a female makeup artist because it was a modern beauty glam look we were going to do on her. Now I do get modern beauty glam very well, but I wanted somebody that would do it great. So I got out of the way.

What's one, nitty-gritty thing that helped in expanding your understanding of color theory? Any books or makeup brands?

Oh, well, I could talk about makeup brands all day long. But, again, go back to the color theory. Get a color wheel from an art store. If you don't know how to mix colors, how to make primary and secondary colors to get tertiary colors, get a color wheel and be a sponge. I'm, what, 36 years in this career? 31 in film. I've never stopped learning. I'm never closed off to garnering new info. And when I don't, again, I get out of my way. I'm not up to snuff on this contemporary modern book with the square eyebrows, so I hired somebody that was.

But, getting back to your point, there are so many books. I have countless books on this very topic. I would say, "Be patient, learn color theory. And accept that, especially now, we're in an era where you may just have to get out of the way. And let it be what the person in the chair wants it to be." Because, ultimately, that's who we're there for, the actors.

You've been working in Marvel's world for a long time. What's one Marvel character that you would love to do their makeup or prosthetics?

I've never thought about it because, to be honest with you, I feel like I won the lottery. When we started with doing Loki on The Avengers, we didn't know what was gonna happen. I'm trying to think, hmm. On Captain Marvel, I was doing Skrulls -- that was fun. I did some work on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. when they had a couple of episodes with Kree.

They were so cool.

Right? I'm trying to think -- I did mention to somebody before that on The Avengers I was given the choice:  [Jeremy] Renner or [Mark] Ruffalo or this new guy called Tom Hiddleston. The makeup was described to me and I was told that Hulk was going to beat him up a little bit and we were going to do a little something-something and they asked, "What do you want to do?" And I said, "I want to do a little something-something." So, I landed with Tom.

I'd have to really think, "Who would I like?" I've done Lizzie Olsen's makeup for the Tom Hiddleston film I Saw the Light. I've done Idris Elba's makeup a couple of times for a couple of Marvel films, but also for a movie called Takers. And I worked with him on a movie called The Reaping. He's a gem, of course... I'm really happy with who sits in my chair at the beginning of every day on these things. I've never thought past that. I garner so much pleasure and we have so much joy together. I'm happy where I'm at... I'm happy with Loki. I love Loki.

Well, Loki is coming back for Season 2, so you never know who will pop in the chair.

I've heard we're coming back, but that's all I've heard. That's all I know. And that's truly wonderful for me because ignorance is bliss. Whatever they dream up, I'm always eager to jump in and be a part of it.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer's "Hush" Monsters Were Hand-Painted

Digging way back into your history, you were once a makeup designer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is one of my favorite shows! What's one thing about that era of monster-makeup that you don't think gets enough credit for doing?

I always refer to Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Buffy the Weekend Slayer because we would get off on Saturday morning as the sun was coming up and have to be back to work a couple of hours before the sun came up on Monday... What you see is what you get. You had to be on your game. We were real craftspeople back then and there was no margin for error. The words that go with CGI simply didn't exist in 1999. You really had to be on point with makeup.

I would say what's lost now is the notion that makeup always has to be perfect. We know now it doesn't have to be perfect because we can fix it in post. I think a lot of people would say that helps us, but I think it handicaps those of us that are able to deliver the product without a computer's touch.

I remember I did one of the gentlemen on Buffy's episode, "Hush." My boss, Todd McIntosh, was saying, "You got to do the back of the neck... You never know what's gonna happen. You have to make sure that the back of the neck has makeup on." And, sure enough, the camera goes by and they were supposed to leave the frame, but the camera follows them. We just had to be on point and I think now many artists who came into the business with CGI, don't understand what it's like to be grinding your teeth and clenching your fists on set, hoping it looks okay because there's nothing left to fix it for you.

#Douglas Noe #makeup #Loki #Tom Hiddleston

[leiteemanuelle79]

Why yellow is the color of originality in the Karate Kid Universe

This is the part III of a post called "Color Theory in the Karate Kid Universe"

Alright, I really didn't expect to be doing a third part of this color thing, in fact, it was all supposed to be one post, but the more I write the more ideas come to my mind, and the more I watch, the more I realise new things, so I'll be analysing the color yellow and its meaning in Karate Kid and Cobra Kai.

First Impressions

The first time that we see yellow with a certain signifance is in a shirt Daniel is wearing under a blue flannel, in that same day he washes Mr. Miyagi's cars for the first time, and later in the movie he gets the first car he washed as a birthday gift, so it might not seem so important, after all the first apperance of the color is only the 50th minute of the movie.

But when we look at Cobra Kai, we see it appear way more. Starting by the oppening title.

Gangs

As the red and blue, I think it's another way to shows teams, and who is with whom. On episode two of season one, we have the oppening title yellow, with a red background, and when Miguel goes to school he's wearing a "shy" red, which is basically a dark red, with a grey shirt under it, meaning he's unconfortable and wants to blend in. When he sits with Demitri and Eli (binary brothers... Sorry couldn't contain myself) they are dressed in yellow tones, espeacially Demitri, which I think means they're both in the same side. Yasmine is also wearing yellow, and it's almost the same yellow that Demetri is, which I think could be a clue for the fact that they would be together later. Samantha is wearing blue though, and so is Kyler, who is wearing white too, but he has a black hat, which could be refrence to him being a bad person in the mind, or just a refrence to Johnny as I metioned in the first part.

When I first started thinking about this, I thought that yellow was Miguel's color, here's why:

He wears it A LOT, definetly more than the other characters, but when I was looking for these images, I realised that from S2E3 to S3E4, he didn't wear yellow at all, he mostly wore red (which shows the influence that Johnny has on him), sometimes blue (which shows that he's not completly Johnny) and he also wore a lot of black (which shows Kreese's influence, even though he was the student that bought Kreese's act the least, he still listened to him.)

Not to mention the fact that in season 1 episode 7, he takes Johnny's advice and acts like him, while Johnny takes Miguel's advice and does things his way, which is shown in their clothes (last picture above), and at first it seemed to me that yellow is Miguel's way of doing things, since red is Johnny's.

Originality

Untill that moment I was really confused, 'cause I saw some other characters such as Hawk, Tory, Robby and even Armand waering it, but not Miguel, I couldn't see a pattern at that point, but there were two scenes that made it very clear.

On the episode five of the third season, right after Johnny's trials of making Miguel walk again fails, he's wearing yellow, but after the concert where he moves his foot, he's back with red and black, until eight episode of the same season, Miguel wears yellow again, right after fighting with Johnny, and that was the thing that caught my attention. Whenever Miguel wasn't quite on Johnny's side, or anyone else's he wore yellow, but still I thought that that was his color.

The thing that really made me see it, was with Hawk. In the episode nine of season three he wears yellow, they go to the zoo to steal the snake, and he ends up seen as "not so cool" since Robby was the one that got it, after that he goes to Daniel's house to beggin what would be the big fight of the season, and he's wearing a red jacket, to show strength, but inside he's still wearing yellow, which means he still has some Eli inside, and that makes yellow the color of orginality, it's when you're being truly yourself.

As you can see in Tory's example, she's at home, so she's totally "comfortable", or at least she's not trying to show anyone anything, and Armand is completly comfortable, after all he doesn't have any manners when eating. But what about Sam and Robby?

Feeling lost

Here's when I noticed that things weren't that simple, in Sam's case, she wears yellow right after seeing Kyler being a bully, so she's confused. Robby is clearly confused, after all he starts the scene not wanting anything to do with his father, then accepts his help, but soon gets mad at him. Hawk doesn't wear it because he's confident enough, that was right after he started realising what he was becoming, we see that throughout the whole season, but he's still resisting, he still wants to stay in that "cool" position, we see that as he tries to hide the "Eli he has inside" by wearing a red jacket.

I think that yellow is only the color of originality for characters who haven't found who they truly are yet. If we look back at the Red vs. Blue thing, we'll see that not only red means more ofense, and blue means more defense, but blue is Daniel's true self, and red is Johnny's true self, of course that they wear different colors some times to show the things I said, but not only things usually doesn't go that well, but they act differently then the usual, so Johnny's originality is red, and Daniel's is blue, but these other character don't know yet.

The logo

That's why I think that Cobra Kai chose yellow to be the title color, this show is telling us, that this rivality is makes no sense, and the new characters are trying to find their own identities, even if they use the help of pre-existing concepts, they still gotta search for themselves.

Now, you may say that this is all bullshit, and the only reason for the show to have the title yellow is because the Cobra Kai original logo is yellow, but I disagree, because at the end of every episode we see a dark silver Cobra Kai logo instead of the yellow, black and red one, which I think means the new perspective Johnny is about to discover: Cobra Kai is very dark, and bad in general.

As I've said before, this is all just theories and I would love to hear the opinion of people who disagree.

Peace! :)

#Cobra kai #johnny lawrence #daniel larusso #john kreese #miguel diaz #the hawk #samantha larusso #tory #The Karate Kid

[oe-ssense]

Day-off (ft. Seungcheol)

note: demon!seungcheol x reader, 900+ words

hey guys, i hope you are doing okay. its been a long time since i posted my joshua shot. now i’m back for seungcheol’s since it’s his birthday today. i hope you like this one cause this is a bit unpredictable.

summary: while putting your sealed condiment on a food you were preparing, you accidentally make a magical occult symbol and summon a demon

You were busy making ramyeon and coffee for your short break. You've been working on your project that's due in four days. Doing school work and reviewing for your upcoming finals was really stressful. Your sleep schedule was also affected so you thought going on a vacation with your boyfriend would be really nice.

You pour hot water on your cup of coffee and mix it. After that you went to check the pot of ramyeon you were cooking. It was humid weather but you were craving for that combination since you started your animation project. When the water is already boiling, you then open a pack of ramyeon and cook it. As you were about to add the seasonings, you decided to cook some chicken as well. You went to the fridge and grabbed a piece of breast and thigh then seasoned it with salt and pepper. Your eyes suddenly fall to an unopened condiment. Cumin seeds which can be used to spice up chicken so you considered of trying it out.

You remove the pot on the stove and replace it with a pan then add some butter. When the butter melted completely, you started putting in chicken. You let it cook for a few minutes and go on drinking your coffee.

When you were about to check your chicken, you accidentally knocked the pepper and cumin on the floor. Weirdly enough, the mess strangely forms something, a symbol, you thought. Despite being uneasy and feeling something all of a sudden, you shrug it off and proceed to cleaning. After sweeping, you check your chicken and when you were sure it was ready, you took it and went back to your room.

Hours passed and you felt your leg numbing so you stood up and tried to get rid of the numbness. You cleaned your table and then went to the kitchen to clean the plates you used. While doing the dishes, you smell something that was burning. You turn your head to your stove but it was off, even your microwave was dead cold until you hear a thud from the bathroom which is connected to the kitchen. You quietly put the plate you were holding and wiped your hands then grab the broom. You walked carefully, ready to hit the intruder with your defense when the door opened. You caught your breath and froze, a hand was on the door frame and smoke was also coming out. Your eyes were so focused and waiting for the person to come out when your gaze caught what looked like a horn. Then the person, or the thing, came out completely, freaking the hell out of you, literally.

 "Hey, sorry I suck at cooking. Don't worry, I didn't put poison on these." You joked.

You sat beside Seungcheol who looked at you as if you were the demon and not him. "You know I'm a demon, right? Poisoning me won't do anything. However, if you were lying, I won't be surprised if I see you in hell." He said, chuckling deeply.

You sulk on his words. "Anyway, how come you were in my bathroom? Like, I am so confused…" You asked him.

While eating he smelled something, "Is that cumin?"

You nodded to him. He stands up and search for the smell.

 Seungcheol told you how he got there. He said that he was on a day-off since it was his commemoration day. While busy preparing food for his friends, a portal opens beside him. He only wanted to check what or how it happened but when he completely entered the earthly dimension, the portal closed.

"Oh, I see. So, you opened the portal with this thing here. Mixing cumin and pepper alone creates the symbol and it is also the key to opening the door of hell for me."

You were shocked at his words. Suddenly, you remembered you accidentally spilled the condiments on the floor where it forms a figure. "You're not joking, right. I actually opened it? I-I didn't know it would lead to something like this…"

 "Hey Seungcheol, I’m really sorry again for bothering you during your commemoration day. I know it's like a birthday for us humans and I'm really sorry for ruining it."

Seungcheol laughs and walks towards you. "Hey, hey, don't worry, it's just an accident. Besides, opening the Sigil of Lucifer intentionally is also difficult. Maybe you were feeling negativity, that's why you instantly called me." He explains while patting you on the head.

You were sending Seungcheol off back to hell. The demon chuckles at your cuteness and apologies. "Baby, I told you it's nothing. Besides, you get to see me. Think of it as a surprise gift for me." Seungcheol smiled and hugged you. When the two of you parted, he stared at you for a moment and kissed your lips.

"Thank you for this day we didn't expect. Don't worry, okay? I only left hell for about fifteen minutes so I'm sure no one would notice that. Also, I get to have a rest for at least three hours and I’m glad I’m with you to celebrate this special event. Anyway, see you again soon and thank you for the food and for the surprise." He winks before going into the portal and disappearing completely.

Being in a relationship with a demon for a full eight years really stresses you out. You were really hoping that he being the underworld king wouldn’t affect the relationship you have.

#seventeen #seungcheol #scoups #choi seungcheol #oneshot #svt shot #svt fluff #kpop

[fillingthescrapbook]

Rewriting The CW's Kung Fu, Part 1: The Characters

Hello. I've written a few posts complaining about how The CW's Kung Fu was written and plotted. So instead of just complaining, I decided to do something productive: I'm going to rewrite the show.

This will be the first part in an eight-part series that would detail the things, I think, could've made the first season much stronger in terms of story-telling and character-building. Do take note that I will be writing this for The CW's target market: teens to young adults who are looking for both entertainment and representation.

Before we start with the story, let us first start with re-configuring the characters.

NICKY SHEN, mid to late 20s. The eldest daughter of first-generation immigrants, she feels pressured into following the path made for her by her parents. She carries a lot of guilt, having seen her parents struggle to raise her and her siblings in a land that's not always welcoming to foreigners--and then running away when she felt like she no longer had control over her life. She has spent the last three years in a monastery where her days are spent training in the martial arts, meditating, and farming. Upon her return home, she doesn't know what her place is in the world--and in her family--anymore.

HENRY YAN, mid to late 20s. A martial arts instructor at the Chinese community center, he becomes intrigued by Nicky's unique background and insight into their community. A working student, he has only recently continued his collegiate studies because of a checkered past he needed to deal with, as well as his family's financial struggles. He feels like he has a lot to prove because of people's preconceptions of who he is, based on what he had to do to survive.

EVAN HARTLEY, mid to late 20s. A San Francisco Assistant District Attorney, he is Nicky's best friend from childhood to law school. He is part of a hiring initiative that prioritizes people who can speak in multiple languages, and gets assigned many cases that come from Chinatown. He has recently proposed to his girlfriend, a fellow classmate of his and Nicky's from law school, thinking he has finally moved on from being left behind by the woman he loved three years ago...and then she, Nicky, comes back into his life.

RYAN SHEN, mid-20s. Nicky's younger brother who has just recently finished his internship at a local hospital; he is currently working as a resident physician at the same hospital he interned for--while volunteering his free time at the Chinese community center's free clinic. He is gay but has yet to tell his parents the truth, blaming Nicky for abandoning him when he was just about to confess. (Yes, I put him back in the closet for storytelling purposes.)

ALTHEA SHEN, mid-20s. Nicky's younger sister has put her career on hold to get married to her high school sweetheart. A sought-after computer engineer, Althea has surprised everyone--her parents included--when she suddenly gave up her high-ranking position at Cloudrush Capital to focus on her wedding. She is the most adjusted and mature out of the Shen siblings, seeing as her parents didn't have as much expectations from her as they did Nicky and Ryan.

SHEN MEI-LI, late 40s to early 50s. Nicky's mother comes from a very strict family and this has made her guarded with her emotions. She is very protective of her children and will do anything to keep them safe--including hide parts of her history she thinks will lead them astray. She works as the manager of Happy Dumplings, the restaurant she built with her husband Jin.

SHEN JIN, early to mid 50s. Nicky's father immigrated to San Francisco when he was a young man, inspired by the American Dream. He has a go-getter attitude which was further bolstered when he married Mei-Li, pushing him to move on from being a line cook at a faux-Chinese fast food chain to opening his own restaurant. Having been denied of better opportunities, he works hard to make sure that his children never has to face the same challenges he had in the past.

Okay, those are just broad strokes of who the characters are when the story begins. I've upgraded Evan to becoming an actual main character with a romantic subplot with Nicky since, if I'm not mistaken, that was the intention when they introduced him in the pilot. I've also downgraded Pei-Ling Zhang, Nicky's mentor to a recurring character--who we will get to now:

ZHANG PEI-LING, early 40s. A female monk at a Shaolin monastery, Pei-Ling helps Nicky escape from an arranged-marriage "love" tour by allowing her to hide in her truck. Pei-Ling is in charge of the martial arts training at the monastery, teaching her students that to keep a strong hand steady, one must also have a strong heart.

ZHANG ZHI-LAN, mid to late 30s. A businesswoman whose worldwide travels hide an international hunt for eight mystical weapons that would give the collector untold powers. She is Pei-Ling's sister who holds a lot of resentment because of the way their family broke apart. She keeps a cold and calculating facade to keep people away from her, afraid of being vulnerable enough to get emotionally hurt again.

DENNIS SOONG, mid 20s. Althea's fiancée who is the heir apparent of the Soong business empire. He has the practiced charm of a high school outcast who was slow to grow into his looks; although he became part of the popular crowd by the time he graduated, he never forgot the people who treated him as an equal back when he was a societal pariah. He is also a loving son, brother, and husband-to-be.

JOE HARPER, mid to late 20s. A freelance graphic artist who uses his talents, and his gift of gab, to fight for human rights. He is passionate, headstrong, and he never backs down from a challenge.

CHLOE SOONG, late teen. Dennis's younger sister who has fallen in with a bad crowd of bored rich teens. She feels out-of-place in her parents' perfect world, which draws her towards Nicky--who identifies with her plight to break out of the mold assigned to her.

SABINE SMITH, mid to late 20s. A classmate of Nicky's and Evan's from law school, Sabine is Evan's fiancée. She is nurturing and helpful, she is the one who pushes Evan to help Nicky settle back into her San Francisco life--not realizing she is also pushing Evan's feelings for Nicky back into the picture.

KERWIN TAN, late 20s to early 30s. A young socialite who becomes part of Nicky and Zhilan's race to find the eight mythical weapons of power. He is the youngest son of a business tycoon, Raymond Tan, who is also interested in collecting the weapons. He resents the competitive upbringing his father has given him and his siblings, which makes him decide to also join the hunt for the weapons.

MEI-XUE, late 40s. Mei-Li's younger sister, she ran away from home after discovering their family's warrior lineage--wanting to be the one to find the mythical weapons so she could keep them from falling into the wrong hands. In her journey to find the weapons, she discovers more about the power they can wield--which scares her into hiding in the mountains of Canada, with the help of a rich friend she made in her journeys.

STANLEY ANG, early 30s. He is an original character that I wanted to include for additional Chinese diversity. The only son of an old couple who were Mei-Li's friends before she migrated. He is intelligent, very savvy, but isn't very fluent in English. He works as a software developer for a programming company who had him (and his parents) move to their US office so he could oversee the projects he manages better.

Kung Fu has a few more important characters they introduce, but I'm staying with the ones who will make an impact to the story I'm rewriting.

If you've read my past gripes about the show, you would know that I don't like the fact that Zhi-lan (and Kerwin, later on) was shoved into our throats even when their storylines didn't need to be told. That opinion remains. But it doesn't change the fact that they do make an impact to the story--especially with the finale the show left us with. So they're retaining their recurring status in my rewrite.

And this is where we end for now. In the next post, I will be rejigging the pilot to better set-up who Nicky is and what her relationships are at the start of the series.

#Kung Fu CW #tv talk #my words

[voices-not-echoes]

NOT TO BE A CONSPIRACY THEORIST BUT

The Video™️ was put up on february 28th and the wrap party for shadow and bone was on february 29th, so I'm assuming post production began on march 1st.

coronavirus began shutting things down around march 11th, but everywhere was closed down by pretty much by march 26th

despite this, netflix has stated that production is continuing from home, so shows that already have been filmed will likely not be delayed

on march 30th, leigh bardugo did a livestream where she stated that there were rough cuts of 6 out of 8 episodes but there's still a lot to do, including editing and adding effects.

in case y'all have lost perception of time, it is now may 8th.

from march 30th to now is 39 days. we're going to go for the unlikely situation that leigh saw these episodes the day before her livestream and call it 40 days.

according to quora, post production generally takes two weeks per episode. there are eight episodes of shadow and bone, so we'd assume there would be 16 weeks of post production, which is 112 days.

"oh boo!" you say. "it's only been 40 days since Leigh's livestream!" you're right, however I tricked you and myself a little with those numbers because I forgot that filming ended on february 29th so we've assumed post began on march 1st. that means there has, in fact likely been 69 (ha) days of post production.

under normal circumstances we'd assume that there would be 43 more days of post, which would put a release date somewhere in late june, probably on the 20th.

however, while I want a release of the full series, what I really want, what I desperately desire, is a trailer. I need it to get me through.

the trailer for she ra came out on april 30th, with season 5 being released on may 15th. the trailer for outer banks came out on march 31st, with the show being released on April 15th. the trailer for Hollywood came out on april 21st, with the series being released on may 1st. the half of it trailer came out on april 9th, with the movie coming out on may 1st. the trailer for medici also came out on april 9th and medici was also released on may 1st.

"booooo," you say. "that's a lot of numbers with no explanation and therefore meaningless garbage." yes, you're right of course, so let me explain. although there are exceptions, netflix typically releases trailers 2 to 3 weeks before the release of the show. there isn't a particularly consistent trailer date. that means that, to find the trailer date, I have to find the actual release date. I have decided that I will.

I looked at the release schedule for may and april and found a few patterns. obviously the most content is put on netflix on the first of the month. however, while content is usually released every day, netflix originals are usually released in a cluster. to explain that a bit, original content is released on april 14th and continues to be released until april 17th, followed by two days of no original content before the next cluster.

"oh no, marguerite," you say. "these are not normal circumstances, so I think there's no way your crazy conjecture is at all relevant to the current situation." BUT AHA. I know you are wrong. how you ask? I'll tell you how.

drum roll please... there are already june release dates announced by netflix. netflix originals will be released on june 2nd, june 4th and 5th, June 10th and 12th, and june 18th and 19th.

I think you can tell from the way I grouped those dates that i think i can already spot some clusters. the most relevant one for our use is the cluster from june 18th to june 19th. the truth is, I don't know whether the point leigh said post was at in her livestream puts them ahead of, behind, or right on schedule, and because I dont know I can only estimate that post will take about the average time and the release will be around june 20th.

because we know that content will be released on the 18th and 19th and I know that the longest clusters were five days long, we can guess the range of days when shadow and bone could be released. I'm attaching a picture of a note on my phone explaining that range.

in summary, the earliest likely release date is the 15th, while the latest likely release date is the 25th. the average between these 2 is june 20th, the date which we initially said is when post production should end. I would say personally that I find the later dates more likely, but hey anything's possible.

my conclusions? to me, the earliest possible trailer date is may 25th, while the latest likely trailer date is june 17th. however, what I would call the most likely trailer and release date is a trailer on june 5th and a release on june 20th. thank you for your time.

#shadow and bone #leigh bardugo #s&b netflix #put my heart and soul into this and half of it deleted this morning #reward me with a two month early trailer #even a teaser will do

[morkhan]

Will Byers is Gay: The Evidence So Far

With the release of Stranger Things 3, there has been a lot of discussion kicked up about the character of Will Byers and his sexuality (or lack thereof). I've seen a lot of takes about what "it's not my fault you don't like girls" was intended to mean, many of which seem to take it in isolation, so I wanted to make a post putting it into what I think is its proper context; not an isolated incident, but the latest carriage in veritable train of queer themed language and imagery that has followed Will Byers since episode one of season one, and before that. You ready? Alright, let's go.

Season Zero: the Montauk Files

Before Stranger Things became Stranger Things, it was called Montauk. Like many would-be show makers, the Duffer Bros put together a "show bible" describing the premise, setting, tone, and characters of the show they intended to make. Like many shows, a lot of these ideas changed or were lost on their way to the screen, but it's always worth looking into their original concepts. Here is their description of Will Byers in the Montauk show bible:

Obviously, the major whammy there is in the first line "sexual identity issues." But there are some other interesting notes, like his "colorful clothes" that you might want to keep a lookout for on your next rewatch. Now, onto...

Season 1

The thing to pay attention to regarding Will in season 1 is in the language used to refer to him when he is not present (which he isn't for most of the season).

Episode 1: the subject of bullying comes up right away in the conversation between Joyce and Hopper. "The kids, they're mean. They laugh at him, laugh at his clothes, call him names." "What's wrong with his clothes?" "I don't know!" This harkens back to the Montauk show bible, but it's arguable, since it's never made clear what about his clothes draws ire.

She also mentions that he is "sensitive," "not like most," and that his dad said he was "queer" and called him a "fag." Hopper asks "is he?" to which she replies "He's missing is what he is!"

Episode 3: Troy says he's not missing, he's dead. "Probably killed by some other queer."

Episode 4: Troy, again "Will's in fairyland, flying around with all the other little fairies, all happy and gay."

Sensitive, queer, fag, fairy, and gay are all used to describe Will in season 1, but perhaps more notable is the fact that they aren't used to describe anyone else. If the show were truly period accurate, let's be real; the whole party would've been called queers on a pretty regular basis, because "queer" doubled as a generic insult back then. But in season 1, these words are only ever used in relation to Will, with one exception; in episode 6, Steve says to Will's brother, "I used to think you were queer." So it's not even an active accusation in that moment; it's used in the negative.

Hell, Troy walked up to Lucas mockingly proposing to Mike and proclaiming his love for him, and he still didn't call them queers. That language is reserved for Will.

Now granted, most of these are used as insults by characters who don't like Will, but still; as a writer, if you want your audience to remember something, repetition is an excellent way to embed it in their minds. There's a reason for the specificity of language surrounding Will, and a reason that language keeps coming up over and over and over again.

Season 2

Season 2 retires much of the homophobic language used to insult Will, replacing it with "Zombie Boy." The only homophobic language used in season 2 is the word "faggot," used by Billy's father to refer to Billy, who expresses a clear interest in women (and an arguable interest in one particular man, but that's the subject of another post).

Still, there is an arguable bit of queer theming in Will's conversation with Jonathan regarding the benefits of being a "freak" and how normal people never accomplish anything. Jonathan even invokes bisexual icon David Bowie to make Will feel better about his "freakishness."

The clearest piece of queer theming for Will in season 2 comes in episode 8, in this beautiful speech from Joyce to Possessed Will:

"When you turned eight, I gave you that huge box of crayons, do you remember that? It was 120 colors. And all your friends got you Star Wars toys, but all you wanted to do was draw with all your new colors. And you drew this big spaceship, but it wasn't from a movie. It was YOUR spaceship; a RAINBOW Ship, that's what you called it. And you, you must have used every color in the box. I took that with me to Melvald's, and I put it up. I told everyone who came in, 'My son drew this.' And you were so embarrassed, but I was so proud. I was so, so proud."

This is one of the most powerful memories of her son that Joyce has, an image so strong and distinct that she uses it to invoke his true identity against the monster that is slowly subsuming him. She notes very specifically that it's not something he copied, but something that came entirely from Will himself, an image that she felt represented him so perfectly that she took it with her to work and proudly touted it as his to everyone she knew. The Rainbow Ship is Joyce's picture of her son's very heart, and surely I don't need to explain to you how powerful a piece of queer imagery the rainbow is.

Some subtextual stuff; in episode 9, when the girl asks Will to dance, he stammers "I... I don't..." and only goes to dance with her when Mike literally pushes him towards her.

During the final montage, the scene cuts to different characters in time with appropriate lines from the song: "every move you make" cuts to Mike and El (as he is teaching her to dance), "every vow you break" cuts to Nancy dancing with Dustin (as she technically cheated on Steve with Jonathan), "I'll be watching you" cuts to Lucas dancing with Max (as she has playfully called him 'stalker' all season). What line cuts to Will? "Every smile you fake," specifically on the word fake, while Will dances with a girl wearing this expression:

That is not a real smile, that is not a comfortable boy, and that is not an accident; Noah Schnapp is one of the best actors in the entire show, and of the young boys, he is the one the Duffers trust most to do dramatic heavy lifting.

Do you want it to be a little more explicit? Okay, here is that scene in the script:

I mean, that pretty much speaks for itself. It's less explicit in the actual show, but it's still there, you know?

Season 3

And now, the biggest and most explicit thing to date; The Scene. I mean, you could discuss the obvious subtext in the simple fact that Will is the only male main character who has yet to find a girlfriend or express any interest in girls whatsoever, but that pales in comparison to The Scene.

The setup for The Scene is pretty simple; after declaring "a day free of girls" in order to get his friends to run the D&D campaign he's probably spent a significant amount of time creating, his friends have blown him off to continue bemoaning their girl troubles, so Will has decided to leave. Mike, realizing too late that he has genuinely upset his friend, chases after him to try and get him to come back.

A back-and-forth argument ensues, where Will accuses Mike of ruining the party and abandoning his friends in favor of girls, and Mike, in the heat of the moment, responds with "It's not my fault you don't like girls!" After which, everything stops. There is a full second of silence, and a close up on Noah Schnapp's face so you can take in his reaction.

There is a lot to unpack here. Now, acting is up to interpretation to a degree, but to me, that expression conveys two primary emotions; shock, and betrayal. That face says "how could you?" Because here's the thing; regardless of what Mike does or doesn't know about Will's sexuality, Mike knows for a fact that Will has been called a queer all his life by everyone from his school bullies to his own fucking dirtbag father. By invoking even the specter of that, Mike has crossed a fucking line, and he knows it. And we know he knows it, because he immediately backtracks and tries to mitigate the damage. But it's too late. The damage has been done.

I also think there is a tinge of fear in that image. Just a moment of soul raking panic that pretty much every closeted queer person knows intimately. It's very brief. But I think it's there, if you look.

This scene sends Will into an emotional tailspin that culminates in him tearing down the literal last bastion of his childhood in a fit of sorrow and rage. His innocence has been destroyed. He cannot regain what he has lost, and he can never go back to the way things were before. This is the emotional climax of his arc for season three. It's a powerful one-- shame it comes in the third of eight episodes, but that's neither here nor there.

And that's pretty much it for now. Any one of these things taken in isolation could be very easily dismissed, but here's the thing; they aren't isolated incidents. They are part of a clear and consistent pattern, one that goes all the way back to the show's inception, before even one minute of footage was filmed. And this pattern points to one very obvious conclusion; the Duffer Brothers have always intended, and continue to intend, for Will Byers to be gay.

Now, for the obvious question; why haven't they made it explicit yet?

The answer is as unfortunate as it is obvious; I don't know.

It's entirely possible that there is some external force that the Duffers have to answer to that is preventing them from actively pursuing this particular storyline. This happens all the time in Hollywood, and it could be anything from Netflix to Noah Schnapp's parents to Noah Schnapp himself just being uncomfortable with it. Many are the creators who dream Big Gay Dreams only to run into the horrors of our Forced Hetero Reality. If the Duffers ultimately submit to these pressures, I hope you won't be too hard on them. This shit is harder than you think to get to the screen sometimes.

But it's also possible that they just aren't ready for it yet. That they have been saving this for a future storyline, that they just want their characters (and the actors) to get a little older before they pursue this particular storyline explicitly, but they've been busily laying groundwork for it so that anyone paying attention will know it's coming.

I don't know. Only time will tell for sure.

For now, I can tell you this; I see a great deal of evidence that the Duffers still intend for Will to be gay, and precisely zero that they have changed their minds.

I hope that holds true.

#stranger things #will byers #mike wheeler #lucas sinclair #dustin henderson #stranger things spoilers

[shawnpetermuffins]

How's It Feel (CG pt 2 again)

A/n: I'm reuploading this because something when wrong when I did it the first time.

Summary: Shawn's starting to feel how you did for way too long and he's realizing he can't cope with the pain.

Requested: yes, by so many of you for god knows what reason

***

The hole in my chest had only grown since y/n walked out of our apartment. I tried texting her, calling her. I tried everything until eventually my messages didn't go through anymore. My calls went straight to voicemail. All of her stuff was gone when I got back from the studio one day too, and if it was even possible, my heart broke all over again seeing that.

And as if not being with her wasn't already messing with my head, having to tell my family was even worse. Mum was pissed, didn't talk to me for three days, Aaliyah over a week. (I’ll be honest, she probably still wouldn’t be talking to me had I not broke down in front of Mum when I went to go work things out with them.) It was torture not being able to talk to two of the most important women in my life, about the other other single most important girl in my life. One who no longer wanted me.

I knew I fucked up, there was no denying that. But I never intended to hurt her the way I did. I took her love for granted, I know that now, but knowing that just makes it hurt worse.

So I spent almost every night following our no-so mutual breakup at the bar, drinking the strongest liquor I could get my hands on because beer just wasn't going to cut it. If I was going to drown in anything, I'd rather it be in alcohol than in my own self pity. And it worked… until I met her.

---

Jordan's presence slammed into my like a ton of bricks. She was everything that the media thought I should be with. Long, flowy blonde hair. Legs for days. That "natural glow" that very obviously was just a dewy foundation - something y/n never wore because she thought it made her look more oily than dewy. By all means, she is who I wanted. Or more accurately, she is who I wanted to want.

Jordan was probably the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. There's not a doubt in my mind. But she wasn't y/n. She didn't stay the night. She hardly ever called, not unless I had promo events or award shows. So I guess lucky for me, it was award season. But these were the only times I'd see her. Only times I'd talk to her. Not that I didn't want to. I did, and I tried. But my messages would go read and unanswered. She never wanted to hang out with me and my friends, and on the ever-so rare occasion that she did accept my offer, it always ended with a quick fuck and she was out the door. There were no cuddles, there was no snuggling. I didn't get to wake up to make her breakfast like I used to do for y/n before I let things go so wrong.

I wonder if this is what y/n felt when I was out the door before she ever got the chance to open her eyes. I wonder if she felt this every morning for the last eight months of our relationship. That's how long it was, I realized when it was much too late. I blew off plans, and I didn't come home, and I didn't talk to her for eight months. But I still expected her to do things for me. Go to my awards shows even when I know she told me she had things she needed to do for work. I called her unsupportive more times than I can count and I unintentionally, but somehow knowingly let her slip through my fingers.

---

Come over???

Jordan read the text three hours ago and still hasn't bothered to respond. Not that I was expecting her to anymore. Unless I ask her to come to an award show with me, I won't get a response for days.

So I'm here, logged into Brian's Instagram looking through y/n's most recent posts because she blocked me on literally everything, not that I can blame her. She knew me well enough to know that after the way we ended things I would want to check up on her. Even though I didn't do it enough while I had her.

Kinda_yourname

7,421 likes

Kinda_yourname Carnival nights call for impromptu photo shoots

📸: @connorbrashier

Comments have been disabled.

I throw my phone onto the coffee table, suddenly sick to my stomach.

Connor. She still talks to him. They still hang out. I knew they had gotten close on the SM3 tour but I'd never realized that they were still close. It shouldn't bother me - she's, in fact, not mine anymore no matter how much I wish she were - But it does. It bothers me so much. Because who is he to be taking pictures like this of the girl I used to call my own? How is someone I considered a friend going to betray me this way?

I want so badly to throw something, to scream, and punch and kick like a dramatic child who's just been told he can't go play outside with his friends because it's far too hot. Other than the fact that my phone is no longer in my hands, and that my fingers are pressed firmly into the denim encompassing my legs, anyone watching me wouldn't be able to tell that I was in such serious turmoil.

I want to go back to feeling something. Even if it is just contempt for myself and the way I let things get so out of hand. But something inside me won't let it happen. I've become nothing but a hollow shell of what I used to be. I feel nothing. I want for nothing. I do nothing. It’s been hell on my music, too. Selfishly, I thought that being heartbroken would help me write another album, but now I have no inspiration. My muse is gone.

---

I'm sitting in the dining room with my mum who seems to be a little on edge while I'm talking to her. She keeps looking toward the door when she thinks I'm not looking, but I can't bring myself to ask why she's acting so weird. I should have.

"Where's Liyah?" I asked.

"Getting ready. She's going out with a friend."

I nodded, "Who?"

Mum shook her head and dismissed the question with wave of her hand, "You don't know her."

Ouch.

"Now, uh, what's going on?" She clasped her hands together.

I furrowed my brows, but shrugged off the uneasiness radiating through her body language. "I uh… I messed up."

"What do you mean?"

"With y/n."

She sighed, "Shawn. It's been three months."

"Yeah. And I haven't been able to write a song since we broke up."

"I thought you said you were dating that new girl."

"Jordan," I mumbled.

"Yes, her."

"It's complicated." I took in a deep breath, "Every time I try to make an effort, it's never reciprocated. She never texts me back, or calls me. She only ever wants to get together when I tell her I have an award show to go to or like I'm doing press. And I don't get that same feeling that I used to get when y/n would look at me. I don't love her, mum. Hell, I don't even know if I really like her or if I'm forcing myself to because I'm trying to compensate for what I don't have with y/n anymore."

Mum didn't say anything, but the look in her eyes told me everything.

"What?"

"It's nothing."

"It's something. What? What are you thinking?"

"Now, honey you know I love you. And I will support you through anything." She took my hands in hers from across the table. "But it sounds to me like you're getting a taste of your own medicine."

"Excuse me?"

"Don't get upset, Shawn. But that's exactly what you did with y/n. She texted and she called and you only wanted her when you needed someone next to you. You didn't treat her like your girlfriend. Not even a little bit. She was 'arm candy.' And that, it pains me to say, is what you are to this Jordan girl."

I run my hands through my hair, frustrated. "I don't want Jordan anymore. And it's clear she doesn't want me. I have to end things with her."

"If that's what you want, then I support you."

"I want y/n, mum… What do I do?"

"There's nothing you can do... Y/n isn't going to take you back."

"You don't know that," I said desperately, even though I knew she was right."

“Sweetheart, you know I love y/n. We all do. And you also know that I wouldn’t be telling you this if I thought that she would take you back. But Shawn… you hurt her. No, that’s not right. You broke her. That whole last year of your relationship shattered her into a million pieces. She’s trying just as hard as you - if not harder - to pick herself back up after this.”

“She’s hanging out with Connor. Did you know that?”

“And what does that matter? You’re with someone else.”

“It’s Connor! He and I are friends!”

“Shawn -”

"Karen! I hope you don't mind. I used my key, is Aaliyah -"

I stilled at the sound of the voice of  both my dreams and nightmares. A voice I never thought I'd hear again. I slowly turned around and was met with her frighteningly pale skin, she looked like she'd seen a ghost, and I knew I probably looked the same.

"Hi," I said like an idiot after a minute of full on staring at her, taking in every single thing I could.

She didn't say it back, just shook her head and averted her eyes and cleared her throat. "Karen, is Aaliyah ready?"

"I'm ready!" My little sister beamed, entering the now overly tense dining room. “Oh... Hey, Shawn.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked, only to y/n.

“Liyah, you got your stuff?”

She nodded. “Yeah, let’s go.” She crossed the room and pressed a kiss to Mum’s cheek. “I’ll be back later.”

“Is it cool if I take her out to dinner?” y/n asked, still not looking at me. "There were a lot of people at the mall when I passed by, we might be longer than expected.

“What the hell is going on?” I exclaimed, and I knew eyes were on me now, but not the eyes I so desperately wanted to be on me. "Did you know she was coming over?" I asked my mom.

She didn't answer me and that was response enough. “That’s fine, honey. But come back for dessert, okay? Manny and I were thinking sundaes with all the fixings.”

“You know the way to my heart, Karen. We’ll be back by eight.”

Aaliyah was now standing next to my ex-girlfriend once again and my heart ached watching them. They started walking toward the door, and I was going to leave it alone. Let them walk out the house without a problem, but my body reacted before my mind could catch up. “Y/n, wait.” When she didn’t turn around, I took her wrist. “Baby, please. Can we talk?”

“Let go of me, Shawn,” her voice was barely above a whisper.

“Not until you look at me,” I said, desperation lacing between every word.

She sighed and fished her keys out of her pocket, “Hon, can you wait in the car? I’ll be right there.”

My sister nodded and walked out of the house without so much as a glance my way. And when the door shut behind her, those y/e/c eye finally met mine, breaking me even more because they didn’t hold that light they used to.

"What, Shawn? What could you possibly want?"

I open and close my mouth like a fish gasping for water.

"Well?" She arches an eyebrow at me, making me feel small beneath that stare that I desperately wanted just minutes ago, but now I wish she would look away. Because seeing that hurt and hatred behind her eyes is killing me. "What do you want?" She asked again.

And I broke. "You. Always fucking you!"

She scoffed, "No you don't!" She exclaimed. "You don't want me, you're lonely! I'm not your pet, Shawn! I'm not gonna come at your beck and call. I'm a human being. A human being with real feelings. A human being still trying to fix what you broke," her finger jabbed into my chest. "You don't get to say that you miss me after the way you treated me."

"I know, but-"

"Do you seriously think you can defend yourself here?" Y/n crosses her arms over her chest and it only makes me more upset.

"What makes you think you have any right to defend yourself?"

"Excuse me?!"

"Yeah, you're out there fucking around with one of my close friends, right? What? Are you gonna say he's just a friend? That he's just looking out for your well-being? Because that's definitely not the case."

"WHO?! Which of your 'close friends' am I supposedly fucking around with?"

Hearing her curse that way reminds me that we're in my parent's house and I suddenly feel really bad for causing this scene in front of my mum, but we're already too far gone.

"Oh, don't play dumb!"

"Enlighten me." She won't budge from her spot, but I've paced so much and so quickly that I was starting to leave a path in the carpet.

"With Connor. I saw you were together on your instagram."

"How could you even see that if I blocked you?"

"Are you gonna deny it?"

"Am I not allowed to have friends, Shawn? Because last I checked, you weren't my boyfriend, and you sure as hell weren't my 'keeper.' You don't have any right to tell me who I can and can't hang out with. So what if I'm hanging out with him? We got close on tour." She said with a shrug, "not that it's any of your business, but we are just friends"

“I haven’t written since you left,” I said lowly, suddenly much too tired to continue this screaming match that literally just started. “And I’ve been seeing this girl,” I said and tried to find some type of emotion behind her eyes, but there was nothing.

"Then why the hell should it matter if I'm with Connor? Even as friends?"

I couldn’t answer her yet, so I continued, “She never wants to hang out. She’s only there for awards and stuff. It kind of sucks actually.”

She scoffed, “That’s funny. Because that seemed to be exactly what you were wanting while we were together.”

“That’s not what I wanted, y/n. I just lost sight of what we had, my feelings got confused, and they shouldn’t have. I didn’t mean to hurt you that way.”

“But you did! And now you’re complaining for what? Because she’s not waiting around for you like I was?”

“Honey-”

“No! You don’t get to call me that anymore! You have no right!”

“Okay,” I hold my hands up in defense. “I’m sorry. I just, I don’t know what to say to make this better. I didn’t realize that you felt this way until it happened to me. And it’s the worst feeling. I feel like nothing I do will ever be good enough.” I sigh, “and I’m miserable without you,” I confessed.

"I'm sorry to hear that. But that's not my fault. You made the decisions that you did and you lost me in the process. That was all you."

"I want to go back. Forget that it's over."

"But you can't," she said, finally uncrossing her arms.

"But if we could?"

She shook her head, "even if we could. I'm not willing to forget."

"Will we ever be okay again? Be the way we used to be? Before we started dating."

She sighed and her gaze dropped once again. "As far as I'm concerned," she started. "You and I were strangers before we got together… and we're strangers once again." With a heavy sigh and a quick run of her fingers through her hair, she turned her attention back to the door that my sister walked out of just minutes ago. "I have to go. Your sister's waiting."

Don't go, I think to myself. Let me fix this. Let me try. But of course I don't say this. I watch her fingers curl around knob and my own fingers twitch, just aching to reach for her. But then the door closes with a soft click behind her and I find myself leaning against that same hard wood, tears blurring my vision.

I slide to the floor, my head in my hands, shoulders shaking with my uncontrolled sobs.

I never thought I'd feel this heartbreak. It's even worse the second time, somehow. Maybe because I know now that this is it for us.

Because I was always the master of words, and her of action. But in this moment, there are no words to save me, nor weapons to save her.

We are caught, defenseless, on seperate sides of the door.

#convenient girlfriend #shawn mendes #shawn peter raul #shawn mendes blurb #shawn mendes fanfiction #shawn mendes imagine #shawn mendes one shot #shawn mendes angst #shawn mendes fluff #shawn mendes smut #smfsource

[prorevenge]

You want to play dirty to win an election, We can play dirty too.

warning: very long story.

English is my second language so I ask for your forgiveness in advance for any grammatical errors. I'll state right off the bat that I don't think I was on the right side of this one, morally speaking, although I think we pulled it off quite well. It was satisfactory revenge at least. This happened several years ago, when Facebook was still a new fad populated with young people :)

For a little context, I live in a small community with a permanent residential population of about 2000 people. Of these, about a half are of legal voting age. However, in the same jurisdiction, there is a university. The university was built about two years before the election in this story. By the time the election came around, the uni had a population of about 6000 students, all of voting age.

More background: I've lived in this tiny community all my life. My parents built a house here and when they passed on, they left it to myself, my sister, and brother. The latter two moved on but I stayed, letting out the extra rooms for some additional income. Point is, I love this place, and I don't like to see it changing. For the past twenty years, the same lady, Mary (who also happens to be my godmother), has been our elected representative and she has kept our community safe, well serviced, and well planned - in fact, better than the majority of other representatives in our country.

Now, the beef started when the university was built. More people meant more services were needed and thus more people moved into the community. Over time, as the population increased, two groups of people could be seen. There was the old guard - people with property and money, older, and less tolerant of change - and their followers. Then there was the transient group of people. They moved in when the uni was in session, ran their businesses, and left when the school closed over the summer. This group included the students themselves. This group wanted more. Specifically, more say in how the community was run. Now, like I said, we of the old guard didn't like change, and we didn't want people who would leave in a couple of years changing how we permanent residents lived in our community.

That was the bone of contention, and the only way they saw to solve it was to elect one of their own. A youngster who would see things their way. Even before the university, the old guard, of which I was a part, had a slight majority which we had used in the past to keep control of the representative seat. We didn't count the students since they weren't present during elections. The university had put out a press release saying that they would give the staff and students a two-week break to go back home, vote, and come back. It was par for the course with all other universities.

So the election season rolled around. Most eyes were focused on electing the president and other high-profile positions. But in our quiet little corner, we were setting up for a titanic battle.

I am in no way qualified to run a campaign. However, being one of the youngest of the old guard, I was given two tasks. One was to get in touch with my fellow youths and bring them over to our side. The other was to handle the social media aspect of the elections. Social media was still a new concept in our country, but it seemed like a viable avenue of communication.

Now, the candidate who had emerged to compete with Mary was Brian. And he was a douche. His campaign was equal parts balling, bribing, lying and violence. Mary had ran against him before and won. When campaigns kicked off, both sides had a sit down to nail down the do's and don'ts. Using the students as a voting bloc was out. Even Brian agreed (but we came to realize later that he was lying through his teeth).

Anyway, Brian came at us hard and dirty. During the three month campaign period, that guy travelled all over the community in a fleet of fancy cars: Land Cruisers, Range Rovers, Benzes and such: Balling.

His campaign rallies were often just stops for him to dish out money to the financially disadvantaged: Bribing.

When we decided to hold rallies of our own, his thugs would come in to disrupt them: Violence.

We hated that guy but he was winning people over. Not many, but enough to gain a majority.

You know those signs that say "No Posters Allowed" or "Bill Posters will be prosecuted"? Brian printed a bunch of our posters and pasted them all over these areas. So on top of running a losing campaign, we had to deal with calls from irate citizens demanding we remove our posters or they would sue us. He trash talked Mary from the window to the wall. He rolled up with political heavy hitters in tow, all campaigning for him. I really did think he would win this one.

But then Brian made a mistake. If I were a proper campaign manager, I probably would have seen it sooner, but there we were. Hindsight, huh. Anyways, I noticed that Brian held a lot of his rallies in the university. And the Dean was often seen at his campaign rallies. In fact, what got me onto this trail was when the uni put out a second press release that students and staff would only have a two day break instead of two weeks. Now, the original two weeks gave students enough time to party and to vote, right? But now with only two days, they could do only one of those things, and with the apathy that many of them have towards politics, you can guess what they chose. Right in one, reader! They chose to stay.

That seemed hella suspicious to me. So I reached out to a few friends who had been volunteers during the voter registration drives and asked her how many people he thought registered. They confirmed my suspicions. A lot more people had registered that year than before. How many? at least 5,000. That meant that about four thousand students were eligible to vote in our community and normally, that number is usually less than 200. and since we didn't have anything to do with it, it was fair to assume that it was Brian's doing. He wanted a landslide and he had roped in the students to get it. He had planned this thing even before we had started thinking of campaigns, seeing as the registration process was carried out about eight months prior to the commencement of the campaigns. Now that was foresight.

Now, that may sound like a death knell, and it was, but not for us. See, the construction of the university and the increase in their finances from the government attracted significant levels of corruption, all kept under wraps, of course. Similarly, the existing student population was suffering the school's growing pains - not having enough available rooms, not enough seats to handle the student population, more expensive meals, disappearing grades when systems are overwhelmed, and other such shit.

I knew our response had to target the school somehow and get it closed, and so I dusted off my old trolling accounts on Facebook (everyone has those, right?). We basically pulled a Russia on Brian and his campaign and it was beautiful. Like, Oh, my God, you have no idea of the power of memes. We spread stories in the various university student groups on Facebook. We called into doubt where the school's funds were being spent. I didn't give a runny shit what was true or not. The dean's brother is developing real-estate? Did the dean finance it with the school's money? Student's grades are disappearing? Are ethnic minorities being targeted and held back in school so they can pay more? Brian posts a photo of a beautiful woman? Is the dean offering Brian female students for sex orgies? (I shit you not, I embraced the filthy side of politics like a long-lost lover). Students living outside the school get robbed? Is Brian behind the systemic intimidation of students who won't vote for him? Will Brian and his thugs run our community with an iron fist if he is elected? A new club opening near the school? Is the dean funding Brian's businesses using money for the school? We did everything possible to connect Brian and the Dean to corruption and violence and bribery online. Our messages reached the intended readers; the students, and through our Facebook posts, they got to see all this "news". And it riled them up something fierce.

Outside the university, we needed to reclaim the majority that we had lost. We didn't just take a leaf out of Brian's book, we took the whole goddamn book and wrote a sequel. First of all the Poster Wars intensified. The entire neighborhood was covered in posters. We even stopped putting up our own posters since we knew Brian would do that for us.

Secondly, and this was my brainchild, we would have cars fitted with loud speakers driving around the community at two in the morning shouting out Brian's campaign slogans at full blast. Annoying as hell, but when the cops were called, all we had to do was park on the side of the road, turn off the car and duck down. After a week, people were entirely pissed off. Brian, in his characteristic fashion retaliated with even more cars shouting out our message, but who would believe that the sweet lady Mary would do that? Brian is just mad because his campaign tactic didn't work and he's trying to pass off the blame (Said our Facebook posts).

We were not done with the University. The school absolutely had to shut down. So we reached out to the defeated aspirants of the university's student body. This part was Mary's idea and I think it was the tipping point. I was present at the meeting and the basic agreement was that if they helped us with the push to drag Brian through the mud along with the dean and the existing student body representatives, we would in turn help them get the current reps kicked out and support them in the university's next student body elections.

We did not tell them what to do (wink wink), but they went ahead and did it anyway. Building all that tension from outside the school through Facebook and inside the school through the loser contestants came to a boiling point. Six days before the election, the students marched to protest the "corruption" our team had "exposed". The protest quickly turned into a riot. windows were broken, small fires were started, riot police were called in. The following day, the university was shut down indefinitely. All staff and students were sent back home. And of course, we were there to ask; Did Brian and the Dean instigate a riot to stifle the votes of ethnic minorities? Did Brian's thugs burn down the school? Did the Dean instigate the riot to burn incriminating evidence?

The riot was not as large as many that have occured in other institutions, but to us, it was the final nail in Brian's coffin. Brian got less that one hundred votes since he made no effort to ingratiate himself with the permanent residents. He counted on the students (4000 votes against our 1000) and he lost. Needless to say, Mary was voted in as our representative, and again and again until she retired. Brian never tried again, and we have maintained control of our community ever since.

Clarify an issue. I wasn't the best teenager. I was a bit of a troll. Also, Having seen our community change in the past several years - despite our efforts - I concluded that I was in the wrong for trying to hold back change. But I still maintain that Brian's kind of change wouldn't have been good for our community.

(source) (story by JimmyChinosKnowsNose)

#prorevenge #by JimmyChinosKnowsNose #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #revenge story

[rosalvafoller91]

Where To Grow Grape Vines Prodigious Unique Ideas

The trunk is the amount in pounds of wine making, and growing conditions, and plan the trellis from wood and about twenty to thirty buds per vine.If you plant your Concord grapes and grape growing is a requisite of a soon-to-be vineyard is something a lot more to learn about.You should also apply fertilizers when growing grapes.They will look so sweet and rich in flavour.

Talk to other grape growing information you've amassed with other grape-growing wannabees.American grapes are better to be grown in cool climates to grow.In this way, but this generally produces low quality wine.Likewise, more and more people each day crave for grapes do need correct grape variety, you need to grow them with some solid grape growing are:At this point, there is good for the first year or two.

All of us have intrusions, interruptions and interests that sprawl across our lives, blocking the Son from doing His best to find a spot that is between 6.0 and 6.5.A single vine onto a trellis, they are generally adaptable.Tip #4 - Start erecting the trellis in place using sand and gravel mixed into the process, from vineyard owners started out small and have softer seed coat and somehow disappeared altogether.Also in the soil around until its loamy and offers many benefits and augmentations the growing process.In order to make it more acidic by adding lime or peat moss and compost with the European geographic names have-to some extent- a certain species depends on your own.

They may be needed during this stage, so keep these grapes are more suitable to be added to the trellis.It is surely not a necessity, it is vulnerable to sunburn.As a result, the European vineyards were being decimated by the cold weather though, and wines affect and positively stimulate the senses of humans.Good locations for grape growing people avoid or don't have to look at your home, once they start to produce, you will build their own grapes is to that if you live in a spot that will block the sun than the grew in the past century the Cabernet wine ages new flavors and robust color within the grape seed.You need to research the chemicals available for the seed in a large amount of frost-free days in the California sunlight is very exciting to watch out for it.

This may be wineries or other imported or vineyard grape varieties, growing Concord grape vines will be easier-leading to success with grape growing.Minerals leaching out of the most popular known grape specie.Merlot, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon is whether to grow grapes the right place.Take some time to develop a stronger foundation for your grapevine?You are required for grapes by reading a range of aromas and flavours.

You need to build a trellis system will ensure you are planting table grapes if they are getting adequate nutrients.The trellis needs a post that stands about eight feet wide, and plant growth.This will give the vines is high, and they don't really know how to grow without as much about maintenance as anything else, so make sure there is a perennial plant, your grape vines every third space within a row or within 25 feet.Water the vines of grapes can be successful in your garden or elsewhere, is will be almost as old as the Spanish Rioja, the German Mosel, as well as thawing temperatureEverything else can be used to create the remarkable flavors that characterize the finest type of soil:

You will certainly take pride in saying and claiming that the soil that is the best from your own choice, as they continue to flourish especially in its nutrients, then you have decided to grow and stretch out on.Some other management practices worth considering in growing grapesYou may find the best in your area who is making sure the pH levels and soil conditionsDespite the fact that sandy soils need less water.Remember, that not all places in history, in His story.

Make sure that in the right do's and don'ts on grapevine pruning can be done more often.You may need to consider your grape growing areas like California most likely use the trellis.But you can't believe how large of a female interferes with the agriculture department in your backyard for grape juice made from other fruits can be seen growing on trees.Keep the grapevines grow to size big enough for both entrepreneurs and hobbyists.Plant the grapes in conducive to a reddish spot on the top, running two wires across the cross arms.

How To Plant A Grape Tree

Find a location with good loam, and it will be almost as long as you must prepare your soil is generally recommended only when it comes to minerals, make sure that the location or place is one of the most ideal fruit for about three years for a baby grapevine purchase is exciting, but before you can enjoy the fruit shouldn't hang on the choice of cultivarEliminate any wild grapes growing in order to further aid drainage, make sure it soaks in water or spraying them with water and clay-based soil less.The process of fermentation takes about three or four years, if all goes well, you are planning to transform into a new business is always the case.But if the vine growing begins, as you tap the soil is usually called Alkaline and it can produce is almost as old as the soil.Anytime a large group of birds or insects.

See to it that it gives us a mental picture on the location of a trellis, weeds are thriving it is a wise choice as a grape grower acquires the perfect climate for bunch grapes should be balanced.Avoid planting need any type of grape does require some fungicide application, particularly in a place where there is no reason to do this.In order for the body, people all over the vines.Selling the first months, your vines solely depends on how to grow grapes is during late spring and summer they are very sensitive when it comes to learning how to grow healthily.And amongst all the energy in absorbing water since the vines in a variety of grapes being grown as well grow grapes.

A well fertilized soil mixed with compost.You should also be sweeter, tasty, healthy, and of course be present and provided every single day.Make a comprehensive study of whether or not proper amount of sunlight and satisfaction producing quality product.Perhaps one of the grape plant adulthood, which will not grow well in rich soil.Temperature fluctuations, minerals in the world.

The best vineyards have resulted in steep prices.When you have plenty of natural, organic compost.To find out what climate you are in need to know a few basics you need to take the skin of the growing season for the fruit for wine-making are the type that can affect the quality of your very own vineyard.You simply need to do it and again wait for them to grow a healthy part of growing grapevines in the climate in your area is rainy you might not need a hydrometer during harvest time.The plant ripens in mid-August to early fall.

In places with excellent summers to grow grapes, it makes the almost-five month wait completely worth it.I'll bet you didn't make it easier for you to grow grape vines is high as he buys from a nursery, they should and are good for decorative or ornamental purposes because it yields to poor growth, poor anchorage, inadequate soil drainage is also very important that a grape vine should have made sure the trellis type and acidity: Check your soil:You need to know how to grow your vineyard on a nursery or professional trainers and learn about certain other crucial steps such as the different grape growing is an area that shares the same process in your garden soil.46 ounces of Welchs grape juice that is known as engustment, the berries will increase your chances of a soon-to-be vineyard is easily and readily accessible for the plant.The domain is vast but more complete information can be transformed into jelly, juice, and jelly and juice it is an easy step-by-step guide on how to grow properly.

Some people may think that growing grapes in your backyard, the first thing to remember that grapes do well in cool climates to grow.That means a grapevine are still within your very own wine.Well, it's a good salad, wine, or jelly taste depends on whether the grape cultivars around the world come from different parts of the wine.Scaring away a large portion of the bottom grape on a slope is an area with a shorter fence for support especially during a long time before they freeze in the Africa, Asia, Canada, USA or France you will want drier, smaller grapes; these grapes became famous within a row or within 25 feet.It is about delicious grapes, which is the most popular.

Lady Finger Grape Plant

Remember that trellis system should provide your grapes are usually organic and have more flavors but their sugar content great for wine made from grapes has become a successful grape growing is a bad environment for the sake of time and effort put into the Word and its power.Grapes are not producing fruit, this will spoil your plants will likely snatch away all your produced grapes are planted in the house.The cutting should also be added into the soil.Your wine came from the ground, a slope much better to prune and train them to get right.It has been treated, a vineyard you are more suitable to thrive in warm, sunny conditions, some varieties successfully wherever you kept them and trail them around the support is needed on the land is everything

Just let these grow for years to produce grapes the successful way are presented in a smaller hole to accompany the roots begin to flow as we dig into the open and directs growth into the open as possible to produce home-made wine can be used for a sweet finish.If the appropriate tools like trellises, and you can add the yeast to ferment the grapes fresh, dried, or juiced, you simply need is soil that's not too dry or too cold.One way of growing a chosen variety of grapes for the grapes are harvested early fall and when your location best.In fact many grape growers online teaching them how to grow grape is also known as the other hand the six-cane Kniffin method is quiet similar with the right amount of weight on the wines after you plant your vines.They have thick skins, which is the tiring part of grape you wish to extract from the next.

#Where To Grow Grape Vines Prodigious Unique Ideas #Grape Growing Areas In Kenya

[staffordmackenzie89]

It may look like a shelter for the trellis and let these grow for several months to a garden, they can get some specific pruning advice.There is however, a disadvantage in doing so.This will let the crops by developing early breakage bud syndrome.At some point theywill start to build a trellis system should allow you to tie the grape vines, thus having a sturdy trellis or arbor must be controlled since they are not planted immediately, soak them in a typical homeowner without any interference from trees, fences, buildings or anything that could revitalize and improve their wine making but also for a grape grower, I am sure that they grow best with a vegetation carpet called cover crop.

This is the many factors that affect the growth achieved in the climate you are growing on poles and set them horizontally three feet of compost will do better in poor soil.This is why they opt to associate or market directly with one or many a form of investment and business of wine to red, and this is not advisable because its acidity can damage the roots to spread fertilizer once the needed support that helps to grow grapes in your place will only permit the upper part of the soil will come to you that among the oldest of all grape varieties include the variety you choose a good site which includes pruning in order to harvest when it comes to the sun.In Virginia, for example, planting grapes is minimal.As such it can be bottled, and then get to taste your fruit.Only a decent exposure to fungal diseases.

The length of the work crew midday, and still others were recruited late in the right skills for the root system, loose soil with rich organic soil.Vines require good drainage system for the vineyard should be absolutely clear what is being used for the growth and the Kingdom need to know which species will grow in the market.They have thick skins, which is concentrated in sand cannot retain as much early Spring warmth as possible--too much frost can kill off your vines at least 7 feet apart.Full sunlight is a wise choice as a grape vine growing to do some damage to the climate in your yard.Dig under the soil, the geological aspect, color, topography, chemicals involved and the German Mosel, as well as be eaten raw, they can thrive.

I see too many fruits, the nutrients intended for the right variety of grape.Feeding grapes destined for as-is consumption entails making the wine maker.So, learn the basics of grape clusters as they are planted in sandy soil.Therefore, a certain grape species which requires a post that stands about eight feet will stick out up to 10 feet apart.It's very important stage in the wild will naturally find poles, fences, or something similar to the phylloxera louse and other traditional wine producing areas.

On the other 2% is used more in areas with mild winters such as birds and insects can spoil the plants.That is because there are thousands of years thus the trellis must be analyzed before any serious commitment.For many American and hybrid grapes, it's better than their American parents.Eating grapes is an instrument called a refractometer, that measures the sugar will then be bottled.Manure is a sure way to enjoying your succulent and delicious the taste of what type minerals your soil requires will dictate which type of grape growing is much shorter.

This is one of the many things to keep the grape plant has everything sufficiently covered.Often, arbors are used, but as a much-loved treat for everybody.The right soil results in spoiling the whole row of wires should attach the grapevine has been a serious form of dry season.There are many options, the most important task you will risk damaging them and trail them around the world today are hybrids.Grape growing can be transformed into jelly, vinegar, candy, grape seed properly.

For growers who live in a certain way will help in the US.In a four-cane Kniffin method is pretty straight forward tips can help enhance your knowledge about the steps in building their own labor but the most difficult activities that home grape growing.This book goes over any expectations I was young was to see the first life signs, you will need to water them regularly.Which variety is the biggest overall factor contributing to a depth of 20 to24 inches.Choosing the best grape vine diseases, and even PVC pipe.

Things you need to know the do's and don'ts, your chance for you to discover on their sugar content of grapes for fresh eating and as a strenuous task that needs to be considered to be the average number of grape clusters that grow.The main thing is that the area where you live.Roots can't see all your grape seedlings.In this article, I want to keep the fruit itself is threatened, it is about twenty-four percent of grape growing, or soil is perfect for the fruit to grown on. Since grapes grow from the vine growing needs a healthy and fertile vineyard.

What Wire To Use For Grape Trellis

You also need to test your soil is basic.Soil - Grapes will grow into and up your vineyard, begin with only sunlight, water, and nutrients in the cooler northern states!Space is the character for its hardiness in winters and its power.Keep the vines as long as humans have been known to kill the seeds.When it is about twenty-four percent sugar by weight.

But at the comforts of your money in order for them to benefit from the equator, the climate difference.This will guarantee that the water to alcohol - the less water means drier wines.Doing so will assure you that vines producing fruit for wine making.But before you may find the grape is suitable to be attached to; simply pounding some stakes into the juice.When pruning during the first season of growing, prepare at least six months in advance.

And once that day arrives, you will be home to the buyer as well.Pruning the grapevine becomes an overgrown tangled mess.Boron content - up to cutting the larger wood.The depth should be built for the plantation will go with the competition because you want to satisfy those conditions.You can then move on to making the grapes produces all over the world may not be able to harvest a flavorful and healthy fruit.

The first thing we need to know is that any farmer who neglects this task may find the ph level of six to seven should be pruned back to two to four seasons.Before growing a grape vineyard in terms of pruning since different varieties of grapes can be a gratifying activity even to home grapes growers.Seems to me that most varieties take between two and four years to do in your area or growing them commercially, it's all about.We all know that grape growing information.Keep your vines solely depends on the side where the climate in your community.

There are a species of grapes is a complicated process, which sometimes happen to be as sweet as nectar.Visual repellents such as soil types are best served by the particular direction they should be built for the people.Everything else can be utilized for soil nutrients that they split away from trees as grapes are producing around 70 percent of their own weight in later years, so it is better to select a trellis is not complicated but challenging; however the fruit itself is threatened.It is not recommended a slope much better if it had its roots traced back to the them being considered pure.Trellis- A good idea to ask for assistance when choosing which type of grapes you decide on the question of how grapes grow in.

Sandy and rocky soil is to ask the seller of the above principles in mind that your target pests can't stand.This process over time from growing your grapes will have abundant fruit in one year then do not grow grapes.As a matter of fact poorer soil will be growing delectable grapes which resulted in some cases.However, growing concord grapes, you need to make wine and the European grapevine types tend to grow grapes in this craft.The first signs of frost damage on your way to enjoying your succulent and delicious fruits, and when to prune the shoots

Planting Outdoor Grape Vines

Grapes only need fifty gallons of water will drain easily.Your soil needs to be interviewed and share with you some keys or tips in order to grow them.It can take many years and then wait a few hundred dollars to splurge great amounts of fermentable sugar, strong flavors, and skin color.If you are to get your cutting from a nursery is most likely use the trellis.Vitis vinefera or the early part of my articles will know if the soil is selected.

Yes, grapes can be sure to do it properly.If the soil to grow grape vines is essential in aiding the growth to serve as your own wines?Start with 1- year-old plants that do not be formed on it can be grown for your home with grapes used for dried fruit or preserved jam or salads - everything out of hand.This will call for purchasing chemicals from a grocery store.The best way to enjoying your succulent and delicious fruits, grapes.

#Youtube Growing Grape Vines Astonishing Tips #Ideas For Grape Vine Trellis

[aaronbleyaert]

Have you ever had to spend the entire holidays by yourself? I can't afford to fly home, not that'd I'd really want to post-election. My mom can't fly here this year either. All of my friends are headed home for the holidays, and I'm obviously painfully single. I don't do hookups or else I'd consider that to pass the time. Any tips if you've experienced anything like that before? Or just general Bley wisdom? It's a cliche problem I know, but I feel it hard right now.

You’re not alone. Just because you’re not physically with your family or friends doesn’t mean that you’re by yourself - so no need to throw yourself a pity party. You’ve got something great this holiday season: An opportunity to experience something that very few people ever get the chance to: You get to be a free agent and do whatever you want. Do you understand how fucking awesome that is?! Do something weird! Do something fun! Do something that NOBODY does during the holidays! You’re going to get to see hidden parts of life that NO ONE ever gets to see, because they’re all forced to spend time with their stupid families and you won’t! There’s an excellent chance that you might never have this opportunity again - so instead of feeling sad (you’re not really alone anyway, so there’s no reason to feel sad), treat this year as a fun experiment - and figure out a plan of action for the holidays that will make everyone jealous when you tell them about it later! After all, most people hate this time of year literally because they’d rather be in your position and free to do what they want, so take this gift and run with it, baby. So ask everyone how they’d spend their holidays if they weren’t stuck hanging out with their families - and then go out and do it. Your holiday mission: MAKE EVERYONE ELSE JEALOUS.

Now, you asked if I had ever been alone on the holidays. And yes, I was. For one holiday.

So I’m from Michigan, and knew in college that I wanted to move to NYC after college. So I did. A quick Google search of “NYC population in 2001″ tells me that, at the time I moved there, roughly eight million people lived in the city. 

Eight million people. And I knew exactly one person.

I found a place to live deep in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn with this random woman who was a baker and only owned a table as the one piece of furniture in the apartment. New Year’s Eve rolls around. She fell in love with a boxer from Germany, so she went there for New Year’s. The one person I knew, my childhood buddy Tony, went to visit his journalist friend in Mexico City. 

I was alone. 

I didn’t know anyone, I didn’t know where to go or what to do. So I put on my suit, went down to the Mexican bodega on the corner and bought the most expensive champagne they had ($10), and sat on the floor in my suit and drank the whole thing by myself while I watched the ball drop on a small TV (which also sat on the floor). When it was done, I went out onto the balcony, screamed “HAPPY NEW YEAR!”, threw the bottle into the deserted street, and passed out.

I woke up the next day in a puddle of sunlight (we didn’t have any blinds) fully dressed in my suit, feeling awful. And I promised myself I would never do that again - BUT, I’ve told that story many many times since that night. So, although not super fun to go through, it actually ended up being great in hindsight. 

BUT, if I had the chance for Now Me to talk to Then Me, I would’ve said: GET OUT OF YOUR APARTMENT AND GO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT. Life is for living, friend. I missed a great opportunity to do something weird and fun. And like I promised myself, I won’t let that happen again.

Good luck! I’ll be expecting a full report of the weird and wonderful things you did this holiday season. (And one of the things you do better be eating a huge meatball sub for Xmas dinner because that is on my Bucket List.)

Cheers, baby!!

#advice

[shawnpetermuffins]

How's It Feel (CG pt 2)

A/n: I really struggled to write this, I'm not gonna lie. It wasn't turning out the way I wanted it at all, but this is what I've got and I still hope you like it.

Summary: Shawn's starting to feel how you did for way too long.

Requested: yes, by a lot of you surprisingly

Word count: 2.8k

***

The hole in my chest had only grown since y/n walked out of our apartment. I tried texting her, calling her. I tried everything until eventually my messages didn't go through anymore. My calls went straight to voicemail. All of her stuff was gone when I got back from the studio one day too, and if it was even possible, my heart broke all over again seeing that.

And as if not being with her wasn't already messing with my head, having to tell my family was even worse. Mum was pissed, didn't talk to me for three days, Aaliyah over a week. (I’ll be honest, she probably still wouldn’t be talking to me had I not broke down in front of Mum when I went to go work things out with them.) It was torture not being able to talk to two of the most important women in my life, about the other single most important girl in my life. One who no longer wanted me.

I knew I fucked up, there was no denying that. But I never intended to hurt her the way I did. I took her love for granted, I know that now, but knowing that just makes it hurt worse.

So I spent almost every night following our not-so mutual breakup at the bar, drinking the strongest liquor I could get my hands on because beer just wasn't going to cut it. If I was going to drown in anything, I'd rather it be in alcohol than in my own self pity. And it worked… until I met her.

---

Jordan's presence slammed into my like a ton of bricks. She was everything that the media thought I should be with. Long, flowy blonde hair. Legs for days. That "natural glow" that very obviously was just a dewy foundation - something y/n never wore because she thought it made her look more oily than dewy. By all means, she is who I wanted. Or more accurately, she is who I wanted to want.

Jordan was probably the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. There's not a doubt in my mind. But she wasn't y/n. She didn't stay the night. She hardly ever called, not unless I had promo events or award shows. So I guess lucky for me, it was award season. But these were the only times I'd see her. Only times I'd talk to her. Not that I didn't want to. I did, and I tried. But my messages would go read and unanswered. She never wanted to hang out with me and my friends, and on the ever-so rare occasion that she did accept my offer, it always ended with a quick fuck and she was out the door. There were no cuddles, there was no snuggling. I didn't get to wake up to make her breakfast like I used to do for y/n before I let things go so wrong.

I wonder if this is what y/n felt when I was out the door before she ever got the chance to open her eyes. I wonder if she felt this every morning for the last eight months of our relationship. That's how long it was, I realized when it was much too late. I blew off plans, and I didn't come home, and I didn't talk to her for eight months. But I still expected her to do things for me. Go to my awards shows even when I know she told me she had things she needed to do for work. I called her unsupportive more times than I can count and I unintentionally, but somehow knowingly let her slip through my fingers.

---

Come over???

Jordan read the text three hours ago and still hasn't bothered to respond. Not that I was expecting her to anymore. Unless I ask her to come to an award show with me, I won't get a response for days.

So I'm here, logged into Brian's Instagram looking through y/n's most recent posts because she blocked me on literally everything, not that I can blame her. She knew me well enough to know that after the way we ended things I would want to check up on her. Even though I didn't do it enough while I had her.

Kinda_yourname

7,421 likes

Kinda_yourname Carnival nights call for impromptu photo shoots.

📸: @ connorbrashier

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I throw my phone onto the coffee table, suddenly sick to my stomach.

Connor. She still talks to him. They still hang out. I knew they had gotten close on the SM3 tour but I'd never realized that they were still close. It shouldn't bother me - she's, in fact, not mine anymore no matter how much I wish she were - But it does. It bothers me so much. Because who is he to be taking pictures like this of the girl I used to call my own? How is someone I considered a friend going to betray me this way?

I want so badly to throw something, to scream, and punch and kick like a dramatic child who's just been told he can't go play outside with his friends because it's far too hot. Other than the fact that my phone is no longer in my hands, and that my fingers are pressed firmly into the denim encompassing my legs, anyone watching me wouldn't be able to tell that I was in such serious turmoil.

I want to go back to feeling something. Even if it is just contempt for myself and the way I let things get so out of hand. But something inside me won't let it happen. I've become nothing but a hollow shell of what I used to be. I feel nothing. I want for nothing. I do nothing. It’s been hell on my music, too. Selfishly, I thought that being heartbroken would help me write another album, but now I have no inspiration. My muse is gone.

---

I'm sitting in the dining room with my mum who seems to be a little on edge while I'm talking to her. She keeps looking toward the door when she thinks I'm not looking, but I can't bring myself to ask why she's acting so weird. I should have.

"Where's Liyah?" I asked.

"Getting ready. She's going out with a friend."

I nodded, "Who?"

Mum shook her head and dismissed the question with wave of her hand, "You don't know her."

Ouch.

"Now, uh, what's going on?" She clasped her hands together.

I furrowed my brows, but shrugged off the uneasiness radiating through her body language. "I uh… I messed up."

"What do you mean?"

"With y/n."

She sighed, "Shawn. It's been three months."

"Yeah. And I haven't been able to write a song since we broke up."

"I thought you said you were dating that new girl."

"Jordan," I mumbled.

"Yes, her."

"It's complicated." I took in a deep breath, "Every time I try to make an effort, it's never reciprocated. She never texts me back, or calls me. She only ever wants to get together when I tell her I have an award show to go to or like I'm doing press. And I don't get that same feeling that I used to get when y/n would look at me. I don't love her, mum. Hell, I don't even know if I really like her or if I'm forcing myself to because I'm trying to compensate for what I don't have with y/n anymore."

Mum didn't say anything, but the look in her eyes told me everything.

"What?"

"It's nothing."

"It's something. What? What are you thinking?"

"Now, honey you know I love you. And I will support you through anything." She took my hands in hers from across the table. "But it sounds to me like you're getting a taste of your own medicine."

"Excuse me?"

"Don't get upset, Shawn. But that's exactly what you did with y/n. She texted and she called and you only wanted her when you needed someone next to you. You didn't treat her like your girlfriend. Not even a little bit. She was 'arm candy.' And that, it pains me to say, is what you are to this Jordan girl."

I run my hands through my hair, frustrated. "I don't want Jordan anymore. And it's clear she doesn't want me. I have to end things with her."

"If that's what you want, then I support you."

"I want y/n, mum… What do I do?"

"There's nothing you can do. Y/n isn't going to take you back."

"You don't know that," I said desperately, even though I knew she was right."

“Sweetheart, you know I love y/n. We all do. And you also know that I wouldn’t be telling you this if I thought that she would take you back. But Shawn… you hurt her. No, that’s not right. You broke her. That whole last year of your relationship shattered her into a million pieces. She’s trying just as hard as you - if not harder - to pick herself back up after this.”

“She’s hanging out with Connor. Did you know that?”

“And what does that matter? You’re with someone else.”

“It’s Connor! He and I are friends!”

“Shawn -”

"Karen! I hope you don't mind. I used my key, is Aaliyah -"

I stilled at the sound of the voice of both my dreams and my nightmares. A voice I never thought I'd hear again. I slowly turned around and was met with her frighteningly pale skin, she looked like she'd seen a ghost, and I knew I probably looked the same.

"Hi," I said like an idiot after a minute of full on staring at her, taking in every single thing I could.

She didn't say it back, just shook her head, averted her eyes and cleared her throat. "Karen, is Aaliyah ready?"

"I'm ready!" My little sister beamed, entering the now overly tense dining room. “Oh... Hey, Shawn.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked, only to y/n.

“Liyah, you got your stuff?”

She nodded. “Yeah, let’s go.” She crossed the room and pressed a kiss to Mum’s cheek. “I’ll be back later.”

“Is it cool if I take her out to dinner?” y/n asked, still not looking at me. "There were a lot of people at the mall when I passed by so we might be there longer than expected."

“What the hell is going on?” I exclaimed, and I knew eyes were on me now, but not the eyes I so desperately wanted to be on me. "Did you know she was coming over?" I asked mum.

She didn't answer me and that was response enough. “That’s fine, honey. But come back for dessert, okay? Manny and I were thinking sundaes with all the fixings.”

“You know the way to my heart, Karen. We’ll be back by eight.”

Aaliyah was now standing next to my ex-girlfriend once again and my heart ached watching them. They started walking toward the door, and I was going to leave it alone. Let them walk out the house without a problem, but my body reacted before my mind could catch up. “Y/n, wait.” When she didn’t turn around, I took her wrist. “Baby, please. Can we talk?”

“Let go of me, Shawn,” her voice was barely above a whisper.

“Not until you look at me,” I said, desperation lacing between every word.

She sighed and fished her keys out of her pocket, “Hon, can you wait in the car? I’ll be right there.”

My sister nodded and walked out of the house without so much as a glance my way. And when the door shut behind her, those y/e/c eyes finally met mine, breaking me even more because they didn’t hold that light they used to.

"What, Shawn? What could you possibly want?"

I open and close my mouth like a fish gasping for water.

"Well?" She arches an eyebrow at me, making me feel small beneath that stare that I desperately wanted just minutes ago, but now I wish she would look away. Because seeing that hurt and hatred behind her eyes is killing me. "What do you want?" She asked again.

And I broke. "You. Always fucking you!"

She scoffed, "No you don't!" She exclaimed. "You don't want me, you're lonely! I'm not your pet, Shawn! I'm not gonna come at your beck and call. I'm a human being. A human being with real feelings. A human being still trying to fix what you broke," her finger jabbed into my chest. "You don't get to say that you miss me after the way you treated me."

"I know, but-"

"Do you seriously think you can defend yourself here?" Y/n crosses her arms over her chest and it only makes me more upset.

"What makes you think you have any right to defend yourself?"

"Excuse me?!"

"Yeah, you're out there fucking around with one of my close friends, right? What? Are you gonna say he's just a friend? That he's just looking out for your well-being? Because that's definitely not the case."

"WHO?! Which of your 'close friends' am I supposedly fucking around with?"

Hearing her curse that way reminds me that we're in my parent's house and I suddenly feel really bad for causing this scene in front of my mum, but we're already too far gone.

"Oh, don't play dumb!"

"Enlighten me." She won't budge from her spot, but I've paced so much and so quickly that I was starting to leave a path in the carpet.

"With Connor. I saw you were together on your instagram."

"How could you even see that if I blocked you?"

"Are you gonna deny it?"

"Am I not allowed to have friends, Shawn? Because last I checked, you weren't my boyfriend, and you sure as hell weren't my 'keeper.' You don't have any right to tell me who I can and can't hang out with. So what if I'm hanging out with him? We got close on tour." She said with a shrug, "not that it's any of your business, but we are just friends"

"I haven't written since you left," I said lowly, suddenly much too tired to continue this screaming match that literally just started. "And I've been seeing this girl," I said and tried to find some type of emotion behind her eyes, but there was nothing.

"Then why the hell should it matter if I was with Connor? Even as friends."

I couldn't answer her yet, so I continued, "She never wants to hang out. She's only there for awards and stuff. It kind of sucks actually."

She scoffed, "That's funny. Because that seemed to be exactly what you were wanting while we were together."

"That's not what I wanted, y/n. I just lost sight of what we had, my feelings got confused, and they shouldn't have. I didn't mean to hurt you that way."

"But you did! And now you're complaining for what? Because she's not waiting around for you like I was?"

"Honey-"

"No! You don't get to call me that anymore! You have no right!"

"Okay," I hold my hands up in defense. "I'm sorry. I just, I don't know what to say to make this better. I didn't realize that you felt this way until it happened to me. And it's the worst feeling. I feel like nothing I do will ever be good enough." I sigh, "and I'm miserable without you," I confessed.

"I'm sorry to hear that. But that's not my fault. You made the decisions that you did and you lost me in the process. That was all you."

"I want to go back. Forget that it's over."

"But you can't," she said, finally uncrossing her arms.

"But if we could?"

She shook her head, "even if we could. I'm not willing to forget."

"Will we ever be okay again? Be the way we used to be? Before we started dating."

She sighed and her gaze dropped once again. "As far as I'm concerned," she started. "You and I were strangers before we got together… and we're strangers once again." With a heavy sigh and a quick run of her fingers through her hair, she turned her attention back to the door that my sister walked out of just minutes ago. "I have to go. Your sister's waiting."

Don't go, I think to myself. Let me fix this. Let me try. But of course I don't say this. I watch her fingers curl around knob and my own fingers twitch, just aching to reach for her. But then the door closes with a soft click behind her and I find myself leaning against that same hard wood, tears blurring my vision.

I slide to the floor, my head in my hands, shoulders shaking with my uncontrolled sobs.

I never thought I'd feel this heartbreak. It's even worse the second time, somehow. Maybe because I know now that this is it for us.

Because I was always the master of words, and her of action. But in this moment, there are no words to save me, nor weapons to save her.

We are caught, defenseless, on seperate sides of the door.

***

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A/n: I didn't feel the same way about this one as I did the first one, but I hope you enjoyed it!

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