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dearvitya · 3 years

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YOI Fic Recs (Part 2)

Look through part 1 here!

Unsinkable (29k): Victor is a wealthy heir with a lonely soul. Yuuri is a poor dancer with a tender heart. The deck of the Titanic might be a very romantic place to meet your one true love, but it's not exactly a fortuitous one. [Titanic AU]

all the wrong turns (48k): After his disastrous Grand Prix Final, Katsuki Yuuri decides to try to be the first skater to land a quad axel in competition. It’s a secret from everyone, except the mysterious text correspondent who appeared in his phone contacts as “Poodle” following the Sochi GPF.

when pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes pleasure (19k): Yuuri felt his body grow cold at the name; he had known a Mr. Nikiforov, once upon a time.

Five years after the implosion of their acquaintance, Mr. Viktor Nikiforov returns to —shire society, bringing in tow a young cousin. Mr. Katsuki must navigate these once-familiar waters without giving further offense, all while keeping his own heart firmly protected. [A Persuasion AU]

Love in Exile (99k): Once a well know ballet dancer in St. Petersburg, Victor Nikiforov finds himself exiled to Sakhalin Island as a political convict in 1881. As a man sentenced to katorga he will never return to European Russia or his life on the stage. Known as the "Edge of the World," his life on Sakhalin could not be further from the life he once knew. Strange circumstances lead his path to cross that of a young Japanese man, one of the very few still living on the island. Katsuki Yuuri leads a life of exile of a different kind, one that is largely self-imposed. Drawn to each other, despite their differences, something slowly begins to grow between them. When a narrowly avoided tragedy leaves them stranded together for a long, cold Sakhalin winter, they are challenged to face what their relationship really means, and what future it could possibly have.

Smooth Runs the Waters (3k): Inspector Yuuri Katsuki comes to Hillsborough Hall to investigate a murder most foul and its two primary suspects: newly widowed Victor Nikiforov and his younger brother Yuri Plisetsky.

The Other Side of Sunset (325k): 1874, Wyoming Territory: Yuuri Katsuki Taylor has got his future planned…mostly. Learn how to manage his adoptive parents’ ranch, and inherit it when he’s older. Get married and have kids (someday – not now). And most of all, carry on riding his horse with Phichit and the other ranch hands on the open range and in the mountains. But when he meets Victor Nikiforov, the striking and talented new master horseman at the neighboring ranch – and is treated to a show of his Cossack-style trick riding – his world will never be the same again…

A tale of love, loss, grief, redemption, and second (and third) chances, set in the Old West. [Cowboys AU]

Like a River to the Sea (41k): Gifts from the gods can come in strange wrappings. They can also be mixed blessings, as Victor will discover in time.Living alone on the island of Fleves, near Athens, the last thing Victor expects as he combs the beach one morning is a peculiar treasure that appears seemingly from nowhere in the shape of a handsome young dark-haired man... [Greek mythology AU]

pick lilacs for the passing time (68k): A spark flares up inside him, the vestige of some part of himself he thought long buried now resurfacing to—what, haunt him? And then he realizes. I want to dance with him, Yuuri thinks.

In which the outlandish prodigy Victor Nikiforov hits Yuuri’s life like a whirlwind after he transfers to a prestigious ballet conservatory in Moscow, two grumpy teenagers learn to be friends, and Mila’s Straight Girl CrushTM might not be so straight after all.

for better, for worse (18k): Yakov quirks an eyebrow. “Vitya, we are not having some grand ceremony."

“It doesn’t have to be grand! But the registration office? Signing some papers? Where is the romance in that?”

or: The Trials and Tribulations of Viktor Nikiforov, Six-Time World Champion and Wedding Planner Extraordinaire.

in the woods somewhere (32k): One evening in late autumn, Yuuri goes out to collect firewood. He returns with a man instead. (Viktor, Yuuri, and the end of isolation.)

The Death of Koschei the Deathless (39k): They tell tale of heroes, of men that slay monsters, and defy fate itself. Yuuri Katsuki is no hero. He's just a failed wizard trying to keep his shop afloat. This is the story of how Yuuri Katsuki fell in love with Viktor Nikiforov, and in doing so conquered death.

For the Record (10k): FOR THE RECORD by Viktor Nikiforov

What it takes to craft an Olympic Champion, and what it takes to be one.

Or: Viktor Nikiforov, sports journalist and retired figure skater, interviews Olympic Champion Yuuri Katsuki for an exclusive piece.

Happiness Writes White (37k): Yuuri falls asleep after his first day in St. Petersburg and wakes up in a strange hospital room. To his dismay, the last year of skating has all been a dream simulation designed to wake him from a long coma. Viktor Nikiforov is, in fact, not a figure skater at all, but the creator of the program, and this real world Viktor is nothing like the one he knows.

and you knew what it was (he is in love) (204k): Here's what's normal for Katsuki Yuuri: playing Quidditch, practicing spells, keeping to himself.

Here's what's not normal for Katsuki Yuuri: transferring to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in his fourth year and getting to know his idol, International Quidditch Star Viktor Nikiforov.

But maybe there's a reason they say love is the greatest magic of all. [Harry Potter AU]

All Our Yesterdays (1M): York, England, 2120: Yuuri Katsuki is a dime-a-dozen techie, spending his days doing routine repairs at the university. He hangs out with his friend Phichit, goes for a drink, watches holograms. It’s an existence – but is it a life?

Crowood Castle, Yorkshire, 1392: As the son of a baron, Sir Victor Nikiforov makes judgements where lives hang in the balance. As a knight, he must sometimes end them. It’s what he was born to do – but what of the heavy burden on his soul? Death is all too commonplace, while life and love remain elusive.

When a brilliant scientist goes rogue, journeying to the Middle Ages with the world’s first time machine, Yuuri is stunned to be called on as the last hope of preventing her from changing history. After an abrupt departure, he lands at Crowood Castle disguised as an enemy of the Nikiforovs, Sir Justin le Savage – and will need to act the part if he is to survive. It’s a tall order for someone who can barely tell the back end of a horse from the front. But if Ailis, in her own disguise, discovers who he is, his mission will end in a blaze of laser-gun fire. He must not give his real identity away, even to the beguiling knight he’s falling in love with…

#yuri on ice #yoi #victuuri #victuri #anime #victor nikiforov #katsuki yuuri #katsuki yuri #viktor nikiforov #yuri plisetsky #sports anime #fics #fic recs #yoi fanfic #fanfiction #.txt

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swissmissficrecs · 3 years

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Favorite Sherlock Holmes fics from 2020

Usually I put a bunch of explanations and disclaimers on these lists but you know what, it was a weird year and I’m not going to try to justify or apologize for what I read or didn’t read so here are my favorites that were completed last year, in descending order of length:

and your very flesh shall be a great poem by CaitlinFairchild (151K, E, Johnlock) After a tragic confrontation with terrible consequences, Sherlock and John follow Mary as she flees to America.

Drawn to Stars by Silvergirl (107K, E, Johnlock, Sherlock/OMC) After the Culverton Smith case Sherlock is clean, working, and looking for a romantic partner—since John has told him that’s what he needs. Shame John didn’t mention he was interested in that role himself, before Sherlock went off to Rome with a gorgeous Italian copper to try to fall in love and become a complete human being. (This one is very slightly cheating because it was finished on 30 Dec 2019, but it didn't make it onto my 2019 list because I didn't read it until after I'd made the list. And it deserves to be on a Best Of list, so here it is.)

Thermocline by J_Baillier (83K, M, Johnlock) John "Five Oceans" Watson — technical dive instructor, dive accident analyst and weapon of mass seduction — meets recluse professor of maritime archaeology Holmes. As they head out to a remote archipelago off the coast of Guatemala to study and film its shipwrecks for a documentary, will sparks fly or fizzle out?

Do No Harm by Calais_Reno (79K, T, Johnlock) In 1923, Dr John Watson is on trial for the murder of his lover, Mary Morstan, a writer of popular mysteries. If convicted, he will hang. Sherlock Holmes sets out to prove his innocence, but finds himself more and more infatuated with the handsome doctor, and deeper and deeper inside the bohemian world of London's painters, playwrights, and poets. Will he uncover the evidence needed to acquit him in time?

To Be Human by ohlooktheresabee (78K, NR, Johnlock) There is a serial killer on the loose with a penchant for collecting the brains of his victims. Sherlock, John and Scotland Yard are on the case, but something about the chosen victims has Sherlock on edge. While they piece together the clues that will lead to the killer, John begins to realize that the way his best friend thinks may sometimes be more a hindrance than a help….

immediate and inglorious by simplyclockwork (72K, E, Johnlock) Bodies are showing up in back alleys, with no sign of a struggle, no trace of drugs. If not for the strangulation bruises on their necks and the scythe carved into their left shoulders, they could have died peacefully, in their sleep. With New Scotland Yard dumbfounded by the Grim Reaper Killer case, Sherlock is called in to consult. The more he investigates, the deeper Sherlock finds himself drawn into the work of London's newest serial killer. As his views of good and bad begin to blur, he risks losing himself to a darkness he never imagined. And, even more pressing: where does John Watson, grieving ex-boyfriend of the Grim Reaper's latest victim, fit into all of this?

Curtain Rising by tiger_in_the_flightdeck (61K, E, Johnlock) A disgraced television star is the target of a series of death threats just after a theatre production’s adaptation of The Sound of Music is announced with her as the lead. The suspect list is a mile long and growing, Rosie Watson is in the spotlight, and Sherlock might be getting too fond of his time on stage to focus on the case. With opening night approaching, can he and John figure out who wants their client dead before her final curtain rises?

The Fire Finds a Home by fearfully_beautifully_made (61K, E, Johnlock) After Sherlock and John decide to give having a relationship a go, this is how their relationship starts to develop. There a little bit of plot, if you squint, but it was mostly an excuse to write John and Sherlock having sex in a lot of different ways and learning to love each other.

Borrowed Ghosts by DiscordantWords (57K, M, Johnlock) In the aftermath of the Culverton Smith case, John spent one painfully stilted afternoon hanging out with Sherlock. He counted the minutes, finished his tea, and left for home without ever clearing the air between them. And once he'd left, he found it very hard to go back.

You Might Just as Well Be Blind by ArwaMachine (56K, E, Johnlock) When a serial killer starts targeting couples, Sherlock and John must do what they have to do in order to get to the bottom of things. Unfortunately, John already has a girlfriend. Surely pretending to be in a relationship with Sherlock won't pose any problems with his relationship, will it?

The Broken Tether by J_Baillier (54K, M, Johnlock) Maybe he thinks that you only enjoy his company because of the Work, because of the way his dazzling intellect shines when he's in his element, but the truth is this: it is when he is at his most human, most bare, that you feel closest to him.

how the light gets in by subtext-is-my-division (Quill_A) (54K, E, Johnlock) Red wine always makes him tipsier than usual and he finds himself saying, the words slurring a bit. “You know, I’ve got to ask. Do you always shoot cabbies for people you barely you know?” John meets his gaze over the rim of his glass, and there’s something there that Sherlock can’t pin down. “Not for everyone,” he says, meaningfully, pointedly, his smile all teeth.

Erosion by saintscully (53K, E, Johnlock) Sherlock’s father falls ill, leaving the surviving family members broken and rudderless. James Sholto shows up in London unexpectedly, his intentions unclear. John has to navigate the consequences of crime, illness and death and their impact on his frayed relationship with Sherlock.

Hold You Like a Weapon by MissDavis (52K, E, Johnlock) Eurus shows up at 221B Baker Street in labour. Things go downhill from there.

Chances Are by Berty (51K, M, Johnlock) Sherlock is spending some time in his mind palace - so far, so normal. But why is John there, why do things keep changing and why are there only two exits from the sitting room at 221B, neither of which seem to go anywhere useful? It's a case like no other for Sherlock Holmes and John Watson.

Sine Nomine by SilentAuror (45K, E, Johnlock) As Mycroft reviews the footage from Culverton Smith's morgue, he revisits his original question: whether John Watson would be the making of his brother, or make him worse than ever. He's come to a conclusion, but decides to give John one last chance. So he gives him a choice.

Cockaigne by HollyShadow88 (38K, E, Johnlock) When John’s contacted by an old uni friend about problems in his new art exhibition, he doesn’t think it will be worth Sherlock’s time. After a glance of the crime scene, however, they’re both pulled into the project in ways John didn’t expect. Will a week of erotic performance art finally be enough to bring them together in the way they both secretly hope? (Spoiler: it’s a tropey fic, of course it will)

Written in Ashes by 88thParallel (37K, M, Johnlock) Sherlock becomes the prime suspect in a homicide case, and recently unearthed memories of his childhood are complicating matters. It's up to John to track down answers — can he help Sherlock before it's too late?

A Desperate Indulgence by LollipopCop (34K, M, Johnlock) John thinks it's 2012 after waking up with amnesia, having no memory of Mary. Sherlock, exhausted from years of tension and hiding his love, pretends they got married instead.

Inhale With Ease by Vulpesmellifera (25K, E, Johnlock) In the years after Vivian Norbury's capture, life seems to work out just as John planned. He's got that respectable job at the surgery and goes home to his wife and child. He joins Sherlock on cases a couple times per week. It's a rhythm he can live with - just enough adrenaline highs to balance out the drudgery of a normal bloke's life. Until a pandemic, and Victor Trevor, arrive in London.

The House on Rue des Boulangers by Berty (24K, M, Johnlock) After being invalided out of the army and without any other prospects, John Watson has relocated to a small town in northern France. Now he has to decide what to do for the rest of his life. One morning there's a mad stranger in his garden chasing a swarm of bees, and it seems John's decision is made.

High Mountain Tea Leaves by disfictional (23K, E, Johnlock) A mountaintop robbery on a Japanese-occupation-era train where the only item stolen was a small case of mysterious tea leaves in a backpack? An ideal Christmas gift, two days late. Sherlock convinces John to travel for tea.

Detours by saintscully (22K, M, Johnlock, Sherlock/OMC) During the better part of the first year following Mary's death and the events at Sherrinford, Sherlock and John are slowly rebuilding their lives and their friendship. All seems (relatively) well and John takes comfort in once again being a father, a doctor and a friend. An unexplained shift in Sherlock's behaviour catches John by surprise, and he begins to worry about his place in his friend's life. John has to examine everything he thought he knew about Sherlock, himself and their relationship in order to win his rightful place yet again.

hands full of matter by simplyclockwork (21K, E, Johnlock) When Sherlock is captured in Serbia, Mycroft cannot afford to involve the British government in his rescue. Instead, he sends John. After two years spent thinking Sherlock was dead, John finds himself navigating not only Sherlock’s rescue but their fractured friendship as well.

The Victim Experience by J_Baillier (16K, T, Gen) A case takes Sherlock and John deep into the seedy underbelly of the haunted attractions industry. With audiences craving more and more intense experiences, is a real murder the next logical step?

On the Fence by BeautifulFiction (13K, T, Johnlock) The murder of the King's College fencing champion leads to revelations about Sherlock's past. Will it be the point that tips them from friends to lovers, or will they remain on the fence?

Plus bonus ACD era:

"Baker Street: The Sleep of Reason": A Memoir by John H. Watson, M.D. by Gaedhal (98K, M, Johnlock, Johniarty) This is a Victorian Era story in the "Sherlock Holmes" (2009) Ritchie-verse. The main characters are Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson and is from the doctor's memoirs. It was written before "A Game of Shadows" so there are differences in this story and film canon, mainly in the person and backstory of one particular character.

The Taste of Truth by sanguinity (25K, T, Johnlock) Two and a half years after Reichenbach, John Watson discovers the magical tree that caused Holmes to fake his death.

The Adventure of the Vatican Cameos by Garonne (18K, E, Johnlock) How should one behave when waking for the first time in the bed of one's dearest friend? Holmes and Watson solve a case in Catholic London while navigating the turbid waters of their new relationship.

Hot Water by wordybirdy (13K, E, Johnlock, Watson/Gregson) Dr. John Watson's libidinous affair with a respected Scotland Yard inspector abruptly judders to a halt when the former meets a certain Mr. Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective, for the very first time. The attraction between the two is strongly mutual, but misunderstandings only multiply and tensions abound, as all three men attempt to deal with the new situation.

#rec list #best

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lyka114 · 3 years

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Hey guys. I have another Yuri on Ice rant, so here it is.

I was scrolling through Yuri on Ice posts on Pinterest (as one does), and I came across one that briefly mentioned Yuri skating Victor’s routine.

Here’s the thing tho, and this is why I attached this image.

Yuri has been practicing this routine since the competitions ended (proof in scene screenshot above). This means that for the past, what, 4 months until MARCH of the FOLLOWING YEAR Yuri has been practicing this routine? (Thanks to @harocat for the timing).

On top of that, Minako tells Victor in episode 2 that Yuri practices when he’s stressed or just feeling down. That and he eats. A lot. At the point where Yuri shows Yuko Victor’s routine, he has gained a ton of weight, meaning he’s probably been eating a lot (hey, I do it, we all do it when we’re depressed. It’s a mood.) And that also means he’s likely been skating a lot.

And by a lot, I mean enough that even though he was depressed and gaining weight, he was still working hard enough and practicing often enough to PERFECT. VICTOR’S. ROUTINE.

VICTOR!

A FIVE TIME GRAND PRIX CHAMPION!

THIS IS NOT AN EASY ROUTINE BY ANY STANDARDS!

I was a competitive gymnast for a long time, so I know how much effort it takes to perfect a routine. You can practice for YEARS and never make it perfect, but Yuri perfected a DIFFICULT skating routine in a few months. That’s insane.

For the entire time Victor was in love with (or at least crushing on) Yuri and was dying to see him again before he went to Japan, Yuri was thinking about Victor too. Not in a romantic way because dummy forgot everything that happened at the banquet, but Victor was probably taking up at least half of his focus. He was dedicated to making Victor’s routine perfect despite how much his health was going down the drain. That right there, as bad as it is, is a form of love. Yuri loved Victor too, but he didn’t realize that love was requited. It just makes this series so much better, especially the first few episodes, since a lot isn’t revealed until later.

Victor and Yuri cared for each other so much (not necessarily romantically) before meeting each other, and after this rant I’m even more in love with their relationship.

Oh, and little did Yuri know that his dedication to the routine would end up bringing his idol, his best mentor, and the love of his life right to his doorstep (actually his bath, but that’s not how the saying goes, so boo). Just goes to show that if you dedicate yourself to something you love and become good at it, a world of opportunities will present themself to you.

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk. Sorry it was so long, hope you all don’t mind, if you made it to the end, bless you. See you guys next time. ✌🏻

#yuri on ice #victor nikiforov #yoi #victuuri #yuri katsuki #ice skating

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iwaswritingmywayout · 4 years

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BTMH: Chapter 3: Ice Castle Hasetsu

Y/N ran across a bridge to get to Ice Castle Hasetsu, the ice-skating rink her and her brother would always skate at when they trained in Japan. Y/N walked inside and saw Yuuko standing on her tiptoes to put away a pair of rental skates.

“Excuse me,” Y/N said.

Yuuko didn’t turn around. “Our regular hours are over,” she said.

“It’s been a while, Yuuko,” Y/N said.

“Y/N?” Yuuko said.

Y/N nodded, not saying anything.

Yuuko turned and ran up to the counter, smiling widely. “Y/N! I didn’t think you’d be coming back to Hasetsu so soon!”

Y/n nodded, rubbing the back of her head awkwardly.

“Oh, you came to skate, right? Go ahead,” Yuuko said.

Y/N took her hood off and looked at her. “Huh? I can?” She asked.

“You just want to skate alone for now, right? I’ll protect you,” Yuuko said with a wink.

Y/N mumbled a thank you before heading through the doors to the rink.

‘Yuuko was our (Yuuri and I) rink mate and two years our senior. When we were little, she was really good at skating. She was my idol, the Madonna of Ice Castle Hasetsu. She’s still pretty now, too. I always wanted to look as pretty as her.’

~Flash Back~

Young Y/N and Yuuri skated up to a younger Yuuko. Both Yuuri and Y/N had on black snow pants, gloves, and a blue and olive sweatshirt with the first letter of their first name on it. They both stopped in front of Yuuko. They both raised their arms and smiled widely.

“Ta-da!” The twins said at the same time.

“Wow, Y/N and Yuuri!” Yuuko said.

Yuuri beamed as he put his hands behind his head. Y/N just stayed their smiling, not doing much else.

Takeshi skated into him, knocking him over. “Stay out of my way fatso!” He shouted.

Y/N glared at him before helping her brother up. “Don’t be rude to my brother!” She shouted, waving her fist angrily.

“Don’t be mean to the new kid!” Yuuko shouted.

“Fatso! Fatso!” Takeshi kept shouting.

Yuuri frowned and flailed his arms as he whined.

“Hey, stop calling my brother fat! You’re a jerk!” Y/N shouted at Takeshi. She had always been the not-so-nice sibling.

~a few years later~

Takeshi, Yuuko, Yuuri, and Y/N were sitting around watching a tv show featuring Seonghwa Nikiforov. He was skating his gold-winning program at the Junior World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. Takeshi, Y/N, and Yuuri were sitting on a bench while Yuuko spun around, holding up one figure to show ‘number one’.

“Russia’s Seonghwa Nikiforov! He won the gold in the Junior Worlds with the highest score in history! He’s so cool!” Yuuko said.

Y/N and Yuuri’s eyes widened, they both gasped at the exact same time.

A few more years later, Yuuri and Y/N stand together as Yuuko walks up to them at school. Yuuri was holding a brown poodle puppy in his arms.

“Huh? You have a poodle now, too?” Yuuko asked.

“Yeah! I named him “Seonghwa”!” Yuuri said.

“It was my idea,” Y/N chimed in.

Yuuko laughed, smiling widely. “You both really like Seonghwa, huh? I hope I can see you both compete against Seonghwa soon,” Yuuko said, a bright smile on her face.

~flashback ends~

Y/N sat on a bench, tying her skates up tightly to ensure while she skated they wouldn’t become loose. Y/N stood up and turned around, handing her black glasses to Yuuko. “I’ve been working on it since last season ended for me, please watch it,” She said softly, a smile on her face.

On the TV at Yu-topia Katsuki, Seonghwa is shown skating to Stay Close to Me (Stammi Vicino).

“Last up is Seonghwa Nikiforov. It’s clear he is Russia’s hero! The cheers are deafening! After the short program, he leads Giacometti, in second, by a huge margin.”

“All right, Seonghwa! Get ‘em!” Minako said, pounding her hand on the table. “Y/N, Yuuri! Your favorite, Seonghwa, is about to start!”

“She’s not back yet,” Hiroko said.

Y/N glided onto the ice, bowing her head once she stopped. She knew Yuuko would be the only person to see her perform it, so she wasn’t as nervous as she normally was.

“Huh? This is…” Yuuko trailed off.

“In this program, he has four quads planned. Here comes the first quad. A quadruple Lutz! Very clean! The next quad is his signature move. How will it go? A quadruple flip! He lands this one, too!”

Y/N glided along the ice. She did the same movements as Seonghwa, all the way down to the way he was holding his arms, she did her best to do it exactly like he did.

“Flying sit spin. The music is “Stay Close to Me”.”

Y/N did the flying sit spin perfectly, as expected since it was her best move, the one move she was always doing perfectly, that, and her step-sequences.

“Given that he has a million female fans worldwide, he’s sure free with his charms,” Minako said, swaying from side-to-side due to how drunk she was.

“This program brings out a new dimension in Seonghwa Nikiforov’s performance.”

“You’re drinking too much, Minako,” Hiroko said.

“A quadruple Salchow!”

“This would tug at the heartstrings more if it were a younger, more naïve person. Not a hottie like Seonghwa, but…let me think…” Minako said, trailing off as she got deep into thought.

Y/N continued to skate around the rinks doing various jumps and then the step sequence.

“A triple Lutz! A triple flip! Now, the last quad… a quadruple to loop, followed by a triple toe loop! He’s landed all his quads! Now, a combination spin!”

Y/N skated, then went into the combination spin, before standing in the final pose. She was breathing heavily and her face was flushed, clearly tired by the routine. Yuuko stood at the side, her eyes shined and she covered her mouth with her hands before slamming them on the rink boards.

“That was super cool! A perfect copy of Seonghwa! Awesome! I thought you’d be depressed or something!” Yuuko said.

Y/N nodded, wiping off her forehead with her sleeve before responding. “Well, I was for a while, but eventually I got tired of feeling depressed, so I got to thinking. ‘What could bring my love for skating back?’ Then it hit me. I remembered when I copied Seonghwa with you and Yuuri. Yuuko, I’ve-“ She started, but not finishing due to her gulping.

On the TV at Seonghwa was smiling for pictures with San and Mingi.

“And now we have a co-ed’s singles consecutive five-time winner in the World Figure Skating Championships! The victor is Russia’s Seonghwa Nikiforov!”

“I’ve always…” Y/N started, not finishing her sentence.

Axel, Lutz, and Loop popped up from behind the rink boards.

“Axel, Lutz, and Loop! Haven’t they gotten so much bigger since you last saw them?” Yuuko asked.

Y/N nodded. “Wow, they have gotten very big. I swear the last time I saw them they were practically babies,” she said. Then it had really hit her how long she had been gone.

“Y/N, you really did get fat!” Lutz said, giggling once she finished talking.

“Are you really retiring?” Loop asked.

“You’ve never had a boyfriend?” Axel asked.

“Hey, girls! Sorry, they are such skating groupies,” Yuuko said.

“They’re all your fans, Y/N. Welcome back!” Takeshi said, skating over before putting an arm around her neck.

“Nishigori!” Y/N said.

“You can come any time to practice, the Nishigori family’s always got your back,” Takeshi said, smiling widely.

“Y/N, go, go! Lose weight!” Axel, Lutz, and Loop said at the same time.

‘During the 5 years I was away, I tried to ignore a lot of things by focusing on skating.’

Y/N was hoping on one foot on a wooden park bench, while cherry blossom petals were carried away by the light breeze flowing around. Y/N knew she needed to get back into shape if she wanted to be able to continue skating, so she thought she should start as soon as possible.

“I wonder what I need so I can keep skating on my own,” Y/N thought aloud.

Once Y/N finished exercising, she made her way back to Yu-topia Katsuki and sat down at one of the tables and looked at the TV. On the TV there was a special feature of Jongho Plisetsky. He was leaning against the rink boards drinking from a water bottle, looking indifferent while his coach Yakov lectured him.

“Here in St. Petersburg, Russia, rising star Jongho Plisetsky is finally gearing up to join the senior men’s singles and co-ed singles competition.”

Jongho did a jump on the rink, and Y/N’s jaw dropped. “What’s with that jump? Whoa, another one?” She said, shocked by the jumps he was doing.

“Under Coach Yakov, the 15-year-old is about to join Seonghwa Nikiforov in ushering Russia into an era with two champions.”

~Flashback~

Jongho was leaning over Y/N, scowling down at her as she frantically wiped her eyes, trying to hide the evidence she had been crying.

“Just retire already,” Jongho said as he scowled at her.

~Flashback End~

‘The pressure’s on now.’

Y/N was sitting cross legged on the floor of her room. She looked up at the posters of Seonghwa on her wall and sighed, resting a hand on her cheek.

“I’ve got to skate on the same ice as Seonghwa someday,” she said.

#born to make history #seonghwa x reader #ateez x reader #yuri!!!onice #park seonghwa #x reader

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animayze93 · 3 years

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Lille trace unlikely path towards French title

Paris (AFP) – Paris Saint-Germain have claimed statement wins in Barcelona and Munich in the Champions League while leaving the door unlocked at home, giving Lille the chance of a first Ligue 1 title in a decade.

Lille stunned PSG in the capital last weekend, winning 1-0 to go three points clear of the reigning champions with seven matches remaining.

PSG have lost eight times this season, while Monaco and Lyon are also within five points of Lille. It is an unpredictable title race, and the fact only the the top three qualify for next season’s Champions League adds spice.

Lille’s operating budget is understood to be around a quarter of PSG’s, but shrewd buying and selling has taken them to where they are, along with an outstanding coach in Christophe Galtier.

After finishing second to PSG in 2019 they sold Nicolas Pepe to Arsenal for a reported 80 million euros ($87m).

In the last Ligue 1 season, curtailed due to the pandemic, they came fourth and then sold top scorer Victor Osimhen to Napoli for an initial 70 million euros.

Plenty more have left, but the knowledge of Luis Campos, a Portuguese super-scout who helped build Monaco’s title-winning team of 2017, allowed Lille to keep re-generating.

Three starters against PSG — goalkeeper Mike Maignan, Boubakary Soumare and Jonathan Ikone — all left Paris for Lille in search of first-team football. Another ex-PSG youngster, Timothy Weah, did likewise and came off the bench for Lille in that game.

Lille have invested elsewhere though, including 27 million euros to sign Canadian striker Jonathan David from Gent — he scored the winner in Paris.

“This season, more than the last two, we have been very strong collectively despite having a bit less individual talent than the other three teams fighting for the title. Without that we wouldn’t be able to compete,” Galtier, in charge since late 2017, told AFP.

Previously successful at Saint-Etienne, Galtier has kept Lille on course despite off-pitch turbulence.

In December the club was sold to Callisto, a subsidiary of the Merlyn Partners investment fund. Campos departed, while a new president was appointed.

Galtier feels this season has been his “biggest challenge”.

“We need to keep going and give ourselves the best possible chance while understanding we might not end up being champions and we might not even qualify for the Champions League. The key is to have no regrets,” he said.

The 54-year-old, once the assistant manager at Portsmouth, could go at the season’s end too and has been linked with Lyon and Nice.

However, he says he is entirely focused on delivering success to Lille, who face Metz this weekend.

“I am really happy here, but I don’t think I will stay for seven or eight years like I did at Saint-Etienne.”

Could he return to England?

“Four or five years ago I wanted to go abroad, less so now. If I did, I have always said the English league would be the dream. Their league has become the best in the world. There is so much passion!”

Player to watch: Kevin Volland

Volland has been a revelation for Monaco since signing from Bayer Leverkusen, and you have to wonder why Joachim Loew continues to leave him in the wilderness from the Germany team.

The 28-year-old, last capped by his country in 2016, is one of the main reasons Monaco are title contenders, having scored 14 Ligue 1 goals. Monaco have lost just once in 16 games.

Key stats

10 – Lille are unbeaten in their last 10 away Ligue 1 games.

3 – PSG have lost their last three league games immediately following a Champions League fixture

11 – Bottom side Dijon have lost their last 11 Ligue 1 games. One more will see them equal the French top-flight record of 12 in a row set by CA Paris in 1933/34.

Fixtures (Kick-offs GMT)

Friday

Metz v Lille (1900)

Saturday

Strasbourg v Paris Saint-Germain (1500), Montpellier v Marseille (1900)

Sunday

Rennes v Nantes (1100), Brest v Nimes, Lens v Lorient, Nice v Reims, Saint-Etienne v Bordeaux (all 1300), Monaco v Dijon (1505), Lyon v Angers (1900)

Original Source Author: AFP

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#Sport #World

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femalechibiblogger · 4 years

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My Top 10 Romantic Anime

1. Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It

Shinya Yukimura and Ayame Himuro are young but extremely brilliant researchers of the Saitama University, and both of them strongly believe in math as the most powerful instrument at Mankind's disposal to understand all things.

So, when Ayame suddenly confesses her feelings to Shinya, he decides to start an ambitious experiment with his whole team to answer a question: is it possible to explain something complicated like love using a mathematical approach?

2. My Love Story!!

The story follows Takeo Gōda, a tall and muscular student who doesn't have much luck with women, as every girl he likes ends up falling for his best friend, Makoto Sunakawa, who is charming and good-looking. This all changes when he saves Rinko Yamato, a petite shy girl who, above all other expectations, falls in love with Takeo, beginning a unique love story.

3. Amnesia

On the morning of August 1st, a girl wakes up to find she has lost all her memories before the day. A boy appears in front of her and tells her that he is a spirit named Orion, whose spirit collided with hers and caused her amnesia. He wishes to help her collect her lost memories. One day, she receives a phone call from an unknown person. She struggles not to let them notice that she doesn't remember him but...

4. Junjou Romantica

The series focuses on three storylines: the main couple (Junjou Romantica) which comprises the bulk of the books, and two other male couples (Junjou Egoist and Junjou Terrorist) that provide ongoing side stories.

Junjou Romantica is the storyline following the relationship between Misaki Takahashi and Akihiko Usami. Misaki is struggling to prepare for his college entrance exams, so his brother arranges for a private tutor. But Misaki’s nightmare is just beginning when his tutor, Usami, comes on to him! How will Misaki ever manage to pass his exam? And why does he feel so mysteriously drawn to Usami?

Junjou Egoist is the storyline following the relationship between Hiroki Kamijou and Nowaki Kusama. Just when Kamijou’s life is at its lowest, he has a chance meeting with a man who never lets anything hold him back: Nowaki. His name means "typhoon," and he’s about to take Kamijou on a whirlwind ride that will turn everything upside-down.

Junjou Terrorist is the storyline following the relationship between Yoh Miyagi and Shinobu Takatsuki. Miyagi always seems to shrug off the cares of the world with a joke and a smile. But even he has problems, although he doesn't let them show. Foremost is Shinobu, a relentless young man who’s adamant that they’re destined to be together.

Junjou Mistake is the storyline following the relationship between Ryuuichiro Isaka and Kaoru Asahina. The story is a single spin-off volume outside of the series but also has a few chapter and an episode featuring the couple in the series.

5. I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying

The series centers around the daily lives of Kaoru, a hard working office lady, and her husband Hajime, who is an otaku, an obsessed fan of anime and manga culture, and who works as a blogger. Using popular anime and otaku tropes and in-jokes, the characters explore the conflicts and similarities between daily life and otaku culture in urban Japan.

6. Acchi Kocchi

The serious-minded Io and the pure-hearted Tsumiki feel they never want to be parted, but haven't become a couple yet. More than friends but less than lovers, they develop an awkward quasi-romance.

7. Yuri on Ice

Reeling from his crushing defeat at the Grand Prix Finale, Yuuri Katsuki, once Japan's most promising figure skater, returns to his family home to assess his options for the future. At age 23, Yuuri's window for success in skating is closing rapidly, and his love of pork cutlets and aptitude for gaining weight are not helping either. However, Yuuri finds himself in the spotlight when a video of him performing a routine previously executed by five-time world champion, Victor Nikiforov, suddenly goes viral. In fact, Victor himself abruptly appears at Yuuri's house and offers to be his mentor. As one of his biggest fans, Yuuri eagerly accepts, kicking off his journey to make it back onto the world stage. But the competition is fierce, as the rising star from Russia, Yuri Plisetsky, is relentlessly determined to defeat Yuuri and win back Victor's tutelage.

8. Lovely Complex

Love is unusual for Koizumi Risa and Ootani Atsushi, who are both striving to find their ideal partner in high school—172 cm tall Koizumi is much taller than the average girl, and Ootani is much shorter than the average guy at 156 cm. To add to their plights, their crushes fall in love with each other, leaving Koizumi and Ootani comically flustered and heartbroken. To make matters worse, they're even labeled as a comedy duo by their homeroom teacher due to their personalities and the stark difference in their heights, and their classmates even think of their arguments as sketches. Lovely★Complex follows Koizumi and Ootani as they encourage each other in finding love and become close friends. Apart from their ridiculous antics, they soon find out an unexpected similarity in their music and fashion tastes. Maybe they possess a chemistry yet unknown, but could love ever bloom between the mismatched pair?

9. Special A

Hikari Hanazono has always been able to do things that normal people cannot. As a child, she assumed no one could beat her—until she met Kei Takishima. Thinking she would win, Hikari challenged him to a match. But things didn’t go as planned; she lost not once but each time she rechallenged him. From that point on, she has sworn to best Kei at everything, ranging from academics to athletics. To achieve her goal, Hikari enrolls in the same school as Kei—Hakusenkan, a prestigious institute for the wealthy. As a pair, they hold the top two rankings in school and are among seven of the academy's best students in a class known as Special A. While Hikari treats Kei as a rival, she is completely oblivious that he harbors hidden feelings for her. Together, the members of Special A deal with competition, friendship, and just a bit of love.

10. Senryuu Girl

The story focuses on the relationship between Nanako Yukishiro, a girl who only communicates through senryū written on tanzaku, and Eiji Busujima, an ex-delinquent who attempts to write his own senryū. The story follows their different takes on everyday life through their senryu.

#anime list #anime #romance #couples #valentine

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eldunea · 4 years

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So You Want To Run Through Preuzien?

i’ve received a fair few messages from people interested in having their muses go through prussia, with one person even being interested in making a preuzien OC, so i thought i’d do this post setting up some necessary boundaries and limitations for any character who intends to challenge the prussian league and make a name for themselves in my fakémon region. this applies primarily to muses who wish to start their prussia arcs before lotor became champion, although some of these points still apply to a certain extent even after he won the position.

without further ado…here we go. >:3

[TW: Mentions of death, animal abuse and human abuse. If these topics trigger you, do NOT have your muse do a run through pre-Lotor Preuzien.]

First Things First: Your Muse Probably Won’t Be Champion Anytime Soon

i’ll be blunt. unless your character 1) is willing to kill lotor and all of his pokémon, most of whom are sapient, 2) is willing to risk their life and the lives of all their partners in the championship battle, and 3) can also singlehandedly defeat a five-core complete forme/ragnamax zygarde that has world-ending capabilities and is comparable in power to eternamax eternatus, they don’t stand a chance. for #1 and #2, though lotor has dismantled most aspects of the fight to kill clause, he still keeps the part that says all official championship battles must be fought to the death. he does this as a deterrent to challengers--and he is not afraid to slaughter his opponents in their moments of hesitance should they express any reluctance to kill. and while he doesn’t own ragnamax zygarde, he has definitely single-handedly defeated it, as it’s how he became champion in the first place.

i want to make it clear that this doesn’t mean he’s unbeatable in every scenario. he can still be defeated in a less high-stakes setting where he isn’t allowed to kill or cripple his opponents, or destroy everything around him in a 5-mile radius. one of his big weaknesses is that ever since his championship battle in kalos against diantha he’s gotten real rusty in traditional 6v6 style battling; this is because he has spent all his time perfecting the prussian style of battle, and because if any criminals are stupidly polite enough to do a traditional 6v6 against him, his unprincipled bitch self will just bring out his entire team to gangbeat their ass. but in an all-out campaign match where he gets to use deadly force and unleash the full apocalyptic extent of his pokémons’ power, he is not going to lose to any muse who 1) is not as fully psychologically ready to shed blood as he is, 2) is not psychologically able to handle seeing their pokémon get killed or the mere thought of their pokémon being killed, OR 3) could not also pull off what he did. that is a FACT.

i do hc that lotor stops being champion eventually, but i haven’t figured out when would be a good time for lotor to lose his spot, or even whether i’d want him to lose it rather than stepping down. there are many different possibilities that can be explored and i may make different verses for them, such as the possibility that he loses/steps down from the championship some time in the near future (5 - 10 years) when he feels that his work is done/feels the pressure is too much, or the possibility that he feels his work will take literal decades and he steps down as an old man once he is satisfied that the region has finally reformed. if you are interested in lotor’s championship spot though, please know that as of writing this, i am IFFY about any plot where a muse defeats lotor and then returns prussia to its original ways. this is because despite my love of “ow the edge,” as the creator of preuzien i do want to write a happier ending for a region whose people have seen nothing but suffering. if this does end up happening, it will have to happen in a separate verse.

Be Prepared for a Long and Potentially Traumatizing Haul

the prussian league is a thirty-six-badge-long, MULTI-YEAR ordeal. there is no way around that. i hc other leagues usually take about a year to complete. the prussian league, on the other hand, takes a MINIMUM of 4 years to finish for trainers who start their journeys in preuzien, 3.5 years for trainers who have already entered the hall of fame for a foreign league, and 2.5 years for trainers who have entered the hall of fame in more than one foreign league. for some perspective on its difficulty--lotor, the guy with the 200+ IQ who beat ragnamax zygarde and stopped ragnarök during his championship battle, STILL took multiple years to complete his league challenge. can your muse clear the league in, say, half a year or a year less than the time it normally takes? yes, but i will be selective about who gets to have that honor. please don’t be “that person” and say “well my muse is capable of doing it in less than a year”--no. they can’t. why? because i said so.

another thing to note about the prussian league is its difficulty. this is part of why it takes such a long time for any trainer to get through preuzien: your muse will not have an easy time going through it, NO MATTER WHAT. yes, even if your muse has legendaries…joke’s on them, preuzien’s entire culture is geared toward beating the shit out of legendaries, and i daresay they’re damn good at it. yes, even if your muse is “really, really strong”…everyone in preuzien is also really, really strong, and not to mention, strength in preuzien is different from strength in most of the pokémon world because historically, the prussian league has put its trainers through situations--both on and off the field--approximating WAR. again, for perspective: lotor has one of the highest IQs on planet pokéarth and literally saved the world from the previous deity champion, and preuzien still had times when it PUSHED HIM PAST HIS LIMIT. so if you state that your muse is somehow able to just breeze through every gym and the national tournament like it’s nothing, that’s something i’m going to have a real hard time believing.

as to the trauma part of this section, prussia is a much friendlier place now that lotor is champion…provided you’re not an abuser or a member of a corrupt ruling class. but if your muse is entering the league pre-lotor’s championship, when the region was still under the rule of wilhelmine von hohenzollern, your muse WILL suffer some sort of trauma. there is also no way around that. if they started in preuzien, they would have started in mandatory trainers’ school, where they would have been both physically and emotionally abused by their teachers. the only ways to avoid this abuse are to 1) be a junker’s child whose parents are the rare prussian unicorns that do not support child-beating or 2) become a total kissup to the teachers and other authority figures of the school, screwing over your fellow students to save yourself, and i doubt most peoples’ muses would want to do that. if they started outside the region and came in…they still have the below section to deal with.

Your Muse Will Lose Pokémon

this is no longer a guaranteed if your muse is joining the prussian league under lotor’s rule. but in the time of wilhelmine, under the fight to kill clause, you may be ordered to kill your opponent and their pokémon for the entertainment of the crowd. and you can’t back out from this either, because if you do, you will be publicly executed for failing to provide the audience entertainment. this aspect of the fight to kill clause is no longer in effect, but when it was, it was responsible for so many young peoples’ deaths that the region’s age dependency ratio went completely out of whack. what’s more, the fight to kill clause also states that gym leaders can choose whether they wish to kill you without warning and/or your pokémon at any point during their matches, which only adds to the danger. in a region where the league literally requires you to fight for your life, it is NEARLY INCONCEIVABLE that anyone could get through this without losing at least one of their trusted partners. there is only one person in the entire history of wilhelmine prussia who managed to go through all the gyms and the prussian national tournament without losing a single one of their pokémon (and his name, by the way, is not lotor). i am going to keep it that way.

what’s more, if the brutality of the battles don’t get to you, the lack of healthcare will. preuzien in its pre-lotor days was infamous for the shortage of both human and pokémon healthcare that plagued its system. healthcare was only guaranteed to junkers, the military, and those who are deemed “victors,” aka those who fought long and hard enough to get the government’s attention and be seen as worthy. for the rest, they have to struggle through long and potentially life-ending lines at pokémon centers and doctors’ offices, all of which come from the fact that preuzien glorifies pokémon training and militarism to the point that almost every other profession is suffering a shortage in professionals and that includes healthcare. even if we go with the fanon that nurse joys are always in abundance because they’re actually ditto spawn that can be mass-produced, preuzien would deliberately make it so that there’s a lack of healthcare so they could force people to kill each other over who gets treated. so yeah. under wilhelmine, this is a region in which losing at least one pokémon is a 99.99999% certainty.

Your Muse is More Likely to Fail than Succeed

i’m gonna be straight up right now: i won’t let more than a handful of muses succeed in winning the prussian national tournament--at least, in proportion to the rest who fail. why? because if i as preuzien’s creator let too many people have a successful run through prussia, the difficulty of the league will lose its meaning. it’s not “the hardest league in the world” if every muse and their mother is capable of receiving all 18 type specialist badges, receiving all 18 other strategic badges, and clearing all four stages of the 256-person prussian national tournament. by having too many muses being able to achieve this extraordinarily difficult feat, it cheapens the accomplishment of the few who did. i might be more lenient on this for muses that enter the league after wilhelmine is deposed, seeing as the fight to kill clause is abolished and that explains a big chunk of the prussian league’s difficulty. but even so, given the unique demands that prussian-style battling foists on its trainers, they’ll be hard pressed to rise to the challenge--especially if they were not raised like most prussian trainers are to take it on.

if you want your muse to succeed, i will be tough about this. i will play devil’s advocate and come up with every single possible way in which your muse could fail, whether psychologically or strategically. even the best strategists which basically every muse seems to be can crumble and be broken by a league specifically designed to mentally shatter its participants in order to “weed out the weak.” and even the strongest-willed people which basically every muse also seems to be may lack the particular intelligence needed to handle strategic situations that require one to think less like a trainer and more like a MILITARY COMMANDER. this applies mainly to wilhelmine’s preuzien, because her league is brutal on a scale that is unseen anywhere else in the world and what’s more, it’s not afraid to play dirty. if doing a run when lotor is champion i will be less exacting, but i still want to keep the success to failure ratio low. please don’t take it personally when i start grilling like it’s a BBQ--i just want to be realistic and a hardliner about whether your muse really has what it takes. like the officials of the prussian league itself, i want to make sure that ONLY THE BEST OF THE BEST make it through.

i will, however, say this: just because your muse fails to get to/through the prussian national tournament, doesn’t mean it’s the end for them. they could join tournaments for the badge level at which your muse stopped, or join the coordinating scene that has gained new life under lotor’s leadership. they could move on to another region and enjoy their newfound capacity to beat the shit out of almost everyone they come across, because sometimes even the people who fail in preuzien are leaps and bounds stronger than those who succeed outside it. or they could divert their efforts from trying to climb to the top, thank their lucky stars that they still have their mental health mostly intact, and start taking care of pokémon who were abused by the system. there’s still plenty to do after an unsuccessful prussian run--your character’s story will not necessarily end there, and even in prussia’s darkest days, it would not necessarily end in disaster. to sum it up, failure to complete the league is still a plot point that you may find worth exploring.

in closing, i would like to say: your muse will have it extremely rough going through prussia but honestly…the struggle is half the fun of writing it. >:3

#worldbuilding. || PREUZIEN #rea varda; our destiny. || POKÉMON AU #death*#animal abuse*#abuse*

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kittenshift-17 · 4 years

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Hi I hope you're doing ok I just wanted to ask a question. What do you think of Daenerys from game of thrones,I'm sorry its really random right but I've always wanted to know.oh and those christmas stories are really great are you going to continue those or were they just a one shot ? And as always I love you and you're writing.

Christmas stories? You mean the 👀👀👀 side-eye ask-responses fics? Because they weren’t Christmas stories, so much as people sending those “inviting creators to share something in progress that they wanted to finish in 2019, but didn’t manage to” asks to me and me sharing snippets of WIPs. Eventually all of them will be completed fics and will be shared on the appropriate archives, but until then, they’re just sitting in my “In Progress” folder, waiting to be worked on.

As for you query about Dany, I’m very on the fence about her. Throughout the books and the early seasons of the TV show, she’s my least favourite character because she’s so far removed from all the other plotlines all the way over across the Narrow Sea. There are some sections in the middle where I quite liked her, and I confess that in Season 7, I was all for having her take over as Queen of Westeros.

Unfortunately, D & D ruined that. And though I can see WHY they had to play it that way from an author’s perspective (particularly since they’re not the original authors, essentially making the last couple of seasons a D & D version of fanfic, if you think about it), I didn’t like her by the end. She went too far (no matter how Cersei pushed her to get there) and honestly, she became too hell-bent on ruling the world. Early on, her acts of violence were all for the sake of rescuing the oppressed and championing freedom. She weeded out injustice and beat it back with fire and blood, and that was great.

The continuity of that is where D & D (I beleive) were trying to take it all, but they forgot one uncomfortable thing.

When she overthrows the Khals, she rescues the men and women of the hoard and the vast number of peoples they enslave. When she overthrows the Masters of Pentos, she resuces the enslaved and downtrodden. When she overthrows the Salvers mutilating boys for their armies, she’s resucing future generations of boys from that fate. When she ‘overthrows’ Cersei, on the other hand, she rescues no one. She loses sight of doing it to protect the innocent and to help the down-trodden. Instead she roasts those very same innocent, frightened, downtrodden, terrified people of King’s Landing alive, and for what?

Power. Revenge.

There is a theme throughout her timeline that she defies those who look down on her and those who say no to her, and she does do ruthless things to the people who refuse to support her cause, but she was perceieved to temper it throughout those things as a champion for the weak because she herself had once been weak.

She loses sight of that when she faces Cersei. And in fairness, Cersei is a vicious cunt who deserverd far worse than was done to her throughout the series, but Dany lost it. The saying of the Targaryens being doomed to madness or greatness was supposed to fall on the line of greatness with her. Under her reign, I beleive Westeros could have been properous and happy. But D & D, just wanted to do a big scene with the dragon(s) I think.

And okay, yes, being traded to the Dothraki for their army and treated like a common whore by Viserys made her brittle, and losing Khal Drogo hurt her deeply. Losing Viserion to the Night King, and Rhaegal to something so stupid as a lance in broad daylight when the beast could literally have flown in any direction to dodge it was just dumb. That broke her, I think. To couple it with the ‘betrayal’ of Jon’s true origins and the threat he then posed to her rule, and then losing Missandei to Cersei’s bitchiness definitely pushed her over the edge, I think. All of these things would certainly have fucked with her mental health, and it’s not unreasonable to state that she could’ve slipped into madness.

Which I suppose, is the point, in the end, isn’t it? She becomes the very monster she slayed so many times for the sake of her people, and she acts in the ways she has always done when the people in between her and her throne won’t bend the knee, and give her what she wants. The only thing that changes is that she loses sight of who is an enemy, and who is just a helpless victim.

And I empthaize with that. The longer you spend as a survivor, the less you recall the days of only being a victim. The longer you spend rising above your trauma, the less patience you have for those wallowing in their own. It becomes easy to forget that those other victims are scared and helpless and suffering, when you want them or need them to be strong, and brave, and valiant. By the time Dany reaches King’s Landing, most of her army is destroyed. Two of three dragons dead, her lover a traitor (and her nephew, ewwww) her friend captured and killed, and so all of these things could and probably should have broken her again, like the crying, broken, helpless girl who let herself be sold for an army, and raped like a helpless female dog.

Throughout the series we watch her overcome the early trauma, and we watch the way she learns to solider on in the face of new traumas, too. They’re hurting. They’re like limbs being hacked off, I’d imagine, but she’s got to go on. She doesn’t have the luxury of breaking down in tears. She is Khaleesi. The Unburnt. The Breaker of Chains. She can’t just crumple. She’s got an army at her back relying on her strength and her guidance.

She’s toughened, maybe a little dead inside by the end after all she loses.

So she has no patience for those victims still in the early stages of their trauma journey. The small folk of King’s Landing know suffering under Cersei, but they’ve seen everyone else who stood up to the Lannisters decimated in one way or another. Ned, beheaded. Renly, slain. Robb, beheaded. Catelyn, slain. Stannis, slain. The Tyrells, murdered. All three of Cersei’s children were killed, too, but just like Dany, she soldiered on. When all the other contenders have fallen beneath the mighty paws of the Lannister tyranny, what indiciation did any of them have that Dany would be any different? What else could they do, but follow orders or be beaten to death? Die on the outside of the gates by the hand of people claiming they want to protect you, or follow orders and scurry inside, beleiving that once again, the Lannisters will be the victors?

But Dany didn’t consider any of that, because everyone else she liberated hadn’t lived through battle after battle, war after war, watching their oppressors win. The Unsullied knew only how to follow orders, and being sold to a new Master meant doing only what they were told. The enslaved rose up against the masters because before Dany, only individuals had tried to fight back, not entire armies. When you are downtrodden and someone says, “Hey, if we all rise up, we can win” and it’s the first time anyone has tried, you are filled with naive hope and courage.

But the people of King’s Landing aren’t naive and courageous. They’d seen 5 kings rise and fall at the feet of the Lannister Queen, 6 if you count King Robert. Already, many had tried to rise up and overthrow her, and already all had failed. A new queen riding in, even on the back of a dragon, wasn’t enough to rouse them from their hard-learned slavery and acceptance. No one else had won before, so better to avoid trying again. Dany’s lack of understanding for that scenario - her unwillingness to heed what Varys and Tyrion tried to tell her to educate her about the way things worked in Westerous compared to Braavos - is ultimately what made her the monster she died as.

She refused to recall that others weren’t as brave as her; weren’t as hard-hearted as her; and she refused to recognize that the people she sought to ‘free’ had already been ‘freed’ five times over, at least, and still their tyrant queen stood tall. Dany’s impatience and her anger got the better of her thanks to the suppressed agonies she endured, and her unwillingness to see reason and understand that this time, things had to be different, was ultimately why she jumped into the role of brutal overlord doomed to die.

I suppose, too, that when you flip the coin for madness or greatness, with only 2 Targaryens left on earth, you have to pick on, don’t you? Viserys was the mad one, and Dany the great one, but then Jon came along, and you flip it again, and to stay true to Jon’s nature throughout everything else, he must be the great one, so Dany has to be the mad one.

So I suppose, in answer to your question on my thoughts about Danerys, I’m... disappointed. She’s brave and brilliant and courageous in all she faces until excessive trauma makes her angry, makes her sloppy, and makes her foolish. She tries what she’s tried before and when it doesn’t work as it has every time before she throws a tantrum vile enough to end the world and to seal her fate, once and for all. I tolerated her until I liked her, and then I liked her until I didn’t. Now, I think of her as a tragic plot piece used, ultimately, to chart the course of valiant saviour to all right up until the Army of the Dead problem is resolved, a tool to batter down the walls without killing any more Starks in order to finally see Cersei dead once and for all, and then she’s tossed aside as being superfluous and in the way of the overall goal to see the Starks rise from the ashes of their destoryed family.

It’s hard to fathom in a tale with so many majoy players, but Jon Snow has always been the MAIN protagonist of the story; and everything else, including Dany, is all just circumstantial plot device to keep the story moving and to ultimately further Jon’s arc. That’s why he, alone, despite breaking every oath he took, and still trying to do what’s right, survives to the end, but gets no hero’s reward.

Based on what I know of G.R.R.M. from interviews he’s given and the overarching theme of this series as a whole, Dany’s end is fitting. You can’t stay a hero forever, you know? Eventually someone takes your hero’s crown or you become a tyrant to keep it, and someone else has to rise up and kill you, as you once rose up and slayed monsters, yourself. His whole schtick has always been that being a good person doesn’t mean you’ll get to live and doing the right thing for noble reasons will just get you killed sooner (Ned), but even those willing to do the wrong thing for the right reasons must pay their penance in the end.

After all, valar morghulis.

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sambergscott · 5 years

Text

‘cause you’ll be safe in these arms of mine

Summary: Jake and Amy asking people to be godparents, inspired by a convo with @capnperaltiago who asked for me to write this <3

She asks Rosa two minutes after the plastic stick says pregnant.

Jake and Holt are out working a case and Terry’s taken the day off to be with his girls, leaving Amy in charge of the Nine-Nine. Hitchcock and Scully have already started a small fire, one of the uniformed officers lost a piece of evidence and there was a fight amongst two perps in the holding cell. And Amy can’t stop throwing up.

At first she blames it on work-related stress and then she thinks it must have been the Chinese she ate last night while watching re-runs of Friends. It’s not until Rosa pulls out a pregnancy test she picked up from the store that she realises it could be morning sickness.

They’re not even properly trying yet. Sure, she’s come off her birth control because she’s done enough research to know that it could take months to get pregnant after coming off them and they still can’t take their hands off each other, even after over a year of marriage, but neither of them were expecting anything to happen this soon.

She pees on the stick and, several anxiety-ridden minutes later, it comes back positive.

She’s pregnant.

And she panics.

This is what she wanted, what she’s always wanted, but what if Jake’s still not quite ready yet and what if one of them dies on the job and what if they can’t actually afford this and-.

“Santiago,” comes Rosa’s gruff voice, her hands steadying Amy’s quivering shoulders, “you two have got this. You’re gonna be the best parents I know.”

“Even better than Terry and Sharon?” She snivels.

“Yeah.” Then, quickly, “don’t tell them I said that.”

“Your secret’s safe with me,” Amy promises, zipping her mouth shut.

“Yours too.” Rosa mimics her zipping action, throwing the imaginary key into the toilet like she’s Steph Curry.

Amy laughs, a sudden idea popping into her head. It seems weird to ask before consulting Jake, before Jake even knows there’s a baby inside her, but it also feels right. She rips off the bandaid. “Will you be the godmother?”

The detective freezes, her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish. “Me?”

“Mm-hmm.” Amy smiles at Rosa’s surprise. They are complete opposites — Rosa likes motorbikes, Amy likes binders, Rosa likes leather jackets and big boots, Amy likes sensible pantsuits — yet they’ve become sisters, sleuth sisters, over the past nine years. There’s nobody else Amy would consider for the job. “You’ve always had my back and I think you’d have our baby’s back, too. Plus, if our baby turns out like Jake, you’ve always known how to handle him.”

Rosa snorts, then smiles back at her. Amy thinks she detects a few tears in Rosa’s eyes, but doesn’t say a word, not wanting to ruin the moment. Rosa eventually nods. “Yeah. I’m in.”

“C’mere,” Amy cries, the damn pregnancy hormones already making her emotions crazy as she pulls Rosa into a tight hug.

It’s Jake’s idea to make Charles godfather.

Amy’s a little… apprehensive at first, to say the least, considering Charles’ track record of being totally obsessed with every aspect of their personal lives. He’s sent her 75 emails about birthing tips, offering his doula services at the end of each one, in the last week alone. He came round their apartment one night to get rid of all coffee, alcohol, shame cigarettes and any other No-No foods during pregnancy. He’s already suggested the names Charles Peralta if it’s a boy and Charlotte if it’s a girl, which Amy vetoed immediately. Making Charles godfather would only allow him into their lives further. And she loves her husband’s best friend, she really does, but she doesn’t want their kid becoming obsessed with weird milk and beige-coloured clothes and the TV show Bunheads.

When Jake argues that nobody else is gonna love their kid more than Charles, Amy finally agrees. Charles will shower their baby with all the love in the world. And if Charles has any influence at all on his godchild, it will be that their kid will be just as big a fan of Jake as Charles is.

Unlike Rosa, they both agree that they can’t just ask Charles. It needs to be an event — like when Jake asked him to be his best man with sparklers and a big ol’ banner. Amy suggests they ask him on Halloween and they spend a full evening planning how it’s going to go down.

“This year’s object is this t-shirt,” Jake announces to the squad on the biggest night of the year, holding up a plain white t-shirt with the words “Amazing Human/Genius” printed in gold foiling. “Whoever has it in their possession at midnight will be declared the winner.”

Like Halloween V, Jake has the real prize waiting in the evidence lock-up. But he doesn’t tell anyone that.

When The Tramps (with Rosa in on Jake and Amy’s secret) barge into the evidence lock-up at two minutes before midnight, thinking they’re finally the champions, Charles is the first to lift the t-shirt out of the storage box.

(It was the one with the uneven dust pattern, just like when Jake proposed to Amy, just like he’d heard a million times over when he asked to hear the story on a bi-weekly basis).

He furrows his brow when he realises the words don’t say what they’re supposed to.

Jake and Amy jump out from behind a stack of evidence boxes and Charles shrieks. For a second they think they’ve caused yet another colleague to die from a heart attack, but he somehow stays on his feet.

“Amazing Godfather/Genius,” he reads the adapted text, trembling like a leaf. His eyes meet Jake’s, who nods, confirming that, yes, his wildest dreams have indeed come true.

“What do you say, bud?” Jake prompts.

“Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!”

Amy laughs happily as she watches her husband and his best friend embrace, exchanging wide grins with Terry and Rosa. Their kid is a lucky guy or girl with their entire Nine-Nine family looking out for them.

There’s only one last thing to do.

They arrange to have dinner with Holt and Kevin to ask them if they will be the “god-grandfathers” of their unborn child.

(“God-grandfathers are not a thing, Peralta,” Amy had said when he first proposed the word, rolling her eyes.

“Who says?”

“The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, for starters.”

“Well, it’s a thing now,” Jake decided. He’d never cared for the Merriam-Webster Dictionary before, so why should he now? No use changing the habit of a lifetime. “It’s our thing. Because they’re our #Dads. I wouldn’t feel comfortable raising our kid without them.”

Her face softened, tears pricking at her eyes — those damn pregnancy hormones again — and she finally agreed. “God-grandfathers it is.”)

She’s incredibly nervous by the time they’re at the front door of the Holt-Cozner home, her fingers twisting the ends of her hair into a messy braid.

Jake places his hand atop hers, stilling her fingers. He gives her hand a supportive squeeze. “It’s gonna be great, Ames.”

They don’t bring it up until there’s a lull in conversation mid-way through the casserole Kevin prepared for them, unable to wait any longer. Even Jake is a little anxious, his leg bouncing beneath the table, when he broaches the subject.

“You know how Charles and Rosa are going to be our baby’s godparents?”

“Yes, I recall Raymond mentioning the fact,” Kevin responds. “Apparently it is all Detective Boyle talks about.”

“He’s very excited,” Amy says, amused. She finds herself less annoyed and more touched by Charles’ antics when they’re directed at others and not her or her email inbox.

“Well, Ames and I would love it if you two would have an important role in our kid’s life because, I don’t know if you’ve noticed because we’re super subtle about it, but we kind of consider you both as father figures.”

“We have noticed.”

“You are not subtle at all,” Holt assures them.

“Cool, cool, cool. No doubt. No doubt. No doubt. What do you say? Would you like to be the god-grandfathers to Nakatomi Peralta?”

“Please tell me you’re not naming your child after a building from your favourite movie,” Holt says disapprovingly.

“No,” Jake scoffs, then, under his breath, “Nakatomi is a character, too.”

“We would be honoured.” Kevin smiles lovingly at his husband, then at Jake and Amy. After a few seconds, his smile falls. “Although you are aware god-grandfathers are not a real thing, yes?”

“It’s our thing,” Amy repeats Jake’s words from earlier, beaming from ear to ear.

When their baby arrives, seven point five pounds of perfection, they have a lot of visitors, all wanting to feast their eyes on the precious addition to the family. The grandparents get first hold (apparently Victor and Roger had another arm wrestling match in the hospital waiting room to decide who got the very first hold), then Amy’s brothers that live in the city, then the godparents and god-grandparents.

Charles starts crying the moment he’s in the same room as her, only stopping when Amy threatens to make him leave.

Rosa smiles more than either Jake and Amy have ever seen her smile.

Captain Holt is quite simply enamoured with the little bundle of blankets, unable to mask his emotions in his usual robotic way when his god-granddaughter grips his pinky finger.

Jake and Amy exchange proud parent smiles as they watch their hours-old daughter with four of the people they trust most, knowing she will always be safe, loved and happy when in their arms.

#my writing #peraltiago fics #b99 fics #jake x amy #the end is corny but!!!!#i've been thinking about this fic for weeks

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liveslived · 4 years

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GAME OVER @ tracer

ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END send me a ‘game over’ for a bad ending for my muse.

@damnatic for tracer

it comes down to this. the heat of the moment. curtain call. last (wo)man standing; she faces a choice, one where she becomes the hero versus the one where she steps into the name of a legend. heated, saddened. her heart is weighed under a heavy burden, the choice dawning on lena as she watches KING’S ROW falling to crumbles under the attack of the talon. everywhere there are screams, gunshots and tragedy. scent of dismay lingers in the smog up above, eyes scanning in such agony; it comes down to this.

the moment where she lives up to her reputation.

she inhales the scent, mind calming itself at the fragrance of the musky smells from the alleys she has memorized. eyes close and memories flash by. for a moment lena forgets about the war. instead she thinks back on the days she outran her friends, kissed pretty girls and shared stories with friends that no longer exist. these are the days she favors the most, the days where war was so far, far away from her, and her name was yet to be tainted by the burden of being a hero. she loves it, don’t get her wrong, for the devotion that is to be found within her bones, still, is something lena holds so proudly. to protect and to serve. oh, she has loved every second of it. though, she misses the days as lena oxton the most; what would her life have been without overwatch? her breath is shaky as breath is let out, chest sinking alongside the dropping bombs in the distance. boom, and warm eyes turn sharp and cold at the orange light piercing through the horizon of the city. tick, tock. time is running against her, cerulean and icy blue circling on her chest as feet step closer to the edge. it was a dream come true the day she became a cadet, finally able to serve the country she loved. still she serves, this faithful warrior of humanity, the woman whose kindness outdoes her in every aspect; closer, her feet meet with the edge now, eyes clear in their intention.

yet — there is doubt (for she is no machine, no, she has never been nor has lena ever desired such things), but determination enough to feast an entire population. hope never dies, nor will she ever let it die, for it is in times of pure tragedy one has to look up for a miracle, and while there might no be one lurking around every corner… who is to say you can’t make your own? she smiles. a sudden crack in her features as she comes to take the final step, body falling out past the edge.

and downwards.

while the world could always use more heroes — lena knows when her time is up, and right now, face to face with the unthinkable scene of war and flames engulfing the very town she loves and lives for, all she can think of is the vow she made; to fight, to serve and to live. it’s in her soldier heart, the one that fought for overwatch prior to her years as a hero. the heart of the woman who gave her all in order for science. where would they have been, if not for her — ?

she smiles, guns in hands as they twirl playfully; one last run.

shadow casts itself across the gray surface of the ashy building, the shadow of a woman leaving for war. it fades into nothingness, forms warping on themselves. like a tear in time she vanishes. gun’s at hand, determination on fire. if this clock is about to run out, then it’s going to run out in style. there one second, gone the next; there is a time for everyone, but sometimes their ends comes sooner than predicted (she’s fine with that, she’s been here before, but back then she was younger / inexperienced / terrified / she has grown now, there are few fears left ). king’s row stands in flames, her teleport blending in with the flying embers of the wooden structures, as explosions sounds all around her and the residue of destruction.

head o n.

in the blink of an eye, TRACER appears in front of the LEADER. a large, suited warrior whose stance screams of victor. like a hawk she strikes, guns blazing as projectiles shoot at the OPPONENT. miss, miss, miss – hit. only so many bullets manage to cut their way through to them, tracer firm in her belief that she is the right woman for the job, and even if she isn’t, then she’ll at least make sure to leave a dent in the infestation that has dared to enter HER old stomping ground. freckled features beam with anticipation, amber eyes shining with utmost euphoria (she is terrified, but her body refuses to channel such emotion, refuses to give into the sensation of being scared / not this time, not this time). again she shoots, jumping through time, coursing through the streams sewed into the very fabric of KING’S ROW. deja-vu hits her like waves, picking apart her mind, piece by piece, leaving scattered bits of her existence throughout time. she’s not supposed to jump this much, she’s supposed to give it time to rest; no rest for the wicked, less rest for the soldier and hero whose heart serves to win. again! and this time more hits make their way to the enemy, a blast directed at her, nearly throwing her of the course of the warrior. hair is butchered, strands falling onto cold, dirty concrete as TRACER, again, slips away just in time…

… for her chronal accelerator to kick in.

one final jump sends her flying into the enemy’s face, one gun pointed at their head, the other pulling on her device. straps are shown, tracer hooking herself onto the opponent, refusing to let go as hands grasp around her body (five… four… three… two…). like a leech she burrows herself into the armor, gun shifting away from the head in swift motion, directing itself at the chronal on her chest. it beams violently, features lit up from beneath. acceptance.

‘ — clock’s ticking’. it ends with a chuckle. forced, stiff, acknowledging what she is about to do (one). zap. crack. embers. they are blue, and they mix in with the ones around them. slowly approaching is a squad of biotic champions; “ … time’s out. ”

what starts as a crackle turns into a groan, body twitching in ache as blue lightning strikes from her device. a time bomb, but nothing like the one she usually guards herself with. this time she is the bomb, she is the weapon and she is living up to her reputation; no more running away, no more backing down. here’s to the ones that pulled her out, and here’s to the loves that showed her time and patience. one last curtain call, but this heroic tale ends with a boom and it wipes out the street with a sonic wave. her gun against her chest, bullets firing at the device. time’s up, and the pawn knocks down the KING. bits and pieces of her, their, fabric tears at the explosion, enemy struck by the devastating blast emitting from her body. the very seams of their existence falter under the expanding sphere. it crackles and eats away whatever stands in its way, destructing its obstacles, eating up whatever it can embrace. her, too. the hero’s body dissolving there it clings around the boss. their scream is loud, reaching far in its pained cry raging with frustration of defeat. fear can be heard, but from lena / tracer ? no. not that much. this is nothing new. she has been here before after all (the slipstream, it comes back to her, features torn in painful nostalgia as body ceases into dust), only this time —

thanks for everything, emily. there’s no going back.

(…one).

#LENA / ANSWERED #damnatic #death tw #well #this happened

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shysweetthing · 6 years

Text

I COULD NOT BE MORE EXCITED

I just want to say that I am delighted and surprised by the new YOI movie direction. I wasn’t expecting a movie focusing on early times, but once I thought about it, it makes perfect sense.

Season 1 is entirely in Yuuri’s point of view, but it’s also about a very specific slice in Yuuri’s life, and it’s about his reaching for a very specific goal: skating on the same ice with Victor, and being Victor’s equal (in many ways). One of the challenges the show has set for itself is that anything less than five-time-world-champion Yuuri is going to feel like a let down now, but also if he just keeps on winning then it’s going to lose much of the tension and surprise that made it delightful. So which is it--does Yuuri win as much as we have been promised or do we get bored? I’ve been trying to figure this out myself.

And so here is why I’m delighted--because we know that Victor’s five-time-world-champion wins came at the cost of life and love, and by the end he felt like his desire to keep surprising people was a chain around his neck.

Are there going to be delightful moments in the movie? YES. Are they going to surprise us? YES.

But this tells me, most importantly, that Sayo found a way through the “Yuuri wins all the time and we get bored” versus “Yuuri doesn’t win all the time and we get mad” maze that must follow.

We have our tension, and it doesn’t have to be “Yuuri will lose.” It becomes “Victor wants to become the coach that he needed--someone who can coach a five-time world champion without making him give up life and love to do it.”

And *that* is a delightful story.

I do think there will be sad parts of the movie--what little we saw of Victor’s backstory was sad--but I also think that it’s going to surprise and delight us. At every turn, Yuri on Ice was delightful, and I don’t think it’s going to stop.

I would personally love to see the movie end with the banquet, followed by a fast forward to a final scene--one in which Victor tells Yuuri what he wants for him as a skater, just before Yuuri skates out on the ice for what will be the first competition in Season 2.

So TL;DR, I think this is going to be something magnificent, and I am so, so excited. 2019 cannot get here fast enough.

#ice adolescence #Yuri on ice #yuri on ice movie #long post #thinky post

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itsybitsybatsyspider · 6 years

Text

Stars and Rooftops

Summary: Billy gets a new foster sibling, but she doesn’t want to stay. Or at least that’s what she keeps telling herself.

Warnings: Maybe some cursing, i don’t remember honestly.

Notes: for now, this is a oneshot, unless i want to add a chapter or two more.

Word Count: 4.9k ( and i wrote this in a DAY!! Woohoo!!)

ENJOY!!

Billy had seen a hell of a lot of weird things since becoming the Champion of the wizard, Shazam. Aliens falling from the sky and invading Earth, men running faster than the speed of sound, mermaids, (even though Victor kept insisting that they were Atlanteans), and dudes dressed up as bats, to list a few. But he had to admit, this took the cake. By far. It all started with Billy saving people from their burning building. I know, that’s pretty cliche, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.

So here he was, speeding in and out of the building trying to grab as many people as he could. The flames licking the sides of the building, turning a nice, rich brown into a smoldering black. He had just gotten the last of everyone out the door when the second floor collapsed in on itself, caving the whole thing.

Billy let out a sigh of relief. That was close.

The tenants of the former building, stood by in shock, looking at the remnants of their home. Although a few came out of their stupor and came over to thank the local hero, who blushed and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

“It was nothing. I would have done it even if i didn’t have superpowers.” He admitted to the crowd. A few of them chuckled in response to the hero’s comment and a came forward and shook his hand or gave him a quick hug. Billy didn’t want to leave them till the paramedics came, but sadly, he was late for dinner and he couldn’t stay any longer than he had. He waved goodbye to the citizens of Fawcett as his feet slowly left the ground and he was soon in the clear blue autumn skies.

Billy smiled in delight as the cold wind brushed his face and tugged at his cape. Oh how he loved flying. He believed it was the best feeling in the entire world and that nothing would ever live up to it. The bright sky above him, the sun just starting to set casting golden rays everywhere and freezing air around him was amazing. To say the least. But sadly, his flight ended shortly.

Billy touched down a block or two from the Vasquez’s house and made sure nobody was around him when he said the magic word.

“SHAZAM!”

And just like that, Fawcett City’s brave, red clad hero turned into thirteen year old Billy Batson. The magic lightening struck down and left smoke billowing through the air and little bits of electricity spasming around Billy. The boy just shrugged it off, picked up the backpack he had casted aside, and walked onto the sidewalk, acting as if nothing had happened. Anothing thing that happened to Billy since becoming the Champion, is he became more exposed to magic and it’s quirks. Like there were a few days when he would see magical creatures walking through Fawcett and nobody would even bat an eye at it, and he would laugh at how absurd it looked. There was one time when he saw a satyr buying a hotdog off of a hotdog vendor and asking for mustard, a eudaemon sitting in a bookstore sipping a cup of coffee, and even a policeman riding a unicorn. It was funny to see to say the least. And not only could he see magical creatures, but he could sense things about people. It wasn’t very noticeable, it was like heightened intuition more than anything, but it sure did come in handy when Billy got into less than preferred situations.

He had just walked up to his most recent foster home, when his gut clenched all of a sudden. There was that sixth sense again, saying that there was something off inside. Billy tensed and prepared to say the word if he needed to before he reached for the door handle and turned it.

He walked inside, calling out the usual “I’m home!” and was met with Mrs. Vasquez’s cheerful voice.

“Oh, you’re home! Good! Billy, why don’t you come into the living room and come meet our guest?”

Still wary, Billy set down his backpack and walked into the living room to see Mr. and Mrs. Vasquez sitting next to a woman in a suit and a young girl about his age looking at him strangely. The woman was in a neat black pantsuit and her hair was up in a bun and a badge clipped to her blazer. A social worker. Billy felt a rock form in his stomach. This couldn’t be good.

Meanwhile the girl just kept looking at him, as if she was trying to decipher something; she wasn’t as clean looking as the social worker, with a ratty blue sweatshirt, dirt covered red shorts, and a beanie with holes in it. Billy knew the look well. This girl was just on the streets. The boy sighed and let his shoulders sag, she had probably gotten sucked into the foster system just as he had, and the social worker was here to drop her off until they found her files or a new home to go to.

“Billy, I’d like you to meet Danielle. She’ll be staying here for a few days until Ms. Turner can find her a proper home.”

Billy smirked inwardly. ‘Called it.’ he thought.

“Dani.” the girl said. The adults in the room looked at the said girl in shock. “Sorry, what?” The social worker asked. Dani turned her gaze away from Billy and looked at Ms. Turner directly. Billy assumed that this was the first time she had spoken in a while.

“My name’s Dani. With an “i”. Not Danielle.” that said she turned her attention back to Billy. It was starting to make him uncomfortable.

“Okaaayyy. This is Dani. Billy do you wanna say something?”

“No, not really.” he said shrugging.

“Billy.” Mrs. Vasquez lightly scolded. Dani let a smirk escape her lips.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have homework to do.” the boy said as he grabbed his backpack and headed for the stairs.

Dani turned her attention to the Vasquez’s and spoke, “I like him.”

Dani was disappointed in herself. How could she have gotten caught so easily! It was an embarrassment to her ghost status and stealth abilities, and it all started with her dining and dashing. Long story short, she started to get really hungry after five days of eating nothing, and being half ghost burned lots of calories. So what was the harm in her eating a little bit and then turning invisible and leave. Except she didn’t eat a little bit. And she didn’t turn invisible. After that whole buffet she ate, the manager of the diner started pestering her about the bill and she knew she couldn’t turn invisible with witnesses. Then the manager grabbed her, called the police, and everything became a blue after that. Then before she knew it, she was sitting on a nice couch in the Vasquez residence with a damn social worker of all people discussing housing and what they were gonna do with her. She never even got a chance to slip away, and had settled for glaring out the window, watching the cars go by. It was all pretty boring until Dani got a tingly feeling down her spine, like electricity, and a breath of gold escaped her mouth. She clamped her mouth shut and glanced at the adults in the room. Luckily nobody noticed. And then the front door opened and in came the boy who she’d be living with.

“Billy! Why don’t you come into the living room and meet our new guest?” Mrs. Vasquez said. Dani scoffed internally at the sound of her being a guest when the boy, Billy, entered the room. He looked pretty similar to her, with black hair and blue eyes, but that’s where the similarities ended. He sported a red hoodie and a football jersey underneath it and blue jeans with red sneakers.

And once Dani saw him, she had this weird sense about him, like there was more to him than what meets the eye. As if he was more powerful than he was letting on. And she knew this because it was the exact same thing she and Danny did all the time.

The adults and their talking just became white noise to her as she kept looking at the boy, trying to figure out what made him so special. She heard the social worker, Ms. Turner, call her “Danielle”, and she had to speak up and correct her. The only person who called her “Danielle” was Vlad, and she wanted nothing to do with him or anything related to that monster.

She realized that that was the first time she spoke since the police station.

“Okaaayyy. Billy do you wanna say anything?”

“No, not really.” the boy said nonchalantly.

“Billy.” Mrs. Vasquez scolded. Dani smirked. Billy then said something about doing homework, and he took his bag and went upstairs.

“I like him.” She said.

Dinner that night was mac and cheese. It was Darla’s turn to choose dinner and she thought that mac and cheese would be a good idea since it was one of the Vasquez’s best dishes. So here was Billy and Freddy, setting the table while Darla and Mr. Vasquez worked on the cheesy pasta, and Mrs. Vasquez was upstairs trying to help Dani find something else to wear since her current clothes were practically dirt and rags.

“Dinner’s ready!” Darla announced proudly, placing the mac and cheese on the table, displaying the gooey dish with a flourish of her hand. Freddy smiled at her enthusiasm and Billy smirked at her antics. No matter how grumpy Billy was with everyone, he could never be grumpy with Darla. She was just like a pure ray of sunshine that could never be tainted, and even though Billy would never admit it, he would do anything to protect her. She was like a sister to him just as much as Freddy was a brother to him. But he’d never tell anyone, not even Victor, he had a reputation to uphold.

Footsteps thudded down the stairs and Dani appeared, her hair damp from a shower and wearing fresh clothes. There was a big grin on her face and Billy wondered just how long she had worn those old clothes. She had a white crop sweatshirt that said “LEGEND” and a pair of new jeans on.

“What’s for dinner? I’m starving!” Dani asked.

“Mac and cheese!” Freddy said.

“Yes! I love mac and cheese!”

“Well then you’re gonna love this. Mr. Vasquez makes the BEST mac and cheese in the whole world. Trust me.”

“Nice. And I’m sorry but i don’t think i got your name.”

“Oh right, I’m Freddy. Nice to meet you.” he said sticking out his hand to Dani for her to shake.

“Likewise.” she said taking his hand.

“And I’m Darla!” the cocoa-skinned girl said.

“Good to meet you Darla.”

“And you’ve already met Billy. He’s the broody one out of all of us.” Freddy said in a stage whisper.

“I’m not broody!” Billy protested. Darla nodded her head behind him. Dani smiled.

“Alright kids, sit down. It’s time to eat.” Mr. Vasquez said. Mrs. Vasquez, Freddy, Darla, and Billy all sat down in their respective places while Dani just stood awkwardly to the side. She had never done this before in the year she had been alive. She never did it with Danny’s family, with Vlad, and she’d been way too busy traveling the world that she never had the chance to actually try something like this.

“C’mon Dani. Sit next to Billy.” Darla said.

Dani rubbed the back of her neck and shuffled over to the empty seat next to Billy. He gave her a strange look. Dani was just about to reach for the serving spoon, when everyone at the table took each other’s hands. Billy offered his hand to her, which she was tentative to take, and Mrs. Vasquez, who was next to her, took her other hand.

“Dear Lord,” Mr. Vasquez started, “Thank you for this wonderful day and bringing Dani to us, and bless this food to our bodies. Amen.”

“Amen.” everyone else chorused after him. Dani stayed silent and looked at everybody funny as they each took turns filling up their plates.

“So, Dani,” Mr. Vasquez began, “Where were you before you came here?”

“Uhm, I was, in uh,” She stammered. Struggling to come up with a believable lie. Cause she couldn’t just say that she spent the past two weeks flying around France.

“Central. Central City.”

Mr. Vasquez’s eyebrows rose. “Wow, you’re sure a far ways from there then.”

‘Is that far?’ Dani wondered. Distance just became a word to her after a while.

“Yeah, I am.”

“Woah! Cool! Does that mean you saw the Flash?” Darla asked innocently. Dani shrugged as it was her turn to dish up her plate. The name sounded familiar to her, but she wasn’t sure why.

“Uhm, no I didn’t. Sorry.”

Darla seemed to deflate a little, but it didn’t last long.

“Where else have you been?” Freddy asked.

“All over.” Dani said. “Kind of hard to keep track of everywhere I’ve been.”

Freddy nodded, accepting the answer.

“Have you ever seen a superhero?” Billy asked. Dani smirked at the question. If only he knew how ironic that question was.

“Oh yeah, i’ve definitely seen my share of superheroes. One even saved my life.” She said before she could shut her big mouth.

Suddenly Darla and Freddy were asking question after question, wanting to know every detail about her rescue; Dani couldn’t even get a word in. Meanwhile, Billy stayed silent the entire time. Did he rescue her? He couldn’t remember everybody he saved, but he racked his brain trying to remember if he did or not.

“Freddy! Darla!” Mrs. Vasquez shouted. Effectively shutting them up. “If Dani doesn’t want to talk about it, then don’t ask.”

“Sorry.”

“Sorry, Dani.” they both said. Dani smiled sadly.

“It’s okay. You each get one question about it though. I won’t leave you hanging.” The foster siblings brightened up and Darla was the first to ask her question.

“Who saved you?”

Billy held his breath and Dani kept smiling sadly. “It was a small town hero, I doubt you guys have even heard of him, but he goes by Phantom. He was the one to save my life.” Darla’s face said it all. Even Billy was confused. He’d never heard of a hero named Phantom before, and he was on the Justice League. Wasn’t it kind of his job to learn more about other superhuman/alien beings? He’ll have to ask Victor to research him later.

“What did he save you from?” Freddy asked.

Dani fell silent. She couldn’t tell them the truth. What was she supposed to say? ‘Oh i was destabilizing and turning into a pile of goo in the basement of a psychopath and he sprayed me with some magical Febreeze and saved my life. Crazy right?’

“Uhhhmm, I’d rather not say.”

“Oh okay. Then, what can he do? What are his powers?”

Dani smiled. “Well, he can fly, turn invisible, walk through walls, and he has these cool lasers called ecto-blasts. He shoots them out of his hands and eyes. It’s pretty cool!”

“He sounds awesome!”

“Yeah, he’s super cool!”

“So he’s like a mix of Martian Manhunter and Superman?”

A flicker of confusion flashed across Dani’s face. “Uh, I guess? To be honest, i don’t pay a whole of a lot attention to the Justice League. I do like Batman though. He seems awesome. Also Wonder Woman.”

Darla got a look on her face that Dani didn’t know how to interpret, before she asked. “What do you think of Shazam?”

Billy tensed up and sent a glare at Darla.

“Who?”

Freddy choked on his water. The table was silent.

“You’re kidding right?” He said after regaining his bearings.

“You don’t know who Shazam is?” Mrs. Vasquez asked, a bit baffled, which confused Dani.

“No. Sorry. Who is he?”

At the question Billy, glanced down at his plate and started playing with his food absentmindedly. He hadn’t said a word the whole dinner and by now, he decided he wasn’t going to.

“Shazam is Fawcett City’s superhero. I’m sure you’ve seen him around while you were here. He always makes an appearance at least once a day.” Freddy said. He glanced at Billy quickly before turning back to Dani. “Maybe you just need to see a picture of him. Hold on, I’ll pull up a picture of him real quick”

Mr. Vasquez held up a finger. “Uh. Nuh uh. No phone’s at the table. You know the rules Freddy. Put it away.” He said curtly. Freddy deflated, pocketing the phone and turning back to his plate of pasta. “You can show her later. Now Billy, Freddy, Darla, how was school today. Learn anything new?”

“Sorry Billy.” Freddy whispered to his foster brother after dinner was finished. Said boy shrugged.

“It’s okay Freddy. Don’t apologize.” They arrived at their shared bedroom and Freddy closed the door behind them.

“I’m gonna go do my ‘homework’. Billy said as he opened up the window and took off it’s screen.

“Okay, have fun and tell Victor ‘Hi’ for me, and don’t die. Also, make sure you’re farther away from the house this time. Last night you were sloppy. I could hear you say ‘Shazam.’”

Billy nodded and gave Freddy a salute. “Will do.” he crept out of the window and jumped off of the roof onto the grass. Jogging away from the house until he was sure nobody he knew would hear him, he shouted the name of the wizard and flew off into the night.

“So, you’re saying that this chick, who has met superheroes before, has absolutely no idea who Shazam is?” Victor asked as he tossed Billy a football. Monitor duty was boring as ever, so of course Billy had nagged Victor into tossing a football with him.

“Yeah! Ugh, it made dinner so awkward! Like, how can she not have heard about me? I’m one of the Justice League!”

He tossed the ball back to Victor.

“Well maybe she’s been a bit too busy to research superheroes. You said that she traveled a lot. Maybe she just didn’t have the time. Not to mention she was also on the street. So cut her some slack.”

The ball flew through the air again.

“Yeah, I know. You’re right.”

They continued to throw the ball back and forth between them, making light conversation, until a rapid beeping came from the computer and they had to put the football down.

“Ready to do some superheroing?” Billy said with a cheesy grin on his face as his feet rose from the ground.

“I don’t even think that’s an actual word.”

Dani had to admit, this had been a good day. It started off terrible, with her getting caught by the police and getting placed in a home by a social worker, but in the end it was good. She got to have a home cooked meal, a place to sleep, fresh clothes, a full stomach, a hot shower, and a chance to actually live in a home. It was something she never got a chance to try. Which is why what she was about to do that much harder. She watched the digital clock next to her bed tick till one in the morning, before she sat up, cringing at the rustling of the sheets. She glanced at the bed next to her, where Darla slept, and released breath of relief when she saw she didn’t wake up.

Tapping into her core, Dani began to float from her bed. She threw off the sheets and began to drift toward the door. She wasn’t going to leave without food and water and some clean clothes. She hated having to do this, but she knew she had to. There weren’t any records of her anywhere, so when the social worker came back in a day or two with all these questions Dani couldn’t answer…

Well, it just wouldn’t end well.

She had found an empty backpack and had begun packing it with dry snacks and water bottles. Dani thought about taking some money, but she decided against it. Knowing that the family needed it more than she did. Once she was finished packing and had stuffed her pajamas in the bag, wearing the crop sweatshirt and jeans again, she crept over to her and Darla’s bedroom and floated through the door and wall onto the roof. Turning tangible, she landed on the roof and shrugged the backpack onto her shoulders. She glanced at the house one last time before turning around and walking to the edge of the roof.

But when she turned around, she gasped. Dani didn’t even think about it at the time, but the Vasquez’s house was far away from the city, so that when night came, there was both hundreds of stars out and there was the glittering skyline. This is what Dani saw. The stars twinkling in the sky and the city shimmering in all of its lights. It was two of Dani’s favorite things at one time.

‘Well, what’s the rush? As long as I’m gone before morning, everything will be fine.’ the ghost girl thought.

A wry grin on her face, Dani when over to the edge and sat down. Her legs swinging back and forth as she gazed at the stars in the sky and the stars on Earth.

‘Well, since I’m out here, I might as well have one of the snacks I packed.’ she thought to herself; knowing full well that she was just coming up with excuses to stay longer at the foster home.

Dani pulled out a granola bar and started munching on it while the stars shined and the breeze wrapped around her. And since it was hours before the sun rose, Dani had no fear of someone spotting her sitting up on the roof, stargazing. Or at least she thought. A tingle of electricity ran down her spine and her ghost sense went off. Instead it was gold instead of the normal blue.

“What are you doing?” a voice asked behind her.

Dani yelped in surprise and dropped her granola bar as she whipped around to see who had spoken. And to her surprise, it wasn’t a normal person. Nope. It was man clad in a red and gold suit with a lightning bolt on his chest and a white cape billowing behind him as he floated high above the ground. The cape had a hood on it, which was pulled over the stranger’s face, hiding his features from Dani’s view and making her feel uneasy. But this wasn’t the strangest thing to happen to Dani. She had half expected for him to start attacking her already, but when he didn’t it confused the ghost girl.

“Sorry?” she asked.

“What are you doing up here? It’s not safe standing on roofs when there’s no one to look out for you.” the mysterious man stated. Dani scoffed.

“Yeah, well I can take care of myself. Don’t need a man in a costume and cape to come to my rescue.”

The man crossed his arms and Dani felt like he was glaring at her.

“So who are you? Don’t think i’ve heard of you before.” she said to him. Hoping to keep things light.

“The name’s Shazam. And you are?”

It all clicked into place for Dani now, and a understanding smile made its way onto her face.

“Ooooohh okay. That all makes sense now. You’re Fawcett City’s own personal hero, right? Yeah, I’ve heard some good stuff about you. Probably should’ve figured it out already, but you know. They don’t call me “clueless” for nothing.” Dani knew that last part wasn’t true, but she was cloned from someone who was clueless, so it made sense that she got the misfortune of getting that quality from Danny as well.

“Who calls you “clueless”?” Shazam asked as he touched down on the roof.

“Oh you know, people.”

The superhero sat down next to her and she could feel him looking at her funny.

“What?” she asked.

“You seem much too chill to be talking to a superhero right now.” he said. Dani laughed.

“Oh man, if only you knew!”

“Well I’m just saying,” Shazam threw his hood down, revealing neat jet black hair and familiar baby blue eyes. “Not everyone is as chill as you are when having a conversation with a superpowered human being.”

Dani stopped laughing and looked at Shazam. He seemed familiar to her, but she didn’t know why he did. They had only just met. Hadn’t they?

“Yeah, you’re right. Not everyone is chill when talking to a superhero. But then again there are the exceptions.”

“You mean you?”

Dani shrugged and Shazam sighed. “You know you still didn’t tell me what you’re doing up here.” He said to her.

“Can’t a girl just sit and stargaze on her roof?”

“With a bag full of food and water and fully dressed? No. I don’t think so. That sounds like running away to me.”

Dani huffed and turned to the bag. It clearly looked like she was running away, which she was. She wasn’t even going to deny it.

“Yeah, I was.” This got the hero’s attention.

“Why? Do you not like it here? Was dinner too awkward?” He asked all of a sudden. Dani glanced up the red clad hero and looked at him funny. He seemed to realize what he had said, seeing as how he had instantly shut up. Then it began to make sense. Dinner… the gold ghost sense… the familiarity of a superhero she had never met before…

She had to admit, it was a good disguise. Even for her. Dani smiled and turned back to her bag and pulled out another granola bar and offered it to Shazam. A night of hero work was always exhausting, especially for a kid her age.

He glanced down at the bar and took it gingerly from her hand. “Thanks.” he mumbled.

“No problem. And no, dinner wasn’t awkward. In fact it was fun. I’ve never had a home cooked meal before. Or sat down at a table with a family. Or said Grace. Or even talked about my day.” Dani glanced down at the ground far below her, and she knew that it would be a good memory for her to keep.

“What? Are you serious?” Shazam said in shock. The girl nodded and turned her attention back to the sky.

“You’ve never had any of that before?”

“Nope. But it’s okay, my life isn’t absolutely terrible and miserable. Although I do wish i can do this every night. It’d be nice.”

“So why not?”

Dani stayed silent, not answering the hero’s answer, and just gazed at the city lights.

“Because I can’t.”

There was a finality in her voice, that let Shazam know that she was serious and that nothing would change her mind. But he had to try, didn’t he? To convince her to stay?

“Well, as cryptic as that sounds, I’m sure the people living here won’t mind having you around. Living in a home full of people who care about you isn’t all that bad. And trust me, I would know.”

A knowing smile graced on Dani’s face and Shazam noted that she smiled a lot, although they were all different from each other and meant different things.

“I believe you. But it’s not a matter of whether or not I want to stay, but that I can’t. If I do, something bad will happen, and I don’t want that. These people don’t deserve that. They’re a good family and I don’t know if even I deserve to be blessed with them. It’s just all a mess.” She admitted to the hero before her. He looked at her with understanding in his eyes, but didn’t say a word. It was quiet between the two until the sky started to turn grey and the lights of the city began to turn off. Dawn was nearly here and neither of them had noticed the time fly by.

“Well,” Shazam started out, “I’m not saying you shouldn’t stay. But i think you should give these people another chance. I know it’s not them and it’s you and all of that cliche stuff, but trust me on this. They are willing to do anything to help you and they care. They care a lot. It’s not some act they put. It’ll be worth while i can promise that. And hey, you’ll get to live with a family more. More dinners, more domestic small talk, more home cooked meals, mo-”

“More showers, more clean clothes, more love, more chances... “ Dani finished. She glanced at the backpack once again and then at the rising sun.

“And hey, if it doesn’t work out. You can always run away another day.” Shazam said lightly. Dani breathed a laugh. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Maybe I can stay a few more days. Till the social worker comes back anyway. Sound good to you?”

“Yeah.” Shazam said. He didn’t notice the vague slip up he did, but Dani did, and she smiled.

“Right then. Should probably head back inside and unpack before everyone wakes up and notices.”

“Yep, totally.”

“And by the way? Thanks, Billy.”

Billy hummed. “You’re welcome.”

…

“Wait.”

#shazam #danny phantom #dani phantom #fanfiction #my fanfic #dont repost #billy batson #dani fenton #dc #freddy freeman #darla #dont remember #her last name

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med-man77-blog · 6 years

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#FalklandsWar 1982 Operation Mikado... By Neil Tweedie and Thomas Harding Five in the morning, May 21 1982, seven weeks into the Falklands conflict. The Argentine radar operator at Rio Grande airbase, on the island of Tierra del Fuego, is looking forward to his bed. Outside, rain is blowing across the deserted airfield. The blip appears out of nowhere, 25 miles out to sea, coming in fast and low. Suddenly alert, the operator calls over his duty officer, but the blip has already faded. Out over the South Atlantic, two C130 Hercules transports of 47 Squadron Royal Air Force battle through the night. Buffeted by strong headwinds, they skim the waves at 50 feet to evade detection. The co-pilots peer through night‑vision goggles, guiding the pilots towards the coast, one lapse enough to cause disaster. Night vision is in its infancy, the devices a secret gift from the Americans. Tension mounts as landfall over Argentina approaches, the conclusion of a 13‑hour flight from Ascension Island involving two mid-air rendezvous with Victor tankers. Behind the crews, in the cavernous holds of the Hercules, some 60 men of B Squadron, 22nd SAS Regiment, ready their weapons and vehicles, Land Rovers bristling with machine guns. This is a one‑way mission, the best outcomes being escape to neutral Chile, or capture. The worst outcome is all too obvious. Minutes later, the C130s slam down on the runway at Rio Grande. The rear doors are already open, the lowered ramps scraping the ground. In an instant, the Land Rovers are charging straight for the apron where four French-built Super Etendard fighters of the Argentine navy stand. Some of the SAS fling charges into the engine intakes while others search for the Etendard pilots, who are to be shot on sight. Another group search for the weapon that above all others threatens Britain with defeat in the South Atlantic: the Exocet. Moments later, the first charges explode. Gunfire erupts. The world dissolves into chaos. Had it happened, Operation Mikado would have been the most dramatic raid staged by Britain since the Second World War, a desperate coup de main intended to remove the Exocet threat to the Royal Navy task force seeking to retake the Falklands. With the approach of the 30th anniversary of the war, some of those involved have cast fresh light on an operation that can be seen either as an audacious assault in the finest traditions of the SAS, or a hubristic suicide mission. “In my own mind I saw it as a one-way ticket,” says Tom Rounds, navigator in one of two Hercules crews trained for Mikado. “In my final letter to my wife I said as much. We all had our bags packed. If we didn’t come back, they just had to put them on the next plane back to the UK and hand my stuff to the missus.” The SAS, known as “hooligans” to the RAF crews, began planning assaults on Argentine airfields within days of the invasion of the Falklands on April 2, and a month before Exocet, a French-built sea‑skimming anti-ship missile, burst on to the world stage. “The planners had decided that fighter bases were acceptable targets,” says Rounds. “We reckoned it would take 20 to 30 minutes. The vehicles would rush out full of hooligans to reap mayhem. We would seal the aircraft up and take off in a minute – real Second World War stuff.” Training was intense, involving simulated nocturnal attacks on RAF airfields from Kinloss in Scotland to Binbrook in Lincolnshire. The rule book was torn up as the Hercules roared low over Britain, trying to get into airfields without being spotted by ground radar. “The station commanders were told that we might arrive at any time and would not call the control tower,” says Rounds. “We came in as low as 50 to 100 feet.” Rounds’ pilot was Jim Norfolk. “It was huge fun,” he says. “So exciting, so bloody dangerous as well. There was no night vision, there were no runway lights. One time, the rear aeroplane ended up in front. We passed each other in the descent and never knew a thing about it.” On April 19, Argentina deployed four of its five Super Etendards to Rio Grande. Only five air-launched Exocets were available. On May 4, two of the fighters, each carrying one Exocet, went in search of prey. They found it in the shape of HMS Sheffield, alone on radar picket duty. She had three minutes to react before one missile scythed through her hull, killing 20 men. Shock at the loss of a modern destroyer to a single guided weapon was profound, but solutions to the threat posed by the remaining missiles were few. Argentina’s Patagonian airfields were 4,000 miles from Ascension, Britain’s nearest airfield, making a sustained RAF bombing campaign impossible. A Sea Harrier strike would involve exposing the task force’s two irreplaceable aircraft carriers, Hermes and Invincible, to attack. Enter Brigadier Peter de la Billière, director of the SAS and a favourite of Margaret Thatcher since the Iranian embassy siege in London in 1980. He now championed the Mikado assault to the War Cabinet. There was a problem, however. Some RAF ground controllers claimed to have spotted the Hercules approaching their airfields. Surprise was the essence of Mikado, and early detection would be fatal. “There was a degree of professional pride,” says Rounds. “Air traffic control was saying, 'We spotted you way out.’ I thought, 'No, you didn’t.’ Also, they were forewarned about our coming – the Argentines wouldn’t be. Nevertheless, it created negativity that was picked up by some of the SAS.” Major John Moss, commander of the SAS’s B Squadron, became steadily less convinced about the operation’s viability, matters coming to a head as his unit prepared to leave Hereford for Ascension. The Argentines were believed to be taking steps to thwart such an attack, garrisoning airbases and dispersing aircraft. A major setback occurred on May 17, when a covert mission to insert an SAS team to observe Rio Grande was aborted. The helicopter involved flew on to Chile, where the crew and SAS team gave themselves up. Chile was a secret ally of Britain throughout the war, allowing an RAF Hercules to be based first on Easter Island in the Pacific and later on the mainland. The aircraft markings were painted out and the crew disguised with American-style flying suits. Moss’s objections earned him summary dismissal. In his autobiography, de la Billière states: “I was dismayed to find that the attitude of this unit [B Squadron] remained lukewarm. The trouble, I found, lay in the squadron commander, who himself did not believe in the proposed operation.” A more gung-ho CO was appointed and B Squadron shipped out for Ascension. Despite the failure of the covert reconnaissance mission, Mikado proceeded. It came nearest to taking place between May 19 and 23 when one, not two, Hercules was prepared for the attack. “I had a hearty all-day breakfast,” says Rounds. “Jim [Norfolk] was pacing around smoking, going, 'Rounds, how can you eat at a time like this?’ “It’s not bravery, it’s just backing yourself. If you’re worried about death, you’re in the wrong business. Get out and become a bloody accountant. It’s war. You are trained to fight and die, if need be. It didn’t matter if we couldn’t get out, but we had to get in. There was always a good chance of that. If the aircraft got shot up on the runway it didn’t matter, as long as the hooligans destroyed the fighters. Coming home was a bonus.” “You knew you weren’t coming back because there was no tanker plan for the return leg,” says Norfolk. “The plan was for us to sit on the runway waiting for the hooligans to do their stuff and come back, but they had no intention of doing that. They were going to bog off on foot to Chile, and I was going to take the aircraft and do the same.” Would it have worked? “The SAS were bloody good. If they could get off the aircraft they would have destroyed everything in sight. There would have been a lot of revenge, though, which probably would have been directed at the Hercules. “The Mikado raid? I thought it was bloody stupid, actually. Too bloody far. We didn’t go because it wasn’t authorised. Hereford had run wild with this idea. Luckily, our flight commander was down on Ascension, keeping us on the sensible side of hooliganism. With half an hour to go, he told us no order had been received. It came down to Margaret Thatcher, I suppose. It would have been too much of an escalation.” “We were geared up to go,” says Rounds, “a hair’s breadth away from the trigger being pulled. It was a huge anticlimax. The intensity of the training was immense.” John Moss has remained silent on Mikado for 30 years, but now allows himself a modicum of self-defence. In a pointed reference to de la Billière, he says: “Only four people knew what was happening, I was one of them. One person, who has written a book, didn’t actually know everything as he wasn’t at the training. Afterwards we all shook hands and decided we would never say anything about it, but one person decided to do otherwise. “I put my point of view across at the time, which I felt was the right one. After leaving the Army I went down to Argentina to look at things in a bit more detail. I’m happy with the decision I made. It was the correct one and I couldn’t care less what other people have done.” Argentina’s remaining air-launched Exocets were to claim one more victim, the container ship Atlantic Conveyor, sunk by a single hit on May 25, Argentina’s national day. With her went Chinook and Wessex helicopters intended for the British assault on Port Stanley. “Moss articulated what a lot of his men felt, and took the flak,” says Rounds. “Personally, I regret we didn’t do it. I really wanted to be tested. But we would have been lucky to get out.”

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borntomakelifeandlove · 6 years

Text

Words of Love From My Soul to Yours

1400~ words

Summary:

“I love you.” The three words are simple, yet hold so much meaning. And even despite saying it all the time to each other, Victor’s eyes still shine with adoration as Yuuri says them now. “So much,” Yuuri goes on. “There are so many reasons why. I couldn’t even begin to name them all if I tried. But if it’s for you, then I’ll do my best,” Yuuri says, determined. “Just know we’re going to be here a while.”

Victor laughs, his thumb stroking over the back of Yuuri’s hand. “I have all day,” he says. “Tell me.”

～～～

Victor asks Yuuri what he loves about him, and Yuuri is all too willing to tell him.

～～～

They’re out on a date, enjoying lunch at their favourite cafe, when Victor asks him.

“Yuuri, what do you love about me?”

Yuuri pauses, about to take a bite out of his sandwich, and instead sets it down.

Across from him, Victor wears an expression of fond curiosity. His head rests on his hand, an elbow propped up on the table. His blue eyes are alight with amusement, shimmering like a clear pond on a hot summer’s day, inviting Yuuri in.

“Everything,” he answers automatically, because it’s true.

Victor smiles at that, gives a soft laugh. “That’s cheating,” Victor playfully chastises him. “I want to hear. Won’t you tell me?”

Yuuri returns Victor’s smile, reaching across the table to connect their hands. “Oh, alright,” Yuuri gives in, as if he hadn’t been planning on poetically waxing his love for Victor from the start. Victor’s hands are warm in his own, much like the blush Yuuri feels is already beginning to colour his cheeks. He relishes in both sensations. His gaze remains fixed on their linked hands as he takes a breath to prepare himself; an unnecessary action, but he does it just the same. Then he at last looks up, making direct eye contact with Victor

Victor laughs, his thumb stroking over the back of Yuuri’s hand. “I have all day,” he says. “Tell me.”

“I love your smile,” Yuuri begins. “How you have so much love for so many things that I swear it even looks like a heart.” Yuuri’s own heart flutters, threatening to beat out of his chest as he’s gifted with the sight of it.

“I love your hair,” Yuuri says, admiring the way it shines in the light. “So soft, and beautiful. I love the way it frames your face.” Slowly, Yuuri frees one of his hands from Victor’s hold. “I love your bangs,” Yuuri says as he reaches for the fringe. Bittersweet memories of a hotel room in Barcelona flash though Yuuri’s mind, but he brushes that aside, the same way he gently brushes Victor’s bangs to the side, revealing a striking blue eye. “I love the way they keep your eye hidden. Like a precious gem that’s only for me to treasure.”

Yuuri doesn’t miss Victor’s soft gasp. He lets the hair fall back into place with a gentle fwish, and keeps going.

“I love when you blush.” His finger trails feather-light over Victor’s cheek which is now dusted pink, the colour of cotton candy and just as sweet. Yuuri continues to his nose, giving a light boop to the tip of it. “And your little nose blush is absolutely adorable.”

He remembers the first time he noticed, back in the early days of their relationship when Yuuri was still training for the grand prix final. He had called attention to the redness without thinking, blushing furiously afterwards, but Victor had simply mentioned something about it being from the chill of the rink. Now, it is far from an odd occurrence for Yuuri to lean over and kiss that cute little nose blush without so much as a warning; he knows Victor likes the surprise.

Yuuri’s finger traces the softness of Victor’s lips, and he relishes the way they part slightly at his touch. “I love your lips,” Yuuri practically sighs, the blissful feeling of them on his own all too easy to recall. “Always shining with that expensive lip balm you use. I love the way they move when you speak. I love how you sound when you speak, in Russian, or English, or French, and even Japanese. When you call me those precious pet names in languages I don’t understand, but don’t need to to know that it means you love me.”

“I do, Yuuri,” Victor says. “I do love you.”

Yuuri’s heart skips a beat, tripping over itself in his infatuation. “I know.” It’s impossible not to know, what with how openly affectionate Victor is towards Yuuri. Linked hands when they’re walking side by side, quick pecks on the cheek, the way he’s always touching Yuuri in some way or other, and the love-struck look in his eyes, never straying from Yuuri. The whole world can easily see how in love Victor is. They would have to be blind to miss it.

As for Yuuri, he tends to prefer more subdued actions to express his love. Things like making sure that Victor’s water bottle is always packed for practice, topping it up with ice to keep it cool and refreshing. Like wrapping his scarf around Victor when he forgets to bring his own, or treating Victor out to lunch, such as he is doing now.

Yuuri usually keeps his words to himself, holding them deep inside his heart where he cherishes them, almost embarrassed to voice them aloud. But he supposes a little straightforwardness every now and then surely doesn’t hurt.

“I love you too,” Yuuri says. “And I still have plenty more reasons why, if you want to hear them.”

“I have all day,” Victor re-emphasises, encouraging him to continue.

“Good.” Yuuri smiles, briefly wondering if he has ever stopped smiling at all. He highly doubts it. It feels like he’s always smiling with Victor. “Now let’s see, what else…” he muses aloud. In all honesty, he doesn’t have to think about what to say next. He has a myriad of options to choose from, each as good as the next, but he pretends to be out of ideas just to see that cute expectant expression on Victor’s face.

“There’s your skating,” Yuuri decides upon. “Five time world champion,” he cites, “and with good reason.”

“Your skating is much more beautiful than mine,” Victor tries to argue, but Yuuri disagrees with a shake of his head.

“You asked to hear about you,” Yuuri reminds him. “Your skating is what led me to you. I’ve admired you for years, longed to skate on the same ice as you. Wanted nothing more than to see that effortless grace in person, in front of me, with my own two eyes.” He recalls being a small boy, his first time watching a two-dimensional vision of Victor perform on the small tv at the Ice Castle. He remembers like yesterday the overflowing awe that washed over him, fueling his passion for skating which eventually led him here, to now, to this quaint cafe where he’s out on a romantic lunch date with Victor Nikiforov.

“I’ve skated against you, and now I’m skating with you. It’s more than I ever could have hoped for,” Yuuri says. “You’re more than I ever could have hoped for. All that I’ll ever need.”

“Wow, Yuuri,” Victor appraises, amusement in his voice and devotion in his eyes. “We really are going to be here all day!”

“Is that a problem?”

“Not in the slightest.”

Yuuri goes on, and Victor listens with open ears and an overflowing heart. Yuuri tells Victor everything, because Yuuri well and truly does love everything about Victor. Loves sharing a life with him, sharing an apartment, falling asleep in Victor’s arms and waking up to his gorgeous face. Loves having impromptu dance routines in the kitchen, sliding around in their socks, the only music being the sound of their joyful laughter bouncing off the walls.

He talks about the way Victor cares for him, when he’s sick, or anxious, or both. How he loves the way Victor picks him up, and loves how Victor loves it even more when Yuuri picks him up. He tells Victor about the fond delight that bubbles in his chest when he happens upon him having full conversations with Makkachin when he doesn’t think anyone else is around. He confesses how he loves when Victor takes him out shopping for things he doesn’t truly need but Victor insists he deserves, because it really does make him feel special.

Time becomes unimportant, forgotten as they sit in the cafe, holding hands across the small table. They eventually leave hours later, and would have stayed longer if not for the fact that the staff needed to close for the night.

#victuuri #fluff #yuuri #victor #fanfic #happy valentines day!#affectionate yuuri katsuki #let! yuuri! love! his! fiance!#rina writes

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Demetrius Andrade Defends WBO Middleweight Title Against Jason Quigley On Nov 19

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Published: October 05, 2021

Demetrius Andrade will top a World title quadruple-header as he defends his WBO World Middleweight against Jason Quigley at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire on Friday, November 19, live worldwide on DAZN.

TICKETS WILL GO ON SALE THIS WEEK – FULL DETAILS TO BE RELEASED

Andrade (30-0 18 KOs) puts his crown on the line for the fifth time and the Rhode Island star will be looking for a statement win as he hunts the unification blockbusters with his fellow belt holders at 160lbs. The 33-year-old, who picked up the vacant strap in his first fight with Eddie Hearn in Boston in October 2018, will make it five straight fights with European challengers when he steps through the ropes against Quigley. Quigley (19-1 14 KOs) moved into prime position to land a World title shot in May by beating Golden Boy stablemate Shane Mosley Jr by majority decision in a thriller in Las Vegas, and the former amateur star becomes the second Irishman to challenge ‘Boo Boo’ after Luke Keeler took on the WBO ruler in Miami in January 2020. “November 19, it’s me again,” said Andrade. “Jason Quigley, world rated, good amateur pedigree, decent skills, comes to fight, and hats off to him, he’s actually willing to step in the ring with me, which you can’t say for any of these other so-called top guys. On November 19 though I show him that there are levels to this game. Just keep winning, that’s all I can do. Go in there, handle my business, do my job, look sensational, come out healthy, and then it’s onto the next. If you have a belt at 160 or 168 lbs, let’s go. Put the politics aside, have your people call Eddie. Let’s get down to business. Charlo, stop running your mouth, making up excuse after excuse. You’re a fighter, let’s fight bro. GGG, where you at? Unify against Murata and then let’s put the three belts on the line next year. “Canelo you going to run up to 175? Cool, I can meet you there, no problem. First things first though, I need to go out on November 19, defend my championship belt, and put on a spectacular performance, and that’s exactly what I plan on doing.” “I’ve worked my whole career to get into this position of becoming world champion,” said Quigley. “Demetrius is a great champion but now it’s my time and that World title is coming back to Ireland.” Three more World title fights in support of Andrade’s clash with Quigley are led by Murodjon Akhmadaliev defending his IBF and WBA World Super Bantamweight titles against Ronny Rios. Akhmadaliev (9-0 7 KOs) was at his spiteful best last time out, putting the challenge of Ryosuke Iwasa to bed in the fifth round of his first professional outing in his homeland of Uzbekistan. ‘MJ’, who became unified champion in just his eighth fight in the paid ranks by ripping the belts from Daniel Roman, puts the belts on the line for the second time in New Hampshire and does so against his WBA mandatory challenger and #1 in the rankings. Rios (33-3 16 KOs) is in great form heading into his second World title challenge, heading to the east coast on the back of four wins, the latest being the only one to go the distance in February in Indio, California with a wide points win over Oscar Negrete. “I would like to thank my promoters Eddie Hearn and Andrei Ryabinsky for the opportunity to defend my titles in New Hampshire,” said Akhmadaliev. “I'm living and training in Indio, so I know how people love and appreciate boxing here. “It will be my second mandatory challenger in a row, he's a good fighter and I expect it to be a great fight for everybody to enjoy! As always, I'm working hard with my coaches Antonio and Joel Diaz, and we'll be prepared to defend what belongs to us!” “Who is the best to beat at my weight class? It's MJ so I am here to challenge myself with this task and I'm confident in my ability and my team to come out victorious,” said Rios. “On November 19th you will see a new world champion added to the Golden Boy stable” The third world title fight is pits Mexico vs. Puerto Rico and it’s the long-awaited showdown between Julio Cesar Martinez and McWilliams Arroyo. Mexican Martinez (18-1 14 KOs) returned to action in typically entertaining fashion in June, stopping Joel Cordova in Guadalajara to successfully defend his WBC World Flyweight title for the third time. It will be third time lucky for the Arroyo clash, with Covid squashing the first attempt to pit them together in Tulsa in May 2020 and then a hand injury to Martinez ruled him out in fight week when they were due to clash on the undercard of Canelo Alvarez’s clash with Avni Yildirim in Miami in February. Puerto Rican Arroyo (21-4 16 KOs) was able to taste action that night and picked up the Interim title at the home of the Miami Dolphins with a fifth-round win over Abraham Rodriguez and will be desperate to upgrade and rip the full title from Martinez as they finally get to tangle. “It is great that we are finally able to get this fight,” said Martinez. “We have tried twice to do it but that’s all in the past and now we’re going to go to war on October 16. “McWilliams is a strong challenger for the belt but I feel fantastic and I am ready to prove that I am the man to beat at Flyweight.” “This fight has been asked for and the fans will finally get a great battle on November 19,” said Arroyo. “I hope he will come prepared because I am going to be 100 percent ready and confident that I will be victorious.” The fourth World title bout on the bill is the second step on the path to crowing an undisputed women’s champion at 140lbs as Kali Reis takes on Jessica Camara for the WBA, IBO, and vacant WBO straps. Two-weight champion Reis (18-7-1 5 KOs) added the IBO title to her WBA crown last time out with a majority decision win over Australian Diana Prazak, and the Rhode Island champion and former WBC Middleweight ruler will be looking to add another title through victory over Camara (8-2), the Canadian that bounced back from defeat to Melissa St Vil with a confidence boosting win over Heather Hardy in May – and the stakes couldn’t be higher with the winner set to face the victor of the with October 30 clash between WBC champion Chantelle Cameron and IBF champion Mary McGee at The O2 in London, England. “I am in this tournament to collect all of the belts and become undisputed champion,” said Reis. “I want to thank DAZN, Lou DiBella and Eddie Hearn for this tremendous opportunity,” said Kali Reis. “Jessica is a talented fighter, but she will not deter me from achieving my goal. No one will.” “This is going to be a fun fight for the fans and a great fight for women’s boxing,” said Camara. “Kali will be a tough opponent, but I will be ready. On November 19, I will become a world champion. Thank you to DAZN, Lou DiBella and Eddie Hearn for putting this historic tournament together to crown an undisputed super lightweight champion.” “This is a fantastic quadruple-header of World title action,” said promoter Eddie Hearn. “Demetrius wants to show the other champions that he is the man to beat at Middleweight, so he needs to put on a big performance against a hungry and proud Irish challenger in Jason. “MJ is one of the best fighters in the world and he’s still in single figures as a pro, I think that we’re going to see a special performance against a tough foe in Ronny. Julio is one of the most entertaining fighters out there right now and there’s nothing less than fireworks expected as he finally gets in there with McWilliams. And finally, Kali and Jessica are one win away from the chance to fight to be the undisputed Super Lightweight champion - this is a night of action not to be missed.” "This is a fantastic card for fans to enjoy worldwide on DAZN, and a great example of our two partners Matchroom and Golden Boy working together to put on excellent shows,” said Ed Breeze, EVP Rights at DAZN. “Jason Quigley steps up against one of the toughest challenges in the middleweight division, the flawless and reigning WBO champion, Demetrius Andrade. What a night of boxing we have on our hands, and we’re thrilled to deliver this fight to DAZN subscribers on November 19.” “I am delighted to be able to partner up again with Matchroom to deliver the best fights for fight fans on November 19,” said Oscar De La Hoya, Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy. “Four world titles will be on the line as some of our formable, most exciting fighters take on the toughest challenges of their career to prove they are the best in their weight divisions. First, McWilliams Arroyo, will be is exercising his mandatory challenge for the WBC World Flyweight Championship against Julio Cesar Martinez. “Next, our very own Ronny Rios, who’s been on a winning streak since 2019, challenges Murodjon Akhmadaliev for the WBA and IBF Super Bantamweight World Titles. Finally, one of my favorite Golden Boy fighters, Jason Quigley will challenge Demetrius Andrade for the WBO Middleweight Title after a stellar performance against Shane Mosley Jr in May. I am fully confident in my fighters coming out successful and am looking forward to adding three new world champions to our Golden Boy roster.”

#HF #Demetrius Andrade #Jason Quigley #Matchroom Boxing #DAZN

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