#ho boy i forgot their ship names but i THINK they’re

[schrijverr]

Nicky

Charlie hears Nick’s mum call him Nicky for the first time.

On AO3.

Ships: Nick x Charlie

Warnings: none, it's very fluffy

~~~~~~~~~~~

The nickname Nicky has been around for as long as Nick can remember. It’s a bit ironic that his mum gave him a name, only to shorten it and then make a nickname on that shortening, but Nick likes his name well enough.

And the nickname Nicky has grown on him through the years. He didn’t mind it as a kid, just accepting it as kids are prone to do. It was when he turned eleven that he disliked it, thinking it was childish and begging his mum not to call him that around his friends at least, knowing he would never hear the end of it.

Now, however, Nicky carries a childhood comfort and his mum calling him that always settles something in his chest.

It’s also just part of life and not something he thinks much about. It’s his name, sort of, practically, and he doesn’t focus much on his name in general. Despite that, he is still a bit embarrassed about the nickname.

But it’s existence had slipped his mind on that faithful Saturday.

He had convinced his mum to let Charlie sleep over Friday, (an agreement now accompanied by a mortifying request to leave the door open). So, they’re in the kitchen in the morning waiting for breakfast, since his mum promised to make them pancakes.

Charlie is still a bit sleepy, squinting at the world as Nick teases him over being a cover hog. His mum listening with a smile on her face that both boys are oblivious to.

She gives them the pancakes and Charlie thanks her before eating, while Nick attacks his own stack, his thanks muffled by the food. It’s truly miraculous how much a growing boy can eat. But Nick is having a great time stuffing his face with delicious pancakes, uncaring of his mum and Charlie laughing at him together.

Eating is a silent affair on Nick’s part, too busy with his food, but his mum and Charlie converse easily. Nick is glad they like each other and get along.

When he is done he pushes his plate away with a satisfied sigh. That is when it happens.

Later he will tell Charlie that, with the emphasis on the it, nearly giving it a capital letter too and Charlie will call him dramatic, but Nick thinks he is completely justified here.

His mum gives him a look and without a thought, licks her thumb, scrubbing something off Nick’s cheek as she fondly says: “You’ve got food everywhere, Nicky.”

And if the entire act of being treated like a 5 year old instead of a 16 year old by his mum isn’t humiliating enough, Charlie chooses that moment to loudly exclaim: “Nicky?”

To her credit, his mum gives him an apologetic look and he forgives her the second she explains to him she just forgot Charlie wasn’t technically part of the family. But for now, he flushes a bright red on his already pale skin that shows a blush so easily.

“Shut up,” he whines, but seeing Charlie’s gleeful grin tells him that 1) Charlie isn’t going to shut up about it and 2) Nick is going to let him.

“Nicky?” Charlie repeats it.

“It’s just a nickname, Char,” Nick tells him, sticking out his tongue.

Charlie pinches his cheek and says: “It’s cute.”

“It’s humiliating,” Nick pouts.

“Ahww, don’t pout, Nicky,” Charlie pokes his side, making Nick giggle a bit.

“Watch it!” he warns shrinking away from the tickling.

“Watch what, Nicky?” Charlie asks, repeating the motion.

“You’re gonna regret that,” Nick exclaims playfully, already out of his chair. And while Charlie might be fast, Nick had a head start, so soon he has tackled Charlie to the ground, pinning him as he sets in a tickling attack.

Charlie is red from laughter, gasping for breath as he pleads Nick to let him go, though it is incomprehensible through the giggles. Playfully Nick says: “What’s that? I can’t hear you. You gonna have to speak up if you want something.”

“Sto-ho-ho-ho-hopppp,” Charlie whines and Nick does, afraid that Charlie will pass out if he doesn’t.

They sit for a second, Nick still semi-pinning Charlie down, Charlie heaving breaths, both grinning like idiots at each other. It’s a good moment and Nick wants to live in moments like these forever with Charlie.

Then they’re distracted by the sound of a camera. They look back and see Nick’s mum, holding her phone. She says: “Sorry, you two just looked adorable.”

“Muuuuum,” Nick pouts, blushing again.

“I think it’s nice to have memories of moments like this,” Charlie says, poking his cheek, so that he looks at the boy under him. Then Charlie grins mischievously and adds: “Nicky.”

He rolls his eyes and smiles softly in return, before getting up and giving Charlie a hand. He is acting annoyed, but he has to admit that the nickname is definitely growing on him.

Nicky isn’t that embarrassing a name when Charlie says it like that.

~~

A/N:

Just Charlie hearing Nicky or the first time has been bouncing around in my head for a long time, so I had to write it.

#RR writing #heartstopper netflix #heartstopper #nick nelson #nick nelson x charlie spring #nick x charlie #charlie spring #sarah nelson #heartstopper fanfic

[stix-n-bread]

E3 Claire/Aja perhaps?

perhaps.... yes

(the meme)

#took some creative liberty by giving claire piercings because i can.... when one popular kid crushes after another #anf the other is crushin back gmkckdkdkkdjd <3 #ho boy i forgot their ship names but i THINK they’re #ajaire #clairja #?? sounds about right??? #tales of arcadia #trollhunters #3 below #aja tarron #claire nuñez #fan art #mine #replies to asks #lamafeeling

[readbythestarlight]

c2e84

Wow, that was a surpassingly normal ad!

Oh boy here we go lore drop!

Therizdune the chained oblivion who is chained at the bottom of the abyss

"He’s basically the boogeyman" if the boogeyman was a HORRIBLE ELDRITCH MONSTER

...IS the boogeyman a horrible eldritch monster?! Oh god.

[[MORE]]

This is great and awful like terrible abyssal eldritch things that can creep into the world through gaps and rifts encourages people to be violent and awful

Also I’m so satisfied that the chains actually ended up being significant

Okay so Yussah knows a guy who we know knows Trent, so... that’s not cool. I mean o totally trust Yussah now it’s not that, it’s just can we trust Ormid?

So not all the Cerberus assembly is bad re: Yussah. But like he’s basically a hermit living in his tower, yeah? Who doesn’t go into the Empire? So like how out of touch is he?

"Trent seems just creepy" that’s putting it mildly

Money? Ball bearings? xD

Oh nice some of the Halas money

Oh Nott honey

Fjord being like "Nott? Caleb please talk to your goblin."

And they’re just all discussing it in the background

NOTT DO NOT

oh boy don’t like that

Oh dear...

"Your FACE is stupid" oh Nott

Lock the gem away somewhere

"You’ll still work at it and try?" Oh honey of course he will

I like how they handled that. They didn’t put Nott down, they gently reminded her that Halas can’t be trusted.

Oh I hope that doesn’t trigger Caleb

And I hope that didn’t just fuck them over with Halas maybe

Cad’s like "can we not?" and then just silencing everyone who keeps trying to talk to him

Y’all need to call your OTHER wizard friend (aka HOTT BOI) to let him know you’re fine and not dead or anything cause this is probably the longest he’s gone without hearing from you

"Everything’s been smoothed over" I wonder if Dairon had anything to do with that

I wonder where she is...

Also this is late cause he said it like ages ago but I love Cad’s little bits of homely wisdom, like the whole holes in a bucket metaphor.

PLATINUMMMMMMM

A WHOLE SATCHEL

TIME TO BUY A KEEP Y’ALL

Kidding I like the xhorhaus

Holy SHIT

21,000 gold??

That puts them at 350 platinum which is like 3,500 apiece NICE

Please def check in with Orli I miss him

I’m gonna insist they all get either matching M9 tattoos or Captain tusktooth tattooes

ORLIIIII

Oh my

Yeah a charisma bump is a good choice Nott xD

YOU ALL BETTER GET MATCHING TATTOOS

"chaos crew" lol

Imagine the stories those "new faces" have heard of the M9 from the older crew

1312 gold not bad!

Fuck y’all I love Orli! I missed him. I hope Fjord retires and goes back to sailing with Orli and the crew someday.

F: "Can I ask, how painful is this... procedure?"

O: "oh-ho-ho! Quite."

Oh lord

B: "Is that infected? Is that infected?!"

O: "No, he’s just a.....................Pansy."

Girls day!

Ohhh I like that idea Nott! Can’t wait to see the new art of that.

I like the start of the idea but the "like the Traveler’s hugging me" is slightly creepy to me. Idk.

BeauJester shippers just got a gift xD

Oh... Molly’s all seeing eye tattoo. My heart. Taliesin looks really touched.

Omg a nat1

Ouch fuck Matt you didn’t have to describe that

Matt’s like "here’s your pretty tattoo Nott, here’s your very lovely tattoo Jester, here’s your TOTALLY BOMBASS tattoo that goes all the way up the BACK OF YOUR SKULL Beau"

like I’m not saying Matt plays favorites but his wife’s character definitely got the coolest tattoo

Boy talk over fish and chips heck yeah

Mmm gonna get some deep talk from Caleb?

Caleb expressing that he feels like maybe they’ve been brought together for a purpose <3

Cad telling him he’s believed Caleb was meant for something important since the beginning

Caleb the green bean farmer

"The god’s plant us, plant their will and their desire, and we move towards the fruit we’re meant for bear for them." Aw that’s... sweet, Cad.

Fjord being like "idk man I’m still figuring it out" what a mood

Caleb admitting he feels like he should run away

"I have started to forget what it was like not being with you people. And we are missing one, I am stuck on the fact that we are still missing one."

I wish I was fast enough to transcribe word for word this conversation because it’s excellent

I like Fjord’s question of "when you know, do you run away or do the right thing knowing it could kill you"

C: "You two are alright."

Cad: "We’re getting better."

F: "So are you, you know, you should give yourself credit."

C: "Mm..."

Cad: "I know... just think about it."

(Wow my old Widofjord feelings just came back with a vengeance.)

Cad adding in his own encouraging words about how Caleb is growing and becoming better made me happy too

C: "I hate tattoos."

Nott in the distance: AHHHH

C: "they’re just not for me."

Cad: "they’re frowned upon in my family."

And then they go see the girls

"We brought fish and chips—what they fuck"

All the Jester ships are eating well tonight

I’m so glad Jester finally got her cool tattoo

Y’all don’t want to see mom and Yeza and Luc?

lol Jester "I didn’t tell my mom about the tattoo"

"I’ve seen parents find out their kids had tattoos literally at the funeral"

I literally could not tell if that was Cad or Taliesin sharing

You guys didn’t even say bye to Orli! YOU MONSTERS

Boy that talks blurb with Brian talk about Caleb is GOOD SHIT MAN

No Brian don’t stop please go on and on about Caleb

lol Matt getting himself in the face with the paper

I knew Dairon was the one who got them out of trouble <3

EXPOSITOR OUTFIT AYYYY

just got new official art and now Beau gets a new outfit and the girls get tattoos xD

B: "I apologize"

M9: "wwwwwoooooaaaaahhh"

And library access again yay!

HEYYYY DAIRON

Beau gets to be a role model now lol

Oh yikes... selling out the Kryn to the King... don’t like that

Vence... NewTHEYLESS??

I don’t like that

Everyone: *excited freaking about Beau’s expositor room*

Cad, a good 10 seconds behind: "You had a monk bunk."

Dairon admitting she realized her prejudices against the Kryn were wrong. You know what that is? Growth.

They’re all so proud of Expositor Beau

Caleb trying to do "normal" accents is amazing lol

I don’t want him to be split from the group but I definitely understand his concern

Scary world ending lore oh boy

Oh god I forgot about the gentleman being here...

YES NO DO NOT GO ALONE that’s a dumb idea honey Jester please

N about J: "well she convides in everybody. Just says whatever she wants to say all the time."

This whole Beau and Nott conversation is amazing xD

Fjord and Jester: talking

Beau and Nott: talking

Caduceus walking along and enjoying the group communicating and sharing their feelings

Is he an earth genasi?

That’s the second time another wizard has called Yussah a fool, poor guy

I like how Ormid’s like "who the fuck are these people" but he also trusts Yussah enough to listen to them that’s nice

Hmmm I don’t like that’s awfully suspicious

WHISPERSSSSS

He keeps coming back to the beacon and I don’t like it

So like.. what if he is in on the whole thing and is trying to steer them away from looking deeper into the beacon?

Jester honey why you go and name drop Trent?? Like fuck.

Also interesting that both the King and his council have been more aggressive and pro-war lately, and the Bright Queen is also bent on the conflict in a way that I’ve personally felt doesn’t seem to quite mesh with her character, it definitely lends towards the idea that they’re being manipulated

Ormid’s a bit of a dick, although I guess I can understand, they’re not explaining themselves super well

Hng idk how I feel about Ormid and I’m not sure that I like that he now knows Dairon is working to get an audience with the king

But then again I’m bad about telling which NPCs are trustworthy and which aren’t.

Ormid’s face when they mentioned the cat OH MY GOD

okay fine god now I have to trust him

"I know we are talking about very important things but" I’m dying

Y’all fixing to get a symbol of the Cerberus Assembly damn

I don’t necessarily LIKE Ormid not entirely trust him but he’s already

Insight check on Sprinkles to see if he wants to go back with Jester aw

lol getting pet advice from him maybe I like him a little bit

PUMAT SOOOOL

it’s been so long!

PUMAAAAT SOL

Guys I have missed Pumat so much he just brings me so much joy

Fetch quest for Pumat DO IT PLZ

Oh

Wait

Basilisk oil that’s maybe not a great idea

GO SAILING TO THE ISLANDS

They gotta go to islands for Traveler Con right is that close?

"Let me get it from CritRole stats" lol

Oh thank god health potions

Armor boost oil is neat (plus 1 to AC isn’t bad) but ouch it’s pricy

I love that they CANNOT keep money they get it and then they spend it. It’s #relatable

Uh.... what’s happening to my boy?!

Caduceus?!

MATT WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY BOY??

45 pats slashing??

WHAT IS HAPPENING

CADUCEUS

oh NO

fuck no

Is there a rift near?!

WHAT THE FUCK

The Inevitable End?

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

Evil assassin person??

45 points of damage fuck

This is bad

Sam: “WE’RE SHOPPING MATT” MOOD

23 doesn’t hit?!

Oh they’re in trouble

God DAMN I’m freaked out omg

Does he have The Invulnerable Vangrent as a map??

God what a cliffhanger

#a day late but OH MY GOD #Critical Role #cr spoilers #emi watches critical role

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S4 Ep 4: Pegasus and His Unlimited Moxie

So, I’m finally back after that long--time--when I was sick, then busy, etc etc. Long story, I peaced out from social media for the large part, and my method for finding solace mostly involved watching so much  “big living in a tiny house.”

Those houses are so damn tiny.

And now I feel better, so lets get back to business.

Just FYI, this is a midweek post because this weekend I’ll be exploring a part of California I didn’t know existed before my friend was like “Napa’s booked, so we’re going South to do our wedding in the other wine country” and it’s like “the hell are you talking about other wine country?????”

So I might be driving to a large cardboard cutout of a winery, and me and 400 guests are going to just stand in front of it and pretend that it’s real for a couple days. This means that I will probably make only like maybe three updates this month and I’m just going to have to come to terms with that.

And in case you are wondering (you’re not) the bye bye bye mashup dance we’re doing for the wedding is going great. It’s really freakin great that the Seahawks decided to choose this week to steal our thunder, so now everyone at this wedding will think we’re just all really into Football. (I’m just telling you that because I feel a need to complain so thank you for listening.)

But anyway, it was a nice surprise amongst all this *stuff* I didn’t really want to do, that this particular episode of Yugioh is pretty great. Like...guys we get Pegasus, we get Kaiba having a meltdown, we get PEGASUS. Like I forgot how much I like Pegasus.

So first off, Yugi and friends decided to watch the news about the whole shpeal from last episode, probably because each and every one of them was certain they all shared the same collective fever dream.

Something to note about Yugioh is they use a lot of near future tech, and I don’t know how much of that sci-fi goes completely over the heads of kids nowadays since this has become so normal. But yo, people in 2002 were still using AOL.

A lot has changed in 10 years. Just let that sink in, babies in the back.

(read more under the cut)

Also, please turn your entire attention over to this

Man.

the weird orange cookie on this painting is what really gets to me. It looks like a handmade soap. Because in order to soothe my soul during this stressful month I also watched a lot of cold-process soap making videos.

*quickly looks up to see if there’s Yugioh Soap*

Yeah that doesn’t exist. Hey do you think that if I sent in a Yugioh soap design into Royalty Soaps she’d actually make it? I mean, she did Studio Ghibli. This is just Studio Ghibli but on fire and with terrible hair and actually very different.

(And yes, I did, just now, in fact, make a soap design that I’m absolutely mailing to Royalty Soaps. I’ll put it at the end. No idea what it should smell like, mostly because the last thing I want to do when watching Yugioh is think about how ANY of this smells.)

See, tangents like this are why I don’t have more time.

Anyway, Yugi recalls that he was supposed to *do a thing* but also recalls that he was given really no instructions at all.

When something absolutely wonderful happens.

Y’all I was like shouting at the screen “BE A TAPE BE A TAPE BE A TAPE” and lo and behold:

Dude. Pegasus is such freakin mastermind. Remember that this show started out with them streaming video on a computer, and what did he decide to do? He sent them a tape. Pegasus knows FULL WELL how much they want to see this tape but at the same time...don’t want to watch this tape, and what follows is everyone deciding if they should or should not open Pandora’s box. A Pandora’s box they opened once before and then murdered Grandpa entirely by accident.

I can’t believe they sat on this joke for four seasons. It’s such a freakin good joke.

So of course it’s the same kid who once decided it would be a great idea to put together a puzzle that came in a box that said “WARNING THIS GODAWFUL THING KILLS PEOPLE” who decided to just stick this in the VCR when everyone else was fighting and no one was looking.

And, this is not a joke, this is literally how Pegasus decided to open this tape by scolding him for not keeping in touch when Pegasus tried to kill them not once but multiple times back on murder island. Pegasus thinks this deserves him at least a Christmas card.

Something that’s also very Pegasus is that he um--doesn’t even bother wearing an eyepatch nowadays. He’s just got...one eye now...just an empty socket that he covers with bangs and is like “ya I dare you not look at it.”

And then on, this kid’s show, they basically go through the checklist of things that are “things a child abductor would ask you to do”

And that’s it. That’s the whole tape. It’s the end of the world and Pegasus wants to get one last good prank in before it all goes belly up.

And it worked really good on Joey. But unfortunately, did not seem to phase Yugi.

And then after this, the show gets very sidetracked by some side characters that are...they still exist.

First of all, how much did Weevil spend on a bug drone? Like...what’s this guy’s day job?

Second of all, Rex and Weevil live on some weird brain plane, where they’re pretty sure that the upper echelon of card people are all in love with eachother (which, I don’t blame them, I’ve seen tumblr, it does give that impression if you’ve never watched this show). What they don’t realize is how badly each of the upper echelon of card people want to murder the Hell out of eachother, wipe eachother’s brains, and blow eachother up on a 6000 ft tower on an abandoned island.

so I guess...Unfortunately...Rex and Weevil are...still with us. Their reasoning is kind of weird--they want super good cards--but like...what’s the point of having super good cards if you’re still Rex and Weevil? Rex is so bad at cards we didn’t even get to see him lose in S2.

Also, the biker gang is back, and I still don't know their font color because they’re in dim lighting in this scene so I’ll just use these temporary font colors for now.

So, having done his one last good Joke (and maybe the only good joke that Pegasus has ever made) Pegasus decided to sit and wait for someone to do a murder on him. I mean he’s not psychic anymore, but he’s figured he’s screwed enough people that this was how he was going to go out anyway.

Mai....Valentine....

So I guess she’s back for another season? It’s weird, she made one cameo and then that was it for this episode, but it was very clearly Mai Valentine. Bro brought up that they had to make her a villain again, because she’s literally their only girl villain and I was like “no that’s, not right they’ve got...” and then I kinda sat there for a couple of seconds and I realized “oh dude there’s only been one girl villain so far in all of Yugioh!” and he was like “YEP.”

Because both of us completely forgot about Rebecca until I wrote this in this post and he was double checking it just now. My apologies to the Rebecca stans.

And then Yugi decided to let us know something extremely disturbing about his curse. The showed played it off like this was a cute thing you would want to have happen. But no. No one would ever want this.

Ho boy! They share FEELINGS?

So like...

...bear with me here--when Yugi is scared, Pharaoh gets scared. When Yugi is tired, Pharaoh feels tired. When Yugi has a complete meltdown basically every single day, Pharaoh reaches for his Tums. So um...I have to ask the question...

So who’s dating Tea? Yes, I know the real answer is neither of them, but who is the one that keeps bringing forth this ship that this show is supposed to be shipping? Both of them??? I mean they have the same feelings, and before I was like, well, I’m sure Pharaoh just kinda turns around and watches brain TV when Yugi and Tea talk about...deadlifting, or whatever she’s into, but nah he’s like...he’s got the same feelings as Yugi.

Does that just...never bother them? Like...they never get jealous? Ever?

It’s so freakin weird.

This whole sequence was Yugi being like “You can’t keep a secret from me Pharaoh, I will instantly know since I can feel you lying to me” and it’s like hot damn that’s a big lore drop that they just hop and skip away from.

So the next day they go to the airport and just go unsupervised to a foreign country.

This makes complete sense on Gramps’ part, because he was exploring Egyptian caves most of his life, so in comparison, California is baby town and Yugi would be fine. Clearly Gramps doesn’t know enough about Oakland.

Then again, Grandpa spent a very long and mysterious time in the Middle East raiding so many tombs and stealing an entire artifact that contains the whole history of a lost age of Egypt and an actual Pharaoh’s soul so like...probably wouldn’t get you past TSA in 2002. He’d send off like every red flag warning in the airport.

Give me an Air Joey spinoff this instant, Yugioh, you cowards.

It’ll be just like Wings, except all the pilots are very bad at their job and haunted by multiple ghosts.

There’s a very long pissing segment where there was no piss, but Rex begging Weevil to let him piss in the airplane. It’s about as much as you can expect out of a Rex and Weevil segment. And like, basically at this point, Rex and Weevil are married, yet this ship is never, not once, ever surfaced in my feed of fanart I see out of y’all.

And I don't blame you.

Now, when we get to California, we find out that Croquet either went completely gray or was replaced with an identical twin and also...

GUYS IT’S MY HOMESLICE.

Which doesn’t really look like this, PS.

So bro has already told me that they’re going to San Fransisco next episode or so (OMG I’m so excited to talk about it), so this is absolutely supposed to be SFO in the show. (maaaybe Oakland Airport? But I super doubt it)

Most people outside of CA don’t know the vast scale of Bay Area and that the San Fransisco Airport is not very well named since it is...not close to San Fransisco at all.

So, I’m going to guess that the show thinks they landed directly in the heart of SF. With the way this vista looks, I think they basically just painted the view from north of Downtown. Which is especially fun because that is a pretty bougie community and the thought of having just a major airport smack in the middle of it makes my heart warm and fuzzy because they have voted out an affordable housing community SO many more times than is morally acceptable. Serves you right, here’s your international airport across the street.

But Bro has warned me ahead of time that this season makes absolutely no sense geography wise...and I’m pretty stoked for that.

And then, as if reading my mind, Tea removes Rex and Weevil from the show, yet again.

Incredible that they got through customs like that, but they did arrive on a private plane, and maybe customs are different for them? I...don’t think it would be, even for a private plane, everyone has to go through customs. But, it’s a kids show, so Rex and Weevil snuck into America in a luggage bag, just like how Fox News warned us about.

Then again, I imagine that the customs agent was like “yo there’s two human bodies stuffed in here!????” and was like “ohhhhh wait, it’s a Pegasus’ plane. That adds up. Ya.” and just let it through.

Time for a classic Kaiba meltdown sequence, where he puts on a show of being really competent but is in reality acting like a stack of screaming cats in a purple trench coat.

Mokuba just working overtime to keep this ship afloat because man.

And then this next part isn’t a joke I made up--Kaiba only took as long as it took to monologue for five seconds about his reputation before doing this:

It’s more than possible that the translators have no idea who Roland is, and unlike me, isn’t keeping tabs on Roland every second that green haired fourthKaiba is on screen.

So Pegasus decides to give Kaiba a call on his video phone--because again he only saves the Panasonic Camcorder for spooking Yugi.

Pegasus could have just *called* Yugi the entire time, lol.

Anyway, without the camcorder, Pegasus now has room to stretch out his legs and stick his feet directly in the screen like the end of the world wasn’t less than 2 days ago.

And the show isn’t telling us why or how this is happening after the whole Mai thing that happened. But it’s nice to know that even when Pegasus may be absolutely held up against his will, he still freakin slays.

Youknow, Pegasus does more in this one episode to remind me that “oh yeah, Pegasus was my favorite character this whole time” than anyone else and he did in like two calls, sitting in a chair behind his desk, just screwing with people to screw with them.

And what I enjoy about Pegasus is that, although he had his eyeball removed--he’s still a freakin asshole. He still super sucks. I had a lot of questions about “how much of Pegasus being the worst was the eyeball?” And apparently the answer was “VERY little, this guy is just the freakin worst. Didn’t need to be cursed at all.”

And so, Yugioh doesn’t really do transformation sequences--unless you count when Yugi sometimes goes “yugiohhhhhh” and then to everyone else looks virtually the same. Instead Yugioh does gear up sequences.

Where we find out that Seto promised Mokuba he wouldn’t play cards anymore until he was done building all those theme parks.

I guess it’s unfortunate for Mokuba that this whole Pegasus end of the world thing happened out of nowhere and also unfortunate for Mokuba that Kaiba can build card-themed theme parks Really Quickly. I think Mokuba was banking on it taking an entire lifetime to build a park but youknow, looking at how many sequels of Yugioh there are...eh, Mokuba should have instead dared Seto to give up dueling until he finished a single semester of public school. Then those cards would have stayed buried.

Hey um...did Kaiba add hip spikes on this purple coat since Season 2? I don’t remember him having those.

Good thing I write a blog and I can check. Time for some time travel to Season 2.

Ah, yes, the hip spikes were not there in Season 2. So, at some point in between then and now, Kaiba looked at this old ass coat hanging in his closet and was like “Not Enough Butt Spikes!” and just glued em on there.

But anyway, back to Season 4...

I’m pretty sure this is one of the doors from Evangelion.

And so, off they go, straight to their death, in the world’s most un-aerodynamic vehicle.

Really glad that Dragon Plane seems to have become a permanent character, as it would if you spent 10 million dollars building a dragon plane that can’t possibly fly using real world physics.

So, Yugi and Co are going to California, and Seto is going to Season One.

And I guess Bakura was like “Oi! Loves! Is every body ready for me to murder them?” and Gramps was like “sorry, they’re getting murdered by Pegasus today” and he was like “bloody hell, every time.”

Anyway, if you just got here, this is a link to read all these recaps from the beginning, in chrono order--it’s a lot of content, and I can’t believe I spent this much time doing this.

And because you’re curious, here’s the soap design that will get absolutely rejected by Royalty Soaps because they say they like to watch anime but they also pronounced “Ghibli” wrong like over 20 times on that one video so I have a strong feeling this is not their brand.

#yugioh #ygo #photo recap #episode recap #yugi muto #seto kaiba #mokuba #joey wheeler #pegasus #tea gardner #tristan taylor #grandpa muto #rex raptor #weevil underwood #a bunch of biker gang people I don't know the name of #some guy with huge ass blue hair #s4 ep4

[mattiebluebird]

Hearthstone

That’s the topic, but oh, do I have more to say.

Let’s start at the beginning, when Hearth was described as Magnus’s surrogate “mom” who takes the day shift, and then later when we saw him for the first time (platinum blond hair, all dark clothes except for a candy cane striped scarf) and discovered he was deaf.

I knew immediately he was going to be one of my favorite characters. Just. Immediately. Fucking. Knew.

Like, what??? You’re gonna give me a blond deaf emo with a strong b(romance) with another main character AND acts like another main characters (Read: Magnus’s) mother, and you expect me NOT to freak out???

Later in the book, we really get into Hearthstone and Blitzen’s dynamic.

Oh-ho-boy, do I have things to say about that.

Let’s start with the symbolism. Hearthstone is the day (comes from Alfheim where’s it’s always light, can’t stay conscious for long without sunlight, has light skin, eyes, and hair), yet he’s dark (personality, emotionally, and past-wise), and Blitzen is the night (from Nidevellir, where it’s always night, and turns to stone in sunlight, has dark skin, hair, and eyes), yet he’s the lighter counterpart (personality- and emotion-wise if not in past)? BEAUTIFUL. PERFECT. BELONGS IN A SHAKESPEAREAN PLAY, THAT DOES.

Then we REALLY start getting into Hearthstone’s character, and asdfghjkl???!!!!111!? I don’t even know how to articulate my thoughts right now, it’s 2:30 AM, what am I doing.

Anyways, let’s start off with more of the Hearthstone-Blitzen dynamic: I don’t think I have ever, I repeat, EVER, loved a “friendship” so much in my entire life. I love protective and loyal friends, and Hearthstone just, is the physical embodiment of all of that, and I almost died while reading those Blitzstone moments.

In fact, I specifically remember a point where I was reading a Blitzstone moment very early in the first book, and I thought, “They’re gonna ship them, aren’t they? Dear gods, I hope so.”

(AND YOU DID. Thank you, fandom~)

Then, we figure out Hearth can do MAGIC, but AT A PRICE, and his PARENTS SHUNNED HIM FOR BEING DEAF. Also, since Blitzen and Hearth have been watching over Magnus for two years, and Blitz says he’s twenty, that means (assuming Hearth and Blitz are the same age) that when they first met on the streets, Magnus was fourteen, and Hearth and Blitz were eighteen. Just think about that. Do you know how hard it must’ve been to trust these two older, slightly threatening men when you’re a fourteen-year-old who just lost his mother, thinks he’s going insane because she was killed by wolves with glowing eyes and wolves don’t have glowing eyes, and also is on the run from authorities and scared and alone? Can you imagine Blitzen or Hearth trying to coax Magnus out from some dark alleyway or something? MY HEART.

And also, since (in my opinion -I could be wrong) Hearth and Blitz were together for AT LEAST a year before they met Magnus, that means they were at the most seventeen when they met, and that just really melts my heart for some reason.

Side note: I don’t have a copy of the book with me at the moment, but at some point in time I remember Hearthstone saying he used the unlocking rune (forgot what it’s called) on the day he met Blitz. DOES THAT MEAN THAT HEARTHSTONE LITERALLY BROKE INTO BLITZEN’S HOUSE?!? Like, imagine seventeen/sixteen-year-old Blitzen coming home to find a pale, blond, deaf elf curled up on his living room floor, near death, and his first thought is, “Quick, a tanning bed!” Also, I like to imagine Blitzen running into a dwarven hardware store at two am and buying a bunch of ultraviolet lights (unless he just had them lying around, which is a topic that needs to be discussed), and the cashier just spends the rest of his life wondering why that strange dwarf was so anxious to by twenty UV lights and several UV lamps.

ANOTHER SIDE NOTE: Also, Hearthstone's dad (he doesn’t even deserve a name) implied that he had met Blitzen before? And Blitzen implied he had been to Hearthstone’s house before (or, at the very least, had been told a lot about it). WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN? HOW DID BLITZEN REACT TO HEARTH’S SHITTY UPBRINGING AND EVEN SHITTIER PARENTS? WAIT, AND DID INGE HAVE A CRUSH ON HEARTH AND DID BLITZ REALIZE? ARRRGGHH!

Also: Blitzen and Magnus both learned an entire language for Hearthstone, and Blitzen probably didn’t even have around anyone to translate. He and Hearth probably went through a very frustrating period where Hearth had to point at something then do the sign for it in order for Blitz to understand, or had to write it down then sign which must’ve brought up horrible memories of his childhood.

And, again, Hearthstone’s upbringing, like, oh my gods.

I love how it ended up being a sort of explanation for how emotionless Hearth is, and actually explained certain parts of his personality, like why’s he so attached to Blitzen (more on this one paragraph down) instead of just “here’s an emo, enjoy!” (and Uncle Rick totally could’ve done that, because everyone loves an emo and we wouldn’t have complained).

Also, how attached Hearth is to Blitzen. It totally makes sense when you know how they met (I mean, any friendship can become strong through time, but this one especially). Like, Hearthstone, a teenager who's been ashamed of himself his whole life, falls into Nidevellir, the world with no sunlight. He feels awful and knows he’s going to die soon, but breaks into a dwarven apartment with the hope that someone will save him (maybe that’s how it went down, it’s free to interpretation). And then the first dwarf he ever meets -probably the first person who wasn’t constantly sneering at him or trying to get on his good side- a race he’s been raised to hate, actually HELPS him, and CARES about him. And, like, actually doesn’t shun him for being deaf?? What is this witchcraft???

To Hearth, Blitzen is the one who pulled him out of the dark. Again, the SYMBOLISM. The night pulls the day from the dark, and in return, the day swears to protect the night? BELONGS IN A PLAY, I’M TELLING YOU.

Also, HEARHSTONE SWORE TO PROTECT BLITZEN. HE FUCKING SWORE. HE OUTRIGHT STATES IT.

Hearthstone as a character is just too powerful. The fangirls are screaming.

I feel like since I’ve been ranting about Hearth’s relationship with Blitz, I should talk about his relationship with Magnus.

Asdskjekjdgcf???!!!1?/jgdhfgjya are basically my thoughts about it, but I should probably be a little more clear for those who don’t speak fangirl.

Magnus’s interpretation of Hearthstone is amazing. Like, how a faint smile and the sign for Yay is essentially estatic fanboy screaming for Hearth, and Magnus knows that, is amazing. The fact that Magnus knows how much Hearth and Blitz mean to each other, is amazing. The fact that Magnus knows everything is right with the world as long as Hearth and Blitz are together, is amazing.

And the fact that Hearth somehow manages to be sarcastic with Magnus in sign language is amazing. I just love how Magnus jokes with everyone. I love him. I love them.

I just love everything about Hearthstone so fucking much I felt the need to write an essay about it.

#this ended up being a blitzstone rant but who cares #hearthstone is everyone's favorite character and you can't convince me otherwise #hearhstone #hearthstone in general tho #blitzstone #blitzstone rant #magnus chase #magnus chase and the gods of asgard

[e350tb]

Steven Universe: Marooned Together - Chapter Fifteen

(with thanks to @real-fakedoors for proofreading!)

“Okay, nice and easy, don’t drop it…”

Lapis watched as the trio of Peridots carefully hauled the inactive warp pad down the ramp of the Crystal Avenger, their own Peridot watching intently from afar. First out of the ship, Lenny walked backwards, checking over her shoulder every so often as the group made their way to the ground. For the first time, Lapis was able to spot her gemstone, placed squarely in the middle of her navel. Across from Lenny, a Peridot with particularly messy hair was focused dutifully on their shared task, her face, half-covered in a darkly tinted green visor, pinched in exertion. The gemstone rested neatly on her left shoulder. Finally, a figure of ramrod straight posture and jerky movements, a visorless Peridot with one eye, the place where the right one would have been nesting her gemstone, was clad in a green, sleeveless jacket.

“O… ok… okay,” nodded Lenny, “P-put it down here.”

Slow and deliberate, they set the pad down on the ground. Lapis turned to their Peridot - she shrugged and nodded.

“A reasonable effort,” she said.

It had been three months since their visit to New Earth. Since then, Lenny and her friends had worked hard on the new warp pad and were now finally ready to install it. They placed it  five hundred metres down the beach from the barn, just beyond the tree line - that way it was close, but not too close for comfort. Lapis did not want people to simply warp in without some warning.

Lenny turned to the messy haired Peridot.

“H-h-how long until y-you can connect it to the network, C?” she asked softly.

The left-shouldered gem, “C,” apparently, shrugged.

“‘Bout three cycles, give or take,” she replied, “Depends if X can keep up with me.”

“X” - the third Peridot - rolled her eyes.

“More like if you don't get distracted,” she snarked, “Remember when you were supposed to be upgrading that ship’s escape pod and you built a death ray?”

C snorted.

“Yeah, that was fun.”

X shook her head and rolled her eyes.

Cautiously, Lapis wandered over to Peridot. Things still felt decidedly awkward between them, but she wasn't outright ignoring her now, which could only be a good sign.

“So, uh,” she began nervously, “Z doesn't seem like she gets on with C, and…”

“Z’s a he, Laps.”

Amethyst stepped up behind them, lazily munching on a piece of fruit.

“She… I mean, he is?” asked Lapis.

“Yep,” nodded Amethyst, “Hung around with Peedee n’ Jeff back in the day, decided he liked their pronouns.”

Lapis nodded.

“Okay,” she said, “But what's he got against C?”

“Nothing,” replied Amethyst, “They're best friends. They just like to drag on each other a lot.

“Doesn't sound friendly,” mused Lapis.

“Mm-hmm,” said Peridot, “Sometimes I just don't understand the other Peridots.”

She looked around and frowned.

“Where's Stevonnie, anyway?” she asked.

Lapis grunted.

“Practicing with Rose’s sword,” she replied, “Again. I mean, I know they enjoy it, but… I don't know, it makes me uncomfortable.”

“You could get your own sword,” Amethyst shrugged, “Then you could have sword fights.”

Lapis pursed her lips but didn't reply.

“You guys talking about the human fusion?”

Lenny, C and Z wandered over - C had spoken, her grin widening as she mentioned Stevonnie.

“Man, they are so cool!” C continued, “I mean, Carl was watching them with that sword, and they’re like…” She mimed swinging a sword. “...and they’re not even breaking a sweat! It’s like that real famous rebel, what’s her name…”

“Rose Quartz,” said Z, “They’re her kid.”

“Yeah, right, I know, I just forgot the name,” nodded C, “But man, being them… wow. You’re so lucky to have themher, Blue. If I had a gem like that, I’d…”

“Oh, uh," Lapis did her best to hide her wince, but the flush that rushed to her cheeks was glaringly obvious. She still hadn't gotten used to the incessant need for nicknames.

"We’re just friends!” exclaimed Lapis, holding up her arms and blushing, “We’re not… it’s not… we’re barnmates!”

“But when 5XG talks about being barnmates she clearly meant…”

“Okay, time to shut up now, C,” said Z dryly, putting his hand over her mouth.

Peridot crossed her arms.

“C, when humans live in a place together, they’re called roommates,” she explained, “They’re not implicitly romantically involved. Ours was just a specific case.”

“Can we please talk about something else?” asked Lapis, burying her face in her hands.

“Actually, I got a question,” said Amethyst, “Where’d Carl go?”

“W-went back to watch S-Stevonnie practice,” replied Lenny, “I-I-I think she wants to share t-technique for… for fighting the Diamonds. ‘C-cause when they get into fighting, I…”

“Wait,” snapped Lapis, “What do you mean ‘when they get into fighting?’”

“Against Homeworld,” shrugged Z, “I mean, they’re gonna get into the fight at some point, so they’ve got to be…”

“Say’s who?” demanded Lapis.

There was a long silence.

“Well, no-one, but we all know it’s gonna happen,” shrugged Amethyst, “I mean, it’s who they are?”

She frowned as Lapis clenched her fists.

“You don’t… you don’t really think they’re just gonna hang around here while the Diamonds are still kicking everyone around, right?” she asked.

Lapis turned and marched briskly away without comment.

Amethyst took a deliberate, theatrical breath.

“Ho’ boy,” she said, “Stormy weather comin’.”

“But it’s a sunny day.”

“It’s an expression, babe.”

The tension in the barn was palpable, the air heavier than usual as a result. Lapis reclined on the hammock, her face set in a deep frown as it swung gently back and forth. Stevonnie and Amethyst were preparing gathered-fruit for eating and talking about something or another, while Peridot inspected some of the morps around the structure, grunting occasionally as she internally critiqued the designs.

Occasionally, Lapis’ eyes fell on the big, pink sword propped against the wall in the corner. Most wouldn’t spare a second glance at it, but to her it felt like a threat. She could feel a phantom prick of sharpened metal against her gem and shuddered involuntarily. The accursed thing, she thought, would surely doom them all.

Or if it didn’t, it would take Stevonnie away. And for some reason, that troubled her even more.

“Okay, food’s on!” shouted Amethyst, “There's no table here so eat off the floor I guess!”

Lapis got up from the hammock as they gathered around next to the barn doorway. She found herself sitting closest to the sword - she felt almost as if it were watching her.

You’re being paranoid, Lapis, she thought to herself.

“So,” said Amethyst, “The human resistance keep talking about raiding Blue Diamond’s supply convoys because they think that’s gonna be an amazing victory for them or something. Peedee wants us to babysit them in case they poke at something that can actually fight back.”

“Oh yeah, the mining convoys, right?” replied Stevonnie.

“Yeah, they’re gonna gloriously steal a big bunch of iron ore,” Amethyst replied dryly, “Oh, how that will hurt the Gem Empire!”

“But they’ve gotta fight back somehow, don’t they?” asked Stevonnie.

“Listen, ‘Vonnie,” replied Amethyst, “I get wanting to fight back - heck, that’s what me and Peri do - but the human resistance, they’re… well, they’re…”

“A bunch of losers,” grunted Peridot.

Amethyst pursed her lips. “Yeah, I was trying to be nice, ‘Dot.”

“Why should I be nice?” demanded Peridot, “You’ve heard the way they talk about us, Ames! You know, when they think we’re not listening… and sometimes when they know we’re listening…”

“They lost their planet, Peri.”

“Is there anyone else?” asked Stevonnie, “I mean, apart from you guys and the human resistance?”

Amethyst shrugged.

“Never found anyone,” she replied, “Most people on New Earth just want a new life. They don’t wanna pick fights. They just… they don’t think they can win, you know? Better to just keep your head down.”

“Don’t blame them,” muttered Lapis.

“But you can’t do that!” exclaimed Amethyst, “You just… Homeworld is never gonna stop expanding. You might be able to hide from them for a while, but eventually, they’ll want your planet for some reason or another, and then what happens?”

She looked down at the floor, facing falling into a serious frown.

“You’ve gotta fight.” She ground out the words, fiercely spilling out her convictions. “Even if it’s just for the people you love. Even if it’s just for yourself. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

There was a long silence.

“So…” Stevonnie finally spoke up to break the quiet, “When are they gonna do this raid?”

“Month from now, maybe two,” replied Amethyst, “If they don't call it off again. You guys can come along if you want. I mean, it'll probably be like watching paint dry but…”

“I don't think we-” began Lapis.

“Sure!” replied Stevonnie, “I mean, now I have my sword back, why not?”

“Awesome!” nodded Amethyst, speaking up before Lapis could speak, “This'll be great! I mean, nothing’s gonna happen, but it's gonna be just like old times.”

“The Crystal Gems,” added Peridot, suddenly wistful. “Together again. Well, partially, but-”

“I… I don't think that's such a good idea.”

All eyes fell on Lapis, and she felt a deep, cold sense of apprehension. She steeled herself, gently clenching her fists - she needed to say her piece.

“Lapis?” quizzed Stevonnie.

“I don't think you should be a Crystal Gem again,” said Lapis, “I think… I think it's over, and maybe we shouldn't…”

“It's over?” interrupted Stevonnie, “Lapis, it's not over! We’re still here! We can still beat them-”

“With what?!” Lapis climbed to her feet. “Do you know how many soldiers they have? How many ships? How many planets? And that's not even counting the Cluster…”

“What?” demanded Stevonnie, rising to Lapis’ level, “So we’re supposed to just lay down and die or something?”

“We don't have to die!” Lapis snapped back, “We've got a life here, Stevonnie! You can't just throw it away!”

“I wouldn't be throwing it away,” replied Stevonnie, crossing their arms, “I'd be defending it! And everyone else as well!”

“But why?” demanded Lapis, “Why do you have to defend everyone else? Why can't you just think about yourself?”

“Because that's selfish,” replied Stevonnie, “And because…”

They took a deep breath.

“Because I can't. I can't stand to think that there might be someone I can help, but I'm doing nothing. I have to do something, Lapis, even if it only helps one person. Even if I can't do that, even if it's pointless, I just… I have to try.”

“You have to try, huh?” growled Lapis, “What, you're gonna feel all good about yourself when you're dead?”

“It's not about feeling good about myself!” shouted Stevonnie, “It's about making a difference! Yeah, maybe I'll die, who knows, but I least I won't have to feel…”

“What about how I feel?!”

The barn fell dead silent. Stevonnie recoiled, their jaw dropping slightly. Lapis was shaking, her hands balled into a tight fist - her eyes could be seen glistening in the twilight.

“How am I supposed to feel,” she continued, her voice shaking, “When you go off and die for everyone else and I'm just left here? I just… I…”

She unclenched her fists, her shoulders sagging.

“You're all I have left.”

Before Stevonnie could reply, Lapis had turned around and was walking for the door. Her gem glowed and her wings extended - she looked back for just a moment at Stevonnie. They still had said nothing, their jaw still slack.

She shook her head and flew off into the night.

#steven universe #marooned together #stevonnie #lapis lazuli #peridot #amethyst #amedot

[dreamingsushi]

True Beauty - Episode 4

So here we go for episode 4 of True Beauty! So many things happened in the last weeks so I couldn’t really sit down to watch k-dramas. Or any dramas at all. But I’m now back and with a very nice new device so I can watch and make these recaps in my living room, well sited on my couch. Isn’t it amazing? Well I think so.

The episode starts with Seojun riding his motorcycle and it’s a flashback of when his friend Se Yeon died. The poor boy was accused of being a bully and he wanted to seek help from Su Ho to clear his name. But obviously it didn’t work out as Se Yeon ended dying. So it seems that’s why Seo Jun blames Su Ho for it. And there we are back in the cafeteria, when Seo Jun sits to eat with Jugyeong. Which angers Su Ho. They kind of start getting in a fight, but they are stopped by a teacher. The teacher blames it all on Seo Jun even though Su Ho claims he was the one to start the fight. They end up out of trouble because Su Ho is a good student.

The female friend, the black haired girl that his friend with both Su Ho and Ju Gyeong - I can’t remember her name right now - talks all little with Su Ho about it and wonders if things went bad between him and Seo Jun because of Se Yeon. But he only answers with a glare, so she just gives him soin ointment.

The girls are all excited about a potential love triangle between Ju Gyeong, Su Ho and Seo Jun. Ju Gyeong gets surrounded and people ask her who’s she’s going to chose ans she’s like... what chosing? She says they don’t like her, they just don’t get along well. They don’t agree but her other friend dismisses them all. Then Su Ho comes back to class but before they can ask anything, Seo Jun’s friend come over to have a talk with Su Ho. They want to defend Seo Jun, but end up almost getting in trouble. They get punished by having to clean the gym. Su Ho tries to say something about the day Se Yeon died, but Seo Jun doesn’t want to hear him making excuses. Poor Su Ho. It seems he feels really bad himself about it.

Later at night, Su Ho has a flashback of Seo Jun telling him to bring Se Yeon back. So he goes to the manga store and has another flashback of baby Ju Gyeong. She was trying to make him smile. While she’s passing by, Ju Gyeong sees Su Ho and bring him a drink. She scolds him a little for getting into a fight. Once again though, she comforts him a little, he even smiles. He asks her if it’s really important for her that people don’t wee her without make up and she says of course, because maybe others look different, but she’s extremely different without make up. And he says he can’t see the difference so much. So cute <3 Then their faces are close and she sees his lip got a cut and she touches it. Then they are interrupted by the shop owner and he sends her home to study. I guess he was shook.

The next morning, Seojun asks her if she’s dating Su Ho, but she says she doesn’t.

Big sister is still hoping to see the teacher to meet her for a meal. I love the eldest sister. She’s so dorky in her own way.

Ju Gyeong is called to solve a math problem on the board, along with Su Ho and the other smart girl. She’s having much trouble, Su Ho helps a little, but then when Seo Jun laughs, he has to take Ju Gyeong’s place. Then the girls invite Ju Gyeong to join their study group. Lon haired girl tells Su Ho to join too, but he doesn’t want to. Then short haired friend wants to set her on a blind date.

Later that day, when she goes back home taking the bus, Su Ho follows her. She gives him a chocolate bar for his math contest the next day. He says he doesn’t like sweets but takes it anyways. Then he asks her about maths and stuff, she can’t answer anything. And right then she receives a message from her blind date, which seems to upset poor Su Ho. He makes her meet the guy during day time the next day, cause she was considering night time. But he tells her not to meet the guy if she doesn’t want to. She says it’s not that she doesn’t want to, more that she’s nervous meeting a guy outside of school. Wooooups. Poor Su Ho. He’s no more a guy then? But before she can say anything, the bus stops abruptly and he prevents her face from falling. Then some other guy come to sit between the two of them and then she’s happy about the movie she’s going to see with the blind date, so Su Ho gets upset and gets down of the bus.

Seo Jun’s mom is getting out of the hospital. And she goes to pay a visit to Ju Gyeong’s mom along with Seo Jun. So Ju Gyeong tries to hide her bare face with a mask, but it’s a little bit... catastrophic. She has to put on make up again once she washes off the mask so Seo Jun won’t know. When she’s about to leave, her mom invites Seo Jun to eat over at their place the next day and he snitches on her having a date. So she snitches on him riding the bike.

While she gets ready for her date, Ju Gyeong realizes she has no pretty clothes, so she goes into her sister’s wardroom, but she finds nothing until she sees a Jingdonc package with a cute dress in it. She really doesn’t look like a teenager wearing that. The guy is so greasy though, beeeh. Lol, Su Ho went to see the movie too and he’s getting mad when he sees a boy kissing a girl. But it’s not her. Seems it’s a cameo from another drama? I haven’t seen it. But the boy looks like Eun Taek from Cheese in the Trap though. Well the cameo is not from Cheese in the Trap, I know that, but just. Hahaha. Bear with me. Always. At the end of the date, she doesn’t seem to thrilled at the idea of seeing him again though. Then after she left, Su Ho sees that the guy is meeting another girl. BAD BOY. I remember that from the Webtoon now haha. I forgot about it, but now, I remember.

When she’s back home, her mom scolds her from dating and says she would rather ship her with someone like Seojun. But Ju Gyeong is like, hell no, he’s a délinquant. And then mommy goes on explaining how much he took care of his mom while she was sick. Sweet boy Seo Jun <3 He even worked to pay his tuition and his mom’s hospital’s bill.

Then later while she’s washing up for the night, she receives a text from her date saying he’s a bad guy as he already has a girlfriend. She only remembers he rejected her. Not that he was trying to two-time. Even the big sis doesn’t notice the most important part hahaha. They’re from another world, totally. The next day Seo Jun makes fun of her for getting rejected. Such a meanie. It’s so weird though, knowing how the stories unravel, I didn’t remember him being so mean xD

Of course, Su Ho made him move away. The saviour. Later that day, it seems like Seo Jun is showing the pictures he has of Ju Gyeong with a face mask, so she steals his moto keys and he goes chasing after her. When he catches up to her, Su Ho comes in, knight in shining armour. And he joins the study group. He teaches her maths, so it makes Kang Su (is that her name) wondering how come they got so close. Then they go KTV and he covers her legs with a cushion hahaha. Su Ho ma boy <3 While she goes to the bathroom, she hears someone singing pretty well. Woooo, who is that?? WHO IS IT? Hahaha! As if I don’t know hihi! It’s Seo Jun, yep yep! She doesn’t seem him though, she just notices the motorcycle. He comes out right then and since Su Ho is about to see them, she pulls him away, but then they bump into the thugs from a few episodes back. And Su Ho sees that, so he goes running after them. Of course, since he likes our Ju Gyeong. But when they trick them, Su Ho ends up being dragged into this and he gets in trouble. But then, hello jujitsu skills. But when it’s five against one, how could he win? Fortunately the cops come over.

Seo Jun takes Ju Gyeong home on his motorcycle, since the others left with her bag. Su Ho is at the comic book when she comes home with Seo Jun. So they end up fighting, once again, so she tries to send them on their way home, but her sister is going back home drunk and she drags both of them. And she ends up throwing up on Su Ho. Poor baby boy. Ju Gyeong is super embarrassed and sorry. Definitely not how they expected to end the night.

On their way back, Seo Jun asks Su Ho if he likes Ju Gyeong, so Su Ho asks him if he does, so Seo Jun is like, maybe I should. No don’t pretend to like the girl just to piss your ex-friend. Ju Gyeong is annoying, like really, especially in the drama even more than in the webtoon. But still. Oh, Su Ho left the competition for her. Of course he likes her. My baby. I’m crushing real hard on Su Ho. I was in the Webtoon, I am still in the live action. Even though Seo Jun is a little more handsome.

Next day at school, Seo Jun hands the key to his motorbike to Ju Gyeong, saying that since she says not to ride it, he won’t and that from now on, he’ll listen to her. Of course, in front of Su Ho. That’s so mean. Fight all you want with the guy, but don’t involve an innocent girl in your fights. She wants to follow him, but Su Ho grabs her wrist and tells her not to go. And it’s the end of the episode.

I love the ending song for this. I’m in the mood for dancing, I feel like chancing~ It’s so weird because I know how the story goes, but then I also don’t because I don’t remember? So far I am still enjoying this. It might not win an award for my favorite drama of all times, but it’s a good series to change my mood and forget about stuff that upsets me. I recommend it, without having too high expectations. Watch it just to see something light and relax. That’s my advice on that! And it’s enough for today, time to turn in! Goodbye! See you soon. We’re back in full lockdown with a curfew, I’m going to have plenty of time for my beloved dramas.

#true beauty #moon ga young #im ju gyeong #cha eun woo #lee su ho #hwang in yeop #han seo jun #park yoona #kang sujin #im se mi #im hee gyeong #kdrama #k-drama #korean drama #school life #drama review #drama recap #drama reaction #webtoon

[hopeymchope]

The First Talk - Naegiri One-Shot - Danganronpa Fanfic

“Nice night, huh?"

Kyoko Kirigiri looked up from the book she was reading to see one Makoto Naegi standing about four meters away from the stone bench where she was sitting. He had positioned himself beneath a light along the walking path so that she could clearly see him.

Kyoko was seated beneath one of other the lights along the path herself, right near the edge of Hope's Peak's central plaza. She looked around, both to try and spot any other people nearby and to quickly gauge the atmosphere of the evening. "It's pleasant enough," she acknowledged. She then lifted her left arm to check her watch. "12 minutes until midnight. You're going to miss curfew if you don't head for the dorms soon," she noted.

He slowly started walking towards her as he countered, "Won't you?"

She shook her head briefly. "The back entrance to the women's dorms is four minutes from here if I cut straight through the grass," she explained quickly. "However, to reach the men's dorm on the other side, you'd have to walk around the perimeter of the women's, then cross over to their front entrance. Given the length of the building, that's at least another three minutes."

Makoto stopped walking one meter in front of her, standing with his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. "Well, uh... wow," he said awkwardly. "I guess you're not going to be staying here much longer, huh?"

"No," Kyoko said as she turned her eyes back to her book.

Makoto frowned slightly at the way the young woman seemed to be... ignoring him? Attempting to ignore him? He wasn't the best at reading people, so Makoto wasn't certain that he was right on either count. "You can tell me if I'm bothering you," he told her in an attempt to get a bead on her feelings. "But I was just, y'know... hoping to talk to you?"

She looked back up from her book and examined his face curiously. "All right," she said, closing her book and setting it aside. "Can I ask why?"

The boy felt relief when she signaled she was open to the conversation, but the question threw him a bit. He glanced sideways and shrugged. "I've already talked to the rest of our classmates," he explained, feeling self-conscious. "I'm only... I'd like to get to know everyone I can in our class."

Kyoko raised one hand to her chin as if contemplating that idea while she looked him up and down. "Okay," she said softly. "Is that why you're out here at this hour?"

Makoto chuckled. "No, no," he said. "I was out for a walk. I wanted to enjoy the weather, see what the campus looks like at night... besides, I haven't slept much for the past few days." He grinned as he looked around the nearby buildings. "Being here... " he said in awe as he looked at the surrounding campus, "...it's just too exciting! We're at the launching point of our future — the dawn of the rest of our lives. And here we are, taking that ship out from the greatest port imaginable!"

The left corner of Kyoko's mouth curled up. "You're certainly... optimistic," she said with amusement creeping into her tone.

He smiled warmly at the remark. "I've been told that's my best trait," Makoto said. "So uh, you're the Ultimate Detective?"

"That is what this place calls me, at least," Kyoko said. "My name is Kyoko Kirigiri. And you're Makoto Naegi - this year's 'Ultimate Lucky Student.'"

Makoto covered his face with his hands in embarrassment. "Oh god, I forgot to introduce myself!" he sputtered, redness growing in his cheeks.

Kyoko was unable to hold back the smile that crept across her face. "It's okay," she assured him gently. "I've known you were part of this class since before I got here, after all."

He hung his head in shame, still quite embarrassed. "R-right," he said. "And they call my name when they're taking roll, I know. It's just... " He paused and raised his head to look at her again, biting his lip. "It's just polite," he finished.

She inspected his face carefully, pondering whether this boy was really as innocuous as he seemed. He locked eyes with her, then quickly looked away, blushing. That was cute, she thought spontaneously, and suddenly the context of looking at his face changed in an instant. She was admiring the boyish good looks inherent to his cheek contours, the shape of his nose and-

"I didn't see you in any of the identified student lists online," Makoto said as he turned back to face her and interrupted her thoughts. "But you're the headmaster's daughter, right?" he asked innocently.

Immediately, Kyoko's face went dark. Tightness filled her chest. "If you mean to imply that I'm only here because of him," she spat, "You can-"

"N-no!" Makoto said quickly, waving his hands in front of him. "I wasn't saying that," he insisted. He stepped closer, cutting the distance between them in half, then paused to swallow before continuing, "I was only saying that he must be really proud and happy to have you here."

Kyoko's eyebrows shot up as tightness in her chest deflated. "O-oh," she said calmly. "I... I wouldn't know."

Makoto's shoulders slumped. "I see." He dragged a foot along the ground slowly, drawing a pattern as he searched for his next words. "I'm sorry to hear that."

She pursed her lips as she frowned. "It's fine," she said. "He was at the entrance ceremony, at least."

He scratched his cheek uncertainly. "But you didn't talk?" he asked uncertainly.

"No," Kyoko responded curtly. She blew out a breath slowly, then looked up at his face — now merely half a meter from her. "Well, come on." She scooted over on the stone bench.

Even so, he didn't move. "'Come on' and what?" he inquired, clueless.

Can anyone sincerely be this oblivious? Kyoko thought. Her eyes drifted sideways as she explained. "Quit hovering and sit down. If we're going to talk, let's do so properly."

"Oh! Thanks!" he answered brightly. He took his hands from the pockets of his hoodie and spun around, plopping down on the bench next to her. "So what're you reading? Is it for school?"

"No, it's for personal enjoyment," Kyoko informed him. "The Finishing Stroke. It's an old novel that... well, it reminds me of simpler times."

"Oh I get it," Makoto answered. He sounded confident as he theorized, "You like to read about times gone by and think back on how people's lives used to be slower-paced and more relaxed, huh?"

Kyoko's forehead furrowed. "Uh, no," she said flatly.

Makoto blinked a couple of times while staring at her. "Then wha-"

"Ellery Queen stories are an old favorite of mine," she explained calmly. "I used to read these stories... " She paused and let out an exasperated sigh in an attempt to release her lingering tension. "Nevermind," she said at last.

Makoto smiled sympathetically at her. "They remind you of when you were younger," he observed gently. "So... you're reading this book because it reminds you of a time when your relationship with your dad wasn't so complicated."

Kyoko stared at the boy he'd begun speaking in tongues. "I... yes. That's it exactly," she said quietly. She returned his smile with a small one of her own, locking eyes with him. "Nicely deduced. Or was that due to your luck?"

He laughed a little and shrugged, "I dunno," he admitted. "My luck isn't really the kind of thing I can see in action, if you can understand that."

"Ah," she said back. "May I ask you another question?"

"Absolutely," he responded.

"Why am I the last person you talked to in our class?" she asked, still smiling.

"Oh - no reason," Makoto said, glancing down. "I just couldn't seem to corner you anywhere. You keep to yourself, and... well, you move pretty fast when classes end."

Kyoko closed her eyes and considered his answer. "I see," she said. "You're not wrong."

"So why is that?" Makoto said back. "You never linger after class, you haven't gone to the first couple of social events... are you avoiding everybody?"

The subtle smile on her face faded, and she opened her eyes. "Well," she started to tell him, "I have a... very particular reason for wanting to attend Hope's Peak that I'm focusing my energies on. It doesn't involve socializing."

"All right then," Makoto said, examining her face. Wow, she's... really pretty DON'T say that out loud. "But what if you're missing out on something that could really change your life here?" His speech escalated in speed and volume progressively as he went on: "This could be the place where you meet the best friends you'll ever know! Maybe the love of your life! Or a new detective partner? I mean, anything is possible!"

Kyoko's eyelids drooped and the corners of her mouth twinged upwards a bit. She replied, "How do you keep up this level of enthusiasm? Are you on drugs, or... "

"Nothing like that!" he insisted with a blush. "I'm just... a little more gung-ho than most people, heh." He looked down and to the side, smiling in spite of himself.

She raised her hand back to her chin, contemplating that. "Perhaps you're so excited about Hope's Peak because you never expected to be here," she suggested. "I took considerable effort to make my way here, and I always expected to succeed. You, on the other hand, neither tried to make your way here nor anticipated it. Is that right?"

"Of course it's right," he told her sheepishly. "I always looked up to Hope's Peak... obviously. Everybody does, right?"

Kyoko idly glanced towards the Reserve Course Building at the far end of the campus, then looked back at him. "I suppose there's truth to such a claim," she mused.

"But there's nothing special about me," Makoto said, bearing an expression that looked both grateful and guilty. "I just got here because of a random drawing."

"That second statement may be the truth," she told him. She squinted as she added, "However... I feel like there is something distinctive about y-"

"Oh crap!" Makoto yelled. He jumped to his feet. "I'm so sorry but I gotta go!" He eyes were bulging as he looked down at her and blurted, "The curfew!"

"Calm down," Kyoko ordered him. She smiled tightly once more. "I'll walk you back to your dorm."

"B-but," he stammered as he started to sweat, "You said that it'd take me seven minutes to-"

Kyoko stood up with her book under her right arm. She ran her left hand through her hair as she told him, "It'll be fine. I have multiple ways of getting in after the doors lock."

Makoto's jaw hung open for a second before he repeated, "'Ways of getting'... what? But isn't that against — I mean, you're a detective!"

"Private detective," she corrected him. "I'm not with the police or with Hope's Peak Security, for that matter."

Makoto took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay," he said finally. "You walk me back, and I'll walk you back."

Kyoko narrowed her eyes, but she was obviously amused. "That's not how this works," she said. "I don't need your help to get into my dorm."

"I'm just trying to be chivalrous," he offered, throwing up his hands. "Besides, I'm sure you can teach me your break-in trick."

"Oh," she said in realization. "Trying to make me reveal my secrets, are you?" she teased.

"Only if you're willing," he said with a grin.

"Not just yet," she told him as she started to move towards the women's dormitory.

He jogged a bit to make it alongside of her. "Well, then maybe you can tell me more about that thing you mentioned?" he suggested hopefully.

Kyoko raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you mean the thing I find dist-"

"Ellery Queen," Makoto explained with a guilty look. "I've... actually never heard of it."

Kyoko shocked herself by giggling just a tiny bit. "Sure," she promised.

#naegiri #kyoko kirigiri #makoto naegi #naegi #kirigiri #kyouko kirigiri #makoto x kyoko #kirinae #danganronpa fanfic #danganronpa fan fiction #danganronpa fanfiction #danganronpa

[unsettlingshortstories]

Premium Harmony

Stephen King (2009)

They’ve been married for ten years and for a long time everything was O.K.—swell—but now they argue. Now they argue quite a lot. It’s really all the same argument. It has circularity. It is, Ray thinks, like a dog track. When they argue, they’re like greyhounds chasing the mechanical rabbit. You go past the same scenery time after time, but you don’t see it. You see the rabbit.

He thinks it might be different if they’d had kids, but she couldn’t. They finally got tested, and that’s what the doctor said. It was her problem. A year or so after that, he bought her a dog, a Jack Russell she named Biznezz. She’d spell it for people who asked. She loves that dog, but now they argue anyway.

They’re going to Wal-Mart for grass seed. They’ve decided to sell the house—they can’t afford to keep it—but Mary says they won’t get far until they do something about the plumbing and get the lawn fixed. She says those bald patches make it look shanty Irish. It’s because of the drought. It’s been a hot summer and there’s been no rain to speak of. Ray tells her grass seed won’t grow without rain no matter how good it is. He says they should wait.

“Then another year goes by and we’re still there,” she says. “We can’t wait another year, Ray. We’ll be bankrupts.”

When she talks, Biz looks at her from his place in the back seat. Sometimes he looks at Ray when Ray talks, but not always. Mostly he looks at Mary.

“What do you think?” he says. “It’s going to rain just so you don’t have to worry about going bankrupt?”

“We’re in it together, in case you forgot,” she says. They’re driving through Castle Rock now. It’s pretty dead. What Ray calls “the economy” has disappeared from this part of Maine. The Wal-Mart is on the other side of town, near the high school where Ray is a janitor. The Wal-Mart has its own stoplight. People joke about it.

“Penny wise and pound foolish,” he says. “You ever hear that one?”

“A million times, from you.”

He grunts. He can see the dog in the rearview mirror, watching her. He sort of hates the way Biz does that. It occurs to him that neither of them knows what they are talking about.

“And pull in at the Quik-Pik,” she says. “I want to get a kickball for Tallie’s birthday.” Tallie is her brother’s little girl. Ray supposes that makes her his niece, although he’s not sure that’s right, since all the blood is on Mary’s side.

“They have balls at Wal-Mart,” Ray says. “And everything’s cheaper at Wally World.”

“The ones at Quik-Pik are purple. Purple is her favorite color. I can’t be sure there’ll be purple at Wal-Mart.”

“If there aren’t, we’ll stop at the Quik-Pik on the way back.” He feels a great weight pressing down on his head. She’ll get her way. She always does on things like this. He sometimes thinks marriage is like a football game and he’s quarterbacking the underdog team. He has to pick his spots. Make short passes.

“It’ll be on the wrong side coming back,” she says—as if they are caught in a torrent of city traffic instead of rolling through an almost deserted little town where most of the stores are for sale. “I’ll just dash in and get the ball and dash right back out.”

At two hundred pounds, Ray thinks, your dashing days are over.

“They’re only ninety-nine cents,” she says. “Don’t be such a pinchpenny.”

Don’t be so pound foolish, he thinks, but what he says is “Buy me a pack of smokes while you’re in there. I’m out.”

“If you quit, we’d have an extra forty dollars a week. Maybe more.”

He saves up and pays a friend in South Carolina to ship him a dozen cartons at a time. They’re twenty dollars a carton cheaper in South Carolina. That’s a lot of money, even in this day and age. It’s not like he doesn’t try to economize. He has told her this before and will again, but what’s the point? In one ear, out the other.

“I used to smoke two packs a day,” he says. “Now I smoke less than half a pack.” Actually, most days he smokes more. She knows it, and Ray knows she knows it. That’s marriage after a while. The weight on his head gets a little heavier. Also, he can see Biz still looking at her. He feeds the damn dog, and he makes the money that pays for the food, but it’s her he’s looking at. And Jack Russells are supposed to be smart.

He turns into the Quik-Pik.

“You ought to buy them on Indian Island if you’ve got to have them,” she says.

“They haven’t sold tax-free smokes on the rez for ten years,” he says. “I’ve told you that, too. You don’t listen.” He pulls past the gas pumps and parks beside the store. There’s no shade. The sun is directly overhead. The car’s air-conditioner only works a little. They are both sweating. In the back seat, Biz is panting. It makes him look like he’s grinning.

“Well, you ought to quit,” Mary says.

“And you ought to quit those Little Debbies,” he says. He doesn’t want to say this—he knows how sensitive she is about her weight—but out it comes. He can’t hold it back. It’s a mystery.

“I don’t eat those no more,” she says. “Any, I mean. Anymore.”

“Mary, the box is on the top shelf. A twenty-four-pack. Behind the flour.”

“Were you snooping?” A flush rises in her cheeks, and he sees how she looked when she was still beautiful. Good-looking, anyway. Everybody said she was good-looking, even his mother, who didn’t like her otherwise.

“I was hunting for the bottle opener,” he says. “I had a bottle of cream soda. The kind with the old-fashioned cap.”

“Looking for it on the top shelf of the goddam cupboard!”

“Go in and get the ball,” he says. “And get me some smokes. Be a sport.”

“Can’t you wait until we get home? Can’t you even wait that long?”

“You can get the cheap ones,” he says. “That off-brand. Premium Harmony, they’re called.” They taste like homemade shit, but all right. If she’ll only shut up about it.

“Where are you going to smoke, anyway? In the car, I suppose, so I have to breathe it.”

“I’ll open the window. I always do.”

“I’ll get the ball. Then I’ll come back. If you still feel you have to spend four dollars and fifty cents to poison your lungs, you can go in. I’ll sit with the baby.”

Ray hates it when she calls Biz the baby. He’s a dog, and he may be as bright as Mary likes to boast when they have company, but he still shits outside and licks where his balls used to be.

“Buy a few Twinkies while you’re at it,” he tells her. “Or maybe they’re having a special on Ho Hos.”

“You’re so mean,” she says. She gets out of the car and slams the door. He’s parked too close to the concrete cube of a building and she has to sidle until she’s past the trunk of the car, and he knows she knows he’s looking at her, seeing how she’s now so big she has to sidle. He knows she thinks he parked close to the building on purpose, to make her sidle, and maybe he did.

“Well, Biz, old buddy, it’s just you and me.”

Biz lies down on the back seat and closes his eyes. He may stand up on his back paws and shuffle around for a few seconds when Mary puts on a record and tells him to dance, and if she tells him (in a jolly voice) that he’s a bad boy he may go into the corner and sit facing the wall, but he still shits outside.

He sits there and she doesn’t come out. Ray opens the glove compartment. He paws through the rat’s nest of papers, looking for some cigarettes he might have forgotten, but there aren’t any. He does find a Hostess Sno Ball still in its wrapper. He pokes it. It’s as stiff as a corpse. It’s got to be a thousand years old. Maybe older. Maybe it came over on the Ark.

“Everybody has his poison,” he says. He unwraps the Sno Ball and tosses it into the back seat. “Want that, Biz?”

Biz snarks the Sno Ball in two bites. Then he sets to work licking up bits of coconut off the seat. Mary would pitch a bitch, but Mary’s not here.

Ray looks at the gas gauge and sees it’s down to half. He could turn off the motor and roll down the windows, but then he’d really bake. Sitting here in the sun, waiting for her to buy a purple plastic kickball for ninety-nine cents when he knows they could get one for seventy-nine cents at Wal-Mart. Only that one might be yellow or red. Not good enough for Tallie. Only purple for the princess.

He sits there and Mary doesn’t come back. “Christ on a pony!” he says. Cool air trickles from the vents. He thinks again about turning off the engine, saving some gas, then thinks, Fuck it. She won’t weaken and bring him the smokes, either. Not even the cheap off-brand. This he knows. He had to make that remark about the Little Debbies.

He sees a young woman in the rearview mirror. She’s jogging toward the car. She’s even heavier than Mary; great big tits shuffle back and forth under her blue smock. Biz sees her coming and starts to bark.

Ray cracks the window an inch or two.

“Are you with the blond-haired woman who just came in? She your wife?” She puffs the words. Her face shines with sweat.

“Yes. She wanted a ball for our niece.”

“Well, something’s wrong with her. She fell down. She’s unconscious. Mr. Ghosh thinks she might have had a heart attack. He called 911. You better come.”

Ray locks the car and follows her into the store. It’s cold inside. Mary is lying on the floor with her legs spread and her arms at her sides. She’s next to a wire cylinder full of kickballs. The sign over the wire cylinder says “Hot Fun in the Summertime.” Her eyes are closed. She might be sleeping there on the linoleum. Three people are standing over her. One is a dark-skinned man in khaki pants and a white shirt. A nametag on the pocket of his shirt says “mr. ghosh manager.” The other two are customers. One is a thin old man without much hair. He’s in his seventies at least. The other is a fat woman. She’s fatter than Mary. Fatter than the girl in the blue smock, too. Ray thinks by rights she’s the one who should be lying on the floor.

“Sir, are you this lady’s husband?” Mr. Ghosh asks.

“Yes,” Ray says. That doesn’t seem to be enough. “Yes, I am.”

“I am sorry to say, but I think she might be dead,” Mr. Ghosh says. “I gave the artificial respiration and the mouth-to-mouth, but . . .”

Ray thinks of the dark-skinned man putting his mouth on Mary’s. French-kissing her, sort of. Breathing down her throat right next to the wire cylinder full of plastic kickballs. Then he kneels down.

“Mary,” he says. “Mary!” Like he’s trying to wake her up after a hard night.

She doesn’t appear to be breathing, but you can’t always tell. He puts his ear by her mouth and hears nothing. He feels air on his skin, but that’s probably just the air-conditioning.

“This gentleman called 911,” the fat woman says. She’s holding a bag of Bugles.

“Mary!” Ray says. Louder this time, but he can’t quite bring himself to shout, not down on his knees with people standing around. He looks up and says, apologetically, “She never gets sick. She’s healthy as a horse.”

“You never know,” the old man says. He shakes his head.

“She just fell down,” the young woman in the blue smock says. “Not a word.”

“Did she grab her chest?” the fat woman with the Bugles asks.

“I don’t know,” the young woman says. “I guess not. Not that I saw. She just fell down.”

There’s a rack of souvenir T-shirts near the kickballs. They say things like “My Parents Were Treated Like Royalty in Castle Rock and All I Got Was This Lousy Tee-Shirt.” Mr. Ghosh takes one and says, “Would you like me to cover her face, sir?”

“God, no!” Ray says, startled. “She might only be unconscious. We’re not doctors.” Past Mr. Ghosh, he sees three kids, teen-agers, looking in the window. One has a cell phone. He’s using it to take a picture.

Mr. Ghosh follows Ray’s look and rushes at the door, flapping his hands. “You kids get out of here! You kids get out!”

Laughing, the teen-agers shuffle backward, then turn and jog past the gas pumps to the sidewalk. Beyond them, the nearly deserted downtown shimmers. A car goes by pulsing rap. To Ray, the bass sounds like Mary’s stolen heartbeat.

“Where’s the ambulance?” the old man says. “How come it’s not here yet?”

Ray kneels by his wife while the time goes by. His back hurts and his knees hurt, but if he gets up he’ll look like a spectator.

The ambulance turns out to be a Chevy Suburban painted white with orange stripes. The red jackpot lights are flashing. “castle county rescue” is printed across the front, only backward, so you can read it in your rearview mirror.

The two men who come in are dressed in white. They look like waiters. One pushes an oxygen tank on a dolly. It’s a green tank with an American-flag decal on it. “Sorry,” he says. “Just cleared a car accident over in Oxford.”

The other one sees Mary lying on the floor. “Aw, gee,” he says.

Ray can’t believe it. “Is she still alive?” he asks. “Is she just unconscious? If she is, you better give her oxygen or she’ll have brain damage.”

Mr. Ghosh shakes his head. The young woman in the blue smock starts to cry. Ray wants to ask her what she’s crying about, then knows. She has made up a whole story about him from what he just said. Why, if he came back in a week or so and played his cards right, she might toss him a mercy fuck. Not that he would, but he sees that maybe he could. If he wanted to.

Mary’s eyes don’t react to the ophthalmoscope. One E.M.T. listens to her nonexistent heartbeat, and the other takes her nonexistent blood pressure. It goes on like that for a while. The teen-agers come back with some of their friends. Other people, too. Ray guesses they’re being drawn by the flashing red lights on top of the Suburban the way bugs are drawn to a porch light. Mr. Ghosh takes another run at them, flapping his arms. They back away again. Then, when Mr. Ghosh returns to the circle around Mary and Ray, they come back.

One of the E.M.T.s says to Ray, “She was your wife?”

“Right.”

“Well, sir, I’m sorry to say that she’s dead.”

“Mary, Mother of God,” the fat lady with the Bugles says. She crosses herself.

“Oh.” Ray stands up. His knees crack. “They told me she was.”

Mr. Ghosh offers one of the E.M.T.s the souvenir T-shirt to put over Mary’s face, but the E.M.T. shakes his head and goes outside. He tells the little crowd that there’s nothing to see, as if anyone’s going to believe a dead woman on the Quik-Pik floor isn’t interesting.

The E.M.T. yanks a gurney from the back of the rescue vehicle. He does it with a single flip of the wrist. The legs fold down all by themselves. The old man with the thinning hair holds the door open and the E.M.T. pulls his rolling deathbed inside.

“Whoo, hot,” the E.M.T. says, wiping his forehead.

“You may want to turn away for this part, sir,” the other one says, but Ray watches as they lift her onto the gurney. A sheet has been tucked down at the end of it. They pull it up all the way, until it’s over her face. Now Mary looks like a corpse in a movie. They roll her out into the heat. This time, the fat woman with the Bugles holds the door for them. The crowd has retreated to the sidewalk. There must be three dozen people standing in the unrelieved August sunshine.

When Mary is stored, the E.M.T.s come back. One is holding a clipboard. He asks Ray about twenty-five questions. Ray can answer all but the one about her age. Then he remembers she’s three years younger than he is and tells them thirty-five.

“We’re going to take her to St. Stevie’s,” the E.M.T. with the clipboard says. “You can follow us if you don’t know where that is.”

“I know,” Ray says. “What? Do you want to do an autopsy? Cut her up?”

The girl in the blue smock gives a gasp. Mr. Ghosh puts his arm around her, and she puts her face against his white shirt. Ray wonders if Mr. Ghosh is fucking her. He hopes not. Not because of Mr. Ghosh’s brown skin but because he’s got to be twice her age.

“Well, that’s not our decision,” the E.M.T. says, “but probably not. She didn’t die unattended—”

“I’ll say,” the woman with the Bugles interjects.

“—and it’s pretty clearly a heart attack. You can probably have her released to the mortuary almost immediately.”

Mortuary? An hour ago they were in the car, arguing. “I don’t have a mortuary,” Ray says. “Not a mortuary, a burial plot, nothing. What the hell? She’s thirty-five.”

The two E.M.T.s exchange a look. “Mr. Burkett, there’ll be someone to help you with all that at St. Stevie’s. Don’t worry about it.”

The E.M.T. wagon pulls out with the lights still flashing but the siren off. The crowd on the sidewalk starts to break up. The countergirl, the old man, the fat woman, and Mr. Ghosh look at Ray as though he’s someone special. A celebrity.

“She wanted a purple kickball for our niece,” he says. “She’s having a birthday. She’ll be eight. Her name is Talia. Tallie for short. She was named for an actress.”

Mr. Ghosh takes a purple kickball from the wire rack and holds it out to Ray in both hands. “On the house,” he says.

“Thank you, sir,” Ray says, trying to sound equally solemn, and the woman with the Bugles bursts into tears. “Mary, Mother of God,” she says. She likes that one.

They stand around for a while, talking. Mr. Ghosh gets sodas from the cooler. These are also on the house. They drink their sodas and Ray tells them a few things about Mary. He tells them how she made a quilt that took third prize at the Castle County fair. That was in ’02. Or maybe ’03.

“That’s so sad,” the woman with the Bugles says. She has opened them and shared them around. They eat and drink.

“My wife went in her sleep,” the old man with the thinning hair says. “She just laid down on the sofa and never woke up. We were married thirty-seven years. I always expected I’d go first, but that’s not the way the good Lord wanted it. I can still see her laying there on the sofa.”

Finally, Ray runs out of things to tell them, and they run out of things to tell him. Customers are coming in again. Mr. Ghosh waits on some, and the woman in the blue smock waits on others. Then the fat woman says she really has to go. She gives Ray a kiss on the cheek before she does.

“Now you need to see to your business, Mr. Burkett,” she tells him. Her tone is both reprimanding and flirtatious.

He looks at the clock over the counter. It’s the kind with a beer advertisement on it. Almost two hours have gone by since Mary went sidling between the car and the cinder-block side of the Quik-Pik. And for the first time he thinks of Biz.

When he opens the door, heat rushes out at him, and when he puts his hand on the steering wheel to lean in he pulls it back with a cry. It’s got to be a hundred and thirty in there. Biz is dead on his back. His eyes are milky. His tongue is protruding from the side of his mouth. Ray can see the wink of his teeth. There are little bits of coconut caught in his whiskers. That shouldn’t be funny, but it is. Not funny enough to laugh at, but funny.

“Biz, old buddy,” he says. “I’m sorry. I forgot you were in here.”

Great sadness and amusement sweep over him as he looks at the baked Jack Russell. That anything so sad should be funny is just a crying shame.

“Well, you’re with her now, ain’t you?” he says, and this is so sad that he begins to cry. It’s a hard storm. While he’s crying, it comes to him that now he can smoke all he wants, and anywhere in the house. He can smoke right there at her dining-room table.

“You’re with her now, Biz,” he says again through his tears. His voice is clogged and thick. It’s a relief to sound just right for the situation. “Poor old Mary, poor old Biz. Damn it all!”

Still crying, and with the purple kickball still tucked under his arm, he goes back into the Quik-Pik. He tells Mr. Ghosh he forgot to get cigarettes. He thinks maybe Mr. Ghosh will give him a pack of Premium Harmonys on the house as well, but Mr. Ghosh’s generosity doesn’t stretch that far. Ray smokes all the way to the hospital with the windows shut and the air-conditioning on. 

[readbythestarlight]

c2e37

LIIIIIVE SHOOWWWW

And Ashley’s back for the week!

YOOOO HO HO PIRATE CAPTAIN TRAVIS

please tell me they all actually

THEY DID ACTUALLY DO THE PIRATE COSTUMES

YAAAAS

lol Sam with the Hamilton pose

Matt giggling every time the applause interrupts him kills me

Matt’s giggles in general kill me

Sam and Ashley duet yeaaaah!

“Bidet, bidet!”

Excellent

Oh shoot I completely forgot where exactly we ended last week here we go

Wait wtf I missed Sam’s whole change somehow

“Caleb gave me his Frumpkin!”

She just tHROWS HIM

C: “I have plugged the bottom of the boat, I think our troubles are behind us now.”

F: “We’re about to be bored by fucking pirates.”

Are they being even goofier than usual tonight or is it just me? I’m just cracking up every other second.

J: “I look like me only menacing.”

Travis has got himself an idiots guide to sailing lol

B: “I go over and I smack Yasha’s ass” the crowd goes crazy

Y: “Uh… am I in your way, Beau?”

Big. Meaty. hands.

Ogre. Oh boy.

Fjord’s “I fucked up” face lol

Oh no don’t split up

Oh good yeah just leave the rest of the crew to get the ship to shore

Frick except what about Caleb? He can’t leave or the ship will sink

Caleb’s confused face is life

Travis throwing around all the ship and sailor lingo lol

“Oui”

“Successful” he says. Fjord. You dummy.

”Tracy Beauman”

“Philip Bonjour.”

“Janet.”

“Cornelius.”

Cad and Yasha are a mess

“Sometimes they call me Stew”

“Pirate Sapphire” and the whole crowd goes awwww

“Gilligan” xD

Aw shoot

She’s too clever for you nerds

F: “You have the honor of being in the company of… the Mighty Nein.”

Captain Avantica: “But there are only seven of you…” Always funny

“I lost another fucking owl”

Fjord lying through his teeth is my favorite

F: “Corneulis, what say you to that?”

Cad: “I’ve got some very specific burial needs if we’re actually gonna go that way.”

Don’t you point a rifle at my tall sons head!

They basically got shanghaied into being actual pirates this is amazing

FUCK THE SOUND DIED it keeps cutting in and out :(

“OH SHIT OUR TORTLE”

Jester suggesting they just make a fleet of ships by stealing BOTH

“WOOO 20!”

“The Great Leviathan” YOOOO SHIT

“I am the Chosen” bitch so is he look Fjord you found other members of the club!

“I’ve shown you mine… You show me yours.”

Apparently the sound was a recording issue so it’s just going to be fucked up for the rest of the show which is sad because I feel like I’m missing every other word

“I love this color palate” I love Avantika

DREAMS SHE HAS DREAMS TOO

“Do you often wake up vomit saltwater? Do you have wet dreams?”

“No, unlike some I can hold my brine” BIIIITCH

Guys I love Avantica/Ivantica/however you spell it

SO MUCH FJORD BACKSTORY I WISH I COULD HEAR ALL OF IT

“Your hentai cult” liAM

Matt making notes of them picking on his names lol

Matt’s face poor guy

Sound is a little better now finally

“Is it safe to say that you’ve been under-sharing with us”

Sam was just waiting for bed time so he could have Nott sneak into the cargo hold

Sam and his antics SLAY me

Nott almost just blew them all up

Stealing a keg of gunpowder, I hope that comes in handy later

“I got an arm full of gunpowder, an arm full of rotting fruit, that’s a success.”

Captain Avantica and Fjord omg

I’m sure nothing sexy will happen but I can’t wait for Jester to be jealous for like 3.5 seconds lol

I don’t know who this woman is but bless her for asking Matt that question

“IT’S HIIIIIIGH NOOON”!!!!!!!!!!!!

look I knew she didn’t want sex

Caleb omg you can’t spy on them with Frumpkin!

Aaaand there goes the sound again.

“Speaking of Beautiful” Fjord you smooth fuck

Fjord basically rolls a Nat20 for seduction what a night everyone

SHE’S GOT AN EYE IN HER PALM

Fjord regrets all his life choices

Freeing some kind of trapped god

I’m not sure how I feel about this

Yes I am actually I don’t like it

I like how Fjord is like acting all smooth but inside he’s freaking the fuck out

Fjord is smooth as fuCK

Ouch, dismissed!

“I tuen my head when I get there, and I look back…. AND I WALK AWAY.”

C: “Question - I am still watching her…”

F: “What the FUCK do you mean STILL?!”

ROLL SO WELL LIAM

That’s not good enough

Them poking fun at Fjord for not asking some important questions

Hmmm they’re making very valid points about how she could have killed FriendGuy to get his orb and now Fjord could be next

Oh

Oh my goddd

Did Molly have a tattoo with an eye?!

what the fuck

DID MOLLY

WHAT

DAFLKADSGADGSKLAGDSKLGAAGJKLR

WHAT THE FFFFFFFFUCK DID MOLLY HAVE THESE TATTOOS TOO?!

Cad: “What would you even do with over like that?”

N: “Well I know what I would do with it! GET RID OF THE SEAS.”

The stream literally just jumped backwards like 20+ minutes wtffff

We’re finally back to where we got tossed back before, seems like

Oh and now Ashley’s mic is down

Disaster

FJORD DREAM YAAAS

WAIT wait wait

Captain Avantica said “sweet dreams” to him before he left, and then she offered blood to the iron thing above the door

Did she do this somehow?

LEARN.

GROW.

PROVOKE.

Oh. Sabien’s face.

Vandrin’s face. Oh boy.

WATCHING.

Look at your reflection maybe?

WATCH.

I don’t trust this fucking giant sea serpent banished god thing and I want him to let Fjord go my son doesn’t want this

REWARD.

Travis is just like “Matt why are you making me do all this thinking” lol

CONTROLLING THE OCEAN

…Oh no maybe he does want it a little bit. Or at least he enjoys it just a little bit? I can’t tell.

Fjord why the FUCK you STILL lyin’

Is it because he’s afraid? Of himself? Of the power he might have?

Caleb is concerned and I’m trying to decide if he’s worried Fjord is a threat to them, or worried ABOUT Fjord.

Beau: *talking about fighting the fish people*

Cad: “I don’t remember any of this.”

-

F: “Perhaps someone who needs help with like, STEALTH.”

F: …

F: …

F: “Oh I’ve got fucking 0, I’ll look at ti!”

-

“I hope you slept well” SHE TOTALLY HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT SOMEHOW

NEXT WEEK IS GONNA BE SO GOOD

Tonight was EXCELLENT (even with all the dumb technical stuff)

SO MUCH FJORD BACKSTORY IM SO EXCITED WOOOOO

#emi watches critical role #critical role #critical role spoilers