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aspiestvmusings · 3 years

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ZEP TIMELINE

This is the timeline of ZEP...based on my observations.

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist S1 (and S2 beginning) timeline...based on canon (things we’ve seen (being confirmed) on screen)

WARNING: LONG TEXT POST!

ZEP TIMELINE

Z = Zoey M = Max S = Simon J = Jessica D = David E = Emily

SEASON 1

1x01

Day 1: Meeting Zoey & her neightbour: Zoey wakes up as Mo plays Wham! music loudly. Meeting her best friend & co-workers. Z/M at coffee shop & going to work. Z saying "Hi" to Simon. Z's job interview with Joan. Meeting her family: Z. at her parents house. All of these things happened on one day... Confirmed by Z's outfit.

Day 2: Unknown number of days later. But pretty soon after... however long it took to with for that doc appoitment. This is probably several days later (but days, not months) Zoey gets the MRI, the earthquake happens & she gets her powers. Zoey hearing people singing for the 1st time, telling Mo about it.

Day 3: Unknown number of days later, but... not that long after, because she could not have gone through many days after getting the power without hearing her co-workers (and Max) sing to her... so it's probably the next day...or a few days after the MRI. Also: it's a Tuesday. Zoey wakes up to Mo singing again. 5 days til the Sprk Point watch launch! Z & L working late trying to fix the bug, Z. hearing S sing "Mad World" & telling Mo about it in the club.

Day 4: Next day after Day 3. Because Z. tells M. that she went to a club last night (hence the 4 cups of coffee, cause she didn't get much sleep). 3.5 (three and a half) days til launch. Z takes a lunch break & they have their 1st grief talk/therapy session. S's dad died 5 months ago. Z. & her mom have a talk about pills/meds & more. All same day cause of Z's outfit.

Day 5: Unknown number of days later. But based on everything it's one day after Day 4. Z. wants to tell M. about her power, asking about "mind reading" ability. Leif sings "all I do is win". Z. goes to get a cheesequake & runs into S. & Jessica... and runs... Z. goes to parents house & hears her day sing "true colours" for 1st time. They plan to go sailing...on Sunday. All happens during same day cause of Z's outfit.

Day 6: Unknown number of days later. But it's not launch day yet, so it's less than 3 days since day 3. Zoey figures out the issue with the watch, they fix it. Z's 2nd job interview & she gets the job.

Day 7: A day or few later. It's Sunday. The Clarkes go sailing

Day 8: Unknown number of days later. It seems it's the next day after the sailing, so Monday (cause she looks happy when she wakes up). It's her 1st day at work as the new team leader. She hears M. sing his 1st heart song.

EXTRA: Most likely ep 1 took place during one week: Day 1 was Monday, Day 2 Tuesday, Day 3 Wed (launch in 5 days aka next Mon), Day 4 Thu, Day 5 Fri, Day 6 Sunday (sailing) & Day 7 Next Monday (launch day, back at work). Though it could be longer between Day 6 & Day 7... it might be the next Monday...so the episode takes place during two weeks, not one.

1x02 Day 1: Unknown number of days later. Z. has a "I got the music in me" dream. Z. & Mo start documenting details about her power. She tells that her NEW ability made her aware of many things... and then she re-caps the ep 1 heart songs to Mo...so it cannot be that many days later. We're talking about days or a week/few weeks. Z. gives her "new boss" speech & M. sings his 2nd song to her (Sucker). We know it's only his 2nd song, cause she tells Mo that "he sang...again...and this time it was less ambigious song". M. asks Z. on a non-date to HandPicked on Thursday night. Z. sets M. up with Autumn. Z. hears "Moondance" Day 2: Unknown number of days later...but we know it's not Thursday yet...so it's soon after. Z. asks Mo advice about "Moondance". Z. is not happy with the team, and stays to work alone al night. M. goes to HandPicked with A. Day 3: Next day after Day 2. Z. wakes up at work. Makes a presentation in sweats. Talks "Moondance" with mom. M. bring butterscotch pudding from HandPicked for Z's dad. Day 4: Unknown number of days later. Z. asks advice from S. about leading a team. Reads her journal to the team, gets them to listen to her. Maggie sings Moondance to Mitch. Z. sees Max & Autumn at the coffee shop. Z. writes in her journal as Mo comes over to discuss experimenting with her power some more. All the same today because of Z's outfit.

1x03 Day 1: Unknown number of days later. 3 days until Sprk Point Watch Launch Party (Charlies promo). Joan lets the team go home "early" (midnight), Z & M. go to a club where Mo is playing... it's an audition for Simon's engagement party. Day 2: Unknown number of days later, but it's not "launch party" day yet, so most likely next day. Mitch asks for lemonade. Zoey hears "(no) satisfaction" everywhere. Day 3: It's the next day after Day 2, because Joan asks about the good advice Zoey gave her last night when they talked. It's not "launch party" day yet. It's Thursday ("fresh bagels on a Thu morning") Charlie comes to the office for a (sushi) lunch meeting. Charlie bails, the team try to find a replacement "celeb" to demo the watch. Max uses his "one-time favour" call (since the plane ride takes 14 hours & he'd make it on time, it means it's the day before the launch party). All the same day because of Z's outfit. Day 4: Next day after Day 4. It's Friday & also the Launch Day. Joan takes over the demo.

1x04 Day 1: Unknown number of days since last episode. A little while has passed. Probably weeks. Z. finds about her quiet downstairs neighbour & hears Mo sing a sad song. S. needs a new florist for their engagement party that is happening soon. D & E have the ultrasound pic that also reveals their baby's sex/gender. M & A. have taken a new step in their relationship...that causes him to sing opera & tells Z. that they're going to Napa over the weekend. Z. follows Mo to the choir practice & he does not appreciate her secretly following him. Z. sees S. & J. at her parents place. All the same day cause of Z. oufit. Day 2-4 : Unknown number of days later. But it's not the weekend yet, so same week. Mo wont talk to Z. + Same day or next day. D & E. + Same or next day: Z. taks to the quiet neighbour. Zoey & mom have a talk (over wine) Day 3- 5: Unknown number of days later, but probably the same weeks weekend: The baby's gender reveal party they organized for Mitch...cause "bigger moments". Z. meets Bonnie & talks to Mo. Mo decides to go perform with the choir. It is most likely a Sunday.

1x05 Day 1: Unknown number of days later. Clarke's look at their childhood toys. It's "peer review" day at work. Mo & Zoey eat at football bar, Z. asks M. about Napa... so it's a bit after that weekend (but I would say a week or few weeks, not months later). Z sees David at the bar Day 2: The next day after Day 1. Z. asks advice from S... to help D & E. She says "i saw my brother out last night" Day 3: Unknown number of days later. Z. brings S. a grief kit, because it's his dad's birthday (so he could be having a "bad day") tomorrow night. M. tells Z. about A's parents coming to town next weekend. Z has a talk with Emily. All the same day, because of Z's outfit. + most likely same day/night: D. coming to see Z. cause of what she told Emily about his "fears" Day 4: The next day after Day 3. Z. & Mo talk. M. & A. break up during a run. Z. talks to S., because it's his dad's birthday... day. S. calls D. to apologize. Maggie tells Mitch she's taking the job. M. calls Z. to tell about breaking up with A. and at the same time S. comes over to her place. And sings "should I stay or should I go"

1x06 Day 1: Starts the same day/night last episode ended. Picks up seconds after 1x05 ended (should I stay or should I go?) Day 2: Next day after Day 1. Mo tells Z. he saw S. go to her place last night. Jessica comes to talk with Zoey...about the engagement party happening "tonight". So the whole episode takes place during 24 hours (we start with last night & rest of the ep. is all one day)

1x07 Day 1: Unknown number of days later. Z/M movie night...after a while (she reinstated the tradition after he helped with her dad "the other night". So we know it's a few days later. Though there are outfit changes in this episode we know it's the same day, so she's just wearing 3 different outfits (at Mo's, at work, at the spell-iversary party) The Z/S/M elevator ride tells us that it's probably their first day back to work after the engagement party fiasco, so it's probably Monday. Then its Max's flash-mob performanace. That leads to her telling him about her powers. The same night they have a fallout at the club. Day 2: Next day after Day 1. Z. tells Mo "guess who I heard singing last night at the club?" Then Zoey has an honest talk with Max...giving him "the truth"...though considering the math I am doing here Z's line "I'm here to do what I should've done months ago" sounds strange, cause it's barely a few months since Pilot events. Same with S's comment to Max that "you & Z. weren't hanging out for a while...I noticed" (when that has lasted just a few days during their "not talking" phase in ep 7...unless we also count time time he was with A., so they spent less time together, and thats what S. noticed). And in the end she sees Leif & Joan kiss. We know all that is one day because of Z's outfit.

1x08 Day 1: Unknown number of days later. But it's days or a week/few weeks after last eps events. Z. is planning Emily's babyshower. All of the events of the episode take place during the Glitch Day (the Sprk watch glitch + Zoey's powers glitch)... from the Z/M elevator ride, where he says he needs space til the night when she goes & faces her dad & sings to him. But if we assume their movie night happen once a week then it's a week later. Yet it has to be pretty soon after, cause Zoey hasn't met Howie yet, who started working for Mitch in the end of last episode.

1x09 Day 1: Unknown number of days later. It's Friday (because Max says "tomorrow is Saturday"...when Ava tells to come in for an interview tomorrow) Z. cooks at Mo's place and breaks her finger...which Howie helps fix, then has a "need clarity" talk (about the kiss) with Simon. Ava comes to invite Max to the 6th floor... We know this is the same day because of Max's outfit. Day 2: The next day after Day 1. The "brunch", Z. meeting Howie's daughter, Max visiting 6th floor. It's Saturday. Mo tells Zoey about the brunch. We know it's one day later cause Z. says to Mo "this is a completely different you (opinion) than yesterday" Day 3: A few days later...most likely Monday...the first day back at work. Abigail comes to visit. Max tells Zoey about the promotion. During their 80s workout Z tells Mo about Abigail's visit that morning, & about her "we're done" talk with S. that day. So it's all the same day. Day 4: Unknown number of days later. Seems like the next day, but could be a few days later: Zoey arrives to work to see Simon & Jessica break up.

1x10 Day 1: Four days later. Cause Mo says "the boy just broke up 4 days ago" as Zoey is getting ready to go to work... This seems to imply that it's Monday...and 4 days ealier was Thursday (and S. just didn't come to work on Fri, hence they haven't seen since). Max moves to 6th floor & nobody even notices/cares. Z. and S. arrange a date for "tonight" & then she bails when he sings the same song again. Then she tells all about it to Mo later. Day 2: Unknown number of days later. Seems like the very next day. The bakeoff & 4th vs 6th floor things. Day 3: The next day after Day 2. Because Z. says "what you did yesterday was really rough" to M. Max comes to get his things from his old desk, M & Z have a "fight". And it's been just a few days since Max moved to 6th floor, because Z adds that "you've been there [6th floor] for a whopping 2 days". Then later she yells at Howie. And then she calls S. over for a "booty call"... andverbally attacks him. Mo interrupts them & tells them to "angry dance" & they have a "be patient" talk. S. tells about going to his mom's wedding in LV over the weekend. It's Zoey's "anger day". Day 4: Unknown number of days later. Zoey takes the day off work...for personal reasons. Arranges a nice anniversary dinner for her parents. Leif asks Max to help him move to 6th floor.

1x11 Day 1: Unknown number of days later. The Clarke's are planning the funeral at the funeral home, then Zoey goes to work...after her day off...and finds out about Leif's move. Later she tells Mo about her Max issues. Day 2: Unknown number days of later. Max encourages his team for their good work. Max asks Leif if he wants to go get a beer after work (that night). Zoey sees Deb. Joan & Zoey + Max & Leif all go to the karaoke bar. All this happens during the same day. Day 3: Unknown number of days later. Zoey sees Mo change his door lock. Zoey asks Deb to meet with her mom. Joan catches Leif & Tobin secretly exchanging code. Joan talks with Ava & they decide to work together (one big team). Zoey goes to talk with Max on the 6th floor & they make up. Her line "I have spent the last few/several days at a cemetary" confirms that the events of the episode have taken place during a short few day time period. Based on Zs outfit all that happened during the same day. Then Ava fires Max.

1x12 Day 1: Unknown number of days later. But based on Zoey not knowing Max has been fired & is surprised to see Leif back on 4th floor it's soon after. And Simon being back from his "weekend trip" to LV to be at his mom's wedding...after being away "for a few days"... So it has to be the next work day. So just a day or few days later. And most of the events of the episode happen during the same day, because we start with Zoey singing "bad moon rising" & the day ends with the bad thing happening...her dad dying. So while it seems, at times, that it's several days, it actually seems to ALL happen during that one specific day. Day 2: Several days later. A few days to a few weeks later. The day of the funeral. Everyone sings "american pie"

SEASON 2

2x01

Day 1: Picks up about 1.5 months (45 days) after the funeral (when S1 ended). Mo wakes Z. up, and its her 1st day back at work after the "hiatus". Z. & M. have a coffee talk on the bench & he gives her the "Z(s)hield" ring. Back at work everyone sings "Hello Dolly", she meets George, gets an update from Leif on the dogs & standing desks & everything else, Joan offers her her job. Maggie is dealing with the "financil stuff" all day. Z. finds that her three separate friends have become a trio/best buds now + the “two teams” sing a duet to her & Mo gives her the “champagne problems” talk. Max has an actual idea for a business (but doesn't tell others yet). Zoey helps mom with the password & they find the testimonials videos from Mitch to the family. Day 2: Next day after Day 1, cause Z. says that "mom & I found these videos last night". Z. doesn't have an answer for Joan yet, George sings his heart song. Everyone keeps asking Zoey is she's okay & she's not ready to deal with all/any of it & she asks for it to stop & storms off. Later that day/night Joan comes to see her & tells her about leaving (to Singapore). Seems as if the next scenes happen that same day/night, too: Max visits Mo, they make Crème Brûlées & talk about his new business idea. Zoey & mom talk about not knowing how to live without Mitch...as they sit on the coach. (how do I live without you...) & David calls them to watch the videos al together in the other room & then they sing "carry on". It's the same day/night ecause Z. & Maggie & David are all wearing the same clothes they did before. Day 3: Unknown number of days later, but soon after Day 2. Zoey tells Leif that she has taken over Joan's job, George thanks her for talkin to Tobin. Mo & Max talk business. Same night...Max comes over to tell Z. about his (and Mo's) new business idea...and that leads to the shipper content... ending. It's just a few days after the previous events of the episode, cause M. says that "I saw you were weirded out the other night when you saw us all hang out at Mo's place"

EXTRA: Since Maggie says she's been "on help mode" for the past 1.5 years, and they found out about Mitch's illness "last year" (about /less than a year before the Pilot episode picks up), then the whole foirst season does take place during a few months, not longer. And if we consider Zoey's comment in 1x11 that "a year ago I would never have imagined this is where I'd be..." tells us that it's been a little less than/around a year since Mitch was diagnosed.

2x02 Day 1: Picks up minutes after where last episode ended. Z. & M. in her childhood bedroom.

SUMMARY:

So..the whole of S1 took place...if we consider the “time jump” between days within the episodes & between the episodes... took place during a few months. 3-4 months in total (maximum!) if we stretch the breaks between eps to a week to few weeks instead of a few days which it often seems to actually be.

The events of S1 took place during 3-4 months (minimum 90 days, maximum 120 days... cause based on lines said by the characters, and other things no "timejump” between episodes is longer than a few weeks. Most pick up just days (some just minutes/hours) after last episode ended.

#ZEP #ZOEY'S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST #ZOEYS PLAYLIST #TEXT POST #L0ONG POST #TIMELINE #ZEP S1 TIMELINE #LIST POST #THIS IS WHAT I FOCUS ON WHEN WATCHING TV SHOWS #ANALYSIS

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lockdownuk · 4 years

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Lockdown Diary Part 2

A personal account during the lockdown in the UK due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

23/03/2020 8:30pm Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister, gives a live address to the nation to, effectively, put the country on lockdown to stem the spread of the deadly coronavirus strain, Covid-19.

Many of us have been self-isolating for days but this latest development within the UK in reaction to the pandemic feels very serious and very scary. I decided to keep a simple diary and where better but online.

Day 31: I went to Tesco’s at Hampton at @8pm. It was weird. But I made it less weird by buying (amongst all the legit stuff I needed and some stuff for Karen’s mum) more booze. I have, atm about 30 assorted cans and 60 assorted bottles. I’m gonna stop buying booze now until I’m down to the last dozen. I don’t want owt to happen and I leave many behind!

Day 32: More than a calender month! I was rung up by a recruitment agent today about a contract with DHL as a remote support engineer to their aviation section. €400 a day! I’ve applied. Few beers tonight, watching a new Netflix release (Extraction) and catching up with Fog, Ham, Andy and Rog later at 10:30pm - yikes, might be pissed.

Day 33: Typing this on day 34. Dossed around during the day, few beers and another video call with fog, Ham and Rig plus I invited John Monk along. He was his usual self and signed off from the call with a moonie! Later on I had the pleasure of Scottish Louise video calling me! She was pissed, in her shed drinking den at her home with some neighbour called Ronnie and her daughter Ellie. She was her usual outrageous self who imaprted such gems as “Tim, you look old” and “Roger on coke is the only time I’ve taken it up the arse”. Nice.

Day 34: Today I skyped Laurie and ‘met’ Matthew and Nicholas for the first time. It was bloody fantatsic. Janine was there as well.I cannot believe it takes lockdown (plus an idea to get Laurie to add me to his regular Monday skype chat with Dad) that managed to get us doing something that should have happened years ago! It was so great to talk to them all face-to-face. Janine hasn’t changed a bit, Matthew is very quiet with Nicholas being the more gregorious twin. And Laurie is still Laurie. I’m reminded of how much I sort of miss him! It was all so comfortable. I loved it! Tomorrow is Dad’s 85th hence the 3-way chat idea. I hope it comes off!

Day 35: So dad and Laurie and I skyped. It was OK but my video feed was very dark, (still dunno why) and Lauire’s kept freezing. I dropped out so as to leave them to it, my thinking being the extra person takes up bandwidth, with the promise I’d call dad later. Before I could, Rita called me and suggested Dad and I skype, which we did. So, all in all, a good day of comms! And Dad seems his happy usual self - 85 years old! Amazing.

Day 36: I am really struggling to motivate myself this week. Today, I’ve done fuck all of note. That is all.

Day 37: A similar day to yesterday. All I have really managed to do is lay down audio from Pink Floyd (Absolutely Curtains) to a video I shot of a cow on yesterday’s walk. I am having a downer of a week without any good reason why, ld aside. I have worn my new walking boots today (’cos my old ones are leaking, I found out yesterday) and they fucking hurt, despite having tried to wear them in for months, albeit pathetically. Also, a few days ago (Friday 24th April), I got notification from HM Revenue & Customs that I’m getting tax rebate (from 2018-19) of £392. Yay!

Day 38: I received notification today that I’ve got a speeding ticket…last Thursday back from Tesco’s - 87mph somewhere between the A1 and Elton. I am hoping it’s a fixed penalty. I dunno whether it is yet, I just have to send the form off confirming it’s my car and I was driving. I spoke with Lynda from Woodfords asking her to ask for a rent reduction before I sign for another year. Plus, I let her know that I will be Howard and Sue’s eyes as the look at rental properties in Oundle - I do hope they return although it would be a shame for them that their plans have been scuppered (she’s lost her job in Oz due to Covid-19)

Day 39: Today I started another piece of exercise - up and down the stairs 26 times. Not sure why 26 - it was some thing online to do with the London Marathon, I think. It fucking killed. I used 13 clothes pegs for a counting system. I asked Karen to pick up some stuff when she was shopping (burgers, radishes) - Dan dropped them off, He was with Shaggy (driving his van) and going to see Jonah. That pisses me off - they should be social distancing, ffs.

Discoevered, today, that Cornershop, post-Brinful are fucking excellent. listening to the album ‘England is a Garden’ as I type.

Day 40: That 26 times up and down the stairs is fucking hard. I did videos about it today. My legs are aching like fuck right now.

Day 41: Just done Young Sam’s (Sam Clews) quiz. 3rd week running and it’s now become a habit and something I look forward to. Out of all the internet driven socialising I’m undertaking in ld, this is the weirdest - I feel totally detatched from all others taking part but, now, would feel pissed off if I didn’t or couldn’t join in. I got 47/70 this week. My best score and only about 8 off the winning score - most others aren’t doing it on their own!

Today’s walk was a cloudy one - I captured some fine, dramatic pics of the clouds. I am getting into this photography lark, albeit very amateurish. But, when I post any pics online (mostly FB), they seem to be widely appreciated, which is nice.

Day 42: Applied for a remote service delivery job with a firm called TTEC. £60k. Finished watching The Outsider. The creepiest TV show I have seen in years. Really great use of background music.

Day 43: Finished Mindhunter S2 last night. It’s so good but I cannot quite put my finger on why. Today has been a nothing day apart from day 2 of me not typing the letter ‘e’ in any post or comments on FB for a week. It’s hard.

Day 44: Watch Anna last night. A Luc Besson film that starts a kick-ass suprermodel. It’s right down my street. Today I have been lazy af. I need to pick up my online learning again…tomorrow, maybe! I watched Andy Murray Resurfacing. A documentary on Amazon. Fantastic. What a top man he is. Completely human and completely inhuman!

Day 45: Much talk in the news of possible lockdown relaxation. I am off the opinion we should stay the course until we are completely assured of beathing this thing i.e. a working, widely available vaccine. Dad and I Skyped - he is doing well, as usual. So is Rita. They both seem very happy in lockdown! Today has been a glorious day, weather wise. I had my walkk at 10ish this morming and it was very warm. Hottest day of the year so far I reckon.

Day 46: Bank holiday Friday (75th anniversary of VE day). Nice walk. Chat with Karen letting her know about being caught speeding just in case I am banned and need some out of town shopping. Watched second episode of DEVS by Alex Garland. It’s good and intriguing. Now, @7pm, gonna eat and hit the beers and smokes.

Day 47: Typing this at 15:45 on day 48. I had lots of beers and a good old chat with Rog…

Day 48: Today’s daily press conference was eagerly anticipated today with rumours of a relaxation in lockdown. It seems it was a fuss about nothing with no clear instructions - I didn’t watch it but, skimming the BBC news site, I shan’t be doing anything different over the next few weeks, not that I would anyway - furlough and self isolation are the order of the day and I won’t change that until I am sure it’s safe. Meanwhile people, including Danny flaunt the rules, it’s been pointed out to me plus I know he spends time with Jonah and Marc. It really fucks me off. So, the actions of the few mean I will lock myself down for as long, if not longer, as it takes. Attended Sam Clews quiz again. It passes the time. Also, I had half a scotch bonnet chilli with tea tonight (roasted veg, cous cous and sausages). Ridiculously hot!

Day 49: Received the speaker I ordered a few days ago (from eBay). It’s an AudioPro Addon T10. I got it for a very reasonable price from a German shop. As a result, the power lead isn;t three pin and that has seriously fucked me right off!

Meanwhile, I did my 26 stair climb before my daily walk today. It was easier than usual (surprise surprise) and I did 7km - but that was tough! ‘Cos I am on (yet another) free trial of Amazon Prime, I am ramping up watching stuff available. Last night I watched Booksmart - really nice little film with a great soundtrack. I am listening to Dan the Automater as I type. Today I watched half (3 eps) of The Night Manager and the film ‘The Founder’. The former is a superb series, the latter an OK film about Ray Kroc - the supposed founder of McDonald’s. Except he wasn’t; he was the wrong side of ambitious and a cunt.

Day 50: Stripped the 2 pin cable from the speaker I received yesterday and wired up a 3 pin plug and it worked. Win. And it sounds great. Win-win. Went to go shopping in Hampton but the car wouldn’t start. Loss. But it was the battery so I managed to borrow Karen’s jump starter which worked. Win.

Spent £107. Loss. But just under £40 was booze plus £10 for two big pizzas, two sides (dirty fries) and some dips. Win. Didn’t do any online learning - seriously fucking letting myself down. Loss.

Did my usual walking and 26 stair climb. The latter is hard but defo getting easier. Win. Day 51: Sam’s 51st birthday on day 51 - coincidence! Today I received my face mask from Lou - House of Stewart tartan. I’m pleased with it and that I have got a mask now. I managed to get up at a reasonable hour, just left 09:00, and revisit my web design course. Module 1, lesson 5 and I am fucking stuck. Trying to code an online CV with a side nav bar and I cannot get it to fucking work. Grrrrrr. Later, i got into a FB dispute (easily distracted due to the above) with someone over his statement of fact (Tim Martin’s treatment of Whetherspoons’ employees) when he doesn’t know it’s fact. It probably is, but that is not the fucking point. I wish I could leave these sort of spats alone. I am drinking, at 20:45, peppermint tea as I type. Jeez, what’s happened to me?

Day 52: Well, last night took a swift chnage. Rog message me and, to cut a long story short, I hit the beers, also called Foggy later, got trashed. I got up today at gone 1pm. Sam posted on fb that Paul had forgort her birthday yesterday. Oh dear! The 26 stair climb and walking each day is noticeable for how knackered my legs feel all the time, I noticed today!

Day 53: My birthday! Nice comments and banter of FB. Rachael brought round a bottle of whisky; gobsmacked. Karen popped round some beers and sausage rolls. Sam sent a card, as did dad with a £50 cheque. Dan’s ordering me a pizza later.

Chuffed! Day 54: I went to bed late after a lot of beers, huge pizza and chips, a few smokes and a long call with WWJ and video chats with Fog then Rog. Got up around 1pm and dossed with my usual exercises and I made fish pie with a scotch bonnet. Day 55: Late one last night but up early today (11ish). Really fretting about hospital tomorrow. Nervous anyway but the safety aspect, in terms of Covid-19, isn’t helping.

Day 56: Hospital appointment was just for an eye scan so the consultant can review it. I was very surprised to see how few people were wearing face masks! I did two lots of washing today. (After the hospital) I went to Morrsions, Asda (queue too long though), B&M (queue too long though) then Tesco’s. All to buy a baseball cap ‘cos I’m fucked if I’m going to wet my hair each time I go out and want it to look presentable! In Morrsions (no mens’ clothing apart from underwear!) I stocked up of 10 cans of sugarfree apple Caraboa….I was only thinking of this drink just the other day. Yesterday I finished The Night Manager on Amazon. I liked it a lot but, also, expected much, much more from it consdiering the hype. Hugh Laurie has come a long way from comedy sketches with Stephen Fry!

Day 57:Received an email from Sueanne yesterday asking ( as designated spokesperson for everyone) how I am. The most interestring piece of news in a rather uninformative email was that the US has started to open resorts!

Day 58: I am writing this on Day 59. I started a two walk a day regime. The first walk I do is shorter, around 4km. my aim is to be ready for 1,000,000 steps Diabetic UK challenge (throughout July, August and September). I need to do just under 11,000 steps a day. The relaxation in ld rules makes this achievable. On that score, I am allowed to visit a friend’s house, as long as it’s just the two of us, outside, 2m apart. I went round Karen’s last night. I was desperate to have a Happy Hour (I allow myself a midweek beer - today (well, yesterday) is/was Wednesday!) of sorts with another human (rather than a video chat). I was there for about 2 hours, very enjoyable, and then came home. Then I had usual roasted veg with rice and sausages but I couldn’t eat it. I used half a scotch bonnet rather than the usual birdeye chillis. It was too hot, had to sling it! Had a few more beers and, hence, neglected my diary duties!

Day 59: It’s 01:20am. I don’t know why I am still awake and up, but I am. But, also, I am now going to bed. Nothing else to report, really.

Day 60: Half way through 12 weeks furlough. I was discussing this with Dad and Rita earlier - I am expecting that, at the end of 12 weeks, I’ll be laid off. I hope I’m wrong but I reckon it’s well on the cards. Off to have a beer round Karen’s in a sec which will be pleasant. Just a hour or so. It’s fucking windy today so I shall wrap up!

#diary #Tumblr diary #lockdown #COVID19 #lockdownuk

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ghosty-schnibibit · 4 years

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actually managing to put out a liveblog the day the new ep dropped ^u^

just got back from seeing frozen 2 (which was really good btw) and am jumping straight into this, i’m so excited!!!

i will never get over how good the intro music is

aww, snippy and the campus kitties are friends! 0u0

travis giving the "i don't care how elves can dream" crowd rights lol

oh gross, clint why

everyone made fun of argo for the lime munching and now there's a tragic backstory involved, dang clint

lima-peas

... so he's having a night terror essentially

well that's better, that’s not scary at least

aww firblog :'(

"SNIPPERS ATTACK" f i t z r o y

aww, rainier sent him a letter :)

"thank you son" oh my god i love this

ilu griffin

yes there are actually clint

i would die for snippers

siiiiiiiirrrrrr

aww yay!

is the crab... writing? nope lol

i can already tell they're all getting to be better friends, i am all about this developing dynamic

i love you firbolg holy shit

oh no, baby :(

"i fashioned a cone for myself" i'm dying oh my god

that's a fun yet grisly mental image

clint please figure out what you're doing with argo’s voice, you're sliding back to into merle’s again

is it a crepe?

you dumb dumb just open the thingy

fitzroy my sweet dumb baby child i will protect you with my life

"ping-ponging around the stages of grief" g r i f f i n

griffin that is a burger joint what do you mean

... is he not really a knight at all? did he get conned? is this a nigerian prince situation?

i'm caught in this moment between feeling horrible for fitzroy getting conned and feeling happy that firbolg trusts argo enough to ask about things when he's confused

travis you make my heart hurt with how wholesome this is

"telling a pompous guy that he's been an ass, that's really right in my wheelhouse" oh the theories i am developing about argo’s backstory

griffin you've killed me

oh no, you dumb dumb boy, oh no

rainier is trying so hard to be gentle with him i'm dying

i legit thought why does he have detention? before remembering that he did nearly electrocute three teachers

have we met rhodes before? they seem nice, i like them so far

i'm starting to think addressing people as "friend ____" is a clint thing and not just a ned thing

oh fun! skeleton buddy! :D

smart advice honestly

they're looking for gundren lmao

nice folley there trav

this is gonna be so much fun holy shit! travis has put so much thought into this set-up and i love it

this music is reminding me of undertale and i don't know why

firbolg no, no buddy no

"ooooh" my thoughts exactly argo

does fitzroy just have loose broaches in his bag???

NICE! go argo :D

yeah that is definitely the cop

argo my sweet baby boy i love you so

this is a very good grift lol

... not terrible but not great either

i like that trav isn't going up and down failure with the checks, it's more of a finessing

NICE! GO ARGO :D

oh i know this is going to go wrong, holy shit

oh nooo firbolg baby, oh this is so sad

this voice is murdering me travis

argo is being so patient with him and it makes me so happy

"i am trying" you got this buddy, i love you

BUDDY YOU GOT THIS

oh no, honey, leave it be, you already won honey

i love this professor so far

so argo got the invite to the castle, and firbolg found the fence... so it's up to fitzroy to find the dude with the map

"so i need you to play along, okay?" oh this is going to go so badly

what is this voice fitzroy are you trying to sound like an npc

the accent was bad enough to

what is this voice fitzroy

FITZROY W H Y

just give him the broach, he isn't real you'll probably get it back

"i am a kind and benevolent dm" ilu travis

poor fitz lmao

yeah basically argo was the only competent one

i love that justin's characters have progressed from “fairly decent liar” to “tries but is horrible at lying” to “culturally forbidden to lie”

... i did not even think of most of these match-ups until now, dang

"fitz you were so adequate" argo

... are we at the money zone or is this just a fun lil music break? oop, nm, there it is

i need to get in on this, i'm gonna be brainstorming for a bit

i guess we have met rhodes, i need to relisten to the first to eps

good for argo my sweet boy

justin is so battle hungry

was rolandis the malfoy-esque one? oh yep, he's the asshole

"fancy lad" a n g u s

HIS BROACH GAME IS WHACK

go skeleton buddies!

next up is the nearly dead argo lol

he has a sling? oh right i think that’s a thing in one of the standard dnd equipment packs

not bad at all! go argo!

NICE! go fitz!

hell yeah! all the boys are doing a good job today

hey fitzroy? maybe don't??? tease the prof into making things harder on you?????

OH THAT'S A NOISE

thank you for taking away the moral issues trav

susan has her own personal voidfish lol

JESUS TRAVIS, that startled the shit out of me

yes please get the bear away from fitzroy please

NICE! first time seeing a rage from fitz :D

he doesn't warp-spasm, he just goes fluffs out lol

WHY WOULD YOU THROW THE CRAB BUDDY

THE CRAB IS A 6+ WEAPON???

ew :(

oh cool, so he's a paladin

JESUS ARGO

aww snippers :'(

i think it's like 300 something- wait 206? dang okay

oh cool! they went up two entire levels :D

are they going out into the world next ep? ooo so excited for that!

holy shit the literal principle showed up

argo you little shit i love you so much

fiztory my sweet boy i have been there before

argo that was so sketch what the fuck

...is that the end of the ep then? i guess so lol

oh shit, nm, this is why i always listen til the max fun jingle

i am suddenly so scared what the fuck

i hate the voice so much, i don't know why it gives me... is negative asmr a thing? like it makes literally shivers go down my spine

?????obtain what?????

what the fuck is going on travis

another amazing episode! i cannot wait to see the boys interact with the world outside of the school, and it sounds like that’s where we’ll be heading in the next few eps! also extremely curious about what’s going on with argo, i love firbolg and fitz dearly but he’s quickly becoming my favorite pc

see you guys next right thursday! ^u^

#taz #the adventure zone #taz spoilers #taz graduation #ghosty liveblogs taz #i still need to listen to hootenanny and dadlands but i'm debating whether or not i want to do liveblogs for them #bc i didn't for the experimental arcs #i think i'm just gonna enjoy them in my own time

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930club · 5 years

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GET FAMILIAR: Weeks of August 5 and August 12, 2019

COMING SOON: half●alive

Release Title: Now, Not Yet (LP)

Release Date: Friday, August 9, 2019

What To Expect: Using their uplifting, quirky electronic music and a must-watch viral video for their song “still feel.”, Los Angeles-based trio half●alive have suddenly found themselves on the brink of superstardom in only a year’s time. Josh Taylor, the former frontman of Long Beach band The Moderates, left his old outfit to form half●alive along with drummer Brett Kramer in 2017, later adding bassist J Tyler Johnson to round out the group. Since the release of “still feel.” in August 2018, the band has experienced a whirlwind of success, racking up millions upon millions of views on Youtube and nearly selling out a 12-date US tour in early 2019. The band has already put out a few EPs and singles, but they are preparing to release their first full-length studio project this Friday with Now, Not Yet.

The album’s tracklist features a few songs that fans will already be familiar with in “arrow” and “RUNAWAY” as well as their aforementioned viral hit, but the band has previously shown the ability to incorporate funk, pop, and rock elements into all of their records so there’s no telling what the rest of Now, Not Yet will sound like. The latest offering from the band before the album’s drop is “ok ok?” which sees the group slowing things down a bit while adding in a couple of psychedelic harmonies and some good ol’ fashioned electric guitar riffs for good measure. The group has been excitingly innovative when it comes to how they present themselves and their music, and with Taylor at the helm, it seems like almost anything is possible for these three dreamers.

Don’t miss half●alive at 9:30 Club on September 27th - bring your dance shoes and grab your tickets here!

WEBSITE ● TWITTER ● FACEBOOK ● MUSIC

LOCAL LEGENDS: IDK

Release Title: ISHEREAL (LP)

Release Date: TBD (August)

What To Expect: PG County’s own IDK has masterminded quite the album release campaign for his upcoming project ISHEREAL, scheduled to drop sometime this month. Starting at the end of 2018, the rapper began posting percentages to his Instagram stories, Twitter feed, and in Facebook posts and claiming that they were in relation to the status of ISHEREAL. Each time the number seemed to inch closer and closer to 100%, but there was no discernable pattern for months and months. Finally on May 19, he tweeted, “HELLO FOLKS. FIRST SONG FROM ISHEREAL DROPS ON MY BIRTHDAY. TELL A FRIEND,” and, just like that, the real fun began.

Just a few days later, IDK unleashed “Digital,” a biting, abrasive track, unto the world. “Digital” sees the young spitter reflectively delivering bars about his past and how it led him to this point in his career. IDK has always had a penchant for storytelling, and the song doesn’t shy away from getting into the gritty details of his upbringing and the environments he grew up in. Fans, who were already excited by the single, were even more pleasantly surprised when he took to social media again on June 18 to hint at even more big news. The next day, Forbes published the exclusive premier of his new venture, an independent label associated with Warner Music that he would be heading up called CLUE. It was a massive announcement for an artist who has lived in relative obscurity outside the DMV to this point, but IDK wasn’t done making waves just yet.

On July 8, he filled his fans in on a digital scavenger hunt that would reveal a secret message about the project. Within hours, there were hordes of fans attempting to crack the code, which ended up reading “ALBUM NEXT MONTH, SINGLE THIS MONTH.” The final step in the rollout was the release of the single “24,” which premiered on Zane Lowe’s Beats1Radio station. “24” follows the short and sweet model of “Digital,” and sees IDK using a boom bap flow and ominous production to create a captivating and slightly disturbing listening experience. ISHEREAL is due this month with many speculating that it will drop sometime over the next two weeks. All I know is that if IDK put this much thought into the rollout, I absolutely cannot wait to see what he has in store for us with this album. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for what could easily be the project of the year.

WEBSITE ● TWITTER ● FACEBOOK ● MUSIC

WILD CARD: AUGUST 08

Release Title: Happy Endings EP (EP)

Release Date: Thursday, August 8, 2019

What To Expect: 88RISING is the mass media company at the forefront of bridging Asian culture with hip-hop and modern music. It’s the brainchild of industry vet Sean Miyashiro, who described it as a “hybrid management, record label, video production and marketing company” to Highsnobiety just last week. Featuring a roster full of heavy-hitters such as Rich Brian, Joji and the Higher Brothers, 88RISING has established itself as a group that will turn heads for years to come with their combination of talented artists and business minds. They’ve even curated their own music festival called “Head In The Clouds,” which will have its second run this fall, and while it’s easy to point to Miyashiro’s steady leadership as the driving force behind their commercial success, it’s a little harder to pinpoint why their music resonates with so many fans across the globe. Enter AUGUST 08, the group’s most elusive and seemingly out-of-place member; that is until you hear him sing.

“AUGUST 08 is the pillar of the creative family that is 88RISING. As a songwriter, he’s 88RISING’s secret weapon when it comes to creating hits for Joji, Rich Brian, NIKI, and many more,” said Ones To Watch in mid-2018, going on to say that, “[h]e is the glue to this family that represents music’s ascendant globalism.” The LA-native started out his career under his birth name August Grant according to his Apple Music profile, landing a feature on DJ Khaled’s summer smash “I’m The One” before landing on Rich Brian’s 2018 track “Amen” and subsequently releasing his debut single “Funeral” as AUGUST 08 through 88RISING. Joining the 88RISING team helped kickstart his career, and he’s been steadily racking up co-signs from some of the industry’s biggest names ever since.

Earlier this year he released the club-rap banger “Simple Pleasures,” which recently scored a remix from DC’s GoldLink in July. It’s a funky, afro-futuristic track that shows an exciting new direction for the young R&B singer. He announced that he would be releasing a project titled Happy Endings EP that is appropriately set to drop this Thursday, August 8. If the EP follows the precedent of “Simple Pleasures,” then we’re in for a high-energy, electro-influenced project that is sure to be the perfect backdrop for a night on the town. That said, things are never how they appear on the surface with the 88RISING crew, so it seems like we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out exactly what AUGUST 08 has up his sleeve. Check him out, and make sure to follow the rest of the 88RISING crew as they continue to work their way to the top of the music charts.

WEBSITE ● TWITTER ● FACEBOOK ● MUSIC

- Matt Singer

#Get Familiar #Matt Singer #half alive #half●alive #Now Not Yet #Upcoming Shows #9:30 Club #IDK #ISHEREAL #AUGUST 08 #Happy Endings EP

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hope-for-olicity · 7 years

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Fabulous Olicity Fanfic Friday - October 20th, 2017

Happy Friday! So this is my attempt to both thank awesome fanfic writers for their amazing work and offer my recommendations to anyone who is interested. Here are the fantastic fanfic stories I read this week! They are posted in the order I read them.

The Life They Knew multi-chapter by @bytemegeekette - AU - Olicity - Felicity loved watching the happy life that her best friend had built for herself. Oliver watched his best friend reach every milestone he himself feared. An unexpected tragedy thrusts their lives together in a way neither could imagine. Could they over come their hate for each other to help fulfill the last wishes of their best friends. Loosely inspired by the movie 'Life as We Know It http://archiveofourown.org/works/4944559/chapters/11349703

May I Be Your Shield multi-chapter by @aussieforgood and @ghostfoxlovely - She could always tell him about her day. She could always tell him anything. Except she didn’t. The woman closest to him was keeping the biggest secret of all; a dark secret, a dangerous secret. Felicity Smoak is not safe, that much is true, but whether Oliver can save her from that is another matter. Sooner or later, we find out exactly how far we’ll go to protect the person we love most. http://archiveofourown.org/works/5721514/chapters/13182745

Time for a Story multi-chapter by @smkkbert - This fic shows Olicity and their life as a (married) couple with family. Although Olicity (and their kids) are the protagonists, other characters of Arrow and Flash make appearances. YOU NEED THIS STORY IN YOUR LIFE. http://archiveofourown.org/works/3912157/chapters/8757172

Waiting by the Phone by @felicityollies - Oliver and Felicity have taken to having phone calls every night before bed. Some of them are steamier than others. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12351333

6x01 Post Episode Fic by @anthfan - What takes places right after the credits roll, Part 1: http://anthfan.tumblr.com/post/166373524542/6x01-post-ep-fic and Part 2: http://anthfan.tumblr.com/post/166569312432/post-6x01-fic-part-2

If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want To Be Right) multi-chapter by @smkkbert - They live in a society where the Ministry for Procreation decides who you get to marry. Once you get the letter with the contact details of your partner, you are supposed to marry within few months. Sexual relationships with any other partner are forbidden, even before you receive the contact details. Everyone who disobeys that law will be punished brutally. Oliver and Nyssa have come to terms with that. Although they are married, Nyssa can secretly be with Sara, and Oliver can do whatever he wants to do. When Oliver decides to make changes, he falls madly in love with Felicity. Therefore, his life takes a pleasant turn because although they cannot publicly be together, at least they can be in secret. Things soon get complicated, though, when Felicity receives a letter that shall change her life. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11847900/chapters/26747613

Trust Me multi-chapter by @felicityollies - When a prostitute meets the perfect client, she has to remind herself that there’s no room for getting close to someone in her line of work. http://archiveofourown.org/works/8487226/chapters/22503983

Dear Hopeless by @wherethereissmoak - Through letters, Oliver and Felicity have a connection before they ever officially meet. This was written for ME! I'm beyond flattered!! IT IS A MUST READ!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/12369144

Zip by @someonesaidcake - Her dress has a zip. A zip that goes all....the....way....down. Set just before 6x01. That purple dress is stunning, gorgeous and Oliver has seen it before....https://archiveofourown.org/works/12370095

Finding Felicity by @lynn8828 - Because I still need to see this on the show…. 6x01 didn’t show us Oliver finding Felicity on Lian Yu and I was really looking forward to it. https://lynn8828.tumblr.com/post/166439559401/finding-felicity-because-i-still-need-to-see-this

(Don't) Let Me Go multi-chapter by @emmilynestill - Felicity told him to let her go, but even when Oliver tried, it didn’t seem to be something he was capable of. In the end, there would be nothing in the world Felicity was more grateful for. Weaving in and out of the final four episodes of Season 5 and beyond, follow Oliver and Felicity’s emotional journey back to one another, one step at a time. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11591223/chapters/26051715

I Just Need to Hear Your Voice by @alanna-the-lionheart - Coda to 6x01 (takes place at some point in the near future). In an attempt to slowly rebuild their relationship without complicating William’s life, Oliver and Felicity get in the habit of calling each other every night. Sometimes they watch TV together. Sometimes they discuss Team Arrow business. Most nights they just talk about their days. But then sometimes the nightmares come...and all they really want is to hear the other’s voice. This is one of those nights. http://archiveofourown.org/works/12368517

Our Version of Events multi-chapter by @machawicket and @geneeste - Action star Ollie Queen is trying to clean up his image and land parts that require him to do more than appear shirtless while fighting stuntmen. Pop star Felicity Smoak wants to be seen as an adult in time for the release of her new, grittier album. And talent manager John Diggle’s got an idea about what coverage of Oliver and Felicity’s brand new (and totally fake) romance could do for them both. http://archiveofourown.org/works/8025382/chapters/18375349

Little Flowers of Eloquence multi-chapter by @dettiot - After two bad relationships, Felicity Smoak has accepted that she’s not physically attractive to men. That doesn’t mean her life isn’t good, but her friends make her realize that something is missing. Something that might be fixed if she gives a chance to a certain newly-back-from-the-dead ex-playboy . . .https://archiveofourown.org/works/5783689/chapters/13329190

Why Don't Men Ever Listen? by @writewithurheart - AU Felicity tells Sara about an encounter with Ray Palmer and her Mystery Man. http://writewithurheart.tumblr.com/post/166452289044/birthday-prompt-why-dont-men-ever-listen

Between Love and Skate multi-chapter by @dettiot - After an injury ends his chances for a career in professional hockey, Oliver Queen doesn’t know what he’s going to do. And then he gets an offer to become a figure skater and partner with a beautiful, babbling blonde skater: Felicity Smoak. With a gold medal at the Olympics on the line, can love stick its landing? http://archiveofourown.org/works/3343235/chapters/7313252

Pieces of Always multi-chapter by @so-caffeinated and @dust2dust34 - Life continues after Forever is Composed of Nows. Ongoing non-linear collection of family moments for the Queens. http://archiveofourown.org/works/8220479/chapters/18840356

Radiate or Drain by @turtlejustice - Post 5x17 fic http://archiveofourown.org/works/12384441

Baby's First Salmon Ladder by @muslimsmoak - Little tommy queen inherited his father’s athleticism and that’s not a good thing. Especially when his mother felicity is trying to multitask managing the comms and watching her son in the bunker. http://archiveofourown.org/works/12382086

Shattered into Pieces multi-chapter by @diggo26 - Having to blow up the Foundry and last minute Oliver goes back in having forgot “something”…BUT it turned into a speculation/spoiler for 3x19 http://archiveofourown.org/works/3557969/chapters/7835702

South of the Equator multi-chapter by @charlinert - A young teacher from Boston will do anything in her power to ensure that her upliftment project goes ahead, when the ground of a small farm school is threatened to be sold to a buyer who has no interest in her project. Oliver Queen, movie director of Queen Studios volunteers to do a documentary on upliftment work in a small farm town to put as much distance as possible between women, love and his broken heart. Oliver and Felicity’s paths cross 9000 miles from home, when their worlds come crashing in the heart of Southern Africa. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11568378/chapters/25990497

Pink on Green: Why do you keep her around? by @sssssssim - Oliver overhears Laurel being mean to Felicity and has had enough http://archiveofourown.org/works/1414105/chapters/3743612

Nightmare by @geneshaven - Felicity joins Oliver and William for the evening. https://geneshaven.tumblr.com/post/166518679404/nightmare

Better Together by @adiwriting - Oliver and Felicity attend a middle school dance http://adiwriting.tumblr.com/post/166519844071/fic-better-together

Thursday multi-chapter by @someonesaidcake - There is something about the girl next door that Oliver Queen is only now noticing... Felicity is moving to college just down the road from where Oliver is a senior. He suddenly becomes very protective of the girl next door. Thursday night dinners might not ever be the same again. This story gets better and better! http://archiveofourown.org/works/10688658/chapters/23670255

Blood Hands multi-chapter by @dust2dust34 - When new Bratva business comes to Starling City, it brings Oliver’s past with the brotherhood into sharp, ugly focus. But when it strikes too close to home, endangering the one person he never wanted that darkness to touch, he finds out his and Felicity’s pasts are more tangled than he could have ever imagined. (Set between 2x06 and 2x07) http://archiveofourown.org/works/3628926/chapters/8013672

Love and Little Cupcakes multi-chapter by @xtina-lynn - Felicity loved sweets so much that she paid no attention to her love life. Until Thea Queen came into her store wanting fabulous cupcakes for her sixteenth birthday. http://archiveofourown.org/works/12400539/chapters/28216053

On-Call for Christmas by LoisLane89 - Short Christmas fic I forgot I wrote a while back and just found. - Felicity is working the emergency call line of the QC IT Department and gets called to her boss's house. http://archiveofourown.org/works/12407439

First Impressions multi-chapter by @entersomethingcleverhere - Modern Pride and Prejudice AU: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young woman in possession of a great intellect must be in want of job that requires its use.” But Felicity Smoak seemed stuck in the quiet beach town of Hertfordshire forever. Will the handsome summer tourist and his snobby best friend save her from another season of boredom or will Oliver Queen’s stuck up attitude make Felicity want to strangle him before it’s even over? http://archiveofourown.org/works/6033276/chapters/13834785

What Might Happen by @dust2dust34 - 6x03 spoiler fic http://dust2dust34.tumblr.com/post/166557840799/what-might-happen-is-this-felicity-stared

It's Going Down in Ivy Town by @jsevick - NSFW, Oliver and Felicity have fun in an Ivy Town hotel room.http://jsevick.tumblr.com/post/166582904437/just-reread-some-of-your-fever-dreams-smut-and

Oliver's Journal: November 1st, 2017 by @geneshaven - post 6x03 spoiler fic https://geneshaven.tumblr.com/post/166586483544/olivers-journal

// @almondblossomme // @emmaamelia95 // @mel-loves-all // @oliverfel4 // @green-arrows-of-karamel // @coal000 // @miriam1779 // @memcjo// @captainolicitysbedroom // @tdgal1 // @spaztronautwriter // @lalawo1// @quiveringbunny // @quant-um-fizzx // @thebookjumper // @vaelisamaza // @myhauntedblacksoul // @lovelycssefan // @laurabelle2930 // @wrongshipper //

#FabulousOlicityFanficFriday #olicity fanfiction #fic recs

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filthysavagecreatures · 4 years

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From Under the Vault: Sleeping Boy Collective Interview

Disclaimer: This was a transcription I found in a notebook. Nowadays, founding members Maria, Paeng, and Alva were part of SBC back then.

I will tell vague details of the people I interviewed from this new group of people I got acquainted with. They call themselves Sleeping Boy Collective. This group was formed as a tribute to their late friend Raffy whose favorite song was "Sleeping Boy the Paranoid" by Funeral Diner.

I remember that it was raining when I went against the trafficky Saturday of summer time 2015 from Parañaque. I even got lost on the way to QC (way, way lost. As far as Navotas) because I was not familiar with the commuting route of the area. This technically was my first time in Maginhawa. It was a blast.

I remember entering the house they were in. As I remember, I recall Alva, Maria, and Grois rents the place. Paeng is always around there.

Maria was helping Clarenz (which was coincidentally, part of SBC as well) set up his offset guitar. They were also hinting a part of a new song they wrote which ended up as "Corpse Medicine" from Beast Jesus' first EP In Various States of Disassembly. After that I was confused and they took me to dinner. I remember before leaving that Alva muttered something like "Uy, wala munang uuwi ha. Manonood tayo ng movie. Wild Tales."

While walking, I asked Maria where did they get a copy of Sunbather. They were heavily into that record back then. They replied, "one of my best friends shipped it to me."

Tim's sister, Tita Thysz gave an improptu tour in Maginhawa as we were walking to that dinner place. She introduced us the place so deliberately, that in my opinion, she can describe Maginhawa with her eyes closed.

Her introduction of Van Gogh is Bipolar, Caution Hot, and the original food park located there caught my attention.

All I remember from that dinner was Tim was eating dinner with red horse beer as his drink, I think Paeng was drinking beer too. I cannot remember the things I have ordered. Maria had this huge Root Beer Float which I regret not ordering the first time I saw it. Alva and Maria have small strands of cat fur in their shoulders, their, backs, well... in basically their shirts. By the way, their cats are friendly and one of them jumped in my lap before we were leaving.

Ocho from Quezo/Franco passed by when we were eating dinner. I was the only one who noticed.

The next stop was dessert! This place which I cannot remember the name of, served locally-flavored iced cream based on the regions of the Philippines. Tim actually payed for my dessert. (He owes me 150 bucks from the Algernon Cadwallader cd I sold him. So technically, we're even.)

This place ended up to be the go-to place where I take my friends whenever I get the chance to visit Maginhawa. Their "Bicol"-flavored iced cream is highly commendable.

Before we went back, Tim's sister had other plans for the night so she won't be coming back with us. Clarenz had to go back home since he's from the South and it's a long ride home.

We bid our goodbyes and the girls and Paeng bought more food and drinks (AKA red horse and pulutan).

While we sat down on their second floor waiting for them, there were are a lot of pedals on Maria and Alva's boards (I remember specifically, Maria showed me his mooer triangle Buff and Boss HM2.) and random guitars that I cannot describe back then. I'm pretty sure there was a Jazzmaster there somewhere.

This whole interview happened because Tim and I were present in the last King Ly Chee show last Friday. I asked him if I could do an interview with SBC because we plan to have an article posted for Timog Bulletin. He invited me to go to their place for the interview.

Kuya Ebong's Timog Bulletin blog was still active back then before he and Kuya Darwin turned it into a podcast a few years later. The next day, I went for it. Unfortunately, the recorded file was lost. This is all that is left and a bunch of interesting memories.

Here is the rest of the transcript which is the interview I salvaged:

Me: Ayun, background check. Ilang taon kayo nung nakarinig kayo ng punk, hardcore, screamo, post hardcore, or anything?

Maria: Anything extreme? Well, nonconventional music, I've been listening to weird shit since I was like what? Seven years old. 'Cause my mom used to work in a music store. I crate dig and I find cassettes that nobody wanted. I got into obscure electronic shit. Stuff like Atari Teenage Riot, Orbital, Chemical (brothers)

Alva (jokingly): My Chemical Romance?

Maria: Mga ganun. (random laughs in the background.) It was eventually when I was a teenager, siguro mga 14-15 ako, I got into stuff from Victory Records tapos-

Tim: Blame Snapcase.

Maria: Oo! Snapcase, Thursday... tapos dahil sa kakapakinig ko sa stuff na ganun parang binibili ko na yung cassettes and cds nila, nakikita ko yung "Thank Yous" nila. Ito like, "thank you to this band and that band."

Nagustuhan ko yung Thursday, baka magustuhan ko rin yung taste nila sa mga friends nila and everything y'know? These bands that they think they acknowledge.

Paeng: What's up brother? (Brings in food and beer)

Tim: What's up?

Paeng: Yeah.

Alva: Haha, biglang may Paeng.

Maria: So it just went from there. I have been listening to non-mainstream music since I was 13-14 until 25 going to 26 now. So that's me, who's chiming in next?

Me: Ayun, bale... lahat kayo.

Tim: Ok, ako naman. Ah, siguro nagsimula akong makinig ng non-mainstream shit nung may nag recommend sa akin na makinig or pumunta ng fourfa (fourfa.com) office mate ko siya sa net café tapos uh, elder statesman namin siya dati sa school. Parang, "O sige ganyan-ganyan ka naman pumorma, ganyan-ganyan ka magsuot, eto pakinggan mo." Or "puntahan mo yung site na to. Ako naman, "o sige." So doon na yun nagpunta lahat.

So... hindi ko siya actually nagustuhan kaagad. I didn't actually save it on the cellphone and played it throughout.

Parang nangyari, nagbackdate ako ng "ano ba yung (pinagmulan)?" Bakit ba sila gumagawa ng ganitong jams? Parang from one thing led to another then you see Revolution Summer (Dischord Records era of hardcore) parang ganun, tapos parang hindi ko pa rin siya napagtripan kaya pumunta pa rin ako ng pababa.

Nakita ko yung DC hardcore. Bands like Black Flag, Minor Threat, tsaka Bad Brains, etc. Saka ko pa lang nakita na "Huh? Eto pala yung ginagawa nila 'tas parang yun yung unang beses kong nafigure out na ito pala yung pwede ko mapag-tripan na kailangan kong sabihin na, "Uy eto ganito, ganito, ganyan." So that was I think in second year high school? Ay! Second year college.

Ah kasi parang expat or migrant coming from Bukidnon, nandito ako sa Manila, wala akong mapuntahan or mapagtripan tapos mainly, skate music lang yung pinapakinggan ko. Not really coming from the mainstream ika nga and eventually it led through there. Then you realize, "uy, masaya siya pakinggan." Ayun, so next is Paeng.

Me: (Very intimidated and a bit shocked that Tim's interview was over.) Ummm...

Maria: The question here is how did you first get into non-mainstream shit?

Paeng: Uh... PureVolume.

Uh... I got into non-mainstream shit because of my upperclassmen. Yung crush ko na girl na upperclassman ko, hinila niya ako on some sort of a date sa campus. Tapos nagsoundtrip kami ng mga... mga Typecast.

In unison: (Everyone laughs.)

Paeng: Tapos binigyan niya ako ng cd ng Typecast tsaka ano... Too Late The Hero tsaka Saydie. Which by the way, ako yung nagpoproduce sa Saydie ngayon.

Tim: And guitarist?

Paeng: 'Di na. 'Di na ako nagsesession doon. Tapos after nun, it became some sort of identity for me. Yun nga yung sort of formative years ng teenage life ko. Sa college, so naghahanap lang ako ng association or identity at that time. Kasi one, ayoko sumali ng frat. Two, mga upperclassmen ko medyo bully. Tapos na ako nun nung mga high school.

Aesthetically, I thought it was y'know... for the girls so sinundan ko yung trend na yun admittedly. Siyempre, naghahanap pa ako ng form of identity nun. Then, after I got out of the surface level aesthetics, I delved in deeper kasi may mga ibang subject matter ng mga usong kanta nung mga emo shit nun that didn't jive well with me.

Kasi una, hindi ako bobo. Tapos, naghahanap naman ako ng emo bands na hindi naman bobo at marunong mag articulate in deeper form or usage of language, hindi lang "Oooh, I'm so sad." or basta mga ganun.

Me: Surface level aesthetic?

Paeng: Yeah. Uhm... then I realized na these are just trendy stuff na nagpapa popularize lang ng mga websites na tinitignan ko. But then, may nakita akong isang page sa forum

*Grois goes upstairs, Paeng gets sidetracked*

Paeng: Where was I?

Maria: You found a forum?

Paeng: Ayun, nakahanap ako ng forum na nakalista ang napakaraming emotive hardcore bands. Ah okay medyo nadistract ako.

*pauses for a while and there was a little chit chat about my tablet's recorder.*

Paeng: Sorry naderail ako sa conversation. Tapos pinakinggan ko yung bands na nakalista doon sa forum. Pagkatapos nun, nakilala ko si Francis (Maria) sa isa pang forum tapos nagdecide kami magmeet up.

Francis wanted to play "chaotic converge stuff" which was what he was currently into that time. Bale, pinagsoundrip niya ako sa mp3 player niya dati tapos iniskip through ko every single one of the songs until narinig ko yung Scarlet (US). Naalala ko dati na sa soulseek kami kumukuha ng files. Si Maria, ginagamit niya pa rin. Ako, I don't have the patience anymore, and there weren't any torrents back then.

Tim: Limewire sucks.

Paeng: Yeah, Limewire sucks. You end up with misconstrued song titles and child porn. So ito yung beginnings into music and the ideology involved rather than the surface level aspect. Hanggang ngayon I still apply this aspect in critiquing and producing other records for other bands and how to interact with them. Dahil sa roots ko sa Davao punk scene, yung idea ng Anarchy tsaka anti-establishment is still implied. Pero narealize ko... everyone is technically a sellout.

Me: Why is everyone technically a sellout?

Paeng: From birth, you're not the one that chooses the lifestyle you're born into. Kapag pinanganak ka, mapa-mahirap man o mayaman ka wala kang choice. Doon ka lang makakapili ng landas mo kapag may autonomy or sariling decision ka na. Ako personally, lumayas ako from home at 16 after namin magkaroon ng argument with my mom. I learned life firsthand. Natatandaan ko nakatira lang ako sa kubo. Tapos yung CR ko butas lang sa lupa.

Hindi ako naniniwala sa sellout na word. Dati nung lumayas ako, isipin mo I was emaciated 5'11" ako tapos para ako yung sa Machinist.

Tim: Si Slenderman hahaha.

Maria: I look like Christian Bale hahaha... from The Machinist.

Paeng: May mga times na tumutugtog yung Capulette (pre-Caitlyn Bailey) tapos mag cocollapse ako. Mahihimatay ako kasi wala akong kinain buong araw.

Maria: Umabot sa point na nag organize kami ng gig para magkaroon si Paeng ng funds for food for one whole month.

Paeng: Tapos nagkaroon ako ng work sa mall serving food. It was then that I realized that we are tethered to the system and if I break it, I will die. But at the same time, if I want to change the system, I have to corrupt it the way it corrupted me. I am trying to do that by implanting myself into the system which indoctrinates the youth, which is the educational system. That's why I ended up landing a job as a professor in Mapua Institute of Technology. So what was your question again?

After this I asked Grois and Alva. As far as I remember in the interview:

Alva Presbitero's first introduction to extreme music was by his kuya recommending her some stuff like Botch and Converge.

When she was studying college in UP, she was involved in an alternative metal sounding band which took a lot from Deftones and Tool called Tabula Rasa.

She was frontman of prog band Game Theory. She was playing guitar and singing vocals with emo/powerpop/alternative group Small Hands alongside Tani Cariño of Neverdie and Chi & Sep of Typecast at the time of the recording of this interview.

I remember vaguely that Grois Enayo started getting into punk when she was in college.

"I just came here to drink beer... what's up?"

While studying, she started to look for bandmates in the PUP, Pulp, and Rakizta forums online. Which Paeng followed through jokingly saying:

"Ahhh... PULPera ka pala dati?"

After that endeavor did not work out for her, she started to look for members again to play Bikini Kill sounding stuff.

At time of this recording, she's a member of the politically-charged band, "Death to Puberty" which Chuck Baclagon fronts and the Shocking Details which where she channels her inner Riot Grrrl roots.

Currently, she is a member of punk group Catpuke and The Shocking Details recently released recorded material a few years back.

After the interview at about 3am-ish they guided me to how to commute to get back home and they went into a bakery to buy Coca Cola and bread I think? I don't even remember how I got home.

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sachiro · 7 years

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Victor and Yuuri’s Career Choices in Episode 12

Alternatively titled “WTF was episode 12!?”

As the 3rd and final post in the Victor/Yuuri and Grief series (found here and here), we’ll be taking a look at how their individual journeys that we explored in the previous 2 posts leading up to the hotel scene in eps 11/12 affect their career choices in the final episode.

As we’ve seen already, both of them have gone through the entire grieving process by the time the hotel scene rolls around. Just as a reminder about what their grief focused on, I’ll do a super quick recap.

For Victor, his grief was centered around the developmental loss of his career and accepting that he can still have a fulfilling life coaching Yuuri. He hits his acceptance of this during the GPF short programs, the moment we see him overlooking the stadium as Yurio breaks his short program world record. Victor has finally reached a place where he feels he can be happy with things as they are – with him off the ice.

For Yuuri, his grief was centered around the anticipated loss of losing Victor (in all capacities) after the GPF ended and accepting that the time he has with him is limited. He convinced himself that the time he has with Victor in every capacity wasn’t forever and that he would eventually have to give him up. Over the course of the series, he comes to terms with this on his own.

Buckle up because it’s going to be a long ride. I promise you, however, that the read will be worth it. (I’ll even add in some music recommendations to listen to during certain parts to add to your reading experience!)

To start off looking at the hotel scene, I really want to put emphasis on a couple of things that really made this scene what it is (and happen in the first place).

The first thing is communication, or rather, the lack thereof. Sure, Victor and Yuuri have times where they sit down and have emotional discussions but every single one of them have been after one or the other reaches the end of their rope and they either explode (ep 7 parking garage) or pin the other down to finally get them to open up (ep 4 beach scene). At the end of the day, their communication is actually pretty terrible. I’ve talked a lot about their communication here so I’ll just mention the relevant bits. They don’t talk about their personal problems with each other until pushed to a point where they’re pretty much forced to. In the case of the hotel scene, it’s that the GPF is almost over and if Victor was going to make a comeback announcement then it would be within the next 48 or so hours.

The second, and most important, thing (that also spawns from the first point) is that they don’t know what the other is thinking. Of course they’re not telepathic so they can’t see into each other’s head unless they talk about it (which of course they don’t because they really need to work on that talking about feelings thing).

If we apply these two points to the entire series then you can really see why they clashed the way they did. Yuuri has completely and totally missed, or, in some worse cases, misinterpreted, Victor’s grieving process and everything it entailed. He was too wrapped up in his own grief to be able to see beyond it and everything therefore ended up painted in its colours. But on the flip side, Victor also totally missed Yuuri’s grief because he was involved in trying to figure out his own. These two are scarily similar sometimes but this time it ended up being for the worse. It’s like they’re both moving forward as 2 parallel lines.

Moving into the hotel scene itself, I’d just like to remind everyone of where they are both at mentally.

Victor has accepted that he won’t be going back onto the ice as a competitor. He is probably, I think, planning to officially announce his retirement at some point after the GPF. He’s happy with things the way they are now. He’s finally found the life and love he was so desperately seeking and is content exactly where he is. If he could pause time then I’m sure he’d do it in a heartbeat.

Yuuri, on the other hand, has accepted that he is on borrowed time. He already grieved the loss of his career after the previous year’s GPF, the Aria skate in ep 1 was his hitting Acceptance on that matter, and, after 9 months with Victor, Yuuri has gone through the entire process again regarding his (perceived) loss of Victor. He feels that Victor’s coaching of him is tying Victor down to a life he doesn’t want to live because if he were the top figure skater that so obviously loved competing and being on the ice then wouldn’t he want to stay there forever?

When we look at the setting in that light, you can instantly see how heart wrenching the moment is for Victor. It’s no wonder he bursts into tears and can’t get them to stop! It’s even been officially mentioned since the Victor and Grief post was written that he isn’t a man that cries easily, if ever. To twist the knife just a bit deeper, I’ll lay it out in 1 sentence:

Victor went through the entire grieving process to get away from his career and be happy off the ice with Yuuri and then that same man he thought he could have a life with away from skating tells him that the only thing he achieved through all his pain and efforts was a way back onto the ice – alone.

To be fair to Yuuri, because he isn’t doing this out of any kind of malicious intent (quite the opposite in fact), he can’t see inside Victor’s head. He can only see inside his own. That, combined with his anxiety and their poor communication, led him to believe that the impression he was getting through the film of his own grief was the only possible explanation for all that he was seeing.

In short, he felt that he was setting Victor free and allowing him the ability to do what he actually wanted to do – go back to skating without having the emotional baggage that is Yuuri Katsuki holding him back. There is a saying that perfectly describes what Yuuri is attempting to do here. “If you truly love someone, you can let them go.” Yuuri truly feels that he is doing the right thing and he is doing it out of love.

Of course, we as viewers can clearly see that he is absolutely not which leads us to a moment that is both heart-wrenching and yet morbidly humorous when viewed in a particular light.

Yuuri flat out cannot understand why Victor would be crying here. And how could he? It doesn’t in any way fit with any of the possible visions he has of what Victor wants for himself. He can’t possibly comprehend why Victor would want to just stay with him and not want to go back to the lucrative career he had before running off to coach Yuuri for a season (or part of one anyway). It’s understandable why Victor would call Yuuri selfish and then get mad when his only response to the accusation is to say “yes, I am” and then gawk at Victor’s emotional pain over the entire situation.

The same as with ep 7’s parking garage scene, we don’t actually get to see the entire scene play out and are cut off after a certain point. The same as with that earlier scene, however, I believe this one played out in a similar fashion. The crying partner got themself under control and then walked away from the situation. In Yuuri’s case it was to skate his free skate at the Cup of China and in this one it would be Victor going to bed.

As we’ve seen multiple times from Victor, he’s actually very good at controlling his anger. He gets up and grabs Yuuri’s shoulders, exclaiming out “how could you tell me to return to the ice while saying you’re retiring!?” (which, in Victor-speak and given everything we know about him, would more accurately mean “how can you so emotionlessly order me to drop all of this and go back to a life without you!?”), but I’m sure he stops himself there.

At first I felt that the way this scene was cut felt incredibly jarring but when I looked at it further I started to think it really isn’t. Victor knows that when he’s angry he needs to just drop it and walk away and I’m sure that’s exactly what he did here. The only information we don’t see them discuss, and which is told us a moment later, is that they will make their own decisions on how to deal with this whole situation after the free skate.

And this leads us into exactly that.

Something that the series isn’t always great at is showing us the flow of time within the space of the competitions themselves. There was a bit that confused me initially because I assumed that the SP and FS were on 2 back to back days. Turns out, they’re actually not. These lines:

This implies that there is at least 1 day after the SP in which Yuuri was not there for practice and that the day of the FS is some time after that day. If we look at normal event scheduling for the Grand Prix Final and other such competitions, this would mean that the Men’s Short Programs most likely fell on the Thursday and the Men’s Free Skate on the Saturday.

This then gives us 2 options. Either the hotel scene we see at the start of the episode took place the night of the SP or the night before the FS. Let’s take a quick look at what both options could mean for these two.

The first interpretation is that Yuuri told Victor he was going to retire the night before the FS. If we make a couple of assumptions (that Yuuri felt terrible after his SP, that it took him a while to work himself up to telling Victor that he was retiring, and that Victor might have been able to better emotionally regulate himself if given more than 1 night to process all the information that was thrown at him) then we can see how it could make sense that there was a day of blank space before Yuuri dropped the bomb on Victor.

In this space, Yuuri may have been mentally tearing himself apart. He doesn’t want to hurt Victor but he knows he needs to tell him his plans. As much as he thinks that he’s going to be letting Victor get what he ‘actually wants’, he still knows the news is going to hurt him. In this case the missed practice day would be explained by Yuuri being in a miserable mental place (though I find it hard to believe that Victor would allow that excuse to fly and not push Yuuri to attend the practice anyway). This option is the one which is more painful for Yuuri because he would have spent that entire day caught up in his own mind and emotions.

The second interpretation is that Yuuri told Victor the night after the Short Programs. Evidence to support this is that, on his Instagram, Yuuri sees Minako and Mari celebrating at the bar with Celestino. Would they celebrate after a day when none of the Men they’re cheering for/coaching had competed? It’s possible but it’s more likely that they were celebrating the SPs.

In this case, Yuuri wouldn’t have been in the best head space because, as we saw in episode 11, he felt he had failed at his SP due to, among other things, missing out on the +3.0 GOE quad Flip he had previously promised Victor (and thus felt that he failed Victor as well as himself). Having dropped the news at this point also gives a good explanation for the missed practice day because neither of them would have been in a place to be in the public eye. With this option, it also means that Victor would have had an entire day to process the information. Given how he looks the next time we see him, with bags under his eyes and an absolutely miserable expression on his face, I’m not entirely sure this ended up being for the best.

In the end, the most important part of that whole spiel was that either one or both of them spent that skipped practice day in some kind of mental anguish; either Yuuri was contemplating how to break it to Victor or both of them were thinking about Yuuri’s retirement and all it would mean for them both personally and as a couple. Victor in both cases also wouldn’t have had any more than 36 hours or so to process all the information so it’s no wonder he looks so depressed here.

Bringing us to the pep talk before the free skate, I’d like to bring your attention to a couple things. This may sound odd given how happy and content he looks at the end of the episode but hear me out: I believe that Victor is thrown back into a state of grieving by the emotional upheaval that Yuuri’s announcement caused. Grieving spawns from the feeling that something you had has been lost and Acceptance comes at the end of the grieving process where you accept what you do have. In this case, Victor had accepted that he could have a life that didn’t involve him skating but did make him happy. The prospect of Yuuri’s retirement then caused Victor to feel as if he was about to lose the life that he had finally accepted he could be happy with.

The grief process that Victor goes through within this episode actually falls into the last type of loss that we have yet to cover: Situational Loss. Victor didn’t expect for the happiness (the life and love) he achieved to be ripped away from him in the way it was. It wasn’t anticipated and it wasn’t developmental. It was completely unexpected and the violent language I’ve used to describe it in this analysis has been to hopefully allow everyone to get a feeling for how Victor may have felt during these moments.

Instead of doing a breakdown of the stages like I did in the previous 2 posts, I’ll just be touching on the reactions when we get there (because I swear this isn’t a Victor meta… Yuuri, I promise you haven’t been forgotten!). I just needed to make sure everyone was aware of this perspective before we delve in any deeper.

Firstly, let’s take a look at the chat before Yuuri takes to the ice to skate. We actually get an interesting emotional parallel to the episode 10 beach scene with Yurio. Something is said that hits the topic of Victor’s grief on the head and he understandably reacts emotionally. In this case, it’s this line:

Yuuri is reminding Victor of what he is currently grieving over. This time it’s Yuuri’s imminent retirement. Victor has a reaction that is very reminiscent of earlier in the series – he brings out the salt. What really brings this anger to light, however, is when we look at the expression he pairs with the words.

This isn’t just a pep talk. This is Victor being Victor, just as Yuuri asked him to, and not just putting on his coach face.

But it’s gone as quick as it arrived and we see a more vulnerable face from him. I feel like you can read a lot into this next expression. You can see the lines of exhaustion on his face but also the love in his eyes. I feel like this expression is a great way to sum up his current mental state.

Even though the words he’s saying are teasing, his expression is very open. And Yuuri reciprocates in the same open way. I firmly believe this is why this exact frame pulls the viewers in. There is just so much raw emotion passing between the two even though no more words are spoken.

Something really important to note is what Yuuri says right as he goes off to skate.

“I’ve already made up my mind about my goal.” This implies that he’s already decided what he plans to do before he goes out to skate. We could even go so far as to say that he made up his mind even before the pep talk. But what it comes down to is that there was most likely little change between when he told Victor he was retiring and performing this free skate – he is still planning to retire after the GPF and he wants to convince Victor to let him go and return to the ice.

(Music rec: Yuri on Ice, Yuuri’s FS)

Let’s hop over to Yuuri now to delve into his skate and everything he’s saying with it. He starts off by thanking Victor for bringing him all the way to this GPF. We get to see the same clips as in episode 1 however I’d like to bring to special attention the exact moment it cuts back to the present.

Yuuri brings to attention the notion of time. He was always chasing Victor’s shadow until the man himself figuratively took his hand and pulled him onto the ice with him to skate at his side (or, better said, at his level). If we check out this shot we can see that that is literally what it seems he is trying to do: take his hand and pull him onto the ice back in the present of the GPF he has worked so hard, alongside Victor, to get to. Yuuri then thanks Victor for it all.

This again brings us back to where Yuuri is mentally. He is still convinced that this is the last performance he will ever skate in competition. Even after all that has been said and shared between the two of them, he is still set on retiring after this. He still thinks that what Victor wants the most is to go back to the ice. We see it highlighted even more a moment later during what is probably one of the most emotional moments between the two of them even though Victor doesn’t say a word.

First off, we actually get something really big. Yuuri admits, even if it’s only in his head, that he doesn’t want to stop skating. He doesn’t want to retire. Same as I mentioned earlier that Victor wanted to put their entire situation in stasis and stay like that forever, Yuuri does too. And even though their communication off the ice is pretty terrible, their communication via their skating is a whole other matter. You can almost assume that most of the things people are thinking as they skate get through to their intended recipient(s). In this case, Yuuri’s desires get through to Victor. But he’s not done yet.

He gets to the crux of the entire issue. He feels that Victor coaching him is killing him as a competitive skater. And honestly, he’s right. There’s almost no way that Victor could dedicate himself fully to his own career while at the same time worrying about Yuuri’s in the way he has been. He’s the kind of guy to throw himself fully into whatever he’s doing and thus trying to dedicate himself to more than 1 large endeavour, such as having a full skating career and coaching another person’s full skating career at the same time, would most likely be more than he as a mortal human being can handle. And this is why Yuuri wants to let him go. But we’ll come back to this at the end.

This actually manages to be both the most selfless and selfish moment in the entire series. It all depends on the perspective you look at it from.

From Yuuri’s perspective, he’s making the selfless decision to let Victor go back to what Yuuri feels Victor wants to do. He sees it as setting free a bird he’s trapped in a cage and allowing it to fly free again. As sacrificing his own desires to be with Victor as a coach/skater for the sake of allowing Victor to do what he ‘truly wants to do’.

On the flip side, Victor sees this as Yuuri’s selfish decision to push him back to the ice when he no longer wants to be there. And for what? For the sake of seeing his idol skate again? Yuuri isn’t even willing to skate with him, he just wants to watch. Using the same analogy, it’s like forcing the bird out of the cage that it was completely happy in for the sake of watching it fly around because you think watching it fly is beautiful. That sounds really harsh but you can see why even contemplating that thought process made Victor upset enough to cry at the start of the episode.

In this section of the skate, Yuuri is trying to relay his side of the message. He’s trying to tell Victor that his decision was borne out of love and not just because he wants to watch him skate. He wants Victor to see that he has the freedom to want to return to skating. That he doesn’t have to hold himself back for Yuuri’s sake, not just in actually doing things but in desiring to do them as well. That he has achieved what he set out to do. This is truly the moment when we can see that Yuuri has let Victor go.

To top it off, he makes sure Victor knows that the message was for him – which we can see he clearly understands.

Next up we have a portion that while outwardly might seem entirely happy, is actually very much a complicated mixture of emotions.

The end of Yuuri’s performance and his moving off the ice gets skimmed over very quickly but I honestly feel that, due to this transition, it actually gets the emotions that are within Yuuri’s words across perfectly. The more we wish to stay in a moment, the faster that moment seems to have passed once it’s over. This goes doubly so for this particular one as both Yuuri and Victor are feeling the exact same thing. Neither wants to see Yuuri retire. Neither wants this to be Yuuri’s final skate or for this to be the final time Victor can welcome Yuuri back off the ice after a performance. However, just as quickly as it feels like the moment ends for them, the moment ends for us as well and we’re seeing them sitting over at the kiss & cry hearing the announcement of Yuuri’s scores.

I’d like to do a quick check in with Victor right after the scores are announced. We see a side shot of Victor’s profile that actually looks quite familiar when you think on it.

That’s right, it’s the same expression we saw him wearing in episode 11 as he watched Yurio’s world recording breaking SP score come in.

Now obviously these are not the same situations. During Victor’s analysis, I described the expression in episode 11 as a look of “nostalgia, pain, and sadness”. While I don’t feel that the exact same words could be used to describe the look in episode 12, the concept of it being a look spawned from Victor’s Depression and Pain stage of grief can. That, along with this being a moment immediately before Victor makes a life-changing decision within himself, are what these two paralleled expressions have in common.

You might be asking, “What life-changing decision did he make in this moment?” Of course, it’s regarding his career. In this case it’s his decision to go back to the ice. But it’s not as simple as that. This is easily one of the most complicated decisions to take apart in the entire series.

On an initial watch-through, you might get the impression that watching Yuuri had lit a flame in Victor and that it was just that Yuuri’s message from the skate got through. And while a portion of that is true, I find it really hard to see this expression as dominated by the light of a competitive flame.

That isn’t to say it isn’t there. It just isn’t his primary reason to making the decision he does. I’ve been going on for a while about why he made the decision but let’s take a more in-depth look on the moment itself. I believe that Victor employs a conversation strategy that he tends to use every so often when he’s unsure about something and wants someone else’s opinion (and doesn’t want to just ask directly). He makes a comment to test the waters and then makes a decision based on the reaction (or lack thereof) he gets.

In this case, it’s the comment regarding how he feels as a coach and a competitor about how the two Yuris broke two of his world records. He’s gauging Yuuri’s reaction to his words and basically letting Yuuri make the call. Keeping in mind that his comment involved both the option for the present (coach) and the past (competitor), it’s up to Yuuri which side he chooses (for the future). Now obviously it’s more complicated than that but I believe that Yuuri’s face and words here are what ultimately make up Victor’s mind.

In regards to Victor’s grief, I believe that at this point he still holds that dream of coaching Yuuri while Yuuri’s the one on the ice. He still, in his heart of hearts, wants to put the skating behind him and move on with his life. Just because he has found new life and love through Yuuri does not cancel out the sheer amount of stress that being a competitive skater was and is for him. He thought he could finally get away from that… but now he guesses it’s just not time yet. He can see the happiness beaming from Yuuri’s every pore at the prospect of Victor going back to skating competitively and it makes the decision for him.

I have a hard time reading anything more than pure love but also a touch of sadness in his ridiculously tender expression here. It’s not sadness at the decision that Yuuri’s made, but sadness at feeling like the dream that he thought was within reach is slipping away from him. But if he can make Yuuri this happy, this overjoyed, then he thinks the sacrifice is worth it. The moment Yuuri smiles and asks if that means he’ll be coming back, Victor doesn’t respond with anything but this look. That smile was what made up his mind because in the end that is how he wants to show Yuuri his love.

A final comment about Yuuri’s choice in this moment to say what he did; I’d just like to say that I don’t really see it as so much of a “choice” as just excitement. The fact that he responds so quickly says a lot. There has always been a part of him, a surprisingly large part of him, that has wanted to compete with Victor. I don’t think in this moment that he’s thinking anything particularly deep, he’s just excited that maybe, just maybe, he’ll finally be able to achieve that long held dream that he’s always hoped for even a chance at.

(Music rec: Symphony No. 9, YOI mix, Otabek’s FS)

Moving on to the moment when Victor runs to find Yakov and tell him the news, I can see very clearly a few things Victor does conversation-wise. He makes the announcement that he’s coming back to competitive skating and will be participating in Russian Nationals. But you can both see and feel the pain in his voice when Yurio asks whether Yuuri will be retiring. Victor says nothing more than he’s aware of currently, that Yuuri will have to make that decision himself, but it sounds like he’s had to steel himself to get the words out. There’s such obvious pain at the prospect that I can’t help feeling that it ties back into the grief he’s still experiencing. And then he seeks out physical touch both as a way to say good luck to Yurio as well as a grounding method for himself emotionally.

You can see it in the way that he hugs him and then squeezes him even closer. This is almost universal in body language for “I need comfort now”. Body language in itself is something that most people grow up to understand on an instinctual level (an example of body language that everyone all over the globe understands, regardless of culture or upbringing, is smiling). Victor is saying a lot of things with this hug (amongst which is certainly “good luck”) but what really stands out to me is his plea for help. I say “plea for help” but it’s not as direct as that word choice makes it sound. Let me explain.

Over the years, Victor has learned to put up a strong front when he’s unhappy. Specifically, he smiles to cover his pain. Nothing else in the entire series proves it so well as this exact moment because there’s absolutely no way that Yuuri’s impending retirement would make Victor happy.

The concept of body language being such a universal language can also be applied to Yurio. As gruff as he can be, there’s no way he misunderstood what Victor was saying here even if he didn’t respond with words or even by returning the hug.

Where I’m going with all this is that this hug means many things. Victor is wishing Yurio good luck but that’s not the only thing. The message definitely gets through even if Victor wasn’t thinking anything as specific as “go skate to keep Yuuri on the ice”. So Victor wasn’t “hugging Yurio to tell him to stop Yuuri from retiring”. No, he was just looking for comfort and those emotions were understood and interpreted by Yurio on the instinctual level that most everyone understands body language. That understanding that Victor is in pain because Yuuri will be retiring then combined together with Yurio’s pre-existing feelings about the situation (wanting to skate against Yuuri as a rival and see how far Yuuri can go) to fuel his performance.

Something interesting to note is that throughout Yurio’s entire FS, Victor and Yuuri aren’t together. Victor could have easily gone to find Yuuri but he let him have his space (and took his own) to allow Yuuri to make his own decision.

Jumping back to Yuuri, there’s a battle going on in his mind. There are so many things he wants but he’s also trying to hold himself back as perhaps a way to keep himself in moderation and/or not hold others (aka Victor) back from what they want. He wants to compete against Victor. He’s always wanted to skate on the same ice as him as fellow competitors and not the dynamic of coach and skater that they currently have. He wants to continue skating because he’s finally, finally, found his love of skating. He’s found what he was talking about at the beginning of the series: a reason to skate for himself. Ironically that reason is still Victor, just in a different form.

Last time we heard from Yuuri was during his FS where he expressed his desire to not get off the ice as that would mean the end is finally there. In contrast to his excitement at the prospect of Victor returning to the ice, he gets a moment alone (when Victor runs off to talk to Yakov/Yurio) where you can see the reality of the situation starts to sink in. He looks quite unhappy seeing the Makkachin tissue box and water bottle sitting there alone with no Victor. He definitely realizes in this moment what skating without Victor would be like – and by extension a life without Victor as he would be back in Russia training and skating alone. This mental state lends itself perfectly to watching Yurio’s skate.

The point that finally makes up his mind is when he sees Yurio skate. Yuuri has been so hyper-focused on Victor that he had stopped looking outside of the two of them. Everything has become about what he wants, what Victor wants, and about how to balance the two (which always ended in Yuuri trying to sacrifice his own wants for Victor’s).

But Yurio’s skate serves as a wake-up call. There are other skaters, other people, outside of you and Victor (think back to Victor’s line in episode 11 of how Yuuri gave life and love to others outside of Victor himself)! If you come back to skate, there are other people whose wants and desires you’ll be coinciding – others such as Yurio. No other skater up until this point has so clearly said “I don’t want you to retire because that’s what I want” than in this moment. Victor has tried to say it but he is a special case to Yuuri, someone who is too close to the issue for him to be able to take the sentiment in objectively. Sometimes you just need that extra push, and that’s what Yurio provides.

And as the cherry on top, Yurio snatches away the final goal that Yuuri had been hoping to achieve for probably longer than even he realizes: the Grand Prix Final Gold medal. Yuuri now still has things left he wants to do and Yurio makes sure that if he retires now that he’ll be retiring with a bitter aftertaste in his mouth and the words “it’s not over yet” in his mind. We can also see the moment when Yuuri makes up his mind, and it’s actually before the medal ceremony (the medals just serve to cement his choice).

(Music rec: Stammi Vicino - Duetto version)

So let’s check in with both Yuuri and Victor to see where they’re at now as of the awards ceremony. Victor has made the choice to go back to skating. He’s planning to make his comeback at Russian Nationals (which is within the space of a couple of weeks). Yuuri has decided he also isn’t going to retire. He’s going to skate out the rest of the season and at least the one following it as well.

Let’s go through this moment chronologically.

Victor actually ping pongs in his reaction to Yuuri presenting him the silver. There’s a mix of love, salt, pride, even some flirting. Victor’s emotions are clearly all over the place. In the moments before Yuuri pushes him down and asks him to continue coaching him, Victor is still convinced that this is the end. That this is the last time he’ll get to welcome Yuuri off the ice. That he will need to say goodbye to Yuuri and return to Russia alone, back to his lonely skating career. His emotions are understandably a jumble. He can’t see any possible route in which Yuuri could stay with him while he goes back to skating alone.

I’d like to talk a bit about why Victor is thinking this when clearly Yuuri has a plan to suggest more. The reason comes down to a couple things, one of which I mentioned much earlier. First of all, it’s illegal in the ISU to both skate competitively and coach at the same time. You can only do either one or the other. Secondly, as I mentioned much further up, Victor is the type to put his all into everything he does. He doesn’t do anything half-assed. If he’s coaching then he’s going to be putting all his time and effort into that, and the same goes for his skating. There’s almost no way he would be able to do both even if they got around the rules about the coaching/skating (such as having Yakov be Yuuri’s official coach on paper) because the human body can only handle so much.

But then Yuuri drops another bomb on Victor (he’s pretty good at that now). He doesn’t plan to retire for at least another year and wants Victor to continue coaching him. He does still want Victor to skate with him; it is still one of his dreams. But he also wants to skate with Victor. Understandably Victor is overjoyed at the prospect because if he can still be with Yuuri, even if it’s not in the form he originally envisioned, then he can be okay with that.

Interestingly enough, this ends Victor’s mini-grief journey that both started and ended within the space of episode 12. Unlike the others, however, it has a much happier ending. It isn’t just him needing to process the change and then accepting his new reality. No, he won’t get the simple happy life as a coach to Yuuri as he initially envisioned. But he does get to keep coaching Yuuri, he doesn’t need to give up everything, as well as go back to skating, which he accepted earlier was another way to make Yuuri happy. At the end of the day, it’s like reaching a compromise. Yuuri wants Victor to skate, Victor wants Yuuri to skate. Yuuri wants Victor to coach him, and Victor wants to coach Yuuri. Even during times like these they meet each other half way.

I’d love to say it’s a win-win situation and an overall happy end with no consequences but we can’t forget how hard of a toll this is going to take on Victor. I really feel the need to stress how hard this is going to be for him. Coaching takes a lot out of him and skating even more so. If we get to see Nationals/4CC/Euros/Worlds in the upcoming movie then I predict that we’ll definitely be seeing some kind of crash in him because I simply don’t think his body is going to be able to hold up.

But I will end this analysis on a happy note because both Yuuri and Victor are happy. Physical limitations aside, what they really wanted at the end of the day was just to be together . And that’s absolutely what they got. I mean, just look at them.

All the grief, all the sacrifices, all the pain, and all the emotions, both good and bad, have led them to this point. It was definitely a long journey but I’m sure if you asked either of them, they’d definitely say that, in the end, every moment was worth it.

#yuri!!! on ice #yuri on ice #meta #yoimeta #victuri #yuuri katsuki #victor nikiforov #my meta #my post #holy motherlode of meta #I feel like I've been writing this for eons #this is probably the work I'm most proud of to date #(it's also the longest woops)#thanks to everyone who gave me feedback! :D #I hope you all enjoy the grand finale to my meta trilogy #remember to read the first 2 parts first!

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