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#i kinda understand when its something like a multiple choice test or something where there is an objective answer
bmpmp3 · 1 month
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when people complain about getting like, a 98% grade on something because it was "so close to perfect" its like. i understand what you're saying on a technical level. but that is a line of thought so far away from my experiences and ways of thinking that i do feel like im from another planet. 100% isnt even a real number to me
#i kinda understand when its something like a multiple choice test or something where there is an objective answer#it might feel like u got so close but just missed one#again still a bit alien to me because my scholarly performance is mysterious and anything over 70 is great to me#but i mean ive had a 98 before once in a math test. i did get exactly 1 bit of 1 question wrong#but i didnt really care that it was one off from perfect i was too busy being happy because that was the highest mark id ever received#and the previous math test i had taken got a 53% . grade 11 was a wild time for me in math class GHJKSHFKds#anyway i kinda see where ur coming from with stuff with right or wrong answers like that#but i sometimes get friends in class complain that they got a 95 or something on an art assignment#because they think they got docked 5 points for one or two little things#but i dunno. thats not really how fine arts departments in university tend to grade things#you dont start at 100 and get docked marks for things you got wrong. i dont think ive ever seen a 100% on something like that#tbh the numbers are a little arbitrary i find. i do prefer to try to get em higher because that helps with grants and stuff#but the numbers dont mean all that much in fine arts or in art history (my two majors) a 75 and a 95 can function the same depending on lik#weighting and context and feedback and whatever. i dunno its a wild world out there#it might just be the perspective of someone who did really goodbad in school. (GoodBad (tm) its when ur good but also kinda bad at school!)#compared to someone who got a lot of perfects in mandatory schooling. i sympathise i really do that kind of pressure sounds insane#but while i sympathize i cant really empathize as much unfortunately with this specifically orz its a world very far outside my purview!#100%s arent real to me so they never cross my mind to be worried about LOL
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neonnoir-ao3 · 3 years
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Some Words of Comfort.
Recently, I’ve seen a lot of people (especially those who have read spoilers/are actively searching for leaked content) lament about their future reactions to the deaths of our beloved characters in-game.
We all knew this was inevitable, and that them living was not an option for the plot of the game, but the time has finally come to face it head-on.
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I understand that someone outside this community might be like “it’s just a game”, but I know it’s way more than that to many: the concept of a female villain that, to many, can be seen as sympathizable and even endearing, is a bit of a new concept— especially on such a large scale as this instance.
In addition, Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters have become a bit of a comfort item for some (with an emphasis on sapphics/wlw, from what I’ve seen personally) in the form of a large, protective, and caring hypothetical partner, or even just a maternal character one can appreciate simply because of her love for her children. Regardless, most of us are here due to some desire for comfort.
Take my own story with this community, for example:
(tws for death, covid, suicide, and general medical emergencies)
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Frankly, 2020 and the beginning of 2021 have ruined me. I lost two men who were the only two positive father figures I’ve ever had. The last of the two tested positive for covid and deteriorated within days, to the point where less than a week after testing positive, my family was making the choice to pull the plug. This all occurred days before Christmas and my birthday. On the first day of the spring semester, having not had the time to properly mourn my grandfather, my mother is in the ER for multiple days with an internal infection that doctors said likely would have turned septic if she had waited to come in any longer. This led to three surgeries throughout the next few months. (Oh, and one of my relatives quite literally dropped dead on that first day of class, too). I am also estranged from one of my parents, and they have been trying to contact my family: they have multiple untreated mental illnesses (severe NPD, bipolar, and more) and they are extremely aggressive in that state of mind and they are agitated extremely easily. That only brings more stress, along with resurfacing trauma and related emotions. Every moment of every day has been a struggle. So much so that I failed half of my classes voluntarily simply because I couldn't do them anymore.
To be perfectly honest with you, I didn’t expect to be here right now. I expected that the pain of simply moving forward would have finally overridden my fears of death and that I would have already ended my suffering by now.
Then, in late January, I saw something trending on Twitter. About a new female villain in an upcoming horror game. And it went from there.
As cheesy as it sounds, this fandom and its content seriously saved my life. In the darkest of days, I’ve come to this tag for comfort. The oddest way I found said comfort was through those who were attracted to Alcina aesthetically. I have extremely long-term trauma related to being bullied and being the victim of a hybrid catfishing/'Oreo Game' on early social media by peers in middle school to the point where I do not think of myself as being able to be loved, let alone being worthy of it. Finding this community not only provided a great form of escapism (and opened a door into a fantasy world where I could imagine my own person vampire milf gf), but also gained a little bit of self-esteem (as many of you know, I share a lot of visual qualities with Alcina. -yes, I'm still kinda freaked out about it-) via seeing people where features/attributes like mine were actively praised and desired rather than insulted and pushed away like they have been until now.
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(okay sorry that kinda turned into a trauma dump but I needed to emphasize the fact that this community has seriously helped me during a really dark point in my life, and I know I can't be the only one with that sort of experience)
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What I’m trying to get across here is that, like many others, this community and its content have been comforting and therapeutic, and it really is more than just a game to us. It’s entertaining and even a form of escapism in these extremely trying times. We all have some degree of PTSD from surviving a literal mass plague— and this is something we're using as a method of coping. a distraction. a coping mechanism.
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With that being said, here are some ways to hopefully assist in lessening the emotional stress:
(please note that I am not a mental health professional and these may not be healthy coping mechanisms for everyone.)
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Understand that it’s just a game.
I know, this sounds completely counterintuitive, but it’s more or less about keeping your level of immersion down. Personally, I can’t do scary shit in general: I have to listen to music on low volume while watching dark ARG vids at night or when I’m alone because I get too into it, and then my paranoia kicks in. Sometimes just pausing for a moment and grounding yourself/reminding yourself that this is a video game: a jumble of code and 3D rendering that doesn’t have to affect your views/headcanons if you don’t want it to. Did your favorite character just get slaughtered? Nope, that 3D rendering of them just got un-alived, that’s all.
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Ignorance is Bliss/We are the Captain Now
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Simple: Capcom can’t even pronounce Dimitrescu right, or even acknowledge the way it’s correctly said in Romanian culture itself. How can you trust them to give you a perfect canon? That’s the thing: with that logic, you can’t. What they say is true means little (if anything, for that matter) to your headcanons and preexisting ideas of the Dimitrescus. In short: fuck ‘em.
I’m currently seeking a double major in pop culture, and one of the cool things I’ve learned so far is affirmational vs transformational fandom. Affirmational is where official canon is seen as the law of the land, and followed to a T. Transformational is seen as much more inviting for audiences, allowing them to bend canon as they wish to fit their own creations. This fandom is obviously transformational, so take that game canon, rip it up, and get back to whatever you were doing.
Capcom’s canon is not the end-all, be-all. Far from it, actually.
Want to still acknowledge canon? Godmod your way out of it.
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Character A died? It’d be a shame if they emerged from the rubble they 'died in' a few hours later, very beaten but alive nonetheless... how awful would it be if they sulked away, nursed their wounds, and continued to live... (/s)
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Ignore it completely.
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Remember: give it time. Once the game drops, there w be a wave of grief, but eventually, we as a community will recover, and get back to business as usual. Think about it like the in any way. Stay with the version in your head that makes you happy.
Get Creative!
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If you're into creating fanart, writing fics, or even just posting a list of headcanons, take some advice from the late Carrie Fisher: "Take your broken heart, and make it into art". Make the fluff oneshot of your dreams! Draw the fanart you've been wanting to! dump lighthearted headcanons into the tags! Not only will it cheer you up, but sharing it with the community will spread the love!
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I know a lot of people are struggling with this emotionally (especially with the pandemic making entertainment like this even more important sources of escapism and coping mechanisms) and I hope that, at the very least, I was able to help comfort one person who reads this.
Remember: give it time. Once the game drops, there will be a wave of grief, but eventually, we as a community will recover, and get back to business as usual. Think about it like the flowers that bloom after major wildfires: after a period of loss, some beautiful can still come of it.
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warmau · 4 years
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{Special} College!AU Hendery
major: general biology 
minor: infectious diseases
clubs: part of chinese culture club with sicheng + tutors sometimes but he gets off-track easily, wont admit it out loud but attends the magic the gathering gettogethers often as well, extraterrestrial enthusiasts club
sports: he originally joined xiaojun for one of his ballet classes as a joke, but ended up really liking it and now he shows up regularly and the professor thinks hendery’s upbeat, chattery attitude is so “charming” and xiaojun just,,,,,,rolls his eyes like ma’am you don’t even know,,,,,,,,
hendery is a force to be reckoned with - not necessarily in a bad way, but if you aren't a high-strung energetic type then 
it can be hard to keep up
but the truth is, hendery is just like that because he’s a natural born people-pleaser 
making others happy by making himself the goofiest he can be actually brings him a lot of joy
and he finds no shame in carrying the ‘class clown’ title from high school into his college years
he takes everything with ease, kun and xiaojun frequently ask if he’s being an idiot on purpose, and hendery just thinks its hilarious 
yangyang and yukhei usually just egg on his jokes and stunts 
yukhei likes to partake in them too 
but yangyang is a little too smart 
and wont take on any bet thrown at him the way these two will
and believe me, hendery’s got a record for it 
in his freshman year, he applied to a bunch of frats - only to see if he could past initiations 
getting pied in the face, lugging mattresses across the quad, standing up in the middle of class to profess his love to the professor 
all of those tests were easy-peasy ,,,,,, and even though he’d passed them all ,,,,,,, in the end he didn't even join any of the frats
just thanked them for the “fun times” while the other recruits eyed him like he was insane
basically, he will do anything asked of him - especially if itll make for what he refers to as “good comedy”
if it really is “good comedy” you have to ask the spectators - and the people who end up being pulled into it - which more than often are either his friends or his classmates
so why general bio? and even weirder - why infectious diseases?
well as silly as hendery is, the silliness doesn't translate well into art or literature 
like he tried his hand at poetry and pottery and other humanities 
and lets just say ,,,,,,,,,,, it didn't work out
(he’s banned from the literature department)
science on the other hand,,,,,,,,
leaves much more space for silliness than hendery could have ever imagined
although its a lot of math and rigorous testing - hendery enjoys the adventurous part of science
he likes opening textbooks with colorful, kind of icky, diagrams
have you ever seen the inside of a cell? hendery thinks it looks like a clown maze at the amusement park - he loves it!!!
biology is one of the most hands-on sciences 
and when people in his intro course were gagging at the idea of disecting a frog
hendery was just like “leave it to me - even though i was only half listening to the professors instructions!”
and diseases are even more interesting to him
because their genetic makeup is so funny, and their scientific names are even funnier!!!!!!!
“hey xiaojun, you know what i learned about today? leptospirosis. LEPTOSPIROSIS - doesn't it sound kinda like leprechaun!?!?!? i almost died laughing in lab!!!!!” 
xiaojun: how is that even funny
kun: just let the child amuse himself
sometimes people mistake his enthusiasm about his major as meaning he isn't actually interested in it as a career
just taking part in it like some inside joke
but that's far from the truth
hendery is actually a pretty proficient scientist when the topic intrigues him
and although hes loud and a little disruptive in actual lab
there are rare occurrences when you can find him quietly working on his results and papers
there’s nothing funny about making a mistake in science, hendery knows and understands that 
and even though he doesn't tell many people it - he does have some interest in taking steps toward entering the medical field
but hes kept it a secret - because no one would take him seriously anyway so there isn't any point in talking about it
when hes not in class, making the professor groan and the students snicker behind their laptops
he’s usually at someone elses dorm rather than his own
he’s almost always given an invite to a party, people are always calling him over to join them for late night drinking or karaoke 
because if hendery is there - it is guaranteed to be a good time
on multiple occasions, ten and kun have had to come to his aid
there was one time where hendery kind of totally overdid it and ten even had to facetime hendery’s mom 
she had given him an earful over the phone, thanking ten when she was finally done
and just as hendery thought he could scurry off, ten had told him he had his own lecture in store
hendery’s busy social life isnt a problem for xiaojun though, who he shares his dorm with
hendery’s gone most of the time so xiaojun dumps all his stuff in the closet and is happy to use the extra space for ballet practice
,,,,,,,,,,until hendery stumbles in at 4pm on a sunday and is like “hey!” before passing out directly on the floor
look me in the eyes and try and tell me hendery doesn't have corny meme stickers on his laptop. you cant. 
although hes wild, and a hand full, his friends do really care about him
and when they’re all together 
kun and ten admit that hendery is extremely good at cheering them up
xiaojun and yangyang do have to agree that life would be boring without him
and sicheng and yukhei, who never interfere with his lifestyle choices, reveal that hendery is a good friend
when anyone needs something
hendery will jump through hoops to get it
and he’s usually up for taking the blame if something goes wrong
that’s exactly how you end up meeting hendery
back in highschool you two hadn’t ever interacted, mostly due to the fact that you had transferred in during senior year
and you were a bit on the reserved side
with an interest in quiet library's and flying under the radar till graduation
while hendery was much more of a social butterfly 
with people begging for him to follow back on instagram or make it to their weekend parties
you had both existed in virtually different worlds - until you found yourself in a really, really, really bad situation
it had been the literal last day of highschool 
you were one hundred and one percent sure you had absolutely everything out of your locker, most importantly - your college acceptance letter
which was one of your proudest achievements, but also the only document with your student id notification which you’d need for registrations and the acceptance orientation
giddy as you walked out toward the bus, you rummaged around in your bag one last time
just so you could pull it out and read it all over again when -
you must have looked absolutely insane on the curbside, dumping everything out of your bag and digging around like a rabid animal
but it was gone - your folder with your letter, and not to mention your graduation certificate, GONE
you scoop everything back up and run back toward the school - you’re happy that you see a figure coming out of the front door
because that means you can still get inside
the boy brushes past you and the door shuts behind him - you pull at the bar and then he turns around, taking his headphones off
“oh, the schools closed. the janitor let me out but-”
your eyes are so wide and full of terror when you turn that hendery can’t even finish his sentence
you look like you’ve seen a ghost and he asks you whats wrong
“m-m-my- a-a-accept-acc- my-m-”
hendery doesn’t understand any of your muttering - so he does what he always does when his friends go into a stupor
he grabs you by the shoulders and gives you a good shake
you’re about to yell at him, but it actually lets you collect yourself for a moment
you turn and start feverishly banging on the door 
“what are you doing?!”
“you said something about a janitor - if he hears us he’ll let me back inside and i can get my letter!”
hendery sort of stares at you, for the first time he’s in the position where he looks at someone and thinks - seriously? are you insane, all this over some letter?
when usually he’s on the receiving end of such judgement
but either way, he tells you to stop - the janitor isn’t going to hear some loud bangs and come running
you guys are going to have to do something bigger to his attention
before you know it, hendery’s dropped his bag and circles around the school
you follow him, not sure of what else to do - but when he’d said you had to do something bigger, it sounded like he had a plan
and hendery does have a plan - he stops outside the large glass window right under the gym
“ok, you - go back to the front entrance. when the janitor steps out, run in through the door and get your letter.”
“how are you going to get him to step out?!”
hendery looks around, pushing aside some of the shrubs and picking up a rock
you look at it, then him, and then the window
“you're not going to-”
he feigns offense, “destroy school property? of course not! now go - run to the front.”
you only half believe him, but you need that letter more than anything, so you circle back to where you started
it all happens in a blurry flash - you hear something shatter, you hear the door push open a minute or two later, you dash passed and down the empty halls
you’re so focused on getting your letter and getting the hell out of there that you don’t notice the voices outside or the big crack in the window as you’re running back 
with your letter in hand, you sort of disappear before you can get caught up in whatever hendery’s plan was
and hope that he at least got away too
the next time you see him is at freshman orientation
you’re surprised that this school was his choice and under any other circumstance you’d brush it away
but you’re itching to know
so when you approach him and ask, how did he help you out on that faithful day (does he even remember it?)
hendery grins, wide and bright
“of course ii remember it! the janitor caught me and ii had to do community service or pay a fine. spent half my time cleaning up garbage in a park because of you!”
the words aren't malicious - actually he doesnt even look mad when you apologize for such a big inconvenience
instead he just tells you it was worth it - it took him sometime, but he figured that the letter you’d been going on about like crazy had to be something ultra important
you hadn’t even known this dude - and yet, he was talking to you like he had just done a favor for an old friend
since then, you’d grown closer to him 
and now you both where in your junior years - you’d become a part of his friend group and he had become someone so much more than just a stranger 
looking back at it - you’d never thought you and him would get along on such a deep level
but you did, and you suspected it had most to do with the fact that no matter how goofy or dumb his antics were
hendery had never and would never intend to hurt anyone 
in fact, he’d put himself in harms way first
and his loyalty was something lost on most people your age - you admired it 
sometimes, you were even jealous of the pure-natured almost naïve way he went about life
so now you’re sitting in his dorm, xiaojun is at his desk watching ballet recitles and you’re shifting through hendery’s messy pile of books and papers
“isn’t your lab due tomorrow - how did you manage to lose it?”
he rummages through his backpack and whines
“i didn't loooose it- i bet kun stole it!”
“kun isn’t taking a bio class, you just probably tossed it out like always.”
“hey!”
you turn to see hendery’s signature pout, deep dark eyes big and hurt
“you’re making me sound so dumb!”
“hendery,,,,,,,sometimes - you are.”
he sticks his tongue out and you continue to look through the pile, your hands stop when they reach the thin, silver book that is your highschool yearbook
your copy is at home, you wonder for a second why hendery’s is here
“did you find it?!”
hendery bounds over and you cover it up quickly - giving him a playful shove away
“no, now keep looking - or else you’re going to have to re-do all fifteen pages tonight!”
he whines, but returns to his corner of the room. your fingers tap the stack of paper and you feel a weird wave of nostalgia hit you
it’s broken up as the door swings open to the dorm and sicheng walks calmly through it
he passes you a handful of crumpled papers
“found hendery’s lab report in our trashcan.”
you turn to glare at hendery who puts his hands up and grins
“oops?”
after you leave hendery to retype his lab, you find yourself thinking about that yearbook again
you’ve been hendery’s friend for almost three years now - but in highschool you guys hadn’t even spoken
you’ve never thought about it before, but it’s almost shameful that you lost all those years 
because hendery is a good friend, a lifelong friend
you and him could have had so many more memories together if instead of meeting on the last day in an almost comical twist of events
he could have been in your literature class, or you could have been his tutor and then you two could have just bonded like you did in college and become friends, even maybe-
lovers
you stop walking as the word flashes through your mind
“no, that’s just,,,,,,,silly.”
you toss the momentary curiosity to the side - if anything, ever since you started college you’d only had one crush on somebody
a crush so secret, you hadn’t even dared to write it down in your journal - let alone tell anyone
and you planned on keeping it that way
afterall, you had a degree to get and you were so - so close.
a couple of weeks later you find yourself handing in the last paper before a small spring break, you plan on going home when you get a call
hendery’s voice full of excitement
“whens your train home?” 
he asks, not bothering with a greeting - he’s probably the only person you know who likes to jump right into any conversation
“tomorrow, around three.”
“cool - so that means you can party tonight!”
you roll your eyes - that's another thing you’ve gotten into since being hendery’s friends, parties
although they still aren’t your favorite pastime - you have to admit, they can be entertaining
and you and ten have sort of agreed that as the responsible ones, being at the party would at least mean hendery (and on most occasions yukhei) would have a safe way to get home
“maybe, depends on the party.”
hendery’s laugh is a sound so familiar - and so nice you sometimes think you can hear it forever and not grow sick and tired of it at all
“actually this time it’s at johnny’s place in the city! he finally got out of the dorms since he’s in graduate school now - but ten convinced him somehow.”
you know johnny suh, who doesn’t, a graduate student in film studies and super close friend of ten’s 
back when you and hendery were still freshmen, johnny was the one known on campus for being a little too wild
but now, hendery seems to have stolen the title
“well if it’s at his place I guess it’ll be pretty small, im just happy we aren’t going back to that frat.”
hendery makes a disgusted sound
“nah! that place was boring and remember how i almost punched that guy out for-”
“yes, i remember. what time should i be heading over?”
“ill pick you up at ten!”
you hang up and smile, something in your chest warms a little - a feeling you haven’t felt before 
sometimes he can be so crazy, and then sometimes he really is a gentleman 
the thought doesnt occur to you as being unique in anyway, and you try hard not to fester on that weird feeling in your chest
hendery is late - because of course he is - but you’re used to it and give him just a little bit of a scold as you two walk toward the metero
other than that the conversation is the same, plans, friends, potential people you’ll run into at the party, etc.
you and hendery stand close to each other on the subway, his hand comes up to hold your shoulder when the cart jerks or someone is pushing past you to get in
you poke the hole in his tshirt hem and mutter that he should at least ask xiaojun to sew it up
when you both get to the party, johnny is already half a wine bottle in by the flush on his face and the way ten is chasing after him 
sicheng and kun are there, mingling among themselves and waving you guys over
hendery says he’s going to join them and you’re about to step toward them to
when you feel someone tap your shoulder
you turn, and something in your body feels like it snaps
yukhei smiles at you and starts asking where hendery is - but you are looking over his shoulder at the person behind him
lee taeyong
the computer science major who had also studied alongside johnny at your college when you were a freshman
you had seen him when you had just started your first couple of weeks and that entire year had been like you were enchanted
he was an otherwise reserved, soft-spoken person
but his reputation was the unattainable heartbreaker - who would turn down confessions politely but with little to no regard
he was beautiful when you last saw him, and he was beautiful now - all this time later
whats he doing here? 
you’d been to johnny’s place before and had never seen him around, other graduate students sure but not taeyong
“ah! by the way - this is taeyong. he graduated but i met him because he’s here to-”
you bow a little and rush through the crowd toward the solitary confinement of the bathroom
to your luck, two voice shout from inside that its occupied so you escape to the stairs of the building - going up a couple of floors until the sound of the party is nothing but a drawl
you don’t know why, but seeing him hurts
it’s because he was the first person you ever really loved
you don’t get it too - your communications with him had been limited to a two time greeting in the computer lab late during finals week
you had seen him around, you’d once even followed him embarrassingly through the library
you knew nothing about him but his major and his beauty
so what made your heart fall so hard never really made sense
the way you’d felt was so confusing and therefore it made you so ashamed
you had thought about telling your friends to understand - why, but never did
and so you curl up a little and think that tonight its only a good idea for you to go
“ah! there you are - hey, are you crying?”
hendery’s voice breaks you out from your thoughts and you unravel a little to huff at him
“im not crying, im just -”
he sits down and puts a hand on your knee
“did some asshole try something, if you need me to get them let me know - you know how good ii am at rock throwing!”
the little inside joke makes you crack a smile and you shake your head
“its not that, i was just feeling a little cramped in there.”
he pulls to cans of beer from his jean pockets and sets them down
“that’s fine, we can party up here! just the two of us!”
you’d resist - but something about his cheer wins you over
you spend what feels like hours up there, hendery running back and forth between the flights to bring back more beer and snacks
you dont know how many cans are littered around you until your head falls against his shoulder
and if you were sober, you’d feel him tense up
“hey hendery - wanna hear a secret?”
you giggle and hendery turns a little, your eyes are glittering and your speech is just a little bit crocked
“sure, but ii think this should be your last can!”
he slips the beer from your hand - and you make a badly attempted reach for it that just lands your palm against his thigh
again, his body goes into alert, but you just keep going
“i have a crush on someone.”
you hiccup and hendery swallows - his heartbeat is a loud thudding in his ears
“o-oh yeah? on who?”
“wwwwwwwellllllll,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,”
you sit up and hendery looks at you again - you brace his shoulders
“taeyong.”
you hiccup and grin
“lee taeyong.”
with that you let go of hendery’s shoulders which have dropped anyway
you tilt your head back and hendery lurches forward to grab you when you start tipping over
your eyes close and you feel your head hit something soft - probably the front of hendery’s shirt
you whisper the next sentence, but hendery never hears it
“used to - i used to have a crush on him but now i think i,,,,,”
the words don't come out but it doesnt matter, hendery touches your cheek with his palm and sighs
you’re out cold for now
and he says something you never hear too
“damn, and here i was. stupid enough to think you were going to say my name instead.”
 the incident doesnt come back to you - not even when you’ve had an advil and are drinking coffee in the morning as you pack for home
your group chat is talking about yukhei doing something weird and your other texts are normal
so you just assume ,,,,,,,, nothing happened
and that's what it feels like 
until you’re back to classes after spring break and 
“soooooooooooo, a little birdie told me a secret over the break!”
you turn your head and look up to see yukhei
he plops himself down in the chair across from you and nearly sends the whole table shaking
you grab your laptop and coffee before it knocks over
“you and your giant knees need to be more careful.”
he waves it off and leans forward
“so, lee taeyong.”
your fingers, which had been diligently typing up your homework stop short
yukhei claps his hands and points a finger gun at you
“so you do like him! well, good news for you i got his number at the party and you guys are both all about work and school and-”
you shut your laptop and the noise makes yukhei’s voice shake for a second
“who told you about taeyong.”
yukhei scratches his head and leans back
“well i probably shouldn’t tell you but hendery. he heard taeyong and i got introduced by johnny so he thought i could help you-”
hendery?
something twists
hendery, did i tell hendery? when?
you stare into your lap and gasp
the party, i got drunk and i told him at the party and he -
“w-who else knows?”
yukhei waves his hand, trying to calm you down
“just the usual, but we all support it - im pretty sure taeyong is single and -”
he told, everyone?
a multitude of thoughts runs through your mind, but the biggest question is why
even if you were a little out of it, you know you wouldn't have just told hendery to go about spreading your secret
you’re sure, even if its fuzzy, that if you confided in him - you would have made it somehow clear that no one else should know
and hendery was close enough to you, that if there was a chance you hadnt done that, he’d instinctively know
which only leaves one real explanation - hendery isnt your friend, he spilled your secret to humiliate you
all these years - all this time - was he just waiting for it? for the right moment to make you some kind of laughingstock?
you stand up and gather your things, you ignore yukhei’s confusion and when he tries to stop you - you just push past him
it must be for payback, he must have been actually so pissed about that stupid stunt he pulled for me in highschool. after all, he probably got a stain on his record because of it and so he plotted to make me look like a fool one day right - right!
your logical brain starts moving, making up more and more scenarios
he probably thought - oh why do I have to take the blame for some stupid stranger! but didn't know what else to do so he befriended me and made him trust me
your brain runs like a crazed engine, but something in your chest fights against it
suddenly you think about it again
trust, hendery is the one person i fully trust. there isn't any reason for him to hurt me
a glimmer of that hopefulness washes right away when you get a text from an unknown number
you stare at it and re-read it
the anger that had powered you before surges up through you again
‘hi, this is lee taeyong. your friend told me how you feel and while im grateful for the compliment - ii don't want to let you pine for no reason. im currently not looking for a relationship, but lets be friends if the chance arises.’
what kind of stupid text is that - i don't want to date you! im not some lovestruck idiot! why are you treating me like one? why did hendery make me out to be one? hendery - hendery - im never going to fucking forgive you
and you don't - you block the number, you delete the contact, you know his schedule and you make it a point to avoid him at all costs
even his friends, who you thought were your friends once, aren't immune from the cold shoulder
and so when kun ends up sitting beside you on the bus - you’re so damn headstrong about it all that you get off at the next stop
part of you knows this is childish, and you’re supposed to be the big adult - the responsible one
like you’ve always been
but 
but hendery isn't even making an effort to reach out
actually, you think you’d probably haven given in by know if he’d called you or tried to reach you
he knows your schedule too so you thought hed track you down and at least ask whats going on
but he hasnt
which all you take is the fact that your point has been proven
this insane theory about how he’d befriended you for almost three years was just to find someway to get back at you in the end
and he’d done it! and he was satisfied! 
and it hurt
that's what it was 
painful
after a while it was less and less about your stupid little crush on a senior, and more and more about the fact that you had lost you friend
a person who you thought would have your back forever
a person who the universe didn't intend for you to even be near, to ever be close to
the opposite end of the spectrum and yet he had defied that all
and had left an impact on you that you thought would be with you forever
the blind kindness, the forgiving heart, the prone to accidents and silliness and just horrible decision making in general all for the sake of someone elses happiness
all of that had made you cherish him
at this point - you found yourself sitting up in bed - staring at the screen of your phone that used to ping nonstop with his texts
and realize you missed your friend
and worse of all
you missed your friend who you were starting to fall in love with
lee taeyong had been this ideal for you, beautiful and studios, the perfect match
you had daydreamed about bringing him home to your family, how he’d probably be so sweet and gentle 
but he was this stand-in, he was a dream that you thought you had
when in reality
your dream didn't consist of the graceful, hardworking, flawless man
it was
as you closed your eyes and really thought about it
it was always hendery
clumsy, laidback, overflowing with flaws man that at the center of it all was crafted with a heart of gold
but was he? would someone like that really sell you out?
your answer comes just as the end of your junior is approaching, you’re so mentally exhausted from school and your own feelings
that you don't have the time to focus on anything anymore but getting to your dorm and getting to bed
you accidentally drop one of the textbooks in your hand and when you reach down to get it - another hand extends for it too
you look up and 
oh god no, not right now!
“ah -- hello.”
taeyong gives you polite smile and you barely have enough energy to reply with your own small nod
“how are you?”
please don't do this to me, i don't want to make conversation with you
“fine, and you?”
“good, work hard on your finals!”
you say you will and are happy that he ended it so quickly when,
“also, i am still sorry i couldn't accept your feelings.”
the heavy blanket of tiredness suddenly feels like its aflame on your back
really, did you really have to say that?
some kind of newfound energy spikes up in you and you turn to him
“I know you're my senior, but ii need to say something to you.”
he titls his head
“i don't like you, i had a brief crush on you in freshman year but ii got over it. and no im not saying that to save face, ive already felt enough embarrassment about all this. ontop of that I don't have time to crush on you - im in love with hendery and yeah, i can say that now because it doesnt even matter.”
“YOU’RE IN LOVE WITH HENDERY?!?!?!?”
“YUKHEI?”
you pivot around so fast, this time all your books go flying
you hadn’t even noticed him in the haze of weakness and yet - there he is, right behind taeyong
like an unbound puppy he rushes up to you and grabs your hands
“I THOUGHT YOU WERE INTO TAEYONG!”
your instinct is first to tell him to not be so damn loud
but you’ve lost what pride you thought you had and yell right back at him
“NO IM NOT AND YES - I LOVE HENDERY - BUT HIS STUPID ASS HASNT EVEN TRIED TO TALK TO ME AND I HATE HIM, I LOVE HIM BUT I REALLY HATE HIM RIGHT NOW TOO!”
yukhei jumps up and down
you’re not sure he registered the last part of your sentence because something gleams in his eyes that you aren't sure you like
taeyong shakes his head, quietly picking your things up 
“ah, these kids really,,,,,,,,”
you pace up and down your dorm room like mad scientist
why did I do that? why did ii yell that out to the whole campus to hear - what is wrong with me?!?
you check your phone, but there isn’t a call or a text
yukhei has probably blabbed about it to hendery right now - what is going on why is no one telling me what is going on
you pick your phone up and scroll through the blocked contacts, you unblock everyone 
and you do get a flurry of text - but none of them are from hendery
ugh, im so stupid - not only did he trick me into being his friend but now he knows how ii feel about him and is probably laughing about it
you stop and put your hands on your face and groan
fuck you hendery, no one in the world could make me feel this crazy but you
some more time passes and you’re now sure that you’ve just embarrassed yourself further
you spotted kun on the way to your last final yesterday and had almost waved at him like everything was all peachy
when it wasnt
and now as you were packing your things up to leave the lecture hall you almost jump from your skin when someone shouts your name
you look down and beside a shocked professor is 
hendery?!?!?
“DID YOU THINK YOU WERE THE ONLY ONE WHO WOULD GET TO SCREAM ABOUT THEIR FEELINGS?”
oh my god - what is this kid about to do
you watch in shock as the professor taps hendery’s shoulder, but is ultimately ignored
“YOU MADE ME GET ALL DEPRESSED FOR NO REASON - I REALLY THOUGHT YOU WERENT EVER GOING TO SPEAK TO ME AGAIN AND THEN YOU JUST GO ABOUT YELLING THAT YOU LOVE ME? THATS NOT FAIR!”
you panic a little because the professor brings out his cellphone and hendery’s gotten in trouble for you before
you kinda think that's going to happen now too
but,,,,,,but you want to hear what he has to say too
“ITS NOT FAIR SO IM GONNA DO THE SAME THING - GET READY BECAUSE IM GONNA LET EVERYONE KNOW THAT I - WON KUNHANG - AM IN LOVE WITH YOU TOO!”
just as he finishes, you see the professor put down his phone
your head spins, but you let your feelings be pushed to the side as you maddash toward hendery
the professor probably dialed for on-campus security, and whats worse is this idiot just said his full name! well - let me at least help him out like he helped me!
you grab hendery as soon as you get near him
looking him in the eyes and every part of you is screaming a million and one things
to yell back at him, to get angry, to tell him to fuck off, to tell him you love him to his face, to ask if hes insane for real
but you just
kiss him
the professor jerks back and you can feel hendery’s knees almost give out 
when you pull back you turn to the provfessor and smile
“we’re doing impromptu theater, was it any good?”
your bluff actually manages to work - the security gives you two a stern talking to and tells you to tell the theater club to knock it off with these “public disturbances”
you squeeze henderys hand behind your back when he tries to insist it wasn't a performance, it was his true confession
until you’re finally free of the guard and you let him go
“you could say that kiss was fake all you want, but i know it was real.”
is the first thing he has the AUDACITY to say to you
and although you want to blow up
you want to ask him about how this all happened in the first place
you cant bring yourself to be mad
you just look at him and then sigh
“how’d it end up being you,,,,,,”
he shrugs his shoulders and suddenly his voice gets a little quieter
“i ask myself the same thing,,,,,,”
you furrow your eyebrows and huff
“excuse me? are you saying im not likable-”
he puts his hands up and shakes his head
“no, im just saying you’re right - we definitely aren’t the people we thought we’d fall for. ii mean c’mon, when you said taeyong that night - i just knew you know.”
“knew what?”
“that he was the right choice for you. im just a stupid kid compared to him, there’s nothing about me for you to fall in love with.”
he’s not lying, you can tell by the way his tone is soft and there's a real self-hatered woven into it
your anger about whatever slips away because this is a side of hendery you knew existed but that you also knew he fought hard to not show
“hendery, you are stupid. you’re stupid because you legitimately think you’re inadequate of attention and love. do you know why you’re popular - its not because you’re so funny.”
he stands up straight and the serious look on his face is handsome, but it makes something sharp wedge in your heart
“its because you are one hundred percent selfless. and not for some kind of advantage, but because you really want to help.”
your shoulders drop a little
“i envy you, your hearts pure and your intentions are always good. living life that way is so beautiful, that's the first thing about you that i feel in love with.”
a silent pause follows after
the rawness of the situation dawns on the two of you in a way you didn't think would ever be possible
you've told a lot of things to hendery, you subconsciously spilled one of your biggest secrets to him
so it only makes sense that when it came down to this moment you’d really, honestly tell him everything
you feel as maybe you've made it a little awkward, lecturing him in a moment where you both have confessed when suddenly
you feel his hand take yours
that signature smile back on his face
“oh yeah? what else did you fall in love with?”
half of you wants to snap, the other half - the one that wins bursts out into laughter
the list is long, but in the moment you just answer
“the fact that you’re soooo good at throwing rocks!”
“hey, it is a charm!”
he leans in and his lips settle on yours, they’re warm and soft and you circle your hands around his neck
you had thought about what kissing him would feel like before - once just for fun, but recently for other reasons
you didn't expect him to be so reserved, letting his lips sort of softly part only when you push a little closer to him
its a good second kiss, though you don't think anything will ever beat your first lol
and nothing beats the story too - which makes it to the front of the student journal
(both you and hendery get a talking to from theater club who was NOT happy about you lying - but ultimately did like that you ended up together)
you are in perpetual embarrassment shock for a while
but hendery eats it up! - if anyone as much as mentions it he’‘s like 
“let me tell you the beautiful tale of our lov-”
and you have to clamp your hand over his mouth like lol sorry don't mind him
even in the early stages of dating, you can tell that hendery is that kind of significant other
just like he is with friendships, he gives himself wholeheartedly to the other person
like yes, you just started dating and you know most people don't start off shouting that they love each other 
but you guys are different and although you've somehow become a little shy of using the word
hendery is in it - you are his love, his lovely, his lovable, his capital L love of his goddamn life and if he doesnt get to say it a million times well then
he just isn't trying hard enough
and although his affection is overflowing, and his love language is obviously expression
it is not smothering at all because in reality, you feel exactly as much as he does
its just that you show it off differently, but those who are your friends know
because hendery used to be able to do anything and everything
hence his notoriousness for being down for any dare
but your love language? protection
“no hendery, you are not going to drink hot sauce out of the bottle because yukhei said you couldn't do it.”
“no hendery, you are not going to dress up like the shrek just because ten bought the costume on amazon”
“no hendery, you are not going to climb that fence - hendery get down!”
you aren't trying to limit his free spirit - youre just worried
when you were just friends he was always in some kind of trouble, either with people in authority or covered in bruises and scraps from the aftermath of his silliness
you explained it once to him in the simpliest terms you could think up
squishing his cheeks between your palms youd looked him in the eye and said
“you are my boyfriend, and if you break your arm doing something dumb - what does that mean 1) your arm is broken and 2) you cant hold my hand with that arm so that sucks for me and you - right?”
to be honest you could dangle holding hands or kisses as leverage and hendery will give up on the spot
because lets be honest, he cannot live a day without at least giving you some kind of physical affection
the boy is a bursting pile of cheesy love - and you really try not to use that against him 
because it really is so wonderful and pure
but if he wants to do something dumb you will put your palm out when he leans in to kiss you and he will get all fretty like a big baby
kun at some point: don't you feel like youre a dog owner with a big, misbehaving puppy
you: no, not at all.
kun: really?
you: at least a misbehaving puppy listens sometimes
kun: ah, i see
hendery’s kind of dates include a lot of latenight fast food runs and showing up to your dorm with the excited news that he got a hold of someones netflix password so you guys can binge corny tv shows
you thought he’d be the type to want a new adventure everyday, but surprisingly enough, hes very VERY content with staying in and just snuggling
not to say you two don't have some very memorable and slightly embarrassing date stories 
ahem, that one time hendery got you bubble tea and you were waiting outside and he said “look I can balance both our drinks on my head!”
of course he spilled them all over himself
and you two used up all the napkins in the store before escaping the cashiers glare into a nearby store to get hendery a new tshirt
hendery isn't super flashy by the way, his clothes are mostly comfortable basics, and he likes a bit of an oversized fit
so when you wear them they’re extra loved and cozy
hendery gets a bit fidgety the first time you do it - and you really cannot tell why
you wonder if he doesnt like you borrowing his clothes, but then you roll over a little to cuddle against him and he freezes
and you’re like 
oh, that’s why
hendery - although loud and energetic in all other aspects of life - is a pretty bashful lover
his hands are always a little shaky and he waits for you to lead in with anything more than kisses
and you actually think its very, very adorable 
because he gets this kinda dreamy look in his eyes and his voice gets softer
and when your lips are on his collarbones its like the only thing he can even do is whisper your name against your hair
its a side you enjoy keeping all to yourself, and hendery is so thankful because oh my god no one would let him live it down
xiaojun gets a little grumpy that you and hendery are always around more - but he likes you as a person
(to him, youre the only person who can really keep hendery’s ambitiousness incheck)
so he lets it slide
plus you finally got hendery to stop coming around to his ballet practice, because you refuse to let hendery do so until he finishes his labs
and you know hendery is smart, you tell from the way he can offhandedly answer questions about his major 
and even though he has this idiotic habit of dumbing himself down for comedy
seeing him run up to you and show you the first perfect score on his lab, it really makes you swell with pride
and his interest in infectious diseases and all the weird diagrams of micro-organisms and whatnot doesnt phase you
actually his passion for it makes you excited to listen to him talk
and ten is like ew that thing looks like a bug
and youre like “listen to me, if hendery thinks the cell membrane is cute then you say its cute. ok. or. else.”
gosh when you guys get together - theres this energy that is so ,,,,, sweet - its almost a little dizzying
because its obvious that these feelings you two can so freely show to each other now have been piling up for a while
and now its free reign
sometimes hendery’s bangs get long and hell lean in to kiss you but his hair will tickle you first 
and you always do this like giggle and hiccup when you get tickled
and hendery once blinks and goes
“you know your hiccups are number 105 on the list of things I love about you”
and you laugh because lol wow do you really have a list
and hes like pffft no
(he has a list, it is in his iphone notes)
hendery the type of boyfriend who spends like five weeks planning a celebration for your anniversery
but on the day off hes like F I cant do this and abandones all his plans
and just shows up in front of you with twelve different bundles of flowers and ten different stuffed animals
and is like
“I know you really like roses, but also you said you liked sunflowers when we went to that farm and i know your a cat person, but you also like wolves so I got you-”
he just really really really wants to make you happy
and sometimes you can tell that he thinks he doesnt
that he compares himself to people he thinks are better for you
and that's when you’re just like hendery, look at me - its you. its only going to be you.
because the universe might have felt like you two didn't fit, but its so obvious you do
you made up a rule that if hendery tries to talk down about himself he has to do ten pushups with you on his back
but you never actually make him do it ,,,,, you just spend like an hour telling him he’s so dumb - because you are so in love with him
as you guys go into senior year together, hendery becomes your biggest cheerleader and you become his
and seriously you two could get through anything togther
one afternoon, as you’re walking back from class and hendery slides his palm into yours
you see johnny and taeyong across the ways - they’re picking some people up or something and taeyong notices you two
he waves
and you both wave back
when you get to your dorm and you curl up in hendery’s arms, you feel him play with the ends of your hair
“I never asked you, why did you tell everyone about my crush on taeyong?”
“when you said you liked him, I thought you meant like in the moment - and so I thought I could get yukhei to set you two up.”
“but didn't you already have feelings for me?”
hendery smiles a little against your hair
“yeah, but nothing mattered more to me than making you happy.”
you clutch the front of his shirt a little - the sentence makes you want to cry
from happiness, but also because of course - you had jumped to conclusions thinking he’d done it to hurt you 
but its hendery, of course he only did it to help
“wanna know something dumb?”
hendery moves back a little so he can look at you better
“hmm?”
“ive always wished we knew each other better back in highschool - maybe then we’d have more time and none of that would have happened. maybe we could have fallen in love all those years ago.”
he scrunches up his nose and you sit up
he follows suit and takes your hands in his
“yeah but - it was worth it. and hey, if we’d been buddies or whatever you might have never left your letter in that locker and ii would have never gotten to throw that rock through the window.”
you roll your eyes
“reall-”
“that was a stupid thing to do, and its the only stupid thing ive done that im so happy i did.”
you let yourself fall forward, right into his arms, they’re warm and they feel so perfect around you
“oh - and shouting out how much i love you in front of your whole class. that's another stupid thing im proud of.”
*this post was commissioned | other college!aus 
579 notes · View notes
slade-neko · 3 years
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Saw this video game tag thing pop up on my dash a few days ago. Wanted to do it.
1. First game you played obsessively? Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I believe I was 5yo. Still waiting on that FF7 Remake treatment.
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2. A game that has influenced you creatively? Writing, drawing, etc. Well if I play a game and like it, then I'll create sims of it. Does that count?
3. Who did you play with as a kid? My brother from the day I was born.
4. Who do you play with now? My brother FROM THE DAY I WAS BORN.
5. Ever use cheat codes? I wasn't lying when I made this post. {link}
6. Ever buy strategy guides? Yes! Mainly to look at the artwork though. (Don't need no guide!)
7. Any games you have multiple copies of? Lots of games, most being Left 4 Dead with 6 copies (3 Xbox 360, 1 PC case, 2 PC digitally.) What can I say, its a GOOD GAME!
8. Rarest/Most expensive game in your collection? Gold cartridge Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time (maybe that's rare?)
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9. Most regrettable purchase? I don't regret my purchases, but I have received games I have never played like Cubix (PS2) no clue where that game came from, but I have it somehow. Madagascar (Xbox 360) came with my Xbox 360, never opened it from its case. And Monsters Inc. Scream Arena (Gamecube) or something... it was a gift.
10. Ever go to a midnight game release or stand in line for hours? No, because then I'd have to interact with people.
11. Have you ever made new friends from playing video games? I'm only friends with people BECAUSE of video games, so yes.
12. Ever get picked on for liking games? No, that'd be ridiculous.
13. A game you’ve never played that everyone else has? Probably a lot, I'd say Call of Duty, but I technically played CoD 1, 2, and 4. The campaign mode was alright, but I don't really care for CoD games at ALL.
14. Favorite game music? Koji Kondo and Grant Kirkhope are two BIG ones.
15. If it was a requirement to get a game related tattoo, what would you pick? Triforce is the most basic option, but I'd rather not get a tattoo.
16. Favorite game to play with your friends IRL? Super Smash Bros. Brawl with hacks, but that was over a decade ago.
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17. Ever lose a friend over a game? No, that'd be ridiculous.
18. Would you date someone that hates gaming? No, that'd be RIDICULOUS.
19. Favorite handheld console? PSP. 3DS is great, but PSP Monster Hunter has ALL of my portable gaming memories. Like playing in school after End of Grade tests with my friend.
20. Game that you know like the back of your hand? Sims 4 I like to think I know everything about Left 4 Dead. Quite a bit about Monster Hunter, more so of a series though than a specific game.
21. Game that you didn’t like or understand as a kid but love now? I'd say Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. I loved it as a kid, but had a lot of complex pen & paper RPG mechanics that I never understood. I understand a lot more of it now, but its still complex as all heck. I just know you hit things, they die.
22. Do you wear game related clothing/accessories? That's the only thing I wear.
23. The game that you’ve logged the most hours into? Not sure so I'll list a few. Sims 4, Smash Bros. Brawl, Monster Hunter (its a series though), or Left 4 Dead
24. First Pokemon game? Leaf Green
25. Were you ever an arcade game player? No, don't like paying to play.
26. Ever form any gaming rivalries? No.
27. Game that makes you rage? I don't get mad at games, but I had a custom modded Hard Eight mutation in Left 4 Dead that is absolute bullsh*t!
28. Ever play in a tournament? No, because then I'd have to interact with people.
29. What is your gaming set up? A giant wall of video game consoles spanning from NES to Switch, 4 TVs, but I sit at a desk with a PC.
30. How many consoles do you own? "I own every console that's ever existed." - I Don't Play Games When I Play Games (My STRENTH) original song by Smooth McGroove BUT no seriously I own 32 consoles including handhelds.
31. Does the 3DS and/or Virtual Boy hurt your eyes or give you headaches? Yes. 3DS gave me headaches though I only really played with the 3D feature in Ocarina of Time 3D. I think my eyes broke because I couldn't get my 3D to work very well after.
32. Did you ever play a game based on your favorite show/cartoon/movie/comic? Sure I play games based on a lot of things. Literally any anime game. If I had to pick Dragon Ball Xenoverse is kinda like a dream Dragon Ball game. Oh, Attack on Titan 2 is pretty neat too!
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33. Did you ever have any bootleg games or plug-n-play games? Some SEGA plug-n-play thing once. Played it like once and now its lost to time (or my closet.)
34. Do either of your parents play video games? Yes. Mom and Dad played NES Super Mario Bros. My Dad went HARD at that game until he saved the Princess. Then he quit forever.
35. Ever work in a game store? Or do you have a favorite game shop? "Hi. Welcome to Gamestop!"I never want to hear that again, but it was my main store until I went full digital/ online orders.
36. Have you ever shed actual blood, sweat or tears over a game? No, I don't tend to get upset or emotional, but Bill dying in Left 4 Dead made me pretty pissed.
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37. Have you played E.T. for the Atari 2600? Do you think that’s the worst game ever, or do you have another nomination? Never played it. I don't really play "bad" games, but maybe Sims 4.
38. A game you’re ashamed to admit that you like? The Sims 4
39. A sequel that you would die for them to make? Dragon's Dogma 2 WHICH I think is actually in development, so I'd have to say Fallout New Vegas 2. C'mon Bethesda you cowards, hand the keys back over to Obsidian so they can make another good Fallout game!
40. What to you think of virtual reality headsets or motion controls? Two part question, two answers. VR Headset to immerse in world, yes. Motion Controls, no.
41. A genre that you just can’t get into? MOBAs and MMOs. I don't like paying to keep playing.
42. Maybe it wasn’t your first game, but what was the game that started you on your path to nerdiness? Nintendo 64 opened me up to what video games could be as a kid. Sad to say my parents' NES didn't really do that for me. And years later Fallout 3 was a big game changer for me too.
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43. Ever play games when you really should have been concentrating on something else? Every day of my LIFE.
44. Arcade machine that has consumed the most of your quarters? None. I'd rather emulate.
45. How are you at Mario Kart? Pretty dang good. 3-STARS MARIO KART WII, BABY!
46. Do you like relaxing games like Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon? Yes, both of those. I preferred when Animal Crossing had more character to it. New Horizons looks so pretty, but feels so bland compared to classic AC.
47. Do you like competitive games? No. Not really. Usually amongst friends or if I can get competitive against AI Bots. I love my machine bot friends cause they don't cry like 10 year olds when they lose.
48. How long does it take your to customize your player character? Too long. I've seriously restarted games because I wasn't happy with my character's appearance.
49. In games where you can pick your class, do you always tend to go for the same type of character? Yes, I am always the magic man, my brother is always brute warrior, and my friend is the ranger.
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50. If you were a game designer, what masterpiece would you create? I don't really know. Honestly, I'd rather mod already good games to make them better than create something completely new.
51. Have you ever played a game for so long that you forgot to eat or sleep? No, that'd be ridiculous. But I've had a friend fall asleep playing games at my house 3 different times and currently dozes off during our Minecraft sessions. So, maybe that's not a completely ridiculous thing after all.
52. A game that you begged your parents for as a kid? Kirby 64 apparently. My brother tells me we had to count out pennies to buy it. I must've been too young with no recollection, but I believe it.
53. What’s your opinion on DLC these days? It's good if its not in the game's files from the beginning and is actually developed AFTER launch... and pre-order bonuses should be standard DLC a month or two later. Some games have content lost to time because of that pre-order bullsh*t.
54. Do you give in to Steam sales? Of course. If you want a game and its on sale then why not? I typically wait just for Steam sales to get games.
55. Did you ever make someone you hated in the Sims and did mean stuff to them? No? I typically make people and characters I like in Sims. I've made villains like Dio, but he's an anime villain and I don't really HATE him despite the horrible things he's done.
56. Did you ever play Roller Coaster Tycoon and kill off your guests? No. Never played that game.
57. Did you ever play a game to 100% or get all of the achievements? I try to for all the games I really like.
58. If you can only play 3 games for the rest of your life, which ones do you pick? The Sims 4, Skyrim, & Fallout: New Vegas. Mods make them live forever. Left 4 Dead and Monster Hunter are good choices too.
59. Do you play any cell phone games? Those aren't games.
60. Do you know the Konami Code? No? But I'll take a guess. Is it make an IP and forget it exists?
61. Do you trade in your games or keep them forever? Keep forever... even the bad ones.
62. Ever buy a console specifically to play one game? PS4 Pro for Monster Hunter World. It was basically for early access since the PC version was being developed and releasing after PS4, but I don't like waiting.
63. Ever go to a gaming convention or tournament? Sort of. Been to anime cons and walked into the gaming tournament rooms only to walk out less than 10 minutes later.
64. Ever make a TV or monitor purchase based on what would be best for gaming? No, but I'm going to be doing that soon, hopefully.
65. Ever have a Game Genie, Game Shark or Action Replay? Did it ever mess up your game’s save file? GameShark for N64, PS2, Gameboy, and Action Replay for Gamecube, DS, 3DS. And no not really, I would cheat responsibly... but there was this one time at school my friend and I borrowed another friend's Gameboy game, loaded it up with my Gameshark, tried playing, it crashed, loaded it back up, save file corrupted... we just stared at each other jaws dropped, "Here's your game back, dude. Make sure you don't play it til you get back home!"
66. Did you ever have have an old Nokia with Snake on it? No, but I remember seeing them on billboards in the game DRIV3R on PS2.
67. Do you have a happy gaming-related childhood memory you want to share? Every game I play is filled with happy memories (mostly.)
68. Ever save up a ton of tickets in an arcade to get something cool? These tiger plushes. My brother got white and I got orange. They were the coolest. Got a butt load of tickets from some jackpot spinning light game thing as I was good at the timing with repeated jackpot hits.
69. In your opinion, best game ever made? I've played quite a few masterpiece games, but to pick one, I'd say Fallout: New Vegas
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70. Very first game you ever beat? Super Mario 64. I was a mere child on a Sunday morning and ate celebratory pancakes made by my Dad.
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Wow, that was long... I get the feeling this was supposed to be a "send me ask with numbers" thing, but answering all at once is more fun.
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scribblestatic · 4 years
Text
Both hero classes stand outside in their uniforms that morning. For 1-A, there’s a hint of nostalgia coming to them, remembering the first day they officially became students at U.A., while 1-B is curious as to what will happen. 
The paper test that had been handed out to them and filled earlier that day was already weird. Instead of asking questions like “What’s 2+2,” or “How many bottles of dish soap does Johnny have,” it asked more personal things, like “I keep my promises,” or “There is a train heading down the tracks. There is one person tied to the tracks on one side and five people tied to the tracks on the other. You are standing at the lever. What do you do?” None of the questions were multiple choice, only essay statements requiring a one to two sentence answer. It felt different to their normal tests, that was for sure.
All Might, Eraserhead, and Vlad King all stand behind the short girl who appeared just about the age of the students, if not a little younger. She’s suited up in a gym uniform like the rest of them, wearing cute little red sneakers much like Ochako’s pink ones. She’s also got her hair tied up into a ponytail at the back of her head. They can’t see her eyes under her curly green bangs, but her peach lips show a pretty smile. All of them hold clipboards.
“Hiya~!” she greets with a megaphone speaker, standing under the shade of the parasol that All Might is kindly holding for her. If anything, it makes the students pay extra attention to her words. “Thank you all for being so kind as to fill out those little essay questions I gave you! Don’t worry about those, I’ll tell you why I made them later. Anyway, we’re going to do a few physical exercises, after which I will individually evaluate your quirks in a place with air conditioning! After that, I’ll be hard at work, so you likely won’t see me again until tomorrow, okay? Everyone, do your best!”
A few of them cheer with a bubbling of excitement, though others remain fairly muted.
They end up doing some of the exercise tests that 1-A did when they first arrived—ball throws, sit-ups, bar pull-ups, grip strength, standing long jumps, sidesteps, standing long jumps, the works. However, after a short rest period, they would do it again, this time without quirk utilization.
“Uhm,” Kaminari raises his hand. “Why do we need to do that? I mean, not to be rude or anything.”
Kobayashi writes for a moment longer before tapping her pen against Eraserhead’s arm, leading the man to glare at her a bit. “Let’s say you’re in a situation where someone like your teacher here has their eyes on you. Except they don’t have your health and wellness in mind like he does. They’re trying to kill you, so they eliminate your quirk.” She looks up at him, and though he can’t see her eyes, he feels her gaze on him. “You don’t want to be helpless without your quirk to protect you. Also, if you think about it, Eraserhead’s strength is completely separate from his quirk. So the fact he can support and restrain several people with his capture equipment all at once and disarm villains using weapons is purely because of his body strength alone. I find that fantastic, so I’m going to make sure you guys don’t become like the villains he faces and wimp out the instant you can’t use your powers.” She reaches over and taps All Might’s thin arm as well, surprising the man. “Even All Might in his thin form, looking like a willow tree that’s about to blow over, can judo throw a heavy-weight villain, break a wrist with one hand, and incite the fear of God into a villain with just his gaze. Don’t underestimate the power of your muscles and your instincts, and don’t forget to use them!”
The students ooh and ahh a little at the teachers, All Might blushing just a tad and Eraserhead ignoring the new, approving gazes from 1-B. Vlad King simply stands there, trying not to look despondent.
“How exactly did you know about the wrist breaking, Young Kobayashi?” All Might whispers as the classes get ready to do the exercises again.
“October 27th, 2214. New Orleans, Louisiana. News of a thin, lanky man, identified only as a person working with the All Might Agency, broke the wrist of a white American male robbing from the beignet shop he was visiting. It was deemed both self-defense and an accident by police as he hadn’t intended to use such force despite having a knife aimed at him. The robber pissing himself, however, was simply a result of the recognition of his actions. The witnesses agreed, though none of them had seen the expression on his face. A camera inside the beignet shop did catch the expression, however. Police still decided not to punish him for protecting himself and lauded the man as a hero. The shop owners also gave you a free box of beignets.”
“...How did you know that last part?”
She smiles up at him innocently. “You find a lot of things from finding secret camera footage. Besides, I have a skill of finding what I really want to find out by looking at something else entirely.” She turns away again and starts walking over to the ball throw circle to watch the first student to walk up. “Eyes are everywhere at all times, All Might!”
The three teachers are silent for a moment. Vlad King coughs in his fist.
“...I like beignets as well.”
Eraserhead shrugs. “Never had one.”
All Might blinks at him. “You should try one, Aizawa-kun. They’re rather delicious.”
——
The kids didn’t understand why Kobayashi-san was wearing a gym uniform like the rest of them. She hadn’t done any of the exercises, so it wasn’t like she needed it on.
They realized she was preparing for the quirk tests instead.
On the inside of one of the big gyms, she was standing in front of Bondo-san, arms raised to the air, with the sort of glittery smile that didn’t at all match her request.
“Cement the lower half of my body to the ground, please.”
“Eh?! B-But…”
“No buts! Only mine cemented to the ground with your quirk, please!”
“Eeeehhh?!”
“Woooow,” Kaminari murmurs. “Didn’t see this side of her at the cafe.”
“Right?” Mineta murmurs back. “...Kinda like it, though. Weirdly sexy, isn’t it?”
Eventually, Bondo does as she asks and uses cement on her up to her waist. She writes furiously on her notepad as she mumbles, occasionally stopping to ask Bondo questions or to pat the cement-like substance.
“Very similar to Cementoss, but very different, Cannot summon cement from the ground but can produce it like a viscous liquid with a solidifying factor that has the ability to loosen at his will—” Her head whips up to look at him, and he jolts. “Can you create armor or shields with your quirk?”
“I...I-uh…I don’t know? I’ve...never tried that.”
Her head tilts. “Have you ever tried molding this substance to your desires after it’s out of your body, or perhaps imagining it taking a specific shape pre or post-summon?”
Some of the nervousness leaves Bondo as he scratches at his chin. “I...I think I did a long time ago, as a little kid...I haven’t since...should I...try again?”
She nods furiously, then starts scribbling furiously again. “Needs additional, non-human tests for armory potential and defensive uses, must use test dummies for formation and alteration testing to—” She pauses, gasps, then scribbles more. “Check for potential cast creation for on-site first aid medical assistance and—”
Bondo listens for a while, staring at the girl before poking at one of the holes in his head. Some of the things she was mumbling, he’d never considered, or had abandoned after a point. But maybe...she was onto something. Well, the teachers had said she was an expert. He could see it now.
“Alright~”
The singing voice startles him out of his thoughts, and she’s returned back to normal, no longer mumbling up a storm like she’s summoning a demon.
“You can let me out now!”
“O-...oh! Of course…”
The glue-like adhesive loosens and slides off, and she steps out of it without a single stain on her clothes.
“Now harden it again.”
Bondo jolts. “Ah, uhm...I-I kind of...can’t? O-Once it’s loosened, I don’t...can’t control it anymore.”
“Hmm…” She quickly writes something down. “I think it’s within the realm of possibility for you, though. You should start with small amounts and try experimenting there. Your quirk and you are stronger than before U.A., even stronger than two weeks ago.” She smiles at him with a toothy grin. “Never say ‘you can’t’ until you absolutely can’t!”
Bondo feels his chest warm, and he nods firmly. “O-Okay!”
——
The day continues much like that, students able to relax and watch as they each show off their quirks to the best of their abilities. Though, Kobayashi would often throw in some random requests, like with Asui, where she asked her to pick her up with her tongue to test its flexibility while holding objects, or with Kaminari, when she asked him to try shocking her just a bit, though not enough to hurt her to try and test his control. He ended up shocking her stronger than anticipated, leading her to squeak in pain. He stopped immediately, gasping as a worried expression marred his face but she immediately assured him it was alright as she’d asked for him to do it.
“Besides, a shock like that could be vital to restarting someone’s heart! The fact you were able to do one that low means you could attune your power to the level of a defibrillator.” She pats his shoulder with a worried smile of her own. “Your quirk doesn’t only have to increase and hurt people. Besides, I’ve heard that some friends use you as a charging port. That’s only 12 volts of power, and you can do that easily! We just have to bridge the gap between strong and weak charges. Your quirk is more versatile than you think, Kaminari-kun.”
“Defi..brill...ator…” Kaminari blinks, wide eyed. “...That’s those shocky things in movies, yeah? The shocky chest things.”
“Yep!”
Kaminari looks at his hands and doesn’t say another word than his thanks as he heads back to the crowd. He keeps looking at his hands as the tests for others commence.
She asks questions, pries at their quirks, does tests with them, and investigates their own studies. Almost each time, the heroes in training found they hadn’t asked something about their own quirks and were amazed they hadn’t thought about it themselves. Yaoyorozu was getting excited when the students came back and talked about what the two discussed together, too far away to hear everything.
“I can’t wait for her to see my quirk,” Yaoyorozu confesses, her eyes bright and sparkling. “For her to think of so many creative uses for our quirks...it’s thrilling!”
“She’s a bit weird, but her interest reminds me of my little sister being interested in new things, kero,” Asui says, her smile a tad fond.
“Whose class do you think she’ll be in?” Ibara asks. “She’s going to study with us but council us, too. And, well, class 1-A and 1-B will have hero classes together, but not every class. Those are still split up.”
“Hmm...probably our class,” Ochako pokes her chin. “I mean, we’ve been attacked by villains before, but other than that, we’re a normal hero class.”
The students chat and wonder in their groups, but despite Kirishima’s attempts, he hasn’t been able to get Bakugou to say a single word.
He sits with his legs crossed, hands on his knees as he glares strongly at the weird girl. Just looking at her gets him annoyed, like there’s a bubbling of acid in his chest that’s waiting to explode. After all, she was clearly treating him differently. 
And not in a good way, not the way Bakugou sees it.
When he’d been called up, she hadn’t mumbled like the others said she did with them. She’d asked for him to aim at targets and asked to test the temperatures of his select blasts. She’d asked about his wrists, shoulders, and hearing, and had determined that, at the very least, his eardrums seemed to have developed to withstand a lot of damaging noise. But that assertion had been the closest to a mumble he’d gotten, and the closest to any excitement.
She’d been clear, clinical, almost muted.
The fact she wasn’t going gaga over his quick didn’t fucking bother him at all. What did was that he was treated differently than the others. If she’d been a whole stoic scientist for everyone, he wouldn’t fucking bother, but the fact she wasn’t annoyed the hell out of him.
What also bothered him was just how familiar she seemed.
The others described excited mumbling and a touch of recklessness. That she’d asked questions they didn’t think to ask, some going a tiny bit further than they’d thought she would. Nothing sexual, but more like she was trying to dissect something about them.
He knew that feeling. He knew it very well.
Knew it all while he was growing up until Deku finally, officially gave up his fruitless dream in his third year of middle school.
Instead of writing U.A. on his school prospect list, he’d written some nowhere hole called Yamaguchi High, and some other loser spots. The class had grinned at the fucking nerd, and he hadn’t dared to look up from his desk. They all knew the fucking bastard finally knew his place.
But seeing her made him feel like he was watching Deku mumble all over again.
Their similarities didn’t help. She looked like him down to the freckles. He’d only known one person in his life with freckles, and that was Deku. The green hair was different, too. But it was much longer and a bright shade of moss green than Deku’s hair would ever be, their voices were too different, and she was a girl. She also didn’t cower at his presence, just simply didn’t show the same annoying excitement she showed to everyone else.
What, did she think his quirk was boring? That it was powerless? Did she think he was weak?
Katsuki growls under his breath, eyes narrowing.
He’d show her. Rather, he’d shown her. He is strong, powerful. He’s precise, too, able to hit all those moving targets.
If she had anything to say other than glowing praises of perfection for him during the council day, he’d have a bigger bone to pick with her than he’d ever had with Deku. Unless she had a good fucking reason, but he couldn’t imagine what that’d be. He was strong.
He got into U.A. with flying fucking colors. None of those weak losers in his class were able to stand up to him, even though some of them were strong, like Shuriken Hair and Hot-n-Cold, though the latter bitched out during the Sports Festival. And that Cheshire-looking motherfucker cheated his way to the top, so he doesn’t really count that as a full loss, even though he got that stupid silver hunk of useless metal. No, he’s sure. He’s the strongest hero of their year.
He almost can’t wait to hear what that annoying girl would have to say to him tomorrow.
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o-daintyduck · 4 years
Text
AWAE 3.08 Reaction feat. MY FREAKOUT
The synopsis is giving me hope kinda.. We’ll see Ka'kwet but she’ll still be at the school so more weeping, Aunt Jo visits and brings a devious scheme,.. is it about Diana?? Will she or won’t she have to go to Paris? But why is it devious? And what about shirbert?????
Here we go.
Bruh Anne looks gorgeous in this still photo. All that fire just accentuates her looks!!!
Like an animal??? I’m angry already.
Mr. Avery is back!!! They’ve certainly hatched a plan of some sorts… But I guess it won’t be successful *sighs*
I knew she was in the barrel… Lol everyone knew that.. prolly.
How long will she hold her breath.. and will that poor boy hold the nun without giving anything away.. she’s going to hit him, isn’t she? WTF
Omg Mr. Avery is a beacon of light in this scene… he’s so pure.
Oh my Gods!! Did the plan actually work? She’s holding on it…
Anne is so happy!! Is she lying to Marilla tho? Lol 
Wait did they make up??? Moira won’t let me de clown in the Dianne fight too!! Insufferable… But I’m so happy at the same time.. Wait is Anne imagining this?
Well I figured it out before “Diana” ran away, cut me some slack guys… Normally I’m not this stupid..
Fuuuckkkkkk the SCHOOLHOUSE BURNT TO A CRISP…. I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO SAY…
Gilbert sure loves to think out loud,“ the printing press can’t just up and walk away by itself!!”
Yep the fault of small minds…
Man I really miss the schoolhouse… I’m weeping already..5 minutes in..
Miss Stacy is so hurt… the memories i can’t...
Rachel’s gonna throw a fit too!!! Rachel had memories in the school too.. I can’t -
Yass things will not be the same… I said it once and say it again.. Rachel will go rogue by the serie ends… And I’m living for it!!!
I still can’t believe Ka'kwet actually fled that place… So proud of her!!! And anxious too rn.
Ahhhh Bash’s mom is here!!!!!!!!!!!! I already love her… Finally some of that mother’s love for Bash that he missed and Gilbert too!!!!
It’s a diff actress maybe but don’t care … It’s Bash’s mom y'all!!!!!
Yass someone to keep Bash in check too.. love it!! *chef’s kiss*
Lol Anne and Gilbert talking sooo loud!!! And nobody seems to care… Lol
Okay petition for a new gc name– “Can I borrow your pen?”
Okay so the shirbert scene just ended like for the 5th time… And I was gaping all along… Wtf
I really need to meet that kid of Rachel’s… Such chaotic energy to have burned down the shed multiple times.
Was this how Marilla and Rachel behaved when they lived together in the books??? I know the discussion is serious but so precious at the same time.
Lol Bash’s mom definitely is going through a “cultural shock” atm I CAN’T. Two white women cleaning his house while he was away *no offense* but so so hilarious…
Bash’s face says it all..
This first meeting of Grand mamma- Delli is too much for me too handle… Gonna go hug my Nana..
Wait Hazel is fine!! Mom still thinks that she was only summoned for childcare… Welp
Ruby couldn’t speak in front of Gil b4 if her life depended on it.. but oh look now with the crush gone- she’s a new person!!! And the things she saying have me jumping up the roof!!!!
Well ruby I trusted you too much, didn’t I? Aren’t Anne and Gilbert enough on there for bringing up Winnie and now you too!
Gilbert peeked at Anne, I mean how can a boy be so stupid.. no I’m not saying ooc calm your spears,people. my heart is breaking for Anne I can hear it almost.
Diana is going to fight with Jerry too, isn’t she?
LEAVE JERRY ALONE!! he deserves to be happy!!! Not hating on Diana… But he deserves better ..better than this.
My fav gal Aunt Jo!!! Diana wrote to Cole, maybe..and he told her.
Lol its not even been 15 minutes and I’ve written an essay already!!!
I’m confusion.. why does Diana have no choice??
Bash’s Mom lived all her life like this.. it will take her some time to break free from that. But until then, welp
Bash teasing Gilbert is out of this world!!!! And have you heard that Delphine is cho cho cute.. i cringed myself typing this.
I swear Anne is me!!! Had to take a test just today!!! And I was cramming until the last moment.. Matthew and Marilla are so proud.. and jittery too
WHERE IS KA'KWET????
Diana looks like she’s holding back a flood of tears even while eating.. ohhhh she gonna take the test!!!!!!! YAYYY
Aunt Jo’s happiness and pride knows no bound (mine too)
Moody dude, in the words of the ever so great Taylor Swift, you need to calm down.. Diana hasn’t studied nothing think of her..
Where is Gilbert ?? The gc needs to renamed to may I borrow your pen… To commemorate another one of Gilbert’s shenanigans. Ehh called it ! He didn’t take the test..
I’m all for bromance bw Miss Stacy and Bash but nothing more than that please….
This is the 4th (and presumably last) appearance of Winifred… I want her to remain involved, shes too cool, but just can’t figure her out even now…
Here it is!!! An advantageous marriage.. very few people could have called it b4 the season.. but it is canon.. I’m not worried about shirbert.. but just how far Gilbert is willing to go for his ambitions.
Okay the kids are wasted!!
A drunk Anne and somewhat sober Gilbert, the perfect combo!!!!!! I have read atleast 5 fics head canoning this…*another chef’s kiss for the fic writers*
Okay nobody imagined this …I take that back… That look Gilbert is giving her made my stomach to leap a mile…
What’s holding you back? Ahh the question of the ages… I’m gushing at this so much,like this is serious but the first person Gil wanted to ask was Anne about all of this.. and she’s so drunk but at the same time utterly heartbroken, still encourages him to do it…. Slow burn madafuka.
Okay the PROPOSAL just happened !!!
And I’m freaking out just every bit as Anne!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m really not okay and they had to show Ka'kwet feeding off of berries… The poor girl *cries yet again*
They are searching the letters, aren’t they???
No, the dictionary and a wedding ring… And here I go weeping again…
I really went outside to scream at the sky a second ago… But need to scream again!!!! I’ll not be okay this week or this year at all.
Anne needs her bosom friend now… She’s just been PROPOSED!!!!!!! I know it’s gonna go haywire any second now but please let me live this for now… I can’t even imagine this is happening..
Aunt Jo with the best advice… Just hope Anne takes it as we want her to..
Bash has his mother with him.. i’m just happy for him.
He’s gonna propose Anne and I too need to get up for this again…. BASH IS THE WHOLE FANDOM RIGHT ABOUT NOW.
And that’s how you shatter a million hearts!!! “Now I can be happy with Winnie”.. I’m still happy that they didn’t stretch this till the finale atleast.. the heartache would have been unbearable.
Marilla is onto something. Now Rachel has full reign over these old hacks.
Go Rachel Go go Go Rachel!!! They just got vetoed!!! And I love it… Other 2 women will have to be Muriel and Marilla..
SHE’S HOME AT LAST!!!!!
And in her mother’s arms!! Is it too late to give those nuns and that whole school HELL
Poor Minnie May and Diana.. atleast she’ll understand now that she always has a choice to be herself no matter what anybody says…
I love that They’ve made up!!! They are made for each other… #DianneForever
“I’m in love with Gilbert Blythe!”
Aren’t we all? Anne.
It took me 3 hours to watch this episode because i was freaking out so much, tell me if this was comprehensible at all if you came this far…
This episode was different for so many reasons but the proposal...oh the proposal... excuse me gotta scream again..
And “Anne rejected” him... i guess Moira couldn’t stray far from og on this one.
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ettadunham · 4 years
Text
A Buffy rewatch 7x09 Never Leave Me
aka tired of subtle
We did it, guys! We made it to the last season! Also, hello if you’re new, and stumbled upon this without context. As usual, these impromptu text posts are the product of my fevered mind as I rant about the episode I just watched for an hour (okay, sometimes perhaps two). Anything goes!
And I prefer today’s episode to Sleeper as a post-Big-Bad-reveal kick-off to our season’s main arc in multiple ways. Also, Willow drags Andrew. Literally.
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Season 7, as a whole, struggles from the main story arc taking up too much of its time. People often hate on filler episodes, but the truth is, you can’t fill out 22 episodes of television with a singular, focused story arc. And you shouldn’t.
Not to mention that fillers are a great way to explore characters without being bogged down by an overarching plot. (So stop hating on their concept, just because some shows do them badly.)
Buffy at its best realized that these things – your main arc, your character stories and your fillers – can coexist in the same episodes. Some of the best episodes of the show are one-off stories, using a unique set-up or villain of the week while focusing on characters and pushing the season arc on some level.
Unfortunately, the structure of season 7 makes it much harder to tell these kinds of stories. Our Big Bad is ever-present, and the battles and confrontations with it are constant throughout the season, once the reveal happens in episode 7.
I’m pointing this out not to criticize Never Leave Me, but to emphasize how good it is, and why the issue of the season has more to do with trying to keep up with the pace this episode sets.
Oh, yeah. Hot takes I guess about the episode that ranks 98th on iMDB. Never Leave Me is pretty good.
(I kinda wanna look up each episode’s iMDB ranking at this point before writing up on them, just for funsies, but I also don’t want to be influenced by the popular opinions? The struggle.)
To be fair though, part of my fondness for this episode comes from my feelings regarding the previous one. Watching it, I felt like I was seeing a much better version of what a follow up to Conversations with Dead People would look like.
And a lot of that has to do with Spike. And Buffy.
I spent the last time ranting at length about how I just don’t connect with Spike, and that’s okay. Pretty much all Buffy characters are incredibly flawed, and we all relate to and/or gravitate towards different ones, based on our own experiences. I love that. I love that these are well-rounded characters who change and grow in both surprising and consistent ways.
I also like Spike much better in this episode, because his story relates to Buffy much more strongly. Which does seem to be the best way for me to find a connection to Spike in any given episode (see also: Fool for Love).
I guess another aspect is that unlike Sleeper, this episode focuses much less on his romanticism. He instead talks about his past. About the horrific things he’s done. About his and Buffy’s self-hatred. About how he understands it and that she used him now, and how he didn’t back then.
More importantly, Buffy gets to fire back. She did tell him all those things last season. It’s why she ended things with him in the first place. She also challenges his assumptions about that self-hatred as a current motivation in what’s decidedly my favorite scene of the episode.
SPIKE:  “Have you ever really asked yourself why you can’t do it? Off me? […] You like men who hurt you.” BUFFY:  “No.” SPIKE:  “You need the pain we cause you. You need the hate. You need it to do your job, to be the Slayer.” BUFFY:  “No. I don’t hate like that. Not you, or myself. Not anymore. You think you have insight now because your soul’s drenched in blood. You don’t know me. You don’t even know you. […} Listen to me. You’re not alive because of hate or pain. You’re alive because I saw you change. Because I saw your penance. […] You faced the monster inside you and you fought back. You risked everything to be a better man.”
I love this scene, because Spike posits something that’s in line with Buffy’s own fears about her relationships, something that she voices as far back as season 4. That maybe she herself seeks out these painful, dramatic romances.
…But this discussion isn’t really just about that, isn’t it? And even if Buffy hasn’t quite landed yet on how to approach her romantic history, she has plenty of self-knowledge. She knows why she hasn’t and won’t kill Spike now.
Buffy sees and believes in the best of people. Even when they don’t. And here she shows the same compassion to Spike that she did to Angel as far back as season 1.
See, she’s a protector, not a killer. And one with a huge fucking heart at that.
That’s why she didn’t kill Spike. At worst, she saw him as non-threatening to others after his chip debacle, at best, she saw a potential for him to become better.
Still. How does one reconcile this characterization of Buffy with what we see in Selfless? Has Anya not proved more than enough times that she can be better? That she’s more than just the vengeance demon she used to be?
Worse, when Buffy and Xander argue about the difference between stopping Anya then, and Willow at the end of season 6, Buffy’s argument doesn’t really make sense once you think about it. She says that they weren’t planning on killing Willow, because Willow’s human. But from everything we know of vengeance demons, there really isn’t any distinction between them and a human with powers. They still have their souls.
So the distinction Buffy makes between Anya’s and Willow’s case feels arbitrary. And so does the decision to not kill Spike at certain points of the story.
But that’s what Buffy says in Selfless, isn’t it? “Someone has to draw the line.” And in a world with no clear-cut black and white morality, that line is arbitrary.
Buffy’s been acutely aware of the fact that the world she operates in is full of grey areas ever since Lie to Me. There are no easy answers or choices, even when you’re fighting literal creatures from hell, but someone has to makes these decisions regardless. Someone has to draw the line. And that’s Buffy.
But I think that’s why she finds it all the more important to choose hope sometimes. She has to be prepared, yes, and she can’t rely on the power of love alone, as discussed before. Her responsibilities come first. But she can offer a choice.
Even in Selfless, one of the most important moments for Buffy is when she implores Xander to find her another way to deal with Anya. Which is what Willow ends up doing, by asking D’Hoffryn to offer up the same kind of choice to Anya, that Buffy felt unable to in this situation.
Never Leave Me is also the episode where the gang meets Andrew again. More accurately, Willow runs into him, and he’s terrified. As he should be.
ANDREW:  “Warren killed Tara. I didn’t do it. And he was aiming for Buffy anyway.” WILLOW:  “Not making it better.”
In case you missed it, this was a direct callback to another scene:
WARREN:  “It was an accident, you know.” WILLOW:  “Oh. You mean, instead of killing my best friend, you killed my girlfriend.”
Listen, all I’m saying that if Willow flayed Andrew after that line? I wouldn’t have blamed her.
But Willow these days is less about the murder, so instead she just stares incredulously at Andrew after that little moment of rage-inducing blunder. And they both nerd-monologue at each other, I guess?
(Sidenote: I don’t think I ever got around to mention this with the last season, but there’s an interesting and somewhat uncomfortable interpretation of the Trio, as a mirror to Willow’s own character. Mostly the worst parts of her at that of course, but there are definitely some parallels here; particularly to Warren and his tech savviness, and Jonathan and his magical abilities. Andrew is probably the least obvious example though – unless we take his relentless gay-coding as a nod to that.)
This whole storyline of course ends up being played mostly for comedy, as Anya and Xander take it upon themselves to test their interrogation techniques on Andrew. And it’s fun, too, seeing them work together without the added baggage that was their romantic relationship. It makes me both root much more for them to get back together, and wish that they wouldn’t, because they work so much better like this.
Even if Xander’s speech to Andrew is obviously supposed to be about himself, and how he’s still not over Anya.
XANDER:  “There was this one guy, her hurt her real bad, so she paid him back. She killed him, but she did it real slow. See, first she stopped his heart, then she replaced it with darkness, then she made him live his life like that. But he still had to go do his job, and see his friends, and wake up in the morning, and go to bet ad night, but he had to do it all empty. Without anything to look forward to. Ever.”
Honey… I know you know this, but you did this to yourself.
Oh, and isn’t it fun that when the Harbringers attack, one of the first things they do is knock Willow unconscious? It’s almost as if the show is trying not to call attention to the fact, that she could probably take these guys out in a second with magic.
But at least this gives Dawn some chance to kick ass, so that’s always a plus.
Another side-plot that’s happening is with my boy, Robin, who finds Jonathan’s body in the basement. And decides to bury It instead of telling anyone about it.
I’m sure there’s an explanation to this other than making us believe that he’s a bad guy, but I honestly can’t even remember. We’ll see, I guess.
The episode ends with Buffy making the connection that they’re up against the First, and the First itself monologuing at Spike about how it’s tired of being subtle. Which feels very meta in an ironic kind of sense from the show, but also marks a questionable turn in the season arc.
There’s a lot of cool concept and potential (hehe) in the First as a Big Bad, that we’ve seen demonstrated in Conversations with Dead People. It knows things. It can appear as anyone you know who died. It can mess with you in infinite ways.
In this scene though, the First is talking about bringing these Uruk-hai vampires to the surface, and that’s just not as interesting as those other tactics. Even if Buffy gets to have cool fights with them.
But that’s still to come. Who knows, maybe I’ll appreciate the super vampires after all.
Also appreciated – those scene of Quentin and the Watcher’s Council being their usual, holier-than-thou selves, keeping information from Buffy, and relying on empty platitudes... immediately followed by them getting blown up.
Yeah. This show’s anything but subtle, that’s for sure.
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tumblunni · 5 years
Text
Random game idea that came to mind: clockwork man simulator
I dunno, i just got the general image in my head of a soft homey aesthetic equivelant of that terrible game about the androids. Itd be more like just a life-living game, like stuff like animal crossing or harvest moon. Just fully exploring the perspective of these creatures and the world that created them, rather than BOOM ACTION SETPIECES or whatever
I only have some scattered ideas for it tho, and not really any idea of a main plot or gameplay gimmick or 3 act structure or like.. Anything to take this from idea to game, lol.
SO ITS MISC IDEAS TIME
* more of an olden timey fantasy style instead of sci fi. Youre still an artificial person created to run errands for humans, but youre more of a combination of clockwork and magic. There's still an element of being made of inanimate object parts but there's also some glowy energy core or something. Possibly would be interesting if it was something unusual to use as a power source? Like i dunno, a bell or an acorn or a teacup or one of those rocks with the hole in it that sometimes wash up on beaches. Or just a glowy orb of Generically Defined Energy Substance, which flows through you like aesthetically pleasing glowy veins
* you're a service clockwork homunculus thingy, bought by a disabled person who needs help around the house. PERHAPS A SWEET OLD GRANDMA! Whatever i decide on (IT'LL PROBABLY BE THE GRANDMA), your owner is a kind person who sees you as part of the family and feels guilty using an android as they believe you are absolutely a real person and wish they could set you free. Unfortunately theyre kinda one of the people who needs androids the most, as they dont have any family who can help them. At the same time though, they are very old and quite resigned to nobody caring about them, plus theyre just a good person who'd put your life over their own. So i feel like the plot would literally start with this person trying to set you free and you are just like "i do npt understand the concept, that is not in my programming". Its become kind of a morning routine now to hear "youre free! Get out, dammit!" and have a brisk argument over breakfast that inevitably always ends with you refusing. Grandma's prpbably got so desperate they're resorting to tactics like trying to trick you into getting on the bus out of town or "if you dont leave im gonna hold my breath and i wont stop til i pass out". All inevitabley failing! So they just try and help you understand your sentience and become more independant, encouraging you to take free time every day and go around the town to enjoy yourself. Which is kinda a concept you dont understand yet, so its just like MISSION RECEIVED: WALK IN CIRCLE AROUND PERIMETER OF TOWN. And its kind of a hit and miss experience because the people in this town have never seen an android before- this magic is usually a thing for rich people and this proposed scheme of disability assistance androids is still in its test run. Some people are suspicious or hateful, but there are others who welcome you to the village and brighten up your day. Not just a world of 100% everyone assholes to make a melodramatic point delivered awfully through racist stereotypes.
* i think a good subplot with this disabled grandma would be to show her regaining her independance too. Like she starts off quite fatalistic and used to nobody caring about her, all this mobility aid stuff is new and she feels like its too complicated and she'll never get it, or its too expensive and she doesnt deserve it, or all the nonsense that ableist society drills into people. But with the support of her new friend and access to more tools to help take her life into her own hands, she starts regaining hope again! Like ironically she felt like her previous carers were all the kinds of awful things people expect these androids to be. Robotic, emotionless monsters who dont care about the person's feelings and comfort, and certainly not independance. She suffered from a lot of the same nightmares that androids do too: being forced into a rigid schedule, limited in her options, deprived of basic rights, being told how she's supposed to feel, etc. But to an android that all seems like an inefficient way to do things! My function is healing and human healing efficiency is decreased in this circumstance! I am incapable of ignoring data due to personal bias! Basically imagine MAGIC BAYMAX ok. Anyway this plot would progress with grandma regaining her smile and eventually itd be a super happy day when she's able to get her new wheelchair that she can wheel to the shops on her own without needing someone to push her. Itd be really sweet from the player's perspective to get used to saying goodbye to her every morning and then suddenly you see her wandering around the shops with everyone else and she can become a part of the vibrant town too. Im thinking give her more complex AI than all the other villagers even, like give her a more complicated set of actions and move routes and stuff like SHE IS EVERYWHERE and she is LOVING IT! Life is back where it belongs: in the hands of the person living it! And it also intensifies the message of android slavery not being necessary or moral or good. Like i mean here this lady benefitted from getting an android but literally all she needed was a friend, a healthcare professional who gave a shit, and affordable access to mobility aids. Humans could have done that if they werent lazy assholes! And this android deserves the right to the same uplifting independenceifying experience they helped this grandma have!!
* random idea: all the events you encounter on each daily walk are actually stored in your inventory as items. Memories of experiences, good or bad, become literally experience for you! They each affect stats in different ways because of what you learned from that moment. Maybe bad experiences give you combat abilities and good ones help with your daily life skills and development of personality? And its possible to crack or even shatter a memory, if new experiences end up clashing with it. Usually its just 'oh i learned the more advanced version of this skill through better understanding of why humans do it', but also traumatic memories damaging good ones, and good ones helping ease traumatic ones. And maybe you could solve puzzles and make friendships through using these memory items? Youre faced with a challenge and have to make the connections in your mind to figure out which past experience is relevant here. And becoming more talented at something would help narrow down the choices you get given? And being unskilled would do screwy stuff with the interface like putting the correct option far away near the bottom or mixing up the names and icons of each memory. (Dunno how i'd program that though!)
* Maybe character customization similar to Medabots? The games were so cool and ahead of their time, you get to collect hundreds of different robot base frames and then mix and match the parts to make your own cool aesthetic! Shame it was only used for fighting though, that could be cool in a more social game too! Like go out wearing different fashions to help befriend different people, but its more fun cos its ROBOT FASHIONS! 'hey grandma do u think fred will like this arm or this arm?' She fusses over you all excitedly cos you showing an interest in fashion is a good sign of developing free will! Though you still get stuck in logic loops of 'you should wear what you like best, honey' 'HUMAN OPINION IS OF HIGHER PRIORITY' ...god i think i just made this character so i can ramble Relateable Social Anxiety Moments BUT ROBOTS
* possible ideas for Memory Events you can find around town! Meeting a cute neighbour cat- a fascinating creature you were not programmed to deal with, as you're a hospital android who isnt even meant to leave one single room for your whole life. You get absolutely entranced by the confusing small carpet with legs, and spend all morning interrogating it on why it wishes to rub its face on you. Why is your motor overheating, tiny carpet? Human master, how do you troubleshoot this noise?
* Another idea! You get 'mission: count the steps on the stairs to town' popping out of nowhere, and at first you ignore it because this is an illogical directive that does not come from a human. But it keeps happening every time you go here!! You try finding new ways to get to town crossing through fields or forests or walking directly into the path of a horsedrawn carriage, but ALAS it seems the only efficient path is those curious curious steps! Only then do you finally realise the mystery command is coming from yourself! You're not used to this strange concept of just..wanting to do something, all by yourself. You talk to your human and she says that's 'natural curiosity', 'personality', 'free will'...things that seem impossible to understand. You ask her to take you back to the shop to get this fault fixed, but she says its good and you should try acting on it. But it'll serve no purpose!! BUT AAARGH I HAVE TO KEEP SEEING THOSE STEPS EVERYDAY!! Eventually you do count them and you find it makes you satisfied for no logical reason. And that was the end of that small crisis, but you'll forever be confused by the whole thing! The next week you're like "what if i organized all the blue things with the blue things" and youre intensely frustrated at yourself. Human grandma says this is a "taste for fashion" but you remind her that you do not have a tongue. (And then she gets you the robo parts catalog and you unlock customization. Yay!)
* Possible idea for a sad subplot! A new human visits the village and he seems very strange, sometimes seeming kind and other times being angry and standoffish. You think its a simple 'jerk with a heart of gold' story but the truth is a lot stranger! It turns out this stranger is actually an important bishop in disguise, and he has multiple androids acting as body doubles to protect him while he's on the road. Theyre supposed to just be empty husks who only know how to imitate, but they clearly have their own personalities! You're tasked with finding all these runaway androids and returning them to their master for a reward, leading to a goofy lil game of hide and seek with twelve of the same guy. But it starts to get a bit sad because they're all convinced theyre the real one, and whenever they stumble into holes in their memory they freak out. When they all see each other gathered together its an absolute despair explosion and theyre forced to face the truth. And you can help them bond together as brothers and develop their own individual identities, even helping them pick out their own new faces from your set of fashion roboparts. Sadly you cant keep them here for long because itd obviously be suspicious to have exactly twelve new people move into the town right when twelve bots went missing. So you get help from one of grandma's friends to send them off in a stagecoach to another town where they can find employment and start their own life disguised as humans. The asshole bishop obviously doesnt react well to his androids vanishing into the night, but he never thinks of blaming you because after all you're only an android and you could never choose to help others out of all that free will you dont have. He just berates you for being so incompetant as to fail his quest to find them, and you get your reward taken back. Oh no~ i am~ very ashamed~ i will go tell my human that my ocular circuits require recalibrating~ (internally: HAHA YEH FUCK U OLD MAN) Grandma is super proud of you!
And thats all i got so far
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pandadoesawrite · 6 years
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retrouvailles: the happiness of meeting or finding someone again after a long separation. - panda. panda. write good family time with ghost cousins. do. it please.
ok this feels. very haphazard and i’m sorry for that but i’ve had this ghost reunion planned FOREVER. i just. mad mew made changed the game a little u gotta forgive me.
“Say, have we checked down this street yet?”
As if to answer his question, Napstablook phased out of a building down that particular road, and shook their head; Mettaton tapped his cheek in response, and the soft ‘clang!’ that followed seemed to echo throughout the Ruins. “Ah. Right… well, I suppose that’s it for this district.”
“You think we should go back over what we already covered?” As if to herald her arrival, Furi stumbled through a different alleyway, tripping over some long forgotten trash cans. Those crashes most definitely echoed in the empty town, and Mettaton had to wince from the sound. “You know how she is. Once she gets going, she could be anywhere!”
Mettaton sighed. It was poor manners for ghosts to question their own about their corporeality choices, and really, he was glad dear sweet Furi found a form she truly loved! He really was! He just… didn’t understand why it was THAT one, in particular. “Well, if nothing else, she’ll most definitely hear you, where ever she is.”
Furi squinted her eyes. It seemed slightly wrong, given how anime the eyes were. “Uhhhh. What’s THAT supposed to mean???”
“Darling, you’re tripping over everything.” He wasn’t trying to sound disproving--it wasn’t as though Mettaton hadn’t been there himself, years ago--but Furi was pushing herself too hard. That statue was so different from the dummy she’d been testing out before, and it was fairly clear she wasn’t allowing herself the proper time to grow into it.
“Finding Kazaa is important, of course, but don’t you think you should have… you know.” Mettaton gestured his hands helplessly. “Practiced a bit more?”
“UGH!!” Furi was angry, but that wasn’t different from any other day, so Mettaton didn’t take it to heart. “We can’t ALL be so MASTERFUL with a body we aren’t bonded to yet!!!”
“Hey, don’t you get snippy with me! I’m worried about you!”
“Oh yeah??? What are you gonna do if I DO?”
“I’ll tell Alphys you stole that statue from her lab.”
“! You wouldn’t DARE!!”
“Oh, I dare, sweetheart. I do a dare everyday of my life!”
“I’ll you know I SAVED this body from… REALLY TERRIBLE EXPERIMENTS!! ...PROBABLY!!! And I don’t need you telling me how to--”
“you guys…”
It was a talent, in its own right, how quickly just a word from Napstablook could get both of them to clam up, but clam up they did. It had been a while since he and Furi had sort of… gone ham about it, Mettaton supposed; they must have had a lot more pent up in their systems than either of them realized.
“Ahh--yes, Blooky. Sorry about that.”
“Yeah, uh--” Furi poked sheepishly at the bell around her neck. “Our bad. Um. What’s up?”
Napstablook, ever the gentle one, floated quietly out from the street they’d been watching from, and pointed down a different road; this one in particular looked like it lead into the old shopping district. “i...i think i heard something...in one of those old stores.”
Mettaton looked to Furi, and he must have at the same expression she did, hope renewed. “Do you think it’s Kazaa? Or just…”
“We haven’t seen any more of the Froggit clan this far in.” Furi said. “This… look, I don’t wanna get our hopes up, but this is the best lead we’ve gotten in… forever??”
“So long as she had the common sense to stay in the Ruins? ...I’d say you’re right.”
“i think she has to be here, still.” Napstablook added. It was a rare day when they sounded so sure of themselves, but when that downer-mindset had been changing for them, recently. “she… sent that letter with the spiders around when frisk came, so… that makes sense.”
Mettaton nodded in agreement. “Kazaa has a terrible sense of direction, but she knows somewhat how to stay put. And we won’t find her any faster standing around… so shall we?”
The store Napstablook had heard the noise from wasn’t exactly what Mettaton would call a department store, but it was certainly the size of one. There was a lot of architecture in the Ruins that didn’t quite match up with what they had in the rest of the Underground; all of this had been before his and his family’s time, and it was, in its own way, humbling to see how far monsters had come and advanced, even with their (then) limited space.
But they weren’t here for beauty; they were here for darkness, or at least, they were now, because this store was entirely pitch black. Not even the soft, blue-tinted glow of Napstablook’s spectral self penetrated the inky black in front of them.
Furi drummed her knuckles on one of Mettaton’s shoulders; her pinky on that hand popped out of its joint as a result, but she caught it before it was lost. “Don’t you have some kinda flashlight in there?”
“So rude. But I do have… something.” Mettaton closed his eyes a moment, when they opened again, the pinks of his irises shone like floodlights, bathing the empty store in a bright magenta hue.
Furi made a face that was too much like Undyne’s for his liking. “Ohhhh, wrow, I don’t like that at ALL.”
“i… yeah.” Napstablook didn’t look or sound entirely thrilled about this, either. “mettaton, that’s… really, really bad.”
“It’s a work in progress.” Mettaton was also not a fan, if he had to be honest--blinking was a rather considerate thing to do for everyone around him, even if he didn’t technically need to do so--but if you’ve got it, flaunt it, or so they say. And he did.
“Could you at least, like. Make it a different color??”
“Brand loyalty, Furi, hush--now, where did you hear the noise, Blooky?”
“over here.”
Napstablook led their cousins past old grocery shelves and magazine racks, and Mettaton did his best to keep them in his light of sight. (The pink of his eyes gave Napstablook a rather interesting periwinkle hue that made them hard to miss, but it just wasn’t their color.) The trio passed into room after room, with only dust to greet them. “Blooky, are you sure you heard something this way?”
“Naps has the best hearing out of all of us.” Furi pointed out. “Even with your fancy-shmacy robot ears, if they heard something, they heard something. You know that.”
“Mmm, fair point.” It was at that moment he realized that he and Alphys actually forgot to give his body ears, but he’d just keep that to himself. “I just hope it wasn’t just something falling down. This place is so old…”
“it might have been.” Napstablook admitted. “but i just… i have a feeling.”
“Far be it from us to doubt your sixth sense. It’d be hypocritical.”
“Isn’t that just a human thing, anyway?” Furi asked. “Ghost sensing??”
“Mmm… sort of?” Naturally, Mettaton had looked into how humans reacted to ghosts--you know, just in case the body thing never happened but the barrier thing did--and what he found… varied. “I can’t say anything without actually having spoken to one, but human ghosts? Super messed up.”
“Oh yeah? How so?”
“It’s a mixed bag; a good lot of them either don’t realize they’re ghosts, or are just trying to make the best of it, but there’s a small minority that seems willing to possess literally ANYTHING in order to just be a general terrifying pain in the neck. Bridges, entire towns sometimes, dolls are really big--”
“Wait, dolls?” Furi cut in. “Like… like US???”
“No, I’d say we’re in the minority for that.” Wasn’t there a horror story on some blog somewhere about an anime figure coming to life? It’d had been so long and so not-child friendly that Mettaton had pushed it from his mind. “It’s more in the, ahh… the Raggedy-Ann line of dolls, I suppose.”
“you mean like that one?”
Mettaton and Furi dropped their conversation, and looked on ahead down the hall, to where Napstablook was looking.
At the corner of one door, a ways away from them, was a doll. It couldn’t have been more than three feet tall, with long, red yarn hair tied into two braids, and wearing an elegant, green dress. There’s was rough, patchwork stitching all over its body, like it had been something different from another time, and its two, big polymer eyes seemed to look on past them blankly.
Then it blinked.
“AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH--MMMMMMPGH!!”
Napstablook flinched from Furi’s sudden scream, but Mettaton was quick to action, and slammed his hand over her mouth. “Furi, would you--stop screaming, you idiot! You’re a ghost, remember?!”
Furi pulled his hand off her to speak, but a least she wasn’t screaming anymore. “YEAH, I’m a ghost in a CUTE, NORMAL BODY, you nerd!! That’s different!!”
“How in the HELL is the body you’re currently in NORMAL?!”
“Well how the hell is YOURS normal?!”
“It’s not conventional, but it’s definitely better looking!”
“You take that BACK, you glorified waffle iron!!”
“guys…” The two of them were being so loud now, and their voices carried to much in the closed space of the store; being loud was not Napstablook’s forte, unfortunately. But thankfully, they didn’t have to be.
“Well, I’m glad to you’re both still lively as ever.”
Mettaton and Furi were at each other’s throats by that point, Mettaton actually holding his now smaller cousin off the ground--the marvel of opposable thumbs, ladies and gentlemen!--but the sound of a familiar voice called them all to still. Mettaton dropped Furi as the realization settled in, and Furi, in that same daze, hardly registered the fall.
The doll, speaking in a woman’s voice, stood up, a bit straighter, and levitated itself up and over to the three. It floated in the very same manner Napstablook did, albeit perhaps a bit more susceptible to gravity--and when it finally came close enough, it regarded them with a warm, familial smile.
“About time, too!”
“KAZAA!!” Furi scrambled off the floor, and scooped up her now rag-doll cousin up in the tightest hug she could muster. It was not tighter than Mettaton’s, who picked up the both of them together, and looped his arms multiple times around them. And finally, Napstablook, with the tiniest, sweetest smile on their face, floated over, and pressed their ghostly self against Kazaa’s cheek.
“Kazaa, I--!” Mettaton tried his best to suppress his sniffles, because if he sniffled, it meant he was going to cry. Didn’t mean he really succeeded, though. “I-I was so worried, I wasn’t sure we’d ever find you!!”
“Tell me about it! How long has it been since I went on vacation? And none of you remembered to give me the map!”
“Hey, that wasn’t OUR job, that was all on Bravi!” Furi nuzzled herself into Kazaa, but pulled back a second later in surprise. “Wait, I remember this fabric! This is what the DUMMIES are made of!”
“Yeah. I hid out in one of those for… a while?” Kazaa sounded unsure, but it was easy to see how someone so prone to getting lost might lose track of time. “I thought it’d be safer to possess something. Can’t really leave a place if I can’t go through walls, right?”
“Certainly made our work here easier.” Mettaton said. “But why is it a doll now?”
“The queen found me in the dummy. She changed it for me to look a little nicer.”
“...huh.”
“Wrow.”
“that’s… really awkward.”
“Tell me about it.” Kazaa stopped here for a second, and then glanced to Mettaton. “Actually, no, YOU tell me about it.”
Mettaton blinked. “I--About what?”
“I heard something about you attacking a child? On television?” Apparently, it did not take long at all for Kazaa to resume her role as the Blook family matriarch. Mettaton’s already pale face paled even more. “What’s up with THAT, Mettaton?”
“That!! Well! Y-You see--Furi stop laughing at me you did it too!”
Furi’s snickering immediately ended, and she looked between all her cousins, panic beginning to rise. “I! T-That was different! I didn’t do it on TV!!”
“You fought them TWICE!! They weren’t even antagonizing you!”
Kazaa cast Napstablook a glance. “...Did she?”
Napstablook paused and glanced up, as if weighing the pros and cons of telling the truth, but they knew where their loyalties lied. “she did do it twice… and mettaton did do it on tv. i got it on dvr.”
“NAPS!!!”
“Blookyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”
“I see.” Kazaa’s tone was… authoritative, as she slipped out of her cousins’ holds, and began to float off towards the exit. “Well, the two of you were grounded to begin with, but now you’re both SUPER grounded.”
“Wha--no!!” Mettaton dropped Furi again, and this time Furi responded with a yelp, but it didn’t matter in the long run. “We were we grounded?!”
“Um. Leaving Napstablook to run the farm by themselves? That ring a bell?” Kazaa kept going off--slowly, though, because she still had to make sure she wasn’t going to get lost again. “So everyone but Napstablook is grounded now. That’s just how it has to be.”
“It does NOT!!” Furi leapt up from the ground, and chased after Kazaa, with Mettaton not to far behind. “Kaz, we can TALK about this--”
“Honey, this is an offence?? You can’t ground Mettaton! I’m worth so much now!”
“Super duper mega ULTRA grounded, then.”
For a moment, Napstablook watched them walk off, almost a little in awe that they all fell back into their family dynamic so easily: Kazaa, their reliable eldest; Furi, the snappy second; them, the softspoken third; and Mettaton, the fourth that youngest for individuality. And as Mettaton and Furi wailed and fought their eventual punishment, they had to smile when they began to follow.
For the longest time, they’d had the quiet worry that even if the four of them came back together, it wouldn’t be the same. Each one of them had changed so much through the years, done so many things alone, that a family reunion almost seemed impossible. But impossible things had been happening so often lately--the barrier was gone, the snail farm was thriving again, and the surface was their oyster--they supposed it was silly of them to think that miracles didn’t extend to ghosts, too.
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Herpes Whoredom
January 6th, 2018.
Candidness is key.
I had sex in the university’s science lab. Actually, the place where they genetically engineer goats to excrete spider silk. Like, these little guys produce milk that has copious amounts of one of the strongest, most indestructible materials made by nature. So I guess you can say I’m intricately woven into the larger scientific community. 
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Back to the sex. I was having sex in the science lab. Exciting as it sounds, I actually realized I had left my tampon in after a couple of minutes. Extracting it wasn’t too difficult, but it left me extremely sore. 
The following day, I continued feeling a burning itch down there, which was unsurprising, and I assumed I had gotten a UTI, or yeaster infection, or at the worst, maybe even TSS (which I actually know nothing about), but the pain got more intense as the weekend went on, and I noticed a couple of bumps in my genital region. I remember lying in the bathtub with Epsom salt, and my roommate came into the bathroom to pee. I even had her take a look, and she commented that it might just be bacterial vaginosis, something she had gotten a while back. “Yeah, that’s kinda what it looks like. Just go to urgent care and they’ll give you antibiotics. You should be fine. It’s probably because of the whole tampon sex thing.” 
“Thank you, wise roommate! I indeed shall go to the doctor first thing in the morning.”
January 8th, 2018.
The nurse led me to the examination room, and I declined to sit in the chair; instead, I squatted on the floor because that was the only position in which I felt semi-comfortable. She took my pulse and got my weight and asked me the normal questions, and I told her about the Tampon Sex and how I had self-diagnosed with Bacterial Vaginosis. 
She was honestly kind of bitchy. She was making this kind of sour expression on her face the whole time and rolled her eyes at me when I was telling her that I was in pain. 
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 Maybe she was having a bad day, or just like, has RBF, but she rubbed me the wrong way, and when the male doctor had me put my feet in the stirrups so he could peer into my aching vagina, she stood in the corner, with the stupid pinched look on her stupid bitchy face, all I could think was Does this bitch have to be in here right now, and the doctor, right away, in a low voice, said, “Hmm, yeah, that looks like it’s herpes.”
He wouldn’t make eye contact with me, and that stupid nurse stared at me with her nose wrinkled up and did a little eyebrow lift before she left the room. 
I wanted to punch her.
And then I was like, okay, so what now? And he was like, “’kay, here are some meds, good luck, and bye!” 
The Next 10 Days
were the worst of my life. 
This was the first week of the semester. I tried going to class one day, but I had to walk so slowly and gingerly that I got there 30 minutes late, and then I had to pee, and I ended up just crying in pain on the bathroom floor until a friend could come pick me up. 
What started out as little bumps turned into fiery little sores and even open lesions that extended all the way into my cervix and around my urethra. Yeah, the acid in my piss burned the hell out of me every time I had to pee. Eventually, I figured out this routine where every time I would go, I would get on all fours in the bath tub and kind of splash water on myself when the pee would come out to relieve some of the pain faster, screaming in pain the whole time, and then I would rinse out the bathtub and just lie in there for like half an hour. 
I didn’t want to drink fluids because I didn’t want to pee. I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t leave the house, I couldn’t sit down. Everything was painful. 
And I was like, holy shit holy shit, no one is every going to want to have sex with me again. I’m a modern-day leper. I have this nasty little virus inhabiting my body and it will never go away. It’s invaded me. Like, it thinks that it can just use me as its home and hurt me and just basically fuck up my life.
Most of my friends were supportive. My mom sounded shocked and appalled, but she was really nice, and my best friends brought me over soup and candy and books almost every day. I did have one friend, however, when I disclosed to him about my STI, that looked me in the eye and told me, “I will never see you the same.” 
I contacted the men I’d been with in the last six months, encouraging them to get tested. Many ran into the same problem: the clinics were unwilling or reluctant to test them since they had no symptoms. (Even though 85% of HSV-positive individuals DON’T HAVE SYMPTOMS.) And can herpes be spread asymptomatically? YES IT CAN. I got my herpes from a person with no symptoms. 
Stuck at home, with nothing else to do, I did a lot of research. I have to give a shout-out to Ella Dawson, whose herpes blog provided a lifeboat to my mental and emotional health. 
I dedicated my time to several online support groups, and I educated myself on everything there is to know about HSV2.
And then life went back to “normal”
The Valtrex eventually did its thing and the pain of the herpes went away, but I was left to deal with the negative social stigma that accompanies it as I dove back into the dating world. 
There was this Tinder dude who was trying to have sexy talk with me, and this is how the conversation turned: 
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Okay dude, you don’t want herpes but A. who even said that we were going to have sex and B. don’t be an asshole.
And while we are talking about douchebags, here is another unrelated, non-herpes conversation I had with a tinder dude: 
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Jesus, like I DON’T WANT TO SEND YOU NUDES AND IF I DO I WILL BUT BE HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU GET.
Sidenote: I have met many lovely, kind, respectful gentlemen on tinder and bumble. 
I started seeing this guy, we’ll call him Marty, for a couple of weeks, and he seemed to handle the herpes thing pretty well. In fact, it didn’t bother him at all.  We were going to have sex, but I could tell he was uncomfortable. He started acting weird, and finally admitted that he was afraid of contracting HSV2 through my blood. If he couldn’t handle it, that’s fine, but I can’t handle being around someone who can’t handle it, so I told him goodbye. 
Yes, I faced the cold sting of rejection, as certain men decided I wasn’t worth their time, which is fine, because ultimately, those type of people aren’t worth my time either. I’m honestly a very fit, sexy, funny, intelligent, kind, successful 25-year old woman and anyone that can’t see past my herpes can go bury their head deeper in the sand where it belongs. 
 I came to some realizations:
1. I can’t break the stigma if I stigmatize myself.  As an HSV2-positive female, I have 3 choices: add to the shaming of herpes by putting myself down, hide from the shaming of herpes by keeping it a secret, or fight the shaming by telling people my story. In sex ed they show you gross, scary pictures of genital infections, but where was the part about those parts belonging to a human being whose identity is bigger than an STD? What about her likes and dislikes, her community of people she loves, and in return loves her? What about her career, what she does to pay her bills, her vices, her habits, her passions? 
We aren’t just looking at an STD, we are looking at part of a multi-faceted individual. 
I am an individual. I love coconut water and I hate Chili’s southwestern eggrolls. I like karaoke and game night, and I like sitting in the sun while I draw or read a book. I’m a waitress, a student, a transcriber, a musician, an artist, a lover, a sister, a friend. 
I am HSV2-positive, but it does not change my value. 
2. The bad reputation society has given herpes comes down to sex shaming. 
Though it is a popular Christian belief that sex should be saved for the sanctity of marriage, or used only for reproductive purposes, it is not a consequence or punishment of “promiscuity.”  Having herpes does not make one gross or undesirable. Any individual with one, none, or multiple partners, does not “deserve” to get an STD. Sex is a part of life, therefore, STD’s are a part of life, and it is nothing to snub or look down upon. 
3. STD-screening and Sex Education needs some serious reform, folks.
You are not a “dirty, used shoe that has been worn by the entire football team” if you’ve had sex. That was the video I was shown in my sex-ed class, and it made me feel like shit about myself for a long time. 
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Maybe instead of pushing for abstinence, we can be realistic and talk about safety and condoms and create an UNDERSTANDING of sex, rather than FEAR.
If you don’t have symptoms, get tested. If they refuse, get tested somewhere else. 
Don’t let your doctor be a dick-wad. I went to get a Valtrex refill the other week, and he told me, “If you got herpes at the beginning of the year, and you’re already sexually active again, maybe you should reconsider how much sex you’re having.” 
Maybe you should reconsider your right to comment on my sex life, mister. I reported him. Don’t let them say shit like that. It’s not okay.
But you know what is okay? Having herpes! 
I have herpes, and it’s actually pretty okay. 
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(me rn, typing this in the library) 
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Episode 2 - “Y'all. Vote me out fr cause I'm inactive as fronk” - Joshua (through Autumn)
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I hate flag-making challenges. I will not be helpful at all, and I hope that someone else can take the reigns and lead us to victory. I honestly feel safe going into a tribal council, but I do not want to test that theory.
Next morning
With Chips and Jules working on the crest designs, I feel confident that we will do well in the challenge. Maybe not the best, but definitely not the worst. I still have the same anxious feeling that my tribe is not active enough for my taste, but I will just have to live with it for now. Besides, at least this is not immunity because that we increase my anxiety by so much. But, I keep forgetting to search the idol hunt which is my bad, but it is just so hard and long that I do not really feel like searching all the time lol
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ART CHALLENGE <333 i love these challenges. Jess made my picture 110% better and its super cute. The note that she wrote with it is also hella cute and I love the whole HP aesthetics bc i never got to go to real hogwarts ;-; but i'm sure most of yall can related. The boys weren't too helpful but nick was better than jacob who is sick. Nick was way more active aka jacob said 3 sentences the entire challenge sooooo…. if we lose idk I might just save jacob anyways bc pregame relations.
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Won reward, but now we have to win immunity again. I really hope that this reward helps us continue to survive. I don't want to have to vote anyone out. We've been getting first, but I really just want to survive this challenge, its known to be hard.
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I think I have been stuck with the second most challenge inept tribe in the history of my ORG career. I literally said so many answers in my version of the story and Jules just fucked it up. And then they got the girl's name wrong. And then they started mixing up characters. I know I did well, but fuck these people. God. Now we need a tribe to get 0 which is very unlikely. I will just resign myself to tribal. I hope and pray that these people have some common sense and do not want to vote me out
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Listen. Listen. Listen. I dang knew this story was going to be Harry Potter based. I knew in my brain and in my heart that I shouldn’t have been the one to start that thing. What do I do? Start the dang thing. Oh well. We did alright. I would be shocked if we won tho but if we don’t I’ll be relieved. I def don’t feel confident enough but I really had a lot of fun with my tribe. I really miss this and really hope that my time isn’t cut short! I feel really good about my tribe mates sincerely. And that’s kind of scary! I would hate to see any of us to go and how it’s going to affect the bond we have if we vote someone out. In this moment with Max sitting out, it may be him who goes if we go to tribal. I hope that isn’t the case. I’ve got my fingers crossed for us. Huff Puff strong!
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Honestly Jules dropped the ball sis!! But it’s okay, I love her. She’s really nice and I know she tried her best. Plus she’s in an alliance with me and Owen, so we should have the numbers against Joanna or Miguel if we go to tribal. Personally, I’d prefer Joanna to go. She’s kinda domineering, but she’s also an asset in challenges thus far. She is organized and direct. I’ve also talked to her a bit more than Miguel, so I guess I don’t really care who goes.
I’m happy I didn’t fuck up the reward comp and the shit that I drew got us a win!
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I really hope I don't bomb that challenge, I answered everything that Kevin talked to me about.... I think!  The rest of them tried very hard but I am SOOO glad that I asked to do my part at the end because my memory of repeating things is horrendous but I'm usually pretty good at bullshitting test answers... too bad I got some of the multiple choice stuff wrong.
I think that if we do lose I am still in a good spot on this tribe and hopefully I won't be in danger.  I feel like I'm on everyone's good side and Max kind of just disappeared so maybe we could just vote him out this round? Idk.
Hopefully we don't have to worry about it.  I smell a swap coming up pretty soon and I just hope I'm either with Owen or with some of the people from my tribe.  I have no idea if they know anyone or are close with anyone in the other houses.
I'm still feeling the closest to Lily and Kevin but I have been talking to Landen a good bit too these days so hopefully we'll be safe or we can all just agree on Max.
16 minutes later
OOOOOH IS LANDEN PAVING THE WAY FOR A MOVE TO SEND MAX PACKING???
He just told me that me, lily and kevin are precious angels that must be protected and that he likes Max when he's around too so that sounds like something... HMMM...
I can't get cocky, I always go home when I get cocky. But I like this.
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my host chat saw this first (shout-out to Drewie and Dennis): Y’all I’m an idiot. I thought I only knew 2 people in this game (Owen and chips). Then I remembered I also know Jess, Autumn, and dan. Literally love and respect each of you my brain just don’t got the strongest memory no more. I’m so sorry!!!! I literally just told landen I only know 2 ppl. I’m just gonna try to not remember it happened.
Ugh.....I need to get it together.
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I love my tribe talking to each other now that we have to!! Everyday I'm like damn either I'm on the bottom or I'm not the only one with piss poor social game. Ok so... the moment the hosts said we got 1 point, I started getting ready for tribal lmaaaooo. No sense crying over it either because all the tribes basically just had to show up in order to beat that
Like how could we not go to tribal with a score of ONE? That shit's embarrassing hahaha. That's like when your teacher passes the test back to everyone sitting around you but not you so you KNOW it's bad. But you know what? It's all good cause I'd rather us take the L now and get it out the way and we can all laugh about it cause losing won't be funny after long. The real question is: will Gryffindor do this the easy way or the hard way caaauusse we all know who the weakest link is. I just wanna see if someone puts two and two together without my prodding. Chips already said we voting together right and I'm like yes sir. There's no better place than being on the same page
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WE WON OMG!! Jules basically gave me nothing, which is fine, i understand, but i'm so impressed that we pulled that off. Absolutely killing these reward challenges really helps!
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"Y'all. Vote me out fr cause I'm inactive as fronk."
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Tonight we learned Joshua is a feminist selfless man that I stan because he's volunteering to go home without me having to put his name out, which I was going to do. Like imagine if every guy had that kind of self-awareness, to recognize why he should be the vote and then embrace it instead of wreaking havoc. And wanting to see others succeed more than yourself? King shit! He knew when to hang it up and did just that. Like the number of times I've seen a vote get complicated for no fucking reason because everyone wants a fight to the death. Enough- I'm old, tired, and cannot exert too much energy at once. We got a long game ahead of us, not to mention quarantine. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you Joshua. We need more players like you and I appreciate your service
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im back back BACK AGAIN with another confessional! not much has changed but a few updates for the sake of these being required :) 1. max has become even more inactive, he's not reached out to me personally since the first day and any time i messaged him after that he's sent me nothing back that i can build a convo off of, so we just have stopped speaking. Luckily this challenge only required four people and everyone else SHOWED UP!! or at least spoke about their availability, while he did not. However in his defense he said he was having some issues at home and i feel for him but his inability to connect has been an issue before he spoke about anything in our tribe chat with us. I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt but this point my relationships with the other 3 are leaps and bounds ahead of where I am at with Max. Maybe he can pick up some speed if we continue winning challenges but, it's not looking too hot. SPEAKING OF CHALLENGES, well first we lost reward AGAIN, but we won immunity.. AGAIN! thank goodness for not being first or second boot, i always love being able to avoid these early tribals and if i can get to a swap without seeing one that would be ideal, but also if we do go and maybe vote out max? wouldn't be the worst thing. Moral of the story we won and thats exciting! however.. if we didn't.. the first big push of strategic talk came up with landen when he hinted at being frustrated with max's lack of presence which I also share. I do believe if we lost me and landen could have most definitely picked up ruthie and lily to form a four against him, if he even came to tribal. That would be my ideal situation and if we continue on this tribes hopefully it gives me a nice cushion to fall on if we do lose so i dont have to entirely blow up my social game within the first few rounds by voting out someone i've built a connection with. If max can go and the remaining four hufflepuffs can make a swap I would feel good about that, and maybe in the right circumstances we could work together on the swapped tribes because i genuinely like all of these people (yes max too but in this specific scenario he wouldn't be included bc... well..) anyways to close this off i still absolutely ADORE lily, she is fun and our conversations are really good, and same goes for ruthie, hopefully i dont have to see either of them or myself go home before we can really start playing because i think we could do some damage. :) ok anyways this was longer than i thought it would be goodbye
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I'm still not over the fact that I was able to answer 7 of those questions right. I have the memory of a plastic fork.  I also love that we are SAFE!
I do kind of hope things get spicy and we swap this round and become two tribes of 9. That'd be cute. I don't want VI to get bored and crack on me. BUT ALSO I think I have solid enough relationships with almost everyone on this tribe... so who knows?!
Also... these hoes really out here trying to search for an idol in PUBLIC. IN PUBLIC. WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON HERE?
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Dear diary, seems like we keep winning challenges, which is great but tbh i feel like every time i give a disadvantage to my team because english is not my first Language, and so far its been a vocabulary test and a listening and speaking test. I mean I knew I signed up for school but damn. Give me some macarena  or drinking tequila challenge and I'll crush it
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bippity boppity boo im back again with almost no content kdfasjhdskjfh
Ravenclaw working smarter and we keep winning, period!!! Thankful that y'all put Dan and I together....bc truly we will be unstoppable in these competitions. I kind of want to lose soon though to see how things would shake out, but I don't really have bad blood with anyone. Joanna seems passionate enough in the tribe chat and the challenges, even if she's dry in PMs. Miguel still won't give me anything other than a "how are you," but I hope the best for him in life lol
Still love Jules and Dan, and we made a three person alliance, but I haven't talked with either of them much one on one since it happened.... I really need to step the social game up eventually, but right now, I'm coasting, and maybe that's what I need before I find the time and resources in this game to strike!!
The idol hunt is hard but Dan seems onto something. Honestly he's gonna be a big threat sooner or later so he's sticking around as long as I can keep him! The last two games I've been in I've seen "goats" get dragged to the end and locked in final 3 positions, and then these perceived goats have ended up winning. so I want the big players in this game to rise to the top and fight it out in the end!
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let’s say i am como we dice.. fed up with a lot :flushed: a lot meaning joshua starting to get on my nerves a bit! he’s genuinely sweet n all but.. the way he complained about us losing by putting down others work HHH pissed me off. which is why i will be voting him out hehe.. but so far my misting has worked because no one wants to vote me out! mwah
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Slytherin killed the memory challenge. We thought we were all gonna flop bc all of us thought we sucked at memory stuff. um well we knocked it out of the park? Ravenclaw got 4 and huff/gryff got 1. We got 7 so oops. I do hope things turn out well for Gryffindor but no one I really know/care about is in that house so I'm not too worried. I hope they continue to lose or even hufflepuff since ravenclaw has 2 of my friends in it.
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I have been TERRIBLE with confessionals but only because there's really not been much going on? I have an alliance with Dan and Owen, and even though I wrote off Joanna I was DEFINITELY wrong in doing that. Miguel is sort of the outlier. Our team is kinda iconic though? We've done so well on all the challenges. I might be the weakest link? More to come.
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it's pretty sad but the whole tribe has agreed to vote max if we lose, basically he's just never around because of what's going on at home and like thats sad but... we gotta do what we gotta do *shrug*. I'm really feeling good about Hufflepuff moving forward, i've never bonded this much this easily with EVERYONE on a tribe and i just feel like if we keep winning or even if we lose and have to vote out max, we could be a great group for the future. especially i feel great about working with kevin, we dominated eve's game after eve came between us in 2020 that dastardly witch... :P (juuust kiddin. love ya!) but now we could totally do well in this game too i think.....
lily and ruthie are just so sweet and we really bond talking about pretty much anything,, especially lily is a great conversationalist and i just find it so natural to talk to them both. i'd love to work with any combination of people from hufflepuff in the future, hopefully i start sucking a little less at all these challenges. i think i did pretty great on memory :D
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So here is the summary of what has happened since last time
We had a reward challenge that was drawing. Mine sucked. Apparently 3/4 so no reward.
We played Telephone. My team didnt realize that details are the most important parts of that and didnt share then with Autumn so Autumn didnt share them with me. Then I didnt know them when asked about them.
We scored 1 point and lost. Since I still have no alliance I'm scared that it could be me. So I kind of got an idea how everyone was feeling.
Juls let me know she wanted to vote Joshua and- it's not me so that's fine!
Then I was talking to Autumn about it and - OOP! Josh asked to be voted out. So unless he plays an idol I'm supposing he is leaving after asking to go.
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woo my tribe won immunity!! we are safe! i’m glad bc i’m forming good relationships with ppl on my tribe. i think we all get along rly well so i hope we keep winning. the challenge was fun and i slayed bc i’m skinny mwah
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Ya know what’s refreshing? Being on a tribe that actually wins!!! The last three games I’ve played I’ve been on flop ass starting tribes.
Now we’ll lose every challenge
10 minutes later
This sickening bitch just found a hidden immunity idol!!!! Good until f6 L A D I E S!!!!!!
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HI BARBS SO I WAS GROUNDED SO I MISSED THE CHALLENGE BUT MY HUFFLEPUFF BABS SLAYED SM SO IM LIVING
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CONFESSIONAL 2.1 —
Not much strategy has happened this episode, just simply tribal bonding! We are SlytherWINNING, getting reward and immunity this time! How wonderful.
Regarding my tribe mates, I love all three. I pray, pray, pray we make swap, i do Noh want to be a dirty bad guy and have to vote one out.. yet. Haha.
I was drunk during immunity, one full glass of rum & coke, so I am shocked that we won immunity. Honestly, I feel silly admitting I was drunk to my tribe because... if I can do that when drunk, imagine if I was sober. Competition Beast, duh.
I also gave up my run this round for the tribe to use. Was partially social, partially I just do not understand how to do the Hunt, so I might as well help the greater good. Either way, it comes off positively.
Hoping for a smooth journey for a little longer!
x nick
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Joshue has basically quit at this point so I have no fear going into tribal
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idealisticrealism · 6 years
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Blindspot 3x05 recap
Aka the one where all my sons are idiots and all my daughters are precious angels who deserve all the hugs.
Late again, because when am I not? Again, I blame the travelling.
So I’m kinda intrigued by this pair; the bleeding, accented woman and the young guy with an American accent in what seems to be a  super-dingy bathroom? What is going on here??
Patterson has been doing some fancy analysing of the adoption records and yeppp, Jane definitely had a kid. And ugh Patterson is so sweet and gentle about it and has done so much research so she could give Jane ALL the info and Jane is just Not Dealing. But hmmm Patterson tells her there’s no way to test if she’s had a child and lbr that’s not exactly true? A good ObGyn could generally tell just by looking at the cervix. Not a perfect measure, but it’s definitely an option. But anyhow Jane is too busy flipping out anyway, and ugh she mentions the Taylor Shaw thing and already having everything ripped away from her multiple times and man my heart just hurts for her rn. And Weller’s so at a loss for what to do or how to comfort her ugh my poor babies
Lol Reade and Zapata and their little Wizardville rivalry is super cute. And then she’s completely open with him and asks him directly about the State Department Guy thing and wow Reade just harshly shuts her down. I’m glad Patterson interrupts this little moment because it was definitely going nowhere good. But speaking of things that ARE good,  omg I love her pun about the ‘backbone’ of the case and Weller being all killjoy about it haha. That’s right, honey, just ignore him. Your humour is too good for him anyway. And so anyhow the tatt leads to a NYPD evidence log number, though Zapata notes that the code is different to what the NYPD uses now, and Reade gets super snarky at her for it. Geez son, learn some manners! Patterson backs Zapata up tho (yaaassss my girls), showing that the code is like 20 years old. Jeller go to check out the warehouse it points to while Zapata is given paperwork by Reade (wow, petty), though tbh Zapata ends up with the better deal since Jeller have to fight some bad guys and literally put out a fire. Ugh the way Jane yells for him as she tries to fight the fire alone-- it’s only when its the two of them together that they manage to extinguish it. Symbolism, much? Patterson calls right at that moment to warn them to get out, and it’s a little late, but well, it’s the thought that counts haha. Other warehouses have been burned, which means someone is trying super hard to destroy evidence but doesn’t know where it is. Jane, because she’s amazing, finds the box they nee-- and in it is a whole bunch of untested rape kits going back 20 years. I love the conversation the guys have about the low priority assigned to sexual assault testing-- it’s some good commentary from the writers about the state of the real world. 
Meanwhile, Stuart’s phone has been found in the river, and both Patterson and Zapata are very suspicious of the way Reade basically tells her to leave it alone. Looking super suss rn, bro, and I do not like it at allll.
However, I really DO like listening to Jane speak in other languages. So damn cool. And as someone who is currently staying in a foreign country and communicating solely in the local tongue, I have a renewed respect for her fluency lol.  Their Russian suspect conveniently elects to speak English though haha. How handy. He’s a bit of a tough guy but through a sneaky move on Jeller’s part, he gives them the info they need-- how he got paid, which gives them a lead on the people hiring him. Patterson also drops another pun, which is three so far this ep and I’m so proud. She also figures out that the the victim was likely linked to Kazarus, which as far as I’m aware is a fake place though tbh my geography is not super great. But anyhow, that narrows their search to two sexual assault survivors. 
And then aww Patterson pulls Weller aside and tries to support him about the whole surprise-kid thing, and ugh she’s just so sweet and wants to help both him and Jane as best she can. But he’s upset bc he knows he can’t fix this; no one can. I guess it all just takes time, right? Meanwhile Jane’s in the locker room, getting a call from Roman, and dude he really knew the whole time??  And ugh if she was sixteen when she had the baby (to her high school sweetheart aww) then he was probably about 14 at the time, just a kid himself who had suddenly become an uncle, and man I’m so sad for them both?? But lol she gets to the bullpen and covers the phone while practically yelling for them to trace the call. Not super subtle, Jane. And he tells her she initially fought Shepherd on giving the baby away and then she just ran away? I’m confused.  I guess we now understand a bit more about why Remi joined the army though I guess. Not sure how she ever went back to working for Shepherd, though, but maybe she saw the memory wipe as a way out? And Beardy was meant to fill her in on everything including the kid.  Idk. Jane’s now having a small breakdown in the locker room and decides she has to go see Shepherd, but Weller’s right when he says that Shepherd would just mess with her head. Don’t give her the satisfaction, Jane! And oh look, a mention of Bethany, haven’t had one of those in a while. And tbh that’s the way I like it, show, so keep ignoring her existence please haha.
In the lab, Patterson admits defeat about Stuart’s phone-- it’s as dead as he is. (Too soon??) But Zapata didn’t spend all that time at the CIA without gaining a few skills in the realms of deception and deviousness, and so they hatch a plan to bluff and lure out the possible mole. And then a lab tech in a headscarf calls them to see something, and the panning shot of the lab also shows another tech in a turban. Firstly, I approve of some diversity happening here, and secondly, I hope that this casting choice was deliberate so there would be people that looked at those characters and went “the traitor has to be one of them” so that when it’s shown that the traitor is someone else, the people watching have to examine just why it was that they thought either of these two background characters were guilty. (Hint: it’s racism!). Anyhow, the rape kit in question has been tested, and it turns out the rapist is the king of Kazarus. Or, the former king, since he died and his brother has assumed the throne. The only spanner in the works being that the rape resulted in a child, who, as per the Kazarussian monarchy, is the rightful heir to the throne. Which naturally means that Scar’s gotta have him taken out. Now we know who we saw at the start of the ep-- the kid and his mother, who was clearly attacked by the assassins but escaped. Now it’s a race for the team to find them before the Kazarussians do. 
And then who appears but Weitz, who is now a congressman, and conveniently an expert on Kazarus. I love that everyone looks at Hirst and she’s all “Don’t look at me, Darlins” and how is someone using ‘darling’ in plural like that so damn endearing??? The accent is what truly makes it though, obviously. But nope, it was Reade who called him, which is just another in the list of things Reade has done lately that we do not like. Weitz manages to make everyone hate him even more within mere seconds of showing up, and tbh I love to hate him. His antagonism towards Zapata is hilarious.  I like that even Hirst gives him some shit lol. Atta girl. Anyhow Weitz informs them that the ex-king’s brother Cyrus is a Bad Dude and there’s a bunch of american soldiers in Kazarus that are now at risk, and yep the stakes have just been raised
Reade gets called into the principal’s office to discuss his little spat with Zapata. How exactly does Hirst know about that, though? Though I guess if she’s paid attention to any of their interactions today then she probably could have figured it out. I’m offended that he calls Zapata a busybody?? But then he does at least say that she’s nothing to worry about and that she’s a friend. What do you two have to hide though??? Meanwhile in the lab, Patterson has found the kid by examining the curtains in a video that the kid sent to his gf. That’s my lil genius. Of course it’s super convenient that this type of curtain is only made for a specific motel chain, but whatevs, I’ll let it slide as I do with many things in this show haha. I love Zapata teasing Weitz though, suggesting that it was all too smart for him and went over his head haha
Jane’s clearly taking this case pretty personally-- and tbh it does seem veeeeeeeery convenient that there’s a case that resonates so closely with her current situation, until you remember that this time around, all the tattoos are specifically designed by Roman to be revealed in a certain order, so it makes total sense that the case matches stuff going on in their personal lives. More sense than when it happened in the last two seasons, so touche, writers. You win this round. Anyway they get to the hotel, and the kid immediately pulls a gun on them. His mom’s not looking too good though, kinda bleeding out a little on the bed, and ugh Jane does her frightened-animal whisperer thing and convinces the kid to let her help his mom. Naturally he chooses to trust her bc lbr wouldn’t you?? They get his mom to the hospital where she’s super well guarded, and he tells them about only learning at 18 about his mother’s attack. And he only learned yesterday about the whole king thing, and tells them he’ll never go to Kazarus. You just know that Jane is thinking about her baby and how the kid probably wouldn’t want to know her as they must think she abandoned them, and ugh it hurts. Why must you do this, show?
Back in the lab Patterson and Zapata have set their trap, and are waiting to see who falls into it-- only they don’t like the answer. According to her computer, Reade logged into the system to delete the files. Patterson is grim; she doesn’t like it, but she’s ready to believe it. When Zapata tries to insist that Reade wouldn’t do it, that he’s family, Patterson just reminds her: Borden was family too. And ugggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I do not like this at all. I am so done with leaks and moles and traitors and all of it ugh.  I do appreciate Weitz for making me smile here; Zapata is back at her desk and he throws a paper airplane at her, then feigns confusion, looking around for who could have done it. Tbh I actually do ship these two a little bit. All the bickering just does it for me lol. She gives him shit about probably not going to be re-elected, but he says he’s doing great in the polls. She says polls have been wrong before-- and is that some political commentary I hear? Man who was the writer of this ep because they are not pulling punches today. Reade comes over and tries to mend bridges, which tbh tastes a little sour after he was such an asshole this morning... give him nothing, Zapata!
Looks like Yasmine is gonna live, which is nice. She and Jane bond a little over protecting kids etc while Weller and the kid go to get something from the vending machine--- and ugh when they’re coming back Wller notices their guard from the door is gone and pushes the kid behind him. I love protective Weller. I also love Weller throwing an injured woman over his shoulder and carrying her to safety. Damn. He also proved pretty smart-- when they realised that the baddies were on their FBI comms, he bluffed and reported that they were headed for the roof while they escaped out the front door instead. Nice. Though why do I feel like that escape was too easy?
Patterson has figured out that it’s not Reade that’s tampering with their evidence, but someone else using his login. She confesses to Zapata about the backdoor that Wizardville gives her into people’s phones, and says she’s never used it before, which isn’t true though right?? Didn’t she use it on that Lowie guy’s lawyer a few eps ago? Anyway Zapata doesn’t care about the illegal biz, she just wants to hear her best(?) friend’s name cleared.  Turns out he wasn’t even in the building when someone used an FBI computer to access their files, so that’s at least looking good for him, even if it is bad for them as a whole
Weller reports in, and the team tracks their phones and immediately sends backup-- but too late, considering that the baddies have laid out a trap for them. Was this why it was so easy for them to get away?? Jeller manage to take out several bad dudes on their own, but not before one of them manages to molotov-cocktail their car, which blows up moments later. Dude that’s one potent cocktail… but ugh they all make it to safety, with Weller again literally carrying Yasmine, and ugh the mother and son hug and the husband and wife hug and it’s just a very poignant moment okay?? Also there’s just something really beautiful about the way Jane hugs, I can’t even really describe it. Anyhow they all make it back to the NYO, where the rest of the team (plus Weitz, in his own way) are super glad to see them alive. After a minute Zapata and Patterson sneak off, because Patterson needs to tell her the news-- the person using Reade’s login was Hirst. She’s sure because of biometric software that she runs on all of their computers, and again, man I’m super glad that these powers are in the hands of someone trustworthy like Patterson haha. But ugh this means my honey-accented cool aunt is a baddie?? She even knew that Lowie guy from a few eps ago. Well, bummer. Still holding out for the possibility that there’s more to it, but things aren’t looking great...
Oh dear, King Cyrus was murdered, and the Kazarussians are demanding their heir. Which really sucks for the kid, and Jane and Weller try to protect him, but he’s determined to go and to make things better for his fellow Kazarussians. And lbr, to have to go become king is not the worst thing??  
Wow Patterson and Zapata actually went to Reade to warn him about Hirst. I don’t know why that surprises me, but it does. I would have done some more surveillance or something first? But anyway he is really not taking it well, and kinda attacks both of them a bit over it. And wait he’s known Hirst since he was in Quantico??? That’s news to me.  And not good news, either. Please don’t be dirty, Reade. Please…
Jeller are recovering at home after a pretty damn rough day. Jane has changed her mind about finding her daughter-- she wants her just to have a happy, stable life, and that willl be far easier if she never knows Jane exists. And he just hugs her bc what can you do to make that pain better? Nothing, that’s what. She’s going to mourn her connection with her daughter for the rest of her life and ugh it just really sucks
Oh no a time jump, nothing good ever follows a time jump. And oh shit it’s Berlin. Weller’s having no luck with a rude hotel employee, which I find super unbelievable because a) he’s front desk staff at a fancy hotel, b) the person asking him for help is a man clearly traumatised about his missing wife, and c) he’s German. Him being rude makes no sense. But it does give this girl a cool opening to come help Weller out, and man I am jealous of her German speaking skills. Like I said earlier, it’s not easy!! But wait, there’s more. The girl is not only American, but she’s looking for Jane. Her mother, Jane. And oh Weller, you stupid, stupid boy. You foolish, well-meaning idiot. I am sure that your reasons for not telling Jane about this are all purely to protect her (although I also suspect you’re trying to protect yourself from her leaving you again) but dude. DUDE. This is not the kind of secret you should ever keep, and honestly if Jane leaves your ass when she finds out the truth I’m gonna be on her side of the split. Ugh, my stupid son when will you ever LEARN
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