#it would have been better to introduce the Dakotas | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

canonically47 · 2 months

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canonically47.tumblr.com/post/742593997706559488

this one

okay well total drama has a LOT of obvious mistakes and most of them come from the time in which it was written and published and the rushed season of only 13 instead of 26 episodes starting with ROTI

i also feel like they treat their characters and ships very badly, making them go right back where they started if they ever get any growth, which rarely happens. or their development is too sudden and not believable. priya, max, scarlett, that mini-arc shasmine had about splitting the money, aleheather in TDWT, prileb in TD 2024...

i rewatched ROTI and the girls were mistreated horribly. what can you expect from a season where the finalists are two guys? dakota’s internal issues were never discussed further than a funny haha moment when dawn read her aura, dawn never got to do anything for her team and her elimination was rushed, jo’s internalized mysoginy was a haha joke and never adressed properly, zoey had a whole villain-and-back-to-hero arc and STILL didn’t make finale???

also i hate when they introduce some groups and never further develop them, or develop them very little. lindsay, beth and ezekiel could’ve been an ICONIC trio. i miss leshawna and gwen’s friendship so much, and same goes for bowie and emma. jo and brick had so much potential to become allies or at least frenemies, amy and sammy were not handled well, THE E-SCOPE TRIO!!! i’m in shambles

so if i wrote TDI i’d just give the characters some proper development, more moments to shine, more fun relationships with the others. this show is based on its characters, they’re the stars!! so why not make them shine instead of burn??

gen 1 is too much work to rewrite but i’d keep TDI about the same except have a leshawna vs gwen finale, with leshawna as a ‘canon’ winner. TDA would have a harold vs lindsay finale with harold as the ‘official’ winner.

in TDWT i’d cut the duncney-gwuncan arc, make duncan never come back cuz fuck that guy, gwourtney wins. sierra gets better development. noah makes merge and fulfills his schemer role, constantly sabotaging alejandro. they become frenemies. aleheather still wins and goes to finale. alejandro doesn’t get the robot costume and we don’t hear from him again until TDAS.

for ROTI, would make jo a proper antagonist and make her butt heads with scott when the merge happened. my final six for ROTI would be scott, jo, zoey, brick, lightning and anne maria. yes, brick and anne maria, you read that right.

i still think scott shouldn’t make finale, and jo only if she got development. so maybe the merge could happen just two episodes earlier to get more stuff out of them, so the merge would include cameron and mike. scott would go before jo, and jo would be left to fend for herself after scott got cameron eliminated. this is where i would make her develop a friendship with anne maria and brick. get zoey in there and you have the anti-scott alliance. they get him out (NO TRAUMA CHAIR NEEDED, HE WILL BE FINE) and then lightning, then the girls unite against brick. sorry man.

the finale would be between two of the girls, i’d like to see jomaria or joey fight, jo needs that development. the one who gets out previously is an insta-elimination and not decided by the others.

and voilá! jo gets development and some healthy friendships! her and brick could also get together but maybe in another season. this season is for her alone to shine, she deserves it.

oh, and that’s the main thing about ROTI - i’d give them two more seasons. they deserve a WT-esque season.

i’d completely rewrite TDPI. make rodney first diss when the girls are disgusted by him (and also shit him cuz fuck him), dave an earlier boot, get beardo like third or fourth cuz i wanna see more of him, give scarlett a proper character arc instead of a rushed one throughout just one episode, make max a bit smarter and let him become a ‘hero’ rather than a villain he wants to be by rescuing everyone from scarlett since he knows her weaknesses best...

my ideal final five are shawn, jasmine, max, topher and ella. also my five favorites so no wonder. i’ll explain their arcs.

topher - 5th: shawn and jasmine, as well as max and ella, become duos after the scarlett incident (maybe it happens earlier?), and topher is outside of any alliance. plus he was getting kinda annoying, not to mention he gave chris too many ideas for challenges. damn it, topher!

ella - 4th: when she is forbidden from singing, she still goes behind chris’ back and does it, only that she intercepts sugar’s note and burns it. sugar is an earlier boot than originally because ella realizes she just hates her guts and she’s trying to befriend her for nothing. when ella stops singing, she puts her head in the game more than usual, but her refusal to hurt animals and serenade them instead gets her out eventually, by chris, not by the others.

max - 3rd: with no alliance and a softer spot than usual, he gets out at his own, last challenge.

finale: shawn vs jasmine

the same conflict about splitting the money, only that it comes earlier and is developed more. for one, chris shows jasmine the confessionals right after max’s voting ceremony.

shawn’s helper ends up being ella, but she’s been watching from playa des losers and is unhappy with how shawn treated jasmine. meanwhile, max is jasmine’s helper. max and jasmine sabotage shawn, ella doesn’t help him, but then when max and ella are given the controls for the island, they both realize the gravity of what they’ve done when they see shawn and jasmine buried in snow.

both jasmine and shawn get an ending. in both endings, jasmine gets out of the snow, doesn’t pay attention to the finish line, and goes to search for shawn, who pops out in confusion. the two have a heart-to-heart interrupted by chris to announce the race is still happening, and they have ten seconds left. in shawn’s ending, jasmine just nods to him and he crosses; in jasmine’s ending, shawn insists she crosses. pretty similar endings, the outcome is about the same, but i like to think jasmine’s is the ‘canon’ one.

and then they get another season!

so, our seasons are...

gen 1 - 3 seasons: total drama island, total drama action, total drama world tour

gen 2 - 3 seasons: total drama revenge of the island, total drama retour, total drama cruise or lose

gen 3 - 2 seasons: total drama pahkitew island, total drama reaction

gen 1 x gen 2 x gen 3: total drama all stars

TDAS would include eight contestants of each generation. gen 1 gets heather, alejandro, owen, noah, gwen, courtney, sierra, and leshawna. gen 2 gets jo, anne maria, zoey, mike, brick, cameron, lightning and scott. gen 3 gets shawn, jasmine, topher, max, ella, sugar, sammy and scarlett.

and then for the reboot i’d just make bowie win for the first season. the second season would have more development.

emma and bowie become friends again. mkulia become reluctant allies but still dislike each other. eventually they warm up to each other tho 👀. ripaxel also happens over the course of more episodes. couples butt heads - mkulia, rajbow and ripaxel - but mkulia dominate the game. short ripaxel-mkulia alliance in which they get out prileb (who have a better development trust), wayne and bowie.

damien gets to keep his immunity idol but doesn’t need to use it until the final five: axel, julia, mk, damien and raj. the girls unite against him, but he and raj voted for julia, so you can imagine mk is unhappy, but damien wins immunity. yikes.

so finale time is damien, raj and axel. everyone gets an ending, but damien is the ‘canon’ winner because HE DESERVED IT COME ON.

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mariacallous · 1 year

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The drumbeat against TikTok grows louder by the day. More than a dozen U.S. states including Georgia, Texas, Maryland, Virginia, and both Dakotas have already banned the popular social media app—best known for short videos and viral dances—from being used on state government devices. A similar ban for federal government devices is part of the omnibus spending bill that passed Congress on Friday, and bipartisan legislation introduced earlier this month calls for TikTok to be banned in the United States completely.

Further warnings about the app have come from Brendan Carr, a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission, and several members of the intelligence community, including the directors of the FBI and CIA.

The debate centers on TikTok’s ownership by Chinese tech giant ByteDance and the degree to which the government in Beijing has access to and influence over the data it collects on its users. Critics of TikTok argue that the app could be used to spy on Americans, influence public opinion, and expose them to Chinese propaganda.

TikTok’s algorithm, which serves its users videos better suited to their interests and has driven the app’s popularity, collects data on users’ likes and dislikes based on viewing patterns. It also has data on the devices being used to view its videos, with recent research showing it can potentially access details such as location, contacts, and calendars. While some of the data TikTok collects is no different from other platforms that rely on ad tracking, such as Google and Facebook, TikTok’s ownership heightens the risk that China’s authoritarian government could compel it to share data with Beijing on users from other countries. (TikTok, for its part, has said it does not share data with the Chinese government and would not do so if asked.)

In any event, targets abound: An estimated 100 million Americans, particularly younger Americans, use the app, with a survey earlier this year by Pew Research placing it second in popularity to YouTube among U.S. teenagers, ahead of Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook.

The concerns aren’t new. Then-President Donald Trump went after TikTok aggressively on similar national security grounds, nearly forcing a ban from U.S. app stores before he lost his reelection bid in 2020 to President Joe Biden. After Biden took office, he dropped the ban in favor of continuing a national security review of TikTok’s technology by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which is yet to conclude.

“We have been working with CFIUS, led by the Treasury Department, for over two years to address all reasonable national security concerns about TikTok in the U.S.,” TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said in a statement to Foreign Policy, adding that CFIUS is reviewing a “comprehensive solution” that covers data security, corporate governance, and content moderation. “We have made substantial progress on implementing that solution over the past year, and look forward to completing that work to put these concerns to rest,” she said.

In the meantime, TikTok has only grown in influence and popularity. Several companies, celebrities, news outlets, and even politicians (including Biden himself) have used its enormous influence among younger Americans to increase the reach of their messaging.

“I think the Biden administration’s worried. … There’s just too many users,” said Nazak Nikakhtar, who served as the Department of Commerce’s lead on CFIUS in the Trump administration and was involved in its efforts to ban the app. “The teenagers are going to pretty much revolt” if it’s banned across the board, she said.

But after a prolonged lull, the conversation around TikTok has collided with a growing bipartisan hawkishness on China—particularly around technology—and the pressure to do something is increasingly difficult to withstand. The legislation could not only end up banning one of the world’s biggest tech platforms in one of its most lucrative markets but also deepen a rapidly growing schism between Washington and Beijing on technology. The fact that TikTok’s U.S. user base accounts for roughly one-third of the population would make an outright ban something of a political tightrope. As past U.S. moves against Chinese technology such as 5G and semiconductors have shown, the effect on TikTok’s business, if allies decided to follow suit, could be immense. TikTok has more than a billion users worldwide.

TikTok hasn’t done much to help its cause. While the company has made efforts to shore up its protection of U.S. user data, including a commitment to route all the data through servers run by U.S. tech firm Oracle, it has also admitted that the data can be accessed by employees in China. A bigger breach came to light this week, when ByteDance revealed it had fired four employees—two each in the United States and China—for using TikTok data to surveil journalists who were covering the company.

“The misconduct of certain individuals, who are no longer employed at ByteDance, was an egregious misuse of their authority to obtain access to user data,” Oberwetter said. “This misbehavior is unacceptable, and not in line with our efforts across TikTok to earn the trust of our users.”

TikTok’s sympathizers in Washington, however, are dwindling in number.

“This has been brought on by TikTok, not by the U.S. government,” said Junaid Islam, a cybersecurity and secure communications expert and partner at security advisory firm OODA. While TikTok insists that it is not beholden to the Chinese government, the fact that the company has still not made more of an effort to completely wall off its data from China raises the question of its “ulterior motives,” Islam said.

There are other experts, however, who say the campaign against TikTok is motivated more by political considerations than security ones, arguing that the social media app is no different than U.S. counterparts such as Facebook or Snapchat in simply trying to make money through advertising.

“I think what people don’t seem to understand is that TikTok is not an organ of the Communist Party, and it is a fallacy to continually repeat the fact that any Chinese company is, in fact, indistinguishable from the state and has no purpose other than to advance the political and military objectives of the Chinese government when it’s obviously a commercial company,” said Milton Mueller, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Public Policy. “It’s interested in selling advertising and needs to be looked at in that way.”

Mueller advocates a more measured approach, such as using existing U.S. privacy laws and ensuring TikTok is in compliance with them. “It is a personal privacy issue, not a national security issue,” he said. TikTok has employed a similar approach in its criticism of the calls for a ban.

“We’re disappointed that Congress has moved to ban TikTok on government devices—a political gesture that will do nothing to advance national security interests—rather than encouraging the administration to conclude its national security review,” Oberwetter said, also criticizing the state governments that have individually banned TikTok as “jumping on the political bandwagon … based on unfounded falsehoods.”

With more China hawks circling by the day, however, it remains to be seen how long the Biden administration can slow-walk its response—and whether the platform’s days in the United States are genuinely numbered.

“I don’t know why it hasn’t happened yet,” Islam said, referring to the security agreement between TikTok and the U.S. government. “But too much time has passed.”

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ladylilithprime · 1 year

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A Fence Ain't A Comfortable Seat

Series: Fluff Is My Jamstiel

Fandom: Supernatural:

Pairing: background Sastimmy/Jamstiel (Jimmy Novak/Sam Winchester/Castiel)

Rating: Teen and Up

Tags/Warnings: Witch Sam Winchester, Hunter Novak Brothers, Jimmy and Castiel Are Twins, Brief Allusions to Canon-Typical Violence, Bobby Singer Understands Shades Of Gray, Found Family Reunions, More Hurt/Comfort Than Fluff

Summary: When Bobby Singer got the call that one of his adopted sons had been shot, he couldn't have guessed that flying out to Palo Alto, California, would also put him back in contact with another pair of brothers he wished he could have adopted before their father got them killed.

For: @fluffyfebruary challenge!

Prompt: Day 12: Shell

Read on AO3

THE HUNTER NETWORK in the United States was something of a joke, in that there was no actual official network. The closest folks got was the connections they made with the hunter who taught them or saved them, the hunters they crossed paths with working the same case, or the ones to whom they were introduced by either of the first two. Some of that had changed when John Castiel and James Constantine Novak had stumbled upon an old bunker guarded by a dryad that used to belong to a mostly defunct secret society of supernatural researchers and had promptly turned the location and "keys" over to one of their own hunter contacts, Robert Singer. Bobby had taken one look at the place and promptly relocated his operations from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to the more centrally-located Lebanon, Kansas, and resumed coordinating hunters and alibis from there where he had access to massive amounts of research and records from the Men of Letters to add to his own books and, once the mess of a library had been properly organized and cataloged, used to assist other hunters who called him for help.

So Bobby wasn't too surprised to get a call on one of his phone lines from an unfamiliar number, expecting to find some young newbie on the other end when he answered with a brusque, "Singer."

"Jimmy Novak has been shot."

Bobby's knuckles went white gripping the phone. The voice on the other end was deep, stern, and in no way sounded inexperienced or unsure. "Who--"

"He's alive and in surgery. His brother Cas directed me to call you, said you would want to know that Roy Buckner shot Jimmy when he and his partner, Walter Leming, attacked and attempted to kill me for being a natural witch. Jimmy--" The voice hitched, abruptly sounding much younger despite the deep timbre. "Jimmy got in between me and Buckner's shotgun. Cas knocked him and Leming out and restrained them before calling the ambulance while I attempted to stabilize Jimmy. My brother lives next door and heard the gunshot, so he rushed over and called the police when he found out what happened. Buckner and Leming are in lock-up as far as I know or care, but if Jimmy dies then my brother and I intend to press murder charges."

"If Jimmy dies, those idjits won't live long enough to be charged, I'll string 'em up myself!" Bobby growled. "What the hell did they think they were doing, charging in like half-cocked greenhorns and shooting at a natural witch who has other hunters vouching for'im?!"

"You'll have to ask them that," the man on the other end of the line sighed. "They aren't the first hunters to hear 'witch' and come out shooting without caring about the 'natural' part. Nice change of pace when Jimmy and Cas weren't like that."

"Taught 'em better than that," Bobby huffed, feeling something in his chest relax a little at the softness that entered the man's voice. "They're good boys... good hunters, too. World could use more people like 'em."

There was silence on the other end of the line for a long moment, and then the man said in a low voice, "I'll admit, I wouldn't have been completely willing to call you if Cas hadn't told me you practically raised him and Jimmy after their parents died. I knew you had been associated with John Winchester but not why you dropped contact, but if you managed to raise those two then you couldn't be that bad."

"I got my momented," Bobby admitted with a grimace. He'd been young and stupid once, which was how he ended up having so much knowledge to pass on to other idjits before they made the same mistakes. "I used to look after Winchester's boys now and again until the bastard got a stubborn hair up his ass about folks with natural powers like psychics. Seemed to be under the impression these things were contagious or something, didn't want his boys near anyone with a lick of psychic potential, like just having powers could pull a fella left of center until he wasn't human anymore, damned idjit." He sighed, closing his eyes and reaching up to rub the bridge of his nose. Thinking of Winchester while Jimmy was lying in some hospital with a hunter's shotgun round in him was messing with his head, enough that he ended up blurting out, "Keep wondering if I hadn't sent him running, maybe I could'a saved his boys before he killed 'em."

"He didn't, you know."

"He dragged 'em around hunting when they were just kids, made them live the hunting life with no alternative," Bobby huffed. "He as good as killed them, even if he didn't pull the trigger."

"I didn't say he didn't kill us for lack of trying," the man on the other end of the line said.

Bobby froze.

"John Winchester was the first hunter to try and shoot me through the head for being a witch," the man went on softly, every word ripping through the shell around Bobby's heart he'd tried to build when the rumors went around that John fucking Winchester had killed himself after killing his sons. "When I stopped the bullet from hitting me, Dean hit him and got me out and helped me hide so Dad couldn't find me. You'll have to ask him what happened after that until Dad was killed and he joined me out here, but Dean's alive too. I know he was always your favorite, Uncle Bobby...."

"Sammy," Bobby choked out. He swallowed. Coughed. Swallowed again. "I'll be on the next plane out. Where'm I flying?"

THE PLANE FROM Wichita, Kansas, to San Jose, California, took over six hours from take-off at nine the next morning, complete with a stopover in Denver to change planes and a delayed flight. It made him glad he'd foregone bringing any checked bags despite the lack of weapons that gave him as he shouldered his carryon and made his way past the baggage claim area and out of the terminal to the street, eyes scanning for anyone who looked like the man he'd been told would be waiting for him.

He spotted the sleek black 1967 Chevy Impala before he recognized the man standing against her. The resemblance to John was striking - military haircut and black leather jacket over jeans and a Led Zeppelin t-shirt - but the casual lean and relaxed shoulders were a far cry from the uptight, paranoid bastard Bobby had run off his property. Dean Winchester didn't look much like the too-thin boy with haunted eyes and a forced cocky smirk who stuck close to his little brother as much as possible anymore, either, at least until he looked up and Bobby caught sight of that same cocky smirk that looked much more at home on his adult face.

"Well, you sure haven't changed a bit," Dean greeted him as he approached. His eyes narrowed as Bobby drew close enough not to be shouting at and he added, "Christo."

"Got more gray hair under my cap than I used to," Bobby answered him, smirking a little at the sign of lingering hunter paranoia. "You, though! You went and grew up when I wasn't looking!" He reached Dean and, hoping the cover of the airport would grant him forgiveness for being a damn sappy idjit, pulled the young man into a tight hug. "Thank God you're alive, boy... when I heard the rumors about John...."

"Cas and Jimmy mentioned something about us being presumed dead by the greater hunting community," Dean hummed, giving Bobby's back a couple of firm pats. "Jim Murphy's known where we were, but we've kept our communications limited to our aliases since I got here. Safer for Sammy, for multiple reasons."

"How's he doing, really?" Bobby asked, filing that little tidbit away to pursue later.

He had meant Sam, but as Dean nudged him towards the passenger door of the Impala he said, "Out of surgery and stable. Sam and Cas are staying with him in the room because every time he's woken up he's tried to get up and find them if they weren't."

"Makes sense," Bobby sighed, settling himself into the Impala and giving her dashboard a surreptitious pat. "Can't separate Cas and Jimmy when one of them's ill or injured, and if Jimmy's diving in front of a shotgun blast for Sam he ain't gonna be satisfied just being told Sam's okay without seeing him. 'Specially if the hospital's got him on any opiate painkillers, messes with that 'twin link' those boys have and makes 'em both loopy."

"Most of the docs and nurses know Sammy, so they're deferring pain management to him and his potions. Cas insisted," Dean confided as he gunned the motor and pulled smoothly out into traffic to leave the airport. "Think he might be trying to prove to Sammy that he doesn't blame him for Jimmy getting shot."

"And the two dumbasses who shot him?" Bobby asked in a low voice.

"Still alive," Dean huffed. "Near thing, way Cas was when I got there. Almost didn't recognize 'em through the bruising and blood, and it ain't been that long since I worked with 'em. Not too sure I want 'em recognizing me, either, after this."

"Don't blame you one bit," Bobby sighed. "Not sure yet what all I'm gonna say to 'em when I see 'em 'sides calling them sixty different kinds of moron for this whole damn mess, starting with them going off half-cocked after a natural witch without a proper investigation!"

"That where I'm taking you first?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow when Bobby shot him an incredulous look. "Hugs aside, I haven't actually seen or heard from you since I was a kid and you ran us off shooting rock salt at our tail lights. I'm taking a lot on faith because Jimmy and Cas say you raised 'em, but I don't know what your priorities here are."

"Hospital first," Bobby said. "Wanna lay eyes on my boys and make sure they're really alive. And for the record, I was only ever running that stubborn ass John off my property before he could get some innocent kid with natural powers killed thinking everything with powers was infected by a demon. It wasn't ever meant to extend to you and Sam."

"Good to know," Dean murmured. He was silent for a moment, then snorted. "Probably just as well we weren't around when you took in Cas and Jimmy, though. Your house isn't that big!"

"Place I'm in now is big enough," Bobby shrugged. "Not much better for raising kids in, I'll grant ya, but a decent place to train hunters, once they get the word. It's actually thanks to Jimmy and Cas I live there now instead'a Sioux Falls."

"Oh yeah?" Dean glanced at him, taking the subject change like a champ. "How'd that happen?"

"Turns out," Bobby said with a grim little smile, "there's a lot more to the world of hunting and the supernatural than we could'a suspected, and part of that is this organization called the Men of Letters...."

#fluffyfebruary2023 #supernatural fic #sastimmy #bobby singer #sam winchester #dean winchester

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mangora · 2 years

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Noah, Scott and Ella

Noah:

•Kitty introduces him to visual novels. He’s never really been into them before and prefers fighting games, but I think some would grow on him, like Ace Attorney or Policenauts (he still thinks dating sims are stupid)

•He runs cold, which is why he’s dressed in so many layers. I also headcanon that he’s autistic and hyposensitive touch-wise. He likes the feeling of all the layers, it’s like a big hug all the time.

•He reads a lot and has a huge range of genres he likes. Nonfiction is a big one, but he also loves fantasy novels and satires/allegories. I feel like he has a soft spot for the Lord of the Rings series.

•He uses 3-in-1 shampoo. Hot take, I know, but I feel like he’d find things like extensive skincare or hair routines ridiculous and hardly impactful enough to justify.

•He and Cody play chess together and it pisses Noah off because Cody is actually better at it than him.

Scott:

•I think he’s had at least a small crush on half the cast (namely Dawn, B, Dakota, Mike, and Zoey) and he just had such a horrid time accepting that that he decided to hate them and eliminate them. Pansexual king I suppose

•He watched a lot of Jerry Springer growing up

•He and Albertha (his sister mentioned in All Stars) are really close but they bicker a lot because they’re both little shits. They hang out a lot on their farm because their parents suck. They also shoplift from local stores together, and shoot beer cans with slingshots or whatever. Tangent but Albertha loves the pigs they raise on their farm, she’s an absolute queen

•He was on his high school wrestling team. It was the one thing he excelled in. He intimidated a lot of people into helping him cheat to keep his grades high enough to stay on. He was basically the captain

•He collects animal bones and teeth and such. He really envies Dawn and Mike & Mal & Manitoba who have way better collections than him.

Ella:

•She has a sibling who’s goth and doesn’t get on with their whole family’s Disney/theatre thing. They all get along pretty well though. They have a real Ever After High kid/Monster High kid dichotomy going.

•She owns a lot of succulents and small fruit plants. They’re her pride and joy, and she has names for all of them

•She’s really into history, specifically medieval, royal, and European history. She loves drawing historically accurate fairy tale costumes.

•She’s a doll collector, and so is her sibling. Her parents are both figurine and playbill collectors.

•After the show, she and Sammy & Jasmine become really good friends on the new Playa Des Losers. Sammy and Jasmine make her realize that Sugar was manipulating her and bullying her, and inspire her to stand up to her. She also defends Sammy against Amy. Unrelated but I have an AU idea where Ella is a princess and Sammy is a peasant girl who runs away and pretends to be a knight in order to save her. I kinda wanna write a fic for it honestly.

#scrambled alex with a side of bacon #alex’s td rambles #td ella #td scott #td noah

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agent-pennsylvania · 1 year

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Sick

Penn is sick, he’s tired...he’s sick and tired. His anxiety has his skin crawling and his head buzzing with constant headaches. Sleeping a this point comes in unpredictable bursts, mostly only when his body just shuts down. His body aches his skin burns his stomach is a mess. He’s barely holding on… He shouldn’t be like this… He’s a super soldier...One of the best...A SPARTAN...He should be an unstoppable machine-like force...At least that’s what they told him…Something was wrong but he didn’t know what...which set his anxiety off more.

His suit though would hide it all. It hid his scarred face and skin. It hid how pale and sickly he felt. His wall of jokes would keep the others from asking questions. Nothings wrong with Penn, nothing to see here... No reason to drop his position on the leader board… If it dropped he wouldn’t get his AI...The counselor...Price said it would help him...He was banking everything on that AI, but he wasn’t sure how much longer he could go.

Ever since he joined the project they had sent him on mission after mission. After being introduced to the other agents he was mostly kept away. The Director had a special experiment for Penn, see how long he could go before breaking. Penn had a special medical condition an extremely rare allergic reaction to cytoprethaline, for some reason it affected Penn differently. It caused swelling in the memory centers of his brain, which in turn causes him to lose his memory. The UNSC had discovered it after long term exposure while he was cryo’d... Although they had caught it rather late as it had already caused severe damage to the right side of his brain. They however, had conveniently forgot to mention that to him...

Short term though Project Freelancer had discovered the drug still causes the same effect… and they were still experimenting... They had been doing it for long enough though they had the dosage figured out. They could safely make him forget weeks at a time…and they did just that, purging the information from his helmet and resetting him after every mission. Unless of course something happened that wasn’t able to be covered up without looking suspicious... Like direct interaction with other agents.

Unfortunately, the drug still had the downside of making him sick but it was a necessary evil for the greater good of humanity, the making of a better weapon. He was the first of what they hoped they could replicate in others, a soldier that couldn’t question, because they didn’t know better. Easily reprogrammed, rewritten, brain-washed and the best part is they wouldn’t even know. The carrot that kept Penn going, was his promised AI. He was told it’s name was Iota. The program had procured two AI this time so he was to get the second alongside South Dakota who would get Eta. At least that was what he was told.

Penn had managed to get himself up and going, the armor did what it needed to do... hide everything, it gave him the edge and the security he needed to go on. It was a crutch at this point… The AI would make it better, make him better. He could only hope. Walking into the locker room though was not a pleasant experience.

South and North Dakota, Washington and York were all present. That’s when he heard South yelling. So he moved off to the side to observe, something that was ingrained into him, an instinct at this point. Information gathering was key...What was going on that she was so upset about? He’d figured she’d be happy after all she had been waiting for an AI just as long as he had been. He sat on the bench, in the row of lockers behind the set they were all in. They hadn’t noticed him as they were all paying attention to South.

“What! This is Bullshit!” South yelled.

“South calm down.” North told her.

“Calm down! Well that easy for you to say you already have an AI. But, who the fuck is she to take away our place?” She countered North aggressively.

“Our turn will come, They’ve already put me back on the list...” Washington tried to reason with her.

She interrupted him though with an angry sounding,“What!”

About here is where Penn stopped listening for a moment and started thinking. South was yelling about AI being taken away and a “she.” Well, that sounded a lot like Carolina, or at least what he had heard she was like from the triplets. But, what Wash had just said about being pushed back...he didn’t understand. Was it Washington’s turn? Had he pushed him back without meaning to? Or was it Washington’s turn in the first place and Penn wasn’t getting one at all? Had they had been lying to him all along…

“And Two AI! What makes her so special, What makes either of them so special!?” South shouted again and a loud slam of a locker followed.

Carolina was taking both AI’s whether or not one of them was his or Washington’s. They had lied to him either way… That was his last straw… Once the others had cleared out of the locker room he sat there for a minute. He was mad, he was panicked, he was so fucked, and he was surely going to kill Price. He needed to get out, and get out now. He would be paying the Counselor a visit... He growled in anger. Punching his mechanical arm straight through his own locker in frustration, before ripping the whole thing off the wall. If anyone came by they’d probably think he was Agent Maine and just move along anyway. He was leaving he wouldn’t need it anyway the only things in their were two pistols that he hated anyway, so nothing lost and hey he felt a bit better after smashing it.

#red vs blue #rvb #freelancer oc #project freelancer #rvb ocs #pa lore #open rp

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mychampagne-mybubbles · 2 years

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“Not everyone gets this opportunity…”

I don't think Dakota and the others left back then because they already thought that Olivia was an inept, but because this project already came with its consequences … and yes, there are still people who understand their profession in a different way and even more their freedom, because nothing in this life is for free.

It was the pandemic, investing little and promoting lots must have been a requirement. Couldn’t risk it... Where can this formula for success be found? Social networks, particularly social media, Who is strong in it? …

The truth is that everything should have gone way much better than it has, it was easy. A group of fans who were already on board before they even knew it and a story that could have fed the media pages for GP to introduce the movie, TO INTRODUCE a new product and take off from there, but not to gamble it all away on this unique item. As I say, a flirtation with the press, some showing ups, in which each one was involved in their role 100% would have been more effective. The constant appearances have only ended up being confirmations where to verify the same horrible pattern: coldness, distance, lost gaze, wilted appearance, among all the photos it seems like there was an intention to share those that communicated rottenness. I have never understood this approach, to be honest.

How has the stunt became the only promotion of the film, forgetting absolutely about any other ingredient? Neither the story, nor the cast, nor how it was shot in such a peculiar moment to record… nothing! Proof of this, is that now, a month before the premiere, the formula to bring Flo back to the media is a dispute with O and reciprocal shading (and let's not forget Jason, gosh! there are many mouths to feed in this room!)

Now everything has the black print of Holivia on it and it's too late to clean the film up. The worst thing is that the vast majority don't care anymore about anything related to this project. What's more concerning, is the widespread desire to see it fail to proof that these ancient strategies are unattractive and nobody wants them.

Olivia has taken the fandom for granted, probably because that's how it was sold to her… +40M fans globally with a concentration in the US and UK, key to the film interests. What could go wrong? This fandom is complex, but it has been loyal to Harry for years, on paper everything seemed to add up perfectly. Right? Right?

They have forgotten that the fandom has grown in all aspects in these +10 years: in age, in volume and specially in knowledge. The way to reach Harry’s fans and particularly the Larries is not to present a miserable Harry next to Olivia on countless occasions. Study your target, invest time in getting to know it, recognize it’s value and power (because there is a humble act in recognizing that you want us, need us) and love & respect us which is what it takes to handle greatness. Especially if you will work on several narratives simultaneously.

All this has been embarrassing to witness -from openly choosing a stunt as the best option & the poorly management of it- no matter how and from which perspective you look at it.

#harry styles #olivia wilde #don’t worry darling #fakeholiviashit #florence pugh #jason sudeikis

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meret118 · 2 years

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Eleanor and Hick - THE LOVE AFFAIR THAT SHAPED A FIRST LADY By Susan Quinn

A warm, intimate account of the love between Eleanor Roosevelt and reporter Lorena Hickok—a relationship that, over more than three decades, transformed both women’s lives and empowered them to play significant roles in one of the most tumultuous periods in American history.

In 1932, as her husband assumed the presidency, Eleanor Roosevelt entered the claustrophobic, duty-bound existence of the First Lady with dread. By that time, she had put her deep disappointment in her marriage behind her and developed an independent life—now threatened by the public role she would be forced to play. A lifeline came to her in the form of a feisty campaign reporter for the Associated Press: Lorena Hickok. Over the next thirty years, until Eleanor’s death, the two women carried on an extraordinary relationship: They were, at different points, lovers, confidantes, professional advisors, and caring friends.

They couldn’t have been more different. Eleanor had been raised in one of the nation’s most powerful political families and was introduced to society as a debutante before marrying her distant cousin, Franklin. Hick, as she was known, had grown up poor in rural South Dakota and worked as a servant girl after she escaped an abusive home, eventually becoming one of the most respected reporters at the AP. Her admiration drew the buttoned-up Eleanor out of her shell, and the two quickly fell in love. For the next thirteen years, Hick had her own room at the White House, next door to the First Lady.

These fiercely compassionate women inspired each other to right the wrongs of the turbulent era in which they lived. During the Depression, Hick reported from the nation’s poorest areas for the WPA, and Eleanor used these reports to lobby her husband for New Deal programs. Hick encouraged Eleanor to turn their frequent letters into her popular and long-lasting syndicated column “My Day,” and to befriend the female journalists who became her champions. When Eleanor’s tenure as First Lady ended with FDR’s death, Hick pushed her to continue to use her popularity for good—advice Eleanor took by leading the UN’s postwar Human Rights Commission. At every turn, the bond these women shared was grounded in their determination to better their troubled world.

Deeply researched and told with great warmth, Eleanor and Hick is a vivid portrait of love and a revealing look at how an unlikely romance influenced some of the most consequential years in American history.

#Books #History #Lgbtqia #Queer

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fabricdragondesigns · 4 months

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youtube

Why We No Longer Raise Rabbits from a comment thread Thank you so much for sharing your story and spreading awareness of the issue. As a rabbit owner, I've done quite a bit of research on RHDV2 and worked with ARBA officials to understand the virus and take measures to prevent it. I would like to address a couple of points that were in the video/comments:

1. Breeding for tolerance At this time, all rabbit breeds that are kept domestically can contract RHDV2, as can other members of the lagomorph family. Being able to breed resistance would far exceed the expense of vaccines with less effective results. RHD is a necrotizing pathogenic lagovirus (an organism that causes viruses in host members of the lagomorph family) and is similar to hepatitis in humans.

2. Tractor systems I want to make it very clear that I am not attacking what Better Together Homestead or other operations have done, however, tractor systems are ill-advised by rabbit experts for multiple reasons and should not be part of any rabbitry. Firstly, being on the ground facilitates the transfer of external parasites (ticks, mites, etc.) and internal parasites (E. cuniculi, intestinal worms, etc.) as well as RHDV2, respiratory infections, and other diseases from rabbits and other ground-dwelling creatures. Insects can be a means of transfer and having them on the ground will facilitate that. In addition, most grasses (lawn grasses in particular) are unhealthy healthy for rabbits which can lead to bloat and will reduce the vitality of the rabbit in the long term.

3. Prevention RHDV2 is a contact pathogen, which means that it will be transmitted through contact with anything an infected animal has come into contact with. There has not been enough research done to determine how many contacts the pathogen can be passed through, however, it is accurate to say it is moderately to highly transmissible in most circumstances. Biosecurity measures and vaccinations are currently the only ways to prevent exposure. When introducing new rabbits or equipment, returning from a show, or allowing people to interact with your animals, sanitization and quarantine processes are essential. I have a hydrogen peroxide-based decontamination spray that I use before and after quarantining new equipment (even if purchased new), however, there are many other effective options. In addition, be very cautious about interacting with rabbits that are not your own, and reduce contact with wild rabbits, hares, and pika to the bare minimum.

4. Vaccines For many years only RHDv2 vaccines were created, manufactured, and approved in the European Union with other countries approving them on an individual basis. The US government has been known to approve the import and use of European vaccines for large, economically important herds in affected areas. Recently, Medgene labs in South Dakota created a vaccine that was approved for use (https://medgenelabs.com/rhdv2/). I cannot give personal experience with the vaccine, however, clinical trials have proven efficacy and reliability.

Online resources and references

: https://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/Factsheets/pdfs/rabbit_hemorrhagic_disease.pdf

https://veterinaryresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1297-9716-43-12 https://medgenelabs.com/rhdv2/ https://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/animal_health/fs-rhdv2.pdf

#youtube #tw #tw death #illness #rhdv2 #rabbit

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reddancer1 · 4 months

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Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) introduced the Public Banking Act of 2023

WASHINGTON D.C. — Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) introduced the Public Banking Act of 2023, which facilitates the creation of state and local public banks. The bill establishes a robust federal regulatory framework, grant programs, and financial infrastructure to promote public banks and ensure their success. The bill also mandates minimum standards for public banks relating to environmental justice, tenant protections, labor standards, democratic governance, and consumer data privacy. “Wall Street-run banks are failing to serve many of my residents who are struggling to make ends meet,” said Congresswoman Tlaib. “It’s long past time to open doors for people who have been systematically shut out. We must provide a better option for those grappling with the costs of simply trying to participate in an economy that has been rigged against them with discriminatory and predatory practices. We need a financial system that is democratically accountable and puts the livelihoods of our residents ahead of private profits.” Investment decisions shape the future by deciding how today’s resources will meet tomorrow’s needs. Instead of concentrating such decision-making power in private hands, public banks allow investment decisions to be democratically responsive. Instead of serving Wall Street, public banks can offer lower cost debt to city and state governments, fund public infrastructure projects, and encourage entrepreneurship by providing loans to small businesses, at lower interest rates and with lower fees. Unlike our existing financial system that excludes millions of individuals, public and postal banks can ensure everyone has access to basic financial services. Public banks can facilitate the transformative changes our communities desperately need—like affordable housing for all, disaster preparedness, financial inclusion, and a clean energy future. Over 900 public banks exist worldwide—in countries like Germany, France, and Switzerland—and hold $49 trillion in assets. Here in the United States, the Bank of North Dakota has successfully operated for over a century, contributing millions of dollars annually to the state’s general fund, while partnering with community banks to lower costs for borrowers. During the 2008 financial crisis, the Bank of North Dakota maintained liquidity while the rest of the financial system was in free-fall, helping the state achieve the lowest foreclosure and credit card default rates in the nation. The Public Banking Act would allow communities across the country to take advantage of these international and domestic precedents by creating a supportive regulatory and institutional framework for the creation of public banks.

It would: • Provide federal charters for public banks; • Provide public banks a pathway to membership at the Federal Reserve, allowing public banks additional access to capital and loans; • Establish a “Public Bank Primary Liquidity Facility” that provides liquidity to public member banks; • Establish a public banking grant program, to facilitate bank formation, capitalization, and operations, among other purposes; and • Establish a public banking incubator program for technical assistance and start-up support. This legislation is cosponsored by: Representatives Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Barbara Lee (CA-12), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), and Ilhan Omar (MN-05). This legislation is endorsed by: Public Banking Institute, Center for Popular Democracy, National Housing Law Project, Detroit Action, Detroit People’s Platform, Wayne Metro Community Action Agency, Friends of the Earth, The Democracy Collaborative, Public Money Action, CA Public Banking Alliance, Public Bank NYC, New Economy Project, Take on Wall Street, People’s Action, Jobs with Justice, Climate and Community Project, Demos, U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, For the Many, Strong Economy for All, NYS Community Equity Agenda, New York Communities for Change, Cooper Square Committee, Genesee Co-op Federal Credit Union, Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island, Multicultural Solidarity Long Island, Long Island Progressive Coalition, Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, WESPAC Foundation, Inc., Center for NYC Neighborhoods.

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kayla1993-world · 1 year

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A row has broken out in Florida over proposed legislation that would ban Chinese citizens from owning land or property in the state. This is unless they are also U.S. citizens or permanent residents. The priority bill has the backing of Republican and some Democratic legislators. These legislators argue it is needed to ensure national security. However, critics argue it is discriminatory, and violates the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Polling indicates DeSantis is Republican voters' second most popular choice to be the party's 2024 presidential nominee, following former President Donald Trump. However, he has yet to officially enter the race. Thus any dispute involving DeSantis could have national political implications, either undermining the Florida Republican or strengthening his "anti-woke" credentials. The legislation, titled "SB 264: Interests of Foreign Countries," was approved by the Florida House this week 95-17 and will now head back to the Senate, which voted for a previous version unanimously. It also prohibits citizens of Russia, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, and Syria from buying land within a mile of a military base or piece of critical infrastructure. However, only Chinese nationals face a statewide ban. Congress is concerned about the increase in Chinese ownership of U.S. agricultural land. This includes farmland by an air base in North Dakota purchased in 2022. In response, legislation has been introduced at both the national and state level. This legislation would restrict farmland purchases by countries deemed hostile to the United States. However, the proposed bill in Florida has sparked a backlash, with opponents arguing it could violate the 1968 Fair Housing Act. This key piece of civil rights-era legislation banned discrimination based on race, national origin, religion, or sex in housing sales. On Saturday, dozens of Chinese Americans protested against the bill outside the Florida Capitol. They held signs reading "Equality For All" and "No anti-Asian Bill." Speaking on Wednesday, Democratic state Representative Fentrice Driskell argued the bill appears unconstitutional. She added: "Who will enforce this?" Realtors? Come on. We are better than this." However, some Democrats support the legislation including state Representative Katherine Waldron, one of its co-sponsors. Newsweek contacted DeSantis asking what legal advice his office received about SB 264. It also asked whether they thought it could be ruled unconstitutional if passed into law. DeSantis is also locked in a legal battle with Disney, Florida's largest employer, which alleges the governor violated its First Amendment rights after the company spoke out in opposition to the Parental Rights in Education bill, branded the 'Don't Say Gay' law by critics. On Wednesday, DeSantis' Tallahassee office was occupied by protesters from the Dream Defenders campaign group. They demanded a meeting with the governor.

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coffeymarcus1 · 2 years

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heloflor · 3 years

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Music Star

AO3 link

He did it out of pettiness. He wanted to piss him off, to show him how easy it had been to move on, how better off he was without him.

Oh, how the tables have turned.

Note : Another short fic, not my best one but I still wanted to do something with this idea (note to self : when having an idea for a small fic, write it down completely IN THE SAME DAY or you end up with a paragraph that feels out of place). This time it’s about Dakota reflecting on his music career from the episode “A Christmas Peril”. And yes, this takes place in the “breakup” timeline. Also, since they’re mentioned in one paragraph : I went with the idea of Dakota having older siblings (three here, and they’re mentioned from youngest to oldest). And finally, I tried something with the style by playing the pronoun game. Enjoy !

He did it out of pettiness. He wanted to piss him off, to show him how easy it had been for him to move on, how better off he was without him.

Oh, how the tables have turned.

Vinnie arrived at his apartment, a brand-new flat, “as spacious as needed !”, they said. To him, the space just made him feel smaller, made him see how lonely he was.

The flat had a huge window, giving into the building where Vinnie had been only minutes ago to record his new song. It was the same song as his first one, the same tune, with lyrics that barely changed. Not like people would complain anyways. They loved his first hit. But that love was the reason he needed the lyrics to change.

Vinnie sighed, sliding down against the wall like he did every single evening. Finishing his zoo song had been a mistake. Making an instrumental, going to a prod…he regretted it all. He had been angry, had acted as a petty ex, trying to prove something pointless. And now, he had to suffer the consequences. Everyone was singing his verse. The verse he wrote when he had been with him, the verse he made with him in mind, the verse he couldn’t hear without thinking about him.

Ten months. It had been ten months since that night. Ten months since he decided to walk away. Ten months since he got back home and filled those papers before starting to pack up. Then months since they agreed on the divorce. Ten months since they chose to part ways and never see each-other again.

He still wasn’t over it. How could he be expected to, after fifteen years of marriage ?

Every morning, he would wake up to a bed that felt too small, too cold. Every time he would look at his left hand, he would feel the emptiness at the view of his ring-less finger. Every single counting minute of his life, he would still be thinking about him, wondering how he’s doing, if he’s fulfilling his dream of becoming a hero, a well-respected time-traveler.

Vinnie sometimes went to spy on him, when he was doing dangerous missions. Despite everything, he was still worried for him, and he refused to let it go.

He still kept the island a secret, even to the people he became used to confide into.

During the weeks following his divorce, Vinnie spent a lot of time talking with his siblings, telling them the news and having them check on him from time to time. Donnie and his wife Noemi were the most understanding and comforting, assuring him he could call anytime he felt the need to. Bettie had gotten frustrated she was in Europe and couldn’t visit the states due to work, backed up by her girlfriend Sophia who even suggested to do the work for her. Vinnie also suspected that his sister decided to call him during these times. After all, the two had been good friends when they were in-laws. As for Enzie, the older brother got angry, saying he would kill “quello figlio di puttana di inglese !”, not much of a surprise as Enzie had always been a protective brother. Vinnie even received calls from his nieces and nephews, wishing him well.

But while all their views were different, they all agreed on one thing : making a hit song out of something he wrote for him while changing it enough to hurt him had been a horrible mistake. And now that it had been done, the best he could do was try to reduce the damage by getting people to sing the same tune but with lyrics that had nothing to do with the original one, that had nothing to do with any of his feelings. That was all he could hope right now. To get people to stop mentioning his first song. To keep going, as if the zoo song was never a hit, as if it was nothing more than the title of something that spruced his popularity but never defined it.

If he could forget the song, if he could break the bridges that were still tied to him, then maybe, maybe, he would be able to move on.

#Milo Murphy's Law #mml #A Christmas Peril #Dakavendish #Vinnie Dakota #my fanfics #Dakota siblings my beloved #no this fic has nothing to do with today's date #neither does the other one #it's not even mo//ther's day where I live #also I REALLY need to work on my longer fic #it would have been better to introduce the Dakotas #oh well #I still wanted to mention them #I love these idiots #I lowkey want to write Enzie calling Cav to yell at him #followed by Bettie calling and being way nicer and understanding

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thecarnivorousmuffinmeta · 3 years

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What would a cw adaptation of Harry Potter look like?

Having not watched too many cw shows myself (I just hear about their nonsense), I phoned @therealvinelle who made the poor life choices of having watched much more of The Vampire Diaries than I have and watching any Supernatural.

The following is her beautiful response:

So for starters, we merge Snape and Tom's characters. This is because Snape isn't hot, and because Tom needs to be near the kids. Tom still looks like Tom Riddle, and he's a teacher who seduces Hermione. At no point are any thoughts about the fact that he's a teacher sleeping with a student had

Harry is a blond now, and he's also dating Hermione. A love triangle ensues, one where Tom will hover sexily but dangerously in empty classrooms and make vague threats that Hermione find very sexually arousing.

The love triangle is the focal point of this show.

Voldemort is Tom's evil alter ego, who killed Harry's parents over that prophecy. He wants to kill Harry as well, but it's not the season finale yet so he's not actually doing anything about it. Too busy seducing Hermione.

Instead he just does vaguely sinister things, like release a basilisk that Harry heroically saves Hermione from.

He every so often has charged conversations with McGonagall (Who has been aged down and is in her thirties. She's still considered ancient), implying they had an affair once.

Harry and Hermione piece together that Tom and Voldemort aRe ThE sAmE pErSoN.

(Piece together meaning that Dumbledore, who only appeared in the second half of the first season and the show never bothers to clarify what his job actually is, gets a focal episode where he tells them the story of Tom Riddle through flashbacks. Terrible flashback wigs and costumes galore.)

Tom will later, in season 3 where he goes full woobie and we learn that none of his evil deeds were ever his fault, reveal that there's more to the story. That orphanage he grew up in? It was a special school for muggle-borns where they trained a future wizarding militia. Tom was the only one who broke free of their oppressive regime. The other children... GREW UP TO BECOME THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX.

But I'm skipping how season 1 ended. The answer is that Hermione disavowed Tom in the season 1 finale since he was evil, he was too sexy bad boy to care except subtle wigglings of his eyebrow told the captive Tomione-shipping audience that he did in fact care. Harmione shippers think they're all delusional. She then jumped into Harry's arms.

Which was poor decision making on her end, because in season 2 Harry joins the dark side. This lasts for half a season, mostly because the arc featured so much filler. Tom, who was imprisoned in season 1, becomes Hermione's supportive pen pal through this ordeal and she starts to wonder if maybe there's good in him after all.

Sirius Black is introduced, he's a lawyer living in the Muggle world and he was in love with Lily. We get a flashback showing us how sad Sirius was when she married James, and there is buildup for an arc where Harry's paternity will be questioned. This arc is scrapped, and Sirius is written out of the show altogether, never to be mentioned again.

Ginny gets pregnant by Neville. Neville dies tragically shortly afterwards, killed by Harry because Harry is a dark wizard now. This is actually the spinoff door episode to the new show the CW is trying to launch, "The Weasleys".

Neville's death has no real consequences, Harry returns to the light and is forgiven in time to become the child's godfather.

Oh, and can't believe I forgot: they've all been aged up to 17.

End of season 2, Tom escapes prison.

Season 3, we get the whole "DUMBLEDORE is the real villain!" arc. Tom killing Harry's parents in season 1 is forgotten, the show doesn't outright retcon it but it doesn't want the viewers to remember it either.

Hermione is once again in a love triangle, only this time Tom and Harry have both done bad things (but we'll only bring up the 2 bad things Harry did (killed Neville and said a mean thing to Hermione) and none of the 282985204592 bad things Tom did) so Hermione has a hard time.

Hermione also discovers that she's a uniquely powerful witch. She has the power to make windows shatter, candles flicker, and wind blow all about. Everyone is frightfully impressed with this.

Mid-season 3 finale, Dumbledore destroys Tom's body. It's terribly dramatic, but then turns out to only be a mild inconvenience as he is resurrected four episodes later. He's resurrected by Hermione's window shattering powering, she closed her eyes very intensely and bam, he's back.

We learn about the horcruxes, which by themselves are shockingly similar to the horcruxes of the original books. The big change, however, is that this Tom didn't know he had horcruxes, those evil bastards at the orphanage split his soul in the night through ominous rituals (another flashback here). He has no idea where this other half of his soul is.

Season finale, we learn that Hermione is in fact his horcrux. This is why they had so much in common (they don't have anything in common) and why she got through his bad boy persona (he hasn't been a bad boy since season 1!). They were soulmates this whole time!

Harry despairs in the face of this, and he and Hermione have a teary conversation where she confirms that yes, the Tomione shippers won.

He also has a pleasant conversation with Tom, as a bromance has bloomed between the two.

Alas. The episode ends on a cliffhanger, as the door flings open dramatically. Dumbledore walks in, bearing proof that Tom made an Unbreakable Vow to always serve the Order, a Vow that was obliviated from him. He drags Tom kicking and screaming away from a crying Hermione, the season ends with her resolve to find a way to save him.

(Sorry, I'm on a roll here)

Season 4, a year later. Harry and Hermione have been searching ever since Tom disappeared. They've become closer than ever, but apart from three or four moments of extreme sexual tension per episode, Hermione is Faithful™

News of Tom's terrorist actions as an Order member reach them with regular intervals. Hermione remains convinced that he's being forced to do all this and doesn't actually want to hurt anybody, Harry's not so sure.

They catch up to him in Minneapolis (did I mention this entire show takes place in the states? All the actors are American.) and he tells them to stop trying to save him. Hermione, devastated, takes this to mean he never loved her, he was only ever a psychopath playing with her feelings. She tells him as much, and Tom confirms, yeah, he's a cold-hearted son of a bitch (Harry's favorite insult for him).

They break up, and Hermione gets back with Harry. They return to their home city in North Dakota.

At the very end of that same episode, Tom is able to visit Harry for 15 seconds in the form of a specter and very dramatically tell him how he does love Hermione but he's not good for her, better to make a clean break, yada yada. DON'T LOOK FOR ME.

Harry agrees, sure no problem, he can do that. Just one noble bro to another.

Tom nods, thanks for having sex with my girl while I rot in hell, bro.

It is in this same season premier episode that the show introduces the Blacks. Remember Sirius Black? Yeah, this is sexy family.

They become instant fan favorites, and one of them is shipped with Tom (the fans now hate both Harry and Hermione).

Pandering as always, the show lets said character run into Tom. And it's not Bellatrix, oh no. It's Athena, a CW original Black. She's indistinguishable from the original Bellatrix and it's unclear why she's not just Bellatrix.

Tom is ordered to kill her, but they have a moment of truly intense eye contact so he only injures her (the killing curse doesn't exist in this show. Don't ask how Harry got his scar. No really, don't ask, the show never explained it). Shippers go wild.

Tom is eventually able to break free of the Unbreakable Vow through the power of true love (book fans are sobbing, this show gets nothing right), and he returns to Hermione, begs her to take him back. She rebuffs him, and he goes to get drunk at a bar. This is where Narcissa (aged down to 25) finds him. They have sex.

He has a brief fling with her, only to get into a more serious relationship with Athena. This leads to Hermione getting jealous.

We're now dealing with a love pentagon, of sorts. Harry and Tom love Hermione, Tom also loves Athena, Narcissa wants Harry but she has undeniable sexual chemistry with Tom.

The show descends into back-and-forth-ing, and does not get renewed.

The end.

POST SCRIPT:

The oddly popular side character that the CW never wanted to be popular at all and keeps having to make mysteriously vanish for half a season so that the plot(?) can avoid being derailed is Draco.

He's super competent but the show will never admit that.

Later, Athena plays this same role.

- @therealvinelle

#harry potter #harry potter meta #harry potter headcanon #cw #cw meta #meta #headcanon #opinion #vinelle #therealvinelle

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choicesenthusiast · 3 years

Text

Representation at Pixelberry: The Follow-Up

One year ago, on June 15, 2020, Pixelberry released a statement regarding representation at the company. Here is the LINK to the original blog post, and here was MY RESPONSE. Oh, how naïve and optimistic I was. It contained a list of goals and promises they hoped to accomplish within a year. Well, a year has passed, and here is my attempt to hold PB accountable. I'll be going over the five main points of their representation plan and if they achieved what they promised. All criticisms are about content released after June 15th. Long post beware, but I'm not putting it under a read more because I feel like it's important for all to see.

1. Commitment to diversity of Love Interests - FAIL

We’ve already been moving towards having Love Interests have customizable skin tones. We will continue to do this with some stories, while also having some characters with clear ethnic identities. At the same time when we have multiple love interests of different ethnicities, we are aiming for those Love Interests to have equal game time.

"LIs with customizable skin tones" mean they come in three flavours: white, black, and ambiguously Asian/Latinx interchangeably. So far I have rarely seen an LI as connected to their culture/ethnicity as Rafael Aveiro, and he just talked about his Vovo's food if he ever were on screen. They had many chances with the other OH LIs as well. Even Ayna Seth and Tatum Mendoza were confirmed to be Indian and Filipino, respectively, though FA gets a little leeway, as it was set in a fictional west-European continent.

As for equal game time? I'm sure the biggest example we can all think of was the mess that was Open Heart 3, which was written during the hiatus (which only existed because they were going to straight up kill Rafael in Book 2). Game time was not equal among LIs, and the white male LI was heavily favoured. PB also continues to pay female LIs dirt by giving them no screen time. In addition to that, LGBT+ players, who are consistently underrepresented, receive one (1) unprepared pride month survey, prpbably only because someone asked them about it on Twitter.

This is the meat and potatoes of everything because it's what they're outputting to their audience. It's what the people see. Given that things haven't been going so well lately in this department, consider this promise a big fat fail.

2. More authentic and diverse hairstyles for people of color - QUESTIONABLE

Our team will focus on providing more authentic and representative hairstyles. We are prioritizing these hairstyles outside of our normal book processes and will introduce them in new books as they are ready.

While, yes, they have added two new hairstyles in WEH, they also just took Jade Bonet's hair and recycled it for LoA F!MC. PB recycles all their hair more often than not.

3. More diverse book covers - QUESTIONABLE

This is an initiative we started in January of this year. As a result the number of Black, Latinx, Asian, Native American, Pacific Islander, mixed, and other characters on new book covers increased from 35% of characters in 2019 to 60% characters in the first half of 2020. However, the number of black characters is still not high enough this year. More are already scheduled for books later this year. We will make sure that Black characters are well represented on our covers in the future.

"Diverse" does not just mean by race, but also gender, sexual orientation, etc. FA has the only recent MLM cover. And don't tell me that the FA and LoA covers are any different from each other. The only black characters on covers are Zoey Wade (QB), and Black!Gabe Ricci (LoA) and Bastien (WB), which aren't even their canon races unless you choose them to be. This is the case for many single-LI books, such as Cassian Keane (W:ABR, which technically premiered on Mar. 16, but the sentiment is the same), Sam Dalton (TNA), and Dakota Winchester (WEH). Not to mention the customizable/multi LI books like DS, RT, BaBu2, MTFL, etc. Majority of these covers are just cishet couples delicately cradling each other's bodies or whatever. And we're not even gonna get into how PB literally put the Open Heart LIs in order of their favouritism on Book 3's cover.

4. Writers/Staff - QUESTIONABLE

We will be engaging in professional training on historical and current racism for our writers to ensure more of them have a better understanding and more context for views of diverse characters in Choices. We will also create a program that gives more authority to people of color in the studio to advise writers and artists on more authentic portrayals in both writing and art of black, brown, and minority characters.

A story with a Black-led cast is something I have asked for in the past, but failed to follow-up on. We will very likely start this with a Black-led cast story led by Chelsa, one of Pixelberry's Black writers.

We will increase the number of diverse writers we source for new stories, starting with hiring more Black and Latinx writers to lead the charge.

For all teams at Pixelberry we will actively work to bring in more Black and Latinx candidates with the goal to increase the number of Black and Latinx employees at Pixelberry. Although Pixelberry is over 50% female, on teams where females are not at 50% we will actively work to source more female candidates.

This promise seemed like a copout from the start because we have no way of knowing who works on what at PB unless we very meticulously stalk their LinkedIn or Twitter or whatever. We have no solid statistics except for what they feed us. I do know, however, that they recently let the Ms. Match writers go and were hiring for external writers, but there really is no way of knowing what's going on behind-the-scenes with their 112+ employees, and of course there would be NDAs involved. We are yet to see a book with an all-Black cast, and receive rare development updates with new books. Actually, I think a really good way to promote diversity is to do staff showcases on their social media. Just a way to show the public who's responsible for what. Writers, game devs, the art team, etc. Don't think it'll happen, but it's always a good idea.

5. Donations - QUESTIONABLE

Pixelberry will also be making $100,000 in donations to Black Girls Code, the Black Writers Collective, and the Latinx Writers Collective at Techqueria. Rather than as a lump sum, we will be making these donations over the course of a year to remind us that we are not making short term changes, but are committed to long term sustainable actions. We’ll also be donating up to an additional $100k from profits for this week, 6/15-6/21.

There has been no proof, no receipts, no evidence from PB that they have donated anything to anyone, and as far as we're concerned, their word doesn't mean anything. No news or updates news about it. I would love to believe that they did something, but as you can see, I've become quite the pessimist. BWC still uses PB's old logo (like, pre-Choices) on their sponsors page, and the last interaction they've had with BGC was in 2013. They don't even follow each other on Instagram. In fact, BGC received a huge donation from MacKenzie Scott, formerly Bezos last July. Yes, that billionaire Bezos, and that got coverage from them. Obviously donations don't need to be for publicity, but in this case I think it's important there should be proof. Again, it's really hard to tell with these behind-the-scenes things, but given how PB loves to gloat and hates to keep promises, we can assume that none of this happened.

~~~

So, what's the takeaway? That PB's fallen down the drainhole of shitty content and empty promises and has no intention of climbing out as long as they still make that bank? Seems counterproductive, because good representation gets good feedback and income. They pump out bad books with barebones "representation" if you can call it that, then drop their precious merch and pretend all is fine and dandy. But just as I suspected one year ago, none of this matters, because people forget things, and people move on, and shit gets swept under rugs. Yet, here I am, yelling at a company in a post I for sure doubt they'll see. Because if not me, then who?

@playchoices Your move. It's been your move for a year now. When will you actually make it?

#playchoices #choices stories you play

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blueskrugs · 4 years

Text

That Don’t Sound Like You | Brock Boeser

title and inspiration come from the Lee Brice song of the same name. I like country music, okay? takes place roughly September 2015-August 2019. all games and other teammates are accurate.

because @captainkreider said “what if you write this for Brock” and I immediately had to rethink my priorities on who I will and will not write for. and then this happened.

length: 4.7 words

Girl, I’m glad you called

You met Brock early in your freshman year at University of North Dakota. He was always surrounded by people, popular and charismatic, even as a slightly awkward 18-year-old, but it seemed like he could, and would, talk to anyone who would listen.

You found that out for yourself when he plopped down a couple seats from you in some 100 level English lecture before leaning across the empty desk between you to introduce himself.

“I’m Brock,” he said with a grin.

You took a moment to assess him. His blond hair was tucked beneath a backwards snapback, looking every bit like a douche college athlete, but his blue eyes were kind, and his smile seemed genuine. You shot him a quick smile of your own before turning back to your notes.

“I’m Y/N,” you offered. Brock was still watching you closely; you flipped the page of your notebook.

Any further conversation was cut short by your professor coming in, his typical five minutes late. It was already the third week of class, and Brock had never sat near you before, usually choosing to sit more near the back, but you buried your confusion in favor of focusing on the lecture.

Brock kept sitting next to you, though, would start a conversation with you most days. It was a week and a half before he asked for your phone number, another week before he actually texted you to complain about how he didn’t understand an assigned reading. In the meantime, you’d learned that you hadn’t grown up far from each other in Minnesota– just a couple towns away from each other outside Minneapolis, his favorite color– blue, but only one highly specific shade, and how he’d been drafted by the Canucks but was still trying out the whole college thing.

“So,” Brock started one day in October. You hummed in response, not looking up from your notes– you were trying to review for the test you had after this lecture was over. Brock nudged your elbow, but you still didn’t look up at him. “Hey. Y/N.” Brock was starting to whine now, so you glanced up at him. “So, uh, we have our first home game this Saturday.”

You raised an eyebrow at Brock. He looked nervous, fidgeting with a hoodie string and chewing on his bottom lip. You poked him in the arm with your pen.

“Got something you wanna say, Boes?”

“Would you, y’know?”

You rolled your eyes. “No, Brock, I don’t know. Spit it out.”

“Do you wanna come to the game?” he finally managed.

Now, UND took hockey as seriously as some colleges took football, and you’d spent more than one conversation with Brock discussing hockey, so he knew you liked it. Of course you’d be at the game on Saturday. But Brock wasn’t asking if you were going as a hockey fan. He was asking if you’d come to see him play.

You grinned, and Brock ducked his head and refused to look at you. His cheeks looked a little pink. You poked him with your pen again, this time just below his ribs, and he squirmed and snatched the pen from your hand.

“Yeah, Brock, I’ll be there,” you assured him.

He threw your pen at you.

Brock scored a hat trick in front of the sold-out crowd and swept you up in his arms outside the arena.

That became the new normal for you two. You went to every home game to watch as Brock tore up the league as one of the best freshmen anyone had ever seen. He’d meet you outside the arena, and you’d end up at a diner with the rest of the team with Brock’s arm draped around your shoulder. The team accepted you into their fold easily enough, teasing and chirping you just as they would any other player. There was time spent alone with Brock, too, or as alone as you could get in a dorm building. It had started under the pretense of studying together, but over time, it usually ended under a pile of blankets and Grey’s Anatomy playing on one of your laptops.

Brock kissed you for the first time in early December, after the team swept the weekend against Denver. It was cold, and his breath brushed across your face in a white cloud when he leaned in, but his lips were warm against yours.

Not much changed after that, not really, except for the fact that Brock got much less shy about always wanting to be near you or touching you in some way, whether it was your knees pressed against each other beneath a table on a date, or a hand on your hip or linked with yours when you were hanging out with others.

He did trip over his own feet the first time he saw you wearing one of his hoodies, though.

You surprised Brock in Tampa in April for the Frozen Four finals, where he had the game winning goal, and three more assists to boot. You weren’t sure you had ever seen him smile as big as when you jumped into his arms and wrapped your legs around his waist after the game, Stretch and Drake and everyone else still screaming somewhere behind you.

Truck tires on a gravel road Laughing at the world, blasting my radio Cannonballs splashing in the water

Brock called you one afternoon in June, after life had settled down into the lazy days of summer. “What’s up, babe?” you asked, absently throwing a tennis ball for your dog out in the yard.

Brock hesitated. “Do you still wanna come out to the lake with us?”

You had talked about it, a little, back when it was still ungodly cold in North Dakota, and Brock had mentioned that his family was going to try and rent a place on a lake for a week or two in July. It had seemed so far away then, as distant future as graduating or Brock heading off to Vancouver, which feels foolish now, with July creeping closer every day.

“Yeah, of course,” you said.

The two of you talked about the future for the first time that week at Minnetonka, between bets of who could make the biggest splash, or turning up Brock’s playlists as loud as you could, yelling the words to country songs up to the clouds.

Brock wanted to stay at UND another year, use it to develop his game, but he whispered in the dark one night that he was scared of making it all the way to the NHL and not living up to expectations, no longer a bright star, but a supernova, left to fade into nothing.

You had dreams of your own, too. Graduating and getting a job in a big city, getting away from Minnesota and small towns where everyone knew everyone. California, maybe, or somewhere on the East Coast like D.C.

(Brock had made a face at you for that.)

You realized for the first time, too, that you just might be in love with Brock. You weren’t sure what to do with that realization, though, just tucked your face a little tighter into Brock’s shoulder, tried not to think about what you would do if Brock ever asked you to follow him to Vancouver. You weren’t sure you could give up your life plans for anyone.

July passed with days in the sun and nights near a bonfire, drowning in one of Brock’s hoodies as you sat in his lap under a blanket. You wished you could live in moments like those forever.

Sophomore year was different for both of you. You were busier with classes, and Brock was more focused on hockey than ever, determined not to let his freshman season be a fluke.

Not that anyone thought it would be.

Brock became an alternate captain. Continued to dominate on the ice, came back stronger after a couple of injuries. Brock Boeser was making a name for himself, and it was only a matter of time before everyone started paying attention.

The day after the team lost to Boston University in double overtime, the defending champs going out on their very first game of the tournament, Brock was home in Minnesota, signing an entry-level contract, and playing his first game as a Vancouver Canuck.

He had kissed you goodbye on Thursday before the team left for Fargo, with an “I love you,” murmured against your lips, his hands tangled in your hair, the promise of “see you soon” unspoken but understood between you.

But you sat on your couch and watched as Brock took to the ice for the team that believed in him against the team he grew up watching, you started to wonder just how soon that would be, and if you’d ever get your Brock back, or if you’d lost his love to the city of Vancouver.

Brock scored a goal that night. You’d always known he would fit right in in Vancouver.

Brock broke up with you that summer. You had seen it coming, maybe since last July, when you realized that your lives were heading in different directions, but that didn’t mean it hurt any less. You were supposed to go up to Minnetonka again, but you never made it that far before he was standing on your doorstep, hands shoved deep in your pockets.

Part of you wanted to insist that you could make the distance work, and maybe you could, maybe Brock thought it, too, but you couldn’t think of the words.

“I love you,” you said instead.

You dropped a Target bag full of Brock’s things on his parents’ front porch, hoodies and beanies and other things that were too hard to keep, before you headed back to UND for the fall.

You kept in touch some, congratulatory texts (you) or pictures of the weather (him). You received dozens of Snapchats during All-Star Weekend in 2018, especially of the adorable dog he ended up adopting– you had vetoed changing his name from Cider– but you were pretty sure he was sending them to everyone.

Until you got one simply captioned “would be better with you here.” You stared at the picture– the view of Tampa outside his hotel room window– until the time ran out, and it disappeared. Then another came in, and you opened it quickly, unthinkingly. “Not quite like the last time we were in Tampa together tho.”

The only time you’d been to Tampa had been nearly two years before for the Frozen Four.

The picture disappeared again, and you didn’t know how to respond. So you didn’t.

You graduated a semester early and made plans to move to the East Coast and get a job, start your life for real. No one commented on how you were about as far away from Brock and Vancouver as you could get.

You were doing laundry at your parents’ house, packing most of what you owned in your car to move, when you came across a green UND hockey T-shirt. It still smelled a little like Brock, even though it had been buried in your room for years. You spared half a thought to wonder if Brock ever even missed it before you throw it in the washing machine.

You were surprised, then, when you got a text– a real one, too, not a Snapchat message– from Brock later that summer. You had never responded to those messages he had sent during the All-Star Game, and he had stopped sending things after a while. That had been over a year ago.

Brock’s message was simple, just a “hey, how have you been?” You wondered if he even knew you moved, and you were immediately suspicious of ulterior motives.

You left him on read for a couple of hours, before responding, and your message was short, curt. Your suspicions were proved right when he responded within half an hour.

“so” “Some of the guys from UND are coming up north for a couple days” “and they’ve been making some noise about seeing you”

You sighed. You were too tired for playing games, talking coyly, pretending like you were anything more than a couple of exes, practically strangers at this point. You pressed the call button below Brock’s name, realized for the first time that you’d never removed the green heart emoji from his contact.

“Y/N?” Brock sounded surprised, as if he hadn’t been the one to text you first.

“Why now, Brock?” you asked. Why do you still care, is what you didn’t.

“Stetch won’t shut up about wanting to see you, and some of the other guys picked up the chorus,” Brock said. He sounded as tired as you felt. It may have been years since you had last seen some of his teammates from UND, it certainly sounded like they haven’t changed much.

You went quiet, chewing on your bottom lip. Brock rushed to fill the silence.

“You don’t have to come. I just- I don’t know what I was thinking. I shouldn’t have texted, I’m sorry.” His voice faded slightly, like he’d pulled the phone away from his ear to hang up.

And, well, you were going to blame what you said next on the fact that it was well after midnight and that you’d been awake for too many consecutive hours.

“When is everyone coming up?”

Brock was silent, not even the sound of his breathing coming over the line. You checked to make sure he hadn’t, in fact, ended the call.

“Uh, second week of August,” he finally said.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” Brock echoed. You could picture the crease between his eyebrows.

“Yeah, ‘okay.’ I’ll think about it,” you said.

You didn’t know why you said that.

You didn’t know why you booked a flight to Minneapolis, or why you were actually looking forward to it. Even when Brock texted to warn you that some of his Canucks teammates would be there with the old faces from UND.

You didn’t know what you were doing as you stood in the entryway of a lake house in Minnesota. Out on the deck, you could see some familiar faces, but you had never felt so out of place in your life.

This was a bad idea. No, it was a terrible idea. You weren’t in college anymore. These weren’t your friends, your people. They had all moved on with their lives, and so had you. A weekend on a lake in Minnesota would only bring back the memories and the regrets of years gone by.

You were just debating turning around and pretending that you had never even come when Brock stepped in and saw you standing there, looking like a fool. He looks surprised to see you. You take another step into the house.

“Hey, Y/N!” The surprise is gone nearly as quickly as it had appeared, replaced with what looks like genuine happiness. “C’mon, everyone’s outside.”

You follow silently, taking in Brock’s bare, tanned shoulders, the way his hair looks blonder from hours spent out on the lake. For a moment, you’re both 19 again.

Stetch yells when he sees you first, and then you’re being mobbed by hockey players. You only know a couple from UND– Stetch, Drake, and Josty, to start– and the rest are from Vancouver, introductions blurring together in a mess of faces and nicknames– Tuna, Petey, and Chris, who had definitely been called Dad by at least three different people.

You finally manage to break away and head for a drink, but Brock follows you.

“I’m glad you came,” he says, and you believe him, look into his eyes, painfully earnest and real and blue like the reflection of the sky on the lake. You offer a weak smile in return, not sure if you can say the same, not yet. Brock steps closer and opens the lid of the cooler you’re standing next to. “Jess says you ended up in D.C. after all. How is that? You happy?”

His question catches you off-guard, and you hesitate, too long. “Yeah,” you say finally. “Yeah, it’s great.” Everything I’ve ever wanted, except you’re not there, is what you don’t say. You wonder briefly if he can still see right through you.

Brock’s head is buried in the cooler as he digs through the ice, but you can still see the way his shoulders go up like they always do when he’s frowning. That’s a yes, then.

“What’s the difference between a White Claw and a Truly, anyway?” he muses instead of calling you out, before surfacing with one of each in his hands. He offers them both to you, and you take the Truly– wild berry, your favorite, not that Brock would have any reason to know that– and leave him the White Claw. He cracks it open and takes a long drink. You tear your eyes away from the line of his throat as he swallows.

“Boyfriend couldn’t make it?” Brock asks pointedly. Damn, he still follows you on Instagram.

You take a drink yourself instead of answering right away. “Couldn’t get off work,” you say. Which isn’t a lie, not really, but you hadn’t even asked, just told him you would be visiting home for the week. You didn’t think he’d love the idea of spending a weekend with a bunch of hockey players, especially when the one who’d invited you happened to be your ex-boyfriend.

Brock just blinks at you for a moment. “Well, I’m glad you could make it,” he says again, just as honest as before.

When the next person asks if you’re happy in D.C., you’re not quite as off-guard, and you manage to smile when you answer this time. Brock is watching you from across the deck, though, and you wonder if the smile looked as fake as it felt to everyone else, or if it was just Brock.

You’re arguing with Josty about something ridiculous, when Emma, Troy’s girlfriend, sees you for the first time.

“Oh my God, you cut your hair! It’s so cute!” she said before wrapping you up in a hug.

When she lets you go, you sweep your hair over one shoulder, an old habit from when it hung halfway down your back; it barely brushed your shoulders now.

“Thought it was time for a change,” you say, “and my boyfriend really likes it this way.”

Next to you, Tyson frowns and mumbles something about finding Brock. You and Emma both watch him go, a little confused.

I know it’s been a while, I don’t mean to pry But when I asked you if you’re happy, I didn’t hear a smile, and that don’t sound like you

You’re sitting on the dock with your feet in the water that night when Brock settles next to you. Up at the house, everyone is either asleep or on their way to it. You’re both quiet for a moment, just the sound of crickets and the water lapping against the dock.

“I wasn’t sure you’d actually come,” Brock says lowly.

You breathe out a laugh. “I wasn’t either, not until I was actually here,” you admit.

“Why did you come?”

“Why did you invite me?” you counter. It was the thing that kept bothering you about all this. Why had Brock decided to reach out now, after so long, after you’d moved on?

Brock sighs. “Hadn’t heard from you in a while.” It’s almost defensive, the way he says it.

“Not like you tried very hard to catch up ever,” you say, and it’s mean, because you had stopped responding first, but you hadn’t known what else to do, how else to handle the heartbreak you had to relive with every text.

“You fucking stopped talking to me!” Brock says, and, yeah, you deserve that, deserve the anger in his voice. You don’t expect to hear sadness, too, but you do.

“What else was I supposed to do, Brock? Keep torturing myself with every text I sent?” You can’t bring yourself to be mad. You tilt your chin to look up at the stars instead, pretend you can’t feel Brock’s eyes on you. The stars are so much brighter out here, back home. “You were off chasing your dream, so it was time I went after mine.”

There’s silence for a moment. Then, “Why’d you come here, Y/N?”

“I don’t know. One last hurrah for when we were all in college? For freshman year when the future seemed so bright? For when I still thought having a good job in a good city with a guy who loves me would make me happy, but sometimes I feel like I’m in the wrong city with the wrong guy?”

You get up before Brock can answer and leave him sitting on the dock in the dark.

Morning comes, and you’re not sure the conversation with Brock even happened, except for the fact that Brock is alternating between watching you intently and refusing to make eye contact. Chris makes everyone breakfast, and you now understand why everyone was calling him Dad. You settle next to Troy, lean your head on his shoulder.

“Did I somehow do something to make Petey not like me?” you ask, watching him talk quietly to Brock at the other end of the table.

“Nah,” Stetch says, taking a bite of bacon. “His English still isn’t great, and his default resting face makes it look like he hates everyone.” He pauses, takes another bite. “Well, and the fact that you broke our boy Brock’s heart. He’s sensitive, don’t ya know?” His tone is light, teasing, but his words make you freeze.

You gasp, too loud for the morning air. A couple people glance over at you, but you’re turning to Stetch, who at least looks like he realizes his mistake.

“Brock broke up with me,” you hiss.

Troy barely glances down the table at Brock, but you still catch it. For a split second, you consider just getting up and leaving, but settle for glaring at Brock, who doesn’t look up. His cheeks still flush like he can feel your eyes on him.

“I no longer want to be a part of this conversation,” Stetch says, making a move to get up, but you grab his wrist. He winces but stays sitting. “Look, he came back for his rookie year and was always kinda quiet-” You scoff. “-but none of us asked any questions, and then after All-Star he said you’d stopped responding to his texts.” Stetch finishes with a shrug.

“I stopped answering because I was still in love with him and stuck in North Dakota after he broke up with me that summer, dumbass. What the hell else was I supposed to do after he told me he wished I were at the All-Star Game with him? I was never going to be able to follow Brock to Vancouver, and he made it pretty clear he never really wanted me to, anyway.”

You didn’t realize that most of the conversations around the table had gone quiet until it was too late. Brock had gone pale. You had never wanted a confrontation, not here, but it was looking inevitable. Everyone else seemed to sense this, too, because soon the table was cleared, and it was just you and Brock.

“Why do you stay if you’re not happy?” is what Brock says first.

“I- what?”

Brock smiles at you, but it’s sad. “Do you think I can’t tell?”

“I am happy,” you say, defensive. And you are, or you will be one day, once you can finally stop thinking about Brock, about all the what-ifs, the possibilities that are long gone. You were getting there, too, before you came back to Minnesota for this weekend and everything came crashing down around your ears. Still, maybe this is the closure you needed.

“Oh yeah?” Brock says in return, and it's a taunt, really, mean in a way that he’s never been with you.

“Since when do you have any right to my happiness? What do you want me to say, Brock? That I always knew we were never meant to work out, but I fell in love with you anyway? That I went to D.C. and got everything I wanted, but once I had it, it didn’t seem right anymore? They say you never forget your first love, and, dammit, it’s really hard when yours is living his dream and tearing it up in the NHL. Is that what you want to hear, Brock? That I’ll never really get over you, even as I fall in love again, resign myself to the fact that someone else is going to fall in love with you someday, and be everything for you I couldn’t?”

Brock is frozen at the other end of the table. You want to jump in the lake, stay underwater until your lungs burn and your tears are hidden. You want to get in your rental car and drive, drive all the way to Minneapolis and keep going until you’re out of Minnesota and never look back. You want to kiss Brock, for old time’s sake, and you never want to see his face again.

He still hasn’t said anything, so you turn and go inside, past everyone pretending like they hadn’t just been watching everything. You’re throwing everything back in your bag when Brock stumbles up the stairs. You pause, cross your arms, and raise an eyebrow at him.

“Shit, wait,” he pants.

You can’t hold back the smirk. “Aren’t you supposed to be a professional athlete?” you say, almost without thinking.

Brock flips you off as he leans against the doorframe, but it’s half-hearted.

“You can’t just say shit like that and then fucking walk away,” he says, and it comes out more like a whine. “I just- I had no idea. Should’ve probably, yeah, but-” he stops, collects his thoughts. “What did you mean when you said you could never follow me to Vancouver?”

“Would you even have asked,” you say, which isn’t an answer at all.

“I don’t know, you were always talking about all of your plans, and I never wanted to stop you. I didn’t know if you’d ever want to follow me.” And, finally, for the first time in years, it seems like you two understand each other.

“Of course I did,” you say softly, and Brock looks up at you, surprised. “I just didn’t know that then. And then I didn’t think you wanted me, not when I was just some girl from college.”

“You were never just some girl from college,” Brock says quickly. He rolls his eyes. “You wanna know why I asked if you were happy? You cut your hair.” Brock sounds pained, and you remember all the times he would play with your hair while you cuddled on the couch or in bed. “Since when do you change something like that for a guy?”

“And I wouldn’t have had to change for you? After I’d graduated, if you wanted me to come to Vancouver for you?”

Brock’s recoils, your words like a slap to the face, but it’s not as vindicating as you thought it would be. “It’s not just the hair. It’s the way you talk, the way you smile. What happened to the girl I knew?”

And that’s the problem. You’re not the girl he knew, not anymore. You’ve both grown up, lived life a little more. You might still love Brock, but you love the Brock from North Dakota, not the one who’s been in Vancouver for two years. You don’t know that Brock, and maybe you could love him, but that’s not for you to find out. It’s not fair to anyone. It just took you coming out to the lake to realize that.

So you smile at Brock and say, “She got her heart broken and left North Dakota behind.” But you follow Brock back downstairs, spend the day out on the water, feeling settled for the first time since you got there, maybe since you had last spoken to Brock way back in 2018.

That town, that job, that guy You can leave them behind, girl, you know you’re better than that

The boys build a bonfire after dinner, as the sun sets over the lake, and someone breaks out the ingredients for s’mores.

“Y’know,” Brock says, resting his hand on your knee after you’ve settled into a chair. His hand is warm through the blanket draped over your lap. “For what it’s worth, there would always be a place for you in Vancouver.”

Maybe there would be, but you weren’t sure that that place was somewhere you belonged. You don’t say that, though, just settle your feet in Brock’s lap and take the marshmallow that’s being offered to you.

There’s a life waiting for you on the other side of the continent, and it just might be the one you were always meant to have.

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