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rootbeerworshiper · 3 months

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Normal (part 7)

pairing: fem!character + matt sturniolo

summery: Abigail and Matt have been best friends for years and practically grew up together. the two hiding their feelings for one another, until one stupid drunken dare changes things.

warnings: slight anxiety attack at the end but nothing too major

love, sienna <3

abigail’s pov again!

i’ve been back home for a few days now.

well, not home exactly, i haven’t spoken to my parents in years, but Marylou always insists i stay over for the duration of my visits so that’s exactly what i do.

it’s been good being back though.

i missed Nate so much and i’ve basically been hanging out with him every chance i get.

we’ve already have two “family” movie nights which i cherish more than anything. cuddling with Chris and Trevor on the couch wearing Christmas pyjamas even though it’s summer and making jokes with Jimmy about stupid shit.

i’ve also had Marylou there for me, teaching me all her favourite recipes that she knows her own kids will never be capable of making.

i wasn’t “home” but this is the closet thing i have and i’m content with that.

i’ve seen my sister too, it’s a little weird when you go from seeing someone everyday and crying in their arms to getting coffee once every few months, but i think it’s best for us to be on our own for the most part.

trauma bonds some people, and it separates others, just wish the ladder didn’t happen with us.

being back was needed, it always is.

i moved out to LA purely because of Matt.

when we were kids the plan was always for me to go wherever he went, though i’d much rather stay in Boston, i was happy anywhere as long as i was with my best friend. i needed desperately to be with him at all times.

speaking of my best friend, things have gone back to normal, and i think i’m okay with it.

i’ve been journaling a lot more, trying to process all the emotions i’ve been feeling and it’s been helping a lot to map everything out.

sure, it hurt getting rejected, but it’s nothing i wasn’t expecting. Matt’s my best friend, i can’t expect him to want to be anything more, it wouldn’t be fair to him.

so things have been good.

we’ve still kept up with our late night Mcdonald’s runs where we talk about nothing and everything and watch the stars through the sunroof.

we still cling to each others side in social settings.

and we still help each other with our bad habits, even though for me it’s just an excuse to hold his hand.

although on the outside things were normal, something felt different, emotionally.

it’s as if he’s not telling me something, or maybe he’s just closing himself off. either way i don’t like how it makes me feel, and i don’t like that he has that effect on me.

i am still planning on telling him how i feel, at least i think.

i need the closure, even if his only reaction is to distance himself more, i can’t keep doing this to myself.

and maybe when he rejects me i’ll actually be able to move on and stop being delusional.

god i just wish he wasn’t so good with his mouth, that would make this a lot easier.

i sit in the back of the minivan with Nick and Nate to either side of me as we head on a small road trip to Vermont.

i’ve always loved the east coast, i love the way the trees over take the outdoors and i love all the wildlife that comes with it.

it’s also extremely nostalgic for me because it reminds me of all the Sturniolo road trips i’ve tagged along for growing up.

“are you sure you’re okay if we vlog this?” Chris asks, looking back to me as i zone back into reality. i bite my lip momentarily, because as much as i’d rather not be subjected to the hate that comes with being their friend, i also don’t want to stop them from making content.

so i nod. “yeah it’s okay, i feel like they already know me anyways so it should be fine” i shrug, referring to the viewers that have watched every video my best friends have posted.

but i’d be lying if i said i hadn’t, because i love watching them in their element.

“how much longer till we’re there?” Nick asks Matt, who’s been much more quiet than normal this car ride.

“like 15 minutes i think, we could’ve been there already if Abigail didn’t take forever getting ready” i gasp dramatically.

“i can’t believe you are throwing me under the bus like that Matthew cmon” i bring my knees up to my chest and rest my chin on them.

little do i know Matt’s watching me from the rear view mirror trying to hide his flustered face.

it’s quiet for a moment before the song playing on the speakers changes, and i know what song it is right away.

“Matt why are you playing this corny shit” Chris complains, running his hand through his hair.

i’m so incredibly uncomfortable because i know exactly what playlist is playing and now i know that Matt’s listened to the song that describes my entire life.

i’m not dumb, i knew he was on the playlist, but he hadn’t listened to it in so long and i had been playing it more, and well i love Lizzy Mcalpine.

Matt furrows his eyebrows. “i think it’s cute, you’re just incapable of being romantic”

Chris is clearly annoyed with that response, although it makes me blush slightly, i just sit and watch. “shut the fuck up Matt at least i have the balls to be honest”

i can see the way Matt stops breathing, as if he’s frozen in place. “watch your mouth Chris or i swear to god i’ll drive this car into a tree”

it’s awkwardly silent for a second. “okay! anyways what are we planning on doing when we get there” Nate chimes in, attempting to bring the mood up.

“wait oh my god can we please see the alpacas again i miss them” i chime in, a smile immediately forming on my face. i see Matt now smiling too, both of us internally reminiscing on how often we’d spend time with the animals together growing up.

“we definitely have to, i also wanna hit up the shops because they always have good stuff” he replies, looking to the rear view mirror yet again while waiting for a reply.

“maybe we can find stuff to finally decorate your dungeon of a room too” i joke, but i do mean it, i can’t stand a bland bedroom.

Chris of course is having the time of life laughing at this. “Chris don’t act like your room is any better you all lack interior design skills it breaks my heart”

soon enough we make it to the cabin we’re staying at, and i’m literally giddy with excitement. coming here never gets old.

somehow it smells better here, like the leaves provide a freshness you just can’t get in LA.

i grab my duffel bag out of the trunk and make my way inside, still smiling like a kid on christmas morning.

we situate in our rooms, i’m sharing with Nick as always but i definitely don’t mind because our late night talks bring me so much happiness.

for a moment i forget about Matt, i’m just completely and utterly stress free.

well i forget about him until i look over and see the way his hair falls perfectly just in front of his eyes. fuck i’m so down bad it’s embarrassing.

once we’ve set our selves up we decide to go see the alpacas first since i’ve practically been begging the whole car ride…

“OH MY GOD MATT STOP” i grab his arm and begin to run towards the alpaca enclosure “the ugly one is still here oh my god i love him”

he must be in a bad mood all of a sudden based on the lack of expression on his face and by the way he drops my hand. “yeah why wouldn’t he be? it hasn’t been that long since we’ve been here”

i try to hide the small frown that wants to make its way to my face. Matt was always my biggest supporter and even if he didn’t care what i was talking about, he’d be my biggest fan as i rambled on.

“okay wait we need to feed them they look hungry” Chris laughs, clearly not sensing the tension that was formed moments prior.

Nick walks over with Nate, camera in hand. i forgot that that was happening, a smile now making its way onto my face, although i definitely don’t feel happy.

it’s hard to avoid thinking about the pit in my stomach, but i’m probably just being over dramatic.

“look at his goofy ass” Nate says as he feeds the ugly alpaca Matt and i bonded over two summers ago.

we all take our turns feeding the alpacas and my mood takes a turn for the better. i have to focus on the friends surrounding me and forget about the boy i can’t stop thinking about.

the rest of the day is nice, just doing what we’ve been doing for years, buying the same snow cones and visiting the same stores.

nothing makes me more happy then spending time with my favourite people, as insanely corny as that sounds they are my chosen family.

something about the way i can smell the tree sap as i walk on uneven dirt roads while talking about absolutely nothing. i just really wish the small action of Matt from earlier didn’t effect my mood so much.

but him affecting my mood is nothing new.

by now it’s dark outside, which is my favourite time because of the sky. i instinctively go to tell Matt about the constellations i see in the sky, grabbing his arm without a second thought.

before he can even react i take my arms off of him, now remembering what happened earlier today. “sorry i just noticed the big dipper and wanted to tell you”

“okay” he replies shrugging and continuing to walk, not once taking a glance at the stars above us.

okay?

is that what we say to each other now when we express something we’re passionate about?

okay?

i cant hide the hurt on my face but unfortunately Nick notices right away, i can see the way the gears turn in his head and i know he’s about to say something so i shoot him a look. this doesn’t need to become a big deal.

so we carry on as normal, Chris and Nate throwing some huge stick into a nearby creek while Nick yells at them to stop.

leaving Matt and i standing in what was now awkward silence. not something i’ve had with him often.

we make it back to the cabin and i head straight back to my room. i feel so over stimulated and want nothing more than to take of my denim shorts and rot in bed.

so i do just that, for a moment anyways, just finally making myself comfortable with multiple fuzzy blankets when Nick enters our shared room and sits on the bed next to me.

i let out a sigh. i cant keep these thoughts to myself and although i normally tell Nathan, he’s busy having fun with Chris and Matt doing whatever it is they’re doing in the living room.

“Abigail” he states.

“Nicolas” i reply, followed by yet another dramatic sigh.

he shoots me a concerned look, it’s evident how well he knows me. “wanna inform me on what’s happening?”

i pull a blanket over my face and groan, before eventually coming back out to meet Nicks face still looking at me.

“are you prepared for me to rant for the next ten minutes?” i ask “i have lots to get off my chest”

he shuffles in bed, kicking off his shoes and placing a blanket on his lap. “i’m always prepared”

so i do what i warned him. i talk for the next few minutes, explaining my feelings, the moment in the hot tub, and how that all leads to now.

i try my best to avoid crying because a part of me won’t allow it. my dads voice echoing in the back of my brain telling me to grow up. “i don’t know what i did wrong, i don’t know what to do Nick. i cant live like this anymore”

he hugs me and i immediately break. every feeling i’ve bottled up for years pouring out into his chest.

he just rubs my back as i cry. he doesn’t even need to say anything.

and we stay like this for a while before i pull away.

“i just feel so stupid. part of me thought that the moment in the hot tub would lead to more. i thought that maybe he liked me back or maybe- i don’t know.” i sniffle, trying to gain composure because although i just let myself cry, i don’t feel proud of it.

“Abi you’re allowed to feel. you are a human being with emotions and you need to feel them.” i nod, a tear still making its way down my face. “i can’t give you advice until you speak to him. you’re right, this can’t go on anymore, but until you say something it will.”

“but-“ i begin

“but nothing. obviously he’s being an asshole right now but neither of you know where you stand and that’s confusing for both sides. you can’t keep this in anymore, it’s not normal nor is it healthy. okay?” he finishes, waiting for a response.

i sigh. “okay. not tonight though, i need to process what i’m gonna say i think.” i reply, pulling the blankets back up to my chin. “you can go hangout with them if you want i know i’m being annoying right now”

“don’t say stupid shit you’ll never annoy me.” he slaps my arm playfully, causing a smile to form on my face.

i don’t know why it feels so difficult to tell Matt how i feel. he’s my best friend. the only person in the world who knows everything about me, other than the fact that i’m in love with him. and it breaks my heart that i struggle to tell him.

i just wish it didn’t matter this much to me i wish i didn’t base my self worth off of how much a boy looks at me or if he’s excited about the things that make me happy. i’m nothing without him. i mean without Matt i don’t know who i am, and now he’s pushing me away all because of a stupid drunken fling

it breaks my heart that no matter how hard i’ve tried to suppress these feelings i’m forced to confront them. maybe i’m running away from what i feel, or maybe i’m choosing the safer option.

the option that’s supposed to leave me less hurt.

yet here i am with Nick sleeping beside me, trying to suppress more tears.

my heart rate increases and my breathing speeds up. god i feel so weak, so stupid, so hopeless.

if Matt were here he’d tell me to focus on my breath. he’d hold my hands and talk me through all my worries. he’d rub my back till i’ve fully calmed down and then do some stupid baby voice to cheer me up.

if he were here i’d be whole again, but he’s not, and i’m just here at three in the morning stressed and alone.

i need fresh air.

a/n: i kinda hate this i think but that’s okay lolz

taglist: @athaliahxoxo

#sturniolo triplets #matt sturniolo #sturniolo #matt sturniolo smut #matt sturniolo fluff #matt sturniolo fanfic #matthew sturniolo #sturniolo smut #sturniolo triplets fan fiction #chris sturniolo #nick sturniolo

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jessmt · 4 years

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Trust in Me

Summary: You've always had trust issues. In this world, it's all for one and none for all.

Or, at least you thought it was, until Jesse came along.

A close look into Lake's mind throughout season two and afterwards

Notes:

So, fun fact! This piece was originally meant for a zine that I'd applied for, but I never heard back from them, so I just assumed that it...wasn't happening anymore? Never even got a "sorry, we went with someone else/we're full" email back from any of the administrators. Oh well.

I've always had a soft-spot for fics written in a second person perspective. It's hard to write well, but some of my favorite fics I've ever read were second person fics. I've always found them so in-tune with the characters' and reader's emotions. I hope I did it justice, because I love Jesse and Lake an unhealthy amount.

AO3

You’ve always had trust issues.

Yeah, yeah, you know how edgy that sounds when you say it out loud. But you don’t mean it in the same way as those narcissistic teenage boys who call themselves lone wolves and act like an ass to everyone they meet for no reason.

You don’t have a choice. If you were naturally the approachable type with groups of friends in the double digits, you’d be just as happy. You’ve never told anyone, but if you’re going to be honest with yourself, you think you’d actually be happier that way. But it’s not, and it’s entirely because you know you can’t.

Everyone who takes a good look at you for longer than, say, a quick glance, automatically assumes two things about you. One, that you’re going to hurt them if they approach you, and two, that you’re a fugitive. And while there are the passive few who would rather not get involved at all, because they don’t want the Flecs to take them in beside you (even though that’s not how it works at all), most of them report you on sight. The worst of them will grab the closest reflective surface they can find and shove it in your face. Which is never fair, because all you’ve done since Tulip set you free is aimlessly wander around the train.

As a matter of fact, you don’t even trust Tulip that much. You’re sure that part of it is still because you’re holding a grudge against her for being forced to live as her reflection for thirteen years, which, okay, she couldn’t control. But it took you breaking down sobbing in front of her for Tulip to agree to help you at all, and that was already after one of her friends had called the Flecs on you.

You’re never just you. You’re a copy, you’re a reflection, you’re a criminal, you’re a sliver. Nobody ever gives you enough time to even ask you for your name, let alone give you enough time to even think of one. You’re not a person, you’re a mistake. Nobody cares about you, and if you need to shut everyone else out just to keep yourself alive, then so be it. If it’s gotta be all for one, then it’s gotta be none for all, because nobody cares about you.

Or so you thought.

Jesse Cosay changed your life in ways that you can’t describe. Yeah, okay, he never called the Flecs on you, and even when he had the chance to turn you in he refused (and actually listened to your story before he made that decision, Tulip), but that’s not what you’re talking about.

Anyone can be a good person. Anyone can just say “no, that’s awful, I’m not just gonna turn her in”. Most of the passengers on the train probably would’ve said the same thing, if they thought that helping you escape could help lower their number. Jesse was willing to help at the expense of his number going up, but that’s still beside the point.

He’s the first person to actually listen to you. He’s a chatterbox for sure, but he genuinely hangs on to what you have to say.

“I’m MT,” you’d told him when you first met. It’s the first real name you’ve ever given yourself, and you still kind of hated it, all things considering, but the more times he said it and the more enthusiastic he sounded when he used it, the less you started to hate it.

But the less you started hating your name, the more you realized how fleeting all of this is going to be.

The more comfortable you let yourself become, you realize, the quicker it’ll all be taken from you. Once Jesse’s number hits zero, you’re right back where you started. You’ll be stripped of your name, since nobody will give you the time of day to listen for it. You’ll be a copy, a reflection, a sliver.

You try not to let it bother you, because you already know what’s going to happen if you do. That’s how Tulip ended up on the train to begin with, by pretending that she wasn’t bothered by her parents separating. I’m fine! She’d claimed, but the longer she tried to convince herself she was okay, the less and less she spoke to her own best friend.

And, well, maybe it’s a bit premature to call for sure, and you’re sure you’d never hear the end of it if you ever said it out loud, but Jesse’s the closest thing you’ve got to a best friend. If you stop talking to him a few days before you’re never gonna see him again, you’re both gonna be miserable, which is just going to make matters so much worse.

You bury the feeling down, take your anger and frustration out on the Flecs, and that disgusting parasite, and pray Jesse doesn’t notice.

But Jesse “I’m friends with everyone I meet” Cosay notices right away, and he says the words you never expected to hear from anybody.

“I’m not just gonna leave you here with the Flecs chasing after you”.

Not “oh, I’ll try”, or a sympathetic hug, or a teary-eyed premature goodbye hug as everything’s just hitting him for the first time. “I won’t”, he promises, like he’s been planning this since the first time they encountered the Flecs in the Map Car.

He wants you to come with him. It’s not a fun hypothetical to imagine to pass the time, like all of his mirror questions had been. It’s a demand, rather than a question, because he knows that you’ll be miserable if you stay.

Your cheeks burn, and you’re speechless.

You regret nothing, you tell yourself, as tears pour down your cheeks. You’re covered in dirt and mud and every equivalent of blood you can think of, but you regret none of it as you swing your crowbar at steward after steward. You don’t care anymore, you tell yourself. You don’t care if you have to take the damn train apart gear by gear.

You already lost Jesse, and when the damned train still wouldn’t give you a number after everything, after you’re sure you’ve gone through more trauma than all of the passengers combined, there went your hope. And you’re not the kind of person who feels sad and gloomy when you’re feeling hopeless, oh no. You get angry. You get pissed. You run into the next room, guns blazing, ready to kick the shit out of the next person who even looks at you the wrong way.

Hope and positivity are a rarity for you, so when it’s forcefully ripped from your hands, you’ll do everything in your power to take it back twice as forcefully. It’s embarrassing, really, that you’re an angry crier, because you really need these sons of bitches to know that you’re paying them back tenfold.

You never fully understood what people meant by blind rage until you do right now. You just keep swinging, and swinging, since nobody’s paying attention to you anyway. Someone’s gotta cave eventually, right? Destructive behavior is a sure-fire symptom of trauma, isn’t it? Someone’s gonna come by and realize you’re acting out of hurt, and give you some random number so you can work out your problems and eventually get out of here, right?

Well, you’re half-right.

“Hello!” One-One chimes, eerily cheery for the situation at hand. “Please stop destroying my stewards”.

“Unless you want me to write up your obituary”, his gloomy counterpart chimes in.

And...threat aside, a tiny part of you is relieved. He’s Tulip’s friend, so there’s a chance he’ll understand, right? All you need to do is just explain everything, and you’ll be free to go, right?

You couldn’t be more wrong. He’s just babbling on about how you’re just there to help, how you were never really Jesse’s friend, and you’re close to crying again. You want to believe it’s out of anger, because you know that can’t be true, but you’re too burned out on anger and too exhausted to really fully convince yourself of anything.

Until One-One pulls up his list of passengers, and just two little words on his screen are enough to make your heart stop.

In-Progress.

Jesse Cosay: In Progress.

If One-One is talking to you at all on the way over to the Tape Car, you can’t hear a word he’s saying. Your heart is beating so hard in your chest that it’s making your ears ring, and as One-One carries Jesse back to the Number Car, you’re pretty sure you’re actually vibrating, because you can’t believe this is actually happening.

It’s an indescribable feeling, knowing that he cares about you. It’s indescribable, knowing he doesn’t take the word promise for granted.

He came back for you.

He literally went through hell and back, just to spend more time with you.

Now you feel like crying for an entirely new reason.

Jesse Cosay is something else.

You’ve been living with him for six months now, and he still insists on making every day a new experience for you. “Fourteen years on a train is nothing compared to four months off of it!” he’d exclaimed exasperatedly when you asked him about it. That’s not how it works, but you never argued against it.

It’s a sweet gesture. He’s gone out of his way to make you as happy as he possibly can ever since you broke down sobbing the first day you were off the train. You were able to wait until Nate went back home, thank god, but it was the ugly, uncontrollable kind of sobbing that overpowers your body so much that you end up sprawled across the ground looking like a complete and utter fool because you’re too overwhelmed. You’re still not entirely sure if you were overwhelmed in a good way, or overwhelmed in a bad way, but you remember pretty clearly the way Jesse held you in his arms and helped you to your feet when you were ready.

You hadn’t even told him what happened yet, but he was already promising you that you’re safe, it’s never going to happen, and that he’s personally going to make sure that your experience in Arizona is a significantly better one than the one you had on the train. That made you laugh, because literally anything would be better than what you went through on that train, but you know that he meant it.

You told him, later that night, and for the second time that day he held you in his arms as you shook and focused on nothing else but steadying your breathing. He didn’t say a single word unless you prompted him to, or he wanted to ask a question in the shyest tone of voice you’ve ever heard. It made you laugh, every single time, and you had to lightly tap on his wrist every time to silently tell him It’s okay, I’m laughing, and no, it’s not a stupid question.

It’s….adorable, how much he cares about you. And not at all in a sarcastic kind of way, either. He’s got this really sheepish smile, and he’s always brushing his hair out of the way, and when he hugs you to comfort you he touches you really lightly like he’s afraid you’re going to flinch even though he already verbally asked if it’s okay to hug you. It makes you laugh, when you think about it too much, and you’re painfully aware of the blush on your cheeks that accompany your laughter.

You can’t help yourself. He’s so goofy, and chatty, and cheerful, and friendly, and so the exact opposite as yourself from when you first met. But he’s so sweet, and honest, and caring, and...trusting. He trusts so easily, and where you would’ve rolled your eyes in his direction less than a year ago, it’s your favorite thing about him today, because you don’t know where you’d be today if it weren’t for his trust in you.

You’re not great at expressing your feelings. You’ve always known that about yourself. You suppose that’s probably the trauma talking, because if you’d even dared to express yourself to anyone on the train you’d be a pile of sand by the next morning. But you’ve been stewing in your feelings for Jesse for nearly two months, and you’re not sure how much longer you can take keeping it in. When you come from a place that always valued telling the truth, even if it was difficult, it’s a hard habit to break.

Okay, that’s not a hundred percent true. A few nights into your stay at Jesse’s place, you stumbled down the stairs in a fit of insomnia looking for a cup of water just to try and see if walking up and down the stairs would tire you out. Jesse’s mom was in the living room watching television, and you paused, unsure of whether you should keep going or if you should sneak back up the stairs and try again in an hour.

“Oh, hello, Lake”, she said, turning from her seat on the couch to face you. Well, that answered your question. “Is something wrong?”

You scratched at the back of your head as you made your way towards the kitchen. “Couldn’t sleep,” you replied, digging through the cupboard looking for a clean cup.

Mrs. Cosay patted at the couch beside her. “Oh, well you’re free to join me on the couch and see if my boring old movie helps to put you to sleep”.

You snorted at the idea, but figured it was probably a better idea than jogging up and down the stairs to tire yourself out.��

You don’t remember the title of the movie now, but you do remember that it was some rom-com from the 80’s, since Tulip was never interested in those. Which, of course, was exactly the reason you wanted to check it out.

Spite really is the best motivator, you’d told yourself, but you ended up enjoying the movie a lot more than you thought you did. You’d tried watching a few other movies like it, just to see if Mrs. Cosay had just been watching a particularly interesting movie, but it turns out that no, you just really have a soft spot for romantic comedies. Maybe especially the really cheesy ones set to pop music from the early 2000’s. You’d deny it for sure if you were ever asked about it, but it was...interesting, to learn that kind of thing about yourself.

Tulip had never really been one for relationships, and here you were, living with your best friend, a class-A example of those soulmate AU fanfictions you definitely haven’t read. It’s not that you necessarily believe in soulmates, or anything, it’s just that you’re well aware that you experience a lot of….feelings, when you read them.

You’ve wanted to tell Jesse how you feel about him all week. Ever since his school let out for the summer, he’s been in an even cheerier mood than usual, and every time he directs that smile in your direction you swear you just want to pull him into your lap and kiss him.

But every time you get close to confessing, you freeze. Your ingrained trust issues always stop you in your tracks. If he says no, your friendship will be ruined and you can’t live there anymore. If he says yes and then you break up, you won’t be friends anymore. If if if if.

You hate that word. If. You wished it wouldn’t exist, or at the very least, that it would stop repeating itself on loop in your head. You shouldn’t need that word, because you know that Jesse is different. You know that things are going to be okay.

You trust him. You trust that you’ll be okay.

He said he wants to surprise you today. The way he’s practically bouncing up and down on his feet and pacing back and forth while he’s waiting for you to lace up your boots makes it seem like he’s about to take you on the most extravagant adventure you’ve ever been on. You’re laughing again, and pause to lace your boots up even slower, just for the sake of his exasperated reaction.

You flick him in the forehead, for good measure, and you’re out the door. He insists on walking, for the ~element of surprise~ , which, okay, has got to be the cutest, dorkiest thing he’s ever done. He swears it’s not a walk, but it’s not like it makes a difference to you. You’re walking side by side, and your hands are almost touching, and part of you is wondering if it’s purposeful on his part.

You’re not sure how long you’ve been walking when Jesse stops in front of….an ice cream parlor.

“Surprise!” he beams. “One of my friends from school works here, and he was just telling me they restocked last night before closing, so we can get any ice cream you want”.

You honestly don’t have the heart to tell him that you’re the reason his family keeps running out of ice cream and that this will not, in fact, be your first experience eating the miracle of ice cream, or whatever. You settle for rolling your eyes, hoping that he won’t take your silence for a no.

Actually, speaking of silence, there’s nobody else here yet, and if you’ve learned anything from all of those dumb movies, there’s really no better time to just go for it then when you’re alone.

“Jesse, wait” you say, reaching out to take his hand in your own just before he can head up to the counter to order. “We should talk”.

“Yeah?” Jesse replies, turning to you. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah”, you say, bringing your hands up to eye level. “Everything’s great. I just...wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you, Jesse”.

He grins, and you swear to god it’s the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. “Aww, you’re my best friend too!”

Your heart jumps in your chest. You take a few subtle steps closer, and hope he notices. He does, but doesn’t take a step back. Okay, that’s a good sign. “No, Jesse, I mean…” you pause, and the little devil on your shoulder is whispering all the things that can go wrong again. You shake your head, to clear those thoughts, and when you look up to meet his eyes again your foreheads are practically touching.

“I…” you start, and he can tell that you’re getting anxious, because he’s placing his free hand on top of yours.

“You…?” he asks quietly, his head tilting quietly to the side.

You take a deep breath. “Jesse...I trust you”.

And all of a sudden you want to curl up and die. You hadn’t meant to say trust. You had meant to say something else, but you were too busy arguing against yourself that you didn’t realize it until it was already out of your mouth. You want to backtrack, you want to apologize, you want to take it back, but you can’t, because if you try to take it back then it’s just gonna sound like you don’t actually trust him, or-

Jesse cups a hand to your cheek, startling you back into reality. He’s smiling, but not as exuberantly as he had been earlier.

“I trust you too,” he says, and leans forward to gently kiss you on the cheek.

#my writing #infinity train #jesslake #infinity train book 2

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fandomrewrites · 4 years

Text

Season 2; Episode 3: Ice Pick

Hello all! I’m back home from my vacation so I’ll be back to updating every Monday but I figured since I missed last week I would post a chapter today! I hope you all enjoy and as always constructive criticism is welcomed!

Season 2; Episode 3: Ice Pick

Pairings: Scott McCall x Twin Sister, Lydia Martin x Best Friend

Warnings: Nothing

Word Count: 2,220

Season 2 Masterlist

Today was the day we were rock climbing in gym class. I was standing next to Lydia and Stiles as we watched Allison and Scott climb the wall. Allison and Scott slowly made their way up the wall, clearly talking to each other. After about a minute they start racing the other up, Scott using his supernatural abilities to stay just above Allison. When Allison looks to see Scott by her side, she quickly kicks his foot away from the wall. She smiles triumphantly seeing him fall back to the ground, the safety line stopping him right before he slams into the mat.

I smirk as Coach leans down to speak to my brother, “McCall, I don’t know why, but your pain gives me a special kind of joy.” He straightens back out and turns around to address the class, “All right, next two. Stilinski. Erica. Let’s go.”

Stiles happily steps up towards the mat, getting on his harness and safety lines without a problem.

Nervously, Erica Reyes, a skinny girl with dull blue eyes and fizzy blonde hair, steps up beside him. As soon as they are both safely attached to the harness and cables they start climbing.

Stiles has no problem quickly reaching the top and making his way back down. Erica on the other hand, has made it about a quarter of the way up and stays frozen to the spot. As we all gaze up at her Coach starts speaking, “Erica? You okay? Dizzy? Vertigo?”

Next to me Lydia sighs, “Vertigo’s a dysfunction of the vestibular system of the inner ear. She’s just freaking out.”

I lightly elbow her, I’ve never talked to Erica, hell I barely even knew she exists since she’s never been in my friend group, but I still don’t want people to make fun of someone with a fear.

Once again Coach calls out, “Erica!”

“I’m fine!” She shakily calls out, still frozen on the rock wall.

“Coach, maybe it’s not safe. You know she’s epileptic.” Allison speaks up.

“She is? Why the hell doesn’t anyone tell me these things? Erica, you’re good. Push off. I’ll ease you down.” Erica is still frozen, the only thing she moves is her eyes, squeezing them shut.

“Erica just let go.” Coach calls up once more. Finally, Erica gently pushes off the wall. She grasps tightly to the safety line as Coach eases her from the wall. Her feet hit the mat and she shakily gets out of the harness, “That’s it. Erica. Shake it off.”

A few kids snicker at her as she walks to the back of the crowd. Sighing, I step up to the wall with Lydia by my side. I turn to her, smirking, “Race you to the top?”

There is a mischievous glint in her eyes as she replies, “It’s on.”

*_*_*_*_*_*

Now in the locker room, I was changing out of my gym clothes with Allison and Lydia nearby. “You’re coming with us tonight, right?”

I look over at Lydia and immediately shake my head. “What? Why?”

“Well Allison and Scott are going to be together, and even though you don’t like him like that Stiles and you will be together.”

Lydia pulls her lips into a pout, “That’s not happening and you know it.”

I roll my eyes but before I can say anything Allison speaks, “Nothing has to happen, but the point is that you two did go to the dance together and he does like you. (Y/N) doesn’t want to be a fifth wheel.”

I nod my head, agreeing with the hunter. “You won’t be the fifth wheel! Stiles would be.” Lydia exclaims with a bright smile lighting up her face.

I shake my head, a laugh escaping, “I am not getting in between whatever weird relationship you and Stiles have.”

Lydia dramatically sighs, “Then bring a date! There are plenty of guys on the lacrosse team that would love to go out with you!”

I scrunch my nose up at the thought, “No thanks. I’m living my life and I do not need a man in it to be happy.” I pause pulling my shirt over my head, “Plus, Nate really screwed me over and no matter how much I want to move on, I know it wouldn’t be fair to whoever I go out with. I’m just not ready to start dating yet.”

Lydia’s shoulders sagged as we made our way out of the locker room and back into the gym, “You girls have fun though.” I smile, trying to cheer Lydia up.

Just as I finished speaking we looked up and saw Scott running towards the rock wall, making it just in time to catch Erica from hitting the ground.

*_*_*_*_*_*

I sat with the girls at lunch, Lydia still trying to convince me to come with them to the ice rink tonight. Before I could speak and tell her no once more the cafeteria doors burst open, our heads all swivel to look at whoever enters.

The girl has a face full of makeup, styled blonde hair, a tight black skirt, showing off her long legs, a white tank top and black heels. “What. The holy hell. Is that?” Lydia asks.

Scott’s eyebrows knit together, “That’s Erica.” He states from the table next to us.

As the exchange is happening, Erica reaches down grabbing an apple from another student’s tray. She bites into it, then quickly turns on her heel and walks out the doors. Scott, Stiles and I quickly move after her.

We follow her to the front of the school where she exists, walking down the steps and into a black Camaro, Derek Hale sitting behind the wheel.

“So what? He’s just turning a bunch of teenagers?” Stiles asks.

Scott gulps, “He’s forming a pack.”

*_*_*_*_*_*

I sit at my desk writing an essay for class. I’m so focused that I don’t hear my mom walk into the room behind me, “Working on homework?”

I jump at the sound of her voice, “God, mom! Don’t do that.”

She chuckles gently, “Sorry.”

Turning to look at my mom who sits on my bed, I answer, “Yeah, I have an essay for English due in a couple of days.”

She nods, “Scott’s not home?”

I shake my head, “He’s with Stiles.”

“You didn’t want to go with them?” She asks.

“Not today. I figured they should have some guy time.”

“What about Lydia?”

“She’s on a date. She tried to set me up so we could go on a double date like we used to but I said no.”

“Well why not? I’m sure there are plenty of guys from school that would love to go out with you.”

I sighed and stood up to sit next to my mother. I laid my head on her lap as she started playing with my hair, “Well-” I hesitate before speaking up again, “I know that what Nate did was horrible, but I can’t help but still care about him.”

“Oh sweetie, you loved him. He broke your heart. It’s going to take some time for you to move on and that is okay.” My eyes started to get misty as I rapidly blink, refusing to cry.

“I know I just- I don’t want to care about him anymore. He doesn’t deserve my love.”

My mother smiled sadly, “No, he doesn’t. But I think it’s beautiful, how deeply you care and love. That’s something to cherish (Y/N).” She paused for a minute, continuing to run her hand through my long locks, “It’s alright to feel broken sometimes and someday you will find someone who looks at you like you put the stars in the sky. And when that day comes and all the days leading up until then, I will be by your side.”

I sat up and pulled her into a tight hug, “I love you so much, mommy.”

“I love you too.”

*_*_*_*_*_*

At lunch the next day I sat near Allison and Lydia, like most days. “How was the date last night? I never got the chance to ask.” I look at the two girls waiting for an answer.

“It was nice to be able to go on a date again.” Allison smiled.

I turned to Lydia, “I surprisingly had a good time. But that may just be because I’m good at ice skating.”

I smirk, “Are you sure it’s not because Stiles was there?”

Lydia rolls her eyes, “Yeah, I’m sure.”

“I don’t know why you won’t give him a chance. He practically worships the ground you walk on. He’ll treat you like a queen.”

“I don’t like him like that. And once again, I’m going to ask. If you have such high praise for him why don’t you date him?”

I shake my head, “One it would be weird considering he’s practically another brother. And two I’m not ready to date again, which you already know.”

Lydia gently grabs my hand, “(Y/N/N) I know that you’re hurt about how Nate treated you but you need to move on. He’s not worth it and there are so many people at this school alone that have crushes on you.”

“She’s right you know.” Allison pipes up.

“Not you too.” I groan, looking at the hunter.

“Listen, I get it. You loved Nate and it’s going to take some time to fully get over him. But as long as the guys that you go on dates with understand that you aren’t ready for a real relationship, what’s the harm?” Allison says.

I sigh, “I guess there is no harm to going on dates if they’re aware of where I stand. I just don’t want to lead someone on.”

“That’s why you tell them the truth from the beginning. I mean I’m pretty sure everyone in the school knows what happened between you and Nate anyway. I’m sure whoever you choose to date will understand.” Allison smiles.

“Or you could have some fun.” Lydia shrugs,

I raise an eyebrow, “You mean don’t tell them anything and just lead them on?”

“No. I mean don’t do dates but become friends with benefits with someone.”

I laugh, “I’ll pass, Lyds.”

“It’s just an option.” She hums, a small smile on her face.

*_*_*_*_*_*

Just as school lets out Scott and Stiles filled me in on what they knew about Derek’s new pack. “So he’s going after Boyd?” I question.

Scott nods, “I’m going to head to the ice rink to see if he’s at work. Stiles is heading to his house.”

I nod, “I would volunteer to come with one of you but I promised Lydia I would hang out today. Be careful, both of you.” The two brunettes nod as we go our separate ways.

“There you are.” Lydia says as I meet her by her car.

“Sorry, I was talking with Scott and Stiles.”

“I’m happy you said yes to a girl’s afternoon. I feel like we haven’t hung out in forever. Just the two of us, I mean.”

I smile, “I know. I miss our girl days.”

Once we made it to her house we grabbed some snacks from the kitchen and headed up to her room. “Okay so I actually wanted to talk to you about something.” Lydia says as we sit next to each other on her bed.

“If this is about trying to set me up you already know how I feel about that.”

“Okay, one, I figured Allison and I convinced you to give dating a try. And two, it’s not about that.”

“If I do give dating a try, I want it to be with someone I choose. Not someone you set me up with. Bit that’s beside the point, what was it that you wanted to talk about.”

Lydia sighs, “I told the others not to tell you but I hate hiding things from you.” She pauses as I knit my eyebrows together in confusion. “Something happened at the ice rink yesterday.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well- It’s hard to explain.” Lydia bites her lip.

I reach for her hand to provide some sort of comfort, “Hey, it’s alright. Take your time.”

She nods, “I don’t really know what happened but one minute everything was fine and the next I was on my knees looking at the ice and screaming.” She gulps before she continues, “I think it might have something to do with when I went missing.”

“Maybe it’s your mind trying to remember what happened.” I suggest.

“It could be.” She replies hesitantly. “I just feel like a freak. Everyone was so worried about me and I couldn’t even give them an explanation of what happened.”

“Well trust me, Scott, Stiles, and Allison will not look at you like you’re a freak. Plus, even if they did, they’ll have to look at me like I’m a freak. ‘Cause I’m never leaving your side, no matter how freaky you may become.” I gently smile at my best friend.

Lydia starts smiling at my words, “I guess we’ll just have to be gorgeous freaks together.”

“Always.” I pull her into a tight hug. We both fall onto her mattress as we laugh at the other.

#teen wolf imagine #series rewrite #sister mccall imagine #lydia martin imagine

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roskimag · 3 years

Text

I Pinned You From Across the Zoom

By Tori Frank

When you have them pinned, that’s how you know it’s real. The anonymous owners of @usc.missedconnections on Instagram discussed zoom romance and the seductive mystery of having an admirer behind the screen.

Imagine Gossip Girl, but make it all horny college students deprived of casual touch. That is the drama of @usc.missedconnections. If you don’t avidly stalk their account, you either have an unheard of self-confidence that doesn’t require any external validation, you deleted your Instagram in a fit of quarantine frenzy, or you haven’t heard of them yet, and you’re very curious about the previously stated analogy.

See the bio of the @usc.missedconnections page: “Have a message for the person whose zoom you always pin or saw from 6 ft away? Anonymously send your missed connection below!” Below sits the google form where all the virtual action happens: the flirts, the cat calls, the compliments, and the subtle roasts. It really is a good time, somewhat making up for the lack of classroom banter that would normally occur.

I sat down with the students who began the account, and we chatted about the new sensation that is dominating everyone’s feed.

Tori: My roommates and I have been following your page pretty actively, as I think a lot of people have been recently.

@usc.missedconnections just surpassed 3000 followers in the few months since their origin on September 30th, 2020

T: It’s definitely very entertaining, especially with Zoom making everything a little bit more boring and separated. It’s been really fun to follow @usc.missedconnections and see what’s the tea! To begin, how did you come up with the idea of creating this account?

Connector 1: I was between USC and another school out on the East coast. Some good friends that I went out and visited there showed me the [Instagram] page at that school, and I was like, “Hey that's a cool idea, that looks like a lot of fun.’ I texted _(Connector 2)_. I was like, “Hey here’s some dumb idea, we’ll get 50 people, we’ll get 2 responses a day. It will be kind of fun to just post them,” and we just grew from there.

T: So how many posts do you guys get a day now?

Connector 2: It’s actually ticked up a lot in what, the past like 2 weeks-ish? For a long time we had a solid 100 just in the bank, and then we slowly [opened them], but it's been 200 plus starting just recently, which is weird. We started posting more frequently to catch up.

Connector 1: Yeah I presume we get about 30-ish on average a day.

Are you intrigued yet? About 30 lucky students across the online campus are being called out for some reason another, be it their sexy voice, their mustache, their wall decorations, or the way they eat their oranges. And on the flip side, about 30 people a day are shooting their anonymous shot through the account. With anonymity of course comes a certain audacity to get real freaky over the submission form. I wondered how freaky it could get.

T: Do you post all of the ones that come, or is there some sort of filtering process?

Connector 1: We’ve had a couple instances where people have been mentioned or certain organizations that have been mentioned have requested for us to take the post down, so we’ve always just respected that if we’re ever asked to take the post down for whatever reason.

Connector 2: I periodically will go through, and I’ll be like, “This one’s weird, I don't think we need to post that,” and then I'll delete it.

_(connector 1)_ idk if you know that I do that, but um…

Connector 1: Oh probably. I mean, I’ve deleted one before.

Connector 2: Yeah, when I’m doing them sometimes I’ll be like ‘this is a little weird how can we phrase this in a way that's not exactly… yeah.

T: Yeah, what’s like the line? Because I think a lot of the time some of the things can be kind of… creepy… I mean the whole thing is like…

Connector 1: (cuts in, chuckling) Kinda creepy

T: (agreeing) Kinda creepy, right!

There have been submissions such as:

“To ____, Did you know if you rearrange the letters of Coronavirus you get “carnivorous”? Which makes sense because I want to spend the next 14 days of quarantine eating you”

and

“____ in BUAD 497, my only motivation for coming to class is being able to pin your video and look at your beautiful face for two hours”

Connector 1: It’s interesting, um, when we first started it, we talked, and the thing we were worried most about was like cyber bullying, and I personally haven't seen many posts. You get the offhand sarcastic comments, um, which are pretty funny sometimes, but I don’t know if we... we don't really have a set filter. If we feel like something’s over the bar, then we’ll kinda edit it out. Of course a lot of the time too if we’re iffy on something we’ll text the other person and be like ‘hey what do you think of this’ so, it's no distinct line, but our goal is never to make anyone uncomfortable.

T: Yeah, I think generally it's been pretty positive, a lot of affirming things. Even sometimes not romantic, like just positive comments which is pretty cool, and it's good to see that that's been going on.

Aw so sweet, fellow Trojans getting along so well. But this is a juicy topic. Playing the role as the reporter, I had to get the inside scoop.

T: Do you ever get messages about yourself?

Connector 1: I’ve had 2

Connecter 2: Yeah he’s had 2, I haven’t had any and I’m mad about it. I want one

Connector 1: I gave you one

Connector 2: You gave me one but I knew it was from you so it didn’t mean anything.

T: So you’re not only the owners of the account. You’re sort of participating in the game as well.

Connector 1: Oh, it’s always a blast when like you’re reading through and you know the person who it's getting written about and you’re just waiting. Yeah, that’s like my favorite part of it, and also the guessing games sometimes are a lot of fun too.

Connector 2: For a long time people were scared to tag people that it was about in the comments, but now there’s no hesitation. People will just tag everyone, which I think is really fun.

Its also fun that we don’t give the full last name because then its kinda funny when you get a really generic “Sam B” or “Lucy J” and 6 different Lucy’s get tagged and half the time we know who it really is because we saw the last name and then edited it out.

T: Why don’t you include the full name?

Connector 2: I think it’s more fun. (shyly shrugs) It’s about keeping the mystery, you know? Who could it possibly be about?

Connector 1: We do get a lot of requests though because of that, where people are like, “Hey, is this me? Can you tell me who sent this in?” and we're like “I don't know.”

Connector 2: Yeah people DM us every day asking for things, and also sometimes people don't understand that we have a forum in our bio and they send it in thru DM, their missed connections, which sort of ruins the anonymity and its sort of embarrassing for them bc we have to be like, “please submit it in our bio,” and they have to be like “oh god now they know”

T: It’s almost like a masquerade.

Again, I am imagining Jenny Humphrey wearing her golden mask at the Constance Billard School for Girls Masquerade Ball, prancing around Nate Archibald without him having the faintest idea of who he will be kissing. Maybe this is a little different, but the spirit is there!

T: Looking through your posts of course, a lot of them are, “Oh, I have your screen pinned, I watch you all the time in class” Do you guys do that? Do you think that that's like, Zoom behavior now, or is that still cringe?

Connector 2: Idk if I’d pin for a whole class, but I’ve been known to take a look, and based on all the things we’ve gotten sent it I guess people do. If you’re in a lecture thats boring, fair enough. I can't fault you for that. It’s so weird right now, so who knows?

Connector 1: I think it's really fun also, like, people get really creative too. A lot of them are really general but we just posted one today that had a Kanye reference. We get poetry sometimes. I love the poets. It’s a lot of fun for us and I think other people get to read the more fun posts then, like “hey I saw you”, when saying “hey I saw you” does make it, I guess, easier to match, but it’s less exciting for everybody else

T: To match... going off of that, have you heard of any success stores?

Connector 2: I have not but I desperately want to know. I think if people get married we legally have to officiate the wedding. We’ll go public to officiate the wedding. We’ll break anonymity for that.

T: Do a little daft punk moment

Connector 1: Yeah exactly. The [ones] behind the mask.

T: Do you think you want to continue it next year or post COVID in general?

Connector 1: Yeah, I mean I want to.

They talked about potential future: color schemes, contemplating a purple theme or the classic USC colors. I can tell that the account is only growing from here. It’s not like there is any shortage of desperate college students!

T: That’s exciting. I’m excited to see where the account goes!

Connector 1: Us too

T: I’m also looking forward to hopefully getting a post about myself. I have not yet. I know you guys are hiding it

Connector 1: Oh yeah, well with the 200 post back log I’m sure it’ll come out soon...

#usc #uscroski #roski #roskimag

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mxflo · 4 years

Text

Wings Of Fate - Part 23

Changkyun stares at the blood trickling down his hand. Pulling out a piece of glass from the shattered mirror he tosses it in the trash can. Turning the water on he cleans his hand and by the time he’s finished he’s healed and there’s no sign of there ever being a wound. His eyes lift under heavy lids as he looks at himself in the broken mirror. This is the second one he’s broken this week. Changkyun has been losing himself to rage more and more and the frustration of not being around you is fueling the anger. Leaving the bathroom he reaches for his phone and dials the number for the maintenance manager.

“Hey, it’s me. I need a new mirror in my bathroom, it’s shattered. Thanks.” He hangs up and tosses his phone on the bed. The entire apartment staff is under his control by this point. No questions are asked, and whatever he wants, gets done right away. They fear him to much to challenge him in anyway. Though the heavty tips he gives them could be a influence as well. Most humans are greedy after all.

After spending the day inside, letting his playlist run, he decides he’s bored of staying inside and decides to head out for some fun. Grabbing his car keys he heads out without a destination. As he walks out into the hall he stops for a few seconds, listening. He hears the faint sound of your TV on. Ever since Nate was in your apartment you always had the TV on for background noise since you still get uneasy staying there alone.

For a second he almost knocks on your door, but he stops himself, knowing that he is more of a danger to you now than ever before. He is promised to protect you, and that includes protecting you from himself. Turning on his heals he heads to the elevator.

Before long he finds himself driving around town, unsure where to stop, and growing more bored of driving by the second. Finally he heads back to the apartment. Anger builds up inside as Changkyun grows more frustrated with the mundane life. Wanting excitement of any kind he wishes he could see something eventful. Even if it’s at the cost of others. He pulls up at a stop light and as he’s watching cars pass by him one by one. The light begins to change again and as he sees cars start to slow down to stop he focuses on one leading the rest around it, wishing that they could be in enough of a hurry to run the red light.

When the car starts speeding back up Changkyun sits up straighter, his full attention now on this car. Then just as he wished, the car speeds into the intersection, as another car is mid turn. The two collide and with the distinct sound of metal crunching. He sits there, observing people running from their cars to check on the ones inside of the cars. Several people have their phones out. A scream for help comes from the turning car. There’s blood coming from their forehead and they aren’t moving. The person screaming is the passenger, trying to wake them up. It’s sickening how much that person cares. Changkyun is reminded of himself protecting you from Nate. He had felt what must have been similar emotions behind those screams.

Closing his eyes, he takes a deep breath. Then maneuvers his car around the scene of the crash and continues his drive home. His influence over people is definitely stronger in this form, which only makes him realize he’s even more of a danger to you than he had thought. His mind goes back to the last time he saw you in the elevator. How your body reacted to him. You had said you didn’t miss him, but when your body practically begged for him he thought you had just lied to him. Though if he has the power to cause what just happened, maybe you actually didn’t miss him at all, and he had just willed you to react to him the way he wanted you to.

Hurrying the rest of the way back, he slips into the apartment, turning music on to try to drown out the feelings he’s trying to ignore. When that doesn’t work he grabs a bottle of whiskey, leaving the glass behind.

**********************************************

“Excuse me!” You yell out, waving the bartender down, ready for another drink. He looks your way and nods as he finishes up the drink he’s currently making. You smile and nod when he walks over as he confirms you want another drink, the same as you had all night. Shortly you have your third...maybe fifth drink of the night in your hands as you turn around to go find Bri on the dance floor where you left her.

When you find Bri she grabs your drink and takes a sip before handing it back. You roll your eyes as she laughs and pulls you further onto the dance floor to join her. Song after song, you both continue to dance. Sometimes finding some random guy to dance with but growing bored of all of them quickly.

When the current song ends you excuse yourself and Bri as you leave the most recent random guy behind. Holding her hand as to not get separated you both push your way back out of the dance floor. You head for the bathroom and as you enter it Bri hesitates, looking behind her shoulder for a second, confused.

“What?” You watch her.

“...Nothing, just thought I saw someone I knew. I guess I didn’t.” With that she walked into the bathroom and let the door close behind her. “Hey, can I see your phone, my is dead.”

“Sure.” You hand her your phone. “You really should be more careful about recharging your phone before we go out.” You tease.

“I wasn’t expecting you to agree to this tonight.” She laughs.

“True. I didn’t either.” You shrug as you head into a stall.

Once you both are ready to go back out, Bri leaves first, walking quickly to the bar. You try to keep up with her but struggle as you have had a fair amount to drink tonight. “Slow down.” You plea.

“Sorry. Lets get some water.” She slows her steps just slightly, still walking a little to fast for your liking.

When you reach the bar she pulls out your phone. You had forgotten she had it. She asks you to smile and instead you raise your middle finger at her, sticking your tongue out childishly. She snaps the picture quickly, and puts the phone back in her pocket.

*************************************************

“Kyun, this has to stop. You are slipping further away from your humanity.” Jooheon sighs as he stares at Changkyun slumped over on the couch.

“Who cares. She thinks I’m a monster, so might as well be one.” Changkyun shrugs, his tone ice cold.

“You’re not a monster.” Hyungwon states.

“Maybe not, but I am a demon.” Changkyun corrects.

“Which are lost angels. So there for, you are still an angel.” Kihyun chimes in.

“Also still a demon.” Changkyun rolls his eyes. “I know you mean well, but it’s to late.”

“You can repent, stop sinning, learn from your mistakes. You will be forgiven but you have to ask for forgiveness and stop acting so barbaric.” Shownu speaks up.

Changkyun groans as lays his head back on the back of his couch. “Look, I get why you all are here, but I also don’t care.”

“So what if you don’t. We do. You can still be forgiven if you just take it seriously.” Wonho glares at Changkyun, annoyed with how he’s being.

“Why keep trying? I wanted this. I didn’t want to see the paths Fate makes with every choice. I failed already. I lost her.” Changkyun closes his eyes. He’s sobering up to much already. Reaching for the bottle again, a hand stops him.

Changkyun looks over at Wonho with a puzzled expression. “You’ve had enough.” Wonho warns.

Changkyun rolls his eyes again. “Whatever.”

Then the chime of a text grabs everyone’s attention. Wonho reaches for phone and when he sees the name he smiles, but it instantly fades as he opens the message. “Looks like your needed at the club right now.”

Throwing the phone to Changkyun he reads it and his head spins. It’s not a text, but a picture. “I need to go.” Changkyun growls. He drops his phone on the table, the picture displayed on the screen for everyone to see.

“This one is all you, we can’t stay much longer. Don’t go off the deep end totally, okay?” Shownu pats Changkyun on the shoulder. “You wont be able to even protect her if you go to far down this path.”

Changkyun looks around the room at all of his brothers who came together in an attempt to save him, again. Changkyun gives an understanding nod, and then one by one they quickly say their goodbyes before leaving Changkyun alone in his apartment. Staring at the picture sent to him once more before he grabs his keys to head to the club.

#changkyun #changkyun au

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seven-oomen · 3 years

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Hi, Ben! I hope your day is going well so far! Are you still getting snow, or has the storm calmed a bit? We’re supposed to be getting a potentially severe ice storm over the course of today. There’s already a thin layer this morning, we’ll see how the rest of the day goes. And temperatures are supposed to stay in about the -4 to -6C range the rest of the week. I’m very glad that I’m off the next couple of days, and managed to get by the grocery last night after work.

I saw your post about writing and writing styles! It was helpful because I’ve not really seen the different styles written out and explained before. I’m still not 100% which I am, but probably either an intuitive plotter or a methodological pantser. Usually there’s a scene or a line or two that I’m like “this needs to happen in this story” and everything else is fairly free-form. I did try actually writing down an outline for IYWTD, but even then it’s more a list of beats/tropes and the order I want to include them in. (And I’ve only just made it past halfway through, although a couple may need to be altered a bit, oh god, how did this get so long…)

It’s also always kinda of amusing to me how many of those writing advice lists are like “Don’t do this”, “Stop doing this”, “Never do that”, and then they’ll encourage you to find your own voice and style. Like, bitch, you just told me not to ever do half the shit that makes up my style. Which am I supposed to do? Damn. XD (You will seriously pry adverbs and similar descriptors from my cold, dead, grasping hands. Also the occasional epithet. No, I’m not using a character’s name nine times in one paragraph, sorry, and pronouns don’t always help if the characters are the same gender. The reader can deal. ;D )

And I feel ya on the tall, skinny, blue-eyed boys thing. It doesn’t have to be just a white boy, but if he’s taller than me, slender, and has a pretty pair of baby blues, my higher brain functions tend to go into insta-lag. I ain’t particularly proud, but I’ve long accepted this about myself (there are many reasons Luke became my forever BAE.) That’s not to say a lack of any of those is a deal-breaker in the slightest, but it’s definitely going to immediately get my attention.

Speaking (vaguely) of Luke, I had a thought the other day of him and Din being off on some planet together (Grogu is staying with Aunt Leia and Uncle Han for a few days), and there’s a noise in the middle of the night, and Din refuses to accept Luke’s assurance that there’s nothing out there, and in true himbo fashion insists on going out to investigate having grabbed only the darksaber and his helmet to cover his face -but nothing else. Luke just finds it a combo of hysterical and adorable (and kinda hot.)

I hope your novel is going well (whatever stage you happen to be at), and I’m always up for hearing whatever you feel like sharing about it.

I hope you’re still doing well with the whole eating and hydrating regularly thing (it’s also totally okay if you aren’t!), and I’m super proud of you for sticking to it as much as you can anyway. That shit is hard. (Also, ignore the 1500 calories thing, I swear that shit is designed for 130lb women trying to shed a few pounds, not people who need to safely and steadily lose larger amounts of weight. But then I’ve also never fully understood making someone lose weight before surgery, either. “We need you to get rid of some excess weight before we’ll okay this surgery to *checks notes* get rid of some excess weight." Like, weird flex, but okay.)

Anyway, I’m rambling again, and should really eat some breakfast and try to write a little myself today, maybe. Hope you’re feeling okay, and that things are going well overall. I hope Mo is doing well, and enjoying his best cuddle buddy life. Take care! *Hugs!*

Okay, gonna try this this way so that I can refer back to the links on my phone if need be. I couldn’t quite see the full entries for the physical descriptions, and when I tried clicking on them it kept asking for a login, but I think I saw enough to get the gist. I’m not sure exactly what sort of feedback you’re interested in, if any, so this will mainly be my usual sort of rambling stream-of-consciousness type thoughts and questions. Hope that’s okay. Feel free to ignore if it’s not what you’re after right now! :D

I think one of the first questions that popped to mind was where is/what happened to Ellie’s mom, and is that something that’s going to cause problems later in some way? (I.e.- was she killed on a hunt, are they divorced, was it bitter or amicable [would she come after her daughter if she heard about his relationship?]) I guess technically similar questions could also apply to Nate (late husband, ex-husband, ex-boyfriend, one night stand, sperm donor?) it was just more noticeable with Ellie being so young still. Although that could also be part of why he’s ended up in Wyoming, which was another question I had, although there I assume it’s hunt-related.

I also anticipate quite a bit of tension of all kinds when he and Nate first meet, because Faron strikes me from his descriptions as someone rather used to being able to get his own way either through the influence of who he is, or through his size (not necessarily in any kind of intentional or aggressive way, more in an unconscious privilege kind of way, if that makes sense?), and I don’t think Nate sounds like the type to give two shits about either of those things, and it would probably drive Faron up the proverbial wall that Nate isn’t intimidated by him in the slightest. (I could be entirely wrong about all this, this is just the impression I get so far. :D ) And I think Nate being noticeably older than him would just make it that much more irritating at first, too. Now, how long these impressions last will just depend on how quickly they get to know each other, and whether Bachelor #3 is helping or hindering things. XD The potential for just sitting back and watching the fireworks as “laid-back dad jokes with a quick temper” clashes with “quiet, reserved, and possibly takes themselves slightly too seriously” might prove too much for our last contestant for a while, depending on where his personality falls. ;D (Especially since Faron coming in and starting shit will likely come off as a direct threat to people and places Nate considers under his protection.)

Also, are any of these three going to have met before? Will Nate already have some sort of relationship with the werewolf (Does he already know about the supernatural at all?) Did he and Faron encounter each other on the trip to Europe you mentioned in the Life Highlights? If he and the wolf already know each other, how does he get along with Cas, or Nate’s pets? Is the werewolf also going to be native to the region? Does he know anything about Faron’s family? Does Faron already know he’s a werewolf, or is that going to be a bit of a crisis for him later? A test of how well he’s learned not to judge? If Nate doesn’t already know, how will he deal with both their secrets? Do you plan for full-shift only wolves, partial-shift only wolves, or a mix of the two like TW? Are there other supes in the area?

I think you mentioned maybe having him be of Native American descent? I think that could be very interesting, but would require a LOT of research into which tribes are active in the Yellowstone area, and what their individual mythologies say about things like shapeshifters, and LGTBQ+ issues, etc., because there can be a fair amount of variance, I’m sure. Also, I’m just overall curious how he’ll fit in with the other two size wise (get your mind out of the gutter, you know what I mean. XD ) Also curious if any o them are going to have the slightest clue on the feelings front, or are they all going to be just absolute disasters? Will the kids figure it out before they do? Will the kids get along? (Will BachelorWolf have any kids of his own, or just Nate and Faron?) Will Nate’s coworkers have any clue about either the supernatural, or what’s going on with those three? Because I suspect at least some of them will be way more obvious than they think they’re being. XD

Uh… I think that was all that’s occured to me right now?… I’m sorry you’re having a yucky day overall, and I hope tomorrow’s a bit better! The ice storm has finally moved in here, and I can feel the temperature drop radiating off of the front door and windows. It went from rain to freezing rain/hail and I’m not sure how long it’s supposed to last. Hopefully only a little while. Also, sorry your book was terrible. I haven’t seen too many recent recommendations from friends, and I’ve been mostly reading “cozy” mysteries (Agatha Christie, Elizabeth Peters, etc) as my comfort reading myself, lately, so I can’t really suggest anything in particular, unfortunately. At least, nothing I think you wouldn’t already know. Anyway, hope you’re getting some decent rest, and hope you have a better day tomorrow! Take care! *Hugs!*

Alright since this is going to be like a very long one, I’m break it down into a few things.

First full physical descriptions, cause I didn’t know Milanote would be a bitch about it.

Nate:

164 cm (5'4), 75 kg (166 lbs), Short slightly overweight trans man in his middle age. Nearly always the shortest man in the room, only standing around 5'4 and weighing in around 166 lbs. With kind moss green eyes that have permanent crow's feet in their corners and a polite but reserved smile always on his face.

A face that's framed by faint freckles that are only visible in the sunlight. A neatly trimmed beard spices up his features and frames his pink lips. His thick but short eyebrows frame his eyes and create a short arc to his slim nose.

A high forehead separates his brows from his wavy dark blond hair that's always tucked behind his ears.

He generally wears the Superintendents' Park Ranger uniform while on duty. When he's not he wears comfortable jeans and t-shirts, usually a mono color like green, white, or black, plaid flannel shirts, socks with the weirdest patterns and colors, and hiking boots. He wears a steel ring on his right index finger and has a little steel Mjolnir on a necklace around his neck.

He's missing two fingers (his ring and little finger) on his left hand due to a childhood accident.

Faron:

185 cm (6'1 ft), 93 kg (205 lbs), Faron is a tall man with plenty of muscle from his time hunting. He can seem daunting and intimidating when you first meet him but there is a kinder, softer side to him. He has a warm light brown skin color, blue eyes, and black natural tight curly hair that he keeps very short. His full dark beard decorates his cheeks and chin, connects to his upper lip, and all the way up to his sideburns.

He tends to wear dark clothing, leather jackets, no jewelry that could identify him, jeans, henley shirts, or V-neck shirts, and black, brown, or red jackets. He usually wears black combat boots or dark brown hiking boots. He's got knives and other weapons hidden all over his body and pockets and it might take him a good few minutes to unload every single knife from his body when he was to disarm.

There are also scars all over his body, including some scars on his neck that are visible from day to day life. He had the bad luck of being struck down by a vicious Wendigo but managed to escape. He survived thanks to his sister's quick thinking and first aid.

He covers some of those scars up with tattoos; he has one tattoo of a dragon laying down on his shoulder, with its head on his chest and its body curling over his shoulder and ending just below his shoulder blades. And one tattoo covers up some scars on his lower arm, it's a tattoo of a wolf's head that covers up a bite mark.

Dichali:

He’s 37 and has 4 siblings, and two children, Kajika & Kaniya (Jika & Niya, identical twins, but one of them identifies as male, he’s trans. Kajika is his chosen/reassigned name. They are 10.) Dichali grew up in Riverton, WY, which is the largest town of 10,000 in the largest Native Reservation in Wyoming. He’s also a dear friend to our Nate (who is also his boss technically) and has slowly been falling in love with him for the last few years. (Although he still hasn’t realized that he loves his friend.)

Yena, his coworker and friend, who’s much younger at 25 has been watching her coworker and her boss joke and dance around each other. She has a betting pool with her girlfriend on who snaps first.

Not sure how I’ll connect him to Faron if it’s more fun/better to have him find out later or to already know him and keep it quiet.

I’m still working on him, so I don’t have much of personality and other things written down yet. But I have made his physical description:

At 178 cm (5'8) and 83 kilos (182 lbs) Dichali probably isn't the tallest man you've met, he's also not the shortest. And while he's got some good muscle on him from working as a Park Ranger, and being a werewolf, he also has some softer sides. All the better to cuddle with. He has long straight brown hair that falls to his mid-back and deep brown eyes and a long nose that ends prominently. His eyebrows are thin and he has a high forehead. His skin is a light Tawny color, there's a hint of an orange brown with a cool undertone.

His skin is also relatively clear and youthful looking because of his lycanthropy.

He tends to wear pants and jackets made by native designers and always incorporates native fashion into his outfits. He has jackets of mostly gray, blue, brown, and black colors made of denim, cotton, wool, or brass that are lined with more traditional cloths and patterns like the designer brand Ginew. Usually he pairs them with dark jeans, either black, gray, or dark blue. He pairs it with white, blue, red, black, or printed band t-shirts (Metallica, Green Day, Marianas Trench).

For shoes he has brown hiking boots that are part of the Ranger uniform, more western styled boots like black cowboy boots, and a pair of sneakers.He also wears a copper bracelet with lighting bolts etched into it.

Now this whole story got started because I had the question what if we had a DILF romance going on while/because the following happened?

What if a YouTube video that accidentally got uploaded shows the existence of a werewolf in Yellowstone park? Threatening to expose the entire supernatural world.

The werewolves right now are a mix, so half shift is like the classical half shift of a wolf head on a man’s body, but the full shift is more like a larger wolf. Almost the size of a black bear. Though I might change those ideas as the story progresses.

But that is how the Cryptid of Yellowstone is brought into the world. And that brings problems. Big problems.

Wendigos, vampires, djins, I plan to create a world where a lot of supernatural creates exist. From all sorts of cultures. I’m also toying with the idea of Kelpies and Griffins. That kind of stuff.

The supernatural world is hidden from ours, hidden in plain sight if you will. Most encounters are written off as really strange, sometimes a picture pops up, but with the coming of the internet, things have gotten more complicated. Also with deforestation and competition with regular wildlife has made some bigger supernatural creatures either extinct or thought to be extinct. They’re not sure what still lives in Australia, though.

Nate or his son don’t know about the supernatural world. Neither does Yena. Or much of the world. Dichali, his children (to some extent), Faron, and Faron’s family do know about this world.

Alright, as for your other post XD

Right now it’s no longer storming but due to the freezing temperatures the snow’s not going away and all public transport and delivery services are still not driving/delivering/running. So that’s neat. Not.

I swear we get some snow and the country is just down. Upside, ain’t nobody going outside and this helps with lockdown.

I hope your snowstorm won’t be too bad and everything thaws down soon. Snow’s fun for a day but after that...

Make sure you stay warm alright? And bundle up.

Yes dad... alright XD

Honestly, I’m glad to hear you liked my advice too. I’m getting quite a bit of positive feedback on it and that just makes me really happy ^^. I’m definitely writing more writing advice from everything I’ve learned so far.

There’s honestly so many contradicting ones out there, it’s a matter of picking and choosing which ones work best for you and applying those. And that’s the real trick of advice.

Fun fact, a lot of famous writers are also pantsers. Steven King, Neil Gaiman, George RR Martin are examples of famous pantsers or gardeners as they are also called.

John Grisham, JK Rowling, RL Stein fall into the plotter or architect category.

Writers like Hank Green seem to fall in the in-between category of plantser (somewhere between a plotter and a pantser. Or the Intuitive plotter.)

Okay but the DinLuke things is really really kinda hot and cute and adorable and has me smiling <3

And I can’t remember what else I wanted to say since it is like 2 am and my meds are seriously kicking in now.

But I hope you’re doing alright and that the snowstorm isn’t too bad where you’re at.

I’ll be alright, my diet hasn’t been going so well the last few days and I can’t really exercise, but I did mostly get healthy groceries that will be delivered friday so there’s that.

Fingers crossed I can pick it back up.

Okay I’m heading to bed XD

I’ll talk to you later, B <3

Hugs from me and Mo <3

#my ocs #please don't reblog #B #my convos with anon #ben writes original fiction #submission

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dearroseyy · 4 years

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Cutting ties with so-called friends.

I'm that type of person who is really outgoing and friendly. I made a lot of friends, or should I say acquaintances? I don't know how to define them now but before all I know is, they are my friends until...

Until they did things I cannot tolerate. Until they did something that a friend is not supposed to do to a friend. Until they stopped talking to you since they got into a relationship or got a life of their own.

Before, it was really tough to cut ties. Kasi sila yung literal na naging buhay ko. Takbuhan ko pag may problema ko, takbuhan ko kapag wala akong kasama o wala akong magawa, takbuhan ko sa lahat ng oras, online man o physically. But when you start to feel being abused and used, you really have to let go. When you feel like you're pushing yourself on someone else's life, kahit sabihin pa nating long-time friend pa yan, stop.

Walang matinong kaibigan ang aabusuhin at gagamitin ka para sa pansariling pangangailangan. You may fail to feel their true intentions of keeping a relationship with you because you love making friends but when you start noticing how things change when you can't give, you'll realize they are not the friends you like to keep. And please, if they claim to know you and still had the guts to do the things you dislike, don't forgive them especially if they don't apologize and kept lying and acting as if nothing happened. Pride is sometimes good, it reminds you of your self-worth so don't be afraid of showing it.

Do not forgive until you're not ready. If you want to continue life, then you can forgive but asking them back in your lives is your choice and you should be ready.

I have a set of long-time of friends that I'm struggling to keep up with. Technically, it is wasn't really my choice but I got separated due to the course I took in college. And since I got separated and both ends had new set of friends, a new set of people to run to, you just don't know where to place yourself. Until I got into relationships and I really take them privately. And losing them more in the process.

I'm currently living with two of them and I can say that sometimes I still struggle on how to jive with them. Aside from chosen career, hindi ko lang din talaga alam kung paano. You know the genuine relationship is there but you don't know how to ignite the fire anymore bcos of the changes that took place in between those years.

And honestly, I miss my bestfriend the most. Hindi ko na nga masabi kung bestfriend ko pa ba talaga sya. We rarely talk. Pag umuuwi ako, mahaba na yung 2hrs na magkasama kami. I'm thankful for the time pero alam mo yung feeling that I always have to be the one to make plans? To make efforts? Nakakapagod din. And then if you're not physically there, the friendship is merely existing. Yun nga, di nabubuwag pero wala ring ganap. Parang alkansyang di mo napapansin, andyan lang sa cabinet mo pero dahil di mo nilalagyan ng laman wala ring kwenta. Display lang.

There were a lot of times that I tried approaching. Telling her my problems pero I always felt being shut down. That's when I started opening up to other people, wrong people maybe, and eventually stopped opening up.

I always chat first. Asked about her tweets anf random things but never got a reply. Pero malalaman ko sa ibang friend ko na magkausap sila. Alam ko sa sarili ko na hindi na selos to, kasi nasurpass ko na yon before. I just want a fair treatment. Kasi minsan I'm starting to question my self-worth. Am I really worth it to be a friend to keep? If yes, bakit hindi ko mafeel? Every time I let my guards down, I end up crying. If I let my guards up, no one even notices and tries to climb it up.

So from being the outgoing and friendly self, I became too selective with people. Or should I say, I tried to look for new bloods but eventually gave up because it made no sense.

And yes, despite being surrounded by some people, I still feel alone. I still feel like crying my heart out. I still feel like losing my mind.

I am longing for care, understanding and attention and I'm tired of seeking for it. Napagod na ako. Napagod na ako ipagsiksikan sarili ko sa buhay ng iba. Pagod na akong gawing experiment yung sarili ko if a relationship will work or not.

And sometimes I just feel like relationships, in general, doesn't suit me. That kind of relationship where you don't lose yourself in the process. That good and healthy kind of relationship.

It's not shocking. I grew up without a father. I don't have a strong bond with my siblings so I cling to my friends whom I'm struggling to keep up with. So yes, I think the amazement of my Psych about me is really legit. How was able to take all of this in after all these years? I don't know.

Siguro matapang at matatag lang ako sa early stage ng buhay ko. At sa dobrang daming struggles, naubos yon agad at di ko alam kung paano, sino at saan magrerecharge.

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master-sass-blast · 5 years

Text

Moving In

Wow, Sass, you’re great at picking titles that don’t completely give away what the fic’s about! Good job!

Summary: You and Piotr move into the same room together, officially. Here’s how it happened.

Pairings: Piotr Rasputin x Reader and Nathan Summers x Wade Wilson.

Rating: T for language and mildly suggestive sexual content.

You’re not entirely sure how this happened. It wasn’t something you were trying to make happen.

Not that you mind! You’re totally happy with the situation and all that it entails. It was just... unexpected, is all.

But, as you take stock of reality and all it holds, you can’t deny that you’ve officially crossed a new adult milestone.

You’ve moved into the same room as Piotr.

In hindsight, it was kinda inevitable. You’ve basically slept in his room every night --unless he was on a mission (you’ve never felt right about sleeping in Piotr’s room when he wasn’t there). You've got an extra set of toiletries for his bathroom and kept a change or two of pajamas in there. You've basically only gone to your room to get a change of clothes or one of your few possessions that you kept in there.

Frankly, it just wasn’t practical to keep two separate rooms. There were other mutants that needed your room, and you didn’t use the damn place enough to warrant keeping your name on it.

But, of course, it raised the legitimate issue of how to pop the question, as they say.

You do it as you do just about everything else: bluntly and with as little thinking beforehand as possible.

“Hey, you wanna move in together?” you blurt out during lunch one day.

Piotr, to his credit, doesn’t bolt out of the room screaming like most sitcoms would have him do. Instead, he blinks, then grins. “Sure.”

“Cool.” You grin, then stage whisper to your sandwich. “All is going according to plan. He doesn’t suspect a thing.”

Piotr just laughs and kisses the top of your head. “Whatever you say, myshka.”

Of course, popping the question really just opens up a slew of chaos.

First, you have to figure out where you’re moving too. As familiar as it is, Piotr’s room isn’t big enough to house two people. Which means you have to pick a new room to move into. Fortunately, Xavier’s does have a few rooms meant for couples.

Unfortunately, the term ‘couples’ implies that two people have to agree on which room to pick.

Easier said than done.

“I think the one on second floor would be best. Most centrally located,” Piotr says after the two of you poke around in all the available rooms.

And, granted, he’s right, but--

“But the one of the third floor! Babe, it’s perfect!”

He raises an eyebrow. “It is right next to Wade and Cable’s room.”

“Okay, yes, but--”

“And it means getting up ten minutes earlier to start workouts on time.”

“Fair point, however--”

“And--”

“Okay! Babe! I get it! It’s less efficient! However, I have an argument to obliterate every reason you could come up with!”

He smirks and reaches out to run his fingers through your hair, amused and endeared more than anything else. “Khorosho. Let’s hear it.”

“Two words: garden tub.”

His eyes squeeze shut and he laughs incredulously. “That’s it? The bathtub?”

You peer up at him through your lashes and trail your fingers up and down his chest. “It’s big enough for both of us.”

“Really? Really?”

“Maybe I like the idea of taking a bath with you. Is that so wrong?” You smile as he laughs again and wrap your arms around his waist. “Please? Pretty please? I really like that room.”

He hugs you back and smiles down at you. “We’ll see.”

The two of you end up going with the third floor room; Wade helps you come through with a couple clutch arguments that seal the deal.

First being the balcony attached to the room that made for a convenient landing spot if you were flying, second being your proximity to Wade and Nathan if you had an episode while Piotr was gone on a mission and needed help, and third being your proximity to an easy exit if you slipped into an episode too fast to get to a safe room and needed to clear the mansion.

Let the record show that you like winning, especially in areas that aren’t necessarily that important. Or a competition.

Which is what Piotr reminds you when you pump your fist after he agrees to moving into the available third floor room.

You break into a victory dance anyway, twirling around and pumping yourself up as you shimmy, sway, and bounce your way around your boyfriend’s bedroom.

Piotr, to his credit, doesn’t admonish you or complain. He simply rolls his eyes and chuckles as he watches you relish your “victory,” smiling fondly as his gaze tracks you around the room.

And when you start swaying your hips in a more adult fashion and shake your ass in his direction, he doesn’t complain either.

(But, admittedly, your victory dance does stop shortly thereafter.)

Officially moving into one space with Piotr is... surprisingly easier than you expected.

Maybe it’s because you really don’t have much to your name, even after all your time spent at the mansion.

Or maybe it’s because Piotr is so damn practical.

(It’s both, if you’re being honest.)

You get the bed moved first --well, Piotr and Nathan move the bed while you and Wade act as spotters and make generally unhelpful comments about your respective boyfriend’s asses.

(If there’s more to life than this, you don’t want to hear about it.)

Desks, chairs for said desks, nightstands, lamps, and bookshelves go next --again, Piotr and Nate move, you and Wade spot and comment. The bookshelves are placed on the wall opposite of the desks, framing the room and making a neat pathway to the bed, which sits by the door to the balcony.

You have to say, you like it. You like the layout, like the blend of his stuff and yours.

Clothes are next at Piotr’s insistence --something about having the space functional even if everything isn’t in the new room.

(Given that disasters have a habit of striking at the least convenient times, you can’t really argue.)

You blindly chuck your clothes in the closet, then turn and jump when you see Piotr standing behind you, staring you down disapprovingly. “Whoa, babe, you scared me.”

“Pick up your clothes.”

“They’re in the closet! I fail to see the problem!”

“Y/N.”

You roll your eyes dramatically --you know he’s right, but it’s so annoying. “Ugh! Fine!”

Books, CDs, art supplies, random tchotkes --everything is brought up from your old rooms, arranged and rearranged, until you’re both relatively satisfied with how everything’s laid out.

You sit on your new bed that night, gazing happily at the new space. Your artwork is hung over your desk with pieces of Scotch tape, and some of Piotr’s works are framed and hung opposite of the bed.

You’re certain that things will be rearranged eventually, as the two of you find ways to make the space ‘fit’ better. But, for now, you can’t find it in yourself to care all that much.

It finally feels like you have home --more so than the mansion or your old room ever was. The room’s yours, yes, but it’s also Piotr’s, and it has reminders of him everywhere that help you relax into the space and make you feel safe; the subtle smell of his cologne and the soap he uses, the neat order of his desk and art supplies contrasting against the colorful chaos of yours, his nightstand on his side of the bed that has pictures of his family, of Russia, and of you...

It’s a reminder that you’re not alone, not anymore, and you love it more than you thought you ever would.

Piotr emerges from your --shared!--bathroom in a pair of boxers and nothing else. He doesn’t miss the way you eye him, and he smirks. “Thinking about anything, myshka?”

You smirk back and push your sentimental mood aside. There’ll be time for that later. Right now, you’ve got more important things to do. “Yeah, actually. We need to christen the room.”

He chuckles, shakes his head, and leans back against the bathroom door frame. His biceps flex as he crosses his arms over his chest, and the hungry way his gaze rakes up and down you is a dead giveaway that he’s as much of a fan of the idea as you are. “Really? Is that all you can think of?”

You’re never one to back down from a challenge. “Well, I could run through the list of all the swear words I know, if you’d like--”

He rolls his eyes and stalks over to the bed, yanking you down so you’re positioned to his liking and pulling apart your legs with his hands. “Nyet. You’re not doing that.”

“I don’t know. I’m pretty good at talking. And swearing.”

“If I’m doing job right, you won’t be able to think enough to talk.”

And that --that sounds awfully promising.

You grin, lust charged and defiant all at once, and whip off your shirt before smacking him in the face with the garment. “Oh, it’s on. Do your worst, Mr. Rasputin.”

He growls, tears the shirt out of your hand, and yanks your pajama pants off in one swift movement. “With pleasure.”

You let yourself lie back against the bed and sigh happily as he begins attacking your body with his mouth and hands.

You’re home.

There’s something wonderful in that.

#sass writes #piotr rasputin x reader #colossus x reader #nathan summers x wade wilson #cablepool #pure fucking fluff #fluff fluff fluff #nothing but fluff #how many times do i have to say fluff before i won't be sued for the cavities this causes #get it #cause it's fluffy #you and piotr move in together #that's it #that's the fic #im not sorry #piotr rasputin imagine #colossus imagine #x men fanfiction #deadpool fanfiction

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agentmarymargaretskitz · 7 years

Text

The Next Firestorm

Thank you @marywisdom for pulling me into this glorious rabbit hole.

Fanfiction, AO3

When it actually happened, Jax never saw it coming.

Sure, he knew that Grey wouldn’t be with him one day. Everyone bit it sooner or later in life. There had been some discussions before on the Waverider that implied Firestorm’s older half would no longer be with them at some point. It wasn’t something that he liked to think about, so Jax usually pushed it to the back of his mind.

The mission was looking bad enough even before the Time Bureau retreated with their tails between their legs. Only the Legends were left against Grodd and his league of supervillains. He and Stein had separated to take out the weapons systems there. One minute they were working back to back and the next Jax felt like he couldn’t breathe. He turned around in time to see Kuasa drowning Grey where he stood.

The look of shock on the physicist’s face before he died made Jax scream.

Kuasa was ready to go after him next with the same fate when Zari showed up and took him out. She helped Jax get the body back to the Waverider and straight to the med bay. There was nothing that even Gideon could do for him though. Martin Stein was gone.

The rest of the team soon showed up as the Waverider took off into the temporal zone. Jax knew he was crying, but he didn’t really care. As soon as she saw everything, Sara hurried over and pulled him into a hug. Amaya leaned against the wall, hand over her mouth. Ray looked like he was ready to cry. Mick bowed his head in respect as he suggested they return to their present day Central City.

“I’ll get on that,” Sara released him. “I’m sorry, Jax.”

He didn’t know how to respond.

“Just get us back to Central,” Ray spoke up. “We need to bury him as soon as we can. I’ll stay with the body until we get back.”

“Thanks, Ray,” Sara murmured before leaving the room.

Amaya draped a blanket over Grey’s body as Nate finally spoke up from the corner. “What are we going to tell his family?”

Jax swallowed. Clarissa and Lily were going to be devastated by this. Everyone had always expected Grey to just retire. Never had the thought of breaking this kind of news to his family occurred to them before, not even after losing Snart. Now, they’d have to tell the Stein women and Team Flash about this.

“We tell them what happened,” Jax said quietly.

Lily Stein broke down in tears when Jax and Ray went to break the news to her about her father. She didn’t want to believe it after she heard the word ‘dead’. Her father, the man she’d spent her whole life looking up to, was gone. When he’d gotten back on the Waverider, she’d been certain that he would come back home alive. The last thing she’d wanted was to be standing beside her mother with a black ribbon pinned to her chest and dropping a handful of dirt onto the pine box in the ground.

The rest of the attendees beside her and her mother were the Legends and the members of Team Flash. They’ve given their condolences before the service. Caitlin had come up and hugged her, familiar with the grief that came with losing a father. Ray had talked with her for a while before Mick Rory nudged him to move along. When she’d started to lose a grip on her emotions during the funeral, Jax had reached over to give her hand a squeeze of comfort. It was a small gesture, but one that helped a little.

Afterwards, Lily stood by the grave of her father as everyone filed out of the cemetery. She was still upset and grieving, but now she felt angry. Why did this have to happen to him? Yes, what he had been doing was dangerous and risky, but it didn’t feel fair. Her father was gone forever, and she’d never been able to say one last goodbye to him. It had been ‘see you later’ when he got back on the Waverider, not ‘goodbye’. If she’d known he wouldn’t have been coming back, she might have said some more things to him.

“I’m really, really sorry.”

Lily turned around to see Jax coming up to stand beside her.

“It’s my fault he’s gone,” he continued. “I should have had his back, and I didn’t that time. If I’d been paying attention to what was around me, he’d still be alive. This happened because I messed up.”

“No,” she shook her head. “Don’t blame yourself, Jax. He wouldn’t have wanted that. How could you have known that this…water witch was going to kill him?”

Jax didn’t say anything, but lowered his eyes to the ground.

“So what are you going to do now?” Lily asked softly, changing the subject.

Jax sighed slowly. “Firestorm needs two halves. I’m planning to go talk to STAR Labs later in the week, see if there’s something they can do that’ll let me still flame on. If not, then I’m gonna have to see if I’m staying on the Waverider or not.”

“You’ll find a way,” Lily nodded. “I’m sure you will.”

“We’ll see,” Jax shrugged and shuffled his feet before walking away.

Lily turned around before he got too far away. “Jax.”

When he stopped, Lily glanced back at her father’s grave before looking back to Firestorm’s last half.

“Thanks for bringing him home,” she said.

“We couldn’t leave him behind. At least this time, we remembered to give a Legend a funeral.”

It was two days before Jax finally made it to STAR Labs. The people there were happy to see him again and asked how he was doing. He went along with it all, happy to have a distraction before taking on the more serious business. When he finally brought it up, they didn’t look remotely alarmed.

“I’m guessing you guys already have a solution?” he asked once he finished giving them the rundown.

Cisco nodded his head from side to side. “We might.”

That was enough for Jax. “Great. So how do I become Firestorm on my own?”

“We don’t know if you can,” Caitlin said hesitantly. “Right now, all we know is that you need another half to become Firestorm.”

“But Ronnie and Grey are dead,” Jax reminded them. “And there’s no way I’m going to try and do anything with Tokamak.”

“Hewitt is completely out of the question,” Barry said. “But you and him weren’t the only candidates we’d found. There was a third one who Stein refused to approach about this.”

“It’d have been too weird then,” Cisco chimed in as he leaned back in his chair.

“And he didn’t want to put her in danger,” Caitlin finished. “It was understandable why he said no.”

“She’s my last shot now if she wants in,” Jax said, crossing his arms. “Tell me who she is, then we can find her and make the pitch to her.”

Cisco frowned. “Wait, you don’t know who she is? Stein never told you?”

“Ummm,” Jax floundered.

“There’ve been more important things that he’s had to deal with in the past two years,” Caitlin butted in as she pulled up an image on the screen before them. “But this is the last potential candidate to be part of Firestorm.”

Jax’s eyes widened as he stared at the screen. “For real?”

He was going to have to talk to the team about this.

“So you’re saying that Stein’s daughter is possibly a half of Firestorm and you never knew?”

“He never told me if he remembered!” Jax snapped back a little harsher than he’d intended to. “She never came up in when the conversation turned to what I’d do after he was gone.”

Sara took a long sip from her coffee and set her mug down. “Are you going to tell her?”

“Yeah, I’m thinking I will,” Jax nodded. He’d made the decision last night after pondering it for a few hours. But he knew that he couldn’t just show up on the Waverider with her and not tell the team. Besides, he had no idea if she would even say yes or not. “I’m going over to her place after this to explain everything to her.”

“Cool,” Ray grinned happily. “It’ll be fun to have Lily on board again.”

“Aw,” Mick chuckled beside him. “Haircut has a crush.”

Ray suddenly was very interested in his coffee. Amaya raised her eyebrows, but said nothing.

“That’s all well and good,” Zari said, steering the conversation back to its original course. “But what if she says no?”

“Yeah,” Nate nodded. “Time travel got her dad killed. How eager is she going to be to come on the Waverider, especially after what happened the last time she came on? And are you certain that the two of you can become Firestorm?”

Jax had thought about that. “I don’t know if we can become Firestorm. But it’s all up to her whether she wants to try to be a part of this or not. I don’t want to force Lily to do anything she doesn’t want to do. If things don’t work out, maybe I should stay in Central City.”

“No,” Sara shook her head. “You are still a member of the team, Jax. Martin’s death doesn’t change anything. Whether you have superpowers or not, you’d still be a Legend if you wanted to be one.”

“Thanks, Sara,” he nodded. “I’m really hoping for the best here. Next time we meet up, I’ll tell you what happened.”

“Well, we’re going to stick around for two more days before going back into the temporal zone,” Sara reminded him. “I’m hoping that I can bring around a new member for the team then.”

“Me too.”

“Hold on,” Lily held up her hands. “I’m not sure I’m hearing this right. I’m potentially a half of Firestorm?”

Jax had come knocking on her door hours after she finished cleaning her apartment up after shiva. Lily had let him inside and they’d caught up with each other. After a few minutes, he got serious with her about what he’d been doing since the funeral. Another candidate for Firestorm had been located in Central City. Said candidate was apparently herself.

“STAR Labs found you the first time they searched for someone to take Ronnie’s place,” Jax explained. “Caitlin told me that you dad didn’t want to put you in danger, so he kept you out of it. Plus, it’d have been weird for Grey to fuse with his own daughter. Now, you’re the last possible person to be a half of Firestorm.”

“Then I did hear you right,” Lily exhaled slowly and rose from the couch. “Okay. Wow.”

“Yeah,” Jax snorted a little. “I get it. It’s a lot to take in. The first time I found out, I thought the people at STAR Labs were messing around. Then I realized they weren’t.”

Lily gave a little amused huff. “So you and I could become Firestorm? Just like you and my dad were?”

“Yep,” Jax confirmed. “Firestorm 2.0. Or 3.0 now technically.”

“Huh,” Lily crossed her arms as she started to pace back and forth. “What if I say no?”

Jax deflated visibly at that, so she quickly backtracked. “I’m not saying no. I just want to know what happens if I do.”

“Based on what they said happened your dad after Ronnie died, my molecules wouldn’t have anything to fuse with to stabilize. I don’t know if that would happen to me, but it could. Maybe Cisco and Caitlin could find a way to stabilize me somehow?”

“And if they can’t?” Lily barely heard her own voice as the question slipped out.

“I’ll probably die,” Jax said. “But it’ll be months before that happens.”

Lily stopped her pacing. If she didn’t do this, it’d be her fault if Jax died.

“Look, Lily,” Jax stood up. “I’m not saying you have to do this. The nerds at STAR Labs know more now than they did when they lost Ronnie. They could find a way to stabilize me. If not, at least I have a few months left to live. But if you and I can be Firestorm, it’d be awesome. There’s so much cool stuff we can do together. You’d be able to come on the Waverider and travel through time. I know you’ve been on it before, but this time you’d be an official Legend.”

What he was saying tempted her. Time travel sounded amazing and so did being a hero. But she was also afraid she wouldn’t be as good as her father had been as Firestorm. Staying here in Central City guaranteed she’d be safe. Doing that would ultimately result in Jax’s death though. She could never forgive herself for being responsible for that.

“Can I have some time to think about it?” she asked. “It’s a big decision.”

“Sure,” Jax nodded. “I’m going to be at STAR Labs tomorrow if you make up your mind by then.”

He left her apartment not long after that. Once he was gone, Lily made her way over to her window to stare down at the street below. After a minute, a streak of red sped along the street. How had the Flash felt when he found out he’d had powers? Had he been as nervous as she felt right now?

With a sigh, Lily made her way back to her couch and flopped on it.

“Do you think she’ll show up?”

Jax shrugged at Wally’s question. “I’m not sure. It’s a big decision.”

“Well, do you hope she will?” Wally pressed, throwing one of Cisco’s gummy bears high into the air and catching it in his mouth.

“Yeah, it’d be great if she did,” Jax admitted. “I wouldn’t die then.”

“We don’t know if you’d die,” Caitlin said as she walked into the room. “This is only the second time this has happened, so we have no clue if the same things would happen or not.”

She did have a good point, but it didn’t ease his nerves. “I still want to be a hero though, even if she does want to stay in Central City.”

“You guys would be totally welcome to join us here,” Wally told him as he caught another gummy bear in his mouth.

“Thanks, man,” Jax nodded. “I’ll keep it in mind if she decides to show up.”

“You could not have had better timing to say that.”

Jax whirled around to see Cisco entering the room. Trailing behind him was Lily Stein. Caitlin started to smile happily as soon as she saw her. Wally punched him lightly in the shoulder with a grin. Jax shook his head and turned to face Lily. The scientist started to smile.

“I made my decision,” she announced.

“And?”

“I’ll do it.”

He let out a sigh of relief as soon as she said those words. “Really?”

“Yes,” Lily confirmed with a nod. “I can’t walk away from this knowing you could die if I do. If there’s something I can do, then I’ll do it.”

Wally smiled triumphantly.

“Sooo,” she shrugged. “What do I have to do?”

“It’s easy, at least from the outsider’s perspective,” Cisco explained. “Jax, can you grab the splicer?”

Jax walked into the other room to grab the splicer from the desk. After Grey had died, he’d brought it back to STAR Labs and Cisco had asked if he could check it over and give it a tweak or two. He placed it on his chest, watching it attach to himself. Lily took a place across from him in front of Barry’s suit. She glanced over at the other people in the room before looking back to him.

“Now what?”

“All you two need to do is touch,” Cisco said. “Then we have Firestorm.”

“Don’t try to resist it,” Caitlin added. “Just go with the merge.”

“Okay then,” Lily exhaled slowly. “Ready?”

Jax held out his hand. “Whenever you are?”

She gave a nod and brought her own hand up. Their palms collided with a small clap. Flames began to lick around Lily’s frame. The familiar feeling of the merge came over Jax as he watched Lily vanish in a surge of flames.

As soon as her hand touched Jax’s, Lily felt something stir up inside of her. A warmth filled her entire body from head to toe. She didn’t panic when she saw the flames start to come from her body. Lily could feel herself being pulled towards Jax and remembered how Caitlin had told her not to fight it. Closing her eyes, she relaxed and allowed it to happen.

A moment later, Lily reopened her eyes. Caitlin, Wally, and Cisco were all staring at her. Lily still felt like she was in her body, but someone else was in there too. It had be Jax. She could feel her limbs, although Jax had the overwhelming control over them. She couldn’t look around like she wanted too. This was something she was going to have to get used to.

Cisco gave them a thumbs up. “Looking good.”

“Is Lily in there?” Caitlin asked, taking a step forward.

“Hey, Caitlin,” Lily said, although the words didn’t come out of her mouth. “Um, can I look around?”

Jax’s chuckle came out from their mouth. “Yeah, she’s in there. She wants to get a good look around.”

The overwhelming control on their limbs relaxed. Lily took control hesitantly, starting with moving their head from side to side. She held up her hands (or Jax’s hands) to gaze at the fire that burned from them. Turning their body around, Lily examined their reflection in the glass for a few moments. She and Jax were incredible.

“Wow,” the scientist murmured in appreciation as she relaxed her control. “This is…”

“Astonishing?” Jax finished.

The utterance of her father’s favorite word reminded her that he was gone. Their flames flickered a little.

“Can you guys practice separating?” Caitlin inquired. “Once you two do that, we can run some more tests with you two fused together in the Speed Lab.”

“Just don’t mess up the track when you do,” Wally warned.

“Your track’s gonna be fine,” Jax told him.

“How do we separate?” Lily asked.

“Think of it as taking a step away from me. Got it?”

“Loud and clear,” she confirmed.

Lily concentrated on distancing herself from Jax. She imagined herself taking a step back from him. Their flames rose up a little higher. Suddenly, she was no longer sharing control of her limbs, but had total control over them. She stumbled forward a little bit, now back in her own body.

Caitlin caught her before she stumbled anymore and Lily gave her a grateful smile. Straightening up, she saw Cisco with a proud look on his face. Across from her, Jax grinned widely. “Pretty good for a first time.”

Lily nodded happily. “I guess you don’t have to worry about trying to find a way to stabilize on your own now.”

“That makes me feel a whole lot better,” Cisco muttered as he noticed the empty package of gummy bears. “Wally?”

Wally made an innocent face. “What? I was hungry.”

Cisco shook his head. “Come on, you couldn’t have stolen from Barry’s stash?”

“He’d notice sooner.”

“We just need to check a few more things out with you two,” Caitlin interrupted her friends. “Then you two are ready for anything.”

“Speaking of that,” Caitlin looked over at Jax again. “Is that offer to time travel still on the table?”

Once STAR Labs cleared them, Jax and Lily had gone to break the news to Clarissa. Understandably, she was worried for her daughter, especially after losing her husband. However, Clarissa knew this was Lily’s decision that she’d made to take her father’s place. She did make the two promise to come home safe and alive or she would come aboard the Waverider herself to bring her back. Jax wasn’t sure if she was joking or not, but he didn’t want to risk finding out.

There were a few affairs Lily wanted to get in order quickly before leaving, so she promised to meet up with Jax at the Waverider the next day. He’d gotten to spend some nice quality time with his family then since his cousins were in town. His new psychic link with Lily was practically buzzing the whole night. She was anxious and excited for the new adventure, but there was also lingering grief. Jax didn’t fault her since he was feeling it as well. It’d be a while before the pain from Grey’s death would start to ebb away.

The next morning, he arrived before Lily at the Waverider. Most of the team arrived around the same time he did, but they went inside the ship. Lily was the last to arrive a few minutes later, a small duffel bag in hand. She gave a little wave as she approached Jax.

“Nervous?” he asked as she approached at the twenty-second century ship with a tiny smile.

“It’s not my first time on board,” she reminded him. “But things are different now. I’m not here temporarily.”

Jax raised an eyebrow. “Having second thoughts?”

“No,” Lily shook her head stubbornly. “I’m ready. “

Jax followed after her into the cargo bay. When they entered, everyone was waiting for them. Sara stood at the front of the group with the others flanking her. They were all looking at Lily, who was looking at him. For a long time, no one said a word.

Finally, Jax broke the silence. “Guys, meet the new half of Firestorm. You all remember Lily?”

Lily lifted her hand in a small wave.

Sara was the first to step forward, holding her hand out. “Welcome to the team.”

“It’s really great that you’re back,” Ray added from behind the captain.

Mick started to smirk. Amaya rolled her eyes as she elbowed him.

“Thanks,” Lily shook Sara’s hand. “It’s good to see you guys again. Jax said you’ve been facing some kind of secret society of supervillains before my dad died?”

“Yes,” Amaya nodded, although Jax noticed that she seemed a bit nervous now. Then he remembered it had been Amaya’s granddaughter who killed Grey. “Sara was just telling us about where we’re going to next when you two arrived.”

“Great,” Jax turned to Sara. “Where to?”

“1618,” Nate supplied as they all started to walk towards the bridge. “Right around the Second Defenestration of Prague. There’s something there that isn’t supposed to be there.”

“Okay then,” Lily nodded from where she’d fallen into pace with Amaya. “Do we know what it is?”

“Nope,” Mick said shortly.

“It could be anything,” Ray added once they entered the bridge. “Sometimes it’s fun to see what the anachronism is. We had to pick up Pierre Curie from the twenty-third century last week.”

“But he had to go and die twelve hours later back in his own time,” Jax reminded him. It had been kind of sad to do that to the guy. Grey had been geeking out like crazy over him.

Jax looked over at the empty seat where Lily’s father had once sat with a sigh. Even though he knew he had to move on, he wouldn’t forget that Grey had been a part of the Legends. Meanwhile, Lily had gone to sit behind him. She lowered the harness down over her head. He could tell that everything was all hitting her more now.

“You’re not going to change your mind on me, are you?” he asked, looking around back at her.

Lily shook her head. “Nope.”

“Just a heads up for your first major jump, Lily,” Sara said from the captain’s chair as she started up the Waverider and got them airborne. “Time travel sometimes has side effects, but you get used to them the more you do it.”

“Wait what?” Lily squeaked.

“It means you’re probably gonna barf, Junior,” Mick stated bluntly.

#fanfiction #legends of tomorrow #the flash #jefferson jackson #lily stein #firestorm #wally west #caitlin snow #cisco ramon #sara lance #ray palmer #mick rory #amaya jiwe #marywisdom #the next firestorm

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libraryofrewrita · 7 years

Text

Chapter 18: The Festival and The Extreme Dare

Nate walked down to the festival at Mount Wildwood with Katie, who was wearing a light blue kimono with ligt pink sakura petals on the sleeves, and their Yo-kai friends. They were very excited since Terror Time couldn’t activate due to a lot of children being allowed to attend the festival that night and being allowed to head back late. Of course, even before they learned that Terror Time existed, they always enjoyed the festival. In all honesty, they needed a break from the Yo-kai hi-jinx and the festival was the best place to do so.

“It’s been years since I’ve been to a festival! They used to be quite common before I was sealed away and I went to a lot of them.”

The group could see Whisper’s eyes sparkling as he gushed about how he couldn’t wait to attend his first festival in almost two hundred years.

It’s quite sad really. I should be happy for him, but it really hurts to knyow that he missed out on a lot during his imprisonment. I want to make this special for him so that he’ll nyever forget it, but how?

*****

When they got to the bottom of Mount Wildwood, Nate and Katie gave the Yo-kai some money so that they could enjoy the festival as well. They did have a lot of money from what they have been doing for the past couple days, so they could afford to spare some cash.

“Have fun, you guys, but try not to cause too much trouble. Okay?”

“Don’t worry, Nate. It should be a small festival. There’s not much we could do to cause any trouble up there.”

The minute they entered the festival, Whisper’s eyes lit up and he flew to the nearest stall, which was selling goldfish.

Wow, Whisper is acting like a kid in a candy store right now.

Of course, one could hardly blame him. If they had spent almost two centuries in isolation, they would’ve acted the same way.

“We’ll meet near the shrine, okay?”

The Yo-kai nodded and the group went their separate ways, the Koma Brothers going to an ice cream stall, Nate and Katie going to wait for their other friends near the shrine, and Jibanyan going over to Whisper.

“You’re very exicited, Whisper.”

Whisper nodded as he floated down and looked around.

“It’s great to know that festivals haven’t lost their touch over the years.”

Jibanyan offered his paw and asked,

I think it’s considered romantic if you confess under some fireworks. At least, that’s what I heard Amy say or did I hear it somewhere else? Gah! Curse my memory loss!

“Jibanyan? Are you okay?”

Jibanyan looked at Whisper, who was giving him a concerned look and nodded.

“I’m fine, nya.”

What if he laughs at me for having a crush on him?

Jibanyan looked at Whisper, who was unaware of the longing gaze Jibanyan was giving him.

“Hey, Whisper?”

“Hmm?”

Jibanyan mentally prepared himself for the worse.

“I…umm…”

Jibanyan blushed as he looked at the ground and mumbled,

“I have a crush on you, Whisper.”

“Why?”

Jibanyan hadn’t expected Whisper to look confused.

“Why? You’re the first Yo-kai that didn’t make fun of my goals, you were willing to fight Roughraff for my picture of Amy, and you’re helping Nyate and Katie understand us Yo-kai. What I’m saying is, I love you for your kindness, Whisper.”

Whisper blushed, clearly not expecting a Yo-kai he had met a few days ago to be crushing on him.

“Well, this is a surprise. I mean…we’ve only known each other for a few days. Also, I didn’t exactly fight Roughraff. I was just so mad at that fact that someone could stoop so low to steal a prized possession that I wasn’t exactly thinking straight.”

“I kynow…but I love you anyway. Y-you’re not going to laugh at me, are you?”

Whisper shook his head.

“No, Jibby. To be honest, I find you very cute and I love your determination. It’s just I have trouble telling the difference between romantic feelings and plantonic, or friendship, feelings.”

Whisper seemed embarrassed to admit that, but Jibanyan was relieved that Whisper wouldn’t make fun of him.

“Sooo…if I were to kiss you, how would you react?”

Before Whisper could answer, he heard something going on near where Nate and Katie were and went to investigate. Jibanyan could only sigh as he followed Whisper, annoyed at his unanswered question that would be most likely answered much later than he hoped for.

*****

“So, did you guys hear about the latest school mystery?”

“Is this a new ‘Seven School Mysteries’ thing, Bear? I swear, we never have a consistent mystery there, let alone seven of them.”

“Maybe it will be…I’m not sure yet, but I heard that a teacher heard a child-like voice when they were working late one night. It supposedly said, "Wanna play?”, but the teacher didn’t find anyone after searching the school. Rumor has it that the voice is still there and that you can only hear it if you’re near or in the school at night.“

"Creepy…”

Nate and Katie had been talking to Bear and Eddie about their summer so far, leaving out the Yo-kai related stuff, of course, when Bear brought up a story that had been going around recently.

“Well, to be fair, it was kinda late and when people are tired, they do tend to hear things that could be written up as their imagination.”

Nate and Katie were hoping that Eddie’s explanation was enough to convince Bear because after being friends for so long with him, they could tell that he wanted to see if the rumors were true and after what they had been through, they really just wanted to relax.

“You guys know that the fireworks will be starting later this evening? I was thinking that we need a better view and what’s a better view than the top of the school? I even have some ramune soda for us to drink while we’re up there! What do you guys say to that?”

Eddie eagarly agreed as Nate and Katie shared a worried look.

Oh no…not another attempt to sneak into a building ! We just did that last night and I doubt there’s a Mirapo active at the school right now!

“Bear, we can’t even get into the school this late.”

“Ah, that’s no problem. The side door is unlocked right now. They’ve been having trouble with the lock recently, so it’s pretty much fair game.”

Before Nate or Katie could bring up the possibly of someone else breaking into the school, they watched the dark blue kimono and green kimono of Bear and Eddie leaving as they chuckled about how much of a good time they were going to have.

“Isn’t there Yo-kai at the school?”

“Yeah…and?”

“They’re going to get inspirited in some way.”

“So we should go after them?”

“Just to keep them from getting into too much trouble. Besides, it’s kinda hard to resist rooftop fireworks and ramune soda.”

Nate just sighed as he knew Katie was right.

“Alright, but we’re getting ramune soda for the Yo-kai. I doubt Bear considered the possibly of there being more than just the four of us on the roof tonight.”

*****

After getting the Yo-kai rounded up and getting some extra ramune soda, they proceeded to head down to Springdale Elementary.

“Why did you two agree to this?”

“We have to keep our friends that can’t see Yo-kai out of trouble with them or at least make sure that they’re okay.”

“I wonder if Eddie told Bear about our little adventure last night?”

“I hope not…unless Eddie is still looking for proof of the supernatural and he decided that this was the perfect opportunity to investigate a supposed haunting again.”

“It just occured to me that Whisper never said that we couldn’t tell anyone about the Yo-kai Watch and what it does. Why don’t we just show them?”

“Umm…there’s actually a reason that you two were chosen.”

Nate and Katie turned to Whisper.

“Oh? What’s that?”

Whisper rubbed the back of his head and said,

“Firstly, before I was released, I had a dream where someone came to me with the Yo-kai Watches I gave you and told me that I was to give the Yo-kai Watch to whoever released me. I can only assume they gave me both models because they weren’t sure who would release me. Secondly…you two didn’t scream and run away like a normal person would upon seeing a singing capsule machine and releasing a Yo-kai from a capsule from said singing capsule machine.”

“We did try to sneak away though…”

“Yes, but that was after you released me, not before. Plus, as I’ll repeat, you two didn’t run away screaming, which usually means that you can handle having the knowledge that Yo-kai exist. Of course, I did give you a choice on whether or not you wanted to be able to see other Yo-kai, so it’s not like I forced you into it.”

Whisper does make a good point. We did accept the Yo-kai Watches, even though we easily could’ve said 'no’ and returned to our regular lives, but we didn’t. Plus, despite the fact that it’s only been a few days so far, we did get a more exciting summer out of it and we’re making connections to a world we didn’t even know existed.

“But what does have to do with why we can’t show our friends the truth?”

“If word got out that there were a group of kids and possibly adults that could see invisible creatures and that most of the said invisible creatures affected humans in so many ways before the bridge between us can be gapped, there would be chaos. You would be separated from your families and friends for various reasons, there would be ongoing debates in both realms about whether or not humans and Yo-kai can coexist together, flase accusasions will rise, war might happen between the two realms, and many things I don’t want to bring up.”

“Whisper, have you been doing late-night research on the internet recently?”

“Maybe, but I’m just saying that before you go around revealing that you can see and communicate with Yo-kai, you should see if whoever you want to tell would be willing to keep a massive secret like this until either they die, they find someone else that can keep a secret or is connected to Yo-kai as well, or the gap between humans and Yo-kai is bridged and we can all be friends with no fear.”

Once again, Whisper had brought up a good point. A very lengthy one, but still a good point.

Maybe when we’re all older and a little more mature to handle things like this, we can tell Bear and Eddie the truth unless they do something that convinces us not to tell them. It’s a long road, but we can handle it. And if they don’t believe us, even with proof, we’ll just ask Wazzat to erase their memories of us telling them.

As they passed a tree near the road to the school, they heard a rustle in the trees and they looked up to see a familiar Kyubi with glasses and a white coat.

“Hey, Mr. Barton. What’s up?”

“I overheard your friends saying something about investigating the mysterious voice in the school. I came here to warn you that I have investigated the voice and I believe that’s actually a Yo-kai, but sadly, I’m unable to communicate with it. For some reason, it doesn’t want to talk to me.”

He tossed down a set of keys to the group and they quickly pocketed them.

“These keys will help you get around the school, just don’t tell your friends where you got them from.”

“Mr. Barton? Is the lock on the side door really broken?”

“Nah, I was going to ask you two if you could help me with the mysterious voice, so I made it look like it was broken. Unfortunately, it appears that I unintentally made an invitation for people to sneak into the school at night for many reasons.”

“So, do we just leave the keys or give them back to you when we’re done?”

Mr. Barton thought it over and said,

“If you can find the cause of the mysterious voice, I’ll give you free range of the school at night, meaning all the doors will be unlocked.”

Nate and Katie shrugged. They weren’t sure when they would need to ever come back to the school at night, but hey. If they could at least keep their friends out of trouble, it would be worth it.

“Okay.”

“Oh, a few more things before I leave. One, your friends are right. The rooftop is an excellent place to watch the fireworks. Two, be careful. There are Yo-kai that hate humans and Yo-kai being together and they have heard of some kids that are connected to Yo-kai, but thankfully, they don’t know who you are specifically. Three, Lucas has been following you and I have to go now. Good luck!”

Mr. Barton disappeared, so the group turned around and sure enough, Lucas, dressed in a red kimono with yellow cuffs, had been a few feet away from them. They had no clue want to say or do as Lucas walked closer to them.

Previous Chapter: https://libraryofrewrita.tumblr.com/post/166509021289/chapter-17-explanations Next Chapter: https://libraryofrewrita.tumblr.com/post/166756554814/chapter-19-rescues-and-fireworks

#yo-kai watch #yo-kai watch au #rewrite #au #chapter 18

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theliberaltony · 5 years

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via FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.

sarahf (Sarah Frostenson, politics editor): None of us know when the 2020 invisible primary officially began. (Was it the day after the 2016 election? The day after the midterm elections in November? Jan. 1, 2019?) But now that we’re a little over a month into 2019, let’s take a moment to step back and assess the 2020 Democratic presidential field.

Who has done well? Who hasn’t? And who do we think will get into the race but hasn’t yet?

nrakich (Nathaniel Rakich, elections analyst): The field is definitely coming into focus, which I appreciate.

With Amy Klobuchar looking likely to join the race this weekend, I would say that all the top-tier candidates are now officially in except Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Beto O’Rourke.

And those are the three who can afford to wait, in my opinion, because they already have built-in name recognition and support.

Lesser-known names like Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand had to jump in early, which they did.

But I think Kamala Harris has had the best launch so far — based on reports about early donations to her campaign, spikes in Google searches of her name, bumps in polling/prediction markets — followed by Elizabeth Warren.

natesilver (Nate Silver, editor in chief): Hmm. I probably have a couple of quibbles there.

One being that I’m not sure Booker and Gillibrand should be thought of as “lesser-known names.” Or to the extent that they are, maybe that reflects the fact that they’ve had bad rollouts. (Although we should probably keep Gillibrand and Booker separate. I’m not sure they belong in the same category.)

The other quibble is that I’m not sure Beto belongs with the other B’s (Biden and Bernie).

Biden and Bernie are unique in that they’re “next-in-line” candidates: the vice president to the most recent Democratic president and the runner-up in the most recent Democratic primary. So they have a unique amount of notoriety and stature, and nobody is going to challenge their credentials.

For Beto, it’s sort of the exact opposite. His credentials are a little light. And IMO it reeks of arrogance to take all this time to decide when other, more experienced candidates have already gotten into the race.

I don’t think it’s particularly damaging in the long run necessarily, but in terms of someone whose stock has declined, Beto is on that list.

nrakich: Sure. We’re probably just drawing the lines between tiers in different places.

I would put Beto below Biden and Bernie even though they’re all in the upper tier.

sarahf: Yeah, if Beto is in fact running. I agree with Nate that I’m perplexed about why he hasn’t yet thrown his hat in the ring. Although maybe we can expect an answer this month?

Beto O’Rourke says of when he’ll decide on running for president: "The serious answer is really soon. Before the end of this month.”

— Matt Viser (@mviser) February 5, 2019

nrakich: And, yeah, Beto has fallen back into the middle of the pack after seeming to emerge as a front-runner immediately after the 2018 election.

But that was probably going to happen anyway — it’s bad to peak too early.

And he remains a talented politician when it comes to town halls and fundraising, so it’s not over for him.

natesilver: Oh I dunno, Rakich. I think Beto is probably more likely to win the nomination than Bernie. Or maybe not. But you could debate it, at least, so there’s definitely a question.

sarahf:

nrakich: Fair.

natesilver: In his interview with Oprah, Beto strongly hinted at running but didn’t declare.

sarahf: I agree with Nathaniel that Kamala Harris has had the most successful launch so far.

Bill Scher over at Politico tried to evaluate how all of the different candidates announcements have gone so far, and while it wasn’t the most rigorous of analyses, I thought his point that she hasn’t yet had to apologize for her past (e.g., her former life as a prosecutor) was spot on. She also planned a media-packed week, which was smart.

perry (Perry Bacon Jr., senior writer): I think her one blunder was on “Medicare-for-all.” In a candidate forum, she suggested that she didn’t see much of a role for private insurance companies in the future. The next day, her staff softened her stance.)

And that walkback matters — it speaks to questions about her preparedness, policy knowledge and the firmness of her convictions on key issues.

natesilver: Here’s a distinction we should probably clarify. When we say a candidate had a good rollout, does that mean they made good tactical decisions? Or does it mean we learned that there’s a market for the candidate but that the market would have existed even if the rollout itself had gone differently?

perry: I mean good tactical decisions. For example, I’m skeptical that there is a market for Julian Castro, Gillibrand or Pete Buttigieg, but they had good rollouts. Tulsi Gabbard, on the other hand, did not.

nrakich: I would say a good rollout means that the candidate succeeded at tapping into a market that either was or wasn’t there before.

natesilver: OK, then maybe I’d argue that tactical decisions don’t necessarily matter that much.

nrakich: Yeah, I guess you need both good tactical decisions and some sort of post-rollout sign that it resonated with people.

perry: But I think Harris wins the rollout contest because she showed that she has a bigger potential market than Buttigieg does.

natesilver: Gillibrand did a lot of things pretty well, but it didn’t seem to move the needle for her in terms of polling or other indicators.

sarahf: I’m not sure I know whether tactics or identifying a market matters more. Because for a candidate like Buttigieg to have a good “rollout,” it’s less about tactics and more about locking down a market that is invested in him running.

Take Richard Ojeda. He announced in November, after the midterms. I think his rollout was fine, but in the end, he didn’t seem to have a market after all.

nrakich: Right. If you’re Ojeda or Gabbard or John Delaney, you need an AWESOME rollout to make a splash. Someone like Harris probably just needed to not screw it up.

natesilver: See, I think Buttigieg did have a good rollout, and he was in one of those positions where the tactics may have mattered. He could have been branded as an obscure, third- or fourth-tier candidate, à la Ojeda. Instead, he’s getting a fair amount of facetime on national TV and seems to be taken seriously-ish.

perry: So, in my opinion, Warren is the most interesting. She actually jumped into the race early, and her proposal for much higher taxes on wealth over $50 million has captured attention.

sarahf: She definitely threw the still-undeclared Sanders campaign into full gear with its own tax plan.

perry: But I wonder if Warren’s history of claiming Native American heritage will doom her. The controversy has already spiraled.

nrakich: Yeah, The Washington Post on Tuesday published a picture of a State Bar of Texas registration card from 1986 on which Warren listed her race as “American Indian.”

natesilver: The DNA test that Warren released in October showing she has Native American ancestry was part of her rollout, I would argue. And was an unmitigated disaster.

perry: Agree.

natesilver: Especially since she also made claims about not having used Native American status to gain advantage, which now seem to be more questionable.

nrakich: Warren’s best play is to self-opposition-research and dump it all at once, along with a final apology.

As one of the more policy-driven candidates, though, she might be able to generate more positive coverage going forward. So it might just be a push-and-a-pull thing.

sarahf: It sounds as if you all think there’s a way that Warren can apologize and own her past without sinking her candidacy?

perry: It depends on what the apology is. At this point, Warren has to explain clearly: 1. why she was describing herself as American Indian in her 30s and 2. how she knows that universities or employers who were considering hiring her did not take that ancestry into account and therefore hire her in part to add racial diversity to their staffs.

nrakich: I think the apology is less important (politically) than making sure no further news can be broken on the topic. You do that by scouring your past and making sure nothing new can come out.

natesilver: What time frame is the starting point? Beto’s chances are lower than I would have pegged them a month ago but not necessarily lower than I’d have put them the day after the midterm. Probably higher, in fact.

For Warren, it’s sort of the opposite trajectory. The DNA test was a disaster, but the wealth tax and sort of emerging as the most substantive candidate in the field has been good.

perry: Warren’s ancestry issue could be her version of Clinton’s 2016 email scandal — an issue that never goes away and maybe gets too much media coverage.

sarahf: I don’t know. Democrats — and especially white Democrats — are less willing to brush aside issues they perceive as racist.

Granted, Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who has been under pressure to resign after a racist photo was found on his page in his 1984 medical school yearbook, is still governor, so maybe things haven’t actually shifted that much.

nrakich: But Northam would never win a presidential election.

sarahf: OK, we’ve talked about who is running. But who hasn’t announced yet that you’re expecting? And are you already surprised by the size of the field?

perry: I wonder whether Georgia’s Stacey Abrams could have been a serious candidate if she had announced before Harris and Booker. I tend to think that the black presidential candidates are competing for black voters and that having too many of them in the field would have hurt all of them. So moving fast and getting into the race early is crucial. And Harris, in particular, has done that. But Abrams is beloved in the party, as you could see last night in the praise she got after doing the Democratic response to the State of the Union address.

nrakich: I’m surprised at how the field is already shrinking. I was one of those people who thought the Democratic Party would need to have back-to-back debates to accommodate all the candidates. But you’ve already seen Ojeda drop out and several mid-tier candidates, such as Eric Garcetti and Deval Patrick, decline to run.

The field is becoming clearer a lot faster than I thought it would. To me, it’s looking like about a dozen candidates are going to get about 90 percent of the coverage.

natesilver: Man I’m just disagreeing with everyone on everything today. I’m surprised at how many people are running, by contrast.

nrakich: How is that different from any other day, Nate?

natesilver: Usually I disagree with Everyone on Twitter, but not usually with you, Rakich!

But you look at Gillibrand and Castro, for instance — those are people who didn’t seem certain to get in and yet they did.

nrakich: Maybe this is a difference with our priors. I basically assumed that everyone who was rumored to be interested would end up running. That was probably too hasty on my part.

natesilver: Plus, Sherrod Brown and Klobuchar and John Hickenlooper and Jay Inslee are all strongly teasing bids, particularly the first two.

perry: There are more senators than I expected and not as many governors or former governors so far, but I think some of those governors — like Terry McAuliffe, Hickenlooper or Inslee — will run.

sarahf: The senator phenomenon has also surprised me. I can’t help but think that’s more of a reflection of our politics becoming more nationally focused.

nrakich: Part of what we’re seeing is that the Democratic bench of governors is pretty thin. The party got annihilated on the state level in both 2010 and 2014.

natesilver: So let’s say we wind up with 1. Bernie 2. Biden 3. Beto 4. Harris 5. Booker 6. Warren 7. Gillibrand 8. Klobuchar 9. Brown 10. Castro 11. Hickenlooper 12. Inslee 13. Gabbard 14. Buttigieg 15. Delaney. That’s a BIG field.

perry: But smaller than the GOP 2016 field, right?

nrakich: Yeah, there were roughly 17 GOP candidates covered consistently in 2016. Last year, I definitely would have taken the over on that for Democrats in 2020. But now I think it’ll be the under. Even if, yes, 15 is a big field.

natesilver: I mean, it depends on how many also-rans also run! Get a few more randos, and you might be closer to 20 than 15.

perry: Andrew Yang, for example.

sarahf: Who? Kidding.

perry: I kind of expected in the range of 20 candidates.

So you guys think Bernie and Biden and Beto did not suffer from delaying? I think they did. Arguably, Biden could have prevented a few candidates from entering (Brown, Klobuchar) if he came out firing on all cylinders on Jan 1.

An early run by Beto might have caused some recalculation for Harris or Booker, and Bernie announcing may have influenced Gabbard or Warren.

nrakich: It hurts some candidates more than others (thinking again of Biden and Bernie) to delay. I do think Hickenlooper and Brown are probably blowing it. If they’re interested, they needed to have gotten in yesterday.

perry: Brown is in a lane that is somewhat unoccupied (white male from a swing state), so I think he is fine. But, yes, Hicklenlooper and Inslee should have announced yesterday.

natesilver: Biden probably has enough stature that if people had been intimidated by him, they would have avoided running, even if Biden hadn’t officially declared.

perry: So you are saying Biden is a weak candidate?

natesilver: Brown and Klobuchar considering a bid is a bearish sign for Biden. All three are riding on an electability argument, I think.

nrakich: People have been buzzing about Klobuchar for a while, though, whereas Brown may be seen as a substitute for Biden. That said, his “listening tour” is probably an acknowledgment of the fact that he needs to do SOMETHING to keep himself relevant while he awaits Biden’s decision.

natesilver: Maybe the true-blue moderates have been deterred by Biden — e.g., Michael Bloomberg and McAuliffe — but I’m not optimistic about any of their chances.

sarahf: And is that because we think the 2020 Democratic nominee is going to come from a more progressive wing of the party?

nrakich: I’m not sure. I think if it were an open fight between the progressive wing and the moderate wing (I hate that dichotomy, I need a shower having used it), the progressive wing would win.

But the moderate “lane” (ugh I hate lane analysis too) looks wide open right now. Who is in there among the declared candidates? Just Delaney, I guess?

So if it’s Biden vs. a dozen progressives, I’d take Biden.

natesilver: Sarah, the left is obviously on the upswing, but the conventional wisdom may have actually begun to overcompensate, in part because a lot of commentators on Twitter/podcasts/etc. are further left of center than the average Democratic voter.

Like, I don’t think there’s any world in which Kamala Harris doesn’t win the nomination because she isn’t left enough.

nrakich: Right. Nonwhite voters, especially among older generations, aren’t super lefty. And they are often underrepresented in the media relative to their share of the electorate.

perry: We will have more on this on the site later this week, but I tend to think that dividing Democratic voters and candidates by whether they are anti-establishment or establishment is just as meaningful as grouping them as white or nonwhite. And maybe even more telling than the progressive v. moderate distinction.

As Nathaniel is saying, we often assume that moderate Democrat means a white person with the politics of Howard Schultz, but lots of moderate Democratic voters are black or Latino.

And I don’t see much evidence that Klobuchar will be the candidate for those voters — or at least she has not had to do well with them to win in Minnesota.

nrakich: We’ve talked a lot about entertaining multiple hypotheses about how the Democratic primaries could go. So, one possibility is that they could unfold along identity lines. They could also unfold along ideological lines (progressive vs. moderate). But they could unfold along establishment/anti-establishment lines.

But if all these things intersect, which looks likely, they will do so in unpredictable ways, so to some extent, we’re all just guessing here at the right alchemy.

perry: I think Harris or Booker could be the candidate for minority voters and establishment voters even though they would call themselves progressive.

And then Sanders or Brown may appeal to white voters and anti-establishment voters, some of whom would also call themselves progressive.

natesilver: You also have Beto, who sort of comes across as new and fresh and “anti-establishment” but is also supported by a lot of ex-Obama types (i.e., people who are very much a part of the establishment).

perry: Exactly.

nrakich: Yeah, the generational divide is another possible fault line.

natesilver: To some extent, the talented politicians are able to come across like the best of all possible worlds to all possible voters.

In various ways, Obama both ran to Hillary Clinton’s left and to the center (as a “post-partisan” candidate) in 2008, for example.

nrakich: A Candide-ate? (Anyone for French literature humor?)

natesilver: Rakich, what the hell kind of pun was that?

perry: It was special. Do not cut!

sarahf: If you have made it this far, reader, let me know if you regret it.

natesilver: This is why we don’t let you write your own headlines.

perry: Wow. Harsh.

nrakich: I was so tempted to write that Joe was Biden his time earlier.

perry: !!!!

sarahf: On that note, it’s time for final thoughts. What are we watching for in February?

nrakich: Well, Beto told us this week that he’ll make a decision about running by the end of February, so that’s a big domino that could fall. And then I’m curious to see how long Sanders and Biden think they can stall.

natesilver: Will the 5 B’s run? 1. Biden 2. Bernie 3. Beto 4. Brown 5. klo-B-uchar

perry: I’m curious whether Klobuchar, Beto, Biden, Sanders, Hicklenlooper or Inslee announce and how they decided to roll out their campaigns.

Another thing I’ll be keeping an eye on is who among the already declared candidates keeps getting attention. There is definitely a buzz factor in these primaries — who can get it and maintain it.

nrakich: With so many B’s in the field, how can there not be a buzz factor?

perry: One too many.

nrakich: / leaves chat

natesilver: Nathaniel.

sarahf: It certainly is a kicker.

#IFTTT #FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Nate Silver #Perry Bacon Jr.#Nathaniel Rakich and Sarah Fros

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breegullbeakreviews · 6 years

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Summary: When Spider-Man finally manages to get Kingpin locked up, a new threat emerges to push Spider-Man to his limits.

Overall: Spider-Man combines the game design of the Arkham games and Beenox’s Amazing Spider-Man with the presentation of an Uncharted game to deliver a good game. It is worth $60, but I don’t think it’s the best Spider-Man game.

Story: I’ve rewritten this section three times now. It’s very hard to talk about what I like or dislike without spoilers so if you want details check out my separate post.

What I can say without spoilers is that the story is disjointed, unbalanced, and not wholly original. That all being said when it goes in a new direction or gives its characters time to shine it is really good.

What do I mean the story is disjointed? Well that’s tied to the fact that the game’s story is also unbalanced. The meat of this story is back loaded into the game’s third act. Before that the game has a focus on Mr Negative but keeps jumping back and forth with unrelated stuff that doesn’t form into anything until the end. The third act is strong, but it revolves around a twist anyone who has a knowledge of Spider-Man can see coming at least half a mile away.

The third act also doesn’t feel super original. The character motivations and reasons for everything make sense, but the evil plan and even some of the late game missions feel like something I’ve already seen done before in other Spider-Man games. There was a lot of possibilities squandered by going the route they did even if it is sound on a thematic level.

Let’s close out on the good. Spider-Man jumps 8 years into Peter Parker being a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. While we skip a lot of material, the past isn’t entirely tried and true. Mary Jane is a reporter for the Daily Bugle who knows Peter is Spider-Man but they’ve broke up and this turns her relationship with Peter into one more inline with Nate and Elena of Uncharted which means Mary Jane is an actual character here. There are a lot of other changes that involve spoilers, but this one alone is one of the strongest examples of this story making smart changes with series conventions.

The characters are what make this story work. The criminal power vacuum plot while not previously seen in any Spider-Man game to my knowledge, isn’t particularly strong in carrying an interesting narrative since it quickly devolves into Peter and MJ trying to prove that Martin Li is Mr. Negative. In fact it’s less a power vacuum and more an opportunity for him to enact his plans. If the character or villain doesn’t have ties to Peter Parker, they don’t get time to develop as a character. This really hurts just about every villain in the game as they feel like and are often treated as lesser characters. I said we’d end on the good and we will. Insomniac’s focus on a story where Peter and Spider-Man’s worlds collide is played really damn well as it allows for interesting character dynamics and storytelling that hasn’t been in previous games. The emphasis on the story is hindered by the plethora of previous Spider-man tales this story draws inspiration from, but it’s still hard to say this isn’t the best story in any Spider-man game.

Movement: While I never reviewed it, from what I played of Insomniac’s Sunset Overdrive I felt was super stiff for a game about movement. That had me scared for Spider-Man. Luckily Insomniac had a lot of great games to look at when building this game and they took inspiration from them all.

Web swinging isn’t Spider-Man 2 levels of intricate, but it’s not your only form of transversal. In what feels some what reminiscent of The Amazing Spider-Man’s fancy cinematic web zipping, Spidey can zip to predefined point by tapping L2 and R2. You can web zip by tapping Cross in the air but what’s most impressive is when Spider-Man runs.

On the ground Spider-Man will parkour over obstacles as long as you’re holding R2. It’s fun to see Spidey flip over cars and fences. If Spidey gets high enough he’ll even transfer into a web swing, which is done by holding and releasing R2. On the walls is when Spidey is the most fun to control. Holding R2 will make Spidey run on the wall. Tapping X will give Spidey a web boost, and doing so as you reach the top of a building will propel Spidey over it. Running parallel to the ground doesn’t need to stop at the end of the building. Holding Circle will have Spidey swing around the side of the building.

The one time it’s not fun to control Spidey is when you are going slow. Trying to climb onto a ceiling is a slow process and navigating ledges in stealth feels stiff. Zipping helps in the stealth bits, but climbing walls doesn’t get that luxury. The difference in speed from basic wall crawling to wall running is night and day and led to me dashing out of cover on multiple occasions.

Overall it’s fun to move fast, but when it comes to precision Spider-Man feels like a tank.

Combat: Web of Shadows this is not. Combat feels like a less refined Arkham game. Spider-Man battles with dodges and gadgets, but it doesn’t feel like I can do whatever a spider can. Spider-Man has two forms of combat. You have the stealth stuff and the not so stealth stuff. Both have issues.

When Spider-Man is unabashedly bashing skulls the combat has one major problem, and that’s that the gadget system isn’t at all intuitive. Spider-Man’s default gadget is his web shooter’s rapid fire that can immobilize foes. It’s a good gadget. The issue is that if you want to use anything else you need to use a gadget wheel mid fight. There is no equivalent to Arkham’s hold a trigger and press a button to quickly pop off a gadget shot. This means you’ll almost never use them because it’s just not convenient too swap mid fight. It’s just a not a particularly intuitive system.

A more minor problem is that for me at least this combat system isn’t as fun as Web of Shadow. I know saying that is probably controversial but its how I feel. Web of Shadows was a game built around its combat and in my opinion it shined at that. The story was an excuse to create an endless stream of foes in numbers large enough that Spider-Man could literally hold a combo from one end of New York to the other. Fighting was also more than just on the ground. Enemies could fight you on the walls and in the sky and each of these could be transitioned between seamlessly and they all felt pretty unique with their own combos and a quick click of the stick would swap between the agile red and blue suit and the heavy hitting black suit. Is it fair to compare these two games? Maybe. Maybe not. I can’t help but compare them through as Web of Shadows is my favorite Spider-Man game.

The issue with the stealth is an issue with the movement. Spider-Man just doesn’t feel good to control when he’s moving slow or with precision. While Spider-Man has a lot more movement options than Batman does, he also has less gadgets and paths. Batman can swing from perch to perch, climb through vents, and generally sneak about. He’s got a massive amount of gadgets as well to aid in taking out his foes from the shadows and the amount of paths and variety of foes makes these sequences tense. Spider-Man does not have a variety of gadgets or paths. Spider-Man is slow and lumbering in the rafters, but as soon as he leaves them he’s helpless. Instead of paths of movement Spider-Man has planes of movement. Most of Spider-Man’s options are web related and most of them require staying up high since red and blue spandex sticks out in the shadows.

I wrote this above paragraph based on the game’s first stealth segment and I still stand by it once Spider-Man got more gadgets and could sneak around outdoors. Spider-Man is still helpless on the ground. Even outdoors when Spider-Man has the sky as his limit he can’t sneak under his foes. This system doesn’t feel like that much of an improvement over Amazing Spider-Man and those are some harsh words. The best stealth segments in the game are when you’re not playing as Spider-Man at all.

Side Content: As the story unfolds Spider-Man gains access to more and more side content. These include side missions which occasionally form there own multipart stories and some are just collectible hunts. All of these however have context. Even the races and combat arenas have context given which is something the Arkham game’s sort of half assed. Now that’s not to say all side content is equal, or that the way it’s dished out is okay.

Side missions are relatively meaty as are the hideouts. The latter are all replay-able so you can complete bonus objectives. I can’t say I’m as big a fan of the rest of the side content. Medal based challenge missions require near perfect play in all categories of play. Perfect and time efficient combat, stealth, and movement are a pain in the ass. I eventually settled for silvers across the board. The research stations are creative, but it feels like something is missing from them. They just feel hollow. The collectibles I like just fine. I don’t like how they are dolled out though.

All side content in this game is gated behind story progression. I’m fine with that for side missions. I’m not fine with challenges not popping up until half way through the game. I understand why the story related stuff is gated, but the other stuff generally doesn’t make sense being gated. My completionist tendency had me stopping the story constantly as this stuff is being opened up in waves. There has got to be a better way to handle these side missions than arbitrarily handing them out over the course of the story.

Trophies: Marvel’s Insomniac’s Spider-Man has a trophy list that is relatively simple to get. You will need to do a lot, just not everything.

Let’s get the negatives out of the way first. Way too much of this list is hidden trophies. Now some of them make sense as they’re spoilers, but a lot of them aren’t. Hiding story or spoiler stuff is fine, but is activating all the surveillance towers worth being a hidden trophy?

Outside that you can play on any difficulty and with smart saves or spending you don’t need to do every bonus objective or ultimate medal. Your most time consuming task is 100% completing the city which requires completing every thing in every district, and outside Central Park each district is packed.

#video games #review #marvel's spider-man #insomniac games #ps4

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maahistrash · 6 years

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all of them >:3 all the asks

OH WOW THIS BLOG’S FIRST ASK !!!!! OKAY VERY LONG POST AHEAD🕸 1. Who’s the oldest character of yours that you still use?vincent and francis! my boys have been through a fuck ton of development, from halloween of 2015 to now.. they used to be youtuber ocs, and.. well.. yeah i love them both with all my heart!!!⭐️ 2. Who’s the oldest character of yours, defunct or not?a pegasus named raven who is highkey defunct (mlp oc oof) but lmao her story makes me think i should give her an arc, and maybe put her in another form.. 💡 3. Has creating a character ever made you realize something about yourself?a bunch of times this has happened actually.. vin made me realize im not straight, nargis made me realize im not cis at all, and vin/nate really made me realize how much i self-project, esp in vin’s case🦋 4. Any minor characters that have either taken over or branched off into their own stories?nar was originally supposed to be a very side character, but his concept hit me right in the spot and i wanted to make him a main oc! and kenny has branched off into his own story, so has alde!🐲 5. Do you prefer to make human, animal, monster, or _____ characters? Why?i like humanoid ocs better bc its a more familiar thing to me? its easier for me to write human-like ocs than animals, but monsters are also REALLY FUN. demons are fair game, usually my ocs are humans with powers, or humanoids as i say.elves also play a big role in my stories but i guess that also counts as humanoid!🎨 6. When creating a character, do you come up with the visual concept or the written concept first?it really depends on the kind of oc itself but usually i write up the backstory before i even try designing. that way its easier for me to add elements of their past in their appearance, for consistency i.e. scars, birthmarks, style, etc.📌 7. Do you have characters that you know you’ll never use, but can’t bear to get rid of/recycle?elijah :( i dont think i can fit him anywhere in the big story arc and that makes me sad bc i really love his concept! (he’s a half-swedish half-american water witch with gay moms) (and his last name is jerkeryoff… he was a joke oc i fell in love with)💖 8. Is there a character that embodies your good traits, or traits you wish you had?fran or nar have traits i wish i had. theyre both sweet, helpful, unselfish, and though fran’s slightly more a pushover than nar, they’ve both gone through hell and come back shining and stronger. i wish i could do that. i hope i can.💔9. Is there a character that embodies your bad traits? Several characters? Which ones and what traits?i put a bit of myself in all my ocs, and it shows sometimes. vin has a lot of my bad traits (mentally ill [badly], prone to addiction, self-doubt, actually self-loathing really) and nate does too (selfishness, aggressive, mouth runs before brain does)rip♨️ 10. Is there a character that explores your interests or fetishes (orrrr is that just all of you characters)?interests? yes. vin does music, which im VERY interested in, and fran is really interested in space and astrology, like me! fetishes? ………….maybe…. talk to me to find out :^)✒️ 11. If you have characters that embody certain traits of yours—good or bad—has writing them changed how you view those traits? Has it affected you in any way?yeah. it’s been both, tbh. vin’s family drama and stuff and how it affected him kinda helped me, or is helping me, get through shit. it’s changed my view on divorce. not really elaborating but yeah. fran’s anxiety also worked this way, and his shyness too. the more i wrote of these things, the more i realized how much i empathized. then i realized i self project lmaO💭 12. Do you fantasize about being any of your characters, or are you more detached?if i was detached from my kids would i make a separate blog for them and have tags……… i love them and i think abt them all the time,,, fantasizing is the #1 reason i have any backstories whatsoever!🎵 13. Do you create playlists for your characters?ive been WANTING to for a WHILE but theres so many ocs and not enough time. one day i will .. i can’t use spotify because its banned where i live so maybe youtube or 8tracks? idk but when i end up making these lists i will share them!!!🎇 14. When writing for specific characters, is there anything you have to do to get into the right mindset?oh yeah def!! i need to be able to relate to the character, and see myself in their shoes, otherwise it’s hard for me to write them properly !!🌻 15. Which character is your guilty pleasure?cam…. for sure audsdafhnai he’s what i aspire to be honestly🌩 16. Is there a character of yours who’s a real struggle to write/draw? Why do you think that is?nobody really, i have a good time writing/drawing all my ocs! 🔑 17. Which character is the easiest to draw/write?the ones ive had for a longer time, i find, are easier for me to write.. so fran/vin, honestly. ive had growth with them, it’s kinda like we went through development together, and we did!!💎 18. Is there anything you really wish you could do, character-design-wise, that you feel is outside your current skillset? A concept that you wish you could pull off but are uncertain about?yeah… i wish i could pull off demons and stuff related to them. i want to make my lore super deep but then it’s not easy bc i barely have time to give, and demons in my universe would be super immersed in the lore. or um.. yknow, ships within my own ocs, instead of other peoples.🏆 19. What’s more important to you: visual design, unique personality, a trendy character aesthetic, etc? If you’re not sure, then what’s the first thing you usually nail down in a character?the first thing i nail down in a character is how theyre related to the big story. this means how they can be linked to other ocs, relationships, familial or friendly, or even past romances. then i figure out their personality from these things, and then i make the design! to me an in-depth personality is more important than anything, it’s a key to character development. people think cool designs are all that matters, but to grab attention, a complex character makes sense. of course, i feel this because i’m planning to write a book, not make comics. visual appeal does exist ! and i believe in it. but i link personality to looks, and making the personality complex is more realistic and it’s easier to avoid mary sues then.🎬 20. Do you ever plan to do anything (comic, animation, etc) with your characters? Or are you just happy to have them?originally i never wanted to write a book with my kids! i was content just roleplaying. but one of my friends said that they have potential in a story arc, and that the way these people are connected is interesting (this is 2016, with my first three, and oldest ocs, fran, vin, and nate) i was really happy to hear that and got interested in writing a book, hopefully a series, with my ocs! and i plan to make this happen!!!thank u for asking, droki!!

#asks #mayonnaise #ur tags apply here too ok #everybody #dev

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flauntpage · 6 years

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Imagining an NBA Head Coach Draft

It's hard to evaluate success for an NBA head coach. Wins and losses are far from a sufficient measuring stick. On-court success is obviously nice, but so is player development, the groundwork of a scheme that fits its personnel like a tailored tuxedo, adoption of modern principles, intelligent strategy, and so on.

In many cases, coaches implement, solidify, and steer the franchise's culture. They’re graded on expectations, temperament, communication skills, consistency, and execution. They’re teachers and thinkers, and even with all the data that’s available to analyze every game, possession by possession, disentangling a coach's struggle and strengths from the roster’s talent—or lack thereof—is basically impossible.

In this business perception often still rules the day, for better or worse. We know who the good coaches are, but ranking them against one another is a particularly subjective task because there’s no baseline. (In The Book of Erik Spoelstra, for example, any disillusionment his current team endures is merely a footnote; there’s no separating him from his journey to the Basketball Hall of Fame, and that makes just about any form of criticism extremely difficult, polluted by caveats that are scribbled in the margin.)

For this exercise, we’ve drifted into an alternate reality where the league’s 14 worst teams are able to “draft” a new head coach. Setting aside the fact that all 30 franchises would not want to participate, it’s hypothetical enjoyment that lets us imagine how different coaches fit into different situations.

The teams are listed by what their draft order would be if the season ended Monday morning. From there, each organization chooses from a pool that includes just about anyone (except their current coach) who’s held an NBA head coaching job in the last 10 years, basing it off who they’d want on their sideline from this point forward. Everything is taking into account, from ownership to the front office to their cap situation to the roster to where they currently stand in their timeline. (Gregg Popovich is the best coach alive, but would you want him to take over a lengthy rebuild?)

Any questions? Great! With all that out of the way, let the fun begin!

1. Chicago Bulls: Brad Stevens

Photo by Bob DeChiara - USA TODAY Sports

Brad Stevens is the best coach in all of basketball (non-Popovich edition). His unparalleled success at Butler has since carried over into the NBA, where the Boston Celtics have increased their win total by at least five games in his first four seasons and are on track to do the same this year (58 wins would do the trick; according to FiveThirtyEight that’s the exact number they’re projected to reach).

He accentuates strengths in players who, for all intents and purposes, were left for dead. Evan Turner crawled into Boston an NBA vagabond after having been buried on the Indiana Pacers—an offensive liability whose inability to hit threes turned him into a DVD player the same day Netflix revealed their own streaming service. He walked out with a four-year, $70 million contract. Isaiah Thomas went from Lou Williams to Nate Archibald. Jae Crowder morphed into a critical trade chip. This isn’t all because of Stevens, but the trend isn’t a coincidence.

Al Horford and Gordon Hayward left reputable institutions to play for Stevens. His name is synonymous with winning in unexpected, disciplined, and principled ways. Now picture him rebuilding in Chicago, where there’s already far more young talent than he had growing up with the Celtics.

Lauri Markkanen, Kris Dunn (who’s finally starting to show what he can do now that the ball is in his hands), and Zach LaVine are, potentially, an explosive trio. Throw in their incoming lottery pick and a fortuitous cap sheet, and all of a sudden the Bulls could be back in business as a reputable opponent.

So many of Chicago’s problems over the past couple years have been tied to malignant ownership and a front office that’s more interested in keeping their jobs than anything else. Stevens will not be able to singlehandedly turn those negatives into a good thing, but with whatever players he’s supplied on the court, there’s an almost definite likelihood that he squeezes more from them than anybody else can.

2. Atlanta Hawks: Erik Spoelstra

There’s really no motivation for Atlanta to want a new coach. Mike Budenholzer is perfectly fine, and engineered one of the most magical campaigns in recent NBA history. But for this exercise he has to go. In his place it’d be a delight to see what Erik Spoelstra could do with a roster that’s mid-renovation and prioritizing long-term opulence over present-day mediocrity.

There’s really not much criticism that can be directed Bud’s way, but it’d also be interesting to see how Spoelstra would not only shepherd Atlanta’s rebuild and carry over the guiding creed so long followed in Miami, but also utilize today’s roster. This team isn’t trying to win right now, but developing Taurean Prince’s playmaking ability and reverting Kent Bazemore back to the play-finisher he once was instead of the play-creator he’s masquerading as, would be smart.

It’d be cool to see how aggressive on the defensive end Atlanta would be. This team is already forcing a ton of turnovers and bringing bigs up to double ball screens more than most teams, but would Spoelstra ratchet that up even more? The guys in Atlanta don’t have the same supernova explosion on the defensive end that Dwyane Wade and LeBron James did during Miami’s peak years invading passing lanes, but Prince, Bazemore, John Collins, and Dennis Schroder can all create havoc when dialed in and executing a rabid scheme.

In the end, Spoelstra’s X’s and O’s aren’t the primary reason he gets the nod above every other coach in the league. Fair or not, there’s a comfort level in knowing your coach has been to the mountain top, seen it all, knows what it takes to get there, and won’t panic once the roster’s talent catches up to his own IQ. He’s a phenomenal leader whose players don’t take possessions off, and the Hawks would be set up in a terrific position with him as the face of their franchise for the foreseeable future.

3. Dallas Mavericks: Mike D’Antoni

Rick Carlisle has had an incredible decade-long run with the Mavericks. He’s constructed an impenetrable reputation and the right to coach for as long as he wants. But, as we’ll detail later on, Dallas has adopted a snail’s pace in recent years. Some of this is due to factors Carlisle can’t control, but there are players on that roster who would benefit from less micromanagement.

Assuming he’d be able to do whatever he wants, Mike D’Antoni is an ideal elixir. Dennis Smith Jr. is dying to be unleashed in an uptempo, spread pick-and-roll offense that features Nerlens Noel at the five and Harrison Barnes at the four. On the rare occasion he’s allowed to zip up the floor off an opponent’s made basket, a burgeoning star materializes with his most appealing traits.

D’Antoni has worked with some of the greatest point guards in history. Smith Jr. isn’t near that plane, but pairing him with a revolutionary genius would do wonders for his career, and jump start a sludgy attack that continues to fizzle.

4. Sacramento Kings: Jason Kidd

Photo by Kelley L. Cox - USA TODAY Sports

This is an odd (almost definitely incorrect) choice for a variety of reasons, but hear me out. Sacramento is in the basement of a colossal rebuild that’s nearly a generation in the making. They’re so far from where they need/want to be and regular playoff appearances feel, at the very least, like they’re at least half a decade away.

From that standpoint, skipping steps would be a major mistake, and ensuring that De’Aaron Fox can be the crème de la crème of his loaded draft class should be a focal point.

Kidd is not one of the 20 best coaches in the league—though that says more about how awesome NBA coaches are right now than his own shortcomings—and the defensive system he’s implanted in Milwaukee is riddled with rudimentary holes that could lead upper management to eventually make a change. But let’s throw him in this pressure-less environment and see what he does with Fox.

Kidd deserves some credit for Giannis Antetokounmpo's evolution and can’t be blamed for Jabari Parker’s knee injuries. It sounds dramatic, but Sacramento’s future will either hold strong or shatter depending on how Fox develops; even though there are a dozen superior names that can be thrown into this conversation, the logic in selecting Kidd is (sort of/maybe not) sound.

5. Memphis Grizzlies: Tom Thibodeau

It’s impossible to choose someone for this team, given how rudderless and confused they appear to be. But whether Memphis is gung-ho about resuscitating the Grit N’ Grind era until neither Marc Gasol nor Mike Conley can walk, or have finally embraced reality and the need to build from the ground up, Thibodeau feels like someone who’ll commit himself to either timeline with tireless energy and a tried-and-true ideology.

(Also, it's really hard to stop people in today's NBA without length on the perimeter. Minnesota's lack of depth on the wing, plus Karl-Anthony Towns' growing pains as a defensive anchor, help explain the Timberwolves' woes on that end more than any fault in Thibodeau's message.)

6. Phoenix Suns: Luke Walton

Walton is a dark-horse Coach of the Year candidate who’s convinced young players to buy into roles that were probably smaller than they expected, and had a hand in Luol Deng’s benching—the type of move that could, if handled poorly, sidetrack a growing team.

Things aren’t perfect in Los Angeles, but by all accounts Walton is a terrific communicator who’s hard on his pups without deflating their confidence. And even though he’s experienced winning at the highest level, both as a player and coach, Walton is patient enough to go through a rebuild the right way, without cutting corners—which is something a coach ultimately can’t help, more often than not.

Block out their owner from this discussion as best you can and the Suns have a genuinely promising future! Devin Booker is good enough to win a scoring title at some point, Josh Jackson has unteachable two-way tenacity, vision, and bounce, and Dragan Bender (who turned 20 three weeks ago!) is full of potential that stretches beyond his ability to knock down corner threes. It makes sense to pair them with a coach who can be in it for the long haul.

7. Los Angeles Lakers: Steve Kerr

The Lakers’ surprising youth movement has momentarily diverted our attention away from their ambitious summer plans. Walton is perfectly fine, but bring Steve Kerr into those meetings and your chance of acquiring Paul George, DeMarcus Cousins, or LeBron James makes a substantial leap.

The Lakers may not land any of those All-Stars in July, but they will get someone. Couple that with Brandon Ingram’s pending stardom, Lonzo Ball existing as a helpful cog whose shot will—more likely than not—come around, and Kyle Kuzma's Hall of Fame resume, and L.A. can accelerate its timeline with savvy use of the trade market at a moment's notice. Overnight championship contention is a setting Kerr obviously knows how to handle.

8. Los Angeles Clippers: David Fizdale

Fizdale didn’t have enough time in Memphis to build up a profile or display a standalone identity, but his attempt to usher the Grizzlies into the 21st Century did not go unnoticed. Neither did his infamous, merch-spawning soliloquy during last year’s playoffs. Fizdale should still have a job and be given the opportunity to chaperone a team through tough times. The Clippers are about to experience just that, and selecting a smart home-town product who’d help them on the court (and possibly in free agency) would be a win-win for all involved.

9. Brooklyn Nets: Brett Brown

Photo by Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

From a stylistic perspective, there’s little difference between how the Nets are approaching their rebuild and what Brown did before he had genuine NBA talent to work with. They attack in transition and launch a ton of threes. It's smart basketball.

Brown and Nets general manager Sean Marks both sprouted from San Antonio’s tree, so this makes sense for no other reason than they’d be on the same page with an understanding of how to play intelligently on a night-to-night basis even with inconsistent results.

10. Charlotte Hornets: Rick Carlisle

When healthy, the Hornets have enough win-now talent to crash parties, and even though no club in the last three years has sniffed the same amount of time attacking in the half court as Carlisle’s Mavs (as opposed to running in transition), plopping him into a Dirk Nowitzki-Free environment where he can focus on adapting more contemporary concepts that enhance a splendid dynamo like Kemba Walker, could be interesting. The Hornets have a funky roster that isn’t ideal, but Carlisle is still a mastermind who’d find ways to set up mismatches all over the floor with an intriguing cast of characters.

11. Orlando Magic: Quin Snyder

Orlando is perpetually hopeless and somehow has the second-worst defense in the entire NBA. No coach stands out as a good match for what they've got going on, but it’d be fascinating to see how an ingenious tactician like Snyder would use Aaron Gordon—how about experimenting with him at the five?—or whether he’d be able to instill any sort of confidence in someone like Mario Hezonja.

The Magic should be better on both ends than they currently are, and Snyder, in my opinion, is one of the five smartest minds in the league. If anyone can turn things around down there, it's him.

12. Oklahoma City Thunder: Gregg Popovich

I've already said this at least twice, but here goes again: Popovich is the best coach in basketball. But, frankly, given his scroll of accomplishments and the stage of this Mt. Rushmore run he’s on, it’d be irrational to throw him on any roster that isn’t ready to compete for a championship right now.

The Thunder have enough talent to pierce the championship contender conversation, but as currently constituted lack the proper restraint. Getting Carmelo Anthony to come off the bench and not take out his frustration with diminished effort is much easier said than done. Calling timeout to publicly chew out Russell Westbrook for taking a terrible shot instead of passing the ball to Alex Abrines would be unheard of.

Photo by Soobum Im - USA TODAY Sports

But these are things the Thunder probably need right now. Few people alive have the clout and stature to pull it off. Pop sits atop that list.

13. Miami Heat: Terry Stotts

A cultural shift for sure. Stotts’s defenses in Portland have been some of the most conservative in the league, while Miami—personnel pending—is so dauntless on the perimeter. Beyond that, Stotts is just a really smart guy who belongs somewhere on this list. He isn't afraid to get experimental and is more analytically-inclined than most. I'm actually not sure how good a fit Stotts is with Miami's current roster, but feel like there's enough offensive talent (particularly with Kelly Olynyk at the five) for him to cook.

14. New York Knicks: Stan Van Gundy

It’d be fun to see how Van Gundy—a top-10 head coach whose team magically started to play better after his starting point guard became healthy—maximizes Kristaps Porzingis. He's had three traditional franchise bigs in each of his three stops (Shaquille O'Neal, Dwight Howard, and Andre Drummond). Porzingis is the opposite of conventional, and would encourage more creativity from one of the league's most expressive personalities. The Knicks (and their media contingent) would be happy to have him.

Imagining an NBA Head Coach Draft published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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amtushinfosolutionspage · 6 years

Text

Imagining an NBA Head Coach Draft

It’s hard to evaluate success for an NBA head coach. Wins and losses are far from a sufficient measuring stick. On-court success is obviously nice, but so is player development, the groundwork of a scheme that fits its personnel like a tailored tuxedo, adoption of modern principles, intelligent strategy, and so on.

In many cases, coaches implement, solidify, and steer the franchise’s culture. They’re graded on expectations, temperament, communication skills, consistency, and execution. They’re teachers and thinkers, and even with all the data that’s available to analyze every game, possession by possession, disentangling a coach’s struggle and strengths from the roster’s talent—or lack thereof—is basically impossible.

Any questions? Great! With all that out of the way, let the fun begin!

1. Chicago Bulls: Brad Stevens

Photo by Bob DeChiara – USA TODAY Sports

2. Atlanta Hawks: Erik Spoelstra

3. Dallas Mavericks: Mike D’Antoni

4. Sacramento Kings: Jason Kidd

Photo by Kelley L. Cox – USA TODAY Sports

From that standpoint, skipping steps would be a major mistake, and ensuring that De’Aaron Fox can be the crème de la crème of his loaded draft class should be a focal point.

Kidd deserves some credit for Giannis Antetokounmpo’s evolution and can’t be blamed for Jabari Parker’s knee injuries. It sounds dramatic, but Sacramento’s future will either hold strong or shatter depending on how Fox develops; even though there are a dozen superior names that can be thrown into this conversation, the logic in selecting Kidd is (sort of/maybe not) sound.

5. Memphis Grizzlies: Tom Thibodeau

(Also, it’s really hard to stop people in today’s NBA without length on the perimeter. Minnesota’s lack of depth on the wing, plus Karl-Anthony Towns’ growing pains as a defensive anchor, help explain the Timberwolves’ woes on that end more than any fault in Thibodeau’s message.)

6. Phoenix Suns: Luke Walton

7. Los Angeles Lakers: Steve Kerr

The Lakers may not land any of those All-Stars in July, but they will get someone. Couple that with Brandon Ingram’s pending stardom, Lonzo Ball existing as a helpful cog whose shot will—more likely than not—come around, and Kyle Kuzma’s Hall of Fame resume, and L.A. can accelerate its timeline with savvy use of the trade market at a moment’s notice. Overnight championship contention is a setting Kerr obviously knows how to handle.

8. Los Angeles Clippers: David Fizdale

9. Brooklyn Nets: Brett Brown

Photo by Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

10. Charlotte Hornets: Rick Carlisle

11. Orlando Magic: Quin Snyder

Orlando is perpetually hopeless and somehow has the second-worst defense in the entire NBA. No coach stands out as a good match for what they’ve got going on, but it’d be fascinating to see how an ingenious tactician like Snyder would use Aaron Gordon—how about experimenting with him at the five?—or whether he’d be able to instill any sort of confidence in someone like Mario Hezonja.

The Magic should be better on both ends than they currently are, and Snyder, in my opinion, is one of the five smartest minds in the league. If anyone can turn things around down there, it’s him.

12. Oklahoma City Thunder: Gregg Popovich

I’ve already said this at least twice, but here goes again: Popovich is the best coach in basketball. But, frankly, given his scroll of accomplishments and the stage of this Mt. Rushmore run he’s on, it’d be irrational to throw him on any roster that isn’t ready to compete for a championship right now.

Photo by Soobum Im – USA TODAY Sports

But these are things the Thunder probably need right now. Few people alive have the clout and stature to pull it off. Pop sits atop that list.

13. Miami Heat: Terry Stotts

A cultural shift for sure. Stotts’s defenses in Portland have been some of the most conservative in the league, while Miami—personnel pending—is so dauntless on the perimeter. Beyond that, Stotts is just a really smart guy who belongs somewhere on this list. He isn’t afraid to get experimental and is more analytically-inclined than most. I’m actually not sure how good a fit Stotts is with Miami’s current roster, but feel like there’s enough offensive talent (particularly with Kelly Olynyk at the five) for him to cook.

14. New York Knicks: Stan Van Gundy

It’d be fun to see how Van Gundy—a top-10 head coach whose team magically started to play better after his starting point guard became healthy—maximizes Kristaps Porzingis. He’s had three traditional franchise bigs in each of his three stops (Shaquille O’Neal, Dwight Howard, and Andre Drummond). Porzingis is the opposite of conventional, and would encourage more creativity from one of the league’s most expressive personalities. The Knicks (and their media contingent) would be happy to have him.

Imagining an NBA Head Coach Draft syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6

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