#psych marathon announcement

[waytoomanyhobbies]

#psych #psych usa #james roday #dule hill #suck it Covid-19 #psych marathon announcement

[af1899]

The first FEH calendar of 2022 is finally here

Like it's been happening lately, the calendar is coming out as soon as it's 11th in each month (GMT-3), and here's our new one:

(Thread on Twitter)

And, as per usual, my dump of thoughts and plans right below. 👇🏻

About: banners

This is the first thing I care about like always, potential banners in which to pull, but outside the {Legendary Hero Remix} and the mysterious seasonals and Legendary Hero, I don't find much of interest to pull on, so I'll summon for Legendary Lucina soon as her rerun is live... speaking of which, just two more days!! Pretty much psyched to pull for best Awakening girl. 💙🦋

This time, I'll record my summoning session in my PC since my phone might not have enough storage for a lengthy summon marathon, whereas my PC does. I know waiting for the night of 15th for the seasonal units' trailer would be ideal, but Lucina is only missing 4 merges and I have 610 [Orbs] as of this post, and, as someone that really appreciates her, I've been looking forward to a chance to finish merging her since months.

Also, we're having yet another [Heroes with Push] banner, is I.S. pushing these onto us? 🤨

And the rest of the stuff

Damn, the anniversary is coming in about three weeks? Time flies.

I guess it's related to the sus gap we've got in the calendar, there might be something grand in store since we're talking about the fifth anniversary since the game launched back in 2017, I'm definitely looking forward to it.

I found an interesting thing in Twitter but Legendary Male Byleth isn't returning in those banners until April this year... still, I.S. sure messed up here.

Anyway, I first thought that [Summoner Duels R] was essentially the same thing, something that was quite wrong in one of my previous post, because it's a separate event yet still mostly the same as the vanilla game mode, but seasonal as it last 4 days (explained here), I'm not really thrilled by it but I'll try to get the rewards because I need them.

[Tap Battle] returns also (details on the theme here)... this game mode is unfortunately not so rewarding, but it's at least something different from your usual maps, so it's not too shabby, but I.S. literally mostly forgot about these and is just rerunning old ones from time to time... I'd still like to see some revamp in these.

So... this month...

It's going to be pretty tame for me, only thrilled for Legendary Lucina's rerun (out of everything announced for January) then that's it, and unless any of the new seasonals is interesting, I'll head back to saving [Orbs] after said summoning, but we'll see.

The End

Thanks so much for reading my posts as always, and I hope you found anything useful in these!

#FEH #fe heroes #fire emblem heroes #feh calendar

[pokeexehasstoppedworking]

Love Doesn’t Do Encores Ch12 Battle Gym Leader Kabu

You had been so, so confused at first when Gloria all of a sudden announced she wanted to use your sobble against Kabu. And to be honest you weren't really too keen on the idea either. Your little cute roll-y poll-y sobble who'd cling to you when scared?? Fighting against the second strongest gym leader in all of Galar??......Yeah. You really, REALLY weren't feeling up for the idea, and had asked her why for goodness sakes!? Her answer was simple.

"The tears ability! Sobble's tears will be my winning strategy against Kabu. I already gotta plan in mind but I can't do it without your pokemon's help since I ain't got a sobble 'o my own! Please Y/n! I'm beggin' ya!"

Well.....You really didn't want to just hand over your sobble even if you trusted Gloria by now, but you also didn't want to make her lose the gym challenge either. After all completing the game was your only shot at making it back home so far. If Gloria couldn't beat Kabu and was snuffed out of the challenge by him then what would you do? So...You agreed. Your sleep didn't come easy to you that night but somehow you managed to fall in a deep dreamless sleep. The next morning literally having to make Gloria push you off the bed in order to wake you up as she shook you. Not on purpose of course, as she had just been trying to get you to wake up but the moment your groggy body fell to the floor with a thud she began apologizing purfusely.

"Y/N!!" Your body rattled more than a maraca as you suddenly began pulling out of the darkness blinking rapidly at the blurry vision of everything shaking before you like an earthquake. "WAKE UP ALREADY!! WE'RE GONNA BE LATE!!"

"WHAT- AH!!" Your world tumbled as you fell from the comfy bed and was met with the hardness of the wooden floor by Gloria's feet. "OW!!"....You groaned as the blanket slowly fluttered down to messily cover you.

Gloria's hands shot to her mouth, making a hissing sound as she watched you experienced pain. "Y/N!! Oh my Arceus! I'm so so sorry!," she quickly apologised.

"...Good morning to you too, Gloria," you mumbled before kicking the sheet off you and pushing yourself off the floor, your hair a mess, and yawning. "What time is it?"

"Um..Seven in the morning I think?" You turned to her tiredly and noticed she was already wearing her white challenger uniform and all ready to go.

"Did you get the others up?," you asked stiffling a yawn as you stood.

"Um..." She chuckled nervously as you stretched your back and rose a brow at her as she held up a hand. "Uh..About that...They're gone." Her face frowned more as you paused...and blinked at her.

"...What do you mean 'They're gone'?"

"They weren't there when I knocked on the door, so I guess they left early! I'm sorry I didn't know!"

"Oh for the love of-..." You sighed and waved her off. "Nevermind." Quickly reaching over, you bent down and pulled the blanket off the floor, throwing it back neatly over the bed before going for your bag. "Are you all ready?" She nodded. "Good. We'll find them later. For right now let's just worry about getting to the stadium and seeing what's up! Ok?"

She had quickly agreed to that and you wasted no time throwing yourself together, tossing your bag over your shoulders, and grabbing your sobble's pokeball. From what she told you last night, you thought it'd be best to put the little critter into it's pokeball and give it to her before her battle to avoid any complications should your sobble start acting up. Which lead to now. The two of you were already in the elevator on your way down to the lobby. Anxious tention in the air so thick you could cut it with a knife as you lightly gripped the pokeball in your hand slightly harder. After a moment or two of silence Gloria went digging through her bag and pulled out something that looked pretty much like the goggles you'd see a diver wear before entering the water.

"Did you eat anything?," you asked glancing at her as she slipped the straps over her head making you give a confused look. "...And what are those for?

She silently shook her head slightly as her head was bent down and you watched in silence as she silently tightened the black straps tightly around her head. When Gloria finally managed to look up at you, the goggles were tightly clamped around her eyes and she shook her head no. "No. I was too busy tryin' too get ready. 'sides I feel pretty queezy. I don' know if food's a good idea right now." She blinked obviously noticing the look you were giving her goggles. "What are you- Oh these?" You nodded and she smiled. "Well last time he cried ya'll didn't stand a chance. But I figured if I covered my eyes real good I won't get affected by whatever's in those sobble's tears that makes ya cry rivers!"

You stared....."That's bloody genius!! Why didn't I think of that!?"

She chuckled. "To be honest it really ain't my idea anyways. I remember Hop telling me the idea back when I got my toxel. I remembered it when I thought of usin' your sobble and stopped by that clothes shoppe in town. They were sellin' swim wear n' stuff since it's summer and picked up these lil babies. Like I said. He's a genius."

Ah! That must've been why it took her a while to get back to the hotel. She really was preparing for her gym battle. As the elevator went you had reluctantly handed over your sobble's pokeball to her and she gently took it. Giving it a look before deeply inhaling and slowly exhaling, most likely psyching herself up before relaxing her posture and slowly slipping the pokeball into her pocket. You watched as she did so with worry and a little bit of guilt eating away at your stomach. You weren't sure if this was really the right thing to do after all, especially without telling your pokemon. This was surely going to be quite the shock for it, and you weren't too sure what the outcome could be. A ding interrupted any of your thoughts as the both of you looked back towards the doors as they opened, and you were lightly surprised to see the girl there. The same girl you had been worriedly thinking over last night. Marnie!

She was standing there in the lobby kneeled down handing her hamster like pokemon some kind of fruit to eat, which it took eagerly, but upon seeing you two blinked and slowly stood to her feet. "Mornin' Gloria. ..Oh. And you too Miss."

"Uh hi!," Gloria greeted a little unsure since she must've looked a bit strange in the swimming goggles. "Are you headin' off to battle Kabu too?"

She shook her head no. "No. We were 'bout to shove off on the next leg of our journey now. That friend of yours already went off to challenge the next gym, tho."

"He did?," you asked and Marnie politely nodded towards you. "...How early did those two wake up?"

"I couldn't say for sure, but by how happy they were it seemed like they had a plan."

"Oh! Well we have a pretty great stragety too!" Gloria smiled proudly. You were glad at least her nerves were seeming to be getting better.

Marnie only nodded. You looked at her for a moment and it didn't seem as if she had any nefarious schemes or malicious intent behind that polite exterior of hers. But still last night's questions swirled in the back of your mind as you narrowed your eyes in thought, raising your brows as she calmly reached into her leather jacket pocket and pulled out a small reddish card before handing it out to Gloria.

The brunette blinked at it for a moment before raising a brow in question. "What's this?"

"Kabu's League Card," she replied calmly, "It's supposed to help against him, but I ended up with a few copies, so I'll give you one." A look of surprise passed on both your faces as you two exchanged looks before looking back to Marnie. "Don't look so chuffed. It's no big deal. 'N I already got two others already."

Gloria stared for a second longer before smiling and taking the card from her. "Wow. Thanks!"

Marnie nodded in reply. "Oh. Here." She reached back into her pocket and pulled out a second card before holding it out towards her. "Take this too. A little somethin' for our battle yesterday. As a thanks for helpin' me out."

"What's this?"

"My own league card. Your friend gave me one of his so I figured you could have one too."

"Whoa! Thanks!" Gloria gladly accepted the other card with a smile. "That's real nice 'o ya!"

Marnie gave the smallest of smiles. "I bet you'll have no trouble beatin' that ''man of fire'' Kabu chap, right? Why don'cha get over to Motostoke stadium and get that gym badge already?"

...Gloria jumped. "OH!! RIGHT!! We need to get to the stadium!" She stuffed the cards into her pocket as fast as she could as Marnie peered up towards you and you blinked at her. ...You opened your mouth to ask her about the Team Yell involvement that's been going on. Not expecting really any answers outta her, but before you could say anything something tightly gripped around your arm and you yelped as Gloria yanked your forward in a run. Almost making you hit the floor for the second time that morning. "THANKS MARNIE!! GOOD LUCK ON YOUR NEXT STEP!!"

Marnie waved a hand back at your retreating forms. "Good luck out there!"

Gloria yanked you along, nearly tripping down the steps and over your own two feet as she raced ahead putting one arm out to shove the door open in her mad dash to the stadium ahead. Thank goodness the Budew Drop Inn was literally right next to the stadium. You didn't think you could last too long with Gloria's way of yanking you forward in a frenzy without falling over for too long. Cheers and loud noises were clear as day as soon as the two of you stepped out the doors and started running over towards the stadium. How early did these people wake up around here!? Thank goodness at least you two didn't have to worry about bumping or tripping over other people. It was a short distance, but with the adrenaline pumping and worry in your systems it felt as if you two ran a marathon by the time Gloria moved the two of you towards the double doors she had gone through previously during the Entrance Ceremony. Her sudden stomp making you stumble and catch your self clumsily on your knees and free hand as she still gripped your arm tightly, thankfully not smacking into the ground, as she skidded to a stop. Low and behold guess who was already waiting for you two? Victor gave the two of you a raised brow before sighing and reaching up to rub at his temple, as Hop chuckled and crossed his arms at the sight of you two girls.

"Slow moving aren't you, Glory?", Hop teased.

"O-Oh...S-S-Shove...o-off!," she forced out back at him between deep breaths. Letting lose your other arm. You hissed in sourness as you pulled it towards you, reaching up to rub where Gloria had gripped it.

"Where had you two been?," Victor asked frowning, "We spent half an hour knocking on your door before we left."

"I've already gone and earned my fire badge," Hop said in agreement, "The man of fire Kau is just what you'd expect. Nearly got burnt in my battle with him."

"LITERALLY," Victor added, "I'm surprised his pokemon weren't turned to ash when he barely made the second round. .....Was a very lucky close call that made him win."

"Even with my strongest team it was definitely tough- and - go .....but I still won in the end!"

"Just barely. He lost the first round, won the second, and third ended with a tie. Since no one won or lost the third round it counted as a win towards Hop as well and he managed to walk away with a two out of three win victory."

"SERIOUSLY!? How early did ya'll get up!?"

"Nevermind all of that!" Hop interrupted everyone waving a hand. "You need to get a shift on, Gloria. I bet you could beat the man of fire toooo....." He blinked. Staring right at her face seeming to FINALLY notice the swimming goggles on her face. "...Hey. Whatcha wearing those swimming things for? Afraid you'll get fire blasted at ya?"

She blinked as Victor was nice enough to walk over and help pull you up to your feet, pointing to her face. "Y'mean these? It's sobble protection."

he gave her a confused look. "Sobble protection? But Kabu doesn't have a sobble on his team."

"Not for Kabu's pokemon." She gestured to you as you thanked Victor. "I'm borrowing hers. I remembered what you said about using goggles to maybe help block the effects or their tears, so I'm tryin' it out."

Hop gained a look of surprise. Not sure if it was from what Gloria said or the fact she was using Sobble. "You...remembered t-that." He asked shyly. Yep. Def from what Gloria said.

She nodded. "Yeah. Why wouldn't I? By the way, how was the challenge?"

"Huh?" He blinked before turning an embarrased pink. "Oh uh r-right. *ahem* It went well. I mean you have to catch t-three pokemon but it's no big de-"

"WHAT!?" He blinked at her shout and watched silently as she quickly patted her pockets. "We have to catch pokemon!? B-But I didn't bring any empty pokeballs!!"

"Gloria, calm down-"

"Calm down!! CALM DOWN!?," she snapped towards her twin shouting with a look of panic, "I don't have any pokeballs on me except the ones that already have pokemon in them! How am I supposed to battle the gym LEADER if I can't make it past the gym CHALLENGE, Vic!?"

"You can borrow some of mine!," he shouted back at her.

Gloria shut up and stared at him blankly for a moment. "......Come again?"

Her brother groaned giving an eye roll before slipping the large (suitcase-) pack off himself. Silently you all watched as he brought it up and opened it before shoving his hand quickly inside for a second before pulling out a trio of pokeballs. Shoving them all at Gloria who barely managed to catch them all fumbling as she did. "Here!" He insisted already starting to close his bag. "Don't worry 'bout paying me back. You can keep 'em. But for crying out loud, Glory!! Become more prepared!"

Her brown eyes glanced between the poke balls and her brother. Looking to be at a loss for words. "I-....Uh....T-Thanks??"

"Don't thank me yet! You still have to get in there and beat him. So get to it, Glor! I know you can pass this challenge like you do every other- AH!!"

"THANK YOOOUUU!!! You're the best brother EVER!!"

Victor groaned as she hugged him before squirming his way free like a worm. "Yeah, yeah. Nevermind that now, you have a battle to win! Remember?"

"YEAH RIGHT!!......Um."

"What now?"

"You might want to stay out here instead of going inside, I uhhhh...Don't know how this might turn out."

"That might be a good idea," you commented. "Especially if those tears are gonna get BIG from Dynamaxing....But would you be able to do it without us there?"

"Yeah!...Wait." She glanced back to Hop with a slightly worried expression, "You'll still watch me from the live footage, r-right?"

Hop nodded without hesitation. "Of course we will!,'' he smiled whipping out his phone, "You don't even have to ask us. As your best rival and friend it's my sworn duty to support you in your journey even if it's from behind the scenes! We'll be here cheering you on all the way!"

"But first she actually has to go inside and do the challenge before Kabu decided you're not coming at all."

"R-Right! Yeah." With a turn of her head Gloria faced the doors before her before with another inhale and exhale, her face steeled and she started forward. "Wish me luck!"

"You don't need it!" "Go get 'em, Glory!" "Good luck!" The three of you shouted at her as the doors opened and she slowly walked her way in.

The worry feeling in your gut increased as you realized you wouldn't be watching your sobble battling within the stadium, but it might be better you all weren't affected by the giant tears if Gloria really was going to be dynamaxing the sobble. Hop pointed over towards a bench nearby where the three of you could sit and watch and you agreed, following the boys over as the cheers from the stadium was ever present. Guess the crowd must've gotten wind of another challenger on their way in to challenge Kabu. Hop had turned his rotom phone on and went to what he said was the Gym League's official website where you could find everything from past Gym leader's biographies, to their pokemon, to even content the Gym Leaders themselves posted. You could even find live footage if they currently battled anyone to watch if you couldn't be at the stadium. How convenient! It didn't take Hop too long to pull up a video turning his phone sideways to full screen as you and Victor huddle around to watch. What was shown on screen was the inside of the stadium, the many people in the stands, and an empty field. Gloria must've still been just starting the challenge presented to her. To which Victor commented it might take a bit to catch all three pokemon. So all the three of you could do was wait it out for the moment, which you did. You sat there for the longest time just staring at the phone screen mind wondering off into space as the boys chatted among themselves next to you glancing at the phone every so often. Would this really work out ok? You were starting to feel like maybe you shouldn't have let Gloria borrow sobble but you also really wanted to get home so if this really was the way she could win you were doing the right thing.....Right?

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!" You jumped at the loud man's voice that shouted out in what sounded like two different directions. And it kinda was, the announcer's voice was loud enough to be heard outside the stadium and came from the live feed being recorded live from Hop's phone as well. "The battle between Gym Challenger Gloria and Gym Leader Kabu shall now commence!!" The three of you quickly snapped to attention at the phone Hop held as the camera recording the live feed zoomed it just close enough where you could watch the battle at it's fullest, but also too far away to see their faces sadly. You hoped Gloria wasn't feeling too anxious. The crowd roared again in cheers as at last both the figures of Gloria and Kabu jogged their way towards the very center of the big field before stopping. Here we go. "Battlers please take your place on opposite field and face one another!!" It looked like they exchanged a few words before turning and walking a decent amount away from one another. " SET!" They faced one another. "Pokemon at the ready!! BATTLE BEGIN!!"

In a flash of bright light, both parties sent forth their pokemon as the crowd cheered. Kabu a fox looking pokemon, Nine tales if you remembered right. And Gloria her Roselia.

"Wha- Why's she using a grass type?," Hop asked confused, "Grass-type pokemon are usually weak against fire-types. Shouldn't she know the type disadvantage? "

You were confused at first too. Why would she be using a ro-...Your eyes widened remembering something from your past encounters. "....Stun spore."

"What?," he asked turning to you.

And you them as you spoke. "I bet you more than anything she's going to use that stun spore move on that thing."

...Hop's eyes widened. "Of course! Stun spore leaves a paralysis effect on it's opponent! She could that to get an edge up on Ninetales if she's able to land the hit!..If she can that is. Ninetales has the time advantage and more speed than any other nine tales I've seen. I couldn't even get passed it."

You said nothing after that and turned back to the screen as a flame thrower type move nearly hit the roselia by a couple inches. OH Crap- The battle must've started while you weren't paying attention! So far Gloria seemed to be doing ok. With a point from her form she must've been giving an order, because that roselia in all it's agility used tackle and ran straight towards the ninetales. ..!? WHAT WAS SHE DOING!? She was gonna get that poor rose pokemon hurt! A tense and cold feeling grabbed a hold of your body as the fox pokemon opened it's large mouth, and filled with the burning  fire as it shot towards the roselia. A collective aw reaction coursed through the crowd and you three as the roselia....slid. That's right. SLID. The grass pokemon suddenly dropping back as it it slipped and fell to it's knees (Or you guess what counted as knees on it) and as if in a rock star pose, leaned all the way back as the fire passed above it literally inches from it's face. No doubt the speed from the tackle added in it's aid of sliding across the grassy field. As if time slowed down, the fire soon left the ninetales's mouth, and it turned it's head down towards the roselia sliding towards it at break-neck speeds. Lifting the roses on it's arms surrounded by burst of electricity, you could've sworn the fox thing gave a look of panic, before there was a flash of light as bright as a camera's flash as the roselia continued it's journey under the ninetales as it was enveloped face first by electricity. Now if you thought the corvinkight's loud cries when you crashed into it's nest was terrifying, it was nothing compared to the high pitched dog like wails that came from this pokemon really made your stomach flip. Through the static shock surrounding it, the ninetales gritted it's fangs and looking as if pain, forced itself to snap towards the roselia who stopped just behind it. And in one swift motion, in a white blur the pokemon turned and swiped at it. HARD. With a cry from the pokemon it went flying across the feild, tumbling head over heels, round and round in summer salts until finally with a thud the poor thing landed with half it's body crossing one of the perimeter lines.

"MATCH!!" The announcer's voice called back through and it honestly made you jumped by how it surprised you, too lost in the battle to notice. "THE GYM CHALLENGER'S POKEMON IS OUT OF BOUNDS!! GYM LEADER WINS FIRST ROUND BATTLE!!"

The crowd roared out again at Kabu's obviously win, and you weren't too surprised since he is supposed to be the second strongest gym leader. So it shouldn't be surprised that the ninetales was still able to move like that after Gloria's stun spore surprise. Tho you were a bit sad at her loss.

"Aw man! She totally got canned out there!," Hop sighed lowering the phone a little disappointed as both battlers returned their pokemon

Victor hummed. "Well, yes. Glory lost first round but it's not a total loss. Stun spore's affects increases the more the recipient of it moves, so it'd be dumb if Kabu forced his ninetales to battle again for the second round. It'd just be giving her a better chance at winning. So she still managed to wittle down them to an equal two pokemon each."

....Hop nodded. "Yeah! You're right. But it doesn't mean the other two won't be just as powerful."

"SECOND MATCH START!!" The voice returned. "POKEMON AT THE READY!! SECOND ROUND BATTLE BEGIN!!"

Two more bright lights appeared and the BIGGEST arcanine you had ever seen appeared before you! That thing was huge! Much better than the ones in game. And Gloria had sent out her raboot. A fire type against a fire type. They should be equaled out but you had a feeling the arcanine was the more powerful in terms of strength and skill. Gloria better have had a trick up her sleeve for this one. Kabu was the first one to make a move. As it quickly leaned his head forward just an inch and the raboot jumped a good yard back away in fear.

"That's arcanine's intimidate. Hope that raboot's not too scared."

The arcanine took a step forward the rabbot took another step back. Kabu pointed and in an instant it charged. Flames spewing from it's mouth the moment it opened it's maw and it fell. Well at least you thought it did by how fast it dropped, only to flip using it's back legs to kick off and a envelope itself in fire to perform Flame Wheel- Raboot. Charged! It's feet gaining fire with it's speed when you realized what was going to happen. Was Gloria attempting to use Flame Charge as a way to counter the Flame Wheel like back when she used her Scorbunny's move to deflect Hop's Wooloo's tackle? That may have worked out back then but Arcanine was much bigger and stronger than an ordinary wooloo! There's no way as strong as raboot was they could deflect that flame wheel....Except..Well...That wasn't what they did at all. As soon as that raboot jumped and made contact with that fire hoop of death, it was like a catapult suddenly went off under it's feet. Using the momentum of the moment that crafty little bunny used it's own fire as a shield for it's feet from the flames of it's enemy to leap itself into the air. The three of you watched in awe as the raboot launched itself a decent twenty or so feet in the air above the arcanine who had stopped and then looked up in confusion as it most likely didn't expect that. That's when it struck. With a surprising speed for being in mid air, the raboot shot back back down straight towards the arcanine. The dog pokemon in retaliation growled and opened it's maw WIDE to catch it within it's fangs at the same time as the raboot flipped, and landed a perfect double kick to the upper part of the pokemon's face. The. Arcanine. WAILED OUT!! The jerk it's head gave shoving the rabbit pokemon to the ground with a loud squeak as it hit the dirt but as quick as ever sprung itself back onto it's feet to face it's enemy. The much taller fire type shaking it's head and pawing at it's eyes.

"A Quick Attack and Double Kick combo!! How'd they do that so fast!?"

None of you had time to answer that before Gloria was already pointing at the arcanine and the raboot swiftly followed. The arcanine snarled it the approuching raboot's direction eyes closed and again went to use Bite, but with a quick side leap to the left, it easily delivered another double kick to the side of it's head. Making it recoil. And thus it had begun. Side! Back! Gut! Front Leg! Back Leg! Under Chin! Front Leg again! The raboot as quickly as a real rabbit in your world, was light on it's feet. Using quick attack and double kick over and over again to kick the blinded and confused arcanine in random places jumping over, under, around and sometimes latching onto it's fur to propel itself in a different direction from the jaws or swiping paws as it growled and blindly went after him. One time literally trying to slam it's whole right side onto the smaller pokemon before the rabbot quickly thrust itself forward under and away from the falling body before giving it a tackle to it's exposed middle in retaliation for the body slam. Using it's speed and smaller body to it's full advantage. The blinded pokemon's only saving grace was to suddenly use the order of flame wheel to break away from the small menace. Rolling fast away in a hoop of flames. You nearly choked on your own breath as you all watched in disbelief as the tinier much smaller raboot CHASED. Yes. CHASED after the spinning wheel of death faster than you had seen it run. The flames gathering on it's feet again. Another flame charge?? The arcanine stopped just a few yards away from him, flames still gathered within it's mouth as it turned, presumably to launch a strong flame attack at the smaller beast. And raboot with all it's speed and flaming feet. KICKED!! As fast as a jet streaking through the sky, a flaming rock was launched right at the pokemon's face. And connected. With a yelped and smoke going off from getting straightly hit by it, the arcanine went down.

"ARCANINE HAS BEEN RENDERED UNCONCIOUS!! GYM CHALLENGER WINS THE SECOND ROUND!!!"

THE. CROWD. CHEERED!! Ember....That raboot used ember to knock out that arcanine!! You didn't know whether to be impressed or surprised at what just happened but both the boys next to you exchanged a few cheers of their own and high fived. And you let out a breath you didn't know you were holding. Holy canoli that was tense!! ....But then you froze. Wait...If both first and second rounds were over..that meant only the third was left. And the third round was the dynamax specialty. And Gloria was planning on using... all the worry came rushing back in an instant.

"Oh no-"

"FINAL MATCH DETERMINES WHO WINS AND LOSES!! YOU FOLKS KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!!" Oh please don't say- "DYNAMAX ROUND SET!! GET YOUR POKEMON AT THE READY!!" You could all suddenly hear the crowd begin chanting the word 'Dynamax'. Your eyes widened as, as tiny as Gloria's figure was on the camera, you could CLEARLY make out her reaching into her pocket and pull out a pokeball, her other hand coming up to her goggles. In than instant your face paled and your blood ran cold. A heavy feeling of cold settling in as you saw that unmistakable red energy gathering around her wrist band as she held your ball. Your poor baby's ball. "FINAL BATTLE BEGIN!!"

The first to make a move was Kabu as the pokeball in his hands swelled up to the size of a watermelon and with a firey look in his eyes, swiftly turned on his heel and with one arm chucked the giant thing into the air. It sored through the sky until popped open and THE BIGGEST centipede you had ever seen came forward. The ground where you three were sitting shook from the force of the giant pokemon in the stadium in front of you landed on the ground. Sending a wave of wind and rubble from the field flying in it's wake as dark reddish-orange storm clouds darkened itself overhead, making it look even MORE horrifying than it was....OH. SWEET. MOTHER. OF MILTANK!! If that thing was scary to you than it'd be an utterly drop dead terror for your poor sobble! The pokeball in Gloria's hold swelled up to the same size as a watermelon. Using both arms to lift the thing over her head, and tossed it into the air. It soared through the air and all three of you watched like you were watching a trainwreck happening. Too scared for the results but unable to look away feeling as it popped open. And your sobble made it's entrance. The blue pokemon now several times bigger than it's usual cat like hieght. It landed in the same fashion as Kabu's centipede thing did. And instantly a look if confusion graced it's face as with a montrous chirp it started quickly looking around at itself. Although that confusion quickly dashed away as soon as it's eyes laid upon the terror in front of it. It froze. Staring unblinking with that blank stare of his as it laid eyes on the centipede pokemon.

"Oh no-

Now you weren't entirely sure what move it was called that it used, but all of a sudden this giant bug thing decided to play....But this thing moved so fast in air as Kabu leaned back and pointed up at it you nearly had a heart attack then and there. It took the form of a sideways zig zag pose and gathered a great deal of fire within it's coils. The GIANT ball of flames launched in a moment's notice as it sailed out. And hit your sobble directly with an explosion. You cried out, hands coming to clasped at your mouth at the noise the water pokemon made as it connected and tumbled over. The three of you had to grab a hold on the bench as it wobbled, Hop nearly dropping his phone in process as he did. Thank goodness he didn't because you still had your panicked eyes stuck to the screen even as it shook. .......Your now giant sobble with storm clouds gathered over it's head was just laying there for a moment....before it pushed itself onto it's bottom silently, dirt from the field falling off itself as it did. He stared blankly back at the centipede-...thing for a moment....before it's giant mouth quivered. And in a flash the giant sobble threw it's back and began to cry. The loudest cries you ever heard rung out through the sobble's mouth, it sounded like someone took the world's largest bagpipes and cranked it's volume to eleven. But that's not what concerned you. Thousands of shining droplets starting floating down everywhere. And in an instant the centipede thing violently shook it's head. A loud cry of protest coming out of it.

"Holy Arceous..."

Was all any of you could manage to say at the situation as you continued to watch your sobble cry as the centipede thing continued to shake it's head and yell out. Kabu's small form on the screen even shown him using whatever towel he kept around his shoulder to suddenly smush his face against. The centipede thing suddenly dove. A giant crater forming in the field as it attempted to bury it head away from whatever was irritating it. After a moment your sobble stopped. Giving it a look as it twitched and kept it's face in the giant crater it made for itself like an ostrich, eyes watering a bit as it did. It gave a look around again but seemed to be scanning more of the stadium than the field. Most likely looking for a way out. That didn't surprise you in the slightest. What DID surprise you next was what it did next. Your. Sobble. Scowled. In the direction of the centipede thing who still rubbed it's head in the dirt, most likely trying to settle down the burning sensation of the tears it experienced before. You blinked as it gave off a montrous sound of it's own towards the other pokemon. Did....Did your sobble..The one who who dive under your arm or hide behind your head just...growl at the other pokemon?? By the end of the war cry it gave as a shock, it pushed itself forward. Landing it's hands right onto the ground as a wave of energy expelled from it. The force making crackes in the earth around the thing's buried head before blue light seeped through the depths of the earth and a geyer of blue light shook the stadium and the three of you.

"T-T-THAT WAS A SOBBLE'S MAX STRIKE MOVE!!," Hop managed to force out between holding onto the bench as everything shook.

"IT WAS A WHAT!?," You shouted back at him trying to make out the shaking screen in his hands between holding onto the bench yourself.

The centipede things wretched it's head up from the dirt and with a loud cry began shaking it frantically like a panicked snake. That was before it was attacked again of course by your sobble. A torrent of water rushed out from it's mouth the moment it was opened and hit the thrashing fire type straight in the face as it cried out. The fire becoming so bright it turned white...except it wasn't coming from the giant pokemon. The bright light was coming from the other side of the field as your sobble cried out again- The screen shut off with a beep. A flash of 'No Signal' coming over the sudden white screen. The three of you stared at Hop's phone. No one moving. No one saying anything. As the three of you just....stared at the lost signal-

"NO!!" Hop yelped and wretched his arm back in surprise as you snatched the phone from his hands. Frantically bringing it up to your painicked face as your body drawled in quicker breaths. You shook the phone within your hands and furiously tapped the screen in rapid moment before the rotom within it wretched itself from your grip with a scowl to escape your grip. "NO NO NO!!" You snapped back to Hop. "WHAT HAPPEND?!"

"We must've lost the live feed signal," Hop replied back reaching over and grabbing the rotom from mid air and bringing it back to him.

"Can you get it back?!"

"I can try, but I don't know if-"

"GYM MATCH IS OVER!!" All three of you froze to stare in the direction of the voice coming loud and clear from the stadium. ....You slowly stood up. "CENTISKORCH IS UNABLE TO BATTLE!! GYM CHALLENGER GLORIA WINS THE MATCH!!" The crowd cheered...And you leaned forward-

"OOF!!" You were yanked back by your backpack by Hop before you could fall to the ground below and you landed with a thud back onto the bench. "....Thanks.''

Hop nodded before he put the phone quickly away and stood along with Victor. "C'mon. I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna see what happened."

You stood up quickly with a scowl. "You bet your pokeballs I'm going to see what happened! Gloria and my sobble is in there!"

There was no questions or doubts about it as the three of you unanimously started towards the inside of the stadium doors in worry for the young trainer and your pokemon. ...Except as soon as the doors opened the trio of you were stopped by some man wearing a gym suit and sunglasses. Surprise, surprise. You and Victor weren't allowed in as unregistered gym challengers. ....ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? You wanted to yell at this guy and push past him if you bloody had to to see them! And Hop looked as if he was about ready to argue in your favor as well squaring up. The only one who seemed to be thinking clearly in the situation was Victor who had to pull the two of you back to wait outside for her. You wanted to get it!! Who cares if they threw you out kicking and screaming!? You were seeing your pokemon!! Oh the irony when Victor yelled at you two it would only put Gloria's and Hop's places in the challenge in danger if either one of you did anything dumb to threaten their places. Oh....Well when he put it like that, then it did make the two of you seem foolish. But that didn't you liked it standing right outside those giant double doors leading to the inside of the gym pacing, and tapping your foot, staring at the doors in worry, mumbling to yourselves. Poor Victor standing deadpanned in the wake of your two's worried mess with a sigh. You all nearly jumped as the door opened and the slightly dirt covered girl of the hour finally came out-

"GLORIA!!" The brunette yelped as she was all of a sudden encased in a tight hug by her worried friend. "OH GOSH!! WE WERE SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU!! I figured if anyone could do it you and raboot would be the ones....But STILL!! That match had me right at the edge of my seat! I thought for sure you would've been crushed-"

"Hop! Geez! I'm perfectly ok! See?" She pried herself away from the clinging boy to make some space between them both. "I'm as fine as a deep fried curry! And I walked away with more than just my safety!" She beamed brightly as she spoke. "I got my bloody fire badge!"

His eyes widened. "WHAT!? No way! That's incredible!"

As the four of you were a little busy focusing on Gloria and worrying, none of you noticed the blue thing walking past her legs and up to you.

"WAIT WAIT!!" Hop nearly stumbled as you dove and Gloria blinked in surprise as you grabbed her shoulders in worry. There wasn't any signs of a sobble around her so it must've meant she put him back in his pokeball!!...Or at least you hoped she did. "Where is he!?" You asked in a worried tone. "Where's my sobble, Gloria?!"

......She blinked. "Oh...Ummm. Yeah about that." She gave an almost cringe as she said the next few words. "He's uh....Not exactly a sobble anymore." The three of you stared at her....A pit dropping in your stomach strong enough to make you feel like hurling.

"WHAT!?"

"No no no! He's fine I swear!," she insisted holding her hands up to your scared face. "It's just that-"

"ACK!?" Gloria blinked as you were suddenly whipped back by something heavy latching onto your backpack. It felt like someone had dropped the weight of a toddler on your shoulders all of a sudden. The three looked on in confusion as you stumbled back in panic waving your arms wildly for balance before throwing yourself forward to right yourself and grabbed your knees in a leaned over position. "What in the actual-" You paused. Something shifted on your back and grabbed your shoudler. In an instant you whipped over your shoulder to look at the thing pulling itself up onto you. And what you were met with was a face to face encounter with a frowning blue head who gave a small thrum sound at you. ............You blinked. "What the heck!?"

"Uh...That's what I was trying to tell you about," Gloria said pointing to it.

Without breaking eye contact with the thing that was half sitting on your pack half slumped over against your shoulder, you slowly stood up and pointed at it. "What the world is this thing?" To which it gave a indignified chirp and grabbed your nose. "Hey!"

"Oh hey! It's a drizzilie!"

...You looked at Hop for answers brow raised. "It's a what?"

"A drizzilie," he repeated pointing at the thing slumped over your shoulder. "They're considered highly intelligent pokemon but also really lazy ones." Another pouty chirp was thrown in Hop's direction. " I think I read somewhere that they're good at making traps."

"This still doesn't tell me where my sobble is!"

"Y/n, drizzilie is the evolved form of a sobble!," Gloria pointed again, "Sobble evolved near the end of the match! He's literally right there on your shoulder!"

You paused...whipping back to the drizzile who only moved his eyes from where it's head laid upon your shoulder. ....THIS was your adorable tiny little sweet innocent baby sobble!? It reminded you of a moody preteen. You two continued to stare at each other a bit regarding each other silently...before you asked a question. "You want food?" It immediately lifted it's head up and gave a deeper chirp noise in approval and you laughed. " Ok...It's definitly him alright. But how come he evolved?"

"Because...it's what pokemon do?? They're always evolving and growing as they go, there's no stopping it."

"....Fair enough."

"Hey." Gloria blinked as her brother gently grabbed her shoulder with a concerned look. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"Of course I am. It'll take more than a dynamax battle to stop me."

Hop laughed. "With all the badges we've earned ourselves, I reckon we should be alright even against the fierce pokemon you find deep in the Wild Area. Let's go find out for ourselves-"

"NO!!," both you and Victor screamed at once making Hop blink...And Gloria snorted.

Surprisingly you did not want to stay there any longer in fear of what else might happen to you all, so after a bit of convincing on Victor's side to Hop who was eager to go straight to the Wild Area for the rest of the day to battle and catch wild pokemon, you five just went back to your hotel. You felt entire exhausted, and not because of the extra added weight to your load now thanks to your sobble's new and maybe not so improved form. But mentally from the exhausting experience you had been put through. It...was a day you'd have to get used to but in the end Gloria won her third badge and your sobble...uh..Drizzlie was perfectly fine even if he changed a bit. So at the end of the day it was in fact a win win situation for everyone. You had felt relief when you got back to your hotel room and slid off your bag, plopping yourself on the bed with a sigh. Your new drizzile standing there for a moment before flopping itself onto you with a small 'Oof' escaping you....Yeah. You guessed you'd have to train him out of just jumping on you anymore now that he was the size of a six year old child.

"Hey, Y/n? Are you going to sleep right now?", Gloria asked curiously.

"....I dunno. Maybe,'' you answered muffled by the pillow. "Why?"

"We're getting lunch. Want me to grab you a curry?"

"......Yeah. As long as it doesn't have any eggs or tails on it. Grab me one-" Your drizzilie patted your shoulder and you sighed. "Make that two. Something tells me he's going to be more hungry from now on." Gloria laughed again and you sighed.

The rest of the day went by rather quickly in your eyes. You all ate lunch and you ended up falling asleep way earlier than usual with your drizzilie watching the three teens curiously as they ate and ended up chatting and showing off their league card collection card collection thus far before you ended up closing your eyes. By the time you woke up again Gloria and Drizzile was already up and ready to go eating what must've been the room service breakfast, but she was also kind enough to order a small stack of waffles for your hungry self. Perfect! It wasn't long for the both of you to get packed and meet up with the boys outside the inn waiting for you two by that weird mechanical elevator.

"Hurry it up, Gloria!," Hop called over waving an arm.

"We're coming! Boy how early do you all wake up?"

You were a bit cranky. Still a bit groggy so early in the morning and having to lug around extra weight on your back as your drizzilie had insisted on jumping onto your back and took residence inside your back pack. Most of his body was inside the backpack amongst your other belongings but his head and arms were thrown over your shoulders as he refused to start walking chirping in protest when you tried to reason with him and wouldn't let you put him in the pokeball so you had to get creative with a compramise. Moving all the food you carried into the secondary pocket leaving just your clothes in the main space of your pack and leaving enough room for it to find acceptable. You wondered if the reason Drizzilie didn't want to go back into it's pokeball was in fear something like what happened yesterday would happen again, being used to getting carried by now, or if this was just because of the lazy behavior Hop mentioned before?..Or maybe a combination of the three? The boys gave a couple chuckles at the sight of your new situation but stopped when you tossed them a look and changed the subject by making the elevator go.

"So. Have you two decided where you want to go next?," you asked walking up to the exit of Motostoke that lead out to the Wild Area.

Both nodded.

"Yeah. I wanna stay here for a few more days and catch some pokemon," Hop answered.

Gloria blinked at him. "Wha- But I wanted to stop by Hammerlocke."

Hop stopped walking immediately just outside of the giant exit. Making Gloria stop and blink at the bewildered expression on her friend's face. "Hammerlocke? Why would you go there? You know Raihan doesn't battle anyone unless they have seven badges."

"Yeah. I know, but it's on the way to Stow-on-side." She explained with a smile. "Bea sounds like a good challenge for me to tackle next being the fighting type gym leader. Hammerlocke just happens to be on the way there."

"Eeehhhh. I dunno Glor. I really had my mind set on taking on some wild pokemon. With a stronger team comes a stronger trainer right?"

"I...guess so..."

"'kay. How 'bout this? If you're all that dead set on going to Hammerlocke, you can go and we'll we'll meet up with you there!"

Gloria seemed not too keen on that idea for a moment but sighed and nodded. "Alright. But how are you planning on getting there?"

Hop went to answer, but paused. Gold eyes blinking widely before leaning over to the right to look behind you all. "Huh? Hey. Is that who I think it is coming this way?"

Brown and f/c color eyes followed the path of Hop's gold ones to look behind you and the three of you paused at seeing who exactly was jogging towards you all. Coming towards you in all his firey glory was the 'Man Of Fire' Kabu himself. What was he doing here? ...Oh no! Were you all in trouble with what happened yesterday!?Was he angry from your sobble-..Er..Drizzilie's tears?! Were you all going to be billed or something!? You all couldn't pay any medical bills! None of you had enough money! The gym leader jogged right up to the four of you as you all exchanged confused or worried looks before stopping in front of you all.

"Thank goodness I managed to catch the lot of you before leaving Motostoke," he stated. It..didn't sound like he was angry.

"You're the gym leader, but you still came all the way to see us off?," Hop questioned, "...Oh! I bet you can already tell that I'm the one who'll become the next champion, yeah?"

To your surprise the older man chuckled and gave a smile. "There are many trainers who never manage to gather three or more gym battles, and they just give up on the gym challenge all together. So I make a point to see off any trainers who are able to defeat me. So allow me to send you off with a proper, sporty chant." He cleared his voice as you raised a hand to say he didn't have to- "Hustle, hustle, hustle Hop! You can do it, you can do it, Gloria!" ...Gloria gave off a few giggles and you lightly kicked her foot to get her to stop. "The Gym Leaders you will face ahead are all tough opponents. But I believe you will prevail! Believe in your pokemon and keep pushing on!"

"Thanks y'all! We're gonna keep winning!," Hop confirmed with a smile and thumbs up towards the older man, "We've got too if we want a face-off in the Champion Cup after all! C'mon, Everyone!" He spun on his heels and pointed towards the exit. "Let's head for Hammerlocke!" And ran off.

Victor groaned turning to walk after him. "Not again."

You chuckled and rolled your eyes. You wish you had that much energy. "Gloria correct?" You blinked and turned your head over to Kabu who was looking at Gloria. "That was a most unexpected battle the other day. As I already said, I'll have to learn from it. But I don't suppose you'd mind telling me how you thought of such strageties?"

She beamed. "Of course! Your league card listed your pokemon and their main abilites like everyone else! So I used that info. Your ninetales was pretty fast on it's feet, so it made sense to use a move that wouldn't let it use that speed. But arcanine are built bulkier and have more muscle than a ninetales. They may be fast on their feet too, but no where near the speed of raboot or ninetales. So speed and agility would've been the way to go. And as for your centiskorch, I didn't have a lot of pokemon that could withstand it's fire power, so I had to find a way around that. A sobble's tears seemed like the greatest force to fight it."

He hummed before nodded once again. "I see. Well then I must train my pokemon to overcome your sobble's tear attack before another trainer gets the same bright idea as you did."

"Oh it wasn't my sobble." She pointed at you and he looked at you. .....Then to the Drizzile's face lazily staring back from your shoulder. "It was hers."

"I see...Well then, Miss. I'll have to congratulate you on raising such a strong water type. I have no doubt that it'll make a mighty Inteleon one day."

You smiled as your drizzile patted your shoulder. "Thanks! I think he's a good boy too. Ain't that right?" Embarrassed your pokemon tutted and looked away making the old man chuckle.

"We'll then. I shall leave you. I must be off to start training up before the next gym challenger comes knocking at my door."

"We outta get going too. I have a feeling we're in for a long trip ahead of us." .....Hey. Now that you thought about it...Your eyes widened. Wasn't there some kind of character development or a tragic event that happened to one of the characters after the player received their third gym badge??..."Yeah. We better catch up to the other two."

You managed to pull Gloria away bidding good bye to the jogging gym leader and pulled her out of Motostoke at last. Onto the dirt path leading out of Motostoke and splitting in three directions to chose from. You spotted the two boys somewhere up ahead as the two of you approuched. Hop throwing his hands up into the air pumped.

"Hello again, Wild Area, my old friend!," he shouted to the sky, "I've come back to you even stronger than before!"

"Hop you don't need to shout." Victor adjusted his pack on his back with a roll and stretch of his shoulders. "If anything you might scare away any good potential pokemon with that racket."

....He hummed. "Well I guess you have a point about that, Vic." ..He turned his head more towards the two of you girls approuching before he smiled and twisted around fast to face the both of you. "Gloria! Hammerlocke is up that way." He pointed towards where the road split off towards the left. "Got it? Over Motostoke bridge and straight on down the road a ways. And yeah, you could certainly rush there without a single detour....But now that you and I have a few gym badges, we should be able to catch stronger pokemon! So I know what I'm doing!"

" And what's that mate?" Gloria asked in a tease.

"I'll be catching myself some amazing pokemon to fill in the next page in the tale of my legend!" You chuckled at his enthusiasm.

All of a sudden your Drizzilie turned to look behind you as footsteps approuched. "Don't waste your efforts." The rest of you followed suit to stare at the figure just now leaving Motostoke as well. And your eyes widened slightly. "It's not like either of you would ever make it through the gym challenge anyway." The one who approuched the two of you was none other than Bede. The poor gave that smug smirk he always did and placed a hand on his hip staring at the lot of you. "The Champion really must have been off his rocker to endorse likes of you."

"WHAT DID YA SAY YOU LAVENDER SOAKED EYED COTTONEE FOR BRAINS!?" "DON'T YOU INSULT MY BRO LEE LIKE THAT!!"  Gloria shouted and made a move to step forward but you grabbed onto her back pack to pull her back effectively also blocking Hop with your other arm as the two shouted with glares at him.

"Whoa there you two." You gave him a glare and he slowly looked up towards you the smug grin turning into somewhat of a frown. "I thought you left after collecting those Wishing Stars from the mines. Did you stay behind just to insult them? That's a pretty petty thing for you to be doing with your free time."

He didn't answer right away which made you raise a brow until he tutted and turned his head away. "I was going to leave after a day's rest here, but after hearing these two were going to battle Kabu I decided to stick around and watch the pitiful efforts of my enemies. I mean, Hop here can't even throw a poke ball properly."

You saw Hop flinch. Oh no..You remembered somewhat of him saying he practiced throwing the ball sometime during your first meeting with Leon. "Rubbish! More like you don't know enough to recognize greatness when you see it! My throws are the greatest and my bro is the finest champion the world has ever seen! I'm not gonna listen to you insult him!"

"How tiresome," Bede mutter again running a hand over his hair. "Fine. I'll battle you over there." He pointed a hand towards some trees. "Maybe that will help you finally understand just how weak you are."

Hop growled and your brows rose in shock at his sudden anger. You didn't think the ever chipper Hop could've gotten so mad. "You're on then. I know you challenged Gloria in Galar Mine Number Two and lost to her there." Your eyes widened more glancing between the two of them as Bede frowned more....So THAT'S what Bede meant by them causing him trouble. "And I'm her greatest rival. In other words there's no way you're beating me."

"All this prattle about Gloria and the Champion and whatnot. Do you not have anything of your own to show?"

"YOU BET YOUR SORRY PINK TUTU BUTT HE DOES COTTON FOR BRAINS!!," Gloria shouted giving  another tug against your grip on her as she leaned forward, angry glare that could put a dynamaxed pokemon to shame, hands balled into fists at her sides. Her sudden spout of anger caught Bede off guard enough to take a few steps back from the red faced girl spitting her scottish accent at him. "I'll have you know Hop's one of the smartest, most kindest people I know! He's a bloody genius who knows all kinds of pokemon skills! 'E's like a walking dictionary of smarts that's how skilled he is! He knows more than you and me put together so badger off with your sorry excuses!! I don't see you doing anything but complain about everyone else and praise the chairman like he's Arceous 'imself!" Victor grabbed onto his sister's other arm pulling her back with you at this point. "Yet ya complain 'bout us talkin' 'bout how amazin' Lee is!? When are ye gonna step up from being a walkin' billbourd for the Chairman n' his bloody secratary and show me somethin' huh!? HUH!? How 'bout you take ya own advice!?"

"GLORIA THAT'S ENOUGH!!," Victor shouted in his own scottish accent at her pushing her back by a wide eyed Hop as she continued to glare angrily at Bede who remained silent and wide eyed at her. "CALM DOWN!! Ok!?...I'm pretty sure he's gotten the point by now."

"Oh he better!"

"Hey! That's enough now!," you agreed giving her your own frown, keeping your grip on her back pack in case she tried anything. "I think you're scaring him." Gloria paused enough to give you her own stare, as you turned to look at Bede who continued to stand and stare....before he blinked, quickly whirled on his heel and sped walked away with his hands forced into his pink coat's pockets.

"I-I'll wait for you over there! Don't keep me waiting!"

Gloria huffed, jerking her body from her brother's grip as she glared at his leaving form. "Yeah? Well he started it by causin' all of us trouble n' insulting us for no reason. The bloody cottonee born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Ey Hop?".....She rose a brow when her friend didn't answer and turned to the silent boy staring wide eyed at her. "....Hop? Are you ok?"

".....I-..." He coughed reaching a hand up to rub at his neck as he looked off. "I mean uh....That was some roasting you gave h-him back there. Heh."

"Well it's true!," she insisted pointing at him, "You were the smartest kid in school! And y'know so much about science, and history, and you can calculate math in your head faster than a calculator could. You know so much about pokemon that I know you'd be a great Champion. That's why I got so angry at him."

Hop stared at her again mouth opening a little..before sputtering on his words. "I- You- R-Really?"

She crossed her arms and nodded with a huff. "'Sides, I wasn't about to let the Mareep Head get away with smack talkin' my best friend and his brother. If he's going to bring a fire then he better expect someone to roast him back!"

He stared at her a moment longer before an unmistakable red washed over his face as he quickly looked away. "R-Right! T-T-That's what friends do after all! D-Don't worry. I'll show this wally my skills in battle! S-So..." With that he quickly turned and began jogging off from the three of you. "See you later, Glory! L-Let's meet up in Hammerlocke when I'm through with him!"

Well whaddya know!? You smiled watching as Hop scampered off in a knowing way as Victor sighed before turning to his twin. "DONT DO THAT!!"

"Do what?"

"Try to fist fight another gym challenger like yer in a wrestlin' ring! Ya cook! What would've happened if that guy told ye off to the Chairman especially after you had dinner with him in Hulbury?! You'd get yourself kicked out by him or worse both yaself and Hop since you were defendin' 'is honor like in the bloody stone ages!?" You had started to notice a pattern that the accent would become more prominent in their voices when they were angry.

"Like I would've actually tried to punch to punch him! I know better then ta throw hands and risk somethin' like that now."

Victor groaned reaching his hands up to rub at his face. "I love ya but you drive me crazy!"

"I could say the same for you too."

.....Still rubbing his temples Victor turned. "I have to catch up with Hop before they start fightin' again. Make sure she stays out o' trouble."

"I can-"

"I was talkin' to Y/n!" He shouted back making Gloria pause as he walked off....And it was finally your turn to chuckle.

With a huff she placed her hands on her hips with a glare. "Well that's just a bunch of flamin' Rapidash crap if I ever heard it!"

You nodded reaching up to rub your face, finally letting go of her backpack as you did. "He has a point tho. If you and your opponents want to have a battle then that's fine, but you guys shouldn't get into fights like that." She hummed but didn't say anything else to that. "Come on. Let's get going to Hammerlocke. I'm curious about this place."

"Oh. Then if we're lucky we might meet the selfie guy himself hangin' 'round his gym!"

"Oh boy. Can't wait to see what the big bad strongest gym leader has to show."

"I think you'll like 'em. Lee said he's one of the kindest people he's met in the industry...But there is one thing I should warn ya 'bout."

"What?"

"He's a playful teaser so he'll probably try to flirt with ya when he sees ya."

"........He's going to what?"

#pokemon shield #pokemon sword #pokemon sword and shield #pokemon swsh #pokemon piers #piers x reader #reader x piers #pokemon piers x reader

[chucklegigglechortlesnort]

Meet Me on The Dance Floor

A/N: literally no one asked, but here you go. This is self indulgence at its finest. If you haven’t watched Kekkai Sensen already, I recommend it - both sub and dub are gold - it’s one of my very favorites.

I’m finally done with school, so I’ll be back on the fanfic grind.

Word count: 3.5k

Warnings: kissing, mentions of alcohol (legal drinking)

. . . . . . . . . .

“Hey, do you wanna go out tonight?”

It had all started with those seven simple words.

It wasn’t unusual for the two of you to hang out on weekends, in fact, it was one of the few things that Leo had become accustomed to while living in Hellsalem’s. However, typically the two of you usually spent that time lounging in your pajamas, eating junk food, and marathoning old true crime shows. 

Going out was different.

Zapp had teased him relentlessly when he found out - god knows how - but it’s not like it was really anything new. It was obvious to everyone that the two of you were close and despite how that may have appeared, it never transcended beyond friendship. Even after all the obnoxious prodding that Zapp had subjected him to, Leo just couldn’t bring himself to make the first move. 

“Out?”

The volume of Leo’s voice nearly made him wince, but he cleared his throat instead, face slightly rosy. You recoiled slightly, breaking eye contact in favor of the tiled floor of the common room. Leo inwardly cringed at the look on your face, regretting his outburst, but if you were hurt you didn’t dwell on it.

“Well… yeah! I mean, I know the owner of the club and I’ve heard good things.” You shrugged, glancing back up to meet Leo’s gaze. “I know going out isn’t really your thing, but I promise it’ll be safe. If anything happens, we’ve got each other. Besides, I think all these snack-filled movie marathons are starting to get to me.” You grimace as you jokingly pat your stomach. 

Normally Leo would’ve laughed and shared the sentiment, or told you that you still looked pretty good to him, but instead he was just… silent. What did this mean? Were you asking him out as a friend? Were you asking him because you wanted more than just a friendship?

“I- I mean, you really don’t have to if you don’t want to, I can just ask Chain if she wants to- “

“N-no! I’m, I mean- I would like to go out with you!” Oh god, this was pathetic, “I mean, yes I would like to go out with you to the club! Yeah, the club-”

Once again you recoiled from his sudden outburst, but this time, after a few seconds a happy grin stretched across your face and you laughed. Oh, thank goodness. 

“Alright then, I’ll see you at my place after work. The venue isn’t too far from my building so we’ll meet at quarter to ten and head over then. Sound good?”

“Yeah… sounds good!”

Leo waved you off as you happily turned on your heel and out of the room to run an errand. Not long after, Zapp came sauntering into the room like usual, dragging Leo off to do who knows what.

By the end of the day, Leo had almost died twice, a record all-time low considering what his norm was.

He had rushed over to your apartment having lost track of time after the long workday and despite wanting nothing more than to drown himself in the unreasonably soft pillows covering your living room, he began to psych himself up to go out. He knocked on the door of your apartment, slightly out of breath. This was going to be fun right? Just two good friends going out together for a good time, nothing more nothing less-

Your door swung open and Leo’s jaw hit the floor. 

Your hair was slightly messier than normal, but he could only assume it had been done on purpose as you normally came into work looking neat and professional. It suited you. Your eyelids glittered with a subtle shimmer and your skin looked practically flawless, lips coated in a layer of gloss that he couldn't tear his eyes off of.

“Le- oh.” 

“Huh?” Leo returned, snapping out of his hypnosis as he glanced back up at your eyes, “What?”

“You look like you just got jumped, no offense.” You reply, moving aside to let him in. He lets out a tired sigh, trudging through the doorway and flopping onto your couch. 

“None taken.” He uttered through the cushion fabric, it was more or less what had happened anyways.

“Well, I was just about to get dressed, but are you still up to go out? We can always take a rain check and go out another night you know. We have an emergency snack supply and a new true crime show to binge so we’d be totally set.”

Leo kept his face pressed into the pillow and weighed his options. As nice as your proposal sounded, he knew he’d feel guilty if the both of you ended up staying in. He didn’t want to go back on what he said either, even though he knew you wouldn’t hold it against him.

“No, it’s okay, just give me a minute.”

He heard you snort and his head shot up from the pillow, “What? What’s so funny?”

You shook your head, trying to force down giggles at the way his hair stuck up at odd angles.

“Don’t worry about it,” You answered, disappearing into the hallway and to your room which wasn’t far off. “Oh, and Leo?”

“Yeah?”

“Is that what you’re wearing out?”

Oops. 

With all the commotion of the last day, he’d completely forgotten to bring a change of clothes, though he wasn’t really sure if he had anything that suited the venue, to begin with. After a little while of no response, you stuck your head out of your bedroom to see what the hold up was.

Leo had sat up on the couch, rubbing the back of his head bashfully, “Uh, it's all I really have, sorry.”

“Hey, don't worry about it then. Come here a sec.”

He slowly rose from the comfort of the couch, shuffling apprehensively over to your room. It wasn’t that he’d never been in your room before, but it still felt oddly intimate, like he wasn’t supposed to be there or something. When he reached your doorway, he saw you going through your closet, tossing items of clothing haphazardly onto the bed behind you. 

You glanced over to see Leo awkwardly standing in the doorway, looking mildly unsure, “Come in come in, you’re not going to get scolded,” you joked, dragging him further in, right next to where you stood previously.

You motioned to the items of clothing splayed across the comforter, “See anything you like?”

“Aren’t these all your clothes?”

“Yeah, but a lot of the things I buy are actually ‘men’s clothing’.” You say, putting air quotes around “men’s clothing.” 

Leo glanced down at the pile of clothes, completely lost. Sighing, you reached down and grabbed an over-sized, white t-shirt, a pair of solid, black dress-joggers, and a maroon bomber jacket that, funnily enough, matched his hair. 

“Here,” You tossed the bundle of clothes into his arms, skirting around him to your vanity. You picked up a simple silver chain and handed it to Leo. His eyebrows rose slightly and you shook your head.

“Just, trust me.”

He only sighed and shrugged, mumbling, “Alright,” under his breath.

As you exited, you turned to pull the door shut, catching a quick glance at the way his shirt rode up his back as he pulled off his sweatshirt. You knew Leo never was one to boast, but despite all the claims that he was weak, he was actually quite… built. Heat rose to your cheeks as the image of a shirtless Leo flashed through your mind and you were thankful he hadn’t caught your eye when you had closed the door. 

Not long after you had shut him in, Leo popped his head out of your doorway, once again looking mildly unsure.

“Well? Let me see!” You exclaimed impatiently. 

Tentatively, he stepped out into the hallway, revealing your handy work. The t-shirt that would have normally swallowed you whole hung slightly loose around Leo’s torso, the bomber jacket fitting surprisingly well around his shoulders. The black joggers and chain pulled the look together, making the outfit look slightly more expensive than it actually was.

“So…?” Leo didn’t know quite what to make of his outfit. He rarely ever wore anything other than his staple hoodie, which eas beginning to wear down after all the wash cycles it had been through, so it was… nice to dress differently than he usually did. 

“Perfect,” You stated, clasping your hands together in front of you enthusiastically, “Now all I have to do is change and we can head out.”

You were in and out in record time, and you looked absolutely stunning.

You had shed the over-sized sweatshirt and replaced it with a cropped leather jacket, a lacy maroon bodysuit peeking out from underneath it. A high wasted mini skirt met the jacket as it stopped just below your ribs, slits strategically placed on either side to show off a little extra skin while providing a little extra mobility without the risk of your skirt riding up. The whole look was pulled together by a pair of Dr. Martens.

Leo was at a loss for words for the ‘nth time that day.

Luckily you didn’t waste any more time as you brushed past him, calling over your shoulder, “Ready to go?”

“Y- Yeah! Just let me get my shoes on!”

He stumbled after, regaining his footing by the time he made it to your front door. He thanked the gods that he had chosen to wear his new shoes today. His last pair had been absolutely totaled by the last monster he had encountered the other day and these ones went much better with the outfit than the previous ones would’ve.

By the time he had finished tying up the laces, you were already excitedly waiting with the door open. He quickly exited the apartment, waiting for you to shut and lock the door before following you out of the building.

The walk to the venue was short, Leo having internally debated whether or not he should just grab your hand the whole five-minute walk. It was too soon that you had arrived at the entrance and with a wave of your hand you made your way past the bouncer, announcing that you had brought a plus one with you. Disgruntled bar-hoppers protested against your bypassing of the line but were swiftly silenced by one growl from the alterworlder guarding the door. 

Bass blasted through the speakers surrounding the dance floor and off to the side was a large bar boasting a plethora of liquors and fine wines. You grabbed Leo’s hand, pulling him straight to the bar. 

“Two Blue Moon’s to start off the night please!” You shout over the music. The bartender nods, grabbing two bottles and sliding them down the counter. You pass one of the already cracked open beverages off to your companion, clinking the drinks together before taking your first sip.

Three beers and two shots later, you began to feel the familiar buzz setting in. Leo had finally begun to loosen up halfway through his third beer and you were currently boisterously laughing at his recollection of the day’s past events - something about zap nearly getting his dick blown off by one of his crazy one-night stands.

You were mid-laugh when the song suddenly changed and your face lit up with recognition. You turned to Leo, a hopeful look on your face.

“Hey! I know this song, wanna go dance?”

He glanced up from his beer, looking slightly shocked. His cheeks were already tinted rosy from the alcohol but he could feel the color rising to his cheeks at your suggestion. 

“Um, yeah, sure.”

 Your face lights up at his words and butterflies swarm around in his stomach, despite the alcohol in his system. Hopping down from your seat at the bar, you grab his hand once more, this time intertwining your fingers with his as you lead him to the dance floor.

You expertly wove your way through sweat soaked individuals gyrating to the beat of the music, ending up somewhere not too far from the edge but far enough that you were surrounded on all sides by other people. Once you seemed satisfied with your location, you pulled Leo towards you until there was less than a hair’s width of space between the two of you, placing the hand you held in yours on your waist, encouraging the other to follow suit. Your arms circled around Leo’s shoulders, bringing him impossibly close as you gently swayed to the beat.

Leo felt as if his whole body was on fire. Not a single part of him was unaware of your closeness and his intoxicated mind could barely fathom how much had changed in that single moment you had decided to pull him against you. One moment he was buzzed without a care in the world, the next he was close enough to kiss you if he wanted to.

And he really wanted to.

Feeling oddly brave, Leo brought his forehead to rest against yours. It may have just been him being too hopeful, but he thought that maybe he saw your gaze flick to his lips for a moment before glancing back up at him through lidded eyes. And maybe it was just his poor depth perception from the alcohol running through his veins, but it was almost as if with each sway of your bodies, your face was inching closer to his.

Fuck it. 

Mustering all of the courage he had, Leo closed the distance between you, gently slotting his lips with yours. It only lasted a few seconds before he pulled away, wanting to make sure he hadn’t overstepped his bounds. His heart pounded in his chest as he waited for you to push him away, to tell him that you didn’t see him like that, or maybe even slap him, but none of those happened. Instead, he was pulled back towards you, this time your lips crashing together. With newfound confidence, Leo pulled your body flush against his to deepen the kiss. Hands slowly traveled up his shoulders and threaded themselves into messy maroon curls as you sucked his bottom lip into your mouth and softly bit down. Leo let out an embarrassing whimper at the sensation, suddenly thankful that the music had drowned out all other noises. His grip on your hips tightened reflexively when your tongue glided over his lip to soothe the bite, before slipping past his lips and tangling with his own. 

Suddenly you broke away from the kiss, panting heavily as the song came to an end. 

“Let’s go back to my place, yeah?” you asked breathlessly, intently searching his face as you waited for an answer. 

The two of you hadn’t been out for more than an hour and a half, but despite this, Leo found himself nodding in response. Fingers laced themselves through his and he allowed himself to be lead off the dance floor through an obstacle course of swaying bodies and to the club’s exit. The sudden gush of fresh air did little to sober the two of you up as you insistently tugged along a stumbling Leo, who wondered how on earth you were able to walk so effortlessly despite the alcohol in your system. 

As soon as you made it past your building security you were practically dragging him up the stairs and to your apartment door where you hastily unlocked it, barely making it inside before your lips connected again. 

Who really initiated, neither of you knew, but it hardly mattered. The heady mixture of alcohol and pent up sexual tension had overriden any inhibitions that previously lingered in your minds and the only thing your inebriated brain could focus on was how good it finally felt to be doing this. 

Your back was flush with the wall while your front was pressed completely against Leo’s, who’s hands had found their place back on your hips. Your arms wrapped around his neck, hands threading themselves into the curls at the nape of his neck and tugging. This time Leo let out a mixture of a whimper and a moan, muffled by your tongue slipping past his lips and into his mouth, tangling with his own. 

You pulled away shortly after, trailing your lips first over his jaw before coming to a halt over his pulse. You hovered over the spot for just a moment, before firmly placing your lips on his skin and softly sucking. A sharp intake of breath could be heard and almost immediately Leo’s arms snaked around your waist, holding you tightly to him and completely closing the distance between you. His lips found yours once again, this kiss just a little bit needier, just a little bit sloppier than the last. 

Your right hand gently de-tangled from his hair and slowly trailed down his arm before slipping between your bodies and underneath the fabric of the loose, white t-shirt. Your hand trailed up his abdominal and just about reached his rib cage, lifting the hem of the shirt along with it.

Your fingertips had just about reached his upper chest when suddenly- 

“Hold on.”

Leo abruptly tore away from you, gazing down at your face which was tight with confusion and borderline hurt. He hated it, and he hated it more that he was currently the reason for it, but he couldn’t go any further without knowing.

“I don’t- I wouldn’t… do this, with just anybody. And I, um- I don’t want to- wait, no. I do want to, but only if, you know, the feeling is… mutual.”

There was a pregnant pause as you contemplated his words, and suddenly your face was flushed a deep crimson red, the alcohol in your system doing nothing to subdue the embarrassment overtaking your entire body at the moment. You buried your face in your hands, trying to will away the intense blush that painted your countenance.

Oh jeez, you were such an idiot.

“Well. You see, I had a plan.”

“Huh?”

“I was going to start asking you out on more… date like outings, and somewhere along the way you’d hopefully get the message or I’d build up enough courage to, you know, ask you out,” you explained. “I certainly wasn’t expecting this to happen, and I just thought, well-“

“-that I got the message.” Leo finished.

“Mhm.” You nodded, “I definitely got a bit carried away though, I’m sorry.”

Another pause settled over the two of you, and after a little while you slowly peaked from behind your hands to gauge his reaction. To your surprise, his face was covered in a blush of its own, his normally squinted shut eyes drawn open in shock.

“Leo? Are you-”

“A complete idiot? Yes.”

“Well, that’s not what I was going to say, but if the shoe fits.” You cracked, trying to ease the tension that had settled over the two of you. Leo only blinked in response, and you thought that maybe you had made the wrong choice until- 

“Pft-“ The both of you burst out into a fit of giggles, marveling at the ridiculous situation.

You gently shook your head as the giggles quieted, but the smile on your face remained. You glanced over to the time displayed in bright, green numbers on your microwave, taking note that it was only half past eleven.

“You know, it’s still pretty early and those snacks aren’t going to eat themselves.” You concluded, settling your gaze back onto Leo.

His own countenance was decorated with a soft smile, the blush still present, though it had subsided to a slight flush just underneath his eyes. 

“I’ll go throw on the true crime documentaries.”

. . . . .

Early morning sun streamed through the curtains that covered your windows, a strand of light hitting Leo right in the eyes. He groggily cracked an eye open to find foreign surroundings.

He wasn’t in his apartment? Oh, right. 

Memories of the previous night came back to him and he felt his cheeks flush. A soft groan came from just beside him and he nearly yelped in fright before realizing it was just you.

You.

He smiled to himself as he gazed down at your peaceful face, letting out a soft laugh. You cracked an eye open to see him staring down at you. You let your lid shut, snuggling deeper into his chest. 

“What’s so funny?” You asked. Though it was more of a statement than anything. 

“You’re drooling.” 

“Am not…” You retort, voice scratchy as you brought your hand up to make sure, “Whatever you jerk, go back to sleep, it’s too early to be up on a day off.”

You heard another soft laugh as Leo readjusted himself so he was out of the line of light, wrapping his arms around your waist to bring you closer. He pressed a gentle kiss to your hairline and you buried your face deeper into his chest to hide the blush creeping up to your cheeks. He certainly was more bold when he was half asleep.

You’d have to tease him about it later though, you noted, drifting back to a content slumber.

#kekkai sensen #blood blockade battlefront #kekkai sensen imagine #blood blockade battlefront imagine #leonardo watch #leo watch #leonardo watch x reader #sfw #fluff #friends to lovers

[jamesrodayrodriguezpresents]

USA's Hardcore Psych Marathon Is Here to Save You From Boredom

Psych stars James Roday and Dule Hill heard the call of your boredom while you're stuck at home and social distancing from your fake psychic detective friends, and they have a cure! The two announced Friday that USA Network is airing all eight seasons of Psych this April in mini-marathons.

Seasons 1 and 2 will kick things off and air nonstop from Wednesday April 8 at 10/9c though Friday April 10 at 5 a.m. ET. The following week, USA will air Seasons 3 and 4, and so on and so forth. Meanwhile, Roday and Hill, plus their Psych co-stars Maggie Lawson, Kirsten Nelson, Corbin Bernsen, and Tim Omundson, will be featured on USA all month long as they share their favorite Psych moments and memories.

Not only is this news actually excellent news — Psych is a great binge even if you've seen every single episode multiple times — but it will also hold us all over until the show's second film is released at some point later this year.

If you don't want to wait and watch Psych on USA though, you should also know that it's currently streaming on Amazon Prime or IMDb TV (the latter with ads).

#psych #psych usa #psychusa #James Roday #Dulé Hill #psych marathon #video

[neshabeingchildish]

Hensley & Char: Friends or Whatever || Part 5

@just-a-j-reallly @junknstu1f @wandmaximoff I am SO SORRY that this took this long and is still this short, but girls, y’all know i be hustling.A lot of corona dodging happening, since some folks got it around me and just other things as well. Hopefully, this one still matters tho. :)

The Secret Adventures of Hensley and Char

Charlotte stuffed her bookbag and rushed out of the door, mentally calculating the tightness of her schedule tonight. There was going to be an announcement this evening and since Hensley would have to go as Kid Danger, Charlotte was tasked with watching Piper after school. She didn’t mind. Piper was the closest she might come to ever having a little sister and since she was covering for a Man Cave related reason, she could submit a payment request to Ray for the babysitting hours. She deserved some compensation for taking on something else while she was trying to get her body ready to sign up for a marathon.

This evening would be the FIRST time that she had to cringe about Piper’s Kid Danger fangirling. “I’m basically GAY for Kid Danger!” the kid cheered.

“You don’t need to be saying that,” Charlotte offered. She wanted to expound, but she didn’t want to be obvious, but she couldn’t think of a single thing that she could add that might not make her seem homophobic or something. “You’re 8,” she finally settled on.

“I’m 9!” Piper corrected her.

“Also too young to focus on crushes. Crush those books,” Charlotte said, hating the fact that she sounded like her mother. 

After she brought Piper back home and checked in with the Harts, allowing Jasper to tell them an indirect lie about where Henry was. (Charlotte had botched it up by telling him that Hensley’s goldfish had babies), and whenever Jasper asked them about it and they were confusedly discussing whether or not Hensley had a goldfish, Charlotte ducked out to head back to Junk N’ Stuff for an emergency. 

She’d just text Jasper the lie that Hensley decided she wasn’t ready to be a goldfish granny and parted with all of them… Yeah! Lying was so much easier via text. The truth was that somehow, Captain Man was not indestructible, and as the brains of the operation, Ray had demanded that she come in PRONTO and get with Gooch on trying to figure out what was happening and what to do. “I’m literally a 13 year old girl,” she said to herself, after sending Jasper the text and reading through Ray’s meltdown in her texts. “What does he want me to do?”

She wondered this more and more as time went by. Technically, to be honest… She often was the one to figure things out and help save the day with her brains, but, still… And being the person to try to tell the lies to Jasper was a struggle too. Jasper was simple, but she knew that she wasn’t very good at lying. She had to always text him the lie. Sometimes, from right next to him. Luckily, the confusion of why she texted him while she was right next to him instead of just telling him was enough to throw him off of the weirdness of her and Hensley’s new secret lifestyle.

And THAT was a journey of adventure for Charlotte. She had been reading books since she was 3, and now, she got to live out everything from botched hero antics (Only her journal would ever know the story of what happened to poor Ortho), to unfortunately having to remain quiet while Jasper made an utter fool of himself over a girl, pretending to be Kid Danger… Why… Did that girl think that the OBVIOUS girl in KD’s costume could be Jasper? WHY??? It brought the conversation back up between the trio that “Maybe Kid Danger isn’t a she!” But… Hensley and Charlotte simply had to be mad that Jasper was very willingly being obtuse about her gender, because yikes… the conversation went way wrong and Hensley was looking a little transphobic before too long. Charlotte shut both of them down with a, “Hensley… Just because Kid Danger looks like a girl to you doesn’t necessarily mean that they have to BE one. YOU don’t know for sure whether they are or aren’t. Jasper, you know that whether or not they are a girl, YOU are not Kid Danger. You and her have been in the room at the same time on several occasions! We need not ever discuss the true identity of Kid Danger, EVER again, because I don’t like either of you right now!” 

Weeks of patrols, dozens of missions, hundreds of memories. Charlotte and Hensley were both a little sad that they had to hide these things away from Jasper, but they were also having a good time and unintentionally bonding too… 

Though, that changed a little bit whenever Chloe finally decided that she was ready to be comfortable with herself. That even if she didn’t necessarily like girls, she really liked Hensley and that should be enough to make the two of them matter… even though Charlotte was painfully aware that Chloe sort of “viewed Hensley as a boy.” She didn’t hate her. She just wasn’t someone that Charlotte could see Hensley being very happy with for a long time. She decided to just not think too deeply about it. Hensley’s bad habits of neglecting others would soon catch up to them.

When it did, Charlotte was entertained from the outside of it. Firstly, there was the slightly terrifying transformation that Hensley went through, turning into what Charlotte could only describe as a Cavebeast - Hens and Jasper had a small tiff in the midst of Hensley trying to get things good with Chloe, and at some point… Hensley turned into a boy!

He was… alright, Charlotte guessed. She wasn’t into him. He was only there for a moment, anyway, but one thing tapdanced on Charlotte’s psyche upon seeing him… She wasn’t sure if boys were her thing. 

Since she had become friends with Hensley, there was always something about her that got beneath Charlotte’s skin in a number of ways. Charlotte thought it was because Hensley was carefree and careless - two things that she herself couldn’t afford to be and therefore often tried to police out of others. But, it made Hensley endearing to Charlotte. The smaller, smarter girl felt like she needed to guide and protect her… but, now that Hensley was a sidekick and Charlotte had seen her prove herself for months… she knew that she didn’t have to be this protective. She shouldn’t have to offer as much guidance and advice as Hensley still seemed to think she needed. But, it was nice to be needed, so Charlotte never stopped, even in those moments when Hensley was not open to her assistance. 

People sometimes thought that there was a romantic connection between the two, to which both girls would laugh. Charlotte would tell them, “We’re just friends,” and Hensley would say, “Charlotte’s not gay.” Something that Hensley assumed. Charlotte had never confirmed nor denied it, but she would know, right? She’d know if she liked girls. She was old enough and smart enough, wasn’t she?

Apparently, those weren’t the indicators needed to determine this. Her indication was whenever she saw boy Hensley… He was lanky and tall and there was something like Hensley about him, but… she just didn’t like him, but she liked Hensley. And, it took losing her for a moment, the fear of thinking that they might lose her forever to the beast form, and the boy version of her for Charlotte to have a moment of clarity. She liked Hensley. The way that she was. She liked her that way, a lot. 

Maybe it was simply the fear tricking her. She wouldn’t say anything. Besides, there was Chloe, and… it would be complicated anyway. Charlotte mentally shut that down and didn’t speak of it out loud. She couldn’t like Hensley, so she figured she was one of those people who must’ve swooned platonically over her friends. It didn’t extend to Jasper, but… he was weird, so she just accepted that was why. It wasn’t because like poor Piper, that she was “gay for” her friend. It wasn’t. She silently reminded herself of this at times whenever her heart was especially soft for Hens, and was thankful that she didn’t need to do so too often… Because Hensley could be a wreck sometimes. A clueless wreck.

But Hensley was her clueless wreck.

Whenever Charlotte took Piper to the movies and the little girl had the opportunity to work with Captain Man and Kid Danger, as well as become the new president of the Man Fans, Charlotte brought her home afterwards, turned her over to Hensley and said, “We’ve gotta talk.” Piper was still on Cloud 9 about her night, so she rushed to her room, talking on the phone about how amazing it was - a night that she in portion had Charlotte to thank for and wouldn’t soon forget it, Hensley looked at Charlotte.

“What’s up, Char?”

“Your sister. She has a super crush on Kid Danger,” Charlotte said.

“My sister is gay too?” Hensley asked, excited, but then winced and said, “Wait!” 

“Yeah…” Charlotte said, “And also, I don’t know that she’s gay. She could simply respect Kid Danger so much that she sees her in a light that she sees no one else, and honestly, same.” Charlotte’s face warmed whenever she said that, but to try to backtrack might make it seem suspicious.

“So… You’re gay for Kid Danger, too?” Hensley teased.

“What? No! She’s just very admirable and… and…”

“I was obviously joking, Char,” Hensley laughed, and pulled her into a one armed hugged and kissed her forehead, “Thanks again for hanging out with Piper. She needs an older female person around sometimes.”

“You’re…” Charlotte started as she moved out of Hensley’s reach.

“Yeah, but I meant like, you know, a girl, girl. One that I don’t know, can rock a skirt and like likes boys or whatever.”

Why does everyone just presume that I like boys? EVEN my lesbian best friend, whbo snhould know better than to presume things about people’s identities…

“This is stupid,” Charlotte said, keeping the front thoughts to herself. “Night, Hens.”

.

Chloe went to star on Kids in the Woods, and honestly, Charlotte wouldn’t miss her, but Hensley was very sad to see her go. Which, Charlotte only understood to a certain degree, because… she never really had time for Chloe ANYWAYS, and now, she wouldn’t have to always try to make up reasons that she had to duck out or cancel. But seeing Hensley depressed was sad and over a girl? Of all the frivolous things. This was a girl who fought crime and faced villains, and what was she doing… being heartbroken over her girlfriend? Pathetic.

Charlotte let Jasper break into her thoughts and welcomed the interruption, because she was thinking TOO much about Hensley anyway. But, after only a few minutes of Jasper talking, she regretted letting him interrupt her thoughts. I have GOT to find other friends, she thought, frivolously. She definitely was not going to try to meet new people nor get close to the ones that she knew casually. She did wish that she could bounce some of her Hensley problems off of Jasper, though. But… too many of them would reflect upon Kid Danger, and… she sighed. That part of Hensley’s world was shut off to the rest of the world. In that way, they were connected. 

That’s what it was. That was all it was. They were connected by this very important secret and ALL of Charlotte’s confusing feelings were related to that connection. “Thank you Charlotte. I knew that you would figure this out,” she told herself confidently. 

#Hensley and Char: Friends or Whatever #henry danger #Girl! Henry wlw AU #Friends or Whatever #Hensley Hart #Nesha HD Fics

[lancsnerd]

@thorfanficwriter @sidehowriting In case you didn’t know. C’mon son!

[binshot-not-lol]

“Psych stars James Roday and Dule Hill heard the call of your boredom while you're stuck at home and social distancing from your fake psychic detective friends, and they have a cure! The two announced Friday that USA Network is airing all eight seasons of Psych this April in mini-marathons. Seasons 1 and 2 will kick things off and air nonstop from Wednesday April 8 at 10/9c though Friday April 10 at 5 a.m. ET. The following week, USA will air Seasons 3 and 4, and so on and so forth. Meanwhile, Roday and Hill, plus their Psych co-stars Maggie Lawson, Kirsten Nelson, Corbin Bernsen, and Tim Omundson, will be featured on USA all month long as they share their favorite Psych moments and memories. Not only is this news actually excellent news — Psych is a great binge even if you've seen every single episode multiple times — but it will also hold us all over until the show's second film is released at some point later this year.”

BY KAITLIN THOMAS@THEKAITLING

#psych #james roday #dule hill #psychathon #psych marathon

[collecting-stories]

Sick Day | Peter Kavinsky

I see that you write for: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before!! I’ve not been feeling myself lately and I’ve been very sad. So, could you possibly write a little one shot for Peter and reader. Peter tries to cheer you up the best way he can. Him being very sweet and fluffy. That would make me feel so much better. Thanks love!! Love you!  for @tephi101

Sick Day | Peter Kavinsky x reader

Somewhere beneath the mountain of blankets on the couch was your body, snuggled up with pillows and the llama heating pad that was offering some much needed comfort in the moment. You had managed to make it out of your bedroom today, which was an accomplishment in and of itself. As your mom was keen on saying “even the smallest of accomplishments are important”. When the doorbell rang the first time you ignored it, the second time you turned the volume on the TV up a little more, letting the noise of the Psych theme song drown out whoever might be trying to disturb your peace.  

Through the door you thought you could make out someone saying your name but it was muffled by the blanket over your head, the TV, and the wall between your living room and the outside. There was a click you also missed and then the door opened, Peter peeking his head into the house cautiously.  

He’d tried to call you the day before but you didn’t answer the phone and he’d noticed the little ways in which you’d been off before that. How tired you looked when you greeted him, how unmotivated to do your school work you’d been, how unusually slow with comebacks you were. So he had some inkling, when you didn’t answer yesterday, what was going on and while he had little clue how to actually help he figured he could at least try.  

“I guess no one’s home.” Peter announced, stepping into the room and kicking the door closed behind him. He could see the top of your head peeking out from the blankets on the couch and moved across the room to where you were. “I’ll just chill here on the couch then.” He spoke louder than necessary, making sure you heard him.  

You moved slightly, enough to peek out and see him, back turned to you as he set two bags of food and a cup holder of drinks on the coffee table. Then suddenly he was dropping himself onto your back, hovering just enough that his full weight wasn’t on you and wriggling around.  

“Oh man this pillow is so comfortable.” He stated, voice still pitched at a higher volume.  

“Peter!” You groaned, unable to stop the laugh that escaped as you maneuvered an arm out of the blankets to smack his thigh.  

“Holy shit?! This blanket has arms!” He exclaimed, his voice cracking as a laugh escaped.  

At the same time you sat up, bringing the blankets with you so that they wrapped you up with only your head showing. Your hair was a mess from laying down and you could feel more than see the awkward creases and twists of your clothing from moving around under the blanket. “Peter!” You huffed, trying your hardest to look upset with him.  

“There you are!” He smiled, throwing his body back on the couch beside you, causing the cushion beneath the both of you to bounce enough that you were thrown a little off balance. Peter brushed some of the hair from your face and put his arm around your shoulders as the blanket sagged around you.

“What are you doing here?” You asked, genuinely curious. It wasn’t like you had told him not to come over but when you had canceled on him the other day without warning and then didn’t answer the two texts he sent yesterday you figured he’d find something else to do with his time until you came around again. You were surprised to see him in your living room.  

“I just wanted to make sure you were alright. And bring you some food so you don’t starve.” He replied, “I wasn’t sure if you were sick sick or just not feeling yourself so I got a pretty eclectic selection of food.”  

You leaned forward to open one of the two brown bags that was sitting on the coffee table. “Hamburgers and fries?”

“Loaded fries.” Peter corrected.  

“Thank you, for this. I didn’t mean to blow you off.”

“Hey, no apologies from you. I will accept only the eating of food and you letting me get in on this Psych marathon.” He replied, already starting to unload one of the bags, “I mean Juliet and Shawn...will they, won’t they?”

“You’ve seen the whole series.” You laughed. The itching feeling that you weren’t quite yourself was sitting in the back of your mind but Peter handing off a strawberry milkshake and trying to stuff a handful of fries in his mouth certainly eased whatever trouble had been nagging you lately. He was a welcome distraction.  

“You know,” Peter joked, changing the subject only slightly to stay on his train of thought, “people say the same thing about us.”

“Well that doesn’t make sense,” you replied around a sip of strawberry shake, “we already have.”

“There could be a midseason twist, who’s to say?” He winked at you, a smile on his face.

“You’re a dork.” You laughed, tossing your straw wrapper at him and turning back to the show, letting him settle in beside you with his arm draped ped over your shoulders. Before he gave the television his full attention he leaned over and kissed the side of your head, reminding you that he was here whenever you needed him.  

I’m breaking my hiatus to post this for @tephi101 hope my Peter is everything you imagined. 

#Peter kavinsky imagine #Peter kavinsky x reader #Peter kavinsky fanfiction #to all the boys I've loved before fanfiction #to all the boys I've loved before imagine #collecting stories imagine

[11tumbler]

Clinical Study

"Kate. I just signed us up for a study," he announces as he bursts into the loft. Kate just closed a big case and had the day off and the following day, which Richard thought was perfect timing.

He had a meeting with Black Pawn and then stopped to pick up some organic vegetables at this store and saw an advertisement looking for participants in a clinical study. A certain word caught his eye and he immediately raced to the psych department and signed up.

He found Kate in the study just closing a book she'd been reading on the couch. "Hi Castle," she says while standing. They meet to share a quick peck on the lips. "Now what did you say when you walked in?"

"I signed us up for a clinical study. And don't worry it's here, so no cameras or anything creepy."

"Wait, what?" Kate asks confused. "A clinical study of what?"

Rick was beating around the bush, "A study of brain waves. We can do it here, look," he says as he pulls some items from the small bag in his hand, "we have these cool sensors that we attach to our heads."

As he starts messing with the electrodes, Kate shakes her head, "Castle what is this clinical study of?" There's a bit more bite in her tone. He sheepishly looks at her, but then goes into a full blown rant, "It's a sex study, see we attach these electrodes and they measure our brain waves while we ... you know, and we record the details here."

Kate's eyebrows hit her hair line and her jaw hit the floor. "A sex study?" her voice croaks out barely over a whisper. Rick can see she's shocked. "Look I thought it would be fun," he wraps an arm around her waist, "plus we're screwing like rabbits all the time anyway, let's get a little science out of it."

"Rick!” she pushes him off. This is our sex life. Our private life. I'm not documenting it for anyone. Where did you find this study?"

"I saw the flyer on NYU as I was cutting through the campus from Caputo's.”  She interrupts him, “This is a study for college kids, Castle!”  “There was no age limit,” he counters. “Though I did get a strange look from the guy when I signed up.  Anyway come on, do you remember sex in your 20s, it was pathetic.” He wraps his arm around her waist again. “I mean compared to now.  We are great.  I bet we could show those college kids a thing or two.  Let’s do this and prove that old people..” the look on her face stops him, “older people, have amazing sex.  The study is only for today and tomorrow, August 10th and 11th, and since you already have these days off, its perfect.”

She could no longer argue with him.  She certainly liked having sex with Castle.  And receiving oral sex, and giving it.  She was getting aroused just thinking about it and the way his arm was wrapped around her and his hips were pressing up against hers. She looks up at him.  If they recorded their activities fine, if not that was fine too.  They would still be having amazing sex. "Ok," she answers.

His lips quickly find hers, she moves her hands around his neck, but then he pulls back, "Wait we need to put these on first." He's so giddy like a little kid and she wants to roll her eyes at him. He sets everything on his desk then runs back to the entryway to grab a little electrical box. He helps Kate attach the electrodes and then does his own turning on the machine. Kate feels all this is starting to kill the mood, but then he turns back to her and the kiss he delivers sends shivers down her back.

He leans into her and she turns so her ass presses against his desk. His hand finds the side of her neck, "Oh Mrs. Castle," he whispers around her mouth, "the things I want to do to you." Kate practically melts as her arousal flares to life. Rick's mouth moves to her neck. Her senses come back and her hands quickly work to unbutton his shirt. He pulls back and jerks her shirt over her head. He finishes the last two buttons on his shirt and drops that as well. He moves back into her, his mouth finding her neck while his hands snake around behind and unclasp her bra. As his kisses trail down her body they find her breasts. She lets out a small gasp followed by a long moan as he gently sucks her right nipple.

She can't take anymore and grabs his pants working feverishly to undo the belt, button and zipper. He shakes them down his legs and moves to her left nipple. Another moan escapes her lips. She reaches for his boxers, "Castle," she moans as both a plea and a warning. He removes her yoga pants and panties, then pulls his own boxers off. Before Kate can move towards the bedroom, Rick grabs her waist propping her on the edge of the desk. Both of his arms are under her thighs supporting her weight so she moves her left arm around the front of her body reaching out between her legs to curl around him. She strokes gently a few times as he steps inside her thighs and she lines him up with her entrance.

He pushes in and her left arm immediately goes back behind her to brace herself. He's not holding back, it's a quick punishing rhythm that feels unbelievably amazing. She’s immediately moaning and so is he.  Having her spread out before him just watching as her body jostles back and forward as he thrusts inside her, damn at this pace he won’t last long, but neither will she.  He pulls out slightly so he can rub right against her g-spot.  “Oh God Castle,” Kate says on an exhale.  “Yes, oh, oh, please keep going.”  As her encouragement gets more breathy and her muscles start to flutter he knows she's close, so he increases his pressure pushes more against his own tip.  Within seconds she's coming and then so is he.  He can barely hold up her legs as he falls forward his legs practically giving out as he releases inside her.  

He regains the ability to move and pulls out; he helps lower her legs to the ground.  Beckett’s legs almost give out as well.  She’s still breathless.  Rick turns and moves around the desk to the paper.  “What are you doing?” she asks.  “I’m documenting this.” She sighs and bends over to pick up her clothes.  “No, don’t get dressed.” She gives him a glare. “Come on, we’re going to be doing this all weekend.  And Alexis is with that club from school so she’s camping this weekend and Mother is at that spa retreat.  There’s no one to see you naked, but me.  And I like naked Kate Beckett.”  She continued to pin him with a glare, but dropped her panties back on the floor and confidently strolled out of the office and towards the kitchen.  Rick forgot to breath watching her leave.

Beckett was in the kitchen and Castle walked around behind her. She knew he was satisfied, but that did nothing to dampen his overall arousal. His hands glided around her body. "Mmm you feel so warm," he murmured. "Yea, you just heated me up stud." "I'm not sorry for that, actually can't wait to do it again."

Kate needed a breather and a snack, she could see how excited Rick was, especially with his new toy. They haven't had marathon sex in a few months, but this would be fun. Kate heated up some left over pasta, which Rick also shared and then he practically dragged her to the bedroom.

Rick drives on top of her and Kate screams then giggles. She fixes her electrode he knocked off as his lips sucked her neck. Damn, she's sure what he's doing is going to leave a mark. His fingers are tracing lines from her ribs down her thigh. She lifts her thigh bracketing his side to encourage his fingers to continue to stroke her thigh.

He's being so gently and soft she barely even feels him slide inside her. A slight gasp escapes her lips and he pushes himself up over her and lowers down to her lips again gently kissing her while moving inside her. Her arms wrap around his body and they move together. 45 minutes later they hold each other tightly as they both relax. Kate loved both sides to their love-making, the rough lustful and the gentle love.

Rick couldn't help himself in the shower, but he didn't want to keep going because he didn't think the electrodes could get wet. As soon as they were out he forced Kate back to bed. His mouth was between her thighs. He worked her up quickly, but then kept her there. She begged for her release before he finally took her over the edge. They need to pause for dinner, but had sex twice more before they fell asleep with one of those being from behind at the kitchen counter as she attempted to wash the dishes.

Castle woke with a start, his hips jerked involuntarily as his consciousness returned and felt her lips sucking on him getting him hard. He looked down and noticed she had put the electrodes on, see she was in this as much as he was. He felt his in place as well. God she was good and a deep throaty growl left his body as she took him further into her mouth. "Kate," he whispers drawing her name out, but those are the last words he utters. As he approaches release there's panting, moaning and unidentifiable mumbling. She swallows him deep as he goes.

Sunday is more of the same with them exploring positions and furniture around the loft. He found his new favorite position as Kate knelt on the stairs a few steps above him as he stood on the ground, it was the perfect height and damn if he didn't like the view. He never wanted to pull her hair before, and he wasn't sure if she would kill him if he did, but she suggested this position. He gathers up her hair and arches her neck back some, she moans clearly enjoying it. The grip on her waist tightens as he continually drives into her until he falls over her back releasing with her.

Neither of them can get out of bed on Monday morning, both sore and exhausted. Kate needs to make it to work and she hopes she doesn't need to chase any suspects because she's walking like she just got off a horse. He turns in their paperwork at the college. He receives a small slip of paper with a number on it letting him know he can get a copy of the results in a few days.

Wednesday he returns with the results, he waits until Kate gets home to open them. The first thing they found is a hand-written note. Dear Participant, at first we thought these results were faked, but you did have corresponding brain waves which matched your records. We want to congratulate you, you have 8 times as much sex as the average of the other participants. Kate and Rick both look at each other and chuckle. It's really great to see such a healthy sex life later in life. Rick pulls out the chart which compares them with the other participants. Most only had sex 3 times, which they both agreed wa sad and boring. The results showed that Kate's brainwaves hit their highest during their rough fucking like on the table and up against the counter. Rick hit his highest giving or receiving oral sex. "Well now I know how to really stimulate your mind Mr. Castle," Kate purrs. He kisses her ear, "Oh yes you do Detective Beckett. "

#castle #castlefanfiction #castle fanfiction #AU #fanfic #castlepornado2019 #castleficathon2019

[morinokunikara]

Miles’ Moving Marathon Stream!

Hey guys! So on Wednesday, June 12, I will finally be moving in with the wonderful @edwardjames-kenway!! This is a big step in my life and I’m super psyched for it, so on the 13th, I’m celebrating with a 12 hour (or more) marathon stream!! The festivities start at 4pm EST, and will go until 4am at the earliest! I’ll be playing a variety of different games, some together and some me solo with Nick commentating, as well as raising money to get me a new monitor, a new mic, and other things I’ll need in my new place!!

I don’t have a exact perfect schedule, but here’s the setlist in order!

Blade & Soul (with Nick)

Portal

American Truck Simulator

Bless (with Nick)

The Stanley Parable

Jet Set Radio

Apex Legends (with Nick) 

My twitch is blankshades, and I’ll be announcing on Tumblr as we start each game! Hope to see you there!

#passing thoughts #streaming #marathon stream #you can reblog this btw!!

[lokigodofaces]

" You start to uncurl and face Phil, shaking slightly. "This is really SHIELD, y/n. You're safe nOW!" You surprise him as you suddenly hug him tight. This is probably weird, but I don't care. I'm still freaking out, and this guy is gonna die soon. And he checks out with my Main Character Hug Policy. And it's completely platonic, don't worry, hypothetical person reading my thoughts. "

I honestly want to know what I just wrote.

This is in my fic of mine called Psyche. It's a Steve Rogers, Thor Odinson, and Peter Quill x Fem!Reader. Fem because I am better at writing through a female perspective.

What did I just write?!

Okay, some context. Basically, y/n is a MCU fangirl from our world, and she is an archaeologist. So I threw a dart at a map, landed in Israel, I threw together some archaeology bs that is actually now that I think about probably really inaccurate but I'll fix it eventually. I love Indiana Jones a lot. Basically, she gets a severe headache afterwards. She's back home having a marvel marathon since it's so bad she can't really leave her house. She falls unconscious and wakes up inside the MCU right after Tony announced himself as Iron Man. Then she decides to be a conspiracy theorist to try tp warn ppl of everything that's gonna happen (she's seen everything up to Captain Marvel) but that makes her look suspicious to Hydra. So she literally is like "Sean Spencer's a cool guy," and pretends to be a psychic and tricks SHIELD.

That explains the Main Character Hug Policy and "this guy is gonna die soon" I hope. But like, I broke the fourth wall too. And she's making Coulson double take by suddenly platonically hugging him.

WhAt HaVe I wRiTtEn?!?!?!

And you can find the fic on Wattpad, ao3, or Quotev if you wanna read this mess

#marvel fanfiction #marvel cinematic universe #marvel #steve rogers #peter quill #thor #thor odinson #thor odison x reader #steve rogers x reader #peter quill x reader #fanfic #fanfiction memes #writeblr #excerpts from my writing #fanfiction #ao3 #ao3 fanfic #wattpad #quotev #phil coulson #breaking the 4th wall #what a mess #sean spencer #psyche #what the hello did i just write?

[runningwhilenotdying]

So! This is quite late but I’ve been crazy busy with school and I knew typing all this out would be A Task. This race was about 10,000 times harder than I thought it would be. I thought that I respected the marathon distance going in but it turned out I absolutely did not. My time was quite a bit slower than I was expecting even though I didn’t have an exact goal in mind and my splits were ridiculously positive (pic 7). I’m honestly not disappointed at all though. The marathon is a mean, tough race but I’m even meaner and tougher and that is absolutely something to celebrate. Full race recap under the cut because it’s almost as long as the marathon itself.

- The day before the marathon was pretty much ideal actually. Did my 3 km shakeout run in the morning, made pancakes, lounged around my house, and picked up my bib. My super old family friend/honorary sister was in town to run the half and my mom was running the 5k, so we all went out for delicious pasta the night before along with my boyfriend and my friend’s mom.

- I slept AWFULLY the night before. I lay awake for ages, then slept in short little bursts that probably added up to like 3 hours overall. My cat also woke me up at 5 by biting my feet and I almost tossed him out the window. 

- Woke up for real at 6:15, miraculously not tired and not particularly nervous either. I had a bagel with PB and a cup of coffee, put on a huge pile of throwaway clothes over my race outfit, and took an Uber to the start

- I was paranoid about road closures so I gave myself a ton of extra time, but we ended up not having any trouble at all. That meant I got to the start just over an hour early, which was a big problem considering the temperature was a degree or so above freezing

- I waited for my friend to show up, walking around in aimless circles to keep warm. She showed up about 20 minutes early, we took some nice pictures in our 5000 layers, and got into our corrals right around when the gun went off for the elite corral

- This is a FAST race, so my corral was pretty far back and it took about 15 minutes from there to actually cross the line. I was planning on throwing away my fleece, hat, and two pairs of mittens at the start but I ended up keeping them on. I got rid of the mittens and fleece by kilometre 4 and kept the hat until around kilometre 24

- By the time I started, my feet were completely frozen. I spent the first few kilometres wiggling my toes trying to get the feeling back, but I was basically running on ice blocks until the 5k mark 

- Other than that though, I felt awesome for the beginning of the race. The energy of the crowd and the other racers were infectious. I was checking my watch every kilometre, and my splits were a bit faster than planned but I didn’t worry too much about reigning it in. I’d been having a bunch of random pains all down my right side all through taper, but I wasn’t feeling anything

- I decided not to count down kilometres or even think about the overall distance until 10k, and I actually did a pretty good job of that. I started having a dull pain in my right hip around 8 km, but other than that I was feeling awesome and determined to enjoy the race for as long as I could

- Between 10k and the halfway mark, things gradually got a bit harder, but I generally still felt in control. My breathing was still good and I was sticking to my schedule for taking energy blocks. But my hip was still nagging and my left hip flexor had joined in as well. The pain was super mild, but I was anxious about it getting worse and that started affecting my mental game in general

- The last time I felt genuinely good was probably around 19 km, right before the half-marathoners split off. We went past a huge cheering station where they were blasting Abba and giving high fives. I was so psyched I actually sang along to most of the chorus of Mamma Mia as I ran past

- Once the half-marathoners split off it got quiet fast. Less than one third of the racers were doing the marathon, so suddenly there were a lot fewer runners and barely any spectators. I was starting to feel sick and my hips were still hurting and I was grappling with the idea of running the complete distance I’d already ran again

- This is where it started getting hard. I’d brought headphones to listen to music, but I wanted to put off using them until I absolutely NEEDED a power-up, so I was pretty much alone with my thoughts until I gave in at 28 km. At this point finishing seemed completely unfathomable and I was starting to wonder what the hell I was doing this for

- The race basically just got harder from here. I was feeling sicker and I started putting off my scheduled energy blocks. I was supposed to take a Gu at 24 km, but I couldn’t even imagine putting it in my stomach. I don’t remember when I started worrying about DNFing again, but it was probably around this point. 28ish km to 32 km was probably the hardest part of the race mentally

- When I finally hit the 32 km mark, things turned around a bit. 32 km was the point last year where I slammed headlong into the wall and dropped out because I couldn’t walk in a straight line or carry a train of thought. So when I got here this time, I realized that even though I felt like absolute shit, I was doing 100 times better than last year. This is when I realized that I probably actually was going to finish

- Even though my mental state improved a tiny bit, my physical state was getting worse and worse. Starting at 32 km, I let myself walk the first minute of every kilometre. This 100% saved me mentally because it gave me something to look forward to every kilometre. It also let me stretch my hips out a bit, which definitely helped physically

- Even with the walking breaks, I was in the absolute worst pain of my life for the last 8 km or so. The only thing stopping me from walking the rest of the way was my desire to be finished the fucking marathon as soon as possible. I wasn’t checking my pace anymore, but I was probably down to around 6:30/km not counting the walking breaks

- Every 900ish metre stretch between walking breaks felt impossible and never-ending, and once I was walking, starting up again after 1 minute was the worst kind of mental challenge. The last few kilometres are pretty hazy in my memory, but I distinctly remember thinking “am I actually going to DNF with less than 2 km to go? IDK. Maybe”

- Finally, finally, I hit 41 km and took my last walking break. That was when I remembered that the total distance was 42.2 km, not just 42. It sounds ridiculous, but the thought of that extra 200 metres was almost more than I could bear as I finished my last walking break

- Every step of that last 1(.2) kilometre was a fight. I was checking my watch every half block and counting down the individual metres. With 600ish metres to go, I saw my mom cheering on the sidelines and almost broke down. She started trying to run with me down the sidewalk, but I discovered later that I’d somehow averaged 4:59/km for the last 800 metres of the race, so she couldn’t keep up with me

- I started seeing signs counting down the last 400 metres and finally accepted that I was definitely going to finish. I took out my headphones to hear the crowd for the last moments, and heard the announcer call my name as I came up on the finish line

- Stepping across the line was the most overwhelming moment of my life. I’d felt so awful for so long, but I’d fought through it. The fact that I DNFed last year and left feeling like such a failure made it even more powerful. As soon as I crossed the line I started full-on weeping, hand over my mouth, sobbing at full volume. Some of it was pain, but most of it was pride and astonishment

- My friend and her mom started calling my name and I walked over to them. Opened my mouth to say hi to them and instead threw up twice directly at their feet, so I guess I can really have no doubt in my mind that I gave the race everything I had

Anyway, this is by far the longest tumblr post I’ve ever written and I’m sure no one’s still reading, so I’ll wrap it up. Four days later, I’m still walking on air over this. My right knee and hip still hurt like a bitch, but I’m happy, and proud, and I ran a FREAKING MARATHON

#runblr #rcoctober2018 #2018runclub #race recap #marathon #fitblr

[adventureswithtyntyn]

2/23-(9 miles & yoga) Happy FriYAY!!! So I dragged my butt out of bed this morning for my long run, even tho I wasn't exactly feeling it, but I put it off long enough so😂 The weather was the warmest it's been so even though it is overcast I wasn't cold at all. My legs were super sore today from my HIIT class yesterday, but I didn't let that stop me. I mostly just ran at whatever pace I wanted to and stopped a few times for stop lights and things like that. The run itself went well overall! I didn't have any glute pain until the last two miles when I had some slight soreness and I kind of just ran however I wanted. My pace varied a little, but stayed near the lower 9s for most of it which was great. My overall pace was 8:56 so yay! Half marathon training and getting faster is all coming with time:) Anyway a pretty good long ish run for the end of a week! I had some calve soreness in the last miles, but I just need to stretch a lot which is what yoga is for later:) I seriously need to roll tonight though let me tell you! My noon museum yoga class was very centering as usual:) We were in a different room today and it wasn't as hot because it was more open so it was a lot more enjoyable. I had a little back pain, but overall it defintrly left me feeling less sore. Although I'll still have to stretch tonight. I feel like yoga is very misunderstood. It's so much more then just a type of exercise. It allows you to feel closer to your body and it just relaxes your mind. I really love it. Anywho!! The rest of my day is a bit of a blur. I ate lunch, went to psych office hours, worked on my ansc project, went to Walgreens, did more work, ate a very unsatisfying dinner, talked with my friends, considered going to s frat party, then decided to shower and change my sheets and clean my room instead😂 So a very eventful day for Emily! Kidding😂 I'm so exhausted from this week and I can't wait to go to bed. I'm literally looking forward to it so much even though I have to get up early tomorrow for an all day retreat BUT it is a rest day from running which will be nice:) Also another announcement is that I decided to eat chocolate again because not eating it is giving me headaches and I'm eating more unhealthy because of it. I am going to eat less of it and instead pick something more faith based for my lent goal. So stay tuned! And yes I organized my stuffed animals by height because I'm truly a child:) Today I am thankful for hot showers & yoga flows

#dailyrun #dailyupdate #runhappy #runningjourney #runners #running #runblr #yoga class #yogaeverydamnday #longmaysherun #longrun #winterrunning #college student #college fitblr #college running #college life #university of illinois #rainyday #cloudyday #friday #friyay #health & fitness #health #i'm tired #i wanna sleep

[abigailskoda]

A Spiritual Take on Cheating in American Sports

There are not many so gross to envision that we can coordinate boundless insight in the agreement of provision, or convince Him to adjust those laws He invented before the establishment of the world for placing things in a normal course. - Matthew Tindal, 1653- - 1733  Engagement Rings He won't attempt by petitions and request, by fastings and

genuflections, to change the psyche of the 'Endless' or adjust the course

of nature; neither will he utilize others to do those things in his place... He will realize that legit work is the most noteworthy type of petition. He will invest no energy in ringing chimes or swinging sensers, or in reciting the reiterations of boorishness... - Robert Green Ingersoll, The Improved Man, 1890

Both Tindall and Ingersoll, hundreds of years separated, communicated sees on a theme that, hundreds of years after the fact, educate an issue regarding morals and reasonable play in current donning rivalries.

Matthew Tindall saw demands for outside help from a celestial, extraordinary power to be an incredible insolence - an attack against any god. How dare simple humans be so gross as to look for changes of laws placed in a normal course by the One with endless insight?

Robert Ingersoll likewise noticed that an a lot to-be-wanted Improved Man would value the indiscretion begging The Infinite to adjust His perspective or change the course of nature. How insolent. Fair work, deciphered in the games world as hard preparing and giving one's everything, is the sole moral way to greatness.

Wearing COMPETITIONS AND THE ETHICS OF SEEKING OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE

What's happening when a baseball player focuses to the sky as he approaches home plate in the wake of hitting a grand slam, recommending a scheme with a sky god who here and there gave assistance?

Is that reasonable?

Isn't that external help?

Or then again in football, when a player scores a score and participates in a custom that recommends obligation to a higher force not even on the field of play who is by all accounts getting kudos for the player's prosperity.

Should grand slams and scores, etc tally if competitors look for or get outside help?

Should not every person be needed to respect a level battleground where everybody puts forth a valiant effort, depending entirely on readiness, colleagues and his/her own gifts?

Didn't the Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros lately end up in somewhat of a fix subsequent to finding support with signs to home plate sent from colleagues not really on the field? In the event that simple humans are taboo to meddle, what amount more glaring is the infringement if a contender requests help from the leader of the universe?

OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE IN TRIATHLON

I've contended in marathons for a very long time, and I can guarantee you, dear perusers, that finding support from any source is carefully taboo under Article III, Section 3.4 of the Rules of Race Conduct. The punishment for receipt of outside help is a DQ (i.e., preclusion).

However, in spite of this standard, numerous long distance runners do welcome external help. We know this, not on the grounds that race authorities or any other person besides have seen such help being delivered, but instead on the grounds that champs have transparently announced having had outside assistance, even boasted about it. Also, they openly give abundant gratitude to their unapproved recipient and show no regret at all for intentionally enrolling illicit guide from an incredible partner.

Changes are required.

Wouldn't you say the time has come for those of us who follow the rules, depend on serious preparing and hard-gained aptitudes, and never look for or get outside help with races, request a stop to the improper tributes that praise the standard breaking of outside obstruction in our cherished game?

That was a non-serious inquiry. Obviously now is the right time, high time!

Simply follow the rules. You did the preparation - you do the race.

A GUEST COMMENTARY

Is the bringing of heavenly intercession from a fanciful divinity truly cheating? Truly, there is expectation, however on the off chance that the solicitation is coordinated to the mists and it tends to be demonstrated certain that nobody lives in the mists, at that point doubtlessly addressing slender air can't comprise a tactlessness. Craziness, possibly. Fancy, unquestionably. Endeavor to cheat, presumably. Outside help, questionable.