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your--isgayrights · 2 years

Note

Oh yay permission to send you fic related asks!! I'll start off by saying I lvoe how youre pulling off the limited POV, especially during longer conversations where the different intent and miscommunications pile up. it seems to me like you have a very clear grasp on the very different things/interpretations they all have going on in their own head. i like trying to understand what the non-kdj party must be thinking at the time, so i wanted to ask how much of their viewpoint do you map out/how do you do it when writing them? like, does it come naturally from their characterization, or do you ever need to write a bit from the other character's POV to know where theyre coming from?

Annooooon let me tell you a secret bestie... I pretty much always want to answer asks about my fic lmao. if you've been holding back DO NOT. <^This guy has written and published almost 100,000 words about this particular topic, methinks he might be a bit of a chatterbox about it...

GREAT question too. I think that like you say, KDJ's biased POV is really one of my favorite parts of writing the fic. It let's me create these situations where literally EVERY character is thinking something Completely Different is happening than the others, which is my favorite form of comedy. With this you also get to sort of juggle with the Reader's perspective, because with fanfiction you can expect that the reader will have a certain baseline understanding of the characters that lets them sort of see through the veneer of the social interaction as to what's really going on. I think that this kind of writing/reading is less about planning out and practicing at multiple POVs like you suggest and more about like exercising some empathy muscles for reader and writer... In the first place I think that I started the practice of really writing in order to become more articulate about expressing my own emotions, so I think a part of that is trying to express the emotions and perspectives of characters... And when you're viewing someone from the outside and are trying to understand them that way, you only get the avenues of their dialogue and their actions, and when you're writing a conversation it's easy to naturally work reactions in like that.

I don't really write out more than like notes about what's going to happen, so like, for example, popular scene in chapter 3: Shin Yoosung gets a stuffed animal from a gachapon machine. So, like, I know in my head that I have this specific characterization and take on Shin Yoosung, she's sort of a kid that is used to being disappointed by adults in her life but takes it onto herself. So when her mom forgets her birthday her thought process becomes "Well, I'm a big girl now, who cares? It doesn't matter that much anyway," she thinks like this to avoid having to be disappointed in her parental figure, but her rationalization doesn't hold up to her real emotion, which is where LGY and KDJ are able to provide support to her... I feel like all this just comes naturally from my interpretation so I would sort of know this about the characters like you know a person, right? Then the note is just about what plot point should occur, "SYS's mom forgets her birthday, KDJ buys her a cake, gochapon." Then I might write a bit of that scene and then just move it around in the outline where I see fit. So, like you say, I have the idea that SYS is having this dramatic moment where she tries her best to hold back her feelings, and then one adult in her life says "you don't have to, even if you feel sad for no reason, in this moment I'll do my best to make you happy" through his actions, it's obviously something that matters a lot to her. It really would be way to much trouble to have to write out a whole separate aspect in her perspective though, so there's no practice like that.

What I DO practice is that sometimes I take multiple cracks at a draft if I feel it isn't striking the right tone. Last chapter I was really held up by the LHS and JHW scene, because I hadn't quite hit the right vibe with it I felt. It's a bit difficult because what I had in my notes was basically "m/f couples that exist to be foils to gay romance are valid," so I think that my first drafts were way too heavy handed about that, and too LHS focused too. I think that another struggle I had in general that chapter was worrying about KDJ coming on a little too strong and messing up the pacing of the Vibes, because it's the beginning of this transition period in his emotional state which needs to be in a certain place by the end of 4.4... OK no one cares about that. Basically I was struggling to segue into the LHS & JHW discussion, then the one on one LHS and KDJ discussion without it coming across as making JHW's traumatic experience all about her male partner you know? Because a recurring dynamic I've tried to portray is someone who feels helpless vs someone who needs help, and the amount of care we have for our loved ones, being a survivor vs being a savior, what those concepts mean, etc. Like knowing your loved one is in danger and there's nothing you can do, that's one of the core emotions right, so I was trying to bring that out without having any weird implications if that makes sense.

Basically I was struggling and struggling with it until I realized that what I had written was basically a LHS & KDJ scene, then a JHW & LHS scene, then a JHW & KDJ scene, then a LHS & KDJ scene again. So I had the picture of the individual characters in my head, but I had failed to connect them to one larger group dynamic, just attaching them to each other in what were essentially duologues.

The break in the case for that one, and the reason I'm telling you about this I guess, was being able to have an experience in my real life that was sort like this. Basically I was visiting two of my pals I hadn't seen for a while at a ballroom dance tournament where they were participating and I was observing. We hadn't all hung out in person in a good while, and I realized that I felt a bit awkward and didn't know what to talk about, whereas they could both talk to each other about ballroom dancing and get conversation going that way... This let me really crack what JHW's perspective was, lol. I was like. Oh. She thinks she and KDJ are participating in the same ballroom dance competition.

There was also this aspect of "this m/f couple literally Can't Cope without their Favorite Little Guy. what's the point of being comphet if your gay boy best friend has been imprisoned/hospitalized for his crimes against humanity" that I wanted to incorporate after rereading some parts of orv...

Okay IDK if this makes that much sense but basically here's what I had in my notes about that conversation:

JHW is having an awkward catch up with her ex and is relieved that her friend who she Knows How To Interact With is there.

LHS is like wow I'm hanging out with my Cool friend but I'm cringe fail so i don't know if she hates me, its a good thing my Cool superior from work is here to support me.

KDJ is sitting next to blorbo from his arm and trying to do narrative math to figure out how soon he and/or JHW are going to die violently (make LHS sad).

Then I just rewrote basically the whole thing and it worked out fine lol. Basically cracked onto the perspective of "KDJ desperately tries to be a third wheel but JHW and LHS are actually really into tricycles and would absolutely eat shit if you asked them to ride with just the two wheels." It became hilarious to me how enthused they both were to have him there and how much he Did Not Want to be there lmaooo.

God Ok. Rambling. Um basically I don't generally do drafts written from different perspectives I don't plan to include in the final draft bc I feel like there's extra work involved in that. So I'm mostly writing from real life experience with the way real people work/my own understanding of characterization. I do take notes sometimes about plot events/character moments that need to happen in my outline. Like recently I reread the stuff I published takin notes on where YJH's head is at bc of 4.4 stuff that's happenin... haha.

I DO sometimes write other characters' POVs though. I think some of them might be included towards the end or in extras after I'm done with the main story. Like I have snippets of some soosang stuff and excerpts from HSY's writing. And then, not to spoil anything, but you know how ORV has more third person povs as the story goes on? My work may or may not have some of such funny business lol.

Thanks for reading and thanks a lot for your ask!

#long post #ask #anonymous #wall fic #love questions like this let me know if you have more questions anon

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bucketofbugz · 3 months

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boys reaction to being yeeted into grounded

I have two answers

You have no idea how much I had to fight the temptation to actually throw them into the game itself (have the game be canon in their universe and have them experience actually being put into a video game) BUT I wanted to play around with universe stuff. Also I wanted them to be surprised at things. So instead I figured out a way for them to experience the game without having the game be canon.

HOWEVER-- in the non-canon shared universe where I throw all my aus to hang out with each other-- I can have them learn about the actual game from other versions of themselves. Specifically from other Leos (and the entire Ruins group but shh shh).

Learning that your traumatic experiences almost line up exactly with the events of a silly video game in alternate universes of yourself is a bit.. odd.

To everyone except for Leo he finds it funny and wants to play the game so bad.

As for canon, their reactions are all very, very different.

so let's sort them in order from most happy about the situation to least happy about the situation.

Leo!!

I headcanon Leo has an entomology interest because it matches with botanist donnie methinks. Leo is very, VERY in awe about all of it. He's also very anxious about it at first, though. His first thought is that it must have had something to do with Donnie, but once Donnie confirmed he had nothing to do with it he started getting a little concerned.

Until they ran into their first ladybug. Then his inner entomologist broke out and he was like "WHAST???? guys there are bugs this is the best place ever". He kinda clings to that for a while, focusing on the excitement of being so up close with so many different bugs to distract himself from their weird situation.

After a while, though, he starts getting really homesick. Each new bug they discover temporarily pulls him out of it, but it doesn't take too long for him to get thrown back into wanting to go home. This is especially worse when it's just him and Mikey hiding out in the hedge before they run back into Raph and Donnie.

Mikey!!

Mikey kinda thinks it's really cool that they were able to be shrunk. He thinks the giant grass is cool, he thinks the giant plants are cool. He also like building tools and getting creative with it.

He, however, does not enjoy almost dying via Spider every day. That's not as fun.

He does get a bit carried away with his tactics to avoid this (cough cough utilizing the salt and candies for his weapons because "they hurt more. maybe they'll LEARN TO LEAVE US ALONE--") and he's also the first one to find out that some bugs are edible. do not ask how or why he figured this out he is the family cook and he got sick of mushrooms.

He doesn't get as homesick as Leo, but he does want to go home more and more the longer they stay there.

Raph!!

Raph is kinda indifferent. Raph isn't super excited about anything, but it's not like they're scared about it either. They're certain the four of them will figure out how to get home so they try not to dwell on it too much.

Sure, they grow more and more anxious the longer they're separated from Leo and Mikey but HEYYYY they're fine, certainly!!! They're both great fighters!! They're fine!! Totally not at all concerning that the last time they saw them they were running away from an angry wolf spider that had just ripped Donnie's entire battle shell off!! (Raph is very relieved when they run into them again)

ANyway, Raph handles it rather well despite not really liking the situation.

Donnie!!

Donnie wants to go home. Now. Take him out of here he doesn't want to be here anymore

Not only does he have arachnophobia (remember that aforementioned wolf spider? Yeah. That would have sucked for him even if he wasn't tiny lmao) he is ALSO terrified of most insects!! He also has a bee allergy!!!!!!

Being able to see plants up close and the science behind it all is only temporarily able to boost his mood. He wants out of there and he wants out of there Now.

Kinda described a bit more than you asked for sorry but I like rambling

#grounded x rottmnt #grounded game #rottmnt #asks #ask response #au concepts #rottmnt au #mini rambles

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blonde-toddy · 3 years

Text

Random and Not So Random thoughts while watching Bridgerton: Season 1, Episode 5

Daphne sneaking in like a thief in the night.

Violet you're just hungover. Raw eggs and garlic Though?

Engaged to a Duke > Engaged to a Prince. That's it. That's Violets only thought.

Daphne you full of shit.

Awe your mama thinks the Duke got in your guts.

Well Violet, if you would actually TALK to your daughters about sex and their bodies. That is truly a tragic flaw.

She is hyped about this wedding though.

Oh Queen...no triumph for your messy ass.

Poor Prince Cormac (I know it's Friedrich).

Oh this is a scandal babe!

Daphne is not here for your childish shit today Eloise.

I kind of really feel bad for the prince and I want him to find a good lady. He's so pure.

Hyacinth little nosey ass.

Really Simon? Late and Drunk? Tear that mf up Lady Danbury. Somebody needs to.

She's trying to be kind....

God the way he looks at her!!! The way his mouth just breaks open is like armor cracking. He loves her truly.....fuckboy just doesn't know how to show it.

Ooooh he pulled his hand away. That hurt.

Fuck you Anthony. Delacroix is intervening now. I love her grifter ass.

Light his ass up, Portia!

Oh Penelope is full of the shade now. Poor girl.

Oh she scheming with her mama. Girl you fucking sneak.

Poor Rose is so confused. I love her though. Wedding planning is HARD!

Oh here comes this bitch Cressida!

She's holding that shit in her pocket for a rainy day. She'll bust their heads about it one day. I'm sure.

The Queen is so about the drama and the prince is just so chill. That bitch up to something.

Simon not accepting a dowry. At least they don't have to pay you to marry her. How romantic.

Oh are y'all buddies again now? Is #teamfuckboy a thing again?

Well your request for an expedited wedding got DENIED in big red letters.

Daphne bout to split a wig.

Violet being oblivious as always and Danbury breaking it all down.

The queen is being petty over her nephew.........just like Danbury says. Give her what she wants. A fucking show.

Heyyyy Benny!

Oh shit you're at the real party now.

Hello Delacroix.

Well fucking A! Get y'all some.

Bisexual Benny? Methinks yes? And I love it.

Wait...... is this an orgy? Go off Benedict.

Drunk ass Simon.....crying because he "trapped" Daphne. Boy. I feel like you're complicating the fuck out of this.

Mondrich is such a real one. This world does not deserve Will Mondrich.

Marina is determined that she's gonna trap Colin with a baby that is not his. He's just so pure that it makes me hope she fails at this. All this fucking reproductive evasion is making me uneasy.

But Portia is along for the ride.

Oh fuck, here's the King.

Its crazy to see real sentiment and love in the queen.

Aw fuck that's so sad. To watch the mind come and go in a loved one.

Daphne your ass needs to quit taking nighttime strolls.

Oh here it is. Daphne thinks he's physically unable to have children and that it's a source of great pain for him. Poor girl.

At least Rose is trying to be comforting.

And to be fair, Daphne, you fucking idiots love each other.

From the mouth of babes.

Get yo shit together Simon.

Alice always spitting hot ones. She's a babe.

Plus she's always looking out for her man's.

Aww look at Simon looking at the kids.

Let yo daddy go!

"With these knees, yes, Your Majesty." Danbury is the goat.

Gawd Daphne you are sinking at pleading to the queen.

Simon out here telling y'alls secrets. This man is wild.

Holy fuck what a love confession. It would nicer if he could SAY IT TO HER! AND LOOK AT HER!

Well the queen is biting.

Looks like someone is getting hitched!

Oooooh that music.

Gawd Simon is fine in black velvet. Fuck me he's fine in everything.

Yes look at her while you take that glove off and put that ring on.

They have completely redefined intimacy. Fuck.

Reception time.

She just wants to talk to her man.

Go away Cressida, damn.

Aww Penelope is trying to get Colin out of Marinas crosshairs.

Marina is heavy plotting.

She's really trying to seduce him and he's too honorable.

She got her proposal though.

Queen, Daphne barely knows about masturbating. She doesn't know dick about a wedding night. Pun intended.

Eloise and the queen my gawd.

Benny said don't ask don't tell.

Anthony's ass was the most against this fucking union, and now everything is kosher. Simon didn't want a dowry and now they get to be buddies again. This mf is a complete tool.

Simon, go get your wife.

Nope, just Violet with some more vague bullshit.

You call that a sex talk.

Its natural like rain. Then puppies. Bassett puppies.

Poor Daphne.

Her mom won't tell her shit about sex and her husband won't look at or speak to her.

Bitch gonna be rubbing it out on her wedding night. Poor babe.

Aww now it's time leave your childhood home. Not bittersweet or anything.

Damn he really didn't even tell her they'd be staying at an inn in their wedding night. Simon! Start telling your wife THINGS!

She took that shit right on the chin.

This mf really got separate rooms. She's pissed!

Aw...pacing together but in their separate rooms.

And she goes to the door.....he's at the door, on the other side.

Really Simon?!? DINNER?!?!

Now we're getting somewhere.

Here he goes with the kid lies again.....not feeling that shit Simon.

But fuck.

Fuck me. This love confession. If it ain't this, I don't want it.

The way he growls when he burns. My ovaries are exploding.

Yes! You burn for each other now fucking kiss!

Aw. And you're married now so you don't have to stop.

Oh my gawd. Oh my gawd. Yes. Show her more!

I just want somebody to spin me around and kiss up the side of my neck. Fuck. This shit is hot.

The artistry of that man. Yes girl yes. The touch of the chest, arms and shoulders.

Oh we throwing dirty talk in here too!

Hell yeah she touched herself. Tf you thought.

Oh my God. His face when he takes her hand. That man is God's Gift.

Her face when he took them pants off......fuck. I'm over here wishing this was Starz and we'd get some full frontal. Idc idc idc. I am horny for the Duke in every way.

They definitely romanticized what it's like to lose your virginity. It's never like that.

That fucking stroke on him though.

Daphne you new to this, but telling him you masturbated to him is a quick way to make him uhhhh....reach his pinnacle. The way he sped up when she said that shit. I was like okay now, das pretty realistic.

Ahhh the pullout method. Works every time.

And poor Daphne doesn't even know wtf a pull out is.

Well either way.

The duke makes me want to be seduced. Not just fucked. SEDUCED!

Well its only a matter of time before truth bombs get dropped, so I'm just gonna enjoy the view until we get there.

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vforvicferrari · 3 years

Text

Support the black market on Black Friday!

Hug your local shaman.

Enough of you live in places where it’s legal.

Kentucky will be 20 years behind the rest of the country for legalization.

😭

This is America

An eighth of decent bud shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg (hat had. If you know me irl , you’ll get it.

A quarter should be 50 -60 dollars tops

The greed is going to bite you in the ass

While making me a small fortune.

It’ll cost a small fortune to make a small fortune.

“Doesn’t it always?”

Not like this.

Most people would invest the money

I’m going to burn it

“edgy. Everything burns.

Oooh I cam feel the edginess from here”

Fuck off.

Straight up burning American currency harbors some powerful Magics

“But you’re among the bottom 1%....”

Fuck off

I have no idea what I’m doing

I’m the best at it.

If I don’t have money to burn

That’s what makes it worth burning

I say what’s going to happen

it happens

Without much work at all on my part

I’m not super special or anything

I get out of the way and let the universe work it’s quantum magic quantum machine it is. ‘

-Dec 2016: “im going to Denver next year.

(No money, no plans.I was full of shit )

-Mar 2017 :My friend showed up unannounced on my payday

“Hey man I just got my taxes back.wanna go to Colorado?”

Fuck and yes.

.......

-Denver was awesome.

200x (high school)

Someone asked, “what do you want to do after high school ?

(Jokingly)

I’m going to do absolutely nothing and get paid for it. Just like that guy in office space)”

2016: has stroke.

Late 2016: gets paid to do nothing. (It cost me a literal arm and a leg and any hopes of playing guitar for a living

What’s the old adage, bcwywf?

It just might come true.

There’s another phrase that comes to mind.

“When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed”

When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed”

“When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed”

When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed”

“When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed”

When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed”

“When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed”

Where was I going with all of this?

That’s right

I’m going to manifest another reality

This one smells funny

In 10 years time I will have my “small fortune”

Either via (totally ) legal trading or or writing.

Probably the writing.

The more i write , the better I get

My dreams aren’t destroyed

Those are called cheap pops.

if I ever start writing about my mom , or waxing even more nostalgic than usual - look out

I’m using hack writer tactics for cheap pops

Tune out.

All of my dreams are NOT destroyed

(Cheap pops)

HST (hero 1) thought of himself as a musician stuck In a writers body. I liked to tell people I was a writer stuck in a musician’s body. Stealing ideas what separates good writers from great ones.

Which am I?

I’m not done yet.

I’ve tasted greatness, but not achieved it ((yet)

fancied myself a writer stuck in a musicians life

(

Sometimes

Sometimes...i even starts making sense

And I’ll say something deeply profound.

You’ll ask yourself

“How is this degenerate hillbilly both the smartest amd by far

the dumbest human being I’ve ever met?

I’m leaving Facebook for 2021. Add my other shit.

Will post blog link soon

time to retire V methinks

If you fear TMI, stay away (you knew that )

Did anyone even read this far ?

I made a conscious effort

Hi,

I’m jef.

Welcome back

If I don’t write, I ain’t right”

I can’t even manage a conversation with my RL friends,

But I can write about my. Deepest thoughts without even thinking about it.

So it goes...

So it begins

vi veri veniversum vivus vici motherfuckerd

Stay weird, my friends.

Ps.

Join ,me for a quick thought experiment. ?

As you read these words on the screen, (yes,these words.

Right here )

Whose voice do you hear them in ?

Yours?

Mine ?

What if you’ve never met me ? And if it’s not you and it’s not me, why is it anybody else ?

I wish my inner monologue had the voice of Morgan freeman or Sean Connery or something

Who do I complain to?

“I don’t like the default voice.why isn’t it easier to change?

Comment if you have an answer

Gods know I don’t

This is the last blog I’ll post n Facebook. Tumblr kinda sucks too. Where’s the popular blog sites nowadays ?

Thanks for reading

🌹

-your friend,

Jef

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taww · 4 years

Text

Class A Amps Explained & Compared: Valvet A4 Mk.II vs. Pass Labs XA30.5

After years of hearing about the benefits of Class A amplifiers, I finally got a taste in my system when the Valvet A4 Mk.II monoblocks arrived. Despite its cost and inefficiency, Class A operation has long been held as a gold standard of amplification by many in the high-end, Krell and Nelson Pass among its better-known evangelists. Different Class A amps have their distinct sonic character like any other amps, and no, Class A isn’t a guarantee of great sound. But one commonality I’ve heard from many of these big hot amps is a lovely naturalness and liquidity that came closer to tubes in capturing music’s tonal colors... as if all that bias current helped burn away the ills of solid state. Once I heard good Class A, many otherwise excellent Class AB amps seemed a bit bland and mechanical by comparison. This was borne out when the Valvet arrived while the excellent Bryston 4B Cubed was also in-house. While the powerhouse Bryston was a great amp in its own right, the Valvet just seems to have less electronic artifact and more musical blood flowing through its veins, to paraphrase an old colleague. I was hooked and craving more Class A, so I jumped at the opportunity to give the Pass Labs XA30.5 a try. Replaced by the XA30.8 a few years back, it’s an older design that became a bit of an icon as one of the more attainable ways (MSRP $5500) to achieve Class A nirvana. It makes for a fascinating design contrast with the Valvet - big American muscle vs. tidy German simplicity.

What is Class A again? 🤓

First, a quick refresher. “Class A” operation means the devices (in this case the output transistors of the amp, commonly MOSFET or bipolar [BJT] devices) have enough bias current applied to them to ensure they always stay conductive (“on”) throughout the entire voltage swing of the musical signal. Remember that transistors tend to behave like on-off switches that require a certain threshold current to become conductive. This non-linear behavior is called the transconductance curve, and the idea with Class A is you always have enough juice flowing to keep the device in the conductive, most linear part of the curve.

Non-linear transconductance (current vs. voltage) curve of a bipolar transistor (BJT). Amazing we can get good sound of of these things, eh? (Source: stackexchange.com)

In contrast, Class AB amplifiers utilize “push-pull” complementary (NPN/n-channel and PNP/p-channel) pairs of transistors taking turns handling the positive and negative swings of the musical signal. They will only apply enough current to keep both devices on for smaller signals, and as power increases one side of the push-pull will cease conducting while the other side takes care of business. This is a clearly a more efficient setup - no wasted power for a device that doesn’t need to be on - but one that does have one device always transitioning in or out of its ideal operating region. Even if it’s not doing the heavy lifting, it’s contributing non-linearity and this leads to distortion that typically requires some form of negative feedback to mitigate. (If you’d like to go a level deeper on the theory of all this, check out this tutorial.)

A couple observations that are obvious from a circuit perspective, but perhaps clouded by all the marketing speak in the audio biz. Firstly, virtually all single-ended audio amplifiers are Class A by definition, and all Class AB amplifiers are push-pull. There would be no point in designing a non-Class A single-ended amp for audio because it would distort massively whenever the signal exceeded its Class A bias range. Class A for push-pull means both devices are conducting all the time, but there is an interesting catch - if the output signal exceeds the amount of bias current to keep one side of the push-pull pair in its linear region, the amp still keeps working because the other device is conducting - it’s being pushed in the opposite direction on its transconductance curve, towards saturation (overload). This means unlike single-ended Class A, push-pull Class AB will simply start acting like Class B at high power levels. Secondly, not all Class A biasing is the same - yes, the device might be fully on, but how far into its operating region (where on the transconductance curve) has it been juiced? This is why e.g. when Pass Labs upgraded the XA30.5 to the XA30.8, they increased bias current significantly, resulting in an amp that was still rated at 30Wpc but used over 100 watts more at idle and weighed 25 lbs more.

Class A Power Ratings 🔌

With all that in mind, let’s look at the rated power of these two amps. The Pass Labs weighs 60 lbs/27 kg and is rated at 30 watts into 8 ohms, which is literally 1/10th the rated power of the similarly-sized Bryston 4B Cubed. The Valvet is rated at 55 watts into 8 ohms, with each compact monoblocks weighing 26 lbs/12 kg - it’s well under half the size and weight of the Pass. How can both be Class A, meaning they both operate at low efficiency, yet the Valvet is purportedly 83% more powerful in such a compact package? While I haven’t spoken with Valvet designer Knut Cornils about how he rated the power of the A4, Pass Labs is very clear that their 30Wpc rating is for fully Class A operation, but that the amp will continue delivering power with low distortion well past that. And indeed, when Stereophile measured the XA30.5 on the bench, it delivered 130 watts into 8 ohms and 195 watts into 4 ohms before hitting 1% distortion. Those famous Pass Labs bias meters (NOT power meters as on e.g. Macintosh amps) also tell you exactly when bias current starts to fluctuate, indicating the amp is leaving Class A. On my 92.5dB-efficient Audiovector SR 6 speakers, they would just start to wiggle on heavy bass notes or orchestral climaxes at high listening levels.

Valvet A4 power draw at idle. Double this for two monoblocks.

Since I wasn’t able to measure the actual bias current inside the amps, I took a look at idle power draw as a rough proxy. Though the Pass XA30.5 is rated at 238W at idle, I measured closer to 190W once fully warmed up; meanwhile, the Valvet monoblocks idled at around 90W each. So, pretty similar, which doesn’t mean their Class A biasing is the same (it depends on a host of other factors such as the voltage of the supply rails) but it hints to the Valvet not being “juiced” any more deeply into Class A despite its higher power rating. This is also borne out by the similar operating temperatures (toasty, but not burning hot) and the fact that the power supply in the Pass, while having less capacitance than the Valvet, likely has just as much (if not more) transformer muscle. I don’t know the rating of the Pass’s massive toroid but I suspect it’s more then double the 400VA in each Valvet.

With the caveat that this is conjecture based on the physical, electrical and sonic observations (more on those later), the Valvet’s 55 watts are likely closer to the 1% THD point where it has crossed over into Class AB, and not at full Class A. And as another point of comparison, I currently have the Gryphon Essence Class A power amp that’s rated at 50 watts Class A, and it weighs all of 100 lbs with an absolutely massive power supply. Just as all watts on amp ratings are not alike, neither are all Class A watts apparently.

Sonics 🎶

The Pass amp took some time to come out of its slumber after having been powered down for a while, but its famously warm, relaxed character was immediately discernible. After a couple days much of the initial “MOSFET mist” burned off and a wonderful synergy developed between Pass Labs amp, Audiovector SR 6 Avantgarde Arreté speakers and Furutech DSS-4.1 speaker cables. The XA30.5′s big tone, ripe bottom end and easy power nicely complemented the speed and range of the Audiovectors, requiring no softening or sugar coating from the exceedingly transparent Furutech wire. Compared to the Valvet, the Pass had a bigger sound with more generous bass that was borderline fat without ever getting sloppy. Interestingly the soundstage was noticeably wider as well, despite the Valvets being monoblocks which would ostensibly give them an advantage in channel separation. Vocals on the Pass were a little fleshier on a broader, more spaced stage, and dynamics felt a bit more grounded by that extra bass oomph.

Pass’s XA.5-series styling certainly wasn’t known for its subtlety...

The Valvet counters with a faster, more incisive sound. One of the distinguishing features of the Valvet is the use of a single pair of transistors in the output stage. A number of manufacturers have been taking this approach as of late, including Pass in their XA25 amplifier which takes purism a step further by also eliminating the emitter degeneration resistors. The argument for such a simple topology is that no two transistors behave identically, and thus paralleling them causes some loss of fidelity as you can never get all of them at an identical ideal operating point and things kind of “average out.” The XA30.5 uses 10 pairs of MOSFETs per channel, and it’s only when you listen to the Valvet that you realize the Pass might have a few extra dancers in the troupe who aren’t quite as perfectly in lockstep with the music. The Valvet paints with a finer-tipped brush that can trace all the contours and curves of a musical line with great agility; the Pass doesn’t lack for resolution, but feels a tad slower and mushier, like a brush that has a bit of fuzz around it. This is particularly apparent in the upper frequencies where the Valvet has noticeably more sparkle and precision.

Tonally, both strike me as not deviating very far from neutral, but the Valvet has a subtle bit of upper midrange highlighting that methinks is in part due to its silver internal wiring. Silver tends to have a shinier sound to it, and when balanced well in a system it can really bring the details of a performance alive; but if not properly balanced, it risks sounding lean and forward. With the Valvet, the silver character is applied very judiciously, but I did find I needed to use more relaxed interconnects and speaker wires (e.g. Audience) to get the right overall tonality and perspective. The payoff is in the upper frequencies, where the Valvet makes the Pass sound a bit thick and cloudy by comparison. With a suitable source and preamp (the Gryphon Essence preamp was transformative in this respective), the tinkle of triangles and sheen of violins are presented with effortlessly clarity.

For reference, that’s a bookshelf speaker (Role Kayak) with 4″ woofers.

In terms of Class A qualities, both have wonderfully colorful midranges and a fair helping of liquidity and naturalness, but the Pass wears these quality more on its sleeve by sounding downright lush at times. It also maintains this warmth at higher volume levels where the Valvet can start to get a bit brighter and more strained, perhaps indicating where it’s leaving its Class A bias range. Where both excel is in conveying the lyricism of a tune or the palpability of an instrument or voice owing to their resolving, tonally complete midrange presentations. Both have a singing character that sounds and feels so organic and unencumbered vs. a typical Class AB amp. The Valvet does it with a slightly sharper focus on the lines around instruments and a bit more sparkle and dynamic alacrity; the Pass does it with a big, easy smoothness and weighty low end. Though the Valvet has no problem driving my full-range Audiovector speakers to satisfying volume levels, the Pass feels like it’ll be a bit more effortless and stable into a wider variety of speakers given its beefier output stage.

Going out on a limb: based on Gary Beard’s insightful remarks in Positive Feedback, methinks the Valvet might have more in common with the sound of the newer XA30.8. Gary’s observations of the XA30.5 align very closely with mine, and he describes the 30.8 as being more precise and incisive vs. the 30.5, similar to how I hear the Valvet vs. the 30.5. I would certainly expect the newer Pass to have more grunt than the Valvet given its even more massive power supply, but the Valet might capture some of the delicate qualities of the Pass XA25 as well. Both of those amps would make a really interesting comparison to the Valvet.

Closing Thoughts 🤔

Nit-picking power ratings aside, the Valvet A4 and Pass XA30.5 are both fantastically musical amplifiers that deliver plenty of the famed Class A magic with verve and character. It’s no coincidence that after the Valvet landed in my system, the next two amplifiers I’ve sought out - the Pass and the Gryphon Essence - are also Class A. This isn’t to say I’ll never go back to Class AB (and I’m actually expecting a Class D amplifier soon 😱), but after years of swearing I’d only seek out more practical amps that weren’t so ridiculously big and hot, the Class A bug has bitten me pretty hard. If tonal purity and musical nuance are top priorities for you, amps like the Valvet and Pass Labs deserve a spot on your audition list.

#class a #audio #audiophile #hifi #amplifiers #pass labs

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queenofcats17 · 5 years

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The Ink Demonth 9

Today is fave ship. Which was a little hard to decide. ^^” The alternative was beach day, so I’m gonna cram a bunch of my favorite ships in here

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"I still don’t see why I have to do this.”

“It’s fun, Sammy. You do remember what fun is, don’t you?”

Sammy groaned, slumping back in his seat. He, Susie, Wally, Shawn, Allison, and Tom were crammed in a van, on their way to spend a few days at the beach. Allison’s family had a lake house on the shore of Lake Ontario, so she’d invited them all to join her and Tom there for the weekend. Tom was the only one who’d had a van big enough, so they were in his car and he was the one driving. He didn’t trust anyone beside Allison to drive and Allison was currently sleeping since she’d had a late night recording.

“Sitting in the sand all day isn’t exactly my idea of fun,” Sammy grumbled, folding his arms.

“You can come swimming with us,” Wally said. “Water washes off sand, y’know.” To everyone’s surprise, Wally had been most excited about the prospect of swimming in the lake. None of them had really pegged him as the swimming type.

“That is definitely true.” Shawn tried to stifle a snicker. “Water definitely does wash off sand.” Wally narrowed his eyes, sticking his tongue out at his boyfriend. Shawn responded by sweeping him into his arms and cooing about how cute he was.

“Such a cutie. My little sunshine teddy bear.”

“Shawn!” Wally whined, squirming around. “C’mon! You’re embarrassing me.”

“Oh! Yes!” Susie clapped her hands together, completely ignoring Shawn and Wally. “I’ve always wanted to go swimming with you, but you keep making excuses.”

“You know how to swim, right?” Tom asked, his gaze flicking to Sammy in the rearview mirror.

“Wha-?! Of course I know how to swim!” Sammy sputtered, going bright red. Allison stirred in the passenger seat, prompting Tom to shoot Sammy a warning look.

“I know how to swim,” Sammy muttered.

“You’re protesting a helluva lot, though,” Shawn said with a mischevious grin. “Kinda makes you think of that Shakespeare quote.”

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” Susie put on a dramatic voice, one hand on her chest, before she devolved into giggles.

“You’re the worst. All of you.” Sammy hunched further in his seat, huffing indignantly.

“If it really bothers you, we can stop,” Wally said, his smile fading a bit.

“....It’s fine.” Sammy fixed his gaze on the window. “You don’t need to stop.” Susie lit up, hugging Sammy as best she could.

“You can pretend all you like, but you really are a softie~” She kissed his cheek. Sammy started sputtering again, desperately trying Tom snorted to himself, glancing at Allison in the passenger seat. He hadn’t been thrilled when Allison had suggested the others join them at the lake house, but it was fun to watch them interact. Outside of the pressures of the studio, they were actually rather pleasant to be around.

It was another hour or so before they reached the lake house, during which time Allison woke up. She started chatting with Tom, making sure he wasn’t feeling left out. Tom wasn’t all that talkative, so it was hard to properly hold a conversation with him. So Allison mostly just talked about her day and how things were going at Archgate Films. Tom was more than happy with this. He could honestly listen to her talk for hours.

“Wait, you’re voicing that new princess character?” Susie asked, scooting forward so she could join the conversation. “Congratulations!”

“Oh, um, thank you.” Allison smiled sheepishly.

“I’m sure you’ll do wonderfully,” Susie said. There was a hint of shame in her expression and voice. Shame from the way she’d treated Allison at the studio. Noticing this, Sammy gently took her hand, drawing her back and into his arms. Susie offered no resistance, resting against his chest until they got to the beach.

“We’re here,” Tom announced, parking the car.

“Wha-?” Shawn looked around blearily. He and Wally had fallen asleep during the last hour. Wally was still asleep, actually, drooling onto Shawn’s shoulder. Shawn was a little sad he’d fallen asleep as well. He liked watching Wally sleep. Not for any creepy reasons, he just thought Wally looked adorable when he was sleeping.

“Are we all staying in one cabin?” Susie asked as they all got out of the car.

“We only really have one house, so yes,” Allison replied, going to the trunk to get out the luggage. “But there are separate bedrooms.”

“I can sleep on the floor if you want,” Wally popped his head out of the van. “I’ve done it before.” He’d lost his hat while he was sleeping, so his hair was sticking up at all angles. When he noticed it was gone, he disappeared back into the van to find it, only exiting when it was back on his head.

“We can both sleep on the floor,” Shawn said, snaking an arm around Wally’s shoulder. “I’m not letting you do that alone.”

“You’re not sleeping on the floor.” Tom gave them a look. “That’s bad for your back.”

“I’m guessing you know that from experience,” Sammy said with a knowing nod. Tom avoided his gaze, shoving Sammy’s suitcase at him.

“We’ll pick bedrooms and then we can do some swimming.” Allison started down the path to the house.

“I’m burying whoever falls asleep,” Wally whispered to Susie and Shawn as they followed her.

“Sammy and Tom will both kill you if you do that to them,” Susie whispered back, although her gleeful expression said that she would absolutely help him. Thankfully, Sammy and Tom were far enough away that they didn’t hear the plans of the little chaos gremlins.

The lake house was a decent sized house a little off the beach. It had belonged to Allison’s great grandfather at one point and when she’d been young her family had gone to it nearly every year. That had eventually stopped, but the house was still in good condition. It looked a bit a cottage out of a fairytale, especially with the ivy growing up the sides.

“Nice place,” Shawn remarked.

“Thanks.” Allison pulled out her keys, sifting through a few before she finally found the right one. “Here we are.” She fitted it into the lock and opened the door. Wally was the first one in, his eyes wide as he took in his surroundings.

“This place is huge!” He yelled, running around the living room.

“I mean, it’s not that big,” Allison said, starting to step forward to stop him.

“Let him have this.” Shawn put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back. He watched Wally with a tender, lovestruck smile.

“Why is he like this?” Sammy rolled his eyes.

“Oh, come on.” Susie gently poked him. “Don’t you remember how excited you got when I snagged tickets to that Nutcracker performance?”

“You swore you would never mention that again.” Sammy hissed, his face going bright red.

“But it was so cute!” Susie said. “You have such a wonderful smile!” Out of the corner of his eye, Sammy saw Allison and Tom exchange a soft smile and a quiet laugh.

“You’re all awful.” He muttered.

Once Wally stopped running around, they figured out who got which bedroom. Tom laid claim to the biggest bedroom because this house belonged to his wife. Allison just sighed and went with it, apologizing to everyone else. Wally and Shawn shrugged it off, claiming the room that had stars painted on the ceiling. Susie and Sammy chose the room that had a view of the lake.

After putting their luggage away, they put on their swimsuits and headed out to have a little fun before it got dark. Sammy was tentative about getting in the water, especially after Wally and Shawn splashed him with some water, but Susie eventually coaxed him in.

“It’s so cold!” He yelped as soon as his feet touched the water. Immediately, he remembered the studio. Being stuck in that cold void, all alone. It was so cold. It was always so cold.

“Lake water does tend to be cold.” Allison hid her smile behind her book. She and Tom weren’t getting in the water themselves. Allison was tired and Tom didn’t want to swim while Wally and Shawn were in the water. He just knew Wally would try and drag him under when he least expected it.

“Don’t worry, I’m here for you,” Susie whispered, squeezing Sammy’s hand comfortingly. She knew that the cold reminded him of the ink at the studio. Sammy relaxed at her touch, his shoulders lowering. Susie smiled, rubbing her thumb over the skin of his hand.

“Hey hey!” Wally’s voice drew their attention away from Sammy’s troubles. He’d found some plants in the water and had draped it over his head like a hat.

“I’m a sea witch!” Wally proclaimed, making a nasty face.

“I found sticks to make horns!” Shawn surfaced from the water with two pieces of driftwood.

“They’re like little kids.” Tom sighed, although he was smiling.

“They’re having fun.” Allison laughed.

Shawn had decided he would be the sea witch’s minion. They were terrorizing the beautiful Princess Susie, whose only protection was her gallant knight, Sammy. Sammy initially resisted getting involved in their game, although he eventually relented. Allison's heart felt warm as she watched the four of them utterly lose themselves in their game. They all looked so happy. Even Sammy was enjoying himself, although she wasn’t surprised. He was such a ham.

“Thank you for agreeing to let them come along.” She leaned over to kiss Tom’s cheek. “I think we all needed this.”

“We all probably did.” Tom turned his head to return the kiss.

By the time darkness fell, they were all tired out. Tom had indeed fallen asleep and, predictably, Wally and Shawn had taken this opportunity to bury him. Tom was less than pleased by this when Allison woke him up, stomping inside to shower and get the sand off of himself. But they were all happy. It had been a good day.

#bendy and the ink machine #fanfiction #the ink demonth #sammy lawrence #susie campbell #sammy x susie #wally franks #shawn flynn #shawn x wally #allison pendle #thomas connor #allison x tom

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springvaletales · 4 years

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Nothing was a more welcome sight than the lights of a cozy tavern after a long day on the road.

Vashael shouldered open the door to the warm lights and bustling atmosphere, and sighed in quiet relief as he held it open for his friends. Naoka gave him a grateful smile as she passed, with Haaruma close at her heels. The naga slithered to one side and quickly coiled to keep her long tail out of the way of other patrons as one of the wait staff hurried over from across the floor.

"Hi there! Welcome to Bethany's Tavern and Inn!" The young lady chirped. "My name is Evalia and I'll be your server tonight! Is it just the three of you?"

"Four, actually." Vashael spoke up as he let the door swing shut. "One of our party is settling our mounts in at the stables up the road. He should be joining us shortly."

"Great!" Evalia jotted something down quickly in the parchment book she carried, and then tucked the stick of charcoal behind her ear. The dark smudge against her pale skin spoke to how much of a habit the motion was. "We've got a nice, big table open and ready! Will any of you need any particular accomodations?" She asked, her brown eyes darting from Haaruma's coiled tail to Vashael's towering height. "We have a variety of chairs, cushions, and mats available for customer comfort!"

"Ooh! May I have a cushion?" Haaruma requested eagerly. "It's a bit challenging for me to use most chairs." She laughed, wiggling the tip of her tail.

"Certainly, miss!" Evalia jotted something down again, and then closed the book, smiling widely. She grabbed four pamplets of stiff paper from the podium beside her, and tucked them under her arm. "Please, follow me! I'll show you to your table!" The woman led the party across the tavern floor, taking as straight of a path as possible, for Haaruma's benefit, and Vashael trailed at the back. Mmm...he could already taste those honeyed bread knots...

Something about Evalia's parchment book must have been magical, because when the party arrived to the table, there was already a large, plush cushion waiting for Haaruma, and complimentary mugs of the house mead waiting at all four seats. Evalia handed each of them a menu, and then placed the fourth one down at the empty chair before giving the party a wide smile.

"Our special of the night is Pumpkin Surprise - a small pumpkin that's been hollowed out, roasted, and stuffed full of a homemade mixture of rice, bean shoots, and your choice of shredded chicken, pork, or fish!" Vashael was starting to think her smile was a permanent fixture on her face. "I'll give you all a little time to decide what you'd like, okay?"

"That sounds fantastic, thank you." Naoka smiled back, and Evalia practically skipped away from the table. Haaruma leaned across the table to her wife.

"Someone's had a bit too much of the gigglewater, methinks," The naga whispered. Naoka rolled her eyes and nudged her wife back upright.

"Oh, hush." She scolded. Vashael looked down at the menu, and licked his lips. Ooh, the honeyed bread knots were half off tonight!

Bashur joined them a few minutes later, having secured all their horses in the stables for the rest of the week, and Evalia came bouncing back to get their dinner order. Vashael would be hard-pressed to remember what he even ordered when the morning came, but it was some of the best food he'd ever tasted. Between the four of them, the party ate so much that Evalia enlisted some help to clear their table away - a gorgeous young man with some of the brightest blue eyes Vashael had ever seen.

Bashur had to nudge him pretty firmly to get him to stop staring.

"Ooh...does anyone else want desert?" Vashael asked after they'd been drinking for some time. Mmm...this 'three layer chocolate cake' sounded absolutely divine!

"I don't think I have the room..." Haaruma complained, leaning her head on the table beside her mug. "Those stuffed pumpkins were really stuffing!"

"I'm sorry, Vash, but I don't think it's in the budget tonight." Naoka shook her head. She had been carefully keeping track of their available coin, despite their drinking, and what they had left needed to last them the week. "Until we can pick up a few good local jobs, we've got to watch what we spend."

"Aww..." The dragon in disguise pouted childishly, and dropped the menu.

"That chocolate cake does sound heavenly..." Bashur patted his friend's shoulder. "Perhaps we can try it later in the week?"

"...and what's on the secret menu, sugar?" The seedy tone of the voice drifting from a few tables away caused four sets of ears to prick up, and Vashael cast a glance sideways at the table in question. That blue-eyed server who had helped clear their table was standing at it's edge, clutching another partchment book in his hands and looking decidedly uncomfortable.

"...-on't know wh-what you mean, sir," Had they not been actively listening, the party would not have heard the server's quiet voice beneath the noise of the tavern. "We don't, um. We don't have a secret menu."

"Come on, sugar, you know what I mean." One of the dragonborn at the table leaned forward and his fellows licked their sharp teeth. "What do you serve here that's as...let's say..." He lashed out with one clawed hand to grab the server's arm, and stop him from pulling away. "As sweet as you?" The server was now visibly shaking, and an uncomfortable quiet had fallen over the tavern floor. Patrons were staring - some openly, some more discreetly - but none seemed too eager to leave their seats.

"Um...th-the chef's Ch-Chocolate Layer Cake is p-...p-...pretty good...?" The server trailed off into silence as the dragonborn stood up out of his chair, and tightened his grip on the human's arm. His hand was so large, it covered most of the poor man's bicep.

"I'm not in the mood for chocolate, sugar." The dragonborn purred, and darted their tongue out to lick the server's face. The server went pale at this blatant display, and the parchment book fell from his limp hand. "But a full serving of you sounds like it'll hit the spot~"

Vashael was standing before he really knew it, and crossed the room in just a few long strides. The screech of chairs told him that his friends were close behind him as he grabbed the dragonborn's own arm, and squeezed until the scales creaked.

"Let him go." He growled, baring his own teeth in warning. "They don't serve what you want here." The dragonborn hissed angrily, and the server whimpered as the clamp around his arm tightened to a painful degree.

"Stay out of this, stranger!" The dragonborn warned. "This is an argument between me and dinner." The server made a choked sound of fear, and Vashael's eyes flashed. He twisted his grip on the dragonborn's arm, forcing him to cry out in pain and drop the server. Bashur quickly grabbed the young man and shuffled him into the middle of himself, Naoka, and Haaruma as the dragonborn's companions stood up from their seats.

"The Queen's Peaceful Co-Existance Proclamation would make that statement quite illegal." Vashael growled back. "You may want to think over your wording."

"He can think it over all he wants on the streets." A strong voice cut through the tension, and an irate Orc woman quickly thrust the dragon and dragonborn an arm's length apart. Vashael quickly let go of his opponent as they were separated, though he kept the villain pinned with a fiery glare.

"And just who do you think you are?!" The dragonborn flared his crest, and his cronies followed suit. "I'm a paying customer! I can-"

"I'm Bethany. Bethany Herself." The towering woman poked the dragonborn hard in the chest, winding him, and deflating his crest. "And I have no tolerance for the harrassment or threatening of my staff!" As the dragonborn gasped for air, Bethany turned with a face like thunder, and her look softened ever so slightly as she made eye contact with the server peering out from behind Bashur. "Michael, are you alright?"

"...." The human swallowed hard before opening his mouth. But his words seemed to stick in his throat, and after a few false starts, he gave up trying to loosen them, and simply shook his head. Bethany's expression hardened again, and she waved over another server from the crowd that had started to form a few tables away.

"Take him behind the counter." She ordered. The server - a teifling with pale orange skin and curving horns - hurried forward from the crowd to wrap an arm around Michael's shoulders, and quickly pull him away from the scene. "I'll meet you there after I take out the trash." Turning back to the dragonborn trio, Bethany cracked her knuckles, and then her neck.

Vashael - wisely - took a good step back.

.......

After the dragonborn trio had been thoroughly removed from the premesis (and the town guards notified of their behavior), Bethany returned to give Vashael and friends a very stern 'no fighting in my tavern!' lecture. Only once they had all sworn to be on their best behavior had she let them return to their table, and the atmosphere of the tavern slowly began to return to normal. The party quietly finished their drinks and paid their bar tab for the night, and then retired to the rooms Bashur had secured on his way in.

Just as he had begun to settle in the room, Vashael heard a faint knock further down the hallway. After a few minutes, he heard it again, but slightly louder. After a few more minutes, he heard a third knock, just one room away from his own. Vashael's ears twitched curiously, but when he heard Naoka's gentle voice answer, he shook his head, and tried not to listen. Eavesdropping on your friends was rude, after all.

But after another few minutes more, then the knock came again at his own door.

Curious, he stood up from his chair and moved to open the door. On the other side stood the blue-eyed server from earlier that night, and when he looked up, their gazes met. Vashael felt a shiver run down his spine.

Wow...those eyes were so much bluer than he remembered, now that he had time to stare at them...

"H-hi! Hi..." Michael swallowed nervously, and quickly adjusted his grip before holding up a lacquered wooden plate with a mouth-watering slice of the very same chocolate layer cake the dragon had been coveting earlier that night. "The-. Um. The house would like to o-offer you our signature desert," He explained as Vashael took the plate with both hands, eyes as wide as saucers. "Free of charge, of course! Consider it a courtesy, and...and also...a thank you," Michael's gaze flickered down to the floor, and he adjusted the strap of the sling about his shoulders. Vashael frowned. Cearly, the dragonborn's grip had done more damage than just a mere bruise...

"You know...for stepping up and helping me. You didn't have to and-." Michael stopped, and cleared his throat, briefly glancing up at Vashael before looking away again. "I...really appreciate it." For a moment, he hesitated, and opened his mouth as if to say something else. Then he laughed again, still nervous, and bowed his head. "I'm s-sorry for intruding. Please, enjoy the cake...!"

"Wait-" Vashael dashed back inside the room to quickly set the cake down on the provided table, and hurried back to the door. "You don't have to apolo-...?" The dragon in disguise stopped mid-word as he stepped out into the hall only in time to see Michael's form disappearing down the stairs. Vashael's shoulders drooped in disappointment, and he banged his head lightly against the outside of the doorframe. Shoot...

Naoka leaned her head out of her own adjacent door, and - having heard the full exchange and having known her friend for many, many years - shook her head knowingly.

"The night after a traumatic experience is a terrible time to ask for a date, Vash." She advised. Vashael's face turned red, and he snorted. But - quite tellingly - he could not meet Naoka's eyes.

"I wasn't going to ask for a date!" He protested as loudly as he dared. Gods only knew who else could be listening in. "I just...wanted to talk with him more." He lied. "That's all."

"Of course, of course..." Naoka nodded, not fooled in the slightest by her friend's panicked denial. "But all the same, why don't we all get a little shut-eye, first?" She continued. "I'm sure you'll see him again soon enough. We're going to be in town for a while, after all." Grumbling under his breath, Vashael turned and stepped pointedly back into his room. Naoka shook her head fondly, and ducked back into her own.

#Mun's writing #((written backnwhen Haaruma was a naga and not a Yuan-ti))#Vashael #Michael #Haaruma #Naoka #Bashur #((no big tags on this one just worldbuilding))#((what do you do when quarantined?))#((finally write how your OC OTP first meets))

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makeste · 5 years

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BnHA Chapter 216: You’re a Good Man, Shinsou Hitoshi

Previously on BnHA: Deku calmed his emotions and activated Blackwhip a second time, this time On Purpose, and for a moment it looked like he was going to completely curb stomp poor Shinsou. But then he crumpled in pain and the quirk vanished, and he realized he wasn’t physically strong enough to use that quirk just yet. So instead he chased after Shinsou using good ol’ full cowl. Meanwhile Ochako captured Monoma, who taunted her about having one last ace up his sleeve. This turned out to be a Twin Impact shot he’d been saving to hit Deku with, and it worked pretty nicely, but unfortunately our boy Shinsou didn’t have enough experience yet to take full advantage of the resulting opening. Meanwhile Ochako went to bail out Mina and Mineta and took out not one but two more opponents singlehandedly like the fucking ninja she is. Mina took out the third with a raging uppercut, leaving Deku to wrangle Shinsou, thus securing 1-A’s total victory. Now all that remains to be seen is what kind of excuse Deku will come up with for his sudden new quirk, and whether or not Shinsou will be accepted into the hero course. We’re all rooting for you, kid.

Today on BnHA: The 5th set wraps up with a 4-0 victory for Team A, which also gives class A the overall victory over class B, having won 3 of the 5 matches. As 1-A celebrates, Shinsou broods. He was able to piece together that the exercise was a test for his potential transfer, but he feels like he didn’t accomplish enough. The teachers gather the two teams for the post-game analysis and are all “what the fuck, Midoriya.” Deku is all “I don’t know either,” and for some reason everyone just buys that and moves on with their lives. Deku credits Ochako and Shinsou with helping to save him, but Shinsou says he just did it to stop his team from losing. Aizawa chokes some sense into him and says that just because he’s not a perfect 100% self-sacrificing martyr all the time doesn’t mean he’s not worthy of being a hero. Everyone else chimes in and says that Shinsou did really good, and Vlad says that although they still need to make it official, it’s more than likely that Shinsou will be joining the hero course next year. Having settled all that, Aizawa asks Monoma if he can do him a favor and come with him to see Eri the next day.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 225, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

so we’re opening with Shinsou’s perspective on those last few moments against Deku

wow

you’re telling me Izuku was spinning around over and over again in mid-air? he wasn’t just twisting the binding cloth around?? he himself was literally twirling at high speed? that’s what this panel was depicting?? the author of this series is drunk

ahhhhhh my poor exhausted lavender son

welcome to shounen manga, friend. we only go forwards not back

ahhhhh fff dammit Shinsou

YOU BETTER NOT START CRYING OR I’M GONNA LOSE IT

and now we’re belatedly getting the hero names of the four class B kids waaaaaay after the fact

Emily??

(ETA: Exorcism of Emily Rose?? that’s what Viz’s translator speculated, anyway. idk I don’t watch horror movies so I don’t know what else it could be.)

I like the name “Mines” for Shouda though! his quirk kinda is like a landmine I guess. also this poor kid has seen better days Mina what did you do to him

anyways so poor Vlad is being forced to announce class 1-A’s perfect 4-0 victory for the second time in a row

haha check out Mina’s kung fu pose

and Ochako’s peace sign. MVPs. I stan some motherfucking legends here I tell you what

oh lol it was Midnight that was doing the commentary since Vlad went with Aizawa and All Might

I’m glad the kids’ petitioning paid off

so in the end class 1-A once again proved themselves against the unfortunate class 1-B who had all of the cool quirks but none of the luck

Midnight’s making the official announcement and everyone is cheering!

poor class B

it’s not your fault, Manga. at least your team actually won, mainly thanks to you

ahhhh we’re cutting back to Shinsou and his face is hidden and he’s tugging at his scarf and hesitantly addressing Vlad and Aizawa

SHINSOU STOP IT

SOMEONE GIVE HIM A HUG!! AND STOP LEAVING HIM IN SUSPENSE!!!

he says this was also supposed to be his transfer exam. so he knew??

lol Vlad is asking Aizawa if he told him, but Shinsou says he basically just put two and two together even though he wasn’t 100% sure

“not to mention, I was the only one who participated in two matches” yeah that was certainly a big clue

lmao Vlad looks so impressed

just how low are your standards dude

and now Aizawa is changing the topic and says it’s time for the teachers’ critiques! OH BOY THIS OUGHTA BE GOOD

Deku’s critique basically should just consist of “what the actual fuck Midoriya”

and like I said in the previous recap, Shinsou should get credit for his performance in the first battle as well as his save in this battle which showed he has the true spirit of a hero!

LOOOOOOOOOOOL

I WANT TO SHAKE HORIKOSHI’S GODDAMN HAND

so Aizawa’s asking what the principle is behind Deku’s new move since it’s so radically different from his established “super strength” quirk

and Deku’s just standing there nervously

Tokoyami and Kuroiro are bonding over their mutual admiration of how goth the new quirk is

hmmmm how you wanna play this Deku

so basically just be all “fuck if I know, this quirk only manifested for the first time eight months ago and it keeps surprising me with weird new shit. petition to rename it ‘mystery quirk’”

sidestepping the question like a pro there Deku

so he says his power suddenly started overflowing and he couldn’t suppress it and it scared him, but that thanks to Shinsou and Ochako’s help it turned out all right

he says that if Shinsou hadn’t knocked him out he’s not sure what would have happened

and he’s turning to Shinsou now and explaining that he wasn’t bluffing earlier, and he’s thanking him

what the fuck Shinsou

were you?? fooled me then

YESSSSSSSS GIVE OCHAKO HER PROPS

SHE WAS A FUCKING BADASS. NOW TALK ABOUT THE PART WHERE SHE’S RESPONSIBLE FOR CAPTURING 3 OF THE 5 ENEMY TEAM MEMBERS

noooo goddammit Mina not now!!

MINA ARE YOU JEALOUS NO ONE HAS GIVEN YOU CREDIT YET. WE WERE GETTING TO THAT, BE PATIENT

oh sheesh lmao

and now she’s nervously twiddling her fingers and smiling hesitantly and saying she’d rather do that than not do anything and regret it later

oh my gosh

SO PROUD OF MY LITTLE BABY GIRL. YES!!

and holy shit but I want to take that picture of him smiling almost imperceptibly and fucking frame it

look at Ochako managing to completely deflect the attention away from Deku somehow. not only was she the MVP of the battle, but she just keeps saving his ass even afterward

holy shit

DEKU’S FACE ALSO BEING BEET RED THOUGH. HE MUST LOOK LIKE A GODDAMN RADISH

anyway, so Shinsou says he just did what Ochako asked him to do

yeah, but you did it despite them being on the opposing team though!

exactly. you knew it was the right course of action and you didn’t hesitate

SHINSOU STOP MAKING THESE SAD FACES!!!

FOR FUCK’S SAKE I CAN’T TAKE THIS??

AIZAWA OH MY GOD YES

PLEASE REASSURE YOUR DEPRESSED PURPLE SON AND TELL HIM THAT HE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING WRONG AND HE’S A GOOD HERO

sdlfhaslkdfj

holy --

lmao at Kaminari immediately breaking into a chant. methinks the mangaka is too self-aware

and well then, since Best Dad Aizawa Shouta has officially entered the ranks of parents who occasionally discipline their children via shocking comedic violence (consider also: All Might decking Deku at the beach a mere chapter before Mitsuki’s infamous introduction), maybe we can finally put that debate to rest. I think it’s pretty clear when Horikoshi is intentionally portraying abuse and when he’s just being over the top because this is a fictional story in a fictional world where not three pages ago there was a character with a literal comic book for a head

oh snap Aizawa

in other words, it’s okay to be a little selfish. sometimes selfish is even needed. because he’s absolutely right, if you don’t take care of yourself as well you’ll fuck yourself over before long and then you won’t be able to save anyone

and also, at the end of the day, if you save everyone successfully and complete the mission, does it really make sense to stand around and argue whether or not your intentions were pure enough?

anyways needless to say I’m really digging this “nobody’s perfect” speech right here you guys

(ETA: oh hey it’s Aizawa’s Mysterious Cloudy Friend, Shirakumo! probably. hey Shirakumo. what’s your fucking deal goddammit)

this is basically Aizawa’s version of All Might’s speech from chapter 120. I always love when the series metas about what it means to be a hero and what separates the great ones from everyone else. and we saw firsthand in Bakugou’s match just a few chapters ago the difference it makes when a hero is focused on both winning and rescuing

now Deku is complimenting Shinsou on all of his strategic moves like dropping those pipes down on him and trying to lead him back to where everyone else was to regain his advantage

oh my god you guys Deku is so passionate and generous with his praise, this is exactly the kind of thing Shinsou needed to hear though

kinda getting that “a true hero doesn’t just save people, they save people’s hearts” vibe thing here on top of everything else

oh my god Deku

what the fuck are you talking about, if anything you lean into this too much and you need to relax a little and take some of Aizawa’s advice to heart

ahhhhhhhhHHHHHH

YESSSSSSSSSSS THIS IS WHAT I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR. YOU DID IT SHINSOU I’M SO PROUD OF YOU

oh my god. the one hand clutching his scarf and the other one in a clenched fist. and that face. oh shit here come the feels

and I desperately need to know if this means next year as in January/next term, or next year as in when they move on to year 2

(ETA: Viz’s translation indicates it’ll happen in their second year of school.)

OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE

GODDAMMIT HORIKOSHI I WAS SO LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS CHAPTER TO FIND OUT, AND THEN YOU GO AND PULL THIS SHIT. UNBELIEVABLE

(ETA: I love that both classes so clearly want him though. again, they’ve all collectively adopted him and I love it

also, class 1-A still has a traitor in their midst, so depending on when and how that all goes down, they may just end up having a vacancy, just saying...)

oh my god

Mina this is why I want you to run for President. and Aizawa, she absolutely is right and he should be punished

loooool Monoma is trying!

hang in there buddy

so getting back to that, I’m guessing what happened there was that he did take One for All the quirk, but not any of the stockpiled power within Izuku? because to get that it has to be willed to you by the previous owner. so basically he was trying to activate it, and it probably was working, but his version of the quirk was at OFA Prime levels. basically starting from scratch with no additional power stored up other than his own. and we all agree this is actually very fortunate for him and he’d be getting carted off to Recovery Girl right now if things had gone differently

does that not bother him, by the way? like, Ochako just figured he was “bluffing”, but Monoma knows he was actually trying to activate the quirk and nothing was happening. I wonder what he made of that. it seems like maybe he’s too caught up in the loss to class A to really think much on it just yet

(ETA: so apparently he knows enough about how his quirk works to have already figured this out, lol.)

whoa oh shit and I just read the last three panels and a ton of interesting stuff happened so quickly lol

okay let’s break this down and then we’ll end the recap

(1) Deku is so fucking pure. middle of a battle and being attacked, and his only concern is that the quirk is gonna be too much for Monoma and badly injure him

(ETA: and can I just say, the other students could have used a little more of that concern though. the teachers too for that matter.)

(2) so I take this to mean Horikoshi is going to explain what happened, but for now I’m assuming my speculation is more or less near the mark. he definitely did take OFA because you could see the telltale red flashing pulsing shit happening with his skin. so it has nothing to do with Deku originally being quirkless; it’s the way that OFA as a quirk works

(3) Deku is super fucking lucky that no one started questioning what happened with his quirk again, what with Monoma bringing the subject back up

and lastly, (4) OH SHIT. is he gonna have Monoma copy Eri’s quirk to see if he can control it? lol we only just established how lucky he is to be alive after taking Deku’s quirk. what are you trying to do to this poor kid

though I am glad to see Aizawa being a logical dad who cares about his baby girl and is constantly thinking of ways in which to possibly help her out. ah well, hope nothing goes wrong there

and that’s it! on to the next chapter to hopefully see Bakugou and All Might grill Deku about WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED lol

#bnha #boku no hero academia #shinsou hitoshi #aizawa shouta #midoriya izuku #uraraka ochako #monoma neito #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #rereading this chapter I want the deleted scene where aizawa gives mina her props also #and tears mineta a new one as requested #we're also missing a scene here where aizawa tries to question deku again in private #only for all might to swoop in and say he'll handle it #so at what point can we safely assume that aizawa officially knows something is up #he's gotten enough clues by now wouldn't you say #at the very least he knows weird stuff is going on with deku's quirk #and all might has taken a special interest in him #now that deku's manifested a second quirk though it ironically makes people less likely to make the connection between him and all might #but it *does* make them more likely to connect the dots between him and all for one though #anyways I hope we're not just dropping this because I would like to see aizawa get filled in eventually #weird stuff is happening with his problem child and he deserves to know goddammit

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andipxndy-writes · 5 years

Text

The Triplets - Rick & Laura

[[Oh my gosh it’s been 5ever since I’ve actually posted anything on any of my blogs on this site. But here I am, back because my muses decided to pop up!

Anyway, I wrote a thing! Basically, in my procrastination, I’ve been reading through a bunch of old threads, and I got really sucked into my threads with @a-simple-rper and fell in love with these characters and their relationships and... well, basically, I was so inspired that this thing got done in, like, a day and a half. Which is probably a new record for me, considering I’ve actually edited through this thing more than once (I never go back and edit, lol) and it’s more than 5.5k words. I’m actually very proud of myself.

So here’s my cute thing! Edited to completion, methinks. Enjoy!]]

The Triplets

When Rick had woken up that morning, he hadn’t known what to expect. Well, he kind of did – Laura in bed beside him, the light of the sun rising filtering through the curtains, a day filled with work ahead of him.

What he did not expect was to wake up to an empty bed, the bedroom door wide open. He frowned as he sat up, stretching and yawning before heading towards the door and out into the corridor. That was strange… Laura usually woke up after he did.

His unasked question of where exactly his girlfriend was, was answered by the sounds of retching coming from the bathroom. His brows furrowed even more at that – Laura hadn’t been drinking last night, so why was she sick? Did she eat something bad? As far as he knew, nothing had been out of the ordinary.

Approaching the door, he knocked on it. “Laura? You in there?”

There were a few seconds of silence, before Rick heard the feeble “yes,” that he knew could only come from his partner. Which was less than comforting.

“What’s wrong? Did you eat something bad last night?” Getting straight to the point was Rick’s favourite mode of action, and he felt that it was definitely important to use right now, considering she didn’t sound all that great.

“N-no…”

Rick waited silently to see if she would elaborate, but when she didn’t say anything further he sighed. This didn’t make sense. Why was Laura sick?

It seemed as if Laura could sense Rick’s struggle on the other side of the door, so she called out, “Door’s open.”

Rick barely hesitated before pushing the door open, trying not to appear too worried as he did so. He wasn’t surprised to see Laura leaned against the toilet, head resting on her arm on the seat. What did surprise him was the weak, tired smile she gave him.

“How long have you been here?” he asked slowly as he moved to sit beside her, rubbing her back. Weird thing was, she didn’t feel that clammy, or hot, so she couldn’t have been ill…

“A couple hours,” she replied, her voice croaky. “It’s been mostly up and down. I feel good for a few minutes and have a glass of water, then I throw it all up again. It sucks. And dry heaving is the worst part.”

Rick frowned deeply at that, the usual slight amount of concern breaking through his normally stoic expression.

“This isn’t the first time it’s happened.”

“What?” He hadn’t been expecting that either. Laura was always in bed when he woke up – he hadn’t noticed her being away first thing in the morning until today.

She nodded. “Yeah. It’s just a little worse today…”

“Do we need to go to a doctor about it?”

She appeared to contemplate the decision, before the small smile appeared on her face. “No need. Though, you might want to grab your phone.”

His eyebrows rose at that, and he waited for her to elaborate, hoping that she’d actually do so this time.

That was when she picked up something that had been sat on top of the toilet cistern and held it up for him to see, and it took him less than a second to realise what it was.

A pregnancy test.

A positive pregnancy test.

“You might want to call your ma about this one. Because it looks like we’re getting a second chance.”

“And how are you today, Ms. Banks?”

Laura shifted slightly on the bed, looking away from the ultrasound scanner and up at the sonographer. “I’m alright, I guess.”

Honestly, though? She was very nervous, and even Rick could see that on her face. The last time they’d been in this situation, it hadn’t turned out well at all – they’d finally got their hopes up, only for it to be ripped away from them for some reason or other. She was scared of it happening again.

Heck, even Rick was scared of it happening again.

This was their second chance, and they didn’t want it to be ripped away from them like before. They were being extra careful now, doing everything the midwife and the doctor had suggested, making sure there was no room for a single thing to go wrong.

The doctor nodded, smiling comfortingly at the couple. “That’s good, that’s good.” She stopped typing at the computer to face the couple fully. “Now, as you know, we recommended you come in earlier than most just to make sure everything’s alright with this pregnancy, considering what happened in the last one. We’ll be asking some more questions, and keeping a closer eye on you too, just to make sure this one goes smoothly. That sound good to you both?”

The pair nodded, and Laura took Rick’s hand, squeezing it lightly.

The sonographer nodded once. “Good. Now, as we’re having an early scan, we’re going to be doing it vaginally, just so we can see everything. Is that alright with you? It requires a bit more prep than just lifting your shirt, and could take a fair bit longer, but we’ll be able to see more and make sure your baby is healthy.”

After Laura nodded her consent, she headed off to the bathroom to prepare for the scan, lying on the bed awkwardly when she was done. She glanced up at Rick, who (for some reason or other) was looking away.

“If you’re doing that to give me some decency, I’d like to remind you of what position I was in for me to end up here in the first place.”

He turned back to her with a slight smirk. “Are you sure it was this one? I’m pretty sure it was another.”

“Are we really going to have to recall back to that night?”

“I think we can do that.”

“Maybe later,” the sonographer interjected casually, causing Laura to blush. Rick coughed slightly to cover up his laugh.

The couple’s eyes were focused on the ultrasound screen as the probe was moved about, getting the necessary image. It took a good few minutes of staring at seemingly nothing, but then the sonographer spoke.

“Aha! Here we go.” She pointed at the screen. “So, here’s your uterus, and that right there… right there, is the foetus.” After a bit more movement on the screen, she paused. “Hang on…”

Rick and Laura frowned at each other, before looking at the doctor.

“Is something wrong?” Laura asked, and she found her hand in Rick’s again, squeezing it. She didn’t want anything to go wrong. It couldn’t be happening again. They’d barely even started…

She found her heart rate decreasing when Rick squeezed back, getting rid of the fear caused by the doctor’s silence.

The doctor didn’t answer for a little while, seemingly focusing on the screen, before she eventually let out a laugh. “Well, you two are in for a real treat.”

Laura blinked at the sudden change in atmosphere. “What?”

The doctor moved the probe again, before turning to the screen. “Right, so here we have a fetus…” She pointed to another position on the screen. “And we have fetus number two…”

“Oh God…” Rick muttered.

“And fetus number three, kind of separate from the other two but still very much present.”

Laura’s jaw hung open, her eyes wide. “Are you… are you serious?”

The doctor nodded, a smile on her face. “Congratulations, you two. You’re having triplets.”

Laura sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror, standing sideways. She’d long since given up on wearing her usual skinny jeans and tight shirts, since she pretty much popped right out of them, but she wasn’t exactly sure how good she looked in the winter dress Kat had bought her. She was big, yes, but this just made her look huge.

“Are you coming down?”

Laura looked over at the door to see Rick stood there, in a shirt and jeans himself. She turned back to the mirror with a sigh. “I will…”

“Our parents are waiting.”

“Our moms are probably just chatting it up whilst our dads just sit there.”

“If you’re here much longer, Sam will be forced to entertain.”

Laura winced. They both knew how much her dad loved Sam.

Then again, her father didn’t know that she was pregnant yet. Her mother knew, and so did Rick’s parents, but she most definitely knew what sort of reaction she’d get from her dad at this. Then again, he either found out now, or when she was literally about to pop.

“Is George here yet?”

“He’s entertaining the twins.”

“Is the turkey out of the oven?”

“Just as you instructed.”

“What about…?”

“It’s all ready, Laura.”

Laura was pleasantly surprised when she felt Rick’s arms around her, a kiss placed on the top of her head before he rested his on hers. She smiled and leaned back into him.

“He’s gonna be mad…”

Rick raised a single eyebrow at her in the mirror. “He’s fifteen weeks too late to complain.”

Laura smirked. “Well, that’s an attitude I haven’t heard from you in a while.”

“It’s just the truth.”

She laughed, kissing what she could reach of his arm before patting his hands so that he let go. “Okay, okay. I’m ready.”

Rick let go of her, taking a few steps back and letting her walk past him to the door. Noticing how her back was straighter, how the way she walked was a lot more confident, he smiled a little.

That’s his Laura.

Lying in bed, arms wrapped around Laura as she leaned up against the headboard, Rick couldn’t imagine a better way to spend a Sunday morning – even if this whole situation was only happening because Laura had demanded it and hadn’t budged until he’d agreed.

Whilst he had his eyes closed, simply resting and enjoying the peace, Laura was reading a book she’d been given at the clinic, flipping through the chapter on 20 weeks. Reading through the various pieces of information, and looking through the various pictures on the pages, she scowled.

“I look like a whale.”

“Hmmm?” Rick opened his eyes when she spoke, looking up at her.

“I look like a whale,” she repeated, still scowling down at the book. “Look at all the women in these photos, Rick. They can probably reach their toes whilst sitting down.”

Rick blinked at her, though his face appeared as blank as ever. What had brought this on? “You’re pregnant with triplets.”

“And I’m a whale.”

“You’re not a whale. You’re pregnant. With three babies instead of one.”

“I feel huge.”

“I’d be worried if you weren’t.”

When she glared at him, he sighed and decided to elaborate.

“You’ve got to be three times as big to fit them all. It’s fine. You’re fine. And beautiful.”

Her expression softened, and she blinked at what he said, blushing. The blush only got darker when he sat up and leaned over to kiss her softly. And then she gasped, pulling away suddenly with wide eyes.

He frowned, concern appearing on his features almost immediately. “What is it?” he asked, trying not to convey how concerned he was through his tone. Had he done something wrong?

“I think… I think I felt a kick.”

It took a few moments for what she said to fully register in Rick’s mind. And then, all of a sudden, it clicked.

A kick.

When Laura saw the small smile beginning to spread on his face, she took his hand and placed it where she’d felt the kick. She knew it was probably futile, feeling for a kick in the same place when the next kick could be anywhere, or not even be felt at all.

She was pleasantly surprised when there actually was a kick in the same place again, right against the palm of Rick’s hand. Looking at him, she didn’t bother stop the laugh coming out at the genuinely surprised expression on his face. Seeing expressions like that, clear on his face without any of his usual restraint, brought her a level of joy that very little could compare to.

Except, probably, the feel of their babies kicking for the first time.

When Rick had first met Laura’s family, it had been pretty awkward to be introduced as her boyfriend. Especially since he was not only much taller than her, but much older and a whole lot more Southern. He was quickly singled out as the odd one out in any family gathering, which he supposed he could deal with. After all, Laura still loved him, and it wasn’t as if her dad hated him for being in a relationship with his daughter, like he did Sam; though, her mother did seem to favour the other a whole lot more than him.

Finding out that she had more extended family, made up of her mother’s sisters and their children, was something Rick thought he would be able to handle. After all, the twins were nice. Their cousins couldn’t be that bad, could they?

He was proven wrong the moment Laura’s mother stepped into the bar with two women he’d never met before.

“Oh, what is that horrid smell?” the older woman asked, wrinkling her nose in distaste as she looked around the bar.

“Must be the drunkards,” the younger responded casually, her eyes focused on her nails. The response caused Jane to roll her eyes before approaching Rick at the bar, leaving the two women to disapprove of the place.

“Rick, how are you doing?”

“Well thanks, Jane.” He looked up from wiping down the counter. “Did you need Laura?”

“We’ll need her in a bit. Probably when Kat gets here.” The smile melted off her face. “As soon as she steps through that door, start us up on a tab. I’m going to need a drink or two to deal with them.”

He simply nodded, tossing the rag onto his shoulder. “I’ll go give her a heads up.”

“Thank you, Rick.”

He gave another nod before turning and heading into the kitchen. He wasn’t surprised to find Laura at the stove, whipping up the next order at a slower speed than usual. Granted, she wasn’t letting her rapidly expanding stomach get in the way of her cooking, but even he could tell that having three babies was draining her energy faster than usual, and reaching for anything below knee height was a struggle for her on a good day. She looked over at him when the door opened, smiling.

“Hey, Ricky, is everything okay?” she asked as she turned back to focus on what she was doing. Even if she looked huge at only 24 weeks, Rick still thought she looked as beautiful as ever.

“Your mom’s here.”

“Oh?” Laura turned to reach for a ladle, lowering the heat on the soup and beginning to spoon it into the waiting bowls. “Did she want something?”

“She’s here with two women.”

“Really?” She paused. “What did they look like?”

“Blonde, like you. She also said something about Kat joining you guys when she gets here.”

Laura was silent for a few moments, before swearing violently under her breath and leaning the ladle on the side of the pot. “Keep an eye on the soup for me,” she muttered as she waddled past him to the door, opening it a little and peeking out. As soon as she spotted her mother, she shut the door quickly and swore again, this time more loudly.

“That’s my aunt and cousin.”

Rick’s eyebrows rose.

“They don’t know I’m pregnant.”

Now Laura’s swearing made sense.

Rick pursed his lips a little as he tried to think of a solution to this. All of them involved Sam, and all outcomes were disastrous. “Do you need someone to stall?”

“My mom knows I’m in here. I’m stuck. Unless I can hide this.” She gestured to her bump.

“That’s 6 months of Rick’s hard work in there,” Sam chirped from the serving window as they approached to deliver orders on their trusty notepad, and take the completed ones to the waiting tables. “You can’t be hiding that.”

“I kind of need to right now.”

Sam blinked at her, before glancing over their shoulder towards the dreaded table. “Is this about the two ladies mom is sitting with? They gave me the stink eye when she introduced me.”

“What they said behind your back must’ve been ten times worse.” Laura groaned and ran a hand over her face.

Rick watched her closely. “Do you need to sit down? You’ve been standing for a while.”

“Probably…”

“Uh, I don’t know whether this is a good thing or not, but Kat just got here and mom is signalling to me to call you,” Sam muttered, a look of genuine sympathy for Laura on their face. “You want me to stall for you?”

Laura sighed, running a hand through her hair and pushing it back before shaking her head. “No, I’ll… I’ll head over.”

Rick nodded, nearing her and kissing her softly. “You’ll be fine. I’m here if you need.”

“That soup is burning.”

He quickly turned to switch it off, causing Laura to laugh as she turned towards the door. Taking a deep breath, she made her way slowly out of the kitchen and towards the table her mother was sat at. Luckily she was approaching from behind her aunt and cousin, facing her mother. She looked incredibly nervous as she reached the table. “Hey, mom, Kat.”

She should’ve expected the scathing comments that were coming.

“Oh, that bastard doorman knocked you up too?” Lara sneered. “I told you, mom, it’s a harem in here.”

Laura spoke before Kat could spit something angrily from where she sat. She could’ve seen the anger boiling from a mile away. “No. I’m dating the barman.”

Lara’s eyes widened. “You mean, that mammoth?”

Her aunt sneered. “Look at you both, having children out of wedlock like heathens. I would’ve thought you taught them better, Jane. This stupidity must come from your husband.”

Jane glared at her sister. “Now, don’t you start, Elizabeth.”

Before anything else could be said, Sam approached the table, the first drinks of the tab on a tray. “Ladies,” they greeted, with their usual grin. When they noticed Laura was standing, though, they frowned. “Laura, you shouldn’t be standing.”

“Oh, and you have an idea on what she should be doing?” Elizabeth asked snarkily, almost glaring at Sam.

They bristled at her tone, but a look from Jane ensured that they said nothing as they placed down the drinks that had been requested earlier, sending Laura and Kat smiles as they left.

As soon as they were gone, Lara scoffed. “What a fool. I cannot believe Katherine stooped to that level. And had little bastards with him.”

Laura had barely blinked before Kat snapped and punched Lara in the face, hard. “Don’t you ever insult Sam or call my children bastards again, you bitch. Otherwise that punch will feel like a tickle compared to what I’ll do to you.”

Elizabeth’s eyes widened as Lara reeled back on her chair, screeching and holding her bloody nose. “Katherine!”

“Oh, don’t you start,” Laura sneered, pulling out a chair and sitting down without invitation – her back ached like hell. “I can’t deal with your whining.”

“How dare you speak to me in that manner!”

Before Laura could reply in a sarcastic manner worthy of Allie in one of her annoying moods, her mother spoke. “I think, perhaps, it’s time you took your child and left, Elizabeth,” Jane stated calmly, though the expression on her face was steely and dark. “And you can show yourself out.”

Elizabeth glared at her sister. “If you think that I am lowly enough to be forced to follow your instructions—”

“Is there a problem here, ma’am?”

All five ladies looked up to see Rick stood by the table, drying a glass in his hands with the usual stony expression on his face. Though, Laura could see the anger hidden behind his eyes. And apparently, so could everyone else.

His appearance was all Elizabeth and Lara needed to get out of there, both of them grabbing their bags and walking hurriedly towards the door without looking back. As soon as they were gone, Rick focused on Laura, his eyes softening and his expression concerned.

“Are you alright?”

“I’ll be fine,” Laura responded, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself (and the agitated flutterings of the babies growing inside her) down. “Just need to rest a bit.”

Jane looked guilty as she leaned on the table. “I’d originally come to check on you both before those two decided to tag along… without my consent.” She sent Laura an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

“No, it’s fine, mom. Besides,” Laura grinned at her twin, “I finally got to see the results of Sam’s boxing lessons.”

Kat grinned as she cracked her knuckles. “Oh, sweetie, that was only the beginning.”

Rick gave a small smile as he headed back to the bar, the three women laughing behind him.

If there was one thing Rick hated more than looking ridiculous, it was looking ridiculous in front of other people.

Still, for the sake of his girlfriend and their babies, he sat quietly in the lesson, Laura between his legs and leaning back on him, all four of their hands resting on her now very large bump. Today happened to be a lesson on breathing exercises – and Rick wasn’t sure whether he was looking forward to it.

“Right, now I want you to relax into your partner – think calming thoughts as you slowly breathe out… then in…”

Rick’s hands remained on the bump as Laura leaned back into his torso, her eyes closed as she focused on her breathing.

“Remember, start with a slow breath out to relax your muscles… and think calming thoughts… the stress will only make the pain worse…”

“Did Sam and Kat have to do these…?” Rick asked Laura lowly, leaning down so that only she could hear him.

“If they didn’t, would you make us leave?” Laura muttered back in retaliation.

Rick just rubbed her stomach comfortingly, smiling a little when he felt a couple of kicks. “I’m just saying… they’re pretty uneventful.”

Laura opened her eyes and looked up at him. “What kinds of things were you expecting to do?”

“Stress will make the pain worse, so imagine the stress leaving your body as you breathe out…”

“I don’t know, but maybe something more than breathing exercises…” Rick responded.

Laura scoffed. “Last week you were bouncing the birthing ball like a basketball and commented on all the stupid stuff Sam would do with it if they found it in the bar…”

There was a loud clearing of a throat, and both of them looked towards the teacher, who was glaring at them.

“It would be nice if, after paying for the class, you actually bothered to listen,” she quipped.

“Sorry,” Laura mumbled, and Rick ducked his head, hiding the smirk growing on his face.

The teacher watched them for a few moments, before nodding and continuing with the class. “Now, as I was saying, let the stress flow out of your body like a stream from a spring…”

“You got in trouble with the teacher,” Rick muttered into Laura’s ear with a smirk, and she huffed, pinching his arm in retribution.

“Ass,” she grumbled, though a small smile had formed on her face.

Walking through the supermarket, Laura sighed, leaning heavily on the shopping trolley as she moved. Her feet hurt, her back ached, her hands and feet felt swollen, and she was exhausted near constantly, but today was the only day Rick was willing to leave the bar under Sam’s supervision and go baby shopping with her.

Baby shopping that was taking a whole lot longer than she’d anticipated.

Looking into the trolley, there were a ton of baby outfits and even more diapers there, as well as three baby carriers that could transform into car seats very easily (thank goodness). At that moment, Rick was looking at some strollers, a frown on his face.

“What’s wrong?” Laura asked, sounding pretty much as tired as she felt.

“Three-kid strollers are really expensive…” he muttered, looking between the different types. “What do you think?”

Laura straightened up and looked at the different options available – basically, one. Which was definitely very expensive. “What about a double and a single?” she suggested.

Rick looked over at her. “We’d have to take them on walks together.”

“It’d get you out of the bar more.”

He rolled his eyes at her, before turning back to the strollers. “I guess… but wouldn’t the triplet one be better in the long term?”

Laura opened her mouth to answer when she suddenly felt a discomfort in her lower back, and she leaned more fully on the trolley, breathing slowly.

When Laura didn’t answer, Rick turned around to see her leaning on the trolley. “Laura?” He approached her, rubbing her lower back slowly.

“Braxton Hicks,” she replied, answering the unasked question. “Just real uncomfy right now.”

Rick nodded, before realising she couldn’t see him. “Need to walk around a bit?”

“Yeah, but my back kills…”

He sighed, continuing to rub as she hummed to herself, probably to stop herself from groaning from the discomfort. He had an idea, but he wasn’t sure if it would be allowed… “Want to head over to the sofa section?”

She turned her head to look at him, a frown on her face. “Why?”

“You need to put your feet up.”

“You want us to get kicked out of Wal-Mart?”

“They’d kick out a pregnant woman for resting?”

Laura pursed her lips. Rick had a point… “Okay, help me out…”

Sighing, Rick walked slowly up the stairs, running a hand through his hair. The bar was finally closed for the night, but today had been hectic. The Carter twins had just started Pre-K, because Kat was back to working as a lecturer and Sam worked every day anyway. Except, some kid had turned up at school with chicken pox a week before and now the twins were spotty, itchy and tearful every day, so Kat and Sam had to take shifts taking care of them and making sure they didn’t scratch their skins off.

So he was down a worker.

Then there was the fact that Laura was officially not allowed to be on her feet for more than ten minutes at a time. Which meant that she wasn’t allowed to be in the kitchen – at least, that was how Rick interpreted it, even if she’d fought to get it interpreted differently. Luckily, it had reached the summer, and some kids were on summer break, so Allie offered up the services of her cousin (who happened to be a high school teacher) so that the kitchen could stay open and business could keep bringing in profits. Particularly because it was family season.

The lack of a doorman and the usual chef made it harder for Rick to deal with a shift, considering he also had to do crowd control, and there wasn’t exactly anyone to serve the food (unless that kid who volunteered to help out counted – Rick was pretty sure the kid expected payment for his service).

Now, though, he was looking forward to just relaxing in bed with his woman and letting all the stresses of the day just melt away. Tomorrow, hopefully, Sam would be back for a shift and take some of the stress off Rick, but tonight was a night to relax.

Opening the bedroom door, Rick wasn’t surprised to see Laura sat up in bed, reading with the book set on her bump as she rubbed it fondly. She looked up when she realised Rick was there, and smiled. “Hey.”

“Hey.” He shut the door and approached the bed. “Shouldn’t you be resting?”

“I’ve rested pretty much all day. I’m not that tired.” She rubbed her stomach. “Plus, it’s their playtime apparently. Mama isn’t allowed to sleep.”

He chuckled as he pulled off his shirt, approaching the bed. “Need me to have a talk with them?”

Her expression soured. “You make it worse. Every time.”

“Hey, at least I’ve tried.”

“Your kids don’t take you seriously. You need to sort that out.”

He just chuckled again, stripping down to his underwear and lying down beside her. “Not long before I’ll be able to.”

Being 31 weeks along, the doctors had suggested that Laura only keep pushing until at least 34 weeks before she delivered – it was certain that she wouldn’t be able to carry to full term, but they needed the babies as developed as possible before they took them out and kept them in the NICU until they were healthy enough to survive on their own. Which meant Laura would be stuck on bed rest for at least three weeks.

She’d only been on rest for half a week, and Rick could already tell she hated it.

A nervous expression appeared on her face, and Rick sat up. “Nervous?”

She huffed out a laugh. “Yeah. We’re having three kids. In at least three weeks. What’s not to be nervous about?”

“Remember that you’ll – we’ll – have a support network. We’re not alone in this.”

She smiled widely at that, closing the book and setting it on the bedside table. “Yeah… yeah, I guess…”

He leaned over and kissed her softly, gently cradling her head in his hands as he did so. He rested his forehead against hers as he pulled away. “We’re a team. We can make it work. We can do this.”

She narrowed her eyes at him as she pulled away. “You took that from the antenatal class. You were actually listening?”

“You were the one who got told off for not listening.”

“That was your fault!”

The summer was usually the busiest season for the bar, simply because people were more free to do what they wanted – especially with the kids out of school. Since it had become general knowledge to the regulars that Rick was going to be a dad, Rick more often than not found himself chatting with a dad who had dropped the kids off with the grandparents and was chilling whilst their significant other was at work, and conversations ranged from the sweetest things kids did to the times they literally caused heart attacks, and Rick certainly wasn’t looking forward to the latter.

However, it was when he heard the call that he realised kids started giving heart attacks from before birth.

“Rick!”

His heart leapt into his throat as he shot Sam a look, and the other raced over to take his place at the bar as he ran upstairs to see what was going on. He stiffened when he realised Kat was stood there in the corridor, supporting her pregnant sister.

Her pregnant sister, who was stood with her hands braced against the wall, her face scrunched up in pain and a slowly growing pool of liquid around her feet.

Please let that be pee, please let that be pee…

“Her waters just broke,” Kat explained, rubbing Laura’s back. “She’s been having contractions since this morning.”

Rick’s heart clenched at that. If she’d been having them, why hadn’t they called earlier? He hadn’t been that busy, had he? God, was she in labour?

Oh God, she was in labour.

“Grab the baby bag from our room – it’s under the bed,” he instructed, quickly moving to take Kat’s place in supporting Laura. “Sam has the truck keys.”

“I’ll get it all ready for you.” Kat raced off to do as Rick explained, leaving the pair in the corridor.

Leaning down, Rick kissed Laura’s cheek as he rubbed her lower back and realised her face was wet from tears. “Remember, breathe. Breathe out slow, then in. Don’t panic.”

As Laura began to follow the instructions given in the classes, Rick realised he was also using the breathing technique to keep calm and that his heart was beating twice as fast as usual.

It felt like forever, but Laura eventually relaxed, her breathing returning to normal and her hands unclenching from where they had been scratching at the wall in pain. But the tears kept flowing. Rick leaned down again and kissed her cheeks, letting her know he was still there.

“You ready to move?”

Laura forced out a laugh, still braced against the wall. “Do I have a choice?” She took a deep breath. “And here I was hoping I could hold out for another week…”

“You’re 34 weeks already. You’ve made it far, and you’ve done well. I’m proud of you.”

She smiled at that. “Really?”

He smiled back. “Really.”

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes tightly to stop the flow of tears. “Okay then. Let’s go have our babies.”

Rick could probably count on one hand the number of times he’d got emotional in his life: his first wedding; leaving home; that time with his dad when he was a teen…

But this definitely topped that list.

Staring through the windows to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, his eyes were focused on three incubators with wires and tubes leading out of them. Inside them, three babies laid, tiny and helpless and premature, unable to breathe without the aid of a machine.

And as helpless and as tiny as they were, and as terrified as he was to now have three tiny lives entrusted into his care, Rick couldn’t deny the overflow of love he felt as he watched them. The emotion was just… so much more than he was used to.

That’s what he would attribute the crack in his voice to as his mother answered the phone.

“Ricky? Is everything alright?”

“Ma…” He smiled, his eyes still glued to his two daughters and son. “You’re a grandma…”

#universe development: the simple life #muse development: laura banks #written for: asimplerper #writing: mine #writing: rp writings #//in which aj does a thing and is proud

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daresplaining · 6 years

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Daredevil Countdown: 3 Days

D.A. Foggy Nelson

As depressing as Matt and Foggy’s break-up was in Season 2, it has set up some really neat stories for Foggy. In the comics, as in the MCU, it is important for him to step out of Matt’s shadow, because this allows him the freedom to build his career and self-confidence. One plot point I’ve been dying for since last season-- which, it seems, is actually happening-- is Foggy running for District Attorney! This is a really interesting plotline as far as Foggy’s character arc is concerned, and as a bonus, it’s a reference to a period of Daredevil comics that doesn’t generally get much attention.

Matt and Foggy have been friends for a long time, and as with most long-term relationships, their dynamic has evolved over the years. When discussing their law partnership, 616 Foggy once referred to Matt as the inspiration and himself as the perspiration. And this seems like a pretty accurate assessment. While Matt is a naturally brilliant lawyer, a charismatic speaker, and is also neglectful of his day job thanks to his superheroing, Foggy works hard to build up his reputation. He’s not a great public speaker. He lacks Matt’s flair. But he is devoted to his career and is, in a quieter way, a brilliant lawyer in his own right.

But when he is first introduced in the comics, he exists very much in Matt’s shadow. When discussing the newly-formed Nelson & Murdock in the very first issue, he attributes the firm’s future success to Matt brains and his (Foggy’s) father’s money. And in the early issues, this fits with his narrative role. He is there to hold down the fort, to run the firm and be the boring, less talented partner against whom Matt’s awesomeness can be compared. The possibility of his becoming the D.A. is teased very early-on, in issue #10-11... but it turns out to be a supervillain’s ruse and nothing more.

Foggy: “Well, that makes me the prize chump of the year! He sure had me fooled!”

Matt: “Chump nothing! You were the first to suspect that the picture of the Organizer on TV was a phony... taken in advance to throw suspicion on Monroe! You’ve proven you do have what it takes to make a fighting D.A., mister!”

Daredevil vol. 1 #11 by Stan Lee, Bobby Powell, Wally Wood, and Sam Rosen

As gullible as this makes Foggy look, it introduces an important character element for him at this early point: his aspirations. Poor Foggy may be treated as a loser by the narrative, he may not have Matt’s talents and main character advantages, but he still has big dreams. It’s thus satisfying that forty issues later, he runs again for real... and wins!

Foggy: “Me and Daniel Webster! --What a laugh! It’s Matt who should have this job-- not me! He was the real brains of ‘Nelson and Murdock’! I was just-- the work horse! But, they say a man can sometimes grow into a job-- maybe this will be my chance to prove myself! My chance to finally get out-- from under the shadow of Matt Murdock!”

Daredevil vol. 1 #50 by Stan Lee, Gene Colan, and George Klein

At this point he is conflicted-- both excited by this boost to his career and nervous about stepping out of his comfort zone. He and Matt had a huge fight during the campaign and so they are no longer speaking at this point... but they get over it, and Foggy decides to fix his nerves by bringing Matt on board has his special assistant.

Reporter: “Howzabout a shot of you two together, Mr. Nelson? It’ll go great with our story of your declared war on Crime-Wave!”

Foggy: “Even better than you think, friend! ‘Cause I’ve got a surprise announcement to make...! Namely, I’ve just invited Matthew Murdock to become my special assistant... for the duration of the current investigation!”

Matt: “It’s true all right, newshound! I’ve joined the team!”

Daredevil vol. 1 #58 by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan

(How great is this page? Love that Gene Colan art.)

But even this, with Matt working as Foggy’s subordinate rather than partner, is a huge shift in the balance of their dynamic. For once, Foggy gets to take the lead, with Matt dropping by the office when he has time to consult on cases. As District Attorney, Foggy is directly interacting with politicians and the press, and he is the first person people come to for help. And then Matt runs off to San Francisco with Natasha Romanov and leaves Foggy all on his own.

Since this is Matt’s comic, this separation means that we don’t see much of Foggy during this period. But when he does appear, he is notably changed. He is extra serious, extra busy. His wardrobe gets snazzier.

Daredevil vol. 1 #114 by Steve Gerber, Bob Brown, and Stan Goldberg

And he becomes more deeply embedded in The Establishment. He is forced to handle tough ethics cases: corruption, student protests, and the ever-present NYC topic of superheroes, about whom he has always had mixed feelings. (This is 200+ issues before he finds out about his best friend’s double life.)

Matt: “Great! Competence lives in Fun City! Sorry about the mess, friend, but I’m sure our crackerjack sanitation department can make it all tidy again-- or at least as tidy as the rest of New York. Which isn’t saying much.”

Foggy: “Not so quick with the flippancy, Hornhead. I think it’s time the police questioned you about a few matters. I’m getting a bit sick and tired of you long underwear types swinging up and down Fifth Avenue like you owned it.”

Matt: “I never thought I’d say this, ‘Mr.’ Nelson, but methinks you’re more interested in your re-election than you are in justice. But I think it’s a little bit too late to begin a crusading D.A. image now.”

Daredevil vol. 1 #127 by Marv Wolfman, Bob Brown, and Petra Goldberg

And Foggy matures, becoming a more jaded and world-weary version of himself. After getting shot while on the job, he starts rethinking his career. This is a neat mental shift when placed next to Matt’s own superhero philosophy. Foggy has now had a taste of doing what Matt does as Daredevil-- protecting the city-- and it is wearing him down. If only he and Matt could actually speak candidly about this shared experience...

Matt: “You sound a little bitter, Foggy. Are you still upset about the shooting?”

Foggy: “Frankly, Matt... I am. You spend a chunk of your life trying to help this city-- trying to make it safer, a decent place for people to live-- you put up with the crackpots, the bad cops, the crooks-- and then WHAM you get the city’s thanks-- a crummy bullet from a third-hand Saturday Night Special. So sure-- I’m bitter, Matt, this has been building up in me since it happened. I’m bitter as hell.”

Matt: “You’re forgetting good things, Foggy, the good cops... the good people... Don’t do yourself and them an injustice. Have a little faith.”

Daredevil vol. 1 #118 by Gerry Conway, Don Heck, and Petra Goldberg

When his re-election campaign rolls around, Foggy fights hard. His opponent is the charming, charismatic Blake Tower, who Foggy ends up liking and respecting in spite of himself. In the end, and thanks to some supervillain intervention by expert media manipulator the Jester...

TV Foggy: “Fellow citizens, as much as this pains me to say, I am forced to admit that I consider myself unworthy of being re-elected. Please bear with me as I give my explanations.”

Foggy: “What? It’s a lie! I never said that!”

Daredevil vol. 1 #130 by Marv Wolfman, Bob Brown, and Michele Wolfman

...Foggy loses. Tower, a genuinely good guy and superhero supporter, goes on to have a long and successful career as the new D.A. And Foggy, as hard as he fought for re-election, discovers that he is glad to have escaped from such a stressful job. Matt invites him to join his new private practice, and he gratefully accepts.

Foggy: Once the vote became apparent, I just couldn’t stick around any longer. I had to get away--to be by myself to think. But I’ve come to some conclusions, Matt. The first is that I’m happy I lost, and the second-- Matt, I’ve never begged before, but Matt-- I need a job now... do you need a rather tubby loser hanging around here?”

Matt: “Do you still have that business card I gave you, Foggy?”

Foggy: “Sure, I was too busy to look at it. Why?”

Matt: Just read it. Whether you won the election or not, Foggy, you always were, and you’ll always be-- my partner. Welcome back, buddy. It’s been awhile.”

Daredevil vol. 1 #130 by Marv Wolfman, Bob Brown, and Michele Wolfman

Many writers since have written Foggy back into Matt’s shadow-- and that’s tough to avoid, since Matt is the main character. But this story arc first introduced the idea of Foggy as a force in his own right, someone who can succeed without Matt around, which is an attitude that has largely stuck around to this day. It presented a welcome and permanent shift in the way writers, and thus Daredevil readers, viewed his character and role in the comic.

While MCU Matt doubled down on his DD activities in Season 2, prioritizing that side of his life over his legal work, Foggy plunged headfirst into his career-- mostly because he had no other choice. With Matt neglecting the firm, Foggy picked up the slack. He spent the entirely of Season 1 putting himself down, emphasizing Matt’s skills over his own, and showing an intense lack of self-confidence regarding his abilities as a lawyer. But Season 2 showed him, in ways that he could not ignore, that he was actually damn good at him job. He realized that he could still achieve his law school (or possibly undergrad...) dream of having a high-powered legal career... even without Matt by his side. And so when the chance to make that dream happen was presented, he leapt at it.

It has been an absolute treat to see Foggy hop around to the other shows, further developing his career, getting used to hanging out with superheroes, and generally demonstrating a level of confidence in himself that is new and wonderful. His life isn’t perfect-- there’s no question that he would rather be doing this with Matt-- but it’s still a big deal for his character development. From here, there are several ways his D.A. aspirations could go. It could be a great thing-- further boosting his career, giving him a new set of challenges, and showing us a side of Foggy we’ve never seen before: a Foggy in a position of power, trying to cope. Or it could end terribly. He could lose. He could win, but end up butting heads with Wilson Fisk. Since Fisk named Foggy in Season 2 as someone he was aiming to take down, that confrontation is going to happen no matter what-- but if Foggy were the D.A., this takedown might involve bribery and blackmail as part of Fisk’s bid for power. I’m really excited to see how this plotline is handled, and feel confident that-- just like in the comics-- this separation will be a good thing for him, and will end with the recreation of a new, better, stronger Nelson and Murdock.

#Daredevil spoilers #Daredevil vol. 1 #Netflix Daredevil #Foggy Nelson #Commentary #DD Countdown

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getoffthesoapbox · 6 years

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[VKM Spec] Ridiculing VKM 18

As expected, Hino’s obsession with dreary funerals continues.

Obligatory disclaimer for my anti-fans: This post is zeki criticism, vkm criticism, hino criticism, and anti ky. Please blacklist those tags accordingly.

Scanlations can be found in the usual places.

The Good

Gotta give credit where credit is due!

Hallelujah! Kaien Cross bites the dust (literally) at last! Praise the heavens! At last, one of the cancers of this story has been eradicated! Screw you, Hino, for trying to make him more than oozing pustule he was. (And LOL @ that guy facepalming in front of his coffin, who the hell is that anyway, I want his autograph? XD)

Kaien’s melodramatic “woe is me, what a shitty way to die” and then his pathetic “oh a girl is finally crying for me after all this time!” dramatics were hilarious. Like...how sad of a person are you that you’re relieved any girl is crying for you at your death?

Ren is a girl. I repeat: Ren is a girl. At last we can put to bed all that nonsense.

Ren is null!Zero’s and Yuuki’s child. I repeat: Ren is null!Zero’s and Yuuki’s child. Farewell, fantasies of test tube babies and clones and in vitro. Not only that, Ren was clearly conceived in the usual fashion of conceptions, not via any Zeusian head-births or immaculate conceptions.

Null!Zero lived to raise Ren. I repeat: null!Zero lived to raise Ren. At least the “null!Zero can’t have anything Kaname doesn’t get” rule no longer applies.

Kaname is too much of a chicken to look at the photo album of a man who worshipped him. Methinks nu!Kaname has received some intimations about how much of a shithead he was in the past. Makes me think better of him.

Kaname is actually interested in someone from the past who isn’t Yuuki and what that person might think of him. Also that he actually genuinely seems interested in finding out how much Ai suffered from Kaien’s loss and is trying to empathize for the first time in his life.

Ai finally showed up for a funeral. ‘Bout time, since she didn’t even bother to show up for Yori’s.

The little girl the Prince was living with is not the mayor’s daughter, thank god.

The mad scientist got a stylish cameo!

And that’s about it!

The Bad

Perhaps I should rename this section to “The Stupid”? I’ll have to consider it.

Hino forgetting her own lore and that pureblood blood can cure wounds and illnesses--see Shizuka with Ichiru. Ai was right next to Kaien--she didn’t need to offer him vamprism, she could have just fed him her blood. For him to die in such a stupid fashion, despite how great it is, is positively mind boggling given the established vampire lore in this story.

Hino retroactively trying to act like Kaien meant something to these characters when he’d routinely fucked them over in order to rescue his precious Kaname.

Yuuki boo-hooing over Kaien dying when she didn’t bother to spend any time with him during the 100 years of life she had to enjoy his company.

Kaname’s unexplained “curse” on Touma that came out of the clear blue nowhere with no foreshadowing or set up in order to “justify” Touma’s insane behavior. Hino’s just phoning it in at this point.

Touma is the Prince, snooze. Boring and obvious and a narrative dud.

The “Mayor” is useless and already under arrest, and why the hell does anyone even still care about him?

Kaien’s funeral was a joke and got more panels than Yori’s, which is ridiculous.

The timeline is fucked. Ai was acting last chapter like a bunch of time had passed between the mad scientist kidnapping and the Ren pregnancy being discovered, yet the little girl is still the same age. Either she’s a vampire or Hino has no clue what the timeline is.

Instead of talking about how excited they are to meet Ren, Yuuki spends most of her pregnancy screentime rehashing bullshit about Ai’s childhood with Ai. We already spent 6 chapters on Ai’s childhood Hino, you might want to give us some time to enjoy Ren for once yeah?

Yuuki whining about Kaien and Yori not being there is a complete joke. Bitch, please, you waiting seventy years to get in bed with your side piece is the reason they’re not there with you now. You have no right to complain because this is your own fault. You squandered the time you had with your precious people.

Null!Zero’s apparently barely there as a father figure since Hino didn’t care to show him in more than one panel with his child.

The Ugly

All of the ugly this chapter was packed in at the end, appropriately.

Hino just completely excised null!Zero from the family. In the montage of raising Ai images, Zero doesn’t even get a panel with Ai or Yuuki--he’s separated in his own itty bitty panel as if he’s still an outsider in his own family.

No sex scene, no waiting for the baby scene, no naming Ren scene for Zeki. That’s a pretty low blow to make us wait all that time and then skip over everything, Hino. Fuck you, too.

Zero’s and Ai’s little argument at the end would be cute if we’d actually gotten some fucking answers as to why Zeki didn’t get together for an entire human lifetime, but no, Hino doesn’t care to tell us why, we can just make the answer up for ourselves!

Whether Hino intends to “make good” on this implication or not (and my bet, given how gross Ai and Ren act in the future, is that she’ll make good on it), it is utterly reprehensible that Hino made Ai have a sexual attraction to a fucking innocent baby. We all know the VK/VKM world has established that vampiric hunger the way Ai experiences it in VKM 18 is sexual in nature. Hino trying to act like it’s cute there at the end is not ever acceptable. It was not even remotely acceptable when Kaname did it, and it’s not at all acceptable now just because the girls are sisters. Just like slapping Aidou, child grooming is not appropriate or laudable behavior. Ai having a sexual interest in her baby sister is not okay.

And last, but certainly not least, null!Zero and Yuuki approving Ai’s interactions with Ren without having any concerns is deeply disturbing to me. Hino trying to play this off as a cute and normal happy family is even more troubling. I’m very concerned about how this all is going to play out in the future.

General Aside

@vampireknightmeta brought up a few ways in which Hino might be able to salvage the story as it is now in our private conversations, but I will leave any public speculation on future positive developments to her should she choose to share them with the fandom at large.

At this point in time, I myself have no interest in speculating about potential positive narrative developments because Hino has shown time and time again that she’s happy to sink lower than even the lowest bar I set for her. I’d rather be happily surprised by Hino saving this story on her own and just laugh at her bumbling in the meantime rather than investing my heart into trying to uncover the “secrets” of the story of a repugnant and morally bankrupt failure of a writer. From now on, I’ll only be speculating about worst case scenarios, the worst I can possibly imagine, and maybe Hino will do even worse than that just to prove to me that there’s no low she’s above sinking to.

As such, if you’re looking for positive theorizing, you won’t find it here until I see some significant improvement in this sorry excuse for a story. Please look elsewhere for your hit of “positivity.”

Crackpot Theory Corner

Can’t end this debacle without some crackpot theories. Here’s what could happen that could make this story sink even lower than it has already sunk!

Null!Zero might actually get suspicious of Ai’s “attentions” to Ren, but he’s going to die before he can stop anything. =P Null!Zero does still seem to have some fatherly instincts.

Null!Zero is up next for being killed, probably next volume. We’ll probably have a funeral or two every volume, because that’s totally what everyone’s reading for!

In the chapter where null!Zero dies, we’ll have Ren dying in the future while protecting Ai or Kaname! Gotta kill off dem pesky Kiryuus!

When Yuuki meant “short time after Zero” when he died in VKM 4, what she meant to say was “null!Zero died 20 years after I screwed him and I put myself to bed for 900 more.” Hence, “short time.” Time’s relative, doncha know.

After Ren dies, Kaname and Ai will mourn, then resurrect Yuuki to ease their sorrow and the Kurans will live happily ever after.

Yuuki never intended to marry Zero, and that’s why she let Yori die before getting together with him officially so Yori wouldn’t have to know Yuuki loved Kaname and not Zero (why, only Hino knows). The wedding Yori and Aidou were waiting for will happen after they’re long dead with Kaname and Yuuki instead.

The baby from Yuuki’s dream is her second kid with Kaname, a boy who she’ll name Zero. Ai will imprint on her new brother and the horror will start all over again with a new generation, this time blessedly free of Kiryuus, who are all dead.

Oh, and the Vampire King will never be found, because who cares. ;)

Until next time, see you later!

#vampire knight #vampire knight memories #vkm spec #vkm speculation #zeki criticism #anti ky #hino criticism #vkm criticism #vkm chapter review

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deadcactuswalking · 5 years

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 9th June 2019

Okay so full disclosure; I haven’t been enjoying writing this show for a while, mostly because of how I’ve been barely been able to keep up with life yet alone new music as it comes out each week... but let’s not get into detail. This isn’t what I’m here for, I’m here to ramble about pop music that probably isn’t all that interesting anyway, in this case a lot of British hip hop.

Top 10

“I Don’t Care” by Ed Sheeran featuring Justin Bieber is unsurprisingly still at the top after being at first place running on the chart ever since its debut four weeks ago.

Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus hasn’t moved since last week either, still at number-two.

In fact, the whole top 10 is stable and kind of stale. To exemplify that, only number-five has moved from last week. Hence, “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi is at number-three.

“Vossi Bop” by Stormzy holds on at number-four.

Billie Eilish’s “bad guy” actually moves a singular space up to number-five.

“Piece of Your Heart” by MEDUZA and Goodboys, however, has not at number-six.

“Hold Me While You Wait” by Lewis Capaldi is at number-seven.

The late Avicii’s “SOS” featuring Aloe Blacc is at number-eight. I’ll be up next week thanks to the album’s release.

To my surprise, Ed Sheeran’s “Cross Me” featuring Chance the Rapper and PNB Rock is still at number-nine off of the debut last week. I’d like to add that this is an Ed Sheeran song with a producer tag. Huh.

Shawn Mendes’ “If I Can’t Have You” rounds off the top 10 by not moving at #10.

Climbers

Well, there aren’t many climbers this week, especially since it’s busy in terms of new arrivals, but there are some increases here. “Wish You Well” by Sigala and Becky Hill zooms up 15 spaces to #24 (Methinks it didn’t have a full tracking week last week as this sudden increase seems odd), whilst “Falling Like the Stars” by James Arthur continues an unfortunate gain up the charts as it’s moving up 10 spaces to #25. Other than that, we have nothing. However, it’s a different story with our Fallers.

Fallers

We’ll have to do what we usually don’t have enough fallers to do anymore and split it into genre categories, especially as pretty much everything in the second half of the Top 40 is in freefall.

In terms of pop, rock and EDM, “Summer Days” by Martin Garrix, Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy and Macklemore is down six spaces to #40 off of the debut, “Giant” by Calvin Harris and Rag’n’Bone Man continues its fall down six to #39, “3 Nights” by Dominic Fike is sadly down five to #38, “Late Night Feelings” by Mark Ronson featuring Lykke Li is down six to #36, “So Am I” by Ava Max collapses down 10 spaces to #35, “Easier” by 5 Seconds of Summer (Featuring Nine Inch Nails, simply because it’s funnier this way) is down five off of the debut to #34, “Talk” by Khalid is down six to #28, “Here with Me” by Marshmello and CHRVCHES is down four to #20, and that’s about it.

For hip-hop and R&B, we have slightly less notable hits, with “EARFQUAKE” by Tyler, the Creator featuring Playboi Carti and Charlie Wilson continuing its unfortunate fall down 13 spaces to #37, “Fashion Week” by Steel Banglez, AJ Tracey and MoStack falling down five spaces to #33, “Guten Tag” by Hardy Caprio and Digdat dropping down four to #27, right next to “OT Bop” by NSG collapsing down nine spaces to #26 off of the debut. We also have “The London” by Young Thug, J. Cole and Travis Scott down four to #22, “Keisha & Becky” by Russ and Tion Wayne down four to #19, and that’s all.

Dropouts & Returning Entries

Well, streaming cuts have snabbed “Grace” by Lewis Capaldi of its longevity as it drops out from #14 – no, I’m not complaining – and the same could be said for “Your Mrs” but JAY1 out from #37 but I’d argue that’s just because people are starting to realise the song is awful. Otherwise, well, streaming cuts have hurt “Sucker” by Jonas Brothers as well out from #20 and “Just You and I” by Tom Walker is out from #36 (There will be a rebound), but it’s not like I didn’t expect the Skepta album bomb of sorts to get rid of competition, as “Motorola” by DaBeatfreakz featuring Swarmz, Deno and Dappy is out from #38, “No Diet” by Digga D is out from #32 and... “Earth” by Lil Dicky and Friends, which isn’t competition for Skepta but would have been out from #40 anyway. There is one returning entry but we won’t be covering it in this section, because it’s time for the new arr—

ALBUM BOMB

Skepta – Ignorance is Bliss

New section time, I suppose, even though there won’t be any new content for the most part. This is just a separated space for me to talk about mini-album bombs as they don’t really exist in the UK, but they allow three songs from an artist at once. Hence, Skepta is currently charting three songs from his highly-anticipated album Ignorance is Bliss (Which I haven’t had the time or motivation to listen to, as with most recently-released albums), two of which are completely new and will be at both ends of the chart. There is one returning entry however, as “Greaze Mode” featuring Nafe Smallz, despite being pretty awful, reaches a new peak at #18 after dropping off last week.

#32 – “Bullet from a Gun” – Skepta

Produced by Skepta and Ragz Originale

Now, the BBC usually censors any objectionable material on the album covers and replaces them with a picture of the artist, but Skepta flipping the bird and holding a gun was fine here, I suppose. This song was actually part of the double A-side single Skepta released to promote the album before its release, but it never charted in the top 40 until it ended up as the opening song on the tracklist, as well as having a video pushed. Now, I hated “Greaze Mode” so hopefully its less accessible counterpart will be better, and, well, it is, but not because this is of insane levels of quality. The instrumental’s eerie synths here are hypnotic like most of Skepta’s self-produced synth loops but the infectiousness of the beat doesn’t translate to the vocals and content here, as his oddly low-mixed vocals under the trap percussion don’t go into any detail until the verse where he talks about how he can’t make any sorrowful songs mourning his father because he’s only thankful for him and how he has rubbed off on Skeppy himself, and then he actually goes into a pretty emotional verse about facing demons and considering seeing his daughter’s face every day as a blessing, with a rapid and blunt flow, because he can’t be sure every day that he’ll be alive to see the next morning, not because he’s still involved in gang violence as he’s matured from that experience but because he’s paranoid of those we are supposed to place our trust in most, the police. That’s only a few bars though, and while they connect and they are pretty powerful lines, it has to be book-ended with Skepta taking your girl because it was just your turn and not learning his lesson by shooting you as that’s just how the world works. I mean, this isn’t bad by any means, but staying on topic would be appreciated when you emphasise such heavy subject matter for as many bars as you do but completely abandon it by the end of that one extended verse. The beat’s great, though, and Skepta’s delivery has always been pretty aggressive on these types of beats, so for what it is, it’s decent and it works fine for Skepta’s 13th Top 40 hit. Next.

#14 – “What Do You Mean?” – Skepta featuring J Hus

Produced by Skepta and iO

Now this is Skepta’s 14th Top 40 hit over here in the UK and J Hus’ sixth (In terms of top 20 hits, it’s Hus’ third and Skepta’s fourth). J Hus, recently released out of prison, delivered a consistently fire and really impressive feature verse on Dave’s “Disaster” last time we had a British hip-hop album bomb onto the charts, and has performed with Drake hours after he was released, but honestly a lot of the time I find J Hus to be uninteresting in his solo work, and his last album was droning and honestly pretty dull. This, on the other hand, is a complete banger. Skepta’s self-produced beat is equally as menacing and eerie as “Bullet with a Gun” but I see it takes some steps from ‘90s G-funk with that synth line, backed up by strings and plunging 808s. J Hus’ Auto-Tuned chorus is really slick, and he shows a lot of swagger in his funky yet relatively mellow hook, before Skepta comes in bouncing with a pretty intense verse. Is the content anything interesting? No, but it’s not trying to, and when the beat is this interesting of an amalgamation of trap, G-funk and freaking banjos in the second chorus, as well as smooth as hell flows delivered by Skepta, you don’t need insane lyricism. I love how the multi-tracked vocals from J Hus transition perfectly into Skeppy’s verses as well, and both ride the beat fantastically. Not much to say about this one but I’m glad to see some trap with an actual groove to it that doesn’t overstay its welcome, as well as performers who know what they’re doing spitting on it. Oh, and the vocals are actually mixed decently this time. Seems like Skeppy’s mixing may be a bit inconsistent especially on the vocal side, as the bass and kick here are much louder than they need to be. I love this, though, so check it out.

Oh, yeah and J Hus crooning “North Korea” is hilarious to me.

NEW ARRIVALS

#31 – “Mother’s Daughter” – Miley Cyrus

Produced by Andrew Wyatt – Peaked at #10 in Hungary and Slovakia, #54 in the US

Miley Cyrus has released another absolute trainwreck of an album a la Dead Petz, but this time it’s harder to swallow as it’s just an EP and all tracks take on a different style of music, despite being primarily trap-influenced. That sounds like it’d be an interesting venture into the Cyrus psyche but nope, SHE IS COMING is just as awful as I and many others expected, but the breakout single, her 16th UK Top 40 hit, doesn’t exactly make that evident, because instead it’s just mediocre, almost painfully so. This starts with a scratchy guitar mumble before exploding into a synth-lead trap beat, complete with high-pitched vocal samples, but it seems really lightweight, mostly because all these pop princesses that try their hand on trap beats can’t pick a beat with any bass or intensity, especially when this song is about playing up a archetypal villain role for the media, I assume, and despite the distortion on her vocals she still has the country twang, can’t flow for the like of her and belts a post-chorus that is pitchy and hard to listen to. Really, the whole song is just one big mess, not even mixing wise as it’s completely fine on a technical level (Although the lack of much noticeable sub-bass to speak of concerns me), but the messiness of the songwriting really shows in the bridge, which essentially takes away the gliding synths and places the scratchy guitar groaning in its place, whilst Miley rapid-fire spits an incredibly janky flow. The final chorus also has these “Oh, my God” lines as filler to replace the lines in the chorus, which doesn’t break up the monotony of this song at all. The cringeworthy outro aside, this is just boring – and it looks like I won’t get a break from dullness anytime soon.

#16 – “Bruises” – Lewis Capaldi

Produced by Lewis Capaldi and James Earp – Peaked at #19 in Scotland

When I said that Capaldi had streaming cuts, that may not have been entirely accurate as Capaldi has debuted his fourth UK hit in the top 20 to replace “Grace”, so seemingly the three song per artist rule has kicked out the lowest performing song. Now Capaldi’s success doesn’t surprise me, because there’s no one making breathy, low-key ballads that Sheeran specialised in – well, there are, they’re just not gaining real traction – so we need to fill a hole while Sheeran’s off partying at a party he doesn’t want to be at with Justin Bieber and PNB Rock. I am, however, incredibly disappointed by his success, because he and James Arthur make me want to throw bricks at squirrels. Now this is actually his first official single as it was released independently (And on his label) back in early 2017, but thanks to inclusion on his newest album, has had a boost two and a half years late, and we weren’t really missing anything. I’ve heard this before reviewing the charts this week, I feel it was an advert, and it really does seem like a song for melodramatic commercials. I’ll give it to him, Capaldi has strength and he has a lot of power in his young voice, with a rock edge I appreciate that Arthur doesn’t have, but this instrumental is painfully simple, to the point where it’s so minimal that it can’t work, especially with Capaldi’s multi-tracked falsetto nonsense crooning, as that would make much more sense with an actual drum beat instead of just soul-less piano notes being looped under Capaldi essentially vocally riffing. By the final chorus and bridge, you’d expect some strings or something, surely, but, no, it stays as it was until the last second, where a secondary piano line plays... and it just plays the vocal melody from the chorus, once. It’s not worth it at that point, and there’s not even a stylish finish to the whole thing. To be fair, it’s the only Capaldi song I’ve heard that isn’t excruciating. Doesn’t mean it’s any good though.

#15 – “Shine Girl” – MoStack featuring Stormzy

Produced by Ill Blu, TSB and Levi Lennox

God, I really don’t like MoStack. I’ve never heard a chorus or verse from him that’s compelling in his five Top 40 hits (and three Top 20 hits) since “No Words”, and most of his singles are Auto-Tuned faux-dancehall faux-grime nonsense, but he’s just released a 40-minute album (Delightful) with features from J Hus, Dave, Fredo and of course Stormzy, who has propelled one of the STACKO tracks to the top 20, becoming his 14th Top 40 hit and his seventh Top 20. Is it any good? Well, actually, it’s much better than most of MoStack’s stuff, mostly because the twinkling synths in this Afrobeats track are actually fitting as instead of attempting to be threatening, menacing or intimidating, it’s a love song. Stormzy’s hook, despite being somewhat overly possessive, is somewhat cute and the multi-tracked harmony backing vocals are really nice... MoStack exists though, and the content here pretty much chalks up to having sex with other girls despite the fact that both Stormzy and MoStack are always talking about how they love the sex from this girl in particular. MoStack is nasal and irritating as usual, although I do like the completely irrelevant line where he asks why Stormzy’s high

Wait, Stormzy, why you look so damn high?

It’s offbeat, drenched in Auto-Tune and reverb, and mixed below both the instrumental and Stormzy, but overall, MoStack is mostly a non-presence, so that’s cool. I like Stormzy’s hook well enough, and the piano dwindling at the tail-end is pretty excellent, so, you know what, Stacko, you get a pass for now.

#13 – “Never Really Over” – Katy Perry

Produced by Zedd and Dreamlab – Peaked at #4 in Scotland and #15 in the US

So, she’s back. Katy Perry has been existent for a while now but she hasn’t released that big comeback single since her waning success with the Witness era, so she’s come back with a bang... except it’s a Zedd production and it’s only in the top 20. To be fair, I’d accept anything if I had just experienced that trainwreck of an album cycle. Did you guys hear about how Zedd doesn’t actually produce or compose his own beats, though? Yeah, that’s pretty dreadful, apparently he can’t play piano in a note other than C. I don’t believe that for a second personally, but the dude absolutely tears into Zedd, it’s hilarious. Anyway, is this Katy Perry song any good? Well, it does take me back to the days where Katy Perry was massive, with the cute yet simplistic synth line and finger-snaps making up a vibe similar to the introductions to a lot of her earlier hits. It is familiar overall actually, I swear I’ve heard that vocal melody in the pre-chorus before. The rattling percussion adds some bounce but may be a bit too stiff and unnatural, as a lot of Zedd’s production is. The snares and even Perry’s vocals are clipping over the cloudy synth mix in the chorus, however, and the lyrics are repetitious and somewhat meaningless... but who cares? That drop is incredible. The song could be a Chris Brown song featuring posthumous vocals from XXXTENTACION produced by Tay Keith if it had that fun, 80s-reminiscent drop which Katy Perry essentially triplet-flows over. The way it carries into the bridge as well makes it very manic and it works as a damn good post-chorus. Oh, yeah, and that ticking clock is annoying, and only made sense in “Stay” and “The Middle”. I’d say stop using it, but Zedd doesn’t exactly have much control over his compositions so I’m gonna say it’s Dreamlab’s fault for implementing it if anyone. It’s really jankily pushed into this song and doesn’t make for a good outro at all, there’s literally a clock solo. Oh, yeah, and this is Katy Perry’s 28th UK Top 40 hit. That’s insane.

Conclusion

There’s not much really to go home about here, although Best of the Week is probably going to Skepta and J Hus for “What Do You Mean?”, with the Honourable Mention going to both Skepta and Katy Perry – yep, it’s a tie – for “Bullet with a Gun” and “Never Really Over”, while Worst of the Week is easily going to Miley Cyrus for “Mother’s Daughter”. In fact, I’d be hesitant to give ANYONE, even Reviewing the Charts nemesis Lewis Capaldi (and MoStack for that matter), a Dishonourable Mention of any sort. Hence, follow me on Twitter @cactusinthebank for more musical ramblings, sarcastically quote-tweeting Piers Morgan and I’ll see you next week.

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