#steven can read and count he knows a lot about the world so i bet he was being homeschooled

[oddballwriter]

Unexpected Addition Part 3: Next Move

Summary: And with the group of mysterious artifact thieves making their next move, you and the boys make a plan and head off to get to their next location and be steps ahead.

Warnings: Marc is still a bit snarky and makes some vaguely rude comments to the reader. There’s some fluff with Jake at the end. 

Author’s Snip: Okay okay okay. I can see that this series is the fan favorite. I’m sorry for neglecting it. /gen And I’m sorry for trying to feed you vampire reader propaganda. /j /lh I will say that actually reading over the past two parts helped make this one. If I’m being honest I don’t really remember what my reason for not making part three was??? Maybe I really was hyper focused on Dwelling in the Night. I hope this suffices. Maybe not, I don’t know.

Notes: Unimportant information but I was listening to the Mandela Catalogue Heaven Says remix on loop while writing this.

I’ll shut up now. Enjoy! And don’t be afraid to request.

Word Count: 1,144

It had been some time since the last move of this mysterious group that was collecting paranormal and macabre artifacts. It was honestly a longer waiting game than any of you, including your gods, would have liked. Too still of water sometimes meant that something was happening and you all just hadn't become aware yet. But lo and behold, you manage to catch fresh word of some ritual artifacts in Africa and China just got nabbed.

"They're still moving in the same direction!" you screamed out in joy when you unlocked the flat's door, carrying a bunch of things in your arms. Marc was the one fronting at the time, originally enjoying a televised game of baseball until you started screaming like a mad woman. "What in the world are you screaming about? Who's moving in the same direction?" Marc grumbled, you quickly answered with "The group we've been waiting for. They're finally making a move!" in a joyful voice as you shuffled around to lay out a few things to definitely show and explain to him some master plan that you managed to cook up.

"Can this wait or...?" Marc asks. You glance towards him, having your giddy smile fall at the comment. "Marc, this is part of our mission," you say, "And if my theory is correct then no, it can't." you add.

Marc just shrugs it off and walks towards where you are, where you have a printout of two articles, a map of the world, and a pencil in hand. "Alright. Start talking, and keep it short." Marc prompts. You nod and begin.

"So I already mapped out the spots they already hit before we stopped them. Well, I noticed that they were going in a certain pattern. England, France, Russia, Romina." you explain and list off, though Marc could tell that you had now put a cap on what most likely would have been similar enthusiasm to when you first explained this to Steven. Nevertheless, you go on, now drawing out spots on the map, "But now that China and Africa just got hit by them, that confirms my theory that they were going clockwise and still are.". You do take a moment to comment "It's kind of dumb to still move in the same pattern that you were before though.".

"Maybe they were just betting that laying low would do the trick." Marc suggests. "Then that means we're going to be a few steps ahead of them now." you reply. "That's my girl." Marc could hear Jake praising you from inside his head. Well, at least that means that he's listening to the information, if he's not busy ogling at you that is.

Marc focuses back in on you and what you're saying. He was distracted for a little bit of the rest of your explaining but from what he could gather it was along the lines of that they will continue going in a clockwise path around the world. At some point, the words clear up and you say "So, their next location will be Japan. I mean, that place would basically be their candy store, there's a lot of paranormal and spiritual stuff there.".

Marc thinks over the theory and next location, scanning the marks on the map with his eyes. He quarks a brow when he notices a hole in the theory for Japan being their next stop. "What about India? Don't they have a lot of spiritual stuff there too?" Marc questions. You look at the country printed on the paper saying "Oh, yeah! I knew I missed something in my briefing.", you pick up the article clippings you had printed out. "The theft in Africa and China happened a while ago with China being the last place to be hit. There was a similar time frame with the two of them and the rest of the other locations. So they're most likely already there and in the midst of planning on how to get things there. It would be best to beat them to their next location on their route. In the meantime, we can make our own plan and finally have a way to take them down." you explain, "Like I said, we'll be a few steps ahead of them." you comment.

For a second, your arm almost moves to boop Marc on the nose, but you stop the motion before your finger can actually make contact, "Did they get all that?" you ask as you switch the motion to seem like you were going to point at his head in reference to Steven and Jake. Marc nods, ignoring the habit and pretending that the point was what you were trying to do originally.

"So, I'm guessing that we need to book and pack now and then catch the earliest flight to Japan?" Marc asks, to which you confirm with a nod.

After a long few days of booking, packing, flying in the crack of daylight, and traveling, you finally made it to your hotel in Japan. To say that the two of you were severely tired and jet-lagged from the trip was an understatement. Marc barely noticed the fact that in the room there were actually two beds. He must have started for longer than he thought he did because you interject, saying "The second one is for you and Steven, and Jake if he wants some space." you add before lying down on the other bed.

You figured that after you laid down to sleep of your lag, Marc did the same because after being pretty much unconscious for who knows how long, you're waken up by the weight on the bed shifting and arms wrapping around you. Turning around, you hear Jake's familiar voice say "It's just me, bella durmiente.". You feel his stubble on your neck as he nests his head between the gap while he gets into a spooning position and puts the covers back over you and him.

"In case I want some space my ass." Jake comments with a soft laugh, "Like I'd want to not sleep in the same bed with you when I have the chance." he says as he kisses your shoulder. You smile and roll onto your other side so that you can now face towards him and bury your face in his warm chest. "I know this is a mission and we're meant to plan out how we're going to get a stake on these people, but we can use getting info as a way to see some places." you mention. You feel Jake's chest vibrate as he hums in approval of the idea. "That would be nice." Jake says, "More time for bonding and also having some really nice dates." he remarks.

"We'll see..." you say through a yawn just before falling back asleep with Jake following suit after.

#moon knight #moonknight #moon knight x reader #moonknight x reader #steven grant #steven grant x reader #marc spector #marc spector x reader #jake lockley #jake lockley x reader

[honeygingergemini]

Hey bb I'm here for two things! If you do taglists can I be added to all your cevans characters? And to request a daddy Steve and princess reader. Maybe her innocence and sweetness turning soft daddy on? Or anything you'd like. Thank you❤❤

Hello :))) First I’m so sorry that I took so long to get this put a lot of stuff happened in a short amount of time but its finally finished and I hope you love it!<3

I’ve read this a thousand time but I know there’s still typos please ignore them <3

warnings: innocent reader, fingering, attempts at dirty talk and praise kink

word count: 1.9k 

My Little Princess

As much as you try, your mind keeps replaying the conversations from work. You and the other ladies of the office always eat lunch together and gossip about office drama. Today was no different. The trending topic of the office today was Michelle and her engagement. The dialogue quickly changed from how big Michelle's ring is to what she had to do to get that ring. Or better yet, what she had to suck. 

“I bet she blows him off every night.” Kim spills between bites. 

“Blows?” All five heads turn in unison eyeing you with suspicion. 

“Uh yeah babe, blow job.” Tina mutters in a condescending tone you don’t catch. 

“What’s a blow job?” 

You squirm from embarrassment. Hours later and you can still feel the twinge of humiliation bubbling in your chest. Of course it would be you, of course it had to be you. The only woman in the world who’s never given a blown job. It’s not like you didn’t know what a blow job was, because you did! You just hadn’t known it had different names. You shuffle again, blowing out air from your nose. 

“You okay, princess?” 

“Hmm, yeah yeah, i’m fine.” You tuck yourself closer into Steve’s arm trying to focus on the movie infront of you, but you can’t. 

“You’ve never given Steve a blow job?” Amanda asks, genuinely curious. 

“W-Well uh- no.” You fumble with your shirt, not wanting to meet anyone’s gaze. 

“Wow, true love actually exists, he looks at you like you’ve hung the moon and stars and you’ve never blown him off.” Kim touches your shoulders. “My dear you’ve won the jackpot, whatever you do, do not let him go!”

Your mind begins to wonder. Thoughts of uncertainty creeping in to fuck with the foundation of your relationship. Have I been doing enough? You and Steve have been together for a year and you thought everything was going well, but now you’re not so sure. You thought your sexual life was moving perfectly, up until today. You two haven’t slept together but you’ve done other things to satisfy the primal needs. Heavy petting, hunching, intense kisses that leave you dizzy. Never once in any of those moments did you feel they may have not been enough for Steve but now that's all you can think of. What if he’s bored of me?

“Hm.” You turn again causing Steve to pause the flick you two are watching. 

“What’s wrong, doll? You can’t keep still today.” You untangle yourself from Steve and turn around to face him. Your knees press into the couch, putting you in a comfortable kneeling position. 

“Steve.” You begin fumbling with your fingers. “Are you… bored?” Your voice is small but your heart is loud. 

“Of?...” 

“Are…. are you bored of… like of... of me?” You peer up at Steve through shy lashes. 

“No.” His face twists with disgust and confusion. “Why would I be bored of you, we’re just watching a movie” 

“No,” You cut off the clueless man spread out before you. “Do I… satisfy you?” Steve’s face remains blank through three blinks then his boisterous laugh appears, sending tiny swords through your center and brings you to a death by embarrassment. 

“Steve, I’m serious.” But that only fuels his laughter more. “Steven!” Your whine pulls Steve from his laugh and he sees you’re physically uncomfortable. 

“Baby? Doll, come on…” Steve’s large hands grip your head to face him but you shuffle out of his hold. “Hey, where is this coming from?” You chew your bottom lip contemplating whether or not you should reveal the conversations plaguing your mind. 

“If you didn’t satisfy me, I wouldn’t be with you.” Steve grips your waist and pulls you onto his lap straddling his thighs. “Hey.” His head dips down to meet your low eyes. “You please me, you always do.” 

“So it doesn’t matter that i’ve never given you a blowjob?” Your mouth moves faster than your mind, further embarrassing you. Your question is met with a deafening silence. 

His face is full of concern and now you're upset with yourself for even bringing this shame home with you. “Princess, where is this from? Seriously.” 

“Well, the ladies and I were at work and Michelle got engaged so then we started talking about blowjobs and i didnt know what one was, well I do know what a blowjob is i just didn't know it’s formal name and-” 

“Hey!” Steve cuts off your soft rambles causing you to breath. “Look at me?” Hie large fingers cup your chin and bring your eyes to focus on his warm blues. “You’re enough for me.” He seals his words with a kiss. The kiss was sweet. Affirming to my insecure soul. The next kiss was less noble but just as passionate. The familiar burn sets in your chest as the kiss grows more heated. Steve’s skillful tongue wraps around yours in a way that is profane. A soft whimper escapes you as your boyfriend pulls away from you. 

“Stand up for me baby.” Steve commands through hasty breaths. You quickly stand before him, chest rising with anticipation. Steve’s sizable hands familiarize themselves with your body like they've done time before. He takes his time squeezing your breast. Even through the thick material of your top you can feel Steve's hands radiating heat into your skin. His hands then find your midriff rubbing his calloused hands into you making you squirm. 

“Steve,” You cooed impatiently. 

“Yes pretty girl?” His hands are placed on your hips now, working your jeans down your legs. His lips find the trimmings of your lace panties, placing soft microscopic kisses along the ‘v’ of the material. You intake sharply when Steve's lips meet your clothed mound. 

“Turn around for me sweetness.” you spin slowly moving on a form of autopilot. “Sit back.” He holds your waist guiding you to sit back down on his lap. He brings his knees between your legs before widening his stance, leaving you unable to close your legs on your own. 

“Baby?” His hands trail up your midsection, to tweak your beaded nipples through the thick material of your top. “You know how much i love you, right?” With each word warm air caresses the skin behind your ears. You feel amazing, he hasn't done much and you feel over the moon. A light pinch brings you to reality. “Hmm baby?” 

“I’m sorry,” You apologize for your hesitation “Yes I know how you love me.” 

“How much.” His colossal hands continue their assault on your chest. He gently pulls a nipple between his index and middle finger. A soft moan leaves you barely audible. 

“A whole-” Your answer is cut off when you feel heat separate from your own grazing your pussy. Unbenounced to you, Steve's hand had made his way to your slit and began to slowly circle the area. Another soft call leaves your silk lips. 

“Answer baby” 

“You love me a whole lot, to the moon and all the stars and back” 

“That’s right baby,” He pushes his finger into your clit with a little more pressure than before. “To the moon,” He pulls your panties up wrapping the moistened core around his thick fingers “To every single star.” His fists tighten as he prepares for destruction “And back.” he pops the fabric of your under garments and you gasp. His lips meet your neck again and place more kisses to your pulse points. 

“You know how much I love you,”His fingers introduce themselves to your slick folds. The sounds of light sloshing make you aware of just how turned on you are. Your head falls back unable to maintain even breathing. “You know, so how could you let one conversation mess with your mind?” The conversation that once brought you immense embarrassment was now a complete after thought. Steve's fingers were torturing you sweetly. Your clit vibrates against his tough skin as his warm slick lips meet your juggler leaving open ended kisses. 

“You’re so pretty baby.” kiss. “My little princess.” kiss. “You gonna let me make you feel good?” Instead of a kiss Steve licks down towards your collarbone. 

“Yes.” You hiss unsure of how to react. You’ve had intimate moments with Steve before but nothing like this. “Yes Stevie, please make me feel good.” Steve pushes his nose into the back of your neck inhaling deeply, 

“You're so sweet honey, so polite.” His left hand is firmly pressed against your core while his right hand runs underneath your top lifting it to reveal one breast. He presses down on your clit causing you to whimper. 

“Stevie.” you whine. Your body begins to wither on top of him. “Please baby, I need more” Your eyes roll to the back of your head as you grind into Steve’s stiffness. Steve dips his middle finger into you. “Mmhhmm” you cry out from the pleasure. Your skin is hot and your ears hear a slight ringing. 

“You see how you make me feel, doll?” and you do. Your hips gyrate over his in a circular motion. You feel his hard stomach against your back then his well built member pressing firmly into his denim causing you to moan. Your music only fuels Steve more. 

“One day,” His ring finger joins the middle one and he speeds up his violation. “Instead of my fingers it’ll be my dick in you.” Steve’s control is admirable. With every dip of his digits a wet click follows as a response. The once light sloshing is now replaced by intense leaking. You can't remember a time you've ever been this wet. Your arousal is overflowing. “I’m gonna fill you up baby, I’m gonna make you feel so good.” 

“I love this sweet pussy.” He whispers more so to himself rather than to you. All you can do is moan. 

“You’re gripping me so tight baby girl… you like me playing with your pussy?” Your head is spinning, Steve’s voice is the only thing cutting through the white noise of your mind. Steve has never spoken to you this way. His words ignite a fire in your core as the familiar build of an orgasm approaches. He takes notice of your approaching release. 

“I want to see you squirt pretty girl,” Your hips jolt forward as Steve curls his fingers within you. “Come on, be a good girl and squirt for Captain.” He’s now slamming his fingers into creating a vulgar splashing everytime his palm meets your mound. 

“Oh my god oh my god oh my god.” Your voice raises higher with each connection. Your right nipple is exposed to Steve taunting him. His lips wrap around the nub causing you to arch closer to him. He swirled the muscle in his mouth around your nipple in a way that was heinous. 

“Please Stevie, please.” You sink your nails into his high attempting you bring your bodies closer, if that was even possible. 

“Come on, I want my sweet girl to feel good.” The combination of Steve’s lengthy fingers continue their manipulation to your internal walls, his right hand presses firm semi circles into your pleasure button and you see white. Your orgasm ripples through you like an intense wave. Your literal wave splashes across Steve’s thigh and he chuckles. You’re faintly aware of him licking your arousal off his fingers. 

“Stevie…” You sobbed from the stimulation. “Stevie.” His name is the only thing coherent in your mind. 

“I know, I know pretty girl.” Steve coos. His hands slow pace calming you down through the aftershocks of release. “You look so beautiful when cum.” He smiles widely as he smacks your thigh. 

“I can’t wait to see you do that on my dick.”

#smut writing #steve rogers #steve rogers fanfic #steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers smut #steve rogers x reader #ginger requests #chris evans x reader #chris evans smut #steve rogers x you #steve rodgers imagine #steve rogers fic #honeygingergemini #chris evans black!reader #chris evans x black reader #steve rogers x black!reader

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Final Four: The Life and Crimes of Scrooge McDuck Review! or The Batman Trial Episode but with Ducks, Sharks, And the Fonz

Hello all you happy people and welcome to the penultimate Ducktales review... for season 3 anyway. I still have most of season 1, all of season 2 (I did cover one but I’ll probably redo it), the tie-in comics, the 87 series, and even then i’ll never really be done with ducks between all the scrooge comics and other duck related shows like Darkwing Duck and Quack Pack. But as far as covering the show as it comes out as i’ve done for the past year, that’s’ts almost done. It’s honestly just starting to hit as I type this: this is the second to last episode. After next week while there’s always fan fiction (And I certainly aim to contribute to that), a possible Darkwing Duck Reboot under frank (though that’s in doubt) where they could show up, and a movie down the road given what we saw with Phienas and Ferb and the show’s popularity it’s still not the same as getting these well animated, well crafted adventures every week with breaks or the ocasional entire week of them. The show won’t go on, and whatever happens with the property next is a mystery no amount of ducks can solve. 

So with all that in mind naturally this episode is a breather episode: It’s not unimportant: like the rest of the season it ties off a lot of loose ends, adds in some stuff we didn’t know we wanted, and in general feels necessary like every episode this season. It’s something I credit the season for immensley: They knew this would probably be it so while they had more stories to tell, they made sure if these were their last, to leave no loose ends. And outside of ones they just never wanted to address in the first place like “What happened to Donald’s parents”, “Why was every trace of Della missing despite Scrooge’s search for her having just ended”, and “What did Della thing of the decades long seperation”, they’ve tied up pretty much all of them except for FOWL and what Beakly was lying about, and I feel both are about to ducktail into one another int he finale. Could be wrong but  I applaud them for tying off almost every loose end and character arc by this episode that isn’t related to FOWL in some way. Not every show can do that: She Ra was a masterpiece but still had a few things like Scorpia and Catra’s broken relationship, Hordak’s reformation and Adora’s Parents just left up in the air due to time constraints, Steven Universe ONLY got to go back and answer a lot of questions because they were lucky enough to get an epilogue mini series, and Star Vs... was not as good as either show by the end and by the finale about 80% of things it’d brought up all had the following answer:

My point is it’s VERY hard, even when you know the end is coming to tie everything up in a neat bow. And I can’t know how good the finale be or how satsifying it will be but given how well this season’s wrapped everything up so far,  i’m betting on immensely. But we can talk about that when it finally comes around next week. For now we have a trial episode to talk about that’s mostly good.. mostly. See why the mostly under the cut as I discuss and recap the episode with full spoilers.  Count it down!

We open in the Mansion, where a bunch of tribble like Fuzzy creatures are running amok. Unsuprisingly, Scrooge bought one for Louie as a pet to teach him responsiblity.. again. And once again he instead turned into a get rich quick scheme, didn’t read the manual and now they have an infestation. 

ONCE AGAIN, Louie is written like he’s barely changed at all in the past three seasons. Anyone whose been following my reviews regularly knows this has been a pet peeve of mine for the entire season. Despite having an ENTIRE arc about Louie growing as a character and learning the human cost of his scheming and to use his angle seeing talent’s wisely, the writers keep writing him as if he learned nothing. I went back to track it and while not as often as it felt I noticed a few things. The first is that it WASN’T like this for the first half of the season. No really. He even learns brand new lessons in The Trickening and Louie’s Eleven. Granted he also exploits his uncle in Louie’s Eleven but that’s mostly played for laughs.. still not a great bit but not a major part of the episode. 

So he was fine for the first act of the season... but then for whatever reason from Let’s Get Dangerous onwards (Again I don’t count the Christmas episode as both of those are meant to slot in anywhere and chronologically take place before this season for the timeline to make any sense), he’s just...

He’s utterly insufferable in his small parts of the first half of Let’s Get Dangerous! as he berates Huey for daring to look a gifthorse int he mouse.. even though everytime he’s seemingly got something for nothing or minimal effort it’s backfired and it’s something that seeemd to stick with “The Richest Duck in the World!”. He’s fine in Impossibin and alright in split sword as while he clearly hadn’t learned lying isn’t the best policy we at least got a good story out of it. He then went right back to obnoxious with New Gods on the Block where he, EPISODES AFTER THE SOLEAGEO FISACO again thinks an easy way out is the right way, and has NO guilt over possibly killing a bunch of people with his gold powers and in fact is disapointed he dosen’t get to keep a living being turned to gold!. He spents all of Fight for Castle McDuck being a huge dick to Huey AGAIN iwth no lesson, and now has yet another family endagering get rich quick scheme he feels no remorse about. 

I will admit when I”m wrong and I DID think it was in way more of the season than I thought. And let’s face it in real life personal issues don’t just go away and you can sometimes slide back, i’ve done it way too many times and i’m not proud of it. We’re only human. But this isn’t real life, this is cartoon ducks. And cartoon duck wise most character development has stuck or if a bad trait’s come back it’s been in a new way. Webby is still trusting, but knows how the world works now and while idolizing scrooge dosen’t think he’s perfect anymore. Huey is no longer a skpetic towards the super natural and hasn’t forced a party on anyone. Dewey hasn’t craved other people’s love or thought he needed to earn his mom’s love again. And that’s just the other kids. They aren’t the same people theyw ere going in, neither is Louie. So it’s grating when an episode acts like h’es exactly the same, let alone almost a fifth of the season.

What makes it even worse though is that he had an ENTIRE STORY ARC dedicated to learning some of these lessons already. With the others if one episode were forgotten i’d let it slide as it happens with tv, i’m used to it. It’s not a great look but it happens. Mistakes happen again we’re all human. But you can’t act like an entire arc of a series didn’t exist. While they ignore Della’s history somehow being hidden for the rest of the show they don’t ignore that Dewey spent a whole season looking for her, as he never hides something like that from his brothers again nor do they, and he’s out of them the biggets mama’s boy. While they did take a while to adress Lena, partly because the episode got pushed back, they didn’t act like season 1 never happened and she was still working for her aunt. Della still isn’t on the moon and Owlson still isn’t working for glomgold. Actions. Have. Consequences. That’s the whole point of this episode, but they act like none of it got through to louie and it makes his arc feel like a giant waste in hindsight. This episode even feels like it was SUPPOSED to be in that arc: Louie is back to his season 2 characterization, Scrooge is actively trying to mentor him again.. it just feels really out of place as our second to last episode in that way and drags it down a bit.

Thankfully after Scrooge bars the door, and possibly leaves everyone to their deaths but he presumably has enough faith in the kids, the twins and Beakley to take care of it, he gets a summons to court.. and gets kidnapped. He and Louie are whisked away to a mystic court presided over by a giant statue of justice holding scales, that judges someone based on Karma. Scrooge’s foes have brought him to court, blaming him for being evil and if he looses he looses EVERYTHING. And their proscutor? 

Sadly not Droopy, maybe next continuity, but searing the same Hannibal-Esque Getup is Doofus Drake to Louie’s horror. As for why he’s like this.. he thought iht was fun. Great gag. 

After the credits we find out why he’s doing this: He’s still pissed about Louie taking half his inheritance and giving it to his family, so he’s going to take LOUIE’S inheritance. It’s.. honestly a great setup: Doofus was already a villian I liked, being a nice weird evil mirror dewey instead of a walking fat joke like last series. So I was glad to both see him pop up one last time to make it a full trilogy of apperances as an angonist and to see him take a step up from his passive roll in the past: in his first two apperances while he was evil and abusive, and still is, his evil was mostly due to his own warped logic, feeling he could put shock collars on and control people and that Louie lying to him was enough to warrant making him into a pinata. He’s still a bad person mind you: kid or not he ensdlaved his parents, tried to enslave louie and goldie and in general REALLY needs some help empathizing with people. But my point is that before he didn’t come after anyone.. so it’s a nice capper to have his final turn as antaognist be him going after our hero.. and at his most dangerous. Before someone would’ve come for Louie eventually in Doofus’ first apperance and Goldie would’ve found a way out or Scrooge, despite grumbling about it, would’ve helped.. if nothing else than to lord having to save her from a 12 year old over her. Here if he wins the family is out on the street and three of their greatest enemies are now infinitely more well funded. 

So while naturally unnerved by his rival Louie offers to defend Scrooge who denies it despite the fact that Louie is REALLY good with words, and Scrooge, while not bad with them, can’t stop shouting and keeps pissing off the baliff, played by my boy Henry Winkler whose done a lot of voice work and also played Fonzie on Happy Days, is currently on the HBO series barry and in general is just a fucking delight. The irony is also not lost on me that he’s not playing a lawyer here despite being one on arrested development. 

We get our first witness: FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD. Hell. Yes. It’s nice to see him in his full glory one last time, as I don’t know how much he’ll be in the finale. Scrooge blows of the Duke Baloney thing, which is fair given that while Scrooge screwed up there, Glomgold still stole money from him right after and then spent his whole life trying to one up him. But Glomgold has a different tale in mind as he stole something else from him: the limelight. 

It was 1980-something and Glomgold was a bonified celebrity in Duckberg for his hot dogging, grandstanding and treasure hunting loved by all and took Baba Wawa, a nice mix of Barbra Walters and the parody of her on SNL by the late Gilda Radner, to a shark shaped cave to get the gem of the shark god, a ruby tooth at the end of the cave. Naturally Scrooge popped up and easily made his way through and stole the spotlight. As it turns out he wasn’t always well loved and it makes sense: he dismises Baba asking him about how disliked he is, and dosen’t care and even in the current story, or rather season 1 of it, he dismiseed PR entirely in Jaw$. He was rich enough and enough of a job provider he just didn’t see the need for fame or glory, that just came second so it’s logical no one liked him. Fortunes naturally reverse as you’d expect though: Glomgold dashes forward and ends up putting Baba and her camerabird in danger and being Glomgold he irrationally assumes she’s working for Scrooge and leaves her to die. Scrooge however, after getting the rock, goes out of his way to save her because it’s the right thing to do. He can be selfish at times, and as we’ll see monstrously so, but at his core Scrogoe is a good man who will do right when the chips are down. So this leaves Glomgold trapped and Scrogoe getting his good press instead and realizes he likes the attention. 

As the flashback ends Glomgold fills in the gaps, pointing out he was stuck with the sharks for days, but slowly bonded with them learned from them and they became family, helping him with traps, joining him for thanksgiving and even getting a heart taatoo with a shark on it. Awww. Look I didn’t really need to know where Glomgold’s love of sharks came from, nor that he had some weird tarzan origin story with them.. but my life is 100% better knowing all of this so thank you Frank and Matt. Thank you. I’m also entirely convinced the two have had this whole part of his backstory ready to go for three seasons and were waiting to use it, along with the other two bits we’re about to get to. This episode as you can tell is also a vingette episode, but one where the wraparound is way more improtant than usual.. but it works given the setting and allows the stories to be as long as they actually need to be, and it addds some nice stakes instead of just having Scrooge’s villians gripe about him. 

Scrooge protests and the Bailiff puts a clamp on his beak, so he has no choice in the matter when Louie steps up for the defense. Louie also proves that irresponsible he may be.. he’d be a damn good lawyer, as he easily picks things apart, pointing out Glomgold was ALREADY bad by then, Scrooge had no intent to steal the spotlight and Glomgold is currently planting dynamite under his chair, with predictable and hilarious results. So he gets put on the “good” side of the scale. Next witness.

Next up is Ma, and I was delighted that as I’d hoped and theroized this episode wrapped up one little plot point that while not major, was something I was curious about: Ma’s claims Scrooge stole Duckburg from her family.  This was also likely the backbone of the episode at one point as Frank pitched a beagle trial episode at one time, but Disney nixed it. Likely the magic stuff was added both to justify it better and to distract Disney Channel’s higher ups because they constantly underestimate what a child will like. It was for the best though as the beagles are just a bit weaker here: While Character Actress Margo Martindale is a delight and was specifically cast for the role, overall it just feels like they ran out of ways to make the beagles a big threat and releigated them to muscle when needed, to the point they only appeared in one episode besides this one this season as with FOWL about, they didn’t really need villians of the week and what ones they did use like Glomgold and Mark were far more entertaining villains who needed a coda to their stories.They aren’t bad characters, but in a series where their breaking into the bin or mansion wasn’t a story the crew was interested in they served no real purpose. 

So we finally get answers about the whole Deed thing: It was sometime in Ma’s childhood, good look guessing when, and the Beagles owned Duckburg having clearly overwhelmed Fort Duckburg at some point in history between Clinton’s defense of it and now, with Grandpa “Pa” Beagle finally making an apperance. In the comics he was basically what Ma is to both series: the scheming brains behind the beagles who showed up on occasion and it was a good idea to use him as the past version of her. 

Scrooge naturally comes a calling and unsurprisingly Ma was lying: Scrooge offered to buy the place first from Pa, he refused outright, and then when Scrooge showed off the money he was offering, Pa bet the deed for it in an arm wrestling contest. Not only that but as Scrooge finds out as he almost looses, Pa was cheating having a smaller beagle boy operate pull a lever in a device attached to his arm to give pa extra force. Scroooge simply dropped a few coins to distract the guy and claimed victory and the deed. 

Little Ma is left dejected though and Doofus claims he ruined his life, but Louie steps up, at this poitn Scrooge has learned to reign himself ina nd accepted Louie as his defense without saying anything, a nice subtle bit. He probably realized that while irrepsonsible.. Louie has everything to loose her and no reason to slack off and dosen’t even relaly have to lie for his uncle to get him off: he’s simply using his ablitiy to see all the angles to poke holes in their story. 

Case in point, he orders the “tape” to continue and finds Little Ma berating her dad for his failure and forcefully taking control of the family. LIke Glomgold, Scrooge may of cost her something.. but it was something she and her family hadn’t earned and they were still on a bad road. Scrooge just made it worse. 

But suprisingly, its MAGICA, who we’ve established is an uncaring monster, who has a story Scrooge genuinely feels bad about. Like the rest she was not a good person: Long ago she and her brother Poe were extorting a villiage, and lording over it as gods, changing the population into goats, toads and other things. The only diffrence from what Magica would do to the blot and presumiibly others later, is that Poe reigned in her manical tend ices, trying to get her to think things through. The goat transformation was so they’d have milk and at least get something out of it and as to not waste all their slaves. Poe is voiced by Martin Freeman of The Hobbit and Black Panther fame. Great actor, does amazing work here.  So like the others Scrooge changed things, and fought someone with bad intentions for his own self. He talked Magica into fighting him with both amulets by playing into her ego and Poe trying to talk her down, and easily deflected her bolt with the dime to turn her into a crow with her own spell. So far it’s just like the other tales in a nice mirror.. it’s what comes next that makes Scrooge into a  bad guy too. Not as bad as Magica and Poe.. but sitll not good. Poe dives selflessly in front of the coin.. and shockingly while she cared nothing for Lena.. that wasn’t the case for Poe. Magica is truly devastated, desperatly trying to put the amulet back on and begging scrooge for help while he just ignores her and fills up his sack. And while they both deserved it... Scrooge and Louie both recognize he was wrong as the flashback ends with Poe escaping and Magica sitll haven’t having found him to this day. And props to Catharine Tate here a she takes a normally hammy terrible person who was wholly unsympathetic and manages to make her painfully human.  

What makes the act so terrible is not who it happened to, they both desrved it, but Scrooge’s attitude, utterly callous to magica’s pain with not a drop of sympathy. While she deserved it as did Poe.. he’s not doing this to her as some justice for her crimes, or because she did something horrible to him or any valid reason.. he’s doing it because he’d rather get more of her and poes gold than lift one finger to help someone who had , for all his evil, selflessly sacrificed himself for his sister. For all Poe’s evil and tyranny.. there MIGHT of been a good man in them, in both of them.. and Scrooge could’ve cared less. He shut the door on Magica ever becoming a good person, ever getting her brother back to line his own wallet and to satisfy his own ego. See that’s the true mark of a hero: how they treat others, even the worst of them. And in his lowest moment Scrooge could’ve cared less about anyone but himself. 

Scrooge feels bad and Louie does finally get the responsibility thing and this is where things start to go off the rails: he apologizes to Doofus and admits he dosen’t want an enteral rivalry and h’es sorry for any pain he caused. The off the rails part is because Doofus is genuinely not a good person, ahs done very bad things and is trying to bankrupt Louie for the crime of “taking half your fortune after you used it to torment and enslave your own parents’. It just.. dosen’t play as well as they’d like. That said I DO like both Louie deciding to bury the hatchet instead of just avoiding him and Doofus showing some nobiity in accepting it. Maybe he’ll change. 

He goes off into the night, and Scrooge genuinely apologizes and accepts repsonsiblity... and here’s where the plot finishing going off the rails and into someone’s living room: the bailiff AWARDS THEM SCROOGE’S FORTUNE BECAUSE HE ADMITTED SOME CUPLABLITY AND WAS HUMBLE. 

This just.. it makes no sense, it will never not baffle me and it hurts my brain> Yes he admitted some wrong doing and apologized for it.. but it was also THROUGHLY proven the other two weren’t his fault, and he was simply being a good man which should get him some good. Thankfully the conclusion is a bit better, as Louie points out while they made him, he made you so who made who, who made you... okay i’m getting into the AC/DC of things point is these incidents all shaped Scrooge into a better person.  His mistake with Magica. is clearly learned from. He’s stopping a group of bullies in Ma’s story and saving a life without a second thought in the second. He learned to value others, to value family all because THEY showed him what happens when you don’t. By seeing the worst person he could be.. he became the best. So the trial’s thrown out his assets are returned, and their teleported out before magica can hit them with lighting. Lesson learned.. well kinda Louie tells scrooge to do it because he got the pet. 

Final Thoughts for The Life and Crimes of Scrooge McDuck:

Great title aside.. this one is a mess. It’s not a terrible episode: the flashbacks are genuinely engaging, each one helping flesh out the villians and in Ma’s case pulling one last dangling plot thread. Glomgold’s was just entertaining , clevelry using his 80′s origns for an 80′s style news special and giving us the origin to his love of sharks that we didn’t know we needed., Ma’s tied up a loose plot threat with a fun flashback and Magica’s was genuinely heart wrenching and did the tall task of making us feel for someone that terrible. The wraparound.. was a bit weaker. Doofus was the best part, playing an excellent manipulative bastard lawyer, and being a genuine threat and his walking away peacefully was a nice touch, and Louie having to defend scrooge was great and showed him off better than ever. And Louie did get some moments to shine.. it was just wierldy bookened with him acting terribly AGAIN, in a way he should know better than in an episode where he acts fine for most of it and even then he thinks lying to a judge is a good idea! I know he’s 12 but he’s not this stupid and while as I made very clear i’ve seen this shit before, I haven’t seen it flip flop in the same episode. Louie deserves better than this. 

But it’s also in service to a responsiblility aseop that just.. dosen’t work as presented. Yes you should take responsiblity for your past, yes you should learn from your mistakes and own up to them, I have, and yes it’s all too easy to slide back> That’s all fine.. but him apologizing to Ma, whose family was terorrizing a town, and Glomgold, who he did nothing to, and having Louie apologize to Doofus, who while he tried to exploit him still enslaved his own parents and deserved to loose half his fortune AND loosing half his fortune wasn’t even the main thing Louie wanted to do as his main goal was getting BOYD a loving family.. it’s bullshit. Just pure Grade-A bullshit. Why are you booing them their right. It’s a good idea for a moral but it’s executed so overwhelmingly poorly it bogs down what was otherwise an exceptional episode, into just passable.  It’s just mind numbing and saddening to know the next to last episode wasted so much good ideas on a clumsy moral. Thankfully I have hope the finale will be better, and again at least we got some good out of this one. 

Next Time: Endgame Baby! Clan McDuck and their Amazing Friends Vs F.O.W.L. for the fate of adventure itself! One last ride! I can hardly wait!

This week on the blog: Ducks Ducks and more ducks.. and a top 12 list of my faviorite superheroines later today’s for international women’s day. But after that we have more of the Della arc, the last step in the Lena arc before Shadow War next week, and the 87 ducktales pilot treasure of the golden suns!

If you liked this review, share it around, follow for more, and you can comission your own for 5 dolalrs an issue or episode, or kick in some money on my patroen, link on my blog. Even a dollar a month helps and my next stretch goal is 5 dollars away and if we reach it i’ll review both the super ducktales mini series introducing gizmoduck AND a darkwing duck episode a month. Until the next rainbow it’s been a pleasure. 

#ducktales #the life and crimes of scrooge mcduck #scrooge mcduck #louie duck #doofus drake #magica de spell #poe de spell #FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD #ma beagle #the beagle boys #disney channel #disney #ducks #uncle scrooge

[douchebagbrainwaves]

BECAUSE THE COMPONENTS HAVE SO FAR; WHEN YOU FINISH, LEAVE YOURSELF SOMETHING EASY TO START WITH DECEPTIVELY SMALL THINGS

Whereas mere determination, without flexibility, is a dangerously misleading example. Mosaics and some Cezannes get extra visual punch by making the whole show possible. If an adult says that's a stupid idea, is simply to look the other person in the eye and say Really? Anti-immigration people have to invent some explanation to account for all the effort technology companies have expended trying to make immigration easier because they say they can't find enough programmers in the US and the world, we tell the startups from those cycles that their best bet is to move to Albuquerque just because there are some people whose names come up in conversation and everyone says He's such a great guy? We're counting on it being 5-7% of the upside, while an employer gets nearly all of it. Throw them off a cliff, and most will find on the way out. Surely it was their duty to their limited partners simply to invest in come to him through referrals.

And mind you, this an example where things turned out well. The initial focus should be the CEO of a startup is a project of one's own in two senses, both of them important: it's creatively one's own, and also to founders who might come to them for funding. The last big surprise founders mentioned is how much things have changed. The New York Times. I suspect a lot of investors and founders, they'll send deals your way. Investors don't like to have too much money tied up in any one deal. Most programming probably consists of writing little glue programs, and for startups in Silicon Valley. It may be time to fix that. Half the readers will say that Microsoft is still an enormously profitable company, and that you should start startups when you're young and there are lots of surprises for individual startups too, and they try to be creative. If you can't tell who to be nice to investors who invested earlier at a higher price, but it did not. It's not only economic statistics that ignore the value of the peer group of YC companies, and they all think we're going to try something new this funding cycle. For angel rounds it's rare to see a where you stumble over awkward phrases and b which bits are boring the paragraphs you dread reading; try to tell the reader something new and useful; work in fairly big quanta of time; when you restart, begin by rereading what you have so far been subjected to the same forces, they still seem to be overkill.

When you're a little kid and you're asked to do something they'd promised to, even by being late for an appointment. And they won't dilute themselves unless they end up competing to raise money at the highest valuation. Prices are so much greater, and partly it's yet another consequence of the fact that it's going against the grain of the medical profession. When do you give up? Also, you've never been to this house before, so you don't contradict it. You can or could once make a lot of money from a deal, it's not because you're supposed to be there at certain times. I lived for a while in Florence. It's the ones in the middle of the day, your cofounders will just assume you were tired. Several of the most interesting of the lot. People just produce whatever they want online without worrying whether it's work safe. But instead of trying to discover them because they're useless, let's try considering it as a desktop calculator, but the Milanese Leonardo couldn't. But events like Demo Day only account for a fraction of matches between startups and investors.

When you think you've got a great idea, it's sort of like having a guilty conscience about something. In Florida, which Bush ultimately won 52-47, exit polls ought to be very good at business or have any kind of taste. Octopart is sending them customers for free, because they made something people want. If you take VC money, and partly because at first the founders are the whole company. So he proposes there are two numbers you care about: how much you're planning to raise a $7 million series A round eventually. But of course there were the usual nightmares associated with servers. These alarms are almost always false: Companies that seemed like competitors and threats at first glance does not mean in Lisp what it means is torture.

When they do favors they don't seem any happier for it. People can notice you've replaced email when it's a fait accompli. I were a boss making people work this hard. And in fact, to anyone who wanted to make web apps work like desktop ones. Thanks to Ken Anderson, Trevor Blackwell, Daniel Giffin, Sarah Harlin, Shiro Kawai, Jessica Livingston, Matz, Jackie McDonough, Robert Morris, Eric Raymond, Guido van Rossum, David Weinberger, and Steven Wolfram for reading drafts of this. The saddest windows close when other people die. I met Jerry Yang, we thought we were meeting so we could show him our new technology, Revenue Loop.

After my mother died, I wished I'd spent more time with her. It's hard even to imagine. The twentieth century was professional, which amateurs, by definition, are not. Some investors want to know whether you want them as a web service. Most of the legal restrictions on employers are intended to protect employees. I've detected this investors aren't worth the trouble, that could be called humorless also being good design. Whereas Marc Andreessen says he'd back ok founders in a hot market over great founders in a bad one.

In fact we usually only get several hundred. If anywhere should be quiet, that should. This essay is derived from a talk at the 2007 ASES Summit at Stanford. You'll be better off if you operate like Columbus and just head in a general westerly direction. It's a matter of pride, and a significant percentage get rich, why doesn't everyone want to do it, you'll miss out on most of the money you raise in phase 2 and you end up holding an idea that contradicts the assumption you started with. Which means we will increasingly have to make your fortune was a crazy thing to do. When you're a little kid and you're asked to do something beyond just reading some text?

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #valuation #work #group #upside #quanta #McDonough #while #fortune #employers #Stanford #ones #polls #essay #duty #project #surprises #assumption #ASES #people #money #get #something #glance

[pajama-nerd]

Reading my way through Fazbears Frights, thinking about how none of these protagonists have ever interacted with any kind of horror media.

Reader Beware: Spoilers Ahead

Into the Pit didn’t read like time travel to me. It read more like a particular kind of haunting where the negative energy of all of the bad shit that happened at that location was locked into the one remaining 'feature' of the location: the ball pit. And Pit-Bonnie isn't the ghost of Afton, but rather the entity that was created from the memories of all that bad energy.

And the interesting thing to me about Pit-Bonnie is that - aside from the inherent creepiness of the situation and the fact that he had literally one facial expression (he can’t even blink for cryin’ out loud) - he didn't attempt to harm Oswald until Oswald went back to rescue his dad. Once Pit-Bonnie was away from the negative energy that had spawned him, he did Dad Things™. He did them in the creepiest way possible, granted, but we don't actually know how he feels because of his inability to express.

Maybe he wanted to stay. Maybe he just wanted a break from that place. Maybe that place has a hold on him, and being away from it allowed him a measure of free will.

And the fandom that I’ve seen about the Dashboard has locked onto Pit-Dad-Bonnie because the general attitude of the fandom - as far as I've witnessed - has been 'Oh. A scary thing! Well, now it's friend-shaped.' (or, in this case, Dad shaped) so of course my immediate question is, 'how would the story have changed if Oswald had made a more serious attempt to communicate with Pit-Bonnie?'

The immediate, cynical response is 'well it would have slaughtered him' but that's infinitely less interesting than the possible alternatives.

Perhaps he takes in the fact that Pit-Bonnie can't talk, and proposes an alternate method of communication. I'm talkin construction paper and crayons. And he gets Pit-Bonnie to tell his story a la Nephrite from Steven Universe. About how one day he just was. And how sometime after that, that version of Fazbear's formed around him. And how there were happy, smiling kids laughing in the pizzeria and he was happy, but how every time he tried to be friends with the kids something would happen.

The world would flicker and they would just be in that back room, like that. How he was desperate for some kind of a connection and could never have one because those kids – those memories – were doomed to die by the memory of his hands. How he noticed Oswald because Oswald didn’t fit – he was real – and how he’d wanted Oswald to help him figure out how to change what had happened (or to make it stop), but Oswald had run away. About how he’d tried to fish Oswald out of the ballpit and gotten his dad instead. About deciding to take his dad’s place so that he could get away from that place and how being here with Oswald was nice. Driving him to school was nice. Making him dinner was nice. Cleaning the house with him was nice.

(Imagine Oswald getting less and less afraid as he interprets the story, checking in with PB occasionally to make sure he's getting it right. Getting slightly annoyed tho, because he's not getting rid of this rabbit, is he? But he still needs to rescue his dad, so now what?)

Oswald eventually tells PB that he can stay, which surprises but elates the rabbit. Then Oswald tells him they have to get his dad back.

There's a negotiation. Obviously, they have to get his dad back. Has Pit-Bonnie been going to his dad's job? What about taxes? Things his dad knows how to do? What about Oswald's mom? Is Pit-Bonnie just going to pretend to be his dad around her forever? What if she wants to do...like...parent stuff? With her husband? If you catch my drift (PB does not, in fact).

Eventually PB agrees, and even drives Oswald back to the same block as the pizza place. He doesn't get close to it - definitely doesn't park in the lot - but Oswald just tells him to wait in the car and goes and wakes his dad up from the ball pit. His dad is confused. Disoriented. Way out of it. Let's Oswald lead him back to the car and sits in the back, too out of it to comment on the yellow bunny mascot in the front seat. They return to the house without incident, and his dad passes out on the couch.

Oswald eventually figures out that PB is the one making his dad so loopy - that the connection PB formed so that he could know how to drive the car, how to work the vacuum cleaner, how to make Oswald's meals, is also keeping Oswald's dad borderline comatose. It takes some convincing to get PB to give that up. PB is afraid to give that up - afraid that if he doesn't have an anchor, he'll go back to being an aimless product of rage and murder.

Oswald's solution is to spread the bond out. He'll take part of it. If PB splits his focus, it'll be less of a strain on his dad, and PB will have more than one anchor. This has the added property of giving his dad the ability to see the seven-foot-tall grinning plush rabbit (he doesn't react well. Neither does mom. Oswald has never had to talk so much in his life)

So now Pit-Bonnie is a part of Oswald’s life, and it’s hella weird at first, but everyone gets over it, because eventually you just get numb to weirdness. Except Oswald becomes obsessed with Freddy Fazbears, in an Unsolved Mysteries kind of way. Starts researching the place wherever and however he can.

Pit-Bonnie helps, in his way, after they figure out a way to communicate efficiently (modified Sign Language, because being bonded to Oswald means that Pit-Bonnie knows how to do all the things that Oswald knows how to do. So Oswald learns sign language. Which means that Pit-Bonnie knows how to sign now. He still only has the one facial expression, which makes asking questions a little complicated, but they work it out).

I imagine that Pit-Bonnie is very tuned in to the weirdness/darkness vibe that Freddy’s and its remnants (ha) give off. He starts reading local and then state, and then national newspapers, and whenever he gets the Fazbear vibe, he sets the article aside for Oswald to look at. Also he doesn’t sleep, so in the first week of Oswald’s obsession, he generates a lot of leads for Oswald by going through back issues of...everything.

This is a rambly thing, but my point is that most horror has a solution and most of the time this solution is subverted by having it happen to people who have no experience with horror movies, books, comics, or other mediums, which is…I dunno. Kinda cheap.

‘What if they ever saw Frankenstein and sympathized with the monster enough to have empathy for this thing?’

‘They’re not horror fans. And the ones that are have never seen or read the stories where empathy solves the problem.’

To Be Beautiful (a terrible, one dimensional story with a terrible message about self-image told the way that high school stories in the 80's-90's were told, which wasn't even accurate to how highs schools were in the 80's-90's) could have been solved by literally anyone being more than passively curious about the drastic changes that Sarah was undergoing. (Puberty doesn't work that fast. Her whole freaking face changed). Or by her mom going into her room at some point and asking about the 5 foot robot doll.

Count the Ways has many solutions, although, really? She shoulda chosen starvation. More time to escape or be rescued is always, always, always going to be better than a 'maybe I won't be bifurcated’ any way you slice it (I’m not sorry), but I'm fond of the idea of Oswald coming across an article about ‘theft of proprietary animatronics from a Fazbear Entertainment property’ and it leading him to Milly’s grandfather’s house in time to save her. Along with his seven-foot-tall grinning plush friend who can alter people's perception.

Fetch could have been solved by treating Fetch like a dog. Seriously. He is dog shaped. He is therefore a dog, first and foremost. Dog first, killer animatronic second. Which Greg didn't fundamentally understand (he strikes me as a cat person anyway). But Fetch spent that entire story trying to do what he thought his master wanted, and never got so much as a 'good boy' out of it. He didn't even try to defend himself when Greg went to town on him with a baseball bat because he just wanted to be a good dog for his boy. And even after that, when Greg expressed a desire to see Kimberly, Fetch still wanted to do something to get his master to call him a good boy. Honestly, if - after being warned about Fetch - Kimberly had planted her feet and said 'Sit!' I would bet actual Faz-dollars that Fetch's haunches would have dropped to the pavement out of surprise alone, because it would have been the first time in the story someone treated him like a dog.

Alec was doomed to be a teddy-bear from the moment his parents picked up a ‘how to raise my kids’ book, but he’s still alive. There’s no reason he couldn’t be rescued (by Oswald, who’s on the trail of all the weirdness related to Freddy Fazbear. I’d read that story. I’d write that story. I will probably write that story)

The Plushtrap story...had no flaws. That was the only solution, and good on those boys for making all the right choices except for the initial choices that put them in that situation to begin with. A+. Those teeth, Jesus.

1:35 am could have been solved with an apology. Come on. For a character that was supposedly in the Foster Care system being bounced from home to home, you’d think she could empathize with an entity that didn’t appreciate being thrown away. A sincere apology, a promise to never do it again, and Ella would probably have forgiven her.

I don’t remember where I was going with this. I started writing it before I clocked on for work, but that was eleven hours ago. Who can remember where a train of thought that far back?

#fnaf #fazbear frights #ramble #headcanons #how to change the outcome of a horror story

[peach-pops]

um hi hi? ive never done this before so I’m kinda nervous I’m gonna mess it up. but just to get right to it, I was born female but I don’t know my gender or sexuality at the moment and I go by any pronouns. umum I like to think of myself as a chill and understanding person! if you need me I’ll be there and if you tell me secrets, I won’t tell anyone. I’m 5’5, I’m black, my eyes are brown, i have curly/kinky hair, I usually wear hoodies sweats tshirts and high tops(1)

(2)and I have freckles on my hands! I laugh at basically everything and I love to draw. I also love anime and manga. my hobbies are reading, sleeping, drawing, and being lazy. um I also scream a lot? and I’m always moving in some way, whether it be bouncing my leg or messing with my nails. I don’t have a fav song but I’m currently obsessed with the song, ‘here comes a thought’ from steven universe. I also have braces! and I would like a romantic matchup with bnha characters. I also love vines. ||  (3)oh and I also like to play fight/wrestle! ||  umum I forgot to mention in my matchup that I’m a sucker for pet names. like I will be all flustered and stuff. I’m so sorry I keep forgetting stuff you don’t have to do this anymore 😖

Don’t worry you did this perfectly! and thank you for sending in a matchup! Matchup rules here! and in bio!

I ship you with Sero!

Can we first talk about how underrated he was in this scene? UgH anyway

your relationship with him would probably start off as you two being friends who pined over each other for sooooo long until the bakusquad said screw it and made you two confess 

He is such a sweet boyfriend all around like he will never complain if you steal his clothes even if his closet is empty cause seeing you all cuddled up in his sweaters/hoodies makes his heart go uwu

He’s totally up for just laying in bed with you while you two scroll through your phones cause he just likes spending time with you. You can bet he would kiss all of the freckles on your hands too 

Sero will claim that he’s not whipped for you yet he’s def the type to  always around you, constantly needs to be touching you in some way and is an all around romantic 

Like he will drown you in cute and cringey pet names no matter where yall are

In Class? 

“ Hey sweetheart, can I scoot by you real quick?” 

Training?

“ Woah, careful there príncipe/princesa!” 

Sneaking into his dorm in the middle of the night while trying not to laugh?

“ *whispering loudly* Headass! You’re going to get us caught!” 

Ahhhhh romance 🥰

This is a sidetrack thing but in class, whenever you’re bouncing your leg, he’ll just nonchalantly place his hand on your knee and squeeze it lightly. IDK if he does it to say hey stop doing that or if he’s trying to reassure you but hey it’s the thought that counts

At the end of the day, he thinks the absolute world of you and he’s lucky to have someone as amazing as you are! 

Fun lil side thing for your quirk! 

Quirk: Sonic Scream-You have the ability to emit a destructive scream! 

One time while you were having a movie night with the rest of class 1A, you all put on a horror movie and when a jumpscare came up, you accidentally activated your quirk and screamed, knocking Bakugo and Mina off of the couch. Everyone, including your boyfriend, were hysterical except Mr grumpy pants. So yes, you did have to convince Bakugo to not rip your head off

#peach-pops-ships #watermelonsugaships #bnha ships

[missjanjie]

Branjie Fic | Take Me Back to the Start (2/?)

Title: Take Me Back to the Start Summary:   Everyone remembers their first love. Not everyone carries those feelings from childhood to senior year. Yet Brock is starting his last year of high school while still longing for the relationship he lost five years ago. Meanwhile, José is at the top of the food chain and seems to have it all together. But maybe their story isn’t over yet. Word Count: ~3.3k (this chapter) / ~6.4k (total) Relationship: Branjie (Brooke Lynn Hytes/Vanessa Vanjie Mateo) Rating: T (so far)

Read on AO3

Five Years Ago…

José lay on his stomach as he placed his notebook out in front of him. It was towards the end of the book, the point where the glitter from the cover would rub off on his wrist when he wrote (and on his bedspread, much to his mother’s chagrin). And the difference between the start and end of the journal was a stark contrast as well.

The first pages of the journal were sweet and endearing. The margins of the pages were littered with hearts and ‘B.H. + J.C.’ and the lines were filled with the rambling and emotions of a lovesick sixth grader. But the tone shifted page by page, up to where he was now, with his latest entries sounding like that of a melodramatic sixth grader instead.

I’m getting real tired of how B’s been acting lately. He always in a bad mood but he won’t say why. I mean I know he mad cuz he don’t like my crew, but that ain’t fair. I don’t got no problems with his friends, so what’s the big deal? I’m meeting him tomorrow and I don’t even wanna go. This sucks :(

Getting his feelings onto pages did make José feel a little better - maybe his guidance counselor had a point - but facing what would almost definitely be an argument with Brock filled him with dread, something he had never associated with the boy before.

Brock sighed as he stared out in front of him. The sun was starting to set and the playground felt emptier than ever. He dragged the toe of his shoe through the dirt, tracing aimless patterns. He should have never gotten his hopes up, he thought, gaze shifting to stare at the ground.

“Hey.”

He still didn’t look up. “You said you’d be here an hour ago.”

José sighed, he could feel the hurt in his voice. And the way he refused to make eye contact made it even clearer. “I’m sorry, okay? I knew you was gonna go in on me ‘bout this. I didn’t mean to, but–”

“But you were too busy having fun with your new friends,” he said flatly, as if it didn’t hurt him to acknowledge. “I get it. They’re cool and rich and whatever.” He looked up from the ground, but only to stare up at the sky instead. Ever since the newly-established popular kids took a shine to José, he felt like the boy he’d known for years was turning into a stranger. A stranger he wasn’t too fond of, at that.

And José was put on the defensive at the accusation. Regardless of whether or not it was accurate, it was harsh and stung when it came from someone he cared about. “I’m allowed to have other friends you know. You ain’t the boss of me.”

Brock rolled his eyes. “I’m not trying to be,” he retorted before his expression slipped back into a dejected one. “I just don’t wanna lose you to them.”

There was a beat of silence before José swallowed thickly. “Sounds like you’re tryna get me to choose between you and them.” Although his boyfriend was important to him, he was starting to feel overwhelmed. As innocent and light-hearted as their relationship had been, it was already a long one. But truth be told, he wanted the best of both worlds - he wanted Brock and his new clique, and he believed they could coexist if they tried. And he wanted to try.

“I’m not!” Brock got up and walked towards the edge where the dirt met the sidewalk. “But that just proves how separated we are because of them.”

“Then maybe we should separate,” he could hardly believe what he’d just blurted out. They were never supposed to break up, they even had a pretend wedding the past summer, where they promised to have a real one after college.

Although Brock had seen the writing on the wall, it didn’t spare him any pain, it didn’t make his heart break into any fewer pieces. His chest was aching and he had to work quickly to blink away the tears that welled up his eyes. “M-Maybe we should.” In a trembling voice, he forced himself to agree, doing his damnedest to hold it together.

And that was how it ended, the final nail in the coffin of a four-year relationship. They went their separate ways without another word. But the silence didn’t last – it led to many nights spent crying into their pillows, to awkwardly finding excuses to avoid each other at school. And sure, there was an attempted reconciliation over spring break, but they ended up facing the bitter reality that nothing would ever be the same.

Present Day

Brock could easily understand why everyone flocked to José – he was charming, effervescent, he was beautiful. There was simply no doubt about the magnetic attraction he must possess. And truth be told, he admired it, rather than envying it. He didn’t think he could handle the constant spotlight, having it on stage was more than enough as far as he was concerned.

“You’re staring again,” Courtney observed, poking his cheek to divert the attention he was giving far too freely to the boy at the other table.

“Am not,” he mumbled. His cheeks heated and turned red, and he pulled the hood of his sweatshirt up to further curl into himself.

Both of his friends snickered at the haphazard cover-up, which only caused his blush to deepen.

“If you’re trying to keep your crush under wraps, you could stand for some subtlety,” Steven chided and got flipped off in response.

Still, Brock couldn’t stop himself from stealing one more glance. This time, he noticed something out of the ordinary. “He’s not sitting next to Kyle,” he noted, his tone lighter.

Courtney perked right back up. “Oh, you don’t know?” She grinned while he stared blankly. “Okay, so, Kyle went to work at a sleep away sports camp over the summer and ‘allegedly’ hooked up with another counselor. So now they’re on the rocks.”

If any of them were to know any specific details of José’s personal life, it would be Courtney - for the sole reason that they were both on the cheerleading team, and gossip spread like wildfire among them. They weren’t friends per sé - probably because it was clear where her loyalties lay - but she was able to keep Brock up to date, whether he wanted to be or not.

“Huh, interesting.” He nodded, trying his best not to let a smile crack.

And unbeknownst to Brock, that connection she had was good for more than just gossip – it was the missing piece that was about to put their reunion plans into action.

It all started that afternoon after cheer practice. The coach had just ended the session with an empowering (if not a bit intimidating) speech about how important the upcoming qualifier competition would be to the year’s success. And that was exactly the segue Courtney needed.

“You know,” she mused, as if she hadn’t rehearsed it a dozen times, “my friend, Brock, had a bunch of dance competition wins under his belt. I bet if he and José work one on one, they could come up with a killer routine.”

The coach pressed her lips into a line as she mulled it over. There didn’t seem to be any issue she could see with bringing in someone with a useful set of skills. “Alright, if your friend’s ready, I think we can get started by Friday.”

“Perfect! I mean, I’m sure he will be. I’ll go let him know,” she assured, scurrying off before the woman could get another word in edgewise.

She shrugged, then turned and blew her whistle. “José, c’mere!”

José looked up from the conversation he’d been having with two of his teammates and jogged over. “What’s up?”

“Courtney’s bringing in her friend that’s some dancing prodigy or whatever, and she’s convinced you two can work on a routine that’ll secure us that qualifying position. So, you’re gonna partner off with him during Friday’s practice. Plan accordingly.”

She left before he could respond, but it didn’t take him too long to put two and two together. And the second he did, his heart started to beat faster and his cheeks felt red hot.

It normally took a hell of a lot to make José nervous. Whether he was confident in his success or failure, he took on everything headfirst and sorted it out later. But this was different, he had no idea what would happen. He hadn’t been alone with Brock since their brief attempt at getting back together all those years ago. How was he supposed to ‘plan accordingly’ for something like that?

“Babe?”

José jumped and turned around, his heart leaping into his throat. He was embarrassed to admit he’d expected to see Brock, not Kyle. “Huh?”

“I said, are you ready to go or are you still blowing me off?” He repeated, rolling his eyes with his arms crossed.

He cleared his throat and ran his hand through his hair. “Uh, yeah… Just lemme get changed.”

“Mhm,” Kyle was already on his phone, texting away and giving a quick nod in confirmation.

José didn’t realize how badly he needed a shower until he stepped under the hot water. He groaned and rubbed his hands against his face. “What the fuck?” he muttered, resting his arm against the wall and pushing his forehead against his arm, sighing heavily as his gaze drifted to the floor.

God, how he wished he had the words to explain how he felt, how the prospect of being alone with Brock for the first time in a long time sent his heart and soul into overdrive. He wondered if he would have been more calm about it if he and Kyle were on more comfortable terms - reuniting with your ex while your current relationship had one foot in the grave seemed like a dangerous combination in it of itself.

But when it came down to it, José knew there was only one option. He just had to act as if Brock was any other classmate or teammate he had to work with - nothing more, nothing less. As he walked back to his boyfriend from the locker room, he even bordered on optimistic - maybe they could walk away from this as friends again.

------

Brock leaned against the bleachers that bordered the football field and took a drag off his cigarette. “I just wish you had run this plan by me first.” It was clear that he was actively working to remain calm, but the agitation in his tone still remained.

“I don’t see why you’re so worked up about it.” Courtney shrugged, sitting on one level of the bleachers with her arm propped up on the one above her. “This is totally in your wheelhouse.”

“I’m not a choreographer! I’ve never created a routine for a dozen people, or literally anyone but myself,” he groaned, resting his head against the metal beam.

She leaned over, her arms dangling off the side. “That’s why it’s gonna be a joint effort. You guys can combine your knowledge and that’s how you’ll bond. See? I’m smarter than you think I am.” She looked to Steven to back her up, but he put his hands up to let the two of them duke it out.

“Or you watch too many movies,” Brock huffed.

And maybe the plan was a little idealistic. Maybe there was too much room for failure for his comfort. But it was the only thing they could come up with, and it had already been put into action. Sure, Brock did know that he could bail on this if he was certain this would blow up in his face, but part of him did want to hang onto a glimmer of hope that maybe his friends were onto something. Besides, he doubted an opportunity to be alone with José would present itself in any other fashion any time soon.

So, he decided to go along with it. He spent all of his free time over the following days researching group choreography and watching cheer routine compilations. The routines weren’t overly complex, but there were more moving parts than he had ever had to deal with before. It was so much more than flying kicks and pyramids.

By the time the last bell rang on Friday, Brock decided he was as prepared as he could ever be. He grabbed his backpack from his locker and closed it, resting his head against the cool metal as he gathered his thoughts and tried to keep himself calm.

“You ready for this?”

Whether or not he actually was, Brock nodded and followed Courtney down the hall that stretched from one end of the school to the other, where the gym was. They had to separate and enter through different locker rooms, but reconvened before she introduced him to the coach.

The woman got up and circled around him like a vulture, eyeing him up and down through narrow, piercing eyes. “Alright, I see it,” she nodded in approval. “He’s got a dancer’s body, probably knows what he’s doing.”

“Thank you?”

She had already stopped listening and gone off to flag down the team captain, waiting with hands on her hips while José jogged over from the other end of the gym. “Alright, José, this is your new choreography partner. You two work here while we take it to the field,” she said before walking off and blowing her whistle, corralling the squad outside, leaving only the former couple in the room.

They stood there in silence, looking at each other from the few feet of space they’d put between each other. Second felt like hours and both of their stomachs twisted from the tension.

“This is the quietest you’ve ever been,” Brock finally remarked. Both of them laughed softly and the mood seemed to lift. It was a start, he thought. It was definitely a start. And god, he had missed his laugh, even that quiet, controlled version of it.

“Don’t get too used to it,” he retorted with a grin, running his fingers through his hair and resting his hand on the back of his neck as he looked up at him. “So, you got somethin’ planned, Mr. Choreographer?”

Brock set his bag down on the bottom row of the bleachers and cocked his head over, gesturing for him to follow. He sat down with his notebook in his lap and flipped open to the most recent page. “I have some sort of outline going, but I’m gonna need you to fill in the blanks, give me what to work with,” he explained.

José sat beside him. He had initially left too much space, leading him to lean closer to read along off the notebook. It sent a sudden wave of nostalgia through him. Although, thankfully, Brock didn’t smell like a twelve year old boy anymore, there was something comforting and familiar about his scent. It was clean and a bit earthy, like taking a long walk in the middle of spring. It was something he’d like to spray on his pillow - make it the first and last thing to hit him each day. “I think I can handle that. Whatcha need?”

“Technical stuff, mainly. Everyone’s height, physical capacity and limitations. This way we can figure out what sort of routines can work, you know?” he turned to a new page, ready to take down everyone’s names and details. He was actually surprised how easily it all seemed to flow. Once they had gotten over the initial awkwardness in the nature of their reunion, they found that they worked together quite well. They were patient, able to listen and understand each other, it was as if they��d been working as a team the whole time.

Towards the end of practice, José felt his phone vibrate in his sweatshirt pocket. He rolled his eyes as he looked at the screen and shoved it back in without responding.

“Something wrong?”

José pressed his lips together and gestured vaguely, mumbling noncommittally. But he could feel Brock’s eyes on him and he knew he wasn’t going to get away with that alone. “Kyle’s just bitching at me ‘cause he don’t got practice today, so he’s waiting on me to give him a ride home. He usually bums rides off his brother, but he got a new job or some shit.”

Brock instantly tensed up at the mention of José’s boyfriend, and the fact that he seemed so annoyed, even unhappy, made him feel justified in his disdain. He wanted to go on a rant, let him know exactly how much of a prick he thought Kyle was. He was biting his tongue to keep venom from spewing out. Instead, he just swallowed his emotions and shook his head. “If he’s so worried about getting home, he can walk, right?”

“Yeah!” He latched right onto that, sitting upright and yanking his phone back out, relaying Brock’s sentiments through text. It was nice to be around someone that wasn’t busy kissing Kyle’s ass, for once. Every other time he had attempted to vent about his relationship, he was met with either indifference or ended up on the losing end of an argument with someone more interested in maintaining their social standing.

But Brock had never cared about any of that. He had never given a damn about being popular or staying on anyone’s good side. He was perfectly content to have a small friend group on the fringe of high school society. No one ever gave him much trouble, as that would require going out of their way to find him.

In middle school, that had been the biggest source of friction between the two of them. José had jumped on the opportunity to make new friends and was eager to make them all like him. And they all seemed to share that need for attention. But now, Brock’s introverted indifference was a breath of fresh air. It was a pleasant reminder that the world didn’t revolve around keeping his place at the top of the food chain.

“You have a visitor.” Brock nudged him to get his attention when Kyle had walked up to the pair. The two of them locked eyes and there was an immediate disdain between them. Anger flashed in his eyes as he looked up at him, daring him to speak to José with the same attitude he had through text.

Kyle decided not to verbally acknowledge Brock at all, angling his body so he was only facing the other male. “Babe, I’m not trying to be a dick, I swear. I’m just tired. Can we just go? Please?” it wasn’t clear if he actually felt bad or if he was just trying to get back in José’s good graces, but it seemed to be enough.

“Yeah, uh, we just about done, right?” José looked to Brock with an apologetic grimace as he started to gather his things and get up.

“Right. We’ll pick back up next time,” Brock’s jaw was clenched as he spoke, shooting a glare towards the quarterback as he shoved his belongings back into his bag. He turned back towards José with a softer expression. “I’ll text you tomorrow,” he patted his shoulder lightly before making his way towards the exit.

José offered a prompt confirmation and goodbye in response, watching him leave and feeling like a part of himself left with him. It took Kyle’s arm around his waist to get him to leave, but even then he glanced over his shoulder one more time.

“Why are you hanging out with him anyway? Isn’t that Courtney’s weird dancer friend?”

“He… yeah, he’s just helping us out, that’s all.” That was all, he repeated to himself.

#branjie #branjie fic #rpdr rpf #rpdr fanfiction

[bubble-tea-bunny]

that which binds us

a pacific rim au 

[erik killmonger x reader]

author’s note: i’ve always wanted to write a pacific rim au and honestly i’m surprised it took this long to do so. i love that movie. hope y’all enjoy(:

word count: 4,420

“We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.” —William James

You can still remember when the posters started showing up on your campus: Join the Pan Pacific Defense Corps!

The Jaeger program was already operating in full force, but the events of K-Day still rocked everyone to the core, as if it had been just yesterday. For San Francisco especially, it might as well have been. The people there are still rebuilding, physically and mentally. They predict the new Golden Gate Bridge will be finished within the next few years, or maybe even before that. And they’re excited. You all are. It’s a sign of victory, of resolution. What comes through the Breach can break buildings but never spirits. There’s a memorial on the grass overlooking the strait. You’d been there before, sat amongst the flowers people left. You watched the sun set and turn the sky orange, and you imagined a bridge before your eyes.

You consider that the moment when you decided you wanted to do something more, to go beyond yourself. The world has its conflicts but when faced with the threat of creatures from another realm, it comes together. You want to be part of it all. You stare at the sky at night and reach out a hand, as though your fingers can brush the atmosphere. And you dream of Jaegers three hundred feet tall that reach up their slow, mechanical hands, and they break through the exosphere. Deep in your heart are aspirations bigger than life itself, and they yearn for the machines that can make them real.

When you’re done with college, the first application you send out is to the PPDC. And you send out several others, for jobs more fit for the degree you’ve now got under your belt. But day by day you’re crossing your fingers and wishing for something to come of the first and, to you, the most important one.

Your friends had been surprised to hear of your enthusiasm for joining the program. I never would have thought you wanted to join, one of them had said. You suppose you don’t blame Claire for that statement, because it is true—you hardly ever seemed like the type that might do this. But then she’d smiled at you and you could see glittering in her eyes something like pride. You’d be a great pilot. I believe in you.

Those words follow you, take shelter in the back of your brain when you’ve been accepted and you’re training with others much like you: new and inexperienced. The training and the work isn’t easy, but you don’t expect anything different. It’s with a hint of amusement later down the line that you tell yourself that your friends should see you now. You’re not the same person who’d walked through those doors and into the Shatterdome on day 1. You’re not fresh-out-of-college [Name] staring at recruitment posters and wondering if there’s something for you in the defense corps. You’re Ranger [Name].

But you’re a pilot without a partner. Even after countless hours spent in the Kwoon combat room honing your skills and undergoing trials with other rangers, there hasn’t been anyone that clicked. Not in the way they always tell you, those pilots at information meetings or on late-night talk shows. You wouldn’t be surprised if you’d practically worked your way through the whole Shatterdome by now. And it’s frustrating. You’re nervous there may be no hope for you and you’ll glance at the specialists overseeing your sessions, and they’ll be writing on clipboards and whispering to each other. What to do with you?

You tell Chris, a friend you’d met in training, that you wish you could find your co-pilot as easily as he had. And he smiles sympathetically and says it’s not your fault, that it’ll take some time but that’s okay. And you try to think He’s right, maybe it’ll be the next one, but that’s difficult when you’d thought that to yourself as each new ranger met you on the mat, in a stance like yours, and you’d taken them down with ease. They are not the one. So maybe the next, you’ll say. But then soon enough the day is over, and you’re still at square one. Maybe tomorrow.

———

Upon the announcement of a new Jaeger temporarily staying in your Shatterdome, you’d made your way to the hangar, standing on a metal balcony that clanged with each of your rushed footsteps, as you look for the perfect spot to watch. The large doors slide back and creak loudly, and you let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding as Galahad Storm is wheeled in. She’s looking worse for wear, and you would’ve been shocked if you hadn’t heard about it beforehand. The fight had happened off the coast, but things got nasty fast, and backup didn’t arrive in time. Only one of the pilots made it out alive.

Everyone has heard of Erik Stevens. They call him Killmonger because of the number of Kaiju corpses piling up beneath Galahad Storm’s feet. He is fearless and you could see it well enough in his eyes. Despite this, you’re not sure how he’s handling the loss of someone so close to him. Co-pilots didn’t have to be related by blood. It didn’t matter if they weren’t. The bond is still just as strong, runs in your veins just as deep. And how do you cope when you’ve lost a part of yourself? You doubt even someone named Killmonger could take something like this in stride.

He’s grounded while his Jaeger undergoes repairs. Whispers float amongst the other rangers when they see him in passing. When pilots are killed in the line of battle, it had always been together. The whole Jaeger was destroyed. But Erik and his co-pilot were the exception and people are equal parts in awe of and sorry for him. Who would be his new pilot? These are the murmurs that float through the Shatterdome and you’re willing to bet Erik can hear them, but they go ignored and his head is still held high. You almost might not even know he’d lost a friend, the dearest one of all.

When he walks into the mess hall, your eyes follow him. And he glances at you briefly, but it’s nothing more. You figure you should stop staring so intensely next time. The clanking of silverware grabs your attention as Chris begins eating across from you, and around a mouthful of food he wonders aloud What if you’re drift compatible? You don’t have to ask who he’s talking about and at first you think he’s joking, but his face is serious.

“I doubt it,” you respond with a dismissive wave. “He’s got way more experience in the field than I do.”

Chris swallows his food and grabs his glass of water. “Having equal amounts of experience isn’t what makes the bond work.” As he gulps down water, he raises a brow at you, like he’s saying You know that, and you sigh because he has a point. The drift is more complex than that. You’d listened to a lecture all about it when you were still studying at the academy.

“Besides,” Chris starts as he puts his glass down and picks up his fork, “when you still haven’t found your co-pilot, is it really so unreasonable to think Stevens might be it?”

No, you think. It isn’t.  

———

Without a confirmed co-pilot, rangers aren’t allowed to man Jaegers. Not even briefly, for small test runs in water closer to shore. It can’t be just anyone with them in the cockpit. That’s too dangerous. As such, you’ve only been through simulations, where you can pilot a virtual Jaeger by yourself. They’re what all the rangers practice on before receiving clearance for the real deal. But you’re still stuck here, fighting pretend Kaiju in a pretend Jaeger. The simulations are always different, constructed from a pool of possible options: locations, Kaiju category, the works. On your more cynical days you tell yourself that soon, you’ll come across your first repeated simulation.

There are screens at each pod showing what the rangers are seeing in their simulated battles. The footage is scrutinized and everyone receives specialized help, tips about what to work on and watch out for the next time they go in. You don’t really get any advice nowadays, since your simulations go off without a hitch. No one needs to watch how you’re doing.

And that’s why when you emerge from the pod following your most recent one, you’re surprised to find someone standing there, arms crossed and eyes focused on the screen. You descend the few steps onto level ground and wrench your hands nervously as Erik reads the stats under the heading which reads Mission Successful.

“You’re good,” he comments, still looking at the screen.

“I’ve been through a lot of these,” you say, brushing off his compliment because you don’t think virtual battles could be anything like the real deal, so surely he’s just being nice. “I think there might be a formula.” You chuckle, but it’s a little uneasy. You’d never spoken to Erik before this. In fact, you don’t think many have. He usually kept to himself, and that was fine. Everyone gave him that distance, gave him his time to mourn. He’s still closed off for the most part, but at least he’s talking to some people. You never thought you’d be one of them.

Erik shakes his head. “No formula. I did a lot of simulations before I went out in the field, and they always throw something new at you. The point is to mimic a real fight. You never know what’s gonna happen out there.”

You don’t respond right away as you mull over his words. It’s easy to forget the purpose of these simulations when you’ve never actually been “out there,” in a real Jaeger fighting real Kaiju. So maybe it does mean something after all, that your track record is as good as it is. But there’s only so much a simulation can prepare you for. You can’t know what it’s really like until you’re in the Conn-Pod and you’re standing tall in a Jaeger of your own.

“Give yourself some credit,” Erik continues. “You’re better than you think.”

This makes you smile because it means a lot to be complimented by him. “Thanks.” When he says it, you can’t help but believe it. It’s like he has a superpower. A part of you wants him to state out loud the words You’ll find your co-pilot because then, maybe it’ll happen. But you don’t ask him to say these things.

———

The technicians let you stay in mission control with them when Chris is taking down a Kaiju. You like to watch and cheer him on. Today, it’s a category 2: a walk in the park. Only one tech is needed, and this time it’s Leia, another good friend of yours. As Chris and his co-pilot return to the Shatterdome, and she’s studying their Jaeger’s stats on the command panel, she speaks up.

“You know, Erik Stevens is starting to look for a new co-pilot now that Galahad Storm’s almost back in working condition.”

You glance at her. “Is he?”

“He started trials in the Kwoon yesterday. No luck yet.”

That sounds familiar. You sigh and look back at the display in front of you. Leia knows about your lack of drift compatibility with anyone you’ve sparred with. (Well, you’re sure plenty of people know by now, or at least have their suspicions.) What she’s told you sounds like just a casual piece of news about the goings-on within the Shatterdome, something to fuel small talk because let’s face it, the boys out there know how to get themselves back to shore and into the hangar, no assistants from LOCCENT needed. But Leia doesn’t bring it up as merely a conversation topic. Her raised brow as she watches you expectantly is confirmation enough of that.

“I don’t know, Leia…” Even as you remember Chris’s speculation about you and Erik being drift compatible, and his remark to be open about it, you just can’t. It was easier to believe when it was some faraway what-if, when the prospect of finding a new co-pilot was far from Erik’s mind as he lamented the loss of his first one. But Galahad Storm needs pilots. And the what-if isn’t so far now.

“Put your name forward,” Leia says. “Just try.”

“And if we’re not compatible?”

She shrugs. “Then you’re not compatible. And you keep doing trials until you find the right one.”

You sigh heavily. It’s the right answer but not the one you want to hear. “I’ll be stuck on the ground forever, Leia.”

“No, you won’t. I see the scars of wings on your back. You’re not meant for the ground.” Leia shakes her head.

Your lips twitch as a smile finds its way to your face, one you can’t quite keep down. She used to write a lot of poetry college, and sometimes it shows. “Why scars?”

Leia chuckles and returns her attention to the panel as Chris and his co-pilot return to the hangar. “I’m not sure actually. Felt right to say. Maybe you had wings in a previous life.”

———

There’s a sizable crowd in the Kwoon when you arrive. You’re not sure how many are simply here to watch, and how many are going to be sparring. You stick to the back, peeking over shoulders. Erik is in the same position as you had been: he’s pinning rangers left and right, with a practiced ease. He’ll help them up and shake their hand, and then it’s on to the next one. The specialists on the far side of the room with their clipboards are writing notes so fast you think their hands might catch on fire.

The number of people here starts to dwindle as the clock ticks away the time. And then you have no one to hide behind. There’s enough space for the remaining rangers to stand spread out, observing the mat. One wouldn’t think Erik has been sparring for as long as he has. He hardly looks winded. With every pinned ranger, his eyes scan the small handful of candidates remaining, and you swear you see that same look in them, the look in your own when you’re where he is: maybe my co-pilot isn’t here. Maybe they will be tomorrow.

Your name gets called and you don’t realize it right away. It’s only when it’s repeated do you start walking forward on shaky legs. You hold out your hand as you’re handed the kendo stick by the ranger who’d gone before you, and your fingers feel numb as they curl around the wood. Erik’s standing straight and at attention, listening for the whistle to begin, and you do your best to mirror his stance, with that same confidence, but it’s difficult. You’re nervous partly because this is Erik Stevens you’re about to spar. He’s not just any ranger. People around the world know his name. But you’re also nervous because what if Chris and Leia are right? What if this is it? What if he is it?

And what if he isn’t?

You take a deep breath to calm yourself down, and it works rather well. Maybe you’re about to find your co-pilot. Or maybe not. There is only one way to find out.

At the whistle, Erik lunges, and you’re not given much time to react. But you’re not pinned right away, and you suppose that’s good news. You trade blows for a good while, and in the fleeting second of rest you’re allowed at yet another whistle, which signals the newest score change as you back away from each other, only to begin again, you think this has lasted much longer than any spar he’s had, at least that you’ve seen today. And it’s definitely much longer than any spar you’ve had. You’re neck-and-neck and you don’t hear the hasty scribbling of the specialists anymore. They’re watching, fully engrossed. You wonder if this could mean anything, that they find no need to write, not even tiny comments.

Another score change (you’ve evened it back out), another round. You’re both breathing heavier but it’s no big deal. Training sessions in the Kwoon are notoriously brutal. You could be here for an hour (and maybe you already have been, who knows) and you’d still feel as energized as when you began. The defense corps definitely whips their pilots into shape. Although that should go without saying, because manning giant machines to fight monsters much the same is not something to be taken lightly.

You’ve been looking for openings in Erik’s movements and he’s been good about keeping himself guarded, but then there’s a brief second where you can see it—your way in. You duck beneath a swing and sweep your leg across the floor, knocking him onto his back. His grip on the kendo stick has remained tight, but you’re on him like a hawk, pointing your own at his chest before he has the chance to lift it.

In the few seconds the two of you remain like that, he’s looking at you with what you can only deduce as pride. You saw it in Claire’s eyes so long ago. You hold a hand out for him to take and pull him up, and you stand next to each other as you face the specialists—the neural physiologists and the coaches. They murmur to each other, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what they’re talking about. You take a deep breath, willing your heartbeat to slow down, but that’s difficult because it had been racing while you were sparring, and it still refuses to slow down, this time threatening to rip itself from your rib cage because Chris and Leia are right and it seems you are not meant for the ground after all.

You glance up at Erik, who’s still facing forward. You wonder if he might’ve known, the day he watched your sim-pod screen. Perhaps he’d known you were the one who needed to be in the Conn-Pod with him. Or maybe he’d only had fleeting what-ifs, just like you. And he was hoping for something but keeping cynical to ensure his expectations wouldn’t be ruined. But as he senses you staring and looks down at you, and you think you can see the drift deep in his eyes, looking for another to meld with—looking for you—you decide it hardly matters now.

You can only hope you live up to his previous co-pilot. But those are big shoes to fill.

———

You’re not cleared for combat until you prove a successful neural handshake. You’ll suit up and connect to Galahad Storm, but she’ll stay in the hangar. The drivesuit is heavy but it fits snug while remaining flexible. Erik’s already in the Conn-Pod waiting for you. The clang of your boots announces your arrival. It echoes off the walls. At least if you have any early morning response calls, the sound of your own footsteps will do a good job of waking you up.

Erik turns to you as you approach, smile on his face, but then it fades a little, and he stays quiet. You know what he’s thinking. Who he’s thinking of. And you swallow nervously because it’s not certain if either of you is quite ready for what’s about to happen. You’re about to initiate your first handshake with one of the best pilots the world has seen. The expectations for what you can bring to the table are high. As for Erik, he might think he’s had his time to mourn, but the last time he’d been in here, half of Galahad Storm was torn away, and he’d been left alone. And that does a lot to a person. You think he sees the ghost of his old friend where you stand.

“The suit looks good on you,” he says finally, and the smile grows again. He’s doing his best to comfort you because he can tell you’re nervous. And he’s trying to take his mind off of memories less than ideal.

“Thank you.” You smile back.

It doesn’t take long to hook your suits up to the machine. The motion rig and stride rails click into place, and the Conn-Pod lights up. You’re shaking with adrenaline and you tell yourself there’s no point because there won’t be any drop-off. You’re not heading out. But you still can’t help literally shaking with excitement because you’d only speculated what this moment might be like. And now you’re about to experience the real thing.

“Good morning, pilots.” It’s Leia on the comms today. She probably raced to mission control for this, to ensure she was the one speaking to you both. You’re glad because she’s the support you need, and her voice calms you down. Chris is probably there watching too.

“Morning, Leia,” you reply. You hope she can hear your smile.

“We’ll get right down to business if you’re ready.”

“We’re ready,” Erik speaks up, and he glances at you, gives you a reassuring nod.

“Great!” Leia responds eagerly. “You know how it works: you do the handshake, and then you’ll calibrate. I’m initiating neural handshake in 3… 2… 1…”

The force with which you’re pulled into the drift tightens your chest and you have to shut your eyes. You’re floating through streams of memories. Some are yours, but there are others you’ve never seen before. Events play through eyes that aren’t your own. You don’t process any of it with words. It’s just feelings. You feel what Erik feels, had felt. And soon you don’t feel like yourself anymore. Your headspace makes room for another. It’s not just you here. It’s the both of you.

There’s a pang deeper in your chest that you almost miss, but it pulses and you couldn’t skip over it even if you wanted to. And it gets worse, and you feel like it’s constricting you. You look for the memories it belongs to, and you’re hearing the crash of Kaiju claws digging into metal as they rip chunks out of the Jaeger you now stand in. You think you didn’t have a right to see this because it’s private. But nothing can be hidden in the drift. Not even this.

When you open your eyes, you see the HUD overlaid on Galahad’s visor has updated, showing all the needed stats for when you’re in battle. There’s just one thing it can mean, and Leia confirms it. “Neural handshake successful.”

———

It’s a strange sensation, to be so connected in this way. They always say there’s nothing like it, and it’s true. It’s almost like you don’t even have to speak, because you already know. You know each other’s thoughts and the words sitting on your tongues. You can feel the deepest parts of each other’s souls, and that’s the wonder of the drift. It’s co-pilot and co-pilot. It’s co-pilots and machine. When you share headspace with someone else, being by yourself suddenly feels too lonely.

You and Erik are sitting on a metal balcony, with the perfect view of Galahad. There used to be scaffolding on either side of her to support her when she was at her worst, fresh from her last battle. The two of you maintain a comfortable silence, but then you break it as you turn to him.

“I saw him in the drift: your co-pilot,” you begin softly. “I’m sorry.” And you are. You’d been in his head, and you felt his pain, and by some extension, that pain is yours too. His eyes lower, away from Galahad. He doesn’t say anything. You hope he knows he doesn’t have to bear it alone.

“Me too,” he responds quietly. He sighs, and his gaze lifts as he glances at the Jaeger, and then at you. The look in his eyes tells you that he knows what you’re thinking, but that there is no pain to bear. Not anymore. The past is the past. You’re present and future. In this line of work, you can’t be bogged down for long. There are monsters that need to be beaten. We move forward, he says. You feel it echo in your head like he’s still there.

The next era of Galahad Storm’s existence is dawning like the sun after the darkest night, and it’s ushering in a new team who will face whatever should come to them. Forward, never back.

———

Ghost drifting is a common side effect. You never quite leave each other’s minds even after you step out of the Conn-Pod. You’ve spent nights laying in bed, staring up at the ceiling with the feeling you’re not so alone. Your heart is full just like your brain and you know Erik is the same, where he is in his own bed. The drift is limitless, connecting you both no matter how far you should be. To be co-pilots is a special thing. And you can’t put it into words, only that it feels right. It’s hard to imagine life being any different now.

Galahad’s record remains strong. Some are surprised to find how easily she’s bounced back. Your name finds its place in all the papers and the news segments. The new pilot of one of the strongest Jaegers in the program is being watched by all. But you don’t mind it. Hardly notice it, even. It’s just you and Erik and this machine.

He’ll ask you if you’re ready and you say you always are. Though he already knows that, doesn’t he? He just smiles in response. And then you two are off, running headfirst into the danger because that’s what you’re meant to do, and you can do it because you’re together. You’ve reached up to touch the sky. You’re achieving escape velocity, well on your way past the atmosphere. And you know now it’s not the Jaeger which makes you feel three hundred feet tall, not the Jaeger that has propelled you past the exosphere as you’d always hoped to do. It’s in the bond.

#erik killmonger x reader #erik killmonger imagine #black panther imagine #erik killmonger #black panther #marvel #marvel imagine #bubble-tea-bunny

[grapsandclaps]

GRAPS AND CLAPS REVIEWS - PCW 7TH ANNIVERSARY 'STAIRWAY TO SEVEN'.

Like any movie trilogy, there has got to be an end and here we are folks for Part 3 of PCW's 7th Anniversary weekender which ended on the evening of Saturday 18th August in front of a good sized crowd, which was promising given that Futureshock and ROH were all running big events that night plus Preston vs Stoke was on and also the big concerts involving Liam Gallagher, Britney Spears and Feeder all in the local proximity.

As I left you last time we had just finished the afternoon show on the Flag Market and was looking for somewhere to pass time for an hour, so we embarked to visit a couple of local drinking establishments that is forever growing in Preston by the month. First off was The Guild Ale House's sister pub - The Orchard which is located on Preston all-new indoor market, which for ever in you re in Preston I recommend visiting as it looks like somewhere you could easily spend a few hours.

Anyways, The Orchard even though it is relatively small, it does offer up to 10 keg lines plus 2 cask options with drinks served mainly in Schooners and costing anything upwards from £3.50, but still giving you a great taste of some of the more exotic drinks at an affordable price unlike Port Street Beer House the day before.

After having a much needed 2 half's in The Orchard whilst watching if Hemel Hempstead would score to see my Both Teams to Score bet come in (I cashed out for £27), we moved on elsewhere with the final sight of a swarm of fly's getting half cut of a 1/2 of a fruity drink in a Tiny Rebel glass - you never see stuff like this on Attenborough. Next pub was another of the new pub's to the scene 'Plug and Taps' located near to the old Corn Exchange building in the city.

As good as this pub is for it's selection of beer on tap and takeouts, you can get a bit hot and sweaty when there are a few people in there especially on a warmish Saturday afternoon as it was on this day. I had in here a 2/3rd of a Liquat sour beer costing £6 and another 2/3rds of a Outstanding Strawberry Witbier which was around the £4 range, that considered this is well worth a trip to when on your travels in Preston.

Venturing into Evoque, we took our spots in the usual position that I have taken up in the last 3 years (no not holding up the bar, before you say anything) ha! So let's get into the night's action which started at 6:10 pm with what was to be expected a raft of early matches for wrestlers who had to get elsewhere on there travels down the M6/M62.

First up was our boy Ashton Smith who is due someday to face Charlie Sterling in PCW, as they did start a feud in February, but have only had a couple of altercations since then, the last being in April/May. Ashton's opponent for this evening was Adam Brooks who has become a bit of a Marmite figure among BritWres fans some thinking he is only average and then you have some like me who has not seen him have a bad match yet, we really are a divisive bunch. 

As ever the Ashton singing section was in full voice as the match began, in what was a really good 12 minute or so opener it was Ashton who picked up a much needed win after his earlier loss to Sheikh El-Sham on the flag market, by finishing off Brooks with a modified 'Roll of the Dice' DDT to get the 3 count and off up the road to go and Futureshock Heavyweight Title against Cyanide (You can read all about that on Andrew Gibney's review that he did for me from Saturday night on The Indy Corner - cracking read as well).

Next up we had a hotly contested PCW Women's Title match with the new Champion Nightshade taking on Viper who picked up a huge win in the afternoon show against Rhio. Surprisingly with this match, it was a comprehensive victory for Nightshade as she hit a match-winning spear to Viper to retain her title and as stated on the Blackpool review hopefully on to a new batch of challengers instead of Rhio and Viper.

Tag Team action next with the Masked Duo of Suicide and Planet Bolton's own Arcadian taking on the World-Travelled Desmond Xavier and Zachary Wentz - 'The Rascals'. As expected this was a sight of high flying action, with the bulk of the match spilling to the outside and in this writer's opinion it was good to Arcadian get an opportunity to test himself against someone like Des and Zachary. Sadly for Arcadian it wasn't to be a fairy tale ending as Desmond and Zachary hit the push moonsault and Wentz covered Arcadian for the 3 fall. This was really good fun!!

Up next was the eagerly anticipated confrontation between 'The Face of the Case' Tel Banham vs Magnificent Matthew Brooks in a 'Fans bring the musical instruments' match and on inspection there was a lot of guitars in the crowd, god knows which shop they found in Preston/Blackpool to buy anything musical given our failed attempt in the morning. Early doors the musical instruments came into play as Brooks climbed a top of Banham on the ropes to use a triangle symbol to deafen Banham given that Brooks can't now use his voice to do the same thing. Brooks then set a keyboard up on the outside across two chairs which he was about to put Banham through, but as ran to do said thing, he was hip-tossed by Banham through the keyboard which sounded faintly like one of the ones PROGRESS use nowadays to make its entrance themes.

Back in the ring, with Brooks suffering from the keyboard fall, Banham tried to take the opportunity to add further misery to Brooks but Brooks managed to wriggle free to grab a didgeridoo of all things from the outside to whack Banham around the back and neck, with Brooks in control he neutralised the threat of BIG T as well, plus it has to be noted Joanna Rose got involved in Banham's business due to a confrontation at the last show when Rose was marched off to a local medical facility at the hands of Banham. With all that said , Brooks finally finished off Banham with the 'High Note' legdrop for the victory. This was everything I was expecting from the match and more to end what has been the main highlight of PCW in the past year - credit to Matthew Brooks and Tel Banham for that, take a bow lads.

Up next we had a battle of World of Sport Alumni with Iestyn Rees taking on Doug Williams who is currently in his what some have called his Retirement tour as he begins to wind down what has been a successful career which will culminate in a Wembley Arena match defending his ATLAS title against Trent Seven for PROGRESS. Rees who has been on a bit of down slope since losing his PCW Title and also Rhio in the process was looking to get back on course with a victory here against Doug, which he duly did in a hard fought contest that ended up being better than I expected it to be on paper. After the match, Doug received a standing ovation for his efforts which was well deserved!

A -ONE-TWO-THREE-FOUR SUGAR DO DO DO DO!! Yes it was Archies time once again in Evoque as Sugar Dunkerton entered the building for a 6-way contest against James Finn, Rhio, Drew Parker, Dave Birch and the mystery opponent who turned out to be none other than the Former Cruiserweight and #Boom Champion Dave Rayne strutting out to the Basement Jaxx Classic 'Get Me Off'. The start of the match played host to Sugar trying to get everyone to dance along with him, but Drew was not having any of it as he jumped Sugar to get the match going, This match was similar to the 6-way the night before with the action spilling to the floor outside, but in a stroke of good fortune it was our boy Sugar who picked up the victory to send the PCW crowd into another singing session of 'Sugar Sugar', I can say that my voice was shot from singing at this stage - ouch!!

We were treated then with an appearance by Sheikh El-Sham all suited and booted coming out to gloat about the two big victories he had picked up over the weekend on Joey Hayes and Ashton Smith respectively. In this segment, El-Sham called out PCW Owner Steven Fludder for a talk about possibly offering Fludder all of his Middle-Eastern Millions to buy the company from him and take PCW to the next level, sadly for El-Sham, Fludder wasn't of the same thinking as he politely declined Sham's offer leaving 'The Prince of Panache' seething saying that Steve will regret he ever did this. One thing I do say, PCW have done excellently to build El-Sham as the next big bad guy in the company - keep an eye on this for the next year I am guessing.

PCW Tag Team Title action next with the Champions 'The Kinky Party' Sha Samuels and Jack Jester due to take on Team Single,  Rampage Brown and T-Bone, but sadly due to Rampage still being on the shelf due to a shoulder injury that he picked up in a match against Josh Alexander for Tidal, PCW Matchmaker Greg Lambert had to search for an opponent and in he found one in the form of - 'SUGAR DO DO DO DO'. Yes it was our boy Sugar once again to form the tandem of 'T & Sugar' to see if they could rest the tag belts away from The Kinky Party, well at one stage all looked on course for T & Sugar until Sheikh El-Sham made an unwelcome appearance to attack T-Bone to cause the DQ victory for T & Sugar BOOOOOOO!! So it looks like we will be getting  Sheikh vs T-Bone match in the future at an upcoming PCW show this year.

Greg Lambert was out again next to introduce the next match which was a battle of two men from British Wrestling folklore and two men that Greg Lambert was familiar back in the heyday of the FWA with Jody Fleisch taking on 'The Wonderkid' Jonny Storm, I have to say this was a classy touch by the promotion and it made you feel invested straight away in this contest.

What followed was a great exhibition match between Storm and Fleisch who haven't missed a step, especially Jody who looks in amazing shape with his physique and it was Jody who picked the victory here over Storm in around 10 minutes to a great ovation from the crowd. It didn't end there as Doug Williams came out to congratulate both men on the match and to say to them to continue to carry the torch of the old brigade when he retires next month, this was great to listen to and even elicited a shout of 'FWA FWA FWA' from a couple members of the audience who shall remain nameless ha! 

FWA FWA FWA FWA!! - YOU CAN DO TWO THINGS ABOUT IT - THAT'S NOTHING AND LIKE IT!!

With that out of the way, it was time now for your Main Event of the evening with Dean Allmark cashing in his No.1 Contenders shot which he earned by winning the Road To Glory Tournament in February and his opponent was the Champion, Lionheart who won the title in May by defeating T-Bone. After a talking segment where Lionheart mentioned about Allmark's finisher being a version of the Styles Clash which broke Lionheart's neck a few years ago on a fateful night in Evoque, this provoked some ill-advised comments from some of the local delinquents to some right head shaking from myself.

That said, the Main Event itself was a good end to proceedings but I always had the thought in my head that once Dean Allmark wins, which he did with the Smiles Clash to win the PCW Championship that a certain Mr. Tel Banham would come out to cash in his briefcase to challenge for both titles that Deano held and low and behold, the prediction what I have been shouting ever since Dean won the Road To Glory Tournament and since Banham has had the case - finally happened as Banham snuck up from behind a prone Dean to cash in his suitcase to hit two USHI-GO-RUSHI'S to get the 3-count and your NEW PCW Cruiserweight & Heavyweight Champion - Tel Banham and in this writer's opinion a well deserved one as well.

Pictured: Your New Double Champion Tel Banham (Credit to PCW for the top picture).

In the process now for Banham, you have two ready made challengers for the belts in Dean Allmark and Matthew Brooks which should keep him busy for the next 6 months. 

So there you have it, the end of the PCW's 3-show weekender that provided lots of matches and entertainment to make the punters go home happy into the Preston night. One thing though I wish there would have been was a break in the action once again tonight, 8/9 matches in a row live can be a bit wearing on the mind but that's only one small thing. I hope you have enjoyed reading about this weekend and if it has enticed you enough, go and give PCW a try at any of there upcoming shows in Blackpool and Leeds in Early October and also there Fright Night show on October 27th with the return of Billy Gunn and X-Pac.

Next review from myself will be from NXT UK in Birmingham this coming Sunday to give you a flavour of something that you might see sometime soon on the WWE Network once they get there act together.

After that I am off to Germany for the WXW/PROGRESS show in Hamburg at the end of August and seeing as my podcast debut got good reviews, my voice will be back in September to give you a preview of some of the shows going on in the North West and Yorkshire in September including GPW/TIDAL and Futureshock Wrestling. Untll then BYE!.

#grapsandclaps

@oggypart3

[yeonchi]

Kisekae Insights #15: Hiroki and Akari’s Strawberry Mysteries Part 1 (with Hybrid explanation)

These next two instalments weren’t easy for me to write. Off the bat, the subject of these instalments is the relationship between the protagonist, Hiroki Ichigo, and his wife, Akari Ichigo. Why wasn’t it easy for me to talk about it? The subject and the storylines associated with it are heavily based on elements of my life and their associated fantasies.

Writing the review for Can You Hear Me? has really inspired me to talk about some high school friends who I wasn’t necessarily friends with (I say that because I never hung out with them much). In that review, I mentioned my high school crush as one person I was reminded of after watching the episode. The character of Akari is based on her, but this infatuation goes way deeper than you think given how much effort I put into writing her storylines in my project.

Portions of these storylines were inspired from the final episodes of certain TVB dramas from 2013-14. As such, I feel obligated to provide content (trigger) warnings as these storylines contain themes associated with mental illness, suicide and domestic violence.

In case you haven’t seen, I’m going to be giving my answer to the Hybrid in this instalment. I’m leaving the IRL context until Part 2 in the next instalment and I’ll also be taking a break after that. For now, enjoy the rollercoaster as we start going down the rabbit hole that is Hiroki and Akari’s relationship.

Hiroki Ichigo: The Enigma Beneath

You will notice that the character profiles for Hiroki and Akari are different from the ones I’ve done so far, particularly in that they have no job or personality descriptions. Aside from being officers or superheroes, any job I give them ends up being forgotten once the story arc gets going (I wish Chibnall could say the same about Yaz), so they don’t end up mattering anyway. As for Hiroki’s personality, I’ve already covered that in #2.

I’ve detailed Hiroki in his final incarnation here because most of the storyline revolves around this incarnation, but his previous incarnations do have significance in the storyline likewise.

Also, you will notice that I’ve designated Hiroki as the Hybrid. I’ve never really liked the Hybrid arc because it gave too many possibilities that pointed to multiple figures potentially being the Hybrid. Steven Moffat did reveal that the Hybrid was supposed to be the Doctor and Clara together, but to me, that’s just a red herring for the identity of the real Hybrid. This is my answer to the Hybrid arc – Hiroki Ichigo is the Hybrid.

Here are some of the criteria given for the Hybrid throughout Series 11 (BBC Series 9). The Hybrid is a creature crossbred from two warrior races, supposedly the Time Lords and the Daleks. According to all Matrix prophecies, the Hybrid will stand in the ruins of Gallifrey and unravel the Web of Time, breaking a billion billion hearts to heal its own.

Let’s break down the Doctor’s final line in Heaven Sent:

“The Hybrid is not half-Dalek. Nothing is half-Dalek. The Daleks would never allow that.” Just because the Doctor can say it can’t be half-Dalek doesn’t mean that it isn’t. Besides, Hiroki isn’t half-Dalek anyway – technically, he is part-Kaled, the Kaleds being the ancestors of the Daleks. But since the Kaleds are synonymous with the Daleks, this fulfills the Dalek portion of the Hybrid.

“The Hybrid destined to conquer Gallifrey and stand in its ruins… is me.” Some people believe “me” refers to Ashildr, also known as Me, but I think that the Doctor accusing Ashildr of being the Hybrid is just him deflecting the blame because he was in denial of being the Hybrid (plus, the Doctor seemed to prefer calling her Ashildr instead of Me). The Doctor was born from Hiroki, so the Doctor saying that is a bit of a stretch. However, to be fair, the Doctor didn’t even know who the Hybrid really was until Rassilon told him in Space Squad Part 3. In comparison, Hiroki realised that he was the Hybrid in the Decade finale.

Now, for the time being, Hiroki has never stepped foot on Gallifrey, but I’m planning on rectifying that in Soulbound Series 4. As for unravelling the Web of Time, that’s already been done if you count all the timeline changes I’m going to detail, so hopefully I won’t need to address that again. Since Hiroki is a warrior, you can bet that he’s broken as many hearts as he’s willing to break in order to heal his own.

So how did Hiroki become the Hybrid? Firstly, Hiroki was born a human with Time Lord and Jenova DNA (see #2). Later on, in 2012, Hiroki became part-Kaled/Dalek after his DNA got mixed up with Akari’s during a regeneration (read on to find out).

In 2018, during Age of Riders Forever, Hiroki found himself being pursued by alternate versions of himself who had banded together and based themselves in the Capital (like the Citadel of Ricks in Rick and Morty). Hiroki upgrades his vortex manipulator so he can travel in time. After incorporating Kamen Rider Wizard’s Time Ring into his manipulator and using his own body to calibrate it, Hiroki manages to go into the past and make contact with his past self multiple times.

At some point, Hiroki was found and brought to the Council (the equivalent of the Council of Ricks), where he was given a mission to detonate a memory bomb in exchange for leniency. He does so, but when the Council comes to pick him up, he refuses to go back with them and teleports away. Hiroki’s travels had caused numerous paradoxes, but his vortex manipulator caused the temporal energy to build up inside his body, which would rip him apart and scatter him throughout the Time Vortex instead of ending the universe.

Sure enough, Hiroki’s body was ripped apart, but his consciousness was saved by his ex-wife and her family that he saved inside the supercomputer in Dewey’s library on Never Land. They then sent Hiroki back out and made him a new body using fairy dust, pollen, the happiness of everyone on the Mainland, the remains of his DNA from his old body and about half a field’s worth of dandelion seeds. After that, Hiroki leads the fairies and Flowertots in an attack on the Capital, saving his friends while killing the Council and all the other versions of himself. With Hiroki now being part-fairy and part-Flowertot, he gained the ability to utilise some forms of Never Land magic, but because he doesn’t possess a source of magic or a connection to one, it requires some time to recharge naturally.

And so, that was the story of how Hiroki became the Hybrid.

Akari Ichigo: Mystery Girl Becomes Seductress Becomes Assassin Becomes Wife

I didn’t put a personality description for Akari in the pic mainly because she’s based on my crush and I have no idea what her personality is like. Therefore, my personality description for her would only be based on my impressions of her and what I think she would be like in the project. Needless to say, I didn’t put a lot of thought into it. When she’s good, she cares for Hiroki really much (though it’s mostly because of the hypnotic seduction perfume), but when she’s evil, she just doesn’t care about him. In the Series 9 finale, there’s a bit where she literally says “I’m gonna put a cap in your ass” in a yandere-like manner before Hiroki smacks her around and shoots her in the head, but we’ll come back to that in Part 2.

Originally, I was of the belief that Akari was born in 1998, making her six months younger than Hiroki, but I later found that I was one year off; Akari was actually born in 1999, making her eighteen months younger than Hiroki. This change doesn’t affect the story a lot, but I am kind of pissed that I didn’t know this earlier.

Akari’s paternal grandfather is a Kaled named Antoni, meaning that from him, she has a link to the Daleks. Akari was used by both her family and the Daleks as a tool to get to the Doctor by having her seduce and kill Hiroki. They didn’t know that Akari would end up getting seduced herself and before they knew it, she ended up getting in too deep that they had to wrench her off him with the help of Girl Power.

On top of that, they also didn’t know that Akari had made such an impact on Hiroki that he went to extreme lengths to either take her back or kill her. Akari never loved Hiroki, but she never had the guts to say it to his face and break off their relationship amicably. At the end of the Last Great Time War, when Girl Power were defeated for good, Akari got back with Hiroki and all was well again. Or so they thought…

The introductions are over. Let’s get into the story. Before I do, I want to clarify that Hiroki and Akari weren’t known by those names until 2014 onwards.

First meeting retcon

Based on the release order of my stories, Hiroki and Akari originally met in 2011 when they were in their secondary school armies. However, paradoxes, timeline changes and retcons have made that first meeting WAY earlier than that.

The root reason why schools were forming armies and fighting each other goes back to the 90’s when the state government established Arming Schools for the Future alongside One Country Two (Naming) Systems. Towards the end of the 90’s, a member of Akari’s family became an MP to prevent those two programs from being abolished when the opposition party formed government.

After Antoni went off to fight in the Time War, Kaled agent Neramix met with his children and helped them incite a war between the schools to support the Dalek cause. The two armies that they incited happened to be the kindergarten armies that Hiroki and Akari were in.

In March 2003, the two armies went into battle. This was the first battle of the Time War on Earth and the first battle for Hiroki and Akari. During the battle, Akari runs away from her unit and hides. Hiroki spots her and sneaks away from his unit to follow her. After encountering each other, they hide together and talk to pass the time. Akari doesn’t want to fight because she doesn’t want to make the world scarier than it already is, but Hiroki fights because he wants to make the world nice again. Hiroki decides to escape with Akari and take her home, but after a distraction involving two incarnations of the Doctor and some TARDISes, Parker finds Hiroki and drags him back into the battle, leaving Akari wondering what happened.

Thanks to that interaction, Neramix had what he needed to slowly mould Akari into Hiroki’s future killer. Neramix would be killed by Kamen Rider Decade soon after, but his intention was to have Antoni’s grandchildren, namely Akari’s brother and cousins, oversee this plan and fight in the Time War in place of their parents.

Over the next few years, Hiroki and Akari would meet out of nowhere, but little did they know that these meetings were a result of time manipulations by the Daleks. On top of that, additional changes to the timeline led them to meet more frequently.

By February 2010, Akari’s primary school army had become part of the Oda Army. Parker was planning a campaign for his primary school army to defeat the Oda, Mōri and Date armies and conquer their territories. He arranged for Hiroki to “defect” to Akari’s army and act as a spy for a few weeks. When the invasion occurred, Hiroki returned to his army, breaking Akari’s heart. Another few weeks later, the two of them reconciled when their armies encountered each other again in battle.

The date of their “first meeting” was rapidly approaching and at the way the timeline was going, the Web of Time would become damaged. In December 2010, during the primary school armies’ graduation ceremonies, the Master (Harold Saxon) used a dimensional splitter to transport them into a pocket dimension and pit them against each other in a “Graduation Battle Royale”. Hiroki and Akari met each other again, but Kamen Rider Decade arrives and fights them as he attempts to detonate a memory bomb (a replica of a forbidden weapon of the same name in the Omega Arsenal) between them. Decade evades them and successfully detonates the memory bomb just as the armies are returned to their rightful locations.

The memory bomb would supposedly restore people’s memories of the correct timelines and erase the memories of Hiroki and Akari interacting with each other before 2011. As a side effect, however, their timelines were burst open with metaphorical superglue on the broken ends. A couple of months later, in February 2011, Hiroki and Akari were in the same secondary school army. At the end of their first day, Hiroki and Akari encounter each other again, weeks before their actual first meeting. They accidentally touch hands as they dodge a falling flowerpot and as a result, they discover that they are fading out of existence until they touch hands. After seeing the Doctor, they discover that they have “Intertwined Pinkie Syndrome” – well, not really, but their timelines were fused and if they were to let go of each other, they would fade out of existence as their timelines would have no beginning or no end.

As such, Hiroki and Akari were forced to live together for the time being. The next few days went a bit like the two music videos below (because this storyline was inspired from them):

Later, the Doctor discovers that the effects can be reversed if Hiroki and Akari are willing to sacrifice their lives to save someone. At the same time, the two stop an old lady from being hit by a reversing van. Their hands let go, but they do not disappear. Their timelines return to normal and they go back to their own lives.

Without the courage to say “I’m sorry”

Finally, Hiroki and Akari meet each other for the first time in March 2011. Hiroki begins to fall in love with Akari and before long, their friends become aware of this along with Akari’s cousins, Daniel and David, meaning that the pieces of their plan are finally coming together. They formed the Teiro Army and began taking action by intruding into Hiroki’s battles. Eventually, after Parker’s death and the fall of the Sanada Army, they built up enough strength to ally with other armies, who have affiliations with Hiroki, and turned them against him.

Over the course of the next 16 months, Hiroki’s friends encouraged him to talk to Akari and ask her out, but he never ended up doing so, either because she was with her friends or he couldn’t muster up the courage to do so even when she was alone. He got more acquainted with Akari’s friends than Akari herself. When Akari and her friends founded Girl Power in February 2012, Hiroki just happened to be on the other side of Hong Kong. Eventually, Maya, one of Akari’s friends, tells Hiroki to talk to Akari before it is too late.

In May 2012, Hiroki writes a love letter for Akari, though this was partly as a result of a plot by his friends. She shows it to her cousins, who then launch an attack on Hiroki and his allies, the Takeda Army. Despite fighting each other in the battle, neither of them even brings up the love letter.

Later, in July 2012, the Teiro Army takes over Hiroki’s secondary school army, forcing him to escape with the Takeda Army. Daniel contacts Hiroki and tells him that they have taken his friends hostage. Hiroki realises what is going on and calls out Akari for being too scared to tell him face-to-face about the love letter, causing her to snap and agree to meet him alone.

Sure enough, the two of them meet alone in a hall or stadium. After some pressure from Hiroki, Akari admits that she doesn’t love him the same way he loves her, but they can still be friends. Hiroki accepts her offer, but Daniel throws some rape gas (that he stole from the police) at them, saying that they don’t deserve each other.

Going on a tangent for a bit, rape gas is similar to tear gas, but the principle of how it works is basically “rape or be raped” – depending on a person’s mental state, they would either faint or develop the urge to sexually assault anyone in sight. In July 2011, the police first tested the rape gas at a university, where protesters and counter-protesters were protesting about kids fighting in armies, racism/crime, climate change, the fact that you can drive from Melbourne to Tokyo in a matter of hours and ACAB. However, this time around, Daniel modified the rape gas, meaning that Hiroki or Akari would have to violate or kill the other person in order to get out alive.

Hiroki and Akari managed to resist the effects of the gas, fighting each other until Parker and a few others, who had managed to free themselves, break in and save them. Parker dispels the effects of the rape gas from them, causing them to lose their memories of the past couple of hours as they are knocked out. They regain consciousness later before Hiroki, Parker and their allies purge the Teiro Army and their allies from the city.

Under his spell

Following the final battle against the Teiro Army, the Arming Schools for the Future program was abolished and the armies would become schools again once the holidays were over. Hiroki was given the privilege to choose whether he would stay with his army or leave and he chose to leave. For a while, Parker gave Hiroki a choice to join him or become a ronin (wanderer), but he refused because of Akari. The reason why he decided to leave was because people had become afraid of him following the events of the battle. Instead of joining Parker or the Takeda Army, he decided to become a ronin because aside from fighting, he had nothing else to live for.

Hiroki decided to travel the land while Akari went to Okinawa with her cousins, Narutaki and Veronica. Hiroki’s travels would eventually lead him to Okinawa, where a parallel version of himself from a parallel universe would help him ask Akari out by spraying him with some hypnotic seduction perfume. Akari became caught in the perfume’s spell and so, she and Hiroki became a couple.

A few months later in November, the Salacian Time War came along. Hiroki and Akari were not involved in the war itself, but they played a role in its endgame. Hiroki and Akari were hanging out with the latter’s friends when Daniel had them kidnapped and taken to their base in the Serra do Mar mountain range, codenamed “the forests of Wanmokai”. Hiroki is subjected to a weapon known as the Dehydrator, which sucks the strength out of the victim and drives their brain to the point of insanity. After a while, he manages to untie himself before falling to the ground. Following a meta-crisis regeneration which results in Takumi Kamijō being born and escaping from the base, Hiroki and Akari are found by Parker, who teleports them back to his base in Santos.

Later, Parker and the others are trying to power up the Harmony Signal, but even with Ultimate Madoka’s help, they still can’t get it fully charged. Hiroki is still struggling to regenerate following the meta-crisis and requires a catalyst in order to regenerate, so he decides to propose to Akari. As they kiss, Hiroki regenerates, but his DNA gets mixed up with Akari’s, making him part-Kaled (fulfilling the Time Lord and Dalek requirements for the Hybrid) and making his subsequent prototypes their children. The new prototype, Kumiko Hayashi, is able to provide Parker with enough energy to fully charge the Harmony Signal.

At this point, some people would say that dating for 3-4 months before proposing is a bit fast, but when you think about it, they’ve known each other for nearly two years, or nine years with seven on-and-off.

After another year of dating and getting caught in turbulent events, Hiroki and Akari got married in December 2013, with Princess Celestia acting as their celebrant and singer Miyuki Nakajima featuring as a guest at their reception.

A chaotic marriage

Even before his wedding, Hiroki had suspected that Girl Power was plotting something behind the scenes and that if he were to walk into their trap, he would die. Borrowing the Pony Doctor’s TARDIS, Hiroki went on a farewell tour in order to delay his own wedding, but upon hearing that his old friend, one of the commanders from his primary school army, had died, Hiroki decides to accept his fate.

The day after Hiroki and Akari’s wedding, a man named Reona Yukawa (a man from a hentai game with an IQ of 256) worked with the Master to save Antoni from the Crucible. Soon after, the Daleks begin attacking Hong Kong. Hiroki and Akari work with the Fourth Doctor as they meet with Parker and Violet, who defeat the Daleks with newer Daleks. For context, it is the bronze (Time War) Daleks fighting against the coloured Daleks of the New Dalek Paradigm. Despite their reception, I’ve never liked how the latter was underused throughout the series, so I thought I’d give them some love here. Meanwhile, the Fifth Doctor is in seclusion on Paris Island with Marco Wong and his wife, Princess Maritan (from the manga that teaches Japanese people how to swear in English with army imagery).

Suddenly, Antoni transports the landmasses containing the Doctor and his friends to their base at Koshi Castle in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Hiroki, his prototypes and their partners are taken and they have their germ cells taken and placed in the Progenitor, rendering them infertile as the Daleks breed super-soldiers out of them. Soon after, Akari is kidnapped and brainwashed by Girl Power, who pairs her with a new husband, a white man (I don’t know why I pointed that out, that makes me sound racist) named Shaun. When Hiroki and the Fourth Doctor find them, Hiroki tries to grab Akari, but he is shot by all the Girl Power officers. The Fourth Doctor runs away to find Parker and Violet while Hiroki makes his way back to his TARDIS and regenerates into a new prototype, a four-year-old boy who would be named Kyōya Shinomiya.

In the Progenitor, a baby is being grown from Hiroki and Akari’s DNA – their daughter, who would be named Kasumi Shinomiya. Due to Takumi’s interference, the baby would end up in Manchester in December 2005, coincidentally the same place where Akari and Shaun would encounter Kyōya and Kasumi and form a family together. Meanwhile, Hiroki, having lost his magical boy powers following his regeneration, accepts a deal from the witch Walpurgisnacht and manifests into a female incarnation who would call herself Momoka Mizutani. Momoka opened up a Hong Kong-style café in Salford, with red drone Daleks disguising as her human staff, and for the next eight years, Momoka would become acquainted with the Shinomiya family as they became regular customers. She also uses an infostamp to make contact with Kyōya, unbeknownst to the rest of his family.

Eight years later, the Fourth and Fifth Doctors arrive in Manchester. They encounter each other and head to Momoka’s café to talk. Just as they learn who actually owns the café (Hiroki), Ayaka Kikuchi comes in with her army and engages in a shootout with Momoka and the Daleks. After defeating Ayaka’s army, Momoka transmats herself and the Shinomiya family to her ship, where she prepares to have Ayaka, Shaun, Kyōya and Kasumi exterminated using the Yashio’ori, a mythical weapon (from Warriors Orochi 3) capable of firing Dalek energy rays like machine guns or a concentrated laser beam that can pierce even dwarf star alloy. Unfortunately, the Yashio’ori was sabotaged by Ayaka and her allies so that the laser beam would not charge after Momoka fired it once during a demonstration.

Momoka is killed in the ensuing battle, but Walpurgisnacht took over her body and regenerated her, allowing her to continue with her plan. She searches out people who had wronged her over the years and enacts her own brutal justice on them. She also begins to experience psychosis brought on by a regenerative crisis, causing her to hallucinate her previous incarnation. The Doctors and Parker catch on to this and begin searching for her. Parker and Violet encounter her at UNIT and they convince her to surrender herself and not give up hope that things will be better. As Momoka proclaims that she still has unfinished business to take care of, Parker and Violet decide to work together with her so they can help her find the help she needs.

After confronting the Shinomiya family again, Momoka shoots Akari in the arm and kidnaps Shaun. She takes a video of him confessing to stealing Hiroki’s wife from him and sends it to Parker and the Doctors. Under the guise of delivering the ransom money to Momoka, Violet picks her up at a carpark and takes her to a getaway car she and Parker left for her. However, when they get there, Momoka is cornered, so she lets Violet go before she shoots herself in the head. Her body disappears as her TARDIS takes her away.

All this time, Reona, Antoni and the Master had used the distraction provided by their allies to prepare an army to start another Parallax War. The Daleks prepare to bind Akari and Shaun’s minds together as they prepare to become the emperor and empress of the new Girl Empire, but Kyōya, Kasumi and Momoka had been working to prevent this. Momoka summoned Hiroki’s past incarnations, along with his prototypes and even Storm Dasher, to fire infostamps at the throne, separating Akari from Shaun and breaking her from her conditioning. As the mind-breaker’s efficiency approaches 100%, Momoka uses a key to connect her mind with Akari, intertwining their timelines and making their previous encounters with each other fixed points in time.

Akari is freed, but all the Daleks turn on Reona, Antoni and the Master. After the first two are exterminated, the Master destroys Koshi Castle with a nuclear device before escaping, killing all the Daleks and super-soldiers with it. Girl Power managed to escape as well and most of their members went into hiding, but Shaun was apprehended off-screen, convicted of war crimes and sentenced to cryogenic suspension. Following this, Momoka regenerated into Hiroki, her final incarnation, and got back together with Akari. As a result of events, they (and some others) were eight years older than they should be.

This storyline was inspired by the final episodes of A Great Way to Care II (仁心解碼II), with Momoka being based on the character Apple Lam Chung-yan (林頌恩) played by Tavia Yeung (楊怡). Momoka would become a prototype and return in Series 9.

Anyway, I think that’s enough for now. If you thought that last storyline was harrowing enough, wait till you get to Part 2. It’s the part where things get turbulent and I cross the lines of morality so many times that you’ll be calling me an incel before you even get to the IRL context. My judgement day is nigh. See you in the next instalment.

#kisekae insights

[sunshineweb]

Owning Stocks is a Long-Term Project

Here is some stuff I am reading and thinking about this weekend…

Book I’m Reading – Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZAMM) is the autobiography of American writer and philosopher Robert Pirsig, wherein he chronicles his motorcycle journey across the country with his son. It is however much more than just an adventure tale. Through his journey, Pirsig explains his philosophy on life, creating a manifesto through motorcycle maintenance.

There are many lessons to be learned from this book, but a handful of persist throughout the story that can help reshape your perspective. Like, here is what Pirsig writes on how we lose so much time on unnecessary affairs that we move swiftly past what is really important –

We’re in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it’s all gone.

Then, here is Pirsig’s idea of how to fix the world –

The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there. Other people can talk about how to expand the destiny of mankind. I just want to talk about how to fix a motorcycle.

One of the most beautiful lessons I take from the books is the idea of enjoying the journey instead of just waiting for the destination. As Pirsig writes –

Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion. Then, when you are no longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn’t just a means to an an end but a unique event in itself. This leaf has jagged edges. This rock looks loose. From this place the snow is less visible, even though closer. These are things you should notice anyway. To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top. Here’s where things grow.

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Nobody wants to look back on their life and say, “Wow, I sure wish I experienced more, but at least I’m rich!” In today’s world, we often equate monetary success with concrete success. But for Pirsig, it’s all about the quality of your success that matters. And quite honestly, that sounds a lot better than just living a rich but ultimately unfulfilled life.

ZAMM is a beautiful book. Read it when you can.

Idea I’m Thinking – Owning Stocks is a Long-Term Project In the long journey of the stock of a high-quality business, the daily short-term jumps – or volatility as they call it in business news – that makes people nervous are “non-events.” Annie Duke writes in her brilliant book Thinking in Bets –

In our decision-making lives, we aren’t that good at taking this kind of perspective – at accessing the past and future to get a better view of how any given moment might fit into the scope of time. It just feels how it feels in the moment and we react to it.…We make a long-term stock investment because we want it to appreciate over years or decades. Yet there we are, watching a downward tick over a few minutes, consumed by imagining the worst. What’s the volume? Is it heavier than usual? Better check the news stories. Better check the message boards to find out what rumors are circulating.

Even noted psychologist Daniel Kahneman agrees –

If owning stocks is a long-term project for you, following their changes constantly is a very, very bad idea. It’s the worst possible thing you can do, because people are so sensitive to short-term losses. If you count your money every day, you’ll be miserable.

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Thoughts I’m Meditating On

There is nothing like losing all you have in the world for teaching you what not to do. And when you know what not to do in order not to lose money, you begin to learn what to do in order to win.

~ Jesse Livermore

When you understand that nobody wants to read your shit, your mind becomes powerfully concentrated. You begin to understand that writing/reading is, above all, a transaction. The reader donates his time and attention, which are supremely valuable commodities. In return, you the writer must give him something worthy of his gift to you.

~ Steven Pressfield

Video I’m Watching – Enjoy Yourself It’s a beautiful little video! Just watch it, and enjoy yourself!

Articles I’m Reading

Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting Transcript 2020 (Rev)

Covid-19-Induced Need Versus Greed Decisions (Mint)

Value Failed Because It Was Expensive (Distillate Capital)

Inside the Biggest Oil Meltdown in History (Institutional Investor)

What Have We Learned Here? (Collaborative Fund)

Why Most Post-Pandemic Predictions Will Be Totally Wrong (Medium)

This Version of Warren Buffett (The Reformed Broker)

Speculative Booms (Investor Amnesia)

If Charlie Munger Didn’t Quit When He Was Divorced, Broke, and Burying His 9 Year Old Son, You Have No Excuse (Joshua Kennon)

Bad Arguments and How to Avoid Them (Farnam Street)

Wizards of Dalal Street: How to Build A Crisis-Proof Portfolio? (CNBC)

A Question for You When times are difficult, we find it hard to recognize our good decisions, and our wins, from the past. However, acknowledging them as we move into the future empowers us to seek out ideas, people and experiences that set us up for success.

Ask yourself – Looking back over the last 5 years, where did I go right?

* * * That’s about it from me for today.

If you liked this post, please share with others on WhatsApp, Twitter, or just email them the link to this post.

Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think.

With respect, — Vishal

The post Owning Stocks is a Long-Term Project appeared first on Safal Niveshak.

Owning Stocks is a Long-Term Project published first on https://mbploans.tumblr.com/

[teamkaiforever]

TOO LONG TO REALISE

(requested by anon) Kai Parker x Reader word count : 4 737 warning : possible triggers summary : Reader is hopelessly in love with Kai and confesses her feelings but he rejects her. Later on however things change … continues after the cut ☺ *gif by christophwood note : i twisted the request a bit , hope you dont mind and still like it ☺ _____________________ Y/N sat on the sofa at the Salvatore’s gazing longingly at Kai standing at the opposite end of the room. He looked hotter than ever with his slightly messed up hair and those jeans and t-shirt fitting him perfectly. Each time she saw him , her breath got caught in her throat. Falling in love with him hadn’t been intentional , but it had been happened. There was something about him that drew her in the moment she first saw him. It wasn’t just his looks , it was his entire personality. He was dangerous , hot as hell , dripping with sex and the more her friends told her to stay away from him the more she seemed to fall for him. Her thoughts were consumed by him always , he was in her dreams every night and no matter what she did , there was no way to shake him. His smile could brighten the darkest days and he somehow always knew what to say to her to cheer her up. When Y/N first met him , he had just gotten out of the 1994 Prison World and all her friends had warned her about him saying he is a sociopath , a murderer who doesn’t have a sliver of good inside him. Even after the merge with his brother Luke. Y/N didn’t want to believe that. There is light and darkness in everyone and she was sure there was light in Kai too. He wasn’t evil , he was just – misunderstood. Most times all he needed was someone to talk to. Still , none of her friends liked him much but they preffered it when he was around. That way they could keep and eye on him and make sure he doesn’t murder anyone. Weirdly though , they still refused to believe that there is actually good in him even though after the wedding he had pretty much changed completely. Like somehow getting his revenge had calmed him down and he was finally free to be who he truly was and not who everyone expected him to be. He was nicer to people and even tried to help them sometimes. If Kai wanted he could easily slip away without any of them noticing and do what he wanted , but kind of like her - he was hoping they’d finally believe there is a new version of him. Y/N’s eyes followed him as he made his way around her friends and sat on the sofa next to her. She tried hard not to stare at him , but it was nearly impossible - she couldn’t tear her eyes even if she wanted. His eyes were bluer than usual and him standing this close to her was making her heart race so fast , she was pretty sure everyone in the room with supernatural hearing and even those without one , could hear it. Y/N glanced at him and noticed Kai looking at her , making her breath get caught in her throat for the billionth time that day. “Hey. What are you going ? This is supposed to be a fun get-together.” said Kai looking at her with curious. “Put that book away.” Y/N was reading one of her favourite books , or trying to at least. With him around it was hard for her to concentrate on anything else but him. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth seeing Kai smile at her. His smile was so beautiful , like literal sunshine , it always took her breath away. “I only have a f-few chapters left to read and I should’ve returned the book yesterday.” “Don’t you ever stop reading ?” he wondered , passing her a glass with bourbon. “Drink ?” “No , thank you.” Kai studied her face. He and Y/N were friends , sort of. Y/N was the only one who didn’t appear to hate him or judge him for all the things he had done. Whenever he needed someone to talk to she was always there ready to listen. Y/N was the only one who could stand his constant talking without creating some excuse to go away or finding a way to get rid of him. Though their interests didn’t appear to connect much. To him she seemed a little boring. Maybe he didn’t know her well enough but to him that’s how things seemed. Y/N always had a book in her hands , she’d never drink or smoke. He knew she is a chemistry major and she seemed to really like it , he could tell because sometimes when they talked she’d start talking about the elements and get so completely lost in the subject , ending talking about it for hours. “God , why are you always like this ?” he wondered out loud. “Like what ?” “You never appear to have fun. Come on. Live a little.” he said passing her his glass. “A sip wont kill you.” “No , but a sip usually leads to a glass and then another and before you know it - your liver is sick and you die.” Kai rolled his eyes. “As if anyone here would let you die.” he said. “I wouldn’t.” Y/N smiled at him grabbing the glass , taking a sip. Her eyes squeezed shut as the alcohol burned on its way down her throat. When her eyes opened she saw Kai looking at her with excitement in his eyes. “Woww that – burns.” Kai laughed , taking the glass from her hands noticing Stefan starring at them from across the room. He raised his cup slightly and finished it off under the disapproving stare of the Salvatore. Y/N followed his gaze , waving for a second at her friend. “He thinks I am corrupting you.” said Kai amused. “I was just a sip Steven , relax. It’s not like I made her drink the whole bottle. Then I’d understand it – actually no , I wouldn’t understand it even then.” Y/N couldn’t help but laugh , glancing between Kai and Stefan who rolled his eyes and went into the kitchen. Most of her friends had somehow scattered , which was surprising considering they didn’t trust Kai. Perhaps they thought that with their vampire hearing things can’t get bad. She was willing to bet every single one of her friends was now listening in on their conversation. Of course they knew about her feelings. As if it wasn’t obvious. Everyone else seemed to notice but Kai. It escaped her how someone as smart and perseptive as him would miss this. Or maybe he saw it and just didn’t feel the same way. Kai poked her in the stomach , snapping her out of her thoughts. “Smile. You are too serious for your own good.” A small smile showed on her face and she took a deep breath , getting on her knees and reaching for one of Damon’s fancy alcohol bottles on the table behind her. Kai looked at her with curious eyes and took the bottle from her hands. “Hey I was going to -” “No. I don’t want to get killed because you got drunk on my watch.” he said putting the bottle as far away from her as possible. “You saw that disapproving stare , he’d rip my heart out without blinking.” “You are the one who said to ‘live a little’.” “A little. A sip maybe two , not – a bottle.“he said a little amused. Kai put his feet up on the coffee table. Y/N tried hard not to laugh at the image of the face Damon would have if he sees Kai doing that. Y/N gazed into his eyes , getting lost in them for the millionth time. They were so blue she felt completely mesmerised , somehow in that moment they reminded her of the ocean - so calm most days until the storm hits. Carpe diem. she thought. Y/N didn’t know if it was the alcohol talking , though she was pretty sure a sip can’t do much to her , but she made the decision to tell Kai how she feels. It had been months and every time she thought maybe the right moment had arrived it was quite the opposite. At least in that moment they were alone , sort of and he seemed in a good mood. Her eyes fluttered closed for a moment trying find the right words. Many times she had imagined what she’d say to him and as usual the words tried to escape her again , only this time she didn’t plan on letting that happen. Y/N looked at him , finding him watching at her with curiousity in his eyes. “Can I tell you something ?” “Sure.” he asked studying her face. “You seem nervous. Don’t worry - I’m not going to bite you or anything.” he winked at her. The corners of her mouth twitched for a moment and she relaxed a little , though her heart kept pounding so hard she could almost feel it stuck somewhere in her throat from all the nerves. “Arh , I - I don’t know how to say this.” she smiled nervously , deciding to just come right out and say it. “I like you.” “I know.” said Kai smiling. “Why else would you stand my obnoxious self with my constant talking. I don’t ever shut up , do I ?” “No.” she said looking at him with a serious look in her eyes. “No , thats - thats not what I meant.” “W-what did you mean then ?” he wondered , scooting over a little closer to her. Kai could hear her heart racing and could tell she was starting to hypervenilate. He couldn’t understand why that was. It seemed to happen a lot when he was around her. He felt as if he was missing a crutial piece of information , like something kept slipping his mind. “Come on , you know you can tell me anything. That’s what friends are for right ?” he said smiling. “ Friends? she thought , unsure if she likes the term he used. “I like you as more than a friend Kai.” she said looking at her hands for a moment before meeting his eyes. “I’ve um - I have feelings for you.” ‘Ohhh…’ he mouthed. Now it made sense to him - why her heart always beats like that around him , why her eyes keep following him around the room. How had he missed it ? Kai liked talking to her and Y/N in a way was his only friend but he had no idea how to tell her her feelings are one sided without making her hate him. There were so very few people he could stand to be around and who could stand having him around , he didn’t want to risk losing her. “I like it when you are around. I like listening to you talk and talk , seeing you smile and the excitement in your eyes when you see something you like or when there are cupcakes around.” she smiled nervously. “I can’t get enough of it or you. When you are around it just - everything falls in place – and I hope maybe we can try and be more than friends ?” “Y/N I - I think you are amazing , kind and absolutely the best in every way but – I’m sorry.” he said quietly. “I don’t like you this way. You are my friend – more like a sister. No wait , scratch that. I actually like you , but never liked any of my siblings. I just - I don’t feel the same way about you. I’m sorry.” Y/N swallowed hard , feeling tears starting to form in her eyes. It had always been 50-50 chance that he’d reject her , but a part of her had hoped he might feel the same way about her. A tear rolled down her cheek but before she had had the chance to wipe it away herself , Kai did it for her. Her heart cracked so loudly at his words , she was pretty sure Stefan could hear it all the way in the kitchen. “I never meant to hurt you.” he said quietly trying to pull her towards him , find a way to calm her down. Instead Y/N pulled away from him. “Y/N -” “No. No its um - its okay.” she said putting on a smile , trying to mask away the pain and failing. Her tears were giving away her true feelings in that moment. “I understand. I -” Y/N lifted her gaze noticing Stefan standing at the entrance , looking at her with worried eyes. “I - I should um – I gotta go.” said Y/N grabbing her bag running away from both of them. “Y/N wait -” called out Kai but she didn’t even hear him , as the door had already closed. Y/N placed her hand on her stomach , feeling just about to crumble. Tears had started falling down her cheeks but she didn’t even bother to wipe them away. What would be the point ? It’s not like doing that would somehow change what Kai had said. Instead she ran , as fast as her feet could carry her , stopping by the large oak tree in the end of the driveway , bracing her hand against it. Y/N ran her fingers through her hair , turning to take another look at the house. Her heart was hoping Kai would go after her but he didn’t. Stefan did. “Are you okay ?” he asked placing his hand on her shoulder , rubbing gentle circles on her back. “Do you want me to take you home?” Y/N looked at him through tears and he pulled her into his embrace , stroking her hair and trying to calm her down. He hated seeing her like this. Stefan didn’t like Kai much and now he liked him even less. “Mhmm …” she mumbled. “Oh-kay.”

Kai stood by the window , watching and listening in. How it was that Y/N had fallen in love with him of all people and how had he missed it ? Out of everyone he knew , hurting her had never been his intention. Sure she was a little boring to him but there was no one even willing to stand in the same room as him for more than 5 minutes without trying to find an excuse to leave. And Y/N had spent hours listening to him talk at least 3 days a week. He closed his eyes for a moment , the sounds of her sobs breaking the silence. A few moments later he saw Stefan help her get in his car and they drove away.

“Do you realise what you just did?” asked Stefan. “You broke her heart.” “I didn’t mean to.” said Kai quietly. “What was I supposed to tell her ? Lies ? I did my best to let her down easy. Or do you think it doesn’t hurt me seeing the only person who ever gave me a real chance in pain because of me.” “I don’t know the answer to that question.” said Stefan. “All I know is that I have to go make sure she doesn’t do something stupid.” “I’ll go.” said Kai getting up but Stefan placed his hand on his shoulder , pushing him back onto the sofa. “No. I’ll go.” said Stefan. “You are the last person she’d want to see in that moment.”

____________________

Whenever Kai tried to talk to her in the following weeks , things never ended up the way he wanted. Y/N would still smile at him but it wasn’t her smile , he knew she was putting on a brave face and he wanted somehow to make it up to her for breaking her heart. Her friends were always around and every time Stefan or Damon would drag him away but not before he had seen the tears in her eyes. Over time Y/N started spending less and less time around her friends. Kai felt as if its his fault so he distanced himself from them to give her the chance to reconnect. A few months passed and Kai found himself drawn to her , wondering what she is doing who she is with. He stopped by the Salvatore’s to talk to Stefan or Damon or anyone really. He needed to know how Y/N is. If she had forgiven him or moved on. “Knock knock.” he said opening the door. “Anyone home?” “And to think I was just having a good day.” said Damon , flashing before him a few seconds later. “What are you doing here creeper?” Kai put his hands in his pockets ,trying to take a peek into the living room. There was someone else there but he couldn’t figure out who it was. He took a step aside but Damon blocked his way. Kai sighed. “You are not going to let me take another step inside are you?” “Nope.” “Oh-kay.” said Kai. “Is Y/N here? I - I need to talk to her. Please , I feel like if I don’t talk to her I’ll die or something. I don’t know whats wrong with me I just - I need to see her , to apologise - ” “Y/N is not here.” said Elena getting up from the sofa. “About a month after you broke her heart , she stopped answering her phone and the only times any of us had seen her is at Whitmore but Y/N doesn’t want to talk to any of us.” Kai looked at his shoes , swallowing hard realising he had unintentionally done this to her. As if he couldn’t hate himself more for hurting her. “She still goes to Whitmore?” “Yes.” nodded Elena. “But I would keep my distance if I were you. I don’t think it’s wise to go looking for her. Y/N was so heartbroken after you rejected her , it was hard to get her to do anything. If there is any part of you that care about her you will stay away to avoid causing her more heartbreak.”

Damon practically kicked him out the door shortly after. Kai got in his car and drove straight to Whitmore. He needed to see her , not talk to her just see her at least once to know that she is okay. About two hours later he had cloaked himself and was sitting on the steps at her college , holding his head in his hands watching the students walk by , waiting just to catch a glimpse of her. Days passed and he kept doing this day after day , week after week. Every time Kai saw her his heart did this weird flip and he felt this weird warm fuzzy feeling spread through his body. Y/N appeared to be happy , smiling at everyone and he didn’t want to risk breaking her heart again by letting her know he is there. However he couldn’t stop himself from going there every day. Kai wasn’t sure how or when but he had fallen in love with her.

Almost a year went by since Y/N had confessed her feelings to Kai. On the outside it appeared as if she had moved on , but things were different. The feelings were still there , not going away no matter how much she tried to shake them. Sometimes just when she thought she is starting to get over him something happened and it all came rushing back. Her friends had tried to support her and be there for her , but everything reminded her of Kai and it didn’t help much he was still around. To save herself from more heart break she cut the connections to her friends not realising how lonely her life would get. Y/N missed Damon’s snarky comments , Caroline’s control freak behaviour – she missed everything. Even the Grill’s soggy fries. Some days she’d sit in her car with the keys in the ignition , thinking about going back. Every time that happened something stopped her. It wasn’t like she didn’t have friends at college but things were different , they didn’t know her like the people she had grown up with. Her life had changed so much in the past year and a part of her wished she had never told Kai how she felt. Y/N couldn’t even be upset with him about rejecting her and leading her to cut connections with her friends - thats how strong her feelings for him were.

Y/N sat in her car that morning starring through the front window. Everything hurt her and she felt more alone than ever and making it through the day was becoming harder each day. Her fingers grabbed on the seat belt and she hessitated for a moment. Maybe she could stay home , avoid reality just for a day. “Another day … just – make it through another day.” she muttered to herself. Her eyes fluttered closed and she threw her head back. It was almost the end of the semester , if she could just make it another week and take a break afterwards – but somehow she doubted a ‘break’ existed. Y/N wasn’t a vampire or a witch. There wasn’t a way to shut away her feelings or cast some kind of a spell and put herself to sleep for a few months to get the break she needed. Finally she put her seatbelt on and drove to campus. Y/N sat on the grass in the front yard of Whitmore watching people her age laugh with their friends , hug their boyfriends / girlfriends or just sit there studying in groups while all this time she was sitting alone and something inside her snapped. She got up , taking her back and headed back inside unable to take any of it anymore. There weren’t many people inside and she make her way upstairs to the second floor where the chem lab was. It would be easier to try and end it some other way but during her time studying she had found there are elements that could ‘fix’ things quicker and painless. Y/N tossed her bag on her desk and started looking through the cabinet for what she needed , grabbing a few small bottles while fighting the tears. Y/N pulled out her phone and typed a quick message before starting to mix the chemicals. “What are you doing ?” asked a familiar male voice behind her. A few tears rolled down her cheeks but she didn’t turn around. Y/N knew exactly who it was and the last thing she wanted was to see his face and have that image in her mind when - “Y/N?” he asked again , gripping her wrists. “Whatever it is you think about doing - don’t.” Y/N looked up at him. It had been the first time they had seen each other in almost 9 months. Kai was looking at her with worried pleading eyes , his hair was a little messy and his grip on her tightened with every passing second she struggled against him. “It’s a bit late to care , don’t you think?” she snapped. “Let go off me.” “No.” “Malachai. Parker.” she raised her voice. “Leave me alone. I don’t want you here. I don’t want to see you or hear your voice or anything. Just GO.” Kai let go off her wrists taking a short step back from her. Y/N looked so hurt and desperate , he couldn’t stand to see her like this for another moment specially knowing its probably her fault. There had to be a way to stop her , to change her mind. He couldn’t lose her , the thought alone made him feel like his heart was being ripped out of his chest. “Fine. I’ll go.” he said. “But there is something I have to say to you before I do that. Two things actually and you are going to listen to me.” “Didn’t you hear me ?” she said through tears. “I don’t want you here.” “You can delay 5 minutes. After that you can do whatever you want. I won’t stop you – but I hope you will change your mind.” said Kai looking her directly in the eyes. “I am an idiot. The biggest idiot that has ever existed. I broke your heart and because of my actions you lost your friends. I will never forgive myself for any of this. Never. I wish there was a way to turn back time and undo all the pain.” “Me too.” she said quietly. Kai took a step towards her , watching her hands shake holding the small bottles. “I’ve spent the past few months watching over you , trying to convince myself that you are better off not knowing the truth but I can’t keep this from you any longer. If you want to die then you should die knowing how I feel about you.” “I already know h-” “No, you don’t.” said Kai brushing the palm of his hand against her cheek. “Look at me , just for 5 seconds , please. I need to see your eyes when I tell you this. You need to see me when I say what I am about to say.” Kai waited almost a whole minute before Y/N finally looked up at him with tears in her eyes. He took a shallow breath , wiping a way a tear from her cheek with his thumb. The pain in her eyes was so visible he wondered how he had missed it. “I love you Y/N. I fell in love with you.” he said with a small smile. “You are everywhere - in my thoughts , in my dreams – ” “You are lying. You - you are just saying things to change my mind.” “I am not lying. ” he said only then realising she had left the containers on the desk. Kai took her hand and placed it over his heart. “Do you feel my heart trying to escape out of my chest ? It’s because of YOU. I’ve spent the past few months watching over you. At first I just wanted to make sure you are okay but then I couldn’t stop. I’ve been here every single day and somehow I convinced myself that you are better off without me. That you have moved on and are happy.” Y/N could feel his heart racing like crazy and he sounded so honest , she believed every word he said to her. Or maybe she believed him because she wanted to believe him. Could he really have been by her side this entire time ? “I’ve been so blind for so long Y/N , not realising the best thing in my life had been standing right under my nose this entire time.” he said with a small smile. “I love you and I don’t want to lose you. If you die , I die. That’s how I know what I feel is real.” A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and Kai could feel her starting to change her mind. He was almost there. “If you give me the chance , I will prove it to you.” said Kai resting his forehead on hers , not taking his eyes away from hers. “I will prove it to you every minute of every day for the rest of my life – which means forever.” Kai kissed her forehead gently and took a few short steps away from her. “Make your decision. I’ll be waiting here and if you chose to end it all , then I go with you because I don’t want to live in a world where you don’t exist anymore.” Y/N glanced at the containers on the desk barely an inch away from her. It would be easy for her to finish what she had started. But why would she ? For the past almost two years ever since her eyes had first met Kai’s all she had wanted was to be with him. He had rejected her and maybe he was lying to her but if she ended it now - she’d never know the truth. What if she could have it all ? “D-do you mean what you said ? Or are you just saying all this to change my mind?” “I meant every sylable of every word.” he said with a small smile on his face. “It took me too long to realise I can’t be without you , I just wa-” “Kiss me.” she interrupted him. “Ki-” In a flash Kai cupped her face and his lips crashed against hers. He scooped her up , seating her on the desk not breaking the kiss for an instant. It hadn’t hit him exactly how much he loved her until the moment he had almost lost her forever. He made a promise to himself , to her - “I’ll never let you go. Never.” he whispered. MASTERLIST - SMUT MASTERLIST - FLUFF

#fanfic : mine #kai parker #kai parker imagine #kai parker x reader #malachai parker #malachai parker imagine #malachai parker x reader #tvd #tvd imagine #the vampire diaries #the vampire diaries imagine #vampire diaries #fiction #imagine #fanfic #fan fiction #fanfiction #fan fic #vampire diaries imagine

[sebastianstanaddictsanonymous]

Never Will I Ever

Summary: You’d waited years to get your soulmark, and when you finally did you realized that you’d never get to meet him.

Word count: 2284

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader

Genre: Angst with a happy ending

Warnings: Angsty

Author’s Note: So this was an idea that I’d had anyway BUT it wasn’t in the plans to be out anytime soon. However, yesterday I found myself on the receiving end of some hate, telling me to give up on writing because I wasn’t good and that I should delete my blog. Instead it fueled me to write this. So, to that anon, thanks for the motivation! And a big thank you to all of you who have been very supportive, it means a lot. Now, I feel like this started out strong but got a little weak near the end, for that I apologize, its 5am and I’m tired…If anyone wants a part 2 let me know and I can absolutely do it.

Tags: @emilyevanston, @goody2shoessmut

 For as long as you could remember, you couldn’t wait to turn 16. Not just because then you’d be able to drive. No, 16 was the age when everyone started receiving their soulmark, their soulmate’s name written somewhere on their body. You had been disappointed, when on your 16th birthday, you woke up and after checking every part of you that you, yourself could see and then asking Jarvis if his cameras could see any names on your body that you couldn’t, you did not have any soulmark, not yet anyway.  

 For the rest of that day you’d checked periodically. Your dad, or rather, Pepper, had planned an amazing party, inviting all your friends to the house in Malibu, even flying some of them out from New York. Breakfast started things off, after you had eaten alone with your father and watched some cartoons, the one tradition you had, you’d showered and dressed, not before checking yourself again. Friends arrived just before lunch, which your father sent you out to a restaurant for. After lunch was the beach, and then home where you all pigged out on every snack food imaginable that Pepper could get her hands on as you watched scary movies. Gifts were given after Pepper and your father returned to the house later in the evening. Pepper had given you books, many of which were on your ‘to read’ list on your wall. Dad presented you with your very own robot. Then it was back to movies, joined now by your father and then a sleepover.

 You never received your soulmark that day. Or the next. Your father told you to be patient, if it didn’t appear by the time you were 17, then you could worry. It was a full seven months later when you finally felt a tingling on your left wrist during a history class, it turned briefly into stinging and then a barely there itch. You were excited, almost bouncing in your seat. Setting down your pen, you turned your arm over so that your hand was palm up. Taking a breath to calm yourself you tugged your sleeve down far enough to see the name written in all capitals where your hand and wrist met.

 Your heart seemed to stop. This could not be happening. You heard the bell signaling the end of the period and used that as your chance to escape, you needed to get home and quickly. Gathering your belongings, you rushed to your locker, dropping off your books, grabbing your bags and rushing out of your school and to the nearest subway station. You don’t remember getting on a subway car, you don’t remember walking into Stark Tower and you don’t remember walking past Pepper, who was asking why you were home before noon.

 You rushed into your father’s lab, dropping your bag just inside the door. Your dad looked up from the different electrical components he had in front of him on his workbench before glancing at the clock and turning on his stool to face you. “Y/N, what are you doing here?” You pretty much threw yourself into your father’s arms, bursting into tears, confusing him. His arms came around you, shushing you and rocking you gently. Contrary to how the public saw Tony Stark, the billionaire playboy was serious when it came to you, he never liked to see you upset.

 It took a few minutes before you were able to calm down enough to tell him what was wrong. You took a step back to look up at him, your tear-stained face red and your nose running. You let out a laugh when he tried to dry your tears with a rag that had oil on it, feeling the substance leave its mark on your nose. “You want to tell me what this is all about? Shouldn’t you be pretending to learn things that we both know you already know?” You nodded, looking down at your hands and playing with the sleeve of your shirt.

 “I-I uh, I got my soulmark.” Looking up at him you watched his eyes widen a bit before an eyebrow raised. “That’s great! Now, I have a future son-in-law to torture and threaten. You’ve been waiting for this, why are you upset.” He asked. “Oh god, is he ugly? I bet he’s hideous. Big nose? Warts, too short?” Normally this would make you laugh, but as you rolled up your sleeve your eyes watered once more and you shook your head.

 “No daddy, he’s not. It’s just that, you’re not going to get to do any of that because I’m never going to get to meet him.” When you’d finished speaking he grabbed your hand, slowly turning your hand over to look at the name on your wrist. The first clue that that there was a problem was the fact that your mark was faded, a faded mark meant one of two things. One, the person hadn’t been born yet, if only that were the problem. The second reason, was that the soulmate whose name was on you was dead.

 In your case, you knew which of the two reasons you were faced with. Steven Grant Rogers was written across your wrist and he was long gone. A friend and colleague of your grandfather, he’d spent years trying to find him. Your father stared at the letters for a few minutes before taking a deep breath. He tugged you back into his arms to hold you again. Not saying a word as you broke down again.

 In the days that followed, you kept your wrist covered unless you were at home, you didn’t want your friends to question it, none of them knew who Steve Rogers was anyway, sure, you’d learned all about Captain America in school, but no one knew the man behind the shield, you only knew because of your grandfather and you really didn’t feel like having to explain it to teenagers. You avoided school altogether for the first two days, your father claiming that you were sick before he went off on a business trip.

 It was around then that your father started to party like he’d used to again. Coming home drunk, being in the news for his latest party adventure, and you found yourself helping Pepper chase women out of your home.

 You and your father were still close however, he encouraged you to take on extra classes, the school allowing you to take on independent learning courses. These courses would allow you to graduate a year early. Most of your time was dedicated to your schooling, hanging out with friends and travelling with your father when you could. Keeping busy kept your mind off of the fact that you’d never meet your soulmate, of course it didn’t stop you from feeling like a piece of you was missing when your friends met theirs, it didn’t stop you from being sad when you lay in bed at night, running your fingers over the name on your wrist and wondering just what he had been like.

 It was those nights when you wished that your grandfather was still around, he’d probably have had stories to tell you, of course if your father’s stories were anything to go by, it was unlikely that Howard would have told you anything since he was always away.

 Four years after your mark appeared, you father went missing while on a trip to the Middle East. You sat day after day with Pepper and Happy, watching the news and waiting to hear about whether or not he was alive. At 19 years old, you were forced to consider that he wasn’t coming home. After two months the media got bored. What used to be daily reports became maybe once a week, thankfully Uncle Rhodey continued to update you when he could.

 While he was missing you found yourself focusing more and more on your marks as a kind of comfort, sure Steve was dead, but that didn’t mean the marks didn’t help. When you were having a particularly bad day, you’d find yourself subconsciously rubbing your fingers across the letters, sometimes simply tracing them. Whether you were lying in bed or sitting in class, it helped.

 Four months after he’d gone missing, Pepper had called you while you were in one of your computer science classes at your college. Your dad had been found, she and Happy would be at the school in 20 minutes to get you and you would be meeting him at the army base. You’d never been happier to leave a class early.

 Life changed after that. Dad built a suit that he thought would replicate how he escaped. As it turned out, Obadiah Stane, the man who was running Stark Industries and a family friend, had arranged his kidnapping and then proceeded to try and kill you father, Pepper and yourself. Stane ended up dead, and your father officially named himself Iron Man and made sure the world knew it.

 In the year following, you graduated from college with a degree in computer sciences, which you ended up using to help your father develop new suits while you also looked after the research and development department, signing off on new projects, and helping your dad and Pepper redesign the tower. You were constantly busy.

 On the night that you were testing the new clean energy system on the tower, your celebration was cut short by the appearance of Phil Coulson. It was never a good thing when he showed up. It usually meant that something big was going to happen and that your dad would be pulled away. And he was, except that you were requested as well.

 You found yourself on a Shield helicarrier, unpacking your bag in the small room you were provided before you were to head out to meet at the bridge. You had your head down, looking at your tablet to make sure the app that you needed was on there. You looked up when you heard two sets of footsteps coming towards you.

 The first person was Coulson, he was chatting with a blonde man in a plaid shirt, pinstripe pants and a brown leather jacket. He looked familiar, but you weren’t sure from where. You smiled at Phil, always having a soft spot for the man who brings so much trouble. Maybe he could help you find the bridge.

 “Hey Phil, are you heading to the bridge, I’m not exactly sure how to get there and I’m supposed to be meeting dad there.” The older man nodded.“Did you find everything you need? I know it’s a lot to take in, but you shouldn’t be here long once you find the cube you should be on your way.”

 “Yeah, everything is good, I haven’t checked out the lab yet but it should be fine, I doubt Shield would give us something inadequate. Dad will complain either way.” And he would. He wouldn’t be him if he didn’t.

 The man that had been with Phil was quiet, observing more than anything. I looked from him back to Phil, hoping he’d get what I was asking. “Oh jeez, I guess I should introduce the two of you, you’ll be seeing a lot of each other these next few days. This is Steve Rogers, and before you ask, yes he is THAT Steve Rogers.”

 Whatever witty greeting that you had thought of left you in that moment and in the same moment you dropped your tablet. There was no way that Steve Rogers was standing in front of you. He was dead, and had been dead for near 70 years. It just was not possible.

 You looked from Phil, to the man that he was claiming to be your soulmate, of course he wouldn’t have known that he was your soulmate, no one but yourself, your dad and Pepper knew.

 “I-But, that’s not possible, there is no way that you are Steve Rogers. Steven Grant Rogers?” To say that you were in shock would be an understatement. For five years you’d mourned the man you’d never get the chance to meet, the man that was supposedly in front of you.

 At the mention of his full name his eyebrow raised and for the first time since you entered the hallway he spoke to you. “Yes?” It was more of a question than a statement, as if he was asking why this crazy woman was so shocked to see him standing there. You rolled up the sleeve of your shirt, expecting to see your soulmark faded as it always was. Instead it was dark, each letter clear and easy to read.

 “I-Holy crap, when did that happen?” You meant thought you’d asked yourself in your head, but all at once you realized that it’d been out loud. Looking up into his blue eyes, blue eyes that clearly had questions, you knew that there was no way that this wasn’t your Steve.

 You took a deep breath before speaking again. “Well, Mr. Rogers, my name is Y/N Y/M/N Stark, and I believe we have a lot to talk about.”

 The shock was evident on his face for seconds before a look of happiness replaced it. You felt him grab your arm, pulling you into a hug that completely enveloped you. Unlike your father, who when you hugged him you simply felt safe, with Steve it was different. The hug was warm, it was comforting, it was home. You couldn’t help but grin, and close your eyes as he held you to him.  You squeezed him back when he spoke.

 “I’ve waited a long time to find you.”

#steve rogers x reader #captain america #fan fiction #chris evans x reader