#the only difference between me and him is he plays the drums (slay) and I play the bass guitar

[wylans-flute]

I am actually Lister Bird you guys don't understand

#the only difference between me and him is he plays the drums (slay) and I play the bass guitar #lister bird #i was born for this #adding to the kin list

[calumthoodshands]

hi aria! i'm sending you a big hug from across the atlantic, let me know when it arrives. it comes with an optional kiss on the cheek if you're comfortable with that. imagine you could get each member of 5sos to cover one song of your choosing, and then the group as a whole would also cover a song of your choosing, so five songs total. what are the songs? explanations are more than welcome. i love you lots xoxo bella

bella hello!! i am gladly accepting the hug and the optional kiss on the cheek omg <3 it has arrived way earlier but i had to have some thunks on this ask. so here goes ! @clumsyclifford

so i'm gonna start with Michael bc i am obsessed with his voice and if i could i'd want him to cover SO many songs oh wow. i want a million albums with his voice. but for the sake of this ask i would LOVE if he sang Waiting for the end by Linkin Park. why, you ask? well, first of all it's one of my favourite LP songs ever. second of all, i think it fits his voice, and the song has an amazing build especially in the last chorus, and it has such a sweet contrast between the verses and the chorus with the rap parts it's just SO good. it would really showcase both Michael's soft vocals and when he really pops off and really shows his unique voice. i want him to scream in the last chorus. and the harmonies simultaneously would just straight up send me to heaven. bonus point bc i am making my own rules and would imagine him actually perfoming it so that i could watch it i think he would have fun playing it as well bc linkin park songs just slap ok. slap some calum harmonies onto it and i will die happily

next i'm going with... Better by Zayn for Calum. His warm voice on that track? I would melt. The deep notes in the beginning, then stepping up, and then the chorus all the way up there? Hearing the highs and lows he can go? besides, i am so curious to hear him on an RnB song like this. I would maybe only strip it back a little in the beginning and make it a bit more industrial for the rest of it, bc he deserves a little treat. and bc i think the song isn't at its full potential. i love it, i absolutely do, but maybe with just a bit more... especially the bridge, i think they could get more out of it than we already have. (sorry zayn i swear i love you the most on the whole planet.) petition for calum to do more RnB plsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss and also narrate my life. for all of eternity. thank you sir

now with Ashton i want something slower, and nothing modern. i think he really has an... old voice, in the sense that it feels like it's from a different decade. there's this soulful, raspy tone in it i really really like and i love when he uses it in 5sos songs. So my song choice for him would probably be Everybody wants to rule the world by Tears for Fears. I would love to hear him on that chorus. This song is SO GOOD and especially the last chorus really makes it, and i think he would do great playing around with his voice on the whole song, because he can really sound so different when he wants to which could be so fun on this song!! and on top of that the drums and the whole production, i think that would really be up his alley. give it to me!! give it to HIM!

and now lastly Luke. my bro. singer boi. i think i would go with: Lego House by Ed Sheeran. It's kinda a comfort song for me and I think you would agree when i say Luke deserves more acoustic songs so this is my proposal. he would especially slay the bridge imo, and i would love to hear his whiny (affectionately!!) voice bring it to even higher heights only to crash to the ground when the instruments are all stripped back for the beginning of the very last chours. the harmonies would sound so lovely (i might bring calum in here as well i'm sry i just love his bg harmonies ok) and i would like for luke to add some ad-libs [ :)) ] and high notes and ohhhhhhh-ohhhhhhs towards the end. this song would be a good chance to show what he can do vocally without going to extremes. besides, lower register in the beginning? sign me up. i WANT that. thank you very much.

and lastly. 5sos... bois... please cover What a feeling by One Direction for me. please. please please please please. their harmonies would knock it out of the PARK. i honestly thinking slower, almost jazzy songs like this would fit them really well at times and i also wouldn't mind if they jazzed it up a little, maybe go a bit harder on the drums, maybe make it even more epic. man i would do THINGS for that. and (dont be mad at me) i think it would fit if it was just a little bit calum focused bc he has the warmest voice. maybe luke on the first verse, calum on the pre chorus, all four obviously in the chorus. then i'd like ashton on the second verse, bc he has a really good voice for songs like this one that are a bit slower and where you can really use your voice as an instrument in a way. i'd like for michael to sing the bridge an octave lower maybe to break it down for a bit, but he could really bring it forward with his voice, maybe climbing up a bit during, give it a crescendo, and really make the last chorus epic, i want him to sing the high notes and highlights with Luke over the normal chorus mainly sung by calum towards the end. man it would be AMAZING. i want it!!! really bad!!!!!

thank you so much for asking bella i love YOU lots and i hope you can halfway agree with my choices 🧡

#ask #bella <>

[wrctings]

Jean Kirschtein x reader | Friends, or is it more?

the more i watch aot, the more i love jean... his moments of self-doubt and his moved smile truly are heart-wrenching 🥺

fandom: Attack on Titan pairing: Jean Kirschtein x reader summary: Where you realise that you’re falling for your best friend, whose heart is already taken—or so you thought. Fortunately, what becomes a saddening party can also turn into an unexpected occasion to make things right. word count: 3.3k

Sometimes, belonging to the Scouts regiment came with something that, from up close, resembled a flicker of momentary joy. You had, of course, been aware of the harrowing shadow of a reputation that trudged behind the wings of liberty: danger, death and despair; the three Ds accompanying your pledge to humanity drummed their deafening beat alongside your horse's frenzied gallop whenever you took place in the formation that led you outside the walls, the wind hurling through your hair and your senses at the height of their tension, ready to signal the approach of a titan at any given minute, bracing your body for every possible threat. You had faith in commander Erwin, had faith in your comrades—if giving your life was necessary for your cause, then, you had silently promised yourself and your people, you would give it with eyes wide open and undefeated fierceness, be it in the heat of battle or any other way. The wings embroidered upon your cape represented your beliefs more intensely than any word—as long as there was a Scout left, hope would live still; blossom upon the tall grass that freely grew upon the tombs of your fallen comrades. Even the smallest victory made you believe that a change could be made—and even the smallest victory was celebrated in the battalion as a sign that bode well for the foreseeable future. It was such celebrations, though as small as the victories they marked, that made room for moments of joy the regiment could barely encounter at other times. And when those moments came, life suddenly appeared coated with a hundred colours, full of humorous idiocies and heedless amusement that stirred up in you all the youthful glee of not caring about a thing in the world but the people around you and the drink in your hand.

"You guys won't believe the position we found Bertholdt in this morning!"

Seated beside Armin, who himself flanked Eren as Mikasa had naturally settled on the other side of their childhood friend, you leaned further on the wooden table of the barrack in order to hear your brunet friend more distinctly, his excited voice reviving the conversation at once. Drawn by a cheerful and carefree sort of curiosity, which was well fueled by the general bright mood, finding out about Bertholdt's daily sleeping position suddenly appeared like the most fascinating event one could discuss, especially when followed by the boys' weather previsions based on their comrade's often strange and tangled up poses. You exchanged an amused look with Mikasa, and though your friend's features remained almost as impassive as usual, the vivid twinkle you caught through the dark shine of her eyes mirrored your cheery behaviour; Armin's face, on the other hand, wore an expressive smile, the blond boy remembering vividly the description of Bertholdt that Eren began recounting.

But even as you laughed at the image of Bertholdt's knees somehow managing to stay bent as he slept on his stomach, the upper part of his legs outstretched toward the sky in an unusual—to say the least—position, your gaze went on sweeping the room, in search of the one person you couldn't wait to chat with again, though you also got along really well with Armin, Mikasa and Eren. The only problem was, said person was not that fond of the self-righteous brunet ball of energy sat at your table, so you were not surprised to find him in Conny and Sasha's company instead, talking animatedly. You had already had the opportunity to chat with Jean earlier that evening, the two of you having grown so close to each other that it would've been impossible for you not to cross paths tonight, but you wondered whether you would drift toward each other again before the makeshift party came to an end; Captain Levi had been surprisingly unbothered by your shy request to celebrate today's mission's success, accepting it on the sole condition that only soft drinks were to be consumed—Armin suspected that Commander Erwin was responsible for granting the new recruits' wishes, as they had after all already endured quite a lot during the expedition to retrieve Eren from Annie.

"We better watch out for that sleeping position of Bertholdt's, maybe it means good luck," Armin observed lightheartedly, taking a sip from his drink.

"You should keep a notebook with all of them, and maybe you'll crack the code someday," you added with a chuckle, the three of you glancing at Bertholdt.

Having your 104th comrades with you in the Scouts regiment really did bring you a lot of comfort to help you navigate these new uncharted waters, though it also made it acutely unbearable to imagine that some of them might not make it back next time; Marco served as your first and most painful lesson that even those dearest to you were never safe. It was after the freckled boy's death that you and Jean had truly bonded, brought together by the devastating loss of your kindhearted friend. You had become each other's rocks since then—checking up on each other after training sessions and expeditions, playful teasing and calling each other all sorts of funny nicknames rooted into the core of your friendship, giving it all its strength. And it was when you had been injured during the 57th expedition and Jean had almost hysterically ran up to you afterwards, cursing with no restraint and holding your arm so tightly it hurt when he helped you limp toward the medical wing, that you had been hit for the first time, though still shaken from slaying a titan and the bloody cut burning your leg, by how grateful you were to have made it out alive, to have Jean by your side. It was then that you had realised that there was no one else you would rather be with than him—it was something more than anything you've ever felt before, as your timidly pounding heart had been reminding you ever since.  

But another thing unavoidable when being friends with Jean, of course, was the bickering between your comrade and Eren—and this evening was no different from any other week. A few minutes later, as you engaged in a pleasant conversation with Armin, your attention was drawn by the thunderous eruption of voices that suddenly shook the walls of the barrack, making many pairs of surprised eyes turn toward the belligerent protagonists of the argument. It just had to be Eren and Jean, hadn't it? Like the rest of your comrades, you couldn't possibly guess where the spark that ignited this new inferno came from, but with these two, a valid reason often wasn't needed; to the greatest despair of the 104th, both boys possessed magic powers to summon reasons to fight out of thin air. At the present moment, both Eren and Jean were actively yelling at each other, shooting names and accusations back and forth.

However, the lack of rational incidents to cause such a scene didn't mean that there was no deeper reason for Jean's outbursts, just like Eren's counter-attacks originated from his legendary stubbornness already well-known to his fellow comrades. You had been suspecting for a long time that Jean mainly proclaimed his hatred towards Eren because of Mikasa. Before the 57th expedition, when both of you were in a playful and mischievous mood, you would even friendlily tease Jean about his soft spot for the dark haired young woman, which he hadn't hidden very well ever since Mikasa and he met for the first time. It was quite unfortunately, really, that your heart had finally chosen Jean, of all people, to fall for—as if you weren't well aware of how much he admired and liked Mikasa! And this mascarade surely had to have been orchestrated to get her attention, just like many other failed schemes of Jean's, as Mikasa barely seemed interested in anyone but Eren, Armin, sometimes Sasha, and you.

"There he goes again..." You muttered downheartedly, sparing a glance at your best friend.

"It's Eren and Jean, after all..." Armin responded with a sorry smile, squirming on the bench to get further away from Eren, who was now up on his feet and facing Jean with balled up fists. Mikasa watched the two boys through squinted eyes, at the ready to jump and knock over Jean if needed—at least, your friend's plan to get her attention had succeeded.

"I know how this is going to end," you told Armin under your breath, averting your gaze from the fighters. "You know what, I think it's right about time for me to head off. I don't want to witness Captain Levi tearing their heads off for wrecking havoc in here."

"Really? Don't you want to stay a little longer? I'm sure it won't come to this!"

"I don't even want to know. Goodnight, Armin, thank you for the nice chat," you excused yourself, fleeing from the barrack swift as a cat, only the passage of a furtive ray of light on the floor signifying that the door to the room had been opened as quickly as it was closed.

You knew better than to cling onto something you could not reach, so why endure the spectacle of such a foolish play?

*

Outside, nighttime had descended upon the camp with its soothing quietness. Nothing in sight but the warm flutter of torches fixed upon the barracks; nothing ringing in your ears but the chirping melody of a cricket's song, its echo delicately carried away by the evening wind. No ecstatic shouting, no blaring laughter. Nothing but a lone constellation half-veiled by the grey trail of clouds that unhurriedly floated upon the dark depths of the sky. No Jean, no Eren. You took a lungful of fresh air before a long sigh lifted off your chest—if only things could go back to the way they had been. Back when Jean was nothing but a fun and (sweetly) annoying horse-faced boy to be around, and no cause for heartache.

You took some more steps ahead, the muffled sounds you could still hear from inside dying out as you walked further away. Although you had told Armin that your time to go had come, you didn't feel like getting back to bed right now; actually, you didn't feel like anything but escaping for a little while.

At last, you decided to retrace your steps, taking a seat on the ground beside the barrack you had abandoned, your back pressed against its wooden surface. On the other side, the cacophony hadn't ceased, only muffled by the wall that separated you from the inside mayhem. Had Jean and Eren opted for a fistfight denouement by now? Would Mikasa intervene?

But before you had enough time to explore the many scenarios your imagination could sketch out, the door beside which you had settled opened abruptly, a wide stream of light flooding the ground at once. In the blink of an eye, a visibly disconcerted figure appeared on the threshold, freezing as they took a look around before rapidly bifurcating to the side in order to follow one of the torchlit paths...

"Jean?"

"Y/n?! What are you doing here?" Jean rushed toward you as soon as he noticed your silhouette from behind the shadows, discovering your hiding-place. "I didn't even see you leave..."

"I'm sorry, I was starting to feel tired." Touched by the fact that Jean had left the room to look for you, you attempted to give him a plausible excuse.

"C'mon, you can get through a day of training, but you can't get through one of the only party nights we're lucky enough to have?" Jean taunted, taking a seat next to you. "What's the matter?" he gently elbowed you, throwing his neck back so he could press his head against the wall behind. "Just when I was about to defeat Eren..."

"Defeat Eren, really? Statistically, it's more likely for Captain Levi to smile than for us to see that happen," you laughed tiredly, trying not to think about how Jean would probably soon get back to Mikasa and the others.

"Yeah, yeah, tease me all you want, it'll happen. Someday this idiot will get his ass handed to him."

Closing your eyes, you only had it in you to maintain the forced smile painted over your lips while fighting back the rush of stinging tears that suddenly overwhelmed you. Why did Jean had to come and check up on you now of all times, right when you were more than ever convinced that you were starting to fall for him, and it couldn't be clearer that his every move longed for someone else?

"You know, I was going to get him, but Mikasa can get scary..." It was as if he could decipher the riddles of your mind, unaware of the way your heart convulsed. "I wouldn't want to cross her. Why would she hang out with this idi—"

"Look, Jean, if you've come here to rant about this, then you can leave," you ended up snapping, biting back more acre words . "I'm tired, okay? Just get back to the fun inside."

"You... You don't feel like talking?" Jean's voice softened from incomprehension, trying to read your tone. "I'm sorry, I didn't know it was that bad. Hey, you really don't want to talk?"

You shook your head in response, scolding your own self for such pathetic behaviour. Jean couldn't possibly know about your suppressed feelings, so your attitude must indeed appear more than confusing, especially since you were so used to confiding in each other and cheering each other up, for the past weeks more than ever. In the wake of Icarus's ascend towards the sun, untethered and naive, your wings of wax were melting... But who could've predicted, as much as a month earlier, that the loveable idiot by your side would doom you to downfall?  

"Okay... Well...," the young man ran a distracted hand through his hair, frowning as his jaw clenched. "Then I'll talk. You know, I had an idea for tonight," he began after collecting his thoughts, breaking through the hesitant seconds that had temporarily numbed his tongue. "It was our first successful expedition after that near-death experience after all, so I thought I'd better make the most of it and make tonight's celebration useful. Who knows when we'll get another one. Maybe you're right and it's actually more likely to see Captain Levi smile than to get another one of these again soon." Jean's speech ran freely now, his torrent of sentences—for the moment still not making clear sense as to where they were headed to—submerging you in the familiar flow of his voice. As of late, your greatest fear had become to miss its distress call in the ranging mist of a battle, to watch Jean's body be torn to shreds as you could only scream until everything else vanished... "So I thought I'd be brave, for once." He took a deep breath in, fingers nervously wrapped around the back of his own neck. "There's this person I like."

There it was. Somehow, you knew that it would be coming—after the stunt he pulled earlier with Eren...

"They're much braver than I am, but they probably know that already," Jean went on, chuckling self-depreciatingly—he knew he could poke at himself in your company without being ashamed of disclosing his flaws. "They wouldn't hesitate to come and rescue me, even if I were grabbed by a titan. And they're really beautiful, too—"

"Look, Jean, if you've come to talk about Mikasa, just save it," you could only murmur. "Pl—"

"And, quite surprisingly, they're also a dumbass!" Jean didn't let you finish either, shifting his head so he could see your face better. "But that's something both of us have in common." Taken aback by such a strange confession, you opened your eyes to take an intrigued look at Jean while hoping that he wouldn't notice the tears you had at last blinked away. You met his gaze head-on, even among the shadows that coiled over his face.  "Because they think that I still have a thing for a girl I liked for two weeks, while I've been talking about them all along."

"What—"

"You know, you're the one who makes being called "horse-face" the funniest," Jean cracked an unsure smile at you, fiddling with his hands. "Alright, it's the bravest I'll ever be, so time to crawl in a hole and die now," he immediately added more anxiously, looking like the unexpected nature of his confession had stricken him for the first time.

"Wait, Jean, no!" It was as if, for the first time in a span of unending minutes, you could breathe again. "Wait, is this... Is this for real?" You asked in what came out almost a whisper, fearing, in this instant where your hopes balanced on the edge of a precipice of churning doubt and elation, that this was a joke you would not be able to forgive. Jean was better than this, but what if?—the thought drilled into your heart.

"Well... Yes. I'm sorry if I've made things awkward, it's Armin who told you might like me too and—"

"Hey, hey," your hand found its way to Jean's arm in a comforting touch, preventing him from leaving as he made a move to flee after blurting out an apology. Judging by your frantic heartbeat, there was no way you could be the calmer person in this situation—and yet, Jean somehow managed to look even more distressed than you at the moment. "I do like you." It was your turn to get embarrassed, which your flushed cheeks openly betrayed, illuminated by the nearby torch's flitting flame. "But Mikasa...?"

"Y/n, I haven't liked Mikasa for longer than a few weeks. I mean, yes, she's beautiful and strong, but so are you. And you're so much more than that. You're so fun to be around, I haven't laughed so hard with anyone but you. Unlike me, you're not scared to be brave and kind, but with you, I don't need to think which face I need to put on, because I know we don't have to pretend to be someone we're not when we're around each other. And when you got injured... I couldn't stand the thought of losing you. I made myself a promise then that I would tell you, and tonight seemed like the right time. I've been talking to Armin after the expedition and I think he kind of guessed that I liked you, and that you liked me too—I don't even know how or why, but he told me he thought you did. That's not exactly how I thought it'd go but... Trying to get your attention by getting in a fight with Eren wasn't that good of a plan, I guess."

"So that's what it was...! You really are an idiot, Jean Kirschtein," you declared vivaciously, but the moved smile that brightened your face spoke louder than the fond insults Jean and you would fire at each other. "We need to watch out for Armin, he will uncover everyone's secrets, at this rate..." You joked before regaining a more serious attitude, your emotions truly swayed by your friend's avowal. "The expedition changed everything for me too. I realised that I didn't want to go without you. No, I realised that I didn't want to go at all—I wanted to stay. With you."

"Pff, get in line," Jean grinned in spite of the emotional look on his face, sighing in relief. "I've been liking you for months."

"Seriously?"

"Absolutely. Do you think I go out of my way to check up on everyone after a battle or that everyone's mom gets the privilege of being the centre of my skilfully crafted jokes?"

"Shut up," you laughed wholeheartedly, your shoulder against Jean's. "Your mom's a hoe."

"Very clever," he teased you in return, face glowing from a joy even more vivd than the fiery sparks that chased the night's spectres away. “I bang yours every night.”

You burst out laughing, rolling your eyes—mom jokes were a must in your goofy friendship. A friendship that, with a bit of unpredicted luck, was on the verge of becoming something more.

#jean kirschtien #jean kirschtein x reader #jean kirschtein imagines #attack on titan fanfiction #attack on titan x reader #snk x reader #snk imagines #writing #snk fanficition

[ghastspidergwen]

I love @doctorsiren's dadskall au, and I thought I'd write a little fic about it. basically, the dadskall au is where xisuma and ex (alex)'s dad is doomguy, but some sort of accident/crazy magic/whatever made him and iskall share a body, go check out doctor siren for the whole story, she has great art, too!

disclaimers (you can completely ignore this section if you want): I have played about 15 minutes total of all the Doom games, read none of the books, seen none of the movies, but the ost is great, so this will probably be ooc for doomguy. xisuma and alex are more based on the featherweight au versions, not the real hermitcraft versions. this story is not part of the dadskall au nor any of dr siren's other aus, it's just a break for me to write some fluff. it takes place ~3-4 years after where fw currently is (s7 election era) but is not set in the fw au world. link to the post part of this is based on. ...and I think that's everything, onto the fic!

.

Xisuma took a deep breath, “I think dad’s alive.”

“You said you saw him die,” Alex, previously known as Evil Xisuma, said, turning to his brother, “They told me he died”

“He wasn’t exactly dead, it’s hard to explain. It’s more like...the horcruxes in Harry Potter. When dad died, I think there was some magic at play that made it so his ‘soul’ transferred into the nearest healthy, person. And I think I found them.”

“Uh-huh, and who might that be?”

“HALLO!” Iskall burst in, “What did you need me for?”

“Iskall? Seriously?”

“He was there that night and I have no reason to believe-”

“You really think Iskall-”

“It’s my best guess, everyone else was injured, and the magic had to choose the nearest healthy person, so it must be Iskall.”

“What must be Iskall?”

“Are you sure we’re talking about the same Iskall?”

“No, Iskall86,” Xisuma said, sarcastically, “Of course this Iskall, how many Iskalls do we know?”

“I still have no idea what we’re talking about, can -”

“No!” The void brothers turned to him and responded in sync. Xisuma pulled his brother into a side room, “Stay right there, thanks Iskall.”

“What?”

Xisuma exhaled and closed the door behind them, “Phew, OK, I have reason to believe that 13 years ago, Iskall was present the night that dad-y’know-and since everyone else there was either corrupted or injured, as the only uninjured person, dad’s spirit ended up inhabiting his body, but’s been so weak that it was only using Iskall as a means of staying alive, not influencing him or trying to take control of his body at all. Do you get me?”

“A little.”

“And I think I know the spell that will separate them, and give dad his old body back,” They went back into the main room with Iskall, “Should I do it now?”

“Blast ‘im,” Alex backed out of the room, putting a protective wall between him and the magic.

“WHAT?!”

A glowing green ball of energy swirled between Xisuma’s hands, and Iskall backed into the wall, “H-hey Xisuma, what are you doing?”

“This...shouldn’t hurt.”

Iskall held up a hand in a stop gesture, “SHOULDN’T?!”

Xisuma blasted him with the magic. Iskall glowed green, floated into the sir, then split into two people who fell down.

“I...think it...worked,” Xisuma muttered, collapsing to the floor.

Doomguy looked up, and noticed someone lying, unmoving, on the floor. His saving-people instincts kicked in, and he pulled himself over to the person. “C'mon, don’t be dead, don’t be dead,” he said, shaking them.

Someone was shaking Iskall. He sat up and opened his eyes, “Holy heck, it’s Doomguy!”

“You’re alive!” Doomguy said relieved, and pulled Iskall into a hug.

Absolutely starstruck, Iskall sat there, frozen. It’s Doomguy, I love Doom, Doomguy is right here, and he’s hugging me, it’s Doomguy! Iskall’s mind looped.

Pulling out of the hug, Iskall spotted Xisuma crumpled on the floor, “W-wait, I got-gotta check on my friend.”

Doomguy turned around, and spotted his son on the floor.

“Xisuma!” He stood up and stumbled toward him.

“Wait, you know Xisuma?”

“He’s my son. Well, your son, too. Our son.”

“Wha-”

“Short answer, I am you. You are me. We’re the same person.”

Looking at his hands, one thought crossed Iskall’s mind, I’m Doomguy. It was closely followed by “I HAVE A SON?”

“Two sons.”

“TWO SONS? And one of them is dying!” Iskall sprinted across the room and cradled Xisuma’s head, “I don’t know what to do!”

“Health potion?” Doomguy suggested.

“Oh, yeah,” Pulling a potion of healing out of his inventory, Iskall splashed it onto Xisuma. He held his breath and waited to see if it would work.

Xisuma opened his eyes. He sat up.

“Dad!” He jumped up, and buried his face in his dad’s chest plate, giving him a hug the same way he did when he was younger.

“I’m your dad, too,” Iskall said.

“You know?” Xisuma asked, breaking off the hug.

“Yeah, Doomguy told me. So give your poppa a hug,” Iskall uncrossed his arms and gave a very confused Xisuma a hug.

“Oh, OK,” Xisuma awkwardly pat Iskall’s back until he stepped away.

“Is Alex here?” Doomguy asked.

“He should be right outside, he didn’t want to be in the same room as an untested spell.”

“Wait, you didn’t test it? Then why did you cast it on me?” Iskall asked, panicked.

“How many people do we know that have another person living inside them?”

“Wels/Hels, I’m pretty sure Ren did for a while, a pregnant lady,” Iskall ticked off on his fingers.

“Different circumstances. Wels and Hels are one person, like two sides of a coin, Ren-I don’t know what happened with Grimdog or The Red King or whatever, but I definitely don’t want to mess with those, and did you just compare yourself to a pregnant woman?”

“Uhhh...nevermind.”

“You said Alex was just outside?”

“Yeah,” Xisuma pulled the door open, to reveal Alex sitting on a bench outside, drumming his fingers against the seat

“Did it work?”

“Yeah.” Stepping out of the doorway, Xisuma revealed their dad standing behind him.

“Hi, Alex.”

“Dad?”

“It’s me,” Doomguy sat next to his other son.

“Dad!” Alex hugged him, and they pulled Xisuma into the hug after a second. They sat there before the hug was interrupted by another pair of arms joining in.

“Family, together again,” Iskall sighed.

“What’s up with him?” Alex asked, glancing at Iskall.

“I’m part of the family, call me Dadskall.”

“OK...Dadskall, can we have awhile alone with our dad?”

“Oh, yeah. Sure. See you later.” Iskall trudged out of the room.

“I haven’t seen you guys in forever! How long was I…”

“15 years.”

“So that would put you guys in your mid-30s, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Has anything big happened in the last 15 years?”

Alex pulled off his helmet, “Nothing too bad. I was imprisoned for a bit of it,” he glared at his brother.

Xisuma also removed his helmet, “I said I was sorry, how many times do you want me to apologize?”

“I wasn’t saying it’s your fault, I was just making the point that-”

“I get it! I was an idiot and I didn’t listen to you when you were clearly right.”

“Just like old times,” Doomguy chuckled, he examined his son’s faces, “You look so much older, like real adults. I’m so sorry I missed out on the last 15 years, I would’ve loved to see you grow up.”

“It’s not like you could do anything about it.”

“I know you would have been here if you could.”

“Also how did you guys get those scars?”

“Someone needed to keep slaying the demons after you left,” Alex shrugged.

“I angered some Watchers years ago.”

“You angered some Watchers?” Doomguy asked, standing up.

“I just realized someone was right, but it was too late to save them.”

“Darn right, I was.” Alex and Xisuma also stood up.

“I...forgot how tall you were,” Doomguy said looking, at up at Alex, who was only a few inches taller.

“Oh, yeah. Xisuma was jealous he never got this tall.”

“No, I’m not!”

“Sure,” Alex smirked.

“So, anything else new?” Their dad intervened.

“Daisy’s still alive.”

“Should’ve guessed,” he chuckled.

“Oh! You’re a grandpa!”

“What?!”

“Yeah! I adopted a guy named xB. I’ll call him over, so you can meet!”

<Xisuma> hey xb, can you come on down to my base, I’ve got something to show you

<xBcrafted> ?

<xBcrafted> yeah, be there shortly

“How did you meet this xB?”

“I was doing some exploring between seasons, looking for a good seed, when I found a small single player world. xB was alone in there. Poor kid was only 13, didn’t know where his parents were, said he had been handling himself for the last 2 or 3 years, so I took him back to Hermitcraft with me. He’s a great kid, you’ll love him.”

“Xisuma has practically adopted the entire server.”

“Server? You’re an admin?”

“We both are. I’m main admin of Hermitcraft, Alex is the backup admin.”

“I’m so sorry I missed out on all of this stuff. I really wish I could have been there for you two.”

Something thumped into the outside of the building they were in, and the door opened, “Freakin’ rockets, stupid friggin’ elytra,” xB mumbled. “Oh, hey Uncle Alex, hey, dad.”

Doomguy gasped, “I love him already!”

“Wha-”

“xB, this is our dad, Doomguy.”

“Wait, I thought he was dead.”

“Wonky magic stuff.”

“OK then. I’m xBcrafted,” xB said, offering his hand for a handshake.

Doomguy scooped him up in a hug, “Hello, xB, you can call me Grandpa Flynn, or just Grandpa, or just Flynn, I don’t care. I have a grandson!”

“Nice-to-meet-you,” xB gasped.

“Dad, I don’t think he can breath.”

“Oh, right,” Flynn released his grandson, “sorry, got a little overexcited.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I’m glad you’re back.”

“Glad to be back.”

“Do you want to go meet the rest of the server? There’s just under 30 of us, total.”

“Oh, you’ll love all of them. There’s me, of course, but Hypno and Jevin and Wels and False are all set up near me, Stress and Gem are also pretty close, and Doc and Ren are just past them, and…” xB rambled as the other three grabbed their helmets.

“You ready?” Alex asked, pushing open the door.

“Let’s go, I want to meet the rest of your family.”

#hermitblr #hermitcraft #hermitcraft fanfic #doctorsiren #dadskall au #gsg writes

[grim-faux]

2 _ 13 _ A Turbulent Impasse

 First

 The child was c̸̤̒o̴̘͒m̶̛̰p̶̣͒l̴͖̓i̶̢c̷̰͆a̴̭t̵̠̅ë̵̝ḓ̵͝ at times. This was nothing new. He did his best to deal with the dips and sways in his mood, spontaneous as they were.

 “Please, child. Come out,” beseeched the tall figure, soft and careful.

 The boy was entirely hidden under his clad uniform, drenched hat and equally drenched coat. Back to the Thin Man and a portion of the rugged cinderblock wall concealing his shape. If not for the steady movement of his torso on the visible side, the Thin Man might’ve speculated he’d encountered a clever decoy. Aside from that miniscule movement, the child refused to budge. Infuriating, immutable, bristling thing.

 The rain fell steadily, trickling through crevices and gushing from gutters carved out of the wreckage of some building. Somewhere too near, the retched shrill of a Viewer wailed out as it collided with its certain demise.

 He knew they were leading up to this, he could sense the rise in tension and flighty tendency of the boy. It could be a slow coil of budding that hit a snag, and altogether the child withdrew into a vacuum implosion, wherein he became nonnegotiable nor consolable. On other intervals, it came sudden and with no perceivable prompt. The boy was perplexing and irrational, ditching on the spot to conceal himself from reach and sight. Such as now.

 Not only was it a tight crevice in broken mortar, but also a crevice well beyond his generous reach. He remained unwavering at the gap, hat tilted far back to allow visual of the shape jammed within. “You are soaked. We need to get you out of this weather and dried off.”

 Why? Why was he like this?

 “Are you stuck? Mad?” he attempted, seeking some visible suggestion of anything that might’ve offended him. “Hurt? What is it? Please tell me?” No answer. But the shoulders did tense, and the child tightened. How was it possibly he wedged himself in further? He couldn’t believe the boy was that small. “I need to know. What have I done? How shall I fix this?”

 “Fhhh,” was the only direction the boy would supply.

 Crackling and flashing, the Thin Man reared back and fixed his hat. “Very well, stay there if that suits you. You don’t seem to need me.” He almost expected the lad to emerge immediately, as usual when the threat was delivered. He took several steps from the opening, only offering one slim glimpse back to view if the hat emerged with the face cloaked beneath. Much like his own hat at times, barring out the constant downpour. No such timid exploration, not even a shuffle in the layered ambiance. The boy was cemented and barricaded within his ways.

 The man in the hat did not go to-too far, opting to relocate a couple meters or more behind a jutting slab of cement bent precariously. He took a cigarette from his coat and lit it, resigning himself to wait this out. It was one of those moods he dipped into. Wouldn’t respond or react to anything impelled by the Thin Man. What to do? What to do?

 At least the child was not prone to shooting off. He was hiding, not feeling. A difference in semantics. It was no less irritating, not able to grasp the why of all this. Was it the weather? Perhaps, they had walked too far and the child thought the Thin Man wasn’t paying attention. That may could be, though it did no good to stuff himself into a cold and soggy hole in the wall.

 The Thin Man rubbed his brow, and checked around the edge of the wall. After all this, it was possible the boy would crawl from his crack and go on his own. That would be fine, it was up to the child, and he was indifferent to intervene. The boy was fickle and emotional, it was a test managing those trifles.

 He couldn’t possibly be warm in that hole. He was going to die from hypothermia. At least it would end their miserable existence; his one hope, his very frayed tether and drive to keep track on this irrational child. The boy remained in his spontaneous refuge, unchanged. If the child was truly all right remained a mystery, but he was not with the desire to haul him out or demand answers. He could endure all day, night, week, and then some.

 With a flash of chattering particles through his suit threads, the excess liquid snapped free in a prattling drum. He tapped his cigarette and leaned on the side of the dripping wall, passively observing the space Mono occupied. That child. He grieved the lost connection, the sliver of familiarity he once saw so bright and vivid in those eyes. The child was no longer a past echo, he was barely a tattered memory fluttering through the alleys. When did he lose that boy? This situation would be more favorable if he could grasp a shred of that tenacious soul, instead of… whatever Mono had become.

 Hours. Hours. The tinge of light through the clouds diluted, a streetlamp visible through a gap in the collapsed wall flashed with vibrance. The Thin Man lost track of how many cigarettes he slayed, he scarcely recalled what he was waiting for. Departing might have been the sane solution, since he had no viable method to maintain the child’s stability. It might’ve suited him to take a seat in a chair, any old chair, and wait same as he had before that damned door opened.

 He rubbed a hand against his face. His entire existence was a game of waiting.

 Looking down, he spied the child. As if he’d been stationed there the entire time and all of this was completely average.

 “Done, are we?” he huffed. Mono only gazed up at him, expressionless and eerily silent. He’d never seen a more sodden child.

 Void of a follow-up rebuke, the Thin Man flicked aside his cigarette and resumed marching through the ruble. The child slipped into empty presence seamlessly, but he knew the boy followed. The boy was just that way, and he had no compass to guide through the turbulent emotions.

 The child was not so prone to speek while out in the open uncertain pathways between stops for eat or rest. Through the uncertain course the boy was quiet, followed, and listened. It was an endless quest, some spans of seeking while the weather was good yielded better results than others, while other patrols rendered a cursed cycle of nothing worth mentioning in terms of edibles. Location of viable foods would always be the forefront, since that settled a period for stop. Somewhere through the sequence of disappointments, the Thin Man ceased to care if a domicile rendered a pantry stocked prior to desertion, or had not been raided out by other creatures, usually rats or insects, or other such… pests.

 A stable and fixed location for the child to center himself, assure his safety and certify the absence of enemies. Rarely did the boy stop for a moment to drip, let alone sit and catch his breath. The first order of business was go through rooms compulsively, even with the Thin Man standing right there observing all this play out. And if he didn’t intervene and get that child to stop for a millisecond, he’d go off to search the nearby floors. A DOZEN TIMES OVER.

 The Thin Man gives the boy distance. It’s the least he can provide, when it is a̶͂ͅp̸͚̍p̴̡͋r̵̰̃o̴̢̒p̴̨̾ŕ̴̬ǐ̶̧a̵̤͐ṭ̸͛ë̸̮́. Otherwise, the child would run himself through the floor and straight into the ground. What good would all this be, then? Allow the boy the misfortune of collapsing in the middle of a corridor, where some hostility might pluck him up before the Thin Man could give a damn.

 Try and try, insisting and demanding to the boys face – when he can snare his undivided attention – “Rest first. Then you can go look.” These terms are delivered to the smaller without contest, the child shying under the brim of a hat as if threatened by the skin of his hide.

 The child is not usually receptive to the ultimatum, and before he realized it, his charge has vanished. Teleported, most likely, but gone without a trace all the same. Once more, the Thin Man has failed to manage the child and fortify a structure of laws to follow. Does the boy ever listen?

 Mono is child, and thus his needs are basic and simple. If he is not present, then he is out foraging like the varmint he is. The Thin Man can’t fault him for that. After a time, the child will eventually resurface as if he’d never disappeared. That is encouraging at least, the boy felt safe enough to stay nearby. Albeit craftily hidden, the Thin Man could pick up on the tinges of the transmission when he paid mind to it.

 While the boy rested, the Thin Man could take a short leave to pilfer some foods and collect some literature. Books, dime novels, really anything that could pass in the place of a television; during which he needed to keep in a stationary location, a territory where the child should retreat to. He kept specific attention for any material that might hold insight to the Tower, its workings, or anything that could indicate the station of its appearance. Thus far, no leads let alone specific mention. It was as if the monolith never existed aside from the cycle they were shackled to.

 Regardless the futile quest, the Thin Man persisted his private investigation. Seeking any form of speek, even if it was a glimpse or tabloid speculation.

 Then, there was the child. Cropping up at the most inopportune moments.

 For the past bend of time he sensed something was coming, but held out on baseless optimism if he ignored it the child would simply go off an entertain himself with some curiosity. In hindsight, the child was always eager to bring him some random artifact and present it, for his approval yet. He had to break wean him of that habit.

 The bench seat built into the window accommodated his stature, and he hoped the ledge was too high for the child to scale on his own. It wouldn’t stop the boy from harassing him at floor level, but made his presence more tolerable.

 “Sing box?” the voice peeped. The child climbed up his slanted shin and leapt to the side of the ledge. He barely caught the tattered cloth, and managed to hoist himself up. “Her? F’not kill, okay? Her?” The child moved a little away and sat on the miscolored fabric, legs swaying. As if they were about to have a long winded and meaningful conversation.

 “What?” This all came out of the blue sky, which didn’t exist.

 “Hurt,” the boy insisted, hands clasped together. He mimed out swinging down, focus intense. “Hurt sing bohx. Turn. N’crank.” He wound his hand around, the gesture easy enough to grasp. “Make sing. Pretty. But….” He tried to say Her name. The girl. He hadn’t improved. “Monster. Angry. Hurt. Hurt? She hurt.” He pushed his hat back and looked at the Thin Man. “Did. But… f’not. Angry girl. M’hurt. Did that.”

 This… was not a good topic to get wrapped up in. “I really couldn’t say what would happen.” He flipped a page in the book, the topic about purchase power or some other rubbish that didn’t exist. “I thought you settled on your reasoning for why She does what She does.” If not for his own experience of liberating his Six, he would have no grasp of what the child was referring to. It wasn’t as if he never considered his destruction of the music box as the inciting event which drove her to abandon him. The brutal execution of the precious treasure was the only reason he settled on, which drove his… friend, to subject him to his fate.

 “You killed her sing box?” Mono nodded. “For what reason to do such a thing?”

 The child looked aside, one hand plucked at a callous in his palm. “Laughed t’ee. N… watch. Hate’t.”

 Ah yes, he forgot about the laughter. A cruel thing it was, he enjoyed hurting it. If he truly had hurt it, and it was not mocking those efforts and the grueling challenge it was to release the girl. All that might and sacrifice wasted.

 The Thin Man set the book on his thigh and plucked out a cigarette. “You think now your friend left you, over a slain music box?” Mono shrugged.

 “Mooo-zik.” He tiled his head. “Mean? Slaa-Nuh.”

 “You tricked it to death.” He buried himself back in the book, chewing on the end of his cigarette. This… bizarre child. This was infinitely better than learning about all the little corpses he stumbled over. Returning the boy to the Tower would be a mercy. “Only Six knows why she did what she did. Maybe even she doesn’t know. Would sympathy make the ache all the less?” The boy gave him a sharp look, but he dismissed it.

 There was no denying his unyielding curiosity, it contaminated much of his-own thoughts during his childhood. If he had been led to the Tower and invited within the walls, as the younger-one had been, perhaps he could connect with this unquenchable guilt. But he was not given that liberty. He fought with every fiber of his physical substance, was maimed to the brink of death, only to realize at the end how twisted his course was. The vile irony and sick joke he was duped into playing out. He robbed the boy a portion of that misery, but that self-destructive nature refused to be quelled. How utterly maddening.

 He realized he wasn’t reading, but glaring holes into a corrupt page of marred speek. The child shifted closer, eyes bright. Internally, he groaned.

 “Why n’take. Her. Th’n Mono? T’door?” He tugged at his collar and gazed off. “F’rr reason?”

 This was tiresome, but he humored the child. For now. “We’ve been over this. I was to bring you to the Tower. That is it, the whole of the reason. The complete story.” He flipped a page, while the boy’s mind brewed over the rehashed details.

 The child recycled through the events, the same trail that the Thin Man blazed while he was child, and he had brandished the name Mono. The creature, which She had become – a nightmarish parody of his dear friend. Why was the boy so insistent on revisiting these shades? He couldn’t leave well enough alone.

 “Th’nn steal,” the boy murmured. “N’Mono, f’rr Tower? Want?” He dug harder at the callous in his palm, until it bled. And quietly, “Eat?”

 The Thin Man let a thick vapor obscure his vision of the child. “That is not important anymore. Don’t dwell on what was meant to be.”

 “Dew-ell….”

 “Don’t. Spend. Time. Wondering.” He recited. “It does no good.” The cycle was perhaps ongoing, immutable and diligent. Perhaps he was always meant to return the boy to his inevitable fate, his future home. It continued the cycle, as certainly as when She dropped him through the narrow escape. Her narrow escape. She stole his future away, his… entire world.

 He took the cigarette and crushed it into the fabric of the bench cushion.

 “S’more n’to not say,” uttered the child’s wispy words.

 The Thin Man set aside the book, and that was apparently a cue for the child to relocate to the floor. He leaned over and snared that boy with his glare. “What does it matter anymore? It is done and over. Discarded into a past you’ll never glimpse, and you won’t contend with it ever-ever again.” The child backed away, fists clenched at his sides. “You can’t possibly change what has been or will always be.”

 The boy rallied himself, if only a margin. That vibrant spark in his eyes igniting, if only for a bare breath. “T’know. Important.”

 “Fhh!” The Thin Man rose and strode through the small living room, headed for the corridor. “There is nothing to know. That is no longer important.” The small boy pursued right on his heels. Of course he does.

 “I have no answers for you, child. None that would make sense, anyway.”

 “Try?” the child chirped. “Wait.”

 “No.” The whole interrogation was overdone, far exceeding his patience.

 The Thin Man reached the main door and took the handle, cautious of the spry child trying to dodge in close to his shoes. He made a lackluster attempt to grab for the boy, but the smaller reversed into a full and spectacular wipeout, tumbling to his backside. That was the distraction the Thin Man needed, to shift out of the room. The door was not locked, but it would take the lad some while before he managed to escape into the corridor. Even if he followed by the Thin Man’s means, he wouldn’t keep up. The Thin Man made certain of that, flickering out of the moldering passage in a few flashes.

 Later, when the Thin Man has relocated to an isolated room lost in some ramshackle building, on the verge of collapse and much too dangerous for this younger-self – he did reflect. On his self, on Mono and his motives, on the entire drama. It was only natural, he supposed. To revisit that doubt and guilt, bear the spotlight of blame. To the child it was all the same, he committed a crime and his punishment was deserved. The unknown incident tore him to pieces, possibly more than the betrayal itself. Why-Why….

 But W̴̪̙̥̖̄̉H̴̭̟̟̳̉͐͗͘Y̷͖͇̅?̴̱͆̆̓

 HOW WAS HE SUPPOSED TO KNOW?! THOSE QUESTIONS HAUNTED HIM HIS WHOLE LIFE!!

 He didn’t need this little echo tormenting him. The Tower sufficed that role, snorting and mocking his fresh cynicism for the world. Until it reveled one day, when he awoke and realized who he was. Just Who he had become. Confront the reality that the one he had been running from, should have been the one to run to. It was all twisted and backwards. The Tower was livid, as it must always have been alighting onto this moment….

 Y̵̮͋̾̎͜ͅE̷͍̫͈̎̉̄͌S̶̖̲̿̍̒ ̴͍̠̫͈̽C̸̠̍͊H̵̛̯͍͕I̸̡͔͆̊̊L̶̛͍͕͖͖̅D̸̻̦͎͔̎̄̕

̴̛̛̩̅̃

̵̭̻̓Ḯ̴̯̮͙̮Ṭ̷̛ ̴͕͔̒H̶̢͚͗̄Ả̶̢̭͕̔̍Ś̶̡͉̃ ̴̞̠͙̈́͐͜Ả̴͍̪̳̿̈́̍L̶̜̽̔W̴̡̞͉̆͊̿͜Ȧ̷̩Y̷̞̫̺̙͝S̸̼̃̌͠ ̶͓͕̰̍B̴̥̠͆̔͑E̶̡̻̭͗̊E̸̗̪͊͑N̵̞̦̦̺̈ ̶̖̬́̿Ỷ̶͓͈Ô̸̖̓Ủ̸̧̠͎͊

̶͍͉̻̩̎ ̵̦̮͔̾̓͂

̶̬̅͐

̸̳͖̅̑̉Ȉ̵̳̲̦́͑͌͜T̴̟̈́̓̓̚ ̶̨͕̎̌͗ͅḦ̶̖́̑A̷͚̝̿̍Ṣ̸̖̍̑̈́̓ ̴̣̞̻̰̃͒O̸̙͔̪̪͌͑̿̆N̷̦̮̎L̶̠͍̈̂̍̇Y̵̼̹̅͝ ̶̘̬̤̃̉B̵̢̪̲͛Ĕ̶̙̚ͅE̴̘̒ͅN̶̡̙̰̣͌ ̷̛̱͒͛Y̶̡̡̦̓͆͠O̶̘̓́̂U̴̙͚̾̊

̴̧̳̳̾

̸̣̒͜A̶̳͛̏̈́͂L̵͓̽͂̓͘Ḽ̶̫̞̒̈̈́ ̶̢͉͙̫͠A̷̻̗͆L̴̝̠̮̓̓͗O̵̡̡̹͕̔͂N̵̢͚̥͋G̷̲̯͔͕̉̂̓̕

̴̝͇̈́͋

̶̱̏͐̏͝Ŷ̵̡̒O̷͈͍͘Ủ̶̧̳̗͑̓ ̴̰̟̔̓͗N̴̝̼̺̈́̓̃ͅḚ̶̥̺̠͑͒͝͠V̶͎͈̎̑̕Ě̶͎̪̞̐̀͜R̷̛̰̤͈̥

̴̥̣̜̓̆͠

̶͓̩̐̃C̴̲̰Ḧ̵̢̛͔̖̻́̓͘A̸̦͑N̸̙͐͊̈́G̷͓̮̩̉Ȩ̸̛͉̞͂̚

̵̡̄̐

̵̨̛͉̟̂̓W̷̗̍͑̑̆Ḣ̸̳͎̟̩̂̈A̸͍͍͎̥̒͝T̸̻̜͋ ̸̮̜́͝Ḧ̴̱́̎̓̔A̴͙͆̅S̷̖͇̭̣͠ ̸̡̜͕̞̓̈́̋B̷̨̩̺̓E̷͖͆E̸̡͐̈͂͛N̸̨̼̘̰̍͑͌̍

̶͙̀

̸̧͑͆̀́͜S̵̮͎͓͎̔̃̀̿Ḧ̸̺̟̲̼́A̵͔͐͐̍̚L̴̠̈́͐͋͝L̷̞̏̈ ̶̞̟̒A̴̪͙̞͑L̸̨̧͙͍͛͑̈́W̷̭̫̥͊Ă̸̦Ỷ̸̠́̑͘Ṣ̵̤̑ ̴̨̘́͑B̴̮̗͖͔͗E̴̤͘

 The despair for that revelation decimated him to the core. He could only scream.

 Following some undefined lapse in time, he returned to that residence, and checked if the child continued lurking. It was best to leave him when his charge lumbered into this mindset, Mono was much too singular and direct. Obnoxiously so. Not taking hints nor withdrawing while it was wise. He did it on purpose, the Thin Man is certain. Mono was a purposeful child.

 Even on his unannounced return, the child remained fixedly hinged on some… topic. To his credit, the boy didn’t emerge outright to excavate a long dead subject. While the Thin Man resumed study into a new slew of book content, he became adept at sensing those little eyes glaring out. Usually from the available furniture – under a table, the missing slot of a dresser drawer, or behind a fabric chair of any shape – the boy secluded away, content to watch and bide on the solemn stillness. Like a trap of sorts. Awaiting an unspoken moment or convoluted cue, perhaps an unknown lull in his resolve; the Thin Man wasn’t certain, he only knew he didn’t prefer it.

 However, he primed for when the child reeled up for the tiresome secession, and supplied a simple – “No, Mono. Don’t even.”

 This dispelled the child for a time, and the little eyes would evaporate. Ghostly, and eerie. Either for another period of sulking, or to explore around and satisfy his persisting urger to wander. Excessive and never ending need to know every crack or fray of carpet in a temporary shelter. Exhausting.

 If he proved himself – and that is an IF – to be a sufficient threat to the child, the Thin Man’s presence would be dismissed. Almost assuredly, what always… as perpetually as the cycle persisted. No certainty or theory existed, to state that the younger couldn’t terminate his elder at any point. None of that would have an impact on the boy’s current course, he’s confident. Not that he’d have a place to despair over this abrupt event, though it would be insulting.

 Going through the rooms of the current shelter, the Thin Man knows that his younger-self is not present. It is compulsion more than anything to do a search, scan over broken furniture and eyeing a possible fracture with hidden depths accessible only to the children. This is natural for the boy to venture beyond the refuge for some scavenging. Even when the kitchen of the current abode held edibles, they didn’t endure for long. If the child returned – and that is an IF – it might be time to abandon and seek a fresh haven. IF.

 Losing track of the child is not a highlight concern, since the Thin Man is inexorably drawn to the boy. Even if Mono lost fervor for the ongoing association, it was inevitable that they would cross paths in due time. All this only mattered to the child and how diligent he was to keep focused, and not stray so far he became lost or trapped somewhere, or without running off on his own private adventure. None of that the Thin Man would interfere with, and he wondered if that time was soon. What did the child want? More often the boy was reclusive, unwilling to impart guidance. Often, he wanted to talk about the dead children. Why did the boy have to be so gruesome?

 He sat at the kitchen table, legs outstretched because the table is too short for his knees, and the chair of average size, but not flattering to his limbs. Chin in his palm and cigarette forgotten at his fingers, pondering and speculating the possible scenarios that could exist now. If he disappeared today, or tomorrow, or a dozens years into the future. None of that would matter to the child, not until much-much-MUCH later. Not until the boy awoke one day, only to realize he was no longer child. The years are gone, discarded the whole lot, like She discarded Him. Today, his child-self couldn’t begin to grasp the inevitability. He existed, thus the child subsisted.

 What about him? If his predecessor was so benevolent and managed to capture him. He couldn’t begin to envision the sort of intolerable horror he would’ve become. He didn’t mourn the little boy lost to the Tower. Gave up, good riddance. Saved the man in the hat all the ache and despair they would become.

 He didn’t realize the boy had returned, not until he focused on the shape perched in the entry of the kitchen. Checking where he was, or gauging whether to assault him with a revised form of inquiries. Or maybe the boy was lonely.

 The Thin Man crushed the smoke in his palm and shuffled out from the table, awkwardly. It’s surprising the grating didn’t spook the boy off. As always he leaned low to clear the doorway, intending to bypass Mono. On a whim he caught the child before he could retreat a step, and brought him to eye level while straightening. He halted and stared. The boy glanced aside.

 “What happened to your face?” The child shut his eyes as he brushed aside his hair with a thumb. One eye was purpled, and his lip cracked. Or cut. And he wasn’t wearing a hat. “Child?” Mono would not break silence, but cowered down and shielded his face with his hands. Grit and sand stained his skin, and gravel intermixed with his unruly mop.

 The Thin Man rumbled to himself as he trekked through the corridor, to the bathroom. “At times I can’t get you to shut up, but when I ask a question, you won’t utter a peep.”

 Light sprawled across the gaudy tiled walls, upon his entrance. It was a relatively small water closet, with a ruptured medicine cabinet caved into the wall, and the minimal facilities available to a bathroom. He set the child on the sink, but the moment he loosened his grip, the boy bolted. It never ceased to amaze him how fast the child could move, under minimal motivation. The Thin Man whipped around, the name on his lips and the bulb above the mirror bursting – all in time to witness the coat tail snap around the doorframe. If the wound(s?) were serious, he could have taken pursuit. As it was, hauling the boy back was not necessary. The injury baffled him, and likewise angered him.

 Possibly another adult out hunting children. Like with Viewers enduring withdrawal of the signal, he was no stranger to dealing with threats to the denizens of the transmission. It was entirely possible the boy stumbled into a child pack, and for whatever reason they attacked. Or… vice versa. The answer could be as simple and embarrassing as the boy losing his footing and faceplanting. The main takeaway, he was alright. Well enough to calculate an escape and shoot off without further hazard. A peace offering of food might draw him out, if only to put the child in a better mood.

 It might’ve been more productive to follow Her out of the Tower. He’s certain it would’ve been more entertaining, and the child would come to appreciate his choice in due time. At least it would sort out the paradox of whether the cycle was continuing or not.

Next

#little nightmares #mono #the thin man #thin dad #ao3 #little nightmares fanfic #little nightmares fanfiction #fanfic #fanfiction #the man in the hat #the tall thin man #no talk me am angy

[queen-of-my-goofball-army]

Animaniacs Reboot Episode 2

Welcome back to my ramblings about this incredible reboot!! I love this show so much but I wanted to just enjoy it my first time around. So without any further rambling let’s get right to it!!

-The doctor’s name is hypocrites and I love that!! I’ve had way too many bad doctors over the course of my life and to me that line was gold both in delivery and in word usage. 

-YAKKO AND DOT’S LITTLE HUG!!

-The tropical version of the opening!!

-Dot calling the shots and telling them what to do is one of my favorite things. I love a bossy version of my favorite best girl. 

“I don’t know what she said but this tastes like soap.” My baby I love you so much!! 

-”It’s funny cause they’re wet and they don’t want to be.” A lot of the time Ralph’s lines get a genuine laugh out of me and that was one of my favorites. 

-”I’ll show you a sick burn!!” You go girl, I’ve always been a stan for “feral\angry Dot and this sketch gives me everything that I wanted from her. Also the cartoony bonk sound effect that happens to Wakko baby are you okay?

-”Forget work life balance, time to lean in!!” The octopus in Yakko’s mouth forcing it into a smile- I love him so much. 

-”Yeah and set up a power lunch with Aries cause this means war!!” I love the little nods to Greek Mythology in this sketch!! As somebody with a best friend that is as she puts it a massive greek freak she would love this sketch and after there’s a vaccine I really want to show it to her. 

-”A gradual series of monsters that strip him down one mental and emotional layer at a time?” Dot with a feral smirk is everything that I need in my life. I love how Yakko encourages this side of her though something that most people would be all that’s not very ladylike he seems genuinely happy about. 

-The fact that a monster comes with a boy band-Dot I love you so much

-I legitimately love the fact that Oydsius thinks that everything is kind of a game. Like him thinking that the underworld is based of a show that he loves. It shows his cockiness. 

-“Doesn’t he understand Hades is timeless it’s eternal suffering!!” I love Wakko so much in this segment, love Wakko in general but he’s especially adorable here. 

-”Don’t worry I’ve got one more trick up my toga” 

-WE GOT OUR FIRST OF SEVERAL GOODNIGHT EVERYBODY’S I’M SO HAPPY I LOVED THIS RUNNING JOKE IN THE ORIGINAL SHOW

-I don’t know who’s voicing the Trump cyclops I have a feeling in my soul that it’s Moe though he’s one of their best boys for voice impressions. 

Pinky and the Brain time

-This was one of my favorite segments with the new Pinky and The Brain. I still stan this baller opening theme it’s amazing!! They obviously worked really hard on it. 

-I thought at first that Egbert was voiced by one of my heroes Corey Burton but I was wrong as I found on a different episode. 

-Mouse Kabobs that is so freaking dark. 

-He trains a dragon with treats I can’t-

-”You’re a father?! Egad you look great for someone who’s had kids!!” “Stop heckling my fantasy” “Aye I was watching that!!” 

-”Yay Minstrels!!” “Ugh Minstrels” I love the relationship between these two and how different they are. 

-LEROY JEKINS I’M DEAD

-I ALSO LOVE BENEDICT 

-”Come Pinky perhaps we should hold auditions for the next Edgwind.” 

“Certainly not me why you’d be hard-pressed to find a bigger  supporter of the arts than Sir Brain of Art...isa?” “But you hate the arts Brain you always say that the Renaissance is French for bull-” LET PINKY CURSE PLEASE I LOVE HIM

-I love that the fierce Benedict thinks is the sexy kind of fierce. 

-”I don’t want your tears I want your fury!!” I LOVE BENEDICT SO MUCH HE IS BABEY

-”Your majesty I the Brain will slay this dragon only in the case of your kingdom.” Does anybody ever get classic Grinch vibes from Brain sometimes or is it just me. 

-Also Pinky with his little drum set

-THE FACT THAT BENEDICT SPOILS BRAIN’S PLANS BY DYING TOO MANY TIMES AND BEING AN ABSOLUTE DRAMA DRAGON IS SOMETHING THAT I FOUND ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICAL MHY FIRST WATCH

-I literally knew people like him in drama class the peak of over dramatic 

-”Knowing you Pinky is it’s own kind of medieval torture.” BRAIN I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU SOMETIMES 

-Him hitting Pinky over the head with the drum set and the ending being a medieval style of their opening theme.  The little things in this show. 

Dot’s Song

-”We’re celebrating something woman should have had long ago.” Dot you freaking tell the people-I love her so much

-”No animation without representation!!” I love this new Dot so much I know some people had problems with her but she needed to be updated in order to fit the new audience just being cute wouldn’t fly anymore. I relate more with this new version of her character. 

-Wakko and Yakko playing cards in the bathtub was @hc-175 right this entire time?!

-ALSO WILL E WAS ALWAYS ONE OF MY FAVORITE SIDE CHARACTERS IN LOONEY TOONS 

-”I think I speak for everyone when I say God help us” “I’m Dot Warner and I approve this message.” I love her so much!! Tress still killing it 22 years later as one of my childhood favorite characters of the female variety 

#Animaniacs #Reboot #My thoughts #Opinions #animaniacs spoilers

[adevotedappraisal]

Magdalene by FKA Twigs, a review.

I’ve been learning some shit from women from as long as I’ve been alive. Always some other shit that I never asked for but I got told it.  I used to treat them things they said as laws as a child, but I never saw them in a book, so then I stopped believing them.  They were always hushed laws though, laws told with squinted eyes and italicized whispers, laws told when no one else was around.

I mean, now of course men make the real laws that we know and live by.  Well come on now, we write them on parchment, and display them on lights, we code them into computers, inscribe them on coins and stone. But these women…man women tell you some other shit, like glue shit, in low, muttered tones in the quiet part of the house.  Like advice on… well not how the world works, but how to deal with the world when it works against you, and how to make it work for you. But you see, I’ve come to believe that the fairer sex tells you different laws than the vaunted laws and advice of our fathers because they all around see the world differently than men do.  They may, in fact, have been harbouring different goals than us all along.  

I mean for christssakes us men have our hero’s journey as clear as day, writ large and indelible across history books and entertainment.  You could take that Joseph Campbell mono-myth theory and see it expressed in Arthurian swash-buckle, the middle earth ring-slaying of Tolkien, or in the recently concluded tri-trilogy of Star Wars galactic clashes.  We’re in the empire business, as Breaking Bad’s Walter White infamously said.  But still, the question always lingered to me: what is the heroine’s journey? Is it really just a lady in a knight’s armour? Or some tough-as-nails spy for some interloping government’s intelligence agency, delivering kidney kicks in a designer pencil skirt?

Well, I’ve come to believe that the heroine’s journey is navigating the waves of history we imperial and trans-national men make from our railroads and pipelines, our satellites and wars, them at once preserving a culture and sparking a path and creating a bond between cultures in order for them and their (il)legitimate brood to survive.  That old chestnut about how behind every successful man is a woman always unnerved me by its easy adoption. I kept thinking ‘bout that woman.  I kept thinking, what the fuck was she thinking?

You see women’s heroes, they ain’t as clear as day to me.  They don’t kill the dragon, they don’t save the townspeople, they don’t shoot the Sherriff, or the deputy, or anyone most times. When I ask people in public at my job what super power they would like, most men go for strength, flight, and regenerative abilities (my pick).  Most women went with mind reading and flight. In late night conversations though, with the moonlight coming through the white blinds and resting soft on us like so, I sometimes manage to hear that women’s heroes heal and clean the sick of the nation, in sneakers with heels as round as a childhood eraser; they feed a family with one fish and five slices of wonder bread; they would run gambling spots in the back of their house, putting the needle back on the Commodores record and patrolling the perimeter of the smoked-out room with a black .45 nested by their love handles; they climb up flag poles and speak out loud in public for the disposed and teach children those unwritten, floating laws while cloistered in the quiet part of the house.  

Although their heroines are sometimes from the top strata of society –a Pharaoh here, an Eleanor Roosevelt there, an Oprah over there—they also name a healthy mix of radicals and weirdos with modest music success, people like Susan B. Anthony, Frida Kahlo, Virginia Woolf, or Nikki Giovanni, I mean did Nina Simone or Janis Joplin even crack the Billboard top ten? Yet there they are, up on the walls of a thousand college dorms across the country.  So even though I couldn’t’ve foreseen it, it makes sense that of all the ultra-natural creatures, of all the great conquering kings and divining prophets of the Holy Bible, Mary Magdalene ends up the spirit animal for the album of the year for 2019.

Mary Magdalene was a follower of Jewish Rabbi Jesus during the first century, according to the four Gospels of the New Testament of the Bible, a figure who was present for his miracles, his crucifixion and was the first to witness him after his resurrection.  From Pope Gregory I in the sixth century to Pope Paul VI in 1969, the Roman Catholic Church portrayed her as a prostitute, a sinful woman who had seven demons exorcised from her.  Medieval legends of the thirteenth century describe her as a wealthy woman who went to France and performed miracles, while in the apocryphal text The Gospel of Mary, translated in the mid-twentieth century, she is Jesus’ most trusted disciple who teaches the other apostles of the savior’s private philosophies.

Due to this range of description from varying figures in society, she gets portrayed in differing ways, by all types of women, each finding a part of Magdalene to explain themselves through.  Barbra Hershey, in the first half of Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) plays her as a firm and mysterious guide, a rebellious older cousin almost, while Yvonne Elliman, in Norman Jewison’s 1973 film adaptation of Lloyd Weber’s Jesus Christ Superstar is lovelorn and tender throughout, a proud witness of the Word being written for the first time.  In “Mary Magdalene,” FKA Twigs, the Birmingham UK alt-soul singer, describes the woman as a “creature of desire”, and she talks about possessing a “sacred geometry,” and later on in the song she tells us of “a nurturing breath that could stroke you/ divine confidence, a woman’s war, unoccupied history.” Her vocals that sound glassy and spectral in the solemn echoes of the acapella first third, co-produced by Benny Blanco, turn sensual and emotive when the blocky groove kicks in.  That groove comes into its own on the Nicolas Jaar produced back third, and when this all is adorned with plucked arpeggios it sounds like an autumnal sister to the wintry prowl of Bjork’s “Hidden Place” from her still excellent Vespertine (2001). 

This blending of the affairs of the body and of Christian theology is found in the moody “Holy Terrain” as well.  While it is too hermetic and subdued to have been an effective single, it still works really well as an album track.  In this arena, Future is not the hopped up king of the club, but a vulnerable star, with shaded eyes and a heart wrapped up in love and chemicals, sending his girl to church with drug money to pay tithes.  Over a domesticated trap beat he shows a vulnerable bond that can exist, wailing his sins and his devotion like a tipsy boyfriend does in the middle of a party, or perhaps like John the Baptist did, during one of his frenzied sermons, possessed and wailing “if you pray for me I know you play for keeps, calling my name, calling my name/ taking the feeling of promethazine away.”

Magdalene, the singer’s sophomore release, takes the mysterious power and resonance of this biblical anti-heroine, and involves its songs with her, these emotional, multi-textured songs about fame, pain and the break up with movie star boyfriend Robert Pattinson.  With “Sad Day,” Twigs sings with a delicate yet emotional yearning, imbued with a Kate Bush domesticity. The synth pads are a pulsing murmur, and the vocal samples are chopped and rendered into lonely, twisting figures.  The drums crash in only every once in a while, just enough to reset the tension and carve out an electronic groove, while the rest of the thing is an exercise in mood and restraint, the production by twigs, Jaar and Blanco, along with Cashmere Cat and Skrillex, leaves her laments cosseted in a floating sound, distant yet dense and tumultuous, the way approaching storm clouds can feel.   Meanwhile “Thousand Eyes” is a choir of Twigs, some voices cluttered and glittering, some others echoed and filled with dolour. “If you walk away it starts a thousand eyes,” she sings, the line starting off as pleading advice and by the close of the song ending up a warning in reverb, the vintage synths and updated DAWs used to create these sparse, aural haunts where the choral of shes and the digital ghosts of memory can echo around her whispered confessional.

In many of these divorce albums, the other party’s role in the conflict is laid bare in scathing terms: the wife that “didn’t have to use the son of mine, to keep me in line” from Marvin Gaye’s Here My Dear from 1979; the players who “only love you when they’re playin’” as Stevie Nicks sang on Fleetwood Macs Rumours (1977); or as Beyonce’s Lemonade (2017) charges, the husband that needs “to call Becky with the good hair.”   At first though, Twigs is diplomatic, like in “Home with me,” where she lays the conflict on both sides here, expressing the rigours of fame, the miscommunication –accidental or intentional –that fracture relationships, and the violent, tenuous silence of a house where one of the members is in some another country doing god knows what, physically or mentally. “I didn’t know you were lonely, if you’d just told me I’d be home with you,” she sings in the chorus over a lonely piano, while the verse sections have the piano chords flanked by blocks of glitch, and littered with flitched-off synths. Then, the last chorus swirls the words again, along with the strings and horns and everything into a rising crescendo of regret.

Later in the album however, her anger once smoldering is set alight, in the dramatic highlight “Fallen Alien.” Twigs sings with an increasing tension, as her agile voice morphs from confused, pouting girlfriend to towering lady of the manor, launching imprecations towards a past lover and perhaps fame itself. “I was waiting for you, on the outside, don’t tell me what you want ‘cuz I know you lie,” she sings, and, after the tension ratchets up becomes “when the lights are on, I know you, see you’re grey from all the lies you tell,” and then later on we have her sneering out loud “now hold me close, so tender, when you fall asleep I’ll kick you down.”  All while pondering pianos drop like rain from an awning, tick-tocking mini-snares and skittering noises flit across the beat like summer insects, the kicks of which are like an insistent, inquisitive knocking at the door, and then there’s that sample, filtered into an incandescent flame, crackling an  I FEEL THE LIGHTNING BLAST! all over the song like the arc of a Tesla coil. The song is a shocking rebuke, and it becomes apparent upon replays that the songs are sequenced to lead up to and away from it, the gravitational weight giving a shape and pace to the whole album.  Because of this, the other songs on Magdalene have more tempered, subtle electronic hues and tones, as if the seductive future soul of 2013s “Water Me” from EP2, and the inventive, booming experimentation of “Glass & Patron” from 2015s M3LL1SSX, were pursed back and restrained until it was needed most, and this results in an album more accomplished, nuanced and focused than her impressive but inconsistent debut LP1 (reviewed here).  

This technique of electronic restraint has shown up in the most recent albums by experimental pioneers, with the sparse, mournful tension of Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool (2017), it’s cold, analog synths and digital embellishments cresting on the periphery of the song, and with Wilco’s Ode to Joy from last year, an album bereft of their lauded static and electric scrawl, mostly embossed in acoustic solitude and brittle, wintery guitar licks.  Twigs and her co-producers take the same knack for the most part throughout the album, like with closer “Cellophane,” where the dramatic voice and piano are in the forefront, while effects crunch lightly in the background like static electricity in a stretched sweater, and elsewhere, as the synths of “Daybed” slowly intensify into a sparkling soundscape, as if manufacturing an awakening sunrise through a bedroom window.  And it is this seamless melding of organic and electronic instruments, to express these wretched and fleeting emotions of heartbreak that makes this the album of the year.

It makes sense that an artist like FKA Twigs would be drawn to a figure like Mary Magdalene.  Of the many Marys in the New Testament, she stuck out as palpably different, or rather, she depicted a differing part of womanhood than the other two.  She wasn’t the chaste, life-giving mother of Jesus, or the dutiful Mary of Clopas. Instead, Magdalene was this mixture of sexuality and spirituality, one of those figures that managed to know men and women in equal measure, wrapped up with the blood as well as the flesh.  Twigs also played with this enrapturing sexuality in her work, writhing around in bed begging some papi to pacify her and fuck her while she stared at the sun, then making you identify with the lamentations of video girls, and then telling you in two weeks you won’t even recognize who you were seeing before.  There was something mysterious and layered to her millennial art-chick sexpot act though, layers that have begun to be revealed with this album.  

We realise now, that what she was depicting all along was more like the sexual heat that lays underneath devotion, as opposed to fleeting, mayfly lust, and that she now understands the weight and half-life of love.  That is, that beyond the sex and patron and fame there is a near sacred love we build between each other for a while in time, lasting as long as both hands can bear to hold it, and also that the death of a relationship still has the memory of the love created warm within it that then radiates off slow into the air.  A love that then falls into our minds for safekeeping dark and unobstructed now, the way Jesus’ blood fell from his wound into Joseph of Arimathea’s grail held aloft.  

“I never met a hero like me in a sci-fi,” FKA Twigs sings, an evocative line less so for the hegemonic patriarchy of the worldwide movie and comic book industry suggested by ‘the sci-fi’ here, and more for the ‘hero like me’ part, which suggests she had to make her hero origin story all up, without the scaffolding of centuries of relatable mythologies, presenting us with an avatar of millennial love, in all of its tortured luster.  And you hear this type of love in her voice, no longer changed up and ran through a filter for Future Soul sophistication most times, but out in the open now, to express particular emotions, whether it’s in that swooping, falling ‘I’ in the heart-break closer “Cellophane,” or her assured realisation, later on “Home With Me” where she says “But I’d save a life if I thought it belonged to you/ Mary Magdalene would never let her loved ones down.”  

It’s never about how to conquer with these women you see.  In the end of all relationships it’s how they find their way out after us temporarily embarrassed conquerors are about to leave, jacket slung over shoulder, standing by the door. You squint your eyes back at her this time, and you listen this time, while she tells you, or tells the ground in front of you, what parts of love to let go of, and what parts are worth holding on to in this age of Satan, the parts that will help you become yourself. “I wonder if you think that I could never help you fly,” the song tells you then, one of those stinging admissions that only women come up with, and you wisely stay silent, and then the piano chords part, the synths subside. And for a while there as she looks at you, as the breathy sortilege in the song keeps going, it all sounds like something worth believing in again.  And then, the words she says to you start to come across like laws.

#music #music review #rnb #rnb music #r&b #soul #future soul #future pop #alt soul #electronica #fka twigs #magdalene #mary magdalene #cellophane #Long Reads #sad day #hiro murai #new music

[metalgearkong]

MediEvil 2019 - Review (PS4)

10/28/19

Developed by Other Ocean Emeryville / Sony Computer Entertainment, released October 2019

It has risen again! The original MediEvil from 1998 is one of my favorite games of all time, and one of the games I have completed the most. Like other games from the PS1 era, I discovered MediEvil on a demo disc and replayed it constantly. I loved the Nightmare Before Christmas aesthetics and music, and liked that it stared a cowardly bumbling skeleton. The late 90′s was a time of experimentation for 3D action/adventure games, and while some people hold Ocarina of Time or Super Mario 64 as their favorites of the genre, MediEvil has always been my personal favorite. MediEvil II released two years later, but lost a lot of its appeal for me because it took place in Victorian London instead of the graveyards and spooky locations of the original. MediEvil: Resurrection was made in 2005 for the PSP, but was more of a re-imagining of the original game, and not a true remake.

I had heard about MediEvil being remade yet again a couple years ago, but tried to have tempered expectations, and not buy into what could amount to be rumors. I imagined it would be akin to a big screen version of MediEvil: Resurrection, or at least the developers would butcher the original game. Last year was when I saw the trailer for this MediEvil remake, and I felt more confident in it. While most people were anticipating big triple-A or franchise games for 2019, my sights and hopes were dead set on this. Finally, after all this time of waiting, MediEvil 2019 has released exclusively for the PS4, and I couldn’t be happier with the final product. Other Ocean Emeryville has created a deeply loyal and extremely faithful remake of the original game I cherish so much, but I feel like only true fans will be able to truly appreciate it for the accomplishment it is.

Before I talk about the game proper, I have to elaborate on the unexpected odyssey it took to actually get the game going. Not only do I have to make a three hour round trip to the nearest Gamestop to get a copy, the game had to immediately download a day one patch: version 1.01. This update was a massive 16GB, and with my super slow mountainous wi-fi speed, my PS4 predicted it would take at least 50 hours. There was no option to begin the game without this update. I was floored. It put me in a state of blue-balled depression and denial. So I took my TV, PS4, and all the necessary cords, and physically hooked in my PS4 to my work’s ethernet cable in a public building, hoping no one would disturb it. The estimated time dropped to a meager four hours, and it made me feel a lot better. Ironically, my PS4 only realized I didn’t have enough storage space to download the update, and somewhere along the line it quit. Thankfully, it let me play after giving up.

Expectations mean a lot, and leading up to this MediEvil releasing, I intentionally did not do a lot of research on the game in order to discover it in person as I was playing. I didn’t realize this was a fully committed remake of the original. MediEvil: Resurrection disappointed me because it changed a bunch about the game and left out a lot of my favorite levels. 2019′s MediEvil recreates every inch of the original game with modern graphics. I was so thrilled I can’t even describe how cool it was to see one of my favorite games of all time with a new coat of skin, especially because I never thought THIS game would be chosen to be remade. Not only that, but the game uses the same exact audio for most of the dialog; each and every gargoyle head and character Dan meets plays the same audio as I’ve had engraved in my skull for over twenty years, only with new character models and more elaborate animations.

The developers even used the same music for each level, only re-recorded it with only small differences or flourishes. Even insignificant things like textures on a doorway or on the ground were recreated in 3D to look just like they did. I would have been perfectly okay with the developers simply using modern graphics and textures to remake certain pieces of architecture or focal points in this game, but no, every corner of Gallowmere represented the original locations, and I constantly had to pick my jaw off the floor (no offense Dan). Cinematics also play out exactly the same, with the same camera angles and movements. Part of me thinks about how maybe Other Ocean Emeryville could have taken these short cinematics sprinkled throughout the game and elaborated slightly on lore, but that would veer dangerously close to a “re-imagining” territory, and I’m just thankful everything is kept so faithful in the end.

The banished necromancer Zarok has raised an army of the dead to conquer the realm of Gallowmere. Unwittingly, Zarok also brought back to life Sir Daniel Fortesque, King Peregrine's captain of the militia, who perished embarrassingly years prior in an earlier battle against Zarok and his armies. After Fortesque’s death, fables, songs, and legends told of his false bravery and battlefield accomplishments, but now he has the opportunity to live up to his own mythical status as the hero of Gallowmere. I’ve always loved this story, wherein the bad guy accidentally raises the very hero who would thwart him. I’ve always loved Dan because he’s so unlike most knights and heroes. He has to live up to his own reputation, and prove those wrong who know what truly happened. We play as Dan and travel from the hum drum graveyards of Gallowmere all the way through more exotic levels such as a pumpkin gorge filled with demonic pumpkins, crystal caverns filled with Minotaur-like monsters, an enchanted forest containing a demonic prison, and much more.

The first advantage to the modernization of this game was being able to see the Hilltop Mausoleum (the 2nd level) from The Cemetery (the 1st level). It would make sense if you had an expansive cemetery, and the very next level, adjacent to that level, had a massive building on top of a hill, and you could see it from far away. As a PS1 game I’d never expect to see something like that, but with this remake, they had the care to include things such as this, which only helps the world feel that much more real and connected. The controls and mechanics are nearly the same as the original as well, only made slightly more convenient. Dan can still equip a one-handed weapon and a shield, and switch between weapons in a menu. He can block attacks, but only as long as the shield’s HP holds out, until you need to find a new one. Dan has all the same moves as the original, but the more free-form camera makes the game a bit more convenient to play by making platforming and seeing things easier.

As you slay enemies in each level, you fill a chalice, and bringing back a full chalice to the end of each respective level grants you a visit to the Hall of Heores before the next level begins; this world’s version of Valhalla, where the most accomplished heroes of history drink, feast, and arm wrestle for eternity. A side goal of this game is to collect the chalice from every level so Dan can also become a member of this ethereal warrior’s afterlife (twenty in all). This is something I struggled with as a kid, but in the past many years I’ve always gone out of my way to make sure Sir Fortesque gets into the Hall of Heroes where he rightfully deserves to be. Sometimes items can be found in a level which are to be used in entirely different levels, something the game only hints at. Case in point are the Ant Caves, which is a maze-like level hidden within a level that is completely optional to complete (but not if you want all twenty chalices). 

Some of the original game’s drawbacks could be regarded as similar drawbacks for this remake. Criticisms like haphazard combat and imprecise platforming are somewhat the same case here, but I would argue that’s half the point playing as a gangling hero who hasn’t yet earned his stripes. I honestly can’t take an unbiased position on some of the game’s more objective problems, not only because I’m such a fanatic and have played the original so many times, but also because it’s impossible for me to have a fresh perspective on the game. I can’t tell you how hard the puzzles are or how tough the game is simply because I’ve played the original so many times, I’ve gotten used to any perceived problems and solved all the puzzles so long ago. Reviews for this game seem to be lukewarm, and it’s an opinion I can’t share because I’m so impressed by how faithful one of my all time obscure favorites has been recreated.

In fact the very few changes the developers did make I could count on one hand. Mostly these changes have been made to a few of the game’s boss fights. Most of the bosses have always been very easy, especially compared to today’s obsession where bosses are meant to be extremely punishing. I can honestly say the changes are for the better and improve on these boss fights. For example the fight with the captain of the ghost ship has been improved, allowing you to manual aim a canon before firing it at him, rather than running back and forth between two fixed canons, hoping one of your shots hit the captain as he paces back and forth. Another addition are the “Lost Souls” which are hidden collectibles, one in each level that can be found by Sir Dan. This basically makes you replay every level to find the Lost Souls, as they only appear once you’re already near the end of the game. I can’t say I was motivated to find them, at least not right now, since it appears to be a shallow fetch-quest.

Besides getting the game booted in the first place, I did a have a few technical problems while playing the game. These are probably because the version 1.01 patch never actually downloaded and installed, and I may have been experiencing what the developers were trying to fix. One example was a door not opening once I had defeated all the enemies in the room, effectively trapping me there forever, forcing me to restart the level. The problems were mainly things such as this, and I bet I’m the only person in the world who had to complete the game from beginning to end raw without the day one patch. Otherwise the game ran great, and looks good as Hell.

I’m so glad Other Ocean Emeryville didn’t try to subvert expectations or put a clever twist on certain things, leaving it as is. MediEvil 2019 constantly impressed me, and I don’t think I’ve felt this much fan service and satisfaction since the Shadow Moses chapter of Metal Gear Solid 4 from 2008. The music, dialog, weapons, level design, aesthetics, enemies and controls have been painstakingly remade, giving this cult classic an impressive new look. Its the restrictive nature of the developer’s design philosophy I appreciate the most; this is simply a game for the fans, and very obviously by the fans. MediEvil was my most anticipated game of 2019 and I am deeply satisfied and surprised about how well it turned out. Annoying day one patch download aside, I had an incredible time experiencing this remake. While some gameplay flaws might still exist, and those who don’t already love the original may not see it in the same level of reverence, this was a big payoff for me and I’m sure other dedicated fans feel the same. Thank you Other Ocean Emeryville, this has been a wonderful gift.

9/10

#otheroceanemeryville #other ocean emeryville #medievil #ps4exclusive #ps4 exclusive #1998 #2019 #cult classic #remake #sir daniel forestque #fortesque #sirdanielfortesque #excellent #brilliant #faithful

[iwroteinapastlife]

Party

Woot woot I took day 10 of @mlrarepairmonth a lil differently with some Lukadrien and Marcnath (Marcaniel? What are we calling this ship?). Enjoy!

Day 10: Party

Ship: Luka x Adrien, Marc x Nathaniel

cw: No sexual content, but a lot of suggestive flirtation

“Alright, I am begging you.” Nino leaned over the table with his hands clasped, staring into Adrien’s eyes. “Please please make this roll. If we have to fight this goblin any longer, I’m gonna run out of song references.”

“Don’t worry,” Luka said, shooting him a smile that had him making one of his own. “I’ve seen the playlist he compiled. He’s just being impatient.”

“Dude,” he whined, looking back over his shoulder. “You peaked?”

Luka shrugged, looking as relaxed as ever as he leaned back and softly strummed his guitar. “You made it a public playlist on your Spotify; of course I looked at it.

Nino opened his mouth to argue, but Marc thankfully cut in first. “Go ahead and roll, Adrien.”

“Right,” he nodded, tossing his d20. Five pairs of eyes followed the die across the table, Marc leaning over his DM screen to watch as it approached him.

18.

Nino reached across the table to fist bump him as Marc announced, “That’s a hit! The goblin is dead.”

“Rio comes up to you, playing a victory tune on his mandolin,” Luka said, those blue eyes falling on him again. Adrien’s heart skipped as he plucked some notes on his guitar and sang along, “‘And the last of the goblins he did slay, keeping the peace another day. Oh a million hearts that rogue could sway, but in whose bed I wonder will he lay?’”

He could feel a blush rising to his cheeks as he smiled and replied in character, “‘Well that depends on whose bed is available to me.’”

“While that all is happening, Catherine will go to take the key from the goblin’s belt,” Nathaniel said beside him, but Adrien’s attention was trapped by the sexy smirk that took to Luka’s lips.

“‘With anyone a man like him could have his way. Who he wants tonight he need only say.’”

“‘And here I thought you couldn’t get more gay,’” Nino sang along in a higher (sassier) voice, acting out his character. Adrien broke—unable to keep a straight face any longer—and was happy to see Luka laughing too. “Lyra walks through these two to join Catherine.”

“Okay,” Marc said through his giggles. He turned to his boyfriend. “You going to try to unlock the door then?”

Nathaniel’s shoulders slumped. “You’re going to make me roll even for that, aren’t you?”

“Has that potion worn off?” he asked with a deceptively cute smile.

“No,” he sighed. Then he turned to Nino and spoke in character. “‘Here,’ she hands the key to you, ‘You’ll probably have better luck with this.’”

“Lyra takes it and goes to open the door. ‘I told you not to drink that thing, but does anyone ever listen to the bard? Nooooo.’”

“‘They listen to me sometimes,’” Luka butt in, giving him a shit-eating grin. “‘But I am the greatest mandolinist in the world, so how can they not listen to me?’” Adrien laughed and that seemed to catch his eye again. His stomach flipped as he watched Luka’s smile shift into something much warmer.

“Lyra flips you off over her shoulder,” Nino replied. “So what’s behind the door?”

“Okay!” Marc sat up in his seat, practically glowing in excitement. “You open the door to what appears to be a bedroom somewhat in shambles. There’s a wardrobe on the right wall. Both of its doors are open—one hanging from its hinges—and inside all you see is a torn cloak struggling to hold onto a mangled wire hanger. To the left, you see a desk with an open journal, an overturned bottle of ink, and a matted feather quill. The ink has spread across most of the desk and now steadily drips into a small puddle on the floor. The journal looks like it’s had several pages torn out of it, and you can see them crumpled up and strewn about the floor. Lying down on the ground next to the desk is a chair that’s had one of its legs broken off. Next to that is a bed whose sheets have been torn up quite a bit, and the wooden headboard looks to have several tally marks carved into it.”

“How many?” he asked excitedly.

That smile confirmed his suspicions. “27.” Adrien jumped up and down in his chair as Marc giggled and went on. “And lastly, sitting in the windowsill at the far wall, wearing an elegant but sullied dress and holding the chair’s missing leg in a fist, is a young woman.”

Nino drummed his hands on the table right as Adrien threw his arms in the air. “Gentlemen, I believe we have found our missing princess!”

“Is she pretty?” Nathaniel asked. He leaned forward on his elbows and looked at Marc with a flirtatious smile.

Marc glared at him but was failing to keep a smile from his face. “Yes, she’s very pretty.”

“Catherine immediately approaches and kneels before her.” He took Marc’s hand and kissed it reverently before continuing, that flirtatiousness seeping heavily into his tone. “‘Your grace, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance at long last. My name is Catherine and I am but a humble sorceress, come to rescue you from your prison. I swear on the soul of my father, Domingo Montoya, you will reach your kingdom alive.”

Adrien and Nino both burst out laughing, Marc used his free hand to face palm (though he couldn’t hide his smile), and Luka quoted with a grin, “Throw me the rope.”

When Marc picked his head back up he was giving Nathaniel a (blushing) you’re so dumb sort of look, which only made him grin wider. “Did you take her hand too?”

“No, that was just for you,” he replied, kissing his fingers again. Marc’s blush deepened, despite him trying to act serious.

“Nath, if you keep flirting with the DM, he’s going to throw more cursed potions at you,” Nino said, still chuckling.

“It’s worth it.”

Marc flicked Nathaniel’s nose before taking his hand back. “The woman stands, her eyes shifting between the four of you. She seems wary, but does not say anything.”

“Lyra steps forward,” Nino said. “‘I assure you, princess, you are safe with us. We may seem a rather odd rescue party, but we can hold our own against your adversaries. We are here to assure your safe return.”

“She tightens her grip on the wooden leg. She still looks awfully wary, but she lifts her chin and speaks with the kind of confidence and regality befitting of a future queen. ‘Good,’ she finally says. ‘Then let’s go.’ Aaaaaaand I think that’s where we’ll stop for today.”

“Yeeeessssssss,” Nino groaned, leaning back in his chair. “We finally found her.”

“Does anyone else want to watch The Princess Bride now?” Luka asked.

“Can’t,” Nino replied. “It’s date night with Alya.”

“And Marc and I are going to see that play with Rose and your sister, remember?”

“Oh yeah, that was tonight, huh? Well then,” those breathtaking, heart-stopping blue eyes turned to him once again, “Adrien?”

He swallowed and tried to keep the giddy smile from taking over his face as he nodded. “Yeah. I’d love to.”

#rarepairmonth2019 #lukadrien #marcnath #marcaniel #miraculous ladybug #marc x nathaniel #nathaniel x marc #party

[zwei-the-penguin-with-a-pen]

‘Mr. Song’

Neon rolled out of bed and got to her morning routine, brushing her teeth and hair. She even brushed her tail, since it was warmer out and she'd started shedding. She could hardly wait for this awesome gig.

She and Flynt were performing at a formal dance later that night. Playing dress up was always fun, even if she would have to get her hair done. Neon had heard that those girls from Beacon had made their way to Atlas as well. They might even make the scene.

She would have so much to talk about with the Schnee girl and the blonde. They still hadn't gotten to hang out, what with the school being destroyed. She hoped those two and their teammates were doing alright.

Neon's Scroll buzzed. Probably Flynt reminding her to get extra cute for their gig. Or he might want to get one last practice in before the dance. Flynt almost never stopped practicing. Then again, he was a quartet by himself. Neon only played drums because Flynt needed a fifth person and Neon could actually keep up with his music.

Flynt was the most talented person Neon had ever met. She was proud to be his bandmate, teammate, and girlfriend. She liked girls more than guys, but they were both cute. Her last girlfriend had left school and moved to Menagerie. Neon wondered what the cute chameleon girl was up to these days. She still felt sorry about that incident, but the girl had broken the teeth of those who had made fun of her.

Neon had helped. It was a fun time.

Katt picked up her Scroll. Flynt had sent her a good morning text as well as a reminder to look especially stunning for the dance. The message ended with 'Not that I have to tell you to look incredible, love' and Neon blushed.

A knock came at the door. She answered to see her favorite couple, Saffron Dragonglass and Berry Blizzard.

"Alright, Kitty! Let's get you fine!" Berry cheered as she zoomed into the room, the small bear ears on her head wiggling excitedly. Saffron grabbed her girlfriend by the arm, wagging her fluffy fox tail.

"She's already fine, Berry. We're just getting her ready to serve nosebleeds..." Saffron was softspoken and unimaginably tall next to Neon. There was more than a foot of height difference between the fox girl with the flowing golden hair and her bear girlfriend with the short wine-colored spikes. That must have made their alone time interesting.

"Please try not to grope me that much, Berry. I know you want this body, but you can't have it!"

Berry scoffed. "Saff's got more than plenty of body for me!"

"Of course she does! Girl's got so much body she should be continued on the next girl!" Neon complimented. Saffron blushed brightly.'

The two girls got Neon dance ready in a matter of hours, and Neon made the scene early to catch a final practice session. Flynt killed it, as always, and Neon did well enough, she thought. Neon went to kiss Flynt, but he disappeared. Right, Blue Flynt was usually the real one. She'd leaned in for a kiss with Red Flynt. The striping on his hat changed colors for each of his copies.

There wasn't much of a way to tell when none of them were dressed, but that was fine with Neon. If they were all naked it was always a good time.

The original Flynt kissed her, all her worries melting away. She was always nervous before concerts, but her favorite boy's lips always calmed her nerves. "We're gonna kill it, Honeybee!"

"We ain't called the 'Killer Quartet' for nothing, Sweetie!" Neon grinned and kissed her man again. The crowds started pouring in, and Flynt and Neon readied themselves.

Neon saw the blonde bomb from Beacon. There was a dark-haired knockout with cat ears on Blondie's arm. She skimmed over the crowd looking for the Schnee girl, seeing her with the short-haired girl from their team. Aww, their teammates were their girlfriends. That was just adorable.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and everyone in between... Welcome to the Atlas Ball. My lovely girlfriend and I will bring the sultry sounds to your ears for this dance. We are Flynt Coal's Killer Quartet! This song is called 'Jupiter Jazz'!" That was Neon's cue. She tapped a cymbal in time and waited for Flynt's guitar.

The sound of his chords filled the room, and her drums came in behind him. Soon the whole spot was dancing, the slaying sounds of Flynt's jazz bouncing around the room. 'Jupiter Jazz' always got the crowds moving, but their next song would fire the place up even more.

"Now we're gonna do a Seatbelts cover! Any Cowboy Bebop fans out here?" A few cheers rang out, making Flynt grin. "Alright then, here's 'TANK!' for your listening pleasures!" This song got Neon especially fired up. It was an onslaught of horns and energy over a hot beat and some positively fire bass.

This one got the dancers hot. Speaking of hot, Blondie and her Kitty Cat were hotter than magma. It was hard for Katt not to stare. Not even their looks, although they looked breathtaking, the way they danced was remarkable. The catgirl's hips popped in time with the bass, and Blondie followed the beat with her steps. They dipped and twirled with the music as though they were one person.

A few songs later, Flynt announced that the band would be taking a quick ten. Music poured over a PA while Flynt and Neon had their break. Neon ran over to Blondie and chatted her up.

"I haven't seen you guys since the Vytal Festival! I'm glad you guys survived all that!" Neon sympathized.

"We've survived that and much more, Neon!" Yang told her.

"So I see you're still top heavy. Looks like your bottom's heavy, too!" Neon jabbed as she looked at Yang's partner.

"The name's Blake, and I'm usually a top. I only bottom for Yang," The cat girl with the black hair told her.

"Yeah, Yang's got the top energy. Say, who's the white-haired girl got on her arm? She's cute!"

"That would be my sister Ruby," Yang answered. Neon nodded, excusing herself to retake the stage.

\/\/\/\/\/

\/\/\/\/\/

\/\/\/\/\/

Day 24: Character We Haven’t Seen in a While

NEON KATT! ANd Flynt Coal.

I’ve seen some art and prompts of Neon making jokes at the Bees, so here we are.

#RWBYAC 2019 #fanfic #mine #Neon Katt #Flynt Coal #Flynt x Neon #Neon x Flynt #Brass and Sass (RWBY) #Bumbleby on the side #mention of White Rose #Blake x Yang #Ruby x Weiss #RWBY Fanfiction #Zwei The Penguin With A Pen

[retvenkos]

“so what if we’re wild, we only live once.”

requested

BUCKLE IN FAM, BECAUSE THE NEWSIES IN HIGH SCHOOL FOR A MODERN AU WOULD OBVIOUSLY INCLUDE…

(also, keep in mind that this is based off of my experience in the american school system, any classes are ones that are offered at my own school.)

Bill

so he’s obviously head of the journalism staff

and he definitely is a part of yearbook too

and what is he interested in most??

chemistry

no one really understands why, but they don’t question it as long as he helps them with homework

and bill is 10/10 that guy who always has his homework done and let’s you borrow it

his worst class is by far history

he’s in choir and plays the piano for like, every song

he actually has a really nice set of pipes (he’s a tenor, too)

he’s terrible with dates

Darcy

so darcy is on yearbook because he can take the most stunning photos

and he is also a part of journalism, and his niche is critiquing

plays?? restaurants?? sports??

and yes, he goes to sporting events

and yes, romeo gives him a wink everytime he sees him at the baseball games

it’s a ship to end all ships

he isn’t quite sure what he wants to do in the future

i forgot to mention - these are headcanons for when each one is a senior in high school, i’m not working out ages in relation to each other. find someone more motivated for that

but he does know he wants to go to a really nice college

he’s definitely on chess club, and he’s a member of key club too

Katherine

journalism, guys. and she’s not into heavy creative writing, more like articles and interviews and such

president of debate

and her style game is strong - she, bill, and darcy are the three best dressed. facts.

she makes such pretty notes

and she slays in argument writing

english is obviously her favorite class, but a close second is her research class

and she actually sucks at cooking - she took culinary arts as a sophomore and set off the fire alarm twice

she has a free period in her schedule where she goes to the library and slaves over math

it doesn’t come easy to her

definitely has an old-school planner that is always full

Sarah

okay, i don’t know much about sarah - full disclosure, but i’ll try

so first of all, this girl is really put together

she has her schedule mapped out two months in advance, she remembers everyone’s birthday, and she already knows the vacation days during the year

she has library aide for one of her periods and knows every adult in the building by first name

she also happens to be an aide when kath has her free period and she is either the embodiment of the heart eye emoji or trying to help katherine with math

she loves psychology and already has plans to study it

she is in key club with darcy and also just volunteers a whole lot

her favorite is visiting and helping out animal shelters

she goes there so much that they finally just give her a job there

she doodles a lot on the side of her notes - it keeps her from falling asleep in science

the master of the messy top knot

Davey

okay, this boy does not know when to stop

he is taking all of the advanced classes he possibly can, and he’s stressing over them way too much

jack makes him like, 10 cups of stress relief tea daily

there’s also a running bet that the whole school is in on about whether he or kath will be valedictorian

specs says that davey will do it if he doesn’t have a heart attack before final exams

race says he’ll be so busy he’ll forget to even show up to graduation

also, while we’re at it, we need to talk about this boy’s notes. they are the hardest thing to decipher in this world, but if you can read his chicken scratch then you have a goldmine of helpful ways to study

he loves mnemonics with a burning passion and uses them at every chance he can get

his favorite class is chinese or math

and he’s definitely a part of future business leaders of america, mesa, and book club

Les

yes, this is for when les is a senior

he’s obviously not in the same year as the rest of the gang, but les as an 18 year old is gold

okay, first of all… heartthrob who genuinely doesn’t know it

he’s not actually officially part of any club, but he’s always staying after school afterward to like, float into the different club meetings

but he’s definitely an sbo - probably vice president or activities

he’s a part of band and definitely plays the saxophone

you know that means he starts off every class period by playing careless whisper

the teachers all really love him

he actually gets pretty good grades

and he is way overly competitive in review games, especially ones in history

he will wreck you

always goes off campus at lunch and walks into his next period a couple minutes late with a shake

Jack

did someone say art?????

jack does literally every form of it, and he does them all so well

davey seethes at this, but loves it when jack helps in in ceramics

he’s also really supportive of younger artists who are still perfecting their art, so he’s obviously the head of the art club

and he’s the paint master for drama club and all of their productions

he frequently falls asleep in english class

he’s also the president of latinos in action - chosen unanimously even though he wasn’t going for the position

y’all can fite me on latino! jack kelly

also, his signature style is a blue sweatshirt, and all of his clothes have paint on them

he’s also that kid who never has a pencil on him, and never returns the ones he is given just because he always forgets

Crutchie

so i don’t know where the headcanon about crutchie being on the swim team originated, but it is dear to my heart and lives on in this post

he is the nice™ jock

also, he wants to go into the medical field for sure

he had medical terminology as last class of the day and it makes his day 10 times more bright

he uses highlighters so much (but only the yellow ones)

also, crutchie is lowkey a style icon???

all of his teachers love him

he’s that kid that always raises his hand in a group discussion, and it’s one of two things: a lame pun that gets more groans than laughs, or a really insightful bit of knowledge 

there is no in-between

definitely volunteers with sarah at the animal shelters and is a part of french club, even though he’s only ever gone to like, two meetings

Albert

albert wrestles, no one can convince me otherwise

but he’s also on dance co.

we love a well rounded boy - especially when he’ll pull up if you question his life choices

he is soooo salty, and he has no filter. Even in front of teachers.

anyone in his history class can attest to this - especially when they are going through america’s messy past

literally does not care about the majority of his classes

but he maintains a good gpa so he can be on the wrestling team

also, he failed his driving test twice, and when he got his license it didn’t make a difference since no one would trust him with a car anymore

but he’s actually really good in his business and marketing class

he frequently helps in the little store that the business class runs during lunch and stuff because he’s really good with money and change

Race

a part of dance company

and he hates the early morning practices with a passion but will just chug energy drinks to get through it

this boy doesn’t sleep… unless it’s in english

the most surprising thing about him is that he’s really good at math??

and he doesn’t even try - he’ll be talking all class period and then finish the homework in class in like, 10 minutes flat

it’s the same thing with physics

but it’s not like you can ask him for help, because he doesn’t really listen to the professor or follow their methods and steps

like i said earlier, race just doesn’t care

or so you think, but his shirt is always matching the color of his shoes and headphones, but then his hair is literal mess and he wears like, he only owns like, two different pairs of joggers

he’s honestly such a mystery

Buttons

okay, so buttons kills it at fashion, which is why he aces his fashion design class

he’s head costumer for all of the drama departments musicals and plays

he’s also really into art history, and he gets inspiration from art all the time

he’s definitely a part of key club and is a part of national honors society although he’s only ever gone to a couple meetings for both

he gets pretty decent grades in everything but physics, but he definitely tries to study for all of his classes

he goes stag to every school dance and deliberately tries to get his ships together for a song

coffee??? he only ever drinks it black

it’s how he stops romeo from taking his

he’s also a dork who color codes his notes because they help him study better

but he has no idea how to take notes for math class, so he kinda just does example problems and then is confused on how it ever did it in the first place

Elmer

so this is one musically talented boy

he plays the guitar, trumpet, and drums

it’s also an inside joke with him and jojo that they both play the castanets

but he’s definitely a part of any band the school offers - as well as pit for the musical

he’s a really chill, laid-back student that gets their work done and just hangs out

he is very nice and definitely a teacher aid for one of the english teachers

and he’s also a part of the poetry club

it’s to improve his songwriting as well as give him a place to destress

He’s definitely the guy who will always lend you his notes if you missed a day, but he’s also not that great at taking notes because his mind is always on something else

he’s also an attendance office aide for one of his periods

Henry

he took ballroom as a joke with mike, and he really ended up liking it

but he’s not a part of dance co. because their style is totally different from ballroom

He also has a lot of energy, so he’s that kid that’s always bouncing his leg up and down and making the desk behind him shake

but no one ever asks for him to stop because he has the biggest smile that you just can’t shut down??

he knows this, though, and he definitely uses it on teachers to get extensions on his work, and he does, like 80% of the time

his worst class is probably english because he can’t just sit down and read for long periods of time

but during the shakespeare unit he kills it because he’s always first to volunteer to read or do a part

his handwriting is very messy and he uses so many abbreviations not even davey knows what they’re saying

always races to be first in the lunch line

always one of the first people to be in class

Hot Shot

he has auto shop as his first class of the day and absolutely loves it

but he’s also that kid that hangs out with his friends in the middle of the hallway, bottlenecking the whole thing during passing time

thinks he’s the cool™ kid

wears leather jackets exclusively

he hates any core class

but secretly really likes his humanities class

he’s taking italian with spot and the poor teacher just can’t handle these two together

he’s also secretly good at basketball

the coach found out somehow and asks him every year to be on the team

but hot shot would rather die than be on a school team

Ike

has a youtube channel where he mostly posts prank videos  especially those that involve the school

he ran for sbo and was elected as treasury, even though mike is the one who went to all of the meetings for like, two months straight

he is the epitome of a class clown, but it’s always in good fun

he always is wearing a black t-shirt under his sbo sweater

and since he’s an sbo he has to go to all the sports game to support and stuff and he cheers the absolute loudest

he does gymnastics with mike after school every day and at every sbo meeting he brings up how it needs to be a part of the sports at school

he never takes notes but can retain everything

his worst class is anything science related

but he’s secretly really good a history

A proud member of spanish club

Mike

mike is definitely the more artsy twin

he takes drawing and ceramics but can’t paint for the life of him

he’s a part of the art club with jack and is basically second in command there

he does gymnastics with ike after school and is on dance co.

he struggles with math and science but gets by okay

has a free period for first where he could be sleeping in or studying but instead he goes to auto shop to talk to hot shot

he definitely has a crush. hot shot won’t admit it, but he loves mike being there.

he usually wears bright colors with his dance co. jacket

doesn’t really like coffee, but he always has a coke on him - it’s his one weakness

is also a part of spanish club

Kenny

okay, so i know, like, nothing about kenny, so i’m just going with my gut based off of his photo

film is his passion and he wants to be a director one day

is 10/10 that kid in your photography class that spends 90% of the time making stop-motion videos

he’s very nice and is always lending jack pencils even though he knows he’ll never get them back

also, there’s a running gag that he and darcy are the same person, ike runs conspiracy theory videos on his youtube channel

his two favorite classes are film (duh) and theatre

he’s a part of the ensemble of every musical the school puts on

he’s even directed a show a couple of times for the spotlight showcase

he is like that background kind of kid that is a part of the big groups and is totally included but just doesn’t have a huge role in the big stuff

he hates having to write essays because he says it’s sucking the creativity out of writing

also likes psychology

JoJo

co-captain of the soccer team

also a madrigal with bill and specs (he’s a baritone)

always tries out for the school musicals, and he usually gets a main part

he takes quite a few advanced classes and it is not rare to find him passed out on one of the other newsies’ couch

he manages to keep a good gpa with his schedule

his favorite class besides madrigals is probably latinos in action, which he has the same period as jack

while he doesn’t play any instruments himself you can always find him hanging out in the band room at lunch

he is absolutely terrible in math but is taking college math now so he can get it done with and never have to do again for as long as he lives

his aspirations are pretty much all over the place at the moment, but he smiles through the uncertainty

“i feel like it’s fine”

Romeo

on the baseball team

a shameless flirt, especially with darcy

did someone say president of the asian american club??

he’s also a part of drama club because he has a passion for theatre

he can’t when it comes to math, though

so instead of getting frustrated he just writes notes in the calculators for people to find

he’ll also fall asleep in that class

he’s definitely a partner in crime with ike and frequently is a guest on his youtube channel

studying??? who’s she???

really good at debate, though. katherine keeps telling him he should join the club but he says his skills are beyond that of a club

Finch

on the track team and one of the fastest runners

it’s a good outlet for all of his energy

he takes notes in all of his classes since he learned all the strategies from avid, but he never looks back at them

surprisingly gets really good test scores, though

you know he takes wildlife biology and he memorizes like, every type of bird call

he can even mimic some of them - it’s how he wakes romeo up in math.

he also goes out every day for lunch, and his next period is english which he has with like, all of the boys, so he’s always throwing fries across the room for henry or mush to catch in their mouths

he beats his own school records every year so he’s like, constantly the athlete of the month

definitely goes to all of the different sports games and cheers very loud

carries a huge water bottle that he fills up during french class to get out of presentations

Kid Blink

first of all, this kid does not do any kind of sport because his depth perception rivals that of mine

which means it  s u c k s 

however, he kills it at math and physics is his one true love

If you need a study partner for either, he’s your guy. just know that he explains nothing and goes pretty fast. keep up and you can do math with him.

he lowkey hates history because it’s about a whole bunch of dead people who were problematic

he’s a part of mesa

he takes american sign language and it’s one of his favorite classes

he and smalls are constantly having conversations from across the room

a lot of the time it’s about the teacher, and one time they were caught by their chemistry teacher who knew asl

they got detention for like, a week because of it

Mush

here comes the heartthrob!!!!

very handsome, and his strong suit is engineering. which always shocks people.

which means he’s definitely a part of mesa and the engineering and technology club

he’s definitely the person to go to if you need help in physics. he explains things really well

the only bad part about it is that he also goes off on tangents when he’s explaining and you can get confused if you listen too long

he’s actually kind of a style icon, his hair is probably the best out of everyone

he always has headphones in, but one earbud is out so he can hear the teacher and whatnot

he cannot act for the life of him

but he has a good-natured laugh that makes up for the cringe 

he also cannot dance

Smalls

okay, so smalls is a part of the asian american club, key club, and poetry club 

even though he cannot write to save his life, they let him come because he’s uber supportive

there’s also a joke that he and spot are a part of the short™ club

lowkey, smalls started this joke because he finds it hilarious when spot gets upset

he actually takes interior design and it’s his favorite class

he’s really good with color

he also takes woodworking and makes the guys stuff for it

davey has a bookshelf and jack has a desk

takes asl with kid blink and loves it

is the kid who always has to stand up to take notes because seating charts always put him in the back, despite his height

Sniper

okay, so sniper is a cheerleader but don’t let that fool you - she’s also on the wrestling team and will take you down

albert is like her older brother and helps her with her business class

she regrets having taken it, but she needed another cte credit and thought it would be safer than welding

she has a criminal law class that she loves with all of her heart

she writes in all capitals

she’s also that kid that writes all of her essays handwritten to spite her english teacher which, on the first day of school, complain about her writing in all caps

she’s good with history and has it with albert and it’s her personal goal to get him to laugh at her comments in that class

studying??? sounds studious. and not a part of her aesthetic.

has an attendance office aide period where she mostly does the homework for her next class period

is that kid that always almost swears in class debates

Specs

first, our boy is president for madrigals (he’s a low bass)

then he’s a proud part of the book club

his thing is psychology, and he goes in hard, he and sarah sit next to each other and talk in hushed whispers about all the cool stuff they learn

he takes very neat notes

but only has to look at them two or three times before he’s ready to take a test

is always an ensemble member in the school musicals

he is also a library aide and constantly smells like old books

very organized

his locker always has everything you could possibly need - a jacket, hat, bag of trail mix, water, etc.

the mom friend™

Spot

first of all, he’s that kid who always sits in the same seat. if you’re sitting in his seat, you’re dead. don’t @ him.

he hates science with a burning passion and is so glad he finished all of his credits for it in junior year

is actually a bit of a history buff

but he never participates in class, just writes really good essays and aces every test

and speaking of writing

he’s actually really into creative writing

who did you think started the writing club???

but he’s no less tough

he always wears a leather jacket, a red shirt, cuffs the bottom of his jeans, and has his pen tucked behind his ear

he doesn’t really take notes, and he only writes in pen

Tommy Boy

captain of dance company

is having none of race’s idiocy at practices either

but he’s actually really funny and nice, all the teachers love him

can’t write a summary in english for the life of him but will write a 10 page essay on why dance company is a part of the performing arts and deserves just as much recognition as theatre, choir, and band

only ever eats out of the vending machines for lunch

is a part of french club

really likes culinary arts because his one weakness is sugar

can’t do any form of art other than dance

but he doesn’t need to - he’s that good

notes??? what are those???

AND FLUFF ENSUES.

#newsies #newsies musical #modern au #high school au #katherine pulitzer #katherine plumber #davey jacobs #les jacobs #jack kelly #crutchie morris #albert dasilva #racetrack higgins #buttons davenport #elmer kasprzak #newsboysheadcanons

[secretradiobrooklyn]

SECRET RADIO | Aug.31.20

Inaugural edition of WBFF, secret radio Kensington Brooklyn (Hear it here.)

Before it comes up: No, we don’t speak most of these languages. We definitely don’t even know how to pronounce most of the song titles. And while we keep reading up on em, some of this stuff we’ll never know. And that’s fine. That doesn’t need to slow us or you down. If you dig it, you dig it!

So here’s what you’re listening to, and detailed notes below:

1- T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou w Sagbohan Danialou- The Kings of Benin Urban Groove 1972-1980 - “Gbeto Vivi”

T.P. stands for “tout poissant,” or “all powerful,” and right from the jump you can hear why this band is so exciting: it’s pure funk and pure Africa at the same time — super funky drums all wound in hand drums, a royal horn section, and an electric guitar holding down the rhythm stabs. The fact that you have no idea what he’s talking about barely even matters. It’s amazing how the song moves between an African dominance and a Western dominance from section to section.   

2- CBC Band - Saigon Rock & Soul - “The Greatest Love”

This is exactly the tone that I always wanted the term “acid rock” to mean. Every instrument is so hot it’s melting over the other instruments. The organ is such a classic West Coast flavor, the whole band takes every opportunity to go crazy together, and the vocal is a truly mysterious character. But in the end, anyone can sing along to “yeah yeah, yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah,” yeah?

3- T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou Benin - “Mille Fois Merci”

Apparently, in the ‘70s one of the things that started happening with records in the Benin region was that the bands would not only write super badass songs, but when it came time to record, they would skip the spaces between songs and just record the whole side in one unbroken flow. It certainly sounds like that’s what happened with “Mille Fois Merci” — where we start is definitely not where we end up, though it’s not even clear, without close listening, when we shift into the song with the chorus lyrics. One of the best elements of African music is that influence is flowing in from France and America in completely different ways, and mixing more in Africa than they ever seemed to in the US. “Mille fois merci” = “a thousand thank yous.” So many great guitar parts over the course of the song, all wound tightly around each other, alternately improvising and contributing to the drone underlying huge passages.

4- Vicky & T.P. Poly-Rythmo - “Au Bord de l’Eau”

Vicky is one of the central members and I think songwriters of T.P., and he’s constantly getting call-outs from the other members of the band. This song’s melody reminds Paige of:

5- Sylvie Vartan - “La Plus Belle pour Aller Danser” 

In the movie “Peppermint Soda,” there’s a scene in which all of the schoolgirls have gone bonkers, singing this song and clapping and dancing on their desks, and the teacher has no control over the class at all. This is the song they’re singing.

6- Cambodian Rocks - Volumen 1 - Sinn Sisamouth - “Quando, My Love”

I love the drum machine — Optigan? — throughout, but the guitar playing is what just drops my jaw every time. It’s so Les Paul in its fluid inventiveness, shimmering and sliding through the song until it crescendoes and dissolves into light. Meanwhile, all I can picture is a dark, mostly deserted bar verging on last call, on the forgotten edge of an army base deep in Cambodia, where this guy and his guitarist deliver a timeless memory that can never be sufficiently described or even remembered, only ever conjured in a cloud at the edge of sleep.

7- Gasper Nali - “A Bale Ndikuwuzeni”

“Punk Rock meets Tropical? Music is everywhere.” That’s the tag on the YouTube video that I ran across a couple of years ago, and damned if that’s not exactly the thing. I must’ve watched the video of the singer playing his giant one-stringed instrument a dozen times the first time I found it. How can one dude on a beach encapsulate the feeling of playing in a punk band? It’s the essentialism. I did eventually find a video of him doing this song in the studio, and it turns out that the version he has in his head includes beautiful harmonies and a delicacy that is completely absent from the video filmed at Nhakta Bay in Malawi — but this version to me is the real one. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdhoeK9Gs34

8- Newen Afrobeat feat. Seun Kuti & Cheick Tidiane Seck - “Opposite People”

Another one that is enhanced by watching the video. The drummer looks like he’s 16 years old, but his patterns and fills are just unstoppable, and as everyone plays you can pretty much smell the studio funk. The bent-note keys solo is Cheick Tidiane Seck. So much percussion! And the vocals don’t even kick in until the ninth minute, but when they do, it only gets even better.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFSRCG4DrmI

9- Jambü e Os Miticos Sons Da Amazonia - Magalhaes e Sua Guitarra - “Xango”

10- Dougbé Antoine et l’Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Ye Ko Gni Me Towedea

Antoine Dougbé is one of our all-time favorite composers. This track is such a freakin banger — the funky drums, the guitars, the keys, all the sweat flying everywhere. “Legends of Benin” is an absolutely essential collection, and Dougbé’s tracks are the standouts. The arrangements are by Melomé Clement, whose work we’ve been getting into as well. Dougbé was, according to Melomé, a Vodoun priest who referred to himself as “The Devil’s Prime Minister.” 

11- T.P. Orchestre - “Se Ba Ho”

This band was known by more than a dozen names and played on tons of records. This track is from an Analog Africa collection of T.P. Orchestre songs called “Echos Hypnotiques,” which is great from beginning to end. Check out the video of them playing this song live on TV — when the dude cuts loose on the Farfisa it’s a clinic!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0c34HLss-w

12- Mulatu Astatke - Tezeta

We don’t know much about this guy except that he’s Ethiopian. This song has a sense of such delicate, fleeting beauty.

13- Amanaz - “Khala My Friend”

Amanaz stands for Ask Me About Nice Artistes from Zambia, and that sense of sincerity seems entirely appropriate to this Dylanesque track. There are more great tracks where this came from.

14- The Velvet Underground - “Sweet Jane” (demo)

How could we not, after “Khala My Friend”? This is an early demo version. I love the snare hits in the first verse.

15- T.P. Orchestre - “Malin Kpon O”

This is just a perfect example of Beninese and American rock sensibilities. Also from “Echos Hypnotiques.” It’s so gotdamn hip with its funk guitar and discordant keys that slip into a heavy, hooky chorus. It’s so rockin!

16- T.P. Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou & Bentho Gustave Titiou - “Gbe Sou Ve Gnin (La Vie Semble Facile Mais…)”

I feel like this is the first track we found on our own, without the (invaluable) help of Analog Africa and other able curators. Bentho Gustave is T.P. Orchestre’s bassist and built into the core of the band. This track comes on with some reggae-ish aspects, but to me it’s ultimately completely different thing. The singalong choruses just feel so good, like the best night of the summer. 

17- Hallelujah Chicken Run Band -  “Tamba Zimba Navashe”

Analog Africa’s second release was this collection of tracks from the great Zimbabwean band. It includes b-sides and stuff plus a studio album — a lot of the African tracks were recorded live or outside at night or in variously improvised settings, but this one was in a classic studio setting. The whole album is full of 3s against 4s and interlocking rhythms, but this track’s endless tumble is somehow special. I always think that the singer’s voice has the timbre of Tupac Shakur, which makes me like him so much. This whole album feels like it could be a hit today.

18- Francis Bebey - “Sanza Tristesse”

19- Francis Bebey - “The Coffee Cola Song”

Surely our electronically oriented friends have been hip to Francis Bebey for years, but this guy’s whole body of work has been a revelation to us. He was Cameroonian, living in Paris and working at the embassy there before he quit to work on music full time. Though he was a librarian of traditional  African music and architecture, he believed that African music was absolutely alive and part of the future of music, and needed to not get bogged down in Western versions of “authentic” music untouched by other influences. His albums and collections are, so far as we’ve found, all full of true weirdness and insight — if you need a place to start, “African Electronic Music 1975-1982” is it.

20- Assa-Cica - self-titled - “Mi Man So Gbeme We Fide”

21- Assa-Cica - Echos Sonores du Benin - “Yokpo Wa Non Kpo Ha Mi”

“Echos Sonores du Benin” is the first physical record that we actually tracked down and bought online. “Yokpo” was the song that convinced us we had to have it. This summer, when the record finally arrived from Benin to our place in the woods, we spent the day assembling a table and chairs outside on the porch, so that we could invite our friend Brad over for the first listen among the fireflies and the hooting of nearby juvenile barred owls. The title translates from Yoruba to “I Couldn’t Help You.”

Man, this performance is a showstopper.

22- Yol Aularong - Cambodia Rocks Volumen 1 - “Whiskey Whiskey” (House of the Rising Sun) 

This guitar tone absolutely slays, and gets right to the heard of “House of the Rising Sun,” whether or not the Cambodian lyrics have anything to do with New Orleans (I don’t think they do).

23- Marijata - “No Condition Is Permanent”

It’s been fascinating listening to music in so many other languages — no matter how many hooks the song has, if you can’t sing along, there’s just a different thing happening in the brain. So when we get to a song like “No Condition Is Permanent,” it really digs in deep. Luckily it’s also not just an excellent song but a very relevant one too. As far as I can tell this is a phrase that originates in Nigeria, though Marijata is from Ghana. This song is a stone classic. When they’re trading phrases in the middle, right before the singer just goes off the deep end, it feels like it has always existed and is never going to end. 

24- El Rego - “Feeling You Got”

And straight back to James Brown. El Rego’s got the shriek, he’s got the attitude, and he’s got the… accordion? Yes indeed, the accordion. Wow. I honestly didn’t know the accordion could be funky til this track. I love how it feels like he learned the syllables but may very well not speak English at all.

25- Hailu Mergia - “Wede Harer Guzo”

Speaking of accordion, apparently that is Hailu Mergia’s instrument, though it sure doesn’t sound like an accordion to me. The story of Hailu Mergia is inspirational, in the proof that you can’t always keep a good musician down. 

FYI, there are 5 minutes of dead air at the end of this “broadcast.” Chalk that up to learning as we go. 

See you next time. Stay healthy, stay safe, stay friends!

[fullmetalkittn]

The Last King’s Knight - Ch.2

736.V.15th, 6:45pm     

The sun had set on the little apartment almost an hour ago. Though the table lamps and ceiling fixtures worked just fine, the electronic glow from Tiger's phone was the only light in the dark room. She knew it was bad for her eyes to play this way, but who could be bothered to turn anything else on when there were pixel goblins to slay?

Ignis had logged in as promised and chosen to adventure as the five star Verdi in their possession – a harpy tank character that Tiger never had the good fortune to draw. She considered using the nine-tailed fox in spiteful retaliation, but opted for Sakura instead to make their digital outing more productive.

And productive it was! The farming was done within a half hour, and since then they had spent some time moseying through event maps and trading DMs. More the latter, than the former. A strange weight had settled in Tiger's heart, and though she may have been projecting, it felt like Ignis was a bit troubled as well. These feelings fueled lengthy back and forths as she sought to distract herself from the trepidation. The messages from her friend were as well worded as ever;

It's been quite the day so far.

An incredibly busy one, at that. There's been so much to do preparing for the trip that I've lost track of time twice already. Even as we speak, my friend awaits my aid cleaning out his apartment. I can't imagine how long that's going to take, given the chaotic state it's typically in. Heh. But it must be done before we leave. He won't be returning to it when we come back from Altissia.

That's right. Ignis was leaving tomorrow. With all the changes to her organization in preparation for the signing and the Nif's takeover of the frontier, Tiger had just about forgotten that all four of her King's Knight friends were ditching the Crown City for a while. Though they had mentioned the upcoming journey quite a bit, this was the first time their destination had made it's way into the conversation.

She smiled. For 17 years she had called Lucis home, but the Accordo capital of Altissia was the place of her birth. Too young when they left it to remember much about the city, Tiger nonetheless felt a bit sentimental seeing its name on appear on her screen.

Altissia!

My family lived there when I was a little girl. It's been a long time since I've seen it. Oh, I wish I could go with you! But there's this whole peace treaty stuff to deal with tomorrow. Crazy time to be a Glaive, I guess. I know how stressed you must be, but I think I'm a little jealous of your trip! Promise you'll try a strawberry gelato while you're there.

Do it for me, even if you don't like strawberries, ok?

Had she told Ignis about her occupation before? They'd been in contact for over a month now. Surely it had come up. And even if it hadn't, it wasn't as if she belonged to any sort of secret organization. Tiger wasn't ashamed of her affiliation, either. Though they were often looked down upon as a band of filthy, foreign refugees, the Kingsglaive had earned their place in Regis's favor through blood and steel. How many of those high and mighty Crownsguard losers could say the same?

Still, she wondered if she hadn't revealed too much, and bit her lip in anticipation of Ignis's next DM. The minutes ticked by in dark, anxious silence. It felt like twenty seven years had passed by the time the screen lit up again with the notification of a reply.

She swiped it open.

I'll keep that in mind.

While I've never been outside the crown city, I've studied the world beyond the wall ever since I was a young boy. That includes Altissia, though I imagine the words I read won't have done it justice. If only I could take you along. A native guide would certainly be appreciated and I've wanted to meet outside the game for some time now. Alas, I fear our duties will prevent that from happening for just a while longer.

As well I fear they must cut short our time now.

It was closing in on 7pm. Having yet to make herself any supper, Tiger's tummy had started to gnaw loudly on her backbone. With Ignis's obligation to his friend no doubt looming over him like the irritating emptiness in her stomach, she knew the grown-up and responsible thing to do would be to call it quits for the time being and see to other things.

She curled up in the corner of the futon and cradled her phone in her hands as she tapped out a response.

One more map, then?

:3

She was a terrible excuse for a grown-up, after all.

Ignis seemed equally unwilling to part digital paths, and in the end another thirty minutes passed before they finally DM'd their farewells for the evening. Tiger stayed logged in for a bit, staring at Ignis's offline Verdi. A profound hollowness settled in her chest.

“Ugh. What is this awful feeling?” She demanded of the vacant apartment as she stood up and finally turned on some lights.

In the kitchen, a mostly empty fridge and some sparsely stocked pantry shelves presented themselves for her dinner gleanings. Tiger had meant to go shopping today, but time spent with Ignis had taken priority. With no regrets, she foraged up a can of condensed tomato soup and some frozen waffles. As the toaster oven and stove top saucepan heated her food, she leaned back against the counter and considered her online friend's last few messages.

“So, he's a boy after all.” She said, crossing her arms as she thoughtfully tapped her lips with her forefinger. Her cheeks colored lightly. Had he worded his response just to reveal it? Her mind wandered as she tried to imagine what Ignis might look and sound like. Naturally, the portrait of his wizened wizard character eventually popped up. Tiger let out a short laugh and shook her head. “Whatever.”

Steam rose from the pot on the stove, signaling the soup's ready state just as the toaster oven chimed. She arranged her food on a lap tray and made her way back to the futon. Plopping down there in the same spot she had occupied all day, she flicked the television on and settled back to eat. There would be no Malbuddy to entertain her at this hour. Only the news, and the news was all the same.

“Preparation for tomorrow's signing ceremony continues well into the evening here at the Citadel,” droned a flaxen-haired female reporter dressed in a blue business suit. Behind her, tawny streetlights illuminated the Capitol promenade, full of black cars and people in uniform. “Security has been tightened up to ensure our esteemed guests' safety, and all are eager to see a resolution to this conflict at last.”

“Not like this, they aren't,” Tiger said in between mouthfuls. Her expression soured. The terms of the treaty would leave her parents at the Empire's mercy, and while she trusted her father to keep her mother safe, the idea of them being politically cut off from Lucis filled her with dread. This was only part of the uneasiness that had haunted her since the change in operations. Something else chewed at her like the faded memory of an old wound – a wrongness that she couldn't quite grasp.

She took a bite of her plain waffle and surfed through the channels. The same scene was repeated on them all; different angles with different reporters wearing the same fake smiles as they drummed up the joy that the peace would bring.

And isn't that worth it...?

“Even now His Majesty hosts his long time rival at a fun little gathering atop the Citadel,” one reporter was saying. His accent was obnoxious, but he was kind of cute. He winked at the camera as he continued, “King Regis makes a helluva enemy, eh? We should all be so lucky.”

Tiger's sour demeanor soured further. The other Glaives weren't going to like that. Tensions were already high among those like her, whose families would be abandoned to the Empire. How would they feel hearing that the Emperor himself now enjoyed expensive drinks and fancy little foodstuffs at the King's pleasure? How much worse for those of her comrades that were assigned to citadel security tonight, witnessing this first hand?

She eyed her simple fare and imagined the sort of wonderful things that that bastard Aldercapt was getting to eat at Insomnia's expense. What she wouldn't give to taste such finery herself!

Grumpier than ever, she tore off another piece of waffle with her teeth and changed the channel. Luckily, a stunt course game show with ridiculous overblown obstacles appeared in the sea of on-site reporters and monotone anchors. Tiger settled in to watch, grateful for anything that would take her mind off the bitterness she felt and the troubling thought of days to come.

Three or four mindless hours later, she had just begun to doze off to an automotive sales infomercial when her phone lit up and chirped. She popped one eye open and glanced at the screen.

King's Knight: New DM received from Ignis.

She quickly set her tray aside and took up the device to check it.

Fancy another go at it?

It appears we've a bit of time and restlessness to burn before bed. The apartment is taken care of and the four of us are all logging in. Care to throw yourself into the rotation? We'd all love to play with you at least one more time before we're Altissia bound.

Just like that, Tiger's grumpiness evaporated. A warm smile spread across the Glaive's face as a strange lump formed in her throat. She felt the oddest urge to cry, but blinked it away. Without hesitation, she tapped out her answer.

Of course!

You don't even have to ask!

#FFXV #Fanfiction #Ignis Scientia #Kingsglaive #OC #Fluff #Backstory #My Writing #And Frozen Waffles

[thelegendofclarke]

Just venting I need to get this out:I firmly believe that there are Key 6, not 5, players in ASOIAF. And Sansa is one of them. GRRM has himself named Sansa as one of his key protagonists (there were 6 in total inc Sansa) and also that Sansa,Arya and Bran's journeys were paramount for him. I know this subject has been done to death &I'm really sorry for imposing on you but yeah to me,based on all this,Sansa is one of the Key 6. (you dont have to post it. Just venting. Thanks for reading)

Hi! Sorry to bother you again. I’m the Key 6 players anon. You don’t have to post my initial ask. I know the whole thing has been done to death. I was just venting and getting it out of my system. I hope I didn;t offend. Thanks for understanding.

Hi Anonny!

Oh gosh please DON’T apologize, you didn’t offend me at all in the slightest! I am just slow af and take forever to answer things and am generally The Worst… But my Ask is always open for venting! Especially venting about people who don’t ~recognize, respect, and appreciate~ the Noble and Poetic Land Mermaid that is Sansa Stark.

Yeah, the Key Players debate does continue to be a kind of ~weird bone of contention~ in the fandom for some reason. I think (and like to hope) that a lot of the time when people talk about or make fanart for the Five Key Players, that they aren’t excluding Sansa or leaving her out maliciously. I think they might just be going off of, or wanting to acknowledge, the five main characters GRRM listed in his original outline for the series in 1993.

But you’re right, I have definitely seen people who insist that Sansa is not a main character or key player in the story, which simply isn’t true. GRRM even identified her as a main character himself in 2016:

I’d thought the whole story could be told in three books, and that it would take me three years to write them, a year per book. That picture was taken just a few weeks after I blew my first (bot not my last, oh no) deadline on the series. Ah, how innocent I was… little did that guy in the picture imagine that he would be spending most of the next two decades in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros with Tyrion, Daenerys, Arya, Sansa, Jon Snow, Bran, and all the rest. (x)

And even if GRRM’s word alone weren’t enough, Sansa’s character is vastly different from how she was originally planned. In the original outline GRRM basically had the Arya character involved in plot lines that now belong to Arya, Sansa, and Meera Reed (homegirl would have been BUSY AF); and the original Sansa character was basically who we would now identify as Margaery Tyrell if you are looking for a comparison. The original Sansa character ended up marrying Joffrey and bearing him a son and then choosing him over her family and ultimately paying the price. It was always ~super obvious~ to me that GRRM figured out that it just wasn’t going to be logistically possible to have the Arya character do everything she needed to do. I mean she was basically going to have to be in a minimum of two places at once: fleeing North beyond the wall with Bran AND in KL/WF getting entangled in a love triangle with Jon and Tyrion. So he ended up splitting and then modifying Arya’s storylines for the characters we now know as Arya, Sansa, and Meera.

The Sansy Pants as we now know (and love) her does start out a lot like the original Sansa, with dreams of marrying the prince and having his babies ect. She also does play a big part in what some people see as the betrayal and downfall of her family. But unlike the Sansa in the original outline, our Sansa learns. Her observations and inner dialogue become more and more keen and shrewd and move further and further away from the romantic fantasies and naivety that characterized her original POV. The romantic and fanciful AGoT!Sansa does make appearances throughout the series as Sansa wistfully, and sometimes resentfully, recalls the girl she used to be. But AGoT!Sansa’s memory is consistently suppressed and rejected in favor of a sharper, smarter, more cunning, and more guarded perspective (She hasn’t left her romanticism behind completely though as we know, just like she hasn’t forgotten her true identity. She is still Sansa Stark; “Lord Eddard’s daughter and Lady Catelyn’s, the blood of Winterfell”). 

If anything, this proves to me she’s going to be a Key Player and central to the story’s endgame. Like her siblings Sansa has lived through extreme atrocities and incredible adversity and come out the other side stronger and smarter, but still kind an noble. And like Bran has been honing his supernatural abilities and Arya has been honing her physical abilities, Sansa has been honing her own intellectual abilities. Her growing political savvy and transition from Pawn to Player is incredibly similar to Bran’s growing confidence in his magical abilities. Just like Bran is gradually becoming one of the central characters for the magical endgame of the series, Sansa is transitioning into her role as a key player in the pragmatic and political endgame of the series.

And going along with that, I think another reason people have a hard time believing that Sansa is going to be a Key Player is because she isn’t magical. All the other five Key Players (Bran, Arya, Jon, Dany, and Tyrion) have some sort of magical ability that’s central to their arc. Whether it’s dragon riding or blood magic or warging or being brought back from the dead, they all have some sort of magical skill and/or experience. There is, of course, the fact that Sansa could have been a warg or a skin changer, but her ability to do so essentially died with Lady. But honestly I think that’s kind of beside the point…

In the end I don’t think it matters that Sansa doesn’t have any significant magical abilities, because I don’t think GRRM is trying to write a story solely about magic where the magical storylines and characters are the only important ones. I think he is more writing a story that is set in a world where magic exists. ASoIaF isn’t divided into magical storylines vs. political storylines, the two co-exist and are of equal importance. Whether you want to view ASoIaF as a political world where there’s magic or a magical world where there’s politics, it still stands to reason that the lives of the characters are going to be affected by both. Just like the magically inclined Dany is driven by royal aspirations and entangled in political endeavors, the politically savvy Sansa does interact with and has been affected by magic. 

Both these things occur simply based on the fact that both exist and are pervasive over arching themes in the universe GRRM has created. Even though Sansa doesn’t have any obvious magical skills like Arya and Jon, she has interacted with magic and it has been a prevalent theme in her arc. Here are just a few examples:

The name Sansa actually means “invocation and charm” in Sanskrit. And while yes, this could just be a play on words with Sansa’s power to charm others, it gets brought up again in he advices Petyr gives her to seduce Harry the Heir: “Charm him. Entrance him. Bewitch him.” Seduction is described here like a spell. 

The Ghost of High Heart Prophecy- “I dreamt a wolf howling in the rain, but no one heard his grief. I dreamt such a clangor I thought my head might burst, drums and horns and pipes and screams, but the saddest sound was the little bells. I dreamt of a maid at a feast with purple serpents in her hair, venom dripping from their fangs. And later I dreamt that maid again, slaying a savage giant in a castle built of snow.” The bolded part is pretty clearly speaking of Sansa at Joffrey’s wedding. The purple serpents in her hair with blood dripping from their veins is referring to the silver hair net with purple amethysts given to Sansa by the Tyrells which they used to smuggle poison into the wedding feast. The “serpents in her hair” also really strongly parallels the myth of Medusa, who could turn men to stone with just one look.   

The smallfolk also talk about Sansa and the Purple Wedding in terms of magic and legend when telling the story to Arya and The Hound: “The northern girl. Winterfell’s daughter. We heard she killed the king with a spell, and afterward changed into a wolf with big leather wings like a bat, and flew out a tower window.” (Arya XII, ASoS) Not only do they say Sansa preforms a spell, but also that she skin-changes into a bat-wolf, all references to the dark arts. 

The remaining direwolves often think of think of “the sister they had lost”, which is obviously Lady. And it’s significant that because Sansa lost Lady, her brothers can’t track her the way they do their other siblings. This indicates that there is in fact a magical bond/connection between each Stark and their wolf allowing them to connect with and track each other as a pack, and that with Lady’s death Sansa’s magical connection was severed. 

GRRM has also explicitly stated that all the Stark children have warging abilities: “[On whether the trait of being a warg ran in the Stark family] I don’t know if I want to get into genetics - this is fantasy, not scifi… I don’t think this is necessarily a ‘Stark’ ability, though all the children have it to one extent or another. They also realize it to one extent or another.’

Her presence in Bran’s dream in AGoT (Bran III) where she is surrounded by shadows, each representing characters she has and possibly will interact with (The Hound, Jaime Lannister, and possibly Robert Strong)- “One shadow was dark as ash, with the terrible face of a hound. Another was armored like the sun, golden and beautiful. Over them both loomed a giant in armor made of stone, but when he opened his visor, there was nothing inside but darkness and thick black blood.”

Maggy’s Prophecy- Sansa is also potentially the “younger and more beautiful” queen in Maggy the Frog’s prophecy about Cersei. And while she might not ~actually~ end up being the younger and more beautiful queen, Cersei believes she could. This is significant because it shapes Sansa and Cersei relationship and fuels Cersei’s hatred of Sansa from the first time they meet. It’s the same reason Cersei hates Margaery, they are a threat not only to “all she holds dear” but also to her power. 

SO tl;dr Sansa Stark is ~important af~ and DEFINITELY a Key Player in ASoIaF. I know you already knew this haha, but just take comfort in the fact that there is a gd mountain of evidence against anyone who claims differently. So they can just sit there in their Wrongness and be Wrong :)

#thank you for the question anon! #i hope this helped :) #asoiaf for ts #got for ts #sansa stark #george r.r. martin #IN THIS HOUSE WE LOVE AND APPRECIATE SANSA STARK #alys answers #scheduled* #my queue has turned to porcelain to ivory to steel #anonymous #alys meta

[umdax]

7 Most Favorite Stages from #KHH Shows

basically a personal pick from watching some shows (only SMTM and School Rapper to be exact), stages i would like to keep re-watching between dramas marathon or while waiting for the ongoing shows to be subbed. this list will be super biased, yes. and this post will be quite long.

 7. Show Me The Money 6 (2017) - Dok2 x Jay Park Stage

let’s begin with the most recent one, personal favorite because, it’s AOMG1LLI baby! both CEOs sounded like they ate a whole CD prior to the performance, so tight, clean and just WOW- not to mention the b-boy Jay Park and supportive friend mode on Dok2 (11:58).

6. Show Me The Money 3 (2014) - Bounce

Bobby be getting rid of that idol rapper prejudice even before he officially debuted. 

5. Show Me The Money 5 (2016) - Believe! Forever Forever

“Oh so swag!” -Dok2 (2016)  “yak yak yak”

4. Show Me The Money 4 (2015) - Stand Up!

i really like this song, like really, this one is gold. and Mamamoo- slaying with them killer vocals, as usual.

3. WIN : WHO IS NEXT (2013) - Climax

what? this one is kpop af. yes, but i can’t miss this stage when it comes to glorious stage, despite the fact that they didn’t actually win. this stage is hella emotional T T

2. Show Me The Money 5 (2016) - Let It Be

a moment of truth, when i totally fell for Crush’s voice and Crush himself. been listening to him, but his part in this song is just asdfkhj *dying inside*

still can’t figure out CJamm’s jacket’s magic, like why did he wear it that way and where the hell it went midway? but just so you know, he actually isn’t as rude as he may seem during the show, in my opinion.

also, Kush looks a bit like Crush? is Zion.T having things with Ush?

2:32 Zion.T’s fatherly smile during Crush’s part- def can’t unseen this. #Vuvuzela

*unnecessary drum rolls before we reach the number 1, at last*

1. School Rapper (2017) - Come For You

the reason why i made this list. this stage is so emotional, the song is emotional, even i still get goosebumps every time this song played on my shuffled playlist. and Choi Hamin is way way way younger than i am. *still waiting for his new single, ep, album, mixtape, anything is good, boy, anything*

also, Swings’ image during this show was totally different (?) from the Swings i knew, in a good way. I’m glad Hamin was signed to his label.

bonus :

Show Me The Money 5 (2016) - Shark in The Cold Pool + Sunblock

probably SMTM’s cutest stage- the Baby Shark Doo Doo of #KHH

Show Me The Money 4 (2015) - Oppa’s Car

the beginning of when every comical scene with car used this as bgm

Show Me The Money 4 (2015) - Fear

“ABOJIII-”

#showmethemoney #schoolrapper #dok2 #jaypark #aomg #1llionaire #bobby #bewhy #basick #mamamoo #ikon #cjamm #crush #ziont #kush #choihamin #osshungum #swings #top7 #yasvid #superbee #jinusean #tablo #mino #taeyang

[thirstyfortom]

High School Band AU: Chapter Two

There you go, fellas! Time to meet the band buddies! I’li be back with some scenarios a little later! See ya ;)

Okay, if anybody ever asked you how you would imagine spending your Saturday afternoon, the last thing you could ever think would be having a sack over your head on this very hot room. Where are you? In a basement?

“Fellow members, we are assembled here today to confer the honor of initiation upon MC. May her voice guide us through a victory without precedents in Daykey High School’s history. May her talent and charisma lead us to a journey of paying gigs, whether in money or in coupons from the donut store.”

“Or in tepid beer.”

“Thank you, fellow member Zen. Let your wishes be granted as well. Now, may the chosen one step forward.”

Oh… is he… is he talking about you? You step on what you think it’s forward.

“Oh, chosen one, let your voice be heard!”

“I… don’t really know what you want me to say.” Your voice is muffled.

“Saeyoung, I think we got it. Just take this out of her face before she asphyxiates.” The only female voice besides yours speaks.

“But… she didn’t even drink the blood!” Saeyoung whines.

Now you know this initiation ritual apparently was Saeyoung’s idea, you’re worried about having to drink actual blood. Who knows? That guy felt a little crazy, finding you behind the curtains like a sniffer dog looking for drugs, and talking about biting you… yeah, you know it was a joke, but… who knows? The guy is weird…

“B-blood?” you take the sack out of your head.

“No! You can’t take it off before Jumin makes your welcoming official.” Saeyoung whines dramatically.

“She’s welcome, just get rid of the sack.”

“Ah, you’re no fun! Here, just drink the blood. Don’t worry, it’s wine. Actually, don’t worry, it’s grape juice. Yoosung couldn’t buy the wine.”

“I told you to send Zen.”

“Yeah, yeah, lesson learned… so hey! Welcome, MC! Are you excited to be joining us?”

“I was excited when you texted me, then you put this sack over my head and basically kidnapped me, and I’m not excited anymore.” You hear some chuckles from Zen and… Jumin? The intimidating brunette just laughed of your little joke?

“Too bad, you should be excited about joining the jewel in the crown of Daykey High School! The amazing band Mystic Messenger!” yeah, you didn’t get used to the name yet…

“It’s pretty cool, indeed. I hope you can forgive Saeyoung’s methods and enjoy where you find yourself right now, MC.” Zen says, it’s the first time he sounds serious and not like trying to desperately say something flirty… it’s pretty comforting.

“Thank you… I… honestly thought you would never want to see my face after the way I behaved. It was childish…”

“Don’t forget foolish.” Jumin adds.

“And kinda of overdramatic.” That coming from the guy who was talking about drinking blood for a initiation ritual a minute ago?

“Yes… it was a bitchy behavior. And I apologize to you all, but mainly to you, Jumin and…” you look around trying to find the other twin, but he isn’t here.

“I’ll forgive you when we win the festival.” Jumin says bluntly. Uhm… he is still pretty mad, isn’t he? So why did he even agree on you joining the band?

“The festival?” you ask curiously.

“Yes, the winter festival for high school bands! It’s so cool!” What’s the blonde’s name again? It was a pretty name… Y-Yoosung, right? Yoosung seems to be the type who gets super excited easily, usually people like this annoy you, but he also seems so sweet, totally the boy next door, and definitely not annoying at all.

“We participated last year and placed second, but things were a little different, we had a different vocalist and a different bass player.” Jaehee explains. Oh yes… V was the bass player and created the band. Which one here plays the bass now? If you had to guess… Jumin?

“And you’re counting on me to win this year?”

“Basically, yes.”

Wow, it hits you like a rock. This group of people is really betting on you to get for them something they let slip away before… they… trust you. And they don’t even know you that well… when was the last time somebody hand you something so important and meaningful? No, actually, did this ever happen before?

“But no need to feel pressured, sweetheart. We still have time to rehearse and get you ready. If you ever feel burdened, come to me, okay?” hum, the Zen’s flirty tone is back again… or maybe he’s just like this and doesn’t even notice some people can really take him seriously… are you taking him seriously?

“Yes, if she’s burdened, the first thing she would need is your constant urge to make a move on freshman girls.” A-ha! Jumin is thinking the same as you, he just puts it on a more intellectual way. By the way… why does he talk so formal? It’s funny…

“Ahem. Anyway, MC, just know we’re not waiting for you to just get up on that stage and slay, you’re talented, but you also need practice, we all do. And we will practice and walk through this together. “ Ah… Jaehee, you thought she was one of those really mean ice lady like girls, but… she’s super nice. What instrument does she play?

“Well, I’m not worried.” Yes, you are. “Progress, not perfection.”

“This sounds like an AA mantra…” Saeyoung teases you.

“Well, Saeyoung, the first step is admitting you have a problem, yours is making nonsense jokes about alcoholism.” He widens his eyes, uh oh… is a comeback coming? Wait for it…

“Yes, you’re right. Alcoholism isn’t funny.” He scratches the back of his head, visibly considering what you said. Uhm… maybe he isn’t as impossible as you thought.

“Alright then. She’s officially in…”

“She’s not, she didn’t drink the blood.” Saeyoung says, going back to what you know him for.

“I don’t give a damn about the blood. Anyways, welcome, MC. We’re glad to have you here, well, not exactly here in Yoosung’s basement, but we’re happy to have a new and promising vocalist.” Jumin says and smiles softly. Oh… he knows how to smile! Would you look at that!

“Thank you. I’ll do my best, I mean it.” Yes, you do.

“Oh, no sarcasm this time? That’s a good start… progress, not perfection, right?” what’s with Jumin and his sudden change to a nice guy? “Okay, late introductions, I’m Jumin Han, the current bass player.” You knew it!

“You already know me, right?” Yes, Zen… we all do… “I’m Hyun, call me Zen, I play the electric guitar, but I can also sing. I hope I get to do all the duets I couldn’t do with you in the musical theater club.” Don’t blush! Don’t blush! Don’t blush! Shit, you’re blushing.

“Yoosung, keyboards.” It suits him… so that means he also plays piano? How cute… you woul like to watch him playing piano one day…

“Saeyoung, your DJ, costume designer, make-up artist, lighting guy and roadie at your service, my lady.” Wow, he surely does a lot! Wait… costume designer? Shit! Your mind doesn’t even want to go to the places where you could think what kind of outfit this guys is thinking for you… lord protect you.

“You’re pretty versatile, that’s cool.” But he’s nice, and he seemed uncomfortable about that alcoholism thing, enough fighting with these people… so you compliment him, giving your most genuine smile, and now he’s the one to blush... cute.

“Yes, the only thing he doesn’t do is actually play an instrument.” Oh, this voice… Saeran comes down the basement’s stairs. He decided to join you, after all. Was he waiting for a good cue to make an entrance? You giggle with this possibility.

“Well, you know what they say, bro, one brother has the musical talent, the other one has the looks, and the brains, and the mojo with the ladies.” Saeyoung grabs your hand and plants a kiss on it. Okay… you weren’t expecting that, that felt more like a Zen’s move.

Saeran scoffs. “Then you’re wasting your mojo, she’s not a lady.” He glares at you and grins. Jerk!

“And you probably don’t have the musical talent.” You answer. Yeah, remember that thing about stop fighting with these people? Forget it, this guy really gets to your nerves!

“Wanna bet? I’ll make you a fan for my drum solos before you even notice.” Okay, so he’s the drummer.

“I’ll be too busy in the spotlight, but it will be fun to watch you try.” He scoffs and grins, did you two just set a challenge?

“Ohohoho, so much tension!This is starting to feel like a real band! I can’t wait for our E! documentary.” You laugh at Saeyoung’s joke. It’s good that he’s trying to light the mood between his brother and you.

“Wait, what about you, Jaehee?” you remember her, she’s been so quiet…

“I… I don’t play anything. I’m the manager.” Oh… interesting, and kinda disappointing, you were rooting for her to be the drummer… she looks so cool and easy-going, so it made sense in your head. But the drummer is the little prick called Saeran… ugh. “So I hope I get to manage you in the best way possible, MC.”

“Thank you. I look forward for it too.” Again, you try to be genuine and not sarcastic, she doesn’t deserve it.

“So everybody is formally introduced. Can we please get out of the basement now?” Jaehee asks, and they all oblige. Forget Jumin, she’s the real leader, she probably didn’t realize that yet…

You get out of Yooung’s basement, he wanted you all to say for dinner, but everybody has to go. Well, you would really like to stay, the food smells good, what are you having for dinner? Maybe your father bought some takeout? Yes, probably… like he does on every Saturdays.

You’re saying goodbye to Yoosung and the twins (just to Saeyoung, you’re basically ignoring Saeran’s presence)

“Are you sure you don’t want us to walk you home?” Saeyoung asks.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

“Okay, but text me when you get home, okay? It’s dangerous for a girl to be walking around by herself…” he sounds adorably serious.

“I’m sure a thug would be more in trouble if he met her on a dark alley.” Saeran says, without looking at you.

“I see you’re still not getting laid, Saeran. I hope you find some comfort on a dark alley one day.”

No comeback? Okay. The twins aren’t really inspired today, apparently.

“Anyway. Bye guys!” you turn your back on them and start walking. You know this neighborhood, your uncle’s girlfriend lives a few streets near. You can take a bus in the end of the street, or maybe you can just walk. It’s a peaceful neighborhood.

That’s what you were thinking before this guy in a motorcycle made a u turn and stopped in front of you. You couldn’t see his face, but you knew he was looking at you… SHIT!

Think, can you run? Can you scream for help? Where is your phone? Maybe you can discreetly dial the police number? They wouldn’t get here in time… screaming seems stupid, so… run?

You back away, run! Why aren’t you running, stupid? Is this what being paralyzed in fear looks like? Shit! Your legs feel weak…

“Hop on. We’re going for a ride!” that’s what he probably says as his voice is muffled due to the helmet, also, it sounds creepy enough to his image right now.

“I- I have pepper spray!” Here… somewhere… ugh! You hate to admit your father was right about letting the pepper spray accessible at any situation.

“Pepper spray? Oh, wait… MC, don’t…”

“How do you know my name?” a stalker? How did you even get one?

“MC! It’s me!” he takes his helmet off. Oh… it’s just Zen. And he looks… pretty sexy. Hold on! Weren’t you shitting yourself in fear a minute ago?

“Shit, Zen! You scared the shit out of me!” Stop saying shit!

“Sorry, MC. I didn’t mean to. Come on… I’ll give you a ride to your house.”

“Do you know where I live?” okay, so maybe you do have a stalker.

“Uhm… no? I was hoping you would tell me?” Of course, stupid! Now he thinks you’re a paranoid little crazyhead.

“I… do you have a license?”

“You don’t have to be scared, I’ll go slow if you want to.” He didn’t answer the question… but hey, you got lucky once, will you really risk yourself walking alone again?

“Fine.” You go to him, and he hands you a pink helmet. You’re definitely not the first girl taking a ride, huh? “But you don’t really need to be slow, I… I’m not scared.”

He smiles widely. “I was hoping you would say that.”

Again, this was not what you expected for your Saturday afternoon, it ended up a little better than you could ever imagine.

← Chapter One | Chapter Three  →

#mystic messenger fics #mystic messenger au #mystic messenger #mystic messenger zen #hyun ryu #yoosung kim #jaehee kang #jumin han #saeyoung choi #saeran choi #high school au