#tie would have been cool but i want ghost to win they deserve it more

[darkblueboxs]

Blood Beneath Your Fingernails

Inspired by Butcher!Andrew discussions on Twitter 

Read here or on AO3 (Check AO3 for content warnings)

Andrew decided long ago that if he was going to take on this kind of career, he would at least be classy about it. Stylish. Discreet. While his rivals enjoyed the screaming and the thrashing, delighted in seeing how much blood they could extract from a man before he succumbed to the blood loss, Andrew took no interest in such theatrics. He was practical, smooth, delicate. Artistic, even.

He therefore had little time for Nathan Wesninski. His most troublesome rival was everything that Andrew wasn’t in his work; boorish, bloodthirsty, dramatic… messy. The man was giving the profession a bad name.

His son was another problem entirely.

No, Andrew was no fan of bloodshed. He assigned the most violent tasks to himself simply because he would rather the blood was on his hands than anyone else’s, and the only way of ensuring a job would be well done was to do it himself.

Lola put up more of a fight than her brother, but she died just the same, scratching and scrabbling at Andrew’s forearm as he neatly retrieved his blade from her chest. Henchmen, Andrew decided with a curl of his lip, were not worth the trouble. Too uppity, too unpredictable, too likely to get certain ideas in their heads. No, it was always best to keep it within the family.

There was a pop from the next room as another bottle of champagne was uncorked, a scattering of laughter as the party continued in full swing, nobody having noticed the conspicuous absence of a few key guests. The hum of music and conversation was the perfect cover for Andrew’s footsteps as he padded up the thickly carpeted staircase.

Nathan’s house was a gaudy, unpleasant place, filled with bright reds and golds that hurt the eye. Framed paintings no doubt obtained under dubious circumstances cluttered the walls, not displayed out of any appreciation for the art but from a simple to boast. Why a man from such a long line of affluence should feel the need to flaunt his wealth was a mystery to Andrew, especially considering the target that it undoubtedly painted on Nathan’s back. For Andrew, who had clawed his way up from the gutter, his expensive lifestyle was not born of spectacle. He had spent the best part of two decades in squalor; his every expense was cushioning against the life that nearly killed him. Perhaps no healthier an explanation for his indulgences, but certainly less gauche. Andrew contemplated smearing a bloody handprint over an undoubtedly original Monet out of pure spite, but no, not his style, unnecessary and exhibitory.

He wiped Lola’s blood from his blade with a handkerchief as he slipped down the endless corridor before sliding it into place in one of the many sheathes built into his suit. It was a good blade, one of his favourites. Nathan was not worthy of it. He slipped another from his left lapel, slimmer, a little blunt from disuse. Perhaps he would sharpen it on Nathan’s ribcage. He flicked it over in his palm, enjoying the weight and balance.

There was only one closed door on the upper floor of the Wesninski mansion. Andrew caught sight of his reflection in the brass doorknob. His suit was unruffled, even after disposing of Nathan’s men, but his jawline was flecked with blood. He smeared a thumb across it, the sticky, familiar scent catching in his nose.

He straightened his tie and pushed the door open.

“I told you, I don’t want to be disturbed-!” Nathan said, and then stopped, likely because of the knife Andrew had plunged through his neck. He made a wet, gargling noise as he dropped to the floor, clawing uselessly at his throat.

Andrew crouched over him. “Ill be having that back, now.” He pulled his knife from Nathan’s throat, leaning back to avoid the spurt of blood. Nathan’s arms twitched, his chest heaving as he stared up at Andrew. His expression moved through all the stages Andrew had grown accustomed to seeing from the soon-to-be-deceased; outrage, horror, panic, and then fear, bone-deep, endless, fear. It took a great deal to elicit that sort of emotion from Andrew, and for a moment, he was almost envious. He watched, bored, as Nathan’s movements twitched to a standstill and his wordless gurgling gave way to silence. It was a quicker, more peaceful end than Nathan Wesninski deserved. As his killer, Andrew would take the dubious honour of his title - butcher - if he was foolish enough to come forward and claim it. Honorifics were of little interest to Andrew. He didn't care how people refereed to him as long as it was done with the appropriate amount of fear.

His blood seeped into the fluffy cream carpet, pooling around Andrew’s oxfords. They were expensive shoes, as was everything Andrew wore. The staining was of little concern – he had another seven pairs at home – but the red marks he left in his wake would be. He would blame them on spilled wine; the stains were nothing alike, but people were so wonderfully stupid when it came to such matters.

He found the ballroom much as he left it. He passed the string quartet (mediocre) to pick at the teetering profiterole tower (less so). Just because he had killed the host didn’t mean Andrew couldn’t benefit from his hospitality. Baltimore’s elite giggled and gossiped around him, and Andrew caught more than a few appreciative eyes roaming his tailored suit. Andrew couldn’t deny the idea of a hook-up appealed to him; leaving the party early would be suspicious, but slipping out to find a secluded spot with one of these trust-fund pricks on his arm… less so. Besides which, adrenaline was still hammering hot and heavy in Andrew’s veins, and there were worse ways of dealing with it.

He cast his gaze around the room. Some gusts he recognised from one shady dealing or another, members or associates of the Wesninski clan, while others were simply tag-alongs, swept up in the glitz of the revelry and oblivious to the sharks they swam amongst. The latter would be less troublesome, but the former more interesting. Andrew was a cautious man where work was concerned, but on his own time, he allowed himself to indulge in riskier ventures.

His gaze caught on a figure in the corner of the room, standing out for all that he was trying to blend in. About Andrew’s age, he showed no interest in the figures swirling around him, still like the eye of the storm. His eyes may as well have been glued to the floor.

Then, as though feeling Andrew’s gaze, the man’s gaze snapped up, and Andrew’s breath caught in his throat.

Despite his ill-fitting suit, the man was attractive –undeniably so – but that wasn’t all he was. Andrew knew those eyes. He had watched the life drain from a near-identical pair mere minutes ago.

Andrew didn’t believe in ghosts, but this was the closest he had ever come to doing so. No, despite his uneasy pallor, this man was not a ghost. He was younger than Nathan by far, his features slimmer, sharper. His lips, pressed together in an unreadable expression, were curled, chapped as though the man had been worrying at them.

Andrew met his gaze with a steady, blank stare. Nathan’s son was not what Andrew would have expected of him, shoulders curled in, devoid of his father’s self-assured bluster. He looked like he wanted to melt into the gilded wallpaper, or better still, dissolve into nothing. Nathan’s features, which had so offended Andrew on the man himself, did nothing to aide his son in his mission to disappear, attracting many interested glances that he made no effort to return. The striking eyes suited him better than they had Nathan, and for a moment Andrew’s world narrowed to the silver-blue gaze which pierced through the auburn mop of his hair.

Nathan’s death, along with the death of his most significant aids, was strategically planned to yank the legs out from beneath his empire. Andrew had not planned for an heir to the family business. As far as he had been aware, there wasn’t one; Nathaniel Wesninski had not been heard from in years, presumed to have met the kind of end that was common in Nathan’s line of work.

If Andrew had any sense, he would kill Nathaniel there and then. Instead, he took a glass of champagne from a passing waiter and threw it back. The sweet fizzle as the drink hit the back of his throat did little to distract from the warm, bubbling sensation in Andrew’s gut.

Partygoers parted before him as he crossed the ballroom, stepping sharply from his path like gazelles backing away from a lion. He came to a stop before the new, if unknowing, head of the Wesninski family. He was barely taller than Andrew, leaving them almost eye-to-eye.

“I heard you were dead.” Andrew offered him his hand. “Minyard.”

“Andrew or Aaron?” Nathaniel took it. “Either way, your reputation precedes you.” Andrew’s hand was still cool from the champagne glass; Nathaniel’s skin felt like fire in comparison. His hands were marked, Andrew noted, with a mish-mash of cuts and burns, still pink and healing, stark against his tan skin. Lola’s work, if Andrew had to guess. He wondered what act of insubordination could have drawn her ire; perhaps it was related to Nathaniel’s decade-long disappearance.

“Andrew.” Andrew squeezed Nathaniel’s hand. His fingers slid and caught on the callouses of Nathaniel’s wrist as he dropped his grip. “You have quite the pulse for a dead man.”

“So I’m told.” Nathaniel smiled. Andrew realised, with a shiver, that it was his father’s smile. Oh, he did not like that at all. “You can call me Neil.”

“Neil.” Andrew rolled the syllable around his mouth, testing it out. “An improvement.”

“It wasn’t a difficult name to improve upon.” Neil’s gaze flicked across the crowd, a crease appearing between his eyebrows. Andrew wondered if he was looking for his missing father; it wouldn’t be much longer before Nathan’s disappearance was noticed. Andrew was running out of time. “I always hated Nathaniel.”

“Not a fan of your father’s name?”

Neil’s expression closed like window shutters in preparation for a storm. “Is there something I help you with, Minyard?”

Andrew took the opening. He cast a calculated look over his shoulder before returning his attention to Neil. “Not here,” he said quietly. “Is there somewhere we can…?”

Andrew left the sentence dangling between them like a hook, left it to Neil to decide where he wanted to go with it. Neil’s suspicion was heavy in his gaze, but beneath it, a spark of curiosity that sent heat straight to Andrew’s gut.

Neil led the way while Andrew followed, leaving the kind of distance between them that gave the barest appearance of propriety without fooling anyone. A maze of corridors took them up onto a quiet balcony that overlooked the lush green of the Wesninski’s estate below. The height would be enough to leave Andrew’s heart tipping around in his chest, were the man before him not already doing the job quite effectively. It was more exposed than Andrew would have preferred, but at this time of night it would be dark enough to provide the minimum cover he required. If not, Andrew was more than equipped to deal with the consequences.

His knives were a heavy weight in their hidden sheathes. Andrew wondered, if he pressed Neil up against the balcony wall, whether the man would feel his blades through the layers of his suit.

Kiss the boy or kill the boy; Andrew could not have both. He wasn’t needlessly cruel.

Against expectation, Neil turned away from Andrew to rest his elbows on the balcony partition. “So? What do you want?”

Andrew quirked an eyebrow. Neil genuinely believed that Andrew was here for business, not pleasure. Interesting. Oh, why did he have to be interesting? Interesting was troublesome. No, interesting was dangerous.  

Nathaniel Wesninski was a problem. A loose end. Left to his own devices, he could unravel everything Andrew had fought and bled and killed to build for himself. Painted silver by the moonlight, Neil leaned over the balcony with no concern for the drop beneath him, eyes on the horizon, unaware of the terrible power Andrew had dropped on his shoulders. Power that, if Andrew had any sense, he would destroy before it had the chance to be turned on him.

Andrew couldn't look away. It would be easy, now. A hand on his shoulder, the slightest push, and Neil would tumble to his death. It wasn’t Andrew’s style, but it would be effective.

He stepped forward, and in an instant, Andrew was flipped and slammed to the floor, a blade glinting at his neck. He gasped, the air knocked from his lungs, as Neil smirked down at him.

“You really think I’m that stupid?” He leaned forward to whisper in Andrew’s ear, breath tickling his neck. “You have blood beneath your fingernails.”

Andrew flinched. Stupid, stupid, stupid. His mind whirred; the key was to keep Neil talking, because talking was better than dead. “It didn’t come from anyone that will be missed.”

“I don’t doubt it. I’ll ask one more time: what do you want?” Neil twisted the blade, and a hot dribble of blood slid down Andrew’s neck. Andrew was impressed; he barely felt the skin break. Of course the butcher’s son would know his way around a knife.

Andrew glanced at the scars winding their way up Neil’s wrists, remembered the tense set of his shoulders as he scanned the ballroom, the way Neil’s expression shuttered at the mention of his father, and made an educated guess. “The same thing as you.” His voice came out low, hoarse from the weight of Neil’s knee on his chest. “Your father in a coffin.”

Neil laughed. “It isn’t a particularly exclusive club.”

“I’m not joking.”

Neil went still. “If you think you can kill my father, you’re either stupid or suicidal.”

Andrew’s face split into a painful smile. The movement pressed his neck to the biting metal of Neil’s blade, but he couldn’t hold it back. “Is that so?”

“The life expectancy of people who anger my father is not a long one.”

“What are you? The exception?”

Neil’s gaze flattened into something painfully black. In the moment of distraction, Andrew lunged, flicking a blade from his sleeve to press into Neil’s abdomen. Neil’s eyes widened, but Andrew only held it there, teasing at the hem of Neil’s shirt with the tip.

“Don’t make me kill you,” Andrew hissed. “This suit costs more than your life is worth. It would be a shame to get your blood on it.”

For a moment, they stared at each other, hands veined with the strain of weilding their respective blades, chests rising and falling in time. Neil was the first to give ground.

“Now what?”

“Do you want to be head of the Wesninski household?” Andrew asked. The question seemed to surprise Neil. He flinched.

“God, no.”

“Correct answer.” Slowly, Andrew withdrew his blade. It clattered as it hit the floor, startlingly loud in the quiet night air. “A lot of people are about to be pointing a lot of fingers, and you’re going to be suspect number one.”

“For what?”

“The murder of your father.” Andrew wrapped his hand around Neil’s wrist and pulled it back. Neil moved bonelessly with him, his features slackened. “Come with me, forsake your family name, and I can offer you protection from all of them.”

“The murder of my-” Neil’s mouth moved wordlessly for a moment. “You didn’t.”

“Go look, if you like. I’m sure being found at the crime scene will do your case a world of good.”

Neil’s eyes flashed, bright with a vicious, violent hope. His gaze snapped back to Andrew. “Why should I trust you?”

Andrew shrugged. “Trust is irrelevant. I’m more interested in your compliance.”

“And if you don’t get it?”

Andrew pressed Neil’s wrist to the floor and squeezed it, hard. “Then I’m sure we can work out another way of settling the issue.”

The windows on the ground floor were thrown open to let the cool night air seep in. The sounds of the party were so faint that Andrew didn’t notice them until they stopped. There was a clash of glass, a faint scream.

“Tick tock, Neil. Join me, or become your father and risk paying the price for his death.” Andrew pushed himself up until their faces were a hair’s breadth apart. Neil’s eyes were wide, his pupils blown, his breath shallow. The sight sent aftershocks of adrenaline shooting through Andrew’s bloodstream, making him wonder if the offer wasn’t better rescinded with a knife to the chest. It was a terrible risk to take simply to neutralise a threat. But, if Andrew was being truthful with himself, it wasn’t entirely about finding a bloodless resolution; he thought he knew better than to mix business with pleasure, but Nathan’s son was teaching him all sorts of new things about himself.

What the hell; Andrew had earned a little indulgence.

This time, it was Andrew who leaned in to whisper in Neil’s ear. He noted the way the hairs on the back of Neil’s neck rose as he spoke. “Come with me. Join my family. Live under my protection.” Sirens screamed in the distance, the horizon flashing blue and red. They didn’t worry Andrew, who knew a car would be waiting for him at a strategic getaway point, nondescript, fast, expensive. Neil, on the other hand, did not look so comfortable with the approaching sirens. Perhaps he had some sense, after all.

The silver flecks in Neil’s eyes looked like shattered glass as he stared towards the source of the sound. “You can’t keep me safe. Nobody can.”

“Only one way to find out.” Andrew nudged Neil out of the way as he climbed to his feet. He noticed, with a stab of irritation, that his suit was rumpled. He paused to smooth out the creases.

Neil looked up at Andrew like it was his turn to see a ghost. Andrew had imagined the head of the Wesninskis kneeling before him more times than he cared to admit. The reality was more appealing than the fantasy ever had been, and for entirely different reasons.

“Neil.” Andrew offered him his hand. “Yes or no?”

Neil took it, and it was answer enough.

*

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought.

#aftg #andreil #tfc #all for the game #the foxhole court #butcher!Andrew #mafia!neil #blood tw #violence tw #death tw #my fic

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S4 Ep21: Duke Puts on Duel Disk, Immediately Takes Disk Off

So last time we ended, Yugi and Tea were stranded in the middle of an ancient warfield that was hundreds of feet off the side of this cliff topped with a seldom used railroad track.

And yes, this is all somewhere in what should be one of the most populated parts of the Bay Area.

Amazed that this school uniform can go through such rugged terrain. But then again, last season it got hit squarely with a fireball, so...this school uniform is essentially a Batman suit.

But I just want to point out that Yugi didn’t take the duel disk off before vaulting up this cliff. Tea has a bag youknow...but gotta sweat up the duel disk that our entire world relies on.

It would be very funny if this season ended abruptly because Yami either dropped this thing on the ground and finally broke it, or just plain forgot he needed to charge it’s batteries.

And so now we just walk...kind of in the direction where they hope Joey and Tristan are?

I do appreciate that although Pharaoh is completely lost in a foreign country, he will not admit it.

(read more under the cut)

On the other side of the tracks, Joey is dragging his Sisyphean stone.

Please admire that this entire scene takes place somewhere in the Grand Canyon. Like it’s episode 20 and I just still can’t get past how they went to California and didn’t include a single beach.

Mai has decided she’s done screaming off the back of a motorcyle, and has decided to come over to Dartz’ lair to scream where the traffic isn’t quite so bad.

And she just rage quits.

Is this the first rage quit we’ve ever had in this show about games? Incredible.

Also, I didn’t realize you could just quit the end of the world cult in the final hours of ending the world, but I guess it doesn’t really matter much to Dartz. Whether Mai ends up killing Joey or doesn’t end up killing Joey, it’s still a soul in the Leviathan bucket so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Now, in the actual dialogue of the show, Dartz tells Valon that Mai’s basically going to get what she deserves and no one here needs to even do anything to change or stop it. But, it was still somewhat surprising that this 10,000 year old serial murderer world destroyer was so down to shell out some relationship advice. Almost like maybe he has somewhat of a fatherly concern for his stupid ass murder boys. Kind of. Sort of.

Enough to try and tell Valon to leave this one alone because she’s gone maniacal pixie dream girl and there’s no coming back from that.

In order to have motorcycle gangs, you have to have bearable enough traffic for said gangs. That’s why we just don’t have a motorcycle gang problem in real deal California like a lot of 70′s-80′s movies would have you think. They’d only be able to drive in like...one lane, and they’d get constantly cut off and driven off the road by Google buses.

TBH the Google bus is our true modern motorcycle gang, there are just so many of these damn buses. And also, I deleted a lot of text right now when I went off about the ongoing bus war, which is absolutely a thing here. The motorcyclists are just doing me a solid by not being a car on the road and staying out of my lane.

In a more realistic version of this show, Mai would have never made it to the desert, she’d be too busy watching only one single car able to turn right onto Octavia every light cycle because of all the damn private buses and uber cars flooding our itty bitty one way streets.

And to try and tame Mai, Valon decides to do this...motorcycle stand off?

It’s like he’s trying to catch a feral cat.

At some point one of them stops, and like I was focused too much on how good their brakes are to pay attention to who stopped first.

Probably Valon, because Mai is completely insane.

And so then he just...

Y’all I know they had to give Valon motivation to be in love with Mai, but this kids show jumped through so many hoops to make this very unhealthy relationship appear like Valons love was pure and true while still showing that this is a very unhealthy relationship. Kind of a hard balance.

It’s actually interesting how much work they put into Valon’s very tragic and problematic relationship after they’ve dodged every other problematic relationship this show has brought forth.

Like the villain with a heart of gold is a trope, but it’s a trope that works. There is no hope in the world that this relationship could pan out. They’re not a misunderstood pair like he thinks they are. They’re freakin terrible and they don’t deserve each other. But he’s gonna try and do it anyway.

We get to watch Valon bargain (mostly with himself) about how this relationship (which exists mostly in his head) is going to absolutely work out, because to him, if he feels so intensely, eventually she’s gotta feel the same. Most people haven’t murdered people, but it’s still a very relatable type of situation that the show displays without getting too preachy about how it’s clearly bad news. They just introduce it for the audience to come to their own conclusions, and I was really surprised by that level of maturity.

I’ve been sitting here saying “There’s no way this show could balance Tea with Yugi and the Ghost in his head. There’s no way they can really touch on Kaiba and that paper card. There’s no way that this show knows how to do a relationship because they don’t want to get involved with that weird gray area.” and you know what? Maybe they can.

Like they’re doing it right now. Did they just need 4 seasons of people complaining to go “Fine! I’ll write out the problematic relationship! I’ll do it!” because--this works for them. They finally did it.

Now, I’m not saying it’s Oscar worthy or developed beyond a trope, I’m just saying I’m genuinely surprised to see it on this show, and they should have done it more often. It’s a super weird pairing, but way more interesting than like...all that time we spent with Serenity because I actually have something to look forward to. (which will be when Valon inevitably dies in a ball of tragic glory)

So many romance stories give me nothing to look forward to, y’all. You have to give me something. Like, I’ve been reading a lot of not great romance in my life, and you have to have some sort of time limit in place for me to care about your couple. To have only have so much time before the other person gets married, moves, ends the world--I don't care--but man that time limit is crucial and so much romance just...forgets.

Like Bonnie and Clyde, Romeo and Juliet, and other ill fated couples, Valon and Mai end up being interesting because we just love seeing people fall into pieces. Hell, I just finished watching Tiger King and damn, what makes that show so good is that you are just waiting on that time limit to see how bad it gets. (and it’s crazy, super recommend Tiger King, although it’s very clear that they pushed the drama a little beyond realism but man. Good TV.)

Of course there’s always the chance that maybe Valon just got bored. But, youknow.

Anyway, it IS a romance on Yugioh, so we do have to very quickly drive a truck through it.

Man.

What are they DOING here?

It took me kind of a while to remember that Mai would be going where Joey would be living, which is most likely where Raphael dropped off Arthur Hawkins. But, if you don’t remember that fact, this is the most random thing ever.

Like you got this huge ass desert in the Califorizonado mesas, and then BOOM enter Rebecca Hawkins, just omnisciently lording over all of the West and just so ready to fight you.

Every girl interested in Yugi Muto has this thing where they’re normally pretty chill and then they just snap and get angry as hell.

PS she’s in a different outfit now, but I don’t feel like changing her font color. I’ve had some Photoshop.......incidents.......and I don’t think I have this plaid pattern anymore and I don't feel like making a new one yet.

I mean Valon’s got the green outline on his text, so I figure we’re good.

Also, Rebecca wears a tie clip?

This 12 year old girl wears a tie clip.

And like don't get me wrong, this was 2003-4, alt rock was big, and yes, we did have tiny Avril Lavigne ties at American Eagle. I will admit that I very much considered getting an Avril Lavigne tie at one point in my life, but didn’t want the commitment of needing to pair it with a skirt.

But either way, old man tie clips aren’t alt rock. The only thing that makes Rebecca’s outfit not exactly that alt-grunge Avril Lavigne look is that tie clip. They were SO close to making her look cool. Just so close.

Also the bifocals. But anyway...

So Valon was going to straight up ignore Rebecca, because he has a warped sense of morality and will not kill a 12 year old (but will kill a 17 year old). But, Mai did ask nicely.

Thankfully, because of Valons weird sense of morality, he did not pull out the Oricalchos. Instead he pulled out...a new mechanic!

OK.

Fine, whatever. I don’t go over cards in this show so I don’t have to even worry about this.

And Rebecca and Duke freakin lost, because Duke is never allowed to win. Rebecca may have won if Duke didn’t join this battle with his ass luck, just throwing that out there.

And Mai is like “wow, Valon is doing a really good job. He’s right, he IS amazing”

and she bolts.

And back on the tracks, we see another group of our protagonists sprawled on the desert floor.

REALLY lucky that this train track only has one operating train that is currently out of commission because you should not lie down on a track like this. Probably goes without saying that this is a great way to die. But youknow...the world is also ending so sure, why not? Getting killed by a train is probably more pleasant than the Leviathan.

And then, because we MUST talk about commuting, lets see Kaiba’s commute on this huge ass very normal plane.

I know.

That’s just a normal ass plane.

Even Kaiba needs to take a break youknow? And maybe since he hallucinated last time he drove a plane he decided to just...not drive one for a while. Probably a good move.

On the way, we get to see Seto’s form of parental advice. It was weird.

Like in the actual dialogue of the show Seto is just SO CLOSE to giving good advice and then just slips in these chestnuts where it’s like...well that’s gonna be like 12 years of therapy for Mokuba in the future Seto, thanks for that.

Also lets welcome back Seto’s dueling jacket. Been a while, big sleeves.

Also, the Aurora Borealis has also hit the plane, which is very Twilight Zone of them.

...

Correct me if I’m wrong but Alister was in Dartz’ room during that convo with Mai.

like...just a few hours ago?

Was that a hologram of Alister in Dartz’ boardroom or did the animation team forget?

Oh Alister.

Also, I just want to point out that the same day Seto sent Roland out to fix his problems, was the same day that Kaiba got hella abducted, just a few hours later. Man, Roland. Turn around for like 2 minutes and Seto’s back into cards, they’re both abducted by cultists, and they’re both half-way across the world to California. It must be hard to be Roland.

Anyway, if you just got here this is a link to read the rest in chrono order. All four seasons.

Hope y’all are staying safe in this Pandemic time, goes without saying. Been a weird couple of weeks, but thankfully the internet is still here to help us all keep sanity.

#ygo #yugioh #yu-gi-oh #valon #mai valentine #tea gardner #yami #yami muto #tristan taylor #joey wheeler #rebecca hawkins #duke devlin #seto kaiba #mokuba kaiba #dartz #man just every character was in this episode #episode recap #photo recap #S4 #ep21

[dontgotothenetherworld]

Can I maybe request an reader whose bj's friend but has been for too long so they know BJ all too well saving the maitland from his advances and falls in love with them?

beetlejuice’s friend

i am incredibly tired rn so i’m not sure if i fully understand what you’re asking, but i’m vibing w/ what i think you’re asking so yea (the maitlands x beej’s friend reader). you say beej’s friend, so reader’s a demon ahaha

also, i (before writing) feel like there are some lines that’re in the script that i can work off of, so there is a good bit of fourth wall breaking. only beej and reader can talk to/ interact with audience.

1493 words

cw: gnreader.

”the people who live there? i’ve been watching them for a while, and yeah it’s very creepy.” beej monologued. or would it be soliloquyed? soliloqueyed doesn’t sound as good, so let’s go with monologued. “and now, finally, they’re about to die!” beej liked talking to the audience. it made him feel important. you rolled your eyes. “they’re gonna be my new best friends!” 

you stepped out of the wings. “and what would that make me?” while beej was more of a musical theatre kind of guy, you were much more of a sitcom kind of guy, so you imagined a camera zoom like in the office.

”i’m this asshole’s best friend, and trust me when i say this, that’s not a position you want.” you addressed the audience.

”oh? what position would you prefer?” beej lowered his voice.

you scoffed, “case and point. you’ll be getting a lot of that in this goddamn show. single men, take notes on what not to do!”

beej frowned.

”barbara, i’m home!” speaking of sitcoms, here comes the loving husband. damn, can’t relate.

beetlejuice turned from you to the audience, “adam and barbara maitland!”

”was there traffic on the bridge?” barbara asked like she actually cared. damn, can’t relate.

”bill hadley on his tractor. i was like, “pick a lane, bill.””

”isn’t this amazing? it’s the last day of their entire lives and this is what they’re talking about.” said beetlejuice.

”beej, take you on a random day and say that’s your last day ever. do you say any impressively insightful shit?” you ask.

”absolutely.” beej grins.

”not.” you finish his sentence. the scene returns to the maitlands before he can say anything else.

i’m sure you’ve seen the show, you know how it goes. maitlands are boring, maitlands sing fast because they have anxiety, maitlands conveniently die at the end of their song, beetlejuice rejoices. whatever, we don’t care about that part. i mean we do, just not right now.

”sometimes, puppet shows are sad.” you say, directed at the small child in the third row. who brings their eight year old to see beetlejuice?

”barbara are you alright?” the moment passed.

you and beetlejuice hide offstage as the maitlands figure out they’re dead. It’s rather annoying, when breathers die. they always have the same reaction. they could spice it up sometimes. 

you suppose that’s what beej is here to do. to spice up their reactions.

beetlejuice rings the doorbell. without waiting for either of them to answer, he walks right in. he introduces himself and starts singing. you walk in behind him, arms crossed.

one of the cheerleaders runs past you, knocking into your arm. 

”i’m the b to the double e j f q and jesus, i can’t spell.” beetlejuice eyed the maitlands up and down.

the maitlands seemed like nice people. they don’t deserve what was sure to come to them. you stood yourself up from the door frame, and made your way to the center of the room where the trio where.

”let’s all get naked!” beetlejuice screamed. 

”no!” the maitlands screamed back. you swung your backhanded fist into his stomach. 

”oh!” he let out a guttural noise. “worth a try.” he reasoned.

”what is happening?” barbara asked in a shaky voice, her eyes flashing between the two demons before her. one, who hadn’t spoken a single word, and the other who wouldn’t fucking shut up.

beetlejuice went back to trying to convince them that they should ‘hire’ him. while insulting them, of course, because why wait until a relationship turns unhealthy when you can just start it off that way?

”i’m like a ghost zombie jesus!” god, you needed new friends. maybe you can steal the maitlands away. if you think about it, and you do, it would really only be a win situation from that. you wouldn’t have to deal with beej, you’d get some new friends who would be kind to you. the maitlands wouldn’t even have to think about beetlejuice again, and they would get to hang out with you, and not to toot your horn but you’re pretty damn cool. at first, beetlejuice would lose, with the whole everyone abandoning him thing, but you’re pretty sure that it’s be this time that he changed himself to be a better person.

you hope.

”i think we’re a perfect fit! come on, let’s make out a bit!” you physically pushed beetlejuice away from the maitlands.

beej just gave you an annoyed look, and went back to right next to them, giving them is sales pitch.

you slunk off to the couch. you spread your body across it as if you owned it. adam spared you a curious glance. barbara, soon after.

the four of you made your way off stage, to the attic, as the deetzes and their furniture invaded the house.

”hey beej,” you needed to get beetlejuice away from the maitlands, so you could talk to them, but how? “you better spy on the new homeowners so we know what we’re working with.”

”good idea!” he said.

you grabbed his tie in your hand and pulled him close, “and don’t come back until you know what’ll scare them so hard they wished they’d never been born.” beetlejuice wasn’t very sure of himself, so you’d have a while.

”sir, yes sir!” he ran off like a cartoon character, legs going the full 360.

you turned to the maitlands, eyes flicking between them, trying to decide where to start.

”who are you?” asked adam.

”i’m y/n,” you said, “and i’m a demon, just like beetlejuice.” you grinned like the cheshire cat.

the maitlands shared a concerned glance. “are you going to help us too?” asked barbara.

”well, yes, but not the way you think i am.” you began pacing the floor. “first things first, don’t listen to a word that bastard says. the only things he wants is to be alive, and to get into your pants. the former being more important to him, no offense.”

”so he wants to use us?” asked barbara.

”yes, of course.”

”and how do we know you don’t want to use us either?” she asked.

”good question.” you paused to collect your thoughts, “i suppose you’ll just have to trust me.”

the maitlands exchanged another look. do married people do that often? it was starting to get annoying. well, annoying that they weren’t looking at you like that.

after a moment, adam said, “i don’t think we can fully trust you right now, but hopefully that’ll change.”

”quite the optimist, huh? i envy you.” you said.

how to best gain their trust? probably by being the antithesis of their experience with demons so far.

about an hour later, the trio was still brainstorming a plan. “so, why can’t we just lock him into the netherworld again?” adam asked.

”his mother.” you said. 

adam nodded, “right, right. we don’t want to put him through that.”

barbara jumped in, ”and if we leave this place, we’ll be eaten by sandworms, but if we go to the netherworld,”

”you’ll be in that waiting room for the rest of eternity, exactly.” you finished.

you sat in silence for a minute, mulling over your options. so far it was seeming that beetlejuice was going to have to go back to his parent’s house.

”what about sending him out to the sand worms?” asked barbara.

”barbara, you’re a genius!” exclaimed adam.

you imagined what would happen. “i think that’ll work.” you said. “oh! and we can put a protection spell on the house after he’s left! then , no demons will be able to get in.” you pulled out a copy of the handbook for the recently deceased, from seemingly nowhere. beej burned barbara’s copy of the book, but not adam’s.

you placed the book on the floor, and you began looking for the spell with the maitlands looking over your shoulders.

”do you know that a spell like that exists?” asked adam.

”of course i do, i just don’t remember how to do it.” you said.

”and do you know that it won’t expel you from the house too?” asked barbara.

”i guess we’ll find out.” you turned to face her.

”i hope it doesn-” barbara was cut off.

”here it is!” exclaimed adam. “and it doesn’t say anything about expelling demons, just keeping them out.” adam skimmed the instructions.

you turned back to the book, and the group sat in silence as you carefully read it all.

you sat back, “i- we can do this.” 

the maitlands high-fived. god, they were adorable.

”the real question is, do you still want the new homeowners out of this place? because if i’m being honest, beej would be better at that than me.” you said.

the maitlands shared a look.

”i-” barbara looked at adam, “i think we should talk about it.”

”oh, of course.” you replied. “do you want me to give y’all some privacy?”

”yes please.” said barbara.

@meangirlsx @meangirlmurphy @eliza-is-confused @boredomimi

#beetlejuice #beetlejuice musical #beetlejuice broadway #beetlejuice fanfiction #lawrence beetlejuice shoggoth #adam maitland #barbara maitland #adam x reader #adam maitland x reader #barbara x reader #barbara maitland x reader #barbara x reader x adam #barbara maitland x reader x adam maitland #fic

[wolfthebard]

Creating a few cards for a friend.

Greetings all. Been a while since I posted something. Been getting my grove back with my hobbies. Namely, I’ve been painting some miniatures. My other passion, is game design. Recently (ok...a few weeks ago. But time is an illusion and well...have you seen the world?) my friend @suppuration​ posted about what colors of magic he is, and found themselves in a bit of a divide. So, I decided to create a few cards for them, based on what they think. Unfortunately, my energy levels are low, so I could only create a few.  Gonna delve below, why I made some choices. 

This is version 3 of the Sultai Walker version of my fren. Trying to design walkers is hard. Three mana seems to be the new hype, four was a perfect balance, but I think there’s a lot to do with five mana walkers. Plus 5 is just a good number. Look at it, it’s flat, yet curved. Kinda like a snake!  Ok, so three loyalty. Aside from balancing, @suppuration​ and I have something similar; low energy levels. So He’ll stick around, but do make sure to bring food. Our +1 has an additional cost of discarding a card. That ties into the energy levels. We get a Blue Green Plant token. Fun fact, under an old about me they had He had “House planet, please water”. That always stuck with me, so plants became a main stay.  Our plant friend also gives us a life and draws us a card. More so I wanted a token that represented food, without doing a food token. Plus, you harmed the planet...fuck you. The second ability ties into the first. One of my personal favorite cards is Villainous Wealth. This doesn’t provide the bonus of playing the cards, but when you’re exhausted. It is nice to have an even playing ground.  The ultimate ties in a few things Damnation, Windfall, and Graveyard love. It takes time, after all our friend is here to help us, so we want to give them support as they do something cool. I found it to be balanced at -12. Anything less feels too strong. Especially with things like proliferate, and Doubling season. I originally played around with more plant themes for this, but they felt rather under powered. If I were to revisit this, I’d ask them exactly what a final attack would look like. If you’re wondering why Macabre. We both like the band Ghost...which has that feel....which I was blasting when making these cards.  

Next up, is Wort, a Fursona of our friend. Decided to make this darling Rabbit Slug a Legendary creature. For EDH purposes. Skulk is an under-developed mechanic that was discarded after the last visit of Innistrad. I feel like a Slug-Ooze peep would be able to get through the armies quite well.  The first ability feels like what Oozes/ Slugs in fantasy should do. That’s eat away armor. Why they don’t do something like that in Magic has always bothered me. It also is a non-combo with Skulk, but sometimes it’s nice to have a friend slap a peep. Stunning them long-enough for the win. The last, is an Ultimate. One of the originals I had for the first Planeswalker...which couldn’t fit on the card. I really liked it. It’s Yawg’s Will, costs some life, and is harder to cast. So it’s fair!

Lastly, we have the Legendary Spell for our Walker Friend! I really love the flavor of Legendary Spells. While they weren’t the best created in Dominaria, I feel like they could return, with some awesome effects. Tying into the Plant theme of our +1, we get some more good plant boi’s.  The added Loss of life and Mill effects tie to the Ult. Also, this is a X Spells, and those deserve big pay offs. I was making this card as Suppuration posted a few things about dealing with the Retail worker life.

I have a Mardu one on the side, another aspect of my friend. Currently I’m trying to finish up the Walker. That I’ll be posting later. I hope I did these justice. If you’d like me to rework them, or do something different. Please let me know. Also, for those reading, do check out the artist on the first two cards! Suppuration is one of my close friends on here, and I am honored to have tried making a card for him!

[natsunoomoi]

FFVII Thoughts

-This whole thing with Jessie is so much filler it’s mostly unnecessary. Plus I feel like the whole impact of Jessie and her arc and even this filler is detracted by her being a former actress. Like I mentioned before I feel like her being an actress and known for toying with men kind of takes away from her crush on Cloud and makes it seem cheap. Also even though she’s someone’s daughter who is more tech inclined, I always thought of her as an engineer herself and like a former Shinra engineer that quit would have been a more powerful message than that of an actress. Even if you keep her Dad getting sick it adds an extra layer. Like say she worked in R&D and they like pushed an experimental mako enhancement for the plant too soon and she warned it would make people sick and it made her Dad sick. There’s a lot of ways her story would have been better and fit more nicely into the narrative. :/

-Even though Jessie annoys me, Biggs is kind of okay but he comes off to me as a little cliche. Wedge is kind of a little nicer.

-Aww, they took out the pickpocket on the train during the ID scan. That would have been a lot harder to deal with, but yeah.

-Good lord they stretched out these areas.

-Completely lost in this lamp and platform maze, but after a long time I finally figure out how to get out even with the items.

-Another maze and more reactor context change.

-Robot change where you can screw it over. That’s interesting.

-Yay Aerith!

-Dang Reno. You hard.

-OMG stupid ghosts get out of the way. I bet I have to trek all this way back to get this materia.

-This church is now also a crazy rat maze.

-Now onto roof rat maze.

-Ugh, why do I have to take the long way just to avoid Rude?

-Let me explore the town!

-Cloud and Aerith are way more helpful in this game. The kids have a secret hide out. Cool, I guess.

-Chadley is seriously simultaneously frustrating and useful.

-Yay I can go back and get crap from the church.

-Okay, so sneak out. Why tf is there a pot right outside my room that I can’t see?

-Okay, so there’s Aerith. We have a secret tunnel-ish. So many ladders. So much up and down.

-Out of that maze and yay they kept that scene where Aerith brings up Zack. Still not sure I’m liking all the foreshadowing cuz this was a spoiler in the original game.

-Tifa looks nice in that outfit. Like in general in this game though. They gave her a pretty thoughtful makeover that like captures the essence of her original profile, but also with some added tweaks in style that I actually like better. Like she didn’t have those thigh highs before, but those are a nice touch. And instead of her mini skirt her skirt is actually a skort and is pleated. Plus like the better boob support.

-Good lord Wall Mart is so involved now. So many alleys. Get out of the way yo!

-Leslie seems kind of cool, but I’m not sure cuz he works for a creep.

-Ugh hussle of trying to figure out how to get in. This sponsorship thing is new. I guess Corneo got more exclusive in this game.

-I have to go to the coloseum? Ugh, why?

-This crowd is full of haters.

-Okay winning over the crowd....

-I have an extra battle? WTF is this BS. I almost wish it was the Turks making a surprise appearance. That seems like a silly stupid thing the original would have done.

-Obviously Cloud caught someone else’s attention.

-Yay! Finally dress up time.

-Awesome. I’m doing a bunch of quests now.

-Whoops I didn’t level up my materia all the way. I got most of them so it’s doing fine but just the medicine thing.

-I saw a lot of people complaining about Jules, but he wasn’t so bad? I just needed to remember the rhythm and what I was doing by saying it so I could keep track of the pattern.

-Ugh, Johnny where you taking me? I have to wait for someone not yet.

-Oh Aerith looks nice. I like her outfit.

-Okay time to dress up Cloud.

-Whoa, Folia is a honeybee? Teh shock.

-What is this mini-game? It’s hard to keep rhythm and sometimes I actually can’t see the queue. Why do you design a mini-game where you can’t see the thing clearly?

-Oh shit I missed a track because I didn’t want to sit there and keep playing a frustrating mini-game. D:

-Yay! At least I got the cute dress. But real talk I kind of miss the old way to dress up Cloud only cuz I would want to see what the different colored wigs look like, but that whole storyline is very trans insensitive. Or even drag insensitive, so I understand why they changed it.

-Andrea is kind of cool. I was worried they were going to make him into some kind of flaming stereotype, but actually although he definitely has some flare, he’s a pretty well balanced character and none of the characters really judge him for his personal choices. Although definitely some judgement for the stuff they make them do, but that’s fair because you’re being subjected to it. Good on Cloud for following along.

-Okay time to take down this fat loser. So how does this work? How do you know who he’ll choose?

-Wait does he just choose Cloud every time? That’s a little less fun. I liked dressing Cloud up as the prettiest princess so that you could get him picked.

-This bit of them threatening Corneo’s private parts is still one of my favorite things. It was teh shock when I saw it the first time back in the day and I still enjoy it now.

-Ugh, the sewer. Also a lot of denial. But ugh the sewer.

-My sister was right. The train graveyard is creepier.

-Oh crap I forgot to steal from Eligor. !@#$@#%

-Alright climb the pillar. This is kind of slightly more fun with the extra scenes from Reno and Rude.

-Whoa, they saved Wedge. Cuz he originally totally ate it. Like straight fell off the pillar several stories and was unresponsive.

-Biggs and Jessie still die. That’s fine. I actually feel less sorry for Jessie dying than I did with the original. :/ I think because they managed to actually make her irritating with how over the top they made her.

-Aerith and Marlene is so cute!

-Helicopter shots are annoying, but I like hearing Reno. It’s sad that Fujiwara Keiji died two days after this came out. This is like the last thing he did probably. But his voice fit Reno really well. I don’t think it fit Ardyn well. Ardyn I think deserved a lower register, but I think Square gave him the part probably because of his diagnosis cuz I think Ardyn’s in-game struggle in a sense reflected his real life trials in some way only in the game he became immortal. Real life not so much, but immortalized in a sense through these works. I wonder if Square would have wanted it to come out sooner so that maybe he could have played it himself a little bit before passing, but they had to push the date for quality and stuff.

-I don’t know why, but I really like looking at Reno’s open shirt. Like I think the way they did his abs are a bit different from Advent Children. I think his shirt is even open wider than in AC. *checks* Yeah, it is. AC it’s buttoned up toward the top and just the top one or two are left open. And okay for real Remake has his shirt open even more than even in the original. Nevermind him buttoning up more for AC, but like in original FF7 polygon Reno and original Nomura art Reno looks like it’s only unbuttoned to about mid-pecs. Remake Reno is like down to like the top of his stomach. I guess I can’t complain about the equal opportunity fan service.

-Tseng is actually done pretty well, but I keep looking at him cuz he just strikes me as odd.... Oh wait is it his hair? Is that a hair tie? I don’t think he had a hair tie before. I think we were just supposed to assume he had his hair slicked back and kept in place by gel or hair spray. Also his face is interesting cuz I think they tried to make him actually look Chinese, but I think he just turned out looking kind of like Tamaki Hiroshi. Oh and Suwabe-san!

-LOL Rude carrying Reno like a rag doll.

-And there goes the plate. Oh, no, Wedge. I guess he did die. But the kitties. ;o;

-Let me explore Wall Market! Ugh, fine.

-That Kyrie chick seems kind of a little annoying. I kind of want to let Barret hit her. But I’m probably biased because I had a hot mess of a flatmate with that name and she like didn’t clean up after herself and left dirty dishes in her room and like pushed it up against her roommate’s bed. >.> Like passing responsibility over them to someone else. And I think she maybe broke one of my cups? And like tried to use my stuff without asking? Maybe stole some stuff too but idk. And like worst of all was like she sold her car so she could get money because she couldn’t hold down a job and like needed money and instead of like you know paying rent and bills, she spent it on shoes and make up and left the receipt out for us to find.

-Wall Market is...different in the day time.

-All teh quests.

-Okay Kyrie is still kind of annoying and stupid when you talk with her one on one, but she at least seems better than my flatmate.

-Oh old lady is the Angel.

-Findin’ all the birds. It kind of strikes me that they added this in cuz of how much time it takes to get places and it’s kind of like XV and even the XIV MMO, but not. I guess it’s a staple now with their newer titles because of how grand they make the scenery.

-Down in the sewer again....

-I just really wanna find Corneo’s stash.

-OMG I got a chase this little asshole now.

-Okay so now Leslie. Leslie is a good guy after all. Not a bad new character too. Nice decent development and stuff.

-But gdi Corneo’s still alive. I mean, I knew that cuz Wutai, but ugh.... I think he deserved at least a punch in the face.

-Okay so anyway I guess I’m going up now. Just going to finish up stuff before I go past the point of no return. Get all teh things I can from the coliseum and all that.

-Climbing, climbing. Oops I missed a thing. Was I supposed to?

-Gdi this helicopter thinger is annoying. I can’t slash any boxes. Just kick them around.

-Okay done so I guess I’m going in.

-...Is this a parking lot?

-Oh okay so here’s the entrance.

-Shinra headquarters actually looks like a bigger version of Square Enix’s headquarters in Higashi Shinjuku. I’ve been there pretty recently and also like to cut through the office building to get to Artnia cuz I don’t want to walk all the way around. Decor and stuff and specifics are definitely different, but like the double tower U-shaped look with the walkway in the middle thing is very much how the building is in Shinjuku. Specifics with the stairs and escalators are also different, but kind of the same deal with some amount of ambient lighting at night time and the lobby and such is still mostly open in the evening for people who work late or want to pass through. Some of the doors being locked or like certain staircases and such being roped off are a thing as well. I just know this cuz I often go to Artnia around dinner time when I’m there, so it’s generally after hours already.

-I think even the parking lot situation might even be the same? I’m not sure because I usually take the subway and that let’s out into the mini mall downstairs, but parking if you go there and do that is like subterranean for sure and would be the first layer if it was on a plate.

-I mean, the HQ is also technically kind of on a plate also. Cuz the mini-mall is like below normal street level, but it’s like more cool with like a Lawson’s and restaurants. Coming up from the subway is also a lot similar POV-wise to coming up through grappling hook too in terms of perspective.

-Getting the key. Getting a glove on the way. This part is kind of cool. I always liked this part of the game in the original too and exploring an empty office.

-This is suspicious. I have to take a tour...?

-I guess this is interesting to learn about the company and stuff.

-Weird movie theater. Oh look a spoiler hallucination in the theater. It’s nice to see more of Sephiroth.

-Oh yeah the mayor. That’s a bit of a change that he’s secretly Avalanche. Whatever cool. Yay I got a weapon.

-I gotta do a battle simulator. Oh great I guess if I want items I have to sit here and do all the simulators.

-Oh look it’s Chadley. I have turn ins. Take my stuff.

-Okay so hike upstairs....oh shit they’re going in. Sneak slowly behind and like go around and explore stuff.

-Found the toilet. Haha. Tifa yells at Cloud if he goes in the wrong one. Good.

-This is a nice bathroom.

-Okay up in the vent.

-Interesting extra context and oh yeah Palmer saw Sephiroth.

-Hojo is more gross looking than I remember. Like piled on extra creep factor for him.

-Following into the lab. I guess I should be glad he wasn’t a dumbass and trying to mate Aerith with Red XIII.

-Interesting that it’s only now that they’re really making good use of Those Who Fight Further. I don’t think I’ve really heard it all that often before.

-Yay! Yamaguchi Kappei!

-This part getting serious with Sephiroth is appropriate, but kind of different with him starting to freak out.

-Oooh, Turks scene! It’s nice that they know they are fan favorites now and they put them in more scenes. I wish it would actually play their theme every time they show up like it used to. That’s what made them badass too.

-Aww, Aerith’s room.

-Interesting they are talking in Aerith’s room instead of getting captured and Aerith talking through the wall.

-Shinra science experiment...You’re probably not entirely wrong.

-Huh, wisdom from Red XIII. That’s different context.

-Wow, that’s different. Pointing out a different greater enemy so early. I guess it makes sense Aerith would know because of the whispers she hears, but also it kind of sucks the mystery of the progression of the original story.

-Dang, Sephiroth and Cloud confrontation-ish now? Not going to mysteriously take a body and stab the President?

-Oh joy another crazy rat maze.

-Hojo is definitely more gross than he used to be.

-Oh, nope. Just different order. There’s the trail of blood.

-Well, “blood”. Jenova blood is now apparently purple bubbling ooze.

-President Shinra is just hanging?! DISAPPOINTED. I liked it better when you just showed up and he had a giant sword in his back. Also wondering if you’d be blamed for it, but yeah, sword in the back!

-This is what you get for showing mercy. :/ Sword in back was better.

-Oh shut up already so Rufus can take over.

-Oh you get to watch the sword in the back.

-WTF. He’s not supposed to stab your party.

-Ghost things protecting fate is weird. But also I have some theories like the game is conscious that it’s a remake or something and for some reason they’re repeating history, but some things are different because people don’t do things in exactly the same way but certain things are fated to happen so they have to be preserved.

-Interesting that this game shows the cloaked figures going back and forth between Sephy. Kind of takes away the fun from years of debate on the subject about wtf is happening.

-And here’s Rufus. Still better than his Dad.

-I like that there’s more Turks footage than the original.

-Kind of nice that there’s more tender moments between Tifa and Cloud or rather we can experience them bonding more first hand.

-Did they make Wedge die in a different spot?

-Motorcycle bit is a bit different. Boss on motorcycle is kind of hard. Died once.

-I think it’s just cuz it’s a Remake that they added him here, but Sephiroth is at the end of the highway and I kind of think it sucks. :/ Cuz like it shouldn’t be like this.

-Why is Zack alive? Oh I think this is a flashback. Aww, this is supposed to be a hidden thing. ;o; Stop feeding them all the stuff. Let them find it.

-Whisper monsters...Okay this is just some kind of an AU. Like not really entirely a remake, but a different game in the same timeline cuz Sephy figured out somehow how to alter time and space. Aerith knows kind of what’s up because she became god essentially during AC. Would also explain why the game itself is giving away so many damn spoilers too.

-Holy shit, is Zack dead or not? D:

-Okay I looked up a thing and it said his death is ambiguous, but he’s never seen. Zack was an actual SOLDIER too so he could be a cloaked guy for all we know. But also at the end of AC it was both him and Aerith chilling together welcoming people to the lifestream so who the hell knows what she did.

-Biggs is alive?!

-So okay, if this is an AU things can change and I’m less gripey about the weird things that happened. Cuz it’s like just another pinpoint on the timeline that kind of has pseudo time travel and when you repeat things over again they’re not always exactly the same. I suppose for Square itself it’d be kind of boring to make an actual Remake because they don’t want to take away from the original and they want people to still buy that too cuz it was so good even though the graphics didn’t age so well. Instead they slapped Remake on a new title and trolled us all into thinking they actually did it when actually it’s like a timey wimey thing.

#ffviir spoilers

[amydancepants-peralta]

1, 9, 16 or 38 for the "50 cliché tropes and prompts" they're all so good and I just know you'd come up with something perfect for every one of these prompts but maybe one of these strike some inspiration for you to write. Have a great day! (:

Hi there, anon! 👋 Turns out I really wanted to do prompt number 1 as well as the other one I answered, so here we are! 🙈  Slightly deviated from the wording, but I think it still fits!  

Cliche prompt 1: There’s people chasing us and I pulled you into the alley with me and wow you’re close.

* * * NSFW * * * 

baby did a bad, bad thing

The sound of Amy’s footsteps echo across the pavement as she rushes along the sidewalk, pausing to take stock of her location before breaking out into a run.  On her shoulder, the police issue radio crackles with information, the familiar voice of her fellow officers tickling her ear as they called out key info.  Quickly, she activates the speaker on her end, confirming that she was on pursuit.  She feels a rush of adrenaline coarse through her as she rounds another corner, pulling away from the main street to focus on the lesser known back area, knowing that the other men have the latter covered.  

This was one of her more favourite parts of the job.  When all pretence falls away, and everyone simply bands together to catch the bad guy.  Yes, there was always somebody who got to claim the collar, and if there was a cool story about a heroic dive thrown into the mix, all the better, but at the end of the day it was the unified understanding that the good guys always win that made Amy love her job all the more.   

And then she sees something up ahead - a flash of plaid that makes her brows knit.  Jake?  

It couldn’t possibly be him.  Jake, her husband, was stuck in Detroit tying up a bunch of loose ends left over from a case that had been transferred from the Nine-Nine.  Originally in Chicago for a Detective Conference (or Detect-A-Con, as he liked to put it), he’d been pulled from his last day off and sent straight to Detroit.  Turning his four day trip into a three week nightmare, when the suspect they’d all assumed dead turned out to be very alive, and very much into continuing his streak of criminal activity in the ghost city.  His insider knowledge of the case had proved to be invaluable, and while Amy was incredibly proud of how hard her husband was working to solve the case, there was a larger - slightly more selfish - part of her that just wanted him to come home.  

She missed him, so much it hurt, and that has to be the reason why she thinks she sees him running in front of her.  He was coming home tonight - she’d already planned out her trip to the airport down to the minute.  There was no way that he was chasing after the same perp right now.  

And then his voice cuts through on the two-way, and Amy can feel her heart leap into her throat.  He’s here.  Maybe she got the schedule mixed up, or maybe there is no logical reason, because all she can think of now is he’s here and she can feel her pace increasing, desperate to reach him in case this was all a mirage.  

He turns down an alley, and she shakes her head as she runs, confused because all the intel over the radio was telling them that the perp was heading in a completely different direction - and she knows that she should trust his instinct but he’s going the wrong way, and the perp is definitely heading north and against all of her better judgement she finds herself turning west, following Jake down the passageway.  

There’s a dead-end, she can see it within seconds of turning in, and she slows her steps down to avoid hitting the brick, turning into a fast paced stride when she sees a familiar set of shoulders slump.  He’s facing the wall, hands on his hips as he catches his breath, but it’s him, it’s absolutely him, and as she calls out his name he turns, hearing her steps before her voice.  His smile is blinding, and it’s her favourite thing in the world to see, and then his arms are around her and everything else just fades away.     

“You’re here!” she whispers into his neck, punctuating it with a kiss.  

“I’m here, babe.  They let me get out early.”

She pulls back, running her eyes over his face until he pulls her in for a kiss, a real kiss, the kind she’s been needing for three damn weeks, and she can feel herself melting in his arms.  The radio on her shoulder crackles again, startling them apart, and they stand in silence as they listen to the chatter.  The perp had been caught, a good eight or nine blocks from where they were, and all units have been ordered to stand down.  Jake turns his attention back to her, hand running up and down her back the way he always does when they’re reunited, and it’s simple but it makes her so happy.  

“Sounds like they got him,” he mumbles against her lips before pressing against them, this kiss a little more chaste.

“Mmm.”  She was less interested in talking, but then an important detail springs to mind.  “Where were you going, anyway?  This was almost the exact opposite of where the perp was running.”

“Well I wouldn’t say exact - okay, fine.”  Jake concedes with a sigh at the look on Amy’s face.  “I got disoriented.  I’d only slept a little on the plane, and I’d started to drive to work to surprise you when I heard the chase over the radio, and I was nearby so of course I joined in.  I took this alley because I thought it would be a shortcut, only now I realise that it’s actually on the other side, and about three blocks that way.”

Amy smiles up at him, and he continues.  “Wait, why are you here?  Did you follow me into an alley?”

“I’d follow you anywhere, babe.”

He answers with another soft kiss, arms tightening slightly around her.  “Good answer, Ames.  Totally takes away the creepy following-you-into-an-abandoned-alley vibe we were building there.”

She laughs, tugging on his neck until his lips are against hers again, and this time there is no break for talking.  His arms tighten again as he moves her gently, not stopping until she feel the brick wall behind her, and his hands move to hair as he deepens the kiss.  She should stop him, tell him to slow it down - she was still on duty, after all - but the perp had been caught and it had been the only thing on an otherwise slow afternoon and maybe they deserved a little time to themselves.  

His kiss grows hotter, his hands roaming across her back now and the memory of their phone call just two nights ago rings in her ears.  The heaviness of his breath as he told her everything he wished he could do to her.  Describing, in minute detail, how he would move his tongue against her flesh.  Guiding her through her orgasm, desire obvious in his voice as she panted down the phone line, never so desperate to bridge the gap between them - knowing that they would be together in a few short days but still feeling like it was too long to wait.  

He was here now - here, in her arms, real and tangible and everything she’d been craving for the last three weeks.  They’d spent longer apart, sure, and any average couple could definitely survive such a short lapse of time.  But she and Jake weren’t your average couple, and both knew all too well how much distance can eat away at you.  

She can feel the wetness beginning to pool into her underwear, and she adjusts her position until she finds the friction she needs against the crotch of his jeans, the stiffness of the fabric (and what lay beneath) providing enough stimulation to keep her going.  His hands move to her front, brushing against her chest and stomach before heading south, and when he touches her through the material she almost comes on the spot.  She knew she had missed this - turns out she’d had no idea how much.

And Amy knows that this is a Very Bad Idea.  She knows that it is completely against the rules.  But this is her husband, damn it, and she’s missed him so very much, and she can feel him hard against her thigh, and this is definitely happening.

The reasoning that they are deep at the back of this alley, that there is an abandoned car obstructing the street from the view of them, the fact that dusk had begun to fall across the sky … all of these thoughts ran through Amy’s mind as she tightens her arms around Jake’s neck, sighing into his mouth as the sound of the zipper on her pants descending bounces off the surrounding brick.  Then she feels the cold air and the recognisable feeling of Jake’s bare legs against hers and he’s lifting - lifting her up, wrapping her legs around his waist and this is definitely happening.  

He slides into her with ease, releasing a sigh as they begin to move together, the feeling already so familiar but still so precious.  His smile is warm, softly moaned versions of her name falling from his lips as he cups her neck in his palm, bridging the gap with another heated kiss as they fall into a rhythm.     

Amy can feel the brick scraping through her uniformed blouse, the rough edges of the mortar catching against the fabric, and she knows there will be a few marks left on her back after this, but she doesn’t care.  It didn’t matter.  Nothing else mattered, right now, except for the feeling of Jake inside her, and oh how she’d missed this.  She releases a moan with every push of his hips against hers, and when she moves her hands into his hair to tug gently, his teeth sink softly into her lower lip.  She responds with a heavy sigh, tipping her head back to call out his name.

He holds her steady for a moment, thrusts ceasing as he pins her to the wall with his pelvis, left hand gripping her butt as his right reaches for his tie.  He rests his index finger against his mouth, miming the universal sign for shhhh before moving the same finger to trace along the edge of her face.  He offers her the end of the garment, pressing against her lips until she bites, knowing that she needs to be quiet and that without something in or against her mouth, quiet was definitely not going to be possible.  

(She was rarely quiet when they were together, and she knew how much he loved that.)

It was one that she had bought him, not long after they’d started dating, a knitted navy blue that matched perfectly with one of her favourite blouses.  It made her smile whenever he wore it, and she never would have predicted a day would come when she needed to grip it between her teeth to keep her moans from becoming too loud while they fucked in an alley downtown.  

(They had used his ties for *ahem* other activities, of course.  But in those instances they both preferred the smooth material of his silk options.  Much more gentle on the wrists.)

He smiles at her when she bares her teeth down on the fabric, eyes careful to check that she’s okay before leaving a sloppy kiss to the side of her mouth.  Moving his hand back to rest behind her head, sheltering her scalp from the brick, he reverts back to the smooth thrusts he had been giving her only moments ago.   

Her legs tighten around his waist.  They were going to have to be quick.  The risk of getting caught, while enticing, was very real and there would be no going back if it happened.  And so Jake’s pace accelerates, face tucking into the side of her neck as he fucks her with a renewed vigour, the sensation of his cock pounding into her causing Amy to thrust her tongue against the fabric of the tie, teeth protesting as they gnash against the thread.  She shifts her hips slightly, tipping herself up a fraction of an inch - all she can afford in this position, but all she needs because now Jake is rubbing against her clit with every single thrust, and her hand clenches into his hair as her body begins to react.  

His hot kisses run along her neck, reaching up to her jawline before surrounding her cheek as Jake’s thrusts turn erratic.  He reaches for the tie in her mouth, gripping the exterior with his teeth and pulling it away, replacing the block with his lips, tongue thrusting against hers in a mirror to his actions below.  She moans into his mouth, relieved to feel his kiss again, hand running down the side of his face to cup his cheek slightly as their tongues duel for dominance.  

She’s close, she can feel it, and she can tell by his thrusts that he’s not far away either.  They pull away from the kiss, both gasping for breath as the sensations begin to take over and her fingernails dig into his shoulder.  A low moan starts at the base of his chest, the fingers on his left hand squeezing her ass as his movements turn harder, hitting that certain spot every single time and her toes are curling and this is it.   

And he needs to muffle the sound for her but he doesn’t have any free hands so she cries out his name, the sound streaking out through the empty passage, falling into the hopefully empty street as his pushes one last forceful thrust into her and stills, heading falling against her shirt collar as he moans her name into her neck.  His breath is hot against her skin, the pooling sweat causing her uniform to stick to her skin and together they breathe, a messy jumble of shaking limbs pinned to this random brick wall.

All Amy can hear is her heart pounding in her ears, and when Jake lifts his head to kiss her she can barely keep up, her breath still coming in short bursts as her body struggles to catch up.  She smiles at him, blushing as the reality of what they had just done begins to hit her, and his sheepish grin turns her smile into a laughter, and she swears that she can hear another voice but maybe she’s still coming down from the high … but there it is again.

“Amy.”

Oh god.  She’s done for.

“Ames … Amy …. Babe, wake up.”

Her eyelids feel heavy as Amy blinks herself awake, an indignant moan escaping her throat as she tries to bury her head further into her pillow.  

From above her, she hears a familiar chuckle.  “C’mon, Ames.”

Jake.  She raises her head, suddenly wide awake, face splitting into a giant grin as she takes in the sight of her husband sitting on the edge of their bed, one hand resting comfortably against her leg.  “You’re home!”

He nods, leaning down to meet her outstretched arms, allowing himself to be pulled in for a gentle kiss.  “I am.  I took an earlier flight so I could surprise you.”

“It worked!”

He laughs again, eyes bright with humour and love and everything Jake, and oh how she’s missed seeing those eyes in real time, instead of staring at a dumb photo.  Which isn’t fair, really, because there are a lot of photos of them together throughout their apartment (and on their phones, if she’s being honest) and NONE of them are dumb, but there’s no way that they could be considered a decent substitute for the real thing.  

Another kiss, lingering this time as the reality sets in that her love was finally home.  He’s the first to pull away, tip of his nose sliding against the bridge of hers as he looks her over before speaking.  “Looked as though you were having a pretty intense dream when I walked in.”

Amy feels her face heat up as the memory of what was now obviously a dream washed over her.  Pulling her lower lip against her teeth, she looks up at her husband and shrugs.  “It was a pretty great dream.  But I have a feeling that the reality will be even better.”

“Why don’t you tell me about it?”

She glances at the clock on her nightstand, noticing that there was still a good hour before she needed to get up for work.  “How about I just show you, instead?”

He responds with another kiss, hands wrapping around her waist as he shifts his body further onto the bed.  “10-4, Sergeant.”  

Oh yeah.  This reality was going to be way better than any dream.  

#my fic #cliche post prompts #b99 fanfic #peraltiago #peraltiago smut #returning to my roots it seems #hope you enjoy #ok this sucks i get it

[crowned-ladybug]

Veins to a Heart

(Title plucked very loosely from a Hungarian song, “Az otthon itt van” by Roy és Ádám. Alternative title was “Once More, With Feeling” but that’s like. really not serious)

Whoops, some OCs! And one of those tropes I just looove poking constantly, except I keep wanting to write angst with it and failing every time

OC blog is @menagerie-of-morons​

Characters: Marvin, Stephen, Chase, Theodore, Jackie, Anraí

Setting: Rivals AU

Ship: some Marvin/Jackie, not super in focus

Word count: 3.1k

Warnings: injuries (not detailed much), a bit of sad nights

These are OCs, please keep that in mind and respect it.

It starts with an argument, a yelling contest between Marvin and Stephen, over something small and stupid. They’re both hot-headed and hot-blooded and don’t know when to back down. And somewhere in there Stephen yells “Can you even feel emotions at all?”

And then it’s over, as quick as it came, and they slink away into separate rooms to cool down. And within an hour Stephen is seeking out Marvin again, apologising in the most sincere voice, because while they both know that these fights never last, Marvin is his friend and he doesn’t want him hurt. In response Marvin tells him that it’s all right, that he’s sorry too, and he kisses him on the forehead before they both go about their business.

And it is fine, Marvin didn’t lie and there’s no hard feelings he harbours towards Stephen, and he tells him that again the next day when Stephen pokes him gently like he can feel that something is still off. Marvin is not mad, but those words, those words stick around in his head and just – float there.

Can you even feel emotions at all?

---

Can you feel?

At all?

---

Marvin feels.

He feels a sort of confused, amused pride and bubbling joy as he watches Chase throw his hands up and screech in delight, dropping the controller on his lap. Marvin doesn’t know what he’s playing or why he’s so happy now, but he returns his grin when he whips around to look at him.

“Are you winning, son?” he laughs, and Chase waves his arms around enthusiastically.

“Fuck yes I am!”

Marvin, still grinning, reaches into the packet of chocolates on his lap and fishes out one in pink wrapping. It’s very obviously strawberry flavoured, and Chase loves strawberries, and he deserves a big reward for...whatever he just won. He tosses the chocolate at Chase, and it hits him right in the chest as he flails clumsily to catch it and misses.

“Care to explain the game to me, though?” Marvin smiles still as he watches Chase eagerly lick the wrapper clean, because fine, maybe Marvin shouldn’t be keeping milk chocolate on his lap. “If you feel up to it.”

Chase does. And so the game is left on a “pause” screen as he scoots closer to the couch and jumps into a long, slightly confusing explanation about game mechanics and objectives and player characters. Marvin gets lost at some point, but he keeps listening, watching his friend’s face alight with excitement as he gets to ramble on and on about something he loves and enjoys so much.

It’s something, Marvin realises with a slight start that he doesn’t let show on his face, that he could never grow tired of watching.

---

Marvin feels.

He feels some sort of overwhelming fondness as he hands Stephen the pile of office supplies he asked the next people to go out shopping fetch for him. He feels fondness and this cheeky, dorky sense of accomplishment as he watches his friend sift through the notebooks and little boxes to make sure everything is in order, until he finds something he didn’t have on his list.

And he laughs at the faces Stephen makes at the small box of push pins in various, unnecessary shapes like sunglasses and umbrellas and VW beetles.

Stephen gives him a silent look that painfully and obviously reads a single word – Why?

“Your office is boring!” Marvin shrugs, still grinning. “You could really use some fun and colour in here.”

“So you got me ridiculous pins?” he watches as Marvin nods like it’s the most obvious choice in the world, though his still present grin reduces his credibility somewhat. “Fine, fine, now scram. You’re the worst, I hope you know that.”

Marvin turns on his heel with all too much flair and does a stupid little wave that Stephen can’t even see now, because he’s too busy organising his once again horribly messy desk. He trots over to the door with a proud grin. “Love you too!”

Stephen just rolls his eyes fondly as his office door finally slips shut.

---

Marvin feels.

He feels a sickening mixture of fear and anger, both blinding and overwhelming in their own right, all rising in his throat like bile. He doesn’t like it, he hates it in fact, and it makes his magic twist beneath his skin in all sorts of unpleasant ways, like a beast straining against its chains, wanting, needing to be released. It squeezes his chest like it’s trying to take the space away from his lungs and sends a horrid, itching-burning feeling running down his arms.

And he watches, frozen in place, as Anraí writhes and screeches, all flailing limbs and gnashing teeth, and yet he cannot claw himself free from where he’s pinned to the ground under some strange, infernal beast.

He took a while to warm up to the new member of their little group, sure. But even if he didn’t care for him yet (which he does), he knows Jackie trusts and values him greatly. And that alone would already be enough to make Marvin fight tooth and nail before he even considers abandoning him on the battlefield.

He steadies his footing, takes a breath, and – the chains inside snap. He lets his magic go, go and run and destroy purely on instinct. Right now, that’s all he’s got.

And when he opens his eyes again, just realising he’d even closed them at all, he finds Anraí curled into a ball on the ground, ash drifting down and settling slowly around him. He must be alive, because even from this distance Marvin sees him trembling, and he breathes a sigh of relief at that. The air tastes like ozone.

Anraí pushes himself to sit as he watches Marvin approach, the gaze of his almost unearthly green eyes flitting about every now and again. He doesn’t move to put more distance between them as Marvin kneels next to him.

Anraí looks like hell – scratched and bruised and terrified, and there’s a nasty gash on one of his shoulders that he probably really shouldn’t be getting all this ash into, but he’s in one piece, and that’s the most important thing right now. Marvin smiles at him, and for a moment Anraí’s shaken mind is distracted by the fact that his teeth are just a little too sharp for a human, and he takes some weird kind of comfort in that.

“Let’s go home now, okay?” Marvin speaks, and Anraí can hear him even when his ears are pinned back against his head with fear. He speaks like he’s talking to a scared child, soft and slow and keeping his every word clear. Anraí is not used to such a tone from him, but he appreciates it right now.

He just nods, and Marvin hums in understanding, and puts his hand on Anraí’s intact shoulder to teleport them both home.

---

Marvin feels.

He feels tired, with the fear and adrenaline ebbing away, finally. And he feels something else, a warm, now familiar stirring in his chest. It’s loving and being loved and knowing he doesn’t need to worry anymore, and it’s gratefulness for it all.

He blinks slowly as he watches, leaning on the wall behind him, Stephen wrapping one roll of clean, stark white bandage after the other around Jackie’s torso. The wounds are all closed now, mostly healed too, but the bloody scraps scattered around them on the floor and the dirtied medical kit on the desk won’t let him forget them. His mind won’t, either. He sees them every time he closes his eyes.

It was another close call, for both of them. Not as close as it could have been, but close enough to have them reconsidering their approach and their methods for next time. Marvin didn’t get away unscathed either – his left arm is in a sling now, a numb pain settling all throughout his bones, and he can feel the pull of the freshly closed cuts on his cheek every time he blinks.

He doesn’t let himself think about that now. Not now, not yet. They got away, they’re safe now. Stephen and the others will take care of them now, and Marvin doesn’t know what he’d do anymore without their support to fall back on. He himself, he’d be fine, he’d pull through somehow or fall along the way, but he doesn’t want to know what could happen to Jackie if it was just the two of them, both of them too hurt to help the other stand.

But they’re not alone. They have Stephen and Chase and Teddy. They have Anraí now, too. They’re not alone.

He shuffles over to Stephen as he watches him tie off the last of the bandages and tell Jackie to be careful. Jackie gives him a small, tired smile.

“Thank you,” Marvin sighs, as he moves to stand next to them. He doesn’t specify for what. For the healing. For helping Jackie when he couldn’t. For being here and loving them. For home.

And Stephen gives him a knowing, gentle smile, as he reaches out and rubs a hand up and down Marvin’s uninjured arm. He glances at Jackie, his smile still there, and then back to Marvin. Finally, he responds, his accent thick from tiredness. “Always.”

---

Marvin feels.

He feels numb and sad and kind of all alone, to be honest. He feels like he wants to disappear, and there’s something in his chest that feels like it’s choking him, and the beginning of a headache nestling in the back of his head. All in all, he feels like shit.

He spends a while just wallowing in his misery, because it’s past midnight and no one else is in the living room at this hour, and so he can. At least he’s not afraid of ghosts, and that’s something, otherwise he would have probably speedwalked back to his room the moment he realised the living room looks strange in the dark and he can’t be bothered to turn on the lights.

There’s footsteps creeping down the stairs and then through the hall, clearly cautious so as to not wake anyone who’s still sleeping lightly. Even before he sees the figure enter his line of sight, Marvin already guesses it’s either Chase or Teddy, based on the footsteps alone.

It turns out to be Teddy.

He stops the moment he steps into the room and sees Marvin sitting there.

Marvin knows it could very well be simply because he’s a distinct, out-of-place lump of darkness in an obvious spot, but he could swear there’s something about Teddy that isn’t entirely human. He never talks about it, and Marvin hasn’t exactly poked it much yet, but the way the light catches just a little bit too strangely on his friend’s eyes in the darkness brings those thoughts back to him. He wouldn’t be surprised if Teddy saw him much easier right now than Marvin could ever see him.

Despite the thoughts racing through Marvin’s head, the moment is calm and casual. Teddy makes his way over to the couch Marvin is curled on, and he stops next to the standing lamp in the corner next to it. He waits for a moment next to it so that Marvin will get the hint and close his eyes if he’d like, before he switches it on.

The light is dim and golden-orange, not bright enough to hurt after the almost complete darkness. It’s like a domesticated campfire, the tired, goofy thought flashes through Marvin’s mind, and he stashes it away for later. He’s sure Jackie and Chase would delight in it.

He doesn’t mind the light. It lets him properly talk with Teddy, at the very least.

“Do you want to talk?” Teddy signs, and Marvin is so proud of himself for a moment for understanding that. He barely knows any sign yet, but he’s trying. He’s always been horrible at self-discipline, but he’s been doing his best lately, studying sign and magic and also French. Every time he understands what Teddy is saying, he feels like he’s finally making some progress.

“I,” he starts, and then realises he doesn’t know what he was going to say. He stops, considers the question again like something he has an actual choice in, and finally speaks. “I’d rather not, if that’s okay.”

Teddy just smiles, and Marvin feels warmer.

“You can stay though, if you want,” he adds, just in case, because he doesn’t want Teddy to feel like he’s not appreciated anyway. “I don’t mind.”

And so Teddy stays. Whatever he came downstairs to do seemingly forgotten, he pulls out a book from under the coffee table and gets to reading. Marvin nestles himself more into the corner of the couch and goes back to his thoughts, his thoughts that...don’t seem to be as grim now. He’s still not feeling wonderful, but seems as if the quiet companionship of a good friend simply existing in the same space as him, no pressure and no judgement, has helped his bad mood.

And at that, he allows himself a small smile.

---

Marvin feels.

Above all, Marvin feels tired, but the weird, dumb kind of tired when he logically knows he’s tired, but his body is refusing to admit it and let him sleep. Closing his eyes and lying still has done fuck all so far, and he hates unnecessarily dealing with numbers, so counting to five hundred is also out the window. He can’t even get on his phone now or play some handheld game, not like that would actually put him to sleep, because he’s worried the sudden light so close to him would wake Jackie.

So he’s left trying to match his breathing to Jackie’s and trying to arrange his lanky limbs in a way that allows him not to touch him too much, because eventually he’ll inevitably end up moving and possibly waking him up. But the bed is small, made for one person, and usually they make it work, but also usually they use the bed to sleep in.

He can’t even sneak back into his own room to pull an all-nighter or something, because this is his room, and it currently has his entire, very asleep boyfriend in it.

He doesn’t know how long he lies still like that, his thought process constantly jumping between topics, until Jackie stirs. Marvin watches, eyes straining against the darkness, as he shifts and then rolls over to face him. One of Jackie’s hands reaches out, and for a moment Marvin wonders if he’s awake, but his eyes are still shut and the way his fingers stumble over every crease in the sheets tells him he’s still fast asleep. He mumbles, unintelligible for the most part, but Marvin could swear somewhere in there he hears something that sounds like his name.

Marvin shifts closer, worming his way into Jackie’s searching grasp, and he feels as his hand weakly twists into the fabric of his shirt. He only hesitates a moment before he lets his magic trace from Jackie’s hand and wind around him and hold him, fill Marvin’s head with the rhythm of his heartbeat, knowing it comforts both of them. He thinks Jackie wakes for a second, judging from his delighted hum and the deliberate way he rearranges his limbs to slot against his. Marvin holds him close, even after he feels him go limp with sleep again.

It gives him thoughts and feelings he’d blame his sleepy mind for but knows still hold true in the daylight. Thoughts of wanting to protect Jackie no matter what, keep him out of harm’s way despite how many dangerous things they do on the daily. Thoughts of putting himself in his place if he can’t protect him anymore. But also thoughts of wanting to keep making him smile and laugh, of going on small adventures, of listening to him talk endlessly about things that make him happy. Thoughts of wanting to always be the one he instinctively reaches out for during the night.

He knows it’s sappy, it’s sappy and...it’s not stupid, he tells himself, it’s not. It’s called loving and caring about another person, it’s good and warm and pure and it makes him feel so fucking alive, and god damn it, he’s going to indulge in it. And it’s not stupid.

---

Marvin feels.

He feels warm and alive, with the sun bouncing off his skin, and he feels absolutely delighted as he sits on the beach and watches his friends playing in the water. He’ll join them in a bit, even the odds a little, because they started out with Chase and Jackie ganging up on poor Anraí during his first time at the beach and with Teddy as their sympathetic audience, but now with Jackie on Anraí’s side it feels like they’re the ones ganging up on Chase and Teddy, despite it being two versus two.

He’ll join them in just a moment, but for now he watches the chaos play out a little longer.

He glances up when he hears the sand crunching next to him and sees Stephen standing above him, also staring at their friends wrestling in the water. Swimming trunks and flip-flops are a weird look on him when Marvin is used to turtlenecks and business casual, but it’s not a bad thing necessarily. If anyone needs to relax more, it’s definitely Stephen.

Their eyes meet for a second and they laugh, not needing any words to share their fondness and amusement over whatever’s going down in the water.

Marvin speaks anyway, as he moves to look forward once again and leans back on his hands. “These idiots,” he laughs again, and he hears Stephen shift above him. “I love these fucking idiots so much.”

He doesn’t even think about it, it just slips out, and what’s even more surprising...he doesn’t want to take it back. He feels no regret or embarrassment over saying something like that. He feels okay. He feels content.

He watches as Jackie finally shoves Chase underwater, and decides it’s time he stepped in. He gathers his legs, and as he does, Stephen speaks, and he doesn’t have to look to know that he’s smiling. “Yeah. A good little family of all idiots.”

Family.

Marvin, he finds, couldn’t agree more. And as he runs into the water and tackles Jackie, because he deserves it, swallowing water and getting splashed in retaliation the moment he comes up for air, he feels at home.

#original art #original writing #original character #oc: marvin #oc: stephen #oc: chase #oc: theodore #oc: jackie #marvin/jackie #rivals au #every once in a whole i come back to that song and it makes me emotional all over again #its a good song #its about home #the title literally means 'home is here' #anyway this fic didnt go where i planned it to when i wrote the v first bit but i dont mind #i love how it turned out #anraí #I FORGOT HIM #oc: anraí

[thebigreylotheory]

My Episode 9 Wishlist (with a dab of speculation)

Happy May the 4th (Force) My Reylos, Star Wars fans, and others-I-amuse-in-some-way!

So we’ve all heard the May the 4th tale that if you post your wishlist and with a tiny bit of magic maybe, possibly some fraction part of your wish will come true, right???

No?

I knew it was just me, dagnabbit. Me and my delusions of grandeur. It’s just like sand, it gets everywhere. Ugh (I feel like I’ve done this joke a lot, I go back to the well, but it’s dry).

But, but, I’ve been a really good, bad Star Wars fan Reylo this year (all in how you define good and bad…this is what I get when I google it, cause I’m lazy:

) So here goes nuttin’:

My List of Wishes (ok, ok Fan Girl Demands Full of Feels)

Properly honor the Skywalker lightsaber – AHHHH! They broke an antique!! Get some duck tape quick!!

What could happen:

o   Rey uses Skywalker crystal, but designs a new hilt.

§  My feelings: I’m ok with this, this could be an interesting side story or comic. But I’m NOT a fan of her having a two bladed lightsaber similar to her staff or Darth Maul. I was recently in a panel with someone who’s into weapons training at JordanCon and I heard: although something with two blades might look cool, it’s not realistically practical because it makes it more difficult to guard yourself. And my headcanon is Rey is a practical gal.

§  Could it be an interesting unstable blue lightsaber cause it’s cracked? (And be another thing Rey and Kylo have in common…And if Kylo’s cracked crystal was Vader’s we’d have cracked Anakin and cracked Vader and that crack could combine (Captain Planet! No wait…)and Force Balance stuff

o   Rey finds a new crystal, gives Skywalker crystal to Ben as a gift (aww) when he embraces the lights again (aww) (Maybe she gives him a graduation from the dark side to the light party? No? Mmm…ok I’ll fangirl out and say engagement/wedding gift. I went there PEOPLE.

o   Rey and Kylo Ren done broke it together, so they gotta fix it together (aww) So sweet, it could be like a date. Lightsaber Repair AND Chill. Hands on projects are really good for your relationship. *wink wink*

o   Rey and Ben half the crystal (if that possible?) and make two new lightsabers like nifty friendship thingies you see

o   The lightsaber becomes a nice paperweight for Rey’s Jedi Office™ or The Throne of Ren™ (AKA they fuhgeddaboudit)(And if Star Wars rhymes then I guess it goes back to being nothing like it was before Anakin found it? Maybe? Hmm. But that makes me sad.)

Don’t mess with Chewie or the Falcon

o   Right now I’m really glad this is Star Wars and not GOT or Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling killed me when she killed Hedwig…it was just so unnecessary)

§  Ok, our father figures Han and Luke are gone. I want Chewie to stay in this role for Rey, and even for Ben. And with Leia gone, I really, really need Chewie there. Seriously.

·      He was the first to go in the old canon, so now maybe he’s the last?

·      I need him to be grandpa to Han’s grandbabies. I really have to have this. White-haired Gramps Chewie.

§  I’m sure the good ship lollipop will stop flying one day. But I’m not interested in seeing that on screen. Have mercy.

·      Ben Solo Redemption

o   Else, what was this, the tragedy of the Skywalker clan?

§  And, lo, the Force did harden the heart of the last Skywalker Solo and the evil Pharaoh-o Ren™ did perish for the wickedness of his forefather, and, lo, they were wiped from the galaxy, and cursed is the name Skywalker and Solo and none shall utter it ever, ever again, yea, even unto an age.

§  Why you wanna make me sad? Star Wars + Sad = DOEs Not Compute (No, no seriously life is sad enough)

o   There’s no morale to the story for my kids. Or even my cats.

§  Once upon time two of the most beloved space characters of all time Leia and Han had a baby and that baby was Kylo Ren and he turned bad and was Pharaoh-o Ren™ and they executed him. AKA I guess you’re just born bad. If you feel like you’re a bad person, you should probably just give up now cause there’s no hope (This isn’t Star Wars: Episode 9 No Hope™, right? Just checking)

Reylo Fight Round 2

o   Ok in my wildest lil Reylo dreams I never thought Rey and Kylo would fight together on the same-ish side (though how very brief)….I really thought they’d fight each other AND Kylo would openly spare Rey. Anyways call me crazy but I’d like to see them fight each other again. And after the end of TLJ, I think it’s super plausible.

§  If Rey wins:

·      I’d love for Rey to have a “Ben/Kylo join me” scene. We don’t get these scenes with female characters in charge (or in my experience, at least). Give in to your light side!

o   Also, I mean, she thought Ben would return to the light, but did she outright ask him? These peeps need to communicate better.

·      Or, Kylo starts confessing some deep regretful feels at the point of death, I’m talking something equally as sorrowful as his outbursts are rage-filled, making Rey super conflicted about what to do with him

o   Sorta her Ben-returns-to-the-light-wish is granted but it’s practically too late

o   Should/would she trust him?

o   Could she kill someone who wants to be good again??

§  If Kylo wins:

·      He spares her (I done said Star Wars shouldn’t be sad, right?)

o   Cause he confesses his deepest feels for her! (yeah, yeah in my fangirl dreams)

o   Mm, does he kinda owe her a life-debt for not killing him in TLJ when he was knocked out?

·      He takes her prisoner again and we go down the First Order rabbit hole a final time

§  Tie!:

·      Well, I guess they’d just have to learn to live together, cause they could fight until the bantha-cows come home, but it wouldn’t do any good, so, yeah, balance, harmony together and stuff

      Supreme Leader Hux

o   Cause, I mean, can’t the average man get ahead as the boss in the galaxy? It’s always some Force user?

§  Arguably aren’t their more non-Force users? Maybe they don’t want to be ruled over by some mystical dude anymore.

o   I like for people to get their dreams

§  Even if they are short lived…

o   First Order Civil War seems more likely…you really want me to believe NO ONE would help the Resistance on Crait, time jump, Resistance is stronger than ever?

      Reylo Fight United 2.0

o   I just need more of this in my life

A “real” Reylo Kiss

o   Cause regardless of Reylo, there’s not enough kissing in this trilogy compared to the others

o   ForceTime is great and all, but puts me in a Mockingbird “Real or Not Real” state of mind. Eventually the long-distance relationship has to have some in-person one on one time.

o   Arguably, it might, mean more if they kiss naturally opposed to ForceTime.

§  Kinda of, oh-look, they like each other, and it’s not just about the Force

Mountains

o   I dunno, I just wanna see mountains Gandalf.

     Anakin Force Ghost

o   Argh stuff you see in Art Books and the idea gets stuck in your head.

      Luke-y Pooh Force Ghost

o   So long as he’s standing with the others at the end I’m good

o   But just hearding a creepy Luke ghost voice could be cool, too

A Happy Ending

o   IDK, don’t Finn, Poe, and Rose deserve metals?

§  Give the Wookie one, too!!

o   Or do be Senators in a Neo-Senate?

o   StormRose wedding!

o   I see Poe trading in his X-Wing for a boat on the lake and having really great Resistance Independence Day BBQs, but doesn’t translate well on film

#reylo #reylo theories #star wars episode 9 #star wars episode 9 wishlist #star wars fan theories #reylo wishlist #save ben solo #may the 4th #may the fourth be with you #my star wars diary

[survivormetaverse]

Rites of Passage

Elle: I never met you, here's a joke!Never trust a pirate duck.They have the power to unleash the quackin'.🦆🏴‍☠️

Amy: I wish I got to meet you! You seem so wonderful.

Jodi: Hey Bri, we never got to play together but you destroyed my guy Jared’s perfect game in the first tribal council and I thought that was pretty funny. Cheers!

Elle: I was SO sad when you were voted out 🥲 because I figured we'd swap into the same tribe or make merge and we could work together and talk about Stardew Valley, I also started listening to the Penumbra podcast (which I know you listen to The Magnus Archives, but there's a lot of overlap between the fandoms so I thought maybeeee you had listened to it too) Anyway! It doesn't really matter I just was really sad when you were voted out ❤️Here's a joke ^_^: I asked a French speaking man if he played video games.He answered, "wii".

Amy: I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet you. I loved your intro video and I had heard of you from past games. You seem so cool.

Jodi: Also never got to play with you, but Brayden told me you’re cool so hopefully I’ll meet you some time in a game!

Elle: I just know you from Kyoshi where you voted me out and we didn't really talk that much… so 😅 I hope you had fun in Metaverse?Here's a dad joke: My grandma started walking 5 miles a day when she was 65She’s 91 now! But we have NO idea where she is 🤷🏽‍♀️

Amy: I was so hoping to chat with you again because we barely got the chance in HB. You are wonderful and I hope to one day actually play on the same tribe as you!

Jodi: I heard you were my guy’s ride or die until you weren’t, you won the very first comp of the season so good job, hope to see you around in the community!

Elle: A truly unanimous vote, I never met you, but you dropped this, king 👑✨A joke: There once was a king who was exactly 12 inches tall!Terrible king, but he made a great ruler!📏🤴✨

Amy: The legend! All I know about you is you have some chaotic energy and I love that! 

Jodi: The truly unanimous vote of the season....we really wanted to give you your first W but you literally just did not show up even for your vote out. I still wonder to this day if you’ve found out you got voted out yet. Nevertheless, nice saying hi to you a couple times!

Elle: You were super nice and I'm sad that you were voted out as soon as you were 💔 we should've talked more when we were on the same tribe.You know every time I see a Jennifer Aniston movie, it seems like she's playing the same person.I guess she's a victim of Rachel profiling.

Amy: Girl I wish I got to know you better because once you came back online after the tribe swap you were so sweet. I really enjoyed your presence and I think the game could have been very different had we worked together. Wishing you all the best.

Jodi: I’m glad I got your vengeance :) Sorry you didn’t last longer in the game! Bye mittens

Elle: I don't know you, but here's a dad joke:Yesterday I spotted an albino dalmatian.It was the least I could do for him🖌

Amy: Oh Danny how I wish it would have worked out with us two! You were so fun and I loved working with you but I’ll never forget sitting on call for an hour when you ghosted our challenge. I’m sorry it ended like that, but I hope we get to play again together because I adore your vibe!

Jodi: All my Fools paragraphs are going to involve Jared since that’s the only relation I have with you all, but Danny I heard you’re my guy’s other ride or die and he told you about his idol. I grilled him when he told me about it at the merge because damn you were connected. You would’ve told everyone (but everybody knew already lol) hope to see you around!

Elle: Ginnyyyyy 💔 I'm sorry I didn't really want to vote you out but I wasn't trying to ruffle any feathers that early into merge, I truly did believe you when you said you were done being chaotic. Your lipsync TikToks are very fun🎶A joke for you: What do you call a singing computer?A Dell! 🎤🎶

Amy: I’m so sorry girl. I didn’t want to see you go, but it was decided. I enjoyed playing this game together through all of premerge and making it through the cursed Fools tribe with you and sitting in that hour challenge call just vibing. I hope we can chat more in the future. I am wishing you all the best because you deserve great things.

Jodi: Girl, you were my first comp partner and I wish we got closer and could play together more. I really thought you were super connected with other Stings players and that’s why I had to boot you before the Jury phase, because I wasn’t sure I could get close enough with you to work together. Regardless, you were fun to have on Phantom and I hope we can cross paths again!

Elle: My Libra rising sibling ♎️✨ I wish we got to work together more in this game, without that ‘no items’ twist round you definitely would've made it far. Thank you for talking astrology with me, giving Colin your items which ended up helping my game too, and just the existence of Neptune 🥰 big Brookyln 99 "I've only known [Neptune] for a day but if anything happened to him I would kill everyone in this room and then myself" vibes.Le joke: My partner just broke up with me. They're sick and tired of my constant zodiac puns.It Taurus apart, I'm in Pisces writing this.(a second one): Why did the nurse carry a red pen?In case she needed to draw blood!💉

Amy: Dennis 😭😭😭!!! I am so so sorry you were voted out that way. There were whispers the previous round too and I was able to squash that, but for your round it was decided before I could act and I saw Colin being villainized for sticking up for you. I am so, so sorry for how things went. I so wish we would have stayed closer in this game because we could have done great things together! I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for our conversations before you went because without them I would not have flipped to protect Colin. You were our guardian angel. Thank you for giving Colin your gifts and still trusting me to confide in me. I hope we can play in another game together because I wanted to work with you from Day 1! You are incredible and I wish you all the good vibes in the world!

Jodi: Dennis, you truly were the one to watch this season, because your reads and intuition were amazing. That’s why I aligned with you, because I like working with other thinkers. I’m really sorry that I voted you out that round, because I knew that if I were to strike, I could not miss with you. I rightfully knew that you had something really good, in not just 1, but 2 idols. After going for 15.5 hours on that Hunt, I knew that the only person that could’ve beaten me was you. You pushed me to be a better player and you definitely made it a very tough hill for me to climb to get to this point. I’m not sure if you gave me your vote this time, and I understand if you didn’t, but I adore your love for the game and I hope that next time we can align and blaze through some games. I give you props for figuring out my game so early on and you were the one that kept me on my toes and pushed me to play harder. I have lots of respect for you as a person and a player of this game, I hope we can be friends after this. 

Elle: From our first real interaction I knew you should be someone I'd work with. Unfortunately, I didn't end up reaching out really until it was a bit too late 😅 And we kinda ended up on opposing ends… whoops!I still think we could get along really well! ☺️ We're both creative and funny (though my humor is more an… acquired taste 😂 dad jokes aren't for everyone, I suppose) and have a lot of the same pop culture references from that one challenge lol.I hope your first ORG experience was still a good one, though 💖. Maybe I'll get to ally with you in the future?Un joke: Whenever my artistic partner is sad, I let them draw on my body,It's always good to have a shoulder to crayon.🖍✨

Amy: Babs! I don’t know how many times I wrote to other contestants and my host chat “I just want to be friends with Babs!” I wish we could have chatted more because I absolutely adore your energy. I had the best times on call listening to you. And like you said, great minds think alike. Our double tie was so fun! Hope to chat more soon!

Jodi: Babs, I truly adore you and you were the light of the tribe. I understand that your vote out seemed like a big betrayal, but I truly did not want you to go there. Colin and Elle both played things and everyone else was immune. I had to pick between you and Jared and I just could not vote out Jared due to our relationship. I hope you can forgive me on a personal level after this and we can talk because a lot of my joy in this game came from you. 

Elle: Well, this turned out better than Kyoshi did between us 😅 so at least there's that. It was fun being allies for a sec, and here's hoping neither of us gets swap screwed in the future 😂.Your joke: I have a friend who writes songs about sewing machines.He's a Singer songwriter, or sew it seams.

Amy: Brayden! Omg Brayden first I am so sorry I gave you that fake idol. I didn’t know it was going to you; I only knew it was going to second place. When Raffy told me it was you I was like omfg I accidentally gave a fake idol to one of my closest allies 🤦‍♀️. I want to see your creative challenge submission bc I think you probably deserved the win over me. Brayden, you were incredible in this game and I kept trying to see if you wanted to flip with me with some hints haha but you were closer with Jodi. Congratulations on graduating and on being Anastasia’s best friend! I loved getting to know you and working with you. I’m so sorry it ended the way it did. Hopefully I’ll see you in another game or mini! You’ll do great things!

Jodi: Brayden, I severely underestimated you in this game, even though I knew that you were going to be incredible since you’ve played before. When we met up at the merge, I was so grateful to have you be somebody I could bounce ideas off of. Anastasia and I said this later in the game, but you two and me and Jared should’ve come and done a 4-person alliance and rip through the late game. You were such a loyal ally and I really hope we get to play again some time. 

Elle: You have a very rational and sort of quietly analyzing mind that I noticed almost immediately and knew that I'd want you on my side, not only because I'd love to be allies with someone like that, but because I knew as an enemy you could easily be a death sentence.I appreciated your love for Survivor and lived in fear of a super idol since the first moment you mentioned their existence 😂. I really wish corn tribe could've made it to FTC 🌽💔, Ohioans for life! (I'm kidding I'm getting out of this state as soon as possible, but it was fun to bond over Ohio with you!)An edited! joke (see that was a slight joke right there… okay I'll see myself out): Did you hear about the guy trying out for editor for the sums series of Math Magazine?It was an addition edition audition.

Amy: JAY! My Disney buddy!!! So I didn’t know Raffy and Jay Bee were going to expose me in that all or nothing tribal for being at Disney lol I was trying to keep it on the DL. Otherwise I would have freaked out more with you over WDW and your trip and my upcoming trip the next week haha!!! We have to catch up after this! I adore you and our chats. I hope you don’t have to sleep on any more chairs and you are having a great summer at work! Love your positive energy. You are on your way to big things!

Jodi: Jay, I have so much to say to you both about the game and about you as a person. As an ally, you were so loyal to me even when people were not nice to you about it, and you stood up for me and always had my back. You played your role in the game to perfection and people are mad about it just because you were never actually on the bottom. I’m sorry I had to vote you out because they made me force my hand. I love you to death and I am so glad we got to play this game together. Having this opportunity showed us that we can absolutely do this again and I will be your goat next time we play together. I promise. 

Elle: Colin 🥺🥺🥺💗 When I say I literally almost gave up on this game when you left (Amy can testify). We were a little devious team and it was so much funnn, Amy was the double agent super spy, you were the person on comms with all the connections and gadgets, and I was the nerd in the van planning out the heist routes and typing really fast until I look up really dramatically and say, "I'm in".Also here's the list of book reccs you asked for✨:

The Truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson, it’s a mysteryyyy and it's a lot of fun! A fun little cast of characters to get attached to ^_^

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, I mentioned this one before, it's a classic but you can read it in one sitting And it's funny. We love to see it💕 Plus it's pride month and we love Victorian era gay poet/playwright/authors.

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, Look. This book is amazing, it is queer🏳️‍🌈 (mlm protag relationship but also way more queer characters), it is well written, it's romantic as hell, it's spicy, I don't know how to describe how good it is I'm getting emo thinking about it read ittttttt 💖 (Casey McQuiston also has a new book out with a wlw relationship and we also love to see thattt✨)

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. Okay soooo this isn't a mystery, but I feel like people into mystery novels would enjoy the way the plot unravels. Also I love this book. That is all ^_^ Also it is queer as well🏳️‍🌈, mlm relationship.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Haven't read it, but from what I know about it and what books you said you were into and it's acclaim/reputation, I think you'd be into it.

Generally speaking, I am more in the YA/romance/fantasy side of things but I tried to tailor the list to things I genuinely think you'd enjoy ❤️A joke ^_^: Everyone tried so hard to figure out why Mr. Edwards changed his name to Mr. EvansBut after all these years, it's still a Mr. E

Amy: 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭!!!! I won’t even lie here before writing this I spent 20 minutes crying thinking about seeing you at FTC because I am just so sorry. I wanted to sit next to you as you won and I feel like I let you down. I am so sorry for how that round went. I was MAD mad after. When you said you, me, Elle F3 I was all in and when I lost you I made it my mission to get both Elle and myself to the end in your honor. I also regret not grabbing drinks with you in KC because that would have been absolutely hilarious even if our planned tribe fight didn’t pan out hahaha. I loved every second of working with you in this wild game. Your social game is incredible and I am so thankful to you for doing everything you did. I’ll never forget sitting on a 20 minute call with Brayden and Jodi about voting you out, hanging up, and immediately calling you to plan how to keep you safe. Sorry I didn’t tell you about the tricks up my sleeve, too. Thank you for making this game so fun to play that I ignored my family in Disney World. All my love ❤️

Jodi: Colin, I wasn’t quite sure what direction to go with this, but I’ll just be open and honest. I really did want to play this game with you, but after realizing the true threat of you having all of Dennis’ stuff (which was correct), I had to get rid of you not because I didn’t want to play, but just because I wanted my game in my own hands, and with 3 immune advantages, you were able to cruise from F7 to F4 with no risk. Sort of like James in China, you have to blindside them before they cruise to F4. That’s one less guaranteed spot for everybody, and I didn’t want to rely on whether you liked me enough to keep me around. For the same reasons that you were upset with Jared and Jay, I too, did not want to play somebody else’s game. I wanted to put my game in my own hands and that’s what I did. You were not supposed to go at F7, we were just trying to get rid of your idol. I was hoping you’d appreciate the gameplay that I was not willing to rely on riding coattails and be in someone else’s good graces to keep me around. Hopefully I’ve explained this well enough during FTC as well. I had no ill will, just wanted to play my own game, not somebody else’s. For the record, if I didn’t make it back into the game or got voted out again with you at the end, I was going to vote for you to win. You pushed me to play harder and be a better player because I knew you would not be easy to outwit and outplay. I’ve told many people this and I can respect and appreciate being outplayed. 

Elle: Joshhhh, my buddy 💔 I'm really sorry you got rocked out, Amy and I were willing to take the risk of being rocked out but we didn't tell you because you had voted for Colin the round previous. To be clear we were still willing to work with you, but the wound was kind of fresh and it seemed silly to give you sensitive information at the time. You did get past F8 this time! But I am sorry about going to rocks, didn't mean to lose you, king.A bit of humor: What does a panda use to make pancakes?A pan...duhI had multiple cooking themed onessss:A student baked a loaf of bread for home economics class.At the end of the class, his teacher returned the loaf and told him that he had gotten an A.The student said: “Thanks, that’s just what I kneaded.”

Amy: Josh I am so sorry you went out on rocks. I know that is the last way you wanted to go. You probably won’t forgive me but I really didn’t want you to go there. I was aiming for Jodi or Jared, but had already mentally prepared for rocks before the twist was announced. I truly hope you get to play again and not be victim to a twist or rocks. You are an absolutely incredible player which made me cautious and frustrated at times haha! Love your energy and I am manifesting that you get a new job that you absolutely love because you deserve it!

Jodi: We had such an incredible story arc to our games. We weren’t close on Phantom, got in touch on SEES, then grew apart again before my vote out, pulled off a beautiful move at F7, and continued to work together until you got rocked out at 6. You were the surprise blessing to my game. When you approached me at F7, I found light in my game again. You had the same agenda as I did, with the same intentions and same concerns. You gave me a real chance to reintegrate into this game and I’m so happy and grateful that you decided to trust me. On top of that, your energy and personality was super fun and I’m glad we got to have fun writing each other’s names down a couple times. I treasured your trust in me a lot and I really wanted to play to the end with you. I think you’d win the game if you were in my spot today. I hope we continue to be friends and good luck with your new game.

Elle: Thank you for remembering my birthday before Raffy reminded everyone 💛 that was very sweet and in my introduction I literally said if anyone remembered it I'd love them forever and then I proceeded to be on opposing sides with you… oops!

Granted, it wasn't really on purpose, I just happened to not be in that alliance of six people and that happened to kind of decide how lines were drawn for the rest of the game in a way.

Impressed with your sudoku skills, being on a tribal call during graduation (congrats again!), and with your coolheadness, if I had an idol while that chaos one was played you bet I'd be playing it 😂 you had a really good game and I hope you think so too ^_^

A fitting joke: If you keep trying the same sudoku puzzle, you willl eventually solve it.

It's just a numbers game, really.

Amy: Jared! You unintentionally became one of my biggest rivals because you are so good at this game! I envy your way to lie in such a believable way that I had to spend so much time convincing Colin you were lying even though I was copy/pasting your exact plan haha! You are great at challenges and frustrated me to no end when you would ONLY tell me lies. You are so smart and I can’t wait to see what you do next. For the cards that were dealt to you, you had an incredible game. Congratulations on graduating! I hope to see you in another game and actually get to work with you.

Jodi: Dear my beloved idol holder, thank you for being my in-game simp. Thank you for having your idol on deck at all times to use on me at my request :) Jared, by now I would’ve shared with everyone at FTC about our 10 year love affair, but I want you to know just how much playing this game has meant to me. After drifting apart for a good 7 years, I’m glad that Survivor brought us close again last year and that you signed up to do this. I couldn’t have played the game that I ended up playing without you despite you WANTING ME OUT AT F4. I’m glad we did this game before signing up for the show together. I cannot wait to do Blood Vs. Water 3 with you. Basing off of our track record this time, we’re going to kill it :)

Elle: Anastasiaaaaaaaaaa💔 I'm not sure how much left I have to say to you 😅 (I am writing this kinda right after tribal so I was talking to you like an hour ago). Congrats on graduating again!! And congrats on this game kinda jealous of your streak so far 😂 you've literally never done worse than F4 do you know how many people can say that? Not many!! Definitely not me lol.

Here's a dad joke!: How do you handle a redhead's temper?

Gingerly!

Amy: Anastasia you are absolutely incredible and I am so thankful Ginny put us in an alliance together on new Fools because I loved playing this game with you. We went back and forth on working together but every time I was glad we were both still together making it farther in the game. I truly meant when I said I would force fire for you, but I respect your decision. I am so sorry I had to keep things from you so much since you were closer with Brayden and Jodi. I hope to play another game with you because you make it so fun and you are such a great player and your social game is so good! I was so excited when you wanted to flip but I am sorry I couldn’t say yet that I already had. Congratulations on graduating and being absolutely incredible!

Jodi: Anastasia, you are the reason I got to the end, and I owe so much to you. In this game, I’ve had to play so dangerously, and my game heavily relied on having ride or dies have my back. When I came back in, we talked immediately about me throwing out your name and you writing my name down, but we got together instantly and made magic happen. You had my back and I had yours. We pulled the most iconic move in this game at the final 7 together (by now you’ll all have heard me talk about it, my plan to create immunity for 3 people) and I truly had you as my ride or die to the end. Thank you so much for playing with me, believing in me and recognizing the game that I played. I love you and can’t wait to be best friends with you and Brayden 

#rites of passage #ritesofpassage #rop

[duhragonball]

Sorry about all the weird asks you been getting, Here is an actual question: What do you think of Bray Wyatt's current fiend character?

Technically, this should be addressed on the wrestling blog, but I get them mixed up myself all the time, and let’s be real: duhragonball > buttdawg >>> imatlasarrestmeplease.  

In any case, I don’t have strong opinions about The Fiend, because I stopped watching WWE in October 2018, before The Fiend’s debut.   I think I have a general idea of what the character is supposed to be, but it’s probably not fair to judge it on hearsay.    So take this with a few hundred grains of salt.  

From what I understand, Bray Wyatt sort of dropped off the map for a while, then returned at... was it Summerslam ‘19?   I think it was.    He came back as the Fiend, who’s sort of like when Mick Foley switches from Mankind to Cactus Jack, only in this case The Fiend no-sells everything and he’s super strong.    Also, the Bray persona has become like this Mr. Rogers pastiche, and may not fully understand the Fiend’s actions.   

I have no idea how this Firefly Funhouse thing works.  I watched a pirated video of the John Cena “match” at WrestleMania 36, mostly because I wanted to understand what nWo Cena was supposed to be about.    I still have no idea, but I’m a huge nWo mark, so I was satisfied to see John rocking the black-and-white, even if it makes no sense.   

Actually, let me talk about nWo Cena for a minute here, because that’s been on my mind for a while, and I think it does sort of tie into Bray’s WWE career.   Okay, so for anyone who doesn’t know what I’m talking about, Cena and Bray had a match at WrestleMania 36 which was like some sort of Twilight Zone thing where Cena kept quantum leaping into different eras of wrestling history.   He found himself in the Hulkamania era, then he relived his own debut in 2002, and for some reason he was on the set of WCW Monday Nitro, circa 1997.   There, he was wearing an nWo shirt, indicating that he was supposed to be a member of the legendary heel stable, the New World Order.   

What struck my fancy about this was that I saw John wearing the shirt and for a moment I imagined how cool it would have been if Cena really had been part of the nWo.   The group had this amazing start in the summer of 1996, but by 1997 it was running on fumes, and in 1998 they had absolutely no idea what to do with it.    After that, they just kept breaking up and reuniting over and over, trying to recapture the old magic.   There were a lot of problems with the nWo, but I think the biggest one is that there was no clear identity of the group.   Somtimes it was a bunch of cool dudes having a violent party, and other times it was Hulk Hogan’s personal cult.  Other times it was just Hall and Nash wearing matching shirts.    It didn’t matter in the early years, but when the group got older and the older members moved on, there was nothing to define what was left.   

I’ve only been watching New Japan for about a year, but I’m already impressed with how Bullet Club has managed to avoid the same problem.   Let’s face it, they’re a baldface ripoff of the nWo concept, but they have defining characteristics that don’t just rely on a specific person.   Prince Devitt (Finn Balor) was a founding member, but he’s been gone for years.   Then AJ Styles was their #1 guy, and he left.   Then Kenny Omega was their leader, and I showed up a few months after he left.     I thought the BC was doomed to decline after that, but then I saw how dominant their new leader, Jay White could be, and then they replenished their ranks with KENTA.   Generally, Bullet Club is a gaijin stable, so that sets the tone for their act rather than any single person.   If a Canadian leaves, you just get a New Zealander to replace him.   But with the pandemic keeping most of BC out of Japan, they adapted again and brought in EVIL as their new top guy.   It’s impressive to me, because NJPW figured out a way to make the nWo an evergreen angle.   They can sell those T-Shirts for the next fifty years.   

But I still miss the classic nWo, and I liked the idea that in some AU, John Cena might have formed his own nWo revival around 2011 or so, and they could have done it right.    Imagine someone with Cena’s prestige and longevity doing a heel stable like that, and when his time is over, he hands it off to another big star who can carry the torch.  “If only they had John Cena,” I thought to myself.  “He could have righted the ship.   He could have fixed it.”

Which brings me back to Bray Wyatt, because the vibe I get is that Bray’s fans seem more focused on what could be, and what might have been.   Bray’s entire WWE run feels like a running effort to fix Bray’s entire WWE run.   He started as Husky Harris in NXT, then they brought the entire NXT roster out as a new heel stable, the Nexus, and had them run roughshod over WWE, except they were mostly too green for that role, and they kept losing big matches to Cena and Orton.    Then CM Punk took over Nexus and they became his faceless sidekicks, and then they vanished altogether when Punk moved into his Pipebomb era.  

Then Husky came back as Bray Wyatt, and everyone loved the gimmick.   I never cared for it personally, because I never saw much of Waylon Mercy, and I’ve never watched “Cape Fear”.   But people loved it.   But he kept losing the big matches.   Then he comes back as The Fiend, and now he’s like invincible or something, and it seems like he’s finally on track to get the success people wanted him to have before.  

Only, I don’t think it’s worked out that well.   They made him invincible, but they don’t seem to know what to do with that.    This led to that Hell in a Cell where Seth Rollins got “disqualified” in a no-DQ match.    They literally couldn’t decide how to end the match, or who should win, so they just stopped it for no reason.    That’s a long-term WWE problem.    Vince can’t make up his mind, so he just doesn’t put anyone over.    He didn’t want Seth to look weak losing to the Fiend, even though the Fiend is literally a monster, and he didn’t want the Fiend to win the title because he’d eventually have to lose it later.    Except the Fiend did win the title eventually, only to lose it to a 50 year old Goldberg in Saudi Arabia.   So Vince’s efforts to protect the Fiend at HiaC were ultimately pointless.    

I’m not sure where the Fiend character is now, but I think he may have turned face, and Alexa Bliss is his girlfriend?  Sith Apprentice?    I see people saying she’s possessed?   Well, whatever, I like what she’s done with her hair lately.   Every time they revamp Bray, I always hear fans suggest that they’re finally going to have Sister Abagail debut.    No one even knows who or what Sister Abagail is.    She’s just a name Bray used to mention during his creepy promos, and I think Randy Orton desecrated her grave one time.    Wrestling’s pretty great.  

Here’s the thing, I’m 100% in favor of a real, live SIster Abagail character.   I’ve written a 600,000-word novel about a background character in Dragon Ball Z, and at least thirty chapters were devoted to the Shockmaster.    I remember in 1997, when everyone thought Kane was dead, and then he finally showed up and set everything on fire for the next twenty years straight.    I still want to know who the Black Scoprion really was.   If Sister Abagail turns out to be an on-screen character, it’d be amazing.   Maybe Alexa Bliss is supposed to be turning into Abagail somehow.   She needs to dress up more like a ghost, though.   

The problem is that--right now-- there isn’t a Sister Abagail, so until the real thing is introduced, it’s just a hypothetical that everyone can pin their hopes and dreams on.   “Oh once they pull the trigger on Sister Abagail, Bray will finally get the push he deserves!”   “Yeah, that last Fiend match wasn’t so hot, but it’s all building up to the big payoff when they finally bring out Sister Abagail.”   “Sister Abagail will fix it, she can right the ship.”  

What I’m worried about is that one of these years Bray’s going to retire from wrestling, hopefully on his own terms, but his fans will still be waiting for a dream storyline, long after his actual career has passed them by.   I guess there’s problems with his run, mostly systemic problems with WWE’s booking philosophies and indecision, and fans are praying for a miracle to fix it all, like John Cena in an nWo shirt.   And even if they did bring out a Sister Agagail, it would never live up to the fans’ expectations.    It just feels like everyone’s setting themselves up for a disappointment.  

And that’s one of the reasons why I quit watching WWE.   At some point I realized that there just isn’t going to be a light at the end of the tunnel, a big match that somehow makes up for all of the dumb ideas and bad finishes I’ve seen over the years.    I’m all about AEW and NJPW now, and those promotions aren’t always perfect, but they are a lot better about meeting my expectations.  

I guess, when all is said and done, my big opinion on the Fiend is that I hope Bray lets his WWE contract expire and shows up someplace else.  He’s a great talent, no denying that.   I just don’t trust WWE to do right by him creatively. I think they want to push him, but they don’t know how to push guys anymore.   

#ask duhragonball #postscript: i just watched a bliss match for context and... wow #i have no idea what's going on in wwe anymore #jcogginsa

[irinapaleolog]

What is Star Wars about, really? It’s a good question, one we’ve pondered for 42 years. Star Wars is so broad, so dense, and at times so frustratingly transparent, that you can graft just about any sort of meaning onto it. And yet, its mass appeal is often distilled to one word: Star Wars is about hope. But what does it mean to have hope?

Everyone will offer a different answer. Hope can mean defiance in the face of adversity. It can mean happily ever afters. It can mean togetherness, family, friendship–those little things worth fighting for, even knowing they’re temporary. At its best, Star Wars captures that, freezing tiny moments of hope in amber. Luke, Leia, and Han hugging after the destruction of the Death Star. Anakin Skywalker clutching the face of his pregnant wife, Padmé. Finn and Poe escaping the tyrannical First Order.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the final film in this epic saga, is meant to tie a bow on the franchise, which began with A New Hope. Reasonably, one would expect those messages to come through more elegantly and emotionally than ever before. But the result is instead a sad case of confused identity. It’s a film that thinks it’s doing what it needs to, while ultimately delivering a series of rushed, soulless, and ill-defined points of logic. It’s “hopeful” if your idea of hope is tragic and cyclical to the point of feeling regurgitated. There are moments of optimism immediately staked through in heart in favor of “the next big set piece.” It’s a cruel and unsatisfying ending to a forty-year legacy, and one that feels openly critical of itself and everything it stands for, but shrugs its way to the finish line instead.

The Disney era of Lucasfilm was fit more for profit than integrity from the get-go, and the need to rush out a new episodic film loaded with the original’s stars felt as bankable as it was inevitable. Suffice it to say, the Star Wars sequel trilogy attracted critics, but the first two films shuffled through a variety of production woes to successful, appealing conclusions. J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens paired a new cast of characters with our legacy trio–Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher)–creating a spark of whimsical magic that overshadowed its derivative setbacks. Rian Johnson delivered a wild animal of a sequel with The Last Jedi , a surprising and frankly revolutionary studio blockbuster that turned the series’ larger story on its head. It was as divisive as it was fertile with big, new, promising ideas. The film ended with the Force decentralized from a few exclusive bloodlines and democratized, reigniting hope in the galaxy.

Unfortunately, The Rise of Skywalker picks up on none of those loose threads. The film begins with a flippant dismissal of many if not all of The Last Jedi‘s themes. The opening crawl explains that Emperor Palpatine has inexplicably returned (and I do mean inexplicably–we never learn how), and has been orchestrating the First Order experiment from the beginning. Somehow, he groomed Ben Solo into Kylo Ren from afar, and now locks his sights on Rey from Jakku, our unruly, orphaned Force user and Kylo’s counterpart. From the outset, Abrams shrinks the Star Wars universe back down to a more immediately interconnected, even insular size. Palpatine is back because, uh, sure, why not?

The story plays out as antagonistically as that. Abrams, returning as co-writer/director to replace Colin Trevorrow, demonstrates a bewildering sense of his audience’s wants and needs. Does he think we don’t care about the mysterious resurrection of the saga’s most selfish and mystifying villain? Is he purposely leaving gaps in the story for canon material to fill in? Did he think a single thing out beyond “looks cool, feels OK, boom, bang?” Who knows. But the movie opens with the reintroduction of Palpatine, them immediately launches us into the Millennium Falcon, where Finn (John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac) quickly discover that there’s a mole in the First Order. We’re then teleported to a new Resistance base where Leia trains Rey (Daisy Ridley) in the ways of the Force. Before we’re oriented in this location, we’re shuffled into another adventure jam-packed with MacGuffins, whirlygigs, and ultimately dead ends.

The adventure is poorly defined and confusing, but Abrams doesn’t expect us to be smart. He’s content to race through every would-be meaningful moment at the quickest possible pace, exploiting that whiplash effect to distract us from the story’s garbled plotting. We know that our heroes are on a race to find Palpatine, and are looking for something called a “wayfinder” that will lead them to his location. There are only two wayfinders, and Kylo Ren finds the other one in an opening scene. Abrams creates a sense of urgency, but we don’t really know why, and no one seems convincingly terrified that the universe is on the brink of absolute annihilation. At least the original trilogy only featured one Death Star at a time, and developed centralized locations that defined personal stakes and brewed emotion. This film has a whole army of planet-destroying ships, locations with no names or personalities, and characters previously emphasized who are here utterly left to the wind.

And that’s the real failure of The Rise of Skywalker. It mishandles literally every character, except, arguably, C-3PO. Rey gets tacked onto a legacy story that erodes the entire thematic heart of not just The Last Jedi, but even Abrams’ own The Force Awakens. By some disgusting leap of imagination, she’s Palpatine’s granddaughter. Rey’s parents weren’t actually alcoholics who sold her for drinking money (a bit never reconciled), but good people who loved her enough to protect her from Gramps, and apparently, themselves. Finn (John Boyega) is suddenly and inexplicably Force sensitive, which is a nice little treat and possible nod to the end of The Last Jedi, but is only really employed to detect when Rey’s in peril. Outside of one nice moment with Jannah (Naomi Ackie), a fellow defected stormtrooper he meets on the road, his arc from indentured villain to Rebel hero goes largely unaddressed. Worse, even his relationship with Poe feels weirdly underdeveloped.

Poe (Oscar Isaac), meanwhile, is very much “present,” but that’s really all he is. He became something of a de facto leader at the end of The Last Jedi, but Abrams fails to hint at any sense of real authority or growth here. He bickers with Rey and continues to act like a self-important flyboy, echoing a roguish Han Solo-esque fearlessness, but where his presence is maximized, his importance really isn’t. His story and Leia’s should be more interconnected after she taught him a valuable lesson last time around, but the loss of Carrie Fisher unfortunately obstructs his development as a character. Using a mishmash of unused footage from The Force Awakens, they try to conjure her spirit elsewhere, but it doesn’t totally work. That said, the movie at least attempts to do right by her legacy.

Further, Leia’s death in the film helps create two of its best moments. She uses a last ounce of strength to send Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) a memory of his father, Han, who reappears with some paternal advice. It should be a silly moment, but tonally it absolutely works, sold completely by the fine work of Ford and Driver. As father and son reconnect, Kylo Ren finally transforms back into Ben Solo–he tosses his jagged lightsaber into the abyss and goes off to save Rey, who he loves. This whole sequence is preceded by a lightsaber duel where Kylo is left mortally wounded; Rey heals him, and confesses her feelings for the man he could be. Love–and hope–seem temporarily destined to win.

And they do… sort of? The third act is where The Rise of Skywalker totally loses sight of everything it’s trying to be. Rey is drawn into Palpatine’s lair, and there’s a lot of business about Sith and Jedi that doesn’t really make sense. Above them, the war between the “Final Order” (Palpatine’s new name for the galactic baddies) and the Resistance rages, a total lazy mirror to the end of Return of the Jedi. Palpatine wants to funnel his strength into Rey via some ancient ritual, but Ben shows up. Ben and Rey fight together against Palpatine, Rey summons the spirit of all of the Jedi who ever lived, and she beats her grandpa with his own superpower (in a very Harry Potter-esque showdown) before dying. Ben uses the last of his life power to resurrect her–a nice mirror of their Death Star scene earlier in the film–and they kiss. But he then dies, leaving Rey once again as the galaxy’s only real Force of hope. She temporarily reunites with the Resistance–who defeated the Final Order with the help of Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), appearing in the movie just long enough to serve as a deus ex machina–before jetting off to Tatooine. And finally, Rey takes on the last name Skywalker and sees Luke and Leia’s Force ghosts. The end.

Unbelievably, a lot more happens than that. Abrams introduces Zorii Bliss (Keri Russell), a fun, masked ex-fling of Poe’s who’s super cool but completely inconsequential to the plot. Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico effectively takes a Resistance desk job, which feels particularly insulting after everything she accomplished in The Last Jedi. There are more “Force Skype” scenes between Rey and Kylo, and Rey confronts her own inner darkness, manifested in “Dark Rey,” while Abrams introduces a cute new droid named D-O, and throws a lot of other random things at the wall that never stick (like a visit with the ghost of Luke Skywalker during a temporary detour to Ahch-To). It’s as messy as it is ambitious, and Abrams and co-writer Chris Terrio’s deserve some credit for spinning such a clotted web that you’re frequently distracted from all of the holes in it.

But then there’s the whole hope thing. And there’s really no cohesive sense of it here. As a series-ender, this story should resonate more than it does. The Last Jedi contends with the past more, and better, than Skywalker does; it wrestled with the sins of the Jedi and Sith, and kicked open a bigger door for generations to come. Skywalker says nothing about where they, or we, go from here. It ends with Rey abandoned and alone, except for her Force ghost friends, on another desert planet. The one person in the galaxy who ever understood her dies. And he evidently doesn’t redeem himself successfully enough to become a Force ghost. Is death really the only avenue to peace and purpose? Effectively, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Leia Organa all died to save Ben, who then died to save Rey. What is her next step? The movie doesn’t say, or seem to know. It’s a domino effect, with nothing but tragedy at the end of every spill.

That idea could work if the moments in between felt rewarding, or the losses served larger narrative or thematic ideas. But in this story, meant to be a conclusion to a single film, a trilogy and a nine-film saga, they don’t. Rey, Finn, and Poe share only a superficial sense of camaraderie. Their future adventures will lead to moments of happiness and enlightenment along the way. But why does Abrams ignore or de-emphasize those feelings? In The Rise of Skywalker, hope is little more than a ghost. And after more than 40 years, it’s one that Star Wars is still chasing, with no real end in sight.

#the rise of skywalker #star wars

[thepeerieeen]

I'm having a "bad brain day" so I'm gonna binge watch some (presumably shitty) teenage tv, and you never know, I might enjoy it. So I'm seeing Free Rein on Netflix and I'm gonna give it a watch: here are my thoughts below the cut (it gets long, sorry). I should also note that I know next to nothing about horses or horse riding. Also there are probably spoilers ahead.

Ep1:

Nice scenery

She looks uncomfortable, like they've just put her on a horse and told her to smile

Why is Zoe Scottish

Wait nvm

Oh hey, Zoe's cute

The grandad is brilliant I already love him

Ah, no father. Same

Why is there just shit on the side of the road, there are no animals around and I doubt the horses would go to the side of the road to poo

Why does he still have kids drawings on his cupboards?

Digging the teapot

Ah, layered tops. Typical teenage fashion

"The light will come through again" needing that today

Haha "what's a wifi"

At least they represent Jetlag though

Ah yes, one daughter goes missing - send the other one out to look for her. What could possibly go wrong.

Ooh, that acting wasn't great. Though the blonde is actually quite a good actress

Ooh, Raven. Ooh, foreshadowing (I guess)

K but this isn't the type of thing Austen would write

Why is Marcus like 25, the others are like 12 what

He's not even that attractive? (Says the bisexual who is more into women rn)

Horsome - the new fetch

Ah yes, get off the bike, that makes sense

Oh look a wild horse, who'd've ever thought???

Oh wow! Wild horse who is only understood by outcast? This is groundbreaking!

(Jk I'm kinda into this ngl)

An actual Scottish person!

Who's the guy with the cheekbones and why is he so shifty

What happened to the bike?

Oh Derek is obviously in love with the main stable person

Ah yes, stop looking for your sister and go chat to a horse

Bitch number one has arrived

Of course she owns the horse. That makes sense

They've called him hot Marcus jesus what is this

Cheekbones is stealing. Stop being shifty.

Welp theres the first continuity error I've spotted

Cheekbones is stalking now, apparently

Cheekbones is about to be falling in love, I'm calling it

He's also like, twenty tho

Oh shit what why is she being stalked now??

Ep2:

This is clearly a dream though

Are jelly shoes back in fashion? Sweet

I refuse to believe she could hear him from that distance and a closed window

I predict a love triangle

I mean cheekbones has a point

That wasn't a long conversation, like, that woulda taken an hour for me how does the mother do that?

Ah, ye olde fart joke

Bitch number one pulling the "I have lots of money" card

So they're putting cheekbones and Zoe together. I mean I can live with that

Oh my god cheekbones don't be such an arse

You'd think the mother would have worried if her other daughter didn't turn up the the pier where they agreed to meet?

Let's read mum's old diary! That can never go wrong!

They're literally stalking hot Marcus? Thats a?? Wee bit weird???

They're actually letting Mia go on Raven? Wow

Bob is kinda cute actually

I mean... she kinda deserved to fall not gonna lie

Bet Zoe is gonna make the magazine cover. Would serve Mia right lmao

Ok that's kinda cute, cheekbones. At least we know you're human

Wait what? Is cheekbone's name Pin?

WHAT SORT OF A NAME IS PIN?!

And the mother doesn't want the daughter to be riding. That makes a lot of sense. Totally.

Did she even peel those carrots?

Why has no one noticed she's wearing someone else's hoodie?

THANK YOOOOU

Oh shit, cheekbones is stealing the sedatives. No one saw that coming

Ep3:

K but she didn't say you couldn't go to the stables?

Rosie is honestly brilliant

Grandpa and I are on the same wavelength

Pin cam - idk man surely you could just... talk to him?

How could Marcus tell it was too small?? He wasn't looking at her???

Oh my god. Tie up your hair

Of course she's a prodigy, why wouldn't she be

They actually have a secret hip hop dance routine?? I wanna see that not gonna lie

The pun and finger guns have me. This kid is my new favourite character

Rosie, much though I like you, that is a total breach of privacy

Told you Pin cam would backfire

Now Marcus is going to find out about her "recording him"

It's only £10? I wanna go to pony camp.

Bet cheekbones is gonna go into where she just went

Called it

There must be a more subtle way to break into the medicine cabinet than with a screwdriver?

He's obviously not a horse thief? Medicine thief sure, horse thief nah

And I suppose that's Raven telling her it wasn't him, because that makes perfect sense

Ugh Mia calm down

Tbh maybe the parents would be better off separated? But like idk

It's the police, for why

Of course it was firefly that got stolen. I kinda feel for Mia and her bad acting.

Ep4:

How come is Pin allowed to come back even though he was stealing sedatives? That's still kinda illegal?

You're not banned from the stables though, are you Zoe

Rosie you sarcastic legend

She has a point though, what if she breaks her leg

Why is everyone attracted to Marcus?

Puns

Oh look, it pin

.....why do I dress the same way as Pin?

Who in their right mind needs three horses?

Pin is ignoring her - quite right honestly

Ah yes, subtly eavesdropping

I bet Elliot isn't even E

Ben is great

Ben and Rosie are in love. I've decided.

If course Pin is leading the hack

Mr Cheekbones! That's totally who he is! I called it!

He clearly doesn't want to talk, like... maybe let Pin get over the whole getting arrested thing? Idk

Why Becky? I don't understand?

Ah yes, follow the broody horse guy who was stealing sedatives, that can't possibly go wrong and is obviously the best option

Wait so Zoe followed Pin to his house and is now demanding he tells her what he has in the weird crate thing? Wow

And it's a horse. Wow. It's not like this is a horse show or anything

Called it, not a horse thief

Pin’s actually kinda sweet

Wait

Am I attracted to Pin?

I think I'm attracted to Pin

Shit

Decent cinematography there though

Ghost pony is a brilliant story

Wow Mia is such a dick

Now, this can go one of two ways. And I confidently predict Mia is gonna tell Zoe's mum she's not allowed to ride

Called it

Ep5:

Well the riding crop thing Is obviously the mother's

Oh yeah, Marcus is a character

How did anyone actually get close enough to Raven to braid his tail?

Savaaaaaaage

Ugh "like electricity" ughhh

What happened to Rosie?

Grandpa is brilliant and I love him

Why would fixing a radio make it up to Pin? I don't understand?

Those leather trousers though....

They're actually kinda cute together.... what is this

I ship it?

I still find Pin vaguely attractive and idk why

Oh hey Marcus, you're here as Love Interest #2

Oh no, I feel a bit bad for Rosie, I hope she doesn't get bullied

I'm emotionally attached

What is this

Why am I hooked on this television programme

Why

She can't seriously be intending to stay the whole night in the hay? It gets cold at night how're they gonna survive?

Oh actually Rosie might do okay. Cool

Who is gonna clean up all those crisps though?

Ghost pony, again

Pebbles?! Brilliant

I love Becky.

This can not end well

Definition of me on social media

She has five horses? Who needs five horses??

It's gonna be Rosie and crew, not horse thieves

..., that was unexpected

I am also relieved to find out there is no ghost pony

Look at them, stealing the horse.

Or not

Ep6:

Oh yeah, time zones are a thing

Rosie is not a subtle eavesdropper

Ah, a horse show. Why didn't I expect that

£15,000. Enough to, say, help this stable that is running low on money which we have been repeatedly told from the first episode? Let me guess, another, rival stable always wins and there's no way they could never pull it off?

Holloway Riding School. Called it

Can Becky just give away food?

"Keeping you entertained is easy" is it though????

Mate listen to his teachings.

You need your foundations in place before you can get any good?

"Let me go over the jump" "no" *does it* "wow well done"

Ugh she's gonna ride raven

Bet it doesn't go well

That's very Rube Goldberg not gonna lie

One little ride around the paddock will hurt

There's a race? The quads are gonna win

Bob was not made for speed.

And there goes Raven

Because obviously.

Pin looks worried because he has a crush on Zoe. Obviously

And yet Marcus is gonna get all the glory

That cringey ADR

Marcus has a point though, the basics are important

We're unlocking Maggie's backstory

She can't still be upset about a horse that died over 15 years ago?

I ship Becky and Jade not gonna lie

Ugh team lists. I'm calling it Zoe will have made it on despite not even trying out

Yup.

Wait she's reserve on Raven? Why? That's not a good move?

Ep 7:

Mia is such a bitch

Ok Raven doesn't like water, and I confidently predict this is an important plot point

Ooooh Mia just got rejected

So now the Ghost Pony is Emerald

Zoe you are so naive Marcus is asking you to the dance

Becky I love you and the mystery tortilla

Mia hasn't made the cover, I can predict.

I do feel a bit bad for Mia with her not very good father who isn't really there for her

That colour of green is a really nice colour of green. It brings out Pin's eyes. Ew, stop, why am I like this

Pin stop

Is zoe about to be murdered?

I thought the ghost pony was called Pebbles?

Why has Ted suddenly warmed up to Zoe?

Unlocking Raven's backstory

Pins name is actually Peter. Huh

It's nice that the moor pony is getting better enough to eat an apple

She's not on the cover

Pin likes Zoe and I ship it

Tedward

She's on her way to Steel (lol) his heart

Perfect - let the horse who is scared of water jump the water jump what could go wrong. Throw in an inexperienced rider into the mix and it's a perfect combination.

Wait this is actually kinda sweet

A funeral for Emerald is lovely

But the name Edward begins with an E so maybe E wasn't just Emerald

You could fall. IN LOVE. WITH PIN. OH MY GOD PLS

Wait what

Why has the photographer never heard of brightfields

Mia is so stuck up but I quite like her

I definitely did not need to take a 20 minute break just trying to find out how old Freddy Carter was, jesus.

Throwing stones at the windows, teenage stereotypes

They're cute

Ah, he couldn't say Peter, hence the Pin

Oh my god heartbreaking

Now they're going to the dance. Nice one

Oh god is Mia gonna do something to sabotage Zoe and Pin?

Holy shit is Ghost Pony real?

Ep8:

I actually quite like that yellow dress, not gonna lie

I love Becky and so does Jade

It's totally a date don't lie to yourself Zoe

Mia can get tae

Pin don't listen to her

She wouldn't tell you if it wasn't true though would she, Pin you imbecile

Rosie stop sabotaging, your mother is allowed to have friends

Oh shit they were a couple

Wait

What if it turns out Pin and Zoe are siblings

Wait no I'm thinking too much into this

Pin calm it

Marcus be happy

Pin... just.........

bob wyd

They're married.

"I already did" I mean....,

How are they upset by that?

Literally just talk to each other? This would make everything so much easier?

And Raven is still scared of water. Don't blame him, honestly

Ben and Rosie are evil geniuses

Becky is adorable and thinks safety goggles would help prevent death

She also thinks carrots glow in the dark

Wait how does Maggie know about the whole boys thing

Offscreen I guess

I mean I wouldn't wear that dress, but I guess it's okay?

Rosie fixing lights is not going to end well

Yup.

Where did ted come from? How did he get there so fast?

I mean Zoe actually pulls off that dress

Has Becky been murdered?

Oh yeah, Becky has a blog

I don't necessarily understand how or why a ghost pony is scary

Oh wait it's a person

Is it the horse thieves

It is the horse thieves

Why did they wait until dark? That would have been a long time to wait to capture the horse thief

Derek is a brilliant character

Who is very obviously in love with Sam

That barn actually looks pretty good

Pin went with Mia? That's surprising

Ted and Maggie are cute

Ben and Rosie are also cute

Derek and Sam are also a little bit cute

Piiiin don't be a diiiick

Those shoes don't really go with that outfit tho...

Rosie is in the spotlight though and I'm sure she's loving it

Mia go and just stop

Ooh thunder

Marcus is following Zoe who is following Pin who is going home

Oh wait Pin and Zoe are arguing in the rain. I may not be familiar with tropes but I'm pretty sure that they're about to kiss

And they're cute and I ship them

Marcus is just casually watching around the corner. Like a stalker

Was not expecting that?

Of course this is when the horse thieves take Raven

Ok but shouting after him is hardly gonna do anything?

Ep9:

I mean... it wasn't even her horse

That's so Raven

Wait they have security camera surely the thief will be ca- oh there was a power cut

But there was a back up generator?

Wait but Zoe is supposed to ride on Raven in the show? Assuming she has to

Rosie is so extra

Oh my god just like... idk kiss

That highlight tho

"That's what I love about you" pin, do continue

Pin you genius

So now they're off to look for this horse

Why didn't they just have this chat at the stables before they left and saved time?

"If the storm comes in again turn back" so the storm is gonna come in again and one or more of them aren't gonna turn back. Ok

"I am scared of the tooth fairy! What does she need all those teeth for? What's her plan?" Same Becky

Ben and Rosie have a handshake, this is cute

What is her plan

Becky is me with every single person I have a crush on

This is a significant character development for Mia

Ok so the only group not turning back is mia, susie, and Zoe

This is not going to end well

Mia.... Zoe can't control the weather?

That recording is in no way convincing

Wait how big is this island???

Either Mia or Zoe is going to get hurt

Ghost pony?

I mean this is just a bad horror movie now

Oh shit, firefly?

And Mia got hurt. Okay.

Wait so if Mia's hurt, she can't do the show?

Wait so the dad just turned up?

I like that there has been a character development now we sorta understand Mia's actions

So Mia can't ride

Wait what

Who is this and why is she here

Why is that so ominous

Ep10:

Rosie is so done with England

Sam is being pretty chill

Oh never mind

Marcus also has a crush

Still a Pin supporter tho

Rosie is brilliant

I would wear every single outfit pin has worn this season, not gonna lie

Becky is not helpful

And a raven horseshoe? Really?

Wait... nah never mind

Wow the mystery lady from the jaguar was just suuuuper rude to pin

I'm with Ted - it's totally what he thinks

Oh shit wait is Sam a horse thief?

Oh she is! Okay

That was a twist

I did not see that one coming

Don't just ignore Pin?

So now she just tells her that Raven is still on the island? Okay

Yaaas Pin! Go with her!

What signal? You can't just say wait for my signal and then not say what the signal is?

Wait but Zoe is getting the stolen horse and can't ride

Wait pin what are you doing

Oh the horseshoe

Wait if Mia could have ridden anyway, why put Zoe on?

I get the whole sprained ankle thing but she's just doing it?

Oh look, clever parallels between Mia doing the show and Zoe escaping

But what happened to Pin

And Rosie, where is Rosie

Oh look, water

Any bets Raven overcomes his fear and makes it across

Well look at that!

Also there's pin, he looks so proud

Dereeeeeek how do you feel

Oh no, pin don't feel bad. It's only Marcus... well actually..

"Derek" "its officer wrigley" savaaaaage

Wait.... his last name is wrigley?!

Is this their secret hip hop routine?! Oh my god this is brilliant!

I'm calling it - they've won

Yeah

Everyone has just left Mia lmao

Pin didn't even ride why is he there?

SUSIE HAD A BOYFRIEND ALL ALONG

IM SHOOK

if there was a scout at the riding school, they wouldn't send a letter if they didn't let him in?

Of course he got in that just makes sense?

Why would they send him a letter telling him he didn't get in if he was scouted?? It makes no sense????

And they kissed. Wow. There was like, no build up for that, Zoe and Pin, however....

Wait so Zoe is still not interested?

And now she's going to Pin?

Throwback to the singing teapot

It Pin

Oh that was actually pretty funny? I guess? Nice one Pin

Wait what's happening

Haha Lavinia

Ah, back to old Raven/Midnight Blue i guess

What do you want her to do Pin, I don't???

Ok so this is not a satisfying ending

Pin... are you literally stealing a horse right now?

Okay this is a lovely scene and all but how realistic is this

"I won't let you" you can't stop her???

Wait what

Okay so she can stay in England or go to America

She's gonna stay

They'll get renewed for a season two and she'll stay

And fall in love with pin

Because reasons

Should I stay or should I go now

Of course Mia is gonna buy the stables.

To summarise: That wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be - I actually quite enjoyed it.

#free rein #liveblog #i guess #I watched over four hours of this show in one sitting #I just thought I would post this here as like #a note to self? idk #long post

[ravenswood]

annabelle 2 thoughts aka Okay, You Porcelain Fuck, You Win

alright first thing’s first: i concede and admit defeat -- annabelle 2 was actually a pretty decent and, dare i say it, enjoyable movie. is it still kind of silly in places? absolutely. was it The Best Thing Ever? not by a long shot. but i would currently place it in the highest tier of “better than the original by dint of things actually happening” above ouija 2 and sinister 2.

i really genuinely feel like it improved on a lot of things i didn’t like about annabelle??? it was pretty clear that there was a more creative director this time around who like...knew how to handle this kind of movie better than the last one. there were very few shitty fakeout “omg is she gonna move?? is she gonna move????” shots and honestly there was some pretty creative use of camerawork and such to like. have annabelle move around and be a presence without falling into really bad camp as far as like. actually showing a moving doll clear as day.

on that note, i think annabelle herself was a much greater presence in this movie than she was in the original. maybe that’s just because of the little girl ghost being around as well but honestly the first movie just kind of felt like your typical haunted house movie with the doll being something of an afterthought. i feel like this movie worked more to like...tie her into the plot and make her the center of the haunting and the film, rather than just like. “hey remember this doll from the conjuring?”

and on THAT note, i feel like there were just enough nods to the conjuring movies to make it feel like it tied in without it just kind of turning into a series of reminders that you could be watching the conjuring (like the original lmao). the valak picture is a stand-out of course but i also really appreciated the possession sequence that was similar in nature to the way we saw bathsheba possess carolyn in the conjuring. that was a nice little nod for fans.

also!! this didn’t fuck up the lore in the slightest!!! definitely a Plus all things considered and a good sign for things to come

it was also paced pretty well for a two hour movie. i didn’t really feel myself getting antsy at any point, but i think by now that’s pretty par for the course as far as these movies go.

some criticism tho: it DID end up falling into the trap of being more about the demon than the doll a little towards the end and honestly the whole sequence with the scarecrow was.........really Unnecessary. like. almost completely pointless tbh. they could have cut that out easily and nothing would’ve been lost. i was not a fan.

ALSO i think they definitely showed us a liiiiittle too much of the demon itself. i get that the makeup is cool and all and the director obviously wanted a chance to show it off, but something like that kind of belongs being mostly in shadow and the times when it wasn’t, it looked pretty ridiculous. creature design is fun, but the doll is supposed to be the centerpiece of the movie and i feel like that principle should’ve been adhered to a little better, especially considering the the director was obviously pretty damn good at manipulating it to be so.

the characters were kind of ehhh but they were decent enough i guess. i didn’t hate any of them and there were moments where they could be endearing. the child acting was decent which is always a plus when a cast is composed mostly of kids -- although apart from the two main girls, the rest were older preteens and younger teens so. BUT that being said i wasn’t particularly attached to any of the cast, except maybe the nun lady a little.

speaking of nuns, the little teaser after-credits sequence was admittedly neat. oh valak, you Fuck.

ALL IN ALL i honestly would’ve preferred if this was the only annabelle movie? like, just tweak the ending a little and you could’ve absolutely cut out the first annabelle movie and just gone straight into the conjuring. for it’s faults, this was a vast improvement over the first movie and makes me....tentatively optimistic for further installments in the conjuring universe. it definitely wasn’t as good as the main series, but imo it deserves to exist as a film far, far more than the original. which is saying something considering that going in, my thoughts were that none of these movies deserved to exist.

im still Skeptical as hell about the crooked man tho

#meanwhile at mondor #THEY GOT ME GUYS IM SO SORRY

[i-like-your-genitalia]

You are going to kill me... buuut all 200 questions? I'm keeping you busy and thinking about your life

200: My crush’s name is: Jennifer 


199: I was born in: a hospital? (Jks 1998)


198: I am really: funny 


197: My cellphone company is: Lebara


196: My eye color is: boring ol’ brown 


195: My shoe size is: a ladies 9


194: My ring size is: I actually don’t know


193: My height is: 5'10 


192: I am allergic to: nothing surprisingly 


191: My 1st car was: 1998 Subaru Legacy (the station wagon)


190: My 1st job was: Checkout Worker


189: Last book you read: The Accident Man


188: My bed is: a king 


187: My pet: I don’t have one atm 


186: My best friend: Anushka 


185: My favorite shampoo is: I don’t have one (but I like anything coconut or tropical scented)


184: Xbox or ps3: don’t care 


183: Piggy banks are: lit


182: In my pockets: I’m a girl, only 20% of my clothes have pockets big enough to put anything in 


181: On my calendar: “Spotify Premium runs out on the 27th of August"


180: Marriage is: Not married 


179: Spongebob can: 


178: My mom: is awesome 


177: The last three songs I bought were? Whatever I listened to last on Spotify? 


176: Last YouTube video watched: review on Aztec clay face mask 


175: How many cousins do you have? 4 step cousins and then 6 blood related cousins 


174: Do you have any siblings? Just a younger sister 


173: Are your parents divorced? Nah they still together and in love 


172: Are you taller than your mom? Only just 


171: Do you play an instrument? I used to play the piano 


170: What did you do yesterday? Worked

[ I Believe In ]


169: Love at first sight: kinda 


168: Luck: yes 


167: Fate: not really 


166: Yourself: sometimes 


165: Aliens: yes 


164: Heaven: yes 


163: Hell: no 


162: God: yes 


161: Horoscopes: I mostly enjoy the zodiac memes and compatibility and personality horoscopes 


160: Soul mates: yes, but I believe you have more than one 


159: Ghosts: yes 


158: Gay Marriage: big yes 


157: War: nope


156: Orbs: it would be cool but I’m neutral 


155: Magic: yes

[ This or That ]


154: Hugs or Kisses: Hugs 


153: Drunk or High: Drunk 


152: Phone or Online: Online 


151: Red heads or Black haired: Red heads 


150: Blondes or Brunettes: Blondes 


149: Hot or cold: Hot 


148: Summer or winter: Summer 


147: Autumn or Spring: Autumn 


146: Chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate 


145: Night or Day: Day 


144: Oranges or Apples: Oranges 


143: Curly or Straight hair: Curly 


142: McDonalds or Burger King: Maccas 


141: White Chocolate or Milk Chocolate: Milk Chocolate 


140: Mac or PC: Mac


139: Flip flops or high heels: High Heels 


138: Ugly and rich OR sweet and poor: Sweet and Poor 


137: Coke or Pepsi: Coke


136: Hillary or Obama: OBAMA


135: Burried or cremated: Cremated 


134: Singing or Dancing: Dancing 


133: Coach or Chanel: Chanel 


132: Kat McPhee or Taylor Hicks: who are they?


131: Small town or Big city: Big city 


130: Wal-Mart or Target: I haven’t been to either 


129: Ben Stiller or Adam Sandler: Ben Stiller 


128: Manicure or Pedicure: Manicure 


127: East Coast or West Coast: East Coast 


126: Your Birthday or Christmas: this is too cruel to answer 


125: Chocolate or Flowers: Chocolate 


124: Disney or Six Flags: Disney 


123: Yankees or Red Sox: um don’t care

[ Here’s What I Think About ]


122: War: It’s expensive and unnecessary and should be a last resort. It’s not worth the lives lost, people injured and relocated. The monetary cost is ridiculous and it barley solves anything. It cause more issues and potentially more wars

121: George Bush: did 9/11


120: Gay Marriage: It’s actually crazy how long and how much effort it took to get this accepted. And I just hope this right isn’t taken away! 


119: The presidential election: Donald Trump and Pence need to die or be locked up forever, I don’t even understand how anyone thought that Hilary Clinton would be worse. 


118: Abortion: Pro-choice for the win 


117: MySpace: I wasn’t old enough for this 


116: Reality TV: my guilty pleasure tbh 


115: Parents: I love my parents and they are good to me. But it would be great if they could be less homophobic. 


114: Back stabbers: I don’t know why people feel the need to intentionally hurt and embarrass someone, especially someone who isn’t prepared for it or trusts you 


113: Ebay: I don’t really use eBay 


112: Facebook: I use it to tag my non tumblr friends in memes and to stalk people 


111: Work: I’m sick of my job but I’m having to stick it out for now. 


110: My Neighbors: They are seasonal but if their kids could not move and rearrange the bedroom at the ass crack of dawn that would be fantastic 


109: Gas Prices: New Zealand, especially in the towns. Gas prices are so high. Spain isn’t so bad


108: Designer Clothes: I’d rather have more clothes than one designer one 


107: College: 


106: Sports: I have zero hand eye coordination and therefore hate sports! But I will watch the Olympics 


105: My family: They are cool for the most part 


104: The future: is scary and it makes me wanna throw up if I think too much about it

[ Last time I ]


103: Hugged someone: like a week ago 


102: Last time you ate: I’m eating chocolate right now 


101: Saw someone I haven’t seen in awhile: my grandparents and my cousins today 


100: Cried in front of someone: it’s been forever 


99: Went to a movie theater: like a good 6-8 months ago


98: Took a vacation: ummm like 4 months ago 


97: Swam in a pool: yesterday 


96: Changed a diaper: not since my babysitting days 


95: Got my nails done: literally before I left New Zealand so 5 months ago


94: Went to a wedding: it’s been years 


93: Broke a bone: never actually broken anything in my body 


92: Got a peircing: I got my ears pieced when I was 12 


91: Broke the law: Probably when I was driving, speeding or something but nothing I've been charged with lmao


90: Texted: like a couple of hours ago

[ MISC ]


89: Who makes you laugh the most: my sister 


88: Something I will really miss when I leave home is: having consistently good home cooked meals 


87: The last movie I saw: probably shrek 


86: The thing that I’m looking forward to the most: being back in New Zealand! Or doing some travelling 


85: The thing im not looking forward to: working 


84: People call me: gay
83: The most difficult thing to do is: be honest 
82: I have gotten a speeding ticket: I actually haven’t 


81: My zodiac sign is: Leo 


80: The first person i talked to today was: my girlfriend 


79: First time you had a crush: the first crush I remember, I was in year 4 (so 8 years old) and it was on this boy named Joseph 


78: The one person who i can’t hide things from: I’m good at hiding things tbh 


77: Last time someone said something you were thinking: my sister when my mum and dad were talking shit 


76: Right now I am talking to: my sister and my friends from New Zealand 


75: What are you going to do when you grow up: Hairdressing tho I kinda would like to do pre school/nursery/kindergarten teaching 


74: I have/will get a job: currently working as front of house at a little supermarket 


73: Tomorrow: I’m working and doing house work


72: Today: I slept and then worked 


71: Next Summer: I will hopefully be enjoying the sunshine 


70: Next Weekend: Working yet again and having dinner with my grandparents 


69: I have these pets: Definitely a cat, and also a dog 


68: The worst sound in the world: chalk or finger nails on a chalkboard 


67: The person that makes me cry the most is: myself 


66: People that make you happy: my sister, my friends and my girlfriend 


65: Last time I cried: when I watched beauty and the beast 


64: My friends are: absolutely incredible, I don’t deserve them


63: My computer is: I don’t have one anymore 


62: My School: I’m not in school 


61: My Car: I don’t have a car atm 


60: I lose all respect for people who: are snakes 


59: The movie I cried at was: beauty and the beast


58: Your hair color is: brown and boring 
57: TV shows you watch: Atm limitless, shooter, Shetland, Rewatching Criminal Minds, AHS and Black Mirror


56: Favorite web site: boohoo.com or iherb 


55: Your dream vacation: A cruise or a historical/relaxed tour of the ancient world 


54: The worst pain I was ever in was: in a tie between slamming my fingers in a car door or when I got a virus (it’s a really bad version of food poisoning) and I actually thought I was gonna die. 


53: How do you like your steak cooked: medium to well done 


52: My room is: relatively clean and currently got that minimal plant theme going 


51: My favorite celebrity is: Dua Lipa 


50: Where would you like to be: with @dysfunctionalgroup


49: Do you want children: yeah one day 


48: Ever been in love: yes 


47: Who’s your best friend: Anushka 


46: More guy friends or girl friends: it used to be a balance but now mostly girl friends 


45: One thing that makes you feel great is: cute underwear and a good nights sleep 


44: One person that you wish you could see right now:


43: Do you have a 5 year plan: yes


42: Have you made a list of things to do before you die: mentally but it’s not written down anywhere 


41: Have you pre-named your children: no, but I have some names I really like lined up 


40: Last person I got mad at: my sister 


39: I would like to move to: the Uk or NZ 


38: I wish I was a professional:

[ My Favorites ]


37: Candy: Reece’s pieces or skittles 


36: Vehicle: Kinda want a Range Rover or a Land Rover but in the old style. Or a classic car


35: President: Obama


34: State visited: ive never been to America 


33: Cellphone provider: Lebara 


32: Athlete: my bio teacher, she played for a big women’s netball team 


31: Actor: Jensen Ackles 


30: Actress: Gal Gadot 


29: Singer: Dua Lipa


28: Band: The Internet

27: Clothing store: h&m or boohoo


26: Grocery store: I don’t have one 


25: TV show: Brooklyn 99


24: Movie: I have too many 


23: Website: this hell hole


22: Animal: Cats or Goats 


21: Theme park: I’ve only been to Disney 


20: Holiday: Christmas and Halloween 


19: Sport to watch: Gymnastics 


18: Sport to play: None


17: Magazine: who reads magazines anymore 


16: Book: the Mysterious Benedict Society 


15: Day of the week: Friday 


14: Beach: as long as it’s sandy I’m cool 


13: Concert attended: J Cole


12: Thing to cook: Pizza and Sweet and Sour Pork 


11: Food: Cheesburgers 


10: Restaurant: Any that sell food I like 


9: Radio station: ZM




8: Yankee candle scent: most of them




7: Perfume: Dolce and Gabbana, Floral Drops




6: Flower: forget me nots




5: Color: Green




4: Talk show host: don’t have a fave




3: Comedian: don’t have a fave




2: Dog breed: Border Collie




1: Did you answer all these truthfully? Guess you’ll never know

#all done #my asks #answered asks #ask me anything

[survivormarmoreal]

Episode #12: "FUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuoooouuoock me." - Maynor

Well. Looks like Bryce wasnt trust worthy at all. I can only have annabelle but we dont talk too much. I need to win immunity or my ass is gone next.

I definately need to win this immunity if I want to regroup. A even bigger fire in me wanting to play even more aggressive. Ive been passive. Now I dont really care who goes. Except for Annabelle ❤️. Im going to try and throw wrenches in their plans and try to get someone from their side out.

I’m on 230. Idk what my goal is going to be but i think im going to stop around 2pm so i can go back to 1 before 5pm deadline comes. I really need to win this immunity. 😰

Update. I am now at 500 for the number. Its barely noon. Idk if i should keep going or start to go back down to one. I just hope im the furtherest from everyone else. I would die if i dont win.

I feel so terrible. like that Nathan vote was the hardest thing I have had to do in this game so far. He betrayed my trust a lot. But I really got along so well with him. And Nathan deserves better. Ugh. Like Brian and I literally feel gross. And now I have to do damage control with Anna and make it seem like a last minute switch when actually it was me being a terrible person and plotting all round against one of the nicest players ever. I'm feeling rough and this season is getting really tough.

Well I am still here! I am honestly shocked that I am, but I will TAKE it gladly! Maybe I will stop being the target now cause nathan is gone (we shall see though, I feel like Bryce and brian are now HATED by Maynor and Anna) which will be nice. I now have the lovely (....) distinction of having the most votes cast against me in celestial history. and ALL Since the merge started lmao! I really am a magnet for votes huh. I feel good, might have to be rude to someone to get a target off my back though so uh maybe bitch boi matt will make a return at some point? We shall see

its so awk trying to talk to annabelle bc 1 she doesnt talk to me but more importantly idk what to say like. she feels betrayed but sharkys the one who threw nathans name out NNN she should be glad if it were up to me shed be in ponderosa right now ASFKJADSHFKJS. idk like i literally just forced a convo with her so i could confront her about leaking to sharky and she just ghosts. i want DRAMA. i want TEA. and yet nothing. maybe instead of doing the most i should be doing immunity but counting is literally so anxiety inducing and daunting JKHDAFSDKJFHKJ. anyways 6th is cute too

FUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuoooouuoock me. I got to 626 to pay my respect to Stitch and i mess up gojng down from 323 and put 321. I never wanted to cry so bad. I wanted to scream into the void. I cant even with this challenge. I restarted and back at 404. Its 1:25 and deadline 5. Hopefully itll be enough time.

OK, so I definitely won't win immunity, but I tried to do well!  I don't think my submission will be good enough, but I can hope and pray it is!!  I don't even know if I fucked up, but I don't think I did... so hopefully 317 is the number for me!!

In other tea time news, Nathan... ya... um... when you see this I want you to truly understand how heartbroken I am at what happened.  I knew with all the strong-minded gameplay and trust you had in me that we would've been final 2 given the chance, but I also think that what threw me off was Annabelle's constant tea spilling at Sharky and the fact that your closest allies (aside from myself) were her and Maynor, who I like but have little to no actual game relationship with.  In addition, your desire to take out Matt every single round of the merge?  Wig.

I also found out Bryce was the other Matt vote during the merge vote... so... wow I'm powerful....

According to me and Bryce's plans in this game, ideally, Sharky will go this round... but after sending home Nathan last round, my whole ass heart is on some different shit.  I just feel like me doing that would be another rough ass round, and I don't think I could handle it.  It was easier when people like Nick, who annoyed me on a game level, were the names being thrown out, especially with how cocky he was... but now I'm like... wow, these people?  Amazing.

I think Sharky winning immunity wouldn't be too bad because then I can finally push Annabelle out and won't have to worry about her, so I'm banking on that!  I don't wanna ruin Bryce and I's plans in this game, I just feel more confident sitting with Sharky than like anyone else.

I also think my relationship with Maynor is so much better, and I can actually work with him further down the road.  He sketched me out a lot in the past, but I really think it's a solid ally for me if I can get him passed this round.  Annabelle or Sharky are the ideal targets, but I'm really feeling an Annabelle vote this round.  I may not be in the best spot for immunity this round, but I know I'll have my A-game on and ready next round, so I'm READY.

I was doing so well in this challenge. I had like 900 and I screwed up. Now I'm feeling the pressure. And I keep messing up. Now I've got less than 3 hours to make it up and hopefully finally win something. Brian told me he did not do well. And I don't want anyone else to win because it will limit our options going forward.

I'm over it. I screwed up HARD. And now I have like no time to recover. I'm over it.

I decided to go back to 626. And at 2:41pm i was able to get back down to 1. Im happy but i really hope that was enough because if it wasnt then im going to cry. I really want to win this. Stitch my favorite please give me luck. 🦑

last round was so risky i hope it doesnt just get me 6th. i tried to get together with anna again and i think we are but maynor not so much which sucks but as long as brian is real with wanting to keep me i should be good imagine if it was fake and he wasnt really taking me to the end NNN adsjkfhadskj the gag of the season? but ugh sharky really wants me out again like maybe get a clue and stop.

That was upsetting. But Bryce did really well so I applaud him. Its most likely going to be me tomorrow night. It sucks but i can at least try and see if i can find a way to stay.

There is some hope. Annabelle and I want to make it a tie with Matt. And when its rock time, Brian or Sharky hopefully get the odd color and they are sent home. Thats the only play right now that I think can save me. I have to rely on Bryce who i dont trust at all anymore. But kind of have to if i want to survive tomorrow.

i'm down for some mutual destruction this vote. I hope that this pays off or it could totally fuck me over but it is what it is if this works out i'll take this as like a win for nathan and i'll  be in a much better spot i think. wish me luck <3

I WON IMMUNITY PPL CAN TRY TO COME FOR ME BUT THEY CANT SURE MAYBE I PLAYED BAD IDK I HAVE BAD SENSE OF SELF WORTH BUT MAYBE I DID PLAY WELL BUT MAYBE I DIDNT BUT U KNOW WHAT IS TRUE AND FACTS!!! ME WINNING THIS IMMUNITY. BRIAN DOESNT WANT TO VOTE SHARKY ALL OF A SUDDEN WHICH IS SKETCH BUT NOW THAT I HAVE IMMUNITY IM NOT AFRAID OF VOTING SHARKY AND HOPING ANNABELLE AND MAYNOR VOTE WITH ME IM TALKING IN CAPS BC IM SO EXCITED MY STOMACH WAS LITERALLY A MESS ALL DAY BC OF HOW NERVOUS I WAS COUNTING UP AND DOWN AND SEVERAL BREAKDOWNS LATER I WON WOOOOOOOHHOOO IT REALLY IS BRYCE HISTORY MONTH!!!! anyways yaa i hope f5 is me brian matt maynor anna and that brian is real one and uses vote steal there so we auto have immunity but maybe i try to win immunity again anyway to make sure im safe.... but then at f5 i think anna has to go but she'll be so mad idk maybe maynor.. or  maybe matt whomst knows KJASDHFKJS but wooh in this moment... i am at peace

Im convinced annabelle is like a marine biologist or something with how much she loves sharky! i just want him out KFJASDHFKJ i love being pushy jk i literally hate it but i just want him out its not a lot to ask and i feel like im getting played idk but at this point my loyalty is to brian so if he betrays me its like w/e NNN just hoping itll work out maybe i comp my way into a losing finalist spot... anyways i just got into dear evan hansen again so love that renewed obsession

The Fajita Fellas are actually a solid alliance. I know I've been skeptical of Bryce in the past but I'm actually starting to trust him which is cool. HOWEVER it's also an issue because if I'm going to keep trying to save Anna it's only going to get harder. I'm hoping this vote will be easy squeezy. I told the FF that Maynor is easy and least likely to have an idol. They seem good with that. So...we'll see.

I am very nervous for tonight. I am 2 of the options for Sharky, Brian, and Matt to do. Annabell and I are throwing each other under the bus to them. But our plan is to vote Sharky and hoping have Bryce with us and cause a tie. And on the revote hope one flips on Sharky or we go to rocks. And hopefully Matt or Brian get the rocks.

The vote is me tonight. If plan goes according to it should be 3 vote sharky and 3 vote me. Im really hoping they flip on sharky or that Matt or Brian get rocked out. 🤞🤞🤞

So this vote seems so simple, its like kinda amazing for once. Last tribal had so much deceit and lying to get Nathan out and this tribal is like. so. quiet? you could literally hear a pin drop. Maynor and Anna seem like they have legit given up trying to get further, with both apparently voting for the other. How quiet it is is making me slightly nervous, but I do know that if i do somehow leave i am very proud of my game I have played. and I will have the same placement as Standrea so like nothing could be wrong with that huh?

The vote ties, 3 votes Maynor and 3 votes Sharky.

Im died. It worked but now here is hoping for matt or brian to flip. Im scared n excited.

bro... wtf. Can I say I am mad at Bryce? no not really I saw this coming from a mile off, hell even from the other side as the Atlantic. so like mad? nah? Its just... making me so sad. Like I REALLY DO NOT want to go home, i've been through too much to get to this point. But like,... I REALLY love sharky as a person. Like, I love him loads so this is a REALLY hard decision. Fuck my life I don't know what to do

I HATE REVOTES. SO. MUCH. i AM REFUSING TO TELL ANNA ANYTHING cause i like know she will immediately run to sharky and if I am to flip I am gonna tell him first not let him hear via Anna cause that is fucking SHADY. she's just pissing me off tbqh and its just like??? at least be cordial and get off invisible for fucking once

i think the plan worked? it was so awk trying to talk to matt i felt bad but i hope he understands he said he did so! and like... idk its just so hm idk idk. hm. like brian and matt both prob gonna flip wooh. matt said i played well so maybe i did like i tend to never think i played well but maybe i did but maybe hes just lying so KJFSDHJFA wooh

BRIAN IS THE SKETCHIEST PERSON IVE EVER PLAYED WITH I JUST WANNA GO TO THE END WITH HIM BUT HES LITERALLY BACKSTABBING ME I WANTED HIM TO JUST 4-2 SHARKY BUT NO HE WANTED TO MAKE IT GO TO ROCKS TO FEEL BETTER OR WELL GO TO TIE NOT ROCKS AND NOW HES LIKE SORRY SHARKY HAS TO STAY LIKE NO HE ACTUALLY DOESNT HAVE TO STAY IF U VOTE HIM AND ANNA STOPS BEING FAKE AND TRYING TO KEEP HIM WHEN HES DONE NOTHING BUT LIE TO HER AHHHH THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING SJDKFHADSKJFHSDKJF DSHFKJADSHFKJADSHFKASJFHKADSJFHADSKJSKFHASDKJFHASKJFAHKJFS ps: i love everyone in this game... but in this moment? i was ATTACKED

It’s almost about that time. 20 more minutes. I am very nervous. I hope that Bryce and Annabelle stick with me and hope Matt or Brian flipped if not then at least go to rocks. Im really hoping that this move works. But this final 6. I ❤️ Annabelle. ❤️ Sharky. ❤️ Brian. ❤️ Bryce. ❤️ Matt. They are all awesome.

Brian is rocked out.

#episode #allmadhere