#when he understands what its like to be family…. and to have family for realsies…… and he decides yeah. these two <33 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

f10werfae · 1 year

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My wife is fine, thanks

pairing: Husband!Henry x Wife!Reader

summary: I LOVE YOUR HENRY CAVILL POSTS!So can I request an Instagram blurb for wife!reader (obv for Henry Cavill), where fans react to wife!reader and henry having an age gap (10+). (requested by @chaotictwig)

requests are open/likes, comments and reblogs are appreciated♥️

Full M.List, Henry M.List, Taglist Form

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

@/hellostarsky: Can everyone stop hating on Henry, so what if he’s 39 and she’s 28?? They’re both legal consenting adults, he did not groom her and treats her with the utmost respect. She does not need the stress of you guys while she’s pregnant with their baby.

@/caviilll: I don’t care what anyone says, Y/n and Henry are so mf cute. The way he spoils the hell out of her and just always holds her close♥️♥️ If only

@/relatimefr: Ok but their age gap is so weird, she was being born when he was like 11 wtf

>> @/Prettyprincess: They lit started dating at 24 and 35, you can calm yourself honey, they did nothing but fall in love☠️

@/Henry Cavill: Happy 29th birthday to my lovely beautiful wife, the future mother to our baby(ies) and my best friend in life. Glad to be doing life with you and no one else, can’t wait to see you when I get home tonight, both you and baby Cavill ♥️

@/Holymacsncheese: But their age gap suits them sm, Y/n makes sure Henry keeps up to date with all the new things today, and he grounds her to a sense of comfort and love. They compliment each other so much, match made in heaven I say

@/Polypockets: yall acting as if he groomed her straight out of highschool, they literally met on set where she had to play his wife, yall just jealous cause it ain’t you 💋

@/Y/nCavill: 35 Weeks today! Baby Cavill is now officially nearly here, unfortunately i’ll be taking a break from future projects for some time, I want to finally settle down and accept my new role. The role of motherhood. Hope you all understand, Y/n xx

>> @/HenryCavill: I’d like to follow this by saying that, after this new movie I will also be taking a break for the next year or so, who knows. Just would like you all to know that I appreciate those who support us wholeheartedly, and I can’t wait to start this new journey!

@/User19204726: That picture of Henry showing Y/n new dresses in the maternity shop while she’s sitting watching him, is the cutest thing. She was too tired to walk about the shop, so he literally went around and got everything to have a mini fashion show for her

@/pumpituplease: God bless Y/n for posting pictures of Henry painting the nursery, that man is giving real dilf material now, and we can’t forget about the milf Y/n. Sexiest Power couple for realsies

@/geraltlovers: Omg I thought we were over the whole age gap thing?! Why the hell are papers still calling him all these names and calling Y/n naïve?? They lit have a child together, get a grip

>> @/petalsforpeps: omg ikr, like get over yourselves because they don’t care about what you have to say

@/Y/nCavill: Henry and I would like to welcome baby Penelope into the world, she arrived on September 25th and is currently rocking it! No pictures will be shared, hope you all understand that ♥️

@/cpatainsy: HENRY IS A DAD GUYS OMG, HIM AND Y/N’S BABY IS GONNA ACTUALLY SLAY THE REAL WORLD. WE BETTER PREPARE OURSELVES!!

@/rainbowsncakes: Omg that photo Y/n posted with Henry’s back to the camera, you can just see the tiniest bit of baby Penelope’s hair out of the corner of his arm, AND ITS DARK HAIR, SHE GOT HIS CURLY HAIR I BET

>> @/lotsoocks: YOO ACCORDING TO HENRY’S MUM’S POST, BABY PENELOPE CAME OUT ROUGHLY THE SAME SIZE HENRY WAS WHEN HE WAS BORN. POOR Y/N

>>> @Y/nCavill: NO BECAUSE THIS IS TRUE, 38 HOURS OF PURE HARD LABOUR. Thankful for all the nurses, doctors, midwives and especially my bear of a husband who didn’t leave me alone once♥️

@/user823783: Fuck this family bullshit, when is Henry gonna back to our screens?!

>> @/HenryCavill: i’m sorry but I don’t tolerate anyone speaking about my family like that, a fan of mine wouldn’t speak of people I love like that. We want to live a peaceful life full of love, if you can’t respect that then i’m glad i’m not back to work yet. Family comes first.

@/HenryCavill: I love my wife @Y/nCavill and my gorgeous daughter Penelope, the exact double of me I must say (sorry babe) I also love the people who support me, and it hurts me to say that it’s a minority of you that seem to keep harassing my family. Please respect our lives, not only has our relationship been through enough, but our privacy has been violated more than enough times. Enough is enough.

>> @/jellyjumpbean: What sorta losers are still hating on them?! Can we please grow up and stop being delusional, the man is happy with his own family now. None of then deserve this abuse and especially not little Penelope who hasn’t even been here 5 minutes

@/Dcornarvel: Y/n is absolutely growing post pregnancy, you would never guess that she’s edging 30, Henry is one lucky man for real

>> @/HenryCavill: That I am. Thank you very much my friend ♥️

———

Taglist Tags (Form is up there^^): @fdl305 @alexxavicry @bookfrog242 @alina02 @aerangi @i-beg-your-pardon-laufeyson @sparklemarysunshine @oliviah-25 @mischiefhasbeenmanaged @nikkitc0703 @misshale21 @hallecarey1 @girl-of-multi-fandoms @mansaaay @princess-paramour @stormcloudss @uwiuwi @marvelgurl @taramaria @mysticfalls01 @kebabgirl67 @athena-roy @tinyelfperson @madebylilly @dumb-fawkin-bitch @vrittivsanghavi @beck07990 @kimhtoo17 @thereisa8ella @pandaxnienke @marvelstarker-mha98

#henry cavill x reader #henry cavill #henry cavill one shot #henry cavill imagine #henry cavill fanfiction #henry cavill fandom

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calliecat93 · 3 years

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ST: TNG S6 Watchthrough Episodes 22-25

Suspicions: Crusher has been ousted as the CMO and doctor in general to the point that it sounds like she’s going to be court-martialed. Why? Well, the episode shows us as Crusher explains what happened to Guinan. She had been holding a scientific conference but during an experiment, a scientist dies. As more happens, Crusher decides to investigate on her own… which included performing an autopsy against orders when all else failed and against the family’s wishes. So… I love Crusher. She is nowhere near close to overthrowing McCoy as favorite CMO (or favorite ST character in general)… which since Pulaski is her only other competition ATM it’s not much, but still. She’s smart, determined, understanding, nurturing, a maternal figure, and while she may be shouty like her predecessor, she doens’t need to be to be an awesome doctor who will have her voice heard. Two people died under her watch and she will get to the bottom of it, knowing fully well that she’s risking her career by doing so. Seriously, McCoy would be proud! It’s a good episode that lets Crusher be plain awesome. She takes matters into her own hands, keeps investigating even after getting herself into hot water because it needs to be done, and she kicks the bad guys' ass and save herself at the end. Even Ogawa gets an awesome moment by giving Crusher access to autopsy files and endangering her own career to help her. Hell yeah, medical officer solidarity~! It’s not the most impactful episode, but if you love Dr. Crusher, this is absolutely an episode to check out~! 4/5.

Rightful Heir: Ever since Birthright, Worf’s been having a crisis of faith. He goes to reflect on this and has a vision of Kahless, a Klingon spiritual leader and he has returned. Yep, we have us a religious episode folks. Kahless causes Worf to find his faith again and view him as the savior that he is hailed as… too bad that Gowran isn’t convinced. Thos episode actually raises a lot of interesting questions to me. What happens when a spiritual figure returns? How do we explain things despite them making no logical sense? How can we be for sure that they are being truthful? And what happens when it all comes crashing down? Do you maintain the facade to keep up morale and allow the teachings to continue their intent? Or do you tellt he truth and cause who knows what kind of chaos? I can relate to Worf here. Especially in recent years, I’ve been having a major crisis of faith and in such a vulnerable state, it’s so easy to fall into something like this. Klingon episodes really like to delve into the complicated politics, huh? Also really liked the talk between Data and Worf near the end about faith. I agree with the sentiment that even if a claimed diety is proven a fraud or fake, the teachings still matter… but the fact that they ultimateley maintain the facade of Kahless kind of muddies it up. The Klingons get guidance… by a fake. Now to be fair the problems of this and what’ll happen if Kahless ever gets found out and Worf wants the truth known to the people, so at the very least it’s ackowledged. I feel like the realizations should have impacted Worf more than it did, but ah well. Overall it was fine. 3.5/5.

Second Chances: While on a mission led by Riker, the crew stumbles upon… Riker. Another one. Okay, long story short, Riker has stranded eight years ago, got rescued, but transporter hijinks created a clone who was left alone. I S2G, transporters are freakin’ horrifying. I actually thought that this was going to go down like TOS’ The Enemy Within, but they avoid that. This Riker, who we’ll call Thomas, has the memories of the Riker from eight years before. So he hasn’t undergone any of the six-season-long development that Riker has so he hasn’t done things such as reconcile with his father, become the First Officer, and he still has romantic feelings for Troi. Major praise to Johnathan Frakes here. Acting against yourself is never easy. We have gotten it a couple of times, Brent Spiner’s done it plenty at this point. But Frakes did a fantastic job as both Riker’s, the one we’ve come to know and the man that he used to be/would have become had he remained stranded. Thomas and Troi’s interactions are sweet and really give us a nice glimpse of what Riker and Troi’s past relationship had to be like… although it is kinda awkward considering the older Riker’s presence and all. What would it be like to interact with an alternate past version of yourself? Riker is much more collected and in charge than he was then but also plays it safe more, while Thomas has more of the cockiness and immaturity that he did back in the early days but is also far more daring. In the end, things don’t work out with Thomas and Troi as Thomas chooses his career just as he did in the past and Troi’s not willing to thro the life she has away to marry him. Poor Troi cannot catch a break. This was an interesting one. I feel like Thomas should have been more affected by the fact that he was alone for eight years, but I also like that we don’t go for the whole evil/insane plot either. It was really cool to see the older Riker against a version of himself who didn’t end up on the Enterprise, the mature take on Riker and Troi’s relationship and how we’ve avoided every standard pitfall they couldhave fallen into, and we even avoid killing anyone! Hooray~! 3.5/5.

Timescape: As Picard, Data, Geordi, and Troi are returning from a science conference… but find the Enterprise and a Romulan ship frozen in place. There are some weird time distortions going on and after rigging up some bands to keep themselves un-frozen, they try to get to the bottom of it. This was a fun one! It’s cool yet creepy to see Picard, Troi, and Data going through the Enterprise (Geordi’s manning the shuttle, he gets to go on the Romulan ship though) and seeing all the insanity that was going on, including Crusher being shot at point-blank range… okay that’s on the horrifying end of the scale, but still. Don’t worry, they avert her dying for realsies! Picard also loses it and his mental breakdown is just plain freaky. Troi was freakin’ awesome in this one, getting to do actual Starfleet officer things, be actively involved, and they bring back up Face of the Enemy and Troi’s experience with the Romulans and their tech prove very beneficial! Yes, let’s keep the awesome Troi train running! It was just a fun episode and for the penultimate one of the season, it serves its purpose well~! Also Riker does not get along with cats haha. 4/5.

Alright, one more for S6 to go and along with it we start S7. The beginning of the end is nearing folks. I’m so excited~!

#st watchthrough

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kineticallyanywhere · 4 years

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I'd love to hear those fusion thots :eyes: the pacific rim ones were V good

If you’ve been around this house for a hot minute you might know that fusion aus are My Entire Jam Garden so you might imagine I’ve already put some thought into this and you would imagine right. The following was brainstormed in consort with @aryashi my second brain.

The basis for this au is that fusion is possible in the forgotten realms and is just a thing people there can do. This also applies to sudden interdimensional travelers.

tl;dr I wrote basically a one-shot’s worth of words down there but in short fusion is rad but also there's an unexpected amount of drama. which is basically a summary of the podcast but replace "fusion" with "fatherhood"

(preface: fusion is not a sex metaphor, just like pacific rim. Platonic fusion is normal. Familial fusion is normal. Okay, continue.)

First inter-dad fusion: “I silence his dumb ass with a kiss” except its “I silence his dumb ass by accidentally fusing our bodies and consiousnesses into a single being w h o o p s”

I like to name fusions as something other than their romantic ship name so let’s call him… o h yeah we named all of Henry’s fusions after animals. So this guy is Hare (like Darryl). Hare is pretty stable from the outside, but their internal dialogues clash really hard so they're incredibly slow to make decisions.

Internally, Henry feels like he's crossed Darryls boundaries. They have to hold it, but he lets Darryl take the wheel and all similar mistakes are made. They make it through the thing with the Lance before unfusing. Darryl has no idea what that was and already has a lot of intimacy issues, so he’s not particularly inclined to try that again for funsies. Henry is curious, but there’s a buried part of him that’s making him deeply unsettled by the whole experience. He can barely have a straight thought about it, much less articulate the feeling, so he doesn’t try. He lets it go.

First sons fusion: When the Lord of Chaos throws back his robe, yelling “Dad! !” it’s a GIANT Lark&Sparrow. They’re like trying to fuse two rubies together, you just get a bigger ruby. This changes a bit later, when the twins start to diverge from each other vis a vis Love Wolfism, but basically the Lord of Chaos is an Oak Twin the size of their dad. But still looks 12. It probably actually takes the Love Wolf speech from Henry and their divergent reactions to get them to unfuse.

Second inter-dad fusion: That other time Henry and Darryl smooched while high on drug flowers. It was very unpleasant, they don’t talk about it, they don’t try that again for a while.

They get a book on fusions from the Library that reads almost like a birds and the bees talk and there is minor culture-shock panicking about whether fusion is Like That, but something in Henry is telling him “No. It’s not Like That.” He doesn’t really know why he’s so solid in that belief. He understands that fusion is unique and powerful and a wonderful thing, but something about doing it is just… getting under his skin.

Third inter-dad fusion: Glenn and Ron. I’m not even sure the exact context or anything. Maybe they were just vibin’. All I really know is that I imagine these two occasionally fuse for the weirdest things, like

Fourth inter-dad fusion: also Glon, fishing magic items out of a giant toilet. They needed to be taller.

Glon is… gosh, what the heck is Glon. Performative out the ass, for sure. Down for basically anything. Allowed to wear bootie shorts.

Back up a hot minute though, because first dad-son fusion: almost happens on the Tower of Terry. It comes so close. They’re in that hug, and Ron thinks maybe if they fuse, the magic won’t take TJ. Or even if it takes them both, that’s better than TJ getting taken alone. They don’t have to say “I’m sorry” or “I love you, son” out loud, but before it really takes, Terry gets ripped away. Because Willy can’t have that, can he?

Fifth inter-dad fusion: is Glon again, but the circumstances are way different because Ron just saw the mummy of his wife and Glenn is trying to help him breeze past it and it works until it doesn’t and they fall apart with Ron a crying mess.

Sixth inter-dad fusion buckle up because we’ve reached Ravenloft. Before dad-fusion 6, Henry gets caught in his dad’s claws. He feels something very familiar and rejects it with everything he has, and escapes to grab Glenn. Then he gets hit by Calm Emotions, Glenn reaches up, trying not to fall, and Henry is already super chill about everything all of a sudden, so when Glenn tries to fuse out of panic, Henry goes for it.

Gila—Henry and Glenn—can do actual bard magic. They’re like Opal, in that a single moment of disconnect is enough to snap them apart and finding that disconnect is not difficult. But when the situation is saving their kids and telling their asshole dads to get lost, that’s plenty enough connection to cast an actual magic-ass thunderwave with a guitar and maybe a bit more.

(Barry didn’t like that.)

So another fun thing about adding this factor to cannon is that this lets the dads have glimpses inside each other’s heads. So certain conversations could change a little bit. For example, in the van while they’re driving away from the Ravenloft fight and Henry’s explaining a few things.

Henry: I don't have a lot of memories from that time in my life— Glenn: Not a lot? Try "not any.” Henry: Glenn— Glenn: Dude, none of my business, but your brain was weird. Henry: Glenn. Glenn: Like did the government get to you when you showed up on earth or— Henry: Glenn what the fff—rick are you even saying just shut up Darryl: …

Darryl had noticed, too, but Glenn has other fusion experience to compare with. Henry could catch glimpses and imprints and trains of thought which ground in different points of Darryl/Glenn’s entire life, and Glenn and Ron can do that equally with each other. But a bunch of things for Henry, if you try to backtrack to where the decision comes from it just. Stops. Especially with using magic, which Glenn got to do. And Henry’s thoughts on fusion end dead hard.

(filtering all of this through Freddie’s headcanon that Glenn always figured Henry was from Faerun but was just wildly wrong about all the details is so much fun)

This is the part in the fic series where there’s a one-shot about Henry having a panic attack just outside of the camp at night, and the most he can explain is just that something about seeing his dad again set him off.

And then we get to a lighter turn for first dad-son fusion but for realsies this time: Ron Stampler nat 20s to hug his son and then also is the son. And that dad. And dads are supposed to be inside to do a ritual for a demon cow.

RJ is the sweetest dude. Also if you don’t sit on him he will wander off and do the most extreme version of the first thing that comes to his mind for a problem solution or release from boredom. And he will not tell you about it in advance, so seriously. Sit on him.

So they stand there for a second like "yes... Yes. Yes... Okay. Im... I'm the dad. But I'm the kid? But im. The dad. And all the other dads are also the kid so... Dad... Trumps kid status. And I'm the dad... Cool." and they go in to help with the demon cow.

The kids are flipping out outside.

Henry spots them and drops the cage, almost like he’s Garnet and just spotted Stevonnie. While all the other dad’s are freaking out/fawning/curious, Glenn lifts their glasses and theres four eyes and he drops the glasses and never mentions this again.

Rj: hi um. I'm a dad.... Yeah. So I'm here tooooooo frickin kill a demon cow let's do this Rj: got the good dad vibes comin out of my butt

For realsies though Terry should be outside, so they unfuse for the cow thing and the bbq but then Dennis happens.

Second dad-son fusion: Dennis: are you sure you've got this? Ron: i can do it TJ: he can DO it dad GIVE ME YOUR HAND

RJ’s an arcane trickster and it’s real cool and Dennis looks so jealous ha ha ha and also they separate after the fight and suddenly Terry’s unsettled and needs to talk to Ron for a second because “Hey Dad is Dennis not real????????”

Third dad-son fusion: is way less eventful, but who the heck can say no to more reasons to cry about the Wilsons at the tail end of the Supper Bowl arc?

Fusion is not a replacement for talking, but it is a bit smoother in communicating emotions. It doesn’t happen until the end of their talk, when Darryl’s got his arm around Grant. I don’t think either of them are super attached to this whole fusion thing, (If Grant is, it certainly wasn’t his dad he’d been thinking about trying it with. Maybe one of the other kids… “maybe Terry.”) so they may not even pick a name. Henry certainly cries at least twice as hard, but when they want to just get something to eat and maybe just hang out for a while, nobody pushes.

I think the most important part of this is that it gives Grant a kind of… emotional break. Lets him feel something nice again— like he does in the show, too, but in a way that’s a bit more stable while it lasts. Like the feeling when you’re a kid on a long car ride with your parents, one that ends in getting home late and you’ve fallen asleep and they carry you out of the car.

Good things for Grant Wilson for til forever.

Somewhere in that arc, though, Glenn approaches Henry by themselves. Glenn’s not really a feelings guy, but whatever’s going on in Henry’s head is a problem. It’s a one-up the o-dads have on them, and they can’t afford that right now.

Glenn: so you like... Really don't hardly remember being a kid? Henry: Glenn, I don't want to talk about it Glenn: I bet your dad's gonna wanna talk about it Henry: well... i don't care what he wants Glenn:... You seriously don't know how you got to earth? Henry: [exasperated] the frick are you-- I got to earth like anyone else, Glenn. You know where babies come from, right? Glenn: of course i fucking know where babies come from. A mommy and a daddy love each other very much and then their kid runs away so hard he skips dimensions Henry: wh-- wait you-- do you think I'm an alien? Glenn: obviously Henry: Glenn that's-- [sighs, rubs his face] Glenn this isn't the kind of time for your conspiracies Glenn: hey as far as I'm concerned, a man who sleeps with an axe under his pillow is a fool every night but one. and you shoot poison from your hands and shape shift into bears

Which adds nicely to the slide of heading to Oakveil next

Henry: y'know what. When we leave here, we can get my kids next. Glenn: your interdimensional kids Henry: to prove to you you're being crazy. Again. Glenn: De Nial is a river man, and we left it back on earth

And one more dialogue bite, because…

Glenn: claim your powers latched onto you from this world all you want. But that language you and your dad spoke, didn't come out of the air, it came out of the door in your head

...fusion means the other dads get to learn about the metaphorical brain door.

This brings us into the most recent arc, heading into Oakveil. He and Ron sneak in, and Beary tells Henry he’s home, and pieces start to click together. Henry’s from this world, so he understands why he’s had such a particular view on fusion and that basic cultural understanding. That it’s considered normal. And that it’s even normal for a kid’s first fusion to be with their parent. Their parent who loves them and knows them wants to see them grow.

Bear Ry’Oak is not that.

First O-dad fusion: Henry’s first fusion was with his dad.

I think the worst thing is that, when fused with his dad, Hen doesn't feel like he's not himself. one of the interesting things about the Oaks is that they're kind of all slight alterations on the same traits. Like as gross as it feels to admit, Beary is just Henry but with the condescension turned up to a billion and his high horse is basically an elephant and no self-awareness or care for how others might have different perspectives from him

But Beary is still so overwhelming to Henry that it just flattens pretty much anything that makes Henry, Henry. Specifically the parts that Barry dislikes. like Henry's anger. To directly quote Aryashi: “Beary thinks using fusion for combat is barbaric. obviously fusion is for Conflict Resolution. Fuse with Beary so he can sort out your disagreement with him!”

(and then bathe in bleach)

So Beary finds them in Oakveil and Henry starts panicking and he tries to Handle Henry like he did when Henry was a kid, fusing with him to stomp down on his feelings to cut a panic attack or outburst off at the pass. If Henry's in no place to fight back it usually works, but if Ron's there--literally pressed against Henry's back--to see the fusion coming, maybe he reaches for a fusion, too, and lets Henry's instincts choose which pull to follow, and Henry's instincts choose Ron.

Seventh inter-dad fusion: Wren is suddenly there before Beary can even start his attempt to coach Henry through breathing (his half-effort to help Henry and be able to say that he tried freakin hate him) and is sitting on the ground and the disgusted look Beary gets seeing this. (Fusing with an outsider is something he considers so beneath his son.)

Beary:... Ah. Ronald. Wren, existing, suddenly, and mostly being Ron's processing power as Henry's mental wheels try to slow down to match Ron's pace (cultivated through a childhood of dealing with Willy) rather than amp them both up: uhm... It's just Ron, actually Beary: would you mind... (there's other people around so he can't say "decontaminating") liberating my son. (as if ignoring the role his son had in choosing this fusion over his) Wren: Henry is uh... (me? Not me? Yes me, not up for this, we should go somewhere else that usually works fine, we can just leave and find the others and that'll be fine) he's good. We're good, we're gonna... (looking at the other people who look like Henry and the "not amping each other up” thing is working less and less) Wren: bye

And then they just stand up and fast-walk away

Wren is either chill af and rolling with every punch or the living equivalent of a coke bottle that you popped a whole roll of mentos in and then closed immediately. At this moment, it’s very much the coke bottle side. Beary lets them go because he knows Henry will be back, and they make it just outside of town to where the others have just shown up before they fall apart.

Ron: We found the door! Darryl: what door? Ron: the one in Henry's head! And all the dads know what he's talking about Glenn: did you open it? Henry: no Ron: a little bit Henry(probably now starting that panic attack): the anchors in there Ron: his dad came out of it Darryl: his dad???????? Henry, vulnerability, Oak: I AM FEELING VERY VULNERABLE RIGHT NOW AND I HATE IT [chorus of mumbled sorrys] Ron: oh also Oakvale is Henry's home Darryl: WHAT Glenn: Uh hey anyone gonna pick up the phone cause I FUCKIN CALLED IT Henry: That's not my home! My home is with Mercedes back on Earth! Glenn: Yeah, this is just where you were born. Henry: Glenn I swear to God-- Glenn: Dude lay off, I was agreeing with you! Home's where the heart meds are and all that jazz Darryl: Wait, you have heart meds? At home? When was the last time you took your heart meds? Glenn: Uhh... not since I came here? It's fiiiiiine. Never felt better! Ron: Not to interrupt but Henry's on the ground breathing funny. Glenn, are you sure you don't have any heart meds? Henry: being hugged by both of his sons in a simultaneous way that is not their normal simultaneous way (i.e. the Lord of Chaos way): WHY ARE MY SONS TALLER THAN ME Glenn: I'm more surprised that they're hugging you Lord of Chaos: to assert dominance! Any moment now, we will turn this hug into a suplex!

And that basically brings us to now? I want a Triple Oak Fusion (the King of Chaos) but with how the fight with Beary went I’m not sure where it’ll go. OH YEAH.

Autumn stopped fusing with Hen even when he was a kid because she couldn’t stand to see how much her son craved the approval of that evil man who stole her life away. And whether or not Henry ever fuses with anyone ever again after finding out he’s got Eldritch in him has gotta be up in the air.

And at this point I could easily be convinced that the next inter-dad fusion is Darryl and Glenn, those beautiful idiots. They could be… Denn. Glarryl? We’ll workshop it.

#jakalboy #dndads #aus #fusion aus #dungeons and daddies #me talking #my writing

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dahniwitchoflight · 4 years

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Homesquared Chapter 14

lol gotta love John’s enthusiasm of being part of the movers and shakers getting shot down cuz he hasn’t actually flexed his Main Character Muscles in quite a long time

though he’s honestly taking his mid life crisis very well all things considered, its good he cares more about his kids than anything else and I like the bond he’s getting to make with Harry, it’s nice!

Now what’s a million times funnier though is the same thing happening to Vriska, she is decidedly NOT taking her midlife “but but I want to be important too!!” crisis not nearly as well as John is haha

VRISSY: I guess you Did go Viral, 8ut the news moves so fast these days. I don’t think Any8ody is like...

VRISSY: Glued to their phones Waiting for your New Hashtag Resistance content.

Yeah Vriska, you’re so 15 minutes ago :P people have moved on

what, did you think you were going to be important forever?

VRISKA: What’s the point of me even coming to this shitty fake reality if I’m not supposed to fix it?

to have a mid life crisis about not being important anymore obviously :P

VRISSY: Yeah, they told me about That stuff, but a Lot of the Shit that Happened in the Session if just not in the History Books.

VRISSY: You weren’t Really mentioned that Much.

VRISKA: Excuse me?

I Am Living For This Whole Conversation

VRISKA: I SINGLE H8ND8DLY!

VRISKA: CURED YOUR MOTHER’S FUCKING ALCH8LISM!!!!!!!!

JOHN: uh, vriska, everything okay over there?

VRISKA: EVERYTHING’S FINE, J8HN!

JOHN: okay.

JOHN: do you girls want a snack?

ASJHGFSHFHWE yeah calm down Vriska have a snack

ahh, loving it

Turns out, History is written by the people who were left who decided to give a damn about writing it, and if those people Don’t Like you, they can just decide to not mention you, no matter who you are or what you did

All your “important” accomplishments are for naught and have become meaningless because you’re an asshole and other people didn’t like you enough to decide that you mattered in the long run

Congrats! Infamy doesn’t matter as much as Connection

Aww, cute with Annie getting hug bombed by her moms

Though, Rose definitely has a stronger bond with Annie than just being her surrogate it looks like

I understand this family situation just fine, if Annie really was just supposed to be a way for Jade to overcome her lonliness, and Rose was her only functional way and only person she could approach with this idea, and Rose responded out of care for her friend

Rose, shouldn’t really have a distinct mom attachment here, because then it implies a stronger than platonic relationship with Jade

but it could just be a great example of “this is why you don’t agree to create a child with your friend purely because said friend was crying out of lonliness out of failed relationship and wanted a child to fill that void of lonliness but who then shoves said child off the sidelines and doesn’t interact with her at all and leaves her in the hands and care of a supposed enemy and

yknow, I think I’m just gonna stop there before I remember Jake also knew about Yiffany existing so if the only ones who didn't know were John/Dave/Karkat and Kanaya then what was honestly the point of hiding her in the first place

Its not the fact that Yiffany exists that Im finding hard to believe, its just hows she treated narratively after she started existing thats stretching my rubber band into a dangerous area

“ROSE: Is it the libidinous power rush that comes from snapping your fingers at men with guns, or are you worried that you might accidentally do something heroic?

(its the latter)

“She stopped thinking about how she would be received, and more about how she could play to the people she knew would receive her favorably.

Looking up she sees Tavvy with tears in his eyes. Rage and guilt surge inside her. This situation is not her fault.”

Gotta Justify It. Gotta Justify It.

Doesn’t matter if I’m Right or Wrong, if enough other people validate me than Everything is Fine and I’m a Good Person.

JANE: So before you accuse me, take a look at yourself!

JANE: I'm the only one who has taken any interest in her upbringing or education!

JANE: Or have you forgotten who has been paying for her schooling and taking charge of her introduction into society?

JADE: i never asked you to do that!

JADE: you offered!

Okay but Jade, you DID let Jane have Annie in the first place and then presumably washed your hands of her, when supposedly the only reason Annie exists is because you wanted a daughter with whom you could have a loving relationship with

You gotta, explain you’re thinking there Jade cuz I still don’t get this bit

Though in thinking about it, I think I know why this happened

Jade grew up isolated from any person, but still loved her grandfather, despite his absence

to her, family relationships didn’t involve any sort of personal work, they were just things she had because she had them

did she just believe the same would happen for Yiffanny? that she could paradoxically still have a relationship despite long absences? Annie doesn’t seem to have any resentment here for Jade or Rose so I mean ???

“ If they were to kill Tavros, the entire world would see them commit this war crime. And weighed in the balance, Lalonde and Harley would be off the playing board. Saving your daughter certainly counted as a heroic death, and with the damage they'd done to humanity, it would also probably be just. “

She hates them both so much she’d let Tavros die for it

But also, she really does calculate everything in terms of how the Masses would view their actions as Just or Heroic

so yeah, she was absolutely about to let Tavros die, damn Jane

literally the only thing that stopped you was that Jake viewed the threat as a real threat and was about to do something stupendously Heroic to save Tavros and you decided you didn’t want Jake to die a heroic death

On the flipside, oh damn, Yeah Vriska’s going full throttle right on the nose ahead with the obvious audience expectation, that there gonna make another sburb session and get the obvious group of important 4 kids to god tier

that’s clearly the path vriska wants and expects, but hey, just imagine if what Vriska wanted to happen didn’t happen this time, imagine if the kids were just like “nah im good?” when it comes to a god tier

The narrative is making it super clear that at least 3 out 4 kids are kinda not feeling all the outdoorsy action and excitement of a game of life and death

Annie though I could hella see her down to play sburb and get a god tier, shes got that whole “isolated childhood trauma and parental issues pressure cooking her a strong will to take her life into her own hands” energy

Vriska, go see Annie, her strong willed butt is more of the action girl you’re looking for I think

At least if they do end up playing the game and getting the tiger, Annie feels like the first one to do it or the action catalyst of their session, like how Vriska was for hers, or Dirk for the alphas, or

hmm. who was is that kinda, moved things along for the Beta’s again? I think it was Rose, but Dave did a ton to move things along as well, but also their trolls like Terezi and them gave everything big nudges, I think Rose counts as the equivalent Beta in session mover and shaker though

Side note: the panels with vrissy and vriska here very feel cartoonish and light hearted, interesting choice

but it does give off Major “Play Game: Level 1″ vibes if that makes sense

What the fuck is with the Dave Soldiers

I mean, they look more like Red Johns?Jakes? with the black hair

the glasses throw me off though-

UHH DID THEY JUST FUCKING KILL HARRY ANDERSON??

HOLD ON. HOLD UP

TAVROS AND ANNIE: WITH ROSE/JADE/JAKE/JANE

VRISSY: WITH VRISKA DOWN BELOW

HARRY: WITH JOHN. ON JOHN’S COUCH.

JOHN IS ALSO STILL HERE, MEANING HARRY SHOULD BE WITH HIM.

yeah he literally just went outside for a second to see where the V’s went and then the house gets bombed, and we get three whole panels dedicated to John slowly sitting down in the wreckage

Harry Anderson just got fucking killed holy shit.

oh my god, they were leading up to it too.

We just had three seperate death flags for the other 3 kids in a row

Brain Ghost Dirk warned Jake that Annie was gonna die via electrocution unless he stepped up

Jane was gonna let Tavros die vie neck snapping (even though Kanaya really wouldn’t have)

Vriska and Vrissy discuss god tiering, and what it would mean for Vrissy, death is a subtle implication there but still there

Now to see if Jane’s ever revived Harry Anderson before in the next update I suppose :o

*edit*

They did not kill Harry Anderson, I saw pumpkins in front of the house that got exploded and didn’t see it looks different than the other bland white suburban house that John actually left, so no one died, Harry just got his implied death threat turn

Harry is at Roxy’s House, John sits in the smoldering ashes of his childhood home, languishing in the idea that Jane, the girl who might have in another reality been his loving grandmother, actually wants him and his kids dead for realsies

he never really got to sit and think about the hole where his home was that the meteor struck when he entered sburb huh? (I know his house came with him, giving the allusion all was well in the Medium, but a real meteor still struck the place that he stopped existing on OG Earth, to an outside observer, it would look like a meteor destroyed his home)

with Vriska talking about sburb to Vrissy, it is nice imagery to imagine the implications of the Kids god tiering from Earth C

and the destruction left in their wake

#Homesquared #Harry Anderson Egbert #RIP Son #John does not have good luck with family and explosives

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dalekofchaos · 4 years

Text

Why Palpatine’s return ruined the Sequel Trilogy and why TROS killed Star Wars

Here's why I hate that Palpatine was brought back. They did it simply because Snoke was killed off and instead of focusing on Kylo Ren and The First Order, they went back and forced Palpatine on us. They had absolutely no plan when constructing this trilogy and this is obvious. They threw him in at the last minute, this was JJ's idea or at the very least, Disney's decision. This is what happens when you don't plan things out and have no clear vision and direction.

It's not just that, it's the fact that it makes no sense. Palpatine had contingency plans after his death. The Contingency/Operation CInder was a plan devised by Palpatine for the future of his Galactic Empire in the event of his death. The task of putting the Contingency into effect was given to Gallius Rax, a protégé of the Emperor. The Emperor's plan was to have the Galactic Empire destroyed, culling its weak elements and punishing it for failing to protect him, while also ensuring its rebirth in the Unknown Regions of space at the hands of an elect assembled by the Emperor and Rax in order to continue its legacy.NOW that Palpatine was brought back, his Contingency makes absolutely no sense.

Palpatine surviving should be impossible and improbable in every conceivable way. Anakin tossed him into the reactor. We see the dark side energy released from his death. He fell a long time but he still fell to his death. Lando blew up the Death Star. No matter how powerful he was in the force, there is no surviving a fall that massive and a nuclear explosion. There was no explanation to his survival at all.

According to Ian McDiarmid, Palpatine was dead. George Lucas had no intentions of ever bringing him back. They brought him back solely to attempt and try to get back the fans they lost and demonized after The Last Jedi. It was nothing but nostalgia and a cash grab.

For those of you who are about to say “tie ins” I am gonna tell you something controversial. We should not be required to read books in order to understand a movie. If you don’t explain anything in the fucking movie, then you should not be making movies and fuck JJ Abrams’ Mystery Box bullshit.

Palpatine in the actual movie is just....bad. First of all he announces his survival to the galaxy. That is just dumb. Palpatine is smart, he had the element of surprise and he just gives himself away. Star Destroyers coming out of the ice....makes no sense. And Palpatine looked ridiculous. He looked like a video game character with PS2 graphics. And....the announcement came FROM FUCKING FORTNITE. His defeat at the hands of Rey was fucking laughable. How is it that when Mace Windu, a fully trained Jedi Master tries to deflect his lightning, it just destroys his mask, but when Rey does it he is destroyed? He literally could’ve just stopped, force push her off the cliff or even just use the force to crush her. But....he just died stupidly. This is not Sheev Palpatine. Disney Luke is Jake, so I dub this idiot, Steve Palpatine.

And my real problem. Bringing back Palpatine made the first 6 movies entirely pointless. Palpatine outliving Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padme, Han Luke and Leia is the ultimate desecration of Star Wars. “it was always the plan to bring Palpatine back” and that is the problem. Its actually amazing how little the folks at Lucasfilm, Bad Reboot and Disney “get” Star Wars. Having the ultimate bad guy of the first 6 films live to see Episode 9 when the heroes who supposedly defeated him are long dead. It literally destroys the core mythology of the Star Wars universe and makes the selfless choices our characters made unrewarding. That’s just depressing. Their sacrifices and triumphs are ultimately undermined, devalued and utterly pointless. Moral of the story, nothing you did mattered, let the new generation clean up your mess because the money says so. And making Rey Palpatine's granddaughter, killing EVERY LIVING Skywalker and having a Palpatine steal the legacy of the Skywalkers is desecration of Star Wars. Rey isn’t related to the Skywalkers it’s so creepy that she stole everything from them. She stole the falcon, she stole Luke’s lightsaber, she stole their family name. She stole Anakin and Luke’s ultimate victory over Palpatine. Their legacy. Palpatine won…..This is disgusting. The Skywalkers all dying and Rey taking the name is an exact summation of this trilogy. Tearing down all the old heroes and everything they did just for the new ones to do the same exact thing. Just to prop Rey up? You CAN build up new characters without tearing down the old characters and their legacy. Everything in this trilogy was done to break down and humiliate the characters we cared about and imitate something that was done in the past and has no substance.

If anyone still cannot understand my problem with bringing back Palpatine and why I find it narratively offensive. Just imagine this.

What if Harry discovered that Dumbledore was wrong and Voldemort had far more than 7 horcruxes? Ashamed and afraid, he hides Ginny and the Potter children among the muggles. A defeated Ron returns to the burrow, while Hermione spends her days searching for Horcruxes. Years later, a 17 year old, Rachel Marvela Riddle, begins discovering her new powers, despite never receiving her Hogwart's letter. Her magic is incredibly strong, but she is everything Tom was not. With the help of some friends, she tracks down the remaining Horcruxes and finally destroys the true Voldemort, for good and realsies this time! Also she starts calling herself the Girl Who Lived. This is the plot of Disney's Star Wars Sequel Trilogy..

What if Harry didn’t actually destroy Voldemort? What if The One Ring survived Mt. Doom? Interesting concepts, but they would devalue everything that came before. The entire point of the Sequel Trilogy is disregarding generations of storytelling because no one behind this trilogy had any original or creative stories to tell. This is how Star Wars dies, with uncreativity and greed.

#Anti TROS #Anti Sequel Trilogy #Anti JJ Abrams #Anti Lucasfilm #Emperor Sheev Palpatine #Darth Sidious

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isagrimorie · 4 years

Text

@glompcat

replied to your post

“I was listening to “Talking Who to You” and their review of Diary of...”

They sometimes almost seem to have a hint of an interesting idea to explore with her in that regard, but then since they refuse to actually examine these things just abandon it. Like in Legacy of Time, when Benny started to question what River really *means* when she talks about being married. Or in Eight of March's Emancipation where River expressed envy for two seconds that Leela lived on Gallifrey with her Time Lord husband. Which also opened up the fascinating whole subject of how much River really knows/understands. She studied the Doctor, she learned about them and their friends from academic texts and third and fourth hand accounts. She clearly doesn't actually *know* most things, and I wish we could see more of her coming up against the fact she doesn't actually understand everything, that she is clinging to these assured ideas and yet the reality of the situation still surprises her etc

Instead of like... constantly needing to write stories where River's odd view is affirmed as right. Like in Emancipation she comments that she understands Time Lords just as well as Leela, and that just... continues to stick out to me. Because obs Leela didn't challenge that as she had no idea who River was, which meant that just went on by without comment and just... confused the shit out of me. She isn't a first hand expert and authority on everything. She's an academic, an archaeologist. She's still never met any Time Lords other than the Doctor and the Master, and most of what she knows is based on a lifetime of academic study. That *could* lead to hilarious misunderstanding/vulnerability in her stories when she does have to meet up with the Doctor.

Oh man. Yes, those two stories!

I was especially disappointed with the Legacy of Time story with Benny when it suddenly became ALL about Eight. Here are two awesome women, who are so similar to each other and all the writers could think about was put Eight into the story.

And then doesn’t even delve deeper into it. I figure Benny’s expression the whole time was mildly confused and ‘seriously?.

And you bring up a good point! For the longest time all River knew about the Doctor is what Madam Kovarian taught her, she is an academic! Also, of all people to say she knows Time Lords as much as Leela... who has lived with Time Lords, and not just one outlier renegade Time Lord.

I was also pretty annoyed with majority of the story until the last part but man, I really need a writer to really push more into River’s story and dig deeper. They could go for a more comedic effect with it too!

It certainly would be a more interesting thing to explore than jokes about how because she's married to the Doctor it is magically ok for her to strip them naked and have her way with them when they're unconscious, like we got in the boxset where she met Five. Which was just... such a rollercoaster for me as it is the one where she gets to confront Kevorkian!

Oh. God. That boxset.

I know what you mean. I was so uncomfortable, and clearly Five didn’t know what was going on nor did he want to participate with anything River was trying to initiate.

It also goes to my point of -- just because The Doctor married her, doesn’t mean it travels back to the Doctor’s other lives. I can maybe accept this up until Eight because he straddles the line of Pre- and during Time War, the catalyst that changed the Doctor into the person River fell in love with.

Moffat might be all into the Time Traveler’s Wife story but I’m a firm believer of ‘right time, right place’. The Doctor pre-Time War isn’t the exact same person that becomes the post-Time War Doctor/Post-almost recovery Doctor who falls in love with River. Pre-Time War Doctor isn’t ready to fall in love with River, the Doctor has a whole life before River, a whole family before River. Just as much as she should and does have her own life outside of the Doctor, the Doctor had a whole history before River.

Yet even there, when Kevorkian is there and they are literally inside a copy of River's childhood bedroom there was no real grappling with what it means that River studied the Doctor-as-monster her whole youth long that she was training to kill them literally every day of her childhood, and yes, somewhere along the way things changed, so what happened, when did she start to see the Doctor differently, and what misconceptions does she still carry with her from her earlier studies and how do they inform how she sees the Doctor's actions/their relationship now?

I can only nod here, because like I mentioned in the post, I wanted to know when exactly did River really fall in love with the Doctor and not just the idea of the Doctor or the things she knew about him? When was the first moment that didn’t have to do with any of those things did she realize she’s in love with him, for realsies?

When she meets these people who knew the Doctor like Benny or Leela (or Susan or Ian or Barbara etc except I haven't heard that box set of Diaries yet unlike the others) how do their impressions contrast with her own?

Not to harp on about that one off story too much, but it stood out to me due to its obvious positioning as both written and directed by women, but I do think about things like how in The Eighth of March Emancipation she kept insinuating that the Doctor mainly kept Leela around for eye candy and how that showed this MASSIVE lack of understanding of Four and what he was about and it really fascinates me, like what does it mean for an Academic to literally fall in love with the subject of her studies? Particularly an Archaeologist whose field is built on piecing together desperate remnants to create an incomplete idea of a whole? Like if her stories must all culminate in being about the Doctor (which based on some things said in Vortex I think may have been part of what Moffat told them to do with her)

‘Like if her stories must all culminate about being about the Doctor’ AUGH. This is so frustrating. Especially the part about what River’s insinuating about Leela, who is awesome and fantastic. I mean, isn’t enough she still gets called Savage in Gallifrey? And River has to pile that on top too. Thankfully this rolls off of Leela, but honestly, that was uncalled for.

why not actually explore how and why she reached the conclusions she did in Husbands of River Song, which is of course always in her future? It's set after all of these adventures we listen to, so why not - if a Doctor plot is needed - focus on how she reached the conclusions she did there if that speech was sincere?

THIS THIS THIS.

IDK. There is so much they could explore with her but they just don't seem willing to challenge her... authority? In a way that ultimately undercuts her, because she is constantly positioned in a mold that removes any actual work needed to gain information/the upper hand/her level of skill. So rather than being the result of hard work and effort, it's just... how it is. Which de-powers her. IDK, I kept trying with Diaries I really did, but it actually was the one with Tom Baker in it that made me give up.

“they just don't seem willing to challenge her... authority? In a way that ultimately undercuts her, because she is constantly positioned in a mold that removes any actual work needed to gain information/the upper hand/her level of skill.“

Yes, this, exactly! It’s like the writers are way too afraid to handle River with anything but reverence and care. And for a story to work, characters shouldn’t be handled like they’re made of glass!

In the end, what happens is, it feels like the stories are all telling not showing.

The start of it (Diary of River Song boxset with Four), long before the story with the Doctor in it, had people who knew her as students at Luna University in it, and the way the story dealt with them and their relationship to River, it was honestly insulting, not just to the characters but to anyone who has ever been in graduate school. Like they kept fundamentally refusing to either understand or care to understand what being in an Academic institute means. By claiming it was all so easy for River and removing the effort and skill needed, they are de-powering her PhD. By making the other students all so incompetent in comparison to her, they are again... - her PhD. Hell, now that they've established Benny was her tutor, they're depowering Benny (ED: emphasis mine) in the process. And that is not even starting to touch on the dynamic of having the other academic in that story ultimately hating River because her Husband had been in love with River and asked her out one time in Grad school before River rejected him and he is still hung up on River? Like who thought that was a good dynamic?

...

Which is I guess a lot of words to essentially say that Big Finish often refuses to take River off this strange pedestal of hyper-competent perfection, where she is always the most clever person in the room, always knows the answer, and even in her fucks ups and failures is still ~the expert~ in full. But in so doing the value in her expertise, the hard work, the real strength it took for her to get to where she is... well to be deemphasized it has to even be a factor which it never is, as it just doesn't seem to exist for them at all. She just knows everything until the plot demand she doesn't so things can move along, and when she knows it she knows it best, and if you question this in any way she'll respond with a joking quip and won't you look silly than, and that is that.

☝️☝️☝️

Whole heartedly agree, Big Finish isn’t doing the work they should be doing to really explore her character, and we know from other stories that they can actually deepen a character’s back story and add more insight to them too!

I mean, my favorite BF Doctors (other than Eight) are Six and Five with Peri and Erimem!

BF has had so many opportunities to do better by River but they always end up going the easy way instead of doing the hard work to explore a) who River is outside of her programming, how much it’s affected her and b) make River face up to questions about her feelings for the Doctor.

c) Also, just like with Kate Stewart in UNIT, I don’t want to hear the Brig’s name uttered in the presence of and around Kate. I don’t want River to run into the Doctor in the next couple of boxsets.

#reply #glompcat #discussion: big finish #big finish is not doing river any favors #DO RIGHT BY RIVER BIG FINISH

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perspective-series · 5 years

Text

Exposed Perspective (1)

By: @arc852 and @hiddendreamer67

Warnings: Guilt, fear

THIS IS THE THIRD STORY IN A TRILOGY. READ “A Third Perspective” AND “Switched Perspectives” FOR THIS TO MAKE SENSE!

(Check the reblog for the links to the previous chapters and the TWO prequels!)

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“Here you go.” There was a thud as Logan set the cage down on the desk, a blanket overtop it to hide its contents. Dee stood up, looming over it eagerly.

“Excellent.” Dr. Dee smirked, ripping the blanket off. He peered inside, ready to see the tiny people. The fairy creatures that had avoided him for so long... But instead, he found himself frowning down at an empty cage.

“What is this?” The professor snarled, turning to glare at Logan. The student looked unfazed. “I specifically asked for its contents as well.”

“I am aware.” Logan said coolly.

“Mr. Sanders, now is not the time for your attitude.” Dee spat. “As head of this department, it is my duty to oversee all experimentation regarding live subjects.”

“I am aware.” Logan repeated.

“So where are your subjects?” Dee questioned him.

“I assure you sir, they are right there.” Logan pointed to the empty cage.

“Mr. Sanders-”

“There were never any specimens in that cage.” Logan kept a straight face through his lie. “When you asked for the contents, all you requested was an empty cage.” He gave the professor a stiff smile. “I am sorry if I have disappointed you in some way.”

The two stared at each other for a few minutes, Logan trying to keep his unaffected demeanor going despite the fact the dean seemed determined to burn a hole into his skull with his death glare.

“Get out of my office.” Dee growled. That was all it took. With a quick nod, Logan practically bolted out of there.

Logan gave a sigh of relief, walking down the hall. Now more than ever he was grateful he hadn’t turned in Virgil to that man. What a horrifying ordeal that would have been. Logan shuddered, remembering when he himself had been small enough to fit in that cage. Even though he knew Dr. Dee personally, Logan could only imagine that should he have found himself in Dee’s clutches Logan would have earned a similar terrifying fate.

Regardless, none of that mattered now. The borrowers were not in the professor’s clutches, and instead were waiting safely at home.

-------------------------------------------------

Virgil was currently alone. Logan was off returning the cage and Roman and Patton were off in their own places. So Virgil had decided it would be a good opportunity to stock up on some things for his home. His home that still needed to be fixed, but Roman said he would swing by later to see what he could do.

It had been a week since the four had woken up in their beds at their normal sizes. It had been a little...awkward, at least on Virgil’s end at first, and a bit scary. But both borrowers had kept their promise to stay. Virgil had even hung out with Roman, right alongside Patton. It had been...nice.

Virgil and Logan’s relationship on the other hand was...tense. They were acting civil towards each other though and at the very least, Logan didn’t seem mad at Virgil for what he had done. At least, he didn’t express it.

So, things were going...well...at least Virgil wasn’t dead.

Right now, Virgil found himself on the kitchen counter, stuffing a few crackers that Logan had left out into his bag.

Logan knocked softly on the front door, waiting a moment just in case the borrower was on the other side. Slowly he creaked it open, looking around.

“Virgil?” Logan called out, closing the door behind him.

Virgil stopped and tensed, before forcing himself to relax. He wasn’t used to this, having Logan knowing about him. He felt so exposed, out here in the open. Oh geez and what would Logan say about Virgil borrowing from him? Should he even answer the human? Maybe Virgil could just slip away…

Before the borrower could do so, Logan stepped into the kitchen. His eyes landed on his smaller roommate. The two shared a brief moment of silence.

“...oh.” Logan noted the crackers in front of Virgil. “I was going to make some dinner.”

“I’m not hungry.” Virgil said, wincing as he didn’t even believe his own lie. He was taking crackers for heaven’s sake. He just wanted to leave, still not completely comfortable with Logan. He didn’t know if he would ever be.

“...That’s fine.” Logan looked away, not wanting Virgil to feel put on the spot. Instead he busied himself with pulling out ingredients. “I’m glad you found the crackers.”

Virgil looked away. “Yeah…” This was starting to get awkward for Virgil, so he coughed to clear his throat. “I’m, uh, gonna get going now…” Virgil turned to leave.

Please don’t go. Logan paused, mentally thinking of all the things he wished to say to Virgil. I’m sorry I’ve treated you so horribly. I don’t want you to live in fear anymore. This is your house as much as mine. Stay for dinner and you can have whatever you want.

“Okay.” Logan spoke aloud, returning to his task almost mechanically. “I won’t force you to stay.”

Virgil nodded and left without another word. He sighed in relief when he was back inside the walls. How were they ever gonna make this work?

------------------------------------

Patton bit his lip nervously as he sat at the edge of the counter, kicking his legs back and forth, half watching Roman making dinner. Thomas was coming over to eat with them and Patton was...nervous to say the least. Thomas had been with his family for a week now and Patton had yet to see him since turning back to normal. And yeah, he had had a great time with Thomas when he was human sized, but he had no idea what to expect now that he was a borrower again. “What time did Thomas say he was coming?” He asked Roman, turning to him fully.

“As soon as his class finished up he was heading over.” Roman glanced at the clock while he continued to stir the spaghetti sauce. “So in about 10 minutes, I’d say.”

“O-Oh, cool.” Patton knew from experience that ten minutes wasn’t that long. Thomas would be here in no time. But it would be fine. Thomas was a good human and Roman was there too. He had nothing to worry about.

Roman paused his stirring briefly, looking down at the borrower. “Patton, are you alright?”

“Huh?” Patton met Roman’s eyes before turning away. “Um, yeah, I’m good. Everything’s fine.”

“Patton, it’s okay if you’re nervous.” Roman gave him an encouraging smile. He remembered what it was like to feel surrounded by humans when he was small.

Patton smiled back at him. “Okay, yeah, I’m...a little nervous. It’s just, this is the first time I’ll see Thomas as...me.” Patton said, looking down at his true borrower form.

“I get it.” Roman nodded. “But if it helps, Thomas was always very understanding when I was a borrower. Not to mention the fact that he’s over the moon to meet you for realsies, he’s been texting me all day.”

That both helped calm Patton down and made him more nervous. Somehow. An excited human could be a dangerous one, but he would take Roman’s word on how understanding Thomas was. After all, he had seen it himself when he was human sized. “Thanks, Ro.”

“Besides, I’ll keep an eye out for ya, Pat.” Roman gently nudged the borrower’s shoulder with his knuckle. “And if for some reason it becomes too much, I’ll just ask Thomas to leave.”

Patton flinched slightly at the contact, but otherwise didn’t react to it. He smiled up at Roman. “Okay.”

There was a few quick knocks at the door, before Thomas’ voice could be heard on the other side. “Anybody home?”

Roman set his stirring utensil to the side, wiping his hands on a towel before going to answer the door. “Thomas! come on in. Dinner’s nearly ready.”

“Ooh, what’s cooking?” Thomas took a deep breath in to catch the pleasant aroma.

“Spaghetti.” Roman smiled, leading the way into the kitchen.

Patton took in a deep breath when he heard Thomas and stood up. When Thomas entered the kitchen, he waved. “H-Hey Thomas.”

Thomas’ eyes widened, landing on the borrowers form. “...Hey, Patton.” Thomas gave almost a shy wave, looking almost giddy.

Roman chuckled. It was almost hard to tell who was more nervous. He began gathering up the food, putting it onto plates.

“How was class?” Patton asked Thomas, remembering that’s where Thomas had just come from.

“Oh, it was fine.” Thomas had hardly paid any attention, so focused on this very dinner that his mind kept wandering.

“Dinner is served.” Roman called out, balancing the plates as he brought them over to the table.

Thomas looked briefly back and forth between the table and Patton, not sure if it was his place to say, but… “Patton, would you like a hand?”

“O-Oh!” Patton blinked at the offer, thinking for a moment. He could trust Thomas, it was fine. “Yeah, that would be great.”

As Thomas put his hand down next to Patton, Roman came over to hover and watch in case something went wrong.

After a few moments of hesitation, Patton climbed onto Thomas’ palm. He settled down in the middle before giving Thomas a thumbs up.

Thomas turned around, only to find Roman standing right in front of him.

Roman’s intense gaze quickly morphed into a smile. “Be our guest!” Roman quoted Disney as he led both his friends to the table.

Thomas returned the smile, sitting down at one of the chairs with spaghetti in front of it. He set Patton down on the table next to a smaller plate that had been prepped for the borrower.

Patton nodded in thanks to Thomas, the ride not having been that bad. He then turned his attention to the spaghetti. “Oh, wow! This looks really good Roman!” He exclaimed, turning to said human.

“This tastes really good, Roman!” Thomas said through a mouthful, having already dug in.

“Why thank you.” Roman looked pleased with himself, starting in on his own pasta. Of course, he still glanced at Patton, worried the borrower wouldn’t like it.

Patton took a piece of the noodle, ignoring how the sauce got all over him, and blew on it before taking a bite. His eyes lit up. “This is so good!” He took another bite, sauce getting all over his face...and clothes.

Roman snorted into his own pasta, trying to hide it with a napkin.

“Uh, glad you like it Patton!” Thomas was hiding a grin of his own, already prepping a napkin for Patton.

Patton took another noodle and another bite. Oblivious to what Thomas and Roman found so funny. And oblivious to how much sauce he was getting on himself, too focused on eating the delicious food.

“Patton, you’ve got a little something on, uh…” Roman gestured pretty much everywhere. Of course, this only caused Thomas to let out an audible chuckle disguised as a cough.

Patton blinked at Roman, before looking down at himself. He blushed in slight embarrassment when he realized how messy he had gotten. “Whoops.” He put down his half-eaten noodle and started to try and shake the sauce off.

“Here.” Thomas said gently, holding out the napkin.

Patton took the napkin, looking sheepish. “Thank you.” He did his best to use the corner of the napkin to get most of the sauce off. His clothes would need a good washing though when he got back home.

“No problem.” Thomas smiled down at the borrower, before pushing his own empty plate forwards. “So, what now?”

“Well, we could watch a movie?” Roman suggested, looking to Patton for his approval. “Your pick of course, Patton.”

“Oh! Really? Well, uh…” Patton thought for a minutes, trying to remember what that movie he had been watching before was called. “I think it was called Tinkerbell? The movie I was watching before, when ah...you know.” Patton said, wincing a little at the memory. Everything was fine now, of course, but the past were still hard to think about.

“Tinkerbell it is.” Roman nodded, trying to remember which one Patton had been on when he...Roman cringed, remembering when he first caught Patton.

“I love Tinkerbell!” Thomas was oblivious to their discomfort, standing up and putting his hand next to Patton. “Which one?”

“Secret of the Wings.” Roman answered, the film finally coming to mind.

“I’m excited to finally finish it!” Patton said, trying to push the memories away. He climbed onto the offered hand with little to no hesitation this time. It was getting easier, which Patton was happy about.

Thomas walked over, taking Patton to the living room. He set Patton down on the coffee table, then began setting up the movie.

Roman, meanwhile, was working on scrubbing dishes. He washed them all, being careful with patton’s saucer. Though it was still large for the borrower, it was the smallest Roman had, and he didn’t want to break it.

Finally satisfied, Roman dried off his hands and joined the others in the living room, seeing the movie had already started.

Patton sat criss-cross on the coffee table, transfixed on the movie already. He was glad he didn’t have to worry about human’s coming up and grabbing him anymore. He looked behind him and gave the two humans a smile before turning back to the movie. He was perfectly safe.

“Does anyone want popcorn?” Roman asked. Thomas gave a nod, so Roman retreated back into the kitchen.

Patton glanced behind him to see Roman go, before turning back to the screen.

Soon the human returned, a big bowl of popcorn in hand. He set it down on the couch, between himself and Thomas. Roman was going to offer Patton a seat, but Thomas beat him to it.

“Hey Patton, want to come up here?” Thomas asked, putting his hand down next to the borrower.

Patton turned around, noticing the offered hand. “Sure!” He climbed on.

Roman watched as Patton was placed up onto Thomas’ shoulder, trying not to feel jealous as Thomas gave him a few popcorn pieces to munch on adorably.

It’s just a movie, calm down. Roman scolded himself, grabbing some popcorn for himself and turning his attention back to the screen.

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shining-star-elle-blog · 5 years

Text

CHAPTER 1.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Be-

A voice yawned after the click of a button, although no one would be able to see where the yawn came from with how dark it was in the room. Red light radiated from the alarm clock, showing the time as 5:00 AM, and so the boy had to get out of his bed, school was soon. With motivational difficulty, he leaned over to his lamp and turned it on, revealing the owner of the tired voice.

The lamp didn't give off too much light, but it was enough to reveal his face and figure. Hanging at the side of the shaggy bed was a teenager with blue eyes, brown hair and a lanky body. He blinked away the blur in his eyesight quickly, still quite dozy.

"Ugh…" He groaned and stood up, he was pretty tall, not seemingly very strong, and had a weird scar underneath his chin, which stretched over to his chest. Then, he got up and moved away from the dim light, now barely visible in this dreary room.

One could hear him lazily moving towards his wardrobe and throwing on some clothes, seemingly too quickly, showing he didn't quite care about his appearance.

He checked his items in his left pocket and found what he was looking for, a Pokeball. He pulled it out and aimed it at the bed before clicking the middle button and… Wait, why isn't it working. Oh… did she do that again? To confirm his suspicions, he went to the biggest lump in the blanket. Pulling the top away revealed a brown, fluffy Pokemon, with a big scruff. On her left ear (his right) was a yellow flower.

"Elle, wake up." The teenage boy whispered, shaking her body around until she yawned, waking up.

"Hm…?" The female Eevee mumbled, rubbing her eyes to get a clearer view of the world. When she noticed it was just Andy, she giggled a bit. This only served to annoy Andy.

Now, you may be wondering how he could understand his Eevee companion. Well, Pokemon and trainers can communicate with each other over time. Slowly, the trainer gets more in sync with their Pokemon, learning what everything about a Pokemon's gesture, pose, or speech means. It takes years and a good bond, but it wasn't uncommon.

"Elle, you know I put you in the Pokeball to keep you safe, right?" He tilted his head.

"Yeah but… I wanna sleep in the same bed as you, it's way more comfortable than that simulated garbage!" She whined. With a sigh, Andy nodded, understanding her feelings.

"Fine, but I'm gonna do this every night." Hoping she would get tired of the same shtick each night and morning was a mistake, but he pretended it would work, regardless of if he enjoyed her doing it or not.

"Whatevs… It's so dark out and I don't have the energy to argue back about it." She yawned before tapping the Pokeball button, allowing the red light to encapsulate her once more.

With a sigh, Andy pocketed his partner's ball and picked up his phone from its charging port, and concluded that that's all he needed for the day. He didn't use a bag since he had a school locker, and rarely did his homework.

He opened his door slowly knowing it always creaked. Minimizing the amount of noise he made, he walked down a familiar spiraling staircase, setting course to leave the expensive home. It was particularly light in the house today, and he pondered why for a moment until, like magic, the reason presented itself to him.

On the couch near the bottom of the stairs, 4 tired relatives were watching the news. This wasn't too uncommon in this household, but it still bothered the boy each time it happened. A sigh expelled from his mouth, announcing his presence.

A teenage girl with tied hair popped out of her spot to greet her younger brother.

"Hey brother, promise me we'll play again sometime. Last time was so much fun but you haven't talked to me since!" A devious grin covering her face, showing her bad intentions. Andy chose to ignore her, like usual.

The two older adults on the couch ignored his presence while another teenage boy made eye-contact in a blink. His hair was blonde, contradicting Andrew's dark brown, and while Andy's was messy, the other teenager had it nice and clean.

"If you don't take care of my Meowth tonight, there'll be consequences." The teenager whispered into Andy's ear, and fell back onto the couch, enjoying the latest story about a Poliwhirl firefighter.

Andrew had chills before he finally turned the knob to leave, but unfortunately for his nerves, his two parents turned at him slowly, a stern look covering their faces, which only made him leave the house quicker. Slamming the door behind him, he started his trek to his bus stop, of which was much further than his siblings.

When he got out of the driveway he stared back at the mansion. While lights throughout the expensive home blasted past the windows, his room was only dimly lit.

As he walked down the winding sidewalk past the many other mansions littering the hills, it was too dark for him to see anything except shadows. The lights usually on at night had disappeared, no longer filling his eyes with the vision he sought.

Eventually, he decided he was far enough from home and fiddled around his pocket to find his friend's Pokeball, and got a grip. Once he got it out he threw it instantaneously, not caring to think about how to send her out properly. She materialized a few feet in front of him before her ball zoomed back to his hand like a magnet.

Elle yawned and tapped her flower before looking at Andy.

"Good morning for realsies! I'm ready for the challenges today." Elle reported. She did this each day and was a good indicator to Andy of many things; energy, willpower, strength and of course making sure she was healthy mentally. She usually did it in return.

"Well, Andy, what about you?" She asked in a peppy voice.

"I'm a bit worried for tonight, but school is going to be decent." He started to walk down the road, Elle following to his right.

"Oh really? What classes do we have today? I kinda forgot."

"Today we have Refresh, Algebra, Biology and Partner Gym."

"I can't wait for last period!" Her eyes seemed to sparkle in the dark.

They went quiet for some time, mostly watching around the road, their world slowly opening up as the Sun rose. It was a peaceful time walking by the condos and mansions, all of which casting a creepy shadow onto them. Andy always thought of Luigi's Mansion when walking down these roads, despite them not being worn down at all.

Thankfully for the duo, finally reaching the end of a corner was a sign; it read "Beach Hlls" and pointed an arrow past his back. Looking ahead was the narrow roads that led into the city, and was where he would, each day, start the real long stretch to school.

"So… how were Andrianna and Jack today?" Elle delicately asked. Andy sighed.

"Well, Andrianna won't stop bothering me about wanting to do her definition of play, likely something I'd hate, and Jack wants me to take care of his Meowth again." Andy groaned, looking down. His blood was boiling, but he learned to ignore his anger.

"Sorry I can't help you… I'll have to be waiting in the ball I guess." Elle was always disheartened by the way he was treated by his family. Andy noticed it and patted her head, smiling.

"I know you always dislike it, but well, I just have to deal with it." He shrugged, not letting his problems become hers. She still felt bad, but the weight in her chest lightened up, knowing he didn't blame her, despite herself saying it was her fault for not being strong enough.

The padding of sneakers and paws were all that could be heard for a mile, albeit the occasional car driving down, which in turn freaked out Elle. Despite it being years since they started going down this route, she was always afraid of cars and jumped into Andy's legs or arms to avoid the sound of roaring engines.

The open road had many fields on the sides, filled with scattered trees and bushes. Many Pokemon interactions could be seen in the preserves. A tree had a Pancham leering at a Teddiursa, a Ursaring and Pangoro duo watching a fair bit behind. Litleos ran from a female Pyroar playfully in the fields. If one looked close in the trees, they could see a Raticate running from a second Pyroar, male this time. An Oranguru tried to talk to a Quagsire to horrible results, which Elle's perky ears overheard, and tried to horribly translate to Andrew, who turned out to only partially get it. Something about trying to talk intelligently, and the water type forgetting his words quickly.

About an hour later, they finally reached the bus stop, signified by an orange sign reading "Ravenwood Neighborhood". Next to that sign was a distinct yellow sign with a bus symbol, Andy and Elle had finally arrived. At the stop was one other teenager, humped over as he used his phone.

"Probably around another 5 minutes…" Andy mumbled, mostly for himself. Elle caught it, but didn't care to comment, only fearing the noise of the vehicle in question. In fact, she was quivering a small bit and held onto her flower, which made Andy feel inclined to help her.

"I'll bring you back out later…" Andy sighed, and recalled the shaking Pokemon back. Now it was just him and the hooded teenager a few feet away from him. This was one of the only people Andy got along with at this school, as he knew how sucky it was just to get to school from Andrew's home. The teenager was named Franty, but they still didn't talk to each other much. Speaking of that, with no cute distraction, Andy's feet hurt more than ever, but he tried to ignore it. He stood there patiently, ignoring his aching back and feet, trying to remember positive things. Over time it was getting easier, but it would always ache at least somewhat.

The bus's engine could be heard down the road, getting louder until finally it was within view. Andy's feet started to ache less simply at the idea of relaxing his poor muscles, and when the bus finally stopped, he sauntered into the loud bus quickly, ignoring sneers and small chuckles from the other students. Once he reached the back, he nearly collapsed into the seat, not sitting up because he was alone. Laying down on the seats, he tried to pass the time by thinking.

His thoughts from earlier returned. The positive thoughts were nearly all centered around one thing, Elle, and he focused on those instead of the snickers indirectly sent at him. Then he thought about when he had met her.

It felt like it had been so long.

All those years ago.

He fiddled with her ball, staring at it in his hand, letting the memories flow inside the mind. His unspeakable and unforgettable memory of the day came back.

The little boy had been sent out of his home like usual, it being a Saturday morning, and his parents not wanting him around. He decided to go into the woods despite better judgment by his fellow kids. "It's all mucky and sticky, ugh! You can get hurt too!"

As he took his first steps inside, it felt magical. It smelled like grass and nature, and was not too hot or too warm. Filling his sight was many Pokemon just… living. Yet, he saw a predator Poochyena take out a Pidgey, indicating to him that it was dangerous as well. Yet that made him excited to explore. Before he knew it, he was running through trees, dodging the erratic bushes and shrubs of the forest. Before he knew it, he saw a dirt road, which he decided to use after looking longingly at it. For a few minutes he simply watched the bird Pokemon filling the air, wishing deep down he could fly away from his troubles too.

Bang! Bang! The sound rang out for miles. The peaceful scent of the forest became the dreadful, dangerous smell of gunpowder.

He started shaking in fear. It happened just a few 100 feet away, he estimated, and against his better judgement ran down the dirt path. Then, a rackety old van came down the path, and he dodged the speeding vehicle by jumping to the left. It was black, and had drivers with a weirdly dark uniform. Running down the road, he ignored his near death experience. There were bigger fish to fry. He heard the crying of a Pokemon.

Finally, he reached the curve and heaved, his heart trying to catch up. That was when he saw the sight that would never leave his mind.

A Leafeon and an Espeon laying on the ground. Blood covered their fur coats, and a cracked egg sat next to a crying Eevee kit. The Espeon's ruby lit up and showed Andy the events in full.

It faded in between scenes of sorts. The mates and the shiny Eevee son were relaxing in a den when Team Rocket came by, and used some device to know exactly where the shiny Eevee was. He felt her fear. He felt their worry for their kept throwing Pokeballs, and the Espeon kept throwing them back. Using Pokemon to distract them, when the female Rocket checked a device, she said they were running out of time. The male pulled out those weird metallic devices, and shot the mates. He felt her sadness… not just towards her likely death, but more towards her baby. Taking the shiny Eevee, ignoring the Eevee that had been born that morning, thankfully, the Rockets got in their van and left.

"Take… care… of… her…" Was the Espeon mother's last words.

"I-I promise I will." Andy held her paw and cried into it. He didn't notice it, but she had a smile and tear before she died. "I… trust you." She believed he had a future ahead of him more than anyone else. She believed he would grow to huge heights. The 11 year old cried into the afternoon, burying the Leafeon and Espeon. The Eevee kit watched it all, crying too.

Then he realized that he had promised to take care of a baby Pokemon, but he had never been allowed to own a Pokemon before. It was gonna take a lot of work, but he picked up the Eevee gently with his bloody arms, holding it up high to look at her. They cried into each other's bodies throughout the night.

He was going to think of what happened next, but the bus made a sharp turn that jolted him out of his day-dreaming state. The sign out the window read "Pallet City Public High School" and he groaned. Wiping off his few tears, he was the last to leave the bus.

The first day of the rest of his life had started.

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notsuchasecret · 7 years

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Tapestries Day 6

@ennoyama-weekend

Day One (free Day) Day Two (Team Up/Fantasy AU) Day Three (Protecting/Childhood Friends AU) Day Four (Admiration/Age Swap AU) Day Five (Understanding/Working AU) Day Six (Regret/Fake Dating AU)

(must be read in order)

“I understand your concern, Takeshi, but I assure you it’s much better if they get married as soon as Tadashi-kun is out of high school.”

“It’s a changing world, Mother! Those kids are way to young in this day and age. After college, at the earliest.”

“Now, you two, this argument is useless. Why don’t we just ask the boys if they’d rather get married before or after college?”

Chikara clamped his hands over his ears, but it did nothing to block out the sound of his family arguing. Over his future, his life. Yamaguchi’s life.

It wasn’t just Chikara’s life they were deciding. Yamaguchi had dreams of his own, plans for how he was going to shape his own future. Plans he intended to follow through on, not just allow to sit in a box in the back of his mind and take out to look at once every couple of months. Marrying Chikara was not a part of those plans.

He didn’t notice himself standing from his bed or storming across the room. He barely paid attention to throwing open the door and stomping down the stairs. He didn’t even realize what he was doing until he was standing in the living room, staring down his parents and grandmother, furious.

“I will not marry Tadashi,” he snarled. “I will not marry him after high school or after college, or at all. We aren’t actually dating, because neither of us wants that, and you can’t live our lives for us.”

There was a moment of absolute silence before the shouting began.

Tadashi was in the shower when the call came, and the two calls after that, and the text message. Foreboding settle din his stomach.

ENNOSHITA-SAN: [Okay you’re not answering your phone so I’m just going to say it here. My family was planning our wedding today and I got so mad at them that I went downstairs and shouted at all of them. It turned into a huge fight so I’m staying with Narita tonight. I told them we weren’t really dating. So I guess this is to let you know the charade is off. You don’t have to pretend to date me anymore. Sorry I let it get so far.]

Tadashi read the text over three more times, trying to comprehend its meaning. When it finally sank in that yes, he was reading it correctly, he dropped his phone. It clattered to his desk while he clattered to the floor, staring at the wall without seeing it. Tsukishima knocked on the door but he didn’t hear it. His phone buzzed again but he didn’t move to check it.

He’d known it was ridiculous. He’d known that there was no point in getting his hopes up. Their relationship had never been anything more than a smoke screen, a way to get Ennoshita through the next two years living with his family until he could change their minds about his future. Ennoshita was never going to be with Tadashi.

“Yamaguchi.” Tadashi turned his head to see Tsukishima crouching next to him, concern peeking through his mask of constant indifference. Tadashi had never felt so glad to see his friend. “Yamaguchi, what happened?”

Tadashi opened his mouth to respond, but all that came out was a half-choked noise. Tsukishima blinked, eyes flicking to the desk. He grabbed Tadashi’s phone and opened it to find the text, reading it over so calmly, like nothing could ever shake him.

“Okay, so it’s over,” Tsukishima said, like he wasn’t sure what the big deal was. He looked at Tadashi, and understanding dawned on his face. “You don’t want it to be over.”

“I don’t have any right to want,” Tadashi managed. A smile cracked across Tsukishima’s face, fond and exasperated.

“I told you not to let it go too far,” he murmured. “Come here.” Tadashi let Tsukishima draw him close, settling with Tsukishima’s back against Tadashi’s bed and Tadashi in his lap. “I told you it was going to go bad.” Somehow, it didn’t feel like an admonishment.

“I don’t know what to do, Tsukki,” Tadashi whispered. “I know I have to just keep going, pretend nothing ever happened, but god, I don’t know if I can do that.”

“You’ve been pretending just fine so far,” Tsukishima said. “You two were never anything more than friends. Nothing’s changed at all.”

“I know that,” Tadashi murmured. “But it feels like everything has changed. Like I had a chance for all my dreams to come true and it was snatched away at the last second.” He laughed and scrubbed the tears from his cheeks. “Pathetic, huh?”

“A little,” Tsukishima agreed. “But you’re my pathetic.”

Chikara stared at the ceiling of Narita’s bedroom, hating himself. It had taken Yamaguchi three hours to text him back, but as soon as he’d gotten a response (a cheery “Okay!” and nothing else) he had started to panic. It hadn’t taken much prodding to spill the entire story to Narita and Nishinoya. They’d given him little more than disapproving looks and commiserating slaps on the back, content to leave Chikara stewing in his own angst.

And there was plenty of angst. He wondered what it would have been like if he hadn’t proposed this scheme, if he had just stuck up for himself in the first place and been Yamaguchi’s friend all along. Would he have fallen for him?

Of course he would have. Yamaguchi was, well. Yamaguchi. He was everything Chikara could want, and never hope to have. If there had ever been a chance for them, Chikara had ruined it.

“I can hear you thinking from here,” mumbled Narita. Chikara flinched and whispered an apology. “You’re being an idiot,” Narita sighed. “Just go find him tomorrow and tell him you’re sorry and you wanna be his boyfriend for realsies and it’ll be fine.”

Chikara wished it was that easy. Narita fell back asleep, but Chikara stared at the ceiling for the rest of the night.

#hq #Haikyuu!!#EnnoYama #EnnoYama Week #Captain Chika Chan #Freckle Face Angel #Wordly Stuff

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dorothydelgadillo · 5 years

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Why Marketers Should Care About James Patterson's Facebook Messenger-Only Novel

Generally speaking, I'm not really a fan of Facebook Messenger.

Call me a fuddy-duddy, but I've never quite forgiven our social networking overlord for requiring I have yet another app on my phone dedicated exclusively to Facebook. I will also never understand those friends and family members who insist on only contacting me through the messaging platform.

(Spare everyone from the drama -- if I don't respond on Facebook, call me like a sane person, instead of assuming I hate you.)

But then the news broke this week that James Patterson -- best-selling author and the 1990s book-to-movie powerhouse who transformed Matthew McConaughey from a deodorant-optional bongo player into a courageous young lawyer in Mississippi -- had decided to publish his new novel, The Chef, exclusively on the Facebook Messenger platform.

Patterson says the publishing industry's lack of innovation in the modern era moved him to experiment with creating the social media-based immersive experience.

“If Ulysses came out now, online, there would be like four readers, and they’d all say, ‘This sucks,’ and that'd be the end of Ulysses,” he said in an interview with Newsweek.

Strangely enough, for a story I considered an easily forgettable publicity stunt at first -- especially in the context of marketing -- Patterson's move opens up a larger discussion about the way brands and marketers can chart a similar digital path to reach consumers.

But First, What Does This Social Media Novel Look Like?

I'm going to be honest, it took me awhile to find it.

Even though I'm sure there are some obvious directions I missed, I didn't know what I was supposed to do. But eventually, after locating the Facebook Messenger app on the third page of a folder on my iPhone -- banished like an unruly child in timeout -- and searching for James Patterson like he was a contact, I stumbled upon The Chef.

Here's a quick video of me test-driving this experience on my phone this morning:

I haven't spent a ton of time with it, and I'm not 100 percent sure how far down the rabbit hole I will go. (I need an evening or so to fully evaluate the viability of something like this -- I fear change and have a tendency to declare something awful before I've even given it a chance, so... we'll see how it goes.)

That said, the overall idea here is very intriguing. And Patterson's move has reminded me how much I do enjoy immersive digital experiences like this.

The Power of Immersive Digital Social Experiences

There's an iPhone app called Shine that I'm marginally obsessed with. (FYI, it's not available for Android yet.)

Image courtesy of SheerLuxe, because I am lazy.

It's a self-care app that sends you daily affirmations, and you check-in each morning by answering the same two questions -- what are you grateful for today, and what are you going to do to make yourself feel good today?

Unlike the Patterson novel, Shine operates through its own independent application, instead of being funneled through a pre-existing social network.

But like the Patterson novel, it mimics an online messaging conversation you might experience through Facebook or text -- complete with multimedia like gifs, video, links, and audio -- so it is comforting through familiarity. It also requires active participation on my part to move the action forward.

Again, while I'm not sure how much I will enjoy this new frontier of reading a book, I can tell you that with Shine my practice of gratitude has never been more consistent.

(I'm definitely that person that spent $25+ on that Five Minute Journal everyone raved about for a hot minute, only to give up on it three days later. But with Shine, I'm closing in on 30 straight days of my gratitude practice, with no signs of slowing down.)

Why This New Approach Works for Brands

Granted, how well an app or digital experience like Shine or The Chef works comes down to how well researched and executed the underlying strategy is. Flashy technology is no substitute for actual substance, in the marketing world.

That said, my totally subjective opinion is that, when a brand nails this digital experience approach, it's incredibly addictive.

There are three benefits of this medium to thank for that:

First, as I mentioned, it's familiar. Even though the brand or the book may be new to me or other users, the fact that I intuitively understand the interface they're either using directly (or trying to emulate) makes it easy for me to teach myself how to interact with what's in front of me. Very little thinking is required to get me going.

Second, it feels personal. Intellectually, I understand that both The Chef and the Shine "texts" I interact with are programmed by people in advance and experienced by millions of other people in the exact same way. But it still feels like I have this one-to-one very human connection whenever I am talking to the robot in my hand. In the case of Shine, this feeling of having a mysterious digital friend telling me, "You go girl!" every single day shortened the runway significantly for me to go from casual user to rampant brand evangelist.

Third, that brand is now top-of-mind at least once a day. While The Chef has a limited shelf-life -- and who knows how long it might be until another similar digital literary experiment hits the internet -- it's now something that I look forward to playing with when I have more time after work today. And with Shine, the team there has scored a big win, because once a day, they have my full attention.

Of Course, I Still Have a Few Reservations

Here are my three primary concerns and/or grievances, in no particular order:

Out of side, out of mind? A physical book on my nightstand is a tangible, in-my-face reminder that I'm not reading something I said I would. In the digital world -- where everything on my phone is flashing, every website is trying to grab my attention, and my social network notifications sometimes go out of control -- I could see myself easily forgetting to keep up with an immersive digital book or app. In my mind, you're either completely memorable and winning at this medium, or you're collecting pixel dust in the corner.

Marketers ruin everything. Whenever something new and shiny shows up at the intersection of marketing and digital, we have a tendency to beat to death with a hammer. Use of this medium only works when it's done well and with purpose. I could see some poor brand spend lots of money dreaming up something like this, because they're trying to keep up with the Marketing Joneses across the street, but it all fails because of poor planning or a lack of understanding that it might not be the right fit for them or their audience. So, they wasted all of those resources on another pointless app or experience no one asked for.

Notifications make me feel guilty, and then I ignore you. Kind of like that promise you made to yourself on January 1 that you were totally, absolutely, 100%, for realsies going to start hitting the gym before 7 a.m. three times a week, it's easy to fall out of the habit of engaging and interacting with these digital attention-seeking apps and experiences. And when I do, I dread seeing the reminder notifications of, "Hey, haven't seen you in awhile." Suddenly, my reflexive feelings toward that brand are negative. Even though it's my fault that I'm a slacker, and the brand did nothing wrong, they still pay the price, because I'm not about to take any sort of responsibility with this.

"OK, What's the Bottom Line?"

Unlike getting started with video, you can't exactly get out there and start experimenting on the fly with this new digital marketing opportunity without some budget, development expertise, and a healthy dose of planning.

However, there is a considerable opportunity here for the right brand or individual -- whether you're transforming an every day experience like reading a story, or creating an immersive solution where historically people have struggled with low engagement or sticking with a new habit.

Again, you can't cut corners when it comes to strategy, and your brand will only succeed if you're solving an actual problem for an audience that is glued to the digital computer in their pocket. But I'm still excited to see who else gets it right next.

from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/james-patterson-the-chef-facebook-messenger-book

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