#which is to say at rooftop or dive bar drag shows and then being too chickenshit to collect A Number

[thepartyresponsible]

this fill is for @jhscdood, @windcalling, and the anon who asked for jason todd and clint barton to #69 on my wrapped 2020 spotify playlist, which is “the rush” by jj wilde.

so here’s a fic about clint barton, shield agent, accidentally hooking up with red hood the night before the big shield & bats meeting in gotham.

                                                       ---

Clint’s right in the middle of advanced negotiations with his hookup’s coffeemaker when a very aggressive Mr. Universe contestant crashes through the door, smashing it to kindling with one improbably muscled shoulder.

“Aw, shit,” Clint says, and throws the coffeepot.

It shatters apart against the man’s mask, and the man swivels slowly to stare at Clint.

He’s huge, and he’s angry, and he looks like he’s here to settle business.

“Oh, c’mon,” Clint says, half-begging, half-protesting. “I don’t even have pants on. It’s six in the morning. Raincheck this, for the love of God.”

The man straightens to his full height, and Clint sighs. He’s a menace, is what he is. Some actual, no-shit, Gotham-level nonsense. He’s a monster. 6’8” at least. He probably has a minimum of a hundred pounds on Clint.

He’s fully dressed.

It’s six in the morning.

“Ugh, fine,” Clint says. “Just be quiet about it, okay? He’s still asleep.”

Still asleep, still unbelievably good looking. Clint had been hoping for another round before he left to meet up with Coulson and Nat for their meeting with the various Bats, and now he’s going to ruin the poor bastard’s whole apartment, instead.

“I am not,” the belligerent bodybuilder says, “here for you.”

Clint blinks. “You—what?”

“You owe me for that door,” Jason says. He’s standing in his bedroom doorway, with a SIG in either hand and a very aggrieved slant to his eyebrows. “And for fucking up my morning.”

The human wall of muscle shifts to face Jason, leaving him open, but Clint is honestly too flabbergasted by this turn of events to take advantage of that. “Talia is looking for you,” the man says. “She wants you to come back.”

“And who can blame her?” Clint asks.

“That’s sweet,” Jason says. He grins at Clint, a flash of white teeth that reminds Clint of the line of bruises he can still feel along his collarbone. “You always this sweet in the morning?”

“Oh, feel free to find out,” Clint says.

“I’m here to return you to her,” the man announces. He’s beginning to sound genuinely irritated by all the interruptions. Clint can empathize.

Jason sighs. “You ever get tired of being her errand boy?”

“No,” the man says. “I consider it an honor.”

“I am just, wow.” Clint shakes his head, looks back and forth between them. “Really confused by the dynamics of this situation.”

“Welcome to Gotham,” Jason says.

“You said that last night,” Clint reminds him. “You said you were the welcome party.”

“Yeah,” Jason says and then he points one of those SIGs right at the breaking and entering suspect, “and he’s the welcome hangover.”

“I like you better,” Clint says.

Jason smirks over at him. “Well, I earned it.”

“Sure as hell did,” Clint says.

The massive menace takes this as his opportunity to charge Jason. Clint grabs the skillet off the stovetop and hurls it, sending it whirling end-over-end and slamming directly into the back of the man’s head. There’s a sick, meaty thunk and then a roar, and Clint loses sight of Jason and the behemoth as they go crashing back into Jason’s bedroom.

Clint grabs a couple of knives from the block and goes after them.

Hell, he doesn’t have to meet up with Coulson and Nat for another two hours. How else is he going to fill his morning?

 ---

 They wreck Jason’s entire apartment, the fire escape, a Wells Fargo, and two bodegas, and they steal an ice cream truck, but they make it back to Clint’s hotel room in time to fool around a bit in the still-made bed and then shower together after.

“I’ve gotta,” Clint says, gesturing over his shoulder. He is clean and dressed and running impossibly, hilariously late.

“Oh, me too,” Jason says. He has stubble burn on his chin and throat. Clint never did find the time to shave. Whatever. It pairs nicely with the hickey Clint left on the side of his neck.

Usually, he tries to be polite about leaving marks on hookups, but the noises Jason made set Clint’s good intentions on fire and threw the ashes out the window.

Clint hesitates, his hand on the door. When he looks back, Jason’s hovering close to the window, catching a quick glance down toward the street. “Not that I want—look, this has the best morning after of my life.”

Jason’s mouth quirks up at one corner. “I bet you say that to all the guys who drag you into a street brawl with Bane.”

Clint’s mouth falls open. “That was Bane?”

“Who the hell did you think it was?” Jason shakes his head, looks mystified and a little charmed.

“I dunno, just.” Clint waves his hands. “Your ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend, maybe? Who had a weird thing for-- look, I never got any coffee.”

Jason grins, still shaking his head, and crosses the hotel room to grab Clint’s shirt one-handed, dead over his heart. “Next time you’re in town,” he says, “I’ll make you coffee.”

Clint thinks about coffee and looks at Jason’s mouth, and he groans, a little helpless, downright disoriented trying to decide which he wants more right now. “Jesus,” he says. “You promise?”

“Yeah,” he says. And then he tugs Clint in, kisses him quick and intent and showy, like he thinks he still needs to work to be memorable. “Call me,” he says, and he disappears out the door before Clint’s caught his breath.

 --

 Clint sprints out the rooftop access door and skids to a stop beside Nat exactly thirty seconds before the designated meeting time. The look Phil Coulson sends his way is long-suffering and remarkably unsurprised.

“Barton,” he says. “Next time we come to Gotham, I’m going to handcuff you to me for safekeeping.”

“That’s, uh.” Clint clears his throat, blushes an incendiary shade of red. “That’s gonna get real awkward for you, sir.”

Coulson stares at him for one heavy, terrible moment and then he sighs with worn-in exasperation and directs his eyes skyward.

“Wow, Clint,” Nat says, squinting at him. “What happened to your neck?”

“No, shut up,” Clint says. “Shush. I was in Madrid, remember? I’m not taking any shit from you about this. You showed up in lingerie. Lingerie that wasn’t even yours.”

“Well, it’s mine now,” Natasha says, looking far too smug to be even a touch repentant. “Did you have a good time?”

“Jesus, did I ever,” Clint says, with maybe a bit too much honest appreciation in his voice.

“Could we,” Coulson says, “please just attempt a modicum of professionalism?”

“Sure,” Clint says. “Yeah. Super professional, Coulson. As soon as they get here, I promise.”

“We’re here,” Batman announces, manifesting out of the shadows, taking about five years off Clint’s life.

“Fuck’s sake,” Clint says.

“Very professional,” Red Hood says. He moves up next to Batman, and he looks steady, broad-shouldered. Serious. But there’s something weird about his tone. Something amused, a little strangled.

Clint stares at him.

“We appreciate this meeting,” Coulson says, voice level and controlled.

“You said SHIELD had business in Gotham,” Batman says. Beside him, Red Robin is silent and focused. Red Hood crosses his arms over his chest, seems almost bored. “We need to set the parameters of that business.”

Red Hood, Clint notices, has two SIGs in holsters at his sides.

“Of course,” Coulson says. “There’s no reason for us to have any problems.”

“It’s Gotham,” Red Hood says. “There are always problems.”

There’s a hickey, Clint notices. A bruise, maybe. There’s something on Red Hood’s neck, barely visible in the gap between the collar of his jacket and the metal of his helmet.

“Are you the Gotham welcoming party?” Clint asks. He hears it come out of his own mouth, and he has nobody to blame other than himself and his critical caffeine deficiency.

Red Hood turns to stare at him. They all turn to stare at him, but Red Hood’s the only one he’s looking at.

He didn’t. He didn’t. He didn’t come to Gotham the night before a meeting with the Bats and pick up Red Hood in a dive bar.

He didn’t spend the morning after fighting Bane with Red Hood and then sneaking him into his SHIELD-approved hotel room. He did not.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Red Hood says, head tipped. “I’ve been told I’m more of Gotham’s hangover.”

Clint nods slowly.

He has no idea – no idea – how the hell he’s going to make any of this seem reasonable in the post-mission report. He has no idea how much of this will even make it in the report.

But he has Red Hood’s phone number scrawled on a bar napkin in his pocket, and he knows, whatever else happens in this ludicrous, lunatic town, he’s sure as hell not losing that.

#writing #soundtrack fills

[real-jaune-isms]

RWBY Volume 8 Chapter 2 Review/Rundown

Cr

I feel like this about sums up the general reaction after this week. So let’s dive into how it got out of hand so fast.

We open, a little surprisingly, on a shot we saw at the end of last Volume: Qrow looking at Clover’s bloody badge in his hand. We hear Robyn ranting and raving at someone about how this situation is all their fault, how all she wanted was to bring people together. She’s pacing in her cell, and at first you worry she’s turned on Qrow and hates him for fighting Clover and getting them both arrested, but no. She’s berating Jacques, and thank god someone is. He quotes his daughter in Volume 1 and claims he is a victim, but it was more endearing and memorable coming from the Ice Queen. He continues to assert his innocence, saying Watts used him and his power for diabolical purposes. Sure, he is guilty of many things, but he should not be held responsible for this. And at least his charges don’t include murder. That gets Qrow’s attention, since it was of course a dig at him. That quells Robyn’s fury rather quickly, and she does defend Qrow’s innocence. But she hops right back on the flame train and (while wonderfully insulting his mustache) says she’s not about to agree with the words of an accomplice to Watts’ sins against Mantle. Sure enough, the man of the hour is also in an adjacent cell, and he’s resigned himself to being stuck here like the rest of them. We get a look at where exactly “here” is, a 2 by 2 grid of square cells whose walls are Hard Light Dust shields. It’s a room that’s otherwise rather empty, and the Dust walls seem to be the only source of light. A very makeshift appearance, all things considered, and I worry about Watts being in a cell surrounded by Dust tech he might be able to manipulate. Then again, they took his rings, but he’s got to be pretty resourceful. Meanwhile, Jacques has all the confidence of a spoiled rich brat put behind bars for a misdemeanor. He’s quite sure Whitley will be rushing to get the family’s legal team on the case, and he’ll be out within... well we don’t know exactly how short he thinks his incarceration will last because Robyn gets pissed and punches the wall dividing them. That shuts him up rather well. And really, Jacques-ass? You’re putting your faith in a teenager to help overturn alleged war crimes? What an out of touch prick. 

All four of them are shaken from their particular trains of thought by an alarm buzzing and the door opening. Three guards file in, disengage one of the walls of Watts’ cell, and go inside to smack him with the muzzle of a gun and drag his ass outta there. Jacques cringes at the sight of such sudden violence, and Robyn looks momentarily surprised before seeming to accept this. Guess she didn’t expect Ironwood to be so ruthless so soon. She sits back on her bed, which looks like its just a hard slab, and laments being unable to do anything. But Qrow says there is something they can do: kill the man who put them here. To paraphrase Agent Washington, that has got to be the worst plan ever. Of all time. You’re already in jail on murder charges, and now you want to actually cross the line and kill THE LEADER OF A KINGDOM?!?!?! I realize that Ironwood has gone of the deep end and needs to be stopped, but this is not the way to do it. This will only lead to failure, I’m sure of it.

Meanwhile, we cut down to an Atlas news reporter doing a story in Mantle. He’s doing his thing, talking about the unprecedented Grimm hordes and Ironwood not doing anything about it yet. But just as he’s going on about the dedication of his station, the Atlas Eye, Joanna comes up and swipes his microphone to deliver her own message to the people. She tells it like it is, saying that the Happy Huntresses are here to offer aid when Ironwood will not, and spreading the word for people to gather what supplies they can and head for the crater. We see one of the kids from Jaune’s crosswalk scene, and thank goodness his mom is still alive. Joanna talks about all of Mantle coming together to hold the line against the coming Grimm, otherwise the storm at their gates will sweep in to wipe them all out. Yang’s group get into Pietro’s pharmacy, and open the door to the backroom to discover something that makes them very happy. As we saw from the promo clip several months ago, it’s three hoverbikes which we then see them riding through the streets. Yang’s a natural at it, driving up a ramp to do a cool flip off a wall much to Oscar’s panic and discomfort as some of her hair gets in his mouth. Jaune and Ren are... adequate by comparison. Noticing the purple glow of what I presume is Gravity Dust propelling them and allowing the bikes to hover, I wouldn’t be shocked if Yang gives hers a paintjob to be the new Bumblebee: Now with added shipping material! What’s far less pleasant to notice is the Grimm squatting like a gargoyle on the bridge they drive under. We see this thing on the rooftops in a few more shots and then... whooo boy. But we will get there. For now, the biker gang finds more people to protect and help on the journey through town to the crater. One of the Real Thirsty Moms has armed herself with a snow shovel and isn’t totally sure if the crater will be a safe place, but Yang puts on her bravest face to reassure her... just before the screams of people being chased by Grimm get her attention. It’s only two Sabyrs, and Jaune stops their progress by throwing a Hard Light shield spawning grenade that we can assume was with the stash of new gear earlier. Ren drops down to stab both Grimm to death and kicks the quickly deactivating grenade back to Jaune who uses the Gravity in his shield to draw it to him. Very handy with all the tools, bud. Oscar is worried the Grimm Salem has brought with her have already gotten this far into the city, but Yang rationalizes they’re stragglers from the big attack last night. Cuz yeah, we’re still only 12 hours or so removed from the climactic latter half of Volume 7. She doesn’t wanna take any chances though, and asks Ren if Jaune can amp his Semblance up so he can mask the whole crowd for the trip. Ever the realist, he gives a less than encouraging answer, but Jaune sees how badly these people need some hope and comfort. So he makes it into a reassuring promise that the trip will be totally safe and Grimm free. Good job, man. But in every crowd of people, there’s always... a Karen. In this case it’s a grandma who doesn’t want to go stay in the slums among the “animals”, she wants to go to Atlas dammit. But Yang has been waiting to berate someone after the morally grey argument with Ruby last episode, so she takes full advantage of this. This lady might want to be in Atlas, but it’s become clear that Atlas doesn’t want her or any of the other people in Mantle, whereas the Faunus in the crater are showing more kindness than she deserves and giving her a warm place to stay amid all these Grimm. That shuts her up quick, and her daughter (one of the Real Thirsty Moms!) nervously butts in to say that yeah, they’ll accept the offer and she’ll go get their stuff now. We fade to seeing the greyed out crowd walking down the street with Yang giving frontal support, Ren riding on Jaune’s bike in the midst of the crowd to mask outwards in a radius, and Oscar guarding the rear. Grandma Karen is still whining about having to go to the crater, but her daughter is trying to get her to pipe down.

Oscar laments how hard it’s been to get folks to cooperate, with Ozpin chiming in to say he’s preaching to the choir on this one, and that he’s becoming increasingly concerned about that challenge. Oscar grumbles about the unencouraging internal peanut gallery, and Oz gets right to the point. The teens all have every right to be mad at him for dipping on them in Mistral, none more so than Oscar himself, but that’s not what Oscar’s beef is about. He’s mad that he gave him false hope, that in the time Oz was gone Oscar was able to really start coming into his own as a fighter and a member of the team. But now he’s back and Oscar will go back to just being the vessel for the guy everyone really cares about. Oz acknowledges and validates that, but admits that he was never really gone at all so... the merging is still going. Oscar is gaining deep memories and what magic Oz has left, so it’s closer than ever. Neither of them want this to happen, but what can they do? Further up, Ren’s cloaking flickers for a second and Jaune checks on him. He’ll be fine, he’s just got a lot to focus on. Jaune tries to give him a pep talk, but silence is more needed here and Ren is a little snippy in saying so. Jaune seems pretty bummed that Ren is in such a state, but I can’t really say he’s mad at him. More upset with himself and his leadership. One member of his team left to do something else, and the other is in a mental funk he has no clear idea how to help him out of. That’d bum anyone out. Let’s talk about Ren for a moment, actually. I think part of the reason his semblance is working at less than 100% is the same reason he’s pissy with Jaune. He has too many emotions bottled up and he’s trying to ignore them for the sake of staying neutral and calm to be at his best. But if you force yourself to always be neutral, it becomes that much harder to shift into the zen needed for this power. He needs to let himself have emotional highs and lows so he can transition naturally into the middle ground. In other words, TALK ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS, BUDDY!!! It’s also been theorized that his semblance can work for more than just neutrality and he might be projecting his inner turmoil onto the crowd. But that’s yet to be proven. Oz appropriately closes out the scene by saying that they ALL need to figure out a way to work together, but something tells me that’s not coming for another 8 episodes at least.

Changing locales, we see Penny outside of a building with a puffing smokestack on the edge of the city. Turning around, we see where the city of Mantle ends and the slums of the crater begin, and how many people are making there way down from one to the other. But quickly look back, as Blake has just cut off the lock on the chain link gate to the building and May is leading our girl squad inside. That’s right, the one and only May Marigold is coming along on this mission so we get a chance to see her really show her stuff! Nora is grateful for the assist, but May assures her this plan would have definitely gotten Robyn’s backing judging by how much she talked about Amity Tower once she was in the know, so she’s all too happy to help get it up and running. And the Happy Huntresses can afford to be sending her for this, since Fiona has the rest of the team helping her out. The reminder that their partners are off doing a separate mission dampens Blake and Nora’s smiles though... Ruby worries about the safety of going into this place, but once inside Weiss gives the rundown. This is a subsidiary of the Schnee Dust Company that specializes in shipping packages of refined Dust from the mines up to various areas of Atlas through pneumatic tubes. And since it’s a small side business, the worker robots have no direct chain of command to Ironwood, just the Schnees. And Weiss’ grand plan for transportation up to the Atlas military base is something Ruby jokingly suggested back in Volume 2... mailing themselves to their destination. You’re becoming more like that dolt every day... and as a White Rose shipper I love it~ Blake takes this opportunity to rain on Weiss’ confident parade with a dig at the high percentage of buildings in Atlas the Schnee family must own at this rate, and Weiss refuses to comment on how many they actually don’t own. Glad to see Blake being playful like this, shows she’s really comfortable being back with the group again. Everyone spreads out to look for the tube they need, and Penny finds the one for Atlas Academy instead. It reminds her of the confrontations that were had there last Volume, and it clearly still bothers her. Ruby comes over to check on her, and incorrectly assumes Penny’s lamenting about friends fighting is regarding her and Yang. You may be the protagonist, but not everything is about you Ruby. Penny meant Ironwood, Winter, and the Ace Ops, the people Team RWBY had become such fast friends and trusted allies with in Volume 7. The people who are doing and saying such unkind things now, like Ironwood telling her people will die unless she does as she says. Maybe that’s why she’s lingering at this terminal, she’s debating giving herself up to him for the sake of others? 

Ruby is having none of this self blaming talk though, and turns Penny around to look her in the eyes as she assures her that no, that isn’t true at all, Ironwood was just saying it to hurt her and make her feel bad enough to come back. Penny admits that she misses the days when she was just the Protector of Mantle, that she now has so much heavy responsibility and duty thrust upon her as the Winter Maiden and she wishes she did not. She was struggling enough to find an identity as a normal girl, now she has a whole other identity to grapple with, it’s all truly unfortunate and sad. Holding her hands in a very similar way to how she did back when she first found out Penny was an android, Ruby assures her that she is still very much the girl she once was. She protected Mantle by taking the Maiden powers so they wouldn’t be misused to hurt the city. This seems to cheer Penny up a bit, and she thanks Ruby for it. The two have another nice hug, before Nora calls out that she’s found the terminal they need. Blake notes that this is the point of no return, and May asserts her confidence that between Penny’s capabilities with the computers they’ll encounter and her own invisibility Semblance they’ve got this in the bag. Penny doesn’t like being referred to as a secret weapon, or a weapon of any kind, but she says nothing about it. For now, let’s praise May for being sassy and cool and doing a cute little curtsy for style. Nora asks the important question of how the heck they’re gonna use this thing, and Weiss goes into tutorial mode again. Just lie back into the tube and hit the launch button, easy enough. Except she was sitting on the edge of the tube for a visual aid and Nora got bored. So ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM goes Weiss up the tube with a frightened screech. Everyone just watches in slack-jawed shock and confusion, but Nora immediately goes giddy at what has just happened and what will soon happen to the rest of them. I can’t imagine what Ruby and Blake must be thinking, not to mention what’s going through May’s mind with this being her first exposure to Nora being... Nora.

But that’s all we get of them for this episode, so Weiss is Schrodinger’s Heiress for the next week. We go to the crater as Joanna heads into a tent where Fiona is hunched over a map coordinating over comms with someone we’ve yet to meet named Crimson. As she finishes the call and whines over how stressful this all is, Joanna drops a small crystal of fire Dust into a sort of furnace and assures her that she’s doing a great job. Fiona absorbs the map into her hand of infinite holding and says Joanna’s big display on the news makes her more qualified for this job. Joanna laughs that off and says it was necessary to spread the word, which seems to be working judging by how many folks are arriving. The group they’re now noticing come in is the one Yang and her squad have just arrived with from Sector 7. The happy lamb does a happy hoppy dance hearing that they’ve already cleared out that sector, and admits her previous doubts that they could manage this much with only half their team. This hits a sore nerve for both Ren and Yang, and the former stomps off while the latter gives a passive aggressive response. They really need to address this soon or it’s all gonna explode in their faces... Oscar wisely changes the subject to ask how they’re managing to house and provide for all these people, and the two Huntresses give a rundown. They’re doing what they can with houses and shelters, and a lot of people are trying to make old mineshafts into someplace livable, and they’ve been looting SDC refineries for Dust to keep everyone warm. Unlike our own society, no one is getting arrested amidst the end of the world. But they substitute that with the terrifying dread of not knowing when the majority of the Grimm will finally attack, what they’re all waiting for. We and the teens know they’re waiting for Salem’s command, for an opening to cause the most damage. And the longer they wait the more the negative emotions build to draw them in. Clever clever, you old witch you. The ominous mood is interrupted by the badger guy from episode 1 running up to inform Fiona that another fight has broken out among the people. He’s voiced by RT founder Gus Sorola, and apparently he’s Fi’s uncle! She seems bummed about having to go break up another fight, but Joanna’s got this one covered. But problems keep coming, and Crimson reports in that there’s a group of Grimm coming in from the east that he can’t handle while transporting civilians. Yang and co are all to ready go get this off Fiona’s plate for her, and we cut to Yang being pursued by a Teryx. We soon see she’s leading it into an ambush, as Ren and Oscar come riding in at an intersection to toss a grenade baton beneath it which presumably contains air/wind Dust because it gets propelled upwards to crash into a bridge and fall back down stunned. Yang gets out of the way and Jaune charges in for the kill. With that job done, Fiona immediately has a new group for them to clear out on the west side. The kids are getting real tired of this constant rushing around killing Grimm, but its part of the job they made such a fuss about going to do so they gotta do it. Oscar points out what I mentioned before, the negativity from everyone worrying when Salem will strike is luring in the stragglers amongst the Grimm. Speaking of stragglers, three Sabyrs come charging up the street much to Ren’s annoyance. But before they can make contact, something gets their attention and they turn tail to run. This puzzles and concerns the team, since Grimm have never retreated before. Before they can finish asking themselves what the Grimm were running from, they get an answer. A large dog-like Grimm pounces on Oscar and starts mauling him and thrashing his body around. He tries to fight back, kicking at one of its legs, but it is unfazed and keeps hitting him until his aura is gone. We see this thing has no eyes to speak of, but it soon gains apposable hands and hind legs capable of bipedal movement. All the better to carry Oscar away with, and shockingly enough, all the better to hold him in front of it as a human shield when Yang comes charging in to try and save him. She has to swerve and avoid hitting the kid, but gets grabbed by the head and tossed against a wall. Ren is the next to attack, but his bullets do jackshit to its back and his “grapple into the enemy and pull myself at it for a kick” has never worked before and continues to not work now. The Hound, as it is named in the credits and in concept art, stretches out its arm much like the Nuckelavee back in Volume 4 and swats Ren away. Jaune is about to charge in too, but Yang warns him about the Hound’s shield tactic. He’s in disbelief, because they may have seen old Grimm that have gained beastial sentience but never this kind of sapience and creative thinking. Ren grabs his guns but the Hound holds Oscar up again to stop him. Ren, naturally, yells at the Grimm to give their friend back. 

But the Hound just stretches its neck with a few cracking sounds, and says “No”.

This leaves the huntsmen and huntresses in a silent stupor of shock and fear, and I would not blame them. If all of my world’s history has been telling me that the monsters I hunt are mindless beasts of violence and destruction, nothing more, that’s one thing. If I learn they were created by a deity solely for the sake of destroying my civilization and are nothing but his avatars of darkness and wreckage, that’s a big theological pill to swallow but I still know how these things always tend to act. If I am on 6 hours of sleep vs 28 hours of being awake, just had a big personal argument over what our job should be amidst the apocalypse, and now my entire understanding of the monsters I at least thought I knew how to handle is thrown out the window?????? Yeah, I would need a goddamn minute before I could think rationally and quickly again. So you’ll excuse me for giving Yang, Jaune and Ren a pass as they just stand there and watch the Hound grow bat-like wings in a very painful and goopy transformation that gets some goo on Oscar’s unconscious face and then climbs up a building with Oscar in its mouth to fly away. When they do recover their senses they hop on their bikes and chase after the beast at full speed, giving a hasty and vague apology to Fiona for having to go handle this emergency that she wouldn’t believe even if they told her. And that’s it, we have to wait a week or longer to find out if they catch this thing and get Oscar back. Judging from the intro, I’d say they won’t and he will be brought before Salem for torture. Fun!~ This definitely opens the door for brand new possibilities of what Grimm are capable of doing or being, and lots of people are theorizing the Hound is so intelligent because Salem stuck a person in there, possibly someone we thought was dead but perhaps isn’t? Who knows, we’ll have to wait and see.

Sorry it’s so late, but hope this is a good review.

#rwby reviews #qrow branwen #robyn hill #jacques schnee #arthur watts #general ironwood #but only in mention #joanna greenleaf #yang xiao long #jaune arc #lie ren #oscar pine #ozpin #penny polendina #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #nora valkyrie #may marigold #weiss looking sus #I saw her vent #fiona thyme #The Hound #among us #new grimm #terrifying grimm #talking grimm #rwby spoilers #volume 8 spoilers #rwby volume 8 spoilers

[n0resistance]

Wall St

     I remember the summer of 2010 being fun and productive. We were on a hunt for an apartment , I was living at home for the summer working at a pizza place, watching sex and the city (everyday), and missing New York. We wanted specific things about the apartment. Close to school, an affordable price, and something for all of us. 

      We looked in Bed-stuy but it was too far from school, we couldn’t imagine commuting on a train for 30 mins. The landlord also didn’t feel good about us being so young. 

     Landlords give college students, especially ones who never lived on their own before, a difficult time. We looked around union square and saw our dream loft. The girl who showed us the apartment had a red Moped and heals on. She was very Manhattan and the place was very expensive. 

     It was fun to imagine our lives in many different places. One day after apartment hunting in the city, my new roommate and I went out to celebrate finding something we liked! We decided to go sake bombing and sushi. I had the car that I drove into the city. We were in the east village and I had work in New Jersey at the pizza place in the morning. I got so drunk off the sake and got sick. Could never handle my alcohol at 19 and my friend drove me to Long Island  because that’s where she lived (and thankfully would not let me drive ). 

    I woke up on Long Island and was so hung over, had to drive to New Jersey at 8 AM to make my 10 AM shift. It was horrible and I was young and dumb. We got approved for the apartment the next day! 

     We found an apartment on Wall Street walking distance from Pace and it was out of our budget but we took it! It was a one bed room we were able to convert to 2 bedroom, with a make shift wall. Which is a fake wall because you can hear everything in the kitchen. Since I shared a room we paid less than our roommate who had her own room. To share a room on Wall Street in a luxury building is $950 per person per month. It’s not cheap. It’s kind of a dream come true to have your first apartment in Manhattan. It became an identity. 

     The girl I shared a room with and I had shared the dorm together the year before. So we already knew what it was like to live with each other in the same room. We all shared a huge walk in closet where we had to go in our third roommate’s room to get our stuff. So nobody had privacy; but we had a gym, a doorman, rooftop access, and the roof was beautiful. You could “rent out the space for parties”, and the best part of this apartment was we got to have my dog Scrappy, who was left at home during freshmen year. 

    The semester started and I was broker than ever. I walked through the back of the apartment building and discovered this old Dutch looking street with cobble stones. It was empty but I noticed that each spot had a restaurant. I had pizza place experience on my resume. However, nowhere in New York wants to hire you unless you have New York experience. I was on a hunt. I applied everywhere and wasn’t getting anything, mainly because of the no New York experience. My resume had High school, Hollister, and Stefanos Pizzeria on it. I wasn’t that desirable. While I was walking my dog Scrappy on Stone Street I was looking at the restaurants and a guy started talking to me about Scrappy. We had a small conversation and when he was going inside I asked if he was hiring. He said, for what? I said anything. He said sure, you can have a job, come by this evening and we’ll start training. I was so excited! Even though I had no idea what my job would be.

     2010 was surreal! My first apartment on Wall Street and first job as a New York  hostess at a Mexican Cantina. It was owned by three white men who lived in New Jersey. They all were married with kids, and were not Mexican what so ever. The third floor was their office. Second floor had a bunch of seats and a Guacamole Bar. The main floor had high top chairs, a bar, and then there was outdoor seating (benches, picnic tables, on cobblestone). Which was the part of stone street that reminds everyone of October fest. We had a manager who was really cool, most of the servers were actresses, and the hostesses handled things like seating people and any take out orders. It was a lot of people, and we were booked everyday. The basement was where the kitchen was. We had amazing guacamole and margaritas that cost $12 each. 

    If I had to do it over, I would lie and say I was server and hopefully get a serving job. I just settled for the hostess job that paid $12 per hour because I was desperate without experience. I worked a lot for a student. This job lasted me 3 years while I was in school, on and off. On holidays like Cinco de Mayo or October fest, some people would wait for an hour for a table. Sometimes celebrities would be spotted there like Finch from American Pie or Michael Keaton, they loved the Burritos and probably had a luxury apartment there.

   I remember my first week the owner found out I was 19, going to school at Pace, having my first apartment with roommates. He said, “so your life must be so fun, am I right?” I mean everything was new and exciting, I felt like I was a mini adult living in the financial district. I was broke all the time, my dog barked and peed in the house (my neighbors got upset), oh and I still did not know what I wanted to do with my life! 

    I joined a sorority that semester. Made a lot of mistakes during my pledging process but it was so fun. One time I spent the money I was supposed to use for rent at a bar called Gaslight in the Meatpacking district. I bought everyone tequila shots and it was definitely $250 and I used my rent money partially. That night I lost my phone, my keys, my wallet, and my dignity. I don’t know how I got home but I needed to get bailed out from my mistake. I would make a lot of resolutions when this would happen. Get good grades, save money, be a good human, volunteer, and go home more often. In school I never missed a class  because of these resolutions. My passion was hanging out with people from school and finding a new place that would take our fake IDs. I always used real people’s IDs. It really just needed to go through the ID machine. However, the club got caught with under age drinking and got stricter. They would get taken away by security guards and then I’d be on the hunt again for a new one. 

    My pledge name was L0ko like Fourl0ko because I got caught 4x drinking when we were a dry process. I would get caught in neighborhood hangouts like the McDonalds near McGuire’s from an older sorority sister or worse my pledge mom. We got in trouble for getting our nose pierced during purity week on St. Marks. I had to write a paper on alcoholism. Luckily my roommate was in the sorority and I made friends through her fast. I was invested in Greek life. The partying was at apartments, bars, rooftops, venues, you name it. The city was our oyster and we met so many people to drink with and socialize with.

    They all mainly studied business and it was nice to feel like we were actually in college. We even went to West Chester to see the Homecoming game. New York took away from the college experience. 

    One time we had a party and at first not many people showed up. I think it was a holiday party or something. Before you knew it, everyone was there. People we didn’t even know. This one girl was interning on Wall St brought her boss. He must’ve been in the age group 35-40 and hit on our friend who was 19 years old. She said no and he hit her or choked her. A bunch of Staten Island guys who were friends with us at the time dragged him out of the apartment and beat him up in the elevator. The creepy man was getting married and had a broken nose. Another guy got angry with my friend for not liking him and I think she ignored him. He came to our party with an orange spray tan, and bragged about his money, and because everyone ignored him, he threw a Grey Goose bottle at the chandelier in our hallway to the elevator.  It shattered everywhere. How crazy is that?  It was just an out of control in our one bedroom converted two bedroom,  apartment. I can’t believe how out of hand kids can get. It was actually scary because the liability was on us if anybody gets hurt. 

    The party turned into a shit show and I never want to have anything like that again. After stuff like getting in the sorority, starting my first job, my third obstacle was my dog and his bad behavior. Our neighbor was a doctor and complained about us constantly. Scrappy barked. I even got a barking collar that sprayed citrus in his face. He liked the citrus so much that he would taste the orange spray and would continue barking. To control the barking I found that leaving music on helped his anxiety. Taking a Jersey dog to the city really freaks them out. The noise and the city walking. The city also helped him because he had skin allergies and was allergic to grass, so the concrete was nice. 

    We had some set backs and then we had the summer and Junior year was approaching. I got into a study abroad program the next year in Italy. So that summer to prepare for it as well as my hostess job I also worked at a bar called Thunder Jackson's and there would be no hourly pay nor benefits. I was still only 19 turning 20 and never worked at a bar. Sometimes I made $500 on a Friday or Saturday night and sometimes on an afternoon, I would make nothing. So I saved what I could. I spent the summer hanging out with sorority girls and guys from the Fraternity. One I was dating.

    He just got out of a relationship and knew I was leaving for Rome so we just took it slow. We would go out, eat, drink and sleep til 4 every day. Before I left, he tried to take me to Jersey Dives to experience Sky diving. There were too many clouds that day that we couldn’t go. We spent the whole day waiting because I was leaving for Italy that Monday. I’m glad that happened because he wasn’t the person I was supposed to do that with. I’m terribly afraid of heights. Italy was approaching and it was time to say goodbye to Wall Street.

    I wasn’t going to really have a say in the new apartment, they found it when I was on my way to London. It was in the Upper East Side and I was going to live with the same girls. I took the money I saved for the summer and gave it to my dad to give to me incrementally over the semester so I could use it abroad. I got someone to sublet my spot and was ready to go. Everything felt good except that situation-ship, he was slowly but surely ghosting me. He meant something to me because at that time he was the third person I dated, in my whole life. Everything was perfect but leaving him was not going smooth. I didn’t know when to call it quits, so I decided to write him about every experience I was having abroad and then just like that from Wall Street to Rome. Well, at that point it was Wall street, to London, to Florence to Rome.

At the end of that semester my counselor said I needed to decide on a major. She asked me “ What do you want to get out of college?” I said, “A JOB”. She said “Go into hotels, you’ll always have a job.” My junior year I was a business major with a concentration in Hotel Management. 1 out of 30 students in the hotel management department. It felt right. 

#alltheplaces howtolove myfirstapartment