#yes this clip still has me in a chokehold

[recentadultburnout]

bad buddy fandom getting-to-know-you-meme!

Got tagged by @telomeke at this post here. Thanks!!

name and whatever you want to share about yourself

You can call me Radish if you want. My @ of this blog is something I randomly put in without much thought, and now I have too many links to change it (I hear that if I change the @, all the links would be gone. I never tested it, but the risk is there, and I don't hate my @ yet so ¯_(ツ)_/¯) Reading is my soul-consuming hobby since I can read. Recently, I have gotten into writing fanfic, and while it is not the best and I would still prefer someone else to write it, there is a weird satisfaction in reading a story that goes exactly as you think.

when did you watch bad buddy/join the fandom?

I have been very excited since it was announced. I'm Nanon's fan from The Gifted, and to see him suddenly accept a BL role is a big, pleasant surprise. Bad Buddy is probably the first thing I've watched live in years, and it's also the first thing I've rewatched even before it ended. The first (and only) thing that got me to watch the reaction clip too. I've been hooked since the first episode. Each small expression Pran makes has me in chokehold.

Favourite ship/s

PatPran

Favourite character/s

Pran. I love all the characters, but Pran is my baby. My cute little blorbo💕💕💕💕

Favourite episode/s

I feel like my answer changes each day. Let's say Ep. 3 for today. PatPran sneaking around is cute, the comedy is exactly to my test, and Pran's face that shows in this episode is doing something to my heart.

Favourite scene/s

The scene that I feel is most memorable is the one after the music contest. Yes, the "ma ni di" scene—I don't think I have to tell you why.

The first time I see the rooftop scene, I don't know what I feel. After that scene, I felt like crying. It's an impactful scene for sure.

The scene where Pat and Pran go to market together is definitely one of my fav.

I love Pran's face in the scene where he gets ขนมจีบ(Dumplings?) and a note from his mystery admirer. I keep rewatching that.

Every lighthearted moment between Pran and Wai. I do think Pran shouldn't let Wai get away from being a bad friend, but other than that, I love them together.

The ending scene felt extremely nice.

basically every scenes

One thing you would change about the show if you could

I would like to know more about Pran and Wai's relationship. Nanon said that for him, it makes sense that Pran would be that pushover (?) when it's Wai, and I really want that piece of information.

what are your some of your favorite fanworks made by other people?

I'm grateful for anyone who makes any type of fanwork, but my favorite type of fanwork is definitely fanfic. I think "When did all my friends become so loud?" by fangurks is my fav bbs fic.

Do we count the reaction from ศูนย์วิจารณ์(Soon Vijan) as fanwork or official?

What are your favourite fanworks you've made?

The only piece that is specifically for bbs fandom is my name's meaning(with some extra info) post here. It's the only one, so it's automatically my favorite.

A song that makes you think of BBS (not in the show)

คู่กัด(rival) by Bird Thongchai

It's about two people who keep fighting about everything, and while they know that both parties care about each other and that the thing they fight over is just a small matter, they still want to win.

Very PatPran

เขียวกับแดง(Green and Red) by TaitosmitH

Red and green are OhmNanon fandom colors, and they did sing this song at an event or smt. I've now associated it with bbs fandom.

อย่าทำอย่างนี้ไม่ว่ากับใคร(Don't do this to anyone.) by Bird Thongchai (im Bird's fan, sue me)

a song about one-sided love that the one who has the feeling knows (thinks?) the other doesn't reciprocate but feels like if other people get treated like this they will probably misunderstand that the feeling is mutual and so they tell their crush not to treat someone who they don't like like that.

It's not that in line with PatPran's story, but I feel like Pran probably vibed with it before Pat cleared things up between them.

B Team by Marianas Trench

solely because of this edit below. Before this, I exclusively listened to the Nightcore ver lol. I discovered this song in my Nightcore and Vocaloid era, and I left it there until now.

Onward tagging:

I don't know who to tag lol. Anyone passes by and feels up to it, I guess.

#bad buddy the series #tag game #bad buddy fandom getting-to-know-you meme #bad buddy #bbs tag game #bad buddy getting to know you #Youtube

[inmoonliight]

I Love the Real You

This game has me in a chokehold, and it yanked me out of my writers block and caused me to actually write a fanfic omfg

If you haven’t please go play Error143, it’s so good!!!

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Allison found herself repeatedly tapping her nails on her keyboard without actually pressing any of the buttons as she stared at the stream summary that was on one of her monitors. It’d only been about three hours since her stream had ended, but she had already wiped off the makeup she had been wearing, and also made something to eat really quickly before going into editing mode, and started getting stuff ready to posted as clips on tiktok, as well as a highlight video of the stream.

The notification noise of the messenger app was the only thing that drew her eyes away from all the analytics on the monitor that was the farthest to her right, and to the one that was farthest to her left. It was Micah. Again. He had sent her a few messages once her stream had ended, and while she talked to him for a little bit while cooking food she had gotten distracted and forgotten to reply at one point.

Micah Yujin: 

You should make a compilation of all the times you died LMAO   10:57 pm

Cause you know  10:57 pm You died A LOT  10:57 pm

Angel?  11:20 pm

You okay? 11:25 pm

A curse fell from her mouth as she quickly moved to reply to him, and a small feeling of guilt began to gnaw at her. Of course as soon as she started editing her ADD meds had been wearing off, which caused her to lose track of what she was doing. The redhead had gotten so hyper focused on editing she ended up just ignoring Micah, and she hated ignoring him. She had gotten into the habit of telling him when she was going to start editing or something so he wouldn’t start thinking she was straight up ignoring him since she had been in that position before in past relationships, and the overthinking part had driven her crazy. 

Moon:

Yes! Sorry I got into editing mode ;-;  11:26 pm

My meds finally wore off  11:26 pm

Allison leaned back in her pink gaming chair as she grabbed the small pink stuffie that he had brought her when he first visited, and hugged it close. She knew he probably understood that she was focused on editing things. Micah had reassured her that it was okay, and that he wasn’t gonna take it personally, but she couldn’t help but worry. It was something she knew she needed to work on even though she had already been working on it for years. 

Micah Yujin: 

It’s okay!  11:27 pm

Did you eat enough? And did you get some water?  11:27 pm

Micah always was making sure she ate enough, and drank water after finishing any streams no matter how long they were. Even if it was for only 30 minutes. Allison couldn’t deny the tiny butterflies that it created whenever he showed her that he cared about her wellbeing. It was nice to have someone who actually cared about you after consistently having guys be utter dicks in past relationships.

She scooted her chair closer to her desk so she could still hold the stuffie she had appropriately named Relnado. It was a Friday night, so she had been planning on staying up later than usual, so she could spend the rest of the weekend relaxing. But she knew that she’d probably end up with Micah telling her to go to bed early since she had been streaming for a majority of the day.

 Moon:

Yes I did!  11:27 pm

And yes I’ve got my water bottle next to me  11:28 pm

Do I need to video call you to show you? :3 11:28 pm

Micah Yujin: 

Yes  11:28pm Yes you do  11:29 pm Because who knows maybe my Angel would be lying about drinking water  11:29 pm

Moon:

Hey  11:29 pm

I know I’m a brat  11:29 pm

But I’m not that much of a brat 11:29 pm

A small smile crept onto Allison’s face, and she shook her head at the thought of lying to Micah. The only time she could probably lie to the man was about a present, or some form of surprise. And even then she probably would’ve been bad at it. She moved the mouse cursor over to his icon, clicking on it to start the video call. It wasn’t even 2 seconds later, and Micah had already appeared on her screen grinning at her with his usual dork grin. 

“Well hello there Angeellllll~” He said happily as he propped up his chin on the palm of his hand. 

“Hi Micahhhhh” She cooed, smiling at him while waving at him with one of Renaldo’s little arms. “Did you enjoy the stream?” She asked curiously knowing he had been watching, but had chosen to lurk since he had been working on some things while watching.

“Of course I did! When don’t I enjoy your streams?” He tilted his head. 

Allison rolled her eyes, but was still smiling. “Okay you’ve got a point.” she hummed before leaning over to grab another stuffie off her desk.

She grabbed a small Nessie stuffie from the game Apex Legends. One of the few games she streamed consistently, and did info dump onto Micah about which he happily listened to. He had even bought other versions of nessie stuffie that existed all of which sat farther on her desk, but the one she had grabbed had a special place in her heart since it had been the first piece of merch she had gotten for the game.

“Fredrick says hi,” She giggled holding up the stuffie to her webcam so Fredrick was taking up most of the camera.

“Fredrick! Hello good sir! How is the fanciest nessie doing?” Micah asked, doing a small bow, and pretending to take off a top hat and put it back on. “Hopefully well. Your presence was most welcome on stream! I do hope you got many boops, and headpats.” He smiled. 

Allison couldn’t help but giggle at the way he was talking to the small stuffie. “Many, many boops for the nessie. They are required.” She set the nessie on her head, glancing at her own reflection in the call for a moment to make sure he was centered and wasn’t going to fall off her head. “Although I was sure to get many sacrifices in Ranked for him as well,” She laughed softly.

Micah just smiled, and watched her put the small stuffie on her head. He could name so many things she did just in general that he’d always find adorable that she had no idea he thought was cute. He loved how open she was with him, after having talked about how her past relationships had gone and how she kept finding herself trying to just be what the other person wanted rather than be herself. The change in her personality wasn’t a bad thing, and seeing her get excited over things she was passionate about, and then tell him all about it was cute. 

She had started rambling about how she had felt about the ranked matches she had been in during the stream, and about how she felt like she could’ve done some things differently during the match after she had died or after they had lost at the very end. At some point though during her ramble she caught the way Micah was looking at her with lovey dovey eyes, and she just melted at it. The amount of love he was looking at her with made all the random stuff that had annoyed her during her matches on stream suddenly worth it. 

She smiled slightly having stopped her ramble before resting her chin on the top of Ranaldo looking at him with the same lovey dovey eyes. “Micah?” she said softly.

“Yes Angel?” The man in question tilted his head slightly wondering what she was wanting to say to him. 

“I love you,” she hummed still smiling. “To the moon, and back.” She studied him and grinned a little bit at the small blush that colored his cheeks.

“I love you too Angel,” He said returning the smile while still blushing. Although once he said it back Allison was blushing just as much as he was. “More than anything in the world.” 

Allison was quick to question that. “Even more then Skrunkly??” She raised an eyebrow at him, surprised that the adorable cat was not tied with her because she could not deny how cute the cat was. 

“Okay not more than Skrunkly. You’re tied with her on my love.” He chuckled at her pointing it out.

Allison grinned sitting up in her chair. “Then I’ll just have to fight Skrunkly for your love!” She grabbed the small model of Wraith’s Kunai off her desk, and held it up as if she was pretending to be the legend. “Tell her to 1v1 me on Apex,” She giggled. 

Micah laughed and Allison couldn’t help but think about how grateful she was for choosing to hack his PC in the past. Life seemed like it would’ve been much more dull if she hadn’t.

#error143 #micah yujin #original character #micah yujin x original character #fanfic #fanfiction #fluff #romance fluff #drabble

[kithtaehyung]

a little late to the party but i am here🫡😭 first and foremost, the second spoiler for 3tan10… am i scared? yes. am i filled with anticipation? yes. do i have to constantly stop myself from being delusional after that spoiler? absolutely. did i already come up with a theory of what might happen? perhaps🤠 i was honestly thinking that perhaps this chapter might be their friends confronting them about their relationship but after the second spoiler? i think bro might be the one doing some busting BUT I COULD BE WRONG🤐 ANYWAY IM A BIT TERRFIED IF I DO SAY SO MYSELF

NOW, IM HONESTLY SO HYPED FOR ALL THAT IS TO COME!! HIT;RECORD BECOMING A SERIES (THAT ENDING STILL HAS ME IN A CHOKEHOLD) A B-BOY FIC, PRINCE JIMIN, VAMPY JK (AND MORE)?? *insert clip of jungkook vibrating with joy while eating chicken* I AM EXCITED :))

-🥮

Hmmmmmm theories on theories, huh? Guess we’ll see who’s right and who’s not when it drops! Either way.. yours do sound pretty terrifying, mooncake🥲

AHHHHH HIT;RECORD AND ALL OF THOSE YEAH. All of the ones coming up oh god if only I could sit and write all day you know I would😭😭 that would be absolutely fantastic. We would cook SO much😫

#the dream!! #🥮 anon #asks:3tan #3tan10 #3rytan #3tan spoilers #*ryenfictalk #mailbox💌 #lovely people

[heliads]

LISA! i'm so sorry is taking me so long to come here, things have been crazy this year but i had to tell you I'M GOING TO THE ERAS TOUR

i'm so happy!!!! i couldn't believe i got the tickets, it was so chaotic. but she's finally coming to brazil and i'll be able to go and it'll be like 2 weeks before my birthday so it's the best gift ever!!

i hope you're having a nice summer vacation!! get some rest and have fun, i'm sending a lot of love <3

about shadow and bone, i agree, season 2 was so disappointing. the cast is everything i dreamed about, i love them so much, but everything else... i still can't believed they combined s&s and r&r and somehow managed to erase half of alina's story. i think it's so disrespectful with the fans and even with jessie mei li, we lost a lot of character depth and all of her internal battle, i was pissed

and there's some things that were just so ???

i mean, nikolai is this incredible privateer and tolya and tamar are great and they have so much sea experience, but still they decided to go walking with alina, mal and 3 other guys into that little cavern to try and kill something called the sea whip, a million years mythological monster. it doesnt make any sense.

all of genya's arc was messed up, i was so mad that they kept the king during all of vasily's dinner but they had to kill him there so she wouldn't be able to do the "i'm not ruined, i'm ruination" moment. and yes, she confronted the queen, but it's SUCH a moment in the book when she gathers up confidence to confront the man who abused her for years and we were robbed. also, they gave her like, two scars

the darkling looked like he was dying the whole season, if alina didn't kill him, he would've died of pneumonia in two weeks lol

and they did the crows so dirty, if we do get the spin off i wonder how the hell they're going to justify inej's return. she has absolutely no reason to join the heist, she's already free and in a ship living her best life

and yes, mal as sturmhond was traumatizing. and so was the little hint at tolya and inej possibly being a couple. i wanted to cry.

but sujaya was so pretty and her little wink when zoya is talking to alina made me faint so that was great. paddy as nikolai had me in a chokehold the entire time and honestly, every single actor is so good in that show

OMG ERAS TOUR!!! tell me EVERYTHING when you go, the video clips i've seen of her past performances look INCREDIBLE. does this mean you get to see sabrina carpenter too??

and yes, all of your shadow and bone thoughts are so correct. i mean it KILLS me because the show should be so good! their casting was incredible and the costumes are fantastic and the cgi is good and the locations are great... and the source material worked just fine... but no, they butchered everything. there was no reason to do that! i know shows are getting canceled left and right so they felt like they had to streamline it so they could get to everything but girl... WHY

it was so great to hear from you!! hoping you're doing well too xoxo

#not writing

[kukuandkookie]

Please send help Xi Yang Yang literally has me in a chokehold and I am struggling knowing that out of most donghua, most of which are generally already pretty underrated and niche in the mainstream, this is probably one of the MOST NICHE fandoms I could ever get into because it is a kids’ show. 😭

It has a fandom in China that’s actually super active (I love getting lost in Bilibili’s AMVs and animation memes when I can afford to (as in I usually can’t/shouldn’t because I spend too long on that addicting site)), but obviously I’m not fluent enough to be super active on Chinese websites. 🥲

BUT XI YANG YANG JUST HAS GOTTEN SO ANIME AND BADASS AND HEARTFELT AND IT KILLS ME BECAUSE I’M WATCHING THESE ADORABLE LITTLE CHARACTERS I LIKED AS A CHILD BECOME AMAZING, ACTUALLY DEEP CHARACTERS IN REALLY INTRIGUING STORIES!!! It doesn’t help my addiction that the Xi Yang Yang channel on YouTube literally uploads all the episodes so I can watch them!! For free!!! It’s so accessible and thus super addicting!!!

I just found out from summary videos what happens in the latest season (the one where the goats and wolves go back to the fantasy cat kingdom except this time they discover a dog kingdom) and AHHHHHHHHH. I was literally—and yes, I do mean literally!—screaming because OH MY GOD KGJSKFHSJS THE PLOT. THE THINGS THAT HAPPEN.

God I wish there was a fandom for this. I used to yell about it on Twitter and at my Chinese friend who also liked animation (he was even nice enough to send me Xi Yang Yang merch!!) but my Twitter followers follow me for my Scum Villain (and maybe Erha) content and my friend isn’t active anymore. 😭

Obviously it’s my account so I can just post what I want but what I want to do is yell and upload too many screenshots and yell some more and sub video clips and post those too. I LITERALLY HAVE CLIPS OF XI YANG YANG THAT I SUBBED MYSELF JUST SITTING ON MY PHONE GLSJDKSHSJS.

I can’t emphasize enough how this series has grown and changed so much since I was a kid—now rather than have Tom and Jerry-esque comedy and rather stiff animation, it’s more colourful and fluid and even more meaningful—and it remains super funny. Like yes, sometimes the animation is still a bit off but overall it’s just improved so much!! The action is so shounen it’s just so much fun!

https://youtu.be/yQpdr4h2rbc

And the characters are all so likeable—like I genuinely think Xi Yang Yang and Hui Tai Lang are examples of iconic character design, and their friends are pretty good too (Xi Yang Yang can get really funky with some of the character designs—for example with the egg villains etc but overall the main characters look so so cute).

I’m so glad they reformed Hui Tai Lang in Mighty Little Defenders!! I’ve watched every season since then and they’re all really really enjoyable. Since we’re not just constantly reusing Hui Tai Lang as a villain and having him chase the sheep around, we get a lot more interesting stories: the entire Rescue Across Time season, with all its time-travelling shenanigans, remains one of my favourites, as does the aforementioned fantasy cat kingdom transmigration season (we even got the goats brainwashed into lovable jerk versions of themselves who also happen to be cats!!). The whole plot surrounding Xi Yang Yang’s parents and Bing Bing Yang is really nice too, and Hui Tai Lang is such a good dad. 😭

Also I guess it doesn’t technically matter if I spoil the latest season and reveal why I was screaming earlier today, but basically I found out they make Hui Tai Lang brainwashed by dark energy into becoming a villain. Xi Yang Yang tries to fight him and they both get affected with the dark energy, but in the end, Hui Tai Lang still sacrifices himself to save his best friend. GOD THEIR BOND IS SO CUTE. ;w;

I know this is like all gibberish to people who haven’t watched Xi Yang Yang and I’m betting 90% of you haven’t (and that even if you have, 95% of you or more haven’t watched the newer seasons (from Mighty Little Defenders onwards)). But basically besides Xi Yang Yang being devastated by Hui Tai Lang’s potential death, Gou Xing Lang, the villain from the cat fantasy kingdom season (Against the Dark Force) soMEHOW MANAGES TO SAVE HIM FROM WITHIN THE DARKNESS???? AND IT HAS ME EVEN MORE EMO BECAUSE HE HAD A SAD, PRETTY TOUCHING BACKSTORY WHERE HE LOST TOUCH WITH HIS CHILDHOOD BEST FRIEND WHO BETRAYED HIM (which they referenced in the Ultimate Battle season) BUT WE ALL THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD!!!

So now I’m wondering if they’ll build on the fact he’s somehow in the dark energy??? Or if they’ll just leave it at that!?

Man I haven’t even watched the season yet because the YouTube channel gets the seasons way later than China does, so I don’t know the details and from what I have seen, I might find some of it a bit odd, but they really do have the capability to make me feel feels, don’t they? Just from a summary video and I was already getting all emo over Xi Yang Yang and Hui Tai Lang’s bond, and how badass they both are when they’re a bit more villainous.

I’m also wheezing because the summary video pointed out how Hui Tai Lang lamented the fact he always gets made into the villain, and it’s kind of true… 😂

They turned him into a robot in the Ultimate Battle season—and ahhhh he looks so badass!!—and now here too he got infected with dark energy. But I’m down for dark Hui Tai Lang and dark Xi Yang Yang… Like I’m really happy they brought back the kitty versions of the goats because the whole premise there is that they’re like the goats but also opposite, so a lot of them are way meaner than the goats. And that’s always such a fun idea!!

Kitty Xi Yang Yang is brash and arrogant and only cares about power/fun while Xi Yang Yang himself is clever but caring—even when he can be a bit vain. Mei Yang Yang is sweet and a bit timid—although I love the badass older version of herself we got in Ultimate Generation—and yet kitty Mei Yang Yang is just a major bitch and I love it. Like think Flutterbitch from the first couple Discord episodes or from the Chrysalis episode lol. Fei Yang Yang is protective and strong and brash while kitty Fei Yang Yang is selfish and obsessed with cleanliness. Nuan Yang Yang is tender and caring yet kitty Nuan Yang Yang is basically a green tea bitch—she pretends to be sweet on the surface to get people to like her and listen to her but obviously inside she’s not that sweet. Instead, kitty Nuan Yang Yang is rather lazy ahaha.

Speaking of lazy though, we finally got to see kitty Lan Yang Yang, which we didn’t see in Against the Dark Force, since he was never brainwashed. Apparently kitty Lan Yang Yang is still cowardly and gluttonous but also kind of…coquettish? 😂

I’m genuinely so curious about what happens in the dog kingdom season ahhhhh!!! But so far I’m watching Ultimate Battle as it’s updated on YouTube, and I’ve enjoyed this season a lot. It reminds me of Sonic actually, and new Xi Yang Yang already kind of reminds me of Sonic (that’s actually part of why I recommend it—it’s like various really good series all combined into one, and I think fans of modern kids’ shows will also probably enjoy Xi Yang Yang!).

Having Xi Yang Yang and Hui Tai Lang chase a villain into the future and meet their friends 15 years after they disappeared is such a cool plot idea! Plus the villain himself is pretty neat—he wants to roboticize everyone to remove the weakness that is emotion—and from spoilers I know, he’s bringing a lot more intriguing things to the table later.

I’m obsessed with how mature Xi Yang Yang’s friends now are—like they still feel like themselves, but you can really tell they’ve grown up! And it feels natural, which is great.

Mei Yang Yang became a journalist to better search for Xi Yang Yang, and we get lore on her this season, which is really awesome. She’s now no longer bothered by dirtiness and she can fend for herself, which is great to watch—I love her weapon too because it’s a sword that can break into pieces to become longer, like a whip.

Fei Yang Yang is now a badass, reliable firefighter, so he no longer carries that childish brashness of his younger self, and he’s really cool in action. For example, the way he figured out Bu Lei’s plot and was later the one who used three cards, overexerting himself yet becoming super powerful and badass in order to defeat Professor T, was just so cool.

Lan Yang Yang is working as a food reviewer basically and while he’s undoubtedly still Lan Yang Yang, enjoying eating and sleeping, he’s well-respected in his community and sometimes he actually feels full because chefs search for him so much lol. He also has a cool weapon—it’s a flying platform with three sort of canons floating above it, and it kind of resembles a fidget spinner!

Nuan Yang Yang achieved her dream of becoming a singer and I like how consistent her love of music—and her being a fan of a singer who’s a duck—is to her character. I am disappointed because they made her slimmer and I feel like her being a bigger goat as a mountain goat was always a fun part of her backstory and why she looks slightly different from the other sheep. Despite that, I get making older characters look very different from their younger selves for the sake of change (eg Anko getting fat in Boruto vs being skinny in Naruto), so while I’d prefer her being her bigger size, I can live with this change.

Some of the roboticization storylines are really badass too—I already mentioned Hui Tai Lang’s, but there’s also Hong Tai Lang’s admittedly hot roboticized look (and I feel like I can call it hot because the Xi Yang Yang team did also release an artwork that showed a human version!!). I also know there’ll be more involving Xiao Hui Hui, as his abandonment issues from Hui Tai Lang’s vanishment were resolved a bit earlier in the season but I suppose they’re bringing some more drama later! Mei Yang Yang’s trauma from Xi Yang Yang’s disappearance also gets explored, and we get to learn some of her lore, which I am very *rubs hands excitedly* about. 👀

And of course I know some spoilers about Professor T that I’m just like ‼️ over. The other robots also had pretty compelling stories—Bu Lei is fun as a green tea bitch/yandere type villain and Hei Zhuan (Hei Zuan?)’s story with his sister was cute. But Otto’s whole storyline literally nearly made me cry. 😭

OH AND I CAN’T WRITE ALL THIS AND NOT TALK ABOUT THE NEWEST XI YANG YANG MOVIE, WHICH IS ABOUT BASKETBALL.

I actually skipped the basketball season since obviously I’m not exactly into the sport, but I’ve determined since I should probably watch it still sometime because I realized later it nonetheless carries that Xi Yang Yang charm, so even if I don’t care too much for the dramatization of basketball (you know the kind; the kind that permeates all sports anime), I can nevertheless enjoy it for depicting my favourite characters. 🥺

I’ve caught a glimpse of some episodes of the basketball season and they are cute!! The one where they compete with the bunnies and actually help save them from famine despite the bunnies trying to cheat to win was really sweet, and later episodes depict that awesome bond between Hui Tai Lang and Xi Yang Yang.

So back to the movie—I brought up the basketball season because obviously the movie does adapt/reference some of it since they’re both about basketball, and I did skip the movie too for a while… But I later watched it and AHHHHHHH GLSBDKSHDKSB OF COURSE I ENJOYED IT. It’s a depiction of characters I love being themselves while on an adventure!! How could I not enjoy it!?

The animation style was really neat; seeing the sheep and wolves in a more detailed anthro style than their usually chibi/cartoony style meant we got some pleasing aesthetics—for example, I enjoyed how their eyes corresponded with their themed colours (like in the series Xi Yang Yang and Hui Tai Lang both have dark bluish-grey eyes, but in the movie Xi Yang Yang’s are very visibly blue and Hui Tai Lang’s are very visibly purple. It’s quite pretty!).

I’ve also embarrassingly enough tweeted about this before, but they did make Hui Tai Lang…unfairly hot in the movie LGBSKFHSJSH. Basically, they gave him consistently half-lidded eyes and with the more violet colour and more realistic proportions (since the characters look more anthro). My younger brother even complained about how such series indulges furries since you could tell they gave Hui Tai Lang those muscles etc on purpose lmao.

Who let this man look like this? Who!?

But yeah Hui Tai Lang and Xi Yang Yang have a conflict within the film—which of course they do; it’s a movie so we need to up the ante—but as sad as it is seeing characters we like have a falling out (and as overdramatic as some of the angst may feel), it’s nevertheless characters I cherish facing conflict. So seeing them come back together after and working hard to get the basketball championship after losing is really lovely, and I really enjoy how Xi Yang Yang lets all its characters shine.

In every season, while there may be one character who gets more focus along with Xi Yang Yang and Hui Tai Lang—for example Against the Dark Force was very much Lan Yang Yang’s season and in some ways, Ultimate Battle allowed Mei Yang Yang to shine—all the characters get arcs focused on them that correlate to the bigger overarching plot. I mean, every season is 60 episodes!! So of course we have lots of time to explore the characters and I really appreciate that.

So even in the film, we do see the other characters shine, even if it’s all tied back to the overarching plot of basketball and even if Xi Yang Yang and Hui Tai Lang take centre stage. I also really enjoyed the ending since it kept me on the toes—the rival team to Xi Yang Yang’s had a character that was going through his own arc, but I was desperately hoping the sheep would win the championship this time since they lost to the wolves in the basketball season. Plus I was crossing my fingers waiting for Hui Tai Lang to get to shine since they set up how he’s not the best player and thus feels like he’s in Xi Yang Yang’s shadow…

And fortunately the film did end up going with the best possible ending (imo)!

Spoilers ahead if you care lol:

Basically, they did let the sheep finally win the championship, which is perfect since obviously this is a sequel to the basketball season, where they started off as the underdogs yet did end up losing, even with all the growth they had. It felt like a perfect progression—especially since even though the rival team (the tigers) did have a character with his own arc and reasons why he really wanted to win, they only had to have his father finally approve of him playing basketball to give him a satisfactory conclusion. As in, he didn’t need to win the way the sheep needed to.

And thankfully, while I was getting worried throughout the final match, they did let Hui Tai Lang shine!! He got to take the winning shot after Xi Yang Yang faked being the winning shot, which is of course the perfect progression to Hui Tai Lang’s arc too. I was so happy when they did that!!

Of course, some of this conclusion is probably obvious in hindsight, but I did have a fear…mostly because the sheep almost did lose until they protested an issue and it initially looked like Xi Yang Yang was going to take the winning shot—which if he had, it would feel less satisfying, as Hui Tai Lang wouldn’t get to join him in the limelight.

I need to have more trust in the Xi Yang Yang team lol. I’ve loved almost everything they’ve done so far, and whenever I doubt them, they manage to pleasantly surprise me! And what I mean by “doubt them” is that sometimes Chinese series will have writing conventions a westerner may find odd, but even when Xi Yang Yang subverts my expectations and indulges in that “odd” Chinese sense of humour etc, I still love it to bits (and listen, I’m not saying Chinese writers are bad. Not at all! I’m just referring to the fact that as a Canadian-born-Chinese, I’ve witnessed people complain about Chinese story details because it’s not what they’re used to).

OH ALSO THE MOVIE’S OST SLAPS. I KEEP LISTENING TO THE SONGS ON LOOP GLSHFKSHDKSH.

https://youtu.be/eEmzxOGXR_A

https://youtu.be/fK0fpdOh8C0

But wow okay I rambled WAY too much lmaooooo. I just can’t help it!! When I really love things I love them to absolute pieces, and when a fandom is underrated, I tend to feel the need to actually be active and promote it so I can spread how happy it makes me. Plus I can happily juggle multiple brain rots at once, even if I have one main one that takes centre stage lol. Like right now Scum Villain and Erha are my biggest obsessions—and y’all have seen how much I can ramble about both Scum Villain and Erha lol—but of course I love all my donghua and danmei and manhua and cdramas and Chinese music. ♥️

Along with my other planned blog entries about donghua and danmei and Chinese-themed media (such as me wanting to write some thoughts on Everything Everywhere All at Once), I have every intention of writing about why you should watch Xi Yang Yang on my blog ahaha.

I just. Have so many happy feelings surrounding Xi Yang Yang right now and I want to yell about them specifically, especially since there’s barely a fandom for them in the west. All this rambling is a result of me bottling up my fangirling for weeks NGNSKDHSKSH. Plus I’m a naturally ramble-y person! But I feel even more ramble-y when a series is an underrated gem and makes me endlessly happy, the way Xi Yang Yang is and does. 🥺

#kuku rambles #kuku88 #long post #喜羊羊与灰太狼 #喜羊羊 #pleasant goat and big big wolf #xi yang yang #donghua #chinese animation #Youtube #GOD THIS IS SO LONG AHKFHSKDJS #AND I DOUBT ANYONE WOULD READ IT LOL #IF YOU DO I’M SORRY BECAUSE THIS MUST ALL READ AS GIBBERISH TO YOU #I need to stop getting into tiny inactive fandoms x’D #(I say even as I have absolutely no intention of stopping— #I mean I’ve been obsessively in love with various Chinese media for months now and that’s so underrated; of course I’m not stopping!!)

[anantaru]

(Coming off anon bc you’re really nice and I love your vibes uwu hi it’s nice to meet you I am also Heizou trash💕)

I just realized your icon is Mysta x Heizou and now I’m losing my mind it’s so hot what the fuckdjdndndnd but YES we can definitely agree that Luca is hot because he is, I love me a mafia man🤩 plus him reacting to Itto’s trailer because chat said Itto was just like him made me melt he is so precious😭😭 as for my fave, it would probably be Vox and Shoto. Vox firmly has me in a chokehold (I’m a whore for a nice voice) and Shoto is just exactly my type lmaoooo but i will admit I am still super new to this group so I have a lot to learn, but everyone I’ve come across so far in this group has been a delight to watch (I watch clips and YouTube shorts of them lol)

omg you‘re so kind lets be heizou trash together okay? 😫😫😫🫂

NO BECAUSE LUKE IS KINDA FINE, i‘m not really into blonde guys but his pfp on twitter made me almost go completely feral istg lmaoaoaoao, and omg i didnt see the clip with the itto trailer i need to watch it 😭😭😭😭

AND VOX‘S VOICE IS SO FUCKING HOT LIKE FUCK, my friend said that‘s one of the reasons she‘s so thirsty for him like it‘s the voice istg 👀 they‘re honestly all so funny to watch ngl 😭😭😭😭 i keep looking at nsfw art of them im so sorry

#. ꔛ mail : bedos-blossom! ₍ᐢ. .ᐢ₎ #꒰୨ 𖤐 ୧꒱ answered'

[fr3aklike-me]

omg, i do that too it’s literally so helpful !! it puts things into perspective so well. and yes it’s so nice, i never feel like i have to say something about it but also it feels like i can say something too. IT WAS SO COOL i love that, and everyone else pretty much does that too and it’s so nice, all of my coworkers wear their pride shirts too even the straight ones. yes yes yes i don’t like the overcompensating, it feels fake (even though like you said it’s usually meant well) and it’s almost like WAY too much attention on it. it does feel dividing !! like we are all people too ! i know, they’re so sweet, they’re also paving the way for me being the first queers in the family. my grandparents on that side are extremely religious and it didn’t go well for a while, but now they’re accepting. my cousin (my aunts daughter) also had a girlfriend for a while so that makes them think it runs in the family so i hope it’ll just be normal one day. but awww i love that hahaha !! i know right, growing up and kind of being unaware that anything was going on in the world with it makes it so much crazier now to see that everything was a lot more recent than I thought. awwww that’s still such a good subtle way to hint at it though i love it. YES if you’re addressing one by name the other one is the wife hahahah it’s truly very simple ! i know, i really hate it. i’ve definitely had little crushes on men here and there but it’s never the butterflies and the daydreaming and aggressive urge to kiss them like it is for non-men. it’s almost like i still settle for a man that’s my friend, even though what i’m probably feeling is a desire to continue being close friends yknow ? awwwwh that’s literally all i want , you’re so sweet and i want you to always feel cared for. you really really deserve it <3 i hope this isn’t weird to say but yk how before people kiss sometimes they’ll put their foreheads together and look into eachothers eyes and just be close ? okay you make me feel like that, i feel like i could trust you like that. and i really really appreciate that because i don’t feel that way often and it just makes me so happy (and also wish we could actually do it LOL)

yeah he’s super cool !! awww what are your grandparents like ? HAHA omg that’s so funny, but yeah it’s just part of the journey hahaha. yessss it feels so good after ! oh that’s such a good feeling too, im so happy you were able to do that ! okay wait that made me think of another way to say whatever the fuck i was trying to say in the last paragraph bc ik it doesn’t make the most sense. i feel like i could cry in front of you, i don’t cry in front of people but that’s your skill of -loving, caring soul- hehe but i also just like to journal about my days or make lists and schedules for the next day if it’s gonna be really busy, rants, exciting things, just things like that !! i wanna do cooler journaling like how people put art or little clips from their days (concert tickets or stuff like that) ! i’ve done a couple things like that too, like i did a page of meaningful texts i got and seeing the beauty in life. i used to be really depressed but after i wasn’t anymore, it was easier to see the little things and it was the first time in a while i noticed small gestures of people !! what about you ?

yeah as a kid to say those things it’s really concerning but i just really want something to come of that case soon. it’s been way too long. omg the bermuda triangle has always confused me so much, i get so afraid when i have to fly out of the US because the plane often goes right over it. hahahha that was a funny episode, i loved that show !! i think it’s more ships, but it’s still crazy. on that note, have you ever heard of the Malaysia Airlines flight 370? it disappeared in 2014 and oh my god, it’s had me in a chokehold since i saw it on tv that day.

yeah, I really like the small town vibe and how close everyone is, it’s super cool for them to go anywhere and be known. like it still shocks me when I go to a restaurant and they know my name yknow ? oh my god yes, it was crazy how she couldn’t see it. literally Logan, Logan called her out and that’s the funniest part. he had been living that way his whole life and he could still see it. it’s almost like she became entitled to it and she completely changed. i know, it was explicitly white privilege too and honestly they all could’ve afforded to travel and learn about different cultures but they decided to spend it on galas or whatever tf. i really hope that we as a society can move past racist jokes like it’s not even funny. okay, Scientology is basically a cult for really rich people, they make you go through courses and each course costs a shit load of money and they change the courses a lot so you have to retake them, you can’t leave the cult once you’re in it otherwise they will sue you for millions and millions of dollars and it’s just a bunch of stuff like that. it’s super harmful and you have to be basically perfect all the time. a lot of people end up selling their assets too just to pay for Scientology and it’s really sad. omg, what’s the video that sounds super interesting !!

awww you’re so sweet omg. it does feel like that sometimes still, i still get asked “when are you getting a boyfriend” except my dad just asks when i’m gonna be dating, i think he knows lol. awww omg, yeah i’m really happy i came to accept it too, it’s so much better this way hahaha i don’t feel like i’m constantly doing something wrong for not having a crush on a man. proud of me ?💗😭🥺

awww that sounds so tough, especially with your mom being secretly supportive but that rly sucks having to be so secretive about yourself like that. does you mom maybe know how your dad feels ? (but also i remember my friends mom who used to be muslim still had that don’t ask don’t tell thing, she married a man just for show and had a “girlfriend” that moved kinda far away and she would go there, she told us she’d sleep with her but it didn’t mean she liked her, but one day she almost cried talking about her it was SO SAD) so it’s really unfortunate that growing up with that attitude around you and never accepting yourself can be a forever thing :( but yeah that makes sense, around family for sure but does she support you now ? even like secretly ? do you think you might ever tell you dad ?

but aww have a great day too, sorry it took so long to respond !! and happy ramadan (im sorry i don’t know if that’s the right term ahh)

-💟

omg right! writing things out and seeing them physically outlined, rather than just kind of whirling in your brain, brings such an acute kind of awareness about what's going on. and I love that your work environment is so comfortable and friendly that you feel at total ease with whatever you want to do, love that for you. and omg them wearing the pride shirts is actually just so sweet. that kind of explicit support from a group of people is just so heartwarming and welcoming. yes, yes, "paving the way" is exactly what it is. honestly, it's just so admirable to see relatives from years ago who were the first ones to come out and be open about their queerness - because, yeah, they didn't have any relatives to lean on in terms of also being queer, so they truly paved the way for us. I even have a few relatives who are out, some more public than others, and just knowing that they had the courage to be some of the first ones to do that almost makes me wanna tear up in gratitude for how strong they were, and how it gives us such support in our generation. I definitely understand the whole thing about other relatives being religious, but I'm so happy your grandparents on that side are more accepting now! it can definitely be a process sometimes, but it's always great to see people becoming more open and welcoming. OOOF the whole "it runs in the family" thing people will say gets on my nerves so much - like, if there are two heterosexual parents, and they have a heterosexual kid, no one would ever say that, so why is it being said for queer relatives? it really just needs to be more normalized. oooh, I see - yeah, like, having a platonic relationship with a guy, and the desire to be their friend sometimes gets perceived as a desire to be romantic. I feel like so much of it is how heteronormative society is in which we feel like if we have guy friends, we have to like them at some point instead of only being platonic. even my friend and me were talking about it yesterday - not this exactly, but how the media and films/shows don't give nearly as much appreciation to platonic relationships as romantic ones, even though they are so important. and omg... I literally had to put my phone down and just smile when I saw that last bit. okay, I also just reread it and am smiling again omg. it's not weird at all. I actually am so touched you actually expressed that feeling to me so honestly, I'm actually feeling extremely honoured rn. like lkdjfkfj I'm actually combusting rn - I am so, so fucking happy you feel that trusting towards me. and I am literally gushing rn bc forehead touches are my literal weakness. I also now feel so comforted by all your responses and your company. you're so sweet and attentive, and I just feel so comfortable and warm when I see you've sent a message. trust me, I wish I could put my forehead against yours and stroke your cheeks dkfkfjjd

oooh, so my grandparents - I am much closer to my mom's parents. and my grandfather on that side is super goofy in the best way, he loves calling me by this nickname and will try to dance in the living room when we visit. and my grandmother is literally one of the kindest souls in this world. she is so caring, gentle and understanding, and is so thoughtful and motherly - literally everyone loves her. dfjkdfj omg I am actually tearing up rn thinking of her ahhh. really should call her soon. and she's very sensitive, which I relate to, and just - ugh, I love them. and omg, what you said in the last paragraph - I definitely understood what you meant, and am still feeling so moved by it rn, especially bc it's so intimate and trusting. and omg, like 🥺 it actually is making my heart swell up rn that you feel that comfortable and trusting with me. like, I am actually so touched that you feel that trusting with me. thank you. it seriously means the world to me that you'd feel trusting enough to be so vulnerable with me, means the world to me.

omg, I love that! I feel like journalling is the best that way, when it's totally freeform and you write whatever you're in the mood for that day. it totally takes the pressure off. omg, if you're comfortable telling me, what kind of things do you like to rant about in your journal? things like shows, movies, music? or like, things on your mind? omg you definitely should try the art and ticket pasting! it's so nostalgic and beautiful to look back on. whoa, and the meaningful texts pages sound so fucking cool omg, I love that you did that. and I'm sorry to hear you struggled with that in the past. and I'm so happy that you find yourself being able to notice the beauty in little things now too. <3 and for me, I also journal sometimes with prompts or guided questions, and other days rants, and some days just a single sentence about my day. I'm also working on a scrapbook rn for the year 2021 and also want to do the thing where I paste on art, text and tickets onto pages, hehe.

omg, honestly, I'd be a bit scared too. I need to read more on it though, because I don't know much about it all and I think it sounds so interesting to learn about. AYEEE YOU WATCH "SUITE LIFE"? I love both of the shows, they were my absolute childhood omg omg. and I haven't heard about the Malaysia airlines! was it a flight that had vanished? things like that really gnaw at my head, it's totally understandable you felt so invested bc there are so many unanswered questions with cases like that

your town is like that? that is so fucking cute and sweet, how the people at the restaurant know your name. is your area pretty close-knitted, like is everyone pretty familiar and knowing of each other? LMAO RIGHT I LOVED LOGAN IN THAT MOMENT. bc he straight up told her, she is just as privileged and worse is that she denies it. and, for sure, there's definitely lots of white privilege in it. like, a complete disregard for other cultures, foods, traditions, etc. there's one episode where Lane's mom wants her to wear a traditional Korean dress, and everyone is, like, disgusted by it and that made me so mad. like, they only were revolted by it bc it didn't look like a Western wedding dress, I thought it was so beautiful. and it just sends such a bad message about traditional wear to POC who watch it. exactly, and what'd you think of the revival? it went even worse omg. damnnnn, wtf, my mouth just opened in surprise. Scientology just sounds so extensive and overbearing, like all of the courses, and the attempts to make members perfect, then being unable to leave?? it's so scary wtf, and really eery how they're trying to make them all "perfect." and here is the video! although, warning, it does depict violent scenes in the film, forced marriage, and literally opens with a brutal and violent shot.

oooh, I see, kind of people still expecting you to date a guy. and omg, I'm so glad to hear your dad frames it in a way more gender neutral way! and I love that for you, it's so freeing to just totally relish in your queerness without feeling like you're doing something wrong. and omg, of course I'm proud of you <3 it takes so much effort and strength to get to place of acceptance, and the fact that you have worked to become more proud and comfortable with who you like is something worth celebrating, it's amazing

for sure - like, my mom is supportive, like, where she works. but, then, if there's a chance one of her kids will be out and proud, and potentially face getting cut off by relatives, then I think she gets much more scared and encourages secrecy to avoid that. so, my parents are divorced now, so bc of that, it's a bit harder for her to know at this point how he feels. and that story - yes, exactly, that happens so, so much in the community - a queer person entering a marriage with someone they don't love, and it's just so fucking sad because they're in a relationship, sometimes for so many years, that they feel no genuine romantic love for. yeah, it's actually extremely sad, bc then, some people spend their lives never having that acceptance. she does support me more now, and a few months ago, promised she'd back me up on if I came out publicly to my family, but she still shows hesitation pretty often, so I think she goes back and forth. and it's out of fear, yeah, but it's like, I'm not doing anything wrong, so I should be the one she's supporting, you know? and I definitely do want to tell my dad, but it might be later in the future, like if I move out or get a partner - might happen before, but I'm waiting for a good chance.

omg it's totally okay! and "Ramadan Mubarak" and "happy Ramadan" both work, thank you so much! it's well... it's going LMAO I'm excited for the fast to be done in, like, ten minutes. how was your day?

also, just know that when I write you messages back, I am carrying the energy of someone in the Victorian era writing out a letter and spritzing my perfume on it before sending it with a dove.

#answered asks #💟 anon

[luckgods]

Uncivil Conflict, Part 1: Intake

Prompt: “Forcibly stripped” for Bad Things Happen Bingo Warnings: forced nudity, minor violence, implied mistreatment of prisoners Word count: 1.9k Series summary: see the masterpost Summary: Imrah encounters someone unexpected during a routine prisoner intake, which quickly becomes not-so-routine.

—

Imrah doesn’t like working intake. There’s intense scrutiny from the officers who bring in the prisoners, for one, and the procedure itself is far stricter than her usual patrol and sentry assignments. (The horror stories that older guards such as Nobu and Ori had told her about transfers who’d come with knives—and once, memorably, a bomb—hidden in their clothes didn’t help, either.)

But she doesn’t have a choice if she wants to keep her job, and the pay’s good enough, so she reports in just after sunrise and prepares herself for a long day of manhandling prisoners and watching her back.

The first set of transfers passes without incident. The second brings trouble.

The prisoners are brought inside by the army escort and shepherded into the temporary cell that pretty much everyone calls “the fusillade,” although nobody’s ever explained why. Then, one person is detached from the chain, searched, attired, questioned, and sent on their way to their new cell.

These prisoners are grubbier than usual, which makes Imrah wonder where they’ve come from, but it’s not her position to ask, so she doesn’t. The first has an impressive black eye and further bruising across his rib cage. Even through the quick change of clothing, he stays silent and expressionless, which she respects.

She tunes out the questioning process, focusing her attention on the prisoner. He’s older, maybe the same age as her father. Greying slightly, but still well-muscled, and probably a troublemaker, if those bruises are any indication. (She almost wants to see what injuries his opponent walked away with. Probably bad ones, she’d bet, if she had anyone to bet with and any way to find out.)

It’s the same process with a few more, the only interruption a sudden coughing fit from one of the prisoners in the fusillade as Imrah and her partner are fetching another transfer for search. She tosses an irate glare in the general direction of the irritant but pays it no more mind.

At least, she doesn’t until she’s changing the shackles on the next prisoner and realizes that underneath the grime—soot, possibly—is a face she knows as well as her own, possibly better. Cazimir.

Her hands fumble and she almost drops the chain, and she can see Caz’s shoulders jump like they always do when ze’s trying to suppress a laugh.

“Come on, Merari, what’s the holdup?” moans her partner, the insufferable bastard. “Rookie got startled by the big bad newcomer?”

“Up yours, Neron,” she says, finally re-placing and locking the shackles. She wants to say more, but the officers are watching, and policy is that they avoid indecorous speech in front of prisoners. It gets a whole page of examples in the rulebook.

Instead, they silently march Caz to the search room, where ze’s unceremoniously unchained and told to strip by Neron.

Hir eyes flicker to him, to Imrah, and back.

“No,” ze says.

“No?” Neron repeats.

“No.”

Neron is impatient with bullshit at the best of times, and Imrah can practically see the spring winding up in his skull.

“For fuck’s sake, kid, just make it easy on all of us. I don’t want to strip you myself but I will if you don’t get moving.”

Caz doesn’t shift.

“Well?” Neron says.

“I think you should do it,” Caz says.

Neron glances at Imrah, who feels just as confused as he looks.

“What?” he demands.

Caz purses hir lips, as though there’s something simple they’re not getting. 

(Back home, it was usually Imrah making that expression. But she’s not going to think about that now.)

“I said, I think you should do it. The only way my clothes are coming off is if you do it yourself, and obviously we’re all going to be stuck in here until that happens, so… do it. Get a move on.” Ze makes a chopping gesture with hir hands, in that awkward slightly-too-slow manner ze always did, which is yet another piece of this situation that is intimately familiar and yet so out-of-place it makes Imrah want to scream.

There’s nothing in the rulebook about what to do about this. Imrah looks to Neron, as he’s technically the senior guard. He looks about two seconds away from pinching the bridge of his nose and heaving out a sigh, and although he refrains from the former, he does allow the latter.

“All right then,” he says. “Am I gonna need help with this one, or will you cooperate?”

“Would you believe me if I said yes?”

“Probably not,” admits Neron. “Merari, with me. You take the left, I’ll take the right, with any luck we’ll have this over by lunchtime.”

Caz holds statue-still as the two guards approach, and then explodes into action once they’re in range. Ze stomps on Neron’s instep and uses the pivot to line up a punch at Imrah’s gut. She dodges out of the way and manages to only take a glancing hit to her side, and Neron has already sent an elbow at Caz’s face, knocking their raised protective arm out of the way.

Imrah launches her own punch, clips Caz’s cheekbone and that’s enough to disrupt hir kick at Neron, who retaliates with a knee to hir stomach and then catches hir in a headlock when ze doubles over.

“The fuck’d you learn to fight like that?” Imrah asks, still running on more adrenaline than sense.

“Probably their precious revolution,” Neron suggests, spitting out the last word like it tastes foul.

Caz doesn’t answer, panting and squirming, still trying to escape Neron’s hold.

“Aw, give it up, fishy,” Neron says. “We got you. Merari, get this reb’s pants off, then we’ll swap holds for the top.”

Imrah doesn’t want to, but… it’s her job. She approaches slowly, wary of a stray kick catching her, and undoes Caz’s belt.

“Fucking bastards,” ze hisses.

“Right back at you, sweetheart,” Neron says sweetly, as Imrah pulls down Caz’s trousers, and then hir smallclothes.

Hir legs are spattered with bruises, and hir right knee is scabbed over. Imrah focuses on this, and nothing else. Not the circumstances. Not the ache in her side. Just the bruises.

She pats down her… friend? Former friend? And then gives the all-clear to Neron. He tells her to restrain Caz’s hands behind hir back with one arm and set the other around hir neck, as a precaution. She does.

Caz continues writhing all the while, occasionally kicking at Imrah’s shins as Neron rolls his eyes, then pulls a knife out of his boot.

Caz wrenches in Imrah’s grip.

“Hey, hey, calm down, it’s just to get your tunic off.” She glares at Neron over Caz’s shoulder, just in case he disagrees. He nods. “We can’t let your hands free if you’re acting like this, so a knife is the only way. Just don’t move and you’ll be fine.”

Caz’s shoulders are shaking again, although Imrah doesn’t see what’s so funny about the situation.

Neron approaches and grabs the neckline of Caz’s tunic, slicing down to the hem.

“There,” Imrah says, as calmly as she can, “that’s one part done. Only the sleeves to go.”

She nods at Neron, who steps in closer, and Caz jerks forward and snaps hir teeth at him, like a caged animal.

“Woah!” says Neron. Then he smiles. “Careful, kid. Wouldn’t want my knife to slip... on accident, or anything.”

Caz lets out a sound that’s halfway between a groan and a growl.

“Get it over with,” Imrah says. She feels feverish. She feels like she’s going to melt from Caz’s body heat, going to shake out of her skin from Caz’s shuddering.

Neron slices down each sleeve with no further commentary. With the tunic out of the way, Neron completes the search, and confirms that Caz isn’t carrying any weapons.

“Let them go,” he says, still holding the knife.

Imrah raises her eyebrows to confirm, and he nods. She releases her chokehold and then Caz’s wrists, stepping back and raising her hands into a defensive position immediately, in case ze decides to attack again.

Caz crumples and stumbles sideways, away from both Imrah and Neron, then staggers upright and immediately heads for a wall, placing hir back to it, hir eyes darting between the two guards.

Imrah wonders at how ze doesn’t seem to mind hir total exposure at all, even as she tries to block it out. Ze could have just cooperated. It didn’t have to happen this way.

“I’m done with you, kid,” Neron says, Caz’s clothes collected and pressed under his foot. “If you want us to chain you back up and walk you out of here buck-naked, we can do that. If you don’t, your new clothes are on the shelf.” He jerks his head towards the cubby-hole shelving on the wall opposite the singular door, where the pale prisoners’ outfits are folded and arranged by size. “Have at it.”

Caz looks at him, brows furrowed, then quickly at the clothes and back again. Slowly, ze begins to sidle towards the shelf, keeping hir back to the wall. Once again, Imrah doesn’t understand. What happened to the Caz she knew? That Caz wouldn’t have laughed at the idea of getting hir clothes cut off with a knife, or felt the need to watch two members of the Royal Army like a mother cow protecting her calves, no matter the circumstance. Why doesn’t ze trust me anymore?

Instead of looking at Caz as ze dresses, Imrah watches Neron watching Caz. He looks angry, which makes sense, given that Caz attacked him. His hair is mussed, and he’ll be annoyed if she doesn’t tell him before they head back out to the processing room, so of course she won’t tell him. Serves him right for being such a peacock.

“Are you going to let us chain you again, or do you want to take your chances against my knife?”

Neron sounds angrier than he looks, angrier than Imrah has ever heard him sound. She collects the handcuffs from where they’d been discarded on the floor.

Caz scowls are him and steps forward until ze’s halfway between Neron and the wall. Then, ze drops into a kneeling position, bowing deeply before sitting up and presenting hir hands, wrists together, palms up.

Oh, you sarcastic bastard. Imrah fights the urge to smile. Some things don’t change, at least.

“Cuff them,” Neron orders, voice nearly trembling. “Then pick them up and get them out of here. The sooner we get this bitch locked up, the happier I’ll be.”

Imrah obeys.

The three of them return to the processing office. The administrator in charge of today’s intake—M something? N?—looks up at them with thinly veiled disdain.

Well, I’d like to see you deal with an unruly prisoner, Imrah thinks viciously. You’d deserve anything Caz did to you.

The administrator dips her pen in the inkwell of her desk and asks “Name?” in a near-monotone.

This is usually where Imrah would start ignoring her but… it’s Caz.

“Cazimir,” Caz replies.

“Full name?”

“Cazimir,” Caz repeats.

“No family name. I see. Very well. Place of birth, then?”

Oh, shit. If Caz gives Merar, then Imrah is in for… well, something. She’s not sure what, actually. Probably an interrogation on what she knows about Caz (which is a lot), whether she has any connections to the insurrectionist movement (which she doesn’t), and a lot of teasing from her fellow guards. She’d never live it down.

She schools her face calm, and Caz says, “Bywater Strid.”

It’s not a name Imrah recognizes, which perhaps shouldn’t be surprising, but it is. Where has Caz been, in the two years they’ve been apart? Caz, Caz… what have you done?

“Stridi. It will do. Well, Cazimir Stridi of Bywater Strid, you have been sentenced to imprisonment for the duration of the insurrection, subject to review at the end of such by a judge of the courts. Guards, they are to reside in cell number ninety-two. Dismissed.”

[To be continued.]

#ewriting #uncivil conflict #whump writing #bthb #bad things happen bingo #nudity #imprisonment #power dynamics #relationship dynamics #friends to enemies #threats #cazimir #imrah merari #this one is actually... very light. as these things go #honestly despite what you might think from the tools post #i expect this whole series to be lighter on the torture and heavier on the psychological fallout thereof

[risingsouls]

Conversations: 1

[I finished that self-indulgent Vegbooru ship project(?) bit I started that probably is really only going to be interesting to me for ship reasons and also a space to flesh out their stories, how they parallel, how they differ, etc. SO forewarning, it’s not going to be a very interesting series of little things to most but I’m going to have fun doing it.

So here’s part one.]

The beatings had started to blur together. Nabooru lasted longer, packed a harder punch, landed more blows with each session. But Vegeta still outclassed her no matter the progress and, for the umpteenth time since he agreed to train with her, she questioned why he continued to do so. While sparring with a partner could produce better results, she doubted he got much out of this power wise. Entertainment, perhaps. Considering the ruthless show he put on at her tournament, she wouldn’t put it past him to get a thrill out of beating her senseless when the chance presented itself. She couldn’t rightly demonize him for that when she took pleasure in the moments in which she quite literally wiped the smirk off his face with a devastating hook or clever tactic that put him on the defensive. At the end of the day, she chalked it up to his boredom and his own pride in her progress under his training.

Her assumptions would have to do; she didn’t dare question why he bothered to take time out of his own training to spar with her. She enjoyed their invigorating sessions and, as expected, he was just the type of partner she needed to push her own limits. One who would criticize her instead of coddle, one she could go all out with and worry little about his ability to handle her.

Nabooru took a step back toward the half-smashed boulder behind her and attempted to make a convincing show of it not being the only thing keeping her on her feet at the moment. She wiped her bloody lip on her forearm. “Let’s keep going,” she called up to the Saiyan floating above her, face set in stubborn determination. “I’m not done.”

“Tch, yes you are.” Vegeta landed in front of her, boots tapping on the solid, rust-colored earth beneath them. He powered down, light hair and eyes resuming their typical onyx hues. Though he admired her aptitude for improvement, her sheer willpower in battle, she did him little good dead. A sentiment he shared with her regularly. She opened her mouth in protest, but he snapped before she could argue. “I don’t care if you’re still on your feet, either. I expect you back in fighting shape by tomorrow, and pushing you further tonight will only decrease those odds.”

The Gerudo peeled her back off the craggy surface, wobbling on shaky knees before regaining her fortitude. “But you being so kind as to carry me back to my house the other day was such a good trust exercise for us.” She tore off a flapping bit of fabric just barely clinging to the rest of the shredded tank top. “Wouldn’t it be fun to do that again?”

A snort, and he folded his arms over his chest, defiant. Growing tired of her incessant begging to continue their spar, Vegeta had given in that day. Nabooru lasted another solid five minutes before collapsing beneath her own weight, weakened by pain and sapped of energy. Fearing he had actually killed her, he leaned over her motionless body to check for a pulse. With her last bit of energy, her hand shot up and gripped his throat, a cheeky grin on her lips. She mumbled “got ya,” and her hand dropped back to her side. Had he been a finickier man, he might have killed her in his surprise. Blasted a hole straight through her. She didn’t remember the shock on his face, the chokehold, or how he picked her up and flew her back to her home, dropping her on the couch before leaving again as far as he could tell. He couldn’t, however, convince her that someone else had returned her to her surprisingly modest home. A fact she didn’t hesitate to tease him mercilessly for when she found the chance.

“Go get some rest,” he said at last, turning his back on her. “I won’t go easy on you tomorrow just because you’re sore.”

Blue-white energy surrounded him, and Nabooru’s heart stuttered in unexplained panic. “Wait!”

To her astonishment, the light around him faded, but she didn’t miss the perturbed growl that preceded the scowl shot back at her over his shoulder, sharp canines bared. “What? Don’t tell me you can’t make it back on your own.”

“Of course I can,” she spat back, casting him her own daggered glare. “I just…”

She huffed as she sought the right words, all the while considering whether asking him anything that had nothing to do with fighting or training would result in a proper answer at all. Perhaps it was all the wollops to the head that convinced her this very moment would suffice in quelling her curiosity about the prickly Saiyan prince’s past. Since her conversation with Cell before the Warrior Games began, she failed to convince herself that she didn’t care to learn more. To hear his story from his own lips, rather than the words of someone obviously keen on besmirching him at any possible chance. 

And, perhaps, because something about it all struck a chord with her own history. If she could get him to talk, she might not feel quite so alone. She quickly blamed those thoughts on the head injuries, too.

“I’ve been wondering about something...Cell mentioned it back at the tournament…”

Dark brows furrowed and he grit his teeth. Cell. Vegeta scoffed. “And just what did that bastard have to say about me that has you so curious? Go on, spit it out!”

She fought the urge to roll her eyes and bless him with a snippy retort. She tread on razor-thin ice in unknown territory; her attitude would not be as tolerated or appreciated. “He told me that you were a slave to that Frieza guy. He’s the one that destroyed your planet and people, right?” She rested her back against the stoneface again, though it offered less comfort than it had before. “Is that true? He was trying to use it to undercut you after your tiff with Honeydew, so I couldn’t really discern what he had exaggerated.”

Vegeta hadn’t expected such an inquiry, and he suspected it showed on his face and his failure to respond immediately. Cell was not shy to mock him, and this revelation certainly fell under that vein, Frieza’s cells likely offering an inkling of insight on the matter. He had expected some scathing remark about his defeat at Cell’s hands for which he had a prepared answer. But he hadn’t expected to discuss the galaxy’s tyrant with her. Or anyone. He avoided the topic of Frieza with practiced and deliberate dodging, mostly through his own sour demeanor keeping too-curious fools at arm's length. Most didn’t breach that or many other topics with him. He vaguely wondered if they remembered Frieza at all, or his involvement with the tyrant. With how quick these heroes and self-touted “good guys” were to forgive him and forget his past atrocities, it was the only explanation that made any sense.

The silence between them in the dying light of the day had swelled to an awkward bubble. He heard her shuffle her sneakered feet on the ground, a breath sucked in as if she wanted to speak again. He cut her off. “What does it matter? Why do you care, anyway?”

Defensive and avoidant. The response she expected but not what she hoped for. She swept her fingers through her crimson locks, grunting softly as they caught in a tangle near the end. “Curiosity, like I said.” She chewed her bottom lip. “Would it really surprise you so much that I might want to get to know you a little as a person? You’re obviously far more than a bad attitude and strength I can only assume could make a god blush.”

Vegeta narrowed his eyes. He learned young that everyone had an angle. He had no doubt Nabooru had one of her own, but he struggled to decide if it was malicious or sincere. Compared to most he endured on this planet, he found her company tolerable, their typical conversation centered on topics that interested him: combat, strategy in a battle, whether one on one or against an army, ki manipulation. It came as a bonus that she could match him in knowledge in most of those areas, and was willing to listen and learn when she didn't. Her teasing aside, she knew when to take him and the task at hand seriously. Obvious flattery aside, was he surprised that she may just want to get to know him? Bulma and a select few others had made sorry attempts, lost their temper, and given up on the endeavor entirely due to his spurnings. Nothing that felt like true interest in him, but more to hear themselves talk or an obnoxious need to fill the silence with something no matter how vapid or shallow. None dared bring up a topic like this one. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to give her credit for it or clip the conversation’s wings before it could take flight. 

“Is this how you get to know everyone, or am I just special?”

“Would you prefer I ask you your favorite color or your least favorite kind of weather? You didn’t strike me as the type to enjoy small talk.”

A growl rumbled in his chest, the urge to leave out of spite mounting. However, he made no move to take off into the twilight. “Fine. It’s not like it matters anymore, anyway,” he acquiesced at last, crushing a rock into gravel beneath his heel with a crunch. “In every capacity except that we got paid, yes, we might as well have been slaves. To defy Freiza was a death wish. Not that loyalty or doing your job well meant anything. The Saiyans served him and his family for years, but he killed them anyway.”

Though she attempted to fight it, a frown tugged the corners of her lips downward regardless of her efforts. She did not care for people’s sympathy in regards to hers or her people’s plight and she guessed Vegeta felt similarly; she did not want her expression to be misconstrued as such. The heavy weight in her belly and the twisting of her heart struck closer to anger, for the injustice done to his people, those done to hers. How often had they tried to play the placated and happy allies with Hyrule as their treaty asked, only to be met with solid walls of ridicule and denial of meager requests to aid in their survival and the ever growing cloud of contempt for them in the end?

She blew a strand of hair out of her face and smoothed it back into place on her crown. "That's how it goes, isn't it?" Bitterness seeped into her words in lieu of the conversational tone she wanted to maintain. She didn't know if she wanted to sock Hyrule's King in the face or that Frieza character. Or more. "You can play their game by the book all you want, but at the end of the day, it's their game to end how they choose."

Vegeta eyed her, the changed demeanor, the edge to her words. A discontent and terse delivery that alluded to experience. Piecing the scraps of information he had gleaned from the tournament, he understood the Gerudo were refugees from another planet of some capacity. They must have suffered similarly under a tyrant which led them to leave their home in search of a new one. The details hardly mattered. Frieza was dead and the Gerudo resided on Earth; neither had to deal with whatever problems they had faced in the past anymore.

He communicated such thoughts with a noncommittal huff. "At any rate, I take pride in the fact that it was fear of the Saiyans that led to their demise. He feared our potential, what we could become. It was only fitting that a Saiyan ended his miserable existence."

Hatred fueled by fear. Violence spurred by unfounded paranoia. The Gerudo recognized the phenomenon from her dealings with the Hylians and their allies. She opened her mouth to relay such, but the prince turned his back to her. As obvious a sign as any that the conversation was over.

"Go rest. I'll find you tomorrow when I'm ready to spar." 

He allowed Nabooru no time to reply, argue, or say her farewells before taking off. With the last dregs of her own energy, she floated upward and flew off in the opposite direction, a muscle-relaxing bath calling her name.

#// vegeta ♅ #:: nabooru ☀ #i need to get a vegbooru ship tag #i have one but it's also the one for me and lau and that's liek sacred and only for her pff #but like i guess a little bg this is like a few years after buu #maybe less #idk i wasn't concerned about where the tournament falls to let people decide whatever in their verses #so yeah just post buu saga

[boarix]

Wraith in the Ruins: A Fallout 4 Story Part I

Dismissing Deacon

Trigger warnings: canon language. Panic attack. Self-harm

Contains spoilers

Please enjoy!

 He wore the baseball uniform, complete with cap and bat, on purpose. Hyper-conscious of his feelings and the dangers associated with them, he did things in order to perpetuate his delusion that he was in total control and that those feelings didn’t actually exist.

She really liked when he wore the baseball uniform. A lot. He could tell by her pupil dilation and skin flush. Pupils dilated: check. Slight rose color to her neck and cheeks: check. He was in control.

Lie. Lie. Lie.

Strolling up to her, he arched a ginger brow and adopted his best smarmy grin, “Hey Whisper, word is you wanted to see me. You finally wanna start that macramé club?”

She didn’t laugh. Not so much as a smile. In fact, her mouth was set in a hard line and when she spoke her voice was clipped, terse, “Follow me please.”

Uh oh…

She turned and briskly walked out of Sanctuary via the small northwest bridge. Deacon followed close behind, watching her. Her walk was different: less her normal smooth, fluid stride and more like a stiff march. She was wearing the Minutemen general’s uniform so it seemed appropriate somehow. At the same time it looked like she might be hurting somewhere.

Unbidden, the image of her in the armored Marine wetsuit popped into his brain. More specifically the view from the back of her while she was walking, fighting, running… He found himself wishing she was wearing it then.

He snapped back to reality.

See… this is why she is dangerous.

They walked in silence. Deacon hated being left with his thoughts spinning around, especially when he was alone with her, so he opened his mouth, “We heading to the vault? Going spelunking today?”

What are you even saying you insensitive jerk?!

“No.”

They had passed the vault when it dawned on him where they might be going.

Oh… shit.

Set up on a hill, with a clear view of the vault and its surroundings, was a small lean-to. It contained a single chair and table with a small amount of food and candles. Neglecting the chair, she instead chose to stand at the glassless window facing the vault. With her back to him, he could see her shoulders rise and fall with purposeful breathing. She was amping up for something.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Deacon’s mind was a whirl of trouble-shooting: there were a few possible methods of obfuscation here… He could fix this. She had gone off on him for lying before… this was different though. This was BIG. This was BAD.

“A part of me understands,” She began with calm, measured words, “you, after all, would have had no idea where my loyalties would lie.” Turning her head to the right and down, she was clearly looking at the railsign marker for “ally”, painted in white just below the sill. “You had an entire organization and its people to protect; your life’s work.” She turned to face him and slowly raised her right arm behind her to point at the vault. Her green eyes were on his though, slicing through the defense of his sunglasses, “Where you here the day I came up that elevator?”

“Whisper…”

“Yes or no?” Her face contorted in anger as she was losing the chokehold on her composure.

“Yes.” He wanted to lie but found that he couldn’t. Not now. Not when she had lost so much. He felt small and scared.

“Where you aware that there was upwards of a sixty year difference between when the Institute removed an ‘asset’ from the vault and when I came up that elevator?”

Changing tactics to try and gain control, he switched to a more personal moniker, “Wraith, I didn’t know. I had no idea that Shaun was Father!”

“DEACON! YOU KNEW WHO TOOK HIM! You knew that if he was alive, that he’d be a grown adult. YOU KNEW! You let me crawl across the Commonwealth, MEWLING, ‘where’s my baby?’”

“Wraith, please…” It wasn’t working. He had lost control. He was losing her.

“Did you offer me shelter? No. Did you offer me aid? No.” Her arms at her sides, she had balled up her fists and was leaning toward him, “You just… creeped around, watching me. Waiting to see what I would do. Just. Like. Father.”

The last statement hit him hard, like a powerfist to the chest. Struck dumb by her truth, he could offer no rebuttal.

It hurts! Losing her hurts. My chest… God, this hurts!

She closed her eyes and controlled her breathing. When she continued, her tone was more formal: she was delivering her closing statement. “As general of the Minutemen, I look forward to the continued cooperation between our two organizations. As always, everyone is welcome at any Minutemen settlement, and the movement of ‘packages’ through those settlements will continue as Desdemona sees fit.” She opened her eyes and lifted her chin slightly, “As of this moment, I am no longer to be considered a Railroad Heavy agent and ‘Whisper’ no longer exists.”

“Wraith, please… please don’t DO this!” The voice in Deacon’s head, that was a veteran Railroad agent, told him that this was good.

She is a dangerous distraction. You don’t deserve her friendship, let alone her love. You are BOTH safer this way.

Lie. Lie. Lie.

“What’s the point of using that name; ‘Wraith’? I’m sure you know my real name. You know everything there is to know about me.” There was a rim of moisture in her eyes. Sadness changed to anger and her tone became harsh, “You had to know everything; you needed to know all that motivated me in order to manipulate me! You needed to pretend to be my friend. Well, no need for that act any longer.”

Deacon had unconsciously reached up to his chest.

It hurts. It hurts.

“MacCready, Dogmeat and I will be leaving for Goodneighbor now. We will be gone for a couple of weeks. I don’t care where you go, just stay out of my line-of-sight.” A tear had escaped and she quickly turned away from him as it slid down her cheek, “The time has come for us to part ways.”

Without looking back, she walked away.

Pressure. Unbearable, hot pressure was pressing on him from all directions. It was going to crumple him up like a wad of paper. The pain in his chest was a freezing knife and yet he was hot. Too hot, all over. He could hear a strange ringing in his ears, like feedback from a microphone. He stood frozen in place. Frozen yet on fire. Finally he moved: choking up on the baseball bat he was still holding, he began to destroy the lean-to.

He heard someone screaming… Was that him?

Over and over he clubbed the small shack. When the bat slipped out of his blood-soaked hands and flew crazily off to who-knows-where, he proceeded to pound what was left with his fists.

God, it hurts! I’ve lost her! I… never told her…

When he finally stopped the sun was low on the horizon. Standing, he cradled the ruin of his hands to his chest then walked toward Sanctuary. Curie would fix his hands for him. With all of the Institute tech Wraith had provided her, it would only be a short time before they would be back to normal.

I want this. This is best. I shouldn’t be sad. This protects us all. I want… I want…

Lie. Lie. Lie.

Thank you so much for reading! Like what you read? Looking for more? Please check out my Wraith in the Ruins masterlink located under my bio. I will also be re-posting the masterlink from time to time. As always my ask is open for any questions/comments/concerns. =^..^=

#wraith in the ruins #fallout fanfic #fallout 4 fanfic #deacon fallout 4 #hancock fallout 4 #john hancock #john hancock fallout 4 #rj maccready #maccready fallout 4 #fallout 4 deacon fanfic #fallout 4 hancock fanfic #fallout romance fanfic #dogmeat

[qqueenofhades]

I saw an prompt earlier. I tried to find it again so I could give correct credit, but couldn't. :( The prompt was for Flynn teaching Lucy hand-to-hand and firearm skills. He's totally serious about it, and she's trying to be flirty with it.

Anonymous said: Love your Garcy fics! Not sure if you’re taking prompts/fic requests but… After somehow rescuing Rufus, our Lucy becomes inspired by badass Future!Lucy and gets Flynn to help her get better at fighting/guns. (She’d probably should ask Wyatt but things are still weird between them)

Anonymous said: Hi! I feel bad for asking bc you must gets loads of fic asks but could we possible get a garcy fic post 2x10 with Flynn teaching Lucy basic self defence so she doesn’t feel so helpless again? Please and thank you in advance.

… apparently Flynn teaching Lucy how to fight is a Thing The People Need, so. I am here to fulfill the Need. Also tagging @flynn-it-up.

“Teach me how to fight.”

Flynn has been trying to read the newspaper – though it’s hard to give much of a shit about current events when they don’t know the half of it and it could all change tomorrow, even he needs some time thinking about non-Rittenhouse-destroying subjects – but he puts it down, and raises an eyebrow, at the small, fierce, and oddly adorable sight standing in his bedroom door. He doesn’t remember hearing a knock. “Ah, Lucy,” he says graciously. “Do come in.”

Lucy ignores that, as she probably should, but she does come in, striding over the threshold and stopping short with an expectant look on her face. Flynn sighs and puts aside the newspaper, standing up. “Yes?”

“Teach me how to fight,” Lucy repeats. “I – well, I obviously have to learn how at some point, and apparently I did, so…” She hesitates, then sets her chin and thrusts it at him in a manner reminiscent of a feisty heroine in a romance novel, bossing around whatever handsome but dense gentleman she has taken an interest in. (Not that Flynn is going to commit to that comparison all the way down, but it still comes to mind.) “Can you do it or not?”

Flynn considers her, rubbing his chin. It’s clear to both of them that he’ll probably do whatever she asks him to, but this still might be a commitment. He doesn’t need to ask why she hasn’t approached Wyatt – this would take a considerable amount of trust that doesn’t necessarily exist between them right now, appearance of their future selves or not. But the apocalypse twins are gone, Rufus is back, and Lucy has rarely seemed more determined in her life. She is a five-foot-five ball of spitfire, and woe betide anyone who gets in her way. Flynn has no desire to be the first one.

Ah, hell. The newspaper was boring anyway.

“Put on something a little more sporty,” he advises her. “Then we’ll talk.”

Technically, they are not supposed to go out of the bunker, but there is not really any room to do this properly inside it, and besides, Wyatt was trucking back and forth like Grand Central Station there for a while. Flynn craftily disables the alarm so they won’t set off a security alert, and he and Lucy climb up the ladder, push open the trapdoor at the top, and emerge into the small amount of open land that surrounds the bunker, heavily wooded to all sides. It’s actually a nice day, making Flynn feel like a fungus emerging from underground and startled to find itself in the sun, and he squints, pulling on his sunglasses. He’s brought his gun, so if any Rittenhouse goons rush up, he can probably shoot enough of them to give Lucy time to run for it. But if that was the case, they’d have bigger problems anyway, and he’s relieved that the woods seem to be presently henchmen-free. They find a relatively flat space in the long grass, and Lucy bounces up and down on her heels, stretching her hands as if in preparation for an aerobics class. Her enthusiasm is – again – rather adorable. (Flynn tends to think most things about her are adorable, but that is not pertinent to the situation right now.)

The first lesson is how to throw a decent punch. Rule number one, don’t fold your fingers over your thumb, you will break it. Thumb goes on the outside. Direct your force into the first two knuckles, they’re the strongest. Use your hips. Flynn fiddles with her fist until he’s satisfied with it, holds up his palm to give her something to punch at, and raises an eyebrow at her first few efforts. “Come on, Lucy, I know you can hit harder than that.”

Lucy’s cheeks are rather pink. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Flynn raises the other eyebrow. “We’ve got a long way to go before you’re anywhere close to that, trust me.”

Lucy considers, then decides it’s true. She hauls off and whacks his hand hard enough to sting the next time, and he sets his feet. “That’s more like it. But you’re still telegraphing too much, your enemy could see that coming from a mile away. You have to be efficient with it. Shortest distance between starting the movement and hitting your target. No flailing like a windmill.”

They go several more rounds before Lucy can manage a decent uppercut, which Flynn advises as probably the best tactic for a small woman who isn’t going to overwhelm anyone with brute force or a sweeping overhand. He tells her that the elbow and the heel of the hand are the strongest to strike with, or two stiff fingers to the eyes, and demonstrates a few ways to get out of chokeholds or hair grabs, how to bring the knee up and slam the face, the pressure point to jab in the elbow to make the arm bend, how to duck out and twist it behind someone’s back. “Don’t go for the balls unless you’re sure you can hit them,” he advises her bluntly. “Most men are on the lookout for that. If anything, go for the throat. Right in the windpipe, there, that will stun anyone.”

They pause to get a drink of water. Lucy’s sweaty-faced, hair waving loose from its ponytail, but she shakes her head vigorously when Flynn asks if she wants to stop. So it’s a further round of basic hapkido and jiu-jitsu grabs, strikes, and escapes, focused on Lucy getting away from a much larger man and hitting him back if she can. Of course, the test conditions are ideal for this, and after Flynn has been pinched, punched, poked, tripped, twisted, shoved, slammed, elbowed, kicked, and once (painfully, while Lucy apologizes profusely) kneed, he’s wiping a trickle of blood away from his nose and giving her an appraising look. “I think you’re getting it.”

“I’m sorry,” Lucy says again. “I didn’t realize I was going to actually hit you.”

“Well.” Flynn shrugs. “I let you. I figured you needed to see what it felt like.”

Lucy opens her mouth, looks briefly nonplussed, then both pleased and apologetic. She shakes her hand, which is clearly also stinging from its recent collision course with Flynn’s nicely chiseled visage. “We can stop for the day,” she says. “But it’s going to be light for another few hours, and – ”

“And you don’t want to.” What the hell, Flynn thinks, they should make the most of it. He goes to get his gun, which frankly she already knows more about than she should, and lets her practice clicking the safety on and off, switching the magazine out, and how to aim and fire as part of the same movement. He doesn’t want to alarm the bunker with the sound of distant gunshots, but he takes Lucy a few dozen paces into the woods and lets her empty one of his clips into a tree. Birds rise in a riot, shrieking indignantly, and Flynn grins at her. “Well, it’s harder when it’s not a tree and therefore either running to or away from you, but I suppose that’s the overall idea.”

“I know.” Lucy is breathing hard, but she is holding the gun in a way that reminds him she has used one in earnest before, and for its intended purpose in war. The shadows are getting longer, darker and purple, and Flynn decides that it’s time to call a halt for more reasons than his throbbing nose (and throbbing, you know). He takes the gun when Lucy hands it over, and they walk in silence back toward the bunker. It is going to take an effort to submerge himself into that horrible subterranean tin can again, especially after an afternoon in the sunlight with Lucy. And yet, if she’s going down there, so is he. It’s just how it works now.

As they reach the hatch, Lucy stops and turns to him, face gilded in the gold of the long west sun. “Thank you.” Her hands make a nervous little movement, as if she wants to touch him, but she doesn’t quite. “I’m sorry about your nose.”

“And other parts of me?”

Lucy makes a faint choking noise, cheeks flushing, as her eyes briefly dart downward. Flynn is tempted to tell her that they’ll be fine, if sore, but that likewise seems too ripe for – well, something dangerous. Something else. Instead he clears his throat, and cranks the hatch open. Waits until she has disappeared down the ladder, then swings in after her and pulls it shut.

(They are in fact rather sore, and yet. Even as he’s lying awake later that night, Flynn still does not regret a thing.) 

#lucy x flynn #garcy #garcy ff #lifewithpatience2013 #ask

[theworstbob]

yellin’ at songs, week thirty-four

in this post WITH A TWIST YOU’LL NEVER SEE COMING, we review the songs which debuted on the billboard chart the weeks of 8.30.1997, 9.1.2007, and 9.2.2017

8.30.1997

40) "All Cired Out," by Allure ft./112

Imagine how dope this would have been a capella. Like, you have a girl group and a boy group. That's at least six singers good enough to sustain their own groups. Why you gotta give this song all the production? Why not let the cavalcade of singers carry this one home? Curse that we're a good 15 years away from Pentatonix making a capella commercially viable! This song could have been something.

46) "Backyard Boogie," by Mack 10

/clears throat /tugs at collar Eh, now this mack should not have returned. /bows to thunderous applause /leaves the stage /audience still applauding /walks back onto stage /tugs at throat /clears collar Eh, now... /audience falls into rapturous, expectant silence This mack? /everyone in the audience is waiting for the words i speak to deliver their salvation /i hold them for a thousand years Should not have returned. /i am anointed Wonderful Comedy Boy /god himself weeps

62) "What About Us," by Total ft./Missy Elliott

Never gonna complain about Missy in YAS, except for the time she cropped up in 2017 and I wasn't into it. I complained about it then, if memory serves. But I only complained about it because it was a Missy song that didn't sound like this, because this song is smooth and fresh and several other outdated descriptors! Also, I haven't made enough a big deal about The Double Decade Dance Club, but, as far as I'm willing to go back through the archives, the folks who've had songs chart in '97, '07, and '17 are Missy Elliott, Jay-Z, Tim McGraw, and Faith Hill. Special consideration is given to Mariah Carey, who doesn't qualify for Decade Dance with no songs charting in '07 but DID have songs debut later in '97 and earlier in '17! Congratulations to those five people on this fake accolade in a blog read by an indeterminate but likely single-digit number!

68) "Around the World," by Daft Punk

Have I had my complaints about electronic music in the 1997 list? Yes. Have I wished for dance music that sounds like something I could dance to? Several times! Does this mean I like Daft Punk? I... I mean, y'all knew I wasn't cool. Like, this sounds fine, I don't disagree with every single thing happening in this song, which is a step up from all the other electronic music, but I connect to this about as much as I do a well-composed track in a video game. I admire how it does its thing, but I'm not attached to this song in any meaningful way, I'm not having any sort of emotional reaction to it. It just sort of exists while I'm hitting buttons. Wait and this is HOW MANY minutes long? Y'all, I'm behind on every single obligation, no thank you.

69) "My Love Is the Shhh!" by Somethin' for the People ft./Trina & Tamara

This is like a staler version of the Missy track we had earlier, and I already opted not to pay attention to the Missy track so I could blather about YAS mythology, I don't know how I'm supposed to come to this song and find something else to say about it. What kind of name is Somethin' for the People, anyway? How do you settle on that as a name? Did literally every other combination of words in the English language fail to please you? I have to access the Iowa Land Records website sometimes, and the captchas they use on that website are delightful words that are almost English but not quite. Today I had to enter Simbang Carrer. I don't understand how you could be given a set of letters and rules which can create Simbang Carrer and think, "No. Somethin' for the People. That is how we identify." I hope they had a rivalry with Nice Songs For Enjoyment.

72) "Don't Say," by Jon B

milquetoast (adj) - a word used by people looking for a synonym for 'bored' that happened to open the thesaurus while they were hungry

73) "As We Lay," by Daha

"I'll be fine," Bob said as he decided to put off writing the entirety of YAS to Wednesday evening. "I know 1997 has 11 songs, but there's no way all of them are going to be '90s R&B! I won't get burnt out by the fifth R&B jam because there will only be five, with enough variety between R&B jams to keep these songs fresh1" Friends, I can admit when I have erred. In my defense: have you listened to Bad Cop/Bad Cop's Warriors? I feel I should be forgiven for making Bad Cop/Bad Cop's Warriors the only thing I've listened to the last five days. This song is pretty okay. I think the beat isn't quite sure what song it belongs to, but it gives this song a unique sound, which, hey, you probably didn't listen to all these songs. You probably don't get how much I treasure something that sounds unique, even if it's a not especially great kind of unique.

78) "Happy with You," by Samantha Cole

HELL YEAH I LOVE THAT SEINFELD-ASS BASS. You know what, song of the year, right here. I feel like this song is the reward for sloughing through Slow R&B Mire, and now I have this upbeat song about the joy of finding another soul in this world and being in that moment with them, and I just, thank you, thank you everyone for creating this moment, for giving me just like a nice song about how good an emotion love is. Yeah, girl, you try to hit that high note! A for effort! A for good song! A+ to your bassist, what a pleasant song!

80) "No Tengo Dinero," by Los Umbrellos

"Los Umbrellos was a Latin pop dance group formed in Denmark" Um "It was led by the rapper Al Agami, the exiled crown prince of the small African enclave of Africa" UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM DID SOMEONE SEE THAT NO ONE HAD WRITTEN AN ARTICLE ABOUT THIS PARTICULAR GROUP AND JUST SAID "I'LL TAKE TO WIKIPEDIA!" AND JUST MADE SHIT UP? DANISH LATIN POP GROUP "The song hit #1 in Austria" OK, that I'll believe, knowing what I know about Austrian music that absolutely tracks, this is the trash they love in Austria. But no seriously DANISH. LATIN. POP. GROUP.

86) "Piece of My Heart," by Shaggy ft./Marsha

Oh hell yeah. This is everything the "I Shot the Sherrif" cover wasn't. Like, that was a song that wasn't quite sure what it wanted to do with the song, but you know what this does? You know what made me laugh in my apartment? It took the Janis Joplin cover, it gave it the reggae backing, it did the "COME ON! COME ON! COME ON! COME ON!" thing, and that led RIGHT INTO A GODDAMNED SHAGGY VERSE. LIKE HELL YEAH. That's the music version of the hidden blocks in Kaizo Mario. Just get dunked on. "COME ON, COME ON, COME ON, COME ON," and then it turns out we were building up to Shaggy. That was beautiful. Like, this kinda garbages up a standard, but I don't care, it's hella fun.

88) "I Care 'Bout You," by Milestone

Yep. Yeah, there's about only one way 1997 could end. "Sometimes I feel so alone/I call your heart but there's no one at home." Oh absoLUTEly fuck off.

9.1.2007

38) "You Are the Music in Me," Zac Efron & Vanessa Hudgens 60) "Gotta Go My Own Way," Zac Efron & Vanessa Hudgens 66) "Bet on It," Zac Efron 74) "I Don't Dance," Corbin Bleu & Lucas Grabeel 90) "Everyday," Zac Efron & Vanessa Hudgens 92) "All for One," High School Musical 2

Even in 2007, I was already too old, as well as a tad bit too straight, to have any opinion on the High School Musical series. But! While I have gotten approximately 10 years older in the intervening ten years, I like to think I've become substantially gayer, so HERE WE GO. Honestly, HSM as a franchise is inoffensive fun. I enjoyed the first movie when I was of an appropriate age to have watched it, I enjoyed the clips from the second film as a 28-year-old alone in an apartment, and "Bet on It" is a classic piece of American filmmaking that should be taught in schools. I’m not afraid to say it: High School Musical is great, and we are going to be so grateful if the world lasts long enough for the ‘00s nostalgia wave to hit and create the 20-year High School Musical reunion and/or reboot movies.

46) "Clothes Off!" Gym Class Heroes ft./Patrick Stump

So this song is breezy fun, almost certainly the song of the week were it not for the fact "Bet on It" belongs in every museum, but it does sort of foretell the disappointing direction in which Travis McCoy would venture, dunnit? "Cupid's Chokehold" is this equally fun song about a neurotic, emokiddy person finding love in this crazy world, and it's not the most sophisticated thing in the world, but it's a nice song with a distinct feel, and then there's this party jam about gettin' naked, and it's like, alright, I dig this party jam, but you're gonna go back to, y'know, the emo stuff, right? But they never did. They made one really dope song and then just made this forever.

98) "So Small," Carrie Underwood

Finally: an inspirational ballad from a female country singer. Don't think I've heard one of those yet from 2007. Great times.

9.2.2017

42) "Silence," by Marshmello ft./Khalid

This is a sensitive EDM jam like all the other sensitive EDM jams. I'm still lukewarm on Khalid as a whole, like I think he does a fine job on this song but I don't understand why he's this whole thing, don't really get what he brought to this song that no one else could, but honestly that doesn't matter when I probably couldn't discern this from a Chainsmokers joint. Y'all have fun with this one, teens. Y'all do you.

88) "More Girls Like You," by Kip Moore

Hold up. Hold up. Can we talk about the amazing mixed similie in the first verse? "I've been livin' like a wild old Mustang out in Montana fields" A mustang is a horse. He is comparing himself to a wild horse. Understandable, and hey -- interesting spin on the usual back road cliche! Montana is the state equivalent of a back road. Quality shitty songwriting! "Mighta earned me a bad reputation, but never stopped these wheels" A mustang is a car. So he's a Ford Mustang in Montana? I mean I guess? Always good to compare yourself to an American-made automobile in country music. "I'm like a Camry runnin' with a full tank!" said no country star ever. "From rollin' and goin' too far/From runnin' and gunnin' too hard" OK, so he's a car, I recognize these as car terms, you gun engines, I get that, I remember the word rollin' playing a starring role in the Chamillionaire standard "Ridin'," I guess I got that part wrong at the start. Definitely a car. "So unreigned, so untamed" WHAT A HECKIN' TWIST HE WAS HORSE THIS WHOLE TIME?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!? Man, this song is trash.

92) "Something New," by Wiz Khalifa ft./Ty Dolla $ign

"Girl, you look just like something out a magazine/You smell great, know your body clean" ...Di, um, excuse me, but did Wiz Khalifa just compare his girl to the perfume samples that sometimes come in magazines? Anyway, this song sure existed for three minutes.

95) "Untouchable," by YoungBoy Never Broke Again

Various other videos call this man NBA YoungBoy, and with respect to the choices he has made, I am going to refer to him as that from here on out, assuming we hear from him again, which, hey, he's not the worst of the mumble-rap cohort! I kinda feel bad calling him mumble-rap, because this song actually goes more than one place, and that's at least him mumbling! No auto-tune over a trap beat, an actual human being mumbling over a fairly compelling track. Beat's really good, this might be the first song that actually held my attention for all three minutes. Don't know who produced this, but I hope that person goes just a bit farther than NBA YoungBoy.

97) "I Could Use a Love Song," by Maren Morris

I really wish the first six seconds of "Sugar" could be a single. The rest of the song is good, too, but those first six seconds are goddamned flames. I think it's important for you to know that Maren Morris is way more compelling than this song. It's fine, but like we had "Every Little Thing" two weeks ago, y'know? Like, the music video talks through the song, and I don't... blame it? It's OK! Just slight.

98) "Fix a Drink," by Chris Janson

OH FUCK THIS DUDE AND HIS "ROCKABYE"-ASS SPOKEN WORD NONSENSE. This is stupid. This is stupid, and I'm stupid for ever complaining about the preponderance of '90s R&B I've foisted upon myself. It has a sense of humor decidedly sub-Toby Keith. Congratulations on being able to make beer.

100) "Woke Up Like This," by Playboy Carti ft./Lil Uzi Vert

Billboard didn't classify any songs as either debuts or re-entries, songs that weren't on the chart last week simply didn't have an arrow next to the name and I had to guess if they were actually new or retreads of previously released songs. Like, I could have sworn I had to deal with Kip Moore, but that's prolly just 'cuz it sounds like the rest of bro country's nonsense. So I can't tell if this is a new song because they restyled the title or if this is an actual new version of "Woke Up Like This," but I'ma just go ahead and assume my initial assessment of this dude being boring still holds. I can’t believe an entity called NBA YoungBoy won the 2017 Song of the Week title. I can’t... I... Oh. Hold up.

Who won the week?

Did High School Musical 2 just win this one for 2007. Did 2007 really produce the best songs because this was the week High School Musical 2 dropped. It’s not 2017 because the highest grade I’m willing to give “Untouchable” is C+. It’s not 1997 because there was “Happy with You” and a lot of interchangeable nothings. Holy cats. 2007 won High School Musical 2 Week. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe I’m going to say, of the three years, 2007, BASED SOLELY ON THE STRENGTH OF HIGH SCHOOL GODS DAMNED MUSICAL 2, WON THIS FAKE ACCOLADE ON THIS LITTLE-READ BLOG. I forgot “Clothes Off!” dropped this week. This is all HSM2. Wow. What a week this turned out to be. When I was makin’ these lists, when I saw all the High School Musical 2 droppin’, I said, “2007 is dead in the water.” BUTCHA KNOW WHAT HAPPENED?!

2017: 12 1997: 11 2007: 11

2007 has won three of the last four weeks. Don’t call it a comeback, because 2007 never left. History is permanent, it would be weird if the entirety of 2007 disappeared even for a second. And next week, the last selection remaining from HSM2, “Fabulous,” will team up with 50 Cent to take on “Barbie Girl” and what appears to be /sigh/ an Avicii tune. Will the dream die? FIND OUT!