#had fun being able to play with tweening

[cronchlord]

MOON WALTZ

Go my fucked up little ghost family

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

If you could fix one film or one film franchise, which would it be?

Star Wars, and it's not even close.

I used to love Star Wars to death. It was my thing ever since I was 5 or 6 and my dad rented the movies for me at Video Forum. I cannot undersell how much this series meant to me. When I was 11 my mom, who worked at IBM, took me to a take your kid to work day/tech exhibition and there was a portable TV being shown off and to show it off they played the trailer for Episode 1 on a loop. I must have watched it dozens of times, both before and after my mom dragged me away. I was so happy that in a few short months I was going to be able to see a Star Wars movie in the theaters! Just like everyone who was older than me did when the original trilogy first came out. When I was 17 I went to a midnight showing of Revenge of the Sith with my dad. Standing in line about to finally see how The Saga was going to be completed surrounded by super enthusiastic Star Wars fans buzzing and having fake lightsaber duels in the lobby was the closest thing to a religious experience by teenage edgelord atheist self would ever have. I can't even count how many times I got in trouble in school for reading Expanded Universe books when I should have been working.

I. Loved. Star Wars.

And in less than 5 years Disney killed that.

They took this thing I loved, killed its soul, and turned it into a zombie. Worse, they used that zombie to promote their pet politics and truly awful social views. Star Wars as it exists now is, in every conceivable way, worse than it was under Lucas and Lucasfilm. And I can't even find enjoyment in fandom spaces that hate Disney Star Wars and love the EU and the original films, because those spaces are filled with constant fighting with Disney fans about the franchise. And so many real SW fans are so...I don't want to use the word traumatized...maybe battered is a better word, by what Disney and its fans have done to Star Wars that they keep demanding lockstep opinions about everything and creating circular firing squads.

Star Wars just isn't fun anymore. And yeah, the old movies are still there, and sure, every once in a while something like Fallen Order/Jedi Survivor comes out that is actually pretty decent, but the stink of what Disney did to the franchise is always there in the background.

So I would save Star Wars. I'd do it for everyone who had to see the thing they love murdered right before their eyes. I'd do it for the kid I used to be, whose lonely tween and teen years would have been so much more bleak and grey if he never had Star Wars. I would savagely tear the Disney canon away just like Disney did with the EU, throw it in the trash, and start over. I'd adapt the literal decades of stories in the EU, as faithfully as possible, and treat what came before with the love and respect it deserves.

And if that's impossible, if there's no way to build Star Wars back into what it was, I'd let it die a dignified death instead of letting a bunch of shitty, talentless hacks parade its corpse around like a trophy of war.

[ivystoryweaver]

im so interested in what u think the moon boys would be like as dads???

Moon Dads

Ohhhhh, this is gonna hurt my heart. In a good way. I have a lot of feelings about Moon Dads and I've not yet written fics about it so yeah...

I'm gonna jump right in with Marc.

I think if Marc had a child, he would be all in: attentive, tender, affectionate.

I don't actually believe Marc would be afraid of parenting. I know that can be a popular hc/fic plot and I totally understand why, and love reading those.

But I think Marc would be one of those people that would try to do the opposite of what was done to him. Example: his parents were married and that went well... (sarcasm)

Yet Marc got married. He and Layla were together for years and, according to her, had "adventures together", meaning they worked as a (likely successful) team. Marc bailed on Layla once his mom passed and he could no longer control or hide his disassociations (plus Khonshu's threats for Layla to be his next avatar).

Point being: Marc did get married and seemed pretty successful at it, for the most part.

Marc is in charge of bath time. This includes little toy boats, fish that squirt water, bubbles. He's going to wash their hair, or whatever hair needs they have, depending on race and hair types. If it is a hair type he isn't as familiar with, he is going to be talking to his partner, looking up vids, whatever it takes. Touch is going to be so important to him. He is the dad who will know how to do french braids or styles for textured hair.

He's never going to react in anger. If he is angry, he's going to hand the reins to Steven or sometimes Jake (if he is able, it's obviously not a parlor trick), or he will just say to his little one, "Daddy is going to take a time out. I'll be back in a minute and we can have a talk." The idea of putting himself in time out is so endearing to his child that they end up calming from whatever misbehavior they were attempting, wanting to join him in the corner for time out, touching a plushie or reading a book in his lap.

They learn very young that their father's expressions can be stern but his hands are safe. They will not want to disappoint him.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

Steven can converse naturally with children, this we see in the first episode. Steven's open, engaging nature is great for children. His own childlike wonder will shine in fatherhood. He was also able to quickly redirect the behavior of the girl who was littering at the museum. So a spunky child in a doctor's office waiting room will be easily wrangled by a distracting toy, quick game or wonderful story.

Steven is your go-to guy for bedtime stories. With a young child, Steven will share how wondrous the world around them is. He'll always have a anecdote or a fun fact for tweens or teens.

He will offer choices. "Do you want to put on 'jammies now or after a story?" "Do you want to help Dad set the table or feed the cat?" Steven has lacked agency in his life, so he is going to give it to his child. He will teach them to speak up for their needs.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

Jake is going to be such a little shit as a dad. I'm sorry but there is no nicer way to say it lol. Jake's used to operating in the background and he's a night owl. He's the fun dad. He's the "don't tell mom" dad (or don't tell dad, dad). Kid wants stay up 15 extra minutes? It's Jake that's gonna sneak them some of the popcorn he popped after they were supposed to be asleep. As a partner, you'd find your little one on Jake's knee in the most comfy chair, watching the Yankees play baseball.

You give them The Look™ and they know they are busted. They exchange guilty glances and then Jake starts repeating words in Spanish. Baseball, Popcorn, very good! If you are already all Spanish speakers then Jake pretends to be practicing in both Spanish and English.

Either way, he and his little twin, with their adorable curls, give you shit eating grins.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

Moon Knight Masterlist

Main Masterlist

Askbox

[certifiedlovergirlsstuff]

summer blush

pairing: steve harrington x gn!reader

wc: 1.9K

warnings: nothing, can't remember if there's cursing.

summary: pool days and future dates

A/N: WE DESERVED LIFEGUARD STEVE WHY DID BILLY GET THAT ROLE!!!!!!! but I know we got scoops steve, but still!!!!

masterlist / steve harrington

everyone was at hawkins community pool if they didn’t have one sitting in their backyard. the weather was in the high nineties with a slight breeze to cool you off if you were laying out tanning. the dozens of kids were splashing and squealing in glee, screaming as they played marco polo or sharks and minnows. many parents trusted the lifeguards to do their job so they indulged in their books or gossiping with friends.

the lounger reclined at an angle, one leg bent and the other straight. loose shirt and swim shorts as your attire accessorized with sunglasses and a baseball cap to shade your face from the harsh sunlight as you read your book.

a high-pitched yell of your name drew your attention. tilting the book towards your chest you saw your neighbor lucas rushing your way. his running was put to a stop when a lifeguard blew their whistle and yelled no running. you saw a few other kids a little behind, three boys and two girls. 

“going for a swim, sinclair?” eyes squinting behind your glasses.

he rolled his eyes and pointed towards his swim trunks, “duh. gonna spend the next few hours getting pruney. oh, also my mom wanted me to ask if you were free on the twelfth.”

one of the boys called his name and lucas told him he was coming before turning back to you. “uh, as of right now i’m an open book. does she need a babysitter?”

“yeah. my parents have a date planned so they need someone to watch us.”

you nodded your head, “well i’ll be happy to babysit. just have her call me when you get home. now go have some summer fun, your friends are getting antsy.” the tweens being all dramatic from their spots close by.

lucas waved goodbye before talking with his friends and then they all threw themselves into the chlorine-heavy pool. the two girls were a step behind with shrieks that carried until they were submerged.

you watched their playful fighting for a bit with a gentle smile on your lips. how lucas would dunk his friend with sopping curly hair underwater or the redhead would slap water at the byers kid. the other girl with shoulder-length hair was just walking around the shallow end with an enormous smile.

deciding to turn back to your book, your eyes took a sweep of the crowded pool and they managed to catch a lifeguard chair change. a girl in the uniform-issued red one-piece was climbing down from the high chair as a boy leaned a hand against the legs. the two chatted for a moment before the girl waved goodbye and the boy climbed the steps and settled into the seat.

and when he was in perfect view you were able to make out the person you were ogling. steve harrington. steve harrington, who was dressed in only red swim trunks as he watched over the community pool. now your book doesn't seem so interesting.

you held the book at a normal height and used the book and sunglasses as your undercover ruse as you observed (stared) at steve. how he seemed comfortable in the uncomfortable high chair, one hand fiddling with the whistle that was sitting on his chest as his head moved around to get a full view. his hair looked naturally fluffy and curled, oh man.

you and steve were in the same graduating class but only had a handful of classes together in the four years of high school, and in only two was there conversation. he was more outgoing and friendly with most of the school population, while you had one friend, robin buckley, who stuck to the shadows and books. and even though you hid in the shadows, that harrington charm always shined brightly no matter what. so yeah, you weren’t unaffected by him, you just made sure not to act like an idiot when he was around.

wishing you had the balls to walk up confidently and start an effortless conversation, you just groaned as you leaned your head back and laid the book on your sunscreen thighs. you don’t even know what he likes, not like you could chat about the weather for twenty minutes before it dies out. “so… this weather….” “yeah, pretty warm. brings everyone out of their houses.” that’s so stupid!

you know what, forget about it. push steve from your mind. push lovely steve harrington from your mind and focus back on your fantasy novel. you did set a goal of reading through the stacks of books you’ve bought over the months. you look through your bag and grab your wallet before pushing off the flimsy lounge chair and heading to the vending machine for a snack.

you look at the different selections of chips and press in c7, your second favorite chips dropping down. you pushed the flap open and managed to grab the goods without twisting your wrist. you looked to the concessions booth and debated if you wanted to pay three fifty for a slushy.

“hey.” you heard someone call but you didn’t think they were calling for you since it didn’t sound like any of the younger kids. head tilting side to side in a silent debate before it came again this time followed by your last name.

you felt like an idiot when you looked over your shoulders to find the source but couldn’t so you turned forward again, which caused the mystery person to say your name once again followed by, “it’s steve, dummy.”

that made you turn around real quick with your brows raised and hands sat on your hips, chip bag crinkling. “what’s with the nickname, mr. lifeguard? i’m a customer minding their business.” sarcasm hiding the curiosity of why steve was suddenly calling for you.

he was twisted in the high chair, one knee up and poking through the hole for the armrest with his arms folded on the top and his chin digging into his golden forearms. his sunglasses pushed to his hair showing his face off without obstruction, though his eyes were squinting against the beating sun. he had a smirk to his mouth and, oh your insides melted.

“i am so sorry to be disturbing,” the sarcasm twisted in his words, “but i was wondering if you’d be willing to buy me a cherry slushy. for a fellow mrs. fray senior english class student.”

lips parting in slight shock, “you…you remember me?” body language changing from defense to sheepish. you meant to say those words in your head only, not aloud where he could make fun of you.

his eyes unsquinted just a bit and you were able to see the smirk fall away and genuine confusion settle in. “why wouldn’t i? i sat next to you all year. and what a lovely view to get me through that boring class.” a flirtatious tone singing through the words. 

now you are standing frozen. was he…flirting? was steve flirting with you? when you felt sweaty and didn’t look put together, baggy shirt and hair pushed under a baseball cap. there was no way, right?

“well…i do remember you staring a lot. just thought i was blocking the window view.” trying to flirt, swing and a miss in your head.

steve chuckled. deep and boyish over the volume of the occupants. “nah, view outside wasn’t worth my time.” a cheeky smirk and, oh yeah. he was flirting.

“anyway. would you still be willing to buy that cherry slushy for me? kinda dying of thirst and heat over here.” his body that wasn’t shaded by the umbrella was highlighted bright with the sun. mind traversing to the knowledge he might develop more freckles over his skin and how you wished to chart them like constellations in the night sky.

you looked to the booth and back to steve, working yourself up to try a hand at flirting again. you took four steps closer to the white chair, head tilted up while steve stared down. “would i get anything back in exchange? since, you know, i’m paying with my own money.” hoping he doesn’t say something that billy hargrove wolf whistles at.

steve smiled with his teeth biting into his bottom lip. his head moved just a bit to the side and his eyes squinting a bit harder, you were glad to see his whole face, but you wished to just slide his black sunglasses over his honey-brown eyes. he looked to be debating something for a moment and then he shifted around to climb to the hot cement floor. he stopped just in front of you, right side of his body leaning into the chip painted wood. he was messing around with his red whistle and your skin produced goosebumps from the way his eyes roamed over your face and trailed down your body then back up.

“well, a slushy is only three fifty, so what i’m gonna suggest is overpriced. but if you're willing to spare some change, i would be happy to take you…” he stopped for a moment, almost seeming nervous before he got his confidence back. “…to take you on a date. movie and dinner, all on me.”

you almost dropped your chips and wallet due to the words that left his mouth. “you’re…this is a joke right? some prank?” self-conscious defense going up.

steve pushed himself into an upright position, hands shaking in front of him with urgency on his face and in his words. “what? no, no! i- i genuinely want to- i’ve wanted to ask you for a while!” words rushed and grumbled.

you were shocked for the third time today. steve harrington wanted to take you on a date. and for a while. “really?” the voice is almost meek.

steve rubbed the back of his neck and you weren’t sure if that was sunburn or blush on his cheeks. “yeah…i know i seem…good at getting dates. but when it comes to someone i like…i can get tongue-tied.” fingers messing around with the back of his hair.

you couldn’t help the teasing smile, “oh…steve harrington gets flustered by his crushes? didn’t realize we reverted to middle school.”

he rolled his eyes, but he smiled anyway. “yeah, yeah. now for the third time, can you buy me a slushy? and would you like to go on a date with me? saturday at seven?”

there was a whistle and the call for steve to get back in his chair. he didn’t turn around or anything, he stayed trained on you with pleading eyes and a nervous smile. you didn’t bother keeping the boy waiting any longer, butterflies fluttering in your belly.

“i’ll get you that slushy. and then i’ll tell you my decision. so, best you get back to your job before you get fired.” taking steps backward then turning on the balls of your feet.

you felt his eye on your back the whole time as you ordered and waited for the drinks. with the two in hand along with your chips, you walked to steve already having your mind made up. you held his cherry slushy up high and he grabbed it with a “thank you.” his fingers brushing your knuckles.

“so, yes or no? hurts to keep a guy waiting.” a fake pout to his lips. you took a sip of your icy beverage and then counted to five. “what movie?”

“the goonies. heard from a birdie you’ve been waiting to see that one.” that just solidified your answer. “food before or after? and where?”

steve took his sip and then answered, “whichever and wherever you prefer.” 

you tapped your flip-flop foot and took a few more sips. “seven works. benny’s before and then goonies. maybe milkshakes after. sounds good?”

he smiled down at you, teeth shining in the light and lips turning a bit red. “sounds perfect. can i have your address?”

you began to walk back to your lounge chair, calling over your shoulder, “use the phone book, harrington! very useful information.”

-

[maddie-grove]

Most Common Problems Faced by My Childhood Dolls (Grouped by Type of Doll)

Baby/Companion Dolls: life-threatening diseases; bullying by other dolls at school; my dubious discipline style; my divorce from my imaginary husband Jake.

Groovy Girls: bullying by other Groovy Girls; life-altering gymnastics accidents; feet too unwieldy for go-go boots.

Barbies: false witchcraft accusations; real witches; tuberculosis; kidnapping; the time Ken and his brother Adam started a polygamous cult; bullying by other Barbies (whether in a normal high school or a beauty pageant or a cult); basically anything bad that happened to female movie stars in Hollywood under the studio system; the challenges of raising a million Chrissies and Kellies and Stacies and Skippers and similarly sized off-brand child dolls with little help from Ken or Adam; sibling rivalry (including an East of Eden-style mess between Ken and Adam).

Dollhouse Families: my friend Emily C. (I was Emily S.) stealing the mom doll from my old Fisher-Price family, leaving John (the dad) a widower, so when I got a new family a few years later, I decided that John should marry Patricia, the mom of the new family, which made it necessary for me to interpret Robbie (almost certainly meant to be a dad doll) as Patricia's teenage son, which was obviously very emotionally confusing for Robbie and exacerbated the usual tensions of a newly blended family.

Clothespin Dolls: Nancy, Alice, and Lily, the three charming clothespin dolls made by my genuinely talented great-aunt Beth in the 1960s or 1970s, were grown-up sisters who had a complicated dynamic (both Nancy and Lily had serious psychological and/or substance abuse issues, so Alice had to take care of them and Nancy's children and her own children) and also experienced nineteenth-century-literature-style problems, like diphtheria and ice-skating accidents and bear attacks. The clothespin dolls that I created myself as a tween/young teen were not as well-made, but their problems were generally limited to normal high school bullshit (not even the kind where you get poisoned or kidnapped!).

Miscellaneous Medium-Sized Figurines (mostly fast food toys of Disney characters and mini-Barbies): various passive-aggressive rivalries between groups (mini-Barbies vs. movie/TV characters, Disney vs. non-Disney, movie vs. TV, protagonist vs. non-protagonist, etc.); a lack of eligible bachelors (leading to unwise marriages, such as Belle from Beauty and the Beast marrying a temperamental Space Jam monster); ennui.

Playmobils: the Playmobils had a nearly utopian society, relatively free from poverty and class snobbery, and generally this diverse group of Union soldiers, stuffy Victorians, pirates, outlaws, royalty, horse girls, milkmaids, and fairies were able to work out their differences peacefully. However, all that progressive modernity had a dark side, most clearly illustrated by the Kafkaesque ordeal of Oliver, a boy who was imprisoned for no discernable reason by an evil psychiatrist and his social worker girlfriend despite the desperate efforts of his mother to free him. Intense wartime romances and infectious disease outbreaks were also common themes.

Fisher-Price Great Adventure Action Figures: these rather hideous but very fun toys (consisting of an anachronistic mix of knights, pirates, cowboys, and Robin Hood's Merry Men) belonged to my seven-years-younger brother, so we would play with them a lot while I was looking after him. Naturally there was a lot of military conflict and criminal activity built into our play (will Robin Hood and his friends be able to steal the treasure from the castle? Will the golden knights or the black knights win the big battle? Who will stop the stagecoach robberies?), but, to entertain myself, I would introduce storylines such as "the Golden Sword Knight is tired of being bullied by the other knights, so he runs away and goes to live in the forest with Robin Hood's gang, where he falls in love with a female outlaw" and "Little John starts a AC/DC-style rock band with two of the black knights and everyone hates it."

Fisher-Price Little People: easily the most provincial of the doll groups, the Fisher-Price Little People struggled with extreme class/wealth inequality, widespread adultery, child abuse, teen homelessness, practically non-existent resources for the disabled, sexual repression, a character known only as "The Pervert," and a killer clown. Every day they went to school and work, and every night they tried to find someone to hook up with and maybe got kidnapped. I only wish my brother and I had been in possession of the motel playset. Think of all the extramarital affairs and drug deals that could have happened there!

Polly Pockets: the Polly Pocket community was dominated by two wealthy factions, a nouveau riche pair of brothers with a beach party house and the royal family. Due to a severe job and housing shortage, plus the local men's habit of not acknowledging their natural children, ordinary Polly Pockets had to struggle and scrape. Compared with the Barbies, there was a lot of solidarity among women (and also Josh, the one working-class boy Polly Pocket). Many of the Polly Pockets were very fragile, including the alcoholic Cowgirl Becky and the agoraphobic piano player Penny.

Paper Dolls: intense status jockeying over who had the most/best clothes, mainly. They also fought about friendships and (if there were any of them) boys, but it ultimately came down to clothes.

[yellowocaballero]

obito fic 👀?

HELL YEAH BABY. HELL YEAH. I HAVE JUST POSTED THE 70K OBITO FIC GO READ IT.

Naruto. Man. Very treasured aspect of my childhood. I've written a few fics now that are about an influential childhood media or character, and they always have such a unique quality about them. But I love my BAMF!Sakura fics so much. You Call This A Utopia is for her.

I talk a little bit about the specialness of that useless little girl in the author's note, but #justiceforSakura has always compelled me - on one level, just such wasted potential as a character, but on another level, it was one of my very early frustrations with sexism in writing. I wanted to live vicariously through her, to use her as a self-insert power fantasy like all the boys got to do with all the male Naruto characters, but even if she's a chakra master (!) and genius doctor (!!) who can wreck mountains with her fists (!!!) she was never quite able to make the tween girl readers feel special, because she was never valued. BAMF!Sakura fics were how I was able to have my little kid power fantasies in my favorite good-bad shonen. Today, if I'm reading BAMF!Sakura fic I am spiritually watching Saturday morning cartoons and eating sugar cereal and crying.

I didn't have very strong feelings Obito until I read butter_peanut and realized that one could hypothetically make him the most fascinating fucking character. Naruto fic writers are so creative and magnificent and better than Naruto. I do vaguely remember Tobi being my favorite Akatsuki character, because he had so much personality and was a lot of fun after Naruto got kinda serious. butter_peanut having Tobi say the word "bestie" truly inspired me. After writing him I now understand them completely, because I have happened to discover that he is the funnest fucking character.

I feel insane. Like a precious few people know and understand that Obito is so much fun to write. I love writing insane people and we know this but Obito is truly on another level (he is a villain in Naruto and you cannot match that level in any other fucking series). He is genuinely so unhinged and he genuinely believes that he is a normal person. He is so fundamentally broken and it is so funny.

What caught me about Naruto villains - because this is Naruto, it is interesting in theory and so stupid in practice - is that they are almost all, fundamentally, good people. The goal of most Naruto villains is "create a better world with no war and only love and peace". Which means that you have to be a special kind of nuts to be a Naruto villain, because you are a good person who got so incredibly fucked up and twisted by your incredibly violent life that you are now an evil schemer who is trying to blow up half the continent. The evil in Naruto is on a systemic level, not a person one. You Call This A Utopia?! is fundamentally about this. Except stupid.

Tobi is also one of the most challenging but rewarding characters I've written. FUN FUN FUN. Lots more to say about literally all of this. For now I'll just say that I'm an adult, so these days I gravitate to adult POVs. Obito is the adult's window into a kid's world. But Obito is honestly an overgrown kid himself. Let's see how that all plays out.

[sigyn-foxyposts]

⧼Random Norse mythology ship head cannons: Thrud x Vali⧽

Ever heard about two bisexuals in love and their story ending in tragedy? Well to put it simply this is what I see when I look at these two babies! 😭 I thought it would be fun writing this series again!!

Feel free to use these for your own ideas, I'm simply making this series to show support to random ships we create, basing things off on what we in sources of finds and yes! I'm gladly feeding into them all. ✨

༻𓊈Head cannons 𓊉༺

How did they met?

Being the children of two gods that were very much good friends at the time. Thrud and Vali were bound to meet at some point and form some sort of relationship with one another. They were also a great match made in Valhalla because they both tended to play roughly, do all sorts of crazy schemes when the adults weren't looking and put themselves in dangerous situations all the time!

Their dynamic!

From a young age, Thrud and Vali were inseparable and spend every day playing together, never becoming bored of one another for a second!

They often got into trouble during their adventures, from raiding the pantry to trying to ride on the back of Thor's goats. There was never any peace!

Thrud and Vali were also naturally inclined towards physical prowess and combat. They spent countless hours sparring, pushing each other to the ground and testing their limits.

It got to the point where they'd sometimes knock out a tooth or two and Thor being the protective father he is, thought Vali was a bad influence on his daughter.

Loki however convinced him more than once that they were just children and that it was totally normal!

Despite their camaraderie, Thrud and Vali were also fierce competitors!

When they weren't comparing which one of their father's were better. They constantly challenged each other, whether in strength, wit, or endurance.

These competitions, though intense, were always underpinned by mutual respect. Each saw the other as their greatest rival and closest ally.

As they entered their tween years, the relationship between Thor and Loki sadly began to sour. This strained the friendship between Thrud and Vali too.

Family loyalty pulled them in different directions, and though they tried to maintain their bond, the increasing tension between their fathers made it difficult.

They saw less of each other, and their once-constant companionship faded into distant memories.

Vali still heard about Thrud and her achievements as a brave and strong Valkyrie, happy she had found the passion she was made for!

But nothing was ever said about Vali or his family other than cruel rumors, which Thrud refused to believe in.

After she was betrothed to Alviss, a dwarf whose wisdom and kindness had won her heart.

And Thor disapproving of the match and tricked Alviss, leading to his death.

Thrud now devastated, her heart shattered by the loss and the betrayal by her own father. In her grief, she found herself isolating from everyone, struggling to cope with the pain.

So when Vali heard of Thrud's loss, he reached out to her despite the estrangement between their families.

Thanks to Sif, who worried about her daughter he was able to offer her a shoulder to cry on and a listening ear.

Slowly, Thrud began to open up to him, finding comfort in their shared history and his sudden support after so long.

Vali's presence became a source of excitement and stability in her life.

They often reminisced about their old adventures and dared each other to create new memories when Thor was outside of Asgard. Healing the wounds of their past estrangement.

Vali's genuine care and understanding helped Thrud begin to move forward from her grief, and she found herself considering the possibility of loving again.

Vali, who had always harbored deep feelings for Thrud, never understanding what it had been until then tentatively suggested that if she ever felt ready, they could explore a relationship beyond friendship.

Thrud, touched by his honesty and patience, agreed and they'd secretly start dating each other.

The young love birds often found themselves sneaking out at night, staying over at Vali's house pretending she was with the other Valkyries and getting back into their old schemes.

But just when things seemed perfect for the young lovers, fate dealt a cruel blow on their relationship and families once more.

Not only had Thor found out about their relationship through words and locked Thrud away in her room as a punishment for the time being.

But Thrud managed to hear from her servants that Vali was about to be transformed into a wolf as part of a punishment meant to punish Loki.

It shattered Thrud's newfound happiness and she was left heartbroken once again at her father's mercy.

Despite her heartbreak, Thrud refused to give in to despair and remembered what Vali had done to lift her spirits.

She decided to pack her things and break out of the comfort of her home, running away during Fimbulvinter.

She was determined to do whatever it took to find Vali and help him, despite the poor guy disappearing after he was driven to madness as a wolf.

Thrud took solace in the memories of their time together and the strength she had gained while being a Valkyrie to keep her going.

Even as a wolf, Vali remained protective of Thrud without her knowledge.

Too afraid to reveal himself in the state he was in, he watched over her from the shadows, his loyalty and love undiminished by his transformation.

Vali always kept Thrud on the run, leaving behind traces that he was there and leading her to shelter and food intentionally whenever he could.

Thrud's favorite pet names for Vali is:

"Ulven mín" (My wolf) "Váli mín djarfi" (Vali my brave/bold) "villdýr" (Wild beast)

Referencing how I saw Vali as a wild child, reflecting on what he would later on be turned into: a wild wolf/beast.

Vali in return, gave Thrud these pet names:

"Fagr mær" (beautiful maiden) "Þrúðbjört" (Bright Thrud) "mín kjæri valkyrja" (my dear valkyrie)

References how I see Thrud's roles throughout the mythology: A beautiful maiden, a bright girl and the best of all one of the Valkyries.

Random trivia on the ship!

Their ship name is Valthrú!

They're bisexuals in love awhh!

They're the definition of so many tropes like: the "childhood friends to lovers" + "Doomed lovers"

Songs that remind me of them!

"Vali singing about how he will remain by Thrud's side as they try to survive Fimbulvinter together. How he is unable to tell her to keep staying strong, to reveal himself and what he has become and heartache of their separation is doing to him."

"Thrud singing about how she lost Vali and that the memories they share are both wonderful and terrible. Because she keeps imagining what he went through. Once she finds him she doesn't want him to explain what he saw, she understands it wasn't his fault."

[hauntedjohnny]

100% Real julie crawford lore and backstory (not clickbait!)

fairly happy home life. fairly well-off (probably the wealthiest of the victims). i imagine them similar to the parents in easy a. free-spirited. not controlling. very loving. julie's dad, however, spent a lot of time away at work so she didn't see him as much as she would like. when she was younger she would act out a bit when he spent all day in his home office and she wanted attention from him. probably has a job as an estate agent or something similar. mom used to be a teacher but retired early, now crafts things like jewellery to sell at markets. julie has an older brother except he's like 10 years older than her so she was basically raised as an only child; she was always making friends with everyone in her neighbourhood though so really it was as if she had 20 siblings.

spent nearly every weekend at the beach as a child. her dad taught her to surf which is why it's very dear to her. she also dabbled in beach volleyball and rollerskating but she is a water baby at heart. at some point, she realised she loved being the centre of attention and when she was a tween she would compete with the older kids in surfing and volleyball etc. and win (nearly) every time. when she hit puberty she got more attention than she realised, naively thinking the older boys were interested in her talents or personality.

when she went to high-school things changed for her. a senior 'dated' her as a freshman which dragged her into the wrong crowds. she was always the youngest one at the senior's parties being told that she's 'mature' enough to be there. despite her better judgement, she enjoyed these parties; she loved dancing, she loved music and she loved people. it was only when she found out the senior was cheating on her and left school without so much as a phonecall did she realise she'd been played for a fool.

except, unlike gun says, this didn't make her a stronger person. she crumbled at the thought of being played with and tossed aside. so, she did what she knew best, basked in the attention of others. it sent her on a mental downward spiral as she spent her weekends at parties instead of the beach, clinging onto any guy or girl that would give her the time of day. she told herself that she was spreading love, dating one person wasn't 'freeing' enough for her but it was all an attempt to control how close people got to her. there were a few girls she got close to, confident they wouldn't hurt her as they'd experienced similar before.

during these years, her dad was taking regular business trips while her mom encouraged her to go have a fun and be social as 'you're not gonna be this age forever', not truly realising the extent of her partying. she'd always been naturally smart, but it was clear her grades were dropping. other than that, her friends and family were none the wiser, julie being able to keep up the sunny facade she's always had.

at some point the alcohol wasn't enough for her so days, she would find the rougher crowds on the outskirts of the beach bonfire, hidden in the coves, taking hallucinogens she probably shouldn't. this led to the night that changed her life. sometime in her junior year her and her friends driving too fast along the coast, a little bit tipsy, a little bit high, causing them to crash. she was the only one to come out of it with no injuries. her best friend lay unconcious in the passenger seat as julie panics trying to save her. no one died but, to julie, it felt like something died. its like her whole world sobered, she couldn't keep spending her life like this so for her senior year she cleaned up her act. told herself she wanted to become a medic, almost as if she was repenting, almost like it was a secret apology for her friend. at this same time, she started running, starting as night runs to clear her head. she soon took to stamina running, short bursts of energy needing to be released. and like most sports, she was good at it.

when she got to university, she roomed with maria. julie was able to make friends with everyone so always included maria in her plans (and vice verse). the parties at university were different, more relaxed. there were actually people her age there. she felt comfortable to drink again, especially when maria is with her. maria grounded julie and made her realise that her love doesn't come with a cost. she begins to love like she did as a child, earnestly. she gets overprotective of maria at times as she doesn't want her to experience the same things she did. she always stick by her at parties and interrogate boys who come up to her. one time she went to the bathroom and returned to her giggling with this long haired boy she learnt to be danny. she soons loosens up and realises maria can hold her own.

there were a few 'relapses' in her first year, the biggest one being the anniversary of the crash, where she would get black-out drunk and dabble with people she typically didnt. julie admits to maria she thought she was meant to die that day and every day since has been extra time, death around the corner waiting for her. one party a few weeks after a relapse, danny suggested she try weed instead of alcohol; it allowed her to feel a high but lose her inhibitions. at 21, she would rather spend a party smoking weed over a single beer than taking shots with strangers.

throughout her years at uni she learnt that she wasn't as good under pressure as she once thought so specialised her medical training into physiotherapy/sports medicine as the environments are less intense and she has a lot of amateur experience in that field. in the back of her mind, however, she always dreams of owning a small house of the beachfront where she spends her days teaching younger kids to surf. she would have a lot to confront mentally before she could do that though. she planned to do this before she graduated but maria went missing and julie would always put maria before herself.

[ciaossu-imagines]

For the holiday season what sort of gifts do you think Tsuna and friends would be happy to receive?

This is a really great request and anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows I'm an absolute sucker for holiday headcanons...I included headcanons for Tsuna below but I gotta say...almost every character in the manga/anime can kind of be called friends or allies of Tsuna, except for the Varia and even then, Squalo, because of his relationship with Yamamoto, could be considered as friendly to Tsuna. I definitely think Tsuna, towards the end of the manga, considers him a friendly ally at the very least. Like, even Byakuran and Mukuro could be considered Tsuna's 'friends' as I do think Byakuran thinks of them as such and Tsuna has shown he has friendly feelings towards the Kokuyo Gang, so could you please clarify which friends in particular you want because otherwise, I'd be writing for A LOT of characters...like easily 30+.

Okay, I'm going into writing these headcanons for Tsuna putting aside the fact that, canonically, he wouldn't really celebrate Christmas. We're going to play these headcanons like he would celebrate Christmas, okay guys?

Going with that, I do think that as he grows from being a little kid into a tween and then a teenager, the actual presents involved in Christmas start to mean less and less to Tsuna and the holiday means as much to him as it does because of the time he gets to spend doing fun stuff and eating good food with his family and friends, along with the fact that anyone thinks to get him a gift at all. By the time he's an adult, he won't even be able to really think of anything to ask for as a gift, but he'll still get slightly teary and happy whenever anyone thinks to get him a Christmas gift, even if it's only socks.

Now, going into the actual gifts...I think as a tween and teen, coming from his mother, Tsuna would ask for and really appreciate practical things like cash or gift cards to his favourite places, new clothes, and since I really do headcanon Nana as being someone who is very crafty, I think he kind of looks forward to the new mittens and scarf she knits him every year, even if he pretends he doesn't (he is still a teenage boy, after all).

Anyone else? Seriously, just the fact that anyone other than his mom is thinking enough about him to get him a Christmas gift still astounds Tsuna to some degree. I do think handmade gifts really touch Tsuna in a special place and he really treasures them because of the effort and time the person put into making that present just for him, but he's going to find something wonderful about just about any present.

Bonus headcanon - by the time Tsuna is his adult self, it will become a running joke between him and Lambo that Tsuna's Lightning Guardian never remembers to Christmas shop and regifts or makes the stupidest, most useless gifts...Tsuna still has every single one tucked away somewhere though, right back from the time Lambo was five and gave him a popsicle stick with his hair wrapped around it as a gift (Tsuna had meant to throw it out but had tossed it under his bed with the other Christmas 'junk' and it got boxed up with the other stuff when Nana cleaned and became a joke the next Christmas and at that point, Tsuna couldn't quite bring himself to throw it out, though he didn't really understand why.)

[syrupspinner]

i completed Sable

im gonna compare this to so many other games dude you have no idea

when i first finished the tutorial and drove out into the sand dunes proper, i thought about hyrule field. like pretty much every other gamer born after 1999, i dont see it the same way is was seen when it was released. it was a flex - nintendo bragging about how the n64 can make a wide open field. of course theres nothing to do in it, thatd give them a chance to hide a loading zone or mask pop-in; they werent just a magician showing that there was nothing up their sleeve, they took off their shirt. this is what amazed gamers when they first left kakariko village: the sheer scope.

now its just a big, empty field. with technological advancements, thats seen as a failure in modern world design - what, you mean you couldnt be bothered to put anything here?

sable somehow managed to capture what i can only imagine was the sense of wonder players felt seeing hyrule field, but for a totally different reason. it wasnt a flex of pure technology, it was an exercise in ludonarrative! the way it gets you comfortable with exploring every nook of the ibexii village before showing you a world thats figuratively one hundred times bigger is such a fun way to pull the rug out from the player.

it could have easily been overwhelming in a negative way too, causing an "aw man, ive gotta explore all this?" reaction, but the narrative of sable being able to (instead of having to) explore sets the player up to share this outlook with her. "i get to" turning into "i have to" is the kiss of death for enjoying a game, and i think sable avoids this very well. when i got to the badlands, i didnt think "aw man, i have to climb all these rocks to get to the cartographer" i thought "oh cool, how do i climb these rocks to get to the cartographer?" because i was having fun solving an environmental puzzle.

another comparison i wanna make is to, believe it or not, Fallout. its an open secret that the fallout games are a bit lackluster when it comes to open worlds (I HAVE NOT PLAYED NEW VEGAS), but the originals had a great implementation of subtle directioning and signposting. the most famous example is right at the beginning: between your starting location and your compass's first mark, theres a town, and you need to buy a rope from that town to proceed, and thats how you get wrapped up in a major sidequest and open up a link to the rest of the world. Sable pulls the same trick for me: i was following the compass to the next major village, and i stumbled upon a weird location i couldnt really parse. i could climb a tree and pick up weird smokey seed things, but i couldnt do anything else. when i get to the town, im asked to collect beetle hides for a side quest - and that 'useless' location was called the beetle nest.

while im comparing this to bethesda games, id be remiss if i didnt mention skyrimming. its a phrase i use to describe ramming yourself up a nearly sheer cliffside to see if the physics engine lets you scale it. i did it all the time as a misguided tween playing skyrim for the first time, because i couldnt be bothered finding paths up the mountains. Sable lets you do something similar, but with more intention. the games open world design means it totally accepts you taking unintended routes. i didnt take the easiest route to the badlands village, but i still got there. allowing me to succeed in an unintended way is the mark of a wonderful open world game.

i got to eccria, and full disclosure, i had to crank my graphics settings all the way down. there were too many buildings and npcs for the game to handle. i kept getting lost in the big-ass city, too. when the investigation (side?)quest began i gave up on gathering clues because i straight up couldnt find my way to one of the suspects. i could still finish the quest is the thing, it just ended without any real satisfaction. i think thats great! part of good open-ended design is letting players end without perfectly curated satisfaction.

then i went to the shipyard. was i supposed to be there? thats a silly question to ask about an open world game. anyway, the answer is no, because i spent half an hour trying to climb a mountain for a quest i couldnt finish because i didnt have the right mask. man, this game rules.

man, i havent even talked about the art direction yet. what is there to say? im a sucker for cell shading, and this game leans into it so well! the way the colour palette changes when you go between areas is so cool, like... i cant even put it into words, its just so fun to look at. ive always considered deserts a hard place to make visually interesting, but Sable does such a great job with that

it was at this point that i started aimlessly floating around finishing up sidequests and oddjobs until the endgame. i only started noticing how glitchy the game is at this point. im not holding it against the game at all, because frankly its a miracle that any video game boots to a title screen if you know how programming works (not to say that i do) but its hard not to complain about all the times that things just... didnt load in. sometimes id crash my bike into invisible buildings, sometimes i would just despawn of my bike and have to dismount it to be visible, and one time a chum was invisible. this isnt a skill issue i watched the particles come out of nowhere

in the end, this is a wonderful game. if i had to pick one thing it does best, its the atmosphere. it puts all of its effort into making you feel like a small fish in a big desert, and i really related to my character in the world. also, i dont wanna spoil what masks you get in this game, so ill just say i picked the completionist one with the four-letter name. no its not the fuck mask, dont ask me if theres a fuck mask because im not telling you

[gatorinator]

SO I just watched the miraculous movie and I would like to say two things:

1) I really enjoyed the movie

2) it’s a very bad movie

Spoilers

The movie, as a miraculous fan, was fun to watch. But it’s not because it was a good movie. In fact, I think fundamentally this movie failed both as a movie, and as a movie musical.

Bad movie

The animation was absolutely gorgeous. But the writing was bad, and even looking past that (I haaaate how the beginning of the movie was like the beginning of every single kids/tween movie ever) the pacing of the movie was abhorrent. Lots of the jokes didn’t land, the moments they tried to set up cut away scenes didn’t have enough set up or flow (the back and forth of adrien telling plagg how much ladybug prolly liked him vs Marinett saying how dumb chat was, the back and forth of Alaya and Nino talking to marinett and Adrian) and felt weird and disjointed, and any time it felt like a scene was finally starting to flow, the movie would cut away to something else.

I’m just trying to imagine being a new viewer of the movie who hasn’t seen the show, and it feels like a nightmare. Gabriel is set up but somehow both too much and not enough. The final battle doesn’t last long enough. There’s a lot to complain about (don’t get me started on the fart jokes I can’t. I was in HELL).

Bad musical

The most egregious of crimes was the fact that this was a movie musical. I am sad that my friend told me it was a musical right before we started watching it because that would have been hilarious, but still. When marinett started singing I got jumpscared because I completely forgot.

Sarah Z has talked about how in musicals, when characters emotions are too overwhelming to say, they sing. When their emotions are too overwhelming to sing, they dance. Fundamentally, if you are going to have characters burst into song, that song should be led my emotions. Most of these songs felt led by a “ah this is a musical we need to have them sing a song.” That’s why the music always surprised me. The emotional buildup wasn’t there.

Yes, marinetts voice (am I spelling her name right? Oh well) sounded wildly different, but I’d be able to forgive that if the songs felt driven and not just inserted.

The other problem is: most of the songs are bad musical songs.

The greatest showman has the same problem. The songs are so bland and generic, all these “I want” songs where the character never clearly defines what they want, or sad songs about loss that don’t have any substance to them. The movie tells marinett over and over again to chase her dreams—but what are her dreams?? The opening number shows her sketchbook come to life—but she doesn’t sing about wanting to be a designer, or help others, or be able to fit in with her classmates and not endanger her life every time she leaves the house bc of how clumsy she is.

The songs sound like generic songs that would play nicely over the radio, and that means they fundamentally fail as a musical song because musical songs should drive the plot forward or deepen our understanding of the character, and most of these songs do neither.

Don’t get me wrong

I had so much fun watching this movie. I squealed at adrien and marinetts (I am so spelling her name wrong this is embarrassing but I cannot be bothered to change it I’m so tired) interactions, i wheezed over whatever the heck Gabriel was doing, I awwed over the lovesquare moments. I also LOST MY MIND at some absolutely wild moments (looking at you, careless whisper. Also at long-haired Gabriel). But the movie was so . . . vague about having any sort of message aside from “be yourself, be true, don’t be afraid, follow your heart, be a hero, saving lives is good, also love is awesome.” All true things, but how does this apply specifically to marinett? Love is powerful, but it isn’t going to save me from getting crushed by a runaway Ferris wheel, ladybug. Also, why are you singing this has nothing to do with the moment.

TLDR

It was beautiful, fun, cheesy, and bad. 10/10.

[whatbigotspost]

I’ll just talk to myself about it, I’m good and experienced at this, teehee.

Just thinking more about how I have such a love/hate relationship with Barbie the doll, the symbol, the movie. Do I feel like I’m dying in a late stage capitalist hellscape of bubble gum pink cross promotional marketing. Like literally suffocating? Sure.

Do I hate the havoc Barbie wreaked on the body image of me, my friends, my generation, and my mom’s before me? Also true.

Have I written entire papers and educational curriculum for girls and endless blog posts related to deconstructing the white supremacist, able bodied, ageist, classist, fatphobic, transphobic beauty ideal of which Barbie is commonly, specifically called out for having played a central cultural role?

Of course. But love and hate are the same sides of 1 coin: a passionate emotion. It’s the whole “the opposite of love’s indifference” thing and I definitely don’t feel indifferently about Barbie.

I’m just the right age to have been raised in a weird quagmire of Barbie popularity meets 90s shallow girl power shit meets the height of the thin ideal during the “heroin chic” era. I had the Barbie that famously told me “math class is tough.” I was one of the little girls devastated to be waaaay bigger than the original “my size” Barbie so I was told I couldn’t get one at all (“you were meant to wear her clothes, why should we waste money on her when you can’t.”) I was 12 when Aqua’s notoriously sexual-flirts-with-kids-doll-content, yet indelibly iconic “Barbie Girl” was playing everywhere. I wasn’t naive, I understood the song’s content but didn’t have the perspective or maturity yet to understand the context. I just knew that right around when that song came out was the first time I was cat called by an adult man as a child because I had grown tits seemingly overnight and I didn’t feel safe or content in my body again for another 20 years thereafter.

AND

I also have an 8 year old Barbie fanatic alive and well inside me. A little girl who loves that plastic fashionista bitch and all her friends. I had about a million Barbies when I was approximately ages 5-11.

The hours I lost playing Barbies with my two neighborhood besties are incalculable.

Or maybe the hours weren’t lost, more like……put toward practicing navigating relationships through plastic model avatars? Figuring out my sense of humor? Learning to tell stories? Just being silly weird little girls having wonderful little girl fun? Whatever the case, it all went down in a boring suburb and the only thing in walking distance worth doing in my tiny worldview back then was hanging out with other Barbie girls. The ones who “knew how to play Barbies right” aka, creating whole worlds and eras and distinct characters and interwoven narratives we could build on for weeks. We had dynasties and lore…the drama, the intrigue, the complex family dynamics and stories we acted out through those dolls.

It’s just why I totally get what Barbieland was, immediately. It’s why some of you know what I mean when I say “play Barbies right” immediately.

It wasn’t changing clothes or brushing her hair although that happened TOO. It was much more us trying to work out what we saw around us in real adults but even more so media adults, emulating the best we could what we thought our lives would be like if we would someday be as glamorous as our Barbies. (Or Rachel on Friends. Or Cher and Ty in Clueless.)

It was us reflecting back what we were hearing, but also it was us being us when some of our roughest and most beautiful edges hadn’t been dulled yet.

Anyway Greta Gerwig made this movie for me. Well, all the me-s. All us ladies with the love/hate Barbie baggage that seems ubiquitous when I’m talking to other Xennials. And Greta says this is so by centering the film between Barbie and America Ferrera’s character (“the mom”) instead of the tween, like it seemed for a moment. Women my age and general background couldn’t be more the center of the target audience for this film if we tried and the layers that are within it are still making my head spin and want to talk about it so fucking much. There’s so much here. Of course many men don’t get it. (The good ones do.)

And it’s also a film you can totally experience at a shallow level if you want to. It’s both, and. Good and bad. Shallow and complex. Fun and dangerous.

Like isn’t corporate propaganda woven in art that moved me this greatly probably the absolute WORST kind? Isn’t it being wildly effective? Did I even have a choice to feel this way about Barbie? Wasn’t Mattel target marketing to me since before I exited the womb? Wasn’t this a creative way to hook me back in when they’re at their most irrelevant in my life? When I had processed and packed Barbie away as “problematic” like any good lil budding feminist of the aughts would have? When I feel guilty buying my nieces the Barbies they want? When I’m like “psh, curvy Barbie is still thin.”

Haven’t they just found a new way to get me? They center my current life values, drive directly into what my Barbie gripes have been, and leverage someone my age’s penchant for nostalgia…BOOM thereby succeeding in making ever more money off of me? (Again using me here as “this general target demographic.” They see the “me” factor here at scale.)

It makes me sick to think how Mattel playing cutsie “in on the joke” mega corp via Will Ferrell, etc. is just another way that there’s a weird dance of cognitive dissonance throughout this whole experience. To which Greta would say, “I KNOW RIGHT?”

Someone talk about the Barbie movie with me moooore. What did you think? I’ve been ruminating on it constantly since I saw it last weekend and I’m seeing it again this weekend so I can absorb and analyze more. My partner is probably growing tired of it occupying so much of my brain 😅

[songs-about-girls-like-me]

chapter 6: the school camp pt.2, romance defeat

In an obvious turn of events, I found myself in the bathrooms mirror and still didn't like my look for the disco. Not that it was bad, it just didn't have the vibe that I wanted… and I looked underdressed as hell. But I decided again to not let that make me feel stupid or ruin my night. The idea of a dark place blasting music was so exciting for me, like a concert or a club and I was ready to dance my heart out. Nothing was stopping me from dancing, not even my ugly shirt.

The september air was fresh and the sun was just finishing setting as I left the sinks with my long shadow. I walked pass the stone benches where most of the girls were sitting and made my way to the path of gravel to wait.

"Hey" one of my classmates was there too.

"Hey" I said back.

"Are you excited? Do I look alright?" She seemed nervous, with a glimpse of a rush in her eyes. I understood the feeling and broke into a smile, excited, though I praised myself for looking chiller. I looked so chill. Maybe a bit too chill, but whatever.

"Yea, you look great" I said to her. The sun had disappeared between the trees in a matter of seconds and it was officially dark now.

"Thanks!" She sighed. She was significantly taller than me and was kinda popular, but in a way where she was more like... an exact live version of an insecure pawn to the actual popular girls, like in a disney channel movie type of way. I noticed she was wearing lip gloss and felt a bit like a baby bug next to her. I guessed she had something to talk about, and me, being so extremely low profile made her trust in my secretiveness. "Rees. I like someone, do you want to know who he is?" There it was. A smirk crossed my face. I loved secrets almost more than anything.

"Yea, tell me"

Our instructors were now asking us to follow them.

"Girls, follow the line, let's get back to the house!"

"You promise-promise to keep it a secret?"

"Yes, duh"

"I like [random boy]" said Emma as we walked up the path of gravel. In the dark, I managed to hide a grimace from her. I'd known girls found him cool and hot, but hearing it in the flesh was crazy. He was popular, but had zero appeal in my eyes. He looked like an ugly TV host to me, with a horrid gelled hairstyle.

"Oh, cool" I assured her.

"Do you think he could like me? Like… do I look nice?" I though she should care about anything else but that dude. I didn't find her cool (mostly because of this insecure pawn attitude she had) but still: it was insane that she liked him. I just guessed love was like that.

"Sure!" I nodded my head as we made our way around a flower bed of violets. "He- you're awesome Em." I had to suppress my disapproval on her crush while I tried giving her my take on what she should do, cause she kept asking. [Random boy] was ugly but "cool/popular" and I guessed that's just school hierarchy. Then my heart started feeling the electronic dance pop coming our way from the main living room in the house.

The disco was mid but it felt like a big deal, and I liked the fact that the space had a lot of windows, all with a dark view to the woods and they had an actual disco ball hanging from the ceiling. Our teacher, a 40something man with a really funny vibe who said math was "his passion", was there as a chaperone/ adult in charge and he helped making strobe lights with a lantern. Half an hour later, the room was stupidly hot with tween's sweat despite the weather being around 12°C and they had already played Pa Panamericano by "Yolanda be Cool and DCUP" twice. I was having fun, and appreciated that the music was actually really really loud, to the point where it was hard to talk over it. Ella and I had danced together to some songs and got really excited when they played California Gurls cause it was the song our teacher was choreographing in Jazz. But when some Ke$ha or Jason Derulo got played, I would become someone unrecognizable. TiK ToK was already an anthem and I felt great to be able to dance to it in a party type of context. I tried hard to not feel shy. I knew I could be cool and have fun, and so I kept dancing, with my hands in the air and moving my hips like yea.

A group of girls with boys started forming in one of the corners of the room, leaving out everyone but the "popular crowd" to dance between them like they were any different from the rest of my classmates. Like we were all kids, except for them who were actually cool and grown-ups, and were actually meant to be in this party scene.

I didn't care about other girls outdoing me in terms of hair or clothes, or the fact that they had more friends or those aeropostale shirts. I didn't mind if they were closer to our teachers, or talked to boys. Or the fact that I was wearing my grass-stained jeans tonight and they had brought body mist. But for some reason I minded the dancing.  And the popular girls had this obnoxious air about them while dancing, as if they could dance better than the rest of us girls. They, and specially Mia (yes, the one who had cursed on the name of Jazz and then found it too hard) were now showing off their dance skills as if they deserved to be thought of as "cooler than everyone else". I couldn't help but care. They all were dancing in a group mixed with girls and boys. I needed to prove to myself that I could be seen dancing. And I kept catching Mia, looking conceited, with her eyes closed and slightly uncordinated arms, quietly making everyone agree to her being the coolest newest most awesome girl here. And I cared. I was not going to silently agree to her being awesome. I knew I was a better dancer. To the trained eye (meaning, me) she even looked clumsy, while everyone liked how she danced.

So I danced and when I felt shy I reminded myself that my dance teacher had given me a little more attention lately, and I forced myself to losen up and listen carefully to the music (which is what I do even to this day lol). I danced telling myself I was really cool and then at some point I decided I needed water. The place was really dark as I crossed the room and got to the hallway leading to a second lobby where they had put out a cart with small plastic cups of water. The lights were dim, coming from the kitchen in the next room. Aaaand I lowkey knew Brody was going to be there and that's why I chose to get water right at that moment, even if part of me thought I was being insane.

"Hey" I picked up a cup from the cart. He was wearing a padded black nylon jacket that seemed too warm. I would always forget how “whatever” he actually made me feel. His outfit was better than mine but I reassured myself that my vibe was cooler. I was chill and outgoing.

"Hi" he said.

"Needed some water" I drank from the small cup, finishing half the water in one go.

"Same." He seemed nervous. Or maybe he was just sweaty. The vibe between us was a bit weirder than usual but I still wanted more water.

"I'm having fun, are you?" I tried to make conversation.

"Yes. Kinda needed a break"

"Yea. It's so hot." He nodded and I drank water. He drank water too. "Aren't you hot?" I asked, noticing beads of sweat on his face.

"Yes! I actaully am. I should take-" He stopped mid-sentence and took the jacket off.

These cups were probably the ones they used to make 100ml lime jelly for our dessert, and when I finished two of them, I took them to a trash can nearby. I picked up a third cup. We were too quiet for a second. And then for another second. I didn’t know what I had expected or wanted from this scene. I didn't like him like that, he was just a boy, and a short one at that.

"Oh, you're here?" a voice appeared from the hallway. It was Mia, and her blonde curls made an actual cool look, even if it was a bit messy with the humid air. "Oh, you took your jacket off? Why? It's kinda cold." Brody and I had been talking from across the cart and I almost felt she didn't notice me cause I was standing 1 metter away from him. But I knew it was impossible.

"Do you want my jacket?" Brody stepped up to her, looking a bit more confident for the first Time.

"Yes, sure." Mia turned around to face me but avoided eye contact while he put the jacket on her shoulders. I suddenly felt as if I shouldn't be there. But I was there first and I actually wanted water so I tried my best to pretend I though nothing about it. I took another sip from my cup. "Thanks.” She gave him a smile. “Come on, let's get back!! Wooo!" she said.

"Sure!" He said meeting her energy.

I was left alone with my water. I felt pissed off. And I felt young looking at them act like that, even if they didn't even looked cool. She took him so swiftly though, I was lowkey impressed even if I was also pissed. I could’ve never done that. It didn't really matter if she took him, cause I never would've. I wasn't decided on anything like that.

I kept thinking. Mia and Brody made no sense together. She was way "cooler" than him. And she didn't seem emotionally involved at all. I thought someone had probably matched them together. I could see Miles, Brody’s friend, behind it. He was the one trying to create a scene that day he told me Rome thought I was pretty, or liked me or whatever it was. Somehow I had no doubts, it was Miles. Either way, Brody wasn't anything mine or even close to me, and I was okay with that. I accepted my defeat on romantic drama for the night, knowing the only bubbly feeling a would get in my heart was the beat of the music inside my chest, and I took the third plastic cup to the trash. It was good that I didn't actually liked lame ass Brody, and the fact that I could keep on dancing all night (at least until 9 or 10pm) .There it was, a beat I recognized making a fuzz inside my heart: it was Justin. The first notes of Baby were playing in the main room and so I sprinted my way back to the hall. "Ohhh, Ohhh" I was screaming and was physically caught to stop my run by a bunch of my nice girls classmates, just in time for Justin to start singing the first verse.

[lemonandlime22]

Idk if your requests are open but if they are, could you do headcanons with [Yuu] just with the overblot people and then for [whatever reason], they scold or make fun of them and they just reply with "Says the one who got beaten by a [12 - 14] year old." (Cuz I think you have to be like 15/16 to be a freshman/first year? Idk, correct me if I'm wrong)

I thought their faces would be funny when the realization of the fact a child stopped their blot

(I did get this from when I was reading your bitey child! [Yuu] and I love the bitey child cuz I was that kid <3)

Riddle, Leona, Azul, and Jamil reaction to a cocky little Yuu

Warning(s): cussing, violence towards yuu

A/N: yeah you got the ages right, all the first years are 16. Btw I have a character limit of 4, so I just did the first 4 overblot guys.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Riddle

Poor boys pride is already so wounded

give him a break.

Ok, what happened to lead up to this,

you, Grim, and the Adeuce duo were messing around in the heartslabyul gardens when you probably broke something or messed up a rose bush in front of Riddle

and those assholes ended up running away when he confronted you guys

leaving you to face Riddles scolding.

You got p annoyed.

So when the scolding was finally over, you just oh so quietly mumbled,

" says the brat who got his ass kicked by a 13 year old... "

"wHAT DID YOU JUST SAY-"

His face was so fucking red, it rivaled his overblot face.

an let's just say you nearly had your head cut off

and I'm not talking about his unique magic.

You got a hole 'nother few hours of scolding

and quite a tight collar that stayed on for a few days.

Ace and Grim got a good kick out of this btw

Deuce was very apologetic and even tried to help smooth things over with Riddle for you

it didn't work.

Leona

HA!

yes keep insulting the manchild >:D

*cough*

Anyway,

this starts the like most other interactions with him do

you interrupting his nap in some way or another

you can pick which way you did this time.

Now, he was having a p rough day

Ruggie wouldn't let him sleep through classes

so he was extra pissed when he got woken up and put what little energy he had left into threatening you with death or smth

and when there was finally a break in his ranting you snarked back at him,

"HA! like you ever could, your ass got wiped by a magicless kid in less than like 30 minutes!"

....

silence....

man was too stunned to speak.

I don't think I can express enough the absolute WRATH that was radiating from off him

you rly started to regret what you said

especially since he looked like he was going to actually kill you

and he was.

You got really lucky when Jack was able to catch his hand mid air

yeah...

this fucker was literally going strangle you if it wasn't for Jack having been looking for you.

Jack wasted no time dragging you out of there and far away from Leona

and for a long time it's going to be rly fuckin tense between you and Leona...

You also got one hell of a scolding from Jack.

Azul

Same thing I said in Riddle's

his pride is already in shambles

and you and the tweels are not helping one bit.

So on to what happened,

you were bored so you decided to check out the clubs after school

and your first stop was the board game club.

eh? eh? get it? wink wink nudge nudge??

ok ill stop..

Idia basically scurried to the corner of the room to play on his phone when you came in and Azul was more than happy to possibly teach a brat underclassmen.

As you know, Azul can get pretty cocky sometimes

and this was one of those times,

he was talking smack

blabbering on and on about how easy this is for him and how he should prob go as easy on you as he could if he wanted you to have any chance of winning

also kinda giving some hints at giving you lessons for using Ramshackle on the weekends

so naturally you,

being the lil sassy bitch you are <3, snapped back,

"Mhm, sure, says the fish that was outwitted and beaten up by a tween and their rat bastard band of friends!"

there was a moment of silence,,,

that was quickly broken by Idia bursting into a short laugh at Azul.

The poor octopus wasn't expecting such a clap back

epically not one regarding his overblot

he may or may not have teared up a little bit...

He was also p upset obv

so he just grabbed his phone and made a call

"Hey Floyd-"

and you booked it out of there.

Floyd did chase you a little later on at the request of Azul.

Jamil

Jeez-

he's doing best man 😔.

You were going to meet up with Ace and Deuce after their clubs and Ace's was usually finished before Deuce's so you went to go wait for him and then get Deuce together

but you accidentally got there early

and you know that means

more waiting!!

yay!

I hope you can tell this is complete sarcasm

so you were just waiting on the bleachers watching the basketball club members practice when the ball hit you straight in the face

causing you to get a nosebleed...

ouch,,

Ace and Floyd were on the ground laughing their ass's off

Jamil went to go get the ball and make sure your nose wasn't broken

dw I googled it, a nose can bleed without being broken

and even tho he is trying to be a better person he was still a very sassy person

so ofc he made a joking snide remark about you being a little brat or smth

and you ofc snapped back with,

"Well, in case you forgot, this 'little brat' kicked your snake butt with three fish and a cat!"

and he just walked away

you were very stunned, you expected him to at least glare at you

but I guess you really can't compla-

*SMACK*

oop-

spoke too soon I guess....

Now you definitely have a broken nose...

he hit you as hard as he could with the ball btw.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[psychologicalwhorefare]

what i'm listening to 5/5/2023 (song notes under cut)

spot. link//yt link

Laura Les - Haunted: haunted. by laura les.

Machine Girl - Dumbass!!: i was listening to a whole bunch of machine girl in the lead-up to the gecs n girl show and i feel like it made me a bigger fan than i had been previously. i honestly still am not like the most familiar with their individual songs but this is one of the ones that sticks with me. NO SUCH THING AS THE BOOGEYMAN!!!!

Cracked Out - If You Leave Me I'll Kill Myself: pretty tasteless but as soon as i came across this post and listened to it i was immediately hooked on this song. it reminds me of the dumb edgy comedy bullshit i would have listened to as a tween, but like, the better side of that stuff. it was basically impossible to find much of anything about this group, so the spotify track is a local file that you guys won't be able to play, and it wasn't on youtube so i actually uploaded it myself this morning just to put it in the playlist lol

Sum 41 - In Too Deep: i feel like sum 41 tends to kinda get dismissed as part of the obnoxious skate punk scene of the 90s-00s, and to a large extent that's fair, but man did they have some good hits. i feel like edgy teen songs like these really can work by being simple as long as they just hit the premise with everything they've got, and this would be an example

Tyler, The Creator - DOGTOOTH: i was very pleased when this reached the top 40, brief though its stint was. i've been getting more into tyler recently bc i feel like i've been missing out, he's really such an interesting artist and he balances a lot of different traits super well while still delivering the goods in terms of good beats, good lines, etc. seriously, "not sure what you overheard but it's probably what I said" is such a good fucking line

Nick Lutsko - A Ghost Story: would STRONGLY recommend checking out the video for this one, either in the youtube playlist or on tumblr here actually never mind i can't find it. watch it on youtube it's fun. i followed nick lutsko on youtube for a while before whatever network it was that he was producing for went under. probably machinima. i mainly knew him because of his limp bizkit parody which is funny bc i wasn't even listening to actual limp bizkit at the time. anyway i really like his voice and i'm actually glad that he's still finding success these days

Naughty By Nature - O.P.P.: as i've referenced, i've been rewatching robbydude's paper mario vods, which are very good, and in one of the early ones robby references this song and it made me look it up. and then i made this post and it was underrated. i don't really have anything else to say it's just a good classic rap song

Slipknot - Left Behind: putting this here as more of a landmark to represent that i've been listening to iowa (the album this is from) a lot in general. i've had slipknot on the brain recently more than usual (not for any reason of course. winks) and reminded myself of why everyone loves iowa so much. it's so fucking brutal and biting... nu metal <3

Busta Rhymes - Woo Hah!!: honestly another one where it's like yeah idk this is just a classic what do you want me to say. busta's a legend and this song is legendary and he tears it up and it's good

Sweet Trip - Tekka: probably the most direct of the violet finds from this month (hi violet :3) i had never listened to sweet trip before but tekka instantly grabbed me... it's all crunchy and stuttery and has yummy synths. i especially love how it just fucking breaks down in the second half it's like that machine that's breaking down and sweating and sputtering it's almost sexual. you know

Ike & Tina Turner - I'll Never Need More Than This: so i've been on my phil spector bullshit, as you might have guessed, so i was revisiting some of his tracks to just kinda take it all in. as always, it. well it sounds really fucking good, and tina turner turned in a killer performance as always. i love. sound :)

Rowdy Rebel - Computers (feat. Bobby Shmurda): I'M SLIDIN OVER CARS WHILE I SHOOT

.

.

.

THEY THINK THAT I'M TOM CRUISE

Machine Girl - Scroll of Sorrow: it's really rather exciting. see for those in the know (which is all of you bc there's only two or three people reading this), you're aware that my mutual (hi again :3) had posted about how, at the live show, the vocalist of machine girl got up real near the crowd (including said mutual) during scroll of sorrow. as such, i was listening out for the song at my own show and well chat i'll tell you i was not able to recognize it :-) but there was one point where they got up on the railing above the pit and were singing from up there, and while it wasn't like exceptionally close to where we were at, it was still cool bc it was like hey! that's like the thing! that i heard about! :) amd anyway i like the song

Sonic The Hedgehog - His World: itsa banger... i actually heard the penny parker cover of this song from the sonic fandub way before ever hearing the original so even now i still mix up the lyrics but it's fine. i've actually never played a mainline sonic game or any video game or any media at all but i like the music

Strapping Young Lad - Oh My Fucking God: i straight up didn't know that strapping young lad was a devin townsend thing, not that i've listened to any of his other stuff. this song's weird and loud and stupid and i like it

Rae Sremmurd - No Flex Zone: okay now. based on this one and the previous song, can anyone guess what semi-popular artist playlist i was listening to this month? i tried to listen to a lot more rap this month, because i wish to learn more about this beautiful world. no flex zone has been my first exposure to rae sremmurd and it was a good one, although i like one of the guys way better than the other one. slim jxmmi i like him better

glass beach - classic j dies and goes to hell part 1: i didn't really "get" glass beach for a while, i thought they were alright, but this month they started to click (once again with some help - check out this post teehee). they're cute, earnest, and high-energy; i have to kinda be in the mood but i can get into it 👍 i've also seen the band described as sort of a modern emo type deal and while i don't yet know if i agree or disagree with that it compels me

NLE Choppa - Final Warning: straight up this dude is weird and has a weird hit on the charts rn but bc of that i was like "ok let's see what he was like before his big image change" and ended up liking some of that stuff. he's so energetic and it really gets you pumped up, which is def what i'm looking for in this type of thing. he's got some interesting lines, too. it almost makes me wish he hadn't changed at all - i feel like i missed out lol

Vanilla Ice - Prozac: okay look i try not to vanillapost too much but like i'm a little bit insane about vanilla ice. i'm obsessed with his career path and it is not uncommon for me to just sit and think about it for an hour or more. i really enjoy his nu metal stuff, at least the earlier portions of it, and this is a top-tier track from that era. real headbanger. FUNKY RHYME KILLER, THE DOPE SONG DEALER

[moonchild-things]

Chapter One: Endings and Beginnings

Summary: Shōyō Hinata loves volleyball! There is no doubt that all he really thinks about is volleyball. His sister, however, isn’t the same way. Sakura is ready to start her first year of high school at Karasuno with her twin brother and doesn’t really want to do anything, unlike Shōyō. Though she can’t help it when she gets dragged into the antics of the volleyball club.

Word Count: 4815

Blog Masterlist | Red Herring Masterlist | Next Chapter

A/N: Hey there, nice to see ya. I’ve been thinking about posting some more things on Tumblr but I realized that I could post my chapters here! Kind of a stupid thing of me not to consider, but when have I been known to make good decisions lol Have fun readin’!

---

ON AN UNEVENTFUL DAY IN THE MIYAGI prefecture, a chilly air blew over the slightly busy streets. As people went about their business, a pair of ginger-haired siblings were biking down one of the roads towards their local park. The two nearly identical tweens were heading out with some friends to play soccer as they do on any other day.

They started to bike by a shop that had a television out front with two people already watching it. At the sound of the television, the orange-haired twin who had been pedaling the bike stopped and stared at the screen. It was a volleyball game between two high school teams. One of the teams was wearing uniforms covered in a dark navy blue and a bright orange. Interested at the sight of the game, they paused to watch it. To their amazement, they watched as the shortest players on the team jumped to an impossible height to spike the ball and earn a point for his team. The boy's eyes grew wide as he breathed out in awe at the feat the player pulled off.

The other tween, sitting in the front basket of the bike holding a soccer ball, looked at the screen as well with a raised eyebrow and a borderline bored expression. She hummed and brushed some of her shoulder-length hair from her eyes. The girl watched the match with a minuscule amount of interest. While she liked to play sports like soccer and baseball and was at least a little athletic, volleyball was never really something that intrigued her. Though watching it now almost made her fan of it. She had to admit how impressed she was by the shortest high school player, though not as awed as her brother.

"Truly a giant! That makes five point in a row!" The commentator exclaimed as the twins continued to watch the screen. One more intently than the other. "This is the Spring High School National Volleyball Championship. He might be surrounded by players as tall as 6'2", but that does not stop Karasuno's Tiny Giant from making a huge impact!"

"Oh Karasuno, the next town over." One of the two other men also watching the game commented. "They're not half bad."

Another tween rode up alongside the twins and came to a stop. His light chestnut hair swaying as he looked over to the two with a worried expression. "Hurry up, Shō, Saku-chan, we're going to lose our soccer field!"

However, Shōyō was still mesmerized by the screen. The image of someone so small, so short, having such an amazing ability like the Tiny Giant seemed to blow his mind. He was also on the shorter end of kids his age, like the Tiny Giant, and didn't even think that someone like him would be able to do that. "Karasuno..." He said in a sort of trance. With wide eyes, it seemed as though he had found someone to idolize. Instantly inspired after just watching a short snippet of the game.

He was then bumped on the head by a small pale fist from his sister in front of him. Shōyō cringed and rubbed his head with a pout. "Stop gawking and let's go." The girl drawled out.

"That hurt, imouto!" 

Sakura rolled her large, deep brown eyes, "I just want to get to the park already, now hurry up." While being impressed by the skills that the teens on the television displayed, Sakura didn't care as much as her brother. All that was important to her at the moment was getting to the park so she could let out some energy and lay around taking pictures of her brother fail at playing soccer. Shōyō was quite enthusiastic and athletic, but that didn't mean he the best at the sport. Her most precious pictures were of her brother getting hurt while doing something or other. She was kind of sadistic in a way.

So the group of friends headed to their destination. The image of the Tiny Giant still playing over in Shōyō's mind. It was quite obvious that he was now inspired just by watching a few minutes of that game. 

APPROXIMATELY THREE YEARS AND THREE MONTHS LATER

Excitement buzzed in the air around the short orange-haired boy who had run ahead of his team to get to the gym. His obvious excitement about having their game today was giving him far more enthusiasm than usual. He jumped down the staircase taking two steps at a time, nearly falling down a few times.

"Sho, slow down!" Izumi shouted after his overzealous friend while he and Koji chased after him.

Sakura shook her head and lazily followed after her brother's volleyball team. Her digital camera swayed around her neck as she walked down the steps. In the past three years, the girl didn't look as different as she did back then. The Hinata twins appeared to be just as similar to each other since they were little. The only difference was that Sakura had longer hair, like usual. There was also the fact that Sakura was a few centimeters shorter than her brother and obviously had some more feminine features. If her hair had been shorter, people surely would have mistaken her for her brother.

"He's really excited about this, huh?" Yuuki Kawashima, a first-year, commented as they descended the final steps.

Sakura scoffed, "that's an understatement." The three first-years turned to the older girl. "I had a hard time forcing him to go to bed because he was to hyped up for this."

"Really?" A different first-year, Tatsuya Mori, sweatdropped.

She nodded her head with pursed lips, "he can be such a pain."

The rest of the team, plus Sakura, finally caught up to Shōyō as he marveled at the gym. There were at least a dozen teams warming up at the nets or around the gym. Many were doing stretches, practicing jumps, serving, passing to each other, or practicing their dives. Each of them looked to be well put together and quite talented. Well, they look more skilled than Yukigaoka's team.

Shōyō took in the sight in awe. He was finally here! Finally, he'd get the chance to play volleyball just like his idol, the Tiny Giant. A real match against a real team for the first time ever. He had been dreaming about this for such a long time. "It's huge!" He took in a deep breath, "It smells like Air Salonpas."

"Don't say stuff like that, Sho." Izumi said, "It's dorky."

Koji, his dark-haired friend, agreed with a nod, "Yeah, don't be that guy."

"You're so weird," Sakura deadpanned.

"But guys this my very first real volleyball game." He exclaimed, "I've waited three long years for this."

Koji nodded his head, "That's true I guess it is kind of amazing we made it this far."

"Izumi, Koji," Shōyō turned towards the two, "thanks for coming to help our team out."

A light pink hue appeared on their cheeks, obviously due to embarrassment. "Don't make it weird," Koji grumbled as he looked away from his friend.

Izumi scratched the back of his neck. "Our game was the first one to finish, no need to make it a big deal."

"You too, first-years." Shōyō bounced up to the three other teammates. He was lucky to have gotten at least a few other players to make up a team, it was a miracle that these three had said they'd join. "I'm so thankful you three decided to join the volleyball club with me this season."

"Uh, sure. We're pretty terrible at this whole thing, but okay." Saiya Suziki, the third first-year on the team, said nervously at their captain's enthusiasm.

Koji stared at his orange-haired friend in slight annoyance. "Spare us the tears, Shōyō."

"I'm not crying!"

Izumi chuckled lightly, "You've got tears in your eyes." 

He disregarded that and jumped on his sister next and hugged her tightly, "Thanks for coming too, imouto!"

Sakura looked away from her energetic twin but didn't push him off of her. She was far too used to his behavior and his tight embraces. She shrugged her shoulders, trying to make it seem like she was indifferent though there was a light blush on her cheeks, "I'm just here for moral support."

"Um, I'm sorry to interrupt," Tatsuya said which broke the twins from their hug, "but we should really warm up now." 

Isumi nodded his head, "Come on, captain, you're in charge here."

"He's right, Shōyō. You're the one that dragged us into this tournament thing and you still haven't explained what all the rules are." Koji said in exasperation. It was true, even after forming the team and practicing just a little bit together, Shōyō had yet to go over how exactly to play. It probably would have been a good idea to do that earlier.

Shōyō spun around to face him with a shout, "I know that! Even though we barely made the cut, we are here to win this. Okay, guys."

Everyone stared at him in disbelief, except Sakura. She had already heard all about Shōyō's seemingly impossible goal to win the tournament. She had already gone through her shock last night. "We can't win with a thrown together team of rookies." Izumi blanched at his friend's high expectations.

"Sure we can!"

"Kitagawa first might be tough though." Koji thought out loud about the team they were matched up against. He had heard about them, along with their infamously terrifying reputation. They were one of the best teams around! How were they going to compete with that?

"Maybe. But I'll beat them anyway." Shōyō said with determination in his voice. He was obviously going to try and win this whole thing! The orange-haired boy even thought that he could try and win against some of the top tier teams. Though that seemed to be quite an impossible feat considering they were extremely inexperienced.

Sakura let out a sigh through her nose. She admired her brother's enthusiasm and determination but knew that it was displaced. There was no way that they were going to win this tournament, no matter how much Shōyō tried to hype up his team. Don't get her wrong, it was always a good idea to be confident especially when playing a sport. However, Sakura likes to look at the facts in this scenario. A team made up completely of kids who had not played even one actual game of volleyball didn't stand much of a chance. Call her a pessimist if you want, but that's how she sees it.

Just then footsteps were heard from behind the orange-haired captain as a team of extremely tall players walked up from behind him. Dawned in blue and white uniforms, it was the infamously powerful team from Kitagawa. Shōyō turned to look up at the players and blanched at just how intimidating they appeared.

"Excuse us!" Izumi said as he and Koji pulled Shōyō out of the way, "move dude."

The much smaller team watched them go with dread coursing through them. This was who they had to play against?! They were giants! "They're tall." Koji swallowed as they passed by the shell-shocked team.

The final player on the team who walked passed held an air of superiority, even over his own teammates. He was just as tall as the rest of the team, but for some reason, Shōyō felt like he was the player to really watch out for. Sakura was also surprised by the team and watched them with wide eyes. Though when she caught sight of the last player, she couldn't help but feel a shiver run up her spine.

Once the team passed by them, there was a loud roar of cheering which startled the small team. They ran out to see a large group of Kitagawa First Junior High School students cheering loudly for their team. There had to have been over four dozen kids there to cheer on their peers.

The other teams on the courts watched as the renowned junior high school team walked out to start practicing. "Hey, Kitagawa First is here." Someone commented.

"They're huge," His teammate marveled in slight fear.

On another end of the gym, a boy said, "Those guys scare the hell out of me."

"They're the best team around here."

A boy in an orange uniform said to his teammate, "They've got the king."

His teammate questioned, "The king?"

"What? You don't know? That's what they call Tobio Kageyama, he's a setter." He explained, "And he's supposed to be awesome."

Koji, breaking out of his shocked trance, pointed at the team with nervousness lacing his voice. "We'll be going up against these frickin' guys!"

"It'll be fine!" Shōyō exclaimed, "I don't care how big they are, I'll bust right through 'em!"

"Maybe you're right, Sho. You are a really good jumper." Izumi commented with a little bit of reassurance.

Koji joined in on the encouragement, "You've got this!"

Shōyō's stomach then let out a low rumble as his face started to turn a little green. His teammates stared at him as he hunched over clutching his stomach. "Wonder where the bathrooms are." Their captain then shuffled away, obviously sick with his nerves now. He groaned and whimpered as he walked off, to the shock of his team.

Sakura closed her eyes in despair at the sight. She knew that the pressure was going to end up getting to him at one point. "Well," she stared, gaining all of the boys' attention. "While Shōyō deals with that, you guys start warming up."

The boys nodded their heads at her suggestion, "Right!"

She flashed them a small side smile that disappeared just as quickly as it appeared. If they had blinked, the boys definitely would have missed it, "good luck, you're going to need it."

They all blushed at her encouragement and small smile. Sakura didn't smile, like at all, so the small uptick at the corner of her lips was rare. Of course, it also made her look quite adorable. Though, don't tell her that. She'd probably curse you for saying something like that about her.

The team then set out to do just as she said as Sakura made her way to the stands. She wanted to find a good spot of the game so that she could take some pictures. She trekked through the crowds of players and spectators. Though just as she was about to turn a corner to head up some stairs, she found herself colliding with someone.

She saved herself from falling over and made sure that her camera was safe. Brown eyes scowled at the person she had run into. Sakura had to look up quite a bit to see the eyes of the person who she had run into.

It was a member of the Kitagawa First team. He had black hair that was spiked up quite high. If Sakura had to be honest, his hair reminded her of an onion. He seemed to shiver slightly as he looked down at the girl who glowered at him.

"S-Sorry," he apologized to her as he backed away from her.

Sakura rolled her eyes and ignored him, "whatever."

Yūtarō watched the orange-haired girl walked around him and up the stairs, not sparing him another glance. He watched after her and noticed that she looked extremely similar to that little guy from that unknown school he's going to play against. The middle blocker shook his head and started to walk back into the gym. He had a game to focus on and not that scary girl.

---

The game between Kitagawa and Yukigaoka had started. Of course, Shōyō had made it back onto the court just in time to practice a little bit with the others after his run-in with the King of the Court. Kageyama was quite an intimidating guy, he admitted. Though it wasn't going to scare him off. Shōyō was going to give this game his all. He wanted to win against Kitagawa! He was going to do everything in his power to win this match and then the next and the one after that until they were in the finals.

As the first few points were scored, it was quite obvious which team was more experienced. Kitagawa won point after point in a row from simple mistakes that Yukigaoka made. Sakura watched from the stands in a comfortable spot, the only one there to cheer on the small team. It was kind of sad to see that the team of six only had one supporter in the crowd. Though she knew that the boys' spirits were being kept high by her brother. He encouraged them and kept them from being discouraged after a point was lost. Shōyō did what he could to make them feel better, even if they were being destroyed.

She occasionally shouted out some form of encouragement like 'nice try' or 'you'll get it' from the stand. Other than that, she stayed kind of quiet among the crowd. It wasn't like she could really be heard over the noise that Kitagawa's cheer squad was making anyway. Though she was able to get a few good pictures of her brother and friends. Even one of Koji getting hit in the face, that one was definitely a keeper.

Kitagawa had won the first set, not a surprise, but Yukigaoka had done their best against them. Shōyō certainly showed how high he could jump and spike the ball. That was impressive in itself. 

The second set started and unlike the first, Yukigaoka was able to score at least a few points. Not enough to really make it seem like there was going to be a comeback, but it was still an improvement. Sakura was happy to see her brother having such fun for his first official game. It may not be going as he had hoped, but it was better than nothing, right?

She would love to see her brother actually win the game, but that was something that was impossible to even imagine. Despite wanting to believe in her brother and friends' abilities, she knew that they were going to lose. It was a no brainer, sadly. Kitagawa was just a team that was more well put together than Yukigaoka with more experience. There was no way that Yukigaoka could compete.

Though during the second set, Kageyama made it quite clear why exactly he was called the King of the Court. Sakura could see that he was a very arrogant and controlling player. He demanded so much from his teammates that caused quite a bit of tension between them all. In all honesty, Sakura could totally see the team calling for mutiny against him. Though she admitted that he was still very intimidating with the glare that always seemed to be on his face.

The winning point that caused Yukigaoka to lose ended with a mistake on Shōyō's part. Though he showed off his speed at spiking a ball, he had hit the ball out of bounds, ending the game with Kitagawa's win. Though before they lined up for the end of the game, Kagayama had decided to shout at Shōyō from the other side of the net.

"What've you been wasting all your time on for three years?"

From the stands, even Sakura could see how the setter's words had affected her brother. Shōyō went stock still as he processed what Kageyama had said. Her brother was shaking with his fist clenched and his knuckles turning a pasty white. Sakura certainly wasn't happy that the pompous king had said something so insensitive to him. She wasn't the only one.

"What did you say!?" Koji shouted in anger and had to be held back by Izumi.

"Koji! Calm down!"

"You don't know a damn thing about what Shōyō's been doing."

"You can't pick a fight in the middle of the court." Izumi implored him to stop.

"Watch me!"

Eventually, Izumi got Koji to calm down enough to get in line and he turned to Shōyō to get him to do the same. "Come on, Shōyō, let's go."

They then parted to the opposite ends of the courts to thank each other for the game. Sakura just scoffed as she put her camera around her neck safely to take some final pictures of her team. She wasn't as upset about the loss as she was about that stupid King of the Court. Bothering her brother like that was uncalled for. He was just playing the game to his best ability, no need to insinuate that Shōyō had wasted his time doing what he loved. She stomped off from her seat once she put her camera away and went to meet up with her brother and friends.

She passed by a group of four older boys who had been observing some of the game. They were obviously from a high school because they were wearing the uniforms for the Karasuno High School Volleyball Club. Though Sakura just brushes past them, more focused on her journey to find her brother.

"So that's the King of the Court, huh?" One of the boys with silver hair asked. 

The one next to him with brown hair nodded his head, "uhu, he'll be a force to be reckoned with when he gets to high school."

The third boy with a shaved head stood up straight from his previous position leaning on the railing. "The short kid seems promising too."

"Wonder what high schools they'll choose," a blonde-haired boy said with pursed lips. The quartet of high school volleyball players then turned around and left the stands.

---

The third-years all gathered outside of the arena after the game. The first-years had already left, of course, after they made sure that Shōyō knew they were grateful they got to play. Shōyō was obviously upset, extremely so. Not even Sakura could seem to get him out of his small bout of depression over the game.

They walked towards the stairs where Shōyō stopped and stared out at nothing. Koji, Izumi, and Sakura shared a look with each other before Koji walked closer to their upset captain.

"Hey, we never stood a chance anyway." Koji said and placed his hands behind his head, "I heard those guys are candidates for the nationals."

Before either of the three could say anything else to Shōyō, the Kitagawa team themself came out of the building. After a small moment of silence between them, Shōyō finally spoke.

"No matter how good or bad each team is, in the end, it all comes down to winning or losing. If you lose, then you have to step off the court." He took a deep breath through his nose after his wise words before taking off down the stairs.

"Hey, wait up!" Izumi shouted after him as Koji did the same.

"What's the rush?"

Sakura watched her brother sprint down the steps to meet up with the one player who she may or may not despise at this point. After what he had said on the court to Shōyō, she wasn't going to let it go so easily.

"Hold it!"

Kageyama turned around to face who had called out to him. "Hm." He was slightly surprised to find that the orange-haired kid he had played against wanted to talk to him. 

Shōyō tried to get his words out, but his throat was starting to clog up slightly as the beginning of tears blurred his vision. "You might be the king who rules the court for now," tears started to stream down his face as he tried to stay strong, "but I'm gonna win, one day I'm gonna stay on the court longer than you."

Kagayama blinked up at him before narrowing his eyes and turning to him fully. "Only those who win get to stay on the court. Only the strongest. So if you wanna keep playing, then you have to become stronger."

A wind past between the two as the echoing sounds of the games still going on inside invaded the air. The challenge between them was now set. Shōyō was going to do everything that he could to improve upon his skills so that way when he met the setter again on the court, he would win. Kageyama then spun on his heels and walked away from the emotional boy.

The other third-years came down the stairs as well. Shōyō turned around and bowed deeply to them. "Thanks for everything."

The two other boys became flustered once again at Shōyō's words just like they did before the game. There were even tears starting to build up in their eyes. "Dude, don't make it awkward," Koji mumbled, "you don't have to thank us alright?"

"Huh?" Shōyō tilted his head as he looked at his friends, "What are you crying for?"

"I'm not crying, okay?!"

Sakura just chuckled at her brother and walked up to him. She slung her arm over his shoulder and let herself smile just a little bit. "Come on, let's head home."

---

So months passed for the Hinata twins. Shōyō and the other first-years had to practice with the girl's volleyball club since they were still down two teammates. They adapted to what they had for the time being. Sakura, of course, continued to encourage her brother to do what he loved and to never give up, even if deep down she saw it as slightly pointless. Why practice when you didn't have a team to play on? Though she didn't question that out loud to her brother. He was happy, and that's all that mattered to her.

The twins eventually made it to the end of the year. Now they were no longer third-years at Yukigaoka. No, they were going to be first-years at their new High School. It didn't take that long to decide which school to apply to. Shōyō had made his mind up about which school he wanted to attend ever since he first saw the Tiny Giant during nationals. Karasuno High School.

Sakura didn't really care about which school she went to. Even though she had the opportunity to go to a different school based on her academic scores, there was no way she was going to leave Shōyō. They were together no matter what, high school was going to be no different. So here they were, their first day of school. It took them about a thirty-minute bike ride over the mountain, but the twins had arrived at their new school. 

Though unlike the previous years, Sakura decided to change how she looked, at least a little. After all, it was high school. Don't most people change their styles then?  Sakura had taken it upon herself to cut her hair to the same length as Shōyō's. Now, the twins looked even more similar to each other, not that they cared much. She just thought, a new year, a new her. So what if people mistook her for her brother some times, she didn't mind. 

They chained up their bikes together, made their way into the building, and suffered through the opening ceremony. After nearly falling asleep during the ceremony, Shōyō was bouncing with excitement and nerves. He had been up almost all night thinking about how his first day would go, much to his sister's dismay.

"Are you going to join a club this year, Saku?" Shōyō asked as they walked through the crowd of their new peers.

Sakura shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know."

Shōyō's eyes sparkled like a little kid on Christmas. "You should join the photography club this year!"

"I should?" She asked him. Sakura hadn't been in any clubs the year prior, she didn't really see a need for them when she could just spend her time taking pictures or studying. Besides her junior high school didn't even have a photography club. The only way to have taken pictures for school was to join the yearbook club, but she didn't want to deal with the plethora of popular kids who were in it. Karasuno did have a photography club that wasn't just meant for the yearbook. She tilted her head and considered the idea. "I guess I could..."

"If you do you can probably take pictures of the volleyball team!"

Sakura nodded her head slowly at the justification, "I'll think about it."

"Cool!" He gave her a thumbs-up as he seemingly vibrated in place. "I'm going to go to the volleyball club, so meet up with me at the gym later, kay?"

Sakura smirked, "alright, see you."

The twins then parted ways, Shōyō heading to the gym to meet up with the volleyball club and Sakura searching for the photography club. Though one of them was going to get one of the biggest shocks of their lives once they made it to their destination.