#lightning in a bottle recap

[epicbuddieficrecs]

Weekly Recap | January 27th-February 2nd 2025

Had the audacity to go on a daytrip over the border to the US and all I got was spending way too much money at Target and a cold :(

Complete

the sincerest form of flattery by canadadry (S8E3: Final Approach, Brad POV | 1,7K | Teen): “Your boy—Buck,” Brad says. “First marriage?” “Pardon?” “Well, your wife is—” Brad starts, stops. Remembers at least a third of the lecture he’s been given at least a dozen times by his publicist on the danger of making assumptions. “He calls your wife by her given name—I mean, does the same to you, but I’d reckon that has more to do with professionalism than personal grievances, given the fact that you clearly get on.” — in which Brad Torrence only almost passes out, and observes the aftermath.

The couch is a lawless place by paleredheadinascifi (Getting Together | 1,8K | Teen): Eddie had kissed him. He knows it happened, because the smudge of chocolate on his pants is still there, courtesy of the peanut butter cup he’d dropped when Eddie lent over and kissed him.

Call Ended (beep beep beep) by paleredheadinascifi (Wine Nights, Getting Together | 2K | Teen): Or, Buck wakes up to a series of increasingly horrifying calls from Eddie. He gets to the bottom of it.

Who you gonna call? by scarmaddiewrites (Post-S8A, Buck&Ravi | 1,7K | General): Buck has his first bad leg day since Eddie moved to Texas (Part 1 of The Chainsaw Gang)

Avoidance or Denial by scarmaddiewrites (Post-S8A, Getting Together | 4K | Not Rated): Eddie is back from texas and has some theories about Buck and Ravi....he's never been good at theories (Part 2 of The Chainsaw Gang)

and i'd do it over and over again by playinginthunderstorms/ @playinginthunderstorms (PWP, S8E6: Confessions | 4K | Explicit): Gun to his head, Buck honestly doesn't think he could say which one of them made the first move, but somewhere in between the six-pack he'd brought over and whatever was left of a dusty bottle of tequila in the back of a kitchen cupboard, Eddie—beautiful, radiant Eddie, with his pink shirt and tiny underwear—had ended up in his lap, thighs bracketing Buck's, gasping and grinding helplessly into Buck's hips, the most delicious whines spilling out of his mouth and straight onto Buck's tongue, white-hot pleasure spiking through him as potent as the lightning bolt, so he figures he'll at least die happy.

We’re Looking For Something Dumb To Do by scarmaddiewrites (Bachelor Party, Secret Marriage | 5K | Not Rated): “We should get married.” “What?” Buck chokes, his heart doing some weird fluttering thing in his chest. “Really?” “Yeah, I mean… I’m not a redhead or double your age, but maybe I still have a chance?” In the background, Buck hears someone chuckling—probably Ravi, whose drunk giggles have turned into full-on cackles. “Please, Eddie,” Buck says, his voice a mix of exasperation and something warmer, something fond. “Have you seen your ass? To hell with all the other requirements.” Or Buck and Eddie get married during the bachelor party and Ravi encourages it.

Your Life Was My Life's Best Part by saveyourblood/ @saveyourblood (S6E10: In A Flash | 5K | Mature): A neglected child. A soldier who saw people die. A veteran with PTSD. A first responder. A single father. A widower. Eddie Diaz became everything that was supposed to break him. What is he supposed to call this? What does he call the thing that may actually destroy him? - The one where Buck dies, then he doesn't, and their life flashes before Eddie's eyes.

lights will guide you. by dylaesthetics (Social Media, Eddie Sexuality Crisis | 6K | Mature): Am I (M33) comphet or an impostor???!!! For the record, I am straight. I think so, anyway. Or I did, all of six hours ago, before my coworkers introduced me to the term ‘comphet’. And now my entire world has kind of spun on its axis and I’m wondering if I’ve been secretly craving dick this whole time. - OR after breaking up with Tommy, Buck goes on a deep-dive on sexuality. He needs to tell someone about all he learns, of course, and Eddie seems like the best option.

Golden Morning Sunbeams by Buddiesmutslut (Post-S8E8: Wannabes, Getting Together | 10K | General): Or: As Eddie is debating his move to Texas, a few texts from his son in the middle of the day set him on a course to getting everything he's been wanting.

🔥 An Angry Blade by Daisies_and_Briars/ @cal-daisies-and-briars (Post-8x05: Masks, Cursed Buck | 43K | Mature): Buck finds out that the curse of Billy Boils is VERY real, and far more complicated and dangerous than he could have expected.

🔥 oh brother, I see (you burn like me) by canadadry (Adriana & Maddie POV, Post-S7E10: All Fall Down | 47K | Mature): Adriana doesn’t tell their parents that she’s going to LA. She doesn’t tell Eddie, either—or ask, for that matter. She does ask Chris, and he thinks it’s a good idea—says as much, on the phone, and doesn’t say much else. “Buck will probably be hovering,” is what Chris does volunteer. It still surprises her when the man who opens the door is not Eddie. It’s—Captain America, is the thing that actually comes to mind—a man close to a foot taller than she is, if not more than that, with blond curls and broad shoulders, and he’s got a question in his very blue eyes that’s probably less friendly than the one he actually asks her. “Uh,” he says. “Can I help you?” — Or: Adriana arrives in LA. Maddie has been here the whole time.

🔥 Things We're All Too Young to Know by Daisies_and_Briars/ @cal-daisies-and-briars (Canon S1-S6, Divergent Post-S6 | 472K | Mature): This is a love story. Even if it doesn’t always look like it. Even if it doesn’t always feel like it. A look back on Eddie and Buck's lives up to now, and what led them to each other, interpreted from the current 9-1-1 canon.

WIP

🔥 Doe & a Drop of Golden Sun by ohstars/ @oh-stars (Canon Divergent, Dad Buck | 10/? | 45K | Teen): Buck doesn't mean to keep secrets from everyone, but he also can't talk about the pain he experiences on a day to day basis. With his nine-year-old living across the country and his custody limited to one monthly visit, Buck doesn't know how to share this part of himself. How does he tell his team of six years that he's had a kid this whole time? How does he tell his sister? How does he tell his Edd-- best friend? It's fine. The universe isn't going to give him a choice in the matter when the worst thing imaginable becomes his reality.

🔥[Podfic] Promising Light by cottagepodfics @cottagepodfics / fic by @cal-daisies-and-briars (Post-S8E8: Wannabes, Time Travel | 80min | 2/3 | Mature): Buck and Eddie fall asleep drunk and in separate rooms after the night of Buck and Tommy's breakup. They wake up seven years later, in an unfamiliar future, only to find out that they're married.

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

Rose Recaps QL 2024 - Favourite Characters

I can't seem to be able to write lately so I'm gonna do this one with only gifs. Thanks to @abstractelysium for sharing their prompts and helping me get started on this. Let's go.

Kasuga - She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat

Isumi - Sugar Dog Life

Cha Yeo Woon - Love For Love's Sake

Hayama Asami - At 25:00 in Akasaka

Lee Do Hoe - Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo

Jane - The Trainee

Go Hotae - The Time of Fever

Shiba Ryoma - Love is a Poison

Karan - Cherry Magic Thailand

Go Yeong - Love In The Big City

I wanted to add more but I stopped myself so, honourable mentions: Takara, Takara no Vidro; Ishida, Mr. Mitsuya's Planned Feeding; Toki, Sahara Sensei to Toki-kun; King, Marahuyo Project: Kai, Perfect Propose; Latte, Knock Knock Boys; Moo, Only Boo

I'm gonna tag some people so I can see other people's favourite characters. But of course, no pressure. @lurkingshan @neuroticbookworm @thisonelikesaliens @he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle @twig-tea @itsallaboutbl @wen-kexing-apologist @troubled-mind 💜

[overlyimmersed]

Match A2 concludes!

Apologies for the lack of commentary last time! Our commentator refused to speak on the incident... Something about shipping raccoons to Japan...? But we're back now!

To recap what happened: Diodora proved a very difficult opponent with his new magic! Everything Nasiens threw at him got thrown right back! Even his poisons! So Nasiens tried something untested; Blood Skull berries! That didn't work either and Nasiens went down!

The match is called as it seems Nasiens' heart stopped, Diodora is declared the winner!

But he can't claim Nasiens' magic while he's still alive! So he raises his sword to deliver a finishing blow post-match, only to be decked at lightning speed by a very angry Percival! Percy takes the damage himself, as per Diodora's magic, but hardly seems to care! He delivers a glare that seems to put the fear of god into Diodora before turning his attention to Nasiens.

"Tantris" rushes in to offer help, but even his goddess healing and Percival's magic combined doesn't seem to be enough to counter what Nasiens has done to himself.

As Nasiens' friends rush to him, Gawain assures that he isn't truly dead, she can detect a faint pulse. Even so, no one is sure what Nasiens had taken or why he won't wake, until Percy spots the bottle.

We're given a flashback to when Nasiens was in the Fairy Realm. He goes to test a Blood Skull berry, but Harlequin stops just before and warns him against it (suggesting that even Fairies have no resistance to these). At a later point he's talking with Diane about that encounter and she's able to tell Nasiens more about the berries. She reveals that she's tried them (and that they taste good!) and that there is a way to counter the effect.

In the present Nasiens' friends are trying desperately to wake him, to no avail. Till Gareth joins them. He's able to see and speak with Nasiens', currently disembodied, soul. He relays Nasiens' answer to Anne's question of his motive, he was desperate to make sure Diodora didn't have the opportunity to hurt Percival. Gareth himself questions if Nasiens knows and antidote to what he's taken, but Nasiens is much too shy to reveal it. Still Gareth guesses it anyway, by intuition, and informs Percy, though he chooses discretion and whispers it. Percy wastes no time

AND KISSES HIM!! PERCIENS SHIPPERS REJOICE!

(That's me!!)

The counter to the Blood Skull berries' magic is a kiss from the person you love. Nasiens snaps out of it immediately, and blushes to high heaven, while Donny and Anne make the incorrect assumption that the act was a rescue breath.

And on that lovely note we move on! Next time Gawain with face off with Balin in the first match of block B! We're getting down to the wire now, folks! Stay tuned!

[lazyscience]

DCC Challenge, Day 14

Time To Floor Collapse: 16 days, 1.75 hours (give or take)

Time for the recap episode!

Crawler @quartzandsundry

New Achievement! To The Wall!

The heat is indeed on, crawlers, and you-all are making me sweat with all this precision fire work! Sexy explosions, sexy swordwork, sexy lifedrain keeping you going as your mobs crumble beneath your unshod fo-- Fine, fine, crumble beneath your foot. (muttering) an AI can dream, can't it?

Reward: A gold Skeet Skeet box! Inside, an enchanted Bow of Longshot, with Regenerating Quiver (Basic Bitch Broadheads, upgradable with bolt type ammo) , +5 to Archery and Targeting skills, damage increased +10% when shooting from elevation. Also includes a conical straw hat of +15% to Disguise/Pass Unremarked type illusions. And...a flint and steel?

Crawler @kathrynalexao3:

New Achievement! BOOM, Shakalaka!

See, it's funny when crawlers blow up mobs. It's funny when crawlers blow themselves up. But when crawlers blow THEMSELVES up to blow up mobs? Hilarious! Outstanding! Chef's kiss!

And you lived! So it's a win! I'm sure that hair will grow back eventually!

Reward: A gold BOOM goes the Dynamite Box! Inside, a case of Hobgoblin Dynamite, a Brain Bucket Helmet of +5 to the Bomb Surgeon skill, a jug of Rev-Up Toilet Grade Moonshine, and a bonus scroll of Self-Immolate! Because are you REALLY burning the candle if it's not at both ends? And hell, I'll even throw in a complimentary Rev-Up Magic Hair Restoration tonic and 2 coupons, one for you and one for a friend for the Naiad Moisturizing Facial at Busted to Bomb, the Desperado Club Day Spa! Be careful putting those eyebrows back on...

Crawler @king-ofconfusion:

New Achievement! I Am A Rock, I am an Island!

See, Simon and Garfunkel had the right idea - IF you're a casting class, you have a shit-ton of tomes and scrolls, AND siege weaponry.

Fortunately for you, you do! But you're also hedging your bets by hanging out with this ragtag gang of losers and lending your awesome powers of friendship and the inspirational qualities of a good DPS. Party on, crawlers. Party the fuck on. I'm still not bored!

Reward: A silver Sound of Silence box! A tome of Mute, and an Enchanted Beanie of Emo, allowing its possessor 3 casts a day of I Need My Personal Space, and one of Bitch, What? For when the power of friendship needs to be superceded by the power of Leave Me The Fuck Alone.

Crawler @oreniaa:

New Achievement! It's all Greek to Me!

So after digging into the Hellene mythology of Earth, maaaaan, you crawlers are on some sick shit! No wonder I'm having so much fun, it's deeply inspirational. The writer's room went just PRIMATESHIT over the Odyssey. More on that, look out for that Men Are Pigs spell, it's a doozy! So is the Manotaur. Not ManTaur, Manotaur. I said what I said- and NO SPOIILERS!

Reward: A golden Lotus-Eater Box! 3 potions of Good Rest, 3 potions of Sleep (ingested or used as a projectile against mobs OR crawlers, 30 hours of unconsciousness), a tome of Water-Lily, and an enchanted Cattle Prod Of Keep Moving, with 10 charges of level 5 Chain Lightning!

Crawler @cairfrey :

New Achievement! Bump-N-Grind!

Leveling at your level can be such a slog, compared to the footloose and fancy-free days when every mob was a life-threatening mob! We here at Dungeon Crawl: Earth appreciate your tireless dedication to keeping your galactic emperors entertained, and promise to get some more satisfying challenges out to you as soon as possible.

No, thank YOU. We mean that.

Reward: A gold Commodus box! Inside, a supply of 30 Dirty Little Crawler Books of Voodoo for rapid dissemination of information, a bottle of Wild Turkey, and an Enchanted Pen of Dictation courtesy of the Calligrapher's Guild!

Crawler @deathdovesong:

New Achievement! "Jizz Night At The Mos Eisley Cantina!"

hee. hee hee. ahahaahhahahAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHwheeze. Okay! I see that you're an appreciator of the art - arts! of the arts of multiple planets! We appreciate a sophisticated crawler not reduced to raging xenophobia by their previously innocent civilization being suddenly annihilated and ruthlessly plundered by the heretofore largely unknown! You're an inspiration.

Reward: a gold Ghost box! Includes a tome of Second Chance, and an enchanted Headband of the Twi'Lek with +10 to Intelligence and +15% to resistance for mind control spells and mental status debuffs like Fear and Confusion.

Crawler @clearbrightlight:

New Achievement! Hanging By A Thread!

It's not often a crawler surprises and delights me with something I haven't seen before, but I don't think I realized that unpicking threads from one magical garment and weaving a pattern with threads from another could combine attributes so effectively - I mean, on one hand, I feel like this is an exploit and I should patch it, but on the other hand, I feel like any other crawlers who spend enough time learning how to do this witchcraft bullshit have in fact earned their outcome. I'll allow it!

THAT MEANS YOU, MUDSKIPPERS, BRAIN SLUGS. I SAID I'LL ALLOW IT! YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME!

Reward: A Legendary Coat of Many Colors box! Includes a tome of Take That Shit Off to give you more material to work with, 5 Good Healing potions, and coupons for you and a friend for Busted to Bomb, the Desperado Club Day Spa, for their Deluxe Paraffin Dip Mani-Pedi. Lavish those hard-working hands and delectable tootsies with luxury, conferring a special 90-hour Immunity buff to any or all injury to said extremities!

Crawler @lazyscience:

New Achievement: One Day at a Time

You pulled yourself out of the doomscroll, you muted something instead of starting a fight about it, and you did a load of laundry. Was there more to do? yeah. but could you have done less? Also yes. So we're calling that a net positive. "take the win where you can get it" has always been a hard one for you. Note: get your ass on your Training quest. You are limping like you just got out of a mantaur gang-bang, that's not gonna fix itself. Do you want to be able to do shit in April when people are here? Work on your strengthening!

Reward: Leftover Thai basil curry rice and a new book to read. Also, your Alchemy supplies have arrived, so get on crafting that magic item inspired by Princess Donut! Tomorrow's quest, finalize the pattern and cast on!

Now get out there, crawlers, and kill, kill, kill!

ATTENTION, all partied crawlers! Don't forget to update me on mobs, quests, or parties (defined at link) so I can award you achievements! Please let me know either in the replies to this post, reblogging with additions, or hit my askbox/DMs!

(please, do this, even with small and silly mobs/quests, it makes giving achievements so much easier!)

[zecarnevilcat]

Thoughts after watching Joker folie à deux...

So I watched Joker sequel yesterday, and like many others I didn't like it... It left me with a bad taste in my mouth. The closest thing I could compare it to is when you stumble upon a really bad fanfiction where the author got the wrong interpretation of the themes and characters (and storytelling isn't that great). I had to repeatedly remind myself that I was (unfortunately) watching a canon story and not some bad fantasy from an edgy teenager with too much time on his hands.

(Important note : Speaking of fanfictions, watching that movie reminded me of all the wonderful stories I read, written by fans that did a far greater job at writing what Joker 2 could have been, so kudos to them)

As a disclaimer, I absolutely loved the first movie. I saw it 4 times at the cinema, something I've never done before in my entire life. It was raw but subtle. It was tragically beautiful. It was sad and depressing and revolting and inspiring all at once. It was perfect as a single story. It didn't need any elaboration or sequel. Todd Philips admitted they told everything they had to say in one movie... And I totally agreed. I really hoped they wouldn't make a sequel, that they wouldn’t fall for the cash grab. But then, Folie a Deux was announced... And it would be a musical comedy, on top of that. Of all possible movie genres, they had to choose my least favorite one... But hey, let's not judge before I see it. After all, it the same team with the same actors, writers, director, and musical composer. Even Joaquin returns, although he usually never does sequels... The first movie was already absolutely perfect in my opinion. Catching lightning in a bottle once is already extremely rare, so doing it twice is extremely unlikely. Unfortunately, Folie a Deux never matches the energy of the first Joker. It's messy, and it has nothing really new to tell. (Heavy spoilers under the cut)

I lack time and talent to elaborate properly but here's a list of thoughts I have after watching Joker 2

General observations :

The pacing of the movie is awful. First Joker had that powerful crescendo that led to Arthur's snapping and full transformation into Joker. I never sensed something as powerful and enthralling in the sequel.

The musical aspect was not such a big deal in the end, at least for me. Most of the time it happens in Arthur's head, as his fantasized interpretation of reality. It could have been done way better though, with a better choice of songs.

Music wise, I was also kinda disappointed. I love the OST, but I heard lots of reuses from the first movie and no new composition from Hildur Guðnadóttir ???

That movie loves to quote the first one. Parallels can be really interesting if done well. Unfortunately, here it felt like gratuitous, obnoxious fan service that goes nowhere.  

Cinematography was absolutely gorgeous, like the first movie, I loved it.

Acting was on point. I have nothing to complain about here. Joaquin is still at the top of his craft.

Regarding the plot:

WTF that animated short at the beginning was supposed to be? A foreshadowing of the ending? A recap of Joker? I mean, yeah, we get it, Joker gets all the fame and Arthur all the hate. Was it really necessary to spell it out? Also (personal opinion here) but the animation/style used was terrible. It's a poor imitation of old animated cartoons, done by someone who vaguely understands the vibe of Tex Avery's masterwork.

The love story feels forced and artificial. I get that Arthur is a "romantic at heart" and he never had any romantic relationship before, but it feels so rushed and artificial... The dynamic between him and Harley however was quite refreshing, compared to the usual story between these two.

The plot feels empty and bloated at the same time. There are lots of interesting ideas, but they are never fully developed (barely scraped at best). It’s infuriating really.

All the subtlety, mystery and ambiguity of the first movie is gone. Joker made you read between the lines, Folie à Deux painfully points everything out for the dumbass with a 3 seconds attention span

Something I really appreciated in Joker was the relative freedom it took from Batman’s lore. If you’re familiar with it, you can understand some things on a whole new level (i.e. when Arthur meets Bruce Wayne). But if you’re not, it doesn’t ruin the story. Again, subtlety. What bothers me most is that criticism some (obtuse) people had about this take on Joker: “He CaN’T Be ThE JokEr, He’D Be ToO OlD tO fIGhT BAtMAn” or “ThIS LOsEr Is ToO StUpID To BecOmE A CriME GeniUS”… Yeah, well guess what? I don’t care. The Joker has been interpretated in various ways since his first appearance: goofy murder clown, crime genius, agent of chaos, failed comedian… with a great variety of background stories and motivations. So, twisting the arm of the lore to get a original take on the character doesn’t bother me at all. That’s just the change in continuity. That’s a great part of why I hate the ending.

Arthur decides to finally do what seems right and suppress his Joker persona to face the consequences of his actions. Ok, that’s a bold move, but what leads to that decision??? Him being assaulted and then hearing his cellmate being choked to death? A re-enactment of one of his worst memories? The one that might have given birth to Joker? Sorry I fail to see the logic here. Be Joker=be punished, but be Arthur=be punished too???

The courtroom explosion. From that moment on, the movie goes completely off rails. We never see the riots or feel the tension outside the courtroom. And then it goes boom. And then Arthur conveniently goes back to the stairs, and conveniently find Harley standing there. Boy, what a convoluted way to bring him back to the stairs… Remember the stairs? Remember that iconic element in Joker? Remember how climbing up the stairs symbolizes the pain and suffering Arthur is enduring to stay on the right path? Remember him going down dancing and laughing in his flamboyant Joker outfit symbolizing his descent into madness? Yeah, well he’s back climbing up the stairs. “Aren’T wE SmArT?”

And then, Harley dumps him. Because she loved his Joker persona, not Arthur. Wow, never saw that coming. And then, he’s stabbed to death by a random guy. And he smashes his skull against the wall in the process, in case there was a little hope left in you. And then, you realize all of this was made to build that twist: Arthur wasn’t the Joker, it’s the psycho who stabbed him and who’s cutting open his own mouth to become Ledger’s Joker. Also, Harley may or may not be pregnant with Arthur’s son, but who cares. TUM DUM DUM. Everything is connected. The lore is preserved, everything’s back into place, welcome to the DC multiverse!

Which brings me to my final point. Todd Philips actually hates Arthur’s Fleck. Must admit he fooled me here. One of the main themes of Joker was love. Empathy. More of the lack-of actually. What consequences it brings to a poor soul struggling to stay on the right path. To be good. To be nice. “To bring happiness into the world” even if his own life is a shitshow where happiness is nowhere to be found. The lack of empathy is what gave birth to the Joker. Then the plot of the sequel was revealed: the story between Joker and Harley. Although I’m fully aware of the controversy regarding their relationship in the comics, I was really excited to discover their take on the subject with Arthur’s character. Again, love seemed to be a central theme in Folie à deux (with the wild hope it had something a little bit better in store for Arthur… Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong) Was it bad to root for Arthur? Apparently so. It seems you never should have felt any empathy for him in the first place. He’s pathetic, and he’ll never be anything more than that. The script takes a sadistic pleasure in humiliating him every time it gets the chance. It was already the case in Joker, but Arthur dealt with it by letting his Joker persona out. In Folie à deux, Arthur takes the bravest decision ever by metaphorically killing the Joker and facing the consequences of his actions. Even if he knows he’s f*cked for doing so. And what does he get for that? Nothing. The guy murdered 6 people. He’s a killer. He deserves to die. We don’t care about the rest. He’s meaningless. What. The. F. Be Joker=get f*, be Arthur=well, get f* harder! What are we supposed to get out of this?! It's actually impressive how Folie à deux throws out the window all the nuance and subtlety it established so masterfully in Joker. You made us sympathize with this guy even though we knew he was going a slippery slope. You made people question their morality. That’s no small feat. And now you go completely backwards. What a waste. Folie a deux could have been so much better, and that’s what you chose to do. What a waste indeed.

[blazehedgehog]

How is progress on your Ghostbusters RPG?

Almost dead, unfortunately. I think about it from time to time but I haven't done any meaningful code work since my Mom died. At some point in the last year I decided I'd write out the entire game script, since I was coalescing around a story idea.

With making an RPG in Clickteam Fusion, planning ahead is your best friend, so knowing every story beat ahead of time would give me a clearer picture of what needed to be coded on the back end.

But naturally, the opening to the game is going to be the most text heavy, outside of the ending. I wrote about three chapters, encapsulating a teaser and a recap of how the original Ghostbusters ended, and have been too distracted with other things to write more.

The general gameplay flow I was gravitating towards was something like Metal Max. Not long after starting this GB fangame, I watched somebody stream all of Metal Max NES and the bounty system in that was really interesting. Basically, over the course of the story, you'll hear rumors about special creatures and bandits roaming around the overworld, and if you can kill them, you earn a big reward by turning in the bounty.

If you ignore bounties, it cuts the gameplay length in half and you lose out a lot of level ups and gear. Taking/ignoring bounties almost ends up being kind of a difficult selector. Like doing a three heart run in Zelda.

For a Ghostbusters RPG, all of this just made sense, and it'd make it easy to reuse areas. You get calls about ghosts to catch, and you can either go catch the ghost (your bounty) or you can follow the story. Maybe the bounty is along the way to the next story event, maybe it's in a previous dungeon. It's up to you where you go.

I dunno if the game will ever get finished, but I'll let you peek on what I'd decided story-wise:

So it bothers me that a lot of recent Ghostbusters movies are kind of hero worship. Ghostbusters Afterlife is all about how these four guys were total legends that saved the world, and what a tragedy it is that they've been forgotten. "omg you kids don't know who the ghostbusters were? let me, paul rudd, educate you on the coolest, strongest and most epic titans to ever dress like sweaty service industry workers."

That's dumb. The Ghostbusters are working joes. They stumbled into this job, and saved the world kind of by accident. They are barely heroes and could have ended all life on earth as we know it just as easily. They just wanted a paycheck and were looking for a niche to fill.

And in the wider view of producing the first Ghostbusters movie itself, that too was kind of an accident. The movie got rammed through production, the script was an unfinished mess so they adlibbed a lot of it, and basically nobody expected it to do as well as it did. It is the very definition of lightning in a bottle, and it hasn't really been replicated.

So I wanted to push in on that. These guys aren't looking to save the world. They aren't actually that strong or cool. They don't have a sense of duty. They're just regular people, and they can (and do) make mistakes.

When Egon says crossing the streams is like "all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light", I imagine that means it's more than just a really big explosion. Ray calls it "total protonic reversal", which makes it sound more like the creation of a black hole, or something.

When the Ghostbusters crossed the streams and directed that into the doorway to Gozer's world, in my story, they effectively collapsed an entire dimension. Erased it, and whatever it inhabited.

I wanted there to be consequences for that. It was an impulsive action they made out of desperation to save themselves, and though it worked in the short term (sealing the door, almost certainly killing Gozer) I wanted there to be much worse long term consequences. They more or less punched a hole in reality, and there's really only two things that happen with holes:

They get bigger and deeper

They get filled in with debris

Ultimately I wanted to say that when the Ghostbusters crossed the streams, it was a mistake. They didn't know any better. They were messing with forces vastly beyond their comprehension. And the thrust of the game would be them figuring out what they did wrong and trying to come up with a plan to do a better job at fixing it.

But they don't know if they can do it. What happened with Gozer was a happy accident (that turned out to be not so happy). The scale of this problem literally dwarfs them. They are so small that they are barely even specks of dust. This is a supernaturally cosmic issue.

To me, The Ghostbusters are screw-ups that were in the right place at the right time and did the wrong thing. But not maliciously, just ignorantly. And the decision to take responsibility for that mistake is the grease that turns the gears of the narrative.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Saturday May 18th

GILES: Would someone please rip that bloody bell off its hinges? XANDER: Would that involve moving? WILLOW: My feet are numb. XANDER: I'll see your numbness and I'll raise you a lower back pain.

~~No Place Like Home~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

See You Yesterday by all_choseny (Buffy/Spike, R)

violence and denial by teenageapocalypsetrilogy (Buffy/Spike, E)

[Texts between Willow and Buffy] by scooby-group-texts

F*cked by Holly (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

[Chaptered Fiction]

Sunnydale Serenade, Chapter 16 by TheRealJeanGenie (Buffy/Spike, T)

Bloody Hell: A Hellmouthian Dissertation, Chapter 9 by HuonParticlesAreHarmless (Buffy/Giles, M)

Keep You Ghosted, Chapter 8 by hydranjenna (Buffy/Spike, M)

I Don't Want to Be the One, Chapter 13 by pommedapi (Buffy/Spike, T)

A Different Path, Chapter 12 by Anaxilea (Buffy/Faith, M)

Breaking the Code, Chapter 4 by Buffyworldbuilder (Ensemble, Star Wars crossover, G)

In the Company of Witches and Slayers: Chapter 39 by VladimirHarkonnen (TheLightdancer) (Willow/Tara, E)

In the Dark of the Night, Chapter 10 by norik23 (Buffy/Spike, M)

I hate the way, Chapter 11 by DancingAngel0013 (Buffy/Giles, E)

Greatest Love Story - Prelude, Chapter 3 by FalseGinger (Angel/Spike, M)

Quantum Entanglement, Chapter 1 by Senneres (Spike, Harry Potter crossover, E)

Dawn Before the Sun: The Doomsman’s Daughter, Chapter 1 by Luna_delCielo (Dawn, Tolkien crossover, T)

No Matter What, Chapter 1 by Xyex (Buffy/Willow, M)

Rewind (Pt 4) by Enigmatist (Spike, not rated)

Stab in the back, Chapter 22 by MelG_2005 (Buffy/Spike, Adult Only)

Surviving Together, Chapter 20 by ionlylikebadboys (Buffy/Spike, Adult Only)

Early One Morning, Chapter 44 by all choseny (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Meow, Chapter 8 by CheekyKitten (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Afterburn: In The Dark, Chapter 10 by Melme1325 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

A Ripple In Time, Chapter 33 by CheekyKitten (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Secret Obsession, Chapter 25 by Maxine Eden (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Exquisite Chaos: Part 1, Chapter 4 by yellowb, JayeMaru, bewildered, DeamonQueen, ClowniestLivEver, VoronaFiernan (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Lightning in a Bottle, Chapters 13-14 by violettathepiratequeen (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Dawn Before the Sun: The Doomsman’s Daughter, Chapter 1 by Luna (Dawn, Tolkien crossover, FR15)

Love Lives Here, Chapter 64 by Passion4Spike (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

The Kitten That Killed Slayers, Chapter 12 by Desicat (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

When the World Went Cold, You Were Brighter than Gold, Chapter 4 by Harlow Turner (Buffy/Spike, R)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Fanvid: Buffy + Spike -Stripped by all_choseny

Manips: Buffy the Last Slayer by all_choseny (worksafe)

Manip: Hustler by honeygirl51885 (Buffy and Spike, worksafe)

Manips: Buffy and Spike in bath by All Choseny (worksafe)

Cartoon: “Did you run into any trouble on the Enterprise yesterday?” by Paul Gadzikowski's The Hero of Three Faces (worksafe)

Puzzle: A Very Buffy (Connections) Puzzle by nicodemusfleur

Fanvid: Buffyverse | Difussion by Jess Wilson

Fanvid: buffy summers | who's afraid of little old me? by Moon Edits

Fanvid: willow rosenberg | who's afraid of little old me? [preview] by ImagineDragonlords

Fanvid: BTVS | Thrift Shop by xxLowkeyTrashxx

Music: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Rescore: Season 1 Episode 12 "Prophecy Girl" by David Müller

[Reviews & Recaps]

BTVS/Angel Rewatch Chronicles: Seasons 6/3, Part Three by QualifiedApathetic

Rewatcher's diary: Season 2, episodes 15 to 18 by jonaskoelker

video: Angel vs Spike: Who's the love story Buffy deserved? by Ryan B Talks TV

Video: The Body: An Outstanding Episode of Television by Darth Nerdus

Video: Buffy Season 6 Review! Spoilers! by SundayScariesReview

Video: No "apology" needed for Buffy Season 1! And Buffy's place in the era of "Prestige TV" by Ronald Off the Record

Video: Buffy Review - 5x14 Crush by Reverse Angle

Video: Hells Bells-Slayer Sunday by Jane Talks Buffy

Video: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 2 REVIEW | Ft. @Sisnerdly by George Alexander

Podcast: Slaying the Charts: The Musical Legacy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer by A Girl, A Guy and A Buffy Podcast

[Fandom Discussions]

There's actually so many missed opportunities with Fred and Gunn by AmmoniteFlesh

Spike said Dracula owes him 11 quid by Aphony Cree

One of Buffy’s nightmares in season one was being buried alive by reality-schmality

One of the things I disliked most about canonical Spuffy was how much they wound up hurting each other BECAUSE OF HOW STATIC THE CHARACTERS FELT by deadthingu

Buffy and Spike in Smashed by Joan the Vampire Slayer

Buffy and Willow by Joan the Vampire Slayer

What If: Buffy had joined the Cordettes instead? by nightshade

Was Angel a good father? continued by Stoney

Who did Buffy hate? by The Whirlwind

Do you think Spike deserves to be seen as heroic for not giving up Dawn? continued by multiple posters

Who did Spike hate? by The Whirlwind

Would you watch this show [the "Cordy" sitcom] if it were on? by AndrewHeard

How would Buffy had reacted to Wesley's decision in [AtS] season 3? by jdpm1991

What if Jonathan was the one who was redeemed in season 7 instead of Andrew? by george123890yang

Behind the Scenes BANGEL ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 by figinmyteeth

Was Riley looking to get turned? by Tuxedo_Mark

My top 30 Buffy episodes by fabe1haft

Question for Buffy Hard Cover books by nodakskip

[13/22] What's your favorite episode 13 across all seasons? by jonaskoelker

If you could erase one character from the show, who would it be? by VegasGirlAlex

What Faith lines or scenes did you find a bit cringy? by foreseethefuture

The Real S6 Big Bad by Glum-Substance-3507

Does anyone else thing that Nathan Fillion as Caleb in the Buffy was his best role? by BigDongForever

The opening credits power pose by Reviewingremy

do you prefer the earlier vengeance demon version from s3 or the one from s6-7? by melaniemoth13

Is it just me or does Angel appear kinda... different "Angel" than on Btvs? by BoredYogiOnHere

"You're a creature of the darkness, just like me" by sushibananawater

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

Video: Bonus Episode - We Interviewed a Buffy Background Actor! by The Sunnydale Diaries - A Buffy Podcast

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

[1moreoffkeyanthem]

So 2024 is almost upon us, and I wanted to acknowledge one of my favorite things about 2023: starting to write fanfiction lmao. So I figured I’d do a

PastorCraigEnjoyer Ao3 Recap!

Total works: 70 (I’m insane)

55 oneshots (not including Style Week)

Series: 4

11 Stick of Truth stories

Most kudos: How We Began

Most comments: And The Lighting Cracks The Sky

Most hits/bookmarks: also How We Began

Longest work: The Webs In The Rafters (24,478 words)

3 TFBW stories

Most written pairing: STYLE (ofc)

Work that made me cry the most writing it: We’re Gonna Sing It Even So

Favorite character to write from: Kyle (Stan is a close second)

Favorite AU: OrangeJuiceVerse

1 OC (Moose the cat lmfao)

Least favorite work: Of Wars Waged And Won (it was my first work and it’s ASS I didn’t know how posting on ao3 worked it’s very Wall Of Text and I kept spelling shit wrong but I’m too much of a hoarder to delete)

Works that meant the most to me: Broken Bottles From Apartment 2, How We Began, And The Lightning Cracks The Sky

Favorite oneshots: We’ll Get By, Gallons Of The Stuff, And Send It Soaring, Meet Me At The Edge, While The Dew Is Still On The Roses, The One Habit I Just Can’t Kick, All The Punches That I’ve Thrown, One Less Thing To Worry About, 5 Stages, The Motions I’ve Been Going Through Have Failed, At The End Of The Sidewalk

Major character deaths: 2 (I’m only sorry abt 1)

Most bizarre fic: The Webs In The Rafters

No one asked me but ya know, writing sp fanfiction gave me a much needed creative hobby this year. I write exactly what I want to read and have a lot of fun doing it, and have read SO much cool shit from others. Here’s to another year of ao3 shenanigans!

[lurkingshan]

9 People I would like to get to know better

Tagged by @blmpff @pickletrip @my-rose-tinted-glasses thanks besties!

last song: Moment of Peace by Saji, from the Fake It Till You Make It OST

favorite color: it tends to shift with my mood, but currently I'm back on my burnt orange bullshit for fall

last movie/tv show: The aforementioned Fake It Til You Make It, a cdrama that @he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle recommended to me. I ended up really loving it, it's a very mature romance with some interesting things to say about the culture of overworking and hustling to make it in a big city with impossible cost of living standards.

sweet/spicy/savory: savory

relationship status: *taps the aromantic sign* permanently flying solo

current obsession: hmmmm I think I'm gonna give it to Off's glasses in the Cooking Crush trailer

last thing I googled: alan sepinwall community--was looking for some old recaps to show @neuroticbookworm while she was rewatching

Tagging: lightning and bookworm, consider yourselves tagged! Also adding @sorry-bonebag @kayatoasted @bengiyo @pakkornn @solitaryandwandering @sparklyeyedhimbo @slayerkitty

[alexthegamingboy]

Toonami Weekly Recap 06/14/2025

Dragon Ball Daima EP#01 - Conspiracy: After the death of Dabura, Gomah becomes the new Supreme King of the Demon Realm. He and Degesu, Vice-Supreme King and Supreme Kai Shin's younger brother, watch what transpired against Majin Buu. Dr. Arinsu, Shin and Degesu's older sister, joins them to ask Gomah if he will give supplies for her research just like Dabura did and gives them the idea to use the Dragon Balls to make the warriors who fought against Buu young in order for them to not pose any threat to the Demon Realm. Due to the Demon Realm's Dragon Balls being protected by robot creatures called Tamagami, Gomah, Degesu, and Neva, a Namekian and creator of the Demon Realm's Dragon Balls, go to Kami's Lookout. When they leave the Demon Realm, they learn that Arinsu visited Earth at some point. On Earth, the Z-Warriors and their allies except Gohan are celebrating Trunks' ninth birthday at Capsule Corporation. Meanwhile on Kami's Lookout, Neva uses his power to collect Earth's Dragon Balls. Dende tries to stop them but is knocked unconscious by Degesu. Degesu summons Shenron and Gomah wishes for the Z-Warriors and allies who fought Buu to be turned into children.

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 1: The Blood Warfare EP#05 (371) - Wrath as a Lightning: Ichigo hears the voices of many Soul Reapers, while desperately attempting to escape from Quilge's Jail. Before Quilge can kill Urahrara and the others, he is ambushed and killed by an unseen assailant. Byakuya and Renji engage Äs Nödt in battle. Byakuya is unnerved by Äs, who awakened his fears with Reishi Thorns. Byakuya attempts to overcome his fear, but Äs overwhelms him with his own Bankai. Rukia and Renji are wounded by other Stern Ritters. Kenpachi Zaraki, having killed three of them (Stern Ritter "R" Jerome Guizbatt, Stern Ritter "Q" Berenice Gabrielli, and Stern Ritter "Y" Loyd Lloyd), confronts Yhwach and his right hand man, Jugram Haschwalth. Yamamoto saves 9th division lieutenant Sh?hei Hisagi from Stern Ritter "O", Driscoll Berci. He reveals that he killed Sasakibe and stole his Bankai, K?k? Gonry? Riky?, with which he attacks Yamamoto. This reminds Yamamoto that he taught Sasakibe 2,000 years ago. The enraged Yamamoto kills Driscoll, saves Kenpachi from Yhwach, and inspires the Soul Reapers to keep fighting.

Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga EP#30 (05) - Mysterious Connections: Yaozo orders Juzo to trail Tatsuma, who discreetly slips an envelope into Shura’s pocket. Yukio arrives in response to a jamming signal. Yaozo gathers a meeting to address the escalating situation. Meanwhile, Mamushi escapes to a rooftop, visibly overwhelmed by the strain of carrying the Right Eye of the Impure King. Yaozo tells Yukio that only Tatsuma can predict the danger posed by uniting both Eyes in demonic hands, warning that the resulting miasma would be catastrophic. Shura updates Yukio on Rin’s emotional outburst and insists Rin is safer than people like Yukio, who bottle up their emotions. In response, Yukio tries being open and bluntly tells Shura he’s always hated her. Elsewhere, Shiemi confides in Kamiki about her worries for Rin and Yukio. Their classmates arrive to report that Ryuji has been injured and that Rin has been detained for losing control of his flames in public. Ryuji also reveals the Right Eye has been stolen. Shura gives Rin the envelope Tatsuma entrusted her with, but neither she nor Rin can decipher the old-fashioned cursive handwriting. Yukio reads it aloud. The letter details events from before Rin and Ryuji were born: Tatsuma’s wife fell ill from the miasma leaking from the Impure King’s Eye. Tatsuma was scolded for neglecting the sacred flame, which had been destroyed in a battle where Shiro Fujimoto defeated a demon above it. The letter reveals Shiro took the Koma Sword from Myoda, setting in motion the events now unfolding.

Lazarus EP#11 - Runnin' with the Devil: Doug and an increasingly ill Eleina arrive in Pakistan but are soon tailed by two U.S. Army men sent by INSCOM. Hersch goes to INSCOM headquarters to meet with Schneider in an attempt to get him to call off his men by blackmailing him about the Hapna prototype clinical trials in the Arizona prison, but it backfires and she's detained on the grounds of treason. Doug pretends to surrender to the men so that Eleina can escape via scooter. Doug is injured by a buttstroke assault but manages to shoot out a tire as one of the men attempts to chase after Eleina, causing him to crash. Eleina successfully locates Popcorn Wizard before collapsing from her fever. Back in the U.S., Soryu begins attacking Axel, who uses the highway, rapid transit and river infrastructure in an attempt to evade him. Abel gives Chris clearance to use a rifle to help Axel as he goes to rescue Hersch, leaving Leland behind at headquarters. Meanwhile, Axel pulls himself out of the river and engages Soryu in physical combat on a small boat. During the fight, Soryu is suddenly distracted by a winged pendant that Axel wears around his neck, as it reminds him of the myth of the Hundun that was told to him during his violent upbringing as an assassin. Soryu spears Axel with a harpoon on a river dock before escaping into the river due to Chris' arrival.

5 Days Left...

Naruto (Chunin Exams Arc) EP#22 - Chunin Challenge: Rock Lee vs. Sasuke!: Following Team 7, and revealed to have a crush on Sakura, Lee challenges Sasuke to a battle. Feeling neglected in his teammates's shadows, Naruto's attempt to fight Lee himself only ended with him being quickly knocked out. Now interested to face an opponent calling himself the strongest Genin, Sasuke accepts his challenge but finds himself powerless against an opponent who uses taijutsu. Lee was about to finish the fight with his Dancing Leaf Shadow attack when a large turtle named Ningame appears. Soon after, as Naruto thinks Ningame is his mentor, Lee's actual mentor Might Guy appears on top of Ningame with Team 7 a bit taken back by Guy's tough love and motivational speech for Lee. Upon noticing them, Guy reveals himself to be a Kakashi's eternal rival before taking his leave after giving Lee a punishment task to complete. Before leaving, Lee confesses that he is not actually the strongest Genin, who is in fact someone else on his team, and that he only fought Sasuke to train himself. After Naruto pressures Sasuke over this turn of events, Team 7 reaches the room where the Chunnin Exams are to take place.

Slightly Damned Page 1158: https://www.sdamned.com/comic/1158

[horrorsequel]

i think the most disappointing thing about the clone high recaps being like pretty genuinely just recaps instead of jokes is like... if there WAS a time for genuine recaps, it would have been qhen the show was actually fucking airing on TV and you couldn't rewatch it/binge watch it whenever you want.... like they're just surrendering valuable joke real estate and then also slowing down the pace of jokes in place of more plot? and the thing that made the plots fun in the original was that it was Stupid Teen Drama Parody A Plot and Mad Scientist Situation Comedy B Plot with lots of absurdist humor throughout.... idk. They didn't need to be as focused on plot/continuity/canon especially since there actually wasn't much continuity between Season 1 and 2.... anyway my main complaint is they didn't commit to any of the buts hard enough. everything felt way too middle of the road...

it was FINE but it was only just Fine. like it seemed like they didn't understand or remember why the first season was funny. Like there's a lot of shows like this that did get cut short, and that's sad, but they were also lightning in a bottle. And especially the more time goes one and people change, they're never going to be able to get back into the headspace they were at the time, esp 20 or more years ago.

[festfashions]

Lightning in a Bottle, where do I even begin? Once again I’ve been enchanted by my favorite festival. Once again I've left thinking that this time it was even better than the last. Once again I've left inspired, recharged and more comfortable with who I am.

It's always hard to put into words exactly what this festival is about and what it means to me. When I come back after the weekend everyone likes to ask, and I find it hard to use just a few words to explain the feelings it gives me and the world it creates. So this piece might be a little rambly and long, but I want to paint a picture for you of the full experience.

LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE - THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM

On Friday, we arrived Lightning in a Bottle (LIB) bright and early. This was the first time we'd decided to do car camping. We were there by 10 am and I found the car camping area to be pretty packed already. It seemed that Thursday was the busy night for the LIB team, with the bulk of campers arriving then. Luckily we had a friend who came in Thursday night and saved a nice space next to his tent for us.

Let me tell you, car camping is a total game changer. I will never not car camp again at LIB. Moving our stuff from the car to camping was 100x easier. It also really helped that it was overcast Friday morning when we arrived. By the time we set up our tent, the sun was clearing out the clouds and warming up the day.

We got a new tent this year too. It was a Coleman 10 Person Instant Tent. We got it at Costco for about $200 and I have zero regrets. Previously we used a six person tent -- which holds six people if you're laying side-by-side next each other in sleeping bags with literally nothing else in your tent. With the 10 person tent, and four of us in it, we were able to fit two queen air mattresses, stand up to get dressed and have a lot of room for all of our other stuff inside the tent this year. We didn't even need to set up a canopy to keep us shaded because it came with a really great one that attached to it.

Setting up the tent and seeing the lake was totally amazing. For those of you who don't know, this was the first year that LIB has been at the San Antonio Recreation area with a lake. It's incredible to see that we had so much rain this year in CA.

After setting up our camping area, we grabbed some beers and went for a walk to check out the lake. It didn't take us long to realize how the lake was affecting the San Antonio recreation area. Over the course of the weekend we saw two snakes, some half-dollar-sized spiders, and lots of little flies/mosquitoes. Surprisingly, none of these bugs bit us and I don't have any marks which was a really nice surprise. The snakes were also harmless, mostly just scary. This was solved though by a guy next to our campsite who we ended up dubbing "Jake the Snake". This crazy guy collected the snakes for us and moved them away from our campsites. (Thank you, Jake the Snake).

It also turned out that the festival had to be reorganized a little bit, because of something else the lake brought with it. Where the Woogie stage used to be, a bald eagle had made a nest and laid some eggs in the tree. Talk about amazing. Some people even got to see it. We tried to look for it once but we couldn't find her or the nest.

We had one friend arrive at our campsite after us because she had to take a separate car. To offset the carbon emissions, LIB charges single car drivers $30 to park at the festival. Once she arrived, we changed into our first looks and headed into the festival for the first time.

Friday we themed "holographic space lamb". My group and I really like coordinating themed outfits. I wore my Glamorous UK blush pink mesh maxi dress, holographic J Valentine bottoms, lightning bolt pasties, and some new platform pink boots I had purchased from Hot Topic. It didn't take me long to need to put some insoles into those shoes. They were cheaply made but became much more comfortable once I had the shoe pads in. They were a ton of fun to frolic in around the festival. I always recommend bringing a pair of insoles to any festival. They can be a totally game changer.

The weather Friday was perfect with the morning haze, then even still once it cleared up. During the day it never got too hot and then at night I layered my look with some leggings and this really cool faux fur jacket I got off Poshmark for $20.

Once changed we headed into the festival to explore. The Thunder and Lightning stages were the same beautiful set up they've always been. A new Pagoda Bar, Woogie stage and other some other new structures were set up with beautiful bright colors reflecting on the lake.

Because of the way the festival was reorganized, it did feel a little squished in some areas. I felt like there was a stage near the Gong Sanctuary and The Cauldron tents that was a little too close. The music overpowered speakers there and the meditation space. I also felt like there were a lot more vendors than previously, which was fine, but it just took a little learning curve to learn the new festival grounds.

We checked out a class in the Learning Kitchen, "Digestive Psychology" on Friday. It was about how we often just try to treat an problem vs finding the underlying issue. For example: perhaps we have back pain and we're dealing with a lot of stress; we should learn to deal with the stress primarily vs medicating the back pain, because the stress could be causing the pain.

Friday night was a lot of fun bouncing around to check out how art pieces transformed into glowing night structures, dancing to music at multiple stages, and eventually closing the night with Rufus Du Sol. We're not really the group of people who stay up past 2am haha, we were beat and called it a night after 2am. There's of course music all through the night for those who want to stay up.

Saturday I wore matching tie-dye overalls with my boyfriend, which we dyed together the weekend before. This look was totally his idea and they turned out amazing. Everyone loved them, I swear I got more compliments on my outfit that day vs any other day. We purchased the white overalls from Forever 21 and got a tie-dye kit from Michael's with a coupon. I actually ended up having to dye the overalls twice because the first time we didn't properly fill in all the white space. That worked out fine and they turned really great. I loved having all the pockets and it wasn't too warm to wear during the day because we didn't wear any shirts underneath. and at night, I just added my coat again and I was perfectly content.

Saturday we ventured out and checked a few different classes. First was "Sex, Love & Awakening: 4 Keys to Ecstatic Partnership" at Haven. Let's be real, we wanted to check out at least one class that had sex in the title. I really ended up liking this class and the speaker. She was super well spoken and had a lot of interesting points. She talked about the fours stages of a relationship that she's studied as a psychologist, and my friends and I had some great discussions after about our own relationships.

Then we went to "Tarot Readings with the Tarot Woman" at Craft-Folk Arts. Each reading was $20. After, we went and checked out a favorite from last year, Benjamin Pixie and salmon skin tanning. This year the class was hands on and we saw a little of the process he uses. Mr. Pixie has some great stories and a love for sharing them that makes his smile quite infectious.

We checked out another Learning Kitchen class Saturday called "Flavor Tripping: A Trip Down Sensory Lane" which was really cool as well. This one was presented by New Belgium Brewery, and they had some beer samples for us while they talked about the process and different tastes of each. They also told us about this thing called a Miracle Berry and let us experiment with it. It's a plant native to West Africa that contains glycoprotein, something that causes sour foods to taste sweet temporarily. We all got to have one of these little pill versions of the fruit, then they passed out lemons and limes to taste. It was totally crazy because you really did have a tastebud change!

Saturday we also checked out the 2nd Annual Soapbox Derby which was so awesome, and spent most of Saturday night at the Grand Artique which is set up like an old Western town, and played some arcade games. I won a rabbits foot on my first try.

While it may sound like we had very organized days, it was was really made up of a lot of hopping around. We'd taken a look at the schedule before and picked a few things that sounded interesting, but for the most part we would check out a class here, listen to some music there, grab a snack or sit by the lake. There's really no set schedule you have to abide to at LIB and that's one of the things that makes it so much fun. We weren't living by the clock and rushing to keep to a schedule. Most people also have no service at the festival, and you either decide it's too frustrating to try to keep to posting things, or you just don't care anymore and you put your phone away to just experience everything.

Sunday was the hottest day. We woke up feeling hot for the first time, and decided it was time for us to venture down to the lake for a swim. The water was so refreshing and felt so nice. The shore was rocky but once in the water you could swim or float without touching it. Everyone was in the water Sunday AM it felt like. Pockets all over the grounds were filled with colorful floats. One of my favorite things about LIB is how we all accept the fact that just because we're adults doesn't mean we can't enjoy life and have fun. We still like to play in the water, climb on playgrounds and be silly. I love that we're given this freedom there. I love that no one judges anyone there. The festival had artists build a few climbing structures on land, then a few floating art pieces as well for us to all play on to further facilitate our play.

I think what always keeps me coming back to LIB is this overarching theme of freedom. I get to wear all my "crazy" outfits with lots of colors, dye my hair pink and do my makeup with tons of glitter. I get to play dress up and people don't stare at me like I'm a weirdo, but appreciate the creativity in it. I get to walk around with a backpack filled with cold beers and drink responsibly instead of trying to drink a ton before getting into an event so I don't have to pay ridiculous amounts to drink once inside. I never feel harassed by security or pestered by rules. It's an adult playground; we're given the freedom to explore, take charge of our own bodies, take charge of our own time, and express ourselves in our own creative ways. It's one of the most freeing experiences of my life each time I go.

Sunday we went back to Craft-Folk Arts to listen to "Storytelling - Animal Awareness with Rainbow Dreamer". It felt like story time in school again- Rainbow Dreamer was a flawless storyteller, with a mesmerizing cadence. From there we went to one of the last Sound Healing sessions at the Gong Sanctuary. Here you lay down with your eyes closed and they play all these sounds around you like rain sticks and gongs for about 20 minutes as a mediation session.

We then hiked up to Mediation Point to take in the view, and ended the day like every other day, watching the sunset from a cliff with other festival-goers. This is always such a magical close to the day, and it was even more beautiful this year with the lake reflecting the light. After howling and clapping at the sunset, we changed for our last night at the festival. Sunday night was the coldest and the most windy, but we had a great time again closing with Bassnectar.

Sunday I wore a hot pink metallic one piece swimsuit I had been pining over since I first saw it online. I waited for a good sale and purchased it, the brand is Motel. I wore it with some fun alien hoop earrings my boyfriend got me for Christmas, and at night with some glitter tights. During the day I had a faux fur purple vest with it from Poshmark, then at night again my faux fur jacket to stay warm.

There's so many things to explore at LIB, but my friends and I felt like we didn't miss a thing this year. We experienced it all as it was meant to be, by fulling allowing ourselves to journey through the festival. We went to some great classes and lectures and then took those further into wonderful discussions together as the sun set each night. We grew together over this weekend, and I know we won't forget the memories we made anytime soon. I love this feeling I leave LIB with, and I hope it stays with me for a long time until it's time to be refreshed again next year.

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

Rose Recaps QL 2024 - Favourite Friendships

Now that the xmas madness is mostly behind me I'm getting back to this, once again taking @abstractelysium lead with their prompts.

Peak, Latte, Thanwa & Almond - Knock Knock, Boys

They really brought me back to my time sharing a house with friends.

Fueng & Krom - City of Stars

Probably my favourite part about this show.

Ai & Ing - I Saw You In My Dream

Friends that actually confided in each other. About everything. Rarer than you'd think, so it was very refreshing to see it.

Kang & Neth - Only Boo

I love her. The type of bestie we all need. Supportive but also will tell you when you're being an idiot.

Ryan, Pie, Pah, Bahmee & Tae - The Trainee

I really enjoyed seeing these bonds be formed and the friendships grow.

Achi & Jinta - Cherry Magic Thailand

I loved how much they used telepathy to communicate in this version.

Yai & Tharn - The Sign

Yai is just the best bestie.

Venice & Archie - Marahuyo Project

Several good friendships in this show but this one just touched me deeply.

Kasuga, Nomoto, Yako & Nagumo - She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat

I love them. All four together but also, Yako with all of them individually.

Once again I'm gonna tag some people so I can see other people's faves. As usual, no pressure. @lurkingshan@he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle @benkaben @mikuni14 @btsstarseeds @sunshinechay also if you see this and want to play consider yourself tagged and tag me. 💜

[freshmusicfreak]

Lightning in a Bottle | A Festival Coming of Age [Recap]

You are gonna want to read this!

Devon Meyers

Lightning in a Bottle, often called LiB,  is one of the most recognized festivals in the US. Lightning in a Bottle has helped define the emergence of transformational festivals. It would be fitting that in its 18th year, it has, in this reporters opinion, grown up and further refined what it takes to make a festival a truly transformational experience for all those who attend.

As a…

[makeste]

BnHA 323: “I Don’t Know How to Explain to You That You Should Care About Other People”

Previously on BnHA: Kacchan was all, “Izuku, I’m sorry.” Bakugou Stans were all, “[sobs for a week straight and tearfully awards him the Nobel Prize for character development].” Deku was all, “[faints in Kacchan’s arms].” Iida was all, “[trying to decide if Ochako genuinely tried to kill him a few minutes ago].” Horikoshi was all, “NO TIME FOR HUGS WE MUST GET BACK TO UA.” The civilians holed up at U.A. were all, “WE TOOK A VOTE AND DECIDED THAT WE’RE ALL GOING TO BE JERKS ABOUT THIS AND MAKE A BIG FUSS ABOUT YOU LETTING DEKU BACK INTO THE SCHOOL.” Deku was all “[stands there looking like he expected nothing less and breaking my heart more and more with each passing moment].” Ochako was all, “that does it, looks like I’m gonna have to do something about this... next chapter, that is.”

Today on BnHA: Flashback!Rat Principal is all “I just want you all to know that I spent nine million dollars turning U.A. into a giant Battleship-style grid that can burrow underground and zoom around in a giant subway maze because Horikoshi lacks a grounded understanding of both civil engineering and economics.” Back in the present day, Jeanist is all, “EVERYONE TAKE HEED, MY COMRADES AND I HAVE DEEMED IT EXPEDIENT TO CONVEY THIS AUSPICIOUS YOUTH BACK TO THIS STRONGHOLD. WE ANTICIPATE THAT WE MAY DEPEND UPON YOUR GOODWILL AND ACQUIESCENCE TO THESE TERMS.” The civilians were all, “NO.” Ochako was all, “EMPATHY, MOTHERFUCKERS, DO YOU SPEAK IT?!” The civilians were all, “oh shit.” Anyway so Ochako is a giant badass, but I’m a little worried that she’s going to get struck by lightning. Please come down from there.

so before we start this chapter, I would just like to apologize for having not posted the ch 321 recap yet, and would like to reassure everyone, and especially Iida who is staring at me with Sad Wobbly Guilt Trip Eyes, that I will get to that as soon as I can

OMG FLASHBACK??

yes please Horikoshi please show us more of class 1-A and their Deku intervention strategy jam sessions

oh dear

Iida you are too pure and good for this cruel world. [sprays the U.A. civilians with a water bottle] NO. BAD CIVILIANS! NO OSTRACIZING SCARED AND EXHAUSTED CHILDREN IN THE HOUSE

EXCUSE ME RAT PRINCIPAL WHAT’S WITH THESE MIXED MESSAGES

???

RAT PRINCIPAL: he’s free to return to us at any time!!

ALSO RAT PRINCIPAL: but it’s too risky for him to return to us

?? ??????? ?????????????????????

so now he’s going on about how strong the U.A. Barrier is, and how it’s comparable to the defensive capabilities of Tartarus. this would have sounded a lot more impressive before chapter 297 lol

OH!!!! HELLO, WHAT’S THIS!!!

A TIMELY CALLBACK TO A CERTAIN MYSTERIOUS EVENT WHICH HASN’T BEEN REFERENCED SINCE USJ? [U.A. TRAITOR MUSIC INTENSIFIES]

so now Rat Principal says he upgraded U.A.’s security systems with his own “modifications”, whatever the fuck that means. I mean look, I’ve been saying for a long time now that U.A. is the best place for everyone to hole up, don’t get me wrong. but that was mostly on account of there not being any other practical alternatives. but you’re making it sound like you figured out a way to actually make it Decay-proof or some wild shit like that

-- hold up, DID YOU ADD A FORCE FIELD. DID YOU TRICK THIS SCHOOL OUT WAKANDA-STYLE YOU CRAZY MARSUPIAL. HOLY SHIT. because that would actually be perfect

LMAO

WHAT KIND OF GALAXY BRAIN BULLSHIT. “NAH THERE’S NO NEED FOR A FORCE FIELD, LET’S JUST PUT WHEELS ON IT”

oh okay so the whole campus is basically capable of burrowing itself underground. that’s insane lol I wonder how they pulled that off. probably got poor Cementoss working overtime

blah blah blah so basically the entire campus is split into a grid and each section of the grid is capable of its own independent movement. lol this is just the Merone Base from KHR. you thought no one would notice this casual plagiarism ten years after the fact, but YOU UNDERESTIMATED YOUR AUDIENCE, HORIKOSHI

“joke’s on you imma just lampshade it” WELL ALL RIGHT THEN

“look at me I’m so fucking self-aware” fucking swear to god. I can’t believe this man is my favorite mangaka of all time smdh

“excuse me, I wasn’t finished describing all the rest of this bullshit yet,” Rat Principal breaks in impatiently. “we also added a steel wall all around the underground of the campus that’s 3000 steel plates thick. that’s fifteen fucking meters of solid fucking steel just fyi. and if anyone fucks around with any part of it the defense system will activate immediately! and also all of the plates are independently motorized, whatever the fuck that means!! in conclusion you’re gonna need a fucking tower crane to suspend all of your disbelief by the time I’m through with this paragraph”

“also Shiketsu is almost as reinforced as U.A. but not quite because we still had to make sure we were better.” but of course. and apparently the two schools are connected via a secret tunnel as Hagakure mentioned earlier

LSDKFJLSDKJFLK

“WAIT WHAT” LMAO YOU HEARD HIM, NOW INASA CAN VISIT YOU BOTH IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND TELL YOU ALL ABOUT THE WEIRD DREAM HE HAD. GOD BLESS YOU HORIKOSHI

(ETA: moment of appreciation for Shouto and Katsuki having the same thought at the same time and making Knowing Eye Contact and saying the exact same thing out loud in perfect unison like the best friends they are. what a blessed day.)

so Tokoyami is all “but wait if you engineered all this shit all the way back during the Band arc how did you even know that Tomura’s quirk awakening would become a thing, Horikoshi -- uh, I mean, Principal Nezu”

and Rat Principal is all “lol idk”

“basically I just woke up one morning and was all ‘say, you know what this school really needs? a fifteen-meter-thick underground steel wall, and the ability to break up into little pieces that individually zoom around wherever the fuck they want.’ jesus christ. lol if money and common sense were apparently no obstacle why didn’t you just teleport U.A. to the fucking moon or something. maybe I should shut up before I given him any ideas

dsfaelkjldkjgl

you heard it here first, folks, all of this cost a grand total of nine million U.S. dollars. well technically it cost “more than” nine million dollars. never has that distinction been more important lmao. are we sure this barrier was really made of steel and not cardboard? who the hell sold it to them, Ea-Nasir??

this is my favorite manga series of all time. yes I am ashamed

“in conclusion please do your best to reach Deku-kun” SO WHAT WAS ALL THAT NONSENSE ABOUT IT BEING TOO RISKY THEN. anyway thank you for this super informative and edifying flashback, Horikoshi. I will cherish it always. I don’t even want to read another translation of this absurdity lmao, there’s something special about it just the way it is. pretty sure Horikoshi just had a cracked out fever dream one night and transferred it to the pages of the manga verbatim

anyway so back to the unruly mob

not their finest moment. please excuse me while I cover poor Deku’s ears and give him a good shoosh pap

oh wow the parents are out here too

is Mitsuki trying to hold Inko back?? that’s the last thing this fandom needs right now is more Mitsuki discourse fffwlkjs. and even Jiroudad, scientifically proven to be the best dad in all of BnHA, is just standing there silently looking vaguely unhappy. way to rise to the moment you guys

MONOMA

so this settles it for me that Aizawa is not at UA. I know a lot of people have been wondering about his whereabouts, and if I had to wager a guess it would be that something happened with Shirakumo/Kurogiri. I can’t think of anything else -- even the loss of an eye and a limb -- that would keep him from his kids at a time like this

anyway but this is excellent Monoma content right here though. I love that he apparently adopted Eri after a single interaction with her. also WHERE IS SHINSOU DAMMIT. THE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW

and Kouta’s there too looking like he wants to run over to Deku but Ragdoll won’t let him :/

it’s gotta be pretty upsetting for him to see his hero like this and not having anyone stand up for him. [taps megaphone] IS THIS THING ON. OKAY YEAH IT SEEMS TO BE WORKING. AHEM. PAGING URARAKA OCHAKO. GONNA NEED YOU TO GET OVER HERE ALREADY AND MAKE THAT BIG DRAMATIC SPEECH WHICH YOU ARE CLEARLY DYING TO MAKE. IF YOU DON’T DO IT SOON I’M GONNA HAVE TO STEP IN, AND YOU REALLY DON’T WANT ME TO DO THAT SINCE MY SPEECH WILL NOT BE VERY GOOD OR INSPIRING, AND WILL PROBABLY JUST CONSIST OF “HELLO, YOU ARE ALL STUPID, PLEASE SHUT UP AND GO AWAY”

so now Mic is telling them to calm down. at least someone’s speaking up here, geez

OH MY GOD

MY MAN JEANIST OUT HERE DOING WHAT HE DOES BEST: MAKING EVERYONE FEEL GUILTY AND JUDGED

OH MY GOD HE IS GIVING SUCH A LONG AND BORING SPEECH LMAO IS YOUR STRATEGY TO PUT THEM ALL TO SLEEP OR WHAT

truly in awe of this man’s ability to take messages which could easily be conveyed in ELI5-speak, and stubbornly convert them into incomprehensible language the likes of which you need a graduate degree in order to understand

“hey guys, so originally our plan was to use Deku as bait for the villains, but that didn’t really work and also we realized it was kinda dumb and was probably gonna get him killed, so we brought him back here instead.” was that really so hard, Jeanist. also are we all really just gonna sit back here and watch Jeanist take full credit for Bakugou’s plan just like that lmao

(ETA:

WHERE DID ENDEAVOR GO AND WHO IS THIS DIABOLICAL MASTER OF DISGUISE. lol I genuinely didn’t notice this because I was too busy digging through thesauruses trying to rewrite Jeanist’s speech; many thanks to @class1akids​ for pointing it out and making my day immeasurably better. take it easy there Dick Tracy.)

“anyway so please stop being dicks and let him fucking rest so he can save all your ungrateful asses” what an impassioned and inspiring plea. time to see if the masses will listen to reason

narrator: they did not listen to reason

oh my god finally Ochako is doing something. YEAH OCHAKO WOOOO SHOW THEM HOW IT’S DONE

hmm

this entire chapter is truly and utterly nonsensical to me lol

(ETA: on my second readthrough I’m fucking dying at how she stole the megaphone right out of Mic’s hand lmao. and how Kacchan is all “fuck yeah nothing I appreciate more than some quality fucking larceny.”)

oh I see she was jumping on top of the main building so as to scream down at them all more impressively

“ANYWAY DEKU IS PRETTY COOL ACTUALLY, YOU GUYS ARE JUST MEAN” couldn’t have said it better myself Ochako

lol uh

gotta say I did not have “Ochako reveals the secret of OFA to the entire U.A. Citizen Clown Parade” on my bingo card for this week. it’s a bold strategy cotton let’s see if it pays off

SDLFKJSL

“NO, SERIOUSLY, HAVE YOU LOOKED AT HIM YOU GUYS. YOU THINK HE LIKES RUNNING AROUND DRESSED LIKE A RUSTED OIL DRUM?? HE DID THAT FOR YOU YOU UNGRATEFUL SLOBS”

so she is basically explaining the entire Deku Angst arc to them and explaining what a good and selfless protagonist Deku is, YES, PREACH

OMG IT’S THE GIGANTIC FOX LADY

not to insinuate anything, but what exactly were you doing standing out here with the hysterical mob, Gigantic Fox Lady? you’re better than that

-- KACCHAN SIGHTING!!

sdlkfjl. thanks for weighing in with that helpful and important observation. where have you been for the last five minutes. were you asleep. was it Jeanist’s speech

never mind, now he’s yelling at the civilians so I instantly forgive him

THE FUTURE NUMBER ONE HERO, EVERYONE. THANK YOU, THANK YOU. HE’LL BE HERE ALL WEEK

“anyway so I’m just going to end the chapter here” lmao seventeen pages truly do go by so fast. at least he didn’t try to force in a cliffhanger at the end this time. dare I say, growth

so I guess the civilians are either gonna have a Kamino and/or Fukuoka-esque moment where they remember how to be decent people and apologize to this poor young man, or else they’ll remain unpersuaded, and so Kacchan will have to knock a few of their heads around until they become more inclined to be reasonable. either option is fine by me lol

[snelbz]

Tempting the Fates {Chapter 1}

Summary: It’s the final semester of Aelin Galathynius’ collegiate career and she is so beyond ready to be done. Her schedule is packed full of nursing classes and labs designed to test her knowledge and hone her skills for the real world and her “big girl” job. However, she needs one last elective to graduate, so she decides to study a subject she’s always been fascinated by: Mythology. Who would have thought that a class about gods and goddesses living complicated lives would end up complicating her own in such an unexpected way?

A/N: Fun fact about this one, y’all. I wrote the first chapter over 3 years ago and it was for a completely different story. This one has evolved on it's own and Tara and I are so excited to finally share it with you.

Word Count: 3493

Chapters will be posted every Wednesday.

Tempting the Fates Masterlist

Shelby’s Masterlist

Tara’s Masterlist 

Zeus

– King of the gods and ruler of Mount Olympus; god of the sky, lightning, thunder and law.

The waves lapped against the sand as Aelin sighed. Strong hands rubbed the muscles in her back and worked out the kinks in her neck as the warm sun heated her body. The smell of the salt water filled her senses and she settled into the cushioned chaise. Another set of hands set a fruity looking drink with a little pink umbrella on the table next to her head. She smiled at it.

“Can we get you anything else, miss?”

Aelin opened her mouth to tell them exactly what they could do to her.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Aelin’s eyes snapped open and she glared at her phone, chiming at her to get up.

She groaned, reaching for the offending device and silenced it, pulling her pillow over her head. She began to doze back off when her bedroom door flew open, smacking into the dresser on the wall behind it. She sat bolt upright and found her roommate leaning against the doorframe, a bowl of cereal in her hands and a gleam of mischief in her emerald eyes.

“Rise and shine, princess,” Lysandra drawled. Aelin just continued to scowl at her roommate. The bright warmth of the sun in her dream faded away as she looked out the window. Ice coated it and she could see a fresh layer of snow coated everything. “Aedion is about to be up, too. If you’d like any chance of taking a warm shower before class today, I’d suggest-.”

She was up and in the hallway before Lysandra could even finish her sentence.

Thirty minutes later, she sat on the kitchen counter, hair wrapped up in a towel, eating an apple and going over her schedule for the thousandth time. Her four classes were split into two days each, mercifully giving her Friday off.

Her cousin, long golden hair tied into a ponytail at the nape of his neck, came into the kitchen, pulling the jug of milk out of the fridge. He leaned on the counter across from her and drank straight from the plastic bottle, glaring daggers at her.

“Can I help you with something,” she asked him sweetly.

“You used the last of the hot water,” Aedion sulked, taking another swig.

She looked over, blowing him a quick kiss. “Maybe you should have gotten up earlier.”

He rolled his eyes, identical to her own, and came over to look at her computer screen. “What classes do you have this semester?”

She scrolled down the list, reading them off. “Pathophysiology, Caring for the Childbearing Family, Health and Gerontology, a few labs, and Mythology.”

Aedion’s eyebrows pulled together as she read the last one. “That doesn’t seem like it will be very helpful to a nurse.”

She shrugged, closing the laptop and sliding off the counter. “I needed one last elective. I’ve always been interested in Greek and Roman mythology and it’s a freshman level class. I figured why not study something for fun for once?”

He couldn’t fault her logic and began pulling ingredients out of the fridge to cook breakfast as Aelin headed back towards her bedroom. “Whatever you’re cooking, make two,” she called over her shoulder. She didn’t even need to look back to know the obscene gesture being flicked in her direction.

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

Aelin was regretting studying something fun for once as she looked at the map of her classes.

All of her classes, save for one, were in the nursing building. Of course, that one other class was all the way across campus, in one of the general education buildings. At least walking there would take her right past her favorite coffee shop on campus and with an eight am every Tuesday and Thursday morning, she knew she’d take full advantage of that.

Thankfully today was a Monday, so she’d be spending the entirety of her day in the nursing building. But first, she had to have coffee. The first day of the semester required coffee.

Aelin parked in one of the student lots close to the nursing building. Throwing her leather bag over her shoulder, she slammed her car door. It was absolutely freezing and she suppressed a growl as she saw soft white flakes drifting toward the ground.

What a great way to start off the semester, she thought.

She made her way across campus, hands deep in her pockets and face buried in her scarf. As she crossed the quad, she pulled her phone out to check the time. She still had about twenty minutes to get coffee and get to class. Snow crunched under her boots as she picked up the pace, wanting to be sure she made it on time. Aelin was big on first impressions.

As she approached the door of the café, she reached for the handle, but the door swung open suddenly, slamming into her and knocking her off her feet.

The young girl, eyes wide, apologized profusely but said that she had to get to class and ran off. Aelin was mumbling something about where the freshman could go, when she heard a deep chuckle and a tan, tattooed hand appeared in front of her face. She glanced up and the air was pulled from her lungs.

The owner of the hand was a handsome man in his mid-twenties, with hair the color of the snow swirling around his head and green eyes. Not emerald like Lysandra’s, but deep and rich like a pine tree. A tattoo, similar to the one on his hand, snaked up his neck and onto his face. She’d be willing to bet it ran down the whole length of his arm. She’d love to find out for herself. He smiled at her, a wicked, beautiful smile. She could only stare at the gorgeous stranger as she gripped her hand in his. He lifted her to her feet.

“You okay?” He asked. Aelin nodded, pulling her hand out of his. He opened the door and motioned for her to go ahead of him. She stepped into the delicious warmth and immediately got her wits back.

“I’m Aelin,” she said, giving him a man eater’s smile.

“Rowan,” he said, a slight incline of his head in acknowledgment.

“Thank you, Rowan,” she said, letting his name slip out of her lips like a purr, as she’d heard Lysandra do it to her cousin many times. She knew it drove Aedion crazy and for some reason, that’s exactly what she wanted to do to this man. She walked to the line. He got in line behind her and she pulled out her phone, figuring that would be that. A bit of shameless flirting with a stranger was never a bad thing. She ordered her coffee and was surprised when the barista handed her the paper cup, a phone number written on the side. She quirked an eyebrow at the girl, who gave Aelin a knowing glance and looked over her shoulder. Aelin turned around, meeting a pine green gaze, and smiled at him. She headed back out into the frost and snow, pulling her phone out to snap a picture of the cup to send to Lysandra, knowing her best friend would love this.

Finding the classroom in the nursing building where she’d spent the bulk of the past two years was a breeze and she made it into the classroom with seven minutes to spare. She enjoyed her time with Professor Hafiza in the fall and anticipated she’d like her this semester again, too. Nonetheless, she settled in about three-quarters of the way up and looked at the coffee cup again.

Feeling bold, she entered the number into her phone and sent a quick text.

Any chance you want to sweep me off of my feet again and grab drinks later? I’m free anytime after 5:00. – Aelin.

Her phone buzzed almost immediately.

My last class lets out at 6:00 and I have to go to the gym afterward. How does 8:00 sound?

She typed a quick reply and placed her phone back on her desk.

Sounds like a date. The Beer Cellar, on Church Street.

She smirked to herself and glanced down at her watch. 9:58. Not even 10:00 am and the semester was off to a great start.

She unlocked her phone, shooting a quick text to Lysandra, letting her know about her new plans for the evening when she heard the door open and students started to hush.

It wasn’t the most exciting class, Aelin had to admit, but she supposed the information was necessary. Hopefully it wasn’t an indication of how the rest of her semester would go. She needed a little excitement in her schedule, that was for sure.

Aelin liked to be kept on her toes.

After two classes and a crappy salad for lunch from the school cafeteria, Aelin was hurrying across campus and down the street, toward her apartment. Lysandra was nowhere to be found, which meant she was either snuggled up with Aedion somewhere or still in class. Aelin’s bet was on the former.

After organizing her deskspace, Aelin went to her closet, and attempted to pick out what she should wear for the night. It was her first date of the semester, which either meant that it could be a complete win or a complete fail.

She ultimately decided that the sluttier the better.

Laying the gold dress out on her bed, she let herself into the Lysandra’s room, borrowing a pair of strappy black heels she knew her roommate would absolutely approve of and was back out the door, ready to suffer through her first lab of the semester. Three hours was going to drag by, but thankfully, it was only once a week.

And drag by it did, but Aelin wasn’t sure if it was thanks to the monotonous recap of her previous semester’s information or thinking about seeing Rowan again. She usually wasn’t so forward, even though Rowan had clearly been the one to start it all, giving her his number. But still, she typically would have at least waited a day or two before texting him.

But there was just something about him that she couldn’t get out of her head.

She grabbed her gym bag out of the car, thankful she had a bit of time to get a work out in before she went out. Thanks to tonight, Aelin was a pent up ball of energy and needed to get it out someway. After a solid forty-five minutes on the treadmill and nearly thirty on the free weights, Aelin was heading for the locker room when she noticed a silver head of hair across the gym.

She watched him as he pulled himself up on the bar, his chin going over the piece of metal each time. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, sweat poured down his chest as his arms swelled. Aelin had been right.

That tattoo went across his chest, and all the way down his arm. He did the pull-ups so effortlessly, and Aelin’s mind began to wander to unholy places.

It wasn’t until his feet hit the mat beneath him that she was brought back to reality and hurried into the locker room. If he was here, that meant their date was approaching, and she had to get ready. She checked her phone. It was nearly seven.

Aelin hurried back home and showered. She had once vowed, during her freshman year, that she would avoid the gym showers at all costs and only used them under emergency circumstances. Luckily, her and Lysandra’s apartment was only five minutes from the gym.

After a shower and a full-body shaving session, Aelin was brushing out her long, golden hair and blow drying it until it was flowing freely down her back. She kept her makeup decently simple - at least, that’s how she made it look, and straightened the slight waves out of her hair before putting on her little, golden dress.

Once she had slipped on Lysandra’s heels, she was looking at herself in the mirror and even she had to admit that she was looking hot.

After grabbing her clutch, she hurried down the hallway and into the living room, where she found Lysandra and Aedion snuggled together on the couch, watching a movie.

“Going out with a stranger?” Lysandra asked, brow raised. “I'm so proud of you.”

“Yeah, just keep it in your pants,” Aedion mumbled.

“I thought I’d bring him back here,” she said, winking at Lysandra. “You don’t want to have breakfast together tomorrow?”

“Absolutely not,” Aedion mumbled and Lysandra chuckled, leaning into his embrace.

“Have fun, call me if you need me,” Lysandra called as Aelin blew them a kiss and headed for the door.

Her Uber was waiting when she walked out front and before she knew it, she was walking down the stairs into her favorite bar. Glancing around, she didn’t see Rowan sitting at the bar or any of the booths around the room.

So she bought herself a drink and claimed one of the pool tables, setting her coat and clutch on a bar stool nearby. Over halfway through the game, she felt eyes on her and glanced up to find Rowan standing at the other end of the table. Giving him a smirk, she knocked the cue ball into the yellow-striped 9 ball. It sank into the pocket.

“Playing with yourself?” Rowan asked, and Aelin caught a slight accent that she had missed earlier.

Aelin’s grin widened. “Well, if I’m left hanging, a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.”

Rowan breathed a laugh. “Fair enough. And if I asked to join?”

“You sure you don’t just want to watch?” she asked, leaning on the table, making sure her cleavage was perfectly visible.

Rowan’s tongue shot out and subtly licked his bottom lip. “Tempting.”

Aelin pushed herself back and grabbed the rack, starting to collect the balls. “Buy me a drink and then we’ll talk.”

Rowan bit his lip to hide his spreading grin. “Fair enough. I’ll be back.”

Aelin watched as he left, watched as he went to the bar and bought her another drink, alongside one for himself. He came back with two glasses. One was the color of the sunrise, the other a caramelly brown.

“Sex on the Beach?” Aelin asked, brow raised.

He shrugged and handed her the glass. “Sounded promising.”

“So… Rowan,” she said, letting his name drag out as she said it. He was dressed in a pair of dark jeans and the black Henley he wore made his hair seem even brighter in the dim light of the bar.

“Aelin,” he purred right back, pulling a pool stick from the wall behind her, nearly boxing her in. She realized then how much larger than her he was.

She loved it.

“I hope your coffee helped you get through the rest of your day,” she said, resetting the game and racking the balls. She glanced at him over her shoulder as she reached into the middle of the table, and he was watching her, staring at her ass.

Slutty was definitely the right option tonight.

“It certainly did, especially considering how boring it was,” he replied, reaching around her for the chalk that rested on the edge of the table. “But when I got your text, it gave me something to look forward to. Even if it made the day last twice as long.”

“Happy I could help.” She picked her drink up and stirred it, before taking a long sip through the straw.

“Would you like to break, or should I?” He asked, nodding to the pool table.

“Let’s see what you can do.”

He grunted as he stepped forward, lined up his stick, and knocked the cue ball into the others. They broke apart, but none of them fell into the pockets. Rowan stood there for a moment, his lips pursed. Meanwhile, Aelin tossed her head back and burst into laughter.

“Alright, alright,” Rowan said, straightening up and turning to face her. “So pool isn’t my thing.”

Aelin stepped up next to him and aimed her stick, leaning over the table, her ass nearly rubbed up against Rowan’s front. “Hopefully you’re better at other things.”

Rowan’s hand brushed along Aelin’s hip, just as she got ready to shoot, causing her shot to go haywire. She spun around, eyes narrowed. “That’s foul play.”

“No one said we were playing fair,” he countered.

“What about playing for drinks?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.

He lifted his own eyebrows and he said, “I’ve got an eight am…”

Shrugging, she said, “So do I.” Then she leaned in close, thankful for the three-inch heels she’d pilfered from Lysandra’s closet and breathed into his ear, “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you’re up in time.”

“So sure of how this night is going to go,” he said quietly, just loud enough for her to hear him, and she felt his hand skimming over the curve of her ass. “Fine. We’ll play for drinks.”

It turned out Rowan hadn’t been lying about pool not being his thing. They played three games back to back, and he lost them all, but every time he returned with a drink for Aelin, he had one for himself as well. By the time she dragged him towards the small dance floor in the center of the bar, they were both stumbling and his lips found her neck before his hands even gripped her hips.

His lips were soft, gentle, nothing like she had expected. Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe he was just getting tired, perhaps he was usually rough.

But, when his hands found Aelin’s hips and he brought her back into him, she felt that roughness. It seemed Rowan was the best of both worlds. Gentle when prompted, rough beneath the surface.

Aelin turned to him and slung her arms around his neck, bringing his lips to hers. Their mouths crashed into one another, and their bodies slowed until it felt like they were the only two on the dancefloor.

Rowan pulled away, just a little bit, and breathed, his eyes wild, “Aelin-.”

“Take me to your place,” she said, her mouth finding his, once again.

Before she knew what was happening, they were in the backseat of an Uber, unable to keep their hands off of one another. Thanks to it being a college town, the driver didn’t say a word, just dropped them in front of an upscale building, just off the east side of campus.

She noticed how nice it was on the short elevator ride up, but was much more preoccupied by the way his hips pressed into hers. He dragged her along the hall, his lips never leaving hers, until her back was pressed against a cool door and he was fumbling to get it unlocked. It swung wide and she gripped his collar, pulling him inside.

Throwing her clutch and coat by the door, Aelin let her hands dive into his cropped silver hair and he responded by cupping her ass and lifting her up. Her legs were around his waist and he carried her through the apartment and into his bedroom. Neither of them had any delusions about how and where this would end and Aelin felt like she was going to combust as he dropped her on the bed and gazed down at her.

His eyes were full of lust, full of hunger, a wild animal with his eye on his prey. He wasted no time stripping Aelin down and admiring her body with his hands, his tongue, his lips. Rowan may not have been good at pool, but he was right when he said he was far better at other things.

He worshipped her, and Aelin knew it wasn’t the alcohol when she was sent into utter bliss.

When he rolled off of her, breath still uneven, Aelin watched as he dealt with the condom and fell back into the bed beside her.

She cleared her throat. “I can go…if you want me to.”

Rowan turned to look at her, and she could tell he was still just as drunk as she was. “What? No, of course not. You said you’ve got an eight am, too, right?” She nodded and he tugged on her hand, pulling her closer to him. They were both still gloriously naked and she could feel the heat radiating off of his body. “Then we can both make sure the other is up so we aren’t late. Or too hungover.”

Aelin snorted softly, resting her head on his chest. “I think that particular ship has sailed.”

“You’re probably right,” he mumbled and she could tell he was already starting to doze. She was on the brink of sleep herself.

Aelin decided then, as her eyes closed, that she didn’t care if she was hungover in the morning, or if she was late to her eight am. A night being praised by Rowan had been perfectly worth it.