#(delete later if nothing comes to fruition I suppose)

[babacontainsmultitudes]

@dndadscharacterpolls *sweats nervously* guys if either Nick or Grant make it to the next round I'll compile the "every Anthony 'wow' compilation" sjsjjsksks and I made the "heh" compilation so you know I'm serious so say yes to good friendly voter fraud on silly character polls and support my boys please and thank you!

[anambermusicbox]

September 29 Day Countdown (26/29): 2016-2018 Radio Interviews on 动感101《小畅翻牌》

2016/12/20

(2:00) Interviewer, knowing Ukraine has renowned music schools, thought Zhou Shen went to Ukraine specifically to study music before she found out he actually was in dentistry and then switched to music; she asks why he went to Ukraine to study.

Zhou Shen: Simple! Because it’s cheap. (T/N: it’s extremely extremely cheap compared to studying abroad in other countries, and Zhou Shen’s family was quite poor)

(3:00) How did you win your parents over?

ZS: I didn’t. I told them, “Hey, I don’t think I can do this” and they were like “What?” I said, “I really can’t do this.” At first, they didn’t really understand what I was going through at the time. They said, even if I had to retake a year or two, they wanted me to keep going. They said, then take some time to improve in the language. I said, “I really can’t do this anymore,” they said no, and later I went against their wishes and applied to the music conservatory anyways.

(7:30) ZS talks about how he didn’t talk to his parents for months after switching schools, until finally his parents told him, “Then in the future, whatever you do is no longer our concern” and then hung up on him. 

ZS: (8:10) They said, okay we’re not giving you money for school, you figure it out yourself. But parents are like this: they say things but don’t go through with it. So they gave me money for tuition but nothing to cover living expenses. (*laughs*) (Interviewer: They said, whether you eat or not is no longer our concern) Yup. (*laughs*) They said they’d give me money for living expenses only if I studied medicine or language. So I had to borrow money from a classmate for food. I held out for 2 months, starved for 2 months before they said, okay since you’re this persistent, even though we’re still against this- (Interviewer: They still don’t want their son to starve to death) Right, they didn’t want to lose a kid. (*laughs*)

Interviewer: (9:00) When did their attitude finally soften towards your decision? 

ZS: After the Voice. (T/N: ZS didn’t tell his parents before he competed on the show; they found out along with the rest of the public when it aired) [...] They thought, ah okay he’ll be able to take care of himself now, he knows what he’s doing.

Interviewer: (9:50) Are they proud of you?

ZS: Oh yeah, they’re absolutely embarrassing. (*laughs*) After the episode aired, my parents- they run a small business, and customers who came by, my parents would be like, “Look :) who this is :)” and the customer would be like “…??…uuhh who is-“ “ITS HUAN YAN, OUR SON SANG IT!!!” (*laughs*) and then the customer is like “uuhhh ehhrmm….” I wanted to die from the embarrassment oh my gOD, it was so awkward. So awkward. Afterwards, I started avoiding being with them when they were with people. (*laughs*) They- they’re parents; they were happy, and then they started to worry. (*laughs*) This career... how long would I be able to do it for...

(11:50) ZS talks about how surprised he was by how popular Big Fish was; after only a few days, a lot of covers started appearing online. The singers for Big Fish and Begonia’s other OSTs were very big names, Eason Chan and Lala Hsu.

ZS: At first, they planned to have another very big name singer to sing Big Fish (T/N: it was supposed to be Faye Wong!), but because of reasons, their plan never came to fruition. The song’s lyricist, Yin Yue, she’s really too good to me. She kept insisting to the director, “Zhou Shen can sing this song, you should let him try,” but the director honestly didn’t care. The production company and the director, they wanted someone had enough influence to promote the film. (Interviewer: But congratulations to them, they ended up choosing the right person for the song! :D)

(19:30) ZS: “[After Masked Singer], my parents, they posted a WeChat moment they was quite touching—they said “Our son sang so well and seeing him work so hard—we want him to continue singing.” (Interviewer: Oh so they go online often?”) Yeah, only because I spent years teaching them.” (*laughs*) 

(19:45) ZS: “Every time I come home, my parents play my songs non-stop. I asked them, aren’t you sick of listening to it? Later I asked my sister, and she told me they play my songs all the time everyday. I felt like, wah (Interviewer: “All these years of being a host, and my own parents are the most avid viewers of my program.”) Wow… auntie uncle, I’m very sorry… (T/N: LKJNASFDFA THIS MADE ME SPIT OUT MY FOOD I WAS EATING HAHAHA) they’re gonna hate me. [...] I think, being a parent is really such hard work.”

2016/12/17

(5:30) ZS talks about how he didn’t sing at all during in his middle school years. Interviewer asks whether he ever tried to conceal his being different from everyone else.

ZS: Actually, when you listen to me talk, I- all these years I’ve already gotten accustomed to making my voice lower, it’s a force of habit. I’ve forgotten what my regular voice is supposed to be like. If I relaxed my throat while speaking it would sound like this—thinner, higher. But now I can’t go back.

(7:50) Interviewer asks whether he’ll try out different styles of music:

ZS: I think right now, people don’t know me well yet. I want people to first know who Zhou Shen is, what kind of songs he sings, and then try other genres, and only then will people want to listen. If release a song, people will be like, who’s Zhou Shen and won’t try listening to it—and if they listen and it’s a genre I’m not good at? Wow, no one’s going to listen.

2018/02/03

(1:50) ZS: “Well for one thing, I really hate my voice. (Interviewer: Why?) A male with this kind of voice is really weird. (Interviewer: It’s unique! It’s memorable. Can you find other people with this kind of voice?) Yup. My dad. (*laughs*) One time, my manager called my dad and he- “Hello?” “Oh hello auntie-” I was like “wAIT WAIT WAIT that’s my dad” (*laughs*) (Interviewer: Can he sing too?) No way, he scares people to death when he sings, he can’t sing. (*laughs*)

(7:45) After Big Fish was released:

ZS: Everyone seemed to like it, it felt- Eh? This is great. After about two weeks though, comments started to appear like: “just found out a man sang this and I feel like vomiting, I deleted this song immediately.” And it wasn’t just this one, there were many comments like it. It was extremely upsetting. I felt like, one of those characters in a sad drama, the kind that gets abandoned and they’re crying like “what did I do to you to make you treat me like this? TT^TT”

Interviewer: It’s like, even if there’s a whole pile of positive comments, if there’s one negative, that’s the one you pay attention to. Even if there are 100 nice comments—

ZS: —if there’s one hurtful comment, that’s the one that sticks with you, exactly! Everyone has this tendency.

(7:20) ZS talks about his duet with Guo Qin again (see translation from another interview talking about it here), how he was just as nervous as he was in his own blind audition and how he would’ve blamed himself if she had lost: “She’s 17—super young, makes me so mad—and she was sitting so calmly; meanwhile, I was standing there, all my limbs trembling—like, who’s supposed to be helping who here?” (*laughs*)

(14:45) About how he’s grateful that he didn’t get popular overnight: 

ZS: If I got popular overnight, I think it would’ve been over for me. Because my singing really did need improvement. Also, I think my album is really important in that in helped me get through a bottleneck period. At that time, I felt like, no matter how I sang it didn’t sound good. I felt like, can I even sing? But the process of recording this album helped me to see where I needed to improve. 

So if I got popular overnight, it really would’ve been over for me, because my singing wouldn’t have improved. It would’ve stopped there. (Interviewer: And you would still believe that you’re really good.) Everyone around you is praising you like (*rapid clapping*) “You sing so well!! You sing so well!! Look at how everyone wants to hire you to sing, you sing super well!!” It’s over- it would really be over. […] I quite like progressing one step at a time.

(18:10) Zhou Shen talks about how, when he got eliminated on the Voice, he wasn’t crying because he lost, but because suddenly going from spending so much time together as a team and having such camaraderie to all but four eliminated was too heartbreaking.

ZS: (20:20) When I got eliminated, I was actually really happy. I don’t like competing, and I felt I didn’t have any pressure on me anymore. I felt bad for Li Wei because I knew there would definitely be a lot more pressure on him now, because now he has to represent our entire team in the future competition. 

After our PK, he—because we both cried so hard—he said (*shrill crying voice*) “Zhou Shen I’ll carry your name and compete to the end!! TT^TT” (*Interviewer laughs*) and I replied, (*shrill crying voice*) “You shouldn’t give yourself so much pressure, don’t carry my name just sing TT^TT” (*laughs*) 

You don’t understand how hard we were crying. After the PK, there had to be a 25-minute intermission because Na-jie had to cry too. So she’s there crying in the mentor area and I’m crying in the eliminated area and Li Wei’s crying in the advancement area. [...] During the blind auditions, every single person earned their place in the team one by one, and now all of them are being taken out one by one—it was quite brutal.

2018/02/10

(1:30) Zhou Shen talks about how he has a longer process to be accepted compared to other singers, because they first have to get over the fact that a man has this type of voice before they truly listen to him sing. Some people react like, WOW amazing!! while others are on the other end of the spectrum:

ZS: Once, I was at a restaurant and at that time, they were broadcasting the blind auditions of the Voice. The restaurant owner just happened to be watching it, and when I appeared, he was like “Eh? Who’s this- WAH-“ and immediately changed the channel. I was like ??? D’: ????? “…can I have some water?” (*laughs*) He changed the channel right in front of me, you know? He didn’t recognize me. It was- (*makes disgruntled noises*) It was really upsetting.

(2:20) ZS, about being on Masked Singer: “That was the first time I felt acknowledged by the sentence ‘wow this girl sings so well!’”

(20:30) In the three years since your debut, have you ever seen a fan who, because of your songs or your voice, their life changed?

ZS: Have I seen that personally? That would be impossible, but I have read about it in letters and comments. There was one comment, this person—they had depression, the kind that they were being prescribed medication for—but they started listening to my music and slowly started to become happier, their mental health improved. I was so astonished—music is really so powerful.

Another one was- to be honest, men with this type of voice are actually not uncommon. It’s really not just me. Once, I was at karaoke with an old schoolmate—middle school or high school, I forget—and he said, “because of you, Zhou Shen, because you sang in that competition [the Voice], I’m now brave enough to sing at karaoke. It feels like, even with this kind of voice, I can sing too.” That moment—I was so moved.

2018/05/19

(3:45) ZS talks about how Gao Xiaosong was really satisfied with how the album turned out, and how Gao Xiaosong is actually really thin.

Interviewer: Why do you always have to mention that? No one is asking about whether he’s fat or thin.

ZS, joking: How else do you think I got this album—I kept complimenting him as thin (T/N: HAHAHAHAHA)

[hesthekingofsomewhere]

“This is why mom doesn’t fucking love you” with Jack and Race (platonic)

I added smalls as a third sibling! Heres the thing on AO3, or read below!

The Larkin kids were engaged in the biggest prank war of all time. Race, of course was the one who started it, and after dunking all of Small’s clothing in pink paint, he deserved retaliation. Smalls, being the baby of the family, easily enlisted Jack to help her out. Small’s revenge came in the form of filling his sheets with applesauce, prompting Race to stuff his applesauce-covered bedding into Jack’s backpack. From there, all hell broke loose.

The next 3 weeks were a living hell. Everyday at least one person would be woken up by a prank or not woken up at all due to a missing alarm clock. Breakfast was equally prank filled, usually food replacements or general nonsense. The school day would usually have one or two pranks between Race and Jack, as Small’s went to a different school. After School was chaos. every minute was spent either planning, executing, or receiving pranks. Medda made them promise not to do anything during family dinner time, and for the most part they listened. After the first week, trends started to emerge.

Jack’s pranks tended to come in the form of messing with Race’s (and later, Smalls’s) things. Covering his room with pictures of Shrek, filling his school binders with bee movie scripts, moving everything in Race’s room to the left about 3 inches. Most of Jack’s pranks were so meme-y it just made them laugh. His pranks weren’t harmful by any means, just annoying as hell.

Race’s pranks weren’t exactly pranks, they were more just scaring the shit out of his siblings. Hiding behind doors, in closets, car, lockers, as his siblings saw it: Race could potentially be anywhere. Even when they could see him, it wasn’t out of the question for him to have something else be the scare-er. Fortunately they had an idea of when they were going to be scared, as there was almost always a phone recording the whole thing.

Smalls liked pranks that were waged over the internet. Her first solo-prank was hacking into Race’s instagram and deleting all of his pictures, only to replace them with fantastic pictures of herself. She had so much fun with that prank she made the mistake of doing the same to Jack’s instagram, causing her to lose her alliance with him and turning the house into an all-out war zone.

The first day after the Smalls broke her alliance with Jack signalled the peak of the war. Smalls woke up with her entire room relocated to the front lawn. How Jack- she had to assume it was Jack, it had his name all over it- had managed to move every item of furniture from her room on the second floor to the yard without waking her up was a mystery, but not unbelievable. Smalls made eye contact with a neighbour who was fetching their morning paper. She looked down and realised Jack had also put her in a pair of god-awful cheetah print pyjamas.

“JACK KELLY-LARKIN, YOU ARE DEAD TO ME!”

Breakfast seemed very normal to begin with. Neither Jack nor Race seemed awake enough to plan any pranks, making it a perfect time for Small’s rebuttal. It was a prank she had set up a while ago, and it was time to strike.

“Smalls, can you grab the OJ?” Race asked from his slump on the table.

“Uh, there’s only the stuff from concentrate.” Smalls pulled out a pitcher of orange liquid from the back of the fridge.

“OJ is OJ.” Race gestured for her to bring him the jug. Smalls pretended to pour herself a glass of chocolate milk and watched Race and Jack pour themselves glasses of… juice? With impeccable timing the boys took simultaneous sips and simultaneous spit-takes. Smalls burst out into laughter.

“JESUS CHRIST, SMALLS.” Jack shouted, wiping his mouth.

“WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST PUT IN MY MOUTH?” Race yelled.

“An artful combination of water and 7 KD cheese packets.”

“BOI.”

School at least took Smalls out of the equation, leaving only one prankster for each of them to worry about. Race found his first surprise of the day almost immediately, he opened his locker, only for hundreds of ping pong balls to fall out, spilling everywhere. It took probably 5 minutes for the locker to empty completely, while Race just watched in slightly-annoyed awe. Moments later he heard Jack scream, as a similar pile of fake tarantulas fell out of his locker down the hallway. The scream was enough to lure a teacher out of their classroom.

“Mr. Higgins-Larkin, would you care to explain?” The teacher asked. Race grabbed his books from his locker and slammed the door.

“Ask Jack Kelly-Larkin.” Race directed before running off to class. A voice echoed down the hallway.

“FUCK YOU, RACE!”

Lunch brought Race the mild surprise of his lunch being filled with an unusual amount of celery and literally nothing else. He didn’t even hate celery that much. As for Jack, no pranks came, and every second that passed left him more and more ready for a prank to come the next. Race was halfway through his celery when he got the first phone call. HE didn’t recognise the number, so, as any kid does, didn’t answer. He got 20 more calls from a variety of numbers over lunch, but resolved not to answer any, figuring it was one of Jack’s pranks. The phone calls continued to trickle in over the remaining classes. By the end of class Race’s voicemail was full. Eventually the curiosity got the best of him, and gathered his friends around to listen to them after school. Race opened the first message.

“ggrgraragragrghrajkargragrrrrr” was the entirety of the message. Race looked at his pals and opened the next one.

“blahahablalallallalal” That one sounded more like a dying sheep. One by one the messages were opened, all of them containing the same weird noises. What they were supposed to mean, Race had no idea, but it was weird as hell, and seemed like something Smalls would set up.

Jack got home first, and Race found him lying on the couch watching TV. He eyed his brother suspiciously for a moment, before sneaking upstairs to his room. He flicked on the lights, half-expecting his room to be covered in post-its notes or something, instead his room was just uncomfortably warm. Race jumped up and pulled the fan cord, and the ceiling fan started up, spraying confetti everywhere. It took all of his self-control not to murder Jack right then and there, no he had to wait until Jack got comfortable. According to his calculations, Jack would start falling asleep in about 10 minutes, he could never stay awake for more than 40 minutes while watching TV. In those 10 minutes Race prepared for his winning prank. And also got a broom to clean up this damn mess.

Race snuck down the stairs, completely silent approaching the spot where Jack was napping on the couch. He reached toward the coffee table, grabbing the remote and slowly turned down the volume on the TV, making the room entirely silent. Race fired his gun into the air, waking Jack with a start, and causing him to fall off of the couch.

“THIS IS WHY YOUR MOM DOESN’T FUCKING LOVE YOU.” Jack screamed, Race just laughed.

The prank war came to an end when Smalls broke the penultimate rule; don’t prank at the dinner table. To her credit, she didn’t do the actual pranking at dinner, it just happened to come to fruition then. Before dinner, Small’s had stolen Race and Jack’s phones, and redirected their numbers to herself. The havoc wrecked in the 5 minutes Small’s controlled their text convos was undeniable. At least for Jack, who received 36 phone calls over the course of the meal, and left his ringer on. Apparently, Small’s had sent a bunch of cryptic texts to Jack’s boyfriend, the result of which was many calls from concerned friends. Race’s boyfriends response was “lol k?”; they understood each other very well. Either way, Medda declared the official end of the prank war. It was terrifying fun while it lasted, and while all three siblings maintain that they won, only Race and Small’s knew the truth: Jack lost miserably.

[master-sass-blast]

Strong as Stone --Part Fifty-One.

So, apparently, Tumblr removed the “dash” function that I used to separate my scenes from each other. Which means I had to develop a completely new system while editing this update. Yay.

*insert OCD rage here*

Anyway.

Last time, we got to see Okoye meet the rest of her biological family! Actual yay!

This time, we get to see the aftermath of the South Korea mission --and get a much needed girls’ night.

Rating: T for language and mild angst.

Pairings: Okoye x M’Baku and T’Challa x Nakia.

Author’s note: We’ve got a maximum of eleven chapters before this story’s done! I can’t believe we’re in the final stretch. After over a year of sticking with this story, it’s hard to wrap my head around.

Taglist: @the-last-hair-bender, @skysynclair19

As a nation, we are blessed with advanced technology, weaponry, and information gathering ability. As such, there will be times that you or the King you will serve will know about disasters and wars before they come to fruition.

Our vibranium is a gift from Bast, and it is our duty to use it wisely, for the betterment of others.

It is not, however, our duty to save the world from itself. Know when to step into fights and when to stay clear of them, my dears.

***

Okoye pursed her lips. “Shit.”

Ayo grimaced in response. “I know.”

When Ayo had called her earlier that week to warn her that the “haul” from the HYDRA base in South Korea was going to be large, Okoye had expected a decently lengthy list or two, maybe a moderate amount of paperwork to go with.

She hadn’t expected the codes to every nuclear cache held by every country, along with confidential government emails, security measures used to protect heads of state, and placements of classified, active military teams, to name a few.

Every conceivable detail, every dossier and file, every single dirty, war starting secret there was, they’d found.

“This is bad,” Okoye murmured, feeling the blood drain out of her face. “This is really bad. If we get caught with this kind of information—”

“HYDRA will paint us as the villains,” Ayo finished. “Easily. The release of the SHIELD files barely did anything to slow them down. This—”

“This definitely won’t.” Okoye pressed her fist against her mouth as she sat back in her seat. “We can’t even run the end of alerting everyone that their information’s been taken. There’s no way to paint the picture without making a mess of ourselves.”

“This also raises the question of how widespread they really are,” Ayo pointed out, expression equally as grave. “Do they have operatives in every nation, or did they manage to collect all of this remotely?”

“That wasn’t the question I had.” Okoye clicked back to the top of Ayo’s mission report. “You said that the base was barely guarded.”

“Right. It was… odd.”

“It was. And now we’re in possession of the world’s secrets.”

“What are you thinking?”

Okoye drummed her fingers against the top of her desk as she tried to find the right words. “Having a… collection point for electronic files makes sense. It could act as a backup if an email system or server got hacked or went down. But if you were going to make a physical site with everything you collected, wouldn’t you make it harder to break into?” When Ayo nodded, she went on. “Having a backup site for electronic files makes sense. But pooling all your physical weapons into one remote location? Instead of distributing them to all active cells?”

“You think we’re being set up?”

“Either that, or led on a goose chase.” Okoye sighed and rubbed her temples. “We’ve been handed a bomb. We need to figure out how to disarm it before it goes off.”

“It would be easy to delete everything from our systems,” Ayo suggested. “If we don’t have it, there can’t be any chances of someone discovering we have it and accusing us of ill intent.”

“Which raises the question: do we have the moral obligation to comb through everything in search of threats? You’ve seen what’s in this list. Do we need to go through everything and handle things before they spiral out of control?”

Ayo pursed her lips. “I don’t know. I don’t even know if that’s our job.”

“It’s not America’s job to have military cells illegally active in the Middle East, either,” Okoye muttered. She glanced over the list once more, then shut it off with a huff. “I’ll speak with the King about this; he’s the only one who can decide if we act or not. In the meantime, have Jhanvi figure out how HYDRA got their hands on all of this information. We need to know how many people we’re dealing with.” She nodded to Ayo as she left, then contacted T’Challa through her kimoyo beads to set up an emergency appointment. Bast, please let there be a safe answer to all of this.

***

T’Challa’s face went ashen when she told him about everything they’d unearthed in the South Korea base. “This is not good.”

“That does seem to just about sum up the situation,” Okoye agreed.

T’Challa sighed and sat back against his throne.

They’d elected to meet in the throne room, given that it was the midpoint between where they’d both been when Okoye had sent the meeting request. The room was empty, save for them and the secrets Okoye had just shared. In the waning light of the ending day, it felt less like a command center where countless meetings on the nation’s future had been held and more like a tomb.

And all these secrets might just send us to ours.

“Do you think we’re being set up?” T’Challa asked as he looked up at Okoye.

“It makes sense,” Okoye said. “I’m having Miss Singh look through everything for any indications of a set up, but until we find proof there’s no way of knowing. And, in the meantime, we have a more pressing question: do we have a moral obligation to use the information we have to head off as many possible wars and disasters as we can, or is it better to delete it all and possibly save incriminating ourselves with good intentions?”

T’Challa rubbed his temples, expression weary. “As much as I loathe to say it… it’s not our job to save the world. We can’t try to stop every other nation from committing atrocities. Besides, preventing them from happening won’t change the attitudes and policies that created them; there’s no sense in cutting off leaves if we have no way of reaching the roots.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then exhaled and nodded to himself. “Delete this list. It will only bring us grief.”

Okoye bowed her head. “Yes, my King.”

T’Challa sighed, then smiled tiredly. “How’s your baby doing?”

One of her hands automatically went to the swell of her abdomen. “Good, as far as the doctors say. I miss drinking coffee. How is the Queen?”

“Good,” T’Challa said with a smile. “She misses drinking coffee, too.”

“Did she threaten you with bodily harm while going through the caffeine withdrawals?”

“Only once or twice.”

“She had more restraint than I did,” Okoye muttered, smirking when T’Challa chuckled.

***

“Do we have enough boxes?” Ayo asked as she surveyed Okoye’s apartment.

“There’s never enough boxes,” Djabi replied. “You’ll think you’re done, and then ten thousand other things that need boxing will appear out of nowhere.”

They’d called a “Girl’s Night” to help Okoye pack up her apartment; she and M’Baku had found a new, more spacious place in Birnin Zana –closer to the palace to boot—which meant that she had to pack up her belongings.

And then M’Baku had been called up to the Jabari lands to handle some official tribal business –some sort of agriculture related dispute from the sounds of things—and Aneka had taken the opportunity to make the event an official “Girl’s Night,” given that it’d been a while since the four of them had been able to spend time with each other.

“We should have enough,” Okoye said. “I’m not packing clothing and bedding until we’re completely ready to move, so we should be fine.”

There was a quick rap at the door, and then Aneka popped in, followed by Natasha Romanoff.

Okoye had hesitated to invite the Russian agent until Aneka had assured her the Natasha was genuinely unobtrusive –and Ayo had supported her girlfriend’s claims when Okoye had asked her second-in-command for a second opinion.

Besides, extra hands were extra hands.

“Welcome to the packing party,” Djabi said, nodding her head in greeting at Natasha. “There’s beer and wine in the kitchen.”

“And herbal tea for those of us who can’t have alcohol,” Okoye grumbled as she sipped from her glass.

“It’s good for the baby!” Aneka said cheerily as she hugged Ayo in greeting.

Natasha merely smiled and nodded. “Well, thank you for inviting me along –and I’m happy to help, of course. How’s the baby doing?”

“Growing,” Okoye said tiredly. “I thought I wasn’t supposed to get back pain until later.”

“My sister said that she only had back pain with her boy babies,” Djabi commented. “You might be having a boy.”

“That’s just a superstition,” Aneka interjected. “Aside from genitalia, the only discernable differences between fetuses are heartbeat rates.”

“No, it makes sense,” Ayo argued. “Male babies tend to carry more weight, which puts more strain on the mother’s body.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Natasha said mildly as she began to help Djabi box up some books. “I can’t have children.”

Aneka frowned. “Do the Avengers have a policy against kids? I thought they were more open-minded about that.”

“No, nothing like that,” Natasha replied after a moment. “Tony made sure the policy was inclusive and supportive. It’s just me that can’t have kids. All Black Widow agents are sterilized before they enter the field.”

The room went deathly silent as Okoye, Ayo, Aneka, and Djabi all stared at each other, then at Natasha, eyes wide with horror.

“Why did they need to do that?” Aneka asked, finding her voice first. “Were you sick?”

Natasha shook her head. “It’s to prevent us from becoming mothers; they said it was ‘the one thing that might distract us away from being agents.’”

“Categorically false,” Djabi muttered. “I’ve had plenty of sex that would persuade me to stop being a Dora. Fuck, I’ve eaten food that would persuade me to stop being a Dora.”

They all laughed, and the tension in the air abated.

“I hope this isn’t your way of saying you’re dissatisfied with your job,” Okoye teased.

“No, it’s my way of saying that if I could spend the rest of my life eating good food and having even better sex, I would.”

“Doesn’t sound like a bad way to live life,” Natasha agreed with a smirk. “I take it the Dora are much more open to motherhood?”

“Comparatively, it’s not much of a bar to step over,” Ayo pointed out.

“Fair enough.”

“I get to keep my job, if that’s what you’re asking,” Okoye said. “I just have to stop field missions for a while for my own safety.”

“So you get maternity leave? Healthcare benefits?” Natasha asked.

“Obviously,” Okoye said. “And Wakanda has national healthcare.”

“Most nations don’t have a form of national healthcare,” Natasha pointed out.

“Most nations are run by idiots,” Ayo grumbled as she wrapped a vase in bubble wrap.

Natasha chuckled. “Fair enough.”

“Would you ever want to have kids, Agent Romanoff?” Aneka asked. “There’s a lot of options available with surrogacy, adoption, and fostering.”

“I’ve never really thought about it,” Natasha admitted as she taped a box shut. “Admittedly, my line of work wouldn’t make raising a kid easy, and I do like my job. I’ve made a lot of enemies over the years, too; I don’t think I’d want to bring a kid into all of that. Besides, I get to be an aunt to Agent Barton’s kids, which basically alleviates most of the kid related desires I could have.”

“That’s good,” Aneka said with a smile.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Okoye said. “The Princess and her team recently made a breakthrough. They managed to construct a function uterus and ovaries out of synth-organic material. It has potential for both transgender women and women who struggle with infertility or have sustained injuries to their reproductive organs.”

Aneka clapped her hands. “That’s incredible!”

“Alternative: I just donate my uterus and ovaries,” Djabi said. “I’d be so happy to get rid of them and my menstrual cycle.”

“And here I thought we wouldn’t find a way to make organ trading legal,” Ayo quipped.

Natasha snorted, but her smile was a little melancholy. “I think I’ll have to stick with the Barton kids until the rest of the world catches up.”

Okoye regarded the Avenger for a moment before speaking. “If that was something you wanted, we’d make sure you got it.”

Natasha blinked at her, stunned, then smiled softly. “Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.”

They worked in silence for a few minutes, focusing on boxing up various keepsakes and books.

“So, what’s it like, working with the King?” Natasha asked.

Okoye, Ayo, Djabi, and Aneka all looked at each other.

“I mean—” Aneka started.

“He’s alright,” Djabi said.

“He’s a good ruler and boss,” Okoye added.

“He once walked into a door because he got distracted looking at his wife,” Ayo said.

Natasha choked on a laugh. “No way. Really? He seems so… dignified.”

Okoye rolled her eyes. “The Queen –before she was his wife—was on a mission when the King was scheduled to go through the coronation rites. He and I went in to extract her; he got so distracted when he saw her that he literally froze. I had to step into to make sure he didn’t get his ass handed to him.”

“Wow. Honestly, that sounds like half the men I work with. More than half.”

“Even Captain America?” Aneka asked. “He seems like he has it together. Mostly.”

“He’s one of the worst,” Natasha asserted. “He’s a massive dork.”

“Okay, you can’t say shit like that and not back it up!” Djabi insisted.

Natasha smirked. “Well, then, I guess it’s a good thing I have plenty of stories to tell.”

***

Okoye nearly dropped the picture frame she was holding. “No! He did not!”

“He did!” Natasha insisted, sounding nearly as irate as Okoye did. “He took off his helmet because the fucker asked him to! And fought him!”

“I mean, at least he won,” Aneka offered, trying to find some sort of bright side.

“That doesn’t matter!” Ayo nearly shouted, aghast. “You do not take off your armor in a fight! Especially when an enemy asks you to!”

“Trust me, it gets worse,” Natasha said. “He jumped out of an elevator.”

Djabi shrugged. “Okay, well—”

“Eleven stories up.”

“What!” the four of them exclaimed in unison.

“He fell through a glass roof and had only his shield between him and ground when he hit it.”

Okoye stared at Natasha, then shook her head. “No. That’s impossible.”

“I agree.” Djabi pointed a finger at Natasha. “You’re fucking with us.”

“I swear I’m not!” Natasha said between bursts of laughter. “And it still gets worse. He stole his old uniform from the forties out of the Smithsonian and wore it to go fight a super assassin on a Hellicarrier. You know, lighter armor, doesn’t hold together as well—”

“Men,” Ayo spat out as she rubbed her temples. “Are so fucking stupid.”

“I’m not disagreeing with you,” Natasha said as she wiped at her eyes. “Not in the slightest.”

Okoye opened her mouth to make some sort of similar comment, but was cut off by the emergency call chirp coming from her kimoyo beads.

T’Challa looked up at her when she answered, expression grave. “Turn on the news. The international station.”

Aneka grabbed the remote off the coffee table. She turned the TV on and flipped to the appropriate channel. “What—”

An image of Brazil flashed on the screen, accompanied by a reporter’s voice.

“Several warheads containing a more aggressive version of the Zika virus were released from an unknown location inside Brazil today. Most of the targeted nations were able to safely disarm the warheads before they made contact, but both Mexico City and the Honduras were hit before the disarming process was completed. The United Nations has already sent medical aid to both of the affected regions. Authorities are unsure if this was a terror attack or not—”

“We’ve also tracked several shipments heading out of Brazil,” T’Challa added as the reporter continued reading through their script. “HYDRA is mobilizing.”

“I’ll contact Steve,” Natasha said, phone already in hand. “I can have my team ready in two hours.”

Okoye nodded at Ayo. “Get your people ready, too.”

“This only reinforces the ‘goose chase theory,” Ayo pointed out.

“I know. But right now, we can’t afford to not give chase.” She turned to look at the TV screen once more, brow furrowing with worry as she took everything in. Bast, please let us get on top of this quickly.

[wishingfornever]

11/18/17 – No Contact:  State of Decay

Esther’s Nation will be destroyed today.  Or tomorrow, I’m not sure.  That’s sad, but it’s acceptable.  Less of a spit in the face, you know?  I made her flag.  Glad she won’t be using it anymore.

Last night, I couldn’t sleep.  I came up with a plan to target Dennis. He, in his foolhardiness, believes he has to froth and demand and yell in order to defend Esther.  I know this because he got on Shane’s case for calling Esther a whore.  Then Shane got on my case and claimed he didn’t, even though he just deleted the message.

What a dick.  I know what I saw, I know how I felt when I saw him call Esther a whore.  I remember because I felt the same when she called herself a whore. Whatever.  Point is, if I wanted to get back at Dennis, I’d have to offend Esther in some way.  That way, he’ll start frothing and will threaten me.  In his anger, he’ll call me out in a sort of sense that says, “Fight me!”  He’ll do this because he doesn’t think I’ll return but I plan to come back for my truck.  Thus, I’ll accept the challenge and show up.  I’ll bolster and taunt and he’ll cower inside, not really expecting to fight.  I’ll show Adriana what he said and told her I accepted and that he picked a fight with me. The thing is, if he DOES fight he’ll have to invite me onto his property as well as agree to a fight.  That’d be totally legal. Private property.  That’s how boxing is still legal.

That said, I’m not expecting him to fight but I am expecting Adriana to yell at him.  It’ll cause struggle and strife and would be enough to punish him.  If he does decide to fight, then I get to slap him around.  It’s a win win.

One problem is is that Esther would hate me for it.  Worse yet, the only way I can see it coming to fruition is if I just let loose her secrets to her mother.  That’d be the only way to target her right now.  And I’m not entirely convinced I can do that to her just yet.  An inability to commit… that’s my biggest problem.

Thing is, I considered doing something else.  He was looking for a job, right?  I mean, not anymore obviously, but he was.  I was going to try to find out what job he had and then call and leave a horrible complaint that would lead to him getting fired! BAHAHAHAHA!!!

Problem is, that’s illegal.  Not that I generally care about the law, but I’d rather not do something that would jeopardize myself.  It’d be a great way, but it’s slanderous and would lead to a financial loss and I could get sued. Even if I’m sure he’d NEVER find out (which I’m sure he wouldn’t because nobody ever checks anonymous complaints) it’s still not a good idea. I’m angry, but I’m not going to break the law to have vengeance.  Rather, I will dance near the edge but well within the confines of what is allowed.  It’s worse that way for him because he’ll want to retaliate but he can’t. I know what you’re thinking.  You’re thinking that I hate him again, but I don’t.  I’m just… bitter.  I demand justice in my divine pettiness.  He has done a LOT of suspicious things and I never held him to it.  I chose to let it go but he decides to block me again? Fuck.  That.  Shit. Hell, Esther deserves to get shit on as well.  It’s coming back to me and I wasn’t that bad to her.  Of course, I did do those things she’s claimed I’ve done but it wasn’t as frequent as it sounded to be. Not trying to justify anything, but I had entirely stopped before everything went down.  And, of course, she put me through the wringer too. Keep in mind, before “The End” she and I were planning something.  She’d come back just to see me.  She said it’d help her.  If I were as bad as I seemed, she wouldn’t have agreed to that.  Or maybe she lied and said that to make me feel better.  I don’t know.  I trust her, though.

So… might be worth it.  But I’m not angry enough to do that.  I guess I’ll keep it, just in case something happens.  I doubt it would, but who knows?

It occurred to me.  I made a joke about giving Dennis a character and making that character have a tiny penis in one of my books.  Why don’t I do that? That’s a good vengeance… my side of the truth, taken for all.  Of course, my side will be the most honest truth.  Not because it’s me but because I’ve acknowledged my shortcomings.  I’ve confronted my wronghoods.  It will be the most honest because I don’t care about my own image. It’ll have to be in that book idea I was flirting with.  Basically a Jade Empire fan-fiction, but more lore I suppose.  Fantasy China.  I already have the names.

It’ll be perfect.  There is no grander revenge than telling the world he has a tiny penis.  And it’d be legal because it’s not him but inspired by him.  Then again, imagery laws are a pain in the ass. I’ll have to look.

Eh… Looking back.  I find it ironic.  I’m still just so upset but a few weeks ago, I wasn’t.  I was hurt.  I said I was planning something but nothing ever came from it.  I sent him an email, using one of the videos Esther made when she was here.  Just a masturbation session, nothing important.  I sent him an email wanting to make up. I offered the video despite him blocking me and I even told him a few things to help him out.  Nothing much…  I feel dumb now.

Ugh… I’m just… so disheartened right now.  Time to immerse myself elsewhere.  ><

Oh! They’re finally releasing a WWII Enfield Airsoft Rifle.  That’s really great.  Appropriate one too, not the earlier variant.  I know, a bit random considering my angry rant but Youtube proposed a video demonstrating it.  If you know me, I LOVE history and airsoft so historical airsoft rifles are perfect.  I’m super stoked.  It’s a good thing.

Anyways, Adela is asleep right now.  I’m going to skin some carrots and eat them because I’m waiting for dinner.  We’ll go shopping today or tomorrow.  No more Hot Pockets. They’re… too easy.  Too quick.  By the time I eat one, I already want another. So, they’re not healthy.  I was hoping they’d be a quick meal substitute but they’re not.  I guess I’ll have to use the rod on myself and focus on getting food that requires SOME effort.  Otherwise, what’s the point?  I’ll just eat right through it.

I still have a couple onions and a tomato that I haven’t chopped up. I’ll do that later today.  I wonder if I still have bread…  Might make a breakfast sandwich for myself when I’m done with the onions and tomatoes.  Or I could do something with the broccoli.  You know, what I’ve been flirting with this entire time.

Nah, carrots for now.  Broccoli tomorrow.

I spoke to Ariel.  She hasn’t been eating lately, so I was making sure she was.  She had McDonald’s which is weird because she isn’t usually into fast food.  However, it’s still… edible, I guess. Don’t want her to starve, even if what she is eating is unhealthy as sin.

I want a burger right now.

Just finished the carrots.  They were… meh.  Ah, well.  :/

I received some peculiar news.  Very peculiar.  I’ll keep it to myself for now, but science is ahead.  The coming experiment will involve my lovely Ariel and her beliefs.  There is a chance she could LITERALLY GET HURT but there is also a possibility that she won’t even find out and nothing wrong will happen to her.  If this experiment requires her to suffer even a little bit like as menial as bumping her small toe on a coffee table, I’ll halt it.  However, for the sake of science, if the way to do it can be done without any harm at all? Then it will be a go.  ;)

Speaking of experiments, I decided something.  I toyed with this idea before but I think since I’m losing weight, if I lose enough I’ll enlist.  Probably Marines, not to prove myself but because their dress uniform is nice.  That and their camo doesn’t look like barf.

The reason for this is so I can have some idea what I’m talking about when writing my country’s lore.  Of course, I should probably also become a lawyer, a scientist, a pro athlete, and a doctor to cover all the other bases but that’s not the point.  I have a relatively decent familiarity with the law.  Could I be my own lawyer?  No.  Hell no.  God no.  I’ll need a lawyer, but I have a certain tact for laws.  The rest, it will be fine because healthcare between countries tend to be relatively similar, the biggest concerns are often with how to receive the healthcare.  Thus, mixed with science, I can imply that some medical experiments have been great success.  Besides, setting up a scene for a doctor is easy.  Esther got a set of scrubs for $20.  Hell, I think I bought it for her.

One scene that’d be HARD to get would be a cooking scene.  My country’s cuisine is that of fish and cheese.  An islander diet, go figure for Psuedo-Cuba.  A professional kitchen would have to be borrowed.  With a medical thing, you can just set up drapes and make it look like an operating room easily and can hide a lot of the background with a light. A lot of cooking supplies in a photo shoot for cooking.  -,-

I think science and military would be the most expensive shots to get.  But I’m not just doing photos, I’m also writing a bunch of lore.  I’ve been looking a lot into Elon Musk’s progress into science.  That’s going to be a lot.  Desalination plants in my country have to be a thing.  Defintiely need those.

I’m hungry.  Dumb carrots.  -,-

I did it again.  Adela and I went out for dinner.  I had chicken. GRAAAAAAAAAAH!!!  I had to, I was talking to Ariel about that sandwich and how good it was.  It was just as good as ever.  I wish to make a sandwich as good as that on my own time.  What’s their secret?

Chicken and bacon.  Stupid vegetarianism.  :c