#I need more native slice of life movies

[maplewozapi]

hey, it's me, the anon that left the ask about studying Native American history and cultural appropriation. Thanks for the book recommendations, I've added them all to my to-read list.

It's crazy how much people seem to dislike the topic of history I've chosen, but you genuinely helped so much. Definitely reassured me. I've also bought bury my heart at wounded knee which is a *bit* outdated but was the first book I bought on the topic so I always think of it fondly, and another called Blood and Land, and also one called a Century of Dishonour, which was written in the 1880s (very outdated in areas but also. definitely against the government policies). I'm also trying to expand my reading horizons from what happened in the 19th century USA.

(Btw, wasn't Killers of the Flower Moon turned into a film recently starring Leonardo di Caprio?? I wondered if you'd watched it. I would like to find some more modern films/tv shows with good indigenous rep - I watched Annie Get Your Gun a while back but frankly it was shit. I want to purge it from my mind).

I hope you have a lovely day, I just thought I'd say thanks for the recommendations and the reassurance </3

Yes I am very excited for the movie to come out, and there’s nothing wrong with outdated books besides biases told by the white people at the time, you gotta be picky and not take everything at face value. I read so many old books and university papers of recounts of native history and it’s kind of an art to describe them and the bs some of them say and the crab meat of truth you’re trying to find. Or like by proxy of growing up and hearing stories, and then using those accounts to figure out "oh that’s what they mean" or "Oh they mean this thing not that, they mixed it up." Cultural and language mistranslations are just so prevalent.

Then here’s some movie and video recommendations, I’ll just say with Wind River and Bury my heart again be kinda thoughtful about them. Bury my heart has like this Hollywood kinda atmosphere, more cinematic it’s a great movie but it’s also based on events and they kinda dramatized some. Gives me the same feeling of "woman who walks ahead." Still great movies and a great way to get a feel for thing that happened back then. I really love news of the world too especially what they show with the buffalo and little girl, but I really wish they hired a native actress, it’s true that adoption of any race of people happened a lot in tribes but the representation of native kids in Hollywood is nonexistent and I think these movies would be so much better portraying native head leads. With Wind River if Jeremy renner and Elizabeth Olsen where switched out with native leads the plot would be so much richer. Like a city native and Rez native story would be so good. Movies that greatly follow white leads or have white characters for the yt audience to attach to just limits the movie for me.

[sugar-petals]

can you give us more thoughts about domestic yoongles? the taemin's one (wich I love) just made me miss the cat boy so much ;o;

i have a phd in househusband yoongi so let me fire out some ideas for ya.

myg at home headcanon

🐱 word count. 1.9k | fluff, slice of life, slight nsfw mentions, x reader, bullet points

The doorbell sound is a recording of Yoongi imitating a doorbell. He’s such a meme. Ceci n'est pas une pipe.

Seemingly, he teaches himself a new recipe every week. To perfection. Yoongi is very particular about sticking to the recipe and wielding his kitchen tools in the right way. He collects knives, olive oil, and still hates cutting onions.

He separates sleep time, work time, and couple time as the holy trinity. For each, he switches his mood.

Blushes easily no matter for how long you’ve been together.

Establishes his own radio show where he DJs at one point.

Yoongi keeps an extreme track on the garbage schedule. He knows exactly what is due when. Separating the trash is a must. That includes sorting out fake friends trying to get between your relationship. Your social circle as a couple is extremely deliberate.

Yoongi deems himself a terrible host for guests. Unless Hoseok is there to drag him out, it's true he rather stays in the kitchen or at the barbecue preparing the menu courses rather than making small talk. He leaves the hospitality bits to you, however you want to go about it.

What he lacks in conversing with guests, he makes up in bed, God is absolutely fair.

He sings and hums pretty often and has his own vernacular of extraterrestrial uwu noises. It's an alphabet that you have to yet decipher but it's incredibly cute.

Self-made paintings everywhere around his house. 

Yoongi hasn't gone clubbing since grammar school. The most he does is going to a restaurant at lunch with very close friends. And always in a work context. His private life is so secluded from everything else and paparazzi just don't spot him anywhere, Dispatch thinks he must live abroad.

Very well, he does consider his big ole house a separate country. It's a living organism with a studio, gym, trophy room, small-size basketball court, and vastly equipped kitchen. A home theater as well, he likes American movies (like Inception) and Korean action genres, and you can stream whatever you fancy in there whenever you like. 

Yes, he has underwear with cute little bears on.

There's even a little pond in the backyard. Yoongi, Pisces he is, likes fishes after all. Sometimes he sits at the edge of the 'Little Ole Min Lake (LOML)' and stares into the water for literal hours with his chin parked on his palm.

His fridge is so high-tech and futuristic, even Yoongi is rendered clueless by its AI sometimes. The washing machine, too.

Yoongi watches RuPaul’s drag race. What did you expect? He finds it so humorous.

Owns lord knows how many comic collections.

Favorite holiday destination: New York.

Christmas is basically 50% you unveiling new music equipment to him in the garage and Yoongi almost fainting at the sexiness of it. The other 50% is spent holding hands and orgasm after orgasm until the new year since you loose track of time.

Goes on long rants why he’d marry you again every weekend.

Making you presents is his specialty. Always accompanied with a hand-written note. He writes a lot of things by hand for you in general. Texting, basically never. Always on paper.

No sex without a blanket and socks on. Yoongi gets cold very very easily and just doesn’t like showing skin. You buy him a heated blanket for his birthday, he even uses it in his studio chair.

Chronically addicted to making out.

Matching black outfits and glasses.

Laughs at even your worst jokes or phrases you didn’t expect you even uttered.

Yoongi owns the phoniest, most secretive-looking black car ever and nobody knows about it. Even he forgets he owns it, in fact he genuinely acts like it just doesn’t exist. Hilarious. And that guy has a level 1 Korean driver's license. Which allows him to drive trailers and busses and fucking trucks, and construction machines, let that sink in.

It's really a genius curse. Yoongi being put to the test will always deliver but he won't choose to execute his full skillset if he doesn't have to. Well, pragmatic. He's not as phony as he thinks he is, which is even more hilarious.

He uses that behemoth of a car so scarcely because he'd rather have things delivered to his doorstep and he's stingy with gas. Also, he doesn't like traffic and driving because of the traumatic shoulder accident and his tendency to space out. Translation: You drive that thing... that monster... it really is an impressive, fast, and scary machine. 

If someone devious ever even remotely manages to invade his privacy and get past the doubly-installed security system, he has enough money to deal with it no matter what.

If it concerns your privacy, he's a red belt. And owns Jin's number if a taekwondo master is required. Jimin's if it needs someone with kendo skills.

If Yoongi needs someone to go on a complete rampage, Jungkook lives just down the block. He can sprint to Yoongi's bunker I mean mansion within 45 seconds. 30 if it's very urgent. 20 if the reward is an instant ramen splurge with Yoongi's black card.

He has a sexy, glamorous sword collection hanging on the living room wall anyways, so. Who the hell is dumb enough to mess with him and his expensive lawyer in the first place.

But just in case, who knows... Yoongi settles matters shruggingly, anonymously, and with cash and he's too exhausted for violence, but don't underestimate his deter-min-ation and network for emergencies. Also, he is Agust D after all.

He will bonk a naughty burglar or kidnapper across the head with a wooden cooking spoon or take him down by throwing a basketball if the situation requires it. Damn, his reflexes are so fast, a feral cat in motion. So, lean back and sip on your drink of choice. Things are cared for.

If Yoongi is the one being kidnapped or a highly skilled stalker invades the property at night when he's fast asleep (nothing can wake this man during certain hours, strong REM right here): Don't forget that honeyboy is a Dodgers fan. There are signed baseball bats everywhere in this damn house.

In that sense, your parents visiting you here for the first time thought you were an undercover thug couple. Not to worry mom and dad, you both just like sports very much okay.

Yoongi walks around in all black clothes and the rooms are all seemingly dark. Even if you live together, you don't know his skin care routine. It's clear to you he's some sort of vampire.

Since Yoongi always forgets to remove his makeup, you made it a habit to wipe it down when he's about to pass out. He won't lie, he enjoys that kind of affection.

Holly is your resident child. You're essentially a family.

He insists to tackle this by himself, Yoongi sees his therapist monthly. Not shifting responsibility is something he's stubborn about and he pours his emotions into writing. You will do conversation about deeper stuff, but he says it's mostly up to him and his own mind. He dislikes burdening you or opening up too much and it's something to respect rather than force him about. If he wants to share a thought, he will. It doesn’t mean he can’t trust you or sucks at communicating (we know that he’s direct). Yoongi simply can’t put that much pain in such few words nor should you alleviate it for him.

Calls from the manager faze Yoongi as much as Jimin is bothered by gravity. If he’s busy kissing your body slow mo, who the hell dares to disturb his worship. 

This man had so many let-downs and interpersonal catastrophes in his life, he's super discerning with people. Because he rolls that way, during their first meeting Yoongi uses his psychology certificate on your friends. You see him squint at them, he listens very closely. After they pass the vibe check aka meow radar, he befriends them, too.

Yoongi doodles Grammy trophies everywhere to manifest them.

Yoongi shaves his legs.

All the sex toys he’s ever bought are black. Gotta vibe in style.

He spends ridiculous amounts of time in the studio but he's yours for the remainder of the night, breakfast, and he makes a lavish lunch and dinner.

Um, consider his head parked between your legs. The Hongkong line was not a joke.

Doesn’t mind you squishing his cheeks whenever and for how long you like. 

Every other weekend he gets flowers, vouchers, and gifts — not because of fans, they don’t know where his house is, but because he donates so much.

Namjoon often drops by and cleanses the area with his crystals.

Yoongi is a photography major so you can ask him to take professional, ceiling-high black and white shots of you.

Feeding each other food lovingly. Man, this guy got lips.

He set up a library just for you, in the exact historical aesthetic you like the most. Send him the link to any book you want, it's basically in the online shopping cart already. As I said, he wants to make you presents like every week.

Sometimes he sits on the other end studying English videos and vocab while you read. And yes, he's already 95% fluent but pretends being merely intermediate. He knows technical terms even native speakers have never heard of.

He collects pajamas and earrings.

Swears on the phone.

Namjoon being the horniest member is a cover-up story. Yoongi masturbates almost unreasonable amounts of times, by himself and in your arms when going to bed. Not gonna lie, it’s a sight to see his hands at work. He’s almost equally obsessed with fingering you once you ask him.

Yoongi was the one asking you to move in and almost had a nervous meltdown before meeting up with you to tell you just that. 

He’s the little spoon and of course a sleeping burrito to hold tight.

Finds you equally attractive in any state or styling. Yoongi practices what he preaches, he always reacts the same and says the same. 

Jams out to outrageous beats Namjoon sends him by dancing in the studio. You walk in on him every time. Was embarrassed at first, now you dance along.

Has bought you a life-sized Yoongi pillow and customized you a giant Shooky to hug when he’s not at home over night.

Owned a wine cellar until he quit drinking. Turned it into a piano room instead.

Only you know Yoongi has a serpent and dagger tattoo.

Scrubs the bathroom religiously.

The house smells like restaurant food and his extravagant perfumes half of the time.

Sometimes he has to remind himself he’s married to you and not his coffee machine. He shall be forgiven. You can’t complain that he doesn’t love you enough, nor is he ever not adorable when drinking his latte.

Never wears short sleeves. It can be scorching and he’ll wear a jacket. 

Tell him and the cap stays on during sex.

He grows his hair out and puts it in a low bun. The bangs remain.

Yoongi has installed the most fire-proof building in the entire city it seems. That he wanted to be a firefighter when he was young definitely shows. Figures the house has to be protected from heat: His blasting studio music and Yoongi himself are just way too sizzling.

Still melts into a puddle when you kiss his nose.

Couple sunrise watching. 

© submissive-bangtan 2017-2021. all rights reserved. do not repost or translate. all depictions fictional.

[neechees]

Prey was soooooo good!! Dying to hear your thoughts on it!!

I'm not even sure I know how to describe everything that I loved about it. I'm almost disinterested in watching the rest of the Predator series to catch up because I feel like nothing will match the affection I have for this one. Everything was just *Chef's kiss*. Readmore for spoilers below!

I loved Naru. I loved Taabe. I was genuinely very upset when the Native characters died but I expected it to happen. Was pretty fun watching the racist French dudes die & Naru use one as bait gvsgfcg

They set everything up perfectly. I loved the beginning set up that showed Naru is 1. Athletic 2. Clearly has been practising with weapons to become a good hunter and has indeed gained skill from this practice, like with her axe and bow and arrow 3. Has knowledge about medicines and is also a healer, which makes her more self sufficient 4. Very smart & notices things others don't, she's very observant.

There's a lot of dudes who are obviously complaining that she's too "overpowered" but this set up clearly trumps that, and everything comes into fruition perfectly. I think the plot also hinted that Naru and Taabe had lost their Father early, and so Taabe had to learn to be a man to help provide for his family earlier, but I think Naru probably learned how to wrestle & fight a bit from her brother. There didn't seem to be a lot of men in their village, so I think Naru's desire to hunt partially came from also wanting to help support her family. Taabe wasn't opposed to letting her go with them after the cougar, he taught her the words for her kahtaamia, and he believed in her, so I think it's entirely possible he taught her to do some other "manly" things when they were younger too! Even if it was somewhat reluctantly, Taabe was supportive of his sister & didn't immediately shut her down like the others.

I also genuinely appreciated the more mundane scenes that just showed the village going about their daily business. Sometimes in movies about ndns you get the weird "Eden" scenes depicting Native life in a weird kind of voyeuristic, noble savage way, but I didn't get that here, it was just them leading ordinary lives. Naru was annoyed to wake up early to go and gather. She brought her dog. There were babies crying. There were people doing chores. There was a nice slowness to it (by that, meaning mundane and slice of life esque, not romantisized or demonized, just normal) that felt real to me

I also wondered if some of the scenes were inspired by other films with Native characters in it, like the quick sand scene from apocalypto, or the mass skinned buffalo scene from Dances with Wolves. Maybe not, but its kind of fun to see the similarities! The bison scene was tragic, & I like the detail that Naru stopped to say a little prayer for them :'/

Also, the eating the marigold to essentially become invisible to the predator FUCKIN GENIUS.

The ending credits using Native styled art ;>; I love it.

I need to watch it again & I wanna watch it in Comanche this time but it was sick as hell!!

[bonesandthebees]

Honey and tangerines!! The beach town setting is so beautiful, and the visuals in my head are making me want to sketch this.

The descriptive phrases like "passenger in his own mind" and "giant machine that ebbed and flowed" which are sprinkled all throughout the chapter are so beautiful! I absolutely live for connections and metaphors and these were such a delight to read. I love your writing.

Tommy's awkwardness around Phil was so understandable and, sort of natural in it's depiction? You really nailed the feeling, and even other things such as the atmosphere around Wilbur being off but also not quite completely bad, and the odd feeling Tommy has around everyone of liking them but not quite feeling at home.

Can we talk about the beach description? Yes. Literally beautiful.

Puffy!! Tommy once again chooses to work in an establishment run by Puffy and we're here for it. Your writing of her character is so pleasing, the reasonable yet understanding vibe is so sweet. I can't wait to see how that goes.

And of course, Tubbo! The chaotic feels their duo has was there right from the start. I mean, a fireball thrower? I'm instantly sold hahah

The vibe of this fic feels so, calm and chill in a way that most slice of life settings do, and it's really nice to see that after high stakes settings such as stars! I do like your rendition of this as well, and the natural feel of it all is so pleasant. Thank you for the chapter!!

What made you come up with this particular beach town setting, and what inspired you to write this? I'm so curious because it's rather different from your usual fics but it's still so fun to read. <3<3

Hugs and cookies, hope you have a good day :D

- ❄️

aa thank you for the kind words snowflake!! i love using fun metaphors like that in my writing and i'm trying to do more of that because it's still not a method i'm super used to, so i'm glad you like those lines :)

very glad i got the awkward atmosphere across. it's not fear necessarily, but more just that tense anxiety. this place is nice, but he's still new and out of place and it's just making things a bit strange. he just needs time to adjust!

i love writing puffy as just this very understanding and kind boss, plus I thought of the mcpuffy's reference and thought it was too fun not to include. and yes tubbo is very chaotic as always, i've missed clingyduo they're so good

well, I came up with the beach town setting mostly because I live in a beach town. I'm a southern california native, and while I didn't grow up in a beach town, I've been living near the coast for most of my adult years so far so it's an atmosphere I'm quite familiar with at this point. I thought just a sleepy small beach town really fit the vibes and aesthetic I wanted to have with this fic, and so far i'm really enjoying writing it!

the initial concept for this fic popped in my head when I had a very out of the blue realization that my ex-stepbrother, who I haven't seen in over a decade, is the same age as cc!wilbur. idk what sparked that realization, it occurred to me and then that got me thinking about my ex-stepbrother again, and the few attempts we made to reconnect which never really lead anywhere. then I started thinking, 'man, that's a unique dynamic I haven't seen written in a crimeboys fic before' so I started brainstorming the idea into a story lol.

I've also been wanting to write a fic that feels like a coming of age style indie movie with a lot of calm slice of life vibes for ages now because I love that genre, and my fic vanderlyle crybaby cry was my first attempt at that, but it ended up being far more serious than I originally intended it to be. I'm still really proud of the end product, but it's not what I initially set out to do. the similarities between honey and vanderlyle though is that there's a lot of projection of my irl experiences onto the story itself, but heavily exaggerated to create a more compelling story and to differentiate it from myself. like vanderlyle!wilbur's struggles were based off my own crisis with uni i had in my junior year, but my mental health at that point in my life didn't get as bad as wilbur's is depicted in the fic. for honey, while I like the idea of reconnecting with my ex-stepbrother, I don't have a super strong desire to do that. also, I don't hold any resentment towards my ex-stepfather and never wished he stayed with my mother, unlike honey!tommy who definitely has some unresolved issues regarding phil.

so basically my inspo was a combination of projection and wanting to write a coming of age indie slice of life fic lmao

[moonylvi]

Hey lucy~ can i request reaction nct 127 how their met their s/o?

A/N: Of course you can ^^ Thank you for requesting this.💕 Also please tell me if I made a mistake, English isn't my native language. Disclaimer: This is purely fictional, means it's an AU and in no way meant to harm anyone. Pairings: ¹/9 Nct 127 x gn!reader [Taeilxnormal!reader; Johnnyxbarista!childhoodfriend!reader; Taeyongxfamily-friend!reader; Yutaxtourist!reader; ...]

Warnings: I don't think there's anything that needs a warning except for my cringey writing XD Genre: Fluff, maybe bits of crack?, slice of life Taeil: You and him would probably meet in a situation where he was struggling with something little and you decide to help him. Maybe it was in a supermarket out of Korea and he couldn't find any salt. Nowhere! He checked the whole store, but didn't find anything. So he just stood there, looking utterly lost and confused. But don't worry, you're here to save him. Not only do you know the store like your own room, if not even better, you also showed him which salt is the best and helped him counting the money. He couldn't help but to invite you to have dinner with him one day.

Johnny: I needed to think a lot about this. He loves his parents so much and he would want a relationship which is similar in the closeness, based on trust. I could see him falling in love with a childhood friend. Or maybe a person he used to know, that he met again after not having any contact for years. Yeah, I think that's it. I'll just write the reunion :) Johnny and Mark just finished filming a new episode of JCC, when the staff suggested to stop by a small café they knew. Not expecting anything special, they entered and looked at the big chart which presented the different drinks and the small cakes coming along with it. Your café was something you were really proud of. Ever since you were little, you dreamed of owning a little space where people could step by to have a break from the rest of the world. Hearing the little bell ring, you quickly smiled at your reflection in the fridge door and hurried over to the counter. "Welcome to the small Refugium! How may I help you?" Upon hearing your voice Johnny's gaze switched from the chart to your direction, eyes widening in the process. "Y/N?" Your name fell from his lips before he could think more about it. Luckily you recognized him too, preventing an embarrassing situation to arise. "Johnny! Long time no see. How are you?" The small grin that adorned your lips, turned into a bright smile. Happily chatting, you nearly forgot that you had actual customers. Ignoring a confused Mark and an annoyed staff. That was, until the staff cleared their throat and brought you back to reality. "Oh, I'm sorry. What can I bring you?" You quickly switched back into your professional mode, taking the orders and preparing three cups, slipping a small note with your phone number between Johnny's cup and the paper sleeve. "Thank you for visiting, step by anytime soon again." Adding a little wink in Johnny's direction, you turned back around and started cleaning the surface of the counter, while they walked out of the door. Taeyong: He is the type to want his s/o to get along with his family. So maybe he finds himself having a particular interest in one of his sisters/her husband's friends or maybe a relative of his nephews friends, who already is close to his family, or at least to a few of them. Happily chatting with your little sister, you walked to her friends house for a birthday party. You knew his family, the Lee's, pretty well. Especially since not only your sister and their son were the same age, but you were just a few years younger than his mother, getting along with both parents easily. Which was one of the reasons you were invited along with your sister. The other reason was to have someone with experience helping of keeping a bunch of children happy. However what you didn't expect, knocking on the door, was the extremely handsome man opening it. "Oh, welcome. You must be Y/N and Y/S/N? I'm Taeyong,  I'm..." "Oh, hi Y/N. I'm so glad you could make it. My brother just ruined the cake frosting and I need your help to fix it." Sparing him a glance, she pulled you and your sister to the kitchen, not giving you any chance to properly introduce yourself to Taeyong. Nearing the end of the party, the children happily ate their dinner, while you plopped down on the couch, groaning in relief of finally sitting down and closing your eyes. "Kids can be exhausting, huh?" Your eyes snapped back open, meeting his curious ones from the opposite side of the couch. "Yeah, they can. I never got to introduce myself properly though. I'm Y/F/N. Nice to meet you." Chuckling he responded with the same phrase. Yuta: Someone who loves his home. And by that I do not only mean Japan, his hometown or house, but also the people who mean a lot to him. He's the type to connect the feeling of being home with his s/o. Someone who stays by his side no matter what, someone who will always support him and care for him. Ethereal. There were no other words inside his head. Just Ethereal. Cherry blossoms decorated the floor, the trees and... you. It could've been a scene straight out of those

romantic movies which were full of cliches. Yet it was pure reality. YOU were real. As soon as that realization came, he walked into your direction, unsure what he was going to say. Reaching you, Yuta simply let the word that spooked around his mind since he saw you fall from his lips. Startled by his voice you spun around. "Wha...What?" "You look so ethereal! I couldn't stop myself from telling you, sorry if I scared you." A burning heat made it's way to your cheeks. "Oh, no, don't worry, I just got lost in though. It's my first time i Japan and all the impressions are so overwhelming and..." While you rambled on and on about how much you liked his country, he felt a warm feeling bloom in his chest, deciding to ask you out, once you needed to take a breath. Doyoung: He's the type to have a very passionate relationship Someone who worships his work. A person that admires him on a whole different level, not in an obsessed way though. Maybe in a way where they tell him about all the things barely acknowledged by everyone else. Someone who gives him their all, so he can give them his.

Jaehyun: I don't know what to say except for Love at first sight. He could fall in love with someone in the most random situations. Many say that love at first sight doesn't exist and that you first need to get to know them better, but I see Jaehyun as a person who notices the small things and habits far before everyone else.

Jungwoo: Decisions, Decisions... After having a pretty long thought about him, I decided that he is most likely to want to get to know the person better before truly thinking of them as a possible s/o. He would initiate the romantical part once, he's completely sure about his feelings and knows that his interest is likely to be returned. But before that he rather stays back, gathering as many facts about them as possible without obviously showing it. Mark: Our confused boy would find himself falling for a person who leaves a big impact in his life without him being prepared. Haechan: I'm quite unsure if he's genuinely a romantic person, dreaming of meeting his s/o for ages, or more of a flirt, having no fixed picture of the situation in mind. I think it mainly depends on whether he wants the relationship to last since the beginning or slowly falls harder for the person, he initially wanted to just flirt with, not expecting much from it. If he has the fixed image he would be rather shy and far less annoying with them. However if it's 'just' a flirt, he does exactly that. Flirty small talk, clinging to them, bad pick-up lines and winking.

[ri-ahhh]

cake for dessert

Grayson wants a slice of MJ for dessert on a rainy day

4.8k

warnings: badly written smut

A/N: one of the MJ things I promised to upload. It’s storming like crazy here and this is all I want in life rn so I figured this was the one to post.

***

A chilly spring rain has descended over LA out of nowhere, as MJ discovers with surprise when she and her best friend Lainey step out of their final store at The Grove. That Saturday had started off warm and sunny, a perfect weekend day to spend out and about, but the storm rolling in is suddenly derailing her and Lainey’s plans for a chill afternoon at the beach.

“Well, shit,” Lainey remarks, glancing up at the dark clouds looming in the not-so-distant skyline.

“Right?” MJ concurs. She scrunches her nose and watches Lainey pout as they consider what else they might do with their Saturday. With MJ still busy working hard at her new job and, admittedly, being wrapped up in the fading newness of Grayson, she and Lainey haven't had much time to spend together. Especially considering her friend’s own relationship and hectic schedule.

A fat raindrop surprises her by landing on her nose, and both of them giggle as the sudden light sprinkle becomes more steady. They hurry down the walkway to the parking garage until they find MJ’s car, hurrying inside and slamming the doors just in time for the rain to start really coming down.

“Looks like we’re going home, unless you want to fight the LA drivers who have no idea what they're doing in the rain to go to a movie or something,” MJ jokes, selecting her favorite rainy day playlist full of Tame Impala, Bon Iver, Rex Orange County, and the like to serenade them on the way back to her apartment.

Lainey laughs. She’s also from out of state and shares MJ’s anecdotal opinion of the LA natives. “Yeah, as much as I want to stay and cuddle and feed each other takeout, I think for that reason I’m gonna have to head out when we get to your place. It’ll take me an extra hour to get home because of this.”

Now it’s MJ’s turn to playfully but also somewhat seriously jut out her lower lip in an impression of Lainey’s earlier pout. “Who’s gonna dangle pad Thai noodles into my mouth, then?”

“I don’t know, babe. Don’t you have a boyfriend or something now?” Lainey smirks, snatching MJ’s phone from her lap and waving it in her face so her lock screen illuminates, an accidental candid she had captured of said boyfriend with that beautiful smile shining right at her.

“It’s not the same,” whines MJ, entering the rapidly congesting highway. “First of all, he’s busy most of the day. Second, he makes it sexy, whereas you’re just plain cute. I don’t think I’m in the mood to be sexy today.”

That was true, for sure. Her outfit consisted of a pair of black leggings, one of Gray’s t-shirts that hung off her body shapelessly, and a baseball cap to hide the fact that she wore no makeup. Between her stuffy nose from the cold she’s fighting and the lack of sleep from the night before, she couldn’t be bothered that morning to try any harder.

Lainey, who had been listening while checking the visor mirror to see if her mascara had survived the rain, feigns offense. “Wow, bitch, are you saying I’m not sexy?”

“Boo, you’re sooo sexy. Grayson should probably thank you for half of my skills based on your tips over the years, now that I think about it,” MJ grins, causing Lainey to cackle.

Their girl talk continues the rest of the surprisingly short car ride back to MJ’s apartment building. MJ pulls up behind Lainey’s car and hugs her bestie over the console.

“Love you. Text me when you’re home so I know you survived the drive.”

“Will do. Love you, babe.”

MJ makes sure Lainey is in her car before driving into her covered spot. The tiredness had been real before, but the pure exhaustion hit her out of nowhere as her mind processes that she’s now home. She’s suddenly looking forward to nothing more than ordering said takeout, soaking in a too-hot bath, and watching The Hobbit series all afternoon.

She shuts the door to her apartment behind her with a sigh and trudges into her room, tossing her bags on her bed. Desperate to start the second half of her day of relaxation, it takes her all of 30 seconds to strip down and make her way into the bathroom. As the soaking tub fills, she selects a Lush bath bomb and bubble bar from the basket on the counter.

With a last-minute face mask applied, hair piled on top of her head to keep it dry, and New Girl ready to play on her phone, she’s just settling into the water with a light moan when the phone begins buzzing on the ledge of her soaking tub. She dries her hands and smiles when she sees Grayson’s name on the FaceTime call.

“Hi, baby,” she answers once his handsome face fills the screen, scooping some of the foamy bubbles closer to her chest so they fluff out cloud-like from her skin.

Grayson grins and takes a second to admire at her. “Hi, sweetheart. You look so fucking cute.”

MJ rolls her eyes but flushes and smiles appreciatively. “If you say so. How’s filming going?”

He puffs his cheeks and blows out the air slowly, running a hand through his hair. “Good, but it’s been a long day. E and I both decided to call it quits early; we’re both way too strung out on no sleep and anxiety to get much else done, especially now that the weather’s gone to shit.”

“I’m sorry, Bear, I know you both wanted to get everything wrapped tonight,” she laments with him, wishing she could comfort him with a kiss to his plump pink lips. “I’m kind of in the same boat. Lainey and I couldn't go to the beach, and between this cold I have and the fact it’s getting harder and harder to sleep without you, I’m so tired.”

Grayson smiles at her in that way he reserves only for her — soft, crooked, his hazel eyes sparkling in the center and crinkling just the tiniest bit at the corners — especially at the sound of her little pet name for him.

“Can I come over? I’ve been thinking about you all day, but I didn't want to cut into your time with Lainey. I just need to be with you.”

“Yes please,” MJ agrees with a sniffle. “As long as you’re the big spoon while we have a couch day. That’s about all I’m gonna be good for today, I think.”

“Of course,” he grins, getting into his car. “Are you gonna be my little cuddle bug all afternoon, Peach?”

She hears an exasperated ‘oh my God’ in the background and can practically see Ethan’s eye-roll out of frame.

“Yeah,” she coos back to her boyfriend, then, “hi, E.”

“Hi, MJ,” he grunts. As she’s naked underneath the clouds of bubbles, Grayson doesn’t angle the phone towards his brother, but she can still hear his voice. “You know, he’s already a cornball most of the time, but you really bring it out of him in droves, dude.”

Grayson doesn’t even react to Ethan, his gaze fixated instead on MJ through the phone. “Good. I sleep better with you in my arms, too.”

“Ugh,” Ethan complains. “Where are my fucking AirPods?”

She does, indeed, hear rustling, presumably from the older twin, but she chooses to ignore him as well. “Can you pick up Thai or Veggie Grill or something on your way over?”

“Oooh, yeah, either of those sound awesome. I’m starving,” Grayson agrees. “I’ll have to drop E off at home first and hopefully traffic wont be too bad both ways. Be there in an hour?”

“Sounds good. Thank you, baby,” she says quietly with a sweet, content smile.

He winks at her, and his voice drops a couple of notches. “No problem, Peach. As long as you’re my dessert.”

Her body rushes with heat, and not from the temperature of the water she’s soaking in. Before she can answer, Ethan groans louder than ever.

“Oh my God, dude, I fucking heard that! Can you keep your cheesy sex talk at zero while we’re literally right next to each other?” His voice suddenly picks up even louder so she can hear him. “MJ, I can’t believe you still let him fuck you when he says shit like that.”

“He makes up for it with the other things his mouth can do,” she retorts, winking at Grayson. Her giggles join Grayson’s howls of laughter and taunts at his brother, who apparently is very much done with the conversation. “Alright, I love you both. Drive safe, please.”

True to his word, Grayson shows up a little over an hour later with a bag of Veggie Grill in one hand and a Starbucks medicine ball in the other. MJ absolutely despises hot tea, and he knows it, but he also knows she won’t be able to resist the soothing warmth of it — especially considering he took the time and effort to get it for her.

He smiles at the sight of her cocooned in the plush, cozy fabric of her favorite blanket and leans down to give her a quick kiss. He hands her the drink, which she does indeed accept with warm eyes and a soft heart. She takes a sip and lets the hot liquid coat her scratchy throat as he plops down next to her with a sigh and sets the food on her coffee table. Grayson cups her cheeks to draw her in for another kiss — lingering, closed-mouthed pecks this time.

“Hi,” he says, smiling and dropping one to her red-tipped nose for good measure.

“Hi,” she whispers, her voice hoarse from mouth-breathing more and more throughout the afternoon. “Sorry I look so gross. This cold is kicking my ass the later it gets. You’re probably going to catch it.”

“First of all: worth it. Second: are you kidding? This is my favorite MJ,” he assures, peppering little kisses all across her forehead as he draws her in to his chest. Her hair is in the same messy bun from her bath, her glasses are on, and she’s dressed in her old college crewneck sweatshirt, boy-short Calvins, and fuzzy socks… “No one gets to see you like this except me. All fresh-faced and beautiful and undone. All mine.”

“Mmm,” MJ hums, snuggling into him and sniffling. “We’ll see how you feel when I’m snoring like a 300 pound grandpa in a little bit because I can’t breathe out of my nose.”

“Okay, but I don’t see how that’ll be different from any other night.” She draws back and smacks him on the arm playfully, scoffing incredulously. He just barks out a laugh and kisses the frown off her lips before distributing their late lunch between them.

They make comfortable small talk while The Office plays quietly in the background, mixing with the patter of rain on the large windows. A fuzzy warm ball settles in the pit of her stomach that has her feeling almost heady at the simple intimacy of the moment.

MJ finishes first. She takes off her glasses and places them on the coffee table next to her tea so she can curl into a ball and nuzzle into Gray’s shoulder. He kisses the top of her head affectionately and finishes his meal in silence while they watch the antics of Michael Scott and gang for the millionth time. Eventually his empty plate joins hers and he opens his burly arms to gather her in his embrace, lying down and bringing her with him.

Grayson chuckles when she fully climbs on top of him so she’s straddling his hips and hugging him with all of her limbs like a koala would a tree, her nose buried into the five o’clock shadow on his neck. He makes sweeping passes up and down her back. “Needy today, sweetheart?”

“A little,” MJ mumbles, eyelids already feeling heavy, even more so when he fixes the oversized blanket around the both of them. He smells so good, feels so solid and warm, his breath tickling her ear soothingly. They FaceTime every day, but their crazy lives have made it where this is the first time in days that they’ve seen each other in person. “Missed you. We both work too much.”

He lets out a little hum of agreement, sighing when he feels her lips pucker to dot baby kisses on his bronze skin. His hands stroke up and down her back comfortingly. “I missed you, too. E and I should have just one more day of shooting before we’ll be home more to work on editing and stuff with the team.”

“I’ll be in Seattle most of next week for a new client recruit,” she reminds, recognizing the inexplicit invitation. “Otherwise I’d come over and work remote with you.”

“Ugh, that’s right,” Gray laments, sighing. “Kiss me. Please?”

MJ gives him a lazy smile when she feels his fingers tilt her chin up. Their makeout is slow and simple and just what the both need, reconnecting after days and lives apart.

A few minutes go by until MJ groans a little and sits up in his lap with a sigh, a string of saliva connecting their lips before breaking with a snap.

“I can’t breathe laying down like that. Or just out of my nose,” she pouts. One of her hands plays with his hair while the other smooths down his t-shirt over his chest where she had rumpled it by laying on him.

Grayson grips her hips and follows her up, hugging her tightly around the middle with those huge, burly arms. “Since you can’t sleep anyways…” he looks at her, and she cocks an eyebrow, her lips quirking questioningly. “Can I have my dessert now? You can sit up on the couch. And no mouth-to-mouth required.”

MJ chuckles and wraps her arms around his broad shoulders, biting her lip as she considers his request. As much as she wants Grayson in any capacity most of the time, today is one of those days where sex just isn't on the table for her.

That being said, can she really resist that tongue? Those lips?

Before she can answer, he continues. “I know you don’t feel good, so I’ll understand if you just aren't up for anything today. But I’m not expecting you to reciprocate at all. I’ve just been wanting… like, basically needing to eat your pussy all week. It’s all I’ve been able to think about for so days.” He traces her jawline with his nose until his lips reach that little spot right behind the hinge and just below her ear, where he licks and nibbles until her hips start shifting in his lap of their own accord. “Please?”

Well, how the fuck is she going to say no to that?

She can’t, and knows he can sense her giving in when he starts to turn them around so she’s reclined against the back of the couch. Grayson grins while he arranges the blankets and pillows around her to get her as comfy as possible.

She watches him fuss over her with loving eyes, but wants to make sure he really is okay with the arrangement, too. “Are you sure? I don’t want to blue ball you. And I can speak from experience that that rug isn't a fun place to be on your knees for an extended period of time.”

Gray smirks at her and plants one more kiss to her lips before sinking down her body, snatching a couple of stray pillows to cushion his knees. “One problem solved. And don't worry about any chance of blue balls; it’s been way too fucking long since I’ve done this, and I’ll be lucky if I don't cum in my pants before I even get you to your first one.”

“Oh, so I’m in for more than one orgasm today?” MJ smiles back down at him and lifts her hips so he can drag her panties down her toned legs, placing her feet on the edge of the couch so she’s nice and open for him once he had the fabric tossed behind him somewhere. “I’d say that was big talk if I didn't know you could back it up.”

She knows he likes a challenge, and combined with his love for being praised and her bare pussy exposed to him at long last, she feels like she’s got a little bit of an upper hand here.

“Always,” he murmurs.

His lips start at the inside of her knee, working their way up to her inner thigh, across her mound to nuzzle in the little patch of hair she hadn't bothered to trim down between waxes, before trekking down the opposite leg. MJ knows his goal is to build up the anticipation for them both, and he’s succeeding; she can hear his breathing intensify as he tries to take in her scent, and she can feel the wetness beginning to leak out of her without so much as a lick from him.

Finally, he brings his hand up to trace her smooth lower lips, glancing up at her with warm yet lustful eyes as he takes in how his teasing is affecting her. MJ gives it right back, sneaking a hand under her oversized sweatshirt to play with her breast. It drives him absolutely crazy seeing her touch herself, but also not being able to see. If she didn't know any better, she would say sometimes he was more obsessed with her boobs than her actual vagina when they get down.

When his eyes turn dark, she grins and uses her free hand to rake through his hair and pull him towards her pussy while simultaneously pinching her nipple just the way she likes. Grayson growls and turns his attention back where she’s directing him, finally parting her with his middle and index fingers to expose her clit. He places a quick kiss directly to it, causing MJ to gasp and grip his dark locks tighter.

He gives it a more sensual smooch and pulls back to watch more of her juices trickle out of her until he can’t resist really getting to work anymore. His moan vibrates against her when his tongue swipes through the sweet wetness, trailing it to her clit with his mouth and giving the nub a gentle suckle before slipping his tongue back to her entrance. MJ lets out little whimpers of bliss as he makes out with her pussy, his tongue reaching as far inside her as it can, wiggling around and slurping down everything that comes out of her.

She lets him eat her out with no real purpose, thoroughly enjoying the constant stimulus of his lips and teeth and tongue without a driving need to make her cum behind it. Her hands flit between stroking his hair comfortingly, to playing with her breasts, to digging her nails across his clothed shoulders.

“Feels so good,” MJ whispers while she watches him work. Her fingers are combing gently through his hair once again to push the dark strands off of his forehead just in time to see his eyes flit open to meet her own.

“Tastes so good,” Grayson growls back, taking a moment to sit on his haunches and get a thorough look at her spread out for him. Her pussy is swollen and wet, the insides of her thighs bare the faint markings of his teeth, and her face is pure bliss even as she sniffs and coughs a bit. “You okay?”

MJ nods. It’s sweet of him to check, but all she wants now is his face back in her pussy. She bites her lip and one of her heels, still clad in a fuzzy sock, digs into the middle of his broad back to push him in. Grayson smirks darkly and follows her lead, his lips immediately suctioning around her plump little clit.

“Fuck…” MJ moans. Her voice is raspier than usual and, like everything else about her today, goes straight to his dick, which throbs untouched in his grey sweats.

He starts working her over with purpose now, determined to get her to cum in the next 30 seconds. He knows he can do it even if she hadn't started chanting, “like that, like that, don’t fucking stop…”

Her moans reach peak levels, as loud as she can be with her sore throat, and her clit throbs on his tongue. Her back arches off the couch and her hands dive fully in his thick hair now to hold him to her, her heel still pressing against his spine doing the same.

Grayson groans and has to remove one of his hands from her hips to reach into his boxers and squeeze his dick hard enough to stave off his own orgasm. He slips two fingers of his other hand in her dripping pussy to give her something to clench around, which doesn’t help his attempt at not cumming literally in his pants when he feels her walls gripping his digits like a vice.

“Baby…” she whines as he brings her down with little kitten licks on her pulsing clit, her thighs quivering around his head. Grayson hums and nuzzles into that delicate skin until the muscles beneath stop trembling, and the flutters around his middle and ring fingers have ceased. He never takes his eyes off her face — eyes closed, mouth agape, cheeks flushed. Beautiful and dismantled because of him.

Once he feels she (and, frankly, he himself) have calmed just enough to be able to take more, he starts to press and curl the fingers inside her. MJ whines softly as the build picks up again, which turns into shrieking when he wraps his swollen lips around her clit again and sucks the nub sharply into his mouth. Between the sloppy wetness of his mouth and the way he applies pressure just right on her g-spot, it takes all of a minute for her to fall apart again. She marvels, not for the first time, at how fucking good he is at this, how well he knows her body.

‘Always’ is right.

Grayson sits back, removes his hand and mouth from her and growls at the sight before him while he pushes against the backs of her thighs. So much for sitting up, as she’s now practically on her back, but neither of them are complaining or stopping to readjust. She’s perfectly exposed for him, her juices and his saliva coating her skin and dripping down her ass, she’s that wet.

“MJ…”

Her name escaping his lips in that husky voice finally gets her to lazily blink her eyes open until her gaze focuses on him as clearly as she can. He looks sexy as fuck on his knees for her, pupils dilated and the stubbled skin of his chin and jaw covered in shiny wetness.

Grayson’s big hands knead the insides of her thighs until he’s confident he has her full attention. He smoothes his palms to the crooks of her knees, moving her gently until she’s practically folded in half, and without breaking eye contact shifts his head that much further down so he can go to town on her even lower.

MJ gasps and shoots one of her hands to his hair, her first instinct being to push him away, until half a second passes and she’s doing the exact opposite. No one has ever done this for her before, and now she’s wondering how she had gone so long without the sensation of his tongue swiping up her cum from that virtually untouched hole.

If she was in any right state, she would have seen Grayson’s smug, quite literally ass eating smirk at her reaction to his ministrations. He isn’t sure why in their nearly eight months together he had never eaten her ass before; it isn’t the first time he’s done it to a girl. Maybe because he treasures sex with MJ more than anyone in his life before, maybe knowing in his heart that they have a long future of making love ahead of them had caused him to wait. What he does know, is that he’ll never be able to resist doing it again when the desire to rises, especially given her voracious response to it.

“Fuck!” MJ wails when he spreads her even more open with his hand so he can have better access, his tongue rimming and prodding her asshole to perfection while the thumb of his free hand presses upward on the hood of her clit. He knows her so well, can sense she’s too sensitive for direct stimulation there, but the pressure right above the bundle of nerves is exactly what she’s craving without her even realizing it.

But he does, and it feels so good — too good; Grayson’s eyes drop closed as he lets her taste and sounds overcome his senses, and it’s like her pleasure is his as his hand finally begins to jerk himself off. He builds up the speed of his strokes with her increased pace of breath, until she cums for a third time, and his tongue is quickly swiping all the way up her crease, from asshole to clit as he stands to his feet. He leans over her with one hand on the back of the couch and licks the last of her off his lips as he takes in her body to fuel him even more, even as clothed as she still is.

MJ starts to come-to enough to realize what he needs, and lifts her shirt to expose more skin to him. She drinks in the sight of her gorgeous boyfriend towering over her with his sweats and boxer briefs pushed down just enough for his equally beautiful dick to be out while he strokes the head aggressively. He’s about to explode and she knows it, just as attuned to his body’s tells as he is with hers.

His face is hovering just above hers, and she watches his mouth drop and his eyes train on her exposed skin. MJ bites her lip and whines, pulling roughly on her nipples while her eyes flit between his face and his cock. “Cum on my pussy, baby, I want it — want your cum all over me, make it your pussy…”

She’s rambling, but it’s all he needed as a deep, relieved groan escapes him, followed by soft grunts as he shoots all over her, exactly where she told him to and then some. MJ moans quietly and knocks his hand out of the way to finish him off herself, squeezing the last drops of the pearly white from him. The fingers of her other hand collect what she can from her skin to keep it from dripping on the couch, spreading it instead over her swollen lower lips.

His chest still heaves when she looks up at him with a tired smile, which he matches with a laugh when her final stroke makes him flinch. He pushes her hand off his cock and tells her, “Don’t move.”

She obeys, and watches him lean over to grab his phone off the side table, unlocking it and swiping up. “Is this okay?” he asks, motioning with his head. “This is too fucking sexy. Need a memento while you’re out of town.”

MJ giggles and nods, spreading her legs a little more as he goes to town. She does her best to coat her pussy in his cum, her long, glittering manicured nails adding a certain aesthetic to the shots. She even scoops some up and let him capture her sucking it off her middle finger.

Grayson smiles tiredly and kisses her sweetly, the gentleness and simplicity of it a little stark after the pure filth of the last twenty minutes. He tucks himself back in his pants and goes into her bathroom to get a wet rag to clean her up with, chucking it in the washer when he’s done. On his way back over to her, he picks up her long-forgotten panties off the middle of the living room floor with a smirk and hands them to her, plopping next to her and dragging her into his lap once they’re back on her body.

“I’m gonna have to insist on you having dessert every day,” she yawns into his chest with a sniffle. “I didn't know you liked cake so much.”

Grayson laughs and squeezes her tight to him, placing a lingering kiss on her forehead as he confirms to Netflix that, yes, they are indeed still watching. “And Ethan says I’m the cornball.”

“If he only knew.”

[pizza-soup]

Sorry I've been missing in action.

Long story short I got very injured at the labs, but I've been making a fast recovery. For the more detailed, graphic version, you can read below. Warning: Mention of hospital, blood, car accident.

As I mentioned, I got really injured at work beginning on February 21 at around 9 PM. It was during a routine check at some of the sites, one in particular needed our higher clearance because there had been a breach at a fence that past week, so I, and two other guards went to check out any tampering of the fence again. They say it might be vandals but a lot of them say it was some kind of large animal. The road to those sites are a single path through the woods, lit with a few lights, no curves, just a flat road with a hill on one side. It hadn't snowed that week either, so no fear of ice or anything. It was just a routine jeep trek.

It happened so fast. Our vehicle was knocked over, I'm not even sure how, but we were rolling in the dark down a hill, hitting trees. I remember the shouting, holding fast, and the glass. I remember crawling toward a tree and trying to sit up against it or maybe I was put there by the other guard, Dolores, I remember her telling me to stay awake. I asked her if I was dreaming. It didn't feel real. I asked what was happening to me because I couldn't move right, everything felt so slow and muffled. I passed out by the time they got us into the medical ward. I don't remember them putting me in a gown or putting in an IV. I woke up later, I buzzed the call button out of fear and pain. My whole left side was throbbing. A nurse was relieved I finally came to. She gave me pain meds and called the doctor in.

I was told there had been an accident, that much I already knew, but no one was killed, just injured. I lost a lot of blood, my uniform was soaked in it and they had to cut it off me. Part of the metal from the door frame folded in and pieced my left shoulder and I had minor cuts on my hands and arms from the glass. My blood pressure dropped so low they were scared my heart might've stopped. I was given blood, hooked up to a lot of things and I would have to stay under watch for a few days. There was a lot of tests they needed to do to figure out just how bad my injuries were.

For the next few days I was just sleeping, I couldn't sit up without feeling dizzy. I had to lay semi flat, my blood pressure was still very low. My left side was still throbbing and the stitches itched. A lot of bruises developed from being tossed around like I was, mostly on my arms because I was shielding my face and head. My minor glass cuts stung while batheing. Nurses came in every few hours to check my vitals, help me use the restroom, shower, help me eat, ect. I got so tired from the smallest things. I couldn't call anyone, my phone was in my locker. I finally got someone to help me call my brother to tell him what happened. My brother was naturally scared, he thought something happened to me and he was sad to know he was right. He wanted to see me, but he couldn't, I was in the medical ward on lab property. He wanted to call our mom to tell her but I told him to wait, there was a possibility that I might be transferred to a local hospital where they can visit me, and I didn't want her panicking and trying to drive up here in bad weather. It's best she waited til things cleared up.

After the first week I was transferred to a local hospital after getting a bunch of tests done. No brain trauma, no broken bones, no blood sugar issues or thyroid problems. I could sit up in bed by then and eat on my own. I still couldn't walk very well without feeling really dizzy, again, low blood pressure. A lot of minor bruises were fading away. I never had my anemia officially confirmed, but they confirmed it and had me take daily iron and placed on a blood building diet in the new hospital. I was tested for covid, I came out clear.

My brother and mom visited me daily, and the other doctor said I was recovering really quickly, that gave us a lot of hope. I could be out of there by a few days, though my blood pressure was worrying her. Seems it wasn't so much the blood loss, but that it might have been an underlying condition already linked to my untreated anemia. She would get the in-house dietitian to include a bit more natural sea salt to my iron rich diet, as well as tell me what I should eat at home and that I need to drink a lot more water than I normally did. This is a problem I've had for awhile, I forget to drink enough water. The doctor warned me I better remedy that immediately especially with low BP. My mom was already taking notes. She really wanted to just take me home already. I really liked her being there, I'm not that shy about my body, but I honestly felt better having my mom bathe me and comb my hair instead of strangers doing that. She was also a lot more gentle around my stitches and bruises.

Eventually I did come home, I still needed a lot of rest and help getting out of bed. I had to fight the urge to clean house, help with groceries, ect. I'm so used to being self sufficient. I felt so frustrated that just walking around the room would tire me out, when I'd hike for miles just a few months ago. I was tired of sleeping and sitting down. But there wasn't much else I could do. I did a lot of origami, my bro got me a coloring book, I watched a lot of movies, took my iron -which is nasty btw-, ate meals that were saltier than I normally would prepare but my taste buds would have to adjust. I was happy my new diet included a lot of fish though.

I did have some close calls. I really thought I could stand up in the shower instead of sitting, and wound up calling for my mom to help me up after collapsing. I collapsed again when I was trying to cook dinner for myself. My face, according to my mom, was drained of color and my breathing was shallow. I felt so dizzy and nauseated. She nearly wanted to call the hospital again. My bro said I was pushing myself too hard and I always had a problem with not asking for help. That I needed to learn to stop being so damn stubborn and rest. To anyone else, that sounds harsh, but he knows me way too well, probably better than our mom. I do have that problem, I do push myself too much. After that, I decided to be more patient with myself. I was sick and might be sick for awhile.

This week I'm doing a lot better. I can do my daily things now, I even went to get groceries and take a little walk to the river. But I can't over do it, I can't stand up or walk for too long, and I can't lift anything heavy, otherwise I get bouts of dizziness and need to sit down. The pain isn't as bad on my back anymore though it's still very sore, my arms, especially my left side, have a dull pain. I can't sleep on my back and left side, only my right and on my stomach. A lot of the cuts on the back of my arms and hands have scabbed over, minor bruises are gone but major ones on my shoulder and neck are still pretty dark and tender. I'm still finding glue spots on my chest and stomach from the medical tape and the EKG patches they put on me, but a bit of lotion is taking it off. My stitching, according to my mom, is definitely going to leave a pretty bad scar above my shoulder blade, but it's fine. My body has a lot of scars here and there from close calls, but I consider them ' Marks of Life'. They're proof I survived and thrived.

It'll take time for me to really feel like I'm back to normal. My mom refuses to go back home until I make a full recovery. She hasn't tended to me like this for a long time, mainly because I rarely get sick. I trait from my dad's side. We don't get colds or flus for years, no history of cancer, heart issues or diabetes, and his family usually remain active to their elderly years, not to mention our graceful aging. My dad used to say it was our native blood, we're just built tougher. The only thing that could kill us is getting injured like this. God, he'd be so worried about me though. I remember how he'd fuss over me when I skinned my knee as a child or got my allergies. If he was alive, he'd probably refuse to let me do anything out of bed, but then that's exactly what I should be doing anyway.

I got a report on the other guards health yesterday. Dolores and Elijah. She was the least hurt out of all of us, just a dislocated arm, mild whiplash, and some really bad glass cuts on her chest and arms, she's home recovering with her husband and kids. Elijah was the driver and got knocked unconscious with a bad concussion, his entire left arm was sliced by glass and metal, he lost a lot of blood like me and is recovering just as slow as I am. He opted to stay in the lab medical ward because he doubts his roommate can care for him at home, he's on a lot of pain meds, so he sounded distant on the phone. I think out of all of us, he's going to take the most time to recover. I told him I'd pray for him and if he wants, I can visit. He appreciated that a lot. I thanked Dolores for helping us that night, she was the one trying her best to keep us alive and sent the distress signal on our ARK devices so they could find us in the dark. Without her, I think we would've bled to death.

God, it feels like a distant nightmare. I still can't figure out how we were knocked off the road like that. Something hit us out there and it was strong. I felt the impact in the backseat, but I didn't see it. Dolores says it looked like a bear, but bears aren't that strong. Eli says he saw horns, so maybe a bison. Bison are that strong, especially against a little jeep. The incident is still under investigation. The lab is also very concerned about how this happened. It's possible the same thing that hit us, has been tampering with the fence.

One less thing to worry about is the hospital bill, the accident happened on lab grounds, everything is taken care of through them, probably because they don't want to get sued. They are giving us another two weeks before we report back in to the doctor for another round of tests and physical tests, as well as check to see if my stitches were still secure. Our return to work solely depends on our results, we may not be able to come back until late April. They really want to be sure we're okay. Because I'm an 'Ophanim' aka Tier 3 guard, I'll also be given a mental test before being hooked back into Selene. They just want to be sure there's no cognition issues and I can sync properly to her. I may have to do a refresher since I've been away for so long, but I'll worry about that when it comes.

Well, if you read this far, thanks. I hope I didn't scare you all too much. I am doing a lot a better though, I promise. I'm getting stronger everyday, though activity on this blog will be slow. Send me some prayers, good vibes, whatever. I'd really appreciate anything. Hope you've had a good month, better than mine hopefully.

[grigori77]

2020 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 1)

30.  BODY CAM – in the face of the ongoing pandemic, viral outbreak cinema has become worryingly prescient of late, but as COVID led to civil unrest in some quarters there were a couple of 2020 films that REALLY seemed to put their finger on the pulse of another particularly shitty zeitgeist.  Admittedly this first one highlights a problem that’s been around for a while now, but it came along at just the right time to gain particularly strong resonance, filtering its message into the most reliable form of allegorical social commentary – horror.  The vengeful ghost trope has become pretty familiar since the Millennium, but by marrying it with the corrupt cop thriller veteran horror screenwriter Nicholas McCarthy (The Pact) has given it a nice fresh spin, and the end result is a real winner.  Mary J. Blige plays troubled LAPD cop Renee Lomito-Smith, back on the beat after an extended hiatus following a particularly harrowing incident, just as fellow officers from her own precinct begin to die violent deaths under mysterious circumstances, and the only clues are weird, haunting camera footage that only Renee and her new partner, rookie Danny Holledge (Paper Towns and Death Note’s Nat Wolff), manage to see before it inexplicable wipes itself.  Something supernatural is stalking the City of Angels at night, and it’s got a serious grudge against local cops as the increasingly disturbing investigation slowly brings an act of horrific police brutality to light, until Renee no longer knows who in her department she can trust.  This is one of the most insidious scare-fests I enjoyed this past year, sophomore director Malik Vitthal (Imperial Dreams) weaving an effective atmosphere of pregnant dread and wire-taut suspense while delivering some impressively hair-raising shocks (the stunning minimart sequence is the film’s undeniable highlight), while the ghostly threat is cleverly thought-out and skilfully brought to “life”.  Blige delivers another top-drawer performance, giving Renee a winning combination of wounded fragility and steely resolve that makes for a particularly compelling hero, while Wolff invests Danny with skittish uncertainty and vulnerability in one of his strongest performances to date, and Dexter star David Zayas brings interesting moral complexity to the role of their put-upon superior, Sergeant Kesper.  In these times of heightened social awareness, when the police’s star has become particularly tarnished as unnecessary force, racial profiling and cover-ups have become major hot-button topics, the power and relevance of this particular slice of horror cinema cannot be denied.

29.  BLOOD QUANTUM – 2020 certainly was a great year for horror (even if most of the high profile stuff did get shunted into 2021), and this compellingly fresh take on the zombie outbreak genre was a strong standout with a killer hook.  Canadian writer-director Jeff Barnaby (Rhymes for Young Ghouls) has always clung close to his Native American roots, and he brings strong social relevance to the intriguing early 80s Canadian setting as a really nasty zombie virus wreaks havoc in the Red Crow Indian Reservation and its neighbouring town.  It soon becomes clear, however, that members of the local tribe are immune to the infection, a revelation with far-reaching consequences as the outbreak rages unchecked and society begins to crumble.  Barnaby pulls off some impressive world-building and creates a compellingly grungy post-apocalyptic vibe as the story progresses, while the zombies themselves are a visceral, scuzzy bunch, and there’s plenty of cracking set-pieces and suitably full-blooded kills to keep the gore-hounds happy, while the horror has real intelligence behind it, the script posing interesting questions and delivering some uncomfortable answers.  The characters, meanwhile, are a well-drawn, complex bunch, no black-and-white saviours among them, any one of them capable of some pretty inhuman horrors when the chips are down, and the cast, an interesting mix of seasoned talent and unknowns, all excel in their roles – Michael Greyeyes (Fear the Walking Dead) and Forrest Goodluck (The Revenant) are the closest things the film has to real heroes, the former a fallible everyman as Traylor, the small-town sheriff who’s just trying to do right by his family, the latter unsure of himself as his son, put-upon teenage father-to-be Joseph; Olivia Scriven, meanwhile is tough but vulnerable as his pregnant white girlfriend Charlie, Stonehorse Lone Goeman is a grizzled badass as tough-as-nails tribal elder Gisigu, and Kiowa Gordon (probably best known for playing a werewolf in the Twilight movies) really goes to the dark side as Joseph’s delinquent half-brother Lysol, while there’s another memorably subtle turn from Dead Man’s Gary Farmer as unpredictable loner Moon.  This was definitely one of the year’s darkest films – largely playing the horror straight, it tightens the screws as the situation grows steadily worse, and almost makes a virtue of wallowing in its hopeless tone – but there’s a fatalistic charm to all the bleakness, even in the downbeat yet tentatively hopeful climax, while it’s hard to deny the ruthless efficiency of the violence on display.  This definitely isn’t a horror movie for everyone, but those with a strong stomach and relatively hard heart will find much to enjoy here.  Jeff Barnaby is definitely gonna be one to watch in the future …

28.  THE MIDNIGHT SKY – Netflix’ big release for the festive season is a surprisingly understated and leisurely affair, a science fiction drama of big ideas which nonetheless doesn’t feel the need to shout about it.  The latest feature in the decidedly eclectic directorial career of actor George Clooney, this adaptation of Good Morning, Midnight, the debut novel of up-and-coming author Lily Brooks-Dalton, favours characterisation and emotion over big thrills and flashy sequences, but it’s certainly not lacking in spectacle, delivering a pleasingly ergonomically-designed view of the near future of space exploration that shares some DNA with The Martian but makes things far more sleek and user-friendly in the process.  Aether, a NASA mission to explore K-23, a newly-discovered, potentially habitable moon of Jupiter, is on its return journey, but is experiencing baffling total communications blackouts from Earth.  This is because a catastrophic global event has rendered life on the planet’s surface all but impossible, killing most of the population and driving the few survivors underground.  K-23’s discoverer, professor Augustine Lofthouse (Clooney), is now alone at a small research post in the extreme cold of the Arctic, one of the only zones left that have not yet been fully effected by the cataclysm, refusing to leave his post after having discovered he’s dying from a serious illness, but before he goes he’s determined to contact the crew of Aether so he can warn them of the conditions down on Earth.  Despite the ticking clock of the plot, Clooney has reigned the pace right in, allowing the story to unspool slowly as we’re introduced to the players who calmly unpack their troubles and work over the various individual crises with calm professionalism – that said, there are a few notable moments of sudden, fretful urgency, and these are executed with a palpable sense of chaotic tension that create interesting and exciting punctuation to the film’s usually stately momentum, reminding us that things could go suddenly, catastrophically wrong for these people at any moment.  Clooney delivers a gloriously understated performance that perfectly grounds the film, while there are equally strong, frequently DAMN POWERFUL turns from a uniformly excellent cast, notably Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo as pregnant astronaut Dr. “Sully” Sullivan and her partner, mission Commander Adewole, and a surprisingly subtle, nuanced performance from newcomer Caoilinn Springall as Iris, a young girl mistakenly left behind at the outpost during the hasty evacuation, with whom Lofthouse develops a deeply affecting bond.  The film has been criticised for its slowness, but I think in this age of BIGGER, LOUDER, MORE this is a refreshingly low-key escape from all the noise, and there’s a beautiful trade-off in the script’s palpable intelligence, strong character work and world-building (then again, the adaptation was by Mark L. Smith, who co-wrote The Revenant), while this is a visually stunning film, Clooney and cinematographer Martin Ruhe (Control, The Keeping Room) weaving an evocative visual tapestry that rewards the soul as much as the eye.  Unapologetically smart, engrossingly played and overflowing with raw, emotional power, this is science fiction cinema at its most cerebral, and another top mark for a somewhat overlooked filmmaking talent which deserves to be considered alongside career highs such as Good Night & Good Luck and The Ides of March.

27.  PALM SPRINGS – the summer’s comedy highlight kind of snuck in under the radar, becoming something of an on-demand secret weapon with all the cinemas closed, and it definitely deserves its swiftly growing cult status.  You certainly can’t believe it’s the feature debut of director Max Barbakow, who shows the kind of sharp-witted, steady-handed control of his craft that’s usually the province of far more experienced talents … then again, much of the credit must surely go to seasoned TV comedy writer Andy Siara (Lodge 49), for whom this has been a real labour of love he’s been tending since his film student days.  Certainly all that care, nurture and attention to detail is up there on the screen, the exceptional script singing its irresistible siren song from the start and providing fertile ground for its promising new director to spread his own creative wings.  The premise may be instantly familiar – playing like a latter-day Saturday Night Live take on Groundhog Day (Siara admits it was a major influence), it follows the misadventures of Sarah (How I Met Your Mother’s Cristin Miliota), the black sheep maid of honour at her sweet little sister Tala’s (Riverdale’s Camila Mendes) wedding to seemingly perfect hunk Abe (the Arrowverse’s Superman, Tyler Hoechlin), as she finds herself repeating the same high-stress day over and over again after becoming trapped in a mysterious cosmic time-loop along with slacker misanthrope Nyles (Brooklyn Nine Nine megastar Andy Samberg), who’s been stuck in this same situation for MUCH longer – but in Barbakow and Siara’s hands it feels fresh and intriguing, and goes in some surprising new directions before the well-worn central premise can outstay its welcome. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the cast are all excellent – Miliota is certainly the pounding emotional heart of the film, effortlessly lovable as she flounders against her lot, then learns to accept the unique possibilities it presents, before finally resolving to find a way out, while Samberg has rarely been THIS GOOD, truly endearing in his sardonic apathy as it becomes clear he’s been here for CENTURIES, and they make an enjoyably fiery couple with snipey chemistry to burn; meanwhile there’s top-notch support from Mendes and Hoechlin, The OC’s Peter Gallagher as Sarah and Tala’s straight-laced father, the ever-reliable Dale Dickey, a thoroughly adorable turn from Jena Freidman and, most notably, a full-blooded scene-stealing performance from the mighty J.K. Simmonds as Roy, Nyles’ nemesis, who he inadvertently trapped in the loop before Sarah and is, understandably, none too happy about it. This really is an absolute laugh-riot, today’s more post-modern sense of humour allowing the central pair (and their occasional enemy) to indulge in far more extreme consequence-free craziness than Bill Murray ever got away with back in the day, but like all the best comedies there’s also a strong emotional foundation under the humour, leading us to really care about these people and what happens to them, while the story throws moments of true heartfelt power at us, particularly in the deeply cathartic climax.  Ultimately this was one of the year’s biggest surprises, a solid gold gem that I can’t recommend enough.

26.  THE LAST DAYS OF AMERICAN CRIME – Body Cam’s fellow heavyweight Zeitgeist fondler is a deeply satirical chunk of speculative dystopian sci-fi clearly intended as a cinematic indictment of Trump’s broken America, but it became far more potent and prescient in these … ahem … troubled times.  Adapted by screenwriter Karl Gadjusek (Oblivion, Stranger Things, The King’s Man) from the graphic novel by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini for underrated schlock-action cinema director Olivier Megaton (Transporter 3, Colombiana, the last two Taken films), this Netflix original feature seemed like a fun way to kill a cinema-deprived Saturday night in the middle of the First Lockdown, but ultimately proved to have a lot more substance than expected.  It’s powered by an intriguing premise – in a nearly lawless 2024, the US government is one week away from implementing a nationwide synaptic blocker signal called the API (American Peace Initiative) which will prevent the public from being able to commit any kind of crime – and focuses on a strikingly colourful bunch of outlaw antiheroes with an audacious agenda – prodigious Detroit bank robber Bricke (Édgar Ramiréz) is enlisted by Kevin Cash (Funny Games and Hannibal’s Michael Carmen Pitt), a wayward scion of local crime family the Dumois, and his hacker fiancée Shelby Dupree (Material Girl’s Anna Brewster) to pull off what’s destined to be the last great crime in American history, a daring raid on the first night of the signal to steal over a billion dollars from the Motor City’s “money factory” and then escape across the border into Canada.  From this deceptively simple premise a sprawling action epic was born, carried along by a razor sharp, twisty script and Megaton’s typically hyperbolic, showy auteur directing style and significant skill at crafting thrillingly explosive set-pieces, while the cast consistently deliver quality performances.  Ever since Domino, Ramiréz has long been one of those actors I really love to watch, a gruff, quietly intense alpha male whose subtle understatement hides deep reserves of emotional intensity, while Dupree takes a character who could have been a thinly-drawn femme fetale and invests her with strong personal drive and steely resolve, and there’s strong support from Neil Blomkampf regulars Sharlto Copley and Brandon Auret as, respectively, emasculated beat cop Sawyer and brutal Mob enforcer Lonnie French, as well as a nearly unrecognisable Patrick Bergin as local kingpin (and Kevin’s father) Rossi Dumois; the film is roundly stolen, however, by Pitt, a phenomenal actor I’ve always thought we just don’t see enough of, here portraying a spectacularly sleazy, unpredictable force of nature who clearly has his own dark agenda, but whom we ultimately can’t help rooting for even as he stabs us in the back.  This is a cracking film, a dark and dangerous thriller of rare style and compulsive verve that I happily consider to be Megaton’s best film to date BY FAR – needless to say it was a major hit for Netflix when it dropped, clearly resonating with its audience given what’s STILL going on in the real world, and while it may have been roundly panned in reviews I think, like some of the platform’s other glossier Original hits (Bright springs to mind), it’s destined for a major critical reappraisal and inevitable cult status before too long …

25.  BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC – one of the year’s biggest surprise hits for me was also one I was really nervous about – the original Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and its just-as-good sequel Bogus Journey have been personal favourites for years, pretty much part of my geeky developmental DNA during my youth, two gleefully dorky indulgences that have, against the odds, aged like fine wine for me over the years.  I love Bill and Ted SO MUCH, so like many of the fans I’ve always wanted a third film, but I knew full well how easy it would have been for it to turn out to be a turd (second sequels can be tricky things, and we’ve seen SO MANY fail over the years).  God bless Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves for never giving up on the possibilities, then, and for the original screenwriters, Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, for writing something that does true justice and pays proper respect to what came before while fully realising how much times have changed in the TWENTY-NINE YEARS that have passed since Wyld Stallyns last graced our screens.  Certainly times have moved on for our irrepressible pair – in spite of their convictions, driven by news from the distant future that their music would unite the world and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity, Bill and Ted have spectacularly failed to achieve what was expected of them, and they’ve grown despondent even though they’re still happily married to the Princesses and now the fathers of two wonderful girls, Billie and Thea (Atypical’s Brigette Lundy-Paine and Ready Or Not’s Samara weaving).  Then an emissary from the future arrives to inform them that if they don’t write the song that unites the world TODAY, the whole of reality will cease to exist.  No pressure, then … it may have been almost three decades, but our boys are BACK in a riotous comedy adventure that delivers on all the promises the franchise ever made before.  Winter and particularly Reeves may have both gone onto other things since, but they step back into their roles with such ease it’s like Bill and Ted have never been away, perfectly realising not only their characters today but also various future incarnations as they resolve to go forward in time to take the song from themselves AFTER they’ve already written it (a most triumphant and fool-proof plan, surely); Lundy-Paine and Weaving, meanwhile, are both absolutely FANTASTIC throughout, creating a pair of wonderfully oddball, eccentric and thoroughly adorable characters who would be PERFECT to carry the franchise forward in the future, while it’s an absolute joy to see William Sadler return as Bogus Journey’s fantastically neurotic incarnation of Death himself, and there are quality supporting turns from Flight of the Conchords’ Kristen Schaal, Anthony Carrigan, Holland Taylor and of course Hal Landon Jr., once again returning as Ted’s grouchy cop father Captain Logan.  The plot is thoroughly bonkers and of course makes no logical sense, but then they’re never meant to in these movies – the whole point is just to have fun and GO WITH IT, and it’s unbelievably easy when the comedy hit rate is THIS HIGH – turns out third time really is the charm for Matheson and Solomon, who genuinely managed a hat trick with the whole trilogy, while there was no better choice of director to usher this into existence than Dean Parisot, the man who brought us Galaxy Quest.  This is the perfect climax to a trilogy we’ve been waiting YEARS to see finally completed, but it’s also shown a perfect way to forge ahead in new and interesting ways with the next generation – altogether, then, this is another most excellent adventure …

24.  TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG – Justin Kurzel has been on my directors-to-watch list for a while now, each of his offerings impressing me more than the last (his home-grown Aussie debut, Snowtown, was a low key wallow in Outback nastiness, while his follow up, Macbeth, quickly became one of my favourite Shakespeare flicks, and I seem to be one of the frustrated few who actually genuinely loved his adaptation of Assassin’s Creed, considering it to be one the very best video game movies out there), and his latest is no exception – returning to his native Australia, he’s brought his trademark punky grit and fever-dream edginess to bear in his quest to bring his country’s most famous outlaw to the big screen in a biopic truly worthy of his name. Two actors bring infamous 19th Century bushranger Ned Kelly to life here, and they’re both exceptional – the first half of the film sees newcomer Orlando Schwerdt explode onto the screen as the child Ned, all righteous indignation and fiery stubbornness as he rails against the positions his family’s poverty continually put him in, then George MacKay (Sunshine On Leith, Captain Fantastic) delivers the best performance of his career in the second half, a barely restrained beast as Ned grown, his mercurial turn bringing the man’s inherent unpredictability to the fore.  The Babadook’s Essie Davis, meanwhile, frequently steals the film from both of them as Ellen, the fearsome matriarch of the Kelly clan, and Nicholas Hoult is similarly impressive as Constable Fitzpatrick, Ned’s slimily duplicitous friend/nemesis, while there are quality supporting turns from Charlie Hunnam and Russell Crowe as two of the most important men of Ned’s formative years. In Kurzel’s hands, this account of Australia’s greatest true-life crime saga becomes one of the ultimate marmite movies – its glacial pace, grubby intensity and frequent brutality will turn some viewers off, but fans of more “alternative” cinema will find much to enjoy here.  There’s a blasted beauty to its imagery (this is BY FAR the bleakest the Outback’s ever looked on film), while the screenplay from relative unknown Shaun Grant (adapting Peter Carey’s bestselling novel) is STRONG, delivering rich character development and sublime dialogue, and Kurzel delivers some brilliantly offbeat and inventive action beats in the latter half that are well worth the wait.  Evocative, intense and undeniable, this has just the kind of irreverent punk aesthetic that I’m sure the real life Ned Kelly would have approved of …

23.  MUST MERCY – more true-life cinema, this time presenting an altogether classier account of two idealists’ struggle to overturn horrific racial injustices in Alabama. Writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12, The Glass Castle) brings heart, passion and honest nobility to the story of fresh-faced young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) and his personal crusade to free Walter “Johnny D” McMillan (Jamie Foxx), an African-American man wrongfully sentenced to death for the murder of a white woman.  His only ally is altruistic young paralegal Eva Ansley (Cretton’s regular screen muse Brie Larson), while the opposition arrayed against them is MAMMOTH – not only do they face the cruelly racist might of the Alabama legal system circa 1989, but a corrupt local police force determined to circumvent his efforts at every turn and a thoroughly disinterested prosecutor, Tommy Chapman (Rafe Spall), who’s far too concerned with his own personal political ambitions to be any help.  The cast are uniformly excellent, Jordan and Foxx particularly impressing with career best performances that sear themselves deep into the memory, while there’s a truly harrowing supporting turn from Rob Morgan as Johnny D’s fellow Death Row inmate Herbert, whose own execution date is fast approaching.  This is courtroom drama at its most gripping, Cretton keeping the inherent tension cranked up tight while tugging hard on our heartstrings for maximum effect, and the result is a timely, racially-charged throat-lumper of considerable power and emotional heft that guarantees there won’t be a single dry eye in the house by the time the credits roll.  Further proof, then, that Destin Daniel Cretton is one of those rare talents of his generation – next up is his tour of duty in the MCU with Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings, and while this seems like a strange leftfield turn given his previous track record, I nevertheless have the utmost confidence in him after seeing this …

22.  UNDERWATER – at first glance, this probably seems like a strange choice for the year’s Top 30 – a much-maligned, commercially underperforming glorified B-movie creature-feature headlined by the former star of the Twilight franchise, there’s no way that could POSSIBLY be any good, surely? Well hold your horses, folks, because not only is this very much worth your time and a comprehensive suspension of your low expectations, but I can’t even consider this a guilty pleasure – as far as I’m concerned this is a GENUINELY GREAT FILM, without reservation. The man behind the camera is William Eubank, a director whose career I’ve been following with great interest since his feature debut Love (a decidedly odd but strangely beautiful little space movie) and its more high profile but still unapologetically INDIE follow-up The Signal, and this is the one where he finally delivers wholeheartedly on all that wonderful sci-fi potential.  The plot is deceptively simple – an industrial conglomerate has established an instillation drilling right down to the very bottom of the Marianas Trench, the deepest point in our Earth’s oceans, only for an unknown disaster to leave six survivors from the operation’s permanent crew stranded miles below the surface with very few escape options left – but Eubank and writers Brian Duffield (Spontaneous, Love & Monsters, Jane Got a Gun, Insurgent) and Adam Cozad (The Legend of Tarzan) wring all the possible suspense and fraught, claustrophobic terror out of the premise to deliver a piano wire-tense horror thriller that grips from its sudden start to a wonderfully cathartic climax.  The small but potent cast are all on top form, Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick (Netflix’ Iron Fist) and John Gallagher Jr. (Hush, 10 Cloverfield Lane) particularly impressing, and even the decidedly hit-and-miss T.J. Miller delivers a surprisingly likeable turn here, but it’s that Twilight alumnus who REALLY sticks in your memory here – Kristen Stewart’s been doing a pretty good job lately distancing herself from the role that, unfortunately, both made her name and turned her into an object of (very unfair) derision for many years, but in my opinion THIS is the performance that REALLY separates her from Bella effing-Swan.  Mechanical engineer Norah Price is tough, ingenious and fiercely determined, but with the right amount of vulnerability that we really root for her, and Stewart acts her little heart out in a turn sure to win over her strongest detractors.  The creature effects are impressive too, the ultimate threat proving some of the nastiest, most repulsively icky creations I’ve seen committed to film, and the inspired design work and strong visual effects easily belie the film’s B-movie leanings.  Those made uneasy by deep, dark open water or tight, enclosed spaces should take heed that this can be a tough watch, but anyone who likes being scared should find plenty to enjoy here.  Altogether a MUCH better film than its mediocre Rotten Tomatoes rating makes it out to be …

21.  PENINSULA – back in 2016, Korean director Yeon Sang-ho and writer Park Joo-suk took the tired old zombie outbreak trope and created something surprisingly fresh with their darkly satirical action horror Train to Busan.  The film was, deservedly, a massive international smash hit and a major shot in the arm for the sub-genre on the big screen, so a sequel was inevitable, but when the time came for them to follow it up they did the smart thing and went in a very different direction.  Jettisoning much of the humour to create something much darker and more intense, they also ramped the action quotient right up to eleven, creating a nightmarish post-apocalyptic version of Korea which has been quarantined from the rest of the world for the last four years, where the few uninfected survivors eke out a dangerous day-to-day existence amidst the burgeoning undead hordes, and the value of human life has plummeted dramatically.  Into this hell-on-earth must venture a small band of Korean refugees, sent by a Hong Kong crime boss to retrieve a multi-million dollar payday in stolen loot that got left behind in the evacuation, led by former ROK Marine Corps Captain Jung-seok (Secret Reunion’s Gang Don-won), a man with a tragic past he has to make up for.  Needless to say, nothing goes according to plan … Train to Busan was an unexpected masterpiece of the genre, but I was even more bowled over by this, particularly since I got to see this on the big screen on Halloween night itself, just before the UK cinemas closed down again for the Second Lockdown. This certainly is a film that NEEDS to be seen first on the big screen – the fully-realised hellscape of undead-overrun Seoul is spectacularly immersive, the perfect cinematic playground for the film’s most impressive set-pieces, two astounding, protracted high-speed chases with searchlight-and-flair-lit all-terrain vehicles racing through the dark streets pursued by tidal waves of feral zombies. Sure, the plot is predictable and the tone gets a little overblown and maudlin at times, while some of the characters are drawn in decidedly broad strokes, but the breathless pace rarely lets up throughout, and there are moments of genuine fiendish genius on offer here, particularly in a truly disturbing centrepiece sequence in which desperate human captives are set against slavering undead in a makeshift amphitheatre for sport, as well as a particularly ingenious use for radio-controlled cars.  And the cast are brilliant, with Don-won providing a suitably robust but also pleasingly fallible, wounded hero, while Hope’s Lee Re and newcomer Lee Ye-won are irrepressibly feisty and thoroughly adorable as the young girls who rescue him from certain death among the ruins.  Altogether, this is horror cinema writ large, played more for thrills than scares but knuckle-whitening and brutally effective nonetheless, and in a year where outbreak horror became all too real for us anyway it was nice to be able to enjoy something a little more escapist anyway – given the strength of its competition in 2020, this top-notch sequel to a true genre gem did very well indeed to place this high.  I’ll admit, I wouldn’t say no to thirds …

[takeshitakyuuto]

hi any tips on learning a new language?

Hi! I'm not sure if you mean general tips or tips for starting so I'll go through my process from the beginning and I hope this helps in your personal language learning journey! I've tried learning many languages and failed many times but after that trial and error, I feel like I've finally found my footing in self study and have come a long way in learning Japanese.

Getting started:

In my opinion, starting to learn a language is the hardest part. What I like to do is get a general feel for the language by listening to it. Listen to songs in your target language, watch a show (even with subtitles- try to see if you can pick up any words from it), etc. Spotify top 50 playlists by country are really great for this step

Another resource that I've found I like to use is (just trust me) Reddit. I use the subreddit r/LearnJapanese, which has a section for where to start and people often share their progress and study methods there, along with asking questions. Warning, I've seen some pretty stupid takes on Reddit. Try not to take everything on their as the right way or use it as your only source of interacting with other learners (even if it's just watching others on YouTube)

Textbooks/Workbooks:

Unpopular opinion, I have never found a textbook that works for me. I know they're out there (people swear by Genki) but I've found that YouTube works just as well and is free. Additionally, based on who you use, you'll probably end up getting a more in depth explanation of the grammar concepts and how it's used culturally. Japanese has a proficiency test that most people use (JLPT) and lots of videos are sorted by their difficulty relating to that, so I would suggest finding out if your target language has something similar to make sure you're not learning advanced grammar before you know how to conjugate a verb. Of course, I'm not saying that you shouldn't use textbooks (make sure you do your research or find a free pdf before dropping tons of money), this is just what's worked for me (and it's free!)

Other materials:

I've got four notebooks for Japanese learning. This in itself is kind of extreme, but I use one for grammar notes, one for studying kanji, one for vocabulary that I pick up from readings, and one for miscellaneous work such as writing practice sentences for recent grammar concepts.

For flashcards, I use Quizlet because it's easy and free, but so many people use and love Anki because of its spaced repetition algorithm. I'm not sure if it's free on PC, but it's free on android and costs like $25 on iphones, which is why I don't use it lol

For some regular practice, I use Duolingo. While I don't recommend using this solely to learn a language, it is good for getting regular practice and becoming accustomed to the language

Pimsleur is a great site/app that focuses on listening and speaking and has tons of languages, however it is a paid subscription. It does a good job of teaching grammar intuitively too

Staying motivated:

This part was always hardest for me oops but I finally figured out what works for me. A little practice consistently will help you advance more than lots of practice sporadically so I feel like staying motivated is probably one of the most important aspects to learning a language

Music is probably my number one motivator. I have so many playlists in Japanese and sometimes you just hear a song that's so beautiful you need to know the language immediately.

Shows and movies are also great motivators. Even if you're watching with subtitles for your native language, you can still focus on the spoken language as well and what's better payoff than being able to understand an episode of a TV show or an entire movie?

Books are harder for beginners but if you can find comics in your target language, those are always lots of fun. Slice of life stories are generally easier to comprehend than other stories.

There are also sites where you can talk to natives through a language exchange. Searching up "[target language] language exchange" should do the trick. There are probably plenty of people who are native speakers of your target language looking to learn your native language.

Remember that in practicing something such as reading, your personal enjoyment is a higher priority than if something is the correct "level." Reading something that's above your level that you enjoy will be easier than something that you have no interest in that might be simpler in terms of grammar and vocabulary.

Speaking:

All this is fine, but if you're self studying, it's really hard to get actual practice speaking. You could pay for a tutor from sites such as iTalki, or join a discord dedicated to your target language, or you could just,,, talk to yourself. Yell at the tv in your target language. Narrate your day, make up fake scenarios. The possibilities are endless, but don't neglect speaking altogether.

This is already super long but I hope that something I wrote helps you on your language learning journey! If you can't tell I love talking about language learning so don't hold back with any questions! I'll answer to the best of my ability and as always it's a good idea to get multiple points of view.

[snarkybluechristian]

Villainous: Reform School Chapter 36

505 placed Melanie on the couch of the living room and put a blanket over her while he walked over to the TV and used a remote to pick out a movie while Melanie laid down and curled up under her blanket in a ball of misery.

505 chose a movie, but after only a few minutes, a sad scene came up. Melanie sniffled sadly, and 505 immediately ended that movie and chose another movie.

The next chosen movie was even sadder than the movie before. The next chosen movie was even sadder than that. 505 kept flipping through movies, but every movie was sadder than the last.

Finally, when 505 was on the fifth movie, Flug came in with their pizza.

“Okay, guys, it’s dinnertime,” Flug said, putting the open pizza box on the coffee table and seeing Melanie still curled up in her miserable ball under her blanket. “So, 505, how is she doing?”

505 paused the movie, looked at Melanie, looked back at Flug, and shook his head sadly.

Melanie rolled over to face the couch and refused to look at Flug.

505 sat down next to Melanie and rubbed her back while looking at his dad to ask what he should do.

Though he wasn’t the most emotionally intelligent man, Flug partly wished he could help.

After wracking his brain for a moment, Flug suggested, “How about you get her some ice cream and some soda? I’m sure that’ll help her feel better.”

505 nodded his head excitedly and left the room to retrieve the ice cream, leaving Melanie alone with Flug.

Melanie rolled over on the couch, grabbed a slice of pizza, saw Flug looking at her, and quickly rolled back over to avoid looking at him.

“The pizza has spinach on it to help with rebuilding your blood supply,” Flug said, not knowing what else to say.

“Thanks,” Melanie said, without changing her position. “I’m sorry about flapping sand at you. I was really pissed off, and it was super childish.”

“Thanks, I guess,” Flug said. “But remember what we said about apologizing.”

Melanie remained silent and ate her slice of pizza.

Flug awkwardly sat down on the couch next to her. Melanie quickly moved to the opposite side of the couch to avoid being near him and sat down, continuing to eat her pizza until it was all gone.

Flug tapped his knees in a bored tic and asked himself, “What time is it?”

Before he could check his watch, Melanie sat down, checked her phone, and replied, “It’s almost 6. But I think it’s time for me to go home.”

“But we are home,” Flug said.

“No, I’m not,” Melanie replied sadly.

“Well, it’s the closest thing you have to a home for now,” Flug said. “Would you really be much better off with your family?”

“I could manage living with my biological family,” Melanie replied, sadly wrapping the blanket around her body. “I know however misguided they are they care about me. At least, I think they do. They abandoned me here.”

“And how would they make you feel?” Flug inquired.

“Less alone than I feel right now, though not as loved as I felt with my Nunja sisters,” Melanie replied. “I really want to be with them.”

“Perhaps, Black Hat will spare some of them,” Flug said, without thinking through his words.

Melanie’s eyes immediately filled with tears as she glared at Flug and then turned away to weep.

Flug looked away, searching for the right words to say for a second before he replied, “You can still save them…”

“What?!” Melanie asked, pausing her crying to look back at Flug.

“There is a way to protect all your Nunja friends,” Flug explained.

“Huh?” Melanie asked, not believing what she was hearing. “How?”

Flug looked Melanie in the eyes and said, “Give up.”

“What?” Melanie replied incredulously.

“It’s simple really,” Flug began. “You give up and comply with Black Hat. Give him whatever he asks. And it’s possible that Black Hat could show mercy to the rest.”

Melanie scoffed and replied, “Yeah, right. Since when has Black Hat ever showed mercy? And besides, even if I did reply, I’d still be betraying Lucy.”

“If you do as he asks, there are chances of him showing mercy,” Flug explained, pointing one finger into the air before laying his arm on the couch behind him. “Sure, you’d be betraying one of your friends, but you would be saving the rest of them.”

“Lucy’s my friend!” Melanie snapped back angrily. “She showed me the way out! It’s because of her that I now have another life, another family, and a relationship with God!”

“She led you astray and is getting what’s coming to her,” Flug retorted with an eye roll. “It’s her fault you’re in this mess.”

“Excuse me? You mind explaining those statements?” Melanie asked, angrily narrowing her eyes.

“Kasumi made you turn from your path as a true villain and from your real family,” Flug answered with a condescending sneer. “She put you in jeopardy and is ultimately the reason you’re being given all this punishment now.”

“I chose this for myself!” Melanie protested. “Just like Lucy did 20 years ago! She got away from Black Hat and that’s all I want, too!”

“And how has that worked out?” Flug asked coldly, looking at his gloves.

“It’s still worth a shot if I can be free from Black Hat!” Melanie retorted angrily. “I’d rather have my own life and my own mind than be another brainwashed lackey like you and Demencia! I want to be truly happy, not a slave constantly in fear for my life like you! Even if I were to give in, I gain nothing good from giving into Black Hat! He’s a bigger liar than Lucifer!”

“You really think so?” Flug asked skeptically.

“No, I know so,” Melanie replied. “And besides, I don’t regret what I’ve done. I’m happy about the people I’ve helped and the things I’ve learned and the relationships I’ve formed. I’m not going to give that up. It’s more than anything Black Hat could ever offer me.”

Flug breathed out a heavy sigh as he crossed his arms, looked away, and said, “Have it your way then. But the option still stands if you wish to save your friends.”

Too annoyed to come up with a reply, Melanie silently looked in the opposite direction.

Flug and Melanie sat there quietly ignoring each other until 505 returned to the room with soda and ice cream about a minute later.

“Oh, 505, you got ice cream!” Melanie exclaimed, happily breaking the silence. “Thank you!”

505 smiled at seeing Melanie in a better mood and sat between her and Flug on the couch.

For the next hour, the trio ate their pizza and ice cream and drank their soda until they were all satisfied.

Melanie and 505 chatted the whole time while Flug sat on the side and said nothing beyond the occasional comment until they were all done eating.

When the meal was done, Flug finally checked his watch, saw that it was almost 7, and said, “Oh, it’s getting late. It’s time to make our way to your room so that you can get ready for bed.”

“Why?” Melanie asked. “It’s not bedtime yet.”

“Well, your bedtime is at 8 tonight, so I think it’s time that you start getting ready,” Flug replied.

“Do I have to?” Melanie asked annoyedly.

Flug laughed to himself for a moment before he tersely replied, “Yes. Now, come on.”

Melanie rolled her eyes and leaned against 505 for a moment before she grabbed her things, got to her feet, and replied, “Alright. Let’s go.”

“You get her to her room, 505,” Flug said, getting to his feet as well. “Make sure she’s ready for bed on time. Alright?”

With a gentle smile, 505 got to his feet and quickly began ushering Melanie to her room.

“See you soon,” Flug said as 505 and Melanie left the living room.

Melanie said nothing, but 505 walked away with a gentle wave.

When he was alone, Flug took the opportunity to check the alerts from the probes he sent out to look for the seal while they were still walking back to the manor. He was studying their progress and the alerts they sent him when he caught something interesting from about an hour before.

The probes were set to identify any animal that wasn’t native to the island or the surrounding areas and to set an alert and launch a capture when such an animal was found.

Normally, Flug wouldn’t see the need to set the probes for anything other their specific objective, but the doctor had a hunch.

As such, the first probe Flug received an alert from caught sight of the seal for a minute, but the animal disappeared. None of the other probes caught the seal after that or sent any other alerts for anything unusual in water afterwards

However, at that moment, another probe in the air caught something interesting. A seagull surfaced from the ocean at the same spot where the seal had last been seen and flew into the air. That wasn’t unusual, but when the seagull flew past the probe, it had set off an alert and prepared capture nets because that seagull was identified as a juvenile European herring gull, a seagull that had never been spotted in the area before.

As if that wasn’t suspicious enough, as soon as the probe in the air began its pursuit, the young seagull turned its head to look at the probe following it and then began flying evasively to avoid the probe pursuing it.

Flug smiled wickedly under his paper bag. His hunch was correct. The creature Melanie was talking to was not just a trained seal. It was a shapeshifter in disguise, most likely another Nunja with supernatural abilities like Melanie was.

Flug watched the probe chase the seagull through the air until the seagull flew towards the island. The seagull then flew into the city, behind a building, and then it disappeared. The probe scanned the area for any sight of the seagull, but once it couldn’t find her, it returned to scanning the surrounding area.

Flug grunted in frustration as he sent out more probes to cover the island. He now knew that the intruder was a shapeshifter and there were probes all over the island and the ocean to locate her. But because she was a shapeshifter with an unknown level of capabilities, finding her would be extremely difficult. It was going to be a long night, speaking of which…

Flug checked his watch and sighed. It was time to put Melanie to sleep for the night before she got in anymore trouble. He sent a quick report of the probe’s findings and the appropriate clips to his and Black Hat’s computers before picking Melanie’s medication out of his pocket and heading to her room.

Flug sighed more contentedly. With Melanie out, that would be one problem dealt with for the night at least.

Back in her room, Melanie had gone into the bathroom. She quickly used the toilet, brushed her teeth, took a shower, brushed her hair, and changed into her pajamas, an oversized t-shirt and shorts.

When she was done, Melanie headed back into her room to sit on her bed and watch her laptop with 505.

Unfortunately, that was when Melanie heard a knock at the door.

Melanie gave an annoyed look to 505 before she said, “Come on in.”

Flug opened the door and entered the room holding a bottle of pills and a water bottle.

“What are you doing here?” Melanie asked, checking her phone to confirm her suspicions. “It’s not 8 yet.”

“No, it’s not,” Flug began. “But if last night is any indicator, the medication will not take effect for another 30 minutes. So, to ensure you go to sleep at your set time, you will be taking your medication early now that you’re ready for bed so that you’ll be asleep when your official bedtime rolls around.”

“What?!” Melanie exclaimed incredulously. “You gotta be kidding! That’s not fair!”

“Oh, I didn’t know we were supposed to be fair in here,” Flug retorted sarcastically.

“I don’t wanna take it,” Melanie complained. “It’s too early.”

“Keep whining and see what happens,” Flug replied with a sneer as he twisted the bottle of pills open and took a pill out for Melanie.

Melanie grumbled under her breath in French as she took the pill from Flug, dropped it in her mouth, and drank some water from the water bottle to wash it down.

“There,” Flug said condescendingly. “Was that so hard? You’d think after the day we had that you’d be jumping at the chance to go to sleep.”

“With the day I’ve had, I’ll be surprised if I fall asleep at all,” Melanie retorted.

“Yeah, well, despite the many admittedly negative occurrences today, mostly brought about by your behavior I might add, I think we’ve made some excellent progress,” Flug said, ushering Melanie over to her bed.

“So that’s what you call a day of inflicting psychological and physical trauma…HEY!” Melanie replied sarcastically as she felt Flug moving her hair to the side. “What are you doing?”

“Checking your stitches,” Flug said, pulling some more bandages out of his pocket to replace the ones Melanie had taken off in the shower. “They appear to be healing well.”

“Thank God,” Melanie said, reluctantly standing still while Flug put clean bandages over her stitches. “That’s one thing you’re good at, at least. You could be a doctor helping people instead of helping the evil demon god torture me. What a sad waste of talent.”

Flug sighed as he finished his work and said, “I’ll have you know my talents are well-utilized here.”

“Yes, I’m sure making my life miserable is very entertaining for you,” Melanie retorted semi-sarcastically.

“You could have it worse,” Flug argued. “It could be Demencia managing your re-education instead of me.”

“At least she wouldn’t drug me every night,” Melanie argued back. “Face it. You’re just as sadistic as Demencia is if not more. Don’t try to deny it. I know it’s true!”

“I only give you medication so you can sleep,” Flug replied.

“Because you don’t trust me to sleep on my own,” Melanie retorted.

“Your parents did say you had trouble sleeping,” Flug reminded her.

“Yeah, you just want to put me to sleep so I don’t cause any trouble,” Melanie argued.

In an effort to stop the arguing, 505 pulled down the sheets and gestured for Melanie to get into bed.

“I will neither confirm nor deny that statement, but I am pleased with the progress we’ve been able to make with you today,” Flug said.

“Yeah, whatever,” Melanie grumbled as she climbed into bed. “Going to sleep means I don’t have to deal with you at least.”

“Way to think positively,” Flug said sarcastically as he turned to leave the room.

Melanie plugged her phone in to charge and unlocked it to check it one more time before she went to sleep.

505 gestured for the phone. Melanie looked at him curiously but handed it over. The bear went on YouTube, picked out a video to play in the background, and set it on the bedside table.

Melanie listened and heard someone speaking in a soft yet pleasant voice.

“What is this, 505?” Melanie asked. “Is this an ASMR video?”

“It’s a bedtime story,” Flug called out from the door. “He’s trying to read you one to help you fall asleep. I play these videos for 505 when he can’t sleep sometimes.”

“Oh,” Melanie replied. “That’s very sweet of you, 505.”

505 nodded his head happily as he pulled the covers over Melanie and tucked her in under the blankets. He then climbed onto the other side of the bed and rested his head on her stomach.

Melanie rubbed his head and said, “Thanks, 505.”

Flug then flipped the lights off and said, “Goodnight, Melanie. I’ll see you in the morning. 505, I’ll see you after she falls asleep.”

505 grunted in agreement, raising his head from his spot on the bed.

“Yeah, whatever,” Melanie replied. “You can go now.”

With a final eye roll, Flug left the room and shut the door behind him.

[prettyboybarzal]

tattoos together // tyler seguin

pairing: tyler seguin x reader

summary: it’s july 4th and you’re supposed to be celebrating on the cape with your best friend, tyler, and dozens of party goers. but things take a turn when he’s drafted to the dallas stars. 

(a slow burn, friend to lovers fic w/ the gift of boston tyler seguin and dallas tyler seguin AND matching tattoos) 

word count: 4k+

author’s note: this is just part one of idk how many, but i was inspired and needed to write this story. think of this chapter as a prologue of some sort... ps. this was inspired by “tattoos together” by lauv

warnings: alcohol, getting tattoos (??), cursing

Sometime within Tyler Seguin’s first year living in Boston, you bumped into him at a coffee shop. I mean, literally bumped into him. You were on the way to your first day of classes at Boston University and spilled your entire coffee on him. It was his fault, which he claimed almost immediately as he’d been looking down at his phone when it happened.

You had no clue who he was, but he was so pretty that your anger about the wasted coffee quickly dissipated. You almost let him get away with fucking up your morning routine. But, as if he knew the coffee was important, he nodded over to the shop and offered to buy you another.

You stood in line beside him, twiddling your thumbs around the sleeve of the now empty coffee cup.

“Are you from around here?”

“Yeah, I grew up just outside the city.”

“You live here now, though?”

“Yep.”

The conversation was dry, due in part to your exhaustion and lack of caffeine. He noted this, not bothering to push conversation anymore despite feeling desperate to talk to you.

You ordered, “Medium French Vanilla coffee with half and half, please.”

“She’ll have a large,” Tyler interjected. “She needs it.”

Before you could object, the barista was gone and Tyler was shrugging unapologetically at you.

When Tyler took the coffee from the barista’s hand, he snatched the pen off the counter as well. You watched as he etched his name and number onto the sleeve before handing it over to you. He smiled easily and said, “I’m new around here. I could use a native’s tips on the city.”

You never called him, or texted, until running into him at a bar a month later. He recognized you immediately from the other side of the room and quickly made his way over, shrugging off a girl whose name he couldn’t remember just to get to you. You had your back to him, but the look on your girl friend’s face was enough to make you turn and face him.

“French Vanilla,” he greeted. You laughed. “You never called.”

“I don’t normally call random men I meet, whether it’s at a coffee shop or a bar.”

Tyler scoffed at this before asking, “Have you gotten a drink yet?”

And, just as quickly as it had gone up, your cool girl façade was down.

“No, this place has the shittiest service.”

“Yeah?” Tyler asked, sensing the challenge. He raised a hand at the bartender and was served immediately. He relayed his drink order before glancing over at you and telling the bartender, “And whatever these two want.”

The bartender took your orders and left to make your drinks, leaving you to stare at Tyler in amazement, “How?”

“I might be a bit of a regular,” he murmured. When the drinks were placed down and Tyler grabbed his card to pay, the bartender simply stated, “You’re covered. Keep playing hard.”

“Playing hard?”

“I’m Tyler Seguin,” he said. He extended his hand and you shook it, a look of confusion still displayed on your face. “Of the Boston Bruins.”

“Oh, shit!” That’s all you said in response before dropping your hand. “Cool.”

The response was refreshing. Most girls already knew who he was, but you didn’t and he liked that. He invited you and your friend back to his booth, and you went because the promise of free alcohol was too good to pass up. 

“Most girls would’ve at least texted me if I gave them my number,” Tyler pushed. You were sitting beside him, watching your friend flirt with one of his teammates. His arm rested on the couch behind your head.

You smirked at how annoyed he seemed to be by the radio silence from you. Stirring the straw in your drink, you shrugged and teased, “Had I known you were a rich and famous hockey star, maybe I would’ve called you. You should’ve told me sooner.”

“Does this mean you’ll call me tomorrow?”

“I can smell the desperation on you, Seguin,” you stated. You turned your body to face him. “I’m not sleeping with you.”

“Who said I wanted that?”

“Your body language and persistence.”

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

“Something like that.”

At the end of the night, you wrote your number on a napkin and shoved it in his shirt pocket.

From then on, he invited you out every time he was hitting the bars. Pretty soon, he was asking you to grab food in the middle of the day. It snowballed into movie nights and wine, sleepovers with face masks, and lots of take-out.

Tyler liked you, but he liked the freedom of casual hookups way more. His fear of losing you was much stronger than his want for a relationship. And the same could be said for you. You were crazy about him, but not crazy enough to lose him. So, somewhere along the line, your relationship became strictly platonic.

Besides, it was easy to ignore your feelings when you’d only admitted it out loud once (under the influence of tequila) to your best friend, Lauren.

“You can’t expect us to spend as much time as we do with each other and not develop feelings,” you’d said. “But, right now, I’m having fun with casual stuff. And so is he. There’s no reason for me to pursue a relationship with someone as special as Ty right now. It’s too soon, we’re too young. Maybe one day, but not today.”

Now, as you stood teary eyed in his bathroom mirror, you were left wondering if that day would ever come. What the hell had you been biding your time for?

“It’s going to be fine!” Tyler calls from the other side of the bathroom door. You sniffle, but give no response knowing that your voice will fail you. He lets out a long sigh in the hallway. “Will you stop crying?”

“I’m not crying anymore!”

“You’re such a fucking liar,” he argues. Despite the situation at hand, you can hear the smile in his voice. “I hear you sniffling. Open the door. 

Frantically, you wipe away the smudged mascara beneath your eyes before sucking in a breath and releasing it uneasily moments later. The body behind the door remains, only silently this time. Pushing away from the counter, you turn to the door and grab the nob. When you pull it open, Tyler comes tumbling into the room.

He straightens up and flashes you a lopsided grin before tugging on one of the belt loops on your jeans. You fall into his chest with a thud, melting as his arms wrap around you. For a few moments, the room is silent. He laces his fingers through the ends of your hair and places a kiss on the crown of your head.

You mumble into his chest, “I don’t want you to go to Dallas.”

“I know.”

Suddenly, the sadness fades to anger as your train of thought drifts to the reason you suspect he’s in this situation. He’s been the irresponsible rookie, the life of the party, the womanizer… All titles that definitely made the decision to trade him to Dallas easier.

You push him away with a rough shove of his chest and scold him, “You’re such an idiot, do you know that? Fuck, Tyler.”

A frown replaces his goofy smile as he crosses his arms over his chest and grunts, “This isn’t a conversation I want to have with you of all people.”

You back down from the challenge, acknowledging the bubble of your friendship that so often excluded the hockey world. There’s no reason to shatter it on tonight of all nights, so instead of pressing on, you murmur, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.” He pulls his snapback off his head to run his fingers through his hair before placing it back down. “Now, can we please eat dinner and get ready for this party? It’s too late to cancel now.”

Down stairs, you and Tyler bustle about the kitchen. He put a pizza in the oven right before the phone call about the trade came in and you ran off to cry in the bathroom. When you return, it’s done and Tyler grabs a dish towel to take the tray out of the oven.

You slice the pie into an equal eight pieces before he takes it to the dining table. Tyler eats two slices for every one you manage, making sure you’re getting enough before picking up the next one. It’s comfortably silent, something the two of you are used to. The only conversation you share is between eyebrow raises, giggles, and moans of appreciation for the food on your plates.

When Tyler finishes off his last slice, he wipes the side of his mouth with the back of his hand, then with a napkin, and you find yourself staring. He’s completely oblivious to your wandering eyes, pushing away from the table to take his plate to the sink and leaving the last slice of pizza for you (like he always does). 

It’s a mixture of the excitement of the Fourth of July and the sadness of Tyler’s inevitable departure from Boston that ends up getting you as drunk as you are by 8 p.m. It’s been an hour since everyone started showing up and you stopped counting your drinks. And, quite honestly, you’re feeling good.

Tyler is the man of the hour, as expected, and he’s hardly by your side for the first hour. Each time he’s with, you watch him get whisked away to say hello to someone new, be it a teammate or one of his casual hookups.

Most nights this happens you don’t mind one bit, but tonight is different because moments with him are fleeting.

Once it seems like the flow of party guests has slowed, Tyler finds you again. He offers you a sympathetic smile and all is forgiven. From that moment on, he hardly leaves your side. He tugs on your hand when you try to leave the room or pulls you into his side when he sees your thoughts drifting away from the fun of the party.

Tyler knows where your head is at because he feels the same way about leaving. While he loved Boston and he’d miss it when he moved to Texas, he knew it was really you he’d be missing. You made an unfamiliar place feel like home.

“I’m going to top myself off,” you state, pushing yourself away from the counter. You sway on your feet, causing Tyler to reach forward to steady you. “Need anything?”

He shakes his head and responds, “I’m okay.”

Tyler watches you walk away and stares at you through the sliding glass door as you fill up your cup. You’re inevitably joined by a friend of a friend who starts chatting you up and you’re giggling at him, hand on his arm. Tyler needs to shake himself out of the trance he’s in.

The hardest pill for him to swallow, he’s decided, is the fact that he never took his time in Boston to pursue you.

His eyes drift out to the back deck again and he finds that you’ve settled against the railing, gazing up at the guy in front of you. He’s seen you give that look to guys before and he always finds himself wishing he was on the other end of it. With a grunt, he forces himself to walk away and push the sight out of his mind, opting to flirt with the pretty blonde by the beer pong table instead.

It’s not long before you rejoin the party and, when you find Tyler again, he’s playing beer pong with that same girl. He notices your presence as you settle against the back of the couch in the living room to watch the game. Your swollen lips don’t go unnoticed and neither does the presence of the guy by your side. You smile at Tyler and get one in return, but you’re completely oblivious to how half assed it is.

He brushes you off, turning to whisper something flirty in the ear of the blonde beside him before sinking his ping pong ball in the second to last cup. The guy beside you nudges you with his shoulder and asks, “Do you know him?”

“Tyler?” you ask with an air of familiarity. He nods. You smirk mischievously and answer, “Sort of.”

You turn your attention back to the beer pong game. There’s only one cup left and you fully intend on yanking Tyler away from the table as soon as he sinks the final shot, especially once you feel this guy’s hand wrap around yours.

Tyler hits the cup and embraces his partner before turning to bask in the cheers of his party guests, only to find himself face-to-face with you.

“Save me,” you murmur. He glances down at you, then over to your hand. You give him a pout, the type you know he can’t resist, and suddenly he’s relaxing his shoulders, eyes wide and concerned. “I do not want to kiss this guy again.”

“What are you going to do when I’m not here to bail you out anymore?” Tyler asks. You huff at him, adding an eye roll for emphasis. He looks over at your hand again and then up at the guy holding it. “Hey, dude, I’m going to steal her. Enjoy the party!”

Your new friend backs off, as any smart man would do when confronted by Tyler Seguin. 

Tyler grabs your hand and pulls you down the hall with him until the music from the living room is drowned out. You find yourselves just outside his bedroom door. The lights in the hallway are out to keep people from coming down to his room. He releases your hand and presses his back up against the wall. You step forward and drop your head to his shoulder. 

“Don’t let me do that again,” you whine. Tyler’s shoulders shake with laughter. “What the hell am I supposed to do when you move away?”

“Not make out with weirdos.”

“How was I supposed to know he was weird?”

“You can just tell that about a guy,” Tyler explains. You pull back to look up at him with a questioning glance. “Like, I’m too good looking to be a weirdo.”

“And humble, too,” you tease. He laughs, tossing his head back to direct his laughter at the ceiling. “Did I cock block you?”

He shrugs, a cocky smirk lying on his face, and answers, “Possibly.”

“I’m sorry,” you tell him. He gives no response, only offering you a soft smile instead of words. Truth be told, he didn’t mind that you pulled him away from the table, not one bit. You stared up at him, admiring his face until hiccup. Tyler giggles as you reveal, “I’m drunk.”

“I can tell.”

“How are you not?”

“I’m getting there,” he answers. He grabs your hip, squeezing it as he pulls you closer to him. “Maybe I’m trying to look at for you.” 

“I don’t need you to look out for me!”

“You sure?” he asks, dropping his hand. He furrows his eyebrows, annoyed by your comment, for whatever reason he doesn’t understand. He slips away from you, starts walking down the hall, and calls back, “Let’s see how that goes for the rest of the night.” 

Tyler disappears into the crowd, leaving you to fend for yourself. And, at first, it’s not that bad. You find a group of girls that you’d met through the Bruins boys and spend a while hanging out with them. But, one-by-one, they’re plucked up by men at the party and you’re left alone again. 

Not long after, the guy from the deck finds you. As he approaches, you search the room frantically to find Tyler is watching. His grin doesn’t fall, it stays wide and taunting. He’s not coming to your rescue this time.

“I thought I wouldn’t see you again,” porch guy says. “Seguin didn’t make a move on you?”

“I don’t kiss and tell.”

You hope this comment makes him change his mind about hitting on you, but he’s persistent. You can’t even comprehend much of what he’s saying because your eyes keep glancing over his shoulder at Tyler who’s now officially tuned out of your misfortune. He’s leaning against the wall, gripping the waist of some girl doing a full Jersey Turnpike against him.

He glances up once more and smirks.  Smug little bitch.

The next time you find Tyler alone, he’s in the kitchen. He’s facing the counter, his back to you, as he slices up limes and places them on a plate with tequila shots in the middle. You approach quietly until you’re close enough to wrap your arms around his waist.

“She comes crawling back,” Tyler murmurs. You hum, poking your head out to the side of his arm to look at what he’s doing. He turns to face you. “What do you want?”

“I want you to keep the creeps away from me.”

“So, you admit that you need me to look out for you?” he asks. He extends his arms behind him and places his palms flat against the counter as you press your face into his stomach. “Say it!”

“I need you to look out for me,” you mumble into his stomach. He laughs before winding his arms around you once more. “Bitch.”

“Hey!” he exclaims, shoving you off him. “Say nice things to me. You know I’m fragile.”

“Mhm,” you hum. “What you got here?”

“Tequila shots,” he answers. He plucks two shots off the plate and hands one over to you. You tap the little plastic cups together before tossing the shots back, shuddering at the taste.

“Let’s ditch this party.”

Tyler chuckles at your proposition, then sees that you’re serious. He takes the shot glass from you and moves to the sink to toss them in it. He turns again to face you and leans up against the edge of the counter.

“What? You want me to just kick everyone out?”

“Why not?” you ask. Your grin is contagious and it makes Tyler smile even wider. “We don’t care about any of these people anyway. Your teammates that were here all left with the girls.”

“It’s only 10 p.m., though.”

“Okay?”

“The night is young.”

There’s a beat of silence. He’s waiting to see what you have planned at the sake of an early night. You exclaim, “Let’s get tattoos!”

“Tonight?” Tyler asks with his eyebrows stitched together in confusion. You nod, smiling goofily at his surprise. “Your mom would kill me.”

“She absolutely would not,” you remark. “She loves you.”

The compliment brings a smug smile to his lips. Tyler stares up at the ceiling, allowing your suggestion to set in. Finally, he looks back down and asks, “What would we even get?”

It’s not a yes, but it’s close enough. You hop up excitedly, pressing both palms against his shoulders. The answer is easy, so it rolls right off your tongue.

“Stars.”

His eyebrows raise as he repeats, “Stars?”

“Yes, as in the Dallas Stars.”

“Yeah, I got that,” he teases. You glare at him playfully, but your smile returns when he wraps his arm around your waist and brings his face to yours. You can smell the liquor on his breath when the tip of his nose touches yours. He’s so close you could kiss him. “Let’s do it.”

Despite the late hour and it being a national holiday, Tyler’s able to call in a favor and ends up getting a tattoo artist to work on the two of you. Tyler was buzzing with excitement the entire car ride to the tattoo shop. You watched him chat away with the cab driver, wondering how he was being so brave. He feels your eyes on him and looks over with a smile.

“You okay?”

“I don’t know if I can do it,” you admit. Tyler’s eyebrows stitch together. He reaches out, running his hand over your hair and down to cup the nape of your neck.

“I’ll go first, alright?” he offers. “You’ll be fine. Actually, you have to be fine because you can’t back out now.”

Tyler keeps his promise and settles into the chair effortlessly within five minutes of entering the tattoo shop.

You watch Tyler flex his bicep as he sits and, quickly, divert your gaze. It doesn’t go unnoticed as both the artist and Tyler, glance toward you. Tyler smirks knowingly at the redness of your neck, the subtle biting of the inside of your cheek. He’s satisfied with the reaction, having only gotten it from you twice before tonight.

And, then, he’s brought back to reality as the tattoo artist starts explaining what he’s about to do.

You should’ve gone first because watching the needle go into Tyler’s arm like that freaks you out. Tyler reaches out with his other hand, noticing how pale your face is, and squeezes your knee. You look up at him and he mumbles, “Relax. It’s fine. See?” 

He smiles brightly to help the situation

“I’ll be here the whole time, too.”

A little while later, after there’s a star on the inside of Tyler’s bicep, you find yourself in the chair. Your arm is positioned so that your palm is face up. Tyler inches closer to you, the wrap on his arm making an uncomfortable sound, and asks, “Are you sure about getting it on your wrist?”

His question is met with a glare and a sharp, “I’ll back out.”

“You can’t back out, YN!” he exclaims. “We’re gonna have tattoos together! That’s a level of friendship I’ve never been on with anyone before!”

“Friendship?” the tattoo artist asks under his breath. Your cheeks flush at the question, but Tyler ignores it.

“You’re going to be fine.”

You end up feeling more than fine. The feeling of the needle on your skin definitely wasn’t ideal, but it looked worse than it felt. Though, you pretended to be in immense pain as Tyler sat there holding your hand. It was a good excuse for the physical contact.

As soon as the artist is done, he steps away to clean up a bit and Tyler lifts your wrist to his eye level. He stares, open-mouthed, at the four little stars on your wrist. It’s hardly anything to gawk at, but he finds himself falling in love with the little make-shift constellation on your skin. 

“It’s so pretty,” Tyler coos. He resists the urge to run his finger along the fresh ink, but he so badly wants to touch it. “I love it.”

You shouldn’t be staring at him like this, especially not when you have fresh ink on your skin to admire. But it’s so hard to look away from him. He’s so pretty. He’s so pretty when he’s admiring you.

“Honesty hour?” Tyler asks as you pull one of his sweatshirts over your head. He’s sitting against the frame of the bed with a bottle of champagne in his hand. You two have been nursing the bottle since you got back to the house over an hour ago, keeping your buzz from the night going.

You sit cross-legged across from him and nod.

“Sure.”

“When I met you in that bar after you didn’t call me, I was so sure that we would sleep together once and that would be it,” Tyler admits. He lifts the bottle to his lips and takes a swig. You laugh at him. “You just wouldn’t let me even try.”

“It’s because I find you repulsive.”

“That’s a damn lie!” he exclaims with a cocky eyebrow raise. He extends the bottle to you and you take it without a second thought. “You know I’m attractive.” He waits a beat and says, “I know you’re attractive.”

You swallow the liquid and wave him off, muttering an ‘okay’.

“Two years of friendship and we never even kissed,” Tyler remarks. You nod at him before handing the bottle back to shut him up. It works for a moment as he takes another sip of the alcohol, but then he opens his mouth again to ask, “Why is that?” 

“Why did we never kiss?” you ask, making sure you heard him right. Tyler nods. “I’ve seen what happens to the girls you get romantically involved with. They don’t stick around very long.”

You’re surprised by how honest your response is… And apparently so is Tyler. He leans his head back against the bed and runs a hand over the scruff on his face.

“For whatever reason, I wanted to stick around.”

For several reasons, actually, but you can’t say that.

“I’m ready for bed,” Tyler announces suddenly. He takes one last swig of the champagne and hands it over to you. “Finish it off. I’m gonna go brush my teeth.”

You chug the rest of the liquor, feeling the need to be intoxicated to withstand the tension between the two of you. Then, you pop into the bathroom to brush your teeth beside him. He smiles at you in the mirror, happy with the domesticated scene he’s a part of.

He rinses off his toothbrush and places it on the counter before slipping out of the bathroom behind you to return to the bedroom.

You join him not long after. He’s sitting up against the headboard, his newly tattooed arm resting behind his head as he waits for your arrival. You slip under the covers beside him, immediately nestling your head into the pillow beneath you. He slides down as well, flicking the lamp beside him off.

“Ty?” you call. He hums in response. When you shift to face him, he follows your lead. Another minute goes by without a word. The light from the window is just bright enough to make out his profile. You can see his big brown eyes staring at you intently.

Finally, after you fail to speak up, he asks, “Yes?”

“You’re my best friend,” you whisper. Tyler folds his pillow beneath his head and nods. “You don’t know how much I love you.” Tyler was about to butt in, but you pushed your index finger against his lips to keep him quiet. “I’m proud of you, despite everything. I always am.”

“I know that.”

“Yeah, but I don’t say it enough,” you state. Tyler stays silent. “I just feel the need to give you the verbal validation. You know, since you’re so fragile.”

Tyler chuckles at this. He reaches over to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear, but he doesn’t retract his hand right away, allowing his thumb to brush over your cheekbone. He sighs and tells you, “I’m proud of you, too, even though you’re a broke college student.” 

“Thanks.” You chuckle along with him. “Promise you won’t forget about me when you’re living large in Texas?”

“I could never forget you, YN,” Tyler murmurs. “Especially not now that you made me get a tattoo with you.” 

The room goes silent again, but this silence feels heavy. It’s loaded and slightly uncomfortable. Tyler’s thumb is still running along your cheekbone, until it abruptly stops and he sighs again. He shifts, bringing his face closer to yours and, suddenly, your heart rate speeds up. He states, “Honesty hour.”

“Okay.”

“I think I’d beat myself up forever if I never kissed you before moving to Texas.”

Nothing else needs to be said. You lean in instantaneously and plant your lips on his. It’s somewhere between a peck and something more and it only last a moment. It feels way too quick. When you pull away, Tyler’s eyes are wide and searching.

“What?” you ask. He wraps his arm around your waist and pulls you closer. You’re chest-to-chest, staring into each other’s eyes. It feels so intimate and Tyler can’t stop thinking about how that kiss wasn’t enough. All these years he’s been convinced that one kiss would be enough to rid him of his yearning for you.

It only made it worse.

He shakes his head, a coy smile playing on his lips, and then he tucks your head beneath his chin. He decides he can’t kiss you again because it’ll just make this more difficult. His hand travels over your back and keeps you tight against his bare chest. He murmurs, “Goodnight.”

“Night, Ty.”

[nyongsimp]

truly, madly, deeply (pjy)

pjy x female reader word count: 4.1k genre: fluff fluff fluff warnings: it’s based on One Direction’s song, so you might cry. also, very domestic jinyoung. there miiight or might not be a proposal. mature content: just fluff.

summary: waking up besides the love of your life has always been a blessing, and today is no exception.

The not-so-subtle light was entering the room, the rays falling right on your eyes, making you struggle to continue sleeping. You’ve never liked when the window curtains weren’t fully down as any tiny ray of sunshine would make your peaceful sleep drift away. The sheet moved over the night, so now it wasn’t fully covering you but covering only from your waist to your feet. With your eyes still closed you tried to go back to sleep, taking advantage of the state you were in, between sleep and awake.

A tug in your waist was all you needed to know that he was still asleep, so being really cautious not to wake him, you turned between his arms to contemplate him while you could. He had never been a fan of people staring directly at him. Yes, he has been an idol for a while now and an actor too, and he loves his jobs. He shows himself as someone tough and neat, sometimes people take him as cold and a bit of a bully, he has portrayed an image for so long that now he has to maintain it. But people who really knew him were aware that he’s someone with some big insecurities and really shy. He loves to admire art and beauty so much, and he doesn’t notice that he is both things too.

You opened your eyes little by little to find Jinyoung laying on his back, head tilted to your side. His eyes were closed, eyelashes touching his skin like feathers. Lips slightly parted and doing a small pout, which you adored, there was a little stubble around his mouth, which he hated and would surely shave as soon as he woke up. He moved a little, trying to spoon you to keep you closer to him, but you moved too and he stopped; his arm still around you but his legs allowing you to fit one of your legs between his.

Still looking at his face, you laid your hand on his chest, feeling the beating of his heart. He frowned a little, those full thick brows changing his peaceful state to a worried one. The hand you had on his chest moved to cup his face and then your thumb stroked his frown away as lightly as you could, once it faded his lips curled a bit, making his cheeks look puffier.

You knew you were the luckiest girl in the world if you were able to see the Park Jinyoung like this.

There were still some occasions when you questioned yourself if this was just another dream of yours, as this was too good to be true. But that’s how life works, sometimes things that seemed impossible for you end becoming true. You were sure there was something you did incredibly well in your past life, had someone up there that really loved you, or destiny was on your side, because there was an almost zero-chance possibility for this to happen, nevertheless, it was real, and it was your present.

You went back to the first time he saw you, three years ago.

You were rushing to one of your Master’s classes, coffee on one hand, bag beneath your arm, some books being held with your forearm against your chest. Professor Han would be pissed if you arrived late again, but it wasn’t really your fault that the classrooms were at different ends of the campus. You cursed at your twenty-two-old-self for taking the decision five years ago of coming to South Korea to do a Master’s in Korean Language, thinking it would be easy which, spoiler, it wasn’t. You fastened your pace.

Your phone in your free hand buzzed and you took a look at it; it was a twitter notification: GOT7 would hold a meet & greet at your auditorium. Great, this would be their first OT7 activity after all they went through: getting out of JYPE, winning the lawsuit to keep their name and songs, and the korean members going to their military service. And you will be missing it because you had to deliver your final paper to professor Han or you’ll have to face taking his class again next spring. Which you couldn't or wouldn't as this was your last year here and it would mean saying another year but this time without the scholarship.

Muttering curses in your native language, you didn’t notice a large group of people coming until it was too late; your blouse had a huge stain of coffee, the books you held were all over the place, the only good thing was that your paper was safe. You didn’t even have time to say anything before lots of screams were making you deaf, hands were all over the place collecting your stuff, phones were all around you. What was this?

‘Is she ok?’, ‘she should be more careful’, ‘look, another idiot who falls so they have to pick her up’, those were some of the things people were saying.

“Here, let me help you,” a voice you recognized pretty well told you, a hand was extended to your direction. “I’m sorry for the trouble, but you have to be more careful of your surroundings, if not you’ll get hurt” he flashed you a friendly smile.

You took his hand to get up and thanked him, another man gave you your bag, other your books, and the last one gave you your coffee mug. You thanked them once again before saying you were sorry and bowing a couple times. They left, and so did the security guards and the fans, you stood still. 

Park Jinyoung had smiled at you and helped you get up.

Shortly after that first encounter you started bumping into each other, and after six months of doing so, you joked about hanging out sometime and he agreed, so he asked for your phone number and you gave it to him. A few days later you started hanging out with him and a few months later he asked you to be his girlfriend, the only downfall: you had to go back to your native country, so he helped you to find a job at his agency. Jinyoung asked you to move in with him while celebrating your first anniversary, and six months later he traveled to meet your parents.

With that travel the scandal exploded, everyone wanting to know more about the secret girlfriend of the most secretive members of GOT7. Most fans took the news pretty well. After all, Jinyoung was turning thirty-three and everyone was waiting for a dating scandal from him as he was the only missing from the seven men. And now, a year and a half later, you were laying between his arms, admiring his features, appreciating his warmth.

You felt his hand sneaking under your shirt to touch your lower back. “You’re staring” his morning voice finally made its appearance, ears turning red.

“Yes, I am,” he moved closer to you and opened his eyes, staring directly at yours. “I love watching my boyfriend.”

He laughed and you smiled. You weren’t lying, you loved watching him doing anything. To you, he was the most perfect human being you could share your life with. Both of you fitted so well, of course there were some fights, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed. You were truly in-love with him, no matter what others said.

His stomach growled, of course he was starving. Last night when he arrived he went straight to the bedroom, practice being really tiring to him as the next comeback was being prepared. He didn’t even eat something on his way to your place, and when he fell on the bed you had to help him to change his clothes so he could sleep more comfortably. And as today was his free day, he slept as much as he could, and by that you meant around twelve hours.

“Good morning.”

“Seems like someone’s hungry.”

“No, I’m not,” he said, placing your head on his chest and finally hugging you with both arms.

“Jinyoung…” you warned.

“Let’s stay like this a little longer,” he hummed, his voice vibrating on his chest. “We can go eat later, let me enjoy being like this with my girlfriend” he placed a kiss on your hair and you felt your heart warm.

Even though you knew it was a bad idea as he would fall asleep again, you let him have the opportunity of being like this. He was playing with your hair while you were drawing circles on his chest’s exposed skin. Last night was too much struggle for you to try and put him on a shirt as he was really sleepy for his own good, so you let him shirtless and enjoyed the warmth of his skin while you could. As soon as you heard the light snores, you decided it was time to make breakfast, and against all your desires to keep sleeping along your boyfriend, you got up. He immediately seeked your body, pouting and frowning when he couldn’t reach you. You tied your hair and walked over to his side, gently brushing his hair out of his face and kissed his cute nose before going to the kitchen.

You put some coffee to brew and scrambled some eggs, then chopped two tomatoes, sliced an apple, and took out a banana and a few strawberries. Once the eggs were finished you put bread to toast while serving some yogurt and granola in a bowl. As you were finishing, you placed the food in a tray so you could move all of that at once. You made your way to the bedroom and hoped for Jinyoung to be asleep. His idol agenda was crazy, and with his upcoming movie filming he would need as much rest as possible. He’ll hate not being able to give his best and will keep blaming himself for it.

He was still sleeping when you entered the bedroom. You placed the tray on the nightstand, and then walked over the window to open the curtains a little bit without disturbing Jinyoung. Now it was time to wake him up. So there you went again to his side of the bed, sitting on the edge of it, hoping it wouldn’t make that much noise.

You couldn’t help but look at him again, seeing him this calm and relaxed would always bring peace to your life. You were sure you could explode from love right then. This was one of the highlights of your relationship with him; him trusting you enough to show you his defenceless self, his fears, his worries, his tears and also his joys, his wonderful laughs, his playfulness, and everything he often had to hide from the rest.

You leaned over to kiss him on the cheek to wake him, but he surprised you when he trapped you with his arms over him, you let out a small and quick scream. The kiss intended on the cheek ended up on his lips. He laughed fondly while kissing you.

“God, I could wake up like this every morning and never get tired of this,” he said, eyes half-closed and lips brushing with yours. “Good morning.”

You laughed lightly. “Good morning,” a peck on his lips was all he got before you could escape to get the tray. “Here, I made breakfast.”

The look Jinyoung was giving you made you weak in the knees. It wasn’t a lustful one, even though the shirt you were using was his and you weren’t using a bra and he knew it. His look was a fond one. The one that can make you feel all warm from love, because you know that their eyes light up like that only for you and you’re the only one able to see it. His eyes never left you as you approached him again, left the tray on his legs and then sat beside him.

Both of you started eating, sharing what happened this week. He was being really secretive about the comeback, more secretive than he ever has, and it only intrigued you more. He knew you were a fan, but that hasn’t matter before, maybe this time there would be something bigger, and you respected that. It was exciting anyways. He told you that next week he would be coming home later than usual as Jaebeom asked him to run some errands with him, you told him that your parents were coming next weekend so there would be a dinner being held as they missed you a lot and your dad wanted to make sure that his princess were being well treated.

Jinyoung’s free day went faster than you expected. You decided not to go out, and instead to watch a movie and order in, so he could have a relaxing day. He didn’t decide which movie to watch though, this time it was your turn and you decided to watch the live action version of The Beauty and the Beast, he knew you would cry when Evermore came up, so he hugged you closer when Dan Stevens started singing. He made fun of you when you started saying the dialogues in your mother tongue, but he loved hearing you speak another language than English or Korean, he just would never say that to you out loud.

At the time you both had to go back to bed he went into the bedroom first as you wanted to wash yourself before going to sleep, when you went into your bedroom you saw Jinyoung sitting at the edge of the bed. You kept drying your hair with your towel until you were kneeling in front of him.

"What's going on?" you touched his knee and he looked at you, your thumb was caressing his skin and he placed his hand on top of yours. "Nyongs, are you ok?" "Yeah, it's just…" he gave your hand a squeeze and then placed a kiss on top of it, his eyes drifting to his drawer and then to your hand again. "I feel like this is too good to be true, as if I'm going to wake up at any moment and you won't be here. I'm afraid that I could lose you."

You stood up and your hands cupped his face and you made him look at you, "listen, Jinyoung, there's no way on Earth that you could lose me or that I would ever leave you. You're all I've ever wanted and more, much more," you kissed him on his lips and then hugged him.

"You promise?" he asked, his voice trembling a little.

You knew he was afraid, that was your fear too. Your relationship was never too vocal when it came to feelings. Yes, you mocked each other at times by calling each of you by boyfriend or girlfriend. But there weren't tons of I love yous, and the pet names had died long ago in the relationship, those were saved for special occasions. You hugged him tighter and he enclosed you in his embrace, his head on your chest and arms wrapped on your waist.

"Princess? Do you promise?"

He was really affected, so you nodded, "yes, Jinyoung. I promise."

Jinyoung broke the hug and then stood up and looked you in the eyes. He was holding your hands and then he was kneeling in front of you, "then say yes."

"What do you mean?"

"Let's get married," he opened the little velvet box you didn't notice he was holding until now. "Promise me that from now on it'll be the two of us forever. That, of course, until and if you wanna have kids."

You were speechless, like you forgot how to breathe. Your hands were covering your mouth and he was looking at you waiting for the answer. How long has he been hiding this ring? was the first thing that came to your mind but you shushed your thoughts before making Jinyoung stand up again.

"Then let's do it. Let's be us forever, with kids and everything" you said with a smile on your face and your eyes full of tears of joy.

He placed the ring where it belonged and then hugged you.

________________________________

It was Saturday morning when you decided to hang out with your parents for the day as Jinyoung had to record something for their fans. Your mother was extremely excited to go out and know Seoul while your father was still struggling with the jet lag. They told you about the family, how your cousins, aunts and uncles were doing. It has been so long since you last saw them, you missed them but you also didn’t have the time to go back to your hometown as much as you wanted.

You three spent all day together, your mother even bought you a beautiful casual dress as she wanted to gift you something. You ate at one of your favorite restaurants knowing how picky your dad was about food, walked beside Han River and watched all the people on their bikes or spending some time with their loved ones. It was almost dawn when you received a call from Jinyoung, letting you know that he would go and pick you and your parents up to have dinner together with his parents.

Jinyoung and you had decided to tell your parents about the engagement over dinner, hoping that none of them would collapse right there. Once you arrived at the restaurant you made the reservation, Jinyoung introduced your parents to his and, much to your surprise, your parents bowed politely.

After that, dinner became complicated, your parents speaking their respective mother tongues, and you and Jinyoung working as translators, but it seemed like it went good anyway. When you and Jinyoung broke down the news to them it felt like an avalanche of emotions; your mom was crying, your dad was shocked and consoling your mom, Mrs. Park was clapping while telling you how much she wanted her baby to start having babies of his own, and Mr. Park was coughing as he was drinking water when Jinyoung spilled everything.

Once everyone went back to their senses the questions began, and you told them not to worry as both of you wanted to do something small and private, just some relatives and your closest friends. Both fathers nodded while your mothers were lost now in their recent talk about grandsons or granddaughters. When the dinner came to an end your mothers exchanged numbers with a promise to try to communicate as much as they could while Jinyoung’s father flinched at your father’s handshake. You looked at your dad, scolding him with your eyes as you had previously told him that their handshake wasn’t as strong as the one he was used to. You said your goodbyes and left the restaurant.

After dropping your parents at their hotel you went back to your place. Jinyoung was driving with his hand on your thigh, and you looked at him when he drove by your building.

“Jaebeom-hyung sent me a text, seems like I forgot something with him,” he smiled at you and you relaxed, you hated surprises.

You looked out of the car, loving the way the lights were on at night, it was like magic. Seoul’s traffic was really troublesome, that was one of the reasons using public transportation was better. You didn’t remember quite well where Jaebeom lived, so you decided to sleep a bit. You knew the pair too well to know that it wouldn’t be just ‘picking it up’, it would take an hour or so to go back to your place, so Jinyoung would wake up once you were there.

Jinyoung was caressing your arm to wake you.

“We arrived?” he hummed in response, you stretched yourself and took off the seatbelt. “Alright, let’s go.”

“Here, let me help you” his hand was extended to help you out of the car.

“What−” you stopped yourself when you noticed you weren’t at the city, but at an observatory. “Nyongs, what’s this?”

He just shrugged his shoulders and offered you his arm. As you walked you saw a square piece of cloth laying on the ground and some candles around it, the view was amazing. You looked speechless at the man walking beside you.

What was going on?

As you got nearer the cloth you noticed a lot of flowers and petals laying around it and a bouquet of it at the center of the cloth. Pink, blue, yellow, red… you didn’t know a lot about flowers, you loved them, yes, but you knew nothing about the meanings and all that. The only flowers you could remember their names to were the orchids and the sunflowers. The city lights made it impossible for you to see the stars but you still had the moon.

When you finally arrived at the place Jinyoung wanted you to be, he handed you the bouquet and hugged you.

“Wait,” you said in his embrace. “Am I forgetting something? Why are we here?” your impatience made its appearance.

“What? Am I forbidden from doing something special for my fianceé?” Jinyoung retorted, grabbing the guitar you didn’t even notice was on the mat.

“But−” he kissed you.

“But nothing, be quiet.”

He started playing a song you knew too well, after all GOT7 wasn’t the first band you loved and he was well aware of it, constantly dealing with your love for Harry Styles. How and when he memorized the chords and lyrics from the song was a mystery to you, but there he was, singing Truly Madly Deeply to you. Tears started to form in your eyes and you smiled up to him. You took in the smell of the bouquet.

“Truly, madly, deeply I am. Foolishly, completely fallen. And somehow you kicked all my walls in,” he placed the guitar on the floor and came nearer to you and placed his hands on your hips making you slow-dance. “So, baby, say you’ll always keep me truly, madly, deeply in-love with you.”

"What are you doing?" you wrapped your hands around his neck.

"Dancing with you," he stated as if matter of fact.

"I mean, what's all of this?"

"Oh. Well… this was the actual proposal. I told the boys that I wanted to marry you and Jaebeom-hyung told me to ask you already, so he and Mark-hyung helped me a little. Jackson and Bambam accompanied me to look for the ring a couple months ago."

"What? Months?" you frowned a little.

"Yeah," he laughed. Oh, you loved when he laughed. "And actually Yugyeom was the one who told me to go for something simple and not the ring the other two were thinking,” he shrugged. “He was right, though."

You stopped dancing and sat on the mat, "and what about the song? I have never told you about it."

"That was Youngjae, he heard from his girlfriend that you said that that was the proposal song. But the other day seemed like it was the right time to do it, and this was because you deserve it," Jinyoung placed an arm over your shoulders and kept you close to him.

"Be honest with me, you did it anyway because you didn't want the boys to be all whiny at you after all you put them through for this, don't you?"

"Well…"

"Don't you?" you squinted your eyes at him and poked at his side.

As Jinyoung wasn’t saying a thing, you decided to tickle him. He started laughing from the tickles and fell on his back on the mat, you on top of him, his hands keeping you in place while you kept tickling him. His hands left your hips to grab your hands, placing them at his sides to stop you from tickling him.

He pouted, "yes." 

You knew he knew his pouting was one of your weaknesses, and still both of you enjoyed how this ended.

You give him a peck before he could deepen the kiss.

Jinyoung couldn't help but to feel like his chest was about to explode. Everytime he looked at you, he could picture you wearing your white bridal dress while he was trying to be strong as he looked at you walking down the aisle, everyone else blurry but you. He could also picture how the two of you started having children of your own, he dreamt of the day he could experiment a pregnancy with you, or to adopt if you didn't want to get pregnant or couldn't, either way those would be your kids.

He could picture all his life from now on, holding you close, being sure this wasn't a dream.

Hearing his heartbeat, you did that too. 

And Seoul’s night sky was your witness.

[anthropwashere]

Phic Phight: these lofty thoughts are killing me

Prompt from @ibelieveinahappilyeverafter: Undergrowth Sam AU. Sam’s time as mother of Undergrowth’s garden left it’s scars - and scars can go deep. Sam’s always known she shared a close connection with plants, but now she hears them. She knows what they think and what they feel and can control them. On one hand it’s terrifying, but on the other… The ghosts should be a lot more terrified of her now.

@currentlylurking @phicphight

Word count: 4,604

=

Sam tries not to think about then.

Maybe it's better to say she tries not to think about the gaping hole in her memory where then ought to be.

She's hardly the only one in that particular boat. The whole of Amity Park suffers from a ghost-induced amnesia spanning over a week. It's all anyone talks about for ages; where they were when the plants attacked, where they were when they finally woke up again. Trying to make sense of senselessness. And even now, months after the fact, there are still traces of that city-wide attack not yet repaired. Cracked concrete, homes and business too ravaged to salvage, miles of withered vines with thorns like carving knives, enormous mummified plants with mammalian fangs in human mouths, swathes of green-limned ice that refuses to melt even now. 

(Every time one of the three of them finds another frozen chunk of Amity Park Danny moves ASAP to take care of it, since not even anything his parents have cooked up can do much damage to it. The guilt twisting Danny up is horrible to watch unfold across his weary face; made worse still because for all that he and Tucker insist otherwise, it really was her fault.)

There's no hiding it: Amity Park was shaken to its foundations by Undergrowth. Even more so, perhaps, than by Pariah Dark. The Ghost King had transported the entire city directly into the Ghost Zone and did his utmost to run it to ruin with his army of skeleton ghosts. It had been a terrifying and impossible experience, and everyone can agree they only got out of that one thanks to Phantom. But the thing is, everyone in Amity Park can remember Pariah Dark's attack.

But Undergrowth? Flashes and flickers of almosts and maybes at best for everyone involved, and that is somehow so much more terrifying. What did they do? What were they made to do? How many missing and confirmed dead weren't taken by the towering ghost and all its myriad minions, but by one of them? Are they ever going to remember what happened? Is it better if they don't? 

And on, and on, and Sam's right alongside everyone else except in every way she isn't. Yes, she doesn't remember anything. But she knows she's at fault, because Danny told her just so.

Not in so many words, of course. He's too good for that. Too good a person, too good a ghost, too good a hero. He would never lay the blame for anything terrible that happened at anyone's feet but his own. He wasn't good enough, strong enough, fast enough—and on, and on. Never mind that he went and scrounged up and mastered an entirely new subset of powers just to counter Undergrowth—

(and her)

—and never mind the countless lives he did save. People were hurt, and worse, because he thinks he wasn't the hero Amity Park thinks he is. That's just the way he is.

Undergrowth was wrong. Sam knew that. She knew that. He was too extreme, too insane, too insistent on terraforming the entire planet to suit his self-aggrandizing whim to consider the consequences for whatever else lives here. Not just self-centered jerks with their gas-guzzling cars and plastic, one time use lives. There are so many people out there who understand what Sam's trying to do here in Amity, who do so much more to fight the ceaseless grinding up of Earth's finite resources than what one fourteen year old can do on her own. There are good people in the world fighting the evil and corrupt and greedy. There’s good in this world. You can't just—wipe the slate clean and start fresh.

You can't.

=

Sam remembers—the first attack. 

Sam remembers—waking up after it was all over. 

She remembers feeling sick and sluggish. Boneless. Dizzy and swooping like she'd downed too much cold medicine. Limbs slow to react, her thoughts even slower. She remembers her surroundings like a badly dubbed old kung fu movie; everyone moving at exaggerated angles, their voices not matching their mouths. She remembers Danny blinking too quickly, like he was trying not to cry he was so glad to see she was okay.

She remembers thinking with a cold and sullen fury, How dare he? 

What the fuck? had followed right on the heels of that, thankfully, because she’d had no idea why she'd ever in a million years be so angry with her best friend.

She remembers—knowing time had passed. Too much time. A dangerous and scary amount of time. And she remembers looking around and seeing the city halfway destroyed. And she remembers—

—guilt.

Guilt that made no sense until Danny, hours and hours later, faltered through an obviously edited summary of the week Amity Park forgot. She and Tucker had both blinked at him, and at each other, horrified and dismayed to find that Danny had had to do so much all on his own, that they'd been so vulnerable, so useless—

—but there'd been no guilt in Tucker's expression. No sign of the guilt that tangled up her guts in a cat's cradle until she was certain she'd throw up—

—and then she did have to throw up, staggering off to the bathroom in her basement, barely able to slam the door and fall to her knees before the toilet in time. She hates throwing up, hates the sweating and the shaking, hates the smell and the sound, hates how no matter what something always gets stuck in her nose. She'd screwed her face up tight so she didn't have to watch, rode out the worst of it, then sat there breathing wetly and hating life for a minute.

One of the boys had knocked gently on the bathroom door. "You okay?"

"Guh," she replied, throat hurting terribly at the effort. 

Sam remembers—opening her eyes, and the fear, and the confusion, and the certainty that she couldn't tell anyone, ever.

The toilet bowl had been full of flowers. 

=

That hasn't happened since, and—as far as she can tell—there haven't been any health issues that could have sprung up from having an indeterminate amount of flora taking root in her digestive system. 

She hasn't gone out much since then. School, patrol, the ghost attacks that invariably spring up outside of when she's penciled in time for a little extra chaos. She's made up excuses whenever Danny and Tucker invite her to hang out. She hasn't gone shopping or to a movie or any other perfectly normal after-school activity.

She's not hiding.

She's not.

It's just... easier, to not be around people any more than the barest necessity. At least until she feels... settled again. Normal again. For her, and for whatever 'normal' is worth in a town regularly terrorized by bigger and toothier and crueler ghosts with every passing month. It's fine. Danny's got Tucker and Jazz for the attacks that she's slow to arrive for, and Danny is—

Danny can handle himself. He's strong. He's amazing. He took Undergrowth—

(and her)

—down all on his own, no power suit or ghostly backup needed. It's fine.

Her parents seem to have miraculously caught on for once that she really does need some space; after the initial handsy-hugsy panicked relief the first couple days after Undergrowth, they gave her space (and anything else she asked for too, for that matter), only prodding her gently to come inside to eat now and then. Which she's grateful for, really, because she's pretty sure she wouldn't remember to eat at all without some prodding.

Something about eating rubs her wrong, now. The resistance of a carrot clenched between her teeth, the juicy flesh of an orange slice bursting under pressure, rice grains squirming like maggots on her tongue. She made a salad two days ago and couldn't stop thinking of the glamorized crime scenes from all those police procedural shows on TV; oversaturated, garish, someone's life torn open in a tasteless arrangement of stiff limbs. 

A cabbage is not a person. Cucumbers are not people. Almonds are a good source of protein.

Damn it.

Most of the time she hides—relaxes—in her greenhouse. Tucker had cracked a joke about that, though it had gone in one ear and out the other. Something something, bad taste. Blah blah, she's gone native. Didn't I tell you plants are the enemy?

Danny had laughed. Sam had to fight to keep her hands loose at her sides, to let it roll off like it didn't hurt while she tried to remind herself that it shouldn't hurt. That had earned her another tally in the ‘needing time away from people’ column. Not like, total isolation. School. Patrol. Dinner with her parents and grandma. She still does things with people. But every minute she's not in her greenhouse she feels this—this hand around her heart. This tightness that squeezes just enough that she's never not aware of it, and it's become so, so much easier for her to startle, to flinch from loud noises, to find herself overstimulated by her friends laughing as she is people screaming in the wake of ghosts. The hand squeezes until she can hardly breathe, and she thinks of the flowers she'd thrown up and thinks of roots, and thorns, and the fragility of her lungs, and it gets so hard to breathe—

Nobody's caught her breaking down yet. She hopes she can keep it that way. She hopes she can get over this—this anxiety, or fear, or whatever this is. 

But for all that she spends so much time in her greenhouse, the only place she doesn't feel that hand around her heart, she can't really say she's all that relaxed there either.

=

Another day put between then and now. Life around Amity Park is just about back to normal. If she's feeling generous with her definition of normal, anyway. She's made it through school without any issues and now she's free to hide—relax!—for a few hours in her greenhouse before one of her parents will come tapping at the door.

"Hey guys," she says, lackluster.

The whole greenhouse shivers at the sound of her voice.

Yep. That's totally normal. Nothing weird about that at all!

Ugh.

She goes through her after-school checklist by rote memory, biting her tongue to keep herself from the usual silly commentary she used to say along with it. She's learned better.  Undergrowth did—something to her. Something she's lied through her teeth about to Danny and Tucker, assuring them that she's fine, she's normal, there aren't any lingering effects from—whatever it was. Is. She's different now. Not outwardly, not in any of the ways Danny risks being discovered as inhuman every single day. She's not like Danny. She's still human.

She is.

But she can still do inhuman things. Or—not do. Nothing as active as ghost rays or flight or anything fun. But she can—influence. She still has an inhuman influence, and it's all she can do to keep her garden still.

Even with her teeth clenched so tightly her jaw aches and a headache blooms—nngh—at her temples, the slightest graze of her fingers across a leaf makes whatever plant she's touched quiver. When she picks up her pruning shears to clean up the tomato plants she can see them flush bigger and brighter before her very eyes. There's the tiniest, softest—niggling in the back of her mind, an itch on her teeth and goosebumps down her skin.

(mother)

She drops the shears. Before she can move to grab them a tendril of healthy green leaves curls off of the trellis to pluck them up out of the dirt and deposit them neatly in her numb hands again.

"...Thanks," she grits out.

All of the tomatoes swell to the size of tennis balls, their leaves straining to catch up. Two of the nearest ones split their blood red skins open to beam beatifically at her. There are teeth in their dripping grins, or something shaped enough like teeth to curdle her stomach.

"Stop."

The grins shrink, though the seams remain. She resolves to never eat those two. The thought of throwing them out however, is almost as revolting. She leaves without finishing the after-school checklist, opting to hide in the basement bowling alley with her grandma until dinner. It's not half as relaxing as it used to be.

=

She can't avoid her greenhouse. Not even for a day. Her garden needs daily attention. It needed it—before. 

It did.

Now the thought of ignoring it, even for an afternoon, makes her physically ill. So she doesn't know if it's guilt for not finishing her after-school checklist earlier or something—else, something left in her from then—

—she tries, she tries, she tries to remember anything from then, but there's only—

—hunger, and anger, and pride for her—

—her—

—her children. 

Nothing concrete. Nothing real. Nothing she can make use of. All she knows is that she's different, and it's most obvious here in her chil—

—garden. Her garden.

They won't hurt her. No matter what she says or does, this she knows for certain. Her garden will never hurt her.

Somehow, that isn't as comforting as it should be. All she can think of are teeth sinking into meat, and the sound of a scream, and splattering—

And she has no idea if Undergrowth made her order the—the—the children to kill someone, or if he goaded her into doing it personally. And she doesn't know which is worse. 

It's night now. Late. After patrol. Her cell phone is an intrusive blue glow in her greenhouse, the only light she dare use in case one of her parents is still awake. For all that they've been weirdly accommodating since then, she doesn't want to push her luck. It's a school night, after all. It's hardly any light at all to go by, really. She's tempted to pull up the flashlight app at least, but—

(hello hello)

(mother's back)

(we missed you mother)

—it's maybe safer to do this in the dark. For all that her throat closes up when she hears a loud rustling sweep through her greenhouse. For all that her feet feel like dead weights as she drags them across the dirt floor until she's stood in the center. In the heart of her domain.

She breathes. 

"I hear you," she whispers.

The rustling grows louder, and louder still. Tables creak under growing and shifting weights. Shadows move closer into the faint light of her cell phone. A hundred or more whispers settle in some weird space between her sinus cavity and her brain, heard like something from the cusp of a dream. Mother, they all say. We love you, we love you, we're here for you.

Her legs give out, but something cool and dry catches her before she can fall. She clings to it, swallowing a shriek. They won't hurt her.

They won't.

Now she just has to make sure they won't hurt anyone else either.

"That's right. I'm your—ha." She buries her face in her hands, feeling somewhere between playing pretend and outright deranged. "Ha ha! Can—this is—can you call me something else? Please? I'm way too young to be anybody's mom, let alone my own personal—shit, I dunno. All of you. Just—call me Sam."

That earns her a whole bass-boosted chorus of Sam! Sam! Sam! until she lets go of the vine-branch-thing to clap her hands over her ears. "Easy! Jeez! Take it down a notch, okay? I really can't—do this—with all of you shouting at me."

Sam! Sam! Sam! gets a lot quieter. Not manageable, not really, since a bunch of plants are chanting her name like she's a rock star, but at least it feels less like she's laid out in a dentist's chair getting worked on without local anesthetic. 

"Okay. Okay. I—" she giggles. This is so stupid. This is so dangerous. "Are you—Undergrowth?"

Shadows chirp no, no, no at her like hulking baby birds. 

"Are you still his, though? If he came back, would you listen to him instead of me?"

No, no, no, they chirp. Something coils up one of her legs, catching on her bootlaces and tickling the back of her knee. 

"No, you're not his?"

Not his, something whispers right in her fucking ear. She recoils, trips over whatever's feeling up her thigh, and gets caught again by the vine-branch-thing. She's pretty sure it's a branch of her orange tree. It smells citrus-y, at least. Splayed ungainly, she tries to get her heart under control. She feels like she's in the middle of a horror movie. It's way too easy to imagine some know-it-all dipshit yelling at her through a mouthful of popcorn. Get out, you dumb bitch! 

Yeah, yeah. She knows. She knows. Messing around with things she doesn't understand is what got Danny zapped in the first place. It's a long chain of events between the accident and tonight, but every step of it's her fault.

"Okay," she says shakily. "Okay. And if he came back...?"

We're yours, her garden croons, humming all at once and all through her in a way that makes it feel like her muscles are coming loose from her bones. We belong to you, our Sam.

She shivers. "L-lucky me."

=

So this is a thing she's got going on now, apparently, and no obvious way to make it stop. At least, not any way that wouldn't require her to tear her greenhouse apart down to the last garlic bulb, which would be extraordinarily expensive, extraordinarily alarming to anyone who knows her, and extraordinarily too much like a whole lot of murder. Plants aren't people, but these plants sure do like to tell her how much they love her.

So. It's a thing. Talking to plants. Plants that are definitely souped up on whatever ambient juice is leftover from Undergrowth terraforming the whole city. Plants that keep growing mouths full of fangs and strangling vines with thorns longer than her thumb despite her practically begging them to just be carrots, please. It's feeling a little too Little Shop of Horrors for comfort. She keeps emphasizing the strict no meat diet she's got them on, glad that her family's never had any interest in coming in here. You know. Just in case. Thing is though, her concern—so far, anyway—seems pretty unwarranted. Her garden seems happy enough on the perfectly healthy diet of perfectly normal plants. Sunshine, air, water, a good layer of compost. 

They just keep thanking her so feverishly for so little. It's—unsettling. A little bit awful. Maybe more than a little bit. Maybe this psychic connection thing goes two ways, and her garden is influencing her into—what? Feeling guilty? For what? They all seem so happy for the slightest bit of her attention. It doesn't seem like it'll occur to them all that they could ever ask her for more.

Maybe it's not healthy that she's thinking of her plants as thinking creatures instead of some kind of echo chamber for whatever Undergrowth did to her. The longer she lets this go on, the more the voices of her garden feel-sound like her own thoughts. And it's been going on for a while. Long enough that Danny and Tucker have noticed the uptick in her behavior, both commenting in their own ways that they're happy she's acting more like her old self again.

Yeah. Right. Nothing supernaturally weird going on with her at all, no sir-ee!

Still, for all that she can't stop her garden from going the plantae equivalent of full werewolf, she has managed to keep them organized. Well. Bit of seesaw on that. The overcrowding got sorted out by some aggressive behavior. Some very aggressive behavior. She's definitely had one nightmare already, reliving the gruesomely wet memory of having to bodily haul the thing that used to be her prized Venus flytrap off of the thing that used to be her kiwi vine. 

Point is, she has half the number of plants in her garden than she did two weeks ago, which—fine. It's not like she was planning on eating any of them anymore. She's not really—eating much, lately. She's been able to pass it off as no big deal around Danny and Tucker (never in a million years did she ever think she'd be grateful for the Box Ghost interrupting lunch so often, but here she is!), and she keeps reassuring her family that she's gotten into the habit of taking more of her meals in her greenhouse. The truth is she's been eating a lot of cereal and tripling her vitamin intake. Cereal hasn't betrayed her yet, but in a town like Amity Park that's no guarantee.

She knows it's a stopgap measure. Someone's going to find her out, or her garden's going to get ghostly enough for Danny to sense it, or someone will be stupid enough to walk in here and she might actually end up with some real life Audrey II bullshit.

"If any of you start singing, I won't be held accountable for my actions," she threatens one evening, brandishing a trowel. The garden makes a bunch of querying noises at her, tangling around her ankles like an alien's limited grasp of the concept of a pet cat. She's given up wearing leggings entirely, having thrown the last ruined pair away after her parents had gone to bed. She'd bought three pairs of jeans—black, of course—last Saturday when she braved the mall with Danny and Tucker. At least artfully torn jeans are fashionable enough that nobody but her mom is going to think anything odd about it.

"Never mind," she sighs, and gives in to the urge to scratch one of her plants along its spiny sepals. It purrs happily, and soon a whole group of waist-high plants that look like something right out of Poison Ivy's own evil lair are crooning at her for scritches. 

=

She ends up sneaking off on her own to PetSmart an hour before it closes, bailing on patrol for the sixth time since Undergrowth. There's definitely some line between crazy plant lady and weird dog mom she's pole vaulting over, but—whatever.

She buys a lot of dog toys. Her garden especially loves the tug-of-war ropes, but the bright green squeaky bone turned out to be an A+ impulse buy too.

=

It takes a while, and a lot of adjusting, and she still hasn't figured out an alternative long-term diet, but overall things settle. She finds a new balance. She basically sleeps well enough, and her grades are fine, and the ghost attacks don't get too left-field. Danny shoulders most of that anyway these days, more comfortable with his powers and the popularity boost saving the city gave Phantom with everybody. Used to be her and Tucker put in the same hours and effort as Danny—if you don't count the superpowers—but lately? They're better for cover stories and clean-up, which is fine with Sam while she sorts all this post-Undergrowth ghost-plant stuff out. Tucker's just happy he finishes out the semester with the same PDA he started it with.

Of course, all good things are temporary. She really ought to have this figured out by now.

It's a ghost attack that unravels it all, naturally. This one's a new face; some kind of unsettling, skitter-y combination hydra-centipede about the length of a limousine. Its six necks accordion though, and it spits acid. Both are nasty surprises Danny wasn't expecting, and he ends up getting tossed through the front pane of a mom-and-pop hardware store. He'll be fine, though she and Tucker both have to tamp down on their standard panicked 'oh shit our best friend would have absolutely just died if he were normal' reaction to go distract the ghost from going after a minivan. 

They circle around it, shouting nonsensical insults that it probably doesn't understand to get its attention, helped by a few firm blasts of some small ecto-guns they'd pilfered a while back. Only one shot actually gets a hit on something that isn't its purple exoskeleton; Tucker whoops loudly when it screeches in pain. Sam uses the precious seconds to circle around to the other side of the minivan to yank open the sliding door and start manhandling a group of elementary-aged kids in blue soccer uniforms out and into whatever shop is closest. The mom squawks affront until Sam hisses at her to hurry her ass up if she doesn't want to go the same way as the hatchback—thankfully empty—that had ended up wrapped around a telephone pole. That gets soccer mom moving, and they're both just clear of the van before she hears Tucker scream her name. 

She moves on an instinct honed by two years of fighting for her life; she shoves soccer mom hard and whirls around in time to see the roof of the minivan as it comes flipping right at her. "No—!" is all she has time for, throwing up her hands as bolts of neon green strike up in her periphery. The minivan crumples with a horrible shriek of metal and hangs, creakingly, not a foot above her head. She blinks in the sudden shadow, heart hammering in her throat. She expects to hear Danny's voice, either a dry quip or an earnest rush of concern, depending on how hard the hydrapede rattled him.

A nonplussed, "What the fuck," from Tucker is what she gets instead. 

She looks around. There's the familiar ghost-green glow, but it's not Danny's burning hands or headlight-bright eyes. Two thorny vines, thick as tree trunks, have punched through the concrete to catch the minivan before it could crush her.

(mother) she hears them yap at her happily.

Well, shit.

=

The fight wraps up without any other cars or business fronts getting destroyed. Danny makes good use of those ice powers, and in a matter of minutes Tucker's got the thing slurped up in one of the three Thermoses they've gotten in the habit of having on hand, just in case.

Then Danny and Tucker make matched crazy eyes at her and the modern art she accidentally made out of soccer mom's claim to fame.

"Not here," she tells them firmly. If soccer mom figures out there's a chance she could pin her totaled minivan on her—and her incredibly wealthy parents—they'll get stuck here all day. Tucker gets it before Danny does and makes a show of shoulder-checking him pointedly as he jogs off. Danny shuts his mouth and winks out of sight, leaving Sam to jog after Tucker. Which she will, just after she tries something first.

She glares at the two vines—standard curb weeds once upon ten minutes, more than likely—and thinks at them very hard. Thank you, much appreciated, stop calling me mother, go away.

She gets some kind of bizarre-o feedback that feels like chewing on gum with the wrapper still on, and also like skinned knees, but in her brain? Ugh. With a reluctance that shouldn't be so obvious from a couple of plants, the two vines sort of... shrink? Melt? Reverse-grow back into two perfectly normal bits of scruffy green in a totally wrecked stretch of sidewalk.

Good enough! Better than she expected, really! 

Soccer mom starts babbling something very loud about her car, which is Sam's cue to run for the hills. She does so, dreading the conversation she's about to have with her best friends, but also... kind of excited for the next ghost attack?

If she has to deal with having creepy psychic monster plant-making powers, she may as well get some mileage out of them. Right?

[popculturebuffet]

Top 10 Thanksgiving Episodes

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody! Time to eat a ton, pass out, and watch MST3K and all that. And since I already covered most of the general stuff about how diffrent this holiday is in my Loud House Review, and to reitarate to anyone having a big, 20 or so people crammed in a room thanksgiving this year

For the rest of us like all of the big three of Holidays, thanksgivings also the time for some classic episodes of television. Granted most shows stick to one, with some exceptions like friends, roseanne and new girl, but most make their one count. Thanksgiving may not be as big as the holidays it’s sandwitched in between, to the point christmas is slowly but surely trying to swallow it whole, but it’s still a time for family, fighting, and food that brings plenty of opprotunity for greatness and even with a smaller pool, I stiill had signifigant trouble narrowing down my list to 10. But I stand by what I got it wittled down to. This is my top 10 thanksgiving episodes! And for my regular readers, there’s a suprising lack of animation but i’m more than willing ot go outside that and now’s the right time, asi’m currently having a black friday sale with reviews marked down by two bucks to just 3 dollars for an episode of any tv show. Yes it’s a shameless plug but since when have I ever had shame? So with that in mind let’s chow down, it’s my top 10 thanksgiving episodes!

10. Pangs (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Buffy is as a show I REALLY need to revisit. While lately, what with the abuse he did that we can’t get details on when making justice league or his you know cheating on his wife on and off over a decade, I’m not at all a fan of series creator Joss Whedon, Buffy itself is still a classic in my eyes. 

The tale of a teenager given the role of the Slayer, a chosen female asskicker given moderate super powers and the duty to defend the world from vampires and other ghouls. The show dealt with the usual teen superhero stuff, ballancing asskicking with saving the world and arguably codified the genre, to the point I hold it at least partially responsible for the bigger wave of teen heroes in the 2000′s in animation and comics. The show had smart dialouge, metaphors, mythology and a rich, and vibrant cast. Sure some things haven’t aged well like an adult vampire dating a teenager or the really dated ways Willow’s sexuality were handled, as groundbreaking as it was, from barely letting her kiss her girlfriend or be shown being intimate iwth her, or just entirley shutting out the posiblity she’s bisexual. But a few age wrinkles aside the show is still good and I still need to rewatch it and that includes our number 10 pangs, one of hte most memorable and well done thanksgiving specials and one fo the shows more comedy moments.  It’s thanksgiving, and Buffys mom’s going out of town, so she decides to hold thanksgiving at Giles place to bring her slowly drifting surrogate family together. Naturally given the way things usually go for our Slayer, she has a hard time of it as Willow chafes at celebrating colonolsim, Giles dosen’t get what the big fuss is about that or the meal being british, and Spike shows up looking for protection from season big bads the initiative, a secret military unit that’s chipped him so he can’t harm humans, so he has no way to eat and spends the mal tied to a chair. Oh and of course, a vengeful native american spriti from the chumash tribe has given Xander syphilis and killed a currator as revenge for his people’s suffering, so now Buffy has to fight a ghost bear if she want sa happy thanksgiving. Also Angel is back in town and being kind of a dick, but hey it leads to a good episode of his spinoff so whatever. 

Pangs is just a fun episode, not only does it do well by not ignoring american colonalisim, but it just has a fun energy to it as Buffy desperately tries to have a good thanksgiving, Spike instnatly proves his worth as an addition to the gang both chemstiry and comedy wise, and we of course get this classic moment. 

It had to fight it’s way onto the list, but pangs is a holiday dish worthy of sinking your fangs into. 

9. The Dressing (Aqua Teen Hunger Force) Speaking of nutty fun thanksgiving episodes.. this one is simply that. I love Aqua Teen Hunger force.. even if like a lot of comedy shows it drooped in later seasons, it still has it’s classics earlier on and even later on has a few gems. But on the earlier on side we have their utterly bonkers and delightful thanksgiving episode “The Dressing”, a sequel to the Christmas Episode “The Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from The Future”, which itself is an utter classic, but we’ll possibly get to that in december’s list. 

The Aqua Teens are having Thanksgiving with Carl, whose naturally onlyt here for the free food and staying outside. it’s also days before or after, with black colored frito pie,a t urkey, and whatever else their broke selves could scrounge up.  However, naturally, like Buffy a normal day for the Aqua Teens just isn’t complete without some weird shit happening, thanksgiving gets interrupted by the cybernetic ghost of Christmas past fromt he future, whose transformed himself into a turkey and wants to save their turkey so it can lead a rebellion in the bizzare hilarious distopian hellscape he comes from. This of course leads to him getting drunk, eating all their food and later showing up with a laser sock to murder carl after the episodes over. It’s just a fun time, a really funny episode and one of the teens more memorable outings. Not a lot to say here, it’s just really damn funny. 

8. Arnold’s Thanksgiving (Hey Arnold!)  Anoter classic I really need to revist but that more than earns his place here. Hey Arnold.. is easily one of the best animated shows ever. I say that with no hyperbole as it handled slice of life well while still getting dramatic when needed to, and is easily the gold standard for slice of life children’s cartoons to this day. And naturally it’s holiday specials were great, and I only r eally haven’t revisited them because they also hurt.. a lot. So unsuprisingly this one makes the list. 

IT’s thanksgiving and given how chaotic things are for both Arnold and Helga’s families, our heroes are miserable. Arnold would understandably like just once to have thanksgiving on thanksgiving, his family instead doing fourth of july due to his grandmother being who she is. And Helga naturally is ignored and mistrteated as usual since her sisters home and her dad and alchoholic mother ignore her as usual even when she’s not around. What i’m saying is while Arnold’s issue is understandable, helga always wins a “whose got the shitter life” contest. 

So the two flee to their teacher Mr Simmons, a character I genuinely loved and loved even more finding out he was gay as an adult, as he was a kind , supportive teacher who could be a bit softhearted but wasn’t afraid to step the fuck up when needed. But they find his thanksgiving isn’t much better, as his Mother and wont’ stop sniping at his boyfriend peter and clearly isn’t entirely comfortable with her son’s sexuality, his friend keeps snapping at peter and mooching off him, and his uncle.. well he’s just a loud asshole who wants turkey.. The kids naturally realize the meaning of the holiday, reconclie with their families who DID take genuine steps to make up for them being gone and missed them, all is well. It just shows nobody’s family is perfect, and is well done in that but also shows why thanksgiving has grown beyond it’s roots: It’s a day for families to get together and even if they may fight, recognize why they love one another. I also give the show balls for heavily imiplying a character is gay and not slapping a girlfriend on him or any of the usual bollocks: Simmons just very clearly is gay and it’s as transparent as the show could get at the time, with the show making it crystal clear years later with the revivial movie. Nice. We’ll have more servings of thanksgiving classics after the cut. 

7. Slapsgiving (How I Met Your Mother) Oh How I Met Your Mother. You started out really good but boy did that go downhill fast and land in a nuclear inferno didn’t it? But I can bitch about the How I Met Your Mother Ending some other time, and probably will. In the show’s prime before they decided to stick with an ending no one wanted anymore, it was pretty great and while season 1′s also impressive Thanksgiving outing “Belly Full of Turkey” was considered, there was ultimately one slaptastic king when it came to Thanksgiving: Slapsgiving. 

Naturally for this show Slapsgiving ties into the show’s suprisngly deep and rich lore: The season before this, Marshall and Barney made a “Slap Bet”, which is exactly what it says on the tin: A bet where the winner slaps the looser. And due to Barney prematurely slapping Marshall, Marshall got 5 penalty slaps to be dolled out whenever, one in that episode and another in a coda to another. For his next one though Marshall decided to outdo himself and set up a counter.. and it all comes down to thanskgiving.  So we get a good ten minutes of Jason Siegel making meancing slap based refrences while NPH’s barney cowers in fear before Marshall’s wife lily pumps the breaks on the bet as comissoner.. only to reconsider when Barney makes the mistake of tormenting Marshall over it, resuling in the inevitible, and in THE thanksgiving song. 

Basically it’s what happen when you give three really funny people a subplot together. Magic happens. The subplot is not bad either as a pre-totallyinsufferabledouchebag Ted hooks up with Robin again over lingering feelings and thanksgiving prep and the two have to deal with that... though it’s mostly funny for Robin’s new boyfriend, who Future Ted acknowledges is barely older than them, but admits to remembering as decrept old man, which results in a  30 something’s dialouge coming out of a very old man and me laughing very hard. A simple joke but one that really works. Overall a slaptacular good time. 

6. Two Turkeys (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

NINE NINE BITCHES! I’m honestly shocked I haven’t talked about Brooklyn Nine Nine on here already, but it’s easily one of the best sitcoms in recent memory, if not of all time. It has one of the best ensemble casts, great jokes and timing, yet still ballances things out with a sense of realisim beneath the madness> It’s also noticable for holding it’s officers more accountable than most real world police departments, to the point all scripts that were written up for next season were thrown out post George Floyd. It’s truly a joy to watch. 

So naturally they’ve had their share of Holiday episodes, with them easily having the best crop of halloween episodes since roseanne with their annual heists, and having some pretty damn memorable christmases, opening with this:

So naturally thanksgiving is no exception, with it’s last two being the best and it being a really hard choice wether to go with season 4′s “Detective Santiago” or this one. But as good as the other ep was.. this one inched it out for good reason. 

The episode’s split into two equally good, equally hilarious plot lines. In the B-Plot, the 99′s Captain Raymond Holt, one of the best characters in sitcom history and gay icon, and his husband Kevin take their annual trip to get a pie for Holt’s families thanksgiving and come back with the well crafted pie, even if both prefer their food nice and bland. But the pie go missing and Captain Holt procedes to hilariously drill into each of the other members of the 99 and uncovering holes int their previous thanksgving stories with Rosa’s being suprisingly heartwarming (She’s going to a humilating minons on ice show with her family because they reconnected in jail.. setting up the equally awesome “Game Night” episode where she comes out.) and Boyle’s being utterly pathetic as you’d expect (Cooking his son mac and cheese because he’ll eat nothing else and declaring him a “basic bitch”). The solution however ends up being heartwarming as the culprit is actually Kevin, who hated the pie.. as did Raymond who suggests just taking the drive anyway because they enjoy the silent ride there and back every year. It may be boring to us.. but it’s preicious and really sweet all the same.. as it is hilarous when Kevin treats this as a big endugence and seems turned on by that. What i’m saying is these men are couple goals and Marc Evan Jakcson was awesome long before ducktlaes.  The main plot is also great, as Jake and Amy, now engaged after this year’s halloween episode which is also , coincidentally, the series best, try to unite their families. It just goes about as well as you’d expect as Amy’s are type a control freaks, jake’s mom is a retired hippie school teacher and his dad is a human disaster area who has to be told to put on pants, cheated on his mom constantly, somehow got her back, and in general is barely functional on a good day. The families do bond breifly but things ineveitbly break down, hilarity and severed limbs insue and family comes together. IT’s just a funny, well done 20  mintues that’s also really damn sweet, with this plot ending with Amy’s dad accepting the chaos as that’s’ts what you do with family. Also jake naturally finds out he has a ton of step siblings as his dad was and still is a man whore. Happy Thanksgiving!

5. Bart Vs Thanksgiving (The SImpsons)

Let’s face it: if you follow my reviews at all you knew this was coming. While not one I go back to due to being an emotional kidney punch, i’d be doing this list a diservice if this classic wasn’t on there.  In a nutshell, Bart starts a petty fight with Lisa over her centerpiece that ends with it in the fireplace, Bart sent to his room till he apologizes, and Bart seething insiting he did no wrong. It takes a visit to the homeless shelter after running away, and ending up on the news, to realize what an ass he’s been and one nightmarish dream sequence later, seriously why do you think I don’t revisit this one that often? This thing has traumatized me since I was a kid and unlike the slap song I will not be showing it to you, has a heartwarming reconcliation with his sister on the roof. It’s just a nice, sweet special that gets the holiday just right and i’d expect nothing less from Golden Age Simpsons.  

4. A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving (Gilmore Girls) Another show I need to talk about more, Gilmore Girls is fucking awesome. The story of a woman who ran away pregnant at age 16 and built her own life for her daughter in the quirky town of stars hollow who finds herself reconnecting with her parents in present day against her will.. is really good stuff. Funny, heartfelt and really damn well acted with one hell of a cast, the show is part of me and I make no bones about that, so it’s big thanksgiving outing naturally belongs on here.  The premise is simple: Rory and Loreli end up having to go to four diffrent thanksgivings, which even for big eaters like them is a massive task, each unique and entertaining. The main event of course is Suki’s, where everyone’s faviorite chef agreed to let her husband cook the turkey.. of course with the plan to sneak in mid cooking and add her own touches. This gets foiled when Jackson and his family decide to deep fry the thing.. probably in part because Jackson knows his wife well and knows what she was planning. Though over the night while our heroines are at their other meals, it devolves into them deepfrying everything they can get their hand son including a shoe, and Suki getting plastered to tolerate it.  While not topping it the other meals and the sheer lunacy of four thanksigvings in one day, are still memorable: There’s the natural posh one at Richards and Emilys, the dour joyless one at The Kims where Mrs Kim forces the band to play the whole time and forces our heroines to eat food as joyless as Mrs. Kim, and Lukes for a nice round of Rory grappling with having PDA with her boyfirend Jess before resolving it at the end. Also dean’s a jackass. No one is suprised. Jess isn’t one at this stage in his character which is. Also Kirk adopts a cat that slowly pushes him out of his own house which works comedically becaus Sean Gunn is a national treasure. Overall a really good episode and if you have netflix and haven’t checked the series out, this is a good one to try out. 

3. The Thanksgiving Special (Regular Show) I already talked about this one in my top 11 Regular Show episodes so i’ll try to be brief. In a nutshell Mordecai and Rigby destroy thanksgiving and genuinelly feeling bad about it, scramble to win a thanksgiving bird from a Thanksgiving Song Contest, going up against an all star super group comissioned by Donald Trump. Yes really. Meanwhile Muscle Man and High Five Ghost go to get sides and the  rest of the park staff’s attemtps to get a turkey are thwarted by a bunch of thanksgiving reinactors who go unexplained in any way shape or form which given how rare that is for regular show, which usually has some sort of explination for the madness, just makes it funnier. It ends with a REALLY touching song, a fight on a blimp with outgoing president trump, and a truly heartwarming thanksgiving meal. All in all a nice special that combines the shows madcap nature with the genuine warm fuzzies of thanksgiving. 

2. We Gather Together (Roseanne) Another series I need to talk about more.. and another series where one of the creators has turned out to be a terrible human being. Seriously Roseanne Barr is is a terible person, she deserved to be removed from her show, and while the Conner’s isn’t GREAT it’s still FAR better without her. That being said I will still stick up for the original as she wasn’t the only one involved (indeed the aformentioned Joss Whedon worked on the show breifly and Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman Paladino not only worked there but later adapted one of Roseanne’s insane antics, making all the writers wear caps with a number instead of referring to them by name , to Gilmore Girls.). Her being a bad person even then dosen’t change the fact that the show is sitcom gold, one of my faviorite shows, and a true classic. And this episode helps showcase WHY. 

What makes this episode special, even among Roseanne episodes is it’s structure: While there are things going on it’s mostly a free floating day in the Families life and thus feels like your there with them through thanksgiving. It feels genuine, like past thanksgivings i’ve remembered: Everyone has their own stuff going on, they all eat, and there’s naturally a big blowup.. and one that eveyrone else ignores to eat which I can relate  to. That authenticity really elevates the episode and is why I seek it out every year. 

That’s not to say nothing happens, it just flows in and out like it would in a normal thanksgiving. Roseanne deals with her parents, a pre-abuser version of her dad and her overbearing nightmare of a mother beverly, and the inevetible blow up when Bev’s needling about Jackie’s life goes too far , prompting Jackie to reveal her new job as a police officer before bursting into tears, all to Roseanne’s annoyance. Rosie also moves them to a hotel despite an attempted guilt trip from her mom. 

Speaking of Mom’s we see Dan’s for the only time before the later seasons and the utterly terrible last season, a professional career woman whose moved on well from her ex and brought her new boyfriend there. Ed, despite some comptemplation over it is firmly accepting and instead starts flirting with the Conner’s friend Crystal. Dan, being overprotective because of his Daddy Issues, but ed cals him out on it “Being lonely is a hell of a lot for two people to have in common, you woudln’t knwo anything abotu that son, and I pray to god you never do” A great caper to a fantastic episode.. one I thought was going to top the list... THOUGHT is the key word here...

1. Turkey in A Can (Bob’s Burgers) This one is. Bob’s Burgers is one of the best things to come out of the 2010′s and i’ve fallen way too far behind on it, so I can’t say if any thanksgivings after thankshoarding top this one.. what I can say is this one is the gold standard for thanksgiving episodes, and is filled with great stuffing. 

Thanksgiving is Bob’s holiday. Being a chef he loves the chance to go all out, and really flex his muscles for his families when it comes to cooking up a storm, and it’s endearing when bob gets just as nuts as his family. But this year someone keeps flushing his turkeys down the toilet despite his best efforts, so while Louise hilariously tries to solve things to proe it wasn’t her (though it’s entirely fair they thought it was her consdering.. everything), while LInda, Gene and LInda’s flighty sister Gale try to write THE thanksgiving song. And while it’s no you just got slapped, damn if they didn’t succeed. 

Sailors in your mouth indeed. It leads to plenty of great jokes the best being the guy at the Deli Counter thinking Bob’s into him and bob not being sure how to respond, but being mildly recpetive. But the climax is what makes the episode as when Bob falls asleep we find his medication has been making him sleepwalk.. and thus put the turkey s int he toilet, as Tina’s desire to be at the Grown Up Table, itslef a REALLY funny runner as you’d expect, has him panicking internally and thus reliving her potty training. The episode ends with Bob letting her come to the adults table, and a rather heartwarming thanksgiving feast. All in all an excellent episode. It also leads to the chaos seen above whic hif htat’s not thanksgiving, I don’t know what is. 

Have a happy thanksgiving and check out my black friday sale! Until then there’s always another rainbow!

[buqalamun]

MorphMan makes learning Chinese with Anki almost too easy

For the past 10 months, I’ve been using Anki to study Chinese. The cards I review are 100% native audio, and every card I learn contains a sentence perfectly tailored to me - either I can understand all the words in the sentence, or there is only 1 new word, making it easy to learn from context.

How many hours did I spend trying to find material suitable for my level? Actually, Anki does it all for me with the click of a button.

This is the beauty of MorphMan, an Anki extension that analyses the words you know, and picks out cards to learn at just the right level. It is designed primarily to work with Chinese and Japanese, and though it has limited functionality for other languages, I have only used it with Chinese. But it’s amazing for Chinese.

I already loved using Subs2SRS cards to practice my listening skills and pick up real native phrases. MorphMan turns these decks from something that’s only really valuable to polish up skills at an intermediate level, into a much more beginner-friendly method.

When I started reviewing cards, I could only understand the most simple sentences like 你说什么，谢谢，你好。。。 and in fact, at the speed of a native speaker, slurring words together, sometimes I couldn’t even understand that at first.

Now, after 1400 cards, and a vocabulary of 1000 words or so, I can understand a lot of common phrases found in Chinese dramas. My main source is 陈情令 （The Untamed) , a drama I particularly enjoy watching. But I have amassed a collection of about 90k cards total from a variety of movies and dramas - historical, slice of life, sports, fantasy... all sorts of topics, different speakers and different accents to learn from.

Download 5 eps of my Untamed deck and this collection from Chinese Forums

Subs2SRS is not the only thing I’m using to study Chinese, but it is the most enjoyable. And, compared to textbooks and learner’s resources, it makes me feel like I’m really learning real Chinese. As an English speaker, I might want to say 你好吗 to ask if someone is feeling all right - but from my study I know that it’s more common to ask 你没事吧？你怎么了？

As an extension, MorphMan only works on the computer versions of Anki. But, I only need to load up the desktop Anki once every few days to re-schedule my cards, and then I can sync it back to my phone, where I do most of my reviews via AnkiDroid.

MorphMan is a little intimidating to set up at first. Much like Anki itself, the manual has everything you need, but it’s information overload. I use these settings:

By default, MM will skip cards that contain no new words (’comprehension cards’). I unticked this because I want to review cards as a way to consolidate my known vocabulary. If you are trying to just learn new words as quickly as possible, I can see why that feature is useful. But, especially because I started using it so early on in my Mandarin learning (I had not even finished HSK1 when I started = 150 words), I want to listen to familiar words in a variety of contexts to train my ear.

MM prioritises new cards based on their frequency in your card collection, and based on what new words you’ve just learned (’fresh’). You can also give it a separate priority list if you want to study based on a certain frequency list or collection of vocab.

Then, you just let the algorithm do its work. When you ReCalc, it will re-position every card that you have given it permission to “Modify?” in the Note Filter preferences screen. Usually, this is exactly what you want to happen - it’s choosing cards for you to learn. If there’s something in particular that you want to learn, you can re-position it after using ReCalc (just remember that the next time you ReCalc, it will get repositioned again according to MM’s algorithm). When I want to learn certain cards in particular, I tag them so I remember to re-position them after ReCalc.

...I have to admit, I am one of those Anki micromanagers who loves playing around with their decks. But MM has saved me an absolute shedload of work in picking out cards that are appropriate for my level of Chinese. And it’s increased my confidence a lot, because I’ve been amazed at the kinds of sentences I can understand!

This extension makes my cards an absolute pleasure to review each day, letting me work my way up and practice listening to native content (and reading) even when I have a very small vocabulary. I never would have progressed so effortlessly without it. 加油！！

[nekoannie-chan]

Misunderstandings

Pairing: Steve Rogers X Reader.

Word count: 1380 words.

Summary: Simple actions led you to think that Steve doesn’t feel the same to you when reality is different.

Warnings: None.

A/N: Flashbacks are in italics.

This is my entry to the @p8tn0lish ‘s Sweet 200 Challenge with the song prompt #10:

“So I moved to California, but it’s just a state of mind, it turns out everywhere you go, you take yourself, that’s not a lie. Wish that you would hold me or just say that you were mine-it’s killing me slowly-”. Lana Del Rey, Fuck it I love you.

My native language is Spanish so I wanna improve my writing skills in English if you notice any mistake please let me know and I will correct it.

I don’t give any kind of permission that my fics be posted in other platforms or languages (I translate myself my work) or the use of my graphics (my dividers are included in this), I did them exclusively for my fics, please respect my work and don’t steal it. There are some people here who make dividers that anyone can use, mine is not this type, please look for the other’s people. The only exception is the ones I gifted ‘cuz now belong to someone else. If you find any of my works on a different platform and is not one of my accounts, please let me know. Reblogs and comments are always welcome.

DISCLAIMER: I don’t own Marvel’s characters (unfortunately), except for the original characters and the story.

My other media where I publish: Wattpad, Ao3, ffnet.

If you like it please vote, comment, and give me feedback to improve my skills and reblog. 

A year that has passed since you went to California, you accepted the mission because you wanted to get away from him, it was painful, he probably didn't even know that he had hurt you because you never managed to confess your feelings, but he believed that by going somewhere else you could forget it, but it seemed that life liked to remind you of its existence

You had returned to New York, your mission had already ended in California, you knew what awaited you, although this time you thought you could bear to see him again.

“What are you doing here? You asked in unison.

You knew Agent 13, you never had missions together because she always ended up arguing and fighting; mainly because she didn’t stop scrubbing her background to annoy you, although she pretended to hide it from others,

“S.H.I.E.L.D. left me in charge of Captain Rogers, “you answered him.

“Me too.

"It must be a mistake," you said in surprise.

"It's not a mistake, Agent," a voice pointed behind him.

"Director, are you planning that we work together?"

"Not exactly," Fury replied.

The two looked at each other confused.

You had a long time living in that building, however, you didn’t like to see Sharon there, and in a way, you felt that it disturbed your way of life.

 Steve had changed your life in many ways, the things you had lived together were too many to be forgotten so easily.

 Someone knocked on your door, you hoped it wasn't Sharon.

"Steve, what's up?"

You smiled like a fool as soon as you saw him.

"Do you have sugar?" He asked, showing you a cup.

“Sure, give me a moment.

"Well, the truth is that I had problems with the coffee maker, these appliances from your time are very complicated to use," he confessed.

“Do you want me to explain how to use it?”

“Please”.

You went to his apartment, as soon as you entered you saw that there was great chaos in the kitchen.

"You had several problems." 

 Every time you remembered the event you could not help but laugh, it had not been the only incident of this type that Steve had had with the electronics, you shared many as well as time together, of course, that bothered Sharon, since he used to ignore her

On your birthday, Steve threw a surprise party after you had told him you had always wished he had one. That day was the best of your life although there were not many guests more than you and him, you had a lot of fun.

He had decorated the dining room with balloons and streamers, he had thought of everything. You danced to songs of his time, although he kept apologizing because he thought he was doing it wrong. It was the best birthday of your life.

Every weekend you used to stay at your house watching movies and series, Steve insisted on catching up.

You were watching Titanic, that movie that always made you cry, he hugged you to console you, he was so close to you that without much thought you kissed him.

As soon as you separated, he stood up from the sofa.

"I-I have to go," he stammered.

He walked as fast as he could to the exit.

"Steve ...”

From that day on he started acting distant.

"I probably misread the signs," you thought.

Every time you tried to talk to him at work something would come up or he would find a way to avoid it, just as when you knocked on his door, you didn't get any kind of response.

 Steve invited you to a café near the Stark Tower, it seemed that all the employees knew him.

"Hi Beth, could you get us two slices of apple pie and two coffees, please?" He asked.

Beth didn't seem very happy with your presence there, you even seemed to notice her annoyance in the way she attended to them.

“Do you know her?” You asked Steve.

"Every time I came, she's the one who takes care of me, she's a nice girl," Steve replied.

 You began to believe that you had made a mistake; you felt that you had ruined everything, you didn’t know how to fix it, several times you tried to apologize, but it was as if he didn’t want to know anything about you.

You were going to do the shopping when you passed by the park near the building where you lived, there you saw Steve, you were going to approach when you realized that Beth was also with him, suddenly she kissed him.

Now you understood Steve's behavior, he was dating someone, you didn't know it, but he explained everything, he didn't feel anything for you.

“Agent Y/L/N, are you sure he wants to accept the mission?” Fury asked a little convinced.

"Of course, I have not the slightest doubt."

"Any special reason?"

"No, I just think it will be a good adventure," you lied.

You had decided to accept that mission to forget Steve if he was happy it was fine, but you also had to seek your happiness.

If you kept looking at it and having it close it would be very complicated, the best thing was to start somewhere else, so your wounds could heal.

You didn't tell anyone, you just left.

After that incident in the park, Steve had thought about everything that had happened, decided he would stop visiting the cafeteria after what Beth had done.

Steve was in love with you, but frightened by what had happened and didn’t know how to react, now he needed to fix things.

It was the door of your apartment and he rang the bell, there was no answer he supposed he had come out, he tried several times during the weekend, the result was always the same.

He looked for you at work, but neither did he find you, it was as if you had disappeared

"And Y/N?" He asked Maria.

"On a mission," he replied.

“When will he be back?”

"I don't know, you just told me he went on a mission."

“Where?”

"You didn't give me any more details, I'm sorry, Cap.”

All he had found was a note in your office when he managed to get in.

 So I moved to California, but it's just a state of mind

It turns out everywhere you go, you take yourself, that's not a lie

Wish that you would hold me or just say that you were mine

It's killing me slowly

 He didn’t understand what it meant, he searched the Internet, but all he had found was that it belonged to a song, he had no idea how to find you.

You were already carrying your report, the mission had been a success, you entered the Triskelion, you walked through the corridors to reach your office, as soon as Steve saw you pass, he left immediately, he wanted to make sure it was you.

"Y/N" he called you.

“Captain Rogers”

“How have you been? Where have you been? ”He questioned.

He needed answers, he needed to fix things, he hadn't stopped loving you, and he wanted to know if you still had feelings for him.

"On a mission, what about his girlfriend captain?"

"Which girlfriend?" He asked confused.

"Beth, the waitress in the cafeteria near the Stark Tower."

"She is not my girlfriend," he clarified.

"I saw them kissing."

"I like you Y/N," he confessed.

"Captain, the director is looking for you," announced one of the recruits.

"I couldn't tell you ...”

"I looked for you so many times after what happened and you seemed to be avoiding me," you interrupted.

“I do not…”

"Rogers, the director is calling you," Rumlow said.

After that interruption you closed the door of your office, you needed to process everything that had happened in the last minutes.

Steve was upset by the interruption, he would try to talk to you after work, this time he would fix everything and he didn’t care what the consequences might be.

All-day you were thinking about what happened, you started to unpack your bags, you turned on the radio while you arranged things.

 So I moved to California, but it's just a state of mind

It turns out everywhere you go, you take yourself, that's not a lie

Wish that you would hold me or just say that you were mine

It's killing me slowly

 What should you do you couldn't forget it, in the end, if it was your turn, maybe you could give him a chance as long as he took the first step.

The doorbell of your apartment rang, you couldn't help but smile, now if all the doubts would be dispelled.