#If you notice an egregious error pls let me know

[kermitscavern]

The John Hughes Blues Pt. 7

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To put it plainly, Steve is hurt. He’s hurt, and frustrated, and upset, and really fucking angry. He had trusted Eddie, that little shit, he had trusted him with things he had never told anyone else. He felt fucking betrayed, that’s what it was. The one person in the whole world he thought he could trust— Poof. The one person who knew the extent of fucked up his relationship was with his parents, the one person who had held him through the nights when he thought he just couldn’t take it anymore, the one person that had saved him from nightmares again and again, and in doing so saved him from the Upside Down countless times. Never-fucking-mind, apparently. No, he gets blown off like none of that mattered, like it never fucking happened. Whatever. Whatever.

He worries the turmoil in his head has started affecting his actions, or at least Robin worries about that. To be fair, he has been rather… irritable lately, quick with what he calls snarky, Robin calls mean comments, he’s been short and sometimes vaguely threatening with customers, and in general he’s just been a pain to be around. Or so Robin says.

“I’m just so fucking sick of it!” Steve grits his teeth, slamming the drawer under the counter where they keep their magazines and crossword puzzles. “I kept getting these… these… mixed fucking signals,but whenever I tried making a move he’d pull back, and now… now this?! Are you kidding me?! I thought he liked me! I thought I liked him! What the fuck?!”

He hears Robin groan. He knows she’s been subjected to this same conversation an awful lot recently, and he knows that while she was happy he was opening up and being more “honest with himself” in the beginning, she’s also made it clear they passed that stage ages ago. Now she’s just plain sick of it.

“Oh, for crying out loud! Just do something about it then, birdbrain! Or at least stop whining to me about it, Christ. And stop slamming things!” She whacks his hand. Through his rage, Steve’s hit with a moment of clarity. Oops. Maybe he had taken it too far.

He takes a deep breath. “Shit, sorry Rob, I didn’t mean to, I’ll stop talking about it. I’ve subjected you to it enough.”

She sighs. “We both know that’s a lie, Steve-o.”

He bumps her shoulder. “Yeah, maybe. But for now, want me to take a turn rewinding?”

“God yes.”

As he sits down, he thinks a little more about what she had suggested. Go talk to him about it? Now that was an idea…

[whimstories]

Could u do "listen, we have very thin walls and I heard you crying in the shower, are you okay?" With adrienette pls??? I love your stories/drabbles they are so well written and I really enjoy reading them❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ thankss

Send me a prompt and a pairing and I’ll write it for you!

((You’re so kind! I hope you like it, Nonny!

Adrien’s going to do it.

He does a swift rap three times.

He quickly realizes he wishes he didn’t do it. It’s awkward and intrusive, and really none of his business, but, dammit, if her sniffled cries haven’t haunted his mind for weeks, and he has to see her once to console her, or—

The door swings opens and, not to be overly dramatic, it’s like viewing a full moon for the first time. One moment he’s in darkness with only assumptions to her appearance then—wow, there she is. His neighbor is significantly more beautiful than he imagined—not that he fantasized about her, that would be odd considering the tears— and definitely more kind and inviting in the face than expected.

She has long dark hair worn in loose pigtails and has one of those “small but fierce” figures to her. Too much his type to be fair. He came to check she wasn’t suffering from chronic illness not chronic attractiveness.

“Ah, right, hello?” He stumbles.

“Yes?” She says pleasantly. He has definitely made an egregious error.

“I’m sorry, you seem to have taken my breath away.”

She gives a bemused grin. “How many doors have you been knocking on to use that?”

“Which would impress you more?”

She gives a halted laugh. “Wow, I haven’t met one of you in a while. What department? Hospitality? Economics? Oh wait, here’s the best one, Women’s Studies?”

“I’ll have you know, I’m so charming women didn’t believe I was real and put me under the Bechdel Test,” he voiced. “I passed, if you’re curious.”

She places a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh and, though he’s heard it before, her body language and bright expression just heightens his love of it. He can’t help but want to pull more from her. “You’re certainly more entertaining than the usual hit-and-run flirts on campus.”

“And more handsome?”

“Well now you’re just boosting your ego,” her eyes sparkle at him and an invincible swell of pleasure rises to his chest. “Ok, if you’re done, I have a project to finish tonight.”

Now he panics. Why was he here in the first place? “Ah, wait! Let me be straight with you.”

She keeps her hand on the edge of the door but doesn’t look in a rush to move. She stares at him with what he hopes is excited interest. He should have rehearsed this because now he just wants to continue their light banter and bask under her quick humor and maybe talk to her for hours… So he chickens out and takes the roundabout approach. “I’m a Barbie girl in a Barbie world.”

Her eyes change completely, lighting up in recognition, and she’s gawking at him in a way he can’t completely read. “Y-you’re the—“ A bright flush hits her cheeks then she’s slamming the door in his face.

“Um, hey?” He taps on the door a few times. There’s no way she was mad at him? He sang that terrible song to cheer her up and she laughed and even clapped for him. He had done it a few times— different songs, of course; no one enjoys repeats— and she always seemed much happier. His entire body deflates amid the idea that he brought up bad memories for her to run away from him.

Then the door swings open, the girl’s cheeks still pouting red with a few fly aways in her face. A plate with an individual sized cake wrapped in plastic is held in her hand and said ‘You’re my Barbie World’ in pink on top. She gestures the cake forward for him to clasp.

“T-thanks. For cheering me up.”

He looks on in awe. The cake is well-done, clearly made ahead of time, and he wondered when she intended to give it to him. For something so simple, she went this far for him. He’s beaming, half laughing at the joke and stupidly flattered, and brushes against her fingers under the plate which rises the red to her entire face. Adorable.

“I didn’t realize I left such an impression,” he teases.  

She sends a deadpan expression. “You’re definitely ruining it right now.”

He chuckles. “Oh come on, I’m adorable. What did you say? I was ‘entertaining’?” He winks at her.

She pulls her hands away and crosses them in front of her, obviously trying not to smile. “You’re not—awful.”

She does not give in easy, he smiles to himself. He can’t imagine anything making her cry without a fight. “Now you’re killing my impression of you.”

She rolls her eyes. “Sobbing pathetically over Japanese animation doesn’t leave any good impressions.”

He blinks a few times, his smile becoming more crooked. “Wait, what?”

“Oh,” she voiced. Eyes locking forward in a manner close to panic. “You didn’t know that. Of course, you didn’t know that. Oh, this is worse. You can leave now.”

She tries to walk backwards and close the door but Adrien inches his foot to stop the momentum. “No, no, my princess, you better invite me inside and tell me more because I’m very very interested.” He always imagined it was a bad boyfriend, tough classes, troubles at home, but instead he’s been wanting to console her from Grave of the Fireflies?

He inclines his body forward, leaving himself open and no room for question on his interests towards her. He wants to know more, needs to, like an itch under his skin. To get her name, to know why she feels a need to watch sad anime, what’s her major, what else can she bake.

She hesitates, possibly, hopefully, catching on to his thoughts. She sighs, “I have a project, remember?”

“Oh, I thought—“ He was kind of hoping it was an excuse for getting the random creep away from her door, and maybe it still was. He can’t help be more than disappointed and he shoulders sag. “You’re right, sorry. I’ll see you around?”

Before he steps away from the door to go back to his dorm, to honestly bang his head against the wall for probably saying something wrong or even considering to be in her league, the girl reaches forward and clasps his forearm. A sharp elation runs through his chest.

“But I… couldn’t help but notice you come home at weird hours, and I’m free tomorrow, and I tend to cook pretty big meals if you wanted to—well, if I happen to watch a sad movie again, I don’t mind your terrible songs, and they really are terrible, but they make me laugh and I think you’re pretty great…” She drifts off staring directly at him, eyes shining like undersea pearls, and she’s tugging a section of her long hair in a nervous gesture.

That pleasure filled swell hits his chest tenfold, all doubt flying out of his mind as his grin half breaks his face. She smiles back, bright and beautiful, and he can’t help but think if tears lead him to such a wonderful sight, he wouldn’t mind conjuring up a few of his own.

[aen-lliash]

Let’s talk about Home!

The newest mission in STO!

I said I’d talk about this a bit on twitter, so since I can write at length without making a huge thread (and I can make a readmore for spoilers) I opted to revive this blog. Just a heads up, though, I am far more active on twitter now.

Without further ado, let’s begin! A long post, a ton of sass, and spoilers lie ahead, read at your own risk. (A small disclaimer too, my memory isn’t the greatest. I apologize for any errors!)

WELL HOLY MOLY. How about that mission? I’m assuming you’ve completed it yourself already if you’re here.

I’m not going to do a huge review or anything. I mostly wanna talk about the Discovery references made in it, partly because of that one weirdo on Twitter who cried to me about it out of the blue (attention seeking much idk).

“The part where they shoehorned std in to star trek canon, was awful though. And it failed.”

Yes, because Discovery, a licensed Star Trek series and CBS production, is not canon. And STO, a game, is. Okay! Sure. I’m totally gonna use some rando troll’s review of the mission as my SOLE BASIS for how to approach this mission too because I deeply value strangers’ feelings. Thanks for the inspiration 😘

Those of you who’ve been following me for a while likely know that I see STO as soft-canon and that I love Discovery. This isn’t a matter of liking/disliking Discovery, though; this is about recognizing what is and isn’t canon. If you’d prefer to not imagine it as canon because you dislike it, go ahead -- just don’t tell me I can’t see it as canon. Because it’s literally canon. Debate it with CBS, not me. I’d also like to say that it’s one thing to shun Disco because of its flaws (it’s okay to dislike it! It’s not a perfect show and it’s definitely made some egregious slips worthy of criticism), but it’s another to shun it just because some conspiracy website convinced you that SJWs are taking over the world, one Star Trek series at a time. Spoiler alert, your beloved TOS is brimming with social justice themes. OH but that’s right, you only watched it because Kirk got all the ladies, not for the social commentary. Haha, how could I forget.

...Anyway.

The first mention we see of Discovery -- that I noticed, at least -- was when the Klingon fleet showed up and Martok gave his speech about the Sword of Kahless. He mentions T’Kuvma and the Torchbearer(s). Upon landing on the Changeling homeworld, Martok leads the Klingons into battle with the same... chant? Incantation? Battlecry? as was introduced in Discovery:

"(In Klingonese) Whom do we seek?" "Kahless." "How do we find him?" "Together." "Give us light to see." "Forever." "Will he hide from us always?" "Never." (retrieved from http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/T%27Kuvma)

Finally, in the post-galactic-showdown casual-lounging-on-DS9-like-we-didn’t-all-almost-die chat at the end, Chancellor J’mpok likens Martok to personalities like T’Kuvma (I think? I can’t recall off the top of my head), L’Rell, and Voq.

HOLY SHIT MASSIVE DISCOVERY SHOEHORNS. THE GAME WILL NEVER BE THE SAME. THESE REFERENCES LITERALLY REDUCED MY SKILL LEVEL. SOMEONE, HOLD ME!

Ignoring the people who make fun of “crybaby SJWs” then turn around and bawl that Discovery even exists for a moment..... I think these were really tasteful inclusions. The writers could’ve gone the “inject references at every possible point” route and they didn’t. When I read “shoehorns” while patching the game, I expected something like L’Rell and Voq’s lovechild’s daughter’s friend’s son’s legacy being a huge focus of the mission. Pls define “shoehorn.” Instead, the writers probably saw opportunities to lead in Discovery content here with the Klingons. We already know more Disco content is coming, thanks to Priority One interviewing Al Riviera. You can’t stop this Disco train.

I’m seeing these references like adding bay leaves to food. They’re big and flavorful, but not everyone likes them and they are certainly unpleasant to bite into whole if left in the food while serving. Despite the drawbacks, bay leaves are still a common ingredient and garnish because the majority of people don’t care about the small details that go into the making of a thing. Does the final product taste good? If the answer is yes, the food will be consumed. The same goes for content. I feel like in this situation, the writers used the Discovery-flavored bay leaves in just the right amount for this to be an appropriate dish for everyone. A lot of players skip dialogue and cutscenes. It’s not like you’re fighting on the bridge of the Sarcophagus Ship against L’Rell and Voq’s lovechild’s daughter’s friend’s son to decide the fate of Mirror Georgiou’s family line in the Prime universe (upon writing that I’m realizing how AMAZING that sounds, ngl). These references are effectively optional and have very little bearing on the gameplay experience right now.

Same goes for that little nudge from the books that Bashir married the captain of the USS Aventine (thanks to Quinny for reminding me of this!). There’s another nice little seed that they planted, which I’m sure may blossom into a really nice story addition. So are they retconning the literature too? Surely this is the end of the entire STO legacy, and quite easily the world as well.

If you ask me, I loved it. I’m already wanting more. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for STO and Discovery.

Thanks for coming to my TEDtalk, let me know what you think, here’s my tipjar