#Project Nicky has officially started

[bratzfag]

Big things happening

[sanrio-gyal]

Hi! can we hear some of your modern au Deidara headcanons? Big fan btw

Yesssss of course!

This has probably been sitting in my inbox for a while 🙁 sorry

Main staple of clothing is his baggy pants and a tank top. He then throws his hair up to messy up do. Definitely digs in his laundry and rewears the same clothes

Doesn’t take off his make up. He goes to sleep with his eyeliner and wakes up with it on. He also forgets to remove his contact lenses. Definitely has put on contacts when he already had them on.

Has a pet lizard, tarantula, and bird. He got the lizard from a tree and decided it’s be his pet. His dorm does not allow pets lmao.

Constantly snacking throughout the day. His backpack is mostly full of chips,candy, gum, or beef jerky. His mouth constantly needs to be chewing on something. 

Collects figures. Definitely has paid for anime figures using his rent money.

He has terrible money management skills. Spends money on art supplies that he never uses. His main media is clay yet he has hundreds of markers.

intelligent but rather party than do his schoolwork. Projects with Deidara is the worst. He only starts working a few days before the due date.

Roommates with Hidan. Their dorm is a wasteland. Neither like cleaning so it remains dirty asf. At least they’re smart enough to not invite others over.

Honestly…Deidara is just a guy. He genuinely has no idea what he wants to do in life except for being an artist.

Dorm room is decorated in posters and art. His led lights are always on blue.

Works as a cashier at a gas station on night duty. He sleeps most of the time and when there is a customer he tries to get them out as fast as possible so he can go back to sleep. Sometimes just tells them that it’s free.

Has a Twitter, instagram, and tumblr. He doesn’t post on tiktok instead scrolling for hours.

19 year old iPad kid. 🙁 he eats hot Cheetos while scrolling through YouTube shorts. Hidan yells at him to turn it down.

Finds the stupidest things funny.

His license is suspended 😭

Loves vans and Nike airs

Partially deaf and wears a hearing aid. He never officially learned sign language. Him and kurotsuchi made up their sign language. He quickly realized that no one knew what he was signing.

Him and Hidan go on Omegle just argue.

Tongue and eyebrow piercing

Contagious laugh

unironically watches reality tv shows like 90 day fiancé, love island, survivor, housewives, bad girls club because he likes seeing people fight.

Smokes weed when bored

Bro does not eat his veggies 😭🙏 even eating cup of ramen, he will take out the vegetables.

His playlist is 99% of punk, rock, and heavy metal and then he has a secret playlist with Nicki, ice spice, sexy redd. He’s secretly a female rapper fan.

Can’t cook for shii. He’d probably starve to death if the Akatsuki weren’t helping him cook.

Has blown up his microwave “accidentally”

:p

[thornilee013]

WIP Wednesday 10.4.2024

Hello and welcome to another week of Work-in-Progress (WIP) Wednesday, a lovely challenge started by @/kedreeva .

As always, feel free to send in multiple requests, even if it's for the same draft! But keep in mind that that's just how I operate, and that this is not part of the official WW rules/etiquette! (aka please don't assume everyone is as desperate as me)

***PLEASE SEND THINGS IN. THIS IS LITERALLY THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY WEEK. YOU WILL NEVER ANNOY ME AND IN FACT I DARE YOU TO TRY TO ANNOY ME***

Official rules for those who are new:

In a reblog of this post (so people can find you in the notes) or new thread (w/ rules attached) if you want to play on your own, post up to five (5) filenames of your WIPs; not titles, file names. Post a snippet from one of them. Snippet must be words you wrote in the last 7 days. We’re posting progress here. If you haven’t made any, go make some and come back to play! After you’ve posted, people can send you an ask with one of your file names. You must then write 3 sentences in that file. If the filename is one you can't share from (for example, an event or gift fic), write 3 sentences on it anyway, and then 3 more on another to share. That’s it! You can invite others to join in, or just post. I’ll be searching the reblogs to find people to send asks to! If you’re reading this, you’re invited! If you see someone posting a WIP Wednesday Game snippet, send them an ask! Make them write.

Prompts that I'm offering this week:

1. Silly Little Jean Moreau Fic 2. TLC 3. 101 Ways not to Say I Do 4. Needle AU (CW: posts may contain mentions of self harm, wound infections, and stalking) 5. Pride Zine (AKA, I write three new sentences on my zine pieces, then pick a random project to add three sentences to for a post! Might bring the dice back again this week, or if you're a regular I'll pick one of the ones I know you like c;)

Progress from this last week below the cut: A combined and collected selection of posts from 101!

"We should probably let people know, right?" Neil said as he fell back onto the couch after pulling his sweatpants back on. Andrew was already lounging on the couch, running his fingertips along the inside of his palm in a desperate attempt to replicate the sensation of holding a cigarette. Maybe a few years ago Neil would have allowed him a cheat day, but they had gotten rid of every last pack in the condo*.

Andrew shrugged in response, his pupils still blown wide and his lips still reddened. "Probably."

"Come on. You don't want Aaron to hear about this from Nicky. I can call him if you want, and you can call Renee."

"No," Andrew said, leaning back to fish his phone out of his pocket. "I'll call Aaron. And Renee. I don't think you'd want me to be the one to call Matt."

Neil wasn't about to disagree. He sighed and pulled out his own phone to dial Matt's number.

-

Nicky didn't reemerge from the guest bedroom until the next morning, or at least, that was the next time that Andrew and Neil spotted him.

Thankfully, their morning the next day had been more or less typical; Neil had gone on his morning run and Andrew had gone back to sleep after Neil's alarm had gone off. By the time Nicky finally came out of the guest room, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand, Neil and Andrew were already on their second cup of coffee.

"Aaron called me at nine last night," he said while trying (and failing) to stifle a yawn. "Couldn't you two have waited to tell the others until I was awake? Damn, I need coffee. Please tell me you have some left."

Neil sipped at his own coffee while Andrew nodded his head in the direction of the pitcher they'd brewed that morning. "Knock yourself out."

"I'm glad to hear that you were at least slightly inconvenienced by your own actions," Neil added.

"Ha ha," Nicky said while making his way to the coffee machine. "I'm so glad to see that that classic Josten charm hasn't faded over the years."

Andrew shot Nicky a look that prompted him to lift up his hands in a mock surrender.

"Come on, I can't keep my sarcasm concealed before I've had a cup of coffee, you know this, Andrew."

"Then start drinking," Andrew responded.

[goldenmusicmoments]

Nicki Minaj's Much Anticipated Pink Friday 2 Opens Up To A Mixed Reaction:

Nicki Minaj finally releases Pink Friday 2 five years after her last album. The album was preceded by a string of singles and teasers. Some of the teasers were said to not be on the album, but ended up on the record. Nicki wasn’t very straightforward with what we could expect on the record and it seems like she was purposely trying to keep her fans on their tiptoes. The album also ended up being delayed which caused quite the reaction, however she assured the Barbz that it was because she wanted to give them something worthwhile. 

The album has now been out for a couple of days and it has received quite the mixture of reviews and reactions. Some people love the record, some found it had standout moments and then moments that were lacklustre and then those that didn’t like it at all. Going as far as calling it her worst release so far. She pushed the record as her best yet and one of the greatest records ever, which in turn ended up setting expectations sky high. Doing that is never a good idea, however Nicki seems to have had and still does have a lot of belief in the body of work. She’s been teasing four additional tracks that she’ll be adding to the album and that is something to look forward to. 

After listening to the album it is a mix of highs and lows, there are some really strong moments that you are drawn to immediately, there are some that grow on you and others that you are left disappointed by. It isn’t really a focused record and seems a little all over the place, she should have shortened the tracklist having quality be the priority over quantity. That way she would have curated a body of work that makes more of an impact. The album doesn’t really feel like a follow up to her debut, which is what many thought it would be due to its title. However Nicki showcases versatility for sure as she pulls at the heartstrings with the real and vulnerable moments, then there are tracks that highlight her talent when it comes to songwriting and clever references. There is no doubt that Nicki Minaj is one of the greats and she definitely has cemented her name in music history. 

There has always been high hopes that she has it in her to create an album that works in its entirety, but every time she’s been given the opportunity she has failed to make the most of it. Every record seems to be a mixture of ups and downs, lacking focus. With her debut coming the closest to being a well rounded and stellar effort. Nicki has the prowess to create something of that caliber, but it seems at times though the idea is there its execution falls flat. 

Pink Friday 2 also seems to have caused a hate train from the Hive for some odd reason. They’ve been going in on attacking the record and its commercial performance so far. Which is so fitting for the Hive as they go out of their way to hate on every and any female artist they can. It is all in a desperate attempt to hold Beyoncé firmly on the pedestal they’ve placed her on. To act as though no one can touch her and then be this worked up over another artist and their release, is very contradictory. It is still unclear as to what triggered the Hive to start swarming on this release.

Unfortunately the predictions for the opening figures of the album are disappointing as you’d expect a higher figure. Though you can see why that could be and that is the performance of the preceding singles. ‘Super Freaky Girl’ may have started atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart, however it fell off and was forgotten just as quick. Nicki ended up too caught up on chart success and so did her fans that they failed to generate a hit that had longevity and one that made an impression strong enough to excite others for the project it was accompanying. ‘Red Ruby Da Sleeze’ was definitely a step up and deserved better, however it ended up lacking the effort to push it. Nicki didn’t officially announce it as a single and neither did she make it clear whether it was a standalone release or linked to the upcoming album. 

Then she released ‘Last Time I Saw You’ and it was promoted as the second single, she even performed it at the MTV Video Music Awards. The song was moderately received, as usual the premises was there but the execution was lacking. It was a rather emotional song due to it being about the loss of her father so you could feel how personal it was to her, however it just didn’t make much of a connection with a wider audience because it had something missing. It debuted in the top thirty on the Billboard Hot 100 and then soon after departed. So there wasn’t much to create enough buzz for the album. Not only were the general public loosing interest, it seems her fans were too. As she’s had quite the supportive fan base and them alone could have pulled in a bigger figure than what is currently predicted (170k - 190k first week). 

The album isn’t terrible, but it is underwhelming. However Nicki doesn’t deserve the hate she’s been receiving lately. It showcases how quickly people seem to switch up on a female artist in particular, which is sad. She will always be one of the greats who’s done so much for rap music and has then in turn opened doors for all the other female rap artists that have popped up since. She still has so much to give and this record is just a stepping stone. Nicki needs to detach from the pursuit of commercial success and focus on creating a body of work that stems only from the passion she has for music. That will then result in something that will make a much grander impact.

[princesskeda]

hey how are you guys?

We are doing well! Again I'm really sorry we've been radio silent for so long, I genuenly didn't mean for that to happen! Life just kept happening and before I knew it it's been almost 8 months!

Nicki is doing really well, she's been trying to work on another novel she's been workshopping for over a year now and that's been taking most of her writing time when she's not at work. She is still planning on writing the Raiyn book and has already shared her outlines with me for it, but it will probably be a while longer before we can start posting it since she hasn't officially been able to start it until she finishes her current project.

As for me, I've been feeling a little burned out when it comes to drawing and my free time has been consumed with TOTK and recently Balders Gate 3 and I'm finding it hard to get back into the habit I'll be honest. But I do have a few drawings I had in the works before I stopped that I want to finish and post!

Thank you guys for your patience and your support, it really means a lot!

[not-bcring]

Nicky was lounging on Kichiro's bed as he taped up his stick for that nights game, one that he'd be playing goalie instead of his usual winger position since their usual guy was out on injury. As he meticulously wrapped the tape around the blade, a thought came to him, his head tilting to the side as he called out to his partner. "'ey, bun? Do y' think I should get my goalie helmet repainted to look like a bunny? That way we can match." No doubt he'd get the life chirped out of him, but he didn't seem to care. "I'd have 'em put ears on it too, but I don't think that would go over too well with the officials, eh?"

-  ✩   「 @from-across-the-stars​ 」   ✩  

「 ☆ 」   Kichiro was working on their latest project, eyes glazed over with concentration as they meticulously sewed a rabbit’s stomach shut. With pieces placed inside so the animal is positioned the way they want, the little creature will stand on its hindlegs, forepaws curled so that it can hold something once upright. Tip of their tongue sticking out as they focus on their progress, hands move with surprising ease. As if they were merely a puppet whose strings are pulled by someone who ISN’T injured on a regular basis, Kichiro’s movements are as speedy as the rabbit formerly was. Not wanting to break their stride even briefly enough to grab scissors, thread is nipped between their teeth with an effortless snap.

Only Nicky’s voice breaks through the laser-focus, Kichiro now turning the rabbit over in their hands and checking the brown coat for any blemishes that need to be tended to. Perking up at Nicky’s suggestion, the far-off look in Kichiro’s eyes fades into something more present, a look even being spared in Nicky’s direction as they reply while setting down their work,  ❝  Really? You’d want to match with me?  ❞  It’s a hypothetical question, born of excitement. Kichiro already knows that if Nicky said it, then he means it. Something that’s clear by the smile on Kichiro’s face, cheeks as pink as the nose on the rabbit skin they grab next.

❝  I think you’d be an adorable bunny goalie! Even if officials will only let you have the face of one.  ❞  Turning their chair to face Nicky, a hand absentmindedly grabs a fake body part, filling the white-furred rabbit on muscle memory as they talk,  ❝  You’re already the cutest person on the ice, but that would make it almost unbearable.  ❞  Comment is meant as a GOOD thing, Kichiro’s legs happily kicking as they then joke with a giggle,  ❝  Plus, you’re quick as a bunny, so it’s only fair to give the other team ample warning before the game starts~  ❞  

Like Nicky, they don’t seem to have an issue with any opinions the mask might inspire. Knowing that there are only a few people who’s words truly matter, and the loudest one of all should be Nicky’s. If HE wants it, then it’s a good thing. It doesn’t hurt that Kichiro is also a huge fan of the idea. Checking their work, making sure the skin doesn’t fit awkwardly, a breath passes before they add,  ❝  ... Hey, hon?  ❞  Looking back at Nicky, smile is soft, demeanor as relaxed as they’ve ever been,  ❝  This is nice.  ❞ 

It’s a simple statement. A sincere one.

Something that felt like it needed to be said...

❝  I just wanted to tell you that.  ❞  Kichiro says with a shrug, a soft giggle lacing the words. For so long, they had accepted their lot in life. One of solitude; perhaps not entirely depressing. Kichiro has learned how to exist amongst themself. But one of lingering loneliness, no matter how natural that empty air also felt. But now? Their future holds something else... Something better. It holds moments like this. Moments with NICKY.

When life feels exactly as it should.   「 ☆ 」 

[vegasoffline]

Chris brown party torrent

By the end of the decade, Brown underwent a stylistic makeover during which his forebears shifted to the likes of Jodeci, R. Within a few years, Brown became one of the biggest active pop stars with Chris Brown (2005) and Exclusive (2007), multi-platinum albums that produced five more Top Ten singles, including "Kiss Kiss" and "Forever." As a featured artist or duettist, he added to the count with hits such as "No Air," a ballad with Jordin Sparks.

While there was nowhere to go but down, at least in terms of chart positions, the singer, dancer, and occasional rapper was only getting started. ChrisBrown-Exclusive-(BonusTracks)-2007-VAGBoBKaT Uploaded 11-17 2007, Size 67. Don’t Check On Me f.Greeted with comparisons to a young Michael Jackson and Usher, Chris Brown arrived in 2005 as a squeaky-clean pop-R&B artist with "Run It!," the first debut single by a male artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 in over a decade. While there was nowhere to go but down, at least in terms of chart positions, the singer, dancer, and. In May 2019, Breezy posted the featured artists that are expected to appear on 'Indigo'. Greeted with comparisons to a young Michael Jackson and Usher, Chris Brown arrived in 2005 as a squeaky-clean pop-R&B artist with 'Run It,' the first debut single by a male artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 in over a decade. The back, designed by Jeff Cole, see Brown's body floating above a giant pyramid.įRONT AND BACK OF THE OFFICIAL “INDIGO” album double covers June 21st but with any possible delays JUNE 28th. The cover art, which was designed by Saturno, features a purple-haired Brown surrounded by red aliens, spaceships and monsters. On 15th May, Chris Brown revealed the album artwork for 'Indigo.' His previous efforts including 'Heartbreak On A Full Moon', 'Royalty', 'X', 'F.A.M.E.', 'Fortune' and more all produced some massive hits, so this one is sure to be just as jam-packed. Chris Brown is dropping a new project in 2019. If it arrives in album form - rather than a mixtape or an EP - it will be his ninth. Chris Brown New Album 2019: Release Date, Songs, Tracklist & Everything You Need To Know. Blige, Chris Brown, DJ Khaled, Jamie Foxx. The 'With You' singer took to Instagram to tease the upcoming project. Chris Brown: Welcome To My Life: Directed by Andrew Sandler. “I promise…never been one to brag, but I’m pushing myself harder and harder to make sure you feel it and it helps you internally,” he wrote, before ending the post with the word “Indigo.”Īccording to Breezy, the new album will be called 'Indigo'. “No cap… This music I got cooking in the oven!!!! After the holidays we getting right to it!” wrote Breezy #indigoseason,” he wrote on his Instagram stories after announcing his joint summer tour with Nicki Minaj.īreezy has revealed that the project will drop "after the holidays", meaning 2019 is going to be the year of new music form Chris Brown. In April 2019, Chris Brown revealed that his new album 'Indigo' will drop in June of the same year. #ChrisBrown Will be releasing #Indigo on June 21st!!!!😈 /T8riFqOFEa- Daniela May 6, 2019 Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)Katy Perry When 'Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)' climbed to 1 on the Hot 100, Katy Perry became the first woman to send five songs from one album to the top of the charts.

[smmpaneltelegram]

Here are some Instagram accounts you can follow if you need more positivity in life :

Undoubtedly one of the world’s most famous blogs, Humans of New York was started as a photography project by Brandon Stanton in 2010. It began its social media dominance starting with Facebook in 2011 and today has around 18 million followers on its official page. The success has followed them on Instagram as well with the followers increasing every day. The posts are about New Yorkers and their inspiring stories of love, compassion, loss, challenges, courage and victories, with which readers can establish an immediate connection. Humans of New York has inspired others to undertake similar projects in their cities around the world.

olling through this Instagram account will either put a smile on your face or make you cry, but you’ll leave with positive vibes only. The Dodo features videos that show animal rescues, pets with their owners or just animals being goofy and fun. 1st copy shoes, it has an equally influential presence on Facebook and Twitter. Named after the first recorded species that went extinct due to human activity, The Dodo was started in 2014 by Isabel Lerer. It also champions animal rights issues through various campaigns.

A genuine way to increase positivity in life is by starting to love oneself. As the name suggests, the account presents ways to increase self-love through its consistent positive messages including uplifting quotes, lessons on cooperation, and simple graphics on different emotions we feel. There are also tips to improve the amount of self-love with a focus on mental and physical health. Started in 2019, their official site also has articles on important issues such as anxiety.

Let’s be honest. Most of us hate Mondays. That feeling of going back to work and that seemingly endless wait for the weekend can be crushing. Motivation Mondays come as a gust of cool breeze on a hot summer day, giving us hope with their powerful quotes each of which is better than the other. Sample this: “No one is you, and that is your superpower.” Or how about the one in the picture above?

Launched sometime around 2013, The Good Quote is an acclaimed Instagram page on well-being, mental health awareness, and positive vibrations. Founder Meggan Roxanne created The Good Quote as an extension of her popular Tumblr blog that she started in 2011. You’ll find motivational quotes from famous personalities such as Stephen King, Morgan Love, Malanda Jean-Claude, Thisuri Wanniarachchi, Ruby Dhal and Nicki Minaj among others.

Movie one-liners, old adages, famous quotes and even interesting anecdotes — the posts on Motivation Mafia are diverse. They are accompanied by eye-catching photos and videos of iconic personalities including the likes of Bob Marley, Sylvester Stallone, Daniel Craig, Albert Einstein, Will Smith, Robert Downey Jr. and Leonardo DiCaprio. Scenes from movies designed to uplift spirits are also part of the posts.

Millionaire Mentor is one of the biggest motivational Instagram accounts. It was started by Jason Stone — a mechanical engineer who is also an entrepreneur and a social media influencer. Stone began by sharing his expertise in the world of business alongside motivational quotes on the platform, which quickly gained loyal followers. The account is all about stuff like bitcoin, business, high life and how to get rich. Words of affirmation like “I’m a money magnet,” overlayed on a part of a US dollar bill featuring Benjamin Franklin, certainly sound powerful and encouraging. In case you are interested in more, check out the official website for informative and inspiring articles on business trends, blockchain, branding and the like.

Using encouraging quotes from famous people and mindfulness tips, this Instagram account improves your outlook of yourself and life, one post a day. It encourages you to take five minutes out of your daily life for yourself for your own peace. The account suggests gratitude journaling, which means that you write about things you are grateful for. This is meant to both inculcate a healthy habit and shift focus to the good. For this purpose, you can use their Five Minute Journal, a diary that has a simple format allowing you to list things you are grateful for and affirmations. One of the most famous users of the diary is The New York Times best-selling author Tim Ferriss.

One of the best ways to bring positivity to life is by travelling. Now, if you cannot do that given the current circumstances, you can at least follow National Geographic Travel on Instagram to see the incomparable diverseness of our planet from the comfort of your home. You can enjoy the sight of monks practising a traditional dance in a Bhutanese village or follow a polar bear family across the snowy wilderness of Wapusk National Park in Manitoba, Canada, from the comfort of your home and marvel at the wonders of life. Besides the captivating pictures and videos, the stories of the adventures, ranging from thrilling to thought-provoking, will leave you wiser and more informed.

en you look at their Instagram account, the first thing that strikes is the chessboard-like presentation. Each post alternates with a black and white background. And the posts? Well-known quotes by known and unknown share space with those by the account creators providing much-needed inspiration to followers. Take for instance this advice of great significance for perhaps everyone: “2020: You learned. 2021: You apply.” The Female Hustlers also work towards encouraging and promoting women entrepreneurship. In February 2021, they announced the launch of The Masterclass Membership in which 75 masterclasses on topics of business, legal, marketing, health & wellness, art & design, and copywriting created by an all-female expert team were made available for women looking to start their businesses.

[hiphopscriptures]

Fresh Artist Fridays: Nicky Jam

This week’s Fresh Artist Friday comes with a twist. Today we are featuring Nicky Jam, a Puerto Rican reggaeton artist hailing from Boston, MA. He has just dropped his sixth studio album called INFINITY. Check out a break down of both the album and Nicky Jam’s impressive career below:

INFINITY is Nicky Jam’s most versatile album yet, taking the listener on a trip through all the genres he has mastered throughout his career. Starting with a bang, bringing his old school reggaetón sound to the forefront — yet feeling very current — the album then portrays all the different facets of Nicky’s artistry, from the raw and real rap verses to the romantic and melodic slow-tempo songs that really showcase his singing voice.

INFINITY begins with “Magnum,” an ode to old school reggaetón with a 2021 feel that will make the listener dive into the beats and rhythms and let go of their inhibitions. The track features one of “la nueva’s” (the new generation of reggaetón) most prolific voices, Jhay Cortez, adding his unmistakable style to make this meeting of two generations iconic.

“Tell me what are you going to do because I’m looking for someone who can drive it // I’m going to do to you whatever you let me // And the Magnum that protects me down below // To go all night so you don’t complain,” Nicky begins this cheeky song, while getting the listener in the mood for more, before Jhay Cortez disrupts with his unapologetic verse telling it like it is.

The music video, directed by Ariel Navarrete “NAVS” and produced by Maite Calzacorta with The Way Films, takes place in an underground party where people just enjoy the moment and live with no regrets. Throughout, flashes of both Nicky and Jhay singing on a stage are shown, matching their physical energy to the unparalleled vibes of the song, creating a visual orgasm for a track that is nothing like we’ve ever heard from the two artists.

Following “Magnum” on the album, Nicky Jam tones it down with “Miami” (6 million YouTube views), a slow-tempo romantic reggaeton that talks about missing a woman he met in Miami and the great times they had together. He then slowly turns the beat up again with “Te Hace Falta,” and “Celosa,” which features tropical vibes fused with urban sounds.

Then it’s the turn for “Se De y Se Da,” a more commercial reggaetón where Nicky asks his love interest for forgiveness, alluding that he wants to fix things and give the relationship another try. The track is followed by Nicky Jam and El Alfa’s explosive collaboration “Pikete” (14 million YouTube views), which tells the story of a woman who seems unattainable because of her beauty and attitude.

“Clavo” is up next with a more melodic tune, toning it down a bit to give way to “Te Invito” featuring up-and-coming artist Rios, which starts out as a ballad until the beat drops almost a minute into the song, transforming into a slow-tempo reggaetón that really highlights both artists distinctive voices.

Nicky Jam takes advantage of the mood to give way to “DM” featuring Manuel Turizo, which gets a bit sexier and more mysterious, talking about sliding into a woman’s DMs and trying to seduce her. “Guayaa” follows the story, as if Nicky were telling the listeners that he got the woman, and now they’re dancing, twerking, and having fun, to then give way to “Polvo,” featuring Myke Towers (93 million YouTube views), reminiscing of the fun times that ended, with a potential to reignite the flame.

The temperature rises with “Playa,” then the album takes a seductive turn with “Dándote,” to then surprise the listeners with “Melancolía,” a ballad where Nicky puts his vocal range to full display. He then ends with “Fan De Tus Fotos” featuring The King of Bachata Romeo Santos, a subtle reggaetón full of sensuality and rhythm with Romeo’s unique voice and Nicky’s distinctive flow, wrapping up Nicky’s most diverse, yet authentic project to date.

Besides the album, Nicky Jam also announced his upcoming INFINITY TOUR 2022. This will be Nicky Jam’s first official tour post-pandemic that will hit major cities across the United States and Canada. The tour will kick off in Boston on February 3, 2022, and end in Seattle on March 27, 2022 with stops in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Orlando, Houston, Hidalgo, Ontario, Los Angeles, and San Jose. CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS.

Check out his music through the links above and connect with Nicky Jam through his socials to make sure you never miss new music. Remember to follow Hip Hop Scriptures to stay updated on the latest Fresh Artist Friday.

ARTIST BIO:

Nick Rivera Caminero, Nicky Jam, is one of the pioneers of Reggaeton in the world. At the age of 11 he recorded his first album called "Diferente a los Demás." Nicky Jam reached the top of his career by achieving several radio hits such as: "Yo no Soy tu Marido," "Me voy Pal Party," "Fiel a tu Piel," "La Combi Completa," among others, that led him to travel the world and become one of the greatest international exponents of the genre. He was forced to stop his career for 3 years due to personal problems. But in 2013, he debuted his new look and came back stronger than ever. He scored five hits on the radio: "Piensas en Mí," "Curiosidad," "Juegos Prohibidos," "Voy a Beber," and the global hit "Travesuras." In February 2015, Nicky Jam teamed up with Enrique Iglesias to release "El Perdón," his most internationally acclaimed single to date. “El Perdón” reached #1 on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart for 30 weeks (the second longest single in chart history). In January 2016, Nicky released "Hasta el Amanecer" which also became the biggest Latin song of the year. In 2017 Nicky Jam released his hit "El Amante," and his studio album titled "Fenix." The single "El Amante" quickly became an international success, reaching platinum certification 7 times, as did his album, which was awarded 11 platinum certifications. In 2018 he achieved 3 new Latin Grammy nominations, and collaborated on the song “Te Boté Remix,” which became the most watched video of the year worldwide on YouTube. In addition, Nicky Jam had the honor of singing the official theme of the 2018 FIFA World Cup: “Live It Up,” which he performed alongside Will Smith and Era Istrefi. His autobiographical series “El Ganador” premiered on Netflix at the end of 2019, as well as his seventh studio album “Íntimo.” Nicky Jam returned to the big screens in early 2020 in the sequel "Bad Boys For Life," starring alongside Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.

In 2020, the artist bared his soul with the release of the single “Desahogo” feat. Carla Morrison. Right after, he premiered “Fan de tus fotos” with Romeo Santos (+60 million views on YouTube). Most recently, he released “Pikete” with the master of the dembow El Alfa, a solo single “Miami,” and a collaboration with Musicólogo, “No Hay Fallo.”

EXTENDED BIO:

Nick Rivera Caminero, known as Nicky Jam, is recognized around the world as a pioneer of Latin Urban music. Born in 1981 in Boston, he moved with his family to Puerto Rico when he was just a boy. At the age of 11, he recorded his first album “Diferente a Los Demás” (Different From the Rest), which attracted the attention of DJs and artists on the island. 

As a young adult, Nicky Jam quickly rose to the top of his genre with radio hits including “Yo No Soy Tu Marido,” “Me Voy Pa’l Party,” “Fiel A Tu Piel,” and “La Combi Completa,” among others. He toured the world and became one of Latin urban music’s first international stars.

Just as he was enjoying his hard-earned accomplishments, his life took a 180-degree turn. Suddenly, instead of being on stage, he was in prison, and he fell into a deep depression. Finally, after three years out of the limelight, Nicky Jam performed a show in Colombia. There, he found an audience that was ready to give him a second chance. He vowed to show his fans that he had escaped drugs and alcohol. With discipline and hard work, he began to make up for lost time. 

He soon decided to move to Colombia to rebuild his career. In 2012, he created a low-budget music video that went on to rack up over 15 million views on YouTube. In 2013, he debuted his new image and returned stronger than ever. He notched five radio hits: “Piensas en Mí,” “Curiosidad,” “Juegos Prohibidos,” “Voy a Beber,” and the global hit “Travesuras.” At the time, “Travesuras” was Nicky’s international comeback hit, and after a 10-year absence from the charts, it peaked at #4 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs. His social media following grew 3000 percent by late 2014, making him one of Latin urban music’s most talked-about and respected artists.

In February 2015, Nicky Jam teamed up with Enrique Iglesias to release “El Perdón,” his most internationally acclaimed single to date. Tallying over 1 million YouTube views on the day of its release, “El Perdón” was #1 on Billboard’s Hot Latin songs charts for 30 weeks (second longest-running single in the chart’s history). An English version, titled “Forgiveness,” helped the song peak at No. 56 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 2015.

In January 2016, Nicky released “Hasta el Amanecer,” which also became the biggest Latin song of the year. The single was #1 on Billboard’s “Hot Latin Songs” for 18 weeks, which was the longest run of 2016. The official music video reached 100 million views in the first month, averaging over 3 million views per day. It also scored the No. 1 year-end spot on the Latin Airplay, Latin Pop Airplay, Latin Rhythm Airplay, Latin Rhythm Digital Song Sales, and Latin Digital Song Sales charts. A remix featuring Daddy Yankee and an English version (“With You Tonight”) helped the song stay 19 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 (peaking at No. 73). 

In 2017, Nicky Jam released “El Amante,” and his very first solo album, Fenix. The single quickly became an international hit, reaching 7X platinum status. The album also enjoyed quite the success, achieving 11 platinum certifications worldwide.  

Entering 2018, Nicky Jam began to conquer new territories in his artistic career. His songs achieved more than 14.5 billion views on YouTube and 1.1 billion streams on Spotify. Singles such as “X” (35X platinum certification) featuring Colombian sensation J Balvin and “Cásate Conmigo” (5X platinum certification) in collaboration with Silvestre Dangond, became international anthems. The singles obtained recognition in the most important Latin music awards, including the prestigious Latin Grammy, achieving nominations in categories such as   Record of the Year, Best Urban Song of the Year and Best Tropical Song of the Year.

His collaboration with the single “Te Boté” featuring Casper Mágico, Nio García, Darell, Bad Bunny, and Ozuna became a worldwide phenomenon. The single captured the world’s attention and became the main topic in all award ceremonies during the year. It also surpassed all YouTube records, becoming the most-watched video in 2018.

Additionally, Nicky Jam had the honor of recording and performing the official song for the 2018 FIFA World Cup “Live It Up,” featuring Will Smith and Era Istrefi. His undeniable success in the music industry earned him two Latin Billboard Awards that year in the categories Top Latin Album of the Year and Latin Rhythm Album of the Year (Fenix). 

Nicky Jam also dabbled in the fashion industry, becoming a brand ambassador for the elegant and prestigious watch brand Hublot. 

The Latin idol showed the world his acting side with his autobiographical series “El Ganador.”  Telemundo joined the giant Netflix in the creation of a series that tells the story of how the superstar came to be. The series trended in Latin American, Spain and the US at the time of its release in early 2019. 

2019 was also a year of vast success for the singer. Nicky worked with some of the biggest names in the industry, such as Sech, Anuel, Ozuna, Ñejo, and others, collaborating in the production of the most-played songs of the year, generating millions of streams on all digital platforms. His tour "Sorry USA Tour 2019" was a total success, with sold-out tickets in 13 different theatres nationwide.

On November 1, 2019, he officially released his seventh studio album Íntimo, one of the most anticipated albums of the year, hand in hand with Sony Music Latin and La Industria INC. Íntimo included 15 singles, including international hits “Te Robaré” featuring Ozuna and, of course, his the mega hit “X” featuring J Balvin. The album also features collaborations with Anuel AA, Darell, Sech, and Rauw Alejandro.

The urban pioneer finalized the 2019 like a real champion, appearing in the top 6 positions of Billboard Year-End count charts: Latin Rhythm Airplay Artists, # 5 , Tropical Airplay Artists, # 4. Latin Rhythm Albums Artists, # 4, Latin Airplay Artists, # 5, Latin Pop Airplay Artists, # 5, Latin Streaming Songs, # 6

Starting this new decade on the right foot, Nicky Jam returned to the big screen joining the cast of the new sequel of the action-comedy classic “Bad Boys” named “Bad Boys For Life,” working directly in Hollywood with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Additionally, and for the second year in a row, Nicky Jam joined the list of nominees for Tu Musica Urbano Awards 2020 (7 categories), as well as Premios Juventud 2020 (3 categories). 

While 2020 was a challenging year for everyone, Nicky Jam made the most out of it. He started the year with a bang and joined forces with Daddy Yankee to release “Muévelo” (175 million views), then stripped his soul with the release of “Desahogo” featuring Carla Morrison (41 million views), started teasing his new album with the release of “Polvo” featuring Myke Towers (93 million views), and kept all of his fans entertained with his very own YouTube talk show “The Rockstar Show” featuring special guests like Maluma, El Alfa, Karol G, Luis Fonsi, and more.

In 2021, Nicky Jam surprised with an unprecedented collaboration with the King of Bachata Romeo Santos, “Fan de Tus Fotos” (61 million views), followed by “Pikete,” an explosive song with dembow king El Alfa, and then gave us another sneak peek into his most vulnerable and romantic side with “Miami” (6 million views), all in preparation for the release of his new studio album “Infinity,” out August 27. 

STAY CONNECTED WITH NICKY JAM ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

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[julies-butterflies]

I must admit, sometimes I do feel like a ye olden solider, sending letters to my beloved across the waves during wartime. Oh my dearest Lydia, I hope the kudos and comments crops have been plentiful this season. Your last letter left me weeping. Why must you put poor Reginald through such pain?

(I gotta admit, I still can't believe that I'm talking to you. I've been looking up to your work for so long...it just feels a bit surreal, even now! Glad you like hearing my ramblings! And that you liked my vampire prompt! Did not realize you'd write back when I sent that in. Look at us now, huh?)

(Speaking of prompts, I sent those jukebox and willex ones too. And I loved them both so so much, I shall scream about them more when it is not 2 am because I need sleep)

(Oh and the update of If I Was You!!! Amazing, Stellar, Incredible, Reggie, Carrie, Julie shenanigans is my new favorite thing, DID YOU JUST DOUBLE THE CHAPTER COUNT, and I'm like 90% sure Trevor is in deep trouble with a certain angry jazz ghost. Seriously loving it)

I actually do not remember what it was like to send in 1/5 asks, because I did not get a Tumblr until very reccently! I've always been a nerdy person, but Jatp is my first time being really in a fandom. You gotta do something new in quarantine, right?

Ah yes. Luke and Emily. To me, it just seems obvious that there's so much love between them. Even with all the pain. You get it. You put it down so eloquently.

As for what kind of stories I like to read...it seriously depends on my mood.

I like niche aus, passion projects. Stories where you can just feel the author's love for the world they're inventing. But I tend to lean towards cannonverse. I like ghost stories, it's what drew me to this show in the first place. And I love exploring that concept. (Being forever gone, and always the same...it's just fascinating to me)

Platonic goodness is just WONDERFUL for this show. I will read anything with cuddles. I am touched starved and these kiddos are too, and I will cry about them puppy piling every damn day. Plus there's just some much POTENTIAL for future friendships! I love ones where Flynn and Carrie get to interact with the boys as well. And 90s content, from before and after the orpheum, just hits hard.

I really wasn't expecting to get invested in the couples on this show, but something about them is moving to me. So I do love to read about them. Watching two queer kids who lived during incredibly important areas of queer history find love together after death really hit hard for me, and there's just something so bittersweet about a girl and ghost deciding to love each other for the little time they're given.

I love family dynamics too. Anything with Ray and his seven disaster children, the band and Trevor.... I think Julie and Emily is one of my favorite dynamics to explore. A girl who lost her mother and a mother who lost her son, both grieving but with one able to speak to the dead...it's just very powerful to me.

(And of course, Luke and Emily, but I figured you already knew that)

Mostly...I like seeing the messy stuff. The unexpected consequences, the baggage. I want to see the messy emotions, the grief and anger, the jealously, the disorientation. I look for those glass shards, that might be too sharp to ever be addressed on the show. Not even the big, monumental plot lines just... the harder pieces of life, the little moments that don't fit neatly into a nine episode arc.

I just want to see them live you know? Love, laughter and loss all mixed together.

(One of my all time favorite tropes is "found family gets broken apart by trauma, only to find each other again and come back stronger than ever." I feel like this explains a lot of my taste in fiction)

Thank you for the writing advice. Your words were very motivating. I am trying to begin! I got up the nerve to start working on a little piece. Who knows if it will go anywhere. But it's been nice, to finally put some words on the page.

The POTC au is so freaking good man. The character dynamics are just on FIRE. Everything is broken and messy and the relationships genuinely tug at my heartstrings. It's such a fascinating story. Highly recommend, even with the cliff hangers.

OH HOW COULD I FORGET PAWPRINTER? Man oh man I love all her work. The wheelies art and steals universe is freaking amazing, not an avacado had me in tears (of laughter, till things got surprisingly sad). And All that Remains...slow burn Willex perfection. Jedi Alex and Pilot Willie have my HEART.

I don't think I've read firefall and weneedglitter (or if I have, I'm just not connecting the names to their pieces. I don't always remember author names. it's a problem). I will go look for them though! Cannot wait!

For more recs, I recently binge read We Found Wonderland. I was not mentally prepared for the sheer amount of feelings that gave me. Highly recommend, if you ever want an emotional rollercoaster with an incredibly satisfying end.

Going on to more serious subjects...I'm sorry your family doesn't see your grief for what it is: honest. Better to feel everything quietly, than make it an easily understadnable performance. Fake grief is so easy to spot.

I think of that scene from "Forever," when Buffy breaks down and tells Dawn that she has to keep busy, because if she stops, it means Joyce is really gone. There's a lot of truth there.

On a tangent here but.. there was a very long period in my life when I was told the ways I expressed my emotions were "incorrect". And I found that sometimes, no matter how you show your emotions, you'll always be criticized. Numbness can be called disinterest, but sobbing can be called attention-seeking too. Too big, too small: that jury was impossible to please This may not apply in your situation but...it's okay to feel however you can. It's the only think you can do, really.

As I've said before, Grief is such an odd trickster.

Don't you ever get tired of missing people... This past year, I've been so weary of grief. Sometimes it can be so sharp, but it's that dull ache. That ball and chain, no longer cutting through your skin, but rubbing it raw, weighing you down.

And people don't like to talk about that part, because it's long and tiresome, but oh, is it there. I find it hard to talk about my grief, because sometimes there's just so much of it. I could drown in it, and that fear keeps me from looking to close. To incorrectly quote Jane Austin: "If I missed you a little less, I might be able to talk about it more."

(Sometimes it's faceable. But sometimes you just can't bear it. And that's okay.)

But what you wrote in that eulogy...the love is there. It's in every word you write. I cried reading that section. I feel honored once again to see some of your jagged pieces. You're sharing your heart, and there's just so much love.

In the wise words of an author I know, "Love is like the snow Reggie. It never goes away."

And don't worry, I'm always with you.

Sending Love,

-LydiaStan7845 (aka Vampire Anon)

So...that Reggie and Nicky prompt

my god

my GOD

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD

I think it's safe to say congrats, you've officially destroyed me! I was not prepared for that at ALL. I should know better by now I guess.

I can't get over that even though they all take place in very different universe, all your stories just feel so connected! The way this talked about those headphones, which you mentioned in the first chapter of Kill Your Heroes...it's just so cool. All the characterization and backstory is just so well thought out, and it genuinely blows my mind.

I didn't think I could love Nicky Peters more. I was wrong. The way you write about him...even though you never go into exactly what happened to him after Reggie's death, you can just feel how much it's shapped him as a person. And the trauma around his father, and how he fears becoming like that, was just so beautifully written. He's just so lovable and flawed and trying so damn hard and you made my heart ache for him. Again.

You always take these genuinely crazy situations and...you just make them feel so real. I love you explore the strains such a revelation would put on Nicky's own life, it just makes everything so compellingly messy. It seriously feel like I was watching a real-life account of a family trying to deal with such a massive complication.

That porch scene had me in tears both times I read it. Reggie's just always a big brother, even though Nicky is more than twice his age now. My heart was shattered, and then you slowly mended it, piece by piece. And for absolutely no reason at all, you wouldn't happen to have a reference for the porch, would you?

Just wow. Hope you're doing well. Sending love and applause

-Vampire Anon

i’m not even gonna reply, but i want these documented... on my blog... for posterity.  ( for any curious onlookers, i’m dating this anon now!! )

[booksbookandmorebooks]

Joe’s New Neighbour Theories.

Hello lovelies, i’m back again with, shock horror another ‘YOU’ inspired post because quite honestly I haven’t been able to stop thinking this show since i finished it a few weeks back. So today i’m here to bring you a quick list of who i believe could be Joe’s new neighbour, spoiler alert, the one that we are introduced to at the end of season two. I have also included my own personal theory below, just for my own spin on things. 

If any of your views differ please let me know below!

 Beck.

Now when looking online I found this to be a big fan favourite but sadly that is just what I think this theory is, a fan favourite. While I do follow the whole eastenders death (you never really accept anyone's really dead until you see a body and can identify it yourself. Anyone that watches it will remember how many times Dirty den came back to life, lord give me strength) I just don’t think that this would be logical or even a good idea from show runners, beck is a part of Joe’s past, of which has helped form him into the unhinged murder we know today, Beck was needed to help kick start his decline from sanity in season one and to establish the kind of person he is to force him to face her would be completely pointless at this stage as we can already see he is haunted by her throughout season 2, there would be no shock value to their interaction not to mention that we have also seen another past girlfriend come back from the dead very recently and would be just a cheap story telling tactic in my opinion.

Dr. Nicky's wife.

Now this is a theory that really peaked my interest. While we can assume through Dr. Nickys conversation with forty at the prison, his altercation and affair with Beck in season one wouldn’t of been the first time he had been unfaithful to his wife and from his reaction when talking about it, seeing his self hatred and disgust we can rather safely assume his wife was most probably aware of these dealing and has continued to take him back due to her strong feelings for him, her strong sense of denial and family,the pressure to keep the family together trope. But I think it would be such an interesting twist if regardless of all this his wife still blames Joe for ruining her perfect family image and is driven mad by her need for revenge. Which lets be honest, would not be a hard task as joe has never seen her and would be completely unaware of her appearance making him a very easy target for her mad plan. Especially if she is aware of Joes insatiable need to be loved and accepted thus making it very easy for an attractive woman to manipulate him.

Forty’s friend or family member.

We all remember the very intense scene where forty begins to connect the dots in regards to who Joe really is and his tarnished dark past, but due to everything we know about forty's loud personality his habit of majorly over sharing and his insane need for attention, I don’t think it would be completely ridiculous to assume he had most likely shared his findings with a friend or family member before confronting Joe. so when he turns up dead and is pinned for all of Joe’s crimes it wouldn’t take a genius to put two and two together and figure out what happened especially with this persons previous ‘dirt’ on Joe.

Forty's mother.

This is one of my own theories i thought would be an interesting take on the shows plot. 

I’m not sure if anyone else picked up on the very strange vibes coming from loves mother at the end where her and love are stood together on the door step waving at Joe, yes I am fully aware she has just lost her child BUT maybe, just maybe, due to their uncomfortably close relationship forty could of shared these findings with his mother and in light of fortys death could of inspired her to create this very long and malicious trap set for joe, lulling him into a false sense of security to take him down once and for all, the perfect revenge for her child's death. When we look at loves past and unhinged view of justice it wouldn't be that much of a stretch. Whats that saying again...

 ‘’the apple doesn't fall far from the tree’’ 

Joe’s mother.

Another widely accepted theory I saw cropping up over and over again was that this neighbour could be Joe’s mother. Which is another theory not completely out of the question. It has been set up very cleverly by the shows creators if this is the case, we have been introduced to her numerous times through a variety of flashbacks and throw away comments from Joe. It wouldn’t be a stretch to consider that while beginning to obsess over his mother and his child hood in the last season he has managed to track her down (as we never saw an official ending or death to his mothers story) manipulate his way into her town and community to fuel this new sick kind of obsession with how to worm his way back into her life. Although I feel like a mother, once faced with her estranged child would feel some sort of connection even on a very small scale, a familiar feeling or even just a sense he is more than a random stranger. Who knows, if she has a new life, husband and family we might see Joe’s temper stem from a different catalyst and be fuelled by his anger at being replaced and forgotten by his mother.

My personal theory:

My own theory is based around the mother idea but I believe that it wont be his real mother, now bare with me while I explain.

Throughout the whole of season 2 we begin to see Joe's already unhinged mind begin to unravel further, he is being haunted by the ghosts of his past, we see his methodical plans when encountering victims disappear as he seems frantic rather than the calm collected Joe we know, we see him break down in needle therapy with one of loves friends and begin to weep uncontrollably while repeating very telling and oddly open mantras to himself and so many other very out of character actions and reactions, all of this I believe is to help set up the biggest theme in season 3. The undoing of Joe. 

I think we will see him begin to obsess over a woman who will most probably share very basic similarities with his mother (as any middle ages woman in the suburbs would) yet when its revealed she will be a complete stranger to Joe. we will see him project the feelings of betrayal hurt and abandonment on to this poor unsuspecting woman, and maybe begin this odd Norman Bates style fantasy and be driven not by the need to romance or sustain a relationship with this woman, but to force himself into her life, seeking acceptance. Although it is Joe, so nothings really off limits with this guy lets be honest.

We even see Joe and a friend having a conversation about marrying their own mothers in season 2 i mean come on!  Talk about blatant mommy issues, wow.

 But there we go a little collection of theories about who the next victim will be in season 3! I hope you enjoyed this post and ill see you next time!

[misscellophane-ao3]

Story Title: Meet the parents (Also on ao3)

Teen Mai! She and her partner are around 17 during this and Peter and Harley are around 31-32. To be honest, I have been wanting to write a fic about Mai and Nicky for a while but I've been putting it off for some reason so thank you for actually giving me a reason to finally write one. I had a lot of fun writing this, I hope you like it~ (Nicky is NB and uses They/Them)

Request by: wtfiswiththisplace on Tumblr

Request Summary: I was wondering if you could write one where Mai is all grown up? Like 17 or something? Maybe about her bringing back her SO to meet the parents? (Set in my AOMPK verse)

Pairings: Peter Parker x Harley Keener

Warnings: Light Cursing

Words: 2534

Story -

“When am I gonna meet your parents?” Mai nearly dropped her phone onto her face in her surprise. She quickly sat up from where she was laying on the bed and turned to look at Nicky. The brunette was staring at her with a frown.

“Nick. Baby. Love of my life. You do not want to meet my parents. They are complete dorks.” Mai replied dryly.

Nicky gave Mai a grin “Which is why I want to meet them!” They replied cheerfully.

“You talk about all the dumb shit they’ve done over the years that it makes me curious.” Nicky added as they got up from their desk chair and jumped onto the bed next to Mai.

Mai rolled her eyes “I don’t talk about them that much!” She huffed.

Nicky stares at her deadpan “Uh yeah. You do.”

Mai felt her cheeks heat up “I-well-whatever! Anyway, why do you want to meet them so suddenly?”

“It’s not sudden. We’ve known each other for three years and have been dating for one of them! I’m honestly surprised I haven’t met your parents before.”

Mai hummed, a little frown on her face “That’s- okay that is a little weird.” She then lit up, “No, wait! You have! Remember the science fair? You saw them then.”

“But like, only your mom and as your classmate and we weren’t dating then. That was also over two years ago.” Nicky gave Mai a pointed look.

“Oh.” Mai deflated, “Right.”

“Do they even know you’re dating someone?” Nicky asked with a playful huff.

Mai rolled onto Nicky, her hands cupped their face as she stared seriously into their eyes “Yes. How could I possibly go a day without informing everyone I know that I am dating the most amazing, beautiful, wonderful, amazing person in the entire world? I couldn’t, I would die. And I can’t die yet, I still have to write that stupid essay for Ms.Simmons' class.”

Nicky blinked a couple of times before giggling “The fuck Mai?”

Mai pecked their lips with a bright grin.

“Just stating the truth, love!” She watched with fondness as a tint of red crept up on beautiful olive skin and Nicky's forest-green eyes lit up with amusement. She already had hundreds of sketches and paintings of Nicky but she knew as soon as she got home she was gonna be adding this memory into her sketchbook, the one she started solely for her art of Nicky.

Nicky smiled up at her, their hands settling on Mai’s waist “So, I can meet them then?” They asked, lightly tapping on Mai's waist.

Mai sighed dramatically “Fine.” She said, drawing the word out, “I guess.”

Nicky cheered “Yes! I get to meet Harley Parker-Keener!” They threw a hand up, nearly knocking Mai right off of them.

Mai laughed out a "Hey!" before adding right after, “And the truth comes out! I knew you were just dating me to get to my father.” Mai pouted but the twinkle of amusement in her eyes gave her away.

Nicky sniffed playfully “Of course!” They agreed, “It’s Harley Parker-Keener!”

“You know, most people would be more excited about meeting Spider-Man.” Mai mused lightly, a smile tugging at her lips.

“Eh, he’s cool too, I guess. But it’s Harley Parker-Keener! He created the most amazing thing to ever exist!”

“I’m adopted.”

“I wasn’t talking about you but you are pretty amazing too.” Nicky teased.

Mai gently swatted them “Hey!” She whined.

Nicky pressed a kiss onto Mai’s cheek “Aw, you know I love you!” They knocked their nose into Mai's cheek.

Mai pressed a smile into their shoulder before snorting and saying “Dad is not gonna let Mama live this down.”

"Live what down?" They asked.

"The fact that my partner is more excited to meet my dad then the actual Spider-Man." She snickered, "Not that Mama would actually care. I think he'd actually be a little relieved."

“That’s means I’m meeting them right?”

Mai sighed and pulled her head back to look them in the face “Yeah alright, Mama has been hinting about wanting to officially meet you anyway.”

And by that, she meant he literally asked her a few days ago during breakfast when she’d bring Nicky over. And honestly? Mai was also surprised it's taken so long for her to introduce them to Nicky. 

 ....

“Hey, can Nicky come over for dinner tomorrow?” Mai asked nervously over steak later that night, glancing between the two.

Peter nearly choked on his drink and Harley grinned brightly, setting down his fork.

“This the same Nicky that you constantly write literal poems about and have about a hundred sketches of?”

“Shut up.” She huffed, she could feel her face heating up.

Harley winked and Peter swatted his arm “Stop that.” He then turned to Mai, his expression gentle, “Of course they can come over. They’re always welcome.”

Mai didn’t realize how nervous she was about asking until she felt her shoulders slump, a bright grin tugged at her lips only to fall right off as her dad added,

“Yeah, I can’t wait to finally put a real face to all those cheesy poems.”

Mai flicked a pea at him. He dodged, unfortunately.

"I wonder if they also have hearts floating around them all the time like in your sketches." Harley added teasingly.

Mai flicked more peas at him making him laugh and throw some right back at her. Before it could escalate into a full-on food fight her Mama cut in with a,

“No throwing food at the table.”

It was a rule that was implemented by Pepper a few years ago when Harley and Mai had got a little too excited and started a full-on food fight between all the Avengers. It was a pain to clean up but so much fun. They may have also broken a few things on accident, including the coffee maker (again) which is why Pepper won’t let them have another food fight. She even had Tony install a protocol on Friday that pretty much grounded whoever is caught throwing food around. Thankfully Friday was more chill when it was just the three of them, she figured the A.I had a soft spot for them but she would never tell Tony that. She's saving that revelation for when she really wants to annoy him, he'd probably mope around all day at the betrayal of his own creation. She mentally cackled at the image.

Outwardly though, Mai shrugged “You’re just salty that you weren’t there for the one and only Avenger food fight.” Mai replied before taking a bite of her mash potatoes.

“I was gone for one day.” Peter complained, slamming his fork down.

Harley patted him on the shoulder “And you missed so much fun.” He sighed dramatically.

Peter gave him a dry look, to which Harley winked at, and Mai laughed.

 ....

“Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.”

Mai set a hand onto Nicky’s shoulder “Are you okay? We don’t have to go if you changed your mind?” They were on the elevator headed up to Mai’s apartment when Nicky suddenly started to panic, Mai looked them over with concern.

Nicky shook their head “No! I mean,” they cleared their throat, “I’m good. Just a little- do I look okay? What if I embarrass myself? What if he thinks I’m a complete idiot!?”

Mai deadpanned “Is this about my dad again?”

“It’s Harley Parker-Keener! You know how much I look up to him! Even before I knew he was your dad.”

“My last name is literally Parker-Keener. How you didn’t put that together sooner is beyond me.”

Nicky rolled their eyes “Yeah yeah, I’m an idiot.”

Mai huffed a laugh “No, you’re not. But my dad is. Trust me, you have nothing to worry about.”

She paused then added “Except for some teasing. Dad loves to embarrass people.”

Nicky groaned “Not helping.”

Mai giggled “Sorry?” Though she must not have sounded convincing as Nicky just gave her a dry look. “Seriously Nick, It’ll be fine. Did you know he once stuck a bottle of ketchup into the microwave instead of back into the fridge and it exploded everywhere?”

Nicky blinked their eyes at her “Why the hell would he put ketchup in the microwave?”

Mai giggled “He was totally sleep deprived! He hadn’t slept much in over a week because of a project he was doing. Mama made him clean it up after forcing him back into bed. It took him over an hour because the ketchup dried while he was sleeping.”

“Mai, Peter and Harley are wondering if you are going to be leaving the elevator any time soon.”

Nicky’s lip twitched upwards, their body relaxing as Mai talked. They were so focused on Mai that when a voice sounded overhead they jumped “What the fuck?”

Mai threw an arm around their shoulders “That’s just Friday. She’s the A.I I told you about before.”

She glanced up at the ceiling of the elevator “Fri, say hi to Nicky!”

“Hello, Nicky. It is a pleasure to meet you.” Friday replied.

“Uh, Hi.” Nicky greeted shyly.

Mai nudged them “Ready to meet my parents?”

"Wait, do I look okay? I don't want to offend your parents!"

Mai looked Nicky over "Nah, you look fine."

"You sure?"

Mai nodded, a fond smile on her lips, and repeated, "You look fine."

They were wearing pretty much what they usually did, dark jeans and a t-shirt, except a little more dressy, which meant a dark red button-up instead of their usual band T's and the jeans with the least amount of holes. They were going to take out their lip piercing too but Mai loved it too much and pleaded with them to keep it on "My parents really won't care." She had said, "My uncle Loki had his lip pierced for a bit. Nobody cared. My mama actually told him he looked cool."

Nicky swallowed nervously, taking a calming breath before nodding “Right, I guess I'm ready then.”

Mai pecked their cheek and squeezed their shoulders reassuringly.

“Open the doors Fri.”

They stepped out into a massive living room, a hallway opened up just to the left of the elevator and on the opposite wall from them was another shorter hallway that lead the way to the kitchen and dining room. This hallway was where a short brunette walked out from, he was smiling and had on a large MIT hoodie that nearly swallowed his frame.

“Hey!” He greeted cheerfully, “Harls is getting changed, he’ll be back out in a minute.” He then turned to Nicky, “You must be Nicky. It’s nice to finally meet you! I’m Peter.”

Nicky smiled back “Nicky. It’s nice to meet you Mr.Parker-Keener.” They said politely.

Peter waved them off “Just Peter is fine!” He replied.

“I prefer darlin’ myself.” A soft drawl came from the hallway next to them before a tall blonde appeared and walked over with a cheeky grin “Hiya, nice to meet ya. I’m-“

Mai swallowed a laugh when she noticed Nicky tense up, their eyes wide and cheeks pink.

“Har-Harley Parker-Keener!” Nicky stammered out, “I-yeah-I-Hi! I mean,” They cleared their throat, “Hi.” They repeated weakly, a slight blush crept up over their cheeks.

Harley blinked surprise before his smile widened “Oh, you know me?”

“Do I-do I know you?” Nicky repeated with a look of disbelief and awe.

Mai couldn’t hold back her laughter anymore “Nick’s a huge fan of you dad!” She proudly stated.

Harley looked genuinely surprised “Oh? Thank you?" He then turned a cheeky grin onto Peter, "Ya hear that? They are a fan of me!"

Peter rolled his eyes with fond amusement "I'm not surprised, you are pretty amazing."

"Not as amazing as you darlin'." Harley instantly shot back with a wink.

Mai groaned "Seriously? Not even a minute and you're already flirting."

"Give us another minute and we could be kissing too." Harley shot back with a glint of mischief in his eyes.

Mai gasped, horrified "Don't you dare taint my Nicky!"

"Alright, we'll just leave you two out here and be back in an hour."

Mai grimaced "Oh my god, Dad!"

Harley laughed at her, ruffling her hair.

Peter's face pinked a little and he shot a weak smile at Nicky "Sorry."

Nicky shrugged "It's alright."  They replied with a light grin, keeping most of their attention on Peter so they don't accidentally start fanning out over Harley. They did not want to embarrass themself so quickly after just meeting the man.

"Peter, the bread is done." Friday called out to them.

"Oh!" Peter lit up, "Dinner's ready then! I made lasagna-"

"You mean I made it and you watched me." Harley cut in, wrapping an arm around Peter, grin on his face.

Peter continued as if he didn't hear him "-I hope you like it, I asked Mai what you liked and she said pretty much anything with red sauce or meat."

Nicky gently nudged Mai with their elbow.

"What? It's true!" Mai defended.

"That sounds great. Thank you." Nicky smiled at Mai's parents, they glanced down with a smile when Mai's hand slipped into theirs.

....

The actual dinner portion of the night didn't go too badly either.

Nicky was obviously nervous and Mai could tell they were struggling to keep calm every time her dad opened his mouth. It was hilarious. And Mai laughed loudly and hard enough to bring tears to her eyes when Nicky inevitably did start to fan out over Harley, briefly startling then embarrassing her dad. She noticed he didn't really seem to mind that much though as he happily replied to every question Nicky had for him. Peter and Mai had watched them talk with wide smiles on their faces and fond amusement in their eyes.She knew she was gonna be bringing Nicky over more often now, if only to see them fanning over and embarrassing her dad.

"So, Nicky," Harley had said at one point, "I must say, I'm a little disappointed you don't have literal hearts floating around you."

"uh, sorry?" Nicky apologized confusedly, Mai's cheeks flushed a bright red.

"Oh my god. I hate you." She hissed at her dad.

Peter elbowed him but she could see the twitch to his lips "Mai has a bunch of sketches of you in her art book. Most of them have hearts surrounding you." He explained.

"You're both jerks." She huffed, she was sure her face matched the color of the sauce in the lasagna.

"Oh." Nicky huffed a laugh, "Yeah, I've seen them. It's cute."

“Nicky!”

"Aw, you know I love you." Nicky teased, Mai started to smile.

"Enough to write a cheesy poem?" Harley just had to ruin the moment.

She shot her dad a glare.

She was relieved that Nicky was getting along with her parents so easily and that this went a lot better then she had worried it might (not that she doubted her parents would love Nicky but she had never brought home anyone before), she just wished Nicky didn't bond with them over embarrassing her. 

“Jerks, All of you.” Mai groaned dramatically, an exaggerated pout on her face.

[zaynmalikupdates]

ZAYN Drops New Track “Rainberry,” Announces Sophomore LP ‘Icarus Falls’

Mike Nied @mikeynied | November 30, 2018 1:30 am

Like the lost city of Atlantis, people have been searching for ZAYN’s sophomore LP for what feels like forever. The 25-year-old has been teasing a follow-up to 2016’s Mind Of Mine with a slew of buzz tracks. It all started with “Dusk Till Dawn” last September. Since then, several other singles and a multitude of covers have surfaced. However, the crooner kept mum on details about an official release date. Now one is on the horizon. Yesterday (November 29), Billboard confirmed the project was called Icarus Falls and arrives December 14. That’s not all. To make up for the wait, it is comprised of a massive 27 tracks. And a new song called “Rainberry” dropped today to commemorate the news.

On it the “Pillowtalk” chart-topper dusts off his falsetto and puts a cheating partner on blast. “Too many bones inside your closet you thought you buried deep,” he seethes. “But they never let me get a minute of peace. How do you sleep?” Zayn’s voice is predictably sublime, and the subject matter is definitely relatable to anyone who has ever doubted a lover. This has the potential to be one of my favorite songs we have heard from Icarus Falls thus far. It’s a bit more innovative than the likes of “Let Me” but not quite as jarring as “Sour Diesel.” Hopefully the rest of the collection rides this sweet spot. At this point it is impossible to guess what is on the way.

Interestingly enough, the Sia-assisted power ballad that started the era did not make the final tracklist. However, everything else – including his new Nicki Minaj duet – did. If we’re lucky, he will have also lined up the Cardi B feature he tried to recruit on Twitter. But we’ll have to wait and see. At the rate things are going, Zayn may have one of the most eclectic albums of the year on his hands. Listen to his latest below!

(via Idolator)

[stillrecruitingrp]

The D.A. has recruited Nicky to the character of Tracey Davis with a faceclaim of Jung Eun-ji. How long do you think you can keep fooling them, Tracey? That much filth is hard to hide, you know...

OOC Details

Name: Nicky

Pronouns: she/her

Activity Level: medium; I should be able to post multiple replies three to four times a week, with an at least cursory online presence more often than that. Sometimes I get bogged down with other projects or deadlines, but I will always try to alert via the ooc when that is/will happen so my interaction partners aren’t left wondering where I’ve gone!

Acknowledgement: I acknowledge the potentially triggering themes and look forward to the uncertainty and excitement of the roulette.

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General IC Details

Name: Tracey Patricia Davis

Age: eighteen, born November 21st

Ships: no specific ships; Tracey is bisexul but coming from a Muggle background means that she isn’t exactly comfortable with this and has so far managed to push her burgeoning queerness onto the back-burner (although that’s getting harder the most stress she’s under; it would be nice to lose her strife in a few soft kisses or warm caresses, but she’s afraid to let anyone -- boy or girl -- get that close).

Gender/Pronouns: cis-female, she/her

Face Claim: Jung Eun-ji or Maisie Richardson-Sellers

Desired Changes: none

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BIO Questions

This game is Canon Divergent after the beginning of Deathly Hallows. This means, if a character is not at Hogwarts in canon, that can be altered (maybe Fleur goes to collect her husband’s little sister and ends up unable to leave the rest of the children there? Perhaps Harry comes back earlier…but why, and how? All of these things can be addressed and should be in your application!) Feel free to be creative!

Biography:

Once upon a time Tracey was a cheerful, happy, awkward little girl growing up in Cookham with a happy, cheerful little family of mum, step-dad, and baby brother Bobby. She liked coming up with fun new ways to wear her clothes, leaving her chewing gum in places that would make mum yell, and listening to Sheila Chandra, Duran Duran, and The Levellers. Mum was a general practitioner, dad a grocer, and little Bobby just a bundle of drool and diapers. Then the witch showed up on their doorstep and told Tracey there was something different about her...and she didn’t mean it the way the neighborhood kids did. So Tracey went off to Hogwarts School, where her troubles began the moment she was sorted.

There are more Muggle-borns in Slytherin House than people suspect. Tracey is one of them, although she -- like most of the Slytherins who share her blood-status -- was clever enough to figure out quickly that this wasn’t a good thing, so she fabricated a story about her grandmother being a squib whose family didn’t want her going around claiming kinship over the embarrassment of having produced a child without a trace of magic. That’s not a far-fetched tale, so no one ever questioned her -- especially since Tracey played-up her own “disdain” toward inferior blood and her own Muggle relations. She was over-compensating, yes, and her housemates could probably tell -- but they let her fake it and they played along. That’s something else that happens more often than admitted in Slytherin House: because there’s such a focus on purity of blood, most everyone is eager to claim as much magical ancestry as possible -- even if that means lying about a few muddy branches on the family tree.

Tracey was never exactly popular in her house, but she wasn’t scorned either; she knew to flatter the right people, and as long as she grinned her way through the occasional barb about “magical dead-ends” from Pansy Parkinson or the other “elites” she wasn’t mocked too badly, despite her lack of familiarity with the magical world -- a familiarity that Tracey has been working to acquire ever since her first night in the dungeons, whether that mean listening to her housemates or spending her free hours in the library flipping through every volume on wizarding society and history that she can get her hands on. She also developed a knack for transfigurative stitching, which helped her alter some of her clothes so they didn’t look quite so dreadfully Muggle -- although she still stuck-out whenever she wore something other than her uniform. Fortunately most people pitied her for her squib ancestry rather than ostracizing her, and she founds friends who were willing to help tutor her in keeping up with all the important things that schoolbooks didn’t teach -- all of which meant that when rumor of Voldemort’s resurrection reached Tracey’s ears, she knew enough of what was coming to know that she’d more than a flimsy story about a secret squib to keep her safe now.

Fortunately being in Slytherin meant she had friends with influence and leverage in the Ministry, although she hesitated to trust any of them with the truth -- but inspiration and an understanding of the world she now inhabited gave her the solution: claim that she needed fake documentation to back-up her “true” blood-status, since the family she was really related to would have been furious to have a squib shoved back onto their family tree after they’d gone to all the trouble of getting rid of them. Tracey isn’t sure whether she managed to pull that story off, or if they just took pity on her -- but either way, she got the documentation she needed to be able to go back to school when the Muggle-born Registration Commission started investigating magic-stealers.

School Year So Far:

Tracey has never told her parents about the magical world’s issues with blood-status, or the way she lied about her family’s history in order to be accepted. She knows they wouldn’t be pleased; her mum and dad raised her to be proud of who she is and to hold her head high and ignore anyone who said anything nasty about her heritage. But they don’t understand how different it all is in the magical world, where no one looks askance at her ethnicity but so many of them would shun her completely for being a Mudblood. That slur seems to have so much more weight than any of the ones she’s been treated to in the Muggle world -- maybe because it cuts to the core of who she is rather than flickering out at what she looks like. Regardless, they never knew, and it wasn’t like any of her magical friends were ever going to come visiting to give her away, was it? Maybe she sometimes feels a little ashamed of pretending to be someone she isn’t...but better than the alternative, she tells herself, and keeps the charade going.

That meant her parents had no reason to hesitate over sending her back to Hogwarts for her final year of school, and the Ministry had no reason to stop her, so she went -- that was the goal behind getting those fake documents, after all! But now she’s here at Hogwarts, and she’s quaking in her shoes waiting for the day when someone finds out. She has a big, dangerous secret she’s keeping, and she’s starting to crumble under the strain -- as much from indignation as from fear, surprisingly. Tracey is ambitious too, after all (there was a reason she was sorted into Slytherin!) and her ambitions don’t include pretending to be “better” than she “really” is forever, not when she knows she’s better than that -- and the lie sticks in her craw more and more every year, every time she has to laugh at some other Mudblood to cover for her own ancestry, every time she has to put-down her pathetic parents for their lack of magical gifts, every time she has to help the Carrows torture some hapless idiot who can’t keep their mouth shut. She does as she’s told, of course -- a girl with “squib” ancestry can’t risk getting on the wrong side of Death Eaters -- but her rage over the unfairness of it all coils in her belly like hot lead, burning to get out.

But Tracey keeps her mouth shut because she’s clever enough to know that now is not the time to take a stand on principle -- is it?

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OOC Questions

Writing Sample

Tracey’s knees knocked together and her palms kept sweating, no matter how many times she wiped them off on the sides of her robes. For once she was glad for the cumbersome clothing favored in the magical world (even after six years, she still preferred her comfortable cargo pants or denims) because the enshrouding fabric hid her shaking as she waited for them to call her name.

She tried not to look at the other nervous, sweaty people standing with her -- or at the guards watching them, alternately grim-faced or leering. Tracey wasn’t the only defendant clutching a sheaf of paper as though it was her only lifeline out of a freezing ocean, and she doubted she was the only one whose heart was currently pounding its way up her throat either. They were all trying hard to avoid meeting one another’s eyes, as though afraid that guilt could be contagious. Tracey thought that was a bit silly, because the whole reason they were here was to try and prove that they had some connection to the magical world, so if they could show connections to one another, wouldn’t that help to prove that they were more magic than Muggle...?

Before she could follow that line of thought through to a conclusion, the sound of her name being barked by the officiant manning the door jolted her from her reverie and made her jump.

Shaking worse than ever, Tracey hurried forward, trying not to trip over her robes or her nerves. She could feel the eyes of the other accused Muggle-borns darting over and sliding away as she passed them, everyone unable to resist the urge to stare at the latest victim to face Ministerial inspection but unwilling to be caught staring. She did her best to ignore them all, keeping her eyes fixed ahead and trying to school her face into an expression of unconcern.

By the time she crossed the threshold into the courtroom, she still didn’t think she’d succeeded, but it became almost immediately irrelevant because her expression -- whatever it was -- was immediately replaced by surprise at the sight of the witch waiting at the high table inside. Her jaw dropped and hung open, as though she were an overwhelmed first year facing the wonders of the magical world for the first time again -- although the frigid, grim courtroom with its solitary defendant’s chair and empty encircling benches was far from wonderful. The witch presiding, though, was both familiar and unmistakable, if not exactly pleasant-looking either.

“Professor Umbridge?” Tracey gasped, her steps faltering. One of the black-robed guards caught her by the elbow and marched her forward but Tracey barely noticed; she was too busy gaping.

Professor Umbridge -- or no, not professor anymore, was she? -- leaned forward over the edge of her table so she could stare down at Tracey. “Miss Davis, isn’t it?” she said, in her obnoxiously performative fake-little-girl voice. “I’m very disappointed to see you here, I have to say.”

“I’m -- I’m not thrilled about it myself, er, professor,” Tracey stammered. “But I think if you’ll look, you’ll see it’s all just a...an unfortunate bit of confusion...” She shoved the papers she held up onto the edge of Umbridge’s table and tried to smile. One of the other guards cleared her throat and Tracey stepped back quickly. She tucked her hands away behind the long sleeves of her robes, out of sight, and crossed her fingers. Was all her effort to ingratiate herself to this horrible woman two years ago finally going to pay off?

Umbridge shuffled through the papers a few times, darting the occasional squinty glance at Tracey between pages. After what felt like days but was probably only a few minutes, she finally said, “Well! This does seem to be in order. I quite understand why neither you nor the No -- well, the family involved wanted your connection to them publicized...”

Tracey stiffened. “Please don’t make it public!” she blurted. “Please -- they would be so mad, having to acknowledge a squib, that’s why I never told anyone, my grandmother said--”

Umbridge held up a hand with a short “Hem, hem!” and Tracey fell silent, waiting with baited breath. In truth of course she wasn’t worried that the family she had fabricated a connection to would be cross; she was worried that they would, just justifiably, deny said connection and offer proof that it wasn’t true -- which wouldn’t be hard for them to do, Tracey was sure, given that the documents she had provided were completely false. If Umbridge chose to make her life “difficult” by “embarrassing” the pure-bloods that Tracey was claiming familial ties with, she’d make things much more difficult than she thought she was...

But Umbridge only said, “Oh no, of course not, dear girl. That would be heartless. And it’s admirable that you’ve chosen to respect the wishes of the family rather than trumpeting your roots for all to hear. It’s very polite, discreet. Better behavior than one usually sees from those raised by Muggles -- but I suppose you’ve learned a lot from your housemates, hmm?”

Tracey nodded. “Ever so much, ma’am, yes.” Like how to arrange for falsified documents showing that your utterly Muggle grandmother was really the squib descendant of a famed pure-blood family, for instance. “I’ve tried so hard to fit in, you know, to do my bloodline proud even if it’s not one I can acknowledge publicly...”

“And I’m sure you’ll make them proud, secretly. You’ve been studying hard for your N.E.W.T.s?”

“Oh yes, ma’am!” Tracey’s hands were starting to shake from how tightly her fingers were clenched, but she forced herself to keep smiling.

“Splendid! I’m sure you’ll do wonderfully,” Umbridge tittered, holding Tracey’s papers out for her to take back. “Good luck at Hogwarts this year, Miss Davis. It was lovely to see you again.”

“You, too,” Tracey lied, and followed the guard out of the courtroom. Her knees were still shaking but this time as she passed the other accused Muggle-borns she was grinning -- even if she still couldn’t bring herself to meet their eyes.

Exploration

TORTURE & HYPOCRISY: Tracey is used to over-compensating, used to deferring to her more socially advantaged (and purer) housemates, used to lying about her true opinions -- but now the stakes have raised and the Carrows don’t just demand that she laugh at their ugly jokes about Mudbloods, they want her to torture her fellow students. It honestly isn’t the spells themselves that Tracey objects to (maybe it’s because she comes from a non-magical world, a world where terrible weapons of war are a fact of life that can’t be ignored as easily as the Unforgivables) so much as it is the fact that she knows she is their real target. And not just because she knows that her status as a “squib’s descendant” means she’s more susceptible to punishment herself than most of her housemates (and she’s experienced her fair share of the curses herself) but because the truth is even worse in their eyes. Sure, she doesn’t hesitate to raise her wand when one of the Carrows tells her to -- and she’ll readily admit that it’s been interesting learning a form of magic that relies more on emotion than most spells -- and while it’s not comfortable by any means to be made to hurt her classmates, what really upsets her is knowing that she doesn’t have a right to. According to the Death Eaters, she’s the one who really deserves to be tortured -- and no, she doesn’t agree with that of course, but she does feel like a hypocrite when she’s hiding behind her house placement and her documents so she can stay safe while she hurts somebody else who isn’t lying about who they are and what they believe. Is that enough to push her into taking a stand -- or is it more likely that she’ll double-down and work even harder to excel at the Carrows’ new lessons, over-compensating to hide her dismay and her secrets just like she’s always done?

OPEN-MINDEDNESS: Growing up in the Muggle world means that Tracey lacks the prejudices and presumptions common to wizaring children (yet carries several more mundane such viewpoints, of course) so for instance -- the Slytherin/Gryffindor rivalry? While she figured that out fast, and has certainly learned to dislike Gryffindor House on principle due to all the squabbles and competition between the houses, that’s all it is to her -- a squabble, mostly wrapped-up in sport it seems, and not some insurmountable barrier that she wouldn’t be willing to vault under the right circumstances (not that a Gryffindor would ever be likely to reach out to some Slytherin “squib’s grandchild” for any reason...right?). Even more notable -- the name Voldemort? It doesn’t actually terrify her. She’s a little rattled by it just because of how rattled everyone else gets anytime it’s mentioned, but it doesn’t have the same power over her that it does most of the people she knows. The same is true of the Unforgivable Curses -- they’re just more spells, to her. Nasty spells, to be sure, but there are a lot of nasty spells; what really makes the Cruciatus Curse so much worse than any other hex, aside from the fact that it hurts more? She knows that Dark Magic is bad -- just like she knows guns and nukes and bombs are bad -- but she doesn’t recoil from it on principle. She doesn’t recoil from any spells on principle, because she didn’t grow up with those principles and prejudices. This makes her more open-minded about what can be done with spells, or which spells are okay to use when and where and to whom; makes her willing to cross lines that her friends would instinctively balk at. Tracey has done a lot to learn the unspoken rules of the wizarding world -- but that doesn’t mean she’s internalized them all. Doesn’t mean she isn’t willing to break them all, even.

MUDDIED ALLEGIANCE: Tracey is sort of stuck in the middle right now -- to every appearance a dutiful Slytherin, far from pure-blooded but aware of the limitations of her own blood-status and loyal to the old ways despite her Muggle upbringing. Underneath that, though, she’s living a lie and a dangerous lie at that, constantly under threat of exposure and the inevitable punishment and incarceration (or worse) that such a revelation would cause. Maybe she’ll double-down on her habits of over-compensation, go full-out in pledging allegiance to the Carrows and Snape and even, eventually, Voldemort himself -- because what better way to hide her blood-status than behind one of those silver masks? Or maybe she’ll go the other way: fed up with living a lie, she could turn on the Carrows and her prejudiced pure-blood friends, throw her allegiance to the D.A. -- but would they be willing to accept a Slytherin as an ally? Who would she even try making an overture to -- and would she be willing to risk sharing the secret of her blood-status to convince them? If she does, what’s to say they won’t sell her out to protect their own skins -- or use her as a double-agent, in even more danger than she was before...or would she be? As a Muggle-born, is there anything she could do that would put her in more danger than she is already?

SECRETS: Everyone has them, and Slytherins are smart enough to know and accept that as a fact without getting huffy, like those goody-goody Hufflepuffs and self-righteous Gryffindors so often do. However, some secrets are more dangerous than others, and Tracey’s secret is deadly. The best insurance with which to protect herself, thereofore, is to stockpile everyone else’s secrets so she can threaten to expose them if they ever discover and threaten to expose hers -- right? It’s the sort of Cold War/Mutually Assured Destruction mentality that a girl who grew up watching Muggle news and movies in the late eighties would be quick to grasp as a solution to her problem, and Tracey hasn’t hesitated to built up her arsenal. Now that she’s getting scared, getting angry, she’s decided it’s time to start making other people afraid too -- time to make sure that everyone knows there’s a threat out there, someone who knows and someone who is willing to tell. Just a little here and there, things to embarrass rather than destroy...at least to start with. Just enough to make them aware, to make them wary, to make sure that if she needs to call in her marker (her blackmail) people will know she’s serious about it. Because what good is a weapon if you don’t demonstrate the will to use it?

[xtruss]

ARGUMENT

‘In-Sha-Allah’ in the Age of Trump

Can the hipster invocation of God’s will survive the coming wave of American Islamophobia?

��� By Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian | December 1, 2016 | Foreign Policy

SIOUX CITY, IA - NOVEMBER 06: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at the Sioux City Convention Center November 6, 2016 in Sioux City, Iowa. With less than 48 hours until Election Day in the United States, Trump and his opponent, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, are campaigning in key battleground states that each must win to take the White House. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

We English speakers all know: To sound smart (or insufferable), use French. That movie has a certain je ne sais quoi; my grandmother exhibited a true joie de vivre. French has been fancy since 1066 when the conquering Normans ate boef while the lowly English peasants cared for the cū.

Or to sound open-minded (or stoned), use Sanskrit. No one will be surprised to learn that the first recorded use of the word “karma” in a popular U.S. publication was in 1969 — in the California-based Surfer magazine.

These days, another word is making inroads into the American English lexicon. It’s “inshallah” — an Arabic Islamic expression that means “God willing.” Inshallah first made its English debut in the 19th century, but it’s only since 9/11 that the word has become fashionable among non-Muslim, non-Arabic-speaking Americans. You’ve probably heard it already in passing, which is my point. The Atlantic’s James Fallows has tweeted it. Even actor Lindsay Lohan has made a faltering attempt. I’ve heard it in meetings, on the metro, and at a casual Sunday brunch in Brooklyn.

For all these inshallah-invokers, the phrase seems to combine the prestige of French and the multiculturalism of Sanskrit — with an added thrill of risk.

President-elect Donald Trump is stacking his administration with supporters who believe that Islam is inherently violent, dangerous, and threatening. Some who evince this view believe that anything associated with Islam has a diabolical power, an insidious evil that has to be guarded against at every turn as the Puritans guarded against witchcraft.

Michael Flynn, a retired intelligence officer whom President-elect Donald Trump has tapped for national security advisor, has called Islam a “malignant cancer” and believes that sharia, or Islamic law, is creeping into U.S. laws and institutions. Conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney, who advised Trump during the campaign and is “good friends” with Steve Bannon, the president-elect’s senior strategist, has previously written that the U.S. Missile Defense Agency logo contains a hidden star and crescent, the symbol of Islam, and that it thus suggests “official U.S. submission to Islam.” It’s an argument that comes out of the world of Christian fundamentalism, which has long sought out occult symbols in the most innocuous of sources.

This fear extends to the Arabic language. In 2013, Gaffney criticized John Brennan as President Barack Obama’s pick to head the CIA, deeming him the “single most important enabler of the Islamic supremacists’ agenda in government today.” One piece of evidence Gaffney gave for this assertion? Brennan speaks fluent Arabic. After listing the names of several terrorist organizations at a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in May 2015, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham reportedly quipped that “everything that starts with ‘al’ in the Middle East is bad news.” Al, of course, is simply Arabic’s definite article, equivalent to “the” in English.

It should come as no surprise, then, that inshallah has found itself in the crosshairs of these rising Islamophobes. In June, when BBC presenter Nicky Campbell ended his usual segment with crossed fingers and a poorly inflected “inshallah” — “We’re in Uxbridge next Sunday for a special, asking, ‘Are we facing the end of the world?’ So we’ll see you then, inshallah” — it set off a right-wing media firestorm.

Breitbart wrote that the “incident comes just days after the BBC’s Head of Religion admitted that Islamic State is rooted in Islam.” Jihad Watch, a popular anti-Islam website, commented: “A conquered, colonized people adopts the language and practices of its conquerors.” In April, a University of California, Berkeley, student of Iraqi origin was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight after another passenger heard him speaking Arabic on his cell phone; he had ended his conversation with “inshallah.”

The latent Islamophobia the word can conjure seems to be part of the its growing appeal among progressive urbanites in the United States. As the Islamophobia industrial complex has expanded, so has a cultural push against it. Garnishing your conversation with an inshallah or two is a small act of resistance, a direct jab at the belief that Islam — and by association, Arabic — is sinister.Garnishing your conversation with an inshallah or two is a small act of resistance, a direct jab at the belief that Islam — and by association, Arabic — is sinister. It’s the linguistic equivalent of donning a headscarf in solidarity for World Hijab Day. Or the spoken version of the anti-Trump ad near Dearborn, Michigan, a city with a large population of Arab-Americans, which was written in Arabic and read: “Donald Trump can’t read this, but he is scared of it.” It’s a subtle political statement, a critique of Republicans who believe certain sounds, like incantations, must cross the lips in order to defeat evil (“radical Islamic terrorism”) whereas other sounds (“in-sha-Allah,” “Allahu Akbar”) must remain taboo.

“Garnishing your conversation with an inshallah or two is a small act of resistance, a direct jab at the belief that Islam — and by association, Arabic — is sinister.”

But why inshallah and not some other Arabic word? There are dozens of other common Islamic expressions, including bismillah (in the name of God), barakallah (blessings of God), and alhamdulillah (praise be to God), that haven’t crossed into English (though bismillah makes a cameo in Queen’s 1975 classic “Bohemian Rhapsody”).

The reason is that inshallah is a charming, maddening, and undeniably useful expression. On paper, the word is very similar to “God willing,” its Christian, English equivalent. It’s an acknowledgment of the human inability to foresee or control the future while harking to the belief that a Greater Being holds humanity’s fragile plans in its omnipotent hands.

But unlike the English “God willing,” inshallah also serves as a convenient preordained excuse for what may go wrong. If your toilet is broken and your plumber says he’ll come “tomorrow, inshallah,” you may be in for quite a wait. In countries such as Egypt, inshallah has expanded into a society-wide verbal tic invoked by Muslims, Christians, and even the nonreligious for occasions as mundane as ordering a hamburger or riding an elevator — a phenomenon that a 2008 article in the New York Times dubbed “inshallah creep.”

That’s what has made it so easy for visitors to pick up. Inshallah conveys an uncertainty that “hopefully” lacks. “The project will be done by 9 p.m., hopefully” implies that a sense of control still resides in your hands and thus a lingering amount of responsibility if the deadline isn’t met. “The project will be done by 9 p.m., inshallah,” by contrast, indicates that some outside force — an indolent contract worker, slow trains, spotty internet, even fate itself — is now in the driver’s seat and that if things go wrong, it’s not your fault.

It’s also exotic in a way that the down home “God willing” can never be. That phrase conjures images of church pews and pro-life protests outside Planned Parenthood — nothing that progressive Americans typically want to associate with. Throwing inshallah into a sentence here or there — “Tom will be filing that report tonight, inshallah!” — signals membership in a well-educated, well-traveled, and tolerant urban elite.

Arabic-speaking Americans don’t seem to mind this bit of friendly borrowing. Marya Hannun, a Palestinian-American doctoral student based in Washington, D.C., called the trend “charming,” explaining that when speaking Arabic, non-Muslims as well as Muslims use inshallah. She described its use among Americans as “solidarity and finding meaning in a language other than your own.”

“I say it every now and then,” said Thorstan Fries, a New York-based consultant who told me that he picked it up from a college friend studying Arabic. “I started saying it much more frequently after a trip to Morocco a couple years ago. They say it all the time, and I think it’s cool.”

Of course, to view a Middle Eastern import as exotic is also to risk condescension. The very first recorded use of inshallah in the English language was not just atrociously Orientalist — it was also incorrect. In his 1857 work The Kingdom and People of Siam, John Bowring, a British politician and the fourth governor of Hong Kong, wrote, “Inshallah! Such promptitude was, I believe, never before exhibited in an Asiatic Court.” But inshallah is used exclusively for events that have not yet occurred. What Bowring likely meant was mashallah, an Islamic phrase expressing amazement at an existing set of circumstances.

The first to use it in natural speech, not in a grandiose reference to foreign peoples, was T. E. Lawrence, otherwise known as Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence viewed Arabs with respect, lived among them, and adopted some of their customs — including, apparently, the habit of checking plans against the divine’s schedule. “I have been photographing this last week—and will more next. Developing too inshallah,” he wrote in a letter dated 1911.

Britain’s entanglements in the Middle East, North Africa, and India put it in intimate contact with Muslim peoples decades before the United States became similarly involved. Inshallah followed on the heels of colonialism. For the British upper classes, Arabic was a sign of distinction; the Arabists dominated Britain’s Foreign Office for decades, and Prime Minister Anthony Eden — who sent Britain’s reputation in the Middle East plummeting with the Suez crisis — prided himself on his fluency.

At the time, American English was far more preoccupied with the apparatchiks and cosmonauts of the Cold War. It wasn’t until the expansion of U.S. military involvement in the Middle East, particularly after 9/11, that the region became a national preoccupation. (Though the growing number of Muslim and Middle Eastern immigrants in the United States has also helped popularize the word. One person I spoke to learned it from Arabic-speaking students she encountered at her university; another googled it after he saw Muslim friends posting the word on Facebook.) The study of Arabic has blossomed across the United States, and a legion of American military officials, diplomats, journalists, government contractors, NGO workers, academics, and students flowed in. Upon their return home, many brought with them the ubiquitous, malleable, and easily pronounceable inshallah.

It’s now common currency among the younger generations at the State Department, journalists who’ve spent time in the region, and soldiers who deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan — and, increasingly, among the people who travel in the same elite circles as these folk. As one colleague, who uses the word but has no background in the Middle East, told me, “I learned it because everyone at every damn development NGO uses it.” Others I know say they picked it up from artifacts of contemporary popular culture, like Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, which was adapted into a movie in 2007, and Rabia Chaudry’s book, Adnan’s Story, published this year.

There’s now a good chance inshallah may find a permanent home in English. But those afraid of creeping inshallah should take heart. This wouldn’t be the first time that the word has imbedded itself in a Western language. Ojalá is a common Spanish word often translated as “hopefully.” In fact, ojalá is merely the Hispanicized pronunciation of inshallah, which made its way into the language during the centuries of Muslim rule in Spain that ended in 1492. Yet as far as I can tell, despite this obvious case of linguistic jihad, neither Spain nor the 20 other countries where Spanish is the official national language has yet fallen to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Nor has asking a waitress for more pancake syrup — from the Arabic sharab, a versatile word that the West acquired during a previous episode of war-induced cultural cross-pollination, the Crusades — ever proved to spontaneously convert anyone to Islam. Nor has spending hours studying algebra — another one of those menacing “al” words — ever made anyone more inclined to funnel one’s life savings to al Qaeda.

It turns out short vowels, sibilants, and fricatives might not be as magical as some have been urging us to believe. Donald Trump and his national security team would be wise to take note. God willing.

— Photo credit: CHIP SOMODEVILLA/Getty Images/Foreign Policy illustration

— Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian is a journalist covering China from Washington. She was previously an assistant editor and contributing reporter at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @BethanyAllenEbr

[jojen-hewitt]

Here's my @aftgexchange summer gift for @boydsten , who asked for Andreil with kids!

I hope you like it!

I've included some personal headcanons about this particular Minyard-Josten child under the cut, but I will also recommend these two amazing kidfics; A Legacy of Two by ninaalegre and Noah Minyard-Josten by Aleekae, if you haven't read them yet. Admittedly a few of my headcanons are borrowed or inspired by them so.. Yeah.

Happy Summer! :D

I have a lot of headcanons about Andreil and this kid, and sweet heavens this became really long and rambley, but I think I got the important stuff covered, so enjoy at your leisure. 

His name is was Kyle Wicker (now Minyard-Josten) and he was brought to them when he was seven after he was abandoned by his adoptive parents at Renee's church.

She lives a couple cities over and when she realizes her two former teammates actually live closer to Kyle's old school, she gets it cleared with all authorities to have him reside there until other arrangements can be made.

Andrew tells her not to get any clever ideas, it's just temporary (he gets one look at how scared, scarred, and young he is, Andrew and Neil's inner Wymacks kick in, and rather suddenly he turns back on his statement to Renee)

Kyle is freaked out by people bigger than him, (when he first meets Kevin he actually cries, but Matt went smoother just because Matt is ... Matt) so the rather short heights work in their favour; although it takes a while for him to open up or trust them.

He first does with Andrew after he has a nightmare a few days in and Andrew just makes him a hot chocolate and they don't really talk in detail about anything, but they kind of reach an understanding that Andrew gets him and he's safe here. He knows not to touch Andrew and Andrew returns that in kind until they just naturally accept casual contact from each other. He understands Andrews blank nature and doesn't take the apathy personally as he gets older.

With Neil, the bonding is a bit easier (despite Neil's discomfort with kids for the most part) since they automatically connect through the Exy thing ("Good Christ, not another one.") and their similar burn scars (not going into detail, but his old foster parents' extremely sick sense of humour and his last name Wicker lead to some pretty permanent reminders of those years with them). The two share stories and Neil feels like he's playing the Truth game all over again, but it fits nicely.

Once Kyle learns partially how Neil got his scars/his past, the kid just embraces Neil as his own personal Batman or James Bond, fighting the evil mob bosses and surviving to roast someone on tv the next day. Neil is a little proud of this (at least he doesn’t scare the kid).

Neil and Andrew have a rocky start taking him in and adjusting; something that would have been much worse if they didn't already have some experience babysitting the other Fox kids. They both are relatively new to the whole idea of "happy" or "safe" or "family" so providing that to another, smaller, more easily affected human being with his own personal baggage (that may or may not bring back up their personal baggage) is, to put it simply, tough. It's not the easiest ride for any of them, but they find a way to adjust and live together in relative peace and comfort.

Also Kyle loves the cats. Like LOVES them! He accepted himself as one of them the minute they first came into his new/then guest room to cuddle. When he's older he tells people that the cats raised him (to which Andrew says than the cats can buy him his new fucking racquet next time, but he only half means it).

He calls Neil Dad (and Neil at first and for a long time kinda freaks out inside and with Andrew about it, but he's fine now... seriously fine too, not Neil fine) and he calls Andrew Vati (because papa and the like just sounded off directed at Andrew, but so did just calling him Andrew, so when he learnt from Nicky that Vati or Vater is dad in German, they all collective decided that worked)

When they adopt him, and he opens up a bit more, they find he grows up to be like a scary combination of Neil's snark (Exy gods help the press that harass this boy; they already call him Josten 2.0), Andrew's immovable patience and blunt honesty, and Matt's carefree smiles and kindness - towards people he likes at least ("How did he come out so nice?" "I don't know, Aaron. Almost like he grew up in a decent place and has the genetic material of other people, huh?")

Speaking of, Aaron and Matt are tied for favourite uncle (Aaron sneaking by because he's most like Andrew, personality wise, and also he gets him cool books for Christmases and birthdays)

He likes Nicky too, since Nicky helped him learn some important facts and phrases about Germany for a school project and Kyle agrees to rat to him whenever he catches Vati smile, so fast friends 

(even though there was that brief stunt where Andrew and Aaron -with Neil's help, the traitor- had straight face convinced Kyle Nicky preferred to only be referred to as Uncle Pavo... which is rude, and Nicky rightfully would've bitched at his cousins if Kyle didn't look so happy and confidant saying it when they meet).

Obviously he loves the girls (and he would be pressed to argue who his favourite Aunt is, but it would probably be Renee because she gave him this life to begin with technically. Plus she died his hair orange and white when he was 16 for his school championships -and to help grease the wheels for Aunt Dan, but more on that later-)

(Also, as pictured above, Andrew knew and was chill with it till he saw the colour... Damn orange will haunt him for life. Neil didn't know, but loved the colours. They're a balanced family, you see.)

Grandpa Wymack and Grandma Abby take a while to earn those titles just because he's still rather nervous around older, taller, and in Wymack's case, tougher looking people when they meet the first few times (and they don't Skype like the rest of the Fox family, so it takes a while for him to accumulate to them), but they eventually become the go to confidants about anything he doesn't want to bother Andrew and Neil with (from secret gifts for the dads to "I'm scared I'm making the wrong choice in courses" to "oh my god I don't know how to ask this person out and Vati said just threaten to shove them off a roof, help!")

and they have the couch to crash on when he's in South Carolina

Jean and Jeremy are the cool family friends who send nice cards and sometimes French hot chocolate and strangely, but rather full heartedly, encourage the "cats raised you" mentality (Jeremy because he thinks it's adorable and Jean because he laughs at how indignant Neil gets when he hears it).

He's cool with Kevin (despite the crying and the vague starstruck attitude he first had with him), but - and maybe this is the Andrew influence talking - he sometimes finds the constant Exy talk to get too overwhelming. He's known to just call it Stickball around Kevin's family with all seriousness just to annoy them (Andrew sneaks him extra dessert when he does) He gets along with Kevin's offspring too, even if he has also adapted his dads' tolerance for being bossed around the Exy court (or backyard court) by a Day; see: none.

Speaking of Exy, Kyle loves it (in the 7 year old way of he loves the sport, likes his favourite team, but has no clue who any player is but Kevin and Kayleigh Day, so was shocked and kinda in love with the fact that Neil used to play for said favourite team), but he never played himself until he moved in with Andreil.

He started his first couple years of little league as a striker - he's great at it and this makes Neil smile more than he thought it would (damn Kevin for being right, it is kinda great watching a future champion grow up) - but switches to goalkeeper when he's 10/11.

(which Neil complains about only a couple of times ("But he was so good, Andrew." "Yeah, so? You were a backliner in little league. The kid changed his mind, accept it." "You're right you're right... Just he's so fast." "Ugh!") but he accepts that it's still Exy and at least Kyle and Andrew can bond more.)

Plus even if it wasn't Exy, they would've been cool with it.

Plus plus, he's an even better goalkeeper than striker, as a mix of Minyard tactics with Josten Exy enthusiasm. 

Foxes are Kyle's favourite animal aside from cats (even before he meet the team, but it definitely amplified once he did).

He stole his dads old fox merch (mainly Neil's) when they officially adopted him, even when it was too big for him.

He painted his room orange and white. He had a bunch of stuffed foxes (all unofficially named after former team members).

He watched almost every Fox game of his dads' years, especially the ones against the Trojans and the Ravens.

He almost chose to have Fox as a middle name when they gave him the option during the adoption (he went with Robin though; 1) Aunt Robin is awesome 2) He's kinda a not so secret Batman nerd and when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up the answer was "An Exy player or Nightwing" and 3) because like hell Andrew was allowing the obsession to go that far).

He wants to the join the Foxes when he's in college.

But, like the rest of the Foxes, and despite Neil's fears (and Andrew's hesitance in his capabilities as a caretaker), he's turned out to not qualify for a spot on the team.

So of course he tried other tactics like the hair and he once tried to plead to Aunt Dan that in fact the first five years of life that he can remember should be enough reason to allow him to join ("Sorry kiddo, no dice. You're too Kit now to be a Fox.")

Sorta side note, the children of the old Foxes are all called Kits and Allison sends them all handmade "Palmetto State Kits" jerseys with their parents numbers (Kyle got 13 because 10 and 3; a number he carries through all his Exy teams) When he's young, he wears his to school whenever he can and only stops when it needs a wash or he grows out of it.

He's very close with Matt and Dan's family. Their middle child is his age and they talk all the time. When their teams face each other in Exy matches, they always run and talk to each other in the middle of the court between goals and halves. Basically Boyd/Josten Brotp 2.0

Matt usually sits with Neil in the crowd during these games (when they can) and cries every time the game brings them close ("Oh my God!! Neil, did you see your baby block my baby's shot?!” “Yeah Matt! I saw! Beautiful.” “That was beautiful! Holy shit! It happened again! Are you seeing this?! They highfived!!" “KYLE! Hug the competition after the game not when they make a goal!” “That was a great goal though!” “Agreed, but still!”)

they still hug it out whenever one of them does a cool thing. Their teams hate when they play each other because of it.  Not like they don’t try to slaughter each other game wise, but again, they celebrate each other’s badass moments without pause. And when one wins, you would think the other was on their team too with the exuberance they congratulate the other.

He grows up to be about Kevin's height, much to the shock to some who were expecting another tiny Minyard-Josten.

He also inherits Andrew's sweet tooth to the point where Neil's kinda convinced he's never going to win the "should we get ice cream on the way home from practice" debate ever again.

I'll stop there. Again, there is a lot more, but I definitely have already rambled enough. Sorry.