#These are gonna be pretty short as I'm also working on a much bigger one-shot

[starxrocket11]

Okay guys, if you guys have any cute ideas or prompts for leosagi or another part of leosagi being cute parents, let me know <3

[forest-hashira]

Better Than Sake

hi everyone! this is the first in what will hopefully be a series of little one shots for the Noble Blood universe! some will be timestamps/scenes i want to write but don't fit into the overall fic for various reasons, some will be AUs within the AU. (& yes, i promise i'm still working on the main fic!!!)

shoko and utahime are about 16 or so in this. don't drink underage kids!!! especially not sake that shit is Strong (imo)

series masterlist here | read on ao3 here | wc: ~1.2k | cw: underage drinking, coming out (sort of, it's not made a big deal), love confessions (also kinda), first kisses, this is just shokohime, no other characters involved

“Are you sure we’re not going to get in trouble?” Utahime asked in a whisper, glancing over her shoulder for a moment, checking for at least the dozenth time in the last two minutes that they hadn’t been followed.

“I never said I was sure,” Shoko replied. “I said I was pretty sure, which is not the same thing. That’s why I didn’t bring Ryoji, and why I told you to leave Patience at home.”

“Shoko!”

“Sh!” the brunette shushed, turning and pressing a finger to the other girl’s lips. “If you keep fretting like that, someone’s gonna hear us, and then we’ll definitely get in trouble.”

Utahime frowned, but she nodded, not saying another word as Shoko took her hand and guided her down to the beach. Though it was late, it wasn’t cold, like it had been the last few weeks; it was finally warming up, and for that the girls were thankful.

They sat a short distance from the water, pressed side to side, when Shoko held up a bottle of sake.

“Want some?”

“Where were you even carrying that?”

“A magician never reveals her secrets.” With a smirk, Shoko pulled the cork from the bottle. “Do you want the first taste?”

There was a brief silence as Utahime considered the question; she didn’t really want to have the first drink, but she also knew the odds that shoko would try to drink the entire bottle by herself if she said no were high.

“Fine,” the darker haired girl sighed, holding out her hand for the bottle. 

“That’s my girl.” Shoko passed the bottle to the other girl, and though she noticed the way her words had made Utahime’s face go pink, she said nothing. 

Eager to distract herself from the way Shoko’s words made her heart skip a beat, Utahime was quick to snatch the bottle, pressing it to her lips and taking a much bigger swig than she intended to.

“Ugh, Sho, that is disgusting,” she complained, though she did manage to swallow the alcohol before speaking.

“Is it?” Shoko took the bottle back, taking her own drink, though hers was admittedly more controlled than Utahime’s had been. She swallowed, her only outward reaction being a slight wrinkling of her nose, and she shrugged. “I’ve had to take medicine worse than that,” she said simply, taking another sip before offering the bottle to the other girl again.

“Do I even want to know what kinds of medicines you’re taking if they taste worse than this?” Utahime mumbled, mostly to herself, as she accepted the bottle and took another, albeit much smaller, sip. “Don’t answer that question,” she added, when she saw Shoko open her mouth out of the corner of her eye. “I don’t need to know what you get up to that requires nasty medicine.”

Shoko just laughed. “You’re blushing, Hime,” she teased.

“Am not.”

“Are too. You just even more red, actually.” 

Utahime took another drink. She doesn’t have to look so smug, she thought to herself.

“What’s on your mind, hm? Thinkin’ about what I must be doing to need to take all that medicine if I’m not sick?”

“No,” the darker haired girl answered, too quickly.

“I think you are.”

A small groan, another sip from the bottle before shoving it back at her friend. “Shut up, Sho.”

The brunette relented for a moment, accepting the sake and taking another drink of her own. “Whatever you think I’m doing, you’re probably wrong.”

Utahime startled slightly. “Huh?”

“I’m not sick,” Shoko answered. “Well, not sick sick, but it's hard to work with sick people all the time and not catch something every once in a while. And I don’t take medicine for the same things some of the boys that live here do. I know you’ve heard them talk.”

If it was even possible, Utahime felt her face heat even more. She had heard some of the other boys from around the settlement talk about what caused their… medical problems; they were always so vulgar, and generally rather demeaning about the girls they were fooling around with. “Yeah, I have.”

“That’s not my issue, though. I don’t mess around with boys.”

“Because your parents would kill you if you got a disease from one of them?” It was a poor attempt at a joke, but it made the corner of Shoko’s lips twitch into a smile for a moment.

“No.” She took another drink from the bottle – quite a big one, Utahime noticed – and held it in her mouth for a moment before swallowing, as if she were stalling, or bracing herself for something. 

Though she couldn’t deny how curious she was about what could have her best friend, who was normally so laid back and unbothered, acting so hesitant, Utahime was willing to be patient.

“I don’t mess around with boys because I don’t like boys.”

“Neither do I.” Because really, what was there to like about boys, especially at their age? The only respectful boy she knew was Kento, and he wasn’t appealing to her like that. No boy had ever appealed to her that way, actually, now that she thought about it.

Shoko turned to face her, a slightly wary look in her eye. “I mean I’m not attracted to boys, Hime.”

“Oh.” There’s a beat of silence, then another. “Who are you attracted to, then?” 

Shoko tilted her head slightly, and Utahime found herself caught up – even more than usual – in the way her pretty brown hair swayed around her shoulders and framed her pretty face. Is she always this pretty? Utahime thought, Or am I drunk? Does being drunk even work like that?

“I’m attracted to you.”

When did she get that close? Was she that close the whole time? Oh my god— the slightly older girl’s mind raced, and without even thinking about it, she started leaning in a little closer. “Y-you— you are?”

“Mmhm,” Shoko hummed. Her own face was flushed a bit now, though not quite as much as her friend’s, and her pupils had dilated a bit more. “Yeah, I am. Have been for a while now, I think…”

I want to kiss you so bad right now.

“I wanna kiss you too.”

“I said that out loud?” Utahime asked, not nearly as embarrassed about it as she thought she would be.

“Yeah. Did you not mean to?”

“Not really. But I do want to kiss you.”

“Good. I’m gonna kiss you now.”

Utahime wasn’t sure what she expected from her first kiss, but it certainly wasn’t this. Shoko’s lips were soft, and her touch was gentle, more affectionate and sweet than any boy likely would have been. Utahime let out a small, somewhat muffled hum and pressed a bit closer for a moment, her eyes fluttering shut until Shoko pulled away, presumably to catch her breath. 

She opened her eyes again then, licking her lips without thinking about it. “You taste like—”

“Sake?” Shoko guessed, a slight smile on her lips. “Better than sake,” Utahime replied, smiling back. “Much better.”

taglist: @ghost-1-y @kentohours @whatthefucksatan @mitsuristoleme @lu-dao-writes @peachdues @lik0 @deepestartisanhumanoidshark @here-for-the-tea-baby @staryukis @roselleviennesstuff @witchbybirth @marinnnnnnnnn if your url is crossed out, it's because tumblr won't let me tag you for whatever reason. i apologize! & if you want to be added to the taglist, just drop a reply to the post/put it in the tags of your reblog!

divider by cafekitsune

[kitkatopinions]

Nitpick November Day Five! Let's talk about the Happy Huntress uniforms.

So, I don't remember exactly where I heard it, but I'm pretty confident it's true; The Happy Huntresses introduced in V7 were meant to parallel but be contrasts to the Ace Ops also introduced in V7. I could make an entire post about the ways that I think that failed that are a little more important than their uniforms like Robyn being a politician and them stealing from government works projects rather than like them stealing from Jacques Schnee and how I would've done the Robin Hood allusion differently etcetera etcetera, but those aren't nitpicks.

But specifically with the uniforms, I'm gonna nitpick the hell out of that. Because one of the ways that the Happy Huntresses could've so easily been used to contrast the Ace Ops is their clothes. We as the audience are meant to see the Ace Ops as stiff, order followers who act within the confines of Atlas and Ironwood, and we're meant to view the Happy Huntresses instead as the cool, rebellious non-conforming good badge carrying law enforcement officers that only follow their own rules (which again is an entirely different problem that's much bigger than a nitpick.) But if we're going to see the Ace Ops as stiff and confined and the Happy Huntresses instead represent freedom and expression... Why are their outfits so matchy? The Happy Huntresses should dress however they want, wield cool creative weapons, express themselves through their clothes and emblems if they even have emblems! Even though the Ace Ops all keep to an Atlas color scheme, their outfits are otherwise just as personalized if not more personalized than the Happy Huntress outfits are. Apparently Ironwood is like "No, it doesn't matter if Marrow is wearing a long sleeved coat, Harriet, of course you should wear a tank-top shirt and white shorts with dark blue chaps if you want to," but the Happy Huntresses were like "If our jackets aren't almost the exact same except in different dulled down colors, we won't look like a team." I'll also point out that making the Ace Ops a group of five (something that goes against the norm of teams as we've seen in RWBY) and only making four important HH members (though there is one more member named Crimson that's offscreen according to the Wiki,) is also slightly weird to me. Like, shouldn't Robyn's team be the one not adhering to strict arbitrary unnecessary rules like how many people are usually put on a team, while the Ace Ops are the ones who are adhering to those guidelines? I read on the wiki once that the Ace Ops being comprised of five people was 'a clue' that Ironwood wasn't good because he wasn't adhering to the four-person team thing, and I'm just like...

It's a nitpick, but really, why do the Happy Huntresses have any sort of uniform? If I was trying to play the Ace Ops as stiff and controlled and the Happy Huntresses as contrasting that, I'd start by giving the Ace Ops all one unchanging across the board uniform and making the Happy Huntresses an explosion of different styles and cool color schemes with no set aesthetic or uniforms at all. It seems obvious! Why couldn't one of them be more subdued and grayscale and one of them is like colorful punk and one of them is more cutesy vintage and one of them dresses in like... Idk, seventies inspired glam, or vampire looking goth stuff, or grunge or biker or anything interesting and not conforming?

This might just be me personally too, but I have an easier time getting attached to and caring about side characters when they look like they have a lot of personality. Like don't get me wrong, May specifically has a great personality that shines through even without some kind of iconic look. But compare this

To this

There's a reason people loved Neo from her very first appearance before we even knew anything about her, and it's because we could get so much character from just this shot

Not to mention

So much character can be gleaned by style (and attitude.) I do not understand the choice to make characters that are meant to be significant and thematic like the Happy Huntresses and then putting them all in dulled down samey uniforms with all the same weapon.

[guardianoftheearth]

It was PSI all along? That's the big twist we were waiting for?! -Mother series headcanon

If there's one thing that the Mother series never explained, is what actually PSI is.

Not how the humans got reports of it, but what it is is general.

This headcanon sprouted from this exact thought, and with it, its able to tie in pretty much all the events of the three games.

In this headcanon of mine, PSI in an energy that can be found in every little thing, big and small, long and shot, alive or "not alive". This energy is like a sort of extra atom, like a neutron, or an electron, try to imagine a world identical to ours, but along with them, there's the atom of 'PSI'.

Unlike the other atoms tho, the properties of PSI are near limitless. It can create stuff out of nowhere by rearranging itself or mimic other atoms, bend space and time, and even give 'life' to what, in our eyes, doesn't have it, which explains the talking rocks, the Territorial Oaks, those damn Ramblin' Evil 'Shrooms, and so on and so forth.

Now: Celestial corps, like planets, such as The Earth, have a huge amount of PSI in them, and makes them work like an enormous organism with a subconcious, collective mind. These corps can, sometimes, reincarnate into a being, a guardian of sorts, an entity that can use the PSI of the entire celestial corp for itself.

This is what Ness and Giygas both are: Guardians/Reincarnations of their home planet, I'll explain the difference between them, and most importantly, WHAT HAPPENED to Giygas, in a future post.

Now, to the next point I'm gonna make, which can be pretty trippy and nonsensical, I'll use this:

Remember that one time, at the end of Mother 1, where Ninten is able to communicate with his dead Great-Grandpa? Good, how did Ninten manage to do such a thing?

When something, or someone "dies", their PSI is 'reused', in the sense that, what was once of the previous entity's PSI is now on the thing the entity died on. To make a long story short, its like George's tombstone contained George's 'soul'. This fact also explains the visions of Poo during the Mu training, and how he is supposedly able to communicate with the previous rulers of Dalaam.

Now imagine this, to an even bigger scale. Imagine this, but with Ness. Here's how I tie the events of Mother 3 to the previous games.

For how absolutely insane it sounds, Ness is the Dark Dragon. After the events of Mother 2, and the supposed things that happened after, eventually The Earth ended up in an abyssmal state, full of pollution,destruction, and more. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal for The Earth, it doesn't care about humans or any other species in the long run.

But then Ness comes in the picture.

This little boy, now a man with an extremely long lifespan, who has cosmic knowledge about his planet, gifts humanity, and all the other living beings with them, of another chance.

In the shape of a huge Dragon, he seals himself with the Needles underground, forming new, and completely pure geological formations identical to the ones before, and after humanity and the other creatures sealed on the White Ship to survive, he let them come down again, at the promise that this time, they won't fuck up.

And from there, starts Mother 3.

I have no idea what else to write but hope you enjoyed this rambling of mine, expect new things from the next rambling about PSI, because it will be about Magicant, probably.

Thanks for coming to my Ted-Talk.

[mtfstuff]

Departure and arrival

I'm working at the airport selling flowers and coffee. Not the best job but the shop is owned by my uncle so I have almost complete freedom. I always wanted to travel often, to work from different places all the time. Now I'm somewhat in hell. I'm so close to flights but I can never enter them as I have to work. I can only dream and watch people live it.

As I was daydreaming about flying away once more, a man caught my eye as his colorful pants separated himself from the rest.

He was tall, handsome, had a beautiful beard and well-groomed hair. He was wearing brown leather boots, light brown/orange pants and a grey shirt. It suited him very well. He was gorgeous for me. The complete opposite of me. I was chubby, started to lose hair, even though I'm only in my mid-twenties, and I dont really had a sense of fashion.

I was dreaming about how he was flying somewhere warm, where he gets to take of his shirt and flex his muscles on the beach. I was daydreaming even further as I realized that someone wanted to buy something. I snapped out of my dream and the man stood right in front of me with a big smile.

"One latte, please.", he said with a big grin. I had to retract my eyes from his handsome face and white teeth.

"Of course, one moment please.", I said, taking a paper cup and putting it under the coffee machine.

"Do you have a ticket?", I asked. I couldnt wait to see where he was travelling to. But he looked confused at me.

"If you have a boarding ticket, you can get everything cheaper in our store.", I clarified.

"Oh, yeah. I have one.", he said, taking out his ticket and putting it on the desk. "That's a really nice service you have here."

Was he flirting with me?, I thought.

I took the ticket, scanned it for his discount, looked at his destination and gave it back to him.

"Spain, what a nice destination. Especially as the weather here is pretty bad at the moment.", I said finishing his coffee. "May I ask for work or just for fun."

"Both.", he answered. "A bit of work but mostly just for fun."

I handed him the coffee and he paid.

"You look like you could use some fun too", he said leaving.

He definitely flirted with me, I thought.

I watched him go and dreamed about being him in Spain. To my surprise, he didnt go to the terminals to start the check in, but he went to the toilet. He opened the door, turned around and looked at me, raised an eyebrow and disappeared into the bathroom.

I was shocked and turned on at the same time. Did he want me to follow him?, I thought.

I looked around and decided to follow him. I told my uncle that I have to go for a short moment and he excused me.

I followed the man into the toilet but no one was there as I entered.

The man came out of a cabin and grinned.

"We're all alone. Come on, lock the door.", he said. And I did. I locked the main door from the inside so that we couldnt get disturbed. I may had no idea what he wanted but I was so horny for him that I didnt care.

"I saw your looks.", he said. "And you are completely my type."

"I'm your type? Come on, look at me. I'm fat. I'm totally not in your league.", I said a little intimidated.

He stepped towards me.

"Look.", he said running his hands over my a little too tight shirt. "I have a thing for chubby boys."

"Boy? Do I look So childlike?", I asked shocked.

"Well, you look a lot younger than me.", he said. "I'm Lucas by the way."

He grabbed my head and kissed me gently. I loved the feeling of his lips. They were so soft and his beard a bit scratchy.

Lucas took a step back.

"Strip.", he said. I was shocked as I thought that he would take them off. But I started anyways as I opened my laces, kicked off my shoes and took off my socks. I tried to take off my shirt but I was struggling with it. Lucas helped me getting it off and then continued with my jeans. He took them and my underpants off, leaving me naked in front of him.

He kneeled down and lifted my belly to start sucking my dick. It didn't take long until I moaned by the pleasure. It was the best feeling I ever had. His beard tingled slightly but his lips and mouth were a pleasant surprise. It felt as if this wasnt his first blowjob. He sucked further and further until I came. And he took it all in one gulp.

He stood up and we kissed aggressively until his back hit a highboy. He pushed me away, causing me to fall backwards. After that, Lucas pulled himself up onto the highboy with a big grin.

"And now you strip me.", he said holding his foot out for me.

I quickly took off his boots and socks. After that I opened his pants and pulled them down. To my surprise greeted me his hard dick instead of underpants. He giggled as he saw my surprised face. I continued by unbuttoning his shirt and taking off his watch and rings.

He got down from the highboy and turned me around. He hugged me from behind and layed his chin on my shoulder.

"You'll gonna like this.", he whispered into my ear right as I felt something getting stuck up into my butt.

"Oh, it's so tight. Is this your first time?", Lucas asked. I just nodded in pain.

The sound of my fat cheeks hitting his muscular hips filled the air.

He increased the pace with every thrust until he came. As he pulled out his dick, I felt how the pain became even stronger.

I was completely out of breath and I heard him panting too.

"Thanks, chubby.", he said.

As I turned around to face him, I saw that he already wanted to dress up again as he lifted his pants from the ground. I took them out if his hands and threw them back to the ground. He looked confused.

"Thats it? Really?", I asked furious.

"Well, I never said I wanted more.", he answered.

I stormed at him and we struggled to the ground. Lucas tried to fight me off and I tried to overpower him.

He managed to get out if my grasp and tried to stand up but I grabbed him by his ankle and pulled him back down. His fall must have hurt as he was panting on the ground after it. I quickly sat down on his back and secured his arms.

"You'll gonna like this.", I whispered in his ear.

"No, please. You dont have to do th-", Lucas didnt even manage to end his sentence as I pushed my dick into his hole.

"Uugh, fuck. It feels so much bigger than it looks.", he said. "Please - aagh - stop! It hurts so bad."

But I didnt stop. With every thrust I felt better and his hole became wider.

I grabbed him by his man bun and lifted his head.

"Its so tight. Is this your first time?", I asked him uppish.

He groaned under pain and nodded.

"You'll remember this day as the day when chubby got what he wanted from you.", I said letting go of his man bun.

I thrusted even faster until I shot my load.

Lucas cried silently as I shot my load into his hairy ass. As I wanted to pull out my dick, his cheeks tensed up, making my dick stuck. I tried to pull it out but my dick didnt move a single inch.

Only then I noticed that I didnt hear a thing from Lucas anymore. I lifted his head again to tell him to relax but he suddenly started to move uncontrollably. His muscles were twitching as if he had a seizure. I tried to relax him, but I passed out on top of him.

As I started to regain my consciousness, I felt the cold floor beneath me.

Looks like I fell off of Lucas, I thought. But then I felt something heavy on top of me moving. It stood up. I rolled around and opened my eyes to see my body standing in front of me. It looked as surprised as I was.

"What did you do?", it said looking down at me and then back at his body. "You stole my body, you little filth!", it said.

I didn't understand what he meant. Only as I tried to stand up I noticed my muscular arms and legs. I was now towering over my old body. I was in Lucas body.

He attacked me and we struggled again.

"You cant do this to me. I dont want to be chubby!", he started crying.

"This wasnt my intention. But now you wont get it back. I always wanted to have a body like this. I also thought that you had a thing for chubby bodies.", I said while overpowering him.

He fell to the ground.

"Stay down!", I said. "I'm now Lucas. I'll meet my best friend Jorge in Spain and you wont."

"Wait, how do you know...", Lucas stammered in my old body. "Oh god, I know your life too. Please we have to change back. I want to live my life, not yours."

"This is your life now!", I said. I slapped him so hard that I knocked him out. I was watching my old body for quite some time. I'll probably never see my family again, but thats okay if I'll stay in this body, I thought.

I put on Lucas clothes, inhaled his nice smell, took his luggage, unlocked the door and left.

I had the best time of my life in Spain. His job as a model was pretty easy and the rest of my time I've spent on the beach or at the park, showing of my new body. I'll never go back to where I was with my life before. Lucas is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

[quaranmine]

Last time I did the "write every day for x number of words" thing was nanowrimo two years ago. I'd never made it past 10k before, but that time I made it to about 36k before I failed. I've been so nervous to start anything long again because of how hard I hit the wall last time. Do you have any advice for jumping back in?

Firstly--congrats on making it to 36k, that's amazing! My previous record on a piece of fiction was only 7k, now this that I'm working on is probably around 19k. So I'm already out of my element there, trying to wrangle the plot of something much longer than I've ever worked with. I also think that pacing yourself on length may help, since in my experience nanowrimo tends to be pretty intense, which is why I set my word count goal pretty low at 250 because I know if I did it much higher I would just get intimidated.

But I know what you mean, because I literally stopped writing for FIVE YEARS after that 7k piece. Mostly due to life events, but also because I just didn't think I could write very well. 95% of my ideas failed and only every got read by my friends.

I wish I had better advice but I think...I think you just have to do it. The mcyt fandom helped me, because it sparked enough creativity for me to start having fic ideas again. But I didn't think I could write them, because I wasn't a writer anymore.

But one night I just sat down and tried. And that fic failed; I probably wrote maybe 1-2k words over two sessions and then abandoned it. (It was a Disc War Finale AU with Tommy and Tubbo, btw.) But I enjoyed some of what I came up with, so I tried again with a new idea.

That fic failed too. I wrote an outline, and then a single scene, and scrapped it. It was only when I wrote a few short oneshots for hermitcraft S8 that I was able to post that I started getting back into it. Then with Last Life, I challenged myself twice to write and post a one shot in between sessions so I worked on a time crunch. Then I wrote an empires fic and branched a bit beyond just hermits. All of these are relatively short, but it just got me back in the mindset of coming up with ideas and writing them down.

It's worth mentioning that there was another big multi-chaptered action-type failed fic in here. I don't even wanna CALL it failed, since I spent soooooo many hours of my commute planning it, so maybe we'll say indefinite hiatus. It's painful to me that I hit a wall on it before I could even finish chapter two. There's nothing I can do about that though except shelve it and maybe try again later. Actually--there was two bigger failed fics, I just remembered another shelved multichapter fic that i wrote one (1) scene in the middle of and immediately scrapped it. I still wanna use that scene lol

So I guess my advice is just...you're gonna fail again. Probably several times. But if you keep trying, I know you can do it. It's more of a numbers game than anything, like if you throw enough things at a wall then maybe something will stick. it does take a certain amount of tenacity though, so I guess like...you just have to want it more than feel scared of failing. Don't view failure as a reflection of you, either, just view it as part of the process and get back in with something else.

TLDR: start smaller with shorter things, don't be afraid to scrap things or fail, and just keep trying. let spite fuel u, prove urself wrong

[os-hyoideum]

the wh*res are fighting 19 (one-shot)

Part 19: THE DATE

Previous - here - Next

masterlist

(this, perhaps, can be read seperately, so if you you wanna check it out, but nit the SMAU, then go on 😉)

a/n: Ok, it took me a long time, but I had a lot of uni work and it's also almost 5k words 🙃 Like, I can pull the standard SMAU texts out of my ass in an hour sometimes, but this? Nah-ah, I like writing, but I'm mostly slow. (but I will write out the ending too) Since the format is different, I'm putting content warnings on this (outside of the ones on the matserlist). Again, it's an AU so I will write Touya as bitchy or soft as I please, and I take no criticism for it 💅 (now watch me destroy them after some nice time - if you see this no you don't)

THE SHOT IS UNDER THE CAT

WORDCOUNT: 4878

CONTENT: hero!AU (Dabi/Touya is a hero), OOC, Y/N is awkward at feelings (cringe), lack of safety equipment (sledgehammers), romantic arson (just a bit), cursing, tatted up/pierced Touya, Touya rides motorcycle

I really hope you gonna enjoy it, cause I enjoyed writing it and I think it's alright!

You looked up from your phone to see the place where you were to meet Touya. As a first part of his date plan, he invited you to a small café that looked almost like a bookshop from outside. On the windows hung colorful fairy lights (although turned off, due to it being bright outside) and some handmade paper decorations. It truly was a nice place, but quite an unusual choice, considering it was Touya who chose it; a bit too wholesome perhaps, but who were you to judge.

After making sure that the address you arrived at was the correct one, you stopped under a tree to get some shade from the warm sun rays. You started to look around, seeing people, some of them in a rush, some enjoying the nice weather, while leisurely walking to their mysterious destinations. Unfortunately, one face was oddly familiar. Standing on the opposite side of the road was an ordinary looking man in dark clothing. Looking straight into your eyes, he moved towards the crosswalk and, in a very relaxed manner, directed his steps towards you. 

You tensed up, ready for anything. It wasn't a good omen to see him right there, right now. He was sent there as a warning and it was apparent in his intense gaze and every little calculated move. Also, because you knew how the gods' machine works. 

After barely a few seconds, the unnamed man stopped right in front of you, leaving precisely one and a half meter of space between your bodies. Perfectly straight back, relaxed face features, hands in sight. It didn't seem as though he was there to attack or cause trouble (any bigger than his presence alone already was), but you knew better than to let your guard down. Staring him down, you waited patiently for his words.

“Hello, number Four,” he said with a slight underline of contempt in his voice.

“What do you want?” You looked around to check if any unwanted attention was on you two. It wasn’t really necessary considering both of you looked like ordinary civilians, but, at the end of the day, it’s better to be aware of one’s surroundings.

The man shifted his weight slightly, taking half a step closer.

“You know your little paradise won’t last long.” He exclaimed and smiled cynically. “Or have you, perhaps, forgotten?”

“Fuck off.” With a cold voice and a cold gaze, you ended the short exchange. The man did not move, however. He stood, still with an annoyingly straight back, in front of you and looked both harmless and ready to leap at you, had he deemed it necessary.

The stare off was short lived. A few seconds later you felt a presence coming from behind you and the man was pushed away by Touya, who came just in time to hear the end of your conversation. He looked a bit concerned, but stared at the mysterious person with a hard gaze and little bit of blue flame coming from the corners of his mouth.

“She told you to fuck off, so go and scurry away.”

Unbothered, the man didn’t pay any attention to this sudden event. He seemed even amused by it to some extent.

“I see you got yourself-” he glanced quickly towards Touya, who stood right next to you “a dog.”

Already annoyed before by the sheer presence of this man, now you felt your blood boil. WIthout thinking much, you leapt towards him and harshly grabbed the collar of his shirt. You heard someone close-by whisper with a scared voice, but you paid no mind to it.

“Fuck. Off.” You started, accentuating the words and putting as much venom into them, as you could muster. “Go and crawl at their feet like the pathetic nobody that you are.”

You saw a change in his eyes. No longer emotionless, he seemed irritated, which filled you with a bit of sadistic pride. He forcefully pulled your hands away and shoved you back. Then brushed his shirt like nothing happened and, just before turning around and going away said:

“You are the same. Everyone who touches the Olymp is.”

Finally alone with your still-just-a-friend, you turned around to face him. Having brushed off the encounter, you smiled at Touya, first a little fake, but seeing him made you happy enough to be genuine after just barely a second. On the other hand though, he still seemed rather concerned with the strange turn of events. 

“Who was that?”

“He’s a colleague... from work.” Your answer didn’t lessen Touya’s worry. His brows furrowed, while he decided to press a bit more.

“From work? He’s… a hero?”

You stood right in front of him and lifted your arm, putting the thumb between his brows, watching him relax slightly, as you caressed the crease in his skin.

“From before.” It was a diplomatic answer, both a lie and a truth. You knew Touya wasn’t stupid and would get to the truth sooner or later, but for now he seemed to let it go, so you changed the topic. “So, I must ask. Why… a cafe? I would be more inclined to think you’d take me to a boxing ring or something.”

Touya smiled at your teasing tone, but did not answer. He just turned around and started walking towards the entrance of the place. He stopped and held the door for you, still standing next to the tree, a few meters away. 

“You coming?”

You looked at him unamused by his lack of answer, but went inside. It was pretty and cozy, which didn’t match with his more edgy vibe, but you just brushed it off and sat down on a plush armchair in the corner. You put your elbows on the table and propped your head on your palms, looking as Touya took his jacket off and threw it on the back of his chair. You started to closely admire the tattoos adorning both of his arms, from the hands to his shoulders (and even further, as you already knew).

“Both your tattoo and hand kink are showing, baby.” 

He sat down and looked at you with a teasing glint in his beautiful eyes. You leaned back, crossed one of your legs over the other and put your arms up, in a gesture of surrender, but then looked at him accusingly. 

“That’s not my fault that you’re a harlot. You’re basically putting yourself on display for me, so really, it’s on you. You whore.” 

“You got me, but it’s only for you.”

Touya laughed then and stood up to buy you both a coffee. You sat still, waiting and looking around. When your eyes landed on the discarded jacked, you stood up to take it. A simple black jean jacket, quite thin to be suitable for the warm weather. Holding it by the collar, you brought it closer to your face and inhaled the smell of the perfume lingering on the fabric. You couldn’t quite tell what it was, but it wasn’t too strong and you had to admit it was one of the best smells you knew, especially with the mix of natural scent of Touya’s body.

The owner of the jacket came back with the drinks a few minutes later and saw you with the piece of clothing.

“A little thief today, are we?”

You took one last whiff of the jacket and put it down.

“It smells nice. Maybe I should buy this perfume for myself.”

Touya looked up from his coffee.

“You want my perfume?”

“As I said - it’s nice.” You shrugged and saw him smirk.

“I can give you mine if you want to smell like me so badly.”

“Hmm…” You hummed and leaned forward a bit, “Well, I wouldn’t mind smelling like you.”

You took your cup and started to slowly drink, while looking into Touya’s eyes. Something in them made you feel strange, perhaps it was the softness with which he took you in. 

When sunshine fell on him from between the window decorations, he reminded you of some kind of angel, eyes almost glowing, silver piercings glistening; the sun accentuated every little shadow on his face, but, at the same time, made him look really delicate.

Touya’s gaze went down and your thought moved to the back of your mind. He adjusted his position on the chair before speaking.

“I guess I can tell you why the cafe, which you found, oh so surprising, I don’t know why.” He paused for a second to narrow his eyes at you. “I’ve heard you wanted a “normal” date, whatever the hell that means.”

“Wha-,” your eyes widened with mock surprise, “Did Shiggy snitch on me?”

“Please, he didn’t have to. It’s not like you asked all your friends for advice. So I decided to take you somewhere… classic, if you will.”

You crossed your arms on your chest and rolled your arms, then pointed an accusatory finger at your companion.

“Now you’re just mocking me.”

“Me? Never.” Obvious sarcasm on his part. “But I have one more place that I want to take you later. Perhaps more to your standards.”

Now you felt a bit guilty that he might have thought you didn’t like it. He didn’t seem so, but you preferred to explain either way.

“I don’t want you to think that I don’t appreciate it… it’s just…” You shrugged. “I didn’t expect something so… usual? Common? Normal, heh.”

“I know you’re just awkward, but let’s relax and enjoy ourselves.”

And so you did, talking about many different things for a few hours.

***

You put your index finger on your lips, pondering on something for a moment.

“Isn’t it going to be, you know… the anniversary soon? Of your mom’s divorce, I mean.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” Touya nodded.

“Damn, happy birthday then.” You brought your cup to your lips like you didn’t just say… that. But Touya lifted his eyebrows and stared at you unsure.

“What?” You just shrugged and he sighed, “Nevermind then. Happy birthday to mom.”

A few seconds of a comfortable silence fell over the two of you. The hushed voices of the people around filled your ears; they mixed together, providing a nice background noise. 

“So… how’s you dad?” You quirked an eyebrow at Touya’s surprised expression.

“You want to talk about my… dad? Of all things?”

“Well… I’m just asking! And you know… since he “sucks ass” does he also eat it?” You smiled stupidly, but he just stared with a deadpan. “Okay, stupid, I admit.”

“We have family therapy, so it’s not that bad. Though, the old mad does deserve the bullying.”

You agreed and made a toast with your drink to Touya’s words.

***

“Excuse me!?” Touya exclaimed loudly, “You did what!?”

You put an index finger to your lips trying to shush him, while a few other people looked in your direction, some with curiosity, others with disapproval.

“It wasn’t that bad…” You looked apologetically at some of the patrons. “It’s not like I died.”

Touya stared at you in shock for a good few seconds, eyes wide and mouth slightly open. He was almost at a loss of words.

“What- not like she died! Fuckin-” He groaned and dramatically clutched his shirt on his chest. “You’re killing me! You’re killing your father!”

You snorted at his statement. Well, a flair for the dramatics was in his repertoire, after all.

“Don’t you mean ‘Daddy’?” You said with an amused smile and added with a tinge of irony: “Or do you prefer ‘father’ now?”

Touya did not find it funny (or at least, he didn’t let it show on the outside, if he did). He cupped his mouth with one hand, looking to the side, as to ponder on something.

“You know what?” He directed his gaze at you. “I might have to rethink the idea that dating you would be so nice. Like, you… fucking dumbass.”

Ah, concerned Touya, pretty sweet, you had to admit, but there really wasn’t a reason for him to worry.

“Keigo was with me then.” You stated matter of factly.

“Oh, yeah,” he nodded, “I am going to talk with that bastard too… no heroing with Keigo for you!”

You seriously didn’t think that he would be so concerned about the whole ordeal. After all, it was in the past, nothing really happened and if it would have happened, then well… you wouldn’t be here to discuss it.

You smiled softly.

“I don’t think you have any say in this.”

You chuckled, when Touya very aggressively took a sip.

“Jumping off the building… Who fucking does that!?” Oh no, the stare of disapproval.

“Keigo.”

“Because he has WINGS!”

“Yeah, and he caught me because of them!” You paused for a moment and thought for a moment about it. “Though I actually wasn’t sure he would, I mean… you know. He IS quite strong though.”

Touya actually looked like he was ready to end it all right then and there.

“You… didn’t know if he would catch you?” He articulated very slowly, slightly squinting his eyes at you. “And you still jumped?”

“Yup! You know, the adrenaline, fight or flight… I chose flight obviously.” You immediately saw that your cheerful carelessness and (an amazing) joke were nor appreciated, as he looked at you with a blank face, complete deadpan.

“I think, sooner or later, I’m gonna have a heart attack because of you.”

To that, you just cackled and reassured him that you would try not to die in a near future.

***

“Sooo… My sweet Touya, my favorite Todoroki.” He braced himself for whatever you wanted to throw at him, while you shot him a suggestive look. “When are you going to do a new tattoo?”

Oh, he already knew where this was going.

“I don’t know. Why are you asking?” 

“You know…” You acted as if mulling on your idea and tilted your head to the side. “If you need some company…”

Touya sighed and just decided to get to the point.

“Do you wanna go with me?”

“Oh my god, can I?” You grinned and flicked your wrist. “You don’t have to!”

“Ok, then I’ll go alone.” He checked his phone, feigning disinterest, and took a quick look at you to see the hand still in the air and a very surprised expression on your face, that turned almost offended a second later.

“You can’t take it away from me! I’ll have you know, I have my rights.”

“I’m not taking anything away, since I never before said that you could go with me. You just always do.”

“Oh.” You looked down at your knees and did a fake sniff, knowing fully well he didn’t mind your presence… anywhere, really. “You don’t want me there?”

“Well, that-” he smirked slightly, “I never said.”

“So you’re just making a fool out of me then, I see how it is.” You crossed your arms over your chest and glared at him. He just laughed

“You already do it yourself pretty well.”

You gasped loudly with a hand on your chest.

“The audacity! You… how dare you! If you’re gonna be bitchy, I’ll fuck your sister, I will. Don’t try me.”

Touya rolled his eyes and shook his head.

“Will you though?” He seemed unconvinced, you wondered why. “Honestly, I thought you did it already. You were going out with her for what? Two months? That’s long… for your standard.”

“Nooo, I didn’t… really, I did not.” Then a different thought popped up in your head. “Won’t it be weird that IF we… become a couple, potentially, and I would, hypothetically, meet your family somewhere, you know, by chance and all. That I am Fuyumi’s ex, I mean.”

He furrowed his brows to digest your question. 

“You think about that?” He smiled, seeing your awkward expression. “That’s cute of you.”

“BABY STEPS, PLEASE.” You loudly exclaimed, avoiding Touya’s eyes, to which he chuckled.

“Okay, just teasing you, baby.” His gaze softened. “But do you really care about that? What others think?”

“Uh…” you sighed, “I don’t know. Not really? But kind of.”

“It’s okay, baby steps, like you said.”

He leaned forward over the table, took your hand into his and soothingly caressed it with his thumb. Your heartbeat quickened a bit and, surprised at that, you just stared at Touya’s slowly moving finger. Feeling were never easy nor were they particularly good, but it felt so nice.

***

Suddenly you saw a flicker of colorful lights next to you, seeing that the decorations on the window were turned on. Looking out the window, you noticed how dark it became. The street neon lights were illuminated everywhere, people moving in all directions to unwind after hard days of work during the week. You were almost shocked at how fast the time went by.

“It’s pretty late, isn’t it?”

Touya hummed in agreement and, without saying anything, stood up to pay the bill. Earlier, you almost fought him to split it, but you came to an agreement that another time (“Oh, you already want to go out with me again?”, he teased) you would be the one paying. A moment later he came back, put his jacket on and you both exited the lovely cafe.

“So… where are we going?” You asked after following him in a completely opposite direction, to which you came from earlier that day.

“You’ll see.” 

Ah, so much for getting information out of Mr Todoroki.

With a sigh, you just decided to follow him in silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable, like it usually tends to be, for which you were grateful. He wasn’t pushy, let you do things at your own pace, so you felt… comfortable.

A moment later you felt him grab your hand and let him intertwine your fingers together. Again, the annoying feeling in your chest reappeared. You would need to get a grip on yourself, if this was to continue. The evening was getting quite chilly so Touya used his quirk to make his palm warmer, but you almost took your hand away. You knew that it was bad for him, especially without his support items, even though he was able to control it, almost to perfection. Before you were able to get away, his skin quickly went back to its natural cooler state with a light squeeze to your hand.

Going through the busy street, you were able to observe people differently than usual. On patrols, you were mostly checking out dark alleyways, some abandoned or suspicious buildings, sometimes sites on the outskirts of the city; being able to, sometimes, take in the lively energy of the crowd was enjoyable.

Touya stopped after turning into some calmer sideroad. He took his hand from yours to grab a helmet and then helped you put it on. 

“We taking your baby for a spin?”

“Of course.”

“Hmm, nice.”

After putting on his own helmet he sat down on the motorcycle, waiting for you to do the same. You noticed a new paint job on the matte black surface of the machine. On the sides were done shining blue flames, very on brand for him. You liked it. 

You sat down behind Touya taking a hold of his waist, when he revved the engine and slowly drove away from the busy part of the city. Expertly maneuvering the streets, soon enough you were driving on the outskirts, where barely anyone was out. You looked at the changing scenery over his shoulder, noting the road you were taking seemed familiar. The trees surrounding you from both sides made the night look a bit unnerving, but it wasn’t anything you weren’t used to. The city was far behind already.

You squeezed him just a tiny bit stronger and put your head on his shoulder, careful not to knock the helmets on each other. Loud howling of the wind and the noise of the engine were a surprisingly calming combination, which you have discovered long ago, the first time Touya took you for a drive.

Finally, the motorcycle slowed down. You passed the old busted metal gate and entered a site surrounded by a tall chain link fence, made from wire much thicker than usual to make it more sturdy. The place was situated on a flat field, a bit away from the trees. You could barely see the outline of the big city from where you were.

The space where he parked was relatively empty, save for an occasional piece of metal or glass laying here and there. The only building was a huge square block, bare walls outside “decorated” only by identical windows with perfectly measured spaces in between them. The inside should be relatively empty. What ought to be there are only some vacated rooms and stairs leading from the ground, through three stories, to the roof.

You got off the motorcycle and took the helmet off, hanging it on the handlebar. Taking a closer look around, you notice a pair of sledgehammers and a can of gasoline next to the gate of the building.

“An abandoned Commission site, huh?” You asked rhetorically, but Touya looked surprised at that.

“How do you know what this place is?” 

You decided to ignore him and just pointed to the items you noticed.

“You planning to kill me here or something?” You said with a smile, looking at him. He quirked an eyebrow and moved to pick up the sledgehammers and offered you one.

“Birdbrain said we can trash this place.” You took the tool weighing it in your hand with ease.

“Of course he did.” You glanced at the gasoline. “Did he also say we can play with fire?”

Touya smirked, lifted his hand towards his face and lighted his pinky finger with blue fire. He then moved the hand more towards you, letting you blow it out.

“With me, it’s always playing with fire.”

“I knew you were an arsonist at heart, Touya.” You chuckled lightly, but your voice quickly died down when you looked at him.

He looked at you with an intensity that instantly hypnotized you to focus only on his eyes, which seemed to glow slightly. The only source of light was the moon and the stars in the sky so you were surrounded by harsh shadows and an occasional speck of moonlight.

The gaze with which he stared at you almost made you uncomfortable, because it seemed like he was able to read every little dirty secret you held deep within. A quick thought, that maybe he actually could read you like that, crossed your mind. 

He moved a step towards you and brought his hand to grip your chin. Not hard enough to hurt you, but enough to feel that he could, if he wanted to. Exciting.

He pulled your face a little, so that his lips were right next to your ear. You felt his hot breath on your skin, when he asked:

“Aren’t you?” 

You felt him move his mouth across your skin, from your ear right to your lips. The grip on your chin lessened as he moved his hand to hold the back of your neck instead. It wasn’t anything new to kiss him, but it felt a lot more intimate this time. No force behind it, no rush, nothing inherently sexual; just softness, an interesting contrast to his intense eyes and touches.

He moved away, just enough to speak up, your noses still touching.

“Come on.” He let go completely and moved to grab the gasoline, before entering the building.

You stood in place a moment longer, rendered speechless and motionless by the emotions you felt. The loud hammering in your chest was almost deafening. Not good, get a fucking grip. Without a word, you followed Touya inside.

After a few moments (when the blood pump finally decided to calm down), you glanced around. As you thought, a big empty space, at least on the ground floor. Since the electricity had been shut off a long time ago, the only light was coming from the moon and your phone flashlight. You went after him towards the stairs to the first floor, where a space was filled a little bit more by the rooms dividing the place.

Touya stopped next to a wall to one of the former offices and put his things down, before taking your phone to light your blank canvas, ready for destruction.

“Swing.” And so you did.

You braced yourself against the floor for stabilization and took a wide swing, from behind your back. The hammer made an impact with the wall and with ease penetrated it to the other side. Forcefully, you teared it out, making the hole two times wider.

Oh, it was so liberating. The destruction and chaos of this place would bring you much pleasure.

With a laugh, you took a next swing, and then another, and another. Both of you went on a rampage, destroying what you could in this deserted place. All of the windows broken (some of them with your fist covered in a rug found somewhere on the ground), the inside walls full of holes, doors ripped out of its hinges. The place filled only with dust, debris, and the laughter and screams of both of you.

After you had enough, you ended up lying on the roof. Touya’s head right next to yours, although upside down, as he laid in the opposite direction.

You stared at the clear night sky, admiring millions of stars visible that night. It was always an otherworldly experience to be able to see them. It made everything seem so insignificant in the comparison to the vastness and beauty of space.

Touya, however, was not looking at the sky. His eyes were focused solely on you. He liked the peace and calm visible on your face. You felt his gaze on the side of your face and turned your head to the side, to also look at him.

You moved your hand to push his hair back. It was always really soft to the touch.

“Your roots are showing.” You said quietly, looking at the white part of his hair. He just hummed with eyes closed, marveling at the soft touch on his head.

Before he could fall asleep here, you took your hand and sat up cross-legged. You turned around to look at him, still lying down and still looking at you.

“Didn’t you want to commit arson?”

He perked up at that and got up, but stopped you, when you moved to do the same.

“Wait a second and don’t move.”

You stayed seated and just observed as Touya took the can and started to pour the gasoline on the roof, away from the stairs, in some kind of pattern. When he finished, he motioned you with his hand to come to him.

Ah, so the gasoline heart then. You weren’t really surprised by it, but still laughed, although more at the weirdly proud expression Touya had on his face.

“It’s really cheesy,” you paused for dramatic effect, “I love it.” 

You kissed him lightly on the cheek, to which he froze for a second. Oh, could it be that this time you were the one to render him speechless? After the initial shock, he beamed at you with his stupidly wide grin that sometimes appeared on his face. Though, after a moment it faltered and he grabbed your upper arm. You could pull away, if you wanted, but you just let him hold you.

“Who was that man today?” This again. He seemed worried, more than anything, which you didn’t like that much, cause he could drill it out of you, if he truly wanted. So you decided to avoid his eye, looking in the other direction.

“I told you already… it’s a colleague from work.”

“You know I don’t buy it.”

“I know, but… it’s the truth.” You looked him straight in the eyes, so he would know that it was not a lie.

“I hope you know you can tell me anything.” You wished you could.

“Give me the matches.” He knew that for that moment that would be it, so he let go of your arm with a sigh and took out a small box out of his pocket.

You took it and moved to the other side of the gasoline heart.

You wiped your teeth with your hand, to which Touya raised his eyebrows, but when you took one match out of the box and lit it directly on your teeth, he did look impressed by your trick.

Touya lit his blue flame and both of you set ablaze the gasoline. The fire traveled from both sides, to meet in the middle and create more green-like color. From behind the flames, you were able to see just his silhouette. A beautiful, although terrifying (to some) imagery. 

When the fire started spreading, you quickly moved to leave this place behind. 

Again on the motorcycle, tightly embracing Touya’s torso, you looked back to stare at the rising flames. Colors mixed with each other, creating a picture any painter would be proud of.

Playing with fire was always thrilling, you just hoped none of you would get burned.

TAGLIST

@the-fandoms-georgie, @fanworrior, @gingerunicorn13, @theunicornnamedearl, @dabi-sunflower, @anniebromberg, @bakugouswh0r3, @ddsweetie

[eberles]

On The Course

Rafe Cameron

if this gif is yours, lmk and i’ll tag you!

A/N: this is the longest thing i’ve ever written coming in at 3.8K!! it’s set the summer AFTER the show so like a year later basically and rafe isn’t a murderer obv, it’s also loosely based on A Cinderella Story - the one with Hilary Duff, okay enjoy :)

Warnings: mentions of parent death, brief mention of toxic living environments, swearing, lots of dialogue (idk if that needs a warning but)

You never had many friends growing up, or any really. Except JJ, he was always there for you, your very best friend and even though he offered all the time for you to hangout with the other pogues, you always declined. Of course, you went to school with them and had classes together and sure they were nice, but you never actually felt welcome. JJ was the first friend you made when you moved to the Outer Banks after your parents died. It’s been 4 years since then and living with your ugly aunt and her horrible twin daughters was the last thing you ever wanted for yourself. The only upside of moving to Outer Banks all those years ago was meeting JJ.

Everyone assumed you were dating and both of you had considered the fact, but quickly decided that it wasn’t meant to be for the two of you. JJ liked to be a playboy and he wasn’t really your type anyways. for years you watched him get with girl after girl while you sat idly by watching and looking out for him, never having a guy of your own to trot around with. You never minded it though, being by yourself gave you a sense of comfort and with your current living situations, your cousins made it difficult for you to have many friends or otherwise anyways. JJ always made you feel better about it though and assured you that you didn’t need a man to be happy because of how independent you were and how ‘one day you’re gonna get out of here and meet the guy of dreams, the one that lives up to your standards.” You would always shake your head and roll your eyes at him when he said that, but he believed it. At least the getting out of here part. JJ knew from the moment he met you 4 years ago that you weren’t destined to be on a little island like Outer Banks and you had bigger things coming to you. For now, this was home and you were making the best of it.

“JJ, please talk to your boss. I need a job, I have to get out of my house this summer.” you begged JJ one sunny afternoon, knowing that school was ending in a few days.

“Y/N, you’re gonna hate it. Trust me, you don’t wanna serve a bunch of rich pricks.” JJ sighed, looking over at you briefly and noticing you had your best puppy dog look plastered onto your face, the one you always knew got him to cave. “Fucking fine, i’ll talk to him.”

A few days passed and you were finally done with school. This was your last summer before heading off to college and as much as you didn’t want to spend it working, you knew your aunt had no intention of giving you any money for college. So here you were, serving your first day as a cart girl at the most prestigious country club on Figure 8. The course was fairly slow today and you had a small training session for the first few hours of your shift, but it wasn’t all that hard. Drive around, serve drinks, get tipped. As you were riding around on your little golf cart you noticed none other than Rafe Cameron flagging you down.

“Hi, what can I get for you?” you refrained from immediately rolling your eyes at him and forcing a smile onto your face as you climbed out of your cart.

“I’ll just get a beer, thanks.” he pointed to his beer of choice and watched as you poured the beverage slowly into the plastic cup. “I haven’t seen you around here before.”

“That’s because I just started.” you stated pointedly, handing Rafe the drink and giving him a small smile. “Can i get you anything else?”

“Do you know how to golf?” Rafe was speaking before he could stop himself and you were taken aback by his question, let alone his politeness towards you. You’d never actually come in contact with the boy in front of you, but you’d heard horror stories from JJ surrounding the summer before. You shook your head no, not moving back to your cart just yet curious to where this was heading. “Do you wanna give it a shot? I can teach you.”

You knew you shouldn’t, JJ would scold you up and down for it, after previously warning you Rafe was an often golfer and that you’d probably see him quite a bit, but this wasn’t the Rafe you were expecting. Not after JJ’s multiple stories of Rafe beating him and the other pogues up and constantly giving them a hard time. However, you couldn’t stop yourself from agreeing to Rafe’s offer. Moving closer to him and grabbing the club from him you did exactly what you’d seen in the movies: knees spread, club down, aimed at the small golf ball and raising your arms back only for them to swing the club right into the dirt.

“Damn, you weren’t lying.” Rafe chuckled, taking a spot behind you making sure it was okay that he helped you first. Rafe was a good 6 inches taller than you, but when he came up you could still feel his breath hitting your ear causing your heart to beat out of your chest and goosebumps to erupt all over. He wrapped his arms around yours, placing his hands over yours adjusting your grip on the club. “Ready? One...two...three.”

“Oh- oh my god! I did it! Well you did it, but I did it!” you turned around in Rafe’s grasp jumping up excitedly after watching the ball move this time. Before Rafe could react, realization hit you that you were at work and not making a very good first impression. “I have to go, I'm sorry.”

You ran back towards your golf cart, jumping in and driving off checking in on the other golfers. Rafe had a big smile on his face watching the cute new girl drive off. He felt a sense of home building in his chest after your small interaction and he wasn’t sure what was going on. No girl had ever affected him the way you did and he didn’t even know your name. Yet.

“Dude, what’s got you blushing?” Topper asked, joining him on the course and snapping Rafe out of his thoughts about you.

“Have you seen the new cart girl?”

“Yea she’s cute but she’s a pogue.” Topper stated and Rafe looked at him skeptically not wanting to believe the words. Rafe was almost positive he’d never seen you around before and definitely not with the other pogues. Granted, the way everything happened last summer he never saw the pogues anymore, choosing the high road and turning himself into a better man so he could eventually leave Figure 8 on his own.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

“Y/N!” you turned around hearing JJ calling your name. You just entered the cut after having to walk home from your first shift at the country club. “I’ve been texting you for hours.”

“Oh sorry JJ, my shitty phone died.” you shrugged letting JJ catch up with you before continuing your walk home.

“How was your first day?” you knew JJ would ask, but you hadn’t quite figured out what you were planning on telling him. Do you bring up your weird but pleasant interaction with Rafe?

“It was good! It was a pretty slow day, perfect for learning.” JJ hummed in response, looking at you quizzically not fully believing you didn’t have anything more to say. You decided to keep it short, not looking forward to JJ mocking your newfound connection with his enemy. You felt bad enough about it without having him breathing down your neck. JJ walked you home, the two of you making small talk for the rest of the short distance to your house.

“Charge your phone, how else will I annoy you?” you rolled eyes, laughing at what JJ said, pushing on his chest.

“Goodbye JJ, Y/N has things to do.” your aunt spoke, catching you off guard as you were saying bye to JJ outside your house. JJ gave you a sympathetic look before walking off, never wanting to leave you alone with them. “Y/N, I’m going out of town tomorrow. I’ll be leaving you this list to work on while I'm gone. I expect everything to be finished. You will go to work, come home and work some more. Zero play time and in the house everyday by 6 pm, missy.”

“Okay but there’s this one event the country club is having and it’s a night shift for me.” you followed your aunt around the small house, hoping she would let you out of the house for Midsummers knowing the tips would be great.

“Well that’s not going to work, now is it?” she huffed, shoving the 7 page list into your hands and storming off, her heels clicking with every step. “One page for everyday, don’t miss anything.”

The next day your aunt left just like she planned to, her twin daughters staying behind to ‘keep an eye on you’ but really, they were just going to annoy you the whole time. The only thing you could really look forward to anymore was going to work and hoping the customers were nicer than your cousins.

“Y/N, we’re coming with you today!” the twins spoke at the same time with fake chipper voices.

“Great.” you deadpanned, turning away from them and making your way towards their shared car and climbing in the back seat. The drive was short and they talked the whole way there so you practically jumped out before the car stopped moving noticing your arrival. You were feeling giddy to be at work today secretly hoping you would see a certain kook boy again. You didn’t know much about him, only the awful things JJ had spoken about him briefly but didn’t see that side of him only enticing you to know more.

After a few hours driving around the course serving drinks to mostly middle aged white men you finally noticed Rafe with a few of his friends. You wanted to talk to him again, but having his friends around made you unsure about the situation so you decided to play it cool.

“Did you guys want drinks?” you stopped on the path behind them before getting off the cart and making your way to them.

“Rafe, is this your cute cart girl from yesterday?” Topper laughed, hitting Rafe’s back pushing him towards you and you noticed a blushing Rafe shoot a quick glare in his direction.

“Hey, how’s your second day going?” Rafe moved closer to you and the cart hoping to get out of ear shot from Topper and Kelce.

“It’s been good, lots of older men come around here I’ve noticed.” you laughed handing Rafe the same drink as yesterday since you remembered the specific beer he wanted. “It makes for good tips though so I can't complain.”

“Yea these guys might be old but they’re rich as fuck.” Rafe sipped his beer, smiling at you and apologizing for his friends being stupid behind him. “Hey so I never got your name-”

“Hey Y/N!” you turned, hearing your name being called and saw JJ running towards you. You mentally cursed because of course this was the one time he would ever step foot on the course to look for you. Rafe looked at you confused even though Topper previously told him you were technically a pogue yourself. “Y/N, your cousins are inside and they’re driving me crazy. I needed a break. What’s going on here?”

“Oh JJ, I’m sorry about them, they insisted on being here for my whole shift.” you ignored JJ’s last question, putting all the attention on your cousins, hoping it would deflect from you and Rafe chatting.

“You okay?” JJ asked in a hushed tone, glaring at Rafe and you laughed nodding your head yes. “Okay I guess I’ll go back inside then. Be careful.”

“So your name’s Y/N?” Rafe stood back a few feet while you had your short conversation with JJ and returned to your side once JJ started walking away. “I’m assuming since you know Maybank that you already know who I am.”

“Well I know of you, but if we keep meeting like this maybe i’ll be able to find out more.” you were feeling brave all of a sudden, hoping putting yourself out there would get your somewhere with Rafe. Everything felt natural with him, and you didn’t want to let that feeling escape you by ruining it.

“Why don’t you give me your number and then it won’t have to be exclusive to only here?” Rafe smirked, pulling his phone out and placing it in your hands. You laughed, typing your phone number in quickly and returning it back to him.

“I should really get back to work, Rafe but I’ll see you around yea?” you climbed back into your golf cart as Rafe smiled and waved bye to you.

The next few days passed and you hadn’t seen Rafe at the club, but you had been texting quite a bit. Just in a few days of talking you felt like you were already learning so much about him and his life. He told you everything from who his friends are to how overbearing and controlling his father was. He explained that he went to college at Chapel Hill for a year before dropping out and his father never forgave him. You shared your deepest feelings with him about your parents deaths and how your aunt and cousins were Satan's children. You told him you couldn’t wait to get out of Outer Banks and go off to college at the end of the summer. He understood you and you meshed together so well just after a few days.

i haven’t told my dad, but after getting my shit together this past year i started applying to schools. my first choice is princeton.

princeton?! rafe, no way! that’s where i’m hoping to go.

You couldn’t deny the fast connection you felt with rafe, everything in your body was telling you that you belonged together. Rafe told you he was looking forward to seeing you at the Midsummers event tonight, but you had to break the devastating news that there was no way you could go.

curfew is 6 pm cameron, get with it😂

jesus, i’m sorry i didn’t know you were 7

You laughed at the text on your phone when a tapping noise on your window startled you. You dragged yourself out of bed to see JJ standing on the ground below you.

“JJ, what are you doing?!” you whispered after opening the window and sticking your head out.

“I'm coming up!” JJ whispered back, scaling the side of your house next to your bedroom window. Lucky for him there was a small rock wall giving him the perfect entrance. “I'm breaking you out, you’re coming to Midsummers.”

“JJ, I can't! They’ll kill me if I leave!” JJ gave you a look as if to say ‘stop being a baby.’ It only took a few more seconds of convincing from JJ for you to agree. He successfully helped you out your window and down the rock wall without your cousins noticing you had left for the night. JJ borrowed John B's van and left it parked a few houses down so the twins wouldn’t be suspicious.

“Thanks for this, JJ. You’re the best.” you smiled wide, feeling free for the first time in a while. It was nice getting out of the house while it was dark out.

“As much as I want to take credit, I can’t. This was Rafe’s idea.” you looked at JJ with wide eyes, completely caught off guard.

“What?!” you all but screamed, not sure why JJ would ever talk to Rafe about you. Especially since you hadn’t even told JJ that you and Rafe were talking almost constantly.

“I’ll try to forgive you for not mentioning your budding relationship, but yea. Rafe came to me and apologized for everything last summer and although I don’t forgive him. He does talk pretty highly about you and I can't deny that.” JJ explained and you couldn’t have been more proud to call him your best friend in these moments.

Once you arrived, JJ snuck you in the back and you couldn’t help but take a peek out and notice Rafe standing by the bar dressed in a navy colored suit with his dad who looked like he was scolding him for something. He looked good, really good. JJ pulled you into the locker room handing you a uniform with a white shirt and a black vest to put over it and informing you that you were on drink serving duty. You made your rounds looking over at Rafe every so often wanting nothing more than to approach him. You noticed Rafe's dad pulling him away from the crowd with a yank to his collar and watching as he stood in front of him yelling and pointing a finger in his face. Your feet were moving before your brain could process it and before you knew it you were in front of the two.

“Hi, can I get you guys anything to drink?” you put the sweetest smile on your face, hoping it wouldn’t be obvious that you were trying to distract Rafe’s dad. Ward cleared his throat before looking at you and ordering a whiskey on the rocks with a fake smile on his face. Rafe took the opportunity to make a break for it while you wrote down his fathers drink, exactly what you hoped would happen. After returning to Ward with his drink you went looking for Rafe only to find him back inside the club.

“Oh look who it is, my savior.” Rafe teased, watching you approach him before pulling out a chair for you to sit next to him. “Thanks for that by the way, you didn’t have to.”

“Of course I did, I understand family issues all too well, Cameron.” you laughed, taking the seat beside him.

“I’m surprised to see you here, so much for that curfew huh?” Rafe smirked, eyeing you from across the table.

“Funny enough, JJ came up with this super smart plan to sneak me out. Usually he’s not that on top of it, but I guess something changed.” you joked and reached for Rafe’s hand across the table. “Thank you for talking to him, you have no idea how much it means to me.”

“I know it sounds weird, but I think I would do anything for you.” Rafe blushed, squeezing your hand in his and putting his head down to hide the pink tint on his cheeks. You pulled your hand from his and reached up to lift his face to look at your before moving in closer to him. Your lips brushed his softly before he pulled you closer by your waist and your lips molded to each other and you melted into your first kiss with Rafe.

“Uh, sorry to interrupt but Y/N your aunts outside.” you pulled away from Rafe hearing JJ’s voice and you couldn’t believe what you heard. You looked between the boys with a horrified expression on your face and walked passed JJ outside to where your aunt and cousins were standing and causing a scene.

“Where the hell is she?!” you frowned, running up to them, hoping you could get her to leave without losing your job.

“There you are! You ungrateful piece of trash! How dare you sneak out with this scum of a boy!?” with each word your ugly aunt used her finger to push on her chest and you felt the anger bubbling up inside of you.

“Don’t touch me! And don’t talk about him like that. I’m 18 now, you can’t tell me what to do anymore!” you pushed her hand away, yelling back in her face with JJ and Rafe watching you from a few feet away, everyone else at the party enjoying the show.

“I sure as hell can if you’re living under MY roof!” you could hear your cousins laughing from behind her and that only fueled more anger in you.

“Don’t worry about me, because I'm moving out.” you finally had it, you couldn’t take dealing with her for another second longer. Unbeknownst to you, Rafe and JJ were sharing knowing looks at each other as the scene unfolded in front of them.

“And where do you think you’re gonna go?”

“With us!” JJ spoke up, and you felt him take a place at your side with Rafe following his actions on your other side.

“Good luck with that. They’ll be tired of you soon enough, don’t come crawling back.” your aunt scoffed, rolling her eyes at the two boys and retreating back to her SUV, “Girls! Here! Now!”

You felt tears start to roll down your cheeks and you laughed feeling both the boys wrap their arms around you. “Everything’s gonna be okay now, y/n.”

“Jeez, I don’t know what to say. Thank you guys for being here.” The rest of the party goers were clapping at you standing up for yourself and finally being free of her even though they didn’t know you or your situation.

“You don’t have to thank us, Y/N.” Rafe smiled as you pulled him into a tight hug feeling safe as his arms wrapped around you.

••epilogue••

Summer was officially over and you were sad to be moving on, but you could easily say this was the best summer of your entire life. After the screaming match with your aunt you moved in with JJ and John B and yes it was tough adjusting to living with boys but it was amazing. You were finally getting close with the other pogues Rafe’s sister Sarah and you just wish you hadn’t waited 4 years for it to happen.

Rafe did some digging with a private investigator and found a savings account in your name for your full college tuition that your aunt had been hiding from you. Everything was falling into place for you and speaking of Rafe: you guys were officially dating and going two months strong. You felt the happiest you ever had in your entire life and he was partly to thank for that.

You wound up going to Princeton together and lived happily ever after. At least for now. Hey, you’re only a freshman.

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

[petruchio]

long story short, I kind of don't think licorice pizza was that intelligent. Any intelligent connection I've made from it I feel like has been tenuous and a reach and I also feel like any points it was trying to make (if any) didn't land and were vacuous and self indulgent. like you, I don't know much about PTA but I also feel like if a piece of work is genuinely intelligent and profound, it'll stand alone and you won't have to know much about the maker and/or their entire body of work for it to make an impact and have it's integrity come through. I also found pretty much every scene inconsequential, so some of the bigger "inconsequential" scenes like the one with Bradley Cooper just didn't feel that enjoyable because the plot just wasn't moving or going anywhere. I ultimately felt like I got most of the film from watching the trailer lol. Beautifully shot and acted though! (I'm not gonna get into thoughts about the age difference thing rn cos that would be too long lol)

yes!! honestly i agree -- i think that's my ultimate take, which is that if the movie was going for a really subtle critique, it might have been too subtle on that critique. and i know there's a ton of film bros or whatever who will be like "ugh you guys just DON'T GET IT" but i feel like at a certain point if only really weird film bros get what your movie is about... then maybe the movie is being too subtle.

i think for me, a reading of it as a critique of nostalgia is the only way for me to really make all of it hang together? like -- yeah the age gap was super weird. but i honestly have a hard time believing that any movie made in 2021 would really want to go all in on the take of like, "age gap relationships good" so i have to believe that there's something deeper going on there? and maybe the movie didn't communicate it that well, but i think that must be part of what it's going for.

like, the movie is obviously very nostalgic for the setting of los angeles in the 1970s -- and i think (??) the movie is asking you to consider, did you get so swept up in nostalgia that you forgot how bad things really were? were you so distracted by the aesthetic, the clothes, the music, that you forgot how messed up all this stuff really was? the casual racism? the public homophobia? the abuse of minors? what happened in YOUR 1970s that was really, truly wrong, but you excuse it because "that's just how things were back then"?

and i think (I THINK) the age gap is meant to kind of further that argument -- like, alana is clearly nostalgic for her OWN teenage-dom. that's why she's so obsessed with hanging out with these children, because she feels so alienated by the adult world, she instead wants to cling to childhood when things felt easy and simple. i mean, she's given an age-appropriate love interest (the guy she works with who isn't the politician, the guy in the office who she calls), and when they almost kiss, and she RUNS AWAY. like, that's the visual we get, she's literally running away from him, she's running away from the adult world, because it scares her. she wants to return to this state of innocence and youth, because to grow up means to face things that are hard and things you don't understand. it's only with the innocence of youth that you could start a waterbed business or your own pinball arcade. the adults in the film are too jaded, too wrapped up in themselves, too distracted to do that. so, the nostalgia isn't just a macro-scale, 1970s period piece. it's also about the nostalgia you feel for your own childhood.

and all the adult characters are also kind of trying to recapture the freedom of youth in their own way -- the sean penn character just uses alana as a stand-in for grace kelly, in his own nostalgic fantasy. bradley cooper smashes the window just after we see the actual children smashing his window, which just emphasizes his own immaturity and his refusal to just "grow up." even danielle and este are still living at home with their parents, despite the fact that we can assume they're in their 30s.

and that's like, a genius film -- one that says, you love this song, you love this dress, you're so distracted by how well i've recreated an image of your youth, that you forgot to feel grossed out by this. and if you DID feel grossed out, maybe you kind of felt like you didn't want that out of your 70s nostalgia film. so the feeling you get at the end, when they kiss and she says she loves him, that feeling of, "wait, but that was kind of fucked, though" is exactly the feeling that you SHOULD have, because it's the same one you should have when you think about your own past. it's saying, take OFF those rose colored glasses and look the past in the eye, look at what happened to you back then and be brave enough to say "wait, no, that was wrong and it shouldn't have happened."

but all that being said, i kind of agree that i'm not entirely sure the movie was actually being that smart? or, maybe it was, but i don't think it necessarily communicated that in a clear enough way? personally, the whole way through, i thought it was going to be kind of a coming of age film for alana -- that she was going to realize that she was afraid of growing up, but that she was going to have to. and then the end just threw me for a LOOP! like i feel like i should've been more on board with a nostalgia reading from the whole film, and the ending should've been like OH -- so what you're saying is that this is wrong. like, i don't think the movie is endorsing the relationship, but the way it's shot and scored and edited doesn't really feel sinister enough to be confident in that! and i agree as well that i don't think you should have to know an artists entire body of work to make a judgement on one piece -- the piece should stand alone as it is.

so yeah. i guess it's either a genius commentary on the past, or it's a weird nostalgia wish-fulfillment for paul thomas anderson -- or maybe it's kind of both? maybe his own wish-fulfillment is the reason the critique didn't come across quite clearly enough? i don't know!! but it sure did make me think.

[that-wildwolf]

I was tagged by @crescentbunny and I'm not tagging anyone in particular because I never really have a good grip on who's already done a tag game and who hasn't...

Anyway! Here goes :)

How many works do you have on AO3?

I write lots of one-shots, so this should be around thirty... Yep, twenty-seven.

What’s your total AO3 word count?

Where do you check that? You can check that???

*spends approximately 10 minutes going through AO3 settings they didn't know existed*

Cool! A lot of features I didn't know about. Anyway, um. Yes. My total word count is, for the moment, 471,674 words.

Wow. I. Um. Almost 500K words. But—and this is extremely important—I feel like this graph contains some vital information:

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Wow. Okay. I'll do this in chronological order because I never really counted.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Inheritance, Assassin's Creed, The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead, Doctor Who, Star Wars, Attack on Titan, Fallout, Sarah Jane Adventures, Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Steven Universe. I don't think I missed anything...?

That adds up to 13.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Of course I do! I thrive on feedback! Not implying that my entire self-esteem hinges on the approval of strangers on the internet, but comments are the best fucking thing ever! Instant serotonin for a whole day! Of course I'll reply! I love getting into little conversations with my readers, too!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Wow. I'm usually more of a happy ending kind of person, but A New Quest (which I wrote at the super proud age of 11) did end with half of the main characters dead and a memorial service for them as the last scene, so... You know. If you consider that angsty, then sure.

Fun fact: Crossing A Line was actually originally supposed to end with Shepard dying! The last chapter (which to me still feels a bit out of place) was rewritten completely. I'm glad I changed it, though. I'm having a lot of fun with the sequel!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

A month ago I'd have said Waiting Between Worlds without second thoughts—does it count as a happy ending when the whole fic is just a happy ending?—but it's just been going downhill the last three or four chapters. Pretty much every one of my one-shots in the When I Need You series. Also, Crossing A Line, I guess, now that it has a happy ending.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I... really don't. I'm wildly ace, all my sex knowledge comes from smut and porn and I'm pretty sure that if I were to actually write the adult stuff, I'd either go way overboard and make it too obscene to read or end up with something completely dry and clinical and unreadable too.

When there's sex scenes in my fic, I usually leave them implied. I say the characters had sex, but I never explicitly write the actual sex. I don't think I'd be good at it. (Actually, I've tried plenty of times and I know I'm not. It's the dirtiest, kinkiest filth you'd ever see and I'd really recommend against reading it.)

I do like writing the pre-chorus to sex, as it were, though. The sensual foreplay to the sexual foreplay. The soft or heated moments leading up to the act. I've even gotten comments about my lime being "extremely hot despite not being smut" and I'm more than happy with that description.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the strangest one you’ve written?

I used to write crossovers. Now I only sometimes write AUs based on a different fandom, like a Shakarian Kimi no Na wa!AU.

The strangest crossover I've ever written? Don't know if any of them were strange. I had The Wolf Among Us/The Walking Dead crossovers and Doctor Who/Sarah Jane Adventures crossovers, but both of those pretty much exist in the same universe already, so... No. No weird crossovers.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

God, I hope not. At least none that I know of.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yes. Plenty. A lot. I'd wager around 4 out of 5 comments on my Shepard Twins fanfic are negative. I haven't updated the fic in a while, but that doesn't mean I'm not writing anymore. I have around 50K words' worth of WIP of it. So no, the hate comments don't bother me. (A lie: they bother me a lot. They even make me cry, sometimes. But they're not gonna be the reason I stop writing a story I enjoy.)

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

My very first fanfiction writing experience, actually. In retrospect, I think that worked out great, because that kind of cooperation made it easier to carry the whole thing through, get it to the end, and was a very positive experience - which is probably why I've continued to write fanfic.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Ahhh. Royai or Shakarian? Royai or Shakarian? Stupid, since they're almost the same relationship dynamic, but they're both amazingly written. I'm edging a bit more towards Shakarian, because interspecies stuff is always a bonus. Still, it's a close competition.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I wish! I've translated other people's fics, but I've yet to have someone do that for me.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I plan to hope to finish all my WIPs.

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue. This is going to come off as boastful, but I think I'm pretty good at replicating individual characters' speech patterns.

What are your writing weaknesses?

According to my beta, I use elispses too liberally. According to me, I have trouble with transition scenes. I never write in order, so I always end up with disconnected scenes I need to join into a chapter. And the join parts don't even come easy to me.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Not a fan. (When I write fanfics in Polish, I sometimes use English, but that's not the same because everyone in Poland knows English anyway.) If it's a made-up language in the fandom, I like to include some words every now and then in dialogue - especially when it doesn't translate exactly. I love spotlighting cultural differences. I actually learned a load of Jel words for my Murkmire fanfics.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Good times. Damn, that was a long time ago. *suddenly gets the overwhelming realization that they've been writing fanfic for the bigger part of their life* ...Wow.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Big Spoon/Little Spoon, a short Shakarian one-shot exploring the psychology of the Spacer background a bit. I also used lighting in a really cool way in this one! I'm really proud of it. Even when I call it "the Spooning As A Metaphor For Nationality Issues fanfic", I mean it in an affectionate way.

As far as non-one-shots go, I'm going with Crossing A Line. It's got it all: Enemies to Lovers, language barrier, interspecies awkwardness... Plus, writing from Garrus's POV is always a treat. I get to refer to humans as "aliens". What more could you want?

[silver-state-knights]

Zach Whitecloud for the gear ask thing 🥺 i know nothing about gear

hi there anon! thank you so much for the ask!!! this is gonna be a long one, so i'm going to put it under a cut! there will be a summary at the end of these, since I know these are all gonna get pretty long. i'll also be trying to include game footage and pictures of every player i do for this ask game! also...if you guys want further explanations on what i'm saying about the gear itself, i'm always happy to go more in depth!

so, without further ado, let's get into the essay i'm gonna write about the VGK's Zach Whitecloud!

---

So first, here's Zach Whitecloud's current gear specs (via. GearGeek):

Helmet: Bauer, Re-Akt 150

Glove: Bauer, Vapor 2X Pro

Stick: Bauer, Vapor Hyperlite

Skates: Bauer, Vapor Hyperlite

So, my first impression with Whitecloud, even if I didn't know who he was and just by looking at his gear, is that when he's playing, he likes to be as quick and as agile as possible.

The fact that almost all of his equipment is in the Vapor family might as well be a big bright neon sign telling me that- the Vapor family of Bauer's products are specifically designed to be lighter so that the player using it can be more mobile, agile, and quick.

The players using Vapor skates like to be able change directions at the drop of a hat, and while they may not be getting those super powerful and aggressive strides that other players have, they're pretty quick.

Players who use the Vapor line of sticks typically take a lot of snapshots and wrist shots, and want a quicker release on their shot vs. a more powerful/harder one. These players are more of your "sniper" archetype when they're taking shots.

Keeping in mind that Whitecloud also isn't super big for a defenseman, standing at 6'2" and weighing in at about 210 lbs, this kinda makes sense. I feel like being a bit of a smaller guy is a key feature of his playing style. He often plays on a pair with Nic Hague, who is pretty much a giraffe (6'6" and 230lb)- but if you look at how they play together, you'll often see that Hague sticks closer to the net while Whitecloud is usually chasing the puck carrier. Usually your quicker defenseman will be doing that, while the bigger/slower of the pair will stay closer to the net to prevent the other team from scoring that way.

Whitecloud also is far from what we would call a "stay at home" defenseman. He is often moving, often following the puck, and often doing everything he can to make sure the puck is either in the VGK's offensive zone, or far from their net. Another thing of note is that Whitecloud has quite the offensive streak for someone who plays defense- he scores quite a few goals in a season, and often knows what to do to get his forwards that puck if he can't score it himself. He can play both sides of the game pretty well, which is always an asset to any team.

For the more "off ice" aspect of things, Whitecloud definitely strikes me as someone who knows what he likes. He's entirely using Bauer, and clearly it's working very well for him.

He also seems like somebody who's pretty practical; his skates and his stick are the newest top line Vapor model, while his gloves and helmet are ever so slightly older (the Re-Akt 150 helmet released ~2019, while the 2X Pro glove released about the same time). I say that because the gloves and helmet, as far as pure performance goes, are not really as important as skates or sticks. They also tend to be able to take more of a beating than your skates or your stick, especially when you're on the ice as much as an NHLer is. In short, he's got great priorities as far as his gear goes and probably wants to maximize his skillset as much as possible.

Here's some stuff I found that might be able to show this a bit better than just words):

First, I found some example videos of Zach Whitecloud on the ice, some even going back to juniors:

Video 1

Video 2 (*this is Whitecloud's junior team, he is wearing #29 in these clips, and not his usual #2)

Video 3 (**shows footage from junior (where he is wearing #29), and his stint with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL (where he is wearing #32), and even has some neat background info on him!)

The TL;DR on Zach Whitecloud: Whitecloud is a competitive player who knows what his strengths are, and capitalizes on them. He really loves the game, and only wants to grow as a player as his career goes on. I see a lot of drive looking at his gear AND looking at footage of him playing. There's really nothing unhinged about him gear wise, but it is very fascinating to see what makes his brand of hockey work!

side note, but Whitecloud has one of the most normal tape jobs I've ever seen:

anyways...that's my analysis on Zach Whitecloud! I hope you enjoyed, anon! :)

got a player you want me to talk about? send me an ask about them!

[missnight0wl]

“I'm curious, what would you say to Rakepick if you had the chance, Helena?”

This is something that was on my mind pretty much since Rowan died. So, now that the game basically called me out with that question in the recent chapter, I suppose it’s time to deliver the answer.

Minor spoilers for Y6Ch30, but also not really, because it’s mostly about my “Six minutes” AU anyway.

Words: 2205

Helena and Jae were waiting near the entrance to the Kitchens for a while when Tonks finally showed up, waving her hand at them from afar.

“Sorry I’m late!” she said in a hushed voice.

“The Hufflepuff Basement is the nearest, Tonks. How you’re coming last?” Helena teased her.

“Don’t you know it’s always that way? You think that you have time ‘cause it’s not far, and suddenly, you should’ve left ten minutes ago.”

“That’s true, I can confirm,” Jae backed her up. “I’m almost always late to the next class if it’s on the same level. I mean, I’m usually late to the classes in general, but…” He paused to clear his throat.

The Ravenclaw raised her eyebrow. “Fair enough.”

“What?” He furrowed his brow and shrugged. “All right, but can we go now?”

The girls nodded, so he approached the portrait with a bowl of fruits and tickled a pear. It giggled quietly and turned into a green door handle, letting them enter inside.

“Aren’t you worried sometimes that they might just cut that fireplace off one day?” asked Tonks as they walked between the tables.

“To be honest, I am,” replied Helena. “I’m always a bit nervous using it.”

“Maybe we should start casting the Freezing Charm, just in case?”

“They won’t cut it off,” stated Jae confidently. “It works since forever. If they wanted to detect and close it, it’d happen by now.”

“You’re an expert here,” Helena said with a smile, but then she frowned. “Damn it, is it Pitts coming?”

Both Jae and Tonks glanced back in the direction she was facing. It was enough distraction for her to draw her wand.

“Petrificus Totalus!”

One after another, her friends fell to the ground, motionless. Helena walked closer to them to look into their eyes expressing shock and confusion.

“I’m sorry…” she said in a low voice. “I’m so sorry, but I have to do this alone.”

She scanned the Kitchens. Most House-Elves were busy with their work, but a few were watching her closely.

“They’re fine!” she spoke a bit louder. “We’re just… we’re just playing! You know how students are with their jokes.”

She was aware that she didn’t sound the most convincing, but nobody intervened either way. She felt brief relief that she succeeded in the first part of her plan until she turned around again.

“Pitts!” she gasped. “I can explain…” The House-Elf was standing right in front of her, a mix of suspicion and disapproval on his face. Helena never thought that she could feel so bad about disappointing him. “Actually, I can’t. I have to go to Knockturn Alley, and I have to go alone.”

“Helena Ellis has detention tomorrow.”

She stared at him owlishly. “Yes. I know… I remember.”

“Helena Ellis better be on time. Pitts doesn’t like it when students are late.”

For a moment, she didn’t know how to react. Was she being sent off of the Kitchens? Would Pitts try to stop her if she didn’t get out? Would he alarm Dumbledore? But the House-Elf only get closer to Jae and Tonks to check on them. Then, he looked back at her, and she could’ve sworn that he pointed at the fireplace. It wasn’t time for pondering, though. She took a handful of Floo Powder out of her bag and threw it into the flames before Pitts could’ve changed his mind. Shortly after that, she was in the Leaky Cauldron.

“It’s rather late for trips to Diagon Alley, don’t you think?”

The landlord was watching her narrowly from behind the bar.

“I… I just need a book for tomorrow’s exam,” she stuttered out.

Tom shook his head. “It might be your worst lie yet.”

He didn’t say anything more, so Helena just gave him an apologizing look and ran out of the pub. Right before turning into Knockturn Alley, she hid around the corner to put on the Invisibility Cloak which Jae gave her previously for keeping. She started moving even faster now, but by the time Borgin and Burkes was in reach of her sight, she realised she was too late: Rakepick was just leaving the store. Helena cussed in her mind as she was hoping to have more time for preparation, even if only mentally. Still, nobody followed the Curse-Breaker, so she decided on the spot to take a risk and headed in the same lane.

“Rakepick! We need to talk!” she called, getting the Invisibility Cloak off when the distance between them was appropriately small.

The witch turned around casually with a smirk on her face.

“You’re approaching me in the place like that, and your wand is not ready? How reckless of you.”

It was true. Helena was holding her wand, but her arm was hanging freely along her body. She wouldn’t defend herself in time if she was attacked right away.

“Funny, you sound almost like my brother,” she said before she considered her words.

It seemed to amuse Rakepick even more. “Tell me, Miss Ellis. Do you trust him?”

The girl froze hearing that question. Why would she ask about that from all things? She clenched her jaw, once again feeling like Rakepick could read her like an open book – quite literally.

“None of your business.”

“Do you?” she insisted.

“It doesn’t matter. And why’d you even care?”

“Very well.” She didn’t stop smiling. “You wanted to talk, I’m listening then.”

She was too calm. Something was wrong, but Helena couldn’t figure it out yet. She quickly glanced sideways.

“Don’t worry, we won’t be disturbed,” said Rakepick. “I suppose you have some questions.”

She hesitated before answering. “I do.” She came closer to her opponent. “Why did you do this?”

“You have to be more specific.”

“Why did you do anything of what you did?” she snapped. “You said you want to kill me, then why you didn’t? If you’re so powerful, then why a group of teenagers defeated you in the vault? And then, in the Forest…” The words stuck in her throat, and she had to swallow hard. “Why didn’t you kill me? You had a clear shot, you just had to immobilise Ben and Merula. Just… why?”

Rakepick was unaffected. “You know why.”

Helena paused again. She was trying to keep eye contact all that time, but her voice was much quieter when she finally spoke. “Because you want to lure me.”

“And you came here so I’d kill you, preventing R from getting what they want. Pretty smart. Not without reason, you’re my favourite.” She crossed her arms. To Helena’s surprise, she didn’t get her wand. “Still, why would I go along with your plan?”

A lump in her throat was growing bigger, and she felt that her eyes are getting teary, whether from fear or anger. “Every day since Rowan died, I wish you killed me instead…”

“Do you want to tell me that you’re surrendering?” interrupted Rakepick. “So easily?”

“No, I’m not. You have to stop wanting to fight to surrender, and I never wanted to fight. You have to have hope and lose it to surrender, and I lost mine when you left me! I just… I just wanted to keep my friends safe…” Her voice cracked.

“I praised you a moment ago, don’t ruin it like that now,” complained Rakepick, watching her with her head slightly tilted.

“Just do it,” said Helena through her teeth. A tear fell down her cheek, but she didn’t care anymore. “You hate me, don’t you?! I can’t be this important to them!”

“You have no idea how important you are.”

“What, you want me to put up a fight?! Fine, I can pretend!”

If she didn’t want to kill her, Helena’s going to force her to that. She assumed the stance and was raising her hand already, but Rakepick - instead of drawing her own wand - unexpectedly leant forward, gripping her wrist and twisting it off to the side as if she wanted to avoid getting hit by the spell that way. It didn’t really matter, though. For one, that reaction threw Helena off so much that she didn’t even think of using magic. Moreover, in the very next moment, everything went black and some unknown force started pushing on her whole body, making it hard to breathe. And then, it all stopped, as suddenly as it began.

Helena inhaled sharply. She blinked quickly a couple of times, trying to adjust her eyes to seeing again, and she realised that she’s not in Knockturn Alley anymore. She was standing in some kind of field. Well, they were standing – Rakepick was still with her.

“Are you all right, Miss Ellis?” she asked indifferently. “I hope you’re not gonna vomit.”

“Did we just Apparate?” she rasped out, furrowing her brow. “What the hell is going on...?”

“Helen!”

She turned around, trying to identify a person calling her name, but also spot anything which would tell her where they were. And then, she saw her – running towards her, a bright smile on her face. In the next moment, she was embracing her tightly. Her impact spun them both a little in the way that Helena was facing Rakepick again.

“Miss Khanna, you were told to wait at the house.” There was a sign of reprimand in her voice, but her expression remained neutral.

“I know, I’m sorry. I just couldn’t--” Rowan paused half-sentence, only to make her hug even stronger.

“That’s okay, Patricia. I took care of it, we’re safe.”

A male voice was coming from behind Helena’s back - a very familiar voice. She couldn’t see the face of the man, though, as she was restricted by her best friend’s hold. The friend who was supposed to be dead.

_____

Tonks was pacing back and forth on a short distance in the Kitchens.

“Tonks, could you stop and just sit down already?” Jae murmured, rubbing his forehead.

“I can’t, I’m too nervous…”

“Well, you’re making me more nervous too.”

The girl suddenly halted in her tracks. “Maybe we should go for Dumbledore after all?”

“And get into big trouble?”

“Helen might be in trouble right now!” she snapped.

“No, I know…” Jae stood up and walked to Pitts who was keeping an eye on them. “C’mon, Pitts. She’s gone for too long. You have to let us go after her.”

“Jae Kim and Nymphadora Tonks can wait in the Kitchens. If they don’t want to wait, they have to leave.”

“Pitts! I beg you--” started Jae, but he was interrupted by green flames showing up in the nearest fireplace and Helena emerging out of them.

Tonks made a short strangled sound and rushed to her. The Ravenclaw appeared to be scared about what to expect, only to calm down when Tonks hugged her. Still, when she eventually let her go, she punched her arm hard.

“Ouch!” Helena hissed. “It hurt!”

“It was supposed to hurt!” Tonks yelled at her. “What the hell was that?! Have you lost your mind entirely?”

“I’m sorry!” Helena gave her and Jae a remorseful look. “I really am! But I couldn’t put you in danger like that...”

“And what about the danger you put yourself in?” Jae joined in.

“There was no danger,” she replied weakly.

“What?” they asked in unison.

Helena shrugged slightly. “There was no one there. I had a feeling the whole deal with the Whomping Willow might be just some crazy conspiracy theory, I even talked with Talbott about that.”

Tonks raised her eyebrow with her arms crossed. “So, what took you so long then?”

“I’ve been waiting there for a while. Thought that maybe I’m too early or they’d come back.”

“I can recognise a liar when I see one, and you’re lying like a rug, ma’am.”

“I’m not, Jae! I’m just angry that all that planning was for nothing. We only wasted time.”

“Wait, hold on.” Tonks was clearly pondering on something. “But you did find a Black Quill, didn’t you? How you explain that?”

“I dunno. I mean, someone has to hear about Black Quills finally. The rumours spread at Hogwarts like wildfire, and I keep finding them for years. Whoever it was, they had to pull a stupid prank on me.” Neither Tonks nor Jae seemed to be convinced. “I’m serious! Look, I’m not even hurt! Do you really think I’d be back in one piece if R was there and I was alone? Why would I even lie to you about that?”

They exchanged glances, but they backed down. Pitts also started complaining about their presence in the Kitchens, so they decided that it’s better to evacuate. When they were outside already, Tonks insisted to walk Helena all the way to the Ravenclaw Tower, but Jae took that responsibility on himself - it was an unnecessary risk for her to go back later. Two of them quickly sneaked through empty corridors and finally reached a parting point.

“Listen, Jae, I’m really sorry about earlier.”

He smirked. “Don’t worry, I’ll find the way you can repay me. But, Helen…” He got more serious. “If anything happened there that--”

“Everything’s fine, I swear,” she cut in and hugged him. “It’s all gonna be all right.”

[celestialallstars]

Episode #5: “Every party is a pitbull party when I'm around” - Chloe

Honestly? I hope Sharky understands that all of it clearly was gamewise. I didn't care about his level of activity, but I cared about my game and unfortunately he was not apart of it. Having that out of the way, I want to use this next immunity to have a little bit more control for my game!

omg sharky left im sad 2 pots back to back although my pots is always gonna be brian <3 but yaa this so sad i wanted him to stay but votes werent there hes prob pressed but also like not my fault he was not as active i mean mitch isnt either but if sharky talked more hed be here know that

Zzzzz classic celestial double tribal. I bet we swap again at 15 and keep 3 tribes. AM I WRONG ANNA? AM I???? I’m just praying we win bc I, again, really don’t want to have to choose between Michael and drew. It’s just not FAIR to send either of them home rn but even though I know I’m safe with this majority I still want to be immune, and just pray I don’t get fucked by a swap here. If I can hit merge, I’ll be in good shape I think. Just gotta get there

DONT STOP THE PARTY. Every party is a pitbull party when I'm around

Chris seems very loyal to me So to have Bryce and Chris not willing to turn against me is going to bode really well for my long-term game I don't mind booting Stephen if we lose but I think I might be able to keep him If it will be good for me to have the thing with Mitch and Stephen at merge But the thing is, Tuatha would have to win immunity for it to be worth it to keep Stephen Because if they lose then Mitch is going to go, and what use is Stephen without Mitch?

WHY DO PEOPLE INSIST ON PLAYING LIKE THEY CANT CLEAN AFTER THEMSELVES? Kori slips his alliances, Stephen leaks his alliances, Rhys and Jared want Stephen out while Stephen wants Mitch to be used to go for Bryce and Kori despite all of these people being in an alliance together, Michael is asking for my hand in marriage, Chloe feels hopeless like me, Zach himself is a mess, Loris an even bigger mess yet I like them, Drew probably is ready to puzzle me and Loris out the door, Jack and Alyssa are problematically beautiful, Bodhi is just here, and Mo is going to kill us all with kindness.

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So now I'm gonna see if I can save Stephen since him going can hurt me a little. It's becoming clear to me that Loris talks to Rhys or Jared or maybe even Stephen but honestly? If Stephen is only saying Bryce and Kori's name then why not keep him and make him THINK that everyone is not onto him and them save him for later? Honestly even use him to take a shot at Bryce and Kori if all of them wanna but to take him out now even despite his problematic ways seems short shortsighted...at least I'm gonna try to get them to feel that way! Itll start by convincing Jared to convince  Rhys they should wait

So let's see it's about half an hour before the challenge is due. Sharky went home as was according to plan. 5-1 no surprises or anything. Immediately Anna slaps us in the face with her dick and we're face to face with a Double Tribal Challenge.

Would've probably done better if it was Sunday instead of Monday but unfortunately work got in the way and there really just isn't much I could do bout that. I'm HOPING we somehow pulled out a win. There's several elements where I'm thinking we probably got last but we also might've lucked out. To be quite honest, I'm not optimistic in the least. But I want to hold out hope that our luck will somehow turn out.

Everyone in this game is so good at challenges so it really takes some crazy stuff to pull things out. I also feel like I might be playing just slightly too relaxed on the social-strategic front, but there also hasn't been much to do other than try to maybe build bonds with people and try to be nice/likable. Most of the time when I'm at tribal the thing I want has tended to be the simplest and easiest thing to do for me.

Anyway, time to start my prayer to hopefully win this challenge and not get dicked by AnnaJane.

I'm kinda having this subtle realization that I'm in this alone. Which sounds obvious but like I don't know. As soon as I found out we lost I had this mindset of "Well just gotta hope the others choose to spare me." but bitch that's my fate I wanna choose what happens to it. So that's what I'm gonna try to do.

WE ARENT GOING TO THE DOUBLE TRIBAL BABY AND FOR THAT IM GRATEFUL. When I initially saw that the challenge was all flash games i was freaking. Im usually not the best at flash games, but i really stepped it up and won my portion of the challenge. I hope and think Jared and Stephen will be fine, so I am hoping we swap after this. If we dont, then it might be crazy if we go back to tribal. Loris wants to blindside Kori but idk if that is the best move for me.

So since we're one of the two tribes going to tribal we're currently in that phase of "fuck what do we do." and I'm gonna be honest its only a matter of who grabs the reins first and usually to see who is okay with said person driving. So I took it upon myself to grab those reins because if everyone's just sitting waiting I feel like my name has a chance of coming up. So instead of sitting and waiting for something that may not even happen, why not try to make something happen. So I threw out Stephen's name to Zach knowing that they have a "history" with the whole idol situation. Zach said he'd be fine with that, then I'm like going to Rhys like "Ok so it wasn't technically a name drop but I have heard Stephen's name" and Rhys was like "oh yeah I get that because he doesn't talk often." so I'm like yeah I'm thinking that too. This has such a high chance of turning around against me but if this does work I'm not gonna be able to do shit for a while without looking like a threat. Also if this does work I'm gonna feel like such a suave bitch, like oooh. Goat? Idk her... I'm gonna be eliminated.

God this fucking sucks. Real Sophie’s Choice moment here picking between Drew and Michael I don’t want to vote either of them out but also I’m not turning on Matt/Alyssa/Bodhi. Drew messaged me last night saying he didn’t want to go like this and it just killed me. I really don’t know what to do

Since we lost the challenge, campaign season has begun on Orfeo. The first 2 people I talked to were Jared and Zach. I suggested Mo as the easy vote since he's isolated original-tribewise and didn't perform well in the challenge, and Jared agreed immediately.

Zach was, in his own words, wishy-washy. I really don't like wishy-washy players at this stage of the game. It makes a bit more sense at merge or at the very beginning but if I'm gonna flip on Jared or Rhys at some point I want somewhere solid to land, Zach, Mo, and Chloe don't appear to be the players I'd want to make that jump with. They don't talk openly about game which makes it difficult to trust them.

Rhys also seemed okay with this plan but he was drunk last night so who knows LMAO. My conversations with Mo and Chloe were essentially meaningless. All I got from them was this deal that they'd tell me if I heard their name and likewise for them. Maybe they have an alternative and don't think they have to talk game with me. I do think I'm gonna try and play it safe for this vote and just push for voting Mo with Jared and Rhys. Hopefully the trust between us stays strong.

♪ I’m almost confident this will backfire and I will be eliminated~ ♪

So we lost this double tribal. Which low-key is probably good. Because were not gonna be on these tribes forever. So its good to cement some form of alliance from it.

It seems like its either Mo or Stepehen going tonight so that's good. There is pros and cons to both. Mo is from a different tribe and is more social to me. I feel like Mo wont be dis loyal so he would be a great ally. It would also show that I'm willing to work with other people moving forward, opening more doors. However in doing so, I may be closing a door on my old alliance of 5. So yes I am scared.

Right now I’m a bottom on the bottom so I’m gonna have to push it push it real good to flip some votes onto bodhi, I have a pretty good relationship with Alyssa and me and Matt have been in cahoots all game, but this is all stars and if I have to turn on Drew I’m not holding back I am not going home tonight, tomorrow or ever. I just can’t go!

So after I talked to Jared last night I proposed the big alliance idea to Zach without asserting I wanted it. Leaving it up in the air could make him less likely to think I'm pushing it. SO while that is going on, Jared filled me in on Rhys' anti-Steph brigade but it sounds like they may cave to voting Mo. ON TOP OF IT ALL, Kori and Bryce literally were saying they'd like a Tuatha-Orfeo alliance which coincidentally coincides with the big alliance? Huh. But if they're genuine then this has A LOT of potential.

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I do feel like I'm playing messy but I told myself I'd play a little different if it meant increasing my odds. I wont try getting too hopeful just yet. Now I've told Steph that BK wama have our tribes work together and this left Steph reiterating how it sets us up nicely that nobody suspects us. I truly feel people will suspect Loris/Steph before me/Steph but still I know me and him are close so if we can last long enough to play legit together, it will be amazing. Woooo go friends

so we r at tribal again, love that for us! 3rd one of the season, thus making all OG Cyrena having been to the most tribal councils. I did pretty poorly on the challenge, but as did multiple others its no big deal. I'm pretty shit at winning immunity anyway so its ok.

I feel like i am in a similar position as with last time i played. I'm clearly very weak socially (and admit it, ive been MUCH busier than i thought i was going to be since university has started) and have a tight 3 who all are like pretty close together, and have multiple advantages. So im being very loyal atm. just quieter than i would like. I find some of these ppl v.boring tho and you can tell some are just doing the rounds to keep face so they can't be accused of a bad social game LOL. Sharky also left last round which makes me SO sad UGH. MY ONE TRUE LOVE, KILLED TRAGICALLY BEFORE WE COULD BE REUNITED. Its like romeo and juliet, only with a gay and a straight and the gay got stoned to death by evil people. fucking RUDE.

This vote tho... its.... interesting. Maybe i WILL shove my head in the sand, get wildly drunk and just ignore everything that is going on. sounds much better tbh. I feel like a warrior ant, just being told what to do, no matter what is going on. Alyssa is genuinely looking out for me however, and wants bodhi gone as we still have 2 big shields due to the lovely meta game as both are known to be big players. Both will go along with it as well, as it saves their skin (drew and michael). Not sure how Jack is going to take it because i can't tell their connection together, mainly cause bodhi and I barely have one. and i think that is the issue. I don't know him well enough so i don't really care about him being voted off (its better tho tbh cause i genuinely like and care about michael and drew, lets be real matthew.) not sure if its a timezone thing or just my sheer laziness and lack of social game, i am unsure.

omfg im immune at double tribal. im coming 15th again tho. i hope not. idk. like. i think ill be fine even if we swap..... like. i think im good with quite a few people? despite the fact ive disappeared this week ok yeah that's true i think i'm wrong. we'll see :sob:

Do I want to keep Drew and Michael? Absolutely. Does that mean I'm okay with Bodhi going? Fuck no. Bodhi is loyal to me, Bodhi will not turn on me, Bodhi is not a threat to me. But Bodhi is threatening to Alyssa and Matt and they're my closest allies and they want to keep Drew and Michael and now we're blindsiding Bodhi because tribal lines DON'T FUCKING MATTER. I mean don't get me wrong, fuck tribal lines I'm so game to throw that shit in the fire but like, it's not the best move for me. Hopefully this bodes (bodhis haha punny) for me.

Ok now that I think about it going into a merge with less original numbers is actually good for us so maybe this isn't the worst. Idk I just feel bad I really wanted to work with Bodhi and now I basically have to cut him because it's majority on him either way and my allies don't trust him. Sucks man but it's allstars.

It's really next level that I am was able to

1. Keep the vote on Mo (Rhys campaigned against Stephen, and Bryce confirmed to me that Rhys wanted Stephen out) 2. Make Chris feel like he convinced me, and that I'm doing it for him and I, when mostly it's for me and partially for Bryce 3. Secure Zach's loyalty this round (calling with him and talking about game and non-game related things to re-establish our great rapport) 4. Keep Stephen in the dark about Rhys targeting him so that I can use that information for later

And this was all without much time on my hands.

Tribe Trust List 1. Chloe 2. Zach 3. Rhys 4. Stephen 5. Mo

Master Trust List 1. Bryce 2. Chris 3. Chloe 4. Mitch 5. Zach 6. Rhys 7. Stephen 8. Loris 9. Kori 10. Mo 11. Alyssa 12. Michael 13. Bodhi 14. Drew 15. Matt 16. Jack

god i hate this like no one ever wants to do what i want to do why do i have to be a brat every game. like its not like i want to its just ppl refuse to listen to what i want so yes ofc im gonna act out??? UGH

I guess I am about to find out if possible change is needed for my game or not moving forward. I can hope for a million things but all it takes is one to make it all hopeless

So some new information has come to me today. Chris has been approached by Kori with the idea of forming some kind of Tuatha/Orfeo Alliance. This is sort of what I wanted to do already but the fact that other people are proposing it is just great for me.

This just adds another reason to vote Mo out. He's original Cyrena and could become a part of a resistance to this group once merge hits. I'm personally pulling for this alliance to be made. It just brings me one step closer to the end and unites my major allies (Chris, Mitch, Jared, Kori) under a single flag.

---

ANNNNNND There's been some drama on the old Orfeo tribe! Mo admitted to me that he's tried to vote me out, but due to the fact that people aren't talking to him, he now thinks the vote has switched to him, which is, hopefully, correct. If Mo had made a proposal like this to me right after we lost the challenge or before, I would've had to think about it, but as it stands, he's one person who has seriously thrown my name out there. I can't let that slide.

So, I devised a plan.

Step 1: Lie

How DARE Mo throw my name out there? I would never do something like that to him! Except I did, to everyone on the tribe, whoops. It's okay though, I lied and said Rhys did it, and I think he believed me.

Step 2: Join the resistance

Mo wants to get Rhys out, great. I'm happy it's not me. But that's a bad and unrealistic idea. SO I told him that in order to get a 3rd person willing to tie with us, we should target Chloe instead, and aim to recruit Jared.

Step 3: Recruitment

Now me and Mo are trying to recruit Jared one hour before tribal council. Except, not really. It's just Mo. I've told Jared about my plan to get Mo's vote off of me and he's in on it. Now, Jared can tell Mo the truth, or lie, and it doesn't really matter. Mo seems to feel too guilty to vote for me at this point. So mission accomplished.

Villains DO have more fun, don't they?

(I'm gonna look like such a dumb jackass if this plan doesn't work whoop, but oh well, I managed to fit one contrived plan into my time on All-Stars, so it's worth it!)

So right now I’m very nervous about this vote because even though people have said I’m safe I know bodhi is voting for me and he might just have an idol so like that’s my worry of getting idolled out lollll but uh I’m pretty worried about tonight so worried I might just throw my vote onto Drew and really protect myself and give me at least a little chance of staying due to an idol but who knows!

I think this is my last day which makes me incredibly sad. I feel like a failure if I’m being honest. There’s a slim chance I’ll stay. I had such a fun time playing.

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I was destined to be an early boot

Update:

So I can't use Rhys campaigning against Stephen this round as effectively.

Stephen knows his name was thrown out by Mo, because Mo TOLD him. Then Mo made a pitch to Stephen to work together, and Stephen told Mo that I might vote Chloe.

Long-story-short, it was just a ploy by Stephen to get Mo's vote off of him. I did a lil magic to make Stephen feel secure that I had his best intentions at heart, and I let Mo down easily that he is going home.

Mo was a fighter in this game and I give him all due respect. Now watch him idol me out ugh 16th looks cute on me

YAAASSSSS we woooooooonnn! I'm so happy to be avoiding this double tribal. If I can make merge at least that'd be a dream.

I had a conversation with Bryce and Chris and they don't seem opposed to doing a sort of pagonging of the Cyrenas because we talk with them the least. I'm not sure if that'll actually be an option come merge but if it is that'd definitely help me make it deeper in this game as a majority of my connections are my OG tribe barring Clohie, Chris, Loris, Drew, and Bodhi. Honestly if more OG Cyrena's like Matt, Alyssa, Jack, and Michael found themselves going this premerge I wouldn't complain.

I'm getting real tired of missing this idol system time window like a dolt though, I've no doubt I'm gonna pay for it later. But I also did win my game without idols so it's not like I HAVE to have them. It'd just be nice to shake things up since I did wanna play differently this time.

Anywho back to celebrating! Woooooooo~

WHY DOES MY TRIBE SUCK AT EVERYTHING....At least they're not voting me out this round. Matt tried to give me an "option" after an hour negotiation that Alyssa already said he was down for, but he wanted me to think it was coming from him. Isn't that adorable.

RIP Bodhi

________________________________________________________________

Bodhi and Mo are voted out in a double elimination.