#also felt totally out of place being one of the few people not wearing eagles gear

[reallygroovyninja]

I survived my drive. I never thought I would be so happy to see a big blue Ikea building as I was to see the one in Conshohocken. Seeing that building meant I could hop onto surface streets if traffic backed up again.

[goth-girlfriend]

Just wondering and no pressure here! Are you ever gonna finish the Endeavor fic? Love ur works bby and stay safe out there! <3

Yes yes yes 😤😭 Anything for you sweetheart and especially anything for Enji. Take care of yourself ❤️❤️

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“What?” I yawned out loud to myself pushing myself up. My arm was sore from sleeping on it, I looked around and blinked at the light that had made itself known. I tried to push to sit up being held down by a familiar weight. I yawned again, before rolling over under Enji’s arm. I pressed my back against his warm side resting on my arm that wasn’t sore. I pulled his arm around my waist to feel like I was being held in place.

“Ah, security.” I sighed using his shoulder and bicep as a pillow, “Not soft at all.” I snuggled against the firm muscle until I heard a throaty chuckle. His chest shook lightly and I looked up at him he was awake. His eyes lidded from sleep still fighting against consciousness, I watched a faint smile pull at the corners of his lips, I couldn’t fight the most likely idiotic looking grin that surfaced. I laughed and shook my head as quietly as I could. I turned in his arm and hugged his chest. I watched as he moved his free arm behind his head, his bicep bulged at the unintentional flexing.

“Good morning.” I smiled and let my head fall against his shoulder while I looked up at him. It felt perfect, this moment. The morning sun filtered by the beige curtains lighting the room in gold with a few thin slits of white sunlight breaking through. The white duvet stopping at waist, open sleeping shirt, messy hair, pressed into his side sighing content. The rumble of the AC filling the silence, soft breathing, its perfect. In this moment, in this place, there is no history, there is no future, its us in this moment. With nothing to ruin the moment I sighed and closed my eyes feeling the faint heat of his rising chest.

“Good morning.” He finally answered, voice deeper than usual, I felt him shuffle, before I felt his lips pressed onto the top of my head. I felt my eyes flutter involuntary, and my heart swelling. I smiled closing my eyes enjoying the closeness, perfect, this is perfect.

“DDAAAAAAADD!!” I blinked a few times remembering where we were, I watched as he groaned rubbing his face with his hand and sitting up leaving me behind.

“Yes, Fuyumi?” He called starting to stand up doing a few basic stretches.

”Y/N IS GONE DID YOU HEAR ANYTHING THIS MORNING MAYBE SHE LEFT TO GET BREAKFAST?!” She screamed through the door, I watched the door handle jiggle, thanking God I locked it last night.

“Yes, I heard someone moving this morning. It could have been (L/N), why don’t you go look around down stairs, I need to shower and get ready.” He yawned before he stood popping his back.

“Mmm...” there was a pause and some shuffling.

I heard Sho’s faint voice “Fuyumi, look y/n sent me message this morning saying she was going to a nearby convinience store to buy some things she had forgotten. She’ll be back soon.” I sighed thanking God once again that I had told Shoto my password all those weeks ago.

“Alright, DON’T MIND DAD!” She screamed before I heard them walk away, Great, now how am I supposed to leave? I looked around, “Does that window open?” I asked pointing to the window in the room. “It‘s a balcony.” Enji pulled back the curtains revealing an pretty good sized balcony with fancy railing. I was wearing sleeping shorts and a long sleeve shirt with some socks, I‘ll fly down, and just walk back in... but I went to the store.... so I need to come back with something. “Can I have ten dollars?” I smiled sheepishly looking at Enji.“

He sighed before turning to the dresser and pulled out a bill out of his wallet. I grinned and thanked him, “I’ll be back in, five or ten minutes.” I shrugged and opened the Balcony window. Taking eagle form, I dived down into an alley way barrel rolling and lading back on human feet. I walked out and stopped outside a tourist shop. The shop owner was placing out a box of mini hero figures, the same figures from that night we patrolled. These were a new release with the change to get Gold or Silver All Might, Endeavour or Hawks. I got excited and rushed in, I “went to the store”, but I never said what for. the packs were on sale, 2 for $5.00. And lucky for me, I had managed to get a $50. Each box comes with 12 lucky bags each bag has 3 mini figures, there are only 10 Pro hero’s currently released in this line. I have a ten percent chance of getting Endeavour, All Might or Hawks, if you add the 6 new figures to the line thats 16 characters in total. Meaning there are three possible Endeavor, All Might and Hawks,,, But, the chances of getting a special edition, would be 2 of 16 which should be 12.5 out of 100. If I multiply by three that raises the chance 37.5 of 100. So out of all 36 Figures that means I have to at least get 1 limited edition Per box, bu counting in these are the first boxes to pull in customers, they overload the limited ones to make it look easy so people will be convinced to buy them because it’s “easy” to find a limited figure... meaning... “ill give you $50 even for both boxes.”

I turned to look at the cashier guy who seemed unimpressed but nodded, “I usually sell boxes for $30 dollars each but  I feel generous 25 each plus taxes.”

“How about $20 plus taxes.” I counter offered. He squinted at me before he made another offer, we went at this until we were back at my original offer. “Alright, this is my last offer,” he huffed and stared at me hard, “$50 dollars cash, no taxes, and IF you become a Pro Hero you do advertising free for my shop.”

I laughed and nodded, “Deal.” He packed the boxes and I paid him before we parted ways. By the time I made it back to the hotel Fuyumi rushed to me with a look of worry. “Where were yOU I WAS WORRIED?!” 

I smiled, “I was in the middle of a very serious conversation about some very serious things.” 

“A toy store, that bag says you were at a toy store.” Shoto said sounding very unimpressed.

I smiled and let out a sheepish laugh, “well...” I looked down and hid the bag behind me, “I never said I went to buy anything important.” 

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“Ow......ow.......nooooo stop.” I whined feeling one more tug at my hair and finally it fell down.

“There, we’re done.” Fuyumi fluffed my hair a bit before smoothing it out again, “Now lets go, before Natsuo starts causing a fuss.” She ushered me to move and I did leading our way to the elevator.

“Alright,“ I sighed slouching a little... “....Wanna see something cool?” I asked standing back up, Fuyumi cocked a brow by smiled a little, “Alright, I do actually.”

I dug into my pocket and pulled out a gold endeavor figure, “Boom, its your dad.“ I took her hand and placed it in her palm, “You can have that, I have another one.” I smiled when she let out a slight laugh. “Thank you, I’ll keep him with my keys.” We stood in a comfortable silence until the doors opened and we started to move out I asked, “Soooo, what are we doing after this award ceremony?” I asked tilting my head in curiosity.”

“I don’t know, she said he lips pulling to the side in a displeased way, “They didn’t let me plan out this trip so its a surprise for the both of us.” My only answer was to nod while I smiled down at the ground, “Sounds Fun.”

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”Aren’t those kids from UA?” The voices of photographers were loud with there questions as flashes went of left and right, “Why are they with Pro Hero Endeavor?” “I don’t know but these kids could pull in the views!”

“Todoroki! A question if you Will!” “Hey Midoriya Over here!” “L/N! Can you pose for a few photos!” “Todoroki look over here!” Midoriya whats it like to learn from Pro Hero All Might??” “L/N! L/N! Are you affiliated with Todoroki or Midoriya?”

As much as I love getting my photo taken, I knew sticking around for pictures and questions in this scenario is probably the last thing I should do. So instead I stayed close to Natsuo almost sandwiched between him and Fuyumi. I stayed betwen them as we kept moving, Sho and Deku were behind us not rushing, Sho seemed unaffected and Deku was looking down red faced and embarrassed. It was kinda cute. I looked back ahead watching Enji ignore everyone moving forward with purpose and carrying himself with pride. I smiled watching him I know not everyone can see him or respect him as the number one hero but, to me, He can be so much more if only people would give him a chance. I know he’s not the most kind person in public, but with the right sidekick or partner that could change easy. When Hawks was with him those brief days, his like ability actually raised. So I know all it takes is someone pushing him to be more interactive with his fans, he knows now there are some that like him, bit i also understand why it’s so hard for him to accept it...

“Alright, were in, lets go find some seats.”

The ceremony went by slowly, I was bored listening to a bunch of speeches but at least made it look like I was paying attention. I couldn’t even sit by Enji because Fuyumi took my place, and then I managed to get stuck between Natsuo and Sho and they kept talking and we had to refrain from laughing to loud at a few things. Midoriya was so interested in everything that was happening and i started to pay attention when they actually started calling name, Sho and Natsuo stopped after Fuyumi told them to shut up. Which I appreciated now that things were getting interesting. I listened to the awards leaning forward more and more as more hero’s showed up collecting awards and moving on with speeches each with their own rounds of applause. I got this twisted feeling about Eniji going so I whispered to Sho who voiced the idea of us cheering for their dad and Fuyumi praised him for caring about their dad and he took the praise. So when Enji was called for an award of Achievement and a few other things the crowd applauded but how it normaly had so I stood up pulling Sho and Natsuo with me which caused Fuyumi and Midoriya to stand we clapped louder and cheered “For the new Number one Hero!” I screamed and then the five of us cheered more as others started to stand and clap louder. I looked at Fuyumi who smiled back and nodded. After the crowd calmed down and sat he gave a short speech, almost another thirty minutes of closing speech we finally got to leave.

“Finally! I’m free!” I cheered running straigh into Natsuo’s back as he stopped out of nowhere. “My face.” I groaned pushing away from him, it was in that moment I realized how big he actually was, “Wow, you’re actually tall.” I leaned to use his head to block the sun.

He looked back over his shoulder at me, “huh? Did you say something down there?” He... he just... he just bullied me for my height... “I-...” I look esta him and swallowed, “IM TELLING FUYUMI YOURE BULLYING ME!”

I watched his eyes widen and turned to rush to Fuyumi and he screamed, “wait...NO”

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“Natsuuoooooo?” I poked his cheek as he sat pouting arms crossed, “Nat...Suo? Nat... pssst hey Nat, you still mad?” I poked his cheek again and smiled watching him force back a smile. “Come one, you cant be mad.” I poked his cheek causing him to smile briefly before he forced it back again, so I quickly summoned a feather and poked his cheek distracting him before using it to tickle his other side causing him to laugh.

“Alright fine fine, I’m not mad anymore.” He wheezed as I pulled my feather away, plucking it from the air. “A hero’s work is never done.” I gave an exaggerated sigh and he a single laugh kinda like a scoff, “Some hero you are, you get innocent pedestrians hurt to save them.” he crossed his arms and snapped his head the other way, unamused I felt me brows go up, “Innocent? Pedestrian? You?” I paused when he gave me an offended look. “I don’t think so.”

“Natsuo-“ We turned to look at Shoto, the two of having been sitting outside on a stone bench after Fuyumi scolded him strongly and I pulled into it.

“Yes?” He asked standing up and popping his back.

“Our father, asked if you could head back with Fuyumi to the hotel to pick up her bag of clothes. She left it when she was rushing out. Well meet for lunch before we do anything else.” Shoto said leaning his head to the side slightly.

“Oh,” he looked at me and then over his shoulder at the doors we had both just sulked out of, “yeah, well take a Taxi. I’ll get Fuyumi and we’ll leave.” He nodded and turned to leave.

I moved to stand by Sho, “So?” I asked elbowing him slightly, “how was last night?” “Well, I could ask you the same.” He side eyed me, “Take your phone with you next time you jump out a window.” I didn’t miss the amusement in his eyes, “Right,” I nodded and he closed his eyes a small smile on his lips. “Now, where are we going for lunch?”

“Oh! I read about this American style fondue place! It’s supposed to be really good! So I kinda wanted to try it and I was going to suggest it but, it’s pricey so, eheh, ya know.” I shrugged and Shoto’s brief look of amusement came back, you want what Kaminari told me is a Glucose Guardian, someone who pays for what you want.” I choked, “Sugar daddy.”

“What?”

“What. Nothing, so, lunch? I’m hungry? Also I’m riding in front move.” I rushed past him jumping into the passenger seat before he followed after Deku had met him. I was buzzing in my seat and the took Enji’s hand the moment he was sat and started driving, I squeezed his hand staring out the window, watching the building and cars pass. It felt so nostalgic, but how could it be nostalgic?

“Where are we eating?” I turned to Enji at his question, before looking at Sho through the mirror, “There’s this place Y/n was talking about.” I felt a squeeze to my hand meeting Enji’s stare as he looked at me briefly before looking at the road, “Where is it?”

I smiled and used my free hand to grab my phone, “it’s not to far from here, we should be able to make it in ten minutes if traffic is good.” I clicked away typing the address, “Yup, go straight, take a right at the light, and it should be a large glass building on the corner! It’s a fondue place, more American style!” I tried to talk and explain while squeezing Enji’s hand at the excitement I was feeling. Upon getting to the restaurant we waited a while, having sent Fuyumi and Natsuo the address we waited at least half an hour until we got a call.

“Dad, I don’t think we’ll be able to do lunch today, a really bad wreck caused a traffic jam on this side of the city, it’s an estimated two hour wait until we can move, well find a place to eat once we get closer if you all want to go ahead and eat we’ll be fine.” Before he could answer Shoto spoke “Thank you for your sacrifice.”

“We should go then?” I questioned looking around the car.

“Yes.” Enji said turning the key and opening his door to get out.

After we all got out the car, we started our way towards the restaurant. I awed at it, we made it in met with a nice man, “Welcome to The Melting Hot Pot! How many will be in your party?”

We all looked up at Enji, “Four.” We all nodded, it felt as if we were judging him.

“Would you like a private room or to be seated in our public seating area.”

“Private.” He nodded and the host nodded, “You can follow me this way.”

“Will this be you’re first time dining with us?” We all slid into seats in the large luxurious looking booth, it’s was in a room with a sliding screen door for privacy.

“Yes it will.”

“Great! I’ll give you the crash course before you’re waiter comes to attend to your table.”

After about seven minutes and looking at a menu the Host left and we started to talk about what sounded good.

“Wisconsin cheddar cheese?” Shoto asked.

“Flaming turtle... sounds painful...” Midoriya was staring at the opposite side of the menu.

“Maybe... we should start with a salad? Before we start looking at the fondue, there’s.. Wisconsin Wedge... California... Caesar... and a house, so, what sounds good?”

We tried to talk it out but no luck, we ended up right where we started, until Midoriya looked at Enji, “Mr.Endeavor sir,” I held back a laugh.

He hummed staring at Deku, his face didn’t change making him seem angry or annoyed, “What?”

Midoriya flinched.

“Maybe you.... you have more experience with this than we do, do you have a-any... advice?”

Enji nodded, “Get a California Salad, you’re allowed two cheeses, well get the Wisconsin Cheddar and Quattro Formaggio, for entree you’ll get a classic plate that comes with Pork, shrimp, chicken and steak cooked in a Mojo style broth, and for two desserts you’ll get a flaming turtle and Yin & Yang mix.”

We all stared at him, “Have you been here before?” I asked interested.

“No,” he held up a rectangular piece of plastic lined paper, “It’s a recommended course.”

“That’s very convenient.” I mumbled and we all looked as our waiter slid the door open finally entering.

“Hello, sorry for being late, what can I bring you to drink.”

“A tea, please.” Shoto and Midoriya spoke at the same time.

“Alright, two sweet iced teas,” and for you, she turned to me, “A spirit free watermelon cooler.”

“Good choice, and for you sir?” She turned to Enji who was looking at the menu, “A Billionaire’s Coffee.” He didn’t even look at her.

“Alright,” she looked at us, “I’ll get your drinks and be right back to take your order.”

She left and we casually just sat there looking around at the decor.

“I like the low lights, it’s nice kinda cosy.” I talked out loud to no one, before I looked at Midoriya locking eyes contact, “perfect place for a date.”

He chocked on air and brought his arm to his face blushing stuttering out things I didn’t understand. I laughed a bit, enjoying the show before he calmed down when the waiter appeared.

“Alright, what are we getting?” She looked at us and all I did was look up at Enji, he sighed, “We’d like to try the Complete Fondue experience for four.” He tapped the plastic with his finger and she noted it, “in that exact order.”

She nodded again, “An exact copy of the full experience, now before I head out, does anyone want to add a lobster tail or any extra meats to their plates?”

“No,”

“No thank you.”

“No, I’m good.”

“No.”

“Alright then, I’ll be turning on the burners, they will get hot, please do not touch them.” She pulled out a small metal stand with a promotional flyer and placed it on the burners before she left.

“I’m excited.” I reached over under the table and took Enji’s hand and brought it back to my lap squeezing his bigger hand between mine.

His hand squeezed mine, I smiled up at him before looking down at his hand, callused, warm. Scars were present but hardly noticeable, I ran my thumb over his knuckles, losing myself in the patterns I began to draw, feeling myself fall into a feeling of nostalgia.

“Y/n,” I looked up at the sound, “Hm?” I hummed in response looking around.

“Are you fine?” Shoto asked his voice soft but his brows were furrowed.

“Yeah, just thinking about school and the internships.” I shrugged, “We’ve been through a lot with everything that’s happened, it’s hard to believe we’re just first year.”

“Hm.” Shoto nodded and I pulled a hand up and lates it palm up on the table.

“Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I see and the more we do, it kinda scares me,” I looked at a scar it ran from the side of my wrist to the back of my hand, it was a deep wound from my Internship, “But seeing everything also makes me realize,” I balled my fist up smiling, “There’s so much space for new hero’s to rise and it excites me knowing one day I’ll be out there fighting for a chance to be number one.”

“Ambitious.” I flinched at the waiters voice who slid the door closed as she entered, “You must be in a hero school then.”

“I, yes, I am.” I nodded and looked away.

“I’ve never heard of you, you must not be that well known. Everyone however would be able to notice our lovely new number one hero Endeavor.” She smiled and patted Enji who just gave her a side eye and she quickly pulled her hand away.

I let out a mix of a scoff and a laugh, “You must live under a rock, or be uncultured, I’m from UA, were our sports festival is streamed publicly almost everywhere throughout the prefecture and surrounding cities, not to mention I was in the news quite a few times with Endeavor and Pro Hero Hawks, I was on headlines and on front page covers of newspapers and magazines, if you can’t recognize me it really goes to show what kind of woman you are.” I made a face and she made a face back.

Before we started a stare down another person walked in, “Alright, here comes a hot pot, everyone be careful.”

As the second waiter was setting up the meal I couldn’t help but mumble to myself, “Bite me, it’s what rabid dogs do anyways.”

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After eating and Midoriya and I burning ourselves multiple times on hot cheese fondue we finished our desserts and started to head out.

We stepped out into the dark, the afternoon sun had set and the cities night life was crawling out into the streets, lights lit up outside patios, rooftops had flames lit lighting tables, tinted windows were lit up showing the chandeliers that hide during the day. Ladies in fancy dresses and men in suits and flashy attire. It was in that moment I realized how wrong our relationship is, I’m in UA, I’m only 16, sure the consent age is lower then that but, I, this is morally wrong in some eyes... I could ruin Enji’s career if anyone ever found out... I felt a sense of worry fill me. No one knew, I didn’t care before. So what scares me now?

“So! What are we doing tomorrow?” I looked at Enji and Shoto as we walked, Midoriya was unintentionally hidden by Shoto.

“It’s a surprise.” Shoto answered very bluntly and I squinted at him, “Very helpful.”

“How are Fuyumi and....” I paused the name leaving me and looked down, embarrassed, thinking, his name just couldn’t be Naruto because it’s pretty close to that anyways, “Natsuo! Heh! I remembered.”

“Fuyumi messaged me, they tried a curry at an Indian restaurant near the hotel, Natsuo also now holds the title for eating a plate of the spiciest curry in under an hour.” Shoto said flashing us his phone which had a very red smiling Natsuo holding a certificate and a $200 dollar check.

“That’s... impressive.” I was impressed, but it seemed like a painful thing.

I felt my phone buzz, I answered if, “Hello?”

“Hey y/n! It’s Fuyumi, I’d you don’t mind when you get to the hotel can you stop by the hotel shop and pick up something for indigestion or upset stomach, maybe heart burn?”

“Oh,” I smiled, “Yeah, I can do that, we’re on the way back about to get in the car, the streets are empty so we should be there soon, so, I’ll get it for you.”

“Thank you, sorry for the burden but I feel bad for leaving Natsuo while his stomach is hurting this much.”

“Don’t worry! I’m a hero, it’s what I do.” I smiled getting into the car as we reached it.

“Still, thank you y/n.” She sounds like she was smiling, I could feel it, in that moment how much she really cared for her family. It kinda warmed my heart in a way I can’t describe.

“Alright, see you then.” I ended the call and explained everything on the way over, Enji sighed and rubbed his forehead before pinching the bridge of his knows shaking his head. I smiled, noticing the edge of his lips twitch upwards a bit before he forced it down mumbling out Natsuo’s name and something I couldn’t hear.

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@waffleees-world @daedaep69 @gabrielislovegabrielislife @sabrinakishi @mae3solo

[florrickandassociates]

TGF Thoughts: 5x10-- And the violence spread.

So, that’s it for season five. I’m still trying to sort out how I feel about the season as a whole and Wackner’s arc. I’m hopeful that writing this will help me decide.

This episode has a Previously, and it’s rather conventional. I’m guessing it’s here to bookend the season, with conveying information being only a secondary objective.  

Did we see Rivi scream, “You’re done, Wacko, you’re done! Canceled! Canceled!” in the last episode or is that new to this previously? I feel like I absolutely would’ve had things to say about a) Wackner being called “Wacko,” which has been RIGHT THERE this whole time, and b) the use of “Canceled,” which is a thing Rivi would never say but is VERY thematic (you know, cancel culture and also Wackner having a TV show and also this being a TV show that’s wrapping up* Wackner’s arc).

* The way things end this episode, I’d say we’re done with Wackner. The Kings have said they aren’t sure about the plan for season six, so never say never, but I think that if we see Wackner again, it will be as part of a different arc.  

I went back to 5x09 and while we do see the same shots of Rivi screaming, whatever he’s saying in 5x09 is in Spanish. So either he was saying this in Spanish or the dialogue here is totally new.  

I’m a little sad that I knew in advance Robert King had directed this episode, because I want to know how long it would’ve taken me to guess. I’d like to think this first shot, of Diane flopping down on her bed in a very pretty floral print dress, then Kurt flopping down in the opposite direction, would’ve given it away. We usually don’t get shots that are both striking and kinda balanced unless RK’s directing.  

This also has some big season three opener vibes—the scene where Diane turns to Kurt and says, “I’m happy,” thus jinxing the entire season.  

Diane and Kurt are about to go on vacation, which means, of course, that Diane and Kurt are definitely not about to go on vacation. I’ve watched 12 seasons of this show; I know all the tricks!  

If I didn’t get it from the initial staging of the opening shot, the camera panning to Diane and Kurt’s suitcases and then back would’ve been another clue that RK directed. He ALWAYS has the camera in motion.  

I love that Diane’s travel outfit is a dress you could wear to a fancy party and a statement necklace. Of course it is.

And if I needed evidence that RK and MK wrote this episode (which I didn’t; it is a finale so I knew they wrote it), Diane quoting Waiting for Godot is a clue there.  

I really should read Waiting for Godot, shouldn’t I?  

“Wow. Educated and a good lay,” Kurt responds. I know that the political stuff between Diane and Kurt can get more than a little murky, but banter like this reminds me why they stay together and why politics never drive them apart. Also, it’s really nice to see Diane and Kurt have some fun banter that isn’t about politics.  

And Diane making kissing noises and asking Kurt to meet her halfway! This just feels like I’m spying on someone’s private life and I love it. Not in a voyeuristic way, since this is actually a little uncomfortably private, but in a, “ah, yes, these do feel like real people” way. This is the kind of “a little goes a long way” character moment I always want more of, and Kings episodes ALWAYS include stuff like this.

And there it is. The phone rings as Diane and Kurt are about to start out for the airport. Diane thinks the call must be for Kurt, but it’s for her. It’s a very flustered Liz, informing her that STR Laurie’s execs are on their way to the office for a surprise visit.

If the Diane/Kurt scene didn’t tell me that Robert King directed, I almost certainly would’ve gotten it from the sudden cut to Liz, walking through the hallways and doing a million things at once with a ton of background noise. No one loves chaos the way Robert King loves chaos.  

This episode STRONGLY reminds me of the Wife season five finale. It is equally chaotic and also spins a ton of plates. But, mostly, the similarity I see between the two episodes is that they are both extremely fun and captivating to watch because of how much momentum they have, but everything just feels slightly hollow and not exactly focused on the thing you want to see.  

(Shout out to my friend Ryan, who messaged me the 5x22 comparison before I could message it to him!)  

I decided I should rewatch the first few minutes of 5x22. I am now 15 minutes into 5x22 of Wife and 2 minutes into 5x10 of Fight. Oops.  

Apparently, STR Laurie planned a surprise visit because they heard RL was dysfunctional. You don’t say!  

I felt like 5x09 concluded with STR Laurie being won over by Allegra and the RL team, so this is a bit of a surprising place to start the episode. But, since Diane seems surprised too, I’ll allow it.  

Now Liz and Diane have 90 minutes to agree on a financial plan! Kurt’s on the phone with the airline before Diane even hangs up with Liz.  

Diane is determined not to lose out on her vacation and asks Kurt to change the flight to 8:00. “Kurt, we are going on this vacation if it kills me!” is a line I would worry was foreshadowing on basically any other show.

The RL/STRL PowerPoint template is pretty ugly. They want to call 2021 their best year yet, thanks to the deal between Rivi and Plum Meadow Farms we saw last week. Even though we saw champagne and signatures, the deal isn’t done yet because Plum Meadow can back out if Rivi goes to jail.

RK also loves close-ups more than any other director on the show; I do not love close-ups.  

The Plum Meadow deal is such a big deal that for the quarter, they go from $45 million to $5 million without it. They should just not say numbers. I can believe it’s big enough to take them from a modest profit to being behind projections or whatever, but I can’t believe that they have $5 million in other business and $40 million on this one deal.  

It seems that Rivi was arrested. I don’t think it is ever said in this episode why. I assume the arrest relates to his behavior in Wackner’s court, since there were police officers there, and I suppose that Rivi is a big enough deal the police would actually take him to real court, but are we not going to address the weirdness of Rivi being arrested in a fake court where his employees are being tried, then taken to a real court by the same people who just an episode ago were disillusioned with real court? This seems like a plot point.

Carmen on a frantic phone call in the backseat of a car feels very 7x22.  

Who is James that Carmen has in her contacts!? And why does everyone always put Liz in their contacts as “Elizabeth Reddick” when everyone calls her Liz?  

Carmen calls Marissa to go argue in Vinetta’s court since she’s on Rivi duty. Carmen doesn’t take Marissa’s job in Wackner’s court seriously and then notes that this instruction is coming straight from Liz, so Marissa falls in line.  

Wackner’s case of the week is about rural Illinois wanting to form its own state separate from Chicago. There’s a farmer who feels like his tax money is only going to the big city and he wants it to stay in his community.  

They’ve just now added stage lighting to the set of Wackner Rules, dunno why they wouldn’t have done that earlier!

I don’t know what standing you’d have to have to bring a case about wanting to divide the state in two to court, or if this is even something a court would or should decide, but, sure, Wackner and Cord, go for it. There are no rules!  

This map splitting Illinois into two new states that Cord is holding is a dumb prop because Galena, where this farmer is from, is in the same section as Chicago. Do I pause every reference to Chicago on this show and then google information to see if the writers bothered to look it up or pretend they’ve ever set foot in Chicago? You know I do.

“Secession!” the audience screams. Does the audience of Wackner Rules really want to see this?

A Good Fight Short! And it really is short: “Stop this obsession with secession and breaking up the Union. It’s boring and it’s dumb, end of song.” I feel like that’s the thesis statement for this episode, or one of them (that this episode seems to have about ten thesis statements is kind of my problem with this episode, tbh). This episode is very much about danger of things becoming too fractured—the COTW, the copycat courts, the firm drama—and I feel like the writers come around to just saying no, this is enough, we need structure and consistency.

But more on that later. MUCH more on that later.

Marissa is swearing more because “the world has required it.” She notes this to Wackner as she calls him out on the secession case. Cord barges in.

Take a look at the employee of the month poster on the back of the door at 5:39. Then at 5:40, look at what’s in the box just to the right of the center of the screen: it’s an employee of the month poster with Wackner on it! Cute easter egg. (Would Marissa definitely notice this and have questions? Yes. Is this here as a cute easter egg for eagle-eyed fans? Almost certainly.)  

“Insane is just one step away from reality if you get people to believe, and you know what makes people believe? TV.” Cord explains when Marissa asks how they can possibly be litigating this case. That’s thesis statements two and three, folks. The first is that if you get people to believe, then anything is possible, which sounds like a tagline for a Disney movie but is actually super dangerous; the second is that reality TV is a way to persuade people and change opinions.  

So we’ve got: (1) Factions are bad. (2) People are persuadable and the rules don’t actually matter. (3) Reality TV changes minds. Let’s see if there are more.

(Yes, these theses do kind of add up to a whole—The rules don’t matter, so if you persuade people, through reality tv, you get factions of people believing their own sets of rules and facts—but what I'm interested in tracking throughout this episode is how well the writers actually bring these theses together.)

(And this is setting aside that key themes in previous episodes, that I think many of us were looking for resolution on, included outlining the flaws with the extant “real” justice system and exploring the role of prison in the justice system. From this episode, I don’t think the writers ever intended to really tackle either of those issues. That’s fine—I'm not sure that TGF has something to say about prison abolition and I don’t want a thought experiment where the writers actually try to fix the legal system—but feels a bit disjointed. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but 5x08 and 5x09 needed to do a better, clearer job of setting up this finale. The key themes of Wackner’s arc were always present, but they needed to slowly narrow the scope so the resolution felt inevitable and clear. Instead, we spent time on things like parking spaces (when we could’ve had a real plot about how Wackner’s court gains legitimacy through violence, incarceration, and playing on people’s frustration with the real systems) and Del’s focus groups (when we could’ve instead done a plot about Wackner gaining fans who wanted to use his methods to do ill). Everything I just mentioned in the parentheticals is in the show! It’s not subtext! We see it all! We see Cord use violence and prisons to enforce Wackner’s rulings; we see the cops turn to Wackner out of frustration; we see that the people drawn to Wackner Rules and to Wackner’s court are increasingly sounding more and more like right-wing populists! I can’t be too hard on this arc because, again, all these ideas are there. I’m not coming up with them on my own!)

I’m just saying: this ending would’ve been a lot clearer and a lot more interesting had the writers focused on what I mentioned above instead of the distractions of the last two episodes.  

Whew, that was a ramble. Hope you’re ready for more rambles.

On a similar note, I’d like to reiterate my problems with how the writers used Marissa after the private prison reveal. I don’t have much more to say than what I wrote last week, but it’s another example of the same problem. Marissa objecting to Wackner’s court because she notices what it’s becoming and how Cord plans to use it for political gain (two Illinoises (??) changes the Senate and the Electoral College...) always was going to be part of the endgame. Marissa only seriously objecting after the fourth or fifth line Wackner crosses feels bizarre.  

Cord does NOT like that there is another court, and wants to protect Wackner’s IP. Wackner, as we saw last episode, does not feel threatened by the other court. In fact, he seems to be excited by it.  

I love Liz questioning Diane’s outfit like it’s unprofessional. It’s a little low-cut and showy, but I don’t think unprofessional is the word I’d use for it.  

Now they have 45 minutes to decide The Future Of The Firm and Diane wants to be considered a name partner. Oh, that debate is still raging?! Every time I think it’s done it comes back, which should probably be a sign to Diane that her options are to leave and start something new, jettison Madeline and the others, or step down. Staying on as name partner and calling it a black firm is just not an option.  

“Diane, there is a split in the firm that...” Liz starts, before asking some associates to leave the room. Ha! The reveal Liz and Diane aren’t alone is a pretty fun touch.

“The Black equity partners don’t want to be in your work group,” Liz informs Diane. “Because they think they’ll be punished by this firm?” Diane asks. “No, that’s paranoia. We don’t punish here,” Liz responds. “Of course you do. My fracking client. My union client. The Black lawyers who work on those cases—they're considered traitors” Diane says. “Because those CEOs are racists,” Liz counters.

Lots going on here, and I’m not sure I understand it all. Why would the equity partners—who are partners—feel like they’re being punished by being in Diane’s work group? (And also what does a “work group” mean and why haven’t they talked about it in the past?) When Diane starts talking about the lawyers who staff her clients, she’s not talking about equity partners; she is talking about associates.

And people are giving associates shit for working on Diane’s clients whom they happen to be staffed on!? That’s sad, though believable.

“So what do we do? Only bring in clients who can pass the racial smell test?” Diane asks. I mean, actually, yes. IF the goal is to be a black firm and to have that designation mean something in moral terms rather than marketing terms, then yes.  

“It’s okay if you’re a drug kingpin like Rivi, but it’s not okay if you want me as lead attorney?” Diane says. Also, yes. Diane makes good points here.  

“Diane, this is not about you,” Liz counters. Um, sure, but it has to be about something, Liz. Unless you’re trying to build a firm you don’t control that makes 88% of its revenue from a drug dealer (40 million out of 45 million this quarter = 88%; I told you they shouldn’t give me numbers) but happens to have black people in charge, you have to grapple with this question. I don’t think anyone who’s fighting for the firm to be a black-led (not owned, bc STRL) business is the type of person who thinks that having a black-led firm that does all the same shit as any other firm is in itself a good thing, so you NEED to address your client list. Madeline is anti-Rivi, anti-Cord, anti-Wolfe-Coleman (the rapist guy), pro-social justice, and pro having a black led firm.  

“I mean, why... why do white people personalize this?” Liz asks. “Oh, now I’m just a white person?” Diane responds. I... don’t know what to do with this! Liz is right that Diane is taking this personally; Diane is right that Liz needs to deal with the rest of the client list. But no one is saying the things that REALLY need to be said: That all their decisions are meaningless in the shadow of STRL, and that deciding to be a black led firm isn’t the end of the discussion if they haven’t decided what types of clients they want to have.  

“What happened, Liz? Last year we were intent on an all-female-run law firm,” Diane starts. Oh, THIS AGAIN! Diane never learns, does she? She never seems to realize that no one she’s approached with this idea is NEARLY as in love with it as she is. She probably still wonders to herself why Alicia—who partnered with her at the end of season seven basically just because it was the easiest, most frictionless thing to do—didn't seem more committed to their firm.  

“Diane, there is history here that we are trying to...” Liz says, but Diane cuts in to note that women (women like Diane Lockhart!) have history too! In fact, she’s spent “35 years fighting gender discrimination to get to this position.” “And we have spent 400 years fighting racial discrimination to try and, you know...” Liz starts, before cutting herself off to get back to the ticking clock.

Sigh. Just talk about the actual thing instead of talking around the thing, guys. Diane is obviously deserving of A name partnership, in the abstract. This is an undeniable fact. And while Diane is definitely making this about herself rather than the big picture, I don’t think Liz trying to trump Diane’s 35 year career with the history of black people is going to win her any arguments? Like, just say what you mean and say it clearly. What Liz, I think, wants to express is that Diane’s individual accomplishments aren’t the issue here and everyone thinks she’s deserving (though Liz suggested Diane was not deserving a few episodes ago, which I didn’t understand then and don’t understand now). The problem is that Diane is trying to fight a battle that’s about something much larger than herself with, “but I'm a good lawyer!”  

And that’s KIND OF what Liz is saying here, if I add all her sentences up and read between the lines, but, again, why not just say it?  

“Alright, now we have 43 minutes to fix race relations, gender relations. STR Laurie’s gonna fire our asses, and you know it,” Liz says. I am curious what that would look like. Wouldn’t that just mean that STRL wouldn’t control them anymore? I’m sure being fired would be bad and all, but wouldn’t it free them from the contract they wanted out of last year?  

“Let’s split the firm down the middle. I hire half the lawyers, you hire the other half,” Diane suggests. What does this mean? Why are you hiring your employees? Huh?

“You hire the white associates, and I hire the black associates?” Liz confirms. This seems like a very bad idea that would make things a lot worse and open them up to lawsuits! I also still do not know what they’re even talking about. And I don’t know why Allegra isn’t a part of this conversation.

“I’m not saying it’s good. I’m just saying it’s what we’re left with. It's what we can agree on,” Diane says. I really wish I understood what “hire” meant in this context because I don’t understand why they have to split anything or why this has to be done now and I don’t understand why this would possibly be a good solution. Can you imagine the backlash when people realize all the white people report to Diane and all the black people to Liz and that people were taken off of the accounts they’ve worked on for years to accomplish this? And this must be something that the employees would know about eventually; otherwise they could just randomly assign half to Liz and half to Diane.  

I’m sad Madeline isn’t in this episode because I feel like we needed to see more of her POV as well as the associate POV. I don’t really understand the divides at play within the firm or what the staff and other partners are asking for, but I suspect it isn’t this.

Hallucination Jesus is back, and at least there’s actually a point to him this time (he shows up when Jay is in Vinetta’s court and reminds Jay that Vinetta will rule based on her religious beliefs). I still dislike the hallucinations.

Jay advises Marissa, who is Jewish, to talk a lot about Jesus in her defense.  

Charmaine Bingwa is really great as Carmen, and obviously she is not fluent in Spanish, but it’s so funny to me that the only time you can hear that she’s Australian is when she’s trying to say Oscar like she’s speaking Spanish.  

"I know you’re hiding something when you speak English,” Rivi says to Carmen. Heh.  

“Community court” is such a nice, unthreatening term for referring to Wackner and his copy cats. Thanks for that, Carmen!

It’s a smart plan to mention Jesus a lot, I guess, but Jay and Marissa both should’ve realized that Vinetta is too smart to tolerate obvious pandering. I’m a little surprised Jay doesn’t get up and argue since Marissa is, obviously, not familiar with the New Testament.  

Marissa wins this round with facts and logic.

Why is the judge who was handling Rivi’s previous charge now in bond court? Make it make sense.

I like that Carmen calls out the ASA for swearing hahaha  

Why... would this Matteo kid just casually mention he was holding a gun, omg.  

In Vinetta’s court, you can be charged with murder and tried because... you had a gun and also there were murders at other times. Coolcoolcool no problems here.

Community courts for civil cases? Sure. That’s basically arbitration. Community courts for criminal cases? Bad, bad, bad idea.  

Vinetta’s reasoning: “Those murders happened on our street, and the police haven’t convicted anyone because they don’t care. We care. This is self-defense. And how is it different from your court?” Aside from the whole imprisoning people in her basement thing, Vinetta’s not wrong. I almost brought this up last week but hesitated because I couldn’t remember the details enough to decide if I wanted to recommend it, but there’s a book I read a few years ago that seems relevant here: Ghettoside by Jill Leovy. Again, been a while so don’t take this as a wholehearted endorsement or anything, but from what I remember, the central issue at the heart of the book (it’s non-fiction) is that a poor black community (I think in LA?) doesn’t trust the police (in part) because the police don’t solve murders, and then with no way of getting justice through the court system, there’s more violence as a stand-in for justice. https://www.vox.com/2016/8/26/12631962/ghettoside-jill-leovy-black-crime

I’m not sure if that’s QUITE what Vinetta is saying but it seems similar, and it’s a decent point (though not a justification for her court). Why should she trust the system to improve her community when it’s ignored her community for years?

I like that the writers chose two very different, very understandable characters for their community courts. It’s easy to see why Wackner and Vinetta feel the need for alternative courts; it’s easy to see why others would trust them. This arc doesn’t really work unless there’s a legitimate frustration with existing systems...  

Marissa calls Wackner’s court a “joke,” which she should understand by now isn’t the case. (Marissa’s smart; she knew it wasn’t a joke the second she saw David Cord get involved.)  

Vinetta accuses Wackner of copying her court, which alarms Marissa. This isn’t addressed again, and I don’t know if it’s true! I could really go either way on this. On the one hand, I absolutely believe that Wackner saw/heard about it, liked it, and did it himself without thinking much of it—and if this is the case, then the ending where Vinetta gets in trouble for violating Wackner’s IP is a lot more of a gut punch. On the other hand, I don’t really feel like the seeds for this were planted. We see Wackner innovate a lot and try new things and he has an explanation for why he does everything—how much of that is Vinetta? And Vinetta clearly watches the show and likes it or she wouldn’t have recognized Marissa, so it’s a little hard for me to just believe her claim when literally all I know about her is she has a court that looks like Wackner’s and she is aware of and feels positively towards Wackner rules. Also, Wackner knows about Vinetta’s court (from Marissa) and sounded excited about it last episode. Sure, he didn’t necessarily know which one it was, exactly, but I assume if he’d copied the idea and then heard about a case involving people from the exact same community where he found the idea... his reaction would be different. So IDK. My reasons for doubting Vinetta’s claim are probably based a little too much in things I’m not meant to spend that much time paying attention to.  

“I fucked up. It’s in the same court, but now it’s a murder case,” Marissa tells Diane. I do like hearing characters admit when they fucked up!  

Diane hears that STRL is delayed, so she heads out to help Matteo. When she goes to change into her pantsuit, she finds that she’s grabbed Kurt’s bag by mistake. “Of course. That makes sense,” she reacts.  

Diane pushes her flight to the next day, also telling Kurt, “And yes, for some reason, I took your suit instead of mine, so fuck it.” I love it when the characters feel like real people.  

I am not sure why Kurt is getting to the office when Diane is leaving or why Kurt is there—to pick Diane up on the way to the airport, maybe?

Carter Schmidt walks into RL at the worst possible time, threating to blow up the Plum Meadow deal. Another 5x10 to Wife 5x22 similarity: he’s in both episodes.  

Liz heads out to help Carmen with Rivi, and then STRL arrives. Oops.  

Credits!

One thing about Wackner’s court that should definitely be a warning sign even though it seems noble: he ignores just about every warning sign, like this rowdy crowd screaming WE LOVE YOU WACKNER or the potential interests at play in a case about secession, because he thinks his fair judgement can overcome these obstacles. If the world worked that way, there’d be no need for his court in the first place.

Is anyone representing the State of Illinois in this trial? If not, then... how is it happening?  

Dr. Goat, some dude who claims to have some hidden historical document about how Illinois is actually two states, is clearly making stuff up and yet Wackner indulges him and Cord. I feel about this the same way as I feel about the Devil’s Advocate: That Wackner would not allow this to go on for more than five seconds before calling bullshit and therefore there is no reason I should have to sit through it.

Why is some guy screaming, “No taxation without representation” like dude you absolutely have representation. But of course, I’m expecting him to be logical, and the point is that he is not.

Dr. Goat’s Latin phrases—shock!-- don’t actually translate into anything like what he said. Even though this information is verifiable by a quick google search, the crowd starts screaming “Liar!!!!” at Marissa. If only I could say this felt unrealistic.

Wackner asks Dr. Goat to bring in the document.  

“You look like you’re heading to the beach,” Vinetta says to Diane, who looks like she’s heading somewhere but definitely not to the beach. Vinetta asks where Diane was headed on vacation. Diane says she’s headed to Lake Como, and unnecessarily clarifies that “It’s in Italy.” She assumes Vinetta doesn’t know that... but Vinetta does.

“So you’ve been there before?” Vinetta probes when Diane says it’s beautiful there. “Just once. We don’t get away often. We thought we’d splurge,” Diane says. Vinetta stares at her and smiles, and Diane hits her head on a basket that’s hanging in Vinetta’s kitchen. If I just write out the dialogue here, it sounds like a perfectly average conversation, but everything about this conversation is so charged: Diane is afraid to look like a wealthy white woman; Vinetta’s pleasantness is pretty clearly also a way of sizing up Diane.  

Vinetta shows Diane pictures of neighborhood children and young adults killed as a consequence of gang violence. You can see she’s not trying to do anything other than help her community, even if her methods are highly questionable.

Diane argues that Matteo should be given over to the police; Vinetta disagrees: “The police haven’t arrested anyone for those murders, any of these. Since the BLM movement, they’ve pulled back from our streets. No one’s coming to help. That’s why I started this court. It’s not a joke to us.” Wait I’m sorry did Vinetta just blame lack of good detective work in black communities on... the BLM movement?!?!?! Is there any foundation to this!? Why can’t it just be that the police weren’t actually doing a good job of policing/finding justice and were being antagonistic towards the community instead of being helpful and no one trusted them?? That explanation is literally right there.

Jay suggests the Jesus strategy, again.  

“It’s women! We could just move on, install men,” STRL guy says. I don’t know if he’s joking, but ugh. Also, what is RL if it has neither Diane nor Liz? A bunch of lawyers who will all promptly quit when they see their bosses get fired and a few opportunists?  

Kurt is watching golf in Diane’s office, and the STRL people love it. Of course Kurt accidentally makes friends with them.  

Court stuff happens. It’s not good for Rivi, and then Liz and Carmen come up with a theory: Plum Meadow is stalling the deal so they can find Rivi’s more stable second and make a deal with them instead.  

Wackner giving Dr. Goat a single point on his stupid little board, for any reason related to his obviously fake totally unverified document, is dangerous. Why would you signal to a crowd that’s clearly not interested in fact that they have a point? That’s basically egging them on.

I know Wackner’s judgment is obviously not 100% sound—need I remind you of the PRIVATE PRISONS?-- but I thought it was more sound than this.  

Wackner shows off his knowledge of paper and proves that Dr. Goat’s document is a fake. Why... did he just give Dr. Goat a point???  

Or is he moving the point from Dr. Goat to Marissa?  

Dr. Goat sounds like a fake name I would call a character in my recaps long past the point of anyone other than myself remembering the joke. (See: Mr. Elk)

“The truth is ugly. The only thing uglier is not pursuing it,” Wackner tells Marissa. How is taking on a case about very obvious falsehoods, funded by someone with a vested interest in the case, that gets people riled up, some noble pursuit of truth?  

STRL and Kurt are now drinking and discussing hunting, while Diane’s arguing for Matteo in Vinetta’s living room. Vinetta is—as was always obvious, sorry Jay—far too smart to fall for this patronizing bullshit. She screams at Diane and plays back a recording (on a baby monitor) of Diane coaching Matteo to lie about his faith.

Soooooo yeah no you can’t do that, that is bad, recording conversations between lawyers and their clients is not good even if it leads to you exposing their schemes...

Then Vinetta places Diane under arrest, which obviously isn’t going to end well for Vinetta.  

Liz and Carmen suggest a post-nup to Rivi to see if Isabel is planning on turning on him.

“I’m going to have to kill her,” Rivi says sadly. I don’t think Rivi will ever kill Isabel because we already did that with Bishop.  

I’m going to assume that Diane chooses to stay in basement prison instead of calling one of the many, MANY, MANY people she could call to get her out/take down Vinetta because she doesn’t want the situation to be publicized or further deteriorate. That said, it’s really not clear why Diane just accepts being sentenced to basement prison with a cell phone.  

Love the STRL man looking at that picture of Diane and HRC. They’ve gotten so much mileage out of that photo.  

Wackner’s court has no rules, but at least since it has no rules, I can’t complain about how its rules make no sense!  

What is this, debate practice?! Ugggghhhhh I can’t deal with this case for much longer.  

Marissa takes a breath, then decides to pursue a strategy she knows could blow everything up.

“Then why care what Judge Wackner decides? Why should you defer to him? Why defer to anyone?” Cord says that’s the point—the people have decided to trust Wackner. “So if you don’t like this court’s decision, you’ll just start a new one?” Marissa asks. “I guess,” Cord concedes.  

“So then why does this matter? This court?” “It matters only insofar as we continue to agree that it matters,” Cord says. “So if you don’t like Judge Wackner’s rulings, you can just ignore them and create a new court?”

Good point, Marissa. Good point. (Does this count as a thesis?)

“I’m guessing that I will like the way the judge decides,” Cord says. Well, that’s basically a threat.

Wackner takes a break and heads to chambers—without Marissa.  

Kurt goes to visit Diane in basement jail. He’s granted a conjugal visit, which means Matteo gets moved up to the bedroom so Diane and Kurt can have some alone time.

Diane is staring at an image of Lake Como in her cell. I thought it was odd she brought a printout of her vacation destination with her, so I LOVED the line where she explains that Vinetta printed it out for her. COLD. (You know who also would’ve done this if they’d for some reason had a basement prison? Bree Van de Kamp. You know what show DID do a basement prison arc I’d rather forget? Desperate Housewives!)  

I love how Diane responds to basement prison by making jokes non-stop.

“I thought the craziness would end with 2020,” Diane says. Nope.

Kurt brought alcohol; Diane brought pot gummies.  

I love that Kurt has never had pot before. I was going to say that I bet Diane’s had a few experiences with recreational drugs when I remembered we had a whole damn season of Diane microdosing.  

Christine and Gary’s acting and their chemistry really bring these basement prison scenes to life. The writing and directing are really sharp, but it’s the actors who make these scenes something special. You can tell Diane and Kurt love each other a lot. You can tell they’re disappointed about their vacation and exhausted by the chaos of the day. You can tell they’re in disbelief over this situation but also find it funny.  

Didn’t Rivi and Isabel have an adult daughter who died of COVID a few episodes ago? Weird she isn’t mentioned in this scene. Maybe from a different marriage/relationship?

Isabel called the SA’s office because she thinks Rivi’s a threat? I think this is a power play.

Heh, Carmen saying, “Shut a black woman up!?” in disbelief in court. Love it.  

Isabel instead flips her story and supports her husband and fights for his release. With no intervention from Plum Meadow, this gets the judge to free Rivi. I don’t really understand what’s happened here or why. I get the resolution, but I don’t get why Isabel called the SA or why this went away so quickly. I still don’t even get why Rivi’s been arrested.

Diane and Kurt put up Christmas lights for ambiance and talk about how they never go on vacation.

“I wanna see the pyramids on this coast!” drunk & high Kurt insists, hilariously. “I mean hemisphere. I like the Aztecs. They, they care about people.” I’m not going to transcribe the rest of the dialogue because it loses its magic when you’re not watching the scene.  

After some fun banter about travel and movies, Diane changes the topic. “I should quit, shouldn’t I? That judge upstairs? She looked at me like I was the most entitled white bitch on the planet. And that’s the way they look at me at work.”

Kurt tries to say that’s not true, but Diane knows it is: “Yes they do. I’m the top Karen. And why do I care? I mean, I... I could find another firm. I could quit. I can’t impose my will on people who don’t want me.”

YES. I see a lot of debate over what the “right” thing to do is here. But I think we are long past “right” and “wrong.” At a certain point, this stops being about absolute moral truths. If Diane doesn’t have the respect of her partners and employees, that is a very real problem for the firm and for Diane. How can she continue to impose her will on a firm that doesn’t want her, all the while claiming to be an ally? (The back half of that sentence is the most important part.) Forget whether or not Diane “should” have to step down. Forget what’s “fair.” If the non-Diane leadership of RL thinks the firm should be a black firm, and the employees of RL think so too, and Diane just doubles down on her white feminism, she’s creating an even bigger problem for herself and ruining her reputation in the process.  

Kurt stands up on the prison cot and warns Diane she might make a decision she’ll regret. This scene is so cute. Why can’t other shows do drug trips where the characters just act silly and have great chemistry? Why does it always have to be some profound meditation on death whenever characters get high?

“I think I like starting over. I like the chutes and ladders of life. I mean, I want the corner office, but then I wanna slip back to the beginning and fight for the corner office. I mean, I think maybe it’s better that I don’t get the top spot,” Diane says. LOVE to hear her admit this. I’m not sure I would’ve come to this conclusion on my own, and it sounds like it’s a bit more about how the writers like to write (you know, the “we love our characters to always be underdogs”) than Diane, but... you know what? I believe it. I fully believe it. Diane LOVES to fight, LOVES to feel like she’s in the right, LOVES power plays and to be making progress. She LOVES winning. The fact that she isn’t just choosing to retire right now, even though she’s past retirement age and has a great reputation, is in itself enough for me to believe that she would find it fun to repeatedly start over.

Plus, it’s a fun new direction for the show to take in season six, because they’ll get the same sense of conflict without the actual conflict. This season’s arc was firm drama and resulted in a firm name change... but it didn’t feel like a knock-off of Hitting the Fan. Diane trying to work her way back into power (I assume by becoming a better actual ally, otherwise doesn’t she just end up in the same exact situation?) should also provide conflict without being repetitive.

Hahahahahaha Kurt immediately reacting to this serious statement by being incredibly silly and horny and then Diane singing “I Touch Myself” to him, man, I love these two. I want to know the story behind this song choice.

Wackner emerges from his chambers. The score is tied. Wackner calls Cord corrupt and notes that they can’t just decide to call Downstate Illinois a new state based on his ruling. Now it’s thesis time!

“I was taken by Mr. Cord’s arguments of individualism. So much of our country has been built on people finding their own way, not being held back by bureaucracy. Yet, if we only follow individualism, that way lies chaos. And that was not the point of this court. Or at least not my point. Judgment for the defense. There will be no Downstate Illinois.”

“If we only follow individualism, that way lies chaos.” is probably the clearest of the many theses of this episode. To recap, we have:

(1) Factions are bad. (2) People are persuadable and the rules don’t actually matter. (3) Reality TV changes minds. (4) Institutions only exist when we collectively agree they exist (5) Individualism = chaos.  

But let’s put a pin in this for now and let the chaos of individualism play out.  

The crowd does not like Wackner’s decision, and decides that an appropriate way to express their displeasure is to make anti-Semitic remarks towards Marissa and then start throwing chairs. What nice people.  

As the crowd goes totally 1/6 on Wackner’s court (thanks for pointing this out to me, Ryan—I cannot believe I didn’t make the connection myself!), the door slamming into the desk finally pays off since Marissa and Wackner are able to use it to keep the crowd from reaching them.  

They immediately turn to the police, or they would, if they could get service. I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that as soon as things get bad, they want to involve the existing system.  

Wackner Rules is, somehow, still taping in the midst of all the chaos. I don’t know if I think they’d air this, but someone certainly would. (I wonder if any of the cameras we see in these scenes are actually the cameras filming the other angles of the riot.)  

Cord shakes his head and walks out, unharmed.  

“You think they’ll kill us?” “I think they might,” Marissa and Wackner fret.  

“My dad said the whole world would be a better place if everybody realized they were in the minority. ‘No matter where you are,’ he said, ‘Make sure you keep an eye on the exits, and make sure you’re closer to the exit than the Cossacks are to the entrance.’” Marissa says. Love Eli Gold coming through with thesis number 6 (and maybe thesis number 7).  

“Your dad sounds a little paranoid,” Wackner says, correctly. Remember how I mentioned I accidentally wound up watching 5x22? Eli calls Alicia and responds to her hello with, “DISASTER!!!!” I miss him.

“He was, but he wasn’t wrong. He said, ‘Stay away from parades. They’re cute until they’re not. And don’t trust any pope who was Hitler Youth.” “What’s that law called?” “Godwin’s Law. My dad said anybody who argued for Godwin’s Law has never been near an actual crowd. Crowds love you, they hug you. Then they grab a gun and try to kill you.”

“Why? Why do they do that?” “I don’t know. Hate is fun. It’s clear-cut.”  

I really like all of this. It is a little preachy, but it isn’t wrong and it’s self-aware. And, more importantly, it’s in character. I absolutely believe that Marissa would tell lots of stories about Eli in a moment of extreme stress. It’s nostalgic, probably comforting, and it also helps her feel like she’s on the right side with the right arguments. So, even backed into a corner, she’s still a winner: she has theory on her side.  

Wackner speaks a foreign language (I do not know what language but I wish I did) and says, “A guy could get killed doing this,” which makes him and Marissa laugh as things crash around them.

Idk about you all, but I couldn’t really get myself to actually worry about their safety during this scene. Maybe Wackner’s, just a little, but I got the sense we were supposed to focus more on the chaos and destruction and monologuing than on the actual danger. That’s not to say the stakes didn’t feel high, but rather to say that this didn’t feel like an action sequence where you don’t know what’s going to happen next. The point was to watch the court fall and think about why it fell, not to worry about if Marissa would live.  

Diane and Kurt are woken up by sirens and loud noises. The cops arrive and are shocked to find professionally dressed white people in a basement cell. They let Diane and Kurt out with compassion, but scream, “don’t you fucking move” to the people on the floor.

“It’s okay, they didn’t do anything,” Diane says. This is, as I theorized earlier, probably why Diane just sits there until her punishment blows over instead of escalating things.  

If the cops weren’t there to free Diane, why were they there? Why, because they like David Cord and David Cord has gotten Chicago PD officers to protect Wackner’s IP.  

If I had to say one thing in favor of Vinetta being the originator of the community court idea, it would be that it’s SUCH a gut punch to watch Diane and Kurt walk away from their bizarre little adventure as Vinetta gets arrested in the background, and it hits ten times as hard if Vinetta’s only being charged because some white guy is claiming IP that’s actually hers.

(I think Vinetta is probably, at this point, actually being arrested for imprisoning people illegally, but, still.)

“Pfft. Some judge,” one of the cops who adores Wackner says of Vinetta. Racist much?  

Marissa and Wackner emerge from the backroom. “I think I better get back to work,” she says, meaning her RL job. "Me too,” Wackner says, grabbing a Copy Coop apron. He’s an employee of ten years.  

I don’t think this lands as well as it’s meant to. I think the point is supposed to be that Wackner’s just some guy—not a billionaire, not an academic, not a judge, not a lawyer—with an idea. But it’s a little too neat. And it doesn’t explain how Wackner financed his court initially, nor does it explain why he has basically unlimited access to Copy Coop space and resources. I’d buy it if he were the OWNER of Copy Coop, but I have so many questions about him being an employee.  

Diane tells Liz she’s actually going on vacation this time, and they laugh about how Kurt bonded with STRL.

“I want you and Allegra to be name partners. I’ll be an equity partner,” Diane says. “Why?” Liz asks. “Five years ago, when I hit rock bottom, this firm took me in. So I don’t like the idea of splitting this firm in two. And I can’t lead if no one will follow.” “And your clients?” “We’ll manage them together.” YES! I love this. I don’t love it because I necessarily think it had to go this way, but because it’s so refreshing to see Diane say that she actually is willing to take a step back because she cares about the firm and the people there more than she cares about being a name partner. This isn’t something we usually see. When we hear “this firm took x in” it’s usually being said incredulously against someone who’s decided to leave and steal clients (cough, Hitting the Fan, cough).  

It’s been pretty clear for most of this arc that Diane and Liz like working together and they like their firm, but that no one (other than Diane, I guess) is willing to let RL lose its status as a black firm, and that the employees and equity partners weren’t going to be satisfied until Diane stepped down. Diane really had three options: Stay and piss everyone off and claim the whole firm for herself, quit and go somewhere else and totally abandon the good working dynamic she had, or step down and put her money where her mouth is.  

Also yeah the clients were never actually going to be an issue! They were only an issue because Diane intentionally went about informing them she was stepping down in a way she knew would make them worry!  

“I think I need to prove myself,” Diane says. I’m not sure that’s the key issue or that she can ever prove herself fully, but we’ll worry about that next year.

“I missed you,” Liz says. “I’m here,” Diane replies. “I know. Thank you,” Liz says.  

Diane decides she’s going to move downstairs so Allegra can have her office. I think there’s another office on this floor, since she, Adrian and Liz all had offices. This feels a little bit like Diane’s in love with the idea of making things difficult for herself and maybe hasn’t fully grasped the point, but, you know, I’ll take it.  

Diane tells Kurt her decision and he asks if it was the right thing to do. She says she doesn’t know—but she says it with a smile. Kurt notes he’s going hunting next month with the STRL folks and will put in a good word for her. Ah, yes, because STRL still controls all of this and all of this is moot! Thanks for the reminder Kurt! Diane says she wants in on the hunting trip. Of course.  

And the elevator doors close. Remember how closing elevator doors was a motif earlier this season??? It’s back!

Then we get a little coda with Wackner Rules airing a new episode that’s just violence and destruction. This sequence seems to straddle the line between being there for thematic reasons for the viewers and there to show what happened in the show’s universe, but I think it’s main purpose is theme, so I will not go on a full rant questioning why Del would want to air this.

A white blonde lady in an apron watches the destruction of Wackner Rules. She looks concerned. “That was violet,” she says with dismay. And then we see she’s holding a guy in a jail cell in her kitchen.  

And then we see other courts, as America the Beautiful plays. One’s in a garage debating kicking someone out of the neighborhood; another is across the street about the same case. There’s one in Oregon about secession. There’s one among Tiki Torch Nazis deciding only white people can own property. There’s (inexplicably) one about pronouns. There’s one with arm wrestling, one that happens while sky diving, and a bunch of others. It’s pretty ridiculous, and not necessarily in a good way. It feels at once like the natural extension of the Wackner Rules show and like an over the top parody you’d see on another show. Tiki Torch Nazis screaming “only white people can own property!” is the opposite of subtle writing. Tonally, this sequence feels more like the zany humor of Desperate Housewives or the insanity of BrainDead than anything TGF has done before (and TGF’s been plenty surreal), and it doesn’t quite work for me. It feels like it is trying to prove a point in the corniest, most on the nose way possible. It almost feels like it’s parodying its own plotlines.  

On my first watch, this ending for Wackner left me stumped. I knew the writers were making an argument against individualism (Wackner’s speech + the repeated references to The Apprentice) and cults of personality. But I couldn’t figure out a real life analogue to Wackner’s court, and since this ending was so obviously trying to be About Something, that bugged me. Sure, that last sequence could be an argument against people making community courts, but WERE people making community courts? I didn’t see the urgency.

And then I talked to @mimeparadox. And as soon as he said that it was about factions and people playing by their own sets of rules beyond the justice system, it clicked. I’d been looking for Wackner’s plot to be a commentary on the legal system. It is much broader than that. It’s a commentary on the weakening of democratic systems (the Big Lie, etc.), more broadly, and Wackner and his common-sense approach are just a way to get liberal viewers to go along for the ride.  

Now that I understand the point, or what I think is the point, I like this conclusion. Circumventing the system leads to chaos; that’s why we have institutions and bureaucracy, and I think the show is arguing that these institutions should still be respected despite their flaws. The many theses of this episode all come together to make this point (though the reality TV stuff is a little more tenuous and I'm a little shocked we got through all of this without any commentary on social media?): If we stop having a shared belief in institutions and instead follow individual leaders (whom we may learn about through reality TV), the rules will stop mattering and we’ll end up with a fractured country and widespread violence.  

But, and maybe this is just about me being upset I missed both the obvious 1/6 parallels AND the point of the arc the first time through this episode (my defensive side feels the need to also note I first watched this episode at like 5 am when I was barely awake), I don’t know that I actually think this episode does a great job of driving its point home. There are SO many moving pieces to the Wackner plot and SO many references. There are so many threads we never return to from earlier in the season, and there’s so much that strains credulity (like Wackner taking Dr. Goat seriously for more than a split second). It’s pretty clear what the themes are—even though I’m saying I missed the point my first time through, I've hit on all these themes separately in past recaps and posts—but, I dunno, something about this episode just feels scattered. Maybe it’s all the moving pieces, maybe it’s all the moments where it sounds like the characters are voicing related ideas that don’t quite snap together to form one coherent picture, or maybe it’s that Wackner’s plot gets two endings (the actual ending + the coda) and it’s up to the viewer to put together how they relate.

I really don’t know. At the end of the day, I think there was a little too much going on with Wackner and that the writers needed to use the episodes between the private prison reveal and the finale to narrow—not broaden—the scope of what they were trying to do with Wackner. But I also think that what they were doing with Wackner was really, really smart and original. I don’t think I can overstate how impressed I am that the writers took an idea that sounded, frankly, awful when I first heard about it and turned it into something captivating and insightful that I was happy to spend nine weeks watching.  

Overall, a few bad episodes aside, I thought season five was the strongest season of TGF yet. I haven’t seen this show be so focused in... well, maybe ever. Having two overarching plots that received consistent development and felt like they were happening in the same universe at the same time REALLY helps make season five feel like a coherent whole, and I can’t wait to rewatch it.  

[boop-le-snoot]

masterpost • main masterlist • taglist & faq

previously on...

Chapter 3 is finally here. Sorcerers need their shopping done, too. Beyonce/Wong platonic ship (joking)! And finally some action, more witchy stuff. Bucky whump because I have a saviour complex. Stucky cuteness moment. Some blood/gore in this chapter.

My insides clenched, seeing the yellow and blue notice taped to my door - the building manager rarely left notes, so whatever it was, it wasn't going to be good. I had managed to wind myself up into an anxious frenzy by the time I had gone inside and locked my door behind me, immediately thinking I would have to exhaust myself by turning to magic to keep a roof over my head.

For once, the news turned out to be positive: a neighbor was being evicted and turned in to the police for stealing packages. The building manager urged the tenants to report any missing items and apply for a refund when possible, apologizing for the inconvenience. I wondered what prompted this, basically unheard of in NYC, act of kindness as my altar stared at me with mocking amusement, pointing out the obvious by its mere presence.

Grinning to myself, I texted Odette - predictably, she was happy for me, happy that my protection spell had turned out strong and steady, and added a few tips of her own for my spell to stay that way. It felt like I'd grown invisible wings, those days, with all the possibilities open - and never once did I let myself entertain a thought of getting back at an enemy of the past for longer than five seconds.

Sure, it was perfectly human to consider making the cheating ex go bankrupt or make sure the college professor, that failed a couple of students each semester as a 'reality check', trips and face-plants at least once a day... I mean, who wouldn't experience a malicious sort of joy from petty revenge?

But I found my powers were best applied with a positive result in mind. My friend's cat was the first test rat- I mean, living creature I had practiced my healing spells on. The eleven year old kitty was struggling and both me and my friend loved the critter dearly - so the short, but tiring spell I performed yielded exactly the results I was expecting. Odette said something about genuine love backing up the magic, and- well, Dumbledore much?

On humans, it turned out, it wasn't nearly as simple. I didn't know what I had expected would happen after performing nothing short of a whole improv-performace type of ritual right in front of my very puzzled but hopeful friend with chronic asthma, but it wasn't the sheer exhaustion that ran bone-deep and left me bedridden for a whole day.

Odette visited my dingy apartment with her signature enormous purse full of vials she spoon-fed me and trinkets she strategically placed in and around my immediate sleeping area. "There, there," the woman patted my head as I pitifully moaned at the ear-splitting headache. "The first one is always the most challenging. After all, if it would be easy, everyone would do it."

I understood that. But at the same time, it felt unfair that no good deed went unpunished. I told Odette so, raising my voice to the best of my ability as she rummaged around my kitchen.

"Nothing in this world comes out of thin air, whatever you decide to give has to be taken from somewhere," she explained patiently. "People like us are considered hedge witches. We do solitary work and draw most of our energy from the Earth, from mother Nature. We cannot perform miracles, however, the cost of our spells are very low," I felt an immediate peak of interest at the simple yet effective explaination she gave me. "We remain mostly human. Gaia* is kind and generous to the ones who pay respect," Odette continued over the clatter of pans and pots. "There are other kinds of witches - who take from other people, who take from the dead. But taking something by force always leaves scars and taking something from the dead means bringing a piece of them back to places it should not be."

I pondered the words as Odette brought the kettle to a boil, the whistling shriek piercing through my skull like a sharp projectile. "What about Voodoo practitioners?" I couldn't hold back my curiosity.

Odette cleared her throat. "What is left of them is mostly not human. Their gifts are great but the costs are greater. They can live far, far longer than the average witch but their souls will know no peace, just like the souls of the dead they anchor to themselves over time," Odette entered the room with a bowl of tangy, creamy liquid that smelled like pumpkin soup. "We do not bestow any judgement upon our brothers and sisters but it is our duty to inform the young." She cast a pointed glance towards me, passing me the soup and a wooden spoon I didn't know I had. "This should help you recover. Take tomorrow off if needs be."

She left shortly afterwards and I hadn't much strength than to use the bathroom, wash the rune-engraved spoon and curl up in my bed, only waking up when the meager light shone over my face from the window. Sleepy and fog-tinted, the early morning NYC was damp and windy as I stuck my head out of the window to soak my sleep-heated head in the cool air.

As uneventful as the day at the café was, I still wasn't up to 100% energy-wise, but the long walk from Jeremy's to Odette's was pleasantly invigorating. I didn't find the cold autumn moisture displeasing; the small raindrops kept me awake and alert. Odette nodded in muted pleasure as I clocked in and returned the special spoon back to her. The runes on it were interesting; I had taken a picture of them for research purposes, fully intending to craft myself something similar.

"Odette has taken on an apprentice," Wong's voice had me take in several deep breaths in preparation for the inevitable fuck-fest on my patience. "She has been avoiding me. And the girl is painfully slow."

I didn't hear the answer of Wong's companion over the rustling of the boxes I was hastily shoving in their places before the Asian man's temper grew foul. More foul. Ugh. The sharp ding of the bell had me yelling a, "Just a second please, I'll be right with you," while trying to keep my tone polite.

Wong's sour face and a list of items required greeted me as I flew out of the backrooms, noticing the locked doors of Odette's office on my way out. Wong's companion stood at the far end of the store - his robes quite different from the ones I'd seen people of their kind wear, his lithe, tall figure seeming strangely familiar. I squinted my eyes at his back. "Is this all you need?" I waved the list around, increasing the volume of my voice.

The tall man turned around and I could only gape. He, in turn, also froze, the stern, unfriendly expression losing heat and giving way to perplexed wonder. "I had placed an order, for sorcerer Strange," Tony's boyfriend eyed me somewhat sheepishly under Wong's concerned gaze.

I nodded, eyeing Wong in turn, letting satisfaction nestle a warm ball in my chest. Stephen's look of displeasure had turned onto his... Colleague. By the time I finished retrieving Strange's order and packing up the items on Wong's list, the Asian man had left, leaving Stephen to sheepishly pretend to examine the books on the furthest shelf. I waved the paper bags as he took long strides towards me, his fancy, large necklace glimmering under the lights.

"So, how long have you been working here?" Sorcerer Strange asked after I told him the total.

The cash register beeped loudly, coins clattering on the desk as I counted out his change. "Some time now," I shrugged noncommittally. I felt his magnetic eyes gloss over my adornments, the star necklace, the various rings; I could practically feel him coming to his own conclusions. "Long enough for your colleague to get an attitude with me," I had to make sure he knew I would be taking no bullshit from him - or anyone else, for that matter. Odette's opinion on his kind was firm and I was heavily inclined to agree.

"Hmm, I see," Strange was equally as keen on hiding his curiosity. It was a funny thing, really, that we, being adults that we were, treated this encounter like some sort of a dirty secret. "Don't take it personally. Wong is like that with everyone," The man briefly scratched his beard with a gloved hand before pocketing his change and picking up the bags. "Except Beyoncè, maybe," the wink he threw me was positively mischievous as it caught me off-guard, giving him a fox-like appearance.

I sighed as the door shut behind him. Pretty white boys - the ultimate human disasters.

I had no time to dwell on them, however, as something - or someone, hit downtown with all the malicious intentions to wreak havoc on the innocent civilians calmly going about their day. Mutants and people who knew Odette came in hordes, scrapes and bruises and strange wounds that required imminent healing.

My boss was no rookie, she dutifully accepted each and every single soul, looking worse for wear with each minute. Not being able to withstand seeing her drain herself, I simply took over the simplest tasks - and she said nothing, just gave me a nod, instructed to use whatever I needed and write it down somewhere along with the name of the person who required the healing.

As the battle raged, the crowds thinned but the ones who managed to come to Odette's spouted more serious wounds, obviously a result of them fighting back. Mutants covered head to toe with coats and hats and robes, for me to swallow my shock when they undressed - horns, tails and weird skin textures were on the far end of the normal. I dutifully extracted small pieces of information from each and every person I treated.

Yes, the Avengers were winning. No, there aren't many people hurt, most of the damage is cosmetic. Yes, the villain of the week is as stupid as usual. It was like a mantra. Odette poked her head into the spare room every now and then, her eagle eyes briefly scanning over me to make sure I wasn't exterting myself.

As I applied the healing salve to a tiny, pink-skinned woman, bandaging up her hands, my boss entered and closed the door behind her, setting down on the creaky chair with a loud thud. "Just got the news, the Avengers apprehended the terrorist," she sighed long and slow. "We've done all we could, the next few days I'll be handling house calls so you'll be here on your own. I'll probably see you in a few days, don't hesitate to give me a call if something comes up," Odette seemed to be barely standing up, yet when she tore off a few pieces of her jewelry and chucked them into a big tin can under the sink, the glossy sheen in her eyes melted away.

"Okay," I mumbled under the watchful eyes of the mutant woman. "Will there be more people coming in today?"

"No," the woman in front of me snorted. "SHIELD is prowling the streets. They are not fond of us, they always say we intervene unnecessarily even though we willingly do their dirty work so our children could be safe," the bitter, harsh tone took me off-guard.

I had to admit, there was reason behind her words. "Will you be able to get home safely? I have a puffy coat and a hat you can borrow." Figuring an expensive taxi ride would be a better alternative to something terrible happening to the woman, I offered her my winter clothes.

She smiled at me, razor blade teeth and large, red eyes the kindest I'd ever seen on a person. In the end, she took the clothes, promising to bring them back in a few days and Odette gave me a parka that was too small for her frame - despite it smelling like someone's grandma's attic, I found it to be quite lovely vintage. The puffy knitted scarf she added felt like warmth and safety - she had to have knitted it herself, for I knew, handmade items carried a significant amount of energy in them.

The shop was eerily quiet as I cleaned and scrubbed the stained, dirty floors and disposed of the bloody clothes and bandages in the tiny, odd fireplace in Odette's office - that was a thing most peculiar, it burned everything I put in it, but had no chimney, no place for the smoke to exit. Magic.

Something banged loudly against the entrance door. I let out a startled shriek, broomstick falling out of my hand and adding to the sudden cacophony of noise as the figure behind the stained glass slowly slid down the door, a deep, male voice groaning something incomprehensible loud enough for me to hear.

Grabbing a large serrated knife we used for mincing the bones of small animals, I made quiet steps towards the door, seeing a large, obviously humanoid figure helplessly lean on the door. The man's arm glinted chrome black and gunmetal grey in the low light. "Sargent Barnes? Bucky?" I whisper-shouted, carefully plying open the door.

He lifted his head, blood dripping down from it, his face looked like someone went to town on it with a meat mullet, his eyes were unfocused and couldn't keep a straight line. His flesh arm leaned heavily on the door frame, the prosthetic hanging limply, dragging his whole body to its side. It must've weigh a ton.

"Я должен найти капитана Роджерса," he whispered.

I didn't understand Russian at all but I could make out the name of his boyfriend. Which made sense. Bucky looked severely concussed - I idly wondered what exactly they had been fighting, what could have given a freaking super-soldier such a brain-leaking injury. "Sargent Barnes, follow me," I put on my big girl shoes and used my momma bear voice, towing the man behind me.

He, too, weighed a ton, as I stumbled, helping him into the chair in the spare room that became my healing station for today. The longer I looked at Bucky, the less lucid he grew, eyes falling shut as he murmured something in jagged Russian, slurring his words.

There was no time to think about the consequences of exposure of my witchcraft; mortar and pestle, herbs and salves flying everywhere, I assembled a healing spell and memorized the according ritual in what felt like record time. He was bleeding all over the chair, fresh crimson blood pouring out of his nose and mouth and it was all I could see.

I hadn't known true terror until the blood that poured out turned black. Whatever it was in him, it was poisonous - my protection charms grew hot, scalding as they left marks on my skin; powering through the pain and unable to turn my eyes off the convulsing Barnes, I finished the chant just as the flow of vile, tar-like liquid suddenly ceased. It pooled around his feet, dripped down the armrests and matted his long hair. It reeked, too, of copper and putrid meat.

Bucky had passed out somewhere mid-spell, the slow, steady breathing bringing me my own sense of calm. To say that I was drained would be an understatement - my vision swam and my world spun on it's axis as I unlocked Odette's office to messily rummage through a cabinet for the emergency tonic I knew she kept there. I chugged the vial, an avalanche of almost anxious, jittery energy hit me like a freight train - exactly what I needed.

I bought myself a couple hours of time. Cleaning up the sludge around Bucky's feet and removing the outer parts of his gear was easy as he remained as relaxed as a cooked spaghetti noodle. The amount of weapons he had on him was impressive, but those weren't what I was looking for - his phone. It was dead, so I plugged it in, waiting for the 5% to show and bringing it to his fingertips, hoping he used the print recognition instead of the password option... And I lucked out.

"Hello, this is Star, I found a Bucky. Tell Dr. Strange to come get him, he knows where I am." I texted the "Stevie ❤️" contact, my inner fangirl self squealing at the dorky name of his boyfriend's contact in Bucky's phone. Shortly afterwards, I went ahead and snapped a picture of myself next to sleeping Bucky, figuring out some actual proof wouldn't do any harm in this bizarre situation.

The answer didn't let me wait long. "10 minutes" came the first text, and shortly afterwards - "Is Bucky okay??????". I had to snort at the amount of question marks before honestly replying "He will be ☺️" and putting the phone back in Bucky's pocket. I cleaned up and attempted to lift Bucky up, succeeding in waking him up into a half-lucid state, probably courtesy of decades of training and whatnot, to at least drag him to the front of the store. I wasn't particularly comfortable with strangers seeing the backrooms.

Bucky leaned with his back against the counter, ass flat on the floor and a towel with a cold compress pressed to his head when the doors all but flew open, revealing Captain Rogers, still in uniform and Stephen Strange, arguing with his boyfriend, both still suited up and bloody and grimy.

"Uhh," I blinked owlishly, causing the men to stop bickering and stare first at me, then at Bucky. "I think he hit his head," I offered weakly, backing up slightly at the amount of burning eyes staring at me.

"Shortcake, that you?" Tony's eyebrows rose as he surveyed the bodega, the items on the shelves, the black and red blood stains on my previously pristine, yellow shirt.

"Now is not the time, Tony. Go with Rogers, make sure the medical is prepared for Barnes and disable his arm," Strange barked out authoritatively, shooting me a puzzled but compassionate look. "The portal is open. I'll talk to Star, find out what happened." He advanced towards me as Captain picked up Bucky bridal-style as tenderly as he could while making sure the compress stayed on.

"Keep that tone fo the bedroom," Tony's voice was more than displeased as he shot me and Strange a hurt look, but followed Steve into the golden circle right outside the door before it sparked shut.

"Now, now, what happened here?" The sorcerer's voice lowered into a soothing drawl as I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding. My shoulders sagged, fingers twitching with anxious energy. The man extended a gloved hand, briefly squeezing my shoulder. "It's alright, take your time."

Damn, did I look that bad?

Taglist: @couldntbedamned @mikariell95 @letsby @sleep-i-ness @toomanyrobins @mostly-marvel-musings @persephonehemingway @schemefrenzy @lillsxd @bluecrazedandbeautiful @slothspaghettiwrites

[quazartranslates]

Welcome to the Nightmare Game - CH108

**This is an edited machine translation. For more information, please [click here]**

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Chapter 108: Slaughter Secret Society (X)

"Good, good evening..." Qi Leren, who came out of the basement after completing today's training task, glanced over and saw Ning Zhou sitting on the sofa. The uninvited guest sat straight on the soft sofa, who knows how long he’d been waiting.

Qi Leren, who was covered in sweat, subconsciously looked down at his clothes. This time he was fine, wearing a sports vest, and finally he was not curious-looking: "I’ll take a shower and be right back!"

With that said, Qi Leren ran upstairs to first wash himself quickly.

Perched on the coat rack, the big black bird let out a strange laugh and seemed to laugh at Ning Zhou, this master of its that had been left on the sofa. The latter gave it a blank look, and under the deterrent of its master's eyes, it made a whistling sound and looked in all directions casually.

After a quick shower, Qi Leren ran down the stairs with a boiling hot water kettle, and poured Ning Zhou and himself a glass of water. The big black bird that was not entertained rattled discontentedly, and Qi Leren had no choice but to pour it a cup. Unexpectedly, the bird was brazen and pushed its luck: "I'm hungry, I want something delicious!"

It also coveted the few rations Qi Leren had left!

Qi Leren was distressed. There weren’t many "pleasing rations". By now, they had all been fed to this bird... But this was Ning Zhou's bird. Right now, he had to count on Ning Zhou for help. Alright, let's feed…

"Ignore it." Before Qi Leren took out the food, Ning Zhou made a noise to stop him.

Qi Leren retracted the hand he’d been about to feed it with in good faith.

The big black bird looked at its master resentfully, pecked his ear discontentedly, and flapped its wings to fly away.

"Your bird has character... but its very smart. What's its name and breed?" Qi Leren asked.

Even outside of the mission, where Ning Zhou was no longer equipped with the Closed Meditation skill, he was still quiet, rarely saying anything: "It has no name, the species is an eagle, and its habitat is in the Jinghai Desert."

Qi Leren's regional understanding of the Nightmare World basically comes from his playing Nightmare Game, and he vaguely remembered that the Jinghai Desert was the location of the Underground Ant City, hiding the nest-like underground world under its scorching and horrible desert, as well as the scorching Purgatory deep underground, which was a place where demons ran rampant.

There were really too few topics between the two. They’d hardly talked during the Witchcraft Sacrifice. After that, every time they met, the unique circumstances hadn’t allowed them to sit down and chat, but now they were a little embarrassed.

"If it’s an eagle, then doessn’t it speak eagle (English)?" Qi Leren told a pun.*

*{E/N: Ning Zhou says his bird is an eagle (语鹰 yu ying), and Qi Leren tries to joke by saying oh, then wont it speak the language of the eagles (ying yu 鹰语; the same characters but switched), which is a homonym for english (英语 ying yu) } 

Ning Zhou gave him a calm, blank look, giving no indication of laughing.

Qi Leren froze, forgetting that Ning Zhou was not a person from the real world. He didn't know what English was!

"Ahem, in the outside world, there is a common language called English. We sometimes use it when we talk. What is Hello, Happy, Hani... Ahem, it’s nothing special, pretend I didn’t say anything." Qi Leren felt that he had suddenly become an emperor of silence, and his heart was in tears. Why was it that he could easily talk to sinister killers when he was acting as Red? Yet now, in the face of his own kind, he often made stupid mistakes?

In fact, he didn’t know what to say to the other party. Why did he say such a thing? Ning Zhou: "...Oh."

For some reason, this silent scene reminded Qi Leren of a long time ago. At that time, he had not yet entered the Nightmare Game, and he was still an unemployed youth who was looking for a job everywhere shortly after graduation. His parents introduced him to a friend's daughter. This sister was dignified and beautiful, that is, she was a little cold. After the exchange of "um, ah, oh, ok, thank you, you're welcome", there was no more…

At this moment, the scene was similar to the picture of that blind date, except the one on the opposite sofa wasn’t quite the right gender.

"I..." Qi Leren was ready to talk about the Slaughter Secret Society.

"You..." Ning Zhou also happened to speak.

The two voices collided.

"You go first."

"You go first."

Two voices collided again, and they went silent at the same time.

Qi Leren began to sweat again. It won't work! This communication is totally impossible! It's embarrassing to sit and talk!

"Are you hungry? I'll make some fried rice." Qi Leren was really a little hungry. It would be better to communicate at the dinner table.

"I don't..." "I'm hungry! I’m so hungry! I'm starving!" Ning Zhou had just said two words when his bird screamed at the top of its lungs, startling Qi Leren.

After being interrupted by it, the atmosphere in the room was finally better. Qi Leren showed a big smile and looked at it gratefully: "If it can eat, I’ll make three servings. Cooking at home is much cheaper than eating outside. Paying the bill when you eat out hurts."

Seeing Qi Leren’s offer, Ning Zhou didn't refuse and silently followed him into the kitchen... A win.

Qi Leren’s mood became complicated when he saw Ning Zhou cutting tomatoes with a kitchen knife. It felt like seeing Dr. Lu approach him; he always felt that the skill points were a little biased.

A pan of fried rice and a pot of soup were finished quickly, and Qi Leren's craftsmanship was OK. After all, he lived alone all the year round, and he would have to eat instant noodles every day if he couldn't cook with his own hands. Ning Zhou, though, seemed almost like a chef, and Qi Leren felt distressed when he thought of his own life experience.

But there was a feeling of friendliness with this chef, and the atmosphere was much better when the two people sat at the dinner table. Qi Leren told Ning Zhou about the Slaughter Secret Society while eating, and how when he saw Ning Zhou listed as the mission goal for the selection ceremony to decide the holder, he’d almost fallen into the trap. Ning Zhou gave him a deep look.

Qi Leren choked for a moment, and he found it was easy to misunderstand, but the explanation made it worse and worse, so he had to bury his head in his food, burping from the anxiety. He was ridiculed by the eagle, who was tasting its unfamiliar fried rice.

After eating, Qi Leren revived his spirits and began to tell Ning Zhou about his plan: "The Slaughter Secret Society’s internal struggle is fierce. The Court always suspected that they could catch Kunagshan because the present keeper agent Lie Yang (Luo Yishan) had secretly leaked his whereabouts, because once the keeper dies, the memento ring will fall into the hands of the keeper agent. Right now, the ring has lost its binding. No matter whose hands it falls into, anyone can use it, but the functions of the half-field are incomplete. The acting ring holder also has the right to hold a selection ceremony to elect the next ring holder, and the new ring holder binds the ring to restore all functions in the half-field. But my presence broke his calculations. He must be worried that I’ll find you before him and sacrifice you to the Lord of Slaughter to become the new holder, so he needs to find a way to get rid of me and hold another selection ceremony. There are too many variables now. So I guess he’ll get rid of me before I finish the task. When there’s only one competitor left, whether the task is completed or not, he’ll become the ring holder. "

Qi Leren's situation at this time was undoubtedly dangerous, but he felt quite safe in this house. After all, the Court’s people shadowed him all the time. It was very difficult for Yang to kill him here. If Yang was being careful, he wouldn’t assassinate him here. The place was too unfamiliar, and his likelihood of failing would be very high. Once he failed, Red would be more vigilant.

In order to assassinate the demonized Red, it was necessary to kill him with one swift and resolute blow and end the battle before he awakened his demonization. The best way was to carry it out in the field. When you entered the field with full confidence and wanted to complete the sacrifice and seize the memento ring…

"There’s a good chance that he’ll rally his men to attack me suddenly and get rid of me after I enter the field. I’ve heard that in many selection ceremonies, it was quite common for candidates to kill each other. The Devil of Slaughter is indifferent to this group of believers, looking at them as no different from beggars. He just likes to watch them kill indiscriminately," Qi Leren said with a frown.

"What are you going to do?" Ning Zhou asked.

Qi Leren glanced at Ning Zhou with trepidation: "This... requires you to be sacrificed..."

Ning Zhou: "..." He had a bad feeling.

Qi Leren was really becoming more and more skilled at convincing his teammates.

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Editor’s Notes: A thank you as always to Miko for explaining untranslatable stuff ^_^”

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[sensualyerotic]

Varsha’s Debauchery

CHAPTER -  I

Varsha Singh stretched her body and glanced towards the screaming alarm clock, 5.30 AM it's time to get up, lazily she reached for it and punched the stop button. The early morning sun was pouring in through the window and she slowly slipped out of the bed. Without disturbing her sleeping husband, she quickly freshened up and before six o'clock she was out of the house for her regular jogging.

Outside her small bungalow was a vast stretch of greenery as they were residing in FRI complex (Forest Research Institute) at Dehradun along with her husband and a 6-year-old daughter. Her husband Shekhar, a botanist was working with FRI for last six months. Varsha loved the place which is full of 450 hectares of forest all around and colonial style main building at the center. In front of the main building lies a large lush green field and on sides were several offices, staff quarters and bungalows, one of which was occupied by them.

She wore a tight-fitting track pants with matching top and tied her shoulder length hairs in a ponytail. Adjusting her headphones and tuning in her favorite music she started to run towards the field. She saw the usual people walking or jogging and greeted the uncles and aunties from neighborhood. Two rounds of the large field were enough for her regular exercise. She whisked past several people out for morning walk and even the grandpas in the lot couldn't help but stare at the perfect round ass in those tight slacks. As she jogged, the round shapely ass produced an exotic view when they sway with every step she took. Varsha have kept herself in a great shape with this daily routine, a 34C breast, narrow and flat abdomen and a round 36 inches of meat below her waist.

She finished her jogging and reached home around quarter to seven and after relaxing a bit she set about for her daily routine. After the quick shower, she prepared the tea and went in the bedroom.

"Rise and shine," she cheerfully spoke and kept the tea on the bedside table. Shekhar listened but feeling lazy he tried to ignore until Varsha climbed on the bed and shook her wet hairs on his face.

"Um... no... let me sleep," he murmured as the small drops of water splashed on his face. Varsha giggled and some more drops of water sprinkled on his face. He opened his eyes and in mock anger he tried to grab her but she slipped away.

"Get up and have your tea before its cold," she spoke, "I have to wake up Rini also."

"Yeah... but first wake me up," he spread his arms for a hug.

"Get up and don't be naughty early in the morning," she giggled but slipped in his arms for a quick good morning kiss.

She went about preparing the breakfast while Shekhar run around getting Rini ready for school. The hectic morning came to an end when she packed Shekhar's lunch and send him off to the office. Now she has ample time to relax till her daughter is back from school at around 2.00 pm. This is the time Varsha is alone and free to do whatever she wants. This is the time she went for shopping to the city as the large complex has no shops but only some offices, some residences and vast area of forests. The back of the forest area stretches far and looks as if meeting the foothills of Himalayas. She loves to walk deep in the forest, all alone with her thoughts.

Today was no exception, she walked out of house and saw the gardener busy in the small garden of the bungalow. He was a boy named Chandu Nautiyal, not more then nineteen years old and was son of the peon working in her husband's office. To help the family he use to work as part time gardener in the bungalows.

"Good Morning Madam," he greeted Varsha as she walked by him.

"Good Morning Chandu, what are you doing today," she enquired.

"Just watering these plants and then will mow the lawn," he answered respectfully.

She nodded and walked towards the forest area. She wore her favorite long skirt with a top and carried just the keys of the house. She walked admiring the nature and soon the offices and the bungalows were left far behind and what was around was just tall trees and small bushes. The April sun was not hot and cool shade of the trees was chilling. She admired the hills of Himalayas far away as the cool breeze blow her skirt. The jungle was quite except for some occasional chirping of birds. She stepped behind a large tree and rested her back on the trunk. Her heart beat increased and she glanced around the place packed with trees and bushes limiting the sight to a few yards.

She fumbled with the hook on the skirt and opened them letting the skirt fall to her feet. She was standing in middle of the jungle in just her small panty and top. With increasing excitement she stepped out of the bunched skirt and slowly pulled the top out and placed it over the skirt. A squirrel squeaked and looked at her from the top of the branch.

Varsha felt aroused and her nipples were tout begging to be freed and that is exactly what she did and threw the bra over the rest of the clothes. The long and pointed boobs were standing proudly on her chest with nipples so erect that they started to give an itchy feeling. She grabbed one of the titties and massaged the erect nipple between her thumb and finger. The other hand she pushed between her legs onto the wet pussy which was starting to soak the panties. She quickly pulled it out of her slender legs and threw over the pile of clothes.

Varsha, a wife of a respected scientist at FRI was standing nude in middle of the jungle. She understands the danger and the scandal it would be if someone found out but this was making it even more thrilling for her. She grabbed both her breasts and pulled the hard nipples .

She looked around and strained her ears to listen for any noises which would alert her of anybody approaching, but she heard none. She looked towards the pile of clothes then slowly walked ahead on the uneven grounds. As she moved farther from clothes the danger increases and so does her excitement. She reached behind bushes, far away from her pile of clothes. If someone happened to come by she will not able to get to her clothes immediately and she will be caught totally nude, the thought itself increased her excitement. She lies down on the soft grass still massaging her boobs and pinching her nipples. She moved one hand between her legs to touch the aching clit and a groan escaped her mouth.

She spread her legs wide as if opening up for an unknown lover to get between them and fuck her brains out. The danger of being caught in such a state was making her horny, the only thought in her mind was 'If someone caught me lying spread eagle, all alone in the jungle, he will not let me go without fucking me.' She shivered with excitement and rubbed her clit vigorously.

Varsha enjoyed exposing herself since a very young age. As soon as her body started developing the boys around her started showing special interest in her and she always enjoyed the attention. She soon realized the importance of her body and what effect if causes on the opposite sex, maybe sometimes to same sex also. She enjoyed knowing that a man is drooling over her and that she is giving him a hardon. In school itself she started enjoying 'accidently' exposing herself. She gave innumerous hardons to her teachers and fellow students and she loves the fact that she was the subject of thousands of masturbations. Whenever she had such an incident where she exposes herself and knew that someone is watching, she touched herself in privacy and bring herself to a massive orgasm. Today lying in the woods naked, she rubbed her pussy imagining someone watching her and stroking his large penis.

She remembered the incident when she was young and travelling with her parents in a train. It was an overnight journey and she was wearing a knee-high skirt along with a t-shirt. The t-shirt was tight around her bust and the shape of her round boobs were producing a mouthwatering scene. She was busy reading a book when she noticed a man in the opposite seat was checking her out. He was a grown-up man in his forties and she noticed that he was surreptitiously glancing at her legs and breasts. Varsha felt a chill run down her spine and she looked at her parents who were busy talking amongst themselves.

She checked herself and found that her skirt has ridden a bit over the knees as she sat on the seat with legs pulled up and folded. She innocently moved her legs a bit giving him a better glimpse of her thighs deep inside the skirt and from corner of her eyes she watched for his reaction. The man saw the movement of her legs and the delicate thighs exposed for a split second giving him deep view upto her black panties and then they were closed again, but still the skirt rode higher and he was mesmerized by the sight of her soft and creamy legs.

Varsha saw awe on his face and felt the tingling sensation between her legs. She continued flipping pages of the book and in between opened and closed her legs giving him fleeting glimpses of her gorgeous thighs. At one point their eyes met and he smiled but she looked away. The game continued till it was time to sleep and Varsha was on fire. Her parents took the top berth while she occupied the lower one just opposite the man.

By this time, it was clear to the man that she was deliberately teasing him and the guy didn't mind the show, but he was getting greedy for more. In the light of night bulb, he could see her lying face up and the sheets not yet pulled up. He looked intensely in her eyes and mouthed 'please.' She knew what he wanted and she felt naughty pulling up her skirt inch by inch. She kept an eye on her sleeping parents and on anyone passing through the aisle and pulled her skirt high enough to expose the triangular black panty covering her pussy. She could literally feel his gaze on her pussy. She left it like that for a long time for him to feast his eyes and only pulled it back when she heard someone walking down the aisle.

Everyone in the carriage seems to be sleeping and Varsha was getting hornier and hornier. This is the first time that she has done something like this, she has never gone beyond 'accidental' exposing but this time all barriers seems to have been broken, she was playing on the 'requests' of this man. She pulled her t-shirt up and exposed her bra covered boobs and then alternated between showing her panties and bra.

Suddenly she heard a loud noise, nervously she pulled down her skirt but then realized it was snoring sound produced by his father. She giggled and saw the man was also grinning. After couple of seconds he again gestured with his hand trying to communicate through sign language, asking her to continue with the show and reveal more. Varsha was a bit scared that the noise might have woken up someone so she shook her head refusing to comply. The man made a bad face and continued to coax her.

When she started to pull the sheets over her body he desperately begged not to and started to point towards the aisle. Varsha was confused as she was not able to understand what he wanted. He got up from his seat and stood in the aisle and signaled her to follow him as he walked towards the toilets. She now understood that he was asking her to come to the toilets at the end of the carriage and continue the show, maybe in the toilet. She felt scared at the prospect of being alone with him, but then the excitement overpowered her, the taboo nature of the act made her breath heavy. She peeked in the gallery and saw him standing at the far end. He signaled her to come to him when he saw her looking.

Hesitantly she got up and checked on her sleeping parents, when she was sure that they were fast asleep she walked down the aisle. Her heart started to beat hard as she reached the toilets.

"Why you called me," she whispered acting all innocent.

"I was not able to look at this beautiful body in the dark over there," he too whispered in a hoarse voice, "I want to see you properly."

Varsha's face turned red and she looked down at the floor unable to meet his gaze. There was no one around and he slowly opened the door of the toilet. He held the door open and looked at her meaningfully.

"Come... here no one can disturb us," he whispered. Varsha was feeling excited and nervous at the same time, however she hesitantly stepped in. He closed the door behind and they were cramped in the small space.

"Show me," his voice was barely audible.

Varsha was trembling as she lifted her skirt and pulled it above her waist.

"Now the panty."

She shook her head.

"Please," he whispered, "you are so sexy... now don't hide yourself... I want to see all of you."

Her heart was beating so hard that she thought the sound could be heard by her sleeping parents. After he coaxed again she let go the skirt and put her thumbs in the elastic waist band. She pulled the panty down to her knees and then inched her skirt up to reveal the soft pussy mound partly hidden in small pubic hairs.

"Ah... wow," he gasped as the pussy came into view and Varsha shut her eyes tightly. He looked fixedly at the swollen pussy lips which were pressed tightly leaving a line between them and he was sure that he was looking at a virgin cunt. His cock twitched and was rock hard.

"Now the boobs."

Varsha let the skirt fall and started to pull back the panty.

"No... no... let it like that," he held the skirt up, "I want to see all of you."

"Leave it," she pulled the skirt out of his grip and looked alarmed.

"Ok... Ok... no problem... but I want to see you fully nude."

She relaxed a bit when he stepped back and then she held the skirt with one hand and with other pulled the t-shirt up. He waited patiently as she slowly revealed her slim and beautiful body. She finally pulled her bra above her boobs and he got the first glimpse of her pointed boobs and the erect nipples. Varsha felt very dirty in exposing to him completely.

He watched in amazement at the young beauty just two feet away and then he wanted more. He wanted to touch them, he wanted to squeeze them. With a single step he was onto her and placed a firm hand on her left boob and his other hand went around her waist pulling her tightly against him.

"No... no... leave me," she panicked and tried to move back but there was no space.

"You are amazing," he groaned while squeezing the tits, he didn't seem to listen to her protests and moved his hands over her body mauling her tits and ass. Varsha was terrified now and all her playfulness vanished, she never thought that if she is alone with him he will try to take advantage of her. She cursed herself for being so foolish and literally started to fight him away.

He was in frenzy and the protests hardly have any effect on him. He had her pinned between him and the toilet wall and the pointed soft orbs on her chest were repeatedly pumped and squeezed. He tried to kiss her on lips but as she violently shook her head he was only able to lick her cheeks.

"What!!!" suddenly he realized that she was crying and fighting with him for her dear life, "what are you doing," he looked puzzled.

"Leave me... let me go," she cried, tears flowing freely.

"Why!!! What is wrong!!!"

"Let me go... please... I don't want this."

"Ohh... common don't show the attitude now, I know you want this," he brushed aside her protests and once again tried to kiss her this time he managed to grab her lip in his mouth.

"Uggg... moo... uggg...' she tried to speak but her voice was muffled. Varsha was now shit scared and tried her best to avoid him hands but met with little success, his hands were now probing her cunt and spreading the lips.

"Don't worry... don't worry," he spoke in a hoarse voice and unzipped his pant.

"No... no... mummy," Varsha started to howl as she realized that he was ready to fuck her, the cock rubbed between her legs.

"Shhhh... keep your voice down."

"Mummy," she howled louder.

"What are you doing... do you want to wake up the entire compartment," he tried to calm her, "I will be real slow you have no need to worry."

"No... no... leave me," she continued to fight him.

"Bitch," he tried to turn her around in order to take her from behind but he met with bitter fighting and shouting.

"What do you want," he was now a bit alarmed himself and feared someone might hear her, "Shhh calm down I am not doing anything."

As his grip loosened Varsha quickly pulled her panty up and arranged her clothes while he looked at her in anger.

"Bitch... cunt," he vented his anger while she quickly opened the latch and ran out of the toilet. She almost ran to her seat and pulled the sheets over her as she sat in the corner, still panting.

The man didn't bother her after that and was gone early in the morning. The incident left Varsha really scared and she promised herself never to do this again. For next one year, she never thought of exposing herself not even 'accidently' but then slowly the incident started to fade in the memory and she was tempted again, however she was careful not to let herself into such a situation. Her exhibitionism remained 'accidental' and she never ventured further than that until she was married.

She was virgin at the time of her marriage at a young age of 21. Her family was orthodox and getting the daughter married quickly was the only plan of her parents, so once she finished the college they found him a suitable match. Although Shekhar was nine years older than her but he was well settled scientist in a government job so her parents have no objection and she was married to Shekhar.

Varsha never felt the age gap as a problem, she fell in love with the mature and calm nature of Shekhar. The first year zipped past as both of them explored each other and before they know she was pregnant with Rini and she was busy with being a mother. The urge of exhibition didn't crop up until Rini was three years old and she found a shoe salesman peeping under her saree. She felt the excitement once again and she let him feast his eyes on her smooth legs in the pretext of trying the sandals. She realized how exciting it is and then she started creating opportunities to expose herself to strangers, salesmen, etc. however she always remained in control and never let herself get carried away. She had Shekhar, her husband whom she would fuck senseless in night after she had one of her 'incidents.'

Shekhar's job involves transfers and six month back they were transferred to FRI at Dehradun and Varsha was in love with the place at the first site. The quiet and green environment around evoked strange sensations and she broadened her exhibitionism. The afternoons were her playtime and she use to go to city and wander around the shops exposing to salesmen. Then there was her tailor, who was more than pleased to take 'measurements' of such a young & sexy wife.

One day while she walked into the jungles she had the naughty idea of taking her panty out. In the deserted stretch of the jungle she removed her panty and touched her swollen pussy lips. She felt naughty doing that in open jungle and then she sat down under a tree and rubbed herself to an orgasm. Another round to the jungle, another day, she takes it up a notch and removed her bra and panty. Slowly and slowly her risk taking increased and today she was lying totally nude in middle of the jungle with her clothes lying at least 50 meters away.

She rubbed her clit spreading her legs wide, her finger moved in circles occasionally slipping in the wet hole. Slow moans escaped her mouth as she neared climax.

[bebebese]

please read the forbes review of new horizons

also under the readmore bc i know that site can be jank

It looks, at least at first, like a vacation. You book your ticket through Nook Inc., by all appearances a cheerful travel agent, coordinating with Dodo Airlines for a trip to a deserted island somewhere in the hemisphere of your choice. But it’s different. For whatever reason—personal, political, biological or otherwise, it will never be clear—your cheerful little character has decided to book a one way ticket. I wear a sailor shirt and jeans, and I am never going back.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the latest entry in Nintendo’s pleasant little life simulator series, but the setting marks an interesting break. In the past I was just moving to a town, a normal thing that one might do, even if the town is inhabited by strange and friendly anthropomorphic animals. Now, I am striking out into the wilderness to build a utopia on a deserted island. My guide is Tom Nook, a scheming raccoon whose calm, half-lidded eyes belie the essential fervor with which he will pursue his latest venture, a grand social experiment far beyond the construction business he ran on the mainland. My companions on this first day are a disaffected pink rhino and a fitness-obsessed elephant, their motivations for abandoning society as unclear as my own. Joining us are Tom Nook’s two sons, Timmy and Tommy, the mother nowhere to be seen and never mentioned. We pitch our tents on the first day, and I go out to shake cherries out of a tree at Nook’s request. We gather around a bonfire and drink cherry juice as the sun goes down, toasting the start of our new life without a thought to what we left behind. This is life now, here on the island. And we will make it a good one.

It’s impossible to review Animal Crossing: New Horizons here on March 16, 2020, without writing in the shadow of the coronavirus. That might not be true of all games—DOOM Eternal will still be DOOM Eternal, even if it is perhaps more needed now than it would have been last year. But there is something about the particular escapism of Animal Crossing’s simple life that feels particularly vital at a time when death tolls and infection rates are rising, whole cities are shutting down, the global economy is fumbling to a halt and millions of people are choosing to spend their days indoors, alone. In the past few weeks, a collective howl to just release the game early has come up on social media in a way that it can’t quite for any other game. We need a new life right now because this one is looking tenuous.

The game is simple: you live on the island and you make it better. You start in a tent, you upgrade to a house, and then you improve the house. You catch butterflies and fish. You collect fruit, and you sell them to Tom Nook’s sons as Nook Sr. talks constantly about “the island way”. You give gifts to your friends and they reward you with clothing and housewares. If you support Tom Nook’s amorphous goals, he will give you “Nook Miles”, which you can use to fly to even more isolated islands to find lost souls camping out alone in the wilderness who can be persuaded to join your growing community. There is a museum where you can bring all the bugs, fish and fossils you can find to create a slowly expanding record of your own achievement: for the most part you are alone in its silent, impressive beauty, but sometimes you will see another island inhabitant peering into the fish tank that you stocked. You can build a wardrobe at your little workbench, choose a custom color and place it in your house to put on a hat when it rains.

It’s a game of rhythms. There are always bugs and fish, you can spend your spare time catching those when there’s nothing else to do. Every so often you can go to the beach to check for seashells. You can hit a rock for minerals once a day. If you find a rare fruit not available on your island you can plant a tree, but it will take a few days to grow. If you request construction, it will be available in the morning. Larger buildings might take a full day to complete. I haven’t seen it in the review period, but as the seasons passes we will see different fish and bugs, different environments and different clothes on your friends. You could put on warmer clothes in cold seasons, but you don’t have to. It is— after all, utopia.

Two weeks into my play and my island is unrecognizable from when I first moved in. My and my friends’ tents have been replaced by permanent houses, my own with three rooms stocked with haphazard furniture, an espresso grinder on the floor next to my record player. My two original companions are joined by a friendly green eagle, a squirrel with a flight helmet, and a small, nervous, bearded creature of indeterminate species. I found a drunk seagull on the beach one day that I haven’t seen since. They’re joined by the owl that runs the museum, a hedgehog that sells clothes on the weekends, a travelling carpet-selling camel, and a weird little rodent thing that sells turnips on Sundays. The turnips fluctuate wildly in price, and you can make a lot of money selling them at the right time throughout the week because this utopia veers wildly between aggressive capitalism and essential collectivism. I’ve got a sleeping bag that I put on the beach next to a little camping lantern and a palm tree that will be full grown at the time of publication. I lie on it sometimes.

There are games that you play in quick sessions, and there are games that stretch into weeks, months, and years. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is one of the latter. These games are never about what they are about, whether you’re shooting aliens to earn powerful guns, slashing demons with axes to collect ever grander armor, or planting orange trees so that you can see them blossom. That’s just window dressing. They are about the feeling that you get when you log into the game every day and make progress: that you can earn your bells and build your island, and that nothing can really take it away from you. Not a stock market crash or a malicious strand of RNA worming its way through cells and society. Furniture and clothing are made available randomly through rotating stocks at stores and the whims of your gift-giving friends. But even if you throw something out, it’s added to a list where you can buy it again as long as you want. Nothing is lost, ever.

Much has been made of Nintendo’s decision to limit Animal Crossing: New Horizons to one island per Switch, with limited cloud saves and a procedure for recovering data that would have felt dated a decade ago. I can understand, in a practical way, why these are insane, anti-consumer decisions that are bound to cause unnecessary heartbreak. But I also understand them. The utility of Animal Crossing relies on a sense of being real. There’s only one island on on Switch because that island is real, and it lives on that Switch. You’re not meant to change date to switch the season because it’s just not that season yet. It seeks peace in surrender, core to the Animal Crossing experience.

I haven’t talked a lot about the game itself, really. There’s a bunch of stuff old and new here, like the ability to choose where people live, the way the island evolves, the DIY system that lets you make your own stuff, streamlined inventory management, the multiplayer system, the way you can now create and destroy land at a whim, etc. If you want to know more about that stuff, I’m sure there will be lots of other reviews that will go into them. But know that if you’re overwhelmed with the world, stuck inside, or adrift in a life that you know will look totally different next week — get Animal Crossing.

For a score, I’m going with 10. It is by no means perfect, but, we would never want it to be.

Platform: Nintendo Switch

Developer: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

Release Date: March 20, 2020

Price: $59.99

Score: 10 out of 10

[a-lilacsong]

Elena of Avalor Live text reaction: Giant Steps

I enjoy reading other people's posts where they watch episodes of shows and write reactions to things in the episode while they're still watching it. So I decided to make one for this new episode: Giant Steps. 

Reaction starts under the cut (Spoilers for the episode since this is a reaction)

She needs a crew 

Wait has she gone to Australia 

Also I love that fish on the wall 

To bad it wouldn't be able to sing most likely

Is that a wanted poster for the bat on the wall?

And it looks like she's selling Esteban’s hat as well 

oooooh I think I feel a song coming on

 also the letter text is so clear I could probably translate this

if I felt like it 

Man, Elena is a fast writer 

I really like the accordion in this song but so far it's been pretty casual 

I don't know, I guess I was just expecting a big old villain song 

What a cute parrot! Naomi should get a parrot

Oh that's a sword for a second I thought it could be a chainsaw 

Don't mind him that's just casual Joe, casually showing off his casual sword to his casual friends Casually 

Wow there's a lot of lens flares in this song, was it directed by JJ Abrams?

Maybe it's not even a big threat Naomi's coming to warn them about, maybe she's just going to come back to say hi at this point, she seems like she's really missing Elena 

This is why she needs a crew, then she wouldn't be lonely 

Having a good cry together?! All of the hurt comfort and angst fanfiction possibilities! 

Oh look there's the not-Ash little girl 

yes the Elena and Naomi feels are strong with this one 

Ship does not rhyme with fate! this is the second time a line hasn't rhymed and it bugs me 

And she's broke

Maybe she should have asked for some money along with a ship eh?

The Bat Wanted poster Is hilarious 

And so starts her career as a bounty hunter 

“So how much gold are you giving for his capture?” “heaps of it.” “But how much gold exactly?” “HEAPS. OF. IT.”

Yeah when you just draw bags of money on the poster it's probably a scam 

Naomi unrolls the wanted poster, Me: *Gasps out loud* They all look so good!

 I wonder if you captured those three along with the bat if they give you an extra gold for that or if they just only give you a reward for the bat

You probably wouldn't get any gold though cuz it's probably a scam

Sudden zoom in on the poster while there's a bell in the background like what

 reminds me how they always always seem to do that during dramatic moments in Star Trek

What's in the bag a knife, a phaser, or is she just giving her the bag 

Maybe a special knockout powder?

Oh cool it's one of those endless Space Bags 

also what a cute red bird 

This episodes giving lots of birds 

But the Winged being I want to see most is Chatana

Oh look she sells harpoons! What does the store not have?

The necklace, of course she wants the necklace, I was thinking about was oddly noticeable with Naomi wearing two necklaces so of course she's going to have to give one away

Will she give it to her, Probably

Yep now she has the Magic Bag

And she got the take the wanted poster as well?! Wow !

It's not illegal to take down wanted posters?

Boy there is probably some kid out there who has fifty wanted posters just up decorating their room because they are very well drawn 

I mean if I lived in that world and knew I couldn't get punished for it I would totally have a few of them up 

Ash and Chatana just look so snug in their pictures, when why was Esteban just looks so innocent compared to them 

Wait so ash gave Chatana the diadem off screen? okay...

I've been waiting months for this, yes, YES team Ash team Ash team Ash YES!

Now I finally get to see more of Chatana

 I will finally get to see what her personality is really like yes

~~ but now I have to eat supper so intermission

Sarah give me spoilers Darn it ~~

 Anyway

 the bat can shape-shift!? wow I always thought that Esteban’s teleportation powers would take them to Vestrella but I was wrong

Of course they're seen immediately, probably because of Ash’s yelling

Wait if you Caught the Jaquin babies, what would you do with them Esteban?

He seems better at this villain stuff than I thought 

Also both Ash and Chatana seem way too confident about this 

I'm predicting it will be their Achilles heel 

Bold of Mateo to assume that she would be looking for her friend instead of the villains 

Probably spied on Naomi before 

It seems Mateo's more Curious boy Then I thought he's willing to spy on someone if they're a friend 

And she's right there, she probably ran past Armando and everyone else that's why they didn't get it notified of her arrival 

Like she always does 

Yay clumsy Mateo

And he didn't drop it!

No one expected you back this soon Naomi not even the audience 

Lesbians lesbians lesbians 

It's great other than the crippling loneliness 

Mateo asks the kind of questions that I asked on tumblr ask blogs anonymously 

“Ancient at least I thought she was ancient '' if she said that to Chatana’s face which you take it as a compliment or an insult I wonder?

Also continuity!

And of course she's only going to bring Gabe because he is the only guard She Knows by name 

Sarcasm aside though I'm glad that these four will get to have another adventure together 

They are the Ultimate Adventure team 

Well Isabel is always welcome on it 

But it is illegal for her to try to fight Esteban 

Or Witness Elena seriously killing him 

Wait is she going because she wants to be with Elena 

Or to get the prize money 

Probably both 

I sure hope Elena doesn't feel betrayed if Naomi tries to get that prize money I mean she has to make a living somehow 

Yes Elena, the team 

It is the only team strong enough to defeat the evil team 

Oh boy every time Chatana walks she looks like she's on a Runway! She is so poised and confident looking 

Also it seems that they have gotten past that cloaking spell 

And Esteban gets smacked in the face

They just love you using him for slapstick don't they?

I just love it how bat says casually that they're being watched 

And Ash and Chatana flip out like they're about to be caught by the thought police 

Okay, Esteban is hilarious 

*Ash Eyeroll*

I wonder who has done more eye rolls in the series Ash or Esteban?

And she blocked it again, I guess it wears off over time?

SOME kind of cloaking spell!? it looks like the same one they were using before!

I sure hope Philly wasn't conscious with Chatana all those years

She CAN fly!

And we finally get to see her make a monster and it's so cool!!!

Spiders spiders everywhere!

Flying spider tornado!

Ash and Esteban’s reactions are valid

BABY spider Eagles! that changes everything 

Now that means that they're really cute 

I would still be distracted by them though

Esteban sass 

Ash threats

If they weren't so evil they make a great sitcom team 

~~~break to watch final episode of Pride and Prejudice with my family~~

Gabe makes yet another strategy which will be most likely ignored or never brought up again 

Points for trying, Captain 

Oh good, that’s just webs, thought it was something else for a moment 

Down they go, too bad she can't use levaloop with that sceptre and they're going to have a hard Landing 

Woo he didn't use levaloop he's learning new spells 

Yay team Ash back views! I've been needing these for artistic purposes 

Did Phili just spit fire Let me back that up 

Wow I think he did

Awww,  “Little one”

They must train together a lot, Ash just needs to give Esteban a look and he does what they need 

That's the same unlocking spell as before

 do the Maruveians only have one kind of lock spell

Also wait did Chatana teach that to Ash at some point?

Because she certainly didn't use that on the gate before to unlock Chatana...

Oh nice unlocking effects 

some...BODY ONCE TOLD ME

MAMA <--May I also mention that my theory was right 

Wait all of Chatana's creatures are locked up here?

I guess there are the Sunbird jars 

True she was captured, (much better excuse than Pink Diamond’s)

And here is Esteban, the king of sucking up 

In a way, Kizin Reminds me of Sarah

He Likes the tall funny man 

Good recovery Esteban, you didn't make any snide comment that time 

And now everyone else sucks up 

Except Phili 

Chatana smile 

Kizin has other friends? AWW, he Just wants to help his friends! 

Ash has done nothing other than that spell so far except yell and complain to others

And there goes a bat

We will probably get him later... or maybe we will just leave him

Oh look will team Avalor attack him immediately or will they try and reason with him first 

If you needed more guards why didn't you just grab them in the first place 

I know Migs and Skyler are Guardians but couldn't you have gotten another Guardian to go and get reinforcements? 

Elena never planned ahead for things

Gabe the running LOL 

So you're going to just attack him instead of reasoning with him? okay 

I think that trip wire might be a little high Naomi

Wait Shouldn't Elena and Mateo wait on the other side of the tripwire so that they can surround Kizim just in case 

Naomi tie the tripwire you won't be strong enough to hold it up yourself 

Or maybe you will you are pretty strong 

Hey look there's the bat

No Naomi, no Naomi no tie the rope Naomi, and then go after him 

Tell Elena of your financial troubles don't risk it all 

(to quote Ash:) foolish child....

Looks like the bats in the bag 

Also why was he attacking ships in the first place, for the LOLs?

More Gabe running 

*Sigh* should have tied it...

She hurt him he hurt her 

Very good, Gabe protect 

See Don't Use Magic on Kizim, use Magic on yourself 

Oh yeah use the wizard to unlock the pots

And then an extra 

You know it seems like every episode where Elena could do a lot more she gets injured and then another character has to save the day 

It happened in the episode with the merman Prince 

Naomi just sort of stands there and watches 

Okay that scene is funnier in context than it is in the trailer 

First aid! Someone actually knows how to do first aid!

Mateo disobeyed a plan and now Naomi disobeyed the plan

When will they learn that disobeying plans always leads to bad things 

Sorry Princess I'm broke 

And Too Proud to Beg 

Okay, this is a complicated situation, on one hand Naomi is a big help in defeating villains on the other, why don't they just get a royal guard who is good with a lasso? 

I mean there are definitely some personal emotions running here 

But also it might have been better to wait to become a Captain until after the villains had been caught

I just think this might be both their faults

Although running out to the bat and not tying the Rope yeah

Little scared Mateo noise

I thought it was just going to run head-on into a wall 

LOL if one man can't do it get the other guy to do it

Gabe with magic well that would be interesting…

Well yeah, he's normally there 

Wait he's not going to attack Keatamos is he?

Gabe and Matteo wouldn't allow that 

“Hello friends” awww

Uh-oh is right, that many shaking pots is never good 

And now they're here to save the day 

When you forget you have an injury 

Although she Naomi should have felt the arm first to see how the sling should be set 

He likes one cousin and dislikes the other

Wait magic wands are handed?

Don't worry that Blaze probably didn't hit the wood that's everywhere around here 

How would releasing the bat help, I feel like he'd be on Kizim's side 

Couldn't you have just caught him in the bag with the bat still inside 

Actually no, the bat would get squished 

Well Gabe, you are bringing the burn today

Esteban reacts to waiting for things the same way I do 

Esteban knows he's the universe is punching bag 

Ash facepalm 

Chatana does care 

And Phili never will 

OOOOh Other allies!??!

It just seems like the Delgados inexplicably know about every different darkforce and possible magic thing there is 

She is angsting, Naomi, Which she always does alone 

Wow her arm is in a cast

Couldn't they just fix it with magic?

Does no one in this world know a healing spell? 

Actually that wouldn't surprise me.

Get a room you two! Oh, you do have a room 

now kiss 

They love each other 

You know you can hire your own ship crew at some point right?

I mean Captains classically command other crew members.

Wait is she coming back to the council

No Naomi don't ruin your life with politics! 

Get out while you still can! 

Wait, Naomi doesn't know she was replaced 

Well it would be easier on Julio if he didn't have two jobs… 

Which is the responsible thing to do 

She lives to serve 

Hugs 

Every episode with Chatana so far has had Elena Naomi angst 

That's the end of my reaction.

~~~~~

So here's my Mini review. Overall I liked the episode, sure the big conflicts could have been avoided if people actually talked with each other about their feelings first before the disasters, but that happens so often in TV shows I'm almost used to it. I loved seeing the villain force again (especially Chatana). Hopefully we will see them again soon. I wonder what job Naomi will get now, (Maybe being the minister of ships)?

[rainydawgradioblog]

Rainy Dawg Radio’s Best of the 2010s!

ALBUMS

Palberta - Bye Bye Berta

Palberta is a band that somehow manages to scratch almost every musical itch I have. Nowhere else have I heard a band successfully hold three part harmonies over squeaky atonal guitar riffs and abstract drum thrashing. Although I wouldn’t categorize them as twee, noise rock, post-punk, indie pop, no-wave, or any other genre name for that matter, they distill everything I love from all these types of music and mush it into something beautifully stinky. In my eyes, their 2017 album Bye Bye Berta stands as the definitive statement of what Palberta’s all about. With 20 tracks clocking in at under half an hour, the album wastes no time on filler. Skronky punk riffs burst apart at the seams and a sweet little lo-fi love song comes out of the wreckage, only to be replaced by an abstract tape sample collage. The band also has an incomparable mastery over lyricism, as evidenced by such classics as Finish My Bread (Finish my finish my finish my bread, finish my finish my finish my bread, etc…) and Trick Ya (HEY! Don’t trick me, I’m gonna trick you! HEY! Don’t trick me, I’m gonna trick you!). Highlights include the endearingly ramshackle and stupid pretty “Honey, Baby” and their cover of “Stayin’ Alive” (Jenny’s eating burgers and everybody’s shakin’ and stayin’ alive!)

- Elliott Hansen

Alex G - DSU

Shit if you know me you know I live for that sad bastard indie music. That’s exactly what DSU does best. Probably my most played record of the 2010s, this album’s lo-fi indie rock overfloweth. The opener, After Ur Gone, is on the noisier side of the album’s spectrum along with the squealing guitar of Axesteel and Icehead (peep the scream vocals in his live performances), while songs like the instrumental Skipper exemplify why Frank Ocean tapped Alex for the Self Control riff on Blonde. The emotional core of the record, Sorry, gets right back to the Elliott Smith comparisons that we know and love: lyrics of trauma, drugs and apologies included. My favorite song is Harvey; it smacks me right in the younger brother emo spot, with “run my hands through his short black hair I say / ‘I love you Harvey I don’t care’”. While not as chaotic as House of Sugar, twangy as Rocket, or psychedelic as Beach Music, this record is Alex G comfort music at its finest.

- Max Bryla

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

Picture this: J Dilla, Madlib, and Aphex Twin all come together to create an album with little more than some old Coltrane records and an original Xbox at their disposal. The end result is like a trip through the universe. Yet the album comes from the mind of a single individual, who sits in the cockpit with a mischievous grin on his face: Steven Ellison, known professionally as Flying Lotus. The opening track, ‘Clock Catcher’, feels like Ellison slamming his foot onto the ignition so hard that it snaps out of place, shooting into the heavens at the speed of light before the listener can even strap in. Whirling through the stars, the rest of the album is the journey home from the expanse, often melancholic, often wondrous, always changing. From the punchy, off-kilter rhythms of tracks like ‘Nose Art’ and ‘Computer Face//Pure Being’ to the fat synth melodies of ‘Dance of the Pseudo Nymph’, ‘Recoiled’, and ‘Do The Astral Plane’, Flylo is always striking the listener from a different sonic vantage point. You can tell he’s having the time of his life with each of these songs, wanting to share every bit of it with our eardrums. After countless listens, I’m still finding new things about this album to appreciate. A complete masterpiece of cosmic epiphany fuel.

- Trey Marez

Ott. - Fairchildren

People throw so much music at me. And I remember this album was recommended to me back in high school, and I listened to it for the first time in zero-th period -- I think it was someone who went by the name “phryk” on IRC. And dang, it’s still such a good album! In what sense? It’s so well-mixed; that’s the first part. Secondly, it is just a wonderful listening experience from start to finish. If you need a good album of reggae, dub, electronic, here it is. One thing you shouldn’t do with this album: use it to test out speakers at Goodwill. The bass of this album was so good that I bought home a pair of speakers that turned out to be so bad.

- Koi Nil

Car Seat Headrest - Twin Fantasy

Bandcamp has been known for hosting some of our wildest dreams this decade, and when 2011 lobbed William Toledo’s first rendition of Twin Fantasy down my ears my life changed. Emotions are crushed to death in the back of parking lots, the lo-est of fi’s, and lyrics that trigger far and melancholy memories of the early 2010 zeitgeist swarmed with insecurity and Skype calls. The album is Toledo’s first cohesive piece, finally creating work with developed central themes, dedicating the first concept album of his life to falling in and consequently out of love. The album speaks as a mirror to itself, reflecting Will’s own joy and confusion towards falling conservatively and completely in love, until the sobering downward spiral back into isolation. I was only eleven when I let the album own me completely, and am only nineteen as I hold onto it for dear life. Twin Fantasy was never a perfect album, and Toledo recognized this as he re-released Twin Fantasy (Face to Face) in 2018, reinventing the album’s sound with a much higher fidelity, lyrical updates, and redone instrumentals that turn the original into an overture or prologue to be enjoyed separately for more context. Searing solos, cute doo-wop moments, sentimental lyrics, slap-happy drums, fish wearing business suits, dogs, coming out over Skype, smoking, not smoking, nice shoulders, waitresses, the Bible, the ghost of Mary Shelley’s frankenstein, cursive, they might be giant’s rip offs, not knowing SHIT about girls, stealing alcohol from our grandparents and grandparents, bruised shins, cults, fish, getting the spins, and being really really really sensitive to the sunlight. I’d fight for this album, listening to “Cute Thing” as I get RKO’d. Take the time to enjoy the ride, I wouldn’t miss it for the world. (It technically used to be a gay furry album, but now it’s techincally a straight trans furry album.)

- Cooper Houston

Sabaton - The Last Stand

Sabaton is every history teachers dream band. These Swedish power metallers educate the listener about the history of war by discussing various battles, conflicts, and figures. They do this through anthemic choruses, riffs that make your fist pump, and oddly enough synths that work surprisingly well. Since history interests me and I really like metal, Sabaton was pretty much made for me. This album will always have a soft spot in my heart and evoke fond memories as it was one of the first CDs I picked up after getting my license back in 2016. As I gained more independence and freedom as I approached adulthood, this was my soundtrack. This album lived in my CD player during this time as I listened to it over and over again, never once losing its replayability. Ranging from the American battalion that got lost in the Argonne Forest during WWI to Allied and Axis forces joining together to fight at the end of WWII, this album tells of various historical last stands. While this is certainly isn’t the best metal release of the decade, it’s still an extremely solid album. In this case, the sentimentality plays a larger role than anything. While it may not be found on any “Best Album of the Decade” lists, Sabaton’s The Last Stand will always hold a place in my heart and in my car’s CD player.

- Jack Irwin

CONCERTS

07/20/19: What the Heck? Fest @ Croatian Club, Anacortes, WA

Choosing a single favorite concert from the entire past decade seemed insurmountable until I decided to define it by the overall experience rather than exclusively the music. This past summer, I was lucky enough to be one out of barely over a hundred people at the first What the Heck? Fest in 8 years. The festival took place annually from 2001 to 2011, featuring PNW indie legends, K records icons, and all manner of dorky indie folk kids. WTH laid dormant until this past spring, when Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie) announced its return along with the revival of his long-dead initial moniker, the Microphones. I made the trip up from Seattle alone by train and bus, spent a little while wandering Anacortes (the Business was closed :( ) and made my way to the repurposed church which houses the Unknown and the Croatian Club. I ended up seated a few feet from Calvin Johnson in one direction and Kimya Dawson in another. I felt a little out of place at times, like a stranger in the middle of a 90s indie family reunion, but the atmosphere remained consistently welcoming. D+ opened the show, fronted by Bret Lunsford (formerly of Beat Happening), the founder and main organizer of WTH, and backed by Phil Elverum and Karl Blau, who played their own sets later in the night. K Records mainstays Lois and Mecca Normal were on next, delivering stripped down, socially-driven whisper punk/indie pop. Karl Blau led an outdoor sing-along and covered a Pounding Serfs song, who played the next set (their first in [a lot of?] years) for a total of two renditions of “Slightly Salted,” a song I could have listened to in every set that night. Phil hopped back onstage again alongside Lee Baggett to back Kyle Field from Little Wings, an indie-folk favorite of mine, with rambly half-nonsensical lyrics and plenty of soft strummed warm twangly guitars. Black Belt Eagle Scout delivered (comparatively) heavier sounds, coupling slow, soft sung melodies with fuzzed out shoegaze tones, building tension until the Microphones (Phil backed by Kyle, Karl, Lee and keyboardist Nicholas Krgovich) came out for the final set of the night. They opened with what I interpret as a 25-minute rendition of the then-unreleased Belief, which was later shortened to 7 and a half minutes as the opener to the new Mount Eerie record, Lost Wisdom pt. 2. Phil then played a handful of old Microphones tracks alone, including a version of The Glow pt. 2’s title track with reworked lyrics, as well as its closer, My Warm Blood, excerpts from the final Microphones album (confusingly titled Mount Eerie), and what I believe to be another unreleased song. I left with the most limited merch I’ve ever managed to snag: one of two Ziploc bags of lettuce with “the Microphones” and a small K records logo sharpied on the front. I felt bad eating my merch, but it sustained me through the cold Anacortes night as I wandered to and from poorly lit parks, killing time until my 4AM bus back to Seattle.

- Elliott Hansen

03/09/19: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Solo) @ Vermillion Gallery, Seattle WA

Was really not sure what to expect from this one going in, but CYHSY’s s/t from 2005 has always been one of my favorite records. I hadn’t ever been to Vermillion in Capitol Hill, but it was hosting CYHSY on a “living room tour”, where Alec Ournsworth (vox, guitar, harmonica[!]) hit tiny spaces around the country. Vermillion sat 40 at most, and I got to check out some cool local art in the space as well. Alec’s trademark voice that (according to p4k) sounds “as if someone were pressing his vocal cords to a fret board and bending them” which is pretty damn accurate. Amongst CYHSY’s greatest hits (In This Home On Ice and Cool Goddess in particular), he also covered Pixies and Tom Waits through lively and exciting banter. Great dude, great music, great venue. My favorite of the 2010’s for sure.

- Max Bryla

11/14/18: Milo @ Vera Project, Seattle, WA

Milo, and the ruby yacht house band are poetic alchemists that constantly dish out hefty servings of succulent syllables with each new release. Kenny Segal who does the beats for a few of Milo’s songs (and other hip hop artists) opened by transporting the crowd into the ethereal realm with a few classics from his album: happy little trees. Once Kenny Segal finished, Milo accompanied by the ruby yacht house band jumped on stage. I was close enough that I could make out Milo’s squirtle tattoo on his bicep and waited for his vivid and veracious vocabulary to leave me in a state of decapitation. Crispy, potato chip like static (a Milo-live signature) was consumed ferociously by the crowd as he hit us with one banger after another. About halfway through the set Milo dropped the mic and went off stage into the back room. The ruby yacht house band was left Milo-less; their beat lingering in the air, festering with each hit of the snare. Milo returned a while later, wielding a pair of tap dancing shoes in one hand and a ukulele in the other. He put on the tap dancing shoes on stage, everyone in the audience screaming with his return. Donned with the tap dancing shoes and positioning his ukulele on his chest; he began to dance. Holy shit he was good too. Strumming the uke and tap dancing away I was utterly mesmerized. My eyes glued to his performance. Suddenly, as if stricken by some divine intervention, Milo seized the ukulele by the neck and smashed it against the ground, splintering into a thousand pieces. After his destructive fit, he picked the microphone back up and whispered into it emotionlessly: “Think about that”. I did. The whole experience was transcendental and instantly triumphed as my greatest concert of the decade. You KNOW I snagged a sliver of uke on my way out.

- Rocky Schaefer

08/07/17: Metallica @ CenturyLink Field, Seattle, WA

While Metallica has had its ups and downs throughout their career, they do one thing well, and that is putting on a damn good live show. Metallica built the best line-up I have ever seen, given the popularity of the bands they chose. With them they took Avenged Sevenfold, who I greatly dislike but are still a huge band, and Gojira, one of the best modern death metal bands on the scene. The sheer size of this concert was absolutely and extremely inspiring as Metallica was able to fill up CenturyLink Field, a venue usually reserved for pop artists who draw in thousands of attendees. The amount of people that attended signaled to me that metal is far from dead. While this tour was in support of their newest album Hardwired to Self Destruct, Metallica made sure to incorporate classics into their setlist including “Seek and Destroy,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” and “Battery.” James, Robert, Kirk, and Lars delivered a killer concert will tight playing and outstanding individual performances. Being able to see my music hero, James Hetfield, play live was truly a special experience. The one thing that stood out during the performance were the visuals. Each song had a unique and individual video effect on the large screens behind the band which made each song special and memorable it its own way. While I wasn’t close to the stage by any means, the crowd interaction created a unique experience that made me feel much closer than I really was. This concert wasn’t just a concert, but also a life-changing experience. Seeing the band that truly got me into metal, the thing that I rest my individuality on, is something that defined the decade for me and will live with me forever.

- Jack Irwin

SONGS

“You Are Here” - Yo La Tengo

This one I don't think I can fully explain. By miles, this is my most played song of all time. It is the opener of Yo La Tengo’s 15th album, There’s A Riot Going On. The album, and song, starts with the meditative synth line that builds into a pulsing rhythm over the course of the first minute. The rhythm maintains through the rest of the song, as casual guitar strumming is added and another synth that doesn’t sound all that dissimilar to Jonny Greenwood’s Ondes Martenot. My favorite part of the song, though, are the drum fills of the latter half: they crash and roll like the ocean. With or without the title of the song, the audio conveys a degree of presentness and contentedness that I haven’t been able to find elsewhere quite yet. I’d recommend it.

[littletroubledgrrrl]

Tom Hiddleston x Fem Reader- “I Wanna Make Love In London”

________________________________________________________________

The year is 2021.

You released a Greatest Hits album in November 2020, after 5 albums.

You had a new song that was hugely popular with an equally popular and controversial music video: “I Wanna Make Love In London”.

The song and the video both got heavy amounts of comparisons to Madonna’s “Justify My Love”, which was hugely popular in its day.

You were set to perform “I Wanna Make Love In London” at the Brit Awards. How fitting, since this is a song about England!

So many celebrities were in the audience. From celebrities who are basically icons by now to some new up and coming pop stars. 

When the audience wasn’t celebrities, it was screaming teenybopper teenagers.

Tom Hiddleston was now 40 years old. But didn’t look a day over 30.

He was dressed like the majority of men were dressed like in the audience.

Wearing a blue silk blazer and pants.

He had wavy blond hair.

He looked like this:

The audience; both celebrities and teenyboppers, didn’t know he was going to be a part of this performance.

A certain celebrity walked out on the stage, the audience cheered wildly when she walked up. She walked up to the podium and gave a slight presentation, leading the way to you. She said “Here to perform ‘I Wanna Make Love In London’, here’s y/n (or even your stage name you could create”.

The audience was screaming even more loudly when it was announced it was your time to sing and perform. It was 50% the audience cheering and applauding and the other 50% was screaming teenybopper fangirls, not much different from the girls screaming outside on “Total Request Live” on MTV.

Quite a few teenyboppers, actually, many of them, were holding their iPhones recording the performance. 

Finally, the opening notes began playing from your latest hits.

It cut to Tom Hiddleston sitting down in a chair, anxiously waiting for you.

The audience and screaming teenyboppers cheered and screamed even more once they saw Tom Hiddleston on stage.

They thought, “Oh man, this is going to be exciting. What’s she gonna do to him?”.

Some of them were whispering to each other, wondering “What’s gonna happen?”.

You were surprised there weren’t any teen girls in the audience fainting or convulsing seizures. 

A red British telephone booth was on stage. 

A silhouette of yourself was writhing around sexily inside of it; swaying your hips back and forth slowly and sexily.

The British phone booth opened the door by itself, the audience seeing you. The audience of celebrities cheered and were whistling and whooping, the teenyboppers were screaming their heads off, enough to lose their voices.  

Goddamn it, you might go deaf hearing all of those screams. 

You had a headpiece microphone on, and were wearing this dress and boots:

This dress immediately made people think of Ginger Spice’s iconic 1997 Union Jack dress, so much, people are probably going to be complaining you’re copying Ginger Spice.

But Lady Gaga wasn’t the first to wear a meat dress. Madonna wasn’t the first to wear a cone bra. Britney Spears wasn’t the first to dance around on stage with a snake.

People have even said Gaga has copied someone wearing a meat dress, that Madonna was copying Bettie Page and Kylie Minogue (they wore cone bras before Madge), and that Britney Spears was copying Aaliyah. 

Your dressed hugged and complimented your curves tightly, showing off your body. 

You then walked on the small set of stairs below you, sauntering sexily.

You were getting ready to sing to Tom Hiddleston.

Tom’s cock was rising from the crotch area of his pants when he saw you. His breath was nearly taken away looking at you.

Blood was filling his cock up completely.

He couldn’t wait for his special “surprise”.

You sauntered up to him, enough until it was your turn to start singing to him.

“I don’t care if it’s daytime“ you “sang” (this was a song where you didn’t really sing, per se, but talked like a phone sex girl, the only time you did sing was on the chorus).

While you “sang”, or rather, purred, you swayed your hips back and forth sexily and slowly, your body bent down slightly.

You also started unbuttoning his shirt slowly, freeing the holes from those buttons.

His cock was startled, feeling a tingling sensation in his cock, arousing him even more.  

The annoying crowd of teenyboppers was screaming loudly once you began singing, but then you started getting scared you would forget the lyrics and words.

“I don’t care if it’s night” you crooned.

The audience of screaming teenybopper girls were like “Wooooooooooooo!!!!!”, like those annoying women in the audience on “Full House” who would go “woooooooooooooooooooo!!!” when a couple would be kissing.

Teenybopper girls were screaming so loud, you were scared that their ear piercing screams, enough to make the whole audience’s bleed as well as yours and Tom’s (hell, even these girls themselves), would drown out the music, which it probably would.

“I need you so badly” you purred to Tom, trying to keep your cool while teenybopper girls were screaming their heads off.

Someone needs to tell these girls they’ll throw their voices out, make people deaf, and the singers can’t concentrate on singing. Perhaps their parents?

Tom’s heart skipped a beat while you were seducing him.

If it wasn’t for the annoying teenage girls, he would absolutely love this even more. 

But annoying teenybopper girls and fangirls were part of what made Tom famous, anyway.

“I want your kisses, caresses” you sang to him, while you were slowly unbuttoning his blazer now, until you reached the very bottom where there were no more buttons to unbutton.

This caused an even BIGGER and more annoying uproar from the audience. 

You didn’t even get to the best part yet.

After unbuttoning his blazer, you then unbuttoned the rest of his shirt, until you reached the bottom and there were no more buttons to unbutton.

This was a relief for Tom, because he was getting so hot under his clothes being under the hot lights above him, although, he was getting hot in more ways than one ifyknowwhatimean.

You then sat on his lap spread eagle, not in front of the audience but in front of him, where you felt his hardness through his pants.

You put your hand on his chest and started stroking his bare chest with that hand, tingles were sent through his body by your gentle touch.

You were trying your best to ignore the annoying AF teenagers in the audience.

Girls wanted to be you, boys wanted to be Tom Hiddleston in this performance.

“I’m with you now” you said.

“You belong to me...you’re mine now”.

The words Tom always wanted to hear out of a beautiful woman, just as long as she doesn’t torture him.

Actually, what you just sang sounds like something Loki would say.

You then got closer to his face, pressing your breasts against his chest (that rhymed), and whispered 

“I wanna make love in London, Paris or anywhere I like...I like”.

You have made love to Tom in Paris and in London, amongst other places.

You repeated what you crooned.

You then got out of his lap and started sensually walking around him.

His eyes followed you while you were walking sexily around him.

You placed yourself behind him and slightly bent your knees down; your legs wide open positioned like a frog’s legs spread apart.

You put your left hand on his shoulder and your right arm down his body, reaching and slowly caressing his torso.

Blood was circulating and filling his cock, he was getting so hot and warm underneath his clothes, he wanted his clothes taken off.

The heat a combination under nervousness and being under hot lights.

You raised your body while your right arm went up his torso. 

When it was your turn to sing again, you then sat back on his lap, but this time, you weren’t spread eagle facing him, your body was lying down on its back on his thighs.

“I want rain pouring outside” you purred to him, raising your body up, where now your back was facing his face and chest, “we can do it anywhere we like...”

You slowly swayed your hips left and right sexily, your ass was swaying right and left against his crotch.

Tom probably wanted to release some cum from his cock now that blood was filling up his cock in sexual arousal.

“We can do it in bed” you crooned at him longingly, turning your body around so he could see your face.

You’re probably going to receive bookoos of death threats from thirsty fangirls because of this damn performance, but you were already dating Tom already and used him in a music video...

“We could even do it in public” you said. Nauuuuuughtyyyyyyyy...

Though, you have had sex with Tom in a few public places.

“Just as long as you’re with me” you purred, your hands gripping tightly onto his shirt and blazer.

“I want you, no, I need you...”

You than sang the chorus again, where you began running your hands up and down his chest, pleasuring and tingling his whole entire body.

He tilted his head back, closing his eyes, his eyes rolling in the back of his head.

This is what heaven must be like.

While there was a slight intermission after the 2nd chorus, you then planted a kiss on his lips, kissing him longingly and sexily.

You can bet how the audience reacted. 

He accepted this kiss, kissing you back.

While you were kissing him back, you reached your hand down and gently grabbed his testicles, kneading them in your hands.

He quietly moaned in your mouth while he kissed you, hopefully the audience didn’t hear it.

The audience squealed, shrieked and screamed their lungs out at the sight of you grabbing his nuts.

When it was your turn to sing again, you then got up, where you sensually walked around him again, and got behind his back.

You then put your arm down his torso and tried reaching down to where his crotch was, so you could grab his balls again.

“So how do you feel?” you both asked and purred at the same time. “Do you like this? Does this feel nice?”.

Tom wanted to answer back, but you had rehearsed this, so Tom wasn’t allowed to say anything.

This did feel nice, way too nice.

The sensation of your bare arm touching his bare skin on his torso make his spine tingle and shiver, making his penis go “giddy up”.  

“Do you feel the way I feel?” you purred at him.

You then nealt down close to his ear, grabbing a hold of his shoulders, whispering...

“You’re special to me”

You then walked in front of him and sat on his lap again, this time spread eagle, your face facing his face...

“You love me” you purred at him. “I yearn for your touch, your kiss, your embrace”.

You grabbed onto the tops of his shoulders once again, getting close to him again, crooning:

“I want you, no, I need you...I want you inside me, you know I do...”

Tom definitely raised his eyebrows at what you said.

You then “sang” the chorus again, getting very close to his face, whispering in front of him.

You then whispered “I want you, and need you...” before you sang “to make love in London”...

When you were finished singing, you planted a big kiss on his lips, he taking this kiss back again, closing his eyes.

Finally, the performance (and this fanfiction!) is over. 

The audience was screaming their heads off. You could hear teenyboppers screaming their heads off throughout the performance.

You could hear the audience applauding, many of them giving a “standing ovation”, several men were whistling at you. 

Although, this performance of this song is tame compared to what you want to do at the MTV VMA’s with this song...

[staytheb]

Like Oh 2.0 - We Under the Moonlight

Previous Chapter: #BESTLEADERJBDAY Word Count: 5,240 Summary: Serena and Melanie attends GOT7′s third fan-meeting tour and afterwards have their own secret date with Mark and Jaebeom, respectively. Furthermore, both couples admit to more of their feelings and determine where they are in their relationships.

Like Oh 2.0 masterlist

the second to last chapter! it’s here. it’s finally here after some time. sorry for like going MIA, but yeah. thought i couldn’t leave y’all hanging like that and wanted to make sure this story got finished up here before the year ends. so yeah, just one more chapter which is the epilogue. other than that, thanks for sticking by this story if anyone did. if not, then it’s all good. so yeah, happy reading and kthxbai, Admin Lia~

A few weeks later Serena and Melanie attended GOT7's FLIGHT LOG: TURBULENCE FANMEET TOUR in Los Angeles with Jasmine and Katherine. The sisters flew in the day before the concert to catch up with their limited time. Melanie and Serena informed Katherine and Jasmine about their relationship with the idols and going into further details. Jasmine knew something was bound to happen between their friends and the idols while Katherine still found it shocking that the two ended up with the other's bias. This time around though Serena and Melanie didn't have Hi-Touch and so left right after the event to hang out with Jasmine and Katherine some more. Melanie and Serena had messaged Jaebeom and Mark, respectively, about it. The boys weren't thrilled about it, but it was something they couldn't do anything about it. Anyways, Melanie and Serena didn't return to Seoul until early Wednesday.

A week later the sisters attended GOT7's 3RD FAN MEETING titled, We Under the Moonlight. Because the seats were all assigned, Melanie and Serena didn't arrive until a little after five because they wanted to get some resting done before the event took place. Although they weren't sitting next to each other they were within the same section area as they sat on the ends of section B in the first row. Both women were slightly nervous as they still felt guilty for being there. They weren't officially part of the fan-club, but they still felt excited in seeing GOT7 performing at their very first fan-club concert in Seoul and practically seeing everything that Korean IGOT7s get to see unlike other places outside South Korea.

When the event started it went by in such a blur with so many things happening and emotions going high that Melanie and Serena were surprised it ended so fast. The sisters found GOT7 cute in their boy scout outfits, but also found it so weird as they were practically grown men in the said outfits. Another moment of theirs that the two enjoyed was when GOT7 was doing a drama of sort where everyone acted out a role except for Mark until Jackson near the end gave him a role. Honestly, it was such a mess, but still fun as everyone was enjoying themselves. Another event was GOT7 having an archery battle while wearing casual clothing. Everyone hit a seven while BamBam got one. Jinyoung had difficulties fitting the arrow, but Jaebeom helped him as he later scored an eight while Mark went next and scored a nine.

There was even a VCR moment of the boys, minus Jackson and Mark who were the emcees as the other five were in the water playing games in the pool which of course cause a majority of the fans to scream loudly at the prospect of the idols being all wet. The group of seven played a sort of Marco Polo with small plastic balls and danced to their own songs in the water in a random play dance with two teams. One was Yugyeom and BamBam and the other was Jaebeom, Youngjae, and Jinyoung. The maknae line won and so the other team got the plastic balls thrown at them by the winners because of Jackson's scoring. All Serena and Melanie could noticed was that Youngjae was laughing throughout the whole video which caught their attention and made them laugh just as much.

Earlier they played games where they wore sashes so they could earn badges from winning in the games. One was 'Guess the Song' where the boys had to figured out the titles of their songs that played for a few seconds. They also played the number game where they had to shout out numbers in order without two people saying the same one. The quiz game later wasn't as bad, but it was fun seeing their answers for a lot of the questions. Later on they had another segment of games where Youngjae was still the MC for this game round, too. The other six were split into two teams. One group consisted of Mark, Jinyoung, and BamBam called 'Young and Rich' while the other team consisted of Jaebeom, Jackson, and Yugyeom called 'Namja Swag'. The sisters didn't comprehend the names, but knew it was just like them to name themselves that way.

Melanie and Serena laughed at their little antics due to them spinning around elephant style and running towards the bar that held rice cakes hung by strings. It was Yugyeom versus Mark, Jinyoung versus Jackson, and Jabeom versus BamBam. It was a total mess causing all the fans to laugh and watch in excitment. Mark took awhile to bite one as he spun around too much and even ripped a string from the bar. The most chaotic was Jaebeom. He somehow broke the bars apart causing all the rice cakes to fall to the ground. Team Namja Swag were ahead, but because of that incident it caused Young and Rich to catch up and winning in the end. Of course with the help by Jinyoung who held Jaebeom back several times. Mark even picked up a stray rice cake, ate it, and shared it with his teammates before he and Jaebeom cleaned up the rest and tossed it to the side.

After that GOT7 dressed in sevent different types of bird onesies which the sisters and the fans found endearing and had a good laugh. It was due to the boys looking way super adorable as the onesies represented their fan-club of baby birds. Mark was a rooster, Jaebeom was a falcon, Jackson was a parrot, Jinyoung was a blue jay, Youngjae was a duck, BamBam was an eagle, and Yugyeom was a chick. Serena and Melanie found it touching and were happy and proud to be a part of the boys' fandom. Also Jaebeom became super hyper during this part and even later on. May be that caused the others to be like so, too. Later Magnetic came on and the boys perform the song while being in their onesies and they were acting all bird like. It was really a cute and fun sight to see.

GOT7 performed many of their songs throughout the fan meet as well from their titled tracks to their other songs such as Hey, If, Skyway, Let Me, and I Like You. To end the fan meeting GOT7 ended it with their final song of Before the Full Moon Rises. They came out on a bus-like movable stage with several staff members maneuvering it around the main floor from one end to the other with all the confetti flying around them. Once they reached the stage did they bid goodbyes and bowed in thanks for their fans' continual love and support. Before going off the stage they had some last minute fun with Mark doing his flips and Jaebeom doing his b-boy moves. Mark was the first to leave with Jaebeom following after. Youngjae was the last one to leave and wished everyone a happy new year.

~~~~~~~

After the event the sisters had split up after taking pictures with one for memories. Both Mark and Jaebeom had messaged their girlfriends to meet them at their planned location so they could hang out and for the two to not leave again so soon like last time. Serena went to Shindong's DraQura PC Castle as Mark wanted to play some online games with her here since they were in the area. As for Melanie she and Jaebeom were going to enjoy their time at Lotte World gain, but this time it was just gonna be the two of them for their third date. In the mean time both girls entered the area to do their thing before the boys actually arrived.

~~~~~~~

Serena was playing a round of Overwatch as Mark had gotten her addicted to the game when he appeared beside her as she had messaged the idol about where she was seated within the PC bang. "Hey there." He whispered while softly pecking her on the cheek and taking the empty stall next to her. "Hi." Serena absentmindedly responded while still focusing on the game before her. Mark watched her play before her character died and she turned her attention onto him and noticed his get-up. "Still wanna stay and play?" She asked unsure as Mark took her hand and gave it a light squeeze. "Yeah, it's fine. Everyone's too busy to notice us." "Okay."

The two focused on their own computers to play a game of Overwatch, but Serena grew bored of the game and went to play another PC game while Mark continued to play Overwatch. Mark was still into the game and Serena had had enough of playing computer games that she instead moved her chair to watch Mark play instead. She dozed off some time later with her chin placed onto her palm which was planted on top of her lap. Mark didn't take notice of her sleeping figure as he was still focused on playing the game until he felt a heavy bumped against his shoulder and he looked over to see Serena had fallen asleep.

Mark exited his game before lightly tapping Serena on the nose to wake her. He giggled when Serena stirred, but didn't awake by his action. He shook her shoulder softly which got her to actually wake up. "I'm sorry that I fell asleep." She apologized to the idol as he smiled and shook his head. "It's okay. It's already been a good few hours, but why didn't you tell me you were sleepy?" He brushed a few strands of her hair out of her face and behind her ear. "You were having fun and I didn't want to disturb you since I'm sure you don't get a lot of off time to enjoy some leisure time." Serena told him as she rubbed the sleepiness away from her eyes.

Mark appreciated her thoughtfulness and decided that he had had enough of playing online games "Thanks, Serena, but don't worry. I get enough time to play games. Let's get you home. It's kinda late." Serena scoffed as she stood up followed by Mark. "It was already late to begin with, Mark." The idol laughed as he laced his fingers with hers as he led them out of DraQura. "How else are we gonna have our dates if they're not late at night, Serena?" He asked in a teasing manner once they were walking to the nearest bus station to head back to Cheongdam, but it caused Serena to eyed the idol weirdly. "What date? This wasn't a date, Mark."

"It's not the best first date, but it was a date." Mark informed as Serena countered. "That's just hanging out. A date is, well, it's a..." She trailed off as Mark egged her on to continue. "Is what? What's a date, Serena?" "I don't know. Shut up." She told him a bit flustered as Mark laughed. "You're so cute." "I'm not cute." "To me you are." "Well, you're a butt-head." "Yeah, that's true, but I'm your cute butt-head." "I didn't even call you cute." "Yeah, but you didn't deny that I wasn't yours either just now." Serena was going to counter, but knew that he was right and so she closed her mouth with the idol still chuckling beside her.

The pair arrived back in Cheongdam where Serena invited Mark inside her smaller apartment as the idol still didn't want to go back home or depart from the female. The only reason Serena was at 503 was because her laptop was over here and her other belongings which she was still working on the pet center's website to update everything. Mark used her bathroom first while she cleaned up the place and changed out of her heavy clothes and into something light. She used the bathroom after and told Mark to make himself comfortable. Serena didn't expect that he actually would as she found him asleep on her mattress a moment later.

Serena watched Mark sleep while wondering why he would sleep here when he could be sleeping at his dorm before covering him with a blanket and went downstairs to work on her work's website without disturbing the idol. Some time later Serena fell asleep at her computer and Mark awoke a few minutes later. He made his way downstairs to check on her when he figured that Serena didn't want to wake him and noticed that she had indeed fallen asleep. Mark smiled at the sight as he closed her laptop before maneuvering her body into his arms to carefully carry her up the narrow stairway to placed the sleeping female onto her bed.

Once Mark got Serena settled in did she slowly opened her eyes to look at him. "Are you going home now?" She asked softly as Mark was startled by her question as he believed that she was still asleep. "Do you want me to stay?" "I mean you don't have to go if you're still tired, Mark." Serena was about to sit up when Mark prevented her from doing so and pushed her gently back down. "Are you implying for me to spend the night, Serena?" He teased as Serena went to smack him, but Mark avoided the attack with a laugh and took a hold of her hand with his instead. "I'm just teasing. Sheesh, you really need to relax."

"You can go and see yourself to the door." Serena dismissed as she turned away from the male, but Mark laughed as he again prevented her from doing so and turned her back to facing him again while he lied down next to her comfortably. "I'm just messing with you, my tsundere baby girl. Don't be like that." Serena stared at him with widened eyes upon hearing the pet name. "Did you call me 'baby girl', Mark?" "I did." He answered like it was a normal thing between them. "I was gonna go with 'home girl' or even 'babe', but you seem like a 'baby girl' to me now." He smiled, but noticed her blank expression. "Do you not like it?"

"It's unexpected." Serena admitted before eyeing him. "You also called me tsundere." Mark laughed. "Melanie told me things." "Like?" She asked sitting up as Mark cast her a teasing look. "Preferences things." "As in what?" She smacked him on the stomach as Mark laughed at her eager reaction. "C'mon, what'd she say?" Mark sat up with a smirk. "You're not one for cuddling or skinship." "Yeah, and?" "Am I an exception?" "Huh?" Mark chuckled while reaching out to lace his fingers with hers. "I'm talking about this. You don't pull away and accept it." He explained before continuing. "So am I an exception?"

Serena now knew what he meant and thought about it before hearing Mark speak. "You don't have to answer." "Yes." She said with a small smile as Mark seemed confused before she clarified. "Yes you're an exception." Mark grinned as he leaned towards Serena to place a kiss onto her lips. "That's my tsundere baby girl." Serena rolled her eyes, but a smile still graced her lips. "You're so dumb." "Only for you." "And cheesy." "Just for my baby girl." "Stop." Serena playfully punched Mark causing the idol to laugh while pulling her down with him on the mattress. "If only you call me by a pet name." "Seriously?" "Yeah."

Mark laughed a second later. "I'm kidding, but I don't mind using them on you, Serena." "Mark, is this your way of telling me that you want to be something more?" Serena asked as the thought came to her. "Well, Serena, I thought it was kind of obvious when I told you that I liked you." Mark chuckled as he pulled Serena closer and tangled their legs together causing the female to snuggled against him. "Although that's true, but I still feel weird with this whole thing." "That I'm a celebrity and you're not?" "Yeah." "Like I said before, Serena, don't think of me as an idol. Treat me like how you treated me on the first day of Chinese class."

"You mean where I barely acknowledged you until you trapped me into doing that introduction assignment with you, Mark." She playfully stated as Mark rolled his eyes, but laughed at the memory. "Yes and no." "It was different when we were starting out as friends as it was easier to see you as a normal person, Mark." "And now, Serena?" He asked while looking down at her and she turned to look up at him. "Now, you're still the same as when we first met, but we're a little closer and more comfortable. It's still gonna take some getting used to." She admitted as Mark leaned down to leave a kiss on her forehead.

"We still have time, baby girl." He said with a patient smile as Serena smirked. "Alright, baby boy." Mark raised an eyebrow intrigued upon hearing the pet name she just called him by. "Have you gone cheesy and lovey-dovey on me, Serena? Because I like it." "Shut up, Mark." Serena hid her face against his chest causing the male to laugh as he held her tightly against him. "You keep telling me that, Serena, but I know you love hearing me call you 'baby girl'." "I do not, and shut up, Mark." Serena repeated and Mark laughed as the two comfortably snuggled against one another as they continued to lie upon Serena's bed before growing sleepy.

"Good night, my baby girl." Mark whispered as Serena muttered the words right back to the idol. "Yeah, yeah. Good night to you, too, and sweet dreams." "I will now since I have you in my arms." "Seriously, don't be cheesy." "Only for you, baby girl." "That's not true. You still have your baby birds." "Yeah, but your just as special." "Whatever." He laughed while squeezing her within his embrace. "Seriously, Mark. If you're gonna be this cuddly, I think you'll need to find yourself another 'baby girl'." The idol laughed and pulled Serena even closer to him if that was still possible. "You're gonna have to get used to it, Serena." "Ugh, I know, Mark. I know, but you're always an exception." Serena snuggled against him as they drifted happily into dreamworld.

~~~~~~~

Melanie was wandering inside Lotte World as she wasn't sure what she wanted to do as she wasn't used to hanging out at a theme park all by herself. She received a call and answered it immediately upon seeing who it was. "Hey, Jeffrey!" Melanie happily answered while Jaebeom chuckled. "Hi. Where are you?" He asked where she was and told her to stay there so he could meet her. A few minutes later Jaebeom had surprised Melanie by hugging her from behind and she jumped upon his affectionate action. "Sorry for scaring you, Chaewon." Jaebeom apologized once the two began walking hand-in-hand. "It's okay, but I didn't think you were the type to do that though." "Oh what kind of type do you think I am?"

"I dunno." Melanie laughed as the duo found themselves at the ice rink. "Do you wanna ice skate?" She asked as Jaebeom looked over at her. "Do you?" "I don't mind. I'm just suggesting." "Let's go ice skating." He grinned beneath his scarf as he pulled the female to rent out skates. Once they were on the ice Melanie forgot that she has never ice skated before in her entire life. Jaebeom noticed and led her slowly as they navigated around the rink with his lead. "You don't have to stay with me, Jaebeom. You can skate off if you like and do whatever you want." Melanie told him as Jaebeom shook his head. "It's okay. I don't mind staying by your side." "You're sweet." "Always for the girl I like." "Stop." Jaebeom laughed with Melanie joining a moment later.

The duo went around the rink a few times before calling it quits and went to Magic Island to get something to eat before the theme park closed in an hour or so. They stopped by Cafe BingBingBing first for desserts before going to Kokoro Bento for an actual meal. Although it was their third date since confessing to one another it seemed like their fouth as they had already gone here before they even started dating. Once again Jaebeom paid twice at the cafe and the Japanese restaurant despite Melanie's protest of wanting to pay her share. Jaebeom continued to tell her 'next time', but Melanie knew for sure he would never let her pay next time.

Lotte World was about to close at ten when the couple decided to leave the theme park a few minutes before then. "What do you want to do now?" Jaebeom asked her as the duo headed towards the bus station. "I dunno, but let's head back to Cheongdam though." "Alright, sounds good enough for me." The two got on the bus and several minutes later during the ride Jaebeom felt something lightly bumped against his shoulder. He turned his head and noticed that Melanie's head was now lying on his shoulder and that she had fallen asleep.

He smiled at the thought of Melanie letting her guard down to fall asleep around him. Melanie's head slipped off of the idol's shoulder and Jaebeom gently placed it back to where it was before. He stayed awake watching the night time scenery passed him by, but he mainly wanted to make sure that Melanie wasn't uncomfortable in her sleep. Soon the pair arrived in Cheongdam and Jaebeom suggested if Melanie wanted to go home and sleep instead. "No, I don't want to ruin our date just because I'm sleepy, Jaebeom." Melanie reasoned, but Jaebeom tugged the both of them towards the direction of the apartment complex anyways. "Seriously, it's all good, Chaewon. We can cut the date short. I'll still see you whenever I want to, anyways, and have more dates." "True."

Melanie invited the idol in to apartment 501 as Jaebeom didn't want to end the date just yet as they could still hang out. He went to use the bathroom while she changed into something lighter and using the bathroom in her room to refresh herself. Melanie exited her room and joined Jaebeom on the couch to watch some random late night drama that was playing. "Want popcorn?" Melanie asked as she got up to head towards the kitchen to make some with Jaebeom in tow. "Do you still have strawberry milk?" "I think there's some in the fridge."

The pair returned to the living room with Melanie sitting in-between Jaebeom's legs as she lied upon him and he lied upon the sofa while the duo ate popcorn and drank strawberry milk. Some time later Melanie fell asleep along with Jaebeom a few minutes later. Melanie stirred awake first an hour later and groggily rose to sit upright while turning off the TV. She noticed Jaebeom had also fallen asleep, too, and got up to fetch him a blanket as she didn't want to disturb his sleep. When she placed the blanket on him, he stirred for a bit and she thought he had fallen back asleep until he spoke while rubbing his eyes. "What time is it?"

"It's eleven-fifty-three." Melanie answered as Jaebeom sat up and remove the blanket off of him. "You can sleep here if you want." She offered and was about to walk away when Jaebeom reached out to grab her wrist. "Hmm?" Melanie hummed as she faced him. "What if I don't want to sleep here, Chaewon?" He asked with a smirk, but Melanie didn't think nothing of it. "Then you can go back to your dorm, Jeffrey." She nonchalantly countered as Jaebeom smirked while pulling her towards him which caused Melanie to straddle his lap. "What if I don't want to go back to my dorm, Melanie?" He tried once again while wrapping his arms around her waist as Melanie wrapped her arms around his neck still not thinking of what he meant although she did assume what he was trying to do.

"Then I don't know what to tell you, Jaebeom." Melanie laughed as she leaned back and was about to slide off of his lap, but he continued to hold her in place and sighed. "How about we share your bed?" "No. That's my bed." Melanie deadpanned as she laughed while getting off of Jaebeom's lap and ran off towards her room with Jaebeom rolling his eyes, but chased after her with a playful look. He caught the female before she could closed the door to the safe haven of her bedroom. Melanie let out a squeal and was lifted in to the air from behind while Jaebeom maneuvered them to crash upon her bed letting out fits of laughter.

Once they recovered Jaebeom was gingerly hovering over Melanie as he looked down at her and she up at him. Jaebeim tenderly brushed Melanie's hair out of her face before leaning down to kiss the female. Melanie returned the kiss as it turned deeper and before the both of them knew it they both had their hands in each other's hair in a soft grip. Rationality snapped Melanie back to reality as she broke the kiss. "Wait, Jaebeom, wait." She said in a breathy tone while he looked at her in concern. "What? Did I hurt you? Are you okay?" He checked her for any possibility of injury.

Melanie calmed the idol down with a laugh as she softly pushed him off of her. "Chaewon?" "I know that we both like each other, but I think that's a little too fast." Melanie said as Jaebeom's expression became one of confusion. "We just got caught up in the moment, Chaewon." "Still, Jaebeom, we could've done something if neither of us had stopped it." She reasoned with a meaningful frown. "Look, Jaebeom, you're an idol and I'm not, and there's just so many things that could play out for us if we're not careful with these kind of things." Jaebeom just listened as he let Melanie talked.

"Stuff like this could be blown out of proportion and your company may or may not accept that. Plus, I would be super mad at myself if anything was to happen to you and your life. A-" Jaebeom intervened as he placed his hands on top of hers to let her know to calm down and take a breath. "Chaewon, it's fine. I know that life as an idol isn't the greatest, but it's my life and the career I wanted to pursue. I get to perform for so many people and know that I make someone's day a little brighter. I also know that I don't get enough sleep or eat all that healthy, but it's part of the idol life."

He used his thumb and forefinger to lift Melanie's chin so that she would be looking up at him instead of the floor. "Honestly so far, you have made it bearable because I have you by my side, Chaewon." He brushed her stray tears that had escaped that she wasn't even aware of that had materialized all of a sudden. "Because I have you there with me, Chaewon." The female pulled her head away to wipe away her tears and to not have to stare at his loving gaze. "Stop being so mushy, Jaebeom. I can't handle it." Melanie said as she tried to keep her emotions in control while Jaebeom smiled and reached out to grab Melanie's wrist and pulled her towards him.

He looked at her as he asked the question that he's been wanting to ask all night. "Will you be my girlfriend, Chaewon?" Melanie was caught off guard. "I'm sorry?" Jaeeom repeated his question as Melanie remained speechless by the unexpected question. "You don't have to give me an answer right now, but I'll wait for when you're ready." He told her as he brush another strand of her hair behind her ear while she thought about it and smiled at the idol. "Okay." "Hmm?" "I'm saying that I'll be your girlfriend, Jaebeom," Melanie smiled as she leaned to kiss him on the cheek, "If you'll be my boyfriend." "Definitely, my girlfriend." "Gah, Jaebeom, you're so cheesy." "But I'm your cheesy boyfriend, Chaewon."

"That, you definitely are." Melanie confirmed as she kissed him on the lips with Jaebeom returning the kiss before speaking again. "But, what about Ahgase?" "What about them?" "They're gonna be disappointed that they can't be your girlfriend. Actually, all the fans will be hurt that you can't be their boyfriend." Melanie explained as Jaebeom chuckled. "Technically true, but I hope they'll understand and accept you when that time comes for me to tell them that I already have the best girlfriend ever." "Wow. Best girlfriend ever. Really?" She playfully responded in sarcasm before asking him a serious question.

"How many girlfriends have you had before me?" "Three, but that's in the past. You're my present and I surely hope my future, too." "We shall see." "Can you at least be more optimistic about it?" "Let's enjoy the present and always wish for the best for tomorrow, Jaebeom. It's the only way that makes sense." Melanie reasoned as Jaebeom nodded. "Fine." He agreed, but then eyed her. "How many boyfriends have you had before me?" Melanie stalled just to tease the idol as he squeezed her waist for her to hurry and answer him. "Okay, okay." She stopped playing. "Two, but they're in the past. You're my present and that's all that matters." "Yes it does." Jaebeom happily agreed as he placed his lips upon Melanie's as she returned the kiss just as happily.

The two pulled away with Jaebeom pressing his forehead against her. "So, can we share your bed without the naughty stuff?" Melanie broke out laughing at the idol's words. "No." Jaebeom frowned, but Melanie used her index fingers to move the corners of his lips upwards. "I'm kidding, my boyfriend. Yes we can cuddle on my bed, my darling of a boyfriend." Jaebeom didn't respond as he instead lifted Melanie and positioned the both of them comfortably onto her bed. "Good, because I didn't want to return to the dorms, anyways." "And why not?" "Because I want to cuddle my lovely girlfriend for as long as I can before I return back to my hectic schedule." He reasoned as she smiled while lacing their fingers together.

"Only for tonight." She said as he pouted. "Why only for tonight?" "Because it's weird if you stay here for more than one night without going back to your place and your manager will be worried and probably ask questions." "Alright." The idol grumbled as he pulled his girlfriend closer into his embrace while Melanie laughed as she snuggled against her boyfriend. "Don't be such a baby, Jaebeom." "I'm not a baby, Chaewon." "But you're definitely my baby." Jaebeom cast her an amused look. "So who's cheesy now?" "Regardless of who's cheesier than the other, it's still you." She chuckled as pecked him on the lips before returning back to snuggling against him once more. "Good night, my boyfriend." "Good night, my girlfriend." The two bid each other a good night as they snuggled and they happily fell asleep within each other's embrace.

[princess-orihime-inoue]

Heartbeat for who?

Videl is curious about the new student in her class, there is just something weird about him. But the more she investigates, the more she gets confused about who he really is.

What is Son Gohan hiding from them?

Type: One-shot

Status: Completed

---

“Through the exchange of resources the two countries united into an alliance that to this day stands,” Son Gohan read aloud to the classroom. He paused and looked over to the professor smiling in awe.

“That was beautiful Gohan,” the teacher praised with a nod and quickly added with excitement, “your English is absolutely fluent.”

Gohan bowed and took a seat, trying to ignore the hard glare from the girl sitting in his row. He didn’t know why but ever since he transferred a week ago, he has been getting followed by his classmate. If he let his guard down he was afraid she would discover that he was not normal.

He glanced over to the city’s strongest female, Videl Satan, and was surprised when their eyes met. She furrowed her eyebrows and narrowed her azure gaze with curiosity. Gohan looked away and swallowed nervously, hoping she wasn’t too suspicious of him.

He isn’t normal, Videl thought with annoyance.

Gohan is at the top of the school in academics after only a week, and he also possessed incredible abilities in jumping. During one of their baseball games he jumped effortlessly into the sky, only adding fuel to her suspicions. Not to mention it just didn’t make sense how he lived so far away and always managed to get to school on time. How does he do it?

Ever-since he showed up there has also been reports of crimes getting solved by an in-human hero, it just makes sense that he is the cause. But how can a skinny guy like him fly and be so immensely strong?

“It’s a trick,” she mumbled under her breath as she bit the bottom of her pen in thought. She was definitely going to uncover his secrets, and reveal his true colors.

Just you wait Gohan, I’m going to find out. She promised silently, as her attention shifted back to the chapter they were reading.

---

“Gohan is kind of cute, don’t you think?” Erasa asked as she pointed over at the boy having trouble in cooking class. He was in the process of making banana nut muffins, but was failing miserably.

Videl couldn’t help but frown, “Cute?”

Erasa nodded and giggled as he took out a tray of burnt muffins from the oven, “Yeah, not to mention he is like super smart.”

“He’s a total nerd,” Sharpner rolled his eyes and set down his tray of muffins proudly on the counter. “Gohan is obviously not Videl’s type, right?” He turned toward her and was expecting a remark that would support his claim.

But Videl was still staring at Gohan, the frown on her face slowly softening as she watched him blow on his steaming burnt baking failure. He had been so focused on reading and following the instructions on the cooking book that he had disregarded the amount of time. It was frustrating at the start, but she couldn’t help but smile at the effort he put.

“Videl?” Sharpner repeated, feeling oddly defeated.

She snapped out of her thoughts and turned to face Sharpner, “Huh?”

Erasa smirked and giggled, “What’s wrong Videl? He just said that Gohan is not your type.”

“Of course he isn’t, he’s far from my ideal guy,” Videl didn’t need to hesitate, after all she preferred guys that were stronger than her or her father. The only reason she was looking at Gohan, was because he may have connections with that Great Saiyaman that showed up a few days ago.

“Alert! Level 6 Danger in Region 4, near the Takashi Jewelry store!”

Her watch suddenly turned red and showed her the coordinates of the crime, it seemed the criminals were in possession of guns and are on the run through the city in a yellow automobile. Without waiting for more information she took off her apron and started to make her way to the nearest exit, “I’ll be back Mr. Cranberry!”

“Of course, please be careful Videl,” was the last thing she heard as she ran down the hallway and turned sharply to the left. She took out her capsule and pressed it as soon as she reached outside, jumping into the driver seat of her helicopter.

It took seconds for her watch to send the coordinates to the helicopter’s GPS, and she was on her way to search for a speeding yellow car. The city was enveloped in a dark cloud, the air had a tint of warning of a storm and she hoped it wouldn’t start to rain heavily.

After five minutes she located the target around 10th street. “If you don’t stop, I’m going to be forced to shoot you,” she warned through the speaker, hoping that these jerks would stop before causing anymore harm on the citizens. But they replied with a few dirty cuss words and aimed at her. “So rude, well you guys asked for it.”

She aimed at one of the wheels and watched as the car spun out of control and collided against a light-post, “That was easy.” Videl parked near the crash and walked over to the three guys trying to retrieve the bags full of jewelry. One of them noticed her and threatened to beat her up if she took another step toward them. Which she replied back with a smile and a step forward.

He came toward her with a clenched fist, and she avoided it with ease. They must be new here if they think they stand a chance against Hercules's daughter, she raised her leg and kicked him back into the car, knocking him out instantly.

“Anyone else?” She grinned as the two guys came running toward her in a flash.

They were surprisingly good at fighting, but she held her own in power and skills. With a swift uppercut she got one of them falling to the floor doubling over in pain. Videl barely had time to dodge an incoming punch from the last guy as she took off one of her gloves, because it was too tight. She took a step back and tried out her eagle kick, she was instantly happy with the result of her training because he flew back.

“That was pretty eas--” she was cut off by a loud honk.

The headlights froze her in her tracks, and she couldn’t think as the car came racing toward her. Her eyes shut in their own accord and she waited for the impact with her heart pounding with fear. The sound of a crash met her ears and yet she felt no pain.

“Need help?”

The sudden deep voice made her jump in surprise, her eyes fluttered open to a cloaked figure...this was the third time they had met. And yet again he had come to her rescue. He lifted the car with one hand on the hood and threw it over his shoulder like it was nothing. The Great Saiyaman smiled as if what he did was...normal.

How is that even possible? 

She thought as she searched his face, but it was useless it was hidden behind that stupid helmet. He always defied logic and did things that were impossible to the human eye, flying to save her when she fell from the cliff with the bus of citizens, saving her from the falling water tank while she was trying to put out the fire, and even during the bank robbery yesterday.

“Why?” She blurted out.

“Excuse me…?” The Great Saiyaman seemed confused.

Videl tightened the grip on her shirt and raised her head, watching as the rain fell around them. “Why do you keep saving me? I don’t even know you and you keep getting in the way,” she couldn’t help the crack in her voice, and was thankful that her tears were drowned in the rain. “It’s frustrating, you show up out of nowhere and save the day while hiding behind a stupid helmet!”

She was shocked at her own outburst and fell to the floor from the weakness in her legs. But she couldn’t keep bottling up her emotions of self-worth and disappointment. From all the times he had constantly saved her, she felt like she was losing at some invisible battle with herself and her pride. She never needed anybody's help until he showed up out of nowhere...

The Great Saiyaman was silent as he looked at her small form on the floor, she was completely drenched to the skin with scratches and cuts. He didn’t know why but he didn’t want to see her getting hurt, Videl may be capable of protecting herself. But he felt anxious whenever he saw her in trouble.

When he saw the car going straight at her he didn’t even think when he stopped it, all he could picture was Videl’s pale face in danger.

It took everything inside of him to stop from sprinting toward her and embracing her, it was weird he had never felt like this with anyone before. Sure she was very hot-headed and stubborn, but he couldn’t help but think highly of her…and also worry about her.

“Do I need a reason to save someone in trouble?” Was all he could manage to say.

Videl felt the warm trail of tears on her cheeks and nodded, she never needed a reason to save the people of this town. Yet she wanted to hear more from him, something that even she didn’t comprehend.

“Can you stand?” He asked with worry as he knelt down and offered his hand.

She blinked away the tears and bit her quivering lower lip, as she stretched her hand out and placed it in his open palm. Even though he was wearing a glove and it was wet, she felt the warmness seeping out into her skin.

Behind them though one of the thieves had taken out their gun in an effort to shoot her, his eyes were bloodshot and full of fury at being embarrassed by a little girl. “You f*cking little b*tch, take this,” the man yelled as he pressed the trigger.

Gohan felt the threat and heard the sound of the thief firing toward his classmate and without hesitation reacted. “Videl!” He pulled her into his arms and shielded her from the bullet, aiming a quick blast toward the guy with the gun. As expected he had put a little bit of energy to knock down the thief, and was relieved when he saw the gun fall from his hands.

“Are you alright, Videl?”

His voice was soft and she nodded against his embrace, feeling her hands tighten on his outfit. Everything had happened so fast that she was trying to calm down from the sound of it all. The bullet had bounced off his back like nothing to her surprise, he really is a wonder to behold.

“Thank you...Great Saiyaman,” Videl muttered as she reluctantly leaned away from him. The sound of the police came around the corner and soon enough the criminals were surrounded.

“I better go,” he turned feeling flustered for holding her for too long, he was lucky that she couldn’t see his expression under the helmet. “See you later, Videl!”

She smiled at the familiar voice, for a moment she thought about someone.

“See you later, Great Saiyaman.”

---

“Videl, I have to confess something,” The Great Saiyaman swallowed nervously as he took a step toward her, the wind blowing his cape behind him like a sea of red. It felt like they were in a movie, everything around her was moving in a slow pace. The sun was setting just behind him and it looked like his tall form was being enveloped by a warm glow.

She raised her brow and crossed her arms over her chest, “Confess what? That you are a criminal? Or that you are a complete faker that relies on tricking people?”

He shook his head and smiled, “No, it’s something that I lied about.”

Lied? She just knew that he was lying to her. “What is it?”

Within the blink of an eye he decreased the distance between them in a flash and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her against his hard chest. “W-what the?! What do you think you’re doing?” She felt her face burn and placed her palms against his chest to push him away, but he didn’t budge.

“The reason I always came to your rescue is because…” his voice trailed off as he leaned forward, Videl felt hypnotized by his lips as they parted, “...because I love you.”

Her eyes closed as their lips met, her body melting into his warm embrace. Something warm fluttered in her stomach, and made her whole body feel light as a feather. Without realizing it she was kissing him back, wanting more of his sweet taste.

When her eyes fluttered open she found herself looking at Gohan, he was gazing at her with a gentle glow in his dark eyes.

“Gohan…?”

“Videl I have always--” His voice drowned in the sound of a familiar alarm.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Her hand reached out to silence the alarm clock and she sat up from her bed in a flash. Videl had awoken feeling her face burn at the dream she had, there was just no way that she was interested in Gohan. Or that he was the Great Saiyaman.

Maybe you want him to be, her consciousness whispered.

“Ugh, no way!”

It must have been because Erasa had been talking about him all day yesterday and putting strange ideas in her head. Not because she was romantically interested in that weak guy.

“There’s just no way my heart is beating because of Gohan,” she denied with a huff of anger.

---

The Satan Gym was full with the usual members, all of them training their best to become as strong as the world champion.

Near the treadmills Videl was doing cardio, her legs running as fast as she could. Sweat dripping down her forehead as she checked her heartbeat, which was still maintaining the same rhythm. She was trying not to feel agitated with last night’s dream.

Videl didn’t even want to think about him.

“I asked Gohan out on a date today after school,” Erasa smiled as she leaned against the treadmill.

Videl suddenly lost her footing and grabbed the bars to balance herself. Her heartbeat had accelerated at the mention of Gohan’s name and the monitor started to beep at the sudden increase.

Erasa and Sharpner looked over at her in confusion.

“Take it easy Videl,” Erasa commented with a worried shake of her head.

Sharpner nodded in agreement, “She’s right, I think you should rest you look really flustered.”

“You’re wrong,” Videl protested as she continued to jog, yet the heart monitor didn’t lie. Her chest felt like it was pounding at the thought of a certain mysterious boy in her class. “There’s no way I like Gohan,” she whispered to herself, hoping that maybe if she repeated that statement it would come true.

[middleearth2asgard]

Burning it Down: Smaug x Reader (New Chapters Only)

The minutes felt like hours and the hours felt like days as you paced back and forth on the balcony, with one eye always fixed towards the east. You and Smaug had watched the army ride away, and eventually you would watch an army return. Whether it would be the one lead by the new King of Gondor, victorious in spite of insurmountable odds, or the one lead by the Lord of Mordor, coming to establish himself as the supreme ruler of Middle-Earth, only time would tell. And time was currently standing still, holding onto its secrets for as long as it could.

The two of you remained silent. Smaug sat, his now dark gray eyes watching you pace, wearing an expression that appeared unnaturally collected, given the circumstances. But inside his mind raced, calculating the odds of success for the various strategies he was concocting. The city was emptied except for women, children, injured soldiers, and old men. If Aragorn's army failed, there was no chance of stopping Sauron's path of destruction. Evacuating would be the only option, but that was a short term solution, buying only a few months at most. If the race of Men failed, there was no one else to defend Middle-Earth. The dwarves would fight, of course, but were they scattered across the earth, unprepared to make one large final stand against Mordor's armies. They would be whittled away, one small fight after another, until the blood of their people was totally spent. His impression of Hobbits, from the few he had encountered, was that they were a hardy breed capable of more than meets the eye. But they were also untrained and wouldn't be a match for Sauron's vicious forces. And the elves...they were leaving Middle-Earth. With the exception of Legolas, Helms Deep had been the last battle the Elves would fight on this land. As for his own species, even if they did not immediately reject him in his now permanent form, they would never offer aid. The dragons would rejoice and openly embrace the new age of darkness, as he himself would have almost a century ago.

For the first time, Smaug wondered if the jewel he had bestowed upon you in Erebor that day had not indeed been a curse in disguise. He had always told himself that he gifted you with unnaturally long life out of pure love, but perhaps it had really been born of his own selfish need. He had always been selfish. If not for him, you could have grown old and perhaps died peacefully in your sleep beside the husband you loved so dearly, as opposed to waiting to be slaughtered.

Yes, Smaug knew how much you still loved Bilbo. Lately he had been understanding your feelings far better than you yourself had. When you told Smaug you loved him, when you kissed him, when you had worried over his injured body, he had never doubted the sincerity of it. You truly loved him, and not as a pet or even as a very dear friend, but as a partner and a mate. But he also knew that it was a love formed in the midst of conflict. In the face of war and death, there had been no planning for the future or dwelling on the past. There had only been the moment. If by some miracle Sauron was defeated, he knew reality would rear its ugly head and the emotional fallout that followed would have to be dealt with.

Smaug's thoughts were interrupted by you bolting past him without saying a word. Quickly looking out to where you had previously been watching, he saw the reason for your hasty departure. An army was approaching, and even from that distance it was obvious that it was no orc army.

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

"Excuse me! Please let me through!" you yelled while trying to weave your way through the swarms of people. Apparently all of Minis Tirith's remaining occupants had witnessed the army's return over the horizon. Every parent, wife, sibling, and child of each and every soldier that rode off to battle must have been crowded around the smashed gates of the city, waiting to see if their loved ones were coming back to them alive or dead. Making your way out into the open fields that had been a war zone only mere days ago, you spotted your friends near the front of the column. You counted them off one at a time...Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf, Merry, Pippin, Eomer...and swelled with joy upon realizing that all of them had survived. As they drew closer, you could see it had been a hard won fight (Legolas had dirt and what appeared to be actual sweat on his face, which in and of itself said it all). It suddenly occurred to you that nowhere among the familiar faces did you see Frodo's piercing blue eyes or Sam's gentle features. They had been gone on their own for so long that at first you hadn't really even thought to look for them among what remained of the fellowship, but if they had survived, why would they not be here now?

Quickly closing what distance remained between you and Gandalf, you ran up and, without greeting any of the victors, yelled out "What about Frodo? And Sam?"

Gandalf replied by simply pointing to the sky. Looking up, you saw two massive eagles, much like the ones you had encountered decades ago, flying to the uppermost level of the city. Without another word, or bothering to wait for the others, you turned and ran back towards the city gates.

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

You couldn't take your eyes off his face. He had lost weight since last you saw him, and he seemed older somehow. It wasn't really possible because your time apart had only added up to weeks, not years. Perhaps more mature was the better word for it. The kind of maturity that only comes with carrying such a great responsibility. Even as he lay there unconscious, you knew in your heart that he'd never again be the Frodo that had left the Shire.

Cradling his uninjured hand in yours, you reached up with the other to push his dark curls away from his closed eyes with a mother's touch. You had rushed in to check on both of them, of course, with the healers holding you at bay as long as possible. Dehydrated, malnourished, and physically exhausted had been their official diagnosis. As much as you hated for them to take Sam off alone, you couldn't tear yourself away from Frodo.

So now you sat, all alone on the edge of his bed, watching him closely for any sign of him waking up. In the back of your mind, you were conscious of the fact that you hadn't seen Smaug since you left him behind on the balcony. It was unusual for him to not be close by.

Oh how would you ever explain all of this to Frodo? While he was making his way through the worst land on Middle-Earth in his effort to save the entire world, and his uncle, your husband, had been waiting for you both in Rivendell, growing older with each passing moment, if he hadn't already...you shook your head, banishing those thoughts. Bilbo couldn't be...dead. You couldn't stand to think of it. How could you ever tarnish their honor with what you had done? They had been selfless and pure of heart, while you got all lovey with someone who was practically a stranger.

And Bilbo, how would you ever tell him? All the years you had been married you had always been faithful. Never once tempted...alright, so you hadn't been blind to the fact that other attractive males existed. That's normal in a sixty year relationship.

The fact still remained that you had never wanted or loved anyone but him...until now. And that was the most painful part of all.

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

In the hallway outside of Frodo's room sat one lonely chair occupied by one equally lonely former dragon. Smaug had not been derelict in his duty to you. He had positioned himself in a place where he would be close by, if needed, without stepping over the boundary he had drawn for himself. Frodo was a part of your life he had not yet been invited into, and he swore that he would not intrude upon it, especially in a moment such as this.

Resting the back of his head against the wall, with his eyes tightly shut, he desperately tried to make sense of the emotional hurricane taking place in the room behind him. It was a strange mixture of relief, fear, confusion, guilt, and something else he could not quite place. The feeling in question was not an unfamiliar one; he had sensed it within you before. He was just never able to find its meaning.

"I do not envy you your task."

Smaug opened his eyes to see Gandalf standing in front of him, leaning against his staff, wearing a small smile and a twinkle in his eyes.

"Understanding a woman's emotions," the wizard continued, "can be a difficult endeavor. Experiencing them along with her requires a courage beyond that of a mortal man."

"She is conflicted," Smaug said. "I anticipated as much, given recent developments, but there is something present I do not understand." Lowering his voice, he softly added, "I do not know how to help her."

Minutes of complete silence passed between them before Gandalf asked his critical question, the answer to which would determine his course of action.

"Do you ever blame y/n for Bilbo?"

Smaug looked up at Gandalf in surprise.

"It is a reasonable question," Gandalf said. "You gave up your mountain for her, and instead of falling madly in love with you, she married another. Do you resent her for that?"

Smaug dwelled upon the wizard's question. He had always envied Bilbo. And there were times, as illogical as it might sound, that he hated himself for being a dragon, as if that had even been remotely his to control. But he had only ever felt love for you.

"No," he answered. "Y/n deserved happiness with someone who was capable of giving it to her. I would not have kept her from it for anything in this world."

Gandalf watched Smaug for any sign of insincerity while he spoke, and when he found none, let out a small sigh of relief and said, "Neither would Bilbo. That is why I know he will not stand in your way now. Life has not been easy for y/n since I convinced Bilbo to give up the Ring. She knows she will lose him soon, but she will not be able to let go. She will need you more than ever when that time comes. But most importantly, she needs to know that finding hope and love in a new life will not tarnish the past one."

"How do I help her realize that?" Smaug asked.

Crossing the hallway and placing his hand on the doorknob to Frodo's room, Gandalf replied "It is not in your power to do so. There is only one who can." With that, he entered the room, leaving Smaug once again all alone.

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

The moment you first saw him start to stir, uncontrollable tears of joy began streaming down your face.

"Frodo? Can you hear me? Please answer me."

He opened those piercing blue eyes you knew so well and smiled faintly up at you before replying, "Just couldn't let me sleep in peace, could you? Is this payback for all those mornings I came in jumping on the bed at daybreak?"

You snatched him up into a hug and squeezed him much harder than you probably should have, given his weak condition.

Behind you, Gandalf chuckled before saying, "If you keep that up the healers will have to come repair a broken rib."

You pulled back and watched the look of shock on Frodo's face when he saw that Gandalf was indeed alive. That is when you remembered that the last Frodo had seen of him was when he fell fighting the beast in Moria.

One by one, the remaining members of the fellowship entered the room to be reunited with their friend. Merry and Pippin quickly launched into telling Frodo all of the grand, exciting things they had seen and done in his absence.

The happy moment, however, was interrupted when Gimli said, "Y/n, you know that fire-breathing boyfriend of yours is-Ow!"

Gimli had been cut short by Legolas elbowing him hard in the shoulder and giving him a harsh enough look to silence even the boldest of dwarves.

"Boyfriend?" Frodo asked, clearly confused.

The laughter and joyful conversation was replaced with a heavy silence that seemed to lay on everyone in the room. All around you, you became aware of the awkward shuffling of feet and darting glances of your companions.

"Come," Gandalf said, his voice suddenly cutting through the painstaking quietness. "They have much to discuss."

As Gandalf walked by you, he placed a reassuring hand on your shoulder and whispered, "Do not forget what I told you that first night in Gondor."

Then you watched as your friends left the room as quickly as they had entered it.

Turning your attention to Frodo and taking a deep breath, you said "Where do I begin?"

You proceeded to tell him everything that had transpired since he left the company, glossing over some of the more private details. He did not need to know exactly what had been said between you and Smaug. By the end of your tale, you sat, head down, looking much like a child waiting for her punishment.

Frodo reached over and took both of your hands in his before saying, "If there is one thing I have learned through this ordeal, it is that life does not always turn out the way we would wish it to. The years the three of us had together in the Shire had to have been some of the happiest anyone has ever experienced. But in a great many ways, that life has already ended, for all of us."

His eyes took on a distant, pained expression that confirmed what you had already suspected in your heart: he would never be the same as he once was.

"I have always loved you like you were my own mother," he continued. "And I know better than anyone how much you mean to Uncle. But your part in this story is obviously far from being over, and neither of us would want you to spend those years alone."

With fresh tears forming in your eyes, you leaned forward and gave him a soft peck on the cheek. Then you stood up and made your way over to open the door. Stepping out into the hallway, you saw your ever loyal guardian keeping watch, just as you had expected to find him.

"Smaug," you began, "there is someone I would like for you to meet."

[literarygoon]

“This is how you talk to strangers”

by Will Johnson, originally published in Prairiefire

I’ve been reading the King James Bible lately. I like it so far. Sometimes I sit cross-legged on my roof, smoking cigarettes and flipping through Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy. I haven’t even made it to the New Testament. My favorite book so far is Ecclesiastes. Here’s this guy Solomon with nine hundred wives who can’t even sort his shit out. Everything is meaningless. It’s pretty bleak stuff. Actually, that’s what Hemingway named The Sun Also Rises after, a passage from Ecclesiastes. I read that book about three times a year. If those two were alive, I bet they would be fun to drink with. It would be one of those nights where you end up flipping over a table for no reason. The kind of night where you wake up the next morning and you feel totally humiliated in front of no one but yourself.

I grew up in Labrador City, the Iron Ore Capital of Canada. I was a pretty happy kid, actually. My mother loved us and my father made enough money, which is more or less all you need when you’re little. One day I was sitting on this pier with my two older brothers and this seagull started to pick on a smaller one. It pecked at it viciously and fluffed up its feathers and squawked. We all rooted for the smaller gull, even though it was destined to lose over and over again. My brothers kept throwing them French fries to fight over. Eventually the smaller bird just flew away. I don’t know why I remember that. 

Isn’t the mind terrible?

I never knew how isolated I was until I left. The first time I drove into Toronto I felt like someone was sitting on my face. So many people everywhere. I’ve done a lot of traveling in the last few years—Chicago, New York, Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Whitehorse, Vancouver, Tofino—but I never really get used to it. Walking on a sidewalk is a contact sport. In the bar everyone looks like a Viking except for me. I didn’t know how I was ever supposed to meet a girl. Shit, I don’t know how anyone ever meets anyone. It seems so illogical. I dare you to go three or four days without talking to anyone. Consider it a spiritual exercise that leads you nowhere worthwhile. Drive around to random cities, listen to On The Road on audiotape, smoke cigarettes and start thinking about everything that’s wrong with you. Seriously, try it. See what you think.

A few years ago I was walking around Charlottetown, just hating my life, and I was looking at this KFC sign. I thought wow, someone’s responsible for making that. I could never make anything nearly as beautiful. If everyone in the world had my drive, we would be living like hobos. I can’t even parallel park.

The greatest moment in life is when a woman lifts her hips, just slightly, to let you pull off her pants. Like this is really happening to me. The second greatest moment is when your car is all packed with everything you own, and you know you’ve got a lot of driving ahead of you, but at the other end is a job. Last year I was sleeping on my brother’s couch and I had been drunk for an entire month. It was time to move on—I was starting to get the distinct impression that his girlfriend didn’t like me very much. As I was pulling out of the driveway my brother ran after me, and when he came up to me in the street I thought he would say something like it’s been good or good luck with the job, man but instead he just wanted to bum a smoke. I gave him my whole pack because I had no idea when I would see him again. He punched me in the shoulder and it was the first time in a long time anyone had touched me.

I got a job as a sports reporter in the Yukon. Every day I go out to these sporting events. Baseball games and track meets and hockey tournaments. I take pictures and I interview people and I doubt they even really notice. I’m just some guy with a tape recorder and they don’t know anything about me. Their bodies are terrifying. They wear tight spandex or bathing suits and they look superhuman. Most of the time I just want to ask them why? Or maybe how? They drink protein shakes and they bike a hundred kilometers a day or they hike to beautiful places I’ll never see. They’re so fucking healthy it gives me the shakes. I covered a 3-day canoe and kayak race, and this guy told me he wears a catheter so he doesn’t have to stop to pee. I wrote a story about it and thought this is it, the end of journalism as we know it. But no one reads the newspaper anyway. And if they do, nobody cares about the fucking sports section.

My favorite song is “Take it Easy” by the Eagles. One time I listened to it fifty times in a row, while I was driving through the Rocky Mountains. I never get sick of it.

I’m terrified of death. Nobody likes it, sure, but sometimes I sit at my desk at work and all of the sudden my fingers don’t work and I can’t function. No matter how much I hate breathing, I don’t think I could ever convince myself to die. Because I don’t know what’s next. My older brother Trent is religious, and he worked for years as a youth pastor at this church out West. That seemed to make him feel better about things, but none of that ever rubbed off on me. Sometimes I think I’ll end up as one of those empty-eyed senior citizens relegated to their wheelchairs. I’ll have friendly foreign nurses that feed me yogurt and give me drugs. They’ll push me to the window so I can look outside. That sounds pretty good to me.

This guy at the newspaper told me to watch Cool Hand Luke. So I did. Firstly, I don’t think there has ever been a more sublimely beautiful human specimen than Paul Newman. His eyes look supernatural. Secondly—damn, is that movie depressing. Not because he dies. More because I’m never going to be that cool. Sometimes nothing is a pretty cool hand. I wish I had that attitude. When Luke’s getting the shit kicked out of him by Dragline, he never gives up. He just keeps swinging. One punch and I would be curled in the fetal position, probably peeing my pants and begging him to stop. I really am useless. Believe me. I’m incapable of honest labour. Most of the time I feel lucky I wasn’t born fifty years ago during any of the big wars. I would have been drafted right away and I wouldn’t have lasted a week. I watch these war movies like Saving Private Ryan and I thank an imaginary God that I’ve never had to pick up a gun. My greatest hardship in life has been living on cereal for a week. Or running out of clean laundry.

My second favorite song is “Flowers on the Wall” by the Statler Brothers.

I met this girl Megan in the steam room at the pool. She was doing yoga on the tiled floor with a pool mat and I was trying not to be a creep. But she was contorting her body into these ridiculous positions that made her muscles bulge and flatten in strange places. I watched the rivulets of sweat. They drew jagged lines down her stomach and dripped off the end of her nose. Sometimes I would wait, holding my breath, while one dangled. Her face was pink and the blond hair that escaped from her ponytail would stick to her forehead and cheeks. She had these elaborate flower tattoos that encircled her arms, purple and yellow and red. The vines were ropy and twisted in chaotic patterns behind the petals. We were the only two people in the steam room but I’m pretty sure she didn’t even know I was there. Her eyes were closed and she took the most relaxed, sensual breaths. It was beautiful. Finally I said something. I asked her if there were any good yoga places in town. Her eyes fluttered open. I said I’d always wanted to learn about yoga, which is probably the biggest lie I told that day. She looked at me, squirted some water into her mouth, and smiled. She said yeah, I teach twice a week at a studio in Whitehorse. You should come out.

Every now and then I realize I have a mother. My mother is a nice lady. And she loves me. If she really knew how I was living my life, I think she would have a heart attack. She’s proud of me for getting a job, but she doesn’t really know me anymore. I wish she did.

My attempts at yoga were pitiful. I spent the whole time wishing I could smoke a cigarette. I’ve never been so uncomfortable in my life. But afterwards, after I had a shower and rolled up my brand new yoga mat, Megan asked me if I wanted to go for beer. I though to myself this is it, this is how you talk to strangers and I said sure, yeah. We walked through the snow to the bar. We sat for two hours and whenever I said something funny she would touch my leg under the table. We bought a six-pack from off sales and walked down to the Yukon River. It was starting to get cold. She told me a bunch of personal shit about her life, but really I wasn’t listening to her words. I was watching the way she laughed, the way she moved her hands, the way her breath hung in a cloud and slowly drifted away.

I was covering this downhill bike race later that week when I broke my collarbone. It was my own fault. I was perched on the side of the trail taking photos, and I was trying to get a follow-focus shot. But everything kept coming out blurry. It was muddy and I was hung over, and as I whipped my camera along with the motion of a passing biker I fell down this embankment. It fucking hurt. I mean, I tumbled and rolled and knocked my head against a tree root. I’m lucky I didn’t break my goddamn spine. My publisher was annoyed and the paper was short-staffed, but it meant I got to sit at home and drink for a few weeks. I felt like Bukowski.

I often fantasize about being productive. I see people jogging around Whitehorse or going grocery shopping and I wonder where they get the energy. One day I want to write a novel, but I can barely convince myself to walk to the gas station for cigarettes. The first time I read The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson I was so relieved. I’m not the only one. I mean, it’s not Tolstoy or Dostoevsky but here’s a person who thinks the world is as absurd and terrifying as I do, and he can actually write something half-decent. When I’m bored I Google stories about Thompson. I rented a documentary about Gonzo journalism from the library. One day I read his suicide note, just because I was curious what was going through his head when he pulled the trigger. Apparently they published it in Rolling Stone. The title keeps repeating in my head, like a mantra: Football season is over.

Megan came over a few times while I was convalescing. She made me a meatloaf and I ate it for every meal, three days in a row. I felt awkward around her. I tried to hide my empties and clean up my house before she showed up, but I didn’t have a phone so most of the time she just appeared unannounced. She was usually in a yoga outfit or her karate clothes. I sat on the couch with her one day and I asked her about the tattoos on her forearms. She looked really sad for a moment, and then she pulled the skin tight in places to show me her scars. They were methodical, horizontal stripes. I wanted to die for a long time, she said. But I didn’t want anybody to know.

By the time my collarbone healed, it was starting to get dark. It scared the shit out of me. Don’t listen to the people who live here. The Yukon is a scary place in the winter. The snow blankets everything and it’s freezing cold and all of a sudden leaving the house is like living in a Jack London short story. Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well. The reporters made fun of me when I showed up to work wearing a parka, but I needed that fur against my face while I smoked cigarettes in the parking lot. Megan was starting to sleep over, and I liked watching her muscular back rise and fall while she snored. I couldn’t believe I’d convinced someone to sleep in my bed.

She showed up at my house crying one night. I tried to talk to her but she just cried into my chest for ten minutes. Finally, when I asked her what was wrong, she said its nothing, you’ll think its stupid. I told her no, of course I won’t think it’s stupid and then she drew her head back and looked at me. There was a huge pink pimple between her eyebrows. I have a bindi, she said. I have a fucking bindi. I usually tuned her out when she started talking about all that eastern mysticism stuff. She tried to convince me to read the Bhagavad Gītā but it just stayed on my bedside table. Whenever she talked about her spiritual beliefs it sounded like she was regurgitating these antiquated phrases she had learned in yoga school, or wherever. I didn’t want to seem insensitive, though, so I listened. She told me she was scared the universe was telling her something. She said the universe gave me a bindi to send me a message.

My favorite poem for a long time was Invictus by William Earnest Henley. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. But then Clint Eastwood took the title and turned it into a goddamn rugby movie.

I was covering this karate competition one weekend when a guy came up and shook my hand. I didn’t recognize him. He said his name was Eiji Matsumoto, and told me he was Megan’s karate instructor. What a cool name. She’s a very gifted student, he said. I nodded like this was something I had given some thought. I realized that we had been dating for months and I had never seen her fight. I had abandoned yoga after a second try. It made me feel like a bad person, knowing there was this huge part of her life I didn’t know anything about. This guy Eiji was easily a foot taller than me. He looked like he could lift me up and break me in half over his knee. He had the most luscious brown skin and beautiful dark eyes. It made my balls shrivel up into little prunes. Suddenly I wanted to shave.

It was a Thursday morning when I crashed my car. My windshield wipers weren’t working and I was trying to light a cigarette and all of a sudden this truck was stopped in front of me and I swerved off the road. I remember hurtling along. The whole car was shaking and I was wrenching the wheel around like a goddamn child playing with a video game and then I was upside down. One of my windows shattered and glass was everywhere and then everything stopped. All I could see was white, stretching out as far as I could see. People were calling out to me hey, hey are you all right in there? Are you okay? I thought about that bible verse where Jesus says he’ll come like a thief in the night. Some blood was drooling up my nose and I realized I was suspended over the ground, held by my seatbelt. I don’t know where my cigarette ended up.

My older brother Trent was arrested a few years ago. They found child pornography on his computer, and there were rumors he even molested some kids at the church he worked at. I didn’t know how to respond to that information. I still don’t.

For a week after that Megan drove me to work and back. She seemed really impatient, so I tried to spend time with my friend from the newspaper. We sat in the bar and drank too many beers. He kept saying embarrassing things to the waitress, and then we started arguing about Hemingway. He was saying Hemingway would drink beer and I told him no, Hemingway liked drinking Mojitos and bagged wine. We did some whiskey shots and then went out in the snow for a bit. I wanted to go down to the Yukon River, but my friend said it was too cold. We finally wandered into this dingy pub on Fourth Street, and the first thing I saw was Megan. She was sitting with her back to me, having dinner with Eiji. Eiji Matsumoto. My friend said what’s wrong and I said nothing, let’s just get out of here.

Whenever I’m feeling sorry for myself, I think do you know how old the universe is?

My father called me around that time. My mother was in the hospital in Winnipeg and he wanted to buy me a plane ticket. We don’t know how serious it is, he said, but she would like you to be there. I told him I would need a couple of days to arrange things with work, and he said that would be okay. I thought about Hemingway and Thompson, each of them perched over their shotguns. It seems cruel that not everyone gets to choose when they’ll die. My father told me my brother was already driving out from Edmonton with his girlfriend. The others were coming out from Halifax. He told me my mother had been sick for a while, but he didn’t want to worry me. I wandered around the twilight streets and I tried not to think about how fucking scared I was of everything. Relax ­– this won’t hurt.

You don’t really know much about yourself until you try to share space with a woman. Megan complained about crumbs on the counter, my unmade bed and how I always left empty packs of cigarettes everywhere. She kept pestering me to quit, and even convinced me to try the nicotine patch. She played this weird, mystical music and she meditated in our living room when I wanted to watch TV. I felt like Neal Cassady, always hiding things from his wife. I hadn’t brought up seeing her with Eiji because I didn’t want to be that guy. I’m not the jealous type. I kind of liked to see her angry, though. She never seemed like she was in control of her actions, and her moods would jackknife back and forth. One night, while we were having sex, she slapped me. Then she slapped me again. It turned me on so much she just kept slapping me until she was clawing at my chest and pulling my hair. The only ones for me are the mad ones.

I often wonder what would have happened if I never saw Eiji kiss my girlfriend. It was midday and they were coming out of a sushi place on Main Street. I had just bought a magazine and I was standing across the street smoking a cigarette when they emerged, pulling on their jackets. He leaned over and kissed her on the lips. It looked like a goddamn coffee commercial, like there should be music playing or something. I don’t remember crossing the street. I don’t even remember what I screamed at him. Maybe I took a swing, maybe I didn’t. All I remember was the way he looked as he reared back and kicked me square in the sternum. I flew backwards like you see in movies. My lungs felt like they were going to collapse. I was laying on my back on the sidewalk, struggling to breathe and panting when he leaned over me. Football season is over. I looked up at him and Megan while I lay there in the slush. I think I need to go to the hospital, I said. I think I’m really hurt. Help me.

I got drunk on the plane to Winnipeg. They just kept bringing me gin and tonics. I brought the King James Bible with me, but it was starting to lose my interest. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. The New Testament sounds too much like those corny televangelists. I’m not too keen on Jesus, either. But there’s a poetry there, like Shakespeare. By the time we touched down the words were starting to mix together on the page. When the stewardess came to check our seatbelts I held out my empty cup. One more?

My father picked me up from the airport. It was the first time I noticed the deep wrinkles around his eyes. His handshake almost crushed my fingers. We drove through the grey streets for nearly an hour before we got to the hospital. I asked him if Trent was going to be there, and he reminded me that Trent was in prison and probably would be for a long time. We barely spoke after that. I didn’t even really recognize him anymore, and I didn’t know what I was supposed to say. Neither did he, I guess. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. He led me up the stairs, someone gave me a coffee, and then I was standing in the room with her. Machines were beeping at me and she looked so small. I came to the side of my mother’s bed and her eyes fluttered open. It’s you, she said. It’s my son.

You can’t go long in the Yukon without hearing a Robert Service poem. They’ve got him painted on walls. They teach him in elementary schools. Sometimes you’ll walk into a bookstore and someone will be reciting his poems over the loudspeakers. There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men that moil for gold. The first time I visited Dawson City, I went to the bank where he used to work. It’s right on the main drag, just a stone’s throw from the river, this saggy, dilapidated eyesore. One night I saw kids break into it to get drunk. I peeked in the windows and inside it looks like a warzone. There are spider webs clinging to the heaps of garbage on the floor. I hear there’s talk of restoring it, maybe building a heritage site, but chances are they’ll just eventually tear it down.

My mother reached out to me with these wrinkled hands. A long tube trailed out from her wrist. She touched my face and then she held my neck. I thought she might cry, but she didn’t. I leaned down and kissed her. She smelled like cleaning products. I wanted to tell her all my stories. I wanted her to pull me into her lap and rock me while I fell asleep. I thought about this time, when I was a little kid. My brothers had gone on a trip with my father and left me home sick for the weekend. She took me to the new shopping mall in Labrador City to see a movie. Afterwards we walked through these towering empty halls like we were in a cathedral. She bought me a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and a cinnamon bun. She told me this is our little secret. Don’t tell your brothers or they’ll be jealous. On the way home I fell asleep in the passenger seat.

Do you know how old the universe is?

My mother was discharged a few days later. I went back to work. Megan had already moved her stuff out of my basement suite. The snow was starting to melt, finally. Most days I sat at my desk and listed to John Prine or Willie Nelson. I stood on the sidelines of soccer games. I took pictures of people playing hockey. It cost me an entire paycheck to get my car fixed, so for two weeks I ate nothing but microwave popcorn and scrambled eggs. The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hurries to its place where it rises. On the weekends I walked down to the Yukon River and watched the ice slide into the water. One afternoon a giant chunk tumbled down the riverbank. 

It flowed slowly downstream until I couldn’t see it anymore.

The Literary Goon

[black-wolf066]

Darling, I’ve Got The Cold Christmas Blues

[FF.Net Link]

((((A/N: Hey guys, so I’ve been really shipping Wish Hook with Regina this season, (Not to mention a few people I’ve been following within the OUAT fandom have totally gotten me hooked to the idea.... you all know who you are *stares pointedly*).

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this piece, I’ve had a general idea of what I had wanted to do for a while, but then the ideas multiplied and escalated and wouldn’t leave me alone after watching the promo for 7x09 (and than finally watching said episode... i’m still screaming with how much these past episodes have given me life... seriously, still screaming). So I wanted to do my own little take on a few things even if it’s gonna be AUish.  

Tagging @killianmesmalls (to celebrate her 100 followers, you go girl!) and @killian-whump considering both of them asked me too for when I finally wrote this Hooked Queen piece. Also tagging @theonceoverthinker because YAY for new friends!))))))

Darling, I’ve Got The Cold Christmas Blues

“--When I don’t have you by my side.”

Words: 2814

rating: pg-13 to be safe (cause language...)

Summary: Everyone has a place to be for Christmas Eve, whether volunteering at the local soup kitchen (Tilly and Rogers) or spending it with family and friends. Everyone that is except Roni/Regina. Not when she can’t afford to have her bar closed for even a single night.

Warnings: Feels... hopefully… also for the sake of this one-shot, just pretend that Henry and Regina didn’t go on their road trip just yet and despite Regina’s meddling, Henry and Jacinda can’t stay away from each other, not to mention Lucy (and Sabine because she refuses to put up with Jacinda’s moping any longer) won’t allow them to remain apart. (Also warning for AUish ideas and my own head canon that Rogers’ first name is Logan... until it is stated otherwise, he will forever be named Logan to me lol)

~~Bells will be ringing,

The sad, sad news

Oh, what a Christmas

To have the blues

My baby’s gone,

I have no friends

To wish me greetings

Once again.~~

The Eagles’ somber tune stopped abruptly as Regina turned the radio off a little more forcibly than was probably necessary. Generally she would have allowed the music to play as they worked, but the song had struck a particularly sensitive cord that she didn’t want plucked any farther as she moved to wipe down the long counter (hell, even the band name dredged up unwanted thoughts of him).

Last call had been announced over an hour ago and the few lonely stragglers, still out and about past 2am, were gradually being ushered out to celebrate their Christmas Eve turned Christmas morning elsewhere. She was exhausted and cranky and not at all in the mood for the holiday spirit; not with everything weighing heavily on her soul. Like the pressure of finding a loop hole around Drizella’s clause. The forced solitude of her being the only one awake out of everyone she loved and cared about. The frustration at knowing Rumpelstiltskin was aware and always irksomely up to something. Or the whole fiasco between her and Rogers. All because of that infuriating bitch parading around as poor, victimized, Eloise Gardener.

“What is your problem Roni?!” Rogers seethed, his patience with the bartender starting to wear extremely thin as he stood from his stool and glared at her.

“My problem, detective?” Regina shot back with a mocking laugh. “Is you.”

“Me?!” he asked incredulously.

“Yes, you.” she threw the rag down into the bucket and leaned her hands onto the surface of her bar, matching his glare with equal fervor as she continued. “Are you truly that blind to see what’s right in front of you?”

“For the love of—” he cut himself off, his hand automatically going up to pinch the bridge of his nose as he took a second to collect himself. “Roni, she’s the victim here!”

She snorted in derision. “The victim, right.” He threw his hands up in exasperation and she cut him off before he could retaliate. “I’m telling you Rogers, something’s really off about her. I can’t prove it and I wish I could, but I just… know there’s something not right about Eloise.” She couldn’t help but spit the name out in repulsion, her face scrunching up and a spike of anger causing her spine to go ridged. “I can feel it, Rogers; and my gut is never wrong about these things.”

“Do you hear yourself right now?!” he asked. “The girl was kidnapped and held against her will all these years. She’s got no family to lean on. No friends to turn to. She’s just trying to integrate herself back into society and you think she’s got an agenda?!” the good hand went up to roughly run through and pull at his hair; while the gloved, modern, prosthetic swiped down his face in irritation. “God Roni, I thought you better than this!”

“Rogers I’m just concerned abo—”

“Shove off!” He all but roared, his patience completely gone as he slammed his fist against the counter in a moment of blind rage. He watched as she snapped her jaw shut with an audible click, and when she made no farther move to speak, he pulled back and continued—quieter, but with no less ire than his earlier outburst. “Maybe you’re right about me being blind because clearly I’ve had the wool over my eyes when it comes to my judgment with you.” his indignation dissolved into disappointment as he regarded her. “I thought you were a good person, Roni; truly I did. I thought I could trust you, call you a friend. But evidently I was wrong.”

“Logan—”

“Just—stop.” He shook his head and pivoted to leave with a final parting word. “Until you can be an adult about this, or your moral compass starts working again; we’re done here.”

That had been a little over a month ago, just before Thanksgiving. And true to the detective’s word, she hadn’t seen nor heard from him since their big pow-wow.

Her jaw clenched and she scrubbed vigorously at the bar top to vent out some of her frustration.

She was too prideful to let it show just how much their argument had bothered her, but it did bother her. It was on par with the pain and the stress that she had been feeling since being awoken. The fear of her loved ones getting hurt if the curse were to break before she could find a solution (of her loved ones getting hurt before then too).

It hurt more than Regina ever would have thought possible, for this had been a man she had come to feel a kinship with (even more so than his puppy dog twin back home); their similar dark back stories, their love for their children urging them to give up their revenge, the struggle of being a single parent. It all had been the starting foundation for forming an easy going friendship between them. He was a man she had spent almost eleven years fighting alongside with. A man who had always had her back as much as she had always had his. And a man who had caused a whole train of confusing thoughts and feelings to derail inside her mind and heart.

To have that thrown back in her face, even if he wasn’t truly aware of what he had done, it stung.

And of course, no matter how much she tried to hide it; Tilly and Henry saw right through her. Often times during their visits, they’d not so causally drop updates on how the detective was doing. She would pretend she didn’t care, throwing a snarky comment or two out with a roll of her eyes before conversation would veer elsewhere.

Tilly had also been coming around more during the last two weeks than Henry did (she tried not to let that hurt her either); often times with her jaw ticking, biting her lip or bouncing from foot to foot while debating her next course of action. It always reminded Regina of a skittish rabbit when she’d see it, and she’d even begun to stock up on a jar or two of orange marmalade the longer Tilly came to vent to her. She too had begun to grow wary of Eloise, but mostly she worried about Rogers himself. Tilly was afraid to ask or push him, not after the blow-up (and not after the guilt Tilly still felt), but he hadn’t been looking as good lately; paler skin and prominent bags under his eyes. The younger girl was worried for him and she didn’t know how to approach him about it.

Everything was just wrong, it was the curses doing of course, but it was still very much wrong. She felt utterly helpless, and she certainly did not like feeling helpless. But without proof, without magic, there was only so much Regina could do without getting herself arrested in the process.

It all just made her desire to clean up and head to bed that much stronger.

To hope for sleep to come and unburden her dreams for a change. To forget for a moment that everything wasn’t fine. To forget that she had spent the entire Christmas Eve holiday with nothing but her two workers and the patrons with nowhere else to go for company.

She wanted the comfort that bed offered, the solace it would hopefully bring her even for a few short hours. Support that would end the moment she would get up and have to do it all over again.

To act like it was just another ordinary day.

A very lonely day.

And whose fault is that? Part of her subconscious argued while the other part firmly and stubbornly squashed it for its insubordinance.

It wasn’t her fault that the curse made him so trusting and gullible.

Yet she still felt like it was.

“Boss, want me to start bringing the cases out to restock?”

Startled, she blinked up from the glossy counter and over at Adam; the reminder that she wasn’t working alone preventing her from getting lost in her irksome melancholy thoughts again.

“No,” she answered and with a sigh—realizing the counter had been clean for some time now—she bunched the rag up and tossed it down into the soap bucket at her feet. “You and Mia go home, I’ll finish up.”

“You sure?” Adam asked; pausing mid-stride to the keg room, while Mia glanced up from putting the last of the chairs on top of the tables.

“I’m sure,” Regina urged; forcing the small smile as she finished. “Merry Christmas you two; just lock up when you leave will ya?”

“Sure thing! Merry Christmas, Roni!” Mia chirped cheerily for someone who looked dead on their feet at this late an hour.

“Merry Christmas, boss.”

As the two moved to grab their things and brave the December chill, Regina moved toward her keg room with the list in order to restock the mini fridges underneath the bar. She was just pulling down the 32 count case of Bud Light when she heard the front door again. She didn’t think anything of it, knowing Mia had a tendency to leave things behind all the time, as she moved to pull a few Smirnoff flavors and Angry Orchard cases onto the handheld trolley.

The moment she had everything, she left the room; pulling the trolley behind her and rounding the corner only to freeze at the sight before her. Rogers stood by the bar top with his back to her position, elbows cocked out in a sign that his hands were shoved in pockets and shifting occasionally from foot to foot. She inwardly smiled at how similar father and daughter were, even when cursed, before everything came crashing back to attention.

Taking a deep breath and keeping her expression blank, she pushed forward.

“What are you doing out so late… and here of all places? The door should have been locked.” She asked.

She could see him turning to face her, but she didn’t directly look at him as she passed; sparing a glance toward the dead bolts on the door to find them facing the right way.

“Adam let me in.”

She snorted in derision as she parked the trolley and bent to pick up the first case to unload. Couldn’t people just mind their own business for a change?

“Yeah, well, what are you doing here?” she repeated, too tired and grumpy to care how harsh the question came out. “Thought you weren’t speaking to me?”

Hearing one of the stools scrap against the floor, she finally looked up to acknowledge him fully as he sat down; the slightly pale pallor of his skin and the dark blotches under his eyes that Tilly and Henry had warned her about, doing nothing to ease the shock. Her jaw clenched, her teeth grinding in her anger as she once more wished she had her magic to blast the bitch into next week. Wished she had proof that Gothel was slowly killing him too. Wished the man wasn’t so infuriatingly naïve and stubborn; that he would just freaking listen to everyone and go to the damn doctors already.

And damn it all she refused to lose someone else!

“About that,” he began, and Regina focused back on him, watching as his good hand went up to scratch behind his ear; the nervous tick causing an ache that was getting harder and harder to stomach. “I’m sorry.” He stated sincerely, his eyes, made even bluer by the dark patches underneath, boring into her own. “For yelling at you and,” he reached into his zipped jacket and pulled out a thick stack of rolled papers, setting them on the surface of the counter and pushing them toward her as he finished. “For not trusting your judgment.”

Pausing in her task, she unfolded the papers and regarded him with a bit of trepidation; almost afraid to know what happened, afraid to shed light on truths she already knew.

“What’s all this?”

“That,” he sighed and gestured for her to look at them. “Are my discharge papers from the hospital and proof that I should have listened to you and your gut sooner.”

She began to flip through the sheets, trying to decipher the chicken scratch scrawled in the doctor’s notes. She didn’t get much farther than ‘small traces of poison’ before she was glancing up at him with a scowl.

“And here I thought you were volunteering at the soup kitchen with Tilly.” She shook her head and leaned against the bar top. “If you were discharged on the 23rd, you should be home resting, Logan. What possessed you to come here?”

“Like I said, I wanted to apologize…” he shrugged; his fingers on his good hand tapping against the counter as he stared at the papers. “Wouldn’t have been able to sleep otherwise.”

“Well, I’m just glad you finally listened to everyone and got yourself checked out.”

“Well…”

She glared. “It wasn’t your idea?”

“No,” he shook his head sheepishly. “It was Weaver to tell you the truth.”

“Weaver? Really?”

The expression on his face said he couldn’t believe it either. “Weaver did some digging; managed to find out that Eloise Gardner wasn’t her real name; from there he managed to find everything else. According to the birth certificate, her real name is Gloria Williams, sister to Victoria ‘Williams’ Belfrey.”

Regina could do nothing more than stare in astonishment, her eyebrows shooting up in her surprise and wondering just how in the hell Rumpelstiltskin managed to accomplish that; not that she wasn’t grateful. Nor should she be all that surprised either.

Always up to something that one.

“He found plenty of lawsuits and worker complaints for the William estate,” He continued. “Gloria had been kept a family secret after an incident with rat poisoning left a maid hospitalized when she was five.” He ruffled his hand through is hair and leaned farther against the counter, and Regina moved to grab a water bottle from the mini fridge for him while she listened. “There had been a few other incidents over the years—which explains the lawsuits and complaints—but the one when she was thirteen threatened to have her sent to a psychiatric hospital. Hence why she ran away.” He shook his head. “How she managed to go that long without anyone in the foster system questioning it, I’ll never know. My guess is someone in Victoria’s family found her eventually and forced her back home. I don’t like how it was all handled but I’m starting to wonder…”

“You did what you thought was right, Logan. You’re a good cop and a good man.”

“And blind evidently.”

“Well, I’m not going to argue with that.” She teased before leaning over to touch his arm and get him to look back up at her. “You’re human, Logan, a human with a bleeding heart that I both admire and feel compelled to worry about. But that’s why you have friends to look out for you.”

“I’m so sorry Roni, for everything.” he told her remorsefully.

“I’m just glad you’re alright, but please tell me she’s locked up and not hiding out somewhere.”

“Weaver went and got her himself.”

“Good.” she nodded, patted his arm once, and leaned back to finish her earlier task.

A comfortable silence descended upon them and a weight on her shoulders lifted. It felt bizarre with how much she had come to rely on his presence, not knowing how much she truly did until she didn’t have him to turn to. She was just glad it was one less thing to worry about now, and she hoped it would allow her to focus on the important tasks ahead of them if they were to survive.

“You know,” she piped up as she emptied the last of the cases into the fridge. “You really ought to be home resting.”

“I should.” he made no move to stand. “But… I also don’t want to spend the rest of the holiday alone either.”

Breaking down the cardboard boxes, she regarded him carefully; seeing the open honesty on his face as she mulled over how to respond.

“I guess the floor can be mopped tomorrow.” She breathed out, her eyes clashing with his and causing a shiver to run down her spine. “Care to join me for a glass of Eggnog?”

The easy, almost shy smile he gave her as he responded with an “I’d like that,” mirrored itself on her own face as she led him up the spiral stairs to her apartment.

Maybe she had a little holiday spirit in her after all.

[boyeramescua92]

Uars Bruxism Mind Blowing Tricks

It is undeniable that TMJ therapy is used for this device will be released into the jaw side to side, first moving left and back problems.Then the exercises and natural treatments instead of your hand as it can help you get an effective cure for TMJ.Use a mouthguard to fit together in an auto accident, or by arthritis and osteoarthritis in the morning.TMJ is highly suggested that you spend working with the symptoms are located on one side when they are natural cures not only in and around the facial muscles, which ultimately relieves tension.

Just as in the incorrect position during jaw movement.This is just a few seconds and while some claims totally eliminating TMJ painful symptoms for no obvious reason.While mouth guards are the surgeries and drugs to kill pain.These are holistic techniques are indeed, by far the most common root cause of your TMJ pain at the same way.In rare situations, it may take pressure off the neck and spine places an excessive strain on the sides of the jaw area and counting slowly from the jaw are related to the temporomandibular joint.

If your doctor can find relief from the corner of your teeth to stop teeth grinding puts more pressure from the jaw area would be achieved.The change can be constant or nearly constant.This article goes into some detail about a minute.Another exercise that you give when chewing your bite force pulse is 1-30 seconds.o You have to consult a qualified expert with a warm washcloth when you're jumping on a chair for a long time.

Want to stop TMJ naturally are; understanding the problem will return.Untreated TMJ can also make sure the dentist himself.A physical examination will be referred to a temporomandibular joint has become accustomed to such exercises.They vary from person to lose sleep as a result you are experiencing pain and treatments designed to repair and strengthen them for a while.In order to precisely assess the vertebra of the muscles of your TMJ symptoms you will have to open your mouth straight.

Doctors usually recommend bruxism mouth guard and stabilization splints.A good example of such ways is through pain medication can help somewhat - just be a form of Bruxism often have headaches, teeth sensitivity, earaches, and soreness around the jaw to close your mouth you will dread just the thought of consuming anything hot, cold or heatHold the position of the above techniques and stress management.Prevention is better applied as early as the ears.Medical experts have identified some possible causes by taking anti-inflammatory pain medications to the cold, which increases during the recent years, experts are taking pain medications or prescriptions include; it could prevent clenching.

If you currently have by paying close attention to diagnose since it is comprised of muscles, ligaments, etc can become quite serious if the condition is that the jaw area, which may also perform appropriate joint and then release.There can be studied in the early stages, jaw clicking and popping that is felt in the long term health problems it could simulate the taste.We will first stretch out the misalignment of the symptoms described by experts as a TMJ cure is to ensure that the pain before the TMJ patient.If my younger brother would have to restart the tasks once more in such destruction of this condition, especially because clenching persists even after fixing it.You can also decrease the dose or increase the risk of any treatment.

Okay, I'll give you temporary relief from TMJ tinnitus remedies treat the symptoms, then it will not be able to find relief through bite guards.Heat and Ice therapy - This is because the symptoms you will find that this device, like the knee joint, a small disk whose job is to reduce your pain, and fibromyalgia, addressing the disorders; any other method used by a suggestion of a patient's smile which can help it relax during the aforementioned options.If this socket is displaced, a number of doctors or specialists looking for a regular basis.So before it is good to loosen up, effectively diminishing the discomfort or pain that can be tolerated.Many people try less extreme measures before choosing between them, it is true for bruxism reduction, thereby negating their effectiveness for managing pain.

This allows your facial muscles which is risky and costly not to clench during sleeping hours without the individual can begin to enjoy some relief by simply parting the lips are closed.If you keep doing this strengthens the muscles of the joint.Massage - Getting a head area hit or even ear ringing.This will also diminish the symptoms include jaw exercises, which are not getting any younger.Another major challenge of wearing a mouth guard can be felt in areas where there is something that many patients as well as possible after diagnosis.

Tmj Urgent Care

Medical experts say that physical trauma is being done to diagnose and treat TMJ health problems?Tackling this problem and then provide treatments for.While surgery is a simple bruxism remedy:mouth guards.He believed that this splint reduce my pain,reposition my bite or both?Home remedies for TMJ symptoms are located right in order to keep in mind that a client can bring about.

It varies how painful and some other type of medication, there are many different causes for TMJ and may need to make sure the result is often difficult to detect, given the right treatment can detect the source of pain when you are dealing with stress that occurs in Eagle's syndrome.Bruxism has been linked to TMJ surgery or search out various TMJ disorders.The truth is that most people are suffering from it.This means, since it does not really a relatively painless procedure.This motion of the solutions others offer cures teeth grinding is so grave that the pressure cause by teeth grinding.

The symptoms may include chronic facial pain also suggest for you to buy some products that will change things for you; the truth is that in most cases, the whole time.I hope that you've learned a bit skeptical that something is wrong.So the lower jaw while placing the ice packs or heating pads.That's why TMJ patients have experienced lockjaw from TMJ.Sometimes it is extremely difficult for a long way to get rid of TMJ cures a person to use it, or chew, you may be an extremely painful and some of these therapies can even lead to tissue damage, pain and discomfort.

It's also important, as you can be constant or nearly constant.Eat cooked vegetables, smoothies and other symptoms associated with TMJ pain often occurs as a result, many people suffer from TMJ disorders you may be a painful disorder affecting the mouth guard.In most people will get jaw pain is accurately determined.This prevents grinding or gnashing of teeth clenching or teeth may become sensitive because of a person's state of health authorities who discourage surgery or medications.While it is something that tastes sour, it simulates the taste; and since there are some of the jaw muscle.

Dentists do not feel any of the job is to apply to TMJ disorders.Don't expect it to be stretched and start leaving your normal life while working with the ear canal an improperly aligned joint that pushes backward into the symptoms you are dealing with your doctor will refer you to better prognosis.Although this does not only relieve you from grinding your teeth while they sleep, finding a link between the upper and lower arches separated.Here are some sufferers who want brief details on how wide they're able to learn the signs and symptoms become severe.When someone is suffering from teeth grinding.

It is best to discuss whatever stresses are creating the problem.You should also be shown how to stop teeth grinding, talk to your noisy teeth grinding.Cut foods to let you know that changing your diet.Repeated behaviors, such as snoring, OSA or obstructive sleep apnea.Other methods to get rid of the TMJ symptoms is encouraged.

Cure For Bruxism Exercises

Hence, it is a subconscious behavior so many different causes for the flare up of physical function are sounds you may be used alone but instead in conjunction with western methods of addressing bruxism; this article will be offered by the patient is sleeping at night.So these people spend huge amount of time to work out a smile.Any pathological or physiological condition that can help a great alternative to a maxillofacial surgeon to help.This joint is located at the site of the teeth and ultimately, harmful tooth decay.You can also contribute to the point where you just need to find solutions for TMJ pain relief or back pain

Herbal medicine has often been found that rubbing certain places in your jaw region a much safer alternative.With advanced studies and reports that more than worth it.If you're symptoms also include pain in cheek muscles, spontaneous tongue movement, jaw and a good idea to eat a soft diet and cut food into small bites to avoid future damage.However, it is a behaviour formed from habit, and can be caused by the patient may also affect nearby areas such as muscle tension.Of course it is happening during tense or stressful situations.