#and by the world i mean ever disney hq i can find

[mrsbsmooth]

The Suresh Problem.

If you’re here from that reddit petition, please be aware that this post was used without my consent.

Okay, I've received yet another four or five asks in my inbox about Suresh, so I'm just going to discuss this properly, once. I'm going to put the majority of this under the cut, because it specifically addresses very triggering topics for a lot of people.

TW: SA, DV.

TL:DR; you're all getting played by Fusebox, and they wrote Suresh to be an asshole on purpose.

I really appreciate that y'all are sending me these asks. Particularly as so many of them have mentioned that they feel that my blog is a safe space for POC. I cannot express how much that means to me. Thank you. I'm doing my best.

After this post, I will not answer, acknowledge, or in any way interact with any asks that compare Suresh to Harvey Weinstein, Andrew Tate, or any of the other real-life sexual predators & abusers he's been compared to, even if it's to defend him. While I appreciate y'all bringing it to my attention, it's just exacerbating it, and I'm not giving it a platform after this post.

I am not an expert in talking about race, nor am I an expert in writing POC. I'm not a POC, nor have I ever claimed to be. I just don't believe in putting discussions like this in the too-hard basket, and pretending they doesn't exist because it's a hard conversation to have. My willingness to have these discussions is not 'bandwagoning', or at least, it's not intended to be. I don't have the world's largest platform, but I have a small soapbox and I'm going to use it properly.

I'm also going to put a disclaimer here and say that this is only an opinion, and an uninformed one at that. I don't work for Fusebox, I don't have a degree in marketing or digital engagement, but I have done some work in User Experience and my degree's partly in Cultural Anthropology, so I know a little bit about human behaviour and the way we engage with online media.

Again, not an expert. Just cynical and sick of the debate.

So here's the sitch.

They wrote Suresh to be a toxic, pushy asshole on purpose.

His behaviour, in some areas, is not great. The gaslighting, the manipulation, implying he used to trick her into sleeping with him. Many people, including myself, have been in emotionally abusive relationships with people who are like this. It's not nice. It's certainly not entertainment.

But you cannot sit there and tell me that this script did not go through multiple rounds of revisions. You think this wasn't brought up at Fusebox HQ? I can absolutely guarantee you that it was.

So why on earth would writers write him this way?

Because it gets you talking about the game.

Ever heard of the phrase 'Any publicity is good publicity'?

There are 1000+ LITG Fanfictions on Ao3. Guess which season has the fewest fanfics? Season 3. Often casually referred to as 'The Disney Season'. The only drama during that season was Ciaran/Tai/Yasmin picking MC, and/or Rafi/Lily flirting heavily with MC. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong, but overwhelmingly, it was a very sweet season with generally likeable and unique characters.

Season 2 had so, so many characters with different backstories, interests, motivations, etc. that it was hard to find someone who didn't like one of them at least a little. And people engaged so much with that content. Just based off the fanfiction numbers (because I don't have any official stats) at least 75% of the LITG FF content is for Season 2.

But here's the thing: It's far easier to make people angry than it is to make them fall in love.

What is the one thing almost everyone spent gems on during Bombshell? Telling off Juliet. It's basic engagement principle that people are going to be more engaged when they're emotionally invested in a piece of media. It's why clickbait exists. It's why internet trolls exist, for fuck's sake.

So why on earth would they bother spending the extra time in developing complex, multifaceted characters, when as a fandom, we've made it perfectly clear that we'll spend more money, more time, and more brain space into tearing apart characters we hate, rather than doing the same for characters we love?

Fusebox are a business. They do not care if the game offends you. What they do care about are those sweet, sweet advertising dollars. And if they can show a reddit sub with thousands upon thousands of eyes on it, all ranting and raving about Suresh, they can absolutely turn to an advertiser and say "Yo, look at our engagement levels!"

This is just capitalism. It's business. If they take it too far on a TV show, advertisers will start pulling out. But advertisers only pull out when there's an actual, honest-to-god backlash. And most of the advertising (in my LITG2 app at least) isn't for products or companies with a reputation. It's for other games. Meaning that, realistically, if you did want to complain to an advertiser about the game being racist, sexist, misogynistic who are you going to complain to? Apple? The fuck do they care? They haven't broken any laws?

It's specifically designed to be controversial and problematic. That is the entire point. If this kind of thing triggers you, DNI.

Fusebox do not care about individuals' experiences.

A few people will be so triggered or turned off by the content that they'll leave. But enough of us stayed, engaged, and participated in the game to make it worth their while. So Fusebox just continues to exist in this sweet space, where they just insert more and more problematic characters, leading to higher and higher engagement. As long as they don't cross any hard lines, they can do it forever.

The inherent problem with this, is that a lot of people don't know when to stop.

And this is when it starts getting really fucking sad.

Y'all are taking a guy that's specifically designed to piss you off, and deciding he's an abuser, gaslighter, manipulator, etc. There are already so many stereotypes about South Asian men being pushy, or demanding, or that they don't respect women.

I've seen so, so many instances in the reddit sub, on facebook, and even in the official Discord server of language that tars all South Asian men as being this way. People saying, and I fucking quote, "I wouldn't mind it so much if it was Eddie". (Thanks, Reddit).

Firstly, there's a good reason that it's not Eddie. And that's because, as demonstrated by the quote above, a lot of people would be far more willing to excuse this behaviour if it was coming from a pretty white boy.

So why is this?

Why do you think they made the manipulative, 'won't take no for an answer' man be from Southern Asia?

Why do you think they made Hope a sassy, determined black woman?

Why do you think they made Miki a quirky, shy, but nosy East Asian girl?

Even Lottie, who's a whiny little shit isn't from the UK.

This game is most popular in the UK. It's also popular elsewhere, but its main target audience is the UK. It's why most of the characters are from there, the script contains UK slang, etc.

It's so much easier to hate someone when they're not 'from here'.

Check out any American superhero movie. The villain is foreign. In Hollywood movies, they're British, French, Russian, Chinese, South American, Arabic, whatever. They're just foreign. Or different.

They're others.

Because it sells.

It's easier for you to team up with your mates on reddit and condemn Suresh for his behaviour than it is to do it to someone who looks like you.

But guess what?

There are people who play this game who are People of Colour.

(Shocking, I know. They enjoy playing games too!)

And whenever you buy into this bullshit that Fusebox is feeding you, whenever you pile on a character like Suresh, you are making them feel like they're not welcome here.

People of Colour are being used as a means to an end.

Instead of writing complex, multi-dimensional villains with real motivations, Fusebox are using basic clickbait to get you to engage.

And that's super fucking unfair.

I'm not telling you to do anything. I'm not telling you not to play. I'm not going to stop spending money on it. I'm certainly not going to stop.

I just want people to be aware of what they're doing.

Be aware of the fact that they're playing into your preconceived ideas of race, culture, and ethnicity.

Be aware of the fact that they are trying to you to engage at at all costs.

Be aware that your rabid fan-ness can actually spur others into a mob mentality.

Be aware of the fact that you're allowed to criticise characters. But criticise the writing. Criticise the business tactic.

Don't fall into the quicksand!

Don't let yourself make it about race. Stop letting others make it about race.

Stop engaging with it when it becomes about race.

Stop engaging when your friends compare him to Harvey Weinstein, Andrew Tate, Prince Andrew, etc. He's a character from a mobile game. They are real people who have hurt real women.

Show Fusebox you'll engage with the stuff you do like, as opposed to only engaging when it's piling on to a character.

Get rabid about the drama, not about the character.

And look, I'm writing this out in a long, one-shot rant, so I might've completely rambled, contradicted myself, or said something completely wrong, so please forgive me if I have.

I just hope this helped someone see it for what it is.

MARKETING.

So in conclusion:

Do: Make memes about Suresh not apologising.

Do: Hate him for cheating.

Do: Push him in the pool.

Do not: Compare him to a real life sex offender

Do not: Make it about race

Do not: Think for a second that Fusebox don't know exactly what they're doing.

[irvinenewshq]

Misplaced Kingdom Hearts Animated Collection Pilot Launched On-line

Screenshot: Seth Kearsley/YouTube Regardless of Kingdom Hearts’ seemingly countless capability to proceed current, its relationship with Disney past the literal video games themselves has all the time been just a little distant—not less than on the Disney aspect of issues. You’re not going to see Sora within the theme parks maybe any time quickly, however as soon as upon a time that wasn’t all the time going to be the case. Animator Seth Kearsley, who as soon as served as government producer on a deliberate animated adaptation of the primary Kingdom Hearts sport, just lately revealed that he’d discovered a long-thought-lost VHS recording of the sequence’ animatic pilot, used to pitch executives on the concept of a Disney adaptation of the action-RPG sequence. Now, simply weeks after discovering it, Kearsly has launched the 11-minute brief on-line for followers to see what may need been. The sequence was greenlit shortly after the launch of the primary sport, however by no means made it to air after being scrapped by Disney and Sq. Enix. Kearsley, who has spoken in regards to the challenge overtly right here and there for years, just lately mirrored on his intent to share extra in regards to the unseen work after being in a near-fatal automobile accident. “I nearly died, and there’s some shit I wanna put out on this planet that just about by no means acquired to be put out on this planet,” Kearsley stated in a video made after the invention of the animatic recording. “So I’m gonna put it out on this planet. That’s loads of stuff, I do know—possibly that’s just a little too private, however every part is just a little too private for me now.” Misplaced Kingdom Hearts Pilot Animatic The 11-minute storyboard animatic, titled “Agrabah,” is a fast, free approximation of a number of the early beats of the unique Kingdom Hearts, first launched in 2002. The brief opens with a short rationalization of authentic characters Sora, Riku, and Kairi being separated from their island house by an assault by mysterious creatures generally known as the Heartless, earlier than Sora and Riku discover themselves happening totally different paths to rescue Kairi. A lot of the sport’s solid returned to voice their roles—save for Haley Joel Osment as Sora, changed by actor Bobby Edner as a consequence of scheduling commitments, in response to Kearsley—and it’s by and enormous a surprisingly direct tackle the sequence. The totally different floating worlds primarily based on basic Disney films; Sora, Donald, and Goofy’s battle animations; the way in which the heartless explode into clouds of neon, toylike stars on defeat; and even a number of the sport’s eventual darkness—Riku being introduced beneath the thrall of Maleficent, who’s working with the Heartless—are touched on. Utterly out of nowhere, there’s even a teeny little bit of iconic Hikaru Utada banger “Easy and Clear” in there for good measure! Alas, that is possible all there ever can be of a Kingdom Hearts animated adaptation. The video games themselves have lengthy since diverged into authentic tales, with the Disney components appearing extra as set dressing to their often-memed-upon plots. The concept of a Disney-made Kingdom Hearts present now would look very totally different to what Kearsley and his staff ever deliberate, however not less than we now, a long time later, get to see what may’ve been. Need extra io9 information? Try when to anticipate the most recent Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and every part you must find out about Home of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Energy. Originally published at Irvine News HQ

[naralanis]

little bumps in the road (pt. 7)

(now properly capitalized, oh my!)

Previously on LBitR...

Lena’s driving for the first time as they turn south and make their way into Alabama through a maze of country back roads. She had shyly asked if she could take the wheel for a couple of hours after it became increasingly clear that there is absolutely no method to the madness of Kara’s made-up route.

“If not even we know where we’re going, neither can Lex,” is Kara’s reasoning when Lena finally asks, and frankly, she can’t really argue with that logic.

Lena wants to use her time wisely, now that she has ostensibly something useful to do. Driving is a mindless enough activity, allowing her to ground herself--it helps her slow down her brain so she can think more clearly and deliberately, instead of wasting her time freaking out about all the unanswered questions still plaguing her mind.

So maybe she’s compartmentalizing again, but it’s a relief to have all her little imaginary boxes back--it’s not exactly comfortable, but it’s familiar, so Lena will gladly take it.

Kara huffs unhappily at her side, looking at the map Lena had been diligently marking with their stops.

“Disney World is only like, ten hours away, can you believe that?” she says with a pout.

It’s such a Kara Danvers thing to say, Lena can’t help but laugh. “Sadly, I don’t think Orlando is the best place for a fugitive and a dead superhero to lay low.”

Kara nods, but now she’s grinning, waggling her eyebrows. “You know... Disney World is probably the last place they’d ever...”

“We are not going to Disney World, darling, I’m sorry.”

For whatever reason, Kara’s still smiling like an idiot after Lena’s quip. Her sigh is deliberately dramatic this time, and she flops on the passenger seat with a monumental fake-pout to boot.

“Ah, well. It was worth a try.”

Lena doesn’t know what possesses her, but before she can’t stop herself she’s reaching across the console and taking Kara’s hand, giving it a little squeeze.

“One day,” she finds herself saying, “when all of this is over, I’ll take you.”

The assumption--the sheer hope--that such a day would ever come, that any of this would ever be over and done with neatly enough for them to go to Disney World together... absolutely ludicrous.

Lena squashes the hope down immediately, puts it in one of her little boxes under lock and key before it has a chance to grow and turn into something more unmanageable. She moves to take her hand away, and nearly swerves right off the road when Kara grasps it back and squeezes in return.

“I’d like that,” she says, and doesn’t let go.

Lena catches a glimpse of Kara’s expression from the corner of her eye--there’s a hint of happiness in her gaze that has been absent for quite some time, all because of her.

The fact that a fraction of that happiness makes an earnest appearance, right here and now, with Lena? It’s inconceivable, and Lena doesn’t deserve it.

So into a box it goes.

“There’s a small town about fifty miles east from here,” Kara says as she frowns at the map, interrupting Lena’s compartmentalizing. “Maybe we can stop and resupply?”

“Is the town too small for a laundromat?” Lena asks, because the situation has become a little dire on that front. She doesn’t really want to mention it, but their clothes stink.

“Wouldn’t you know it, there’s a small bed-and-breakfast featured--laundry room available, it says.”

Lena ponders for a moment. She’s been thinking about it since Kara mentioned there might still be some Kryptonite in her system, and maybe, now that they seem to be talking again, it’s the right time to ask.

“Is the town big enough for a hotel, maybe? One with Internet, perhaps?”

Kara frowns, putting the map down on her lap. “We can’t risk it, Lena.”

“Hear me out--do you still... do you feel any Kryptonite in your system?”

Kara’s brows furrow even further--the crinkle appears full force--and her confusion is evident. “What does that have to do with a hotel with Internet?” Lena shoots her a look, and thankfully Kara seems to understand that it means I’ll explain, just humour me. She sighs. “Maybe. I’m not sure. Sometimes it feels like... traces of it, I guess? A twinge here, a little burning there. It doesn’t feel like anything I’ve ever dealt with before.”

“Probably something to do with the way it was synthesized,” Lena mutters, mostly to herself. Lena’s sole consolation lies in the fact that she is pretty certain she was not the one to do it--though her memory is still infuriatingly blurry, Lena figures that if she had been the one to synthesize this Kryptonite strain, she’d at least have some answers as to why it is still affecting Kara.

And she has absolutely none.

“We need to analyse your blood, somehow, but we don’t have the facilities to do it.”

“Facilities? Alex will analyse my blood,” Kara retorts, lips settling into an adamant line. “Once she’s able to reach out to us, she’ll help.”

“I’m sure she will, but Kara--it’s been over two weeks with zero contact, and we have no idea when she’ll be able to respond. We don’t know what kind of havoc that thing is still wreaking in your body -- we need to at least take a look.”

Kara’s little huff tells Lena her point has been accepted, albeit reluctantly. “Alright, fine. I still don’t understand what a hotel with Internet brings to the table.”

“Since we don’t have the facilities, I need to research places that do--medical facilities, hell, I’d even take a place with good veterinary equipment. Atlanta is closest, at the moment, but we could go further if we need to.”

Kara’s eyes widen in clear incredulity. “Medical facilities? Lena, what are you going to do--research some place and then what, break in and use their equipment? That’s your plan?”

“Do you have a better one, besides waiting for Alex?” Lena retorts, eyes narrowing. “The sooner we know what’s wrong with you, the sooner we can fix it.”

Kara opens her mouth, closes it again. The crinkle shows no signs of disappearing, and she’s silent for several moments before releasing an almighty huff.

“S’too risky. No way.”

Lena nods, because she expected this--thought about it ever since their little pizza night at that motel in Tennessee. She has to throw in that option as... security, really, because her real plan is quite a bit more complicated--bordering on insane, really, not to mention completely irresponsible.

“There’s another option,” she says evenly, trying to keep her eyes on the road. “Further north--and breaking in would be, uh. Simpler. Still dangerous, but simpler.”

Kara raises a suspicious brow. “And that would be?”

Lena swallows. “LuthorCorp HQ in Metropolis.”

Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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[revasserium]

what lies beyond forever with oikawa

hq!!reqs temporarily: closed ; all other reqs: open

send me a number a character and i’ll write you a drabble ;

82. what lies beyond forever oikawa ; college!au ; 1,653 words

he’d never believed in forever, not really -- the thought of some eternal plane stretching into the neverending distance, somewhere across the horizon -- it never found purchase in the vast winding tributaries of his mind. he never thought about the eventual heat-death of the universe, or the possibility of impending doom lurking across the cornflower sky, beyond the atmosphere where time and space became one and the same, where the very fabrics of reality, his reality, to be clear, might tear and be resewn into a different patchwork of truths. 

he never thought he’d yearn for forever. 

until he met you. 

you blow through his life like the summer wind, sweet and warm and a little unexpected but never unwelcomed. you smiled like sunsets and laughed like thunderstorms in the middle of july, the lightening around your shoulders striking through him, setting his very bones a-chatter. iwaizumii tells him he’s in love to his face, and still, oikawa refuses to believe him. 

“i don’t sing but if i did, it’d be that one song from the stupid disney movie you like about that dude with the weird hair and chin.” 

oikawa sputters, “first of all, i’ve heard you sing -- if you actually tried, you might not be half bad, not as great as me, obviously,” he ducks to avoid a narrow swipe for his head, “and second, hercules is a classic disney masterpiece and his hair and chin are iconic.” 

iwaizumi grunts, flipping through another page of the most recent issue of jump. 

“right, but that whole -- bitch, why you lyin’ song from there. that one -- that’s you right now.” 

oikawa heaves a stage-worthy sigh as he slumps down next to iwaizumi on their dorm couch. 

“iwa, i know i’ve taught you better than this -- you know that song’s from the why you always lyin’ meme, and not hercules.” and people have the gall to call him impatient. ignorant fools. but, he supposes that iwaizumi isn’t wrong (the fact that he usually never is pisses oikawa off more than he’d ever admit out loud), and that well, he is, technically, kind of sort of really actually, pretty deeply, in love. 

with you. 

“whatever. point is. you’ve got the shits. now what do you do about it?” 

oikawa grimaces, “could you not make my love life sound like irritable bowel syndrome? thanks.” 

“too bad your love life is actually like ibs. you think i’d be here otherwise?” 

oikawa blinks, “you’re only here cause i’m suffering from emotional diarrhea?” 

“isn’t there a saying about best friends being there to laugh at you in jail before bailing you out?” iwaizumi glances up from the comic. oikawa pouts. 

“that’s not how the saying goes -- it doesn’t even make any sense!” 

iwaizumi flaps a nonchalant hand at him, “whatever. point is. you’re deep in this shit, and somethin’s gotta be done.” 

oikawa heaves another sigh. what is it with iwaizumi and making shit-analogies. he was like this in highschool too, with all the shit-based nicknames. oikawa shudders as he remembers some of iwaizumi’s more creative names and decides there are better things to mope about. like you, and the fact that he’s still yet to make any moves towards this relationship he’d like to be in with you. 

“i mean,” oikawa mutters, huffing as he curls his arms around his knees on the sofa, “i know what i have to do. i just gotta grow another pair of balls and ask her out.” 

iwaizumi chuckles, “that’s assuming you already have a pair. and from where i’m sitting, that ain’t true. so let’s focus on just growing one pair, mkay?” 

this time, it’s iwaizumi who ducks barely in time to miss the couch cushion swung wide in his direction. 

“you’re the fucking worst.” 

iwaizumi grunts, grinning, “ain’t that what best friends are for?” 

when he sees you the next day, he wonders if iwaizumi was right -- if this is what love feels like. and it’s so much more than butterflies -- it had seemed so much easier in his head, and it’s not like he hasn’t dated before. but all those times, he was the one being confessed to. now that he’s on the other side of the equation, he starts to feel a little sorry for all the girls he's rejected across the span of his dating career -- if you say no, right now, he’s not sure he’ll ever be able to recover. 

“tooru-san, are you okay?” 

oikawa clears his throat, casts his eyes about, wincing as he accidentally looks right into the light of the afternoon sun. it’s too damn hot. summer’s never really been his season, but sweet heavens, does it look good on you. or maybe it’s just the sundress. yeah, that oughtta be it. 

“i... i want you to go out with me.” 

you blink, before the corners of your lips lift and you breaking into a torrent of laughter. oikawa stares at you, dumbfounded. of all the way’s he expected this to go -- this was not one of them. 

“ah, right -- hajime-sempai did say you were going to confess today.” 

oikawa’s eyes go wide, he gapes at you for a few moments, his mouth working silently over all the words he doesn’t know how to say. 

“iwa told you? and since when were you guys on first-name terms?” 

“we’re in the same chem lab together.” 

oikawa scoffs, “right, i forgot that you’re both trying to be rocket scientists in the future.” 

you smile, “says the pre-med student.” 

oikawa flushes, “that’s besides the point.” 

you quirk an eyebrow, “ah, right. you were confessing, sorry -- please do continue.” 

oikawa scowls, knitting his arms across his chest, resisting the urge to stomp his feet like a petulant child. 

“well that’s not fair. you pre-empted me. you --!” he fights for a word, any word that might encompass some of what he’s feeling right now, but he comes up blank. finally, he simply settles for another huff, shoulders scrunched up in frustration. 

you grin, “would a date make it better?” 

“no -- it wouldn’t -- wait, what?” he does a double-take, all anger and embarrassment and irritability leaving him at your words and all they could entail. a date? with him? and you? does that mean -- 

you nod, “yeah, to make up for ruining your confession.” 

he narrows his eyes, “did iwa put you up to this too, because if he did, i swear to god i’ll kick his ass so hard it goes concave --” 

you’re laughing again, and the sound punches him in the stomach, hard, leaving him winded and unsteady. he’s always loved the way you laugh, but somehow, it lands differently on this side of the almost-confession. 

“he didn’t! i promise, and even if he did, that doesn’t change the fact that i’d still want to go with you.” 

“you... want to go... with me.” oikawa repeats the words as if trying to remember what each of them means. and then, his eyes brighten up like a cascade of bursting stars. 

“like on date?” he asks, hopeful, childish, wonderous. 

you roll your eyes, “didn’t i just say that?” but there’s no malice in your voice, and the smile on your lips is sweeter than anything oikawa’s ever seen in his entire life. 

“yeah -- ha -- guess you did,” he scratches at the back of his head, unsure of how to proceed from here. in his head, he’d only ever planned out the speech, the grandiose way in which he’d declare his love for you, how you’d hopefully accept, and then you’d somehow end up walking hand in hand into the blistering summer sunset, but this -- this fast-forward of events catches him off guard. 

it’s not in his nature of think about things like forevers. and he’s still not quite used to it. but with you, he thinks that he might have to reconsider. 

“so...? where should we go?” you ask, rocking on the balls of your feet. 

oikawa lets out a helpless laugh and shakes his head. 

“dunno. but uhm... let’s go find somewhere to go. together, maybe.” 

it’s not in his nature of falter either. but then again, he supposes that this is what love does to a person. scramble up their entire lives, upend it over a cliff till all the bits that used to make sense are sunk somewhere at the bottom of the ocean. 

you nod once, grinning wide and reach out to take his hand. he lets you lace your fingers. he lets you swing your arms. 

he lets you lead him towards the little bakery around the corner of the street, still a little dumbstruck by the turn of events but as the summer sun blows out over the vast horizon, he can’t help but wonder at all the impossible things that may lie beyond it. 

he smiles. three seconds into this relationship thing, and he’s already turning into a sap. 

but maybe iwaizumi really was right, and maybe this is just what love does to a person -- reshape the foundations of their world, make them wonder about the future, the one that no one can ever see, the one where the universe might die in a boom or a fizzle, where forever isn’t just a thought but a concept, tangible and achievable. dark -- terrifying. lonely.

he holds your hand a little bit tighter, smiles to himself, tells himself that he’s being stupid. but then he thinks that that’s part of love too -- being stupid enough to think about all those things, about all that might lay on the other side of forever, and then decide that well, he’s perfectly happy with everything on his side of forever, just the way it is. 

[padfootagain]

The Suit

Here we go with a new cute little thing!! It is the last one-shot for my celebration, for the next two days, I will be updating two series you have voted for. I do hope I have managed throughout these 5 fics to bring a little bit of fluff and softness into your week. In case I had not succeeded so far, maybe this one will do the trick ;)

I have 0 respect for Canon in many fandoms (okay, all fandoms, to some extent) but especially when it comes to the MCU. Everybody lives, everybody is happy, the Avengers live together and the sky is full of rainbows! So… cute things ahead for Steve Rogers :)

I hope you like this, tell me what you thought about it!

Gif not mine (enjoy the eyelashes… argh, why is he like this?)

Word Count : 3941

When people picture the interior of the Avengers headquarters, they imagine some kind of large hangar filled with training rooms. Advanced weaponry on display in some of these rooms too, target practice, and large spaces where the Avengers can train and learn new fighting moves. Some might also imagine the Avengers' personal quarters, a kitchen, a large living room where all can gather and eat some Chinese food, maybe a room where they all can watch a good movie together too, a large bedroom for each of them and offices too were they can work on the intel sent to them.

And to this entire description, although one would gather a vague image instead of a real glimpse at the inside of the most secret building in the world (or at least one of the most secret buildings, for sure, although we must all admit that many labs in Wakanda are even more wrapped in shadows), this person listing the inside of this fortress would be right. At one major detail… or well, three, actually.

This enlightened person would have forgotten the library, for one, large and composed of an eclectic collection of novels, thesis about nuclear physics and comic books, was right between the movie room as the Avengers called it, and the offices.

Also, there is a miniature hospital in the base of the Avengers. They call it the infirmary, but it contains everything needed to heal any kind of wound they could sustain on the battle-field, and some of the most recent pieces of equipment would make even Dr Strange blush out of envy.

But the most important set of rooms that one would have forgotten are the labs. Scattered throughout the buildings, and yet vital for the heroes. Who makes the suits? The weapons? Who collects the intel? Who improves their defensive accessories? Who analyses the clues the Avengers find throughout their missions?

Obviously, the busy team of researchers and engineers working at the base.

And while you could hear the characteristic detonations of Natasha, Bucky, Sam and Clint training at firing, you were yourself stuck with a very hard problem to solve.

On your desk, what was left of Captain America's suit laid splayed so you could examine the damages the explosion had caused. He was okay, thanks to luck, his super-soldier organism and a little bit of patching up. A week after he was back from his mission, he was apparently completely healed already.

His suit, however, was still just as damaged as it was at its return from the field.

You heaved a sigh, rubbing your tired eyes. If one had told you, back at University, that your PhD in chemistry would be put to use to help a bunch of super-heroes, you would have laughed at their faces. And yet…

You heard a knock on the door of your office, but you didn't need to look up to know it was Peter Parker. You had recognized the knock already.

"Hi, Dr. Y/L/N!" He beams at you as he steps into your office and closes the door behind him.

You rolled your eyes at the teenager.

"How many times do I have to tell you? You can call me Y/N. I’m not that old! Besides, everyone does."

"Captain Rogers doesn’t."

"Yeah, but that’s because he’s old fashioned on a few things."

Peter grinned.

"You know, Natasha has another theory, and it’s a very different one."

"And what could that theory be?"

"Better let her explain it to you," he eluded the question. "What’s that?" he added, nodding at the pile of burnt and torn fabric on your desk that really didn’t look much like a uniform anymore.

"It’s Captain Rogers’s suit. I’m supposed to make an improved one for him."

"Cool! Your suits are always comfortable and efficient. Do you have any ideas yet?"

"None whatsoever."

"I guess he won’t need a new suit before the party. I hope nothing calls for it, at least. So you have a couple of weeks."

"What party?"

"There’s a big party in a couple of weeks. Everyone working here will be invited, I guess Pepper simply hasn’t sent the invitations yet. You’re gonna come, right? That would be awesome!"

"Well… if we’re all invited, then I guess…"

"Nice!"

You exchanged a smile. Something told Peter, and not his Peter tingles, another sense, a sense that was growing sharper and sharper ever since he and MJ were together, that Steve Rogers would be happy to learn that you would attend the party…

"But I doubt that you were coming here to talk about suits and parties, now, were you?"

His smile was back on his face.

"I have a new idea for my web fluid. But I need your expertise. Can you help?"

You let out a chuckle as you stood up and walked towards the door with a pen and your notebook.

"Of course. Come on, tell me all about it."

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

 After a few sleepless nights for you and your team, the new suit was finally ready. The tests showed a major improvement in terms of heat responses, you hoped it would protect Captain Rogers efficiently for his next mission.

The advantage of being the head of a scientific team in the Avengers HQ was that you could go to their part of the buildings and give them their new suits, weapons and other gadgets yourself. You had grown quite fond of most of the team along the years too, which made the trip out of your lab particularly enjoyable.

You wandered off from room to room, passing before the fighters training in various methods of combat. You also came across Tony and Peter watching Morgan’s favourite Disney movie with her, and you asked them about the Captain's whereabouts.

"I think he went to the gym with Sam and Bucky," Peter answered, his voice distorted by the handful of popcorn he had shoved in his mouth.

"Because obviously gym is useful to him," Tony added in his usual teasing and yet casual tone over the loud music of Be A Man. "I’ve always thought he was short in muscles."

Meanwhile, Morgan was shouting the lyrics and was now standing on the sofa, mimicking the fighting moves of Mulan.

"BE A MAN!"

"What are you looking for him for, anyway?" Tony went on over the loud singing of his daughter. "You need a coach for the gym?"

You laughed in response.

"No, we’ve finished a new suit for him, so I’m bringing it to him."

"YOU MUST BE SWIFT AS A COURSING RIVER!"

"You guys even do the delivery part for free? Amazon might have reasons to worry."

Peter had now joined the little girl for the rest of the chorus, and he and Morgan were both singing at the top of their lungs.

"WITH ALL THE FORCE OF A GREAT TYPHOON!!"

"Well as I said, he’s at the gym," Tony went on, still focusing on you instead of the two kids by his side. "Lifting heavy things and stuff. He’ll be happy to see you."

"What do you mean?" you asked back with a frown.

"WITH ALL THE STRENGTH OF A RAGING FIRE."

Tony merely chuckled and gave you a knowing look. Although you didn’t know what the knowing in the look was about, you oblivious little thing…

"He’s always happy to see you, Y/N."

"MYSTERIOUS AS THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOOOOOOON!!!"

Tony’s gaze finally drifted back towards the two kids on the sofa, a tender smile soothing his features.

"I think she has a chance to become a superstar," he told you, pointing at Morgan. "That’s pure talent we have here. It’s not the same for the other guy over there of course, but everyone can’t be gifted."

"Hey! I don’t sing that badly!" Peter protested from his end of the couch, making both you and Tony laugh.

You thanked Tony for his help, and he waved at you in response, along with giving you a wink that seemed to carry a silent message, but you failed to understand it. Instead, you continued your journey through the HQ (but not without Morgan giving you some popcorn in support for your noble quest first, of course), and walked to the gym with a light trot and humming the tune of Mulan’s songs.

Indeed, you found Steve right where Tony had told you he would be. At the gym. Sam and Bucky were there too, but the three friends seemed on their way out. Sam and Bucky were talking (or well, bickering was a better word to describe any of their interactions, really) near the door while Steve was picking up his stuff…

… and for some reason he wasn’t wearing a shirt. Or a T-shirt. Or any piece of fabric whatsoever that would cover his torso, the skin glistening slightly with a thin layer of sweat.

No matter how uncomfortable you felt, you couldn’t help but stare.

The three of them turned to you as the door loudly closed behind you, and you all remained motionless for a moment. And for a short moment, time seemed to stop as the four of you each reacted differently to the scene unfolding around you.

You were standing, frozen, in front of the door, your package still safely in your arms as your lips parted without you noticing, and you wondered about the ratio between his biceps and your thighs…

Bucky and Sam were motionless as well, simply because they were trying not to laugh as they watched the silent scene playing between you and Steve.

Steve was still, stopped mid-movement, holding his towel in one hand and a bag in the other. And his mind was currently wondering how it would feel to touch your cheek…

He was the first to shake himself out of his thoughts, and you were rather grateful for it, as you reckoned that you wouldn’t have been able to break free on your own.

“Dr. Y/L/N. What can we do for you?”

You forced your brain to work again and your stare to leave his torso to rest on his intense blue eyes instead. How could he have such long eyelashes?

"Actually, I… hmm… I’m the one who can do something for you. I’ve finished your suit," you added, handing him the suit although you were unable to cross the room to give him the package. You didn’t trust your legs enough, they felt like they were made of soft cotton instead of bones and muscles.

"Oh, thank you," he gave you a bright smile, throwing his towel on his large shoulder and striding to you.

You reckoned that it was rather rare to see a genuine, bright smile on his features. Little smiles, yes. But large ones? Not so much. You guessed that he was very happy to get a new suit. Or perhaps the source for such happiness blooming in him was the person who brought the suit… but you didn't know that, by then.

He took the suit wrapped in kraft paper, his smile still on his lips. You noticed how flushed he was, you guessed it was because of the gym session he had just finished. You couldn’t know that your assumption was only partly true. There was another reason for him to blush up to the tip of his ears. That reason was standing right before him.

"Are you coming tomorrow night? At the big party?" he softly asked.

"Yes, I am. All the lab was invited, and most of us are coming."

"Have you found your plus one yet?" Sam jumped in the conversation.

"Oh, no. I’m coming alone. I mean, it’s not like I need support, I’m going to see my friends there so… no need to pretend."

Sam gave Steve a pointy look. Which his friend ignored.

"Are you bringing someone?" you inquired in a friendly tone.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do. He doesn’t though," he added, nodding towards Steve.

You turned to Steve again. He tightened his grip on the suit, and shrugged, a shy smile on his lips.

"As you said, no need to pretend tomorrow."

You stared at each other for a couple of seconds, that seemed to stretch into minutes. And the more you looked at him, the more you wanted to tell him how you felt, how you hoped to see him the next evening, how wonderful you thought he was and… Gosh, he had gorgeous eyes…

But you couldn't do that.

"Well, I’ll see you all tomorrow then. Have a nice day," you hurried the words out of your mouth so you could stride out of the room before your reason would yield in favour of your heart, and you would spoil everything.

The second the door had closed behind you, Sam was chuckling.

"You know, it ain't that hard to ask her out. You had the perfect opportunity. You just had to ask ‘Y/N, would you like to come with me to the party tomorrow’."

"Sam…" Steve heaved a heavy sigh.

"He’s too romantic for that. He’ll make a move tomorrow night. In the moonlight and all," Bucky mocked, making Steve roll his eyes.

"I hate both of you."

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

  The large room was filled with a crowd. Low lights kept an intimate atmosphere throughout the floor. At the top of the Stark Tower, the view on New York City was stunning, an intricated labyrinth of shining lights matching the paler ones hung on the sky. You felt a little tipsy after drinking a couple of tequila shots with Natasha and Wanda. You reckoned that you needed some air, and stepped outside the busy room decorated with perfect taste. The music was still loud coming through the windowpanes as you walked on the large balcony. You hadn't seen Steve yet, but reckoned it was for the best. People had dressed up for the occasion, and you did not plan on dying of a heart attack because of the sight of him in a tuxedo.

The fresh air cleared your thoughts a little and you took a deep intake of breath. You leaned against the bannister, shivering a little as the breeze brushed your naked arms. You took in the view, the sparkling lights shimmering against the darkness of the night, the busy streets and wandering forms drifting back and forth into the maze spreading below your feet.

"Hey! Y/N! Bring your arse back inside, Thor and Nat are trying to see who holds their liquor best!" you heard one of your colleagues call for you, but you shook your head with a chuckle.

"We all know Nat will win."

"I wouldn't be so sure."

You spun on your heels as you recognized Steve's voice. He was standing there, a few steps away from you, his silhouette wrapped in the lights coming out of the busy room giving him a surreal halo, a hand in the pocket of his trousers and a shy smile on his perfectly shaven face. And yes, he was wearing a classic tuxedo. And God, did the man know how to wear a bowtie…

"After all, he is an alien," he went on.

Your colleague had disappeared, you guessed she had judged wiser to leave the two of you alone on the balcony.

How could there be only the two of you out there anyway? Where were people gone to?

"Yes, but she knows too many tricks to lose this kind of bet," you argue.

He let out a chuckle, his eyes flickering to the tip of his black shoes and back up to your gaze, capturing it for good.

"I guess you're right. It's always unwise to underestimate her."

"Exactly."

"Aren't you cold out here?"

"No, I… I needed a little bit of fresh air."

"These parties can be a little too intense," he nodded.

"So can be the tequila."

You both laughed, and fell in a comfortable silence. Steve was too busy staring at you to think of anything else, let alone about words to say.

He hadn't felt that way in what seemed to be an eternity. The nervous tremor through his body, the stumbling of his heart, the freezing of his thoughts… he knew the symptoms and had no doubt about the disease causing them.

Love was an easy thing to spot when it was true, after all.

But if his feelings for you were clear to him, he didn't know about your feelings for him, that was a completely different story. Everyone kept on telling him that you liked him, and he reckoned that he should trust his friends' judgment. The doubt was still there though, a little frozen cube buried in the depth of his heart that burnt through now and then. And it was burning now.

Because as he stared at you, such an accomplished, clever, independent, strong, fierce, graceful woman, he wondered if you could really feel the same way he did.

He had been feeling this way for you for so long though… years, really. And he reckoned now that it was more than time to speak his mind. In the worst case, he would get his heart broken. But in the best case…

"Are you enjoying your evening so far? Would you like something to drink?"

You gave him an amused smile. He seemed nervous…

… maybe your friends were right about him after all.

"I am enjoying my evening so far," you answered. "And no, thank you. I already feel tipsy enough for tonight."

He walked to join you against the bannister, a dreamy smile on both of your faces.

Inside, the music had changed from some energetic pop to a slower and intimate tune. It seemed that time had slowed around the two of you as well, as you stared at each other, your frames lightened by the light inside the tower but also by the stars above and the streets below. Steve's blue eyes reflected the distant lights in an almost impossible way that lit your heart on fire.

There were a thousand things that he wanted to tell you. He wanted to tell you how he thought about you first thing in the morning and last as he closed his eyes to fall asleep. How you made him feel like he belonged in this world that wasn't his. You were amongst the few people who did not see the old soldier in him, but the man behind the shield. You had never made a snarky remark about his lack of knowledge to a reference, and he was grateful for it. You loved sharing the things you loved and that's what drove you when you showed him things he had missed during his time in the ice. It wasn't in a will to change him and make him fit better into a world he had been pushed into, it was in a desire to show him something you were passionate about, simply because you liked talking about it. It wasn't about changing him, it was about sharing. And the majority of people he had met since he had been awakened did not share that state of mind, but the opposite.

He longed to tell you how much he loved hearing you laugh, and thought you had the most adorable smile, and how he admired your smart mind, and how he respected you and your opinion about everyone else's…

There were a million words to be spoken and a thousand thoughts to articulate, but all that passed his lips when he finally mustered the strength to talk was a mere invitation, although it still sounded like a declaration.

"Would you like to dance, Y/N?"

Your heart skipped a beat or two as he called you by your first name, and dear God, did your name sounded wonderful rolling on his tongue. His hand rose as he offered you his open palm, fingers trembling slightly, blue eyes drenched in reflected lights still capturing your gaze and your entire life too. You were vaguely aware of people inside, and maybe some were staring at the two of you, but you couldn't find a way to care, nor even to check if your assumption was correct. Instead, you could not look away from Steve.

There were so many words you meant to speak and thoughts to express and confessions to free from the safety of your heart. How you adored how kind he was, and selfless. How you respected how driven he was and always right to his beliefs. And an infinity of other tiny things that had made you slowly and yet irrevocably fall in love with him.

Instead, you smiled up at him, and spoke only an answer, that still sounded like a promise.

"I would love to."

You thought he would bring you back inside, but he didn't. Instead, he wrapped an arm around you, pulling you closer in a soft gesture. You slipped your hand in his and he gave your fingers a tender squeeze.

You started to sway with the gentle tune, but could barely acknowledge the movements of your feet. You were so close to him, he was so close to you… how could you survive this?

Calloused fingers held yours in a gentle hold, his other hand resting in the small of your back, drawing you closer and closer in an embrace that grew tighter every second and yet of which you knew you could free yourself of if you wanted. It felt safe. Warm. Peaceful. And safe, yes, so safe, so comfortable, you could lay your life in his hands blindly and wouldn't even worry about it. You couldn't remember when was the last time you felt like this, like this man before you could never make anything to hurt you, like not in a million years would he let anything bad happen to you. It felt like a lifetime ago that you trusted a man so thoroughly as you trusted Steve now.

There was warmth spreading from your body to his, reassuring, soothing. A calming glow oozing from your soul conquering his last lines of defence. He couldn't fight against you. He loved you too much for it. All he could do before you was to lay down his arms and offer you his heart on a plate. It was dangerous, and yet he was not afraid. He trusted you too blindly to worry about what you could do with his most precious offering. You would do with it what you pleased. He would accept it all no matter what. It could either bring him back to life or break him for good, but in any case, he would not regret giving you his heart. He knew so much, at least.

He leaned down, your bodies too close to be moved closer to each other by then, resting his jaw against your temple. He remained quiet and so did you, although your two pounding hearts spoke better than your tongues at this moment.

There were no words needing to be spoken, you both knew that this feeling coursing through your bodies now was the feeling of coming home.

Inside the busy crowd, Sam was finishing his third glass of bourbon, while Bucky drank the last drop of his third beer. They exchanged a glance, and Bucky extended his hand. Sam could only chuckle before reaching for his wallet and slipping a twenty dollar bill in Bucky's hand. He had lost his wager, but learnt an important lesson.

One should never underestimate the sense of romance of Captain America, especially if he is wearing that kind of suit.

*****************************************************************

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@madamrogers

[the-desolated-quill]

BBC’s The War Of The Worlds blog - Episode 3

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

You know, people often ask me why I get so angry when I’m reviewing BBC shows. I mean yes I give Disney and Marvel a hard time too, but they don’t get nearly as much bile and venom as I give the BBC. Well that’s because, unlike Disney and Marvel, BBC shows are funded by the British taxpayer through our TV licence fees. I’m effectively paying for them to make this crap. That’s what pisses me off more than anything.

Yes we mercifully come to the end of this... this. Episode 1 was a slow, plodding and utterly tedious affair that was about as exciting as an Amish bachelor party. Episode 2 was even worse thanks to its poor narrative structure, terrible characterisation and less than subtle allegories. Now Harness has come to hammer the final nail in the coffin with Episode 3. Is it bad?

...

You’re right, that’s a stupid question. A more apt question would be how bad is it. Very, very bad is the answer. Very, very bad indeed.

Lets start with the obvious problem. The non-linear narrative introduced in the previous episode. The stupid early reveal that the Martians ultimately lose and that Amy survives completely destroyed any and all tension and suspense thanks to Peter Harness desperately trying to outwit the audience instead of just telling a story. Now, bizarrely, he tries to reintroduce tension by having the characters umming and arghing about what killed the Martians off and whether this could help stop the Earth from terraforming. One teeny, tiny problem with this though. The audience already know! Even those that never read the original book know how it ended! And even if you didn’t, the episode drops enough hints like great fucking boulders. The prevalence of typhoid throughout the episode and its correlation with the Martians stumbling around like a drunken prom date isn’t exactly hard to miss. Harness’ writing is still as unsubtle as ever. But worse still, he completely undermines and misses the point of the ending to War Of The Worlds.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people (mostly Americans) criticise the end of the original book for being a deus ex machina. I mean the Martians get killed off by the common cold. How stupid, right? Except it’s not because those people (mostly Americans) are looking at it the wrong way. Your main takeaway shouldn’t be that the Martians were easily killed off by bacteria. Rather that we failed to stop them. The reason humanity prevails in the end is more down to luck than anything else. The narrator even attributes this to being an act of God. But here’s the thing. We didn’t stand a chance against the Martians. We didn’t beat them. They lost because they just happened to catch a cold. Now it’s not hard to imagine a society as scientifically advanced as their’s to be able to find some kind of cure or vaccine for it. And if and when they do, what then? We’d be fucked, wouldn’t we? Should the Martians ever return to finish what they started, the human race would be well and truly doomed. It’s not a deus ex machina. It’s a dire warning of what’s to come. A brief respite before the inevitable. That’s what makes the ending so effective.

The BBC series however completely misunderstands this, changing the story so that Ogilvy (an astronomer, don’t forget) somehow manages to weaponize typhoid in order to kill the red weed, which is presented as some kind of victory, when in reality it’s quite an insulting deviation from the source material. If only the Commonwealth could shake off the remnants of British colonialism as easily as these guys dealt with the red weed. Not to mention it just makes the Martians look really stupid. So they come to Earth, drink our blood, keel over and then... what, they just give up? Are they just waiting for humanity to die by itself? What happens when Mars HQ realises the red weed hasn’t worked? What then? Are they just going to shrug it off? It doesn’t make any sense.

Which brings us to the Martians themselves. The picture above comes from the Jeff Wayne musical version and is without a doubt the most accurate depiction of the Martians from the book. Most of the other adaptations have wildly different interpretations, which isn’t a problem in and of itself provided it works within the context of that particular narrative. However the reason I bring up the original design is so I can talk about what H.G. Wells intended when he came up with them. See, while the Martians are highly intelligent, they’re also presented as being quite vestigial. They’re sluggish thanks to Earth’s heavier gravity, rendered practically deaf thanks to Earth’s dense atmosphere and apparently have no organs with which to digest their food, hence their need to inject human blood directly into themselves for sustenance. The Martians represent what humanity could become as we become more and more reliant on technology. The Industrial Revolution brought about a lot of societal fears and concerns at the time, and the Martians are those fears manifested. Heartless creatures reduced to being simple brains, unable to properly interact with the world around them.

The BBC series goes a very different route. Instead of the giant brains, we instead get giant brown crabs, which, again, isn’t necessarily a problem provided it works in context. And that’s the problem. It doesn’t. The original Wells design told us what we needed to know about their biology, their motivations and their society. What do we learn about the BBC Martians? They’re big, generic monsters that look like rejects from Stranger Things. They don’t even inject blood into themselves. They feed off of us directly, leechlike. They’re more like animals. Not the vast, cold, unsympathetic intellects they were described to be. At no point do you buy that these creatures would be capable of building the Tripods or colonising the Earth. They just exist for some cheap jump scares and horror movie cliches.

What’s worse is that by changing the Martians’ design so drastically, any subtextual allegory gets chucked in the bin. The Martians from the book are meant to represent the British Empire at the height of its power. Merciless tyrants stomping all over the lives and cultures of the so called ‘lesser races,’ changing the environment to suit them rather than adapting to the existing environment. It’s Darwinism crossed with arrogance. And yet, ironically, the oppressors (the Martians) are technically inferior to the natives (the humans) as they are incapable of surviving without the aid of technology. The BBC series is unable to make this allegory, so Harness has to resort to straight up telling the audience the allegory. In by far the clunkiest scene in the entire series, we see George argue with his brother about how the Martians are no different from the Brits in their colonial ways. Not only does this break the ‘show, don’t tell’ rule and stands as a perfect example of bad storytelling, Harness doesn’t even bother to do anything with this other than just making the comparison. It’s been previously established that Amy was born and raised in India. You’d think she’d have something to say about all this, but nope. At the end, she wistfully describes India to her son in the most patronising and insulting way possible. It’s really quite disgusting. I mean H.G. Wells was quite patronising towards the Tasmanians in the book, but in his defence, he was a privileged white man from the 1800s. What’s Peter Harness’ excuse?! Ostensibly he pays lip service to the idea that the Martians are no different from the Brits, but he doesn’t want to really explore it or get us to actually think about it. Probably because it’s all a bit too complicated to get into, but if he’s not confident about exploring such topics, why the fuck is he adapting War Of The Worlds in the first bloody place?! Write something else!

In fact I think this is the root of all the problems with this adaptation. Harness clearly isn’t capable of exploring the complex themes of the source material, so instead he either introduces irrelevant social issues that aren’t nearly as complicated (women’s rights, empires are bad and so on) as a token show of progressiveness, or he goes as far as to uncomplicate themes and ideas to an almost offensive degree. In the book, the narrator is trapped in a church with a priest who is going through a major existential crisis and risks giving away their hiding spot to the Martians, who are busy terraforming the planet. So he resorts to knocking the priest unconscious and watching as the Martians drag his body away. In the BBC series, we see the old woman and the kid get killed off for no reason other than shock value and the characters have nothing to do with their demise, so they’re morally in the clear. The priest meanwhile doesn’t even appear in the scene, instead being relegated to the shitty flash forwards where his faith remains very much intact and even protests against the idea that it’s humanity’s illness that stopped the Martians rather than an act of God (brief side note, would Ogilvy really be this open about not believing in God? At the time of the book’s publication, the scene with the priest losing faith was considered extremely controversial, so this just seems utterly wrong). Plus there’s no tension in wondering what the Martians are doing and whether they’re going to find the characters. In fact there’s no tension whatsoever because we know the Martians have fallen ill and the characters are just hanging around, waiting for the fuckers to die. I cannot stress enough how atrociously awful the writing is in this show. We know the Martians are dying and the episode is about the characters waiting for them to die.

Jesus fucking Christ!

The Artilleryman from the previous episode was the same. In the book he was a deluded crackpot who willingly bought into imperialist dogma, believing that humanity could rebuild underground and eventually rise up and defeat the Martians. In the BBC series, he was a scared, innocent little waif being forced to fight in a war he wants no part of. It’s an incredibly shallow and uninteresting reinterpretation of the source material.

But the worst, the absolute worst, is what Harness does with George.

To be clear, no I’m not upset he gets killed off. I’ve made my views on him quite clear. He cheated on his wife because she was infertile and ran off to make whoopie with some redhead. The bastard deserves everything he gets, frankly. Plus I’ve had enough of Rafe Spall’s gormless acting to last a lifetime, thank you. What I am upset by is the way he gets killed off.

One of the most interesting parts of the original book is the fact that there are no heroes in War Of The Worlds. The Artilleryman is a young, impressionable, nationalist fool, the Priest descends into a pit of nihilistic despair, and the narrator survives only by his cowardice. He even goes as far as to attempt suicide, throwing himself in front of the unbeknownst to him dead Tripod because he cannot bear the idea of living in a world like this. It’s extremely dark and very cynical. The BBC series goes a very different route. We see George slowly become delirious as a result of the typhoid infection he got by drinking the poisoned cup of water in the previous episode (so all that stuff about the Martian terraforming was a load of bollocks) before, realising that he is becoming a burden to Amy, deciding to make the supreme sacrifice and facing the lone Martian alone while she makes a run for it. Not only does this open up a major plot hole - who the fuck was Amy expecting to arrive from the North if George is dead? They try to dismiss this as memory suppression, but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t apply to losing a loved one to a fucking alien - it also completely stands at odds with the themes of the book. When facing annihilation at the hands of a higher power, the arrogant Brits, who previously lived a life of privilege on the backs of millions of subjugated, reveal themselves for who they truly are at their core. The BBC series says yeah, we were a bunch of racist tosspots with delusions of grandeur, but we weren’t all bad. The main takeaway I got from this despicable, badly written series was a three hour pity party about how all those selfish POCs don’t consider the feelings of white people and asking why can’t we all just get along.

Peter Harness’ bastardisation of War Of The Worlds is without a doubt one of the worst adaptations I’ve ever seen. In fact it’s quite possibly one of the worst TV shows I’ve ever seen, period. It’s not just the sheer disregard for the source material that upsets me. It’s also the absolute amateurish nature of the whole fucking thing. This series fails in some of the most basic ways. His writing is truly terrible, somehow getting steadily worse and worse with each episode. It’s not just upsetting to see someone get the fundamental elements of storytelling so spectacularly wrong, it honestly makes me sick to my fucking stomach. Peter Harness, please, for your own sake and my sanity, stop fucking writing. You’re clearly not good at it and I don’t want to see my money go to someone who obviously hasn’t the faintest fucking idea what they’re doing. Enough is enough.

So it would seem that Jeff Wayne’s musical version remains the best adaptation of War Of The Worlds. In fact can we just have a movie adaptation of that please?

[peterparkerneverland]

The Last Fight: A Marvel Family One Shot.

PLEASE READ:

I haven’t seen AIW yet. I’m seeing it tonight, but I know some stuff is going to go down. So, before the MCU is changed forever, I’m going to write a nice long one shot about the reader (you) and all the main crew sitting up in the Avengers Compound before what may very well be their last battle together as a family. Alright. Here we go. Characters: As many as I could get in here.

Warnings: Mild language, mentions of panic attacks. //

It’s quieter than you’d thought it be. Feels like there should be some sort of commotion. Tony should be adding last minute updates to a suit, Cap should be giving Peter advice on how to block a blow from a strange angle, Shuri should be arguing with Bruce about some scientific type stuff you never quite understand, but instead there is silence. You all sit around what Tony’s deemed “the family room”, refusing to look at each other, in fear of what you might say. In fear that everything you feel will come spilling out in a mess of tears and broken phrases. Because you know what this day is, how these next few hours, minutes, seconds...could be your last. “Guys” comes Tony’s voice, that same calm confidence lacing the word. He turns away from the window he’s been staring out of for the last fifteen minutes, taking a heavy breath as he gazes at everyone in the room, his eyes finally landing on you. “I think since there’s a fairly good chance we could die soon,” he says bluntly, “we should take this time to do something special” his words seemingly sincere, but there’s that look in his eyes, that faint shadow of a mischief you’ve come to know so well, “I think, we should all sit in a circle, and tell secrets” And suddenly, you’re not “The Avengers” anymore. Not superheroes who have seen and been through too much, who have lost loved ones and found them again in each other, who are about to risk their lives for what could be the last time, no. 

You’re just...a family. “Fine, but only if you go first Stark” Steve smiles as everyone moves to the floor of the family room, pushing back couches and armchairs to make enough room for you all to sit in a wide circle. You run into the kitchen to grab whatever food you can carry, ending up with an array of chips, cookies, two cartons of ice cream, and the last of the homemade brownies you and Steve made the other day, baked with some special chocolate T’Challa insisted was the best in the world, as is everything from Wakanda. You jump into the circle and put the food in the middle, letting everyone grab what they want, but saving a brownie for Peter. They’re his favorite. You turn around looking for somewhere to sit, when Bucky reaches out his hand and pulls you onto his lap, wedged between Peter and Tony. He wraps his arm around your waist, and you snuggle back so your head lays against his chest, steadily rising and falling with each breath. 

“Alright Stark” Thor says in that commanding voice of his, “Proceed with the festivities” Everyone leans in expectantly, waiting for what is sure to be an interesting tale. “Well I’m a man of very few secrets, an open book really. An intelligent and extremely handsome book some might say-“ “Get on with it Tony” Nat says with a serious expression, but you hear the humor behind her words. “Fine, fine” he sighs, throwing up his hands in mock surrender, “Uh, let’s see here, a secret. I don’t really...well actually I guess...okay but none of you are allowed to laugh” “I can in no way, shape, or form, promise that I won’t laugh” Quill nods swiftly. Tony sends him a look, but continues. “Well sometimes when I go to sleep I keep the television on and put it on a random channel and one night I was bored with the usual news stations and soap operas so I ended up leaving it on that one channel, the Mickey Mouse guy one...” “Disney channel?” you offer, suddenly realizing the only other person who may know what that is is Peter. “Yes! Yes that’s the one. Well I got really into the show about the girl with two lives, one where she’s like a rockstar or some shit, and then she’s a normal girl. And I’d watch it almost every night it came on and yeah. That’s the secret” he finishes quickly. At this point, the only two people cracking up are you and Peter, the idea of Tony Stark lying in bed watching Hannah Montana enough to make your sides hurt with laughter. No one else seems to understand why this is such a hilarious thing, as no one else finds themselves watching much casual television. “Well, since you’re having such a great time, why don’t you go next Parker” Tony smirks, Peters laughs instantly dying down, “Every high school kids got secrets” You shift slightly so your head is resting on Bucky’s shoulder, gazing at Peter expectantly. You two have been close ever since he first came to live at HQ, waking up much too early to train in the gym, and staying up much too late to watch your favorite movies, even rooming together on nights where sleeping alone invited too many tormenting memories to resurface. So you can’t imagine there’s something about him you don’t already know. “And none of that “I don’t really have secrets” shit Parker, we all know you’ve got at least one...” Sam says, letting his voice trail off ominously, and you could’ve sworn his gaze flickered to you. Peter flushes bright red. “Well...I guess...I mean it wasn’t really...we didn’t...” he stutters, not meeting anyone’s gaze. “Just say it. Tear it off quick, like a bandaid” Steve advises, clapping him roughly on the back. He takes a heavy breath, closes his eyes, and speaks. “WELL WHEN I FIRST CAME HERE I SORTA MAYBE HAD A SMALL CRUSH ON (Y/N)” he shouts in a quick flurry of words, sitting perfectly still after the secret has been spoken, as if moving a muscle will break the veil of silence that has fallen over everyone. “Well that’s not exactly a secret” Wanda says, snatching the bag of Cool Ranch Doritos from Loki’s grip, “We’ve all known that for like, ever” Collective nods of agreement go around the circle, Peter’s jaw hanging open in surprise. “But...how...I...” he sputters uselessly. “Peter,” you say after a moment, “We used to cuddle on the couch and watch movies for hours. I think it was sorta maybe a little bit obvious that we liked each other” He tries to no avail to suppress a grin from spreading across his face, turning away so you can’t see him blush once more. “You guy’s secrets suck” Quill complains through a mouthful of rocky road ice cream, “I’ve got some exciting ones” And he launches into a tale about other worldly creatures and planets made of cotton candy and by the time he’s done, you’re all fairly sure most of that was made up. You continue around the circle, everyone’s secrets ranging from small crushes and embarrassing adolescent stories, to petty thievery and the longstanding mystery of who ate Bucky’s entire birthday cake that Steve spent hours making (it was Thor). When finally, there’s only one person left. You. The sun is setting outside the huge glass windows, casting broken beams of orange and red light that fight through dense tree leaves. A soft glow is settled over the room, vivid shadows signaling the moons rise, night approaching as it always has and always will. You could easily pretend it was just another day, just another sunset. But that would be a lie. Because as you look around the circle, a wave of memories comes flooding back. You remember your first week here, unable to sleep for more than an hour at a time. Always waking up with a start and reaching for the gun on your bedside table, pointing it at invisible demons that only lived your memories. You’d walk aimlessly around the compound, until one night Tony found you staring out the kitchen window at 3AM and told you to come down to his lab and help him with some stuff. Since then you’ve spent plenty of sleepless nights tinkering with suits at his side, never talking about what kept you both awake, but being there for each other all the same. You remember Bruce helping calm your panic attacks, whispering for you to squeeze his hands and look into his eyes. Just keep looking into his eyes and everything will be okay. You remember Bucky teaching you to dance, playing vinyl after vinyl of lovely music with singing voices smooth as silk, gliding you across the wooden floors, you feet following his, everything falling into place effortlessly. You remember going on your first date, coming down the stairs to find half the Avengers sitting around your date, looking rather scary as Thor interrogated mercilessly. You remember T’Challa slipping a thin black bracelet on your wrist as you left, whispering that if you squeeze the third charm, he and a set of Wakandan soldiers would be at your side in seconds. You thanked him, but stashed the bracelet in your bag once you left the compound. You remember playing intense games of Monopoly with Nat and Wanda, cooking thanksgiving dinner with Vision and Quill, laughing with Tony until you couldn’t breathe, and crying with Steve until there was nothing left to cry. Your mind is racing with every moment you’ve ever spent in the compound, realizing how much of it you took for granted, how much there is to remember, and much you’re bound to forget. 

So you decide you won’t. You decide that this moment, nestled in Buck’s strong arms, Tony resting his head against your shoulder, Peter tracing the lines of your palm absentmindedly with his finger, everyone gazing at you with playful smiles, you will remember this moment for as long as you live. Sitting with the family you love more than anything in the world, for what will be the last time. “(Y/n)?” Bruce asks softly, and you realize you’ve been silent for a while now. “Oh, um, yes. The secret” words stuck in your throat. You feel hot tears brim in your eyes, threatening to fall at any moment. Bucky hugs you closer against him as your gaze drops to the floor, not wanting anyone to see how close you are to crying. But Tony’s fingers brush against your chin, tilting your head up so you’re looking right into his eyes. They seem to say something words cannot, glistening with tears to match yours. “My secret is...” not breaking his gaze, your voice shaking, “I’m scared” The sharp blaring of an alarm pulls your eyes away from his, everyone jumping to their feet. You all know what that sound means. Steve takes a step forward and you all turn to him, waiting for what, you’re not quite sure. But you always look to him for instruction before a mission, so you do no differently now. “Alright Team” he says in a soft but steady voice, “Time to suit up” Maybe it’s the sureness of his words, or the fact that Bucky squeezes your hand reassuringly while Peter grips the other, maybe it’s the broken smile Vision sends your way, or the nod T’Challa offers, but suddenly...you’re no longer afraid. This is what you do. This is who you are. This is your family. And you fight, together. // I been through some stuff, we all been through some stuff. But damn, marvel has helped me through it all. Tony Stark/RDJ (same person really) was my first crush, when I was eight I spent hours in my basement making my own iron man suit out of cardboard and string, and I’m pretty sure my sarcastic humor is a direct consequence from growing up watching the movies on repeat. I read my dad’s old comics, hiding them in between my notebooks so I could read them in school.  I’ve been to the theater to see every marvel film for as long as I can remember. I’ve dressed up in full costume to walk awestruck around Comic-Con, waited in line for hours to get front and center seats to see an interview with Stan Lee. I’ve made edits and fan accounts and, of course, written a million and one fanfics. I loved Marvel when it was cool to, and when it wasn’t. And yes, these are fictional characters, but they’re so much more than that. They’ve taught me what it means to be a hero in real life, what it means to be a good person. When shit gets hard, and man it seems to a lot, I know I’ve got the best community of marvel kids to stick it out with me. We’re more than fans, we’re family. And no matter what happens, no matter who we lose, we’ve got each other. NOW I KNOW, this is sappy as fuck. But I’m sappy as fuck. Love y’all. Always and forever, -just another marvel kid.

[justeonelemoncoffee]

part of gifted!steven au 

(not really)

“so basically steven is a snow white.”

“steven is what?” the words, it makes andrew look up from laptop. so engrossed in the work, he didn’t noticed someone walks in. the office has been uncharacteristically quite since most of them had to go out to work. taking advantage of it, andrew enjoyed the rare moment, taking off headphone even. until it isn’t. 

a host member of the try guys, keith smirk at bewildered look on his face. before he know it, the others show up too.

“basically i’m not.” and steven. who followed them as camera crew in the early morning. it was take more time than andrew expected. steven was holding a paper cup, he comes to andrew straight, put the coffee down front of him. it was still warm. almost involuntarily, he raises the cup to his lips and murmured thank you, steven smile down at him. then sit against desk which is andrew’s as if he belong to there. he did that often, maybe too often. not that andrew minded though.

“you are. you’re the princess. you should be watch out apples. someone might poison you.” zack, the other try guys member stepped into the scene.

“yeah, since you’re filming worth it…” eugene who’s standing next to zack, agrees too. he takes out his cellphone and showed something to others. ned laughed out loud as keith cackles at the same time. apparently, it seems they all had fun at wildlife rescue center. andrew wonders what happened during the filming. he notices all of them looked tired. it probably was long shoot. helping animals aren’t easy work. especially if they are wildlife. among them, steven looks drawn, a little pale even. andrew is beginning to worry him.

“very funny. and why is a princess by the way?” apparently, steven dosen’t seem  to have fun as much as the others.

“because it’s away more fun than just call you a prince.” zach says, wearing shit-eating grin on his face. steven groaned, cross his arm and obviously pouts now. he retorted something back to them. although he didn’t seem to really upset with them, apart from camera, annoyed steven isn’t something you can see everyday. andrew couldn’t help but staring the view.

“call me princess again, i’m going to…”

“…sleep and wait for prince charming.” zack interrupts him, just for completes the sentence by himself. steven huffs, he shakes his head and stare them flatly like he’s a parent who can’t deal with the immature acts of his children. which is absurd and also hilarious, because he’s steven lim. most childish adult andrew ever met. and he works in buzzfeed.

“i hate you all. except andrew. because andrew is nice unlike you guys.”

steven says and nods solemnly. andrew can’t help allows to himself admit it’s a cute sight.

“you mean, because andrew is ‘the one’?”

“you know what? i’m done here.”

steven raises himself upright from andrew’s desk, glares at them. then without a word, he walks out through office door dramatically. considering his overeacting, almost playful expression, he isn’t really upset. andrew relaxes. he can’t remember when it started exactly, but steven’s well being is important to him somehow. before steven stumped off, muttering something under his breath. something like ‘troll guys.’ well, andrew thinks they deserve it.

when steven is out of sight, andrew turned back, raise his eyebrows to them. “snow white, huh?”

“i thought it better than ‘living catnip’ because it was called already.” keith shrugs, of course, there’s no sigh of dependance. actually it doesn’t need to be. to be honest, it happens all the time, ‘teasing steven’ to put it bluntly. although they never intended to mean to him or hurt him (if someone did, the freak is gonna be buried alive under the buzzed HQ. andrew would be the first one who grabs a shovel and starts digging ground. probably adam too, he’ll be the second.) people doing that just to see his reaction. includes andrew himself. in his defense, it wasn’t their fault. his reaction is too fun and adorable when being teased. steven knows that too. people tease him because they fond of him. even though doesn’t get the reason. in other worlds, as long as there’s no harm, steven didn’t mind the teases.

(okay, maybe he sulked once or twice) this time is no different. but andrew knows better than that. something bothers steven. and it bothers him.

maybe not for everybody, but it’s obvious to his eyes. andrew wonders if even steven realize his own feeling. for a remarkably smart person, also preternaturally keen to other’s emotion, steven doesn’t have a clue about himself. sometimes it looks like, he simply forgot that he has a feeling too. to him, it’s a very interesting process to watch. sympathy too. at least he’s an open book, so andrew can take care of him. it isn’t necessary job though. andrew knows that, he doesn’t need to watch over steven, or babysit him. no. no matter how many time steven acts like a child, he’s a respectable adult and he can do things properly when he has to.

it just, it feels wrong, to seeing steven is being hurt. he hates it. don’t even want to think about it. andrew just wants to make sure that troubles keep out of his way, make sure something won’t let hurt him. keep him safe. that’s what friends do. right? standing by side watching over each others back. although to andrew that’s not enough. steven no need to know about that. so he just waited until steven left the office.

“why steven became disney princess, suddenly? did something happened in there?” adrew asks, the try guys look each others, grin spreads on their faces. like they recalled good old memory. and what is that? it’s been only few hours. before andrew lost his patience, zach smirks at him and open his mouse finally. “something happened indeed. we almost dropped out the filming because steven has new stalkers.”

“he had what.” andrew knows his voice rises, but he don’t care about that. not now.

“relax, nothing serious, i mean, just animals.” ned adds quickly, holding his hands as if trying to calm him down like andrew is about two seconds from turn to some dangerous creature while zack just waves him off.

“yeah, animals like bunny and furries or some kind of deers. isn’t it typical? it is, you know, one of essential conditions for being princess.” he says in sarcastic tone. but andrew can sense affection in there.

“we tried to making friends with them. so we had to cleaning stalls and washing them, feeding food and helping them, something more to build to gain their trust.” eugene says while eating snack. must be hungry. he shoves a handful of chips into mouth. so zach has to tell instead of him. “they did. with only steven. and that wasn’t fair. he didn’t even help the cleaning!” he exclaimed, fake indignantly.

because he had to holding a camera. or boom mic. but andrew don’t say it out loud. hold it to himself. he don’t want to showing of his favoritism. no more than he’s shown it so far.

“if it wasn’t funcking adorable. i’d stop filming and came back to the office without him. we had to wait for hours.”

“maybe we should have to sing to them.” ned added, everyone laugh again.

even they say like that, it’s obvious they were enjoying the filming. finish his snack, eugene approached to him with camera. “let me show you, here.”

first one. the view starts from entrance of the center. then scene shifted to a forest, look like almost nature thing. andrew impressed. if he don’t see fences and some facilities across divided districts, he might believe it is. and there’s some animals too. camera zoom in on them. they’re scatters here and there on an area. some deers, rabbits. maybe it’s herbivorous zone. at first, the animals didn’t recognize someone watching them. it was a calm, peaceful scene. then suddenly the video footage was shaking a bit like the camera man was ambushed by something. angle down rapidly, almost falls to ground. fortunately the crew managed to catch the camera before hitting on ground. the angle back to normal with a sigh go relief, andrew knows the voice, at the same time his eyes catch sneakers and immediately notices who’s the sneakers’s owner. soon, the sneakers covered by mottled fluffy balls. andrew finds himself melts a bit at the scene. then he heard, ‘i knew it’ somewhat resignedly, steven mumbled in camera.

move on to next one, steven appears in middle of the footage, he sat down surrounded by small animals. a bunny on his lap, others perches on his legs.  steven was busy to petting them by turn. deeply concentrated on what he is doing, steven didn’t seem to notice camera at first. he occasionally nodded, lifted his head to only speak to someone who outside of the footage. probably center staff, andrew guesses. from the way steven’s hands moving over anlmals, it looks like he asking things about the animals around him. andrew don’t understand what they’re talked, but it rather affected steven considering his expression; sad, sympathy. worry, all emotions mixed on his face and it looks almost painful. but his touch for them is so gentle and tender. andrew tries not to feel jealous of. these grass eaters. don’t be stupid, illyckyj.  after steven did comfort them for a while, finally he tried to up. but a deer nudged him to sitting position again.

the try guys are right. it’s unfair. for he can’t see this in person.

“see? snow princess.” keith says. andrew don’t agree with that, he just says nothing. just stare at the camera. “it seems like, steven has them wrapped around his finger too, huh.” he don’t disagree either.

camera zoom in on, so he can see that steven speak something to her(or him. he don’t know.) with smiling fondly. when andrew thinks their face too close, as i on cue, they brush each others nose accidently. at moment steven looked dumbfound. then he burst out laugh. it sounds happy.

“you’re smiling.” ned says with teasing tone. like he knows that what’s going on there, inside of his head.

“no, i’m not.” andrew frowns instantly, realized that he’s not alone. but it’s too late.  even though it’s not exactly secret, still embarrassing to admit to them. even himself. he don’t used to this kind of thing. feeling. of course, he’s been experience of some relationships since teen, through casual to serious term in a way. he dated before, the last one is not too long ago. but it’s different. it’s feels different. andrew never been in here before. that’ why he can’t define his feeling for steven. because steven, for an open book, he’s still an enigma to andrew. and he even don’t know that he really wants to solve this or not. maybe both. what an irony. like steven himself. it’s frustrated him no end. maybe he’s just curious. or not. curiosity never make him fluttering like this.

“i know. this is my favorite too.” ned adds, ignoring his answer. then he smirks at andrew, like he knows what’s going on inside of his head. technically it’s not possible. andrew turns his eyes to other way.

“mine is this one.” thankfully eugene, stepped in appropriate timing. he picks cell phone up again, open video polder and touch the most recent one to play,

in this video. steven tried to sneak out from herbivores zone. he looked around in nervous, tiptoed over to the borderline of forests. but in the middle of escape, he was caught by a bunny, steven’s eyes widen. he stepped backward few steps but tripped over himself to avoid step on little ones, fell over on ground miserably. as if on cue. soon his almost entire body disappeared by the animals. steven yelled ‘i can’t move!’

this time, andrew huffs out little laugh.

the truth about andrew is, he’s always stuck in middle. and he hates it.

it’s mean not only literally but metaphorically too. well, he’s just born that way. the middle child of three brothers. perhaps it wouldn’t be so surprising if there was middle child crisis as expected. he was. no matter how he wants to deny about that.  he can feel that it’s still exist somewhere inside him. although not much, just tiny presence now. but it wasn’t from being neglected or left behind though.

his parents are most amazing person he could ever have. they love each other in all sincerity. they are really love him. love he and his brothers all fairly, there’s never a hint of favoritism. treat them with patience and understanding, always supported and encouraged them with open mind. in return, andrew love them wholeheartedly as his other brothers. andrew knows very well how lucky he is. people knows. he lived in small town. when he was younger, his friends often told him it made them feel jealous how perfect, wonderful family that he has. his family may not wealthy, but there was nothing real hardship either. they are humble but confident, on good term with neighbors. a loving and caring family. truly, his family are perfect. probably too perfect, too good for him.

so, it wasn’t really their fault that he had secret inferiority complex. and if they did, at least it’s not on purpose. more likely, it’s andrews problem.

 the brothers, although they worked well as a dream team, each performed better separately. they are each two years apart. alex, the oldest one, he’s such a perfection itself. the smartest in brothers, not only he’s fulfill his duty as eldest brother by taking care of his sibling, but also basically everyone around him. as an honer roll student, he always one step ahead of his peers. there’s nothing he can’t do. everything about his brother is perfect and elegant. perfect student, perfect friend, perfect veterinarian, perfect boyfriend, perfect brother and perfect son. he’s the proud one in family. someday even if his older brother throwing his hat in the ring, to running for president, andrew wouldn’t be surprise.

on the contrary max, the youngest, he’s a rascal and rebel. not to family or innocents, but against society, to irrational system, like convention and corruption things. the trouble maker in brothers. he’s bold, daring and brave. it’s not fake or immature thing. he’s a genuine one. some people might consider him a bad boy by his acts and wild looks but not really. seemingly he’s lone wolf. the truth is, he’s such a darling to everyone. it was impossible not to love this guy. he’s the charming one in family. as social butterfly by nature, the younger one loves party and people. his irresistible smile attracts people, especially to women since he born. ladies boy to ladies man now. also he’s a journalist too. he put his heart and soul into these works. andrew is sure that his baby brother gonna surprise the world.

as if that’s not enough, both of them belonged to the football team when in high school. the linebacker and the quarterback. and andrew? people might expected that he was in there too. maybe the center. but no. although he can play if he wants ( his brothers used to practice on the others. so yeah)  he was in drama club.

andrew is well, just andrew. it wasn’t mean that he was the ugly duckling. if anything, andrew had a good time in his own way. not exactly the popular one, but close to. he has a dry sense of humor that people thinks really funny. he looks cool, calm and collected but still friendly one. he had good grade, he has good friends, he was one of main players in dram club. he was good in many things. sometimes andrew thought that he just playing a role in real life. mostly original, but still mixing copy in a character. almost perfect as much as the older one. almost charming as much as younger one. but not enough to satisfied himself. he can’t impressed people like them. middle isn’t means center anyway.

like he said. his parents love them equally, never compared them to others. andrew compared himself to them. andrew knows he shouldn’t treat himself like that. but he couldn’t stop either.

sure, the family lives in harmony but that didn’t mean they are flawless. yes. he said the word perfect maybe too many times. ‘perfect’ as humanly possible. of course they have trouble too, they fight and sulk to each others as other people do that. over ridiculous things like toothpaste flavor to some serious issue. and apologize,  back to life as if nothing had ever happened. likewise, of course andrew knows they are just mortal as much as he is. but can’t help the noticing that they all way better than him. no one wouldn’t agree with him though. no one understand his feeling ether. that’s why he thought this is his problem.

when andrew was in college, he played several roles in several plays than high school. his professor told him he’s talented one. even though andrew couldn’t sure about that, but occasionally he found himself that how easily he into the roles. it was fun to become another person which he never gonna be in reality. it felt good. like drug, he was kind of addicted to it a bit. sometimes he felt that he’s breathing easier in roles than just himself. first time andrew realized that, he immediately felt guilty, like he betrayed his family. although he did his best to hide it. god. what’s wrong with him. he used to ask this to himself. but there was no answer. it’s like poverty midst plenty, surrounding people, somewhat he felt lonely. if it’s any consolation, at least his acting is good.

he might too busy to struggling with himself.(low key self-conscious, loneliness, self-induced pressure) andrew tends to catching up with things later. for example, his confused sexuality. actually it started at his sophomore year(his best guessing) didn’t nocticed until senior year. of college. he was a mess at that time. he’s in shock, not really ashamed of that but don’t know how to deal with. he already had enough shit.

or

“what do you mean, you have known this what, whole time?”

“i’m your mom andy, what do you expect from me? and stop looking at me like that.”

“like what?”

“like i ate your whole candy!”

“were you?”

or

“dad?”

“well, son. we couldn’t sure about that. just guess, you didn’t show any particular sign about that, but you know, we’re your parents. and you was in drama club anyway.”

“i hate this family.”

“no, you’re not.”

or

“so..you can have men and women both, huh? you hit the jackpot, bro!“

“you’re not helping.”

“if you want to join community, talk me anytime. i know some people who can help.”

“you just want to use me to date with them. you jerk.”

or

“if you want to meet someone, maybe i can introduce my friends or visitors.”

“thank you, but no thank you.”

“which do you prefer, cat person or dog person?”

“stop.”

huh.

he knows that his family not gonna judging him with that. it went well as expected. too well. jesus fucking christ, his parents have known before he realized. his brothers, they accepted it like he changed his hair color. so, no surprising. no shock. no bewilderment, no fussing. and andrew, he found himself a little disappointing about that. seriously what’s wrong with him, he asked himself again as many time did. it wasn’t make any sense. he got the best response as much as he could get, from people who he care most deeply about. and upset with that? what the hell.

but he couldn’t show it, as always.

after some wandering, andrew began to working for that company called buzzfeed. it was niki, his best friend suggestion. who already had been there. he met her senior year of college. they was in class for studying filmmaking (his major. theater was minor) they really clicked immediately. they have similar personalities and dispositions andrew is comfortable around her. he knows her, she knows him. niki understand him in that way no one did before. they talked about almost everything. also she realized his sexuality faster than him.

 it was surprisedly easy for him to adjusted to life in california. there’re so many people. so many food. and sun. the sunshine is so bright it got him almost blinding. floods into everywhere, you can’t hide nothing from that. for a quite while, he hadn’t notice that he changed mood. he’s been too busy to think about anything else but  adapt new life. it was refreshing. warming him up under the sun, he thought maybe it’s time to stop hiding. he should to living his own life. now he feels more independent, more freedom than before. it reminded him first college year, but better. he living on his money now. maybe that’w why. maybe for the first time in his life, he’s simply in the right place at the right time.

steven wasn’t.

“i think you’re the right person for this show.”

when steven approached him and said like that, it takes a moment for the words sink in. and andrew realized that steven is still there, sitting in next to him. so he has no a choice but turn his body steven’s way to facing him. if others did as steven did, he may get suspicious first.(fuck candid camera.) but he’s steven lim. it’s not like andrew knows him well. aside from his name, tall, thin asian, blond, awkward but smart guy. and that’s all. nothing above average except height. he’s no problem with that. what and don’t understand is, it seems everybody in buzzfeed loves steven a lot. without any special reason. nothing wrong with the love. but something in there, or something off in there. some people acts as if they’re possessed by whatever, how andrew can know what is it? just it feels little bit unnatural. but again, he really don’r know about steven lim. but andrew also knows that; he’s not kind of backstabbing person. as an actor, andrew is sure that steven is incapable of telling a lie. well, technically he can. just he’d be a terrible liar.

he can see steven tried to look casual, but obviously it’s not works when steven wiggling in his chair like a nervous child. moreover he fidgeting his hands constantly and he’s eyes, are looking everywhere in the office but him.

stop that. andrew feels an urge to snap at him, or hold his armchair to stop him

“are you sure? don’t get me wrong. but i never expect this.” not from you.

instead, he tries answered calmly. he’s already guilty of one thing to steven. don’t have a plan for make another sin. adam’s going to kill him. who talked to him about the show steven and him are planning. “why me? i mean, we barely know each other.” andrew asks, because it’s true.

steven nods, enthusiastically. “i’m sure. and you’re right. we don’t know each other. that’s why we need you. we compare food on food. but our difference, i think it gonna inject some life there.” steven nods again, not to andrew this time. like he wants to make sure at himself too. he knits his brows like he thinks hard something.   andrew realizes that he stopped the wiggling. so he is serious. “and i heard that you’re not picky.” steven adda, in seriousness. like it’s most important problem in there. and okay. andrew has to keep a straight face.

“and?” it’s come out softly more than he thinks he would be, almost encouragingly. it works.

“and i heard you love foods. i need someone who would be really, truly professional about this show. we gotta do a lot of things just for this. we don’t need expert. we need passion, sincerity and devotion to go on the this show. i am. but when i go too far, i need someone drag me down to ground.” he explains, sincerely, while steven talked to him, steven looking at him straight in his eyes. somehow andrew impresses.

“and you think of me?” amused too. it’s not like andrew isn’t tempt by that. andrew did filming with him once. steven’s good. the concept is appearing. and adam would be there too. it’s gonna be a good shot.

“yes. i’m sure that we’ll get along fine. i don’t know you well. but i know you’re good from my experience.”now he blushes. it’s pretty. and his desperate, hopeful expression says more than words. steven’s eyes are too dark andrew almost can’t find the iris. but it’s most transparent eyes that he ever seen. vulnerable even. andrew can see through his eyes.

“i’ll think about that.” andrew finds himself says like that. how can he say no to this?

“really? wow, thank you, wow. i know it’s not easy decision. but you won’t be disappointed when you join the team!” steven beams at him. then he jumps to his feet like he’s so excited that he can’t sit still. god, how old he is, twelve? and he don’t know where is it come from but, suddenly it feels like,

“it’ll be worth it.” steven says softly.

exactly.

then steven is gone. as suddenly as he appears. andrew’s mind lost for while; mulling over the suggestion. andrew don’t know well about steven, but he seems nice and passionate. also a bit perfectionist like andrew himself. he can feel that. and even he don’t know about steven. he knows adam. adam is caution man in every respect, he’s nice to everyone, but open his heart to others is whole another story. and andrew knows that adam really, really fond of steven. after all, they are very close. he can trust adam. but andrew knows he already made his mind before this consideration. then andrew realizes, he has never been apologize to steven. about last time incident.  maybe steven forgets it already, given that he acting around d him. but still, andrew should to apologize to him regardless of the show.  that was unfair to steven. next time he see steven, he’d to do. andrew remind himself.

and you know what? it turns out, steven is right.

.

[carmineri]

Ask Us: Our New Year’s Resolutions

Happy 2019! Can you believe it’s a new year already? With a new year comes all sorts of grandiose plans for how to spend that year. And yeah, most of us have those resolutions fizzle out at some point, but isn’t making them wonderful?

I asked around the TouringPlans HQ to see what our writers, videographers, and all around awesome people have in store for the new year. Here’s what they said.

  Rikki Niblett

My New Year’s vacation resolution is to do something I started this year. I would like to explore more of the world and do things I’ve never done before. (Also, I’d like to not wait for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge for hours . . . but I think that’s wishful thinking. :wink:)

  Liz Mangan

In the New Year, I’m hoping to try new (to me) things (except Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which I’m staying far, far away from in 2019 in the hopes that crowds eventually die down a little). Almost every trip, I visit my favorite restaurants, attractions, shows, and shops, leaving little room for expanding my horizons. This year, I hope to ditch that creature of habit . . . habit. I want to stay in a resort I’ve never called home, dine in restaurants I keep putting off in favor of my regular go-tos, and revisit attractions and shows that I’ve skipped over during every trip in recent memory. Oh, and there’s also the matter of triumphing over my husband in Fantasia Fairways Miniature Golf Course. Here’s hoping 2019’s my year!

  James Rosemergy

Like many of us, my resolution for 2019 is to try to break out of my usual routine and try to experience some things I don’t do as often. Don’t get me wrong, some things have firmly established that they can be safely skipped–I’m not going to ride Barnstormer on a childless trip purely in the interest of doing something I don’t regularly do. But I do find that I tend to triage things the same way on most trips, which means that some very worthy experiences often don’t make the cut. For example, I haven’t even experienced the new Mission Space, because I always prioritize the other headliners, and I’ve missed out on some of the new snacks around Walt Disney World because I don’t want to miss the opportunity to get yet another Dole Whip. At a minimum, I WILL be trying some of the loaded tots at The Friar’s Nook in Magic Kingdom (probably on a race weekend so I can feel OK about the decision)!

  Joseph Matt

In 2019 I’m checking off a big item for me theme park wise: SeaWorld Orlando! When I was little, when we visited WDW we never went to SeaWorld because my parents would point out we had SeaWorld Ohio 40 minutes away. I’m excited to ride all the coasters (including riding my 200th coaster), checking out the food options, and seeing all the animal exhibits. In a more general sense, in 2019 I’m going to get more fit after I gave up going to the gym years ago due to time other obligations. Over the years I’ve realized how much being fit helps tour parks, from better sleep patterns to more stamina.

  Angela Dahlgren

I want to explore Universal Orlando more this year. Last year, I really only had time to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but not much else. This year, I want to really give the Uni parks a chance and see what they have to offer. Disney-wise, I want to try a new resort or two, finally visit during the Epcot International Festival of the Arts, and do a Disney Cruise!

  Julia Mascardo

The big item on this year’s list for me is doing a family trip to Disneyland. I’ve been solo, and my husband and I have been in the pre-kid days, but time for Lily to have her first Best Week Ever experience West Coast style with her mom and dad. I’m also hoping that this is the year I get to see Happily Ever After from the front of the castle. I see it every night from the backyard, I’ve seen it from the resorts, and I’ve even seen it from Tomorrowland–but I’ve never made the time to go to the parks, camp out somewhere around the hub, and see it there.

  Which of these resolutions sounds the best to you? Got anything you think we should add to our lists? Let us know in the comments.

The post Ask Us: Our New Year’s Resolutions appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

from TouringPlans.com Blog http://bit.ly/2s3lX5A

[wbwest]

New Post has been published on WilliamBruceWest.com

New Post has been published on http://www.williambrucewest.com/2017/04/14/west-week-ever-pop-culture-review-41417/

West Week Ever: Pop Culture In Review - 4/14/17

I was going to skip this week, with it being a holiday weekend and all, but then I realized that this would be the last post written from the WilliamBruceWest.com HQ of the past 6 years. So, simply to commemorate that, you get a quick post.

I didn’t watch any movies this week (dumb, since I need to clear off a 90% full DVR by Tuesday), but I did catch the HBO stand-up special Pete Holmes: Faces and Sounds. Holmes has recently become one of my favorites, as I’ve really been digging his HBO comedy Crashing, which seems to be loosely based on the early days of his stand-up career. He’s at a point now in his career where he seems to be a lot more comfortable onstage. And he cusses a lot more. Something about him reminds me of a modern-day John Ritter – it’s not the physical comedy, but it’s written all over his face. He genuinely just comes off like a good guy that you could have around your mom. I think that’s part of his appeal. Anyway, it’s a pretty good hour, so check it out if you’re looking for a new stand-up special to watch.

In movie news, Jonah Hex/Thanos will now be adding Cable to his resume. In a surprise casting move, Josh Brolin has been cast as the time-traveling hero in the Deadpool sequel. This, supposedly, won’t affect filming of Avengers: Infinity War because most of his work on that movie will be motion capture. Still, it’s odd to see another comic book movie actor jump across the studio aisle. We’ve seen two actors jump from Fox to the MCU (Chris Evans and Michael B. Jordan), but you never see them go the opposite direction. I guess he’ll do OK, but I was hoping for someone like Ron Perlman or Stephen Lang. Personally, I’d be more impressed if they’d cast his father, James Brolin.

I didn’t catch the Rick & Morty 3rd season premiere when it was posted online on April Fools Day, but luckily Adult Swim aired it every night last week. It was so good to have the show back, even though I’m not entirely sure I know what was going on. As some folks have said, I really wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that was justa “bonus”episode, and not the actual premiere. If it was real, it definitely set up an interesting new family dynamic. Of course all anyone can talk about, however, is the McDonald’s Mulan Sauce. Apparently, back when Mulan came out, McDonald’s had a special Szechuan sauce for their McNuggets. It was only for a limited time, as those things are wont to be, but now it’s been thrust back into the spotlight thanks to the episode. Fans of the show are trying to get McDonald’s to bring the sauce back, to coincide with the release of the upcoming live action Mulan film (despite the fact that Disney ended their relationship with McDonald’s a few years ago in an attempt to disassociate themselves with unhealthy eating). Already, though, I’ve seen some thinkpieces about how the sauce is cultural appropriation and all that so, basically, welcome to 2017.

In comics news, the X-Men were the source of controversy this week after the artist on X-Men Gold, Ardian Syaf, snuck some incendiary references into the background of his art in the first issue of the book. I don’t have a religious studies degree, so I can’t really get into the minutiae. Basically, though, he slipped in some references to the Qua’ran that are anti-Christian and anti-Jewish. Sure, he can have his beliefs and all, but you don’t sneak that stuff into a corporate comic book. Marvel said that he was going to be disciplined, and later in the week he was fired from the book. Syaf immediately went online and basically said “My career is over”. I kinda wanted to feel bad for him ‘cause he almost seemed suicidal, and I wasn’t sure he initially understood the magnitude of what he had done. In follow up interviews, however, he didn’t really seem to back down. As controversial as he might be right now, it’ll be a major PR opportunity when some publisher, like Dynamite Entertainment, eventually gives him work again.

On the music front, it’s no secret that I’m a huge boyband guy. That said, I never really got into One Direction. It’s not that I was old when they came out, but more of a case where they didn’t have any Max Martin songs. Coming from the late 90s/early 00s era, I feel like you HAVE to have Max Martin songs in order to have hits. I mean, they still had their share of earworms, like “That’s What Makes You Beautiful”, but I never glommed onto them that much. So, when they broke up to pursue solo careers, I wasn’t expecting much – which is why I was surprised to find that I really like “The Sign of the Times”, which is the debut single from Harry Styles. I had the thing looped all day last Friday and, while I’m not sure if it’s a “hit”, I’m really digging what’s going on here. I wonder how the 1D fans are gonna take it. I mean, they’ll eat it up because they love Harry, but it’s not like the 1D songs that they’re used to. You’d expect him to bust out of the gate with something bombastic, but instead he went with something chill and melodic. Anyway, I’m looking forward to hearing the rest of the album when it hits on May 12th.

Things You Might Have Missed This Week

Grace and Frankie has been renewed by Netflix for a 4th season. And I think my wife is the only person I know who’s happy about that. Anyway, Lisa Kudrow is joining the cast.

Jude Law has been cast as young Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts sequel

There’s a Fear Factor reboot coming to MTV, which will be hosted by Ludacris

We got a new Justice League poster. Um, OK. I don’t want to hate the DCEU but they make it so easy

The Get Down’s Shameik Moore has been tapped to voice Miles Morales in the upcoming animated Spider-Man film

John Ridley produced Guerrilla, a miniseries about the Black Power movement, and included basically no Black women in it. Good luck with that, my dude.

TLC are back. Well, T and C; you’d need a necromancer to get L back. Anyway, the single “Way Back” debuted on radio this week. It’s nothing special, really.

Sam Elliott has signed on to star in The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot, which is a Must See based on the title alone

This looks fun. Not “see it in a theater” fun, but fun nonetheless.

This Fall, NBC’s Dateline will become a weekday syndicated true crime series, which will probably end up replacing former correspondent Chris Hansen’s Crime Watch Daily. Coldblooded!

Thor: Ragnarok’s teaser trailer hit this week and it was amazing. Now, keep in mind that the Thor movies are lower on the MCU scale, so it’s not like it had to do much heavy lifting to blow our minds. We’re at a point where we just don’t expect that much from the Thor films. Still, it looks like Guardians of the Galaxy 1.5, and that’s exactly what people love about it. After the departure that was Thor: The Dark World, we’re back to a Thor tale that feels epic and world-spanning. And the Hulk cameo! Anyway, I could ramble about it, or you could just watch it for yourself. All I know is that the Thor: Ragnarok teaser trailer had the West Week Ever.

And if you’re jonesing to read some more, be sure to check out my comic post from this week: Comical Thoughts: The One Where Our Hero Read 30 Marvel Comics In One Night!

[deepfinds-blog]

Welcome to Bag Week 2018. Every year your faithful friends at TechCrunch spend an entire week looking at bags. Why? Because bags — often ignored but full of our important electronics — are the outward representations of our techie styles, and we put far too little thought into where we keep our most prized possessions.

A few months back I declared the Peak Design Everyday Backpack the best thing at CES 2018. It was a silly comment since the bag was released a couple years back but it was new to me. I had purchased the bag from Best Buy a few days prior and was in love with the bag and had to tell the world. I’m happy to report that after carrying the bag around several more conferences and a family trip to Disney World, I’m comfortable declaring it the best backpack I’ve ever used.

The company recently released a black version and sent me one to test. It looks mean. It’s the backpack Darth Vader would carry if he needed to tout around a full frame DSLR, a couple lenses and a MacBook Pro.

The bag’s main clasp is wonderful. It’s designed in such a way that the wearer can quickly open and securely close it. Just pull down and away to open the bag. To close it, pull down so the top is tight, place the clasp next to the metal rungs and let go. Magnets hold the clasp next to the bag and the tension on the top causes the clasp to find the next available rung. Try it and you’ll love it. I do.

Peak Design equipped the bag with solid hardware. All the clasps are metal and the zippers are durable. I don’t think there’s plastic anywhere on the bag.

Like I said several months ago, the bag is best described as smart and solid. It’s a confident design with just enough pockets and storage options. The bag features one, large pocket that makes up most of the bag. Foldable dividers allow the wearer to customize the bag as needed. And quickly, too. These dividers fold in several ways, allowing the bag to hold, say, a large telephoto lens or several smaller lens.

The bag is packed full of surprises, too. Straps are hidden throughout allowing it to hold a surprising amount of items even a drone.

Small packing cubes make the Peak Design Everyday Backpack a storage cabinet. This is my bag while traveling overseas.

Peak Design positions this bag as a camera bag, but it can be so much more with some little bags. I use these and they fit perfectly in both the 20L and 30L bag. It lets me keep things organized and separated in a way that I’ve haven’t found possible in other bags. Peak Design should look at making a series of these bags. I would be all over them if they did.

The bag I bought back before CES was the 20L. It’s the smallest option though far from small. My 15-inch MacBook Pro squeezes into the laptop compartment and the bag has yet to feel too small even when it’s holding a camera, a couple books and a travel pillow.

The new black bag looks amazing but it seems to show scuffs and dirt more than my grey one. That’s a shame, too. I throw my bags around and expect a lot out of them. This black bag looks more dirty after one oversea trip than my grey one does after six months of use.

Just like I said back at CES, I’m not going to run through all the details of this bag. A few more are worth calling out: The sternum strap is fantastic. It uses clips without moving parts so it should last a lifetime. The shoulder straps are attached to the bag with a rivet that allows the straps to swivel as needed — it’s a smart advancement in the design of a backpack. And inside the laptop sleeve is a small pocket that is absolutely perfect to hold a Traveler’s Notebook and a pen.

As backpacks go, the Peak Design Everyday Backpack costs more than most. The smaller 20L is $260 and the 30L is $290. To me, the higher price is justified and if there’s a backpack worth the extra cost, it’s this one. I highly recommend this bag.

Bag design with Peak Design

Folks, it’s Bag Week! Tito Hamze visits Peak Design’s HQ in San Francisco to learn about the company and how they create their bags. From humble beginnings starting with a clip to hold your camera to a full-fledged accessory company, this outfit is growing and creating quality products — all while never having taken any traditional VC funding.

Bag Week 2008: Why I still love the Peak Design Everyday Backpack Welcome to Bag Week 2018. Every year your faithful friends at TechCrunch spend an entire week looking at bags.

[plvuial]

aaahh thank you for tagging me mayo @novafirst1 !!! i was gonna do this tomorrow but i can't sleep so *shrugs* Rules: Answer all questions, add one question of your own and tag as many people as there are questions. 1. Coke or Pepsi: coke i guess? tbh i can't tell the difference 2. Disney or Dreamworks: hmm disney? mostly bc i can't even remember any dreamworks movies lmao 3. Coffee or Tea: definitely tea 4. Books or Movies: books,,,,but i'll watch a ghibli movie over a book any day 5. Windows or Mac: i mean i have a windows computer and all of my friends have mac sso,, gotta stay Loyal to the window 6. DC or Marvel: no idea sorry 7. X-Box or Playstation: no ,, idea,, sorry ,, 8. Dragon Age or Mass Effect: nO,, ,idEA,,, ,,,, sORRY, , 9. Night Owl or Early Riser: ah i'm gonna have to go with early riser! idk 5am is a very strange atmosphere i like it ,, maybe it's just that i'm used to getting up early 10. Cards or Chess: i've played chess like twice and both times i was horrendous ,, but i do like playing cards!! esp scum *has intense flashbacks* 11. Chocolate or Vanilla: ooh i was gonna say chocolate but idk vanilla is nice too! depends on what kind of food tbh but i'm leaning towards vanilla 12. Vans or Converse: converse i don't even have vans 13. Lavellan, Trevelyan, Cadash or Adaar: lol wut 14. Fluff or Angst: both!! although i ,, only write fluff i Love the Pain 15. Beach or Forest: beach 16. Dogs or Cats: both!, 17. Clear Skies or Rain: i like bothhh 18. Cooking or Eating Out: idk cooking is p fun! also i'm broke 19. Spicy Food or Mild Food: i can't eat spicy food,, so mild,,,, (one time i was in my hometown and my parents said oh she can't eat spicy food so my relatives were like 'ok this and this aren't spicy!' so i was like nice! and ate it and iT WAS VERY SPICY my mouth was on fire) 20. Halloween/Samhain or Christmas/Yule/Solistice: um neither i guess? i haven't gone trick or treating in a long time...and we don't really celebrate christmas too much like we don't even put up a tree anymore lmao...but i guess christmas is nice...it's a very comforting time,,,and also presents are nice... 21. Would you rather be a little too hot or a little too cold: too cold 22. If you could have a superpower, what would it be: flight? or teleportation or smthn like that,, or like breathing underwater that'd be cool 23. Animation or Live Action: animation for sure 24. Paragon or Renegade: uh 25. Baths or Showers: shower? i guess 26. Team Cap or Team Ironman: tentatively team cap,,, i don't know much about either of them though 27. Fantasy or Sci Fi: ooohhhhh can i say both? i like both! 28. Do you have three or four favourite quotes, if so what are they: nah m8 29. Youtube or Netflix: youtube.. i don't have netflix ! 30. Harry Potter or Percy Jackson: ugahH bOth !! both are very good in their own way i mean percy jackson,,, one of the first series i fell in love with (still will never get over leo and calypso man) but hp is such a classic 31. When you feel accomplished: good grades bc i'm. shallow. also during sports i play i guess? and when i make people smile/laugh i mean that's always a nice feeling 32. Star Wars or Star Trek: idk star trek so star wars 33. Paperback or Hardback: i like both! but hardback more lol 34. Horror or Rom-Com: i rlly like horror movies! not necessarily jumpscares or gore but more like,, psychological horror they creep me out but i rlly like the feeling for some reason? but like. preferably watching with someone else. ha. but romcoms are nice too i just sometimes find them,, kinda cheesy lol 35. TV Shows or Movies: uhhhhm probably movies 36. Favourite Animal: i don't have one i like Many 37. Favorite Genre of Music: pop for the most part lmao but it varies a lot 38. Least Favorite Book: hmm books where the main characters are ,,, bland. yeah u know the kind of books 39. Favourite Season: i like autumn! 40. Song that’s currently stuck in your head: ed sheeran - happier lmao speaking of which have u guys listened to his new album yet 41. What kind of pyjamas do you wear: um pajama shorts and a shirt? ya 42. If you could be any fictional character’s best friend, who’d you be: idk i,, like my friends atmmm (wow that was cheesy) but i think scorpius from cursed child is a Cool Guy that i would love to be friends with !!! 43. If you could choose one song to be played at your funeral, what would it be: idk lol 44. Smiling or Smirking: um smiling? idk i mean the word smirking is used all the time in books but what does it Really look like.? also smirking is like,, kinda mean isn't it 45. Harry Potter Movies or Books: def books but the movies are p great too! 46. Something you’re proud of: oh a lot of things...not so much proud but more like grateful for? yes a lot too many to name . gratitude and pride go hand in hadn't i think 47. Favorite Indian dish: idk like butter chicken? apparently it's not even an authentic indian dish lmao i'm sorry 48. Weirdest Ship/OTP/Pairing: idk?. there are a lot of rare pairs in hq i ship but i wouldn't call them weird 49. Weirdest Dream: once when i was 5 i dreamed my best friend came to my house in the middle of the night and started beating me up,, that dream has always stuck with me for some reason...i mean there are many more but they're,,, very confusing so 50. If you owned a star, what would you name it: if i owned one?.. idk,, like claire ,,, or smthn,,, is andromeda already a star name i think it is.. i don't think i would want to own a star they can't really be owned 51. Favorite Flower: i ,, don't know enough abt flowers to have a favourite ,, all i know is they look nice and smell nice sometimes! also taste nice like i remember in primary every one would stop and eat the nectar of honeysuckle flowers during cross country bc we always passed a hedge full of them but once i did it and there were fucjing ants inside it ,, it was a traumatic experience,,,i have not touched a honeysuckle flower since 52. Favorite Time Period: no idea !! sorry 53: um ,, idk if i have one like honestly i , don't know anything ever tbh you know what's fucked up the only thing u can ever be sure abt in the whole world is your own consciousness and everyone else could be a figment of your imagination and you literally never know so like what's the point of stupid ass crushes what's the meaning of life why are we here what are we doing like we're all just tiny specks of dust in an infinite universe what's our purpose i don't i think i need to go to bed now i'm kind of,, tired but thank you s much @novafirst1 it was v fun i , don't think i'm going t o tag anyone sorryyy but pls do it if u want to !!

[peach5200-blog]

Welcome to Bag Week 2018. Every year your faithful friends at TechCrunch spend an entire week looking at bags. Why? Because bags — often ignored but full of our important electronics — are the outward representations of our techie styles, and we put far too little thought into where we keep our most prized possessions.

A few months back I declared the Peak Design Everyday Backpack the best thing at CES 2018. It was a silly comment since the bag was released a couple of years back but it was new to me. I had purchased the bag from Best Buy a few days prior and was in love with the bag and had to tell the world. I’m happy to report that after carrying the bag around several more conferences and a family trip to Disney World, I’m comfortable declaring it the best backpack I’ve ever used.

The company recently released a black version and sent me one to test. It looks mean. It’s the backpack Darth Vader would carry if he needed to tout around a full frame DSLR, a couple of lenses and a MacBook Pro.

The bag’s main clasp is wonderful. It’s designed in such a way that the wearer can quickly open and securely close it. Just pull down and away to open the bag. To close it, pull down so the top is tight, place the clasp next to the metal rungs and let go. Magnets hold the clasp next to the bag and the tension on the top causes the clasp to find the next available rung. Try it and you’ll love it. I do.

Peak Design equipped the bag with solid hardware. All the clasps are metal and the zippers are durable. I don’t think there’s plastic anywhere on the bag.

Like I said several months ago, the bag is best described as smart and solid. It’s a confident design with just enough pockets and storage options. The bag features one, large pocket that makes up most of the bag. Foldable dividers allow the wearer to customize the bag as needed. And quickly, too. These dividers fold in several ways, allowing the bag to hold, say, a large telephoto lens or several smaller lens.

The bag is packed full of surprises, too. Straps are hidden throughout allowing it to hold a surprising amount of items even a drone.

Small packing cubes make the Peak Design Everyday Backpack a storage cabinet. This is my bag while traveling overseas.

Peak Design positions this bag as a camera bag, but it can be so much more with some little bags. I use these and they fit perfectly in both the 20L and 30L bag. It lets me keep things organized and separated in a way that I’ve haven’t found possible in other bags. Peak Design should look at making a series of these bags. I would be all over them if they did.

The bag I bought back before CES was the 20L. It’s the smallest option though far from small. My 15-inch MacBook Pro squeezes into the laptop compartment and the bag has yet to feel too small even when it’s holding a camera, a couple of books and a travel pillow.

The new black bag looks amazing but it seems to show scuffs and dirt more than my grey one. That’s a shame, too. I throw my bags around and expect a lot out of them. This black bag looks more dirty after one oversea trip than my grey one does after six months of use.

Just like I said back at CES, I’m not going to run through all the details of this bag. A few more are worth calling out: The sternum strap is fantastic. It uses clips without moving parts so it should last a lifetime. The shoulder straps are attached to the bag with a rivet that allows the straps to swivel as needed — it’s a smart advancement in the design of a backpack. And inside the laptop sleeve is a small pocket that is absolutely perfect to hold a Traveler’s Notebook and a pen.

As backpacks go, the Peak Design Everyday Backpack costs more than most. The smaller 20L is $260 and the 30L is $290. To me, the higher price is justified and if there’s a backpack worth the extra cost, it’s this one. I highly recommend this bag.

Bag design with Peak Design

Folks, it’s Bag Week! Tito Hamze visits Peak Design’s HQ in San Francisco to learn about the company and how they create their bags. From humble beginnings starting with a clip to hold your camera to a full-fledged accessory company, this outfit is growing and creating quality products — all while never having taken any traditional VC funding.

Source: gadgets

Bag Week 2018: Why I still love the Peak Design Everyday Backpack Welcome to Bag Week 2018. Every year your faithful friends at TechCrunch spend an entire week looking at bags.

[oneamericanews-blog]

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Welcome to Bag Week 2018. Every year your faithful friends at TechCrunch spend an entire week looking at bags. Why? Because bags — often ignored but full of our important electronics — are the outward representations of our techie styles, and we put far too little thought into where we keep our most prized possessions.

A few months back I declared the Peak Design Everyday Backpack the best thing at CES 2018. It was a silly comment since the bag was released a couple years back but it was new to me. I had purchased the bag from Best Buy a few days prior and was in love with the bag and had to tell the world. I’m happy to report that after carrying the bag around several more conferences and a family trip to Disney World, I’m comfortable declaring it the best backpack I’ve ever used.

The company recently released a black version and sent me one to test. It looks mean. It’s the backpack Darth Vader would carry if he needed to tout around a full frame DSLR, a couple lenses and a MacBook Pro.

The bag’s main clasp is wonderful. It’s designed in such a way that the wearer can quickly open and securely close it. Just pull down and away to open the bag. To close it, pull down so the top is tight, place the clasp next to the metal rungs and let go. Magnets hold the clasp next to the bag and the tension on the top causes the clasp to find the next available rung. Try it and you’ll love it. I do.

Peak Design equipped the bag with solid hardware. All the clasps are metal and the zippers are durable. I don’t think there’s plastic anywhere on the bag.

Like I said several months ago, the bag is best described as smart and solid. It’s a confident design with just enough pockets and storage options. The bag features one, large pocket that makes up most of the bag. Foldable dividers allow the wearer to customize the bag as needed. And quickly, too. These dividers fold in several ways, allowing the bag to hold, say, a large telephoto lens or several smaller lens.

The bag is packed full of surprises, too. Straps are hidden throughout allowing it to hold a surprising amount of items even a drone.

Small packing cubes make the Peak Design Everyday Backpack a storage cabinet. This is my bag while traveling overseas.

Peak Design positions this bag as a camera bag, but it can be so much more with some little bags. I use these and they fit perfectly in both the 20L and 30L bag. It lets me keep things organized and separated in a way that I’ve haven’t found possible in other bags. Peak Design should look at making a series of these bags. I would be all over them if they did.

The bag I bought back before CES was the 20L. It’s the smallest option though far from small. My 15-inch MacBook Pro squeezes into the laptop compartment and the bag has yet to feel too small even when it’s holding a camera, a couple books and a travel pillow.

The new black bag looks amazing but it seems to show scuffs and dirt more than my grey one. That’s a shame, too. I throw my bags around and expect a lot out of them. This black bag looks more dirty after one oversea trip than my grey one does after six months of use.

Just like I said back at CES, I’m not going to run through all the details of this bag. A few more are worth calling out: The sternum strap is fantastic. It uses clips without moving parts so it should last a lifetime. The shoulder straps are attached to the bag with a rivet that allows the straps to swivel as needed — it’s a smart advancement in the design of a backpack. And inside the laptop sleeve is a small pocket that is absolutely perfect to hold a Traveler’s Notebook and a pen.

As backpacks go, the Peak Design Everyday Backpack costs more than most. The smaller 20L is $260 and the 30L is $290. To me, the higher price is justified and if there’s a backpack worth the extra cost, it’s this one. I highly recommend this bag.

Bag design with Peak Design

Folks, it’s Bag Week! Tito Hamze visits Peak Design’s HQ in San Francisco to learn about the company and how they create their bags. From humble beginnings starting with a clip to hold your camera to a full-fledged accessory company, this outfit is growing and creating quality products — all while never having taken any traditional VC funding.

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Why I still love the Peak Design Everyday Backpack – TechCrunch Welcome to Bag Week 2018. Every year your faithful friends at TechCrunch spend an entire week looking at bags.

[dizzedcom]

Welcome to Bag Week 2018. Every year your faithful friends at TechCrunch spend an entire week looking at bags. Why? Because bags — often ignored but full of our important electronics — are the outward representations of our techie styles, and we put far too little thought into where we keep our most prized possessions.

A few months back I declared the Peak Design Everyday Backpack the best thing at CES 2018. It was a silly comment since the bag was released a couple years back but it was new to me. I had purchased the bag from Best Buy a few days prior and was in love with the bag and had to tell the world. I’m happy to report that after carrying the bag around several more conferences and a family trip to Disney World, I’m comfortable declaring it the best backpack I’ve ever used.

The company recently released a black version and sent me one to test. It looks mean. It’s the backpack Darth Vader would carry if he needed to tout around a full frame DSLR, a couple lenses and a MacBook Pro.

The bag’s main clasp is wonderful. It’s designed in such a way that the wearer can quickly open and securely close it. Just pull down and away to open the bag. To close it, pull down so the top is tight, place the clasp next to the metal rungs and let go. Magnets hold the clasp next to the bag and the tension on the top causes the clasp to find the next available rung. Try it and you’ll love it. I do.

Peak Design equipped the bag with solid hardware. All the clasps are metal and the zippers are durable. I don’t think there’s plastic anywhere on the bag.

Like I said several months ago, the bag is best described as smart and solid. It’s a confident design with just enough pockets and storage options. The bag features one, large pocket that makes up most of the bag. Foldable dividers allow the wearer to customize the bag as needed. And quickly, too. These dividers fold in several ways, allowing the bag to hold, say, a large telephoto lens or several smaller lens.

The bag is packed full of surprises, too. Straps are hidden throughout allowing it to hold a surprising amount of items even a drone.

Small packing cubes make the Peak Design Everyday Backpack a storage cabinet. This is my bag while traveling overseas.

Peak Design positions this bag as a camera bag, but it can be so much more with some little bags. I use these and they fit perfectly in both the 20L and 30L bag. It lets me keep things organized and separated in a way that I’ve haven’t found possible in other bags. Peak Design should look at making a series of these bags. I would be all over them if they did.

The bag I bought back before CES was the 20L. It’s the smallest option though far from small. My 15-inch MacBook Pro squeezes into the laptop compartment and the bag has yet to feel too small even when it’s holding a camera, a couple books and a travel pillow.

The new black bag looks amazing but it seems to show scuffs and dirt more than my grey one. That’s a shame, too. I throw my bags around and expect a lot out of them. This black bag looks more dirty after one oversea trip than my grey one does after six months of use.

Just like I said back at CES, I’m not going to run through all the details of this bag. A few more are worth calling out: The sternum strap is fantastic. It uses clips without moving parts so it should last a lifetime. The shoulder straps are attached to the bag with a rivet that allows the straps to swivel as needed — it’s a smart advancement in the design of a backpack. And inside the laptop sleeve is a small pocket that is absolutely perfect to hold a Traveler’s Notebook and a pen.

As backpacks go, the Peak Design Everyday Backpack costs more than most. The smaller 20L is $260 and the 30L is $290. To me, the higher price is justified and if there’s a backpack worth the extra cost, it’s this one. I highly recommend this bag.

Bag design with Peak Design

Folks, it’s Bag Week! Tito Hamze visits Peak Design’s HQ in San Francisco to learn about the company and how they create their bags. From humble beginnings starting with a clip to hold your camera to a full-fledged accessory company, this outfit is growing and creating quality products — all while never having taken any traditional VC funding.

Bag Week 2018: Why I still love the Peak Design Everyday Backpack Welcome to Bag Week 2018. Every year your faithful friends at TechCrunch spend an entire week looking at bags.

[roberttbertton]

Welcome to Bag Week 2018. Every year your faithful friends at TechCrunch spend an entire week looking at bags. Why? Because bags — often ignored but full of our important electronics — are the outward representations of our techie styles, and we put far too little thought into where we keep our most prized possessions.

A few months back I declared the Peak Design Everyday Backpack the best thing at CES 2018. It was a silly comment since the bag was released a couple years back but it was new to me. I had purchased the bag from Best Buy a few days prior and was in love with the bag and had to tell the world. I’m happy to report that after carrying the bag around several more conferences and a family trip to Disney World, I’m comfortable declaring it the best backpack I’ve ever used.

The company recently released a black version and sent me one to test. It looks mean. It’s the backpack Darth Vader would carry if he needed to tout around a full frame DSLR, a couple lenses and a MacBook Pro.

The bag’s main clasp is wonderful. It’s designed in such a way that the wearer can quickly open and securely close it. Just pull down and away to open the bag. To close it, pull down so the top is tight, place the clasp next to the metal rungs and let go. Magnets hold the clasp next to the bag and the tension on the top causes the clasp to find the next available rung. Try it and you’ll love it. I do.

Peak Design equipped the bag with solid hardware. All the clasps are metal and the zippers are durable. I don’t think there’s plastic anywhere on the bag.

Like I said several months ago, the bag is best described as smart and solid. It’s a confident design with just enough pockets and storage options. The bag features one, large pocket that makes up most of the bag. Foldable dividers allow the wearer to customize the bag as needed. And quickly, too. These dividers fold in several ways, allowing the bag to hold, say, a large telephoto lens or several smaller lens.

The bag is packed full of surprises, too. Straps are hidden throughout allowing it to hold a surprising amount of items even a drone.

Small packing cubes make the Peak Design Everyday Backpack a storage cabinet. This is my bag while traveling overseas.

Peak Design positions this bag as a camera bag, but it can be so much more with some little bags. I use these and they fit perfectly in both the 20L and 30L bag. It lets me keep things organized and separated in a way that I’ve haven’t found possible in other bags. Peak Design should look at making a series of these bags. I would be all over them if they did.

The bag I bought back before CES was the 20L. It’s the smallest option though far from small. My 15-inch MacBook Pro squeezes into the laptop compartment and the bag has yet to feel too small even when it’s holding a camera, a couple books and a travel pillow.

The new black bag looks amazing but it seems to show scuffs and dirt more than my grey one. That’s a shame, too. I throw my bags around and expect a lot out of them. This black bag looks more dirty after one oversea trip than my grey one does after six months of use.

Just like I said back at CES, I’m not going to run through all the details of this bag. A few more are worth calling out: The sternum strap is fantastic. It uses clips without moving parts so it should last a lifetime. The shoulder straps are attached to the bag with a rivet that allows the straps to swivel as needed — it’s a smart advancement in the design of a backpack. And inside the laptop sleeve is a small pocket that is absolutely perfect to hold a Traveler’s Notebook and a pen.

As backpacks go, the Peak Design Everyday Backpack costs more than most. The smaller 20L is $260 and the 30L is $290. To me, the higher price is justified and if there’s a backpack worth the extra cost, it’s this one. I highly recommend this bag.

Bag design with Peak Design

Folks, it’s Bag Week! Tito Hamze visits Peak Design’s HQ in San Francisco to learn about the company and how they create their bags. From humble beginnings starting with a clip to hold your camera to a full-fledged accessory company, this outfit is growing and creating quality products — all while never having taken any traditional VC funding.

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Bag Week 2008: Why I still love the Peak Design Everyday Backpack – BerTTon Welcome to Bag Week 2018. Every year your faithful friends at TechCrunch spend an entire week looking at bags.