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homespork-review · 4 years

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Homespork Act 3: Insane Mindscrew Haymakers (Part 3)

FAILURE ARTIST: We cut to PM, WV, and AR in the far but not that far future. WV is trying to obey the letter’s direction to give the package to PM but AR keeps shooting. Yet WV and PM take cover behind a rock and WV is able to complete the task. The letter calls PM “Miss Mail Lady” so we now have a gender.

Back to Dream Jade. She flies to another golden tower and peers in on John sleeping. This bedroom is also defaced like his one in the waking world, plus there’s a creepy harlequin doll next to him. She isn’t sure if he got her present or if she even sent it, so she decides she’ll ask later.

CHEL: Dream John is fitfully asleep, but Jade intends to let him wake up on his own. Here, it’s established that Dream Jade does not know everything waking Jade does, as she decides she needs a system to remind her of things, which in the waking world she has (remember the COLORFUL REMINDERS).

The moon on which the city is now revealed to be placed is moving close to Skaia, the gargantuan sphere of cloudy blue sky mentioned by Nannasprite as the crucible of creation. Apparently it’s not safe to be outside during the “eclipse”, so Jade heads back to her tower.

FAILURE ARTIST: We cut to John alchemizing a bunch of stuff, some useful and some never to appear again. One of these things is a Cosbytop computer and that hasn’t aged well. John feels like it’s both his birthday and Christmas and though he thinks that’s impossible these pages came out a few days before Christmas. This fourth wall wink and nod comes up during another alchemizing frenzy.

CHEL: He contemplates a “1980s time-lapse montage” but instead we have to sit through him alchemising everything item by item.

GET ON WITH IT!: 12

Though he does come up with some useful stuff, including a rather snappy suit. By combining his glasses with the PDA he gets hands-free internet, and the sledgehammer, telescope, and Sassacre book together create the TELESCOPIC SASSACRUSHER, an extremely powerful weapon which unfortunately he can’t lift. Nannasprite’s ectoplasm and the gushers make healing candies, and ectoplasm, the fake arms, and the PDA solve the giant hammer problem by making REMOTE GHOST GAUNTLETS. One of the funnier items is a steam-iron-hammer he calls the WRINKLEFUCKER.

Dave, meanwhile, is STILL strifing with Bro, who apparently doesn’t notice or doesn’t care about the fact that the city is being flattened by meteors around them. Not doing a good job of showing “yes, this fight should be taken seriously”.

TIER: Neither does Dave for that matter, fucks given remains at a cool absolute zero on this roof.

GET ON WITH IT!: 13 HURRY UP AND DO NOTHING: 6

CHEL: At least it’s captioned FINAL ROUND now. Surrounded by watching crows, Dave hurls himself at Bro, and their collision results in the snapping of Dave’s sword, the bisection of Lil Cal (hooray!) and, somehow, the splitting of the picture of the record on Dave’s T-shirt; not cutting the cloth, turning the picture of a whole record into one of a broken record, which it will remain for the rest of its time in the story. Lots of analysis has been done by fans about how this represents Bro’s abuse shattering Dave’s true inner self, but in the context, it just looks like even sillier cartoon physics than we already had, if one even notices it (in the rush of visuals it’s easy to miss the first time round). It probably doesn’t help that Bro never actually says anything (nor do either of the other living adults), so we don’t really know what his thoughts on the matter are.

ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 12

Dave goes flying, rolling and skidding across the roof, landing in a rather battered-looking heap but with no serious harm done, and Bro chucks the game discs at him and… flies off on a hoverboard which I guess he has? Yet again, not adding to a serious tone here. Are hoverboards normal in this universe? Like the sylladexes, it was never established. Dave messages John, matter-of-factly telling him “bro just kicked my ass”. It’s still unclear how literal John thinks this ass-kicking is.

BRIGHT: This is apparently a universe in which some form of combat with one’s guardian is apparently routine, so John might well be thinking of Dave’s strifes with Bro as just a more intense version of a normal practice. On the other hand, by that same token, there’s nothing at this stage to say it isn’t just a more intense version of a normal practice. In fact, both John’s and Dave’s reactions suggest this is the case.

The problem really comes later on. If Dave’s situation is going to be taken seriously, then so should everyone else’s. Right now, although there are suggestions that all is not well, the tone of the text takes none of these situations seriously. It keeps everyone on a more even footing.

CHEL: Back on the golden moon, the eclipse is happening; during same, the moon and Jade’s tower thereupon, which are chained to the planet, swing right inside Skaia, surrounding it with clouds. On the surface of the clouds, we see images of events which happened earlier, including John’s house in the Medium, Rose’s house aflame, the tree in the desert, and the meteors falling on Dave’s city. This, we gather, is from where Jade obtains her mysterious information!

Dream Jade types messages to John, while the Dreambot types them out on a keyboard in the real world so he can actually get them. We proceed to see the same conversation about the package and SBurb we saw when Jade was first introduced, but this time I think a recap of it is actually pretty useful, especially the reference to the explosion. What happens is a little hard to parse, but as far as I can make out, a cloud shows a vision of a meteor emerging from a space portal, and the meteor actually emerges from the vision, becoming a cloud in the process. Said cloud-meteor then passes into a vision of Jade’s island when the volcano was still active and strikes down as the real meteor did in that time period. Jade, in her tower, hears it; I guess this is why it’s not safe to go outside during the eclipse?

In the volcano vision, we pull into a close-up shot of the lava-filled crater beneath the volcano, and a very familiar featureless canine head starts to emerge from it. Creepy.

Jade leaves the tower to check, and finds a vision of the lava with a blossom-like lit-up spirograph emerging from it, but when she tries to look, vision-Bec blocks her view of it, as the real Bec flies back and forth in front of the Dreambot. She messages John again, saying Bec doesn’t want her to go near the meteor crash site.

In John’s dream tower, the bed is empty; Dream John is now hovering outside it, eyes firmly shut. Jade sees him and drifts toward him, while John’s eyes slowly open. (This bit fuelled a fair amount of shipping at the time.) We see again the shaped clouds and the slowly approaching silhouette of Jade, revealing this to be the time when John fell asleep earlier, and at the exact same moment, real Jade and real John awake.

Again, we have a repeated conversation, this one being the one where Jade implores John to wake up. Now we know what she meant! Again, I think recapping this is reasonable, but maybe it could have been trimmed down so we just got the important points? That should have been done with all the repeat convos, really.

TIER: Personally speaking the little blurbs of repeated conversation shown during the flash would've gotten the point across without having to completely rehash the conversations.

With Jade awake properly, we get another convo rehash (now with proper context from both sides). Jade then consults her COLORFUL REMINDERS, as the visions of past and future events visible in the clouds as she sleeps can get very confusing very fast and the things help her put everything into usable info! With is fitting because dreams are trippy and easily forgotten. Jade notes two things: that this time there wasn't that much of future being shown, and that this is the first time that her dog guardian Bec has shown up a dream.

Bec has apparently never let Jade wander into the weird temple that is such a strange landmark of her island, but with the overpowered pooch taking a nap at the feet of his master's corpse, this is a good a time as any to try and pull one over him!

As Jade zip lines towards the temple and Rose continues construction on John's house, we cut back to Dave in the aftermath of the strife.

Dave is slightly saddened by poor Cal's “unfortunate” bisection (personally I was hollering because fuck that thing Jesus). His strife kind has also been turned into a ½ bladekind, courtesy of Bro fucking up his shit blade. Fucking rude man.

BRIGHT: Fighting with half a sword never seems to hinder Dave, but it still seems a silly thing to do when Bro quite possibly knew Dave was headed into heavy combat. It’s funny at the time though!

FAILURE ARTIST: When I first read Homestuck, I was sad Bro didn’t seem to care about Lil Cal, but with later revelations...would be better if that puppet never existed.

TIER: Dave attempts to grab the beta that he worked so hard for, but wouldn't ya know it his dang inventory is all filled up. Mostly with useless crap, as Dave admits as well. After a quick setup change for his modus, Dave finally has the beta! Congrats!!

CHEL: *looks pointedly at GET ON WITH IT count*

TIER: While Dave attempts to pester her, Rose has finished building up John's house, which marks the end of how much more she can help John as his server player. There's not much else to do for her till Dave shows up. She's also nearly done with John's gift, that'll show him that Rose is the God King of, and I am quoting right now “facetious sentimental gestures”. That's a peculiar and slightly worrying sentiment to have. What an adorably wordy yet cheeky little goth.

With that, we jump back a few months into the past, when it was Rose's 13th birthday. She's opening a package from John (signed under his old handle ghostyTrickster) containing the gift of knitting stuff (yarn and knitting needles) and a very dorky yet endearing letter from the blue boy. What a goof.

Rose is then pestered by one of the trollslum inhabitants, this one by the name of grimAuxiliatrix! They type Like This, And I Think It's Very Neat. Also quite verbose this one. Like personally I kinda need to carefully read and reread their words to get what the fuck they're trying to get to. In this case, it's politely bitching about humans while weird time related fuckery gets explicitly name dropped. Mainly the weird situation that is the trolls being/not being from the future. It's as confusing as it sounds.

CHEL: I think here’s the first indication that the trolls aren’t just other humans. Meanwhile, notice that one of the names in the Trollslum is “centaursTesticle”. Lovely. That character will, as the handle suggests, be the source of a LOT of CALL CPA PLEASE points. But anyway.

GA: No We Arent From "The Future" GA: But We Are All Already In Agreement That You Dont Get It And Never Will TT: I thought you said we spoke in the future. GA: We Did GA: Your Future GA: For Me It Was Only A Couple Minutes Ago TT: I understand. TT: You exist in some temporal stratum through which you have communication access to various points of my timeline. TT: It's not that complicated.

TIER: While that confusing thing keeps happening, we jump on over to a younger Dave, whole record shirt and dumb not-Kamina anime glasses wearing. He too is opening a birthday gift, which consists of his iconic aviators and a letter as well. The letter is just as endearing as the one John sent to Rose. Might just be my bias talking concerning how much John is undoubtedly and unchallenged my favorite character overall.

CHEL: I think so too, but I’m still giving him a point for him telling Dave his “gay butt stinks”, even though he is a twelve-year-old boy - it never gets called out or presented as bad that the kids say -ism-based insults until near the end, and that part has its own problems which we’ll get to then. The rest of it’s cute though.

CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 11

I’d like to bring up another webcomic which is known for its incredibly offensive humour; R. K. Milholland’s Something Positive. Specifically, I’d like to contrast the offensive humour of it with the offensive humour of Homestuck. In S*P, the point of the offensive humour is that the characters saying or doing the offensive thing are horrible people who should not be emulated, and even they disapprove strongly of homophobic/racist insults. Here is one of the tamer examples, from 2003 (so later comics have no excuse). Please note the character saying all this is both very drunk and very frustrated by having read a lot of terrible writing at the time, and his decision to do this comes back to bite him later.

In contrast, the point of Homestuck’s offensive jokes seems to be that either offensive things are inherently funny or the writer doesn’t realise why they’re offensive.

John tells Dave he thinks he needs to get out of his brother’s shadow, showing no concern for Dave’s actual wellbeing; more evidence that either they don’t know about the strifes or don’t care. The gift John has given is the glasses worn by Ben Stiller, which John suggests could replace Dave’s current anime shades. John worries that they’re “sort of a shitty present”, which again makes me wonder about the Egberts’ financial status - we weren’t able to find an actual figure for them but those things would cost thousands, so what the hell makes him call them “shitty”? How much did Hussie think movie memorabilia cost? Name of the count aside, we’re using it for when their economic statuses are weird in general, so here we go again:

WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 8

TIER: Dave too is dealing with a trollslum inhabitant, this one by the name of adiosToreador. It's around here that the trolls typing starts to get head tilt worthy. As Dave so eloquently puts it, toreador types like a tool. I mean, lOOK AT THIS, lOOK ME IN THE EYES, aND TELL ME THIS AIN'T RIDICULOUS.

CHEL: AT opens by telling Dave he’s awful, and Dave responds with frustration at having to deal with the trolls yet again. He complains that he’s “wasting good material on you guys” and that there’s no substance to their trolling; he also mentions one of them thinking he was a girl, which I think is the original source of the fandom’s popular female-to-male transgender Dave headcanon.

FAILURE ARTIST: I think it’s just that Dave is a popular character.

CHEL: I don’t know, it started well before the fandom started getting really enthusiastic about assigning identities to everyone, from what I saw, but maybe.

TIER: My two cents concerning this matter is that it's probably a combination of the two. Dave seems to resonate quite well with a great majority of the fans, so from what I've seen they more readily project onto him.

AT: i KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE, AT: oR WILL DO, aCTUALLY, AT: iT'S THE MOST AWFUL THING, tHE WORST YOU CAN EVER DO,

CHEL: The readers immediately start wondering what this thing is, but Dave is unconcerned, and immediately accuses AT of perving on him. Here is where the CALL CPA PLEASE count really starts to ramp up, because on one hand, yes it’s hilarious to watch the tables being turned, but on the other, this coming out of a boy who literally just turned thirteen that day is… uncomfortable for a lot of adult readers, especially since we know his home has obscene material lying around all over it and as mentioned before that can really mess up a kid, even if Bro was not in fact putting him in his movies directly.

TG: and i want to know exactly when i got to clear some space in my calendar for when some fuckwit blunders out of a magical phone booth and makes a ballad-inspiring play for my throbbing beef truncheon AT: sHOULD i BE PERTURBED BY THESE ALLUSIONS, TG: no man TG: look TG: i just need to know when to be there TG: when the stars come into alignment and your flux capacitor lets you finally sate your meteoric greed for crotch-dachshund TG: i wouldnt want to miss it and cause a paradox or something TG: itd suck if the universe blew up on account of you missing your window of opportunity to help yourself to a pubescent boy's naked spam porpoise AT: uHHH, AT: oK, THIS IS SORT OF STARTING TO UPSET ME, CALL CPA PLEASE: 5

TIER: How many words does a 13 year old need for his private parts? Asking for a friend. I get that Dave is a little gremlin but holy shit y'all.

CHEL: To quote Hiveswap, “SOUNDS LIKE SETUP TO ‘RIDDLE’ OR PERHAPS ‘JOKE’.” Or maybe a really weird rewrite of “Blowin’ in the Wind” and I just realised the (in)appropriateness of that song title. Anyway, I’m giving one CPA point for each of those elaborate descriptions. AT, perturbed, announces his intention to leave, but Dave continues.

TG: we're motherfuckin entrenched in this bitch TG: you and me TG: welcome to nam TG: now grab my hand and shimmy your soggy ass off that muddy bank before charlie gets the fuckin drop AT: uHHH, wHO, AT: wHO'S CHARLIE, TG: hes the guy whos gonna read our vows TG: im feeling pretty friggin MATRIMONIAL all a sudden TG: take a look down by your foot see that little bottle TG: stomp on that shit like its on fire TG: noisy ethnic dudes are flipping the fuck out and waving us around on chairs til someone gets hurt TG: im your 300 pound matronly freight-train TG: and my gaping furnace is hungry for coal so get goddamn shoveling AT: oH MY GOD, CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 14 WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 9

Hey, our first double point assignment! Two points for using the same racist joke again, as if it wasn’t offensive enough the first time. And another one for the fat joke.

FAILURE ARTIST: Lifting the newlyweds on chairs is a Jewish tradition so I guess Hussie’s antisemitism didn’t start this year.

CHEL: Isn’t stepping on a bottle a Jewish thing too? Does that count as more than one anti-Semitic joke or is it all part of the same one?

FAILURE ARTIST: Yeah, that’s also a thing. But I’d say it counts as one big joke.

CHEL: Does the Vietnam joke count as a separate one? I’m not sure what the general attitude to those is since about half of 20th-century British comedy revolves around WW2 jokes and no one minds those.

TG: thats what you see TG: a kaleidoscopic supernova of all your hopes and dreams all swishin together TG: radially effevescing arms of more little boy peckers than you can imagine TG: turning out insane corkscrew haymakers of a billion dancing vienna sausages strong CALL CPA PLEASE: 7

CHEL: All the counts aside, I can see what Hussie was going for and the general idea’s still amusing, culminating in one of the funniest bits in the comic when all this leads up to adiosToreador [AT] blocked turntechGodhead [TG] - I think we’ve all wanted to be Dave here. I’m fully aware that this sequence was meant to be somewhat uncomfortable, but given that Hussie later tries to tell us that Dave’s home life scarred him for real, yet he presented this as funny, it adds to the general feeling of Hussie berating the reader for laughing at the comedy. I think he was just trying to pander to the woke side of the fanbase with that, but we’ll get to it when we get there.

ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 13

FAILURE ARTIST: We go to AIMLESS RENEGADE, who has finally run out on his clip without hitting anyone. Apparently, some nitpicker on the forum (not me) pointed out the AR’s gun is magazine-fed, not clip-fed, but AR doesn’t give a shit about that.

CHEL: “A clip is not a magazine, a mag is not a clip; neither is a grip a stock, and "stock" does not mean grip.”

FAILURE ARTIST: AR examines the murals and declares the amphibian and reptilian images illegal pictography. AR arms themselves with a rocket launcher but wonders if they should befriend WV and PM - particularly PM. However, AR decides the two have committed too many crimes that make AR’s carapace steam. AR dresses as a judge (to complement WV as a mayor and PM as a mail carrier) and declares order in the court. AR wants to go down the moving platform to catch WV and PM but it isn’t operating right.

Closer to present time, Jade puts her gift to John on top of the monument. The gift disappears, just as Jade planned. Back in the future, PM looks at her drawing showing where she’s supposed to go. The drawing seems to be inaccurate until the tower is shot down. It turns out AR accidentally launched a rocket at it. AR tries again to hit the criminals but is distracted by PM’s beauty. Instead, AR shoots the mobile station. WV throws a can of Tab and PM grabs the package in a clever callback to SBaHJ’s sock ruse comic.

PM gets the package to the Appearifier and Sendifies it into Jade’s toddlerhood, back when Grandpa was alive and shooting butterflies. Inside the package is a letter from John, a too-big t-shirt with a blue ghost on it, and pumpkin seeds. So we have the root of Jade’s friendship with John and the others and her interest in gardening. That’s a very elaborate time loop.

CHEL: Get used to elaborate time loops. Anyway, the letter’s painfully adorable again. John thanks Jade for her years of friendship and for being the reason he met Rose and Dave. He gave Jade pumpkin seeds because future Jade had been upset that her pumpkins kept disappearing so he wanted to help her grow more. Unfortunately his declaration that three people is “almost like, TOO MUCH FRIENDSHIP” was cute at first glance, but given how he has no contact with anyone but them that we see, it becomes a tad creepy. Did he not expect to ever have any friends, or more than one friend? The implication that Dadbert kept him locked in his room all the time is looking more and more likely!

We cut to a cartoon sound effect, WHOP, and You bear the vicious brunt of this story transition directly in the face, “you” now being Archagent Jack Noir. The sound effect is the result of Dad Egbert punching Jack in the face. Jack pulls a switchblade, but Dad retaliates by lighting Jack’s hated jester hat on fire, throwing it to the ground, spraying shaving cream on it, and stomping on it. Jack immediately sets Dad free.

Jade is instructed by the prompt to “Play guitar to summon giant lily pads”, which she does, and it works… somehow? I’m not sure how that happens. Anyway, she uses the lily pads to hop over to the frog temple, finding in it a wall covered in tiny lime green glowing symbols.

Cut back to Dave, who has finally succeeded in installing the beta, and not a moment too soon as Rose’s room is now full of red light, soon to be aflame. Rose is calm enough to join Dave in a SBaHJ joke, and we go into the act-ending animation, [S] Enter.

Dave dramatically sips his fortunately-really-apple-juice and draws cartoons as the game loads, while Rose plays with Vodka Mutini and Jade scurries through the temple. For clarity’s sake, I’ll describe each character’s actions in a separate paragraph.

"Homestuck - [S] Enter [End of act 3]" (Watch on YouTube)

In Rose’s burning house Dave quickly deploys the necessary machinery. There’s so little safe room left to use that he has to throw Rose’s bed into the burning forest for one, put one in the observatory, and put the third on the nearby roof; fortunately Rose is able to get to them all. Dave uses the wizard statue to knock open the Cruxtruder, then drops it outside, breaking its hand off and sending the hand flying. He moves the cruxite to the lathe, where Rose produces a totem for her entry item, a bottle. Rose flings the dead Jaspers into the Kernelsprite and Dave grabs the Eldritch Princess doll to put in too, but the flying wizard statue hand knocks the entry item into the nearby waterfall. Rose leaps out over the drop, successfully catches it, and is in turn caught by a long purple tentacle....

Flaming whirlwinds approach the house; Rose swings the bottle to shatter it, and the meteor lands.

In the temple, we see an enormous flower atop another countdown device, noting four-and-a-half minutes till disaster, but Jade suddenly falls asleep again, waking up with only nineteen seconds to go. Unlike John randomly falling asleep mid-battle, this has been happening often enough to seem to be a legitimate problem with a story-based cause. Keep an eye on that.

Dave, meanwhile, is still in his room, which is now filled with crows. He seems flustered at first, but in a later shot he’s back at his computer with a crow perched on his head, seemingly fine.

Back at John’s house, Nannasprite opens up his newer copy of Sassacre’s book and starts to inscribe the very message we read earlier, so she didn’t in fact know about it during her life. Seems odd that she’d bother doing this rather than just saying it, though, especially since when she finishes, she drops the book into the chasm, where it plummets through grey clouds, emerging over a dark-blue land scattered with tiny lights and black rivers. John, covered in oil, runs up the many stairs of his remodelled house, smashing imps left and right with single blows from the WRINKLEFUCKER and directing the SASSACRUSHER with the GHOST GAUNTLETS to take on the ogres. When he reaches the top, he slams his hammer down one last time and bounces upwards to the spirograph portal, entering whatever’s on the other side. Fade to white.

Generally, a very good flash! Exciting but doesn’t sacrifice useful information for drama, and now two characters have reached their current goals but more is still going on. Lovely music too. I think the Flash animations are one of Hussie’s greater strengths here.

FAILURE ARTIST: The animation was what drew me into Homestuck and this is a particularly good one.

CHEL: A couple of static pages wrap up the Act; we pan out from John’s house to see it and the pinnacle it’s perched on are now looming above the same dark-blue land covered with thick clouds that the book fell onto, which we now see is in fact an entire very small planet. Curtains close.

So that’s the end of Act 3! What does everyone think?

FAILURE ARTIST: It was fun seeing Jade and the Exiles but sad thinking about how underutilized they ended up. Especially poor AR.

BRIGHT: This is where the elaborate time loops really started to kick in, and I’ve gotta say, I’m not a fan. I recognise that they’re a key feature of Homestuck, but I found some of them too confusing on my first read through. (Though they do make more sense on subsequent reads.)

I think on the whole this Act is quite well paced. I really loved the bits with Jade, and a lot of nifty background info gets introduced without being infodumped.

TIER: I wasn't even aware that webcomics on the internet were a thing at this point, but I do believe that it's around here that Homestuck's popularity was starting to pick up, no? This chapter went a lot deeper into the strangeness of the game to!

FAILURE ARTIST:

Homestuck was popular but I don’t think it became a phenomenon until Act 5 when the trolls were fully introduced. Lots of people even skipped Acts 1-4 and the Intermission to get to them. I think a lot of the pre-Act 5 fans were my age (20s) while after that many were teens or tweens. Admittedly, I didn’t do much in the fandom except check the SA thread until Act 5 came around.

CHEL: I don’t think I got into it until Act 6 - I remember the first time I got further than a few pages in I gave up when the Alpha kids got introduced because it was way too complicated.

As for my thoughts on the act, well… Before, I was able to more or less chalk up the racist/sexist/fatphobic/homophobic remarks as being from the characters’ mouths (they are, after all, twelve to thirteen years old) and not the author’s, but they don’t really get called out by the narrative and Hussie has sufficiently drained my goodwill that I have to complain, and I suspect after recent events that it actually was him speaking there, if you get my meaning. Most of the dialogue is still as sweet and funny as I remember it being but those bits really taint it. Hypothetical rewrite would definitely remove those.

I’m in two minds about keeping Dave’s hurricane of euphemisms to AT for said hypothetical rewrite; on one hand, considering his home situation, it’s worrying, but on the other the whole point of the joke is to make AT uncomfortable and it’s hard to do that without making comments that would also make the reader uncomfortable. Maybe if Dave’s home life was adjusted a bit the reader would be more easily able to assume he just picked them up from Urban Dictionary.

Speaking of Dave, his storyline here is where we really start to see a thing which is a recurring problem with the comic. Namely, reliance on theme and symbolism over what is actually happening. If Hussie was indeed trying from the beginning to portray Dave’s situation as serious abuse, then he shouldn’t have chosen to represent said abuse with ridiculous cartoon physics while literally portraying Dave as unharmed onscreen. Dave’s behaviour does hint at some issues, but they’re easy to pass off as related to other things, and swords so sharp they cause printed pictures to change are not most readers’ first assumption for the cause.

Other than those, though, I think we’re still mostly fine; none of the problems are problems with the underlying structure of the story, so it wouldn’t require a huge retooling. That state of affairs will continue on for another couple of acts, but when it fails, it fails.

COUNTS ALL THE LUCK: 0 ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 13 CALL CPA PLEASE: 7 CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 14 GET ON WITH IT!: 13 GORE GALORE: 0 HOW NOT TO WRITE A WEBCOMIC: 14 HURRY UP AND DO NOTHING: 6 IN HATE WITH MY CREATION: 0 RELATIONSHIP GOALS?: 1 SEND THEM TO THE SLAMMER: 0 SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS: 0 WHAT IS HAPPENING??: 2 WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 9 TOTAL: 79

#homestuck #Homespork #homestuck review #homestuck meta #homestuck reread #let's read homestuck

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my-lady-knight · 5 years

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Favorite Reads of 2019

As seems to be my usual, I’m posting this at what feels like the last second.

Writing this year’s post was hard. I’ve been complaining offline all year that it feels like I read far fewer books I really, truly enjoyed. Even the books I did enjoy, they didn’t stick around long in my head for me to remember details. On the other hand, this list ended up being thirteen items long, so it can’t have been that bad. And having to go back to the books in order to write this list did make me remember how and why I loved them, so there is that.

Presented in chronological order of when I read them:

The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay

The first book I read in 2019, and I knew would end up on this list as soon as I finished. It’s also the first book of Guy Gavriel Kay’s where I finally understood what the fuss was about - when he commits to writing three-dimensional characters with compelling interpersonal and socio-political relationships, he commits. The cultural/social details of this secondary-world version of medieval Spain set at the beginning of the end of the Caliphate and the rise of the Reconquista are evocative, and the scope deftly alternates between being vast without tripping over itself and touchingly personal. Most importantly, this book gave me an OT3 I wasn’t even expecting in the form of Amman ibn Khairan, famed soldier, poet, and advisor now outcast from the city-state of Cartada, Rodrigo Belmonte, beloved cavalry captain with a complicated loyalty to the rulers he serves, and Jehane bet Ishak, an esteemed physician whose path intersects with them both. Together they represent the connections and tensions between their respective, secondary-world Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities, cities, and leaders in this secondary-world Spain and form a triangle of everything the country has, is, and can be. A year later I still love this book.

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays by Alexander Chee

This book is difficult to write about, because I remember loving it as I was reading it, but I can’t remember any of the essays very well several months after the fact (see above). What I do remember is that they were difficult, and complicated, and messy, and they did the thing I love when essays do where the fact that the things Alexander Chee was writing about are super-specific to him made them somehow feel all the more relatable. All the essays were nicely crafted stories and emotional journeys, withAlexander Chee tracing all the various aspects of his life through his writing, as an Asian man, a gay man, an aspiring writer, a professional writer, a resident of NYC, and a survivor of sexual assault, using prose that was both artistic and clear as water.

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

Amal El-Mohtar wrote in her NYT review that this book was akin to “Hamlet”, “if [the play] were told from the point of view of Elsinore Castle addressing itself to a Horatio who mostly couldn’t hear it,” to which my response was “huh?” Then I read the book and it a) made so much more sense and b) ended up being an astute, apropos explanation of the kind of book The Raven Tower is. It’s the story of a soldier and companion to the heir of a country investigating the disappearance of its ruler and the ascendency of another in his place. It’s also the story of a calm, patient god in the form of a stone who predates all of history and narrates the changing existence of gods, their power, and their relationship to humans and their civilizations. It’s an understated yet powerful book, full of Ann Leckie’s brilliant and clever writing, world-building, storytelling, and otherworldliness. It’s Ann Leckie. She knows what she’s doing. And it fucking works.

Sal & Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez

This book - is bonkers. It is insane. It is one thousand percent over the top. I kept asking myself “why am I not irritated???” Instead I loved it. Sal is the new kid, a practicing magician with as showman’s flair for the dramatic and boundless energy, and he can open up portals into other universes. Gabi is the sharp-eyed, bossy class president and editor of the school newspaper who just knows something’s up with Sal and his shenanigans. Together, they become friends! And open up more portals into other universes. This book is warm and empathetic and funny and kind-hearted. It’s too-muchness quality somehow worked. The whole thing felt like the literary equivalent of a hug.

The Parting Glass by Gina Marie Guadagnino

This wasn’t a Deep book, but I could not stop thinking about it, nor could I stop recommending it to people. It’s a zippy historical fiction novel set in 1830s NYC prior to the Potato Famine. Mary (or Maire) and her brother Seanin are Irish immigrants working in the same wealthy family’s house, she as lady’s maid to the marriageable daughter named Charlotte, he as a groomsman. Mary is half in love with her Charlotte; unfortunately so is Seanin, and the two of them are carrying on an affair, the aftermath of which leaves Mary in a bind about where her loyalties lie. I love that this book has a queer take on a love triangle that I’ve never seen before, and I loved Mary’s anger and resentment, her unashamed attitude towards her desire for Charlotte as well as other women, and her selfishness as well as her loyalty. I also loved the upstairs-downstairs nature of the book and the clash of Anglo-American and Irish immigrant ethnic and class mores and the larger social and political setting of the city and time period.

The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson

I don’t even know how to begin describing this book. It’s a story about maps and boundaries and borders. It’s an epic of daring escape and adventure about a mapmaker named Hassan with a magical gift and a concubine named Fatima, two friends fleeing the Inquisition after the surrender of Granada, in search of a mythical island ruled by the King of Birds. It’s a story of faith and trust and bonds forged from disparate people, and transformation, transformation of yourself and the world around you because you will it to be so. It’s a beautiful, beautifully written book.

(As a side note, I’m intrigued by the fact that two of my favorite books on here are set during the Reconquista.)

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

In some ways I liked this even better than The Hate U Give. I loved the complexity that arose out of Bri rapping about the injustices she’s experienced, with people drawing completely different meanings out of her words, people wanting her to use her rapping and her voice for differing reasons, and Bri herself working to figure out the power she has with her rapping and how she wants to use her talents, when it comes to financially supporting her family, standing up for herself, and being herself when so many around her are creating all these false images of her based solely off her words. I loved Bri’s anger, the way she kept speaking before thinking, her loving, sometimes complicated relationships with her family and friends...Angie Thomas’s writing and storytelling is phenomenal.

Kindred by Octavia Butler

I’m not even sure what to say about this book that hasn’t been said but, um, yeah, it’s Octavia Butler, it’s a classic, and really my favorite aspect of the book is how it so effectively bridges the gap between history and present and demonstrates how the two aren’t so far apart, and effectively blends them such that for Dana, the present becomes the past and the past is her present and suddenly she isn’t visiting history at a somewhat removed vantage point, she is part of history, her own history, her ancestors’ history, in all its horror, caught in a catch-22 of needing to repeatedly save the life of her white, slave-owning ancestor who over time grows more and more violent towards her, in order to ensure the chronological security of her own life.

The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf

This was a harrowing read. Set in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia during the 1969 Malay-Chinese race riots, sixteen-year-old Melati has OCD, or what she understands as a djinn living inside her that forces her to obsessively count in order to keep her mom alive, a secret she tries to hide so people don’t think she’s possessed. When the race riots break out across the city, Melati has to make her way through the violence in the streets in order to find her mom, all while battling the djinn as its power increases in the chaos. I repeat, this book was brutal. The descriptions of Melati’s OCD alone make it a tense, taxing read - combine it with the violence and unpredictability of the race riots and all the threats to Melati’s safety and her ever-growing fear for her mom and it’s a lot. Even so (perhaps because) I could not put this book down. The recreation of this part of history (which I had no clue of before and knew nothing about) was both immersive and informative, the story was deftly plotted, and I loved how Melati’s characterization and her relationship/the depiction of her OCD and how it specifically affects her in her particular circumstances.

Jade War by Fonda Lee

CLEAN BLADE CLEAN BLADE CLEAN BLADE

*ahem*

The second book of the Green Bone Saga was even better than the first. It took the story of the Kaul family and the No Peak clan and the worldbuilding of Jade City and turned everything up to eleven, expanding the story beyond Kekon into the global theater, particularly Espenia, bringing into the picture Kekonse immigration, diaspora, assimilation, and cultural heritage - what it means to be Kekonese, to be a Green Bone and carry jade and follow aisho outside of Kekon. The gang warfare between the No Peak clan and the Mountain clan spills over the domestic sphere into the international. Espenia grows more aggressive in its moves to gain control over jade at Kekon’s expense. It’s family loyalties and betrayals, it’s gang politics and warfare, it’s community, municipal, national, and international politics and culture clashes, and the changing world of being a Green Bone and wearing jade in a post-colonial world. Anyone who’s followed me this year because of Peaky Blinders - READ JADE CITY AND JADE WAR. YOU WILL LIKE THESE BOOKS I PROMISE.

Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee

With this short story collection, Yoon Ha Lee has not only successfully published fan fiction of his own work in the Hexarchate universe and is getting paid for it, he’s published good fanfiction. The cute Cheris and Jedao backstory pieces of flash fiction he first published on his website are drabbles. One of the original pieces in this collection is straight-up PWP. (How the hell Solaris agreed to it I have no idea, there is literally no plot.) The very last story (also original) is fix-it fic for Revenant Gun that left me kicking and screaming over the CLIFFHANGER that Yoon Ha Lee ended it on HOW DARE YOU I DEMAND TO KNOW WHAT CHERIS AND JEDAO ARE GOING TO DO NEXT YOU BETTER BE WRITING MORE STORIES SET IN THIS AU TIMELINE. In sum, Yoon Ha Lee is a delight, I love him, and I loved this collection.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

A novella about the weight of history, especially painful, traumatic history, and the necessity and yearning for it when you don’t have it. To be forced to bear the burden of history alone is to be crushed and subsumed by it. To lose or become detached from it is to lose connection to the people you’re from. Either way, it is difficult to impossible to maintain a people’s history alone. Rivers Solomon is such a poetic writer with her prose, painting beautiful images with just the right collection and arrangement of words, all while packing an astutely aimed punch in 160 pages.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

I had some issues with how convenient some of the magic/magical artifacts felt, and the various threads of the murder plot didn’t tie up as nicely as I wanted, but oh, Alex Stern is a marvel - a survivor in every sense of the word who embraces that part of herself over and over, even as what being a survivor means changes for Alex over the course of the book. A dark/contemporary urban fantasy set at Yale where the university’s elite student societies are also magical societies— Alex is a dropout who got into drugs as a teenager in order to shield herself from the ghosts she can’t stop seeing, recruited to act as overseer of the societies’ magical rituals, and who takes it upon herself to investigate the murder of a young woman not too different than herself. The centrality of power and its abuse in this book is delicious, the read is gripping, and Alex is worth the price of admission. Yes, I will be reading the second book when it comes out.

(Also, this is literally the second book I’ve ever read that makes any mention or inclusion of Ladino (both Alex and Leigh Bardugo are Sephardi.))

Honorable Mentions

Finding Baba Yaga by Jane Yolen

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

How Long ‘til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin

Our Year of Maybe by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee

The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018 edited by N. K. Jemisin and John Joseph Adams

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

Amnesty by Lara Elena Donnelly

Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse

Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

It’s also been my practice over the past few years when making these posts to crunch the numbers regarding the number of books I’ve read by PoC authors. This year I read a total of 30 books, which is the exact same number as last year, but since I read fewer books this year, they accounted for 47 percent of my reading, compared to last year’s 43 percent. My goal since I started has been to get to 50-50 parity between PoC and white authors, and this year’s the second-closest I got (I reached 48 percent in 2017.) The goal for next year is once again 50-50.

#long post #book recs

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basicshadowhuntersstuff · 6 years

Photo

This week in Shadowhunters news, updates, sneak peeks, and behind the scenes. All the stuff you need to stay up to date.

Official Promotion

ShadowhuntersTV shared a picture: Keeping calm. Behind the scenes of #ShadowhuntersSeason3.

Freeform: We’ve Ranked The Bravest Things Clary Has Done This Season

ShadowhuntersTV shared a picture: Legends. Thank you to this incredible crew & cast (we miss you today, @IsaiahMustafa and @WainwrightAE). This show is what it is because of you. #Shadowhunters

ShadowhuntersTV shared a picture: “You’re a sassy one aren’t you?” ___ Stream all of Lilith’s best moments in #ShadowhuntersSeason3 now on Freeform.com, On Demand, and @Hulu.

Shadowhunters In The News

ShumDarioNews (interview): Nicola Correia-Damude

Hidden Remote (article): Shadowhunters season 3B to introduce Helen Blackthorn, Aline Penhallow will return

Radio Times (contest): Radio Times Sci-Fi and Fantasy Champion 2018 Final

Matt Carter (article): Shadowhunters season 3 finale officially wrapped; new Seelie Queen

Just Jared Jr. (article): ‘Shadowhunters’ Cast Wrap Final Days of Filming

Access (article): 'Shadowhunters’ Stars Reflect On Show As They Wrap Filming The Final Episodes

Brief Take (interview): Interview: Shadowhunters’ Anna Hopkins

Digital Spy (article): Shadowhunters stars pay tribute to the show as filming wraps on final episodes

Toronto Star (article): Can superfans save Toronto-filmed series Shadowhunters?

talky! series (article): Shadowhunters 3: Terminate le riprese della serie, il cast dice addio sui social

Hidden Remote (article): Shadowhunters season 3B welcomes Kimberly-Sue Murray to the Seelie Court

Ms Mojo (video): Top 10 TV Shows Based on YA Novels

Metro UK (article): Save Shadowhunters steps up a notch with London bus campaign

Just Jared Jr. (article): Matthew Daddario & Harry Shum Jr Share Video Thank You to 'Shadowhunters’ Fans

Film Daily (article): ‘Shadowhunters’ says au revoir, but let’s hope it’s not goodbye for good.

TVLine (article): Shadowhunters Series Finale Wraps: See Photos From the Last Days on Set.

Deadline (article): ‘Shadowhunters’ Showrunner & Cast Share Pics From Last Days Of Production

Events: Teen Choice Awards

Teen Choice Awards tweeted: Is your dedication to your fave sci-fi/fantasy actress out-of-this-world!? Submit a video on Instagram for a chance to present a #ChoiceSciFiTVActress #TeenChoice Award!

Kat (Clary): #KatherineMcNamaraSuperfan

Emeraude (Izzy): #EmeraudeToubiaSuperfan

Twitter & Social Media Stuff

David (Raphael) shared a picture: Thanks to all the fans that came out to see @JoshuaHorvath and I. You guys are amazing #saveshadowhunters

David (Raphael) impressed with the Toronto billboard: Sick!

Nicola (Maryse) shared a picture: Okay @ShadowhuntersTV Fans! Caption this photo! @ch8i #Shadowhunters #SaveShadowhunters #shadowhuntersfamily #ItaInstituteCon2 #chaihanson #jordankyle #maryselightwood

Anna (Lilith) wants to see the Toronto billboard for herself: Can’t wait to check this out! xx

Brian Hui (Hair & Makeup) shared a picture: Hair and makeup thanks @theswandive @WineStainedLife and @rschaef9 for the Save It buttons!!!

Kat (Clary) is emotional about filming: Darlin I’m a mess shooting these episodes! (That will make more sense once you see them) Nonetheless, it is magical indeed! @toddzer1 and the whole #Shadowhunters family are pulling out all the stops to make it epic.

John Rakich (Locations Manager) shared a picture: I just had to go for a stroll downtown to see for myself. You truly all are incredibly, hands down the #bestfansever. Thank you all for making what was “just a show” something more than that, something wonderful #shadowfam #SaveShadowhunters #Shadowhunters

Javier Munoz (Lorenzo Rey) posted a video: Just a little #BTS @ShadowhuntersTV #warlockbattle

Emeraude (Izzy) posted a video: Let the magic of these Runes carry me through the last 3 days as #lsabelleLightwood. #izzy #shadowhunters @ShadowhuntersTV @FreeformTV

Jade Hassoune (Meliorn) shared a picture: Last night, #Meliorn watching some epic things. #justwait

Ariana Williams (Madzie) shared a picture in front of the billboard: OMG I am here in Toronto with the #SaveShadowhunters billboard #madzie #ariana #greatestfans #amazingfandom #amazing

Dom (Jace) thanks fans in a tweet: To everyone who has supported us and become a part of this amazing campaign, thank you from the bottom of my heart. The giving and the generous heart helping those in need @TrevorProject in the name of @ShadowhuntersTV is awe inspiring. We love you always. #shadowhunterslegacy

Kat (Clary) shared a picture: Night shoots in the Institute… #Shadowhunters

Harry (Magnus) shares a picture of Magnus’s resting pizza face on Instagram.

Steve Byers (Underhill) is punny about the London buses: The wheels on the bus go #SaveShadowhunters, #SaveShadowhunters, #SaveShadowhunters, The wheels on the bus go #SaveShadowhunters, Alllll throughhhh the town.

Javier Munoz (Lorenzo Rey) posted a video: When you’re on set with Lady of Edom….#Lilith #SoCreepy @ShadowhuntersTV @AnnaBananaHops

Todd Slavkin (showrunner) reacts to the Toronto billboard: As I prepare to tackle Day 15 of this joyous, heartbreaking shoot, with only 2 days left, to see this in one of my favorite cities in the world…I just… #wordscantdescribe #blessedbeyondmeasure #shadowhunters

Amanda O’Leary (makeup artist) posted on Instagram: One of the nicest humans to ever sit in my chair. I will miss our chats. I will miss #magnusbane and I will miss you @harryshumjr #smart #generous #reallygreatguy#shadowhunters #bestshow

Sydney Meyer (Helen Blackthorn) thanks the fandom for welcoming her: Seriously. Y'all are wild. This is insane. Thank you guys so much for the love and the warm welcome. I love Helen so much and I’m so thankful you guys are trusting me with her. The past few months have been a gift. This cast is a dream. @ShadowhuntersTV #SaveShadowhunters

Kat (Clary) offers to answer fan questions for 48 hours: You know what, @toddzer1 that’s a great way to celebrate the #shadowhunterslegacy! I’ll join you in the 48 hour fan appreciation extravaganza! Let’s do this - ask away, Angels! Thank you in advance for your patience with filming schedule limitations! #Shadowhunters

Sydney Meyer (Helen Blackthorn) posted an on-set video: #SaveShadowhunters

Brian Hui (makeup artist) welcomes Sydney Meyers: So excited to welcome Sydney @meyers48 to the Shadowhunters family!

Kat (Clary) welcomes Sydney Meyers: FINALLY! Welcome welcome darling to the #Shadowhunters family! It’s been a pure joy having you on the show! @meyers48

Todd Slavkin (showrunner) shares behind the scenes pictures:

“Girl power like no other”

“Life in the shadow world”

Brian Hui and Isaiah hugging goodbye.

“The warrior stands tall”

Isaiah and Kat hugging

Alec giving a speech to his fellow Shadowhunters

Kat goofing with a slate

Matt taking photos behind the scenes

“Last day BTS Mama and her boy”

“BTS BTS ⁦@DomSherwood1⁩ has a new job”

“BTS Writers room 301″

The new Seelie Queen with Jonathan

Todd and Emeraude in Edom

Todd directing at the Institute

A shot from the final table read

Kat (Clary) tweets a 3B hint: YES! Biscuit and Magnus do cross paths once again. Always a pleasure with @HarryShumJr. :)

Kat (Clary) tweets her favorite scene with Alan Van Sprang: The scene where he rose from the dead and Clary interrogated him. One on one scene with the master @alanvansprang?!? Dream come true!

Kat (Clary) writes a heartfelt message and shares a photo when Luke Baines wraps 3B.

Kat (Clary) writes a heartfelt message and shares a picture when Jade Hassoune wraps 3B.

Javier Munoz (Lorenzo Rey) shares a picture: Hair/Make-Up trailer. Yesterday. The impact of this show and these creators pictured here will last generations. Thankful to have been in their company. @ShadowhuntersTV #PositiveRepresentation #Allies @Kat_McNamara @MatthewDaddario @HarryShumJr

Jade Hassoune (Meliorn) posted his goodbye to Meliorn on Instagram: Farewell my Epic Friend. Becoming One with you felt right, like some sort of orchestrated destiny. You will be a part of me forever. Onward we go, with the heart of a noble warrior. #Meliorn out! ✌🏽️🍂🍃 #Shadowhunters #TheMortalInstruments

Anna Hopkins (Lilith) shares a photo of her and Todd.

Jade Hassoune (Meliorn) shares a video saying goodbye to Meliorn: #Meliorn out! #Shadowhunters #TheMortalInstruments

Emeraude (Izzy) shared a photo with Harry, Kat, Alberto, Jade, Matt and Javier: #Izzy can do anything with friends like these. #Shadowhunters #IsabelleLightwood @ShadowhuntersTV @FreeformTV

Taylor Mallory (writer) shared a video: Found this gem on my phone of us locking @TatoBins out of the @ShadowhuntersWR during a coffee delivery. Writing S3 with these folks was way too much fun. #shadowfam

Anna Hopkins (Lilith) posted on Instagram: What operating a camera in hell looks like! Gnight #shadowhunters, thank you for having me back for the finale, and thank you to the wonderful cast and crew and fans. Love you all. 😈😭🔥🖤

Kat (Clary) shared a BTS video of her Clary makeup transformation: One last time into the Fray… Here we go, Angels. #ShadowhuntersLegacy #Shadowhunters featuring my hair prep buns, McGuire Stunts shirt, @bribriguy23, and a few guest dancers… can you guess who?

Steve Byers (Underhill) tweeted on his last day: Last day here on #Shadowhunters and I have to tell you that @Kat_McNamara is one of a kind. I’m convinced that a show can only be as nice to work on as it’s lead cast and this is no exception. We are all made of stardust but this girl is a star. Xox Underpants.

Javier Munoz (Lorenzo Rey) posted a video: You wont see it under my costume; I just REEEEEAAAALLY wanted to wear one so….My first rune! @ShadowhuntersTV #LorenzoRey @BriBriGuy23

Lola Flanery (Young Seelie Queen) shared a picture from her very first day on set and a message about the show.

Taylor Mallory (writer) shares a light-hearted BTS video of the Gard’s execution platform.

Brian Hui (makeup artist) shares a picture: @JMunozActor and I decided to get some Dim Sum at the Jade Wolf!

Todd Slavkin (showrunner) tweets the 3B wrap: And that’s a wrap #shadowhunters #ShadowhuntersLegacy

Maxim Roy (Jocelyn) posted an homage to Kat McNamara on Instagram.

Kat (Clary) tweets a message and pictures: When one door closes… that’s a wrap on Clary Fairchild. #FrayFriday #ShadowhuntersLegacy #Shadowhunters

Javier Munoz (Lorenzo Rey) shares a thank you video: Thank you @ShadowhuntersTV #BucketList #LorenzoRey #GRATITUDE

Harry (Magnus) posted a heartfelt message on Instagram and a picture of his transition in and out of Magnus after the 3B wrap.

Matt Hastings (showrunner) tweets: It is with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to my #Shadowhunters family. Together we built an uncommon experience. One of mutual respect, kindness, collaboration & creativity. We pushed the boundaries and made the show the best it could be for our amazing fans. We love you!

Celeste Vasquez (writer) tweets: I’ll say my real #Shadowhunters goodbyes after our last twelve episodes air. But for now, I just wanna say that I’m grateful.

Pete Binswanger (writer) tweets a thread with a number of pictures from set and of the writers.

Javier Munoz (Lorenzo Rey) tweets his appreciation of Kat McNamara: It starts at the top. The lead sets the tone and paves the way. She is a true leader, a rare and precious energy, & a cherished friend. Thank you for everything Kat. @ShadowhuntersTV @Kat_McNamara

Zoe Broad (writer) tweets: Can’t believe photography’s officially wrapped on #Shadowhunters. So much love for the @ShadowhuntersWR, our amazing cast & crew, and our entire @ShadowhuntersTV fam. I’m beyond fortunate to have spent all three seasons with this show!

Taylor Mallory (writer) tweets some BTS pictures of Sizzy being silly.

Aisha Porter Christie (writer) tweets: Hi. Everyone’s doing last day tweets. Couldn’t find anything poignant enough to express how much working on this show meant to me, so I’ll just say this. To the fandom, cast, crew, fellow writers and fearless leaders @toddzer1 and @DSwim - all my <3 & thank u. #shadowhunters

Luke Baines (Jonathan Morgenstern) posted a picture of himself as Jonathan on Instagram with a caption about his time on the show.

David Castro (Raphael Santiago) tweeted a thank you for Raphael Santiago.

Harry (Magnus) posted a group picture on Instagram: TY 🙏🏼

Harry (Magnus) shared a video: Special message from @MatthewDaddario & I #Shadowhunters

Alberto (Simon) posted pictures of his time as Simon and a heartfelt message about his time on Shadowhunters on Instagram.

Emeraude (Izzy) shared pictures of herself as Izzy: #Shadowhunters season 1, 2 & 3.

Brian Hui (makeup artist) tweets a welcome to the new Seelie Queen.

Kat (Clary) tweets a goodbye to Toronto (for now) with a BTS picture.

Sydney Meyer (Helen Blackthorn) shares her first screen shot as Helen Blackthorn and says goodbye (for now).

Nicola Correia-Damude (Maryse Lightwood) shares a picture and a message about hanging up Maryse Lightwood’s stilettos.

Emeraude (Izzy) posted a message of gratitude to the Shadow World and Isabelle Lightwood on Instagram.

Ariana Williams (Madzie) posted a message about playing Madzie and thanking everyone for their support on Instagram.

Javier Munoz (Lorenzo Rey) posted a farewell message and praise for Lorenzo’s shoe game on Instagram.

Sofia Wells (Young Clary) tweets a message and picture: Thank you @ShadowhuntersTV for letting me be a little part of your AMAZING journey! Much love to everyone involved & to all the amazing people I have connected w/ around the world who love the show and the books! Hugs from your Young Clary.

Brian Hui (makeup artist) shared a picture: What to do after an emotional last day? Why party in the Institute! Right ⁦@HarryShumJr⁩ ⁦@NicolaNCD⁩?

David Castro (Raphael Santiago) posted a video: Guess what I brought home from set… Thank you again to the incredible cast, crew and fans that made this ShadowFam so special. Raphael Santiago will forever be apart of me. #shadowhunterlegacy

Claire Hupy (writer’s room assistant) tweets: I keep procrastinating my goodbye tweets to #Shadowhunters because, well, I don’t want to say goodbye! It was a dream come true to work on the TV Show and I had the time of my life working with Todd and Darren and all the writers.

Brian Hui (makeup artist) shares a picture with Ariana Williams and their doll look-alikes.

Ariana Williams shares a BTS picture with Jack Fulton (Max Lightwood).

#SaveShadowhunters (continued)

On June 4th, it was announced that Freeform wouldn’t be continuing on with a fourth season of Shadowhunters. Here are a few major highlights. (Our full roundup for #SaveShadowhunters can be found here.)

Articles

Matt Carter (article): Save Shadowhunters update: A story of many milestones

Just Jared Jr. (article): Katherine McNamara Shouts Out Fans Raising Money For Trevor Project All While Trying to Save 'Shadowhunters’ Too

Matt Carter (article): Save Shadowhunters update: Billboards officially arrive on London buses

Just Jared Jr.: Emeraude Toubia Shares Possibly Final Rune Application Video on Instagram

Film Daily (article): ‘Shadowhunters’ fans be ramping things up like crazy! So what happens next?

Matt Carter (article): Save Shadowhunters: Showrunner Todd Slavkin still hopes for more

Matt Carter (article): Shadowhunters season 3 finale: Last day of filming is here

The Series Regulars (article): Shadowhunters season 3 filming wraps but the campaign goes on

Matt Carter (article): Save Shadowhunters update: Ratings talk, Harry Shum Jr. & Matthew Daddario’s video, and more

Digital Spy (article): Save Shadowhunters fan campaign takes over London buses

Matt Carter (article): Save Shadowhunters update: The latest Los Angeles project

CinePOP (article): 'Shadowhunters’: Campanha para salvar a série é vista em ônibus de Londres

#shadowhunters #bss news roundup

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o0o-chibaken-o0o · 7 years

Note

Do you know any muggle universe/au fics?

Anonymous said: Do you have any AU drarry stories where they are like not wizards or only one of them is a wizard? I love your blog so much

I don’t read Muggle AUs suuuper often, but I do have several that I really really love!! I hope you enjoy them!!

Non-Magic Drarry AU Recs

The Heist by @jadepresley (18.5K combined)- Draco Malfoy is a wealthy casino owner, and the Order of The Phoenix are a gang of thieves determined to steal from him.This four part series remains my favorite Muggle AU ever, because it is just SO BRILLIANT and I am still not over it months later. Both Harry and Draco are SO BADASS and watching them one-up each other is so much fun!!! Their characterization is flawless, and I swear this needs to be made into a movie ASAP!

Black Coffee On A Lonely Night by @femmequixotic (21.5K)- Draco owns a café in the city. Harry’s a MP who comes in every morning, newspapers in one hand, BlackBerry in the other, and orders a triple espresso macchiato.Okay, this fic is INSANELY good. There’s lots of delicious flirting, their professions fit them perfectly, and I’m just so in love with the whole thing. Also, the character development!! And just — every interaction is perfect, okay???

Because You Called the Wrong Person, But He Was Into It Anyway by @gracerene09 (1.5K)- Draco has called the wrong number. Harry doesn’t mind one bit.This is a short little fic that’s part of gracerene’s “50 Reasons to Have Sex” series, and DAMN IS IT HOT!! I am a huge sucker for phone sex, and the way this happens so accidentally! And they’re so into it still! And the dirty talk! It’s just brilliant.

Keepers by @jadepresley (9K)- Harry never thought he would end up falling head over heels for Malfoy, annoying git and his rival football team captain. And he certainly wasn’t expecting Malfoy to just waltz right into his office after years without contact. But there he was, blond and stuck up and fit as ever.Another PERFECT AU from Jade, who somehow has an incredible gift for making Draco and Harry seem so… themselves, even without magic. Also I have a thing for sports dramas, and I loved reading about them playing against each other with all the UST and ifkjhdsus

There’s No I in Team by @julietsemophase (13.5K)- When Draco’s babysitter cancels on him, he has no option but to bring his son to work, despite the fact he has an extremely important day ahead of him. Rescue comes from the most unlikely of places, and Draco ends up having a day he never could have planned, or hoped for.I adore this fic! I’m a total sucker for Drarry taking care of a kid, and this one is made extra perfect by the fact that Harry comes out of nowhere to save Draco and look after Scorpius for a bit! And they’re rivals at work and it’s just so cuuuuute and sweet all around

Crush Crush Crush by @julietsemophase (4K)- Harry falls for guitarist Draco, but he wants to prove he’s not a groupie. Good job Draco doesn’t do groupies.Not only is this fic just extremely fun to read, I’ve never seen anything else like it!! I mean, come on! DRACO IN A BAND. Very very hot ;D

Inheritance by @julietsemophase (10K)- Accidental billionaire Draco meets adorable book publisher Harry.YES I realize I am putting in a ton of fics by @julietsemophase but I don’t care because her muggle AUs are freaking amazing. And I love this one so much!! Not only is the drarry adorable, I love how they work together to change the company Draco inherits!

Kissing Boys by @julietsemophase (5.5K)- Harry knows his dorm mate has a secret that’s eating him up inside. One night he finally decides to try and help.This one is so precious, because they’re college roommates and Draco is dealing with coming out and Harry helps him and it’s SO SWEET!! (Also I just want to say that Juliet has about 32890 muggle AUs and it was really hard for me to narrow it down even to four, so go read them all!!)

Yorkshire Puddings by Karina4 (14.5K)- After an unexpected encounter in a supermarket, Harry’s Christmas takes an interesting turn of events.I have no idea how I found this fic, because I usually avoid ff.net, but let me tell you it was GREAT and so worth it. Chance encounters are great, and you can really only read about those in AUs, so give this fic and its CHRISTMASSY AF feels a chance! Also they literally fight in the middle of a super market; how great is that???

#coffee#shop#fluff by @queenofthyme (~1.5K)- No summary for this drabble, but trust me that it is amazing! It’s a coffeeshop AU, only this time Harry has to train a very posh Draco who clearly resents having to work at such a plebeian establishment and it’s AMAZING.

Trouble by @l0vegl0wsinthedark (7K)- Now Draco’s cock is stirring, and he can’t breathe because all he can think of is screaming Harry’s name while Harry pins him down and mindlessly fucks him into total incoherency. Because hell yes, that would be sexy as fuck and Draco is officially in so much trouble.I completely adore this fic!! Not only is the porn amazing, the set up!!! It’s just so fantastic. I don’t want to spoil it, but the plot involves mistaken identities and rent boys (kind of?), SOOOOO ;) ;) ;). Also, Harry is wonderfully Slytherin

Salted Caramel Mochas (Or How to Pick Up Draco Malfoy) by loopyzoop (4K)- Harry’s good at making coffee, bad at flirting, and thinks Draco is cute. And might actually like him back. Why else would he come into Starbucks on Christmas eve?This fic is so cute. Just remembering it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Coffee and Christmas and picky Draco and what more could you need?

#drarry #muggle au #drarry fic recs #rec list #chibarecs #i'm actually surprised how many I found!!#I never realized there were so many muggle AUs that I love!#I hope you all love them too <3 #anon

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loudgrito · 7 years

Text

Ditto-A Ghost/Coco Crossover

Chapter 12- Don't I know you?

___________________________________________

Imelda watched numbly as Coco's hair flattened as Hector kissed her forehead, listened as Coco finished a duet that Imelda couldn't hear the beginning of. Although she still found this all slightly insane, she couldn't deny the warm feeling that swarmed inside of her as she saw Coco's eyes light up when she saw both of her parents together again.

She felt Hector's hand grab hers and pull her out of Coco's room. The minute she was in the living room, however, she began pacing, twirling her wedding ring over and over on her finger. Her eyes flitted back and forth as she ran over everything that had happened in the past few hours in a manner of seconds. She seemed to be assessing her own mental health in her mind as she took each step, and Hector could only reach out to her as she passed.

Even though he had seen it before, her feverish worry and movement never failed to make him anxious.

He grabbed her arm, and she stopped dead, eyes glaring and searching the area where his features were etched in worry. Although she couldn't see him, she could just imagine the same face she had seen many times before, eyebrows furrowed and nose crinkled, eyes full of the most tender kindness and concern Imelda had ever seen.

She took a deep breath, and almost lost herself leaning into his touch as he caressed her cheek.

Ay, dios, she missed him.

She caught herself just as the words,

"Oh, mi amor"

were about to escape her lips, and steeled herself. She glared at the level she was used to-where she knew his big brown eyes were staring worriedly down at her-and said,

"Look. I still want to believe that this is just a very vivid nightmare, but this is still to strange to wrap my mind now. What you're asking us to do is dangerous-and frankly, stupid-so I have no doubt believing that it is YOUR plan, so I am going to need to be on my best wits to get you out of trouble, but Coco as well when you drag her into your stupid ideas. I'm going to bed. You will stay down here, and we will figure out how to go about your estupido plan tomorrow morning."

She turned on her heel, skirt flowing around her calves, and moved towards the stairs. Before she could reach the door to their bedroom, she glared at the spot where she had left him last.

"And don't follow me."

She closed the door, and the finality of her statement hung in the air.

Hector chuckled. This was the Imelda he knew.

He settled onto the couch and stared at the ceiling, waiting for morning.

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

Now, Imelda huffed and pulled her coat tighter around her, squeezing Coco's hand as they faced the biting cold of the New York air. She looked back and forth, skeptically eying the buildings around her. She trusted the pull of Coco's hand and the pressure of the phantom hand on her back to guide her. Such thoughts as,

'What am I doing. Why am I doing this? This can't be real. I'm going insane. I'm going-'

kept running through her mind, and as much as she wanted to write this off as a bad dream, she couldn't deny it. Something in her had soared when she had finally felt his touch after months of longing, and she couldn't deny that she was-in a way-strangely comforted by the thought of his presence.

But it was still too strange.

Hector could see the dark circles under her eyes-covered in her usual makeup as they may be-and she could tell instantly that she hadn't gotten enough sleep.

And honestly, he couldn't blame her.

Coco looked back at her father, smiling as she savored the image of her Papa smiling down at the two of them and her Mama carrying the same look she always did when she came to unfamiliar parts of the city (and usually on escapades lead by her Papa). Coco began to skip along, happy that her family was-more or less-back to normal. Although Imelda would have told her to calm down, she backed off and let her daughter revel in the most genuine happiness she had seen out of her mi'ija since her father's death.

Hector smiled at the two of them, but stopped them abruptly as a brightly lit marquee caught his eye. Imelda's sharp look dissipated almost immediately when she saw what lie in front of them.

Ay, dios.

Both Hector and Imelda could instantly understand why Ernesto-a man who never wanted anything less than the best-would have bought out such a place. It was the downtown equivalent of the Radio City Music Hall, with only slightly less splendor. Hector and Imelda cranked their necks in unison to catch the full scope of the marquee as Coco read the posting outside the doors.

"Mama, Papa! It says he plays at 7!"

Imelda looked down at her watch.

"It's 6:35. We have just enough time to catch him before he goes on."

She turned to Coco, who looked at Hector. Coco tried to open the door, only to find it locked. Hector snorted.

"Closed Marquee. The bum."

Coco giggled and Imelda glared. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot, high heeled boots clicking.

"Well?"

Hector smiled and slipped through the big oak doors, easily picking the lock and turning the knob to admit his wife and daughter. Imelda took Coco's hand and led her inside, Hector following in their wake. Imelda looked over her shoulder and whispered,

"Tell us where to go, idiota, so we can get Coco out of here. I don't want her anywhere near that man."

Hector nodded and placed a hand on her shoulder, guiding her as she scooped up Coco in her arms. As they passed the seating area to reach the backstage doors, Imelda gasped.

That was a lot of people.

Ernesto hadn't been kidding when he said he had gathered a following. There were people of all kinds lounging at the small tables and chair, milling in the standing area, and chatting in the boxes.

Imelda even thought she could see her friend Jade in the corner.

She didn't have time to dwell on the sheer number of people, as Hector pulled them through the (newly unlocked) stage door. Coco looked around at all of the flashy costumes the backup dancers were wearing-really? Since when did Ernesto have backup dancers?-and the bright sets that were laying against the walls-oh come on!-eyes full of the same wonder they always held whenever her father performed. Imelda and Hector both looked around in a mix of disgust and numbed awe.

Could this man's ego get any bigger?

Imelda set Coco down and clutched her hand, reminding herself of the plan.

Find Ernesto, give him a piece of her mind, and make him pay for his crimes.

All without-preferably-hurting Coco or getting her hands dirty.

She was a lady, after all.

She was too caught up her thoughts that she didn't notice that she was rounding a corner.

Coco and Hector's cries of,

"Look out!"

Went unnoticed.

That was, until, she ran right into Ernesto himself.

She recovered first, shaking herself off and staring at him. He took a little extra time, dusting off his white suit and adjusting his hat before looking up. The look of surprise that crossed his face would have been priceless in any other context.

"Imelda? What are you-"

SMACK!

Before he could get another word out, Imelda took off her boot and slapped him across the face, breaking the heel in the process but secretly reveling in the feeling. Before he could register what had happened, she was pointing the shoe at him like a sword and glaring at him.

"THAT WAS FOR MURDERING THE LOVE OF MY LIFE!"

Hector was taken aback.

He knew she still loved him.

Unable to fully relish in this small victory, he slid over to Ernesto and punched him, hard, across the jaw. Ernesto reeled, confused and terrified.

"She's talking about me."

Ernesto looked around madly, trying to find a way out. Finding none, he did what he always did when faced with confrontation.

He ran away.

Hector, Imelda, and Coco watched his retreating back, and all screamed, in a unison only the Rivera family could muster,

"AFTER HIM!"

And the chase was on.

_______________________________________

A shout-out to the wonderful @minekyri45 in this chapter! If you haven't yet, go check out her wonderful cover for this amazing story!

#coco #coco spoilers #coco pixar #coco fanfic #coco fanfiction #ditto #ghost fanfiction #angst #imelda rivera #coco rivera #hector rivera #ernesto de la cruz

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kallyjadestilinski · 7 years

Text

Yellow Strings (Stiles Stilinski AU) Chapter 3

Here is chapter three which I am much more proud of then chapter two. Please excuse my random upload schedule I have a job, and lot’s of times I work random hours. I hope whoever is reading this story likes this chapter. Thank you @fangirl-moment-x for being so sweet and liking it enough that you want to be tagged in it that made my day. Again I'm really sorry about the upload schedule. Enjoy!

The back of Jade's head hit the door behind her as she finally got back into her apartment, and she couldn’t hold back anymore letting the tears fall as her emotions completely took over. He didn’t deserve to be apart of this world, and she couldn’t help but feel defeated knowing that he saw something so gruesome. It didn’t take a genius to know that the sight of a vampire hunting could not at all be a pretty one. Not even to mention she didn’t get to finish her hunt; meaning she would have to hunt again sooner than she would have really liked. She made her way to her room, and changed from her hunting clothes and into the first large shirt and comfy shorts combo she could find. She grabbed a picture of her parents off of the table beside her bed, and held it to her chest while more sobs escaped. How could she have been so irresponsible? She slowly drifted to sleep where the same horrible nightmare played again, and she watched her parents lose their lives to the hands of the one who made her this way, only now there was Stiles alongside them. She woke up screaming again, like she had every night since it happened. She would shoot up in her bed every night as the nightmare of the blonde vampire who went by the name Edmund started over again. He barged through the front door and began looking for her instantly, saying over and over again that she belonged to him and demanded she leave her home with him. The vampire was insistent on the notion that Jade was his soulmate, and wanted to change her, and claim her for his own. Her parents of course stepped in trying to protect their only child, but it only caused her to lose the two most important people in her life. This time though Stiles was there trying to shove him away, and protect his soulmate, but he too was tossed aside and thrown into a wall killing him before her very eyes. Edmund would walk over to her, and just like he had that night he would sink his fangs into the soft skin on the inside of her wrist before smirking at his job and walking far too casually back out the front door. That’s where she would wake up screaming every night, never remembering the trip back up to her bedroom, just thinking about the horrible night her life became ruined. Only now her soulmate was a new concern she had never had before, and she had no clue what to do. Stiles stayed up long after Scott had left his house just staring at the ceiling, and watching the blades of his fan spin while thinking about Jade. Another mythical creature comes to life with in the city limits of Beacon Hills. “I have to talk to her,” he thought for the millionth time that night. Maybe she could give him answers as to why it was that whenever she wasn’t around he felt as though he had just gotten off of a rollercoaster and was unable catch his breath or balance. IT HAS ONLY BEEN A WEEK WHY DID HE FEEL THIS WAY? He had just met her she shouldn’t be causing his heart to seriously feel as though it was going to beat out of his damn chest. Finally he has had enough, and opens his laptop to begin his own research. Before he knew his father was walking through the door of his bedroom, and immediately regretting the choice. “Stiles, I’m not going to ask what you have been looking at all night. Just get up, put on some new clothes, and get to school. Preferably on time,” Mr. Stilinski was used to this by now but it didn’t stop him from shaking his head as he walked out of his sons room. Stiles sat there staring at the screen completely unable to move as he continued to the read the same word over and over. The screen suddenly went to black as the battery on the computer finally died, and Stiles was stuck staring at his own reflection in the computer still seeing the word in his head unable to believe what he had read. Soulmate…

As Scott walks down the hall he lets out a scream when a hand reaches out of a random classroom door, and yanks him inside. “Stiles what the hell dude,” Scott rubbed the back of his head where his best friend had thrown him on the ground while pulling him into the room. “Scott we gotta talk like now, this is one of the few times I will ever be serious so humor me please,” Stiles had a crazier more wild look in his eye than normal which is the only thing keeping Scott from smacking him in the back of the head. Stiles reached into his backpack to pull out the page he had printed off last night. He handed the wrinkled piece of paper to Scott, and pointed to the highlighted section at the bottom of the paper, and Scott read the passage over and over again. “A vampire has a special way of finding the person which they will call theirs.

Soulmates are a often used ‘legend’ to describe two people who truly love each other. According to vampire legend vampires have the capability of actually knowing who their soulmate is, and the soulmate is able to feel it within themselves as well. They are connected by an almost supernatural bond created by the universe to truly completed two parts of a soul. A sign from the vampire will be the flash of their powers (such as the color of their eyes) when they are near their soulmate. Strength will come with a closeness in proximity, while distance will cause a feeling of unbalance and weakness. The soulmate of vampire doesn’t have to be supernatural as well, but they will begin to feel the same, weakness or strength, and pain or joy, as their soulmate.”

Scott looked back up at Stiles who was sat on the edge of the teachers desk with his head in his hands, “so you’re saying that you think Jade is your soulmate.” Stiles nodded before finally looking up at him, “it makes sense to me. Flash of color in the eyes, the weakness and strength thing, it even says that not both of us have to be supernatural, and I’m about as human as it gets.” “So what are you going to do? Are you going to talk to her about it?” “I have to don’t you think? I have to know if this is true, and I have to know what it means.” Stiles couldn’t stop thinking about it. He wasn’t sure if he really believed in soulmates, even after what he had found last night, but if that was the explanation that made the most sense in the world he lived in then it was worth at least talking to her about. Soulmates… this was insane. One minute his world was completely normal, everything makes sense, and then one night his best friend is bitten by a “make believe character” and suddenly Stiles can’t explain anything going on in the world around him. And to top it off he now how a supernatural soul mate, who drank animals blood, had glow sticks for eyes, and was yet again another person on the list of just flat out unnatural things living in this damn town. They made their way out of the classroom, but as per usual Stiles was not at all looking in the same direction his feet were going, and he ran straight into her, watching as she fell to the ground. He reached out his hand to her, and their eyes met as he helped her to her feet and there it was again, the flash of bright green and he suddenly felt himself almost stand up easier as she made it to her feet. “Woah,” Scott said staring at Jade’s eyes that were locked with Stiles’s. Their green was intense as she looking into the eyes of the person who completed her soul, but it soon washed away when she heard Scott’s reaction and just like that she was gone. Stiles rolled his eyes at Scott his arms motioning after the girl who was already out of sight. “What?! I’ve never seen it up close before.” Stiles scoffed, “they look just like yours wolf boy.” It had to be true, he felt it this time for sure. “Well dude, looks like you might have just found yourself a girl,” Scott patted his back and walked away, but the didn’t stop Stiles from still answering his statement out loud, “ya, maybe I did.”

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mikhailsbluecarnation-blog · 7 years

Text

The Behemoth is The Writer

(A/N: This is Aph England centric fanfic. It is human au, but something happen.)

Tonight was a rather pleasant night with unlikely cheerful night without gloomy clouds hung from the sky. Cheerful laughter and excitement can be heard across the hall, there was a gentleman with jade coloured eyes walking on the royal red carpet lied down covering icey floor. The gentleman was feeling exhausted.

“Oh~ Good evening, Monsieur Arthur! Can’t you appreciate euphonic sounds of music of my glorious party?” Francis walked to him with his fluttery hair floating gorgeously.

Arthur just sighed a bit, “Listen to me Francis, I don’t care about your mien or what so called appearance”, he talked in unexpectedly casual manner.

Francis laughed and back slicked Arthur’s hair. “You are a virtuoso, a very skilled man who can write everything you want. Don’t be gloomy, look at these eyebags” He sighed a bit and gave him a hug. “It is been 2 months, Arthur. You only stuck in your room writing stories. It will ruin your health. Beside we need to study about military, remember? The world is not a safe place now” He held his hand and rushed to the extravagant party room. Arthur nodded and tried to act formal. “Good evening”.

“Arthur Kirkland! A shut in virtuoso finally walked out from his cave. Hola!~” Antonio teased him while giving him a glass of mocktail and a cup of tea. “Pick what you want. You are rich enough to stop writing for a month or two, aren’t you addicted?” He gave a slight pap on his shoulder. “Francis! Thanks for calling him out from his cave!” He winked and walked to Ludwig and others. Francis sighed and walked away, “Au revoir! Antonio don’t be a supercilious man, oui? Don’t be arrogant”. Antonio smiled and gave a slight nod.

Antonio’s gigglemug face that always smile makes Arthur felt unease, he dislike socializing too much. He walked away from him when he got a chance and saw a black haired with height below average man sitting down on the edge of the room, that man was called as Kiku. Arthur sat down and fidget a bit, “I never see you before. What is your name?”, “My name is..Honda Kiku. What is your name?” Kiku lowered his head slightly when he greeted him, what a polite man he was. Arthur got confused and lifted his head up, “Don’t bow! I am not a behemoth or something…ah my name is Arthur, Arthur Kirkland” he showed his name card to him. Kiku gasped and smiled, “I am a big fan of yours. I worked in library and always be pleasured when there are books written by you. I myself have some books as well, the satire jokes are good” Kiku stuttered a bit and fidgeted. Arthur turned his head away, “T..thank you..very much. I just love to read, that is all. Where are you working? Which library?” He said while looked at the brown shade eyes that bring comfort. “It is small library, but have lots of books”, Kiku wrote the address on a tissue paper and gave it to him. Soon they spend night talking with each other. Feliciano and others does not even dare to budge them.

Arthur walked outside to part and waved his hand to Kiku before walking back to his room. Francis opened the door and smiled “Finally have a friend to talk? How quick!” He smiled and gave Arthur a warm blanket and drink, Francis often came to Arthur’s mansion to accompany him even if he ended up getting ignored. Arthur gave slight nod, he was preparing a set of clothes. “I want to go to a library tomorrow. Can I borrow your horse carriage?” He sat down and drank his warm cinnamon tea and yawned. Francis jumped excitedly, “My dear Arthur! You finally want to go out! Let me drive you to the library, alright? I will buy you lots of extravagant clothes” He smiled and ruffled his hair, “Now go to sleep, you need lots of rest for tomorrow”. He turned the lamp off and lightened the aromatherapic candle and walked to his own room. Arthur felt sleepy and tuckes himself under blanket, “Night…”.

Morning came, Arthur already well prepared then walked coming down to dining room to eat. A plate of mashed potatoes and cooked vegetables already have been prepared, he ate it a bit by a bit while daydreamed slightly like he oftenly did. He wanted to know about outside world.

Francis came while brushing his hair, “You sure up early” he gave a soft smile and started eating together with him. “Big brother got drunk last night”. Arthur laughed a bit and snickered, “It is a habit huh?” Then they just teased each other until finished eating. Arthur drank his tea and walked outside and waited next to the car with his top hat to symbolized his high social position, together with Francis. They went to a corner of dull monochrome city into a suburban with fresh air and blue sky, finally they saw the library.

Arthur covered his face with his hand when some citizens looked at the him, the visitor. Francis chuckled and used his umbrella to cover him, “Please make a way for this gentleman’s steps”. They moved away and Arthur opened the door and see Kiku numbering the books, “Kiku! Remember me? This is me, Arthur Kirkland!” He shook his hand, “This library have pleasant atmosphere, a cheerful one” he enjoyed the air here. He saw Yao and Ludwig talking and read their books, Francis walked and sat there talking with others excitedly. Kiku smiled and nodded, “Thank your for the visit, Arthur-san. Do you want to see some books?”, Arthur beamed “Encyclopedia!” His eyes expressed high spirit and he followed Kiku when he showed him the way to the shelves.

Arthur read lots of things with Kiku, oddly he got interested with weaponry, war strategies and self defense. He took some notes on his little green notebook, Ludwig noticed it and he walked to Arthur. He sighed and held the book down, “Arthur, don’t be a behemoth and like Faustus. Don’t sell your your soul for knowledge” He kindly persuade Arthur to calm down and taking rest. Arthur has not realized the meaning of what Ludwig talking about only can stay in his own confusion, “I don’t know what you are talking about”. Ludwig sighed, he tried to break the cycle of this.

Years come and passed, Arthur was as famous like Rennainsance men, he excels in many fields and become a strong influencer in many fields, he made many books and assigned to work in organizations especially law involved. There was an incident that change the world before we knew it, Arthur nowstudied black magic and cram in a flash but the burden was too big. His heart got tainted too quickly, his sight for thinking got clouded and dark. If this world is a world of demons surely the devils march sing hymne to blood moon. Arthur decided to stop researching for a night and sleep, there was something makes him wonder.

It was immortality, how to achieve immortality? Arthur wants to know it. With all the things he had now, he wants to be immortal to kept himself alive. Weeks passed and he indulge himself in scientific researches books. Antonio and Ludwig came inside Arthur’s bedroom and suprised with scribbled papers around the room, Ludwig looked discomfort, he approached Arthur whom is sleeping on his chair, there was papers written ‘Immortality’ everywhere with red ink, almost like a blood. How frightening. Ludwig took the papers and fold it into his pockets.

Antonio was aware but pretended not to be, he carried Arthur to his bed. “I am worried” Antonio frowned and looked at Ludwig. “I don’t like seeing this, what does he trying to achieve? He already excels in many things.”. Ludwig sighed and looked at the window, “You can say I am crazy or a fraud, but I have guts feeling and dream about we were immortal beings and the world is in chaos then we destroy ourselves” he looked at Antonio. Antonio froze and he nodded, “Me too..I..have feelings like that too, it is as if we are getting toyed by history. We are us but we are not us” he held Ludwig’s shoulder. “We can 'kidnap’ him later, once we have more allies.”.

Weeks passed, An announcement was made on newspapers, a research that looking for granting immortality finally suceed. Ludwig, Kiku, Antonio, Francis and Ivan felt unease about this, their nightmare got more intense and felt almost real. It was pure insanity for both side. They barged in Arthur’s room when Arthur was not there. They found frightening drawing from black magic, also writings about everything exist in this world from his journey around the world. Arthur is now a behemoth, a powerful man. Ivan looked unbudged, but his power got disturbed a lot. Ivan looked irritated, “I don’t like this. He is too powerful, he does not know when and how to stop”. Ludwig and Kiku nod in agreement, “Time to stop this”.

Arthur walked tiredly on the street, he did not rest well and his emotions got messed up but magically stay in control, must be the power of his mind. He took a deep breath, “I can do this splendidly, even if my allies does not support me”. He whistled happily, suddenly a big black horse carriage came and a hand pulled him inside, Arthur was not be able to scream. Arthur blinked and saw Ludwig, “Ludwig! What were you doing??” He coughed and sat down with others. Antonio hugged Arthur, “Arthur, stop this. We feel something terrible will happen. There is nothing good with immortality, only loneliness. Trust us!” He showed the paper with red ink on it.

“But did not we humans fear death the most? Our time stop and there is no more things ahead us” Arthur tried to calmed himself down. “I don’t understand…” He held his head, “I feel like I forgot something. If it is something good, then everyone wants it right? Nothing wrong with it”. Francis bit his finger, “Ar…ah…Angleterre. do you remember that name?” He looked at Arthur. Arthur’s spine shivered, he remembered something. “I REMEMBER!” He shouted then stop in silent for few moments. “I…it means I just pushed the end of era and bring darkness for human evolution. I need to stop this. I remember everything. The reason why time feels different and things always feels strange. We were not human”. 'We were not human’ that words is what others fears the most, atmosphere felt heavier and life feels like a permanent sentence for sins of bloodshed acts on past.

“Arthur! You have to destroy everything! Any traces of research of immortality! Humans must not know about this. This is out of their league!” Kiku looked worried, his skin getting pale. Arthur nodded, “5 minutes before they spread the potion of immortality” he opened the door and dashed outside after given a molotov bomb. Yao sighed, “He won’t make it. I can already see it. Life always betray us” he gave a bitter smile.

Arthur could not caught up with it, he saw many people drink the potion of hope for living that will make the world turned lunatic. Arthur’s glorious controversy visionary become vision showing frightening chaotic party. In half year, People doing suicide many times and failed, their brain is not as messed up their emotional state, many become manics and attack others with guns and anything to betrays and harm others and themselves.

Arthur shut down himself in a bunker, he punished himself that way while gettig trapped in fear and guilt. Ludwig and others tried to solve this disasterous era filled with sins and blood. That day was the last day they were alive.

All of them felt drowsiness, the now humans former nations. They fell asleep and when they open their eyes it was only darkness. The ruler of universe talked,

“Even with altering memories, being given a short life. It does not mean mistakes can’t be stopped huh? How does it feel repeating things over and over?”.

“I don’t want to exist” Arthur whispered to himself, “I remember everything. The world won’t be so empty without me” his voice shook with fear. Francis shouted, “No!! It will be too lonely! I need someone to be teased”

His wish granted, they moved to a new world, a world without Arthur. It was a rather a boring and empty feeling like world.

~End~

A/N: Finally I can try making original Hetalia fanfic! It is rather heavy topics and might be a bit OOC and gone downhill pretty quick. Sorry there is no romance if you are looking for one!

#aph japan #aph england #aph italy #aph germany #aph france #aph spain #my story #fanfic #hetalia fanfic

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mafiabosstsuna · 8 years

Note

Hi ! Can we get a continuation of the Vongola using the 10 yr bazooka and breaking up with their s/o but Intsead of acknowledging it and sadly moving on they try and win their s/o back ? For Tsuna , Hibari & Mukuro please ? ? Ps I would just like to say thank you to all admins running this blog. The query you held a little while ago was amazing and I took delight in reading all of it !

COMPLETED

~I would like to thank the asker- a-court-of-nightmares- for this opportunity. Just so everybody knows I am absolutely honored to be taking this up where it left off. Admin Reborn is hella talented. Just for that I am breaking my rule of headcanons only. I can only wish that my writing this will do the ask justice. I hope you enjoy.

P.S.: In case you guys don’t know about the submission we are referring to then you can find it here: http://mafiabosstsuna.tumblr.com/post/150134511107/can-we-have-vongola-10th-generations-reaction~

admin Adelheid

Tsuna

Somehow Tsuna made it to the meeting place. He waved off the negligent attendant’s apologies distractedly and took a seat in the chair that had been reserved for him. Recklessly he ordered a bottle of brandy and a glass filled with ice hoping he could distract himself with enough drink to unsee what he had seen just a few minutes ago.

He wanted nothing more than to curl up in his chair back in the mansion with a bottle of better brandy than this shit he was being currently served and wallow in his defeat. He wanted time. Time to get over you again. Time to pick up the shattered pieces of the broken heart he now thinks he may have brought upon himself.

“Sir, the client has arrived.”

Tsuna looked up, his expression sour. His eyes widened however when he recognized the man who was now looking at him with hat in hand, shoulders and head bent in humility.

It was the man you were with out on the street earlier!

“Sir,” the escort still by your side began introducing the man. “He is the one asking for the loan extension.”

Tsuna kept his face composed and flicked his fingers imperiously, signaling for the man’s file and flipping through it half listening to the man’s pleas even as he fought the trembling in his body at being this close to the man that had been the cause of his doubt. Of his rage. Of his poor judgment.

He stopped flipping through the man’s file when he came across a photo of you. You were just sitting there at an outdoor café drinking your favorite iced latté exhibiting all the mannerisms possible on one still moment that Tsuna had remembered all too well. And again he felt like breaking down.

“I see you have a beautiful… fiancé?” he had to say the word through gritted teeth. It felt wrong, so wrong to refer to you as anyone else’s fiancé.

“Ah! Yes!” the man before Tsuna nodded eagerly. “She’s a beauty, isn’t she? Took me some time to get her but you know how women are. Give them enough time and they’ll eat right out of your hand if you tame them well enough, know what I mean?”

The insinuation made Tsuna sick and it was all he could do not to smash his fist into the douchebag himself however… another thought came to his mind.

“If I asked for her as collateral,” Tsuna began. “Will you sign her over?”

The attendant in the room stared at his Boss in barely concealed shock but it transformed into full blown disbelief when their client almost immediately nodded in agreement in a most eager fashion.

“Of course! No problem! I can get the money back in less than a month!”

The cold smirk Tsuna gave him should have warned him of his doom.

Tsuna had surveillance on you; detailing your whereabouts and habits. Making sure that your faithful fiancé did not pawn you off as collateral to anyone else which the man had tried to do several times trying to secure more money much to Tsuna’s disgust. It was only a matter of time before the month is up and not even a farthing showed up to save you from getting sold to him. He’ll take care to have the fool put in prison for embezzling later.

That night your fiancé surprised you by dressing you up and taking you out to dinner to a very fancy restaurant. It had been a while since he took you out claiming he had been busy with work. He had then driven you off to a five star hotel and you assumed he wanted to spend time with you there. You felt that nagging guilt in your heart that you were being unfaithful again. Unfaithful to the memory of the man who had thrown you away but you quashed that thought immediately. This was your life now. It did not belong to anyone else but you any longer.

The moment you entered the penthouse suite, however you were in for the surprise of your life. Because there, standing in front of the wide windows framing the city’s nightscape was the same man who had haunted your every wish every night since he broke up with you. Looking so much more mature, so much more tired and jaded and oh so handsome your heart couldn’t stop clenching painfully.

But your will was stronger now. He made you stronger by breaking up with you. So with a flaming gaze you stared right back at him with narrowed eyes.

“What’s the meaning of this?” you asked, still looking into those gold burnished caramel eyes you have missed so much. The fact that they shone with recognition of you made it hard for you to swallow the lump down your throat and keep a straight face.

“I’m sorry, my dear,” you turned just in time to see your fiancé backing out of the room looking guilty but much more anxious to get away than anything else. “But he owns you now.”

“Wha―?” your words were cut off when the door closed behind him.

You ran and tried to open the door, wanting to demand an explanation but knowing deep inside your soul that you had been betrayed. However the door was locked from the outside. You have had your suspicions and you knew he had been having money problems. You just assumed he was over them when he took you out to dinner tonight. You never even suspected it was going to be your version of the ‘Last Supper’.

“It won’t open,” Tsuna’s voice behind you made your shoulders stiffen. He sounded so near. In your dreams it always seemed as though his voice sounded so far away from you. Like there was a chasm in between yourselves that you can never cross. “I have the only key card that will open that door from this side.”

You leaned your forehead against the door and took a few deep breaths to give you strength. Control, you needed control. You needed strength not to break down like a loser and keep at least a smidgen of dignity in this horrible, horrible mess.

“I am a person.” You finally say, straightening your shoulders but not yet turning to face him. She needed a little bit more time for that. “I’m not something you can own.”

“Really?” What happened to his voice? How could it be so low and yet still be so… Tsuna? It made every carnal part of you shiver in desire. How can he still do that after all these years? After all he’d done? “Your fiancé didn’t seem to think so. He was quite eager when I suggested he make you his collateral for the loan I lent him.”

You pursed your lips but finally managed to renege enough righteous indignation to turn around and finally face him. Your eyes defiant and stubborn, glinting in the candle light scattered across the room. “You tricked him, didn’t you? What did you do?”

Tsuna couldn’t stand being the object of your accusations. He had always been on the receiving end of your loving scrutiny. He was so shaken by your hate that his hand shook slightly as he reached for the bottle of champagne he had set on a nearby table along with a bowl of your favorite ripe strawberries. He drank an entire flute trying to avoid your gaze.

“What do you want?” you continued to question him, your voice beginning to shake with anxiety. “What are you going to do to me? Are you going to sell me into prostitution now? Are you going to make me pay you for every cent he owes you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous―”

“Then let me go―”

“I can’t do that―”

“Then what the hell do you want?!”

“I WANT YOU TO LOVE ME, DAMN IT!” he yelled as he threw the champagne flute on the floor, meeting your eyes with his burning ones, the brown disappearing in a fiery sort of gold that reflected his anger, his frustration, his unadulterated passion. “I WANT YOU TO LOVE ME!”

“I DID LOVE YOU!” you yelled back, the tears hanging on your lashes now as all the pain, all the confusion, all the betrayal gushed from your chest. “I LOVED YOU AND YOU THREW ME AWAY LIKE SO MUCH GARBAGE, TSUNA! YOU BROKE ME IN PIECES WHEN YOU LEFT ME! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG IT TOOK FOR ME TO PIECE MYSELF BACK TOGETHER?! DO YOU?!”

“Please―”

“EIGHT YEARS!” you shouted back, cutting him off as you finally lose the battle with your tears, taking a step back when he took a step towards you. “EIGHT YEARS I WISHED EVERY NIGHT YOU’D COME BACK! EIGHT YEARS OF ALMOST GOING INSANE WANTING YOU! EIGHT YEARS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT I DID WRONG!”

Tsuna pursed his lips in determination as he strode towards you. Teeth gritted, will resolved and heart hurting because it always hurt him when you cried. Always. Always.

“No! No no!” you tried to run away from his approach but he pinned you against the wall he caught you in front of and caught you in a kiss so filled with longing and want and need it made you lose strength in your limbs. By the time he released you all you could do was stare back at him in hopeless surrender, your tears trailing down your cheeks. Still angry, still scared to death, but still so hopelessly in love with him you could barely stand it. “What do you want from me, Tsuna? Please, I’m begging you… I won’t be able to survive this a second time. Don’t do this to me…!”

“Fuck destiny,” he muttered against your lips, breathing hard, pressing his body against you hungrily as he did so. “From now on, I’m making my own damn future.”

Tsuna then whisked you to the bedroom and took you on the bed with the urgency of a man who finally had what he wanted after a long, long time of being denied. He ignored your protests until they dwindled into moans and gasps and kisses and caresses.

To him whatever he said now was useless; he had already hurt you with words. From now on he will show you he wanted to keep you forever using his actions.

Hibari

But even as he turned to walk away the images of that stranger wrapped around you so lovingly, your lips fused with someone else’s that was not him played like a mocking song over and over in his mind. It felt a lot like listening to that damn pineapple’s laughter.

It just wasn’t acceptable!

And he couldn’t help but realize he was being such a herbivore for running away when he could just get his revenge on the man who ruined his life by sending him flying off right in front of you before walking out of your life forever and end this undying regret!

This wasn’t him. This was not Hibari Kyouya.

He turned around, intending to put his thoughts into actions but the sight that played before him made Hibari’s whole being deflate.

“You son of a bitch!” Hibari heard you screech in that way that had always annoyed him back when you were together. You used it on him whenever he was ‘being particularly overbearing’ or so you might say. “What the hell did you think you were doing?! What part of “I am not interested in you that way” did you not understand?!”

“Come on! You’ve been single for as long as I’ve known you!” the man whined in frustration. “Give me a chance, damn it! Whoever it is you’re holding out for it’s obvious he’s never coming back!”

“That is none of your goddamn business!” you yelled back, voice even higher pitched than the last one before turning and preparing to walk away.

But apparently the infatuated pup was not ready to give up just yet and made another attempt to grab at you and before Hibari knew what he was doing, he had his fist dislocating the man’s jaw.

Hibari stared down at the man he had just knocked down cold, his mind a mess of jumbled thoughts of truths and facts that rendered him speechless and still now mocking him with even more malice than the sight of you wrapped up in another man’s embrace.

The truth that he made a mistake oh so long ago.

The fact that he had broken up with you for nothing.

He wanted to throw up.

“Kyouya…?”

He looked up at your whisper and you couldn’t help but gasp at the utter devastation you could see in his face. It was an expression you had never thought you would ever see on the visage of the Cerberus of Namimori. Your breath caught at your throat before reality caught up with you and you scowled right back at him, pursing your lips to keep them from trembling.

You didn’t want to remember anything anymore. It hurt too much.

“I’m calling an ambulance, I’ll tell the police someone mugged him. Get out of here.” You told him quietly as you took your phone out.

But he caught your wrist in his one large hand and then suddenly, his face was buried in the crook of your neck and your eyes widened at how cold his skin felt. At how much he’s trembling. His free arm wrapped around you so tight you just knew it would be impossible to free yourself from his hold.

He took your phone from your hand and dialed blindly. He then put it in his ear and waited for a familiar voice to pick up.

“Hello?”

“Kusakabe.”

And this time it was your turn to shiver. He was talking right against your skin; you could feel his lips softly brushing your neck like a new paintbrush and your tears sprang from your eyes as the memories started flooding in at how you owned them once. It was all you could do not to melt against him. It was all you could do not to surrender yourself to the feel of him so close to you once more.

Lord it’s been so long…

“…Kyo-san?”

“Send a medical team over to the park. Someone’s probably in a coma.”

“Yes, at once.”

He dropped the phone on the ground without even bothering to end the call and wrapped his other arm around you. Just as tight. Just as desperately. And all you wanted was to revel in the feel of him, the scent of him against you and surrender everything that you worked so hard on to survive after he sent you away.

But you can’t. Because even though you were you, you will never be strong enough for this. For him.

“I think you better let go now.” You cursed at the lump caught in your throat that made it difficult for you to speak. You swallowed hard and steeled yourself up. Donning the invisible armor you had honed throughout these years. “Let go, Kyouya.”

He didn’t respond. All he did was hold you tighter and nuzzle his face against your skin like a puppy desperate for some form of affection. Wanting you to take him and give him a home.

And you understood that. You had always understood him despite his lack of words. It was the reason why you knew you loved him. Just one glance, one touch, one gesture and you knew what he wanted. What he needed.

There was once a time when you would have moved heaven and earth to make sure he got what he longed for. There was once a time when you would have offered a pinkie just to make him happy.

But it was different this time.

You understood but the wounds he left you ran far too deep; far too painful for you to risk yourself to the pain one more time. He had left you weak and wanting. He had managed to tear you apart.

“Please,” you begged him in a broken whisper even as you try to step out of his embrace, your tears already falling. “I don’t have another heart left to break.”

He clung to you and you bit your lip when he started trailing kisses against your neck in a desperate attempt to make you stay.

“Kyouya…!”

“I made a mistake. I doubted you,” you trembled at how hoarse his usually smooth voice sounded. It was as though he had been gargling glass all of a sudden and you felt your knees weaken at the raw emotion in his words. “But I need you. I never stopped wanting you. I never stopped loving you. I can’t let you go.”

He then pushed back a little to look you in the eye and the tortured expression on his face coupled by the grim resolution on his lips and the sheer longing in his eyes did you in. But the next words that came out of his mouth shattered you in a million little pieces and it was then and there that you knew― just knew― that you were already beyond saving from the influence of this man.

“I’m sorry.”

Mukuro

He made it as far as the restrooms before he felt his legs give out. Never before had he been so overwhelmed with such loss and longing that it rendered him almost incapacitated. Oh how the Skylark would have sneered at him if he could see him now.

But he couldn’t help it. He missed you.

Always, constantly, like a well worn song that was always on replay. These past ten years were a series of alternate contrasting feelings of him trying to crush your memory and clinging to it with every strength he had left.

Mukuro leaned his forehead against the mirror in front of the sink and allowed himself to wallow in the memories.

He could still remember everything clearly.

The sight of you, the feel of you, the scent of you…

Even after all these years― even after all the other lovers― he still wore your memory like a warm blanket against the cold loneliness he made for himself.

He punched the wall in an attempt to bury the emotional pain with the physical one. He failed miserably.

His contemplation was interrupted when the door to the restroom opened and the man you were with came in and went straight for a urinal. Mukuro observed him from his reflection in the mirror.

He looked like a decent sort. Not devastatingly rich but confident enough in his finances to wear branded clothing. He looked like every ordinary person Mukuro had ever seen on the street and he wondered what you saw in him. He wondered how you treated him.

The man finished and stepped beside Mukuro to wash his hands. He nodded politely at the illusionist as he ran his hands under the faucet and suddenly a furious jealousy rose like a tempest in the Mist user’s heart. Perhaps he can indulge one more time? What was one more sin on top of all the others he had already committed? Surely the universe could look away just this once?

Before he knew it he took over the man’s mind and rendered him insensate and took all his identification and keys. He sent Chikusa a text to tell his minion to pick up the man and take it to their hotel and have him stay there until further orders. Mukuro then gave the man a mental prompt to hide in a bathroom stall and lock it before conjuring up an illusion of the man to cover over his own appearance. Chikusa should be able to open the stall without any problems.

Mukuro then stepped out of the restroom and approached your patient self and his heart pounded in excitement when he saw you direct that tender smile at him again after all these years. The pleasure was so raw and aching it almost sent him on his knees. You allowed him to take your hand and Mukuro almost moaned when he felt your thumb circle the back of his hand as you both walked out of the library. He couldn’t take his eyes off you. He kept bringing your hand to his lips for lingering kisses. They still smelled so heavenly…

You both arrive in the apartment you were sharing with this man who’s skin Mukuro was wearing and again jealousy stabbed at his heart as he saw the photographs and all the little things that declared this place your love nest with that accursed stranger.

Mukuro wanted to destroy it all. He wanted to pour gasoline over every single available space and burn it to the ground.

“Darling?” Mukuro looked up at you with his eyes still in a blind rage at your call. You took a step back in fright at the murderous look in his eyes. He thought you were going to run but instead you stepped forward the way you have done with him all those years ago. And like all those years ago you held his face in your hands and caressed his cheeks soothingly. “Darling, is everything okay?”

Mukuro couldn’t help it. He looked into your tender, loving eyes and shivered like a man finally given warmth after being stranded out in the cold for too long. Your touch felt too good. Your voice made him bite his lip to stop himself from moaning out your name and letting go of his tears.

“Sorry.” He finally managed, kissing the palm of a hand still caressing his face. Taking a good long whiff of the scent that had haunted his deepest, darkest dreams all these long, long years. “I was just… Thinking.”

You pulled his head towards yours until your foreheads touched and you placed a tender kiss on his lips even as your eyes glowed with sad understanding. “Are you still thinking about my first love? The one I told you about last night?”

Mukuro’s breath caught. Were you talking about him?

“It’s alright. I made you a promise didn’t I? I’ll love you. I’ll love you as much as I can. And when we’re married I’ll forget about him. I promise.”

The words made the madness explode in his mind. Mukuro couldn’t take it anymore. With a dry sob he caught your lips in a kiss so hungry, so needy it almost tore you apart. His whole body shivered as you responded generously. Gracefully. Instinctively giving him the comfort you felt he desperately needed. He pushed you on the carpeted floor and tore at your clothes in his desperate need to devour you. To have you. To hold you. And you responded with gentle, calming caresses that drove him mad with want.

It made him insane. Insane that you would give all this to anyone else but him. Insane that he was not a good person who deserved someone as kind as you. Insane that being with you defied his law of karma.

Forget him? Forget him?

Fuck that!

“Darling…” you panted underneath him as he roughly pulled your skirt up. The straps of your dress already torn and fallen around your now exposed chest currently bruising from his kisses. “What’s going on? You’re acting strange…”

Mukuro responded by catching your lips in another bruising kiss and you arch your body underneath him, unable to control your responses to these familiar caresses… These familiar kisses… This familiar scent…

Wait.

“Say my name…!” he begged against your lips as he began to slip your underwear down your thighs.

Suddenly you push him away from yourself and your eyes, no longer hazy with desire but now filling up with horrified realization, stared right back up at him. Your lips forming the only name that made sense in your mind.

“Mukuro…”

Mukuro allowed the illusion over his body to melt off and showed you the need and fury on the face of the man who had never gotten over sending you away. He ripped your underwear off and pulled your legs apart before practically proceeding to tear his fly open.

He was beyond sanity, beyond reason. Before the only person he had ever wanted logic had no place in his mind any more.

“No!” you protested as you try to move away. “No, you can’t do this! Where is he?! Where’s my fiancé?!”

“He’s safe, my love, don’t worry. For now at least.” Mukuro replied, catching your thighs and dragging you back to him. The touch of insanity glinting in his eyes as he eyed your naked skin. “I should kill him for daring to even touch you.”

His smooth voice seduced you, called to you. Even after all these years of telling yourself you were over him that silky, breathy baritone still made you hot and wet and you felt shame at yourself. Because all of a sudden you now realize that no matter how much you loved the man you were about to marry you had never felt this much passion for him. He had never made you feel this insatiable fever. Never made you ache with both longing and need all at the same time in such an intense way that it felt like a descent to lunacy.

“No…!” you try to push away one last time. Attempting to salvage what dignity you have left. Attempting to save what was left of the broken pieces of yourself that you had managed to pick up after he left you, you close your eyes and try to blot out the image of him above you. Trying to deny he was here. Telling yourself you were dreaming. “He’s been kind to me! Patient with me! Don’t do this! You’ve already ruined my life once, don’t do it again! Please!”

Suddenly you stop struggling when you feel a few drops of wetness fall on your cheeks. Despite yourself you open your eyes and your gaze widened at the sight of the dreaded Rokudo Mukuro allowing his tears to fall as he stared down at you with angry passion.

“Did you think it was easy for me to make you leave?! I didn’t make you leave because I hated you. I saw a glimpse of a future and saw you’d be happier with a man who was a total opposite of me,” he hissed at you, eyes unblinking, expression tragic and breathing labored as he leaned above you. His eyes looking back at you clear and containing a raw, naked truth that pierced through you like a bullet. “I thought I was strong enough to let you go. I thought I could bear the loneliness as long as you were happy! But when I saw you earlier with him I almost died again. I’m not strong enough to forget you. I’m not strong enough to let anyone else have you. Why do you think I’m here?!”

You couldn’t stop your tears from falling as another realization dawned on you.

You had always known he was a liar. You loved him despite all that. So when he broke up with you you were thrown into uncertainty. You didn’t know if he was lying about ever loving you or lying about tiring of you. Both sides of those lies hurt. Both thoughts almost brutally killed you. Now you know the answer…

But you are too scared to risk having your heart broken again.

“Please…” you beg even as you felt yourself crumble at the raw, aching emotions in his eyes, his lips, his very touch as he parted your legs even wider. “Please… If you have any mercy left… Let me go…”

“My love,” he whispered hoarsely even as he thrust himself inside you so deep he was buried to the hilt. You bit your lip as you try to hold back the pleasure threatening to overwhelm you. Your back arching off the floor like a puppet caught in this man’s strings. “You― more than anyone― should know that I am not a merciful man…”

#khr #sawada tsunayoshi #hibari kyoya #rokudo mukuro #admin adelheid #tyl ask #emotional men #tyl!vongola

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asfeedin · 4 years

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20 Photos of Empty Cities During Lockdown in 2020

As the coronavirus swept across the world turning our beloved landmarks and cities into eerily barren sites, the photographs people have of their empty cities are haunting to say the least. To see the Times Square or the Duomo in Milan completely devoid of human life is simply chilling.

It sends a shiver down my spine in a way that only these post-apocalyptic vibes could. We’ve all seen some footage here and there that people snapped before lockdown or during their allowed-walks, so we reached out to travel bloggers and friends around the world to collect photos of empty cities during lockdown.

Hopefully you’ve found ways to stay productive while inside but if you’re wondering what the outside world looks like right now… here’s a glimpse!

Barcelona, Spain

This photo and video is from Alyssa, she took it on March 15th, the day she got put in the mandatory confinement lockdown in Barcelona. This was also just ten days after she moved from Los Angeles to Barcelona to become an expat with her boyfriend. They haven’t been allowed outside even for walks (besides to get groceries) for 45 days now, read her updates here.

Milan, Italy

One of the first hardest hit cities in Europe, and one of the first to go into strict lockdown. After almost 50 days, the people will finally be allowed outside for walks.

Cape Town, South Africa

As the words “STAY HOME” tower over empty streets, Cape Town certainly had to be included in our collection of photos of abandoned places during lockdown.

New York, New York

Want to hear some shocking statistics? As one of the most visited tourist attractions in the world, Times Square draws about 50 millions each year. In a single day, 333,000 people pass through. But on busy days, over 460,000 walk through the icon landmark. That was of course, before coronavirus. Now this popular attraction is part of the list of empty cities during lockdown in 2020.

“It has been surreal here. The usually bustling streets have been left like a ghost town. I have lived my whole life in Manhattan and could never imagine seeing it like this, it truly feels like we are in an apocalypse. These were shot during a Friday rush hour around 5pm….which if you have been to NYC before, you know is usually gridlocked.” – @the_wandering_woos

Empty Park Avenue

“Roosevelt Island is a very popular spot during cherry blossom season, and Spring in general. This particular strip across the Manhattan skyline is usually packed with people, and finding an empty bench to sit on is usually impossible. This year, all cherry blossom festivities have been cancelled, and you could literally count the amount of people walking by on one hand. ” – @my.bucketlist.journeys

Washington DC

“I took these at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. last Saturday 4/25/2020 around 8am. It is very abnormal to see the National Mall this empty ever, let alone on a sunny Saturday. All the perks of living in a city (restaurants, public transportation, culture) are now irrelevant, but at least we have it all to ourselves!” –@brianablanch

Seattle, Washington

A normally packed I-5 highway was completely empty during lockdown, as was the ever popular Pike Place.

Photos by @beyond_the_gorge

San Francisco, California

“San Francisco during shelter-in-place. The city streets has never been this quiet and eerie as they are now. At the night time, you can even see coyotes walking around in downtown.” – @paulagaston

Mumbai, India

Mumbai: A view of deserted Gateway of India in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, in Mumbai, Thursday, March 19, 2020. (PTI Photo/Mitesh Bhuvad)(PTI19-03-2020_000160B)

“A city Made of Seven Islands also known as the Financial capital of India , which has never slept after Independence now forced to sleep in Lockdown.” – @ruh_sha_

Mumbai is one of the most densely populated cities on earth, so it’s very strange to have it on the list of empty cities during lockdown in 2020.

Copenhagen, Denmark

Here are some photos from Amagertorv – one of Copenhagen’s most visited squares. It’s the center of the city where two pedestrians streets intersect and it’s lined with shops and cafes, but not at the moment.

Photo Courtesy of Travel Blogger Derek Hartman

Hội An, Vietnam

Photo Courtesy of Travel Blogger Delilah Hart

Streets were empty and stores closed early as locals were afraid to catch the virus from tourists. On a typical day, the streets of Hội An are packed so it’s a harrowing site to walk the empty streets.

Pokhara, Nepal

Photo Courtesy of The Stindy Nomads

Muscat, Oman

Photo Courtesy of Travel Blogger Daisy Li

Muscat is the capital of Oman and the largest city with over 1.72 millions residents. But like everywhere in the world, the city looks bizarrely empty now.

Cagliari, Italy

This city is the capital of the Italian island of Sardinia. With medieval architecture and it’s well-known Castello, the city looks like something from the long forgotten past when

Lisbon, Portugal

Photo Courtesy of Nick from The Nomadic Vegan

The capital city of Portugal is home to half a million people. But as you can see, the residents are taking lockdown seriously as streets and squares sit entirely empty.

Thission in Athens, Greece

Photo Courtesy of Katerina & Maria of It’s All Trip To Me.

This hip, young neighborhood in Athens jams more cafes, bars and nightlife into just a few blocks than some cities do in their entirety. But as coronavirus put the city on lockdown, this hub of activity has fallen silent in Athens.

Prague, the Czech Republic

Prague is home to over 1.3 million people and the city alone receives a whopping 8 million tourist in a single year. These streets are normally alive with the hustle and bustle of city dwellers and tourists alike. But now they sit empty.

“I’ve been living in Prague for almost two years now and seeing all these major tourist sites completely empty is so strange! The good thing is, now that our lockdown is over we’ll be able to enjoy a summer without all the insane crowds. (Astronomical Clock, Old Town Square, Charles Bridge)” – @tori_berkowitz

Sibiu, Romania

Photo Courtesy of Jade Laurenz

This is Strada NIcolae Balescu. A wide open pedestrian street sit empty during the pandemic. Typically this street is awash with cafes, tourists, vendors and the bustle of life.

Dublin, Ireland

Photo Courtesy of Jennifer P.

Like the rest of the world, there is no shortage of photos from around Dublin, Ireland during the lockdown. This street located near the Dublin City Centre remains lifeless.

Photo Courtesy of Travel Blogger Delilah Hart

Ireland ON St. Patrick’s Day

I (Alyssa) received another submission for Northern Ireland that I just had to include…because it’s what it looked like on St. Patrick’s Day! This is one of the empty cities submissions I was shocked to see!

“From the pub lined streets of Galway, to Temple Bar (the busiest pub in Dublin!) and even to the Dark Hedges in Belfast which are always full of tourists, Ireland and Northern Ireland were eerily empty the weekend of St. Patrick’s Day. And Dublin Airport was just as empty the day we flew home!” –@nadyaroundtheworld

Oslo, Norway

The most populated city in Norway, and one of the busiest train stations there, almost completely empty. – @markgerardcox

Ghent, Belgium

“Normally my city is at the moment very crowded with tourist, especially the Sint-Michielsbrug and now I am able to take some nice shots without people in it. Currently doing a staycation in Ghent during my free weekends and it keeps me sane! Hope you can do it soon in Barcelona.” – @msinfinityandbeyond

This post is a collaboration between Alyssa, Emily, and several contributors both bloggers and audience members! If you’d like to add a photo from a major city that’s empty due to lockdown, comment below!

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Tags: 20, 2020, Cities, Empty, lockdown, Photos

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morethanmonotonous · 7 years

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MMXVII

I’m sitting in a park in Pemulway near where the ducks live while Matthew gets what will probably be his final haircut in western sydney. I am beyond excited for what 2018 will have in store, but I wanted to stop and reflect on what the past year has been.

This has been my first year dating Matthew, and I genuinely couldn’t be happier. It’s unbelievable that I’ve met someone so suited to me in every single way - we have crazy things in common that I can’t believe, and having him by my side makes me feel like I can achieve literally anything. I’m sure that a lot I achieved this year wouldn’t have been possible without his continual love and support.

I guess I’ll structure this in some kind of chronological way, I think doing this thematically would be too difficult.

The year kicked off with a party at mine, drunk under my back tree accidentally telling Matthew that I was in love with him. I didn’t think I’d ever be the first one in a relationship to say that but I have never been so sure and full of love, I didn’t want to keep it to myself. It’s been a huge year of ‘I love you’ and it’s almost crazy to look back and see how guarded I was about that for so long, to the point I was crying in my bed because I was so scared and wasn’t sure how to express myself. I’m so glad that Matthew and I can be so open and communicative around our love, I really got what I always wanted.

Unify kicked off January right - huge groups of mates (Unify is always like a cross over episode), including Brooke and Keira, all the boys, and Ritchie and his mates. It was a beautiful drug fueled bender, balancing ups and downs and with lots of quite blurry moments, scatted among songs by Savior, Luca Brasi, Moose Blood, Deez Nuts (and trying to get into Every Time I Die but it’s just so bad). Had another acid trip, which I always enjoy so much. Being in a tent with Ritchie while we were sure that there was some sort of cyclone outside, Brooke and Brad’s tent collapsing, and some kind of post apocalyptic dust covered dance party to the sound of Sandstorm. Nothing makes me feel more lucky than being able to spend time with my favourie people in the whole world being incredibly messy and listening to the best music.

Work was interesting this year, spending my 3rd year at Woolworths. After fighting for far too many months and jumping through every hoop that managers decided to create for me, I finally got my promotion to Senior Category Ranging Analyst, hitting my ‘earning 100K at 24’ milestone. The money is great, the job was fun, managing a team is average at best (who gets kicks out of gannt charting everything and only getting spoken to when people want to move timelines?).

I spent my birthday this year at Dubbo Zoo, which was so amazing. We got a little air bnb in Dubbo, and spent both the days at the zoo. We got a golf cart on the first day which was so much fun zooming around and seeing all the cute animals. We got bikes the second day, I’m so grateful I learned how to ride a bike in 2016! It was such a purely happy weekend of adventure, the cutest otters in the world (Pocket!) and the best company. I didn’t know what would be able to compete with Japan last yeat with Mappy but I was so happy to be able to spend my birthday doing such cute things.

Splendour in the Grass was another key part of 2017, as it has been for the past few years. Went with just Keira this year, which I knew was going to be different. I discovered some cool new bands (LCD soundsystem, Client Liason, Kingswood), and saw some old classics (Smith Street, Luca Brasi, Paul Kelly). Had my first ever bad acid trip (just fucking cold and sick, not really a bad mental time). It was nice to spend time with her in that way but fuck it can just feel like a lot of effort sometimes.

[Death Proof by Slowly Slowly just came on shuffle and that feels like the most relevant thing ever while I write this paragraph]. This year I embarked on my biggest overseas adventure (actually, I think just my biggest overall adventure) of my life, alongside the best human I’ve ever met - I went to Europe with Ritchie. I really feel like this could get a blog of it’s own, and I don’t know how much detail to go into because I know I won’t ever really forget that trip. The first 2 weeks with Ritchie’s mates worked so well, I absolutely loved Amsterdam, and I feel like the fact that they don’t have day weed in Sydney might be a good thing for my general life. It was like nothing else, along with the magic of a new city, amazing people, good food, and the excitement that comes along with starting the biggest trip of your life.

Berlin was fantastic for history but lacking in much else to be honest, it’s so great to be dating someone who is happy to go out at night and get absolutely fucked up but then wants to get up to go to museums in the morning. The Berlin pills were like nothing else, a third and I felt like I was bursting out of my skin but in the best possible way at some tiny karaoke place, singing Man I Feel Like a Woman and Truly Madly Deeply (which I’m sure is the most romantic song in the whole wide world). I also learned that Ritchie can make a sick bong out of a green apple and there’s something magical about doing lines of left over coke and having lots of sex.

Prague was a huge highlight too. I mean, the city was okay - you really only need one day there, but fuck, the nightlife was great. We did a pub crawl which was fantastic, drunk off $1 ciders I bought with Ryan at the servo and unlimited shots for $20. Ritchie and I bought magical Prague coke for basically free (compared to Sydney pricing). I’ve never been so fucked as I was with Ritchie, Daniel, and Jaylan, smoking inside and enjoying terrible Euro pop way too much. Ritchie was saying the absolute sweetest things to me about how I’d changed his life and what our lives together would look like. I have never felt so luck than being at some shitty club at stupid AM, off my face, in some foreign country, with the love of my life.

We fell in love with Switzerland (Zurich), Sweden (Stockholm), and Denmark (Copenhagen), but I’m sure that any future Jade reading this will know that and even hopefully be living in one of those cities within the next few years.

There were so many other highlights, like Iceland, where I’ve never seen so many things in my life that were all the coolest thing I’ve seen in my life, driving through Germany (180 on the Autobahn!), going through that 50 euro tunnel listening to Tina Arena, staying in little cabins through the french Alpes, seeing bears in Bern, beach chairs in Nice, the best bread I’ve ever eaten throughout france, learning so much about various parts of European history, going to the West End theaters, and doing it all with the love of my life.

I’ve realised I’m interchanging ‘Matthew’ and ‘Ritchie’, I think I refer to him as ‘Ritchie’ to others but call him ‘Matthew’ to him? Anyway, I digress..

This year has been a big one of lessons for me about spending time with people who energise and recharge me rather than anything based on obligation. I think being away for 2 months makes you realise who you actually miss, and it was really people like Blake and Milan. I think this really links with my 2016 entry. Having lost Tim brought all of the guys so much closer together and broke down so much of the stigma around speaking about mental health and changed the whole dynamic of those relationships. I am so incredibly lucky to have such a great group of mates in my life.

I started the beautiful cult which was F45 this year too. I’ve never been so close to achieving so many of my fitness goals and I’m so proud of myself. I’ve been working so hard and I keep getting more and more comfortable in my own skin, from wearing bikinis at the beach to dressing sexy for Ritchie. I’m excited to see what 2018 looks like for my fitness goals. This year I did the city to surf again, I didn’t beat my best time but I recovered much much easier which must count for something, I am hoping I can keep building up my endurance and eventually be able to do a half and then full marathon.

This year we went to some great gigs too. I think the best show I’ve ever been to in my life was the Hellions show at Oxford Art Factory, where they played the entirety of Indian Summer and Opera Oblivia including interludes. Every single song was perfect and having the little breaks in songs was the best thing, being able to recharge and get ready for the next party song. I’ve never been so wrecked or happy after a show. Saw Luca Brasi again a couple of times, every time they play is so much fun. Smith Street sold out the Enmore this year which was pretty insane, it was a good show except for the all ages element. It’s always a little bit sad when your favourite band gets really popular - like, I’m happy for them, but the gigs aren’t what they used to be. Saw Ambleside, Columbus, Trophy Eyes, Conor Oberst at the Opera House, Touche Amore, Architects, Ceres, Speakeasy, The Hard Aches.

MMRS had their final night this year, AMPM has replaced it monthly which is great but man I miss the messy nights that were MMRS. Nights at the Quinn have become increasingly important too, I guess as we are all getting a bit older we are more and more valuing spending good time together chatting around a table and a couple of beers rather than getting wrecked (although getting wrecked is definitely still a priority in my life - everything in moderation). I have really gotten a lot closer with Blake this year which I am really grateful for, it’s so nice having such a great mate that I can share anything with.

This year Keira moved out to Canberra, her and James bought a real family home. We went down to visit them, it’s so nice seeing them so happy and settled and in love. It’s crazy thinking that they’re going to settle there and eventually have kids and that’s the place that the future family things will be held at. They’ll be getting married in a couple of months too, I’m pretty excited to get dressed up (in my size 8 dress!) and see them get married. So much to still organise though!

Ritchie and I started cooking more and more this year which I really enjoy. It’s so fun creating something out of nothing, thinking outside of the box for ideas, having our little jobs around the kitchen, and being able to make great veggie food that we can enjoy together.

One of the other biggest things that’s happened late this year is getting new jobs. Ritchie has moved on from Syple and gotten a job at hipages, I’m so proud of him for working so hard on his portfolio and applications to get it and I really do hope he loves it. I got a job as ‘Business Executive’ (generic as fuck) at British American Tobacco, so I know next year is going to be a huge one for me. I’m excited for the challenge, to have a whole new industry to learn, new people to get to know, and to work in a category so limited and restricted, to learn how it all works. I am also so excited about the international opportunities there, I would really love to be living with Ritchie somewhere in Northern Europe in the next few years.

Us both getting city jobs makes us moving into the city such a reality now, I can’t wait for what the next few months will hold.

I got a couple of tattoos to add to my collection this year, my duckies are now coloured, and I finally got my sternum piece done and I absolutely love it. I also got a front fringe for the first time in years and I sold out and bought an iPhone (and got AirPods for Christmas), I’m a real Apple fangirl now. I fell in love with my first cat (Simon / Pablo!), we discovered our little waterfall in Kurringai, I had my first trip to Port Stephens for our anniversary, and we explored Canberra a lot more than we had, but I’m sure we will be spending a lot more time there. Oh and Zoe and Ben got married which was a good night of beers and hanging out with Brooke and Brad.

It’s been a huge year of music, mates, travel, work, and love, and I couldn’t be happier. I feel like 2017 has set me up in so many ways to have some really big years coming up in so many different aspects of my life. It’s been a much nicer and easier year than 2016 and I’m so grateful for that. Having the best people in my life makes me feel like I can do anything and I can’t wait to see what the next year is like.

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bethjordan-321 · 8 years

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NYC trip

NEW YORK CITY on a budget

I’ve been plagued lately by the mid life “this is it?” feeling. The grind, the progressive aches and pain, the jaded outlook.... were all becoming way too familiar. I knew I needed to open my mind to all there is in this wonderful world. Travel is my elixir. I love it. Seeing different walks of life, tasting different food, all the while reminding myself that there is more “out there.”

I love an adventure. It stimulates my mind. I love the planning of it and the plotting of itineraries. I don’t mind getting lost and I don’t mind going off the beaten path.

Long story short, I woke up on Friday am and decided I was curious what it would take to make a trip to NYC happen. I had 4 days off and I was itching to go. Renne was home with me while Campbell and Scott went duck hunting for the weekend, so it was time for a plan. I started by googling train schedules to NYC and found the schedule from Camden wouldn’t work with mine and the cost was still pretty steep. I found that a round trip for us both was 600 or so. But, I knew there had to be another way. I thought if I drove to Washington DC maybe the train would be cheaper. No dice. Well heck. How do the commuters get in to NYC? I finally stumbled on the New Jersey Transit site and called them up. Low and behold, you can catch at train in Trenton, NJ which is an hour outside the City for 16 bucks. Parking? 18 bucks a day.

HMMM. Brain starts running. Wonder if I can find a budget hotel that would work for us? Googled up Bookings.com and found rates that were shockingly low. 25 a night?! That can’t be right. Actually it is…. there are hotels that host people in hostel style with several beds or bunkbeds in a room. That gave me hope, but really, I’m just too old for that. (BUT, in the future, when I go again, I’ll go with a group and book a room that way.) So, a further search found a hotel for 210 for the weekend! It was centrally located by Columbus Circle, Central Park and Carnegie Hall. Shoot. Let me book this and see what happens. Oops. I didn’t read the fine print. I can’t get out of it. If I don’t go now, I’ll lose 100 bucks! That does it. We’re going to NY!

“Renne!” It’s noon now. “Grab a backpack. Find a backpack for me! “ We both packed everything we needed in each of our backpacks – and that’s all we took. Yes, I wore the same jeans for 4 days!

I was scared to death. Really. But, I liked my fear. I wasn’t sure if my car was up to par for the trip, I don’ t have a lot of emergency funds and I had no idea if the train or the hotel would be safe. Nonetheless, I needed to prove to myself that I could do this. So, we hopped in the car and filled up and drove straight up I-95 forever. I was ok. The adrenalin kept me motivated. We stopped several times for a break here and there. I almost turned around in Wilmington NC. I stopped for a long while and thought it out a little more and then kept driving.

At 2 am, I holler “uncle” and had to stop in Delaware to sleep. That was part of the plan to stay somewhere along the way and then be in Trenton early to catch the train to give us a good chunk of the day in the city.

Sleep was expensive. But, Cie la Vie. Onward and Upward…. We drove to Trenton arriving pretty early and parked the car in the almost empty overnight garage then walked 100 yards into the train station. There, I easily bought the train ticket out of the kiosk , walked to the platform, got on the train and left. Somehow I timed it that good.

The train ride through the “countryside” of Jersey is just a sad reminder of where all our trash and crushed vehicles and graffiti live, but we had comfortable seats and had time to plot out our trip. We arrived in Penn Station well before noon. Here’s where it gets tricky. I’ve been to NYC multiple times, but the last time was about 25 years ago. I know the city is laid out in grids and that once you catch on, getting around is fairly easy, but I hadn’t yet caught on. So there we were, with our little backpacks, and Renne looking at me to solve our way to the hotel. Course, there’s really no one there to help. So I stood there as If I knew what I was doing, at a kiosk for a subway ticket, and just couldn’t figure it out. The guy who was loading the kiosk next to mine helped punch in what I needed and pointed me in the right direction. Shew. We were on our way. Renne’s first ride on the subway... She was nonplussed. Like she does it all the time. Throughout our trip, I repeatedly found people to be mostly helpful. Sometimes I’d get ignored, but I think they may not have spoken English, so they are forgiven.

We arrived at Columbus Circle which is on the south east corner of Central Park and after a minute of getting oriented, we walked 3 blocks to our hotel. Lovely walk. Safe. Typical hotel in NY. Small elevator holds 4 people after you open the door to get in. The very basic room had hot water, a bed, 1960’s furniture, and a tv. We would be just fine. I told Renne that we were “city camping”. I’m not sure if I coined that or not, but my point is that our objective was to see the sights. The room wasn’t the important thing. The hotel was the Savoy Park Hotel at 158 West 58th street and I would stay there again because of it’s location and budget price. (210 for the 2 nights). My only complaint was that the bed was like sleeping on concrete. Even Renne noticed. It was bad. Maybe that’s how New Yorker’s like it? LOL! http://www.parksavoyny.com/

We only had from noon on Saturday though Sunday evening to see the sights. I needed to be efficient if we were to get bang for the buck. So, I looked up the bus tours. We decided to go with the Big Bus, one of those double decker clear roof ones because it had two great routes, a tour guide, and we could hop on and off for 24 hours. Boom! We were off.

Walked to the Big Bus stop at the corner of Central Park and it began to snow. We hopped on and rode down towards the Natural Museum of History and got off the bus there to see the snow and just get the feel of the City. We took some pics in the snow in Central Park, walked into the Natural Museum of History (which was being guarded by police in what I call riot gear, Ak-47s and all). At this point, I realize that the bus route we are on takes us up towards Harlem. I didn’t really want to do that at this time because I wanted to focus on the “biggies” for Renne. Although, I’d love to see Harlem.

So what does that mean? That means, I’ve got to figure out the Subway right now. We go down the steps at the nearest stop and jump on a train that seems to be going somewhere. Oops. The numbers are going higher, What? I need to go lower. How do you do this?!

We were never afraid. Not once. We rode the Subway, walked a lot, went to Times Square, etc. I was generally aware of areas to be more mindful in, but I never felt we were in any danger. Although we did walk into a drug deal in the stairwell of a Subway. They just moved over as we passed. Renne saw the baggie…with white powder in it. Rolls eyes.

Tip 1. At each stop there’s a button box for either an emergency (the red button) or information (the blue button). In desperation, I pushed the blue button. A nice voice comes on who knows exactly where I am and told me how to get to Times Square.

Tip 2. I should have had a laminated Subway map because my phone died and I was sol. Subway maps weren’t just available on the street or in the substations. I understand I could have asked for one where there was an attendant, but I didn’t know that and they didn’t post that anywhere.

Tip 3. Carry as little as possible. Wear great shoes. I had on Ariats that are very good for walking but by day two, I had blisters. Concrete is just hard. I don’t know what shoes I’d use next time. I guess running shoes.

So, We wondered around Times Square. Looked around the Nike store and Sephora. It was around dusk and we were starving. Hard Times Café seemed like a good idea…. We got our beepers and waited for about an hour before we were seated. It was pretty cool inside and we had a great waitress who I finally was able to ask about directions on the Subway.

Tip 4. The subway is easy if you know where you are going. You are generally either going “uptown” or “downtown” from the platform you are on. You have to know which way you are going. So, it got much easier once I got this tidbit from the waitress.

Caught ZZZZ’s on the very hard bed. It taught us discipline. We were ready to get the hell out of it early!

A continental breakfast was included with our stay and you got that at the cute little pizzeria next door. They must have an agreement with the hotel and we got coffee and bagels before tackling our only full day in the City.

In summary, using both the “Big Bus” tour and the subway, we were able to see:

*World Trade Center Memorial Park and the new building Oculus- which was built in the style of a dove – pretty amazing and held shops, etc. It’s to be a new transit hub like Penn Station etc. http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/6/11168484/inside-the-oculus-new-yorks-insane-looking-4-billion-train-station

*Lovely lunch at Brookfield Place (https://brookfieldplaceny.com/) which is where I made my first Live Facebook video. Brookfield Place is right behind the WTC Memorial and has views of the harbor. Restaurants/shopping.

*Walk through SOHO /got lost.

*Walked past FDNY Engine 7, Ladder 1/ Closest responding fire fighters. Said a prayer.

*Macy’s- 11 stories/ a full city block. “If you can’t find it there, you can’t find it anywhere”

* Shopped at H & M. Renne spent 114 dollars of Christmas money on a nice coat with a furry hoodie that made her feel like a New Yorker and sweatshirts that appeared to me like you could buy them anywhere, but she digs them. So be it.

*Went to the top of the Empire State Building (set me back 100 bucks, but hey, it’s a once in a lifetime). It took a while to get through the line and my trusty pocket knife was confiscated from me in the metal detector. I got it back after we came down. I was prepared to gut someone if they messed with us on our trip. Big talk:)

Tip 5. Our tour guide suggested that a very similar and less costly view could be achieved from the beautiful Chrysler Building or from “Top of the Rock” . 30 Rockefeller Center- that would have cost me 60 bucks. I’d do that instead on hindsight.

After some quick research I’m realizing that if I had 3 + days in the City, I might buy a Citypass which includes multiple sights for 116 bucks. Would think on that some to figure out value for dollar and ability to achieve all the sights factoring in energy and transportation……

Had dinner at http://www.trattoriadellarte.com - directly across the street from Carnegie Hall. We enjoyed sitting at the oak bar and had an antipasti dish and we split a pasta dish with lobster. We loved the zucchini parmigiana. I’m looking for that recipe online. It was fancy and gave us the opportunity to see how the “other half live”. The waiter was a sweetie and “comped” my house Chianti (which was cool because it was 13 bucks!)- Don’t worry, I tipped him.

I’ll try this recipe soon… tomato season. http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017523-zucchini-parmesan

*Saw where John Lennon was killed. Saw where Yoko lives.

Tip 6. Definitely plan to take a pub tour. Our tour guide dude told us fascinating history about NYC including https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McSorley's_Old_Ale_House - notable patrons- Ulyssess Grant, and Teddy Roosevelt.

One of the highlights for me was the night tour on the Big Bus. We had a fantastic tour guide (John Harkins) who was just loaded with fascinating information told in story style. We crossed the Manhattan Bridge on this trip only to loop around and return. Unfortunately, Renne was sitting in the window seat and it was truly scary looking down where there appeared to be no rails and a drop of a few hundred feet into the Hudson. But the view….. was just breathtaking.

That was basically it..... we woke up around 6:30, evacuated by 7. Caught the train back to Jersey by 9:15. Then I drove and drove until 11 pm when i arrived back in Camden.

would I do it again? Heck yea. It was exhilarating!

Hope you enjoyed my travel blog and I’d be glad to answer any questions you might have.

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