#having to deal with two ridiculous dopes

[sp0o0kylights]

Steve and Gareth as cousins warm up, part two! 

First part is HERE. 

Next part is HERE. 

Reminder: Someone on Twitter proposed Steve and Gareth as cousins whose family had a major falling out, and then someone else brought it up recently and long story short no idea who to credit the idea too bc you can’t search for SHIT on Twitter but it's theirs not mine.

Warnings: Steve and Robin Get (canon-S3) Drugged. 

"I'm just saying the other theater is cheaper." Eddie said around the straw jammed in his mouth. 

He carried the largest bucket of popcorn Starcourt’s movie theater offered, alongside the two boxes of candy he'd also demanded Gareth buy him. 

"Easier to sneak into, you mean." Gareth corrected, with his significantly smaller bag of popcorn. His, he planned to share with Jeff, Grant having snuck in his own food. 

Gareth himself would have snuck in the cheaper (and far larger) snacks, but Eddie had thrown a fit about going to the mall to see a new movie instead of Hawkin’s far older theater. 

Of course, the older theater also had several disadvantages, key of which was terrible seating, and so, Gareth had bribed him with whatever treats he wanted. 

His wallet took a hit but fuck it, at least they got to actually see the screen. 

Not that they even made it into the fucking theater, because someone chose that moment to crash into Eddie. 

Popcorn kernels and soda flew everywhere, with Eddie only avoiding it landing on him and Gareth both by years of dealing with this exact bullshit in school. Of course, the mall wasn’t school, and neither of them had their guard up. 

"What the hell man--" Eddie spat, immediately on the defense, as they both turned to see what jackass wanted to cause problems this time. 

Except Gareth had recognized the person who bumped him. 

"Steve?" Gareth asked, causing  his cousin to totter around and face him. He was in his Scoops Ahoy uniform, which remained to be absolutely ridiculous, but that hadn't been what had drawn Gareth's attention. 

No, that would be the absolute wrecked face staring at him with a doped up grin. 

All thoughts of the movie immediately faded away. 

"What happened to your face!?" Gareth demanded, immediately stepping up into his cousin's space, eyes darting over the damage. 

Recent black eye, split lip, blood splatter all down one side of his neck, nevermind his clothes… 

"Robs!" Steve called over his shoulder instead of answering, body moving as if he was walking on a wildly rocking boat and not solid ground. "Come 'ere!" 

He beamed, which had the horrific effect of resplitting his lips. "Meet Gareth, my baby cousin!" 

"I am two years younger than you." Gareth argued on automatic. He didn’t look to see how Eddie took this little piece of info--he’d figure out what he’d say later, when Steve wasn’t covered in blood. 

It did not stop Robin from reaching out to pinch his cheeks. 

She too, Gareth realized, was clearly high on something, both of them giggling and weaving on their feet. 

At least Robin didn’t appear to be hurt--or at least, not hurt as badly as Steve. 

"What the hell did you two take?" Gareth demanded, looking between them as he quickly put his popcorn back off to the side. 

"We didn't take anything, dad." Steve said bossily, rolling his eyes. He spoke in a voice so unlike himself that Gareth knew his own face was doing something crazy. 

Not that he could stop it because what the hell. 

"What my patriotic friend here means is that we don't know." Robin added, smacking a hand onto Steve’s shoulder. 

(The entire sentence was slurred and sounded like she'd shoved candy in her mouth before she started talking.) 

"You don't know?!” Gareth asked, taking in the way Steve flinched when Robin touched him. Added a mental note to check his cousin's shoulder too. “How do you not know?" 

Gareth wasn't panicking, he wasn't, except he absolutely fucking was. Steve's dad was going to kill him, disown him, and throw the body out of his house--in that exact order. 

Gareth’s parents wouldn’t take him in, not unless his mom felt she could use it to one up her sister in some way which meant that Gareth was going to have to sneak Steve in and out of the house like he was some--some puppy Gareth was trying to keep and--

"Did someone give you two something?" Eddie asked, interrupting Gareth’s spiraling. 

"Give is a very strong word." Steve said with a snicker. 

Robin nodded so much she looked like a bobble head. She leaned in, nearly falling into Gareth in the process. “In fact it’s not the word I’d use at all! I’d use…” She trailed off, screwing her eyes up in thought. 

“Made us?” Steve suggested as Gareth finally gave in to his instincts and reached out to steady his cousin. “Forced us?” 

“Socked it to us!” Robin added with a weird amount of glee, and the two of them once again collapsed into giggles.

Literally, forcing Gareth to try and steady them both. 

Which meant Eddie was right--they’d been drugged. It made perfect sense-- Steve wasn’t the kind to experiment with drugs beyond weed. Had in fact, given a very long lecture about how he’d make Gareth go on runs with him if he ever found out Eddie had given him anything stronger than weed. 

There was no way he’d change now, and especially not around a jobsite. Particularly one as busy as the mall. 

"You can't tell anybody." Robin continued, eyes so wide they were more white than pupils. "But we got truth serumed!" 

As if that made any fucking sense. 

Gareth turned a half frantic, half disbelieving look to Eddie--whose own face scared him almost as badly as Steve's did. 

He was hiding it, and doing a good job of doing so, but Eddie was the one person Gareth knew better than Steve. 

Right now? Eddie Munson was furious. 

Not mad, or upset, or even as pissed as he had been the time Tommy Hagan had thrown his drug box in the river. 

He was enraged. 

"Hey." He said, and the only thing more shocking than realizing Eddie was this mad was hearing him talk in a calming, almost playful voice. "Sounds like you two sailors had a pretty rough time. Why don't we go to the bathroom and get you both cleaned up? I bet you'll feel a little better." 

It was clearly the right move, because both of them looked downright delighted. 

"He thinks we're sailors!" Steve said, cupping a hand around his mouth and leaning to talk in Robin’s ear as if he was whispering. (He wasn’t.) 

Robin’s grin grew impossibly wider, before Eddie stepped forward to help Gareth half guide half herd the two into the nearest bathroom. 

"I know you." Robin said, squinting dramatically as Eddie opened the door with his regular flair, bellowing for anyone in the place to get out. 

It was Steve's turn to nod enthusiastically. "That's Eddie, Robbie." He said.

"I'm honored King Steve knows such a humble peasant's name." Eddie bowed as Gareth finally got both Steve and Robin into the bathroom, trying to get them to sit on the floor before they fell on their asses. 

Which just made a hurt expression appear on Steve's face. "’Course I do. You have really pretty hair." 

It had the effect of making Eddie look like he’d been punched and Gareth had to quickly turn his bark of laughter into a cough. 

"I bet it's soft.” Steve continued, as he pressed his back against the tiled wall and slowly slid down to the floor. “Gare, is it soft?" 

"It's very soft." Gareth agreed, trying to wet a paper towel with shaking hands. Finally he gave up entirely, ripping the plaid sweater he had tied around his waist and shoving one of the sleeves into the sink. 

“Oh my god.” Robin said abruptly, sitting up from her own slouched spot on the floor as if she’d suddenly been stricken sober. “It’s him! He’s your type!” 

“What’s my type?” Steve turned to her, as Eddie leaned his back against the door to the bathroom, blocking anyone else from entering. 

“It’s like--like Nancy! But boy Nancy.” Robin seemed to think this made a ton of sense, and given Steve’s immediate groan maybe it did to him, but Gareth was too freaked out to even begin to process what the hell they were on about.

Probably nothing, given they’d been drugged. 

Eddie seemed to pick up on his general anxiety and poor attempts at shoving down his own freakout, because he gently called out Gareth’s name. 

“I think it’s wet enough.” He added with a raised eyebrow. His eyes drifted purposefully to the sink and with a curse, Gareth snapped shut the water off. 

His hands were still shaking. 

“Give it to me.” Eddie said gently, moving to take the shirt from Gareth’s hands. “Here, swap me Gare, and guard the door.” 

Gareth did, as Eddie knelt down to take Steve’s chin in one hand, and carefully began dapping his wounded face with the wet sleeve. 

“May I ask what battles you two sailors have been involved in?” He said, continuing to sound like playful, fun Eddie and not like he was about to murder half the town (which, Gareth could tell by body language alone, is what Eddie actually felt like) “Did you happen to catch a glimpse of the villains who did this?"

“Robin melted into Steve, rubbing her face in his shoulder. “You wouldn’t believe us.” 

Eddie smiled his most charming smile, a full blown rouge grin he played up as he continued to wipe and dab at Steve’s wounds. “You’d be surprised at what I believe in, my fair lady.” 

Steve tried to talk, but ended up hissing as he ran into Eddie’s fingers. 

“Russians.” He managed to get out, when Eddie quickly took the sleeve away so he could talk. “We got kidnapped by fucking Russians. Also we kinda saw some shit and they’re after us. Possibly you now if they saw you with us.” 

There was the briefest of pause as Steve and Robin stared at Eddie, as Eddie stared back. 

Then Steve and Robin as one started howling with laughter, so hard that Robin’s head ended up in Steve’s lap with Steve’s own head resting on hers. 

Eddie turned to give Gareth a pinched look. “Russians.” He said, still calm despite it all. “Right.” 

Which had to be the fucking drugs speaking. 

Gareth just took a deep breath as Eddie managed to gently prod Steve back into putting his chin in his hand, shaking his head ever so slightly. 

He didn’t know who he was going to actually have to murder, but at least Eddie looked to be on board with acting as his backup. 

[kookiecrumb]

damnnn... softdom!joon and its their first time as in with one another or in general?! gagging and bandage aren't exactly vanilla and i wouldn't expect two virgins to try it out...

I'm going to interpret the "It's their first time" as a "It's their first time together."

Okay no I talked to my friend about it and I'm turning this into a dictator!joon x assassin!reader so the gagging makes sense.

KNJ || Bona-fide

warnings: smut (18+), gagging, praise kink, fingering, nicknames, bigdick!namjoon, ass smackin', a little rough, softdom!namjoon, "title" kink (she calls him leader), dirtytalking, doping/"drugging" and kidnapping, topics of death, political, unprotected sex*(dont do this), mention of reader's tits, creampie

It's not every day you're sent to get rid of a world leader.

But it isn't the first time the CIA contacted you for it.

The last time you were hired to make a man disappear it was a European congressman who would have gotten in the way of one of the US' trade deals with China.

It's safe to say that your services are favored by those who work in high-ranked government positions. You're good at what you do.

You're discreet, accurate, and you hold the world record for sharpshooting. Rarely, you resort to simply shooting the guy.

No, you're a temptress. You're a seductress. As soon as they're in bed with you, you discreetly inject them with an untraceable lethal substance and put them to bed.

Typically, they're cheating on one (if not many) of their wives and keep it discreet for you, which makes your job so much easier.

You'd like to say it's karma, but it's not. It's you.

The industry was scouting for talents and selected you from numerous candidates to be part of an elite academy that trained future professional assassins.

One day, while you were in an archery competition, you caught the eye of one of the most powerful men in the country. He said he wanted you, and so he got you.

That was almost a decade ago. You've established yourself as more than just potential at this point. You have field experience.

That's exactly what the CIA needs for this particular operation.

After World War II, The Soviet Union never gave up occupation of the Southern Korean peninsula, wedged between the Yellow sea and the Pacific Ocean.

It was a very strategic location for trade and they saw potential in its agriculture.

So, when the US armed forces tried to fight back against the Soviet hijacking of the Hermit Kingdom, they found themselves surrounded by the allied Japanese, whose focus shifted, momentarily from colonizing the Pacific to fighting against the United States in Korea.

The allies were successful, and in return, Japan gained an island on its Northern border from Russia.

This was a major loss for the United States, and to this day it's marked as dark in the nation's history.

The Soviet Union eventually fell in 1991, so it ended up not being a problem.

That is, until Korea split in two.

One, the North, becoming a right-leaning nation and the other, the South, becoming a left-leaning nation.

The moderate United States initially didn't know how to respond to their sudden unification. That is, of course, until both nations practically declared war on the moderate military superpower.

That made them allies. The ruler of this new, allied Korea is Kim Namjoon. He's your target.

Now things get messy.

There's no need to escalate things between two powerful, sovereign nations. Instead, this war should be fought with the least bloodshed as possible. Strategically. Methodically.

You had this conversation with at least seven officials just a week ago, detailing the plans of Kim Namjoon's assassination.

The reward was some ridiculous sum that would ensure that you never had the need to work a day in your life, ever again. That wasn't why you did this, though.

You like the satisfaction of getting rid of men who have ruined millions of people's lives. You're an empathetic person, and sometimes, it's your weakness.

You arrive in the southern capital of Seoul a day after your departure from Logan Airport in Boston.

Everything has already been set up for you. Namjoon is expecting you as one of his esteemed guests during a celebration of nearly 50 years of peace.

You've got your usual tricks up your sleeve. You sweeten your voice as to appear more appealing. You wear a dress that hugs you maybe just a little too tight, and Namjoon's favorite precious stone, sapphire.

It happens to be his birthstone.

With hope and skill, you enter the ballroom and immediately begin flirting and conversing with the members of the Korean gentry and nobility.

"Hahah, yeah. I understand that tensions are growing between our countries, but what's the use in abandoning all fellowship? You and I are the same," you laugh, chatting it up with the higher-ranking officials as you sparingly sip your alcohol-free margaritas. There's no use in getting drunk during such an important mission.

Still, you must appear drunk, so you're viewed as vulnerable to the dictator, who everybody in the room simply referred to as their sacred majesty.

He's speaking with his first official about something completely trivial to you, but you do notice him stealing a glance here and there.

That's your cue to draw near.

Without mistake, you float forward and wait with a charming smile, by his side until he is finished with his previous conversation, and then greet his majesty.

You're shocked.

His eyes are kind and his demeanor is intimidatingly intelligent, but he is anything but cocky, and full of grace. You'd never expect such a sweet, soft voice to come from somebody on a hit list. You're taken by him in an instant.

By the way he's goading at you, you're aware that he knows you were sent here to kill him, but he does nothing about it. He'll do nothing about it.

Namjoon is a bachelor. Every woman in his country throws herself at him for a chance to be his bride, but he never seems interested.

There's a curiosity behind the severity of his gaze, and you feel it on you constantly as you make shameless conversation with one of the most powerful men on Earth.

Your heart palpitates. There's no reason why this should be any different than your other missions. The men you were sent to kill in those other missions were never this fine!

Frustrated, your give Namjoon a courteous smile.

"Are those sapphires?" He glances down at your chest. "I adore sapphires."

"Yes. They're sapphires. They're my mother's," you add, careful with your words.

"I'd like them," he smiles. "Give them to me."

It's as if you were hypnotized by him. You're not supposed to give him your jewels. They're genuine and cost you a month's worth of pay, but you can't help yourself as you hand them over to his palm.

"Good girl, aren't you, Y/N?" He smirks. "Obedient. I'd like to see just how much you're willing to lose for me."

You're compelled then and there to confess your plans, but by the look he's giving you, you know that your cover is past blown.

At least, it feels that way.

"I'm sorry. I didn't understand," you keep grinning.

"You will," Namjoon carefully drops your necklace in his pocket and takes your hand. "Would you do me the honor of being my date for the night? I'd like to show you around the estate."

As if you had no other choice, you agree.

The rooms of the estate are all embellished in glittering artifacts and historic paintings displaying the rich history of Korea in all its greatness. Namjoon proudly explained each artifact in depth along with its cultural significance and how he obtained it.

"It's one of my many passions, to educate myself and others about Korean history and culture," he says as he studies a painting in his office. The end of the tour is near, but he has no intentions of bringing you back to the party.

Instead, you feel yourself go faint and collapse to the ground.

"Fuck-- fuck! The margaritas were spiked weren't they? Bastard!" You scream with all your strength as you wriggle on the ground.

Namjoon paces over you with a smug grin. "Yeah...but I was hoping we could get something out of this, hm? We'll talk about it when you wake up. It'll be a few hours, so I'll see you after the party..."

"...party..."

"...party..."

Namjoon's voice is the last thing you hear before everything goes back and you go out cold.

Your eyes snap open.

"Now! Let it never be said that I'm somebody who disregards consent entirely because that's simply not true. I will give you the choice here, assassin, but you must pay me your full attention," Namjoon paces before you in his office.

You notice that you're gagged and tied down in a kneeling position in front of him and start to panic just a little bit. You never crack under pressure though, so you appear as calm as ever.

"I know who you are, so you need not tell me. I know why you're here, so you need not tell me that either. I only need one thing from you, Ms.Y/L/N and that's the permission to fuck you mercilessly in this office," he says.

"Wouldn't you rather do that rather than kill me? Wouldn't it be so much more fun if you had your cunt stuffed with my dick while you were tied up like this? I'll play nice..." Namjoon flashes a seductive smile.

"...I promise,"

Your panties are missing. The only thing covering you right now is your cocktail dress and even that is revealing enough for him to simply drag it up to your stomach and penetrate you.

"I hope I'm making myself clear, Ms.Y/L/N. I want to fuck you," he crouches down to your level, his dragon-like eyes staring deeply into your tainted soul. "Take whatever innocence is left of you and corrupt it..." he wanders.

You knead your eyebrows together in a desperate plea.

"Aww...don't give me that...you knew this would happen, surely! After all, that's what you're here for. It's only a slight change of plans..." he pouts.

Your mouth is full of cloth, secured around your mouth so that you make no sound whatsoever.

He pinches part of the cloth and tugs it down softly. "Don't yell," he warns. "Tell me what you want."

"You," you reply, leaning into his lips.

"That's my girl..." he hums, kissing you. His wide hands hold your body towards him. "You're going to do what I tell you to do, and only what I tell you to do."

Your eyes glaze over with lust, your body melting to his touch. "Yes, leader," you moan softly.

He smirks, "You're so sweet...why would you want to kill me, huh? I do so many good things for this country...you could understand that, couldn't you? I'm a good guy..."

Namjoons hands slide down your body, dipping into your panties and fiddling with your clit. "I promise I'm a good guy," he repeats, dropping his tone.

You wither, a whimper escaping your lips as you ride his fingers.

He pulls them away for a moment, just to fasten your gag before splitting you open again and playing with your pussy.

You angle your hips forward and help him feel every ridge, your eyes concentrated on his handsome face. You must keep your thoughts to yourself and obey him, but it's so hard when he's touching you like this.

You whimper as he swirls his long digits into your cunt and thrusts experimentally, his other hand squeezing your ass hard.

He kisses your neck down to your collar, pumping his fingers into you as he hums sweet nothings into your ear, spread open across his rug.

"You're so sweet...such a shame we need to be quiet...your cunt is swallowing them so well," he groans quietly.

You take them gracefully, keeping your eyes on him as he fingers you thoroughly. The feeling is so uniquely good, you can't help but feel your heart flutter.

In most cases, you'd be deathly afraid of the situation you're in. Your cover has been blown, your mission has been compromised, but you can't bring yourself to care when he's fucking you like this.

Your eyes dip to the outline of his cock in his pants, and he catches you staring.

It's straining beautifully against the cloth, the length and girth of it on full display for your viewing. He spreads his legs apart a bit so that you can watch him free it.

He brings his left hand to his bulge and unbuttons himself with care, pulling his hard cock out of his pants.

Your pussy pulses at the sight of it and what it might do to you, clenching hard around his fingers. It's huge. Fuck, it's huge.

You whimper loudly, the sound blocked by the cloth in your mouth, obstructing any sound.

"Fucking desperate for it, aren't you? Don't you worry, babygirl..." Namjoon pulls his hands up to your breasts and kneads them softly, your nipples slipping between his fingers as you buck up into nothing.

His touch floods your mind. You need him to fuck your tits. You need him to fuck your cunt-- anything. You need his touch.

"Mmm!!" You protest.

He shuts you up immediately.

His cock splits you unlike any other. Once his head pushes in, you're clenching around him in a tangent, feeling the massive stretch he gives you, shamelessly.

Your thoughts go numb as the tip of his dick pushes up against your cervix. "Holy fuck," you yell out.

Namjoon smirks and smacks your ass playfully. "Take it," he demands as he experimentally snaps his hips into your warm cunt. "Take all of it, babygirl, show me how greedy you are for it."

You move your hips up and ride his dick on all fours, working yourself on it while he watches your cunt swallow him up. You groan quietly with every thrust, pounding yourself on it until you cream all over it.

His dick deserves to be crowned with your cum.

Without hesitation, Namjoon picks up your pace and starts pounding you to the floor with your ass up as his fingernails dig into your skin.

You feel your knees shake as your stability falters, the only thoughts crossing your mind are a mix of slurred profanities as you take him effortlessly.

You clench hard.

Namjoon feels your trembling below him, so he forces his hands on your hips and pins you so he can fill you properly with his cum.

Your ass smacks against his thighs, in rhythm to sound of your muffled whimpering. Namjoon's staggers, holding you still to take his sticky cum.

His fingers roughly touch your folds, causing you to convulse and cum violently around his cock.

"Ohh~mmm!! Mmmm~" you cry, squeezing for his release.

"Mmmn..." you sigh as he carefully repositions you so that you're facing him.

"See? Isn't that better..." he coos, his arms stretching around your body, securing you. He unfastens the fabric around your face and kisses you sweetly. "No need to assassinate me," he laughs.

"I'm a bona-fide leader. I'll take care of you from now on."

a/n: tadah! Sorry, anon! I couldn't tag you because I was an idiot and posted this early...

permatag gang gang: @kooliv , @koobsessed , @angelwonie , @carolynanderson , @hoseokgrecns , @bangsterz , @swykoon, @sxtaep , @koostarcandy , @hgema , @jjkeverlast , @armys-dna , @nglmrk , and @devilsbooksworld

[mintytealfox]

For the dragon's AU, what would happen if Alice found out Norton was a dragon.

EEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY ITs DRAGON NIGHT TONIGHT EEEEEEEE

-listens to Game of Thrones dragon noises to get back in to dragon characterizing mindset cause their sound design for them poor bbys were A++ oh my GOSH Rhaegal was my favorite and they did him so dirty for no reason what the heck I am still sad about it ahhhh-

I can cry some more about that LATER lol ;; ANYWAYS

OOOOOOOOOO LETS DO THIS THING 👀 So my first thoughts are that Norton definitely wouldn't purposely reveal his dragon form unless it couldn't be helped for some reason, or deemed it necessary I think during their time together, of him basically following her around everywhere, he didn't transform a singular time and I can see that paying a toll on him 👀 like using a magic spell for W A Y too long So I am sure Alice will be seeing these signs and wondering what the cause is. Wondering if he is cursed and has to deal with chronic issues that are progressing as time continues only for SOMETHING to happen and the truth comes out~

Now for the actual switch and how it happens 🤔

Maybe he gets injured and that is the last straw his back can take, so the human form just breaks and he turns back into a dragon or he is given an ultimatum, show his true self or something happens to Alice. Or Alice is just thrown from a building or something so he chooses to transform to help her 🤔 Either way, him finally showing his dragon form would be dope lol

As for Alice's reaction, I think it would depend on how the transformation happens, but I can see her ultimately being cool with it in the end regardless lol

But I can see her being concerned at first, I am sure there are ideas and beliefs about dragons, that would make a person concerned when met face to face with one, that would be hard to break. But then all those little hints that Norton would drop in his actions or words would start to pop up in her mind as she pieces it all together. -Like how he tends to hold onto things and is possessive over stuff he deems as his -When he sleeps he just surrounds himself with everything that is in the room they are staying in, just bringing it all into a big mess nest lol After that first night Alice made sure she always has enough money for two rooms cause she aint dealing with that -wheeze- -How he can smell food, usually bread, from ridiculously far away -and How he is like a 'magnet' (heh) for finding minerals The list goes on honestly LOL so she would come around and be able to drop the taboo-ness of it all

B U T

Norton likely notices the hesitation at first and then decides to sabotage the entire 'relationship' they had in an effort to protect himself and continue to believe he is better alone and use all this as further proof that humans are the worst.

so yea that is gonna have to be fixed heh

[thebookreader12345]

Career Decisions

Pairing: Kevin Atwater x reader

Summary: After Voight gives Kevin an unfair ultimatum about his career, and pressures Y/n into going against her morals, Y/n wonders if the Intelligence Unit is the right place for her

Requested: No

Warnings: mentions of racism, violence, and guns

Word Count: 1,621 Words

Note: The events mentioned in this fic are from the end of season 7 and beginning of season 8 of Chicago PD

"Hey, Kev," I greet my boyfriend as he entered my apartment. "You're late. I thought you just had to finish up some paperwork at the district?"

"I did. But I also had to have a conversation with Voight about all that stuff going on with the blue wall," Kevin spoke.

I frowned. "I thought all of that was over? I thought all of that stuff with you and Doyle was in the past?"

"It's not. In fact, it's only gotten worse. A lot of police officers heard that I wanted to go after Doyle, and now they're coming for me. For my job. They've done some terrible things, Y/n. They showed up to my house one night and parked up and down the street. The following night they jumped me when I got out of my car and beat me up. One of the officers planted dope in my car and then had some other patrol guys pull me over to try and find it. They even broke into my house and planted a bug," Kevin explained.

"Kevin!" I gasp. "Why didn't you tell me any of this? I mean, when I asked about the bruises, you told me you got them from falling off a ladder when you were doing construction at your house."

"I didn't want you to worry, and I definitely didn't want you involved in all of this. I talked with Voight tonight to see what I should do about Nolan, and he said I had two options. One, I get an official complaint put on my record, which means I can never be promoted to detective nor leave Intelligence. Or two, I lose my job," Kevin told me.

"What? That's ridiculous," I comment. "Those options are shit! You didn't even do anything wrong. Doyle was a racist son of a bitch who got himself killed for exactly that. That's the truth about what happened. You have every right to expose him for that."

"I know," Kevin confirmed. "And I didn't like those two options either, so I chose a third one. One I was happy with. I confronted Nolan and told him I'd come after him if he came after me again or anyone in the unit. I told him I'd expose everything he did to me, from the intimidation to the drugs."

"You're so brave, Kev. I'm proud of you," I praise and give him a big hug. "Now, I left your plate of dinner in the microwave. After you eat, want to do something to get your mind off of all of this?"

"Spend some time with my girl? I'm always down for that," Kevin responded and kissed the top of my head. "Want to watch that movie I've been telling you about?"

"I would love too," I answer.

..................................................

The few cases following Kevin and Voight's talk were difficult to get through, to say the least. The tension between the two of them was so thick it was hard to get work down. And the constant arguing didn't help. What I didn't think though, was that Voight would put all of the anger he had about the current situation towards the job.

"L/n, he's getting away. Take the shot," Voight ordered over the radio. I was positioned as a sniper on the roof of a building nearby while the rest of the team was on the ground, blending in at the meeting spot where Adam had set up a drug deal.

"Sarge, he's not armed," I notify my boss. "And we don't even know if he has any product on him."

"Did you not hear me? Take the shot," Voight repeated.

"Voight, I don't think I feel comfortable taki-"

"Take the shot, L/n! Now!" Voight demanded. I hesitated for a second, letting myself lose sight of the target. A moment later though, I re-aimed my scope before firing off one shot that hit our offender right in the leg. On the ground, I learned our offender was indeed unarmed, however, he did have product on him. Back at the district, I was sitting at my desk finishing up some paperwork from our previous case when Voight exited his office and leaned against the doorframe. "L/n, I need to speak to you for a moment. Come to my office."

"Boss, if you've got something to say to me, you might as well say it right here in front of everyone," I declare without looking up.

"All right. What the hell was that back there?" Voight implored. "I gave you the order to take the shot."

"And I did. Surgeons at Med are pulling a bullet out of our guy as we speak," I remind him.

"That man was a dealer who has killed almost a dozen teenagers because of his bad dope. If I tell you to take the shot, I don't want him down a leg. I want him on the brink on death," Voight announced.

"Yeah? Well I wasn't comfortable with taking that shot," I argue and set my pen down, finally glancing up to meet my boss' eyes. "He was unarmed, and he wasn't violent when we were doing our meet. You were asking me to go against everything I've ever been taught in the academy and on patrol. You were asking me to go against my morals, Sarge. What I believe to be right."

"You knew what you signed up for when you joined my unit. You knew how I ran things around here. If you didn't like how I ran things, you shouldn't have joined this unit in the first place," Voight stated.

"Maybe I shouldn't have," I retort. "You're not being a just cop, Voight. You're not even being a good boss. I mean, what kind of person orders one of their officers to do something their not comfortable with? More importantly, what kind of boss tells their officer that he either has to get an official complaint put on his record, meaning he can never get a promotion, or he has to quit. What it sounds like is that you're not standing next to Kevin when he needs you. What it sounds like is that you're taking the other side. You did wrong by Kevin, and now you're doing wrong by me. I don't think this unit is the right place for me anymore, Sarge."

"Y/n," Adam warned.

"No, Ruzek. Let her say her piece. Keep going, L/n," Voight urged. "If you're not in my unit, where are you gonna go? No one wants a cowardly officer in their unit, especially a disobeying one at that."

"I've actually gotten three offers from three different units in the past month," I announce. "I can call up any of them right now and have myself another job."

"Great. Then do it. I expect your transfer papers on my desk tomorrow," Voight spoke before disappearing into his office, slamming the door behind him.

"Y/n, what did you just do?" Jay asked.

"Wasn't it obvious? I just quit," I disclose and get up from my seat, swinging my jacket onto my shoulders. "We should all go to Molly's tonight and celebrate. One last hurrah, you know?"

"So you're just gonna leave us? What the hell, Y/n?" Hailey muttered and pushed past Jay to exit the bullpen.

"I'll go after her, talk some sense into her," Jay said and chased after his partner. I didn't blame Hailey for being upset. Afterall, her and Kim were two of my best friends. Kim got up from her desk next and pulled me in for a hug, squeezing me softly.

"I'm gonna miss you up here," Kim voiced. "Seriously. Who am I supposed to make fun of Adam and Kev with?"

"Hey!" Adam exclaimed. "The two of us are right here!"

"Don't worry, Kim. You're welcome over anytime," I assure her. "That goes for you too, Adam. And Jay and Hailey as well."

"And me," Kevin added and pulled me in for a side hug.

"You already have a key," I point out. "But yeah, you too. Well, I should get going since I technically don't work in this unit. I'll see you guys later. And I'll be by tomorrow to pack up my stuff."

"Y/n! Wait up!" Kevin called out and followed after me, stopping me at the platform past the first set of stairs. "Did you only quit because of what happened between me and Voight? I don't want you to leave if that's the only reason."

"Kev, I quit because this job is ruining me," I confess. "Sure, I also considered what happened between the two of you, but it was mainly because I felt like I wasn't myself when I was here. I don't want to be in a unit that turns me into a version of myself that I don't like. I'm uh, I'm really gonna miss working with you everyday. And I'm definitely gonna miss everyone else. They're my second family."

"I'm proud of you, you know," Kevin told me. "For following your heart. For doing what you think is best for yourself. I'm gonna miss you like hell up here, but I know that you're gonna do great things elsewhere."

"Thanks," I mumble and lean up to give him a quick kiss. "So, Molly's later. Don't forget. And tell Hailey and Jay for me, would ya?"

Kevin nodded. "Sure thing. Now, you know Platt is gonna go on a rampage when you tell her you quit, right?"

"Oh yeah," I confirm. "Trudy Platt will be pissed off, but I'm sure she'll understand. She always does. Speaking of her, I should go talk to her now. I'll see you later, Kev."

________________________

Taglist:

@prettypyschoinpink @securityfriendly-jay @scarletsoldierrr @lorenakaspersen @virtualreader @carnationworld @caitsymichelle13 @ncostin2001 @evangeline91 @just-arather-veryconfused-being @generalfarmmuffinagle @kaitlyn-marie-a @shywritermoon @jbbarnes212 @multifandom-loser @wanniiieeee @sesamepancakes @pinkbay-love

[xgoddessoffandomsx]

Hell of an Evolution: Black Out Days

@atiny-angel @swifteforeverandalways @the-iridescent-phoenix @wolfromate @thiamsxbitch @axelwolf8109 @greek-freak101 @wendysbrassknuckles @thebejeweledwatercat @epickiya722 @hawk-has-alot-of-gay-ships

Chapter warnings: Experimentation mention

Stiles decided that he hated school, with or without his fellow mutants with him. It didn't help that they had a good couple years ahead of him here.

Lydia was popular, Kira was in the lacrosse team with Jackson and Liam, Theo apparently spent more time in detention than actual classes, Scott was nice but kind of an idiot, Danny was liked by everybody, Erica hated everybody and Vernon Boyd was a gentle giant.

Sure enough, Talia Hale had sent in paperwork saying that Stiles had some type of skin condition and hated people touching him without his consent, so he was in the clear and able to skip gym and swim lessons.

So that was cool at least.

"What's up?" Theo plopped down next to Stiles at lunch, putting his legs on the table. Stiles looked unimpressed. "I hate this" "We all do" Theo took Stiles' warm soda and blew in it, cooling it instantly.

"That's so cool, pun intended"

"Yeah, Liam's my opposite, he can control fire but he can't create it, we were destined to be together"

"No we're not" Liam and the rest of the mutants sat down. Theo stared at him for a moment before slamming his hands over his chest and falling down

"Theo!" Scott yelled exasperated. "You wound me Dunbar" Theo dropped ice on his hair and brushed it off. Liam giggled a bit. "Do I have something in my hair?"

"You're ridiculous"

"So what's with our babysitter? He's kind of a dick" Stiles muttered. Scott spat out his water violently, Danny gave him a look and Jackson winced.

"What?" "He was gonna have to know sooner or later" Lydia said. Danny sighed. "Talia is Derek's mom and that's about all he knows, he was kidnapped when he was a teenager and experimented on"

"Shit" "Yeah, they coated his entire skeleton in this really rare metal, adamantium, the trauma caused his memories to snap or he was brainwashed? We don't know"

"He's my cousin too" Jackson muttered.

"So he trains us to control our powers so we don't get caught like he did"

"What're his powers?" "He's got wolf shit, super hearing, super smell, wolf eyes when he's angry, metal claws" Theo said.

"Guys shut up, we've broken two rules that we have so we can go to this school in the first place. No discussing Derek because he's still legally missing and no discussing powers" Lydia hissed. Everyone made various noises of complaints and stopped

-------

"Get in and shut up I'm not in the mood" Derek muttered. "Aww you missed us" Erica teased. "Sit down and shut up"

Stiles held back a laugh. "Reminder that we're doing a quick power test when we get home" Derek said. Jackson turned off his watch and the lizard boy Stiles met returned.

Danny smiled fondly at his friend.

------

"Just do whatever I don't really care" Derek led the teens to the backyard and sat down, cracking his knuckles.

Erica shifted into a cat and ran around a bit, Boyd lifted whatever he could with zero visible effort. Jackson crawled up the mansion walls. "That's so cool" Stiles grinned.

Lydia meditated, lefting herself in the air. "Lydia's a telepath" Her roommate Kira told him. "So him your tricks" Scott grinned like a dope.

Kira clenched her fist, a katana of purple energy formed around her wrist and glowed. "I'm a telepath too and can create psy weapons" She shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.

Scott took off his glasses and closed his eyes. "Someone turn me around to the trees?" Lydia did so without even opening her eyes or moving

Scott opened his eyes, a brust of red energy exploded from his eyes and sliced a tree in half. He clenched his eyes shut and put his glasses back on. "Concussive blasts" Kira explained to a dumbstruck Stiles.

Danny whistled, a glass of water shattering nearby. Liam turned on his lighter, a ball of flame moving to his other hand. He extinguished it, looking embarrassed.

Theo coated his hand in ice and grinned. "You're turn new kid" "I don't know" Stiles hugged himself. "Who here has a high pain tolerance?"

Theo raised his hand. Stiles winced and took off a glove. "Why is he shaking?" Jackson asked. "Shh!"

Stiles touched Theo's hand with a finger, the other teen immediately groaned in pain and collapsed.

Derek sat up, suddenly interested. Stiles let out a breath of cold air from his lungs and shivered. "I run cold, should've said that" Theo shook his head, coming back to.

"You can mimic powers" Lydia set herself down and looked scared. "Temporality" Stiles shrugged.

"It still makes you dangerous" Derek said. "You'll be lucky if we even let you see your father again" Stiles clenched his jaw.

"You can't tell me what to do!" "Oh I can, because you're a walking death sentence!" "Says the guy who got his bones coated with metal!"

Danny threw his hands in the air. "Who told him?!" Derek glared. Nobody answered. He growled, eyes turning blue. "You don't know anything about me kid, stay away from me"

Stiles smacked himself on the head. Great now he pissed off the bus driver

[babyloniastreasure]

https://www.tumblr.com/thegoodthegrandandtheugly/737819072394412032

Looking at that confession as Urukian lover and Mahabros lover I am torn between

"those fights are dope this is gameplay adaptation you can't expect them to be historically accurate" and

"I also think the distance that Fate franchise put between Gil and Enkidu is ridiculous these two's PDA are downright insufferable in the epic also getting tired with Fate pointlessly chaining Karna Arjuna on the hip while refuse to explore their relationship with Kauravas and Pandavas seriously why did you make Duryodhana and Bhima summonable servants and still fujobaiting 2 brothers who geniunely hate each other before they get the whole murdery outta their system"

There is definitely a delicate balance between the way Fate depicts fights between certain characters and how those fights would have gone outside of Fate's characterization. Fate, however, tends to lean only on its own writing and very rarely takes the source material into account, which means we should probably keep our expectations low and remember that this is not going to be accurate to begin with

For that reason I don't have any strong feelings about how Gilgamesh and Enkidu's/Junao and Super Karna's fights were depicted. Like, I understand where the frustration comes from, because I'm a huge advocate for accuracy and wish Fate would be more accurate. I've rambled about inaccuracies re: The Epic of Gilgamesh and Fate many a time. But within Fate's own characterization, it makes WAY more sense for Gilgamesh and Enkidu to fight at long range than it would be for them to wrestle. Gilgamesh is an Archer who is big and flashy and likes to make a show out of his power. He can't very well do that when he's up close and personal with someone. He honed his technique and this is how he chooses to fight at his peak of power. Likewise, Enkidu is going to try and best Gilgamesh at his own game--which is a ranged battle. They are both dramatic show offs, constantly trying to best the other and gloriously as possible. But for them it's more like a game, it's admiration, its nostalgic. So they'll fight in a way that allows them to see the full power of the other and take all of that in as much as possible. You can see much more of your beloved in all of his glory when you're looking at him from a distance.

The same goes for Junao vs Karna fighting in melee rather than at range. It makes sense given the characterization and context. They want to kick each other's ass so very, very badly, and it's much more fulfilling to settle a lifelong grudge when you're right up in your opponent's face when you deal those heavy blows. When you're fighting that close to someone, there's tension, there's desperation, there's emotion. You feel your weapon crash against and cut through your opponent, you don't get that with ranged fights. It's deeper, its more satisfying, it's more devastating. Junao and Karna have deeply personal feelings and reasons for fighting each other, it's more fitting for them to demonstrate their resolve and prove their power while looking the other directly in the eye.

That face-to-face desperation also creates a higher risk because neither Junao NOR Karna are typically close-range combatants. Karna is mid range at best, but even still his style is typically getting in close to the enemy so they cant use ranged attacks against him. Considering this, if Karna is getting in close, Junao would have to retaliate at the same close range. And we know Arjuna/Junao is skilled with any manner of weapons and combat styles, so it's not exactly inaccurate for him to be able to fight Karna at close range anyway.

I suppose it's less about historical accuracy or artistic depiction, and more about looking at how the Fate characters fight and how they'd react to whoever made the first move in that fight. Because again, this is Fate. Neither the characters themselves nor their Fate-narratives are accurate. Why would they bother with historical accuracy now?

But perhaps I have read too much into it or missed the point altogether lmao

In my humble opinion, we as Fate fans need to stop comparing Fate's adaptation of heroes to their source material, because we only hurt ourselves by doing so. As unfortunate as that is

I do agree that Arjuna and Karna should stop being so attached at the hip though. I'd love nothing more than to see their relationships with other Mahabharata servants flourish independently of the other. We can only hope that one day Yudhishthira will become summonable and bring balance to Chaldea

[tessenpai]

Kono Oto Tomare! Chapter 116 Scans and Rough TL

Page 1

Side Text: The best summer, awaits.

Chapter title: #116 Meiryo's decision

Page 2

Side text: Meiryo's "Perfection", that Ousuke has guided---

Ousuke[thoughts]: The first time I heard Ichiei's performance

Ousuke[thoughts]: I thought the sheer technical power.

Ousuke[thoughts]: A pressure like being hit by a force.

Ousuke[thoughts]: A performance that could only be achieved when everyone's level is that high

Page 3

Ousuke[thoughts]: When I heard Tokise's performance at the Preliminaries

Ousuke[thoughs]: The power of their sound shook me

Ousuke[thoughts]: The ability to appeal to one's heart

Ousuke[thoughts]: It wasn't just one person's power. A performance that cannot be achieved by just aiming at it.

Ousuke[thoughts]: ----The current Meiryo, it is certain we can't compete with these two schools.

Ousuke[thoughts]: We will lose first place again

Page 4

Ousuke[thoughts]: So think.

Ousuke[thoughts]: How can we fight against these two schools

Ousuke[thoughts]: The performance Meiryo should aim for

Page 5

Sane: Amazing, Chika! You didn't sleep at all at the opening ceremony!

Kota: You always fall asleep whenever an old man you don't know starts talking

Chika: Yeah. Is because I was able to come to Nationals that I was able to listen to that old man talking...! When I thought that, I couldn't stop feeling grateful to be able to hear what he had to say.

3-baka: Yeah Yeah Yeah

Chika: His speech was kinda long, but I was awake through it all!

Suzuka: Hey, don't say such rude things so loud.

Chika: Ah, I'm sorry.

Kazusa: !

Suzuka: More importantly, if there's any of you who needs to go to the toilet, better go now

Suzuka: Once the performances start, they won't let you enter---

Kazusa: Sa To Wa

Page 6

Kazusa: Chaaaaaaaaaaannnn!!!!

Kazusa: Long time no see, I missed yoouuuuuuuuu------❤❤❤❤❤

Sfx: Hug

Satowa: ...Long time no see, Ootori-san

Kazusa: Ghh...!? gughh❤❤ -----ghhhhh❤❤

Page 7

Kazusa: Fumi-chaaaaaann!!! For the first time!! For the first time, Satowa has accepted me!!! She called me by my name!!!!

Fumi-chan: We can finally graduate the disinfectant...!

Chika: But wait, what are you guys doing here? It can't that you came to support us, right?

Kazusa: Stop joking, there's no way we came because of you!

Kazusa: Ah, Satowa you are a different matter❤

Kazusa: Some of my seniors are participating! With the Kanagawa Combined Team! That performance!

Page 8

Satowa: ! The Kanagawa Combined Team!

Chika: Now that you mention it, there was something like that...

Kazusa: Since you guys took first place in Kanagawa, it could be that you just weren't interested!

Chika: Ah, no. Sorry

Chika: That's not what I meant.

Chika: Umm... A lot has happened so

Chika: I just completely forgot about it

Kazusa: ...

Kazusa: "The reason Himesaka lost, is because Tokise played dirty"

Chika: !

Page 9

Kazusa: There is a ridiculous rumor like that going around. It's incredibly bothersome.

Kazusa: There is no way Himesaka would lose for such a reason

Kazusa: So make sure to show them, in this competition

Kazusa: I won't let you say you forgot the promise you made that day

Kazusa[memory]: You have to win the whole deal!!! Or I will never forgive you!!!

Page 10

Chika: ---Yeah

Kazusa: Heh

Page 11

Chika: But hey, in that combined team, has any Hakuto member come?

Kazusa: Yeah, some of the integrants are Hakuto 3rd year students

3-baka: So cool! I really look forward to hearing it---!!

Kazusa: Well, they are not really part of the competition, though

Mittsu: But is really cool to see the strong guys get together

Sane: That!

Kota: Dope!

Chibana Student 1: Isn't Tokise talking to a Himesaka girl?

Chibana Student 2: Woah, you are right I think I have seen her

Chibana Student 3: Eh, what? What's this?

Chibana Student 3: They seem to get along normally...

Page 12

Tomoe: -----...

Kazusa: Well then, we will get going now!

Kazusa: Satowa-chan, I will come to root for you tomorrow❤

Satowa: Thank you

Kazusa: You guys, too! Please, do break a leg Bleh

Chika: Hah Thanks

Kazusa: Hmph

Page 13

Takezou: This is... Kind of encouraging. There are so many people who look directly at us.

Takezou: The sounds we have created up to this point

Takezou: They weren't in vain

Sane: Ahhh--- Come on now, don't cry, Chika.

Kota: You are a real crybaby---

Chika: What? I'm not crying

Mittsu: Yeah yeah, it's just that something got in your eye, right?

Page 14

3-baka: Save those tears for when we win first place.

Chika: ...You guys just wanted to say that, huh

3-baka: Ah, you knew?

Takezou: Hey, the first performance is the Hokkaido Combined Team, right?

Satowa: Ah, that's right. Followed by some schools we don't know, and after that, the 7th performance is----

Page 15

Satowa: Meiryo

Kou-chan: Ousuke, please check the tuning over here

Ousuke: Okey---

Page 16

Sfx: te---n te---n shan

Ousuke: Tsutsumin

Page 17

Ousuke: I won the bet

Tsutsumin: Ugh...

Kou-chan: Bet...?

Ousuke: Ah, yeah. I made a bet a while back with Tsutsumin about today.

Kou-chan: Were you guys always that close...? I only saw how Osuke was constantly ignored

Kou-chan: Just what kind of b---

Tsutsumin: We still...

Page 18

Tsutsumin: We still... don't know, right?

Tsutsumin: Until the performance is over, we still...

Ousuke: Indeed

Kou-chan: ...I don't really know what's going on but, you can properly focus on the performance, right?

Ousuke: Is okay---

Ousuke: After all, the content of the bet is "Can I make it so today is perfect?"

Page 19

Ousuke: We will find the answer soon

Tsurugi: Well then, Tsukaji-san! I will move to sit at the front!

Tsukaji: Right. We will go to the middle back

Tsurugi: Understood, I will see you later!

Komaki: Isn't it hard to see from the front?

Tsukaji: Tsurugi likes to listen from the front

Page 20

Tsukaji: You can feel the player's breath, the tension, the expression, all kinds of things.

Tsukaji: It's incredibly powerful.

Komaki: Heeeeh---...

Tsukaji: She is not listening...

Komaki: Ah!

Komaki: I've seen this scary-looking old man of the judging panel before!

Tsukaji: Isn't he Agata Kouzou, the koto player? He's been called a heretic in the koto world, and he's been at the forefront of koto music for a long time. That's all I know

Komaki: Heretic...

Tsukaji: He's been trying to broaden the scope of koto music by trying new things.

Tsukaji: He's made a lot of enemies, and the more traditional factions, well… they don't think very highly of him.

Page 21

Tsukaji: Also a judge, and a Professor at a prestigious music university, Kurakawa Yoshie, they are like oil and water.

Tsukaji: Another judge would be the composer Tatsumi Yukito. His musical sensibilities and philosophy don't quite match with the others.

Komaki: Eeeeeh, what a pain. Is it okay for the Judging Panel to be all over the place like that?

Tsukaji: Well, it's better than being biased...

Tsukaji: ...But well

Tsukaji: We can say that the members of the judging panel won't be leaning unanimously towards one single school.

Page 22

Sfx: Clap clap clap

Announcer: We will take a 10-minute break now---

Hiro: Woaaaah I already thought everyone was really good at the Preliminaries but... Nationals is really next level

Takezou: Yeah

Page 23

Takezou[thoughts]: The core of the sound is solid, which is a prerequisite for the performance being well-aligned.

Takezou[thoughts]: It's obvious, but you can't get that sound unless you play it hard.

Chika: By the way, just after the break comes Meiryo. Is the song they are playing very difficult this time as well?

Satowa: Let's see

Sane: Huh? Chika, didn't you go to Hozuki-san's place to listen to the songs?

Chika: Nah, there was no disc for the Meiryo song.

Mittsu: Is that so? What kind of song was it? Umm, the name was---

Satowa: "Capriccio". Is a song that is written to be played with the koto, juushichigen and the shakuhachi

?: Shakuhachi!? (The Japanese traditional flute. Is made of bamboo)

Satowa: Meiryo will play only play the koto and the juushichigen parts, it seems.

Page 24

Sane: Eh Can you do that?

Mittsu; If you play the shakuhachi part with the koto, then...

Satowa: Then it would not be a 9 minutes song, so you'd have to cut a lot to make it work.

Chika: Cut...

Chika: Hey, wouldn't the guy who wrote the song have a problem with that kind of thing?

Chika: ...They really put a lot of thought into making it, right...? The song.

Suzuka: I'm glad you're thinking about that.

Page 25

Suzuka: The important thing is

Suzuka: If there's esteem to the song or not

Chika: Esteem...

Takezou: It means respect or appreciation

Chika: There was a manga in Tetsuki's where it appeared. I know what it means!!

Takezou: Ah, sorry.

Chika: But I see, respect...

Chika[memory]: Even if I were gone, the performance can be done... It will simply become a "Harmony" of eight people.

Chika: ------

Chika: Ah...

Page 26

Chika: I didn't think about that until now...!

Chika: ...Sorry

Suzuka: I know

Page 27

Sane: But what kind of song is it? Capriccio!

Mittsu: It will feel like a Capriccio!

Kota: I look forward to it, Capriccio!

Natsu[thoughts]: They just wanna say that word...

Atsumu: Capricho!

?: Oh, here it is!

Page 28

Asano: Guys, are you ready?

Asano: Is ok

Asano: We can do it

Asano: Just like always

Asano: Let's make it fun and perfect

Page 29

Announcer: Program #7

Announcer: Tokyo Prefecture, Meiryo High School

Announcer: Composed by Makino Yutaka, "Capriccio"

Announcer: This year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of our Meiryo Koto Club

Announcer: In the spirit of earnestly learning and having fun, we have been practicing hard every day to make today a reality.

Page 30

Announcer: The "Capriccio" that we will play today is

Announcer: a song that brings out our charm to the fullest and makes it shine.

Hiro[thoughts]: Strong---...

Announcer: Please, everyone

Announcer: Enjoy, Meiryo's "Capriccio"

Sign: Tokyo Prefecture, Meiryo High School

Page 31

*No text*

Page 32

*No text*

Page 33

*No text*

Page 34

*No text*

Page 35

Side text: What will be played by the gifted----....

---Kono Oto Tomare! Continues in the next issue!---

Here's the link for you to listen to Capriccio by Yutaka Makino!

カプリッチオ （牧野由多可 作曲）"CAPRICCIO" composed by Yutaka Makino - YouTube

[pepsitwist]

honestly obsessed w the jay white/adam cole arc and how we all expected it to be jay to turn first, but MAN OH MAN cole being the one to do it is SO GOOD.

sure, we saw him get close to turning on jay already, but for some reason i still thought hey, surely he’ll play nice until like, jay is already getting his ass beat and THEN he’ll strike. but no. no no no, this is adam fucking cole we’re talking about. he’s holding on by a thread at all times, but he thinks he’s the biggest guy around. he thinks he’s the top dog at all times, and he expects to be treated as such. anything less than total respect of his supposed authority is a betrayal, and boy howdy did jay not have respect for cole’s wishes!!! bringing up cole’s losses to hangman, which has already been eating away at him, only stoked the flames of being rejected for a title shot. cole was pissed, and he tried to pull a long con, but he’s too emotionally charged for something like that. so like a wild animal, he strikes as soon as jay’s back is turned. even though it puts him in the terrible position of having to deal with a basically 100% ready to fight jay white.

usually cole tries to, oh i dunno, take advantage of the situation when someone goes down due to someone ELSE’S finisher. so all of a sudden he’s being sloppy and careless and that just shows ME that he’s been absolutely fuming ever since jay first rejected his challenge.

i know cole is shoot injured now, and i know we won’t be seeing him for a while, but i’m SO enthralled in all of this for some ridiculous reason. adam cole just wants to be someone’s number one guy, he wants friends, he wants people he can count on to always be there for him even when it doesn’t benefit the other person. but he keeps picking the absolute worst choices, whether they’re selfish, or they already have a number one guy or two, or both, he just keeps going to more people that aren’t emotionally available for what he needs and it’s SO INTERESTING. one of these days he’s just gotta snap and say fuck it, no more alliances, i’m going off on my own, and it’ll be absolutely dope as hell

[theinsatiables]

The Joke's On Him

The New York of “Eyes Wide Shut” is a dream of New York—a sex dream about an emotionally and carnally wound-up young man who denies his animal essence, his wife’s, and almost everyone’s. It’s a comedy. Stanley Kubrick’s movies are comedies more often than not—coal-black; a tad goofy even when bloody and cruel; the kind where you aren’t sure if it’s appropriate to laugh, because the situations depicted are horrible and sad, the characters deluded. 

To make a film like this work, you need one of two types of lead actors: the kind that is plausible as a brilliant and insightful person who trips on his own arrogance (like Malcolm McDowell’s Alex in “A Clockwork Orange,” Matthew Modine’s Pvt. Joker in “Full Metal Jacket,” and Humbert Humbert in “Lolita”); or the kind that reads as a bit of a dope to start with, and never stops being one. The latter category encompasses most of the human characters in “2001: A Space Odyssey”—first cavemen, then cavemen in spaceships, that legendary bone-to-orbit cut preparing us for the end sequence in which astronaut Dave Bowman evolves while gazing up in awe at the re-appeared monolith—and Ryan O’Neal as the title character of “Barry Lyndon,” a tragedy about a ridiculous and limited man who bleeds and suffers just like everyone, and is moving despite it all. 

Tom Cruise’s Dr. Bill Harford in “Eyes Wide Shut” is the second kind of Kubrick hero. He’s is a bit of a dope but takes himself absolutely seriously, never looking inward, at least not as deeply as he should. An undercurrent of film noir runs through most if not all of Kubrick’s films. His first two features, the war fable “Fear and Desire” and the boxing potboiler “Killer’s Kiss,” were stylistically rooted in noir—“Fear and Desire,” like “Paths of Glory” and “Full Metal Jacket,” has terse, hardboiled narration, linking it to the most overtly noir-ish Kubrick film, his breakthrough “The Killing.” The film noir hero tends to be a smart, ambitious, horny guy who lets his horniness overwhelm his judgement. Dr. Bill is a cuckolded film noir patsy turned film noir hero, cheated upon not in fact, but in his own imagination. And, in noir hero fashion, he gets drawn into a sexual/criminal conspiracy, this one involving the procurement of young women for anonymous orgies with rich older men. He’s always one step behind the architects of the plan, whatever it is, and he's never quite smart enough or observant enough to prove he saw what he saw. 

That’s Bill, a cinematic cousin of somebody like Fred MacMurray in “Double Indemnity” or William Hurt in “Body Heat,” but diminished and driving himself mad, a eunuch with blueballs, prowling city streets on on the knife-edge of Christmas, constantly taunted and humiliated, his heterosexuality and masculinity, indeed his essential carnality, questioned at every turn.

The doctor’s nighttime odyssey (like “2001,” this film is indebted to Homer) kicks off after he smokes pot with his gorgeous young wife Alice (Nicole Kidman) and she confesses a momentary craving for a sailor so powerful that she briefly considered throwing away her stable life just to have him. The revelation of the intensity of his wife’s sexual craving for someone other than him (fear and desire indeed) unmoors him from his comfortable existence and sends him careening around the city, where he encounters women who all seem to represent aspects of his wife, or his reductive view of her. They even have similar hair color. And if there are men in their lives—like Sidney Pollack’s Victor Ziegler, who calls Bill to deal with a young woman who overdosed on a speedball while in his company; or Rade Serbedjia’s Millich, the pathologically controlling and jealous costume shop proprietor who accuses Bill of wanting to have sex with his teenage daughter (Leelee Sobieski)— They mirror aspects of Bill. It’s surely no coincidence that the masks worn by the orgy participants are distinguished by their prominent (erect) Bills. Bill never actually strays, though. He keeps blundering into situations where sex seems imminent, and yet he couldn’t cheat on Alice even if he wanted to. He’s too bad to be good and too good to be bad. 

It still seems amazing that Cruise, among the most controlling of modern stars, gave himself to Kubrick so completely, letting himself be cast in such a sexually fumbling, baseline-schmucky part, the sort Matthew Broderick might've played for more obvious laughs (Kubrick originally wanted Steve Martin as Bill). Cruise built his star image playing handsome, fearless, cocky, ultra-heterosexual young men who mastered whatever skill or job they'd decided to practice, be it piloting fighter jets, driving race cars, playing pool, bartending, practicing law, representing pro athletes, or being a secret agent. Offscreen, the actor was long suspected of being closeted—a rumor amplified by his hyper-controlling relationships with a succession of public-facing spouses who read, from afar, less as wives than wife-symbols—and he sued media outlets that implied he was anything other than a 100% USDA-inspected slab of lady-loving, corn-fed American beefcake (thus the infamous 2006 “South Park” “Tom won’t come out of the closet” scene). 

So it was doubly startling for 1999 audiences to watch Cruise being swatted across the screen from one cringe-inducing psychosexual horror setpiece to the next, each enjoying its own version of a hearty pirate’s laugh at the idea of Cruise playing a butch straight man who dominates every room he’s in; and to witness his onscreen humiliation by homophobic frat boys. That same year, Cruise got an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor in “Magnolia,” playing a motivational speaker who admonishes his audience of baying young men to “respect the cock, tame the cunt.”

Cruise is a smart actor with often-excellent taste in material and collaborators; it’s inconcievable that he and his then-wife Kidman would submit themselves to over a year’s worth of grueling, repetitive shoots on Kubrick’s meticulously recreated New York sets in London without understanding what they were in for, at least partially. But what’s really important, from the standpoint of Cruise’s performance, is that he never seems as if he knows that the joke is on Bill. This doesn’t seem like the performance of an actor who has decided not to play his character as self-aware (like, say, Daniel Day-Lewis in “The Last of the Mohicans,” playing a character that Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman described as seeming completely free of 20th century neuroses) but rather a not-too-self-aware actor throwing himself into every scene as if bound and determined to somehow “win” them. This is surely a vestigial leftover of the way Cruise acts in most Tom Cruise films, strutting and bobbing through scenes, getting into trouble, then smiling or talking or flying or running or acrobatting his way out. It’s a mode he can’t entirely turn off, but can only tamp down or allow to be subverted (which is what I think is happening in this movie, and in a few other against-the-grain Cruise performances). It’s as if Cruise travels the full narrative length of Kubrick’s dream trail encrusted by scholarly and journalistic and critical footnotes that have accumulated on his filmography since "Risky Business." He’s the leading man as Christmas tree, festooned with lights and baubles. 

What perfect casting/what a great performance/what’s the difference? Is there any? Maybe not. Sometimes great casting is what allows for a great performance. John Frankenheimer cast Laurence Harvey, a handsome hunk of wood, as the brainwashed assassin in the 1962 version of “The Manchurian Candidate,” and his inability to tune into his costars’ emotional wavelength works for the part; it translates as “repressed, tortured, closed off individual,” the type of guy who would be gobsmacked by an ordinary summer romance, to the point where it would constitute the core of a tragic backstory. Harvey’s inexpressiveness becomes a source of mirth when he’s put in the same frame with actors like Frank Sinatra, Angela Lansbury, or Akim Tamiroff, who get a predatory glint in their eye when they sense the possibility of stealing a scene. They know how to mess with people and have fun doing it, and poor, friendless Harvey is an irresistible target. and when Raymond expresses delight that he was, however momentarily, “lovable,“ you can practically see the quote marks around the word, and it’s as sad as it is hilarious.

Oliver Stone pulled off something similar when he cast Cruise as Ron Kovic in “Born on the Fourth of July,” a choice that Stone later said might’ve hurt the film at the American box office because nobody wanted to see the smirking flyboy from “Top Gun” castrated by a bullet, wheeling around with a catheter in his hand, cursing his mom and Richard Nixon. The star seeming not-entirely-in on—not the “joke,” exactly, but the vision of the movie—made Kovic’s dawning self-awareness of his participation in macho right-wing propaganda all the more effective. Kovic wanted to be like the guys on the recruiting poster, and now he couldn’t stand up and salute the lies anymore, and a lot of his friends were dead, along with untold numbers of Vietnamese. Al Pacino, who was cast in an aborted version “Born” a decade earlier, might not have been as effective as Cruise overall, because while Pacino is an altogether deeper actor, he’s so closely associated with men who have no illusions about how brutal and soul-draining American life and institutions can be. (Marvelous as his performance in “Serpico” is, it doesn’t start to take off until he’s in undercover cop mode, with that beard and long hair and beatnik/hippie energy. In the early scenes where he’s clean-shaven and idealistic, you just have to take Serpico's innocence on faith, because Al Pacino would never be that naive.)

Kubrick, no slouch at casting for affect, was especially good at filling lead male roles with actors who seemed to grasp the general outline of what the director was up to without radiating profound appreciation of the philosophical and cultural nuances. Ryan O’Neal in “Barry Lyndon” somehow works despite, or because of, seeming a bit stiff and anachronistic—out of his element in a lot of ways. His anxiety-verging-on-panic at not knowing whether he’s doing a good enough job for Kubrick fits perfectly with the character’s persistent insecurity and imposter syndrome. So does the shoddy Irish accent. 

Decades later, Ben Affleck in “Gone Girl” pulled an “Eyes Wide Shut”—or maybe it’s more accurate to say that director David Fincher pulled it by casting him. “The baggage he comes with is most useful to this movie,” Fincher told Film Comment. “I was interested in him primarily because I needed someone who understood the stakes of the kind of public scrutiny that Nick is subjected to and the absurdity of trying to resist public opinion. Ben knows that, not conceptually, but by experience. When I first met with him, I said this is about a guy who gets his nuts in a vise in reel one and then the movie continues to tighten that vise for the next eight reels. And he was ready to play. It’s an easy thing for someone to say, 'Yeah, yeah, I’d love to be a part of that,' and then, on a daily basis, to ask: 'Really? Do I have to be that foolish? Do I have to step in it up to my knees?' Actors don’t like to be made the brunt of the joke. They go into acting to avoid that. Unlike comics, who are used to going face first into the ground.” 

Fincher subsequently poked fun at Affleck, in DVD narration and interview comments delivered in such a deadpan-vicious way that you couldn't tell if Fincher was venting in the guise of a put-on or doing an elaborate comedic bit. Either way, the gist was that Affleck was convincing as an untrustworthy person because he was himself untrustworthy. "He has to do these things in the foreground where he takes out his phone and looks at it and he puts it away so his sister doesn’t see it," Fincher said. "There are people who do that and it’s too pointed. But Ben is very very subtle, and there’s a kind of indirectness to the way he can do those things. Probably because he’s so duplicitous." Thus does the inherent untrustworthiness of Ben Affleck as both actor and person (according to Fincher, whether he's kidding or serious) become the framework for the entire performance's believability. This is a guy whose performance as an innocent man is judged by the media and public and immediately found lacking, and the character proves to be so much dumber than his conniving, vengeful wife that when the final scene arrives, we laugh at how inevitable it was. A more subtle, likable, deep leading man might've have ruined everything. Fincher needed a meathead who was funny and had read a few books, and who seemed to have a sixth sense for how to hide a cell phone from his sister.

This is similar to the idea of Kubrick cuckolding Cruise with an anecdote and sending him all over New York in search of satisfaction and insight that never quite, er, comes (although there’s a hint of hope in that final scene). On top of that, Affleck is an actor who is effective within a narrow range but will never be thought of as a chameleonic or particularly delicate performer—somebody who can play the subtext without overwhelming the text, or who can seamlessly integrate the two so that you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. 

That might be why Affleck disliked working with Terrence Malick, a highly improvisational filmmaker who deals in archetypes and symbols, and expects actors to devise a character while he’s devising the film that they’re in. Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt can do that; Affleck really can’t. The difference between Affleck and somebody like Pitt (or DiCaprio) is the difference between an old-fashioned square-jawed leading man-type, like Rock Hudson or Gary Cooper or Alan Ladd, who tried to stick to the words and hit the marks and color within the lines, and somebody like James Dean or Marlon Brando or Dennis Hopper, who treated every page as potential raw material for a collage they hadn’t thought up yet. That’s why Dean and Hudson played off each other so beautifully in “Giant”—Dean with his tormented Method affectations and odd expressions and voices, and Hudson playing the guy he’d been told to play, while often seeming puzzled or horrified by whatever Dean was doing opposite him, as if he’d been placed in the same room with a badger or wild boar and told “Now the two of you sit down and have a nice lunch while we film it.” 

I like to think of Cruise in “Eyes Wide Shut” as Rock Hudson turned loose in a Stanley Kubrick neo-noir dream, and not just for the obvious reasons. He’s in there angrily and desperately trying to win something that cannot be won, explain things that can’t be explained, and regain dignity that was lost a long time ago and will never come back. He keeps flashing his doctor’s ID as if he’s a detective (another film noir staple) working a case, and people indulge him not because they truly regard the ID as authority but because Bill’s intensity is just so damned odd that they aren’t sure how else to react. It’s hilarious because Bill doesn’t know how ridiculous it all is, and how ridiculous he is. He’s a movie star who lacks the movie star’s prerogative. Only by surrendering to the flow and accepting defeat can he survive. Only his wife, an awesome force unlocked in one moment, can save him. 

-Matt Zoller Seitz

[awesomeforever]

Like many PC gamers, I’ve been waiting a long time to build my next gaming PC. Prices have been ridiculous over the past couple of years, and despite the improvements in the back half of this year, it’s still expensive to build a top-of-the-line gaming PC. So,during Black Friday week, I conceded my intent to build my next gaming PC and bought a prebuilt gaming rig from Best Buy. Now, before you start writing that hate tweet, I have to say that there’s a reason for this heresy — namely, cost. And I can say with confidence now that this prebuilt system ended up being one of the best tech purchases I’ve made this year. Having built a couple of PCs in my lifetime, I can acknowledge the joy that comes from completing your own build — the new parts smell, the scrapes, the head-scratching, the cursing — and the pride of saving extra cash for your next graphic card … I mean, kid’s college fund. It wasn’t until very recently when it made more sense (especially if you had the desire and/or technical acumen) to buy your own parts and spend a couple of hours assembling them into your dream machine. One thing’s for sure, the PC DIY landscape has changed in the last two years. While it is better nowadays, prices and supply continue to fluctuate, particularly GPUs or almost anything silicon. All this brings me to the weeks leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. My Asus ROG laptop (Intel i7-7700HQ, GeForce GTX 1070, 32GB RAM), which I use for all the heavy lifting for my YouTube channel, still runs flawlessly. But at almost five years old, is starting to feel sluggish, especially with Premiere Pro renders, storage transfer speeds, and the lack of speedier ports. My first choice obviously was to source the parts — even if it meant buying separately from major parts retailers. In terms of budget, the target would be under $900. As for specs, the build would be somewhere in the midrange with enough power for video editing and rendering, high framers-per-second 1080p and 2K gaming, and plenty of space for expansion. For reference, I kept my eyes on similar prebuilt holiday specials from iBuyPower, HP, and such (nothing fancy like an Origin or Alienware system). Ultimately, no matter how I tried to make it work, the total price of individual parts with tax couldn’t undercut many of the prebuilts. I was looking at a $200 to $275 difference across the board, easily breaching my budget. Ready-made machines started to look increasingly enticing based on the savings and a much shorter wait time to get up and running. I ended up biting the bullet on a great Best Buy deal for a CyberPowerPC unit. I mean, I could always return it, right? One stigma that comes with getting a prebuilt machine is that consumers have no control over what kind of parts their particular machine will have. Sure, there’s the advertised CPU, GPU, and perfunctory listing of RAM, storage, etc., but as to what brand or iteration — it’s in the hands of the factory and what batch of parts they had at the time of building your PC. Some consumers don’t necessarily want that kind of gamble. Me? I like to live on the edge sometimes, plus I was quite curious to see whether my setup would be dope or nope. Outwardly, the CyberPowerPC PC that I purchased was decidedly midrange for a gaming setup — the ad listed the venerable AMD Ryzen 5 5600X with 16GB RAM, an RTX 3060, 600W PSU, plus 1TB NVMe and 500GB storage. The tower case with tempered glass was attractive and at least wasn’t drowning in RGB lighting. The first thing I did upon receiving the machine was to check for transit damage (none) and loose or disconnected connectors (none). I removed the back panel to inspect the cable routing and came away impressed — things were neat and tidy back there. CyberPowerPC even had an expanding foam pack to keep the GPU and surrounding bits from jostling around. Between my visual inspection and checking the BIOS, I was also pleasantly surprised that I didn’t neces

sarily receive cheap, lowest-bidder type of components either. The motherboard is a Asus Prime B550+ supported by a Thermaltake 80+ Gold 600W PSU. The 3060 graphics card is an Asus Phoenix Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 V2 (essentially a half-sized regular 3060 with the same power). Memory was the olde, but still very solid XPG DDR4 3200 Hz RAM, paired with Corsair-branded storage. There’s no special AIO cooling, but the Cooling Master fans are quiet, rising to a decent 67 decibels (measured in the case) at full tilt. It’s been two weeks since I powered this PC up, and so far, I’m still impressed. The machine hasn’t given me cause to return it, either for any problems or buyer’s remorse. Video editing is much smoother now, while I’m enjoying playing 1440p AAAs without performance or thermal concerns. Each time I glance through the glass panel into the innards of the machine, I can’t believe that $850 bought me this level of quality and attention to detail from a company I never gave a second thought to before. All in all, not bad for a first experience, then. If this is, for the most part, how CyberPowerPC builds its computers, I wouldn’t hesitate buying one again. So, the moral of the story is: while DIY-ing is still the way to go, if you must stick with a budget, prebuilt rigs are currently the cheaper and more readily available option. Upgrade your lifestyleDigital Trends helps readers keep tabs on the fast-paced world of tech with all the latest news, fun product reviews, insightful editorials, and one-of-a-kind sneak peeks. source

[the-firebird69]

At this low percentage you shouldn't have the power to be able to do this no you probably do that's just about it now we want to see you roast today for what you did we want you in the fire I mean all of you idiots it's not fair he's trying to go to the bathroom and shower and it doesn't work your threatening his income I mean he's about to pop and these f****** almost died what are you going to do are you going to make me mad enough to kill you and she's getting up and eat doing her fake wrestling thing I could see him come up and he's kind of in a fighting stance and she backed off like a wimp I'm telling you that's exactly what happened and the a****** started his s*** and he started to choking his own tongue. And he is babbling and he wasn't coherent I just wanted to send to start getting out of control like they are and he said you're sitting here threatening me get out of here I'll call the cops and it is recorded and people checked already and if they try and do something they're going to get arrested and they say they're going to try and get in uniform and try and go over there they're trying it now so he's staying put so they can get arrested

Thor Freya

You don't have anything else to say really except we're going to do the work and get you guys and you're small and your teeny and make no deals you have no allies if I hear that b**** say that one more time I want to have brought up on real charges that Lily b**** and chase her out of here that's how she leaves I want to brought up on real charges he's been going around murdering Max I want that out I want it files out it takes me forever cancels to see if they'll confirm they get permission anyways so I'm going to do that this is ridiculous we can way too much pressure from everybody can't even take a poop out here and everybody in the f****** brother it's because of the s*** it's because of the water it's because of the rain it's because of the ships you put a new septic system if you're not powerful enough we're going to kill you all cuz you won't move

Hera

There's a huge science to this no no you got a lot of things we have to do when we have to take some effort here and a moment of time to concentrate on this these people are at him okay non-stop trying to kidnap him and he said they were going to do it and now they're here doing it so we have to pay attention to it Stan is trying it too. Looks like he's doping with garth. So Mac went after him and that's what happened. It's a nightmare there's a lot of people at us and there's a lot of people at him it's a nightmare here we need people so I'm moving them in he says the only one who's going to do it is me and that's what it is

Frank Castle Hardcastle

I've got a lot of work to do and I need support these people are distraction on purpose is only 3.5% of them it seems like a huge pile of idiot we need to go in there and get rid of tons of them so we have less distraction I don't know what the word is it for orders so I'm going to send them out if they don't get followed I'm going to have to start bringing people in and really we have to plow through some stuff you can't listen to these people you listen to these two they're full of s*** and he stopped listening so get out of here it was just going to sit there and blabble it's very obvious here but that's what they do too now he's got some stuff to get done but that was ridiculous these people should be charged right now and we do see him running up the charges and Stan should be commended for what he's doing and his sister is leaving she's going to Sarasota and they're yelling at him for calling her and she never said not to call her so this is repulsive stuff

Duke Nukem Blockbuster

[smokeybrandreviews]

Belay That Order

Fate/Grand Order just dropped a brand new Saber Medusa and i feel nothing. Utter indifference. That sh*t is huge because Medusa is my favorite Servant, after Mordred. If this was, say, five years ago, I'd be mad hype. Type-Moon would be getting so much of my money off that Banner, it’s be disgusting. But now? Now this ridiculously awesome situation gets a resounding “Meh” out of me. How the f*ck did FGO fumble the bag so hard that i, as a Nasu Apologist, flat-out do not care that there is a new Medusaface, in my favorite Servant Class? Seriously, every Medusaface released, so far, has been fantastic. The art is dope, the skills are perfect for attacking, and all of the Noble Phantasm animations get the juices flowing. Saber Medusa continues that level of excellence AND she’s a goddamn Five-star! Not even Gorgon is Five-star, re you kidding me? I should be falling all over myself to get this card, when it releases over here in two years, but i can’t be bothered. Why? What the f*ck happened that made me lose so much interest in a game based on one of my all-time favorite franchises? Just SO much, actually.

The biggest issue that made me fall off was when i lost my original account. That was on me, sure, but recovery was stupid. That sh*t is a joke among the fan base. Once you lock yourself out of your account, it’s basically gone forever unless you’ve kept track of literally every metric you have, and it has to be identical or your sh*t is in the wind. The reason for this, is the fact that Fate/Grand Order doesn’t bind your accounts. When you transfer your game from one device to another, you need a goddamn transfer code. Who still does this? I get that was the way to go when FGO was first launched and, even then, maybe not, but benefit of the doubt. After all of these updates and revisions, these motherf*ckers STILL haven’t added the option to bind your account to an outside source. Azur Lane does. That sh*t is tagged to my Facebook account. BLEACH: Brave Souls does. Facebook account. DBZ: Dokkan Battle? Google Account. I was five years into my Grand Order journey when i swapped Bluestacks versions, didn’t get that code, and fought these motherf*ckers for my sh*t over the course of a full month, only to be told “yeah, nah. None f that lines up.” Just f*ck me then, because you assholes refuse to modernize your systems. You are living on that razor’s edge playing FGO for longer than a week because, at any time, everything you’re earned, invested into, and paid money for, can be gone in a goddamn instant; All because you didn’t get a Transfer Code and don’t know what your seventeenth Rider is. That’s juts the biggest issue. There are others. So very many others...

One of the which, and probably more egregious than the aforementioned Account Binding if you look at it objectively, is the fact that the game is f*cking boring. You don’t “play” Fate/Grand Order, it plays itself. I mean, there is this weirdly passive action selection but, after that, it’s just you, watching a bunch of sprites do said actions. If you happen to trigger a Noble Phantasm, you get a cute little movie deal but that’s it. There really isn’t a whole ton of strategy involved. You can’t really delve deeply into a game plan. It’s just set it and forget it. There are mobile games which autoplay. There is an entire f*cking genre of these things. FGO ain’t that. it forces you to be present, while passively watching it play. How is that a game? For years, Fate/Grand Order was the only mobile game i played and it it left a horrid impression of the entire goddamn industry because of how bogus the game play loop was. And then i downloaded Azur Lane on a whim. Imagine how goddamn frustrated i was when i found out there were actual games that could be played on mobile. FGO’s game play loop is so bad, it made me dismiss and entire section of the gaming industry, for years. o be honest, i think that was by design. The reason the actual game play is so bad, is because the Fate franchise is, ostensibly, a visual novel. They’ve diversified into other things but, at it’s core, Fate started as an adult Visual Novel out of Comiket. FGO is a visual Novel before it’s a game but, even in that, it sucks.

There is a grand total of twenty-seven available Quests on the Japanese version of the game. That is twenty-seven visual novels to explore. Some of them are pretty good. I personally enjoyed Camelot and Babylonia. The rest? I literally couldn’t care less. I’ve been a fan of Fate for years. I own a fan translation of that OG Adult Visual Novel and it’s sequel, Fate/Hollow Ataraxia. Ataraxia sucks but Fate/Stay Night does not. Heaven’s Feel is my favorite of the routes available, Stay Night, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven’s Feel, but i simp hard for Sakura so that goes without saying. There are no narratives which com anywhere near the quality of those first first three stories, in Fate/Grand Order and, more to the point, there are SEVERAL, that fall short of even the meager standard Babylonia set. Seriously, London was the worst and i had to play through that sh*t, twice, to unlock the ability o pull Mordred out of the goddamn Gacha! That’s right, i played through London, again, years after i did the first time, because i opted to start a new account just for that. Mordred is my favorite character in the entire goddamn franchise and my original one, was perfected. axed out on all levels, lost to the winds because of f*ckery. I opted to go through that grind one more time, as a fresh brand new player, and actually paid attention this time around. That’s how  know the writing is bunk. Starting a new game, years into this sh*t’s lifespan, as a player who was there in the beginning but lost all of that work, was a whole as experience. And a bad one to boot.

I periodically take time away from these mobile games because i tend to get bored of them. Not Azur Lane. That one’s my baby. I love them Kraut Girls. Generally speaking, when you return after a while, you get bonuses because, you know, you need them. Just because you were gone, doesn’t mean the game stopped progressing. FGO kind of does this but not in any real impactful way or, at least, not when i came back to it after a few months n my old account. After i lost that account, i went through the seven stages of grief and signed up for another one. Imagine my horror when, as a brand new player signing up for a game which, by then, had been active for six goddamn years, i got nothing. Like, they let me roll one Five-star character and basically told me to fend for myself. I couldn’t skip the original Mission Quests even though, by that point FGO was rounding out the Lost Belt narratives. Cats didn’t even f*cking give you the option of an abridged version of these Quests, you have to play through the entire goddamn thing! Which i did because Mordred. Once i finished the slog that is London, i quit. I abandoned all the work to even have the opportunity to make a run FOR Mordred; The entire point of me opening up a second account, because that grind was f*cking absurd. Now imagine how disillusioning it would be for a fresh player wanting to get into this game because they saw the Babylon anime or those Camelot films? Imagine going into that thinking you get to make a run at Tiamat or Lancer Arturia, only to be forced into playing through goddamn Fuuyuki. And then Orleans. And then Septem. And then Okeanos. And then London. And then you’d still have E Pluribus Unum before you even sniff Camelot.

In this, the year of our lord 2023, Fate/Grand Order is a relic of the past. It’s everything that was wrong with the Mobile Game industry way back when. There have been so many innovation, so many improvements, but FGO refuses to change. It’s that lack of growth, that apathetic refusal to adapt with the ever changing market, which has the once dominate Fate/Grand Order on life support. It just such a bad time and the player base knows that. They’re leaving in droves due to the poor writing, lack of actual playability, and the overall, real world, cash cost. I didn’t even touch on how expensive this game is to play. You have to be LUCKY to roll Five-star servants, man, even if they have a Banner. And you straight up never earn enough Saint Quartz to roll anything grand. Sh*t doesn’t even have a Pity System, you just get to throw money at a broken and predatory system until you get what you want. Th wild thing is, Fate/Grand Order has always been this way. It’s designed this way. It was never a good game. It was never going to be a good game. It was designed to be a money pit so Nasu could get off all of his pet projects, which is fair. I get it. FGO hit four billion in lifetime profits way back in 2019. That’s a lot of duckets that can be spent of spiffy UFOtable animation. I only which that some of it went to improving the goddamn game which gilded your pockets in the first place. All that said, the free Five-star I got was Mordred so I take back everything I said. 10/10, perfect game!

[comicweek]

David Brooke: At this point, we’ve seen several interpretations of Harley and Ivy’s relationship. So what about the relationship spoke to you the most and what excited you the most about expanding on their romance in season two?

TF: Well, season two, they stuck the toe in? Right? It was just like okay, they’re kissing. We’re not really seeing the sex. We get to see a lot more here. I do hope we’ll be in season three. Their relationship is needed. It is important to talk about and I’m really grateful to be the one to tell this love story.

There is a lot of will-they-won’t-they in the comics. And when they do it’s not as beautifully shown. Having Harley and Ivy in bed naked together under the covers, or Harley doing a cartwheel onto Ivy’s vagina, right, that is really cool. And it’s just fun to be able to tell this type of story in this medium that people can just hold on to forever versus, a show you got to keep on watching.

DB: What parts of the animated series did you feel were the most important to capture when adding your voice to this version of the characters?

TF: Besides the Harley and Ivy relationship, that was a no-brainer, but I wanted to explore the aftermath. Like there are tons of emotions and trauma that were already touched on in the animated series. But I wanted to delve deeper and turn it up a notch because both of these women have these traumatic experiences from men in their lives. Ivy’s dad, Harley’s parents, and her man. Harley has been through a lot as has Ivy.

Even though Ivy really wasn’t beat to marry Kiteman, my girl still got left at the altar. I mean, I’m sure she’s grateful but she’s also dealing with the hurt of, “damn I hurt this guy who I really really loved. And that’s on me and I need to fix that.” So she’s got to go through a bunch of emotions to try to handle this. I love the character Tawny, I think Tawny is so dope and I wanted to use her Wendy Williams influence to just bug and irritate Gordon as well as call Ivy out on her s--t. She ultimately did something foul. There were a few things that were really important that you will see as the book goes on of what needed to be touched on. Having Catwoman, a black Catwoman, was really cool. So I was glad to be able to have a whole issue with her because I’m all for Black representation.

DB: How deep can we expect the book to go into what’s eating at Ivy and clearly giving her pause in this relationship?

TF: We are going deep-sea diving. And you can take that in whatever way you want to. We definitely go deep. Ivy gets real with herself. Ivy needs to get real with herself otherwise who wants to stay miserable? Being miserable for a few days is good, but ultimately you need to pull yourself out of the hole and the girl is depressed. She’s depressed so it’s gonna take her a minute to try to find some light at the end of this tunnel. We are gonna go deep. I explore a lot of mental health issues in this series.

DB: Harley and Ivy are quite the power couple. What about their relationship do you think resonates so well with readers?

TF: So when you go back to the animated series, the Harley and Joker dynamic is straight-up domestic violence no matter what way you slice it. And I feel, personally, that seeing someone who finally decides to leave resonates so much with people. We go back, unfortunately, I have gone back to a s----y DV (domestic violence) situation. And when you’re tired and done and enough is enough you’re out. Until you are in a DV situation and you finally see somebody getting out, it’s like s--t, maybe I have a chance. I really feel like that is why Harley, finally breaking free and being with somebody who she loves, who she wants to spend the rest of her life with. Because now you know, there’s happiness, there’s love after being put down, abused, ridiculed, assaulted, like all of that stuff. When you finally decide to break free, and you have that time where you need to figure out how you can move on with your life, how you can find a little bit of joy, because there’s no joy, right? It’s just darkness.

And in those moments, you’re like, s--t, I should go back. Because this is what I’m used to. Being on your own after being with somebody because it’s not just physical. It’s mental, it’s emotional, and it’s financial. So when you finally break free, and you’re sitting home alone, in your room with your thoughts, those thoughts can get really really s----y and you feel like you’re not worthy of love, because that was beaten into you. And you start to believe it. So when you see Harley, even though again, fictional character, she’s been through every f-----g thing, but now she is free of this person and she finds love and happiness.

DB: Is there anything else that you wanted to talk about in regards to issue one in the series?

TF: The title “Eat Bang Kill” is obviously a triple entendre. We’re gonna explore a lot of queer love between the two ladies. This whole series is freaking groundbreaking. I am the first black woman to write Harley Quinn. Like that, in itself is just like holy s--t. And then you add that I’m queer, disabled, right? I’m a whole wheelchair user. And I’m autistic. Like that is really cool. We all know representation matters.

I’m truly grateful for the opportunity for one, this is my first DC but it’s cool. I’m showing that autistic people are talented. And we can do so much, disabled people are not just here to inspire you. Right? We are people with villains who deserve love. Who are talented, and I’m hoping that these ushers in a new generation of disabled comic writers and autistic comic writers. Because it’s needed. Usually, in comics, we do not see disabled characters and definitely not in the background. So in this whole series, you can see so many disabled characters, right, just roaming the streets, blowing my nose, whatever, like you’re gonna see disabled people. Because when I leave my home I see disabled people.

And I’m really grateful to editor Katie [Kubert] for being cool with how many disabled people are on these pages. We see people with mobility aids, we see people with service dogs, we see so many people. Facial disfigurements, birthmarks, like these are people who exist and they need to see themselves in the comics, right in any medium period. So I would not be doing justice as a disabled person to not have other disabled people in something that I write. I’m really hoping that this might start conversations. When you see yourself in a medium, that’s the feeling that you will always remember.

[tintinwrites]

i dream too much | Frankie ‘Catfish’ Morales x Reader | Part One

A/N: Just wanted to say that this is going to be a mini series, probably around six parts!!

Rating: 18+

Warning: Fem!Reader. It says Frankie x Reader but it is also Santi x Reader as well (this is a pining fic, my hoes). No smut, but it gets close...a lime if you will goodbye I am Ancient. Naughty words. Frankie gets his heart broken. Everyone is just stupid.

Word count: 2,251, apparently!!

Summary: Frankie decides to tell you he loves you, but he finds you in bed with someone.

GIF credit: ^ Please let me know if you don’t want me using your GIF!!

Tags: Open!!

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

Frankie wondered if he should’ve dressed up a little more, but you’d never been one to insist on fancy dress.

How many times had you laid on his chest in nothing but a T-shirt and shorts when he was just in a shirt and jeans?

Regardless, he pulled off his V-neck and replaced it with a button down shirt, though it was short-sleeved and covered in a niche print.

It was fancier than his normal attire and showed that this was important to him, that this was an occasion that mattered and he wanted to show you that this meant a lot. That he wasn’t just looking for a good time because you were his friend and you had tits.

God, the way he zoned out in front of the mirror for a couple moments just thinking about your breasts wasn’t the point.

The point was that he’d been in love with you since practically the day he met you; your smile, your laugh, the way you touched his arm, all your jokes that nearly had him weeping from laughter...he never stood a chance, did he?

At first, he tried to convince himself that it was just a little crush because you were pretty and you were sweet to him, but it seemed like he just fell for you more and more each day. Even years into your friendship now, he still found little things about you that turned him into a fucking dope.

He was so terrified to ruin your friendship that he just kept it as a horrible, gnawing, yearning secret until he just couldn’t take it anymore. Not only was it eating away at him to pretend he wasn’t completely in love with you, but he didn’t think it was fair to you that he was having thoughts like this when you considered your friendship to be innocent.

When he went on another date with another person in his attempts to find someone as a way to get over his feelings for you, he realized it was definitely time that he told you for both your and his sake.

You would probably turn him down which would be okay even if it hurt like hell. He just didn’t want to keep harboring the secret like this even if you didn’t feel the same way.

That part made him a little nervous, but then he would remember one of the reasons why he was in love with you; you always called him ‘sweet Frankie’, even had it as his name in your phone with a couple heart emojis with it, and that made him think that maybe…

Well, it gave him the courage to admit to you what he felt whether you returned those feelings or not.

He decided to buy a bouquet of your favorite flowers and then panicked that it was a stupid, lame idea to buy you flowers, but he stuck with it so he wouldn’t have wasted the money. They were pretty, they smelled nice, they were a lot like you and he figured it would be good to lead with that.

I bought these for you because they reminded me of you and I love you.

That was stupid and didn’t even sound like something he would say. He hadn’t told someone he loved them since he was in his twenties and they broke up when he was thirty, and he hadn’t exactly had a long term relationship since then.

Every line or speech he planned just didn’t sound right, so he was just going to say whatever came to mind so it could be natural.

He hesitated when he stepped off the elevator and approached the door to your apartment, quickly forcing himself to knock before he could get scared enough to walk away.

You needed to know. He needed to tell you everything.

There was no answer and he thought that he tried to talk to you when you weren’t home, but he tried the doorknob and found that it wasn’t locked. Maybe you were just showering or something.

He stepped inside and shut the door, and he was just about to call out to you so he wouldn’t scare you with his presence when he heard the distinct sound of your laughter.

It was coming from the bedroom so he thought instead that you were just watching television, setting the bouquet down on your coffee table as he made his way down the little hallway that led to your room.

The door was open and he started to say your name, but paused when he stepped on something and looked down with his brow furrowed to find your bra on the floor. And your favorite shirt. There was a pair of lacy panties right outside the door and he had to force his gaze away from it as he moved closer.

He worried that maybe he was encroaching on some...alone time and he stared at the floor until he realized that you weren’t alone.

A man’s moan had him immediately jerking his head up to see that you were underneath someone; lips pressing, legs tangling, his hands wandering over your hips and your thighs and one of your hands moving in an obvious way within the man’s underwear.

Frankie’s heart would’ve dropped even if it was some complete stranger you’d picked up in a bar, but this wasn’t a stranger. Pope, his best fucking friend, was currently reaching between your legs to touch you.

He didn’t tell Santi or any of the other guys about his feelings for you, fearing ridicule or that they would tell you, but that didn’t mean it didn’t kill him to see his own best friend on top of the woman he loved.

It didn’t mean it didn’t hurt to see how enthusiastically you were enjoying him.

He’d been in love with you for years and Santi still beat him to you.

Not that it was a competition, not that you were a prize to be won, but...seeing the person he loved in the arms of someone he couldn’t even compare to was a bitter pill to take.

All he could do was stare in shock and disappointment, and there was a hollow ache that made it feel like someone was trying to push his chest right through his back.

What the hell was he supposed to do now?

Start telling you he loved you when Santi inevitably started fucking you? He couldn’t do that now, couldn’t tell you what he felt and humiliate and hurt you by awkwardly putting you on the spot when you were about to sleep with somebody else.

Once he was back in his right mind and realized he was impeding on a private moment and that his heart was sinking lower with each passing second, he knew he needed to leave. He would never tell you he’d been here and try to forget it himself.

That might have worked better if he didn’t step on your discarded underwear, slipping slightly since it was on the wood floor and stumbling into the wall. “Fuck!”

He heard a gasp and immediately looked to see that you had pushed Santi aside enough to see him, looking entirely mortified.

“Frankie?!” You hissed something to Santiago as you quickly shoved him off, grabbing the rumpled throw blanket from the foot of your bed to cover yourself.

Between your speed and Frankie’s respectfulness, he didn’t see more than a glimpse of you, but that didn’t stop him from blushing and sinking further against the wall in hopes that it would just swallow him and spit him out on another continent.

No such luck. He was still there, staring at the two of you. You were looking at him like a deer in headlights and Santi, though he covered the bulge in his underwear with a pillow, was grinning at him.

“You miss seeing my ass in the army showers or something, pendejo?” he teased since, yeah, Frankie would’ve gotten an eyeful of his ass if he’d just stood there silently.

“I was just...fuck, I was in the neighborhood and the door was unlocked…” He had a habit of taking off his hat and wringing it when he was anxious, but he only touched his hair when he reached up because he wanted to look good for you and hadn’t worn a hat.

“How much did you see?” Your question was practically squeaked out in embarrassment.

“Nothing.” Frankie was quick to reassure you, holding his hands up. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I should go.” His own embarrassment at his plans to tell you he loved you and at the two of you discovering he was there outweighed his pain for the moment, but he didn’t know how long it would. Both emotions made him want to run far, far away anyway.

“Oh, Frankie…” You started to get up and the way the blanket fell bared your hip to him and he—

“Don’t get up! I...I just stopped by because I was in the neighborhood, it’s not a big deal.” It was supposed to be a big deal. He supposed it still was, just not in the way he wanted.

He was supposed to tell you he loved you and he was supposed to be the one in your bed, but you’d chosen Santi before he could even get a chance.

He couldn’t help the jealousy that welled up in him; Santiago had always been handsome and charming where Frankie was average and too shy to go for half the things he wanted. He’d always looked up to him for that and now…

“Do you want some coffee?” you asked softly, looking guilty for the awkwardness of him witnessing such a moment.

With your offer was Santi’s hand rubbing your hip, trying to keep you in the mood despite the interruption, and you didn’t move away. Meaning you wanted to continue and Frankie was just a nuisance in that moment. “I’m good. I have, uh...a hip...appointment.”

He knew why he had hips on the brain, but his quick excuse just sounded silly to the two of you.

“You gettin’ old on me, ‘Fish?” Santi asked, eyebrows raised.

“Is everything okay?” The genuine concern in your voice made his chest squeeze, not any less in love with you than before even though he kind of hoped he would be.

“I mean...chiropractor appointment. I think I threw something out and I need, like...aligned and shit,” he mumbled, just wanting to leave as much as you two wanted to fuck.

“Oh, okay. Text me, let me know how it goes?” You smiled at him sweetly like you always seemed to do.

How could anyone be expected to not fall in love with you? He couldn’t even blame Santi for wanting you.

This was all probably just a hookup if he knew his friend, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell you now. Or ever. Not knowing that you wanted Santi first, imagining the sympathy in your eyes when you would tell him you didn’t feel the same way.

What was a few more years of pretending he didn’t love you to a man who’d already spent this long doing so?

Maybe this was the push he needed to move on from his feelings for you and give his dates an actual chance before deciding he didn’t like them because they weren’t you.

“Please fucking go, man.” Santi’s tone was desperate and meaningful, nodding towards you subtly as if to tell Frankie he was about to fuck you and needed alone time like he didn’t know.

“See you.” He hated the way the other man was just acting like they were two buddies in a bar and you were just some pair of pants Santi managed to flirt his way into.

He quickly turned and made his way down the hall, kicking off the panties that were still wrapped around the toe of his boot. He didn��t even remember the bouquet of flowers, just walked to the door and left as quickly as he possibly could.

Frankie had been broken up with a couple times in his life; middle school, high school, his one long term relationship that ended when he was thirty. But none of those even compared to this.

Maybe it was because you didn’t know he loved you or maybe he felt a sense of betrayal despite never admitting to Santi how he felt. Maybe he loved you more than he’d ever love anyone in his life and this made his yearning permanent.

All he knew was that this hurt like hell and he couldn’t believe he ever thought a fucking love confession was a good idea.

You could have your pick of anyone and this just proved it. Why the fuck would you even look twice at him when there were guys like Santi around?

Being so close with you was more than enough and he was almost happy that he didn’t ruin it now, trying to convince himself that the whole situation had saved his ass.

It probably was just a crush he’d been harboring since he met you and he was just reading into it too much.

But as he climbed into his truck, and shut the door, and let his head thump back against the seat, he knew that he loved you and that now he would never be able to do a damn thing about it.

[cenestpasaudrey]

Review: Teen Wolf

I started watching Teen Wolf two Saturdays ago (May 29th?? I think) because I was bored out of my mind and I wanted something entertaining and light that I could listen to while I work on my work files. I was actually thinking of just playing The Vampire Diaries in the background since I've already watched it a couple of times but it was gone on Netflix. Then I checked out the recommended list of similar stuff and then I found Teen Wolf; so I was like, hey, why not.

Luckily (but not surprisingly), I liked it. Also, I found out that I finished the series during its actual 10th year anniversary which is dope. If I was watching it during its actual run, I think I would have been a little obsessed with it.

Few episodes in, I swear I really was like "Stiles is such a great friend! I want him as my friend." a couple of times. He's one of my favorites and I liked watching him so much that during the time when Void Stiles happen, I could totally feel how dark the episodes were. He's like one of the sources of comedy in the entire series and I felt that that was taken away too. Regretfully, he was missing during most of season 6 and to be honest if I was watching this during the actual run, it would've affected me. Deeply. The episodes that made me cry was when they were trying to remember his character because he was erased (6x8 & 6x9).

My second favorite character was Malia Tate. She's just so candid and frank. She has no filter which made her actions and suggestions either funny or ridiculously rude and yet, she didn't care. She had her own agendas and issues to deal with but her loyalty to the pack was always there. I loved her highlighter scenes and you could tell that she really was like Stiles in a way. When Dylan O' Brien was not present, she brought a lot of the comedic essence in the show.

My third favorite was Danny Mahealani because he was just so loyal to Jackson and at the same time, was a funny and kind character to others. He's a nonjudgmental character to the point that he knew his friends had supernatural powers and he didn't do anything about it. He just went by as if everything was normal and treat them exactly the same. Too bad he had to leave after season 3.

I think one of the things that separate Teen Wolf from the other supernatural series/show/movies that I've watched is that they've dealt with money problems. Like sure, Scott McCall was really powerful because he was the "True Alpha" but he had real life problems as well which couldn't be solved with him being a werewolf. Despite all the adventures that both him and Stiles had surpassed, there were still some issues that they can't get away from like hospital bills, rent and other stuff money-wise.

I agree that the ending is quite open-ended and there are still stories to tell about the characters. (Step-brother for Scott, maybe? Haha.) But I probably have a different reason why I want another season/movie/whatever. I wanted an extension because I wanted to see to it that that SOB Tamora Monroe got what she deserved. Haha. I hate her! Possibly because she was a guidance counselor who disguises herself as a concerned person but is really a big hypocrite trash that every word she let out is total BS. Like, she hated the sheriff for covering up the real identities of the people saving their small city but Gerard Argent hiding some things from her was fine. Girrrrl.🤨

Lastly, for the ships, I started to ship Malia with Scott when he was able to make her transform into a human after being a coyote/werecoyote for 8 years. I was like this is totally a meet cute. I mean, with all due respect from Stalia (I like them too but I really was going for Stydia because I think they were totally endgame), I thought that they could be together and that would be awesome and they did! I was like... "Finally! A show that pulled through!!! A good slow burn romantic relationship with no one dying on their wedding day, no one had to sacrifice his/her life to save a family member and no one had to be a gossip monger website administrator irl."😤

Okay, gun to the head, I ship Scalia but I ship Shelley Hennig and Tyler Posey more--not in an obsessive way, of course. Just in a "if-they-would-be-together-that-would-be-nice" way.

Anyway that's it. Photos ctto.

Rating: 4/5🌟

[dynamicduoofstackie]

Me at the end of The Falcon and Winter Soldier Finale:

I know my behind set an alarm for 3am, woke up, mentally said "oh hell nah, and fell my ass back to sleep in order to wake up at a decent hour, but still...

Spoilers ahead

I love me some Sam Wilson... but he spent 89% of the TV show blocking his blessings with the shield cause he gave a damn what America thought about a black man with stars and stripes and a shield. Clearly he ain't give a damn when he was an American pararescuer or an American VA counselor or an American superhero with wings, but as soon as he got a promotion... he got to thinking... but that racism though. Like he wasn't deal with haters and racism as the Falcon, which clearly he did at the bank and the streets of Baltimore with the cops.

So Bucky was the only one keeping it real by wanting to give that shield back to the rightful owner, Sam Wilson. He was as subtle as a fog horn having Wakanda not only giving Sam a new set of wings and Redwing. But a whole Captain America outfit. If that ain't love, gifting tech that can block a whole helicopter and a metal bird Bucky loathes, than love don't exist 😤 💯.

The series was good despite Sam playing hard to get and them having to change the entire plot last minute cause they couldn't use a pandemic producing terrorist plot when we already in a pandemic. But I swear any time the actors was like six hours of content, I was like no... less than six hours... more like five.

I was expecting them to do a two hour long or even one and a half hour long finale. But nope... under 50 minutes, even including the one post credit scene. I mean fuck... I knew tfaws was shorter than wandavision. But this is ridiculous.

We got more fighting in episode five than episode six. Like yeah Sam got a new suit and is finally acknowledging he's Captain America. But the finale was more car/helicopter chasing than fight. Sharon and Zemo were the anti hero of the show. They killed Karli and her fellow flash smasher with guns and a well-placed explosion.

First off I didn't realize Bucky and Steve were that vulnerable in these streets. I thought they had like Luke Cage skin or something... They can jump a hundred or so feet out a helicopter or window with no problem; yank out and bludgeon people with steel poles and run with cars. But a single bullet can end your career. Get the hell out of here. Why y'all hating on Sam if he is managing to keep up despite not having super serum. At least Sam's previous job as a parareacuer had him qualified before he even did that American Ninja training montage.😒

Bucky shouldn't have been doped by Karli wanting to talk to him. Like he couldn't put her on speaker as he moved down to the basement. Sloppy. Then you don't let John react to new Captain America whether positive or negative or Bucky for that matter after the heat died. I know if I got my ass flung like a human Frisbee and my arm broken like a wishbone, I'd have some words. But apparently they didn't have time for that.

Also, how the fuck did John Walker learn how to dial Val's number. At least show that. Plus as touching as the ending Isiah Bradley moment was... notice how they had to wind their way all the way in the back of Steve's exhibition to see Isiah's statue and plaque. Like it wasn't to the side of, front of, floating above Steve's exhibit. It was in the back as an afterthought that 90 percent will miss.

Sam didn't even really get to defeat/fight Karli. He refused to fight her and got himself beat the hell up for what... for Sharon to kill her. So he saved the senators, but didn't save the one girl he been trying to reach half that damn movie. Like what the hell... and why was Sam being served up in the beginning of the movie by the same man he beat so easily while flying in midair? 🤔 How the hell you get worse fighting after you spent a whole training montage doing flips and spins?

Also why did Sam get upgraded to Captain America in the TV title credits; but Bucky who has been fighting not to be the Winter Soldier... doesn't get his name changed to White Wolf or Srgt. Barnes. Why we calling that man by his slave name? The Wakandians set him free and upgraded his arm.

The only redeeming thing about the finale was the Captain America outfit with vibranium accessories and Bucky damn near being adopted by the Wilson's. Man was smiling harder with the Wilson family than the whole MCU. If there is any justice Sam and Bucky will be dating soon.