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hogwartsmarvelmommy · 3 years

Text

Spin the bottle. H.H 🤭❤️

Warnings: kissing, maybe some references to sex.. alcohol consumption.

🌼🌸 Masterlist 🌸🌼

This situation could have been prevented, you scolded yourself as you sat in the small circle on the floor. What were you anyway? A child? Grown adults don't do this kind of stuff. But here you were sitting in a circle as Tom grabbed the bottle and spun it around, you prayed it did not land on you.

The bottle stilled after what felt like an eternity, pointing directly at Harrison.

“Oi i think it's time for me to go mate,” Harrison said, jumping up to his feet. Harry and Sam were both a laughing mess on the floor as Jacob insisted that the rules were the rules. Leaving Tom and Harrison both a frustrated mess as they shared a rather quick and disappointing peck on the lips, but when the bottle had landed on you and Z they had insisted that there was tongue and groping involved. Classic boys you guess.

“That's not fair,” you called out as the boys took their seats back in the circle. “Z and I had to nearly make out but the two of you got off with some lame ass peck?”

“There was no getting off, I can promise you that much Y/N,” Tom quipped, making you nearly fall over in a fit of giggles. It probably wouldn't have been as funny as you thought it was if you were sober, but with the obscene amount of alcohol coursing through your veins, just about everything was funny. Harry grabbed the bottle from the ground as it was his turn. You felt your breath hitch as he spun it on the hardwood surface watching it go around, and around, until it slowed, and finally stilled. Pointing directly at YOU. You felt a sudden stillness in the air, as you registered what had just happened.

“Let's make this interesting,” Harrison said, having noticed the way you had reacted when the bottle stilled on you. As you stared at the curly haired ginger sitting across from you, you glanced over to Harrison to see him fishing around in his pocket, pulling out a small coin. “Heads, you guys kiss, tongue included,” He paused and looked between you and Harry, “Tails, you go up to the guest room closet and share seven minutes in heaven,” Your stomach tightened. You looked back over to Harry to see him smirking and staring directly at you.

“What do you think, love?” Harry's voice rang in your ears. What do you think? You couldn't possibly tell him the thoughts that immediately started to flood your mind with just the sheer possibility. You and Harry, alone in a closet, for seven minutes. What could fuel your fantasies better than that. You could feel an ache deep in your core already starting at the thought of Harry's lips or hands anywhere on your body. To say that you had imagined it would be an understatement.

“Okay,” You stuttered with a nod of your head. You looked back at Harrison as he threw the coin in the air, catching it and placing it onto his arm. His eyebrows raised as he shot Harry a grin.

“Head on upstairs, I'll be up to get you in seven minutes,” Harrison told the two of you. You felt a sudden nervousness rush over you as you tipped the red cup to your lips and downed the liquid in hope for a bit of liquid courage. Harry got up to his feet and walked towards you, extending his arm for you to take his hand. He pulled you to your feet and then pulled you behind him towards the guest room. You followed him all the way to a small dark closet, with the door closed it was pitch black, you could feel Harry's breath close to your face and you were sure that he could probably hear your heart nearly leaping through your chest with each beat.

“You know,” He said, his fingers tracing down your jaw. “I've seen the way you look at me,”

You weren't sure how to respond, or if you could respond. Every fiber of your being was screeching at how close Harry was and how bad you just wanted him to close the distance that was between you, no matter how little.

“I..Uh,” you sounded like an idiot trying to find something to say, but Harry didn't mind, nor did he mind all the subtle things that had been said and done over the past few weeks. He enjoyed the way that your eyes found him in a big group and how when he would be talking, and everyone would lose interest, your ears were always open and eager to hear anything and everything he had to say. He had noticed a while ago how you would get all giddy and nervous when it was just the two of you compared to when you were with Harrison or Sam, and he would be lying if he told anyone he wasn't jealous when any male prospect tried anything to woo you. It was strange for him, as overtime his heart had slowly yearned for yours without him even noticing, and now standing in a dark room with the impending task at hand, he was nervous. Nervous he had read it all wrong, nervous maybe he had begun to fall for you when all you thought of him as was a friend.

“Harry,” You whispered, finding his hand in the darkness of the closet.

Your voice seeking him out was enough for him to close the small distance between you, lips crashing into yours. A slow mess of lips on lips, your fingers finding home in his mess of beautiful curls. As soon as his lips had connected with yours the nervousness had washed away, it all felt so right, like it had been like this for years. For you this was a dream, you had always felt differently towards Harry, his humor and sarcasm pulling you in and his sweetness and heart holding you there. His hands slipped down the center of your back, pulling you impossibly closer, until they rested on the small of your back. Lips on lips, tongues grazing teeth, it was all a haze. His lips left yours only to find home on your neck, making you a mess in his hands. You couldn't believe this was real, but the little nip to your earlobe made you know for certain this was happening.

Neither of you had noticed the time that had passed as your bodies had been pressed flush together with lips and hands traveling, until Harrison swung the door open, with force, light flooding into the dark area, and burning your eyes. You buried your face in Harry's neck to block the light, and even with one of his mates right there, he still held your body close to him.

“Times up,” Harrison announced, noticing how cozy you both looked, “But I could leave if you are needing more..”

“No, we're coming,” Harry said quickly, pulling both of you from the closet. You followed behind Harrison and next to Harry back towards the group. Your fingers brushed Harry’s and he interlaced your hands. You looked up to his face, shocked at the intimate gesture, to see him smiling down at you with the same smile you had been giving him for weeks.

“By the way,” Harrison laughed as you made your way back to the group. “The coin was heads,”

You shot Harrison a playful glare, before laughing. Harry's arm slung over your shoulder pulling you closer to him.

Seven minutes in heaven..

Who would have thought.

#harry holland #harry robert holland #harry holland imagine #harry holland smut #harry holland x y/n #harry holland fluff

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asciendo · 3 years

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Ember Island

Went through my old laptop and found a few Zuko drabbles i wrote years ago!

Still thinking if i should post the rest so, let me know and comments are appreciated!

Inspired by Zuko and Mai's fight in the Ember Island Episode but of couse, with the reader!

The gang was stationed in Zuko’s ancestral home in Ember Island. It was a huge mansion with rooms for everyone. You were sharing a room with Zuko as the both of you have been dating the past few months after both of you joined Team Avatar. Zuko joined when he left the Fire Nation to help Aang and you were rescued along with Suki from the Boiling Rock. Your father was a high-ranking Fire Nation general that left after disagreeing with the inhumane ways of Fire Lord Ozai. You were captured when you tried to steal food from a Fire Nation camp for the refugees you and your family were hiding with. Zuko recognized you from the jail and rescued you and a little while after, the two of you began dating.

Everything was going smoothly, until the gang reached Ember Island. As soon as you arrived on the beach, Zuko became cold. He gave a half-hearted tour of his old house. While the gang was ecstatic on how huge it was, Zuko remained unbothered the whole time.

“Are you alright?” you asked him, resting your hand on his shoulder. “I’m fine.” He was staring out the window with no expression in his face.

He remained the same the days after. You’d try to talk to him but he’d shrug it off. The only form of response you got from him was at night, when you’d be asleep then suddenly feel arms snake around your waist. Katara would ask you if anything happened with him and you’d explain how he was fine until we arrived on the island.

“I don’t know...he won’t talk to me.” You sighed as you and Katara sat on the balcony. “Well, it obviously has to do with his family being back here and everything...” she looked at with you concern as it was obvious that Zuko’s behavior was taking a toll on you. “He’s so used to keeping his feelings to himself and afraid of being vulnerable, I don’t blame him though after everything but...”

“It’s hard.” Katara finished and you nodded.

Zuko’s cold behavior turned to snappiness and anger. The slightest inconvenience would make him angry. When you ran out of the tea he liked he threw a fit. The time you accidentally moved his robe after his shower and he couldn’t find it, he was in a bad mood the whole day.

Zuko’s attitude hasn’t gotten better and you were tired of it. No matter how many times you asked, he’d insist he was fine. It was like an ending guessing game. Your demeanor around Zuko changed as well as you replied to his nonchalant responses with sarcasm and eye rolls. This caused numerous fights and bickering between the two of you. Zuko sensed your distance and tried to somewhat make amends by bringing you tea in the morning although still in his cold behavior.

He’d try to hold you at night but you refused, angry at his erratic behavior. One moment he’s yelling at you for a robe, the next he’s trying to make amends by giving you a flower or trying to hold you. It was sweet but you were tired of trying to guess which Zuko you were waking up next to, the sweet and caring one you knew, or the angry and short-fused Zuko you’ve been experiencing.

The gang decided to go to the local carnival dressed in Fire Nation clothes. Everyone was excited to finally have some fun after months of training.

It was huge with hundreds of booths with games, rides, and variety shows. Zuko won a stuffed monkey in one of the booths and walked up to you. “You want this?” he asked you with no expression. You were annoyed at how it seemed like it was such a task to win you that toy and how it felt like he was forced to do so. “No.” you stated which caused Zuko to grunt and throw the toy on the ground.

The gang was surrounding a large arcade game where you had to shoot fire from two buttons to the target. “What’s this?” Zuko asked. “A game Zuko, we’re in an arcade what do you think it is.” You rolled your eyes. Zuko huffed then tried to play it. He ended up losing and burning the whole thing up.

“Hey we should get out of here before we get caught!” Sokka exclaimed and the group left.

The next day, the gang decided to hit the beach. Sokka and Suki were playing in the water, Katara was practicing her bending and Aang and Toph were building sandcastles. You and Zuko were relaxing under an umbrella just watching the sunset. Suddenly, he tapped your shoulder and there was a shell in your face. You stared at him then at him, he had a slight smile almost pleading. “This is for you.” He moved the shell in front of your face.

“What am I gonna do with that?”

“Don’t girls like this stuff?” he asked you, “Maybe stupid girls.” You rolled your eyes and looked away from him. “FORGET IT!” Zuko threw the shell across the beach,

He huffed then stood and left. Zuko came back with two ice cream cones but when he offered you one, you felt a cold scoop on your lap. There was ice cream all over you and there was a frozen Zuko staring at you waiting for your reaction. “Great, refreshing.” you rolled your eyes and left.

“Come on, it was an accident!” he called but you kept walking.

Some local Fire Nation teenagers invited Sokka to a house party and the gang decided to go.

Aang was dancing in front, Katara was giggling at him, Toph was dragging her feet as she didn’t wan to go to the party, Sokka and Suki walked hand in hand after them. You and Zuko walked behind in silence, the both of you not looking at each other.

You got to the party and the gang dispersed on their own. You weren’t feeling like socializing so you slumped on the couch at the end of the room. Zuko sat next to you but you two sat in silence. “I’ll get us some punch.” He announced and walked off.

Scanning the room, you didn’t see the gang anywhere. You began to daydream while waiting for Zuko to come back.

A voice broke your thoughts as you looked up to see a tan muscular boy stand in front of you. “Hey, I’m Lee.”

“Hi.” You pretended to be interested in your fingernails as you weren’t in the mood for small take. “What’s your name?”

“Ma-li” you almost said your real name, which could cause problems for the gang.

“Mali? Interesting name.” he winked. You smiled blankly as you wanted him to leave but he wasn’t moving.

“Soooo...what are you doing here alone?” he tried to walk closer to you but suddenly, there was a hand grabbing his shoulder.

“She’s not alone.” Zuko grumbled behind him. Zuko then threw Lee to the side of the room that Lee’s body broke a vase. “Seriously?!” you glared at Zuko as you left the party. You walked out onto the beach where you saw a campfire going, and sighed in relief, as it was the rest of the gang. You plopped on a piece of wood next to Katara and sighed.

“Where’s Zuko?” Aang asked with a mouth full of food. “Beating some guy up.” You rolled your eyes and laid back in your seat.

“WHAT?!” The rest of the gang sat up from their seats. “Why?!” Katara asked.

“Can’t believe I missed that.” Toph sighed.

“Oh, there you are.” Zuko said through gritted teeth then sat next to Toph on the other side.

“Did we miss something...” Sokka nervously asked, sensing the tension between you two.

“No, just Zuko being a ticking time bomb as usual.” You said coldly as you stared up at the sky. “Shouldn’t you be there with your boyfriend?!” Zuko spat back at you.

“Boyfriend?!” the rest of the gang piped up.

“You’re overreacting and you know it.”

“NO I AM NOT!” Zuko was yelling across the fire at you and the gang watched in silence.

“Yes you are! This whole trip you’ve been hot-headed, angry and impatient!” You snapped back, sitting up from your seat now as well. “Well at least I feel something! Instead of being like you, having no emotions for anything and being a big blah the whole trip!”

The rest of the gang became silent. Not knowing what to do with the two of you fighting in front of them.

Stung by this, you stood up and fixed your hair into a ponytail, with Zuko and the rest of the gang watching you closely. “Well, you don’t have to worry about having a “blah” person in your life anymore, it’s over.” You said softly yet harshly then walked off.

The rest of the gang stared at you walk away, shocked, then stared at Zuko who seemed shocked but angry as well.

“AGH!” he exclaimed and shot a ball of fire in to the existing campfire that made the gang disperse.

“Z-Zuko...” Aang began. “WHAT?!” Zuko shot back at him.

“Uhm...nevermind.” Aang nervously backed away.

“Zuko...” Katara placed a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?” she was concerned about him, they’ve gotten closer over time and it was obvious that he was going through something.

“Why does everyone keep asking me if I’m okay? I’m fine!” Zuko shoved her hand off. “W-well..I mean...you’ve always been moody and angry and—“ Sokka began.

“Ow hey!” Sokka exclaimed as Suki hit him. “Zuko, we can tell something is bothering you, alright.” Katara began.

“Ever since we got here it’s like your whole attitude changed...you were impatient, you were snapping at everyone all the time and ignored all of our attempts to be there for you...even Y/N.” Katara finished and Zuko slumped to the ground.

“Is it because you’re back in your family’s home?” she asked softly and Zuko buried his face in his hands. “It’s just...the last time I was here I was still trying to capture Aang...I was still with my family...I used to come here with my mother...and now...I feel like a stranger in my own home.”

The gang looked at each other and exhaled, they felt sorry for Zuko. They knew his past and how he keeps everything bottled up. They could only imagine being back in the life you left but as a completely different person.

“It’s okay Zuko, we understand, we just needed to know that.” Karata smiled as she sat next to Zuko. “I’m sorry guys...I’ve been such a jerk.”

“Yeah you kinda have been.” Sokka stated. “OW!” he yelled in pain as Suki hit him again.

“We forgive you Zuko, and we’re here for you. You don’t have to hide anything from us. All of us had our share of meltdowns.” Aang sat on the other side of Zuko and smiled at him.

“Yeah except me.” Sokka said proudly. “What about the time you lost you boomerang?” Katara rolled her eyes. “HEY! THAT DOESN’T COUNT!” Sokka panicked which made Suki laugh.

“Ugh! But I ruined it with Y/N. She just broke up with me.”

“Yeah you did.” Sokka chuckled which earned another punch from Suki. “WILL YOU STOP HITTING ME?!”

“I don’t think she meant it...she’s just frustrated because she doesn’t know what’s wrong with you...” Katara assured him. “Yeah right..she seemed like she meant it.” Zuko hung his head low.

“Look, if you just talk to her it will be fine, I promise.” Katara smiled and Zuko looked around at the rest of the gang. They were all nodding in agreement with Sokka nodding as well but with Suki covering his mouth. “You think she’ll forgive me?”

“I know she will.” Katara smiled sweetly. Zuko got up and went to look for you.

You found a nice rock to sit on while watching the waves. You were slowly regretting breaking up with Zuko, you know you didn’t mean it and was just so angry. You began to climb down your rock to find Zuko but there he was, standing nervously staring at you.

“Y/N...I’m so sorry.” He began and you sighed. “Zuko—“

“No, let me explain.” He cut you off and you nodded for him to continue. “It’s just..I thought I was going to be fine coming back here, like it wasn’t a big deal...but it was.”

“It just brought back so many memories, with my family, my mother...when I was regretting choosing Azula’s side...and I just felt so lost...in my own home...like I have all the memories but it feels like it doesn’t belong to me.” You stared at him with compassion and empathy, you knew it had something to do with his family. It hurt you to see Zuko like this, you knew it was hard for him to express all of these things to you because he’s always been the type to hide his real feelings and anger.

“I was so angry at myself for feeling that way because I know I did the right thing joining Aang, and I took it out on you. I’m so sorry...I understand if—“

He couldn’t finish because your lips were on his.

“Does this mean we’re not broken up?” Zuko smiled as he looked at you. “No...I’m sorry too...I wasn’t being easy either.” You laughed and he did too. “I just hope that you tell me when you feel angry or sad or anything next time...I can help you, Zuko.” You placed a palm on his cheek and he leaned into it. “I know and I’m sorry...I love you.” He said and both of you stared at each other in surprise as this is the first time any of you have said it to each other. “Y-you don’t have to say it back—“

You crashed your lips onto his and he lifted you up to deepen the kiss. “I love you too, Zuko.” You smiled and he squeezed you tight.

The rest of the gang was waiting by the campfire. You and Zuko walked back with his arm around you. “Aw, the love birds are backed together!” Katara squealed. “Finally! My stomach is growling, I’m starving!” Sokka announced.

“Yeah lets go.” you laughed looking at Zuko.

“Lets go home.” Zuko kissed you on the forehead and you happily went back to the house.

That night as you slept tangled up with Zuko, you couldn’t help but smile.

“He loves me.” You whispered to yourself, and happily fell asleep next to Zuko.

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wizardcommune · 3 years

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zenitsu agatsuma sfw alphabet

pairing - zenitsu x reader

warnings - none

word count - 1.8k

a/n - i want to beat the shit out of zenitsu while simultaneously giving him a hug. also zen’s theme song is cariño by the marias no i will not be debating this

(reader is a demon slayer)

a = affection (how affectionate are they? how do they show affection?)

he’s extremely affectionate. he likes physical and verbal affection the most, because he can show it at any time!! he definitely does not give a shit about PDA and will sit in your lap at any and all times

b = best friend (what would they be like as a best friend? how would the friendship start?)

inosuke was actually the first one to meet you first, as he accidentally barreled into you when he ran too fast on a curvy road. when zen saw what happened, he was like “inosuke just ran into someone again and jesus christ they’re cute abort abort”

he definitely got really mad at inosuke as he stood there like

tanjirou helped you up and zen got mad at him too since that was supposed to be his job; get it together guys

as long as you don’t do anything to embarrass him, he’s very sweet as a friend!! he’ll always bring you little things he found to make you happy

c = cuddles (do they like to cuddle? how would they cuddle?)

he loves cuddles!! even before you started dating, you, tanjirou, nezuko, inosuke, and him would all have cuddle sessions (it was tanjirou’s idea, obviously)

after that, he warmed up to the idea of platonic cuddles!! it made him like cuddles even more when you got together

d = domestic (do they want to settle down? how are they at cooking and cleaning?)

settling down is definitely something he wants!! as much as he likes the other demon slayers, it stresses him out a ton and he’d rather get to have a family with his s/o.

very minor spoilers for the end of the manga for the rest of this letter:

when the main four all moved in together, zenitsu was so fucking excited. he wouldn’t have to worry about getting mauled to death and he gets to live with you? he was bouncing off the walls the entire time everyone was setting up.

e = ending (if they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

i think he’d be the type to want to break up if he thought he was gonna die on a mission. he’d be very solemn and quiet, saying that he didn’t want to hurt his s/o, but if something were to happen to him it would hurt more. (remember how he acted when he saw kaigaku again?)

if it was forced upon him, he’d definitely be a crier. you can barely make out was he’s trying to say because he’s blubbering so much; after he gets it out he’d immediately hug you and sob into your shoulder. :(

f = fiance(e) (how do they feel about commitment? how quick would they want to get married?)

have you seen zenitsu? king wanted to marry that poor girl after 7 minutes tops

when he first started crushing, he would wanted to get married immediately. even if you weren’t together yet, tanjirou + inosuke would have to pull him off because he wouldn’t stop clinging to you.

especially since you’re a demon slayer, after the final arc he’d get a lot more serious about it. obviously he would never lose his personality, but he would finally officially confess (like you didn’t know before DHFJGKBFDHK) and maybe give you some space.

once you were older and had been together for a few years, every once in a while he’d be like “so uh... s/o..... howwouldyoufeelaboutgettingmarried” and then promptly leaving because poor boy was embarrassed

g = gentle (how gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

zenitsu is pretty gentle physically, but not as much as someone like genya or tanjirou. especially since he’s the type to tackle you into a hug HAHA

he’s very emotionally gentle!! he’s really sweet to you and is really sensitive

h = hugs (do they like hugs? how often do they do it? what are their hugs like?)

king LOVES hugs. he’s so clingy he’ll randomly jump at you and just. latch on. good luck leaving

when he’s softer, like if one of you gets hurt, he’ll hug you really gently and won’t say anything for a while. he’ll probably sniffle into the crook in your neck a lot. booger haori :(

i = i love you (how fast do they say the L-word?)

immediately. he doesn’t really understand how much it means, but tanjirou probably explains it to him because him and nezuko couldn’t handle the secondhand embarrassment

j = jealousy (how jealous do they get? what do they do when they’re jealous?)

oh god he gets jealous so easily. you can just be waving at inosuke and he’ll start crying

when he gets jealous, he’ll get even more clingy than normal and will start crying a ton. you’ll have to cuddle him for a while to get it through his head

k = kisses (what are their kisses like? where do they like to kiss you? where do they like to be kissed?)

he loves kissing you and being kissed everywhere!!! he doesn’t have a favorite place to kiss you, but he loves being kissed on his cheek :^) his kisses are really soft!

l = little ones (how are they around children?)

please for the love of god don’t put him near children

m = morning (how are mornings spent with them?)

he’s not a morning person at all. right when he wake up he immediately snuggles more into you. if you have to get up early for training, he won’t stop whining oh my god

if you bring him tea in the morning he’ll love you forever (he will anyways shh)

n = night (how are nights spent with them?)

it normally takes him a little while to fall asleep. he prefers to cuddle with you though because it helps a bit!! also because he’s touch starved

explained more in z, he moves around a ton. he likes talking about small stuff before bed too, since it distracts him a little.

o = open (when would they start revealing things about themselves? do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

it would take a while. kaigaku isn’t something zen brought up to tanjirou or inosuke, and i don’t recall him mentioning it after the final battle. his grandpa is also a very sensitive subject to him, so his s/o would have to have his complete trust to talk about it.

i think he would reveal things slowly unless you asked him about it more.

p = patience (how easily angered are they?)

with you, it takes a while for him to get mad. even if you embarrass him, he’d mostly get really dramatic and teary.

if you get hurt, though, he’d definitely get mad at you for putting yourself in that position. losing you is something he doesn’t want to think about

q = quizzes (how much would they remember about you? do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

i think he would take mental notes without even realizing?? like he’d remember the stupidest stuff you said just because he’s so head over heels. chill

r = remember (what is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

zenitsu’s favorite memory was the day he confessed.

it was right after the final battle, and he was physically and emotionally exhausted from the losses. he just kinda went “fuck it” and went to go confess to you!!

he was really blunt since he was half knocked out on his feet. once you reciprocated, he kinda just. collapsed onto you and giggled really tiredly before passing out LMAOO

he gets embarrassed whenever you bring it up, but it still makes him really happy.

s = security (how protective are they? how would they protect you? how would they like to be protected?)

i mean... it depends? when he passes out during a fight, he subconsciously gets really protective. when he’s awake, however, he’d rather be protected HAHA

seeing you fight to protect him is his favorite!! it makes him feel really safe (despite being two seconds away from getting clawed in the face)

t = try (how much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

u = ugly (what would be some bad habits of theirs?)

he moves very fast in the relationship. he still has that underlying fear of dying at any time so.. “fuck it i should marry s/o”

until he gets through that, you and the others will probably have to help him. he’s stronger than he realizes and while being cautious is good as a demon slayer, his paranoia is only stressing him out further :(

also he picks his nose

v = vanity (how concerned are they with their looks?)

not very much? when he first started crushing on you, he was checking to make sure his haori was straight and his hair wasn’t messed up and his shirt was tucked in and and and

but after he started dating you, he let up a little bit as he got more comfortable.

w = whole (would they feel incomplete without you?)

honestly? yeah. zenitsu is dramatic as hell and won’t hesitate to tell you that he would die instantly if something happened to you FBHDJGFH

x = xtra (a random headcanon for them.)

he really likes the smell of flowers, so if you ever wore deodorant/cologne/perfume that smelled like daisies or some shit he would follow you the entire day

y = yuck (what are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

he would really want you to like his friends, and if you didn’t, he’d be so sad. they’re the people he respects the most, so to hear you don’t like him would hurt a little bit.

he’d also like someone who didn’t tease him much, just because he’s a little sensitive.

also he is absolutely horrified of bugs

z = zzz (what are some sleep habits of theirs?)

whether you fell asleep touching or not, you will always wake up to zenitsu clinging to you. especially if you get up before him, he won’t even realize he does it unless you bring it up

he’s an active sleeper!! i’m so sorry if you’re a light sleeper because he won’t stop fucking moving. he also talks a lot in his sleep, and more often than not will snore lightly.

sometimes, though, after a long mission, he’ll just hold you while mumbling some slurred “love you, s/o” and then passes out instantly. on those nights, he won’t move at all or make any noise.

#i like to make fun of him but he's so sweet :((#zenitsu supremacy #my work #zenitsu x reader #zenitsu agatsuma #zenitsu agatsuma x reader #demon slayer #demon slayer x reader #kny x reader #demon slayer sfw alphabet #sfw alphabet #zenitsu sfw alphabet #zenitsu alphabet #kny sfw alphabet #demon slayer alphabet

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the-starset-system · 3 years

Note

Do you got any ideas for increasing communication? I really wanna talk to my system but it's so hard :(

I could just give you the common advice but you can find all of that with a quick Google search. Lemme give you some stuff that's personally helped us:

GET OUTTA mY RoOm IM PLAyiNG MINECRAF

Lmao I couldn't resist, but yee, Minecraft has actually helped us communicate more than anything. It gives everyone creative freedom and with mechanics like signs and books it's easy to leave notes within the game. The littles adore it too :D

I actually have a lot to say about playing as a system on Minecraft, so I might make a separate post if any of you want to hear. I'll probably be discussing how it helps and how to set all that stuff up, since figuring out how everything would work with inventory and stuff rattled our brain at first (;ŏ﹏ŏ)

Art!

Creating things is a great way to learn more about your system and maybe uncover trauma details in a more gentle fashion! We personally draw and write, but music, dance, videos, etc. all work!

It doesn't even have to be about your system, it could be feelings or thoughts. Just something to pick your brain, to learn more about yourself since it's easy to fall down a pit when you don't know who you are, let alone your system.

That's one of the most important things in my opinion, having a grounded sense of self before really jumping into everything. When we jumped in not really knowing who we are ourselves it was hard to understand one another and I do believe that carelessness still affects us to this day, so just try to understand your own self as well

Don't laugh, but dress up games

Yeah yeah I know the kinda reputation some of them hold, but when we first discovered we were a system and started trying to work together that was the first thing we done. We knew we didn't identify with this body, but at the same time a majority of us were particularly unsure of what we did look like. Having little avatars to dress up was so helpful cause we would ask ourselves "does this feature have any significance?" or "Why am I attached to this certain feature?". Slowly after sifting through different options we could say "that's me". It was really reassuring and helped us recognize each other. It even helped with figuring out who was fronting because someone would feel unsettled about a certain feature being missing.

We still use little apps sometimes for fun or if someone new split / came out of dormancy :]

Making time

This is gonna sound silly, but think of communicating with your system the same way you would in a relationship. This is something you're likely gonna be dealing with for a good while so it's good to have close bonds with everyone. Bonds are the key to communicating cause I mean, would you wanna talk to someone you dislike?? If you're having trouble with system conflict I'd recommend checking out my other post I made about it.

But where does making time come into this? Aha sorry I actually got off topic but I feel like it's important regardless so I ain't erasing it-

What I mean by making time is well, making time. It's harder to communicate when there's so much going on around you cause you'll get distracted. What we do is set out however much free time we have that day to bundle up in our room and pretend we're sleeping, when in reality the low amount of sensory stimuli makes it easy to focus on talking to everyone. This doesn't always goes as planned, sometimes we just have bad days and can't communicate. If that's the case we'll keep trying for a few minutes before going off to do something else.

That's one thing to always remember, everyone has bad day and that's okay!

So, those are some ideas, but I also wanted to go over some things you should avoid too, kinda like do's and dont's!

Forcing communication

There's often a reason someone in the system avoids communicating, as well as a reason you may not be able to communicate with anyone. At the end of the day you gotta remember this was formed out of survival, needing to not be able to communicate, to forget, in order to properly function.

If things aren't helping then maybe give it some time, you might just not be at a good point in your life right now and your brain knows, saying "hey, we still don't feel too good, I wanna be prepared for any other tough situations we might go through" and that's okay. The mass media loves to portray ppl with DID having flawless communication and that's just not the truth. People understand it's a hard battle and I can assure you many in the community have your back :]

Fake claiming

-One of my worst habits, it's easy to say "no that's not real". Sometimes it might not be but I know from my own mistakes that more than likely it is. It can hurt a lot of system members, making them feel like their voice doesn't matter or even make them go on a spiral if they really are real.

I don't really have much more to say, it's pretty self explanatory. Just keep an open mind

You don't have to be differentiated

Another thing we're all guilty of, we thought we had to all act super different to be valid. Spoiler alert: you're valid no matter what

Once again, I feel like it's pretty self explanatory, but forcing yourself to be different from x, y, and z person sucks cause you never get to be yourself. You don't need to be differentiated, your perfect the way you are, regardless of who may share those same traits

That's all I can think of right now, but knowing me I'll come up with a million more things after I post this

I did come up with a really good explanation of what building communication is like though and I wanted to share:

Think of it as leveling up in a video game. All these tasks may seem useless but slowly your collecting XP and getting closer to your goal. That's why you gotta keep at it!

So, keep going on those seemingly useless quests and fighting that boss monster no matter how many times you get thrown to the ground, cause every last bit is worth it (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

I hope this helps! Sorry if I got a bit off topic! I have a habit of that (• ▽ •;) I was writing on and off so things may be a bit choppy. Aaaa sorryyyy but thank you for the askkkk! And remember, I am not a professional and my words should not replace / overwrite seeking professional help if possible! Regardless, I hope you have a good week! 💫

#roar.exe #👾#ask response #advice #long post

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risingsouls · 3 years

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Recruited: Chapter 2

[I didn’t edit again because I’m a lazy bitch, but here you go! It’s a lot shorter and I KINDA imagine many of Vegeta’s will be because this IS more about Nabooru. But it’s also about both of them and I LOVE writing pre-Z stuff so. Here you go.]

Vegeta

Beneath Frieza, Zarbon was at the top of Vegeta’s to-murder list, tied with Dodoria. But he would be sure to murder both of Frieza’s most trusted lackeys first and make him watch as he humiliated the smug generals. Slowly. In ways not even Hell could let them forget.

“Who do you think that girl with Zarbon was? Weird that he would be stuck with the task of toting a lowly new recruit around.”

“Who knows. Maybe the pretty boy pissed Frieza off and that was his punishment. Serves him right.” Vegeta heard Nappa hum and could see the large Saiyan folding his arms over his chest despite his position in front of his two cohorts. “Her power level was nothing to sneeze at. Neither were her ti--”

“Yes, she’s even stronger than you are, Nappa,” Vegeta chimed in before the conversation could veer off in the direction he sensed it going. He didn’t have the patience for their horny drivel on a normal day, and simply seeing Zarbon had lowered his tolerance. Thus, he refused to listen to them prattle on about this new recruit’s figure and whatever lewd fantasies they had already dreamed up about her. “If you’re not careful, perhaps I’ll have her replace you.”

“What? Come on, you don’t mean that!”

“Perhaps I do.” A smirk curled the prince’s lips. “She’s stronger than you and much easier on the eyes. What do you think, Raditz?”

“I would say it’s a pretty sound strategy. Good chance she’s smarter, too.”

Nappa huffed. “If Frieza murders the two of you in this meeting, I won’t miss you.”

“Speaking of that, what do you think he wants with all three of us?” Radtiz asked. “He usually only calls for you.”

An unfortunate truth and the reasoning for the change of the tyrant’s usual habits escaped him. Even when the matter at hand involved all three Saiyans--a new job he felt the need to assign in person, to scold them for a mission he deemed botched by them, or to simply torment the Saiyan prince for his own entertainment--he only requested Vegeta’s presence, likely due to his station as the undisputed leader of their trio and would-be monarch that ruled them if he still had a domain and people to rule over. Perhaps he had finally decided to do away with the rest of their race by putting the three of them out of their misery after all.

Then again, Frieza had quite the penchant for torture of both the physical and mental variety. Death would be too merciful.

“I guess this time he wanted more of an audience for whatever hell he’s planned for me than just Dodoria and Zarbon.” He turned a corner, the other two Saiyans following him down the final stretch of hallway leading toward the base’s central hub. “With Zarbon busy, he’s down a lackey for the moment. Perhaps he wanted the room to feel fuller.”

“Too bad we’re not as prone to kissing his ass,” Nappa mumbled, his boisterous tone quieted as they approached the door. The three may not suck up to Frieza as to near the same degree as the emperor’s closest confidants, but they weren’t stupid enough to incur his wrath for even a minimal insult such as that. It pained them to live with such fear, to tiptoe around anyone like a trio of children. The prince likely more so than the other two with his royal blood, his top tier power level that still paled in comparison to Frieza and even his lap dogs. Treading on thin ice constantly wore on his psyche, his pride. But his ire for the tyrant and pure spite drove him to survive and kill him. For the years of torment and Vegeta’s suspicion of his role in his people’s demise.

He would take back all that was promised to him.

The double doors slid open and admitted the Saiyans into the heart of the base where they found Frieza with his back to them, finishing off a conversation with the captain of another base somewhere in the cosmos. The screen in front of him blinked to darkness again. “It’s never simple, is it Dodoria? It seems we’ll have to make a little visit to sector eight soon after all.” He turned to face them and the three bowed. “Ah, perfect timing. I just lost the patience for waiting around too long.”

"Of course, my lord." Vegeta rose from his bow, hoping the strain in his jaw loosened before he met Frieza face to face. "We hurried straight here when we received your transmission."

Dodoria snorted, but Frieza ignored him. "Obedient as always. I've trained you well. But I'll cut right to the chase." His crimson gaze shifted from Vegeta to his left. "I have need of your large nanny, prince."

It took a massive amount of control to keep the surprise from his face, but a glance at Nappa revealed he hadn't been near as successful, the giant blinking with a tensed jaw. Confusion was better than fear, though the three of them no doubt felt some degree of it. Nappa for his own life, Vegeta for the potential loss of his most loyal underling. Though dumb and weak compared to him, the oaf had proven himself more than useful over the years.

"I mean no disrespect, sire, but what would you have me do?" Nappa asked. Vegeta felt a rush of a breeze as the former General dipped into another bow.

"Training." The Acrosian emperor folded his arms behind his back. "I have an...interesting new recruit. A very capable fighter, but new to utilizing ki. As you know, I prefer my soldiers have more than a basic handle on their energy and using it. A few weak blasts won't cut it in the force, and I see potential in her power level if given some proper training in ki utilization specifically. I want useful soldiers, not dead weight."

Vegeta's dark brows lowered in skepticism, but before he could request further explanation of why he needed Nappa for such a task, Frieza continued on, proving his impatience and readiness to move on with whatever heinous plans he had for sector eight. "A combination of the reports concerning her and her people along with my own observations revealed they are not unlike you Saiyans in their lust for combat. A little less bloodthirsty, perhaps, but quick learners and more than happy to jump into any fight presented to them. This particular soldier embodies this to the Nth degree. I'm sure even your monkey brains have figured out my train of thought: with such similarities, what better teacher for her than a Saiyan of which I have three more than willing to assist with it? I chose your giant for his experience in the field since, if I recall, he had a hand in your training, yes?"

“That is correct.” A minimal one, but Vegeta couldn’t deny Nappa’s involvement in his early combat training. The basics of physical and ki-based combat Nappa taught the prince himself. Until the young Saiyan realized his own strength and it became a hazard to the advisor’s health. He had never been known for pulling his punches no matter the opponent, and with a formidable power level at birth, it wasn’t long before he could subdue Nappa in minutes. When a spar nearly cost him his life, Nappa decided besetting Saibamen on him would prove more effective, coaching from the sidelines rather than serving as the royal punching bag. Vegeta attributed much of his learning to his own natural prowess, however. A self-taught prodigy for the greater portion of his training and growth.

“Perfect. I know it will break your heart to be down one cohort, but I’m sure you and the other will manage for...let’s say a month. I believe that is more than enough time for her to adjust and reach the required levels. If not,” he chuckled and shared a smirk with Dodoria, “I suppose that will be the end of this little experiment.”

Of course this was all just some stupid pet project of his. A waste of time, likely, that would only serve to rob him of Nappa for much too long. Vegeta held his tongue and bowed his head again. “Very good, my lord.”

“Since I likely will not be here to assess her myself, I will expect daily reports on her progress starting tomorrow,” he told Nappa. “You two will continue your jobs as scheduled. I’m sure you can handle that a man down.”

“Yes, sire.” Nappa and Raditz mumbled their own affirmation in unison with the prince and took Frieza turning his back to them as their dismissal. They each bowed once more and Vegeta turned on his heel to lead them back into the hallway.

Not until they reached the barracks sector and piled into the elevator did anyone dare speak, Raditz the first to express his thoughts on the matter: “You lucky bastard. You’re basically getting a vacation with a view.”

Vegeta rolled his eyes and pressed the button for the third floor with a huff. “Is that all you two think about? You don’t even know if that woman is the one he’ll be training.”

“Not all of us are content ignoring our needs like you,” Raditz retorted, folding his arms. “Besides, there’s a good chance it's her. She’s obviously new, didn’t even have armor yet.”

“Almost a shame she’ll have to change out of that outfit she was wearing,” mused Nappa, rubbing his chin. “Shit, even if it’s not her, having a woman around will be a nice change of pace in this place.”

Vegeta shot him a glare as they stepped off the elevator. “Your job is to train her, not bed her, Nappa.” He halted in front of his own door and typed in the four-digit code that offered him admission. He was keen on spending the few hours they had left before the final meal of the day without his cohorts. He had tired of them and their new strain of conversation for the moment. “Don’t do anything stupid that’s going to get you killed. You’ll be teaching her how to do it, after all.”

The prince entered his room, not caring for his subordinate’s reply as he closed the door behind him with the press of a button. He crossed his room to his bed and flopped down on it, arms folded tightly over his chest and a glare aimed at the ceiling. While the meeting with Frieza could have played out in far less favorable ways, it did nothing for his mood. He and Radtiz could handle the clutch of jobs assigned to them over the next month without issue, the possessive side of him balked at the idea of Nappa being anywhere but where he wanted him. What was the bastard up to with all this? Even if she was just a new recruit in need of additional training, there were thousands of other soldiers that could implement her training. His explanation be damned, Frieza hardly ever concerned himself with compatibility, so what was his angle? Was it just his own paranoia where the emperor was concerned frazzling him, or was there merit to his suspicions?

Vegeta groaned and flipped over onto his side, tearing his scouter off his face and resisting the urge to throw it against the wall. Patience was a virtue in short supply for him, but he had little other choice but to wait it all out. If luck favored him, though it rarely ever did, he would wash his hands of this mess entirely within a month.

#fic: recruited #// vegeta ♅#:: nabooru ☀

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sloanerisette · 3 years

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Jyoumi Challenge Day #26: Comforting Each Other

Ok I can’t say much about this one other than it is emotional and I am putting the entire thing behind a read more. There are MAJOR spoilers for Last Evolution Kizuna in here, so be careful! If you have seen it and read this, I hope you enjoy!

Eight days ago they had to fight Menoa Bellucci in the Never World in order to keep DigiDestined the world over safe.

Five days ago Joe had to say goodbye to Gomamon.

Two days after that, Mimi said goodbye to Palmon.

By now, all the older kids had said goodbye to their partners, with no real idea of how to get them back again, and nothing else to do but keep on going with their days. The younger kids kept their partners still, continuing to be able to traverse the Digital Gates, spend plenty of time with other DigiDestined, and when the need arose, assisted in getting lost Digimon back to the Digital World.

The rest of them, though, carried the heavy weight of going on day by day without their best friend and chosen partner to help comfort them. They were adults now, and there was no going back to those times… at least not until Izzy and Gennai could figure out a solution.

There were more than a few times in those days since where Joe felt like he was on autopilot at the hospital, handling the menial tasks without a word, his muscle memory taking care of it all. A few of his coworkers had said he seemed like he was in a fog which he had waved off, not wanting to worry anyone.

Still, though, there was a time where Joe had to go into the bathroom to sob, still shaken by the loss, and not able to hold in the emotions he had held back since he lost his partner. With a body shaking with sobs, he let himself just cry, before wiping his nose, drying his eyes, and pretending that he hadn’t just hid in the bathroom to cry over losing his Digimon. He didn’t want to tell Mimi and worry her while she was still grieving Palmon’s loss, and the same applied for the rest of their friends, too.

The nights had been quieter since it happened, not that either of them were upset at each other, but the elephant in the room was far too large and foreboding for either of them to talk about it.

It hadn’t been easy in the slightest for Mimi, either, who was struggling at work each day, missing the brightness and positivity that her partner brought to the office each day. She had been quiet, mopey, and had to take work home because she didn’t have it in her to finish it all during the day. Business calls were left with her going on mute to burst into a quick bout of sobs before putting the pieces back together and presenting a forced version of her usual self to everyone she worked with.

It wasn’t the way Mimi lived her life, and she hated it. She worried in silence that Palmon would be disappointed in her for how she acted, and that just left her feeling worse. She should have been stronger, not wanting to crumple into bed and spend the day crying and sleeping. There were plenty of times she wanted to call Sora, or sit with Joe after dinner to talk about it, but each time the words died on her tongue, instead shifting uncomfortably and pushing past it.

They were reaching the point of breaking down, pushing them away for another day instead of just letting it all out, and each of them knew that there was a timer before they’d fall apart.

As Joe left the hospital that day, he was greeted by the sight of his girlfriend waiting for him at his car— the first thing to bring him a smile all day.

“Ready to head to the warehouse?” she asked, Joe nodding quietly. He tried to gauge her expression to see how she was holding up, and, in the end, just relishing in seeing her smile.

Forced or not— and he knew if it was forced it certainly wasn’t good— he was just happy to see her smile, and it left him with a feeling of warmth that had been missing for a bit.

“Yeah. I’m glad business doing good enough that you have to stock up so much.”

“Me, too. I told you this was a great idea,” she said, Joe moving around to open the door for her, before popping into the driver’s seat and starting it up.

“I knew it was a good idea. You do great at everything you put your mind to,” he nodded, “I had no doubt in you the entire time.”

His words were so genuine and kind, that it felt like a small weight lifted off of Mimi’s shoulders. That was Joe for her, of course, always there to lift her up as much as possible.

“Thanks… did work go smooth at the hospital today?” she asked, staring out ahead at the road, eyes glazing over a bit as the lights of the city at night shone out all around them.

“Yeah. All the patients on my floor are doing really well. You know how I talked about Mrs. Yazawa? She’ll probably be discharged later this week.”

“That’s good, I’m so happy for her!”

Silence befell the car, remaining that way for the rest of the ride. Neither looked at each other, keeping up a stone-faced appearance for the other as Joe went through the streets, eventually reaching the small warehouse. When he parked, Mimi took in a deep breath, having not gone there since the Eosmon incident, and afraid to step in. Afraid of coming face to face with the ghosts and the far too recent wounds that were most assuredly going to open up again.

“Mimi?”

She finally processed Joe’s words, looking at him in confusion, “Yeah?”

His brow furrowed with worry, lips pursed for a moment, “I asked if you were ready to go in.”

Mimi nodded quickly, “Oh, yeah, of course! Let’s go!” she said quickly, pulling her jacker on tighter and rushing to the warehouse ahead of Joe. If they could get the work done as quickly as possible, then they could get home and she wouldn’t have to think about it all until the next day.

It was a small warehouse that Mimi rented out for her company, where plenty of merchandise was shipped to to be stored and, when needed, brought to the office for all sorts of reasons. The second she walked in, her knees already felt like they were shaking, legs weak. She could already see herself with Palmon, walking off to get things, and she swallowed hard, clenching her fists and unclenching them a few times if only to ground herself. Joe entered after her, placing a hand on her shoulder gently.

“So what’s first?” he asked, Mimi blinking a few times.

“I need you to get the boxes labeled…” she started, pulling out her phone to look at it quick, “…Two Y Z underscore bracelets,” she said, pointing off to the set of shelves at the left end, then checking her phone again, “I’m gonna get the ones on the right side. I think there’s about ten boxes in total?” she explained.

“It’ll probably be a tight fit, but they should fit in the car,” he nodded, looking off to his side, “I’ll go work on that now, then. Let me know if you need help?” he asked, and she nodded, before he walked off. Mimi stood in place for a few moments.

“You can do it. Its ok…” she mumbled to herself, taking slow, unsteady steps to the shelves, looking up at the highest one where the boxes were.

She stood as tall as she could, stretching up tall to barely grab the first box, biting down hard on her lip as she put all she could into pulling that box off, making sure not to fall over. That was one down, which she set gingerly on the ground, frowning as she managed to see a a few that were tucked back farther than the others.

The second one was difficult, too, and she had truly had to stretch and pull herself up to get the third.

Mimi made a few small hops, only barely able to turn the box, but not yet able to pull it down yet.

With her hands on her hips, the woman just about glared at the top shelf, thinking she could somehow will the last boxes to come down.

“Palmon, do you think you can—” she started, lost in that moment of thinking her best friend was there to just pop her vines up to pull down the stuff on the highest shelf with no issue.

But she wasn’t. She was still gone.

Her face twisted into a combination of sorrow and anger, tears starting to stream down in an instant, unable to handle the realization coming to light yet again.

“I’ll just get them both,” she said with an angry huff, starting to climb up the shelves, pulling herself up and using her hand that wasn’t holding her up to pull one of the boxes closer. She then went to get the last one, pulling them off at the same time with both of her hands.

She fell backwards as she did, landing on her butt, the boxes loudly hitting the floor.

“Mimi? Do you need any help?” called Joe from the other end of the warehouse.

She stayed quiet, looking at the boxes strewn about her, thinking about how Palmon was still gone, and broke down into loud, ugly sobs, unable to hold back, her whole body shaking. She couldn’t hold it back anymore. She didn’t even care to.

Were she not lost in her own sorrow, she would’ve heard footsteps , would’ve seen Joe instantly come to her side, wrapping an arm around her in hopes of offering her any form of comfort.

“What’s wrong? What happened? Are you ok?” he asked, placing a hand under her chin so he could look at her eyes, “Your pupils aren’t dilated, you don’t have a concussion…”

Mimi finally focused her vision on him, still crying. “I miss Palmon!” she wailed, “She’s gone and it isn’t fair! Why did we have to lose them? They were supposed to be with us forever! It isn’t fair!”

Joe knew neither of them were doing well, it was unspoken, but not any less obvious, but it didn’t stop this from hurting as bad as it did. In an instant he wrapped her in a hug, letting his forehead rest against her temple.

“I… I know, Meems. I know. It isn’t.”

He didn’t know what else to say, his chest tight and any helpful words died on his tongue.

“I miss them! I miss Gomamon teasing you and I miss Palmon going on shopping trips with me! I miss cooking for them! There was so much they were going to do with us still! Vacations and meeting our future kids and- and…”

She burst into more loud sobs, and at this point, Joe couldn’t hold back any longer, falling into tears, too, as he held onto Mimi tighter. Mimi held onto Joe, the two sitting on the floor in a warehouse, wracked with sobs.

“Gomamon… Gomamon always talked about how he was going to be my best man… he said he couldn’t wait to see me after my first surgery…”

“She wanted to be on my first cooking show… She had a whole idea for a line of accessories we never got to talk about…”

There was so much that they had to do still, not just with their partners, but all four of them, and now it was all gone. Their memories of their time together was the only thing that meant it wasn’t just some long, lovely dream.

Each of them fell silent, no words, just tears, and it took a while for them to be all cried out, eventually silent, clinging to each other for dear life, as if they might lose each other if they weren’t careful.

“…Do you think they remember us still?” Mimi asked after a while, bringing them back to the world.

“They have to. We still remember them,” he nodded.

“I hope so…”

“Who could forget us, anyways?” he laughed weakly, which left Mimi unable to stop herself from laughing, too.

“You’re right. I bet Palmon still has my old hat and is wearing it right now.”

“And I bet Gomamon keeps trying to see if he can wear it.”

The images that flooded into their heads were sweet, pleasant, and the best things that entered their minds all week.

“…It still hurts…” Joe sighed, biting down on the inside of his cheek.

“…Yeah. Its… its weird not waking up to them still sleeping on the couch. No weekend trips with them.”

No more trips to the beach, walks through the park, or visits to see the rest of their friends and their own Digimon.

“Izzy and Gennai will figure out a way to get our Digivices back, right? I mean… they have to…” Mimi said, grasping for any and every straw that could’ve possibly been in reach. The idea of being without Palmon forever was still too much to bear.

“Izzy’s the smartest person around. Between him and Gennai, they’ll figure it out. I’m sure Gomamon and Palmon are waiting to find out, too,” he nodded.

“You don’t think they’re upset that we didn’t get more time together, do you?” she asked, which caused Joe to pull away, hands still on Mimi’s shoulder, eyes still red, puffy, and wet, as he looked at her.

“Not at all. If I know Gomamon and Palmon, I don’t think they could be upset about anything,” he hoped to assure her.

Mimi wiped at her eyes, “Yeah… you’re right. I’m sure they’re happy that we’ve come so far…”

“As long as we’re happy, I know they’ll be happy,” he nodded.

There was no doubt about it, but right now, they definitely weren’t happy.

“Do you think it’ll ever stop hurting?” Mimi asked, and Joe sighed.

“I… I guess I don’t know. I hope it does. But… until then, we have each other. If you’re ever having a bad day, you can let me know,” he told her.

“And you can tell me, too. I don’t want you to hurt.

“I don’t want you to hurt, either. Ever,” he said, shaking his head, swallowing hard. He pulled her back in a tight hug again, appreciating her presence and warmth.

“I love you, Mimi.”

“I love you too, sweetie… and Palmon? Gomamon? We love you both. So much.”

“We really do. And we can’t wait to see you again one day.”

“We’ll make sure of it.”

#jyoumi challenge #digimon #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna spoilers #spoilers #jyoumi #joe kido #jyou kido #mimi tachikawa #kido jyou #tachikawa mimi

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mrgankingston-blog · 6 years

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Plot This: Structure Guide

Alright so if you're a writer then you've probably familiarized yourself with plot...and the structure it provides to a novel. There are countless articles online on "how to plot a novel" or the like. Which is fantastic for you writers because it's at a fingers reach from us. Not so great when there's about...a billion ways one can go about plotting a novel. It can seem daunting and overwhelming and more important confusing!

I want to break down this massive task bit by bit. Starting with the very bare bones and working into more detailed parts. Making it more manageable.

Now, I know some of you might roll your eyes and say I know all there is to know about plot. I was you. I went into every workshop and craft class thinking the same thing. And yet, when I started plotting my recent WIP ( The Cost of Defeat ) I realized I didn’t know jack. I thought every story I ever wrote would adhere to my system of structure because of sheer will and blunt force. Yeah wrong.

It wasn't until just recently I started diving into the structure ( because I like pretty diagrams and being organized way more than I should) that I discovered there are a lot of different Plot Structures out there. No one bothered to ever teach me let alone discuss these things. My mind was blown.

Some worked better for me than others. Some mesh better together than others. It’s all about experimenting and figuring out what works for you. And I’m hoping that this will also help others, or at least give a jumping off point. Now it’s not a whole list ( there’s a lot of elements that I could probably talk about by themselves) but it’s a good overview of the popular ones that reoccur a lot.

1) Freytag's Pyramid

Freytag’s pyramid is the most basic plot structure I know. It’s the one we’ve all seen in school when we start learning about story structure and analysis.

This bad boy is the simplest plot structure used to dissect and understand Greek and Shakespearean Plays.

Pros x Simplistic. Makes it easy to understand x Great for those just starting ( or those who want to understand film and literature analysis. x Great for AP Literature/Comp papers

Cons x It creates simple stories x Not super awesome for modern novels or anything longer than about 25K words

Uses x Children’s Literature. Picture books mostly. Children are still learning to understand things like conflict effect on characters and having such a long falling action allows for that. x Short Stories. Since short stories are compact for punch, this structure allows you to get the most done without boring the reader in 25K words or less. x Analysis. This structure is the easiest and most common to apply to plays, film, tv and even in classic literature. It’s a great way to dissect plot and events in order to better understand the pieces working parts

Examples: Shakespeare's Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet Sophocles's Antigone Henrik Ibsen A Doll House

2) Three-Act Structure

The Three-Act Structure is probably the most known. We all know this intuitively as storytellers. Everything needs a beginning middle and end, after all.

This structure is very similar to Freytag’s Pyramid but adds elements that beef up and create points of interest. Obstacles, for example, add conflict and build up suspense for the climax. It’s also important to note that the falling action and resolution is much more compact.

Pros x basic building block for all good stories x Roadmap-like so you can be systematic about things x Good “big-picture” visual

Cons x Pacing is super important for this x Bit rigid and formulaic

Uses x Literally anything. Because it’s versatile it works on a plethera of stuff, let your imagineation run wild. x Film analysis. This struccture is like the holy grail in almost any film class ( sometimes they call it the four act structure)

Examples: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice

3) The Fichtean Curve

The Fichten Curve Is really unique in that it starts right with the rising action. There ain’t no time to build up or nice slow introductions, you're dumping the readers right where it hurts. But you make up that lost time with the small bits of exposition

This is one of the most popular plot structures for modern novels.

Pros x A lot of opportunities to ramp up the stakes, bit after bit x Good for pacing x Great for Overcoming Monster & Quest stories x Translate over almost any genre

Cons x Not a lot of time to slow down, breathe x Not suited for Voyage and Return, Comedy or Rebirth stories

Uses x Thrillers/Mystery novels. You need something to keep readers in the story, chomping at the bit. here’s the plot structure for you.

Examples: Max Brooks’s World War Z

4) Plot Embryo/Hero's Journey

The Hero’s Journey is also super common in the literature (namely western literature) With this plot the protagonist ( the hero of hero’s journey) undergoes a literal or figurative death-like transformation that changes him.

The protagonist must venture from one state into another. To take it a step further there’s a variation called the Ploy Embyro. Dan Harmon takes the hero’s journey a bit deeper and modernizes. [ here’a great video on it by youtuber Rachel Stephen x]

As you can see, the Hero’s Journey and Ploy Embyro are both cyclical. This baby comes full circle in both plot and character. They have similar plot points. But if I were to gush about this the post would be waaay longer than it already is. This is one of my preferred methods because it just makes sense for me and allows me to have some freedom and wiggle room while still adhering to the 3 acts.

Pros x Character development holla, cause this is where it’s at. x Visually appealing x Simple 8 point outline ( for those who might not enjoy long-winded outlines) x Works alongside A beat sheet ( if you use that sort of thing) x The holy grail for myths.

Cons x Overdone ( but it doesn’t have to be a bad thing) x Not suited for those who really detailed outlines

Uses x Adventure Stories. It is all about the adventure and journey with this x Myth Retellings. I mean it’s based on the myth structure of the Odyssey and the like so it makes sense

Examples: Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief J. R R. Tolktien’s The Hobbit

5) In Media Res

A literal translation to “In the Middle”. This plot structure dumps you right in the middle of the story. Think if you were to open a story on the second of third crisis/pinch point. there’s still a lot of upward trajectory to go before the climax.

Don’t confuse this with simply opening a story mid fight/action. Media Res starts well deep into the story itself, close to the climax but with enough room you can still build up to it.

Pros x High Actions x Simple and fun to play with x A good use for flashbacks x Hell of a hook for readers

Cons x Can be confusing for reader’s if not done right x No build up x takes some finessing to get just right

Uses x Mysteries. This is a great plot if you want to start a story perhaps where the killer has already committed the murder. x Epic Poems. Maybe you wanna write the next epic poem, this is great for that. Examples John Milton’s Paradise Lost Homer’s Illiad George Lucas’s Star Wars

Now I could go on and on but this monster of a post has carried on long enough. If there’s a certain structure you’d like me to go into more detail about feel free to leave a comment on this post and I’ll be sure to add it to my line up!! As always happy writing/creating!

XO Morgan

#plot help #writing help #writing tips #writerblr #writeblr #eventually i'll make the pretty header xD #structure #plot this

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medea10 · 5 years

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Medea’s Top 10 Worst Fathers in Anime

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imagineyoungjustice · 5 years

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1.5k Followers Milestone Drabbles 9/10

Zantanna anon here: I'm here to get Terra to write more Z stuff bc she's so good at it. More adventures with Z and her civilian s/o. Maybe her s/o stays with her at the base after their apartment is wrecked by a villain? Just cute awkward interactions with the team and protective Zatanna. Bonus points if: They get startled by a bat family member appearing out of no where. Drabble would be great if it's still open. -Anonymous

Z anon I dearly love you. I also love this series. At least I think at this point it’s a series. Anyway this would be set sometime after the first drabble from the Halloween event that you can read here! I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that the Watchtower doesn’t have permanent residence options or it’s just that no one lives up there. Either way I gave it some rooms that are just for temporary use in order to make this drabble work -Terra

Tags: @ljblve @loverbug1123 @aworldwideapart @wallywestie

Want to be added to our tag list? Send us and ask!

You gripped the mug in your hand, the warm liquid seeping through the ceramic into your fingers which gripped with a determined force as you willed the rest of your body to not betray your fear. You were lost inside your own mind, your eyes wide and blank as they stared into the contents of your drink. As if the faint steam rising from the surface would have given you the answers you sought, or the comfort you wished you still felt in your home.

There was movement around you. Footsteps echoing off the walls, the sight crunch of a boot on broken glass that had the corners of your mouth tighten as you fought off a wince. Your apartment was in utter shambles: pictures lay strewn on the ground, torn off the walls with broken frames and shattered glass littering the floors, most of your furniture was either pushed over or destroyed, cabinets were left hanging open with most of their contents joining the glass. At some point, you dimly registered the dip of your tattered couch as your girlfriend, Zatanna, sat down beside you.

“Whoever was here is long gone.” Batman’s voice broke you out of your own thoughts. You felt your stomach drop, knowing that they would just keep coming back until they were caught.

Zatanna noticed your frown, one of her arms coming to rest on your back while the other rested on your forearm. “Don’t worry, we will find them. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.” You didn’t really feel that much at ease from her words, your eyes taking stock at the destruction that was once your home.

“What happened to the protection wards you had placed around the area?” Batman was addressing Zatanna directly, but you could still feel his gaze on you from underneath his cowl.

“They were destroyed. No wards are perfect, anyone with a high degree of arcane ability could have gotten around them.”

You felt your attention drifting as they continued. Part of you knew this would have happened at some point, but it didn’t make the situation any less terrifying for you. Someone had been in your home, looking for you, or looking for Zatanna. Both options fueled the fear churning deep in your gut. Zatanna had always been careful, always tried to look out for you, to keep the bad parts of her job far away and distant from you. But now everything felt so real, so prevalent. The dangers were real, and you had been a fool to think that you would always be insulated from them.

Someone dangerous had been inside your home, and you knew that you were no longer safe there. You would have to move, but to where? You didn’t have the funds to pick up and change locations, your shitty, minimum wage job didn’t leave you much in the way of extra funds after bills. You could move in with Zatanna? You mentally shook your head. Maybe you were ready to take that next step in your relationship with her, but you weren’t sure if Zatanna was, and you wouldn’t dare force something as big as that on her in a situation like this. But in truth, what other options did you really have? You couldn’t stay with family, if the person who did this was after you, it would only put them in danger too.

You were so wrapped up in your own mind, that it took Zatanna several tries of calling your name for you to finally notice. “Hey, are you okay?” Her face was furrowed with concern, and you felt a pang in your own heart at seeing her poorly hidden guilt. This wasn’t her fault, despite how much she might think it was in this moment.

You placed one of your hands over hers. “I will be, I’m just a little shaken up right now.” You gave a small smile as she squeezed your hand, though it quickly went away as you continued. “Where am I supposed to go now? I can’t stay here.”

“We were just discussing that.” Zatanna said. Her grip on your hand tightened. “We believe that until we can be sure you’re no longer in any danger, that the safest place for you right now is among the rest of the League and the Team.”

You frowned. “I thought Mount Justice blew up, and the Hall was decimated?”

“They did and were, but you wouldn’t have been staying there anyway. To ensure your protection you’d need to be in a place where you’d be most protected, where the League could keep a constant watch for your well-being.” Batman began, coming around to stand in the center of your field of vision. He looked taller in the moonlight emanating from your sliding door to your balcony, illuminating his silhouette.

Realization washed over you, your eyes growing wide. “You mean…”

“Yes. You’d be staying in the Watchtower until we could be sure you’re no longer in any danger.”

You felt the air rush from your lungs. The Watchtower? You stared at Batman in pure disbelief at what you heard come from his mouth. Perhaps your look came off more as panic than the shock that currently paralyzed your body and thankfully replaced your fear, because Zatanna was quick to speak up.

“You wouldn’t be staying there alone of course! I’d be staying there too when I’m not looking for the person who did this. That way you wouldn’t be on your own.”

You nodded your thanks, gaining some control back over your body. “Sorry I was just…surprised I guess that I’d be staying in the actual Watchtower.” You felt a little embarrassed in the moment and tried to quickly move on. “I should probably start packing what’s left of my things.” You started to get up, and Zatanna followed you to your room.

“I’ll help you out. Some of the other Leaguer’s will be here later to bring what we don’t take with us the first time.” You nodded and made your way to the remains of your room, stepping around the glass on the ground. You picked up a few of the salvageable pictures as you went, some of friends and family, others of you and Zatanna. You set them down carefully on your bed as you searched for a suitcase. You went to open your sliding closet door, and shirked when it came off the track, falling to the ground with a loud thud and making you jump back.

“Oops?” You said as you looked over to your girlfriend who had whipped around when she heard the noise. She was on the other end of your room seeing what clothes she could salvage from your dresser. She just let out a small chuckled and turned back to her work. You did the same, still trying to clam your racing heartbeat. Thankfully, your luggage was relatively in the same corner of your closet and largely undamaged. You set them down on your bed and began the long and careful process of picking through the remnants of your belongings and packing them away.

The first rays of dawn would begin to appear over the horizon by the time you and Zatanna had finished your task. In the new light, you felt your heart sink some more in your chest as you could more clearly take stock of the damage that had been done. Zatanna placed her hand in yours, as if sensing your thoughts.

“We’ll get through this, together.” You just nodded and squeezed her hand in yours. She gave you a small smile, and then moved to grab some of your luggage. “We should start getting everything to the Watchtower, unless we’re forgetting something?”

“No, I think we have everything that survived ready to go.” She just nodded and handed you a few of the suitcases, following you out the door of your apartment for the last time. On your way you passed by the rest of your belongings piled up by the door, remembering that Batman said the rest of the League would stop by later to bring the rest. It was strange for you to see that pile, all that remained of your things. This apartment had been your first, and even though it wasn’t the best one by far, it was still the first place you could call your own. In a few ways, it hit you hard to know that this was how that first chapter of your life had ended, a few boxes and suitcases being all that remained.

On the journey to the Watchtower, you spent most of it lost within your own head. Still, you were reeling from the events that brought you to this moment. The whole time, Zatanna was right next to you, some part of her always touching you in silent reassurance. That small warm feeling you felt within your chest was welcome. In truth, you weren’t able to process much by the time you actually did arrive to the orbiting station. The ride up in M’gann’s borrowed bioship had been silent, letting your exhaustion catch up to you and hold fast. Racking your brain through the haze, you realized it had been more than twenty-four hours since you had last slept.

Zatanna had murmured something to the person waiting when you two walked off the bioship, his skin was dark with black tattoo’s running up the length of his arms. Cal? Kelder? You frowned as you tried to remember all the times Zatanna had talked about her hero friends, and match the descriptions to the names. Before you had a chance to ask, he turned around and left after giving you a respectful nod.

“I asked Kaldur to wait and hold the introductions until after you’ve had a chance to rest. I know you’re probably exhausted.”

You nodded, grateful, and let yourself be led down a separate hallway. The room you ended up in was actually rather cozy if you were in more of an alert mental state to take note of it. It wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t small enough to feel cramped in either. It had just enough space for a couple dressers, a closet, a bed, and a small attached bathroom with some space between everything to walk around. Across from the door there was a large window which showcased quite the breathtaking view of the cosmos and Earth. Through bleary eyes, you could just barely register where the bed was as you let the artificial gravity do its job and let you flop onto the soft blankets. There was a chuckle above you, and you wasted no time in pulling back the covers and making yourself comfortable.

Before you could drift off, you felt your girlfriend place a light kiss onto your forehead. “Sleep well, I’ll see you later okay?”

Wait, no. You didn’t want her to leave you alone. “Zeeee.” You knew you sounded whiny, but you couldn’t care less. She turned around to look with an eyebrow raised. You held up the end of the covers in invitation. “Please?”

She sighed but had a smile on her face “Only because you said please.” You pulled her into your arms once she laid down and finally succumbing, drifted off.

Hours later when you finally opened your eyes, you were thrown off by the unfamiliar surroundings. You sat up and looked around the room, your eyes widening in shock when you looked out the window and saw your whole ass planet filling three quarters of the glass. That’s when the events of the previous night came flooding back through your mind. You felt your heart rate start to pick up and had to take a moment to force yourself to take a stabilizing breath before you could freak out. You felt the bed move next to you and you glanced down to your right to see your Zatanna also in the process of waking up, you felt a little guilty about moving now that you remembered she was next to you.

“Mmh. Morning.” She mumbled, bringing one hand up to rub the sleep from her eyes.

“If it was morning when we fell asleep, I think it’s more likely that it’s turning night before anything else.”

“Good point.” She sat up in the bed and wrapped her arms around you, looking up at you from where she had her head resting against your shoulder. “How are you holding up.”

“I’m still kind of processing everything, but I think I’ll be okay.”

She nodded in understanding and moved to stand up. “I’ll let you get ready, and after that I’ll take you on a tour of the place, so you know where everything’s at. Sound good?”

“Sounds good, but don’t you also need a shower?”

She smirked, and you knew exactly what was coming. “ekam em naelc!” There was a shimmering aura around her body for a brief moment and when it disappeared, it had her clothes and hair looking a lot fresher than they had been a moment before.

You huffed. “Using magic is cheating.” She just laughed and blew a kiss at you as she started to walk out of the room, mentioning about being right back as soon as she had a chance to talk to Kaldur about something.

True to her word, she was back in the room and waiting for you by the time you emerged dressed and ready from the small bathroom. As you let Zatanna lead you out the door and begin the tour, you could feel the pit of anxiety in your stomach start to grow. Just around the next corner could be anyone from Superman to Robin and every kind of hero in between. You were just an ordinary civilian who happened to be dating one of them, you didn’t really think you had much business being right in the middle of their HQ at all, yet here you were being shown the place that would be your home for the foreseeable future.

By the time the tour was over you were struggling to remember all the different hallways and the places they led. You completely forgot about the fact that you would be meeting the Justice League’s covert team that you would be sharing a floor with until you turned the corner and saw them all gathered there in the middle of the grove that lined the bottom of the station. You felt your heart flutter in apprehension and tried to keep your gaze down as you were led over. Thankfully, the uneven ground as you transitioned from metal floor to grass was a good enough excuse to do so.

Before you could even get a word out in the way of introductions, the sudden appearance of a teen in a bright yellow and red suit on your right had you shrieking and tripping over and exposed root, falling (very gracefully) onto your ass in front of everyone.

“HeynicetomeetyouI’mtheoneandonlyKidFlashandohnoI’msosorryhereletmehelpyouup-”

“Bart.” Zatanna’s voice was firm and he looked up at her with a sheepish grin.

“Sorry, didn’t realize superspeed would have them feeling the mode.”

“I’m fine, really.” You said, standing up and dusting yourself off. “You just… caught me off guard. I’m not exactly used to this kind of stuff all the time.” At a much slower pace, the rest of the team came up and introduced themselves, making your mind spin more as you did your best to also remember the faces to the names. By the time you two made it back to your room hours later, you were mentally taxed by all the information.

Seeing your state, Zatanna chuckled and kissed your forehead. “I know it’s a lot of information to take in all at once, but I’ll be here with you the whole time, and the Team is here to help too so don’t be afraid to ask them if you need it okay?” You made a noncommittal noise and let yourself be positioned until the two of you were cuddling on your bed. “We’ll start looking for places for you to move into tomorrow okay? We’ll find whoever did this before long, and I want to make sure you’ll have a place lined up for when you’re ready for it.”

You smiled and kissed her goodnight before allowing yourself to drift off once again.

The days started to blend together, and most of the other introductions to the team went a lot less chaotic than the first one, a fact you were thankful for. Bart seemed to actively go out of his way to make sure he wouldn’t accidentally scare you with his speed again, making sure to deliberately not use it if you were in the same room as him. Mainly, you found yourself hanging around the some of the older members of the Team, the ones who had known Zatanna the longest -and the ones less prone to making you jump out of your skin, even accidentally- and some of the younger members of the League who got along well with Zatanna. Dr. Fate had approached you at one point, and awkward wasn’t an adequate enough word to describe how that went. Zatanna had told you all about what happened to her father, the deal he had struck with Nabu to spare your girlfriend from that fate, and you felt uneasy whenever he was around, knowing how much emotional pain Zatanna still experienced over the whole thing. Thankfully, Nabu seemed capable of taking a hint, and made it a point not to stick around you if it could be helped. When Zatanna wasn’t out looking for the one responsible, she was practically glued to your side. You weren’t complaining, this was the most you two had ever seen each other in go and falling asleep with her next to you every night was equally as good, though of course the circumstances could have always been better.

Each day she promised you she was getting closer to ending this so you could work on moving into the new apartment she had helped you pick out, one that you were assured would actually be kept safe. The question to ask her to move in with you had been on the tip of your tongue ever since, but you still hadn’t worked up the courage to actually ask her yet. Every single time you thought you would actually get to ask her, you’d back out at the last second, mentally kicking yourself for being so afraid to ask.

“Hey you must be Zatanna’s girlfriend it’s nice to meet y-“ Robin stopped his sentence in his tracks when you jumped and let out an embarrassingly loud shriek. You hadn’t heard him come in. As it was you had your hand over your chest to calm your racing heart, taking deep breaths to aid the process.

“I’m sorry! You just came out of nowhere I didn’t hear you.” You were quick to sputter out an apology when you had calmed down enough to see that your newest guest looked a little guilty.

“It’s okay, if anything it was my fault. There’s kind of a thing going around that us bats have a tendency to just ‘show up’ and I guess it’s kind of true.” He rubbed at the back of his neck. “Sorry for almost giving you a heart attack.”

You let out a small laugh. “Yeah well in all honesty, I’ve been told that I’m just a little bit on the jumpy side.” The conversation lapsed into silence, both of you unsure of where to go from there. “So… you’re… Robin?”

At the mention of his codename, he seemed to jerk back into awareness. “Huh? Yes, that’s me. Nice to meet you uh…”

You quickly gave him your name and shook his hand when he offered it. Minor heart attack aside, he seemed to be just as slightly awkward as you were when it came to social interactions, something you were admittedly thankful for as it quickly became a bonding point between the two of you.

That’s how Zatanna found you some time later. She darted into the room, calling your name with a certain glint in her eye and a wide smile that had your interest piqued. She was just a hair on the breathless side as she spoke. “I got him! You’re not in danger anymore!”

“I’ll give you two the room.” Robin said, nodding to the two of you before slipping around Zatanna and disappearing around the corner.

“Really? Who was it?” You were smiling now too, happy that you wouldn’t have that vague sense of looming danger over your head anymore.

“Wotan actually, but don’t worry I made sure he won’t be willing to pull that kind of stunt again. I also made sure he wouldn’t have the means to track or find out where you’ll be living.” You pulled her into a hug, relived that you were no longer in any kind of danger. On the other hand, you had grown accustomed to the bustle of the Watchtower and had also grown to like having the other members of the League and the Team to talk to. Talking to them helped you feel closer to your girlfriend in a way you didn’t even know you were missing out on until now, being a spectator to an aspect of her life that you hadn’t really known too much about before.

Most of your things had already been moved into the apartment when you had secured the lease, all that was left was to pack up the couple suitcases you had been living out of during your stay on the station. Saying your goodbyes to the Team was a little harder than you’d ever thought it would have been when you first got there, but you were able to placate most of their upset with a promise to visit, and have some of them over at a later date. Whereas the ride up to the Watchtower had been silent, with you lost in your own head, the ride back to Earth was full of lively conversation, both you and Zatanna talking about anything and everything as you used to before this whole thing had happened.

The apartment was way nicer than the dingy shithole you had originally rented, and you weren’t even paying that much more than you were before, managing to secure a miraculously good deal for an apartment that was practically twice the size of your old one. Zatanna wouldn’t mention how she had managed to get a deal so good, and you weren’t quite sure you wanted to know. The only information you had been able to get from her was that she had help from a “friend in Gotham.”

You left your suitcases by your bedroom door, taking a moment to relax on your crappy, temporary furniture with Zatanna. Your thumbs stroked the glass in your hands. The question was still there, lingering, just waiting for you to finally finish taking the plunge. “You know, this place seems pretty big. I think I’m going to feel lonely here all by myself.” You caught met ger gaze as she looked back at you, her eyes asking if you were saying what she thought you were saying. You took a deep breath; it was now or never. “Though I wouldn’t be opposed to sharing it with you… that is… if you wanted to.” You were nervous as you waited for her answer.

She pulled you in for a passionate kiss. “I thought you’d never ask.”

#Zatanna Zatara #Zatanna #zatanna x reader #1.5k milestone #Young Justice #Drabble

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homenum-revelio-hq · 5 years

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Welcome (again) to the Order of the Phoenix, Gracie!

You have been accepted for the role of ALICE LONGBOTTOM! We really enjoyed your application for Alice! We loved the personality section and the discussion of Alice’s worldview weaved throughout. Definitely looking forward to see how her black-and-white thinking will play out in the Order!

Please take a look at the new member checklist and send in your account within 24 hours! Thank you for joining the fight against Voldemort!

OUT OF CHARACTER:

NAME: Gracie

AGE: 21

TIMEZONE: EST

ACTIVITY LEVEL: I’m in my fourth year of college, and I’ve managed to be a part of tumblr rpgs my entire college career, so I’m quite good at balancing my IRL responsibilities with managing replies and all the fun stuff. If I had to put it on a scale of 1-10, probably like a 7, 7.5. I usually know well enough in advance when I’m going to have some tough schedules so I can work around it or ask for a brief hiatus.

ANYTHING ELSE: No triggers or squicks to note, but I’ll let you know if that changes.

CHARACTER DETAILS:

NAME: Alice Aurelia Longbottom (née Edgecombe)

AGE: 33

GENDER, PRONOUNS, and SEXUALITY: Female, She/Her, heterosexual

BLOOD STATUS: Pureblood

HOUSE ALUMNI: Slytherin

ANY CHANGES: Nope! Love everything! <3

CHARACTER BACKGROUND:

PERSONALITY:

There’s something interesting about being caught in the middle. It forces a person to think, rather than to just pass by.

That’s where the Edgecombe family had always been. Not quite so lofty as to be a part of the Sacred 28, but still, a perfectly respectable pureblooded family. They never really stood out. That was, until Alice.

Unlike her older brother Frederick (or Freddie to his friends), Alice was always quick to question something. Why was the sky blue? Why was her name Alice? Why could they perform such amazing acts of magic, while muggles lived their whole lives without it? She could always be found digging through her father’s study for the answers or climbing to the tallest tree or digging up the garden to see if she could figure out some of the answers for herself.

In school, she had a bit of a reputation as a know-it-all. But not your typical know-it-all. She never insisted on interjecting into every class, every conversation; No, no Alice wasn’t at all like that. It wasn’t that she talked very much. Alice would only speak when she had something to say. She was very quick to correct you if she thought you were wrong and could verbally cite all the reasons why. Needless to say, this didn’t help her make any friends. If someone asked her a question, she almost always had the answer and then some. If she didn’t have the answer for you, you could rest assured that after an evening in the library, she’d basically be an expert on it and could tell you just about anything you’d want to know. The thirst for knowledge was relentless. She wanted so desperately to understand everything, and whatever Alice wanted, Alice would get.

Alice is a perfect balance of soft and tough. She’s like the soft beauty of fresh snowfall mixed with the sharp bite that whips in the winter wind. Being raised as the proper daughter of a pureblood family, she could play the part of the polite, soft spoken, and quite witch. However, she never bothered to hide the wit and charm that crackled in everything she did and said. She’s poised, and at times quite cunning, but never, never cruel or harsh. She’s quite captivating, though she never wants to be the center of attention. At her core, she’s kind, and she’s sturdy. She’s also stubborn as anything. As such, it’s very difficult getting through to her when she believes something.

Her world view is one of black and white. There aren’t any shades of grey. There is only right and wrong. In Alice’s mind, the laws are there to protect everyone- to keep everything and everyone in the right. By breaking the laws- even bending it, could spell out something disastrous. Her world view is why becoming an auror seemed like such a natural fit for her. She could make things right, and she could solve problems. She could see something wrong, look for the pieces of the puzzle and reassemble them to find the answer.

Alice is kind of like a pointillism picture. From up close, there’s nothing that seems to stand out. Just another dot on a canvas- one in a million. But upon further inspection, and a different perspective, she’s remarkable. She could be the center of attention, if she didn’t prefer to hide in plain sight. She liked being considered average. It drew less attention to her, and it made it even more satisfying to surprise people when their assumptions proved to be wrong.

But pictures aren’t always pretty.

The clever, calculated nature of the way her mind works means that some people tend to consider her cold, or unfeeling. The know-it-all wound up separating herself from pleasantries and conversation, as people never seemed to like to talk with her. Alice is incredibly blunt and doesn’t sugar coat things. Facts are facts, and there’s no point in making things seem like they aren’t all that bad when they are exactly as bad as they look. In this way, Alice is her own worst enemy. No matter how hard she tries to make friends, to get people close enough to her so that they might begin to understand her, she says something harsh, or doesn’t let emotions influence her response. Then it’s just one more person who finds her completely intolerable.

There’s also the fact that she was in Slytherin. While being in Slytherin doesn’t automatically stain you with certain irredeemable qualities and brand you forever as a dark wizard, it does sometimes create situations where you’re surrounded by people who tend to agree with the sentiments of dark wizards. Being surrounded by these ideas for seven years of her life, hearing the whispers in the halls and the common room conversations, she learned to think like them. Part of these experiences are what helped her to the top of her field. The other part allowed her to work as they do- to be manipulative, to toy with people. These are aspects of herself that Alice hates the most and would love to see disappear. However, they are a part of who she is, and she will still slip into old habits from time to time when these undesirable qualities are called for in whatever task is at hand. And sometimes, even when they aren’t called for. Sometimes it’s just a subtle comment on something, but this controlling aspect of her will rear its ugly head from time to time.

Alice is a force to be reckoned with. She knows what it is she wants, and she will get it. She knew she wanted to make her family proud. So, she did as she was told, sat straight, acted the proper lady. She still bites her tongue around them rather than tell them how she really feels. Once she knew she wanted to become an auror, to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves, she worked hard and got it. She wanted Frank, and she got him too… But now she’s not so sure he wants her too. He’s grown so distant.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FAMILY:

Alice’s family isn’t exactly easy. Her mother, Cordelia, is the definition of a mother hen. Constantly fluffing and preening and just ever-so-slightly overbearing. It took years, and a muggle book from a Hogwarts friend, to realize that her mother is Mrs. Bennet from Pride and Prejudice- to a T. While she would probably never utter it allowed, Alice’s mother wanted desperately for her daughter to marry up in pureblood society. She was positively thrilled when Alice brought Frank home for dinner. But that’s not to say the woman doesn’t care about Alice. She’s incredibly proud of her daughter and her accomplishments. In polite society, she gushes endlessly about her Alice, the auror, who managed to snag THE Frank Longbottom.

Alice is more like her father, Atticus, than anything. The man is quiet. While he doesn’t say much, his mind is always working, always playing some elaborate game of chess with the world, a game that he will inevitably win. He taught Alice to think before she speaks. To always have a plan, all the way from A to Z- just in case something was to go wrong. Alice was always much closer to him than to her father. He just seemed to understand her better than her mother. The clucking and fussing and frills were nice, but Alice needed time away from all that noise to function. She’d much rather be hiding in her father’s study, in silence but never alone. That’s not to say it was always quiet. The battles of wits between these two were legendary- it’s better to never bring up politics around them unless you’re willing to listen to a very well mannered, but absolutely scathing debate.

Freddie had been her best friend and confidant growing up. She’d constantly pester her big brother for the answers to her innumerable questions that swirled around her head. He was always more of a “mama’s boy” though. Always looking to stay in the woman’s good graces and do as he was told.

Now, it’s quite difficult. Cordelia and Atticus are both inclined to stay in the graces of pureblood society. Instead of speaking up, they bow their heads, turn a blind eye. To agree that perhaps Lord Voldemort isn’t all that bad and that everyone’s just blowing it out of proportion. Freddie, never one to question his parents, is following blindly along with them. Alice is forced to watch silently as her family slowly aligns with something she views as truly, and irredeemably wrong.

OCCUPATION

Alice is an auror. Alice is bright. She knows the spells to use, she knows the laws, the protocols to follow. But it’s not just that that makes her such an excellent fit for the job. The ability to think quickly, to solve the problem in front of her efficiently and effectively, was the key to her success. She had a clear mind in the face of danger, which helped to make her one of the best duelists in the business. She and Frank had been nearly unbeatable. But something is off with them, and it’s throwing off their dueling, and it’s throwing Alice off her whole work game.

ROLE WITHIN THE ORDER/THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ORDER:

Alice is in the inner-circle of the Order. She was there to provide a level head and a ministry insight into what was going on politically. She’s there to try to keep everyone safe and protected. At first, the work she was doing with the Order was right. They were protecting the innocent and defenseless. But when things began to fall more and more into a legally grey area, Alice wasn’t so certain anymore.

She’s known who she is and what she stood for her whole life. To be questioning something now is ground shaking. Watching as the younger Order members are more inclined to cause chaos that increases the panic within the community rather than focus on quickly, quietly, and legally helping the others and slowly dismantling the forces that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is assembling is painful for her. She’s trying so desperately to show them that there’s a better way of doing things. A safer way, for everyone involved. But they don’t seem to want to listen.

Watching as Frank takes on more dangerous and legally questionable jobs from the Order has been causing a pit to form in her stomach. Not just because she adores him and would be inconsolable if anything were to ever happen to him, but also because the one thing she cares about most above all is beginning to exist on the fringe of the black area in her mind. In her world without a grey area, she’s not sure what she can do. She knows she won’t turn on him or expose him, but then, what is she supposed to do here?

SURVIVAL:

The British “Stiff Upper Lip” defines how Alice gets by. Living in the Longbottom family house is a step up from the tiny Edgecombe household, and a very welcome change to the tiny London flat she’d holed up in after Hogwarts as she was getting her start at the Ministry. Having copious amounts of floo-powder in the house always makes the commute to work a breeze.

More eyes are on her now than when she was younger. Marrying up meant that people paid marginally more attention to her, even more so as a respected auror. She’s forced herself to be very careful. She never talks of the Order in public. At work, if the group is mentioned, she’s always the first to volunteer to investigate them. Better her than any of the other aurors. If it were anyone else, it was likely all their faces would be on the front page of the Daily Prophet, holding numbers across their chests and looking incredibly grim. Worse the end of her career, if she was discovered to be associated with the Order, it would almost definitely be certain death, now that so many of Lord Voldemort’s followers are also working in the Ministry. She can never be too careful with who she trusts.

RELATIONSHIPS:

While it may not seem like it from the surface, Alice is holding on for dear life with Frank. They’d always been a team in her mind. The two of them against the world. But now he won’t talk to her. He’s been distant, and she barely recognizes him some days. The man she’d married isn’t who’s sleeping beside her anymore, and she isn’t sure where he went, or what she must do in order to bring him back. It’s not as though she can talk to her family or work friends about the problem without exposing the Longbottom’s dirty little (illegal) secret to the entire wizarding world. She can’t talk to anyone about it. She can’t talk to Frank about it. Her parents cannot know that she’s part of the Order, or else they could be in serious trouble. Not that she’d even like to imagine it, but she knows there’s a chance that they could turn on her and turn her in or inform someone in Voldemort’s ranks of just what the Longbottom’s are up to. She can’t talk about it at work or risk exposing herself as a member of the Order. Alice is a cauldron of stress that is at risk of bubbling over. She needs a shoulder to cry on, or at least someone to vent to. Otherwise, Alice is going to explode.

Caradoc Dearborn is clever. He’s got a good head on his shoulders. He knows how to think, and not just blindly stumble into things firing spells left and right. He’s one of the reasons that she still has faith in the Order and what it’s doing, and why she hasn’t withdrawn. She hopes he can help direct to Order into doing what’s best for the entire wizarding community, without making a muck of every law and statute the wizarding world lives by. She can’t imagine what it’s like to lose a parent, and she’s sort of taken him under her wing as a younger sibling of sorts.

Mary MacDonald stresses Alice out more than anything. The girl’s completely all over the map. She flickers back and forth between what’s right and what’s wrong in Alice’s view like a light bulb on the fritz. It doesn’t make sense to her that one person can change her opinion on something a million times in a minute. In Alice’s mind, maybe the girl changes her mind so much because she isn’t sure what she believes. Or worse yet, she knows what she believes, and she’s trying to take the whole Order down from the inside and take everyone along with it. She doesn’t trust her as far as she can throw her.

OOC EXPLORATION:

SHIPS/ANTI-SHIPS: Alice x Frank, Alice x Chemistry

WHAT PRIVILEGES AND BIASES DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE?

Alice is very privileged. A pureblood witch who married into another pureblood family? A respectable Ministry job? That’s as good as it gets, as far as some in their community are concerned. But she’s never been one to judge. In school, she enjoyed seeing the other half of the world. She’d trade books and music with muggle-born students, read as much as she could about everything- vampires, werewolves, shape shifters- everything. The unquenchable thirst to know all that there was out there provided her with the facts. But the facts, she’s beginning to find, are often different than the reality.

The underlying prejudice with her still exists, as much as she tries to fight it. She listens to her family and questions whether they always thought that way. Whether or not she used to agree with them. She can’t recall, and she hopes it wasn’t so. But sometimes, watching as these youths who think they’re changing the world by tearing it apart… She wonders just where they learned to think this way. Are they muggle ideas? I want her to try and better understand the struggles that others who aren’t nearly as privileged as her face daily. To try and understand why some are, in her mind, so intent on blowing things up and starting again. To understand their struggle, so that maybe Alice can learn to think beyond what’s black and white in the eyes of the law, and instead see what’s morally and ethically the right thing to do. Perhaps this ability to better understand may help her to realize where her loyalties should truly lie in this war.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO?

Literally, everything. Alice Longbottom has always been my favorite of the Marauders era characters, as I feel like she can be interpreted a plethora of different ways, and I think that this interpretation of her may just be my favorite yet.

PLOT DROP IDEAS: Maybe an inspection of ministry workers, or something that could poke at whether they’re involved in anything suspicious? Or a raid on Diagon Alley.

ANYTHING ELSE? Nope! <3 Mischief Managed!

#homenumaccepted #harry potter rp #harry potter roleplay #marauders rp #marauders era roleplay

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duhragonball · 5 years

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Dragon Ball Movie 3: Mystical Adventure

Mystical Adventure premiered on July 9, 1988 at that year’s Toei Cartoon Festival. This is the third of the original Dragon Ball movies, and the last one before the movies were released under the Dragon Ball Z brand.

Just to clear this up, there was a fourth movie, Path to Power, but it was produced in 1996 in honor of the tenth anniversary of the TV series. Since I’m trying to do these in chronological order, it’ll be a while before I get to that one.

The title “Mystical Adventure” isn’t very descriptive, especially since it’s just the name of the opening theme song. Personally, I think of this one as “The Emperor Chiaotzu Movie”, since that’s what I consider to be the most distinctive plot element.

I’ve always found this movie fascinating, because it follows a very different formula from the others. Blood Rubies and Sleeping Princess basically took different parts of the original story and changed the antagonists and pacing, but never the main characters. Launch does different things in Sleeping Princess than she does in the TV series, but she’s basically the same person, and she ends up living with Master Roshi in either version. The DBZ movies abandon all pretense of retelling the original story, and ended up doing short, intense conflicts with little regard for continuity. But this movie takes a number of major characters, mainly villains, and casts them in entirely new roles.

I’m thinking that the reason for this was that Toei really didn’t have a lot of other choices. The first film sought to retell the original Dragon Ball hunt, showing how Goku met Bulma and Roshi and the others and became a hero. The second movie picked up where the first left off, adapting the story of how Goku and Krilin were accepted as students of Master Roshi. So the plan was probably for this third movie to continue on that path and show the boys competing in their first World Tournament, only I’m not sure how you could retell that story and insert a new villain into that scenario. Also, a lot of new characters had been introduced since the 21st Budokai arc, and I think Toei wanted to feature some of them, but how do you fit all of that into one movie?

The solution, it seems, was to set the Tournament in a whole new country, the Mifan Empire, and establish a bunch of palace intrigue involving the Dragon Balls. With that, Toei had the means to make a movie that borrows ideas from the 21st Budokai, the Red Ribbon Army sagas, and even the 22nd Budokai while we’re at it.

The plus side of this is that we’re treated to a much more original story than what we got in the first two movies. What bugged me about those features was that the bad guys, King Gurumes and Lucifer, were the most notable aspects of their respective movies, but they barely did anything except stand back and let the Dragon Ball cast run through all their signature quips and moves. Movie 3 makes a lot of callbacks to the TV series, but it has to do it differently because so many of these ideas have been smooshed together in one place. Also, this movie moves really fast. There’s never a dull moment, because there’s so many things it has to cover in a very short run time. It’s probably the fastest 45-and-a-half minutes you’ll ever see.

The downside of all this is that it’s a little too fast and too complicated for its own good. There’s a scene where Goku meets Bulma, and he asks if Yamcha came with her, and before he can wave hello to the guy, she goes “Never mind that, look at this!” That’s kind of the movie in a nutshell.

Goku and Yamcha don’t even get to talk to each other in this movie because there’s so much stuff going on all at once. I’m tempted to say that they crammed too many things into the movie, but it’s probably more accurate to say that the movie should have been longer. I’m pleased with all these moving parts, but it would have been nice to give it all a chance to breathe.

The story begins with Emperor Pilaf and his crew putting the finishing touches on a big-screen Dragon Radar for the Crane Hermit, Mercenary Tao, and Tien Shinhan. They’re pleased with the work, and Tao steps forward to give them their reward.

We don’t actually get to see what Tao does to them, because the whole scene fades to white and gets sucked into the Phantom Zone, but it’s strongly implied that he killed them, or at least didn’t pay them for their work. So there’s even some elements from the King Piccolo Saga in this movie along with the rest.

As the opening theme song plays, we see a montage of Goku and Krillin training under the Turtle Hermit. This is the first time I’ve watched all three of these movies in order, and I never fully appreciated how they fit together to make a nice little trilogy.

No pain, no gain, boys.

Hooray, the opening credits! It’s fun!

Roshi does the whole bit where he explains that he doesn’t have anything else to teach the boys, since their training regimen included all the fundamentals of the Turtle School. As a reward for their progress, he plans to take them to a big martial arts Tournament, but it’s not the Tenkaichi Budokai in Papaya Island. No, instead he’s taking them to the imperial tournament hosted by the Mifan Empire.

Meanwhile, things are not well in the Mifan Empire, as the Emperor has lost his bride, Ran Ran, and the military has been searching high and low for her.

They stop a truck and search it, and when the driver gets upset about it, the leader of the soldiers, Blue, paralyzes him with his psychic powers and kicks his ass. I’m not sure if Blue is a General in this story, but he’s part of the Mifan Army, not the Red Ribbon.

Likewise, the Mifan Empire is run by characters from the Crane Hermit School. Chiaotzu is the Emperor, and apparently a child in this story. Tien is... well, I’m not sure exactly. I want to say he’s a high-ranking security guard or something, but it’s never spelled out.

The Crane Hermit is called “Minister”, and since he seems to be the most important one, I assume he’s the Prime Minister. I’ll be calling him “Minister Shen” from here on, since I don’t think they ever gave him a name in this movie, and he’s definitely not a Hermit. “Shen” is a dub-ism, I’m pretty sure, but I’ll run with it.

Shen reveals the Dragon Radar to the Emperor, which looks a whole lot fancier since Pilaf last worked on it. Also, how did he install that monstrosity in the ceiling without the Emperor knowing about it? Anyway, he explains that if they collect the seven Dragon Balls, Chiaotzu can ask Shenron to find Ran Ran, and that’ll solve everything. All Shen needs is the Emperor’s permission to devote imperial resources to the task.

But then Blue walks in, and suggests that Shen may have other plans for the Dragon Balls. His men have searched the whole city for Ran Ran, except Minister Shen’s room, which seems awful fishy to him.

At this point, Tao enters the scene and says that any accusation against Shen must be an accusation against him as well.Then they fight, and Tao kills Blue with his tongue, just like he did in the Commander Red Saga.

Okay, so this is a good time to talk about the double-edged sword of this movie’s concept. This whole scene in the throne room, from the Dragon Radar to Blue’s death, is like two and a half minutes, tops. Tao killing Blue with his tongue is awesome, sure, but in this movie it doesn’t really hold up as well because:

We’ve seen it before.

We barely got to know Blue before this happened. Is he a good guy in this story? I’m not sure.

Why is Tao only using his tongue? In the TV series he did it to prove a point. Here, there’s no context. He just does it because he did it in the TV series and it was cool there.

Why is Chiaotzu just letting these guys fight in the middle of his court? A minute ago Shen seemed to think it was important to get the Emperor’s permission to carry out his plan, but now they’re just doing whatever they want right in front of him.

I don’t want to complain too much, because this is a really cool scene, but I feel like it would have been helped if it had been expanded a little, or maybe if Blue hadn’t been involved. I think it would have been sufficient to have Tao and Shen share a sinister chuckle when Chiaotzu approved their plan. We didn’t need Blue to run in and blurt out “HEY I THINK THESE GUYS ARE EVIL OH CRAP I’M DEAD!” It’s like they really wanted Blue in the movie, but only so he could die to Tao.

Meanwhile, Bulma’s out hunting Dragon Balls with Oolong, Puar, and Yamcha. She told them that it was to find Goku, and I’m not really sure why that would work, since he doesn’t have any of the Dragon Balls at this time. Turns out, she just wants to make a wish. Unfortunately, some Mifan aircraft shoot at her when she gets too close to the Dragon Ball, and she has to shoot back.

Bulma takes out like four of these Mifanese planes. I seem to remember she shot at some Gurumesian soldiers in Curse of the Blood Rubies, but I’m not sure that she hit any of them. At any rate, this is probably the most kills by Bulma in any Dragon Ball media.

She converts her aircraft into a submarine and goes after the Dragon Ball, but the Mifan Empire has a submarine of their own, and Bulma finds herself outgunned, so she has to withdraw.

Meanwhile, Roshi’s group is on their way to the Mifan for the tournament. Launch wants to hijack the plane. Okay, but what would she do if she did hijack it? “Take this plane to Mifan, if ya know what’s good for ya!” “Um, ma’am, that’s where we were already going.” “Yeah, but take us there while I got a gun on ya. It helps me relax!”

In the Land of Korin, the Mifan Empire has forced a bunch of locals to dig up the countryside in search of the Dragon Ball they detected in the region. Turns out that Bora and Upa have it with them, but they don’t dare turn it over becaue they’ve heard that the Mifan soldiers will kill all the workers once they find it. So this is all kind of a callback to Android 8 hiding the Dragon Ball from General White to save Jingle Village.

Instead, Bora decides to travel to Mifan in the hopes of straightening things out there. That’s surprisingly proactive of Bora. I wouldn’t say it’s out of character for him, but I’m used to seeing him as a defender of this particular land. It’s weird that the Mifan army has invaded and the first thing he’s gonna do is leave and take the fight to their backyard.

As it turns out, the Mifan Empire has already gathered six of the Dragon Balls, so the one in Korin is the only one they need. For some reason, Shen keeps them all in this statue-looking thing.

As he and Tao discuss their plans, they get word that the 7th Dragon Ball is moving towards Mifan as they speak. That doesn’t make sense, though, because their men in Korin haven’t found it yet. Uh-oh.

What they’re actually detecting, of course, is Bora trying to sneak into Mifan with the Dragon Ball, but he didn’t know about their radar, so by taking the Dragon Ball along, he’s basically announcing his presence.

As they consider this, they notice a robot drone spying on them from the window. Maybe I’m just getting old, but its weird how robot drones are a real thing you can buy at the store. The only thing science-fictiony about Bulma spying on them like this is that she built a Dragon Radar into the drone to find them, and she doesn’t have to worry about pesky FAA regulations. So yeah, even Droney makes a cameo in this movie. They really went nuts stacking this film with stuff from the anime.

So now Bulma wants to go to Mifan and steal the Dragon Balls from Shen and Tao to get back at them for attacking her earlier. Yamcha’s up for it because there’s a cool tournament there. Oolong’s out, until Bulma tells him there’s pretty girls in Mifan. Okay, yeah, but aren’t there pretty girls in West City, where they currently are? Hell, there’s a pretty girl in the same room as Oolong, and he’s just playing cards like she isn’t even there. But Oolong’s all excited to see hotttt Mifan babes anyway.

Roshi’s group arrives in Mifan and has dinner in a restaurant, when Bora moonwalks into the same place. Okay, so first of all, he looks awesome in that poncho and hat. Second, why is he sneaking around? As far as he knows, no one would suspect him of anything. Well, it’s a cool screencap, however we got there. I’m just enjoying it, like that guy in the green shirt on the right.

He pays for his and Upa’s meal with a nugget of gold he has with him. I’m not used to seeing Bora spending money either. This is a very different side of the character. I don’t know that they’re really taking liberties with the guy, it’s just that he’s doing things that he never got the chance to do in the original story.

Suddenly there’s a bunch of sirens. Launch panics until she remembers that she hasn’t done any crimes here...............................yet.

Turns out they’re here for Bora, although I’m not quite sure how they knew to look for him in particular. Mifan’s Dragon Radar wouldn’t be precise enough to pinpoint his location, or they would have found Bora’s Dragon Ball back in Korin a long time ago. Maybe they knew to look for someone dressed like a resident of Korin, but I don’t know if Bora really stands out in that regard. Anyway, there’s a struggle, and one of the soldiers bumps into Goku, so he gets rowdy.

So Sergeant Metallic shows up to straighten things out. They fight for a while, and then Tao shows up.

Things look pretty dicey here, since this looks exactly like the moment when Tao killed Bora in the TV show, but...

Roshi intervenes by explaining that they’re all special guests of the Mifan Emperor, a status bestowed upon anyone who enters the tournament. I’m pretty sure Bora had no intention of entering the tourney, but he does now, since it gives him diplomatic immunity, at least for a little while longer. Too bad Blue didn’t enter this year...

Here’s a cool shot of Launch.

They all compare notes, and Roshi explains that if you win the tournament, you get to ask a favor from the Emperor. So the plan is for one of the guys in this room to win, and ask Chiaotzu to put a stop to whatever Shen is up to. I’m not sure that would work, and if it would work, I’m not sure they need to go to that much trouble to get an audience, but okay.

That night, Emperor Chiatozu has a nightmare, and his best pal Tien comforts him. Note that Tien was in the opening scene of the movie, so he’s definitely in cahoots with Shen and Tao. I feel like that sort of got lost in the shuffle with everything else that’s been happening.

Tien even taught him how to do telepathy, so that just proves that he has a soft spot for the Emperor.

The next day, Bulma’s group runs into Roshi’s group. She’s learned that all seven Dragon Balls are together in Mifan, and she plans to steal the six that are held in the palace. This is awful brave of Bulma, considerng how she didn’t want any part of the Red Ribbon Army, but all right.

What does she even plan to wish for? Anyway, she recruits Launch to help her in the caper.

Also Yamcha’s here.

When the tournament finally starts, Yamcha is the first contestant, and his first opponent is Anton the Great, one of the jobbers from the preliminary matches in the 22nd Budokai arc.

Yamcha clearly busts out the Wolf Fang Fist to beat him...

Except he ends up kicking the guy instead. I feel like someone doesn’t understand what the Wolf Fang Fist is supposed to be. It might be be, I’ll admit it, but it sure seems like there’s no rule to the move. Yamcha just shouts “Roga fu-fu-ken!” and there’s some wolf images and then he just does whatever he was doing before, only it’s supposed to work better. In the video games, it’s always rapid-fire strikes.

We don’t get a lot of time to learn how this Mifan Tournament works, but it seems to be a gauntlet-style match. As soon as Anton is eliminated, Bora jumps in the ring and Yamcha has to fight him next.

Yamcha seems to do okay...

Until Master Roshi distracts him, costing Yamcha the match. This is so Bora can win and receive his favor from the emperor.

Apparently, the other fighters are so impressed with Bora’s performance that they run away rather than face him. This just leaves Goku and Krillin, which works out great, since they all want the same thing from Chiaotzu. But then...

Tao decides to enter himself, and when Bora refuses to tell where he’s hidden the Dragon Ball, he kills him.

Ouch. I’m not sure why they would build a statue so big and sharp, but there it is.

Now, while all of this is going on, Bulma is making her move to get the other six Dragon Balls. First, she has Puar shape-shift into Emperor CHiaotzu. Ha ha, that’s adorable!

Then she has Oolong tun into Minister Shen. Pretty close, but needs improvement.

The idea is to just stroll right into the palace, since know one would dare stop the Emperor, but then a couple of nobles ask a few too many innocent questions, so Launch mugs them.

Was this one of the pretty girls Oolong came to see? I think this is the only woman we’ve seen in town since they got here.

Goku tries to avenge Bora, but he gets clobbered. Even the Kamehameha is useless against Tao, who responds with a Dodon Ray. Unlike the TV version of this fight, Goku gets carried away by the blast, which sends him out of the city.

And into... Korin Tower? Hell of a coincidence.

Back at the arena, Shen decides that there’s no longer any need to conceal his motives, and explains to Chiaotzu that he’s taking over the Empire and using the Dragon Balls to conquer the rest of the world too.

Unfortunately, they still can’t find the seventh ball, because Goku was carryng it when Tao shot him with the Dodon Ray.

Also, Bulma’s trying to steal the other six...

At Korin Tower, Korin doesn’t have time to teach Goku all the stuff that helped him beat Tao in the TV show, so we get a condensed lesson instead. He drops Goku’s Dragon Ball in a pot of water, and Goku can’t see it at first because the water is moving. When it settles, he can see the bottom clearly. Similarly, Goku failed against Tao because he was blinded by his own anger at Bora’s death. The key to beating his enemy is to calm his heart, which will allow him to see his enemy clearly.

Turns out that Tao is already on his way to find Goku, so he’d better calm his heart quickly if he wants to stand a chance.

So Goku hops on Kinto Un to face him. This is the first time we’ve seen Kinto Un in this movie, so I feel kind of bad for anyone who started watching Dragon Ball with this movie. It’s just not a good introduction at all. Launch never sneezes, and there’s just way too much stuff happening all at once. You’ll get to see a lot of characters, but you don’t get to fully experience all of them, or learn about why they do what they do.

Back in Mifan, Shen thwarts Bulma’s Dragon Ball heist, and Launch actually manages to shoot some bad guys and actually kill them for once. Unfortunately, her bullets still don’t work on Shen.

And they end up losing the Dragon Balls in a fissue at the bottom of the ocean. Whoops.

Roshi and Krillin try to fight, but Tien knocks out Roshi with that knee strike he used on Jackie Chun at the 22nd Budokai.

So that about wraps things up. The Dragon Balls may be lost, but Shen can stil take over Mifan, so he orders Tien to kill Emperor Chiaotzu so he can cement his power.

Meanwhile, in Penguin Village, Arale intercepts Tao and messes with him until Goku shows up.

Tao shoots a Dodon Ray at Arale,but it doesn’t hurt her at all, much to Goku’s amazement.

Also the Ga-chan’s zap him, but I don’t know enough about Dr. Slump to know what that would do to him.

This whole part of the movie is nuuuuuuuuuuts. I don’t mind seeing Arale pop in, but pitting Tao against her and the Ga-chans and Goku is a bit much. I think it’s safe to call Tao the main villain of the movie, but he can’t even get any traction in this final battle. At one point, the Ga-chans tie his hair to a tree as a prank. They just make him look like a total chump, which is humorous, but I’m not sure it was the best thing to do with this movie.

So Tao tries the ol’ fake apology trick, except he can’t quite do what he did in the TV show because he needs to get the Dragon Ball and escape to Mifan. So instead of a grenade, he whips out a little hovercraft, grabs the Dragon Ball, and shoots missiles when he’s far enough away. But the result is the same.

Back at Mifan, Tien tries to explain to Chiaotzu that he’s betraying him, but Chiaotzu just can’t accept that.

He starts crying, and Tien just can’t resist those beady eyes.

Shen is livid, so he tries to kill the Emperor himself. Also around here, Master Roshi wakes up from Tien’s kick and gives him that line about how his abilities are crying out for Tien to do the right thing. Okay, but that line worked better in the original story because we had seen Tien’s abilities. In this movie, all he’s done so far is kick Roshi in the back of the head, and Roshi got up from it almost immediately.

Likewise, it’s not really clear what Tien’s obligation to Shen is supposed to be. In the original version, Shen taught him how to fight. Here, I don’t even known what Tien’s position is.

Really, all we need is what we’ve gotten from the movie itself. Tien was shown to be in league with Shen and Tao’s plot, but he’s also very close to Emperor Chiaotzu, and when push comes to shove his friendship with Chiaotzu is more important than his political ambitions. We don’t need callbacks to his dilemma from the 22nd Budokai, because this is a completely different dilemma.

So Shen tries to use a Dodon Ray on Chiaotzu, but Tien whips out the Ki Ko Ho first and blows Shen away.

In the movie, the Ki Ko Ho is blue for some reason.

So that fixes everything except for Sergeant Metallic, who had been trying to hold Upa hostage, except everyone kept ignoring him. Now that he has no other cards to play, he tries to kill Upa, but then Goku returns and dives right through his body, which shuts him down once and for all.

The guards who were helping Shen immediately bow before Chiaotzu, and he forgives them. That’s nice and all, but I can’t help but wonder if this lax attitude is how the first coup got rolling.

Then Tien hands Chiaotzu a doll, which is apparently Ran Ran. Tien admits that he had been hiding it this whole time, in order to get Chiaotzu to agree to the Dragon Ball search. So Chiaotzu’s “bride” was a doll the whole time? How old is Chiaotzu supposed to be in this movie? Five? Anyway, he forgives Tien too, so that takes care of that.

Oh, hey, Bulma and Yamcha survived falling into the ocean. Good for them.

The only loose end now is Bora’s death. Goku plans to revive him with the Dragon Balls, except six of them are now out of reach.

So Goku tosses the seventh ball in with the rest of them, and summons Shenron that way. Okay, but we’re kind of running short on time, aren’t we?

And, yeah, this movie was so jam packed with content that they had to wish Bora back to life during the end credits. I can’t really complain, since making wishes on the Dragon Balls has gotten pretty routine by now, so all we really need is a shot of Shenron and a shot of Bora waking up. Still, it just goes to show that they really loaded this movie up for bear, and sometimes that works against it.

I’d say this is definitely the best of the original Dragon Ball movies. They’re all well animated, but Mystical Adventure is an even bigger visual feast, what with all the ancient Chinese architecture and the costumes and so on. It’s got more action, with a number of fights besides the main battle, and it’s the first movie where Goku actually gets to throw down with the lead villain instead of just having a brief skirmish. It gets a little convoluted in places, but it’s never dull, and that’s always a positive.

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jaywrites101 · 5 years

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Jay Reviews: Captain Marvel

Higher, Further, Faster. Emotions are a weakness, or are they? Today at JayWrites101 we're looking into the cinematic adventure that is Captian Marvel. Critics everywhere are pitching in on this one, giving it reviews ranging between Masterpiece and Disaster with very little room for leeway. How accurate are those reviews? Let's find out together.

The purpose of this review is not to promote, nor offend. We're here to break down The Good, The Bad, and The Strange to find out what makes this movie so unique.

Spoilers ahead.

Medium: Movie Genre: Superhero, action, drama Premise: A superpowered woman with amnesia must find out the truth of who she is so she can stop an interstellar war from destroying her homeworld.

My, that's such a simple premise, isn't it? Boy, the context of this premise changes dramatically. Our Protagonist, Vers, starts off as a Kree soldier fighting to protect Halla from the Skrulls, big green aliens with the power to shape-shift into anyone. As more information is revealed, she ends as Carol Danvers (not to be confused with Karra Danvers, DC's Supergirl) a human pilot who absorbed a fraction of power from an infinity stone whose mission is to protect Earth from the Kree as they try to use her to take over the galaxy.

It's funny how the entire plot reverses itself completely, but the basic premise never changed.

Plot: We start off learning about Vers, as she and her team gears up to rescue a spy whose cover has been blown. The mission turns into a complete fiasco when the spy turns out to be a Skrull in disguise. Vers is captured and "interrogated" using some kind of mind-reading technology. Thing is, she's remembering stuff she couldn't possibly have remembered. Things like getting chewed out for crashing a go-kart, or falling while doing a military course. Vers manages to escape her captors and flee to Earth. After contacting her team, she joins forces with Nick Fury, an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. who's thinking about putting together a task force to protect the Earth from major threats. Not a bad idea, that.

Together they investigate the fragments of memory that Vers recalled from her capture, all while being chased relentlessly by Skrull agents who also made it to Earth. Vers eventually finds a friend who knows the truth and learns that she is, in fact, Carol Dan-vers, a human. Before this revelation has time to sink in, the Skrull offer a flag of truce. They reveal that they're not a military force, just a few survivors trying to hide from the Kree who hunt them relentlessly. As proof, they offer Carol a recording of the incident that robbed her of her memories where it's shown unarguably that her teammates, the Kree, deliberately captured her to find the Tesseract, a device that holds an Infinity Stone, and accidentally gave Carol her powers when she tried to destroy a device that used that energy.

In the end, Carol and her new friends are captured by the Kree and Carol realizes the device she believed was giving her power, was actually suppressing her powers. She destroys the device and becomes Captian Marvel, a superbeing whose massively undefined powers include energy blasts from her hands and flight. Powers that allow her to tear through a Kree spaceship like it was tissue paper. If you've watched Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1. then you know these things are no joke, but Carol destroys one in three seconds flat by flying through it.

Bad guys leave, Carol takes the surviving Skrull to a new planet on the opposite side of the galaxy and Nick Fury begins his Avengers Initiative. Fast forward to the Present and Carol returns in the end-credit scene to a very confused Captain America and demands to know what happened to Fury.

This was one heavy plot. I cut a lot out of it and it still took me thirty minutes to give a summary that wouldn't leave you more confused than you began. You wouldn't think this movie was so plot-dense until you have to try to explain it.

The Good: I just broke down the plot, but what's great about Captain Marvel is that this plot is engaging. I had to go to the bathroom about a third of the way through the movie, but I didn't once consider actually leaving because every second of this movie was filled with something.

I've heard it said before that a good plot structure is "X happened because of Y and causes Z." There are precious few films that encapsulate that principle into the core of it's being better than Captain Marvel. And the nods to future films and plot points were fun to discover as well.

Another thing worth noting is how much of the story is conveyed nonverbally. They spend a lot of effort to say as much as they can, using as little dialogue as possible. This helps the viewer to remember plot details better since they're not just passively listening, but it also means that removing attention away from the screen can cause you to miss things crucial to understanding what's going on. I'm leaving this in The Good because Captain Marvel used this feature well. It's always nice to see a visual medium like film use visual storytelling to great effect instead of having someone constantly dumping exposition all the time.

As a subset of the above, lack of exposition in a movie that is a plot-heavy as this one is always worth noting as praiseworthy.

The use of humor to break up the heavier scenes was a relief, and it often came when I least expected it. Real early in the movie there was this scene where "Vers" was escaping the Skrull's and one of them does this growl at her and she growls back! It was such an absurd little moment of humanity and character that I lost it. And almost anything with that cat! I swear, how they made that monster scratching out Nick Furry's eye out into something hilarious, I'll never know! But they did, and all those little moments made this movie shine.

Real briefly, I'd like to address a common complaint I've heard against this movie, Carol's lack of character. These people are full of fluff. Is that it? Can I just leave it here? Do I really have to explain this? Yes?? *sigh* Okay.

The idea that Carol lacks character is born from her "reserved" personality type. Now, I'm not calling anyone sexist! But this is a personality type that is very often shown in Men ™ , and it doesn't even raise an eyebrow. But to any dude who actually is sexist, and refuses to look at anything other than how large Brie Larson's chest is outside of her superhero suit, this personality type can easily be swapped out with a piece of cardboard and they wouldn't notice.

Now, guys have been pulling off this “kind of quiet, but kind, but I'll seriously kick your ass if you mess with me,” attitude in film for ages. And quite a few even have had success with it. (I'm thinking Resse from Person of Interest, a show that is definitely getting its own review someday.) But it's exceedingly rare for a woman in film to have this personality type.

It's not uncommon in reality, however. And I, personally, like this touch of realism.

The few moments where Carol allowed herself to laugh felt warm and genuine. All her interactions with her niece were heartwarming. Again, some very important people, some of whom I even respect, say that the side characters never got a chance to shine, and Carol never got a chance to have a character arc.

But again, they're full of fluff. If anything, expressing emotion was Carol's character arc. By beating up the man in her life that insists that she never feel emotion, Carol shows that her emotions are her strengths and she does not at all have to prove herself to anyone.

Why?

Because she kept getting back up.

This is a powerful message to tell anyone. Not just women. We heard a variant of the same message in the Dark Knight trilogy. But in this one, it's even more satisfying because the people who kept knocking her down were cheating to begin with.

Now, I'm not going to say that this message was transferred across the eight sexes evenly. I have no doubt that women felt this message more acutely than men. This specific message was made for women. Duh. But there's only one reason why any man could come out of this film feeling attacked.

They saw themselves in Yon-Rogg.

I'm just saying, if you related to the one male character that got attacked in this movie, you prolly need to be offended. Just a little. It's not going to kill you to take a hard look at yourself, even if you eventually discover that you have, in fact, been an ass at some point in your life.

Congratulations. Welcome to the human race. Now, move on.

Before we take our own advice and move on, I'd like to address one more thing Captain Marvel did exceptionally well: The sound design.

This movie sounded wonderful, from the effects to the actual factual background music. Most notably in the third act. There was a point where a character said "The music is a nice touch" and I agreed completely. A lot of these films use similar or recycled music to amp up "the moment" but this movie... well, they didn't turn it up to eleven, but the got it up to ten.

They had music with lyrics, and that's more than 70% of movies these days. Thumbs up.

The Bad: Remember how I said I loved how engaging this plot was? It's still a freakishly dense plot! This whole thing was so tightly edited there was very little time to just unpack the things that happened. Often, you had to try and unpack the thing that just happened while actually doing the next thing.

This helps the movie be engaging. But it hamstrings it when it comes to actually following what’s happening. There is just no way to condense this movie. I've left out tons of stuff just because I have to stop typing this thing eventually!

The Strange: This part of the review is dedicated to the bizarre. To elements or ideas that seem half done, or just really questionable. Not usually bad enough to be constituted as a plot hole, these things are... just... things.

So, for example, the Kree team. What were their names? How many of them were there in the first place?

Don't know? Me neither, and I took notes when I watched this film. I remember Minn-Erva, the sniper, and Yon-Rogg the main villain. And if I'm honest, I actually forgot their names and had to look it up. I didn't even know their group was called "Starforce," until I discovered it looking for the correct way to spell their names.

This is not the best way to set up your main bad guys. Especially if your audience is supposed to care about them at all for any reason.

And while we're at it, the antagonist himself, Yon-Rogg, could do with a little bit extra development too. We don't really know much about him except that he thinks emotions are weaknesses in a fight, and that Carol using her full power is cheating.

We don't really know anything else about him, so there's no real sense of betrayal when Carol turns on him. The "evil all along" trope works best when it's a character you've been with the whole story who's secretly had a plan the whole time. It works because you, the audience, feels betrayed too. Here... it just kinda happened. And, depending on how cynical you are, you probably even saw it coming.

It's like they were going for a sucker punch but aimed it at your forearm; doesn't really hurt, and does little to actually surprise us.

Strongest Scene: When making the strongest scene, I don't mean I look for the scenes with the most meaning packed into them. If I did, the climax or the Intro of a story would win every time. No, what I look for in a strong scene is pure storytelling. How is it shot, who is in it, how does it connect with the rest of the story, and how much does it say.

For Captain Marvel, my subjective vote goes to the bar scene between Nick Fury and "Vers." Even though they've technically met already, the two are really seeing each other for the first time. Nick, newly awakened to the idea of aliens, and Vers, finally respecting Nick's skills as a competent agent despite his comparative backwater setting.

Nick realizes he's in about a mile over his head, and Vers realizes she can't work alone.

They have a nice discussion about their past and aliens, complete with its own little humorous jabs, and there's a very real sense that these two are full partners afterward that carries all along the rest of the movie.

Weakest Scene: As much as it saddens me to say this, I'm going to have to put the introduction to the movie here.

Don't get me wrong, it does a fully competent job of setting up Vers and her amnesia. But we don't get a good sense of anyone else in Halla. To me, it's the things we don't see that really spoil this intro. We don't see any of Carol's friends, and the one guy we do see is in a bit of a mentor position. We don't see how people in this world live, and because of that, we don't get to know if the people of Halla are happy, or miserable. And while this does little for the plot of this movie, it would've done marvels at giving the villains characterization or justifications.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda; didn't.

Luckily, I can gladly say that every other scene in this movie was made stronger than this one.

Conclusion: Captain Marvel is an excellent story from start to finish. Anyone who tells you otherwise is stuffed so full of fluff you can call them Whinee the Poo. And yes, that is my way of saying they're full of crap.

There's a stigma around female characters that they're almost all considered Mary Sue's, and that being a Mary Sue is the WORST CRIME EVER!! But I never got that from Carol. Mostly because at every opportunity instead of powering her way through her problems, she had to cave and struggle and even fall.

And then she got back up.

#captain marvel #movie #marvel mcu #brie larson #avengers

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killjoy-loveit · 6 years

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Hack This Part 7

A/N: You may or may not know the drill by now, but here it is anyways: this is in 1st POV (like my other stuff), I hope it will be 10 parts (if it isn’t I will make it very clear), and I would also like to clarify that everything written in this story is complete fiction.

Summary: The leak is found, but someone was framed before the truth came out

Word Count: 1,916

Bonus Scene

Profanity/Violence/Gore? Warning!

The next day moved quickly, filled with frantic energy and a sense of urgency. I’d been taken to some large building that I understood to be a safe place or something along those lines. From what I could tell it was multi-functional, as I’ve seen what appear to medical staff, in addition to personnel who were armed to their teeth and looked like they could kill someone without a second thought. Being here made me uncomfortable, and that in itself was a severe understatement. All I wanted was to return to Z’s apartment, which has become my version of a comfort zone I guess. It was difficult to focus on the task at hand with so many people around me, especially since I’d gotten used to solitude for the most part.

I became particularly uncomfortable when a man just barely taller than I made his way over to me, leaning close over my shoulder to check my code. My skin prickled at his proximity, sending shivers of unease down my body. He didn’t move until Z appeared from out of nowhere and clapped him rather roughly on the shoulder, forcing him away from me. Z wouldn’t have left me alone if he didn’t have to, it wasn’t his choice, and thankfully he showed up before something happened. Not that I’m sure something would have happened, I just… There’s no telling in this kind of place.

The reason I’d been brought along was so that the boss or whoever, could have direct access to me and give me clear orders. Everyone around me was talking in hushed tones, their minds running a mile a minute to solve the problem. There was a mole in their midst, which was why I was here- I needed to find a digital trail. I was maybe halfway through a lead when something struck me as odd. This particular lead was coming through too easily, like it was set there on purpose, clear as day with no attempts to hide it. Hesitantly I followed through the trail, and it lead me to someone completely unexpected. Immediately I knew it was wrong, this was another setup, a trap. Someone was playing a dangerous game, and they had a hacker on their side too. But I’m better.

Z’s hand landed softly on my shoulder and he looked down at me with furrowed brows. “Have you found anything?”

He was dead tired, it was plain to see, but there was nothing to be done about it. Not until the mole has been found at least. “I found something, but it’s a lead that was set up. It’s an attempt to frame someone, I know it’s not right.” I say giving my head a slight shake, the code was starting to blur together. “I need to delete it.”

“Why do you need to delete it if it’s obviously framing someone?”

I slide my eyes to him. “Because they’re trying to frame you. I know it’s false, but the boss might not think so since you’re only in this to clear your family’s debt.” I whisper, soft enough for him to be the only one to hear me.

Z’s eyes go wide briefly before narrowing. “You can’t delete it, Reina. If he finds out you did that it will only solidify my apparent guilt to him. It won’t matter if you know I’m not the mole or not, in his mind it will become me.”

“Alright.”

When he walked off, I was afraid he was going to do something stupid, like go tell the boss what I found. So, I worked twice as hard, ignoring the screeching pain in my head from staring at the computer screen so intently for hours, and used the gnawing hunger I was beginning to feel to fuel me instead. There’s no way I’m letting Z take the fall for something he didn’t do, I am going to find the true leak. Hours passed and the world around me faded to gray, all the useless chatter becoming a barely unintelligible series of sounds in the background. I was in deep, to the point where I felt the code was swimming around me, taunting me, awaiting the point where I pieced it together properly.

Line after line scrolled through, nothing standing out to me. I knew what I was looking for, it was just so well hidden that it was starting to make my mind ache. Just as I was about to throw my head on the table in frustration, I saw it. That magnificent line of code stood out, almost like it was glowing gold amongst the sea of green and white. My hands moved furiously on the keyboard, chasing that line, pulling at it like it was a thread to unravel the hidden mystery I was dying to solve. And then there it was: the identity of the true leak. With a shout of excitement, I jumped to my feet, eyes searching the room for Z.

He wasn’t there. The people in the room turned to look at me, sneers on their faces because they didn’t realize I’d just solved their mole problem. Seconds ticked by. How long had it been since Z had checked my progress? Hours, it’s been quite a few hours. Surely he should have been back by now, at least to check my progress. He wouldn’t… There’s no way. He wouldn’t endanger his family by revealing what I’d found to the boss. Would he? Oh, God.

“Where is he?!” I screeched out at all the people in the room.

“Who?” Calls back a woman with a deep scar on her left cheek.

“Z. Do you know where he is?” I could hear my blood rushing in my ears, becoming a roar almost drowning out her response.

“He went to see the boss, upstairs.”

At her words I took off, feet pounding the concrete flooring. I had a bad feeling in my bones, Z was in trouble. My eyes scanned my surroundings frantically, searching for a stairwell, ignoring the people staring at me like I was a nut-job. There it was! I rushed forward, sprinting up the stairs two at a time. The few people that were on this level gave me death glares and looked deadlier than the others who’d been on the lower level with me, but they didn’t try to stop me when I ran past them. As I was moving past a doorway that was creaked open slightly, I heard the boss’ voice call out Z’s name. A grunt of pain followed.

Turning on my heel, I moved back to the door and threw it open. The scene in front of me made me want to drop to my knees and cry. Z was only remaining on his feet because he was held up by two large brutish looking guys. His face was covered in bruises, one of his eyes swollen shut and his lower lip was bleeding profusely. Even though his torso was still covered by his light blue shirt, I knew it was hiding worse injuries as there was blood seeping through the fabric causing it to cling to his skin. I felt my heart break in that moment, shortly followed by a hot burst of rage.

“Stop it!” I cried out when the third man raised his fist decked in brass knuckles to hit Z.

The scene in front of me froze, each man’s head snapping to where I stood in the doorway. Z let out a garbled sound, trying to step forward, probably trying to get me out of the room. Well too bad, I wasn’t about to leave him here on his own. The boss stood up from his chair, walking over to me, blocking Z from my sight.

“You sure do think a lot of yourself, don’t you?” He asked with a smirk, before calling out harshly to the men behind him. “Did I say you could stop?”

The sound of brass hitting flesh rung out in the room, and I choked back a sob as I felt tears well up in my eyes. “It wasn’t him! He’s not the leak!”

The boss raises his hand, pausing the violence behind him. “Oh?”

“I can prove it, I found the mole. Please, just stop hurting him!” I feel my lower lip tremble as a tear makes its way down my cheek.

The boss moved from my line of sight and Z was dropped unceremoniously to the floor, where he landed with a thud to his knees. I rush over, dropping to my knees in front of him, cautiously taking his face in my hands. He looked at me through his one good eye and mumbled something I couldn’t make out.

“Prove it then.” The boss demanded.

“I will, but Z’s coming with us.”

I move slowly, helping Z to his feet. He has to lean on me heavily, which I can tell makes him a little uncomfortable, but there was no way I was about to let him out of my sight right now. As we make our way downstairs, the looks we garner from people are an odd assortment of confused, sympathetic, or hardened glares. The laptop is right where I left it, locked up tight. I get Z sitting in the chair in front of it, before unlocking it and pulling up the code. With my jaw set and eyes in a hard glare, I turn the laptop to face the boss and watch as realization dawns on his face.

My nostrils flare as he turns to me with an apology on his lips. “I’m sorry, I thought he was trying to play me. Is there–.”

“No. We’re leaving here right now, and if you contact him to do anything for the next two weeks, I swear to all that is holy I will tear your organization down with my bare hands.”

I left the boss looking stunned at my words, helping Z to his feet, and leading us out of the building. We were almost out when I was stopped by a feminine voice calling out Z’s name with an addendum of “Mr. Giant.” She ran up to where I stopped, and took in Z’s features.

“Holy shit, what happened?”

I instinctually glared at her. “The boss didn’t have all the information is what happened.”

She looked at me with wide eyes, pushing her long hair behind her ear as she took me in. “You’re that hacker girl, aren’t you? Oh my God, that’s so cool! I wish I could do something like that! It’s crappy that the only thing I’m good at is using a gun, isn’t it? Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Noah.”

I dropped my glare immediately. This is Noah, the girlfriend, I think, of Z’s friend who got shot. The couple who got caught in a setup. “Reina.”

“Well, if you need any help with Z, here’s my number. He saved Jongup’s life, and I owe him.”

I looked at her in surprise as she handed me a slip of paper with her number. As Noah walked off, back towards the medical wing of this building, I could tell she was in this life deep. But she said she owed Z for saving Jongup. Little did she know I was going to ask her to do something that could get us killed if she got caught, but then again, there’s this old saying “A life for a life.”

#b.a.p #b.a.p series #b.a.p mafia au #b.a.p junhong #b.a.p junhong series #b.a.p junhong fanfic #b.a.p zelo series #b.a.p zelo fanfic #b.a.p zelo #Hack This series #fanfic #b.a.p fanfic #series #mafia au

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forensiceyes · 3 years

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You Need a Cannabis Business Plan

By and large, cannabis businesses are small businesses. We’ve represented hundreds of these businesses over the years, in many states. Within these businesses one finds many kinds of people. They include legacy operators transitioning from traditional markets, to well-heeled investors coming from industries like banking and private equity. And everyone in between.

Of course, performance has been mixed. We have clients we’ve worked with regularly for five or six years here in Oregon, for example, but we’ve also seen many clients fail. Some mistakes and circumstances can be overcome; others not so much. When a cannabis business goes off the rails it can happen for any number of reasons. Sometimes these are market factors or plain old bad luck, but the longer I do this the more I’m convinced that a leading cause of pain is poor business planning. Or, no real planning in many cases.

I’ve come across extreme examples of this, like people saying “I didn’t realize we’d have to pay so much tax” or “the state rules didn’t actually allow for our model.” Others are destined to fail from the start. But mostly, the businesses I’ve seen knuckle under for lack of planning are people who had some energy and/or capital and/or vision, but didn’t sketch things out or give ample consideration to the boring parts of running a company. And some of it is pretty dull to be honest.

If I were starting a cannabis business today, I’d do lots of research and then I’d put together an A+ (or at least an A or an A-) business plan. Now, please note that a business plan is different than a business idea or a goal or even a forecast. A business plan is commonly described as an actual written document describing core commercial activities, a company’s objectives and how it plans to achieve its goals. Typically, a business plan would include an executive summary, an overview of products or services, marketing analysis with strategy, financial planning, and key budget elements. People get fancy and talk about “the four types of business plans” or “the five [or seven or ten] elements of a business plan”, but the basic idea is to cover the areas I’ve mentioned above in a thoughtful and realistic manner.

I realize that all of this probably sounds obvious, dull and pedantic, but I’d make myself go through this exercise nonetheless (and I say this as someone who doesn’t love details and isn’t risk averse.) Ultimately, I’d make myself do this tedious work for a whole bunch of reasons, with the top three outlined below.

Force Yourself to Think About Things You Don’t Want to Think About

When you have a big idea (like starting a business), it’s pretty exciting. Because it’s pretty exciting, it’s easy to discount factors that may be obstacles or ignore them altogether. You may have a truly brilliant product formulation or an ingenious services approach or a fabulous X or Y or Z, but execution is a whole ‘nother thing. Execution is HARD. Ask these bleeding behemoth Canadian firms, or your local mom-and-pop grow site, or the myriad financiers who have fallen flat after crushing it in other industries. It’s really hard.

Sometimes, we lecture people on this blog about the need to write things down and adopt agreements and such. For whatever reason people may view things like adopting an LLC operating agreement or structuring an ESOP to be difficult or intimidating. It shouldn’t be. Cannabis business lawyers can help you through most of that, which is standardized to some extent in the industry. I believe that relatively speaking, that stuff is easy. What is not easy is developing a SKU that people will really want to buy, getting it made, getting it in front of customers, paying people to help you to do that, etc. That stuff is hard. And you need to plan for every step of that process—including conservative estimates of how long it could take and what it should cost.

Help Your Business Get Funded

I love a good plan and a good deck, too. I’ve seen many, many pitches at this point and I can tell you that shiniest ≠ best. Sometimes, it feels like there is an inverse correlation between deck sheen and the chances of business success, in fact. Insipid decks may trot out a few charts and graphs, cover the projected market size of cannabis in a few years, and often lean heavily on gussied up bios of a few individuals. No meat. No gritty information with respect to budgeting, costs, timelines, etc. Conversely, a well-built deck with adequate market research, realistic planning budgets, reasonable forecasts — essentially, a “business plan”– can sell to sophisticated investors who basically have limitless options right now.

Help Your Business Start (or Not) and Hopefully Grow

A well-considered business plan is also a checklist of sorts. Generally speaking, things need to happen in a certain sequence to get a business up and running. Some of these tasks or deliverables are conditions precedent to others (i.e., you may need a license prior to getting a bank account; you’ll need an EIN to run payroll, etc.), but others can run concurrently. Because of time compression, cash bleed and the need to avoid sitting on unproductive assets, a business owner must be able to walk and chew gum. Charting out everything that needs to happen, and when and how, is an underrated exercise. It will also help a business expand much more quickly– in part by locking in milestones and give objective performance data in the form of targets hit or missed.

So that’s it. To learn more about putting a business plan together, the best person to talk to is probably not a lawyer, but others who have done this before. The SBA has some pretty good online learning programs, or you look into industry-specific facilitators and accelerators. Some of these providers have the added benefit of focus on select populations, like female or social equity entrepreneurs. I’m convinced that building a business plan is never a bad thing, and if a business ultimately fails, it’s a true consolation to look back and know it wasn’t for lack of planning.

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