#i mean when watching singles i am really engaged with scoring + i know everyone's and their mothers' drama and stuff lol

[kimmkitsuragi]

okay do i watch the ladies sp and men fp tonight it's literally 2am and 4am for me 😭

[tigerkirby215]

5e Sona, the Maven of the Strings build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Shilin Huang. Made for Riot Games.)

(Shit meme by yours truly.)

Revealing my Champion Mastery just to say that I play a lot of Sona. Don’t flame me for playing Seraphine and Yuumi I swear to god, and I have no idea why Teemo is in my top 10 highest mastery champs ngl.

Anyways you have no idea how happy I am as a Sona main that my girl is now top tier. I came to League of Legends from Overwatch (yes really) and I used to main Lucio in OW along with some of the more “techy” characters like Symmetra and Torbjorn. (Came to OW from TF2 where I mained Engineer and Medic.) Sona was a natural fit for me as a champion who was both easy to play and very similar to Lucio. It also helps that I joined the Rift during the single most engaging meta to ever grace this game. I was kinda too shit to play Janna but the Ardent Censer meta is also why I have such a high mastery on Lulu tbh.

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But enough about my history with League: Sona! Honestly when I think of an archetypical support Sona pops into my head a lot sooner than Soraka: a champion based on empowering their teammates in as many ways as possible with heals, shields, movement speed, and CC to hold the enemy team down. I’ve always loved playing her because she feels like much more of a macro oriented character than other supports, with team-wide support as opposed to keeping one person alive like Soraka or Yuumi or focusing on CC like Morgana and Nami.

I’m going to build most if not all the champions eventually but man I am happy to tackle Sona now. She’s always been on my mind as my main but it was pretty difficult to think of how to make her. I think this build is good enough though!

Wow that was much longer of an intro than I’m used to. You can really tell which champions I’m excited for lol.

GOALS

Everything in harmony - Sona boosts everyone on her team with her songs as they fill the air.

Triple time! - Sona’s ability to boost her whole team into a good position is always beneficial.

Crescendo! - Fun fact: Sona’s ultimate is canonically extremely painful as she forces you to contort your limbs against your will. Why is Sona needlessly macabre? Well remember that Riot also wrote Volibear as an Eldritch old god.

RACE

Sona is Human but if you want to be cool you can make her a Kalashtar for resistance to Psychic damage and advantage on Wisdom saves. Regardless we’re going to be making what’s known as a dollar store Kalashtar with Variant Human. Increase your Charisma by 1 as well as your Constitution because we kinda don’t need much else. You also get proficiency in one skill of your choice which will of course be Performance, and a language which you can pick as you fancy: you won’t be speaking it anyways lmfao.

That’s because “Only you can hear me summoner; what masterpiece shall we play today?” Grab the Telepathic feat to complete this dollar store Kalashtar package. Increase your Charisma score by 1 and get a 60 foot telepathy to speak while being mute. You also learn the Detect Thoughts spell and can cast it once without using a spell slot. "Did he want... four autographs? I don't understand."

ABILITY SCORES

15; CHARISMA - Charisma is tied to performance and all the other stuff a Demacian noblewoman is expected to be good at.

14; DEXTERITY - Something something medium armor; even if you wear a dress there’s no reason you can’t have some padding beneath it!

13; STRENGTH - Hey this isn’t something something medium armor!

12; CONSTITUTION - Sona may be squishy in League but I value not dying more than good skill checks honestly.

10; WISDOM - Speaking of not dying: Wisdom saves are more common, and Insight is more useful than most Intelligence skills.

8; INTELLIGENCE - We had to dump something so unfortunately Intelligence gets the short end of the stick. You may have studied under the illustrious Buvelle family but most of those lessons were music classes.

If you want a better stat array going 13 / 14 / 12 / 10 / 10 / 14 with Point Buy is perfectly viable, and if your DM is cool enough to let you multiclass without Strength then you’re more than welcome to dump it.

BACKGROUND

There’s two obvious backgrounds that fit Sona: the first is Entertainer for proficiency with Acrobatics and a skill of your choice (since we already took Performance lol.) You also get proficiency with Disguise Kits and your Etwahl! (That’s what Sona’s instrument is called btw.) Your background feature By Popular Demand allows you to play any stage once. "Some, just the once.” You can perform in exchange for a place to stay, and when you do so the local people will remember your wonderful performance!

But making an Entertainer Bard is kinda cliché, no? If you want to lean into Sona’s Demacian heritage go for the Noble background. This gives you proficiency with Persuasion and History as well as a gaming set of your choice: unfortunately Tellstones isn’t an option (unless your DM decides otherwise!) so a Dragonchess Set will do well enough. Oh and you get another language that you won’t speak: fun! Your Position of Privilege makes it easy for you to arrange meetings with other important people, and the commonfolk will be kind and cordial with you.

(Screenshot from the Tellstones: King’s Gambit trailer by Riot Games.)

I personally opted to go for Noble when making this build, but if you want to choose Entertainer go right ahead! Backgrounds don’t affect too much overall and it’s up to you (and your DM) to make your own Sona!

(Artwork from League of Legends Wild Rift. Made for Riot Games. RIOT PLEASE UPDATE MUSE SONA ON PC I’M BEGGING YOU!)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - BARD 1

I mean what else did you expect? Bards get proficiency in three musical instruments of their choice: a Lyre is the closest you’ll get to Sona’s Etwahl, though a Dulcimer is also pretty close. I’d also recommend grabbing a Lute since most magical instruments come in Lute variety.

You also get proficiency in 3 skills of your choice like Perception to watch wards, Insight to watch people, and Athletics for a bit of Tenacity to break out of grapples. (As well as potentially grab some people yourself! Although Acrobatics is also perfectly fine for escaping grapples.)

As a Bard you can boost your ADC with Bardic Inspiration, letting them add a d6 to attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws. You have a number of these equal to your Charisma modifier and they come back after a Long Rest.

But of course the main reason to play a Bard is to do Demacian-banned Spellcasting! You learn two cantrips from the Bard list like Vicious Mockery for some diminuendo, making it harder for the enemy to hurt your allies while also cutting them down to size. (I don’t know if your DM will let you slap your Etwahl angrily and then point at them judgingly, but you may have to break your vow of silence every now and then.) You can also learn Prestidigitation for all sorts of general magic stuff that you really shouldn’t do in front of anyone important.

You of course also learn 4 Bard spells like Cure Wounds and Healing Word for the atypical healing spells, Dissonant Whispers for some Hymn of Valor damage, and Detect Magic which you’ll likely be expected to cast as the designated support. *Sigh* Always gotta buy wards.

LEVEL 2 - BARD 2

Second level Bards could be called a Jack of All Trades, as you get to add half your proficiency bonus to any skill you aren’t proficient in. This means even if your ability scores are bad the skills you don’t have proficiency in are still good enough! You also get Song of Rest, letting your allies recover an extra d6 of health during Short Rests. And if you have Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything  Magical Inspiration will let your allies add their Bardic Inspiration to the damage or healing of a spell they cast!

And finally you can learn another spell: against as the designated support you’re expected to take Identify.

LEVEL 3 - BARD 3

Third level Bards get Expertise in two skills: Performance is an obvious must and Persuasion would probably be good as well.

But more importantly you get to choose your Bardic College and if you want to both shield your allies and speed them up look no further than the College of Glamour! That’s because Mantle of Inspiration grants 5 temporary hitpoints to a number of creatures within 60 feet of you equal to your Charisma modifier (which can include yourself by the way!) Additionally those creatures can move up to their movement speed as a reaction without provoking opportunity attacks, making this a great tool to reposition an ally who’s caught in a dangerous position!

You’re also capable of creating an Enthralling Performance: if you perform for at least 1 minute, you can attempt to inspire wonder in your audience. At the end of the performance you can choose a number of humanoids within 60 feet of you who watched and listened to all of it, up to a maximum equal to your Charisma modifier. Each target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by you.

While charmed in this way, the target idolizes you, and speaks glowingly of you to anyone who talks to them. They also hinder anyone who opposes you, although they avoid violence unless it was already inclined to fight for you. This effect ends on a target after 1 hour unless they take any damage, you attack it, or it witnesses you attacking or damaging any of its allies. If a target succeeds on its saving throw the target has no hint that you tried to charm it, and you can use this ability once per Short or Long Rest.

Finally you can learn second level spells like Hold Person, for a one-man version of your ultimate.

LEVEL 4 - BARD 4

Ah the first of many Ability Score Improvements. You may have noticed our deliberately uneven Charisma modifier: that’s because I’m going to be taking the Fey Touched feat for +1 to your Charisma, the Misty Step spell (for Flash, of course), and the Gift of Alacrity spell from Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount for a Song of Celerity! Accelerated movement? I concur.

You can also learn another spell as well as another cantrip! For your cantrip take Mage Hand for help warding those hard-to-reach areas, and for your spell take Lesser Restoration, because yeah it’s also your job to buy Mikael’s. *Sigh.*

LEVEL 5 - BARD 5

5th level Bards get a Font of Inspiration that lets their Bardic Inspiration come back after a Short Rest as well as a Long Rest. That’s good because your Bardic Inspiration increases to a d8, which also boosts your Mantle of Inspiration to grant 8 temporary hitpoints!

You can also learn another spell like Hypnotic Pattern: while it won’t do any damage and your allies can’t hit the dancing enemies it’ll still be the best recreation of your ultimate for now.

(Artwork by Katie “TeaTime” De Sousa. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 6 - PALADIN 1

I hope you weren’t expecting this to be a pure Bard build, because then I’d just be building Seraphine again! Grab your something something Medium Armor as well as a shield (well technically you need both hands free to play a musical instrument) it’s Paladin time, master of auras! 

Paladins get a Lay on Hands pool equal to 5 times their Paladin level for some more healing. You can touch a creature to give them any amount of health from your Lay on Hands, or use 5 hitpoints from your Lay on Hands pool to neutralize a poison or disease affecting them. You also get Divine Sense to locate any Celestial, Fiend, or Undead as long as they’re within 60 feet of you and not behind total cover. Don’t worry it gets a lot more exciting later.

LEVEL 7 - PALADIN 2

Second level Paladins can choose their Fighting Style and you’re still more of a mage than a warrior, so Blessed Warrior will give you two cantrips from the Cleric list that use your Charisma! Guidance is an obvious must for a support and Toll the Dead is a great option if you want to go full AP.

Should you have options for attacks to target enemies who have high Wisdom? Yeah probably: Sacred Flame might be a good choice.

Of course cantrips also imply more Spellcasting! You can prepare a number of spells equal to your Charisma modifier plus half your Paladin level (rounded down) which is currently a freaking lot of spells. Let’s just go down the list, shall we?

Bless is great to buff your team and make them harder, better, faster, and stronger.

Command is a mostly harmless Enchantment spell that will force your foes to do as you, well, command. I’d argue “dance” is a reasonable Command.

Protection from Evil and Good is never bad to have in your back pocket in case you’re fighting either Kayle or Fiddlesticks.

And Shield of Faith will let you boost your ADC’s survivability with Ardent Censer!

I know you can prepare more spells but there isn’t much I want from first level of Paladin. I am contractually obligated to mention that you can also turn your spell slots into a Divine Smite if you hit an enemy with a melee weapon, but you aren’t really going to be using weapons in this build. That’s right boys hop aboard the caster Paladin train!

LEVEL 8 - PALADIN 3

Third level Paladins get to choose their Sacred Oath and Oath of the Watchers may seem weird but it’s really good at defending your allies. That’s because you get two different Channel Divinity options: Abjure the Extraplanar works similarly to the Cleric’s Turn Undead feature except it affects Aberrations, Celestials, Elementals, Fey, and Fiends.

Watcher’s Will meanwhile lets you choose a number of creatures you can see within 30 feet of you, up to your Charisma modifier. For 1 minute, you and the chosen creatures have advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws. This means that in a party of 6 this ability can give your whole party advantage on all mental saves, which is huge for keeping everyone alive against nasty casters! See? Demacia can use your magic!

Speaking of magic you get Alarm and Detect Magic as Oath spells. (Might want to swap Detect Magic from your Bard list with Mass Healing Word ty Tasha’s.) You can also use Harness Divine Power to regain a spell slot equal to half your proficiency bonus a number of times per Long Rest. And you get Divine Health, because you don’t take a sick day to stop complaining about Seraphine.

LEVEL 9 - PALADIN 4

4th level Paladins get another Ability Score Improvement: cap off that Charisma for maximum AP scaling!

(Artwork by Kelly Aleshire & Esben Lash Rasmussen. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 10 - PALADIN 5

5th level Paladins can finally prepare second level spells! As a Watchers Paladin you get access to Moonbeam as well as See Invisibility, both of which are very good for dealing with incoming gankers.

You can also prepare spells like Aid to boost your allies’ HP, Prayer of Healing (ty Tasha’s) for some out-of-combat healing, and Warding Bond for a Knight’s Vow.

Oh and you get an Extra Attack, which sure would matter if you were actually using weapons.

LEVEL 11 - PALADIN 6

6th level reasons get the main reason Sona’s a Paladin: Aura of Protection! All your saving throws are increased by an amount equal to your Charisma modifier, which is a full +5 currently! But what’s special about this ability is that it also applies to your allies within 10 feet of you, letting you give out auras a plenty to keep your allies safe!

You can also prepare another spell but again: not much I really want. So we’re going to be waiting a little while longer once again.

LEVEL 12 - PALADIN 7

7th level Watchers Paladins get Aura of the Sentinel, or as I like to call it: Song of Celerity. When you or any creature of your choice within 10 feet of you roll for initiative, they gain a bonus to initiative equal to your proficiency bonus. While this may make positioning a little difficult (everyone’s going to have to huddle around you) this ability guarantees that you can speed up all your important allies to make sure they get their powerful abilities off!

LEVEL 13 - PALADIN 8

8th level Paladins get another Ability Score Improvement or a Feat. You may have noticed your uneven Constitution score: grab good ol’ Resilient Constitution for a boost to your health and even more insurance on your Concentration checks. With your Paladin aura and proficiency you’d have a +12 total to your Constitution checks currently, meaning that if you take 24 damage or less you won’t even have to roll for Concentration!

LEVEL 14 - PALADIN 9

You are probably the only Paladin who cares about spells, so it’s nice that you get 3rd level spells now! Watchers Paladins get two very strong third level spells: Nondetection will help you deward and keep your allies safe from enemies that may try to sneak a peak at you, but Counterspell is the true best choice to stop danger from befalling your allies. What’s very good about Counterspell is that as a Bard you get to add Jack of All Trades to the skill check, meaning it’s far easier for you to deny an incomming spell than any other spellcaster! “Mages have enough problems without you.”

Of course you can prepare some more spells like Aura of Vitality for Aria of Perseverance, and Revivify for an ADC’s Guardian Angel. But having access to spells like Remove Curse, Dispel Magic, Crusader’s Mantle, and even Daylight on the Paladin spell list are all extremely useful to be able to prepare. Remember that you are doing yourself a disservice by not taking time to think about what the best spells to prepare would be for your current quest. "Every note is important."

(Artwork by Kelly Aleshire & Esben Lash Rasmussen. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 15 - BARD 6

Now that we’ve got all our auras it’s time to go back to Bard for Mantle of Majesty! As a bonus action, you cast Command without expending a spell slot as you take on an appearance of unearthly beauty for 1 minute. During that minute you can cast Command as a bonus action on each of your turns without expending a spell slot. Additionally any creature charmed by you automatically fails its saving throw against the command you cast with this feature. You do have to concentrate on this feature (like a spell), and once you use it you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest.

You can also learn another spell but there isn’t much I want from the third level of Bard, really. Oh and you get Countercharm which is awful and I hate it, but since you didn’t take a 10th level in Paladin I suppose you have to use it. Spend an action to give allies advantage on their saving throws against charms and fears, I guess.

LEVEL 16 - BARD 7

7th level Bard; 4th level spells. Freedom of Movement will let you help either yourself or an ally with Mikael’s Crucible, and Dimension Door is great to get into lane fast, or back to base fast!

LEVEL 17 - BARD 8

8th level Bards get another Ability Score Improvement, and if you don’t like the look of something something Medium Armor then the Eldritch Adept feat might be able to help. Take the Mask of Many Faces invocation to be able to cast Disguise Self at will to change your skins as you please.

Could you have taken this earlier? Absolutely. Are there better invocations? Yeah probably, but by level 17 you can make some of your own choices. Build your own Sona: this is merely a guide and you can make your own choices.

Speaking of own choices: take whichever spell you want at this level. There’s plenty of great ones for a 4th level Bard and I can’t recommend anything in particular to you. Every musician has their own style, and it’s up to you to find your own!

(Artwork by Yan Li. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 18 - BARD 9

9th level Bards get to pretend that increasing Song of Rest from a d6 to a d8 by total level 18 is helpful.

You do get access to 5th level spells like Mass Cure Wounds, which is like Mass Healing Word but better! "Harmoniously."

LEVEL 19 - BARD 10

10th level Bards get Expertise in two more skills: Perception is an obvious must to watch over your wards but beyond that? Honestly pick your poison with whatever skill you want since by level 19 you can make your own choices. (Though my personal choice would be Athletics to hopefully give some more safety against grapples.)

But of course the main boon of reaching level 10 in Bard is the Magical Secrets! ...I’m afraid I’m going to have to disappoint you again: there honestly aren’t any spells in particular I want as Magical Secrets. Sure I could recommend spells like Haste or whatever but are they really going to be that great by total level 20? To be honest even the spells on the Bard list like Animate Objects, Greater Restoration, Hold Monster, Rary's Telepathic Bond, Scrying, and Synaptic Static are very good (although I’d sooner replace some of your old spells with them.)

Again I know this is supposed to be a “guide” but most people won’t hit level 19 anyways, so I don’t think it’s that bad for me to recommend you take your own steps to make your own Sona. Hell, build some AP if you want! I know I would!

LEVEL 20 - BARD 11

Our final level is the 11th level of Bard and I’ll be honest: it’s just to add Otto's Irresistible Dance to your spell list. It can only affect one person but it’s still your ultimate by total level 20.

Oh and you were supposed to get a cantrip last level. Uhhhhh I dunno take Mending lol.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

The rhythm connects us all - You have dozens of spells to keep your team alive and active during a fight, not to mention that all your Paladin auras and abilities really help them give 110%. It’s worth mentioning that Gift of Alacrity combined with Aura of the Sentinel is a d8 + 6 to an Initiative roll, which will almost always guarantee that whoever you want to go first will be going first!

A true masterpiece should celebrate living - Despite your somewhat weird level split you maxed out the only stat which matters for you: Charisma. And woah holy shit turns out Paladins are really good with maxed out Charisma! +5 to all saves means even your lowest save is a +4, and the saves your proficient in vary between +13 for Dexterity and Constitution (both very common!) and a whopping +16 save on Charisma!

Curtains up; I'm ready - Jack of All Trades also does quite nicely to help your middling skills. Even though I dumped most of your mental skills you’re still proficient enough that you won’t be completely helpless when caught off guard. And when you’re in the zone with Persuasion or Performance you are easily the best girl around!

CONS

Don't make me get off stage - It was my intention to recreate Sona’s positional gameplay with this build but it does present some gameplay issues when trying to maximize your effectiveness. Where do you position yourself as a character who’s still primarily a squishy caster despite your good saving throws and AC? Can you give everyone in your party support, or are they too spread out to get value out of your 10 foot range auras?

Quiet, please! - You have a damn good concentration check, but what do you concentrate on? Not only do you have a ton of spells but they all scale very good with levels and you have spell slots that go far higher than your maximum level spell. It can be hard to choose what to do with those 7th and 8th level slots.

The world is cruel... Until that changes, I'll never stop playing - One of many “meta” problems with this build was my choice to focus almost entirely on support. Sure Toll the Dead is a great damaging cantrip but your only two damaging spells are Moonbeam and Dissonant Whispers. Again: you don’t have to follow my build point-for-point and while you’ll be flamed in League for building Sona full AP I don’t think your friends will mind if you take some damaging spells.

But if you can’t tell it was really hard for me to come up with those downsides. With the exception of the positional requirements a Bardadin is a very strong build and Sona is a very strong support. Boost your teammates with your own amazing power and make sure everyone’s alive and jamming! Your power may have been forgotten over the years but no one’s ever upset to have a great support at their side. And remember: Seraphine may be in K/DA but you’re in Pentakill, and you have your own label! No one can replace DJ Sona!

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[beauvibaby]

motivation - f.andersen

“And.. he scores!” My face fell, and I tuned out the cheering from the jackets fans, my eyes focusing on Freddie and his boys as they slightly shook their heads. I chewed the tip of my thumb as I watched them skate off the ice, they were bound to be pissed, so close yet so far. Freddie caught a glimpse of me through the glass and his face was blank, normally even after a loss he can muster up some kind of smile, even for a split second, but this time it was nothing, not even a twitch.

I stood along side Stephanie in the wide hallway outside of the locker room, both of us looking up every time we heard movement. Of course, it was never who we wanted it to be, shockingly Auston was the first one out, walking straight over to his mom who was giving him that look. The one that says “don’t be too hard on yourself, mijo, you did good”, the type of look everyone here would be giving the team. Freddie always put on a tough exterior, but when we got home it could be a different story, he could get quite the attitude. “Awe, babe, you played amazing, alright?” Stephanie spoke wrapping her arms around Mitch’s neck as soon as she saw him. “Freddie.” I breathed out when he finally emerged, he gave me a quick hug and a peck to my forehead before I could say anything else. “Let’s just go.” He grumbled, I held back a sigh, knowing it was going to be a long night.

I gripped the steering wheel tighter, my knuckles turning a shade of white as we got stuck in this god awful snow filled traffic. I could see Freddie glance around me from the corner of my eyes, but I didn’t speak, as he hadn’t said anything else to me either yet, both of us wanting to get home. “Freddie?” I finally caved, seeing how the cars were at a nearly complete stand still. “What?” He snapped a little harsher than I think he intended, but he didn’t look away from his phone, god knows he was probably watching the tape, trying to figure out what he could’ve done better. “Don’t do that.” I sighed pointing to his phone, he clicked the screen off and put it in the cup holder, shooting me a look, “happy now.” He was acting childish. “You did great, okay? It was a long game, you still have another shot-“ “We shouldn’t need to still have another shot, Y/N! That’s the fucking problem, we should’ve already moved on to the next round.” He cut me off, his voice booming in the car. I rolled my eyes a little as I slowly inched along the road. The guys always set high expectations for themselves, and when they didn’t meet them, they got furious. “Baby, it’s best of five, you can still do this. That’s what you need to focus on.” I explained calmly, he didn’t look at me, only continued looking out the window, cringing when I nearly slid in the ice. “Do you want me to drive?” He asked, annoyance dripping from his tone. I bit my lip for a moment, “no, you’re acting like a child, so I don’t want you to drive like one.” I finally snapped back at him. I could see him analyzing the side of my face, something he does when he knows he’s upset me, “I didn’t-“ “Just wait until we get home, please, I don’t want to have an accident.” I cut him off, my knuckles once again turning white on the steering wheel.

I fiddled with the ring on my left hand as we stood in silence riding up the elevator, I could feel his eyes on me, he grabbed my hand, keeping me from messing with the ring, he always freaked out when I did that, thinking I would be having second thoughts on our engagement. I glanced up at him but he was looking straight ahead, still with that pissed off tension in his jaw. I sighed as the doors opened, walking out first, pulling him along. He unlocked the door for me, holding it open, he was silently trying to apologize for being snappy towards me. “I didn’t mean to be rude to you, you know that.” He spoke, and I nodded, stepping inside, kicking my shoes off as he shut the door. “Freddie, I understand that you’re going to be upset about losing a game, alright? It’s totally acceptable, but you go into this head space that’s not even healthy, you all played great, you saved so many shots tonight, I wish you could see that.” I explained, he watched me with hard eyes, nodding even if he didn’t want to admit it. “But, at the end of the night, I still let four shots in.” He pointed out and I sighed for what felt like the hundredth time tonight, I nodded silently, walking away from him and towards our bedroom, I could hear him padding along behind me. “That’s why I’m pissed.” He grumbled, disappearing into the bathroom, I watched him shut the door, harder than normal, I heard the shower turn on, I sat on the edge of the bed, hunched over. Thoughts running through my mind, once I heard him get in the shower, I stood to my feet and walked over to the dresser, digging out the gift I had been hiding from him, I was planning on waiting until after the first round of playoffs, but he needs a good pick me up now. I took the small white gift bag, peeking inside to triple check everything was in there. A baby sized Andersen jersey, and a onesie that said “a true fan begins in diapers” with the maple leaf logo beside it. I placed the bag on his pillow, leaving the room once I changed into my pajamas, I glanced back as I heard the shower shut off, suddenly feeling nervous. What if he wasn’t happy, what if he didn’t want this now, what if- “y/n?” He called and I immediately walked back into the room, he was standing in front of the bathroom door, hair still dripping, and sweatpants hanging low on his hips. I hadn’t realized my eyes were welled up until his face softened, “baby, are you crying?” He whispered, rushing over to me. I shook my head, wiping the water from my eyes before he could, “I didn’t mean to be-“ “No, no, it’s not that, well not entirely that.” I cut him off, laughing softly when his wet hair dripped onto my night shirt. “Fuck the game, you’re right, we’ve still got a shot, now what’s wrong?” He asked, concern covering his face. I smiled and simply pulled him in for a kiss, he didn’t complain, holding me steady by my hips as I had to stand on my tippy toes. “I love you.” I murmured once I leaned back, “I love you, now you’re scaring me.” He responded, I finally took a shaky breath and pointed to the gift on the bed. He glanced back and furrowed his eyebrows, “you got me a gift for losing?” He teased, pulling me along with him to the bed.

“It’s not because you lost, I think it’s much more of a win actually.” I told him, he dramatically sat down on the bed, I shrieked in surprise when he pulled me down with him, arms wrapped around my stomach, but not tightly. He kissed the top of my shoulder through my shirt as he grabbed the bag, opening it slowly with me half on his lap, half on the bed, I draped my legs across his as I wrapped an arm around his shoulders to keep me upright. He gave me one last look before finally diving his hand into the bag, he grabbed both items at once, and pulled them out, frowning as they were wrapped in more tissue paper. “My god, are you sure you even want me to open this?” He teased, ripping it open, just as he did so, “well, there’s kind of a due date for it so.” I mumbled watching as his face lit up as he held up the onesie, I had really hoped it would be the jersey he saw first. “Y/N, are you serious?!” He asked, scanning my face for any kind of joking look. “Why would I joke about having a baby?” I quipped, laughing when he pulled me in for a hug, “oh my god, this, this is amazing, why didn’t you tell me sooner? How far along are you? I have so many questions.” He rushed, stopping just long enough to pull me in for a kiss. I couldn’t help but grin against him, “I was going to tell you after you guys get in to the next round,” I paused making sure he understood my words, he gave me a lopsided smile, pure excitement dancing in his eyes. “But, I figured you could use some extra motivation now, I’m nearly ten weeks, I only found out about a week ago, I had an appointment while you were at practice.” I shimmied off of his lap as he processed my words, “open the other one, I’m going to grab my phone!” I called as I rushed down the hallway, having a recording of the heartbeat and a sonogram picture in my purse.

When I walked back into the room I stopped as I saw him leaned over the small jersey in his hand, I snapped a picture for myself so I could never forget this moment, not that I would. He glanced up when he heard my feet, and then I saw the single tear fall from his eyes, which just made me emotional all over again. “C’mere.” He muttered, sliding to the edge of the bed, I stood in front of him as he rested the top of his head on my chest, arms wrapped around my back. I played with his still slightly dampened hair, letting a tearful smile out when he ducked his head down for a moment, a delicate kiss being placed to my stomach through the fabric of my shirt. “Look.” I whispered handing him the single scan picture, it was hard to tell exactly what you were looking at, but I had the tech put an arrow on it, “baby Andersen!” Alongside it. I pulled the clip up on my phone, turning the volume all the way up, he took my phone and gasped when he heard the thumping come across, he smiled up at me when he heard me whisper an oh my god in the video. “I wish I had been there.” He mumbled once the sound ended, and I frowned. “Me too, baby I promise I didn’t know they were going to do all that, I didn’t even think I really could be pregnant.” I explained, cupping his jaw so he met my eyes, “it’s alright, I know.” He shushed me, it’s something we talked about quite frequently, especially after the engagement, when I was younger doctors always told me I’d have a hard time getting pregnant, but here I am.

“When can I tell the boys?” He asked after we had finally been laying in bed for a while, I laughed against his chest, “wait a couple weeks, yeah? Until we hit the safer zone.” I explained. He sighed but understood, “alright.”

*** bonus, telling the guys went like this***

They had finally made it into the next round of playoffs and were having a get together at our place to celebrate, we nearly always hosted so it wasn’t odd to anyone when we offered. Everyone but me had a drink or two in them when Freddie wrapped his arms around me from behind, resting his chin on my shoulder. “Ready?” He asked, kissing me quickly when I turned to look at him. “Ready.” I confirmed.

“Hey!” He called out, everyone silencing relatively quickly, I looked around the room, Auston, Mitch and Will beijg towards the front, which was perfect as I was the most excited for their responses. “Y/N and I have something we want to say.” He spoke up, Stephanie appeared beside Mitch, resting comfortably under his arm, I smiled at her and a knowing look cane across her face. “Oh my god!” She shrieked rushing over to me, the guys confused as Freddie and I laughed, “easy killer.” I joked when she nearly knocked me over in a hug. “Shit, ok I’m sorry go ahead say it.” She clapped her hands together stepping aside, Mitch shot her a confused look. “We’re having a baby!” I cheered and everyone gasped, Auston choked on his drink, “what?!” He spoke first after his coughing fit. Will and Mitch shared a look, “I called it, pay up!” Mitch demanded, Will grumbled and pulled out two twenties placing it in Mitch’s hand as Stephanie went back over to him. “Your man over here has had a pep in his step we couldn’t quite place.” Will pointed out as we both stared at them in shock, “Freddie!” I complained, whacking the back of his arm as congratulations started pouring out around us. I smiled as Auston came over and gave me a hug, doing the same to Freddie, the rest of the guys following suit.

“Baby Andersen, coming soon!” I attached a picture of Freddie and I holding the baby jersey and posted it on Instagram before settling in for the night, relishing in the fact that this was really happening.

Tag list: @literarycharleton​

[puckngrind]

What’s In A Name: 15- J. Toews

chapter 15.

Where we left off: Jon and Bekah enjoy All-Star break in Miami and run into her college best friend.

Warnings: smut, language

Word Count: 3,045

Series Masterlist ) Puck ‘n Grind’s masterlist

Bliss.

Bekah met Jon in Minnesota a week after vacation.  Kelly and her husband, Zack picked Bekah up and it was like no time had passed from college.  Zack was Kelly’s college boyfriend. The two eloped two summers after graduation when Zack followed her home to the twin cities. The two welcomed their oldest daughter seven months later and started a life at a family of three. Bekah realized the distance plus sudden life changes were what made the two drift and she hated that she didn’t know Kelly’s kids. Watching Kelly in mom mode was fun as the kids scurried around her. Bekah convinced them to come to the game with her with some push back about the free tickets.  The game went into overtime with the Blackhawks winning.  Bekah looked down at the tired eyes of the three kids, Isabella, Brayden, and Oliver.  “You want to go see the locker room?”  All three’s eyes went wide and heads nodded like bobble heads.  The group headed down and Jon gave them a little tour and pucks.  Bekah took in how sweet Jon was with the kids.  Getting down on their level, letting Oliver lean into his leg and speaking what Bekah deemed kid speak.  She fell a little harder for him in that moment and had a moment where she pictured their kids.  Her attention was quickly brought back to Jon and the kids as she leaned down to answer a question from Isabella.

“He scored on the power play, won, and gave them a tour... our kids are going to be Hawks fans aren’t they?”  Zack pulls at his Wilds jersey while whispering loud enough for Jon and Bekah to look over and laugh.

“Is that so bad?”  Jon smiles while standing straight and pulling Bekah into his side.  “This one converted easily.”  All those in ear shot laugh knowing Bekah was never really a hockey fan. 

She really had become a fan of the game over the last 4 years and not just of Jon’s play.  This change in the way she watched the game was noticed by everyone especially Brynn, who watched more of Bekah than the game while the Blue Jackets were in Chicago. Marie joined Brynn and Bekah and commented a few time on the changes of her daughter.  Seeing Bekah happy and in love made Marie at ease with the quickness of the engagement. With the wedding five months away, the ladies took the weekend to go dress shopping.  Bekah’s fingers brush the tulle and lace of the dresses that were pulled when Brynn called to schedule an appointment.  The trio realized quickly that the boutique knew exactly who Bekah was marrying by the dress selection.  Bekah sees Brynn’s feet on the other side of the rack and spreads the dresses.

“Holy shit Rin!  Have you LOOKED at these prices?  These dresses are insane. Imported from Italy some of them.”  Bekah whisper yells and Brynn laughs.   “And you can afford every. single. one. friend.  Jon said pick the dress you want, regardless of the price and you are doing just that. MOH duty to ensure it happens.”  Bekah swallows hard as her hand keeps coming back to the same dress.  

“You’ve touched that dress multiple times, Rebekah.  Maybe you should try it on?”  Marie’s voice comes out of no where causing Bekah to jump.  The sales woman hears and moves Bekah and the dress quickly away while the other escorts Marie and Brynn to the waiting area.  When Bekah emerged they all knew.  She found the dress she would be marrying Jon in. Marie wipes her eyes as Bekah fusses with the veil. “It’s perfect. Simply perfect.”  Brynn nods her head with tears filling her eyes.

Wedding planning with Jon during the season was interesting but he was intentional with their time.  His only real request was leaving the honeymoon completely up to him.  One evening while laying in bed, Jon could feel Bekah was thinking of her mile long list of things to do.  “You got everything under control. I’m so damn impressed, Baby.”  Jon’s arm pulls Bekah’s body into his and kisses her sweetly.

“Thanks.  I’m thankful you can help when you can.”  Bekah’s body shifts under Jon’s arm.

“But?  I feel like there is a but in that statement.”  Jon’s lips press into her temple.

“But nothing.  Everything is falling into place.  The invitations. The food. The cake.  The... dress.”  Bekah clears her throat.

“Do you not like your dress?  Because if not, it’s not too late Beks.”  Jon whispers.

“Why would you say that?  I love my dress.  It’s perfect.”  Bekah sits up.

“Your list.  You paused while listing your dress and did that thing with your lips where you pull the inside of your lip into your teeth.  Seriously, it doesn’t matter the price, if you want a new one, you and Brynn can go as soon as she can get here.”  Jon’s fingers run up and down her spine.

“It’s so incredibly stupid but I just keep thinking that maybe I shouldn’t wear white...”  Bekah places her face in her hands and rests her elbows on her knees.  She feels the bed shaking and turns to see Jon trying not to laugh.  “What?  It’s tradition and well...”

“And what Beks?  You aren’t a virgin so you shouldn’t wear white?”  Jon pulls her into his chest unable to contain the laughter.  “Sweetheart, wear white, ivory, pink, blue, black... I don’t fucking care.  I know you will look gorgeous and frankly, all I care about is making you my wife.”  His lips kiss down her jaw and he moves her chin to find her lips.

“Well, it’s not white, white...” Jon’s body lands on top of Bekah’s and she exhales from the weight.

“Don’t tell me.  I want to be completely surprised.  Just know, I do not care what color your dress is Beks.  At the end of the day, it is just you and me becoming husband and wife.  The rest is just a show for the world.  Now, can I... well... I need... can we... fuck. Words.”  His hips roll into hers making Bekah moan out.  “Yeah, that. Now that we are done with the dress conversation. Shall we?”  His body moves down hers, positioning himself between Bekah’s legs.  Slight kisses on the inside of her thighs while he adjusts her legs.  Jon’s fingers dance down from her clit to Bekah’s core and his tongue follows begetting jolts and groans from Bekah above.  

“Tae.”  Bekah’s entire body feels the wave produced by tongue and fingers moving together.  He hums into her skin while continuing to suck and flick her most sensitive area.  “Tae, I’m gonna...”  She didn’t finish her warning.  Bekah’s thighs tighten around Jon’s head as an intense orgasm rips through her body.  Jon’s free arm wraps around her thigh to pull her leg past his shoulder as his tongue and fingers don’t let up.  “Fuck.  Jon.”  Bekah leans up realizing he’s not letting her come down from this high.  His lips press into her and then releases.  Jon’s fingers pump and curve while he shifts his weight to his knees.  “What are you doing?”  She pants out.  Jon’s fingers move only to be replaced with his cock and his body drops down onto Bekah.

“Making sure you have a damn amazing orgasm since I won’t be able to give you one for a few days.”  Jon’s swollen lips kiss her’s and Bekah moves her legs to wrap around him.

“Oh, it’s working, Tae!”  Bekah’s fingers claw at his back feeling her second build deep inside.

“I know.”  His voice was low and mischievous.  Jon grunts.  “Beks, you feel so damn good.”  His hips snap into Bekah but don’t retreat.  Bekah squirms under him pressing her hips into his.  He pulls his head up to look into Bekah’s now open eyes.  “I love you.  You know.  Forever.”  He whispers before he releases sending Bekah’s high crashing over her again.  

“I love you too, J.”  Bekah breathes out while running her fingers through his hair.  “Now, can we talk flowers?”  Bekah’s change of subject made Jon laugh into her chest.

“Sure, wild local flowers?” He kisses her neck and lifts up. Seeing his blissed out fiancée’s face knowing his suggestion was perfect.

The season ended with another year without playoffs.  With the season of change everyone seemed to be ready to put it behind them and start fresh in the fall.  Bekah and Jon went into full wedding prep mode with time spent as off season usually was.  Jon did a bachelor party weekend golfing in the Carolinas while Bekah met Brynn, Kelly, Alyssa, and both moms in Chicago to take in a Cubs game and shopping.  The ladies were impressed with how calm Bekah was with everything.  

“I think married life suits you.”  Brynn leans into Bekah while the ladies were having dinner on the roof.

“I’m not married, yet, Rin.”  Bekah looks at her friend. “He can still...” Bekah takes a long sip of her wine afraid to finish the sentence.

“Yeah, he won’t. He wanted to marry you months ago. You two are made for each other and this wedding is just a public declaration of that. I will say I am impressed you haven’t really Bekah-ed anything either, right?”  Brynn bumps her shoulders and Bekah feels the heat in her cheeks.  “Oh, no.  What?”

“Well, I told him I wasn’t sure I should wear white.”  Bekah whispered looking at her mom, Andrée, and Kelly taking in the view.

“Oh Bekah!”  Alyssa chimed in.  “You didn’t!”  The two giggle causing the rest of the ladies to look over.  Bekah pulls her legs into herself and nods taking in the conversation with Jon before the season ended. She drifted into her own thoughts as the girls discussed bridal showers and getting the dress to Arizona.

It was July in the blink of an eye, Jon and Bekah were on their way to Sedona almost a week before the wedding.  Everything was set in place.  “You ready, Baby?”  Jon wraps his arms around her waist and lands his chin on her shoulder taking in the stunning backdrop for their ceremony.  The venue’s host off making sure everything for the day was scheduled to arrive on time.

“Yeah.  It really is beautiful here.  And this view Tae.  This view is breathtaking.”  Bekah’s hand slides down Jon’s arms looking out over the red rocks.

“And it will be the second most beautiful view on Friday.”  Jon’s lips kiss the corner of her mouth as she smirks remembering their first trip.

“I think you are going to love the dress.  I mean, I hope you will.  I tried on one plus my reception dress.”  Bekah whispered.

“You could wear sweats and I would love it.  But no doubt, it’s the perfect dress for my bride.”  Jon had a way of making Bekah feel so loved and relaxed in the middle of moments others would stress out in.  Which was exactly how she felt as the wedding day came.  The guests were seated and Bekah looked down at her dress.  Her fingers rub the lace overlay as she moves her hands down the modern a-line dress.  The ivory underlay catching the light almost looking rose gold when she looked into the mirror.  Brynn’s swift movement of her chapel train made Bekah’s eyes meet her matron of honor’s that were filled with tears.

“Are you crying?”  Bekah’s voice broke through and she turned to Brynn who could just nod her head.  “Rin.”  Bekah’s hand envelop her best friend’s. Brynn’s hand moves from their embrace and reaches up to fix Bekah’s T necklace that sat perfectly in her v shaped embroidered neckline.

“I’m just so damn happy for you, that’s all.  I feel like I’ve been your coach this whole time.  Your biggest cheerleader.”  This makes the girls laugh.  “Jon told me to make sure you had this and that your mascara was waterproof before you opened it.”  Brynn reaches for a tiny box that had been unnoticed in the hustle of getting ready.  Bekah looks down, looks at her friend then opens the tiny box.  A handkerchief was folded neatly in it.  She recognized it as her grandfather’s but noticed there was something added.  “Always yours” Bekah breathed out willing the tears to stay put.  “How did he?  When did he?”  Bekah looked up at her father.

“That man knows you well, B.  You found yourself a good one there.”  Jim smiles sweetly and Bekah just nods her head.  Brynn takes the baby blue handkerchief and tucks it into Bekah’s wildflower bouquet before handing it to her.  

“Is the bridal party ready?”  The coordinator’s voice breaks through the emotion filled room.  “You have one handsome groom waiting for you.  The entire room took a breath and got in line.  Bekah’s dad offered his arm and she wrapped hers in his.  They rounded the corner, music playing, all 200 guests on their feet staring at Bekah but she was looking for Jon and only Jon.  Bekah finally sees Jon who is beaming at the end of the aisle.  Tailored black tux almost leaning sideways to catch his first glimpse of his bride walking her way.  The two decided to go the traditional route and not see each other before this moment and it was worth it.  His look was worth it.  David nudged him from his spot once Bekah and her father were stopped.  Jon makes his way to the two.  Shakes Jim’s hand and offers his arm to Bekah who presses her hand into his forearm to ground herself.

“Beks, you are the most beautiful bride ever.”  Jon whispers as the two walk the few steps to the minister. Kelly straightens out her train while Brynn grabs her bouquet so she can place both hands into Jon’s.  His thumbs rubbing the tops of her hands.  The two so lost in their non-verbal conversation that they didn’t hear the minister ask Jon to repeat after him.

“Jonathan, repeat after me... please.” The officiant says again eliciting a laughter from the crowd.  The ceremony was perfect in every way.  Sunset over the Sedona rocks in the backdrop with their closest friends and family members witnessing their union. Both Bekah and Jon misty eyed but not crying which surprised everyone. Patrick joked he lost the bet with Duncan on their captain actually shedding tears during the event.  The couple savored every moment as one.  “By the power given to me by the state of Arizona, I now pronounce you husband and wife.  You may now kiss her bride.”  Jon pulls Bekah in and his hands cup her face kissing her deeply but then retracting after the cheers.

“I love you.  Ma femme pour toujours.”  Jon whispers and Bekah’s eyebrow shoots up. “My wife forever.”  He translates and Bekah kisses him again.

“Je t'aime Tae.”  Bekah whispers then they look out to the crowd realizing they had an audience.

“I am happy to introduce to you Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan and Rebekah Toews.”  The music plays and the guests stand.  Jon grabs her hand and they walk down the aisle dipping her to kiss his wife again before heading towards the reception area.  

The reception went smoothly.  The couple found a baker that specialized in flourless cake.  The meal was amazing and the hockey players behaved themselves for the most part.  Jon twirled Bekah around the dance floor not letting his hands off her. By the time the two made their way to their honeymoon suite the event crashed over them.  Jon scoops Bekah up and carries her over the threshold.  Her reception tea dress being unzipped as soon as he closed the door.  “So, Mrs. Toews...”  Jon’s eyebrows wiggle.

“Yes, Mr. Toews... ok that doesn’t have the same effect.”  Bekah kisses him. Her fingers playing with his new wedding band.  “Do you want the lingerie now or on this mystery honeymoon?”  Her dress being dropped to the ground and an animalistic sound erupted from his lips.

“Later.  I want you now.”  Jon growls into her skin while she finishes removing his already half unbuttoned dress shirt.  

“Ya, sure.  I brought a set for this weekend.  It even has Mrs. written on the ass.”  Bekah presses her lips to his chest.

“Tomorrow, after our rock pictures.  We can have a second wedding night.”  Jon moans under Bekah’s touch.

“Speaking of, you think I can get up there in my dress?  I would hate to fall to my death a day after getting married.”  Bekah looks up at her husband with a smirk.

“I’ll carry you, promise.”  Jon smiles and his lips catch Bekah’s.  “The pictures will be worth the little sweat to get you up there.”  Jon tosses Bekah lightly on the bed.  “Now, where was I, oh yes.  I need to fully bliss out my wife.”  He unbuckles his pants and crawls over top of Bekah as she lets out a little laugh.  “What?”  Jon’s eyebrow questions.

“Wife.  I just.  I like that title.”  Bekah wraps her arms around his neck and presses up to kiss him deeply.  Jon moans.

“Rebekah Toews, I fucking love you.”  Jon whispers.

“Hmmmm... Maybe I’ll keep it Pierce, you know so people can pronounce it.” She giggles as Jon groans from her joke.

“Funny Beks.  Funny.  You are legally Pierce for the honeymoon travel then we can change it... if you want. You know I want you too.” Jon’s lips ghost over her skin.

“I am. You know that.” Bekah’s body reacts to Jon’s touch. “Tae, question?” He hums in acknowledgment. “Where are we going for our honeymoon?” Bekah’s fingers comb through his hair.

“Chicago.” Jon mumbles against her breast.

“Come on, Tae.” Bekah pulls her legs up to try and move him.

“Not tellin’. You will find out when we board the plane.” Jon bites at her skin and she jumps.

“Seriously.  You won’t tell me?”

“Nope.” Jon pops the p and places his chin between her breasts. “Mrs. Toews, you have forever to ask me all the questions.  Forever. Can I plllleeessseee have sex with my gorgeous wife now?” Jon pushes up and kisses Bekah hard as she melts into him.

[cxlvins]

...000. INTRODUCTION.

helloooo lovelies ! my name is evan (he/him), i’m twenty-two and from the gmt timezone ! i’m super excited for this to open because i’ve got so much muse right now. i’m down for any and all plots, seriously, i love plotting ! this is calvin, he’s an angry mess of a character, but he’s fun to play, so ! if you just wanna get to know the character, you can skip past the other sections and just focus on personality, i’ve also put some wanted connections in there too ! if you would like to plot, then either shoot me a message here or on discord (heterosexual? how vintage!#8600) or alternatively, like this post and i will message you !

caution: alcohol, drugs, mental health, death.

›› ✱ xavier serrano, cismale, he/him. you’ve met calvin marx, right? they’re around twenty-three and a twitch streamer. they’re all about thrift store clothing and the faint smell of cologne and cigarettes, hence why they’re known as the spitfire around town. everyone knows them to be pretty gregarious but i’ve heard they’re actually sort of volatile, too… don’t tell them i said that, okay?

...001. BRIEF HISTORY.

calvin grew up very underprivileged for the first 11 years of his life in brooklyn, ny.

his father died when he was 5 years old to a drug overdose, leading his mother became a single mother to him and his younger sister, essentially meaning that calvin had to grow up and be the ‘man of the house’ without having a choice.

because of her new single-mother status, calvins mother had to work 3 different jobs in order for the family to pay rent (a cleaner in mornings, a store assistant in the day and a bartender in the evenings), which meant she was rarely home and left calvin to raise both himself and younger sister.

from a very early age, it was apparent that calvin suffered from anger issues, dyslexia and adhd, constantly getting into fights at every opportunity, his complete inability to focus and never managing to make it through a week at school without a phone call home.

these issues remained untreated, due to his mother putting it down to the ‘boys will be boys’ ideology, and concluding that calvin was just an energetic one at that.

because of this, calvin fell into the wrong crowd pretty quickly and settled into his mindset that he was never going to achieve all that much anyway, because no matter how hard he tried, he could never score well on any test at school.

at the age of 9, calvins mother met, fell in love with and soon married a former client for whom she cleaned for.  calvins new step father was incredibly wealthy, due to being a successful franchisee and also being very largely into stock trading.

calvin, his sister and mother were all moved to his home in cherrybrooks, which calvin struggled to adjust to, as he missed his friends back north.

now having access to as much money as he want led him down an early path into experimenting with drugs and alcohol, which soon became a bad habit.

although he wanted to drop out of school, his new step-father would not allow it, which became a large source of conflict for the family over the course of the next few years.

failing to graduate high school at age eighteen, calvin couldn’t deal with living with his family any more and left the house to move into a small apartment, 30 minutes away, with a roommate (possibly a member of the clique).

calvins only real passions were for gaming and sport, and as he smoked and did way too many drugs to make it in any sporting profession, he turned his attention to twitch streaming. he began this pretty soon and built up a solid fanbase (which he wanted to call the marxists, but in calvins words, apparently some dead man already claimed that title).

...002. PERSONALITY.

calvin is a naturally angry person who can lose his cool and go from 0 to 100 in a matter of seconds, he rarely gives off signs that he is getting angry until he boils over, so people tend to watch what they say around him.

calvin is self-serving, his feelings will always come before those around him. although he is getting better at managing this, if something will result in calvin gaining something at the expense of somebody else, he will most likely go ahead with it.

calvin is not well educated, so he doesn’t tend to enjoy arguing with words, as he can never seem to find the ones to correctly express how he feels. instead, calvin is much more likely to act physically when something has irritated him (whether this be on a person or inanimate object).

calvin is an awful liar, he cannot lie to save his life as his face always tends to show when he doesn’t agree with an idea/opion/thought that somebody says. because of this, he is very outspoken, and will just say what he’s thinking regardless of if it’s going to hurt somebodies feelings. he’d rather upset them with the truth, than get caught out for lying.

calvin is an extrovert and gains energy from being around people - the more people the better, because of this, he has become a major party animal and loves attending any and all parties that is going on, despite if he’s fond of the hosts or not.

calvin is a heavy user of drugs, alcohol & cigarettes. this is primarily down to his naturally addictive personality and constant need to feel like he’s happy, so that he doesn’t get sad again. there will rarely be a day where he will not  be intoxicated in some way and he will have a cigarette at least once an hour – and that’s on a good day.

calvin is very much into sports. although not a natural athlete, nor somebody interested in playing sports competitively, calvin loves watching any and all sports, and he likes to play them when he can. due to his smoking habit, he can’t play sports for too long, but will always give it a good go.

similarly to this, calvin is very much into gaming. calvin loves fast-paced games, because they manage to keep his attention despite him not having a very long attention span. most games that he plays are first person shooters, and he’s usually the guy on the mic screaming when a teammate fucks up during online play. a big appeal to him was that games were the only thing he could focus his mind on as a child.

calvin is very much a boys boy, he genuinely abides by the bible of ‘ bros before hoes ‘ because he’s stupid.

calvin hates movies but loves tv, he finds that watching moves involves sitting still for too long, but tv allows him to take more breaks and keeps his interest for longer. although. he’d probably trade both of them for a chance to leave the house.

...003. TRAITS.

[ G R E G A R I O U S ] (+) — a person fond of company; sociable.

[ I N T U I T I V E ] (+) — using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive.

[ F O R T H R I G H T ] (+) — direct and outspoken.

[ V O L A T I L E ] (-) — liable to change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse.

[ V E N G E F U L ] (-) — not willing to forgive or excuse people’s faults or wrongdoings.

[ H E D O N I S T I C ] (-) — engaged in the pursuit of pleasure; sensually self-indulgent.

...004. WANTED CONNECTIONS.

CURRENT BEST FRIENDS — Possibly a boy squad? I live for a good boy squad. This person will have similar interests to Calvin, or be able to tolerate his volatile mood.

CHILDHOOD BEST FRIENDS — Someone with a similar upbringing from Brooklyn, most likely they grew apart when Calvin moved to Wilmington.

RIDE OR DIES — Although he primarily looks out for himself, I’m down to have Calvin have one person who he’s loyal to and will refuse to betray, we can come up with a fun reason for why he cares so much if you’re interested in this one.

HIS ROOMMATE — Somebody that moved with Calvin into his current apartment when he moved out at 18.

A GOOD INFLUENCE ON CALVIN — One of my favorite connections for Calvin to have is somebody who knows all of his flaws and attempts to help fix them. They’ll have to be patient, though, as Calvin doesn’t see himself for having any issues.

SOMEBODY HE IS A BAD INFLUENCE OF — On the opposite, I love when Calvin has somebody that he can introduce to bad things, corrupt easily and get a kick out of watching the commotion.

EXES ON BAD TERMS — Cheating on each other is usually an easy one to go with, but if you want, we can think of something more unique as to how it all fucked up and why they now hate each other.

EXES ON GOOD TERMS — Maybe they still occasionally fuck? There could still be an attraction there, but just no romantic chemistry. Alternatively, they tried it and both just couldn’t see it going anywhere.

EXES WITH LINGERING FEELINGS — There’s a ton of different reasons for why there’s still lingering feelings. The feelings could be one-sided or both ways.

EX FLINGS — Started as friends with benefits, one of them wanted more, the other didn’t, they decided to stop before someone got hurt.

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS — No romantic intention, just a good way to kill time at 2 AM, or maybe it’s easy to know you have someone to go home to if you don’t find someone at a party.

FRIENDS FOR NECESSITY — This friend may not have that much in common with Calvin, they may not really get on in day to day life, but they are always there to get high, attend a party or do something dumb. an easy person to talk to when they’re both bored and wanna get out.

HIS YOUNGER SISTER — If anybody fancies a second character, I’m always down to have Calvins sister in the roleplay. They can either get along or not, we’ll just figure out the details.

EX FRIENDS — Used to be close but now aren’t, plenty of reasons as to why.

ENEMIES — Despise each other, seeing this person literally makes Calvins blood boil. Possibly sexual tension too if that would work, if not, they can just fight a lot.

WILL THEY / WON’T THEY — Lots of leading on and teasing each other, maybe they both think they’re stringing the other along but it turns out neither of them are interested? Maybe they start out not interested and it backfires later, by that time the other could’ve lost interest.

ANY OTHER IDEAS YOU THINK WILL WORK !

...005. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.

Calvin is bisexual but heteroromantic, so any sexual-based connections can be taken by any gender.

Calvins Pinterest can be located here. Please note that it contains triggers for alcohol, drugs, blood & violence.

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

some random s&s 2008 thoughts

... from someone who rewatched episode 2 earlier!

i absolutely love the seaside setting of barton cottage in this adaptation for so many reasons (the atmosphere! ... the atmosphere!), but i extra love that elinor has a sea cave she can run into and just Emote for a little bit when life becomes too much to handle but she can’t tell anybody about it. who has earned an emoting cave more than elinor dashwood??

charity! wakefield’s! marianne! is! my! everything!

disclaimer: jane austen’s roguish w-named gentlemen sympathy ahead, uh oh!! -- i really like how this adaptation handles willoughby. i think dominic cooper’s performance is really engaging and endearing -- he doesn’t quite seem like your basic charming scrub, he’s more earnest than that, and i like that choice because it makes things more complicated. and i like how you really feel the tragic element of him and marianne being parted because some of the moments between them are so magical. you can tell that he’s actively trying to do right by her -- after they kiss alone, he’s the one who sort of breaks the spell and says he should take her back to the rest of their party. but then in the end he’s not strong enough to stick with her if it means being poor, and gets his heart broken by his own weakness. i like that. lots of good messy feelings in there.

i also really like how this adaptation has marianne really like brandon in a way where he’s singled out for her apart from everyone else, but he’s just not on her romantic radar because of willoughby. i love when he sends over the piano and the more challenging sheet music and we get that little scene of her practicing over and over with that look of intense concentration like she knows she’s been challenged and she’s determined to get it right. i just think this adaptation hits a lot of really great notes (bad’dum’chh!) with their dynamic.

margaret is such a total treasure in this adaptation, as is mrs. dashwood! the entire dashwood family dynamic is really warm and lived-in and fun to watch.

marianne swooning backwards at the party when willoughby snubs her and brandon being right there to catch her -- I AM ONLY A HUMAN PERSON, I HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO SWOON ALSO

i love the score in this adaptation; it is currently swooping through my brain! a sign to go watch the last episode, perchance??

and because i cannot allow this post to end before i sing her praises too: hattie morahan is such a good friggin’ elinor. her snarky-but-fond quips! her quiet heartache! her inability to resist watching angsty edward ferrars chop firewood in the rain!

(also: if anyone hasn’t seen this adaptation but is intrigued by it, you can stream it on hulu and amazon prime!)

[is0gild]

Ice Cream and Fire Oven Pizza - Chapter 6

Pairing: Elsa x Lea/Axel || Side Pairing: Riku x OC

Summary: Modern AU. She's an introvert ball of nerves who works at Ice Palace, a mall food court ice cream shop. He's the outgoing, sassy goofball who works at the Pizza Planet across the way. Hilarity, snark, and fluffy romcom hijinks ensue.

Word Count: 4,673

FIRST CHAPTER || PREVIOUS CHAPTER || NEXT CHAPTER

Credit for super friggin’ cute and super friggin’ amazing cover art goes to the super friggin’ talented ky-jane here on tumblr!

“Oh jeez, seriously?” Rayne snerked, a tiny plastic taste spoon hanging out of one corner of her mouth. “C’mon Elsa, they were just man boobs!”

Feeling a faint warmth creep up into my face, I huffed and turned my head to one side. “You don’t know, you weren’t there!”

“Psssh,” her eyes rolled, “I doubt they’re as mind blowing as you’re making them out to be.”

I twitched, gaze darting to the left. “I never exactly said the words mind blowing...”

Never said they weren't either.

...shush, brain.

She removed the tiny pink spoon from between her teeth to twirl it in the air as she singsonged, “The way you’re overreacting, you may as well have.”

Blushing intensifies.

“I’m not overreacting, I… I’m REacting! In… in just the exact right, perfect amount!” I stammered out, lightly stamping my foot down.  “I mean, one second he’s just standing there, and the next? He takes his shirt off! Right in front of me! Who does that?!”

“Sure a lotta guys would love to,” she muttered, but I hardly heard her in my current state of mid-rant.

“I mean, the Pizza Planet back room was just a ten second walk away, he couldn’t wait that long? He had to do it right there, right that second? That’s it! That’s the only reason that I’m being all… this! It has nothing to do with the alleged mind blowing...ness of his, uh…his...” I floundered, gesturing wildly to my bosom, “... décolletage or the accompanying, er…” my hand now did a frantic circle around my abdomen, “...accoutrements! I mean, fine, okay, I’m sure as far as man boobs and such go, his are very, ah… very nice.  Adequate. Stately, even.” Dear god, somebody stop me. “...pleasantly symmetrical? Quite… satisfactory and well structured… s-some might even say-”

“You done?” she cut in, an eyebrow quirking.

I hid my face in my hands, mumbling, “Yes please.”

“Alright. Now girl, let me tell you, you haven’t seen mind blowing pectorals until you’ve seen Riku’s. I-” she stopped, snapping her fingers. Then she was digging her phone out of her back pocket, her thumb now rapidly swiping across the screen several times. “Hang on, I got pictures, I can show you. Ah-ha!” She grinned brightly, turning the phone screen towards me and thrusting it in my face.

“Gah!” I quickly looked away, raising a hand to block the image. “Why?! Just… why?!”

“What? I’m proud of my hubby’s man boobs and like showing them off!”

Thankfully, Kristoff chose that moment to join us, usual bored look in place as he stretched his arm across the counter, offering a dollop of ice cream on another small spoon to Rayne. “Here’s the taste of Daisy Sorbet you asked for, Ma’am,” he droned out.

Eyes lighting up, she tossed the first spoon, snatching the new one up and sticking it in her mouth. “Mmmmm, fantastic! Now, garçon, I’d like to sample the Honeybunny please!”

He huffed out a soft growl. “Ma’am, that’ll be the twentieth flavor you’ve tasted. Would you like to try, oh, say, I dunno… actually buying something?”

“Excuse me,” she sniffed, raising her nose up and placing a hand on her chest, fingers splayed, “but I am with child, sir. Picking the exact right flavor of ice cream that won’t upset my sweet lil jellybean is a delicate, delicate process.”

Kristoff groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. Then he fixed me with a dull stare. “Elsa, make your friend go shoo.”

I gave him a sympathetic smile, but just shook my head, “Sorry, not happening.” 

“Ha!” Rayne cried triumphantly. “Now be a good boy, run along and get me that Honeybunny! Chop chop! We don’t need you hanging around listening in on us discussing our important business!” 

His eyelids droop. “I believe I overheard the phrase ‘man boobs’ several times, how important can it really be?”

Rayne thrust out her lower lip, tapping an index finger to it. “Oh dear, there’s been such a long interruption now to my taste testing… I hope I don’t forget all the flavors I’ve already tried and have to start all over from the beginning again…”

“...one sample of the Honeybunny coming right up, Ma’am,” he said through grit teeth before turning and walking away.

I muffled a snort into my hand as I watched him go.

Sorry, Kristoff!

It was now the next day and I was back at work. I’d done my best the night before to clean up the devastating aftermath in the wake of Hurricane Ice Cream, but hadn’t quite been able to get it all - in particular, the splatters across the ceiling were just simply out of my reach. So I’d shown up early this morning to meet the opening crew on their way in and explain what had happened, offering what further assistance I could. Luckily, I hadn’t gotten in trouble. According to Kristoff, pushing the Anger Button was practically a right of passage for all new employees at this point. Pretty much everyone that’d ever worked here had done it at some time or another. I was just warned not to let it happen again.

Which, trust me, I wasn’t. I was going to be very mindful to not invade the Anger Button's personal space from now on.

I’d been exhausted when I’d got back home so late last night, so had gone straight to bed. Then this morning I’d rushed out practically at the crack of dawn, so I hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to Rayne. But she was making up for lost time by coming down now in the middle of the day to visit me at work and had just finished dragging my latest little misadventure out of me. She claimed she had a sixth sense about these things, that she’d known something was up and that I'd needed someone to talk to. 

And I'm sure all the free samples she was scoring right now had absolutely squat to do with it.

As soon as Kristoff was out of earshot once more, she hunched over the counter towards me and lowered her voice, “Alright but no, seriously, why was seeing Lea in all his shirtless glory such a big deal now, hm? You act like you've never seen a dude topless before.”

I flinched. “Well…”

Her brow furrowed. “…you have seen a dude topless, right? I mean, you were engaged for crying out loud!”

“Oh no, I have,” I nodded before pursing my lips to one side, averting my gaze. “But…”

“But?” she prompted. If she had a seat, she would quite literally be on the edge of it.

My hand reached up to toy with my braid. Nope, still a ponytail. Sighing, I said, “It was only ever in public settings, like big group outings on Father’s yacht. Last night was just… different.” I paused to bite down on my bottom lip before whispering, “I’ve never been alone with a half naked guy before.”

Something clicked behind Rayne’s eyes as they widened. “Wait… Elsa… did you and your ex ever, you know… do the do?”

I hesitated, fidgeting with my fingers. “We-”

“Alright, here’s the Honeybunny, as requested.”

Whew! Saved by the Kristoff!

He offered the new spoonful of ice cream to her, but her hand snapped up to block it. Her gaze remained narrowed on me as she told him, “I’m gonna need a sample of every single flavor. Stat.”

“Oh, come on!” Kristoff whined. “Even the ones you’ve already tried?!”

“Especially the ones I’ve already tried.”

Grumbling under his breath, he spat out, “Fine, but then that’s it, I’m cutting you off. Crazy preggo lady or not, you’re either going to have to buy something or beat it.” 

He turned to go, but was halted as Rayne said, “Kristoff.” He looked back over her shoulder to see her eyes dead serious. “Leave the Honeybunny.”

His lips flapped as he puffed out a heavy breath, then handed her the taste spoon and stomped off. 

“That should keep him busy and buy us a few minutes of privacy,” she beamed, shoving the ice cream into her mouth and once more leaving the spoon dangling from her lips. Then she planted her elbows on the counter, propped her chin in her palms and bat her lashes at me. “So… you were saying?”

I could feel that soft heat cozying up inside my cheeks again. “Could we maybe talk about this later? This isn’t particularly a discussion I want to have at a mall nor in my place of work, and we’re two for two right now.”

“Well tough noogies, sweetpea, cuz it’s happening. Now out with it.” 

Exhaling through my nose, I relented. “No, we never… I’ve never… done that. I... told him that I wanted to wait until marriage.”

She released a low whistle - an impressive feat given the spoon still between her lips. “So you’re still rocking your V-card? Who woulda thought you were so traditional? I mean, knowing you, I guess maybe I shoulda figured...”

“That’s just it though, I’m not sure if I am,” I hung my head with a frown. “It’s just… me and him, we made sense as a couple on the surface, at least in my head we did. And sure, we would go out on dates and we would kiss, but… I was just never really interested in going beyond that… with him…”

“But you’re thinking with the right guy, you might?” She bent in further, waggling her eyebrows. “...be interested?” 

My nose wrinkled and I lifted one shoulder.  “I’m honestly not sure… maybe?”

Rayne leaned back once more, holding her hands up, “That’s okay, that’s a big topic to tackle and not one you necessarily have to sort out right this second, so let’s take a step back from that. Start with something smaller. Something like learning to get out of your comfort zone every once in a while.”

I tipped my head to one side, “My comfort zone?”

“Sweetie, I love you, you know I do, but you’re one awkward penguin, plain and simple. Last night is a prime example, and just one of many at that. Now that you’ve left the life of the rich and pampered behind you and are out in this brave new world, you should start putting yourself out there more. You know, try new things, anything really would be good, no matter how small and insignificant it might seem, just to get you out of that protective bubble you tend to keep yourself in.”

“But I like the bubble,” I pouted, my voice small. “It’s all round and comfy and safe.”

She grinned gently, “I know it is, but I think this could really do you some good.”

Grimacing, I managed to snag a thin tendril of my ponytail to twist around my finger. “Okay, so then… what kind of things were you thinking?”

“That brings us to Lesson Two of The Real World for Dummies,” she held up a pair of fingers with a tiny smirk. “Making friends!”

I blinked and then gave a tiny scoff, “I’ve made friends.”

“Name one since you’ve started this whole independence thing.”

“Easy,” I crossed my arms, “Riku.”

She shook her head. “Riku and I are a package deal. He was basically a freebie and doesn’t count.”

Frowning in thought, I tried, “Frozone and Kristoff?”

Rayne gave a derisive snort. “Work friends? You’re gonna have to do better than that.”

My eyebrows knit together before I brightened. “Sora! He’s my friend, he said so himself!”

“Please, that boy would make friends with a toaster given half the chance,” she deadpanned. “In fact, he did once. It involved a sharpie smiley face. Nuff said. No, name one new friendship that you had to put some sort of effort into forming and didn’t simply fall into your lap. Go on. I’m listening.”

...darn it, she was right.

It seemed my hermit was showing.

Her grin turned smug. “That’s what I thought. So here’s what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna go out there and you’re gonna make yourself a new lil friend. That’s part one of getting you out of your comfort zone.”

Oh no.

“There’s a part two?”

“Yup!” She slammed her phone down on the counter before me and ordered, “Call them.”

I gave a nervous chuckle and tossed my hands up in a loose shrug, asking innocently, “Call who?”

“Don’t get cute with me, missy! You think I forgot our lil chat a few days ago, but think again! Enough is enough, you’ve had plenty of time, now stop making excuses and just do it already. I know it’s scary, but this is just something you gotta do! You-”

“I thought I might find you here.”

Back stiffening at the third voice chiming into the conversation, Rayne slowly turned around to see Riku standing there, arms folded under his chest, one foot tapping as he went on, “Isn’t somebody supposed to be staying home and getting lots of bed rest?”

“Tch,” her lip curled slightly, “c’mon, I’m barely showing, just let me live my life!”

Biting back a grin, he took a step towards, “Come on, you, let’s get you back-”

“Jailbreak!” She booked it, darting off into the plastic jungle that was the food court.

His shoulders slumped and he scratched the back of his head as he called after her, “Seriously? You’re gonna make me chase your sorry butt?”

“Yup!” she cackled, strategically positioning herself so that several tables were between her and her husband. 

“Fine,” he smirked slyly, “but you asked for it. Here I come!” He bolted after her.

“Great,” I heard a grumble beside me, turning to see Kristoff standing there with a sour look and roughly forty of those teeny, ice cream laden spoons wedged between all his fingers on both hands. “Now what am I supposed to do with these?”

“Eat them?” I grinned as I plucked one free and closed my mouth around it. Mmmmmm, chocolate! “Otherwise it would be wasteful, which is bad for the environment.”

He gave me a flat look. “Okay, I know you’re being facetious and I don’t care.” One corner of his lips turning up, he lifted one spoon-adorned fist into the air. “I must do my part… for the environment!” Then he crammed five of them into his mouth.

“The planet applauds you for your service and your sacrifice, sir,” I snorted as he ambled off once more.

It was only then that I looked down and realized Rayne’s phone still rested atop the counter before me. Taunting me. Maybe she’d simply forgot it, but honestly? Pretty sure that girl knew exactly what she was doing. With a sigh, I picked it up, my reflection staring back at me in the blackened screen.

...okay, maybe I had been putting it off long enough, to the point of ridiculousness even. Delaying the inevitable was probably only making it worse at this point. I should give them something at least. Some sort of proof of life so that they didn’t think, I don’t know… like I’d run off to join the circus only to get murdered by Bozo the Clown or something. 

Still I hesitated, my fingers frozen around the phone.

“Ma’am, is this man bothering you?”

Welcoming the distraction (perhaps a bit too eagerly), I looked up to spot two familiar figures in matching uniforms. The security guards from last night were standing out in the food court, addressing Rayne now as she used a chair as makeshift cover to hide from Riku.

“Every second I’ve been married to his ass,” she replied dryly.

“Gotcha!” Riku pounced, eliciting a squeal of delight from her as he scooped her up. I snerked as the mall cops just shook their heads and meandered off.

And these two dorks were going to be parents.

My eyes drifted past them to the Lucky Cat Café and I blinked. The stocky brunet was back and manning the register this time, but more importantly, so was that blonde guy. The one I’d seen working at the Pizza Planet just yesterday. How odd. So then, I guess he was currently working both jobs? Barista by day, pizza boy by night? Did he need the munny that bad? Yeesh, how expensive must his rent be?

Having just handed a customer their drink order with a smile and a wave, he then said something to his coworker before I watched him disappear into the back door. Just as it had clicked shut behind him-

“Ta da!” he sprung up on the other side of the counter directly in front of me, arms raised high over his head, startling a yelp from me and nearly making me drop the phone.

Heart hammering in my chest, my wide eyes darted from where he stood now not three feet away from me, to the door I’d just seen him walk through all the way on the other side of the food court.  Then to him. Then to that door. Then back and forth a few more times.

He’d somehow traversed that large gap in the space of mere nano-seconds.

And had managed to swap his coffee shop uniform for Pizza Planet duds no less!

How did he do that?!

“Now I know what you’re thinking,” he beamed at me, striking up a finger. “How did he do that?”

...woah, he was a mind reader too?

“And there’s only one plausible explanation!” he continued with a cocky wink. “Teleportation!”

“Or maybe you just have a twin, you knucklehead,” another voice said as a hand cuffed the blonde on the back of his head.

… oh. A twin. Right.

That made way more sense than the next stage of human evolution being upon us and super powered mutants now walking amongst the rest of us mere muggles.

What a silly notion. Who would have thought that? Certainly not me.

Nope.

“Man, why you gotta always ruin my fun?” the blonde grumbled as he rubbed the fresh sore spot and scowled at the owner of the palm that had just delivered swift justice to his noggin.

“What can I say, Rox? Your suffering gives me life,” Lea shrugged before turning his gaze on me with a grin and waggling his fingers. “Hi again.”

This was the first appearance he’d made all day. It was a bit of a comfort to see him in his work clothes - a likely sign that he hadn’t gotten fired. I would have felt horrible if last night’s antics had cost him his job. In any case, he’d probably arrived just a few minutes ago and would be starting his shift shortly.

Becoming aware of the fact that my fingers were still absently fiddling with the phone, I quickly pocketed it and cleared my throat. “H-hello… wha-”

“Hiya!” a black haired girl shoved Lea out of the way to lean over the counter and get in my face, blasting me with a huge smile and causing me to stagger back a step. She too was decked out in the Pizza Planet attire. I recognized her from my first day of work. “So happy we finally got to come over here! I’ve been dying to meet you!”

My eyebrows rose. “You have…?”

“You kidding? It’s not just any chick that can make Lea here drop pizza dough on his head! Besides, it’s truly an honor to be in the presence of the record holder. I’m in awe.” 

Further up and up those brows went. “The record?”

“Yeah! I mean, that has to be the fastest anyone’s ever planted one on Lea’s li-”

“Xion!” he hissed, clamping a hand over her mouth. “Zip it!”

The blonde - Rox, was it? - smirked evilly beside them, “Lea’s just glad that Ice Palace finally hired a cute girl and- ow!”

I couldn’t see it, but was pretty sure Lea had just kicked him.

“That’s enough out of you two twerps,” Lea grumbled, stabbing a finger out in the direction of the food court. “Table. Now.”

“Fiiiiiine,” Rox huffed out while Xion just shot me another grin and a wave before the pair of them wandered off to find seats.

“Oi, those two, I swear,” he groaned, rubbing the nape of his neck as he turned back towards me, chuckling softly. “Don’t mind the kiddos. Their teasing’s all aimed at me, not you. They mean well, they can just be a lot sometimes.”

I cocked my head. “The… kiddos?”

“Heh, yup!” Then his spine snapped straight and he winced, rapidly shaking his head and waving his hands back and forth in front of him. “Not that they’re my- No, I’m not a- I’m nowhere near old enough to be their- That is to say, uh… they’re my friends. That’s it, no… familial connection whatsoever.”

“Ah… I see,” I said, feeling a tiny tug at one corner of my lips.

It was nice for once that I wasn’t the one that was spazzing out.

Also nice that the two of us could finally manage to hold a conversation.

Sorta.

...it was still a work in progress.

I looked down, gathering my thoughts to find something to say. I immediately regretted it as my eyes inadvertently landed on his chest, prompting my mind to gleefully run a slideshow of his topless exploits from the night before. Face heating, I snapped my gaze back up to meet his, blurting out, “So they didn’t manage to ab y-” I paled. “Nab, I meant nab! They didn’t manage to nab you last night?”

Scratch that. I’d really love to go back to the whole not talking thing.

“Those couple o’ brick-for-brains? Please,” he brushed off, “they couldn’t catch a sedated sloth dragging a one ton slab of concrete behind it. I coulda outrun them blindfolded and with one leg tied behind my back.” Now there was an image. “Gave them the slip no problem, then had my boss sort it all out with them this morning. We’re in the clear!”

“That’s good to hear,” I gave a small sigh of relief.

Then I just stared at him. 

He stared back.

Yup.

Whoooooole lotta staring.

All of it awkward.

I glanced sideways. “So…”

“Oh! Right. Three bars of the Sea Salt Ice Cream please,” he held up a matching number of fingers while his other hand scratched a spot behind his ear.

“A-absolutely! Coming right up!” Yes! Ice cream! Ice cream I could do! I darted over to the bottom freezers, opening them up and crouching down to look for the stack of light turquoise frozen bars. The cold air felt good on my face and I took this chance to recuperate and collect myself. 

Steady, keep it together, girl. You got this. Just another minute more and you’ll be through this social interaction and on the other side. And it should only get easier from here on out, right? ...right? And hey, look on the bright side. This wasn’t going all that bad. So far you’ve gotten through this with little to no mishaps. Sure, there was that one teeny “ab” slip up, but he didn’t even notice… I think. You can do this. You’re doing fine. You haven’t even thought of the Kissident once the entire time he’s been here!

...aaaaaaaaand now you’re thinking about it.

Great. Thanks a lot, brain.

Grabbing the three plastic-wrapped Sea Salts, I slammed the door shut and made my way back towards the register with determination and resolve.

Don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t think about it.

No more slip ups. Don’t you do it. Don’t you say it. Don’t you dare.

I rang him up before looking back up at Lea as I offered him the bars. “Will that be all? Could I interest you in anything else-” 

Don’t say “kiss,” don’t say “kiss,” don’t say “kiss.” 

“-like a cone of the Milky Way? Rockin’ Crunch? Vanilla Lips- Glitz!” My eyes screwed shut. “Vanilla… Vanilla Glitz? Or any of our other fine flavors?”

Well… at least I hadn’t said “kiss” anyway.

He smiled. Oh gosh, he had dimples. “Nope! Just those, thanks.” He paid for his purchase and took the ice cream. With a nod, he turned to go but then hesitated, glancing back down at me. “Listen, that pair of clowns I call friends just went on lunch and I’m not on the clock for another thirty minutes. We’ll be at that table over there,” he crooked his head towards where Xion and Rox now sat chatting over their trays of food. “If you can take a break, you should come hang out with us.” 

I blinked once. Then twice. Then pointed a finger at myself. “...me?”

He was asking me? To join them?

Lea snorted. “Yeah, you. And if you’re worried, don’t be. The kiddos have had all their rabies shots. Just think about it, kay?” He lightly rapped a knuckle against the countertop before walking off with a wave. “Hope to be seeing ya!” 

I watched him approach the other two, giving the back of Rox’s seat a swift kick before easily dodging the swipe Rox threw back at him. Then he mussed up Xion’s hair as he tossed the ice cream bars into the center of the table and spun an empty chair around so he could sit in it backwards. I watched his mouth move as he told them something before they all burst into laughter.

They seemed nice. And they’d invited me to sit with them.

...wow, that’d sounded so high school.

Which, by the way, was something I’d never been good at, surprise surprise. And I wasn’t talking about the academic part of it, no, that’d been fine. But when it came to all those cliques and that whole popularity contest and just in general trying to fit it? Yeah, no. That hadn’t been for me. At lunch times, I’d only ever sat with my ex and his friends, and even then only because it was what was expected of me. His buddies had only ever ignored me anyway. If it’d been up to me, I never would have sat with anyone at all. Risk someone actually trying to start a conversation with me? Nu uh. Too scary. Left to my own devices, I probably would have just secured a table all to myself and built a fort out of trays to hide in and shut out the rest of the world.

Needless to say, the thought of joining Lea and his friends? Frigging terrified me.

Which is why it wasn’t going to happen.

Thanks, but no thanks!

I’ll just keep chilling over here inside Ice Palace, aka my beloved Fortress of Solitude. Or rather… Fortress of Almost Solitude, since Kristoff was still around. But you’d hardly even know he was there. He was just off in a corner, still contentedly making his way through those taste spoons.

But as I looked back to that happy trio out there, I frowned. Something was nagging me. Needling at the back of my mind.

Took me a second to realize that it was Rayne’s words from earlier.

That I needed to get out of my comfort zone. That I had to put myself out there and try new things. That I should put effort into making some friends. 

The effort in this case being something so simple as sitting at a table.

One tiny act that seemed so insignificant and yet so intimidating at the same time.

I watched them for a few minutes more. Then I looked to the clock hanging on the wall. I was due for my own lunch break.

...oh god, was I really going to do this?

Another heartbeat of indecision. Then I lifted my chin, squared my shoulders, marched into the back room to grab my paper bag lunch before exiting into the food court, heading straight for their table.

Apparently yes. I was really doing this.

Operation Make Friends was a go.

Courage don’t fail me now.

...pretty please? 

Author's note: Will Elsa ever call this mysterious "them"? How will Elsa's next thrilling adventure in human interaction go? Will Operation Make Friends be an amazing, glorious success or end in epic, tragic failure? Will Kristoff get a terrible tummy ache from eating all those lil ice cream samples? Stay tuned for the answers to all those questions and more! (Except for that last question... some things were just meant to always remain a mystery...)

Thanks for reading, I super duper appreciate it! And an extra BIG thank you to my new followers, as well as to those of you who hit that like button on the last chapter, seeing that always brings the biggest, goofiest smile to my face!

FIRST CHAPTER || PREVIOUS CHAPTER || NEXT CHAPTER

[dxmedstudent]

All Grown Up...

"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

- 1 Corinthians 13

I think about this quote sometimes, and I have mixed feelings about it. Because, inherently, I don’t think we need to put away childish things, at least, not in the sense of hobbies or interests. I get it, and I’m not about to argue with every Bible scholar about it, except to say the meaning is probably personal for everyone. But that said, life has a way of evolving. It’s funny, I was talking to an old uni friend about things like credit scores and whether we’ll ever get a mortgage the other day. The kinds of thing I’m pretty sre I never once discussed with her in like 8 years of being at university together (yup, some folks were stuck with me for two degrees! can you imagine?)  You spend years talking about all the silliest stuff, homework, uni friends and all sorts of hijinks, then one day you realise you both like to swot up on money savings expert.com for fun. Well, not fun, but because you don’t want to live in a shed forever. Like, don’t get me wrong, talking to uni friends is still silly and fun, but now there’s a lot more talk of houses and who’s getting married and work. It reminds me of when my school friends started getting married and talking about wine tasting classes. I mean. Wine tasting? It’s not that it’s surprising that grown ass women drink wine, it’s just that we’ve been friends since like 13 years old! We used to be the silliest, funniest smart girls that existed. Don’t get me wrong, we’re still hilarious, it’s just interesting how things have evolved. We aren’t quite the same as we used to be. And yet, as my 70 year old cancer patient was telling me, you always feel about 16 inside. I’m sure the fact that most of my medic friends are child-free is due to us being in medicine, if we’re honest. And even then, by my age even medics have started to settle down.  I still feel like the same silly teenager I was before, I just get paid and have a desire to live somewhere more sensible. It’s weird, because I don’t really remember growing up, yet here I am doing a responsible job, handling my own finances, thinking about buying a place and dating seriously like a grown-up. 15 year old me would recognise much of my life - the art and games and anime haven’t changed, natch. The DnD is a good addition. There are many great things I’ve picked up that I love, regardless of whether they are seen as ‘mature’ hobbies or not. But it’s weird to realise that you’ve also grown in many ways. I guess this is what my Guy was talking about when he talks about his friends, sometimes. They are great people - a wonderful, welcoming bunch of men and women with some of the most adorable kids. But he’‘s mentioned that sometimes hanging out with them just isn’t the same now that they’ve all got partners and their kids to look after. They hang out a lot, and it’s still awesome, but it’s different. And they (and my friends) aren’t the kind of couples to leave you out if you’re single, like I hear happens to some people. I genuinely don’t know why people do that. I don’t think my partnered friends ever made me feel less welcome when I was single - if anything they were more attentive to make sure I didn’t feel left out. But even so, I know that bittersweet feeling he was describing, because there are times when I too have felt that life has moved on, and I need to adapt to it. I’ve faced it at turning points in our lives - when everyone goes off to uni, when everyone starts working, when everyone settles down - points at which your lives all change in many ways. I’m still sad sometimes that I’ll never just be able to hang out and play games with some of my friends (because they’ve grown up and moved abroad) or just chill with other friends as easily as I once did. And I feel sad about the people who drifted, or the ones it didn’t work out with. And it’s OK to feel like things are changing a lot, or life looks pretty different to what it used to be. You can’t change how life has evolved, but it’s OK to acknowledge it.

I went out with a schoolfriend for dinner this evening. A bestie of my sister’s from primary school. I’ve known this tall, strapping dude since he was 5, and he’s effectively a little brother to me. We’ve spent countless hours playing games and talking about anime or pokemon or whatever. And he’s just gotten engaged, it’s so awesome because I got to hear all about his love, and their plans together, and the proposal and I’m so excited for them; he’s a wonderful kid and I hope they are so happy together.  But also, he’s like my little brother. Getting married.  Like, I had just never imagined we’d be sitting there talking about work and gushing about SOs like grownups. I mean yeah, we still talk about anime, I gave him some nice recs to watch with his fiancee.  And it’s nice - to share our hopes for the future, and catch up over the past, and be silly whilst occasionally navigating some grown up problems. After our catch up, it felt so fun being grown up. People have so many fears and expectations anout growing up or reaching 30. But if anything, there’s no sudden switch. You don’t magically become old and serious and lose all sense of fun. You’re still silly. It’s just you start to plan a bit further or make plans that are a bit more serious. But you don’t have to give up your past in order to have a future.

[80s-roger]

EX - Roger Taylor {pt 6}

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studio 6:34 pm

"So she agreed?" Brian asked.

"Yeah, she had no other choice." Roger nodded while setting the drums up.

"Well, fingers crossed he won't do anything until the conference. It's the day after tomorrow." Brian said while taking a sip of his tea.

"I know right Brian. If he does though? He will definitely say that Y/N cheated on me. This is how it will be presented at the press. He will definitely hide himself, won't he? All he wants to do, is embarrass her." Roger said in despair.

"He will hide himself. He's not that stupid to expose himself. But he's the one who will sell the tape. Suspicions will go to him anyways..." Brian thought.

"I bet he knows some guys there. Or else he'd be already exposed." Roger grabbed the drums sticks, playing with them nervously.

Suddenly, Deaky came inside the lounge. He was carrying some papers. New song.

"Are you talking about y/n or the new single?"  He asked.

"Y/N's issue is more interesting than the upcoming album. You know we hate disco." Brian explained.

"I understand that y/n's and Roger's life will be at risk for sometime but it will be forgotten. However, according to the new album, it's a new vibe Freddie and I wanted to invest in. It's fifty fifty so disco gets in and you have no other choice but play." Deaky smiled and gave them the score and the lyrics of Backchat.

"What the hell is this, are you dissing me?" Brian asked after reading the lyrics.

"That's your idea." Roger mocked him while smoking and Brian looked at both of them annoyed.

"John come on, you don't really mean all this, do you?" Brian asked confused. Deaky raised his eyebrow. "Damn you John. I'm forced to play your diss track about me? And I have a guitar solo?" He acted insanely.

"I'm sorry Brian, we are a band. We should start playing it." Deaky smiled.

"Fine, I won't use my red special. Neither at the future music video." The three of them stood up. "But where's Freddie?" He asked.

"He is outside, talking on the phone." Deaky said pointing at the exit.

"I'll go tell him we're starting." Roger said and exited the lounge room.

Accidentally Roger, misheard Freddie's conversation with a press guy. Possibly, a photographer. Roger had to eavesdrop. The issue seemed familiar with his personal life.

"He sold an uncensored video? To whom?" He asked shocked. Roger knew it was over. "At your company? Today?" Freddie sounded upset. "Fuck..." He groaned. "How am I supposed to tell him? Did he give any personal details of him?" Roger had to step in. He wanted to know.

"Freddie who are you talking to?" He asked furious. Freddie made him the hang on a minute gesture.

"Do we have much time left? Until the day after tomorrow?" He asked. "Hmm... I see. I have a recording now. We'll talk again, darling. Thanks for letting me know." Freddie hang up the phone, facing Roger.

"Who was it?" Roger asked. "I'm not playing games Freddie." He turned red.

"Wow darling, relax. It was a friend of mine, who works at the press magazines. There was Derek at his office a quarter ago, giving a tape and saying that there's Roger Taylor's girlfriend in there." Freddie had to say the truth, what he was exactly been told.

"Fucking fuck..." Roger moaned, pulling his hair.

"My friend unfortunately wasn't alone at the time he received it, but with a paparazzi, editing the photos for tomorrow's issue. Which means..." He moved his head disappointed.

"They saw the video oh my god. My baby's out there getting watched. I can't stand the idea of her-" Roger covered his head and Freddie pulled him closer.

"Hey darling it's okay, it's okay... He'll try to delay it. The good thing is, he didn't give personal informations. Which means you can invade, saying it was you." He tried to calmed him down but it wouldn't help.

"How much?" Roger asked furious. "How much did he sell it?" He was afraid.

"He sold the tape a hundred thousand, saying it will be the scandal of the year. The drummer's girlfriend with a guy." Freddie said.

"My future fiance doesn't deserve to be sold like a whore around the world." Roger tightened his fists.

"Fiance?" Fred asked eager.

"I want to marry her in the near future. But I want to be engaged at first. I kind of mentioned it during our morning fight but the words flew like the wind. She probably doesn't want to get married." Roger stared at the ground.

"Rog, are you serious? She is dying for it. You have no idea how many times she's told me that." Freddie eagerly said, waiting to walk the church's stairs soon.

"Fine. I'll find a way to propose to her. I hope we won't fight again. We literally didn't see each other yesterday for an entire day. She was mad at me, nonetheless, you know.. I was at her place by midnight and she wasn't mad at me anymore. You get it?" Roger giggled.

"That girl has such a fierce temperament. Tell me it happened the way she likes it at least. Make my pal satisfied." Freddie jokes and Roger wanted to be honest with him.

"What has she told you? She never really told me how she likes it." Roger tried to recall if you ever told him about it.

"Oh darling she looks so innocent at the outside but she's so wild at the bedroom. Hasn't she told you she likes it rough?" Freddie whispered.

"Jesus Fred, we're talking about my girl."Roger's eyes got wide. "Yeah it was rough." He coughed, trying to hide the clear sentence.

"Guys what are you doing so long? It's been ages! We have the diss track ready!" John yelled from the studio.

"On our way!" Freddie yelled back and they both walked towards the studio room. "That's my favourite couple, working hard. But I can't accept the fact you fought again this morning." He teased Roger and everyone was finally at their position.

Time passed fast until the recording was done for today and the boys were about to leave the studio.

"Wanna catch up at the pub two blocks from here?" Brian asked. "I can't believe I played for a diss track about me. I need to forget it." He added and everyone in the room laughed.

"Sure, let's do this." John agreed.

"Yes darlings, count me in." Fred said too. "Roger?" He asked. The blonde, was thinking it for a long before answering.

"Not this time... I have to go over y/n's, it's hard now. I will join you another time." He eventually refused but the boys could show compassion.

Roger drove over your apartment. He saw the lights turned off, which caused him wonder if you left. He used the elevator to reach the forth floor and finally he was standing in front of your door, knocking it patiently. You opened the door a minute later, with your eyes almost closed. However, you knew it would be Roger because that's the usual time he comes home. Home. You don't live together yet, but he's always at your place. It was 11 pm, you were so tired to stay awake and wait for him.

"Hey, come in..." You said while yawning.

"I'm sorry I had to wake you up. My keys for your home are at mine's." He apologised and closed the door for you. He didn't forget to kiss you.

He followed you to your bedroom, you instantly laid yourself back in your bed, waiting for your man to lay too. He removed his clothes, staying at his boxer.

"I missed you." He said when he made himself comfortable at your bed.

"Missed you too..." You said while trying to get your sleep back.

"What time did you fall asleep?" He asked and placed his one hand behind his head, staring at the ceiling.

"An hour ago. It was exhausting today. He got me running like a fool outside the company. I believe he did that on purpose." You were saying without being easily understood, since your mouth was placed at the pillow. However, he could clearly hear you because he was focusing on your voice.

"If he fires you, I'll take care of you. I want to get engaged with you." He suddenly said and your head popped up from the pillows like a pop corn.

"Are you serious?" You asked losing your sleep. "A- are you doing it on purpose?" You asked.

"Of course not. I just don't want to call you a girlfriend anymore. I want you to be my fiance. And later my wife." He smiled at you, you felt the butterflies in your stomach making a huge party.

"Oh my God baby, I love you so much... That's wonderful of you to say!" You teared a bit and he hugged you.

"I love you too and everything we're going through is just temporary. Focus on our future happiness love." He kissed you and both got the spoon position, as usual, you were the little spoon. "I bloody love you. I don't even know what I'd do without you." He confessed to your ear.

"Probably sleeping with chicks, like I would do too." You cynically said.

"Ay babe, you don't want to start this, do you?" He teased you.

"No I don't, because I'm sleepy..." you yawned and he kissed your neck gently.

"It's dark and I can still see some marks from last night. Better cover them for tomorrow." he said while looking at your neck.

"I've been knew Roger. They were there since last night. Goodnight..." You covered yourself with the mattress, dreaming the day he'd propose you.

the next day

You woke up by the sound of your phone ringing at the living room. It wasn't even eight yet... You were scared or tried to stay calm thinking it would be Freddie asking for Roger, who was sleeping next to you with his leg crossing yours and his hand wrapped around your chest. You had to move him without giving any shit if he'd be awaken.

"Shit Roger, I have to pick it up." You made fast moves and he woke up. You looked at him, staring at you with terror, like he knew what the phone call was about. He got out of the bed, following you outside. "Yeah, don't follow me around like I'm a poodle." You told him when he stood behind you.

"Well I need to know who's on your phone." he frantically said, totally awakened by now.

"Don't get paranoid, Rog..." you said. "It must be Fred, asking for you." you tried to joke yourself too.

"Fine, just pick it up!" He said annoyed and you finally did it.

"Hello?" You answered. "Good morning Freddie. You want Roger?" You asked Fred while looking at your boyfriend.

"Y/N the sex tape is leaked. The press knows everything but the guy. Derek couldn't say it was him or anybody else. Just... Just calm down okay?" His voice was trembling and so were your legs. You locked eyes with Roger who was staring at you with his eyes wide opened.

"Oh my fucking God..." You murmured and you covered your mouth with your hands. Roger came closer to you, knowing exactly what the phone call was for.

"Y/N it will be over, our conference is tomorrow, we'll cover it!" Freddie tried to reassured you.

"How the hell can you cover a video which is out to the public right now? My life is fucking ruined right now! I won't go at my work today! You know why? Because I'm fucking fired! They warned me, no more photos of me at the magazines or I am fired! Now not only are there pictures of me out there but a video of a drunk y/n, getting fucked!" You screamed at the mic, in which Fred could excellently hear you crying. Roger grabbed the phone from your hands.

"Fred I will be late today or not even come there. Okay? Bye." Roger hang up and held you in his arms while the tears were streaming down your face. You both sat at the floor, he was holding you so tight, trying to take away a little of your sadness. "Just let it out baby... Cry..." He caressed your cheeks and moving hair tufts behind your ears.

"This is all so fucked up Roger..." You said while crying your heart out.

"I know it is, just cry as long as you want... I understand and I won't leave you today if you want to." he said with his rhaspy and gentle voice, while holding you inside his arms, with no any gap between you. "I love you." He whispered in your ear and you shivered.

"I won't leave this house until it's over..." you looked at him and he whipped your tears.

"No, you can leave the house, paps will meet you out there and I'll be more than satisfied if you raise them a middle finger." He encouraged you, trying to make you laugh a bit.

"I already ruined your public figure, what are you talking about?" You said insecure.

"I want a cutie pie between family and friends, a savage out there and a bad girl with me." he teased you and you finally smiled. "Fucking ignore them Y/N please... I promise you it will be forgotten." he promised to you and you really wanted to believe him.

"What about tomorrow?" You asked.

"They'll prefer making questions about the tape instead of our upcoming album trust me. I'll take care of it." you both nodded your heads and just stayed there for like an hour, hugging, waiting for you to calm down.

taglist: @rogxtaylor @bohemiansweede @queendrumah

[go-diane-winchester]

New question:  Why do I dislike Misha and his fans?

@super-who-loser asked the following question:

Hey, I’m not trying to come across as rude or anything I’m just wondering why you dislike Misha so much? I know Jared and Jensen have been there since the beginning and yes, there have been times where his character has been pretty useless but I don’t hate him and you’re being really mean to some Destiel shippers and like I know that it’s obviously never going to happen and Cockles is a big no no for me but I am confused about why you really don’t like him? I’m honestly just curious

Thank you for the question.  Let me point out before hand, that my irritation towards Misha has nothing to do with a ship.  I used to read destiel slash.  I used to like Cockles AU.  I don't ship wincest.  I ship AUs.  Its my favorite slash subgenre.  So no, this is not a ship argument.  Ship whatever you want, but mind your manners.  There are many things that I don't like about Misha.  However I am choosing to answer only from a SPN perspective because that is the primary way that we know him. 

MISHA AND SLASH FICTION

You may not realize this but Supernatural has been on the air for so long that it, plus its fan base, has experienced and initiated a few changes and trends.  In the space of fourteen years, filming became digitalized.  Social media, which was a fledgling thing back then, is the norm now [I have a disdain towards social media].  To put it into perspective, the child actors that played Asher, the Antichrist kid [I forget his name] and Little Lillith from the early seasons are likely in their 20s now.  Trends in entertainment changed.  Hollywood seems poised to implode upon itself, geographically, with major entertainers moving house to outlets like Netflix.  Netflix, not bound by geography, is likely to become the next Hollywood.  Slash, too, has undergone change.  And as far as SPN is concerned, that change has not been organic.  It has been by design and at the hands on Misha Collins. 

When Castiel came on board, there were already two prevalent pairings in Supernatural:  Wincest and Bobby/John.  There were other pairings.  But these were the most prevalent.   So Supernatural had slash fans already.  These fans were already aware of what slash fiction was, and they were a self-monitoring group.  They realized that the actors were aware of slash and didn't want it to be the focal point of their con appearances, because they didn't want the fans to think they were hinting at anything.  The fans understood and ever since, they have respected the actor's wishes.  When some fans liked Dean's interaction with Cas, they started shipping destiel. 

Destiel's old fans were just like all the other shippers.  They were treating destiel the way it should be treated.  Like a fantasy.  They did artwork and literature about it and kept it to themselves, as they should.  Misha never knew what slash fiction was, until he looked on Tumblr and found Destiel.  In his words, he used destiel to ''keep this gig for longer''.  He kept talking about destiel even though he was instructed not to, and pulling the LGBT into it, to make it look like destiel was about gay rights and queer art, when it isn't.  There are various kinds of destiel written by different people, from different perspectives, for different reasons.  That is true for all pairings everywhere.  By making destiel about the LGBT and waving the ''no shipping question'' rule in convention panels, he did two things. 

He turned destiel into a vehicle for LGBT activism.  Instead of being a pastime, now destiel is used to fight for LGBT representation, even though, many of the LGBT people within my own circle despise him for it.  Most of the people fighting for LGBT representation are actually quite homophobic and insulting in their thinking and logic.  And they are not even LGBT.  They are just a bunch of straight girls for whom, their fantasy has become a drug, and they wont stop until destiel becomes canon. 

He turned Jensen into the bad guy.  Misha spoke openly about slash.  Jensen chose not to.  He didn't want any part of it, and this is true about all the pairings he is a part of, not just destiel.  Because of his choice, Misha fans make negative comparisons between him and Misha, even saying that Jensen is a homophobe/biphobe because he doesn't want to talk about destiel or make it canon.  They ranted about it on social media and mass media picked up on it.  The University Of Sydney has an academic paper, under Celebrity Studies, dedicated to Jensen's supposed homophobia.  The destiel shippers are literally Jensen's reputation. 

Misha should have left slash alone.  Any fan of his will know that he overindulges the slash fans.  And the one thing that I noticed about slash fans, is that you don't give them excessive attention, or they will go completely crazy.  It doesn't matter what they slash.

Harry Styles and Liam Tomlinson learned that the hard way, because the Larry fans destroyed their friendships when they over-emphasized the fan servicing.  They did the fan servicing because Modest Management told them to, they  ended up hating their fans for what the fans became.  They have since severed ties with Modest.  Even on a day when one of them was mourning the loss of a parent, the fans who pushing the other guy so they could have a ship moment.  These two boys were very young when they entered the band.  Harry was 15 years old.  They had youthful ignorance to blame for making the decision to blindly follow the manager's instruction.  Misha cannot make any of those excuses. 

Misha got into the show at age 35.  He was already a grown man.  He was not a pivotal part of the show and therefore the only notes he was getting, was for his acting.  He wasn't being coached by anyone as to how he should engage his fans.  He was too small a fry for that.  In fact, no one was sure how long he would last on the show.  So these notes were only acting, including one telling him not to adlib his lines.  Whatever transpired between him and the destiel fans, happened because he orchestrated it. 

MISHA AND SUPERNATURAL

When Cas came on board, he was fun new character.  By the end of season 5, he had run his course on the show.  The show didn't need his character because [and as a writer I understand this] the presence of Castiel hampered the progress of the story.  Sera Gamble dealt with that frustration during her tenure as showrunner.  Cas was an angel.  If he was an ally to the boys, the boys should have a more powerful nemesis.  After all, they have an angel buddy to help them.  Unfortunately, they couldn't keep coming up with more and more powerful bad guys and negative elements, especially on a show where the biggest bad guy, the devil itself, and the worst case scenario [the apocalypse] has already been dealt with.  

During 6 and 7, they had Soulless Sam, Sam's wall, the leviathans, Metatron, the demons, Crowley, Dick Roman and even the Alphas, if I am not mistaken.  So many bad guys and bad situations, because the good guys had a powerful angel.  They could make him lose his power, so he wont be such a powerful ally.  And they did exactly that.  But Misha has very few skills to show off.  Imagine if Osric was Cas.  Even without power, he would still be able to taekwondo the stuffing out of bad guys.  He wouldn't be useless.  Cas, without his grace, didn't help the story along.  He didn't bring something extra to the story.  He was pointless.  So they made him a bad guy and for the first time in a long time, Cas was pivotal to the story.    

Eventually, she got fed up of shoehorning him into the script and just did away with the character.  But, rumor has it that Singer brought him back.  And he was welcome by the worst Q score measurement ever.  That would tell you that he was not appreciated as an actor by everyone, just his shipping and cult fans.  Since then, Cas has done nothing important in the script until recently where he made a deal for Jack.  Other than that, he has been an add on, and that is Misha's fault.  Every time Jensen and Misha did a scene, Misha would overemphasize the destiel aspect, either via social media or during his panels.  And eventually Jensen got fed up and cut the scenes short.  Basically, Misha shot himself in the foot.  The DeanCas fan service made for annoying television for people who didn't want to deal with shippy nonsense while they were watching their favorite show. 

If they didn't add anything shipping related, the hellers screamed.  If they did, the hellers screamed canon and queer baiting.  Misha's interference did that.  All he had to do was stop talking, and he couldn't do that, because his fan base will lose interest in him.  In order to keep that one group of militants, Misha isolated all other fans and potential fans. 

MISHA AND THE DESTIEL FANS

Misha's fan have sent Jensen various death threats, the receipts of which are on my blog.  A few days back, a heller was setting Jensen's picture on fire because Misha tweeted a lie that there will be a turning point for Dean and Cas in the upcoming episode.  So even though Misha was the guilty party, this psycho is punishing Jensen.  These fans have also discussed kidnapping Jared's children.  When they bully Jensen and Jared, they tag Misha in many of the tweets.  Misha randomly does Q and A sessions based on his tweets, but he has never seen a single threat and bullying remark??.....in ten years??.....really??  Nah, I am not buying that.  Frankly, I think the man just doesn't care.  Acknowledging them will mean he will have to stop them which means he will eventually have to stop peddling destiel which means he will not have an audience which means SPN will kick him right out.  The funny thing is, I think he is wrong.  He might actually have more fans if he didn't alienate them with his special brand of shippy vulgarity.  I could fill a page with all the receipts of the death threats.  And Jensen doesn't deserve that. 

I also call out destiel shippers on Tumblr so that everyone else can block the problematic ones.  Have you noticed how many names there are for the destiel pairing?  DeanCas, CasDean, DeanxCastiel and recently I discovered Dastiel.  Have you ever wondered why?  It is because they don't want you to block them.  If you filter destiel, they will use another name.  Why is that?  That is not a ship.  That's a cult.  They want to indoctrinate.  They tag destiel in other fandom names.  They are trying to create more fans for a ship.  That is why I call out specific people.  Especially the ones that tag AKF in their destiel garbage.  I have no issues with the good shippers.  I have done posts about them.  The bad ones might do something criminal one day, which is why they bother me. 

This answer, only just scratches the surface.  I am not telling you everything.  I am not telling you about Jared, Robert Berens, Kim, Briana, Travis, Sera Gamble, Ben Edlund, Ty Olsson etc.  I am just telling you the brief basics.  I hope this answers your question.  Have a nice day.  Apologies for the inevitable typos.

[thenorthreport]

Have the Los Angles Lakers uncovered “The Secret”?

The date was November 5th, 2019, The Lakers were visiting Chicago Bulls in the United Center at the tail end of a three-game road trip. The Lakers were the hottest team in the league  coming off 5 straight wins since losing Los Angeles Clipper's opening night of the and are now sitting on top of the NBA rankings. Coming into this game I thought it was a no-brainer to who was going to win. So confident in the fact that I put a bet on them to come out with the “W”.

 All thought the first 75% of the game all I was able to think about was how much money I was going to lose. In the first three-quarters of this game, this Lakers team looked like they smoked one too many bowls. The turnovers kept raking up, the team looked lost offensively with Anthony Davis only being able to score four points in the first half and eight by the end of the third quarter (which he left early in because he got into foul trouble), and Kyle Kuzma looking like a deer in the headlights ever since coming back from an ankle injury. Also had to give a shout out to JaVale McGee for the pass in the third quarter to Otto Porter Jr. for this open three (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPjTfIdF7eU from 6:00-6:08). It looked like one of those games where the team trailing behind could not for the life of them make a push back into the game and all looked lost when the team failed to bring it back into single digits at the end of the third quarter.

 But then it happened,

 In a situation like this one, there are two types of teams: the ones that will pull their pants down and take what they deserve and the ones who will fight back with BDE. This Lakers team was the latter. Surprisingly a 5-man unit of Alex Caruso, Quinn Cook, Troy Daniels, Kyle Kuzma and Dwight Howard were the ones to score 24 consecutive points for this team starting from the end of the third quarter into the mid-way point of the fourth quarter and it was unbelievable. For starters, Kuzma played aggressively for the limited amount of time he was given to l play in that fourth quarter and was able to put up 11 points on 5/7 shooting in the fourth alone including this sweet off the dribble pull up jumper from the top of the key (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO798fl-uLo 10:04-10:12). Dwight "The Purpose" Howard was at the right place at the right time on the court coming up with big blocks and bigger rebounds throughout their fourth-quarter run. Caruso played solid on both sides on the ball including a huge steal which led to an and-one. Cook was doing his best Curry impression out there with all the backdoor cuts and off-ball screen including a potential four-point play. Finally, Troy Daniels, the fifth guy on the court who had the opportunity to watch this 14-0 run happen before being taken off for LeBron James. In the end, the Lakers took a cushioning 10-point lead in the last five minutes and didn’t look back and in the end, I won some money.

 After this game two thoughts occurred to me: 1. The bench actually resembled some NBA talent and 2. This Lakers team looked professional for the first time in almost 10 years. Now I know what some people might be saying: "This was a win against one of the worst teams in the league considering they are producing bottom 10 in the league in both offensive and defensive efficiency" and "It's too early to be saying nonsense like that" or even "Wait till January or February when Lebron is worn out, Anthony Davis is packing his bags for Chicago and Dwight is already two months released posting workouts videos on Instagram". I'm not saying this team is a favorite for the 2020 NBA finals just yet. The sports season is a long and treacherous journey with many bumps and obstacles on the way. This team will for sure be tested and will have nights where they will feel unstoppable and times where they will feel as if they hit rock bottom. I am not writing this article to jump to conclusions but to simply state facts and the fact here is the Lakers seem to have stumbled upon "The Secret".

 Know you may be asking yourselves: "What the hell is this hot shot up-and-coming sportswriter talking about and what secret is he is alluding to?" well person reading this article “The Secret” is something that has been around this league ever since it started and has been the driving force for every single NBA championship team. “The Secret” was first introduced to the general public by Isiah Thomas of the Detroit Pistons in the finals of 1989 where he offers to multiple reporters that he was going to offer the "secret to basketball". In short, he never really gave the answer to the question rather dodges it by telling stories and talking about team basketball. No one seems to mind this and for years “The Secret” isn't brought up again until the summer of 2007 by a writer by the name of Bill Simmons. There is a whole story about him meeting Isiah Thomas in his book "The Book of Basketball" which I highly recommend everyone read at some point in their lives. Back to "The Secret", this idea was eating up Bill Simmons on the inside ever since he was told the concept so when he finally got to meet him, he asked Isiah this question. Isiah impressed with Bill answered as follows: "The secret of basketball is that it's not about basketball".

  What the hell does that mean?  Well, the short answer to this is that teams were successful because teammates liked each other, knew their roles, ignored statistics and finally, put winning over everything else.

 This Lakers team is on a mission whether its LeBron writing off the haters in his 17th season in the NBA, Anthony Davis proving he can make a deep playoff run without any major injury or Howard trying to stay afloat in an NBA Which had turned their back on him. This squad is filled with veteran players who are at a point in their career where all they care about is winning a championship and/or are trying to prove they still belong in this league. This Lakers team seems to have boughten into a culture and the stats back it up.

 Something that LeBron James has been known for this past couple of years other than his bigger than basketball mentality is the lack of attention defensive end no joke the guy looks like he’s in dire need of some Adderall. Ever since his last season in Miami, LeBron’s defensive intensity and engagement dropped off a cliff which is understandable considering the offensive load this mans must carry not only day in, day out but by the season. Defense is his cruise control or self-drive (for all the tesla owners out there).

 But something changed,

 During an interview in training camp, Anthony Davis came out and told reporters he expected himself and (called out) LeBron to make All-Defensive team which at first seemed like a joke considering LeBron hasn’t been seen on the defensive end since Barak Obama was starting his second term as president. But now seven games into this season LeBron has been refreshing on that the end of the floor. LeBron’s defensive starts thus far are his best in years with his defensive win shares already almost one third he contributed in his last season in Cleveland according to Basketball Reference­—and we are only seven games into the season(note: I did not want to use his first season in LA as an example because he sat out for around a quarter of the season last year). As well he just looks like he gives more of a s--t on that side of the ball which is encouraging.  

 On a greater scale like Kanye West, this Lakers defense is going through a rebirth thanks to the coaching of 1A (Frank Vogel, 1B is Jason Kidd) and his defensive-minded attitude towards the game. This Lakers team looks poised on the side of the court everyone seems to have forgotten how to play in 2019. honors. Vogel’s defense is designed for a team like this, a squad of veteran players who know their role on the defensive end with one player who is a gifted player running or anchoring the whole thing which is Anthony Davis, and it is built beautifully for him. In the rotations alone there are six different players who at some point in their careers got All-Defensive team honors. The best example of their new defensive style can be seen when the Lakers were playing the Jazz in their second game in the season. During this game the Lakers game plan for Mike Conley was to weak high ball screen which is when you force the player the same direction every time, he is given a screen it contained him for being 3-11 from the field and 1-5 from three.

Some of the reason for this improvement from 13th in defensive efficiency rating (and before you say that isn’t so bad this teamed ranked bottom three in points allowed off turnovers and bottom ten in second point opportunity identifying these teams hustle was … sorry that was needed to be said) to 2nd is thanks to the likes of Danny Green’s “doing the little things” mentality whether that be closing out shooters, constantly being in help, or boxing out opposing big (yes this is done more than you think) and Dwight’s new “the purpose” role (I must say this is the second time I have made this joke now but can we please start calling Dwight Howard “The Purpose”?). Shout out to coach 1A for using the “no roll man left behind” scheme for Dwight Howard when he is on the floor. For those who don’t know the “no roll man left behind” is a scheme they have been using for Dwight Howard on defense where his job on a screen and roll is to make sure he stays under on screens and not to let the roller get past him to the basket as well not giving the ball handler a clear way to the basket. Other than that Dwight seems to be lighter and more active this year than in the past three seasons and is ranked second in blocks per game on the team at 2.1 behind Anthony Davis’s league-leading 3.0. Finally, the key reason behind this defensive rejuvenation is because of AD. The best way to describe Anthony Davis is a bigger, longer more athletic Draymond Green. The thing about AD on the defensive end is that he’s so gifted at reading the offense and being able to see things before they happen which is crazy to think and with his athleticism and length, he can easily tip passes, block shots and keep up with players on the perimeter. His help defense whether that is in the pick-and-roll or under the basket are elite.

As good as this defense has been there are still a couple of problems that need to be resolved if this team wants to take a deep playoff run. I still believe this team is missing a good on-ball defender to match up with bigger, more athletic wings and the Clippers have two of those. The only player matching up well with players like these is LeBron James and considering his offensive contribution and his mileage I doubt he has the energy to be able to guard a player like that and do what he does on offense. The solution to this would be to sign or trade for a defensive-minded wing-like Iggy (duh) or low-key Andre Robertson or Trevor Ariza (even though he looks like horse s—t thus far). Second, even though their defensive RTG has risen they still rank second-worst in the NBA in points off fast breaks which means they still need to improve on their hustle back to the other end of the floor. For more on this Laker's defense and to see how well they are performing, I suggest watching Laker Film Room on YouTube who do an excellent job breaking this stuff down.

 The bench productivity so far surprisingly been key to this Lakers team's success. A couple things that are needed to be improved on is their offensive efficiency off the bench which ranks in the bottom ten in the league but I also believe with Kyle Kuzma back in the rotation and staying on the bench this should improve their rating significantly. This benches defense has been their recipe to success so far so much so that their bench plus/minus is ranked second in the league only behind Dallas according to NBA.com. You can say this bench mob has put MUD to shame (only real Laker/NBA fans should get this). As long as this bench finds their groove on the offensive end and get to the middle of the pack efficiency-wise this bench has the potential to be one of the leagues best and be the key to keeping an aging LeBron and a injury-riddled Davis off the court and not needing them to play high 30’s, low 40’s minutes a night.

 After this win against this Bulls team the Lakers have shown their identity and their potential of what they are and maybe— what they can be.

[headlesssamurai]

Has everyone asked you about Jupiter Ascending?

@godzillaapproved

Yo, I ought to apologize to you for taking hella long to properly respond to this. It’s holiday season over thisaway, sure, but I ain’t nearly vain enough to assume just anybody gets why that can suck up a dude’s time. Reckon I’m sure there’s tons of national celebrations all over the world I’d never know about otherwise. Bah, I say! Going out and socializing is one of the few things more overrated than all those shitty Apple products. But yeh, in my case it was less the celebratory spirit of holiday festivities and more a sudden spike in workload, so my mental energy was roughed up by that, plus I was doing a new workout at the same time. Thus, whatever free time I had left was spent obsessively hammering away at the Steam sale items I’d recently bought. It’s like a coping mechanism. Well, that and cheap wine anyhow.

Regardless, regardless—holy shit what an obnoxious fucking way for me to open this up—this Ask of yours came at an unusually coincidental time. A friend and I have been meeting up every weekend to watch like semi-recent crappy movies just as a way to enjoy a bad drink and a good laugh. She likes to laugh, and I like to drink, so it works out. After working our way through every Transformers film by Michael Bay, then Cameron’s Avatar, Terminator: Genisys, The Amazing Spider-mans, Spielberg’s Crystal Skull, Ready Player One, and some of the more abysmal DC films, our last escapade into nonsense was the estimably hilarious Gods of Egypt, which reminded me of one of those excremental quicktime-event video games. You know, like Detroit Becomes Human or some shit like that (Oh wait, is it Detroit Coming of the Humans? Meh).

As luck would have it, like, the day before you asked me about it, the next film at which I suggested we take a crack was the Wachowskis’ own Jupiter Ascending, which my friend had not seen at that time. Nor had I, since first viewing it in theaters.

>>SPOILER WARNING: IF YOU CARE ENOUGH TO, UH… YOU KNOW, CARE

I was intrigued to give this movie another go. It’s struck me that I’ve got an odd streak of pleasantly enjoying movies a lot of people can’t seem to stand, or which some people even hate with utter vileness on the verge of hunting down the producers with a roll of duct tape, power tools, jugs of petrol, and a matchbook. I’ve enjoyed, for instance, Hardcore Henry, Elysium, and Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion, all of which not one person I know in real life could offer a single word of kindness. After my first viewing of Jupiter Ascending, I was left to consider whether or not it was the sort of movie I should enjoy and allow others to hate and disparage, or if it just wasn’t that good. I recalled leaving the theater with a sort of “Hm” sound, and not much else. But given my history with rooting for an underdog, was I wrong? Is this movie actually good, or cool in some way? I couldn’t defy the sensation that I’d missed something.

The answer, it seems, is more complex than a simple yes or no. Then again, as Mason and Goat Han Solo often remind us, “there’s no nuance on the internet”, so even my assertion there about complexity may be in gross error.

For the unfamiliar, Jupiter Ascending is a science fiction tale with vibes of less-cliché aesthetic choices for its visuals, some cool references to UFO conspiracy theories, and aims at a more expansive universe that would no doubt have been further explored in sequels had this film been better received by audiences and critics. I’ll say outright, it’s a disappointment to me that we weren’t given the chance to see more films in this mythology, because there’s some really cool stuff going on in this weird, imaginative universe. The story centers upon the character of Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis), an average working-class young woman in Chicago who is shocked to discover not only that aliens exist but that she happens to be the reincarnation of a galaxy owning empress, which entitles Jupiter to ownership of a large portion of the cosmos, the least part of which is Earth itself. But as the Aussies say, something’s a bit suss about the whole affair, and the wondrous glamour of this technologically advanced universe is concurrently party to a dark truth.

An immediately intriguing element of Jupiter Ascending is its attempt to set-up something which, while perhaps greatly inspired by a few other fictional works, is an original property, not a sequel, reboot, adaptation of an existing work, nor a spiritual successor to something else. Rather than merely being intrigued by this fact, I also respect it, because high-concept science fiction films aren’t something a studio likes to go for unless they have a preexisting audience, like adaptations of a book series or something. So it’s always bold when someone can cobble together the resources to really take a chance on something like this, even if it isn’t well received. After all that’s how films like The Matrix, The Terminator, Ridley Scott’s Alien, George Lucas’ Star Wars, and John McTiernan’s Predator come to be in the first place. Another example, I didn’t quite enjoy The Last Witch Hunter, but I recall respecting that film’s risk in its attempt at a new property for similar reasons.

Irrespective of your own personal tastes as a moviegoer and consumer of science fiction, it can’t be denied that the Wachowski’s are measurably talented filmmakers. Their doubtless skill at framing shots, blending effects with reality to present an integrated experience, and choreographing action sequences with such lethal precision it’s always incredible to watch; all of these things can’t be argued, and this attentiveness for the craft is all very present in Jupiter Ascending. Toward the beginning of the movie, there’s an aerial chase sequence that promptly accelerates into one of the most engaging, gripping action sequences in memory, heavily fantastical sci-fi elements intermixed with almost Fast and the Furious levels of insanity. The sense of gripping speed alone as two characters cling to the outer hull of a spacecraft was helplessly intense and left me quite keen to see what else the movie had to offer further down the line.

Additionally we have some awesome art design and stylistic choices regarding the look of this sci-fi universe, both the appearance of aliens and the design of their technology was familiar and unique at the same time. There are beings referred to as “Splices” which are intermixes of humans and various animals, giving some people bestial characteristics which are just weird enough to be cool to me without verging over the edge into absurd territory. There are cybernetic enhancements, gravity boots, phalanx style energy shields, neural synthetic wings, motherfucking jet-bikes of course and, though I never would have dreamed, motherfucking lizardmen! That blew me away, dude. Others may think it’s stupid, but lizardmen are one of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy creatures of all time, and they look so badass in this movie it was unbelievably awesome to realize I was actually seeing a proper lizardfolk on screen. With lizardmen and jet-bikes, Jupiter Ascending quickly marks two-out-of-five on my Generally Awesome Things I Like To See In Science Fiction list. It’s a real list, in my head, I swear.

The starship designs were inspired by art deco architecture in cities like Chicago, lending Jupiter’s cosmos a feeling more of Herbert’s Dune-iverse than something like Star Trek, which I appreciated since we don’t see that type of style quite as much. Top all that off with a fantastic score from Michael Giacchino and you’ve got some great tools to tell an awesome story.

So the thing is, it’s not just skin deep either, while the film does lean heavily on its visuals and action set-pieces, this is a genuinely interesting universe. Michael Bay’s Transformers, for instance, also has cool visuals, some passable action scenes, and dazzling special effects, but is it interesting? The answer is no. Because Bay’s movies, while briefly entertaining, are ultimately hollow. There aren’t any subdermal layers beneath the facade of spectacle. But in Jupiter Aescending there’s clearly something else going on, the touch of true filmmakers for one, yet also the potential for so much more. The groundwork, the craftsmanship and attentiveness is all here. It’s really what they choose to do, or not do, with that potential which ends up disappointing. Not, as in the case of Bay’s movies, the utter lack of potential for greatness from the start.

Though some fandom-card carrying ideologues may acerbically disagree, an acceptably comparable film whose potential for greatness was also mostly wasted for middle-of-the-road mediocrity is the recent Solo: A Star Wars Story, by Disney Interactive– I mean, by Disney behind the appropriated guise of Lucasfilm. Whatever else you think of that film, and while I agree from a mythological standpoint its very existence was in extremely poor taste, the talent, the production value, the mark of the craft was there. None of this was, however, capitalized upon to create anything truly profound. Jupiter Ascending’s unfortunate drawbacks are of a similar form.

I’d like to state emphatically however, I’m not trying to punish the film nor act as its apologist. Reckon I always end up saying this, but I am really just some dude. Sure, I read a lot of books and stuff, but that doesn’t appoint me some grand authority on the subject of fiction. These thoughts I try to convey in my write-ups are meant merely as opinions, framed in the form of investigating the quality of a film or game or whatever. To that end, I’m compelled to side with most folks in that, whatever else its got going for it, there’s some major deficiency holding back Jupiter Ascending from rising to a higher form of entertainment. So if the production values are high, where’s the casus belli all the angry critics are seeing here?

To puzzle that out, we ought first to determine by what criterion a truly good story is shaped. In that regard it’s likely the wisest to begin by reckoning what sort of story we’re dealing with here. Most people are wont to jump straight to the whole Hero’s Journey every dickhead YouTube reviewer read about in some sparknotes book while using the shitter at Barnes & Noble. But Joseph Campbell’s mimetic architecture isn’t the only sort of story that exists, not even in science fiction. Consider, for instance, anything written by H.P. Lovecraft, Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, Kubrick and Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Jonathan Glazer’s Under The Skin, Philip K. Dick’s various works, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, Stanisław Lem’s Solaris, Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, or Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. These stories, while very sci-fi in their scope and measure, are far more introspective, and very contemplative when contrasted against fiction of the more traditional heroic adventure genre. Hell, even Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers while appearing a mindless war movie on its surface is fundamentally a cautionary allegory. While conquering adversity is certainly a theme of its own within each of these stories, the breadth of that adversity’s effect on the narrative varies wildly, as well as the nature of adversity each character must face. Other heavier components, like displacement, post-humanism, philosophical allegory, are also usually present in such stories.

All of this likely seems a bit excessive to point out, but I promise it’ll get relevant later. But, uh… yeh. The next time some liberal arts asshat tries to tell you there’s only one real way a story can go, you can be safely justified in telling them to get bent. I mean read, yeh, tell them to read more shit, and watch more movies. That’d probably be more productive. But also tell them to get bent, the fuckers.

There can also, however, be stories that blend styles. The 2004 rebrand of Battlestar Galactica incorporates several philosophical elements, self-reflective, and meditative thematic ideas into its narrative of what would otherwise be a fairly standard science fiction conflict in outer space. The Wachowskis’ own The Matrix is a perfect example of a classic hero’s journey which also incorporates introspective themes into its lore, plot, and mythology, wherein the internal conflict of the protagonist is just as important as whatever external adversity he is meant to overcome. Where Battlestar Galactica 2004 uses its thematic material to craft a sci-fi adventure story, The Matrix uses a sci-fi adventure story to explore its thematic material. Seen in that light, I think the Wachowskis wanted Jupiter Ascending to have similar weight to its narrative, but they ended up recycling a sort of “human harvest” idea already seen in The Matrix (and arguably done in a more engaging way).

Jupiter Jones herself is a catalyst for an inter-familial conflict within a wealthy interstellar hierarchy. Though alien races do exist, the most dangerous aliens happen to be humans themselves, extraterrestrial humans of course. In Jupiter’s universe, it turns out that the wealthy and powerful have the ability to live forever (an idea also explored in the Neftlix adaptation Altered Carbon), but only by seeding countless worlds with humans, then harvesting these humans like crops and breaking these millions of people down into a sort of primordial youth serum by which the lives of the affluent may be extended.

Advanced genetics in Jupiter’s universe are the highest form of technology, and it is stated in all the cosmos the most sought-after resource is time. This is the reason these advanced humans out among the stars are able to splice human and animal genes, essentially creating entirely new races, and the reason why Jupiter herself is seen as a reincarnation of a woman who once owned countless stars and planets. Genes, to the wealthy and powerful, have a near spiritual significance. Jupiter is referred to as a Recurrence, a person who is long dead but whose gene-print inconceivably reappears in someone who is born centuries or even millennia later. This is seen as a near miracle, and thus is recognized by interstellar law as a legitimate reincarnation, giving this new person the same rights and privileges, and inheriting all the property previously held by the deceased person whose gene print they share.

And that’s where the conflict comes up. Jupiter is sought out by three siblings of the Abrasax family, one of the most elite and powerful families in the universe, of which she is the reincarnation of their mother and thus entitled to re-inherit all of their resources and capital which they currently control. The kids are Kalique (Tuppence Middleton), the well-to-do, but compassionate one, Titus (Douglas Booth), the more two-faced of the three who acts innocent but is clever as a viper, and Balem (Eddie Redmayne), the stereotypical villain of the piece who seems to have nervous ticks and an inability to raise his voice above a certain octave except in times of extreme stress. Of course, since Jupiter’s now meant to control everything they currently own, none of the three Abrasax kids can be fully trusted. Jupiter doesn’t have to face these three one-percenters alone however. She is accompanied by Caine Wise (Channing Tatum) an ex-soldier and wolf-splice, known as a Lycantant, who is hired by Titus to safely retrieve Jupiter from Earth before his siblings can get to her. Caine’s former commanding officer, a bee-splice known as Stinger (Sean Bean) also appears from time to time, as well as officers of the Aegis, an interstellar law enforcement agency.

If you are having a hard time following the characters here, it’s probably because there just isn’t much to any of the characters other than what I’ve already written about them. And therein lies the primary flaw with this film. The characters aren’t interesting, and the greater tragedy is that the characters are written to be uninteresting. Where a ton of care and attention went into crafting the look, feel and depth of the wider universe acting as the story’s setting, the characters within this story are criminally underwritten.

Earlier, I went to great lengths to illustrate the wealth of variety throughout genres of science fiction, just how many different types of stories we might get within this narrative framework. The purpose of explaining all of that to such a degree was meant to show you that not everything has to follow the same narrative flow. Sometimes stories can be more abstract, less character driven, less action heavy. In that regard, a story exemplar like Blade Runner doesn’t really need to have strongly written characters because the interpersonal aspects of its journey are less important than its atmospheric setting and stylistic momentum. The gravitas comes from a different place than in stories which are more character driven.

However, if a story does want to give us something more conventional, then it’s extremely important that the characters are strongly defined, well established and, even if not likable, at the very least interesting. Though a bit out of this wheelhouse, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is notorious for featuring a dramatis personae of terribly vain, horrible sociopaths, but many of these characters are still written in a way that makes them interesting. Jupiter Ascending fashions itself as an epic space opera, a stylized adventure journey which goes from scrubbing toilets in Irving Park to rocketing through a wider spectacular galaxy. Within that story structure, the characters need to be given their proper attention, especially the protagonist. Only, this is not the case with this movie. In fact in Jupiter Ascending, the characters almost appear as afterthoughts, which is most unfortunate.

Despite being the protagonist’s love interest, Caine seems to have been given the most depth, as a literal lone-wolf personality, an orphan of a sort, a former soldier disgraced for an act of savagery, who longs to regain his military status as a Skyjacker, and was sprung from a prison called Deadland to rescue Jupiter from the clutches of filthy rich egomaniacs, a class of people he seems to utterly despise. Yet even Caine’s various portions of characterization are never fully explored, and he mostly serves as a vehicle to come dashing in and pluck Jupiter out of trouble over and over again. Secondary characters, other than Stinger (more on him later), are hardly there other than to function as a taxi service or exposition dump where appropriate, which is a shame since some of them have a great look but nothing else going on in the writing department to make them memorable. The Abrasax siblings are basically three different flavors of the same smug Soylent privilege, though Kalique seems to exist only to explain things for the benefit of the audience, and Balem seems to be accidentally memorable thanks to Eddie Redmayne’s unusual performance. Titus has some cool psychotic vibes with his underhanded motivations, slippery silver tongued bastard that he is, but even his role as the trickster doesn’t get its due in the end.

Stinger, Caine’s former commanding officer who is now an Aegis Marshal, is also written slightly deeper than even the Abrasax siblings. He took the fall for Caine’s misstep in the military, so he also lost his wings and was disgraced for it. Despite this, he is willing to help Caine and Jupiter throughout the story, and though begrudged he seems genuinely good at heart. Stinger’s point of interest however comes from his traits as a Splice between human and bee DNA. Yes, this leads to a funny line of dialogue, but there are some great examples of show-don’t-tell with Stinger, in that having bee instincts he seems superhumanly able to anticipate motion and react to it ridiculously quickly compared to most people. This ability gives him an edge in everything from fistfights to navigating massive fields of hunter-killer mines. This is hardly important to the plot, but I thought it was cool since it’s never stated outright, just displayed through his actions. Another example of a great idea that’s mostly left adrift.

Jupiter herself starts out as a typical protagonist for a Hero’s Journey. She’s a Jewish Russian immigrant who leads an unglamorous life cleaning bathrooms and tidying fancy homes for her family’s housekeeping service, apparently has bad luck with romance, and hardly ever has time to really do anything she enjoys. Typically, once these elements are presented, there will also be a revelation of something more intimate about the protagonist, her dreams and ambitions, something she longs to one day achieve, her hobbies or personality, perhaps a personal drawback or fear she wishes to overcome. But the most we get about Jupiter is that she wants to buy back a telescope which was once stolen from her astronomer father by the same thieves who murdered him (which we see early in the movie in an awkwardly directed scene). It’s not made clear if Jupiter herself has a genuine interest in astronomy, nor even what any of her interests happen to be.

This becomes a recurring problem throughout the film. Since no real internal conflict or personality of any kind is established for Jupiter, she isn’t led through any personal journey or self-exploration, nor anything which allows her to grow or evolve as the narrative opens up and accelerates. She’s basically just along for the ride, one of those wrong place wrong time sort of things. Her journey is entirely surface level, external forces dragging her around the stars without her having any real say in the matter nor agency of her own. She as very little idea of what she wants or who she is, from what we can tell, because we have no idea of those things either. Mila Kunis does a fine job with the material she’s given, but the material just isn’t much to run with, and if there is a drawback to her performance as an actress I promise in this case the fault is not with her.

The terrible lack of characterization hurts everything in the movie from its ethical conceits, plot momentum, all the way up to the romance subplot which only feels forced and lacking chemistry because the two leads aren’t properly written. They could have had chemistry, but its difficult for archetypes to interact without endowing them with personality. It’s a fundamental flaw from which all other flaws of the film stem because the personality, the character of the protagonist in this type of story is a fundamental element from which many other elements of the story stem.

Even towards the end, when Jupiter is forced into dangerous heroics and aggressive bravery it doesn’t feel like much of anything because for all we know she was brave all along, or maybe she wasn’t. We’re never given the chance to find out. Her larger moment of heroism comes not in a violent action of conquering the badguy (though she does beat him with a pipe later... in self-defense of course), but in refusing to compromise to Balem’s ultimatum, either resign her ownership of Earth or allow Balem to murder her family. It’s interesting to note that instead of rocking up and blowing his head off with a blaster, she just tells him to get fucked, which is a cool idea, non-violent protagonists are few and far between. Though the climax would have been far more satisfying had we gotten to know Jupiter much better before she gets to this point. Ultimately, the lack of strong characters make the progression of the movie feel awkward, and the denouement seems to come out of nowhere. It’s really too bad, since many facets of this film’s setup seemed to bear promise, and it’s more tragic than infuriating, leaving an audience with a countenance more in sorrow than in anger.

Like Jupiter herself, thematic elements are also only half-explored. The idea that genetics have advanced to such a point that life-regeneration has become a reality within this star-spanning civilization (albeit a reality exclusively available to the filthy, insanely wealthy) is an interesting idea, and there’s a lot of potential for the ethical quandaries related to that sort of technology, and what makes it possible. Yet little of this is given attention beyond the horror of Jupiter discovering the Abrasax family regularly kills billions of people for longevity and profit. Is their life-extending operation the only one out there? Or is it an industry? Are there black market dealers who develop and trade their own youth serum off the books? It’s all kind of muddy and little of it is given any explanation or nuance.

As we’ve established, Campbell’s hero’s journey isn’t the only way to go about a sci-fi story, but in Jupiter Ascending it’s like half-started without any of the follow-through, and the characters which should be the heart of the story are greatly lacking any depth. The film’s been compared to a Disney-style princess story, and even references Cinderella at one point, though it does seem to be aiming higher than this. Yet, the lackluster character writing and flat dialogue all make the story somewhat impotent, whatever its aim, leaving the movie looking like a majestically beautiful gild-feathered eagle, which just happens to be blind. Fun to look at, but has absolutely no idea where it’s going. I can’t articulate enough what a shame this all is, since there really are some cool ideas and sci-fi content here. I truly wish, as a sci-fi enthusiast, that Jupiter was truly able to ascend.

I’d recommend it as a fun romp through an intriguing galaxy, but it’s more useful as an example of how to get everything right with a movie, everything other than the thing that really holds it all together: a well-written protagonist. Still, I’m no intersectionalist, but it’s nice to see the girl get the guy at the end of the story, the way guy protagonists get to get the girl at the end of all their stories. That was a pleasant feeling, even if it wasn’t quite earned with everything come before it. Plus, you know; lizardmen, and jet-bikes. The Wachowskis are generally great at what they do though, just maybe have a tough time channeling it. Here’s hoping they can get back to us with something truly badass in future because the level of commitment to the craft seen in this movie is extraordinary, even if the reach exceeds the grasp in this particular case. 

                     侍    headless                                     

[sigmalied]

Sig’s Anthem Review

Verdict

BioWare’s Anthem is a genuinely fun and engaging experience that sabotages itself with myriad design, balance, and technical oversights and issues. It is a delicious cake that has been prematurely removed from the developmental oven - full of potential but unfit for general consumption in this wobbly state. Anthem is not a messianic addition to the limited pantheon of looter shooters because it has somehow failed to learn from the well-publicized mistakes of its predecessors. 

Am I having fun playing Anthem? Absolutely. Does it deserve the industry’s lukewarm scores? Absolutely. But this is something of a special case. The live service model giveth and taketh away; we receive flexibility in exchange for certainty. Is Anthem going to be the same game six months from now? Its core DNA will always be the same, but we’ve already begun to see swift improvements that bode well for the future. 

Will my opinion matter to you? It depends. When I first got into looter shooters I was shocked at how much the genre clicked with me. They are a wonderful playground for theory crafters, min/maxers, and mathletes like myself who find incomparable joy in optimizing builds both conventional and experimental by pushing the limits of obtainable resources ad infinitum. The end game grind is long and at times challenging as you make the jump to Grandmaster 1+ difficulty in search of top-tier loot to perfect your build. This is what looter shooters are all about.

If you don’t like the sound of that, you’ll probably drop Anthem right after finishing its campaign. But if you do like the sound of that, you might find yourself playing this game for years.

TL;DR: This game is serious fun, but is also in need of some serious Game & UI Design 101. 

I wrote a lot more about individual aspects of the game beneath the read more, if you’re interested. I’ve decided not to give the game a score, I’m just here to discuss it after playing through the campaign and spending a few days grinding elder game activities. There are no spoilers here.

Gameplay

The Javelins are delightful. I’ve played all four of them extensively and despite identifying as a Colossus main I cannot definitively attach myself to one class of Javelin because they’re all so uniquely fun to play and master. Best of all, they’re miraculously balanced. I’ve been able to hold my own with every Javelin in Grandmaster 1+. Of course, some Javelins are harder to get the hang of than others. Storms don’t face the steep learning curve Interceptors do, but placed in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing, both are equally as destructive on the battlefield. 

I love the combo system. It is viscerally satisfying to trigger a combo, hearing that sound effect ring, and seeing your enemy’s health bar melt. Gunplay finally gets fun and interesting when you start obtaining Masterworks, and from there, it’s like playing a whole new game. 

Mission objectives are fairly bland and repetitive, but the gameplay is so fun I don’t even mind. Collect this, find that, go here, whatever. I get to fly around and blow up enemies while doing it, and that’s what matters. Objectives could be better, certainly. Interesting objectives are vital in game design because they disguise the core repetitive gameplay loop as something fresh, but the loop on its own stays fresh long enough to break even, I feel.

The best part is build flexibility. Want to be a sniper build cutting boss health bars in half with one shot? I’ve seen it. Want to be a near-immortal Colossus wrecking ball who heals every time you mow down an enemy? You can. There are so many possibilities here. Every day I come across a new crazy idea someone’s come up with. This is an excellent game for build crafters. 

But... why in the world are there so few cosmetic choices? A single armor set for each Javelin outside the Vanity store? A core component of looter shooters has always been endgame fashion, and on this front, BioWare barely delivers and only evades the worst criticism by providing quality Javelin customization in the way of coloring, materials, and keeping power level and aesthetics divorced. We’re being drip-fed through the Vanity store, and while I like the Vanity store’s model, there should have been more things permanently available for purchase through the Forge. Everyone looks the same out there! Where’s the variety? 

Story, Characters, World

Anyone expecting a looter shooter like Anthem to feature a Mass Effect or Dragon Age -sized epic is out of their mind, but that doesn’t mean we have to judge the storytelling in a vacuum. This is BioWare after all. Even a campaign that flows more like a short story - as is the case with Anthem - should aspire to the quality of previous games from the studio. Unfortunately, it does not, but it comes close by merit of narrative ambience: the characters, the world’s lore, and their execution. 

(For a long time I’ve had a theory that world building is what made the original Mass Effect great, not its critical storyline, which was basically a Star Trek movie at best. Fans fell in love because there were interesting people to talk to, complicated politics to grasp, and moral decisions to make along the way.)

While the main storyline of Anthem is lackluster and makes one roll their eyes at certain moments or bad lines, the world is immediately intriguing. Within Fort Tarsis, sophisticated technology is readily available while society simultaneously feels antiquated, echoing a temporal purgatory consistent with the Anthem’s ability to alter space-time. Outside the fort, massive pieces of ancient machinery are embedded within dense jungles in a way that suggests the mechanical predates nature itself. The theme of sound is everywhere. Silencing relics, cyphers hearing the Anthem, delivering echoes to giant subwoofers… It’s a fun world, it really is. 

As for the characters… they might be some of the best from BioWare. They feel like real people. Rarely are they caricatures of one defining trait, but people with complex motives and emotions. Some conversations were boring, but the vast majority of the time I found myself racing off to talk to NPCs as soon as I saw yellow speech bubbles on the map after a mission. And don’t even get me started on the performances. They are golden.

The biggest issue with the story is that it’s not well integrated with missions. At times it feels like you’re playing two separate games: Fort Tarsis Walking/Talking Simulator and Anthem Looter Shooter. And the sole threads keeping these halves stitched together during missions - radio chatter - takes a back seat if you’re playing with randoms who rush ahead and cause dialogue to skip, or with friends who won’t shut the hell up so you can listen or read subtitles without distraction. I found it ironic that I soloed most of the critical story missions in a game that heavily encourages team play.

Technical Aspects: UI & Design 

This is where Anthem has some major problems. God, this category alone is probably what gained the ire of most reviewers. The UI is terrible and confusing. There are extra menu tabs where they aren’t needed. The placement of Settings is for some inane reason not located under the Options button (PS4). Excuse me? It’s so difficult to navigate and find what you’re looking for. It’s ridiculously unintuitive.  

Weapon inscriptions (stat bonuses) are vague and I’ve even seen double negatives once or twice. They come off as though no one bothered to proofread or edit anything for clarity. Just a bad job here all around. And to make matters worse, there is no character stat sheet to help us demystify any of the bizarre stat descriptions. We are currently using goddamn spreadsheets like animals. Just awful. 

The list goes on. No waypoints in Freeplay. Countless crashes, rubber banding, audio cutouts, player characters being invisible in vital cutscenes, tethering warnings completely obscuring the flight overheat meter… Fucking yikes. Wading through this swamp of bugs and poor design has been grueling to say the least. 

And now for the loot issues. Dead inscriptions on gear; and by dead I mean dead, as in “this pistol does +25% shotgun damage” dead (this has been recently patched but I still cannot believe this sort of thing made it to release). The entire concept of the Luck stat (chance to drop higher quality loot) resulting in Luck builds who drop like flies in combat and become a burden for the rest of the team. Diminishing returns in Grandmaster 2 and 3; it takes so long to clear missions on these difficulties without significant loot improvement, making GM2 and GM3 pointless when you could be grinding GM1 missions twice as fast. 

At level 30, any loot quality below Epic is literal trash. Delete Commons, Uncommons, and most Rares as soon as you get them because they’re virtually useless. I have hundreds of Common and Uncommon embers and nothing to do with them. Why can’t we convert 5 embers into 1 of the next higher tier? Other looters have already done things like this to make progression omnipresent. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here, BioWare. It’s already been done for you. 

When you get a good roll on loot, the satisfaction is immense. But when you don’t, and you won’t 95% of the time, you’ll feel like you’ve wasted hours with nothing to show for it. We shouldn’t be spending so much time hunting for useful things, we should be trying to perfect what’s already useful.

It’s just baffling to think that Anthem had the luxury of watching the messy release of several other looter shooters during Anthem’s development, yet proceed to make the same mistakes, and some even worse. 

Nothing needs to be said about visuals. They are stunning, even from my perspective on a base PS4.

Sound design is the only other redeeming subcategory here. Sound design is amazing, like the OST. Traditional instrumentals meet alien synth seamlessly. Sarah Schachner is a seriously talented composer. 

I’m just relieved to see the development team hauling ass to make adjustments. They’ve really been on top of it - the speed and transparency of fixes has been top-notch. They’re even working on free DLC already! A new region, more performances from the actors... I’m excited and hopeful for the future. 

[bigskydreaming]

Is that gross ‘cool if I touch your butt’ thing true tho? Meh. I want to look it up and see that’s just bullshit but I am kinda scared to find out tbh

I mean it could very well be, I have no idea, and if it is true, I feel exactly the same way about it as I would if anyone else did it. Its gross and doesn’t need to happen ever.

But no offense to you, if you’re a completely different anon sending this in good faith, b/c either way I have zero interest in exploring that further or discussing it further, because this anon has clearly been trying to goad or ‘back me into’ calling Posey specifically out as a sexual harasser based on this, and I’m just not playing that game. Because it absolutely is a game to whomever that anon is, whether you’re someone different or the same person, and I find that completely disgusting and abhorrent. This person doesn’t give a single flying fuck about actual sexual harassment, assault or survivors, because if they did, they would not be aggressively spamming a rape survivor with stuff about alleged harassment by an actor he likes for the sole reason of having played a character he really likes, just so they can score points or win or get to say gotcha or laugh at how dumb said rape survivor is for having....what? Enjoyed the acting of someone who did something gross?

Especially as this person absolutely is never going to comment on any gross shit any white actors from the cast have ever done, because again, they don’t actually CARE about actual harassment or about any of the victims of any instances of harassment. They just want to ‘prove’ that like, I’m ‘wrong’ for ever having liked or defended this one actor of color they PATHOLOGICALLY hate. Their intended aim, is to try and get a survivor to ‘turn on’ an actor he previously liked or else be labeled a hypocrite and not worth listening to ever, thus invalidating any criticism or good points I’ve ever made in fandom, or else to just make a survivor feel shitty and let down in general for having to acknowledge another actor’s shittiness and let that then color and affect any future enjoyment I may or may not get from watching him in future roles.

Or maybe they’re just trying to trigger me, I don’t know.

Whichever the intention, its gross, exploitative and dishonest, not to mention completely transparent as fuck. I’m very sorry not to be as fucking STUPID as this anon clearly thinks I am, or idk, maybe they’ve just VASTLY overestimated their own intelligence and ability to play Machiavellian Mastermind checkers or whatever the fuck it is they think they’re playing at here.

But I have zero interest in actually arguing with someone who’s only doing so in bad faith. I actually give a shit about sexual harassment and assault, as anyone who’s followed me longer than a week knows - which means this person definitely knows its a big deal to me, given how obviously they hate-stalk my blog, along with however many others of these fucking losers who’ve hate stalked me and spammed my inbox like a plague of stereks over the years.

Its tired. Its boring. Its gross. And all it actually accomplishes is to make me feel queasy about people in general, that there are so many out there who genuinely think shit like THIS is a good use of their time, while targeting someone who clearly gives ZERO FUCKS about their existence and has no desire to seek them out ever.

And its especially obnoxious after engaging with a piece of discourse about anti bullshit because I am so goddamn TIRED of being labeled as like, a fandom bully and asshole because I have issues with how goddamn prolific noncon, pedophilia and incest content are, when people like THIS exist, and I’m the kind of person they target, and yet somehow, fandom’s got everyone convinced that up is down and left is right, and THESE assholes are like, the ones just protecting their right to ship and let ship from the big mean anti bullies like me.

Ugh.

Again, I apologize if you’re a completely different person and are here in good faith, and I totally get you wanting to know if its true and reacting however you do react afterwards if this is case. I just am very aware that this person has been convinced they’re super slick and has pretended to be at least a couple different people over the last two days already, and its got me hedging my bets just in case. Best wishes to you in whatever you find, if you choose to pursue this further, unlike me.

[isaqsterrea1974-blog]

There will always be something else. Even the people who heavily edit, will look in the mirror and see something that's not that and if they are using editing to make improvements to their features and bodies, does it mean they are accepting of themselves? No. Even with the surgery. I posted about this before but I have a relative who, for unknown reasons, is on a mission to question literally every single thing we do for the wedding or otherwise make it known she not into it (despite being the one to bring it up in every conversation). I got great feedback to just bean dip her since the last time I wrote about it, but I haven seen her in person since so it hasn really been an issue. That is, until yesterday, when she let my mom know that "we" had a "conflict" for the wedding date a concert happening the same night. I agree with you. I encountered many Northerners (hell, even people from other parts of my state) who will patronize me for a difference in pronunciation of a syllable, differences I can readily hear. Pin vs. Pay off student loans: After three years of paying $550/month to pay off student loans they will be paid off in April 2019! Current balance is $3800 and in April I will use money from savings to pay off the $1600 remaining balance. After these are paid I will spend the rest of the summer using my extra $550 to replenish my savings account. Then I will put this money towards increasing my retirement contributions, increasing my savings, and paying off my car.. This is much less PC babies than it is being kind to someone. People can get viciously bullied and when there is peer pressure to bully someone everyone joins in. This isn like having a safe space where you can just ignore the issues and pretend everything is fine. But this particular game, I completely dominated the match, but only managed to score in the 80 As usual, I skipped my replay, but conceded right at kickoff. My opponent ran around the pitch and watched the full replay. We went to overtime and I conceded just before the end of the first half and he shushed me and did the same thing once again. To be fair, in any other year, obviously the tragic, big budget, star studded war epic would have been a lock for Best Picture, especially over a comedy. But that year there were two tragic, big budget, star studded WW2 epics nominated for Best Picture. They split the de facto epic drama vote.. In the back I save like 1/4 of the book for my big ass to do list that just has everything on it. Itll have home stuff, more 김해출장안마 long term things, anything i dont think needs my weekly focus but i dont wanna forget. I try to keep it to 김해출장안마 each kind of thing on it own page, but by the time the book gets full it usually bleeding into each other. I unfollowed Reuben before the video even went live, because I had heard that he was talking poorly about me and many other influencers as well. I am aware that he's said he's a fan of me before publicly but behind the scenes of the influencer world is what matters. I admit that I'm not great at taking criticism of the palette and it did annoy me but their video had nothing to do with me unfollowing him, I already had. Oh god, this is the worst. I'd zone out and I'd be accused of not listening, despite the fact that really wanted to be engaged. My psychiatrist knew I had reached the right dosage of Strattera when I explained that conversations with people had become more interesting. This subreddit is for those who are in the process of awakening or who have awakened. We can talk with each other, share insights and experiences, and just be here for one another. Life goes on after awakening.

[taaroko]

Post-IW MCU Rewatch: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Here we go, Winter Soldier. I somehow never watch this one outside of marathons, even though I know it’s amazing. 

ON YOUR LEFT

Steve and Nat’s friendship is awesome. I love how invested she is in his love life and how confused he is by that.

“Well, all the guys from my barbershop quartet are dead, so no, not really.” I’m still trying to figure out how to define Steve’s sense of humor. It’s like quiet, deadpan understatement? I guess? I love it.

That shield looks pretty dingy, Cap. Could do with a wash.

There’s a really random sting in the score when Nat attacks a dude, and for a second you think it’s going to be a kinda retro spy score, but then it’s just over. Weird.

Steve has by now adjusted quite well to being a part of modern tactical missions, if less so to being a part of modern everyday life.

This French pirate dude really likes his unnecessary acrobatics.

Bonus points to Cap for doing trash talk in French.

One of the best parts about Steve and Nat’s friendship is how seamlessly they work together in battle. Whenever there’s something dangerous (especially explosions) on the way, she hunkers down or grabs onto him and lets him and his shield do the work, and they don’t even have to signal each other.

“Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye.” Oooooh I wonder if that has anything to do with the Skrulls in Captain Marvel. Can’t wait to find out.

“I thought the punishment usually came after the crime.” “By holding a gun to everyone on earth and calling it protection.” “This isn’t freedom. This is fear.” Cap is not down with your surveillance state or pre-crime nonsense.

I love the awed little kid who spots him. So cute.

*pauses on Bucky’s memorial* “When Bucky Barnes first met Steve Rogers on the playgrounds of Brooklyn, little did he know that he was forging a bond that would take him to the battlefields of Europe and beyond. Born in 1916, Barnes grew up the oldest child of four. An excellent athlete who also excelled in the classroom, Barnes enlisted in the Army shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. After winter training at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, Barnes and the rest of the 107th shipped out to the Italian front. Captured by Hydra troops later that fall, Barnes endured long periods of isolation, depravation, and torture. But his will was strong. In an ironic twist of fate, his prison camp was liberated by none other than his childhood friend, Steve Rogers, now Captain America. Reunited, Barnes and Rogers led Captain America’s newly formed unit, the Howling Commandos. Barnes’s marksmanship was invaluable as Rogers and his team destroyed Hydra bases and disrupted Nazi troop movements throughout the European Theater.

Wait a second. Up top, the thing says he was born in 1916, but at the bottom, it says he lived from 1917-1944. Wow. Nice continuity there, guy in charge of putting words and numbers on a single pane of glass.

Peggy! “He saved over a thousand men, including the man who would become my husband.” Yes and that man was Daniel Sousa. Oh hey, photos of Peggy with her kids! She had at least one son and one daughter. It’s hard to tell if the girl with her in the first picture is the same one as in the second picture.

The effect to make Hayley look old isn’t nearly as good as the effect to make Chris look skinny. It’s rather off-putting, actually. But oh man her dementia is so heartbreaking. “Well I couldn’t leave my best girl. Not when she owes me a dance.” *sobbing*

“What makes you happy?” “I don’t know.” *more sobbing* Everything that made Steve happy is seventy years gone. Steve is never not sad. No wonder he refuses to compromise for a second when it comes to Bucky.

The attack on Fury’s car is so nerve-wracking and he handles it so well. I wonder if Sam Jackson imagined he was going to get so much cool stuff to do in this role when he agreed to be in the end credits stinger of Iron Man.

The Winter Soldier’s introduction is masterful.

So...Fury pretty much got out of that by using his lightsaber. :D

Hi Sharon! This is some cute flirting.

“My wife kicked me out.” Was it because you insisted on taking your super-suit out for some daring do?

There it is. That Winter Soldier music. *shiver*

I totally bought Fury’s death when I saw this in theaters. Not sad that it turned out to be a ruse (I will never be sad about Marvel pulling character death-related punches), but I do think those bullet wounds were a little too convincing.

“To build a really better world sometimes means having to tear the old one down.” Heh. Except Cap is going to be tearing down your “better” world and standing up for the best parts of the old one.

Elevator fight! I love how observant Steve is. He’s always been that way. Just quietly taking in everything around him and putting it together. He’s brilliant. And then “It kinda feels personal.” Bahaha.

So if Steve falls a couple hundred feet and lands on his shield, it absorbs the impact ‘cause it’s vibranium?

Holy crap he took down a quinjet with just his shield.

I am not a fan of Nat’s straight hair in this one, especially with that center part. But it’s still better than how it looks in Infinity War. Especially the eyebrows.

Undercover engaged hipster couple Steve/Nat is so great. Steve is so bad at it and it’s adorable.

“Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable.” “Yes, they do.”

I love Nat putting her feet on the dash.

There’s no way Nat didn’t know who Peggy Carter was. She asked Steve to gage his reaction.

They are pretty far underground, in a bunker. How did the missile even affect them? Did they make a special chute for the missile to go into in case they needed to blow up the base? Doesn’t look like it.

The design for Zola’s computer face is effectively creepy.

Hydra’s plan is so insidious and horrifying. Screw up the world on purpose until people want to trade their privacy and freedom for security.

That’s a really pathetic amount of milk Pierce poured himself. Like two inches in a really tall glass. Weird.

So...I guess Sam has a straightener. For some reason. Why couldn’t they have just let Nat’s hair stay wavy?

Steve is so sweet with Nat. She’s numbly horrified that she might’ve been working for the bad guys this whole time and he’s all nice and reassuring. Aww.

Senator Stern arranging for a young prostitute with Sitwell is gross.

Nat: *kicks a guy off the roof* *immediately transitions to asking Steve about girls he could be asking out*

Okay how does Sam have access to military equipment like his wing pack when he’s not on active duty?

STEPHEN STRANGE. How is he already on Hydra’s radar? There’s no way Zola’s algorithm accounts for magic, and even if it does, how can it possibly predict that he’d become a master of it several years down the line? It’s not like he was dabbling in it in his surgeon days. That came about as the result of a freak car accident! Pfft. They clearly only threw that reference in there to get people freaking out about a possible future Doctor Strange movie. 

Bye Sitwell.

Hehe, as soon as the Winter Soldier shows up, Nat crawls into Steve’s lap ‘cause she knows he’s gonna have to make an insane exit and she will be PREPARED.

Okay I never noticed that Bucky ripped the freaking steering wheel out.

Gah, Steve getting tossed off the bridge and into the bus looks so incredibly painful.

So Bucky has now shot Nat twice. (I still ship it.)

There are some excellent kicks and knife fighting moves in this showdown. And the way the music ramps up is hair-raising.

I hate Runlow so much.

Maria is awesome.

Um, hi, Joe Russo. He plays Fury’s doctor! Dang! No role for Anthony, though.

“I’m with you to the end of the line.”

Yesss. Vintage Cap. And the shield is clean now! Symbolism!

HI DANNY PUDI. (Apparently Alison Brie was going to be Sharon Carter, but she had scheduling conflicts.)

I love this brave curly-haired kid. This is courage. He has no power and he’s so scared he might wet himself, but he will not launch those helicarriers even with a gun to his head.

Shouldn’t have helped SHIELD with that repulsor tech, Tony.

Okay, I guess Steve can tuck and roll to land a fifty foot drop without using the shield.

These helicarriers store their data in a really strange way.

“We’re the only air support Captain Rogers has got!” *all immediately get shot down and blown up by the Winter Soldier* Whoops.

I wonder if we’re gonna find out more about Bogota in Captain Marvel.

STEVE IS A CRAZY PERSON. You do not jump before you know you have your ride!

It’s a good thing Bucky neither knew nor cared what that data blade was.

I’d love to read a fic that’s just Steve and Thor sitting around talking about all the times Bucky and Loki have shot and/or stabbed them.

Sam has the correct reaction to Runlow’s nonsense.

Why is Jeremy Irons on the list of targets? I wish they’d put more Easter eggs in here, like the names of the Netflix Marvel characters and the Agents of Shield characters. It would’ve been an extremely unobtrusive way for the movies to reference the shows, instead of it always being one-sided.

It’s a good thing they were planning on firing after the count of 3, not on the count of 3.

Steve, you really need to work on your attitude towards exit strategies.

HOW did Runlow survive that?!

Steve would rather Bucky kill him than live in a world where Bucky can’t be saved. And that’s what saves Bucky. *wibble*

“On your left.” Bahaha.

Hi Pietro and Wanda!

Winter Soldier is awesome. I love a well-earned, narratively consistent game changer. One thing I definitely did not expect the MCU to do back then was buck the status quo, but they did it in a huge way, and they did it extremely effectively. I was deeply impressed. And it still holds up even looking back now. The way they tackle the issue of surveillance is very effective. Probably the best thing about this movie is that they realized that Steve Rogers was not going to work as a character if he adapted too much to modern times. Instead, they derived much of their conflict from the disconnect between Steve and his surroundings, and they added a deeply emotional connection at the core of it. Steve ultimately succeeds against Hydra and in getting through to Bucky by shedding his modern trappings and affiliations and going back to what he always was, complete with the old outfit and the shiny clean shield. Steve Rogers reminds us of the ideals America is supposed to stand for. Freedom, justice, honor, and truth. He makes us want to be more like that. Take a note, DC; this is the kind of thing you should’ve been doing with Superman. This is how you make a paragon character we can still be deeply invested in even as we look up to him. (They did a pretty good job with Diana, but the real test will be how she adapts in a more modern stand-alone film.)

Another great thing about this is that they kind of dumped all the side characters from Avengers into Steve’s story. As the First Avenger and as a man out of time, this a brilliant way to give him a new supporting cast without it being jarring and forcing us to spend a ton of time getting to know everyone. We already know Fury, Nat, and Maria and like them, so we’re perfectly prepared to watch them being awesome without feeling like it takes something away from Steve. We know the World Security Council. We know SHIELD. And then there’s Peggy, the Smithsonian exhibit, and Bucky that are all from Steve’s time. It’s a very solid foundation onto which we can add Sam, Sharon, Pierce, and Runlow. It just works so well. And Hydra manages to be even more frightening as an evil organization than it was in the first movie, when it was honestly kind of silly. (So many bonus points for how that played out in Agents of SHIELD, too. As far as I’m concerned, that was when the show finally got good, and it has steadily gotten better since.)