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lives-by-moonlight · 3 years

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Maverick: would you ever want to fully train someone to be your sex slave? If so what would you do?

((oh definitely a fantasy that he has, and in a more dark au verse he definitely fulfills regularly and not often consentually if anyone is ever interested in that but this is regular Maverick's plan below and yes it's detailed because he knows what he wants - which is training but also with some caring)) "I would only if the partner was interested in it. I've had relationships where there was a definite sex slave roleplay and master-slave relationship, but I'd definitely do it for someone willing to. I've always been more of the way of training as a mix of what I want and a 'breaking' the subject more into submission through their own overpleasure and psychological effects. I know it's not really breaking if they are willing to do it, but it gets them more into a long-term, submissive mind and one that is also very easily mailable for training.

"Most of it at the start wouldn't last forever, it's just to train them into the mindset longterm. I'd first start with the rules of the slave is naked at all times unless I give them clothes to wear for an outing or for around the house for certain things, like sweaters if they are too cold. There is a strong power dynamic of you being dressed and the submissive being bare. The immediate next thing is to collar them - to me this doesn't make a difference what the collar is to me whether leather, more design, or metal because I like using what affects the submissive the most because when it makes them more submissive, I find it even more sexy. Next would be gagging them and this might differ between either a ball gag or a muzzle harness based on what I think the first training would need for the slave. A ball gag is more humiliation and making the slave realize their loss of control by the constant drooling, while the muzzle gives the slave the quick knowledge that their mouth is basically non-existent. Either way, the idea is that you have no more words, just sounds. Once I thought that the training was complete, or at least it was no longer needed, then the slave wouldn't be gagged anymore but for the training they would stay mostly gagged. As well once the training was further along, to further their mouth training I would begin to use a pecker gag as well.

((note some of this would change in the dark au to be well...darker but this is based on regular Maverick)) "They would also spend the first few days in constant pleasure with minimal breaks. They would always be collared, gagged, bound, and blindfolded with no way to escape what is being used upon them. They would be tied down to something like a sybian machine or a vibrator out in the living room or in my bedroom and would be left there for hours for continuous orgasms while they would hear me doing regular household things as though you weren't there. At first they wouldn't need to ask for permission to cum. I want them fully into their own body and mind for the first little bit as a way to break them. I would stop after a few hours and either let them break or rest, time depending on how worn out I thought they were. I would pet their hair, stroke their cheek, give them affection and praise about how well they were doing after hours of no physical and human contact. Then I would have them go at it again for a long period. Again, gags for this would change based on levels of training and what I wanted the slave to understand about the control. They would also be plugged (sometimes for men depending on the training I give them), all of this as a way to show I control their bodies. If I knew the slave would like it I might also add things like clamps.

"The next stages after this would be to start the specifics training. So no longer being vibed all day but now learning to be vibed in certain positions, such as making their back curved while on their hands and knees so they know the position and get used to it. Another would be keeping them on their knees but beginning oral training. However, all of that kind of training is with dildos so far. I never have sex or use my partner with my body yet. I want this to be a build up, for them to realize they want to strive for it because while the dildos and mechanics are hot and they like it for more submissive plays, they will realize they want me and I use it as a type of reward. Is this sounding narcissistic, yes, however after days of only being pleasured by metal or dildos, the slave is much more willing for something real and human and once they realize it they and I both know the training is heavily succeeding. "By the time this next stage of training starts, the slave will still be collared, bound, and gagged, and likely plugged, but by now the blind fold will likely come off. It will also be this time I often have them in the main room, sometimes not even pleasured, just bound and gagged and tied to one spot while they watch me go about their day as though they weren't even there. No matter how much they tried to make noise, I'm not giving them the satisfaction. This is something I would probably regularly do once training is over too just because I find slaves often like it and it gets them more horny for when sex does come. "Right near the end I would also do long-term pleasure bondage but now they have to ask if they can cum even through the gag. And I would phrase this as "if you want my cock, you're going to have to prove to me that you can follow orders." I tell them that I'll let them cum a certain amount of times, however if they cum before I give them permission then they have to start from 0 again until they get up to the number I gave. Usually this doesn't take long before the slave is able to control themselves to get to the number each time without having to start over, but that's when I know the training for that command is done. "After when I thought they would have enough training, I would then ask them this simple question and I would know when they are done if I can see it in their eyes. I just kneel down and go to their eye level and ask "do you want your Master's cock". And I'd know just by their eyes and how they beg. "That's when the training with sex begins. The first two or three times I'll still have the slave completely tied down and gagged as a way to show dominance, but after a while I will lessen the bonds, I might even take the gag away. I may use things like bullet vibrators for extra stimulation but from now on it's about us connecting on a sexual master slave level. I would also start to train them on positions in bed, or get them used to having sex in different places around the house.

"After this, training really loosens and it's more also getting into the regular and casual slave and master dynamic. I still might have times where they are just bound in the center of the room, or training them by stimulating them like a sybian while using a ring or plug gag for them to also learn how to pleasure me whenever I please while they are on it. But this is the time when the sexual breaking weens out and it's more letting the slave now walk instead of crawl around the apartment, they are no longer gagged, and I might start giving them routines they need to follow like general easy housework, cooking, sometimes just letting them lounge around like a pet while I watch tv or do work.

((again, in a dark au this would be different)) "It should also be pointed out that during this time I would give the slave regular meals and water breaks to make sure they are safe and won't get hurt. I would ungag them for this, for a rest from training I might have them either eat on the devices or let them crawl to a more comfortable spot and eat there. If that means we eat together on the couch or the rug I'm there too. Our bedtime routine is brushing teeth, hair, showering or baths, and we would sleep together. Since the slave has been blindfolded in the early days, if that is what he or she wishes during this time I also ablige because after long pleasure stimulation, outside stimulation and lights can make the slave feel more panicky, so the dark is their safe space to help them get used to stimuli again. If this is the case, I also make sure to work off non-blindfolded training so the slave still feels safe. I gage their responses to the trainign on how far it goes so it is still safe for them. "Once the training is complete it's mostly now just giving out rules and helping to establish connection in the new dynamic. Mine are mostly basic, such as no clothes and no leaving the apartment without my permission. I'd give them some chores they are assigned to do regularly, like unloading and reloading dishwasher, making sure the kitchen and general apartment is clean by dusting and putting things away, and making the bed. I may also give them assignments for cooking meals, though I would slowly ease into this as I often find cooking to be a great connecting activity, but also to teach them how to do it if I wanted say supper done and on the table by the time I get home. "At this time I also begin setting them up so they know what is expected from them when I leave during the day (or even if I'm there sometimes). Since I am gone most evenings for work, that may mean I am out late and therefore the slave may either be told to wait for me or go to bed - but be warned I may still want something in the middle of the night. That said, I never give the slave a time to wake up if I leave early. He or she is always allowed to sleep in if we do not wake up together. But when I am gone I will give them the routine that they should expect me to tell them what to do, or that I will do it for them. These will come in these main four ways: "1: I give them a list of chores that must be completed before I come back. I may also put in what I want for meals. 2: I give them sexual tasks they must complete. Such as, I might have a dildo set up in a room by the mirror and tell them they must practice until they can get the entire dildo in without gagging and then send me a video of it. It could also be having them fuck themselves on the dildo until they cum every hour and again send me videos or photos so I know they are following through. Or I will tell them they have to do chores with a vibrator on or with gear on. Those two ways are likely to be the most used besides number 4, which I will get to. 3: I tie them down and they have to be bound for the day, or pleasured all day while I control it remotely like being bound on a vibrator all day but I control it from my office. They are not allowed freedom until I get back. 4 is my last one, and often common to at least once a week, but it's where they have the day free for themselves. This can mean watching a tv show or movie ,such as if they are done chores or while cooking from choice 1, just lounging around the house or having extra naps or a long bath or some reading, something that is their day to enjoy. ((I know this is long we are almost done I swear!))

"I'd also set up a Low Outing and a High Outing. So this would be for just going out whether on a date, shopping, to a friend's house, etc. A Low Outing means that our dynamic is a bit more casual while High Outing means more strict. For example, when asking to go to the bathroom a Low Outing can be them saying "I have to go to the bathroom" as a directive to me while seeming to be normal while I go "okay". A High Outing is "Master please let me go to the washroom". Another difference would be that a Low Outing they can talk freely and interact as they want and are comfortable with while High Outing means that they are either quiet unless given directives or are given the clear by me to answer even just a question from another person. Either way, for any outing the slave will also wear either a necklace, often for a girl, or a bracelet, often for a boy, that acts as a collar in a more subtle way. Again, all of this as a dynamic of Master and Slave even while out.

"Punishments will often come as need to be taught. If the slave is a brat slave, then it comes out more often or even during the first phases of training, while for more subserviant slaves it's more as a teaching tool while still punishing them. Punishments may also change from doing more cleaning, being gagged and partially bound for a certain time, orgasm denial, or things like spankings. Again, all relative to the slave and what I want them to learn or reassert I'm in control. "If the slave is also into a big praise kink I also definitely always verbally give praise but I also might set up a points system or like a pebbles in a jar system. Where after they do something good they will get points or pebbles in a jar and once they fill the jar or get to a certain amount of points then they get a reward. This could be things like going on a date, reading in bed, doing something they want in bed, ordering in take-out, going shopping, getting some new clothes to wear when we go out, etc. "Other than that, the rest of it is just relationship things. Like cooking together, watching movies together, going out on dates or events, cuddling, sometimes even just regular soft sex, just now we also have that undertone to it. Hope this helped!"

#omfg this is so long XD #if I lose this trying to post this it may just be my 13th reason #this literally took hours god Maverick why are you so planned out #get to know maverick

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powdermelonkeg · 3 years

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Due to popular demand, I'm going to start posting my theories here, too. They're not going to be as evidence-based as my analysis posts, so please keep in mind that my theories are almost entirely speculation and hopes.

That much out of the way, let's dive into my first theory, which involves the plot of Breath of the Wild's sequel.

And that theory is...the return of Fi.

Obviously, I'm funneling a lot of wishful thinking into this one, because I loved Fi as a character when I played Skyward Sword for the first time. But the more I think about what might line up to make this happen, the more excited I get.

Now, here, we've got evidence of the Master Sword, despite it being nowhere else on Link's person for the rest of the trailer we just got. Whether or not this bit here

is the crossguard, or the blade's edge

I'm still trying to figure out, and will be posting about soon. However, either way, the point stands that the sword gets covered by Ganon's corruption, and we don't see it again.

In the original BOTW, the Master Sword was chipped almost to breaking, which has NEVER happened in a Zelda game before.

Moreover, the Master Sword frequently runs out of power throughout the game.

To me, this means that it's weakening.

The next thing I want to point out happens in BOTW's 13th memory, at about 1:27 in this video.

youtube

For those of you unfamiliar, that's the sound Fi makes in Skyward Sword when appearing.

Fi's been asleep for over 10,000 years now, and Calamity Ganon was stronger than its ever been this time around. And the reason she WENT to sleep is to lock away Demise, the reason behind the curse of Calamity, away for good.

So, my theory is this.

Ganondorf here is trying to pull Demise's consciousness out of the Master Sword, to become whole again.

We lose Zelda, who may or may not have the Sheikah slate in her possession, depriving us of its use.

Link takes up the Zo-tech arm to go after Zelda. It's too much for him to take.

He's taken in by someone who functions as a tutorial character, like the Old Man did in the original BOTW. That person is a descendant of the Zonai, which is how Link gets his new clothes and learns about the sky isles.

He then has to travel across the world to try to fix the Master Sword, which brings us to revisiting places from Skyward Sword.

And that's why they chose to remaster Skyward Sword specifically, so close to the new game, despite its mild lack of popularity among Zelda fans.

One more thing that makes me excited:

They said they can't name it because of plot reasons. What if the name is something like...

#botw #bo2w #botw2 #breath of the wild #theory #zelda #loz #skyward sword #fi #logo #nintendo #e3

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potteresque-ire · 3 years

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This post is Part 5 of the five-part meta series on the Zhang Zhehan (張哲瀚) Incident, based on what has transpired up to 2021/08/22.

1) The 2nd Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) & the Yasukuni Shrine 2) Post-War Sino-Japanese Relations; “Every Chinese should visit the Yasukuni Shrine” 3) The Summer of 2021: The Brewing Storms for One 4) My Thoughts on Zhang’s Incident, Part A 5) My Thoughts on Zhang’s Incident, Part B

5) My Thoughts on Zhang’s Incident, Part B

As a highlight to the mob nature leading to Zhang’s downfall, please consider the timeline immediately before and after Zhang’s losing his endorsements on August 13th (or, why August 13th really mattered):

August 12th, evening: Zhang’s 2019 attendance of a wedding at the Nogi Shrine (乃木神社) went on Weibo hot search, and into public awareness. The Nogi Shrine (乃木神社) is of far less fame than the Yasukuni Shrine, but was named after a Japanese general of the Imperialist Japanese Army who was also the governor-general of then colonial Taiwan.

August 13th, ~ 2 am: netizens uncovered photos of Zhang’s 2018 visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, which were spread onto Weibo and made the hot search.

August 13th, 1:39 pm: Zhang posted his first letter of apology that began with: “Today, I’m ashamed of my once ignorant self, and furthermore, wants to apologise deeply for my past inappropriate behaviour.” (今天我為曾經無知的自己而羞愧，更要對之前不當行為深刻地道歉。)

August 13th, 2 pm: Nabuo Kishi, Japan’s current Minister of Defence, and a right-wing member of the House of Representative, Yasutoshi Nishimura, made an un-announced visit to the Yasukuni Shrine. The date was 2 days earlier than the 76th anniversary of Emperor Hirohito’s surrender speech (August 15th), as customary for Japanese officials to avoid visiting the shrine on significant anniversary dates of the war.

August 13th, 4:39 pm: People’s Daily (人民日報) published an online critique of Zhang’s apology. “… As a public figure, to be so lacking in historical knowledge, so unfeeling towards the suffering of the nation, it’s too inappropriate. On matters of righteousness of the nation, testing is not permissible, challenges are definitely not permissible. If knowingly committed, one would pay a heavy price.” (。。。身為公眾人物，對歷史常識如此匱乏，對民族苦難渾然不覺，太不應該。事關民族大義，不容任何試探，更不容有任何挑戰。若明知故犯，就得付出沈重代價。)

August 13th, 5:05 pm: CCTV News (央視新聞) posted the video of Nabuo Kishi’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine.

August 13th, 5:33: Zhang was dropped from his first endorsement. He would be dropped by all 27 of them within the next 5 hours.

August 13th, 5:35 pm: Zhang responded to People’s Daily’s critique piece, stating he shall repent and learn his lesson, and that as a Chinese, he loves his country and the CCP.

August 13th, ~6 pm: S. Korean news reported that the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs had summoned the Japanese ambassador in Korea to protest the visit of the Japanese Defence Minister to the Yasukuni Shrine.

August 13th, 6:26 pm: CCTV News (央視新聞) critiqued Zhang’s apology. “Whether to take photos in front of the Yasukuni Shrine, or to attend a wedding at the Nogi Shrine, Zhang Zhehan touched the wounds of history, hurt the feelings of the nation. It cannot be blamed on “once ignorance.” Just now, a Japanese Minister went to the Yasukuni Shrine for “demon worshipping” (Pie note: demon, from guizi 鬼子), China firmly opposes to this wrongdoing of Japanese high officials…” (無論在靖國神社前合影，還是到乃木神社參加婚禮，張哲瀚都觸碰了歷史傷痕，傷害了民族感情，不能簡單歸咎為「曾經無知」。就在剛剛，有日本大臣到靖國神社「拜鬼」，中方堅決反對日本政要這種錯誤做法。。。)

August 13th, 9 pm: China’s Ministry of National Defence answered press questions regarding the Yasukuni Shrine visit by Nabuo Kishi and Yasutoshi Nishimura.

Not only did Zhang’s incident happened in August, 2021, it happened on pretty much the worst day for him in August, 2021; the latest of his incident interleaved the unfolding news of the Japanese high officials’ visit to the Yasukuni Shrine.

What I’d like to call attention to, however, is this: Zhang’s endorsements didn’t begin dropping until *after* People’s Daily criticism.

If the companies had been genuinely offended by Zhang’s action, why was the wait necessary? If their Chinese feelings were genuinely hurt, why hadn’t they moved earlier, in the morning of August 13th, when Zhang’s visit went on hot search? Were these companies also ignorant about history, the significance of the the Yasukuni Shrine? The Chinese government has far more important things to worry about than an idol, but what about these companies that had paid good money for their spokesperson? That watch the public opinion, the market carefully?

Even if they didn’t care about the war themselves, why hadn’t they dropped Zhang based on the expected public opinion? What does that say about what these market experts believed, or knew about the public opinion? What does that say about their assessment of whether their potential customers would, as their actual selves, stop spending money on their products because of Zhang’s Yasukuni Shrine visit?

Were the act of dropping Zhang, then, more an act of performative patriotism than anything else? Once the first company started, the rest raced to follow for fear of being the slowest one, viewed as the least patriotic one. Hence, the 5-hour storm of endorsements abandoning Zhang. This herd ... mob behaviour, in which actions were either not taken or all taken at the same time, was also observed in the timing of different online platforms removing Zhang’s works, and fandom content with his name.

A “bingo card” for netizens to cross out Zhang’s endorsements as the sequential drops happened. Similar cards for Kris Wu had circulated in July.

Were WoH and Zhang’s other group projects removed because Zhang was unpatriotic, or was it because the online platforms (and the tech giants behind them) were trying to protect themselves? Youku explained WoH’s first-time removal as a technical glitch but then, as reports of other platforms removing Zhang’s content poured in, the series was removed again.

How much is real when it comes to the thunderous online declarations of love and betrayal against China?

Related to this: turtles may remember the Xinjiang cotton incident in March, 2021, how Chinese netizens harassed anyone who used, endorsed Nike. One may assume, with that outcry, that rage, that anyone with a reputation to keep, with ties to the Chinese state, in particular, have severed their ties with the brand.

As it turns out, the teams of the Chinese Super (Football) League, for example, have kept their Nike kits. The Chinese Football Association (CFA), which, despite being officially non-governmental and nonprofit, is managed by the State General Administration of Sports (國家體育總局), issued a statement on March 27th on Weibo that only criticised Nike’s “wrong actions in choosing its cotton source” (對耐克公司在棉花原料選擇上的錯誤行徑表達了譴責), and reserved “its right to further deal with contract with Nike” (保留進一步處理同耐克合同的權力). It never cut off the contract with Nike: a 10-year sponsorship, signed in 2018, which amounts to 3 million RMB (463,000 USD) in funds from Nike for each football club every year. The CFA statement was later removed from Weibo. Photos of the football players have simply had the Nike Swoosh covered up, or photoshopped away.

Photos from the Shanghai Shenhua football club, with and without the swoosh (Source).

Life is practical in China … and darkly humorous, at times. As a Mao-founded regime should be, perhaps.

I got Asks wondering then: will our non-Zhang-related favourite stars and CPs, dramas and fandoms get affected by the incident?

At the moment, my guess leans towards a no. My basis is this: in the critique piece against Zhang, published on 2021/08/16, by 中纪委 Central Commission for Discipline Inspection—the CCDI, by the way, is the highest anti-corruption, rules and regulations body in China—I believe the reason Zhang was disciplined was clearly stated:

對於所有「拜鬼」行為，中國都堅決反對。但如果我們國內的公眾人物去靖國神社都不被譴責和追究，我們又怎麼挺直腰桿要求外國人不去呢？

“Regarding all “demon worship” behaviour, China holds firm oppositions. But if our own public figures going to the Yasukuni Shrine get no reprimands, no investigations of responsibility, how can we straighten our backs and demand foreigners to not go?”

This has led me to think the state has no ulterior motives in targeting Zhang: Zhang’s “sin” was limited to his visiting the Yasukuni Shrine as a well-known, public figure, and/but that was enough. And the punishment had to be given in a heavy-handed, high profile manner, given the “news “of Zhang’s visit broke out on August 13, 2021. The following observation may be my being over-sensitive, but in the timeline above, Zhang was reprimanded, and his first round of the punishment in full swing (dropping of endorsements), before the China’s Ministry of National Defence talked to the press, which happened later than it had to be (compare the timing with S. Korea’s). Short of removing Zhang’s hot searches—which netizens would’ve noticed—this ordering of events was necessary; otherwise, the Chinese government issuing a formal complaint against Japan for their Minister of Defence’s visit to the shrine would’ve co-existed on the hot search with the report of China’s own celebrity visiting the same place. I therefore believe the state’s reaction had nothing to do with how Zhang achieved his fame, the past and present projects he was involved in, the CPs he was coupled with. Other state agencies and media would likely be careful about not attaching these topics to Zhang’s case as well, so not to distract from the central message of the government that … the Japanese are very bad people in the summer of 2021.

(Whether they’ll attach them to the Clear and Bright campaign is another matter.)

Another Ask ~ Will Zhang be able to make a comeback? In five years? Ten?

Looking that far ahead is difficult, but one thing has to happen for Zhang to return—the Japanese have to stop being very bad people according to the Chinese government, which isn’t likely to happen soon. The Japanese government has shown few signs that they shall soon revise their attitudes towards their World War II history (Yasutoshi Nishimura, who went to the Shrine with Japan’s Minister of Defence on August 13th, is associated with a historical revisionist group), while China’s escalating military aggression in the Indo-Pacific region will be seen as a growing threat to Japan, likely push the country towards the right.

And 5, 10 years later, Zhang will be 35, 40 years old. Even if he’ll be able to work in the industry again, it’ll be difficult for him to achieve the fame he has before. Also, just because the government no longer bans him doesn’t mean production companies will be willing to hire him; he’ll be considered high risk—policies of China are volatile, after all, and the decision to un-ban can be easily reversed.

(I’m so sorry, Anon, I wish I have a better answer for you.)

And... here’s a thought I’ll finally end this meta series with. I don’t see Zhang as the only loser in this incident. I don’t really see any winners in this incident at all. An industry is dangerous for its every worker if its narrative, its list of guilty is penned by cyber mobs and in the name of patriotism; if the accused cannot speak for themselves, aren’t allowed to grow; if its rules of appropriate conduct are every-changing (The Reporter in 2017 = OK; Zhang in 2018 = Not OK); if its workers are penalised not by their own deeds but their associations (the rest of the cast and production team of WoH and other Zhang-associated projects).

The think tank for the National Ratio and Television Authority (國家廣播電視總局; NRTA, ie, the Chinese visual media censorship board), in their criticism piece about Zhang, hinted at even rougher waters ahead, in light of Zhang’s (and Kris Wu’s) transgressions:

明星頻頻「犯事」，說到底還是行業內對明星藝德約束不夠嚴格。據瞭解，電影行業正在籌備全國電影界道德委員會，將對電影從業人員道德規範提出更高要求，並提出，要將明星藝德納入法治化的軌道中來，給明星藝德約束加一道法規之鎖，明確明星的責任和義務，將明星的個人行為與職業利益掛鈎。 “The ultimate cause of stars “getting into trouble” frequently is that the industry has not tied a sufficiently severe bind on the stars’ artistic virtue (Pie note: roughly, = professional ethics). Based on reports, the film industry is preparing a National Film Industry Morality Committee that shall raise the moral requirements for film industry workers. The industry has also suggested that the stars’ artistic virtue shall eventually be governed by laws, to add a lock of legality to the bind of artistic virtues for the stars, to make clear the stars’ responsibilities and obligations, to couple a star’s personal behaviour with their professional (monetary) gains.”

My interpretation of this: should the suggestions become reality, it shall be written in future film contracts that a star who commits an act that the state considers immoral will have to pay the investors the production cost of their projects, and possibly, the projected profit.

To put some dollar signs to this interpretation: a high-profile star may work on one or more projects with a price tag in the order of 100 million RMB (~15 million USD); box office, merchandise sells, and long term profits expected from online streaming can raise that number by several fold. This is a sum that even the most affluent stars will have a difficult time affording—and that’s before considering the endorsements, for which current contracts already require the stars to pay the damages.

The key word here is that the offending act only has to be considered immoral, not criminal. Immoral acts range from not liking the CCP enough—an easy-to-understand offence—to deviation from the society’s 公序良俗 (“public order and fine customs”), which includes just about anything that disagrees with the state-defined mainstream values.

Stars are stars because they invite the imaginations of their audience, because they break boundaries: from the seemingly insurmountable humdrum of daily life, to something that can be much, much more.

Stars should, of course, be law-abiding; they should be patriotic. But a star who’s mainstream in every way? Are they still a star, something we regular people wonder about, dream upon?

Bind and lock, the NRTA think tank referred to these suggestions. It reminders me of a quote by the famous Chinese director, Feng Xiaogang (馮小剛), who, in 2014, complained to BBC—perhaps in a slip of tongue—that Chinese directors could be like “dancing with fetters” (戴著腳鐐去跳舞) when working with the country’s censorship system.

Yeah. It’s kinda like that.

===

The Zhang Zhehan Incident Meta Series:

PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 5 <- YOU ARE HERE

#pie metas

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shrike-nest · 3 years

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D&D Character Ask Post

In Honor of D&D, Here are 100 Questions answered about my character Alistair. Done from a prompt reposted by @mechmech and @scatterpatter , and also gonna tag my DM @aerial-ace97

What Does He Smell like: Ozone, Sandalwood, Pine

Voice: A light baritone, sometimes slipping into a bit of a lit from his native island (similar to a Scottish brogue/Irish lit)

Motivator: Before he met his group? Power and Adrenaline. Now? Redemption.

Most embarrassing memory: (TW: Animal Death) He doesn’t really remember this as he was terribly drunk at the time, but he and his crew stopped in a city that held goats as a sacred animal. With a terribly “bright” idea, he wondered how far a goat could fly? Because goats fly. Throws the goat off of the third floor of a building. Then proceeds to have a not very respectful Coffin Dance-style funeral for said goat.

How does he react to pain: Lots of swearing and anger.

What does he wear: He wears dragon scale armor that has three deep gouges in it from where he was previously killed. A faded and slightly ragged admiral style coat on top, leather breeches, and give this man some high calf pirate boots. He also always wears a green headband to keep his hair back, and occasionally an eyepatch to hide his demonic eye.

Most positive relationship: In terms of character development, it might be Torvid, as Torvid inspires Alistair to be a better moral person. In terms of wholesomeness? His partner/hopefully soon fiancé, Atwater. Atwater was able to show Alistair that he can have positive love in his life, without having to fight so hard for it.

The weirdest thing he has ever eaten: Corren’s cooking

Sleep: He suffers from nightmares and now more recently night terrors. Because he technically doesn’t need to sleep from effects of his class, he often chooses not to. However, when he does sleep, he sleeps hard, snores lightly, and octopus cuddles anything in his bed.

Favorite food/ kinda food: He actually really loves a dish similar to pao de queijo (Brazillian Cheese Bread).

Most insecure about: His ability of being a leader.

Like to wear: He enjoys fairly tight fitting clothing to prevent too much flapping when he flies or moves around quickly.

How do they react to feelings of guilt: Denial and self doubt

React to betrayal: A very quick and violent anger that chills to a long lasting and cold hatred. He doesn’t forgive easily.

Greatest achievement: After being mutinied against by his former crew, being wanted and supported as a leader for his current adventuring party

Too little sleep: Pretty robotic, but he doesn’t get exhausted anymore or feel any physical effects of not getting sleep due to his class.

What are they like drunk: He’s a very cheerful and boisterous drunk. Makes and laughs at many jokes. Can fall into a melancholy pretty easily though if he thinks on certain thoughts too long. Deflects with humor!

Music likes: 80s hair band music, and 70s-80s rock.

Right or left-handed: Right handed

Fears: He’s claustrophobic, but also has a fear of being vulnerable and getting his heart broken again.

Favorite weather: Sunny Day with a slight chill.

Favorite color: He really likes blue.

Collect anything: Well technically he used to collect gold and other high priced artifacts. He doesn’t really collect anything anymore.

Hot or cold weather: This man controls the weather. He enjoys his thermostat of life to be at a nice 70 degrees F.

Eye color: His natural eye color is an emerald green. His left eye is a demon cat eye, with a gold iris and black sclera.

Race/ ethnicity: He’s a human in the world of Sekrezia, but in IRL, he’s probably northern UK.

Hair color: Ginger/Auburn, with some sun-bleached streaks in it.

Happy where they are currently: … Well his adopted sister and brother just died in the last game so nah. BUT- as kind of a whole, he’s happy to be where he is now as a person compared to how he used to be.

Morning person: Yup. He tends to wake with the sun if he sleeps, and once he’s awake- he’s awake.

Sunrise or sunset: He loves the sunset. It calms and amazes him that he survived another day.

Messy or organized: He’s messy. Kind of an ADHD procrastination kind of messy.

Pet peeves: Disloyalty, undeserved ego trips, other weather veins that mess with his control of the weather,

Objects of significant importance: O’Malley, his halberd. He earned his weapon when he became a captain, and it has saved his life numerous times after.

Least favorite food: After being stuck in a cave for over a year? Anything with mushrooms.

Least favorite color: He’s not a fan of dark reds or browns. Reminds him too much of dried blood. (oooh edgelord)

Least favorite smell: Cauterized Flesh, Rotting Fish

The last time they cried: Last game. But before that? When he found out that Torvid killed his father. Before before that? When Atwater died. Before before before that? When he woke up alone in the desert after the mutiny.

Were they with anyone when they cried: His party. His party and both sides of the war that was going on. And no one.

One time they got injured: He actually died in a fight with a dragon, not with the dragon, but with a bat crony of the dragon.

Scars: He’s got a scar in the shape of a jagged p on his right cheek, a claw scar from when his eye was gouged out, and he also has the marks from the bat crony when he died. Alistair also has lightning scars on his arms that led to minor nerve damage that occurred when he first was learning how to use his magic.

Mental health issues: ADHD, Depression, Anxiety

Bad habits: Lashing out when he doesn’t know how to process his emotions

Why might someone dislike him: … Lemme get the list. So if we ignore the fact that he used to be a feared sky pirate, earning the nickname “Orphaner of the Skies”… he can be a flippant asshole sometimes. He can often forget to stay in touch and update people on important topics. Also, some may dislike him because he insists on being their dad (*cough* CORREN *cough*)

Why might someone love him: Alistair is very loyal to those he trusts and he can often fall into caretaker type tendencies.

Believe in ghosts: Yeah. He’s seen them and fought them. Also dated one.

Anyone they would trust with their life: Mecha, Corren, Tristan, Atwater, Jerry, Mephistopheles, and Torvid.

Romantically interested in anyone: Atwater!

Dating/ Married: He is currently dating Atwater

Like surprises: Not really

Birthday: His weave day is in Summer, Sibelya 13th.

Celebrate their birthday: He used to. Doesn’t really anymore, mostly because he hasn’t had much reason to celebrate or the time.

Family: His parents are dead, but he still has his adopted aunt Imelda. He also views Tristan as his brother, Corren as his little brother, Mecha as his sister. Atwater is his romantic partner, and he is now the step father of Atwater’s child, Crestwell. He also is the adopted father of Liam (deceased) and Liam’s twin sister, Serana.

Close to their family: Yes

MBTI type: ENTP

Zodiac signs: His Sekrezian Sign is Xamatang, The Coming Storm

Hogwarts house: Gryffindor

Alignment; Chaotic Neutral but he’s steadily making his way towards Chaotic Good

Nightmares: Yes. Often about his ex, Ghost. He also has nightmares about losing those he considers family.

View on death: If it happens, it happens. Once someone is at peace, leave them be.

Something they always laugh at: Seeing his group smile and joke around.

When bored, what do they do: Fly, tinker with magic, practice magic, research magic.

Enjoy the outside: Very much so.

Accent: I can’t replicate it, but I imagine it’s somewhere between a Scottish and Irish accent. However it has faded as he hasn’t been home in a very long time.

Upon seeing a slice of chocolate cake, the first reaction: *Poke it*, *Look at it*, *Look around*… *Shrug*, My cake now.

If they knew they were going to die what would they do/ say: He would find his party, if he can- gives them hugs, and hopefully be able to die watching the sunset. “Find what makes you happy and hold on to it. You all deserve to have happiness in your lives.”

Feelings about sex: He likes it. He also has a pretty damn high libido.

Sexuality: Bisexual

Squeamish around blood: Somewhat. It makes him uncomfortable now because he’s scared that he likes the sight of it still.

Anything they find gross: Rotting bodies and decaying bodies.

TV trope: Father Figure, Tragic Backstory, Anti-Hero

Enjoy helping people: Yes, he finds it comforting, like a form of redemption.

Allergies: Minor shellfish allergy

Pet: Does Meph count as a pet? I mean, he usually hangs around Alistair as a cat.

Quick to anger: Depends on the situation, but yes.

How patient is he: Not very. He gets very jittery and anxious easily. He’s getting slightly better at that.

Good at cooking: Somewhat, he tends to overdo it on the spice.

Favorite insult:” It’s cute when you try.”

How do they act when happy: The biggest doofiest smile, and he can’t help but laugh occasionally.

What do they do when they learn about others’ fears: He keeps it secret, but tends to go out of his way to help them through it, or help them avoid their fears.

Trustworthy: If you earn his trust, yes. A million times in return.

Do they try to hide their emotions: If it benefits him? Yes. And he’s damn good at it. But if he feels it’s not necessary to do so, his heart is on his sleeve.

Exercise regularly: Yes. His constitution is ridiculous and so he often finds ways to keep up and improve his stamina and strength even further.

Comfortable with the way they look: Yeah. He can get a lil cocky about it. But this is a man who uses bar soap on his hair.

Features they find attractive on others: Eyes and hands.

Personalities they find attractive: He likes those that can keep up with him intellectually, but also on a wittier level as well. He really views self-confidence as attractive.

Do they like sweet foods: Yes.

Age: He just turned 42.

Tall or short: He’s 6’0”

Glasses or contacts: Nah

Consider herself attractive: Yup

Sense of humor: Sexual humor, dad jokes ftw, but can also throw in some dark and self-deprecating humor nowadays.

What mood are they in most often: Most recently, a sort of determined melancholia. But he used to be very self-assured, confident, and flippant.

What angers them: Child abuse, betrayal, hurting those he cares about.

Outlook on life: “Just keep going. Roll with the punches. Because that sun is going to rise again, and you’re going to get to try again, try something new, find something new.”

What makes them sad or depressed: Thinking of those he has lost, thinking of Ghost, falling into his own insecurities.

Greatest weakness: He often jumps into situations without thinking them through. He tends to be very “leap before he looks”

Greatest strength: His determination and resiliency

Something they regret: Losing contact with his crew and Imelda, not being a better leader in his eyes, his past of piracy, and in some ways- all his deals with Mephistopheles, even the one that granted him his magic.

Biggest accomplishment: Isn’t this the same as greatest achievement?

Favorite memory: Sitting by the campfire with his group and all of them laughing, joking, and smiling with each other. With the good ol occasional ribbing at Corren’s expense.

#D&D #Alistair Stormcrown #Sekrezia #The F.U.C.K.s

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btschooseafic · 3 years

Text

Hey you, what’s your dream?

Pairing: platonic!oc x ot7

Details: manager!oc, predebut/idolverse, partial BTS World!verse

Summary: Debut day!

Warnings: This is a fictional story based on real events. The characters presented here are not the same as their real life counterparts. (TW: panic attack, dieting mentions) [Masterlist]

Track 22: Debut!

Started From the Bottom- Drake

“Started from the bottom now we’re here

Started from the bottom now my whole team fuckin’ here.”

Debut Showcase, Gangnam Ilchi Hall-June 12, 2013

“Aviva-yah,” Yoongi called. Aviva looked up with her camera, only to be faced with Yoongi snapping a picture of her with his. He looked down at his camera and grinned. “Looks good.”

Aviva looked him over. “So do you. I really like the skirt.”

Yoongi did a little twirl. “Hip hop!”

“Ah… I’m so nervous, I’m stiff as a board,” Jin muttered.

“Want a massage, hyung?” Jungkook offered. Jin blinked at him.

“Seriously? Yeah, that would be great.” Jin sighed happily as Jungkook massaged his shoulders. Aviva walked over, getting a shot of them. “You’re good at this. How come you don’t do it more often?”

“Cause this is a special occasion,” Jungkook told him. “Don’t get used to it, hyung.”

“…I’ll pay you in food,” Jin offered.

“…I’ll consider it,” Jungkook said. Aviva laughed. They glanced at her.

“Yah, go away, camera-ninja,” Jin said.

The boys preformed Bulletproof Pt. 2, No More Dream, and Like to round it out. In-between changing their outfits, Aviva got a quick word with Yoongi and Hoseok.

“How’s it going out there?” She asked them. Yoongi and Hoseok looked at each other.

“Good~?” Hoseok said.

“Good~” Yoongi agreed. Namjoon stepped up behind them, putting his hands on their shoulders. Hoseok clutched his chest as Yoongi plastered on an overly surprised face.

“What’re you guys doing?” Namjoon asked.

“Talking about how great you guys are,” Aviva told him.

“Yah!” Namjoon flushed. “It’s time to get back on stage!” He pointed his finger in the air. “Let’s go!”

Afterwards, Aviva stood off to the side, watching the boys get interviewed about their first performances.

Yoongi spoke about how they were more authentic than other idol groups doing hip hop. Namjoon spoke about wanting to reach out to teenagers and get them to think about what their dreams were, and wanting to win a Best New Artist Award.

At the end of the night Aviva presented them with a custom-made cake. “Sorry I didn’t bake this one,” she said. “But I saw an ad for this bakery, and I thought it could be cool.”

“It is!” Jimin assured her. “Your cakes are probably the tastiest, but this one is very pretty.” Aviva clenched her fist.

“I’m going to improve my cake decorating skills.”

“Ah, that’s not what I…” Jimin smiled at her determined expression. “Okay, I can’t wait to see what you come up with—shall we eat?”

M!Countdown Debut! June 13th 2013

At their debut M!Countdown stage, Aviva was carrying around her camera again, to get behind the scenes footage.

Joonho and his assistants were working hard to mark sure every item of clothing was perfectly place. Jihye and Eunjung were chatting as they waited for their turn. However, Aviva could see that Eunjung had already gotten to Namjoon earlier this morning with an important addition to his hairstyle.

Aviva laughed, stretching her arm up and tracing the letters RM that had been shaved into the side of his head. “I haven’t seen this yet…”

“What? You don’t like it?” Namjoon said nervously.

“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “It’s just… I wonder what you’ll think about this style when you look back at it. Fashion is so changeable…”

“All the more reason to enjoy it now!” Hoseok said, popping up behind them, wrapping one arm around her shoulders and the other around Namjoon’s back.

“You would say that,” Aviva said, flicking the spiky mask.

He laughed. “You really like this thing, huh?” He struck a dramatic pose. “What I do for the sake of art!” She and Namjoon both laughed along with him.

Jungkook and Jimin walked over. Jimin spotted the camera and swerved slightly to sit on a nearby bench.

“I’m going to practice,” Namjoon said, turning towards the wall and taking a few deep breathes before launching into one of his verses. It was the quick one.

Hoseok mimicked him jokingly. Jungkook watched and then did the same. Hoseok laughed.

Namjoon frowned, pointing at Jungkook. “I hate this kid.”

“No, you don’t, Namjoon-ah,” Aviva said easily.

“If you’re gonna copy me, try and do it properly, at least,” he challenged. Hoseok shrugged. Jungkook tried. “Not similar!”

“He can’t do it so well when he’s under the spotlight like that,” Hoseok told Aviva.

“Well, Namjoon-ah does have his own style of rap,” Aviva thought. “You should rap like yourselves, not like him. That’s what makes you all special.”

“Aw.” Hoseok poked her on the cheek. “Cutie, manager-nim.”

“…Can we move on?” Aviva said. “Your audience doesn’t want to hear about me, they want to hear about you.”

Jimin quickly rapped the verse, blushing when they turned to him.

“Ah, sorry,” Jimin said in English for some reason.

“No, it was cool,” Namjoon told him, patting him on the shoulder. “You’re the coolest.”

Readier, the boys loosened up by seeing who could rap the fastest in English. Then Namjoon moved on to walking through their performance. Aviva could see the maknae line’s eyes glazing over as he spoke. Taehyung spotted her and blew her a kiss. Jimin noticed and laughed quietly. He moved over to her.

“Shouldn’t you be listening to your leader?” Aviva teased.

Jimin grinned sheepishly. “Ah, well… I thought maybe our fans could use an update on what we’re doing? That’s who you’re recording this for, right? Our fans?” He thought. Aviva nodded. “Right now we’re in the waiting room.” Jimin pulled at Jungkook’s arm. “Jungkook-ah.” Jungkook turned around and stepped closer to them. “The camera’s on, see?” Jungkook bent down slightly.

“Yah, you don’t have to bend down,” Aviva said. “I’m not that short…” Jungkook laughed. “What will you do next, Jiminie?”

“Next we will…”

“Lose weight!” Jungkook said. Aviva frowned.

“Eh? Why~”

Jungkook laughed. “Stop with the aegyo, noona, you’re too old for that!” He turned back to Namjoon, walking closer over to him to listen.

“…Jungkookie’s a little grumpy today, isn’t he?” Jimin thought.

“Nervous?” Aviva wondered.

“I am,” Jimin admitted.

“I meant Kook... but, yeah, probably everyone is. I mean, I’m nervous and I’m not even performing!”

Jimin grimaced.

“Namjoon-ah, Jungook-ah, have you changed your socks?” One of the assistants asked. The boys broke up to continue getting ready.

“Well… we’re going to lose weight now, I guess,” Jimin said. “Yes, going to lose weight diligently. So I can show you great abs.” He looked down at himself.

“Your abs are already great,” Aviva told him honestly. Hoseok popped up behind Jimin, his plainer mask hanging over his chin.

“What are you doing?” He wondered.

Jimin blinked at him. “What?”

“Jiminie’s giving the fans an update!” Aviva told Hoseok.

“Right now we’re changing into our cool outfits before rehearsal,” Jimin told her and the camera. He wiggled his many ringed fingers at her.

“Bling~Bling~” Hoseok said. He held up his own gloved hand. “It says Bangtan Sonyeondan on it!”

“They are cool gloves,” Aviva agreed. “But you’re interrupting Jiminie.”

“Yeah, don’t interrupt me while I’m speaking to the camera, hyung!” Jimin said. “I get…” He glanced at Aviva and then looked away from her, staring at his feet. “…Shy.” He laughed nervously.

“Why?” Hoseok wondered. “It’s just Avi-yah.”

“It’s fine.” Aviva switched off her camera. “We can take a break.”

“Thanks, noona.” Jimin smiled at her.

“Cookie?” Yoongi offered, holding a small snack bag out to them.

“Ah, no thanks, hyung,” Jimin said. “I’m still dieting, so…”

Yoongi shrugged, holding it out to Aviva.

She took one. “Thanks.”

“You know, your shyness is cute, but you have to get used to the cameras if we’re going to debut now,” Hoseok said to Jimin.

Jimin frowned. “Yeah, well, how do you suggest I do that, Hobi-hyung?”

“Hmm…” Hoseok grinned. “I dare you to flash your abs to the camera.”

“Eh?” Jimin said. “Why?”

“Why?” Aviva agreed.

“Well, he’s going to be doing it on stage all the time now, so it’d be good practice, right?” He figured.

Jimin’s brow furrowed. “He’s got a point.”

“Yes, but the internet is forever,” Aviva reminded him. “If I post this…”

Jimin let out a breath. “Let’s do it.” He gripped the edge of his shirt. “Film me, noona.”

Soon they moved upstairs to the stage for the rehearsal. She got a shot of them moving up the stairs. Jungkook spotted her and waved.

“Ah, manager-noona, when did you get here?”

The other members shot her peace signs as they passed.

They moved straight from the rehearsal into the pre-recording for No More Dream. Aviva watched from the side and then ran around the corner to meet them as they exited the stage.

Aviva filmed them walking off stage, down the hall. The assistants were waiting with tissues to blot at their sweaty faces.

“This leather…” Namjoon muttered, pulling at his shirt, which was sticking to him with sweat. She switched her camera off, letting it hang off her neck. “Honestly.”

“Bend down.” She motioned at him. He did and she carefully dabbed at his face with a tissue, not wanting to ruin the makeup artist’s hard work. “There’s water and towels in the dressing room.”

“Good,” Yoongi said as he passed her. “It’s hot.”

Aviva froze, spotting Jin crying as he stepped off the stage.

“Oppa…” She frowned, noting one of the other cameramen was following him closer to get a shot. She followed them too. “Yah, give him some space.” The camera man hesitated. Aviva flashed her employee ID, and a glare at him. The camera man waved his hand and retreated out of the room. Jin was surrounded by assistants who were wiping his face and fanning him. Jimin and Namjoon were hovering, watching him concernedly. “Hi, Jinie-oppa. It’s okay to cry, you know.”

“But, I’m the oldest," he choked out. "I'm not supposed to..."

“You may be the oldest, but you also have the most sensitive heart,” she thought. “It’s a curse and a blessing.”

“I need to… get ready… for the… performance.”

She frowned at his ragged breathing.

“Seokjin-oppa.” She leaned up, brushing his hair away from his face. “Can you breath with me? Copy my breathing. Come on, slowly in… and out… good job.”

“Sorry,” he muttered, as his breathing settled.

“Hey, it’s a big moment, it makes sense to have big feelings, you don’t need to apologize, okay?”

“Okay.” He smiled slightly. “Guess I’ll say thank you, then.” He bent and kissed her forehead. “Thank you, manager-nim.”

“You two are being very sweet, but you should know, Avi, that he’s crying because his pants kept falling down,” Namjoon teased.

“Yah!” Jin protested, his face turning pink. Namjoon laughed as Jin got him into a headlock and rubbed roughly at his head.

“Ah, watch it—Eunjung-ssi is going to yell at you!”

“Eh? I thought it was because he made a mistake?” Jimin said to Aviva. Jin glared at him. Jimin patted him on the arm. “Don’t cry, hyung, it makes me want to cry too.”

Jin rejoined the others to do their huddle and cheer before they stepped back out onto stage to preform Bulletproof Pt. 2.

Jin waved at her as he passed. Yoongi gave her two thumbs up. Namjoon flashed her a peace sign.

After the performance, Aviva was waiting for them again near the door.

“We did well!” Jin said, hugging her. She laughed.

“Ah, oppa, I’m filming!”

“Our first broadcast recording!” Jin hugged Hoseok.

“First success!” Hoseok did a double fist pump.

“Oh yeah!” Namjoon echoed him as Jin moved on to hug Yoongi. “We’ll do even better on tomorrow’s stage.”

“We will do better tomorrow,” Jin agreed, though he was more subdued than the other two. He smiled weakly. “I have confidence for tomorrow.” Aviva couldn’t find the words. Instead she reached up and brushed his hair out of his face again.

Music Bank, No More Dream Debut!- June 14th 2013

The next day during rehearsal, Yoongi showed off his shirt with his stage name on it to the camera.

“I’m Suga, you see that?”

Aviva nodded. “Otherwise I wouldn’t know who you are.”

“Yah, you brat, it’s for the dry rehearsal,” he said. “You know that.”

Taehyung laughed behind them. Yoongi made a silly face at him. He laughed harder.

Aviva went out into the seats out a couple rows away from the stage to film their rehearsal.

“Yah, noona, don’t you have confidence in me?” Jimin whined after they finished the rehearsal and gathered back in the dressing room. “I know I made a small mistake with the kick, but I promise I’ll practice—and I always get the jump right every time. Every time!”

Aviva was taking a break from filming to charge her camera.

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“The part when I jump over Hobi, I saw how nervous you got!”

Aviva blushed slightly. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, Jiminie, I just… you know I worry.”

“Then don’t watch that part, close your eyes,” Yoongi suggested.

She frowned.

“I can’t do that. I have to support you guys, and get behind the scenes footage, and—“

“Okay, okay.” He waved his hand. “It was just a suggestion.”

She chewed at her lip. “I like the thing with the hat though. It’s cute.”

“I’m not sure cute was what Hobi was aiming for, but I’ll take it!” Jimin said.

Aviva got her camera back in time to film Jimin and Yoongi practicing their dance moves. Taehyung joined them.

“We have to do well,” he told Aviva seriously. “There’s only one chance.” She tilted her head.

“One chance for…?”

He blinked at her. “There’s only, one chance~” He started to sing.

She nodded. “One Shot, B.A.P.”

“Ding, ding, ding—correct!”

Meanwhile, Jungkook trying some of Namjoon’s throat spray.

He coughed. “Are you supposed to drink water with this?”

“Hmmm?” Namjoon looked at him sleepily.

Aviva turned to get shots of the other members. Jin spotted her and waved with the sleeves of his leather jacket, which he was wearing backwards. She laughed.

“Why are you being so cute?”

He pouted at her. “Are you suggesting I’m not usually cute?”

“You’re not usually this shy,” she thought.

“Ah, I did a shy introduction, so I’m still shy now,” he explained.

She nodded. “Well, that’s okay, oppa, I like both the shy and confident versions of you,” she said honestly. He blushed. “Where did Kook go? He was just here...” He laughed.

“Ah, yeah, he’s fallen asleep again.”

Jungkook had almost passed out in his chair.

“Drink,” she ordered him, handing him a water bottle as one of the stagehands fanned him.

“What?” He smiled at her, dazed. “Oh, manager-noona, hi.”

She frowned. “You need to eat something, get your blood sugar up.”

“But I’m on a diet~” Jungkook said. “You can’t make me~”

Aviva sighed. “What about some juice?”

He blinked and nodded. “Yes please.”

“I’ll get it for him,” Jin offered, pulling his jacket on the right way around now. Aviva glanced over at Jimin, who was still practicing.

“Get one for Jiminie too, please.”

Jin nodded.

“One juice for the maknae and one for the Bagel Man, got it.”

Aviva squinted after him.

“Why is Jiminie a bagel?”

“It’s a combo between baby face and glamorous body,” Jungkook explained. He smiled. “Namjoon-hyung told me I’ll probably be like that someday.” His brow furrowed. “Hmm, where did Namjoon-hyung go?”

“I’ll look for him.”

She found him sitting on a chair in the hallway, his head in his hands. He looked like The Thinker, except even stiffer than stone. She switched off her camera, having a feeling he wouldn’t want the fans seeing him like this.

“Namjoon-ah…” Aviva punched lightly at his back. “You’re so tense. Come on, man.”

He squinted at her.

“If that’s an attempt at a massage, you’re failing.”

“No, I’m just hitting you.”

“Oh. You’re doing great then.”

She sighed, laying her hands flat and smoothing them over his shoulders, kneading at the tense muscles.

He made a bit of a happy noise.

“Better?” She asked in his ear. He jolted and then stiffened again. “Sorry.” She withdrew from him.

“No! I…” He turned, his face red. “It’s fine. That was… nice. Thanks. You, ah, weren’t filming that, were you?”

She shook her head. “I do still need some more footage though.”

“You’ll find it,” Namjoon said confidently. “You’re good at this.”

“You’re so amazing, Syub Syub,” Hoseok was saying to Yoongi back inside the room. “You actually danced.” Yoongi turned, spotting Aviva with the camera.

“I usually don’t show off my dancing,” he explained to any future viewers.

“You’re so cool,” Hobi praised. Yoongi smiled awkwardly. Hoseok turned to Tae. “V-ssi, you should show us too.”

Taehyung blinked. “Show what?”

Hoseok hummed one line of the song. “That part.”

Tae did a confused little head wiggle for the camera.

It was cute, but awkward.

“The truth is, V-ah doesn’t do that part,” Yoongi told the camera.

“Oh?” Hoseok smirked.

Yoongi squeezed Taehyung’s shoulder.

“You don’t need to know that part. It’s not yours.”

Hoseok shot an apologetic look at Tae, who was frowning, and then attacked him with a hug, biting his shoulder for some reason.

“Ah, hyung, you’re not a vampire!” Tae said, laughing.

“You’re so cute I just wanna eat you up!” Hoseok told him. Taehyung ran away from him, hiding behind Aviva.

“Yah, leave Taehyung-ah alone,” Jin said, stopping his neck stretches to glare at Hoseok.

“Are you okay?” Aviva asked Yoongi as Tae leaned on her. “How’s your shoulder?” He frowned at the camera. “Ah, sorry, I can edit that out.”

“Please do. The shoulder’s fine,” he told her. “Right now, I’m a little nervous for the pre-recording. I feel dazed, but I’m keeping myself on my toes.” Hoseok and Jin popped in and out from behind him making faces. Tae flashed a peace sign in front of the camera. Yoongi completely ignored them. “We’ll work hard. Please watch over us.” He smiled, just a tinge of annoyance on his face.

“But you’ve been great in front of the camera,” she told him. “I really appreciate it, since it gives me more material to pick from… but don’t force yourself, okay?”

“I’m not,” he told her.

“Swag!” Namjoon called out as he passed the camera, ready to preform. Aviva tried not to laugh. Yoongi bowed slightly. Hoseok and Jimin flashed peace signs.

Aviva watched from the side, grinning as girls shrieked at Jimin’s abs reveal, and cheered at Jimin’s leap.

“We finished it!” Namjoon said as he came off stage, smiling in relief.

“Ah, that was scary!” Yoongi said, rubbing his chest.

Jungkook pronounced it, “So-so.”

“The end!” Hoseok said, flashing a peace sign at the camera.

“Hi.” Jin waved shyly. “We did well, I think.”

“The end!” Tae said, flashing a peace sign. Aviva laughed.

“Hobi just did that!”

Tae pouted.

In the dressing room, Aviva looked at Jimin.

“Have you been avoiding me?”

“Not you, necessarily…” He eyed the camera and stepped closer, pointing. “That red light scares me the most. It makes me wonder what I should say.”

“Just be yourself,” Aviva told him. “If I record anything you’re uncomfortable with sharing, I can always edit it out. I promise not to post anything you don’t want me to.”

Jimin smiled, stroking the lens like it was the face of his lover.

“You’re a good girl, huh?”

“I won’t be if you keep touching the lens!”

He laughed.

Across the room, Jin was making faces at Aviva, passing his hand over his face, and changing his expression dramatically. A sleepy Taehyung was sitting next to him as he got his makeup fixed, clearly not amused.

“Wow, I’m so nervous,” Jungkook said as they headed back towards the stage for the live broadcast.

“You got this!” Aviva told him.

During the performance, Aviva was out in the audience again, catching shots of the fans cheering, especially when the boys flashed their abs, and got into their dance solos.

Afterwards, the boys made more faces at her as they came off stage. The photographer had disappeared somewhere, so Aviva was put in charge of taking the after-performance group photos for the fans. Tae and Jimin were reaching across the group to hold hands, as Hoseok bit down on Jimin’s head for some reason.

“Hobi!” Aviva called out to him. “Do I need to get you a teething toy?” The boys laughed, including Hoseok.

“Ah, we are born in the year of the dog, after all! Come play with us!” He walked over and grabbed her hand, waving at one of the assistants. “Hi, hi, noona, can you get a picture of us with our manager too?” He patted Aviva on her head, ignoring her protests. “We won’t post it anywhere, so just stay still and let us commemorate this moment. You’re part of it too, you know.”

#bts #fanfiction #idolverse #ot7 #manager!oc #bts x oc #ot7 x oc #bts predebut #bts fanfiction

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queerlyhalloween · 4 years

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Not to sound like the joker™️ but i hate western society. I know that hair and clothes aren't gendered, so do most of my mates, ive been working hard at unlearning the internalized transphobia that's just a part of being trans in the UK and actually ALLOWING myself to think about going on hormones and dressing in ways other than "ambigious as possible" despite the fact im non-binary

i grew myself a little mullet because ive not been working in the pub and wanted solid snake hair, ive allowed myself to look at my face and the long hair around it and not despair because i know that longer hair doesn't make me a woman, but the moment you go into a shop, or get takeaway or pass by people in the street its all "move out the way of this lady!" and "thank you, ma'am"

i dont want the gender option of 'other' on my ID i want to know 1 good reason why gender should be listed on an ID in the 1st place

ive just come back from the range and i had my hair up like some e-thot fuckboy, i had to go BACK to the range because they got my click and collect order wrong so ive got two members of staff looking over my order, im dressed in black jeans and a black masc-looking ripped shirt, mask covering half my face and as the manager's showing the kid who served me the receipt they go "oh I served that guy earlier" and the manager corrects them "its a lady". I say "im niether" and they both just stare at me like im a toddler. Im already panicking because the air feels the same way it did when some cunt came after me in the pub toliets. "dont worry about it :)" i say, they both turn back to the tills and completely ignore me.

Anyway, micro-aggressions, ive experienced a lot of them for many reasons over the course of my life and today ive decided to snap.

Not at the people in the range like, just in general.

I will never pass. That's just an element of trans euphoria i will never get to experience. Not right off the bat, anyway. Not where i live, and most likely not in my lifetime. Maybe for kids in LA or Brighton, and hey power to you guys man im happy for you, but people assume or guess m/f when they look at me and they will never get it right.

So when i see people on this site try and twitter etc rank "who's the most oppressed"™️ like a godamn smash bros tier list it blows my mind because of all the things you could spend your days doing thats what youre expending energy on?!

You could be the exact same age, race, sex, gender, sexuality, you could have the exact same disabilities, mental health conditions and money in your bank as another person on this site and you'd still never understand what they've been through. Our experiences, our families, our morals and lives are always gonna be different and the moment you try to write definitive rules on whose got it worse you've already lost and you're already wrong. Oppressed classes are not a fucking hivemind and pretending they are is only going to cause you more problems. I get the strong sense that some of you looked at the word intersectionality, went "ah yeah, i know what that means" having never read up on the matter, then proceeded to play the pain olympics.

And its creating a culture where kids feel the need to spills their souls online to justify living their lives!

You've not listed your disabilites in your bio so you're able-bodied. You're Irish but haven't listed your race so you're white. You're cis man so you've never played with gender and suffered as a result. You're asexual so clearly you're a cringeworthy baby who's never experienced a wrong-doing in their life.

The reverse is true too, if you list every aspect of yourself then you're automatically honest. The more opressed you are the less likely you are of causing harm to others. Psht, don't have a carrd in this day and age? What are you, a fraud? cishet white man playing make believe? Post a selfie or face the wrath of ozymandaus. What's privacy? It takes me 3 minutes to read the bio on this discourse side-blog so clearly they're an angel.

my mam abused me for years, she did the same to my brother when i left home at 18 and my dad drank himself to death. My nan, his mother, never believed me because my mam's a disabled woman with a lot of trauma, and at 14 how do you explain to the woman who takes you to the beach that it's WORSE because as she's beckoning you to the side of her bed so she can scream point blank in your face, or hit you, you're never truely sure, you're thinking about running away because of course she physically can't chase you but she can throw. And then where would you go if you did buggar off?

"You have to sleep sometimes" she used to say to me when I'd piss her off. Other days she told me horror stories about kids in care, and disabled people having their kids taken away, made me promise that I'd always love her and always be her baby, and I'd do that for her because she's my mam, she'd be satisfied then ignore me for a while. I grew up thinking that was entirely normal until i'd tell funny family stories at school and nobody would laugh. The closest I got to truely running away was when I changed my name and pronouns and her rejection, turned to vitriol one night and I so, so, nearly held a knife to my throat and simply fell forwards in the uni showers. Obviously I didn't do that.

But she's had a shitter life than me thus far so she's in the right, as the online black/white dichotomy states. I keep her at arm's length but I'm unable to cut her away without losing the rest of my family because I dared defy the role of eldest child and care for her as I've done my whole life, as is expected.

we need to take things on a case by case basis, and learn when stuff is none of our business.

"Hey! :) I see you've reclaimed (X) slur, without submitting the proper paperwork. Real quick tell me every trauma you've ever experienced or I'll write a callout post :) delete this anonymous message (as is your right) and i'll assume you as sus ❤"

you can only call yourself a dyke if on your 13th birthday, the moon's tender rays struck you through your bedroom window and gave you your first wet dream about girls.

Great, cool. I have no interest in calling myself a dyke, i cant call myself a lesbian because it makes me dysphoric, thats why im queer, but i can assure you that when 3 kids from catholic school pinned me under the bridge and threatened to cut me open for being a "dirty dyke tramp" they didn't play 20Qs with me first to check that i was actually a lesbian.

if your first thought is "well thats just misdirected homophobia, so youre not ACTUALLY a victim" log the fuck off and consider what's wrong with you. Because all our oppressors care about is sniffing out the wrong on you and beating it out, they dont care what breed of wrong it is.

so you're going to spend your day, the enlightened adult that you are, frothing at the mouth because some 15yr old dared call themselves butch despite them being OnLY a BiSexUAl? You're gonna say that trans woman deserves to be suicidal because yes she may be trans BUT she's from the UK, so clearly she loves her horrid country and government. You're gonna say that black lad deserves racial abuse because he's trying to focus on his studies rather than go to protests. That 19yr old who's living in poverty deserves it because they work for Amazon. Texans deserve to freeze to death because there are republicans in Texas.

You're going to harass a complete stranger coming to terms with the parts of themselves society has taught them are worthless at best because they're not doing it the way YOU think is right.

This post has not ended where I started it but I really dont care:

Some of you are so fucking desperate to be the bullies you never got to be in secondary school and it shows. But you're cowards. You can't just admit you want to divide and concur so you do it in a new woke way and when your time on this earth is done, you'll have commited the same pain that's been dealt to you and wonder why you died miserable in a world thats more or less the same.

okay to reblog but dont @ me for a debate because i have, like, real problems and will just block you

#tw suicide mention #child abuse #homophobia #transphobia #ablesim #racism #*muffled screaming*#im shit at tagging sorry if i missed anything but im out i think

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tjkiahgb · 5 years

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On August 13th, 2018, at 8:20 PM, TJ Kippen performed a basketball-themed apology rap for Buffy Driscoll and completed his redemption arc. In doing so, he became a full and complete hashtag good boi and fulfilled this blog’s ridiculous destiny.

This post is scheduled to go up on August 13th, 2019, at 8:20 PM. It only feels right that I retire this blog on the one year anniversary of that moment.

Okay. It’s not that dramatic. I’m not deleting my account or logging out forever or anything. I’ll be around. I’ll check in and like some posts and hang out like the kid who graduated high school but won’t leave. He keeps coming back and acting chummy with the teachers and it’s like, doesn’t he have better stuff to do?

The point is, my queue is depleted, my drafts are empty. I don’t have a shift in fandoms planned. I don’t have anything planned. It’s time for me to turn my attention to other things and stop thinking about this show and writing about it and working on this blog.

So that’s basically the tl;dr of this whole deal. I’m going to write some rambling personal stuff so if you don’t care, which most people probably won’t, then thanks for reading and thanks for all the memories. It’s been fun.

Okay, lemme ramble. And if you’ve read this blog for a while, you’ve probably heard some of this already, but whatever, this is my goodbye post.

Way back in October of 2017, I came across a post on a website for TV news that said “Disney Channel to Feature Its First Gay Main Character in Andi Mack Season 2″. I didn’t know what Andi Mack was, and I hadn’t watched Disney Channel in well over a decade. I remembered reading about the two moms on Good Luck Charlie when it happened, but I also remembered that it was, you know, mostly nothing. A lot of controversy for what was just a quick little thing. But this headline noted that it was a Main Character. And I’m reading the article and it’s talking about how he’s going to have this journey in season two and the producers had talked to GLAAD and other groups to get it right, and I’m like, wow, this is pretty cool, this really seems like they’re putting some respect into this. (I’m also thinking about how much young, closeted me would’ve killed for something like this.)

So I set my DVR to record it not knowing what to expect. Mostly thinking it was just going to be your standard Disney Channel show: cheesy and corny and bad jokes, but I’ll catch the coming out scene and it’ll be cool to see how they handle it and that’ll probably be that.

And then I’m watching the episode and I’m like, this is... not bad? In fact, more than not bad, this is way better than it has any right to be. And then I got to the coming out scene, which was so well done, and I’m just... shocked. This is like Pixar. Like, it’s for kids, but I can watch it as an adult and pick up on themes and subtleties. This is not like the shows from my childhood. Where was this show when I was growing up?

Next thing I know I’m watching the next episode. And the next one. And I’m starting to care for these characters. I can forgive a lot of issues with plot if I care about the characters and what this show did, maybe as well as any show on television, is made you care for the characters, from top to bottom.

So now I’m watching the show regularly. At some point, I went back and binged through season one on DisneyNow. I’m in, as a casual viewer at this point at least.

And then I get to 2.11, and the swing scene happens, and I watch it wordlessly, and it ends, and I feel like I’m losing my mind. I could not believe what I just saw. I thought for sure this show was just going to have a couple of coming out scenes and that would be the end of it. Had I really just watched a scene that was hinting at a gay romance?

I wanted so badly to talk about it with someone else to see if they were seeing what I was seeing, but, as you may not be surprised to learn, none of my adult friends were watching Andi Mack. So I started looking around online. And I eventually found my way here, to this site, to the tag. And people were seeing what I was seeing. And people were excited about it, and I was like, okay, cool, I might’ve found my community.

So I started lurking around here. And I would check in after 2.12 and 2.13, and I was really starting to enjoy it. Most of the stuff I watch that I care about I’ll watch with friends or family and talk about it with them, so I never really thought being a part of a fandom would be worthwhile. Plus, I’d hear about shipping wars and other nonsense like that, and I’m like, I’m not going to make an account to argue with people over fictional characters’ relationships.

But what I was finding about this community was that it was more positive than that. There were arguments, sure. You’re going to get them in any group of people. But for the most part, people just seemed happy. They were posting theories and memes and gifs and jokes and fanfics. And they were celebrating the characters and developments. I don’t know if that’s special to the Andi Mack fandom or not, but it seemed special to me.

That’s around when I started thinking about making an account, during that hiatus between 2A and 2B. But I was like, do I want to commit to this? What’s the point of my account? What do I want to say? And at some point in the hiatus, I was checking the tag, and I saw a gifset. It was by an account, since deleted and gone, but who, at the time, was very prominent in the fandom. And the gifset was all about attacking Tyrus. It was trying to take everything nice about what had happened between TJ and Cyrus and stomp on it. Tyrus was like a little baby ship at this point. People were just starting to get into it, the numbers weren’t that big. There wasn’t even really a name for the ship back then. The Tyrus tag was mostly that professional wrestler and the CJ tag was even worse. And this account had decided they were going to use their platform to try and make this small group of people in the fandom feel bad about liking their ship. I just remember thinking, why? Why be like that? It just seemed so unnecessary. And for the briefest of moments, I thought, okay, maybe I’ll make an account to be a troll and argue this stuff. And then I was like, nah, that’s just going to make the tag worse. When you see someone trying to ruin things for other people, you can give them attention and power, or you can just do your own thing.

So what I decided to do instead was to make an account that would add to the positivity I had been seeing. To just be one of the many voices doing fun stuff to drown out the bad. I could put out dumb posts to hopefully make people laugh, or eventually start writing recaps to give people something to do after watching the episode. There wasn’t really any bigger goal than that. Kill some time while celebrating the show and making the tag a more fun place, if only incrementally.

I’d like to think I did that. That I haven’t written or made too many things that have bummed people out and that most of my posts have hopefully made things better for people who wanted to hang out on here and talk about the show.

That’s all. At the end of everything, that was all. Just try to leave a net-positive wherever you go.

So that’s why I joined tumblr. Here’s why I stayed.

I am an unemployed writer. I’m an employed something else, but I would like to be an employed writer and I am currently not. And what that really means is I’m an unread writer. It means I write stuff and I try to convince people to read it and buy it, but most of the time they don’t. Most of the time, my stuff sits around waiting and hoping to be read. And when that’s the case, you can start to feel doubt.

What I didn’t realize when I started this account was that I would also be getting positivity back. I mean, I probably should have. It was the whole reason I started this, because I liked the positivity here. I guess I just didn’t expect it to be returned to me.

But it has. It has tremendously. Just writing this silly stuff that I do and putting it out there and getting feedback on it has meant so much to me. People saying something I’ve written is funny or interesting or just saying that they enjoyed it is such a confidence boost. You feel like, okay, people like my jokes or the way I think or whatever. There’s an audience for me somewhere. People who will get me. I just need to stick with it.

That’s what you all have been for me this last year and a half. More than just making this a fun place to share our love of this show, you’ve made this a place for me to feel seen.

I try not to tie too much of my self-esteem to the amount of interaction my posts get. (Seriously, don’t do that, it can be really unhealthy. I’m like, if a post flops, it flops. No biggie. Move on to the next one.) But every note I do get on something I’ve written lets me know I’ve done something right. The reblogs, the likes, the follows, the nice messages in my inbox, the comments on the posts. Any of it. All of it. It lets me know I’ve been read. It makes me feel like I’ve made a connection. And that means the world to me.

So thank you, to any and all of you who participated in this thing with me. Thank you for reading. Thank you for being a part of my experience on here. Thank you for being so cool that I wanted to join your group in the first place and thank you for being so great afterwards that I’m eternally happy I did.

It’s meant more to me than you could possibly know.

Keep the positivity.

- Jay

#blog stuff

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tslasvegas · 4 years

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Episode 8: “On the upside we got the numbers.” - Andrew (who is then voted out by those numbers)

It’s always a sad and unfortunate thing when a player needs to leave a game for personal reasons. I’m wishing Kevin all the best!

Welp. I don't wanna say that this sucks, but this sucks. My closest ally walked from the game, and I hope he's ok. I really hope everything is ok with him. But now, I'm a green in a world of pinks. What my pink friends don't realize though, is I have a Safety Without Power advantage. Nobody knows about it. So if we lose, they cannibalize themselves, and that will be a sight to see. But I'd like to keep my advantage for as long as possible. But if we lose, that'll be a fun tribal council. I can only hope it's a double tribal. Now this - this is a redemption arc.

If a merge at 13 is next, then we are done! ugh.

MERGE HAPPENS

We merged!! And I only had to attend a single tribal council in the premerge with 8 eliminations. That’s wild! We’re sitting here in merge with 7 OG Palazzo, 3 OG Bellagio and 3 OG Luxor. If Palazzo sticks together, we’d have the majority whichever way you look at it. However, I don’t imagine that group is going to stick together very long. Joey wants to get myself and Jaiden into single digits. I’d love to help get Jake into single digits as well. And I’d also like to get Livingston to at least 6th place. Honestly a group of that 5 sounds like a pretty good idea, and I might pitch it to Joey later today. And now we’re doing mastermind! A game I love but rarely ever win. I usually come close and I’m hoping this time around I can snag a win and be safe this first tribal. Nothing is scarier than the merge round of the game. Anything at all can happen. There’s still some idols and extra votes floating around, maybe some steal a votes too. There’s also that safety without power and the legacy advantage, which may be able to be played this round? Exciting things are brewing im sure.

We made the merge!!

youtube

So OG Palazzo must be tight. Good thing Steph and Joey are still reaching out. But I don't know if we can build up a resistance with the non-OGPalazzo. I mean, in theory, it can happen. 6 of us, with a steal a vote. But so much has happened voting on opposite sides, I don't know if it is doable. We can try. Better to go out blazing at 13th, than just waiting for your turn to be voted out before F7.

I MADE IT TO MERGE AGAIN... okay I feel good about my surroundings, as well as the people I’m next to. OG Palazzo wants to go all the way to Final 7, but I know that ain’t gonna happen, cause I’m turning on them as fast as humanly possible. I need others to see that I’m a strengthener to their games, and now that its every player for themselves, I think I can grab some allies and make shit happen. I have a Legacy Advantage, and I’m just trying to get to 6.

I’m sad I lost all my chips. On the upside we got the numbers

MERGE BITCH

Ok but for serious I don't have much to say so I'm just going to do an assessment of everyone on the tribe. Andrew - I thought I was gonna like Andrew bc I thought he was c*te then I find out he likes The Sims so there was something easy for us to talk about!! But then... come to find out. He's not really interested in talking I guess. So I'm just going to leave him alone and not carry on a conversation. Ben - WHY is Ben still here. I'm so annoyed. Ben tries so hard to be my ally but I don't trust him that much. Before the merge, he pitched a plan to pool our coins (meaning: I had to send him all of mine) so that I could spin the wheel and avoid going bankrupt. Then he said we're a final two. I was like,,, no thanks. I feel like he's going to blow up his game at some point, but I just gotta pretend better to be on his side. Idk how to do that exactly... Jake - Jake has been THE biggest surprise of the merge to be honest. I actually really like Jake. He's a little "irritating" I guess, but more in the sense that he is just pretty bro-y and that's not my energy. I respect Jake's desire to be great in Tumblr Survivor, we have that in common here. I think right now, Jake and I are as close as you can get to working together without actually being a legitimate alliance. I want to see where this takes us because he's a cool guy and I really feel bad for talking shit about him before the merge. Jeff - Part of me likes Jeff, but part of me views him as the enemy simply because he's part of the "Palazzo 7". I want to try and work on Jeff because maybe he and I see things the same way? I don't think this game is strictly "seven strong" like Joey perpetuates, I'll get to that in a minute though. Anyways, I want to see how things go with Jeff cuz he seems like a cool dude and I'm definitely a meninist and want to be his bitch! Joey - I hate that I'm in a position where I both know Joey is vital for my game right now, but also that I can't stand his strategy. I like him as a person, let's make that very clear for the post-season - I just don't subscribe to his idea that there's a seven person alliance (which btw includes him according to numbers???) running the show. I will definitely feel Joey out some more before I make any decision to attach myself to him fully or throw him to the wolves. John - THREAT. I'm on high alert for John and kinda trying to maintain a safe, social-distancing-approved level of space between us. I think that John is definitely running things at least in one or two circles and I don't want him to turn that target around on me. I also can't let him know that I'm onto him. John is probably playing it where everybody just likes him and includes him in plans, but in the event that he is pulling strings, that's where the issues start. Kailyn - I don't really care for Kailyn anymore tbh. I kinda think Kailyn is playing a good under the radar game and I think it's in a lot of people's benefit to send her off to the jury sooner rather than later. I have no read on who she's close with though so that's the danger. Probably John? But who knows. Keegan - I also am surprised that I like Keegan as much as I do. He seemed a little bit too smart for his own good? But he's actually rather nice. He flops like I do but I think he's a danger if I'm not careful. I'll keep on this guy and hopefully he doesn't target me <3 I'd rather work with Keegan than against him especially now.

Livingston - WOW I thought I'd like Livingston but goddamn this guy is BORING. Not only does he not message back, but he has nothing interesting to provide to a conversation. If he was the first person to go this round I wouldn't really be upset oop Pat - We talked a lot about drag race. We played an org together and I remember now that Pat was fucking IRRELEVANT so I'm surprised to see this new energy. Who are you and what did you do with the real Pat? Stephanie - I don't really like Stephanie's strategy either, she's just too damn likable and kind of floats on by, I wish she had left last time instead of Rachael because then it's likely Rachael gets the boot soon. But we'll see what happens. I just hope that me voting for her isn't going to kill our relationship and we can work together at some point, at least until she gets voted out. Xavier - I have a hard time reading Xavier. I think I'm calmed down from feeling threatened by him. I trust Xavier enough to not go and screw up a vote again, but does he trust me? Don't really know. I want to work with Xavier at least for a couple votes but I know that he and Ben aren't on good terms and Ben is a vote that I need right now :/ The issue I have with Xavier is that he is positioning himself to kinda be a doormat just doing whatever people want and not necessarily.. taking control of how people look at him I guess. He sticks out for being the "dad" on the tribe and doesn't bring a lot of his own personality to conversation - it's just really basic strategy. I don't know anything about him that I didn't have to go fucking find out about him on his public YouTube. Insert clown emoji here. Anyways, overall I feel okay about my chances on this tribe... So far. I honestly don't see myself playing a winning game right now - BUT it's final thirteen and there is a lot of time to turn that around for myself. I feel good in comparison to my previous Tumblr Survivor seasons because there hasn't been a vote where I've completely made myself stand out like a sore thumb. My head is in a good place to finish out this game strong, just gotta put the pedal to the metal and work shit out. Maybe win a couple challenges! Whatever twists are ahead... I'm not prepared. But I am going to walk away from this season for the better, one way or another. Eight people down, twelve left to go.

Well, I came close to winning but unfortunately didn't. Kailyn won immunity and we had a twist where we all had to choose between two buttons. Aaaaand Kailyn now has immunity this tribal and next tribal. Lovely. After the challenge, Andrew immediately threw out Jake's name, which was worrying but I think Jeff and I have managed to sway things towards Ben. Which is a little scary, since it's highly possible he has an idol or advantage (though he did play an idol on himself at the Rachael boot. So maybe not?) Now, the question is going to become: how do Livingston and myself navigate these next few tribals with Jake? We need to keep him safe and the target off his back. There's also Joey and Jaiden who I definitely want to keep working with moving forward. I think I'm in a decent spot. I really don't see Jaiden or Jake keeping their mouth shut if my name comes up. I think I've managed to build enough of a bond with them that they won't target me. My concern is definitely Ben being a little sneak, as well as Kailyn and Xavier, who really don't talk at all. John... can also be kinda sneaky and he also has been super quiet. However, when all is said and done, I just want a single digit placement. I don't care what happens before/after that, just please let me get there.

My first merge in 3 seasons of Tumblr Survivor, finally! It would be awesome if the tyrannical force of pink wasn’t here. Right now I’m practically a sitting duck. I’ve made connections with Jaiden and Joey who I just met, I’m hoping they’d watch my back. Ben and I are great friends from outside the game, we’re called the Jew-O Duo, for obvious reasons. I’m in a duo with Jeff called Jeff Squared, a duo with Pat called The Best Men, a trio with Liv and Keegan (that’s super dangerous cause I know they’re friends), and me John and Xavier are the Luxor Losers. I should feel protected - but I don’t. I need to keep working socially and hope that I can scoot by a couple more rounds. I wanna buddy up with Steph and Kailyn, I have no interest in working with Andrew after he flat out told me he wasn’t turning on Pink. It could be me tonight. We’ll just have to see.

....five seconds later

No. No no no no no no no. I'm sick of Andrew trying to get me out, and then going after my allies instead. I can't just sit here and let him walk all over me the entire game. He has been wishy washy and fake with me since I met him. I'm not gonna play a game of what ifs, I'm taking a gamble and gonna get his own tribe to flip on him. I've got enough information from Jeff, Pat, and Liv to spin into a lie. I know Andrew said my name - but Jeff and Keegan changed it to Ben, so if I tell Keegan that Andrew blamed him on my name coming up I think I can flip him. I can try to get John, Ben, and Xavier, Keegan can get Liv and Joey, that's 7. If it blows up in my face - Oh well. This is season 99! We're high rolling now.

Had a nice long conversation with Jake this morning. Andrew has been throwing my name under the bus for some reason? Well Andrew, better watch out because I’m driving that bus and swerving it at you. OG Palazzo is... not my favourite. Honestly I’m okay if it dies tonight. Jake, Livingston, Ben, Joey, Jaiden and myself can definitely switch things up. I imagine we can get John and Xavier on board as well, maybe even Kailyn. I was perfectly okay riding the pink wave for a few rounds, but Andrew you just had to go and mess that up. Why? For what reason? Hoping it’s you tonight. xoxo Gossip Girl

I feel good about tribal, rip Andrew I guess, but I'm nervous as hell for some reason that it could be me. It would be perfect because I don't even see it coming... :/

I don't know what happened, but there seems to be a "merging" of tribal lines. Which is good for me. The vote is going Andrew with 9. And the 4 are voting Ben. Or everyone is playing everyone. I am just happy I am not one of the options BUT I was told that Steph and I are being mentioned by people as a tight 2. Well, they're right, but I didn't want that to come out.

Andrew is being his paranoid self. And rightfully so. Unless I’m getting completely bamboozled, the vote should between 7 and 9 votes for Andrew, and between 6 and 4 votes for Ben. Fingers crossed this goes off without a hitch

Okay so premerge wasn’t too hard tbh. Just making friendships with my og palazzo. I just hope that every week people see someone else as less important to their game. I have a long mental game for this and I am prepared to take this game week by week and adjust to everything that comes. I just pray that I make it through this week and even if I lose Andrew I don’t mind tbh because then I have an idol to myself. I’m obsessed with Livingston tbh he’s so funny and I like a good amount of the people I didn’t get a chance to meet premerge so I think there’s good room to move about

After last tribal I honestly want Ben gone. He’s kind of rude and frustrating. OG Pallazzo has the numbers so in theory we should be set but who knows? 🤷🏼‍♀️

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relatablemormonmoments · 5 years

Text

October 2019 Saturday Session Notes

Morning

Jeffrey R. Holland

Anonymous women and men identify Christ as reason for clamor

Find Jesus at center of it all

Our faith can be overwhelming

Love of heavenly PARENTS

Recieve your sight, your faith has healed you

Skeptics and faithful still contend

Faith and service

Terrence M. Vinsen

Build the lord's temple instead of staying in our safe houses

Earneth wages to put in a bag with holes (oooo graphics)

Less wifi and more Nephi

We shouldn't let the gospel be an added extra or just go to church 2 hours on Sundays. Church is extended 6 more days a week

Fair Dinkum->being commited

If we think things will be easy we will lose

Parable of the Fat Lip and Broken Jaw -> resulted in giving our all

Giving our all =/= blessings and success, Giving our all=Happiness

When he falls he shall rise again

Never waivered in faith and goodness, but deeply hirt for a long time

Wound expanding over our hearts

Pain in heart = Pain in soul, If we go to God it can be taken away

What should I do ghat I may have eternal life, that I shall return to God?

Prepare to give up all we have

Consider your ways

I hope this guy becomes an apostle 😍😍😍

Stephen W. Owen

Cellphone intentions quickly become distractions

Missed scripture study and subsequently the blessing and spiritual healing that comes with it

24 gour news cycle = bad

We must learn to recieve revelation

Herd of deer trapped outside of habitat-could starve. Deer can't eat well meaning hay -> starve to death with stomachs full

Spiritual nourishment is not trending on social media

Pride of world causes us to abandon church

Motions of spirituality do not mean true conversion

We need to be faithful, not faithless

Home centered church helps us thrive in days of spiritual malnutrition

Master of distraction, author of procrastination = Satan

Children need more of your time, not less

Curriculum for meetings is being adjusted

Moved to new neighborhood at age 14-> feels like tragedy

Parents, let youth know they are not alone as they walk

Your influence might be the church support that that young person needs.

D. Todd Christoffersen

We can feel joy regardless of what is happening or what's not happening in our lives

Those who serve God and are chaste are more joyful than those who are only obedient

Recieving the gospel makes us feel like a free bird

Be of good cheer

Joy of returning to geaven

Bring light, relief, and happiness ro our brothers and sisters

Michelle Craig

How can I tell when God is trying to tell me something?

Be intentional about creating time and space to hear God's voice

Imagine what would happen if we were as intent in staying connected to heaven as we were to staying connected to wifi

Lord can use your ordinary skills to accomplish his extraordinary work

Dale G. Renlund

New but unwavering commitment to Jesus Christ

Unchanging fidelity to God

MY ARCHAEOLOGIST BRAIN ISNT HAPPY WITH THE IDEA OF THROWING THE ITEMS RELATED TO OUR OLD IDENTITIES AWAY AND COMPLETELY DESTROYING IT

Begin new life in Christ

Spiritual sneeze, faithful flu- doesnt work

Recieve Christ's image more fully.

Constant flow of Faith

"Isn't this the truth that we have heard"

Anchor yourself to the Savior

Oaks

No.

Afternoon

David A. Bednar

Yesss its my boy

Camoflauged cro odiles -> Satan vs. Youth (Packer)

Cheetahs, fastest accelerating mammals on earth

Cheetahs stalk Topies while working in tandem to hunt them.

Alternating pattern to dostract and decieve the Topies and keep them from knowing there was any danger

Older Topies watching give warning and Topies escape.

Cheetahs still pursue, restless.

Beware of evil's beguiling disguises

Restored Gospel light in our lives

Stay awake and be alert

Don't be complacent or careless

A cheetah is a predator, Satan is the enemy of Righteousness

PLAN OF HAPPINESS Provides direction and enduring joy to God's Children

Lucifer seeks to frustrate our progression via misusing our bodies

Powerful parables are obtained from our daily lives

Ruben V. Alliad

Jesus is the Lord of Lost Things, he loves Lost Things

200 copies of the book of mormon in one room

"And when ye shall recieve these things..."

Pray about book of mormon and you WILL know that its true

Found directly through power of BOM

Think hard and answer honestly, follow up on baptism promises

Diligently seek the BOM

Holy Ghost confirms our knowlege

Russell M. Nelson

Youth Battalion

(If any of you saw my previous post this talk is what tipped my Grandmother off about Hitler's Youth)

Quentin L. Cook

Smartphones = bad

Youth must be the focus of Bishops and other leaders

Youth have more personal responsibility at you bf er and younger ages now

Announcements do not limit bishoos responsibility over Young Women

Young Women leader is besf for meeting the needs of Young Women

YOUNG MEN PRESIDENCIES NO MORE

Ward youth council, mutual is retired

Mark L. Pace

God loves us

70 steel piles provide firm foundation

Increase faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement

Adversaries increasing attacks on our faith

Come follow me a chance to bear testimony and learn differently

Consistent Effort throughout the week

Remodel home into center of Gospel Learning

Come follow me helpsnus establish foundation

L. Todd Budge

Peace and Joy when we surrender ourselves to God

Afflictions and Sorrow prepare us for joy -13th century poet

Afflictions are small

Life full of purpose and meaning

The lord will not allow us to suffer in darkness

How can we make it through the day without the Lord?

Questions and concerns -> Faith and Love

"I don't feel safe, but I am"

Wind never ceases to blow us towards the promised land

Didn't cease to praise the Lord

I really like this guy. He gives me peace and brings me joy

Jorge M. Aluardo

Some blessings come soon, late, or not until heaven, but they will come

Temple

Works at temple bless you with increased revelation and peace

Example of righteous parents

Strong familial chain link

Follow your own council (kid eating too much candy)

This man brings me joy

"Amazing Papa!"

Ronald A. Rasband

Grateful for the Lord's eternal companionship

Promises to improve

Promises to eachother increase promise to the Lord

Partnership with the Lord

The lord will be with you

Women's Session

Reyna J. Alberto

Black clouds which blind us and cause us to question God

When our minds are suffering, it is appropriate to seek help

Together we realize there is hope, and we do not have to suffer alone. Find resources about emotional illnesses!

Isolation thrives in secrecy and shrinks in empathy

When it comes to healing, we all need Him desperately

Nothing you have experienced will change the fact that you are God's child

Lisa L. Harkness

Living under Christ's name

Jesus is here for us

Do we honor the name of Christ

Bonnie H. Cordon

Sure knowlege of divine purpose and identity

NEW YW THEME ( I DIDNT CATCH THE WHOLE THING BUT): I am a beloved daughter of HEAVENLY PARENTS

Shift from we to I

Peace and Guidance will be yours

We need to have shelters and sanctuaries from life's storms

Be a light to those around you.

All classes are now unified under one name: Young Women

Every class should have a class presidency

Make the calling of leading class presidencies a priority

Revelation is real

We need the Wisdom, Council, and Energy in youth council

Henry B Eyring

Divine mission is to help lift the souls of others

We do not know the time or duration of our assignments

Preparation of a powerful loving heart

Minister to every stranger as a neighbor and a friend

We must be a mother in some way

Mold living clay to your hopes in tandem with God

God loves you

Oaks

NO!!! (Homophobic version)

Russell M. Nelson

He is now the church grandpa

Access to all spiritual treasures for Lord's children

How do we draw the savior's power in our life? Holy Ghost will prompt you

Bad men are not allowed- men must drink respect women juice

RESPECT WOMEN JUICE!!

Misogyny bad

Women are society's guardians, wonderful, magnificent

Covenants = Priesthood power for women

I LOVE MY NEW GRANDPA

Encouraged to participate in ward councils

166 temples and more to come (TEMPLES ANNOUNCED IN WOMEN'S SESS? THIS IS A FIRST)

8 new temples -> sierra leone, utah x2 , arkansas, philippines, texas, guatemala, utah

Strengthen your faith in the Lord.

#mormon #mormon teen #lds #lds conference #lds general conference #lds church #ldsconf #lds convert

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missjosie27 · 4 years

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Year 2 Part 8- The Ongoing War

Hey, guys

I apologize for not updating sooner. Frankly, my mind has been quite occupied and I've focused on other projects. But I also lost the spark. Can't deny that. However, I am back with more content.

This chapter takes a bit of a detour from the cursebreaking but I think it's one of the more poignant I've written. Again I say to you Slytherin leaders, this is not a commentary on the house as a whole. David's POV is biased and the issue at stake is more complicated than on the surface. So bear with me, there.

Anyway, enjoy everyone. As an apology I'm going to post the next one after Memorial Day here in the United States.

Chapter 8. The Ongoing War

In retrospect, Bill was correct in not wanting to go to the Hospital Wing as the next day would prove. Apparently, rumors were all abound that someone had been near the 13th corridor the previous night. Even more concerning was the rage of Filch who accused anyone who looked at him cross eyed of drugging his cat.

David wasn’t so much concerned with that as he was for Bill’s health. He and Rowan spent a good chunk of the night ensuring there were no lingering effects from being frozen in the ice, until he insisted he was fine and went up to bed. But to be on the safe side, he decided to check in on him at lunch time. Rowan required a stint in the Hospital Wing after he was hit, but perhaps Bill’s larger frame meant he wasn’t as aversely affected. Above all, there was a sense that it was his fault another one of his friends was almost seriously injured in a potentially dangerous setting. He made this known when he spotted the elder Weasley munching on a sandwich at the Gryffindor table.

“Hey…uh, Bill,” David said awkwardly as he sat down. “Feeling any better?”

Bill nodded as swallowed a bite of his meal.

“Loads. Thanks to you, I can almost feel my fingers again.”

It took David almost half a second to realize he was joking but it still didn’t make him feel any better.

“Look, Bill. I’m sorry you got hurt and that’s on me. After that narrow escape I don’t blame you if you never want to go back.”

But far from being offended, the fourth year looked positively ecstatic.

“Are you kidding, Dave? I’ve never felt so alive. Of course I want to go back. We have to go back.”

David blinked a few times to ensure he had registered that correctly.

“Correct me if I’m wrong but weren’t you nearly turned into a living ice sculpture last night? How are you so cheerful about this?”

“Oh come on, I’m fine…HU-CHOO!” Bill suddenly sneezed sending an unexpected spray of mist into the path of an unsuspecting Gryffindor second year girl who immediately recoiled in horror.

“Okay, so I may have a cold and a few shivers. Nothing I can’t handle,” Bill shrugged off. “What’s more important is breaking that curse. Clearly, we weren’t enough to bring down those defenses so we’ll need more people next time we go into the vault…” he paused before eyeing David carefully. “Dave are you okay? You look like something’s bothering you.”

In truth something w as bothering him and it hit very close to home. A bubbling cauldron of emotion surged through the young Gryffindor as the familiarity of the situation rang alarm bells in his head. This was almost exact same way he felt the day Jacob left and disappeared.

Because it was my fault. Just like this was too.

But he didn’t voice these concerns instead pushing them down as he always had, instead choosing to put Bill at ease.

“What? Oh yeah, I’m fine,” he said waving his hand as if to swat away a fly. “Just wanted to be sure you were okay. And that you still wanted to be a cursebreaker after all that.”

“The dream is alive and well,” Bill laughed. “But we’ll have to move cautiously from now on. No doubt that Filch and the professors will be keeping an eye on that corridor a lot more often. Best thing to do is meet with the others and decide on a course of action from there.”

“But what if the ice gets worse? Or someone actually dies from being stuck in it too long?”

“I agree with that sentiment. That being said we can’t break a curse if we all get expelled. I guarantee you others are on the lookout now.”

Bill stuffed his books into his bag as he got up from the table.

“I have charms now, but we’ll meet later on in the common room tonight to discuss it further.”

He gave David a friendly pat on the back before going on his way, leaving David to ponder on his thoughts and whether or not he wanted a giant sandwich. After a few moments he decided he wasn’t hungry and wondered where Rowan and Charlie were. Before he could even take so much as a step a loud voice called his name.

“Grant!”

Angelica Cole was power walking towards him, and she was practically fuming. David hadn’t seen much of her this year, given that he had largely avoided trouble and the loss of house points that plagued him in his Hogwarts debut, but that happy period had clearly come to an end.

“David Grant!” she repeated, stopping only a couple of feet away from his face.

The young Gryffindor feigned looking from side to side.

“Oh, you’re talking to me? I thought you had me confused with my invisible twin who coincidentally also shares my name.”

He knew getting under Angelica’s skin was probably not the best idea, but he couldn’t help it. Doing so was far too easy and entertaining.

“I swear to Merlin Grant one more wisecrack and I’ll put you in detention until you graduate!”

“You picked a great spot to discuss this, by the way. I’m sure there’s a Hufflepuff in the basement who didn’t quite hear you.”

“Not another word,” Angelica silenced him though the volume of her voice lowered. “I want to know if these rumors about you tampering with that cursed vault are true.”

The response was obvious. Any admission of doing so would more than likely cost him actual time that could be devoted to other things. Though not a fan of lying this was a situation where it felt acceptable.

“I don’t know what you’re hearing, Angelica but I’m not the one who’s messing with the vaults. Have I given you any reason this year to suspect otherwise?”

His prefect eyed him carefully, her anger reducing slowly.

“Look, Grant, I’m not trying to give you a hard time. I’m just trying to protect you. Professor McGonagall is getting suspicious as are some of the other teachers. You need to be careful.”

“I am careful,” David tried to shrug casually. “I’m not losing house points, right?”

“This is more than just house points,” she emphasized. “It’s about representing your house and what it means to you. We talked about this last year- if you continue to jeopardize that, it will be just like your brother all over again.”

That was a remark that got underneath his skin. Too many times he had been reminded of Jacob lately, both the good and bad. Prefect or no prefect he was not going to let Angelica talk about things she knew nothing about.

“Whatever my brother did or didn’t do isn’t for you to judge,” he said failing to keep his good humor. “And it’s not for you to judge me either.”

Angelica narrowed her eyes.

“It’s that kind of attitude that makes me wonder if you should have been placed in our house at all.”

David could feel blood rushing to his head.

“If you’re done questioning my house loyalty, I’ll be on my merry way. I have better things to do.”

He stormed past Angelica, highly irritated and more than a bit reckless in thought.

To hell with what everyone thought, he was going to do things his way.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That night, the round table of Gryffindors met in the common room to discuss the days events and their next move. Of most significant news was that the prefects and the teachers seemed to be on to the fact that someone was trying to enter the vaults. As a result, the watch on the 13th corridor was doubled. Not only was Mrs. Norris constantly prowling, that now included Filch or some other authority figure. Anyone unfortunate to be caught near there during the late hours was given detention (or at least that was the case if the one who caught you was Snape).

On top of that David still had not forgotten about the message from ‘R’ which remained as mysterious as ever. Ben never did recall what had occurred during beginning of the year or how the note came to be in his pocket, leaving the identity and motivations of the group unknown at the present. It was not a comforting thought but without additional information there was no way to investigate that avenue any further. The only thing to do was to press forward with breaking the curse and prevent an icy death for any unsuspecting Hogwarts student.

Of course, that was easier said than done, given that the professors and the school at large was on high alert.

“I don’t like it,” David spoke frankly to his fellow house mates by the fireside. “If Angelica is suspicious, the teachers definitely are. She even said McGonagall was on to us.”

Bill took this into consideration.

“She’s the last person you want to have on her bad side,” he surmised. “And she won’t play favorites or look the other way like Snape does with the Slytherins.”

“I’ll bet my parents farm Merula can pretty much do whatever she wants,” Rowan said bitterly. “If she found the vaults before we did, that greasy git would try and award her a special services award to the school.”

“I actually think she annoys him more than anything,” David chuckled. “But you’re right, Rowan. Snape isn’t going to go out of his way to prevent the little snakes from doing as they please as long as they don’t get caught. We don’t have that luxury.”

“No, indeed.”

The crackling of the fire dominated the sound barrier for a moment as the group ran silent. They also had to ensure no unwanted ears were listening in, which was another reason they were having this get together at eleven when most had already gone to bed.

“If any of the Slytherins got their hands on what’s inside the vault there’s no way they’d use it to help the school,” Ben spoke quietly, staring into the flames. “Especially Merula.”

“What do you think, David?” Rowan asked. “She taunts us almost every day about the vaults. Do you think she’s closer than we are?”

“No,” came the simple reply. “If she was closer she’d have actually been inside it by now. No mention of the room, the ice, or the giant snowflake that freezes people in their tracks. Best for thing for us to do is to keep trying and take another crack at it.”

“We may have to put off that next attempt for a while. As you know, every teacher in Hogwarts is on the lookout now,” Bill pointed out.

“So what do we do in the meantime?”

“Keep studying and practicing,” the elder Weasley advised. “And wait for things to die down. The next opportunity will present itself soon.”

“And Penny?” Ben asked. She was becoming an increasing part of their efforts to break the vault curse but they didn’t any of the other Hufflepuffs to know what they were up to. Not even Tonks or Chiara.

“Keep her in the loop, of course. She’s in this just like we are. She also made me promise I wouldn’t go into the vault again without her help,” David said, feeling a small blush come to his face.

“She’s a true Hufflepuff,” Rowan admired.

“Then it’s settled then,” Bill nodded. “We find out as much as we can about the vault and prepare to go back inside when we can. Keep a tight lip, we don’t want Merula to gain any more information.”

The group concurred and decided to call it a night. Of course, that said opportunity would not come for awhile as the doubled watch on the 13th corridor remained intact throughout the end of January, February and into March. As it had been in the previous year, the vault faded into the foreground though not as much as before given the potential deadly consequences of a student being caught and frozen to death in cursed ice.

A more immediate problem was the House of Slytherin. Thankfully, Merula’s behavior remained unchanged from her usual nastiness and boasting- there was nothing to indicate otherwise. But for once the most troublesome Slytherin was not Merula, it was the older and far more dangerous members that were causing strife.

The origin was twofold: many of the older students remembered the British Civil War quite clearly and for the children of Death Eaters, almost all of whom belonged to Slytherin, they ended up on the losing side, their parents either dead, in jail, or feigning innocence via the Imperius curse. Some rejected this ideology, such as the sixth year prefect Felix Rosier, who had no use or time for the teachings of Voldemort. Others secretly embraced it and voluntarily isolated themselves from the other three houses as a means of revenge, bullying those they felt were easy targets.

Magnifying this issue was Quidditch, a sport that typically brought out the worst in hormonal teenagers to begin with. The Gryffindors had trounced Hufflepuff by a full three hundred points and were in prime position to win the house cup for the first time since James Potter was on the team. Unfortunately for the Slytherin team, because Gryffindor had won by such a large margin it was now mathematically impossible for them to win, a fact that many of them did not take well.

As the year headed into April and the final showdown between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw loomed, these two issues compounded into one as David would soon find out.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It just another day at Hogwarts as the first inklings of spring began to poke through the Scottish Highlands. The snow was melting at a rapid rate which caused the ground to turn into a thick froth of dirt and mud and though the temperature was rising, there were still damp and miserable days as it still sometimes occurs during the early months.

David, Ben, and Rowan were playing gobstones in the common room one Saturday afternoon when a first year girl stepped into the common room, soaking wet, face smeared with mud, tears streaming down her face. Immediately the whole common room jumped and rushed over, Angelica pushing her way forward.

“Out of the way, prefect coming through!”

She reached the first year and quickly adopted a soft, compassionate tone, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Oh sweetie, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

The girl could barely utter a proper sentence through her sobs.

“W-where’s m-m-my brother?”

“What’s your name?”

“D-D-Diana.”

That caused one of the older Gryffindors to pop up their head and run over with deep concern in his eyes. David soon recognized him as Adolphus Blishwick, one of the Gryffindor beaters- tall, well built, and with dirty blonde hair.

“That’s my sister!” he said, giving her an affectionate hug, despite her soiled appearance. “Diana, what on earth happened?”

The girl wiped her eyes and managed to recall the specific incident more coherently.

“Some older boys attacked me, Addie. They kept hitting me with tripping jinxes so I couldn’t run away. One of them even threatened to use the Cruciatus curse on me. They called me ‘blood traitor’ and a whole bunch of other names, saying that you were to blame for them losing in Quidditch. I don’t even know how I got away.”

Adolphus’s jaw clenched so tightly, it was a wonder to David that his teeth didn’t crack. He could see the fury in the beater’s eyes which wasn’t altogether surprising given the attack on his sister. Fitting the stereotype of a beater, Adolphus also had a notorious temper.

“Slytherins…” Angelica muttered underneath her breath.

“Evil bastards, the lot of them,” Adolphus trembled with rage.

Liam Browne, his best friend and the Keeper tried to calm him down.

“Addie, don’t. It was probably those loner kids of the Death Eaters.”

“Fuck them, I don’t care!” he shouted, pulling Diana closer to him. “This was a direct attack on me and my family! I’m going to rip them apart one by one by the time I’m through!!”

Those familiar with the wizarding world knew that the Blishwicks were a wizarding family with a tradition in law enforcement. Voldemort had targeted them during the war when the family patriarch, Josephus, refused to join his cause and was later killed in the line of duty. To say it was a sensitive subject for young Adolphus, who planned to follow in his father’s footsteps, would be an understatement.

He turned back towards his sister.

“Who was it that did this to you? Do you know their names?”

Diana nodded, still traumatized by the incident.

“Ammon Lucian and his friends, I can’t remember their names. What are you going to do?”

“Don’t worry about, sis. Just go upstairs and get yourself cleaned up. I’ll take care of it.”

She did not argue and proceeded to run up to the dormitories, leaving the older students to debate their next move.

“Lucian is a dead man!” Adolphus declared with such fury, Liam and others had to hold him back.

“Addie, calm down for a half second. We need to figure out a plan,” Henry McLaggen, the other beater said to him.

“Forget it, Henry. I know where those gits hang out on the weekends. You’re not going to stop me from defending my family’s honor.”

“So you’re just choosing to ignore the fact that have a match with Ravenclaw? If you’re caught dueling them and get detention even Orion will break his inner peace to chew you out.”

“I don’t give a f-”

“Enough!” Angelica cut across. “Or have you forgotten I’m a prefect here? Adolphus, relax for a half second.”

The beater was finally released as he panted heavily from the struggle to break free from their grip.

“I don’t care if I get in trouble for this, Angelica. Family is more important than a goddamn Quidditch match. I can’t take this lying down.”

“No, we can’t,” she agreed. “Which is why we’re going to help you.”

That brought some questioning looks from everyone in the room, David and company included.

“Angelica, since when do you advocate breaking the rules?” Liam asked puzzledly.

“I don’t. But I also know that there are some things that go far beyond rules. House pride being chief among them.”

David couldn’t help but notice she looked directly towards him when she said that statement and it got his blood boiling all over again.

“We’re Gryffindors and Gryffindors protect their own,” Angelica continued. “I think Slytherin needs a reminder of what happens when they cross the lion.”

Cheers rang throughout the common room as David stepped to the front, Rowan and Ben in tow.

“Those shitheads are easy enough to find,” Adolphus reiterated. “What are we waiting for?”

“It would be the most Gryffindor thing in the world to just charge in with reckless abandon,” Angelica pointed out. “So we’re going to need at least five people and someone to spy on their movements beforehand.”

“I’ll do it,” David immediately volunteered.

“Dave what are you doing?” Ben whispered.

“Taking the lead,” he replied simply. “If you need a point man, I’m the one.”

The other members of the Quidditch team looked down on him skeptically, surprised by the tenacity of a second year.

“You sure you’re up for it, kid?” Adolphus asked. “We don’t need any dead weight while we’re fighting.”

But Angelica eyed him carefully.

“Let him come,” she spoke at last. “If he wants to prove himself, give him the opportunity to do so.”

“I’m no dead weight,” he told Adolphus bluntly. “I can duel better than anyone my age. And I can dodge a lot better since I’m not as big.”

Henry shrugged at that.

“I say we let him come along, Addie. No harm in having an extra pair of eyes.”

The enormous beater gave in to the vote of confidence and sighed.

“Alright, kid you’re in.”

“I’d like to come as well,” Ben volunteered though his face definitely betrayed his fear. David immediately came to his friend’s aid.

“I can vouch for him. He’s really good with hexes and charms. Dead useful in a pinch.”

“Fine, but no more,” Adolphus told them. “It’ll be myself, Angelica, Liam, Henry, and these two midgets.”

“We have names you know,” David remarked.

“Whatever, let’s get going. We can discuss the plan on the way.”

As they exited, Rowan wished them luck but advised them to keep their heads down.

“Those particular Slytherins aren’t the kind you want to tangle with. Be careful.”

“Don’t worry mate, we’re all going to have a big laugh after this is over,” he reassured him. He was interrupted by Angelica once more as they began to head out of the common room.

“I hope you’re taking this seriously, Grant. This isn’t the time for your usual jokes.”

David looked up at her, not even the hint of a smile on his young features. He would do whatever it took to prove this was not a fluke.

“I’m the point man, aren’t I? That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

Without another word, he stepped past her and followed the rest of his house mates out of the door. He wasn’t going to give Angelica an excuse to pick on him.

Not this time.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Adolphus hadn’t been bluffing when he stated he knew where their quarry would be found. Ammon Lucian, Ayla Yaxley, and Nicholas Selwyn hung out quite frequently in the courtyard, especially now that the weather was becoming warmer. Most days, they stuck to themselves, smoking cigarettes, cracking dumb jokes, scaring younger students who wandered near them by unhappy chance. However, Lucian was particularly unpleasant, a disposition made worse by the fact that his own father had been killed by Aurors during the war. Lanky, sneering, and possessing cold, gray eyes, it was enough to strike fear into any unsuspecting first year, let alone one who’s family had been on the opposite side. The Gryffindor beater surmised as much as they opened the door to the outside air.

“That piece of shit thinks himself a big man for picking on my sister. We’ll see how he takes on someone his own size,” he said menacingly, cracking his knuckles.

“How did he know what your sister even looked like?” Ben asked him, though he winced slightly when Adolphus’s frown turned towards him.

“Trust me he knew long before today. Everyone knows my family and their history during the war. Especially Lucian.”

“Wasn’t he just a kid when all of this happened?” David asked. He remembered vividly the dark days of that time, but of course, being only nine by the time of Voldemort’s downfall did not have the same frame of reference for everything that went on.

“Doesn’t matter,” Adolphus told him. “You can bet every galleon that he was well aware of who his father was and what side he was on. What side my family was on.”

“The children of Death Eaters get indoctrinated from a pretty early age,” Henry McLaggen explained. “My uncle kept profiles on every one of those aristocrat types. They’re all the same way, namely raising their kids to believe that You Know Who had the right idea so by the time they’re old enough, they willingly join the ranks. Plenty of them are still around and bitter about the fact that their side lost the war. None will ever openly support the Death Eaters, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out where their loyalties still lie.”

“And they express it in numerous ways. Namely, attacking those who they feel are inferior to them- muggle borns, so called ‘blood traitors’, people connected with the Ministry, etc.,” Adolphus finished.

David studied the grave features of his older house mates, no exaggeration in their heavy expressions. These were people who experienced the horrors of Voldemort far more severely than kids his age and the reaction went beyond a familial dispute. This was an extension of the ideological conflict still being played out in Britain.

The war goes on, even in peace time , David thought to himself.

They soon entered the courtyard, where only a handful of people were hanging about. It was easy to spot three taller figures clad in green sitting by the edge of the fountain.

“That’s them,” Adolphus growled.

“What’s the plan?” Liam asked Angelica.

“We take positions behind the columns,” she answered quickly. “Grant and Copper will go behind the fountain and give the signal. When you feel they’ve dropped their guard enough, give the signal that it’s time to fire.”

“Which is?”

“You probably haven’t learned the method to produce red sparks yet so perhaps-”

“I’ve learned how to produce embers. Close enough,” David shrugged.

“And you, Copper? Can you handle yourself in a fight?” Angelica said, eyeing the blond boy with a hint of skepticism.

“He volunteered, didn’t he?” David defended. “That should suffice.”

“Just make sure you don’t get yourself seriously hurt,” the prefect warned, and this time there was real concern in her voice. “These are the nastiest Slytherins in our year. If they did that to Addie’s sister they won’t hesitate to do the same to you.”

“We have it covered. Come on, Ben.”

As he and his friend took up positions, David could feel the anxiety practically radiating off the muggle born wizard.

“Ben, it’s okay to be nervous. These blokes are the spawn of Death Eaters. No shame in that.”

“You said I was dead useful in a pinch. When have I ever been useful in a pinch? Since when am I an expert in hexes?”

Careful to duck low in order not to be spotted, the two boys crouched behind the white marble wands ready.

“Last year when we were trapped in that room full of ice. You helped us all escape and get free.”

“Gryffindors are supposed to be brave,” Ben swallowed. “I’ve never felt less brave. These people consider me inferior.”

David placed a hand on his shoulder and spoke in a quiet, reassuring tone.

“Ben, you got more bravery than these three wankers put together. They’re the end result of inbreeding and lack of sunlight. You’re a hundred times better than they’ll ever be.”

That remark clearly ignited something within the nervous Gryffindor because his normally soft, brown eyes became hardened, a firm resolve spreading across his face.

David motioned for them to peer over the wall ever so slightly to get a better read on their targets. They could see a blonde haired female taking multiple drags on a cigarette, legs crossed, stockings more tattered than Merula’s. Another was leaning against one of the statues, raven haired, fair skinned, garbed in a gray sweater and a green scarf. The last, was a tall, reedy boy, tousled auburn hair, with a borderline gaunt complexion. He was cockily twirling a wand in between his fingers and his features had a pronounced permanent sneer. This was the one he assumed to be Ammon Lucian, son of the killed Death Eater.

“I’m bored,” Ayla Yaxley droned, taking another drag from her cigarette.

“What’s the matter?” Selwyn taunted. “Torturing blood traitors not enough for you?”

“Hardly,” she sassed back. “There’s nothing to do at this place. The weather sucks and we live in the coldest part of the castle.”

“We get it on three times a day, that should keep ya warm.”

“Small comfort.”

“You two are insufferable,” Lucian spoke now, his voice dripping with contempt.

“What’s got your knickers in a twist, eh Ammon?”

“Nothing you could ever imagine,” the tall Slytherin growled, wand suddenly in a firm grip. “You’re father’s still alive. You don’t have to look at the people responsible for killing him.”

He shuffled a few spaces and kicked a rock over the fountain, which barely based hitting Ben on the noggin.

“We wouldn’t be prowling around the courtyard like a bunch of wankers if the Dark Lord was in charge. That’s real power….that’s what we’re missing.”

“In the meantime, I suppose you’ll have to content yourself with the defenseless siblings of blood traitors,” Yaxley spoke in a sing song voice. “Oh well.”

“Keep antagonizing me and I’ll give you one worse than that Gryffindor brat. If it means Blishwick thinks twice before playing against Ravenclaw we’ve done our jobs.”

David had heard enough. He could see the Henry, Liam, Adolphus, and Angelica all in position in various corners of the yard. They were effectively surrounded. All he had to do was give the signal.

Suddenly, a mischievous grin crossed his face with Ben looking at him curiously.

“Aim for the buttocks.”

That brought an excited smile and they pointed their wands at the nearest two Slytherins.

“Ready, aim, fire!” David whispered.

Ember sparks issued forth and found their mark squarely on the asses of Selwyn and Wilkes, causing them to jump ten feet in the air with Yaxley laughed.

“ACK! What the-”

“NOW!” David shouted.

A series of spells began to rain down on the trio of Slytherins, who looked around bewilderedly for their source. The one called Selwyn, unfortunately spotted the two second years first.

“YOU!” he snarled and brandished his wand, starting towards them. He only took two steps, however, before Angelica hit him with a jinx.

“ Melofors! ”

A pumpkin encased the head of her target, who began to walk around as though he were a zombie, his entire equilibrium thrown off balance. Angelica came rushing in, stepping in front of the two as though she were a mother wolf protecting her cubs.

“Stay behind me, you two!”

“Look out!”

In her efforts to defend the younger students, Yaxley had snuck up to the side and attempted to strike Angelica with an orange colored curse. Thankfully, it missed and that was all the time David and Ben needed.

“ Furnunculus! ”

“ Locomotor Wibbly! ”

Both spells hit the Slytherin girl at the same causing boils to break out on her face and then tumbled over into the fountain soaking her to the bone.

The only other opponent to worry about was Lucian, but against three able bodied Gryffindor teens, he was no match.

“ Expulso! ”

Adolphus was prepared, bending onto one knee and shouting out, “ Protegus Maximus! ”

It was one of the strongest shields against dark magic one could conjure and true to its reputation, the shield absorbed the curse that was sure to have seriously injured the Gryffindor boys.

“ Flagr- ”

But Henry McLaggen was already a step ahead of him.

“ Stupefy! ”

The jet of red light caught Lucian squarely in the chest, knocking him off his feet and backwards onto the cold, hard stone.

“I don’t think so,” the burly beater snarled.

The job was done, but not Adolphus was not. Another stunner knocked out Selwyn, who was still struggling with the pumpkin on his head, but somehow Wilkes was still conscious, though he was groaning from the sheer force of the spell.

Picking him up by the scruff of his collar, Adolphus wore an expression of terrible fury and pain as he gazed into the eyes of the one who had bullied his sister. David could only watch the scene unfold in the background.

“Today was the biggest mistake you’ve ever made, Lucian,” the Gryffindor beater spoke quietly.

“Haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about,” came the snarky response.

That had been the wrong thing to say, as Adolphus broke the Slytherin’s nose with one punch.

“Touch my sister again and you’ll receive worse than that.”

Lucian remained defiant, cold hatred in his eyes as he responded through the blood that now stained his teeth.

“Naïve Adolphus. You really think this is the end of it? That I get beaten up a couple times and I’ll go away? This is just the beginning.”

“That’s enough out of you,” Angelica stepped in, taking charge now.

“Ah, Angelica,” Lucian spoke with a sarcastic smile. “I thought it was your solemn duty to prevent this sort of thing from occurring.”

“Not when you attack students underneath my charge,” she shot back. “I chose not to report you. Instead, we’re letting you off with a warning. The next time I hear you threatening to use unforgivable on an innocent, I’ll go to Professor Dumbledore.”

The Slytherin gave her a hard stare before spitting at her feet.

“Sooner or later all of you blood traitors and mudbloods will get what you deserve.”

Adolphus raised his fist in the air to strike him again, but Liam Brown caught it just in time.

“Leave it, Addie. Don’t waste more of your time with this piece of filth. Leave your good hand for the Quidditch not his face.”

To David’s vantage point, Adolphus did not want to let the Slytherin off without a few more punches to the nose, however, a look from Angelica convinced him otherwise. He threw Wilkes roughly to the ground, leaving him to assist his dazed and injured housemates.

“Let’s go,” he muttered, wiping off his knuckles.

Without another word, the group of Gryffindors left the courtyard and made way back towards their common room, walking a little bit quicker just in case a professor happened to upon the carnage they left behind. Surprisingly, Adolphus and the other teens remained silent as they journeyed home, grim looks on their faces.

“I don’t need to tell you to keep what happened to yourselves,” Angelica told David and Ben as they approached the Fat Lady. “They’re too proud to snitch but if McGonagall found out I was a part of it…”

“Say no more, Angelica,” David reassured her. “We have your back, yeah?”

In that moment something of an understanding formulated between the sixth and second year Gryffindors. The irritation that David felt towards her previously melted away into affection and respect. Angelica could have taken the high road but instead she went outside of her authority to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. He hadn’t forgotten the way she jumped in front of them when Yaxley attacked.

As the Quidditch teens gave the password and entered the common room, Angelica stopped him just outside of the portrait.

“I was wrong about you, Grant,” she said to him. “I questioned whether you should be in this house and I’m sorry for ever doubting your loyalty.”

She held out a hand, which David accepted as a sign of reconciliation.

“Thank you, Angelica. I don’t say this often enough, but you’re a damn good prefect.”

The comment clearly touched her as she smiled in return.

“Thank you, as well.” Her face turned solemn as she added. “Just don’t forget what you saw today. Or perhaps more importantly, what you heard. Wilkes was right about one thing; this isn’t going to stop because we kicked his ass. We won the battle, but the war hasn’t stopped. It never will as long as people like him are around.”

As she turned and gave the password (‘Yorgischmorgi’) David looked down at his wand, which he only just noticed was still gripping tightly inside of his left hand. This lesson went beyond the Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry. The fact of the matter was, people like Wilkes not only existed they were visible, vocal, and everywhere you looked in Great Britain.

“The war hasn’t stopped,” he repeated.

He wondered just how many more battles would have to be fought for it to end.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

David stayed true to his word by not discussing what occurred the previous day…mostly. He felt he could trust his inner circle with the details, namely Bill, Rowan, and Penny. Besides, rumors never stayed quiet at Hogwarts for long as whisperings of a duel between the Slytherins and Gryffindors abounded, though Wilkes and his ilk denied it. Angelica had been right, it was better to avoid public humiliation than try and inform an authority figure, at least in their case.

“The whole thing sounds amazing,” Rowan commented after David had finished retelling the story. “And intense.”

“It was both,” Ben said quietly.

The group was currently eating dinner the following Monday of the battle. There was an air of satisfaction, even smugness among the Gryffindor table given their Quidditch prospects and their victory over their rival.

“And Mr. Copper here was brilliant,” David announced proudly. “You should have seen that jelly legs jinx. It was perfect.”

“The Furnunculus curse was also nice touch,” Bill laughed as he gave David a fist bump.

“Wasn’t my most creative moment. Extra acne on a teenager is just redundant,” he joked.

Penny wasn’t the only one who hadn’t said anything, in fact was looking down at her plate, a somber expression on her pretty features.

“Alright there, Penny?” David asked her. “You’ve barely touched your food.”

“I don’t like violence,” she responded without looking up. “Helga Hufflepuff taught that revenge was wrong in any circumstance, but after hearing what that Slytherin sixth year did…”

She trailed off unwilling or unable to say more.

David looked at Bill, who quickly reassured her.

“You’re a good person, Penny and I wish I had a strong a moral compass as you. But what happened last Saturday is….complicated.”

“You don’t understand,” the blonde girl said looking up now, her bright blue eyes swimming with conflict. “Even if violence is against everything I stand for, part of me feels he deserved everything he got coming to him. He thinks people like me are less than human…unworthy of being a witch.”

Bill reached over and gave Penny’s hand a squeeze.

“It’s a completely justified feeling. No reasonable person should expect you to accept that pure blood rubbish. The only way to deal with someone like Wilkes is to fight fire with fire.”

Suddenly, a previous non-issue became very apparent among the group. David himself was pureblood, though he didn’t know if that was actually verified or not. He couldn’t trace his lineage as far or as well as the Weasleys or some of the other families, though both of his mother and father had wizarding parents. Rowan had wizarding ancestry going back to ancient India. But speaking on the topic in question, those such as Penny and Ben were to be considered unworthy by some in their society. The thought was infuriating.

“ Pure blood ,” he mocked. “How many pure blooded families are even left? Since when should it matter anyway?”

“It matters to those such as Wilkes,” Bill spoke grimly. “And to a lot of other people too. Don’t forget, many people who support that nonsense were never thrown in jail. My dad tells me all the time.”

“My mom used to tell me stories about how Death Eaters would deliberately target those who weren’t pure blood,” Penny added. “I’m half blood and my mom is a muggle born. She lived in constant fear or being attacked or killed.”

“Mum and dad won’t speak of that time to me,” Rowan said in a hushed tone.

Bill looked down as he twirled his fork into his noodles.

“My parents do, especially dad. It was constant fear- no one knew who to trust or where to turn. Everyone was a potential enemy. Fighting You Know Who was like waving a sword in the dark hoping to hit something you can barely see. At one point the Ministry almost collapsed. So many lives were ruined you can’t even count them.”

“Just like Blishwick,” David murmured. He looked over towards Ben, who looked positively petrified.

“Ben don’t worry. You Know Who is gone now, and you’ve got us. We’re not going to let anything happen to you, I promise.”

That brought a weak but appreciative smile from blond boy.

“Thank you.”

“What about your family, Dave?” Rowan inquired. “Did they tell you anything?”

“My mum is the ‘mother bear’ type. She would never tell us anything awful if she didn’t have to. Dad is a diplomat to America, and I remember how stressed he used to be trying to contain the situation to MACUSA. But they never believed or supported that pure blood supremacy nonsense.”

“And what about your brother?”

It was a general question, one that David wasn’t sure how to answer.

“Jacob used to tell me stuff sometimes. He was always better at getting around mum’s rules than I was.”

Penny suddenly looked a bit fearful.

“Dave, you don’t think what Merula said last year was true was it?”

“Merula says a lot of things, Penny. What do you mean?”

She looked hesitant to ask, as though her question might upset him.

“I mean do you think he really joined the Death Eaters?”

David had vehemently denied that accusation previously but that of course was to defend his brother from someone he hated. The truth was, he didn’t know what Jacob had done after being expelled from Hogwarts and who he had associated with. But the idea of him joining the most ruthless, evil organization in Britain was not something he wanted to think about.

His answer was noncommittal.

“It’s one of many things I have to ask when I find him.”

No one said anything after that. Talk of the war and Death Eaters had dampened the mood considerably.

“Just another reason to break the curse on this vault,” he said trying to steer the conversation back to a different subject. “We have less than two months to accomplish that now.”

“There hasn’t been an ice attack in weeks though,” Ben countered. “Maybe the danger has passed. Maybe we won’t need to go back inside the vault at all.”

David knew that was Ben’s anxiety speaking and not a mark against finding his brother. But there was no turning back from their mission now. This was a race against time. Against the children of Death Eaters.

A race against avoiding the questions he would rather not know the answer to.

#hogwarts mystery #hphm #hphm fanfiction #fanfiction #david grant #ben copper #bill weasley #rowan khanna #angelica cole #penny haywood #gryffindor #slytherin

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comicteaparty · 4 years

Text

June 13th-June 19th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from June 13th, 2020 to June 19th, 2020. The chat focused on the following question:

What is your physical and digital workspace like when you’re working on your story?

🌈ERROR404 🌈

LOL it really depends on what stage I'm in of the process - My storyboarding space is at home, as comfortable as I can be, a beer and some food at the ready and pure silence. The cats have to be freshly fed, otherwise I'll be harassed and lose my headspace entirely LOL. I usually work on my story boards digitally, just at a very small scale, with my script/outline on my computer and working on my ipad! The double screen helps a LOT, although i would just print out the script if I had access to a printer, haha. When I'm working on the actual page itself, it's a very different story. I usually just try and work on it in tiny little batches during the day when I'm stuck at home, and usually work around the animals as best i can, lmao. Truthfully, I really prefer to be in a coffee shop when I'm working on finishing pages, it makes me so much more productive than i am in this house with so many things to take care of right in front of me, but, obviously, that's a bit difficult to do these days. ;; I usually reserve food and drink until after I pass a milestone in inking/sketching to help motivate me to keep going for as much as I can before taking a break, and I need some kind of music or video playing in the background to keep myself from being absolutely bored out of my mind. My shading process, since it's in black and white, is very easy and i can finish it in one setting, easy, no matter what I'm working with. I also work digitally for my pages, of course, although I don't need more than my ipad and clip studio for it!

DaeofthePast

freshly fed cats

🌈ERROR404 🌈

They are BEASTS when hungry, the little bastards (love them)

I may only work in peace when they're post-food napping lmao

DaeofthePast

we only have one, but same

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I work almost entirely in the corner of my IKEA couch at home I used to work at a proper desk with a Cintiq, but when I switched to Procreate on an iPad, I migrated to the couch and surrounded myself with a nest of clothes and blankets and books and... here I am, bein' cozy. With terrible posture But when I was between jobs last year, I did rent a little coworking space down the street so I could get out of my pajamas and go get comic stuff done there. It was a godsend. I like drawing at my favorite coffee shop every so often too, but I tend to hide my work while I draw, and there, everyone can look over my shoulder The coworking space had a tall artist desk that was rarely used, so I often grabbed that one. Not cheap, but to stave off cabin fever, heck yes, worth it.

🌈ERROR404 🌈

Ahhh I've been really thinking about getting a studio space one of these days I really shouldn't rn, with my finances as they are, but I could REALLY make use of one recently

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I loved the space I used last year. They recently had to close for... current-event reasons... and are going to reopen with all sorts of plexiglass barriers between the desks I feel so bad for them. Good studio spaces are wonderful, I would support them again if I ever was out of a job!

🌈ERROR404 🌈

it's good they've found ways to make it safer, though!

carcarchu

My old workspace was in the basement of my home in canada and it was always perpetually freezing even in the summer and i was frequently visited by spiders so my current workspace is a huge improvement in that regard. I do miss my old ergonomic desk chair though. I'm definitely not the kind of person who can draw in bed or on the couch. I need to be in workmode and having a designated space just for that is necessary for me to get in the right headspace for that.

DaeofthePast

my workspace rn is just my desk with my laptop and my drawing tablet. my laptop is stacked on top of a pile of books so i can see the screen (otherwise my tablet blocks my line of sight). it's kinda simple

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Depends. I have a Cintiq Mobile Studio, so I can draw pretty much every where and sometimes in the oddest position, but most of the time I am on my desk with the cintiq hooked up to a second monitor so I don't have to look down so much.(edited)

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

For Wayfinders: Thumbnails are somewhere cozy and the only physical work. Me and Q sit and plan them out together. The rest of wayfinders are made on Photoshop, and flat colors in clip paint studio. In the world I would love a nice studio place in an office with others. During corentine I have been working from home, and I am not that good at it, being quite the extrovert. Before corentine I was in a artist residency where I worked on Wayfinders which had a workstation and all the programs we could need. It is so nice and me and Q are going to return there when it opens up again!

Miranda

I have an iPad so usually on the couch, cozied up with coffee and pillows and blankets. But sometimes at the table. But usually on the couch like the gremlin I am

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I have a large drafting table, a mini drafting table, and a lapdesk in my papasan when we ink/draw! Toning and letters are all done on the desktop in its own space

Miranda

I need to get a good lap desk. But that sounds like a grand setup!

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

My first time hearing about a lapdesk

Omg I need one

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

They are the best things ever Mine has just the pencil holder !(some come with cup holders and its a waste of space imo)

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

Wow I like your setup of the drafting tables

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I wanna show pics of them....if im allowed in this chat?

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I hope so, I'm not sure which channel we can post studio photos at? I did see some did before?

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

Ill post in shop talk since creator babble gets archived

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

my current space is uh.... a bit better than my last one. I used to work on an old writers desk for a decade and I did most of my comic work sitting there cramped up with my desktop taking most of the space. Now I have an L shaped desk where I have my desktop on the shorter end. The longer end it's my pen, pencils, and watercolor stuff. my display tablet occupy the space at times so switching from digital and traditional without worrying about setup hassle is a lot better than what I dealt with before lol.

I'm glad the days I had to curl up and draw with no privacy are long gone now

kayotics

I’ve got a little drafting table where I draw all my comic pages. I’m messy with my pens so they’re kind of strewn about until I start to lose them. Then I put them back. I’m not particularly neat. I spend most of the comic process off the computer, so most of my digital work is just on an iPad where I can sit anywhere. I try to keep good lighting around my drafting table and there’s always loose eraser shavings all over.

Natasha Berlin (Pot of Gold)

I got myself a lil corner desk by the dining table. Not as well-lit as I'd like, but it's decently ergonomic and I started putting posters on my wall Plus I can leave work mindset easily by turning off my computer and forgetting about the dark corner in the dining room XD(edited)

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

My desk is really sloppy and covered in all kinds of junk. I have a harmonica, a ball of yarn, a bunch of ink bottles, etc on my desk. I have my sketchbook under my tablet and usually a notebook somewhere for writing. My tablet sits to the right of my laptop (on top of sketchbook) while I'm not using it and when I'm using it it goes over my computer keyboard. I sometimes have a glass of water or some food sitting to the lefthand side

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

The only thing I wanna share about my workspace is this

once i spent over three hours looking for that damned pen

never again

🌈ERROR404 🌈

Ajkdhfkjs the models for hte magazine im crying

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Oh my God

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

mad giggling

Deo101 [Millennium]

youre gonna manage to lose the string

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

omg

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i know in my heart deo is right but still i hope

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

You should weld a metal chain to it

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Watch me lose the whole tablet

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Oh nooo

I believe in you!

TaliePlume

My workspace is a black table with a white, yellow, blue and green tablecloth with 3 black chairs. It's next to the kitchen. On it, is my laptop and the left side is my clipboard, 3 blue folders full of writing. Then above it, is 3 sketchbooks and another blue folder from a class that I took in community college.

June 16, 2020

sagaholmgaard

I have one long desk at almost three meters. On the left side is all my coffee and tea supplies, in the middle is my work space and on the right is my dining table xD I get everything done from there, despite having a mobilestudio so I COULD sit anywhere and work, lol. It's a blessing during holiday seasons to be able to bring it everywhere, but at some I like my designated working space. Although I am moving in a few weeks, so who knows what my new workspace will be

Moral_Gutpunch

My workspace is anywhere I can draw or write. It's more of a "Will I be interrupted over something petty or stupid" issue than space. Not that I don't want more space.

Mitzi (Trophallaxis)

My workspace is a big, broken corner desk I managed to lug out of an old apartment when it was gonna be trashed. Before then, I'd just draw in bed. I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure the folding chair I sit at is a similar affair. It's got a Dollar General throw pillow on it so I can at least say I'm trying to save my back. The top of the desk is a mess of mostly old bottles and cans, pencils, incense ash, and my old tarot deck. I love this setup dearly. This is the first time I've ever had my own desk space, much less a space I can decorate or leave as messy as I want. Got my own art up on the walls with sticky tack and all! Also the cat's scratching post is directly behind me, because we've learned the cat won't use it unless it's as in the way as possible. What can ya do, lol.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Oh cats...

Desnik

I got spoiled with an adjustable desk. It is six feet long, and has a whiteboard top for noodling with dry erase markers

my main computer is set up on an adjustable stand so it floats over the desk, and then I have my cintiq, which we tried to mount on a similar stand but then it was just too heavy

I keep my dice collection nearby because fidgeting helps think things through sometimes

and rolling to make odd decisions never hurts

lately during the quarantine I've been sharing the office with my spouse so we've had to establish rules over when it's okay to bug each other(edited)

oh yeah and we also have a whiteboard installed in the office, and it rules!(edited)

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

Mine is pretty simple: I have a laptop that's long stopped being portable and is now mostly just sitting at my desk at all times and a 19 inch Ugee as my display. I usually keep a lot of stuff on top of my desk, but it's mostly just a mess because I have been using it for work too for a while now

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I suppose I'll talk about my setup too :) My main setup is where I do digital art. I share an office with my SO, so we both have workspaces on opposite walls from each other. I work on a corner desk that holds my beefy computer, two monitors, and a Huion Kamvas GT-191. That's where I draw my comic and pretty much everything else done digitally. Ngl, it's a mess right now. I have comic notes and location floor plans in sketchbooks and DnD character sheets spread out all over the surface, and random pens and sticky notes. In the corner of the room, we have a nice large-format printer where I produce prints for conventions. I actually sketch my pages on an iPad pro in Procreate, so during the sketch phase, sometimes I'll just bundle up on my couch and do it, or before quarantine, sometimes I'd sketch on the go. My other workspace (which hasn't gotten much love as of late tbh) is a drafting table in the corner of our living room. I keep a tabletop easel on it and my Copic markers, as well as whatever I'm working on at the moment. (RN it's some ink washes.) The drawers hold all my ink, pencils, erasers, etc. Next to the drafting table is where I keep all my large charcoal, graphite, and oil pastel drawings (mostly school projects), and my large paintings. Other than that, I have a nifty little cart where I keep painting supplies :) I will say, this setup is by far an enormous improvement from my previous setups.

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #comic tea party #ctp #creator interview #comic creator interview #creator babble

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rational-mastermind · 5 years

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Heya for anyone that’s been following along with what my dumbass has been saying, I’m doing a daily challenge for the entirety of the month. And some may have noticed I didn’t post yesterday or the day before. I was sick and wasn’t even gonna try to make myself write until feeling better. I’m still recovering, but I managed to feel well enough to write today. So here’s day 18. (18?? Shit, I need to catch up.) Anyway, day 18 with my oldest OCs, Malan and Matthew, from Whatever it Takes.

“I don’t get sick!” I feebly protested, before my body betrayed me with another fit of coughing. “This is ridiculous!”

“I’m sorry, Poppy, but there’s no denying it.” my little brother Dexter shrugged with a sheepish grin. “You’re sick. That’s all there is to it.”

“Gosh damn..” I fell back into the pillows on my cot and sighed.

When was the last time I was sick? Oh right. Sept. 13th, 8 years ago. Great.. My throat was scratchy, and I could only breathe through one nostril. My eyes started watering, but I tried not to let it too much.

“Well.. At least I’ve got you to help me through this..” my voice came out hoarse and it hurt to speak. I tried to keep it to a whisper.

“Actually.. I’m gonna be busy.” Dexter rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m needed in the infirmary.”

“Oh.. Shit.” I sighed. “Well.. Then you go do a good job, kay?”

“I will.” Dexter smiled at me reassuringly and then pulled the sheets around me. “You just try to get some rest, kay?”

“Got it.”

With that, Dexter gave me a hug and left. For the most part, I laid there, noting the way my skin was crawling, electrified with hypersensitivity, and the way that made the sheets feel even colder. Almost painful. I tried to shake it off and get some sleep, but found it difficult. If only getting sick didn’t have to suck so much.

I had no way of telling how long I had been laying there, it must’ve been a few hours, but then the door opened and I was surprised to find my friend, Matt poking his head in.

“Hey, Malan.” he greeted as he entered. “How goes it?”

“Mmm..” I grumbled and curled away. “Matt, I don’t think you should be in here.. You could catch my cold.”

“Ah, I doubt it. I never really get sick.” he shrugged. “But Dexter was worried about you, thought you’d like some company, so I came in to check on you.”

In all honesty, I wish he hadn’t sent Matt. Matt was a good man. Tall, loyal, well built, a mess of dark brown hair that hid a good head on his shoulders, a caring heart. And for all intents and purposes he made it hard for me to really know how to feel. I felt like I could be honest and open with him, more so than almost anyone else in the rebellion, and yet at the same time I found it difficult to really put my thoughts and words together. It was hard to really decipher my emotions when he was around.

For some reason a part of me felt embarrassed that he was here while I was sick, but I couldn’t understand why I felt like that. It was kind of frustrating, over all.

“You really shouldn’t have…” I said.

“Just relax, Malan.” he sat down on the edge of the bed and held out his hand to me. I sat up and he handed me a couple of pills. I hadn’t noticed he was also carrying a glass of water and handed that when I took the medicine. “I’m just gonna keep you company while you rest up.”

I sighed and gave him a skeptical look.

“There’s no way to talk you out of this, is there?”

“Nope.” he grinned.

I shrugged and laid back down. Matt sat at the edge of the bed.

“So how bad is it?”

“Pretty bad..” I grumbled. “I can’t talk much.”

“Ah. Gotcha.” Matt nodded. “Should I keep quiet then?”

“Preferably.”

“Cool. Cool.”

It only took a short time but soon I could feel the medicine take its effect. My fever started to go down, and the hypersensitivity was replaced by a warm fuzziness that covered my skin. I still wasn’t comfortable though and kept tossing and turning. Matt noticed and chuckled.

“Having a hard time sleeping?”

“Yeeeesss…” I groaned.

“Here, lemme help.”

Matt turned into a wolf, albeit a smaller one, and stretched out across my lap, effectively pinning me to the bed. I couldn’t help the yelp which was soon followed by another coughing fit.

“Dammit, Matt, don’t do that!” I scolded him.

He just merely chuckled. The smug jerk.

“Well, I thought it’d help.” he said to innocently.

“You thought you could get away with this under the guise of just trying to help.” I huffed and tried to push him off. “And I don’t- hoolllyy shit your fur is soft!”

The medicine was definitely kicking in. I’ll swear it to my grave that it was the only reason why I did what I did. And that is to say, that only because of the medicine, that I lost the rationale to not think twice before wrapping my arms around his big soft, furry body and leaning more into him, burying my face in his soft coat. He moved and adjusted so that I could lay down while enjoying the sensation, which could or could not be construed as cuddling by anyone else’s perspective.

“See, was that so hard?” he hummed.

“Mmm. Shuddup..” I mumbled, my senses slipping into a hazy fog. “I’s… Your fault…”

“Oh is it?”

“Yes.” I sighed. “I’s always yer fault..”

“Like what?”

“Mmm. Noo..” I didn’t wanna say. So I curled up into a tighter ball and buried myself more into his soft coat.

We laid like that for a while, and once in a while he would gently nudge me with his muzzle, checking to see if I was awake or asleep. I started to phase in and out of consciousness when he checked in on me again.

“Still can’t sleep?”

“I dunno.. Too many thoughts…” I hummed.

“Like what?”

“Like.. Like I don’t.. know.. Why..” I yawned. “Why do you check on me? Why.. do you like me?”

“Well cause you’re awesome. That’s why.”

“But I’m not..” I sighed. “I’m really really not..”

“Yes you are. You’re cool, and smart, and caring, and you’re always looking after Dexter. You’re strong, in more ways than one. Come on, Malan, you’re amazing.”

“I’m so caught up with living in the past..” I simply stated. “I can never seem to move forward. I’m constantly afraid that what’s happened will repeat again.. I worry I’ll lose more loved ones, so I shove them away. But I’m terrified of being alone so I cling to Dexter so tightly, I fear he’ll eventually hate me.”

“He won’t. And you don’t shove people away.” Matt tried to reassure me.

“I can’t move forward. I’m stuck in this one place, living with this curse of memory day in and day out. I can’t stand being around others. This base. These people. It only brings back those memories. I can’t stand them because to me they all look the same. Just mindless people who decide it’s easier to follow orders and try to feel like they’re doing something worthwhile with their life, rather than realizing that every day another child loses their parents. And no one will stop for five minutes to realize that they kill more than they’re saving...”

“Malan?”

For just a moment, for once in my life, thoughts escape me, and I spaced for a solid few minutes. But then I managed to pull out of it, and chuckle a little.

“S..sorry.. That.. got kind of heavy..didn’t it?”

“Um.. A little?”

“Yeah.. I um..” I looked up at him and then glanced away. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. It’s okay. I’ve got you.”

I realized then that he wasn’t a wolf anymore, but human. His arms wrapped around my middle and I was pulled to lay my head on his chest. I could hear his heartbeat and the gentle sound was immediately soothing to me.

I recalled reading somewhere that our hearts try to synchronize with one another. And in doing so we experience immediate affection and comfort. Somewhere else once read that as infants we listen to our mothers’ heartbeat and it’s naturally soothing, creating a sense of ease and security.

Whether it had anything to do with that, the medicine, or just simply being a woman wrapped up in the arms of a man she likes, sick out of her mind, I ended up falling asleep. I felt peaceful, and relaxed, and it was the best sleep I had in years. No nightmares. No dreams. Just this single moment of comfort and warmth.

And when I woke up, it was over.

He was gone.

I was healthy in a couple of hours.

And it was back to the norm.

#Ocs #my writing #whatever it takes

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maakenzee · 5 years

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PLEASE PLEASE FRIENDS, SHARE THIS. (Click the link to view all the photos and please share all over!!)

If you never share any of my posts again I don’t care as long as you share this. I am providing all my screenshots. Every single one. The only screenshots I don’t have are of when I had to leave comments to get a response. I also don’t have screenshots of others reviews but I wish I did as many had the same experience as myself. And her responses were incredibly rude.

DO NOT ORDER FROM ”Kat's CT Handmade” on Facebook.

This shitshow (for lack of a better word) started on December 8th 2018. I saw a Facebook ad from a lady in the States making custom minky Harry Potter blankets.

I saw a pattern I fell in love with and despite being a student and not working much I decided to place an order. It was $65 USD which was about $85 Canadian. (I incorrectly say it’s $97 later in our conversation).

I was unaware that it was a 3 month (12 week) processing time when I ordered as it wasn’t stated in the ads or on her website. I had seen comments on her posts after others had ordered and that’s how I found out about the wait time. When March came I messaged her on the third (as it had almost been 3 months since I ordered) to confirm my blanket would ship soon. She claimed she had been sick twice and fell behind on orders and it would ship mid month. No biggie right? Wrong. So, so wrong I was.

March 29th 2019- My blanket should have been finished on March 8th and shipped mid month. After receiving no information regarding it I message Kat and was told her system was down and she couldn’t get anything done.

I sympathized as, being someone who works with technology, I understood things go wrong. But I was hopeful as I was told my blanket was on that weeks agenda!

April 6th 2019- I message Kat to confirm my blanket will be shipped that weekend and she responded it would be sent out the next night.

April 11th 2019- I message saying my blanket should have been shipped April 7th but I wasn’t given a tracking number so I wanted to confirm the shipment. It was then that I was told it went out last night on the 10th of April and not April 7th as I had been told and that it wouldn’t receive a tracking number until after midnight but she would send it via FB messenger.

April 16th- I haven’t received a tracking number so I reach out and don’t receive a response. I leave a comment on a Facebook post in order to get her attention.

April 19th- I finally get a tracking number and since at this point I’m annoyed with this process I’m happy to finally almost get my blanket and be done with this

April 30th- package says it’s delivered but I never received anything. I message Kat who says it can say that but still be delivered up to a week later so I wait it out.

May 4th- I decide to see if the USPS tracking number will transfer over to Canada post. It works! And I find out my blanket has been delivered!!....to a house in Saskatchewan. A whole province away from me. So I reach out.

May 5th- I receive a response and Kat says she’ll follow up regarding what happened. But will reship if necessary.

I ask if this means another 12 weeks of waiting and she assures me that no, she makes 3-7 blankets a day and I’d be at the top of her list.

She tells me to check in the next day regarding a plan (notice how she doesn’t offer to message me first? Notice how I always have to get in touch first for anything even when I’m told I’ll receive a tracking number the next day?)

May 6th- I follow up asking for a plan. She says she has the fabric coming in that weekend and will ship it out Monday.

May 14th- I ask for a tracking number because of course I haven’t received one. And guess what? I’m told it will be going out tonight.

Yup. Not May 13th as I was told before.

May 18th- I message AGAIN asking for a tracking number.

May 19th- I am sent a long message about her husband being in the ICU and that I was on the top of the list for getting postage assigned so it can be on it way.

Wait. Excuse me? It’s still not on its way?? So first it was May 13th, then it was supposed to go out May 14th and now May 19th I’m told it still hasn’t been shipped and due to the circumstances it won’t be shipped for another 4-5 days.

Unbelievable. I don’t argue it, there’s no point. You may think I’m a bad person for being angry when someone’s husband is in the hospital, but at this point it’s been 5 months since I ordered and I’d been given the run around too many times.

May 23rd- I ask for an update. No response.

May 26th- “hello?” I get a response saying I’ll have a tracking number tomorrow.

May 27th- no tracking number given

May 28th- I message asking for one. I finally get one!

June 6th- my shipment has been sitting in pre-shipment since May 28th stating “shipping label created, USPS awaiting item” 🤔

Kat says that’s not good and she will look into it and follow up that night

June 10th- I haven’t heard anything, I ask for an update.

June 12th- never got a response on June 10th so I try again. I am told she is in the middle of a miscarriage and will follow up with me the next night.

I do not need to know such personal information. And now I am in an uncomfortable situation. I am angry but don’t feel right lashing out at someone if they are indeed going through something like that. So I send as nice of a message as I can explaining my frustrations regarding the whole situation. That I understand her rough time but it has been 6 months since I ordered, that I splurged as being a student and not working much $85 CAD was a lot for me. That I don’t understand it being shipped to the wrong province. I even state I don’t want to come across as rude. I am trying my best to be polite.

She responds thanking me for my patience and being kind.

June 22nd- I ask for an update. No response

June 26th- she responds after I leave a Facebook comment on a post of hers and claims it’s a postage issue and as per usual she’ll “follow up tonight” 🙄

July 2nd- I ask for an update because god forbid she reaches out to me!!

July 6th- still no response and I message her asking her to please respond. I’m told a new shipping label was assigned and it will be on its way and she would send the notification as soon as she got it (nope!! Didn’t happen!!)

July 12th- I ask for a tracking number.

July 13th- “hello?”. Finally gives me a tracking number.

July 19th- my package has been stuck in pre shipment again for a week so I reach out. No response

July 20th- I ask for a response. But finally I’ve had enough. I send a screenshot of my original order and ask for a refund via PayPal and ask her to understand my reasoning as it’s been 7 months since I ordered. She tells me she doesn’t have PayPal but will put in a request for a refund. It should take 5-10 business days.

August 2- 10 business days later and nothing. Now I am pissed. I am done. I have been nice.

I have been so nice to this lady who had lied to me, ignored me and taken my money without any product exchange. I message.

No response.

I leave a comment.

It gets deleted.

Now I’m absolutely livid.

I message again saying it’s unacceptable to delete my comments and ignore me.

She responds it wasn’t deleted and was auto hid. I’m assuming she has set it up to auto hide any comments that are negative.

She tells me to send a refund request via PayPal. This is confusing since 10 days ago when I asked for a refund via PayPal she claimed she didn’t have it. Funny how that works, hey?

She also says “I’m done with this” as though all of this is MY fault and I am inconveniencing her.

Now I’m realllllllly mad.

I send her a message (please see photos below) and tell her how I feel. (Yes I say the wrong dollar amount)

She gives me bullshit excuses for why her reviews are turned off. And I regret not taking screenshots but let me tell you there were SO MANY bad reviews. All from people complaining they hadn’t received their blankets after MONTHS of waiting.

People saying she blocked them on messenger and they couldn’t get a refund...smh.

Kat threatened to take them to court. And what leg would you stand on, Kat? How can you say to a judge “these people are upset that I didn’t provide them with a product they paid me for so now they’re leaving me bad reviews”?? That makes no sense. They aren’t slandering your business, they’re telling the truth about what happened. Just as I am now.

I told her I sent my request and hours later I still have no refund, even though I stated I wanted it before the weekend. After all, IT’S MY MONEY. My hard earned cash. Not hers.

I have sent one last message and I don’t expect to receive my refund. So I guess I’ll be disputing it with my credit card company.

SO PLEASE do NOT order from this lady. She will take your money and provide nothing in return. She is a scammer and doesn’t deserve your business.

PLEASE SHARE so your friends and family know. And maybe, JUST MAYBE, her business will be shut down and no one else will lose their money.

8 months and I have no product and am out $85. Really freaking sucks.

(Also I apologize if I got any dates wrong, but you can see them all in the messages)

#scammer #scam #scams #harrypotter #harrypottercraft #Facebookscammer #viral #help #helpme

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formerlyrunephoenix6769 · 6 years

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I was asked and ask, and in my flu causing feverish state, I deleted it. So if you’re out there and recognize this question (and I’m paraphrasing) please reblog and @ me.

So If i remember, the question was along the lines of

“Why isnt there huge amounts of stuff, for shows like She -Ra and TDP, are they not as popular?”

Lets go for a ride...

I think the reason why we dont get the same amount of content generated for shows such as The Dragon Prince and She-ra, say in comparison to shows like RWBY.

And by content, I mean, theories, memes, art and in depth analysis, boils down to 3 things.

1) Time to Generate.

Both The Dragon Prince and She-Ra have only recently dropped their first season. Now both have their second season coming rather swiftly, esp in the case of The Dragon Prince. Season 2 is dropping tomorrow: Feb 15 2019 over on Netflix.

She-Ra’s is set to be released April 26th 2019, again on Netflix.

The Dragon Prince S1 was released on Sept 14th 2018, and She-Ra: Princesses of Power, Nov, 13th 2018.

In TDP case, that is a 5 month and 1 day turn around and SPOP, 5 months and 13 days turn around.

It is rather unheard of for an animation to have their Second season be ready in under 6 months. Usually it is anywhere from 10 months minimum to a year or in some cases, even longer.

I put this down to the success of the two series and how the audience received them, and Netflix wishing to capitalize on it, and the hype generated.

Lets just hope that the both properties dont feel rushed as a result.

So with such little time, and a very short hiatus in terms of tv shows, (which is when most of fandom generated content tends to be created), that gives very little time for their respective fandoms to leave their senses and devolve into some sort of animeesque Lord of the Flies in a matter of weeks, in a bid to cope.

(RWBY FNDM, I’m looking at you with your ‘Beehaw’s’ and YORSE, and ‘Scheehaw’s’. I still cant believe you made Arryn read that with her own eyes!!)

(You can tumblr search Yorse yourself, I aint making anyone look at that cursed image without their consent. You’ve been warned! ;p @hammertime-rwby i shake my head in your general direction... ;D )

Time to generate can also be reflected in how long a show has been on air, thereby garnering a wider and much larger fanbase with a broader set of creative skills, which in turn results in more fandom content generated, esp if there is the potential of shipping.

And bloody hell does SPOP have some crazy potential on the shipping front,

2) Time to Mature and Fandom Engagement.

As a show matures and the audience leans learn more about the characters and the world that they inhabit, the nature of fandom created content evolves. It also depends on the verve of the show itself.

The way in which a show is presented, the topics and themes they cover, the way the characters and the world are presented, can vicariously dictate how the fandom engages with the property, go forth and multiply.

For example:

Sherlock is very meme worthy and that tends to be reflected in the content that is generated by the Sherlockians.

RWBY has been out for 6 volumes and has a very dedicated and passionate FNDM, but it is also broad, large and incredibly diverse.

It is also rather vocal and has very strong differing opinions from one end of the spectrum to the other, which in turn creates YT reviews, reactions and rebuttals and heated retorts.

These polarising pov’s can then go on to permeate to other branches of social media, such as twitter, tumblr, discord etc etc

Same with fandom accepted headcanons and lore...

(I’m still on the fence about you Renora Rodeo Round up... You’re on thin ice! ;p )

But it has taken a number of years to cultivate.

Neither The Dragon Prince or She-Ra has had the time to do that, yet!

But I’m certain that will change in the coming future.

She-Ra has already generated quite the buzz on both the positive and negative sides, due to being based on a much loved, older, property, ‘She-Ra 1985��, but that is a mine field which I covered on my previous blog before some asshat decided to axe it.

Also, the themes that Netflix She-Ra seems to be covering, which helped generate a lot of the negative backlash towards the show, will most definitely continue to be polarizing... So I would keep an eye out if YT and people picking stuff apart is your jam.

On the other side, what SPOP seems to be trying to deliver will also generate lots of awesome content. Just look at how this took off,

“Hey Adora”

And this cinnamon roll’s preoccupation with ‘force captain orientation’,

The Dragon Prince strikes me as a show that would generate deep reflective analysis of world and characters as well as theories, much like its older cousin, Avatar Last Airbender, once there is more to comb over and speculate on.

These two shows are presented differently and they way they are tackling certain themes in their respective narratives are also vastly different, which could also have a lot to do with their respective target audience and intended demographic, so it stands to reason that the results of fandom generated content would be different.

3) Platform and Format.

This I believe is one of the most important aspects which ties the previous points above.

If a property is delivered week by week, such as RWBY, there is time, for the FNDM, after they make amazing screen shots and insta analysis and excited speculations, to go over it again and allow the episode to sink in.

(which both TDP and SPOP could do, as they have episodic episodes but that is an entirely different post)

There is time for the fans to go sit back and react to what they have seen, whether that is creating beautiful fan art, crafting in depth theories, character analysis, extrapolate potential world building.

A week by week delivery culminates in an emotional impact that is allowed to foster and grow, thereby gives space and time for the individual to go off and create content for their respective fandom.

Fanart takes time, fics take time.

The not knowing what could happen next opens up the avenues of thought out speculations.

Having a week to go over everything to that point and process new info. Being able to take your time to research and prep before you put it out there, results in good, in depth analysis and well crafted work.

Time gives breeding ground.

(Some wait years for lore.. Overwatch fandom, I dont know how we do it! But we all cant be Tracer!)

Because, we are so salivating at the the mouth for insta gratification and ‘binge’ culture has become so prevalent where media is concerned.

When a property is delivered all at once, it gives no breathing space for speculation and wild theories.

For a particular scene or interaction between characters to have an emotional impact and thereby create emotionally significant fan art, that is reblogged and shared in that moment, give it time to resonate with its respective fandoms.

And there for have time for other members of the fandom to be inspired to go off and create their own stuff in what ever medium is their forte.

Because we are on this fast paced ride, not only from the start of the chapter 1 to end of the first ‘book’, so to speak, but also the social media need to be the first to create the content for the fandom, the type of content generated, how and why, is hugely different and may not at first glance look like it is forth coming..

It just takes time to sink in.. To go back through and re-evaluate.

Being inspired by a particular interaction between two characters , or a certain facet of the world that an fan may have noticed and wishes to expand on, art wise, fic wish or theroise, loses its validity when you know that the next episode could answer your burning questions in less than 5 seconds.

And so you stave off for the dreaded nine episode when your eye balls are nearly gumming together and you know you have work in 4 hours but you need answers to the burning questions..

and so results.

This is not the content creators fault, in anyway. This is quite literally the way in which it is delivered.

Its is pretty much,

II) However, in Conclusion

The perceived lack of fandom interaction/generated content, in the social media platforms that a fan chooses to consume, or is available to them, does not mean that a show isn't popular.

The ties to previous projects, such as SPOP to She-Ra 1985 and The Dragon Prince to Avatar Last Airbender are vastly different.

Expectations are vastly different.

Fandom interaction and generation of fandom content, is not a measure made of how popular a show is.

Also, politely, remember the demographic of which these shows are aimed at.

Be respectful of the show creators, the property, the characters and the narrative that the show creators have painstakingly crafted and put out into the world.

The story that they want to tell.

Again,

a reminder,

Tomorrow, 15th Feb 2019 , Season 2 of The Dragon Prince.

(im gonna go back into my fluey coma now)

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