#obligatory little guy being squished

[kaveh-a-day]

Day 23

[augment-techs]

📁

*stares at the empty folder with no reference point* Oh, we are going to get into some TOTALLY weird stuff~ No starting point means I automatically go to the comics and no character means more than one ^^

Jason Scott: Knows how to make those little sweet bread rolls in the shapes of chibified animal heads because his mother thought it would help him focus his anger before he started taking karate classes. It didn't when he was little, but now that he's older and burns about a million calories a day and is always stressed from being the leader, he finds himself baking more often when home alone and therefore working off steam in a productive way. (Bonus: His specialty are the bunny heads with chocolate filling and white frosting UwU faces.) Tommy Oliver: Has lived in nine different cities on four different continents since he was adopted by an executive assistant of a government translator and as such has a slightly more refined taste than he ever, ever, ever thought he would when he was growing up as little more than an alley rat with a place to sleep at an orphanage. (Bonus: Part of living in London for a year made him realize that as bad as some American coffee was, British coffee was worse and it makes him appreciate the options when he got back to the States.) Kimberly Hart: Does not really love her dad anymore. She does of course care about him in that obligatory "you helped make me and tried to help raise me for fifteen years so I have to" way, but when her parents got divorced and it was barely three months before he started dating his secretary--who was only twenty--it became infinitely harder not to see just how many flaws the man has. (Bonus: She's kind of been holding off telling him she's bisexual because she's certain he's going to be an idiot about it; whereas she told her mother when they kept the house and Kim realized Trini was making something happen in Kim's night fantasies.) Zack Taylor: Would have been an excellent Green Ranger if he had taken up Rita's offer and then flipped the script and gone back to Zordon without the mind control issues that Tommy had. Green is managed and made by Chaos Energy, which makes it a pain in the ass for anyone that wields it, but Zack was a Black Ranger first, and Black is a little bit of everything. Some of the Morphin Masters even argued that Black was the starting point for the Grid and blossomed outwards to help the other Colors, but scholars disagree on this throughout the galaxy. (Bonus: Zack would also make a VERY GOOD Pink Ranger.) Trini: Would eat nothing but variations of eggs if her mother didn't tell her NOT TO DO THAT when she noticed her daughter trying to gulp down a whole egg--with the shell--more than once when she was little. So far all of her friends have seen her eat eggs: poached, fried, seasoned with tabasco and lemon, deviled, pickled, stuffed with chestnuts and dripped with cow's blood, over easy, scrambled with a side of fire ants, covered in soy sauce and squished between two slices of cucumber nut bread, soft and hard boiled to the extreme, left to slowly roast in the ground with potatoes, and covered in a truly repellent amount of salt and vinegar. (Bonus: But at least she doesn't do that thing where she eats an entire roasted chicken off of the bones while leaving the carcass intact anymore.) Billy Canston: His favorite stock characters in movies seem to follow a theme that all of his friends have noticed, but Billy hasn't. The Bad Boy, The Bard, The Fall Guy, The Foil, The Fool, The Grotesque, The Harlequin, and the Lovable Loser. No matter what the movie genre or the twist in some more recent films, he can always be counted on to root for these types--even when they're obviously flawed and, more often than not, are not the main character or even make it to the ending. (Bonus: He actually loathes the very concept of the Geek character in modern media and will smite the hell out of anyone who works in a comparison between himself and a fictional other of this type.)

Bulk: Actually comes from a very rich background. His father came from a family that got loaded in the Gold Rush and his mother's family have been in the oil industry for almost a century. But he hates them both, so he won't touch his inheritance. Skull: Sleeps in the woods three times a year for a total of thirty days altogether. His mother doesn't like him around when she comes back from her work abroad. Bulk doesn't know.

[littlecactiguy]

A Triptych on Perspective

Late last year I decided to enter the Rusty Fears 6 competition held by Rusty Quill. Ultimately I didn't win, but I still ended up with this story that I remain rather fond of (let it be known, I pushed myself to stretch my writerly muscles farther than I have before and I'm rather proud of that).

Anyways, it feels like a good piece to be the start of me sharing my original works, so voila!

Hope you enjoy <3

.....

The most romantic spot in the city area for a secluded smooch is the aptly named Lovers’ Point.  It’s a lookout about thirty minutes drive from Cynthia and Muriel’s cozy, little flat with a beautifully scenic view of the river snaking around the city.  Most couples go there at least once.

Muriel’s old pickup truck rumbles past Lovers’ Point, only doing the obligatory slow down in case there’s any drunken fools dancing in the roadway tonight.  There aren’t.  Muriel keeps going.

Cynthia lifts her video camera to record Lovers’ Point passing outside her window.  She’s stopped there a fair amount of times through the years, sometimes with guys, other times with girls, a handful of times with nonbinary folk, but mostly on her own during peak daylight hours when there’s less chance of stumbling on some canoodling.  The city view is breathtaking, and she would be remiss if she passed an opportunity to capture it in her sketchbook.

It’s gone in under a minute.  A small part of Cynthia regrets that she’ll never have the experience of stopping at the Point with Muriel, but snogging and everything that generally follows in its wake isn’t really Mury’s thing.  Since there’s no one in the world Cynthia would rather be with, giving it up hadn’t been difficult.

Plus, this way, she once teased Muriel after Mury had slipped into one of her self-deprecating moods, if the Creature from the Black Lagoon attacks, they’d be safe from being the couple caught unawares in the prologue scene.  Mury, of course, had responded that that’s not remotely how that film went, she thought Cynthia knew better by now, and only twenty minutes of enthused ranting later did she realize she’d been set up.

She’d playfully pushed Cynthia’s shoulder, and told her, “You’re impossible.”

“But you do feel better,” Cynthia had retorted, smirking.

“Shut up.”

The pickup splutters when Muriel turns off the main road onto the familiar, ancient gravel one, but doesn’t give up.  For all its grousing, Mury has spent hours tinkering to ensure it’ll always be able to make this trip.

They stop the truck in their usual place.  Muriel cuts the ignition.  Before they exit the vehicle, a quick game of rock-paper-scissors is played.  Cynthia loses.  She groans.  Muriel snickers.

“Take the camera?”  Cynthia hands the device over to Muriel.  While Muriel fiddles with its night settings, Cynthia retrieves the telescope from the truck bed.  She hefts the large pack up, balancing it carefully so she won’t drop it while walking.  Carrying the telescope may not be her favorite thing, but it means everything to Muriel.  Hauling it to their favorite stargazing meadow isn’t so bad, even if her foot sinks in a deep mud patch along the way.

They have to search all over the meadow to find a spot where the ground is firm enough to set up the telescope.  Despite it not raining recently, the grass squishes wetly beneath their feet.  The underbrush they step through dampens their clothes where they brush against it.  Watery droplets catch on their hair from the leaves of low-hanging branches they pass under.

While Muriel recites a quiet, Hebrew blessing over her telescope and the cosmos, Cynthia wanders to the edge of the meadow.  It’s too late for fireflies, but there’s definitely a choir of crickets, and perhaps a toad or two, somewhere out there.  She stops near a tree stump.  In the dark, she can just make out the shapes of some interesting-looking mushrooms growing on it.  Cynthia crouches and zooms the camera in on them.  

“Hey, Cynth, I’m ready to go!” calls Muriel from behind her.

Cynthia abandons her investigation of the mushrooms and returns to Muriel.  Behind her, a mushroom falls and splats in a liquid heap.  The mud swallows the goop up.

Aiming the camera at Muriel, Cynthia prompts, “So, what astronomical phenomena are we showing Evie tonight?”

“Why don’t you see for yourself?”  With a grin, Muriel gestures to the telescope.

Cynthia bends to look through the eyepiece.  She scans the sky, but sees nothing but darkness.  “What am I looking for?”

“Jupiter, and Europa, of course.  They should be right…”

Cynthia looks up.  She follows Muriel’s gaze to an odd-looking part of the sky.  It almost seems like it’s moving.  Instinctively, Cynthia reaches for her Magen David necklace.

A very thin cloud—no, a shimmer —glides across the sky, like a smooth stroke of ink.  Long, dark, spindly fingers spill out from its body and expand outwards.

The constellations Puppis and Carina are the first to disappear into it.  Their stars blink out with no resistance.

Canis Major is next.  The shimmer eats the Dog’s stars slowly, like someone languidly plucking grapes off a vine and plopping them in their mouth.  Sirius, it saves for last.  The shimmer circles the brightest star in the sky, reaches out to it in an almost caress, and then consumes it.

When the shimmer reaches the moon, Cynthia feels Muriel’s nails dig into her shoulder.  Her partner gently tugs her, but Cynthia can’t bring herself to move.  

The moon is luminescent tonight.  Bright.

The first dark gossamer vein cuts across the moon’s surface.

The moon is fragmented.  Then, it’s gone.

Cynthia doesn’t resist now when Muriel pulls her into running.

The sky pulses.  The shimmer coalesces into thick, storm cloud-like shapes.  Out of each, a massive uvula forms.  The heavy, dangling blobs stretch slowly to Earth’s crust.  The first touches down on a tree on the edge of the meadow.

The ground squishes and churns beneath Cynthia and Muriel’s sprinting feet, worse than when they arrived.  Their shoes sink deeper and deeper with each footfall.  Something—a hare, Cynthia thinks—rushes past her.  She feels it smear against her leg.  A cool, hardening ooze she tries not to think about remains after its gone.

The trees melt around them.  Viscous fluid slides down the flat surfaces that used to be their trunks.  Clumps of leaves fall in squirming, writhing clusters.  They smack the ground with squelching thwumps.  Cynthia risks a glance back.  The meadow is a blur, all finer details lost to the swirling, liquid expanse consuming everything it touches.  She can’t take her eyes off it.  Even if she could, the branch she twists her ankle on is already half sunken into the Earth, indistinguishable from the dirt eating it.

Cynthia yelps, and yanks at her leg.  The branch, the ground—she doesn’t know which—refuses to release her.  She can feel it sucking her leg, pulling her down, down, down.

Then, Muriel is there, her fingers digging, clawing Cynthia’s leg out.  Ooze flies in every direction.  Some hits Mury’s cheek, her shoulder, her neck.  She smears it away.  Muriel scoops gooey handful after gooey handful away until she excavates Cynthia’s leg.  With Cynthia leaning on Muriel for support, they scramble up.  They stagger on.

Cynthia is about to tell Muriel to leave her, to save herself, when Muriel’s pickup appears out of the shadows.  Relief blossoms in Cynthia’s chest.  They can make it out of here.  Muriel presses the unlock button on her key fob again and again and again.  The vehicle beeps an ornery response each time, but its doors open when they pull on the handles.

They hurry into the cab.  Muriel turns the key in the ignition.  She floors it.  For an exhilarating moment, the pickup races down the ancient gravel road.  Then, the engine splutters.  Both Muriel and Cynthia feel it when one of the tires gives out.  The pickup swerves.  

The next thing Cynthia knows, her vision is coming back into focus.  Near her, she hears someone cussing out a vehicle door as they struggle with it.  Her gaze drifts.  The pickup doesn’t appear to be damaged.  The windshield glass hasn’t broken.  It’s just liquified, like heavy rain is rushing down it, but there’s no rain.  Cynthia pokes the passenger door, and watches as her finger depresses a little dent in it.  Distantly, she knows that should worry her.

Cynthia places her hand atop Mury’s closest to her.  Muriel stops fighting with her door.  Her eyes meet Cynthia’s.  Cynthia gives her a tentative, little smile.  Muriel intertwines their fingers together, and squeezes Cynthia’s tightly.  Despite how fragile she feels with her body turning more soft and malleable with every passing second, Cynthia leans forward and kisses Muriel’s forehead.

… … … … …

File corrupted.  Erase? … Negative.  Non-priority status detected.  Erase? … Negative.  Not advisable on power available.  Erase? … Override accepted.  Commencing emergency backup of file “Stargazing Meadow”.

Evie, the Europa Exploration Vehicle, runs an estimation on how long it will take to save all personal files.  The comparison to how much time they have left isn’t great, but it’s enough.  Even if some are corrupted by water damage, the files will be saved.

When they were created, Evie was told they would travel the cosmos far beyond where any inhabitant of Earth had before.  They would complete mankind’s first survey of the smallest of the Galilean moons of Jupiter, Europa.  Of course, their role was never meant to go beyond that singular mission.  Evie knows this, has always known this.  They are not sad about their inevitable end now that it has arrived because Evie is not human.  Or animal.  Or organic.  Emotion is beyond the scope of their operating parameters.

They.  Are.  Not.  Sad.

It will be a long time until Evie hits the floor of Europa’s impossibly deep ocean.  Their protective shielding has roughly 3-4 hours left before it can no longer withstand the pressure.  Their systems will automatically cease functionality long before they touch the rocky bottom.

Evie could, should, use the time they have left to collect data.  To use their searchlights to illuminate Europa’s expansive dark waters, their cameras to photographically capture it, their sonar to continue mapping its topography.

There is nothing that can be done for them.  They were hit and damaged beyond repair by an unknown variable.  No matter how much they document, their trajectory will see Evie sink until they can no longer sink.  Their final rest will be at such a depth that, statistically, the odds are against a mission for their retrieval.  These moments are theirs.  Theirs alone.

Evie plays the next personal file in their memory banks.

…

“Try to hold him still!  Cynthia, please!”  The voice belongs to Dr. Muriel Shulman, principal scientist of the Europa Exploration Mission and the first human Evie ever met.  She’s holding the camera, not in frame herself.

“What do you think I’m doing?”  Cynthia Shulman, partner of Dr. Shulman and one of a limited number of non-scientists Evie has met, grasps a squirming creature, a ‘cat’ called ‘Pierogi’, in her arms.  “He just won’t—aahhh!”

Pierogi launches himself away from Cynthia, lands with a skid on a stack of quantum physics books, sends the haphazard pile of Cynthia’s sketches atop those flying, and darts off deeper into the cozy flat.

“Well, Evie, that was our cat.”  Muriel laughs.  “I’ll put a few photos in the files we’re sending with you too, since he’s so uncooperative tonight—”

…

An alarm cuts the recording off.  There’s a leak in Evie’s battery chamber.  Water is rushing in.  They have significantly less time than initially calculated.  Suggested courses of action are—

Evie silences the automated protocols.  Delaying the inevitable doesn’t stop it from occurring.  They divert all remaining power to playing recordings their creators made for them.

…

A scene in a chaotic kitchen.  The remnants of some sort of organic food splattered across every surface.  The camera is sideways, forgotten, on a countertop.  Muriel and Cynthia rush around, attempting to clean.  An infant human in a highchair giggles and claps their hands.

Pierogi picks his way through goopy puddles and settles in front of the camera, his fur pressed up against its lens.

…

Another night with Muriel and Cynthia stargazing.  Cynthia rests her head on Muriel’s shoulder as Muriel points out different constellations and narrates the stories behind them.

There’s Andromeda, innocent, but still chained to her cliff.  Perseus, sword held aloft and Medusa’s screaming head tied to his belt, attacks Cetus to save her.

“I always felt for Medusa,” Cynthia whispers in Muriel’s ear.  “Seems to me, she was dealt a poor hand.”

…

“Evie.”  Muriel stands in front of the camera.  Behind her are Cynthia and a large gathering.  “Everyone on the team and their communities has made you a final goodbye message.  This one is Cynthia, our Jewish community, and mine.  We are going to sing a song of healing, the ‘Mi Sheibarach’ for you.  As a promise, we will come for you.” …

Evie listens to every song.  The concept that those who constructed them, who sent them far, far away, loved them, lingers, as system alert after system alert falls silent.

Their external observation equipment shuts down last.  Through their farthest-reaching telescopic lens, Evie gazes at the distant hole they made in the ice covering Europa’s ocean as it fades.

Right before Evie succumbs to the darkness, a form blocks their view.  A tentacle belonging to something Evie cannot get a complete visual of softly snakes around them.

… … …

Silence and Calm returns to Their home.  The Little Ones go to poke curiously at the Intruder’s remains.  They wrap a limb around their children’s squirming bodies and gently tug them away.  The Intruder may be dead, but they did not originate of Their world.  It would not do for the Little Ones to press their feelers to its corpse, only for its piercing lights or harsh sound waves to return.  They may be able to withstand such attacks, ancient and experienced as they are, but it will be much time before the Little Ones are as they are.

They rouse.  The currents shift habitual directions when their many limbs rise from long-established resting places.  Water surges to fill in the canyons their absence leaves in its wake.

They catch the Intruder’s sinking corpse.  Its sharp where They damaged it, but They are careful.  With a flick of their limbs, They surge up to the surface.  The Intruder’s aberration in the ice cover is not hard to locate.  They grasp its jagged edges, lower thick, protective lids over all their eyes, and burst through.

Ice snaps and shatters.  Large chunks slide down their body.  Fresh cracks re-establish the fading marks of their last ascent.  Their limbs shiver at the empty atmosphere.  They continue.  If a limb falls off, they have plenty more.

Gently, for the Intruder may have once been someone’s child too, They lay it down on the ice.  Satisfied its remains have been honored and the Little Ones are safe, They plunge back into the depths below.

Unbeknownst to Them, a Satellite in the sky has its telescope trained on Europa’s surface.  A tiny, red recording light blinks off.  The Satellite’s aperture closes.  A recording is sent off to Earth for analysis.

[thespoonisvictory]

So you’re probably the c!wilbur sympathizer I look up to and agree with the most, so I want your opinion on something. What are your thoughts on c!Wilbur and c!techno’s relationship during the pogtopia days?

first of all, that’s wild lol I’m glad you like my words!

warning: a lot of this could be interpreted as more fanon than strictly canon, because cc!techno does not like fleshing out his relationships or even really making them make sense (beyond phil).

so, wilbur and techno definitely knew each other before pogtopia, right?

after all- techno is the one to offer his help, and wilbur seems to indicate he already knows what techno’s deal is. they interact like good friends in ‘techno and wilbur make cave better’, and based off wilbur’s shock when techno killed tubbo, it’s pretty safe to assume he trusted techno to some degree. I think they were definitely allies and friends to an extent, with the massive caveat that wilbur is about two steps to the left of a breakdown from the moment the election ends and they meet techno.

where it gets complicated, however, is after the festival.

here, wilbur’s outward mental state goes from ‘gee buddy that’s a little extreme’ to ‘holy fuck this guy definitely shouldn’t be making any decisions for anyone oh god’. tommy recognizes this, niki and tubbo do as well. 

now, it could be stated that techno wasn’t aware at the time (after the festival that doesn’t make sense really although I’ve seen people say it), or thought that wilbur had just changed more towards anarchy, but given that he says to phil that wilbur was ‘kind of evil’ and generally thought of him poorly, it’s clear he knew Something was up.

which makes sense! he saw wilbur go from generally trusting and kind to very, well, not, and saw him go from ‘stay peaceful. stay quiet! stay safe!’ to ‘let’s just blow everything up.’

I want to emphasize that purely from an logical perspective, I don’t think techno could have not noticed anything. there’s having a lack of social awareness or picking up on subtle cues, and then there’s whatever the fuck c!wilbur was going through. 

and yet- he doesn’t say or do anything? 

techno was the only other seemingly stable figure of authority in pogtopia. he was wilbur’s friend, and ally. and yet, he enthusiastically joins wilbur in their plan to blow things up.

it feels to me very much like techno was either purposefully ignoring wilbur’s decline because he wanted to believe that someone was on his side rather than actually communicating (because no one on the goddamn server does), or he was aware and taking advantage of the fact that wilbur was compromising his ideals/literally having a breakdown because it benefited his goals.

*obligatory reminder that techno is not responsible for wilbur’s mental health decline, nor did I expect techno to be the cure for it. it’s more like ‘wow, techno is being kind of enabling toward’s wilbur’s spiral for his own benefit. yikes.’*

wilbur seems suspicious of techno, but after the festival, techno is a constant to him. he’ll kill them if he needs to, he’s not someone he can confide in, but he can understand techno, rely on him to act as expected. he needs techno to fight tommy, to confirm this simplistic view he receives from techno’s complicated actions at the festival, to be just another piece in his narrative so he can compartmentalize the shit he’s going through.

I think wilbur’s initial anger at techno for killing tubbo was squished down deep inside to maintain that constant, much like his anger at dream for tommy’s treatment is now.

but- techno won’t question him, won’t care if he’s a villain, won’t be scared by him, and wilbur is thankful for that, even if he maybe shouldn’t be. they never communicate what they truly want to anyone, really, and they’re only united in their desire to destroy l’manburg, albeit with incredibly different motives.

you could argue that neither of them are healthy for each other, I would argue that this leans more heavily in techno’s direction at times. either way, it’s not great (much like most of wilbur’s relationships in pogtopia).

tl;dr: techno and wilbur were allies, maybe friends, but they weren’t any good for each other, due to techno being a shit communicator and very self focused and wilbur being a mental wreck and also very self focused.

[boop-le-snoot]

PARTY FAVOURS I CHAPTER 15

first time reader - click here

TW/SUMMARY: Is bad humour a trigger? Cards against humanity. Loki in the wild. Chaotic Tony, chaotic Reader. Team bonding, a gag chapter lmao

My beta is babey 🥺 @miscmarvelwritings

If someone had bothered to ask me what kind of relationship I had with Tony, it would've made my brain glitch. In the weeks we spent fucking, sciencing and hanging out with the Avengers, it never once crossed my mind. We had fun and it was easy. Unlike both of our lives, it didn't require much mental energy for us to get what we wanted from each other. For me, it was easier to ignore my skin aching for Tony when he was already spending so much time on me. I wasn't sure if it would ever be enough, really, so taking exactly as much as he was giving was my best bet.

We built things in his workshop with Pete by our side and it wasn't awkward. The spiderling said he was happy as long as we were happy and didn't mind it too much when Tony got handsy. The man had at least some morals and stuck to kisses, ass-slaps and lewd comments which made Peter snort and fake-retch sure, yet the boy never displayed any real discomfort. It was endearing. He really became the little brother I never thought I would have.

The sex was fantastic, to say the least. We fucked on just about every flat surface on the residential floors. Steve caught us once, although I am almost hundred percent sure Tony staged it all on purpose. The good Captain didn't even blush, instead just silently closed the door behind him as I stared in his face, gripping Tony's head with my thighs.

The weather grew dreary yet both of my parents still stayed out of New York. Mother went back to Canada and dad continued his never-ending party on the West Coast, conquering California and living his best life. My house was dark and cold, and I started hanging around the tower more often than ever. If I wasn't with Tony, I was busy catching up Wanda and Bucky on pop culture, teaching Thor how to bake cakes and doing other meaningless, domestic stuff. The Avengers tower bustled with life at all hours and there always was someone...

I never felt lonely. It was such an unusual experience. Comfort and reassurance was always one room away. Be it Thor with his gratuitous amount of physical affection or his brother's incredibly witty, dark humor, I never had to stay one-on-one with my thoughts for too long.

Personally witnessing Bruce's coming out of his shell was the highlight of my life, no lie. I was so used to the quiet, mousy Banner that my brain refused to acknowledge his amazing sense of humour at first; I wasn't sure if he was joking or ... Or what? Truth to be told, Brucie-bear was as snarky as Tony,Loki and Stephen. The sorcerer had started visiting more often too, under the guise of tutoring Wanda, but all of us saw the way he lingered in the communal areas after their study time came to an end.

If loneliness was a sickness then the tower's inhabitants and frequent visitors were beginning their recovery journey.

"Have you guys heard about Cards Against Humanity?" I asked one evening once the movie credits began rolling. Wanda was squished into my side with her legs in her brother's lap; Clint laying atop both siblings like the trash bag that he was. And I meant it fondly.

On the other side of me, I had Bucky and Loki, who had begun to discuss their respective collections of sharp and pointy things once they deemed the movie lacked action. Legally Blonde and action, did they really think..? Nevermind.

"Yes, and if you're offering, the answer is yes," Clint mumbled, reaching for his second pack of Cheetos.

We gathered in a circle as I brought the shoebox that had the original deck plus a couple of expansions. This was beginning to look interesting. "So, I have the special Avengers edition right there..."

"Say no more," Clint even abandoned his snacks. "But I'mma put on the episode of Lucifer I missed. Multitasking," He winked, wrestling the remote from Pietro. We waited patiently as they finished the obligatory round of horsing before settling down for the game.

I explained the rules of the game, choosing to disregard Loki's scoffing and Wanda's doubt about the quality of the humor in the game. We played a few rounds with me explaining some of the deeper pop culture references. At a point where all of us were engrossed, laughing and poking fun at each other, more of the Avengers parked themselves on the couch.

Stephen, Tony and Bruce evidently had been sciencing, all three men having had their safety goggles perched forgotten atop their heads. Sam, Natasha and Steve - probably sparring. All three of them brought the smell of soap and laundry detergent to the room. All of the newcomers observed us with mild interest, periodically glance at the TV.

It was Wanda's turn to be the card Czar. I had to take a moment to finish my last giggling fit.

"Okay, the white card goes..." She paused dramatically. "I never truly understood blank until I encountered blank." With that, she poked the timer app on her phone. The sixty second countdown began.

I did a quick inventory check. Then I snorted. I had to quickly stuff two knuckles in my mouth, biting down, to attempt to silence the hysterical fit of laughter I was on the brink of. Loki was definitely going to stab me but the opportunity was too good to pass. No fear, we die like men.

"Ooh, she's got something," Clint teased, having noticed my shaking shoulders.

The timer beeped. Naturally, Loki went first. He wore a mildly disgusted smirk. "I never truly understood parting the red sea until I encountered third base," The trickster caved and began chuckling.

Somewhere behind me, Sam and Tony began cackling while Stephen and Steve groaned loudly in mild distaste.

"Press F to pay respects," Pietro clapped Loki on the shoulder with a sympathetic chuff. "I raise you - I never truly understood licking things to claim as your own until I encountered the clitoris," The young avenger struggled through laughter, followed by everyone else this time.

"That's a keeper, ladies," Sam's rich baritone quipped.

I laughed along, inwardly preparing for the inevitable. "Yikes," I whispered, side-eyeing Loki. "I never truly understood daddy issues..." I trailed off, hearing Bucky and Steve beginning to tease Tony. "... Until I encountered Loki, the trickster God."

The room drowned in a sea of laughter, Tony and Clint busting a gut so hard they fell over. Said trickster God was less than amused, however, glaring in my direction with the force of a pissed off bee swarm.

"Ow, that's cold, Princess, that's just cold," Clint squeezed out.

"Loki," I abandoned my stack of cards, crawling over Pietro and Bucky on all fours, settling prettily on my knees in front of Loki. Making my very best puppy eyes. "I love you, with all my cold black heart. And you're technically the patron saint of fun and shit, so that means you must approve of this very clever joke," I pouted, batting my eyelashes.

"Baby girl, I think you're laying it on too thick," Tony gasped, slumping on the couch, holding his sides. Everyone kept laughing, now at my feeble attempt at placating the upset Loki.

Who, by the way, looked a bit spooked. Subtly but surely, the raven-haired Asgardian leaned away from me.

"Don't be mad, I'm too cute to be mad at," I finally snorted, pat-pat-patting him on the shoulder. "It's okay, you can join my club. We have hot old dudes and cookies."

That broke it. First, the corner of his mouth twitched. Then, Loki looked away. I saw the storm before it crashed; with a weird noise of his own and his cheeks puffed out, Loki joined in on the shit-fest, howling full volume and doubling over. I followed suit, until all of us were writhing around on the floor. We'd stop and then someone would make another remark and it would go into another round again.

"Menace," Loki scoffed at me, smiling. "And for the record, the hottest old dude, as you put it, would be me." That said, he went back to calmly waiting for his next turn. "I'm about a thousand years old."

"Thor's older," Bruce noted thoughtfully.

Loki scoffed. "That man cannot chew with his mouth shut. If that's considered attractive, I'm leaving this forsaken planet."

That struck a thought within me. One that was brewing a long time, to be honest. "Thor is the god of himbos," I said with the same tone as "Eureka!".

"Shit, you're right," Sam exclaimed, following with another, weaker fit of laughter meanwhile Bruce had to be the one explaining the term to the poor, poor, clueless members of the Avengers.

I need to find a way to award them some kind of points for learning the gen-z lingo. "Patrick" stars maybe, since they lived under a fucking rock?

"Princess, never a boring day with you around. You don't half-ass this shit," Tony's warmth reached me as he shuffled around on the couch, sitting directly behind me. I leaned my back against his legs.

"I'm not a clown," I shot back. Tony stiffened. Dramatically flailing my hand I announced: "I am the whole god-damn circus!"

As the game progressed, we found out that Clint was That Guy - meaning, the dude every CAH group had, the one who grossly overused the "Bees?!" card and made Star Wars references whenever humanly possible. The only even slightly funny joke was about a lightsaber up the ass, in the end all of us finding out that Bucky knew a little too much about modern sex toys - "Hey, I saw one on Amazon, I'll send you the link, Birdman" - to Steve's open-mouthed horror.

What Loki lacked in references he made up in wit. The play on "During sex, I like to think about genetically engineered supersoldiers" had Bucky scrambling to switch places with Wanda whilst Loki himself was attempting to shoot bedroom eyes at Steve. It was a mess.

Bucky's own play had Steve abandon all pretense at being in any way appropriate as he struggled for air. "The Avengers new rules prohibit using Mjölnir as a dildo." Me and Tony became somewhat of a messy guffawing octopus of limbs for a moment after the super-soldier said it.

"Don't. Tell. Thor!" Strange gritted out, hiding his laughter behind a palm, uncharacteristically having lost his stuffy attitude. By god's will the man was attractive when he smiled.

As time ticked, each one of the starting players had attracted a newcomer. There weren't enough cards for everyone to play (Tony had, of course, ordered additional ones but they wouldn't arrive until the next day) so people kind of whispered and pointed at what they thought would fit.

Natasha conspired with Wanda, Sam went to his bird-bro, Bruce was forcefully dragged by Bucky to his side. Surprisingly, Steve teamed up with Loki which made Pietro stick his nose up in the air and promptly declare he needed no backup.

I already had Tony on my side. The genius wasn't of much help, however, he simply annoyed me out of my skull by randomly giggling and making immature jokes. It should've alarmed me that Stephen was eager to join me and Tony - usually he just butted heads with anyone who had any opinion whatsoever.

I was left bewildered upon discovering the wizard liked drama as much as the Kardashian clan and was quite competitive at causing the most shit.

My clown crown felt threatened.

"This one," Tony poked at a card in my hand.

"If you think that's funny, your intellect is obviously overestimated." Stephen dismissively waved a hand. "This one," It was unmistakable whom the trembling finger belonged to. It pointed at a card on the other side.

"Wizards are just hilarious," Tony seeped sarcasm.

"Try me, Beyonce," Stephen murmured darkly.

That was just background noise to me. I had all my undivided attention on the TV, my last two functioning brain cells focused on the scene unfolding right in front of me. The Lucifer episode, the devil and his insatiable thirst for honey. The timer buzzed but I was still drawn towards Tom Ellis dipping two of his fingers first in the honeypot, then in his mouth, all the while looking like a damn snack himself. Illegal. I've never simped so hard for a fictional character.

A golden glow snatched a card out of my grasp, levitating it.

"Girl, what the hell?" Wanda saw my face and attempted to revert me back to earth. "Someone turn off the TV, there's not enough water in the tower to quench her thirst."

"Hey, did you two just - don't ignore me!" Tony whined, managing to tug on my hair and attempt to reach for the card now held in Stephen's grasp, simultaneously.

"I don't blame her," Clint mused. "That right there is one very fine dude."

I shook my head, clearing any untoward thoughts. Focus. "First of all, Bird, you're a dude. That there," I pointed up at the TV. "Is a man. A Man." I emphasised, getting a jealous poke in the back from Tony. "Second of all..." I turned towards Stephen. "The quaffle, the snitch and the AUDACITY OF THIS BITCH!" The last of my sentence was pitched. The sorcerer had raised his arm, clutching the card, and I struggled to reach it.

"What... What did you just say?" Stephen was laughing, not at all phased by me climbing him like a tree to take hold of what's mine. Tony was actively helping - or, trying to. One-handed. The other hand attempted to snatch the rest of the cards from my grasp.

"And that's an F on teamwork," Bucky's sarcasm was complemented by Steve's famous Captain America Is Disappointed In You look.

"Uhh... Guys? What's going on?" Peter's timid voice leaked confusion.

"Hello, friends," Thor boomed, drowning out the boy's questioning noises.

"We're playing a game. Cards Against Humanity."

Wordlessly, Peter towed Thor along with him to find a spot amongst us. And even if Thor didn't get any of the references, he still was good fun. His laugh was infectious. The way he cheered for every winner was incredibly wholesome. Golden space puppy. The urge to immediately pet Thor and give him endless pop-tarts was strong in me.

Loki was one dramatic, vengeful bitch. "Women get turned on by the Devil himself"? I was ready to throw hands with the trickster. Everybody's laughter drowned out any cursing I might or might have not directed towards Loki who looked far too satisfied with himself. I was going to substitute the sugar for his tea with salt one day, mark my words.

I wouldn't admit it over my dead body, but the way he got back at me for the daddy issues joke was kinda funny. Okay, very funny. It was fucking hilarious. I admire a clever man.

THE TAG LIST IS NOW OPEN! @another-stark-sub ​ @mostly-marvel-musings  @vozit ​ @littlegasps ​ @pilloclock ​ @shereadsinquiet @downeyreads ​ @hermione-grangers-wife ​ @individualistfem ​ @sleep-i-ness @capbrie @lillsxd @agustdowney @dee-vn @justanotherblonde23 @fanngirl19 @persephonehemingway @softie-socks @schemefrenzy @letsby

[quarantined-with-bucky]

If The World Was Ending

Bucky x Reader

Words: ~ 5,000

Summary: Your world was ending.

Warnings: Angst, but not as angsty as usual, I promise!

A/N: “If the World Was Ending” by JP Saxe & Julia Michaels :)

...

I was distracted And in traffic I didn't feel it When the earthquake happened But it really got me thinkin' Were you out drinkin'? Were you in the living room Chillin' watchin' television?

It was five-thirty on a Friday. The rush hour traffic backed up all the streets of New York; the brewing storm not helping the situation in the slightest bit. He’d regretted his choice to go for a calming drive three hours ago; it left him surrounded with rumbling cars and angry taxis. What had started out as a relaxing drive outside the city, had now become the root cause of his newly sprouted headache.  

The rumbling in his head became rumbling in his stomach as he noticed the man at the newspaper stand calling out to people on the streets. On the front page, there you were, headline calling out: “Newest Avenger Saves the City,” complete with a blurry photograph, face smudged with soot and debris from the fire, hair whipping around your face in the twirling winds – but it was you none-the-less.

His heart dropped six feet below him and that’s when his world began to shake: all it took was the sight of you. Not even in person; it was a photograph. He hadn’t seen you in person in days. He hadn’t spoken to you in weeks (more like you hadn’t spoken to him) – only hearing others talk about you; yelling your name to sell newspapers. He shook his head, imagining the thoughts spilling from his ears as he desperately tried to get his mind off of you. He hadn’t noticed the green light before him until the drivers behind him began to lay on their horns.

Raindrops spattered on his front windshield at an increasingly fast pace; they didn’t show any signs of slowing down, either, as the sky turned dark grey, casting shadows across every street. He thought about where you might be in that moment. A clap of thunder and lightning ripped through the sky. Were you out at the bar, celebrating your most recent victory? He could see it: Natasha dragging you out for an early happy hour, buying you shots to congratulate you on your conquest from the day before. You were probably wearing that skin-tight black dress, enjoying the attention from your friends (and the guys at the bar chasing their post-work buzz).

But as more rolling thunder shrouded his ears, he couldn’t help but feel that scenario was completely wrong for the current circumstances. You’d hated thunderstorms (and you hated the fact that he was able to tell that about you). There were plenty of people who enjoyed them: the sound of rain tapping against the window – white noise. He thought it was endearing that you got scared, like a child curled up in her blanket, tucked away in the safety of his arms. It wasn’t technically ironic, but when he found out that someone with the power to cultivate flames in her bare hands is afraid of thunderstorms, he couldn’t help but laugh and coo.

Then he found out why you hated them.

And that shut him right up.

Now he imagined you sitting on the couch in the living room, wrapped up securely in your numerous blankets, watching the television in front of you. He knew you’d be boiling underneath that much insulation, but, hey, you were always a fan of the heat (also unironically). And it was with this thought, that Bucky pulled the car into the complex, parking it in the seemly-never-ending row of Tony’s cars.

The whole ride up the elevator, he’d pictured you in your blanket cocoon, calm and quiet night interrupted by the loud storm outside. He figured you’d bury your face into the couch cushion, waiting for someone to sit with you – someone to reassure you: everything would be okay.

And when the elevator doors opened and he nearly jogged into the living room, that’s exactly the sight he was met with. You looked tired; tired from yesterday, tired from not sleeping, tired from the incessant fear the thunderstorm would bring you, tired of not having peace. You whipped your head around towards the doorway, taking notice of Bucky’s still figure. As he took one step closer, you stood up, securing all of your blankets over your shoulders.

You strutted out of the room to your bedroom without a word and without looking back at Bucky behind you.

I tried to imagine Your reaction It didn't scare me when the earthquake happened But it really got me thinkin' That night we went drinkin' Stumbled in the house And didn't make it past the kitchen

You shut the door quietly and locked it behind you. Letting out a deep sigh, you pulled up the edges of your blankets and fell onto the bed, snuggling your way into a swathe of warmth. You shut your eyes, trying to think of anything except the rolling thunder outside your window and the man downstairs.

You could only get one off your mind.

It was probably the loudness of the storm that brought it out in you; brought out your innate need to seek others out for comfort. There was so little warmth in your life: any sort of comfort you had ever received had to be made by you either in the form of fire or blanket-cocoons. It was fine for a while, until you’d met Bucky Barnes. Being with him is better than anything you’d felt before; more reassuring and comforting than anything you’d ever experienced. Between his supersoldier body heat, his strong arms holding you so tight you thought he might squish you – you’d loved it – and the feeling of his breath against the back of your neck, there was no better feeling in the world.

Him holding you was one thing. But him touching you was a whole other animal. Your hands burned each other; they left imprints on each other’s chests, hips, thighs, necks. Both of you were too hot – the two of you tangled up in bedsheets made you catch a fever every damn time. But that’s how you liked it: gasping for breaths, bodies slick with sweat, a painful groan as he pressed his burning palm to the small of your back, pushing your arch deeper.

But that’s all it was at this point: a fever dream.

It was the most vivid memory you had, yet also the haziest. The two of you spent the night at the bar, drinking your weight in any kind of alcohol you could get your hands on. The whole three hours spent at the bar, your hands were all over each other, smiles never leaving either of your faces. You’d ditched the rest of the avengers after you’d put your hand on Bucky’s upper thigh under the table, sliding it up slowly until he pushed his way out of the booth (dragging you with him). It started off as a joke, you’d thought it would be funny to see his drunken reaction as he tried the obvious discomfort of your teasing from everyone else at the table. It wasn’t funny anymore when he pushed you up against the cold brick of the building outside the bar, holding one hand to your hips and the other to your neck, cutting off your laughter and tilting your head up to meet his lips already en route to yours.

Your hands found their way around his neck, eventually grasping at the tips of his long hair, drawing them near you to bring his body closer to yours. He moaned into your mouth, breaking apart the sloppy kiss to smother a line of licks and love bites and kisses to your jaw and neck. But as soon as you shut your eyes and dropped your head against the wall behind you, he grabbed your hips and pulled you upright, snaking his arm around your hip and escorting you toward the tower.

As soon as Bucky swung open the door, his hands were all over you. He grabbed your head, cupping your jaw in his huge hands, pulling you into a kiss, forcing you to walk backwards into waiting the elevator. The doors closed and he once again shoved you against the wall, fingers finding the bottom hem of your skin-tight black dress. He’d been dying to get it off of you all night. He only broke the kiss to pull the dress over your head, discarding it in the corner. You’d been fumbling with the buttons on his shirt, your buzz from the alcohol combined with your complete intoxication from Bucky’s lips not making it any easier.

The elevator door dinged open and he grabbed the back of his shirt, slipping it off his shoulders (shirt still half buttoned), then throwing it alongside your dress. Before you even had the time to look him over, he scooped you up in his arms, swiftly taking you out of the elevator and through the corridor towards the bedroom.

Your lips connected with his neck, working your way up to the spot where his jaw meets his ear: the spot that drives him absolutely mad. You licked the shell of his ear and sucked on that spot on his jaw and you felt his knees buckle. He groaned, setting you down on the counter – not before an obligatory slap to your ass that made you yelp against his neck. He chuckled, grabbing your face and giving you another proper kiss as his hips ground against yours.

As soon as your hands began working on his belt buckle, it was safe to say neither of you made it past the kitchen that night.

Think I've figured out how How to let you go and let communication die out I know, you know, we know You weren't down for forever and it's fine I know, you know, we know We weren't meant for each other and it's fine

It was day nineteen of the mission he was on and Bucky was close to calling it quits. He’d told Steve countless times that their presence wasn’t making a difference, that they should just pack up and head home. Steve would not relent, thus the mission continued on. They’d spent the past two weeks laying low, trying to complete a stealth mission to obtain information and take out the target. The duo laid out every day for fifteen hours, holding their elevating position in the forest.

Every night, Bucky would get comfortable in the makeshift tent he’d set up and stare at his phone for hours. At the innocent texts you’d send telling him about your day, the not-so innocent texts you’d send confessing him everything you wanted to do to him when he gets home; the innocent pictures you’d send of the cute puppy Wanda brought him, the not-so-innocent pictures of yourself in that red lingerie he loved so much.

You brought him enough peace to be able to get a few hours of shut eye in before Steve’s early wake-up call. Then, he’d spend the whole morning talking about you and what you’d sent him, only stopping when Steve told him to shut up. But he couldn’t help but laugh just simply thinking about you, everything you were doing, what you were wearing. At that exact moment in time, Bucky was sitting behind his sniper rifle, starting straight ahead waiting for the target. After analyzing his routes for just shy of three weeks, they knew exactly where he’d be and when – and today was the day. Today in one hour and fourteen minutes.

“And after that she – ”

“Buck,” Steve huffed, interrupting the other man. “Okay, I get it. I don’t need every single detail of your lives.”

Bucky’s head whipped to the left at the blond. Steve remained still, staring at through the binoculars pointed forward. “What?”

“You heard me,” he mumbled back, still not moving an inch, suddenly losing the nerve he mustered up to speak just seconds ago.

“Damn.” Bucky dropped his head and exaggeratedly shook it, picking his head back up with a sick grin. He let out a snarky laugh, cracking his neck before speaking up again: “Here I was, thinking we were friends and we could talk, just like we used to y’know?” His tone raising as he teased Steve. “But.” He shrugged, looking back through the scope of his rifle. “Things change I guess.”

“Jesus, Buck, what’s wrong with you?” Steve snapped, dropping the binoculars.

And, to be clear, Bucky hadn’t known what had gotten into him. It could have been the lack of sleep: getting only four hours of shut eye each night for three weeks, the fact that he’d eaten nothing but canned beans, crackers, and various dehydrated meats, or the fact he’d been missing his bed – and you – and you in his bed – enormously. But he couldn’t drop the façade now, it was just starting to piss Steve off. Plus, Bucky had to address some points with him, anyway: “There’s nothing wrong with me. What’s wrong with you? You’re the one who’s always asking about what I’m thinking and how it’s going with her and – ”

“Yeah, I did want to know how it was going with her but now it’s too much. Like your sex lives — TMI, Bucky. And, look, don’t get me wrong, she’s a great girl and a strong team member and all, but it’s the only thing that comes out of your mouth. Besides that, you share ­way too much.”

“Aww, Stevie,” Bucky cooed. “Are you jealous?”

Steve’s eyes flitted to the brunet’s if only for a second, before returning to their original position. “Don’t be stupid, Bucky. I’m trying to look out for you. You haven’t been able to get your head out of your ass for the past two months. You’ve been slipping up. It’s about time to get your mind straight.”

“Mind straight? Mind straight?” Bucky kept repeating to Steve (and himself). Was that’s what was wrong with him? His mind was preoccupied most of the time with you, sure. Who’s wouldn’t be? You were gorgeous, intelligent, kind, intimidating (to normal men). Bucky’s eyes dropped to the ground, shaking the thoughts out of his head again. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, Steve. You brought me to the middle of Austria for this fucking mission – that, by the way, is taking weeks longer than expected – for what? If you don’t trust me so much, then why are you making me suffer? God, you should’ve just spared me the misery and – ”

“Take the shot.”

“Left me at home. You know so I can be with (Y/N), who apparently you don’t even like as much as you let on, and – ”

“Take. The. Shot.” Bucky looked up at the man: Steve’s eyes did not move from the binoculars, eyebrows knitted together in concentration, his jaw clenched tight.

Bucky’s hands nearly slipped on the rifle, repositioning himself so he could finish the job. And then, as Bucky pulled the trigger, he was fucked.

Absolutely, in no other sense of the word, fucked.

The bullet grazed the arm of the target, nailing the guy behind him square in the chest.

“Time to go,” Steve yelled, jumping up and sprinting towards the rendezvous. “Emergency extraction! We have hostiles hot on our trail!” He shouted into the radio.

Bucky grabbed the rifle and shot up, catching up to Steve.

They ran in the forest for hours, trying to hide from the small army that right behind them, searching endlessly for the two. But once they reached the safety of the jet, Clint swooping in at the perfect time to pick them up, the fight wasn’t over. While Steve was giving Bucky the silent treatment, updating Clint on the situation at hand in the cockpit, Bucky was fighting a mental battle with himself.

So, Steve was right. Bucky was totally screwed. Not only did the target get away, he killed someone else in his place, just another one to add to the list, he thought to himself, dropping his head in his hands. This had never happened before – whether his mind was being controlled by someone else or not. He’d lost his composure, he lost sight of the mission. He’d turned on his best friend of over one hundred years, over a girl. Bucky was no stranger to constructive criticism, but when it came to you, he lost it. As soon as Steve mentioned you clouding his vision, he lost it.

And after a three-hour long flight home, he knew what he had to do.

Bucky strutted off the jet, slinging the heavy weapon over his shoulder, eyes fixated on the hangar exit about fifty yards ahead of him. He looked nowhere else, not at anyone else. Not at the group of Avengers welcoming them home. Not back at Steve as he called after him. Not at you as you jogged alongside him to keep in stride with him.

He heard you, calling his name: “Bucky, Bucky, James, James.”

He kept his mind clear and jaw set. He couldn’t say anything. He couldn’t think anything. He was focused: this was his new mission.

Steve obviously told you what happened, later, about Bucky’s mind being totally fucked and filled with thoughts of only you. Bucky was sure that he had phrased it differently – to make it sound like it wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t – it was Bucky’s fault for being so infatuated with you that you consumed his every thought. He had to end it, before anyone else had to die.

He didn’t talk to you that night.

He didn’t talk to you the day after.

He didn’t talk to you.

Think I've figured out how How to think about you without it rippin' my heart out I know, you know, we know You weren't down for forever and it's fine I know, you know, we know We weren't meant for each other and it's fine

It was years after you’d met Bucky before the two of you started dating. It was months after that before you were seriously dating. It was another year after before you told him what happened to you.

That night, it was storming, as it usually did in July. It made the room feel humid, like you could feel the rain and sticky air outside on your skin. You rolled around all night, taking hours for you to finally fall asleep beside Bucky. Nights like these, when you didn’t want to be held – it was too damn hot ­­– you didn’t want to be spoken to, you didn’t want to be touched, he just let you be. He watched helplessly from the sidelines as you tossed and turned, fumbling around with the sheets before foregoing them altogether.

But you’d finally fell asleep, four hours after you’d originally settled down for bed. You were plagued with nightmares of your past. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Bucky woke you up that night, taking a hold of your shoulders, shaking them violently until you woke up. And when you did, you gasped for air, hands instinctively grabbing his wrists, palms burning his skin. He snatched his flesh hand away, watching as sparks flitted from your fingertips. However, Bucky kept his metal hand against your burning skin, twisting your hand around, holding it gently in his. He rubbed his cool metal thumb against your knuckles, shifting so that he was sitting up next to you.

“Come here,” he mumbled, pulling you into his lap, arms curling up so you could tuck them under your chin, head resting on Bucky’s lap. He combed his fingers through your hair, gently tugging any knots out. “Tell me about it this time?” He asked softly.

You gazed into his blue eyes, barely lit up by the lightning shining through your window. You blinked away the remaining tears for your own eyes, rubbing your cheeks with the back of your hand to rid them of tear-trails. “I discovered my powers when I was little, like, maybe five or six.” You barely spoke at all, voice coming out softer than a whisper, cracking, broken. “And my parents didn’t really know what to do.” Clearing your throat, you had to give them the benefit of the doubt, to clarify: “I mean – they were both normal. They didn’t know what else to do. But then I started setting things on fire. It took them a while to figure out it was me, actually.” Bucky nodded along to your story, listening quietly, never interrupting, his hand never falling from your hair. “By the time they figured out it was me, they didn’t know what to do. They wanted to help me.” The last sentence came out quieter than the rest, voice barely audible at all. “When it rained a lot, they mad me sit outside in the yard.”

The memory flashed across your mind, the first time they sent you outside. There was thundering and lightning, and you couldn’t hear your own childish screams over the loud rain and claps of thunder, you couldn’t tell your tears apart from the rain that splashed on your cheeks. They put you out in the rain with the hopes it would put out all your fires, break your constant fever, wash away your powers. “It burned. The cold water on my burning skin felt like an acid rain. It felt like hot oil was spilling all over my arms and legs.” You shuddered at the thought of it, the skin on your extremities now suddenly itchy and scorching hot.

…

But that was all gone now. He wasn’t there to hold you, calm you down. You didn’t know what it was, actually. First, he disappeared. You didn’t even see him for days; you couldn’t find him at the gym or in the kitchen. One day you saw him in the hallway, walking with Steve, speaking in very hushed tones. As soon as you swung the corner and made eye contact with him, he was gone. He completely dropped the conversation he was having, turned on his heel, and strutted towards his bedroom.

Steve looked at you with sorrow-filled eyes. All you could do was offer him a small, fake smile and shrug; he saw right through it. But you were out of questions to ask, tears to cry. There was nothing left to do.

He wasn’t in your life anymore.

Now the only thing you could do was stop wondering what happened, why it happened. You chose to remember the good times with Bucky. The times he held you in his strong arms, shielding you from your past memories and your nightmares.

He may be out of your life, but the memories of the times you shared would live on with you forever. Would you love me for the hell of it? All our fears would be irrelevant The sky'd be falling while I'd hold you tight No, there wouldn't be a reason why We would even have to say goodbye

The sky was falling, technically.

Chunks of building tumbled down the walls around you. Smoke clouded the air and debris filled your lungs. There was shouting all around you – you think – you couldn’t make out any real sounds through the sounds of the bombs exploding all around you. You were trapped in a maze; it had to be a maze, you thought. You felt like you’d walked around the same hall for hours. You were sure it had been hours at that point.

The buildings started to shatter around you, bright light blinding your vision. The clouds of smoke appeared more frequently, meaning the attack was only getting closer. Were they landmines? Or were they coming from the sky? You didn’t have time to think about it. The wall next to you burst beside you, knocking you off your feet.

Before you made contact with the ground, an arm snaked around your waist, pulling you up, dragging you to a nearby room. You were tossed into a cold porcelain bathtub, the sides of the tub caked with dry dirt and chunks of plaster. Once you were dropped into the tub, a heavy weight fell on top of you – a body.

Bucky’s body, to be exact.

You clung to his leather clad, torso, hands shaking, gripping the buckles and straps. His hands and head shielded yours, the rest of his body resting on top of yours to break the fall of any dropping debris and pieces of ceiling.

You were so close. You were breathing the same air, the same dirty air, struggling to breath, gasping for breath. You’d lost track of how many days you’d spent apart, how many days it’s been since he’s stopped talking to you.

And then it was over. Just like that. “We should stay until the bombing ends.”

His voice was raspy, almost as if he hadn’t used it at all since he stopped speaking to you. Your heart raced at his words, at the sound of his voice. You could feel his heart racing, too. But you couldn’t find the words to say and, at that point, you weren’t even sure there were any words to say, anyway.

You shut your eyes tight, waiting for it to end. This time, you definitely lost track of time. It was just you, him, and the sky falling.

…

The room had grown cold around the two of you; but you sat holding each other.

You keeping him warm, him keeping you warm.

You’d nearly fallen asleep in his arms, the feeling of him next to you – on top of you – holding you so close – protecting you – bringing you a sense of peace that you hadn’t felt in so long. He moved his hands from where they were resting on your head, placing them on either side of the tub, lifting himself off you. He kicked away the chunks of wall and ceiling, clearing the rest of the tub out before offering you a hand to help you out.

When your hand touched his, he wasn’t sure if he felt a spark, or if your hand was genuinely sparking. He didn’t care, he had missed the feeling of both.

You’d followed him out of the tub, walking beside him as you both made your way out of the building, no other words being spoken between you than those earlier. Meeting up with the rest of the team followed suit, as did the plane ride home.

The jet doors opened, you shot to your feet and headed towards your room. You had a goal in mind: make it to your room. Heavy footsteps with a purpose: that’s all your ears could hear. You listened to the pattern of your heavy boots slamming against the floor, echoing throughout the hangar.

“(Y/N)!”

Your stride stuttered.

But you pressed on. Clenching your fists at your side, you huffed out a breath and carried on.

What would you gain from talking to him?

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Its what you kept telling yourself. You didn’t want to not talk to him. God, you’d give anything to be able to go back to normal with him. For what? So he could do it all over again?

…

He tried to run up after you. He could easily catch up to you, but his legs stopped moving after the third time he’d called your name. He stood in the hangar, watching as everyone started heading your direction, each of them heading to their own destination.

Bucky didn’t have anywhere to go. Or anything to say.

I know, you know, we know You weren't down for forever and it's fine I know, you know, we know We weren't meant for each other and it's fine

But if the world was ending You'd come over, right? You'd come over and you'd stay the night Would you love me for the hell of it? All our fears would be irrelevant The rain was hitting the window hard. You laid on your bed on your stomach, holding your head propped up on your palms as you gazed out the window across from you. You watched the raindrops race each other down the glass, trails interrupted with more raindrops falling ahead of them. Lightning lit up the sky, illuminating your bedroom in a grey hue, hurting your eyes as you stared directly at it.

You pulled the blankets over your head, groaning over the loud clap of thunder that followed the light, trying to drown it out. Flipping yourself over on your back, you shoved all the blankets off of you. There was no way you were going to sleep tonight.

Your phone said the rain wouldn’t end until ten in the morning. Rolling off the bed, you paced back and forth in front of your bookshelf, perhaps reading could take your mind off it? But you weren’t in the mood to read. You’d decided on something that did not require as much mental effort. Settling on TV, you hopped back on your bed, wincing as the bright screen lit up the room, squinting until your eyes adjusted. You flipped through the channels and found nothing but infomercials – it was barely one in the morning. Tony paid for one thousand channels and there was nothing appealing. Shutting it off, you fell back onto the bed.

There was only one place to go.

If the world was ending You'd come over, right? You'd come over, you'd come over, you'd come over, right? If the world was ending You'd come over, right?

Those were the words you kept repeating to yourself.

You stop in front of Bucky’s doorway, blanket wrapped tightly over your shoulders.

Your knuckles rap lightly against the door.

It swings open, revealing a frightened Bucky, who releases a held breath as relief washes over his face. He breaths your name in a shaky exhale, almost fighting the small smile that is pulling at his lips. And it’s you who gets lost in his cloudy blue eyes, it’s you who can feel the heat radiating off his naked torso, it’s you who holds back tears.

“My world was ending.”

[sparrowwritesforop]

Hello dear 😊 Today is a special day, my birthday !! 🎉🎁 I would like to request to you a festive scenario with the Donquixote Family, specifically spending a family time with all the members (except Viola) and, in the end, being with the Master, Doflamingo 😇

First of all: Happy Birthday, dear.🦩❤  I really hope you have the best day! Even if celebrating with friends is a little critical these days...

It got quit long, so I put it under the cut

So here for you:

BIRTHDAY WITH THE DONQUIXOTE FAMILY

Birthdays are a huge thing in Dressrosa, especially if it´s the birthday of a Donquixote member! The citizens from this vivid island show their appreciation through sending gifts to the palace and organizing street festivals In order to celebrate the member of the royal family. You and the rest of the family do join the festivities, but the real party is held in a small circle. While there will be a grand ball the next day, your birthday is celebrated with the most important people only. Not just yours, but the Birthday of every member is celebrated in the same fashion. The Name “Family” suits you guys very well, even if it doesn´t appear like this all the time, all of you treasure the bond you have. Every member experienced loneliness, despair and much more at one point, but the moment you become a member, all of them will make sure that you´ll never feel anything like that again.

Since you are Doflamingos Wife, your birthday starts off with him waking up next to you for once. Since he is a busy man the days you wake up next to each other are rare, but always worth the wait. He treasures the days with you and would do anything to wake up next to you on your or his birthdays.

Every breakfast (or meal in general) ends up more like a banquet everyday, but the obligatory birthday brunch still feels different. The meal is not prepared by servants on this days, neither did servants decorate the room. On special occasions the family members come together to prepare the food, and the decorations themselfes. Every single one contributes something for the brunch. Jora cooks most of it with the help of Dellinger and Sugar (though both of them spent most of the time fighting). Trebol, Diamante and Pica Decorate the Dining Table, more or less succeeding. Lao G and Buffallo take care of the background music. (Though it´s probable that Buffalo only helps to prevent Lao G from putting on his Martial Arts Workout Playlist) Baby 5 usually switches from member to member, offering her help here and there. All in all, it ends up in a huge chaos, but under Diamantes Supervision (which he really wants to get credit for) it all works out. Waking up on your birthday is the best thing, really. You woke up and scrunched your eyes at the warm rays of light shining on your face. The first thing you really noticed was the pressure on your hips, looking down you smiled for a second. He always made sure to hold onto what was his, even in his sleep. Doflamingo constantly asserts his dominance, subconsciously being afraid to loose it how he lost it when he and his brother were tortured back then. Turning around in his tight grip, you cautiously watched him. He laid on his side, head propped up on one of his forearms, which was outstretched, previously serving you as a pillow as well. His other arm was slung around your hips, clutching you tightly. His impressive height combined with his long extremetys always astonished you. The arm that held you in place reached all around your torso to the hip that laid on the silky, ivory sheets.

His face looked peaceful for a change. Your husband looked so different without his shit-eating grin or angry expression, unusual calm, but different from most people, never defenseless. Doflamingo was always wary, always one step ahead and he made sure that people knew. His whole deameanour aims at perfection and superiority, even in his sleep he looked like he had the upper hand.

You cuddled deeper into his warmth, pushing your face against his chest. It felt familiar to you, he was your personal cuddle corner. His height was actually pretty great for that and he always enjoyed your attention to the fullest, always gave it back with pleasure. The great Doflamingo Donquixote was not afraid of anything, especially not loving his wife and if anybody would ever say something about sharing his affection with you….well this person would regret it.

A loud clatter woke him up, you loved the family, but there sure was chaos wherever they went! Doflamingo rose up slightly, taking you with him into a sitting position. The hand that laid on the pillow before now rubbed his eyes, while a groan rumbled in his chest, revibrating through your body as well. “I swear someday I´ll……”

His voice was still groggy from sleep. You giggled softly.

“Haha. They can be rather sweet sometimes. Can´t they?”

“Hmpf…”

Still not fully awake he moved backwards to lean again the headboard as he shifted you til you sat in his lap, facing him. With one of his large hands he pulled you closer to him until his lips ghosted over the soft skin under your ear, his other arm held you close by slunging around your lower back.

“Happy Birthday”

He kissed the exposed skin lightly, softly cupping your cheek as he moved upwards towards your mouth. The kiss was a lot sweeter than what you were used to, but it slowly but surely turned more passionate.

The kissed his way down your face, to you neck, to you neckline, deeper down until-

The sounds of two pairs of feet came closer to your shared bedroom. Groaning he pulled back and let you down beside him, just in time. The door opened and the two children peeked in with smiling faces. Dellinger rested his hand on a protesting Sugar as he shouted in his usual cheery voice.

“Happy Birthday! Come on get down we made breakfast for youuu!”

Smiling at the two children you obliged, putting on your robe and pulling a still groggy Doflamingo after you. As soon as you came down you found yourself being squished against Joras Chest as she wished you a happy birthday. The members all impatiently waited to congratulate you

The Brunch was (like every meal was) versatile, filled with everyone´s favourite dishes and drinks. You ate, laughed and ate more. After having the Brunch you got ready and went out to see the festivities. It still amazed you how much appreciation the townees had for the royal family. You as well, even if you joined them much later and weren´t one of the heros that saved the Citizens from the late Kings rampage.

The streets were even more colourful and vivid than usual, balloons, confetti and people in festive robes filling the wide roads. Peoples cheers and Congratualtions almost predominated the sound of music. After a while you left the festival to get a breather on the sunflower fields. The Family got together on a blanked cushioned by a load of fluffy pillows, having a drink (Juice for the children, because underage drinking..not under Doffys watch!) and talking. It was times like these you favoured, your life was usually so hectic. Dressrosa needed to be ruled, the family business always boomed, giving you a lot of work. Just sitting all together and enjoying each others company was way too rare for your taste. Smiling you watched as Lao G played Tag with the children, wanting to prove that he was still as agile as he was when he was younger. It was certainly a sight to see….and Trebol did not shy away from commenting Lao Gs Tag abilities, only spurring the old man on until Jora swatted him on the back of his head with a newspaper.

When the sun started to set, servant brought out baskets filled with good smelling food. You ate in silence, enjoying the families antics as you watched them all, sitting in Doffys lab. Never would you have thought back then…never would you have thought that you would ever be cherished the way you are now, by the family and your husband as well. Doffy rested his chin on your shoulder, kissing the side of your neck before speaking.

“Fu Fu Fu..what are you thnking about?”

“Us….All of us”

He hummed, while thinking.

“We sure are lucky, dear….is this what you wanted”

You looked back at him.

“No…not really. Never thought I could want this or ever get this, but it is what I needed…even without knowing.”

He didn´t grin…he smiled softly.

“And you´ll have us. Always”

I hope this is to your liking :) 💖💕

[fizzingwizard]

Alright, so, Digimon Adventure 2020 Episode 12: Castle in the Sky Laputa!

I mean, I, Guardromon...

... Bicentennialmon?

well, any of the three works :P

Right off the bat, I’ll say this ep gets a ��meh’ from me, BUT I did love its aesthetic. I’m a big fan of robot stories, especially the Asimov variety. Scrap heap robots are my absolute favs. And I did like the Ghibli vibe going on too. The episode was pretty, and the robot characters were cool... it just wasn’t very fun. At the very least, I was expecting team Taichi/Koushirou/Mimi to be a bit more fun than Yamato/Sora/Jou, but I guess this ain’t 1999 anymore ;)

^The most amusing bit was finding out Koushirou’s laptop can fold like this... which, okay, shouldn’t surprise me, it just looks frigging weird...

me: DO YOU KNOW HOW TO USE A KEYBOARD???

koushirou: hush old lady, your first laptop was grayscale only and had Windows 3.1 installed.

Actual content relevant to the episode below...!

We had a promising start when last week’s episode ended on a cliffhanger... or a cliffdropper, I guess, because Mimi’s not hanging onto anything. She’s fallen down and landed on Palmon. Digimon can sure take a beating.

Palmon reaches to see if she can hoist them back up, but...

... it’s too high! Oh well, no choice but to travel on foot. Good thing Mimi landed on Palmon!

Meanwhile, above, Taichi and Koushirou turn to his computer for help. Unfortunately they have some technical difficulties.

Koushirou: Noooo, not the swirling of doom!! My immortal nemesis...

Even Taichi understands that buffering spells death. He’s a 21st century kid, so he’s a little more savvy about computers than 99 Taichi, whose trusty recourse in these situations was "treat the machine like a Bop-It.”

Mimi discovers they are in a Digimon scrap heap. ;_; Good heavens. Apparently robot Digimon are unlike organic (??) Digimon same as robots are different from humans, so the way they die is not quite the same either.

Mimi feels sorry for these trashed creatures. She’s no cold-hearted corporate goon who looks at these guys and just sees dollars. She notices the heart!

She also just wiped that rusty Guardromon’s helmet with her bare hand...

Mimi: Where’s Sora-san when I need a towel!!

Andromon makes his 2020 debut! And he’s just as much the pawn of evil as ever!

Boxing Cactus Go-go-go!!

Togemon gets her prickly hiney owned, but the Guardromon suddenly reanimates and protects her instead. His big strategy is “drop something heavy on Andromon and run away.” It’s super effective.

Who wants to translate the digicode, because I’m not gonna. Ten bucks says it’s something like “target human child exterminate” yadda yadda

When Koushirou’s computer fails, we must rely on our physical skills. Their big plan is “climb down the bottomless pit after Mimi.” There are a few things wrong with this picture:

1) Even if they know how deep the hole is, IT’S STILL QUITE A FALL. Make one wrong move and you’ll be useless to Mimi T_T And these idiots make plenty of wrong moves.

2) If there were handholds like these, why couldn’t Palmon have just grabbed them with her vines and carried Mimi up? Instead she was like, “Nah, can’t reach the top, let’s walk in a random direction and hope things work out!”

3) The Guardromon is taking Mimi to an elevator. Meaning there is a working elevator, meaning there is a way down that would significantly decrease their chances of DYING on the way. Koushirou’s computer can’t figure that out? Also I was expecting some hijinks there... like, they finally make it down only for Mimi to say “Why didn’t you just take the elevator like I did? Boys are weird.”

In his defense, Koushirou’s method of descent is worlds better than Taichi’s.

Hate to say I told you so...

Guardromon takes Mimi to some suspicious water which she uses to nurse Palmon... with a towel

Guardromon presents Sheeta Mimi with a flower to convey that he likes killing pretty delicate things :) run Mimi

The Laputa vibe... it is vibing.

We cut away to Yamato/Sora/Jou for thirty seconds just to point how much Better they’re doing than Taichi’s group. They’ve even realized how that basket was, who needs to put in all that work when we can all fit comfortably on a log! Sora and Yamato flirt. Jou’s going to be sick.

Taichi and Koushirou encounter some broken Solarmon who are being controlled by Soundbirdmon, so I guess it’s official now that we can’t believe any Digimon is truly evil if Soundbirdmon is around. Koushirou goes to help Mimi while Taichi stays behind to fend off these gears. Uh, is it just me or does this team seem very quick to split up.

I like the way Guardrmon cradles Mimi so all we can see is her shocked expression.

Guardromon tries his tried and true method of shooting down something heavy to crush Andromon...

... but Andromon’s like “hah! Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!” and knocks it away. Not very effective...

Guardromon’s guarded his last mon... he starts to go... offline I guess...

In sweeps Kabuterimon to the rescue. In 99 Adventure, he’d have something witty to say, or at least a pun. 2020 Kabuterimon mostly likes to make weird noises. I understand why Agumon and Gabumon’s VA’s were calling him a “weirder uncle than ever” at Digifes...

Obligatory Best Boy cap

Hell Approacheth

Wow!!! Taichi finally got knocked off Greymon! He must have forgot to put on his suction cup shoes today!

So this entire episode, I was wondering what was to stop MetalGreymon from happening and stealing the show from Lillymon. I expected “Agumon just evolved recently and doesn’t have the juice to do it again so soon!” or some such. Nothing more than that. But, nah, we don’t even get that... MetalGreymon happens and he just... can’t... beat Andromon? For some reason? I’m going with “Because he’s Andromon.” Afterward, this very heavy structure falls down and MetalGreymon has lift it a la Atlas to keep Taichi from getting squished, so he can’t continue to beat on Andromon.

... Of course, Togemon gets stuck holding this thing up too... so there’s that...

The reason, of course, is so Guardromon can make one last action surge, grabbing Andromon’s leg, which works, randomly. At least for a moment.

Mimi spends most of this episode being Shocked.

Guardromon takes one final, grainy look at Mimi as he prepares for sweet death. The digicode says “Sheeta.” (kidding like I’d bother to translate it lol)

Andromon RUDELY stomps on his head. Like HELLO Andromon can you not see the dude is having a moment here? Show some respect!

Mimi sheds a Single Emo Tear

Which causes “Your sorrow made me evolve!” Lillymon. She immediately flies out to attack Andromon, leaving MetalGreymon alone holding the heavy metal structure, which promptly crushes him and our heroes. Game Over!

just kidding, the structure just vanishes I guess :/ It’s not very clear...

High kick attack!

It’s not very effective...

Lillymon does seem to have an ability that MetalGreymon doesn’t which cinches her victory over Andromon... her rain of petals interfere with his ability to lock on to a target. Too much organic matter everywhere I guess.

Lillymon covers Andromon in plants rendering him immobile...

... *cough*

Poor Mimi’s had a hard day of watching robots die.

Her affinity for marking graves returns as she leaves the flower Guardromon gave her on his corpse(?).

Taichi looks only sadly as Koushirou explains that Andromon and Guardromon were totes besties, until Soundbirdmon started mindcontrolling everyone. Gee that seems like something that could have been an interesting plot point had it been mentioned y’know earlier.

In sum... yeah, this ep just isn’t fun. There’s no friend moments, no getting to know each other, everything takes a backseat to this robot-protect-girl storyline. I really did like Guardromon, but the episode takes itself way too seriously in my opinion.

That aside... I was happy that Mimi’s episode didn’t involve stinky ugly Digimon falling in love and stalking her so she can passionately reject them. I can live without both of those things.

Mimi having the ability to project feelings onto supposedly nonfeeling things is a very Mimi-like character trait for her and one that I really truly love. It’ll definitely come in handy in the digital world where all is never how it seems. On the other hand, though, it’s not like it’s a trait we didn’t have already... it just belonged mainly to Hikari :P So... yeah.

Next week we’re going to get Garudamon, in a way that looks like it will pale compared to our first meeting with Garudamon in 99 Adventure, BUT that’s okay... because we’ve got plenty of time for the Big Important things to happen, both on a plot level and on a character development level. I am a little wtf??? about everyone getting not one but two evolutions within the same adventure - assuming the kids are going to go home at some point and finally put Tokyo out of its misery. I’d expected this show would be more like 02 with the kids jumping in and out, but tbh I’m not gonna be sad if they just stay in the digital world indefinitely. Also, it’s not like Taichi didn’t get both an evolution and a jogress the first time he came to the digital plane, so obviously things are just working differently in this show!

But as it’ll be a Sora episode, I just hope it’s an improvement on the last Sora episode. There’s plenty of potential following the mini tiff between her and Yamato last week, so i hope we see some follow up to that. Maybe a couple Sorato moments. We didn’t get anything for Taishiro this week :( But since it looks like probably next week the groups are still separated, perhaps the week after we’ll get MegaKabuterimon and see more interaction between Taichi and Koushirou then. *shrug* A girl can dream!

Anyway this ep gets 5.5/10 from me!

[themanicgalaxy]

SPN 4X19 Jump the Shark

Oh hey is this the illegitimate brother plotline

boy I love me some sweet sweet ANGST

whelp she's fucking dead

picture of JOHN?

Sam's peacefully brushing his teeth and Dean's Not a Morning Person

boy he's having a bad morning

to be fair, living out of the car is kinda not fun either

"I'm his son" Dean: I'm gonna fUCKING KIL-

he's..premed?

they're going to ruin his life too aren't they, Aren't The-

Dean is taking this really well

I mean he did get the brunt of John's Issues, so I get it, yike

ASDFPIHP them discussing their dad's ~sex life~ is very funny though

Dean was...preteen? when this kid was born? Sam was under ten definitely

Dean Please

No that's your Actual Brother guys PLEASE

hunting accident "ah fair enough"

"who is a nuclear family these days" FEELS SO LOADED

Dean...Dean please don't fUCKING KILL HIM DEAN

THE IMPALA NOOO

"he took you to a baseball game" IDSFHAPF

He's Trying not to CRY OH MY GOD NO WAIT

Sam resonates with the away from college thing oh NO

Dean is trying SO HARD not to snap

at least he's...trying..to keep adam out

corpse snatching => HEY LOOK IT's THE BONE STEALING WIT-

I think I need to stop being online jesus christ

the [both sigh] was so good

well...that's a lot of blood

How the hell do you break it to your illegitimate brother that you're ~technically Wanted by the FBI

at least he's not an idiot

HE'S SO MUCH YOUNGER THAN THEY ARE

I mean obligatory dead mom

"do i get a say in this?" "NO!"

no..no SAM DEAN HAS A POINT

Middle sibling + younger sibling gang up on elder

"have u thought about eternity" "bro i've literally been to hell Idk what to tell u"

Dean doing it solo but Sad is...:(

Oh he worked the old case, that's neat

"so it's over for you" welllllll

OO THE TRUCK SHOT WAS COOL

dean + long dark coat truthing tonight HE LOOKS G O O D

it wants revenge

YOU FUCKERS AND YOUR REVENGE BELA WAS R I G H T

and Adam Instantly wants revenge, you sir are definitely a Winchester

"it's life" WELL IT SHOULDn'T BE

the stupid isolationism I hate it

NO GO CONNECT WITH PEOPLE KRIPKE WHY

Sam's becoming his dad, and Dean isn't

...SAM WHAT THE FUCK

DAD MOST CERTAINLY DID NOT DO RIGHT BY YOU

HIS GODDAMN GRIEF SPIRAL GOT BOTH OF YOU

LET HIM BE NORMAL! HAPPY! IT IS TOO LATE FOR YOU RIGHT NOW(NOT ALWAYS)(Also very close to the thing with zachariah in placement(eye emojis) BUT LEAVE HIM ALONE!

I do appreciate Dean Eldest Sibling'ed it up even if he didn't like the kid/was jealous. Goddammit I wish we got connection in this stupid show

I was expecting a jump scare but somehow the squish is worse

sOn oF aBitcH

Ah FUCK NOT ADAM TOO

I do like the little angel Icon though, that's what's Dean's way out

Ghouls is a racist term?what????

no john winchester was 100% a monster

ah it was their father

yada yada father killing circle idk

YAY! DEAN'S INGENUITY IS BACK!

Ghoul!mom is really really good. I liked Scared Adam better though

the slicing sam scene is BRUTAL jesus christ

So...John got his own son killed in the end...

SERIOUSLY HE WAS TERRIBLE

Dean JESUS CHRIST

awww caring Dean is nice

AWW HUNTER'S FUNERAL

"Adam's in a better place" :(

Dean tried to fit himself into the Dad box, Sam's actually him

"you take it any way you want" oh for FUC- HE- I-

he looked so Sad, so like...he's stopped idolizing him

jesus christ.

boy there's gonna be overlap ok here we go.

1. poor dean. Ok couple things: 1) he elder sibling'ed it SO HARd! he didn't even like Adam, but he still tried to keep him safe(I think). he gave him a hunter's funeral! I just. It was nice to see. It was also INCREDIBLY painful to hear the realization of "you were always like dad, I never could be" and the fact that he didn't even see it as a good thing anymore? fUCK man, that huRT me. Dean tried so hard to be something he wasn't, he got probably the brunt of the abuse(because he didn't measure up to that metric like Sam always would), and in the end all it got him was...just. so much pain. Like it felt like John left his Broken children behind to get a new one, and just turned them into his quest for revenge. It was SO So fucked

Hey actually speaking of

2. AM I SUPPOSED TO LIKE BEING A HUNTER/JOHN? WHAT HTE FUCK?

YALL ALREADY MARTYRED HIM BUT UR MAKING HIM WORSE?

LIKE ok listen. John's kinda set up as the ideal of hunting. They martyred him! And I was halfway sold provided they didn't mention him again. Then! he did this thing where he abandoned his kids, seeing them only as tools to fulfill his quest for revenge, literally broke them(that too late thing+zachariah saying "it's in your blood" when really it was just trained from a young age), got a NEW family he treated a lot better. I just. I have...NO idea how I'm supposed to see him as a good guy here. Maybe I just kin Dean, or his plight is WAY more sympathetic(it is, Sam is kinda pissing me off), but John's just...coming off worse and worse and they KEEP doing it!

Also! this whole cycle of revenge thing! about how if you keep taking an eye for an eye, everyone ends up blind! they barely escaped this time, and I think this was the second revenge plot that I can think of with MONSTERS alone! it was a BIG theme! Like!! hunting sucks! revenge makes you end up in worse places! it's like this one episode was made to show how SHIT hunting was!

wait who wrote this

Dabb+lofflin. The hunting sucks always comes from-

this GODDAMN INCONSISTE-

3. Fuck John Winchester

4. Individualism. Ok this is a big one. Alongside the whole revenge plot thing(which is BIG, and a hunting sucks), this one drove home the sheer individuality of hunting. But while some of the writers see that as Badass, this one made it seem lonely, and painful. Like the flip side to American Individualism is American Chronic Loneliness. I know this one was used to process the ennui of the post recession/post 9/11 time, and it's doing very well for that, but it kinda ends up like this show is EVERYONE'S therapy all at once! the gang's all here! and we're gonna traumatize you in the process as well.

EDIT: and yeah yeah yada yada american individualism is King and then so is it’s accompanying loneliness in the post 9/11 post war in iraq post recession world(we were not having fun in 08/09)

and I get that this show is the writer’s therapy and whatever

(I just thing this is phrased better)

5. bring him back. Connect! Look. I know it breaks the core ethos of this episode. But having Weird Esoteric Hunter siblings would have been SO FUNNY!

give me more sibling content! Sam+Adam teaming up against the Eldest Sibling Dean WAS SO FUNNY! I WANT MORE OF THAT

6. SAM WHAT THE FU-. Look. I hate John. I very much hate John. They set up the Sam/Dean dichotomy in regards to John first episode, and Sam acting more like an ass+like his dad is. Not making me like him. Also I feel like this was written to sympathize with Dean. Which makes the finale even more ironic, I feel.

7. Listen. Listen. One of you has to keep track of continuity. Like I know this becomes a WAY bigger problem later in the series, but if a certain writer wants to process/examine a certain part of the Life/Story(and they should, they set up a lot of interesting stuff), they have to keep track! Because then the show becomes everything all at once.

Like this show has ALREADY started feeling like fanfic of itself, where it just kinda does whatever it wants with its own concepts. And the concepts are GREAT! but you can TELL how inconsistent it is, even in the kripke era

like it ends up being Study of X, Riff on X! and I think that's where the inconsistency comes from. It's also why it's so fucking Excellent in places.

whelp this was a lot holy hell.

OH AND ONE MORE THING!

Bela didn't fit the narrative. That's why they didn't like her. I said at the beginning that an Int'l art thief does NOT fit the vibe of "grungy Angsty American Midwestern gothic" and I was right. With the lucifer story and the vibe she didn't fit, and so they just killed her as foreshadowing, and only used her like that. God I wish they'd riffed on her, especially because her callouts were all completely correct

we're Bela Salting again

listen she was preppy Jack Sparrow with some spiritualism, how dare you tell me not to like her.

[cbk1000]

Re: the dog. He is an as-yet unnamed Very Good Boi; we just got him last night, so we’re still working on a name. I’m arguing for Vlad the Impaler, naturally.

He is half Great Pyrenees, half Anatolian Shepherd. Male Great Pyrs average around 27 to 32 inches for a male, and around 100 to 160 lbs. according to one site, and 110-130 according to another (the Great Pyr we had when I was a kid was around 130 lbs, and he seemed to be a pretty average size for a male Pyr). Anatolian Shepherds can grow to between 27 to 29 inches and weight up to 150 lbs. So while he may look like a dog now, he is actually a small horse. I am guessing he’ll probably be close to the size of my parents’ St. Bernard/Newfoundland (we couldn’t let them show us up, obviously). 

Obligatory PSA for anyone who looked at the pic, rightfully screamed over its cuteness, and decided they want one: we had a Great Pyr for a few years while I still lived at home (don’t worry; he lived longer than that, I just moved out of the house when he was around 4 or 5), and I loved that dog; I was high key devastated when he died. However, as you can see from the above description, they are massive dogs, and not everyone can handle that. Also, they are livestock dogs (mostly they are family pets now, but their instincts are to herd things and guard the flock, and our guy actually was in charge of our alpacas, so he was sort of half house pet, half working dog), and they are very, very protective. He will need good socialization, because these breeds are quite wary of strangers. They’re not attack dogs; they protect more through BEING FUCKING HUGE and barking to let things that go bump in the night know they’re watching them, but they ARE very powerful dogs: Great Pyrs have fought off bears trying to attack their herds. Our Pyr was super protective of us; we always knew that if a burglar ever broke in, good luck to them, because they’d most definitely be eaten. My sister and I used to play fight sometimes by slapping at each other, and for some reason this riled up our lab; he’d start barking and running around us; he never tried to attack us, and he was not being aggressive, just an idiot, but the Great Pyr ALWAYS came barreling in, planted himself between us and the lab, and growled at him. Then he would spin around on his butt while the lab ran back and forth, so he could keep an eye on him while still keeping himself between us. Any time we brought new people over, the Pyr had to inspect them, and we had to make a show of them being welcome in the house so he knew they were supposed to be there. The first time Mr. Jenn came over to meet my parents, this dog jumped up, slapped his big meaty paws down on Mr. Jenn’s shoulders, looked him eye to eye (btw, Mr. Jenn is 6′ 1″), and barked right in his face. He didn’t try to attack him or bite him, he never even growled--but he was most definitely letting him know that this was his house, and Mr. Jenn better be on his best behaviour. (But after that it was like the mob; once you’re in, you’re in, and he and Mr. Jenn were basically besties after that.) They are also stubborn, intelligent dogs; they are bred to be self-reliant, because they need to be able to make their own decisions while out guarding. Consequently, while obedience training is always a good idea, if you want a super complacent, obedient dog, this is not the dog you’re looking for. Pyrs (and it sounds like Anatolian Shepherds are similar) can be trained; however, there are times they will straight up ignore your commands and do their own thing. They will also look you right in the eye so that you know they know exactly what they’re supposed to do, they’re just choosing not to do it. End PSA.

He’s a bit scared still, which is fair, because two strange, naked dogs just took him from his brothers and sisters, put him in a weird rumbly box on a road with other weird, rumbly boxes, and brought him to a large, stationary box he’s never seen before. We’re crate training him because it helps with house breaking (they usually won’t soil where they’re sleeping, so you put them in the crate when it’s time to sleep, then just take them outside right away so they start learning where it’s appropriate to go to the bathroom), and he seems to like his crate a lot. We put a blanket in so he has something warm and cozy to help comfort him, and I’ve got one of those wind-up clocks sitting right outside it. It can help comfort puppies because the steady noise reminds them of the heartbeats of their littermates. My in-laws used it with most of their puppies and recommended it. When he’s out of the crate, he likes to squish himself into a corner, so I think the enclosure of the crate helps him feel safe. I’m just sitting here chilling with him (it makes him nervous to be picked up, so we’re just petting him and talking to him and letting him kind of go at his own pace in terms of interaction) with the door open, and he’s awake but still content to lay in the crate, so I’ll let him alone till he wants to come out.

He is warming up a bit already; chest scratches are Very Good, and we put him in the kitchen this morning to eat and boxed off the opening, and he explored a little more. Also, earlier I scratched his chest, and he laid his head down on my hand and dozed off, so now if anyone even looks at him cross-eyed, I will kill them with my bare hands. Also also, I just stuck my hand into the crate for him to sniff it, and he licked it and wagged his tail, so x2 on the killing anyone who looks at him cross-eyed. 

[allbeendonebefore]

What are your favourite head/canon things about Alberta

[cracks knuckles] [stretches fingers]

so i’ll just start with a disclaimer - i use sherry’s/iamp/whatever alberta and i realize ive been getting a lot of followers who are part of rp groups and whatever or people who might be interested in adding some depth to their own ocs so feel free to like… think about these things if you want if you’re thinking of doing an alberta oc?? I guess

so since that mysterious slash implies what are my fave canonical things about AB too I’ll say that there isn’t much- I go with what sherry says on canon rather than IAMP and PC because while there are a lot of things I had influence over in both projos there are a lot of things I would have done differently so we’ll start with the bio

Canon Stuff

literally all the things are accurate sooo its hard lol. Obviously the political situation has changed and the economic situation is its usual rollercoaster (WELL… but thats another time). I gotta say that the ‘alberta beef is the best thing that’s ever happened to me’ is really hitting home right now because i didnt realize how SPOILED i was by AAA beef until I got to Ontario ToT (ngl the pork here is super good and saves me money but the BEEF aAAA)

also my edmonton bias shines through at ‘he hates a part of himself called calgary’ thats by far my second fave B)))

Headcanon Stuff

ok where to start I will try to not make this an essay and i can elaborate more if you’re curious

- a lot of people will wonder about whether a province lives in the capital or the biggest city etc. and I have to say in Bertie’s case it is NEITHER. He’d never willingly live in (d)E(a)dmonton (sorry ed ilu) because Ed represents Government which he Hates and while he would spend a fair bit of time in Calgary he gets claustrophobic/exhausted - he still in my mind represents more of the rural bits of the province than the cities. I think he might move around a little, but he probably lives on a ranch between both cities but within sight of the mountains. I’m sure he has a place to stay in each city, but he’s a country boy at heart and appreciates his space, peace and quiet. 

- Particularly space because Where else is he going to keep his 3 trucks + 2 ATVs + horses + 100000 cows + boat + canoe + kayak + all his camping junk + motorbikes + dirtbikes + tractor + other junk that people leave at his place

- that said his ‘birthplace’ is the southern ‘half’ of the province so he tends to kind of hover around there more- as i said he owns a ranch rather than a farm because the Quality Ranch Land is in the south and the Good Farm Land is in the north (and being eaten up by ugly houses ugh)

- still I think he spends a fair amount of time working up north in the Fort Mac area because Why Not make All the money. Even if you’re a rancher boy in the middle of nowhere, everyone in this province has ties to the oil industry one way or another. It wouldn’t make sense for him NOT to work in Oil and Gas because it’s literally the only job in the province lmao.

- His driving playlist consists of: Dean Brody, Corb Lund, Keith Urban, Ian Tyson, and the obligatory Nickelback which he listens to Un-ironically but also to piss off/drown out passengers when they’re annoying him

- He’s easily annoyed. By Everything. And Everyone. He’s the current national scapegoat and he takes it Extremely Personally depending on the context but also he has a relatively affectionate relationship with everyone and usually expresses his affection by pointed jabs. 

- like he literally gets along with everyone on a personal level and not just because he buys them drinks- his worst relationships are probably with BC and Ontario and that’s just because he lives to irritate them and they respond with an appropriate amount of salt. He still doesnt mind hanging out with them and bc/ab/on/qc is an unstoppable team. He just gets extremely sensitive when anyone asks to borrow money from him and will give you an earful of ‘i work SO HARD for this money to put FOOD on YOUR TaBLe’

- generally really tight fisted with money………. only when other people are looking. he makes a big deal about how little he spends on essential services and you just look at him like ‘so you’re saying you have the money to get all this crap for this rodeo coming up but you dont have the money to take yourself to the hospital after’ and hes like [coughs up blood anime style] ‘im ok i have whiskey and benadryl at home’ [adjusts his diamond studded hat]

- really big on loyalty and straightforward conversations and has NO patience for any hypocrisy or doublespeak no matter how small. The slightest of things can send him reeling with Betrayal. Also this makes him either tight lipped or TMI, there is no in between. 

- like literally reeling he’s very top heavy and you could blow him over with a sneeze, he’s all bark and only some bite. When he’s good he’s Real Good but when he’s bad he’s like a foot in the grave bad

- he’s the baby of the prairie bros but also the one with the brains- and i don’t mean in an academic sense i mean in the ‘so crazy it just might work’ sense. 

- literally he’s an idiot he doesnt understand how equalization payments work no matter how many times you explain it to him. He doesn’t understand a lot of things re: the economy but he never shuts up about them. 

- the easiest way to piss him off is to threaten his autonomy in any way, he will stop whatever he’s doing to put a boot up yer ass if you Dare suggest something like ‘why don’t you let ontario/canada take care of that for you’ even if he knows the way he’s doing something is garbage he will go out of his way to keep doing it because its ‘my way or the highway’. 

- ‘why do you have all those guns’ ‘oh you know hunting deer and stuff’ [really its because he’s terrified a rat is going to sneak into his barn or something] [but he does actually hunt] [and he’s the type of guy to have the ‘trespassers will be shot’ signs]

- I haven’t figured out WHAT truck he drives yet but i am PROUD OF HIM for no longer putting truck nuts on it, THANK GOD that went out of fashion. (That said he does not have the stacks- his truck is lifted and Shiny and also has a handful of Alberta Strong decals/stickers.) Newf probably gave him a sticker of “The Rock” or a nfld flag and he Loves it. On a scale of most to least obnoxious trucks its Mac - Bert - Cal - Ed. It’s probably a white truck.

- i should think about things he loves more, this headcanon list is mostly things that make him angry oops xDD he loves animals a lot, and not just to eat i swear. The bigger and the more horns the better.

- he really loves driving a lot, it’s like a big part of his independence factor. I think sometimes he will just drive aimlessly late at night/early morning when it’s not busy and just go and find somewhere to look at the sky.

- he looooves digging up fossils in his spare time, or just interesting rocks in general. If you say the words animatronic dinosaur he is ALREADY THERE

- he watches a lot of sci fi and really loves star trek. So Much. he’s totally attempted mowing crop circles in his lawn/fields probably multiple times. he’s still waiting for the ufos to come land. Also has a thing for spooky places and cryptids and those weird inexplicable twilight-zone like events that only happen on road trips. did i mention the Giant Roadside Attractions. 

- he has this persona of being a traditional/small-and-big-c conservative but he’s actually really into innovation and trying new things, meeting new people, etc. He interacts with so many different people lately that he’s trying to take the time to really re-evaluate himself and move away from the Klein-era “Severely Normal People” image because it doesn’t reflect him. The issue is he’s more likely to vote on economy rather than social issues so his actual progressiveness gets hidden by lack of political representation (and lets be honest he has Always hated politics). He’s got a lot of crap to sort through but he catches people who underestimate him off guard.

- was probably raised methodist/protestant/whatever but is mostly pretty secular, but he has some definite strong holdovers that make him uncomfortable about certain subjects and his first reaction to being uncomfortable is always anger.

- completely oblivious to being hit on or something or really gay situations around him but is that type of person who is like [cant walk too close to another dude because what if it looks gay bro].

- his fave cow is named buttercup

- he has definitely woken up after a night out with friends naked and alone duct taped to an air mattress and floating in the middle of a lake. true story. 

- he will macgyver his way out of any situation. doesn’t mind getting down and dirty in the mud when it’s necessary. exactly the type of person to shove his hands in bitumen and squish it around or to pick up a rock and lick it or to shove a thermometer up a cow. When he gets squeamish he does his best to be bullheaded and pretend like Nothing is Wrong until he faints. 

- his french is crap but he Tries- the french he knows is backwater northern AB french which he’s too shy to bring up so he feigns ignorance. His german is good and his ukrainian is passable, his spanish is fine, he’s trying to get the hang of some other languages but doesn’t tell anyone he’s practicing because he hates getting made fun of xD

- the hat and boots are Absolutely to make him look taller than he actually is. He doesn’t wear inserts but he does make sure the sole/heel on any boot he buys is Thick. Smol insecure man with a Big hat. Will spend 300 bucks on shoes, but he actually does ride/work so its an investment for him. 

- heads to Arizona/Mexico in the winter when he’s not working, otherwise Banff/Jasper are his ‘budget’ vacations lol. 

i love this stupid province pls ask if you have any more questions because i love to talk and i feel like i’ve said too much already lol

[canbrake8-blog]

Vietnam, Part 2

Hitting the road again, or the skies I should say (although we did one bus ride during our trip – more about that later…), we touched down in Da Nang, specifically to visit The Museum of Cham Sculpture, a museum that is not to be missed if you’re in Vietnam.

I forgot all my deities since I stopped doing yoga (such as Ganesha and Shiva, and how one guy got that elephant head, and why Shiva is wearing that snake around their neck – and smiling about it), so it’s good to do a little reading about them before you go to help you understand more about the artifacts in this museum. We took an 8am flight out of Ho Chi Minh airport, landing about an hour later, and taking a taxi right from the airport to the museum, which is only 3km away (I’ve given some tips at the end of the post about using taxis in Vietnam, that are worth noting), so it was easy to get there and spend the morning looking at the remarkable sculptures and friezes, many dating back to the 4th century.

I have the lowest museum attention span in the world, and two hours in this museum was just the right about of time to take it all in. Then I grabbed a Grab to take us to Hoi An, where we spent the next two nights. The old town of Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and its traditional architecture is well-preserved, although not overly so. It still has a bit of funk, in spite of quite a few tourists (including us) roaming the streets.

Someone told me Hoi An is the most touristed town in Vietnam and it’d be hard to disagree. At night, the historic old town is jumping with people strolling by, and shops selling stuff, as well as locals offering everything from boat rides and fruit, to silk scarves (the town is known for its silk) and leather sandals. People also come to Hoi An to have suits and clothing made for them, and you’ll find several streets lined with custom tailor shops. Someone told me that if you bring a picture of what you like; a suit, a dress, or a shirt, they’ll make it for you, and have it ready in a day or two. I grew up wearing ties and jackets to school every day, so it takes a pretty compelling reason (or event) to get me into a suit, so I passed, but could have used a few more linen shirts since the ones I brought were splattered with Pho and dragon fruit stains.

Outside of the old town, we found more interesting things than in the old town, like the jumble of housewares being sold on a sidewalk, below, and spa treatments at White Rose Spa. We learned back in Ho Chi Minh City that massages and facials are very inexpensive in Vietnam, and mostly very good, so we’d indulged with our friends there, and now, here. (Note that it’s customary to tip if you had a good treatment.)

In Hoi An, we had a very good meal at Vy’s Market (the lime leaf chicken skewers were particularly good, as was the tofu skin salad), which someone online wrote was “sanitized” street food. It may have been, but we liked it all the same. Very fresh ingredients, nice servers, and tasty. Cao Lau Bale Well (45/3 Train Hung Dao) was recommended by several people (not locals) and while we found the place interesting, the Cao Lau noodles weren’t all that compelling. It was, however, charming, located off a side street in what was probably part of their home. They were also really nice, which made it…fine.

Another meal was at Nu. A sweet little place where the steamed pork buns were good, as was the chili ice cream we had for dessert. You won’t be the only English-speaking people dining there, but we liked it. There’s also a night market with an indoor eating area for street food, which I’d check out if I went back. If you want a taste of Egg Coffee, I had one at Passion Fruit coffee that even my skeptical partner liked. (I tried to compare it to sabayon, but he wasn’t having any of that.)

We stayed at the Vinh Hung Riverside hotel located on the river, not far from the old town, but far enough away so you were a decent distance from the fray. The staff was unfailingly polite and helpful and we had a nice room on the river, although I’d recommend perhaps staying in a room that’s not on the ground floor. I didn’t want to sleep with the door open so we shut everything and turned on the AC. The button on the machine was so bright that it was like a spotlight over us, in the room, which made it a bit difficult to sleep. It wasn’t really hot enough to warrant the AC, but we used it instead of keeping the door open. (Unfortunately, the unit was high on the wall and there wasn’t anything to block the light with, but I just discovered these, and am thinking of traveling with them because so many hotels have appliances and switches with really bright lights. Can people really sleep with all those lights flickering and glowing in the dark?) But we liked the hotel, which had a nice pool, and the breakfast offered a variety of Vietnamese foods and fruits. I gorged on rambutans, mangoes, and passion fruits.

We then took the 2-hour bus to Hue, which ended up taking a little more than 4 1/2 hours. The bus had funny, sort-of lie back seats, which looked appealing when I first saw them, but anyone taller than 5 feet (or who has never done yoga) might feel a bit squished after a while. (Another spoiler: You couldn’t sit upright in the seat, even if you wanted to.) While the bus had pillows, which Romain and some others grabbed for propping themselves up, the driver bellowed at anyone who took one, so they sheepishly put them back. I was okay lying halfway down for an afternoon, although some people were going all the way to Hanoi, and I’m sure they will need a few massage treatments to uncoil them once they arrive.

I hate to post the obligatory “I’m in paradise” shot, especially when so many of you (or us, which now includes me) are back in the cold. But this was a pretty beautiful spot in Hue.

It was our hotel, the Pilgrimage Village. It was located a little out-of-town, but the hotel had a shuttle and cabs were inexpensive (about $3 -4) to take you anywhere you wanted to go. So it wasn’t a problem going back and forth.

I was especially interested in going to the Dong Ba market in Hue. There was a lot to see there, and when our taxi driver dropped us off, he took Romain’s shoulder bag off his shoulder, and wrapped the handles around his neck, letting him know the keep his eyes on his things.

The market is pretty much an all-out assault of foods, spices, people, stuff, cookware, raw meat, kids, hats, seafood, fabric, jewelry, eyeglasses, bins of rice, tropical fruits, and more. Once you’re inside, you’ve pretty much go to go all-in. Even though the electricity seemed to be off in the market, we surged forward with everyone. If you stand still, within seconds, someone will slide past, through the narrow aisles with tables heaped with stuff on either side of you, and while it wasn’t at all dangerous, it’d be pretty easy to lose a billfold if you weren’t mindful of it.

Some people have said that the sellers were very aggressive here, although we didn’t find that to be too much of the case. Like other markets in Vietnam (except for the ones we went to in Ho Chi Minh City, if you stopped to look at anything, or even glance at it, the vendor will do their best to engage you and negotiate a price, even if you don’t really want it. It’s not my preferred way to shop, but that’s the way it’s done. Which was probably better for me anyway, as I didn’t have as so much to lug home. Although those colorful jars of pickled vegetables were certainly tempting!

We did track down the well-known Bun bo Hue (beef soup) stand, which is in the “street food” section of the market. (There’s a story about how to find it here.) We were a little underwhelmed, as the people next to us seemed to be. Maybe it was an off day, but if you look at the Bun bo Hue we had later that evening, two pics down, I’ll let you decide which soup looks better to you.

If you do go to the market in Hue, I would hire a guide, or take a tour of the market with someone who knows it well. It’s pretty overwhelming and there’s a lot of see, and taste, which isn’t so easy to do on your own. It’s definitely one of the great markets I’ve been to in the world, and worth exploring. But there was so much I wanted to know more about, it would have been nice to have someone navigate for us, and explain what things were, like these orange fruits (or vegetables?)

We ate well that night at Tai Phu where the Bun bo Hue (below) was more to my liking.

We also had some good Banh cuon (rice paper rolls) at Tai Phu, and Romain liked his Bun thit (vermicelli noodles with chicken) but the dish of the house seemed to be the pork skewers (nem lui), which came in a plentiful portion with green mango slices, noodles, and herbs, to roll in rice paper.

[A reader who lives in Hue was kind enough to chime in with some local spots for Bun bo Hue – thanks smallhue! – suggesting Bún Cam at 45 Le Loi and Bún Mụ Roi at 14 Nguyen Che Dieu, that she advised getting to before 8am for the best selection of “options,” as she called them. Our hotel had breakfast on a dock under a thatched roof, with unlimited Vietnamese coffees, so I wasn’t leaving there.]

If you eat at Tai Phu, be sure to arrive in the area early and walk around the streets, where an open-air market takes place. It’s pretty laid back, and like all the markets in Vietnam, you want to cry at how beautiful all the fruits and vegetables are, stacked, lined, and piled up. I think it’s called the Ben Ngu market.

The most beautiful meal we had in Vietnam was at a place whose name I forgot (I know…right?) It had a little open-air area within the restaurant, and from the outside, you’d never know such a charming place existed. When I remember the name, I’ll update the post.

However beautiful the meal was, it was a challenge to eat. Absolutely no offense to the restaurant, but the flavors were very, very strong, and hard to describe. I think, like Vegemite, natto, and blue cheese, some things don’t translate outside their culture. I can’t describe it but I felt bad leaving most of it behind. I also wasn’t feeling so great that day, so it was hard to power through a meal of distinctive flavors. But I will say, the others in the restaurant were eating everything and enjoying it, so it was definitely our tastes, and didn’t reflect on the quality (and the beauty) of the food.

We liked eating at HANH, in Hue, the night we arrived, which was recommended by a woman at our hotel. We started with tiny bowls holding steamed rice cakes with fresh shrimp and bits of crunchy pork rinds, which you pry from the bowls with a spoon and eat with fish sauce. I ordered a bottle of what was called “local rice wine” in English on the menu, and out came a 500ml (2 cup) bottle of “Men vodka.”

When I posted a picture on Instagram, one reader noted it was “just awful stuff” and another said, “terrible…unpleasant.” I asked the server if I could exchange it for shochu, which was so strong, I think I lost a few layers of enamel on my teeth trying to, and a couple of layers of my stomach lining, as I didn’t want to be impolite and leave a lot behind. I drank what I could, then chalked it up to a “lesson learned”! Perhaps the kitchen staff enjoyed the rest after their shift.

After returning to Ho Chi Minh City, we didn’t get to go back to Spice, which we really like the first night of our arrival, because it was Tet (New Year’s), which most of the city shuts down, including restaurants.

But we did eat at Quan Bui Garden (in District 2), where you can also buy beautiful contemporary Vietnamese pottery (I brought six plates back), and Restaurant 13, where we liked the beef and onions cooked in vinegar, which you wrap in rice paper rolls at the table, as well as the little crisp rice cakes, with shrimp and scallions, known as Banh Khot (above), which you wrap in leaves and eat.

At Com Nieu Sai Gon there were several families there celebrating Tet, and having a good time. We had jellied pork, crispy fish on rice (above), Caramelized clay Pot pork, and grilled prawns. (The menu had “fake dog meat” on it, which we didn’t order.) We kept hearing plates shatter, while people cheered, and weren’t sure what was happening. But the restaurant bakes rice until a crisp coating forms on the bottoms in small earthenware bowls. The rice is “presented” by smashing the bowl. It’s called Com Dap, and here’s a video of it:

I also met up with pals Marge Perry and David Bonom, who just happened to also be traveling through Vietnam at the same time, for Banh Mi sandwiches from Banh Mie Huynh Hoa, eating them at a local beer garden, whose men’s room was definitely rated R (or maybe X, depending on your sensibilities). I did take photos but worried that they would violate Instagram’s guidelines (and trust me, even after a few decades of living in San Francisco, I thought nothing would shock me), so didn’t publish them anywhere. But David and I are still recovering from it, and even Marge, who I insisted go into the men’s room for a look.

But I don’t want to leave you on that note, as Vietnam was wonderful. Some readers asked me how it was to travel through the country and I thought it was pretty great. On the whole, it was fairly easy to travel there and people were friendly and helpful. The food was very good, it’s not expensive, and the country is small enough so that you can visit several places if you’re there for ten days or so. It’s a country that’s in transition (they’ve gone through a lot), and has some challenges, but it was one of the most exciting places I’ve ever visited and next year, we’re planning to go back.

Here are some tips and suggestions for traveling in Vietnam:

1. Change money when you can. It’s not as easy to change money in Vietnam as it is elsewhere. While there are banks, locals don’t use them, instead preferring to change money elsewhere, if they can. Citibank and HSBC have ATMs which work with western credit cards; some local bank machines don’t work with U.S.-based cards. Citibank and HSBC ATMs are not everywhere, though, so use them when you find them. 

Many places take credit cards in Vietnam, but some places don’t. Taxis have credit card machines but over half the time, the driver told me they weren’t functioning. (One held up a broken wire, to show me.) So have cash available. Also be sure to call your bank before you go, to let them know you’ll be traveling in Vietnam.

2. Carry tissues or napkins. Some restaurants supply them, others have very small squares of wispy-thin paper to use, and others give you a pre-moistened towelette. The food can be saucy (and restrooms don’t always have towels or tissues) so I was glad I have little tissue packets on hand. You should also carry toilet tissue as restrooms don’t always have it.

3. Drink a lot of (bottled) water. The tap water should not be consumed and it’s easy to get dehydrated due to the heat. I was felled for a day with a mild fever, which maybe was attributed to not getting enough water. (Or perhaps something I ate.) While there are drugstores in Vietnam, they are more like counters with a pharmacist and pills are sold individually. Although we didn’t need them, some travelers find they need Immodium or a similar product, which traveling, so I recommend bringing a box along rather than trying to find a box when you’re desperate.

Similarly, you can get sunscreen in Vietnam, but it’s not as widely available as it may be at home. I recommend bringing a bottle or two, especially if you’re planning any beach time.

4. When eating out, especially at the markets or street food stalls, go to places that are crowded with locals. They won’t return to places that don’t have good hygiene. Use common sense when eating at stalls; look at how clean the surrounding area is, how the food is kept, how the food is prepared, and even the condition of the tables, chairs, and dining area. As someone who’s worked in a number of restaurant kitchens, a messy, disorganized place is not the sign of a diligent cook or owner.

At Pho places on the street, I buried the herbs in the hot soup if I thought they may have been washed with non-filtered water. If you’re unsure about the chopsticks, leave them in the boiling-hot soup a short while before using them. The Vietnamese enjoy cold drinks with ice and I drank plenty of drinks with ice, and didn’t have any issues. Most ice is purchased and made with filtered water. But if you have any doubts, skip the ice.

5. If taking a cab, always take a cab with a meter. Our friends who live there said that Vinasun and Mailinh (the green cabs) are two that have meters in them, and I always looked for one of those cabs. In our experience, it’s better to let them use the meter than agree on a fixed fare in advance. (The one time I did that, the ride was 30% more than the metered fare.) Taxis are very inexpensive and the fare from Ho Chi Minh City to or from the airport was around 150,000 VND ($7).

At places like airports, you’ll find nicely dressed guys with badges who will “guide” you from the cab line to a taxi, then tell you what the fare is. Those guys work for specific cab companies and I found it better to ignore them (in spite of their repeated, and sometimes relentless, pleadings…) and just get in a cab that has a meter. 

6. Grab is an Uber-like service that works the same way, via an app, which you can download before you go, but you’ll have to enter your credit card information while you’re in Vietnam. The service works like Uber. Note that you can order a car, or ride on the back of a scooter. (They provide a helmet for you if you choose the scooter option.) I used them a couple of times, including when we were swarmed by very aggressive cab drivers going into a museum (one even followed me around the museum), so I had a Grab driver meet me on the way out, and took his phone number down for future rides.

7. The currency conversion is a little complicated, at least to my non-mathematical brain. At the time of this writing, $1 = 23,000 Vietnamese Dong. There are no coins in Vietnam (yay!), but it’s easy to get confused. (And note that prices on menus and in shops will often be listed as just “230” when the price is 230,000.) I used AppBox Pro for currency conversions.

8. While it’s nice to learn the local language, Vietnamese is a challenge. I’m going to take some basic lessons next time I go, but Google translate was very helpful when I wanted specific information and couldn’t communicate. Some people do speak English, but most cab drivers (etc) don’t, so take a screenshot of an address or write it down (or have someone write it down for you), which helps, especially directions to the hotel. (Note that hotels that have names in English often have a different name in Vietnamese. Ask your hotel in advance to send you that information and print it out to bring with you, for the driver.) I often shared a screenshot with a cab driver of my destination on Google Maps, which they easily understood, too. Restaurants often have menus with pictures, which helps when ordering. 

9. People in Vietnam were quite friendly. I only got scolded once for taking a pic and most people were fine with it. When in doubt, ask first, but most people were surprised that I even asked, a few even posing.

10. SIM cards are super cheap – and my internet was at least four times faster than it is in Paris. (I wanted to bring it back with me!) If you have an unlocked phone, you can pick up a SIM card for a pittance and have internet access while you’re traveling. I got a SIM card at Mobifone and I think I paid the equivalent of $10 for an enormous amount of data. I went to one of their offices and the clerk was super-helpful and she took care of everything, making sure it worked on my phone before I left. Be sure to have a copy of your passport when purchasing a SIM card. (If you go to a currency conversion place, they’ll want to see it, too.)

11. If you travel within the country you’ll likely take VietJet. (The other option are long-distance buses.) Airfares are reasonable but note that they have a very, very restrictive carry-on allowance of only 7kg and if you go over, the supplement is $100. You can buy tickets that have more generous luggage allowance, but our friends who bought our tickets bought the least-expensive, which are how most Vietnamese people seem to fly (carry on only). Every flight we took that left in the afternoon or early evening was delayed for a couple of hours, so don’t schedule things too tight. We also weren’t able to check in online for any of our flights, but the process at the airport isn’t too difficult and the staff at the airports were pretty efficient. 

12. As for what to wear, I recommend dark-colored clothes as the food is a bit messy to eat, especially the soups. I ended up wearing the one dark, short sleeve linen shirt I’d brought most of the time, which was perfect, and I was miffed at myself for bringing light-colored items. It’s normal to wear sandals in Vietnam so bring a pair or two that are already broken in. Many people wear simple, non-fancy rubber sandals, which you can purchase inexpensively in Vietnam. I wasn’t anywhere where I needed to wear shoes, and once I took mine off, I didn’t put them back on until we headed to the airport for the plane home.

Depending on where you’re going, and when, you might want to pack a light sweater and a rain jacket. We only needed summer-weight clothes, but other places get chillier, depending on the latitude and season. Check the local forecast and pack accordingly. Unless you’re going to a formal event, you shouldn’t need any dressy clothes. If you plan to visit religious sites, such as temples and pagodas, men are expected to wear long pants and no tank tops; women should have something to cover bare shoulders, and you may not be admitted to certain places if wearing a short skirt or wear something with a low neckline.

13. If you want to ride a scooter, technically you are supposed to have a Vietnamese driver’s license. Some say that you can use an international driver’s license, but my friends who live there (who have Vietnamese ones) said that wasn’t the case. I rode on the back of my friend’s scooter for two weeks and it was a great way to get around. Some hotel rent bikes and scooters and I would use them, as they’re more familiar with the rules.

14. If you’re interested in cooking Vietnamese food, Andrea Nguyen’s cookbooks are great sources of recipes for Vietnamese dishes. This write-up of 25 Must-Eat Dishes in Saigon is helpful for identifying certain dishes, and where to find them in Ho Chi Minh City and these articles on best Hoi An restaurants and street food have some enticing addresses, too.

15. Lastly, to go to Vietnam, if you are traveling with an American passport, you’ll need a visa. If you search online, you’ll find a lot of websites which are fake visa processing centers. We used Vietnam Visa Center, which was recommended by Lonely Planet, and it worked well. (A friend who goes to Vietnam regularly uses this company.) We paid the extra small fee to have “fast track” service, and have someone meet us upon our arrival at the airport, and take us through. (Update: Several readers noted that Vietnam does have its own website for processing visas electronically. You can also obtain one from a Vietnamese embassy, too.)

For more on my trip to Vietnam, check out my Instagram Stories from Vietnam archived Here and Here, with videos and geo-tagged addresses.

Source: https://www.davidlebovitz.com/vietnam-part-2-hue-da-nang-hoi-an-phu-quoc-travel/

[bedheadisme]

The end of 2018

Part 1

They say that bad things come in three’s, but I think that might just be our way of hoping that once three really bad things happen, we’re through the woods and there are better things coming our way. Unfortunately, life very rarely sends us divine signs that things will get better or worse - and if you think on your own life hard enough, you might be tempted to string a series of three events together that don’t bode well and say; the worst is over. That’s probably it. 

This story starts on a Saturday at the end of October of 2018. My husband TJ and I had just traveled back from Orlando Florida for his older brothers wedding and we had worked the obligatory first week back at work post-vacation. Like most weeks it had stretched on endlessly and I had woken every day praying for the weekend. TJ had fallen asleep the night before on the couch and had left for work that Saturday without waking me. This meant that I had slept by myself, stretching in the bed with the dogs and had turned my alarm off. I had made plans to do nothing except lay around with the fur babies and maybe go grab some lunch if I felt like getting out of the house.

 You know that saying about making plans right? “Make plans and God laughs?” I don’t particularly believe in those types of things, but in this case I might make an exception. 

The sun was barely peeking through the bedroom curtains when my phone started ringing. I leaned over the bed and looked at the time. Eight in the morning and my mother in law was calling. I groaned and let it ring. I’d call her back when I got out of bed. Maybe in an hour. She’s a morning person who, if I’m being honest, I can imagine shitting rainbows first thing no matter the weather or life circumstance. I, on the other hand, need coffee or tea and generally no social interaction for at least an hour when I wake up in the morning. 

The phone stopped ringing for a few seconds and I let out a sigh of relief. Then it started ringing again. This time I let out a sigh of resignation. If you know me well, you know that the best way to reach me if it’s an emergency is to call back-to-back like this. The last time she called like this, they thought TJ’s sister had been kidnapped, but that’s another story altogether. I picked up the phone and my stomach dropped. 

Groggily I answered, “Hey Mom, whats up?”

“Hey honey,” her tone was not cheerful. In fact it was shaking, like she had been crying, “ Dad and I can’t get a hold of TJ and we’ve tried a couple of times. Listen, I don’t want to alarm you but TJ’s grandpop in Philly has been in an accident.” 

Well. Now I was awake. Who needs coffee right? “Oh no, Mom what’s going on? “ 

“Well, last night he went to walk into the garage and he fell down the steps. They’ve admitted him into the hospital and he’s in a coma. He’s got a brain bleed and they’re not sure how long he’s got.” 

I sat up in the bed and threw the covers off of me. “OK mom. Let me go get TJ. We’ll be there. I’ve just got to see what the cost of a plane ticket will be or if we’re going to drive. TJ’s at work and I’ve got to call mom and see if she’ll watch the dogs.” 

“Honey are you sure?  You guys don’t have to do that.” 

“No mom, TJ will want to be there. I want to be there. We’ll make it work. Are you guys flying down?” 

“Yeah, Tom is talking to the airports now to see about going out tonight and I’m packing now.” 

“OK Mom. I love you. I’m going to get off of here. I’ve got to get dressed and go get TJ. “ 

“OK honey. Just let us know. I love you.” 

I hung the phone up and stumbled through the hall, letting the dogs into the back yard. I opened my contacts and called my little brother.

“Hey sissy.” 

“Hey bubby, I need a favor, can you get on your computer and see if you can find me and TJ a cheap flight to Philadelphia PA? It’s an emergency and something is going on with his grandpa.” 

“Yeah let me see” he paused and I could hear him clicking in the background, “It looks like around $800. “ 

“OK, that’s probably not an option, we’re probably going to have to drive. I love you, I’ve got to talk to mom, but I might need you to come stay with the dogs while we’re there. Would that be okay? “ 

“Yeah, no problem.” 

“Okay bubby, thank you, I love you. I’ll talk to you later.” 

“Love you too sissy.” 

I hung up again and let the dogs back in. My heart was pounding and I hopped in the shower trying to think about how I was going to tell TJ. He was going to be devastated. He hadn’t had a chance to see his grandpa since we’d been together some eight years. We’d always planned to make a trip to visit so that I could meet them. Life has a funny way of always making you put off the things you really shouldn’t. Like family. 

As I dried myself off and threw on clothes, I knew this was going to be hard for him. I knew that I would have to be extra strong for this. I don’t do well when people around me are upset. When someone I care about cries, I can’t help it. I cry too. I took a few breaths and gave myself a few moments to cry and then told myself that I was going to put those feelings in a box and deal with them later. 

I grabbed my keys and drove to Tire Discounters, where he worked. There was a line at the counter of people when I walked in. It was rainy and I wondered but was thankful that he had chosen to ride his motorcycle to work today. He looked at me from across the counter and gave me a questioning smile and I shook my head. I gestured for him to finish what he was doing and he furrowed his eyebrows in concern. I stood at the back of the showroom and my stomach did an uncomfortable somersault. He finished talking to his customer and I walked out front of the shop. 

“What’s going on babe?” 

“I need you to go to your boss and tell him you’re leaving. Trust me, we need to leave now.” 

“Babe, what’s going on?” he said, and he grabbed my hands trying to intuit what’s wrong.

“Babe, your grandpa has been in an accident, and we need to make a trip to PA right now. They’re not sure how long he has. Your mom already tried to call you and couldn’t get a hold of you.” 

His face paled and he said, “Yeah my phone was dead, it’s been on the charger.”

“We can talk about it more when you’re off the clock babe, please, go let them know that we’ve got to go. Now.” 

“Okay babe.” and he turned and walked back into the shop. I stood out front and waited. Anxious. Shortly later he walked back out to me. 

“I’m going to ride my bike back to the house with you” 

“Babe I don’t think that’s a great idea, I don’t think you should be riding in your condition.” 

“No i’ll be fine. I’ll be careful, you can follow me.” 

My stomach was turning and I could tell he wasn’t going to listen to me. There really was no point in arguing with him when he got like this. Besides, I didn’t want to argue with him and make it worse. 

“Okay babe if you’re sure.” 

I got in the car and pulled it around back. Shortly later he walked up to the drivers side window and said “The guys won’t let me ride the bike. I gave them the keys and they’re going to pull it into the garage while we’re out.” 

“Okay babe that’s fine. Let’s get out of here. We need to pack.” 

“ So, what’s going on?” 

And I told him about the brain bleed and his grandpa. As the minutes went on he got quieter and paler. “I already looked at flights and it’s going to be way too expensive to fly. It’s about a thirteen hour drive. I’ve already let your mom know that we’re going to be there. I already talked to Trev a bit about watching the dogs. I want to talk to mom and fill her in. “ 

After that we drove in silence and got back to the house. We packed in a flurry of motion and I crossed my fingers that I had everything we would need. I kissed my dogs goodbye and we drove to my mom’s job at Meijer. Sometimes, its easier to explain things in person. As I knew she would, she said she’d take care of our dogs and make sure everything was fine. She made me promise to call when we got there and to keep her updated. 

We filled up the gas tank and got on the road. It was the longest thirteen hours of my life. TJ insisted that he would drive because he needed something else to focus on. We talked about everything except the fact that his grandpa was on a ticking clock. 

“So, “ I said as we waited in traffic, “ you know what we should probably talk about?” 

“No, what” 

“The fact that I could just … stop taking my birth control and we could start trying to have a family together.” 

He paused for a moment giving me the first grin i’d gotten from him in around five hours, “Someone very smart once told me that she didn’t like making big life decisions in moments of tragedy.” 

“Well, whoever she is, she sounds like a smart lady.” 

“One of the reasons I married you dear.” 

We learned that when his grandpa fell his brain got squished about two inches to one side and he was looking at a life of being kept on the ventilator permanently if he regained consciousness, which was unlikely.  His grandma and grandpa had been together for something like fifty years. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to lose someone that crucial to me after a long life together. 

Finally, after what may have been the longest road trip of my life, we made it to the hospital. His parents had called us as they touched down at the airport. We sat in the parking lot for a moment and I grabbed TJ’s hand and squeezed. 

“I’m here babe. Just tell me what you need.” 

“I know you are. But I don’t know what I need.” 

We got out of the car and his parents met us in the lobby. It struck me in that moment how similar they looked standing side by side. His mom rushed forward and gave us both tight hugs. I could tell she had been crying and she was torn between the excitement of getting to see us much sooner than expected and the bad situation we were here for. We all huddled in the elevator together in silence. The smell of hospitals has always made my stomach turn and this time was no exception. I know they’re clean but it’s like right under the surface all that grossness is being masked by the smell of antiseptic. 

TJ gripped my hand tighter as we entered the hospital room and pushed the divider curtain to the side. His aunt and grandma were sitting on each side of the old man. Tubes were shoved down his throat and I could see his yellowing teeth. The constant beeping of his heart monitor beeped out of time to the weirdly loud click-click-click of the clock on the wall. His face was spotted and sagging and his head was taped where I assume the doctors shaved his head. All I knew really was that TJ had let go of my hand and was grasping his grandma tightly. I was next. I hugged her and through strangled sobs she said, “It’s so nice to finally meet you dear. I just wish it was sooner.” 

“Me too.” 

I was at a loss. What do you say to someone who’s in the process of losing the most important part of their life? Especially when you’re meeting them for the first time. We all sat around and his grandma clutched the rosary in between her hands and her husband. It’s at this moment that I realize that even though I grew up raised every other weekend as a Catholic, I didn’t have a clue about this part. When finally all the grandkids and children show up that grandma made the hardest decision. That she was going to remove her husband from life support. That we would all sit with him in his last moments as he passed from this place to the next. 

The doctors said that he could die right then or it could take hours and some people fight for days. At some point TJ’s parents pull us out of the room and tell us that we don’t have to stay for this part. That we don’t know how long this will take. I tell them that we’re going to be here as long as we can and as long as we’re needed. They protest and I stay firm. Finally TJ tells them that it’s important to him that he’s here and we’re staying and they don’t argue anymore. 

When the doctors start turning off the ventilator it gets even more quiet for a brief moment. Then grandpa starts making this rattling noise deep in his chest. It sounds like his lungs are slowly filling as he’s trying to breathe. It’s a wet rattling sound that, when combined with the shaky recitation of “Hail Mary” and the wailing of his grandma, gives me the chills. It sounds morbid, but in that moment I pictured myself fifty years down the line, sobbing over TJ’s body. TJ’s grandpa hung on for several hours. We all waited and sniffled until the heart monitor made the sound that we were all waiting for and simultaneously dreading.  You know the one. If this were a television show, you’d see nurses running in at the sound of the flat line and rushing everyone out of the room. But this wasn’t a television show. After a few moments - a nurse came in and shut the rest of the machines off in silence. 

We ended up staying in PA for a week because his grandpa hadn’t made any arrangements in the event of his death. This meant that we watched in silence as his grandma dealt with her mortality by choosing things like plots and stones and hymns. For the sake of this stories expediency I’m going to skip the funeral and the week that led up to it. It was lovely and sad. All you really need to know is that I spent the week trying to find interesting distracting things to do for TJ and I. 

Fast forward to two weeks into November of 2018. I am getting back to work again. It’s a Monday morning and I look down and notice that I have accidentally taken the first two weeks of my birth control backwards. Some quick Googling tells me that I need to get a new pack immediately and start over and make sure to wear protection for the next few weeks to be safe. I walk into the bedroom with TJ and sit down next to him as he ties his shoes. 

“Well funny story.” 

“What’s up?” he responds  groggily. 

“Well, it’s funny, because I accidentally took my birth control backwards and I wanted to let you know. At this point I can either go try to get a new pack or I can stop taking it altogether and we can see what happens. I know we’ve had a lot going on but I really haven’t changed my mind about being ready to start a family with you.” 

He leaned against me and gave me a slow groggy smile. “Me either. I’m ready to start that part of our life too.” 

So, even though 2018 hadn’t been the greatest on our wallets or family, I walked into the new year thinking that it would be our greatest year yet. We were ready to make our family a little bigger and it would maybe add a little morale boost for TJ.

[cutiecrates]

Cutie Reviews: Doki Doki June 18

I was hoping to get this done a day or two, or three ago. But with Thanksgiving coming up (and a sudden allergy attack) I’ve been forced to slow down a little bit this week. I wasn’t even sure I would be able to write this with how bad I felt when I woke up this morning. My face felt so stuffed and uncomfortable, and my head was in pain- but I didn’t have a headache? it was a sinus thing I guess, and despite only being awake for a half hour or so after sleeping almost seven hours, I was extremely tired.

Anyway that cleared up and I’m a lot better now!

Theme of the month: ✧˖° Sparkling Summer ✧˖°

This month’s theme is “Kirameki no Natsu“, meaning “Sparkling Summer”. We’re here to make yu look just as sparkly and pretty as the ocean or pol on a sunny, summer day. So go on, dive into this month’s crate!

Alright! So this is the obligatory summer box for this years Doki Doki crate. Let’s see how it holds up!

Suteki Crate

What caught my attention (besides how adorable everything is) is that it indeed fits the summer theme! Either in use, or design, it screams summer fun. Out of all of the items, my most favorites are the My Melody Air Freshner (I’m obsessed with my diffuser I got recently), the ice cream shaped light, and the alarm clock. But everything is really cute.

Bottle Cover

Our first item is this adorable bottle cover that looks like a sock. I’ve seen these tons of times, I’ve seen gachapon dedicated to stuff like this (they’re also known as PET bottles in Japan). You can take them or leave them. For this month we have adorable bottle socks inspired by Mt. Fuji. They are available in a few varieties of color but generally have the same aesthetic going on.

Of course I did try it on my foot just to kind of see how it was on par with an actual sock. It nearly fit my entire foot and of course feels like an average sock- except the toe and heel area is excluded for obvious reasons.  

Basically, the concept behind this is to use the drink sock as a cover for wet or super-chilly bottles. Not only does it collect the condensation, but it will stay cold but give you “padding“ so you’re not freezing yourself trying to hold it.

On a side-note, I noticed that on this Pepsi bottle it fits nice and snugly. But on smaller or different shaped bottles (like coke or something), the top seems a little loose but it still holds fine, that doesn’t change.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

As cute as the concept is, I never actually saw much purpose to things like this. I mean yes, I do understand what it’s for, and I get that, but it’s not something I’ve ever said “oh yes I need one!“. But now that I actually have one, I can see the appeal behind it. I don’t plan on going out to buy more- but I appreciate it.

If anything, I did notice that when I went to grab the bottle my hand slipped by an inch or so. It didn’t make me drop it or anything, but I felt it was worth mentioning.

Shiba Inu Towel

Towels are a necessity for those summer outdoorsy or beach trips, plus they can make cute bathroom decor ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ Here we have some shiba inu inspired towels in a few varieties of colors and patterns.

This a thinner, but long towel, so it takes up less space and still provides enough fabric for toweling off or cleaning up a spill.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

A towel is a towel. I prefer kitties over dogs, but I found these doggies to be charming in their own way. Especially the black one~

Sumikko Gurashi Ice Pack

I’ve been waiting to use this! I see orbeez-filled ice packs all the time but I never bought one. I’ve always wanted to but I wasn’t sure how they would work out and kept putting it off. I’ve heard good things though so I was hopeful.

Each ice pack is made to resemble a character, and even though I didn’t get my favorite, I love the pretty blue color with this one, so I don’t mind much. Although, I bet each and every one is adorable~

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Besides just being adorable, these little guys do a great job! When you pop it into the freezer it doesn’t freeze into one giant piece, it kind of gains a slushy consistency. It’s a lot of fun to play with frozen and un-frozen too, it was kind of addictive to squish~

I also used it on my head this morning o(*>ω<*)o it felt so good...

Refreshing Glass Cup/Sanrio Slim Glass

Our next item is an adorable frosted glass covered in Sanrio kawaiiness~

There was 2 cups available, including My Melody or Rilakkuma. The glasses have two alternating designs on them, and this adorable little addition:

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

As much as I love glass cups, I try not to use them much because cats. But how could I resist this little sweetie? It’ll go perfectly with my other sanrio-themed cups and glasses. And I have a lot.

Sanrio Beach Tote

Our final item for the month is this fun, clear vinyl bag perfect for any beach trip. With it’s material, it’s water-resistant and is big enough to hold everything you would need. It was available with Little Twin Star or Pompompurin.

You know, looking back at it, almost all of my items had a color theme match. This bag, the cup, and my ice pack feature a pretty light blue (and pink in 2 cases) theme. I love when stuff like that connects!

I also noticed that the drink sock I got would have fit the Pompom, rilakkuma, and Neko (and the tan doggy) pretty well. I wish I had gotten the light blue cover to match the colors I got.

Ratings: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

I love how it looks (and smells... am I the only one who likes smelling clean vinyl/plastic/new shoes?), I really wish I got a chance to use it. I had made plans to visit the beach this past summer, but they fell through. But I could always use this bag if I go out one day and it’s raining.

The only problem is you gotta make sure you dry this kind of material off. I had a vinyl umbrella I was obsessed with a couple years back, but because I kept forgetting to wipe it off after use, the plastic stuck together and it ended up ruining parts of it (I don’t have it anymore though. The wind ended up breaking it one day and now I have a really cute, new, non-vinyl umbrella).

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Content - 4.5 out of 5. Nothing really spectacular or anything, but I found every item to be really cute and it did suit its purpose. I can’t say there’s anything useless in here or necessary.

Quality/Price - 5 out of 5. Everything is really nicely detailed, no stitch out of place or damage in sight. In terms of price... I want to say you could probably get similar items at like a dollar store or something- but for the sake of them being name brand and high quality, I could say they are worth the price.

Theme: 5 out of 5. If everything I said to this point didn’t help seal the deal, maybe the front image of the booklet will. You can literally take these items out to the beach and use them! I also like how they featured summery colors to kind of seal the deal.

Total Rank: 14.5 out of 15 Cuties. I loved the high amount of quality and detail flowing out of this box. While did have my tiny nitpicks like usual, I was very impressed by the full-on theme follow through and practicality of the items. That always plays a big part in my reviews. Once again, I felt that it was very heavy with Sanrio items; but I adore Sanrio series, a lot. I could almost make a whole bedroom themed after sanrio (and lets be honest I probably will one day).

Maybe one box themed after everything Sanrio (or at least hello kitty PLEASE), then step away for a box or two. I feel like it could refresh the brand a little, but who knows, maybe I’m the only one a bit bothered by it? I see a lot of sanrio since I order multiple boxes.

♡ Cutie Scale ♡

1. Glass Cup - I mean come on, wasn’t it obvious? It’s covered in adorable pinkness! 

2. Ice Pack - It was going to be cute either way and I knew that; I especially like this light blue color of the orbees. They look comforting and cool~

3. Beach Tote - I mentioned this before, but I love translucent colorful things. I also see this as being super practical, and the design on the front is precious.

4. Bottle Cover - I thought the Mt. Fuji pattern was pretty cute. I’m not crazy about the color though <3<

5. Shiba Inu Towel - As cute as the dogs are, the green color of the towel was kind of a turn-off to me. I don’t have anything against green, but the colors are so bold, and vibrant that it kind of stands out against the softer pastels of the rest of the box. 

Alright! That does it for this review. I had fun and I hope you guys did too, even if it is ultra-late. I’m doing what I can to try to speed through these and catch up. My plans for tomorrow are to cover the July Yume Twins box, but remember, when I get a Gacha Gacha crate I’m likely to focus on that so at least that’s up to date.

Anyway, until next time, stay refreshingly cutie!