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teddy06writes · 3 years ago

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A Night In Las Vegas

requested by this anon: “I had the BEST idea: CC!Quackity came up with the idea of his Las Nevadas character arc after going to Las Vegas and meeting Reader there. Maybe one night the reader decides to go and twitch and finds quackity doing a lore stream and the reader is like: no way, it’s the guy I met in Vegas.”

{I love this concept, sorry it took so long for me to get out}

Quackity x reader

trigger warnings: some swears

premise: after getting ditched by your friends on the last night of your long weekend in vegas you run into a very interesting guy who doesn’t hesitate to befriend you. But what happens months later when he still seems to be running circles in your mind?

{covid don’t exist here, no sir}

{for the sake of the story, readers favorite color is blue, if its not, either pretend it is, or get over it}

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10:34pm

“You can’t just- you can’t kick me out!” You yelled.

Your bestfriend laughed, “Just find somewhere to go for a few hours! Me and Hunter want alone time!”

“A few fucking hours!?! Seriously?!” But your duffle bag had already been thrown at your feet, and the hotel door room was swinging closed, muffled giggles coming from inside.

Groaning, you picked up your bag, where were you supposed to go now?

“Not that I was like- listening in or anything- but damn that sucks.”

You jumped turning to see a man with black hair sticking out of his beanie standing in front of the door diagonal from yours.

“Uh- yeah. Last night in Vegas and I get ditched for a random hook up,” You scoffed, “I should’ve known it would happen.”

“That’s not cool, uh- I’m Alex.” He stepped forward, offering his hand.

Somewhat reluctantly, you shook his hand, “(y/n).”

He nodded, “I was going to head out for a late night wander, find something to do-, preferably away from all the hookups that seem to be happing around us right now. If you want to come.”

You glanced around, “Seriously?”

“Oh- god that did sound kinda creepy didn’t it,” Alex scrubbed a hand over his face, “Sorry- I- you can just forget about this then-”

“No! I mean- You don’t seem like a rapist or anything. I’ll come with.”

He grinned, “Poggers, you can, leave that, in my room, if you want. Just seems like a pain to lug around everywhere.”

You bit your lip, “Leaving my belongings in a strangers room while I go with said stranger to find something interesting to do, sure- why not?”

10:57pm

Somehow, you found yourself wandering out of the hotel lobby, and onto the crowded streets along side Alex.

“So.... whats your favorite color?” He asked as you walked.

You laughed, “What?”

“We’re like, total strangers- it was a question, to get to know you.” He tucked his hands into his pockets.

“Oh, well-” before you could finish your sentence, there was a large amount of gasps and yells from the crowd in front of you.

“What’s going on?” Alex asked quietly.

You craned your neck to look over the crowd, gasping, “The water show! With the fountains outside of Caesar’s Palace!” You grabbed his hand, tugging him with you to push through the crowd, “This was the whole reason I agreed to this trip- but we never got to it!”

You shoved your way through the crowd until you got to the front, pressing against the barrier to watch the fountain display.

“Holy shit.” You heard him mutter from beside you.

You grinned, “It’s impressive right?”

“Imagine the coding it would take to get those things to stay on time.”

11:27pm

After the show had ended, you had kept wandering for a while, up the strip, asking various questions back and forth.

You had found out that he was a Minecraft youtuber and a law student, though you’d had to admit, you weren’t too knowledgeable on either that subject.

Now you were both staring up at the Dave and Busters sign, “This is a good idea right?”

He nodded, “Definitely. Come on, I’d bet I could beat you at skee ball!”

Laughing, you followed him into the building, and up the stairs toward the arcade entrance, “Your on!”

After buying the credit cards for access to the games, you grabbed his hand, dragging him over to the skee ball lanes.

“Lets go!” He shouted, a few minutes later, upon realizing your score was a total of 10 points behind his, “I’m popping off!”

You laughed, “Okay, what game’s next?”

Nearly an hour later, you had both run out of credits, and laughing, made you way up to the prize area.

“Do you think its possible to compile our tickets?” He asked.

“Why?”

You followed his pointing finger to the large stuffed dragons sitting on one shelf.

“We need him.” You said immediately.

After picking out a bright red dragon, you began to argue over the name as you made your way to the counter.

“What about Carl?” You suggested.

He shook his head, “I have a friend named Karl.”

“How ‘bout........ Phil?”

“I also know a Phil.”

“Hmmmm, what about Sebastian?”

“He doesn’t look like a Sebastian!”

You frowned, “Well do you have any ideas then?”

Alex thought for a moment, “Albert.”

You looked down at the dragon, “Albert it is.”

At the counter Alex convinced the reluctant worker to allow you to use both the cards credit totals, and then you went happily on your way out of the building, stopping to take a picture of Albert in front of the sign, which Alex posted to twitter with the comment of, “Look at our son!”

You’d staid mostly out of frame, but he managed to get about half of your side, since you were the one holding Albert.

“Do you think any pf the buffets are still open?” Alex asked.

“I hope so, I’m starving.” You giggled.

~~ 12:06am

The buffet was somewhat deserted, and you and Alex had grabbed seats in one of the corners after getting plates full of food.

Albert sat on the table between you as you talked.

“So it’s roleplay- but in Minecraft?” You asked, barley holding back a laugh.

He nodded, chuckling, “It sounds stupid, I know, but it’s like- huge. Especially since technically I’m getting back into the main lore now, with the whole project: vegas thing.”

“Project Vegas?” You asked.

He nodded again, “My character, he’s been through almost everything that's happened, and everything always ends to blow up in his face, literally sometimes. He’s built contries from the ground up- as stupid as that sounds- but they always fail, but this one won’t fail.

“I’m partnering with another guy on the server to set up a whole economy, he’s making a bank, and I’m making- well I’m making my own Vegas.”

You took a sip of your drink, “What’s it going to be called?”

“I haven’t figured it out yet,” He admitted, “I wanted to just call it Las Vegas but the names already taken.”

With a chuckle you shifted in your seat, “What about....- what about Las Nevada's?”

He laughed, “I like that.”

“Tell me more about this server then, I still don’t understand the story.”

With another chuckle he launched into the story, “Well, it all started when this guy called Wilbur Soot decided he wanted to start a nation....”

~~ 3:18am

“Blue.”

You were back at the hotel now, still with Quackity, sitting out on the balcony of his room. Some how, you had ended up having some slightly deep talk about life and death and a million other things before lapsing into silence, simply watching the blinking lights of the city.

“What?” He asked softly.

“You asked me my favorite color, ten minutes after we met. It’s blue- that's my favorite color.” You shivered against a cold breeze.

Alex shifted minutely closer, “Why?”

You shrugged, “It can be so many things. Deep and dark and mysterious but also light like the summer sky and filled with hope. There’s a million shades from happiness to anger, and to everyone it could mean something else.”

“I like that.” He said quietly.

7:04am

You yawned, rubbing sleep out of your eyes as the car drew closer to the airport.

Alex tapped on the steering wheel in time with the music, quietly humming along.

“Oh, I see my friend, they actually waited for me.” You said as the car pulled up to the curb.

“How considerate.” He chuckled, climbing out of the car.

You followed suit, retrieving your duffle bag from the back seat.

“Well, it was cool knowing you Alex.” You said.

“Likewise.”

Before you started to walk away you remembered, and quickly turned back to where he was standing, pulling Albert out of your bag, “Here, he’s yours. You spent more tickets on him than I did.”

He shook his head, “Keep him. I give you full custody of our son.”

“Oh- okay... bye then.”

You barley made it a few steps before he was quickly catching up to you, grabbing your arm and spinning you to press his lips on yours.

“Good luck with your shitty friends.” He breathed, before hurrying back to his car, leaving you flustered and running to catch up to your friend.

One and A Half Months later

It had been over a month since the Vegas trip, but you still hadn’t gotten Alex out of your head.

You had clicked, on some level, and the late night conversation you had shared seemed to keep you thinking about him.

Now, you scrolled aimlessly through twitter, checking the trending tags until you came across one called “LAS NEVADAS”

Now that piqued your interest, and clicking on it, you found posts of people live tweeting an event- no a live stream. And not just any live stream- a Minecraft stream.

Quickly you opened a new tab, pulling up twitch as fast as you could.

What was the name of his channel? Oh god why did you forget?

Returning to twitter you searched until you found a link, following it to a new twitch tab.

And there he was.

The boy who had been doing laps around your mind was actually there, talking to another character.

“Look Sam, you and me, we could control everything. I need the bank to help fund Las Nevada’s, we can be partners.”

You sat, watching the stream, enthralled.

Once it had ended, you still could hardly believe you found him, quickly following another link back to his twitter and opening a direct message.

Y/n: Um, this is awkward, idk if you remeber this, but we met in vegas, about a month ago, and I had no idea how to find you until the stream today

quackityHQ: uh, hi?

qusckityHQ: proof?

Quickly you sent him the picture you had taken of him with Albert,

y/n: uhhh, bam, proof?

y/n: our son is sitting on my head board right now

quackityHQ: holy shit

#mcyt x reader #quackity x reader #quackityhq x reader #teddy06 writes #teddy06

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roselassi · 3 years ago

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heyyyyy I read the night tiger toooo tell me what u thought of it if that's ok

trigger warning for pseudo-incest //

To preface let me just say I had such high hopes for The Night Tiger: I love historical fiction, mysteries, and magical realism and this seemed like all that wrapped into one book. I loved Ren as a character, and I thought the concept of 5 people intrinsically linked through their names was very strong. But the book was just such a massive disappointment to me. I feel like we were promised a big moment where Ren and Ji Lin met, and there was never any payoff, and that felt cheap. They don't have a single substantial conversation, which I feel is merited considering the whole book is supposed to be based off this link they have. I also thought the two antagonists were introduced and then dispatched within a matter of chapters, so quickly it felt random and almost nonsensical.

My biggest beef is Shin and Ji Lin's relationship. I have honestly never been more uncomfortable reading something than I have their confession chapter. Like. Pseudo-incest is bad enough, but there's this added element of Shin brooding in the background of Ji Lin's entire life, driving away men she might have been interested in, emotionally manipulating her into believing that is acceptable behavior, that comes across as distinctly predatory. And Choo writes it like it's romantic when it's just creepy and manipulative. (Sidenote: I wonder whether Choo's portrayal of Shin as a manipulator was intentional, just done really badly, so I literally went to Twitter and asked, but surprise surprise I was ignored.) Ji Lin could have been such a great character, but the "romance subplot" really ruined her character arc and supplanted any of her motivations that could have been further in-line with the greater plot of the story.

Okay, to summarize, the Night Tiger wasn't the worst book ever, but in my opinion it was genuinely terrible and made worse because I went in with such high expectations LOL.

#I know I ranted but there you have it LOL #when I finished the book I called a friend who'd also been reading it and ranted for 45 minutes #the night tiger #unburningsea #ask

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waywardwrestlewritingwaif · 3 years ago

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Raise the Stakes, part 14

Aaaaaaannnnnnd we're done! I literally decided on this ending today and I'm posting it before I start to get THE DOUBTS. I hope you enjoy it and thank you so, so, so much to everyone who's liked/ commented/ messaged along the way.

There's mention in here of an interview that did actually happen a couple of days ago and what's included is pretty much what I've read online. That said, I've embellished some for the purpose of the story, so I'm not claiming to know anything.

Previous sections are on the Master List.

Pairing: David Finlay x OFC x Jay White

Word count: 2,767

Content advisory: other than the usual language, nothing really. Should I be cautioning people about angstiness? Because there's angst.

Thought you should see this.

The toneless message with its link is ruining your day. You can’t stop looking at it, but you don’t want to open the link again because you don’t want David to see it. Not that you have any reason to feel guilty. If anything, he’s the one who has some explaining to do but he also has the biggest match of his life tonight, the one where he can finally put the years of tension and rivalry with Jay behind him. You want to be supportive but you also want some answers.

It can wait, you tell yourself for the hundredth time. You’ll talk about it tomorrow. Or next week. All the time in the world. At least, that’s what you hope.

The whole day, the two of you are together but you have to keep a little bit of distance. Don’t want to get distracted and he has to conserve all the energy he can. Doesn’t stop you from touching each other, of course, but even when you do, it feels like you’re still at a distance. He’s trying not to think about anything except tonight. Or maybe it just looks that way. Maybe he’s thinking about his future beyond tonight, when he moves on. It would be nice to know if he wanted you to move on with him but he’s not letting you in on his plans. Hell, if it were up to him, you wouldn’t even know that there were plans.

You’d expected Jay to have some sort of mocking comments. How come the boyfriend you’re so in love with is giving interviews talking about signing with another company, moving to another state, changing everything about his life, and you don’t know anything about it? How Jay had looked at that interview and immediately known that you weren’t aware of it is beyond you. It’s unnerving sometimes, his ability to figure things out when it comes to you. You suppose it’s one of the reasons he’s always been able to get under your skin and make you do what he wants.

But aside from the initial message, he doesn’t say anything. You think that maybe it was a ploy to see if you’d confront David and start a fight before their match, because that’s exactly the kind of ugly trick Jay loves. When you arrive at the venue, though, you see him getting out of a car at the same time. He doesn’t look scornful, doesn’t shout something insulting, doesn’t strut like a damn peacock in mating season, nothing that you would normally expect from him. He looks straight at you and doesn’t smirk or sneer. On anyone other than Jay White, the look might be interpreted as concern.

Technically, you’re supposed to be there for all the performers but at this point, there’s very little left for you to do. It’s all on them now and if everything turns out to be a garbage fire, it won’t be because of any failings on your part. So you do your rounds to make sure everyone has what they need, knows their cues, gets any questions answered. But you always circle back to where David is and stay for as long as you can before your nerves get the better of you.

And then there’s the one person you should check on, but don’t. You aren’t completely derelict. You check with the people he has around him, you even lower yourself to telling Chris Bey that he can text you if his majesty needs anything. Strangely, you don’t hear anything. You text Jay once to say that you’re available to help. You keep it professional and don’t mention anything about the link he sent earlier, so you’re expecting him to needle you about it, or at least act like you’re useless because you aren’t spending your entire day catering to him. Nothing. You’re almost tempted to go check to make sure he’s not sick because one thing Jay White has never been is one to stay quiet when something is bothering him. Maybe he feels sorry for you, in which case you’d rather he yelled.

You enjoy as much of the show as you can but you spend the last minutes before his match with David, largely quiet, just holding each other’s hands. You walk as far as you can with him and, as his music hits, squeeze his hand extra tight. He turns and gives you a soft, quick kiss before leaning back and doing it again, deeper.

“I love you,” he says, cupping your face in his hand.

“I love you too.”

He sounds like he’s trying to convince himself of something. You sound like you’re calling after a train that’s already left the station.

Against your better judgment, you stay where you are. Jay arrives, already acting his part, hands tapping idly on the belt that, in theory, is the reason they’re fighting. You stare at him waiting for him to acknowledge you but there’s nothing. His music swells and he heads out like you’re not even there.

“Just like old times,” you mutter to yourself.

And still.

You watch from backstage as Jay holds his belt up, grinning and preening like he never had a moment’s doubt. You know him well enough to know that’s not true. He keeps cutting looks back at David as if he’s expecting to have to defend himself again, as if he doesn’t believe that he’s truly vanquished him.

The audience doesn’t share his insecurity, cheering him on like he was the hero and David the villain. He’s obnoxious and self-centred but they love him anyway. It makes you feel a little less stupid for the years you’d spent doing the same.

A couple of assistants help David backstage, holding ice to his neck and making sure he doesn’t collapse on the way to the locker room. He looks angry, sullen, and bitter, but not injured, which is a relief. You turn away from the scene in the ring and follow him back to his dressing room, taking over from the dojo students on ice duty when you get there. You don’t speak. You figure it’s better to let him decide when he’s ready.

You’d love to, of course, because despite the fact that you don’t want to make his night worse, it’s becoming unbearable to keep everything inside.

“Where does it hurt?” you ask quietly, picking up a new cold pack.

“Everywhere,” he mumbles.

You hold the ice against his lower back, remembering the awful hit he’d taken on the ring apron.

“You looked great out there.”

“Didn’t feel so great.” He gives you a little smile. “Onward and upward, right?”

“Or southward?” You don’t even mean to say it out loud because this is absolutely not the time to bring it up and certainly not in this passive aggressive way.

“Southward?” He raises his eyebrows like he doesn’t know what you’re talking about but you can see immediately that he does.

“Nothing, it’s ok.”

He sighs. “What’s southward?”

“Do you need another ice pack?”

“Uh oh, sounds like someone’s been reading the dirt sheets.”

“Just making a joke.” You wish you hadn’t brought this up because now you have to try to cram it back into its hiding space in your brain. And you have to suppress the fact that you’re actually kind of angry.

He watches you, trying to gage your state of mind. “Shouldn’t listen to idle gossip.”

That hits like a slap across the face.

“It’s not gossip, David. You did an interview with Wrestling Observer. If people are speculating or have questions, it’s because of what you said yourself.”

“It’s just talking. I didn’t confirm anything.”

He seems a little proud of this, like he’s very clever for getting people talking about what they don’t know. He doesn’t seem to have an issue with the fact that you’re one of those people.

“It’s all there, though,” you murmur. “Talking about how much you want to work in the States, that you want to try somewhere new, that you’re moving to Florida. You’re going to NXT, right?”

He shrugs and avoids your eyes.

“Were you ever going to tell me about any of this or did you figure I’d be able to piece together where you’d gone from news clippings and Reddit posts?”

“Of course I was going to talk to you. Nothing’s final yet.”

“So you were waiting until you bought a house in Florida and signed a contract with another company? Then what? You’d wake me up one morning and just say ‘bye babe, I’ll be living in another state from now on?’”

“The opportunity came up. This,” he gestures to the two of you, “is still really new. I didn’t want to introduce all these complications.”

“David, I’m not some girl you picked up in a bar. We’ve known each other for years. You’ve talked to me before about your contract renewals. Seems like you could have told me something.”

“I was going to tell you something. When I had a better idea of what I wanted to do.”

“You told a journalist, a ‘dirt sheet’ in your own words, that you’re in the process of moving to Florida. That seems like you have a pretty clear idea.”

“Ok, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for you to find out. You don’t even read that stuff normally.”

“You’re aware people are talking about this on social media, right?”

He grunts but doesn’t say anything more. It’s infuriating. He looks resentful that he has to explain himself, like he didn’t think this was going to be an issue for you. Finally, he meets your eyes, guilt very clearly evident now.

“I don’t know why I didn’t say anything. I’m an idiot, I could have figured out that you’d see something, or that someone would tell you.”

“It is my job to know stuff like this, all other considerations aside.”

“Believe me, I did not want you getting this from some random dweeb on Twitter.”

“I wish it had been a random dweeb on Twitter.”

He looks surprised and then it’s like part of him collapses when he realizes what you mean.

“Got up this morning to a one line text and a link to the article from our old pal. You know, making sure I’m not out of the loop.”

“Asshole.”

“In this case no. Somehow, you managed to cede the high moral ground to a man whose morals are generally nonexistent.”

“What do you want me to say?”

“Well, this is hardly the ideal moment to have this conversation, but I want to know if and how you see me fitting into this new life you’re going to have.”

He shrugs a little. “How do you want to fit in?”

The realization hits you hard. “You don’t think this is going to last, do you? You didn’t think I was serious.”

“Wanting is a lot easier than having.”

“Maybe for you.”

“No, that’s not what I meant, it’s just that I… You’re right. I didn’t think I needed to consider you. It wasn’t part of my decision-making process.”

“You’ve been setting this up for weeks. All this has come together at the same time you’ve been with me almost every day. If I wasn’t part of your process, that was the decision right there.”

The two of you stare each other down but there seems to be nothing left to say.

Eventually, you rise to your feet and stammer, “I’m just going to… I need to take a walk or something.”

You wander around the place, watching the crew rushing to pack up. Eventually, you find yourself outside, where the ring still stands, bathed in the glow of the safety lights. It seems forlorn in front of the empty seats but there is still a kind of magic about it. That’s what draws people to this business, you suppose, the feeling of magic.

Since no one else is around, you climb up and through the ropes, kicking off your shoes. You’ve been in one before, but always just to set it up or break it down. You’ve never had an in-ring moment. And there’s a reason for that, which is that you can barely wrestle your way out of your winter coat. But as long as you’re here and you need to do something to take your mind off the sensation that your chest is about to rip.

You run, or jog, from one side to the other, bouncing off the ropes as you do, the way you’ve watched dozens of men doing for years. Although you know the “ropes” are actually steel cables with a plastic coating and you’ve handled them before, it surprises you how much it hurts when you hit them too hard. It’s not the worst pain you have right now.

You pick up speed a little and then practice letting yourself “bump”, a fancy way of saying fall flat on your back. Each time, you knock the wind out of yourself a little but you get right back up and continue your running. Finally, you have enough momentum that you’re able to just roll yourself into a somersault, and sure, it’s not the most perfectly executed thing, but you keep your body straight and you pop right back up. Just like a pro.

“Ta-da!” you say to yourself.

That’s when the tears come. It’s not falling to pieces, but the stew of emotions inside you just starts to leak out. What the hell do you do now?

There are some footsteps behind you, echoing a little in the empty arena, and you see a man’s approaching shadow loom behind you, pushing his long hair back from his face as he crouches down. So you’re not startled when a thick pair of arms wraps around you and you feel his face pressed against your neck.

“Come home.”

You give an unhappy laugh. “Home is kind of a weird concept right now, Jay.”

“You’re always home for me. I guess I was hoping you felt the same way.”

You snap your head to look at him, pulling back enough so that you can focus on his eyes. In all the time you’ve known him, you don’t think he’s ever looked as calm as he does in this moment.

“Congratulations on your win.”

“Yeah, I get to be a target for a while longer.”

“Stop pretending you don’t love it.”

“Sure, I love it. It’s nice. There are other things I love more.” He runs his fingers over your cheeks, cleaning away the remains of your tears. “I’m sorry about sending you that story earlier.”

“All the shit you’ve pulled over the years and that’s the thing you apologize for?”

“Oh I meant I’m sorry that I had to be the one to send it. I don’t want you to shoot the messenger or anything.”

“If I haven’t shot you by now, I think you’re safe.”

He laughs and pulls you back against his chest, kissing down your cheek and neck. Then he stands, pulling you right up with him and letting his lips trail over the crown of your head.

“Come on.” he whispers, taking your hand.

“Wait, I need my shoes.”

You dart over to pick them up and he’s right there to help you into them and to lead you through the ropes and down the stairs. That’s when he plants his lips on yours, firmly, so that you can feel it in your knees.

“I need to go get my suitcase inside.”

“Do you always carry everything with you wherever you go?”

“I’m headed straight to the airport from here. Catching a red eye back.”

“Skip it. Leave tomorrow.”

“Just like that?”

“Sure. I have a really nice room.”

“I know you do, I booked it.”

“Always taking care of me, aren’t you?”

“Oh wow, he noticed.”

He kisses you again, a little longer, digging his fingers into your back, and your body melts against him of its own volition.

“I’m not coming back if everything is just going to go back to the way it was, Jay.”

“I didn’t come running after you because you’re good at managing my schedule.”

You give him a sceptical look but you can't entirely keep from smiling.

“Look at me,” he grins, “I’m a god. Any woman would want me and you have me. You should feel like you won the lottery.”

“Yeah,” you drawl, letting him wrap an arm around you as you walk away together, “I won.”

#jay white fanfic #jay white imagine #david finlay fanfic #david finlay imagine #njpw fanfic #njpw imagine #wrestling imagine #wayward wrestle writing

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hypocrisyofandrewdobson · 4 years ago

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A Four Part Post in Which Dobson Claims Men Hate Playing As Women in Video Games

Part Four: Dobson Posts a Bunch of Random Statistics to Prove He’s Right, When Almost All Prove Him Wrong.

Link to Part Three

We’ve officially reached the final part of this overall post, and the main reason I wanted to make this post in the first place. This will also probably be the longest of the four post, as I’ll be breaking down a lot of what Dobson says, so strap in for that.

So Dobson, despite already saying he was done arguing about it, decide to go on a self-righteous Twitter rant about why he was right and smarter than everyone else.

You can already tell how condescending and pretentious he being right out of the gate, can’t you? Anyway, let’s get started...

So 49% of games sampled had a playable female character? Those sound like pretty damn good odds, just saying.

This is such a hyper specific example that it ultimately says nothing. It’s be like if I said “I’m 2018, this one small town in this state had more men working there than women. Therefore, the entire country is sexist”. Same with the following but about paying for characters in an endless runner.

Dobson posted this in 2017. So he’s trying to use a video game study that was, at the time, 34 years old as a statement on modern gaming.

You’ll notice that only the last comment had an actual relation to “men only like to play men in video games” as well as that he’s stopped mentions specific percentages and studies, and is just saying things are facts without proof.

Also, these comments are so purposely vague that they don’t actually say anything. A random accusation of racism without citing any examples, a statement about how bodies are protrayed in video games that doesn’t say or explain anything, and a generic “games with women characters review butter but are played less” which once again is so vague and generic that it doesn’t actually say anything, because nothing has actually been said or proven.

And now comes where Dobson really shoots himself in the foot.

Once again, something that’s not sourced and has nothing to do with “gamers don’t like playing as women”

“60% of girls but only 39% of boys prefer to play a character of their own gender.” Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but if only 39% of boys want to play as a man, doesn’t that mean that 61% either wants to play as a woman or doesn’t care? And I’m pretty sure 61 is bigger than 39, so that would mean that it’s actually the minority that prefer to play as their own gender and not the majority. Isn’t math fun?

In fact, according to the stats Dobson posted, it’s actually the majority of female gamers that don’t want to play as a man, not the other way around. Funny how Dobson doesn’t seem to address that, but he’s too busy proving his own claims wrong.

“28% girls/20% boys choose a game based on the characters gender”. Again, if 20% do, that means 80% doesn’t. And 80 is larger than 20, therefore 20% is not the majority. Dobson is literally proving his own argument wrong while thinking he’s “schooling” everyone.

“16% of gamers think women are protrayed poorly, 26% disagree, and 34% say it depends”. This once again has nothing to do with the argument being made, “men hate playing as women”. In fact, this tweet indicates that the “gamers are sexist” mindset is a minority, which really just once again proves the opposite of what Dobson is claiming!

Dobson...literally everything you said either had nothing to do with what you were arguing or immediately proved the opposite. Yet he acted as if he just shamed everyone with his amazing logic. It’s actually kind of hilarious.

He then wraps up the long chain of tweets trying to imply men hate playing as women, even though two tweets before he said it was game companies who think that. He wants us to “look at the whole picture”, and going with the large amount of people pointing out how wrong he was, and the stats he himself posted, the whole picture still says he’s completely wrong. Mainly because he’s not nearly as smart or clever as he believes himself to be.

He then gets pissy about a joke before finally going to bed for the night.

He then went on to post this as soon as he woke up the next day, because even more people pointed out how wrong his “men hate playing as women in video games” argument was:

And it’s here I wonder if Dobson even understands how the Internet works, because he was essentially yelling at people for not reading through his entire Twitter timeline after they came across a tweet of him being stupid. To which I can only really respond with Dobson’s own words:

#videogamedobson #andrew dobson #adobsonartworks #video games #tom preston #adobsonart #long post

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motivatedtale-blog · 4 years ago

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About Motivatedtale

.:Contents:.

.:Author’s Note:.

.:Summary/Idea:.

.:Characters:.

Motive

Unmotivated

.:Stray Facts and Resources:.

FAQ

Rules

.:Inspiration:.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.:Author’s Note:.

Hey, so I've noticed this a long time ago but I’m just now confronting it since I got my computer fixed- it seems pretty impossible to reach the “About Motivatedtale” on mobile, even with the literal LINK to the page (I could only sort of access it through some loopholes in a browser- and the link just took me to my Tumblr instead), so I wanted to compile the information that’s in there into a post for any mobile users who may follow this blog. I’ve got more followers here than my art blog-- so even if there’s not much interaction each post, I think there’s at least a few people who might not have access to an about page here. Changes are very likely to be made and things will be added occasionally :)

.:Summary/Idea:.

“Have you ever wondered what happens to creations when a creator gives up?”

Motivatedtale is essentially an abandoned AU with no finished story or a plot. Which, ironically, not having a story is the story itself. It’s a tale about how the lack of motivation (along with other things like self doubt and lack of interest) in a Creator leaves a story unfinished, and with no reason to exist, no story, the AU is crumbling into nothingness, as it is being forgotten by the only one who knows about its existence- the Creator. However, there’s two characters in it that have to deal with that burden of having no ending or reasons to exist. And they’re completely aware of what’s going on.

At least, the first one that was created is aware, because they were made to be that way. They inform the only other character (Frisk/Motive) about all of this when they meet. They’re a Sans of course (which is sort of a self aware joke because a lot of people either start with the Sans of an AU when creating characters, subtly revolve around a Sans of an AU in a story, or the entire story literally and shamelessly revolves around a Sans. This is not an attack on anyone). This Sans goes by Unmotivated, and is quite bitter about existing. These characters have no finished story, no destiny, and no purpose. Being self aware of this can be a great burden on hope and happiness; ignorance is bliss, after all.

What the AU would’ve been if it was “completed” is unsure.

How the story ends is not fully decided or meant to be disclosed (for now), but even if this AU is finished or not, it is already technically complete. It symbolizes a project that is given up on; a project that is abandoned, and what would happen if the characters in these types of projects were conscious about this- if our ideas existed somewhere out there, somewhere where our decisions, intentional and unintentional, have a serious affect.

So, if this AU is abandoned, it’ll be quite ironic.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.:Characters:.

Motive

Motive is the Frisk of this AU, and one of only two characters that are in this AU. Motive was created after Unmotivated, but the coloring of their design was given up on towards the very end. Their sweater is unfinished because the creator gave up on them due to being overwhelmed with empty and destructive thoughts, but the outline/shape is still there. The sleeve usually is never shaded/effected by light.

Motive is an optimist, and believes that their AU will one day be finished. They have the soul of motivation, which is outwardly visible and tied to the loose hanging strap of their overalls. They don’t have preferences in pronouns (though they/them is usually the default), and calling them by any pronoun is fine (she/he/they/it..it really doesn’t matter, honestly).

Motive acts impulsively a lot of times and does not think of the consequences of their actions…or, they do, but they choose to move forward with their actions anyways. Since optimism is one of their key traits and it’s exaggerated and simplified in their character and logic, it can result in some bad outcomes. The same goes for their impulsitivity. They’re not that serious natured, and act more like a child than a young adult (despite being 18). However, they do make a lot of (sometimes unnerving) jokes that could be considered uncomfortable, but they mean no harm. While Motive is quite intelligent and empathetic, they’re distracted quite easily and might say or do inappropriate things during certain situations.

Since Motive is technically a new character and was not fully developed by their Creator (backstory, powers, etc), their underdevelopment as a character is actually a big part of their development as a character.

(More is to be added later)

Unmotivated

The Sans of the AU, and the first ever character created (which again is poking fun of the idea that people usually start with the Sans of the AU for characters). Unmotivated is bitter and cynical towards his existence and his Creator, and is completely aware of the multiverse and AU Creators. A big fourth wall breaker. He’s apathetic, bored and often paints himself as emotionless and uncaring to hide any hurt/feelings of helplessness. He bottled them away a long time ago. At first, Unmotivated was hopeful about his AU, but he was alone for an unspecified but long amount of time in his AU, and was driven to toxicity and bitterness during that time. He’s seen his universe grow, halt, and then slowly deteriorate- he has seen new ideas come and go, and is helpless to stop the rampant decay of his universe- his home- his story. He’s overall a pretty lonely character.

When or why he got the nickname “Unmotivated” is unclear- but it’s definitely supposed to be a pun. He hates the name but finds it funny and ironic at the same time.

Unmotivated’s soul is held by a string that is woven into his rain coat. He considers this to be poor design choice but doesn’t really do anything to fix it. He often keeps his soul in his pocket for safe keeping. (More is to be added later)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.:Stray Facts:.

• The AU resets (sort of like an update) each time a new idea is added. This is how Unmotivated is generally aware of Motive when they’re created. • The “Creator” resembles anyone who has abandoned or given up on their projects or ideas. This isn’t meant to put people that do this in a negative light.

•The white of Motive’s sleeve isn’t meant to be shaded since it’s “incomplete.”

FAQ (most are from amino since not many people ask here)

- What was the AU supposed to originally be before it was abandoned?

This is undecided and left up for interpretation. However, based off of the design of the current characters, it can be safely assumed that the AU was supposed to be more lighthearted and cutesy. There are random bits and ideas spread throughout the AU that give glimpses to what it could’ve been.

- Can I draw fanart of these characters?

Of course! I’d be honored to receive fanart and would love to see it! Just please keep things appropriate if you do.

- Is Ink Sans or Core Frisk going to be in the comic?

No.

I’ve gotten asked this several times, and the answer is no. Doing this would completely ruin the theme and point I’m trying to get across with this comic. This story revolves around a Creator and their Creations, and there will be no other characters made by other people.

- Are Motive and Unmotivated shipped together?

NO.

It’s fine as a joke but please realize they aren’t. This isn’t an AU centered around romance and would distract from the goal of the comic if I had that. While I’m not anti-frans in any sense, I still don’t want it in my comic.

- How often do you plan on updating the comic?

Each page is published whenever I finish it nowadays due to stress of a schedule. I post them in bulks of 2-3 on amino and twitter, and whenever I finish the page on deviantart, instagram and here.

- Is the Creator a character?

Yes, and no. The Creator represents not only myself, but any artist that has struggles putting their creations out there due to insecurities or other causes. They’re more symbolic and fluent rather than a structured and identified character. Of course though, if there is any introduction of the Creator, I would have to give them some sort of design- and I do have general ideas of what they’d look like. However, they’re still supposed to represent a broader group of people than just myself.

- What does Unmotivated think about other AUs/Sanses?

Unmotivated has an apathetic mindset when it comes to AUs and other characters like him. He’s incredibly self aware and sees a much bigger picture. He knows characters are just pawns to their creator, and won’t get fazed by any story. Sort of like watching actors in a movie while constantly reminding yourself that they’re just actors. However, he is quite envious of anyone with a complete and happy storyline, since that’s something he lacks but yearns the most. That’s something he wish he had.

Keep in mind Unmotivated and Motive cannot interact or travel outside of their AU, and no one can interact with their AU except the editor/creator.

Rules

• Please do not publicly RP with these characters unless given permission. This might be changed after more of the comic is complete, but I do not want these character’s personalities to be strewn.

• Please do not draw or write NSFW with my characters– I am a minor, and a large part of my audience are also minors.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.:Inspiration:.

Alright, this part is going to be a lot less formal and more personal. The idea for this AU came from my own self doubt and self destructive attitude as a creator. Doubting my own works and ideas has seriously held me back for a long time, and it STILL holds me back as I’m sure it has for many, MANY other creators like me. Musicians, artists, writers.. Almost all of us have that fear of trying out a new idea or making something you usually wouldn’t. Almost all of us have felt that crushing self doubt when you see someone better than you, and you tell yourself you’ll never be like them, your art will never be that great, you’ll never get that far…so on, so on.

So, while I was trying to come up with an idea for an AU (which I had actually been considering for well over a year), the thoughts crept in.

“no one will like this”

“there’s enough AU’s”

“you’re unoriginal”

“this is a waste of time”

“the fandom is dying”

“you have horrible character designs”

“AU’s are overrated”

“this doesn’t fit your audience”

“people will judge you”

“you never finish anything”

“this is stupid”

“your art isn’t good enough”

“you’re not good enough”

“someone probably already came up with this idea”

“no one cares about your idea”

“no one would bother with your art”

And ironically, all these thoughts gave me this idea.

Even so, these thoughts have still been nagging me every time I even try to work on this, and it’s been taking a lot of courage to take on the heap of anxiety I have over something so harmless. I didn’t join the Undertale fandom for over a year simply because I was afraid of being judged for my interests,, fun fact. Never thought I’d be able to make an AU. I’m still quite nervous posting art of anything that isn’t Mario related for some reason.

Putting all this to side though, I find the concept of what happens to unfinished and/or abandoned stories and projects interesting, especially if there’s an alternate reality that’s actually effected by your decisions. Kinda like you’re a god. I mean, imagine what it would be like if you had a creator and they just gave up on you, and you’re left with no purpose. Seems like it would suck, haha.

So that’s basically my AU, Motivatedtale. If you have any thoughts or questions, I’d love to hear them. Thanks for reading if you did!

#Motivatedtale #undertale au #comic #about page #alternate universe #information #motivatedtale comic #au #au comic #au sans #au frisk #motive #unmotivated

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willowknee · 4 years ago

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Crushes and Crazy Hair-Dying- Will fluff

Title: Crushes and Crazy Hair-Dying People: Will x reader, Gee Nelson Word count: 2,600 Warnings: drinking Songs to listen to: idk Prompt/request: Hey! If you’re not too busy please can I request some fluff with Will? Maybe the reader could be Gee’s new mate and Will gets a crush on her and becomes all awkward? Or whatever you feel like writing haha 😂 thank you xxx A/N: I’m so bloody sorry this took like 3 decades to be written, honestly dunno what happened there. Really bad grammar and punctuation in this I'm so so sorry.

You had met Gee in the most bizarre manner, but you were completely grateful that you did, she honestly was one of the most intelligent people you have ever known and crazily funny to match. It was a random sunny Tuesday, you were sitting in front of the mirror at your mother’s hair dressers, you decided for once to do something bold, you were dying your hair. Not any plain natural colours like you’re used to, no, you were dying your hair a bright colour. You weren’t exactly sure what colour as you told your mom to surprise you, but you were sure it wasn’t any ordinary brown, when out of nowhere one Gee Nelson bursted through the door and let out a cry of despair.

“Look what that monster did to me!” She had cried.

Everyone was looking at her, clearly bewildered but your mom just walked up to her and sat her in the chair beside yours.

“What happened?” Your mom had asked, looking at Gee’s hair which was, well, a complete home hair-dye disaster.

“Bloody Will! He convinced me to let him dye my hair for a video and this is what came of it! Last time I let that man come within five feet of my hair I’m telling you now,” She whined and you had let out a giggle before you could catch yourself. She turned to look at you.

“Is it that bad?” She asked.

You looked again and you knew you couldn’t lie to her.

“Horrendous, but don’t worry, you’re talking to a pro and her legendary daughter, your hair will be salvaged and the world will return to normal,” You proclaimed making her smile.

“I’ll hold you to that,” She said and you both had begun talking non-stop as your mom worked on saving her hair from the disastrous work of this ‘Will’ as you sat waiting for the dye to work it’s magic in your hair.

Six months later you were at her apartment which she shared with Will, but you had never actually met him before, only heard the wacky and wonderous stories about him and his childish antics that he and his friends got up to. Gee had actually sent you the link to his youtuber and you came to find him to actually be pretty funny and you and Gee would share memes over text or on twitter about the videos.

“Oi, Gee! What we feeling today, eh? Lazy and slobbish so we get a maccies, lazy yet somewhat classy so we order Dominos or shall we finally decide to get off our arse and go out for lunch?” You say, walking out the kitchen to where she was sitting on the settee.

“Oh, actually I just got a text from Will, he’s invited me to go for lunch with him and the rest of the boys,”

You smile slightly and hand her the cup that she always uses. “Ah alrighty, no problem. I’ll head out as soon as I’m finished with my drink then, yeah?”

She looks up at you and smiles widely, kind of freaking you out considering it was out of nowhere.

“Why don’t you come with me?!” She exclaims.

“Say what now?”

“No seriously, it will be fun! You get to meet my roommate and the rest of the crazy lot, you’re going to meet eventually when you come along to one of our parties, might as well meet them while you’re sober!”

You thought about it but really you didn’t see why not, it wasn’t like you had a valid reason to decline either, what was the worst that could happen? So, you accepted and after borrowing some of Gee’s clothes and makeup so you didn’t look like an absolute slob walking around in your paint-stained joggers and oversized hoodie, you ended up in front of Nandos where you were to meet everybody.

You both walk in, still mid conversation as you made a joke which had Gee in stitches, drawing the attention of everyone in the restaurant, including the table of four boys that you were currently walking towards.

“No way, imagine that,” Gee giggles in response to your joke.

You arrive at the table and greet everyone to which they then greet you back in return.

“Hey everyone! This here is my dear friend Y/N, I invited her along so she can meet you weirdos now and get used to you before being exposed to the pure madness you all are once drunk,” Gee explains to which they all protest before simmering down and introducing themselves.

“Hi, I’m James, it’s lovely to meet you,” the one with soft features says, his brown lock slightly messy but it makes him look adorable, despite his unkempt hair he looked well put together and you could tell he put a lot of effort into his appearance.

“I’m George,” the smaller of the lot says with a soft smile, offering his hand for you to shake which you accept and gently shake his hand.

“‘Ello, I’m Alex,” the one adorning a bright pink jumper with a slogan you couldn’t quite read says, you smile and give him a small wave before turning to the last boy when your breath catches in your throat.

First of all, Will was far more attractive in person compared to in his videos or the pictures Gee has shown you, his hair mainly hidden underneath his beanie but his fringe was poking out, exposing the silky brown locks that looked soft to touch. His brown eyes looking at you, slightly widened and his mouth slightly left ajar. Was he okay? Was there something on your face? George nudges him and he looks like he broke out a trance before smiling widely.

“Hey, I’m Will,” He says, the big voice you’re used to hearing in his videos weren’t present, instead a gentle and soothing voice replaced it.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you all, I watch all of your videos and think they’re brilliant,” You compliment, sliding into the booth so you’re sat next to Gee and across from Will.

A chorus of ‘thank you’ made its rounds and you smiled at them all and began to engage in animated conversations, your arms flailing wildly as you retell the story about the time you met Gee, Will’s face becoming flushed which you found utterly adorable.

Few hours later your food was long finished but you were still sitting in the restaurant with your drinks talking to everyone as if you had been friends with these people for years.

“I need to pop to the loo, come with me?” Gee asks you.

You nod in confirmation and tell everyone you’ll be right back before walking with Gee into the toilets, lifting yourself up to sit on the counter.

“So, how’s meeting everyone?” She asks through a stall door.

“They’re absolutely lovely,” you exclaim, turning to look at your reflection in the mirror.

“Have a liking to anyone in particular?” She asks in a suggestive tone, which makes you look at the stall door through the mirror in confusion.

“I don’t know… a certain Northern lad with brown hair, brown eyes and has been looking at you like a lost puppy for the past three hours.”

Your heart leaped at the thought of Will looking at you while you were busy talking to others, not realising.

“I-“

“Was staring at him too, you’re not subtle either of you,”

You stumble for words while Gee laughs softly, walking out the stall and over to the sinks to wash her hands. You look down at her and curse her for being so observant.

“He’s cute… and funny, doesn’t necessarily mean I have a liking to him, if we’re going by those two adjectives then I must have a liking to everyone sitting at that table. Including you.”

“Oh come off it, you know you like Will, stop being a big baby and admit it,”

“I literally met him three hours ago, this isn’t a Disney film I can’t fall in love with him and accept his hand in marriage just because we’ve got a mutual attraction,”

Gee nods and smiles.

“You wanna marry him, huh?”

You nudge her and shake your head. Both of you head out and back to the table before noticing everyone’s getting up and leaving, you notice you still have almost a full glass of beer so you decide to neck it in one, eliciting whoops and hollers from

everyone and you laugh and shyly wipe away the froth from your face.

Everyone begins to head out but you hang back,

not wanting to have to walk fast so as to not get trampled on.

“Are you coming to the party this weekend?”

You turn your head and see Will standing next to you, looking sheepish which makes you smile.

“I believe I am, yes, Gee would have my head else,” you joke which makes him laugh.

“She is a fiesty one I’ll give you that,”

“Too right she is, damn woman frightens me,”

You both laugh and continue the journey back to Will’s and Gee’s apartment, joking with each other the entire way there. Gee joins in at some point but soon dips to talk to everyone else since you were walking too slowly for her liking.

Once back at theirs you all play a few rounds of fifa which you were absolutely shit at which Will spares no effort to remind you of that, but soon it’s time for you to go home since you still have to clean your apartment and get some studying done.

“See you on Saturday yeah?” Will shouts which you smile and nod at in agreement.

“It’s a date.” You say before walking out the door with a wave.

Will sits there, mouth agape. He turns his head to Gee and points to the door.

“She said it’s a date,”

“It’s not like you had the balls to do it,” she comments before standing up and walking towards the stairs, discreetly watching Will

dance around happily with a smile.

Saturday came around faster than you thought it would, although it seems like it took forever because you are looking forward to seeing Will again. You’ve been texting non-stop since you all went out for that meal but you haven’t had the time to go and meet them, so you are excited for tonight. You want to make sure you looked amazing.

Grabbing your clothes and makeup you shove them into your bag alongside some alcohol for pre-drinks that you had promised. You drive to Gee’s and Will’s to get ready with her while listening to a playlist you had created sometime ago, you had suddenly remembered the password to your Spotify and decided to reminisce with some old tunes.

The drive seems quicker with the music accompanying you and you find yourself walking towards the apartment building and soon enough, you’re knocking on their door.

“Come in~!” You hear from inside.

“Gee!” You greet as you walk up to her and give her a hug.

“Let’s go get ready! We’re late enough as it is!”

Getting ready goes without a hitch, no mental breakdowns, no wardrobe malfunctions and even your makeup goes on well. It’s almost as if things were perfect. Maybe too perfect.

“It’s time to partyyy~” Gee squeals down your ear excitedly.

It turns out the party has moved from Will’s and Gee’s apartment to George and Alex’s because of their next-door neighbours, which explains when Gee walks past she sticks two fingers up in payback and squeals with laughter all the way to the elevator.

You giggle at her childish antics and balance yourself in the lift, cursing yourself for not eating before you both began pre-drinks. You eventually end up at the party, after multiple trips and snapchat videos of each other acting a complete fool. “We are here!” Gee shouted as she threw open the front door. There was a massive roar of ‘welcome’ as you both stumble your way deeper into the apartment. You found the usual friendship group aka the Nandos Lot, and you smiled brightly and you wave enthusiastically at everyone, genuinely happy to see each and every one of them.

“Y/N! Glad you came!” Alex chimes, coming for a hug, which everyone else shortly repeats, not wanting to feel left out.

Everyone but Will, that was, who was sheepishly stood to the side, when he noticed you were looking at him expectantly, arms open, his eyes widen as he began stuttering something about needing a drink before running off towards the kitchen. You shrug his odd behaviour off and began looking for a drink, you quickly whip up a concoction and then after you down the entirety of your red solo cup, you walk back to your friends, grab the closest pair of hands and walk into the middle where the make-shift dance floor was.

Dancing freely to the music blasting through the speakers and barely being concealed through the wide walls of the boy’s apartment, you smile up to your dancing partner and to your pleasant surprise you see Will looking at you in bewilderment.

“Come on! I didn’t drag you here to stand there! Dance with me!” After a lot of convincing and a couple dozen shots, Will finally calmed down and began dancing with you, you both started to have a really enjoyable time. You began to notice how he seemed to have a childish glint to his eyes while drunk, he looked really happy and carefree this way. You loved the way he was constantly smiling and let out a rupture of laughs at your choice of dance moves and even his silliness when he took you up on your offer of a dance battle.

“You should be like this sober! You’re so much fun to be around!” You exclaim, grabbing his hands as you try to twirl around to which he aids you with, not bothering to stop twirling you which makes your head spin.

“I would but I always end up makin’ myself look like a right tit in front of the lass i have a crush on,” he explains, nonchalantly, seemingly not realising what he was saying.

You stop twirling and look at him as much as you could, the alcohol and the twirling wasn’t the greatest mix when you were looking for stability,

“You have a crush on me?” You ask in surprise.

Who would have thought. Will fucking Lenney had a crush on you. Of all people. You were ready to scream with excitement when his eyes bugged out, he looked scared and began to curse himself under the sun for his slip.

“Naw- fuck, I just meant that- no, I-” He began tripping over his words and you giggle over how cute he was.

You raise yourself onto your tip-toe and give him a shy peck on the lips, it only lasted a short few seconds, but it left your lips tingling and you smile wide at him.

“Will, I like you too, dummy,”

He smiles one of the most gorgeous smiles you have seen like ever, and shyly pulls you closer to him.

“How’d ya feel about ditching and coming back to mine? We can watch a movie and get to know each other more,”

You giggle at that.

“Sure, let’s play two truths, one lie, for each wrong answer we take a shot, for every right answer, you get a kiss,” you proclaim with a smile.

“You’re fuckin on, Love.”

#dunno man #the others are there too #I need help with this writing stuff #will

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secretgamergirl · 4 years ago

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Hate Mobs Gotta Go

Last night, I did something I have never expected to do, and just full on gave up on a fun RPG writing assignment. Which I had to do because I hit a point where it was so overdue and unfinished that I was falling asleep sitting up and stress vomiting and other such things. There’s a whole lot of factors behind that. Other health issues, the toll of being on total pandemic lockdown for months, with neighbors just straight up open mouth coughing at my door, emergencies with friends and family, multiple fires and hardware failures, but the main thing was, and still is, the constant harassment from a militant hate mob, completely out of touch with reality.

Years ago, I remember there was this thing the internet at large was fond of doing with foaming at the mouth far right religious extremists- Mercilessly ridiculing them in public to expose how disconnected everything they said or did was from reality. Remember seeing this one float around and laughing your head off?

And if I mention the Westboro Baptist Church, you immediately picture a single family of raving bigots picketing funerals and such with their big homophobic signs, with a bigger crowd mocking them, right?

For some reason, the modern version of that particular flavor of fringe weirdo doesn’t get that sort of ridicule. Presumably because they’re focusing almost exclusively on trans people, and most people have this weird thing where like if you stick up for trans people you get cooties or something and never dig into the real juicy ridicule fodder. But for real, this stuff is OUT THERE. Just look at a few examples here.

Come for the weird ravings about harvesting baby organs. Stay for the... adult woman who apparently believes breasts get their shape from actually being sacks filled with milk under women’s skin? Now, how about this colorful comparison?

For anyone who wasn’t aware, pronouns are words like “I” “you” “he” “she” “it” and “this,” while rohypnol is colloquially known as “the date rape drug,” so this is utter gibberish. The full context of course is that this person is trying to make the argument that forcing this bigot to refer to women she’s prejudiced against as “she” instead of arbitrarily tossing around “he” or “it” is... raping her brain, I guess?

So... this is pretty clearly some creep’s weird little fantasy. The obvious giveaway is pretending that trans women “aren’t in the correct bathroom” when going to... the correct bathroom, and that the non-existent law about this is somehow enforced by... random bigots opting to deputize themselves. What DOES happen for real though is bigots like this being arrested for barging into public restroom stalls with camcorders aimed at the crotches of women on toilets and trying to defend themselves by insisting they have some duty to check what their genitals look like. On which note...

That’s just disgusting. It’s also as close as I feel comfortable to posting all the graphic fantasies I see from these people about the barbaric genital mutilation they imagine trans women subject ourselves to which really has no basis at all in reality. Well maybe I can post this one.

I’m not going to go through and itemize all the baldfaced lies in that, because I really kinda hope I don’t have to, and also because the person who slapped this together was kind enough to break it up in such a way that I legitimately can say “every single line of this is a completely baseless lie.” Also the art in the corner is stolen from a child-friendly comic whose author is trans, so, that’s extra slimy. Also wow that “bone scans” bit is actually one I’ve never seen. Where the hell do they even get these ideas?

Also this one needs some setup. If you have time, this right here is a freaking journey, if not, I’ll try to summarize.

So a while ago, this one particular unhinged bigot decided the most productive way to spend all her time was to get in touch with a bulk sticker printing business and order thousands if not millions of these weird gross poorly framed slabs with a really crude drawing of a penis and bunch of gibberish she really wishes were the names of popular twitter hashtags that nobody else but her ever uses. And then after receiving these, just... wandering around the city she lives in all day every day plastering them on phone booths and power poles and the mirrors of bathrooms in like.. elementary schools and park benches, just everywhere. And then makes multiple passes a day apparently to make sure nobody has tried to remove any of them, as detailed in this amazing thread I’ll link again.

So the latest break in that particular saga is that same zealot going around plastering stickers like this around too, to make it seem like “both sides do it.”

It should be obvious that that’s a “blacks rule!” sort of fake between the baffling text and using the extra inclusive, particular emphasis on supporting people of color, general purpose LGBT+ flag, but also, like their fellows on 4chan, they plan this sort of “false flag” crap in broad daylight:

I should really properly credit the whistle-blowing on that particular oddity, and I should also note that aside from the breast milk sacks, this is all just stuff I saw TODAY catching up on my twitter feed, but my main point with all this is to illustrate that we really are dealing with Jack Chick/Westboro Baptist-level unhinged zealotry... but again, nobody’s out there pointing and laughing. And it turns out, when you don’t have people pointing and laughing at this sort of thing, you get people taking it seriously. So... when I went to quickly search for a news story to link with the bit about creeps barging in on women with cameras, the results I got were... this.

That... sure is a lot of stories about totally innocent people in a demographic I belong to being murdered by total strangers goaded into blind murderous hatred by the sort of people I’m pointing and laughing at! Ha ha! There’s a very real chance of that happening to me every time I step outside, for any reason! Tee hee! I live in a state of constant fear! Whoopsie!

And it’s not just stuff like that. The people posting these rambling tirades about “breast milk sack implants” and putting crude penis stickers everywhere, never being called out as the unhinged weirdos they are, either have the world turning a blind eye to all this crap, or have everything they do downplayed in the media to the point where outright sexual harassment, doxing, and slurs I don’t want to repeat get headlines like “so-and-so made comments that some fringe trans activists on the internet deem ‘possibly transphobic’” and that’s AT BEST. More often you get stuff like the one incident I managed to bring a lot of public attention to way back when, where some bigot just literally walked up to someone on the street, grabbed them, savagely beat the hell out of them until pulled apart, had friends film the whole thing, and bragged after the fact about it, and every story that appeared as a result claimed the assailant was the victim, because they were all written by her friends.

Face obscuring provided by me here, by the way.

And that isn’t a one-off incident. Because, see, most of these unhinged weirdos spewing out all this transphobic gibberish are not, as you would think, a bunch of barely educated Trump hat wearing members of some fringe religious congregation. They’re editors and producers in major British news outlets. This isn’t me shouting conspiracy nonsense either, this is well-documented. Like, The Guardian gets public internal protests over this crap. So does the BBC. Yes, other respected news sites cover this. Media watchdog groups do their best to reign this in with hearings and such, but, don’t actually have any power to enforce anything really. So when there’s “reporting” on this crap, it’s coming directly from the “breast milk sack implant” people. Oh and here’s some screenshots of the headlines of those stories you’re too lazy to click through and actually read:

And of course, sometimes when they want to really come across as respectful, they try to find “scientists” and “doctors” who back up their ravings but all they have to fall back on are disgraced quacks who spend most of their time on activism work to normalize pedophilia.

I’m not bringing that point about Cantor up to discredit his writings about trans people by the way. He doesn’t really HAVE any writings about trans people. He just pasted the names of a bunch of random studies from the 70s about whether playing with barbies makes you gay into his blog a few years back and this crowd was so desperate for validation they declared him an “expert in the field” and started passing out links to his.... pro-pedophila blog. Which is part of this whole pattern, but I’ve written about that before. Oh and the governments of multiple countries manage to treat all these people as “experts” and make policy decisions based on their ravings. That’s fun.

Anyway, aside from encouraging random people to, you know, just randomly murder anyone they see who looks like maybe a trans woman, every so often this weird little cult pulls in an actual celebrity who then has a public meltdown as they post all this gibberish to a wider audience. Currently this is going on with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling (who’s actively promoting the pedophile guy up there on Twitter), and I think also William Shatner, but I haven’t really looked into it. The last big one though was Graham Linehan. Who you might remember from co-writing some sitcoms that were popular decades ago in Britain, or from being the weird cartoon villain who tried to kill the funding of a children’s charity, prompting this strange pledge drive marathon of Donkey Kong Country.

You might also know him as one of... I think honestly just two people who have ever managed to be such out of control stalking hate mongers that they were actually given a permanent no possible appeal ban from Twitter. Personally though I know him more as, you know, that one absolute creep who’s been obsessively stalking me for like 5 years and never shutting up about his weird personal obsession with me.

I WOULD link the recent freaking filmed interview he did where he spent forever rambling about me, but I’d have to actually watch it to confirm I had the right link, and also the only place I could quickly find a link to it would be on his twitter feed, which as stated, no longer exists. Oh and random side note there, despite being personally, by name, the person he was explicitly targeting all his hateful ramblings at, he wasn’t banned from that site for any of the disgusting stuff he said to me. He just slipped up and mentioned a cis woman with a professorship while shouting about this crap recently and that caused people to actually take action. I do so love being invisible.

Anyway, point is, prior to Rowling grabbing the baton from him as his social media presence went up in flames, this guy was name-dropping me a LOT. Presumably he still is, just in places fewer people see it. And when you have as big an audience as he did, and that audience is as full of hatemongers as his was, that has a pretty noticeable effect. I’ve been deluged with so much hateful garbage for so long it’s impossible for me to put any numbers on it. The closest I can do to quantify it is note that hate dump was big enough that I was also flooded with more weird messages intended as support from total strangers than I could deal with, totally losing access to social media feeds and my e-mail from the volume for a good bit, and THAT flood was big enough that I got this whole second wave of creepy stalkers who’d built up this whole weird fanon where this stalker here is like, someone I used to date or be business partners with and not just some creepy dude like twice my age stalking me over the internet, from a completely different hemisphere.

And I mean... in the broadest of strokes, I can kinda laugh all this off. Because... these people are completely ridiculous, out of touch with reality, and mostly live in other countries. But... all the threats and shouting are very real and very constant and like.. picture someone outside on the street shouting at your windows about how they’re going to break in and kill you. You really can’t ignore that. Even if they’re unarmed, and all they’re really capable of doing is shouting and pounding on your door, you can’t really just ignore that shouting and pounding and just watch a movie or play a game or write this article you promised would be done 3 months ago. You can certainly try, but a pretty big part of your brain is going to be occupied with thoughts about how maybe you should call someone to see if they’ll escort this violent person away, or maybe you should barricade your door in case all that pounding does something.

And I mean this isn’t a bad metaphor for how all the constant threats and stalking I’m dealing with thanks to celebrity bigots personally obsessed with me impacts my life, but it also does a pretty good job of describing how my night went pretty recently when I ACTUALLY DID HAVE SOMEONE POUNDING ON MY ACTUAL REAL PHYSICAL DOOR SHOUTING ABOUT STABBING ME TO DEATH, and no, there was no resolution to that beyond the sound of sirens causing that person to back off.

I also had an experience not too long ago where I was supposed to take a cab to a routine appointment, a car showed up with the cab company’s name on it, somewhat early, and proceeded to drive me... out to the middle of the freaking woods like an hour from where I live, and when my phone rang with my actual cab asking where I was the driver freaked out, had me get out of the car, and took off leaving me just... stuck in the middle of nowhere freezing to death and trying to find a landmark an actual cab could pick me up from. Still don’t know what the hell that whole thing was about and whether a cab driver just REALLY didn’t know what he was doing and panicked or what, but I do know that talking about it publicly in the vaguest of terms lead to a bunch of unhinged shouting from... apparently some unconnected ride share driver with a habit of dumping trans women between stops when they try to get medications or something, convinced I was calling him out for that.

So.... yeah. Things aren’t exactly going great in my neck of the woods. I’d really appreciate it if people would properly treat these unhinged violent weirdos like unhinged violent weirdos and not respectable members of society so they quit getting so bold and public with the violent stuff, and people who listen to them get properly shouted down for doing so.

#transphobia #stalking

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guylty · 4 years ago

Text

When it comes, it comes in droves. After yesterday’s Roundabout clip, we get another short sighting of Richard, this time straight from the wardrobe. I hesitate to say “courtesy of Audible”, but more about that later.

https://twitter.com/audible_com/status/1257818962370461696

Whatever lighting he has in his make-shift home studio, it is doing wonders for his eyes. I love the sparkle in them. That may also be due to the fact that Rich is obviously amused himself about speaking from his wardrobe to his audience. That smile is unmistakable under the words.

Are stripes the new lockdown attire?

Not complaining. And as Cyn said on Twitter to me – at least he’s listened to my appeal. No micro stripes. 😂

So, hard at work for Audible. With two Agatha Christie books, which Rich has actually already linked to for pre-order. Busy little bee, and a smart sales man, too. Those books won’t be released until autumn, October 6th 2020, to be exact, but pre-orders are already open.

And now come some critical thoughts, so you are forewarned and can skip this bit.

Sorry, no link from me straight to Audible this time. Quite frankly, I have now had enough of their particular marketing shtick. Is it just me or did others also find the wording “you have been awfully good lately” patronising to the extreme? They all but forgot to add the word “girls” at the end of that sentence. Is this a reference to being compliant citizens who have stayed at home, in line with government regulations in most countries at the moment? In that case, I *have* been good. Or are we good girls because we have flocked to pre-order each and every recent Armitage-narrated audio book in record time? If so, I am not in the mood to be treated like a consumerist sheep that gets thrown a little bit of Armitage every once in a while in order to make Audible’s cash register chime. Yes, I understand that this is meant to be funny. But it is funny on a level that reeks to me of belittling and mocking women who have been at the receiving end of patronisation and condescension for centuries, yet are good enough to be milked as cash cows. And sorry, I don’t get that kind of humour. Just replace the hashtag #armitagearmy in the tweet with any random marginal group that has suffered discrimination, and it would be quite unacceptable to express yourself like that! 😡

Moving on from Twitter Audible’s modus communicandi I thought long and hard whether I should post the following. Not least because it is expressed in a way along the lines of a controversy that caused a massive and very hurtful fall-out between me and a fellow fan a couple of years ago. The charge back then: I was cowardly and sneakily criticising Armitage because I was too chicken to address it directly at him via his Twitter. But then let’s see this not as a criticism but as an invitation for discussion. In a civilised and respectful manner, please! I mean no disrespect and and I am appreciative of the glimpses we have been given. But I am questioning whether the communications are open to misinterpretation. Could Richard’s tweets come across as somewhat tone-deaf these days? The two video clips have been very welcome, entertaining and heart-warming. It is good to see him. Not even “see him in good form”, but just “see him”. He was last on stage near the end of March, so it has been a while. And all of this during a challenging time for all of us. So seeing “movie boyfriend’s” handsome face and hearing his smooth voice, wishing his audience to “stay well”, is balm for our souls.

I appreciate that he has made these little clips. Very much. But I find it hard to just take them at face value. Literally as “just happy at seeing his face”. There is an underlying issue for me, in that Richard’s communications in the last while (excepting the Roundabout video, btw) always contain a discreetly unspoken but nevertheless inherent invitation to purchase. It wouldn’t bother me under normal circumstances. After all promotion is part of his job. His career depends on the audience *knowing* that his work is available. And his work is a product that has a price. Fair enough. What strikes me as unfortunate in this context, however, is that promo communications always imply an encouragement to spend money – yet a core part of his very audience very recently has spent a considerable amount of money on theatre tickets and attached travel and accommodation costs, *and not seen a return on it (yet)*. That is due to the circumstances, which are out of our hands, Richard’s hands, the theatre producers’ hands, even our governments’ hands. I don’t blame him for that, and of course I don’t expect him to right the wrongs or reimburse his fans or to feel obliged to sweeten the disappointment with free consolation prizes. Not his duty. But I am concerned how the repeated (implied) calls for purchase come across. It is great that he has made a niche and wardrobe for himself in the audio book universe. And working even during this time of crisis, is laudable. But at a time when the public’s focus is more than ever trained at the internet and celebrities (for information and distraction), too much promotional activity can feel exploitative. I don’t believe that that is his intention. I just wonder whether it could be mistaken, especially by people who are *not* his fans. In short, a little less promotion and a little more non-commercial communication, please *cues Elvis*.

So there, that’s what I have been mulling over.

For other entertainment news

A trailer of the Korean sci-fi film Richard worked on last year, has been spotted online.

youtube

Much like Servetus, my first thought was also “Is he the robot?”

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo… that would be such a pity if they didn’t include his face in the film!!!

We’ll see. Tbh, I would love to see RA in the sci-fi genre. It’s a field he hasn’t (really) played in yet. And the trailer actually looked pretty smooth. Fingers crossed we get to see it!

No Wine, But Rich And A Wardrobe. And Sci-Fi When it comes, it comes in droves. After yesterday's Roundabout clip, we get another short sighting of Richard, this time straight from the wardrobe.

#audio #Richard Armitage

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peters-starks · 5 years ago

Photo

NUMBER NEIGHBOUR

Peter Parker x Reader

Summary: when texting your number neighbour you got more than you bargained for.

Word Count: 4,059

Masterlist

The recent trend on Twitter of people texting their “number neighbour” the person who has the same phone number as them but with one number difference had become really popular in the past few days, so much so even the majority of your friends had now done it. So, when you were having a chill night in with two of your friends and they tried to persuade you to text your number neighbours you really weren’t surprised.

“Guys I’m not going to do it what if it’s some weirdo and they probably won’t even reply so it’ll be pointless” you chucked and shook your head.

“Come onnnn this movie is so boring and we’ve both already spoken to our neighbours so it’s your turn!” Your best friend, Merise, wasn’t wrong, this movie was like a YouTube comedy remake of an actual horror movie and frankly the acting was beyond awful.

“What happened to typical fun games like truth or dare” you yelped as your other friend, Amara, threw a pillow at you

“Just do it” they groaned at you going to reach for another pillow making you put your arms over you in defence whilst laughing

“Okay okay! I guess I have no dignity left to lose!”

All your friends gathered around your phone as you typed in your phone number and changed the last number at the end and selected the message option. You typed out a simple “hi” and then clicked send.

“Hi? Hi! That’s so boring” Amara groaned and Merise pinched her side

“What else were they gonna say?”

You shook your head at your overly energetic friends and stared at your screen for a moment longer with nothing happening. “I told you there would be no resp-”your words were cut short by a notification noise coming through and Merise grabbed your phone laughing.

UNKNOWN: hi? Who is this?

You groaned and watched as Merise tapped away and the sound of a message being sent shortly followed.

Y: I’m your number neighbour! Have you seen the trend online?

Your eyes widened at this. “OMG what if they’re like 90 years old? Or like 8? If they’re like underage isn’t this illegal I mean” you typed as you rambled your friends watching you in amusement.

Y: unless you’re like not online which is super fine and if you’re like really young then ignore this aha :)

“Honestly I don’t understand how your level of awkwardness can project through a screen that hard like I’m getting awkward radiation poisoning from this” Amara gaped at you making Merise chuckle and mumble something in agreement along the lines of ‘it’s not that deep’.

~|~

Peter was perched on his favourite rooftop taking a break to view the New York skyline at night, this being one of the reasons he loved patrolling in the evenings as nowhere else could you see this view. His phone vibrating caught his attention and he assumed it was Aunt May asking when he would be home as she was probably fretting about him swinging across the city, still not completely loving his new role but all the same supporting him to an endless amount.

Peter’s eyebrows furrowed when he saw an unknown number on his phone screen and swiped to open the message seeing a simple “hi”. The number looked vaguely familiar but at this point Peter was far too tired to place it. He replied cautiously and waited for the mystery person to answer him.

When his phone vibrated again he was mildly surprised by the two messages. His number neighbour! Peter secretly loved that trend online much to MJ’s dismay as she found it ‘pointless’ and had sent her number neighbour links to government conspiracies when they had text her to which she had no reply. Peter thought she just didn’t like the trend because she was upset she didn’t make a new conspiracy friend.

P: ohhhh, of course I know, hey neighbour! And don’t worry I’m not really young

P: well that depends what you class as really young, 13 is pretty old right?

P: lol kidding

Peter face palmed himself at that, god he was such a dork.

Y: Idk 13 is quite young when you’re 65

Y: I’m not actually 65 tho don’t worry

Y: how old actually are you tho lol

Peter smiled slightly sensing your mild anxiety at texting a stranger and honestly it was most the reason he hadn’t done it yet because knowing his luck he’d message a child and have some very unhappy parents at his door.

P: I’m 18 wbu

Y: snap!

P: thank god! Are you from New York?

Y: yup lived here for a couple of years now, I take it you are too?

P: Queens

Your two friends squealed as you found out this stranger lived surprising close to your apartment.

“Ask them their name! We might know them considering they’re so close” Merise squealed slightly. Honestly you just thought she was like a puppy who was excited to meet new people.

Y: so neighbour what’s your name if you don’t mind me asking?

Peter hesitated at this for a second as even though his identity was hidden, only those the very closest to him knowing him as Spider-Man, giving his name to someone over text who literally could be anyone seemed risky. However, he doubted that any random government agent or evil bad guy would know of number neighbours or be able to joke around so easily.

P: Peter, what’s yours?

Y: Hi Peter from Queens, I’m y/n.

Amara braced herself for Merise’s literal yell at finding out the person you were texting was not only the same age and from nearby but also A BOY.

“I BET he’s cute, he seems nice over text and dorky so he’s gotta be cute ugh” Merise winked at you after her small speech and you simply rolled your eyes.

“I’m sure he is, if he’s who he says he is” you started staring at your screen waiting for his reply. Time passed and after 40 minutes you gave up on checking your phone screen every 10 minutes waiting for Peter to answer you. He probably got bored of texting a stranger which you wouldn’t blame him. The internet came up with weird trends.

Just as you let your friends out as it was way past the time they were supposed to leave as you had school the next day, your phone had another text notification.

P: hi y/n :)

You smiled faintly at this because Merise was kind of right, Peter sounds like a bit of a dork.

Y: do you go to school in New York?

Y: that’s if you’re in school aha

P: yea I go to Midtown actually

Your eyes widened slightly as that was Amara’s school whilst you and Merise went to one a couple miles away from Midtown.

Y: no way! My friend goes there. You must be pretty smart. I go to the next school over.

P: nice! Guess we really aren’t too far away then.

A few hours passed and you and Peter were still texting back and forth, knowing you both really should be asleep but the conversation flowed so well that time passed without any realisation. Which you both paid for when school started the next day.

Y: I.am.so.tired.

P: I literally slept through 3 alarms and coffee isn’t working. Help.

Y: at least you don’t have a bio test today I’m honestly screwed.

P: if you need bio help I’m actually kind of a nerd with that stuff. Text me the questions secretly ;)

Y: oh yea totally not noticeable.

You smiled and rolled your eyes at Peters texts catching Merise’s attention. “Still texting Queens boy, are we?” She nudged your shoulder and winked at you.

“Maybe I am” you tried to answer with a straight face but honestly it was difficult.

Throughout the day, you and Peter exchanged small texts here and there, both your friends seemed to notice you being glued to your phones more than usual.

When school ended, you went home and tried to get your school work done but honestly nothing was going in so you opted for aimless scrolling for a while. The top of your newsfeed was an alert of Spider-Man ending yet another Robbery only a few blocks away from your apartment which usually you took no notice of but it was the bank your parents used so it caught your attention more than usual.

Y: yknow I think I’m going to need that study help, literally everything is distracting me. Including bank robberies! Not even Spider-Man can save my grades this semester.

P: you never know, Spider-Man is probably pretty good at bio.

Peter laughed at himself, inside jokes about his identity really were the only enjoyable part about hiding himself from the people around him. He was sat back on the rooftop from last night trying to rest up his side as he took a pretty hard blow from one of the robbers and certainly has a bruise. He remembered Ned saying a solution to help bruising the other day and decided to ask him and without looking dialled.

“Hello?”

Ok. So that isn’t Ned.

“Peter is that you...”

When you saw peter was ringing you it confused you but you did ask him for study tips so maybe he was saving your ass via phone call.

Peter froze when he heard your voice, checking his phone and seeing “y/n” on the screen. God, he must’ve selected your contact instead of Neds since he was thinking about you.

“Oh um hi sorry I meant to phone my friend about some bruise stopping thing but I must’ve called you by mistake”

“Bruise stopper?” You cocked your head in confusion. “Do I even want to know” you chucked slightly. Hearing Peters actual voice was kind of weird but as much as you hated to admit it even his voice sounded cute to you.

“Ah um I kind of ran into a wall aha yea like super hard” Peter literally wanted to dive bomb off the roof top, god his awkward rambles always revealed too much. And a wall?? Who’s going to believe that.

“Right a wall... clumsy I take it”

“Yeah you could say that” peter laughed lightly.

“Well don’t ask how I know this but cold compress it on and off and apply Arnica gel a few times a day and Aloe if you want to be extra careful”

Peter raised his eyebrows in surprise a thought going through his head that you weren’t some secret vigilantly too or worse maybe some villain. “I won’t ask don’t worry but um thank you”

You smiled gently “you’re welcome Peter from Queens”

“Well i guess if you’re curing my bruising you can call me Peter Parker instead of Peter from Queens”

“Well Peter Parker, y/n y/l/n”

Peter smiled more until his cheeks hurt under his mask as you carried on speaking to each other, hearing your voice somehow made you more real to Peter and speaking to you was relaxing. You didn’t know him as Peter Parker quiet nerd from Midtown or as the rookie avenger that kind of went to space and saved the world but also helps old ladies cross the road. You knew him as Peter, number neighbour and hopefully at this point friend. Getting to know someone new was really a breath of fresh air.

It was getting late again and honestly you don’t think you can go another day of school with next to no sleep no matter how much you loved speaking to Peter. And so you and peter began to say your goodnights.

“It was really nice speaking to you today Peter, like actually speaking to you”

“Yea it was really nice speaking to you too... maybe we can do it again sometime?”

“You can call me whenever, especially if you are gonna help me with studying orrr if you need anymore bruises to heal” you smiled as you spoke, the tiredness etching into your body slowly. “Well, goodnight Peter Parker”

“Goodnight y/n”

Over the next two weeks you and Peter spoke every single day, most the time through texts and mainly through meme’s as well as evening phone calls. Sometimes Peter would have to leave the call abruptly with weird excuses which made you suspicious, Merise said it’s probably a girlfriend he doesn’t want you to know about but Amara shut that down saying that she doubts it. Amara also went to midtown with Peter but had no classes with him and barely knew his face, she said her friend said he was probably the guy with the Stark internship. When you asked Peter about the internship he got nervous and stuttered a lot which confused you but you convinced yourself it was because there was lots of Top Secret Avengers stuff he had to be careful with.

“I’m so jealous you get to work with the avengers y’know? I’ve always loved those guys, like how cool would it be to have some kind of power and be able to save people?” You gushed to Peter one evening which honestly made him blush a bit. You were a bit of a superhero nerd too.

“Yea it must be pretty cool” Peter tried to keep the tone in his voice even but Karen quickly informed him that his voice indicated excitement and anxiety.

“Have you met many avengers? Have you met Thor? He’s a literal god I mean even meeting Tony Stark alone must have been amazing I’ve always found him so interesting like he’s was so clever and he saved us all like literally! Oh god and SPIDER-MAN he’s just so cool because he’s like our thing you know? Like a New York special hero” you were also blushing as you spoke realising you were fully geeking out to a guy you’d never even met and he probably thought you were a total avengers fan girl.

“Yea Spider-Man is pretty cool, Thor is awesome though! The dude is massive! And Mr Stark was just a great guy y’know? I kinda owe him everything” Peters heart dropped a bit at mentioning Tony but talking about him kept his memory alive in Peter’s eyes, and that’s the least he could do for him.

“Right yea, sorry I didn’t even think, I’m so sorry for your loss, he was such a great man” you cringed at yourself for not thinking. Of course Peter would’ve been affected by losing Tony.

“No no it’s okay, I mean you and me wouldn’t be here without what he did so we all owe him one, it’s good to acknowledge it, bet it feeds his ego a bit really” Peter laughed a bit trying to lighten the mood and make you feel less bad. You had both previously spoken about the Snap as both of you had disappeared for those 5 years and late night discussions had run into the early mornings as you had heart to hearts about its tolls on you both. You both found it so easy to talk to each other it was like you’d known each other for years even though you’ve never even seen each other face to face before, both being too awkward to even suggest meeting.

-|-

You knew it was a bad idea to walk home alone so late, but the extra studying was highly needed as Peter couldn’t make your evening phone call to help you study your math quiz tomorrow and if you failed it one more time you were in serious trouble. The lampposts illuminated just enough of the street for you to feel safe-ish but speed walking was definitely needed.

You were only a block away from your apartment when you got that feeling. It was deep in your gut and it made you shiver. Something was wrong and you couldn’t put a finger on what it was. You turned your head slightly to look around you and at a first glance you saw nothing however a shadow moving in one of the alley ways made your hair on your arms stand up. This was a big nope.

You grabbed your phone and kept it close to you ready to call for help as footsteps started coming behind you. However as a rough hand grabbed your shoulder pulling your whole body backwards with a tell your phone was knocked out your hand, tumbling towards the ground like your hope of getting through this.

Your eyes closed in terror as a small object was pushed against your back. Who knew studying would literally be the death of you.

“What’s in the bag” the voice was rough and desperate causing you to hold your breath. “Give me the bag”

You turned slowly, hands up and faced the man, his face was covered by some makeshift white mask and a black beanie covered his hair, the small black handgun being pointed at you was shaking slightly in his gloved hands.

You slowly moved your backpack off your shoulders and moved it in front of you, dropping it to the ground and using you foot to push it towards the masked man. Just as the man moved to pick it up a blue and red blur zoomed past you eyes, knocking the man to the wall and his gun became stuck to it by some webbed material. Webbed material. SPIDER-MAN.

“Hey I don’t think that belongs to you” the voice spoke sounding weirdly altered.

The robber attempted to swing at the spandex covered hero but missed as Spider-Man ducked and then proceeded to pull him back with webbing as he tried to flee.

“You know I think an apology would be in order for this” the robber simply muttered a “fuck you” under his breath to which Spider-Man tutted and webbed the guy to the wall before whispering inform the authorities and turning to you.

“Um hey sorry about this, are you okay miss..” the hero was shorter than you thought standing taller than you but not by a huge amount and his posture seemed almost awkward as he scratched the back of his head waiting for your reply.

“Oh um y/n” you whispered, trying your best to process your brush with death and also not crying in front of your favourite hero.

At the mention of your name the eyes of Spider-Man widened and he seemed to freeze. Peter was shocked. Y/n? As in his y/n? Your voice sounded the same but surely not and he almost hoped not considered what just happened, what if he didn’t get here on time? Oh god I mean he thought you were pretty but this pretty? And everything that just happened you must be so terrified and right before your math quiz...

You saw the hero frozen in place and became instantly confused. “Um... are you okay?” At this he seemed to snap out of it and laughed slightly.

“I think that’s my line you know” Peter once again realised he fucked up as his voice changer was no longer on, Karen must disabled it when Peter froze and he bet she did it on purpose knowing full well who you are.

When Spider-Man spoke your eyebrows furrowed because that voice sounded oh so familiar but you could only place it to one person.

“Right yea um I’m okay I should probably get home I have school tomorrow” you nervously nodded hoping he would say something else so you could confirm it.

“Of course yea um, is it okay if I walk you home? Just to make sure you’re safe?” Peter knew there was no turning back, you’d either figure it out or you wouldn’t and there was no way he was going to let you carry on walking home alone after this.

“Um... that’d be nice actually, thank you”

On the walk home not much was said, Peter tried not to say something accidentally and completely reveal himself whilst you were wrapped up in thinking about what just happened to you and the fact not only was Spider-Man walking you home but you’re pretty sure he is your mystery friend Peter Parker.

When you arrived at your apartment you thanked the Webster and watched him swing off into the New York skyline and then took your phone out and dialled the only number you could think of.

“Hello? Everything okay?” Peter sounded out of breath which was very convenient and he also sounded worried which if you weren’t already so suspicious you wouldn’t take note of.

“You’re not going to believe the evening I’ve had” you went on to explain your half robbery slash attack and Spider-Man’s dramatic entrance and you have to admit Peter is a good actor, although his concern for your emotional well-being seemed to consume his efforts in hiding his fake shock at Spider-Man turning up.

“Yea it was so weird like I’m totally okay but I can’t figure out what’s the strangest thing, being saved from a robbery by Spider-Man or finding out Spider-Man is my number neighbour you know” you bit your lip with anticipation as you spoke.

“Well yea u mean it sounds like a strange nigh- wait what” God Peter was so stupid of course you knew! He would recognise your voice anywhere so why wouldn’t you recognise his? “I’m-I’m not Spider-Man I m-mean that’s ridiculous” and he stuttered. Good job Peter.

“Yea I mean Stark internship? Knowing the avengers and Spider-Man and you sharing a voice is a lot of coincidence huh? It was nice to finally meet you Peter” you didn’t sound offended or angry from what Peter could tell you actually sounded humoured which made him breathe a sigh of relief.

“Go to your roof top” and with that the line went dead.

Five minutes later you were stood on the rooftop of your apartment complex, glad the door was old and easily pushed open. The hoodie you threw on barely kept you warm from the winds that bashed around you but that was all forgotten as Spider-Man , Peter , landed on the roof next to you.

“Hey” you smiled and nervously tucked some hair behind your ear as he got closer.

“Um hi” Peter said, approaching you slowly whilst being kind of unsure.

“I know your identity is a big thing and I promise I won’t tell anyone about this but I couldn’t pretend I didn’t know and I mean it’s pretty cool but also awkward because I can’t BELIEVE you let me geek out about the avengers and YOURSELF to you for ages and didn’t say ANYTHING I mean wha-“ you were cut short by Peters body colliding with yours in a kind of awkward but sweet hug. He smelt really good.

When he pulled away you cleared your throat and muttered a sorry. Peter only laughed and lifted his hands up to take his mask off. Underneath he was a lot cuter than you expected, honestly you had to hold in a gasp. His brown hair was floppy and curly, slightly messy from the mask, and his jawline was sharp framing his face and his brown eyes honestly were breath-taking as cliché as it sounds.

“It’s nice to finally meet you too” Peter said playing with his fingers nervously “you um you’re prettier than I thought wait not that I thought you wouldn’t be pretty but I mean you’re just wow like super pre-“ this time peter was interrupted as your arms wrapped around his neck and you kissed him on the cheek.

“Thank you. For um saving my life earlier and all, who knew Spider-Man could not only save my life but also save my grades by helping me study” you both chucked at that.

For the rest of the evening you sat on the roof top and enjoyed finally being around each other. The conversation was a lot easier in person, mostly because of the flirty body language and the fact Peters eyes told such a story. By the end you were nearly asleep on his shoulder as he wrapped his arm around your torso to help keep you warm and you both silently enjoyed watching the New York skyline at night. Peter had found a new favourite roof top.

++++++++++++++

OKAY SO my first one shot on this account because the most stupid things inspire me, including twitter trends. i hope you like it as i wasn’t too sure with this one and feel like its a bit rough here and there but overall i enjoyed the concept too much to put it aside.

Add yourself to my taglist

TAGLIST: @aesthetic-png @liac2299 @animegirlgeeky @sexysamsungl @mikariell95 @evoutionofkatep @orowit

#spiderman imagine #spiderman fanfiction #spiderman oneshot #spiderman x reader #spiderman x you #peter parker imagine #peter parker fanfic #peter parker oneshot #peter parker x reader #peter parker x you #avengers imagine #avengers fanfiction #marvel imagine #marvel fanfiction #tom holland imagine #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #writing

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takemedancingmaine · 6 years ago

Text

A Competitive Streak

It had gotten ridiculous how good we were at this.

It had become almost routine.

Ana had grown so suspicious that the second time we did it, she made us put all of our phones face down in the center of the table the whole time, just in case.

Between me, Harry, and Niall we were dominating. Harry knew the classical, the big band swing, and everything in between, along with technical questions, because he was a music teacher. Niall and I had classic rock, old school pop, and current popular music covered between the two of us.

Then there was the fact that Cleo and Louis were helpful with random questions from things they’d read on Twitter moments or seen on Instagram. Not to mention that Liam was a massive R&B and rap fan, so he had us covered there.

Ana didn't believe we knew all that we did, and I had a suspicion that some of the other teams were in disbelief as well, but we were playing fair and square.

It was our third music trivia night, that really sealed the deal for us. We were the champions all three nights. Liam and Cleo were thrilled. They hadn’t stopped bragging, even to the rest of us, about each of the wins. It was mildly annoying but also too endearing for any of us to say anything or be properly annoyed.

Each bar was different, had different rules to the game and different types of questions. After we’d won our first three weeks ago, we had kept our eyes out around the entire upper half of the city and found two more music trivia nights to attend. Liam, with all his prepping and planning, was loving scouring through Facebook and Instagram posts to try and find each one. He would send the link to the group and we’d all start making plans to attend immediately. It was fun, kind of like an ongoing test of knowledge.

Niall and I really did know a lot about music because of our dads. It was kind of a given that Harry would be good, he literally taught the subject of music for a living and played eight different instruments. But I was most surprised by Louis knowing all of the alternative bands that apparently he’d listened to in college. I always thought he just put them into playlists for the bakery and didn’t bother learning song names of band names or anything like that, but I’d been proven wrong. Even Niall was surprised by his knowledge, and they had lived together for four years.

Ana was sour about the whole thing. She was excited for us and glad to be part of our team, but she was feeling a bit inadequate. She didn’t know much about music aside from the fact that she listened to it and that Harry taught it. She loved music and could sing any song from any animated movie made in the last thirty years, but beyond that, she wasn't too big on the subject.

Despite this, we all considered her an important part of the team in terms of morale and general spirit. I mean, she did do really well when it came to pumping us up and getting our drinks refilled. Or calling over a waitress when Louis wanted another round of fries because Niall had eaten most of his first batch. (Niall, for his part, felt no remorse about this and even attempted to eat from the second batch).

Ana was our real MVP. We love her, and she’s great, just not when it comes to knowing trivia. She was good at her own things. Especially when those things were getting wine drunk and making scrapbooks or shopping for cute sweaters and skirts and talking about our little sisters together.

We had just finished the third and final--for now--music trivia night. We’d been tripped up more than a few times, and we’d come close to losing the second night, but we’d pulled it out by wagering the exact number of points in the final lightning round. I didn’t have to be an economics major to figure that math out. It was risky, but in the end, had served us well.

Tonight was the first trivia night of the three that was being held on a weekend and we’d gotten properly excited about it. It was a Friday night. The teachers didn’t have to worry about class, and even Louis was free for two days. He was thriving with his extra day off a week. It gave me so much joy to see him really living and experiencing and not always be so engrossed in his business. Even though he loved it, it was a lot of work and it took its toll on him. You didn’t have to look too closely to know he was doing better with the added time off.

The bar we were in had decided to open up an impromptu karaoke night. Liam and Harry were buzzing because they were signed up to do a Backstreet Boys song.

I was being berated.

Cleo was begging me to do something just as ridiculous with her, but I was holding steadfast on my personal no singing karaoke rule. Ana and Louis were signed up to sing some Taylor Swift song and Niall had decided to go solo, although he wouldn't tell anyone what song he’d chosen. Apparently, it was a surprise. Cleo said that if I didn't sing with her than she'd dedicate a sexy rendition of ‘happy birthday’ a la Marilyn Monroe to me.

I knew Cleo was breezy and confident, but I was going to take my chances on her not going through with it in the end. I did not sing.

I would not sing.

“I just need to get another drink in you,” Cleo said. “Then you will sing like a canary.”

“I don't think I've ever seen three-drink-Ruby,” Harry said, intrigued. He was getting a little impatient to sing and it was showing.

“I have.” Louis smirked from across the table. I narrowed my eyes and gave him a look. He was unaffected by it.

“And?” Ana asked.

“Oh, three-drink-Ruby is a firecracker.” Louis winked. I threw a napkin at him. He shook his head at me in disdain and Liam gave us each a look. We really were like kids when we were out together, Louis and I.

“No, she’s not,” I said, finality in my tone.

“She's just terrified of a hangover,” Louis said. “Did you ever notice she drinks two glasses of water for each drink she has?” He asked.

Liam looked down at the table in front of me. Sure enough, a glass of water was right beside my whiskey glass.

“I don't think I ever did notice.” Liam looked pointedly at the side-by-side glasses now though. Even after three years of being friends with them, I’d been so sly about my habit that the only people who knew were Cleo and Louis.

Louis only found out because he saw me drinking straight from the kitchen tap one night at his apartment when I couldn’t find a clean cup. It was very, very early on in our friendship. I was not proud of that moment.

“She started doing it in college,” Cleo said. “She was afraid to dehydrate and get a hangover and so she started drinking water for each alcoholic drink she had. Once she passes three drinks though, it gets a little uncertain that the rehydration tactic will work completely and effectively.”

“Passes three drinks though. So four drinks.” Harry said.

“Correct.” Louis nodded.

“So why stop now instead of after three?” Harry asked.

“She's afraid.”

I narrowed my eyes at Louis again.

“He’s not wrong.” Cleo shrugged.

I cut my gaze to her and she shrugged, unaffected. She even threw in a small smile for me.

“If you think calling me afraid will get me to drink a third to prove you wrong, it's not going to work,” I said.

There was a pause as she looked me over, studied my face.

“It was worth a shot,” Cleo winked before finishing her drink and asking the table who needed another round. Ana followed her to the bar to help grab the drinks and over the screeching sounds of someone attempting to sing Whitney Houston, Liam and Harry were talking excitedly about their turn and when it would be.

“So have you ever had a hangover or is all the water because you had a really bad one and vowed never again?” Niall asked. Beside me, he had been distracting me all night.

We’d almost missed a few easy questions, one about when Roger Daltrey had left The Who because I’d been distracted by Niall tracing circles on the back of my left hand as I was trying to write with my right hand. We’d almost missed another asking about when Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac because he was leaning his head on my shoulder and the smell of him was paralysing to me.

“I've never had a hangover.” I turned to look at him just in time to see his shock regarding my words.

“Never?” He asked, his eyebrows were raised so high that they almost disappeared into his hairline.

“I mean… I’ve been groggy the day after drinking, but I’ve not had a headache or upset stomach or anything. I don’t have to lie in bed half the day with a bottle of Advil.”

“You’re like a unicorn.” Niall smiled at me and shook his head in disbelief.

“Except I’m real.”

“You are.” He nodded and reached down to grab my stool and pulled me closer to him before wrapping his arm around me. As if by touching me he was proving to himself that I was, in fact, real. I shivered under his touch as his fingers slid under the hem of my shirt and met the skin of my waist.

The Whitney Houston impression finally, mercifully, ended and as luck would have it, it was Liam and Harry’s turn. Which meant everyone in our group would be going soon because they'd all signed up in succession. Liam walked to the karaoke machine confidently while Harry whooped and bounced his way over, looking back at us every few seconds, waving his arms in excitement.

I looked over at Ana. She was watching her fiancé with nothing less than adoration in her eyes. The two of them were absolutely precious. Louis turned and followed my gaze, and the two of us looked back at each other and smirked. The two of them were so predictable when it came to each other.

We watched as Liam and Harry picked up their microphones off the table in front of the machine, and we all cheered as the opening notes of ‘I Want It That Way’ came through. Liam smirked at us and then started them off. Liam was sneaky good. Looking at him you’d expect him to just blow it off, just something about his character, but he held his own when it came to singing.

Harry stuck to the higher part harmonies while Liam flowed underneath and to their credit, they had the patrons of the bar on their side. It could have been their song choice. It could have been the fact that when singing together, they're actually pretty good.

When the song ended, our table erupted in thunderous applause. Cleo and Louis drummed in the table while the rest of us clapped and we all cat called and whooped. As soon as he had stopped singing, Liam blushed, immediately embarrassed by all the attention he was getting. Gone was the confident man who’d walked up there and sang without inhibitions. He had been replaced by a bashful boy, flushed and embarrassed.

Niall was up next. Not even Louis knew what was going to happen when Liam handed Niall the microphone he had been using. Harry, to everyone's surprise, kept his microphone as the music started. Apparently, Harry was up for another duet, but this time it was going to be with Niall.

When the music started I, along with the rest of the table, collectively gasped.

“No forking way!” Cleo and Louis said simultaneously. Ana’s face was full of so much excitement.

“Who's singing who's part?” Liam asked, looking around at all of us, genuinely curious. He was met with flummoxed and flustered, blank stares.

We all just started laughing at when his question sunk in. Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait long. It looked like Niall would be singing Elton’s part, because he started off and Harry quickly followed. ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ was a classic, and we were all going to enjoy this very much.

“Of forking course he’s good at singing.” Cleo looked at me before turning back to watch Niall as he sang.

Louis laughed at her comment before the five of us all started singing along with the other two with microphones.

Ana and Louis were absolutely miserable when it was their turn. Not emotionally, of course, but their singing was causing dogs in other states to start barking.

Neither of them took it seriously, but that was the best part, seeing them have that much fun. They weren't up there to show off, they were just singing to each other, and singing through their giggles. They were so precious.

Niall had stopped by the bar on the way back to the table and was offering me a glass of water as he held onto one of his own.

I raised my eyebrows at him.

“You can sing.” It wasn't a question.

“I dabble.” He blushed.

“You've got water.”

“I do.” He took a pointed sip.

I just smiled at him.

“I'm trying to see if it'll work,” he said eventually.

“I think you started too late in the night,” I said. “But at least you're trying,”

“I think it might help alleviate some of the damage. I still drink the way I always did, but I don’t handle it the same way I used to.”

“Because you're old?” I couldn't help the smirk that slipped into my face as he narrowed his eyes at me.

“Rude.”

I giggled.

“Well, at least I know you’ll spare my feelings for the sake of the truth,” he said. I felt a sting in the back of my mind as I thought over the one big thing I was keeping to myself, but I kept my emotions off my face.

Wiping my hands on a dishcloth I reached across the counter to grab my phone and see who was calling.

I groaned when I saw it was a video call request. I knew the reason she wanted to video chat. She was hoping to see Niall. She was hoping she could get information out of him about me, or use him as possible blackmail material with our parents if they ever found out she was less than perfect.

All that she knew was that I was seeing someone. She literally knew nothing else. She didn’t know his name. She didn’t know he was Irish, she didn’t know he was white. She didn’t know he was an old friend of Louis’ from college. I told her I was seeing someone about a week ago when she’d been berating me again about using dating apps and getting myself back out there. I had shut her down before she could get anything else out of me though.

I was surprised she had held out this long.

Niall, thankfully wasn’t here, so I even though I was annoyed at my sister for not so subtly trying to find out more, I rolled my eyes and answered the call. I put my phone down on the counter, propped up on a glass, and kept doing the dishes. I was almost done anyway.

“Hey!” My sister beamed through the phone. As annoyed as I was at her motives, seeing her face did make me happy. It had been a really long time since I’d seen her. Probably around six months since we’d been in person together and maybe three since we last did a video call. We talk constantly but we’re so wrapped up in our own adventures and lives that we rarely did this.

“Hi!” I called back as I scrubbed my breakfast bowl. “What’s up?” I asked, already knowing.

“Is your boyfriend there?” She asked in a sing-song voice that made me want to gag. I did actually, for the benefit of her viewing. She flipped me off.

“So I’ll take that as a no,” she huffed. “Well, it was worth a shot.”

I rinsed and then put the bowl in the drying rack and picked up a mug and started scrubbing that as well. It was cold, rainy Saturday afternoon. I planned on curling up on the sofa with Moggy to binge watch some television shows I’d been neglecting for probably three seasons now.

“Is that the only reason you called?” I asked. She ran a hand through her hair and I caught myself thinking about how similar we looked. Watching her run a hand through her hair, one of my ticks that I was always doing, it was like looking in a mirror. I put the mug on the drying rack and after dying my hands I picked up my phone.

“I called because I wanted to talk.” She defended herself as I went into my living room and laid down on my couch. Moggy looked up at me from her spot on her chair and with a yawn, she jumped down and started making her way over to me.

“Oh, you want to talk?” I asked with a smirk on my face.

“Shut up.” Mehar rolled her eyes at me and I bit my lip to hide my smile. Moggy was settling down on my legs with the most content look on her face but just looking at her I realised I’d be stuck in this position until she decided she wanted to move.

“Just because I didn’t catch him hanging out with you doesn’t mean I can’t ask about your new boyfriend. It’s been over a week since you told me and I’ve been patient and respectful and now I want to know literally everything about him and about the two of you.”

I laughed and nodded.

“I need his name, what he looks like, where he’s from, what he does... How old is he? Is he tall? Does he like Moggy? How did you meet? When did you meet? How long has this been going on that you haven’t told me? I need to know everything, Ruby.” My sister literally counted off questions and requests off on her fingers. I was sure my face was a mixture of mild amusement and distress.

“Holy crap, Me,” I gasped. “Did you write those down or did you memorise all the necessary ones?”

“Both.”

I closed my mouth to keep from responding unkindly and just nodded.

“So…” she waved a hand to prompt me.

“His name is Niall,” I said and I saw her face distort. “Before you say anything he's Irish.”

“Irish as in from Ireland or it's just a family name because historically his family is from Ireland?”

“He's from Ireland.” I pulled a blanket across my midsection, careful to not disturb Moggy, and snuggled my top half underneath it.

“He came here for college and lived with Louis for a while. He moved back to Ireland after that, but he's back here again for good. And that is how we met. Through Louis.”

“You've got more questions to answer,” she said. I watched as she inspected her cuticles, trying to look bored. I knew she was loving this. She was so thrilled to be hearing all about Niall. But she wasn’t going to let me off easy.

“He's about Louis’ height, so he's taller than me but not too tall. Um, he's twenty-nine… I'm sorry what else was there?”

“Does he like Moggy? How long has this been going on? How’s the sex?”

If I had been drinking anything I would've spit it out in shock. As it was I sputtered out my next words.

“I don't think that was one of the initial questions!” I coughed, embarrassed. My cheeks flushed.

“I'm asking it now!” She shrugged, nonchalant. My little sister really could get to me like this. Ever since she'd started having sex in high school, she'd been fairly open about it. And about teasing me. She was consistently trying to make me feel uncomfortable. I never shied away from it, from sex, but my sister always made it as awkward as she possibly could for me.

“He loves Moggy. He's great with her,” I said. “We’ve been dating for about a month.”

“And?”

“And we haven't had sex yet so shut up and stop asking.” I slammed my head back against the sofa. Mehar giggled at my actions and then she just stopped abruptly. I looked at her, scared as to what was about to happen.

“Wait. A month?” The screech my sister emitted was cringe-inducing, almost inhuman. I felt my ears ringing.

“Me,” I groaned.

“Two things there. One: you've been dating a month and haven't told me. And two: you've been dating for a month and haven't had sex!”

She was reaching decibels only dogs could hear.

“First of all, I told you a week ago. I didn't tell you earlier because I didn't want you to freak out if nothing came from it. And second, no. We haven't. It's not a big deal. Or any deal. We just haven't.”

“But you want to, right?”

“Mehar.”

“Ruby.”

My sister stared at me. And I was silent. Until she narrowed her eyes and the expression unnerved me.

“Fine. Yes, I want to. Okay?”

“Good,” she said. “I just wanted to make sure you hadn't lost your mind or anything.”

“Shut up.” I rolled my eyes.

“Is he hot?”

I blushed. Of course he was. He has broad shoulders and those unbelievable blue eyes, his hair does that little wispy thing… He was gorgeous. But that wasn't the only reason I would want to sleep with him.

I wasn't interested in Niall for just his looks. Sure they were a part of it, but I loved that we connected intellectually and we had similar interests and that we could just watch Moana twice in a row while cuddled up on my couch with tea and coffee--which was something we’d done last Sunday afternoon.

Being with Niall was more than just physical. Although, to be fair, when we have been physical it's been undeniably great. It's like we just know each other’s ticks and know how to work each other up. Nothing has happened past some pretty serious making out, but I had a feeling we’d still be great at it if and when we did take it further.

I trusted Niall. That was something I was still coming to terms with. I trusted him to make me feel safe and to not hurt me and to not destroy our friend group or our relationship foundation. I trusted Niall to tell me the truth and to treat me with respect. I trusted him to be alone with my kitten, and to make my tea the way I like it, and to keep my secrets and to not make me feel silly for my quirks and silly thoughts.

I liked being around him. I genuinely enjoyed laughing with him and watching him laugh. I liked getting him to try new food and introducing him to beer other than Guinness. I liked talking about music with him, new and old. I liked that he was invested in my likes--baseball. And I liked that he was patient with trying to get me to understand golf--we’d watched a bit after the second go-through of Moana. It was his turn to pick and he was trying to explain it to me.

I liked that Niall was genuine. He laughed loudly and smiled often and spoke with purpose. He was always wholly and completely in a moment, never distracted by his thoughts or lost somewhere in a conversation. He was always present and invested in the people around him, no matter who they were.

I was attracted to Niall because he was physically handsome, but I was also attracted to Niall because of his character and his personality and how he made me feel: confident and strong and present in every moment.

I didn't try to tell Mehar all this now. Instead, I just shrugged off her question as if it wasn't a big deal. As if what I had just realised about my feelings for Niall didn't make me warm inside.

“Hey, tell me all about school and that scooter guy who almost ran you over that you ranted about on your social story.”

“Oh yeah!” I'd effectively distracted my sister from her conquest for answers. Immediately, she started in on and embellished a story about a guy on a scooter that did actually end up knocking someone down.

It took ten minutes, but once Mehar finished her story about scooter-douche as she had dubbed him, we started talking about normal things. I asked her about classes and homework, and she asked me about what I'd been up to.

I found out that she loved her abnormal psychology class and that she was looking forward to the woman's studies class she's gotten into for next semester. I found out that she had started reading the news every day as an assignment for class, but had actually kept up with it even when it wasn't required. I found out she liked being up on current events and was actually invested in learning more.

In turn, she heard about our many music trivia nights and the karaoke experience from last night. I told her about Ana and Harry finally getting a venue they wanted for the date they were hoping for and how Ana was going to let her bridesmaids choose the cut of their own dresses. I even told her about how Niall had walked me home and how we listened to Somewhere on Fullerton whenever we were on the train together.

We had been on the phone for two hours at this point talking about contestants on the latest series of Bake Off, when I yawned and felt exhaustion seep into me from staying out late last night, my early morning run in the bitterly cold rain, and cleaning my apartment. Mehar laughed at me.

“You're like a grandma,” she said.

“Hey, when you're older you'll understand,” I snuggled further into my blanket.

“You're not even that old, Ruby.”

“I know,” I sighed. “But if you think being an adult after college is any less exhausting than being an adult in college though, you're wrong.”

“You're telling me I'm only ever going to get four hours of sleep a night?”

“Well maybe if you trimmed your nightly activities you'd sleep a little more.”

“I think I'll be just fine either way,” she laughed, not having to specify that she thought she was fine without changing. “Seriously though, want me to let you go so you can nap?”

“Yes please,” I mumbled.“This doesn't mean I don't want to talk to you. I'm just really sleepy and the sound of the rain is like a lullaby. I can't help it.”

“Okay,” Mehar nodded. “I did want to say though, that Niall seems like a really good guy. Even when you were telling me stories about the whole group he seemed to be there, making an effort. And you said he even watched baseball for you. I don't even watch baseball for you.”

“I know you don't.”

“Not even butts in baseball pants are enough to get me to watch it,” she said wistfully. I rolled my eyes as she kept going.

“I think--and I know I haven't met him, but I trust Louis’s judgement--that Niall will be good for you. You do need to send me a picture, though. I need to see him.”

“I don't have any,” I admitted.

“Well get one, or I'll just FaceTime you at unpredictable times until I get actual image verification that you're not making someone up just to screw with me.”

“That would take so much effort,” I huffed. “I mean, it would be worth it to see your reactions, especially because you're so gullible, but I'm feeling really lazy at the moment.”

She flipped me off.

“Hey, can you do me a favour?” I asked.

“What is it?” She looked intrigued. My sister loved people owing her things. If she did me a favour, I’d owe her. Of course she’d be intrigued.

“I know you're home for Thanksgiving break soon. Can you not tell mom and dad about Niall? I don't think I want them to know about him. Or me dating anyone. Or y’know, anything to do with my personal life. Not yet at least.”

“You want me to keep your personal life private from our parents?” The amusement was easily read on her face, even through my hooded eyes.

“I know,” I nodded, “it's going to be hard for you. I mean, it's not like you have any practice at keeping secrets like that.”

She flipped me off again.

“Besides, I’m pretty sure dad is still convinced that Cleo and I are together. If I tell him I’m dating a boy, I think I’d give him a heart attack and I’d like for him to make it through the holiday.”

Mehar laughed.

“I’m serious,” I whined. “Any time Cleo is brought up he immediately goes rigid and looks so uncomfortable. He looks for any excuse to leave the room.”

Mehar laughed harder. She knew I was right. My dad was convinced that because we’d lived together and because I’d later moved to Chicago--where Cleo lived--that we were secretly together. I mean, I loved my best friend. Just not like that.

“Yeah, I'll keep your secret,” she said finally as her laughter subsided.

“Thank you,” I sighed. “I love you baby sister,” I cooed into the phone. She made a face.

“Love you too, Ruby.”

When we hung up I let my phone drop gently to the floor beside me and closed my eyes, quickly falling asleep.

I was walking down a street. I wasn’t sure what the name of the street was, or where I was at all, really. I just knew it looked vaguely familiar but just strange enough to keep my nerves somewhat at attention.

It was dark, probably late evening, judging by the lights from the houses illuminated around me. I couldn’t be sure though, because when I looked down at my wrist, I realized that I wasn't wearing my watch. Which was strange. I love my watch. It’s got the planets on the watch face and the soft suede band looks like the stars.

It was then that I noticed footsteps behind me, which is not unusual as I live in a city with almost three million people. Someone else on the sidewalk was something that was bound to happen. Except when I glanced over my shoulder there was no one there and the echo of footsteps there wasn’t my own, stopped.

Just like I’d been taught by Brian, I continued walking but varied my pace to make sure if someone was following me and trying to match my footsteps I’d trip them up. I pulled my hair out of the ponytail it had been in and I even slipped my phone into my left hand, my finger resting on the power button in case I needed to push it to send it to panic mode.

I tried to slow my heart rate and breathe evenly. I knew, thanks to Brian, that my knowledge and ability to read a potentially dangerous situation were invaluable in that I could be confident and that confidence would more than likely be enough to stop whatever would happen.

If I was being followed. Which, from what I could tell, I wasn’t.

I wasn’t.

I check behind me again, looked across the street and down the block in both directions. No cars passed, and no one else was on the street. I was fine. I was in control of myself and aware of my situation. I ran through what I would have to do if something did happen if I did have to defend myself.

It didn’t matter though, because I wasn’t being followed.

I would feel more comfortable though if I knew where I was. The vague familiarity of it all was suddenly not enough to calm my nerves and I could feel the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stand at attention.

I looked around again and I was still alone on the street. Trees lined the sidewalk on one side and front lawns lined the other. I was fine.

Until I wasn’t.

The sound of a second pair of footsteps echoed around the silent street again and I felt my heart leap into my throat. Quickly, and as subtly as I could, I looked around myself.

Again, there was no one.

When I looked forward again, started walking again, the sound of footsteps behind me started again as well and as I turned to look around once more my blood froze in my veins and my breath caught in my throat.

I was surrounded by faceless figures in black, hoods pulled up. They lined the entire street, seemingly endlessly, and every single one was fixated on me. Literally everywhere I looked, every direction I turned someone was there, facing me ominously. My breath unlodged itself and suddenly I was breathing much too fast and far too shallow.

I knew. I knew that I needed to remain calm and use everything Brian had taught me, but the fear was gripping me and keeping me still in this particularly vulnerable, open position. I couldn’t even think to scream, even though I knew how dangerous that was, too.

I felt tears well up in my eyes and suddenly all the faceless figures started moving closer, the circle they’d formed around me tightening and I squeezed my eyes shut as the tears started rolling down my cheeks and I pleaded in my head to just be away from here, to be anywhere else, to be safe. I opened my eyes quickly and all the figures were mere feet away.

I squeezed my eyes shut in fear again and suddenly I hit something hard.

I was in my house. I was on my floor next to my couch. I was pretty sure my left elbow was going to be bruised.

I heard Moggy made a disgruntled sound from being thrown to the floor by me when I’d fallen, and I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the cool floor.

I was safe. I was home.

I kept repeating those two facts over and over again in my head as I worked to slow my breathing. I was sweaty and felt like I’d just run a marathon in terms of exhaustion both physically and mentally.

It had been two months since I’d been attacked. I’d never had a dream--nightmare--about it before.

“Shirt,” I breathed out slowly as my head stopped spinning.

I felt around for my phone and checked the time.

It was half-past four in the afternoon.

With shaky fingers, I opened my messages app and texted the only person I could think of in my heightened emotional state.

Ruby: Are you free? I’m not okay.

#yeah... i really did that #sorry not sorry!#we're moving along now!#things are really starting to happen here #1dff #fic: oth #fic: only ticket home #OTH12

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complhexspace · 3 years ago

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So I completely forgot that I came across the most to range thing I think I’ve ever seen on the Internet the other day. And it also ties in with the most deranged conspiracy theory I’ve ever heard of.

Now I’m completely a fan of conspiracy theories as long as the rational, but what I’m about to tell you is not rational at all.

* I’m gonna make sure to link any information that I find.*

So the other day I was on Twitter and I came across this article by the New York Post

https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1405283316580769792?s=21

It’s pretty obvious that the article is hinting at the racist slurs that’s present in the text. But what’s really interesting is that they completely ignore the rest of the context of the text messages. It’s clear as day that Hunter is exchanging some form of sex trafficking deal within these messages. But because the sex trafficking world is pretty underground and not too many people have information about it except for law enforcement. And what law enforcement knows they want to keep under tight wraps for understandable reasons. So you don’t really see a lot of tabloids/news stations talking about it. So unfortunately a lot of bad people play this up to their advantage. And a lot of people like us who are spectators like to come up with conspiracy guys is surrounding these powerful people within the sex trafficking industry.

So after scrolling through this particular thread about Hunter biting and everyone calling him out for the obvious, I came across this little golden nugget.

https://twitter.com/goddessthemuse/status/1278738419766755329?s=21

Because I’m a fan of conspiracies and opening the mind things that I would’ve never known about unless I was in the inner circle I was really ready to go down that rabbit hole. But then I went down that rabbit hole.

Initially, they start talking about movies that you should see before you read this thread. It immediately that set off the alarm bells for me because the movie industry is so corrupt. Movies and documentaries usually are notorious for using misinformation so it’s just generally not a good idea to go off of movies in the first place. IMO.

https://twitter.com/goddessthemuse/status/1277292473698713600?s=21

Then she starts explaining more in detail about both the movie and the documentaries (if I’m understanding right, there’s a movie and a documentary).

https://twitter.com/goddessthemuse/status/1274800905754423303?s=21

One of the things that she brings up is that Hitler and the Nazis were experimenting with time travel and space travel which is something that I’ve heard before.

I’m not completely in disbelief that Hitler and the Nazis were experimenting with time travel and space travel because why not those are really cool things to experiment with (not that I’m sympathizing with them either). But if that’s the case, once they fled Germany, how wasn’t that information then retrieved and then researched by other governments. Because I’m sorry but if your space traveling and time traveling all over the place, you have an incredibly big machine. Especially since computers back in World War II were enormous. So there was no way that they could just pick that thing up and bring it down there with them to Argentina there’s just no way. But who knows, what if they were time-traveling and space traveling but if so, where is that information? Then why is it not being put to good use, for research's sake?

We’re wasting money putting these big old machines through space when we could just pop in and out and grab whatever we want after we learn how these machines work. Maybe they were working on the idea, like many other researchers, but didn't perfect the idea.

https://twitter.com/goddessthemuse/status/1273700664611405825?s=21

So this was something that I partially agreed with. I do believe in aliens. I personally believe in a Men in Black situation. But the more that I read into this particular thread the more I realize that she’s kind of just bullying people...

https://twitter.com/goddessthemuse/status/1273684367311806466?s=21

First, she starts talking about how she believes particular celebrities look like aliens and how the queen is a shapeshifter. Then she hits on Simon Cowell's struggle with alcoholism and acts like Photoshop doesn’t exist or something.

To me, it just felt like the more and more I read this thread (because I feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface) the more it sounds like bullshit. I am ready to have my eyes open to any conspiracies as long as it’s rational. For example, the elite group of people that kidnaps and hunts people for sport that has been caught several times (looking at you Dick Cheney). But stuff like this that clearly isn’t rational and obviously has a different alternative I can’t get with.

Now I can’t complain about somebody trying to grab a bag, but the problem here is she’s feeding into misinformation, Instead of telling people the truth and profiting from it. I noticed in her Twitter bio that she has Patreon, it $11.11 A month and I’m not getting ready to subscribe to it to tell you guys what’s going on in there I’m sorry. But from what I could see it looks like she offers a lot of advice for her subscribers to go to whenever she has more information (wherever she gets that from). I also noticed that she sells a survival guide For $20 that includes tips for living off-grid, preparation, survival, mobility, etc. So knowing a few people personally that live off the grid, my thing is with this particular person is how does she have a phone or Internet at all. If you want to live off the grid you should not have the Internet whatsoever. It seems like she’s more of an influencer that does readings than someone willing to try to warn people of the future. With 9k followers.

I don’t know, this account seems really weird to me and I don’t necessarily think that there’s anything wrong with trying to make a buck or trying to warn people about the future. But I do kind of think it’s crazy to try to brainwash people (like the government has) and profit from it, because then it doesn’t make you any better than the government to begin with.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

No, but seriously I’ve seen a few accounts that are kind of like this, on different platforms. And it’s really crazy to me to watch them kind of blow-up talking straight up out their ass about some conspiracies and literally profit from the misinformation they feed their followers. If you are going to talk about consipracies and shit going on in the world, then lets talk. But dont spew random shit for profit.

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politicallyamess · 7 years ago

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How To Vote in the 2017 General Election (sort of)

I’ve seen sooo many people say that they’re not voting in the UK’s last minute general election on the 8th of June this year simply because they don’t know how to, or have any idea who they would vote for. It’s suuuuper important to vote, so I’m gonna try my best to make a fairly unbiased masterpost w plenty of sneaky links.

where the fuck did this all come from ????

19 April 2017: the House of Commons voted to allow a General Election to take place in June, despite the existence of a Fixed Term Parliament Act which would have prevented an election until 2020.

No one is 100% sure why this is happening. The Prime Minister has stated about 2304923049 times that it’s an attempt to ensure “strong and stable leadership” throughout the Brexit process, while some opposition has suggested it’s an attempt from the Tories to distract from other things going on.

However, it is pretty significant because it’s super short notice and unexpected (Theresa May actually said a few times that she definitely wouldn’t do this) and because everything is a bit weird and messy rn because of Brexit and uncertainty. For a lot of people, this is seen as a vital opportunity to make a change, whether your priority is Brexit, public spending and cuts, or something else.

how do I vote ????

Before you can vote, you need to register !! It’s real easy to do, like you can literally do it online in 5 minutes here.

Even if you’re not sure who you will vote for yet, or whether you will even vote, the deadline to register is the 22nd of May. Registering before the deadline allows you to change your mind, even on the day of the election.

Most people vote at a polling station on the day of the election and you can find your local polling station here. You can also choose to vote by post, or proxy, depending on your situation or preference.

why should I vote ????

Your vote counts!!!!! Here is a super cheesy infographic highlighting the impact that those who vote could have

Voting is the most straightforward way to make a change and have your voice heard. Obvs, a lot of people think otherwise, but events like the EU referendum are useful in showcasing the power of your vote as many voted the way they did because they thought it wouldn’t make a difference.

Hate all politicians and/or think it just isn’t a big deal because it doesn’t make a difference to you personally? Please remember that there are people in this country who rely on a government who will care for them and support them. The NHS, education system, and welfare spending, are all dependent on government decisions. While these things might not play a huge part in your life, your decision to vote can make a huge difference to the people it does matter to. Compassion is cool yo <3

so... who the fuck do I vote for ????

This is where it’s really hard for me to stay balanced :( In this election, I totally recommend voting for Labour in an attempt to stop us from having another Tory government. If this sounds like a good idea to you, here’s a spreadsheet detailing how to vote if you wanna kick the Tories out !!!!

We don’t vote for Prime Minister or a party directly, but instead we vote for a local candidate of a party to represent our local area in parliament. The leader of the party with the most representatives in parliament becomes our Prime Minister. Your local area is called a constituency, and you can find out which one you live in here. Candidates for election will usually send leaflets through your door or something to let you know who they are and what they intend to do if elected, but if not, you can usually find out who they are through a quick Google search. If they have Twitter accounts or Facebook pages, I totally recommend following those to learn more about them to help you make your decision.

Because this election was so unexpected, none of the parties really have an official manifesto (a collection of their intentions/aims if given a place in parliament) out yet, but should do around the middle of May. Until then, you can base your decision on the fundamental beliefs of the party and the pledges already set out in the media.

The Conservative Party

Currently in government, and have been since 2010

Their leader is Theresa May

Traditionally right wing: believe if you have more money, you should get to keep it, business should be less regulated, and the money they earn is more beneficial to the country than public spending such as the NHS etc

They don’t really have a lot on offer currently when it comes to their aims if they win the election (other than a strong and stable leadership apparently), so keep an eye out for their manifesto and have a Google and a read about their past endeavours

The Labour Party

Their leader is Jeremy Corbyn

They’ve kind of been everywhere from left to centre, but are pretty left wing under Corbyn: believe in protecting women and minorities against discrimination, regulate business, tax the rich more to provide services for those without

Here is a list of the policies Corbyn has already presented in the media, but also make sure you keep an eye out for their manifesto etc

Other Parties

The Liberal Democrats: part of a coalition government with the Tories from 2010-2015, current leader is Tim Farron, a liberal party with sort of a mix of left and right wing beliefs

The Scottish National Party: current leader is Nicola Sturgeon, they have 56 out of 59 of Scotland’s seats on parliament, fairly left wing with a focus on gaining Scottish Independence, you can only really vote for them if you’re in Scotland though

The Green Party: co-lead by Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley, have had one MP since 2010, super left wing with a focus on environmental policies

Plaid Cymru: Welsh independence party, leader is Leanne Wood, left wing, again can only really vote for them if you’re in Wales

a list of other political parties in the UK, which you can vote for if they have a candidate standing in your constituency

There’s soooo much information available online, but always remember that news sites can be biased and manipulate information to try and support their agenda and beliefs.

If you’re not sure how you align politically (whether you’re more right or left wing) you can do a political compass test. You don’t have to base your decision on this at all, but it’s kinda fun to do the test anyway.

I recommend following BBC News on Twitter to get sort of basic updates on what’s going on, as well as any random politically interested people you might come across who can give you insight into aspects not really discussed in mainstream media. I also personally think that Buzzfeed is a fairly useful news source to use if you’re looking for easy to understand updates and information (don’t hate me). Lastly, talk to your friends, family, etc!! Find out what matters to them and how they feel, and while you shouldn’t let others directly influence who you should vote for, their concerns might help you see things differently and help your decision.

I think that’s everything I have to offer, so PLEaSe pleEEasE remember to vote on the 8th of June 2017, your vote COUNTS !!!! <3

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junioradventure · 6 years ago

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GETTING SIGNED STRAY KIDS’ CUPS from SOUL CUP café at JYP!

WHAT A WEEKEND. I can’t believe I actually got... autographed cups from Stray Kids ㅠㅠ And to think that I stumbled upon the news of the event pretty much randomly.

So, I’m sure STAYS know about Stray Kids’ official Twitter, Instagram, and even Facebook handles, but to get the in-depth and most current information, schedule, and events of the group, you should join their “JYP Fan’s” cafe as well! Heck, I didn’t even know about it until like a week ago, honestly. I mostly saw their updates on their IG, but the JYP Fan’s website is where it’s at. It’s basically like their fancafe. You can go to the website and join easily here. I also didn’t keep track of their Twitter up until recently when I got to check it out, but their Twitter updates also link to the JYP website for events and all that good stuff! Keep reading for the full experience!

Anyway, after waking up at around 12 o’clock in the afternoon on Saturday, I thought, today is going to be a relaxing day. Yesterday was rough, but it’s the weekend, so I’m just gonna kick back! I check the Stray Kids’ fancafe just on a whim and I saw that they added a new event.

“Stray Kids 1st Anniversary with SOUL CUP”

WHAT THE HECK, THAT CAME OUT OF NOWHERE! Granted, I didn’t check the fancafe on Friday because of the aforementioned craziness of how busy and tiring that day was for me, but darn it, I should have because it felt like a bomb just dropped on me! I hurriedly threw on some clothes, got ready, and looked up the way to get to that cafe from my place in Jeongja.

The cafe is in the Gangdong area, literally on the first floor of the JYP Entertainment building. From my area, since I’m in Bundang, it took around an hour and a half, with walking, subway, and a bus. I got there around 3 something.

Some JYP Entertainment pictures I took.

I got off at a bus stop across the street and passed the front entrance of the building, as the cafe’s entrance is located on the side. You just walk and pass the JYP building but turn left immediately at the edge of the building. You will see a giant red cup and there’s the entrance to the cafe.

It’s kinda hard to miss it.

A grander view of the main entrance.

Hmm, no line. “It must not be busy!” I foolishly think as I walk in, my mind numb to reality as I order a drink. I ask the cashier, “Do you have the Stray Kids cup?” to which he replies, “It’s sold out.”

I’m okay. No, really I am. I sit down after getting my mango blueberry smoothie, which was actually really yummy. I find a nice seat and see a giant projector screen on a little stage, which was playing all JYP artists’ music videos (including SKZ of course!)

(I only have video footage of the screen and such. I want to put together a little video too, I hope I can manage to get that done lol)

The atmosphere is really nice and chill, but the music videos playing throughout the cafe made me wanna jam out haha which I did. I saw some fans and... they had signed cups ㅠㅠ At this point, I also ordered a slice of chocolate salted sea caramel cake because I came all the way here so I might as well have my cake and eat it too.

As I finish my food, I remembered something from the announcement on the fancafe... The event said it was running from Saturday to Monday... which might mean... I went up to the barista and asked if they would have more cups tomorrow. She said yes. OMG OMG OMG OMG- that’s what was going on in my head. I still have a chance. I told myself, tomorrow you are coming back here and this time you will get. Those. Signed. Cups.

I woke up at 6am. I couldn’t even properly sleep that night because I had weird, random mini-dreams (unrelated lol). However, I got myself up and out of the house, on a mission.

I got to the cafe at around 7:19 am. However, there were already a lot of fans waiting... I got in line but there were at least, hmm, around like... I can’t even estimate correctly, like 60 people or so in front of me? Don’t quote on me on that number though, because it seemed like quite a lot. And thus began my waiting game. I was nervous that I wasn’t going to get any cups, and my journey back here would be for naught. It was bitingly cold, and I was hungry.

Then I realized, negative thoughts would not help me at this moment. I plugged in my earphones and started listening to “Mixtape #3″. GOSH I LOVE THIS SONG, it always lifts my spirits and this time was no different. More and more people showed up and got in line. The line was so long, it went to the end of the street and then the line continued like across from me.

After what seemed like an eternity, the line started moving! It moved up quicker than I had thought, but once I was in the front door, that’s when it seemed like I was only moving a few inches at a time. The line zigzagged like three times towards the cashier. A lot of Stray Kids MV’s were playing. The place was abuzz with STAYS. I tried to keep the doubts and fear out of my head. I was almost near the counter...

What I saw before I ordered at the counter! Just to further showcase the event :)

LUCKILY, I GOT THE SIGNED CUPS! ㅠㅠ

Apparently, with every drink or food you purchase, you could get one individually-signed cup, by random. I saw a lot of STAYS generally get 3, so that’s what I did. I ordered a Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream, a Dazzering Milk Tea, and an affogato. I actually ordered the affogato on accident even though I don’t even really drink coffee.

Right before I ordered, though, there was a particular group of STAYS who were pretty much manning the area right before you order. They were pretty much bartering their cups for their desired member, which was pretty smart because basically everyone in line was a STAY and since the cups were given randomly to us, there was a way everyone could end up with their biases’ signatures. Except if you were Hyunjin biased, because his signed cups were pretty rare from what I heard, and whoever got his, most likely was his fan and wouldn’t want to trade. Luckily, even if I loved them all, the ones I was shooting for was mostly Chan and Woojin.

Anyways, one STAY asked me which member I liked and I told her Chan and Woojin. She echoed it to her friends and apparently they had my biases’ cups!! She really wanted Changbin’s. With fingers crossed, after ordering, the cashier handed me my three cups and...

All 3 were Changbin’s!

The STAYS around me spazzed when they saw my cups, and I was shook too! The same STAY asked me which members I liked again, and then began the trading. She pulled me along after passing down the news of my cups to her friends. She told me to come with her and she brought me to her friend, who had Chan’s cup! I traded one Changbin cup and got my bias’ signed cup ㅠㅠ I was taken the opposite direction, where another STAY had Woojin’s cup! I traded my other Changbin cup for it.

Finally, I figured I might as well make another Changbin fan happy. I asked if someone had Felix’s signed cup, I could part ways with Changbin’s. Another STAY did, and that was it! I was a happy camper. I ate my ice cream and drank my coffee and milk tea happily while watching MV’s on the big screen. For all three items, it cost around 21,000 won (~$`18.47 USD) but for their autographed cups? Ummmm yes please.

Overall, it was a lot of waiting. The cafe actually opens at 9am, and it took around 2 hours to get my order in (and the cups). If I didn’t live like an hour and 20 minutes away by subway, I would’ve wanted to get there earlier x_x Then the waiting wouldn’t have seemed so bad.

But I got my biases’ cups, so everything was worth it!! ㅠㅠ

#straykids #autograph #soulcup #jypentertainment #miroh #스트레이키즈 #fanaccount

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neptunecreek · 5 years ago

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Speaking Freely: An Interview with Addie Wagenknecht

Addie Wagenknecht is an artist and researcher based between the U.S. and Europe. We met a few years back when she invited me to be part of Deep Lab, a “collaborative group of cyberfeminist researchers, artists, writers, engineers, and cultural producers” that she co-founded in 2014. We’ve shared the stage together twice at re:publica in Berlin, and I always enjoy having the chance to chat with her about art and free expression.

This conversation was no exception, as it journeyed from censorship in the art world to the restrictions social media place on profanities [ed. note: this interview contains a few of those] to the impact of conspiracy theories on our societies. As a successful artist, Addie brings an important perspective to this ongoing conversation about what free expression means.

Jillian C. York: Let’s get started. What does free expression mean to you?

I’m looking at it from the point of view of somebody who works in arts and culture; a lot of it has to do with how that’s translated within institutions and museums, commercial galleries, and the art world.

For me, it’s specifically about the right of expression creatively and being able to translate thoughts or political situations into things that can be shown in an open and public space, with the caveat that a lot of these spaces are donor and privately-run, so there are a lot of stipulations around what can be shown or how it can be shown.

York: Would you say that you identify as a defender of or advocate for free expression?

Yeah, I would say I definitely advocate for freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and the right to those freedoms both inside and outside the U.S.

York: Would you mind sharing a personal experience you’ve had with censorship or with utilizing your free expression for the common good?

I think the first thing that comes to mind is a project called Webcam Venus [ed. note: link contains nudity] which is about highbrow and lowbrow culture and what is considered art versus what is considered porn and how do you deviate and know the differences. It’s a piece where sexcam workers pose in traditional or classical pieces of well-known art, in an institutional sense. It’s taking paintings that are frequently cited within our history or the art canon, and recontextualizes those in a more contemporary means using webcams and sex performers.

That piece was installed a few times for more institutional museum shows but also for more commercially-sponsored events. It was shown at Internet week in New York City...I always think of New York as this kind of progressive place where you can do what you want, and it’s radical and open to new ideas. The piece was installed for this marketing or tech week in New York, and within five to ten minutes of the piece going up, someone came up to me and said they couldn’t show it, it had to be taken down immediately. So I asked why they wanted it taken down, and they said “Google is our sponsor, and they don’t want this up. It’s inappropriate, and it’s not something we want people seeing.” So they shut it down, they thought it was completely inappropriate to have in the context of this Internet culture week.

York: I do remember that, I think it came up in one of the talks we did together, but I didn’t know that part of the story.

It’s crazy, because I’ve always thought that imagery and pornography are what have driven so much of technology, and the advancement of wifi, and higher speeds, but then the fact that it’s completely siloed from the rest of the internet when you’re celebrating internet culture for me was a really disappointing thing, especially in New York, which I thought was so open to new ideas and discourse. It being shut down just popped that balloon for me.

York: That’s really wild. What was the impetus for that project? What inspired you to create it in the first place?

I was collaborating with Pablo Garcia, and our constraints were that we wanted to create a project together, but we were in different time zones—him at the Art Institute of Chicago, and me in Europe. Our constraints were that we were wanting to create a project across different time zones so we had to come up with a project that was ethereal in the sense that we didn’t need to create something physical.

I’d come across a talk at Transmediale in Berlin that year about the history of chatrooms or bullet boards that unfolded specifically through a queer lens, and it was interesting the way these speakers talked about the access to webcam performers and that specific site really intrigued me because when they were going through the history of bulletin boards and IRC, one of the panelists brought up this interesting site that was read/write in terms of porn. You have access to the cam performers as well as the chat or input and what they’re willing to do can be communicated in both ways. He had presented it in the context of this panel and I started to research more about that. I always liked Chat Roulette, where you go on and it’s different webcams shuffled with other people all over the world. I was already interested in this sort of randomness and accessibility through the web, and finding ways to do that with spaces of the web.

With art, sexuality is still a topic that is highly refined in terms of institutions, so I thought that was an interesting space to explore. I presented that idea to Pablo, I sent him the link to the talk I’d seen, and we kind of just fell into that. A lot of his work looks at art and architecture from an historical perspective, so somehow within the collaboration we came up with this idea of how you recontextualize historical work that is defined as art through texts, academics and institutions, and recreating that through a contemporary lens, and what does that look like? Is it still art even though it references the prior works but in a more contemporary medium?

York: That’s really interesting. In fact, one of the interesting things to me is how platforms censor nudity when it’s in a more modern format.

Right, right.

York: Okay, so here’s a different question. Do you have a free speech hero?

I don’t know that I do. In the past few years, the Internet and political climate have changed so much and people have gone in different directions. But one of my longstanding activism heroes were always the Guerrilla Girls. I think they started in the ‘80s, and they’re these women who are decently high-profile in the arts, but they go around wearing gorilla masks and do a lot of stuff within anonymity, giving themselves the power of that anonymity to advocate for free speech and against inequality within institutions and other things people aren’t willing to talk about publicly.

York: I've always found their work really interesting. Okay, changing topics a little: let’s talk about social media. What concerns you at the moment?

That conspiracy theories are becoming mainstream. Ten years ago, scientific consensus was considered factual for example, but that has been completely dismissed by those in power. Somehow we have reached a point where not wanting the world to burn is being considered 'politically radical'.

See, our communities online and off, depend on shared truths and if you think about it, what the Internet—and the social media spaces that so many of us rely on daily—have created is a sense of identity by over-inflating the value of our opinions while equally maximizing the sense of opposition, all while simultaneously destroying the sense of personal impact on just about anything. We are so totally unaware of our own confirmation biases on these platforms because everything can appear equally legitimate. Our personal lives are quite literally monetized and becoming public domain but more than that, I am afraid people have lost the ability to parse facts, and our democracy and freedoms—of speech, of art and expression—literally depend on that.

Companies like Facebook will not change because their entire profit model relies on clicks, and nothing generates those like lies, conspiracy theories and declarations of victim-hood by some of the most powerful and privileged men in the world. If social media companies were held to the same basic standards of print, movies or TV perhaps this could alleviate some of these issues.

If for example, Facebook had to fact-check ads before running them, they could prevent the micro-targeting and disseminating of lies and 'fake news' before it starts but as of now they do not—instead they actually help you target your audiences instead for maximum audience engagement and views, further spreading and encouraging disinformation on a massive scale.

York: So do you think that any online speech should be regulated, and if so, how?

I’m very much an advocate for freedom of expression/speech and the right to express those things, unfortunately for people living outside of the U.S. they’re not protected by the constitutional right to that, so how that’s protected would require some sort of protections for people who exist outside of the U.S., because they don’t necessarily have those rights.

I’m also kind of on the team of anti-regulation and anti-censorship. I want to think that those things can be self-regulated within communities and within spaces both online and off. So, I don’t necessarily believe that [speech] needs to be regulated. I don’t think the way it’s being regulated right now, through having companies like Facebook, having people who are trained in various countries with different social and cultural norms censoring content is necessarily the way to go. I do find the flagging process, where for example content is hidden with a warning, useful. I’ve noticed a few sites have started to do this, like Twitter and YouTube when something gets enough downvotes—you can choose to either click it or not.

York: Yes. Twitter’s is really interesting though, because it seems to be based on a list of keywords. “Vagina,” for example, seems to be included as an “offensive” term, and I find that so strange.

Yeah, I mean, it’s interesting to me that “dick” or “vagina” or those sorts of words are deemed offensive, but then you could say something really hateful about someone, like using radical slurs, and those would be tolerated, but then anatomy isn’t. How you differentiate those things is the golden ticket in terms of solving some of those things. How do you allow for freedom of expression without censoring those things? If you could figure those things out,I think you’d have a really viable social media platform.

I think it’s interesting that Jordan Peterson is starting this anti-censorship bulletin board sort of thing. I’m really interested in how that’s going to transpose with his new fanbase. I heard they’re not going to censor anything or limit who has access to it. I’m kind of interested to see if it becomes another 4chan or 8chan sort of thing or if it becomes a space for viable discourse.

York: I’m sort of curious about that too. What you said about the golden ticket—I don’t really see anyone working that hard to make that possible. What’s really difficult is that there really isn’t yet an AI that can detect that sort of thing. If someone says “women are inferior to men,” there’s currently no way that AI detects that as a hateful statement, whereas it’s easy to plug in words that people find offensive. So words like “fuck” are really interesting in this context.

Yes—words like “fuck” or “shit” or “bitch” have this duality depending on how they’re contextualized within the language. And then it comes back to “who wrote the AI?” because the AI obviously has bias depending on how it was written, or who wrote it.

To some extent, I think people think of code and science and math as inherently neutral, but in fact it’s kind of embedded in the biases of those who write it. But if you write a computer vision program...for example, have you seen this gif on Twitter that says “why computer vision isn’t neutral” and shows a white hand going under a soap dispenser and the soap comes out, but then a black hand goes under it and the dispenser can’t detect it.

York: Wow, that’s just so blatant.

I think about it a lot because we have so much trust in these technologies and these larger systems and corporations that build them. Maybe that’s changed on a social scale, and people are beginning to realize that there’s this kind of implicit biases built into these system, and so looking at who’s building them and what’s being built is so interesting. And that’s why I think what Kate Crawford and Meredith Whitaker are doing at AI Now is so interesting.

York: Okay, let’s see...is there anything I’ve missed?

I definitely find that there’s something interesting about the implications to people who choose to be outspoken outside the norm of the art world. I recently had a show that was supposed to happen in a large city, but the space didn’t want it because they said it was too political, and they were really advocating that political stuff doesn’t sell, and that people don’t want to see it. As an artist, there’s this weird kind of conundrum—and probably for people who do free speech work as well—if you choose to do political work or you choose to speak out, there are implications to your professional well-being, your income, your sales, and all these things that determine your livelihood in some sense. So a lot of artists and curators I know, when I talk to them off the record, they’re very adamant about not showing opinions that could be seen as political, advocacy, free speech work because they don’t want to be deemed radical.

Recently, there’s been a lot of upheaval with artists, like those not showing at the Whitney Biannual because of the affiliation with the families who created Oxycontin. So there’s some awareness now about the financial pipeline and what we’re implicit in supporting by showing work that they want or are comfortable with.

York: Do you see any parallels between the art institutions and Silicon Valley?

Yeah, they’re typically run by the exact same sort of people—white people who are extremely privileged. I’d have to look it up, but the Guerilla Girls are a good resource for this. They made something that showed [the percentages of the art world that are white, female, or people of color] and if you consider that as what is forming the art canon as well as Silicon Valley’s canon, I’d say it’s pretty similar in terms of venture funding and startup culture [editor’s note: The Guerrilla Girls have also done work on the racial composition of internet users].

That’s what’s writing the history. So it’s like, there’s an entire majority of society that’s not being considered into the contemporary story, but also the historical one, and those of course inform the future. Looking at who has the right of access, who has the privilege of access, and who has the right to show their work...there’s definitely a parallel for me.

York: Thank you so much, Addie, this has been fascinating.

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