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obaex · 4 months

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four - hockey player!ex!rafe cameron (pt. 2)

summary: with the stakes of your relationship on the line, can rafe pull off the impossible to win you back?

word count: 6k 🫣

a/n: i love you all for the love on this lil' series!! ♡ toxic hockey rafe has me in a chokehold, so i promise this will not be the last you see of him!! apologies in advance, you will basically be attending a full hockey game here, i tried my best to explain all the lingo!

(part one)

The arena was packed even though you were there early, arriving alone because the other girlfriends and wives were always late, which simply wasn't in your DNA.

Your dad was a coach growing up, so you spent countless hours in empty rinks, arenas and stands; his rule for games was that you were in your seat early enough to see the starting lineup and the national anthem, no exceptions. Truth be told you liked being there when the lights went down, when the music amped up, you loved the anticipation of a new game.

You didn't mind sitting in the cold seat, hands wrapped around a cup of hot chocolate that you got from the same concession stand every time. Hockey players were notoriously superstitious and by extension now you were too; just like they had their pregame rituals, so did you: same parking spot in the VIP lot, same hot chocolate from the same concession stand, same seat in section 106. You were in the lower bowl of the arena, a few rows back from the ice, facing the bench, nearly eye-level with the team.

You let your mind wander and tried not to think about Rafe but it was impossible, this place was Rafe to you; from the feeling of the cold air on your cheeks and fingers, to the damp and crisp smell of the ice and the sounds of the fans and ambient pregame music, all of it was a part of your love story, all of it was him. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt like you thought it would, rather it felt like coming home after a semester at college, foreign but familiar.

You swiped at your phone, a nervous tick, even though you knew there wouldn't be anything there, which was a good thing, Rafe needed to be focused on the game, so you slid your phone into the cupholder next to you and resorted to tapping your heeled foot nervously.

The seats around you filled quickly and sure enough the other girlfriends and wives arrived just as the lights were dimming, offering cheek kisses and sympathetic hugs, well aware of your situation. Your best friend Morgan slid in next to you, pulling you into her side.

"It's selfish, but I'm glad you're here" she said, loud enough to be heard over the music and the announcer as her brown eyes traced your face sympathetically.

"I'm fine" you lied with a forced smile. Totally fine you thought. Not the love of my life who broke my heart then skated over it trying to win me back in the middle of the semifinals.

You decided to keep all of that to yourself, because truthfully it was ridiculous. It was juvenile. And it was never going to happen. And you didn't want it to happen anyway, you reassured yourself. Right?

You shook your head as you turned your attention to the starting lineup as Rafe's name boomed over the loudspeaker, the cheering noticeably louder from the crowd. He was a fan favorite, beloved for his fast and aggressive style of play. He wasn't afraid to two-hand someone when the referee wasn't looking, to stand up for his team, to battle for the puck. He was chippy, gritty, and he's on the first line tonight you thought to yourself, a spot reserved for the very best players, putting them in the best scoring position. But surely that's not in any way related to our deal... you mused.

You stood on your tiptoes to see him over the crowd in front of you. He was standing at center ice under the spotlight, his helmet tucked under his arm as he shuffled side to side on his skates, face unsmiling, focused as he looked between his feet and the empty ice in front of him. Your heart leapt uncontrollably at the sight of him; God he's beautiful you thought as your body hummed in recognition and longing, completely betraying you.

The tension and animosity in the arena were thick. You had faced the opposing team a few times in the regular season and it did not end well.

As in, you'd lost every time.

As in, Rafe left the last game with a five-minute major penalty and a black eye after an all-out brawl.

Now the fans were itching for a rematch and you were simply hoping for everyone to leave in one piece. That was the difference between being a fan and being someone who cared deeply for the boys on the ice, it wasn't a spectacle to you anymore. You watched as Rafe's wingers Nick and Andrew stood beside him, followed by two defensemen and your goalie as the national anthem wrapped up.

Everyone took their seats as the lights came back on and the music came on again too, urging the fans around you to cheer, and for you to resume the incessant tapping of your foot as you leaned forward in your seat, laser focused on the guys lining up for the faceoff.

"Girl, you good?" Morgan asked, taking in your nervous energy.

"Hmm?" you responded distractedly, barely glancing at her. "Yeah, yeah m'fine" you said.

You were always more into the game than the other girls, but that didn't account for the clear tension and anxiety rolling off of you in waves, nor the way you were immaculately dressed, which didn't go unnoticed either.

Rafe skated to center ice, equally sized with the opponent at faceoff as the referee dropped the puck. It had barely clattered to the ice before Rafe had gained possession, shouldering his opponent out of the way and barreling towards the offensive zone with a burst of energy like a gunshot that had the crowd almost immediately back on their feet, pulling you along with them.

"OK, I'm sorry, what is happening here?" Morgan said as she watched him.

He was a man possessed, head down, focused, ignoring his teammates as they called for the puck to set up a play, like he was trying to do it all himself. Like he was trying to score. He flipped the puck towards the goalie, who blocked it and possession shifted as he skated backwards on defense, your heart settling in your chest.

Rafe always played with intensity, but with the way he was playing now, he wouldn't make it through the first period. You thought there would be a reprieve on defense, but he was diving for the puck, playing to steal rather than defending his zone. He looked like a maniac.

Until it worked.

The crowd was back on their feet as he and Nick had a breakaway two-on-one, both of them racing towards the net together with only one defender standing between them and the goalie, the rest of their teammates striding to catch up with them. Nick called for the puck, slapping his stick on the ice, but Rafe deked the defender, faking him out before approaching the goalie and tipping the puck into the small pocket over his shoulder, swishing it effortlessly into the net.

The arena erupted as the goal horn blared and you found yourself jumping up and down, overcome with excitement and emotion. You could physically feel your heart beating. This is totally normal you thought. It's totally fine to score a goal in the first two minutes of the game, on his first shift, against the toughest team in the league.

You watched players pile on him in celebration before they all skated back to the bench, bumping fists with their team before taking a seat on the bench. Your eyes were glued to him, and his were on the jumbotron above center ice, watching his own replay before the coach approached him, grasping his shoulder angrily, and you could imagine why. He had been reckless, he had been lucky. Rafe nodded, but ultimately shook him off and refocused on the resumed play. Players zoomed in front of you and your eyes zipped to follow them before you glanced ever so briefly back at Rafe, who was unmistakably looking at you and smiling.

You swallowed to hide the emotions on your face, not giving him a single inch as you focused on the play.

You loved watching hockey, but it felt different when Rafe was on the ice, like he was a magnet, the only thing you could focus on, and his next shift was no different. He was playing like a madman and within seconds you could hear the coach shouting. Rafe turned up emptyhanded this time and the coach was visibly angry as Rafe skated to the bench, going so far as to yell back at him, which had you holding your breath; you had never seen him do that before.

Nick reached for Rafe's shoulder to calm him down and then they started bickering back and forth. Your attention was now split between the two of them and the action on the ice when you saw Nick physically rear back at something Rafe had said, the motion grabbing your full focus. Nick covered his face with his gloved hands, looking back at Rafe and then repeating the motion before he glanced up at the stands, at you, and shook his head, resigned. Were they talking about you!?! you thought. Had Rafe just told him what's going on?

You were so caught up that you missed the play as the other team scored. The game was tied 1-1. The arena echoed with boos as their bench erupted in cheers. You looked up at the clock: 2 minutes left in the first period.

Rafe and Nick got onto the ice for their last shift and the second the puck dropped, they were off as a duo, Nick's intensity now matching Rafe's own; they were bodying guys, tag-teaming as they raced into the offensive zone. Nick had the puck and passed to Rafe, and almost immediately Rafe was cornered by two extremely large defensemen who pinned him to the boards as they tried to steal the puck. But he wouldn't relent, throwing his elbows and trying to wiggle free, desperate and angry as the buzzer sounded for the end of the period.

And yet they didn't let him go. The crowd started shouting and everyone was on their feet as Rafe dropped his stick, turned and grabbed them both by the front of their jerseys, shoving them as the benches emptied and other players joined in, piling on top of one another until you lost sight of Rafe in a mess of limbs, equipment and jerseys. You were craning to see over the ecstatic fans, egging on the fight as the referees raced to break it up, pulling bodies off of one another until they reached Rafe.

His helmet had come off and as the referees skated him towards the locker room, he was shouting at the opposing team who skated after him, riling each other up before he yanked himself out of the ref's grasp and marched off the ice through the tunnel.

Period 1: Game Tied. 1-1.

You let out a deep sigh before collapsing back in your seat. You took a shaky inhale before exhaling and you felt a set of eyes on you.

You turned to see Morgan looking at you with an eyebrow arched.

"You're really going to sit here and act like you don't know what's going on? I know that boy texts you his every thought."

You opened your mouth, an excuse, a lie ready before she interrupted you.

"-- And I KNOW you didn't block him like you said you were going to, so don't try me. What the hell is going on?"

You bit your lip at that, glancing between her and the ice where the zamboni was running clean lines across the cold surface.

You gave a halfhearted shrug, "You know how much he wants to win, how much this means to him."

She doubled down her glare.

You sighed, avoiding her gaze before looking back to her.

"I made a deal with him" you nearly whispered.

A few of the other girls snuck by you both, causing you to shift in your seats as she leaned in and whisper-shouted at you:

"I'm sorry what!"

"If he scores four goals tonight, I said I'd get back together with him."

"You're joking" she said flatly. "Please tell me you're joking."

You pursed your lips with a small shake of your head.

"The two of you" she said as she let out an exasperated laugh. "Unbelievable. You can't stay away from each other and yet you’re willing to bet the stakes of your relationship on a game. I can't" she said, throwing her hands up in defeat.

She paused, getting serious for a moment.

"Are you sure you even want to get back with him, is that really such a good idea hun?"

"Morgan, he's never going to score four goals, it's like, impossible."

"Are you watching the same game I am?" she said emphatically. "Cause your mans sure is gonna try and you better ask yourself what you're going to do if he does."

There was a whisper of truth to what she was saying. It was probably impossible, but not completely out of reach. And what would you do? Your heart trilled. You would be ecstatic the devil on your shoulder said. You would be screwed said the angel.

Your phone buzzed in the cupholder next to you and swiped it open.

You grasped at your phone. Rafe never had his phone between periods, none of the players did, it was basically sacrilegious. They had just enough time to get treatment, catch their breath, hydrate and listen to their coach and he was on his phone!? You put yours down and tried to rearrange the smile creeping onto your face as you saw the teams rejoining the ice for the second period.

Just like before, Rafe was off like a rocket, but the other team was on to him this time, doubling his defensive coverage, making it nearly impossible for him to skate, let alone make a play. He had put a target on his back with the fight at the end of the first period, so even when he didn't have the puck, you could see the other players go after him, a stick in his skates, a slash at his side, heads turning to chirp at him as they lined up for faceoffs. But he didn't slow down for a moment, battling twice as hard now, coming back to the bench after each shift uncharacteristically exhausted, heaving with his elbows on his knees.

You watched him and felt overcome with emotions as the realization hit you: Rafe wasn't good at expressing himself, he wasn't a 'feelings' person, he didn't always know what to say, which is why sometimes words came better to him over texts when he had more time to think about it. But hockey? Hockey was his language. He couldn't tell you how sorry he was, how much he wanted to fight for this, but he could show you. He could play for you, he was playing for you, putting his body on the line, trying his all-out hardest, not a single person in the arena could deny that as they watched him tonight. He wanted this. Badly. Which meant he wanted you, badly. You felt a flush of warmth in your cheeks that had nothing to do with your lukewarm hot chocolate as you watched him slide up the bench for his next shift.

You looked up at the jumbotron. There were only 12 minutes left in the second period, and the game was still tied at 1-1.

What were you going to do if he scored four goals?

What were you going to do if he didn't? felt like the more pressing question. He was running out of time. If something didn't happen now, he would have one period left to score 3 goals, and that was simply not going to happen. I shouldn't have made the number so high you thought guiltily.

Your eyes glanced back to the ice as he clambered over the boards in the midst of a shift change. He was skating methodically, not slower, but maybe more strategically and you were sure his energy was waning even if it didn't look like it.

Suddenly, Nick picked the puck off an opponent and Rafe raced to skate with him, crossing into the offensive zone with several of their teammates. Nick had a wide open shot, and he brought his stick back for a slapshot before turning at the very last moment and passing to Rafe who had positioned himself near the goalie. The puck banked off his stick and ricocheted into the goal.

You were on your feet again, jumping up and down in Morgan's arms as the boys piled onto each other. The crowd was alive again as the team took a 2-1 lead, 5 minutes left now in the second period.

Morgan looked at you, shaking her head before shouting something you couldn't hear over the crowd. You shook your head back before she leaned in closer.

"Is Nick in on this shit?" she yelled.

You looked at her, confused.

"Why else wouldn't he take that shot? It was wide open."

The idea of Rafe recruiting his best friend and linemate into this made you lightheaded and giddy. As you looked back at the bench, the two of them were shoulder to shoulder, looking right at you and Nick waved, a goofy little smile on his face for the briefest of seconds before his attention returned to the game.

Period 2: Eagles winning. 2-1.

The period ended and you spent the last intermission glued to your seat as everyone around you got up to get food and drinks, your mind spinning.

One period. Twenty minutes left for Rafe to score 2 goals. It was still nearly impossible, but didn't feel as insurmountable as before and you still weren't sure what you wanted the outcome to be. You were staring into middle space, questioning your entire relationship when your phone buzzed again in your cupholder. You swiped it open.

Two hearts.

Two goals.

You smiled widely, rolling your eyes before giggling like a little girl. You wanted to respond, and your fingers lingered over your screen, but he still had no business being on his phone, and what could you possibly say anyway?? "Nevermind!! Let's get back together despite all the shit you put me through!"

Ugh.

The third period was simultaneously the slowest and quickest 20 minutes of your life.

Rafe was battling, and the other team battled back, getting chippier and chippier as the teams exchanged penalties and breakaways, but the score stayed the same. You could feel the crowd's excitement at the prospect of scraping through this game with a one-goal lead; a good enough result to make them happy, but you couldn't deny the disappointment you felt as you were playing an entirely different game.

As time whittled down you felt yourself getting emotional as the odds were stacked against Rafe, stacked against both of you. Ten minutes. Eight. Five. Three. You could feel the familiar burn of tears behind your eyes as your foot continued to tap, eyes glancing anxiously between Rafe, the bench, the players and the jumbotron that counted down the time unceasingly.

Morgan reached for you, winding her arm around yours and grabbing your hand, a sad smile on her lips. You both knew this wasn't going to happen. There was just no way. You could sense that Rafe could feel it too, he was getting more and more desperate, scrambling after the puck, making sloppy mistakes that made you feel guilty, the most so when the other team scored… tying the game.

And then what felt like the final twist of the knife: with less than 1 minute left, they scored again, capitalizing on the dashed morale of the Eagles to take the lead 3-2. It was like someone sucked the air out of the arena. Rafe was on the ice, on his knees and all of the players looked so defeated.

Fuck fuck fuck was all you could think as they regrouped with their coach to come up with their last play, their last chance to tie the game. You leaned forward, desperately trying to read lips as if you could somehow decipher the plan. The ref blew the whistle and the coach sent guys on the ice, leaving Rafe behind, and your stomach dropped: he wasn't even going to get a chance.

Rafe argued and you could see him yelling and gesturing wildly as the coach yelled back. The ref blew the whistle again and you knew they were dangerously close to getting a delay of game penalty. A ripple of confusion went through the crowd as they watched the argument unfold and you wished you could sink into your seat and disappear.

The coach shouted something that seemed final before Rafe took one look at him, ignored him and skated onto the ice, swapping with Nick who slid onto the bench, head bowed, ashamed, as the coach berated him.

At this point, Rafe had been on the ice way longer than he should have, he was making mistakes, and now he was putting his career, his contract on the line as he stepped up to take the faceoff.

The puck dropped and the battle ensued as the teams fought back and forth. Their team took a shot on goal that had you holding your breath as the time ticked down.

There were less than 20 seconds left as the puck rebounded towards Rafe and he guided it with his stick, taking off down the ice faster than you'd ever seen him skate; in just three strides he had nearly covered the length of the rink, leaving all of the other players trailing behind him as he squared off with the goalie.

"Ten! Nine! Eight!" the crowd shouted.

You were on your feet, grasping Morgan's arm for dear life, certain you were leaving a mark as you continued to hold your breath.

Rafe shot the puck and it hit the goalie's leg pad, but bounded right back to him.

"Three! Two!"

He shot again and the goalie fell forward, but the crowd behind the goalie erupted and the official lit the lamp behind the goal - he had scored.

The puck had slid between the goalie's legs and Rafe exploded with energy, ripping down the ice and jumping into the glass in front of you as his team piled on top of him and the crowd went ballistic as fans threw their hats onto the ice to celebrate his hat trick - three goals scored.

You were jumping and screaming with the other girls, a few tears escaping your eyes in relief and excitement, overwhelmed at the entire situation.

Three goals.

He'd scored three damn goals, a new career record for him. And now they were in overtime.

Period 3: Game tied 3-3. End of regulation play.

"Wait! Wait! What the hell happens now!?" Morgan asked breathless, looking to you as the only girl that knew a thing about the rules.

"Overtime" you huffed, trying to calm yourself. "Another 20 minutes, first team to score wins."

"Was that part of the deal?" she asked.

"It wasn't not part of the deal?" you said. "We didn't really get into specifics" you laughed, rolling your eyes.

You glanced at the bench as both teams hydrated and listened to the coaches. Rafe's teammates were still all over him, smacking his helmet, arms slung around him. The coach said something to him and he put his hands up in surrender as he sat on the bench and his teammates took the ice.

Your eyes were glued to Rafe but unlike before his didn't meet yours and for a second, you didn't know how to take that. You craved that acknowledgement from him, but you also recognized the look on his face; he was totally 100% focused, eyes fixed on the action on the ice. He wants to win you thought. Or maybe his focus was for something else.

Within a few minutes, his line was up and they jumped on the ice. He was playing smart now, conservative, concentrated and gathered, a stark difference from before. He was strong on defense, backing his team up as they played perfectly off of each other, which paid off when Nick stole the puck and shouted as he passed the puck up the boards to Rafe who sprinted after it, just a stride in front of a defender.

"Oh my god" you heard Morgan mutter as everyone stood to their feet and even though the roar of the crowd was deafening, you swore you could hear every scrape of Rafe's skate against the ice, the clatter of the puck as the play moved in slow motion to the beat of your heart.

Another stride and Rafe was alone in the offensive zone, the defender just a hair behind him.

Was this really happening? Was he about to end the game, to score a fourth goal?

Another stride and he was eyeing the goalie, lining up his shot.

He maneuvered his stick and just as he was about to shoot, the defender dove, thrusting his stick in Rafe's path, causing them both to tumble onto the ice and into the goalie, the puck sliding away, abandoned as the refs blew their whistles. No goal.

Rafe was down for only a second before he stood up, grabbed his stick and swung it with full force, snapping it in half over the boards in front of him in rage and frustration, causing the fans behind the glass to jump and spill their beer on each other.

Two of the refs were frantically skating towards him, waving their arms and blowing their whistles, but your eyes drifted to the head referee who was standing next to the officials box, watching a small computer screen, a replay. Almost immediately he nodded, handed back the screen and raised his fisted hands over his head and crossed them and you let out an uncontrollable shout of excitement as you grabbed for Morgan.

"What! Oh my god! What is going on!!?" she shouted back, and all you could do was laugh and shout as you jumped up and down and pointed to the referee.

"You are the ONLY ONE HERE who knows what that means!" she shouted. "What does it mean!!!?"

"A PENALTY SHOT!" you shouted back.

Your eyes shot back to Rafe who had clocked the same thing and was skating back to the bench. The equipment manager handed him a new stick and now the arena was abuzz with the same information as the announcer explained that Rafe would have the chance to score one on one against the goalie, with all of the other players off the ice. A golden opportunity.

The fans were ballistic. You could barely hear yourself think, could barely process your emotions as you struggled onto your tiptoes again to see over the raised hands and jumping fans as Rafe skated methodically to center ice, alone.

He skated back and forth, side to side with crisp turns like a predatory shark before he stopped at center ice, hands on his stick on his knees, eyeing the goalie before his head turned slowly and he looked right at you. Even amidst the chaos, you could see his signature smirk before he refocused and gathered the puck in his stick.

He was going to score.

You just knew it. You knew by the look on his face, by the stride of his skates, by the confidence in his gait.

"He's going to score" you said out loud, quietly, to yourself, a revelation before you turned to Morgan who was solely focused on the scene unfolding on the ice. You tugged on her sleeve, desperate for her to understand the weight of what you had just said.

"He's going to score, Morgan" you said, louder, matter-of-factly.

"Well SHIT I hope so!!!!" she shouted back without looking at you, now completely wrapped up in the game.

She didn't understand.

He was going to score.

And that meant he was going to be yours again.

Your eyes found the ice and you watched as he approached the goalie, goading him out of the goal, faking him out before wrapping the puck around his leg and tipping it upward.

The goalie dove backwards at the last minute and 15,000 fans held their breath as his gloved hand extended, brushing the edge of the puck, causing it to wobble, but without enough force to change the course of fate as the puck swooshed into the net.

The goal lamp lit up.

The goal horn sounded.

And if you thought the arena was loud before, it reached a new level as fans screamed, shouted, jumped up and down and embraced each other.

You felt realization ripple over you, your gaze stuck on the ice. Stuck on the image of the goalie flat on his back, defeated. Stuck to Rafe who had ripped his helmet off, discarded as he let out a roar of victory before getting bombarded by his teammates who piled on him in celebration.

End of OT. Eagles win 4-3.

Morgan yanked you into her by your shoulders, hugging you and jumping up and down, but an unexplainable calm had settled over you, gluing your feet to the ground.

You should be excited, you were, but instead you felt like you were having an out-of-body experience. What the hell had just happened? Rafe had scored four goals, had led his team to the finals. Had he done it for himself? Of course. But wasn't a part of it for you too?

You turned and looked back at the ice, desperate to catch his eye, to talk to him, to figure this out as chaos rained around you. The players skated to center ice with their sticks raised to salute the fans before skating away, Rafe leading them quickly into the tunnel without so much as a look at you. Not even a cheeky smile or a blown kiss, which you used to get after every game. What the fuck.

Morgan shook your shoulder.

"Babes, now what?!" she asked, excited, curious, anxious.

You looked at her, lost. You had no idea. Did you text him? Were you just back together again? How did this work?

The lights dimmed as the announcer drew the crowd back in to introduce the three stars of the game - recognizing the three standout players of the night. The third star was your goalie, who stopped an unimaginable number of shots and you cheered for him as he skated solo onto the ice in a spotlight, taking a spin around the ice before tossing a t-shirt into the crowd to an excited fan.

Your heart was hammering in your chest, your mind incapable of thinking of anything but Rafe. You grabbed your phone. No new texts. The players were all in the locker room by now. Sure, they were partying and celebrating, but if he had time to text you in the middle of the game, couldn't he text you now??

Nick was the second star of the game and you glanced up from your phone to see him doing the familiar skate around the ice, waving to Morgan who blew him a kiss back, but you glanced back at your phone, willing a text to appear, opening and closing your texts, refreshing the app, messing with your wifi. Surely it was the internet connection you thought, now desperate to hear from him.

"Come on Cameron" you murmured to yourself.

"Okay, what is he doing?" you heard Morgan laugh and you looked down to the ice to see Nick still circling around, backwards, forwards, pumping up the crowd who roared around him as he gathered a t-shirt to throw. You were thrilled for him, really, but you resumed your focus on your phone. Should I turn it off and turn it back on again? you thought.

The lights dimmed further and the deep voice of the announcer reverberated, "Ladies and gentlemen, your first star of the game, with an unprecedented four goals, including your game winner--"

"Uhhh YN" you heard Morgan say.

But you were too distracted, too afraid to look away from your phone in case you missed a text coming through.

"--Rafe Cameron!!!" the announcer said, the spotlight shining on the tunnel, and your eyes shot up at the sound of his name, only to find the ice empty.

You felt Morgan tug harshly on your sleeve and when you finally looked back to her your stomach barrel-rolled and your heart shot into your throat.

Standing unmistakably next to her in the aisle was Rafe, still fully suited in his gear and pads, towering over everyone like a giant, his skates traded for his training shoes. Pieces of his hair were clinging to his forehead and his face was rosy with exertion, sweat dripping down his temple in rivulets.

He was smiling confidently at you, and unlike the last time you had seen him in your car, his eyes were unwavering and transfixed on yours, even when the fans around you turned around and noticed he was there, even when phones were whipped out and shouts and cheers went up, he ignored them; he only had eyes for you.

"How--" you started to say, your phone completely forgotten as he started to nudge his way past the people at the end of your row to walk fully into the seats next to you.

"Ohmygod, ohymgod" Morgan was saying as she clambered out of the way of his bulky frame and suddenly he was towering in front of you.

He was breathing heavily; with how quickly he made it up here it was no wonder he had been sprinting off the ice and into the tunnel. His face searched yours, eyes twinkling, flitting over your lips, searching for a sign, a signal, a hint of how you were feeling. And you weren't sure you could have expressed it even if you could form words.

He leaned down next to your ear and you could feel the sweat and the heat radiating off of him.

"That was four" he said, breathless and husky before pulling back, but not as far as before, his nose brushing yours.

The spotlight was sweeping the empty ice, looking for him as the announcer tried awkwardly to fill the air time, wondering where he was.

All you could do was meet his gaze, staring into his crystal blue eyes.

And all you could see was your Rafe.

Sure, he had his issues, but you knew he was sincere, you knew he was trying and you acknowledged that despite everything he was probably the love of your life.

"We didn't agree on overtime goals" you said loudly back at him to be heard over the crowd.

For a moment you could see fear, panic and a hint of hurt cross his face; if you didn't know him as well as you did you wouldn't have seen it, it was nearly indetectable. But he took one look at your sly smile, your blushing cheeks, your eyes rimmed with tears.

"C'mere" he said roughly, ignoring you as his warm and sweaty hands that smelled unmistakably like his gloves grabbed your face and pulled you towards him as his lips enveloped yours, engulfing you, bold, brazen and completely unabashed as he full on made out with you, chaotically, his tongue slipping into your mouth, even when you tried to wiggle away, more out of a sense of decorum than anything as a feeling seeped through every inch of you like he was mending every wound in your body.

He was sweating all over you at this point, but you didn't care. You could feel it dripping on you. You could taste it in his kiss, mixed with the tang of yellow gatorade and your fingers grasped for purchase on his jersey as you tried to balance yourself against the force of him pressing into you.

The crowd around you erupted, as the flash of pictures being taken lit the two of you. He was unrelenting and you could feel yourself flushing as much from his attention as from the heat radiating off of him. It definitely went on longer than it should have, longer than any right-minded couple would have made out in front of thousands of fans before he paused just long enough, his lips still hovering on yours and said through a growl, "You're mine, baby."

taglist: @gillybear17, @palmwinemami, @moremaybank, @one-sweet-gubler, @m-indkiller, @ihe4rttwd, @diary-of-jj, @crlsummer, @jjsbank444, @rafescurtainbangz, @romiiq, @dkjndfnmdfmdmnd, @warriorblu, @ietss, @tiaamberxx, @zyafics, @maybankslover, @saintchxx4, @akirkland, @cameronspecial, @f4ll-for-you, @diduzzula, @user123453226780536, @zizuras, @imabigback, @rowans-posts, @mymultiveres, @drewsphswife, @fangirlwithlou

#rafe cameron #obx rafe cameron #outerbanks rafe #rafe obx #rafe cameron x reader #hockey rafe

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nochukoo97 · 9 months

Text

new beginnings

pairing: ceo!jungkook x figureskater!oc

warnings/summary: oc takes up a new job as a cashier, and she gets a CAT, jk is a little grumpy but he gets better, he’s also annoying by calling oc’s cat a cottonbud LOL, he calls her sweetheart, and oc has a little crushy crush on this hot neighbour, they bump into each other three times, basically they’re destined to meet each other even when they barely know each other

word count: 2.4k+ / TAGLIST OPEN

series masterlist!

“Goddamn, how many pieces of clothing do you own?” Yeji grunts as she helps to pull along two of your suitcases into her apartment’s lift.

“It’s all costumes for my competitions, my coach keeps insisting to keep them in case we need it in the future,” You internally sigh at the thought of your coach, she wasn’t bad by all means, but she constantly pushed you to your limits with countless competitions she enrolled you in. But after all, you didn’t come to Seoul and join the national team expecting a smooth and comfortable journey.

“Anyways, you’ve gotta tap the card right here,” She explains the whole crazy security system here, then passes you the access card to the apartment. One week ago you would’ve probably not expected to be in this situation, now moving in with your best friend, as well as her boyfriend who has begun to sleepover at her place more often than necessary. But right now if it meant that less money would fall out of your bank account, putting up with whatever third-wheeling you were about to go through would make it all worth it.

You pull your other two suitcases into the lift, noticing a man shuffling into the corner to make space for the two of you and your four huge suitcases. The lift door closes and there’s this deafening silence that fills the lift, with the way Yeji widens her eyes at you but says nothing, you assume it might be about the latter standing in the corner of the lift.

“What kind of signals were you trying to send me in there?” You whine when the lift door finally closes, as Yeji abandons the now-rolling-away suitcases to grab onto your hands.

“It’s rolling!” You exclaim, as she jumps slightly, your voice raising a little louder than usual in panic.

“Sorry-sorry, anyways, he’s the guy I told you about! Maybe I can set you up with him,” She wiggles her eyebrows at you, giving you the same taunting look she did when she had proposed moving into her apartment.

“No! I don’t even know that man, anyways with those looks he might already be taken,” You brush your best friend off, anyways, you didn’t want a relationship right? When Yeji had told you about the hot guy in her apartment, you had immediately brushed the idea of being set up off, since that’s exactly how you met your ex, and it definitely did not end on a good note.

“Oh, so you’re attracted to him?” She jogs in front of you to look you in the eye, seemingly much more excited at her sudden discovery than you.

“What? No I didn’t say that? I just- whatever! Open the door!”

She only smirks at your stuttering, but complies as she opens the front door to her unit, and you’re greeted with a familiar sight that you now need to get used to calling home.

People had always praised you for being dainty and sweet, always dressed up in elegant costumes during your competitions, your moves on ice had always charmed the audience with how smooth you twirled and jumped.

You would like to say that they might change their minds when they spot you in this current situation: no makeup on, eyebags peeking through, in a neon green vest as you stare at the rows of cigarettes behind the cashier.

The younger you would have never expected to end up working part time in this convenience store, but here you are.

But somehow it didn’t seem too bad, you were the only worker here, besides a sweet lady who comes and sweeps the floor every evening, and the best part: you got to control the music.

To be honest, you may have been enjoying yourself a little too much with the way you hum to the music as you drink the complimentary-one-a-day coffee your manager had given you.

“One pack of menthol,” Your sudden peace is abruptly disrupted as you whip your head around, jumping slightly as you hear the voice sound from behind you.

Oh. It’s the same man from the lift, this time he’s wearing another suit in a different colour, but this time he seems much more drained than before.

“I said-” He repeats himself again, noticing your spaced out look as you stare straight at him.

“Oh, yeah! Sorry sorry, it’s been a long day,” You quickly gather yourself, mentally cursing yourself for checking out the man in front of you so shamelessly, but he only scoffs at your little mistake.

He’s either a total dickhead or is just having a bad day. Hopefully its the latter since as much as you hate to admit it, maybe he perhaps has caught your attention.

But the same man quickly walks out of the store the moment you return his black credit card, as you’re now once alone in the store, gathering your things to finally end your shift.

It’s only a few days later where you meet your next crisis, or rather a blessing in disguise.

An innocent trip to the local fair turned into you signing adoption papers for this fluffy little furball that you absolutely could not leave. To be fair, you were mainly there to find some cute accessories to buy, but the newly put up adoption booth had caught your eye.

The moment your eyes had met the beady little eyes of the small white cat, you couldn’t say no. Even if it meant paying thrice your income from working at the convenience store, anything would be worth this cat.

But then again, your heart sank further once the lady at the counter had told you the animals put up were free to adopt, or else they would be euthanised the following day. It almost made you attempt to calculate just how much it would cost to take care of all the animals here, but in the end you had settled to just bring the cat home.

“Yeji, hypothetically how mad would you be on a scale of 1 to 10 if I brought a cat home?” You press your phone in between your shoulder and cheek as you wrap the little cat in its blanket, snuggling the animal close to your chest in hopes to provide it more warmth.

“You’re kidding me right now,” You hear her sigh at the other end, “What makes you think we can raise a cat? Let alone you working night shifts and being out at training in the day?”

She wasn’t wrong, but you’re pretty sure it’ll all be okay.

“Trust me, the lady managing the adoption booth told me cats are way more independent, we can get her an automatic feeder and I’ll need to get a litter box too, and maybe some toys and treats on the side too…”

She sighs again, “And that’ll cost a gajillion dollars, where are you going to get that from?”

“I’ll find a way, trust me,”

Truth to be told, the package deal you had got for litter and food was a little more pricey than you had anticipated, but you were confident that it would save you money in the future anyways.

Cloud, the newly named cat, of which you spent many hours deciding on a name for her, was easier to handle than expected, she often played with the little gadget toy Yeji had got her, and learnt how to use her litterbox in a day, which made you come to a conclusion that you had raised a genius.

But yet your oh-so-smart furkid may also be a little too intelligent, the absence of a certain cat in the apartment has now caused your anxiety and hysteria.

“How did she manage to escape with us not noticing again! The last time I saw her crawl through your legs but this time I swear she disappeared into thin air!” You’re on the verge of tears as you tell Yeji, who only rubs her palm up and down your back as a offering of comfort.

“But you’ve got her tagged up, your number and her name is attached to her collar, I’m sure anyone who finds her will definitely call you immediately,” She tells you, watching as you now begin to hiccup, tears forming and rolling down your cheeks.

“What if she got run down by a car? Or some psychopath who hates cats found her? Oh my poor baby, she must be missing me already,” There’s a million different scenarios that play through your head, all leading to Cloud ending up in nowhere else but cat heaven.

“She’ll be fine, calm down, my friend’s cat often runs out of the house but the cat always returns every few days, some of them prefer to go out and explore, perhaps Cloud is the same,”

You can only sigh and hope for the best.

unknown number: hey

unknown number: did you lose a cat?

You gasp to yourself when your eyes scan the new text that had appeared on your screen, someone had found her.

you: YES

you: DON’T DO ANYTHING TO HER PLEASE

you: i promise ill pay anything for you not to do anything

Your heart beats frantically in your chest watching the three dots appear and disappear over and over again. There was no way a psychopath had truly found Cloud and already decided to perform whatever possible traumatic procedure on her right?

unknown number: why would i do anything to it??

unknown number: in fact your cat is the one who had run into my apartment and marked her territory all over.

Oh. That was the last thing you had expected.

you: do you have a litter box in your house?

The three dots taunt you as they appear once and pause for a good minute, as if whoever is on the other side is pondering hard to answer your simple question.

unknown number: what kind of question is that??

unknown number: i dont own a cat, why tf would i own a litter box??

You frown at the reply, you were grateful he didn’t do anything to Cloud, but a simple no would be great.

you: just send me your address!!

you: i need to see if she’s alright, she probably is crying for me right now

unknown number: it’s sleeping peacefully under my bed right now, i dont think its upset at all.

unknown number: here’s the address: xxx

You sigh in relief when you realise it’s the unit above your apartment, which meant she couldn’t have gone too far.

you: first of all, you never know if she’s crying in her heart

you: second of all, stop calling Cloud an it!!! she has a name and she is a girl

you: third of all, im coming upstairs im in the same apartment complex

You roll your eyes when a reply comes in faster than it did before, mostly because it’s an insult to your cat:

unknown number: who names a cat cloud?? she looks more like a cotton bud, hurry and get her.

When you reach the floor above you, you’re met with a black door, no doorbell in sight. So you simply knock, sure that it had been the person that found Cloud since it was the only unit on the floor.

What you didn’t expect is to be met with the same man you saw whilst working at the convenience store. Instead he’s in a loose shirt and some shorts, hair not styled as a few pieces of bangs fall over his eyes. His presence daunts you a little, considering how darkly lit his place was, and how he towered over you.

“Oh? So we meet again,” He seems to recognise you as he steps aside, watching as you take off your bedroom slippers, which you now curse at yourself for wearing since it was pink and fluffy.

You think you hear a little laugh when he spots your slippers but you choose to believe he didn’t anyways.

“Where is my baby?” You step in now, taking in the view of his place. It’s a little larger than Yeji’s apartment, and the interior seems… lacking some colour. It’s mostly black and grey furniture, with hints of marble and some white chairs here and there, but it’s a total opposite of your apartment.

“Don’t think she cares enough to be your baby, but your baby pissed all over my balenciaga shoes and my dumbbells,” He deadpans, nodding his head to show you the dark pair of shoes that now hang at the window, you assume to dry them out.

“Your what shoes?!” You almost turn pale at the mention of the designer brand, there’s no way he might ask you to get him a new pair right?

“Forget about that, go and get Cottonbud out of my room,” He walks into the hallway, looking back once to check if you follow him.

“What did you just call her?!” You yell at him from behind as he enters a room, a bed coming into sight and a much too familiar tail that sticks out from under the bed.

“Cloud!” You’re far too busy attempting to reunite with your cat to bother hearing another reply from the man, but the moment you come closer to the swaying tail, Cloud dashes away from your grasp and hides at the very deep end from under the bed.

“Looks like someone isn’t too keen on seeing you,”

You whip around, a frown on your face as you are met with the man who smirks, almost taunting you.

“Shut up,”

“What’re you gonna do now then? The cat’s gone further under the bed, I can’t reach there either,” He has his hands on his hips, standing and waiting for your reply.

His gaze and posture makes you feel small, and not having a single clue what to do fuels this feeling in you. And perhaps add some butterflies in too and it’ll perfectly describe how you are feeling.

“I- I don’t know! I’ve never had to deal with this situation before!” You’re pacing up and down, glancing at the bed, hoping Cloud would magically pop out and leap into your arms so you can run home away from this man.

“Well I’ve got all day sweetheart, you can slowly find a way to get Cottonbud out of my house,”

“Her name is not Cottonbud!”

“Whatever,”

TAGLIST: @skzthinker @cherrysainttt @vminkookgf @lilaissa @jjeonjjk7 @armystay89 @canyon-lwt @junecat18

#jungkook fluff #jungkook #jungkook x reader #jungkook au #jungkook ff #jungkook smut #jungkook x oc #bts #boyfriend jungkook #jungkook scenario #jungkook imagine #jungkook imagines #jungkook fanfic #jungkook scenarios #bts jungkook #jungkook angst #jungkook drabble #jungkook x you

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memecucker · 2 years

Text

The relationship between colonialism and religion is more complicated than the Civilization game where you’re trying to score a religious victory and it’s easier to convert places you conquer.

It’s not a matter of religion being imposed purely for the purpose of religion being imposed even if that may have been the personal motives of individual colonizers because even if there was a truly missionary motive these missions could only exist insofar as it was economically sustainable and oftentimes this takes the form of exploitation of the indigenous population.

Also the flat conception of religious colonialism overlooks how as colonialism progressed as a type of “social technology” there was in many places a shift away from seeking to replace indigenous organized religions (if they were present in the first place) towards recruiting the indigenous religious authorities to the colonial side.

Like for example with the colonies of the Iberian powers there was no separation of church and state and I don’t just mean in the sense of “the state imposed religious dogma and the church officially endorsed the state” I mean basic everyday functions of the state relied upon services of the church. Eg; If a colonial Governor wanted to say, requisition corvee labor from villages for a building project and he wished to know the populations of these villages in order to decide which to pull laborers he wouldn’t be looking at any state mandated census but instead would rely upon the archives and records of the Catholic Church because records would be kept of church attendance. If the governor wanted to hunt some rebel named “Diego of San Juan” he’d look at baptismal records to find examples of people named “Diego” and who they’re related to.

This meant that Spanish and Portuguese colonialism had an actual material interest in enforcing religious homogeneity and Catholic supremacy because that’s how their colonial states functioned. The colonial bureaucracy was in fact synonymous with the Church’s bureaucracy and so if some people weren’t Catholic they existed outside the Church which meant they existed (at least partially) outside the State. One example that’s a bit relevant is the original version the “National Commission on Indigenous Peoples” in the Philippines was set up during the American occupation and was called “Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes” because the groups in question are largely people who existed outside of direct Spanish colonial control (and wouldve been labeled “savages” in the 19th century) and hence “non-Christian”.

Anyway in the case of the Portuguese colonial empire in Asia this wound up being part of the reason for its collapse. By making their state function in the requirement that it’s subjects be observant Catholics the Portuguese had a lot of trouble making allies because if indigenous elites could be persuaded to convert then great but if they didn’t then they were gonna get really pissed off especially when they start hearing the Portuguese are torturing people under their rule that feel the same. And so without a network of allies the Portuguese colonial empire in Asia began to fall apart leaving only Goa, Macau and East Timor. Elsewhere the Portuguese had been replaced by the Dutch, English and French all of whom had systems of governance which was not as so dependent on doctrinal supremacy as the Iberians eg; the Dutch agreed to help the Shogunate put down a Christian revolt in 1638 and the East India Company actually banned Christian missionaries from operating in its territories until 1813 when Parliament forced them to allow Christian missionaries to preach.

Now of course the EIC example is in particular interesting because what you’re basically seeing is the colonial state shedding its reliance on the Christian Church in favor of courting the support of indigenous religious leaders and recruiting them into the colonial apparatus but at the same time you have churches seeking to operate whats can be considered a type of “rival” colonial project that would have an almost parasitic relationship in that the churches profited in their own way while also in a way undermining the local legitimacy of the official colonial state.

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musings-of-a-rose · 7 months

Text

Falling Slowly - Chapter 7

Pairing: Tommy Miller x f!reader

Word Count: 4000+

Rating: Mature - 18+ ONLY!

Warnings: Just like ao3, “creator chooses not to use warnings.” If you click Keep Reading, that means you agree that you’re the age to handle mature themes. Also by clicking Keep Reading, you understand warnings may not be complete in order to avoid spoilers for the story.

Notes: This chapter is back to reader/Daisy’s pov

**If you want to be added to the taglist, join here or let me know!

❤If you enjoy the fic, please consider giving me a warm beverage! (It is not required in any way!)

**Divider made by @benkeibear

**Reader is not described

Main Masterlist

Falling Slowly Masterlist

Tommy Miller Masterlist

<<;Chapter 6<<

Outbreak Day: Daisy

I snuggled into bed after tucking Jax in, fully intending on reading my book until Tommy came home. It shouldn’t be too much longer, depending on how well the Rivieras can hold their liquor. But after a couple of chapters, I was actively fighting on keeping my eyes open, a day of packing and chasing Jax around finally catching up to me. I set the book on my stomach, closing my eyes to just rest a moment…

A blood curdling scream from outside rips me from my sleep and I jerk myself awake, heart racing and frozen in place while I try to listen for more, my hand automatically feeling for Tommy in the bed next to me, but feeling cool sheets and no Tommy. In the distance, I can hear some light commotion but I can’t quite place it. I quickly get out of bed, grab the wireless phone off its stand on the side table and pop my head into Jax’s room, finding him still asleep. I dial Tommy quickly, but when I put the phone to my ear, all I hear is beeping. I hang up, putting the phone to my ear before dialing this time and hear the same sound. Which means the phones are down.

Fuck.

I head downstairs quietly, ears on full alert for the slightest sound or movement as I grab my cell phone and unplug the charger. It’s fully charged but it too has no signal. This is not good. Landlines and cell signals cut?

I move to the living room and switch on the tv, colored lines reflecting in my eyes as channel after channel alternates between colored lines and displaying the same emergency message:

NATIONAL ALERT

PRIMARY ENTRY POINT SYSTEM

ISSUED AN

EMERGENCY ACTION

NOTIFICATION

“...indoors. Law enforcement and emergency services are in the area and will be in contact with further instructions….Stay indoors. Law enforcement-”

I switch off the tv, fully awake and alert now. What the fuck was going on? Are we being invaded? And where’s Tommy?

I hear more sounds outside, car doors slamming and helicopters moving about in the distance and it jerks me into gear. Tommy had taught me some basic things to do in case we had to get out fast, in case of an invasion or something else. I don’t know all of what he saw when he served overseas but he said it was good to always be prepared, just in case.

Thankfully, our bags were already packed, suitcases and backpacks against the hall wall waiting to be put into Tommy’s truck. I dashed into the kitchen and packed a bit more food than I had initially intended, tossing some extra filled water bottles into a tote and setting it down by the backpacks. I quickly went upstairs and changed into jeans and a shirt, grabbing one of Tommy’s flannels and sliding my arms into it, trying to at least get some comfort from his scent. Hair pulled back to keep it from my face, I lace up my shoes, trying to tell myself this would all be for nothing, that it was really a test and Tommy would be coming home any moment to tell me everything was fine. Another quick glance at Jax shows me he’s still asleep and I let him sleep for now. There’s not really a reason to wake him until I’m certain we have to move. I toss an extra outfit of jeans and a shirt in his backpack just in case he can’t change before we head out, an extra pair of shoes stuffed in a bag on top of his clothes.

It’s when I head downstairs to wait for Tommy that I hear it again, that scream that sets my entire body on high alert, nerves coursing at their full fight or flight.

I move to the front window and slide the curtain back just enough to peek outside, hearing crashing coming from next door. I can’t quite make it out, but it looks like Mr. Johnson is attacking Mrs. Johnson? No, that can’t be right. But then they move into the streetlight, Mrs. Johnson’s scream ringing out again and that’s definitely the one I heard and Mr. Johnson is definitely not behaving right.

Without thinking, I grab the baseball bat near the door and open it, stepping out into the yard and quickly sneak up on the couple, Mr. Johnson having pinned Mrs. Johnson to the ground. He’s hunched over her, an odd wheezing sound coming from him. He seems to sense me, his body stiffening and when his head turns towards me…what the fuck is that coming from his mouth? Before he can move I swing, my bat landing its target square in the face, Mr. Johnson flying back and laying still on the ground. Carefully, I walk over to them, glancing over at Mr. Johnson who’s face was definitely smashed in from my swing. Fuck, I didn’t mean to kill him!

But then I hear gurgling from Mrs. Johnson and I look down at her, seeing the exact moment when the light leaves her eyes. She’s still for a moment, the sounds of car tires screeching and helicopters flying overhead getting a little louder. Then her body jerks inhumanely, and I back up quickly, gripping the bat tighter in my hand. As she sits up, she turns her head to me and I can see the same whatever the fuck coming out of her mouth just like Mr. Johnson and my entire body yells “JAX! GET JAX AND GO!”

So I do. I turn and run as fast as I can back to my house, hearing screeching and feet pounding the cement behind me, Mrs. Johnson chasing me back to the house. I try to slam the door closed but she’s there, bouncing off of it, scrambling to push it open and I don’t wait, running down the hall and throwing everything I can reach in her way, even chucking the bat at her head. It seems to slow her down just enough for me to take the stairs 3 at a time, launching myself into Jax’s room and slamming the door shut and locking it, putting my back against the door as Mrs. Johnson screeches and pounds at the door from the other side. Jax is sitting up in bed, wide eyed and afraid and it kills me I can’t move to him, to comfort him and shield him from whatever horror is happening.

“Hey buddy!” I’m struggling with the door but I have to get him safe.

“Mommy?”

“Listen, Jax. I need you to play a game for me, ok? I need you to get in your favorite hiding spot.”

“Mommy, who’s knocking on the door?”

I dig my heels into the floor, pushing my back harder against the door as Mrs. Johnson continues to pound into it.

“Don’t worry about that, little man. I need you to hide. Can you do that for me? Be silent and wait for me, daddy, or Uncle Joel to come get you. If you do, you win.”

He’s still scared but can sense my urgency and nods while hopping out of bed. “Ok, mommy. Hug first?”

Tears fall down my cheeks and I hope he can’t see them. “Not right now, bud. I really need you to hide and not come out for anything other than daddy or Uncle Joel. Can you do that now, please?”

He studies me for a moment before nodding. “Ok mommy.” He moves to his closet, getting inside and closing the door behind him. I hear him rummaging around, going deep into his favorite hiding place and I pray to whatever is listening that he will stay there, stay safe. Even if….even if I don’t come back.

“Ready bud?” A quiet, muffled “Yes” meets my ears and I choke back a sob. “Ok baby, remember to stay silent, ok? No matter what. Until Daddy or Uncle Joel comes for you. And remember…. I love you bud.”

“I love you too, mommy.”

The sob gets stuck in my throat as Mrs. Johnson heaves herself against the wood of the door. I take a deep breath and open the door, letting Mrs. Johnson clamber into the room, falling onto the floor with the force of her movements. While she’s trying to get up, I grab Jax’s Rangers bat from where it hangs on the wall, my eyes never leaving Mrs. Johnson as she growls and launches herself at me. I push her back with the bat but damn she’s strong, what I can only describe as tendrils coming from her open mouth as if they’re trying to reach out to me. I push her back and she stumbles, hitting the floor and I turn, running out of the door and making a lot of noise as I do. She follows me without hesitation, falling down the stairs but clambering up more quickly than someone her age should do. She chases me around the kitchen island and I pull out all the drawers, knocking everything off the counter onto the floor or at her as she runs after me, growling and screeching. I manage to make it past her and back out the front door, quickly glancing around before running to the backyard of our other neighbor’s house.

Mrs. Johnson bounces back up, running full out after me as I run through 2, 3, 4, 5 backyards, eventually spilling back out onto the street, other people now outside throwing things into cars. New screeches join the one coming from behind me and I run the opposite way down the street, making sure to stay out of the streetlights. I get behind a car and squat down, turning to look where I came from. Mrs. Johnson had chased me for another block down this street, but then a man emerged from the house across that street and she changed course, lunging after him as he screamed, sounds of a scuffle coming from inside his house.

I take a moment, my chest heaving, trying to catch my breath before glancing around. I’m about 3 blocks from our house and I have a choice to make: I can either take the streets, which will be brighter to see by but definitely have a higher chance of running into those…things. Or I can take the backyards, infinitely darker but less likely to run into whatever they are. I hope.

I decide on the latter, taking a couple of deep breaths before glancing around. Seeing no one paying me any mind, I run, back through a few backyards before reaching the end of my street. I turn to duck into the backyard but a movement catches my eye and I’m able to quickly turn as a man falls past me, growling, outstretched hands just barely missing me. I run again, in the opposite direction of my house, trying to keep him away from Jax at least, the man chasing me as I run down the street. The cramp in my side is making me slow, reverberating pain shooting out into the rest of my ribs and I know I can’t keep this up. I spot a semi-truck without its trailer and I head for it, getting a running leap and praying I make it. I manage to get high enough up on the front to pull myself up quickly, but then a hand shoots out and grabs my ankle. I quickly kick out, knocking the man in the face and he goes down, pulling me with him. My back hits the pavement and the air whooshes from my lungs, momentarily stunning me. My vision swims but then he’s on me, his face leaning towards mine, tendrils reaching for me and I put my arms out, and push against him, gluing my mouth shut as he pushes closer to me. Then my hands land on a rock and I grip it, slamming it into the side of his head. He slides off me sideways and I raise the rock again, sitting up and slamming it into his head over and over until he stops moving.

Fuck I hope this doesn’t infect via blood. I really, really hope it doesn’t.

I don’t have time to think about it, my sole focus on getting back to Jax and getting him safe. Even if that means I have to…get rid of myself.

I stand up, glancing around and figuring out where I am, silently moving back towards my house through the backyards, listening closely for any sounds of movement. Thank God I run into no one else, moving around the front of my house and heading inside. I really made a mess in here but hopefully that deters anyone else from coming in. Not that those things really care. I go upstairs and see Jax’s door still open from when Mrs. Johnson chased me out, what feels like days ago. But then I see Jax’s closet door cracked open and it definitely wasn’t open when I left.

“Jax? Jax, it’s Mommy

. Are you still there?” I open the door, holding my breath, tears silently flowing down my cheeks and burning my eyes, praying that I don’t find him here, hurt. But then…he’s not here. I look around the rest of his room. No Jax.

“Jax?” I yell out of his bedroom door, my voice echoing around the upstairs. Nothing. No noise, no movement. I check every room to be sure but find nothing. I’m freaking out, no idea if Tommy or Joel came back and got him or…or.

I can’t think about the or.

I stand in my destroyed kitchen, debating on what to do next, when my eyes land on the table, my backpack on it. Which is definitely not where I left it. I quickly walk over to it, shifting it slightly and that’s when I notice the piece of paper on it with his handwriting.

Tommy’s.

Hey Darlin’,

We’ve got Jax and Sarah. We’re heading to the cabin. We’ll meet you there.

Please be safe. I love you.

Tommy

I clutch the paper and hold it to my chest for several moments, allowing the tears to freely flow as I hold on to the hope that this letter brought me. He’s safe. Jax is safe with his dad. Joel and Sarah too. I wonder if they found Rose….

Snapping my eyes open, I shake my head to clear it of my emotions, carefully folding the note and sliding it into my pocket. I quickly run upstairs and pop into Jax’s room, quickly grabbing his favorite stuffed bunny from his bed where he laid unpacked and forgotten in the hustle to get to safety.

I toss the luggage into my trunk, grabbing my backpack last and tossing it into the passenger seat. I take one last quick glance around, grabbing some photos from the fridge before I manually open the garage door, hopping into the driver’s seat and locking the door and my clicking my seatbelt into place. At the end of my driveway I look back to my house, our house, and allow 1 tear to shed down my cheek as I pull away from the only house that had truly been my home.

I had to re-route myself several times trying to get to the back highway that would eventually lead to the cabin we’d purchased a year or so ago. It seems like a lifetime away with all that’s happened in the last few hours. I stop for no one, my only goal to make it to the cabin to my family. Then we can go from there.

Miraculously, I make it to the nearly hidden drive without a hitch, grateful Tommy had taken us on several back roads so I was more familiar with alternate routes. I hadn’t seen another car or person in at least 2 hours, but that was normal. Most people had closed up their cabins for season after Labor Day, and no one really went down this road aside from random homesteaders or a handful of farmers. I wonder if they’re ok.

I nearly miss the turnoff, stopping quickly and backing up a little to turn between the brush, branches, and twigs snapping at my car. I make the final curve and the cabin pops into view, looking exactly like it had when we left it last.

No lights. No truck.

No Tommy.

I turn off the car, staring at the cabin for several minutes, but nothing happens. No one is here. Or at least, no one noticed I am here. Or made a move about it. Well, there was only one thing to do. I took a deep breath and got out, moving around towards the trunk and getting out the crowbar stashed by the spare tire. I grip it and head towards the cabin, eyes scanning everything to sense movement. I quietly try to turn the handle on the front door, but it remains locked. Sliding the key from my pocket, hands shaking I push it into the lock, hearing the little click it makes as it opens the door. I push it open and stand back, just in case. But the house is still and silent as I poke my head around the corner. I move throughout the cabin, checking all of the rooms. No one is here and, by the looks of it, no one has been here since we were here last. He’s supposed to be here, with Jax, with Joel and Sarah and maybe Rose. Where are they?

The cabin is quiet, eerily silent and I try not to let panic envelop me. They could have had to reroute like me. Maybe they ran out of gas and have to go on foot? I didn’t pass anyone but they could be behind me. Or hiding from the main road. Because regular people were behaving almost worse than those things.

I jump into action, quickly unloading my car into the cabin and parking it in the garage. I take the outside broom, and the shotgun Tommy had kept here, and walk down to the end of the nearly hidden drive, sweeping the tire tracks from the drive. This will help to keep this place hidden, and it’s far enough away from the road that even if all the lights were on and it was dark outside, no one could see us tucked away in the trees. A couple hours later my tracks are hidden and I’ve checked the power grid how Tommy showed me, grateful as fuck to the Joneses for wanting a fully off the grid place and having most of that installed before they sold it to us for practically nothing. I leave the fancy electric metal window coverings on the windows, changing nothing of the cabin’s outward appearance. People were nuts and, as of this moment, I am a woman, completely alone in the middle of nowhere.

Alone.

Everything locked up and lights dimly on, I quickly take a shower and again, thank the Joneses mentally for the solar power they hooked up so I could take this shower and have some light. After, I unpacked our suitcases, hesitating over Jax’s clothes. He usually sleeps in the 3rd bedroom with Sarah. She was officially going to let him have the top bunk this weekend and he was so excited. I start to cry then, pulling out all of his tiny clothes and, instead, folding them and setting them on shelves in our closet. I can always move them into the spare room if he wants it. It’s when I reach Tommy’s suitcase, opening it and getting a whiff of his cologne, his scent permeating my brain that I lose it, officially. Grabbing a shirt of Jax’s and Tommy’s, I lay on the floor and cry, huge heaving sobs until I fall asleep there, clutching each of their shirts to my chest.

They don’t turn up the next day. Or the next. I try to keep myself busy so I pull out all of the bed sheets, fluff them out and put them on the beds. I dust, cleaning everything that was already clean. I take out all of the food I’d brought with me, along with some sustainable things we already had there and take stock. I do the same with the medicine cabinet and first aid kits. Hell, I even dig out the sewing kit and fix the tiny tear on the side of the couch. But by the end of that first week, I could no longer find anything to do inside, my nerves leaving me jumpy at every gust of the wind.

So I go outside. I check over the greenhouse and the root cellar, making note that the self watering system seems to have worked on most of the vegetable plants. Reading my gardening journal, I see that I should plant some things soon, so I pull out my little box of seeds and get to work, planting what needs done both in the greenhouse and the root cellar. This takes me nearly another full week, as I decided to clean it up a bit and reorganize things.

2 weeks and still nothing. No one.

I wasn’t running out of food per say, but I knew adding 5 more mouths to feed would bring us to the end of our stores pretty quick. So I tried my hand at fishing, which was not really my forte. I did manage to catch a couple, but I would need a lot more than a couple small/medium fish. Well, practice makes at least better, which is what I tell myself as I work at it for the next few days, eventually getting a little better and finding a better spot to fish from. I had found a homesteading book on the shelf that showed me how to prepare fish, so I followed that and froze a bunch, hoping this would at least help when they showed up.

I never strayed far from the cabin, afraid that if I did, they would show up and leave, assuming I wasn’t there. I didn’t want to miss them again and every time I thought about how I had missed them back in Austin, I wanted to cry and scream and throw things. I really wasn’t sure what to do other than what I was doing - preparing and waiting. I had no idea where they were, or if they were… no, they were alive. I could feel it. But even if I wanted to go find them, where would I start? The more I thought on this, the less I knew, driving every possible route in my head but nothing with a clear path to finding them.

5 weeks. Well, almost 5 weeks. Still alone.

His scent is fading from his clothes, the flannel I kept with me and hold at night barely smelling like him. I had put others in storage bags, hoping that I would only have to pull them out to give them to Jax and Tommy and not just so I could smell them and feel, just for a moment, like they are here.

I pull Tommy’s flannel top tighter around me, shifting the covers a little higher on my shoulders when I hear it - an engine.

I sit bolt upright, my ears straining to listen to what was obviously getting closer. I hadn’t heard anything since I came here, not even a truck passing on the road. I hop out of bed and quickly grab the shotgun, my heart racing along with my brain, the many possibilities of who is out there swirling around enough to drive me crazy. I shake my head a little and look out of the peep hole in the front door. A car pulls up slowly, not one I recognize. The sun was just rising, not enough light to see inside the vehicle. If it were bad people, surely they would’ve brought a truck? Maybe not. But then the side door opens, and a mop of black curls gets out of the backseat and my heart stops, breath seizing my lungs as the person straightens out, gripping a shotgun in his hands as he turns towards the cabin and a sob ripples through me as I rip open the door, standing there for a moment in utter shock as my eyes lay on him. My other half, the love of my life.

Tommy.

>>Chapter 8>>

General Taglist:

@frankie-catfish-morales @chaoticgeminate @janebby @astoryisaloveaffair @balekanemohafe @greeneyedblondie44 @hoeforthefictional @marvelousmermaid @hauntedmama @giuliarogers @icanbeyourjedi @wretchedmo @sunnshineeexoxo @livingmydreams13 @adventures-of-a-noodle @sara-alonso @theewokingdead @punkerthanpascal @giggly-otter @f0rever15elf @phandoz @dirtytissuebox @gallowsjoker @lovesbiggerthanpride @sarahmilesbendrix @booksarekindaneat @mrsudontknowme @swol-bear @charlispersonallyhell @xoxabs88xox @amneris21 @gooddaykate @alindeluce @avengers-fixation @paintballkid711 @harriedandharassed @ladykatakuri @marrianena @practicalghost @withakindheartx @batdarkladyvampir @justanotherkpopstanlol @mermaidxatxheart @alexxavicry @ichigodjarin @justreblogginfics @sullyosully @kmc1989 @veryprairieberry @mysterious-moonstruck-musings

#tommy miller #gabriel luna #The last of us #tommy miller x you #tommy miller x f!reader #tommy miller x female reader #tommy miller x reader #tlou #tlou fanfic #tlouff #the last of us fanfic #gabriel luna x reader #gabriel luna x you #gabriel luna characters character fanfic #gabriel luna character ff #gabriel luna character fanfiction

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odditycircus-2002 · 3 months

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Hmm, any chance you could do some hcs with a Fem Mummy! Reader x Quan Chi (MK1) with the basic premise being that the reader was revived by Quan Chi and is actually happy with being alive (or at least close to it) and as a result is loyal to him and later fell in love?

A/N: I can indeed!😄 Hope you don’t mind, but I’m a fan of Corpse Bride and Imhotep from Brendan Fraser's "The Mummy".

Eternally Loyal

Admittedly, you were caught off guard when pulled from your eternal rest, only to be thrust to life once more. Yet it was soon replaced with sheer joy when realizing you are walking among the Land of the Living again. By the looks of it, you had the mysterious pale necromancer that stood above you, your now beating and glowing heart in his hand.

He introduced himself as Quan-chi, the most powerful sorcerer in Outworld, Master of the Dead, and now your reanimator. You sincerely thank him for bringing you back to life, as you had only begun to achieve your true ambitions and plans. Quan-chi suggests that you may still be able to after you settle your debt with him. According to your House's tradition, those who save a member of the House of L/N are now indebted to the first. Bringing life back to your revived corpse counts as keeping one's life in your book.

You don't doubt that, with your reanimation, you were undoubtedly gone for a long while and thus in a whole new world and unknown territory. You figured it'd be best to make nice with your guide if you want to gain any advantage.

Quan-chi smirked when you inevitably questioned how you could repay your new debt to him.

"You can start by serving under me until I deem your debt repaid in full."

"On your soul then..."

Which Quan-chi agreed, but whether or not he was sincerely remained to be seen.

Quan-chi had made it so you had to occasionally steal and absorb body parts from others to remain alive and whole. While Quan-chi resurrected your heart and soul and used to influence your actions, they can keep you tethered to the mortal plane for so long without refueling. So you keep yourself wrapped up as you were to not reveal your constantly rotting and healing body.

But even with such a weakness, you have been given strength as Quan-chi gifted you with the ability to drain the moisture out of anything by touch alone (excluding himself), control over sand, and become sand, your preexisting telekinetic abilities.

Since then, you have loyally served under Quan-chi, executing every order and task with near perfection without question. Fervently hanging on to his every word and feat of magic so you may one day use it for yourself when you feel the time is right. You also had no issue cutting down any of your fellow minions if you think they are disobedient to your master. To which Quan-chi is not against, even with one of the demons from his Sisterhood of Shadow. In fact, he's growing fond of your usefulness and how you serve him well.

As powerful as Ermac turned out to be, he was ultimately a failure in Quan-chi's eyes. The same applies to Ashrah, whom Quan-chi could not control. Which is a shame to the sorcerer, as both were powerful tools. Oh well, if you do not succeed at first, try again.

In comes you, a mummified Edenian Noble renowned for her ruthlessness, problem-solving, and tenacity during a warring era before Sindel’s Golden Era. Who has (yet) to disobey him. Unfortunately, you were cut down in your prime on the eve you were to marry your betrothed to secure an alliance with another nation. A shame, really, as you had plans for the future. But you're just happy to be alive.

It helps that Quan-chi praises you whenever you perform a task well for him, such as uncovering lost grimoires, to encourage you to continue aiding him and fulfilling your debt. Eventually, Quan-chi awards your efforts with gifts such as flowers or a new robe as you continuously serve him well in his quest to overthrow Liu Kang. With each gift, you could've sworn you felt your heart beating within your chest, and not hiding on Quan-chi's person.

Often, he would converse with you about his studies and discoveries, doing most of the talking as you just listened and reacted. You couldn't help but notice how Quan-chi treats you more amiably, almost as much as he is with Shang Tsung, his fellow sorcerer. Perhaps even as a companion, as he prefers to have you follow him for his tasks the most. You like to think its because the Sorcerer has the same admiration for you as you do for him, as silly as it sounds and which you would be caught absolutely dead saying aloud.

Speaking of the snake-like Sorcerer, Quan-chi proudly introduced you to Shang Tsung as his latest work of genius once. The latter critically looked you up and down and admired the magic used to keep you together. Although to not admit to Quan-chi's magical prowess, Shang Tsung would ask.

"How do you know this minion won't turn on you like the others?"

You opened your mouth to defend yourself, your looser wrapping unraveling and posing to strike down the blasphemous Sorcerer, but before you could make the blow, Quan-chi explains.

"She won't,"

Quan-chi would glance back at you and softly run a hand under your chin, which you followed with your head.

"But even if the impossible happens, I hold their heart."

Quan-chi would summon your purple and green heart into his hand, petting it with his free hand like a small pet.

"It would be such a waste if I must. Isn't that right, Y/N?"

You, of course, nodded. That was the closest you would receive as an admittance of love from someone like Quan-chi.

Playlist while writing this:

"Loyalty" - Maria's Theme from Mad Father

"In the Dark of the Night" -by Christopher Lloyd

"Mr.Sandman" -by The Chordettes

"Monster" -by Lady Gaga

" Dark Horse”-Cover by Our Last Night

“I miss the misery”-by Halestorm.

#mortal kombat #mortal kombat x reader #mk x reader #mortal kombat 1 #oddball speaks #mk1 #shang tsung #Quan-chi #Quan-chi x reader #mummy reader #oddball writes #ask answered #request #starman14

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prettyoddfever · 1 year

Photo

One of my favorite parts of following the Fever-era band was watching where they got inspiration, and how they’d build on an idea to make it their own.

Motley Crue did their Carnival of Sins tour shortly before Panic started touring. And P!ATD didn’t even pretend like that didn’t influence them when it came time to plan their national headlining tours. Some reviews for P!ATD’s summer tour (which was the Moulin-Rouge-inspired one) had said that the band pulled off what Motley Crue had been trying to do... and that was before the Nothing Rhymes With Circus tour even existed.

It became a well-known fact that the band had tried to borrow Motley Crue’s circus tent, so the Panic guys had to answer quite a few questions about that (here’s a random example from early October once the band already had their NRWC plans).

The pictures at the top of this post are from Panic’s Nothing Rhymes With Circus tour, which felt like the finale of the Fever era. And then the screenshots below are from Motley Crue’s Carnival of Sins tour:

They had acrobats, fire breathers, and other circus-type stuff:

Here’s Tommy Lee’s makeup:

In hindsight, it’s pretty funny to look at all of the things that P!ATD talked about wanting to do (that they weren’t allowed to do)... but Motley Crue had been able to do those things. Brendon and Spencer especially talked about wanting to get fire breathers, trapeze performers, and ANY type of pyrotechnics, get Brendon shot out of a cannon, etc.

It’s hard to tell in this screenshot, but Tommy Lee is flying across the stage on wires (he’s above the “T” in the name):

he landed on a platform and started playing while a pyrotechnic mess happened:

Spencer & Brendon would have loved to have this amount of fire...

and after grabbing those screenshots, I think I can spot some moments that answer why some people were claiming in late 2006 that their sister/friend/whatever went to P!ATD’s tour and saw the female performers doing some very specific sexual stuff... and the rest of us were like wtf show did they go to because that’s not what everyone else in the arena talked about seeing. So maybe those people legit thought that the two tours were the same thing. I also think that some journalists subconsciously lumped both tours together because they’d write about Panic having trapeze artists, fire-breathers, “dwarves,” and/or other things that were actually from Motley Crue’s tour.

I could ramble for a long time about how the two tours were very different, but I suppose that’s not the point of this post. Basically, the Panic guys were open about being inspired by some aspects of Motley Crue’s stage show.

The video was released during the season when Panic was planning their first national headlining tour. Here’s an ad from spring 2006:

update: sometimes I switch tracks in the middle of writing a thought and then go back and rearrange stuff because I have learned to roll with my ADHD buuuuut I totally failed in this post. So sorry. I just re-read this and the second paragraph was a hot mess that made it sound like the summer tour was in arenas (I could spot like 3 different approaches I had been trying to start with lol). I fixed it now!

#Nothingrhymeswithcircus

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reality-liver-n0 · 9 months

Text

Big Boy post, this time on Revy

I guess this will cover the basics of Revy as a character and the fundamentals of understanding her.

First off, her nickname is not “Two Hands.” It’s “Two Hand.” Which I barely learned myself, I think the anime uses Two Hands which is the source for the added s. But at least in the manga and by Hiroe himself she’s “Two Hand.” This name originated from a character in a novel he read, “Run” by Douglas E. Winter. (I recently bought it like a fool so I’ll try and connect the character to Revy when it arrives). But I think the English dub makes the mistake of Two Hands which caused the confusion. I guess in the sub version it’s correct.

Revy is a Chinese American. But she is ethnically full Chinese. The American is just her nationality. Hiroe confirms this in an interview where he states Revy is a minority, her physical appearance is based on Mangoloid features rather than Caucasian. He also states that she faces a lot of discrimination in life.

Which is why I think I figured out why Revy in the anime as a kid has black hair when she shoots her father. She dyed her hair burgundy to look less Chinese. Think about it. If she is facing a lot of police brutality in Chinatown, NYC, and her own father beats her she would want to remove herself as far from that demographic as possible. This is why she doesn’t know any Mandarin and chose to not directly align with Chang’s triad. Also she wore hoop earrings as a kid too, at least in the anime.

There is no way she’d want to be seen first by her race. As she said, all the cops saw was a “little chink bitch.” She absolutely loathes to be viewed by her appearance rather than skill or personality.

This may link to her exposed clothing style. Not only is it practical for movement, which is all she does in combat, but it prevents her from overheating. But the most important factor is that she shows a lot of skin; exposing her arms, legs and stomach. Therefore, her athletic build is on display. And the implication of it is clear. She is proud of her body, she will kill you, and it does not matter what she’s wearing. On a level it may be a subconscious decision of the aftermath of her rape. The number one thing the victim is blamed for is what they’re wearing, or rather the lack of clothes, which must obviously signify they wanted it. This is below the lowest bar you can go in blaming victims. Unfortunately, it’s likely that Revy in hopes of getting a reaction or letting it slip, told her dad about what happened.

And what would he say? Something about dressing like a slut or whore if I had to bet.

So, by her current attire, Revy is saying the exact opposite, she’s rebelling against that idea. Or at least mocking the idea that less clothing makes a woman weaker/vulnerable.

Also, she wears the same boots as Dutch. They don’t share the same belt but Revy’s matches the boots: both U.S. military. I find it cute that she could’ve had any other boots but chose to match him. She really does look up to him, and he’s basically her only father figure. It’s heavily implied that he came up with her nickname; Two Hand. Since Benny says that Dutch is good at creating nicknames and right when Rock joined, he made one up for him.

Now I will cover the basic ground for Revy’s personality.

Anger: Yeah, obviously this is at the top of the list. It’s the most obvious to new black lagoon fans; how many times does she yell and curse? But I would argue that this is the emotion she’s most familiar with, not what defines her character. This is a defense mechanism for when she feels threatened. Calm down two men showcases this the best. When she can’t talk down to Rock she gets pissed and tries to kill him. When he pulls the gun away, she punches him, and she sounds like a kid when she yells at him. She is scared and confused on how anger is not making him stop. After all, it’s what stopped her dad and everyone else who got on her bad side.

I will say that the anime focuses on this and makes it a larger trait of her character than the manga. But she does use humor as her last defense mechanism. Again, in calm down two men when she obviously can’t shoot away Rock or scare him with anger in the manga she says, “Screw you. You’re way more out there. Gump. Dork. Fool-in-a-suuuuit.”

This is something I’ve only recently discovered. Due to only watching the anime I missed a lot of differences that the manga makes. Revy in the latest chapters actually does expertly use humor to deescalate things. Specifically, between Le Majeur and Eda where she insists they settle their tempers through drinks instead of a gunfight.

Another one is with Roberta’s Blood Trail when they meet the addict. Revy plays along with his conspiracy theories, which gets them inside and talking to him. She does threaten him but in a tactful way of offering him much pure product if he complies.

There are other moments too where she uses it, the documents for Chang, some interactions with Fabiola, Japan, etc. So, it is a natural progression of her learning how to use her strengths and her own use of wordplay alike Rock.

And I would argue that Revy is as smart as Rock. Not academically of course but she matches his wit by her street smarts and gut feeling. A prime example in Roberta’s blood trail where she purposely knocks a bottle over to start the gunfight. They save Fabiola and she remarks that she knows Fabiola has never shot before. Just by shaking her hand and her unsteadiness getting out of the car, she knows that Fabiola got frazzled up. She actually offers a lot of advice with Fabiola and Garcia.

Also, with the Feng arc she uses a soda to cause an enemy’s gun to jam. Knowing that it will soak up in the metal and prevent it from firing. She also manipulates him by playing cat and mouse. She openly mocks him by saying his brother’s last words were for the “devil to ream him out on ass fucking street in hell.” So yeah, she just leads him straight to a firing squad then ducks as he gets shot to death. She’s very aware of how to lead a team as well.

In Roberta’s blood trail she does it with Shenhua, Sawyer and Lotton. She openly yells at Shenhua for trying to kill Roberta, since it’s a death sentence. They would’ve gotten the Americans if Hotel Moscow didn’t step in.

Also, Revy is very well connected to the criminals of Roanapur. She has a snitch on hand, a drug addict that she supposedly supplies, knows one of Hotel Moscow’s men, speaks openly to one of Abrego’s men, etc. She is aware that having a lot of connections is a good thing, so no doubt that she checks up on her contacts or knows a lot of the regulars at the Yellow Flag.

Surprisingly there are moments where she predicts how a party will move/think. A few times she does it with Hotel Moscow, the vampire twins, escape routes in the city that someone can or will take, and the deserted meetup with Chang’s clients, Shenhua and the Irish driver.

I’ll try to update this later as much as possible. It’s just hard due to the manga being digital for the later volumes so it takes longer to go through each page to find references.

#black lagoon #revy #big boy post #analysis

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lemonhemlock · 10 months

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The amount of people on TB that talk about how TG's fixation on the Strong boys being bastards being some TradCath religious extremist position is hilarious. I was on a TB titkok and they started pulling out statistics from 2023 regarding how many kids in America/certain European nations were born out of wedlock every year and basically saying she didn't understand why TG cared about bastardy when 'bastardry' is very common nowadays.

Ummm.....it's almost as if those nations are not feudal monarchies where wealth, money, and power is passed on through political marriage and uncontested bloodlines stemming from those political marriages? And all those people having out of wedlock children are not the literal heirs to those monarchies? And those are actual real people......and we are analyzing a fictional story based on the literal world building and lore provided by the creator of said fictional story?

It's almost as if Nick, the accountant, and his girlfriend, Stacy the schoolteacher, deciding to have kids without being married in the year of our Lord 2023 is literally not the same as the heir to a feudal monarchy destabilizing the realm by trying to pass off illegitimate children after spurning all laws and customs which provide the necessary order needed for said monarchy to run?

Like, it's such an insanely bad faith take I don't even know where to begin.

I've been trying to tell people this for the past year, but they just cover their ears and go "la, la, la". A while ago I had a conversation with another anon on how a large part of the fandom simply dislikes the medieval European setting and how a lot of their talking points can be traced back to that root. It's why they are so fundamentally incurious about that time period and societies, refuse to engage with the text in good-faith and constantly try to impose their 21st century capitalist democracy ideals onto a backdrop that simply isn't equipped to handle that.

Again, before some smarty pants tries to tradcath this post too, everyone is allowed to prefer different settings for their stories, but, if that's the case, and you just harbour this deep-seated antipathy towards medieval customs, what are you even doing here? Why are you putting so much time and effort into a fandom centered around worldbuilding you just don't care for? Because they certainly aren't "critiquing" it either. Is it truly critique if one refuses to understand the basic economic and political rules of a fictional environment? What quality of criticism is supposed to derive from that?

#ask #anon #anti team black #bastardposting

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pedropascalunofficial · 11 months

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Why aren't you speaking up about the vile fans that are harassing Pedro, his friends and family. I am devastated that no one has put these fake fans in their place. I thought you of all people would.

I must preface this by mentioning that I'm Irish. We're biased on this issue. We have had help to find relative peace after years of division and terrorism. We are all too aware of how lucky we now are.

Why arent I speaking about the "vile fans" that are harrassing Pedro?

I report the twats in this fandom who he can't see pulling bullshit that affects his and his friends' personal lives so they can better protect themselves from it. I only call them out publicly when their bullshit over flows into my life.

Fans asking Pedro to call for a ceasefire are not pulling bullshit.

They're commenting on his replies to posts because they are frustrated by his silence on an issue that WILL affect all of our lives, and their passion is showing in disruptive ways that aren't to everyones taste. Replying to his comments is futile, but please don't shame people for trying to act in a time of desperation. Do I like it? No. Will it change his opinion? Probably not.

Their timelines are full of images of dead children, injured children being pulled from rubble to be labelled WCNSF (Wounded child. No surviving family), kidnapped people or murdered families. They're willing him to call out the same issues that the United Nations and many other governments are because people have lost their humanity.

We all know he used to love sounding off about political issues in support of the underdog but Pedro has been quiet since the Gina episode. Whether he would be in the right or not on political issues, Disney and Lucasfilm will not take kindly to him creating any controversy.

However much I would love to see him asking for a ceasefire, it isn't going to happen for a multitude of reasons. He's not going to be the person we tell him to be. He has free will. We must respect that. We need to manage our expectations with regards to what we see as the role of celebrities in political issues. It isn't in their job description and they usually fuck it up and the noise caused from that drowns out the credible sources trying to break through.

And yes, I've noticed how fake some of the fans are. The phrase "you're doing great girl" comes to mind. (Bless that man's sassy interactions with fair weather fans) Some are posting about his sexuality in the same cycle of stories as calls for him to denounce war crimes. It's completely fucked up.

Oh, and holding his fucking stalkers up as if they're the beacons of hope around here?! Those delusional psychos only posted saying they wouldn't talk about the gala AFTER ppl threatened to call them out if they posted about it. Never fall for their clout chasing bullshit! Their only motivation is social engagement, not the future of humanity. You can tell coz when they aren't virtue signalling, they're dehumanising a man for likes.

Since you've read this far..... if Pedro can't/won't speak, we can. Share international news outlets! Share factual information from countries who aren't financially supporting the war! Seek it out. Share it. Some people still haven't seen the full story. Some are choosing to pretend there aren't humans involved on both sides. Some are keeping quiet for personal reasons. Some because their employer will fire them or sue them for speaking out.

If any fans have questions around the issue of asking for a ceasefire and denouncing the current war crimes before the whole world descends in to a sea of international incidents of domestic terrorism at the request of Hezbollah and Iran, supported by Russian government, giving China the opportunity to fucking go to town, please feel free to educate yourselves below.

THE UNITED NATIONS HAS CALLED FOR A CEASEFIRE

BASIC BREAKDOWN OF STATISTICS (Nov 7, 2023)

PODCASTS THAT EXPLAIN THE IMPLICATIONS AND HISTORY OF THIS CONFLICT

NEWS OUTLETS

An IG account that gives me hope

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midnightcreator12 · 7 months

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So about that Live Action Avatar

....so, I don't think its going to be good....but I'm going to TRY and give the Netflix Avatar a shot....

.....this is just my thoughts during episode 1....and I'm trying very hard to not be biased but...eh...

Apparently we suffer from the same affliction as Shamalan: For some reason, we have to make the bending look slow as hell and lack any kind of power.

Oh, but hey, you killed a dude on screen. Nice, are we gonna see the darker sides of murder via bending?

Why tf is Aang flying without the glider? No, he's not falling slowly, he is FLYING. Boy thinks he's superman out here.

I'll give you the Aang and Gyatso bonding, I appreciate that. Love what you're doing with that.

Apparently, the writers think I can't remember basic information because they've told me FOUR TIMES 'The Avatar, the only one who can master all four elements' you gonna tell me again later.

Why is Aang freaking out at being the Avatar? He's a ten-year-old boy, any kid would be hyped. I GET the not wanting to leave bit but he's just instantly like 'no, no, I'm not the Avatar' I get we're in a rush but please tell me he's not gonna act like a full-fledged adult.

Appa! You look good buddy!

So, Aang KNOWS that the Fire Nation is planning to start a war before he gets iced....I feel like this undermines how HARD the emotional hit is going to be when he realizes he's the only Air Bender left.

That gut punch when he finds Gyatso's body hits so hard because Aang doesn't know how BAD things have gotten. From where he's standing in the cartoon, he ran but after his ice nap, he calmed down and was like 'okay, I'm ready now!' But then he gets smacked with the 'last of his kind' trope and it firmly shows him how serious this war is.

....he's totally gonna be acting like a grown ass man through this.

APPARENTLY FIRE BENDERS CAN FUCKING FLY TOO, WHAT THE FU-

On-screen murder number 2 and, yeah, the bending looks cool here!

The fire nation is human cannonballing themselves into the temple, what the heck is that??

I do give the show props for showing the genocide of the Air Nomads.

Whhhhhy is there so much slow-mo showing nothing?? Did Shamalan help shoot this??

We have flashed forward and...as much as I appreciate the time in the temple, I still feel like it's going to undermine the emotional impact when Aang goes back. Part of why that scene hit so hard was because, up until then, there was reasonable doubt that all the air-benders were truly gone. Now, anyone coming in who has watched the toon already knows that but the hit when we see the bones of Gyatso, after sending two episodes with Aang being a goofy lil ten year old.....yeah, it won't make as much of an impact for new people coming in.

Hey Katara....WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING IN THE FIRE NATION BOAT!? WHY ARE YOU PRACTICING BENDING IN THE FORBIDDEN BOAT!?

Good sibling dynamic, off to a very good start.

Wait, she's not allowed to practice?? I thought the writers said they were ditching the sexism??

Hmmm, no, no. I liked it better when Katara got pissed and cracked the ice so Aang could come up. Also she's very meek so far. Sokka snaps at her to quit worrying about waterbending and she just...backs off?? I'm reaaaaally hoping that this issue will not stick.

Sokka...the boat is still close enough to grab....just...get it...

Oh hi Zuko! Did they do your scar right this time?

Nope! You showed SEVERAL people being BURNED ALIVE, but Zuko just forgot to put on sunblock? Did...did everyone just MISS the fact HALF HIS FACE IS BURNED TO HELL?!

Also, apparently, Katara just trying to pull the boat was enough to crack the iceberg?? No, still liked it better when she got mad and snapped open half the ocean. (do not make her meek, do NOT make her meek, I will tap out if you took her fucking fire)

Sokka: Nice, we're not gonna die. K, okay, that was funny. Good thing you're still funny so far Sokka.

....I don't know why yet.....but I don't like this Iroh....he's too....upfront.

Wait, Zuko is looking to get the throne??? wtf, NO, that makes his motivations just like every other fire nation General or Noble. I liked it better when he was a kid desperately trying to get back into his dads good graces by restoring his honor. wtf is this 'I am destined to be fire lord' bs?!

Okay, Aang can just FLY NOW! I GUESS!

Wh- why is Gran-Gran reciting the intro. WE JUST SAW THAT! I FEEL OFFENDED THAT YOU KEEP REPEATING INFORMATION TO ME!

Yeah, just cause you recited the og intro doesn't make you clever! That was a weird-ass segue into that.

Gran-Gran might as well have an 'Inset coin for exposition that we just saw' sigh on her neck.

OOP! There's Iroh aaand he's gone...you had it and then you didn't.

There's some Katara bite. More of that, please.

No, no, I don't like Sokka just going straight to 'Turn Anng over to the fire nation' Yeah, his attack was pathetic but at least he FOUGHT in the cartoon. Here he's just 'welp, see ya kid' ....guess they had to replace the sexism with just zero empathy.

Yay, Katara has some bite! ....shame it undermind Sokka.

The scene cuts are weird...the pacing just jumps all over the place.

I do not like Iroh flipping between 'serious, straightforward' and 'lol, I'm just a silly old man' PICK ONE!

Oh so NOW Aang suddenly can't fly.

Called it, having Aang know what happened right off the bat makes the impact hit less. So him going Avatar mode feels outta place as hell.

Again with the weird scene cuts.

Pft, aw, Zuko has a conspiracy board

Aaaand that was episode 1

....This feels like a checklist. Like when Disney remakes just go through all the most memorable bits of the cartoon because 'thats what the people want, right?' But they're skipping around all the buildup that helped MAKE those highlights hit so hard.

Scenes are rearranged and there is potential there but the choices made just...undermine the moments that are supposed to really hit us.

The kids do well acting but Gran-Gran looks like a younger woman with a wig on and all she does is quote the cartoon.

Katara has moments where her spitfire personality comes through but most of the time shes being very meek and backs down from conflict. The only time she doesn't is to convince Sokka 'hey, don't sell out the 10 year old to the fire nation.

And this is having the same pacing issues that the Live film had. They rush scenes that need to be slow and hold on bits that don't need to be slowed down.

I give the show props for effects and occasionally the bending looking good and for showing people being burned alive but the things it does right are outnumbered by the wrongs so far.

Maybe it'll get better as it goes but...I doubt it.

#avatar netflix #avatar the last airbender #atla #midnight talks

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aprikosenklang · 7 months

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Review: Avatar: The Last Airbender Live Action

First, some context: I started watching A:TLA when book 2 was airing. Since then, I watched it at least 10 times. Half of it in German and half of it in English. The last time was in 2020. I know a lot of lines by heart—yes in both languages. Zuko was my fist teenage crush and Oncle Iroh’s quotes helped my through a lot of dark times in my life. I might be biased because I love the original series a lot. But I try to reason everything carefully.

The Good

I loved it visually! Bending looked so cool and never felt out of place or weird. All of the shown places could be recognized in a blink. It was beautiful to see this world adapted in a realistic way.

The casting was mostly done perfect. A lot of the characters looked a lot like I would have imagine them.

The Kiyoshi Warriors were really awesome. Especially Suki—even though she didn’t got a name at all?!

I loved the addition with the 41st devision. It gave Zuko‘s crew actually a reason the respect him and fitted to his character and backstory.

Zuko and Iroh give the same energy as in the original. Usually this wouldn’t be something to mention, since I would expect this from and adaption. But due to issues you can read further below, I have to mention it. Zuko and Iroh might be one of the few characters that never felt out of character. I’m happy we got those two true to original at least.

The Bad

Since there is so much, I structure it even further into story, production and costumes.

Story:

I didn’t liked any of the story changes. I don’t even understand why they had to tangle all the storylines. The original book 1 is 20 episodes each about 20-25 minutes—which results in 400-500 minutes in total. The live action had 8 episodes each about 45 minutes to an hour—let’s say about 400-450 minutes in total. So basically, they could have taken the timeline as is is. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t advocate for a 1:1 adaption here. I just don’t get why they saw the need to tangle storylines, pull in things from later seasons and leave out important scenes, places, character traits and even whole characters. Each and every story change felt out of place, out of character and over all pointless. Nothing added anything that made sense. Just like it was changed because they had to change something.

Aang didn’t even learn water bending!!! Like what is the whole season even about if the main character doesn’t have a real character arc? All he does is having guilt over disappearing for 100 years. Yes that’s also a thing he has to overcome. But it is just half of it. And he even doesn’t really get over it. He has none of his childish fun moments like he does in the original.

Why did Sokka have SOOO much screen time?!?! Sometimes it felt like he‘s the protagonist of the series. Especially with Aang not even learning water bending.

Momo in contrast had like 0 screen time. But than in the last episode when he became important as plot device Sokka was weirdly attached to him.

Katara being her own master made it pointless to actually go to the northern water tribe. Yes there was Aang's vision. But in the original the plot is not mainly driven by what the fire nation does, but by what team avatar needs to do. Like… Aang learning bending!!!

We didn’t get the epic intro we could have. It felt like they tried to make up for it in the first episode. But having three different versions of the epic lines and finally Gran Gran dropping the original ones was actually the worst. It felt forced and as if she would read them out.

Everything regarding Azula was sooo off for me. She felt like a completely different character with other motivations and struggles. I wish she would not have been so present in the first season.

Uncle Iroh drank not enough tea. Lol. This is maybe a personal one and I cannot reason it to be honest.

I‘m disappointed by the Lu Ten moment. Fist of all, why did it need to be in season one?! But also: It was a bonding moment for Zuko and Iroh. It didn’t payed any respect for Lu Ten in my opinion. And leaves from the wine was barely noticeable and didn’t make feel anything.

Katara never lost her necklace. Which I don’t mind. But it made a huge plot hole for the headhunter Zuko hired. They tried to cover it with randomly finding a piece of fabric. But how did they know this belonged to the Avatar? This change feels similar to the one with the water bending scroll. Important things just become meaningless.

Agni Kai was once mentioned but never explained. If I didn’t know what an Agni Kai is from the original series, this would probably be either the most missed or confusing thing.

Hei Bai was never healed!!! Yeah sure, Aang saved the villagers. But what about the forest and spirit?! And why was there no winter solstice? And in general why did everything in the spirit world was so all over the place?

The siege of the Nothern water tribe being a distraction for Omashu is stupid. It would take them way too long to hear about it. So they would not be able to send troops there by time and it would not weaken them in any way.

The world feels super flat and boring. Because they tangled so many story lines, they got rid of a lot of places. No fire nation prison in the earth kingdom, no nothern air temple, almost no villages. You never get a change to explore the world and learn about the ordinary people.

Production:

The directing felt bad. A lot of people say, the acting was bad. But I don’t agree. First of all, a lot of the cast were children. I think it is not fair to judge them so easily and hard. In my opinion the directing wasn’t good. And you could tell because even the older and more experienced actors were really stiff.

The dialogs were almost always awkward. This adds to the previous point and is another sign that the acting isn’t the problem. The lines were sometimes random, jokes felt forced and original lines never made the same impact as in the animated series.

Some of the CGI green screen backgrounds were awful. They reminded you that this is a show which really pulled me out of the immersion.

Costumes:

The costumes felt lifeless. They could have added so much details to the garments and accessories. But of all things they decided to stick to the original with the costume design?! I expected the outfits to be a lot more toned down in brightness too. That’s something you need in an animated series, but not in a live action. So much missed potential.

Why could they not cast old people for old characters? All of them looked so stale, emotionless and almost uncanny.

I was sooo disappointed by Yue! Maybe I’m biased here, because she was one of my favorite characters of book one. But somehow she was the only character that didn’t felt casted perfectly. And especially her hair was awful and looked like a cheap wig.

Conclusion

Overall, I‘m disappointed. Again, I didn’t expected a 1:1 adaptation. But I don’t see that the same care was put into it like it was for the original. I would have wanted to have something that creates similar emotions and an overall known feeling. But it doesn’t. It’s confusing, flat and carelessly made. I can definitely see why the original creators stepped back from it.

If you think about watching it, I would recommend you the original. Especially because it is not that much longer. So better invest your time wisely.

#avatar #atla #netflix avatar #avatar netflix #netflix atla #atla netflix #avatar the last airbender #animation #review

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morfinwen · 2 years

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zutara: 10, 12, 16, 27, 30 :)

*gradually going through the asks in my inbox to justify reblogging more asks*

10. What two songs, two books and two luxury items do they take to a desert island?

Zuko: A very old, traditional Fire Nation song; probably a love song, though he’d insist (while blushing) that that isn’t why he picked it, a copy of Love Amongst the Dragons, and his dao swords.

Katara: An old Southern Water Tribe song, a lullaby or old story in musical form, a cookbook of fish and plants most likely to be on said island, and (not sure how much this counts as a 'luxury') a Water Tribe hunting spear or canoe, whichever she finds more useful/harder to replace.

12. What first changes when it starts getting serious?

(It starts out pretty serious. Even apart from Zuko’s position as Fire Lord adding immense weight to any romantic interactions, they’re not the kind of people to flirt for the sake of flirting or date without at least the possibility of something coming of it.)

When it comes to the point where it shifts from “I really like you and want to see where this goes” to “I want to marry you”, it actually results in them spending less time together at first -- not a lot, but Zuko suddenly has extra meetings with his advisors (to figure out the political repercussions, how best to broach it on the world stage, etc.), and Katara is suddenly spending extra time researching and looking into Fire Nation customs and expectations. When they are together, they have a few stilted conversations, as they try to work out (without coming out and saying it) if the other is as open to the idea of marriage as they are.

16. When the zombie apocalypse comes, how do they cope together?

Like … zombie apocalypse dream team.

They're both excellent fighters with a fair amount of experience surviving on their own. Katara can heal and find and produce water from almost anywhere, and Zuko can start fires to keep them warm, boil water, cook food, and fight off zombies.

One of the biggest issues i have with zombie stories is the lack of community building; it would solve too many issues, so either the community falls apart or nobody even tries to build one. There's basically no way Zuko and Katara, two people naturally drawn towards leadership and helping the helpless, wouldn't end up starting or joining and improving some kind of settlement.

27. Why do their friends get annoyed with them?

First they get annoyed because i have to say the common z/k trope of them both pining but resisting saying anything, because they think it won’t work or the other isn’t interested, strikes me as very, very accurate. Also my take on post-canon is that Zuko knows he loves her but thinks Katara doesn’t feel the same, and it takes Katara a while to realize that she does, and both of them are very stubborn.

Once they’re together, they annoy their friends both by being practical wet blankets on their friends’ half-serious suggested shenanigans, and then turning around and pulling off outrageously ill-advised ideas without back-up. I mean, Zuko was willing to free the Avatar from one of his own country’s top military men, without backup, and Katara got herself arrested on purpose and started a revolt on a prison barge.

30. Why does it work (or not work) between them?

They are opposites in ways that attract, and similar in ways that matter. They are deeply hurt people who care very deeply, about each other, about other people, about doing the right thing even when it's hard. And even if/when they can't justify being together for their own sakes -- Zuko and Katara both being people to set aside their own happiness for the greater good -- it's so plainly in the other's best interest to be together that they can't argue for breaking up. So basically, they work so well together that it works out. :-)

Thanks for asking!!

#ask #answer #zutara #s: eric's song #zuko #katara #a:tla #ioannemos

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1337wtfomgbbq · 8 months

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The Lore behind Ullriis

I'm just gonna do this one for the fun of it😊

Bjarne joined Telekom in late 1995 and notably announced that he would win the TdF the following year.

1) Nobody on the team believed he would actually be able to pull that off. Not even Jan. But he did mention in his auto-biography how Bjarne really impressed him (the word he used was 'imponieren'... multiple times.)

2) Godefroot did not include Jan in his sales pitch to Bjarne, as Jan just came off a very mediocre first season as a pro.

3) Telekom was basically on verge of fucking quitting their cycling team as Jan revealed in his new documentary 'Jan Ullrich - der Gejagte', and Bjarne basically rebuild the whole team from the ground up.

During 1996 they rode the Midi Libre together, during which pretty much everyone had something to bitch about Bjarne, but not Jan.

Aldag goes on to paint a picture of Bjarne, using his teammates like sled dogs, verbally whipping them into a seemingly gratuitous 90-km pursuit on a stage in which a breakaway group had cut loose and Telekom had nothing to gain from hunting them down.

During the Tour de Suisse 1996 Jan was supposed to be just Bjarne's domestique. However Bjarne wasn't feeling too well and grew weaker with each day, developing a pretty foul mood. And even though Jan could have gone faster he instead stayed by Bjarne's side, trying to cheer him up.

Bjarne abandoned the race after stage 6, meanwhile Rudy Pevenage, who had noticed Jan's form, approached Bjarne asking: "Did you see how good Jan is? He could give you great support on the tour."

But Bjarne was way too angry to even get into that and replied, "Just do what you want," before leaving for home.

That would kick off an internal struggle between Rudy Pevenage and Walter Godefroot, about whether or not they should take Jan to the Tour de France, that was only finally put to rest after Jan came in second in the German National Championship (in which he pretty much gifted Christian Henn the first place).

So Jan was finally placed on the team for the Tour de France 1996 and by his own admission he was the only one not in one of the 'gangs'.

The team was divided into Erik's group and Bjarne's group, and Jan was basically just told to go as fast as he could.

From the very beginning Jan pretty much clung to Bjarne for comfort and guidance. Like during stage 7 which included two scary Alpine passes and a murderous ascend to the finish Jan was understandably scared, and Bjarne managed to calm him by telling him, "You are just gonna stay by my side as long as you can."

And that's what Jan did. In the end the media would say Bjarne had been, "brilliantly assisted by the second youngest rider in the race".

During that Tour you could also watch something that would define Jan and Bjarne's relationship for the years to come.

Jens Heppner: "If Riis millimetric nitpicking over gear ratios and saddle height could drive his team mechanics to distraction, Ullrich typically issues one instruction: 'I'll have the same as Bjarne.'"

Bjarne also confirmed: "At first he was quite curious, then I think he sort of learned, 'Ach, Bjarne knows everything, Bjarne's thinking of everything, so I don't have to'. It was easy for him but also not the best thing because as a leader and as a young guy you need to learn what you want in your life. It's part of growing as an athlete."

Jan was such a great help to Bjarne that by stage 8 he had gained his trust, to the point that Bjarne would discuss the strategy of the stage to come with Jan on the day before the stage, and then with the rest of the team on the day of the stage.

For example, when Jan met up with Gaby before stage 9 he already knew Bjarne was gonna try and get the yellow jersey that day.

Or when Bjarne used Jan to set the pace during stage 16 while easily riding next to the lead group and pondering when to execute the killing blow.

Bjarne even reveals in 'Der Gejagte': "How nice could that be? To have a strong guy like him next to me. And I remember sometimes, you know, just, 'Go, Jan. Just ride as hard as you can and I will finish it off.'"

Jan throughout the whole duration of the Tour in '96 never wavered in his loyalty to Bjarne.

Not when he was briefly maillot jaune virtuel during stage 10, not when he became second overall after his amazing ride during stage 17, not after winning the last ITT on stage 20.

It all raised the question of how much more road Jan would have needed to close the gap to Bjarne.

Between the two of them there doesn't really seem to have been any thought of Jan possibly contesting the GC. After the last ITT the two of them hugged as the pressure of the last weeks had finally been taken off their shoulders. And Jan seemed almost embarrassed to the press, telling them that he didn't want the yellow jersey and that he didn't even thought about it.

After the Tour finished the team went out for something to eat where Bjarne went on to thank each member of the team individually, while also apologizing for pushing them so hard.

Jan he told: "Jan, you were my best helper. I thank you for that. What you gave me I will give back to you someday."

The Tour de France 1997 had them both working together again, and the team started out in the same team constellation: Bjarne as team captain and Jan as his domestique.

Even though Bjarne betrayed some anxiety at his pre-race press conference in Rouen, admitting he didn't know how Jan felt 'deep down' about the established order in the team.

Jan for his part continued to profess his loyalty, much to some teammates bemusement. After Jan's second place during the prologue time trial Jens Heppner whispered to Udo Bölts that Riis would have no chance if Jan was ever set free.

In fact, the whole team stood united behind Jan, which became clear as early on as stage 1.

During the first Pyrenean stage (9) Bjarne couldn't life with the pace set by Virenque, and Jan immediately fastened himself to Virenque's rear wheel in the hope that Bjarne would recover; which he couldn't and didn't.

Pretty much everyone knew at this point the man with the best chance to get his grabby lil raccoon hands on the yellow jersey on Telekom was Jan.

I mean, look at those gifs, and tell me Bjarne, despite being thankful for what Jan did during this stage, didn't know perfectly well that it was Jan's time now.

(Jan also revealed in the Kroos podcast how Bjarne noticed on the first mountain stages: "Jan is loyal, he is waiting for me but he could also go faster too.")

That night Walter Godefroot assured the press the Telekom hierarchy and strategy hadn't changed, meanwhile telling the riders something different. Jan would no longer have to sacrifice himself for Bjarne.

And we all know what happened on stage 10, on the road to Andorra.

After Godefroot told Jan to go, after Bjarne finally told Jan, "Listen, today, if you can, give everything that you've got," Jan went ahead and stormed Andorra.

Jan also revealed in the Kroos podcast how Bjarne had found him after the stage and hugged him with the biggest smile, happy that had Jan managed to pull this off.

He also acknowledged that his and Bjarne's relationship wasn't quite normal. That there are way more team captains that will call back a domestique that's doing better, not wanting to give up the leader position.

But Bjarne was so thankful for what Jan did for him in 1996, and how loyal Jan stayed to him up until Bjarne gave him the go-ahead in Andorra that he allowed for this changing of the guard.

Actually Bjarne is quoted saying how fair Jan was toward him and that he in turn needs to be fair to him.

During stage 14 for example, where Jan misjudged a corner during the descend, Bjarne jumped in to help Jan get back to the leaders, riding for him the way Jan had done for him just a year ago.

Bjarne overall endured a miserable Tour (as he was suffering the flu) but still made good of his promise to repay the favours of the previous year. In fact, he was one of the first to embrace Jan when he crossed the finish line in Paris.

During the 1998 Tour de France you would see just how much Jan relied on Bjarne as his teammate.

Pantani was able to best Jan during stage 15 because of many reasons, one of them because of what Bjarne had told Jan on the morning of the stage: "The Galibier was too far from the finish, so we shouldn't try to cover any attacks there: he or Udo Bölts would do it if necessary," Pevenage explains. "So we get halfway up the Galibier, Pantani attacks, and Jan doesn't follow. Why? because Bjarne said in the morning he shouldn't panic."

However when Marco started his attack Bölts and Riis had already been dropped.

The two of them would spend the remainder of the stage flanking Jan as the trio made their way up the mountain.

(start at timestamp 1:20:00 and watch Jan come up to the finish with Udo and Bjarne)

Look at how Bjarne has his arm around Jan's shoulder after they finally made it over the finish line, and contrast that to how Bjarne basically was such a dick to the rest of the team NOBODY on Telekom has something good to say about him BUT Jan.

You can also see how Jan relied on Bjarne's guidance during both strikes of the peloton.

Now let's talk about the probably most damning piece of Ullriis evidence.

The fact that Jan watched Lance's 'comeback of a century' during the TdF 1999 from afar, as he spend holidays with Tobias Steinhauser and stayed a few days with Bjarne in Tuscany.

At that time Jan was seriously considering retiring from bike racing as the whole pressure of his fame was getting to him, according to Christian Henn making him unable to clear his head, and after an injury during the Deutschland Tour left him with an injured meniscus and unable to ride the Tour.

Riis said during their time spend together that Jan was crazy for considering retirement, and despite Jan having inched toward that conclusion as well it was only after his time spend in Tuscany that he informed Walter Godefroot that he intended to ride on, during a meeting in Brussels in August.

Bjarne finished his active career after 1999 and went on to become a manager for some cycling teams like the danish cycling team home-Jack&Jones.

Meanwhile Jan would stay with Telekom until he got kicked from the team in 2002 after a positive doping test.

Afterwards he would end up in talks with Bjarne about possibly joining his Coast team. For a time Pantani was even in talks to join too.

However their negotiations ultimately didn't come to fruition.

Riis: "I said, 'Jan, I'm going to take you if you want, but it's going to be on my terms.' Because I knew that's what he needed - to change his environment. That was my demand, but in the end he couldn't agree to it. The weight was only part of the problem. If you put the whole focus on that, you make it a bigger problem than it is. I was going to change the whole foundation of what he was doing, how he was thinking. But he wasn't able to do that. He knew I could help him, he knew he maybe needed me, but to do it a hundred per cent? He didn't want to take that step."

They would also meet in 2003 when the Tour de France celebrated its 100 anniversary.

In Jan's new Amazon Prime documentary 'Jan Ullrich - Der Gejagte' Bjarne was also interviewed.

For one, that says something because he wasn't included in the ARD organized documentary 'Being Jan Ullrich', which might be because of misgivings about Bjarne's doping past, but then again Udo Bölts and Rolf Aldag were also interviewed.

Jan himself revealed how some of the guys interviewed for his project he asked before ARD asked about theirs.

Either ARD didn't want to talk to Bjarne, or they couldn't because Bjarne had already agreed to be on Jan's docu.

Whatever the case Bjarne said: "We know what I did, we know what Jan did in the 90s. So, if you take that time, you know, did we do whatever it takes to win? I don't think so but we went far. And we, I believe... I can speak for myself but I also think Jan can say the same thing. We did what was necessary at that time. Does that mean we do whatever we wanna do to win? And put everything else on the side? No. Our health, our family? No, we didn't think like that. But we knew we were in a period of time that... you did certain things and that (doping) was a part of it."

Bjarne also acknowledges: "I never saw Jan as a leader. As a leader who stands up for his team and, you know, takes control, takes leadership. Jan wasn't that."

Bjarne always knew about this predisposition of Jan's. He knew Jan needed help because they were so very different; and he decided to help Jan, be there for him, maybe take the pressure off a little.

Like Jan said in the Kroos podcast, his and Bjarne's relationship was something special.

It's not as normal for the team leader to let his domestique go because he notices he's doing better. But Bjarne was so amazed with how Jan rode for him in '96, how loyal he was until Arcalis 1997, until he gave him the literal 'go-ahead' that he decided to be Jan's defacto co-captain.

You have news outlets referring to Jan and Bjarne as a duality like General and Lieutenant, King and Crown Prince.

You have Bjarne tell Daniel Friebe in 2020 that he would like to retain one thing: that he and Jan Ullrich could not have realized their dreams without each other.

It's clear as day that Bjarne played a very special role in Jan's career as a cyclist during the 90s.

Jan may not have stayed in as close contact to Bjarne, as he maybe did to Lance but Jan revealed how he and Bjarne are still very good friends to this day and how they are still in contact.

#ullriis #jan ullrich #bjarne riis #cycling stuff #cycling #cycling history lessons #tour de france 1996 #tour de france 1997 #tour de france 1998 #midi libre 1996 #tour de suisse 1996

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