#this is the truth and i love making these posts. discuss amongst yourselves

[krookodyke]

The Girls and their smash mains

shauna: pokémon trainer (loosely played pokémon, she likes that pokémon trainer is well-balanced and all three pokémon are different fighters. she doesn’t like being limited to tanks or speedy fighters only although she mainly uses ivysaur)

jackie: jigglypuff/ice climbers (thinks both jigglypuff and the ice climbers are cute! doesn’t know anything about them she’s almost never played a video game in her life not on an arcade cabinet. she’s pretty good with jigglypuff actually, not competitive level but good enough to put up a good fight. she’s less good w ice climbers but she likes them esp because they remind her of her and shauna :~))

tai: sheik (closet geek in that she definitely likes zelda, gets obsessed w sheik when playing ocarina of time and prefers how sheik plays in smash over zelda. is extremely good, she KNOWS how to play and play well and she WILL win because she’s tai.)

van: king k. rool (definitely played donkey kong country she thinks king k. is awesome and she loves a tank. she’s pretty good with him too but she mostly likes to fuck with everybody else on the stage with items or just spamming attacks on tai to fuck with her)

nat: meta knight/ridley (thinks meta knight is cool as fuck and definitely finished super metroid in one night at kevyn’s house. she’s not a gamer she just goes by vibes mostly, not great at smash honestly and will probably spam b. is almost always the first one to die first usually by c-sticking off the edge of the stage)

misty: olimar (misty is the only one who has played pikmin and knows how to use olimar. she is scary good with him on the occasions the girls will actually have her over and let her play, hence why they usually don’t. she is also fucking terrifying and doesn’t say a word while playing she’s so focused.)

lottie: luigi (knows how to use luigi insanely well and will kick absolute ass. she doesn’t know shit about mario she just thinks he’s silly, does a lot of complicated jump & dodge shit with luigi and it makes everyone else very upset. often when she wins though it’s because she outlasts, because she’s better at dodging than anything else)

laura lee: pichu (she doesn’t know anything about pokémon she just thinks pichu is cuter than pikachu even as they tell her pichu is kinda ass for taking damage with every attack. but she’s perfectly happy with pichu thanks!!! somehow she’s worse than nat, will stand idly in the middle of the stage or do her B-up the wrong way and fall off.)

[whatifxwereyou]

The Oncoming Storm Part 19: Chou

Liu Kang x Reader and Kung Lao x Reader (gonna do both, two paths!)

Heyo, it's that time. Update time! One more Lao chapter after this. I'm ready for more DRAMA tho, delicious drama. Hope you're all doing well! I'm going to be out of town from the 9-15 but you shouldn't notice my absence since I'm preparing stuff to post before then bwahaha. NEW stories soon? Yes. Lots of planning so far. Much love. Sorry this is all over the place LOL. Kung Lao makin you even more confused, my lawd. Update on Tuesday!

Part 18 Part 20 Chapter Index

You returned to the stone path where you found tables had been setup to share with the other guests. Food had been setup nearby buffet style for a fee. You paid, grabbed your plates, and then took your seats amongst the others in attendance. With the exception of a handful of friends on a trip, they were all couples. A woman with short-cropped hair and dark eyes waved at Kung Lao excitedly. Her significant other offered a smile, then turned back to his food, hair pulled back in a messy ponytail. Oh, great, Kung Lao had made friends that morning.

“We saved you a seat!” She said once you were within earshot.

“She saved us a seat, Kung Lao.” You spoke just for him to hear, faking a smile.

“That was nice.” He urged his free arm around your shoulder and you sighed. Fake date or affection. Probably fake date. Were you winning? What were the rules to this game? Kung Lao sat down and made room for you to sit between him and the stranger. “Y/N, this is Sayuri and her boyfriend Kioshi. This is my girlfriend, Y/N.” It sounded awkward. Good. This was going great.

“Nice to meet you.” You bowed your head politely but couldn’t have felt more forced. Sayuri didn’t seem to notice. You could smell plum wine in her glass. It was extremely potent. If Chen were there, she would have spiked your drink, you were certain. Thank god for small favors. The good news was that Kung Lao could talk about anything to anyone and so you didn’t have to. They talked and you thought about other things while pushing your food around on your plate. It looked good. Really good. But you weren’t very hungry.

Your thoughts lingered on that kiss. It had escalated so damn quickly and you’d lost track of everything else. Just when you thought you had things figured out, Kung Lao had thrown you for a loop. You weren’t sure you’d ever forget how much you’d felt like a flower, petals slowly opening up just for him. Ugh. You couldn’t think about it. Focus, Y/N, focus. Kung Lao was animatedly recalling some adventure he’d gotten into in China with Liu Kang. Occasionally he patted your shoulder or nudged you and mentioned you which you returned in kind or smiled to acknowledge. Had to play the part, you supposed.

From what you could tell, hiding places would be in short supply. Much of the caldera was empty and flat. You supposed that behind the entrance gate would work. You could make short work of those walls between the two of you. That would work and it was a much better thing to focus on than the deep ache inside of you when you thought about Kung Lao’s kiss and calling you his girlfriend. How were you going to erase the guilt of breaking into a Buddhist Temple and desecrating it? You didn’t feel good about it at all. Maybe the truth would still work.

It wasn’t like you had a choice at this point. Whatever was in that well you had to get so you would do what it took. Ugh, you were going to end up being arrested at this rate.

Then, Kung Lao was stealing a pepper off your plate with his chopsticks. “Hey!” You scolded him and Sayuri giggled next to you.

“That’s what you get for not paying attention to my stories.” He ate the pepper with a grin. Even the way he ate was attractive. How incredibly unfair.

“Listen, you talk a lot, Kung Lao.” You batted your eyelashes at him playfully and the others at the table laughed. Kung Lao was going to make a snide remark, but you picked up one of the pork buns from your plate and shoved it right into his mouth. He coughed and gagged on it and you couldn’t help but laugh at how ridiculous he was. He took a bite of the bun and then set the rest of it on his plate but was smiling. “See. You talk too much. Going to choke on your food.”

“Jokes on you. I was going to steal that next.” Kung Lao took another purposeful bite out of it. Sayuri tapped your shoulder, cheeks red with drink and then she bowed politely. You had forgotten that most of the people there likely didn’t speak Chinese. You were kind of thankful for the language barrier.

“How long have you two been dating? Kioshi and I have been together for six months. This is our first big getaway together.” Sayuri smiled brightly and nudged Kioshi who slipped an arm around her proudly. Then he whispered something to her in Japanese before getting up and leaving her alone with you. She was sweet enough but you did not know how to answer that question. You and Kung Lao had not discussed any details about your cover. This was exactly why you hated lying. It was too messy. To keep up with the lie you had to keep lying and so things fell apart so easily. You had not thought this through.

“I… umm…”

Much to your surprise, Kung Lao slipped his arm around your waist and urged you to scoot closer to him. It took every single muscle in your body not to swat at him like you usually did. “We go way back.” He sounded natural. Effortless. “I’ve known her since she was… this high?” He used his other hand to gesture just above the height of the low table. He’d been awfully ready with that response.

“Oh, that’s so sweet! Childhood sweethearts? Did you know that you’d end up together even back then?”

“Umm…” You really were terrible at this but Kung Lao wasn’t. It made you wonder how much of this was actually a lie to him.

“We were like ten when we first started hanging out so I was just a dumb kid who didn’t understand any of that. I knew that I liked her but didn’t know what to do about it.” He shrugged and leaned close to your cheek as if to give you a kiss there and you leaned away and scrunched up your face so much that he instead laughed and buried his head against your shoulder.

“That’s the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.” Sayuri giggled into her glass of plum wine. You turned to look at Kung Lao. He lifted his head and his eyes flitted back to yours.

“You’re terrible at this.”

“I am so terrible at this.” You were grateful for the language barrier more than ever.

Kioshi returned with a tray that held a familiar liquor bottle and small equally familiar glasses for sake. Your stomach dropped. “Drinks all around! New friends and the Autumn Festival.” He began to place the glasses in front of each of the guests.

“Oh, no, no…” You bowed and pushed the small cup away in rejection. “No alcohol for me tonight.” This was starting to feel more and more like an actual date you’d gone on with Kung Lao without even realizing it. It was hitting all the notes. Cute trip to a foreign place. Cute meal. Intimate conversation. You’d even made out a little. This was not supposed to be a pleasure trip. Also, and more importantly, you were not dating Kung Lao.

And you had kissed Liu Kang, so this was too complicated. No liquor! You could hear Chen in the back of your mind, telling you to drink, telling you to lower your inhibitions and just pick right up where you’d left off in the shrine.

“That’s probably for the best.” Kung Lao pushed his cup away too.

“Come on. Just one? For luck!” Sayuri pouted, pushing your cups back toward you.

“She won’t let it go until you do.” Kioshi chimed in. The rest of the occupants at the table were taking the cups gratefully with a bow as they were filled. It suddenly felt rude to turn down the drink so you took your cup back with a sigh. You supposed one drink would be fine. Then again, with the blood thinning problem, who knew? You’d be fine, you coached yourself. Kung Lao gave you a nervous look as though he were thinking the same thing. You were suddenly aware of how little you’d eaten. You picked up the last pork bun on your plate and ate it as quickly as you could. There. No more empty stomach.

Sayuri lifted her cup and the rest of the table did the same. So did you. The sake was hot and you took a sip of it and winced. Kung Lao downed his in one fast motion. He then set his cup aside, upside down so that no one would refill it. You were grateful for that. The last thing you needed was to be drunk while desecrating a Buddhist Temple. He continued his chatter amongst the others while you sipped until the sake was gone. Then you placed your cup next to his upside down. The sun had gone down, and the lanterns glowed a brilliant orange, illuminating the temple in warm light. You turned on the bench to face away from the table. Your cheeks were warm and the annoying overthinking had briefly stopped. At least it hadn’t taken you from zero to drunk.

Kung Lao turned to sit with you and with him, came the rest of the couples at the table. They gathered around in front of you and sat on the stone while swapping stories and histories. Some were schoolteachers, others were businessmen. Each came from an interesting and diverse background. You didn’t weigh in much. Your Japanese was just not good enough to keep up. The hum of conversation and the warmth of the sake were enough to make you sleepy.

“What about you, Kung Lao? What do you two do?” A stranger across the way asked. You didn’t remember introducing yourselves to these other people but you supposed that Kung Lao had captivated everyone’s attention. You had been more focused on why you were really there for the night. Kung Lao searched for the words to explain what it was he did. It was the first time that evening where he had struggled to come up with a lie. You decided to help him out with a little bit of truth.

“He’s a martial artist.” You patted him on the back and he forced a smile. You had done so purposely pretty hard. “And I teach martial arts.” You had. That wasn’t a lie. Immediately, people were gushing over you. “I just teach. He’s quite good.” You smiled at him, redirecting all of the attention back onto him. Sayuri leapt to her feet, wobbling with drink, excited.

“Oh! Oh! Show us something cool!” She grabbed your hand as though you had known each other far longer than an hour.

“No, no.” You laughed politely. “The sake went right to my head. I’ll pass.” You bowed. Much to your surprise, Kung Lao leaned closer to you.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine” You assured him. “But you should show off a little. You’re good at that.”

“I planned to. I need a partner but if you’re not feeling up to it.” He made another playful kissy face and you shoved him away, inciting more laughter. Kung Lao stood up, fingers brushing over the brim of his hat before he pulled it off and offered it to you to hold. You slipped it on top of your head instead. He patted the top of it. “I need a partner since Y/N won’t help me.” He spoke in Japanese as he walked into the sand below the stone path.

“Go! Kioshi!” Sayuri pushed her boyfriend to his feet but he looked incredibly nervous even if he did as he was asked. Kioshi bowed to Kung Lao after joining him in the sand.

“Now come at me.” He instructed and Kioshi did just that. Kung Lao grabbed his arm, twisted him back and then flipped him onto the sand, inciting a gasp from the crowd. But even as the man nearly struck the ground, Kung Lao crouched and stopped his momentum then helped him to his feet. Everyone applauded, and you offered him a slow, unimpressed clap. Kung Lao showed Kioshi how to do a few other moves then countered them. Poor Kioshi. He just wanted to impress Sayuri. You caught Kung Lao looking to you every so often and tried not to apply that exact thought to you. He knew you thought he was good. Right? He wasn’t showing off for you was he? Fake date or affection? You had no idea but you were pretty sure you were losing this game.

If he wanted to show off, you’d make him work. “Do a flip!” You yelled and Kung Lao looked to you as if to admonish you for putting him on the spot. Everyone else was chanting do a flip and you pointed to them as if he had no choice now. He rubbed his palms together then leapt back onto the stone walkway. He stepped to the edge of the stone and then instead of walking off, he flipped through the air, legs high above him before landing as if it were nothing at all. He really was a delight to watch. When he turned back around, he blew you a kiss and then pointed an accusatory finger at you. You covered your face with your hands as your cheeks turned red and Sayuri whistled almost directly in your ear.

This was a pretend date, you reminded yourself.

A pretend and very convincing date with Kung Lao.

It had felt so natural that you had to continuously remind yourself that it was pretend. Your face hurt from smiling and was red since he kept flirting with you even when he was just showing off something he had practiced his whole life. The crowd took over with simple requests and so he was preoccupied for a time and it gave you peace to recover from your embarrassment and for the sake to run its course.

When he was finished, the crowd politely applauded and thanked him for humoring them. You applauded with them and when he sat back down next to you, he sighed contentedly. He hadn’t even broken a sweat. The group had taken to talking amongst themselves again. Some discussed that the last bus would be coming to get them in the next hour or so.

Kung Lao turned to you and pulled up the hat on your head and tugged the strap free before gently tucking it beneath your chin. It was way looser on you and he tugged it with a smile to urge you a little closer. You averted your eyes but couldn’t hide your delight. “So, how’d I do? You didn’t seem too impressed.”

“You’re great Kung Lao, but you already knew that.”

“I know. I just wanted to hear it from you.” He took the hat from you and then slipped it back on his head. “Cute hat. I think I’ll steal it.” You watched the others chat and then Kung Lao stood and offered you his hand. “One last walk by the water?”

“Sure, I guess.” You sighed and took his hand before getting up. You were supposed to be discreet so that no one would notice you were missing when you hid. So much for that. Perhaps you would say goodbye in a moment and then find somewhere to hide until everyone else left. That would work. Kung Lao leapt off the stone path and offered you help down which you took. Then you let go of his hand walked closer to the water. Kung Lao didn’t follow you immediately, but you could feel his eyes following you.

Then he jogged to catch up with you. “Y/N?” You turned to face him, and he stopped in front of you. He took a purposeful step closer to you, denying you personal space. You were forced to tilt your gaze up to meet his.

“Yes?” You asked skeptically. He rested one hand on your hip, and you cocked a curious eyebrow as if to dare him to keep going. You would ten thousand percent pin his ass into the sand if you had to. He tilted your chin up and examined your face before letting his fingers brush down your jaw and over the side of your neck. His eyes followed the trail of his fingertips and you stiffened up but didn’t back down. He leaned ever closer and you very bravely, at least you thought it was brave, refused to turn away, even when his lips drew ever closer.

“…you’ve got something in your teeth,” he whispered with a grin. You laughed and smacked his hand away from your neck and then stepped back and pointed an accusatory finger at him.

“I am going to knock you on your ass and throw you into that toxic lake if you keep that up.” You threatened, walking away from him.

“Well, that’s rude!” He caught up to you and so you shoved at him again with a laugh and kept walking while he stumbled in the sand. You heard him get closer again and so you turned to warn him that you were going to follow through on your threat but he grabbed your arm, pulled you close, and without any warning or pretense, his lips pressed against yours. He was still laughing and you could feel the reverberations of the sweet sound moving through your lips, down your throat and sending shivers down your spine.

It made you smile and as if they had a mind of their own, your lips betrayed you and kissed him back. He held you tight to steady you in the sand and then pushed a stray hair from your face, then urged you to tilt your head even further back as he opened his mouth wider to deepen the kiss, taking each moment greedily for his own. His lips still tasted like the damn pork bun that you’d shoved in his mouth and that made you laugh.

His arm slipped around you and his hand met the small of your back and pulled you tight against him. His warm body pressed against yours woke you from the romantic reverie he’d slipped you into.

“Nope,” you muttered against his lips and then pulled back, leaning away from him since his arm held you captive.

“Oh?” Eyes half-lidded, Kung Lao seemed confused as to why you’d stopped him. Your stomach dropped. That look in his eyes was killing you, something more than romance, closer to lust. Your stomach was doing flips again. Affection or fake date? This one was easy. “Sorry.” He very suddenly realized that it may have been inappropriate and pursed his lips while he searched for the inevitable elusive lie that he would feed you as an excuse for his behavior. “Got carried away.” That was not so much a lie this time.

“Sure you did. Because of all the people that we’ve lied to, right? Had to act the part of doting boyfriend? You came up with our origin story very quickly, by the way.”

“Oh?” He was again at a loss for words, very unlike him. He turned to look at where the others were still gathered on the stone path by the tables. “Oh! Yeah. The act. That thing. Right.”

“Wow,” you whispered but your brain was screaming. No words. Just screams. The panic was real. This was a mess. A huge mess. How had you slipped so naturally into these roles? There were no other words for it than a total and complete fucking mess. He let you go and then went on talking like nothing had happened. He tried to lead you along the sand again.

What were they going to do? What were you going to do? You couldn’t date them both! You had already kissed them both and felt terribly guilty about it. You even felt a little slutty which was never a word you would have used to describe yourself as much as Chen wished that you would.

Maybe slutty was too harsh a word. Your lips, at the very least, were very slutty.

Kung Lao was listing off potential places that you could hide while you waited for the monks to end their night. He’d managed to go back to being his normal self. You couldn’t turn that off so quickly. The rollercoaster was back and there was a huge drop just ahead. You had nothing to say, no input even when he asked you for it. You kept walking alongside him instead, the screaming in your head now mixed with chaotic laughter at the improbability of the situation. You had to make a choice eventually. But both of them were so different and your connection to them was even more so. You had to stop thinking about it. There was no solving this now.

“Did I make it weird?” His words finally slipped through all the screaming which stopped very suddenly.

“What? With your bad jokes and all the showing off?” You instantly found refuge in sarcasm. Oh god, you were so alike in some ways. Kung Lao cocked an eyebrow as if to say you knew exactly what he was referring to. “Oh. Oh, yeah, that kissing me thing you keep doing.”

“Yeah, that’s the one. That’s the thing.”

You huffed. Where to start? Most important of the things bothering you, you supposed. The truth. “I kissed Liu.” You were surprised by how confident you’d sounded. You hadn’t actually said it out loud before. “And I wanted to kiss him.”

Kung Lao did not seem surprised by this revelation. In fact, he seemed very unsurprised. “And did you want to kiss me?”

You stuttered because that was not the response that you’d expected. Wait. Did he already know? Were Liu Kang and Kung Lao gossiping about you? The screaming was back but this time it was angry. You pinched the bridge of your nose and then grunted in frustration and made to walk away. Kung Lao grabbed your arm to stop you.

“Did you?”

“Yeah, I suppose that I did.” Getting those words out was like pulling teeth. You didn’t know what anything meant. Everything was chaos and nothing mattered. “I can’t kiss you both.”

“I mean you did so you obviously can.”

“You know what I mean!”

“Do I?”

“It has to stop.”

“For you? Or for me? Or for Liu? You’re being very vague, Y/N.”

“Are you being purposely frustrating? For all of us, Lao.” You tapped his chest with each word and he laughed. “You have no idea how this is eating me up! I’m so confused. My heart hurts. No more. No more of it.” You weren’t sure how you were going to stand by this declaration when they just went for it so freely but damnit, you were frustrated.

“I guess that’s fair. Only sort of though. How come you get to decide? I’m part of this too.”

“Kung Lao, I swear.”

“Okay! Okay.” He avoided your gaze and his eyes were darting to the side. He was lying? About what?

“What? What’s that look?”

“Uh… ah… what look?”

“I thought you were a good liar, Lao! What’s going on with you?”

“I uh… nothing?” He looked so beyond guilty that you laughed in disbelief.

“Kung Lao? What did you do?”

“That list is way too long to go over right now. We’d be here all week and we have things to do.” He turned away.

“You’re hiding something.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Y/N.”

“Why aren’t you mad, Lao? Aren’t you mad that I kissed your best friend? Hell, I kissed your brother and then also kissed you? Shouldn’t you be pissed? Why am I the one that’s angry?” Your voice was very high-pitched and he laughed at you again.

“What’s the point of being angry? I knew that you and Liu were getting close. Everyone knows. You’re obvious. I’m not stupid, Y/N. I just also decided not to give up.” He sighed but still avoided your eyes and kept checking to see if you were buying it or not. What the actual hell?

“I don’t know what you’re lying about or why you’re lying but I know that you’re lying, Lao. And I know that it’s something important.”

“We have so much to do, Y/N. You’re being crazy. Maybe I will stop kissing you.” He teased and you smacked his arm and gasped. He wasn’t taking you seriously! You took calming deep breaths. Now what were you supposed to do? That hadn’t gone at allhow you’d expected it to. It hadn’t helped you get any closer to a decision. It had only further confused you!

“Of course you will. Because I told you to stop.” You mocked him and he looped his arm with yours. “Let’s go say goodbye to these strangers before I really do push you into the lake and just yell about what a big liar you are.”

“As much as I would love to see that, it’s probably the wrong time to make a display of ourselves.”

“Says the man who has done nothing but make a display of himself all damn day.”

“You didn’t seem to be complaining. You didn’t even try to stop me.”

“No one can stop you, Kung Lao. You’ve made that incredibly clear.” You walked with him back to where the others were gathered. Kung Lao was then his usual charming self, chatting and telling the others that you had to go and had called a taxi to pick you up. You did your absolute best not to roll your eyes but you were seething. Why had you thought telling him would change anything? You supposed that you’d expected him to be angry that you had kissed him after also kissing Liu and would tell you to make a choice. But he hadn’t. Why? Was he afraid that you would choose Liu over him? He didn’t seem afraid of what came next like you were. In fact, he seemed like he wanted to drag this out. You were uncomfortable but you decided, in a breath, to let it go.

Whatever he was hiding would be revealed eventually and when it did, you would call him out on it and gladly. And you would kiss whoever you damn well pleased. For now, you just had to keep your head on straight and focus on the task at hand.

He’d kissed you like it was no big deal. The audacity of this man!

You waved at the others and together you walked to where you’d met the bus. Then you snuck around the gate surrounding the shrine and found a place hidden behind a series of rocks to wait and hide. It was what made the most sense. There was nowhere else to hide without being spotted with so many guests still remaining. As far as you had seen, there were no security cameras.

“You still mad?” He whispered after an hour had passed.

“Confused. Not mad.”

“Don’t be confused, Y/N.”

“Okay. Still a little mad. Almost snapped at you again.”

He chuckled and you pouted. He urged his arm around your shoulder and hugged you close. You were still a little mad but his hugs did feel nice. Comforting even. You were so drained. You hadn’t been prepared for the emotional toll this was taking on you. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t even know what you’re sorry for so don’t waste your breath.” You swatted his arm and he swatted your hand back. “I’m confused. That’s all.”

“Clearly. Look, I’m not mad at you. I don’t like that you kissed Liu but you’re figuring things out. That’s fine.”

“But Liu…”

“I can’t say that Liu won’t be mad about it but I mean, maybe that will make him seem less appealing.” He grinned and you groaned in annoyance and smacked his arm again. “It’ll all work out, Y/N.”

“It’ll all work out, Y/N.” You mimicked him and he laughed again. “I can’t believe that I have to sit stewing over this next to you, with your arms around me while we wait to break in there. God, I need something to punch.”

“This has been fun.” Kung Lao decided while trying not to laugh. Fun? You huffed again and then leaned your head back against the stone and closed your eyes. You had to stop the racing thoughts and find a way to be okay with what had just happened. Time would help, you decided.

And it did.

You fell asleep.

[spiffypony]

Some thoughts on amateurism and “high performance” in sport

Alright @thehorsethief and @sanddancingwithanxiety, I have a 5 hour layover and no desire to do real work so here goes. Also fair warning, chrome isn’t playing nice w tumblr on my computer so this is all from mobile.

First let’s define a few things. 1) an amateur is someone who participates (in this case) in a sport without receiving any substantial compensation in the way of goods or currency. 2) high performance is a modifier referring time athletes, programs, strategies etc at the top of their sport (the highest level/most competitive/what have you). 3) a professional athlete is someone who participates in a sport for compensation, often from sponsors.

Additionally, this is coming from my own experience as an amateur equestrian, highschool varsity athlete (basketball and powerlifting), and NCAA Division III athlete (rowing). I am not a professional, I have never been, and, and this is something I’m going to emphasize: I’m not a high performance athlete. While my experience with amateurism in sports runs the gambit from v casual to quite structured, and I do participate in a program that prioritizes competitive success, I really want to be clear, I am not the pinnacle of amateur athlete.

Now then, something I see in a lot of (highschool) programs and a mindset that seems pretty common amongst horsblr is people believing themselves (or their children) in their athletic pursuits to be on a path to or on par with high performance athletes, often pros in the horse world. This is usually an inaccurate notion and in highschool sports it leads to parents pushing their kids into toxic and/or overbearing programs where kids end up burnt out or permanently injured or both before they could ever reach the desired outcome (often getting monetary assistance for college). This affects parents, it affects coaches and it fucks kids up. I have lots of feelings on it having been through it and having witnessed it, but that’s another post quite frankly. In the equestrian world, it is the primary fodder of self identified underdogs and outcasts. In the equestrian world it seems to translate into an overly high regard for one’s own knowledge and training program. This is ultimately less damaging than the highschool case generally. Also as a note here, participation in sports, and especially equestrian sports is a huge privilege of time, money, and location, and participation at a high performance level is even more so and lack of privilege is a major limitation to most people’s participation. That doesn’t diminish the importance of this conversation though.

To give an idea of what I mean, I’m going to compare the commitments of collegiate rowing to dressage in my own life. We’ll start with dressage, currently it’s in the backburner because I’m a college kid with no money and less time, I take lessons with a trainer who has a good name and has proven themself in competition and with other students weekly when I’m home. When I had a horse, I rode 3-4 times a week when I was home (about 4 months out of the year) and at school I take lessons through a club at a h/j barn for about 8 weeks a semester. In highschool I rode 2/3 times a week and spent another 2/3 hours a week on education for dressage. This adds up to an average of ~10 hours a week when you include transit time, it’s easily down to 6 or 7 if you cut the drive time out though. Additionally, dressage didn’t impact much outside of itself in my life, I was already lifting for powerlifting and rowing and it never had an effect on my diet, sleep schedule, or life rhythm. I’d say that this level of commitment is about average, and I don’t mean to disparage it, I love dressage and I do want to consistently improve in it and build skill in it. But that’s nothing compared to rowing. Rowing has two seasons a year, a 6 week season in the fall and an 8 week season in the spring. In season I have morning practice 5 or 6 days a week with one day also having an afternoon weights session and another being back to back practice and weights, so average 8 hours of practice a week, and that’s rounding down. Now add regattas (meets), they are invariably 5+ hour events, and in the spring we have them every weekend, so I’m up to an average 13 hours a week in season. Out of season we have captains practices. 5 days a week, so 5 hours a week. Additionally mid semester breaks we practice between 1.5 and 2 times as much. And over summer and winter break, we’re expected to work out 4 days a week. And that’s just pure practice time. Rowing isn’t like dressage, I get up at 5 am for practices, so I have to go to bed before 11 or I fall asleep in classes, I’m doing Hard physical exercise daily, so I have to make sure I’m not only eating enough, but eating well. Having regattas means I can’t pick up work shifts on the weekends usually. Hour wise it’s double what dressage is, at their most intense, but it’s also a more sustained substantial commitment and it has a material effect in most aspects of my life (food, sleep, work, free time). Oh, and my rowing program? It’s DIII, it’s Collegiate AthleticsLite™️. They can’t even give athletes scholarship for being on the team.

Real high performance athletes are always training, their diets, their sleep schedules, and everything else in their lives revolve around their sport. It’s why NCAA DI sports are rife controversy about whether the technically amateur athletes should be able to receive compensation. Those horror stories you’ve heard about college athletes? That’s DI. The football coaches who make more than double a professor’s salary? That’s DI. NCAA DI Sports are almost without exception high performance programs. They obtain and produce athletes who are at the top of their sport and the consequence of that is that the sport is the athlete’s life.

To be clear, not all equestrian pros are high performance athletes. Even if we rightfully exclude the “pros” who teach beginner lessons to offset board or who schooled the problem lesson horses in their youth, there’s a huge proportion of equestrian pros (specifically trainers and riders) who compete primarily at lower levels and provide basic guidance and safety to their clients. But like high performance athletes, regardless of the level of the sport, the truth remains that for pros, as with high performance athletes, the sport is their life. It’s literally how they live. They certainly do it at a greater scale and more frequently than most of their amateur clients. This has gotten rather lengthy, but really the point is this: if you do not compete at the highest level, you are Not a high performance athlete and quite frankly there’s nothing wrong with that, realistically, you probably don’t want to be a high performance athlete.

What is bad is equating yourself with a high performance athlete. It sets you up for disappointment and digs you into a pit of self pity that’s very difficult to dig out of. In dressage in particular one must be careful, because if one fancies themself on par with a pro, one will be let down always and may eventually determine that the guidelines of the sport they’ve pursued are wrong and be driven from the sport rather than learning to set reasonable goals and balance desired progress with leisure. To be clear, falling into the pit of self pity so to speak is not a moral failing, it’s a mis judgement. And it’s one most people make at some point in their life. Certainly it can have bad consequences, like a loss of drive to critically analyze ones own actions and a tendency to reject any actual outside input, but these things are temporary and are best overcome not through self brutalizations but through careful, constant consideration of the context of our participation in sport.

Now for the actual point: this has an application to conversations about high performance in sport. Namely: your experience as a non high performance athlete is of limited if any significance to such discussions. The things said and suggested in those conversations are also of limited application to your pursuit of your sport. Charlotte Dujardin’s hand tailored Pilates routine is going to do a low level rider whose only exercise is riding about as much good as going for a jog a couple times a week. Michael Jung’s favorite bit in the hands of a novice eventer on their packer is not going to shave even seconds off a xc run. Likewise, just because you wouldn’t run your bucket list foal through a jump chute at a year old doesn’t mean it’s inappropriate for a breeder advertising to higher performance athletes than you to do so on occasion. So. Stop comparing yourselves to high performance athletes. Stop pretending high performance athletes participate the way you do. You are not them. You cannot fathom being them. There’s nothing wrong with your current level of participation but for your own sake, stop equating yourself with that. Accept that your trainer gets the best out of your horse because they are on a different level than you. Accept that you cannot understand the practices of a horse pro through the context of your own experience. When you read prescriptive posts about how to be a better horse person that frustrate you think: “is this targeted at someone of my participation level” no? Move on.

Anyways I’m done now.

Tldr: A lot of equestrians are very casual in their participation if their chosen sport which is fine, good even. This means their experiences are not comparable to pros and those at the highest level. Equating ones casual participation with that of those at the highest level can cause distress to ones self as well as hinder their progress. Additionally it can cause one to make a fool of themself. For the sake of your own enjoyment take stock if your participation level and keep it in mind when setting goals, seeking advice and judging the choices of other athletes.

[hollowhollowheart]

1/4 I think a lot of the people who were made very angry by your post is because there is a very loud and very “mainstream” trans lobby so to speak that advocate that homosexuality IS wrong and these people have large gsm media on their side. There are normal trans people who aren’t like this, but the momentum of things such as the cotton ceiling(pls look this up) means lesbians are getting stomped on and are sensitive

2/4 When there are quiet, normal trans women who respect homosexuality and understand that 99.9999% of lesbians are fundamentally incapable of finding them attractive, there’s no issue. When lesbians are being pressured by the Mainstream! community with conversion therapy tactics? When biology is being lauded as fake? There is absolutely an issue.

3/4 Instead of taking this interaction as “all radfems are rude transphobic harpies”, I implore you to look a little deeper into what is causing this strife. Look at the prominent leaders of trans organizations and the homophonic sentiment and sexual abuse they spit out. There are reasons for the anger here.

4/4 Lots of radfems or gender criticals are just women who were tired of being stepped on by identity politics and the rampant misogyny within it or are lesbians who were tired of being harassed. This is a complicated, painful issue that can’t be contained to one posts discourse. If you actually want to talk, ask me to pm you.

5/4 I’m sending these anon because I don’t want hate if my url gets out and I’m on the “wrong side of the discourse”. Please respect that. 👋

I completely understand the anger shown. I do not blame them for all the shit that they’re going through. I never said I don’t understand, I never said I wanted them to angrily defend their position on my post, which only wanted to start a conversation to create understanding. 

I never said “all radfems are rude transphobic harpies.” I don’t know where you got that from. I did say radfems are mean. If you look through the notes, all you see are people calling me homophobic, people calling me a dirty trans person, people thinking that I’m a rape apologist, or whatever. 

I looked through my innocent post one day, and saw people slandering me for whatever bullshit they thought I said. I’m apparently a dumb transgender person who thinks my opinion is right.

Almost no one took me seriously, when I asked for a discussion. I’m trying to understand. I don’t do well with yelling. But that’s what everyone did. They called me clueless, called me this, and that, and told me I knew nothing about the community.

Yeah! You’re right. I don’t know much. I just left my parents, just started to realize who I am. I’m trying to learn. But all I heard was hate.

Newsflash. Opinions are opinions. Here’s the truth: I’m currently questioning my sexuality after being convinced for years by my religious parents that I was straight. I know what homophobia feels like. I’m trying to understand the community that I suddenly realized I was a part of not even a year ago. I’m not transgender. I’m a questioning woman of color who suddenly realized that I’m not as straight as I had thought.

I want to understand. I think we all want to understand. I don’t mind you getting mad at people who are being mean to you. I don’t mind that at all. Believe in what you want to believe.

But getting mad doesn’t solve issues. It breaks down the community. Why are you calling people homophobes online as if it’s the only thing you’re doing? Why aren’t we focusing on real issues that affect people? Like gay people being murdered in not just other countries, but even in places like the United States. Trans people of color are being murdered almost constantly. Gay people are being oppressed in nations like Russia. There are real issues in the world here, not who’s going to sleep with someone else.

I’m not saying your issue isn’t real. I’m just saying that this inter-community issue seems to put all of us in Discomfort Central. We should be able to discuss our issues instead of yelling and calling everyone slurs. We should be able to respect trans people, especially their gender. Misgendering trans people incites violence, incites anger, makes it all worse. We should be able to respect radical beliefs, even if you think it’s a bit too radical. Calling them rude names, throwing around the d-slur, or whatever... that, too, incites anger, violence, makes everyone worse than it already is.

This is no longer discussion and trying to create an understanding. This is just mindless yelling that separates us even farther. Plus, people are yelling to “drop the T” or “take out the L” and all the yelling makes everyone tired, angry, upset...

I understand how these lesbians feel attacked. I understand. I also understand from trans friends that they’ve also encountered people who are both interested and not interested in them. It’s alright. It’s okay. But some people feel entitled. Okay. Cool. Figure that out between yourselves. There are some people that are on the other side of radfems that are extreme too. People that call everyone transphobes if they don’t understand. People that tell lesbians and gay people that their sexuality has to be this or else. Both sides are at fault here. Do not mistake this as a call to hate on radfems. 

But don’t you think talking calmly and bringing up points and trying to be nice... don’t you think that makes people a bit more empathetic, more able to reason with, and more understanding? I know some people have been disrespected due to these arguments. So will you battle fire with fire? Will you burn down the entire community? Put down your swords, your guns, your anger for a moment and realize that we’re all human beings.

We all deserve love and respect, whether you’re transgender or whether you’re a gay person who isn’t interested in trans people.  We all deserve respect, whether you’re a radfem or a libfem. All of us, we’re human beings. I love everyone in this world. My love has only one limit: those who spread hate and injustice.

Will you spread hate through a community that’s already been hated from outside of the community? What will you do when gay rights are challenged across the globe? What will you do? Continue to battle it out amongst yourselves, calling for trans rights, calling for lesbian rights, calling for whatever? There are no winners here. No one wins here. You are deluding yourselves if that’s what you think. 

I know people are still yelling at my post. In fact, I’m glad this is a sideblog so that I don’t have to see it on my main. People are saying stuff, but I don’t bother anymore. I understand. You feel attacked by my thoughts, as if I’m trying to convince you to sleep with trans people. Sure. Go ahead. I’m not paying attention anymore. But... maybe there’s a better way.

My motto was always to preach love and respect, even to those who you don’t understand, those who you don’t agree with. And I’ll continue that, with or without this blog. And I’m choosing without.

If you ever see this, no matter what you believe, know that I wish the best for you. Have a nice day.

[jinterlude]

Our Second Chance (Ch.1)

↳Story Header © @softjeon (do not steal this header!)

➳ Pairing: Kim Seokjin x Female OC

➳ Genre(s): Modern!AU, Royalty!AU, Modern Royal Family!AU , Enemies turned Lovers, Friendship, Humor, Romance, & Angst

➳ Words: 6k

➳ Summary: Have you ever gotten that familiar feeling when you first see someone? That strange connection between yourselves even though you have no clue where that came from. Yeah...that was the sensation that Sumin felt on a daily basis ever since she has come face-to-face with the one and only Kim Seokjin. Despite being named after their ancestors, two people who were madly in love with each other, these two cannot stand to be in each other’s presence. However, that must change or else history will repeat itself. Sounds like an adventure, right? 

➳ Sequel to: Fight for Me

※ Next time: ch.2 | ch.3 | ch.4 | ch.5 | ch.6 | ch.7 | coming soon!

Chapter 1 – Looking for That Suitor

Suddenly, his eyes caught Sumin’s gaze. Due to being far away, Seokjin could not see the brokenness and despair in her eyes. To him, she was filled with joy. To her, she was depressed, defeated, and above all…she was surprised to see Seokjin alive and unharmed. Confusion filled her mind as her eyes switched from her knight to her now husband.

At that moment, she knew felt like an idiot. She angrily turned towards her husband but before she could demand him to tell her the truth, King Ji Yong roughly pulled her closer and whispered a bone chilling threat.

         “If you do anything rash, I will have my men kill your knight where he stands. Now, do you really want bloodshed on our wedding day?”

Sumin fought back her tears, even though a few of them had already cascaded down her rosy cheeks. She shook her head, closing her eyes briefly.

King Ji Yong smiled and kissed her head sweetly.

         “Good.” He said softly with a creepy grin.

Sumin opened her eyes and met Seokjin’s gaze one last time. With a sad smile, she mouthed,

         “I love you.”

Seokjin forced a smile and mouthed, “I love you too…”

“I love you too…”

His voice echoed throughout a young woman’s mind.

A young woman who laid in despair in her bed. Her lips trembled. Her body tensed under the sheets as her hands fisted her fluffy pillow. Soon, tears stained the fabric of the pillow cover while tiny whimpers escaped the poor distressed woman.

         “NO COME BACK!” shouted the woman as she shot up from her bed; her heart pounded against her chest.

Not even a minute later, her bedroom was invaded by a few guards, who were alarmed and ready to defend their beloved princess.

         “Your highness!” yelled the guards; their breaths heavy.

Sumin waved them off as she calmed her sped up heart.

         “It’s nothing. You can return to your post. It was only a nightmare…” She said, mustering a polite smile.

The guards stared at her briefly before nodding and exiting the room, closing the door behind them.

Once she heard the door click shut, Sumin flung herself backwards, careful to not hit her head on the headboard.

Named after her ancestor, Sumin I, Sumin II found herself wondering if that perhaps was the reasoning for her recurring nightmare. An endless, horrific dream that always ends with her ancestor bidding her one true love farewell. Each time, Sumin II felt her heartbreak for her poor dear ancestor. She had heard the stories well enough to know that her ancestor sacrificed her happiness to save her beloved knight, and the wellbeing of both her parents and the people that inhabited the kingdom. Sumin I saved everyone before her marriage to that tyrant king and then tried her hardest to continue the tradition and legacy that her parents had unfortunately left behind.

The moment her father passed away, peacefully, in his slumber, King Ji Yong took that opportunity to mold the kingdom into how he wanted. How he specifically desired for that stupid law to be removed—the law that stated that the prince or princess was allowed to marry whomever had been deemed worthy. With that law abolished, it meant more pieces and moves to play in the fun little game that King Ji Yong had conceived the moment his calculating eyes landed on Sumin I’s beautiful face.

It would only be centuries later that the law would come to surface again. Sumin II’s great-great-great grandfather believed that people should wed because they were in love. Not because their parents needed some sort of an alliance or in expansion in territory. No parent should ever put their offspring up as a bargaining chip. No one…

Exhaling rather slowly, Sumin turned her head; her eyes glanced at the clock. Then, a short groan escaped her precious lips as her mind registered that it was eight o’clock in the morning.

         “Well, no point in going back to sleep… Might as well get ready for my day…” she thought as she pulled away her covers and swung her legs so that they dangled over the edge of her bed.

         “Let’s just hope my lovely parents don’t discuss my upcoming “wedding” for the millionth time today…” She added bitterly as she stood up and proceeded with her morning routine.

Currently sitting at a marble dining table, Sumin’s parents were eating and chatting amongst themselves while a certain young man sat awkwardly at the table, questioning his life choices.

         “So, Kim Namjoon, have you chosen a honeymoon destination for Sumin and yourself?” Namjoon heard Sumin’s father ask, causing the poor man to nearly choke on his orange juice.

Namjoon nervously looked at his future-in-laws and gently placed his glass down. He then rubbed the back of his neck; a habit he developed ever since he became engaged to his close friend. A friend who he’d never see in a romantic light. Never ever.

         “Uh…” He trailed on, trying to use his rather intelligent brain to concoct a good excuse as to why he had yet to look at honeymoon destinations, “You see…”

         “Daddy? Isn’t it too early for planning my future?” said a familiar voice that left a feeling of relief within Namjoon.

Sumin’s father raised his brow as he stared curiously at his daughter.

         “What do you mean, my dear daughter? It is never too early to plan for your upcoming nuptials to Namjoon!” exclaimed the king, “Especially if the two of you have been engaged since your teens.” He kindly added.

The princess rolled her eyes, reluctantly taking a seat at the table. She flashed a short yet apologetic smile at her dear friend before digging in her breakfast.

         “I am being serious, Sumin. You two have to start discussing your wedding! There are horrendous rumors about you that you are having an affair with someone else, and that is why you are prolonging the ceremony.” Pleaded her father, hoping that his reasoning would make Sumin see his viewpoint.

Unfortunately, Sumin could care less. Rumors were just rumors. People were bored with their lives that they had to make it entertaining at a poor person’s expense. Gotta love human interactions, right?

         “I honestly do not care about some pathetic rumor. I know the truth, and that’s all that matters to me, and it should matter to you as well.” Sumin said, staring courageously into her father’s eyes.

The king muttered something before turning towards his wife. Maybe she could talk some sense into their stubborn child.

         “Sumin, my precious jewel, please take your father’s old age into consideration. He only wants to see you married before he departs this life.” Sumin heard her mother say.

Nodding her head, Sumin sat there in silence, unsure on how to bypass her mother’s obvious guilt trip.

Her eyes flickered to her parents then to Namjoon. Maybe her Brainiac of a friend would know what to say.

Namjoon read her gaze and instantly picked up on her thoughts. His eyes scanned the room swiftly, hoping to pick up on any clues that could help Sumin talk her way out of, yet, another marriage talk.

Wait…

Sumin…

That was it!

He quickly yet subtly pulled out his phone and texted his fiancée his idea. Thankfully, she always had her phone on either silent or vibration.

[From Egg-Joon 08:45 AM: Your ancestor! Use your kingdom’s old tradition as your way out!]

[From Egg-Joon 08:45 AM: Remember? Your great-great-great grandfather reinstated that law.]

Sumin smiled victoriously as her eye skimmed the messages. She swiftly typed, “thanks”, before locking her phone.

With a new surge of confidence flowing through her veins, she looked at her parents and proposed an idea,

         “Okay mother and father. I will marry before you pass away, but I want to do it on my own terms.”

Both her parents raised their brows, unsure if they were going to like what would come out of their rather conniving daughter’s mouth.

Her father gestured for her to continue and so she did.

         “I want to have the chance to find that special someone and fall in love before I pledge my life forever towards him. I want to wake up next to someone and immediately smile and have my heart race when I see his peaceful face first thing. I want my face to flush with redness whenever I hear his sweet words. I just want to be with someone who makes me feel something—anything—and sadly, I will not have that with Namjoon. He and I are simply friends and that is it.” Sumin finished her speech, smiling apologetically at Namjoon near the end. She did not want to offend her dear friend.

Thankfully, she didn’t. Namjoon’s feelings towards the princess would forever be platonic. In the beginning, they had tried to explore those romantic feelings, and the moment they shared their first kiss, there was nothing. No spark. No shot of electricity. Nothing.

After they pulled a part, they knew that they would be friends for life, and that was specific relationship was rare in their lineage.

A blanket of silence covered the dining room. Neither the king and queen uttered a word. They knew how diplomatic and polite their daughter was, but never once did they believe she would use those traits against them.

They definitely raised their daughter well, and the queen, she was named after, would be proud.

         “I see your point…Okay, I will grant your proposal and allow you to find yourself a potential suitor within seven months.” The king said, smiling.

Sumin’s lit up like the night sky during New Year’s and high-pitch squeal emitted from her lips.

         “Oh, thank you! Thank you so much, daddy! Wait…did you say seven months?!” She questioned loudly the second her brain registered her father’s words.

Her father nodded, “That is right, my dear daughter. Like I said earlier, there are horrendous rumors about you, and I want those terminated immediately; hence, the deadline. You will have seven months to find someone starting now or you and Namjoon will wed with no resistance from you, understand?” He explained, giving his daughter a stern look.

Sumin gawked, then she glanced at Namjoon, who too was speechless.

Soon, the king and queen stood up from their seats and bid their daughter a fond farewell. They weren’t bothered to hear Sumin’s answer. Her current facial expression was enough.

The family were on the same page.

         “Seven months, my love? Are you sure that is enough time for her to find someone and fall in love?” asked the queen with eyes that dripped with concern.

The king peered down to his queen and squeezed her hand, hoping she’d feel the warmth from his heart.

         “Knowing our daughter, seven months is all she needs. Besides, if I remember correctly, you and I fell in love in just five months and look at us now. We are going on to almost twenty years of marriage.” Said the king, smiling sweetly at his lovely wife.

The queen returned the smile and placed an innocent yet loving kiss on his cheek as the two continued their journey to the garden.

Who said romance was dead in their marriage?

Back with Sumin and Namjoon, the pair were now cooped up in her personal study, trying to figure out how on Earth was she going to find someone so quickly and fall in love with him.

Shit…it took her like seven months to decide if she wanted to major in old English literature or Art history and even then, she changed her major twice soon after.

She had an indecisive mind, and it showed.

Now lightly banging her head against the surface mahogany wooden desk, Sumin silently prayed that with each impact, an idea would appear—a good idea.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Namjoon finally spoke. It was if the Gods were sending him a sign—a sign in the form of a text message from a very dear friend.

[From Min Genius 01:43 PM: Hey, Hobi is wondering if we are still getting together tonight.]

His brows furrowed the more he stared intensely at his friend’s message. Would Sumin be interested in dating a friend of his? Scratch that. She had no choice. Beggars couldn’t be choosers.

[To Min Genius 01:45 PM: Uh… hey man! Yeah, we are still getting together tonight. I’m just finishing up my duties to my future-in-laws. You know how it is.]

Not even minutes after sending his message, Namjoon’s phone vibrated.

         “Huh…that’s rare. Yoongi is never glued to his phone. Must be in a meeting…” thought Namjoon before opening up his messages once again.

[From Min Genius 01:46 PM: Fortunately, I do not. I am quite happy with the fact that my parents respected my wishes and did NOT arrange a marriage to some random ass princess.]

[From Min Genius 01:47 PM: You know me. I want to find someone on my own.]

A short snort escaped Namjoon’s lips as he quickly exited out of his chat with Yoongi and then dialed the number of his personal assistant.

Before it could reach the third ring, a voice answered.

         “Yes, your highness?” said a deep, masculine voice.

Namjoon sighed, “I told you, Namjoon is perfectly fine with me.”

         “I know. I just like calling you that since it pushes your buttons.” Teased the man.

         “Why am I not surprised? Anyway, I need you to deliver me files on my close friends.” Instructed Namjoon as his eyes wondered towards Sumin, who was currently searching up young, eligible bachelors in every single country.

         “Oh, you mean your little group that you nicknamed, BTS?” questioned the assistant.

         “Yep, and I would need them in less than an hour.” Namjoon added, observing the defeated expression that graced Sumin’s face.

         “Understood.” The assistant said before ending the call.

A sudden wave of relief washed over Namjoon as he shoved his phone in the pocket of his jeans. His plan would work. He was deemed the smart one of his group for a reason.

After what seemed like forever, the prince and princess heard a short knock. Sumin shouted, granting the intruder permission to enter her study.

Namjoon’s face relaxed in an instant. He coolly walked over to his assistant and happily took the files from his hands. He thanked the man for gathering every piece of information on his friends on short notice and gave him the rest of the day off.

The assistant nodded with a smile and excused himself from the presence of the princess and his prince.

The door clicked shut and it was time to get to business. It was time to find Sumin a potential husband out of his six friends. Oh…God help him.

Namjoon started off with the one and only Min Yoongi since he was the sole reason why Namjoon even had this idea in the first place.

He opened the vanilla colored folder and then placed it front of Sumin, who still had her face planted on the surface of her desk.

         “Okay, you weird child that I apparently call my dear friend,” Sumin heard Namjoon begin, causing her to lift up her head and glare at him for the “compliment”, “Meet Min Yoongi. He is currently a prince and next in line for the throne. He has an older brother, but he forfeited his title in order to marry a “commoner”—”

         “Oh, like how the Japanese does it when someone from the royal family wants to marry someone outside of it!” Sumin interrupted, finding it rather admirable that Yoongi’s brother gave up his title for love. She secretly saw herself doing that if her great-great-great grandfather had not restored that terrific law.

Namjoon nodded before continuing, “Now, for the good details on why Yoongi would be a wonderful future-husband for you. He is crazy talented when it comes to music. Seriously, do not get me started on his musical genius. He might be even better than myself,” He paused, flipping the packet and showing Sumin a picture of the musical genius, “He may not look it, but Yoongi is laidback. He prefers staying inside than going outside and partying. Personality wise, I feel that he can keep up with yours. He is quick-witted, bluntly honest, but in a good way! He doesn’t tolerate with inauthenticity—”

         “Okay, I’m going to stop you right there. Yoongi doesn’t seem like my type.” Sumin interrupted yet again, holding up her hand.

His eyes widened as a feeling of dread washed over his face.

         “Why do you say that? If anything, I think he’s perfect for you!” Namjoon tried to reason, frantically flipping through the packet, “See, right there! He may not look like he does not care, but in reality, he cares incredibly too much about the people he loves and cares for. That is a trait that you admire!” He added.

Sumin flashed an apologetic smile at her friend, “I’m sorry, but he seems too serious at first and he seems more like the type of friend of mine. In fact, let me give you her number and then you can give it to him!”

Namjoon scowled then grabbed Yoongi’s folder and switched with another friend. The sunshine of their group—Jung Hoseok.

Sumin made an unsure face as she opened up the file.

         “Meet Lord Hoseok. While, he may not be a prince in his kingdom, he still holds a high position, and his family are incredibly well-loved by the people. Sound familiar?” Namjoon asked, smirking.

Sumin rolled her eyes, clearly annoyed with him yet her tiny small gave it away that she was clearly not.

         “The reason why he would be the perfect match for you is that he’s not afraid to be himself. Trust me. This fool is the funniest person you would ever meet. You would definitely never be bored in your relationship. Basically, you would be dating Apollo himself because of how bright he is, and the mere fact that he rarely gets sad, however, do not let that fool you. He does have his serious moments and doesn’t open up quite easily, so you need to be patient with him when it comes to talking about your feelings and important issues.” Namjoon paused to take a breath. It was quite rare for him to ramble like this, “Like Yoongi, he’s incredibly talented in the field of dance. We call him our dance God for a reason because he is so passionate in his craft. Dedication would be the perfect word to describe this man.” He finished, staring at Sumin.

Sumin looked over Hoseok’s picture and like Yoongi, she could not see himself with this ball of sunshine. If anything, she could see him as her best friend—just like Namjoon.

         “Sorry, Nams, but he’s more best friend material.” She politely rejected another friend of his.

Namjoon rubbed his face, clearly frustrated with Sumin’s pickiness. He inhaled and then exhaled nice and slow before replacing Hoseok’s file with another contender.

         “Okay, don’t fail me now, Park Jimin.” He thought as he opened his file up.

Sumin stifled a laughter the second she saw his height. Yeah, he was an instant no from her.

         “I know that look, Sumin… Before you reject him so quickly, hear me out! His name is Park Jimin, and like Hoseok, he is a lord and is held in high regards by the people of his kingdom. He is quite hardworking. No matter what the task is, you can expect Jimin to give it his all because he will never give up. Even if said task becomes difficult, he will keep trying until it gets done. Aside from that, he loves brightening up people’s days. Your smile is worth it in his eyes, and he will make sure that he achieves it by putting your happiness and well-being before his own. In simple, he a selfless man worthy of your love.” Namjoon said, managing to keep his speech short, “Though, he does have a tiny flirty streak to him, but again, do not let that fool you. He’s just trying to make you smile.” He added.

Sumin hummed in response as she tapped her fingers on the desk. Was she seriously contemplating this Park Jimin to be her future companion? Maybe, she could save him as a backup just in case.

She closed the file and pushed it to the side.

         “Okay, who is next?” inquired Sumin, folding her hands in front of her.

Namjoon groaned loudly, throwing his head back. He just wanted to go home now and give it a rest.

Seriously, he was tempted to say, “fuck it,” and marry Sumin at this point. Anything to save himself from this headache.

         “Okay…um…This here is Prince Kim Taehyung. As you can see here, he has majored in the fine arts, specializing in photography. That boy can really take photos. I believe he even professionally shot some models in his kingdom. Oh, can’t forget my friends and I as well! Aside for his well-known love for photography, he has a special eye for fashion. His fashion sense is on par with yourself, Sumin. Now, don’t let that fool you. It may seem superficial, but he is truly humble. His mother married into the royal lineage. Just like your ancestor’s mother. He is quite the free-spirit, so you don’t have to worry about being stuck in one place. This pretty much means that he loves to travel,” Namjoon paused, taking a moment to see if he was missing anything else, “He loves animals to the point that he currently owns a farm and a tiny puppy. I think it is because of the puppy that he has developed a playful side…well…correction. His playful side is at an all time high, but he knows when to become serious. In short, he’s simply a caring guy that anyone would find themselves slowly falling in love with him. I mean look at his smile.” He finished as he showed off a rather candid photo of Taehyung.

Sumin couldn’t help but smile the second she saw his boxy smile. Namjoon was right. You couldn’t help but fall in love with him, however, like Hoseok, she didn’t feel a connection with him. If anything, she felt that best friend connection.

Which…

There was nothing wrong.

She could always use another best friend…

Slowly, the once bright blue sky became soft in colors. The bright, vibrant oranges and yellows became soft pastel colors as the sun began to slowly descend behind the mountains. The sounds of a fire crackling floated up into the air as the atmosphere was simply quiet.

Neither Sumin or Namjoon were talking. They just wanted a break from playing matchmaker.

After rejecting Kim Taehyung, Sumin honestly felt hopeless. Her heart raced against her chest as she thought about wedding someone she did not love. She had heard tales of her ancestor having done so, and she refused to become a zombie like her. Her ancestor no longer smiled, laughed, joked, and even loved. Her then husband caused her to become that, and Sumin would be damned if that happened to her.

         “Always marry someone because you love them. Never because it was forced upon you, my dear child…”

Her grandpa’s word echoed in her mind in a repeated loop.

         “Marry someone because you love them…” Sumin repeated softly to herself. Then, a firm and confident smile appeared on her face. She stood up from her chair and walked over her friend, who was currently napping in his seat.

She kicked his feet off the coffee table, causing the poor man to jolt awake.

         “Jesus woman! You could’ve just tapped my shoulder!” complained Namjoon.

Sumin chuckled, “I know, but where’s the fun in that?”

Namjoon glared at her, muttering a few profanities under his breath.

         “Alright, who is up to bat now?” Sumin asked, randomly picking a file from the remaining two.

She flipped open the folder and began to skim the contents of the file.

Meanwhile, Namjoon rubbed the sides of his forehead before glancing at the name on the folder. Ah…Jeon Jungkook…

         “Let’s see…Jeon Jungkook…Where do I begin with him?” Namjoon mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

Sumin found his sudden change in behavior rather odd. Namjoon had no problem talking up his other friends, but with Jungkook, he was nervous.

         “Uh…well, it says here that he too is a prince and second-in-line for the throne. According to his notes, he is quite passionate about everything and anything he finds interesting. Right now, he has a thing for cinematography and wants to major in film. Personality wise, he is empathetic towards others and cares quite an ordeal about the people he loves and cherishes. That’s kind of sweet actually. He is also humble, like yourself and the rest of your buddies, Namjoon, and he has a playful streak as well,” Sumin paused and looked away from his file, “Is he the reason why you came to my family dinner all annoyed that one night?” She quickly questioned.

         “Yes…” Namjoon mumbled, taking a sip of his scotch.

Sumin shook her head with an amused smile before going back to Jungkook’s file.

         “Okay…” She skimmed the remaining content, still trying to find something she could nitpick on, “Well, Jungkook seems like the total package. He’s incredibly handsome, has the right support of the people, and is eager to try his hand at dating.” Sumin said, summarizing the main points. She then closed the vanilla folder and slid it over towards Namjoon.

Namjoon picked up the folder and glanced at Sumin, asking Sumin what was wrong with him then since she wasn’t demanding him to set up a date ASAP.

Sumin hummed in response before taking a sip of yet another glass of sweet wine. She placed the glass down gently and then told him that something seemed off about him. Jungkook was too good to be true. There had to be something wrong with him.

         “Besides his player ways? There’s nothing wrong with him.” Namjoon confessed,

The moment he said that, Sumin snapped her fingers. There it was! The much-needed ammo for her to shoot him down.

         “Yeah, sorry, Nams. I can’t date someone who wants to keep playing the field but… I do know a certain freshly new queen who would love to tame his ways.” Sumin stated, folding her arms across her chest.

Namjoon groaned loudly, again, and flung himself on the lounge chair. Yeah. He was officially done.

Sumin laughed at his defeat and just as she was about to comfort her dear friend, she saw a familiar name out of the corner of her eyes. She slowly turns her body towards the file and picks it up; her fingers touched the smooth folder.

Her brows became knitted together. Tiny wrinkled formed on her forehead. Her lips thinned as Sumin felt the curiosity getting the best of her.

         “Kim Seokjin II…” She read the name in her mind, “Why does that name sound so familiar?” She questioned herself as one hand absentmindedly played with her ancestor’s ring. The ring that hung gracefully on a rose-gold chain around her neck. Wait…

Sumin peered down at the vintage ring and lifted it up. This gorgeous ring had been given to her ancestor by Seokjin’s ancestor a long time ago. That was why his name was so familiar to her! Her grandma and grandpa would tell tales of their romance and how their love should’ve ended with a happy and lifelong marriage, but that horrid King Ji Yong came into the picture and destroyed that chance!

Maybe fate had send a sign to her. Maybe it was finally time for her ancestor to obtain her happy ending!

Sumin snorted as her fingers allowed the ring to slip between them.

Yeah…

Right.

However, she couldn’t help but think that this was little too much of a coincidence. The moment she needed to find someone to potentially fall in love with, the person, who was practically a spitting image of his ancestor, appeared right in her eyes.

         “Don’t think too much of it, Sumin. He is only a friend of Namjoon, and that is all. There is no special connection. Nothing. None whatsoever.” Sumin chanted to herself—or so she thought.

         “Who’s only a friend of mine?” Namjoon questioned as his eyes trailed towards the folder she was holding. Then, a lightbulb went off in his mind. This had to be the work of the Gods of fate.

         “Ah. I see you have found the folder of the one and only Kim Seokjin. Like yourself, he was named after the ancestor that fell deeply in love with Sumin I, and they were engaged to be married but…well…you know what happened.” He said, smiling sadly at the girl.

Sumin scoffed as this feeling of anger flowed throughout her body.

         “Anyway, voted as one of the handsomest men in his kingdom, he holds the title of Duke, and his cousin is the current future queen. Naturally, because of that relationship, his family runs the kingdom’s trade company, where he is currently the CEO of it. Personality wise, I feel like he’s more your speed. He comes off as cold and unapproachable, but that has to be the furthest from the truth. He has the biggest heart out of my group of friend and I, and it shows when he takes care of us. He loves to make people laugh and feeds off that specific attention. Quite frankly, he just loves attention. Aside from his goofy side, he does have a protective and serious quality to him. He will go to great lengths to make sure that everyone and anyone important to him is well taken care of. That’s how much is family and friends mean to him. His interest include playing guitar, singing, taking care of his pets, and of course, cooking and eating. Two activities that you enjoy, Sumin!” Namjoon stated, earning himself the middle finger from her.

Sumin then rolled her eyes and soon focused back on his file. The more Namjoon talked him up, the more she found herself intrigued. The longer she stared at his picture, the urge to meet him grew stronger. She had to know more about this man. She desired to know the man that she could potentially marry one day.

Calling Sumin smitten would be an understatement right now. She felt like she had a school girl crush, and she didn’t even know what he sounded like.

Pathetic, right?

         “Is he seeing anyone?” She asked, fighting the urge to look at Namjoon. She could feel the amused smirk radiate off him.

         “Last time I checked, he was and is currently single. Want to do something about that?” teased Namjoon, practically grinning from ear to ear.

Sumin grabbed a pen and chucked it at him. Sadly, Namjoon easily dodged her assault and playfully asked if that was how she should be treating the person who would be setting her up with a meeting with Seokjin.

She grumbled a quick no as she crossed her arms over her chest yet again.

Namjoon gave her a smug look before whipping out his phone and quickly dialed Seokjin’s number. Not even after the first ring, Namjoon heard the voice of Sumin’s future husband. Oh, thank God…

         “Hey, Namjoon! What’s up man? Please tell me that you don’t need my gorgeous face again.” Namjoon heard Seokjin tease, resulting in him rolling his eyes.

         “Very funny man. That was one time, and if I remember correctly, you loved the attention that night.” Argued Namjoon as he tried to pull his phone away from the nosey girl that currently tried to press herself closer.

         “Good point! Anyway, what do I owe the pleasure of your phone call?” asked Seokjin as Namjoon tried to keep Sumin away from the microphone end of his phone.

Yeah. There was a tiny bit of information that he had failed to tell Sumin…

         “Well, I need a favor actually,” Namjoon began as he eyed Sumin acting cute and gesturing to her face, “I need you to go out on a date with a dear and close friend of mine.” He finished before shushing Sumin, who had made an “aw” like sound.

On Seokjin’s end, he raised a brow. This feeling of curiosity swallowed his body whole.  That voice sounded familiar—way too familiar—yet he couldn’t quite pinpoint it. He swiveled in his office chair as he played with a random pen, hoping to figure out the face that matched the voice. Gotta love office phones. The microphones were always crystal clear for using the speakerphone feature.

         “You know I can never say no to a date, especially if it’s with a close friend of yours,” Seokjin began as he sat up straight and quickly searched people that had that distinct type of voice, “You know me man. A close friend of yours will always be instantly liked by me. So, who is she?” He asked, finishing his sentence just as the database received a hit.

Princess fucking Sumin the second…

This better not be the friend. He prayed to God that Namjoon wasn’t about to set him up on a date with the one person he truly disliked.

         “Ooh…well…um… It’s Princess Sumin…” Seokjin heard Namjoon say, confirming his assumptions.

Normally, Seokjin would love to date a friend of Namjoon. Anything to help out someone who he had deemed practically a brother to him but sadly, he would have to deny his favor.

Seokjin had heard the rumors of this princess. She was a huge flirt. She only cared about her appearance. She toyed with people’s heart only to leave it broken once she was done.

Yeah.

Fuck that.

No way in Hell would ever be one of her victims.

Too bad. He honestly felt some sort of connection the moment his eyes met her picture. Oh well…

Meanwhile, back with Namjoon and Sumin, the duo patiently awaited his answer. Would Sumin obtain that date?

         “…I take it back. Anyone but HER is like by me. You can tell that stuck up princess to go find someone else to play with. I refuse to allow my heart be broken by that coldhearted bitch.” Namjoon heard Seokjin say coldly before hanging up.

Namjoon gawked at his phone, wondering what the Hell just happened.

Then, thanks to his quick brain, he pieced it together. Seokjin had his kingdom’s advanced technology to search Sumin’s voice and bam! There goes any chance of Sumin dating Seokjin.

Refusing to give up, Namjoon quickly messaged Seokjin.

[To Mr. Worldwide Handsome Bro 07:38 PM: DUDE! WTF! Why won’t you give her a chance? You and I both know that those rumors are a bunch of bullshit…!”

Not even seconds after sending that, Namjoon received a message.

[From Mr. Worldwide Handsome Bro 07:38 PM: So, the fuck what?! You can’t force me to go on a date with her, so leave it alone.]

Namjoon growled in annoyance at his friend’s reply. Like Hell he’d leave it alone. Seokjin’s hostility towards Sumin were idiotic, and he needed a to see the real Sumin. Not some fake one concocted by the tabloids.

Before he could create some elaborate plan to get Seokjin to date Sumin, Namjoon felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and looked down, immediately meeting Sumin’s hopeful gaze.

Fuck his life.

         “So, what did he say?” Sumin asked, trying to make the eagerness in her voice.

Namjoon exhaled deeply as his cheeks puffed.

         “Yeah…he said no…” He answered awkwardly.

Sumin looked taken back. Why had he said no? Great. Here came a storm of questions, creating almost a hurricane within her mind. She had developed that reaction whenever she became anxious over something, especially when the nerves resulted from an important issue at hand.

         “What? Why? He hasn’t even seen me yet…That makes little to no sense.”

         “Oh…time to tell you a story, my dear Sumin…”

A/N: And boom! Here is the first chapter of the sequel! If you have successfully finished the first series, you can understand why I had to create this sequel! Don’t get me wrong, I loved writing that series with a sad ending in mind, but I just couldn’t do my man dirty like that. Seokjin deserves to be happy, and that includes having a happy ending! 

I think by the time this is released, chapters 2 to maybe 4 should be completed and ready to published! Hope you guys are ready to dive in this adventure with me! 

Don’t forget to leave a like/reblog/comment/ask in my inbox! I love hearing your thoughts! :)

- Kim

[kitanoko]

Fire, Fire pt.3

Hey! Part 3 of my bakumomo fic with jelly Todo which was due for months is here!!

 I’m posting Part 4 tomorrow! 

Thanks to those who still send me asks about it

//READ PART TWO HERE//

“We were having fun,” Bakugou spat, still in Todoroki’s clutches, and gave the boy in front of him an urgent shove. Todoroki took a few steps back, and distanced himself away, watching as Bakugou soothed his throat a little. They were having fun? Todoroki didn’t want to dive deeper into that comment but his mouth turned dry thinking about whatever that insinuated.

Bakugou steadied himself, his left hand leaning against the desk next to him. Toying with Todoroki’s emotions was dangerously fun, he thought. It hadn’t even been a minute and Bakugou was already enjoying his new-found experiment.

“Why do you care so much two-face?” Bakugou coughed out as he managed to flip his collar back to its original state, “For the record, pony-tail girl was the one who came to me, not the other way around.”

Kirishima moved forward, wedging himself between the two in case things got out of hand again. At this time, the sun has almost disappeared below the horizon, leaving the classroom an eerie abyss.

Todoroki inhaled deeply and exhaled.

“What’s your intention?” He asked, noticing Kirishima’s uneasiness, and Bakugou let out a chuckle.

“I have no intentions whatsoever,” Bakugou spoke with a sense of ambiguity, “But pony-tail and I seem to be getting along.”

The blond swiftly grabbed his bag in one motion and slung it across his shoulders, a mischievous grin spread across his face. His red-haired friend placed a hand gently on Todoroki.

“It’s late,” Kirishima stated, eyeing the two, “Todoroki, let’s leave this for another day.” The Red Riot hero gave a meek smile, but deep down he was hoping that this was the end of it. In the back of his mind, Kirishima imagined the disaster that would be of Todoroki and Bakugou’s full on fight, if it were to happen. Aizawa would for sure sentence the three of them to house arrest. Kirishima groaned inwardly. How unfair would it be if he was penalized, it’s not even like he wanted to be a part of it! It didn’t help that Bakugou had a crappy attitude too.

“We’re going,” Kirishima’s voice trailed off, and saw Bakugou charge out the door, “See you tomorrow bro.”

Todoroki answered him with a light flick of his wrist in the air as he turned away. His hair covered his expression but Kirishima was positive the heat he was feeling at the moment was from him.

~

“That’s absolutely preposterous!” Yaoyorozu screamed into the phone, “You guys thought I had a thing with Bakugou?! Are you insane?!”

Jirou pulled the phone away from her ears, and closed her eyes, “I know, it was Kaminari and Kirishima! I didn’t believe them but when I saw you and Bakugou coming back late—“

“Yeah, FROM HATSUME-SAN’S LAB,” Yaoyorozu wanted to punch someone in the face, though of course, her mother would not approve. She should have known this would happen! Rumours come and go; if she wanted to keep her little ‘project’ undiscovered by Todoroki, she’s going to have to keep the truth amongst a few people.

“I know now you were making something for Todoroki,” Jirou muttered, “you should’ve told me earlier.”

“I wanted to keep it a secret,” Yaoyorozu explained as she pulled her stuffed penguin closer, “It’ll be done within the next few weeks. Let’s keep this between us. I don’t want Kaminari’s big mouth going around.”

Jirou leaned back against her bed rest, “Alright, Momo, but for the sake of Todoroki’s mental health….you should hurry it up.”

“What do you mean?” Yaoyorozu questioned as her penguin fell out of her hands. Did something happen when she was gone today?

Jirou snickered and took a bite out of a chocolate bar. Swirling the piece inside her mouth, she waited a little before answering her best friend.

“Todoroki punched his desk super hard then walked out.” Yaoyorozu can practically see her friend grinning like an idiot. Jirou was a closeted hopeless romantic after all.

“Wait, after he heard you guys?”

“Yeeeeep, after he heard us. Actually scared me a little too. It’s so unlike him to lose his cool.”

Yaoyorozu’s eyes lit up and her heart started to pound.  With dainty fingers, she clutched her chest, her pyjamas scrunched in the small of her palm.

Does this mean Todoroki was…was…

She needed to keep her head straight.

“He’s probably jealous or something,” Jirou finished her thought for her, and tossed the candy wrapper into the bin as if she was shooting a three-pointer.

She could hear Yaoyorozu’s breathing but no response came. “Momo, you still there?”

“Yeah. Um…Jirou I think I’ll go now…it’s…past my bedtime.”

“O…kaayy…” Jirou said in a puzzled tone, eyes narrowing, “I bet your heart is going todorokiDOKIDOKI—“

“NO, STOP!” Yaoyorozu buried her face in exasperation and Jirou laughed so hard she choked on her own saliva, “GOODNIGHT!”

She hung up before a response came from the other side.

~~

The lab was always in disarray, but today, it looked even more so. Trinkets were hazardously dangling from the edges of tables that looked scratched from wear. Hatsume’s ‘thought-of-the-day’ projects (which really just seemed to be made on a whim) laid in a pile so monstrous at the corner of the room, that one would think it was a landfill.

Bakugou yawned, slamming the door as he stepped foot onto the concrete floor covered in histories of machine-made scratches and oil stains that melted into the covering. The room was especially dark in the morning, the only source of light coming from a desk lamp on his far left. Bakugou noticed the usual host of the lab in the middle of something, steps away from him. He squinted.

Hatsume was no doubt a gold mine of knowledge; a girl so creative and utterly inspiring that it made Bakugou shiver. And he wasn’t the kind of person that’d be impressed that easily.

She was completely immersed in her tenth ‘ground-breaking’ project for the week, spine-curved, arms raised with tools, black and rusty, sticking out of her pockets. Her hair, a lovely colour of cherry blossoms, damp with sweat, held up with nothing but her usual goggles.

Bakugou grunted a few times to get her attention. Hatsume didn’t budge, her pupils changing like a kaleidoscope and he realized she was in the process of using her ‘zoom’ quirk. Bakugou walked closer, observing her fingers twist and tug at every gear, apparent that her hard-earned skills were the cause of the familiar movements that she was performing.

“YO,” Bakugou cried out. Hatsume picked up her head and gave a wide grin.

“You’re here! Right on time with two minutes to spare! Come over here,” the girl gestured to the empty space beside her, “I’ve improved the blaster as discussed with Yaoyorozu, you have no idea how much more thrust this thing has now.”

“Un.”

“And to think that I’d be spending at least three days on this, well guess what, I only spent a day! Hah! Talk about efficiency!”

“Un.”

Bakugou side eyed the girl beside him. She was intoxicated in her work, her explanations feeding off of dedication. For a minute, watching the chatterbox in front of him, his mind wandered off. At this time on most days, he’d be out and about given his busy training schedule. Never a bad decision to squeeze in some physical activity before classes start, especially if he had to climb the ladder against people like Deku and two-face.

“I’m asking you a question, hello there,” The inventor made a quick motion with her hand to his face clearly having stopped her tedious anecdote, “I said, what made you come here? Is it because of my amazing babies?”

Her arm waved to showcase what looked like junk behind her. He guffawed.

“No way IN HELL am I interested in your trash.”

“Hey, don’t disrespect my babies!” Hatsume made a pout and crossed her arms, “It’s odd how a rude boy like you became friends with a lady such as Yaoyorozu herself. I’m just curious why you’re willing to help us, is all.”

A vein twitched on his forehead.

“Free math lesson’s what that pony-tail bitch said I’d get. Like I give a rat’s ass about being her friend and whatever else two-faced had to do with it. Y’all better watch yourselves or Imma leave and you’d be stuck with no one to test your shit out. I swear –“

His eyes shot opened when he was cut short with a bitter taste of metal and mint on the tip of his tongue which expanded towards the cave of his throat. His immediate attention turned towards a machine, though it appeared to have something similar to eyes and a mouth, propelling itself flippantly in front of his face.

Bakugou swatted it away with a painful snap of his palm rendering smoke from the robot’s exhaust. Did he just bat at her creation as if it was a mosquito?  

Hatsume watched devastated as her robot whizzed out of commission, twirling down to the ground with a loud bang.

“BLEH,” Bakugou spat out the foam, eyes intensely glaring at the culprit, “did that thing of yours just spray some shit into my mouth?!”

He continued to spit out the remains.

“Aw why’d you do that!” Hatsume knelt down to inspect the corpse of her machine.

“Uh, oh wells, I made that machine for jokes last month, its purpose was to spray cleaning agent on people whenever they swore. Guess it’s still working,” Hatsume chuckled, brightening up, “It’s great isn’t it?”

Bakugou flipped her a middle finger. Realizing what he just did, he turned around to scan if any more of these artificial intelligence were coming his way.

Hatsume straightened herself, arms on her hips before dragging Bakugou’s extended hand to the counter before them.

“Let’s get this going, shall we?”

~~~

This bitch is cray, Bakugou wanted to voice out loud in the middle of class.

It was the second period, right after lunch, and the smartest girl in class was already all fired up, spewing whatever nonsense he deemed to be a hodgepodge of bullshit. It irked Bakugou’s ears to hear her talk. With such quick wit, no less.

The time he spent at Hatsume’s wasn’t the best either, and his mind refused to let it go.

Aizawa watched intently as the VP of the class stood up, with such dignity that seemed limitless, and continued with her half-way finished explanation.

“….And that is my theory as to what would happen if three black holes were to ever collide.”

Finally she’s done, Bakugou thought. He held his chin in his hand and shifted back to the instructor standing behind the podium.

Yaoyorozu sat back down, lips upturned, eyes glazed over. Everyone was dead silent as Aizawa’s jaw-dropped expression transitioned into a soft, ‘what-the-heck-just-happened’ face.

“Uh…excellent, Yaoyorozu,” their teacher coughed out and cleared his throat before he grabbing a chalk to scribble some formulas on the board. The other students were silently praising their Vice President though no one had a clue.

After what felt like a decade (it didn’t help that Kaminari and Ashido had to ask a million questions in between each new question), Aizawa handed each student a worksheet. Bakugou chewed at the back of his pencil, teeth grinding harder into the wood at what was written beside his name.

“This assignment is due in two days and you each have a partner to work with. I’ve written down your partner’s name at the top,” Aizawa said and sighed, “Now get started. If you have questions, you can ask later, I’m going to take a break.”

And with that, their teacher crawled slowly into his yellow silkworm-esque sleeping bag at the corner of the room.

Bakugou kicked his feet onto his desk, arms crossed in anger.

What the heck were the chances that it’s her again?!

“Bakugou-san! What are the chances, eh?” Yaoyorozu appeared to be thrilled as she verbally repeated what he was thinking and he replied with a dissatisfied ‘TCH’.

Yaoyorozu didn’t seem to care. Or rather, she seemed to be used to his antics already. Her hair swayed with every movement as she sauntered over, apple-cheeked and smiling. She pulled up what used to be Midoriya’s chair and sat crossed legged beside him.

Flipping the page over, she began, “So,” she leaned forward a bit more, “How was the improvement?”

Bakugou saw her scan the surroundings before adding, enunciating every word, “I’m so sorry, I apologize for not being there this morning, I had a meeting with the Cooking Club and I couldn’t miss out. Hatsume-san said that you seem to approve the changes though? Is that true?”

“Well, it’s not totally shit.” The blond closed his eyes, and pushed his legs back down. The two was probably in everyone’s radar now seeing how suspicious they were acting.

“I do think that the power is great but the precision of the blast is not quite there. Octopus knows. She’s gonna fix it up a bit and get it up and running in a few days,” the boy promptly said and his brows scrunched together at the sudden thought of the unpleasant occurrence that morning.

Yaoyorozu caught on.

“I also heard from Hatsume-san that you got ‘mouth-washed’ by one of her swear-bots.”

“DON’T REMIND ME!”

At that, Shouji turned around to hush the two with a finger to his lips. Mineta was disgruntled.

“Sorry, Shouji-san,” Yaoyorozu nodded an apology behind her, and gave Bakugou a sneer right after.

“Must’ve tasted like toothpaste,” she teased in a hushed voice, having no thought of how dire the situation could get if a Bakugou’s rage awakens.

“More like shit mixed with shit. Fuck, y’all piss me off!”

“Aw, don’t be like that-“

“Hey, don’t touch my hair!”

Bakugou contorted a frown as Yaoyorozu attempted to give his spiky hairdo a pat resulting in more giggles from the girl beside him.

This was not the kind of relationship that he wanted to have with anyone or expected to have with anyone. Ever since entering UA, Bakugou has felt somewhat of the same conviction as Todoroki. He wasn’t here to make friends nor was he here to establish any kind of passive connection with his classmates, let alone this girl, whose preppy demeanor could blind him in a split second.

Bakugou gritted his teeth; though he had this at the back of his mind, he still couldn’t unravel the mystery that is Yaoyorozu, who seemed to be gradually stripping him of the façade that he wasn’t sure he could hold up much longer.

[placeofdiscipleship]

A Talk on Relativism to Youth

,Sources that inspired and informed this post: “Moral Relativism” by Steven Lukes, raising hamsters, and the Bible.

Today, we are going to talk about relativism. Unlike the other religions we’ve talked about, relativism doesn’t sound like the typical religion because there aren’t specific actions that come to mind in following it, like praying 5 times a day, or going to mass.

So in order to teach you about relativism and how it looks like as a religion or as a “truth” you live by, I’m going to start by telling you a story.

So once upon a time, there was a society of ­hamsters. They lived in a large rectangular prism together. The ground consisted of shavings wood, and their homes were made of the same clear substance the walls of their world were made of.

Most of the hamsters worshipped the “Giant Paw”, because every day they witnessed it appear in the sky, and food would rain from it.

A few of the Hamsters who were scientists and philosophers have wondered about the universe beyond their rectangular prism, and science so far told them that their universe was just a small part of the very large and very wide universe.

Unknown to the Hamsters, there was another society in the universe called the Frogs that lived in a large tank together. Their world consisted of water and rocks and green plants, flies, and the occasional fish. Their world was also walled off by a clear substance, but a colder and clearer one. They did not live in houses, but in the water.

Most of the Frogs worshiped the Giant Pitcher. Like the Hamsters, there were Frogs that also wondered about the universe beyond their rectangular prism, and perhaps because their walls were clearer and their eyes better, they believed that there could possibly be greater creatures than they outside their world, other “gods”, since they could see moving shapes at times and hear strange sounds coming from them when they looked through the walls of their world.

One day, a day that Hamsters and Frogs have put down in history, the Hamsters experience a huge earthquake. After the shaking stopped and they checked that everyone was okay, they found that there is a hole in the wall of their world. After some quick discussions, a brave Hamster goes into the tunnel, and meets the Frogs for the very first time.

**Now, raise your hands, how many of you guys think that when the Hamsters and Frogs met for the first time, they were like “THIS IS AWESOME LET’S BE FRIENDS!”. (Most likely very few hands are raised.) **

In actuality, when the frogs and the hamsters met for the first time, there were a lot of problems. They looked different, talked different, did different things, smelled different, and more. So the two societies went through different phases to deal with one another.

1.    There were times when the two societies would war against each other, to gain power or land, or for religious reasons.

2.    There were times when the hamsters or the frogs blocked the hole, and pretended like the others didn’t exist.

3.    There were times when the frogs enslaved some of the hamsters who were refugees in their lands, until the hamsters rose up and defended their rights, and vice versa.

Eventually they went through a phase where the hamsters and frogs decided that it was not wrong to be a hamster or a frog, or to follow cultural customs or moral beliefs but it was right depending on the context, the society, or the individual. And that, is what we call relativism.

Specifically, if you believe in relativism you believe that...

1. Truth is relative to the society, methodology, frame of reference, culture or the individual

For someone living in frog society who has decided to be a frog, it was right for them to eat bugs, and to worship the Giant Pitcher. For someone living as a hamster though, it was right for them to eat seeds and corn, and worship the Giant Hairless Paw.

2. It is not possible to know absolute, objective, universal truth

Or in other words, truth that applies to everyone and everything.

3. Each individual or society should find its own truth and live by that truth

For example, if you believe that “getting good grades and becoming a doctor or a lawyer is the best way to live”, and it is right for you, then live by it.

4. Truth is attainable and valuable and therefore should be recognized and sought, even if it isn’t the “absolute” truth

Overall, a relativist will give up on the pursuit of a single truth which is absolute, same, and knowable for everyone.

Going back to the Hamster and Frog world, there were some positive impacts of applying relativism, and also in our own society.

For example, hamsters used to go to the frog society and judge them based on hamster society thinks is right. They thought frogs were gross because they were slimy and didn’t have skin, and uncultured because they didn’t live in houses or have privacy. But once they applied the concept of anthropological relativism, they stopped judging frogs from the standards of hamster ways of living (which is ethnocentrism), and started just seeking to understand frog ways of living, from a frog’s standpoint. In fact it is similar to what you encounter on a mission trip, where you encounter a culture different from yours.

**How many of you learned perhaps one more way of doing something or thinking or living from going on a mission trip, or from traveling with your family to a different culture? Those are great experiences, and I hope you learn to recognize and appreciate the differences in culture, and break out of the natural human tendency to measure all things as better or worse, rather than just “different”. **

So relativism worked out quite well when trying to resolve cultural misunderstandings, but for situations that required making ethical and moral decisions, such as during times of famine, when someone committed a crime, or when they had to decide whether it was right to block the tunnel between the two societies or not, coming to a consensus became stressful and tiring.

If there was a famine amongst the hamsters, it was quite easy for them to say that they were justified in raiding the frogs to get the food they needed. But usually the frogs disagreed when that happened. In fact, it was quite easy for truth to be based whatever society at the moment, thought was new, intelligent, or worthy of approval.

It was also difficult to even have a disagreement that made sense, because before they disagreed they had to talk about whether their reasoning for what they believed to be truth was relative to their culture, people, your disposition or personality, or to others in the world. Often times, they would argue and argue and then start wondering, do I have a right to disagree with your truth and try to reinforce my truth over yours? How do I know if a truth is wrong for me, or someone else? Does a truth relative to my society trump your truth that is specific to an individual? Does a truth relative to your society apply to a truth related to our combined societies? It was just all very confusing. 

**In fact, my brain hurts even thinking about this, does anyone feel the same way?**

As for the philosopher hamsters and frogs who were constantly wondering “what are those moving shapes beyond the walls of our cage?”, “is this really all that there is to life” or “what is the meaning of life?”, relativism didn’t answer those questions. Relativism helped answer how things are, how to understand and accept different cultures, but relativism didn’t answer the question of “Is there a way things should be? What are the right moral and ethical standards? Why do I long for things to be better than they are now, if there is no true ‘better’?”.

The more honest and humble hamsters and frogs also knew that believing in relativism above all else, worshiping it as the HIGHEST TRUTH, and applying it to not only understanding cultures, but to moral truths, meant that they were ultimately believing in themselves, since everything about relativism is dependent on what is known from everyone’s collective minds and what they can observe from inside their world. But they found that very troubling because they knew how often they had gotten things wrong, and how little they knew about the universe outside of their cage. By worshiping relativism, and therefore the human race as the highest truth, everyone became very confused and depressed, since there was still so little that the hamsters and frogs knew about the universe, and they couldn’t even agree on what they did know.

One day, while the philosophers are gathered together yet again to ask all these questions and try to come up with answers, a new hamster joins them named Bob, and Bob says this,

“I was born in this cage and tank that you were born in, but I am from outside this cage and tank. My father is the Giant whose hand you worship as the “Great Furless Hand” and the one who holds the “Great Water Pitcher” and put the plants in your tank. He is the God who is greater than all that you worship, and our world is small compared to the one he lives in, that has many larger and greater walls and creatures like dogs, cats, angels and demons.

You have looked for truth by looking amongst yourselves and by observing the world, but I am the truth and I know the capital T truth that rules all truths, for I am from outside this world, my father created all and I have observed it all, and I have also lived among you and seen inside this world and your hearts.

You have been seeking truths or definitions of right or wrong to live by, but it can all be summed up into this greatest rule, which is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself”, for God himself loves God with all his heart, mind, soul and strength, and loves his neighbors, all of you hamsters, and all of you frogs, with that same love. Turn away from following other truths, gods, or philosophies, and believe me, get to know me, and the truth will set you free.”

And he began to heal hamsters with bald fur, and mental disabilities, and frogs with dry skin and weak legs.

**Alright, show of hands, how many of you think this Bob person sounds like someone you know? Yell out the name of the person.**

A few of the philosopher frogs and hamsters talked and said “he is crazy and a fool. no one has ever claimed to have been outside the walls of our world before. How can he claim to be the same as our great and mighty giant hairless Paw and Giant Pitcher? And isn’t he the son of your sister’s cousin? He is a madman!”

A few others were like “How can he claim to know everything and be God? that’s offensive, and I don’t think he has a right to impose his truth on me, it’s pretty rude and unloving. And saying that my ways are going to lead to death and that I have to change? I’m so offended, I don’t want to listen to him anymore."

**How many of you all can relate to this, where something offended you so much you didn’t feel like listening anymore? Or maybe someone who really bothered you said something. Yep I can relate too, and sometimes I have to remember… well just because it offends me, doesn’t mean it’s not true, and even if it’s said maliciously, perhaps it is still helpful to me. **

But a few of the philosopher frogs and hamsters talked and said “To be honest, I don’t know if what he says is true. It does sound a bit crazy, and I do feel a bit offended that he’s saying that I must repent of my ways, I don’t think I’m that bad. But at the same time, is it crazier to trust in ourselves who have never ventured outside of our world, or it is crazier to trust in a hamster or frog that claims to be from outside of our world and know the one who created it? If he does not have our best interest in mind, it will be extremely dangerous to follow Him, but if he is good and has our best interest in mind, it may be worth following Him to learn more of what He knows, or it will at least not hurt us. He does not seem like a crazy person, he has already healed many of us of sickness, and he has yet to do something to hurt us, and he isn’t even forcing us to believe what he is saying. In fact, he seems to be completely harmless, even powerless in a way. Even our baby hamsters and tadpoles love him. Let us keep listening to what he has to say.”

And so eventually, among the hamsters and frogs there was a third society that formed, that followed this Bob person, and called themselves Bobsters. They didn’t claim to know everything, but instead, they claimed to follow, know, and love the one who did know everything, and created everything, and they were still figuring things out and asking questions and doubting even as they followed him. They listened and studied Bob’s teaching, questioning whether it was true or not, and testing out whether what Bob said was true by applying it to their lives. They saw the way Bob loved them, and then laid his life down for others, and emulated his love. They tried to live by the highest law to love God above all, and love their neighbors as themselves, and so when hamsters and frogs lived next to each other, they learned about and appreciated their different cultures. If a hamster sat on another hamster who was smaller, they rebuked him and protected the smaller hamsters. If there was a drought, the frogs shared their water with the hamsters.

They still had disputes over whether it is appropriate to have ponds in the middle of the hamster villages, or for frogs to live without houses, but because everyone had the shared understanding that the goal was to get better at loving God and loving their neighbor, even at the end of the dispute if there was still disagreement there was still relationship. There was in fact, still an aspect of relativism, since each person could respect that the other was just trying just as hard to love God and each other, and maybe there was room to have different convictions on certain less foundational things, like what to eat or not eat or how to lead a bible study.

In fact, the bible says in Romans 14, "As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgement on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.” So even in the bible, there are times when it makes sense to apply some principles of “relativism”, because it helps us to love God and our neighbor better!

So slowly in the land of the hamsters and frogs, the kingdom of God, a kingdom of firstly followers of Bob, and secondly hamsters and frogs, that loved and obeyed God, began to spread, and relativism became just merely one tool of many to help in pursuing the greatest truth of all, loving God, and loving our neighbors.

Now, some of you guys already made this connection, but we as humans are like the hamsters and frogs, and this world and universe, what we know so far about it, is like our cage and world. We also have to make a choice like the hamsters and frogs did, and for some of them, it wasn’t a decision they made quickly. In fact, many of them had doubts about Bob, but they still followed him around to learn more so they could really work things out in their minds and hearts about whether this Bob Jesus dude is for real or not. So my question for you is, will you put your faith in what is only observable, the truth that you alone create from inside the cage, or will you be willing to listen and give a chance to the one who claims to have been outside this cage, and claims to know the capital “T” truth that will set you free? He can handle your doubts, your questions, your anger, your sorrow, your fear, will you take His hand?

- SNG

[pamphletstoinspire]

Reflections of a Catholic Scientist - Part 6

Thoughts on belief, knowledge and faith---rational and irrational; my journey to faith, and on the "Limits of a limitless science" (to paraphrase Fr. Stanley Jaki). A discourse on the consonance of what science tells us about the world, and the dogma/teachings of the Catholic Church; you don't have to apologize for being Catholic if you're a scientist.

Where is the Catechism of Science?

"Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish."  Pope St. John Paul II, Letter to Rev. George Coyne, S.J., Director of the Vatican Observatory.

"Christianity possesses the source of its justification within itself and does not expect science to constitute its primary apologetic." ibid.

"It can be said, in fact, that research, by exploring the greatest and the smallest, contributes to the glory of God which is reflected in every part of the universe."  Pope St. John Paul II, Address on the Jubilee of Scientists, 2000

INTRODUCTION

My latest book (department of shameless self-promotion), "Science versus the Church--'Truth Cannot Contradict Truth,'" is available on Amazon.com and leanpub.com, the latter in a pdf format. I've decided to add a final chapter, a summing up, and I thought the best way would be to compare our Catholic Catechism (in its old familiar form, the Baltimore Catechism), with what a similar catechism might be, formed from the opinions of non-believing scientists.  

I won't claim that the answers in the science Catechism are true--indeed, there are contradictory responses--and I don't know of any of the assertions have been empirically validated.  In short, the science catechism fails the ultimate test of any scientific project; it is not and cannot be shown to hold by replicable measurements.

THE BALTIMORE CATECHISM:

1. Who made us?  

God made us.  

"In the beginning, God created heaven and earth." Genesis 1:1

2. Who is God?  

God is the Supreme Being, infinitely perfect, who made all things and keeps them in existence.

"In him we live and move and have our being." Acts 17:28

3. Why did God make us?  

God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in heaven.

"Eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love him." I Corinthians 2:9

4. What must we do to gain the happiness of heaven?

To gain the happiness of heaven we must know, love, and serve God in this world.

Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth; where the rust and moth consume and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven; where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. Matthew 6:19-20

THE CATECHISM ACCORDING TO SCIENCE:

1. Who made us?

Life came about by chance and we evolved from that first life.

“An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going.” Francis Crick, Life Itself: Its Origin and Its Nature

2. What is the entity that made the universe from which this life came?

There are several answers:

"Evolutionary cosmology formulates theories in which a universe is capable of giving rise to and generating future universes out of itself, within black holes or whatever." Robert Nozick

"As scientists, we track down all promising leads, and there's reason to suspect that our universe may be one of many - a single bubble in a huge bubble bath of other universes. Brian Greene

" Thus, CCC [Cyclic Conformal Cosmology] proposes that what current cosmology refers to as “the entire history of the universe” (but without any early inflationary phase) is just one aeon of a succession of such aeons, that continues indefinitely in both temporal directions." Roger Penrose.

"Because there is a law such a gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing." Stephen Hawking.

3, Why did the entity that made the universe make us?

Why questions, that is questions involving purpose--teleology--are outside the domain of science.

"Teleology is a lady without whom no biologist can live. Yet he is ashamed to show himself with her in public." H.A. Krebs (he of the Krebs Cycle)

"It looks as if the offspring have eyes so that they can see well (bad, teleological, backward causation), but that's an illusion. The offspring have eyes because their parents' eyes did see well (good, ordinary, forward causation)." Steven Pinker

"The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.” Richard Dawkins

'Why' implicitly suggests purpose, and when we try to understand the solar system in scientific terms, we do not generally ascribe purpose to it.” Lawrence Kraus

4. What must we do to get the happiness of heaven?

There is no heaven.

We should not despair, but should humbly rejoice in making the most of these gifts, and celebrate our brief moment in the sun.” Lawrence Kraus

"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark."  Stephen Hawking

CONCLUSION

I won't bother to analyze each of the answers given for the science catechism.  They are discussed in previous chapters of my book, Science versus the Church, (for example, "the brain as a computer", and there is no universal agreement amongst scientists or philosophers.  If any of you readers would like to argue for them, I'd be glad to hear your arguments.

Added 20th August, 2016.  Several readers of this post have read the above post as my argument that this is what science is all about.  That's far from the case.  What I am trying to show, possibly ineptly, is by a literary device called "situational irony" that contrary to the claims of the scientists from whom the quotes are drawn, that science does not explain everything there is to be known about our world and life.  

In short, I have tried to expose "scientism" for the fraud it is, but my opinion of science as it should be conducted (which was not the topic for this post) is much different.  See, for example, my posts: "Peeling back the onion layers: gravitational waves detected", "Tipping the Sacred Cow of Science--Confessions of a Science Agnostic", "God, Symmetry and Beauty in Science: a Personal Perspective." to see what my idea of science is all about.

From a series of articles written by: Bob Kurland - a Catholic Scientist