#was i not supposed to think that for one hour and 40 minutes? no? ok

[horanghater]

Give Me 20

Summary: If Mingyu learns anything from this experience, it’s that you have 2 ears and 1 mouth because you’re supposed to listen more than you speak. Or something like that.

▸ Pairing: Mingyu x NB!reader

▸ Rating / Genre / AU: 18+, pwp, smut, established relationship

▸ Warnings: oral (m! receiving)

▸ Word Count: 1.2k

▸ A/N: It’s summer! I got my hat on backwards and it’s fuckin time to party. 🎉🧢 @shuadotcom is serving a lifetime sentence as my beta - thank you! <3 Stoked to be participating in KBCS’s Bon Voyage Bingo event! Prompt: 40 - “I’m sunburnt and dying, so you have to be nice to me.”

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵　　‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

One thing about Mingyu? He’s stunning - particularly when he’s stripped down to just his swim trunks and the warm undertones of his skin make him glow in the summer sun. Another thing about Mingyu? The man doesn’t listen - particularly when he’s with his friends and they play hackysack with a single brain cell. 

You’ve finished your drink, the plot of the book you’ve been reading has reached a lull, and it’s been long enough that the gentle beachy breeze isn’t all that cooling anymore. Your beachside day with your boyfriend (and 12 plus 1s) has definitely peaked, but you can think of a much more relaxing way to occupy your time as Mingyu sprints across the sand to your shaded chair during a long-awaited break from the longest game of volleyball you’ve ever witnessed.

“Hey handsome,” you greet weakly, squinting up at Mingyu as he unsuccessfully tries to crowd himself under your umbrella. “Ready to go?” Mingyu smiles sheepishly, hands already clasped together pleadingly as you groan at his body language. “Just a few more rounds, I promise. Please?” “You said that like an hour ago!”

“I know, babe, but we’re playing to see who pays for dinner!” he explains. “And my team is winning!”

You look up at Mingyu over your sunglasses knowingly. “Mingyu, this is an all-inclusive resort. Dinner’s included. Besides, I’ve got something for you to win right here."You spread your legs just a little in your lounge chair, just enough for Mingyu to see. His expression is unreadable save for a puppy-like spark in his eyes.

But alas, even the promise of sex can’t pry Mingyu away from his single-minded shenanigans. The two of you crane your necks when someone yells in the distance to see Jeonghan and Soonyoung slowly burying Chan in the center of the volleyball court. “Gimme 20 minutes, I swe–sshh, I swear! I’ll meet you in the room.”

“20 minutes and that’s it?” “That’s it, scout’s honor! You can sip on something nice, run a li’l bath,” Mingyu offers, hips swaying suggestively for extra effect. “Slip into something….comfortable?”

Annoyed as you want to be about having to wait, you just can’t stay mad at him. You feign a loud sigh. “Fiiine. 20 minutes, though! Pinky promise?” “Pinky promise!” Mingyu’s invisible tail is practically wagging already. When you reach up to lock pinkies, though, someone calls for “Mingyu-hyung” and your boyfriend hastily fistbumps you instead. “Coming!” he calls back, turning on his heel with one last “love you” as you sigh for real this time.

“Mingyu! At least put on some more sunscreen! You’re kinda red!” you call after him.

Mingyu calls back, though somewhat absently, “Sunscreen, got it!”

You roll your eyes, body lazily stretching as you prepare to gather your things and return to your shared room. “Ok then, we’ll see.”

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An entire 40 minutes later, you hear Mingyu grunt his way through the door. You’re already showered and dressed in pajamas, playing a word game on your phone. “Y/N,” he cries pitifully, “I’m dying! Looook!” 

You keep your eyes trained on the screen, tone indifferent but just icy enough to let him know he’s in trouble. “It’s been 40 minutes, Gyu.”

Mingyu goes to sit on the edge of the bed, but you swat him away, citing “no outside clothes on the bed”. He stands back up, but shuffles in place pathetically, clearly wanting to be babied. “I know, babe, I’m sorry! I swear I was going to come right up, but we were trying to do something about my sunburn first.” When you finally do look at Mingyu, you see that your adonis has become more of a lobster. He’s terribly sunburned on his chest and back with his shoulders being especially burned like deep red pauldrons atop his typically golden shade. Hissing, you sit up to get a closer look. “Oh, Gyu, that looks pretty nasty.” 

Satisfied with your response, Mingyu wails and continues his performance. “And it is! It hurts so bad I don’t know what to do!”

Just as you’re about to search your bag for aloe, you remember the last thing you said to your boyfriend before his late arrival. “Did you at least start with more sunscreen like I said?”

Mingyu looks at you and you look at him and he keeps looking at you and you point at him accusingly. “You didn’t! Mingyu, what did I say?” The man only gets whinier now that he’s riled you up, grabbing your hand and kissing it mournfully in hopes that it’ll lessen your fussing (it doesn’t). “I know, I know,” Mingyu gripes between kisses. “I was going to and just lost track of time.”

Snatching your hand away dramatically, you scold him. “You sure did! And you got what you deserved!”

Mingyu gingerly perches on the edge of one of the room’s bistro chairs and puts on his biggest pout. “Yeah, I did. Haven’t I suffered enough, baby?”

For what it’s worth, Mingyu genuinely does look pained. You’ve never seen him with sunburn this bad and it’s clear that the travel-sized bottle of obligatory aloe in your vacation bag won’t be enough to soothe him. Seeing your boyfriend in such a delicate state pulls at your heartstrings even though the petty part of you wants to keep saying “I told you so”. “Yeah,” you agree finally, crossing the room to stand in front of him and carefully place his hands on your hips. “I suppose you have. Want me to make you feel better?” Suddenly Mingyu’s patheticness visibly decreases just a little, invisible tail wagging again. “You gonna soothe me?” You grin in response, sinking to your knees as you tug on the hem of his trunks, urging your boyfriend to lift his hips enough to slide them down to his thighs. Mingyu huffs with the effort, but settles quickly on the edge of the chair once more as he places a gentle hand on your head expectantly.

Yet another thing about Mingyu? What he lacks in punctuality, he makes up for with general predictability. It only takes a minute or two of pumping to grow his dick from a modest half chub to an intimidating full mast. You waste no time fitting your mouth over the swollen head of his cock and are rewarded with a contended exhale as Mingyu genty scratches the top of your head appreciatively. 

The two of you fall into a familiar rhythm of you bobbing your head and Mingyu thrusting into your mouth shallowly. The angle’s a little off because he can’t position himself the way he wants to, but your talents have him worked up all the same. Mingyu’s pre hits your tongue with each bob now, coating your tongue with a preview of what’s to come. His pace is getting sloppier and the pads of his fingers are pressing into your scalp insistently now. You can hear him whimpering praises above you, the obscene sounds of your slurping a fitting soundtrack for how prettily he cries from your ministrations. 

Just as suddenly as you forgave Mingyu, you’re punishing him again, pulling away from his grasp with a ‘pop’ and leaving his cock upright in the cold hotel air.

You can tell from his voice that Mingyu’s next sentence was going to be another moan. “Y/N~ I’m sunburnt and dying, so you have to be nice to me!”

“Have to?” Even without looking at him as you stand, you know Mingyu’s internally flinching at your warning tone.

“Please?” he corrects.

“Aww, Gyu. But you’re sunburnt and dying. You shouldn’t strain yourself. I’ll check on you in 40 minutes. Sound good?”

[cuprohastes]

Lunch In Space (Part 4)

There is an old Human tradition. We keep it alive to this day. When things are Very Bad(tm), for example, your shuttle is about to perform a high-velocity Lithobraking Manouver, you invoke the Ancient Words of the Ancestors. Usually "Oh, sh*t".

I, as I'm sure you're now aware, am culturally sensitive, and cultured, so when chunks of Oscar started becoming Free Range and my life support lit up red, and Oscar's little Atrix-face started doing some very worried little colour combos, I took solace in this hallowed and time-honoured tradition and went with "Ru-ROH".

Now you may be thinking, gee, having your life support blow out while flying around the backside of a planet while everyone is too busy to come to pick you up is bad.

I mean, sure. It literally is.

But what doesn't kill you instantly gives you the opportunity for a really slow, horrible death so you can appreciate it so much more.

I took the life support unit off.

Counter-intuitive, but there you go. I jsut clipped one of my lanyards to the bottom attach point and released all the clips.

All the connectors that move all my various essential fluids and gasses are on failsafe connectors. They close automatically because it'd be super dumb if they didn't.

So now I'm just using passive insulation and things are going to get very hot very soon.

I turned the Life Support unit over and found a... Space Squid. 

I mean that's what it looked like. This conical, bullet-shaped shell,  with tiny little thruster vents, and then on the bottom of the cone, a bunch of little tentacles, sensor windows and what looks like miniature tools.

At first, all I saw was the shell so I grabbed it and yanked it out. I screamed jsut the tiniest amount when it wiggled its tentacles at me, but then it folded up and glared at me, and tried to puff away. 

My mighty human fingers of course were more than a match for this.

My mighty human Brain took a few more seconds to catch up because Oscar wasn't loaded with enough coffee for peak human cognition and I did a comical flail and found two more of the little suckers trying to eat through Oscar's skin.

"I Yeet Thee!" I told them and yanked them off and threw them in the direction of away.

The first little guy was with me but still sulking. I think it was out of gas, to be honest.

So that leaves me inside Oscar, who's rapidly becoming a sauna.

Luckily, I am just covered in tools, patches, and other Fix-things stuff so I started checking the life support pack.

Not good. Squiddy had already chewed some quite important stuff - the valves all closed, but now there's no way to re-circulate a lot of the air supply.

A bit about life support. It's not just a couple of bottles of air mix.

There are coolants, thruster gasses that you just top up while you work, water, which is circulated through Oscar's inner lining, the uh, Yellow and Brown lines, and then the Scrubber which is kind of a back-up and also means you can go longer without an umbilical, or without large air tanks. It also prevents the inside of Oscar from filling up with condensation.

So anyway, the thruster tank and the air tank were basically there but unusable.

Two of four of the batteries were cracked. They got isolated by the technical process of just pulling them out. They're not supposed to be dangerous, but why take the risk?

Oscar was a nice toasty 40ºc by the time I got the life support back on and I almost cried when the cooling started to pull out all that heat.

And then I almost sobbed because Oscar told me I had three and a half hours until station rendezvous and approximately two hours and twenty minutes of life support.

So I shut almost everything down. Inspection lights, most of the computing, interior displays, and after one last use, the uh waste processing.

That got me an extra 40 minutes of power. What else?

Well duh.

My power tools have bi-directional charging. I plugged them into my utility ports and hey OK, now I was only 5 minutes shy. OK.

So what else?

The Scrubber - It's running out of... scrub-ability.

There's a thing you can do that you should never, ever do, because it's suicidally stupid and bad. Honestly, I've always wanted to try it.

I turned the temp down past freezing and told the auto-doc to go to Oetzie mode. 

Now, this isn't an official process. It's one of the macros I've developed in bored moments - I submitted it to a couple of trade journals, both of whom told me I was a dangerous lunatic.

So I asked the Most Dangerous Human.

Miranda is a mutant. She burns 4000Kcal a day sitting still. Her IQ is supposedly about double or more than a normal Genius. She hates her life. Literally everyone in her species is kind of sad and bumbling and unable to grasp concepts she finds simple.

She lacks intellectual stimulation, and just craves novelty or anything that might make her feel for a moment, that she can be part of normal life.

When I met her she was running a comic book store. 

She's considered the most dangerous living human because nobody can figure out if she's going to take a nap, then re-write the rules of linguistics, develop an AI that will take over the Human race or stub her toes and decide to eradicate all living things in a Light Millenium.

As someone who's spent an afternoon shovelling food into her and listening to her do the most hilarious routine on why Comic Books should be weaponised, I can tell you that she has no more ill will toward anyone who doesn't write Justice Interplanetary than the common dog owner has for their pupper.

But Stever Aronnomis and Gixy Lurraine? Your days are numbered. Especially after Issue 17.

Anyway, Mir-Mir took about eight hours and re-wrote the Oetzie protocol, and got published in about 19 interdisciplinary publications. She was nice enough to credit me with the original work, and that got me a job and a weekly visit from the People In Black to check that I'm not also a supervillain or plotting to steal people's essential fluids to make Tsin sports drinks.

Anyway.

Oetzie mode gives you near-fatal hypothermia. It's not quite suspended animation but it's close as you can get while maintaining a really good chance of waking back up.

All I had to do was program a really simple little macro that would ping for immediate assistance and flag the file with re-animation instructions.

Already I was getting chilled. My teeth were chattering and I was trying to relax and jsut lket it happen. My littel budd the spac squid was stuill floting her. gabe it one o th deb bat  klklklkkkkkkkkkk

Ow.

Seriously. I was feeling very disoriented. Everything was too bright and I felt very woozy and my jaw ached, but apart from that, the pins and needles, the way all my clothes felt like broken glass and the uncontrollable shivering, I felt surprisingly not dead.

Also not in Oscar.

I was having trouble focusing my eyes, but hearing I could manage.

Two Tsin were discussing eating me.

Voice One: "Well he's dead. I say we just ask. You know Humans - it's either 'no, you can't because we have a whole bunch of traditions and sacred laws that cannot be broken' or 'haha yeah that's what they'd want' and then they ask you if you want some sauce."

Voice Two: "Yeah but... what if the othre humans get upset that we asked? What if they think we killed this one to get the meat?"

Voice one: "They were in an un-powered EVA suit with no air, and the life support running colder than the Caffeteria Freezer. I don't care what stupid plan they had, not even a Human can survive that."

This is it. The moment that I have been living for all these years. You always hope one day you get the chance, and now finally it's my time to shine!

I sat up and said "Do you two mind? I'm trying to get some sleep."

Their horrified screams were like a warm bath. Ahhhh!

[emmebearpaw]

Hello. I've worked in a grocery store for a while, I shop for people and take it out to their cars (this is my 3rd summer in a row...). I know lots of weird types of people at the grocery store. Please allow me to tell you what kind of person various characters are at the grocery store. Fandoms: Reverse 1999, Genshin Impact (R1999) Regulus is the Doordash driver who checks in to pick up groceries and then goes MIA. She shows up 5 minutes later to get them with a Dr. Papper and no cart and you just have to look her dead in the eyes with 2 dozen bags around you and say "You need a cart."

(GI) Furina is this one guy at my old store who was always the last one to show up on Saturdays. Tired. Easy. Does not feel like chatting right now. She's here to get Mac and Cheese and some Wine and then she is going to bed. (R1999) Kanjira, Erick, Balloon Party and Mondlicht are the group of unsupervised kids that are causing a Problem. (R1999) Oliver Fog and Eagle are the inexplicably unsupervised kids there at odd hours that ask you where a specific item is and are a joy to have. No problem. Inexplicably looking for a block of good cheese. (GI) Lyney, Lynette and Freminet are the kind of people shopping who employees don't even notice until they get to check out. They are sent to the store with a list. They plan out an ideal route like its a fucking heist. They are in and out of there in 20 minutes with the power of teamwork and planning.

(GI) Baizhu does carside pickup. Only buys organic foods. Qiqi doesn't get goldfish she gets Annie's crackers, that sort of thing. In a seeming contradiction there is a bottle of wine in the order too. (R1999) Ok listen to me. This isn't a customer story. This is my former STORE MANAGER. Constantine is my old store manager that everyone hates, but I have one particular story she is. We had radios in our department so we could communicate items that weren't on the shelf and to ask for assistance from other departments. No one else was supposed to use the radios, however management didn't want to spend money on the radios so they just let other departments steal from us, which usually meant we didn't have any. Our store manager in particular would get upset if we didn't use the radios. He also had a habit of stealing ours, so we didn't give him the code. I left my radio at my workstation to run an order outside as he walks in for the morning. I come back in barely 2 minutes later and the radio I left out is gone. Constantine is stealing my radio. (R1999) The Apeiron crew are this group of 4 or 5 Orthodox Jewish men who would all come in together (unusual, most grocery shoppers are alone or with their significant other + maybe their kids. Additionally we are not an area with a large jewish population) and I always had to inform them that. Yup that's our whole kosher section. No we don't have a kosher frozen section. I wish you luck on finding food for your diet, god speed, I can not find kosher food we don't stock. I do plan on writing something jsut for them because I think i need to, emotionally. 37 would throw a fit in the canned bean section.

(GI) Venti was this guy who was clearly reselling beer. Ordered 5 40 packs of bud light 3+ times a week. (GI) Yaoyao is every kid I've seen pushing around the tiny kid sized shopping cart they have at my new store. She's not accompanied like the real world kids are though. No she's just shopping by herself. Where are her parents. (GI) Neuvilette is the guy at my old store who would order like. 10 liters of sparkling water. All the same flavor. Made me climb the shelf most days to grab all of the bottles that fell over (the flavor he ordered was on the top shelf too) so I could try to scrounge together everything he ordered. Probably more later lmao

[royalwriteroftheuniverse]

Holiday party with Andy

Mostly fluff tiny bit of angst some anxiety Andy Barber slightly older than his girlfriend and fluffyness but 18+ just incase

Comments & reblogs welcome no reposting or publishing

Special thanks to @cevansbrat0007

"Hey sweetheart you don’t have to be nervous look-"

"It’s not that I just I want to make a good impression on them"

"I don’t give a shit what they think from a 2 hr party with an introduction that lasts 3 minutes. I’m not going to break up with you just because someone goes 'I don’t like her.' Because  I love her and that’s all that matters beautiful" he kisses my head. 

He said he loved me he never said that before I wonder if he realizes he just said that 

“Hun you hear me.”

“Yea,"

 "If you don’t want to go you don’t have to go.”

“You kidding let all those women and men around you with alcohol in their systems and their work guard down. Hell no. I gotta steak my claim.”

"You steamed your claim"

"Um not to them. Now either I go or I give you a giant hicky"

"Either, or can't be both?" 

"Andy"

"What? It’s a valid question."

I roll my eyes.  

"Ok pants or dress"I swear I can see his eyes darker. "That’s not why I asked  I meant and that’s not happening."

"Spoilsport"

"You need to stop watching "The Good Fight." 

"Pants I know you feel more comfortable than the dress even though I like it better." 

I get a kiss on my hair. 

"Yea but it's cold"

"He smiles you can wear your velvet one."

He hasn't seen me in the velvet one it barely covers my butt, but then again slightly tispy jealousy Andy is fun to play with, "Hey we're taking a Lyfy tonight, right."

Yea why?

 "Just wondering"

Why plan on getting drunk on eggnog? 

I roll my eyes 

"One time it was one time and didn't it didn't taste like alcohol how was I supposed to know-"

"Mhm This is not a trial Missy." He grabs my hips bringing me close to him. 

"Don't missy me," I pout "I don't like being made fun of."

"I'm sorry babe you know I love you," he says wrapping his arms around my neck giving my temple a soft kiss. That's the second time he said he loved me in an hour. 

"Ok red velvet dress it is. Only cause you asked so nicely. " But if I get sick-" I point at his. 

He throws his hands up in surrender 

"I will take days off and nurse you back to health."

"Good boy" 

"You trained me well."

We get to the restaurant and I am suddenly regretting my choice of outfits and why does everyone here look so old i mean I know late 40s and 50s but they look like… God I can hear the jokes now about me looking young i feel bad about the jokes they might make to Andy about him and me being a good digger there's only a few years That's not fair its not his fault I look young he shouldn't have to-"

"Hey what's got you so worried Princess? Your coat."

"Oh yeah," I shrugg it off. "Are you sure I can uber home I mean they everyone is and I'm and you don't deserve."

"Hey relax no one is going to make a joke  and if anyone teases you you come get me and ill fire them." 

"K." I can't help but smile "But then who wouldn't want to make up an excuse to try to get you to dump me and date them?"

"Well it wouldn't work." He kisses me.

I give him a smile and then another piece of anxiety hits my brain. 

"I dont know any people he works with what if I seam so stupid and they just think I'm clingy and  I-

"Hey no one is going to think you're stupid. And I like having my arms around you as long as you do"

"Wha- did I say that outloud?"

"No you have different faces for different anxieties."

I groan as he wraps his arms around me. 

"I only noticed cause I pay attention sweetie  and- did that- was that dress always that short?"

"Yes I was wondering why you wanted me to wear it."

"You are not picking up anything this whole night."

"Andy if something falls-"

"I'll pick it up"

"Andrew you started this" 

He pulls me in front of him in a tight hug and then leans in and whispers "and I'm going to finish it." I can hear the smirk. All I want to do is crawl onto bed and sleep. 

"Well if it isn't the love birds."

I relax seeing Duffy.

"Hey nice to see a familiar face."

"I was hoping you two were going to make it. That's a short dress. I don't want to be arresting anyone tonight."

"It was Andy's idea."

"I didn't know the dress was that short." He says with an honest tone his voice raising up at the end defending himself. "But as long as no one touches her there won't be a problem." He says very matter of factly.

"I get a bit of a shiver  and move my shoulders forward at that mention

"Sorry sweetheart i didn't mean to-"

"No its my fault Andy I'm sorry. I "

"It's fine, I'm just glad I have Andy here and you if he gets out of line. " I wink. " plus I don't know anyone besides you two. You should come over soon for dinner."

"I'd love to."

"Do you like steak? Andy bought some for some cookout this fall that we never did and we need to use them or their worthless. I meanz God. didn't mean it like that. Sorry."

"No its fine and I absolutely do love steak."

"Next week?"

"What day?"

"Friday? 7?"

Still in his embrace I look up at Andy who nodded.

"Friday sounds great."

We part ways and we go to get a drink. 

"Oo eggnog."

"No." He laughs

"Why what's in there?"

"Vodka probably."

"I like vodka."

"I know but your migraine meds-"

I took them early afternoon so I don't take them tonight so its not an issue. And its just a cup. 1 cup Andy.  I know you mean well sweetie but trust me I got this." 

"Ok I trust you."

He gets me a cup and he holds my hand or my waist as we talk to people and by we I mean him because I am really really nervous and know no one. I end up playing with his hand a lot.

"Be right back sweetheart I have to go to the bathroom" I not as he says it into my ear and then kisses my temple. 

I intended to go straight to the bar to sit but I get intercepted but 

"Hi I'm Niel"

Andy's fried turned arch nemesis. He's ikier looking in person.   I introduce myself with the kindest I hate you smile I can muster. 

"I haven't seen you around  the office.Are you new?" 

This is his best lines ugh. 

"Uh no I'm here with my boyfriend."

"And he left you alone thats not very boyfriendly."

Neither is hitting on someone like this And I'm getting major creep vibes. 

"Well he-" 

Someone knocks into Neil and the drink accidentally spills on me a bit 

"I am soo sorry" a genuinely-genuine reaction forms on his face and  like a kick almost he changes attitudes to appologize 

"It's fine I'm fine " I back away before he can get napkins and I back into Andy. I know thst body anywhere.  I sigh and close my eyes for a moment of relief knowing he's there. I'm ok and he'd kick ass if I needed.  

"Babe what happened? You ok?" He looks up 

"Niel" he girts out 

"This is your boyfriend-"

"Yes I'm her boyfriend. What happened here? Neil."

"It was an accident." 

"It really was Andy."

"Niel." He growls out.

"Okay. Now that introductions are done. Andy, sweetie" and nope can't break their eye contact so I step in front of him. Bringing his eyes back to me "Why don't you come with me to the bathroom and help me get this out ok." 

"Yes lets." He takes my hand and then I see him give one last menacing look at Neil. 

I go into the women's bath. 

"Hello, anyone here my boy friends helping me with a stain."

No responses so I lock the door."  With a sigh as I lean back on it.

"Hey hey what happened what did Neil say ?"  his voice is soft but his eye furrow and its slits but I can still see his hands being forced out of fists by his own mind. At least he's trying. 

"He was just being a creep and someone bumped into him and thats why it spilt but-"

"How creep did he get?"

"The normal I'm used to. nothing I can't handle but I just, I missed you. The minute I bumped into you I knew everything would be ok "

"You knew that was me?"

"Honey I know your chest anywhere."

"What a coincidence I know yours anywhere too." I smile and laugh as my head drops down but when I look back up 

He is still looking at me with sad eyes he knows I'm not telling him everything but he's not pushing. 

"Honey any level of creep is not something you should be used to." His finger brushes my cheek softly.

"He was just hitting on me claiming you weren't being very boyfriendly enough." 

I think I said too much. 

"I'm fine." 

He sighs and wraps his arm around me.

"Are you sure. We can leave."

"And miss out on all that good food?" 

"Anytime you want to go I'll nick Neil out."

"Oka-wait what?"  I laughed. He kissed me and brought me in for a hug. I snacked my hands around his waist. 

"I love you sweetheart" 4th time today makes me smile "I love you too Andy."

He didn't even blink…."You calm enough?"

"Me. Yes?  You. What about that stain?"

"Oh it'll wash out."

I somehow get in a conversation with some wives and he makes sure I'm ok before he goes off to a different conversation himself.  We are ever so in tune and overprotective of each other, probably him more than me knowing I'm nervous we give each other little nods to signal the other is ok.  

When my group breaks up I find Andy immediately even though his group moved a bit.  its like this weird spidy-sense  we have for eachother. I wrap my arms around his waist and he puts his hand over mine. Its the little things that mean the most with us. The little touches the little glasses the little sift kisses.

"Sorry doll this is a private conversation don't think you'd under-."

"Excuse you but my girlfriend is welcome."

"And I just so happen to well  practiced  and versed in constitution law  and since it is a free country with the right to congregate you  can't discrimination against me being a woman as I was invited to the party."

It takes everyone in me not to roll my eyes at Andy who I know is beaming that  A) I remembered my constitutional law class from forever ago and b) the talented way I spin my words i said I was well practiced and verses. Not that it was my job.

A few minutes later I feel a hand slide down my hip I look at Andy and then I follow gaze and to the side of us Neil is in a conversation but obviously staring at my ass. 

"Doesn't he know I'm with you. "

"You ok with my hand there?"

"I didn't move it did i?"

"I love you. I really do. Love you. I don't know if you heard me the last 5 times."

"Actually this was the 5th time."

"So you did hear me," he teases."

Taglist

@nana1000night @sapphire-rogers @coltrainbat @hawkeyes-queen @patzammit @sparklybarbarianninja

[circle--of--confusion]

The Cardinal and the Seamstress

CHAPTER 4!! I had so much fun writing this, I hope you have fun reading it. Chapter 5 will be the last one.

Summary: Fittings galore! The second mockup proves well. Sarah and Amelia get to work on the actual suit for Copia. These two idiots finally go on a date but it doesn't quite go according to plan…

Pairing: [dracopia] Cardinal Copia x OC

Tags/Warnings: blood drinking, hurt/comfort, kissing, white suit copia (yes he deserves a warning)

Words: 3.4k

Chapter 4: If You Choose to Run Away With Me

| ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE |

Read on AO3

banner and dividers courtesy of: gothdaddyissues AND ghuleh-recs

Sarah wakes up the next morning feeling like death. 5 Hours of sleep were achieved before her alarm goes off to begin getting ready for the morning. After a long shower, she gets dressed and heads out to eat breakfast. Alex notices her demeanor when Sarah gets to their table but he decides to be quiet about it. They eat in a collective silence.

As the day goes on, Copia arrives for his second fitting. He smiles towards her and Sarah gives a droopy, tired smile back. He looks on with concern but is whisked away by Amelia to get changed into the new mockup before he could say anything.

“I hope you’re happy with the pants this go ‘round. We added more ease.” Amelia walks away to lean against a table and crosses her arms to sulk. “She said begrudgingly.”

“I do appreciate it, Amelia” Copia says smugly. “This mockup feels a lot better, I feel like I can move around this time and not worry about flashing the audience.” He walks around the studio for a few minutes. Sarah gives a small chuckle.

“Copia, what are you doing?” She asks.

“I’m trying to test the limits on this suit. I will have to leap and jump around on stage.”

Amelia knits her eyebrows together. “You look like you’re auditioning for The Ministry of Silly Walks.”

“Thank you, Amelia.” Copia deadpans.

“I think the tails were a nice addition. They make him look really dapper.” Sarah nods her head.

Amelia claps her hands together. “Ok! If this fits, then we don’t need to make any more changes? This means it’s now the fun part: choosing pretty fabric.”

Copia raises his eyebrows. “What were you thinking?”

Sarah brings over the bolts of fabric options.

“I have some cotton sateen. It’s sturdy but breathable and has a slight stretch. I think it’ll work for your stage suits. I also want to make one in a twill to try out different textures.”

Copia inspects the fabric. “These feel good. I like the red and the white fabric you have over here.” He points to a bundle on the right.

“Oh good! I was thinking of making a red, black, and white suit. Variety is the spice of life, after all. I also want to make a stage version of your cassocks but just in red.” Amelia explains.

Copia nods his head. “How soon until I come in to try on the real suit?”

Amelia blows a raspberry. “Hmm. It’ll probably take a week? We’ll have a white and black version made up by then and you can try on whichever suits your fancy.” She laughs to herself at her joke.

Copia smiles. “Perfetto.” Copia bows slightly and leaves shortly after the fabric was decided.

Sarah is tasked with the white suit while Amelia gets to work on the black. Her eyes went shifty when she was delegating the tasks. “I have a surprise for the black one. It’s on a need-to-know basis. Now, shoo.” She waives Sarah off. “Get to work.”

Over the next few days, she tries to keep a strict regimen of only sewing the suit during regular work hours and actually go to her room in the evening to sleep. On one restless night, a couple days before the suit is supposed to be ready, Sarah gets a text from Copia.

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Copia: 12:35 am

You’re working late again.

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Sarah: 12:37 am

Shhhhhh you weren’t supposed to see that! I only plan to do it this once! Just tonight, I promise. I realized I had too much to get finished and I decided to stay late to stay on track.

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Copia: 12:39 am

Mmhm likely story.

Copia: 12:40 am

Please, for my sake, get some sleep tonight.

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Sarah: 12:41 am

Wait. How come I don’t get to work late but you do?

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Copia: 12:43 am

Oh you don’t know? Instead of sleep-walking, I sleep-text. ;] I’m definitely sleeping right now.  zzzzz

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On the day of the official suit fitting, Sarah wakes up so jittery with excitement to see Copia that she wakes up before her alarm goes off. Showered and dressed she heads to grab some breakfast before walking to the studio. Once Copia arrives, she walked over to greet him.

“Copia! Good morning! Are you excited to try on an actual suit?” 

He looks at her and looks a bit startled. “Oh! Sarah it’s ehe… wonderful to see you again.”

Her head tilts and her eyebrows scrunch together. She feels a strange sense of deja vu. “Copia are you ok? You seem nervous. If you’re worried, I promise we didn’t make your pants tight again.”

“Oh! No no no it’s not that. I wanted to ask you something before we got started, actually.” Copia closes his eyes and takes a slight breath. “You’ve been so kind to me these past few weeks and I’ve very much enjoyed talking with you that, um,” He takes Sarah’s hands into his own. “Well, I’d like to do something for you to show my appreciation. I’d like to cook for you. Would you come to my room later tonight?”

“Oh, Copia!” She smiles. “That sounds lovely.”

“So, it’s a date?” Copia asks.

“Yes. Although,” Sarah frowns. “I don’t have very many nice outfits. I want to look nice if this will be a date.”

Copia squeezes her hands in reassurance. “You may wear your nicest jeans.” He smiles. “Do you have any food requests?”

Sarah thinks for a moment. “I’m fine with anything but I can’t eat tomatoes.” Copia makes a funny face. “They mess with my stomach.”

“Dolcezza, I am Italian. No tomatoes mean we might as well skip to desert.”

Sarah giggles. “No complaints here. I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

He looks into her eyes and they’re silent for a moment. They both give each other a nervous but excited smile.

Amelia decides to break their spell. “Lover bat! We have suits for you to try on!”

Copia sighs and let’s go of Sarah’s hands. He turns to walk towards Amelia who is holding up two suits on hangers. “What brilliant work do you have for me to try on?”

“I have before you two suits: The black one was made by me-” she leans in “which comes with a surprise- and the white one was made by Sarah.” She moves the 2 options up and down. “Pick your poison.”

Copia’s eyebrows quirk at the white suit. He looks back up to Amelia. “I’ll go with the black suit.” He turns to Sarah. “Mi dispiace Sarah but I love the idea of a surprise.”

Sarah laughs. “It’s ok. I don’t know what it is either so I’m just as curious.”

Copia takes the suit and a few minutes later he confidently struts out from the curtain and heads to Sarah and Amelia. He stands in front of the mirror and poses every few seconds. “You truly have out-done yourself, Amelia. I never should’ve doubted you!”

She smiles wide. “I’m very happy to hear that!” Realization dawns on her face. “Wait- you doubted me?”

“So, eh…What is this surprise you spoke of?”

Amelia rolls her eyes and holds up a bundle of black fabric. “I wanted to make something a bit… vampirey for our beloved vampire cardinal. I hope you like it.” She has a faint blush on her face.

Amelia unveils a black cloak lined with a wine-red satin. Theres a tall collar and a large, ornate metal clasp to keep it closed on his shoulders.

Sarah gasps. “That’s beautiful!”

Copia nods his head. “I can’t agree more. Thank you.” He’s twirls around to look at Sarah. She has a dreamy face while looking at Copia in his suit and cloak. “I think dolcezza mia likes it too.” He raises an eyebrow towards her.

Sarah, realizing she’s been caught, covers her face with her hands.

Amelia looks between the two. “Ugh, you guys are adorable. I’m gonna be sick.”

After Copia changed back into his cassock he went to Sarah to confirm their date and what time to arrive, he bid the studio a farewell. She starts to tidy up her space and goes to get the red fabric to cut out the next suit.

“Sarah!” Amelia startles her. “You… should take the rest of the day off.”

Sarah’s eyes squint slightly. “Shouldn’t we get started on the red suit? We have time.” What’s going on?

“Oh, I know but you’ve been working overtime on this project… You need a break.”

“Well now you’re sounding like Copia.” She chuckles. Seriously what is going on?

“Bah! Please, take the rest of the day off. I insist.” Amelia begs. She’s practically pushing Sarah out of the door.

Now’s not the time to look a gift horse in the mouth, I guess. “Ok! Thanks.”

A couple minutes later, Sarah is walking down the hall to her room when she notices Copia walking her way. He had a very determined face so she decided not to interrupt his mission. Maybe I’ll ask about it later. She gets to her room and after a short nap she changes into her date outfit, nice jeans and a blouse with boots, and heads over to Copia’s room at their agreed time. She takes a deep breath and goes to knock on the door. Copia yells from inside, “It’s open!” and she walks in.

His apartment looks cozy. Upon walking in she sees a small dining room with a kitchen and a sitting area; there’s a room to the side with a couch and a tv where an old game console sits by it on the floor. Bookshelves and art line the walls. Near the back of the apartment are two doors. One she thinks is probably a closet and the other his room. One of the doors open and Copia emerges wearing- wait is he wearing?

“The white suit!” Sarah puts her hands over her mouth. “You’re wearing the suit I made?” She walks towards him to get a better look at everything. “Sneaky devil!” He looks so damn… good!

Copia holds his arms out and does a ‘ta-dah!’. “I don’t want you to feel underdressed but I thought it might be fun to surprise you.”

Sarah’s face hurts from smiling.“Are you the person responsible for me getting out of work early today?” She puts her hands on Copia’s shoulders and leans back. Sarah’s eyes linger on him in her suit. “You needed a diversion to get me out of the room?”

“Guilty.” He takes his hands and places them on her waist. “Would you like to start our date now? I managed to find a good recipe sans tomatoes,” He smirks “and I don’t want it to get cold.”

She smiles and gives a sigh. “I guess so. What are we having? It smells fantastic.”

Copia walks her over to the table he has set up for dinner, 2 plates set next to each other. “Spaghetti carbonara.” She gives out a hum while he plates their food and grabs her a drink. “Mangiamo! Let’s eat.” Copia sits down on her right side.

Sarah nods. “You can’t go wrong with pasta!”

“You really can’t. It’s impastable to mess it up!” Sarah laughs at Copia’s pun and then they both dig in to their plate. She occasionally lets out a hum or moan of approval over the food and Copia smiles at her. “I’m pleased you like it, cara. I got the recipe from Secondo.”

Sarah’s eyes go wide and her eyebrows perk up. “Oh? I hear he makes an excellent chicken noodle soup, too. I had no idea he was such a chef.”

“It was something he took up after retirement from being Papa. His cooking is one of the few times I’ll actually eat food.” Copia admits. “I don’t really need regular food to survive so I only ever eat when I want to indulge.”

“If I’d known how great the food was here, I would’ve joined the ministry sooner.” They both laugh.

“What was it that did bring you in?” Copia asks.

Sarah smiles sheepishly. “I will admit, it was the music that got my attention first. The imagery and emotion in some of the songs were compelling. And Papa Terzo was very charismatic on stage. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, though, when I decided to join.”

“What did you think we did? Blood rituals and orgies every day in the Olde One’s name?” Copia teases.

“No! Nothing like that… Well maybe something like that but not every day. I was intrigued by the culture and what it might be like to live here. And once I arrived, everyone here has been so inviting and kind.”

“I’m happy to hear that, dolcezza. In my time here with the ministry, the success of the Ghost project has opened the door to the world of our cause.” Copia smiles. “And it doesn’t help that there’s a vampire roaming the halls to maintain the spooky factor.” He chuckles.

“So,” Sarah sets down her utensils after she finishes the last bite. “What’s that like? The whole being dead and a vampire thing?”

“It was strange at first. I was turned during a bleak time in history, the plague, and since then it’s been an odd form of survival. When I found this ministry, it was a salvation. They took me in and I’ve been devoted to them ever since.”

She’s astonished. “The plague?” One helluva age gap.

“Yes! It’s actually what’s been inspiring some of the songs I’ve been writing for the band.”

“And uh… What’s it like, to drink blood?” She puts her hands in her lap and turns more towards him.

Copia’s hands takes and holds one of Sarah’s. One of his thumbs rub small, absent-minded circles on her palm. “It depends. If I drink it from the blood bags the Clergy give to me it’s fine, nothing to write home about, really.” he moves his thumb further up to rub at the veins on her wrist. Copia has a smirk on his face “But it tastes much better if I get it straight from the source.” He presses down slightly on the spot.

Oh. She squirms in her chair. Her face feels warm and she’s sure there’s a blush forming on her cheeks. “I see.” Copia looks at her with a knowing smile.

They sit in a comfortable silence for a few minutes; Copia continues to hold her hand. Neither of them wants to break the spell that’s overtaken them at the kitchen table. It’s Copia who decides to speak first.

“I was thinking, would you like to move to the couch? I thought we could take turns playing one of my games. You can finally see if my concentration face is as funky as yours.” He smiles at her.

If I can stand. “Ok! What do you have for two players?”

Copia’s moves to start up his tv and NES. “Super Mario Bros?”

They both settle on the couch and over the next 20 minutes she watches Copia maneuver through each level flawlessly. “So, you’ve played this game once or twice?” She chirps.

Copia laughs. “Yes, dolcezza. Just once or twice.”

She watches on, looking at only his face while Copia is lost in the graphics on the screen. She moves so she can look at Copia better and soon his face does it. His mouth parts slightly and his expression goes blank. The zone, she realizes. He looks so adorable. She’s moving towards him to plant a kiss on his cheek but right at that moment he’s finished the level and turns to look at Sarah. Their lips end up touching and they both jolt back in their spots on the couch.

“Oh! I’m so sorr-“

“Mi scusi!”

“I didn’t mean-“

“No! I moved and you-“

“I mean, if you want-“

They pause their hurried apologies after realizing they’re both sorry. Laughter falls over the room and Copia lifts his hand to cup her face. “Sarah. I would like to kiss you. May I?”

 “Yes.” She leans in towards Copia and closes her eyes.

Copia closes his eyes and leans in and their lips meet halfway. They move slowly against each other, both hesitant to take anything further. After a few seconds their lips part from each other; they’re savoring the kiss on their lips. Copia’s thumb brushes lightly on Sarah’s face and he looks into her eyes for her okay so he can lean in again. Their second kiss is more fervent. Familiarity from the first kiss a moment ago fuel their mouths for the second one. Sarah breaks the kiss briefly so she can move to sit in Copa’s lap, her legs straddle his thighs.

She leans forward and their kiss resumes with renewed passion. Her hands place themselves on Copia’s shoulders and his hands rest at Sarah’s waist and the side of her face. Copia’s mouth seems to have a mind of its own and his fangs have started to poke out; she can feel them on her lips, on her skin as he leaves a trail of kisses from her mouth to her jaw and down to her neck. She lets out a small hum when his lips touch her neck and moans loudly when his fangs brush lightly on the sensitive skin.

Copia comes to, seemingly aware of his fangs now. His eyes are wild and he looks terrified. “Sarah! Mi dispiace. I didn’t hurt you, did I?” He looks closer at her neck, free from any bite marks.

“Copia, its fine. I’m fine!” Her hands on Copia’s shoulders move to hold his face. He’s so sweet. “Full disclosure, Copia, I uh. I wouldn’t mind if you bit me and drank my blood…” She goes quiet at the last few words, too embarrassed to fully say them.

Copia smiles and his fangs are poking out, taunting her. “What was that, dolcezza?” Copia’s hand on her waist, his fingers, wiggle against her side and she squirms in her spot.

Oh this man! “I said, I wouldn’t mind of you drank from me.” Sarah huffs out a breath. “If you want to.”

Copia tilts his head and smiles wider. “I would be honored, dolcezza.” His thumb brushes lightly over her cheek again.

She straightens and then looks deep into his eyes. “Walk me through it then. What will happen? What will you do?” She returns her hands to his shoulders.

“First,” he begins “I’d like to kiss you on the lips.” Their lips meet for a quick kiss. “Then, I’d like to leave a small kiss here-“ his mouth moves to Sarah’s neck “-before I bite.” He leans back to look at Sarah.

She lets out a small breath. “Will it hurt?”

“Only for a moment. The pain goes away as quickly as it arrives.” He reassures her, looking into her eyes and lightly stroking her cheek again.

She takes a moment for the information to settle in. “Okay.” She nods. “I’m ready.”

“Perfetto.” He whispers before he leans in to kiss her lips. Next, he tilts her head to the side and presses light kisses to her neck. The feeling of his trimmed mustache on her neck tickles a bit and she giggles. He’s breathing in her scent and its lovely. His chest vibrates with a ‘hmm’ sound. After a few seconds his hands stabilize her body in his lap and hands. Copia presses a firm kiss to her neck and then he bites.

Pain immediately shoots up through Sarah’s neck and she lets out a whimper. Copia’s thumb on her face soothes her as much as he can as the searing sensation of pain runs its course and returns with a pleasant, tingly feeling. He moans as he swallows her blood into his mouth, she can feel his tongue lapping as it flows out of her neck. The tingly feeling spreads further through her body and the whimpers she let out in the beginning turn into soft hums and moans. A hand she has on his shoulder moves to the back of Copia’s head and her fingers card through his hair. Copia’s body is overtaken by the heady feeling of drinking her blood. His hips shift slightly underneath Sarah’s body, moving on their own free-will. Copia is overstimulated, just as overwhelmed as she is at the whole situation. He begins to suck harder against her neck and Sarah’s head begins to feel dizzy. She tries to say something or move her hands to stop him, to warn him, but her words are choked up in her throat and her body feels heavy. Sarah’s vision goes starry and soon she blacks out from the loss of blood. The only thoughts on her mind are Copia’s lips and his fangs as she falls limp into his lap.

hehehe cliffhanger *evil laughter* don't worry! I'll have the last chapter up soon enough.

[beazt]

Ok I have had a lot of absolutely infuriating ER visits that have threatened my life. But I don’t think a single one has made me as angry as this one.

I have COVID, found that out at the ER while I was there for my foot starting to go cyanotic/blue (with secondary flu-like symptoms). It was relatively mild when I got there, but my actual doctor’s on-call-team told me to get to the ER as soon as physically possible when they heard it was even slightly cyanotic, take no more than 30 minutes to get to ER.

The images under the cut are what my foot looked like before I went to the ER and when I was discharged.

At discharge, my doctor told me, and I quote, “your medical history is so unusual, and this issue is incredibly unusual. I don’t know what to do with you, so I have to send you home, dear.”

do not call me dear when you’re sending me home with an entire cyanotic leg that has only gotten worse, extremely worse at that, the entire time I’ve been in your care.

He also said it was likely because my blood vessels were rupturing beneath my skin and bleeding. If that is continually getting much, much worse as the visit goes on, how is that safe for discharge? Oh, his logic was “it’s not hurting you.” Even when my foot went tingly for 20 minutes, and then entirely numb for 20 minutes. Those were the 40 minutes that directly lead up to my discharge.

He also refused to document that he was refusing to treat me. He refused to document the extent/worsening of my leg’s cyanosis/bruising as well, but don’t worry, I took pictures throughout the visit.

Images of the foot/leg below the cut. If you can stomach it, I highly encourage you to look at the rest of the post, and see how wronged I was for being chronically ill and disabled.

these were before going to the ER. just foot and ankle at that point.

this was a few min after I had arrived at the ER, when a reddish/pinkish spot formed in the cyanotic/bruised area and hurt. It’s about an inch below the big toe. (The other bump in the flesh-toned area? That’s been there for 10 days.)

And the following images were at discharge:

note for the last image (and really all of the images): the cyanosis/bruising was way more obvious in real life. The camera auto-balances so much that it doesn’t pick it up so good, or whatever. For the last image specifically, compare the part of my thigh in the left part of the image to the part further to the right and higher up in the image. Subtle in the photo maybe, but still evident.

Also, my other foot for good measure:

I got sent home like this, with that foot entirely numb, because the doctor “didn’t know what to do with me.” Because I have a complex medical history. This is the only hospital in my county, aka within an hour’s drive.

Thankfully, it has cleared up a little bit since I got home, it’s still very obviously there… but I’m still waiting for my PCP’s on-call-team to call me back… they were supposed to over an hour ago.

[toumoromoro]

Towelket 6 thoughts/rant/review?

I think towelket 6 is the only tk game so far that has become worse by playing it again. I had somewhat "fond" memories of this game since it's the reason I discovered towelket, but I think I had a pretty disorted view of it because of nostalgia.

It's hard to take this game seriously when in the first 3 minutes Warawau kills and then masturbates over the dead body of a dog out of nowhere. It's so over the top, ok Kanao I get it she's evil. Then in the next 5 minutes Minpou's mom and sister die without any fanfare. Oh and Warawau assaults Minpou. Everything happens so fast that you don't get a chance to grow attached to any of the characters. Remember how in TK2, Kanao gives you about 40 minutes to get to know the whole village and its people before the more serious stuff starts happening? Well, in TK6, you get at most 5 minutes before people start dying, and we're supposed to care about them. Also, any interesting dynamics or relationships that could have been explored are immediately cut short by Kanao. Seriously, you have this interesting dynamic with the three main girls, and then Kanao decides to sideline Nyanyamo until the end of the game. Also just when we might explore Minpou’s feelings about having to care for her mother, Kanao kills her off. Ironically, all of this might be the most interesting part of TK6 because once you leave the village, the most boring part of the game begins: the middle game.

I'm not exaggerating when I say this part is one of the worst in any Towelket game. Nothing happens for an entire hour. Kanao forces you to go through these huge, empty maps and calls it content. It's jarring, the village had a nice U-shape where you knew where everything was supposed to be, only to be thrown into the same 100 forest maps where no one has anything important to say. It's almost funny how Kanao went out of their way to make all 7 characters repeat the same thing. But it's not funny, it makes me want to jump from a building. This game desperately needed to trim down the main cast. Also the humor was meh, which made the middle game even worse. It's here that Minpou and Warawau lose their main character status, and it’s given to Agochu and Pucchi. This wouldn't have bothered me if they were interesting, but Kanao decided they needed to do the whole 'Pucchi, you are a moron' routine over and over again. Then suddenly, an hour into this, Kanao remembers this game has to have some sort of plot, so we get the 'collect three things to save the world' plot. This part is a bit better than the last one, but still suffers from some of the same problems, mostly that no one has anything interesting to say. However, I will admit that I did like some parts in isolation, like Nekoashi-Konbu's flashback, the scenes with Mary/Minpou and Oruchumahe, which was pretty unique. The flashback, in particular, kept me interested throughout the entire sequence (I love you Zucche). Of course, none of this actually makes the game worthwhile. This part had a very funny unintentional moment where PPU just forgets to tell Minpou who murdered her.

After this, we enter the late game where Kanao finally remembers that Warawau was supposed to be an important and evil character. Too bad we only have 15 minutes of game left! This part is, uh, not good. For some reason, Kanao decided to insert a chunk of Towelket 1 into this game like a tumor. This part is basically just filler, and all it does is remind me that I should have replayed that game instead. Nekojita's story was nice though. The ending is kind of funny, actually. Warawau suddenly loses her brain and confesses to having killed Nyanyamo and Minpou's mom, expecting Minpou to be happy about it and praise her. This makes no sense; at the beginning of the game, she knew people wouldn't want to be told this, which is why she always acted when no one could see her. But now? She's just crazy™, speaks in all caps, and laughs over and over again, because she's just so crazy, guys!

So yeah that was Nyanyamo's arc, she was kidnapped, was missing for most of the game and then was killed offscreen. Amazing Kanao.

Finally, Kanao the Pons are bad antagonists and it will never work.

This game was shit, but I'm grateful that it inspired so many people to write better versions of it to try to fix it.

[magicalqueennightmare]

Sins & Amends Chapter 40

Billy Russo x Female Reader (60 part story)

This follows pre- the punisher into the storyline of daredevil, punisher season 1 and beyond

This is NOT Canon Billy. This is decent human being Billy left with bad options over worse decisions

This was also posted to A03 under: WaywardGaPeach. That account and this one is the only place you'll see me post this. If you see it on any other platform/account know it's not me.

Chapter Summary/Warnings: You finally open Billy's letter [Also this is now starting a storyline separate from the show]

"Y/N It's been almost a month..you aren't curious just what's in that envelope?" Alice asked while the two of you walked out the hospital from dropping a patient off. "I am! Believe me, I am but as bad as I hate to admit it.. I don't want to be alone when I see whatever it was Billy thought was so important for me to have" 

You were proud of yourself any time you managed to say his name without your voice breaking. It was hard seeing him in the shape he was. There were guards on his door twenty four even though so far there hadn't been much change in his condition. The only reason you were allowed in the door was because Dinah had called Mahoney who had given you a pass. You were allowed into his room once a week for thirty minutes. It wasn't a lot and he probably didn't even know you were there but what was important was that you knew you were there. 

Once the two of you were in the ambulance and headed back to the station house she said "Why haven't you said something? I would've already came over for a night to hold your hand while you open it" you shot her a smile "I may call Karen and get her to come too, Pete's supposed to be back in town this weekend" you'd let her in on Frank's new persona so the two of you could freely talk about him in public or at the station house.

You chanced a glance at her since the two of you were stopped at a red light  "Is he still acting off towards you?" You sighed with a nod "I don't know what it is. You don't think he really does blame me on some level? I mean if Billy hadn't picked the way he had"

"Hell no. He loves you. He would never hold you still being alive against you. Why don't you just ask him? I mean you've never had a problem with being blunt" you laughed because from anyone else that would sound like an insult but coming from Alice you knew it was a compliment. "I may do just that" 

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The rest of the shift was nothing unusual. Of course Hunter slipping in the bays and almost knocking himself out on the corner of the firetruck caused a round of laughter once everyone made sure he was ok.

While you were gathering your stuff to leave the next morning you were on the phone with Curtis to see if he needed any help with the soup kitchen. "Y/N are you sure? I mean you're coming off a twenty four hour shift" you zipped up your bag and shrugged which caused Alice to roll her eyes.

"You're on the phone babe. Curt can't see that shrug" you stuck your tongue out at her and she laughed so you said "Curt I'm getting off now. Soup kitchen isn't till four. I can go home, shower and take a nap. Please? I can't stand the quiet of my apartment quite yet" he let out a breath then finally said "Ok. I'll see you then"

Alice was leaned against the wall watching you so you waved a hand "Go ahead Hendricks" she put her hands up in a defensive manner "Don't shoot the messenger but are you still seeing Kenzie in office? I mean are you working through the trauma of finding two of the people you have known and loved for years half dead?"

"I'm facing it a little at a time. If I go all or nothing I may just break down" you admitted and she held her arms out so you walked into them. She hugged you tightly then said "No shame in breaking down honey" you nodded then finally said "I promise, I'm as ok as I can be given the circumstance" she let you go but held your gaze for a second "If you ever need me I'm here ok?" You smiled "I know"

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You walked to your apartment in silence. The air had the crispness of winter starting to it. Lisa and Frank Jr would be wanting to go ice skating, Maria would be talking about Christmas dinner. You hugged your jacket tighter around you trying to ward off the coldness of your mind. It was your fault they were dead.

Billy had put your life ahead of Frank's and it had ended up costing all of you everything. Maybe that was why Frank had barely spoken to you since the fight. Maybe he was trying not to hate you but maybe the thought kept popping in his head as well that maybe if Billy had just told him, even if it had cost your life Maria and the kids could've been spared.

You were jarred out your thoughts by a text alert going off on your phone. You pulled it out and smiled when you saw Leo's name. "Mom wants to know if you're still planning to come to Christmas dinner" damn you'd actually forgotten about Sarah's invite.

You texted back "Unless I end up assigned a shift at the last minute I'll be there kiddo" she sent back a few smiley emojis. You formed a friendship with all the Liebermans, even managing to win Zach off with a few gnarly tales of injuries you'd seen on the job.

David still side eyed you at times so you'd call him micro with an attitude to your voice to make a smile sneak onto his face. It was weird seeing a halfway functional family. Kenzie had set them up with a family therapist she knew and trusted so they were working through their issues.

Even Sam was making strides in his physical therapy but again hearing from Sam how Billy had stopped him from being killed, from Sarah how Billy had stopped her and Zach from being hurt. It fucked with your head. You'd went through hell since Maria and the kids had been killed and he'd known the entire time. He'd left Frank out in the cold when he could've just told him the truth. 

You shook your head and realized you'd made it to your apartment so you headed inside. At least you had helping Curtis to look forward to.

When you left the soup kitchen you still felt a sense of unease. You pulled out your phone and started a new group chat with just Karen and Alice. "I need to know what's in that envelope. My place thirty minutes?" Alice texted back "I'll grab Chinese food" and Karen texted back "I'll bring the wine" you smiled at just how fast the two of them had been willing to give you their night and wondered if maybe Alice had already called Karen. 

Thirty minutes later you were sitting on your couch next to Karen while Alice sat on the floor between your legs "Open it!" She said handing the envelope out to you from where it had sat on your counter for the last few weeks. You leaned forward and downed the rest of your glass before tearing the envelope open. There was a letter, and two more smaller envelopes. "Letter first?" You asked and they both nodded.

You unfolded the piece of paper and your stomach flipped when you recognized Billy's handwriting. You felt your hands start shaking slightly and shook your head "I can't do this.here Karen you read it!" You handed her the letter so she took it gently from your hand then cleared her throat before she started reading aloud.

Y/N,

I've written this letter more than a dozen times just to turn around and burn it. I'm sorry, from the very pit of my soul please believe that. When Rawlins first came to me I didn't want to help him but he made a point, I was in love with you and didn't have anything worth while to offer. Christ if I had known then what I know now I would've shot the bastard in the face. I've hurt you in ways I can never take back or make up for. When I was given the choice of you being in his crosshairs or Frank...shit I didn't know what to do. On one hand my first instinct was to tell you everything then and there but Rawlins knew where you worked, where you lived and I'd see the shit that man was capable of. I split with you an hour before calling him and telling him to kill Frank. Yes I handed my best friend over on a silver platter. I'm not proud of it and I regret not making a different decision every day but I would never regret knowing you're still alive even if you hate me. When I got the call about Maria and the kids I knew how hard it would hit you. Please know that night we spent together I meant it. I just wanted to make your pain go away but before you woke up the next morning Rawlins somehow found out Frank was still alive so I was again handed the choice "Help me hunt down Castle or I'll carve his location out of your little medic" I've made a thousand shitty decisions but loving you isn't one of them. You may not believe a single word in this letter but I had to tell you. There's two more envelopes along with this. One holds the deed to the cabin, it's yours. Maybe just maybe you can remember me in a better light there. The other envelope holds information for a bank account in your name. There's fifty thousand in there, use it however you see fit. I already made sure you had a new vehicle at work maybe now you won't be walking so much. There is also a paper trail to prove not a penny of that money came from Rawlins. It was all honestly earned. I love you.

Billy

You sat there staring at the letter in her hands by the time she was done reading. "Oh my god" Alice breathed opening the two other envelopes and reading over all the paperwork.  "Y/N are you ok?" Karen asked and you numbly shook your head "What am I supposed to do with the money? I don't want it. I make enough at my job. I own this apartment" her and Alice shared a look and you realized it was because you weren't reacting at all. 

"Y/N, babe..it's us. Blow up. Cry. Just react please" Alice said and that seemed to finally break through "Why did he do any of the shit? Did he not fucking love me enough to see how much I loved him? We could've been fucking happy just being together. He fucked it all up for his warped idea of accomplishment and ruined everyone's lives because of it! He says he loves me but I honestly don't know if he ever did. I've lost Maria and both kids and now I think I've lost Frank too" you were crying by that point and finally broke down sobbing. They both moved to have their arms around "Kenz said it was coming" Alice said quietly as you allowed them to hold you.

After a few minutes your crying had slowed to a few hiccups so Karen pushed your hair back from your face "Sweetie, I understand how you must feel but please know you haven't lost Frank"

"Why won't he talk to me Kare?" You asked and she gave a small smile "He feels guilty. I can't say any more than that but I promise as soon as he hits New York he'll come see you ok?"

You nodded and a wave of embarrassment suddenly hit you "Oh god I must look like an idiot" "No you don't" Alice said and Karen nodded in agreement "You look like someone who's been through a lot and who has held it together for far too long" you managed a smile and said "Can we drink now?" Alice scoffed "Bitch please. Drinking is always an option"

The rest of the week you had to admit you'd felt a little better after breaking down. Thursday afternoon you went to the hospital for your thirty minutes.

The process took about an hour to get into the room. You stood by the door for a few seconds before slowly walking over to the bed. The body laying there still didn't resemble anything near Billy. The height was all that was the same. The bandages had yet to come off.

You sat down next to the bed and listened to the machines.  "Billy I don't know if you can hear me. I don't know if you'll ever wake up" you stopped when you felt your throat getting tighter with unshed tears.

After a moment you continued "I don't know why you thought I needed money. I just wanted you. I don't know if you ever felt as deeply for me as I felt for you. When I met Maria I finally learned what familial love was. I was content with just that then she met Frank and Frank was always telling me stories about the smooth talking Billy the beaut. When I met you I never thought I would've fell in love with you. I guess a large piece of my heart will always belong to you. I don't regret it, I just wish things would've been different. I wish you would've just let me go. I know he's moving forward now. He loves Karen even if they're both too scared to admit it but every morning I wake up. I'm reminded I'm the reason they don't and it kills me"

You sat with him for a while long before knocking on the door. The cops gave you everything back and told you to have a good day. They didn't really understand why you came but Mahoney must have told them to not be rude or maybe it was a mutual respect thing despite the rivalry between NYPD and FDNY.

----------------------

When you walked out your phone started ringing. It was Karen's ringtone so you answered on the second ring. "Are you going to be home around nine?" You were a little thrown by her of all people not saying hello. "Why hello Karen. Nice to talk to you and why yes I'll be home at that time"  the hospital visits always put you a little on edge so maybe that was the reason for the extra sass.

She laughed and said "Sorry he's just wanting to know" you knew who she meant. "Oh. Ok. Yeah I'll be there" after the two of you said your goodbyes and she hung up you checked the time. There was still two hours to kill.

-----------------------

You were leaning against your kitchen counter nursing your third cup of coffee when a knock at your door nearly made you throw it. You weren't sure why you were so nervous. Hell it was Frank.

You sat your cup down and hollered "I'm coming!" You took a deep breath before finally opening the door. When you opened it he was standing there with his hood pulled up. You managed a smile at seeing him. "Hey" "Hey" you realized he was left standing in the hall so you stepped back quickly "Shit. Sorry please come in"

He walked in and as soon as you shut the door and turned to face him he pulled you into a hug. "I missed you too but I can't really breathe" you managed and he pulled away "Sorry" you smiled "No problem. Um I've got coffee made?" "Sounds good" he nodded so you lead the way into the kitchen. You poured him a cup and handed it to him then waited for him to talk.  "I've been doing some thinking and we've never really talked about that night. What happened between me and Bill" 

You felt your stomach lurch at the memories  "You don't owe me anything Frank. Whatever happened you both survived. That's what counts" he nodded then said "We damn near killed each other" you almost laughed at his words "Yeah I know. I was the one that kept you both alive until Dinah got ambulances there"

He looked up to meet your eyes then "I never did thank you for that did I? I guess I just got used to getting hurt and you patching me up" you shrugged one shoulder "that's what family is for"

You took a sip of your coffee and a part of you hoped he'd stop there but he sat his cup down. "Y/N I've got to tell you the truth" "Ok" you sat your cup down next to his and leaned against the counter staring up at him. "I baited him into that fight. I said horrible shit about you and I've been too damn guilty to face you" "Frank it doesn't matter" you hated knowing he'd felt any guilt. He shook his head "No it does. Y/N.. I called you pathetic and broken and told him killing you would've done the world a favor"

"That would probably hurt if I didn't agree with it. I should've been killed. I wish I would've been" you didn't realize you were crying until Frank wiped a tear from your cheek "C'mon now sweetheart, don't say that. I've lost too much, don't make me think about losing you too. I'm glad he kept you alive. At least he did one thing right" 

"We're family Frank. Me and you are stuck together. Whatever you said to Billy doesn't matter. Don't you dare hold any guilt for that. What you said doesn't change anything and I know you didn't mean it" 

He nodded then said "I'm gonna start checking in with you more. I'm sorry I haven't here lately"  "It's ok Frank. I know you've went through hell" "So have you sweetheart. So have you" 

@intothesoul

@weallhaveadestiny

[livvyofthelake]

alright let’s get into it about king arthur 2004. first of all yes it was bad of course it was bad, it’s a “historical” retelling of arthurian legend and it makes arthur roman and the other knights are supposedly eastern european except that none of those men are eastern european and then also guinevere and merlin were whatever scottish people were in the 5th century but again keira knightly is not scottish. basically it’s very dense on the lore for a movie that didn’t really seem to care about accuracy to the lore. there’s like. there’s words on the screen in the beginning and then there’s also more expositional narration and then there’s also more exposition in the form of bad dialogue and genuinely it does feel like a good 40 minutes of this movie is exposition all for a nothing plot because it’s so reliant on the action scenes you kind of get nothing out of it. however EYE got something out of it because early in the movie arthur is praying that his knights make it back from their last mission so they can live to become free men, and lancelot walks in and says “why do you always talk to god and not to me?” and it made me insane for the rest of the two hour runtime. those men were gay as hell your honor. lancelot dies in the climactic battle and arthur and guinevere both kneel over his body and cry and scream it’s great. i think it was brave of them to kill lancelot before he got to steal arthur’s wife. julian murphy should’ve taken notes wtf.

also i liked that the other knights were like, fleshed out characters. maybe not gawain who didn’t talk very much or hugh dancy who i don’t remember who he was supposed to be. but like tristan was cool i liked his falcon rest in peace buddy. and the other guy with the 11 kids oh my god do i know anyone’s name from this movie. who the hell was that guy. hold on. oh ok bors. was he lancelot’s cousin in this movie i wasn’t paying attention. and hugh dancy was galahad. sorry i didn’t remember that in my defense he had like two minutes of screentime. and dagonet was cool although i think it’s wild that this movie was pulling out niche knights and not like. kay. or bedivere. sorry i’m attached to those guys because of alex that’s not my fault. anyway i liked them they were cool to hang with

ALSO i think it was surprisingly feminist for a movie that came out in 2004 about men. or maybe not feminist exactly but like. not misogynistic. there’s a moment where you think it might be with the one guy’s not-wife (she’s the mother of his 11 children but they’re not married) but it’s not misogyny they’re just toxic hets and i support them <3 and then guinevere is just such a slay but what else did you expect from keira knightly… like yeah i think it’s weird that keira was like 18 making this movie with a hoard of adult men and she’s the object of both male protagonist’s lust but at the end of the day she seems like she made it through that weird phase of her career fine so i’ll let it go for the sake of not going insane. anyway i think it was really feminist of her to want to fuck that gay man so bad. real. but no really i just liked that her character was well done and got to do things. she killed a bunch of guys it was hot what who said that i mean like it was great. and she’s the one that convinced arthur to abandon rome and fight for something he actually believed in, where rome was a lie he believed for convenience.

which brings me to my man <3 you know no critique of a king arthur movie from me is complete without me rambling for a little about how well i think they characterized my special little guy… and i think this movie did pretty good! he’s a good man who cares about people and his most defining enduring belief for the entire story is of freedom which i thought was slay even though um. he’s english. cannot imagine he’d be happy to see what his country came to yikes!! but also i think it was good to show that he also had flaws that tied directly into his strengths and his goodness. how he fought so hard for rome in the beginning because his idea of rome was this ideal society that believed in equality and freedom, and he didn’t realize that that was a fantasy because he didn’t want to realize it so he could hold on to something while he fought their wars. like i think willful ignorance is such a great king arthur flaw that not enough media wants to depict. he’s an idealist at heart and i adore him for it but it means he has a tendency to ignore reality… and then also he had a little red cape which you KNOW i am always a fan of. i LOVE it when they put this guy in a red cape!! seriously! it’s sooo stupid <33 um yeah and then also i think he could have been hotter but i’ll allow mediocrity just this once because he was gay about it. also they killed his celibacy swag which i thought was fucked up but again i’ll allow it just this once because he did think he was going to die the next morning. and they also made literally every word out of this man’s mouth the most intense thing anyone has ever said, which i think was a great choice. he’s literally just like that like he’s literally just. like that. drama queen!!

also i liked that bit of narration at the end when dead lancelot says that none of them who died really died because they live on in stories and legend passed down through generations <3 and finally here is the joke i wasted my letterboxd review on

[lilacroads]

day 2 of normalblogging. its a long one bc i have many thoughts.

personnel shuffling is happening early at work, as i feared lol. one of the area managers is going on maternity leave in november which means the japanese stuff have to be shuffled around to fill that spot. the way it works is area manager (block leader) > school leader > school chief > staff. the area manager is going on leave, so our current school leader is moving to area manager's school to kind of do her job, while the school chief (my boss) is going to be the school leader and split her time between my school and another school. a staff member from that other school will become the chief of my school. are you following? i wouldn't blame you if not lol. this is really the best case scenario i guess in terms of "change" bc it's not a total and complete staff change, so it perhaps won't feel as bad? idk lol. having my current boss still here in some capacity makes it feel less like the rug has been pulled from under me. i really only stay working here because i like my coworkers/bosses and the general environment, so if it changes for the worse then i won't see much reason to stay. ofc the kids are great but i usually only see them for 40, 45 minutes at a time, meanwhile i spend 8 hours a day with the people i work with, so...

anyway another thing about this whole thing was that we started to have a meeting about it this morning but then students came early and we couldn't talk about it until after the last class finished. i spent the whole day with a massive giant pit in my gut thinking the worst 😬

whatever it'll be ok i guess. i've been expecting this since the area manager announced her pregnancy and the Big Boss (department head) started having chats w my boss. because of the general feeling that something was about to change i've also been considering whether i should quit and move on but i suppose i can hang on another year lol.

ANYWAY in other news!

after work today (after that big ol reshuffle convo) my friend was like, suddenly "hey are you free for a phone call?" and if you're like me with stupid anxiety, you will understand my oh god have i done something reaction so i said yes and when i called her later, she told me that she had plans to travel to taiwan with someone from work but that person couldn't go, but she'd already made a reservation so! she asked me if i wanted to go

i was a little shocked bc this is the last thing i expected and also kind of sudden? lol

we're still kind of working out the dates but it'll probably be mid-november!

so, a nice positive end to the day. i get to go travelling! hooray!

thx for reading goobdye

[animentality]

Just saw Wakanda Forever.

I liked it a lot! First marvel movie I've seen in phase 4 beyond the joyless, effortless dreck that was Thor 4.

And I actually really enjoyed it.

Let's talk about it.

So first:

Story: 8/10 

I enjoyed the story quite a bit. The pacing was much slower than any of the other frenetically ADHD Phase 4 Marvel stories, and I did enjoy the build up and tension. Not many quips and annoying one liners too. Just an emotionally deep, heavy melodrama with action thrown in here and there. The focus was on the characters and I really, really loved that. 

But holy fuck. It was too long. We hit the 2 hour mark and I was like oh my god...there’s still 40 minutes...and those 40 minutes could’ve been sharper, cleaner. It lagged at several parts when it didn’t need to. 

Martin Freeman and his wife were utterly pointless. Their scenes felt forced and strange and terribly uninteresting. 

I don’t mind the over drama being how the world’s governments treat Wakanda...that was narratively cool and thematically solid, I just think Martin Freeman lacked the importance he had in the first movie, and so his entire role could’ve been cut or reduced. 

He’s just exposition man, and the movie didn’t need the American government scenes. Not really. They didn’t have any impact on the main plot, really, anyway. 

The main threat was Namor, and that was all we really needed. 

So that’s the minus 2 deduction. 

Action: 8/10 

I loved the action of this movie because it felt meaningful, and character-focused, rather than just a CGI mess like say....Black Adam. There was real weight to the action, which is nice, since Thor 4 kind of destroyed my idea of Marvel as a decent action studio. 

I enjoyed Wakandan tech, Shuri’s more technology based approach to fighting, and Okoye domination, as always. Less action than Black Panther, but where it existed, it was poignant, fun, had purpose, and felt fairly solid. 

The only deduction comes from the fact that well. Some of the underwater action was meh. And I was a little underwhelmed by the climax. The fight on a Wakandan ship was...ehhh. 

Still, Shuri vs. Namor was pretty damn cool. 

Effects: 9/10 

Solid! Thor 4 looked fucking awful. I was so worried they’d be fucking lazy. 

But no. 

This movie was gorgeous. 

This movie had wonderful, real costumes with some amazing makeup, clothing designs, weapon designs, and integrated tech. 

Great CGI that felt seamless and not horribly and lazily edited. Some wonderful cinematography and shots of both Wakanda and Atlantis. Er... Talokan.

The tech looks cool. The CGI suits and moving pieces weren’t too distracting, not unless you deliberately slow things down to analyze them, which I suspect some people will. 

My only real complaint is that Talokan was so murky and dark that I had a hard time seeing the daily lives of Talokan’s people? We were supposed to see like, children and families and this ethereal underworld city that lives so different from us... 

But I could barely see shit. Plus, it didn’t look natural? Everyone had this weird stiffness to how they were swimming...I didn’t believe they naturally belonged there. Everyone moved too spasmodically. Like they were in a pool and the director was making them act like they’re ok when they’re actually about to run out of oxygen? 

They might’ve known that, cuz we didn’t linger on the city for too long. 

It wasn’t like super horrible, it was just awkward. So 1 point demerit. 

Wakanda looked fantastic. Even when under attack. 

So here’s the meat of this review: 

Characters 7/10:

Shuri 10/10: I loved the exploration of Shuri's grief and her arc of becoming the Black Panther. That was beautifully done, solid thematically, narratively suitable due to the unfortunate passing of Chadwick Boseman. It felt natural and respectful.

Shuri's relationship with Namor was thoughtful and deep and I liked how it was resolved. I'll admit I did want her to murder him for a brief moment just cuz I'm a gremlin like that, but it was nice for her to sit back and say well I'm a queen now. This isn't just between you and me. I don't want to bring our kingdoms against one another.

That was nice. It didn't feel as cheap as a marvel movie normally would do it, like, have Shuri make some dumb speech about how revenge is simply bad all the time.

It was more practical. A little less personal.

And it made sense for Shuri! She’s not this angry, passionate warrior. 

She’s a scientist. A voice of reason. 

Less mystical. Less honor bound, and more pragmatic and wise. 

I always liked how Shuri was the character that represented Wakanda’s tech too. 

Like Wakanda is this larger than life Afro-futuristic paradise where various African cultures from the real world are displayed...but also, it’s high tech. 

So how do you negotiate between the highly technical and fantastic elements, with the more realistic, more grounded historical roots?

Shuri is the answer.

You have the traditional T’Challa. And then you have his more youthful and irreverent sister, who’s a scientist and a genius, who’s not just up to date with technology, but far ahead most of the world.

It makes sense, and having Shuri have to explore how that will affect her rule as the Queen...I liked that a lot.

I liked that she fought Namor hand to hand...and lost horribly, until she used her ship and her other tech to weaken him.

It made sense for her. 

And again, the story of her grief and losing both her brother and mother...deciding that she would still reject revenge and embrace her new role as a leader...it was well done. 

I loved Shuri here. 

I hope her actress has given up on her anti vaxx weirdness from a while back! 

Now...

That being said...

Namor 5/10: Didn't really like him. He felt a little underdeveloped. He had this hatred of colonists like Killmonger, but he lacked the emotional connection and development that Killmonger had.

We just didn't see his personal story enough. It didn't feel justified enough, since we only saw a few scenes of his mother, and only one scene about the horrors of the surface.... 

Plus we've already seen that anyway. It was a copy paste of the idea that here's an oppressed people who wanna get back at the rest of the world. 

Not saying colonialism isn't bad or anything but in this particular narrative, you are just copy pasting a new anti genocide...genocidal maniac.

Plus his stupid wing feet had me rolling my eyes the entire time. He just didn't feel that intimidating. We didn't see much of his abilities in the water other than that he's very fast and he re powers through water.

Kind of not very memorable in terms of weapons either...man’s hot but he’s basically just a dude in a swim suit. 

His necklaces/collar were interesting and his later re design was fine, but....I don’t know. 

His aesthetic was fine, but his character narrative was weak to me. 

And like I said, I was just laughing at his dumb little wing feet. 

Yeah they give him the power of flight, so what? There are a lot of characters who can fly without looking silly. 

Also again, not enough underwater stuff to really make him pop out as a credible villain.

He might as well have just been a flying villain. 

I don’t mind the resolution they reached, though, so. 

Okoye 4/10: 

Listen. Okoye was very funny and I do love her. But she kind of...was just there for the first part, and then she got fired...and then Shuri just re-hired her again by the end part. Not nearly as complex as the first film. 

I liked that they touched on Angela Bassett being annoyed still over that whole, siding with Killmonger shit.

But her character didn’t grow or change or do a whole lot, even as a civilian... 

She didn’t even fix her mistake of letting Shuri get kidnapped. Nakia did that... 

And speaking of Nakia... 

Nakia 5/10: 

I really feel like they didn’t know what to do with Nakia...she did save Shuri and the Scientist Girl at one point, but she didn’t do much for the whole rest of the movie, besides Be There. 

I feel like they dropped the ball on this one.

And the ending credit scene, where she has T’Challa’s son...it’s sweet and all, but I can’t help but feel like it reduces her role to being a mom who’s off screen. 

We didn’t see enough of her involvement with the main plot. 

She was some emotional support for Shuri, but...she wasn’t impactful other than that. Kind of sad, I liked her a lot in the original, since she and T’Challa had these conflicting viewpoints about how Wakanda should be involved in the world... 

But here, well. Now that the world knows of Wakanda...she just has no purpose or role. 

She didn’t really have any good fight scenes either. Most of her work was ensemble. Mixed in with other randoms. 

They did my girl dirty....but damn, she was gorgeous this movie... 

M’Baku 11/10: 

No notes. He’s perfect. 

He’s hilarious, he’s emotional support. He and Shuri were so fucking cute.

No notes. 

Queen Ramonda 11/10: 

Angela Bassett carried this movie on her back. Truly phenomenal performance. 

Wonderful beginning and end to her glorious character. 

I am mad that they killed her, but...also, it was fitting enough, since Shuri becoming the next Queen AND the Black Panther was neat. 

But damn, I am a little mad. 

Ironheart 5/10: 

I didn’t hate this character, but...she was like...barely present. She was important initially, but then she just got under water shafted for a long time...then she came back to help Shuri do some background work....then she was in the final battle.

And that was kind of it. 

I didn’t care for her suit, and didn’t feel like her character had enough significance to Shuri or the main plot. 

She was a genius tech expert, but helping Shuri design the anti Namor ship was something any character could’ve done, that’s how background it felt. 

I didn’t think she had enough of a fleshed out backstory either. 

She didn’t have an arc, plus I wish she and Shuri had bonded more over their scientific genius. Their friendship came across to me like...I guess they like each other. 

We needed more of them finishing each other’s sentences or geeking out over their shared technical prowess. 

We only really got a scene in the beginning and the very end. 

not enough meat and potatoes. 

And that Ironman suit was dopey looking. 

So all in all...

8/10. 

Yeah. 

Solid, really good, way better than anything else in Phase 4.... 

Chadwick Boseman’s scenes had me tearing up or openly weeping.... 

A touching tribute to him, as well as the character. 

The runtime needed to be reduced, however, and the plot dragged in several places.

Plus, Namor could’ve been more interesting. Beefed up. 

Narratively, of course. His actor was pure beef. 

Overall, I really liked it, though. 

I’ve only seen 2 Marvel Phase 4 movies, and I’ll say.

Wakanda Forever deserved to be better than Thor 4, and it was. 

Rest in peace, Chadwick. 

You’re a legend. 

[a-mag-a-day]

MAG 51 - sewing loops to my cord girth for the saddle straps to put away

"You ever had a near-death experience?" - Hahaha, again a line that someone put in the Fact or Fiction "Jonathan asks you things" video and I cannot unhear it in that context XD

Did you know there are wild horses on Sable Island? They were released into the wild in 1700s and became feral.

"The old man, Simon Fairchild" - On my first listen, this is when I thought "Hold on, wasn't the guy from MAG 21 also called Simon". I quickly went to look it up and yep. I already suspected where this was going…

"me and Julio Hernandez, the other diver on the crew, would spend our time chatting, playing cards, and once even screwing, though we generally don’t talk about that." - So if you don't talk about that, then why tell it? I guess it's the Eye's influence to also make statement-givers tell more than they would have liked to, especially private things. Dark secrets being revealed and all that. This was also the case in MAG 4 ("We’d worked together on a production of The Seagull a couple of years before and had had a bit of a thing going back then. At this point I had just become single, so was keen to meet up and see if any of the old spark remained.") and MAG 46 ("suppose you could call her a rival, in some ways, but we’d always been very friendly. In fact, there were a few years back in the 80s when we were very friendly, indeed."). Interesting, those other two statement are both about the Ex Altiora and now, in MAG 51, it's again the Vast being behind that story. Just an observation, all of those being Vast statements is a coincident I think.

"As I went in I thought I heard Simon, the old man, shout after me, but I couldn’t make it out. And then the world was nothing but silent blue." - Maybe Simon said (ha!) "Enjoy silent blue"…

"I saw Julio next to me, a few yards away, and with a thumbs up we began to dive down towards the sunken boat." - Mistake here. Thumbs up would mean to go up. Putting together the tips of thumb and index finger to form a circle is "ok" in diver hand signals, or thumbs down to say "down" would have also made sense here.

"we weren’t going so far down us to face any darkness that our torches couldn’t handle." - if this is a Canadian, wouldn't they be using "flashlight" rather than "torch"? Any Canadians here to answer this?

a lot of talking about pressure and darkness, which would be the Buried and the Dark. I think deep water is one of those instances of the edges bleeding together.

"I think it was a hand, but I could not see enough to be sure." - Huge humanoid creatures in the ocean are called "Ningen" btw (yes, "ningen" just means "human" in Japanese). It's a cryptid that surfaced (ha) in the mid 2000s via urban legends on the internet.

"Then it moved, slowly but clearly, and I realized how far away it still was, as it got bigger and bigger and bigger, and I could see nothing else" - parallels to Ex Altiora here.

"It was the jagged metal of the hole itself that saved me in the end. As I cried out in horror, I felt the sharp edges of it digging into my hands as they gripped it, and the unexpected burst of pain snapped me out of whatever it was that held me in place." - One example of how to escape the grip of an entity.

Does that bit about Simon Fairchild there in the end of the statement imply, that he yote himself over board?

Simon Fairchild and his many shenanigans. He even created artefacts in the 30s.

Interference sounds while talking to Not!Sasha again. I thought it might be Michael already messing with the tapes in MAG 47, but it appears this one belongs indeed to Not!Sasha. Although in MAG 40 there was only static to hear during her statement. Now there's an additional high-pitched noise.

"to spend anywhere from ten minutes to a full hour in Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum." - <.<

The Eye not only makes you reveal personal gossip, it also makes you talk/write in British instead of your normal dialect

[milos-journal]

HOLY SHIT, I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW ABOUT THAT IN THE LEAKED ENDING! I KINDA JUST BRUSHED IT OFF, BUT GOD DAAAYYYUM!

-ahem, anyway. It sounds like they just let Milo bleed to death. I'm assuming they're doing Habit-time shit with Milo's Tape. Keeping him going and stuff? This whole thing really does lean towards generational trauma (with a dash of thinly veiled antisemitism, but one topic at a time.) Families getting torn apart and having to tear back in return. I choose to look at it as a small part of her, very deep down cared for him enough to return one last time. Maybe she thought he wouldn't/couldn't be able to hurt her because he was dead/she was his mom.

I dunno, I'm just a sucker for even the most terrible people having soft spots. I just like the idea of continuing your theme of generational trauma with the possibility of a step towards therapy for pretty much everything. Although, if they'd been planning on this route it'd be just as fitting. Some things can't and shouldn't be forgiven. The Administrator could be an entire metaphor for generational trauma. Keeping the monster locked into a loop- into the family. Even Raisinbrand says their fate has been sealed since the 40's (or whenever World War 2 took place) If they don't try and keep it contained and out of view, it'll spread.

So, yeah. That's pretty much my piece.

OH, THE SERIES IS ALSO LITERALLY ABOUT US RELYING ON NAZIS TO KEEP US SAFE FROM MONSTERS! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK AD-

tw tribetwelve + mentions of antisemetism. u know tha deal

ok i'm gonna mention this first because the antisemetism is PREVALENT. the insane blood libel, the LITERAL nazi's. it's fucking. GAAGhghh adam hey??? what's that about?? i'm not jewish myself i'd like to not but antisemetism literally SLATHERS the entirety of tribetwelve, it is a lot of what its built on.

and oh. oh oh OH your take on mary is so fun to me. i do believe, part of her, really wanted to care. however, she was manipulated by a cult to give him up. she was supposed to sacrifice him so much younger, and she was told the way to fix her sons mental illness was to drug him. of course i don't think she was trying to good the whole time, obviously. like. at all. and given how much she outwardly went out of her way to spite milo, hate to say it, i don't think it was often.

ALSO I WANNA SAY we have (and any other mary thinkers in the chat) i think have cumulatively thought of mary for. a couple hours more than adam did at least (he thought abt her like 2 minutes). i feel like, if adam thought at all about what was going on. Maaaaan. the themes from tribetwelve are so FUCKING REMENICINT of generational trauma. the way the curse "follows the family tree" HELLO??? plus kevin and sebastian . idk what their deal is.

srry if this is yet again rlly incomprehensible i kept getting distracted writing this

[adamwatchesmovies]

Dark Shadows (2012)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

Dark Shadows shows promise at first, with tried-and-true but effective “fish out of water” humour. From there, the plot gets progressively unsure of where it wants to go, until it starts throwing stuff at the screen haphazardly. I don’t know if anyone could’ve salvaged a workable film from the woeful screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith but director Tim Burton doesn’t seem to be trying very hard.

In 1760, Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) breaks the heart of his servant, Angelique (Eva Green). After she uses dark magic to kill Barnabas' fiancée (Bella Heathcote) she transform him into a vampire - so that he will outlive anyone he ever loves. Soon after, he is captured by villagers and buried "alive" in a coffin. Escaping from his prison in 1972, Barnabas finds his descendants in financial ruin, his beloved reincarnated as their new nanny (Bella Heathcote as Victoria), and Angelique still alive and still obsessed with him.

After the fact, it’s obvious Barnabas is the film’s main character. While watching, it isn’t so clear. You think Victoria will be a major player but she’s an afterthought with no personality. Most of the character feel like director Tim Burton self-indulging a little by tossing a bone to his favourite performers (Christopher Lee has a minor role which can’t have taken more than a day to shoot) or like inclusions put there just because they had an equivalent in the original 1966 television series. The film lasts nearly two hours. If you cut out Helena Bonham Carter as the Collins family doctor who does very little doctoring, the kinda-sorta misfit son David (Gully McGrath), his ne’er-do-well father (Johnny Lee Miller), the rebellious teenage daughter (Chloë Grace Moretz), the elderly maid (Ray Shirley) and the drunken groundskeeper (Jackie Earle Haley), you probably wouldn’t have more than 40-minutes’ worth of a movie. That’s not much but it’d be tighter, focussed and more enjoyable. None of these people have anything to do, and the less said about Alice Cooper’s cameo as himself, the better.

It feels like a bad soap opera that’s being made-up on the spot. Stuff just happens and sure, sometimes it’s funny but nothing’s building up to anything bigger. Now Dr. Hoffman is seducing Barnabas. Ok? Why? So we can cement that everyone finds Johnny Depp in vampire makeup irresistible? I guess that’s a thing but I don’t really get it.

Then, finally, a facsimile of a plot rears its ugly head. Ah! So the film is about Angelique and Barnabas’ rivalry. Wait. She waited 200 years for him to escape from the box she buried him in and in the meantime, she’s been using her fishing business to drive the Collins out of house and home? What a lame way to use your magic powers. It all builds to a lacklustre conclusion in which people are thrown around by magic. I think we’re supposed to feel upset about doomed romances and people caught between two irreconcilable worlds but so little time has been spent fleshing out the mushy stuff you just don’t care.

As an 18th-century vampire struggling to keep up with “modern” technology and sensibilities, Johnny Depp does well. He delivers all of the film’s best moments and yeah, some of it you’ve seen before but it’s still effective. The costumes, sets and art direction are also quite good so visually, Dark Shadows is pleasant to look at - especially when Eva Green is seducing Barnabas. Just about everything else is cringe-inducing and tone-deaf. Sexy as she may look, Green is terrible in this role and I can’t even blame her. No one shines thanks to the weak screenplay and scatterbrained direction torn between drama, horror and comedy. I nearly completely forgot about Michelle Pfeiffer, which is too bad because her character actually contributes something of value to the story.

The first time I saw Dark Shadows, I didn’t love it but found things to enjoy and gave it a mildly positive review. Re-examining it now, 3 stars seems way too generous. Although never awful, Dark Shadows doesn't give you many reasons to watch it. (April 5, 2019)

[timeoverload]

My day wasn't too bad for a Monday. I was a little grumpy this morning but I started feeling better later. I was trying not to get annoyed about anything. The worst thing that happened was that I had to put all of the instruments back in the pans that I had peel packed like a week and a half ago since the doctor is back from vacation. It was such a waste of my time to take them out in the first place but whatever. I hope they don't make me do that again or I might complain about it. I only had 6 cases this morning. I didn't look at the schedule when I got there so it was a surprise. I was wondering why they weren't bringing me any more pans to wash but they were done. That was ok with me. I was able to get some stuff done that I had planned on doing last week but things changed so I'm glad I don't have to worry about that now. The afternoon was a little busier but it was tolerable. Cases got done at 4 and I had decontam all cleaned up but then they came to tell me there was an add-on. It was ok because I didn't have to stay late for it. The evening team lead told me he would take care of it so that was nice of him.

I should be getting a raise this week. We are supposed to get them twice a year but I think we will only get one this year. I looked at my sample pay stub to find out how much it is going to be. I didn't know I could do that before I get my check. I think it is going to be 74 cents so I will make $22 and hour. I know I don't have to say how much I make but it doesn't really bother me. I know it's not that impressive. I started out at $11.50. I just discovered that the average pay in the state is $34.45 an hour so I definitely feel like I am getting ripped off. I could be making like $40 an hour in some cities. I shouldn't complain too much because at least they are giving me a raise at all. I do get bonuses twice a year so that helps but the amount varies. As far as I know, the other hospitals in town pay the same or less. I don't want to work at a different hospital here because I don't want to deal with trauma, heart, or brain surgeries because that's more stressful for a lot of reasons. I already have enough stress as it is. I don't understand why the pay is so low when the cost of living here is so high. I guess there's not much I can do about that.

It is so nice to be home. My back isn't bothering me as much as it was yesterday so I'm happy about that. I am feeling pretty relaxed. I did have an energy drink earlier but I ate breakfast and lunch so I didn't feel like shit after drinking it. I get the sugar free monsters because that's all they have. I know they aren't much better for me but I need to stop having so much sugar. My heart hasn't been bothering me and I think it helps that I have been eating a little more and I had time to be lazy for a few days.

I didn't realize that lamotrigine can cause an irregular heart beat so that could explain some of my heart issues. I forgot how many side effects my medication has but it explains some of my problems and why I get confused sometimes. It also can cause irritability and I think that has been more obvious since I increased the dosage. I'm not like that all the time luckily.

I think I was also crabby last week because I had horrible PMS. I don't know why it always surprises me when that happens. I am often wondering why I am so pissed off for no good reason. I just get really angry for a few days a month and I'm not a fan of that but that's just something I have to put up with I suppose. That's usually when I start doing crazy shit. I know it definitely contributes to a lot of my meltdowns. It's good that I am noticing it's an issue and I can try to deal with it. I never realized it was that bad before but maybe I am just paying more attention to it now.

My jewelry was bothering me so bad all day so I had to come home and fix it myself. It only took 2 minutes and I was surprised because I couldn't do it before. I'm glad I don't have to worry about that anymore. I knew I wouldn't be able to get in and talk to a professional for a while anyway. I know people but I can't talk to them yet. I would like to because I want some other piercings at some point but I'm going to have to wait. I wish I could wear my eyebrow piercing but I don't think it looks good with my glasses. I took it out when I started wearing glasses. Maybe I will get contacts someday but I don't think I could handle wearing them all the time.

I feel like I'm rambling but I don't know. I am just tired. I don't have much else to talk about. I don't think I got enough sleep last night. I probably should try to go to bed earlier. I need to try to relax now. Hopefully tomorrow is a good day.

I hope everyone else has a good day tomorrow too. :) 💖💖💖

[helluvabossfan08]

Ok so now for more controversy this time about star wars and my least favourite movie which is

Return of the jedi I just think that it was dumb in many points so here they are

1. Slave leia (keep it in your pants simps)

2. The jabba sequence lasts for almost 50 minutes when the movie is 2 hours and 16 minutes which is 136 minutes which is about 1/6 of the movie why is this that could end in like 15 minutes almost 40

3. Lando and han are suddenly friends when it's like "oh where just going to forget I betrayed you and caused you to be tortured and froze in carbonite"

4. Boba fett is "killed" in the stupidest way ever he is hit in the jetpack by a blind guy turning around with a stick people say book of boba fett ruined boba when this movie did it

5. The ewoks are completely ridiculous are we supposed to assume that a bunch of teddy bears with essentially caveman weapons can defeat troopers with guns

6. There really is not need for the second death star like it took almost 2 decades to make the first death star while this one is built in like 2 years and it doesn't even destroy a planet and is destroyed

7. There is no sacrifice in this movie some may say vader was a sacrifice but in reality he just dies but being electrocuted he didn't sacrifice himself he just died

So yeah this movie is worst then the prequels and is the worst star wars movie