#which is not the point of the austin problem is in fact the problem rant but just um.. dumb

[fataltotheflesh-com]

help ?? okay

[magnoliacharmed]

Acting Up

18+, Stone Cold Steve Austin x Shawn Michaels | Bret Hart x Shawn Michaels one shot

[Also available on Archive of Our Own!]

Tags: Alcohol use, Referenced drug use, angry sex, facial, jealousy, light enemies to friends, a little bit of hartbreak

Word count: 3144

Summary:

Steve Austin is getting tired of Shawn Michaels' attitude backstage. --- “It was Bret that broke the Heartbreak Kid's heart. If I'm gonna be honest, I didn't even know you had one.”

Shawn was really fucking annoying. In every way possible that a human being could work Steve’s nerves, Shawn did it. When people pointed out how good of friends they could be, Steve took notice. They did have a ton in common, from being from the same state to drinking habits to taste in women. They really should’ve been the best of friends. 

But Shawn decided to Shawn it up backstage. He started throwing his status around making all kinds of crazy demands. His temper was at its peak and everyone suffered because of it. When he wasn’t ranting and raving he was half way to passing out due to his excessive use of pills. He could barely get his words out when he had to speak, his normally animated voice slurred and monotone. It was embarrassing. So no, Steve had very little interest in being friends with Shawn. That ship had sailed. Maybe one day down the line if Shawn got it together they could just drink a beer and watch some college football…

Shawn didn’t really give a fuck if Steve Austin liked him. That wasn’t his problem. All he had to do was go out there in the ring and cut a few good promos with him. If they got along after the fact, that was great. If they didn’t, fuck him. Shawn had enough friends. Friends who really liked him, too. Friends who hung on to his every word and were always willing to party all night with him. Even when his other friends left to go to WCW— well he didn’t want to think about that. 

Sure, he still saw Kevin and Scott and Sean around. Whenever WCW had shows nearby they all met up at the closest bar to catch up on life. It just wasn’t the same as it used to be. With the way WCW was on fire, they were so up in the clouds that little ol’ Shawn was not as much of a priority as he used to be. He actually considered jumping ship to WCW too and was strongly encouraged to by them. Then Vince McMahon got in his ear like usual singing sweet words and promising him the world, so he stayed put at WWF. With each passing day Shawn wondered if that was the right choice. 

He wasn’t the only one backstage thinking about leaving. Bret Hart had some shocking offers thrown his way by Eric Bischoff, offers that could have had him and his family set for life. McMahon started to counter with his own exorbitant counteroffers, which made Bret feel very wanted. They weren’t as good of a deal as Bischoff’s and it made Bret sit down to think about what he was still getting out of staying with the WWF. 

If you would’ve asked him earlier in the year…? With no hesitation or second thoughts, Bret would have said Shawn was the reason he’d stay. Despite the surface level similarities Shawn and Steve had with each other, Shawn and Bret had a lot more in common. Things they would’ve never realized they shared until late nights spent together. The pair of lovers didn’t know how well they got along until they were stuck in hotel rooms with one another. Night after night of forced proximity led them to taking steps further into the physical territory, something that scared Bret shitless. None of it seemed new to Shawn. He guided Bret through some clumsy first sessions that eventually led to the best and most intimate sex he’d ever had in his entire life. 

Of course as soon as Bret began to start falling for Shawn, Shawn began to act up. Bret couldn’t understand where the sudden switch-up came from. It’s not like he’d changed on him in any way. He wasn't as touchy as Shawn could be and would occasionally distance himself from him. That was just so any rumors wouldn't get started, not because he didn't care for him. Bret didn’t know how to react when Shawn got unhinged with him. He started claiming that Bret was just using him, that he was only around to use him as a toy. No matter what he said or did to convince Shawn otherwise he just couldn’t break through. So he stopped trying at all. As much as he liked Shawn’s personality and the way he arched his back up for him, all of that just wasn’t worth the drama. After their final explosive last argument the two of them iced each other out and only interacted when forced to. 

At this point in his career Shawn didn’t care about being well liked. He didn’t have to be well liked by everyone. He had his crew. McMahon was still surprisingly on his side no matter what problems he caused amongst everyone. His supply of drugs and alcohol was flowing. He’d be fine without boring Bret Hart. There were plenty of men around who wanted Shawn. They would fuck him six ways to Sunday all day and all night. Bret may have been an amazing lay but he wasn’t that good. Shawn could find someone else in a heartbeat. 

“Michaels, what the fuck? You’re still back here?” Steve appeared at the doorway of Shawn’s dressing room. He’d been walking around the arena looking for Shawn for what felt like forever. No one thought to tell him he’d still be in his dressing room because he was usually a lot better about getting to gorilla on time. 

Shawn took the last few swigs from his bottle of whiskey. His eyes bounded over to Steve, first to look at the pissed off look plastered on his face and then to look down at his oiled chest. 

“You dress like shit, Austin.” Burp. 

“Man, this ain’t a damn fashion show. It’s wrestling. Get your ass together and let’s go, we’re on soon.”

“I’m together, I don’t need anyone telling me to get it together. Especially not you.” Steve was hot when he was mad. Well, Shawn thought everyone was hot when they were mad. It turned him on to know he could make someone that emotional over him.

Steve was surprised at how alert Shawn still was after having that whole bottle to himself. It only served to make him more angry. It’s not like he was about to pass out or was stumbling over himself. He was barely fucked up! The alcohol only heightened his bad attitude. He just wanted to be defiant. And for what? Just to say he got him upset?

“What is your problem? You’ve been even more of a bastard these last few weeks and you’re starting to make my job a lot harder. What, you’re mad the ring rats ain't chasing after you like they used to?”

Shawn shook his head. The groupies had lost their appeal a long time ago. If anything, he liked playing the groupie now. He liked being the one in awe at someone so much bigger and stronger than him. His cock twitched at the thought of Bret tossing him on many a hotel bed. Unfortunately, Bret truly was the best there was. It pained Shawn to admit how hard he got when he thought of him. He was just so good at knowing when Shawn wanted to be fucked versus when he wanted to be loved . Shawn’s eyes got even glassier thinking about the way Bret got in his ear during some particularly intense nights—

“Michaels!”

Shawn felt reprimanded. Almost like he had to straighten his posture and stand at attention at the way Steve said his name. So bossy.

“Lemme tell you something, Steve. The rats like me just fine. They always will, as long as I keep giving this to them.” Shawn grabbed at his crotch and laughed out loud. Drunk idiot.

“Yeah, right. So it’s not the ladies, huh? Must be someone backstage, then.”

Shawn’s face flushed. The bad thing about being out of his mind so often was that his emotions were harder to conceal. He was sure his erection was already extremely noticeable. Now he was blushing so badly his whole face was red. 

“Oh it definitely is.” Steve laughed at him. “I knew it. The boys back there had been sayin’ some things but I didn’t pay them any mind. Now I know it’s true. Aw man, Shawn.”

Shawn’s chair hit the floor with a loud clatter when he got up to get in Steve's face. His breath was huffing out of his nose and his eyebrows scrunched up. He didn’t feel like being the punchline to anyone’s joke tonight. 

“So the fuck what if it's true?”

“So the fuck nothing, I don’t give a shit.”

Shawn was deflated at Steve's acceptance. He was itching for a real fight. The pent up anger deep within him had been coming to a head in the last few days. There was no way he would win with Steve one-on-one and he knew it. It was probably for the best that he didn't start something he couldn’t finish.

“Okay. Yeah, it was one of the guys.” Shawn cleared his throat and took a few steps back from Steve. 

“One of the guys…” 

Steve had to really think on that one. It would be easy enough to believe that Shawn had hooked up with Hunter since they spent so much time together. That was too obvious, plus they were still good friends. Could’ve been Undertaker. Steve wouldn’t have been surprised by that. He opened his mouth to give his final answer when he recalled the way Bret Hart spoke of Shawn one evening while they stood at the catering table. 

“If he wasn’t so pretty no one would’ve put up with his shit for this long.”

Realization struck Steve like lightning. Bret had said that comment with no semblance of jealousy in his voice. There was no hate either. What Bret did sound like though was a scorned lover. There was a lot of bitterness present within him. Steve didn’t even think twice about it at the time. It all made sense after a few minutes of thinking.

“It was Bret that broke the Heartbreak Kid's heart. If I'm gonna be honest, I didn't even know you had one.”

The anger started bubbling in Shawn again. He wasn’t even sure if it was at Steve or Bret this time. It came back with a vengeance. 

“Actually, it probably didn’t go that way. Knowing you, you probably did something to piss him off and he got tired of you. You broke your own heart.”

Steve’s raspy voice saying such perceptive words was enough to send Shawn over the edge. He was back in Steve’s face again and ready to get in that fight, ass whooping be damned. 

“Can’t even imagine the two of you together. I guess it does make some sense. Two crybabies in love with each other. I’m sure you were the one cryin’ more though. Even looks like you’re about to right now.”

“What is all this? You picking on me for a reason?”

“Yeah, because of your little love affair with Hart you’ve been even more of an asshole recently. You’re fucking everything up for me. If you don’t calm down soon I’ll make you calm down.”

“You can’t make me do shit.”

Shawn could not believe how fast Steve could move. He was thrown over the arm of the dressing room’s couch, face pushed into the cushion in a flash. One of Steve's hands pressed into his lower back while the other reached forward to push Shawn’s pants down, then his own. Shawn’s body squirmed with anticipation and the primal urge to run away. 

“Bret said you were pretty. I’d never really thought about it before, but he was right. You are pretty. From all that hair on your head to the tattoo on your ass.” 

Shawn was unable to handle anything Steve just said, from Bret calling him pretty to Steve agreeing with him. Shawn didn’t even think that Steve swung the other way and now here he was bending him over. In his self-absorbed mind he chalked it up to being so sexy that even straight guys wanted him. 

“What the hell is going on?!”

“Seems like you can’t function if you aren’t getting fucked right. If I gotta be the one to do it since Bret doesn’t want you any more, so be it. You’ll be on your best behavior by the time I’m done with you.”

Shawn pushed himself against Steve and wasn’t disappointed by what he felt. Steve's dick rested heavily between Shawn’s ass, a pretty picture Steve would be sure to remember. He’d had a few fumblings in his past with men but never anything with someone as attractive as Shawn. Along with his pretty face, Steve had to admit that Shawn’s personality got him going in that kind of hatefuck way. Even when he was being a terror, something about the way he strutted around like he was the Prince of the WWF made Steve want to put him in his place. Nothing would be better than beating Shawn in the ring and making him submit in bed. 

Shawn had a lot to say to Steve, he was going to give him a real piece of his mind as soon as we able to push him off—

The words died away immediately at the sensation of Steve pushing into him. It hurt at the start, the only thing lubing him up being the spit from Steve’s mouth that he’d rubbed on to himself. He was fucking huge. While he’d gotten used to Bret’s length over the months, Steve was a lot more girth. Shawn’s eyes crossed as Steve pushed himself deeper. The arch in his back threatened to fall. 

“You better keep yourself up the whole time.” Steve ordered him. He had no plans of being gentle with him. He wanted to see how much Shawn could take. It turned out that it was a lot more than he expected.

Shawn writhed below with every hard thrust of Steve inside of him. Heat bloomed across his skin and creeped up past his neck. It was a gorgeous sight to see him all fidgety and needy. Punched out moans were followed out long, dragging ones when Steve slowed down and went arched himself deeper. Shawn liked to whimper, he noticed. It was cute.

Shawn's long hair flung itself back when he raised his head to readjust his position. It was hard to keep himself steady on his elbows with the way Steve kept pounding him into the cushion. Eventually he gave up and let himself fall into it. The fight was drained out of his body, he was ready to get what he deserved. Steve’s fingertips dug deep into the tanned flesh on Shawn’s hips, his pace already stuttering. He was just so tight and… eager for him. Like he was everything he had been waiting for.

Shawn managed to get his arm under himself to stroke his aching cock. As soon as he touched it he was ready to come, he was so sensitive. With the movements of Shawn reaching down to touch himself he managed to push himself even farther back on Steve. The breaths he exhaled were shaky as he matched the pattern of Steve’s thrusts to his own strokes. It only took seconds for Shawn to spurt out long ropes of his come onto the couch below him. His legs almost gave out when he finally released. It didn’t help that Steve had fucked him right through it. Shawn mumbled incoherently to himself while Steve kept going. On top of the alcohol making him stupid, Steve’s dick was also contributing to his blank state of mind. 

Watching Shawn come was a sight to behold. His whole body contracted when it happened. His babbling after it was so weirdly attractive that Steve knew he was close too. All of a sudden Shawn was pushed off of Steve and onto his knees on the floor. 

Steve was a sweaty mess. Anyone looking at him after the fact might have though he just got done with an iron man match.  It dripped down from his head and into his eyes. He quickly wiped it away with his free hand while stroking himself with his other. There was no way he was going to miss the sight of this.

Shawn blinked at him with big, wet eyes. God, he really was a crybaby. The smile on his face could only be described as delirious. Steve groaned when he came, hot spurts covering Shawn's lips and cheeks and nose. The most impatient man in the world would have waited an eternity if that’s how long it took for Steve to finish stroking every last drop from himself. He got a lot of enjoyment at being able to stare up at Steve's body.

“Alright,” It was taking a minute for Steve to catch his breath. “You gonna stop being a dick now?”

Shawn nodded in a daze. He so badly wanted to walk out of the room with Steve’s come still painted all over his face and find Bret just to show him that someone still wanted him. Doing that would guarantee that he’d never get to feel Steve inside of him again, so he restrained himself.

“Good.” Steve walked across the room to find a box of tissues to clean himself up with, then threw it in Shawn’s direction. He was impressed he still had the wherewithal to catch it even after getting his world rocked. “Stick around after the show, we’re gonna get a beer.” 

“Okay.” Shawn could barely stand, let alone walk. He was happy he didn’t have to actually wrestle tonight. Steve waited for him at the doorway while he made his way over slowly. He was completely blissed out and easygoing and it made Steve laugh on the inside. Who knew it’d be that easy?

The two men talked casually with each other as they walked out of Shawn’s dressing room and down past Bret. He was standing in the hall building up courage to work things out with Shawn when he saw them exit the room. Instead of the usual look of contempt Steve had for Shawn, he instead looked relatively happy. Shawn himself was the most relaxed he’d seen him in a while, not since one of the last times they’d had sex…

Oh, shit.

Bret felt his heart drop into his stomach as soon as Shawn smiled his way. The skin by his former lover’s glittering blue eyes crinkled when he laughed at whatever story Steve was telling him. The Heartbreak Kid had struck again and with Stone Cold Steve Austin of all people. No, this wasn't over yet. Not if Bret had anything to do with it.

[flabbergasties]

I’m like two chapters into your Emisue fic and holy shit. I’m losing my mind. This is probs like top five fics I’ve read in my life. Like going up there with the ones I remember years after reading them. The show is good (for me) for two reasons: 1) It translates modern ideas/themes to a historical context without feeling forced and 2) allowing for Sue and Emily to be so, so messy and have a complex, undefinable, ineffable relationship Yours does the opposite of point one, integrating details like Victorian flower language and how Emily bound her poems to a modern setting in a way that deepens characters and gives background. And the “friends-who-hooked-up-then-established-boundaries-and-(kinda)-moved-on to fake dating to lovers” thing just adds to the mess and gives their dynamic a complexity that is granted by the fluidity of Victorian sexuality/marriage to Austin in the show. Anyways, I really really love this, amazing job!

alkfjalskdjflakjsd THANK YOU, this is so, so sweet. I'm THRILLED you're enjoying the fic omg

I love you connecting time period & messiness - 'Cuz I think that Emily & Sue's relationship dynamic is, like, forever deeply intertwined with time period — they were messy and undefinable and indescribably intimate but also really isolated/separated from one another. A lot of that has to do with the way that female "friendships" (I am putting this in quotes because obviously it's cringe for US to call what they had a friendship but back in the day the Victorians really were like "Oh? They're fucks-ing? Just gals being pals" like LITCHRALLY it was called romantic friendship and 'twas a THING) existed at the time. There was a strange sort of allowance to female intimacy at the time, but also this expectation that once you found a dude, you were supposed to drop the intimacy, and I think that made for a lot of relationships where women felt safe enough to explore their feelings but didn't have the freedom to...pursue them.

Idk if that makes any sense at all, but the point is: It's always fascinating to put Emily and Sue's dynamic into modern context, because their issues were so period-specific (not because of homophobia, but more because there weren't words for what they were. There wasn't a way to put their feelings into a larger context, a community, or a label. Which left them floating, anchorless — and I think the show, which IS set in that time but with a modern twist, does a decent job of highlighting this anchorless-ness). There were so many times that I was writing that fic and thinking, "No, but, like, what's the actual problem that have with eachother?"

Which is always a fun thing to work through lololol

ANYWAY I'm glad that you think that it works — my whole attempt at modernizing the issues of contextualization & language that real!Emisue faced. That makes me really happy! I think there's a lot of value in trying to understand the messy complexities of historical relationships because they're wildly different than our own relationships but also...really, really not.

(And I'm always one to find comfort in the fact that queers have been messy for millennia. Idk why, but it pleases me)

OKAY THAT WAS LONG, I JUST HAVEN'T RANTED ABOUT THESE LADIES IN A WHILE! I hope that you enjoy the rest of the chapters and I haven't totally let you down by the time you finish it!!!

[fatesdeepdive]

Entry 6: Dicklips has a Point

Chapter 5: Mother

After a few days in Hoshido, Corrin is finally getting used to the massive emotional baggage that is her backstory. Mikoto invites Corrin to sit on the Hoshidan throne, which is infused with the magic of the First Dragons and destroys magic that alters the body or mind. Mikoto hopes that it will allow Corrin to regain her memories. Before Corrin can sit on the throne and become king of the Westeros or whatever, Mikoto’s strategist Yukimura enters. He looks like a nerd, but I suppose that’s better than being a steampunk MCR cover band dropout like Iago.

The Hoshidan siblings enter and Mikoto tells Corrin that they’re having a ceremony to quash spy rumors and formally reintroduce Corrin into the family. We’re properly introduced to Corrin’s other brother, Takumi. He’s assigned to show Corrin around town and is grumpy about it, because his defining character trait is being a dick. As Takumi and the princesses leave, Ryoma muses that he feels uneasy and predicts that something bad will happen soon.

The gang tours a Hoshidan marketplace. It’s so vibrant, and colorful, and full of life. I haven’t been talking much about this game’s music because I’m not a music guy, but I love the upbeat theme they use for this scene. It feels like something out of Okami and matches Hoshido’s idealized feudal Japan aesthetic perfectly.

Corrin points out that Shirasagi is way better than the Nohrian fort she was held prisoner in for years. Takumi rants that he doesn’t trust Corrin, saying Just don’t get too comfortable…SISTER. I know he’s supposed to come across as a dick, but he has a point. Corrin’s an enemy soldier who invaded Hoshido and killed a dozen people less than a week ago. It doesn’t matter that they share DNA, Corrin should be treated with suspicion.

Takumi also acts suspicious to Azura and says she can’t call him by his first name, which is dumb. What’s she supposed to do, call him Dicklips? Corrin points out that Dicklips is being an idiot and Dicklips tells her to shut up. And really, he is being an idiot. Either hate Corrin for growing up in Nohr, or hate Azura for having Nohrian DNA. Either nature matters, or nurture matters. You can’t have it both ways.

Then again, Azura and Corrin will totally join Nohr and try to destroy Hoshido if we chose the conquest path, so maybe Dicklips has a point.

Corrin tells Sakura that she’s friends with a girl around Sakura’s age, presumably Elise. If the coin flip had gone the other way and I was playing as boy Corrin, Sakura would have asked if Elise is Corrin’s girlfriend. And that’s ridiculous. Can you imagine, Corrin dating their teenage sister? That’s messed up. Good thing that isn’t a thing that happens in this game.

We go to the plaza for the festival. Side note, all shots of Corrin and Mikoto in the festival are positioned so that Corrin’s face is covered by something, like a man wearing an oversized hat, for instance. This is because Corrin is customizable and that means the game can’t show their face. They can show the clearly male body model, but not their face. Awakening had Robin wear a hood to get around this problem, but who needs fashion choices when you can just censor the main character’s face like it’s Austin Powers’s mojo.

While Corrin’s standing next to Mikoto, a weird ghost man wearing a hood walks to the front of the crowd and holds out his arm. Red smoke starts coming off Ganglari and an eye opens up on its hilt, because it is very clearly a cursed sword. Ganglari flies over to the man and he stabs it into the ground, creating a massive purple explosion ball. The sword explodes and Mikoto jumps in front of Corrin to shield her from the shrapnel. As she dies, Mikoto asks Corrin if she’s okay.

Fire Emblem has a lot of dead parent scenes, and I honestly think this is the best. Marcella Lentz-Pope’s scream when Mikoto dies is phenomenal. Mikoto begging Corrin to be alright and dying with a smile on her face is beautiful.

Ryoma cuts down the hooded man but his cloak just falls to the ground, leaving no body. Corrin screams, her hair glowing and her eyes white, physically holding back the pain as waves of energy burst from her body. In a moment, Corrin is gone. In her place is a dragon.

I really like Corrin’s dragon form. It looks so inhuman, more like a machine than a traditional dragon. It really gets across that Corrin has completely lost any semblance of humanity she had as she falls into this pit of despair.

The level proper starts up as an army of dark mages and mercenaries storm into the ruined plaza. Their leader is the ghostly man from before. Interestingly, he’s a swordmaster, a Hoshidan exclusive class that he shares with Ryoma. This level adds Sakura and Azura to our team and gives Corrin an absolutely monstrous boost to her stats, fitting for her rage dragon form.

Sakura

Corrin’s shy, gentle Hoshidan younger sister. She’s a Shrine Maiden (Cleric) and wields healing staves. Her personal skill lowers the damage taken by nearby allies. Her design is fine; I don’t really have any thoughts on it. She seems to be going for this “cute shy healer” personality, which isn’t bad, but Fire Emblem has done it a dozen times before.

Azura

Azura is our Dancer...I mean, Songstress. She sucks at fighting, but allows other units to attack twice, which is really helpful in battle. Her personal skill heals nearby allies at the start of their turns. Her design, despite its bright colors, does a good job conveying how calm and mysterious she is. Azura is an enigma. She clearly knows more than she lets on, but currently seems content to just follow Corrin around.

All of the mercenaries in this chapter wield special, dragon killing swords, which would be a problem, if Corrin didn’t have as much defense as the rest of the party put together. This chapter boils down to letting dragon Corrin smash everyone while Sakura, Azura, and Kaze provide support. Ryoma attempts to take on the ghost man, but is defeated. Then Corrin fucking stomps his translucent ass and saves the day.

Corrin continues rampaging and Azura begins singing LITAA. Her necklace, the one from the title screen, starts glowing. Ryoma runs in to protect Azura, but Azura blasts him away with a pillar of water, which is a thing that she can do apparently.

Dragon Corrin freaks out at the music and slashes Azura across the chest. Azura keeps singing and Corrin attempts to strangle her to death. Azura tells Corrin, Kill me if you want, but do it as yourself, which is a fantastic line that shakes Corrin out of her madness.

Corrin turns back into a human and has a flashback of Garon’s murdering Sumeragi and kidnapping her. Garon says You are my child now and grabs baby Corrin, which is so creepy its comical.

Corrin apologizes to Azura, saying she’s disgusted with herself. Ryoma explains that both royal families have dragon blood, the Nohrians from the Dusk Dragon and the Hoshidans from the Dawn Dragon. Corrin looks out over the destroyed town, a town full of innocent people destroyed by Nohr.

Ryoma points out that, because Garon gave Corrin an evil bomb sword, everything must have been his plan. Cool plan, by the way. Let’s see if I have it straight:

1: Give Corrin a bomb sword.

2: Have her commit an act of war.

3: Have Hans try to murder Corrin.

4: Hope he fails.

5: Hope the Hoshidans bring Corrin to their Queen, instead of imprisoning her for being an enemy soldier.

6: Have ghost soldiers invade Hoshido and take the sword from Corrin.

6: Cursed sword explodes, killing Mikoto and destroying her mind control barrier.

I mean, sure, there are probably simpler ways to kill Mikoto, ways that don’t involve praying that Hans fucks up and fails to kill Corrin. Garon could have, I don’t know, had the ghost soldiers kill Mikoto. Maybe their existence is tied to Ganglari, but that’s never actually stated, and the fact that they stick around and kill people after Ganglari explodes makes that questionable.

You know how, at the end of Naruto, Kishimoto had the villains reveal that they were behind every bad thing that happened in the series, and how it didn’t make sense and was dumb and convoluted? I’m getting Naruto vibes from this chapter.

Takumi blames Corrin for Mikoto’s death. And I mean, he has a point. Corrin’s the one who brought the clearly cursed sword her war criminal father gave her with her. Azura tells Takumi that it’s fine if he doesn’t trust her, but it's wrong for him to distrust Corrin, because Corrin is his blood. And that’s fucking stupid. Fire Emblem is filled with characters with evil relatives. Soren, Guinivere, Edelgard, Robin, the list goes on. Shit, there are evil blood relatives within this game.

Corrin suggests leaving and Yukimura tells her that Mikoto wouldn’t have wanted that and that Mikoyo knew she would die soon. He also mentions that there may be darker forces than Garon at work. Yukimura also points us towards a statue destroyed in the blast, a statue containing Yato, a diving golden sword that is said to be the key to peace. Yato flies up and over to Corrin.

Kaze runs in and reports a massive Nohrian force assembles at the border and the family marches off to war, with Ryoma declaring that he will not show any mercy. Corrin decides to follow Ryoma, in hopes of stopping the war. Azura tells Corrin to calm down, because getting into a fight could cause her to lose control and turn into a dragon again. Spoiler alert, this is literally the only chapter where Corrin loses control, because screw interesting characterization.

Azura gives Corrin her necklace, which turns out to be a dragonstone. Dragonstones and manaketes, people who can turn into dragons, are not new to Fire Emblem. Manaketes are normally uncomfortably young girls. Corrin is the first and currently the only manakete main lord. What’s more, Corrin is unique in their ability to wield both swords and dragonstones. It fits with the duality motif.

The necklace allows Corrin to control her dragon form, which is a bit of a disappointment. Corrin losing control and destroying stuff in this animalistic rage was really interesting characterization that is never seen after this chapter.

Azura decides to follow Corrin, because Corrin makes her feel safe. Apparently.

This chapter was really, really, good. Mikoto’s death was heartbreaking and Corrin going apeshit was some really strong character work. I forgot how absolutely terrifying Corrin’s transformation scene is. That said, this chapter hammers the final nail in the coffin for this story being morally grey. There is absolutely no reason to side with Nohr after this chapter, except for loyalty to the Nohrian royals.

At the start of the next chapter, we’ll choose our side in this war. And, not to tip my hand, but I don’t exactly think it’ll be a hard choice.

[lonestarbabe]

Anon who asked about Owen+TK relationship here.

I think the writers are probably not going to bring up the controlling aspect of TK and Owens relationship regarding TKs treatment or at least they might think they already did given TKs speech about how he didn’t chose to move to Austin or anything else but now he’s choosing to stay. But I guess I’m hoping the new baby will be the catalyst for a discussion about Owens parenting or rather lack there of especially as it seems both he and Gwen are romanticizing TKs childhood (something that really threw me off cause in that game night scene with Judd/Grace and Tommy/Husband they straight up said they had a messy mean divorce which I can only imagine was terrible for TK) I think

Although I have to say I’ll be a little pissed if they also make Gwen a neglectful parent because of her job (obviously the total lack of scenes between her and TK doesn’t make her great but I am SO SICK of ‘woman with high power job doesn’t have time for her kids’ the very fact that she has a high power job would mean she has more control over her schedule and therefor more time to spend with her kids)

Yeahhh, like I’m not confident that they are going to deal with it how I would ideally like, but it’s really something that they need to tackle because it is important, and even if they don’t realize the damage they’ve done, they’ve made plenty of parenting mistakes that they need to be aware of. And yeah, that whole episode had moments of them thinking of all the good times they had with TK while not thinking about all the bad times, and that’s one thing that is worrying about them wanting a baby becuase they haven’t talked about the hardships they’ll have to face. I think Owen really does bring out the worst in Gwyn, and I think it would be better if the writer’s gave her scenes with TK. They haven’t developed her at all, which is the problem. Also, I agree with your points about women with power because I was talking about this same thing when I was thinking about what I wanted TK’s mom to be like. And it’s always a misogynist thing where the woman has to choose between being a good mother and successful in her career. Shows love to villianize women who have careers and paint them as selfish and self-absorbed, which I hate. Meanwhile, fathers always get more slack and a more multidimensional characterization when they’re in powerful roles (like they can actually be villainous and they get more slack smh). Anyways, rant aside, the way I head canon it is that Gwyn had to pick up the slack and try to keep everything afloat, and I’m sure she wasn’t perfect, but I do think that she took on a lot when TK was a kid.

[nickmuch]

c.z.k. - high school (Part 2)

PART 1 / PART 3

Note: I was asked to turn this into a longer story, so here’s part 2! I don’t know in what direction to necessary go with this and how to end/wrap it up, so if you have any ideas message me pls! I’ll try to make this a 5-part-imagine.

Also: Edwin crackhead hours have arrived. Again

“So, you’re cool with that?!” Edwin shouted in disbelief.

Nearly four months had passed since my little moment with Zion and a lot had happened during this time. After the party, everything seemed to go smoothly between us. Probably way too smoothly. We spent most of our free-time together, doing god knows what. However, at the end we decided we would be better off as just friends. He reasoned that it was unfair to the boys and only made the whole group dynamic odd. I was okay with that. Okay, scratch that, I wasn’t okay with that. But I wasn’t going to throw a fit or anything and honestly it ended up working out better than I would have thought.

“Sure, why shouldn’t I?” I asked. This only made me earn a scoff from him. “Are you okay? Do you have a fever or something? Did you catch a cold?” Edwin pressed the back of his hand against my forehead, trying to see if I was indeed getting sick. “Stop that” Nick mumbled, swatting his hand away from me. “Bro, she’s okay with that, though!”. The neighboring table turned around giving us glares for being so loud. “Excuse my little idiotic friend over there” Austin apologized in behalf of Ed. He was just about to protest when he got interrupted by Brandon. “She’s okay with what …?”.

He had spent half of the lunch-time in the art room, trying to compose a beat he couldn’t get out of his head and for which he might have earned himself detention from our English teacher for “making too much noise during class”.

“She’s okay with Z and Asya hanging out” “Hanging out? Since when is that a problem? They are friends I thought?”. Edwin slapped him across the back of his head. “Are y’all dumb or are y’all stupid?! They are dating or something, Ion even know. But I for sure saw ‘em swap spit earlier this morning and thinking about it now: B, you can have my lunch. I lost my appetite.” He shoved his tray in Brandon’s direction, who didn’t even notice judging from his perplex expression towards me. “So, you’re trying to tell me that Z is with Asya – the girl who he said was like a cousin –“ “Correction, he said little sister” Nick chimed in. The boy with glasses shook his head. “Alright, who he said was like a little sister. And you’re cool with that? Even though that’s low key incest-y If I might add. Besides, do I have to remind you that not even a month ago he broke things off out of nowhere with the shittiest of the shittiest excuses? You cried for the whole weekend!”.

He was right. I had cried about it for three days straight. I really didn’t mean to, but somehow, I guess I liked him more than I wanted to admit. The first night the boys had made it their mission to cheer me up, but once they realized it wasn’t working, they just joined me and my pity party with some Ben & Jerry’s. At some point, Edwin even shed a tear or two. “I just don’t know if I should be sad that my favorite ship just sank or if I should beat his lanky ass for breaking my twin’s heart!” he exclaimed.

“I know, but I’m over it now” I poked in my salad. “And frankly, he is too by the looks of it”. I really didn’t mean to look over to her table. It just happened for a split second. Of course, it was right in the moment he was leaning in, giving her a kiss on the lips. She was blushing like mad. “This is so disgusting. Here, you can have my lunch” Brandon slid the tray - that originally was Edwin’s - into Austin’s direction. “I just don’t get it, man. Zion really liked you. Why did he pull that move on you?” Nick asked. No one could answer him. All of our gazes were pointed in their direction. After what felt like years, I decided that enough was enough and got up. “Yo, where you goin’? We still need to talk about this” Edwin stopped me to pull me down again. Though, I ended up sitting on his lap instead of my original spot, he seemed to not care. He was determined to get the truth out of me. If there was one thing you needed to know about Edwin, it was that he cared about his family dearly. Whenever one of his siblings was sad, he automatically was sad, too. Ever since I moved in, that same rule applied to me.

“You want the truth?” I said annoyed. All I wanted was to get out of here, in all honesty. The feeling of humiliation was getting stronger by the second. He just nodded cautiously, as if he didn’t know whether or not to answer me. “I feel like shit” I said, feeling a little bit relieved to finally speak my mind. “He’s annoying me. Just last month he was all into me and suddenly he’s with her?! Plus, what type of shitty excuse is that?” my voice was starting to tremble at this point.“It’s unfair to the boys and makes the whole group dynamic odd” I mocked him. “I am really starting to think that I was just pass-time to him and that makes me mad. It’s really unfair, okay?! If you like someone else, why in the flying fuck would you even get involved with me? Ugh, fuck this shit. I don’t even wanna be his friend anymore. Seeing his face makes me wanna beat his ass and I ain’t about that life. My momma raised me better than beating the ass of a bean stick!”.

Once I was finished with my rant, I finally dared to look at the boys. All of them had shock written all over their faces. “Aye, Ma” Nick spoke first. “You should’ve told us earlier. We would’ve checked him and at least made sure he wouldn’t be all lovey-dovey with her in your presence”. All I did was sigh.

“I don’t know what to say. Or feel” Austin looked so helpless. He was struggling to find the right comforting words and suddenly I felt horrible for dragging them into my stupid problems. “It’s alright. You don’t have to say anything. I will get over it at some point. It’s not like he’s the only cute boy in New York”. “That’s right, I’m cuter” Edwin tried to lighten the mood and it actually worked. We were all laughing before the bell rang, signaling that class was starting soon.

After school, Edwin immediately drove us both home, so I could take a nap before the boys came over. As soon as I was in my bed, I of course was struggling to fall asleep. “Can you come over? I can’t sleep” I spoke into the phone. Not even ten seconds later, Edwin barged into my room, getting under the covers with me. The fact we got so close over the last few months was making me happy, to say the least. It wasn’t weird to share a bed with each other, we were siblings after all. “We shared a womb, we might as well be able to share a bed” he had said jokingly one day. The silence was comforting me in a way I couldn’t explain in words.

“Fuck Z”. Him suddenly speaking shook me out of my thoughts. “I mean, don’t fuck him. But fuck him. You know?”. Sometimes, it was hard for Edwin to find the right words. It wasn’t because he didn’t know what to say, but rather the fact he had so many things to say that it just ended up blocking his mind ultimately. “I know”.

“This is some sweet home alabama shit” “Shut up, Austin. They just fell asleep together, no big deal” “Okay guys, but I’m getting hungry. Should we wake ‘em up now?”. His body started to shift beneath me, both of us fully waking up by the noise the others were making. “Good morning, honey bubbas!” all three of them were towering over us. The sight was rather scary, with their creepy grins plastered on their faces. “What time is it?” Edwin asked sleepily. He seemed a bit disoriented. “Time for you to get up and make us some food! Mama Honoret went out with the niñitos, so we’re all by ourselves”.

Slowly, we got out of bed to go find something to eat in the kitchen. Ding Dong. The doorbell rang. “Do you guys expect someone?” I asked confused. None of them were able to meet my eyes, looking slightly uncomfortable and at a loss for words. Instead of waiting for a reply, I went straight to the door to open it. “Wait!” “Hold up!” “Don’t” “No!”. Too late. There he stood, three boxes of pizza in his hands. “Uhm, hey”. My first instinct was to slam the door shut in his face and cuss the others out for not telling me sooner. However, on second thought, I decided against it. “Hi. Come in, I guess”. Awkwardly, he greeted his friends and made his way towards the kitchen to put the food on the counter. “So, uhm how about we watch some Netflix while we eat? On My Block sounds good?” Edwin tried to distract from the obvious thick tension in the air. I wasn’t going to ruin what should’ve been a chill night with my favorite people (minus Caleb) and just said “Sure, sounds good”.

The whole night was spent with Zion staring me down from his seat and Edwin exaggeratedly laughing at the funny moments to avoid the awkward atmosphere. Brandon was busy shoving his face with pizza – probably so that he didn’t have to speak. Nick and Austin were arguing about the gang situation in Freeridge. “If he wants his little brother to live a better life, then why is he dragging him into it? Isn’t he the gang leader or something? Just let your brother go to school and boom, problem solved” “It’s not that easy, bro! You want Oscar to lose his street credibility? Might as well put his clown suit on already”.

When I shifted to find a better position, his eyes were still on me. So, I decided to send him a quick text in hopes of making him stop.

< Dude, stop staring. Ur making me mad >

< I’m not staring, u must be trippin shawty >

< first of all, you’ve been staring since season 1 chapter 2. We’re on season 2 now. Second of all, if you call me shawty one more time imma rip ur ass open >

He visibly gulped at my last sentence, contemplating what to reply but ultimately deciding against it and sliding his phone back into his back pocket. Quietly, he stood up exclaiming to the group that he had to leave. A loud sigh of relief left Brandon’s lips, as if he had been waiting for this moment the whole night. “Thank god” he mumbled lowly, yet everyone could hear him clearly but decided to ignore it. “I’ll see you guys on Monday”. With that, he immediately left.

“I think I’ll call it a night. Haven’t really slept well recently”. It was true, I could barely fall asleep nowadays. Tired or not, the night wasn’t my best friend anymore. Everything was keeping me up. The drama with Caleb, the new life I yet had to adjust to – the boys made it easier, though -, and the passing of my parents. It was all too much at once. How was I supposed to comprehend all of this in just a matter of three months? Exactly, there was no waysomeone could deal with that in such a short period of time. The first couple of weeks I was as good as could be expected under the circumstances, but now it all seemed to slowly catch up on me.

“What! No! This was supposed to be a chill night, followed by the best sleepover of all time!”Edwin stood up, trying to make me stay by hugging my body tightly. “Yeah, you can’t leave! Not when Edwin is acting like a crackhead again” Brandon said, his arms securely wrapped around my shoulders. “Aight, I guess it’s group hug hours”. Soon, I found myself squished between not only Ed and B, but also Nick and later even Austin. “Okay, you guys won. I’ll stay”. They cheered at their victory, all pulling away at once. “But” This made everyone look at me suspiciously. “We’re gonna do a beauty-night!” I exclaimed happily with the biggest smile on my face. “Oh hell nah, I’m out!” Edwin crossed his arms, slightly turning away with his nose all scrunched up and brows furrowed. To be honest, he looked like a baby right now. “… unless this means I’m allowed to use that weird blue face mask from Lush?” he asked full of hope. “Yeah, why not”.

In a matter of minutes, we were all piled up on my bed, discussing what face mask would be the best for whom. “Your skin’s whack! Go put that charcoal one on, do something nice for your pores for once” Ed threw the bottle with the black liquid at Nick who grumpily obliged and started to apply it all over his face. “This feels nice. What exactly is that?” Brandon was looking curiously at the big tube in his hands, examining it in hopes of understanding what he just put on his skin. “It’s clay” I told him. “Clay” he repeated quietly and slowly, to no one in particular. Shaking my head with a content smile on my lips, I turned to Austin to see how he was holding up. We decided to let him try a bubble mask but looking at it now we might have made the wrong decision. Every inch of his face was covered in bubbles, and when I say every inch, I mean Every. Inch. Of. His. Precious. Face. “My eyes are burning, is this normal?”. “… Yes” I lied. Grabbing a wet cloth, I softly started rubbing the mask off of him before he ended up blind.

“Okay, what’s next? Do we paint each other’s nails? Do we play pillow fight? Do we talk about our menstrual cycle?”.

“What the fuck, Edwin?!”.

“Hey! Nothing wrong with talking about periods. It’s a natural thing and frankly, it’s actually good to talk about it with your friends to see, if – “

“Of course it’s a normal thing to talk about, but I think you might’ve forgotten something”.

Edwin looked at Brandon quizzingly. “We don’t have a uterus”.

“… Oh”.

Sometimes, he was just too much, but that’s why we loved him. “I think it’s time for bed, boys”. Reluctantly, they got up and lied on their designated air mattresses. “But Edwin can sleep in your bed? That’s so rude, Ma”. “Shut up, shark boy. I’m her twin, that’s just how we roll” he laughed evilly before turning the lights off and saying our good nights to each other.

“If it bothers you so much, why don’t you just tell him?” B looked at the direction my eyes were trained on. Zion would whisper something into Asya’s ear, making her giggle, then he would whisper something else, making her giggle again and so on. I was getting aggravated. “Can’t. That’s super awkward. I wish he’d just use one of his last functioning three brain cells to consider my feelings and not do all that while we share the same class”. Cleaning his glasses with his cotton shirt, he took his time to say something. “Tell him just that”. Turning around, I rolled my eyes at him. “Caleb, stooop!” she giggled for what felt like the millionth time. Before I knew what was happening, I was right in front of Zion dragging him out of the class and into the empty hallway. “What’s your problem?!” I shouted into his face. “My problem? No, what’s your problem?!”. I was this close to just going back in and ignoring him for the rest of my life, but something inside of me told me to keep going. It was now or never. “My problem is” I began. “You’re so fucking annoying and mean and selfish as fuck, only caring about yourself and never considering other people’s feelings! As if it wasn’t shitty enough how you broke things off, no you also have to flaunt your fling-”I knew it wasn’t just a fling, but honestly? I didn’t give a damn. He was rude, so I was being rude. “- into my face! Be secretive! Or at least just stop when I’m around. That’s all I’m asking from you”.

He didn’t say a single word. Not one. Instead he was searching my eyes, trying to see if I really meant what I just said. Seconds passed, turning into minutes. “Aren’t you going to say something? Defend yourself or whatever?”. Him staying silent made my blood boil because I felt ignored and just really stupid for straight up having an outburst without it affecting him. “There’s nothing to defend because you’re right. About everything. And I’m sorry for not realizing sooner how shitty I was behaving”. To say I was taken aback was an understatement. “That’s all?”. The silence was killing me and all I wanted was to go back to class. “No”. Grabbing my hand, he pulled me towards his chest. “What are you do-“ “Shut up”.

Next thing I knew, (I was pregnant) I felt his lips grazing mine and before I could stop him, he had already fully kissed me. I wanted to feel repulsed, I wanted to feel disgusted, I wanted to feel mad. But I couldn’t. I had missed him and I couldn’t deny it. When I pulled away, he tried to make me stay in place. That’s when my senses came back to me and reality hit me. “Dude, what’s wrong with you?! You have a new girl, remember?”. I pushed his chest, freeing myself. Once I was about to open the door again, I noticed that Zion still hadn’t moved an inch. Turning around, I wanted to tell him to move his ass back to class before both of us would get in trouble. But he never gave me a chance at that.

“I know, but I can’t get my real girl outta my head”.

Also2: I don’t know if I like this part, it’s more of a filler. I tried to put the focus on the relationship between her and Edwin, but also tried to give glimpses of the friendship between her and the rest of the boys. Zion isn’t included much because he’s always hanging out with that other chick. This part is set during the time where both of them try to avoid each other, so I wanted to make it as realistic as possible.

Let me know what your favorite part or line was! Hope you liked it xx

- Cami

[placetobenation]

Is it me or has the WWE gone from Monday nights being the must-see show to see each week to NXT and SmackDown taking over the best of spots in the WWE?

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not that RAW has been bad lately. It hasn’t been. Maybe it’s the uncertainty of what RAW Underground and RETRIBUTION is or isn’t on a weekly basis. Maybe it’s RAW being three hours and that’s a long time for anything in these days of short attentions spans which leads to a lot of rehashing and repetition. Or maybe it’s just NXT and SmackDown upping their games of late.

I think it’s a bit of both my friends. And that’s not a bad thing. Having all shows trying to click at their peak efficiency and quality each and every week is a perfect problem to have. As long as that continues, it’ll make for better programming for everyone in WWE.

And oh, by the way, why is Adam Pearce getting more and more tv time on Monday and Friday nights?

Star of the Week:

Finn Balor – It’s a very welcome sight to see the Prince back atop NXT. He said he wanted to come back to Full Sail to regain his destiny and after an Iron Man Match and a one-on-one victory over Adam Cole, Finn Balor is once again NXT Championship.

RAW

RESULTS

Bobby Lashley, MVP & Shelton Benjamin defeated Apollo Crews, Ricochet & Cedric Alexander

RAW Tag Team Championship Non-Title Match: The Street Profits defeated Andrade & Angel Garza

Peyton Royce defeated Billie Kay

Asuka & Mickie James defeated Natalya & Lana

Bobby Lashley, Cedric Alexander, MVP & Shelton Benjamin defeated Apollo Crews, Ricochet & The Viking Raiders

Randy Orton defeated Keith Lee (DQ)

2-on-1 Handicap Match: The Riott Squad defeated Shayna Baszler

2-on-1 Handicap Match: The Riott Squad vs. Nia Jax went to no-contest

Street Fight: Dominik Mysterio defeated Murphy

Loved it:

Asuka – Probably the most entertaining part of the show. She just keeps doing her own thing and enjoying life as RAW Women’s Champion. She’s not bothered by tag team partner Mickie James or challenger Mickie James or anyone else for that matter. She’s said bye-bye to Sasha Banks and Bayley for a bit and is living life large. Keep being you Asuka!

Third time's just as much of a charm. ANOTHER #Claymore from @DMcIntyreWWE to @RandyOrton! #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/CYSMCJCSbG

— WWE (@WWE) September 8, 2020

Drew’s back – So, I guess we’ll get the battle of the fractured jaws huh? Or maybe fourth time is the charm? McIntyre answered three kicks to the head by Randy Orton by delivering three claymores to The Viper’s head. Now, it’s on to Clash of Champions for a rematch for the WWE Championship.

Finally:

He's a winner tonight.@CedricAlexander picks up the VICTORY for The #HurtBusiness by pinning @KingRicochet … or did he? #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/WOJQwOuX6a

— WWE (@WWE) September 8, 2020

Cedric cashed in – After being teased for weeks it seems, Cedric Alexander turned on Ricochet and Apollo Crews and joined The Hurt Business. You knew something was afoot when we got yet another six-man match between everyone. So, at least something came out of it! Now, we get 8-man tags with The Viking Raiders joining the fray. At least MVP is doing a better job of building his faction than the Monday Night Messiah.

RETRIBUTION has spoken. "The darkness of RETRIBUTION will seep into the pores of every Superstar and all of your so-called universe."#WWERaw pic.twitter.com/tUCd79PuFS

— WWE (@WWE) September 8, 2020

RETRIBUTION – They can talk! At least now we have a mission statement from RETRIBUTION. They now have a logo too. Now, it remains to be seen just WHO they are under the hoods. I’ll take it because at least we have some depth to them and have some movement. Let’s see if it continues.

No Buddy:

The Mysterio family is going to TOWN on @WWE_Murphy, so much so that he just QUIT the match! #WWERaw @35_Dominik @reymysterio pic.twitter.com/9W4907H40J

— WWE (@WWE) September 8, 2020

Murphy let alone – Poor Buddy Murphy. First, he gets dumped by Seth Rollins as his disciple. Then, he gets beat up by Dominik Mysterio in a Street Fight with the entire Mysterio family beating the Holy Hell out of him with kendo sticks to the point in which he verbally quit his Street Fight match. Mysterio continues to impress as Murphy continues to make him look good. It will be interesting as to where each goes next. Presumably, Murphy vs. Seth Rollins could be next?

Huh:

STILL. GOING. AT IT.#WWERaw #RAWUnderground @FightOwensFight @WWEAleister pic.twitter.com/LSu1H6U6i6

— WWE (@WWE) September 8, 2020

RAW Underground – Week after week, RAW Underground is just there. It fills time, this week with Kevin Owens knocking horns with Aleister Black until it just ended with Riddick Moss taking them both out. The problem with RU is that there’s no explanation to anything and it’s just a filler place to trade barbs with no real outcomes. I like the look and feel, but there’s gotta be a better way for the details.

Peyton vs. Billie – I guess it will be a short feud between the two. Royce gets the win over Kay and then they hug. Short and sweet and probably all it needed to be.

NXT

RESULTS

NXT Championship: Finn Balor defeated Adam Cole

The Velveteen Dream defeated Ashantee “Thee” Adonis

Bronson Reed defeated Austin Theory

Roderick Strong defeated Killian Dain

Steel Cage Battle of the Bad Asses Match: Rhea Ripley defeated Mercedes Martinez

LOVED IT:

It's his Kingdom. #WWENXT #AndNew #NXTSuperTuesdayII #NXTTitle @FinnBalor pic.twitter.com/BfL3F37oMP

— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) September 9, 2020

Too Sweet Respect.

#WWENXT #NXTSuperTuesday #NXTTitle @TripleH @FinnBalor @AdamColePro pic.twitter.com/IqWYyso8P4

— WWE (@WWE) September 9, 2020

Prince is crowned – After a wonderful 60-minute Iron Man match last week, Finn Balor and Adam Cole dazzled for another 30 minutes with Balor coming up on top to regain his NXT Championship. I loved the match and especially enjoyed the aftermath of respect from Adam Cole to Balor with a Too Sweet gesture. It would’ve been in full character for Cole to be upset and rant & rave all over the place, but it was cool to see another side of him and be honorable. Maybe it’s a new direction moving forward for Cole. We’ll have to wait and see on that. A great start to Super Tuesday II.

.@RheaRipley_WWE breaks out the BRUTALITY in the "Battle of the Badasses" as she picks up the win against The #RobertStoneBrand's @RealMMartinez in the main event of #NXTSuperTuesday II! #WWENXT pic.twitter.com/W2rrXK1wci

— WWE (@WWE) September 9, 2020

Battle of the Bad Asses – Rhea Ripley and Mercedes Martinez lived up the physical hype that a steel cage match brings with it. And talk about a brutal ending, damn! Ripley tossing Martinez through a table with a Riptide from the turnbuckle was punishing to say the least. Well done! Plus, after the show, Robert Stone tosses Martinez from the crew. Something I don’t think Martinez will mind one bit.

Things just got very, 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 interesting. #WWENXT #NXTSuperTuesday @ShotziWWE @shirai_io pic.twitter.com/XNqVikjOSU

— WWE (@WWE) September 9, 2020

Shotzi gets a shot – It took a very indirect route to get there but Shotzi Blackheart has the attention of NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai. With Aliyah interrupting Shirai’s photo shoot while trying to get away from Shotzi, both get physical with the Robert Stone Brand and end up in a face-off with Blackheart holding the title. Good stuff and a well-deserved shot coming up this week for one of the brighter spots in NXT.

Dinner for three:

Dinner is served… and splattered.

#WWENXT #NXTSuperTuesday @CandiceLeRae @TeganNoxWWE_ pic.twitter.com/DgnsNBJgEX

— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) September 9, 2020

The Gargano Way – Dinner at the Gargano household is always an adventure and this week, Tegan Nox made sure of it as an invited guest. A brief food fight ending with Johnny Gargano covered in pasta gives Nox the friendly edge (for now) over Candice LeRae. Let’s see what’s next in the ring for these two former friends.

Makeover:

Miles turned Adonis – Tehuti Miles is now Ashantee “Thee” Adonis. It didn’t give him a victory over The Velveteen Dream, but it did give him some prime TV time on a very good episode of NXT.

Meh:

Drake & Killian – I still don’t get the on-going rift between Killian Dain and Drake Maverick. Maverick came out to help Dain this week against The Undisputed Era but still gets knocked out by Dain. Why?

SMACKDOWN

RESULTS

Intercontinental Championship Match: AJ Styles defeated Jeff Hardy (DQ – due to Sami Zayn interference)

Non-title SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match: Lucha House Party defeated Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura

Fatal 4-Way Match: Alexa Bliss Nikki Cross Tamina Lacey Evans – wins a shot at Bayley’s SmackDown Championship at Clash of Champions

Otis defeated John Morrison

Roman Reigns & Jey Uso defeated Sheamus & King Corbin

LOVED IT:

"I was using YOU!"

#SmackDown @itsBayleyWWE @SashaBanksWWE pic.twitter.com/MtZtAOB5vQ

— WWE (@WWE) September 12, 2020

Bayley – Sitting in the same chair she used to take out her BFF Sasha Banks one week ago, the SmackDown Women’s Champion explained in no uncertain terms that SHE was the one who used Banks and that she was done with her. And if that wasn’t enough, she then takes out Nikki Cross with that same chair before her Fatal Four-Way match for the #1 Contender’s Match.

The #SisterAbigail??!!@AlexaBliss_WWE just struck @NikkiCrossWWE with a ᴠᴇʀʏ familiar maneuver. #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/YnmDKk1RTO

— WWE (@WWE) September 12, 2020

Alexa Bliss – Yes, she’s certainly transfixed by The Fiend, with a Sister Abigail outside the ring to her friend Nikki Cross. Loved the continuation of that storyline, but hated the fact that she walked out on the match. It would’ve been better had she followed through and won the match. I didn’t need to see Cross win and be sent to Clash of Champions to face Bayley for the title. It’ll be her third title match in the past two months. Been there, done that! And not for nothing, but wasn’t Naomi in that match?

The mystery continues…

#SmackDown pic.twitter.com/fYxazeC2x0

— WWE (@WWE) September 12, 2020

Mystery Woman – I like that they gave us another vignette. Keep it fresh and top of mind. Is it Charlotte Flair, Chelsea Green, Carmella or someone we haven’t thought of yet? Attention to detail is sometimes forgotten in WWE, so I was happy to see it with another shot.

Well…that was…#%^*(!

Say

to the newest addition to the #FireflyFunHouse … Wobbly Walrus! #SmackDown @WWEBrayWyatt pic.twitter.com/NCWtl0qBYE

— WWE (@WWE) September 12, 2020

Wobbly Walrus – Well, I’m not quite sure that was “this is such good sh*t” as Vince McMahon says, but having the Paul Heyman-esque Wobbly Walrus be the new character for the Firefly Fun House left me…well, left me feeling like that’s just another inside rib job that doesn’t do much to help The Fiend or Bray Wyatt. I’m hoping there’s a response from Heyman and his man, Roman Reigns.

#SmackDown #UniversalTitle @WWERomanReigns Jey @WWEUsos pic.twitter.com/Je4OlM00fw

— WWE (@WWE) September 12, 2020

Main Event – OK, there’s no Roman Reigns, so let’s ring the bell and start the match. Makes no sense. The only thing that does make sense is that Reigns comes in, wrecks everyone and leaves. That’s in character, so I’m ok with it. Plus, the daggers that Reigns threw at Jey Uso when Uso raised his hand on the ramp was AWESOME! Heel heat to say the least!

Three’s a Crowd:

WAIT A MINUTE!#ICTitle @SamiZayn @AJStylesOrg @JEFFHARDYBRAND pic.twitter.com/98bb3jRdjv

— WWE (@WWE) September 12, 2020

Intercontinental Title – I think we all saw the finish of this one coming. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a clean finish between Jeff Hardy and AJ Styles as Sami Zayn attacked Styles to end the match. I think we all know where this is headed to – a triple-threat ladder match at Clash of Championships for both I-C Titles. Nice shade as well going back and forth between WWE and AEW as it continues with Hardy being diagnosed as dehydration symptoms and never losing consciousness as a nod to his brother’s Matt’s medical situation one week ago.

The Smoke comes to SmackDown:

The Street Profits – Welcome to Friday night boys! The Street Profits returned Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura’s visit to RAW Monday night by getting an up close and personal look at the SmackDown champions in the champions lounge. And in true smoke form, they cost the blue brand tag champions their match with the Lucha House Party setting up Monday night’s champion vs. champion match on RAW.

Otis Outsmarts – Once again, Otis plays the change game on The Miz & John Morrison by continuing to change where his money in the bank contract is. This time, The Miz takes home an apple core instead of a contract. It’s funny and all it needs to be.

Parting Shots:

ICYMI, Miro, previously known as Rusev in WWE, made his AEW debut Wednesday night as Kip Sabian’s best man to his upcoming wedding. Miro wasted little time taking shots at WWE by using infamous Vince McMahon’s line as “reaching for the brass ring.”  I always liked the Rusev character in WWE and thought he had many ways to go but the folks in Stamford didn’t agree and things got contentious for Lana’s husband. It’s a good addition for AEW. Another big man with options, but for a company that says they want to be an alternative, they sure are built on former WWE stars.

Clash of Champions – UPDATED CARD

WWE Championship Match: Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton

Universal Championship Match: Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso

SmackDown Women’s Championship Match: Bayley vs. Nikki Cross

Coming up this week:

RAW: In Your Face Monday RAW Women’s Championship Match: Asuka vs. Mickie JamesChampion vs. Champion: Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura vs. The Street ProfitsSteel Cage Match: Seth Rollins vs. Dominik MysterioNon-title WWE Championship Match: Drew McIntyre vs. Keith Lee

NXT: Non-title NXT Women’s Championship Match: Io Shirai vs. Shotzi Blackheart NXT Tag Team Championship Match: Breezango vs. Imperium NXT North American Championship Match: Damian Priest vs. Timothy Thatcher The Undisputed Era vs. Killian Dain & Drake Maverick

SMACKDOWN: TBD 

Thanks for letting us share our thoughts! Shoot me an email at jcrowe567@gmail.com. We’d love to hear your comments and suggestions! You can also check out my blog, The Crowe’s Nest as we delve into more pro wrestling, sports entertainment and the World of Sports. My apologies ahead of time – I AM a Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins fan! If you’re not down with that, I’ve got TWO WORDS for you… NEW ENGLAND

[homeplanetreviews]

Brad’s Status (2017) Movie Review by: Will Whalen

Brad’s Status is written and directed by Mike White and stars Ben Stiller, Austin Abrams, Jenna Fischer and a few other stars and is about a father who takes his son on a trip to tour some of the top colleges in the country. He’s also at the same time going through a midlife crisis and thinking about some of his life choices and how it could've all been different with the help of money or fame.

I'm a huge Ben Stiller fan and I'm almost always excited for any film that is coming out with him in it. But after seeing the trailer for this, it looked like something that would be right up my alley and I gotta say, I enjoyed Brad’s Status quite a bit.

Brad’s Status is a film that I think will appeal to many people. Whether you're a high school/college student looking for a college and wondering what you want to do with your future or whether you're going through a midlife crisis and wondering where it all went wrong. Which is one of my favorite things about this film. Not the fact that it goes over these subjects but because of the way they go about it. Especially with the performance by Ben Stiller who plays Brad. This is most definitely told entirely from his perspective and there's a lot of voiceover with him talking about his life and longing for success and fame that came to friends of his past but not so much to him. This brings some of the films best aspects and some great and hilarious scenes. Brad talks about his “failed life” constantly throughout the film and at times, it's a tad heavy handed but most of the time, it brings a lot of humor to the film and is something that people can relate to. We all wonder time to time what we could've done different or what our lives would be like if we were enormously successful and this film handles that really well. Austin Abrams is great here as well. He also brings a lot of humor to this film and some of his scenes were my favorite. Although, I wish he had a bit more screen time but he was a great addition to this.

The best thing I can say about this film is that the script is great. The general idea and the dialogue and Brad’s self conflict was hilarious and true. That being said, it does have its problems. After a while, it gets quite repetitive with Brad’s little rants. Which is funny and does bring the film some of its best humor, but it is a bit drawn out at times. Brad’s Status actually reminded me of the book, The Catcher in the Rye. Which sounds kinda weird but it was just in the way that Brad always complained like Holden Caulfield, and the way this film ends, is just suddenly. Which brings me to another small problem and that's that this film ends and you almost feel like there's no resolution. I won't get into spoilers of course, but part of me just wished they would have gone a bit more and gave us a more concrete ending. At the same time, I do like how the film ends. Another thing, and this isn't a flaw, but at times this film scarily reminded me of my dad and I. Which, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed Brad’s Status a lot and Ben Stiller is excellent as always alongside Austin Abrams. It's a funny, touching, relatable and crisp film that is a perfect Fall movie. Everyone is in coats, in the city, it just looks like a fall film. I would definitely check this out at some point.

I'm going to give Brad’s Status…

3.5 out of 5 stars.

[anycontentposter]

Brian Austin Green Interview: PUBG Mobile #Fight4TheAmazon

The world can appear impossibly huge, however it actually isn't; it's fragile and can be terribly harmed by humanity's disturbance . Such a scenario is playing out right now in the Amazon rain forest in Brazil. Big swaths of rich plant are being burned down by corporations, and the federal government of Brazil is not doing anything to stop it, presuming regarding blame ecological NGO groups for the fires, developing an entirely ridiculous conspiracy theory . The Amazon jungle does a remarkable quantity of operate in canceling the world's natural carbon footprint, however burning down many miles of stated jungle will just speed up the rate of manufactured environment modification, to state absolutely nothing of the cultural catastrophe that originates from ruining a considerable part of every living and any environment animal in it.

Global Green is a company devoted to developing a sustainable future for the environment, and they've coordinated with fundraising titan Omaze and the popular computer game, PUBG Mobile , to raise around the world awareness towards the predicament of the Amazon , with the objective of safeguarding the land from greedy corporations that look for to reduce the world's life-span in the name of short-term earnings.

Related: Fans Host Charity Event to Donate DC &&Marvel Toys to Children's Hospital

On this task, activists and stars Brian Austin Green and Megan Fox are the suggestion of the general public relations spear. The #Fight 4TheAmazon project represents a best cross-section of Hollywood glamour, computer game action, and an exemplary cause. The very best method to contribute is through an Omaze sweepstakes that permits individuals to go into to win a Tesla Model S and a $20,000 prize money .

While promoting the #Fight 4TheAmazon project, the Beverly Hills, 90210 star talked to Screen Rant about his issues over the future of the world, and how the status quo requires to move far from oil and towards eco-friendly sources like wind and solar. The existing status quo is not sustainable; the earlier the rich corporations are required to alter their focus towards securing the world instead of injuring it, the faster we can start to fix –-- or a minimum of reduce –-- the damage we've currently done.

The #Fight 4TheAmazon project is a continuous motion to raise awareness for this worldwide problem. Both Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green will be amongst the individuals in a star PUBG Mobile match, which will be live streamed on Twitch.tv/ PUBGMOBILE on December 9.

I reside in Far Rockaway, New York, which was terribly harmed by Hurricane Sandy. I do these interviews with individuals in L.A., whose homes are on fire, while in New York, we're simply waiting on another cyclone to come and clean us away for great. I've talked to individuals in Australia , and they're having some bad fires, too. Perhaps the most significant ecological catastrophe right now is in the Amazon rain forest. It's still on fire today, being damaged as we speak.

I do not believe individuals understand what a huge part the Amazon plays worldwide. I do not believe they understand simply how crucial it is to have that area on the Earth, and what that forest offers, and what it makes with CO2 and what it makes with becoming part of the environment itself, how crucial of a task it plays in the totally free world, in what we have and what is needed for us to endure.

In that video on the site, your partner, the skilled and incredible Megan Fox, calls it the beating heart of the Earth, which is not an exaggeration, I believe.

No, it's not. The quantity of carbon ... One of the greatest things we're battling in the environment crisis is the emission of carbon. That alone is being treated in big part by the Amazon. And the Amazon being burned, and not having the ability to belong to our battle ... It's so essential.

There are a lot of corporations that are uncontrolled and they're simply damaging the environment, actually as we speak, and they're making a lot cash. How do you combat something like that? How do you alter their minds? How do we reverse this self-destruct course that humankind is on?

I do not understand. There's so much cash included in that. I believe, what we do is, as mankind, as humans, we continuously inform individuals on what the Earth requirements and what our part on it is. And gradually, a single person at a time, you make individuals familiar with what can be performed in their location. Ultimately, individuals will try to find alternate kinds of power and fuel. And these big corporations will lose organisation, they'll begin losing cash and bleed enough to go, "It's time to leave this video game." Ideally, at that point, something brand-new actions up. We have business like Tesla that are actually blazing a trail because. We have all these solar business that continue to establish and develop brand-new types of power and energy. We have all these wind farms, and we have ocean turbines, and we have all these manner ins which we can produce brand-new power. We simply need to continue to execute them and continue to grow those types of energy. The more individuals we can make conscious of what is going on and what modifications they can do, it'll assist, however it's gon na have to be on an international scale.

I truly hope that within our life time, we reflect on oil and our reliance on it as though it were the dark ages, some forgotten age that we're humiliated to have actually belonged of.

We state we actually hope, however we require it. We're type of at the point now where there's no reversing. It needs to advance. That's one of the reasons I initially got included. I was initially included with Generosity, attempting to assist with the tidy water crisis. It was something that I might see completion of within my life time. I believed, that's an actually fantastic cause to be part of, and something where I might actually make a distinction. Now we're at this point where it's like, worldwide, you require so much more than that. The tidy water crisis is necessary, however it's such a little part of what we require to do. We require to begin looking. Things require to take place on a much grander scale than that. There are activists, like Leonardo DiCaprio, who has actually been a substantial impact because. I so regard and honor the work he's done, however you've got individuals like Ed Bagley Jr., who, given that I was a kid, has actually been an activist for other types of power and utilizing innovation. There are other individuals like that who are so fantastic, and they've truly prepared and led the way for what can be done. Now's the time where things have actually to be done. It's not simply a vision any longer. It's something that needs to occur, or we leave absolutely nothing to our kids and our grandkids. I do not wish to belong to that. And I understand my better half does not wish to belong to that. And a great deal of individuals I understand do not wish to belong to that: leaving something to their kids that isn't much better than what we had when we entered into this world. It would be a pity. I believe it's our task and our responsibility ... You understand, our kids, that generation is a lot more knowledgeable about what they're doing than we were as kids. And now's the time to eliminate. We have the power of our generation, the generation after ours, and the generation after that. Now's the time, worldwide, to actually attempt to do that.

I believe that leads into your cooperation with this actually hip video game that everyone's playing, PUBG. More particularly, PUBG Mobile. How did your advocacy and the video game converge?

So, this project began prior to Megan and I got included. Global Green and Omaze and PUBG Mobile generally determined a method to integrate what they do best. Due to the fact that they are as huge as they are, PUBG Mobile has access to all these individuals. They remained in a world that a lot of individuals are associated with, with mobile video gaming and all that. Omaze is this astounding business that's actually proficient at developing enjoyable methods of raising cash and doing that. It simply made sense for what they do when they teamed up with Global Green. The element of bringing myself and my spouse in to assist promote it, and to assist truly get eyes on it, it ended up being everyone going, "Okay, how do we utilize our platforms in the finest method to raise awareness?" This celebration that we're doing December 9, with Twitch TELEVISION, that's another element of it. The entire thing is one huge push. And PUBG Mobile has actually been incredible, and Omaze has actually been fantastic, and Global Green is an incredible company, so we actually wish to assist them as much as we can with resources to fight what's going on in the Amazon and the defend that, and simply begin there and ideally grow.

You discussed your kids, and I've sort of half-joked that I'm too careless to have kids, however it's like, for my generation, the authentic worry is genuine, that any world delegated our kids will not be one worth residing in by the time they mature. It's a exemplary and excellent battle you and Megan are combating.

Thank you, thanks a lot.

I need to ask. Have you played? Are you a huge PUBG person?

No. Me and the household, we arrange of moved far from TELEVISION and computer game and iPads and computer systems and iPhones. We attempt to get our kids outside and have them be as linked with the environment as possible. When I was a kid, that's what I had. I had the exterior and a skateboard when I was a kid. If I was thirsty, I 'd consume from a pipe that I discovered, you understand? There was that sense of, like, when the sun turns up, you go outside, and you play outside up until the sun decreases. Those were my weekend days and my summer season days. We truly desire our kids to have as much of that as possible. We desire them to play outdoors and swim. They're actually huge today with the next-door neighbor kids playing "ding dong ditch," which is remarkable since, as frustrating as it is for us grownups, it's truly cool that the kids enjoy that! That was a big part of maturing for me. And they're playing frisbee and riding skateboards and bikes and doing those outside activities. That implies a lot to myself and Megan, which's a huge part of our household and what we do. When weekends happen, we're like, "Okay, what the activity going to be? What are we gon na do? Are we gon na go to a zoo? Fish tank? The museum?" We've got to discover an activity. We can't simply remain at house. There's excessive going on the planet to sit in the house and enjoy TELEVISION.

Going outdoors fuels the creativity. As much as I like TELEVISION, it does not always scratch the itch in the very same method.

You understand, I believe there's a time and a location for all things. I believe TELEVISION and motion pictures ... When the sun decreases, and due to the fact that of daytime cost savings it gets dark early, we've got time inside your home. Then it's like, all right, let's go on Apple TELEVISION and select a motion picture, and all of the household sits down and see that. Let's not sit in front of the tv and watch, you understand, brainlessly up until we fall asleep or get in a vegetative state! (Laughs) So we look for other kinds of home entertainment. We likewise play a great deal of parlor game as a household, we play a great deal of ... One of the huge video games we play, particularly throughout breakfast and supper, we attempt to all relax the table together and play the animal thinking video game.

Ooh, what's that?

So, a single person creates the name of the animal, and everybody else needs to ask concerns to determine what the animal is that you're thinking about, so it's great. It's an enjoyable method to engage with everybody and laugh together. And it's something that my partner is really far better at than I am. I'm finding out with the kids, and it's great for us, and it's excellent for households to do. We head out to consume frequently, and see the whole household on their ipads and iphones, and no one's speaking to any person. That's simply not fine for me. That may be fine for some, however it's not all right for me and my kids and my household and my relationship with them. To each his own, however that's how we are!

And you've got the podcast , which is still going strong?

Yeah, yeah it is! We've done 2 years directly now. We've done this live podcast, which started more as simply a podcast, however this year, due to the fact that of the reboot and all of that, it sort of handled a life of its own and became this occasion that we weren't initially setting out to do, however we did it! We wound up making this weekend out of it for fans of 90210. Individuals flew in from all over the world, and we held the podcast at Torrance High School, where we shot the initial program. That was West Beverly High. I had a lot of cast members from the old program. Douglas Emerson, who played Scott, and Joe E. Tata, who played Nat, and Ian (Ziering) existed, and Gabrielle (Carteris) existed, and Christine Elise existed, and it was a truly great time. We all simply sat and talked and had enjoyable, and we had these actually fantastic bundles for the individuals that were fans of the program to come. In some bundles, they got to explore around in a cars and truck with the executive manufacturer and among the authors of the program, and they got to go to areas from the program and talk with them in the vehicle. We had all these actually unique things. Some individuals got to visit the school of the school. It was actually enjoyable. We wound up doing the entire thing with 100% of the profits going to generosity.org and to colorectal cancer awareness for Luke. It ended up being a truly terrific method to raise cash for those structures and to admire the program and have a good time with fans. I do not understand if we'll do it once again since it was a great deal of work (Laughs), however the podcast has actually been actually enjoyable. We do not have any business sponsors, so Derek, my partner, we simply get on the phone together and we record on Skype.

That's so cool. I indicate, there's a lot of celebs who have their causes that they defend, however for you and Megan, it feels so real, that issue for the future.

I do not wish to remove from any person. I believe there are a great deal of individuals who have causes that suggest a lot to them, and I believe that's terrific. This one, for Megan and I, with our kids and our household, it simply actually proves out and makes good sense. It touches a specific part of us. Prior to this project started, this was something Megan and I were actually active in. It's truly troubled us, and we sat with out seven-year-old kid while he's wept throughout news video of the fires in the Amazon. To be have the ability to state we're part of this, and for him to understand precisely what it is, and understand what we're defending, it indicates a lot to us. For future generations, and for our household. There's an actually tie to it for us. It's a huge honor for us to be part of it, it truly is.

And it's been an honor to speak with you! This has actually been an actually deal with for me, I'm such a big 90210 fan. I finished high school in 2009, however I seeing 90210 when I remained in high school ... Which is most likely why I have something of a fetish for those huge 1990s scrunchies, however that's an entire other thing.

I would not state that aloud excessive! (Laughs)

More: Jeopardy! James Holzhauer Donates to Cancer Charity in Alex Trebek's Name

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Read more about this at screenrant.com

https://coolarticlespinner.com/brian-austin-green-interview-pubg-mobile-fight4theamazon/

[grizzlefur]

WWEm - The War of Hardy's Incisor

Transmission date: Monday 15/Tuesday 16 May 2017

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Walking up to the club like what up I got a haunted tractor and it's running away backwards, it's THURSDAY AFTERNOON RAW!

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cold open on a dramatic recap of the ongoing saga of big angry man vs ambulance

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and by 'dramatic', i mean 'really fucking long'

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it's only just occurred to me from seeing them in the title sequence, but i'm astonished they haven't made more of all of the shield being on the same show yet

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like, i'm all for delaying gratification, but wwe isn't usually

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we're in newark, and i have nothing interesting to say about that

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and tonight we have dean/miz for the belt

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but first, let's have a kurt

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thousands of fans chant YOU SUCK with all the love in the world

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sport is weird

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kurt's here to talk about the braun situation

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apparently he shattered his elbow, and could be out for six months

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newark are not impressed, and neither am i

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oh, and apparently that's legit

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booooooo

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so at extreme rules, they're having a fatal five-way for the contendership that apparently braun had

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for the universal belt, that is

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seth/joe/finn/roman/bray

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newark want it to be finn or bray

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and also for roman to go fuck himself

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and that's a five-way extreme rules match

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so that should be pleasingly mental

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kurt tries to leave, enter said self-fucker to argue with him

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roman has decided that he's number one contender because he beat taker and braun, neither of whom were at all connected with the belt last i checked

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one uninspiring promo later, here's finn to improve the conversation

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with things like a real case for the belt and actual charisma and shit

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cheers for walking through frame halfway through that promo, kurt

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roman claims that finn doesn't have the killer instinct to beat brock

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cue derisive laughter

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so finn brings up the fact that he totally beat roman his first night on raw

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ooooooh

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WOMP WOMP WOMP

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joe's here to be like i could fucking kill all of you

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which is fair

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the only problem there being that bray could still win after joe killing him

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as soon as i type that, wyatt cut through joe's promo as he teleports into the ring

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seth cuts in a couple of seconds into bray's promo, because he's a don't-give-a-shit kind of babyface

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he's like fuck all this talking i'm here to fight joe

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so he does so

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bray takes out finn, and he just lies there while we have joe/seth and bray/roman

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seth takes joe's knee out and he runs away like a bitch, bray takes seth down, roman takes bray down, finn gets up and proceeds to murder everyone available

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and then threateningly squat in the ring as his music plays

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but now, here are the hardyz backstage

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jeff's fighting sheamus next

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but first, seth, finn and roman shout at each other backstage

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until kurt comes in to be like come one guys i'll put you in matches if that'll stop you hate-pissing all over this arena

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so later we have seth/bray (apparently the first time ever) and roman/finn

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but now, the hardyz are here

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jeff runs up and down the ramp high fiving everybody within reach

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it felt like that would have been the point for the hardyz to talk, but apparently not

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i do feel like they're giving matt the mic as little as possible because who knows what the fuck he'll do

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let's have another recap of sheamus kicking jeff's tooth out, because that's what this feud has become about

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The War of Hardy's Incisor

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jeff's gear now has weird translucent leopard print on the outside halves of the sleeves

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odd choice

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bell rings, violence immediately hits seventh gear

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sure, he's older than he used to be, but jeff is still really fast and doesn't give even 12% of a fuck

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double leg drop to the balls, which you can apparently get away with if your name is jeff hardy

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meanwhile, matt's hyping the crowd, a process which is mostly accomplished by him being present and occasionally raising his arms

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sheamus rolls backwards up the turnbuckle to the top rope, which is actually really impressive for a guy that big

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cesaro tries to interfere, matt pushes him away, sheamus hits matt with two brogues, but jeff hits a twist of fate and a swanton bomb off the distraction for the pin

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p sure it was only meant to be one brogue, but matt just didn't bump for some reason

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booker calls jeff's swanton a 'coup d'état'

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i would mind this less if the correct phrase wasn't the actual name of a finisher on this fucking show

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but now we have sasha/alicia again, after the weird-ass pin last week

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and noam's here to lurk in his girlfriend's corner

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sasha has apparently been watching the jeff/sheamus situation, knees alicia in the face even harder like fuck you with your only knocking one tooth out

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alicia drops a northern lights for no particular reason again

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does she even have a finisher any more

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wikipedia tells me it's a scissor kick

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and the moment i read that, she hits it and pins sasha clean

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huh

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not what i saw coming

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noam runs in to carry her on his shoulders in celebration, and end segment

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not sure what was going on with all that

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but up next, we have that ic title match

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which isn't the main event for some reason?

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have raw borrowed smackdown's editors for this episode or something

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but here are miz and maryse, and they've got the wrestlemania jackets again fucking yes

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and dean's splashed out for a new merch vest

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make an effort, dean

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corey claims miz's mindset is 'take what you can, give nothing back'

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isn't that fucking pirates of the caribbean?

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we're not saying miz is a pirate, but he's totally a fucking pirate

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apparently miz threw dean into the ring steps during the ad break

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that seems like the kind of story beat that should have actually made the show

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maryse is doing some outstanding ringside predatory glaring here

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is she just incarnating steph, since she's not on the show

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dean lands a suicide dive that seemed to consist mostly of pushing miz out of the way and hitting the barricade headfirst

.

maybe don't do that

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dean does a la magistra cradle for a near-fall like fuck you all i'm not just idiot dives i can do technical wrestling

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dean counters miz off the top rope, aided by the fact that that jump was never going to be anything even if it had landed

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counter to dirty deeds counter to skull-crushing finale counter to small package near-fall

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this is a really good match

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speaking of stiff head kicks, that...was not what that was

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vicious kick to the air in the vague neighbourhood of dean's face

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skull-crushing finale, dean kicks out

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probably would have been better if he'd countered it, but whatever

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clearly this is just me

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dean prepares for an elbow drop to the outside, miz acquires his usual meatshield

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who then just moves, allowing dean to land it

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maryse distracts the ref, miz goes for a dick punch, dean counters it and kicks miz in the crotch for the dq

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miz lies on the floor like aaaaagh my groin, dean stands in the ring mugging at the crowd like welp what was i supposed to do

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and now charly talks to finn about how great his life is with his documentary and contendership match and opportunity to kick roman’s face in tonight

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he's just like yeah i know i'm awesome and walks off

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but now, here's alexa

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fan goes for a high five as she walks down the ramp, her expression is, as ever, priceless

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recap of her title win at payback, sponsored by just for men moustache and beard

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does anyone else see the issue here

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cut back to the ring, alexa's trying to come up with a catchy slogan for newark

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settles on 'the sweat gland of america'

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i've just noticed how comically oversized that belt looks on her

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crowd starts shouting at her, she comes back with if you're a failure say what, crowd bites

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casually takes credit for the winner of miss usa, at which point bayley cuts in

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like, you can be a bitch, but the integrity of beauty pageants is inviolable

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bayley's here to be like okay yeah you've won a ton of things but have you maybe considered not being such a twat

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and she's here to invoke her rematch clause at extreme rules

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alexa's like do you really want to take me on when the rules aren't there to protect you

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condescends frantically

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so bayley just coldcocks her and dropkicks her in the face

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seems perhaps excessive

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alexa facebusters her on the ropes, then goes for a kendo stick

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i am in favour of this

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when did we even last have a proper women's hardcore match

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one back shot with the shinai later, bayley ends up on the floor like aaaaagh thou hast slain me

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but up next, cruiserweight tag time

.

after another advert for the finn documentary

.

still wince whenever i see that clip of him knocking his shoulder out and back in

.

we come back on kurt on the phone to somebody, when miz and maryse come in to rant about him getting kicked in the crotch

.

kurt's like yeah fine valid point stop fucking shouting at me

.

and miz demands a match with no champion's advantage, which kurt gives him because everybody knows dean can be a dick when he wants to

.

maryse still isn't happy, goes into an amazingly flowery québécois rant which i caught like 40% of, kurt replies in terrible schoolboy french, and enter elias fucking samson

.

kurt just looks at him like the fuck has happened to my life, he strums and walks off

.

cut back to the arena, where corey puts forward the entirely plausible argument that samson is stalking him

.

but now it's cruisertime, with neville and tjp vs austin and jack

.

the real question is has jack been giving austin more pint-downing instruction

.

because he needed it

.

bell rings with neville and austin in, neville just gives him this beautifully disdainful look and tags his apprentice

.

jack straight-up throws austin at neville and tjp, because he is still way stronger than he looks

.

neville tosses austin out of the ring, then distracts the ref while tjp beats him into the barricade

.

because, as ever, organisation is evil

.

speaking of organisation, the crowd are unanimously shouting something, but i have no fucking clue what it is

.

austin gets caught on the ropes by tj, then rolls forward over him and tangoes him from behind

.

the man has some interesting transitions

.

jack sets up his dropkick, neville comes in to get in the way, austin comes in to fight him, tjp chop blocks austin in his bad knee

.

austin takes out neville, jack chins tjp and sets up for another dropkick, neville grabs his leg, takes a discus fivearm on the outside, but jack eats a detonation kick for the pin

.

neville and tjp swagger backwards up the ramp like we're awesome fuck you

.

but now the announcers tell us how much good stuff there is on the network this week

.

(it's a lot)

.

roman/finn up next, which is apparently half of a double main event

.

so we're having seth/bray as our actual main event

.

but now, in the trainer's room, a medic puts a shoulder brace on bayley

.

kurt comes in like hey how you doing that looked painful

.

promises to make their match at extreme rules a regular match

.

bayley's like fuck that i want a chance to hurt her back

.

so kurt makes it a kendo stick on a pole match

.

is it 2003

.

oh look, here's goldust

.

that was fucking perfect

.

truth is here to apologise for costing them the match last week

.

so goldust gives him a motivational speech

.

apparently they're fighting gallows and anderson tonight

.

rip

.

but yes, now it's finn/roman

.

*does the arms*

.

the back of his jacket still has the old balor club logo on it

.

gallows and anderson's lawyers will be in touch

.

cut from finn's entrance to another recap slideshow of braun

.

seriously, this is some top-grade blue brand editing

.

if he's out for six months, he's going to be over as fuck when he comes back at survivor series

.

did we really need that dramatic multi-angle playback of braun getting his elbow broken?

.

bell rings, roman runs finn into the corner and then tosses him halfway across the ring, finn just gets up and looks at him like ok what's your point

.

apparently the most important thing about finn is that he's special

.

bold claim, booker

.

care to elaborate?

.

thought not

.

roman is wearing just a comical amount of bandages and tape on that bad shoulder

.

finn bullfights him into the post shoulder-first at a hundred miles an hour, he bumps so hard he flies though the ropes and lands outside the ring, finn follows up with a punt to the face and a double stomp from the apron

.

yeesh

.

i really hope that shoulder injury's mostly worked, because otherwise that was dumb as fuck

.

cut to ads, cut back to them still outside, somehow not dq'd, and roman pickin finn up and running the length of the ring to slam him into the post

.

and then putting him onto the apron and running all the way along the ring to driveby him into the post

.

that's a nice twist on a signature move

.

finn comes back, goes for a sling blade, roman counters it beautifully into a spinout powerbomb in a sequence that impressed me far more than is probably warranted

.

roman goes for a superman punch, finn kicks him out of the air

.

roman goes for another powerbomb, finn counters out into a lovely jumping double stomp on his chest

.

sling blade, eliciting the usual pop from me, goes for the corner dropkick, roman counters with a superman punch, near-fall

.

they are both looking absolutely destroyed by now

.

roman goe for a spear, finn knees him in the face, sling blade #2 into the corner dropkick

.

tortuous climb to the top rope for the coup de grace, roman knocks his leg away to crotch him on the turnbuckle, spear for the pin

.

that was honestly the most i've ever enjoyed a match where roman won

.

genuinely a really good match

.

but then, finn could wrestle a potato and i'd watch the fuck out of it

.

midway through corey talking about how good that was, lights drop and we go to bray doing a sermon about how brock ain't shit

.

was there meant to be a wyatt cut there?

.

apparently he's going to kill brock with the spear of destiny

.

wait, is brock jesus now?

.

he's also here to address seth like oh hey you're a kingslayer that's cute if only i was just a king

.

blows lantern out, cut to ads

.

and we come back on charly interviewing seth for any opinion on that

.

seth's like yeahhhhhhhh fuck that noise

.

claims his knee almost fell off his body

.

interested to know how that works

.

but now we have the golden truth and their mistimed karaoke subtitles

.

and nobody told the subtitle guy they weren't doing the second verse

.

truth does his introductory cheap pop, goldust lariats his head off his body, which eagle-eyed viewers will notice i fucking called

.

half a dozen people in the front of the crowd clearly dislike truth, start a thank you goldust chant

.

wow, he is just beating the shit out of him

.

threw truth clean from the ring into the barricade, which is just impressive any way you slice it

.

the announcers are all like what's happening with goldust he's such a lovely fun guy this is so unlike him

.

like dude

.

did you not follow most of his career

.

crouches over truth, intones 'that's what's up', poses, end segment

.

i am so up for goldust having a solo run and not being tied to bullshit comedy skits any more

.

and now...we have an advert for injustice 2

.

which looks sick as hell, but i was not expecting to see here

.

with follow me into the jungle over it, because we haven't heard that in enough adverts on the network

.

back in the ring, we have enzo and cass

.

who are from new jersey, so probably fucked

.

corey is excited because there must be some outstanding warrants on enzo so with any luck he'll never see him again

.

but naturally, the homeground thing means enzo gets mic time

.

or at least, he was doing that

.

until titus turns up to do his own version of enzo's intro

.

accompanied by apollo, who's like jesus dude do you have to do this i am very uncomfortable

.

titus is the weird uncle who brings you to the cool parties but you want to disassociate yourself with as miuch as possible

.

tituts plugs his ted talk, promises that his boy's going to fuck enzo up

.

cass is like um did you read the card this match is me and you

.

titus comes back like um no this suit is far too nice

.

cass is like yes that suit is nice still gonna kill you

.

bell rings

.

titus kicks cass into the corner, takes a break to take off his apparently $3100 suit

.

or at least the jacket

.

takes off his belt, threatens cass with it, enzo shouts at him, cass kicks him in the face for the pin

.

so yeah

.

that happened

.

apollo comes into the ring to help out his embarrassing coach, while enzo steals titus's phone and does a selfie with apollo and titus

.

so apollo dropkicks him in the head

.

seems perhaps excessive, but i think most of us would take that opportunity

.

but up next, seth/bray

.

after an advert for 205, and neville comes into the locker room to congratulate tjp

.

tjp's like okay yeah i was pretty boss can i have my title shot yet

.

neville's like patience young one

.

we will finish destroying austin's knee on 205, and then we can talk about that

.

but enough of that, now we have main event #3 now

.

yeah, it's only technically #2, but that ic title match was a main event by any real metric

.

cole thanks the fans in every country the european tour went to individually, which is a nice touch

.

and corey immediately calls him out for missing denmark

.

moment's gone

.

if the finn/roman match was one of the main events tonight and was as good as it was despite involving roman reigns, i am pumped as fuck for this one

.

and not just because bray is wearing a shirt i own

.

seth drags bray out of the corner by his beard, because he is the shitheeliest of babyfaces

.

and then throws him out of the ring, suicide dives on him, and goes for a crossbody off the barricade

.

bray catches him into an uranage onto the barricade

.

we are just pulling it all out immediately

.

bray pulls seth half off the top turnbuckle, then turns that into a nasty draping neckbreaker

.

and then puts him back up there for a superplex

.

with the amount of quality offence bray's getting in, he's probably fucked

.

or maybe that's just me going on the fact that bray doesn't get to win things

.

bray goes for another uranage, seth counters into another suicide dive, bray just punches him in the head as it comes out of the ropes

.

goes for seth back in the ring, seth counters into a blockbuster and a sling blade

.

i am kind of struggling to keep up

.

seth throws bray outside, dropkicks him through the ropes, and then hits yet another suicide dive

.

seth enzuigiris bray, sets up for another one, and bray just whips round at the last second and clotheslines him like a truck

.

seth tries to come back, counter into another uranage

.

goes for sister abigail, seth counters into a small package and a falcon arrow

.

see, this is how you preserve a finisher

.

lots of signatures, lots of finisher counters, no finisher kickouts

.

seth goes up top, bray rolls out of the ring, seth crossbodies him anyway, and here comes joe to punch seth for the dq

.

speaking of things i totally called

.

joe beats seth into a coma, bray turns up, they face off briefly, then both just kick the shit out of seth

.

right up until bray hits sister abigail on joe because what the fuck did you expect never trust a man who has proclaimed himself a god to honour your alliance

.

bray picks up seth, sister abigail, kneels over his fallen foes, follow the buzzards, wyatt cut, end

.

right, i'm still ill, so i'm off to make some offerings to my shrine to the devil, his sister/daughter, and his earthly incarnation

.

smackdown will happen sooner or later, depending on whether bloody belphegor is on the helpline again

.

stupid hell bureaucracy

.

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

.

protip: if the only way you can communicate to human ears is by modulating the piercing buzz of a roiling swarm of hornets, maybe don't man the fucking phones

.

sigh

.

well, now that that's over (i am feeling much better though, thanks, powers of darkness), who wants some FRIDAY AFTERNOON SMACKDOWN?

.

(hopefully you, cos you're getting it)

.

no cold open for once, but we do start with somebody's music accidentally playing over the intro

.

oh right, yeah, it was kevin's

.

and now we're having it for real, because he's here

.

to do his own version of the highlight reel

.

sadly, he's not just doing the entire segment in french

.

he should so do that some time

.

kevin is here to do the highlight reel because apparently chris will NEVER EVER EVERRRRRRRR be seen again

.

let's have a recap of kevin murdering him

.

i had forgotten quite how brutal it was

.

kevin, stop swaying as you do this promo

.

it's really offputting

.

kevin's going to introduce his guest for the evening in french for shits

.

but aj enters halfway through that, because he don't want none of that french

.

aj is generally skeeved out by kevin stealing chris' life

.

kevin's like fuck off i didn't invite you do you not speak french or something

.

aj's like nope, gets a pop for that because speaking different languages is evil

.

aj promises to bring the belt back to the good old us of a

.

if he promises to make it great again, i'm turning this off

.

he challenges kevin right now, but here's jinder to offer an opinion

.

apparently he was meant to be the guest

.

he cues a recap of him stealing a win last week

.

jinder, you have weird pecs

.

and now i can't stop looking at them

.

it's like your chest is a weimaraner or something

.

jinder quotes gandhi in punjabi, the crowd are unsure how to take that

.

gandhi good, other languages bad, gandhi in other languages ?????

.

kevin's just like welp aj looks like you're gonna get fucked over twice this week

.

aj goes for him, kevin runs, aj invites jinder to his highlight reel

.

which, as it turns out after the ad break, is just a match

.

but with kevin on announce, so that's exciting at least

.

is there someone different on the announce team tonight, or does byron just have a cold or something?

.

but meanwhile, this match is good

.

jinder has improved so much just recently

.

i am so looking forward to the 3mb badass reunion in like a year

.

at ringside, the singhs are wearing the same shirt this week, so i have even less chance than normal to remember which is which

.

weirdly for a styles match, most of this so far is just a straight striking fight

.

singhs make a distraction, jinder hotshots aj and takes him down into a kind of quarter crab crossface thing

.

a very 'this is a submission hold, take our word for it' kind of hold

.

honestly, kevin's lacking a bit of his usual fire on announce

.

lovely sequence from aj there

.

doing the universal, drops down into a chop block on jinder's leg, springboards into a forearm drop

.

jbl likens jinder to leicester city

.

seriously, the london show was the one time he didn't talk about european sport

.

ushigoroshi (which doesn't sound nearly as good any more) into a baseball slide because aj won't take your shit

.

sunil distracts the ref, kevin hits aj in the knee with the belt, khalass for the pin

.

tom really needs to learn that the language is called punjabi

.

punjab is a place

.

but moving on, apparently we have randy vs baron later

.

what the fuck did we do to deserve this

.

okay, i may have badmouthed belphegor on this blog

.

fair point

.

but up next, we have a contract signing for the women's tag match

.

after an advert for takeover chicago

.

which is gonna be so good

.

and a lanesque video

.

two bits of music i like there, but in very different ways

.

now i'm imagining fozzy playing this trash jazz

.

and another fashion files video

.

i am not ready for this

.

fashion files: fashionable intent

.

pan across their pinboard of why all the other tag teams ain't shit

.

and also shinsuke

.

tyler comes in seamlessly disguised as a janitor, fandango can't say 'reconnaissance'

.

and he has evidence of the bad merch of baron, sami, and the usos

.

and then starts having a freakout about how beautiful the usos' hair is

.

fandango breaks him out of it

.

"You're in too deep, man!"

.

after examining the usos' DAY ONE ISH shirts, they plan to defeat them at backlash, and "Then OUR day one will be H!"

.

best joke in the wwe in a long time

.

go for a high five, then dramatically freeze frame for an uncomfortable length of time

.

these videos are fucking gold

.

but next, they're fighting the colóns

.

wait, what happened with the contract signing?

.

but anyway

.

renee captures randy backstage to ask him whether he thinks jinder is shit

.

(spoiler: he ain't)

.

seriously, whoever puts this show together needs a refresher on the meaning of 'next'

.

so yes, now we have breezango going over the colóns

.

match starts during the ad break because fuck you

.

byron compares breezango to the apa, it doesn't go over well with the rest of the panel

.

dear jbl: 'colón' has two syllables, please stop calling them the clones

.

tyler gets beaten all over the ring by primo, counters out with what's basically a beauty shot, but i guess that's not their tag finisher any more so it doesn't count

.

and then clearly shouts AH SHIT as he gets tossed out of the ring

.

and meanwhile, fandango falcon arrows epico for the pin

.

and here are the usos to talk shit

.

extended prison metaphor and all the thug vocab we could put in this while keeping it pg

.

do you get where we're going with this gimmick

.

they read them their thug rights, which boil down to you have the right to get fucked by us because we're gangster

.

they are doing their best talking ever atm

.

here come the face half of the women's division

.

after a uk special advert, because that's totally happening in the future i wonder how those marquee matches will go

.

still gonna be good, though

.

back to the ring, and here's a shane

.

who gets closer to that steve buscemi fellow teenagers gif every day

.

he just wants you to know how achingly cool and not middle-aged he is

.

with his chucks and his v-neck tshirt

.

he's here to tell us how great smackdown is, and specifically its women's division

.

which is a little weird given that their are only half a dozen of them, and they're all in the same match

.

here come the welcoming committee to smug all over us

.

or just to loom, in the case of one of them

.

and also james, because of course he's here

.

and shane introduces the faces individually

.

charlotte flair, who now has her full name on her tron

.

shane introduces becky, says 'pure straight fire', has never sounded so old

.

naomi comes in with a new shirt with her name on the front in flourescent, so that works

.

nattie calls the faces BFFs

.

somebody remembers old nxt

.

and she's just like you do realise we've beaten you every time we've had the opportunity right

.

and signs the contract

.

aww, i was waiting for james to try and sign it

.

becky promises to slap all their faces off

.

not paraphrasing

.

and signs

.

naomi insults everybody's hair, calls ellsworth a girl, lol so edgy

.

and charlotte's just like you do realise how utterly pathetic you all are, right

.

and btw after we win i'm going for that belt you are not actually my friends

.

shane starts declaring the match official, james interrupts for...some reason

.

shane is just like wut

.

apparently james is convinced becky's in love with him

.

and also charlotte

.

he's here to let them down easy

.

and also just tell naomi she ain't shit

.

she goes for him, shane holds her back, james disappears entirely

.

so shane's like fuck it you want a fight let's have a fight carmella/naomi someone do the thing

.

but first, enjoy this advert for backlash

.

and we're back in

.

tom introduces the match while sounding absolutely shocked that a contract signing would turn into a match

.

who could ever be so unprofessional

.

gasp

.

naomi is just maximum aggression and trying to wreck carmella's hair

.

that is a weird fixation of hers

.

and carmella is doing basically nothing, which is also weird given how good she can be

.

naomi goes for a dropkick, ellsworth pulls carmella out of the ring (which mostly just dropped her on her face), and the ref ejects him

.

carmella fakes trying to escape, does a lovely superkick on naomi

.

i get how the narrative works, but i still think it's funny that carmella only gets her offense phase in when ellsworth leaves the room

.

have they considered that he might be carrying a curse

.

no matter how often she does it, naomi's roundhouse kick over the ropes is always impressive

.

naomi goes up top, tamina looms at her, the ref says okay fuck this noise and ejects the whole committee

.

but instead they start brawling with the faces outside

.

and carmella gets a rollup off the distraction

.

her pins are even cheaper than she looks

.

heels are smug, end segment, let us tell you how you should get the network

.

a reminder that we're getting saddled with randy/baron later

.

but now a motivational video from the new day

.

promising to make wwe great again

.

they can get away with that

.

and now dolph does a piece to camera in a locker room for some reason

.

talking about doing his research into how good shinsuke is

.

proposes to show us a vt of all the impressive things he's done here

.

couple of bars of his intro, test card

.

so he's like oh yeah he hasn't done shit enjoy this package of all the cool shit *i've* done here

.

dolph wants to beat nakamura and spit in all of our faces

.

slow down a bit there, champ

.

but now, dasha interviews sami

.

to announce that he's requested a match with baron at backlash

.

for vague reasons

.

apparently baron has been targeting him throughout

.

which...i'm not convinced is true

.

rants about baron a bit, gets totally unexpectedly blindsided, dasha evaporates

.

baron promises to kill sami if he turns up on sunday

.

but now it's our main event time

.

which is *sigh* orton/corbin

.

i'm really trying to give a shit, but i can simply find no shits to give

.

i checked down the back of the sofa and everything

.

on which note, i guess i can give six ants and a fruit pastille about this match

.

i swear, randy's entrance gets longer and duller every time

.

but now, enjoy this advert for how much charity shit wwe does please love us

.

apparently talking smack has naomi, becky, charlotte, jinder and the singhs, and...erick rowan?

.

that should be interesting

.

and here's tjp to smug us into watching 205

.

come back to the ring, randy is still hearing voices

.

this fucking song is going to be stuck in my head for ages

.

finally, here comes baron to replace it with some less catchy bad music

.

i tell you, this baron corbyn couldn't be more different from his dad

.

jbl, stop saying it only takes one rko

.

it's just factually untrue

.

well, this match is every inch as dull as expected

.

let's liven it up with this ad for backlash and video package about shinsuke/dolph

.

but now we're back to the match

.

booooooo

.

baron kicks randy in his knees and elbows, randy has this tortured expression like alas why would anybody do such a thing

.

apparently he's been joining jbl in not paying attention to his matches

.

baron takes a moment mid-offence to elucidate that he's only hurting randy because the crowd like him

.

clearly baron is a bitter, bitter man

.

goes for an end of days, counter, bullfought into the post

.

randy starts his finishing sequence, lariat, lariat, powerslam, baron tries to escape, draping ddt, pose for cameras

.

strikes up the snake

.

goes for the rko, baron's just like um no, pushes him away, and then counters into deep six

.

which remains the best thing about baron corbin

.

scuffle, baron leaves the ring, comes back in and eats an rko for the pin

.

yep, that was certainly a thing that happened

.

oh hey, here comes jinder

.

in a completely unforeseen turn of events

.

to promise to destroy randy and take his bling

.

and while he intones this, the singhs blindisde randy

.

it goes poorly for them

.

goes for a double draping ddt, jinder gets involved

.

the singhs hold randy down while jinder kicks him, and then a khalass

.

and jinder poses with the belt he keeps stealing

.

and we fade on the three of them being like we stole this dude's belt fuck the police

.

with the khalass, did they just pick the finisher that'd be the easiest to counter into an rko?

.

because it's basically the same stance

.

anyway

.

that was smackdown, it was a bit shit but that's pre-ppv shows for you

.

hopefully get this up before tonight's uk championship show, and i'll be live on twitter @waruce for that, takeover, and backlash

.

so much wrestles

.

times are good

[kristablogs]

Six tips for writing emails that aren’t absolute garbage

Unless you're writing to a close friend or provider of illegal goods, "Yo Chucky" is never a good way to start an email. ( NeONBRAND / Unsplash/)

Despite dozens of services trying to kill it, email isn’t going anywhere—with its myriad of flaws and bad practices, it’s still the best system we’ve got. But unless you have a totally innovative idea that will revolutionize the way we communicate forever, there’s two things you can do to make email a bit less awful for everyone.

First, ask yourself whether you actually need to send that email. One of the worst things about digital correspondence is that it’s a pretty crowded channel, so the best email can sometimes be the one you don’t send. There are little to no built-in priority systems, and the artificial intelligence-powered attempts at them aren’t always reliable—an important email from your boss can easily end up in the same inbox as a deranged rant from your cousin and a receipt from your last Uber ride.

But if you decide there’s no way around it, then crafting better, more thoughtful messages can help make email better for everyone. This is where we help you out.

Nail the format

Email has been around since the 1970s, so some pretty well-established conventions have developed over all that time. Getting them right is the first step to a great email.

It all starts with the subject line. It shouldn’t be something vague like “Question,” or “Tuesday?” Instead, write a one-line summary of your email that literally describes the subject of your message.

A good subject line is something like “A question about your article on bad photos” or “Are you free for coffee next Tuesday?” A clear subject means the recipient can see what the email is about when they scan their inbox. This will help them assess its importance and make clear it’s not yet another Groupon offer destined to be left unopened.

The introduction is just as important as the subject, since you want the recipient to actually keep reading. But don’t worry—it takes little to get it right. Your two best options are either “Hi [recipient’s name]” or simply “[recipient’s name].” You can also go with “Dear [recipient’s name]” but it’s a tad staid. Having their name in there assures your recipient that this is a message sent directly to them and not some random email someone copy-pasted and sent to a bunch of people.

A crucial detail, though—make sure you get their name right by triple-checking for misspellings. Also, veer on the side of being too formal—it’s better to call someone Dr. Montgomery even if they are okay with “Charles,” rather than leading with “Yo Chucky” and offend them. People can be touchy about how they’re addressed. If the signature on their reply uses a more informal name, you can consider that in a follow-up email.

The body of the email is where you actually write your message. We’ll look at that properly in a moment.

Finally, email sign-offs are something that people usually put way too much thought into. You don’t need to stress out over the differences between “Thanks,” “Best,” “Regards,” and “Sincerely.” Pick one you think suits your personality and just use it.

Get the tone right

Email humor is tough, but if you really think you can make your boss laugh, by all means, spice things up. (Austin Distel / Unsplash/)

Once you’ve got the form down, it’s time to focus on your message.

Who you’re emailing and your relationship with them determines everything. You absolutely shouldn’t use the same approach to email your close friends, your boss, and someone you’re looking to interview—each one requires a different tone.

Before writing, briefly consider who you’re emailing and what they likely expect from you. Feel free to use slang with your friends and family, but probably avoid it when you’re communicating with coworkers. If you’re writing to a colleague you’re close with, you have a little more leeway and may use slang, but be careful—if the subject of the email is somewhat official, or you think you might show that email to somebody else in the future, try to keep it formal. Use your judgment and don’t say anything in an email you wouldn’t say to their face—or want read out loud in court.

Also, be super careful with humor. Emails don’t convey tone well and emojis are a poor substitute. Unless the recipient is close to you and knows your kind of humor, don’t make any ambiguous or edgy jokes, or statements that could be misread. There’s an extremely thin line between making your boss chuckle and making them initiate disciplinary proceedings—and you don’t want to be on the wrong side of it.

Make it just as long as it needs to be—but not longer

Long emails are terrible to receive. That’s just a fact. Nobody wants to spend an hour wading through paragraph after paragraph of something that could have been a couple of lines. On the other hand, some people take the idea of brief emails a bit too far. Replying to every email in five sentences or less is nice in theory, but it’s not practical because that level of brevity tends to make people sound rude.

Generally speaking, an email should be as concise as possible without omitting anything. As a freelance writer, I send a lot of pitches and get back almost as many rejections. The best rejection emails are the ones that say something like, “Not for us, sorry. Good luck finding somewhere else.”

Yes, they’re super short, but they say everything that needs to be said and also take the time to leave things on a positive note. In terms of length, writing a full line rather than half a line doesn’t make much of a difference in reading time, but it makes a huge difference in the way you make the recipient feel.

One email, one topic

It’s a good idea to limit emails to a single topic. If you want to schedule a meeting, give feedback on something, and also ask the recipient for an expense report, it’s probably better to send two or three separate emails.

Email inboxes just aren’t as searchable as most people would like them to be, so it’s too easy for an important bit of information to get muddled up or buried. Your recipient shouldn’t have to remember that the date of an important meeting was mentioned in a single line at the end of a long email providing feedback on an unrelated project. Even when they scan their inbox looking for it, they’re apt to skip over the email it’s actually in.

Reread and edit. Then reread again.

"Yeah, 'I'm super looking forward to hearing back from you, please and thank you,' does sound a bit desperate." (Sincerely Media / Unsplash/)

The secret to all great writing is editing—and this is just as true with emails. I’m not suggesting you spend hours working through multiple drafts for a simple note to a friend, but you should at least reread every email you write twice before you hit “send.”

Read it over once, making any necessary edits, and once you’re done, read it again to see what the final version looks like. Make changes until you feel satisfied. If it helps, read your email out loud so you’re forced to actually look at every word, instead of just skimming through them.

These are some of the things you need to look out for:

Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, especially in the intro and whenever else you mention your recipient by name. You can use tools like <a href="http://grammarly.com/" target=_blank>Grammarly</a> to help spot them.

If you’ve already sent an email to someone else and you’re copying and pasting the body, make sure you update any details like the recipient’s name, the date, and phone numbers.

Don’t just send a wall of text. There should be paragraph breaks between each point you make.

Don’t repeat yourself or go on longer than you need.

Too! Many! Exclamation! Points! How many is too many is up for debate. Casual emails can handle one every few lines but a message to your accountant should probably have none.

Cliches. Avoid them like the novel coronavirus.

Make sure the tone is consistent and appropriate.

Remember to attach whatever you said you were going to attach. Some email clients, <a href="https://ift.tt/2xXT40V" target=_blank>like Gmail</a>, will help you here—if you say “attached” without actually attaching something, they’ll prompt you.

The “to” field is for people who need to respond. The “CC” field is for people who need to be kept in the loop.

Other tips and tricks

Writing a good email, like many things, is more about avoiding problems than doing anything dramatically inspired. If your tone is right, the body is concise, and you don’t commit any ridiculous blunders or offend the recipient, you’ve written a good email.

After you hit send, it’s only a matter of waiting for a prompt and hopefully positive reply. Keep something in mind, though—emails get lost. Frequently. If you haven’t heard back from your recipient, it’s okay to follow up after a day or two, depending on the urgency of your message. Just remember people have lives, so don’t be pushy about it.

If you’re worried you’ll be the one forgetting to follow up, your email client probably has a nudge or reminder feature, which is worth using. Set it for the maximum amount of time you can wait for a reply, and after that, it’ll ask if you want to follow up.

[scootoaster]

Six tips for writing emails that aren’t absolute garbage

Unless you're writing to a close friend or provider of illegal goods, "Yo Chucky" is never a good way to start an email. ( NeONBRAND / Unsplash/)

Despite dozens of services trying to kill it, email isn’t going anywhere—with its myriad of flaws and bad practices, it’s still the best system we’ve got. But unless you have a totally innovative idea that will revolutionize the way we communicate forever, there’s two things you can do to make email a bit less awful for everyone.

First, ask yourself whether you actually need to send that email. One of the worst things about digital correspondence is that it’s a pretty crowded channel, so the best email can sometimes be the one you don’t send. There are little to no built-in priority systems, and the artificial intelligence-powered attempts at them aren’t always reliable—an important email from your boss can easily end up in the same inbox as a deranged rant from your cousin and a receipt from your last Uber ride.

But if you decide there’s no way around it, then crafting better, more thoughtful messages can help make email better for everyone. This is where we help you out.

Nail the format

Email has been around since the 1970s, so some pretty well-established conventions have developed over all that time. Getting them right is the first step to a great email.

It all starts with the subject line. It shouldn’t be something vague like “Question,” or “Tuesday?” Instead, write a one-line summary of your email that literally describes the subject of your message.

A good subject line is something like “A question about your article on bad photos” or “Are you free for coffee next Tuesday?” A clear subject means the recipient can see what the email is about when they scan their inbox. This will help them assess its importance and make clear it’s not yet another Groupon offer destined to be left unopened.

The introduction is just as important as the subject, since you want the recipient to actually keep reading. But don’t worry—it takes little to get it right. Your two best options are either “Hi [recipient’s name]” or simply “[recipient’s name].” You can also go with “Dear [recipient’s name]” but it’s a tad staid. Having their name in there assures your recipient that this is a message sent directly to them and not some random email someone copy-pasted and sent to a bunch of people.

A crucial detail, though—make sure you get their name right by triple-checking for misspellings. Also, veer on the side of being too formal—it’s better to call someone Dr. Montgomery even if they are okay with “Charles,” rather than leading with “Yo Chucky” and offend them. People can be touchy about how they’re addressed. If the signature on their reply uses a more informal name, you can consider that in a follow-up email.

The body of the email is where you actually write your message. We’ll look at that properly in a moment.

Finally, email sign-offs are something that people usually put way too much thought into. You don’t need to stress out over the differences between “Thanks,” “Best,” “Regards,” and “Sincerely.” Pick one you think suits your personality and just use it.

Get the tone right

Email humor is tough, but if you really think you can make your boss laugh, by all means, spice things up. (Austin Distel / Unsplash/)

Once you’ve got the form down, it’s time to focus on your message.

Who you’re emailing and your relationship with them determines everything. You absolutely shouldn’t use the same approach to email your close friends, your boss, and someone you’re looking to interview—each one requires a different tone.

Before writing, briefly consider who you’re emailing and what they likely expect from you. Feel free to use slang with your friends and family, but probably avoid it when you’re communicating with coworkers. If you’re writing to a colleague you’re close with, you have a little more leeway and may use slang, but be careful—if the subject of the email is somewhat official, or you think you might show that email to somebody else in the future, try to keep it formal. Use your judgment and don’t say anything in an email you wouldn’t say to their face—or want read out loud in court.

Also, be super careful with humor. Emails don’t convey tone well and emojis are a poor substitute. Unless the recipient is close to you and knows your kind of humor, don’t make any ambiguous or edgy jokes, or statements that could be misread. There’s an extremely thin line between making your boss chuckle and making them initiate disciplinary proceedings—and you don’t want to be on the wrong side of it.

Make it just as long as it needs to be—but not longer

Long emails are terrible to receive. That’s just a fact. Nobody wants to spend an hour wading through paragraph after paragraph of something that could have been a couple of lines. On the other hand, some people take the idea of brief emails a bit too far. Replying to every email in five sentences or less is nice in theory, but it’s not practical because that level of brevity tends to make people sound rude.

Generally speaking, an email should be as concise as possible without omitting anything. As a freelance writer, I send a lot of pitches and get back almost as many rejections. The best rejection emails are the ones that say something like, “Not for us, sorry. Good luck finding somewhere else.”

Yes, they’re super short, but they say everything that needs to be said and also take the time to leave things on a positive note. In terms of length, writing a full line rather than half a line doesn’t make much of a difference in reading time, but it makes a huge difference in the way you make the recipient feel.

One email, one topic

It’s a good idea to limit emails to a single topic. If you want to schedule a meeting, give feedback on something, and also ask the recipient for an expense report, it’s probably better to send two or three separate emails.

Email inboxes just aren’t as searchable as most people would like them to be, so it’s too easy for an important bit of information to get muddled up or buried. Your recipient shouldn’t have to remember that the date of an important meeting was mentioned in a single line at the end of a long email providing feedback on an unrelated project. Even when they scan their inbox looking for it, they’re apt to skip over the email it’s actually in.

Reread and edit. Then reread again.

"Yeah, 'I'm super looking forward to hearing back from you, please and thank you,' does sound a bit desperate." (Sincerely Media / Unsplash/)

The secret to all great writing is editing—and this is just as true with emails. I’m not suggesting you spend hours working through multiple drafts for a simple note to a friend, but you should at least reread every email you write twice before you hit “send.”

Read it over once, making any necessary edits, and once you’re done, read it again to see what the final version looks like. Make changes until you feel satisfied. If it helps, read your email out loud so you’re forced to actually look at every word, instead of just skimming through them.

These are some of the things you need to look out for:

Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, especially in the intro and whenever else you mention your recipient by name. You can use tools like <a href="http://grammarly.com/" target=_blank>Grammarly</a> to help spot them.

If you’ve already sent an email to someone else and you’re copying and pasting the body, make sure you update any details like the recipient’s name, the date, and phone numbers.

Don’t just send a wall of text. There should be paragraph breaks between each point you make.

Don’t repeat yourself or go on longer than you need.

Too! Many! Exclamation! Points! How many is too many is up for debate. Casual emails can handle one every few lines but a message to your accountant should probably have none.

Cliches. Avoid them like the novel coronavirus.

Make sure the tone is consistent and appropriate.

Remember to attach whatever you said you were going to attach. Some email clients, <a href="https://ift.tt/2xXT40V" target=_blank>like Gmail</a>, will help you here—if you say “attached” without actually attaching something, they’ll prompt you.

The “to” field is for people who need to respond. The “CC” field is for people who need to be kept in the loop.

Other tips and tricks

Writing a good email, like many things, is more about avoiding problems than doing anything dramatically inspired. If your tone is right, the body is concise, and you don’t commit any ridiculous blunders or offend the recipient, you’ve written a good email.

After you hit send, it’s only a matter of waiting for a prompt and hopefully positive reply. Keep something in mind, though—emails get lost. Frequently. If you haven’t heard back from your recipient, it’s okay to follow up after a day or two, depending on the urgency of your message. Just remember people have lives, so don’t be pushy about it.

If you’re worried you’ll be the one forgetting to follow up, your email client probably has a nudge or reminder feature, which is worth using. Set it for the maximum amount of time you can wait for a reply, and after that, it’ll ask if you want to follow up.

[linseysezines]

Short Story: With Both Feet

Elena’s mom had once told her that she was the bravest girl she’d ever know. But she died and Elena stopped believing that. Elena’s life had taken a downward spiral the day her mom chose to take her own life. She had come home that evening from a hard day at school along with her little brother Austin whom she would pick up afterward too. Elena did her best to help her mother out on most days especially after her father left them for another family years back. She never wanted Austin to feel a gap in his life without an important parent figure so she felt that it was necessary for her to step up and fill the gap. She wanted to be there for him.

Elena had been very successful for her age as she was the best swimmer in her small town as she had beaten much of her town’s old-time records. She had been a local competition swimmer and a part-time lifeguard but now she could barely go near the water. Elena remembers exactly what happened five years ago. The memory is still fresh and would forever be stained in her memory, unerasable and frozen in time. She remembers coming home after a tough day and calling out for her mom and searching for her through the house with her little brother. It became much harder after her mother died. The only people who had legal custody of them after their mother was their father.

As the years went by Austin became more and more of a handful for her to handle. It wasn’t a better life. She didn’t know how to raise a delinquent. Forget raising him, she was barely an adult herself and she had the whole world on her shoulders while the whole world stood and watched. Elena was completely wrong about Austin being in need of a father figure in his life. Austin would do just about anything to get the spotlight on him whether it be getting into trouble at school because to him any negative attention was still attention. Elena learned that it didn’t matter who the parents were, what only mattered was her the proper aspects of the relationship such as guidance, support, and care. However, this was something that was way out of her hands. Now being 22 years old with a job she was able to move out, take Austin with her where she could give him the life she’s always wanted to give him. The only thing that was stopping Elena was the lack of courage she had from all the previous failed attempts of trying to get up on her own two feet. What’s silly in her opinion was the fact that her faults and failures didn’t make any sense by they were there like her fear of water she’s been having for five years.

Five years ago Elena’s plans were much different. The future she’d painted for herself was much more colorful and it was what she wanted. Her future wasn’t for the greater good, it was all for herself and what she wanted. She had her future all figured out. She was going to enroll in a university for her academics including her beloved sport, swimming. Maybe when her SAT results came in she could even consider an institute in the United States. However, her plans ended up having to take a detour. The evening she discovered her mother's dead body sitting lifelessly in the bathtub with a toaster is something she would never forget. Nothing confused her more than to why her mother did that to both her and Austin. It made no sense that a mother would do that to her two children who were dependent upon her for almost the entire lives. None of it made sense. Her mother was selfish, not only did Elena’s mother take her life but she also stole all of Elena’s passions and ambitious as she left this Earth. She was ripped of them that day which left her feeling naked and vulnerable as if there is no safe place for her to go to in this cruel world.  Unfortunately for her, it seemed that the world was moving on and she was the only one who was still stuck in the past unable to move forward. Elena had also lost some of her friends because of this unusual behaviour too. Some of her past friends would point out how strange she is and that she needs to move on from the past. The only problem is the fear that was built up in Elena’s mind. It was the fear that everything would not work out the proper way and that everything would fail and crumble in her heads. Elena has rejected promotions at work in fear that she would lose what she already had, she wouldn’t take any vacation leave unless it was absolutely necessary and she didn’t buy anything over expensive for herself either. For someone Elena’s age who is working, she was living a very limited and minimalistic lifestyle only hers wasn’t. Her lifestyle is just built out of fear of failure and fear of drastic change even if it’s for the better. Some of her friends would mention to her that it would be a good idea if she visited a therapist or psychiatrist for her issues especially the ones revolving around her mother's death and the fears she is left with. Some of her friends have gone as far as to tell her that there may be something wrong with her and she must have gone through some sort of huge shell-shock the day she witnessed her mother lifeless body in the bathtub. Elena herself did not want to believe that this has taken a toll on her life and that it is affecting her to such an extreme extent especially after five years.

Elena was in the kitchen table as she flipped through the newspaper when Austin finally came through the door and sat across from her. It had been a while since he had done something of that nature because usually he would just grab something and leave with uttering a single word, but this time was different. It was as if he wants to discuss something important, at least that's how Elena felt from his presence. However, nothing prepared Elena for what Austin was to ask. “Can we go to the beach”, he asked her quietly. The beach was somewhere they hadn’t gone for five years especially after the death of their mother. There were many great memories on the beach that was near and dear to them. When asked that question Elena froze in shock. For the past five years, they hadn’t done anything they had used to do in the past, but that was all because of Elena. “No”, she immediately replied without even giving it a second thought. Elena thought that it was for the best that they just avoided these type of things. “You know it’s crazy that we haven’t done anything fun for the past five years”, Austin yelled at Elena in frustration and with what seemed to be like bottled up emotions from years back that was just coming out now. “I don’t understand, it’s been five years and ever since then all you’ve been doing is living like a nun”, Austin continued ranting to her. “Everyday after mom left, I watched you fade away. I watched you slowly lose yourself. You are so scared of losing things that you are scared of normal things like change. Change is okay. Change has to happen for us to move forward. Look, moms not going to come back like...ever and I’m sorry, but don’t make me a prisoner to this”, Austin finally puts an end to his emotional delivery and walks out of the kitchen leaving Elena in shock. It was definitely the first time she had heard Austin release his pent up emotions like that and it was also the first time he had yelled to her in that sort of nature. They were really some good topic to chew on. To Elena, it was one of the biggest wake-up calls to her especially because Austin was the only family left of hers that she cared very much about and all she’s ever done is to give him a life he’d want. Learning that she was the cause of how he felt like a prisoner was tough because she thought that she was doing everything right by keeping him inside. Elena sighed and got up from her chair.

She started walking out of the kitchen and towards the hallway in the direction of Austin’s room. Once she’d reached the door, she stood outside for a minute observing him from the door the was left ajar. He was listening to music with one ear-pod in. Elena knocked on the door lightly to get his attention before entering the room. She sat on the duvet covered mattress for quite sometime before she finally decided to speak. “Let’s go to the beach”, she finally let the words flow out of her mouth that she once dreaded. “You mean like right now”, Austin asked in surprise as Elena nodded with a light smile/ It was at that moment that Austin’s eyes lit up like lanterns like they never had before since five years. Austin had already started smiling like a goof in happiness. “Oh my god, we’re going to the beach, Oh my god woohoo”, Austin hollered in excitement as a million dollar smile lit up his face. Elena would have done this sooner if she had known it would change the way she felt in a long time and most of all how her brother felt. She’d never seen a seventeen-year-old teenager get so excited over something very simple like the beach. Seeing Austin smiling meant the world to her and as long as she had that she thought to herself that she was willing to do anything for it to stay that way.

[faeseawitch]

I can’t wait until this type a bitch leaves.

So before going to work I stopped by Charlie’s and told him about the check. Turns out everyone’s checks aren’t working properly and we got the problem solved but this makes me five minutes late to clock in. Which no biggie. I’ve never been late and because I was talking to the guy who owns the company he doesn’t mind.

As soon as I walk in Chelsea immediately turns to me and tells me that I’m late. I’m like I know I was talking to Charlie downstairs. She wants to know why and because it doesn’t concern her I tell her that.

Big mistake.

She looks like a loony toons character that’s about to burst and tries to stand taller than me. Which like everyone is it’s not scary. So she goes all intimidating and demands to know what we were talking about. Again I tell her it finest concern her and she goes on this spiel about how she owns part of The company and it does concern her. At this point she notices I’m not wearing my hat. Now I don’t put it on until after I clock in and dig it out of my bag. Been doing this all summer.

So now she’s going on and on about I don’t look presentable and customers will notice and give a bad review. Keep in mind the only people in right now are an elderly couple who aren’t paying attention.

I get that she cares about the company and all but holy fucking shit take a god damn chill pill. 🙄

Now we reach the part where Charlie comes up to take stock and hears the last half of Chelsea rant. By now it’s been like 10-15 minutes since she’s been on my case. He tells her off and that’s it’s fine no big deal because I was talking to him and he made me late.

So now she’s all sulky like a child and I’m about at my patience’s end. Oh but we haven’t gotten to the best part yet. Her boyfriend Austin, also a manger and part owner, defends me telling her to lay off. She loses her mind thinking there’s some kind of conspiracy going on. And in full overly dramatic gay fashion I tell her that I’m gay and if I hadn’t known her before hand I would have been much more interested in her not him.

This is just getting messier the more it goes on. We’ve been doing this for like 30 minutes at this point and I’m close to losing my temper.

It ends when Charlie tells Austin and Chelsea to go help down at West today and leaves Becca in charge of this location until everyone cools off. Which does not help because Chelsea is SUPER insecure. She was supposed to come up here for the summer but her mom broke her hip and she was stuck in Arizona at that location. Fun fact about that location; they have he highest turn over rate because Chelsea keeps making the employees cry. She doesn’t even trust her fiancée even tho they’ve been engaged for six years and dating for at least eight years. Girl need to get a grip.

Now things have finally calmed down and we can finally get on with our day. Tho everyone is going to the hot springs tonight after work and I might just drown the bitch.

This job is a huge shit show. 🙄

[howpeopledo]

Donald Trump goes on Easter morning Twitter rant, questioning protesters who want his taxes released

The day after U.S. tax day (but still two days before taxes are actually due to the IRS), President Donald Trump had a couple of questions for his Twitter followers on Sunday morning. The main subject: Why do people still care about the fact he never followed through on his promise to release his taxes?

I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017

Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017

Yes, people are still upset about his refusal to release his taxes, and on Saturday, many across the country marched in protest. As ABC News points out, thousands of citizens from Los Angeles to New York demanded that he be transparent with his financial history.

#TaxMarch in downtown LA @taxmarch #Resistance http://pic.twitter.com/TYfw5uIVUn

— Austin Highsmith (@AustinHighsmith) April 15, 2017

Think it’s safe to say that New Yorkers do care about @realDonaldTrump’s tax returns…in a #BIGLY way. (pic: @TheRickyDavila) #TaxMarch http://pic.twitter.com/ikTKbrhtQc

— Trump Tax March (@taxmarch) April 15, 2017

There was also a violent clash Saturday in Berkeley, California, in which pro-Trump supporters planned a “Patriot Day” rally but were met by ant-Trump protesters. At least a dozen people were reportedly arrested.

Water/soda bottles thrown, firecrackers deployed #berkrally http://pic.twitter.com/rfO9y2dd4r

— Harini Shyamsundar (@hshyamsundar) April 15, 2017

JUST IN: 12 people have been arrested as pro and anti-Trump protestors clash in Berkeley, California https://t.co/LDmsv9Ie76 http://pic.twitter.com/jAbhnh46aB

— CNN (@CNN) April 15, 2017

Trump on Sunday also tweeted his thoughts about China—the country he had previously called a currency manipulator—and U.S. military strength.

Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017

Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before. Frankly, we have no choice!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017

Oh, and in case you thought he forgot Sunday was one of the most important religious holidays of the year…

Happy Easter to everyone!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017

The post Donald Trump goes on Easter morning Twitter rant, questioning protesters who want his taxes released appeared first on How People Do.

from Donald Trump goes on Easter morning Twitter rant, questioning protesters who want his taxes released

[gallifreyqueeen]

Ughhhh I just wanna let everything out, I wanna scream, I wanna scream so fucking loud. I wanna get over this stupid shit but I can't, I just can't and I honestly haven't the faintest idea why. I'm confused with myself at this point. You wanna know my problem? What's still pissing me off? The fact that I actually give a shit about someone that clearly doesn't give a shit about me. Someone I've been so patient with, someone I've been so understanding of. I've kept my cool and gave them the benefit of the doubt when all they have done is taken a big shit on me and what's worse? I take it, I brush it the fuck off and act like everything's fine because he's a great genuine guy who has major relationship issues, because " everyone around me has to stuffer for it", I mean, Yes I do think this person is a good person, matter of fact I know this person is a good person, good friend, good father, but he is so oblivious to how shitty he's made me feel and how he's handled this whole situation. I've defended him when everyone around me has said the same thing, even a stranger I vented out to who told me "it looks like he wants to eat his cake and have it too" also adding " he cares enough to keep you around but he doesn't really want you" and that really hurt but it made me realize the truth. Yes, we never dated, when I moved to Austin he asked if I was okay with whatever the weird fucking relationship we had, at first I was okay with it but the more I hung out with him the more I realized my feelings. When we weren't together he seemed so distant and when we were together he was sweet and funny and safe and I felt comfortable with him and I thought to myself "maybe he has the same feelings for you, maybe he just doesn't wanna commit right now" but in reality I knew he was never gonna commit to me...I guess I would feel more okay if he really wasn't looking for a relationship because then I think it's not just me, there's nothing wrong with me but he is out there looking for a relationship. We were friends with benefits for the short time since I've been to Austin but it wasn't that before, before he wanted a relationship with me, HE FUCKING FLEW ME OUT TO FUCKING AUSTIN TO STAY WITH HIM. Before he flew me out he seemed to into me, so In like with me. after that trip everything changed, he was distant and I noticed it immediately. some stupid drama shit went down and we were done...he realized he didn't want a relationship, he had trust issues, he had anxiety, but I knew that wasn't the whole truth. I knew...I know I did something or changed something in him to not wanna talk to me anymore. He says otherwise but I just think he doesn't wanna hurt my feelings. When I broke off our sex buddies situation, I wanted to do it in person, so he could see me, so he could look me in the face while I told him all the things I needed to say. So he could know how much hurt I had in me. But it was over the phone, and I did most of the talking. I so badly wanted him to vent out to me and to really talk to me about it. But it wasn't a long phone call. I asked him why it wasn't me, I asked him if it was something I did, I asked him if it was the age difference. He told me it wasn't anything I did but I still don't believe that. I want him to hit me wit the ugly truth and say " hey lex, I never really cared for you so you need to move the fuck on" Maybe then I could move on. I ended whatever we had 5 days before New Year's Eve, we were all getting together for a mutual friend of ours birthday and new year....and you know what he does? Come to find out he was together with a girl that I knew, she wasn't my friend because I've only met her once before but he came with her...5 days before we ended our thing 5 days before I vented out to him about how I felt about him.He was with a girl knowing I was hurting about the situation. No warning, no " hey, I just wanna let you know beforehand I'm talking to so and so now so we're kind of a thing " I feel like he at least could have respected me enough to do that but he didn't. I was not expecting that at all, I felt like a damn fool when I figured out they came together. I'm not gonna lie and say it didn't hurt but it did, it hurt like hell. But i wasn't gonna let that ruin my weekend, and it didn't because I was the better person and kept my cool. The girl he was with is a girl I've met before,I met her once and she seemed like a cool and fun girl, and was very nice to me. I wasn't gonna blame her for what he didn't handle correctly and so I tried having a little convo with her while we were all out, nothing to do with him just a nice chat. I wanted to send her the vibe that there was no hard feelings. But home girl was not fucking having it...the nice girl I met once before completely changed. She kept rolling her eyes at me and just being so damn nasty. She knew what me and him had before and she let it get to her, why? I don't know. She was there with him, she was going home to fuck him so obviously she had nothing to worry about. After that night I avoided her completely. I didn't want any drama so I kept my distance from her. The night of New Year's Eve we all went to this private event, of course she and him were there also, him and I kept it cool the whole weekend, because regardless he's still my friend, I let that shit slide even though I know I shouldn't have. After that private party we went to the birthday girls house and all hung out there, we all took Jell-O shots at one point and all I here in a high pitched ass voice "honey come get your shot" I wanted to bust out laughing, she was really trying to get under my skin and I though it was hilarious because it wasn't working at all. First off,even though it fucking hurt that he was with her that weekend I knew damn well that shit wasn't gonna last or isn't gonna last. If you knew the guy I'm talking about, you would know that his daughter is his number one priority. He would never wanna put her in a shady ass situation or bring toxic people into her life. Why do I know it's not gonna last? She's a hot mess, everyone that knows her knows she does coke, not like every once in awhile I'm talking about bitch can't live without that shit. How do I know this? My mother knows her and has told me she's a wild one. Mutual friends that we have, have told me the same. Why would he want to pursue a serious relationship with her? I don't get it. I really don't know what his intentions are with this one because I know him well enough that he would not want that kind of drama especially around his daughter. It made me think and think and think, what was it that she had that I didn't have? What made him want a potential relationship with her? Why not me? Am I that fucked up in the head,that young that he rather have a coke addict as a girlfriend? Is it because she's more successful in life than I am? Because I'm just starting off in life? Because I don't have a car? I don't have a career yet? All these things I wonder and it makes me feel so low. I may not have a car yet and I may not have a career yet but I'm building my way up one step at a time and I'm working my ass off and no one can dare tell me otherwise, everyone has told me what a big step in life I made to move to Austin,to a new city, a new home, a fresh start in life. And when they tell me how courageous it was of me to do it, I feel pretty damn good. I honestly don't give myself enough credit. As for my dear friend I've ranted about tonight, I wish you could see how awful you have made me feel. I so badly want to be wrong. I want so badly for you to text me and talk to me, not just small talk but really talk. You don't like to talk about your emotions and feelings but I wish you could. Sometimes I even wonder if you think about what you're doing to me or if you even think of me at all. Last time I saw him was on my birthday which was after New Years, we all got together for a bit and it was nice, it was a very peaceful and chill environment that night. I honestly didn't think he would come but he did. He didn't really seem himself though, he looked like his mind was somewhere else. This feeling sucks, the worst thing is loving someone who doesn't love you. Do I love him? Yes of course, I've never said it to him but i can honestly say I do. Am I in love with him? No, I don't. But I've fallen for him so damn hard and it frustrates me, he has such an awesome personality and he has a good heart. I wish we could continue what we had, what you felt for me back then because I would be so damn loyal and so damn good to you, And i would be there for you when you're at your best and even at your lowest. But things happen for a reason and after everything you've put me through i know I deserve so much more. I have so much love to give and I know one day someone's gonna put as much effort into me as I put into them. Maybe you're meant to be in my life but just as friend because regardless of everything I know we have some sort of bond. I want our friendship to last as long as it can but for now I feel like I need to stay away from you for awhile until I'm ready to be around you. Do you even give a shit about me? I honestly don't know...