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pluviophile-bookworm · 3 years

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HSMTMTS 2x10: New and a bit alarming... ok, very alarming

I don't even know at this point if I'm more nervous or excited for this episode. I've done my waiting and, well, whatever lies ahead, good or bad, or a little bit of both, I just can't wait anymore, even though I haven't been so scared to press play since... well, since last week. Guess I should just go for it, then:

Ooh, shady Seb doing the recap! We love to see it. Like, seriously, I'm anxious about the Seblos fight, but shady Seb is kind of my new favourite Seb.

I just... Ashlyn's acting is top tier. Emotional connection to the material? Superb! Chemistry with her co-lead... well, he'd have to be co-leading for any chemistry to be possible. I love Ricky, and I feel for him with all he's been through, but he's just not lead material right now. And it shows. Especially next to Ashlyn, who is killing it!

Miss Jenn is on the verge of a bloody mental breakdown and I just... wish I could do something to make things better. She reminds me of my mum when a deadline approaches for her to submit an article, and I just feel for her right now. Gosh, I'm feeling for everybody today. My empathy seems to be at its peak and I might just burst from all these emotions this episode is making me feel even before the 5-minute mark.

Ok, but Miss Jenn being stressed means Carlos is stressed for two, which means... this is a really bad time for him and Seb to have personal problems. My heart just can't handle it.

Wow... I never thought I'd see the day! The two leads are actually talking to each other! This is a mid-July miracle!

Why does everyone keep pretending their HSM was good? It was a flaming hot mess! A child could see that.

Miss Jenn needs a lot of work on her 'gracious face'. I, like Carlos, have quite some notes. Only mine aren't exactly, how do you say... verbally formulated quite yet.

Did Carlos just refer to Miss Jenn as 'mother'? Because yes.

I've been in a couple of local theatre productions in my day, but none of them had actual physical sets — we relied on the audience's imagination quite a lot — so I wouldn't know what a good set is made of... but even I can tell that plywood and Elmer's glue = not good.

Kourtney is a multi-tasking icon and we love her. I feel like I don't say this enough, but she deserves all the love.

Ooh, shady Seb is... well, shady! 'Quit school and get a job at the pizza shop?' — I mean, you don't see Reddy or Kourtney (or Howie, for that matter) quitting school in order to work at the Slices! Those kids juggle it all and, as someone who's never had to balance school and a job all at once, they have my deepest admiration.

Still, I think they should have thought about 'inventing' something re: transformation earlier than this point. The personal drama has taken up too much of their time.

Why does everyone keep inviting people over to Ashlyn's? I mean, it's not like I've ever heard her complain, but the girl needs some rest! And her house is not a public space.

Oh, so they're making this into a contest? I mean, I have never been a fan of competition, but to each their own. And Redlyn are hosting! This is going to be so beautiful! (You know, unless the boys try to sleep — see my post from yesterday about Reddy's background noise machine)

'I'm not worried. But North High should be!' Ooh, I love this look on Ashlyn! See, there's a lead to take notes from! And Ricky should be the first to do so. Take notes about what a lead acts like, I mean.

Oooooh, Big Red claps back! We love to see it. Although, you know, it stems from the fact that he's nervous about coming up with a solution to the transformation problem. 'I get bossy around the power tools' — Yes, sweetie, and I love that look on you. Maybe you should be around power tools more often, if that helps.

Ughhh, look what the cat brought in! Lily (I wish I knew her last name so I could refer to her by it exclusively, but we'll have to make do). I hate that girl. She reminds me quite exactly of the girl who bullied me in seventh grade to the point where I wished I'd die before having to deal with her at school again. She and Lily both bring out my aggressive side, and I hate that about them.

Ricky — 'so good at being a leading man'? I don't know what Lily is playing at here, but Ricky has not shown himself to be a very good leading man this season. He has the potential to be, but he has not fulfilled it by this point. Sure, he supports his friends and they support him, but that's basic decency. Not yet good leadership. No hate on Ricky, just the truth.

'I vaguely remember him' — please tell me this is setup for Ricky leading Lily on and then slamming the door in her face with the truth. The way I see it, he's been given a chance here. A chance to be the supportive, protective best friend Big Red deserves. I just... have a lot of ideas about this and I don't want it to end badly instead.

'I'm just not well-liked here, and I don't know what to do' — well, of course you aren't well-liked, you little— (ok, ok, calm down, breathe, 10, 9, 8...) whatever. I mean, she hasn't even considered basic decency, as it seems. Must be a new concept to her.

'Don't start with me, Carlos!' Wow. As much as I hate it that my two faves' only interaction in so long is so hostile, I kind of like this side of Big Red. I wonder what other sides of himself he's been hiding.

Listen, I don't like Seb being patronised and babied, but... 'Chip, this is your mother speaking: go call your mother!' made me laugh so hard. They're leaning into the on-stage family dynamic and I live for it.

EJ's idea of using old skateboards for the spinning contraption is... a brilliant callback to the fact that Ricky and Big Red were first characterised as skateboarders... you know, before diving headfirst into the theatre thing. And it feels like it might actually work.

Miss Jenn's excitement at seeing Mr Mazzara ('Benjamin!!!') is perhaps only topped by the fact that he was halfway home, got a text from her and instantly went back to the school. I mean, these two have something that's really big.

Miss Jenn referring to the kids as 'my children', combined with Carlos calling her 'mother' earlier just warms my heart so much! Those guys really are family. I live for it.

Ok, but... as clear as it is that the Wildcats are very far behind NH in terms of budget, rehearsal time and who knows what else, I hate seeing Miss Jenn resigned to them losing. I want to see her have faith in them, talk about how they will win, and, in her own words, 'trust the process'. I mean, I guess it's good that, as a teacher, she wants to prepare her kids for a possible defeat (and I mean really possible if they don't step up their game immediately, especially some of them * cough* Ricky *cough *), but a team that goes out to the field expecting to lose has a very minimal chance of winning.

Despite everything I've been saying again and again about Nini lately, the fact that she just delivered a very different 'No, Seb' has just redeemed her. See, this one wasn't dismissive or patronising — this was like, 'no, Seb, don't put yourself down' and I love that spin on the catchphrase I'd grown to hate. See, many things can be redeemed. And some simply cannot. * cough* Devil's spawn Lily *cough *. Also, Seb being self-conscious about the fact that Carlos 'doesn't have many options' at East Hight is the perfect setup for In a Heartbeat — meaning they will either have a chance to talk about their issue, or they have a telepathic connection, in which case, what kind of soulmate stuff is that?

'You're my sister; he's my cousin' — yeah, Ash, putting it like that makes it sound a lot weirder than it should, but I do get what you're trying to say. This is not a drill! Ashlyn is a Portwell shipper (heck, maybe even the captain of that ship) — but I feel like we already knew that.

'Why'd I never hear about this?' — and there it goes. Within the same scene, Nini was redeemed and then made aggravating again. What does she care if Gina thought Ricky sent her chocolates? He didn't. Because he and Gina can't be anything but very good friends. And I feel like good friends is what Gina needs. Maybe that's why I wanted EJ to be that for her initially (or it was because I'm aroace and don't tend to notice romantic attraction between fictional characters — or real people for that matter — unless it's explicitly stated to be there). But I've been on board of the majestic S.S. Portwell for a few weeks now and it's finally about to set sail.

Yeah, Nini, get a root beer, calm the heck down and get over it!

'Your other clockwise!' — Why does this even need to be said? How many 'clockwise's are there? I absolutely understand why Big Red gets the way he gets around power tools. I'd be on edge too, if the people I was trying to work with didn't know what way clockwise is. Still, I feel like by the time I'm 30, nobody younger than me would have a reason to know what way clockwise is, and I don't know if I feel bad or neutral about it.

Oh, so there's no telepathy involved in Seblos' problem resolution — it's been Redlyn's good communication all along. I might have known.

Ooh, Portwell is being discussed on both sides! PORTWELL NATION HOW WE FEELING

Nini? Why is everything about Nini? There's no way everything is about Nini. In all seriousness, though, EJ's worries about letting the next girl go seem valid in regards to Gina, given that she explicitly stated (though not within earshot of EJ or anyone who could have tipped him off) that she needs someone who will show up and stay. But they'll figure it out. They'll find a way. I know it. They will, or I will riot, and I know I won't be alone in that.

Ooh, Howie is giving Kourtney the original blueprints! Looks like Reddy isn't the only one who has a spy on the inside.

Ahhh, Ricky! Not 'Let You Go' again. I haven't cried to it in three days and I was not ready to break that streak. But... wait, this is where Carlos approaches Ricky to ask him for help with writing a song for Seb, isn't it? I am definitely ready for this.

Oh, is it... is it Ricky who suggests Carlos write a song for Seb? Now that is what a good leading man looks like.

'I'm adjusting to being called bro' — me too, Carlito, me too. But... this scene must have been so emotional for Josh, given that he hadn't come out yet. I remember him crying during The Climb and... all I'm saying is I want Ricky to come out at some point, too.

Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh... they were just talking about love languages and that's when Carlos shows up? Cinematic. Wait, there's Portwell too? This is what dreams are made of.

My oh my oh my! Risotto! For real this time. I might have just teared up. (Full disclosure: I did.) I've only had Portwell for about three weeks, but if anything happens to them, I will... you know how the meme goes. [side note: Wait, when I said 'for real this time', I was not expecting EJ would say it, much less word for word. Am I... writing this show now? It's usually my dad who predicts people's lines in TV shows]

'Not that I know of'... excuse me while I hyperventilate! These two are literal soulmates. They might share a brain, too, for all that I know. Portwell nation you ok guys?

I love that Ricky helped Carlos out with this song and is supporting him through it, but... I just might have preferred for him not to be there. I kind of need Seblos to have this moment to themselves. But, you know, with the way they feel about each other it might as well be like they're alone in the universe, let alone the room.

Ok, but Frankie's voice... brings out feelings in me that I didn't know I was capable of. Make of that what you will. Also, I'm not sobbing my eyes out, you are.

Ahhh Reddy my sunshine my sweet boy I love you but why did you have to cut Seblos' moment short? They were going to kiss, I know it. Oh well, they probably will, later on. Off-screen probably, but who cares? Not everything is for us to see. At least Carlos and Ricky had a moment there... Carlos calling Ricky 'bro' made me more emotional than I expected. It's like Miss Jenn says in s1: 'They're best bros, and that's a sacred thing... for reasons I will never understand'.

Ricky's acting sounds like a cat about to spit up a hairball, and it's so funny... in a scene that is supposed to be arguably the most dramatic of the entire play, that is not a good thing.

Oh my, oh my... you did not! You did not just end the episode with Ricky taking a fall from who knows how high. I was not ready. This episode was entirely too much for me. I will need 10 to 15 business days to recover from this, and we all know there aren't that many. But in the meantime you'll find me obsessively listening to In a Heartbeat for hours on end. Seriously, this episode is too much.

#hsmtmts #hsmtmts s2 #ricky bowen #nini salazar-roberts #gina porter #ej caswell #ashlyn caswell #ashlyn moon caswell #big red redonovich #carlos rodriguez #seb matthew-smith #kourtney greene #hsmtmts miss jenn #hsmtmts mr mazzara #jnk #seblos #portwell #redlyn #jenzara

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redroseinsanity · 3 years

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The Inconvenience of Love in a Convenient Marriage

Fandom: Haikyuu!!

Pairing: Daisuga

Tags: Fake marriage, college AU, canon divergent, daisuga, fluff, mild angst, domestic fluff, sexual tension, Daichi is the most oblivious person in the world, Pining, fake relationship, every cliche you can think of is here, this is my indulgence fic don’t @ me, did I write another romcom? maybe so, Slow burn

Chapter: 4/12

Summary: In his defence, Sugawara Koushi's tuition fees were not supposed to cost an arm and a leg. In his defence, he wasn't supposed to drunkenly propose to his best friend in order to qualify for a higher tier of financial aid. In his defence, Sawamura Daichi wasn't supposed to say yes.

In which Daichi and Suga discover the trials of navigating a fake marriage with real feelings.

If you’re thinking this sounds familiar, yes, it’s based on this post!

Daichi scores within the 90th percentile for an assignment and within that instant, two things become painfully apparent. One is that he absolutely does not want to do this degree no matter how much he excels in it, and the other, is that the first person he wants to tell is Suga.

Call it habit, call it instinct, whatever it is, his thoughts jump to Suga. Suga and the laughing tone of his voice when he will declare they need to celebrate, Suga and his brilliant smile, warm and sparkling, Suga and the quiet, steady look in his eyes that tell Daichi he's proud whether he scored in the 10th percentile or the 90th percentile.

What does it say, Daichi wonders, that even when they've not spoken since their fight, when he's not even sure if they've each cooled down yet, that he turns to Suga like a flower opens to sunlight, naturally and without hesitation?

Keep reading on AO3

#daisuga #daisuga fluff #daisuga fic #sawamura daichi #sugawara koushi #haikyuu!!#redwrites #fake marriage au #college au #haikyuu fic

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incorrect-ikevamp-quotes · 4 years

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@theeyethatbinds Girl SING IT. SING IT LOUDER FOR THE GIRLS IN THE BACK, SWEAR TO GOD.

Like I’m gonna be real wit y’all I was looking forward to le Comte for a while, but I was always side-eyeing Jeanne. He’s a blunt hermit and grump and 100% mood, so I hoped his route would give me more insight into how I feel about him.

Ladies. When I tell you. It was EXCELLENT. I mean there are so many gr9 routes in the game, I don’t want to take away from them, but there was just something about his that hit me so hard???? (MY KOKORO BROKORO)

More under the cut since his route won’t be out for a little while (we still got Isaac, then Theo, then Jeanne), as a little treat. As usual, pls don’t read if you don’t want spoilers, thanks!

Okay so going into this route I was fully expecting the big sads. I mean, if history has taught us anything it was that Joan D’Arc was a badass but good lord, that doesn’t mean the people of her time were kind to her. (I need to do more thorough research on her, so if I’m getting any of her pronouns wrong or neglect something, I do apologize.)

That being sad, I was like aight DECK MY SHIT WITH TRAGEDY, JEANNE. And at the beginning it’s p fascinating. He’s very ornery and resistant to any kind of consideration or attempts at friendship MC extends. But eventually, after a good deal of persistence, he relents little by little.

I’d also like to level with y’all for a sec. Being someone who knows a great deal in regards to the kinds of mental and emotional shit Jeanne struggles through, I think they handled that part of the route so, so well. Granted, I’m not the kind of person to launch a crusade over different writing styles--but for me it just feels all the more poignant when it makes sense; when certain dispositions or trauma are conveyed with that depth. To me, it made 100% sense that Jeanne would be so against accepting other people into his life immediately.

He and Mozart vibe because they’re so similar, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s comfortable letting just anyone in--much less a complete stranger. I think it’s more that Mozart and Jeanne share a kind of indelible bond/mutual recognition through their talent, actually. They were both prodigies, absolute geniuses in their fields (military vs. music) but their social skills were shot to hell for the very same reason. To be brilliant--beyond one’s potential posthumous legacy--tends to mean being hated. Plus, they’re both principled to absolute extremes. When they’ve decided on something, they will not waver. They’re stubborn and austere, but behind those walls lies a molten core of sensitivity.

This is important to understanding him, I think, before I move forward.

While one could argue that their reaction is a result of that deficiency of emotional and social support (which I entirely concede does contribute to the matter at hand, it shouldn’t be overlooked) I think the real crux of the matter here is control. Think about it. Among the oldest residents in the mansion (let’s say that were born more than 100 years within the range of the present period of the game) are Mozart, Jeanne, Isaac, and Shakespeare. What do they all have in common?

Extremity. For Mozart, it comes in the form of a kind of OCD, as perfectionism. For Jeanne, it is generalized anxiety and PTSD. For Isaac, it is primarily social anxiety--but it’s still noticeably severe. And Shakespeare runs around with a knife, insecurity through the roof, literally unable to trust anything or anyone (psychosis? schizoaffective? I’m really not sure, these are all ballpark assessments based on the evidence I have). In order to adjust to their new surroundings, there was a cost--and in some ways their coping mechanisms become noticeably maladaptive. They were born into eras that were mercilessly unpredictable, and the only way they knew how to cope was to was to either take the blame--make it a personal failing that tragedy struck--or try to immerse themselves into their craft. They all seek to regain some kind of control (this is even visible in Vincent, to a degree--painting was an escape from his emotionally turbulent world).

Granted that’s not to say that the others don’t struggle with such issues at all, I just feel like the characters from more unstable time periods tend (as a general trend) to mirror that instability within their personalities.

All that being said, (I apologize I am a tangent-monger and love meta), Jeanne’s self-imposed isolation is only partially caused by the above dynamic. Yes, he is unwilling to let people into his heart for fear of betrayal. (It’s almost like an entire nation clamoring to watch you burn for something you didn’t do after spending your entire life and talents trying to protect them would do that to you, but I digress >:| ). But there’s another devastating and potentially less obvious reason for keeping people out.

He thinks he deserves it.

Loneliness, melancholy, aimlessness. These are all the punishments that he incurred on himself after a life of what he conceives to be considerable sin (hahaha battlefield enemies go ripppp). Whether or not he was operating purely out of a sense of duty, even if he felt sympathy for his enemy combatants, it’s not enough. And the condemnation of his king, of his entire nation, only served to magnify that self-loathing to a dangerous degree. (Don’t get me started on his parents I’m still so angry >:| they more or less disowned him since he was constitutionally weak as a young boy, and thus could not serve as an adequate farmhand. Don’t work? Don’t eat/live).

It’s hard enough living in a reserved way because you’re afraid of getting hurt, but to think that you deserve it when hurt finds you, no less? And my favorite part, that he’s so profoundly sure that it is an extension of a personal, fundamental failing? That for a person to survive, they must be strong, that there can be no other way--that there is no time or space for ruminations on fairness or unfairness, there are only those who manage to survive and those who die.

Now my friends, esteemed comrades, legendary sluts. Is that enough for us, Cybird asks, are we feeling enough pain quite yet? Fuck no.

Most of his route after we get over the hurdle of his hesitation is just him. Being. Bashful and gentle as all FUCK. Like he is the definition of “I'll kill you, but also I’m babie.” For instance, she insists on teaching him how to read and write at night when she finds him trying (and not succeeding) to read “The Ugly Duckling”. Yes I mean the children’s book. I CRIED THE FIRST TIME AND I’M CRYING NOW. So, naturally, MC buys him a notebook to practice with and he puts his name in big letters on the front. When MC sees this, she asks him about it--wondering why he would given he’s so self-conscious of his own writing (boy writes all squiggly like a little kid because he’s never done it before ;-;).

The scene goes a little something like this:

MC: Wh....whatcha go there Jeanne? Jeanne: ? My notebook? MC: I...mean that you wrote your name on it? Jeanne: Yeah? MC: Why? Jeanne: ._. It was a gift from you, and I figured it'd be hard to practice if I lost it...so I put my name on it... (HE WAS SECRETLY TOUCHED I BET AND IM--) MC: Why such big letters? Jeanne: So people can spot it quickly, obviously MC, inches from crying and laughing: Jeanne: Mademoiselle??? Why are you laughing? MC: Because you’re cute, Jeanne!

Like. They start out so rocky and Jeanne is so SIGH. I guess I’ll agree if it’ll get her to stop looking so sad and ask me to join her for stuff. But then he just can’t help but go full softe at how patient and kind she is, starts feeling comfortable just...being who he is deep down. A man that’s always hoped for better in life, a person that only ever takes up his sword to protect--that has an incredibly pure and clear heart, despite so much pain.

And good lord, they are GOD TIER romantic slow burn???? Swear to everything holy, I was BEGGING for them to make out by like chapter 10, I was just suffering for most of the route until the bangarang premium. Here’s probably my favorite moment in the entire route:

Basically Sebastian and Mozart pull out all the stops trying to bring Jeanne and MC together (once they see Jeanne show some interested in her). And so Jeanne asks her to join him in the courtyard the next morning, and they’re playing with Cherie (Jeanne’s pet baby white tiger). Besides being ungodly adorable--because Jeanne invited her for the sole purpose of hoping to see her delightfully surprised--Mozart begins to play a love song nearby. They don’t name the tune, but Jeanne canonically starts singing along (I wholeass cried, I WANT TO HEAR HIM SING????). And so she asks what the song is about, and he explains that Mozart once played it for him, but he couldn’t make out the words at first. Mozart explained that it was a love song that speaks to the difficulties of being in love (the worry, the strife) but also the beauty of the intensity and passion. He goes on to say that even when he learned the words, it never made much sense to him back then--it never resonated.

He’s singing softly with a fond look, and so she asks, does he understand it now? And he looks her dead in the eye, and says “...I think I’m starting to.” Like. AM I SUPPOSED TO NOT LOSE MY MIND AT THE TENDERNESS????? WHAT A SMOOTH MOFO????? MAN RAISED TO BE A SOLDIER, NO KNOWLEDGE OF ROMANCE OR WOMEN, AND KILLS ME IN MILLISECONDS?????? I DEMAND JUSTICE. (Or it’s just me thinking sincerity is the best aphrodisiac, but that’s beside the point.)

This has been your quarantine 2d boy meta and yelling, provided by your local mod Minnie. Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to get to the things I’ve been procrastinating on while reliving/dissociating about one of my favorite rts in the entire game. Stay safe and well out there y’all, peace out!

#ikemen vampire #ikevamp #ikevamp spoilers #ikevamp jeanne #ikevamp mozart #yall like #this reply just launched me right back into my jeanne feels #i dont have words for how much i love him #he's just such a good dude????? such a good dude #he really is trying his best pls give him love for me if you can #i binged his route almost as hard as sg's bc it was just t h a t sweet and compelling #i also cried like a baby #he deserves better and he deserves love #i will protect him forever #does that mean that in every single route i am acutely aware of the fact that I can't help him?#:))))))))))))))))))))))))))) life is pain. life is a party and jeanne and i are the pinatas.#and no i dont wanna talk abt it there will be no more questions LDKJH #just kidding around if anyone has any questions yall are free to send em! I'll answer to the best of my ability~#anyhoot ty @theeyethatbinds for bringing all those good feels back #you are a legend and you have wonderful taste we stan **cheers**

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svnthxsense · 5 years

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Genre/Rating: Fluff/smut ; M

Warnings: Fem reader, cursing, light choking, slight corruption (?), slight praise, oral, tiny bit of slow burn

Word Count: 9.8k i’m sorry

Author’s Note: I got very carried away... Anyways, Happy Mark Day! This oneshot is a standalone in my Neo Tech High School series and is loosely based off of the first verse & chorus of Shot Clock by Ella Mai. Please send in any feedback! Also, my apologies if the Keep Reading function doesn’t work on mobile but I can’t do much about it T-T

It was mid-March when news broke in your school that a tier-1 athlete had transferred in. Everyone was swarming with curiosity all for a certain Mark Lee. Most of the gossip came from the guys, who bantered about his stats as a starting point-guard and argued about whether or not he’d make a good addition to the school’s beloved team. The girls, of course, were looking forward to a fresh face on campus. You couldn’t help but be curious, too.

After a week of anticipation, people were stunned to see the actual image of the mysterious basketball player. He was attractive at the absolute least. Then there was something that neither you nor your peers expected: he was the shyest, most awkward boy you had met in a while. How was it that the star basketball player who was always in the spotlight happened to be socially awkward?

You were surprised to discover that you two had a lot of classes together, and you’d be lying if you said you never stared. It didn’t help that he always came into math class with basketball shorts and a tank top on, his skin lightly glistening with sweat even after his brief post-gym shower. His hair was tousled, yet he managed to make it work like no other. It was a sight that made your mouth water and your mind fill with less-than decent thoughts.

It was only halfway through his first week of school when Mark had gotten called into the principal's office in the middle of third period. And then you were called in- not even five minutes after.

“Good morning, Principal Yoon,” You greeted her politely, taking the only other seat left in the room right next to Mark. You felt his eyes on you but decided against looking back at the nerve-wracked boy. Every time you saw him, you seemed to have a new fantasy about things you’d love to do to him. Was it wrong to fantasize about what his hands could do other than dribble a basketball?

“Good morning, Y/N.” She sat down in her leather office chair, scooting along until she found a comfortable position. Her tone was firm yet extremely polite. Most principals were intimidating and loathed by students, while Principal Yoon was approachable and kind. The students of Neo Tech adored her and her methods of running the school.

“Good morning, Mark. I’m sure you’re both wondering why I called you in, and I can assure you that it’s nothing of concern.” She held a manila colored folder in one hand before opening it and examining the paper in front of her. The both of you sat a bit uneasily, wondering what could’ve possibly landed you in this predicament.

“Mr. Lee, your basketball skills are outstanding.” Immediately, Mark began rambling about his appreciation for her comment until her voice interrupted him. “Yes, well, the reason I called you both in has to do with that actually… You see, Mark, your last school was a bit behind in comparison to our curriculum here, and without the proper grades you won’t be able to be an active team member.”

Mark could’ve sworn he heard his heart drop. The whole reason he transferred to your school was that his tier-1 team was becoming mediocre at best. In order to stay on track with his plan of obtaining an athletic scholarship, he needed to choose the best of the best. And that’s what led him to your school, which currently holds the number one spot in the nation amongst all the tier-1 teams.

“That’s why I’ve brought Y/N in as well. It was brought to my attention that you two share more than half your classes together, and I’m well aware of how advanced she is in all subjects. So, to put it frankly, I’m going to suggest that you two become acquaintances. Of course, the final decision would be up to Y/N, but I’m hoping that both of you might benefit from this opportunity.”

Mark couldn’t help but feel a bit embarrassed about how Principal Yoon pressed the issue. It was bad enough that his old school had a less advanced curriculum; and to make matters worse, his tutor just had to be the prettiest girl he’s seen. The way you dressed, especially, drove him crazy. Your sheer black tights underneath your plaid skirt, with your skin-tight, off-the-shoulder top that exposed your collarbones. He gulped at the very thought of what was underneath those clothes. How was he supposed to focus when he wanted to study his tutor more than the material?

“I would be happy to help,” You answered, mindlessly sneaking a glance at the boy next to you. His gaze seemed to be set on the ground, looking at anything but you. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to add ‘tutor’ to my resume.”

Principal Yoon smiled in response, setting the folder down on her desk before gently lifting her glasses off her face. She was pretty young to be a principal, couldn’t be a day over thirty. It was one of the things that made her so approachable, she seemed to sympathize with the lives of students because she was in their place not too long ago.

“Well, then it’s settled.”

You strained yourself trying to hide the smirk forming on your face, finally allowing yourself to steal a look at the golden boy once again. He seemed flustered, as per usual, and still didn’t dare to look you in the eye. He seemed so innocent, yet so ready to be corrupted. The excitement bubbled deep within your stomach at the thought of how much time you’d really need to spend with him in order to get him caught up. And boy did you hope you had extra time for other activities.

Without a word, you rose from your seat to offer a ‘goodbye’ to your principal and sauntered out of her office. Mark fumbled to get up, hurriedly saying goodbye to Principal Yoon before he rushed after you. At the sound of his footsteps, you couldn’t help but grin to yourself. This will be fun.

“Hey, Y/N?”

You hummed in response, then turned on your heel to face him. He was breathing a little raggedly, but you knew it was from nerves because there was no way someone as athletic as him would be out-of-breath from a short jog.

“I- I was wondering when you’d be available…” He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, trying his hardest to sound anything but stupid. You waited for him to go on as he stared back at you but quickly caught himself. “Y’know, for the tutoring.”

Your smile almost made his breath hitch but he ignored the pounding on his chest and found the courage to keep eye contact with you. He regretted it as soon as it happened because he damn-near whimpered at the beauty in front of him. Your lips, a faint rose color, were glossy and plump. He imagined how they’d feel pressed against his, and against other body parts alike.

“How about we do an evaluation of sorts at the library this afternoon? This way I can see how behind you are and how much time I’d need to get you in shape. I wouldn’t want you missing the opening game.” You winked, and Mark found himself gulping down nothing in another attempt to calm himself.

“Y-Yeah, that sounds good,” He replied and waited for you two walk away first because he couldn’t quite will his feet to move.

The end of the day seemed to have come much too quickly for Mark’s liking. Of course, he was itching at the chance to get to know you, but even he knew his nervous habits. The last thing he wanted to do was embarrass himself in the midst of his first impression.

Mark made his way to the library like you had told him to, and he easily found you at one of the tables towards the back of the room. You had books laid out in front of you, with worksheets accompanying them.

“Hey, so I was thinking we could start by evaluating your trig skills and then get into some science. Does that sound good?” It felt like an eternity before you finally looked up to find him sitting directly across from you at the table. He nodded softly as you pushed over the first worksheet. While he diligently started scribbling across the paper, you had nothing to do other than watch him. You picked up on a few things in a short amount of time: math seemed to frustrate him. When faced with a particularly difficult problem, he would huff in annoyance. Nonetheless, he would complete it before moving onto the next one with a scrunched-up nose. It was incredibly cute and you couldn’t help the smile that found its way to your lips.

“Okay, I think I’m done.” He pushed the paper back to you before bringing his hands down into his lap, nervously toying with his fingers. He then brought his bottom lip in between his teeth, chewing delicately. You tried not to react, instead turning your attention to analyze his answers. Did he know what he was doing to you? After looking through all the questions, you tsked.

“Your trig teacher must’ve sucked.” You adjusted your sitting position so that the paper would be visible to the both of you. “For number four, you need to use the quadratic formula- which is X equals negative B plus or minus the square root of B squared minus 4 times A times C. Then you divide the whole thing by 2 times A.”

Mark tried to keep up with you as you explained, but his mind was way too focused on how good you looked while concentrating. On top of that, math was never his strong suit. He had always struggled since the moment variables were introduced into his lessons. Memorizing the quadratic formula was all too difficult when the explanation was coming from that pretty mouth of yours, he thought.

“B…? Wait where is the X comin-”

“Mark.” You interrupted, trying to the best of your ability to keep the smile creeping up on you at bay. The way his name rolled off your tongue so naturally enticed him. “I can already tell that you’re about two months behind with the trig curriculum. That alone will take me at least two weeks to catch you up on, and that’s if we meet practically every day.”

“I-I’m sorry,” Mark answers weakly, his eyes retreating down to the desk below him. Immediately, your demeanor softens at his vulnerability. “I know this probably isn’t how you’d like to spend your free time. I’ll find another way to catch up, I’m sure-”

“Hey. I said it would be a lot of work, I didn’t say I don’t want to tutor you. Luckily for you, I’m pretty much free this semester anyway. Now, the issue is if you are willing to put in the work.”

Oh, was he willing.

[two days later]

“So, after school at the cafe?” You ask, grabbing your books from your locker and securing them in one arm. The tutoring sessions would have to be extremely consistent to make any noticeable progress before the school’s opening games. They were a big deal within Neo Tech’s school community, and the pressure was on to see how the new point guard would compare to all the hype.

“Yeah, if that’s fine with you,” He murmurs before eyeing the small stack of books and papers cradled in your arm. Naturally, he feels the need to take that burden off your hands. After all, you would be the reason he even gets to play this season. Without you, it’s unlikely he would’ve caught up in time to make a good impression on Neo Tech and other schools alike. “Let me carry your books for you.”

“You don’t have to,” You insist, moving slightly so the books are a bit more out of reach. Mark pouts in response, leaning forward again in another attempt to grab the materials. He succeeds this time, his hand slipping around the stack and drawing them away from you. “Persistent, huh?”

“Guess you could say that.” He chuckles, wrapping the books in his arm just as you had done. This is the only plan he thought of to spend time with you outside of a studying environment, but he hopes you don’t notice these intentions. “We have class together anyway.”

“And where are your books?” You raise on eyebrow questioningly, beginning to walk with him beside you. History was never your favorite class, but you stayed on top of the work anyway. It was easier, you realized very early on, to get the work out of the way so you’d have more time for studying and other extracurricular activities.

“I leave them in my desk.” He shrugs, looking over to see you smiling widely. The baby pink color that takes over the apples of his cheeks is extremely obvious, but you don’t comment on it. Seeing Mark flustered is cute, you determined as soon as you had met him.

As the two of you walk through the large doorway of your history classroom, bubbly conversation fills the air. Your teacher, Miss Han, sits perched on her desk patiently. She was a nice lady, but it didn’t change the universal distaste for history among your class.

“Well, uh- I guess I’ll see you at the cafe.” Mark sets your books down on your usual desk quickly, scurrying to find his seat among some of the other basketball players that had this period with him. You recognize one of them as Hendery, a friendly acquaintance due to all the classes you two shared last year.

“I see you, Mark.” Hendery’s eyebrows raise in a teasing matter, shoulder bumping the boy next to him. Mark stares back at him, confused as to what he meant. “You carrying Y/N’s books.”

The explanation causes Mark’s blush to reappear, the heat becoming warmer and warmer upon his flesh. Hendery is one of the only guys on the team that he’s fairly close with, yet he still didn’t feel ready to tell him about his little crush.

“It was nothing, really. She’s tutoring me and I thought- why not?” He tries desperately to make his response seem nonchalant, but the act he puts on is no match for his flushed cheeks. Hendery, with one brow raised, eyes Mark’s cheeks. “Okay, maybe I think she’s kinda cute.”

“Bullshit! You like her!” He accuses in a whisper-shout type of voice. Mark groans in response, softly hitting his shoulder with a closed fist. A cackle leaves Hendery’s lips, his hand coming up to muffle the sound. “Dude, just ask her out! You’d be a very lucky guy.”

“I can’t just ask her out!” It comes out as a high-pitched shriek. “It’s not that simple. I mean, it is that simple. But what if she says no? Then I’ll have to deal with rejection and seeing her every day for our study sessions and-”

“Mark, you’re way too worried. Do you want me to talk to her? Find out some dirt? We had a few classes together last year-”

“N-No! That’s too obvious!” His voice sounds so exasperated by now, Hendery is afraid he’ll pass out. Talking with his hands is a nervous habit that happens when he’s rambling, and right now is no exception. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do, dude.”

“Better hurry before someone else beats you to it.” At this, Mark’s head snaps in Hendery’s direction. Before he can even formulate a proper response, Miss Han clears her throat and silence falls upon the whole classroom. Throughout the lesson, though, Hendery’s words echo in Mark’s head. What did he mean by that?

“One iced americano and one green tea please.” Mark pulls out his wallet before you have time to protest, and by the time your mouth opens to say something, his receipt is already printed. You didn’t expect him to order for you when he asked what you liked from this shop. Oblivious, he turns to you and stops in his tracks when he sees your surprised expression. “Huh?”

“You didn’t have to pay for me.” Your voice is firm but you’re grinning over at him, ignoring the way your whole body feels warm because of his display of generosity. Buying drinks shouldn’t be such a big deal, you remind yourself. “I owe you a lot now- carrying my books and now coffee.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He shrugs, before examining the shop to find the best seats. He decides on the small table in the corner, shuffling towards the spot silently. Your brows furrow at his response, hoping for something a bit more engaging in terms of conversation but realizing that Mark wasn’t quite good at conversing in general. At least, around you, he didn’t seem to be.

The cafe became a regular stop before your tutoring sessions, the two of you eventually decide that the library was a better spot for studying. So, almost every day after school, you two would rush over there to pick up your usual orders before racing back to the library. Most of the private rooms filled up after dismissal, so you two always made it a point to manage your time efficiently. Coffee runs and then studying- that was your routine.

You had hoped to test the waters with some flirting, but your efforts seemed to go unnoticed. And when they didn’t, Mark would be a nervous wreck in response. You wondered if you should try your luck outside of your study sessions, but you didn’t have many opportunities since he sat nowhere near you during your shared classes. Study sessions and coffee runs seemed to be your only options.

On numerous occasion, Mark would slip his wallet out and pay for your coffee without a second thought. These events would result in a whole lot of whining on your part, always arguing that you should treat him once in a while too. He liked the idea of spoiling you, he wanted to say, though the invisible filter that was stuck in his throat never allowed him such a luxury.

Plus, the look on your face was equally as cute as your whines. Although you tried to be angry, the lopsided grin that always appeared made Mark’s stomach do flips. How was it possible to be that effortlessly pretty? It would take the nation’s top philosopher, Mark thought, to figure that one out.

“Mark!” You call, jogging over to his locker where he stands, putting his books away. He focuses on not being a clumsy mess then looks over at you, spending extra time admiring your all-black outfit: leggings and a v-neck. He forces his eyes not to travel south of your face, instead putting on a small smile. “I was wondering where you think we should study? The library is gonna be closed for a staff meeting today.”

Without thinking anything through, Mark immediately answers with, “Actually, my parents are out of town this week. We can study at mine if you want.”

Fuck. His eyes widen at his own words as soon as they come out. You can’t help but be surprised too, but your shock quickly turns into something much less decent. At this point, you’re dying to get your hands on him. You know that if you two have your study-session today, you’ll jump his bones the minute his hand so much as grazes yours.

“Oh, okay. Cool. So I’ll meet you after 8th,” You conclude with your voice sounding like pure honey to Mark. As you turn and walk away, Mark is unsurprisingly staring at your figure in those damn leggings. He wonders how much thought you put into your outfit, if you’re wearing it on purpose to torture him. He shakes the thoughts out of his head when he feels excitement course through his veins and towards the southern region of his body. No way is he going to get a boner now. Demanding his attention elsewhere, he rips his eyes away from you and tries to think of anything but how good your ass looks.

P.E. was always Mark’s favorite class. For most of his life, his Phys. Ed teachers had consistently been carefree and maybe a bit lazy. Their go-to lesson plan comprised of a few laps around the gym and then free-choice sports. Most of the girls opted for volleyball and badminton while almost every single boy could be found on the basketball court in the midst of a friendly scrimmage. Today is no different from the rest of those times.

Mark enjoys the friendly competition but easily leads his team to a win. He has gym with some of the other guys on Neo Tech’s basketball team, and it was easy to see how well he’d fit in with the pace of the other guys. At his old school, it always felt like he was being held back. He had to slow down his plays and examine the court thoroughly before he was able to make a proper judgment of his next move. With the Neo boys, everything seemed to come naturally.

He was able to gauge each player’s strengths and weaknesses fairly quickly too. For example, Hendery was a great shooter under pressure. When he gets boxed in by other defenders, that’s when his shooting is the most precise. So with that in mind, Mark always looks for Hendery when he notices that the opposing team’s defense is particularly aggressive that day. His judgments haven’t failed him thus far, with today’s scrimmage resulting in another win that should go down in the books.

Basketball was something that came easily to Mark his whole life. Talking to girls though? Not as much. He excelled on the court, took the lead and kept a risky attitude with unexpected plays and passes. He fits in well with Neo Tech’s strategy and game style. Plus, the guys on the Neo Tech basketball team were quick to befriend him and make him feel right at home. That is, of course, until he overhears one of his teammates, Lucas, talking to another teammate in the locker room as he begins to pack up his stuff after their particularly long scrimmage.

“Bro, are you really gonna shoot your shot with Y/N?” The other one- Xiaojun, he thinks- asks the taller boy. Lucas shrugs a little, folding his gym clothes neatly before placing the pile back in his locker. He’s not wearing a shirt, and Mark can’t hide the feeling of insecurity that seeps into his veins. Mark’s never been as built as that, but he never thought much of it until now.

“I mean, probably. She usually comes to our games, right?” He looks back at Xiaojun, eyebrows raised. The boy nods back slowly, a look of uncertainty on his face. “She’s so hot, especially in that one skirt she always wears.”

Mark’s jaw tenses and his whole body becomes rigid before he can calm himself down. He knows, in his mind, that he doesn’t technically have a right to feel possessive. He hasn’t made a move, so who was he to stop Lucas’s plans? This thought doesn’t stop him, however, from feeling the sudden urge to punch Lucas in his pretty face. It annoys him that all Lucas has to say about you is ‘She’s hot.’ To Mark, you were so much more.

He loves the way you insist on helping him and accept nothing less than 100% effort on work. He loves how you smile proudly at him when he finishes his worksheets with no errors, how you blush every time he pays for your coffee before a study session, how you always find a way to get something done if you commit to it, how you genuinely care about how his day went when no one else seems to ask. You’re more to him than a nice body in a short skirt. Much, much more.

Hendery notices his tense shoulders and pensive facial expression, quickly grabbing the shirt that was draped over his shoulder and sending a soft wack to Mark’s back. This seems to do the trick, his face softening when he realizes it was Hendery who hit him.

“Ignore them,” Hendery orders, folding the shirt in his hands and placing it back in his locker. He’s friends with both Lucas and Mark, but he can tell how much Mark likes you. Lucas’s crush would pass with time, it was a never-ending cycle with that one. “Lucas isn’t her type, trust me. And if you’re so worried, make your move.”

This time, Mark realizes that Hendery is all too right. He needs to do something-anything, before it’s too late.

Yet again, the end of the day comes too quickly for Mark to process. He blankly shuffles out of the lab room and is taken by surprise when he sees you leaning against the wall opposite the doorway. You push yourself off the wall when you spot him, and take into account how good he looks when he’s out of it. It makes you wonder how he’ll look when he’s all fucked out and-

“Ready?” Mark interrupts your thoughts. Instead of saying anything, because you don’t trust your voice at this point, you simply nod and begin pacing your walk so you’ll be shoulder-to-shoulder. Your shoulder brushes against his occasionally, but neither of you shows any sign of being bothered by it.

The car ride is full of thick tension and utter silence aside from the soft hum of the radio. Mark’s grip on the wheel is tighter than he’s used to but he can’t help it. He can feel your eyes on him, his skin beginning to warm underneath his usual basketball shorts and a loose tee. You study him shamelessly: the veins of his arms that bulge occasionally when he shifts the wheel one way and the other, his habit of biting his lower lip when the car in front of him drives too slow, and the simple things like the contour of his jawline.

He pulls into a driveway and you aren’t surprised by how lavish his house is. His mother and father are both high-ups in some big company, as Mark had put it. They take business trips often but still find time for their beloved son, while his older brother is away at the number one university in the country. One might ask why Mark needs an athletic scholarship if his parents have so much money. He thinks of it more as a pride thing. His father, before becoming a businessman, was also on an athletic scholarship for soccer. His older brother has one for baseball while he studies Marketing and International Finance. Sports scholarships were almost like a family heirloom for the Lee’s, along with a business degree.

He jumps out of his seat, closing the door behind him before rushing to the passenger side to open the door for you. Under normal circumstances, you might’ve blushed. But with Mark, you know you have to be the confident one between the both of you. No matter how flustered his smiles make you and how weak in the knees his deep voice makes you, you force yourself to put on a bold front.

“Welcome to my humble abode,” Mark snorts as he leads you through the foyer to the carpet-clad staircase. Humble was one way to put it. The whole interior has a simple, all-white color scheme. Upholstered leather loveseats were positioned neatly down the halls, with minimalistic tables to match. You let yourself take in your surroundings as both of you walk through the maze of his house towards what you presume will be his bedroom. Your guess is right; he stops in front of a white-painted wooden door and opens it just a bit to peek inside and make sure nothing was out of place. He breathes a sigh of relief that he decided to move anything remotely embarrassing to his walk-in closet as soon as he started his new school. Opening the door wider so that you could enter, you step in hesitantly and watch a little too intently at Mark closing the door firmly behind him.

His room is somehow exactly how you pictured it; a light blue color paints the walls. His full-sized bed leans against one wall, with posters of his favorite movies hovering above the headboard.

“Shit, I just realized that my desk-” You glance behind you, seeing his computer which took up most of the space that the desk had to offer and the somewhat large gaming chair that was tucked comfortably underneath said desk. Almost thanking fate for throwing this curveball in your favor, you just smile reassuringly at him.

“It’s fine, Mark. We can study on your bed.” Mark’s eyes widen suddenly and you realize that you probably gave him too much to process at once. “Or the floor, that’s fine too.”

“N-No! I mean- whatever’s more comfortable,” He manages to stutter out. Mentally, Mark would have said something spicy just to see you blush. However, in reality, Mark just couldn’t muster up the courage to openly flirt like that. His lack of confidence had posed many obstacles for him over the years. It seemed the one place he was truly confident was on the court.

“Well, it’s your room so I’ll sit wherever you sit.”

He nods once before setting his backpack at the foot of the bed and jumping back onto the soft mattress. Scooting up towards the headboard, he waits for you to do the same. You ignore the excitement that bubbles knowing his eyes are on you, and take a seat next to him with your bag still in hand.

“So uh- what are we gonna start with today?” Mark tries so hard not to seem phased by having a girl like you in his bed, but his patience is wearing thin and he can only blame himself. Maybe if he just made a move…

“We always start with trig.” You furrow your brows in confusion because it’s become a set routine already. Trig was always first because that was the subject he was most behind in. English was obviously not a problem for him and in terms of science, he was just behind with lab work that he could complete in school. “Then, we brush up on some science. I don’t really think you need it, though. You’re almost caught up with your lab work.”

“Oh, yeah. Right, of course.” He has to physically focus on not rambling or he’d be a mess all over. Of course, you know this by now. And while his shy and awkward demeanor is definitely adorable, it also makes you hesitate to try anything with him. After all, what are the chances of the shy boy in front of you gripping you up only to have his way with you?

Mark begins working on the sheets you give him almost as soon as you hand them over, eager to complete the work and somehow finesse his way into spending more time with you. He was being dumb, Hendery would continuously tell him. He should just go for it, because with a tutor ‘as hot as Y/N,’ why wouldn’t he? His lack of confidence makes him want to pull his hair from the roots, but he resists the urge and silently completes the worksheets. He double-checks all of his work carefully so that no time will be wasted in going over stupid mistakes. With a sigh of relief, Mark hands the papers over to you and looks up at you nervously. You always look so stoic when analyzing his answers, it intimidates him yet also lights a spark of excitement at the same time.

“Well done. There were no errors, just make sure you remember to show your work because the question requires-”

“Y/N?” Your name slips out of his mouth before he realizes it. You fall silent, eyes lifting to meet his dark brown ones. “Um… Can we maybe t-take the day off? I think I’d rather be doing almost anything other than trig right now.”

You don’t expect this question, because he’s never asked for a break. It was always about him being up to date with the curriculum so he’d be able to be part of the starting five. What you also don’t expect is for his eyes to flicker, very briefly, to the exposed skin of your upper body. There’s only a bit of cleavage showing, and a peek of your collarbones visible from certain angles. Suddenly, you realize that the time for making a move is now. And you can’t pass up the opportunity.

“What did you have in mind?” Your voice dripping like honey in the air. Slowly, you push the papers and books away from you and they hit the carpeted floor with a light thud. Mark gulps, finding his mouth dry when his mind goes blank with what to say next. Come on, Mark. Keep it together.

Instead of saying anything that might ruin the moment, he simply mimics you and pushes the books off his lap and onto the floor. When he turns back to face you, he’s met with your challenging gaze and he can’t help himself as he leans towards you without any doubt in his mind.

Your noses brush against each other, his face so close that you could feel every minty breath he lets out. You know what’s about to happen, and you no longer have the patience to delay it any further. Mark’s hesitant ways, while sweet and gentlemanly, drive you to the brink of insanity. And so, with a deep breath, your hand lifts to pull his face to yours. Your lips softly press to his, letting him process the fact that you’re actually kissing him before you grow impatient. Feverishly, you move your mouth against his. Mark swears he’s in heaven when he slowly opens his mouth a bit wider and your tongue automatically swipes against his. He’s been waiting for this moment- to feel your lips against his, to taste you in more ways than one. He needs it all, right now.

“Y/N,” He separates from you to breathe out your name. You practically bite back a moan, humming in response while his hands grab your waist. You expect him to say something, but he just kisses you again with more confidence than before. As he slowly leans back against the headboard, you follow him absentmindedly, simply chasing the heat of his lips against yours. You’re straddling him now, his hands moving to grip your ass cheeks with greed. The force makes you roll your hips in response, grinding down onto him unintentionally which makes Mark’s breath hitch.

You experiment, repeating the movement and pulling away from him only to see his reaction. His eyes are focused on the movements of your hips above his, concentration straining his face. After flipping your hair to one side, you continue your slow torture and lean down to kiss the spot below his ear. With his hands firmly clasping around your hips, you suck at his supple skin and lick over the spot when you’re done. By now, his breathing is a little heavy and uneven as his erection pressed against your clothed core. You feel him against you, his basketball shorts doing little to conceal his excitement.

“You’re driving me crazy,” He whispers as he drops his head to the crook of your neck, his breath tickling you slightly. You relish in knowing that the feeling is mutual. With every huffed-out breath, every soft kiss on your skin, you only become more reassured that you want this- and it makes it all the more worth it knowing that he wants this too.

You break the kiss to rid yourself of your t-shirt, the material on your warm body frustrating you a bit more than you’d like to admit. As you meet his eyes again- they’re filled with a hunger that causes your stomach to clench and arousal to pool within the confines of your panties- you can’t help the absolute urgency you feel to make him putty in your hands. So instead of kissing him again, you play with the hem of his loose tee, letting your hands graze over the skin of his abdomen. He hesitates, remembering the locker room fiasco with Lucas and suddenly he feels that insecurity itching at his skin again. He isn’t extremely built, his athletic body on the more slender side, but you don’t mind at all.

From his demeanor, you can already deduce what’s bothering him. You press a sweet kiss to his lips, almost silently telling him that you liked him just as he is. A kilowatt smile lights up his face, and your cool hands against his heated skin make him grab at the material to discard it himself. He stares up at you, waiting for your next move because quite frankly, he likes you in control.

“These too,” You order, pointing at his basketball shorts. Mark is quick to shimmy them off of his body, leaving only his boxers to conceal the length of his cock from your eyesight, though the bulge is very much prominent. You debate whether or not to fuck him then and there, but decide that having him writhing from your mouth alone would satisfy you more.

With a quick motion, you bring your lips down to the skin above the waistband of his boxers. He twitches slightly at the contact, and then feels your nails gently rake against his sides. He’s much too sensitive to your touch, and it almost scares him. How could you have so much power over him? Maybe it’s the way your plump lips push against his skin so confidently, how your eyes find his without a second thought. He envies your confidence, but he also finds it unbelievably addicting to have such control taken away from him.

Mark isn’t a virgin. But he also isn’t very experienced. His past sexual encounters were vanilla, with him hesitantly taking control because his girlfriends always expected such. His first time was awkward at best, his hips didn’t quite know how to fluidly move nor did his tongue know how to expertly flick against hers. He did get a bit better as time went on, or so he likes to think. But he feels so foreign to sex with you.

It might be because you seem so opposite of him- in terms of how easily everything comes to you. However, he doesn’t find it in him to assume anything about your sex life, because he doesn’t particularly care. He ignores any thoughts of how many guys you’ve been with or if they’d be better than him, because as your hands slowly pull his boxers down, he’s content with knowing all you’re thinking about is him, at this moment.

You hum pleasantly at the sight of his length free from its confines, a small bead of precum ready to drip from the head. Much to your surprise, your mouth salivates on its own at the sight. You stroke him twice in your small hand, before your spit comes down on the side of his dick. He watches you in awe as you slide him into your mouth without hesitation, your tongue running along the underside of his length. A guttural groan emits from the awestruck boy before he can stop himself, much to his dismay. It would make you grin if your mouth wasn’t preoccupied.

You begin to slowly, tentatively bob your head up and down on him as your hand twists up to meet your mouth. You look at him expectantly for his response, and it doesn’t disappoint. His hands fly to your head, fingertips smoothing over your scalp while he sucks in a harsh breath. His mouth drops open soon after, the warm and slick tunnel of your mouth proving to be quite the pleaser.

He feels nervous under your stare once again, but he certainly can’t look away from the sight before him. With your plump, infamously glossy lips wrapped around the tip of his dick and your tongue sliding obscenely over the slit. He wants to memorize every detail of the picture painted for him, so he stares at you and forces himself not to look away. He sees everything: the way you blink slowly as you take him further into your mouth, the way you search his face for reassurance that you’re making him feel good, the way you twist your wrist in an almost tortuous way that feels so, so good.

“Fuck, I need to feel you.” He gently, regretfully pulls your head away from his crotch. Your mouth detaches from his cock with a quiet popping sound, a string of spit connecting his dick to your bottom lip. Your mouth is tinted red and a little swollen, a bit of spit still left on the side of your mouth. Even so, Mark still thinks you’re the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen.

He decides that, eventually, he’ll ask you out. The turn of events today is unexpected and definitely not what he had in mind, but he’s in too deep to put a stop to it now. He wonders if he fucked up his chances by going along with this, if you’d reject him because of the irony of him asking you out after he’s had his way with you. He swallows the nervous feeling that is rooted deep in his chest and stems out to the entirety of his body, pushes it aside to deal with later.

You undress quicker than Mark can process his thoughts, and for the first time since you’ve met him, your confidence wavers. Confidence was always something that came and went for you- the brave front you had put on didn’t quite prepare you for feeling Mark’s hungry eyes all over every inch of your body.

“Y/N- you’re so beautiful.” He motions you to get on top of him again, and you comply shyly. He kisses your lips once, then your cheek, then your neck, then your shoulder. All until you’re smiling so wide that you feel a pinch of pain in your cheeks. Mark Lee definitely owns your heart, no point in denial any more.

“W-Would you want to uh- ride me?” He stutters out clumsily, his hands finding purchase at his sides. This is why he likes that you take control. For one, it’s sexy as hell. For another, it gives him less room to be the nervous mess that he usually is.

At his question, your demeanor changes from a slightly nervous girl feeling so bare underneath his gaze to something even you didn’t know you had in you. You can feel your arousal as you slowly move closer to him, your thighs on either side of his. His boxers are still hanging just below his knees and he hurriedly kicks them off all the way.

“Condom?” You ask, eyes searching around his bedside but to no avail. Mark fumbles a bit, keeping one hand around your waist securely while the other rummages through the bottom drawer of his nightstand. After finally locating the box of condoms his mom insisted on giving him during freshman year, he pulls the foil packaging into sight. It’s almost embarrassing how quickly his hands make work to slide it securely over his length, but his desire is clouding his judgment more than he expected.

“You’re sure you’re okay with this?” His voice is a bit breathless as he carefully tucks some of your hair behind your ear. The action makes your face warm and quite possibly your heart. But you don’t admit that. Instead, you nod curtly before pressing a reassuring kiss to his lips. Without skipping a beat, you take hold of his cock and align it at your entrance. You run the head back and forth between your folds, but realize you’re only putting yourself through further cruelty with every second that passes with no relief to the throbbing of your core.

So without warning, you sink down on him at a painfully slow pace. Your slick folds welcome the stretch of his girth, the very feeling of him making you shiver with sensitivity. Mark looks down to where his dick is being swallowed by your core, finding it harder and harder to hold on to his sanity as you sink further down on him. You let out a soft, delicate moan when you feel him fill you up completely, and Mark swears he could cum just from hearing those angelic sounds. He then decides, if you two do this again, he’ll fuck you into his mattress until you’re crumbling at the seams because of him.

“Shit,” He mutters under his breath when you start bouncing on top of him. The sound of skin slapping against skin proves to be quite the soundtrack as you desperately grip his shoulders. You bite your lip in an attempt to muffle the screams of pleasure just aching to come out. Your moans come out in whimpers when Mark uses his thumb to draw figure 8’s on your clit. He’s biting his bottom lip, his facial muscles strained between a fucked-out state and a concentrated one.

“Such a good boy,” You muse lightly without even thinking. Your voice mumbling such praise causes Mark to gulp, and he’s strangely even more turned on. Then again, you’d been awakening emotions and sensations that Mark hasn’t quite felt before, didn’t even know were possible. On your side, you’ve never tried much dirty talk during sex, but for Mark, you were willing to try. You can tell he likes it by the way his grip on your hips tightens and his breathing becomes heavier. And so, as he pants and groans softly next to your ear, your pace turns merciless. You bounce on him with an unrelenting pace and he knows you won’t stop until he cums, hard.

“Oh fuck. Oh shit.” Profanities spill from his mouth, his eyes screwing shut intently at how good the friction between your folds was. He forces himself to continue rubbing circles into your clit, albeit a bit sloppy, but circles nonetheless. You’re only more motivated by his lewd sounds, feeling your walls clench even tighter around his throbbing cock. The sensation causes an idea to form in your head, and you decide that his reaction will be the most satisfying part.

“Feels so good. Are you close?” Innocence laces your voice as you grab his hand and guide it to one of your breasts. Watching as he instinctively grabs it greedily in his palm, you notice how hot his fingers look wrapped around your flesh which only fuels your idea. Mark nods eagerly at your question, his breathy pants coming out shorter, more frequent, and sinful enough to make your head spin.

Abruptly, you begin rolling your hips against him rather than bouncing, causing him to look up at you. Then, you grab his hand again and bring it to your throat, making him wrap his fingers around the width of your neck slowly. Mark’s mouth drops open a second time this afternoon, feeling his hand tenderly squeeze around your neck. Your breathing becomes a bit restricted, but not enough to cause any discomfort. The force only makes your eyes roll back, while Mark turns to putty underneath you. After a few seconds, he releases his hold and brings his hand down to knead your ass, whispering something about how good you feel. Despite his seeming increase of confidence, all that Mark is thinking about is the power trip he got from choking you. Holy fuck, did that really happen?

“Gonna cum now, baby?” You force the question out when you feel him begin to pulse inside of you, leaning down to suck on the skin where his shoulder and neck meet and then licking your way up to just below his ear. Gently and carefully, you take his earlobe between your teeth and pull away slowly. Mark, by now, is a writhing mess underneath you. He can no longer contain his sounds nor his desperation to climax, bucking his hips up to meet yours. The combination of his thumb running over your clit repeatedly and his dick hitting just the right spot has a white-hot pleasure burning through your entire body. “Mmph- Mark!”

“Fuck! I’m g- gonna cum,” He yelps when he hears you moan his name, his thumb’s movement over your clit becoming rougher, sloppier by the second. He gives up on trying to thrust up into you, instead letting you ride him with an almost animalistic nature. His face scrunches up, a choked groan falling from his open mouth as he feels his climax course through his entire body. His seed fills up the condom, the sensation of release so utterly euphoric that Mark isn’t sure if he’s ever felt this good. Your pace on his dick slows before coming to a complete stop, breathing heavily and feeling so out of it even without an orgasm.

“Lay down, beautiful,” He rasps out, moving from his position and running his hand along your thigh delicately. His half-lidded eyes meet yours before you obey his command, positioning yourself in the middle of the bed with your head resting comfortably on one of the pillows. Mark hovers over you, pressing affectionate kisses all over your upper body before traveling lower.

“I’ve never done this before,” Mark admits shyly, sucking on the skin of your inner thigh before repeating the action to the other one. As he licks a stripe up from your dripping core to your clit, you feel a shiver run all the way up your body. Noticing your reaction, he sucks your clit into his mouth and rolls his tongue over the sensitive bud. Your drawn out moan tells him he’s doing something right, so he continues to flick his tongue over the bundle of nerves while he looks up to see your face.

“Shit! More, p- please.” Your pleads leave his ears red and his mouth watering, his tongue moving to slide between your folds with a soft moan. The vibration combined with his tongue darting in and out of you languidly makes you see stars at this point. “Oh my god- are you sure you haven’t done this before?”

He chuckles lightly, seeing your brows furrow in concentration as he forces his tongue to fuck your core faster and faster. One of his hands comes down to rub over your clit, your juices creating a squelching noise every time his tongue moved inside of you. Mark swears he’s never felt more proud when your hand comes down to grip at his hair, pushing his face further into you just as your thighs clench around his head.

“You’re so wet,” Mark praises before going back to thrusting his tongue between your folds. The taste makes him hum, vibration spreading through your lower region and making you whimper in satisfaction. Mark’s a quick learner, you see, when he continues to hum and groan into your pussy as his finger circles your clit consistently. “Cum, baby.”

You give in to his command, letting yourself fall apart at the seams underneath his mouth. Your pussy throbs around his tongue as you ride out your orgasm, a moan caught in your throat as your mouth hangs open in an ‘O.’ Mark happily laps up your juices, diligently downing every last drop before collapsing on the mattress next to you.

“Wow,” He remarks in awe, peering at you through the corner of his eyes. You’re still trying to catch your breath, but you laugh lightheartedly anyway as you turn your body to face him. A few pieces of hair cling to your forehead, and he delicately pushes them away from your face before caressing the curve of your jaw.

“The game’s coming up,” You comment, your hand toying with the one that wasn’t touching your face. The game was so important to him, you couldn’t think of anything else you’d rather talk about in this moment. “Aren’t you excited?”

“Well, yeah of course. A little anxious, but I think that’s normal before a big game.” Basketball might be the one thing he could talk about without a nervous bone in his body. No stuttering, no confusion, just speaking his mind. “Do you like basketball?”

You nod in response, giggling at the face he makes that’s somewhere between surprised and overjoyed. Basketball was something you enjoyed watching and analyzing, especially since it was such a big thing for the students of Neo Tech. Most schools prided themselves on their football team, but not Neo. Basketball had always been like gold.

“What do you think of our starting five? Maybe you can tell me something I haven’t picked up on.”

“Hmm,” You start, fully prepared for the rant that’s about to happen. “Xiaojun is a pretty amazing shooting guard, he almost always knocks down shots whether he’s open or not. Ten can’t be matched when it comes to being a small forward. He’s quick as hell, and I see him use that to his advantage a lot when he’s trying to get open. Hendery- where do I even start? He’s so versatile when it comes to shooting, perimeter shots and jump shots- it doesn’t matter, he can make them all. And his defense skills are crazy, he’s fearless even up against bigger guys. I mean, I guess that’s normal among power forwards but-”

Mark zones out a bit as he prepares for you to talk about Lucas. What were you going to say? Would your eyes light up when talking about him? Would you gush about how good he was? He hopes not, especially not after what just happened.

“Lucas is a good choice for center. He’s tall, so it makes sense that he’s the best at rebounds. His shooting ability is fairly decent, but he needs work on his passing in my opinion.” He’s surprised to see that you keep your comments completely analytical, not even blinking an eye as you continue your commentary. If Mark liked you a lot before, hearing you talk about basketball has him on the verge of calling out for cupid.

“And you-” Mark’s ears twitch, his attention completely and utterly focused on you. Had you seen videos of him playing at his old school? He dreads the thought, knowing that he wasn’t playing to his full potential back then. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to see this Friday.”

“Is it too early to say ‘marry me?’“ He jokes, and both of you laugh. Secretly, though, you wish he had been more direct from the beginning. Seeing him with his newfound confidence is even more attractive than seeing him flustered. You wonder what today will bring of your relationship, but decide to wait and bring it up after his big game. He needs a clear head, and so do you if you want to see him perform to the best of his abilities on game night.

[game night]

You aren’t disappointed in the least bit, savoring every minute of the game and concentrating on how good Mark is. His position was always point guard, and now you understand why. He has a certain talent, it’s not technical. Sure, he’s a great shooter and he’s ruthless with defense. But more importantly, he facilitates the team in a way that makes all of the players better. He plays using their strengths, knowing exactly who to look for in any given situation rather than making himself the star.

He leads the team flawlessly, and you’re sure everyone feels it too. The momentum the five boys build up in the first half is too strong for the other team to compete with. By the time half-time is up, it’s clear that Neo Tech will come out on top. There’s a certain feeling lingering in the air as the coach switches out Ten and Hendery for Yangyang and Jungwoo. No matter what the coach does, who switches out, the outcome is secured.

Despite how certain victory is, it doesn’t stop everyone holding their breath as the shot clock winds down to its final seconds and Mark steps back to launch the ball into the air. Everyone is still as the ball seems to move in slow motion, a loud swoosh sound echoing throughout the gym seconds before the final buzzer blares, indicating the end of the game. The crowd is immediately on their feet and cheering, high-fiving and fist-bumping all around.

You’re sitting in the first few rows, so it’s easy to run out onto the court. The school’s sports reporters, Chenle and Jisung, are already holding the microphone towards Mark to record a post-game interview for tomorrow’s newsreel. They only get to ask a few questions, though, before Mark’s eyes are on you.

A bright, proud smile graces your face and Mark is sure he wants to see that same smile every day of his life. You’re standing a few feet away, facing him and the rest of the boys on the team. This reminds him of Lucas’s conversation in the locker room, and he knows that now is no time to be shy.

So, he answers one final question before brushing off the two boys and turning towards you. His walk is confident now, as if he’s done this millions of times before. Now, he stands with you toe-to-toe and he lets his arms wrap around your waist slowly.

If it’s even humanly possible, you push your body closer to his and drape your forearm over his shoulder. His eyes stare directly into yours, the shy boy long gone and replaced with the same courageous Mark that was on the court tonight.

“How’d I do?” He whispers as he leans his forehead against yours, his breath tickling your nose. Everyone on the team is watching, but it doesn’t bother either of you. Instead of answering, you grasp his jaw and press your lips against his. It doesn’t take long for him to respond, his mouth moving against yours slowly and affectionately. You pull away after a few moments, still beaming up at him.

“I guess you finally got together, huh?” Hendery smirks from his spot on the bench beside the two of you, and Mark laughs quietly. Though, Hendery’s statement reminds him that he never did ask you out. His brow quirks upwards when he meets your eyes, the silent question spelled out right in front of you.

“Yeah, we did.” Your answer is what he’s been dying to hear since the moment you walked into Principal Yoon’s office, and it feels even better knowing that he isn’t daydreaming this time. This is real, you returning his feelings- it’s all real. And Mark couldn’t be happier.

“I told you she liked Mark!” Xiaojun throws a victorious, high pitched scream at Lucas as they walk towards the locker room.

#nct #mark lee #nct scenarios #nct reactions #mark scenarios #mark imagines #nct imagines #nct smut #mark smut #nct fluff #mark fluff #neo tech high school series #happymarkday #nct 127 #nct dream

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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15 Hardest PlayStation 2 Games of All-Time

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Over 155 million PlayStation 2s have been sold to date, but few of those 150+ million PS2 owners have ever come close to beating the beloved console’s hardest games.

Sure, the PS2 may have helped make 3D games significantly more “playable,” and yes, it did slowly pull us away from the era of absurdly difficult arcade-style games, but it was also the console that seemingly inspired a new generation of developers to ask “What does the future of incredibly difficult games look like?”

Their answers include a driving game where mistakes are not an option, a rhythm game harder than actually learning an instrument, a beat-em-up that beats you up, and more of the absolute hardest PS2 games ever made.

15. Stuntman

Stuntman rides that line between “broken” and “designed to be difficult,” but I feel like this unique driving game is still playable enough to be rightfully recognized as one of the PS2’s most difficult experiences.

Stuntman is defined by the kind of razor-thin margin of error you typically don’t see outside of the toughest bullet hell shooters. This is an already mechanically challenging driving game made worse by the fact you only have a couple of seconds to react to frustratingly vague on-set stunt requests. It forces you to embrace that brand of trial and error gameplay that would be impossible to endorse if the novelty of playing as a movie stuntman wasn’t so appealing.

14. Manhunt

Manhunt is a grindhouse classic that deserves more love than it typically receives, but like so many stealth titles of this era, it’s also a maddeningly frustrating game that may have chased off more than a few potential fans with its unforgiving gameplay.

While you’re technically allowed to make a mistake in Manhunt, most players will find that the odds of recovering from those mistakes are so low that you might as well hit reset the moment that you’re caught. Oh, and this game’s “Hardcore” difficulty mode is even more brutal than the fictional snuff movie you’re supposedly participating in.

13. Pac-Man World 2

There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who see Pac-Man World 2 on a list of hard games and think “What?” and those who hear the name Pac-Man World 2 and immediately unlock a treasure trove of painful memories.

Some of Pac-Man World 2’s levels are pretty challenging in their own right, but only those who have tried to 100% this game know how hard it really is. While I’ve since seen people beat this game’s toughest time trials, there was a point in my life when I was ready to believe they were actually impossible. If this was a Crash Bandicoot game, it’d arguably be the hardest Crash Bandicoot game ever.

12. God of War

While not the most difficult 3D action game of the PS2 era (we’ll talk about those games in a second), it’s sometimes easy to forget just how hard the original God of War really was.

God of War’s combat is more than enough to keep you on your toes, but what puts this one over the top is the section where you have to climb a rotating tower of spikes and blades in order to escape the afterlife. This section belongs in the Hall of Fame of frustratingly difficult platforming challenges in non-platforming games.

11. Airblade

Airblade was unfairly dismissed as a Tony Hawk knockoff at the time of its release, but this game actually had quite a few things going for it that helped it stand apart. Having said that, Airblade could have been a significantly less difficult game if developer Criterion Software had only borrowed some of THPS’ better ideas.

The biggest offenders here are Airblade’s time limits and the structure of its challenges. Like classic THPS games, Airblade tasks you with completing a number of objectives in every level within a certain time limit. Unlike THPS, Airblade makes you complete all of those objectives in one perfect run before the time limit expires. Even “good” gamers will have a hard time overcoming the mental exhaustion of repeating the same challenges over and over.

10. Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter

The Breath of Fire games tend to be pretty challenging, but even this series’ biggest fans will usually concede that Dragon Quarter abuses whatever privileges the franchise may otherwise enjoy in that department.

Dragon Quarter’s early challenges are tough enough for those who go into this game with some understanding of how it all works, but the fact that most people are expected to overcome them while learning this game’s unique (and complicated) mechanics is just too much. Some of the game’s later boss fights even have a way of making you feel like you still don’t understand what you’re doing even when you’re a lowly level one character all over again.

9. Gitaroo Man

While Guitar Hero 3 deserves a little love for the absurd difficulty of its final song tier (not to mention the infamous “Through the Fire and Flames”), the PS2’s hardest rhythm game will always be Gitaroo Man.

Most of Gitaroo Man offers relatively reasonable challenges for dedicated rhythm gamers, but this game’s Master Mode challenges are just shy of physically impossible. Actually, “physical” is a great way to describe this game’s difficulty, as anyone who isn’t able to endure quite a bit of hand pain will probably never be able to 100% this one.

8. Jak 2

While Jak 2 is a fairly difficult game all the way through, I’d say about 80% of this Naughty Dog classic is actually fairly well-balanced and should be accessible to action-adventure/platformer fans of various skill levels.

As you probably figured out, it’s the other 20% of the game that earns Jak 2 its reputation as well as a spot on this list. There’s a handful of difficulty spikes in this game that will leave you wondering whether you’ve done something wrong or somehow accidentally changed a setting. It certainly doesn’t help that this game’s checkpoint system often forces you to replay some of those sections over and over again.

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7. Black

Black is another one of those games that’s hard to rank in terms of difficulty due to the extreme differences between its various difficulty settings. If you’re a somewhat seasoned FPS gamer playing Black on “Easy” or “Normal,” you’ll probably find that this game doesn’t offer many challenges that you aren’t able to overcome through the usual amount of persistence.

Black is an entirely different beast on “Hard” and “Black Ops” settings, though. It’s bad enough that you can be killed by a gentle breeze in those modes, but the fact you’re asked to complete additional objectives while navigating a buffet of bullets is downright cruel.

6. Godhand

There’s never really been another action game quite like Godhand. This bizarre beat-em-up combines elements of 3D action games like Devil May Cry with classic arcade brawlers, but emphasizes learning the patterns of individual enemies rather than mowing down waves of foes. To make things worse, the game features a twist on the old “tank control” system that forces you to adapt to a much slower pace than you’re typically used to seeing in these kinds of games.

Put it all together, and you’ve got a game that is constantly forcing you to learn new tricks just to survive. If you’re not the kind of gamer than can pull off complicated fighting game combos in the heat of battle, you might not be able to survive this truly unique action game.

5. Armored Core: Last Raven

“Difficult” is obviously the first word that comes to mind when I think of FromSoftware games, but the second would have to be “balanced.” For a studio that is obviously pretty well known for making hard games, most FromSoftware titles are actually surprisingly well-balanced.

Then there’s Armored Core: Last Raven. While I have to give FromSoftware credit for making an Armored Core game that challenged even the series’ most dedicated fans, the way this game essentially forces you to master even the most seemingly minor mechanics all but ensures that only those with the right combination of patience and skills will be able to even make progress in it much less dream of beating it.

4. Contra: Shattered Soldier

Saying that a Contra game is hard is just about the hottest take this side of “water is wet,” so the more interesting conversation regarding this series has instead always been “What is the hardest Contra game ever?”

Well, I’d still have to give that honor to Contra: Hard Corps, but Shattered Soldier absolutely belongs in that conversation. This is a pure arcade-style shooter that throws in just enough modern (or somewhat modern) gameplay twists to ensure that even those who consider themselves skilled at retro Contra games will struggle to see the end of one of the PS2’s best action titles.

3. Devil May Cry 3

After establishing the franchise formula in the first Devil May Cry and suffering through a significant sophomore slump in Devil May Cry 2, Capcom decided to get crazy with it and make Devil May Cry 3 arguably the most difficult 3D action game ever.

While it’s true that the original North American release of this game is technically the hardest version (due to the fact that Capcom raised the difficulty of every optional setting before reverting that decision in subsequent re-releases), it really doesn’t matter which version of this game you play. This is an absolute masterpiece in difficult game design, and I love the Devil May Cry team for everything that it is just as I kind of hate them for the same reason.

2. Maximo: Ghosts to Glory

The developers of Maximo: Ghosts to Glory were seemingly determined to see whether or not it was possible to translate the kind of absurd 2D-style difficulty the Ghosts and Goblins games were known for into a 3D environment. In the process, they created something that may be even more difficult than those legendarily challenging 2D classics.

Ghosts to Glory’s combat is as difficult as you’d expect it to be given this game’s pedigree, but this time around, you’ve got to also deal with a surprising amount of frustrating platforming sections that will have you falling down endless pits time and time again. This game may look “slower” than the original Ghost and Goblins adventures, but in its own way, it doesn’t let you breathe for a second.

1. Shinobi

I’ll stand by anyone who argues that Shinobi is one of the most creative, underrated, and overall best 3D action games ever made. Having said that, I can not in good conscience talk about this game without mentioning that it’s the kind of difficult that will make 90% of people rightfully give up on it after only a few hours (or even minutes).

What makes Shinobi so difficult? Let me count the ways:

A sword that slowly drains your life if you’re not killing enemies

Fairly common enemies that can block nearly all of your attacks

Platforming sections that demand nothing short of perfection

An infuriating lack of mid-level checkpoints

Boss battles that often combine the game’s hardest combat and platforming mechanics

A lock-on system that is necessary for success but often leads to your accidental death

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

People who live for hard games will often admit that Shinobi is sometimes too difficult for its own good, which is honestly kind of an achievement in and of itself.

The post 15 Hardest PlayStation 2 Games of All-Time appeared first on Den of Geek.

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bunny-wan-kenobi · 7 years

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Thor Thoughts Pt 2: Golden Boy Comes Down to Earth

Part II of my series of Thor reflections since I love the muscled teddy-bear badass way too much…

Part I: Why I Love Thor

Golden Boy Comes Down to Earth

Upon watching Thor Ragnarok, many viewers have labeled the Thor movies as a “coming of age story.” I agree but would add another layer: it’s also a story examining privilege.

Maybe the movies did not necessarily intend to tackle this theme, but I’m firmly of the belief that there is more depth to these movies than people give them credit for. Yup they’re fun, but there’s a lot to mull over beneath the surface. So let’s talk Thor, epitome of Privilege (on soooo many levels).

We first meet Thor when he is most young and brash and reckless. Thor is used to being the Golden Boy–he’s tall, handsome, popular, and proud. Not only that, but within the social context of our world, he’s basically a rich able-bodied white guy positioned on the highest tier of his society. Now put a hammer in his hand that only responds to his call (talk about exclusivity at the top) and you’ve got one powerful man–and a potentially dangerous one.

Thor’s sheer concentration of privilege is dangerous because he was raised not to question it. His society is founded on the subjugation of other realms, and despite Odin’s call to honor and responsibility (oh Odin), he has this attitude that he and other Asgardians are inherently superior to everyone from the savage monsters outside their borders (the Jotun) and the petty subjects under their rule (humans). And Thor’s not the only one who thinks this way—it’s a symptom of his greater society.

This is the view of conquerors, the ones who have the power to re-work the collective narrative in their favor so history remembers them as benevolent rulers bringing order to a world at war rather than colonizers forcibly bringing other peoples under their control (Ragnarok did a good job touching on this). So we end up with Thor the spoiled Norse jock with a bludgeoning tool–and Daddy’s a despot (less bloody post-Hela edition).

King Laufey: Your father is a murderer and a thief! And why have YOU come, to talk of peace? You long for battle, you crave it! You’re nothing more than a boy trying to prove himself a man!

Thor: Be warned, this boy grows tired of your mockery!

Thor (2011)

Let’s be real here: Asgard as portrayed by these movies is an imperialist realm. How do we know this? Look at Loki. Why try to destroy Jotunheim (his birthland)? Why try to take over Midgard? Okay, there are a WHOLE lot of reasons underlying Loki’s motivations, but one thing he tells Odin in TDW is:

I went down to Midgard to rule the people of Earth as a benevolent God, just like you

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

He says something a long these lines to Thor in Avengers–this is what their people do, they conquer people, keep them in line, and rule them, so what’s the big fuss? That is the way things are in Asgard, that’s what people believe keeps the order and peace. That’s what they want to believe at least…

And the thing is, Thor might’ve agreed with Loki once–before coming to Earth. Remember the Thor who basically reignited war with the Frost Giants because his pride was hurt? The guy went off to Jotun and killed a bunch of them and told his dad that they should destroy them together! (Asgardians have weird ideas of father-son bonding). I wonder where he got the idea that stomping into another realm to teach them a lesson and make them submit under brutal force was a perfectly acceptable way to approach inter-species relations… *coughOdingetyolifetogethercough*

Odin: What action would you take?

Thor: March into Jotunheim as you once did! Teach them a lesson! Break their spirits, so they would never dare try to cross our borders again!

Thor (2011)

Just to hammer in the point (see what I did there?), we see that Odin essentially has a whole MUSEUM vaultful of relics stolen from other realms, tokens of his conquests. Hmmmm that sounds familiar…

So we have a prince raised in the dominant culture, raised with an internalized sense of supremacy and raised not to challenge the status quo because it benefits him. And why would he? He’s used to being on top and throwing his weight around to get what he wants because this is how Asgard itself has stayed on top of all the Nine Realms for centuries. Thor’s point of view is myopic, too narrow to consider the wide-reaching consequences of his actions. It also prevents him from engaging struggles outside of his own, especially those of people without his advantages–a flaw that contributes to the splinters in his relationship with his brother (He calls Loki’s problems “imagined slights.” Yeaaah…not getting any Brother-of-the-Year Awards here Thor).

Thor has tremendous influence in his position–he’s a prince, a future ruler, but we see him in movie 1 so fixated on his own glory, his own sense of rightness that he ends up trampling people right and left. Thor is like the thunder he commands, loud, powerful, and abrupt. He doesn’t linger for the aftermath but leaves a large echo.

So what happens then when Thor is stripped of his hammer, his armor, his land, and his godhood status? Thor is literally stripped of his previous (mostly unearned) privileges and banished to Earth. And like anyone facing this kind of loss for the first time, Thor is angry. He’s defensive, desperate to get back to his hammer and restore a sense of normalcy to his life. He’s now stuck in a foreign world that no longer bends to his rules.

But this is why Thor’s time on Earth matters so much. For the first time, Thor’s worldview is exposed for its gaping holes, and he has to respond to the breaking down of tales he’s heard all his life about his people’s superiority. There’s a loss of innocence with that, but it’s replaced with a growing maturity. It’s also important to acknowledge that Thor comes to these realizations by developing relationships with beings different from himself.

Thor: You know, I had it all backwards. I had it all wrong.

Erik Selvig: It’s not a bad thing finding out that you don’t have all the answers. You start asking the right questions.

Thor: For the first time in my life, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do.

Erik Selvig: Anyone who’s ever going to find his way in this world, has to start by admitting he doesn’t know…

Thor (2011)

In forming friendships with humans like Jane and Selvig, in living in a human town-even for a little while-Thor’s eyes are opened to the experiences of beings outside of Asgard, and instead of dismissing them for perceived deficiencies, he learns to value them in their complexity. He comes to appreciate humans for their intelligence, their capacity for kindness, their desire to understand the unknown. He observes their ignorance of so many things (he has traveled the cosmos after all and has a magic hammer), and yet…there’s things they can teach him too, maybe precisely because as a race they’re always learning and their lives are short. He may have been born to rule them, but now he is actually seeing them for the first time, and it changes him.

When Thor sacrifices himself for the town in the first movie, it’s a climatic moment that signifies just how far he’s come in his journey of understanding his own privilege. He not only apologizes to Loki for how he has wronged him, but he also demonstrates his willingness to lay down his life for people that just a few days earlier, he might’ve waved off as inferior. And with that understanding comes not only a restoration of his previous power, but also a new commitment to defend these people with that power.

This is an interesting development because then Thor returns to Asgard and later admits to Odin that he still has “much to learn.” Humility has begun to reshape Thor’s motivations so he acknowledges his flaws and seeks to learn from his mistakes rather than placating his own pride. He begins to understand that the power he wields and the position he holds can be used to serve others rather than simply dominate them.

Fast forward and we see Thor protecting humanity in Avengers, and we get this fascinating and underrated exchange with Loki when he confronts him:

Thor: So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights? No, the Earth is under MY protection, Loki! Loki: [laughs] And you’re doing a marvelous job with that! The humans slaughter each other in droves, while you ideally threat. I mean to rule them. And why should I not? Thor: You think yourself above them? Loki: Well, yes. Thor: Then you miss the truth of ruling, brother. A throne would suit you ill.

Avengers (2012)

I really don’t think people give enough credit to Thor’s insight here. He’s basically telling Loki that ruling can’t be reduced to an exercise of privilege where one sees themselves as inherently better than the people they seek to lead. When that happens, a ruler becomes a tyrant and no longer contributes to the welfare of their people–which in Thor’s estimation is what a true leader should do. The boot-and-ant analogy Loki champions falls short of Thor’s re-envisioning of what the throne really means.

Loki takes the side of the imperialist: they’re better, more advanced than humans, so the humans should serve them and be grateful for it. But Thor introduces a new paradigm counter-cultural to what he has been taught: ruling as a means of stewardship. Not domination, not assimilation, but the recognition of responsibility towards the people directly impacted by your actions. A bloody history may have resulted in Asgard’s rule over Earth, but Thor realizes this does not give his people license to exploit humans’ resources and devalue them. Instead, they should be helping them, contributing to their flourishing and, ultimately, respecting their agency.

The fruit of Thor’s time on Earth can be seen in TDW where the situation with the Dark Elves forces him to confront the reality of Odin’s past war crimes (and this is BEFORE Ragnarok). He questions Odin’s stance of isolationism and the wisdom of just staying put to destroy your enemy while getting destroyed yourself. There is a cyclical nature to these political conflicts, a generational ill that is poisoning everyone involved, and Thor no longer wants any part of it.

Odin: Malekith is sure to return, we have what we wants. And when he does, we will defeat him.

Thor: We can not fight an enemy we can not locate! Malekith could be right over us now, and we’d never know! How many Asgardian lives must we sacrifice?

Odin: AS MANY AS IS NEEDED! Till the last Asgardian falls, till the last drop of blood is shed!

Thor: What makes you so different from Malekith, then?

Odin: [mirthless laugh] The difference, my son, is that I will WIN.

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Remember this: Thor gives up the throne. Not just to be with Jane, and not because he wants to go off and vacation on Midgard like an overgrown fratboy, but because he fears he doesn’t have the ruthlessness to rule in a way that will maintain Asgard’s power like his father has done for centuries. He’s afraid of how that kind of pressure will change him, make him the manifestation of the worst parts of Odin. He’s afraid of how that privilege could consume him and harm countless others. By the end of TDW, Thor lays down the power of kingship given him by birthright because he believes he can do more good as a free agent ensuring the welfare of Midgard and the other realms.

Odin: You once said there would never be a wiser King than me. You were wrong. The alignment has brought all the realms together. Every one of them saw you offer your life to save them. What can Asgard offer its new King in return? Thor: My life. Father, I cannot be King of Asgard. I will protect Asgard and all the realms with my last and every breath, but I cannot do so from that chair. Loki for all his grave imbalance understood rule as I know I never will. The brutality, the sacrifice, it changes you. I’d rather be a good man than a great King.

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

By this point, Thor has matured past Odin, past Loki, past the reigning paradigms of his culture. They’ve all remained stagnant, caught in the same patterns of war and conquest and revenge. Once you’ve known privilege, it’s hard to conceive of life without that power–or the labor to preserve it. The cost of losing your advantage seems too painful because it’s woven into the normalization of your day-to-day existence.

Others in Asgard may not want to consider what the alternatives may be, but Thor has come to realize the damage this attitude has wreaked upon not only the peoples of the Nine Realms, but also the very people who benefit most from the hierarchy as is. He sees the blind spots among his people, in “Humans-are-fleeting-their-lives-are-nothing” Odin, but he cannot force them to see differently if they are not willing to. If he cannot do good from the throne, then he cannot in good conscience sit in it.

With that choice to loosen his grip on his privilege and recognize the responsibility tied to his positioning in the world, Thor finally emerges as someone worthy to be king. Loki had a point, he would have been a terrible ruler before the changes he’s undergone–he was arrogant and guilty of the same narrow-minded thinking passed down from the generation before. That Thor needed a crash-course to Earth to finally be open to unlearning what he learned and to develop empathy for others once considered lesser than him.

So what we see in Ragnarok is the culmination of all this development, all these shifts in attitude. Yes, Thor is still bumbling and proud and powerful, but he is also wiser. He doesn’t believe he could be a better king than Odin, but his choices have already proved the opposite. I love that moment when Odin reveals to him that his power was never in Mjonir; instead, the hammer was there to train him to channel his power well. And isn’t that the summation of Thor’s whole journey?

Thor: Life is about growth and change. But you, my dear god of mischief brother, just want to stay the same.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Throughout 3 movies, Thor has been learning how to wield power wisely, to steward what he has been given to serve others. A hammer is cold and can only press other things down under it, but hands, eyes, feet involve skin-contact, the intimacy and intentionality of one’s body–and these are now the primary extensions of Thor’s power.

Thor loses his hammer but takes full ownership of his identity, his embodied and social position within his community–and his power. There’s something beautiful in that idea because it’s Thor’s relationships-his experiences in drawing close to people and collaborating with them- that have contributed to his growth. He will not be the ruthless conqueror Odin was. He will be something entirely different that has yet to be seen.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the movie that fully exposes the sins of Asgard and Odin’s bloody history is the same one that ends with Thor on the throne after everything he has learned and experienced. Asgard was built on a corrupt foundation, and so maybe in this case the whole structure needed to fall apart so something good and lasting could be built in its place. In the same way, privilege, whether racial, gendered, embodied etc., needs to be challenged and deconstructed if all peoples are to thrive together as true equals. Hela is framed as a relic of the old order; Thor is the burnished symbol of the new.

Thor: I love what you’ve done with the place. Redecorated and everything.

Hela: It would seem our father’s solution to every problem was to cover it up.

Thor: Or cast it out. I would love for someone else to rule but it can’t be you. You’re just… the worst.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Though he still doesn’t desire the throne, Thor steps up into the role of king because his people need a leader. Not a paternalistic Allfather, but a leader who can support and steer them into the unknown that awaits them after the destruction of Asgard. Thor knows what it’s like to have security, privilege, comfort stripped away, and so he understands how painful and difficult their next steps will be. Like he did years ago, they’re coming down to Earth, and Asgard may be better for it.

#thor ragnarok #thor #marvel #bunny talks thor #bunny posts

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ladystylestores · 4 years

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HBO Max is live: $15/mo for a massive library, significant headaches

Like it or not, another subscription streaming service has entered the chat.

This one—HBO Max—debuts across the United States on Wednesday, and it comes from the combined AT&T-Time Warner media empire. After taking shape in 2018, the new “WarnerMedia” cluster of film and TV content has since put together a streaming library of exclusive content—particularly by yoinking content away from Netflix and other partners, in apparent defiance of AT&T’s antitrust pledge to US Congress.

WarnerMedia didn’t make the service available to Ars Technica ahead of the launch, so I jumped into the fray by claiming a free seven-day trial on launch day and picked through its first day’s content and interface. I did so to answer the following question: has WarnerMedia pulled off a service worthy of a $15/month fee?

Not necessarily.

They’re still running three services simultaneously

The easiest sales pitch is for anyone who already happily paid $15/mo for HBO Now as a standalone service. HBO Max kinda-sorta replaces HBO Now, because the former has all the same content as the latter. Pay the same, get more. If you thought HBO Now’s selection of HBO-specific series and films was worth its high price, you’re the luckiest potential user. And if you were using HBO Now on Android or iOS, its app has simply turned into HBO Max. Easy peasy.

That makes us wonder: why does HBO Now still exist? One reason is that existing set-top boxes and services support paid subscriptions to HBO Now, sometimes as a bundled package. Another reason is that some set-top boxes, particularly every single Roku and Amazon Fire TV device, currently work with HBO Now, but do not work with HBO Max.

Confusing things further, HBO Go also still exists, but this is a holdover attachment to cable-TV subscriptions that offer HBO Go as a perk. WarnerMedia had to produce the following video to try and explain things, and the result is unintentionally hilarious:

youtube

HBO Max vs. HBO Now vs. HBO Go… yes, WarnerMedia officially made this video.

And the question of whether you might get HBO Max for free with your existing cable or streaming services remains a bewildering mess. HBO Now continues to direct users to the older apps, in spite of HBO Max being advertised as an included option from providers like Charter, Verizon, Cox, and (unsurprisingly) AT&T and its subsidiaries.

There’s also the matter of WarnerMedia’s last-minute announcement of a lower-priced, ad-supported tier for the service. But how much will it cost, and when will it arrive? The industry giant isn’t saying yet beyond a vague “2021” window.

Not quite the theme park we’d hoped for

The opening splash screen.

Sidebar.

More sidebar.

On its first day of operation, HBO Max already has a “last chance” page of expiring content.

The opening page for any series has a massive sample screen.

You have to scroll quite a ways to pick through more episodes, though at least the season-skipping interface is nimble enough.

When watching videos on a desktop web browser, the interface largely resembles HBO Now, complete with the “rewind 15 seconds” button. You won’t find that convenient toggle on every platform, however.

Once you actually get into the service, HBO Max looks like it germinated from a different era, when the streaming universe hadn’t fractured into a zillion pieces. Its landing page looks as simple as “Netflix, but with our exclusives.”

Comparatively, Disney+ showed up late last year with smart ideas about how to crash the streaming-subscription party. The most brilliant is its first-impression divide into five major categories: Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic. Opening Disney+ feels like walking up to a theme park, seeing five enticing gates, and knowing they’ll each have a ton of content behind them. (Of all the companies to get that right, this one makes sense.)

HBO Max can’t make up its mind about whether to hew to that archetype or to the massive-dump-of-content standard seen on the past decade of most other streaming services. The top of the interface is an unsurprising scroll of “featured” content, and this sees HBO Max puffing its chest about major exclusives: the ’90s NBC series Friends (duh, it’s still one of the world’s most popular TV series), some HBO Max exclusives, and some HBO-produced series. Below those are some “featured” scrolls of TV series and films, arguably based on popularity, then a clever “every Harry Potter film in order” block—again, a hugely popular streaming exclusive, so that’s good for HBO Max to highlight.

You’ll need to tap your remote six times (or more if you’ve built any “previously watched” and “my watchlist” libraries) to scroll down and reach the “HBO Max hubs.” These massive buttons resemble Disney+’s intro splash, and they do a better job attaching a personality to the service… but not by the same margin. Small buttons are assigned to DC (as in, DC Comics), Sesame Workshop, Turner Classic Movies, Studio Ghibli, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Crunchyroll, and Looney Tunes. “HBO” gets a stupidly oversized button.

Hub hopping

HBO Max’s hubs.

The 25 series in the Cartoon Network hub, as of launch.

HBO

The 9 series in the Adult Swim hub, as of launch.

HBO

A visit to the Sesame Street hub reveals a peculiar organizational issue: categories that link to entire episodes. Those “spoofs and parodies” are tucked into longer episodes, and HBO Max doesn’t use timestamps to let watchers skip directly to the relevant bits. It’s an unwieldy attempt to guide viewers.

HBO

I created a “child” account to see what the interface looks like for kids under 13. It’s harder for them to find “hubs,” and they are instead shoved into age-gated clumps of content.

HBO

Clicking on HBO takes you to a less polished, less neatly organized version of HBO Now. Pick the “series” tab, and it’s an alphabetical dump of a most every HBO series with zero additional narrowing. If you’re in the mood for “every HBO comedy series,” you’re out of luck; you’ll have to pick through every drama and thriller on your way to find beloved comedic fare like Mr. Show and Silicon Valley, let alone to figure out which series count in which category. Curiously, stand-up comedy gets a dedicated tab within the HBO-specific interface, yet the “series” tab also includes a bunch of separate stand-up comedy.

The only genre-specific tabs generate a massive list of content from every hub. The overlap between bright-and-cheery Cartoon Network content and HBO’s darkest comedies feels less than ideal. (If you’re wondering, you can easily set parental controls to make sure Adventure Time isn’t a few clicks away from Barry.)

Some of the other hubs lead to clearly incomplete collections. Adult Swim is the worst offender at only nine series in all, while the DC button is HBO Max’s weirdest stumble. It has a plethora of content, sure, but what about recent, buzzed-out series like the Harley Quinn animated series or ’90s classics like Batman: The Animated Series? Sadly, those aren’t here, because they’re exclusive to one of WarnerMedia’s other streaming-subscription services, DC Universe. So much for corporate synergy. (Confusingly, Doom Patrol, a series that debuted on DC Universe, does appear on HBO Max.)

I can’t complain about the Turner Classic Movies or Looney Tunes selections, on the other hand, which are monstrous. The former, which at launch sports a whopping 454 films, borrows liberally from the Criterion Collection—enough that you could cancel that collection’s subscription service for a few months while picking through its HBO Max redundancies. (Be aware that TCM counts some interesting films as “classics,” but we’re not about to argue about the “classic” designation of flicks like Police Academy or Godzilla Raids Again.) The latter, meanwhile, includes hundreds of original Looney Tunes theatrical shorts throughout the years—but, gosh, HBO Max. It’s a pain to pick through the shorts as arranged in “seasons,” as if they originally aired on TV in a certain sequence, and the service only launched with three “collections” of classic shorts. Families could’ve used a hand to pick through more of this content, perhaps with more character-specific playlists? Or collections dedicated to beloved directors like Chuck Jones or Tex Avery?

I’m not an anime diehard, so I can’t speak to the seemingly anemic selection in the Crunchyroll tab. But at least the Studio Ghibli collection has nearly every one of its acclaimed films. (The holdouts are Grave of the Fireflies and the studio’s co-production work on a Lupin the Third feature-length film.)

Lack of 4K, lack of “skip opening credits”

Among the most boneheaded parts of the HBO Max rollout, however, is its utter lack of 4K content, let alone 4K combined with HDR. The same goes for Dolby Atmos surround sound. Why are these features missing? If history is any answer, the lack may be because HBO never built support for those standards in its other official apps.

That issue feels all the more glaring when HBO Max locks up films as exclusive content. If WarnerMedia wants new users to flock to its service instead of rivals’, guaranteeing 4K access to Wonder Woman, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and other 4K showstoppers would be a worthy, competitive move. But WarnerMedia has only suggested that 4K, HDR, and Atmos support are “on our roadmap,” which is as toothless a guarantee in the streaming-app landscape as they come.

On the other side of the resolution spectrum, HBO Max is careful not to aggressively crop older videos that were originally meant for 4:3 televisions. That’s great news for the video-ratio purists at Ars Technica. You don’t have to start an online petition to get the original, uncropped versions of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, folks.

Beyond those issues, HBO Max has a paltry selection of newly created, “only for Max” content: six short series, each three episodes or fewer. It’s unclear why the company even bothered with this selection, since it sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the dozens of films and series with a shiny red N on Netflix or the same kind of content found on the likes of Hulu, Disney+, Amazon Video, and even NBC’s soft-launched Peacock.

All of the above is to say: there’s a mountain of content on HBO Max, and quite a bit of stuff that counts as both popular and critically acclaimed, but the service does an awful job laying out a mat for new users to discover it. The hub-based spread of content is a pain to pick through, and so many selections (biggies like Friends and Harry Potter, plus content from Turner TV stations like Conan) don’t appear in those hubs. And it’s missing quality-of-life features you might come to expect from a streaming service, including a “skip opening credits” toggle or a “rewind 15 seconds” button-tap. (The latter tap option only appears when using HBO Max on a desktop Web browser.)

Thankfully, the basic experience of queueing and watching things you search for works just fine, and again, this library is massive—and includes multiple bottomless wells of beloved libraries. But many of these, particularly Looney Tunes and Sesame Street, deserved better. Instead of virtually leading fans into a neatly organized theme park, HBO Max asks its users to crash through the glass door of a badly managed Blockbuster Video.

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8cetera · 8 years

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Track #4: Sunday

(A string of short imagines based on Rafael Barba, inspired by the songs from Jonathan Larson’s Tick, Tick...Boom!) #1. 30/90 #2. Green Green Dress #3. Johnny Can’t Decide #4. Sunday #5. No More #6. Therapy

A tingling sensation on the side of her arm woke her from her sleep, must be an itch, she thought. Without even opening her eyes she reached up to the source to scratch it, only to come in contact with rough fingertips. Not an itch after all. She summoned her eyes to finally open and immediately felt glad afterwards.

There were very few sights she enjoyed more than a bare-chest Rafael underneath her linen sheets. She appreciated the neat comb overs and high-end tailored suits of the unstoppable counselor just as much as the next person, but she would trade it all for this in an instant.

The disheveled hair, the reduced eye bags, the peaceful expression; a sense of pride began to form within her as she realized how lucky she was to bear witness this side of him.

Unable to resist any longer, she caught his fingers in the midst of his light strokes and interlocked her fingers with his. Besides, as ridiculous as it was, she was beginning to feel jealous of the ceiling he was staring at so intently.

“Did I wake you?”

“Yes—” She feigned irritation but couldn’t continue the act for long when she noticed his apologetic expression “But I’m so, so glad you did.”

She shifted closer to him to place a kiss on his throat, earning a soft hum.

“How’d you sleep?”

“Really well…” He said in a daze, before looking down at her with a devious expression, “Until I woke up because I couldn’t feel my arm. Spooning really isn’t what they make it out to be in the movies, you know it’s really-”

She gave him a light jab to the stomach before quickly sitting up and leaning back against the headboard. She pulled the sheets to her chest and narrowed her eyes at him, receiving a deep chuckle in return.

“Are you hungry?”

She wasn’t thinking about food until he said the words, and just as luck would have it her stomach began to grumble. He grinned and reached for his watch on the side table.

“So am I. It’s 9:30. How about we head to the diner for brunch? We haven’t done that in a while.” He moved to lay on his front and traced random patterns on her thighs.

She beamed at his suggestion, and slid out of the bed to change even before she answered.

“Sounds great to me.”

"Let's go somewhere else."

Rafael tugged on her coat, motioning with his hand for them to leave the diner.

"No-no I'm sure we'll get a seat soon."

She was trying to maintain an optimistic tone but it was becoming increasingly difficult after she had been pushed twice by patrons leaving the dinner. Who would have thought that the entire city would have the same idea and decide to have Sunday brunch at exactly this hour.

"But it's so crowded."

"It'll be fine." She assured him, before looping her arm around his.

"Besides, this is the only place that makes the espresso exactly how you like it. Just be patient."

Rafael looked down defeated, knowing that she was right. However, when a group of seven people came barging in as if they weren’t there, he said to himself he couldn't take it anymore and began to drag her closer to the door.

She didn't feel the need to object until she heard, what seemed at the time, two wonderful magic words.

"How many?"

They were seated at the corner of the diner, and right next to them was the entrance to the kitchen. Every time food would come out, the doors would fling open in such a full force that their table shook.

The entire diner was bursting with noise. It was a mixture of loud conversation, toddlers crying, plates and glasses shattering. It annoyed Rafael to no end as he checked his watch for the third time since they sat down. He mumbled to himself, and fidgeted in his seat profusely.

All the while his significant other sat quietly across from him with her hands on her lap, observing in amusement.

He stood up from his seat to try and grab the attention of a waiter passing by.

“Order—”

“Someone will be with you soon.”

He pursed his lips and sighed audibly as he slumped back into his seat.

"Relax, Barba" she teased, "It's only been ten minutes."

He scoffed, "More like twenty—and that's not counting the extra fifteen we waited earlier.”

“Do you even know what you’re having?”

He opened his mouth to say something but paused when he realized the answer to that was indeed, a no.

Rafael lifted one of the menus tucked in between the wall and napkin holder, quickly scanning its contents.

“Not yet, but I bet I can guess what you’re having.”

She couldn’t hide the wide grin forming on her face, and in just mere seconds Rafael’s expression began to match hers.

“Niçoise salad and honey—” “Niçoise salad and honey bread.”

Their laughter was interrupted by their waiter, to Rafael’s relief, arriving to take their order.

He was out of breath as he scrambled to take out his pen and notepad.

“Hey, I’m Jon. What can I get you guys?”

“Can I please get the Niçoi—”

“We’re outta’ lettuce.”

“Oh, that’s fine I’ll just get the honey bre—”

“Outta’ honey bread.”

The slight disappointment apparent on her face combined Jon incessantly tapping his pen on his notepad tested Rafael’s patience deeply.

“Are you just out of everything?”

“Raf—it’s fine.”

“No, it’s not. How can they call themselves a diner if—”

She was glad to be quick enough to kick his shin under the table before he could finish his sentence.

“What about just some toast and eggs, sunny-side?”

“That, we can do—and you?”

He turned to Rafael who could only narrow his eyes at him.

“I’ll have the same.”

She shook her head and looked up to Jon, “A Cuban espresso and some orange juice as well, please.”

“Sure thing.”

After Jon left, Rafael’s expression still seemed like he wanted to teach the kid a lesson. She reached her arm out across the table, inviting him to take her hand.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

He gently lifted her hand and placed a kiss on her knuckles.

“Nothing, nothing. Just hungry, I guess.”

“How’s the coffee?”

Rafael avoided direct eye-contact and took another sip.

“It’s good, but a bit too sweet today.”

“That’s exactly how you like it. You can be such a bad liar sometimes, Rafael.”

She shook her head and then turned her attention to the middle section of the diner.

“Hey, look.” She pointed towards the green cylindrical stools, “Remember when we first came here, and we made fun of the color of those stools?”

He quickly chewed and swallowed his last bite of toast before answering,

“Yeah, I think they just got them back then and they were this horrible... lime green color? Didn’t match any of the other interiors.”

She nodded and continued to stare at the stools, “Exactly, but look at it now—It seemed to have blended in just fine with the others. Funny, what time does.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

His reply brought her out of her daydream and she proceeded to pick up the last piece of her toast.

“Marry me.”

She felt the piece of bread land on her pants, and then down to the floor right by her shoe as her hand involuntarily let it go.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

“I don’t think so.”

Rafael leaned his arms on the table so that he was now closer to her.

“Marry...” He looked straight into her eyes, and it terrified her to admit that she saw absolutely no signs that he joking, “me.”

She wished she hadn’t asked. Hearing him say it slower proved to be a worse scenario. She looked around the room making sure no one was paying attention to them. When her eyes met his again she began to make incoherent sounds, unsure if she should even be trying to speak.

“It’s been six years. Six. Years. You can’t tell me you’re that surprised?”

“Is this about when we had dinner with your mother two weeks ago? When I went on and on about my cousin’s wedding, about how I hated tier cakes—that was between me and your mom, Rafael, and I wasn’t being serious—you-you really shouldn’t have been listening to our—”

“You’re changing the subject.”

She bit her bottom lip nervously and fiddled with the ends of her blouse.

“But to answer your question-” He leaned back and crossed his arms, “No, it wasn’t because of dinner. I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile.”

Her head perked up as she was genuinely surprised.

“Thought I could try being romantic for a change and bring us back here.”

He eyes wandered around the room and the corner of his mouth lifted.

“Where he had our first date.”

“Even though it didn’t go exactly how I had planned… And you deserve a better proposal, I know. I’m sorry I just—I couldn’t wait to ask anymore.”

The two were so engrossed they didn’t even notice that Jon had returned with their bill.

“Here’s… the check.” Jon nervously said as he realized he might have interrupted an important conversation, “Whenever you’re ready.”

Even though she didn’t want to, she tore her eyes away from the pleading green ones opposite her and reached for the tray with the bill.

“Let me get this.”

A few minutes outside proved to be a vast contrast from the atmosphere in the diner. It was a quiet, chilly February afternoon, the only sounds they could hear were the rustling of the leaves as a strong wind began to blow harshly.

Among other things, this was what kept her holding on tight to Rafael as they began to walk back.

“Do you like tier cakes?”

She asked suddenly as she tightened the hold on his arm.

“Hate them.”

“What kind of cake would you like, then?”

He untangled himself from her hold and instead put his hands on each side of her cheeks.

“I really don’t care” He chuckled, “We could have a cheesecake the size of our apartment if that’s what you want. All that matters is—”

“How many guests would we have?”

“None.” He said curtly and her eyes widened, “We’ll do it in City Hall, it’ll be a short distance from work and—”

She sighed and turned around so he was facing her back.

The next minute his arms were around her waist and his lips right by her ear.

“I’m kidding.” He whispered, and kissed her temple.

“I would like it to be small. Your family. Mamá. Friends. Maybe the squad, but we’ll see.”

She laughed, and thought her heart might burst from all the emotions that were running through her. “That’s what I want, too.”

“Really?”

She turned to wrap her arms around his neck, “Yes, really.”

He placed his forehead against hers and closed his eyes before he gathered the strength to ask again.

“Yes?”

She kissed him once, and then two more times, not caring at all that his lips felt cold as ice from the harsh wind.

“Yes.”

She would kiss them over and over again until they weren’t.

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scottmapess · 4 years

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Bitcoin MUST ACT NOW (Before it’s too late)

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

A bit of a sell off of the Bitcoin managed to hit the resistance level at roughly six thousand six hundred six thousand five hundred dollars. Since then we ended up trading sideways a little bit and we did have the setup to continue trading higher ground. Fortunately, Bitcoin instead took that relative area of resistance to heart and we’ve ended up dropping a little bit lower. The good news is that this is in line with the rest of the market. You can see a lot of red across the board. The only green we have is in gold and a couple shit coins. So this is where the markets have been going today. Just a lot of money flowing out of those kinds of assets and into the dollar, into gold. Various different things like that. And that’s good news because it means that Bitcoin didn’t dump a loan. If it dumped a loan, then that might have indicated that there’s something specifically wrong with bitcoin. There are many things specifically wrong with Bitcoin, but fortunately in this case, those didn’t matter. And this is just a wider kind of market flush out. And I think that is a good sign. So it’s it’s tricky because this dump, you know, this is the second beautiful setup that Bitcoin has had to trade much higher. I told you about the one before where we ended up breaking out of that rising wedge where we initially chose the bearish direction and then we ended up trading higher anyway. We had a beautiful chance for bitcoin to continue to trade higher, but it didn’t take it. And this is just example number 2, which is heartbreaking. It kind of makes things look a little bit bearish because while our current structure, our short term structure might not look so bearish, it might actually look a little bit more bullish in our short term trend. The long term trend. If we zoom out just a little bit more is definitely much more negative. And so when you’re starting to see small signs of bearish activity and you’ve got a massive warning of bearish activity continuing just because of what the long term trend is, that is going to make me polarized and biased towards the bears. Now, a lot of people will often say trading shouldn’t involve bias. And my response to that is bullshit. The only thing you do as a trader is trade on bias. You either long or short, it’s hot or cold off and on. These are polar opposites and you have to be biased in order to make money. And my bias is definitely towards the short side right now because of this massive dump. Something else really important to to point out, people will feel like they have an extra edge on you because they’re a smartarse contrarian who can think opposite to you and say that, well, actually, since everyone is going Shaws that everyone is bearish, I’m going to start going long and I’m going to be bullish. And they think that they’re on some higher tier of intelligence like that. But that’s also false because when you get massive dumps like this, I’m sorry to say, mate, but when you’ve got a dump like that, that’s because everyone in their bloody none. thinks that the market is going to dump. Right. That’s where you’ve got a lot of fear in the market. A better example is when we dumped from six thousand dollars when we had this dump. No one really thought that bitcoin was going to stop at a couple people did actually mainly the famous people, which was really concerning, thought that we would stop around the $5000 range. But most people with actual brains would have understood that yes, bitcoin failed the six thousand dollar level. Everyone was going to run out of support. Everyone was gonna turn very fearful. And so when you’ve got a circumstance where everyone thinks the market is going to crash, the market bloody crashes. That’s what happens. Everyone is selling. So the only thing that can happen is that the price ends up going down. There’s too much supply and not enough demand. So that’s what happens when there’s too much bearish pressure on an asset. And that’s exactly why I think that we still have an overarching bearish setup for the market. We still have that very discusting long term trend. This rising wage that I’ve been pointing out to you guys, we’re still there. We’re still and we’re actually right on the cusp of it now, depending on how you Joy. Let’s get a little bit more accurate. We’re gonna switch this over to a clean chart where I haven’t drawn anything yet, which happens to be at the Jemini chart, as it always is lately. And we are right on the edge of that support level. This is not a beautiful line because I previously drew the line connecting these two points and it looks something a little bit like this. So I’m already having to redraw the line and that’s why I typically don’t use diagonal lines like this. I don’t think they’re very reliable. You don’t see me use them in many videos, but in this case it’s important because it helps us visualize what a relative, you know, ascending channel would look like. You know, I can actually draw that for you with the channel tool, the parallel channel tool, something a little bit like this. And just relatively speaking, the overall trend is first down, then diagonally upwards and then potentially continuing on lower. So really, really important to point out there where we are, we are definitely hovering towards that that lower end of this range now. And that has to be something which is at least. Slightly concerning because, of course, what it means is when you have got a trend with so much power towards the bears, it is entirely possible that things take another very deep dive. And obviously that would mean potentially, unfortunately, re-entering the $3000 range. If you think that Bitcoin long term speaking is going to end up going way higher than that is going to be an absolutely beautiful place to enter. So it might not be so unfortunate, but let’s be honest, it definitely gets a little bit less fun when the price drops lower. What else have we got? Well, we’ve got that head and shoulders pattern that I was talking to you guys about in the last video. Now, as I said, I don’t like head and shoulders patterns, but I’ll take anything that’s bearish in this market right now because the overall market looks absolutely disgusting. And so this isn’t a very strong pattern, but the fact that it’s showing itself within a bearish trend, as we can see from there, the fact that it is showing itself in this situation makes me more inclined to pay attention to it. And as for flies prophesized, we are starting to see that head and shoulders complete. We’re basically now forming the end of the right shoulder. And the only issue with this is we haven’t had any volume here. So if we end up getting some volume on a dump, that would make me think we’re going way, way lower. That really sets the market up for some quite bearish price action. You have to you know, we have to bear in mind what has happened here. It doesn’t look like much has happened. And so initially, if you don’t if you look at this chart, you might be scratching your head wondering what’s going on. Let’s look at the facts. The facts are very clear. We hit resistance three times. One, two, three. Relatively speaking, we could count these as more hits and we might not count this one at all. But relatively speaking, we’ve hit resistance thrice and we haven’t been able to break it. The last two times where we hit resistance, we had a really bullish setups for the market to continue trading higher and it didn’t take it. What happened there? The bulls had a window of opportunity. They didn’t take it. So the bears down well, stepped in and took back control of the market. And we already know in the long term they have control of the market. Right. And I mean, long, long term, they have had control of the market. So, you know, that coincides with what happens when we zoom out a little bit more in line with that. We’re getting some potential bearish patterns with the head and shoulders pattern. We’re also getting that beautiful rising wage, which is one of the most typical signs that the market will continue trending lower again, especially when you are in such a big uptrend. It’s just so typical that this would happen. A beautiful example of that. Something like over here, another one over here. These are much bigger rising wages. And this one might not even look like one, but the same principle held. You know, we were in a downtrend and then the price traded higher over a period of time. In this case, a very short period of time. But over a period of time, nonetheless. And then we ended up continuing that trend. Once again, we formed another rising wage. Over a period of time, we ended up trading higher and then the trend continued trading lower. So very, very important things to point out and that does give us a bearish setup. But it’s not all bad news. We actually do have a potentially very good setup in the market and it is to do with the fibonacci’s. Before I get onto that, though, let’s take a look at what’s been happening with the four hour ichi Moku cloud. Today we have had yet another full rejection out of this cloud. This is something I was talking to you guys about. We did get a fairly you know, we can call a confirm breakout. This traded a couple percentage points above the resistance cloud, but nonetheless, we did end up falling back into it. And one of the things I mentioned is if we do fall back into the cloud, it could end up being like a kind of gravity device that would just pull us lower. And that’s exactly what happened. We ended up trading outside of the cloud on the bottom end. And once again, we’ve achieved the same nasty fate today. We’ve ended up falling out of the cloud. The good news starts now, though, because we do have that for our cloud turning into support on second of April, which is just tomorrow. Now, I have to say, if you don’t know what the Ichi Moku Cloud is, then type this into YouTube for flies. Ichi Moku, just like that, type this into YouTube and you will see my full tutorial on this indicator. Really, really great content there. And and so this is potentially forecasting that if we can manage to get a bit of a pump over the next day, over the next couple of days, we could be ready to see some nice support. And this is important because we’re seeing a beautiful cloud of support forming on the four hour chart after we’ve already had volatility in the market. So one thing that’s really important from this is that we know that this Ichi Moku cloud is going to be relevant. There are certain times where it’s not relevant, right. Where you’re not really trading at all. You’re just kind of going sideways. And so it stops being useful. The best example of it is over here and over here and potentially over here as well, because when all of these clouds formed, Bitcoin wasn’t doing anything. Bitcoin was just trading sideways. So this indicator is not useful when you don’t have volatility. It’s the same for most indicators. In this case, we do have volatility. And so we know that this might be reliable and that gives us a potentially beautiful chance to continue on the higher switch on to the one hour chart. And fortunately, we’re not seeing a really nice cloud over there. And that is because we’ve just not been trading much over the one hour chart. So we have seen this one hour each Moku Cloud lose a lot of its strength pretty much after this point. All of this is why the cloud stopped being so useful. What’s good about the support on the 4 hour chart, though, is that it lines up with something really, really good. It lines up with a horizontal area of support that we do potentially have in the market. Now, this can go from anywhere between 50, 700 up to 50, 800, potentially even fifty nine hundred. But I’m going to draw this at fifty 800 just because it is sort of a happy medium. And more importantly, we’ve already bounced off this level once, twice and three times. So once, twice and thrice there. That’s beautiful. English language is of course very confusing and we do have this interesting level of potentially even macro support lining up with an indicator that we know is likely to be reliable in the market, and that is significant. So if Bitcoin over the next couple of days is able to hold its ground over here into the weekend, if it can trade sideways throughout Wednesday, it’s a story throughout Thursday and Friday and going into the weekend, which would be the third right or the fourth of April, something like that, we will be looking at a potentially bullish set up for that weekend of price action. And, you know, weekends are where things might end up happening that are significant, aren’t even know if this was the weekend. Maybe it was some of this price action. But the weekends are where you start to get some of the weird price action. And if we are talking about a potential reversal, which is something that would be completely trend changing. Well, that’s the kind of bullshit that you come to expect when you’re a bitcoin trader. So it’s not great. It’s not a very technical way to do analysis. But nonetheless, I have to point it out because it works. I don’t like using this tool, but as an analyst, that’s not really my job to get emotions involved in it. If I don’t like it and it makes me money, I’m gonna use it anyway. That’s just my job as a trader. I’ve got to be using all the tools I have available to myself, of course. That’s one of the best benefits of being in the VIP group because you can see how I’m using all of the information that I’m sharing with you in these videos, plus a whole lot more just in the analysis that I share with V.I.P.s. And you can see how that manifests into the form of trades. Beautiful short position that I took out on Bitcoin, closing a 58 percent profit. Keep him VIP members updated in real time with everything I’m seeing on my trades. I don’t trade very often because I don’t like to be looking for my thrills in in trading. I like to be getting my highs and thrills from real life. Although granted with the quarantine lifestyle, there’s not much of that either anymore. But it is definitely the smart thing to do to approach this game with a mindset of, you know, I don’t need to make 100 trades a day. So I don’t trade very often, only a couple times a week usually. And VIP is we’re able to see how I deploy those key trades that I make throughout the month at the times where I think it’s really useful where those stars align, which is the explanation for my trade to make me feel ready to trade. And then exactly what numbers I’m using, what entry’s I’m using, what targets I’ll be using, and then depending on what the situation calls for, I might even, for example, be dropping a voice message to specifically explain why I chose a very specific entry point, why I chose a very specific Stop-Loss or why I changed my game plan. I usually do lay out what my game plan looks like before I end to retreat. So this these details I shared were posted about one day before my trade even opened. I already told you some of the things I’d be expecting to do with my Stop-Loss and my profit taking areas, but I changed that on the fly and you get the explanations of why I’m doing that. So you can see how again, I’m using the very same data that you are looking at to potentially pull some really nice profits. A beautiful set of messages here from a member is continue to show me another screenshot of I think like six more beautiful profits that he has been pulling in the market previous 48 hours. He made all of these profits in 48 hours from 10 percent up to 77 percent. All thanks to four motherfucking flies. Absolutely. Love this once again. This is the member who was very hesitant to join at first, but ended up paying off the fee for joining the group plus 200 percent profit on his initial investment. Very, very happy to be in. The group has learnt more in 2 weeks in the group than he did in 31 years. That’s 2 weeks to pay off the fee and make a whole lot of money on top of that. And it wasn’t even working with a massive bankroll. And that’s the key thing here. You know, we have had people joining the group with very small amounts of bitcoin, whether it was, you know, point zero five or even, you know, all the way up to ten or a hundred bitcoins. You know, it really doesn’t matter because everything works in percentages, as you can see. You know, this is just as impressive on holdings of, say, point 1 BTC as it would be on holdings of 11 BTC or 1000 BTC. These are just as impressive. And that’s the key thing here. You’re seeing how. Doesn’t really matter what your bankroll sizes. You need to be trading correctly. And that’s something which is really important in the game of trading. It’s especially different to things like poker. For example, where in poker, when you’re playing the game, you will experience a harder difficulty of poker. The higher you go in the stakes, you know, when things get harder, when there’s more money on the table. Well, that’s where you have to level up your game. But it’s not the same in trading. In trading, when you jump into this game, you are thrown right in the deep end. And same deepened this misleading because there’s no shallow end. It’s all the same. Everyone’s playing it exactly the same difficulty. And that’s what makes this game so bloody difficult to play and profit from. But if you know what you’re doing and if you’re following a system and if you’re seeing how other people are able to develop their systems after they’ve made all the fuckups, after they’ve gone through all of those stresses, it can be very, very productive. And as we can see over here, beautiful results being pulled by members who are able to take that risk, take that leap. At the end of the day, trading is risk. Trading is where you’re taking a leap on yourself, a leap of faith on yourself. And members who’ve done that by joining the group, pulling really, really nice profits in cases like this. So if you want to get into the group, head up the first link in the description down below. Click on the artful flys button at the bottom of any post in full flight goal. This is a free telegram channel. There’s no sign up process. It will take you like 5 seconds to get in. Click on send message and ask me how to join v._i._p. We’ll give you all of the information, the price and the benefits. Everything you need to know to make your decision. Absolutely beautiful stuff there. Moving back to the charts, we have something which which is almost a disgusting coincidence that happened with this week over here. So this week was one or two days ago. So, yeah, the close of March 30th and. What we had was if we take a look at bitcoin on the CMU futures trading, I always forget how to find this. Let’s go over here and we’ll take this chart. What we actually had was on the one hour we had a massive gap form over here. This is where Bitcoin had its big dump on the twenty ninth of March. I’m terrible with dates and various different things like that, but I think this was a weekend. And so this is why there wouldn’t have been much trading. And then yet this was a weekend because the clothes or the clothes was on the twenty seventh. The open was on the twenty ninth. So full flights did prophesised once again that bitcoin could end up dumping on the weekend if we ended up trading sideways into it because again that’s just where the weird stuff happens. So it did leave this massive gap and people are always very quick to say that well if bitcoin didn’t manage to. Sorry. If Bitcoin managed to form a gap on the CMC trading platform, then it’s probably going to rise up to fill that gap. That’s what people always say. I think we have a gap around 3000 mosharraf. We closed that and another gap, maybe around 8000. So this is all arbitrary and for the most part I would label it bullshit. But in this case, because it’s so perfect with this week, what ended up happening is that the price ended up going up to fill this entire gap. Everything that that bitcoin did and trade within it ended up trading within to fill this gap. And the reason I’m bringing this up is it’s almost like a guy having a one night stand. He ends up pulling up the club. He gets exactly what he wants. And when he’s got it, he walks away. And that’s what Bitcoin did over here. It needed one thing in particular. It only needed one thing. Its drug, its CMC Gap being filled. When it got that fix, when it got that release. Bitcoin ended up trading lower again. So that means it only traded higher to get what it wanted, which in this case was to fill that gap. And now that it’s fulfilled that purpose, it’s ready to do what it initially wanted to do, which, you know, we can see very clearly, clearly if we end up, you know, expanding the timeframe to be a little bit higher. We can see a beautiful gap over here, really, really big gap around the eight thousand dollar range. So that’s why you do have a lot of people saying that we could end up filling that gap. But this kind of gaps, they happen everywhere. So I’m not I’m not so convinced that just because we have a gap over here, it’s got to be filled. I mean, we can. Yeah. There’s this probably I’m guessing this is a gap as well, because we didn’t fill this anywhere. No one’s really talking about it. You know, so it is quite arbitrary if you are holding your breath saying that this gap is gonna be filled at some point in the future. And, you know, because of that you bought at this level or you bought at this level or you bought at this level, no matter what you did, you’d be in a bloody loss. And so trading based off that or making any kind of decisions based off just gaps in the market is is just it’s unskillful. And that’s the reason it’s popular. You know, it doesn’t take any skill to point out that there’s a gap. It’s like pointing at an airplane in the sky when you’re next to an airport. Obviously you’re going to see them. Not really a surprise. There’s not much you can do with that information. But again, in this case, because this gap is so close to us and because it holds some psychological some, I have to emphasize the word, it holds some psychological bearing on the market. It’s worth bringing up, especially because the overall trend is bearish. So I think that could be one of the factors that enables the trend to continue trading lower. So what does that mean, bringing everything together from this video? Well, it’s very clear that we’re failing our bullish setups. It’s very clear that we do have some opportunity for support around the five thousand eight hundred dollar level. We do have it lining up with our four hour Ichi Moku cloud of support. So while it looks like we are going to end up dumping a little bit lower in for Fliess opinion, don’t be a bloody idiot. Read the disclaimer. While it looks like we could end up trading a little bit lower, we do have a bit of support below us. But everything is so fragile right now because of that longer term trend. This longer term trend is so bearish that I have to ground myself in it every time that I start getting excited with the bullish arguments. It is no surprise. Ladies and gents, it is no surprise that we ended up getting rejected at three relative areas of resistance at the same relative area resistance three times because we have such a bearish trend. That’s the kind of energy that a bearish trend will bring, a bearish trend. My bat kind of bucked and spoke at the same time. A parish trend will potentially have a really big dead cat bounce, his really big rising wages, which in this case ended up having bitcoin rise by 80 percent on this chart. It will breed those kinds of recoveries, those kinds of. Relief rallies. But it will also mean that at every stage of the way, there will be coughing and weakness and paranoia and doubt. That’s exactly what we’re seeing. It’s just continuously failing. So even though it did manage to break up by 80 percent, are you seeing the strength of an 80 percent positive bull market? Hell, no. Hell, no, you’re not. Because if we were, we would have broken it on the second attempt, at the very least, on the third attempt. But both of those things didn’t happen. And those are potentially early warning signs of weakness. This really is where one person will look at a chart and have no idea what’s going on. But when you’ve got a trained eye and you’ve seen this stuff happen a million times and you’ve read some t.a books and you’ve potentially taken up a cause or you’ve made the absolutely beautiful decision to join full VIP, these kind of things will jump out to you and you can immediately tell where it might look like nothing is going on. There’s actually so much that you can read into that chart. That’s gonna be meat for today. My final note for the end of this video is go show someone some love, whether that’s a partner, kids, mom, dad, neighbor, dog, whatever. Go spread a little bit of love. It can be literally anything, a text or a hug or whatever. It will make someone happy. All right, guys, take it easy, boy.

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-must-act-now-before-its-too-late/ source https://cryptosharks1.blogspot.com/2020/04/bitcoin-must-act-now-before-its-too-late.html

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jeffrmayhugh · 4 years

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Bitcoin MUST ACT NOW (Before it’s too late)

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-must-act-now-before-its-too-late/ source https://cryptosharks1.tumblr.com/post/614382159747235840

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heatherrdavis1 · 4 years

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Bitcoin MUST ACT NOW (Before its too late)

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Via https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-must-act-now-before-its-too-late/

source https://cryptosharks.weebly.com/blog/bitcoin-must-act-now-before-its-too-late

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cryptosharks1 · 4 years

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Bitcoin MUST ACT NOW (Before it’s too late)

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-must-act-now-before-its-too-late/

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slrlounge1 · 5 years

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5 Proven Ways To Book More Wedding Photography Clients

In this day and age, social media has transformed the way newly engaged couples are finding their wedding vendors. With Instagram basically becoming a mutated version of Yelp and Pinterest, Facebook algorithms changing left and right, and website views reaching a new low, clients must search through a winding maze to find their perfect wedding photographer.

We asked 20 of our award-winning photographers where their #1 source of client leads stems from and received a variety of sources, some more surprising than others. Now, strategies for client lead-generation vary depending on location, years of experience, and so many other factors. These 5 ways to get more wedding photography clients are designed to help you tweak and perfect your marketing strategies to get the clients you want.

Word of Mouth Referrals

Although forms of communication have evolved over time, there is nothing people trust more than a recommendation from a good friend. If you are wondering how to get more wedding clients, credibility is key no matter what choice of lead generation you look at.

Dave Shay – Website | Instagram

“My biggest lead source is past clients. I found I could launch an affiliate program and create a tiered reward program for clients and a lot of them were super motivated to give referrals a lot easier. I keep track of the referrals in my studio management software (Tave) and any time someone jumps up a tier, it’s easy for me to send them a gift or an email to keep them excited about it. Appreciating my clients has been the best marketing money I’ve spent.”

Jared Gant – Website | Instagram

“My number one source for wedding leads is word of mouth. At every single wedding, there are couples who are likely to be currently engaged or soon to be engaged. Interact with the wedding guests in such a way that they want to work with you. Be the person they think of when they are considering a photographer. They will likely ask your clients about their experience, and as long as your clients’ experience was great, they’re very likely to book with you. These types of leads also have the highest conversion rate, and, more often than not, are the easiest to work with since they already have a good idea of what to expect and have already gotten to know you.”

Sean & Melanie Flanigan – Website | Sean’s Instagram | Melanie’s Instagram

“We get more than 80% of our bookings from referrals from past clients. And here is the best part about this, most of the time when someone comes to us based on a past client referral, they are ready to just book. So our advice, surprise your clients with photos they never expected, make them so happy that they want to share their experience with their friends.”

Matt Gruber – Website | Instagram

“I have shot over 300 weddings over the past 10 years, and 90% of them have been directly from word-of-mouth referrals. Capturing beautiful photos is wonderful, but if you’re not pleasant to deal with, you won’t likely have your clients recommending you to their friends and family. I have found tremendous success and fulfillment by focusing on what my clients really want. Whether it is specific locations, images, or just how they want to be photographed, I try my best to capture their wedding better than they envisioned by focusing on their needs. By doing this they are far more likely to go out of their way to recommend my business to anyone they know that gets engaged.”

Shannon Cain – Website | Instagram

“Word of mouth is without a doubt the biggest source for my client leads! I am a strong believer in the power of client experience. We can post beautiful images all over social media, but what truly wow’s is how we treat our clients. Your clients will be your biggest advocates when you genuinely interact with them in combination with telling their stories in epic ways. Also, assist your clients on how and where they can share their reviews of you. This makes it super easy for them to brag on you for others to see!”

Yves Schepers – Website | Instagram

“My number one source of client leads has to be word of mouth referrals. Whether it’s through photographer friends who know how I work, former clients who experienced how I worked or guests at weddings who have seen me work – these people are my main ambassadors. Therefore I also give my best every time I capture a wedding because anyone at that wedding can get you work in the future.”

Chad & Beth Winstead – Website | Instagram

“I built my local wedding photography business off of word of mouth. Over 71% of my bookings come from fellow wedding vendors, venues, friends, or past clients raving about us. On average, I book 20% of these leads that come in this way. The remaining percentage of bookings come from Facebook, Google, or Wedding/Bridal shows.”

Jeff Tisman – Website | Instagram

“Honestly after being in business for 26 years my #1 source of leads is and always has been word of mouth. I know it seems so simple but exceeding client expectations and truly listening to them and hearing their story means everything. It’s not about being the best. Or most awards. Or social media presence. Or SEO. Yes, of course they are all important. Take care of your customers. No amount of advertising or social media can compete with word of mouth.”

[REWIND: Never Struggle with SEO Again]

Advertising on Social Media

The E-commerce space created the necessity for online ads and over time Facebook developed a robust Ad program to help small businesses capture their local audiences. Many have turned to Facebook Ads when figuring out how to book more wedding photography clients because of their ease of use and targetability.

Without question, my biggest source of leads is Facebook ads. Facebook ads basically create an endless stream of leads. Nothing I’ve ever done has brought me even half the leads I get from Facebook ads. Seriously, if you’re not pouring your energy into FB ads, you’re leaving really, really easy money on the table.

Ett Venter – Website | Instagram

“Without question, my biggest source of leads is Facebook ads. Nothing I’ve ever done has brought me even half the leads I get from Facebook ads. Seriously, if you’re not pouring your energy into FB ads, you’re leaving really, really easy money on the table. The ads I run are incredibly focused, geographically. I know where my ideal clients are likely to live, so my ads are only served in those areas. Along with that, I use the copy in the ad as a means to do further targeting. For example – I generally prefer to photograph couples who are a little more outgoing, as I’m a full-blown extrovert myself. So my ad copy will say something like “If you’re a fun, outgoing couple, not afraid to kiss in public, hit me up!”. In doing this, people who identify with that copy are more likely to click the ad, and conversely, people who don’t identify with that copy will avoid clicking the ad. Good marketing is polarizing, and that’s what that copy does. That kind of ad copy is also a means to filter out people who I’d have a harder time working with.”

Lubomir Jiponov – Website | Instagram

“Facebook has helped me receive more leads and bookings for weddings in the last year due to proper targeting (for my region) only by these three criteria: country, age 23-39 and both male/female.”

Linda Puccio – Website | Instagram

“When I started my business as a photographer, exactly like all beginners, I was just an unknown name. My first step to making myself known to customers was through word of mouth. I focused a lot on every photo shoot I did and everything had to be perfect because I knew that a satisfied customer would talk a lot about their positive experience. Soon after, my next step was Facebook. I started by defining my actions to set goals to achieve on social media. Defining these goals also allowed me to react quickly when social media campaigns were not meeting expectations. Tagging people in my pictures, posting photos of interesting places, has allowed me to greatly expand my social network and introduce myself to many people. Today, after 6 years of business, most of the inquiries come directly from my website. Even if I use Instagram and IG Stories to reach new customers and keep their interest high, Facebook remains the most powerful advertising tool for my business.”

Wedding Directory Sites

Over the past couple of years, there has been much chatter surrounding whether or not sites like The Knot and WeddingWire actually benefit photographers or not. When it comes on figuring out how to find wedding photography clients, sometimes it helps to step into the mind of the consumer and establish yourself on these directory sites that put you on par with other wedding vendors they may be searching for within your area.

Scott Josuweit – Website | Instagram

“I’ve actually had a lot of success with The Knot. I know a lot of other photographers aren’t a fan of The Knot or Wedding Wire but it has worked well for me. I think that you need to approach leads from these websites in a very specific way in order to have success in converting those couples into clients. Reviews are also a critical part of achieving success on these platforms so I am always trying to get new reviews from my couples.”

Marlies Hartmann – Website | Instagram

“When I was starting out, I invested heavily in marketing through The Knot, and was fortunate to book about 75% of my clients via their platform. Since I didn’t have any referral base, this option worked really well for me and kept me busy building a solid portfolio and skill set. As my pricing and experience increased, the majority of my leads + bookings now come from either word of mouth referrals from past clients or via wedding planners. This has definitely advantageous since word of mouth clients typically approach you with a certain level of trust and have likely heard positive feedback about your work!”

JD Land – Website | Instagram

“I know that a lot of photographers despise The Knot & Wedding Wire. For me, I’ve been using The Knot since I moved back to the Philadelphia, Pa area in 2014 and it has done nothing but generate leads and bookings, 22 weddings booked last year via The Knot. There seems to be a misconception out there that if you’re pricing crosses a certain threshold, say $4,000 for my area of the country, a site like The Knot is no longer viable because it doesn’t provide the types of quality leads who book higher end wedding photographers. I hate to break it to everyone but that’s just not true. A bride doesn’t know that she is a higher end bride and she shouldn’t be using The Knot. Instead, she googles Philadelphia Wedding Photographers and the first website to come up will be The Knot. I do pay up for the best positioning and I do get a ton of price shopping leads, but I also get a lot of quality leads. The best part is, getting so many leads has provided me with something I can’t put a price on, the ability to say “no” to brides who are a bad fit for me. In the end, the best marketing strategy is whatever puts your work in front of as many couples as possible! For me, that has been The Knot.”

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

One of the simplest marketing tools a photographer can implement when considering how to get more wedding clients is SEO. Working on SEO for your website is like working out at the gym – you likely know what to do and how to do it already, but the hard part is staying consistent and motivated over time.

Jesse La Plante – Website | Instagram

Our number one source of client leads can most accurately be described as the “Google Image Search Rabbit Hole.” Most of our clients come to us because they’re looking for something a little different. They’ve already gone through their venue’s preferred vendor list and recommendations from their planner, and they haven’t quite found a photographer whose work they’re in love with. Their next step is to Google image search their venue or city plus the word “wedding” (e.g. Aspen Wedding) to quickly browse a variety of images and see what jumps out at them. Our work tends to be a bit different from other photographers in the area (for better or worse), so they find us pretty easily this way. Or, they’ll do the same thing on Instagram, just with hashtags instead of keywords (#aspenwedding).

Citlalli Rico – Website | Instagram

“Our #1 source of client leads is Google! I try to keep my site updated and with good SEO practices to make sure people can find me. But I would say our #1 source of clients that book us are former clients and other photographers that recommend us. With so many good portfolios out there, it is hard to know as a consumer who to choose. I think word-of-mouth is more valuable than ever. That is why customer service needs to be as good as your images and vice versa.”

Aaron Storry – Website | Instagram

“My primary source of leads is from search engines (specifically Google). As my business has grown so too has the depth and breadth of my content, and with carefully optimized pages and well written unique content (and award-winning photography), I have been able to secure a number of top positions for my chosen set of keywords. It also helps that I have a background in web development which is very helpful when putting this into practice and staying ahead with the latest SEO techniques. Although I don’t specifically target venues, I make sure that when I’m publishing articles I include particular words and phrases (eg type of wedding) that I feel potential leads might have an interest in. And once a lead lands on my site I do my very best to keep them engaged with my content.”

Other Ways To Book Wedding Photography Clients

The question “how to get more wedding photography clients” doesn’t have just one simple answer. For example. becoming a preferred vendor at a venue is also a great option for those looking to connect to their community. Going to bridal exhibitions and shows is also a common networking activity that puts a face to your brand in the mind of the consumer.

Ben Hartley – Website | Instagram

“Bridal shows. Sounds crazy, right? But the results I’ve been getting have been nothing short of INSANE. Bridal shows are hands down the BIGGEST driver of growth for my studio.

…more than FB ads…

…more than AdWords…

…and WAYYYY more than Wedding Wire.

They have literally been a game changer. But it didn’t always use to be this way. Back when my wife and I were first getting started and only charging $700 per wedding, bridal shows worked GREAT! Then we attended another show after we raised our prices to ~$3500 and completely BOMBED . ZERO BOOKINGS. After that, I completely swore off bridal shows and declared them only useful to beginning photographers. Fast forward to January of 2017, I got invited to be a vendor at a bridal show free of charge. It had been 3 years since I attended a show, but I put my reservations aside and decided to go…but if I was going to give this another try, I had to try something completely new. So, I decided to rethink my entire approach. The result? We walked away from that one show with over $70,000 in new bookings . Mind = Blown.”

Nicole Chan – Website | Instagram

“My #1 source of leads are wedding venue coordinators at several venues that I photograph at often. Couples tend to book their date and venue first, and in conversation with the wedding venue coordinators, my name pops up. I was born and raised in Boston, and I’ve gotten close with some folks that work in the hospitality and the event industry. Being nice, courteous, and respectful of space and venue staff have always treated me very well with a great source of Boston wedding photography leads!”

Paco Van Leeuwen – Website | Instagram

Here in The Netherlands, we have an organization called: Open Wedding Location Route. Four times a year, the top wedding locations in The Netherlands open their doors to the public. This, so that a lot of wedding couples can visit multiple locations in one day to find their dream wedding location. After shooting a wedding in a gorgeous castle, the wedding location asked me to be a preferred vendor during these events. This is a great collaboration for both of us, as I can meet new couples that are searching for a higher end venue. The photographer usually follows soon after picking a venue. The venue benefits from it, because those couples can get an impression of an actual wedding day at their location through the pictures I show them via a slideshow. This has helped me book more clients as you can meet potential clients in person. The couple can quickly know/feel if you could be a good fit for them and plan a proper sit down for a first meeting. Once you have them in your studio, there is a big chance they’ll book you!

from SLR Lounge http://bit.ly/2Zjd1sg via IFTTT

#IFTTT #SLR Lounge

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salty-dracon · 7 years

Text

TMX- Chapter One (rewrite)

The school bus wheeled forward on scratched rubber tires, rumbling over the dirt.

Do you ever wonder why we live?

Brooke stared at her yellow reflection in the metal before boarding. Her blue backpack bounced behind her, stuffed to the brim with binders and papers.

Do we just make up meaning for our lives? What defines living? Enjoying ourselves? Procreation? Or is it truly pointless?

A cool breeze blowed a few tendrils of her red hair in front of her brown eyes. She brushed the hair out of her dark brown eyes as she went to pick a seat.

What does my life mean to me?

The last thing she heard was the sound of a truck honking.

The last thing she did was turn around.

The last thing she saw was a truck, twice the size of the school bus, barreling towards her, with no time to stop.

...

Brooke’s eyes opened.

The light blinded her back into closing her eyes. It was then that she realized she was curled up in the fetal position, her body full of feeling. Carefully she pried her arms away from her body, checking her joints to make sure they could still move. When her arms were sufficiently mobile, she wiped the goop off her eyes and opened them again.

The thing in front of her was spotlessly white. As Brooke examined it closer, she realized it was a flat piece of plastic with a latch on top. She undid the latch with shaking fingers, and jumped back when the plastic fell in front of her, revealing a shiny black screen.

A... tray table? With a screen behind it?

Brooke uncurled her legs. She realized she was sitting on a similarly white leather seat. As she glanced around, she saw a window to her left. The view was of a golden sky, with little white clouds here and there. There were no trees, houses, fences, or even ground to be seen. As her ears adjusted, she heard the gentle clicking of train tracks under her feet.

Am I on a train?

As Brooke looked to her right for answers, she was startled by the tall form of a... Julien wasn’t sure whether they were a boy or a girl. Perhaps neither. Their face was pressed against the seat in front of them, and they were snoring lightly. Across from both of them, there was a slightly shorter boy curled up in a brown trench coat.

Julien tried to glance at the other passengers. There were people of many races and skin colors in the car. Brooke reflected on the fact that she must have been one of the lightest.

“Woah!“

Brooke jumped back when she heard the voice.

The person next to her opened their eyes. They pulled back their blue-dyed bangs and yawned. “Hey, what the fuck?”

“I don’t know!“ Brooke shouted.

The boy in the trench coat gave a small mumble of restlessness.

All around them, people were starting to wake up. Brooke was sure she heard someone call someone else’s name from the front. They began to talk to each other, Brooke realized with surprise, in perfect English.

“Nikolas, you’re okay!“

“Yes, yes, I’m fine.“

“But we both died in that explosion!“

Brooke sat down.

“Julien.“ The person introduced themselves. “I’m a they. Got it?“

“Okay... “ Brooke held her hand out. “Brooke. I’m a she.“

“Nice to meet you.“ Julien waited for a few seconds before asking “Fuck, you’re kinda cute.”

Brooke did not know how to answer.

The boy in the trench coat shot awake. “Woah! Woah woah woah! Where are we?!” He glanced around the train car. “Are we in a train?”

“Hell if I know.“ Julien held their hand out. “Julien. How ‘bout you?“

“Arthur.“ Arthur shook their hand.

Arthur’s outburst seemed to awaken more people. Within twenty minutes the entire train car was talking to each other and introducing themselves.

“Brooke. I’m from Long Island.“

“Where?“ Julien asked.

“Long Island. New York?“

Julien looked confused.

“America?“

“But you’re speaking French.“

“I’m speaking English, and so are you!“

“I’m pretty sure I’m speaking French, Brooke.“

“Nope, she’s speaking English,“ Arthur said. “At least, that’s how I hear it.“

“Well, I’m from France, so if that changes anything-“

“I’m from England.“

A bell rang in the car, interrupting everyone’s conversation. A woman in a white robe appeared at the front, smiling brightly. “Hello, everyone! Welcome to the Heaven’s Express! I will be your conductor today, and I hope everyone is enjoying the trip to heaven.”

“Heaven?!“ Arthur exclaimed. “Are we dead?!“

“In short, yes, you’re dead.“ The woman kept smiling, as if it were perfectly normal. “Every single one of you is dead.“

Gasps arose from the car.

“But please don’t worry, everyone! You’re going to heaven, which means you’ll be here in a land of total paradise, yay!“

“Go fuck yourself!“ Julien shouted. “Bitch!“

“Language, dude.“ Brooke punched their shoulder.

“Please, may all of you enjoy the conveniences of Heaven’s Express! If you just undo the tray tables in front of you, you’ll see a system that’ll help you wash away the last traces of guilt you feel. You’ll know that everyone is okay! The system also allows you to order any food you’d like, so... “

As the lady rambled on, Brooke touched her screen. A list lit up, displaying a number of different words: “English, Francais, Espanol...” Brooke selected English. Another prompt appeared. “Please enter your full name.“ Brooke typed in the letters carefully- “Brooke Alice Malone“. One click of the “enter” button later, and she was greeted with a picture of herself boarding a school bus, with the words “IS THIS YOU?” underneath. Brooke selected “Yes.”

The screen changed. Another list displayed itself, except instead of being different languages, it was names. Martin Malone, Alicia Malone, Kelley Malone, Ariana Smith, Katrina Maston...

All the names of people she new.

Brooke selected her mother’s name, Alice Malone. The screen turned black for a moment before playing a video with audio.

An office cubicle. A hand with veins popping out reached for a picture in a frame. A picture of Brooke on her sixth birthday, with a little sparkly party hat, hugging her father. Next to it was another picture of Brooke- her senior picture, where she wore her mother’s favorite pink dress. Two drops of water fell onto the picture, shielded by glass.

A view through Mom’s eyes?

“Is this... “

“Every one of the names in this list thinks about you.“ Brooke turned around to find the woman in the white robe leaning over the back of her chair. “This is a view through their eyes, so you can see how they cope. Though they grieve, as you will find out later, it won’t matter to you.“

Brooke sent an angry frown in the direction of the woman before staring at Julien’s screen. They were crying at something.

“Shit, man... “ they muttered. “I wasn’t that fucking nice... “

Arthur watched his feed with seemingly no reaction. But all around the car, people were watching their feeds and crying.

“Excuse me?“ someone called out from the front. “How long do we have to watch them?“

“Oh, dear, I’m sorry I mentioned them at all.” The conductor’s voice sounded sad and concerned. “You all look so unhappy! Heaven is paradise, you shouldn’t be sad like this! Come come, turn them off. Here, I’ll turn them off myself. Let me just-“

The statement was met by angry protesting from the people.

“Okay, fine, fine! I’m just saying, you don’t have to worry about earth anymore! Release your sadness! Forget about your parents and friends! None of them will matter in a few hours!“

There were more angry shouts.

The conductor sighed and walked away. As she turned around Brooke caught the sight of wings on her back.

“An angel in heaven.“ Arthur smiled. “I wonder what kind. She’s probably mid-tier, since the lower levels of angels look like spinning rings.“

“What?“ Brooke asked.

“I read lots of mythology. Greek, Norse, Christian, Chinese, Indian... ooh, Nigerian too! And Philippine!“

“So how did you die?“

“...I think I choked on some food.“ Arthur said.

“I was hit by a truck.“

“Beat over the head with a nail bat. Ouch.“ Julien pointed to the back of their head. “What’s the backpack for, Brooke?“

“Oh, this?“ Brooke pulled it out. “It’s my backpack. It’s got everything in here. Like pens, pencils, a compass somewhere... “

“Wait, does that mean-“ Arthur rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a Swiss army knife. He beamed with joy when he rubbed his finger along a series of monogrammed letters. “Yes! It’s still here!“

“Oh, that looks dangerous... “ The woman in the white robe suddenly appeared behind Arthur in a puff of white smoke. “You shouldn’t take that into heaven.“

“Why not?“ Arthur pointed to some blue plating on the side. “See? It’s got my name on it! It was my birthday present this year!“

“Still, it’s dangerous, and we don’t want anyone to get hurt... “ The angel’s eyes shifted to Brooke’s backpack. “Oh, and all that stuff! You shouldn’t-“

“Hey, shut the fuck up.“ Julien snapped at her. “Brookey can take whatever she wants, got that?!”

“I’m just saying, even if you don’t use them, someone else might-“

The crowd began to protest again, especially the battle-scarred ones. To their outburst, the angel sighed and walked away again.

“We are really ruining that lady’s day,“ Arthur muttered.

“Fuck that lady.“ Julien leaned back against Brooke’s chest. “No one touches your shit, Brooke. Not on my watch.“

“Are you... hitting on me?“ Brooke blushed. “You’re awfully bad at it, just so you know.“

“Am I?“ Julien laughed. “Wow. So, like, can I get your number in heaven or something? Did I do it right that time?“

Brooke chuckled.

The next twenty hours of the ride went on as such, with Brooke, Arthur, and Julien conversing amongst themselves and with others around them. All the time, the light outside the train car grew brighter and brighter, until, at last, they arrived.

...

The first vision of heaven they received was a giant train station, with marble as white as snow and so clean that you could see your reflection. The pillars were made of marble as smooth as a seashell, and towered up to the sky, so high that no one could see the top. People dressed in different garments, with strangely colored hair and wings, talked to each other. Brooke’s heart pounded as she saw them. Their faces were all beautiful, serene, and perfect. It was almost scary.

“Are they looking to board?“ Arthur asked.

“Attention, everyone!“ The conductor appeared again, at the front of the car. “Before you exit the car, I want to stress a few important points! First of all, if someone grabs you, let them. They’re your guardian angel, and although you might not recognize them, they know you better than even you might. Second, once you meet them, you’ll want to make eye contact with them. It’ll help later on. And third, please stay on good terms with them! They’ll be your servants, best friends, and husbands and wives for the rest of eternity. And fourth, you may leave all of your belongings here on the train. You don’t need them, and we can put them to good use. Thank you all for riding Heaven’s Express, yay!“

The doors at the side of the cars opened. Immediately, people began to pile out. Most of them took their guns, backpacks and other objects with them, much to the conductor’s chagrin.

“Got everything?“ Julien asked. “Let’s just wait for Arthur, and then let’s head out, okay?“

Brooke zipped her backpack and glanced at Arthur.

Arthur appeared to be frozen with fear. His hand was slipped inside one of his pockets.

“Hey,“ Brooke said. “Is something wrong?“

“My Swiss Army Knife. I can’t find it.“ Arthur’s voice was shaking.

The conductor sighed. “Your guardian angel can just-”

“No, you don’t understand.“ Arthur turned to the conductor. “My dad gave it to me for my birthday. It was the last thing he gave me before he-“

“Like I said, your guardian angel can just give you a new one.“

“But it won’t be the same!“ Arthur exclaimed. “Because-“

“Arthur, we’ll help you.“ Julien sighed and stretched their arms. “C’mon.“ They kneeled on the ground and looked around as more people shuffled off. “Brooke, help me, will ya?”

Brooke nodded and hopped over the next seat. She kneeled on the ground and peered between the moving legs and train car seats. “I can’t see it.”

“You’re wasting time,“ the conductor urged. “Your guardians are going to get worried.“

“I don’t give a shit.“ Julien watched as the last person left the train car. “Shit, it’s not here.“

Arthur’s hand reached inside his other pocket. He gasped and pulled out his Swiss Army Knife. “Oh.”

“It was in your pocket? Fair enough.“ The conductor sighed. “And since your backpack’s-“

Brooke picked her backpack up with an angry frown.

“Geez, fine, fine.“

Together, they exited the train. A few seconds after Brooke’s feet landed on the ground, the train puffed quietly away.

“She said our guardians were waiting for us,“ Arthur whispered.

“Over here!“ “Julien!” “Welcome!”

“Angels… ” Julien muttered, as they saw the source of the voices.”

One of them was a short woman with blonde hair and purple wings in a white Greek-style dress. The second was a taller woman with darker skin and chocolate brown hair in a lacey black gown. The third was a man with golden-orange hair in a white suit with golden and red accents, with orange wings unfolding behind him.

“Arthur! Come on!” The blonde bolted forward and embraced Arthur, who looked shocked at the prospect of being hugged so suddenly. She kissed his forehead and danced him around. “Ohhh, I missed you so much!“

“Julien.“ The brunette tenderly wrapped her arms around Julien, smothering them in many layers of dress. “Welcome back home, my dear. How long has it been?“

“Brooke.“ The golden-haired angel kneeled in front of Brooke and took her hand. “I’ve missed you for longer than you could comprehend. Welcome to heaven, my dear. My name is Grey. I hope we’ll be good friends.“

“Grey... “ Brooke whispered. “It’s... nice to meet you too.“

“We met once before, you know. But we were destined to separate. Thank the lord you’ve made it to heaven.“ He embraced her and kissed her cheek.

“Okay, okay... “ Brooke pushed him away. “That’s enough.“

“Your eyes are beautiful, you know.“ He pulled his chin towards her. “Can I take a look?“

“What?“

“Look at my eyes, darling… ” He leaned closer. “I’ve always dreamed of gazing into those eyes.”

Brooke’s heart pounded when she heard his words- not out of love or excitement, but out of pure fear. Somewhere the back of her mind, she recalled the conductor’s words.

“No!“ She pushed him away.

Gray seemed shocked. Even the other two angels stopped doting on Julien and Arthur and stared at Brooke.

“No?” Gray asked.

“Sorry. It’s been a long ride.” Brooke pinched the area between her eyes, as if she had a headache.

“That’s absolutely fine. I apologize for troubling you.“ Grey smiled. “Come now, we should leave. Night will be falling soon.“ He led her towards a large door at the end of the hall.

“Wait.“ Brooke pulled him back. “I want their phone numbers.“

“Whose?“

“Arthur and Jule’s.“

“You don’t need them.“

“Yes I do! I want to chat with them and stuff!“

“... I understand. There is no such thing as a cell phone in heaven, but as long as I know the names of their guardians, I should have no problem contacting them. And I believe their names are Amelia Victoria Fisher and Lucia Constantinou.“

The two winged women nodded in response.

“Goodbye for now, then?“ Julien smiled. “Can I get a hug?“

“Of course.“ Brooke ran up to Julien and embraced them. They were joined by Arthur, who almost knocked all three of them over.

“Soon, right?“ Brooke whispered.

“Yeah. Soon.“ Julien squeezed them both tighter. “Hey, don’t let go of your shit, okay?“

“I certainly won’t.“ Arthur whispered. “And when we meet again, we’ll have fun, right?“

“Of course.“ Brooke said.

After a tight squeeze, they released each other. Brooke and Grey exited out of the train station into the world outside.

As Brooke walked off, she couldn’t help but feel that despite their location in heaven, there was something dangerously wrong with the world they now lived in. She glanced up at Gray, who smiled back down. Something was wrong with him, too. Perhaps it was just her heart, trying to right itself from the shock that she was dead.

...

“That’s it?!“

Brooke stared out at the expanse before her. They were standing on a narrow paved road, surrounded on both sides by completely still water. In the distance stood a city. Beyond the city, the sun set, creating a palette of orange and red in the sky.

“Heaven is made of many planes. This is only one of those many.“ Grey pointed further down the narrow road. “This is known as the commonplane of Elysium, one of the six domains of heaven. Down the road, many humans are enjoying time in the marketplace with their guardians.“

“And that?“ Brooke pointed to the city in the distance.

“That was simply built for show. Many humans complained of the lack of scenery. The city is inhabitable, but unused.“

“Okay... “ Brooke sighed. “So then what?“

Grey sighed and turned around. Once again, he kneeled in front of Brooke.

“I can hear it in your voice. You’re nervous and impatient for rest. As your guardian angel, he who has possessed nothing but love for you since the day you were born, I promise you that everything will be okay as long as you stay with me. I realize you know very little about me. You only know my name and appearance. I know you barely trust me. But I’ll provide for all of your needs, and I’ll care for you. Please, my dear, no matter what transpires, do not fear me.“

Brooke sighed. “So now what?”

“Taxi?“

Brooke heard a screech of wheels. She glanced to her side to find a taxi where one hadn’t been moments before. Grey opened the door and motioned her in. Brooke climbed into the taxi, followed by Grey. Brooke was nervous to see that the windows of the taxi were entirely blacked out.

The driver’s seat was blocked out by a curtain. “Name?” a voice said.

“Grey de Aur.“ Grey said.

“You have arrived at your destination.“

Grey opened the taxi door. When Brooke stepped out, she could not believe what greeted her eyes.

#tmx #feathers

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