#& 18 if u qualify for the finals

[channelslam]

perhaps i have been living under a rock but apparently they raised the required number of ATP 500s to five starting this year for top 30??

[dilemmaontwolegs]

i know u have a gazillion requests but what if we spice up that Carlos fic? if you decide to do a pt 3. maybe Carlos is once again is frustrated because of the penalty after a good quali and has sex with Rebecca cuz he can't find the model. a lil angst

It’s no secret, I’m in an angsty kinda writing mood at the moment 😅 I also forgot who was meant to be the toxic one...and now it's both of them.

Lady in Red (3) || CS55

Pairing: Carlos Sainz Jr x fem!reader Warnings: 18+ only, NSFW, smut, cheating, manipulation WC: 1.5k

One || Two || Three || Four

You had been called away to work just before qualifying finished. You and half a dozen other models were asked to stand behind the top three drivers and wave feather fans for the cameras while an Elvis impersonator pumped out his signature dance moves. 

From your position you could see the frustration on Carlos’ face. He had qualified second fastest yet he was going to have to start from 12th on the grid. You weren’t the only person in the area upset by the 10 place penalty and the Ferrari supporters were making their opinion known as they chanted for Carlos.

“Alright, sweethearts, we need you over at the Bellagio for some promo shots and then you’re free for the night,” one of the headset-clad organisers said to the group you were with before checking her watch. “Or should I say morning.”

The drive back from the Bellagio to the paddock seemed to take hours with the road closures and checkpoints, but finally you made it back. Knowing Carlos would be waiting somewhere for you, you scanned each floor to find him before heading straight to the top.

“Fuck, mi amor, this is what I need,” Carlos moaned. 

You froze at the sordid scene you had walked in on. Neither one saw you in the doorway of the darkened room, their backs to you as Carlos bent Rebecca over the desk and pounded into her. He curled her hair around his fist and pulled back so to expose the pleasure painted on her face. 

You didn’t even notice you were crying until a droplet fell from your cheek to land on your breast, the feather girl outfit he enjoyed on full display. You suddenly hated how exposed you felt in the ridiculous costume. It was almost as ridiculous as you - for thinking a man like him could change. 

“Take it, cariña, take it,” he stammered as you recognised the pinch of his brow. He was close. He was close to finishing and you were more than done with seeing it. 

You were conscious of your footsteps as you retreated from the room and descended downstairs. You just needed to make it to your dressing room so you could get your stuff and go. 

“Hey,” Charlotte called out as she caught your arm and pulled you to a stop with a friendly smile. “Carlos was looking for you earlier. Did you find him?”

“Yeah, I did,” you whispered, quickly wiping the tears from your cheeks. “Don’t bother drafting up the breakup post.”

Her smile dimmed as confusion replaced it. “What breakup post?”

“Huh,” you laughed humorlessly as you shook your head at your stupidity. “The one Carlos clearly didn’t talk to you about. God, I am a fucking idiot.”

You left the track, heading straight back to your hotel room and before you even reached the room you saw Carlos’ name come up on your phone. You sent him straight to voicemail, again and again.

You barely slept as you thought about how humiliated you felt. You wanted to get him back but you weren’t innocent yourself. You knew your career would be over if you outed the relationship you had with Carlos, even if it made you feel better momentarily. No, you weren’t going to bloody your hands for him, there was already a stain on your soul for what you had knowingly done.

You were a survivor and you were smarter than your recent actions showed. You knew things about Carlos that he had been foolish enough to share in the unburdened state that came after sharing his bed. You were going to use it to your advantage and do what you did best, be the envy of every man.

You had turned your phone off when you arrived at the paddock for the race but it was going to be impossible to ignore Carlos when you were assigned to the Ferrari team. 

“Stacy, swap with me?” you begged as she waited for Charles to escort him to the grid. “Pleeeease.”

“Whatever, French boys aren’t my thing anyway,” she said with a grin before heading next door to Carlos’ side. 

“I’m not French,” Charles corrected as he stepped out of his room. “I’m Monégasque.”

“Today, you’re pole,” you said with a grin as you offered your elbow out to him. “Ready to go?”

You didn’t glance in Carlos’ direction as you accompanied Charles out onto the grid. You didn’t even have to fake enjoying the company as you found the Monégasque had a good sense of humour and made you laugh the entire way. 

From the slamming of Carlos’ car door you knew you were getting to him. Carlos’ fear was losing to his team mate and he was sick of always being compared to Charles Leclerc. 

Carefully angling the feather fan to hide your faces from the jealous driver, you leant in and wished Charles good luck for the race. To the fans, you were clearly talking, but to Carlos? He would always think the worst.

Charles was high with adrenaline when he arrived at the Bellagio after coming second place. It wasn’t the win he was obviously hoping for but you could see how happy he was with the result. 

“So, you like Charles now, huh?” Stacy whispered as she stood as you did, a fake smile on your faces as you lined the interview stage. 

You cast her a quick side glance and winked. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“I know why you wanted to swap, Carlos acts like a fucking baby. He practically trashed his garage after Charlotte spoke to him about something. God, I wish I could have heard what that conversation was about.”

“Hmm, me too,” you said with a sick sense of delight as the interviews wrapped up. “Oh, finally, almost time to party.”

“You must be happy, proving Carlos wrong,” you teased Charles as you escorted him back to the Rolls Royce he arrived in. 

His steps faltered and he slowed his walk as his other podium finishers drifted further ahead. “What do you mean?”

“Well, he’s been telling everyone how much better a driver he is compared to you,” you stated with a shrug. It was an exaggeration, you had overheard him complaining to his father in the garage. “But you showed him.”

“A better driver?” Charles scoffed. “He is full of shit.”

He seemed to be in deep contemplation as he walked silently, until he reached the car and turned to you. “You should come to the after party.”

Carlos had already added you to the invite list but you smiled and batted your lashes as Charles. “Are you asking me?”

He blushed and laughed at himself as he nodded. “Would you like to come to the after party with me?”

“You don’t have a girlfriend do you?”

“No,” he laughed warmly. “I wouldn’t be asking to take you if I did.”

“Then I would love to go with you.” You gave him your room number that was conveniently in the same hotel as him, since both Ferrari drivers stayed in the same one. 

You already had the perfect dress waiting in your room and as you stood in front of the mirror you had to admit you looked stunning. The red dress was tailored to your body and the plunging neckline was risque and exactly what you envisioned it to be. You couldn’t wait to see Carlos’ face when you walked into the party on his teammate's arm.

“Hey,” you greeted as you opened the door after the knock, but it wasn’t who you expected to see on the other side. “Carlos, what are you doing here?”

His jaw fell slack, lips parting, as his eyes trailed down your body. “Mios dios, hermosa.”

You held your hand out, planting it on his chest as he stepped forward to kiss you. “Woah there, buddy, not happening.”

“Why not? Why have you been ignoring me?” he asked with genuine confusion.

“I saw you fucking Rebecca last night after Qualifying.”

He looked a little sheepish as he scratched the back of his heated neck. “I couldn’t find you.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better when you call her ‘mi amor’ too?”

“I didn’t mean it, I-I was thinking about you,” his eyes widened as his voice went up a pitch. “I swear.”

You nodded sympathetically as you rubbed his arm. “Of course, like you were thinking about me when you didn’t have that chat with Charlotte. Yeah, I know you didn't, so just go back to your girlfriend.”

“But I want you,” he pouted as he bowed his head and looked up with big brown puppy dog eyes.

“But I don’t want you. Not anymore.” You gave him a push and he ceded the space in your doorway as the  elevator across the hall opened and Charles stepped out looking good in a pair of jeans and a fitted shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbow. “Hey handsome,” you greeted him with a smile as you grabbed a black clutch with your phone and money. “Perfect timing.”

“You are breathtaking,” he said after a few blinks to recover from the sight of you. He smiled as he brushed past Carlos to kiss your cheek, ignoring the Spaniard completely. “Ready to go, chérie?”

You took his hand and sent a dark smile in Carlos’ direction as you passed by. “See you around, red man.”

Click here for part four.

[miyacults]

begging on my hands and knees for a sequel to the daddy gojo fic but w sugu please please please

a/n: my dear nonnie this is less than u actually deserve but i hope it fuels the stsg daddy agenda im pushing here.

violet, blue, green, red to keep me out… i win.

( ft. suguru geto. )

Suguru’s nowhere near salvation—soul too damned to expect something else—yet his heart aches, breaks, and cries blood at the mere thought of not deserving you. He might have made a path down the cursed side of being a Sorcerer with Satoru next to him, making the best of his efforts on keeping you away from that devilish facade of his you haven’t seen yet, and although he’s the one to blame when you finally do, well—he can’t hide anymore. That’s the price that comes with being one of the Strongests.

< part one.

wc: 3k (proofread? probably not)

cw: [ 18+ explicit content minors dni ] technically this is part two of a gojo fic (linked above) but can be read individually so no biggie. fem reader (female bodied). teacher!suguru meaning he did not deflect here okay, we’re living a happy life away from the pain. first one was gojo action so this is for geto action only but poly satosugu is clearly implied, that’s the whole point of this basically hehe. daddy kink and daddy dynamic so be very careful! minimal to no prep. unprotected sex. p in v sex. mentions of blood. mentions of death. these two pamper reader too much so reader’s a little spoiled but in the good way. geto is a sweet pretty much. if i forgot anything to put here lemme know. enjoy! <3~

From time to time, Suguru wonders about his soul in genuine distress. Perhaps out of guilt and worry and only in moments like these—well past midnight with bloodied nuckles and heavy footsteps echoing through thin walls, dragging himself up the stairs of the palatial home he and Satoru bought together, with nothing but a familiar sense of anxiety building in his chest. But it’s not like his personal cup of remorse is filled with all the haunting thoughts of the bad things he has done and seen in his life thanks to his sinister line of work, or as if such awful thoughts could actually pull some strings within his untainted heart—because that’s far from being the case.

It’s just—it’s just who he is. The blessing and the curse of being a Sorcerer, of swallowing venom as a whole to save the lives of those who live an ignorant bliss.

White marble stains in scarlet as he approaches his bedroom in silence, mind reflecting on the fact that things should be good now, that everything’s fine and danger has been erased. Any man in love would have handled the situation in the exact way he did, wouldn’t they? He wonders about this, too, quite frequently, and he hates to admit that the question lingers on his brain for far too long for his own liking. It makes him dread the fact that he’s not doing a good job in taking care of you.

Yet it doesn’t matter, as Suguru already knows the answer better than anyone—and he doesn’t qualify much for the kind-hearted-person term (or so he’s been thinking since the last blossom of his youth and the tragedies that showered his naive teen years catches him off guard). But he really doesn’t want to either, because then that would mean that he can’t successfully protect the thing he cares about the most in the world. And he can’t let that happen.

But the look Satoru shoots at him as soon as he opens his bedroom door and finds him sitting comfortably in the wide couch—awaiting his return, as usual—has him breathing correctly again, mind turning back from unwanted ideas that bother him to no end.

“You got busy tonight, huh,” Satoru murmurs quietly, head lolling to the side while scanning his best friend’s tired figure.

“I took care of the scum,”

“And didn’t invite?”

Suguru’s lips turn into a devious smirk, heavy body finally falling between the many soft pillows his large bed has.

“Princess was so upset, needed you to stay by her side,” he resolves quite calmly, dried blood forcing a horrid contrast to his charming features. “If I’m not there to hold her, then you must,”

There’s a silent warning to his words, and Satoru doesn’t have to make an effort to catch it immediately. He already knows it by heart, he always has—he always will.

“She couldn’t stop crying for over an hour anyway,” he ends up retorting sharply instead, hoarse voice weighing a tone of suppressed anger. “Hope you gave the bastard a merciless death,”

How couldn’t he after what he did to you?

The day had started quiet, tranquil—the week itself abnormally peaceful for them. Maybe it was the fleeing summer coercing the unpleasant job of Sorcerers into days of calm, long work hours slowing down and making them believe they couldn’t relax a little bit. So they decided that it would be a good idea to take you to that new coffee shop in Shinjuku you were dying to go lately. And it was fine, of course, you were incredible happy to be outside the walls of home as you hold hands with both them in a sea of smiley people.

Until it wasn’t.

That desolated look on your face when you found yourself trapped into the arms of some Curse User seeking vengeance towards them—Suguru memorized it, because it caused him some undescribable pain he couldn’t possibly explain even if he tried to. His heart shattered into a million tiny pieces at the sight of gleaming tears drying in your cheeks and the sound of broken sobs, garbled whimpers of their names coming out of parted lips as you held onto nothing for balance, unable to stop yourself from breaking down at the fear, the horror, the trepidation it forced your body into a shock.

He couldn’t prevent what happened after they took you back and he tried to calm you down by placing you in Satoru’s lap, hurriedly murmuring something about making it right. It’s gonna be okay, princess, you’re gonna be okay. He won’t hurt you ever again. I’m here to protect you.

Maybe—just maybe—you heard the strained tone that bathed his words in that moment. And maybe you didn’t understand it right away, or maybe you didn’t want to.

Because Suguru has always been there to make things right, and nothing else has to matter when he and Satoru are there to protect you from the dangers of the world.

Like they have devoted themselves to do.

Suguru doesn’t remember the exact time you came into his life—he doesn’t really care to, because he knows you’ve pretty much always been there. He has no idea where do his memories begin or end at, but the teary-doe look of your face has been plaguing the tissues of his brain for so long now he can’t find himself to remember a time where it hasn’t been there.

He remembers his first day at Jujutsu High, during the spring of him being fifteen and you a little less than that, when he saw you adverting everyone’s gaze as you walked behind your mother (an assistant director, of all things) towards the offices in silence—floral dress wrinkly as you seated in some chair and patiently waited for your mom to finish off her work. No complaints but with a huge pout, bored to death.

He remembers the first time Satoru made you cry by telling you you were a weak nuisance (and how he shortly laughed at that), and he remembers the sickening feeling of nausea that infected his stomach shortly after—and he remembers how it didn’t disappeared until he handed you a beverage from the machines and you smiled at him like none of them ever harmed you in the first place.

He remembers you admiring your mother’s ivory dress the day she married principal Yaga, and he remembers the way he took your hand into his to give you a little bit of courage as you and Satoru walked down the aisle side by side, carrying the rings of the newlyweds.

He remembers the winter of Satoru’s eighteenth birthday, when the white-haired man accidentally dropped a box full of the school’s Christmas decorations over you, making you trip down the stairs and hurt your ankle. He remembers the tears that stained his posh pajama pants when you shouted at him—immediately, instantly—crying out his name and seeking comfort. He also remembers the way Satoru moved around you like a lighting bolt, reaching and lifting you up in his arms before Suguru could arrive. Soothing sweet words into your ear, kissing your cheek as he darted a glare in his direction.

He remembers that they both shared the same thought at that moment, even though it was never vocalized.

He remembers how you have always made him feel this sick—as if you’re infesting his body and refusing to let him cure himself off you at all. He remembers because the feeling doesn’t really stops, never has, probably never will, and he has now grow a little too familiar with the lingering explosion of things that do make him feel alive bubbling in his chest. He’s now used to you setting his soul on fire and making him sick.

But it’s special, nonetheless. A sugary sweet method of inflicting pain—as Satoru likes to say.

Because Suguru Geto is not exactly a good person by his own perspective—but he likes to believe he’s a good man to both you and Satoru, for selfish that could be. The kind of man that puts your safety and well-being on top of anything else, the one that ensures both of your happiness above his own. He’s the type of man that allows some of his darkest desires to die in a fire, following what he believes is the right thing to do.

Suguru’s nowhere near salvation—soul too damned to expect something else—yet his heart aches, breaks, and cries blood at the mere thought of not deserving you. He might have made a path down the cursed side of being a Sorcerer with Satoru next to him, making the best of his efforts on keeping you away from that devilish facade of his you haven’t seen yet, and although he’s the one to blame when you finally do, well—he can’t hide anymore. That’s the price that comes with being one of the Strongests.

“Sugu?”

He can hear it clearly, so vivid and bright and sweet it makes him terribly sick all of a sudden. Singsong and gently voice, coated in saccharine sugar echoing through his ears as the most enthralling tone wraps around his name like a prayer, the deliberately long uttering of ‘Sugu’ forcing the curves of his lips to fall abruptly, his heart stopping without notice and an invisible punch to the guts knocking all the air out of his lungs.

“‘Toru, Daddy, where are you?”

Suguru waits—pretends he doesn’t really care as your footsteps sound closer, closer, closer, and his posture maintains, seemingly calm, apparently unbothered, somewhat bored. But, oh, Satoru knows.

Satoru knows as he sits by his side on the obsidian sectional sofa, with legs crossed and arms splayed over the border, that his best friend’s mind is going on a haze, a brand new sense of anxiety crawling under his skin like a thousand bugs eating him alive. Satoru’s almost certain, he’s sure that if he gets a little closer, the violent sounds of Suguru’s heart pounding in alarming violence against his ribs would cause him physical pain. It puts him on edge; the mere thought of his best friend’s reaction at what’s about to happen now.

If it were him, he wouldn’t care. He hadn’t care in the past, actually. Satoru has always been more than happy to let you near the side of him that glows closer to hell than heaven itself.

But Suguru is different, he thinks.

“She’s supposed to be sleeping,” Suguru stares at him blankly, a hint of irritation in his voice. “It’s long past midnight, and she gets all cranky in the morning every time she stays up,”

“She was sleeping,” Satoru stands up, a sigh sliding past his lips while moving to the bedroom door. “But you already know how she gets if she wakes up for water and is all alone in bed. She gets all needy,”

Suguru raises an eyebrow.

“And who’s fault is that, huh?”

“It’s not polite to finger-point, Suguru.”

Both of them stay silent for a bit, carefully paying attention to your sounds. Suguru tuts his tongue when he hears you calling his name near the bathroom hall.

“I’m too bloodied for her to see me like this,”

“Clearly. Just stay there, lemme—,” Satoru scoffs, opening the door and then closing it behind him swiftly before you can catch a glimpse of the inside. “Oi, sweets, what do you think you’re doing out of bed?”

“But ‘Toru,” you complain in a hushed whine. “You left me alone, you know I don’t like that. It didn’t felt warm anymore,”

Suguru can’t see you—all he has is a muffled sound of your distorted voice, and he swears he knows exactly the way your lips are pushing the loveliest pout to ever exist, the way you’re looking at Satoru through sleepy eyelashes as you put your little complaint out.

And he also knows Satoru might have rolled his eyes playfully at the sight, pulling you closer to steal a kiss from your frowned lips.

“So needy, my baby is so needy,”

“Is Suguru not home yet?” you ask slowly, perhaps setting your groggy eyes into Satoru, staring at him with that enamored look they both know too well.

“Do you want Daddy?”

“Yeah, I do,” you snort.

“I’m your Daddy and I’m home, so,”

“I want both,” you giggle softly, so sweetly Suguru can feel his insides melt at the sound of your bubbling laugh.

He’s sure Satoru has you entangled in a hug, probably sneaking his hands all over your body and tickling your sides to pull a smile.

“Oh, your dumb Daddy, too. Alright. I dunno where he is, sweets,” Satoru states, as if.

“How mean, ‘Toru.”

“Excuse me? What did you just call me?”

“Mean. You’re lying to me.”

Suguru smirks at that. He stands up from the bed and walks towards the door to open it and find you both in the exact position he predicted.

And the look you shoot his way, the frown that forms in your face and your pretty features contract in sudden worry when his frame appears in front of you—it all has his heart pounding like crazy, he feels so loved, he feels so full of you. He feels insatiable.

“Oh,” you let out a little squeal as you shift from Satoru’s embrace and into his, “Sugu, you—”

“Don’t worry much about this, princess,” he mumbles, catching you inside his arms like the world depends on it. “I’m okay.”

But he’s sure you’re crying anyway.

And you don’t even stop to think about the blood. You don’t even care that he reeks of death and violence and Curses as you hold onto him for dear life, with arms that wrap tightly around him and pull him closer, closer, even closer; as lips caress the skin of his neck and little mewls echoe softly against his throat. Pants of I love you, I don’t want anything bad happening to you, I love you, fueling his mind like a bomb ready to launch.

Satoru laughs it off with a devious smile.

“Poor baby, you have her worried sick, Suguru,” he falsely chides. “Guess you gotta make it up to her.”

“Uh-huh,” Suguru nods. “My poor princess, do you want Daddy to make it alright?”

You nod in between heavy breaths, head still buried in his neck. Satoru gives a soft slap to your ass whimsically.

“So needy,” the Strongest murmurs, but he rapidly turns away and aims for the stairs. “I’m gonna go find a snack though, I’m starving. And then I’m gonna prepare a bath so you both can meet me there in a bit,”

Suguru nods.

“Go on. Let me take this princess to bed in the mean time, then we meet you in the bathtub,”

Suguru takes you to his large bed and places you in the middle of many soft pillows cooing in your ear to wash the concern out of you, but you’re reluctant. You cup his face and scan him looking for wounds, soon realizing the ugly streaks of scarlet that stain his face are, in fact, not his. But even then you don’t flinch. Instead, you let your hands wander all over his chest—desperate to pull him into you, to merge your bodies and never letting him go, never separated.

“Oh?” Suguru smiles at your scattered words. There’s still blinks of sleep tugging at your tired eyes, and he can’t help but fondle your face cautiously. “Are we merging with Satoru too, hm?”

You nod, sulky little look fighting sleepiness with all you got.

“Of course, Daddy, always with ‘Toru,”

“That’s right, princess. Always with Satoru,”

You inhale a deep breath. It’s easy for Suguru to notice every little thing about you, so he caught up on your train of thoughts before yourself. You were struggling with some words, biting your lip, eyelashes fluttering, thinking hard about something.

“What is it, baby?” He wonders carefully, hot breath colliding with your face, nose caressing the soft skin of your cheeks as he inhales your scent.

“Did you do a bad thing, Sugu?”

The question lingers on his brain for a few seconds, mind resisting on reflecting such thoughts. Yet his expression doesn’t change, he maintains serenity as the brush of skin above yours doesn’t stop. He holds you like a priced possession, like your mere existence could ever absolve the decaying all Sorcerers are damned to. Like you could kiss him and save him, like you could hug him and guard him—as if you could turn blood into holy water or death into salvation.

Maybe you can.

“Will you still love me if I did?” He asks, not dreading the answer.

“I will never stop loving you, Daddy,”

It ignites his body. Fire burns at his fists and he kisses you deeply, mouths meeting around a new heat, with tongues slipping and teeth clashing desperately. He has no intention of letting you catch a break, mouth falling to your neck where he bites at the sensitive skin and causes you to mewl.

“Ow, Suguru, that’s mean,” you grumble, but you part your bare legs anyway when his hands drop and brush at your thighs.

“Can’t help it, princess,” he press a chaste kiss to your lips once more. “You gonna let me play a little with this pretty pussy, yeah?” The words flee his throat in a raspy tone, and his hands don’t stop. He hikes up that oversized cashmere sweater, that can only belong to Satoru, barely above the line of your lacey black panties, enough for him graze it and get a glimpse of your puffy lips against the fabric, awaiting for him. Suguru traces a finger along your cunt, causing you to shiver at the cold digits. “How gorgeous,”

You pant. “But—The bath, Sugu,”

“He can wait a little,” he says into your mouth “Gonna make you feel really good, princess,” he breathes heavily, rocking his hip a little as a thumb strikes tenderly your cunt through your panties.

And he notices right away—in the way you shiver under his touch when he hovers completely above you, how a breathless sigh escapes past your parted lips and your fists grab a handful of his shoulders to attach yourself onto him and make his bulge nudge your cunt. He repeats the motion a few times, mouth leaving stray kisses in your neck and already throbbing cock humping your covered pussy through his pants.

“Sugu,” you whine at one particularly hard thrust of his hips, involuntary loud moan reverberating from the back of your throat. “‘Toru,”

“Shh, princess,”

Suguru is fast at parting your panties to the side, and he says there’s no need for prepping you tonight, says it’s gonna be real quick so you can both go back to Satoru—with his cock an angry shade of red as its released free from his trousers and it aims for your tiny hole fast, thrusting in one go. You’re whimpering at how fast it happens, cunt burning at the sudden intrusion since he is usually the one that takes his time to properly prep you to take his cock.

You guess he’s feeling off, so you happily comply if that’ll help him.

“Want you, Sugu, I need you,”

“Ah-ah, my good girl,” he grunts lightly, hands steadying you by the ass as he finally bottoms out. “Can you keep doing that for me? Can you be a good girl?”

A loud hiss vibrates through clenched teeth as you wrap your legs around his hips, head nodding many forms of yes as you inch closer to him in distress.

“That’s it baby, take it pretty,”

“H-Hurts a little, Sugu,” you murmur softly, eyes glued to where he’s slowly sliding in and out.

“I know princess,” he pants. “Give it a minute,” He’s practically caging you shortly after, thrusting up roughly as stretched out walls wrap him and suck him deeply. You’re not given a chance to recover or adjust properly, but the burning does start to fade away. Discomfort grows into pleasure and whimpers turn into soft moans as you bury your face on his neck and his hot breath collides sharply against the shell of your ear. “You’re so brave, my good girl. So pretty, my princess,”

You lift your hips to meet his thrusts, dainty fingers digging the flesh of his shoulders when he grunts. And it doesn’t take long for tears to collect in your eyes as heat floods your body once again, the familiar throb of your clit making you aggravate the hump of your hips so your swollen bud finds a little bit of friction. Suguru doesn’t fail to turn you into a needy mess, strong hand coming to cover the cries emitting from your mouth.

Muffled chants of Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, alongside his hoarse grunts and the lewd slap of skin against skin are the only sounds that fly the room when he cums—bruising fingers grasping your flesh harshly as he paints your walls white, and nearly immediately you’re creaming all over the tip of his sensitive cock firmly pressed against your cervix.

“Not leaving you baby,” he pants out. “Not leaving you at all.”

[stateofsport211]

Know Your Talents: 2024 ATP NextGen Finals Introductory Post

The 2024 ATP NextGen Finals Class of 2024 (📸 NextGen Finals' official Twitter)

It is that time of the year again when the 8 best under-20 players of the 2024 season battle it out at the 2024 NextGen Finals, which will be held in Jeddah starting today (December 18). However, in contrast to being the season-ending campaign for them, it could be treated as one of their preparations to start the next season, as it is organized in transition between the end of the 2024 season and the beginning of the 2025 season (December 18-22, 2024), the timing when other exhibition tournaments take place.

Interestingly, the qualification window for this year's NextGen Finals ended at the end of the 2024 ATP Challenger Tour season (December 1) according to the rulebook, allowing the lower end of the Race to slightly heighten up, while no wild card is awarded due to no U-20 player standing out from the region, which meant all 8 players qualified through the Race. As a result, the last few names were attained at the end of November after several other names nearby got eliminated early in their pursuit to qualify for this event. As a reminder, they will play in best-of-five mini-sets (first to 4 games), with a tie-break to be played at 3-3, deciding points (servers' choice) every deuce without let on serve.

Featuring 4 players in the Top 50 for the first time since 2018 despite being U-20 only, hereby introducing this year's NextGen Finalists and their #JourneytoJeddah according to their seedings and respective groups:

Blue Group

1. Arthur Fils

Arthur Fils with his Hamburg 500 title (📸 Univers Tennis)

Arthur Fils' points to 6-5* 40-ad (latest set point) in Estoril (250) R1 (top left), to save a match point to 6-6(6-6), 2nd set in Tokyo (500) finals (top right), and his breakthrough highlights of 2024 (bottom) (📸📝BeIN Sports ID, ATP official website, and Tennis TV via Tennis Channel)

One of the front-runners of this year’s NextGen Finals, A. Fils enjoyed his further breakthrough after becoming the runner-up to Hamad Medjedovic in last year’s iteration 1-4, 2-4, 4-3(9), 1-4. Despite the slow start to the season, especially as he tried his hands in the Golden Swing (including a straight-set loss to Joao Fonseca in the first-round match of the Rio de Janeiro (500)) instead of his favorite European indoor-Middle Eastern swing, it steadily paid off as he won the Bordeaux (175) title rather than defending his Lyon (250) title, defeating Pedro Martinez 6-2, 6-3 thanks to a dominant play. Before that, he retired Joao Sousa 7-5, 6-4 in the Estoril (250) first round before bowing out to Cristian Garin 6-2, 4-6, 4-6 in the second round.

Performing even better in the second half of the season, A. Fils defeated Dominic Stricker, Hubert Hurkacz, and Roman Safiullin in the first three rounds of the Wimbledon Championships before being defeated by Alex de Minaur 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 3-6 in the fourth round. He went on to reach his maiden 500-level final in Hamburg (500), defeating Alexander Zverev 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(1) for his first 500-level title. Not long after, he won his second 500-level title in Tokyo (500), snapping Ugo Humbert's perfect finals record after saving a match point, turning the match around with a final scoreline of 5-7, 7-6(3), 6-3 in 3 hours and 4 minutes. Followed by a semifinal appearance in Vienna (500) (l. Ben Shelton 3-6, 6-7(9)) and being eliminated in the third round of Paris M1000 (l. A. Zverev 4-6, 6-3, 3-6), A. Fils enjoyed a career-high ranking of 20 to close his stellar 2024 season, qualifying him for this tournament right away.

4. Jakub Mensik

Jakub Mensik (right) as the Doha (250) runner-up to Karen Khachanov (left) (📸 El Mundo Deportivo via EFE)

Jakub Mensik's points to hold 3-3 in the 1st set of his Doha (250) final (top left), to 2-1* 15-15 in the 2nd set of his Rome M1000 1st round match (top right), and to break 3-0 in the 2nd set of his Vienna (500) second round match (bottom) (📸 ATP Tour's official Twitter via TennisTV)

After notably ending his season with his maiden Challenger-level quarterfinal appearance in Danderyd (d. Hamad Medjedovic 4-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(8) in the second round only to be defeated by his fellow #NextGenATP Alexander Blockx 0-6, 3-6 in the quarterfinals), J. Mensik began his season by becoming the runner-up of the Canberra Challenger (l. Dominik Koepfer 3-6, 2-6) before advancing to the second round of the Australian Open as a qualifier (l. Hubert Hurkacz 7-6(9), 1-6, 7-5, 1-6, 3-6). He then continued by reaching the semifinals of the Manama Challenger (l. Mikhail Kukushkin 3-6, 2-6), boldening his breakthrough by becoming the runner-up of Doha (250) the week after to Karen Khachanov 6-7(12), 4-6. However, he was sidelined due to an elbow injury, trying to come back in Madrid Masters 1000 only to retire at the start of the second set against Felix Auger-Aliassime 1-6, 0-1, forcing him to be sidelined for the rest of the clay season. He cited that the biomechanics of his serve caused the injury, making necessary adjustments for the rest of the season (apart from taking his final exams at school, where he got 4 As).

The Czech youngster then came back stronger during the grass season, reaching the quarterfinals of Mallorca (250) (l. Alejandro Tabilo 4-6, 4-6) before exiting early in the first round of Wimbledon to Alexander Bublik 6-4, 7-6(3), 4-6, 4-6, 2-6. Adding to his breakthrough year, he became the semifinalist of Umag (250) (l. Lorenzo Musetti 4-6, 1-6), partaking in his first Summer Olympics as he got eliminated against Tommy Paul 3-6, 1-6 in the second round. His progress became more evident in the other hard-court season, where he reached the third round of the US Open (l. Nuno Borges 7-6(3), 1-6, 6-3, 6-7(6), 0-6), as well as reaching the quarterfinals of the Shanghai M1000 (l. Novak Djokovic 7-6(4), 1-6, 4-6). He then concluded his season with a stellar showing in Vienna (500), being a quarterfinalist to Alex de Minaur 7-6(2), 3-6, 4-6 before retiring against Corentin Moutet upon the conclusion of the first set in the second qualifying round of Paris M1000 (6-7(3), ret.) due to fatigue,  considering his Vienna run. He ended his season with a career-high ranking of 48, actually setting his goal to “stay injury-free,” considering the physical issues that often appeared from some thrilling matches. To top it off, he is deservingly being voted by his fellow players as the "Newcomer of the Year," announced right before the NextGen Finals.

6. Joao Fonseca

Joao Fonseca celebrating his victory in the Rio de Janeiro (500), where he reached his maiden ATP-level quarterfinals (📸 Tennis.com)

Joao Fonseca's points to 4-2, 2nd set, in his Asuncion Challenger final match (top left), to break back 5-5 in the 2nd set in his Lexington Challenger second-round match (top right), and setting up his latest set point before taking the 2nd set 7-6(8) in his Brest Challenger quarterfinal match (bottom) (📸 ATP official website, BeIN Sports ID)

J. Fonseca’s big raw potential was spotted in the South American Challenger circuit as early as 2022, reaching his first Challenger-level quarterfinal in Sao Leopoldo at that time after stunning Mariano Navone 3-6, 6-1, 7-6(9) in the second round, bowing out to Facundo Bagnis 3-6, 4-6 in the quarterfinals. Since then, he has taken the world by storm, peaking through winning the 2023 US Open Junior Boys' Singles by defeating his fellow #NextGenATP Learner Tien 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 after a rain delay interrupted the match. The Brazilian then started the year by winning the Buenos Aires 2 (Argentino) Challenger title with Pedro Sakamoto (d. Jakob Schnaitter/Mark Wallner 6-2, 6-2 as alternates), preceding his bigger breakthrough in Rio de Janeiro (500) as a wild card as he knocked out Arthur Fils in straight sets in a talent-off and Cristian Garin in the round after, setting up a rematch of his second-round Sao Leopoldo Challenger from 2 years ago despite the loss against Mariano Navone 6-2, 3-6, 3-6 in his maiden ATP-level quarterfinals.

Afterward, J. Fonseca, who already enrolled at the University of Virginia at the end of 2023, forewent his eligibility and turned pro, enjoying notable milestones along the way despite the rollercoasters. He went on to reach his maiden Challenger-level final in Asuncion after saving 2 match points in the quarterfinals against Orlando Luz 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 before Gustavo Heide got the best out of him in the finals 5-7, 7-6(6), 1-6 in a battle for their maiden Challenger title. He reaped his rewards when he received wild cards to Estoril (250), Bucharest (250), and Madrid M1000, racking up experience despite the early exits. His moment then finally came as he won the Lexington Challenger, defeating Li Tu 6-1, 6-4 in the finals, followed by advancing to the US Open third qualifying round as he lost the tight match against University of Texas alumnus Eliot Spizzirri 6-7(8), 7-6(5), 4-6. Continuing his season indoors, he notably saved 10 match points across the second and the third sets before being defeated by eventual runner-up Benjamin Bonzi 4-6, 7-6(8), 4-6 in the Brest Challenger quarterfinals, surviving a talent-off by defeating Martin Landaluce 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(9) in the Lyon (Décines-Charpieu) Challenger quarterfinals before bowing out to one of the indoor goats Calvin Hemery 6-7(5), 4-6 in the semifinals. From here alone, he attained his career-high ranking of 145 by November 18, 2024, securing his qualification to the NextGen Finals thanks to his powerful play, crediting the Challenger Tour for his development.

7. Learner Tien

Learner Tien won his maiden Challenger-level title in the Bloomfield Hills Challenger (📸 Shankar Iyer/Cranbrook Tennis Classic via Tennis TourTalk)

Learner Tien's points to *2-2 15-15 in the 1st set of his Bloomfield Hills Challenger second-round match (top left), to break 5-3 in the second set of his Tiburon Challenger second-round match (top right), and to start the second game of the first set of his famous Fairfield Challenger final match (bottom) (📸 ATP official website)

Former junior World No. 4 (attained in 2023) Learner Tien, who is named after his mother's profession as a teacher, took the world by storm starting his runner-up to Alexander Blockx in the 2023 Australian Open Junior Boys' Singles, winning the U-18 National Championships in the United States two consecutive times (2022-23), which qualified him for the US Open Main Draw wild card. To add, he became the runner-up to Joao Fonseca in the 2023 US Open Junior Boys' Singles (with the final scoreline of 4-6, 6-3, 3-6), whom he will face in this group as well. He attended the University of Southern California in 2022/23, where he earned the All-Pac-12 honorable mention in a shortened season, going 3-0 in singles at the No. 2 position, and 6-3 in doubles at the No. 1 spot.

While his professional journey has had its ups and downs, Learner started to gain more attention in the middle of 2024, kickstarting what would be his 28-match winning streak by winning titles in ITF M15 San Diego (May 27 and Jun 3) before continuing with another title in ITF M15 Rancho Santa Fe (Jun 17). The streak did not stop as he won his maiden Challenger title in the Bloomfield Hills Challenger, defeating Nishesh Basavareddy 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in an extremely dynamic affair, surviving all his previous rounds in 3 sets. It did not end from here as he went on to win the ITF M15 Lakewood (Jul 8) by defeating Govind Nanda 6-3, 6-3, but his winning streak was snapped by Yunchaokete Bu 4-6, 5-7 in the semifinals of the Chicago Challenger before reaching his maiden ATP-level quarterfinal as a qualifier in Winston-Salem (250) (l. Pablo Carreno Busta 4-6, 2-6). Learner then won the Las Vegas Challenger by defeating Tristan Boyer 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 before crushing Bernard Tomic 6-0, 6-1 to win the Fairfield Challenger title in 39 minutes, setting the record for the all-time fastest Challenger final both in game (13 games) and duration (39 minutes), as well as becoming the fourth American to win 3 Challenger titles before turning 19 right behind Taylor Fritz, Andy Roddick, and Sam Querrey. Learner then closed the season with a runner-up in the Knoxville Challenger to Christopher Eubanks 5-7, 6-7(9), reaching a career-high ranking of 114 to open up a possibility for a Top 100 ascension apart from qualifying for the NextGen Finals, inducting himself to the ITF Class of 2024 thanks to his rapid rise.

Red Group

2. Alex Michelsen

Alex Michelsen (right) before contesting his 2024 Newport (250) final against Marcos Giron (left) (📸 Tennis TV)

Alex Michelsen's point to 1-0* 0-15 (2nd set) in his Newport (250) semifinal match (left) and to 6-6(3-0) (1st set tie-break) at his Winston-Salem (250) first-round match (right) (📸 Tennis Channel and Tennis TV)

Also a repeater from the 2023 NextGen Finals (eliminated in the group stage) thanks to his rise that peaked with the Knoxville Challenger title last year, A. Michelsen became a direct entrant to the 2024 Australian Open, qualified for the third round before being eliminated to Alexander Zverev 2-6, 6-7(4), 2-6. He also notably forced the issue when he saved 3 match points before being defeated by Jordan Thompson 6-0, 6-7(1), 5-7 in the quarterfinals after recording one of his biggest victories by knocking out Alex de Minaur 6-4, 6-1 the round before in Los Cabos (250). After a decent start to the hard-court season, the American accustomed himself to the red-clay season by partaking in the Oeiras 3 Challenger, defeating home favorite Henrique Rocha 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the first round before Dennis Novak knocked him out 6-7(3), 4-6 in the second round, but he ended his subpar clay season with an early exit to Alex de Minaur 1-6, 0-6, 2-6 in the first round of Roland Garros.

A. Michelsen then bounced back in the grass and hard-court seasons. Despite kicking off his grass season with a straight-set loss to a resurgent Paul Jubb, he continued by reaching another quarterfinal in Mallorca (250), where Alejandro Tabilo won 6-4, 6-4, but exited early in a 5-set first-round Wimbledon match against Lloyd Harris. The American then closed the grass season by retaining his runner-up position in Newport (250), where Marcos Giron got the best out of him 6-7(4), 6-3, 7-5 in the finals. He then became the runner-up of Winston-Salem (250) to Lorenzo Sonego 0-6, 3-6, but notably defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the first round of Tokyo (500) before losing to Tomas Machac 6-7(2), 3-6 in the second round. Indoors, he confidently knocked out Hubert Hurkacz 6-3, 6-1 in the first round of Paris M1000 before being eliminated in the round after, becoming the Metz (250) semifinalist by knocking out the likes of Richard Gasquet and Harold Mayot before a comeback Benjamin Bonzi bettered him with the final scoreline of 6-4, 0-6, 5-7. By November 11, 2024, he reached his career-high ranking of 48, qualifying himself for the NextGen Finals alongside his junior buddies (in his batch) Learner Tien and Nishesh Basavareddy.

3. Juncheng Shang

Juncheng Shang with his maiden ATP title in Chengdu (250) (📸 CFP via CGTN)

Juncheng Shang's point to save the second match point to 6-6(8-8) in his Hong Kong (250) first-round match (left) and to break 6-5 (1st set) in his Chengdu (250) final match (right) (📸 Tennis TV, ATP official website)

Also having immense potential to his name, Jerry became the first Chinese man to win the Australian Open main draw match in 2023 by defeating Oscar Otte 6-2, 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-5 in the first round. Since then, despite some fitness-questioning moments, Jerry continued to make his mark, which was just the beginning of what could be a career. Fast-forward to the start of the 2024 season, Jerry qualified for the Hong Kong (250) semifinal as a wild card before bowing out to Andrey Rublev 6-4, 2-6, 3-6, also receiving a wild card to the Australian Open, where he knocked out Mackenzie McDonald and Sumit Nagal before retiring against Carlos Alcaraz 1-6, 1-6, 0-1 in the third round. He continued his strides in the Sunshine Double, where he notably reached the second round of the Indian Wells M1000 as a qualifier (d. Jordan Thompson 6-2, 6-3 in the first round before being eliminated to Alexander Bublik 4-6, 1-6). On the clay-court season, he notably partook in the Madrid Challenger, defeating Alejandro Moro Canas 7-5, 6-2 in a tight match before being eliminated in the next round against Marc-Andrea Huesler 4-6, 6-3, 5-7 in a classic encounter. Right after, he reached the second round of Barcelona (500) and Madrid M1000 (l. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 5-7, 3-6 in a match famous for its double-bounce incident midway), ending his clay season with a semifinal appearance in Bordeaux Challenger (l. Pedro Martinez 5-7, 2-6) before suffering an early exit in the first qualifying round of the Roland Garros to Roman Andres Burruchaga 4-6, 6-7(5).

Furthermore, Jerry also shone during the grass season, having a competitive showing despite the loss against a rising Jacob Fearnley 5-7, 5-7 at the Nottingham (grass) Challenger quarterfinals, reaching the Eastbourne (250) quarterfinals as well, being eliminated to Taylor Fritz 6-7(5), 6-7(5) as it came down to some crucial points. He ended the grass season by going out of the Wimbledon Championships’ second round against Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 7-6(4), 4-6, 2-6, 4-6, peaking during the other hard-court swing by reaching the semifinals of Atlanta (250) as a qualifier (l. Jordan Thompson 6-3, 4-6, 3-6) despite the two walk-overs that occurred back in Washington (500) (retiring 2-3 down in the first set to Arthur Rinderknech in the second round due to his lower back injury) and Winston-Salem (250) (withdrew from his third-round match) and the first-round loss to Casper Ruud in another 5-set chaos (final scoreline: 7-6(1), 6-3, 0-6, 3-6, 1-6), before winning his maiden ATP-level title in Chengdu (250) (d. Lorenzo Musetti 7-6(4), 6-1, notably defeating Kei Nishikori (R1), Roman Safiullin (R2), and Alexander Bublik (QF) midway). Jerry ended his season Indoors by qualifying for the Paris M1000, bowing out to Marcos Giron 6-7(6), 6-7(6) in another competitive showing. Reaching his career-high ranking of 47 back on October 21, 2024, Jerry is looking forward to competing in the NextGen Finals, trying to stay happy on the court while maintaining his continuous learning spirit.

5. Luca van Assche

Luca van Assche after winning against Cameron Norrie in his Roanne Challenger quarterfinal match (📸 TennisActu via Roanne Challenger's official Instagram)

Luca van Assche's point to 5-2* 30-30 (2nd set) in his second-round Heilbronn Challenger match (left) and to *1-2 0-15 in his Roanne Challenger quarterfinal match (right) (📸 ATP official website)

Compared to his steady rise that qualified him for the 2023 NextGen Finals, Luca van Assche struggled to maintain his form, trying to balance his tennis journey with his undergraduate studies, currently majoring in Mathematics at Paris-Dauphine University. He kicked off this season with a second-round exit to Cameron Norrie 3-6, 7-6(5), 1-6 before notably recording back-to-back 5-set wins in his first two rounds of the Australian Open, bowing out to Stefanos Tsitsipas 3-6, 0-6, 4-6 in the third round. Trying to find his form upon appointing Vicenzo Santopadre (Matteo Berrettini’s coach for 13 years), it was a rocky road for him for some parts of the year: suffering quit exits from the first rounds of Marseille (250) and Rotterdam (250), as well as the first qualifying round of Doha (250) before qualifying for Dubai (500), where Karen Khachanov got the best out of him 2-6, 3-6 in the first round. To continue, he reached the semifinal of the Phoenix Challenger (l. Nuno Borges 4-6, 6-4, 2-6), but another set of early exits occurred, reaching the second round at best in Miami M1000 (l. Casper Ruud 6-7(5), 6-1, 1-6), Barcelona (500) (retiring against Fabian Marozsan 0-6, 2-3), and Madrid M1000 (l. Sebastian Baez 4-6, 7-6(2), 3-6), topping it off with a loss to a comeback Denis Shapovalov 3-6, 4-6, 4-6 in Roland Garros, continuing with 3 consecutive three-set victories in the Heilbronn Challenger the week after before bowing out to eventual champion Sumit Nagal 2-6, 6-7(5) in the semifinals, continuing with a quarterfinal showing in Lyon (clay) Challenger (l. Raphael Collignon 5-7, 3-6) and second-round loss to Tristan Boyer (2-6, 5-7) in the Sassuolo Challenger.

L. van Assche was one of the Wimbledon lucky losers, after being eliminated in the third qualifying round against Lucas Pouille 6-7(4), 5-7, 2-6 in a French generational affair, but he was defeated by Fabio Fognini 1-6, 3-6, 5-7 in the first round despite stepping up late in the third set. Among the other quick eliminations occurring during the other hard-court season, he went out to Paul Jubb 3-6, 1-6 in the second round of the Lincoln Challenger, Gabriel Diallo 4-6, 3-6 in the Cary Challenger second round, Radu Albot 2-6, 6-0, 4-6 in the second qualifying round of the US Open, as well as to the eventual champion Gijs Brouwer 3-6, 2-6 in the first round of the Saint-Tropez Challenger. Seeing his Top 100 ranking is on the line, L. van Assche survived the season thanks to some tumultuous runs, starting from a second-round loss in Villena Challenger to another #NextGenATP in Justin Engel 6-3, 4-6, 0-6, followed by a semifinal showing in the Roanne Challenger (l. Benjamin Bonzi 4-6, 1-6 despite coming back from a set and a break down in the quarterfinals against Cameron Norrie 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, being a quarterfinalist of the Brest Challenger (l. Otto Virtanen 6-7(1), 4-6), had an epic loss after Jozef Kovalik came back and forth from the brink in the first round of the Bratislava 2 Challenger 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(0), then becoming a lucky loser in Metz (250) despite his first-qualifying-round loss to Gregoire Barrere 3-6, 4-6 as Cameron Norrie asserted his revenge in the first round 3-6, 6-3, 1-6. This resulted in the Frenchman being ranked 128 at the end of the season, but he is looking to end 2024 with a bang with a run in the NextGen Finals, taking the court first today against Juncheng Shang to start his campaign in this tournament as he drew from his last year’s experience, where he lost in the semifinals against Arthur Fils.

8. Nishesh Basavareddy

Nishesh Basavareddy with his maiden Challenger-level title in Tiburon (📸 ATP official website via Natalie Kim Photography)

Nishesh Basavareddy's points to 5-1* 30-40 (1st set) in his Tiburon Challenger final match (top left), to 0-0* 40-ad (2nd set) to set up one of his break points in his second-round Knoxville Challenger match (top right), and to *3-3 30-15 (bottom) in an exciting sequence at his Puerto Vallarta Challenger final match (bottom) (📸 ATP official website)

Notably a former junior World No. 3 (attained on January 3, 2023), Nishesh Basavareddy attends Stanford University, majoring in Data Science, where he also was awarded ITA Scholar-Athlete twice for his outstanding academic achievement before foregoing his remaining eligibility thanks to a standout season. Back in college, he was a two-time All-American and the ITA Fall National Champion in 2022, leading the Stanford Cardinals to a Pac-12 Championship earlier in 2024, as well as being an All-Pac two-time honoree, having a 41-11 record in singles (14-1 at the top position) and 29-14 doubles record, reaching a career-high collegiate ranking of No. 6 in singles. In addition, while still actively playing in college, apart from attaining his first ATP points in 2022, he also won his first professional doubles title in ITF M15 Vero Beach (Apr 25) with Ricardo Rodriguez-Pace, defeating Liam Draxl/Millen Hurrion 6-4, 6-3 in the finals and becoming the singles runner-up of the 2023 Fairfield Challenger (l. Zachary Svajda 4-6, 1-6) at his maiden Challenger-level singles final.

However, the Carmel, Indiana native started another rise, beginning with his ITF M25 Calabasas (Mar 18) runner-up when Trevor Svajda got the best out of him 4-6, 1-6. Since then, he had a tear in the North American Challenger circuit in general, starting from becoming the runner-up to Learner Tien 6-4, 3-6, 4-6 in the Bloomfield Hills Challenger (in singles) and partnering Ozan Baris, in doubles (l. Ryan Seggerman/Patrick Trhac 6-4, 3-6, [6-10] in the finals). He then reached the semifinal of the Lincoln Challenger (l. Coleman Wong 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 0-6) before reaching the third qualifying round of the US Open, where Hamad Medjedovic won 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1, with fitness being the main question of this stretch, including in his Columbus Challenger loss to James Kent Trotter 7-6(4), 1-6, 0-6 in the semifinals. However, Nishesh came back stronger with other final stretches, starting with a runner-up to Edas Butvilas 4-6, 3-6 in the Charleston Challenger in a battle for their maiden Challenger title, finally winning his maiden Challenger title in Tiburon as he double-breadsticked (6-1, 6-1) University of Texas alumnus Eliot Spizzirri as they contested for their maiden Challenger title as well. Somehow, within 2 months, Nishesh became a runner-up in 2 different Challenger-level tournaments, starting the Charlottesville Challenger (l. James Kent Trotter 3-6, 4-6), followed by the Champaign Challenger a fortnight later (l. Ethan Quinn 3-6, 1-6) while surviving various classics along the way, including the quarterfinal match against University of Virginia alumnus Chris Rodesch 6-4, 6-7(6), 7-6(5) in the quarterfinals back in Charlottesville. Despite the injury scare to end the season, Nishesh closed the season in the Puerto Vallarta Challenger with a title, defeating Liam Draxl 6-3, 7-6(4) after not being able to serve it out in the second set, thus achieving a career-high ranking of 138 on December 2, 2024, securing the last spot to the NextGen Finals, as well as becoming the basis of him turning professional by the end of this year thanks to the immense development in his point construction as reflected in some above samples.

[petrolstationflowers]

New Simfornia Republic Army not for you? Why not try the Brotherhood of Simtanium instead, a Sims 3 flavoured version of Fallout: New Vegas' Brotherhood of Steel!

This is available from YA - Elder and can be joined via the Science Lab. You will start out in a general branch, which then splits at the Level 5 promotion point, where you can choose either the Paladin or Scribe branch.

No opportunities, uniforms, or books, and no carpool, so make sure to send your sims to work manually!

Please note if you want to use this, you must have Nraas Careers installed for it to show up!

Each branch has custom tones and skills, which I will list under the cut:

Base branch, levels 1 - 5:

Tones:

Tinker With Spare Parts (Inventing): There’s always scraps lying around. Why not see what you can come up with?

Catalogue Findings (Future Tech): Gadgets and gizmos are forever being dug out of the sand and brought back to base, and it’s very important to know how it works, what it does, and most importantly, how to turn it on.

Repair Equipment (Handiness): Yes, your job is to haul back technology, but you also need to keep order. Make sure your weapons and gear are all up to date.

Levels:

Aspirant - 10 simoleans p/h, 10:00 - 16:00, M-F

Description: Life isn’t the most fun in the wastes. Most of your days can be spent harvesting the least mutated tatos from the community gardens or sweeping giant cockroaches out from your house. On the weekends, you like to poke around the junkyard for something interesting to take apart, and that might be just what the Brotherhood of Simtanium is looking for…

Initiate - 30 simoleans p/h, 08:00 - 17:00, M-F

Description: Who knew that turning up at the local chapter’s bunker and refusing to leave would net you a job? You’re only training at the moment, but you’re one step closer to where you want to be, even if your daily routine consists of patrols of the town square and brewing coffee.

Squire - 37 simoleans p/h, 08:00 - 17:00, M-F

Description: It might only be a baby step, but it’s a step up nonetheless. You’ve been assigned to squire for one of the knights, which isn’t as romantic as the stories make it sound. You’ll need to get good at cleaning weapons, polishing Power Armour, all the while studying to make sure you’ll actually qualify for the knights when the time comes. Best get studying.

Knight - 45 simoleans p/h - 08:00 - 18:00, M-F

Description: Finally, a knight in gloriously chrome armour! Though you’ll be seeing some combat, what you’ll mostly be doing is making weapons for the troops and repairing the ones they break. You’ll need a steady hand and a little imagination before they’ll let you get your hands on the fun toys.

Journeyman Knight - 55 simoleans p/h - 08:00 - 18:00, M-F

Description: You’re finally taking your first tentative steps into the field, taking on more dangerous patrols and venturing further out in search of more interesting gadgets and gizmos. Still, at least the long walks give you time to think, because you’ll soon need to specialise – choose wisely!

Paladin branch:

Tones:

Attend Combat Training (Athletic): Your instructors run various workshops on different combat styles; keep yourself sharp by turning up every once in a while.

Maintain Gear (Handiness): It’s a harsh wasteland out there and a jammed gun or rusted chestplate could mean the end of you. Make sure your gear works properly before setting out!

Practise with Energy Weapons (Laser Rhythm-a-con): A strictly classified gun, known only as the laser harp to avoid civilian panic. You’ll need to perfect your “harp playing.”

Levels:

Paladin - 64 simoleans p/h, 09:00 - 19:00, S,U,W,T

Description: A Paladin is the Brotherhood of Simtanium’s shining star, someone civilians look up to and kids want to be when they grow up. Now that you’re done with your training you’ll finally be taught how to use Power Armour, and more importantly, the laser harp! Uh, rifle. Definitely a rifle.

Star Paladin - 85 simoleans p/h, 09:00 - 16:00, S,U,W,T

Description: Now you’re actually a big deal, and the higher ups are content to let you out alone and actually argue with them when you’re given a stupid assignment. Sure, it’s a little boring guarding Simberty Prime or casing warehouses in Lunar Lakes, but it sure beats making parts on a factory line!

Senior Paladin - 100 simoleans p/h, 10:00 - 17:00, S,U,W,T

Description: You’ve impressed your superiors enough to rise beyond the rank of Star; you’re shooting for the moon, maybe the whole universe! Keep working at it and you’ll be in line for Head Paladin soon enough; that is, if you’re up to the challenge.

Head Paladin - 150 simoleans p/h, 10:00 - 17:00, S,U,W,T

Description: You’re top of the food chain – at least, in the Paladin chapter. You’re in charge of the green recruits, making sure their training is up to scratch and who is to follow in your footsteps. You’ll need patience, and a lot of it.

Elder - 250 simoleans p/h, 11:00 - 18:00, M,W,F

Description: You finally get to have a say in how your local chapter is run; whether they like it or not, the Brotherhood of Simtanium has to answer to you. Be sure to wield your new power wisely, because while you might be a brotherhood, your rivals won’t care about family.

Scribe branch:

Tones:

Transcribe Manuals (Writing): What’s better than finding a shiny new piece of tech? Finding the manuals that come with it. Copy them up for posterity and ensure they don’t get lost to time.

Analyse Findings (Science): The knights drop reports off and it’s your job to try and work out what they say. Read the notes, pull out the facts, and put together a hypothesis as to whether you’ve found a microwave or a time machine.

Preserve Art (Painting): Entertainment is sparse in the wasteland; art from the old world is something to keep safe. Painstakingly restore, preserve, and replicate anything from ancient comics to portraits of royalty; all of it is valuable.

Levels:

Scribe Initiate - 40 simoleans p/h - 09:00 - 18:00 - M-F

Description: The path of scribe is one of blistered, ink-stained fingers, and eyestrain; truly, you’d need to be dedicated to make this the rest of your life. Shadow your coworkers and decide if this is truly what you want to do; otherwise, EverFresh Supermarket is always hiring…

Scribe - 50 simoleans p/h - 09:00 - 18:00 - M-F

Description: You’ve chosen your path and donned the robe; welcome to the role of Scribe! Instead of venturing outside, you’ll be tasked with preserving arts and literature of the old world – and yes, that includes Don Lothario’s badly written smut novels.

Senior Scribe - 75 simoleans p/h - 09:00 - 18:00 - M,T,W,U

Description: Less smut, more essays on ancient Shang Simlan plays! You’ve reached the rank of Senior Scribe, tasked with preserving the more delicate works previously thought lost to time. Historical accounts, festival records, political scandals, all must be kept for future generations lest war break out again.

Proctor - 100 simoleans p/h - 10:00 - 18:00 - M,W,F

Description: - Now you finally get to choose what you’re studying; the perfect time to cash in on your niche interests! Whether it’s nectar making manuals from Champs Le Sims or a dedicated archive of every film ever shown at the Wilsonoff Community Theatre, there’s no one to tell you otherwise. Hopefully there won’t be a revolt on your hands.

Head Scribe - 200 simoleans p/h - 10:00 - 18:00 - M,W,F

Description: You’ve mastered Sword, Shield, and Quill, you’ve picked the next Proctors; life is pretty good at the top. There’s a lot of meetings to be had and opinions to be swayed, but you get first dibs on any artefacts that come in and get to build your own private library for a little bit of peace and quiet!

Translations: I've included the English Strings in the file; if anyone is talented enough to translate, I would be incredibly grateful, so please let me know in the comments!

With thanks: To MissyHissy's career building tutorial! and the very kind folks over on MissyHissy's Job Centre Discord server for their patience and help.

[ultraericthered]

2020 Memories: Love Live! School Idol Project

It was to be the franchise's 10th anniversary when I finally decided to take a full descent into School Idol Hell, having only watched Love Live! Sunshine!! back in 2018 beforehand. As part of my Anime Update posts project, I decided that watching the original Love Live! School Idol Project would be a worthwhile addition to my schedule.

I don't think I was ready for just how pulled in I'd be by how alluringly wholesome, fun, and all around fucking spectacular this series would be by its end. u's really just sort of worked their way into my heart just as they worked their way to becoming great school idols. The Love Live! franchise has seen its ups and downs, but whenever I think back on the first series and Sunshine!!, I feel nothing but the warmest of fuzzies, and having watched through them both against the dark backdrop of the madness that was 2020 only makes those warm fuzzies that much warmer for me. Jukki Hanada helped make something truly special here and I will cherish that now and forever.

Most memorable parts of the whole journey would include:

S1, Episode 1: Honoka recieves seemingly divine inspiration for her mission from God to save Otonokizaka High School For Girls, ropes her two besties into it, and is turned down by the Student Council but nonetheless wants to keep at it with a memorable music video.

S1, Episode 3: The early dramatic high point of the season when u's performs their first show only to find the auditorium completely empty thanks to Eli pulling strings and taking down fliers, but once again seemingly divine fortune smiles on them as they recieve a few spectators, all of them girls who'll end up adding to this group.

S1, Episode 5: We officially meet Nico Yazawa. Need I say more?

S1, Episode 6: Filming a documentary, debating who should be the center of the group, and entertaining antics by Nico all lead to a MV segment featuring what is easily one of the group's catchiest songs.

S1, Episode 7: We meet Eli's little sister and also learn about Eli's background that informs both why she threw herself into her work as Student Council President and why u's pisses her off so much.

S1, Episode 10: A textbook "filler episode", but that's not even a bad thing in this case. Is then capped off with a joke recap from Nico.

S1, Episodes 11-12: Following Honoka's sudden collapse at the end of Episode 11 and her then finding out about Kotori's departure plan, we reach the season's second most dramatic section and it's done really well. Shame that Episode 13 goes on to completely botch it up!

S2, Episode 14: u's has saved their school and Honoka is Student Council President now, but there's anxiety about competing in the next Love Live. And then Honoka literally makes the rain go away.

S2. Episode 15: Character developing training camp episode that also contains some of the silliest comedic gags in the series to date.

S2, Episode 16: A-RISE is here and they're skeevy douchebag stalkers! u's accepts the challenge they impose on them and have one of their best performances with one of their best songs.

S2, Episode 17: The abovementioned performance gets u's their pass to enter Love Live, and the rest of the episode is all about Nico!

S2, Episode 18: The famed, memed "Umi has no poker face" scene!

S2, Episode 19: The vaguely titled "Happy Halloween" is likely the show's funniest episode. Hanada keeps delivering consecutive hits!

S2, Episode 21-22: Both sort of lead into one another, with the first seeing Nozomi finally establish why she sought to bring u's together and why u's means so much to her as they have a sleepover and plan to write a new song, and the second seeing the girls brave some actual elemental peril (something I don't think we've ever seen done again in later series'!) just to reach the Christmastime final qualifier concert where they unleash that new song - the ever magical Snow Halation, marking the exact moment u's trascends into legend.

S2, Episode 24: With the shadow of the Third Years graduation looming, u's grapples with the five stages of grief before coming to acceptance that after Love Live, it'll be time for u's to end, in what is easily the biggest emotional powerhouse of this original series.

S2, Episode 25-26: Love Live and its aftermath. In all the years of this franchise named "Love Live!", this Love Live that u's wins has never been able to be topped in terms of meaning, spectacle, and the sheer, pure impact it leaves (the S1 opening happening in real time as the end of the episode is a mind blow I am never going to forget experiencing). The following final episode caps it all off and does u's justice right up until the very end where they pull a totally needless lead-in for the coming movie and a fairly weak final MV.

The School Idol Movie: The first act - u's goes to New York City in America - is easily the most fun, memorable, and best implemented section of the film and I wish it had been the whole thing, but the further exploration of u's newfound fame and mythic status, and the big school idol extraveganza near the end, were also welcome treats. And ending on the true final MV/credits that the series needed to go out on makes the movie, flaws and all, well worth the watch.

To close this out, the legendary Nico Yazawa with "Nico Nico Nii!"

[foolishmortal]

I love the news stories that are like, "Democrats are finally pushing back!" and it's just Hakeem Jeffries showing up on NBC in a starched three-piece suit and uncharismatically announcing that he has some concerns with the cabinet picks.

I have always been aligned with Democrats because they represent many of my interests and my important beliefs. But what do we have to do to pay for some theater classes for these guys???

vs, and believe me there is no love lost between me and the Republican party but:

"When asked if Gaetz was qualified for the attorney general post, Representative Mike Simpson (R-ID) answered: “Are you sh*tting me, that you just asked that question? No. But hell, you’ll print that and now I’m going to be investigated.”" (Letters from an American Nov 18 2024)

this is a fucking response! I would respect the current Dems pushing back on inquiries about the incoming administration if they simply responded "r u jokin my ass rn LMFAO"

[molloytheboy]

tagged by @dead-ghost-walking to answer these fun fic writing questions!

How many works do you have on AO3? 42

What’s your total AO3 word count? 138,556

What fandoms do you write for? currently just the Vampire Chronicles but when I first got back into fic writing in 2020 it was Dragon Age

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Does it feel like a dream, Mr. Molloy? | Next to Never | The Fight | Come As You Are | If This Be Nothing

5. Do you respond to comments? Usually yes! I love receiving them so I try to encourage it as much as I can by interacting <3

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Probably gotta be the fic where I killed Louis (which I do still plan on finishing btw)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Holy Ground :)) this one is sickeningly sweet tbh i was in serious need of some fluff when I wrote it

8. Do you get hate on fics? only very rarely. basically never happens now that I only allow comments from people with accounts

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? yes. all kinds. all of the kinds. VC Kink Week 2023

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? not currently but crossover crackfic was how i started my fic writing career back in high school. craziest was a roleplay with my bestie that involved characters from Naruto, Samurai Champloo, DNAngel, Fruits Basket, Gravitation, and Fullmetal Alchemist

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? not to my knowledge. nice thing about writing for such a small fandom someone would probably notice and notify me pretty quick

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? no

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? yes

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? idk if i can pick one definitively but its a VC ship for sure. its kind of all of them tbh all the main canon ones. i cycle thru obsessing over each of them depending on the fic im working on. if i was forced to choose at gunpoint i would go with Nickistat

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? hate the phrasing of this how dare u make me face my demons. I will finish all of my wips i will break the cycle and then i will be free and never again be plagued by thoughts about the Characters in Situations. i know this sounds like a cop out answer but i genuinely with all my heart believe that i will eventually get to all 17 of my wips this is simply the extent of my hubris

16. What are your writing strengths? dialogue i think. and smut idk can smut be a strength. tbh i haven't received a lot of constructive feedback on my writing outside of fan spaces so i dont feel qualified to answer this

17. What are your writing weaknesses? over-explaining/over-describing characters actions and motives and emotions in a scene. i feel like this is smth that doesnt come across in my final drafts as much anymore bc ive been actively working on it but this is the thing i consistently struggle with during the process. also i tend to be kind of lazy with research which isnt the best quality to have when you write mostly in historical settings. but with fanfic i feel justifed in only spending one hour instead of three reading up on life in 18th century Paris since i do have a life to get back to at some point. if i was writing for publication i would try harder

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I do it, poorly. almost exclusively French in this fandom, and a little Italian. I do my best to check multiple translation sources (from real speakers if possible) and find example sentences to base my grammar on. but again, this is a hobby so I don't hold myself to the same standard I would if I was doing it professionally

19. First fandom you wrote for? pretty sure my first fanfic was that crossover i mentioned earlier so. all of those

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? oh boy. hold on gimme a sec. ok i think its Against All Odds rn. i was at the top of my game when it comes to Loustat banter (had recently reread the first 3 books) and its very tight and compact and cinematic im still really pleased with it 2 years (??!?!?!?) later

tagging @nightcolorz @butchybats and anyone else who wants to! u can say I tagged u <3

[docnomore]

I was not academically inclined. Growing up in Michigan in the 1960’s and 1970’s, if you weren’t moving into higher education, you were moving to work on the farm or in the factory. PBB in the feed killed the farmers, and the unions shut down Detroit - everything in the tristate area is premised on Detroit. I graduated high school to nothing but less than minimum wage jobs - if a restaurant makes less than a minimum established profit, they can legally pay less than minimum wage. I graduated at the bottom of my class. I floundered a few years and ended up in the military. I became a Navy Hospital Corpsman and in that, specialized in combat medicine so I served with the Marine Corps. I attended the Naval School of Health Sciences and became an Independent Duty Corpsman. It was a four year medical school program condensed to 56 weeks - accredited by George Washington U. School of Medicine. That program was designed to be a real pressure cooker and had an attrition rate of nearly 30%. Midway through that program, the folks in DC decided to not pay to continue the accreditation. In my class of 27 starters, we had Maurine set the all time high in the history of the school with a perfect score, having never gotten a wrong answer on an exam. We also had Clint who had up to the bitter end, tied Maurine but then got one wrong answer. Me? I graduated dead last in that class with a GPA of 90.63.

Maurine was relieved for cause within three months of graduation. She cracked under pressure. Clint was relieved a little over a year after graduation, hooked on pain killers. During our school year, due to failures in exams and also due to cheating, we were whittled down to 14 and boosted up again to 25. At the end of the first three years of duty, only 5 of us remained as IDC’s.

My final tour had me in line to head up the clinic at Camp David. I refused the orders and was then informed that I’d been asked for by name by the President. Again, I turned down those orders and retired out of Camp Pendleton, where I worked out of three different clinics and was responsible for all of 3d Marine Air Wing.

With the exception of performing surgery and doing the paperwork shuffle, I truly enjoyed practicing medicine without benefit of an actual doctor staring over my shoulder. I did 20 years and then retired. I was delusional in believing that I would be welcomed with open arms at the university where I could take my 146 credit hours mostly in upper level sciences and could step into a civilian program. I was not and instead had to take a basic first aid course where we all learned that I was more qualified than the “doctor” instructing that course. Frustrated by the greed and stupidity, I graduated with a degree in History.

A worthless degree, absolutely no one would hire me. Not the county school system, not the air museum, not a local construction firm. Not any of the big box hardware stores and certainly not any of the four major hospitals or even a company doing insurance physicals. With a wife, 3 children and a mortgage for a 4 bedroom house on 10 acres, I was fast running out of money.

When no one else would hire me, I hired myself. We opened a dog grooming business. We started that business with less than $5,000 in the bank. I was accustom to working 16-18 hour days and that’s about what it took. We busted our butts, my wife and I, and after the 1st 5 years, we were able to be competitive. We shut down every other groomer in the north end of the county and found ourselves under cutting the big box pet stores that also offer grooming at premium prices. Literally, I went from being an elite (less than 1,000 in the entire Navy and Marine Corps) healthcare provider to petting dogs for a living.

With a whole lot of sweat equity, we were able to build our business into a 6 figure income and had to hire outside help to keep pace with the demand. We hire unskilled, untrained labor and we start at $14 an hour. We train, starting with the basic life skill of negotiation. I blame public “education” for the mess this country is in. At best, they teach you to sign your name on the bottom line. They do very little to prepare any of us for the world. They certainly do nothing to prepare us for making responsible, informed decisions of consent.

I own the business meaning, I own outright, the means of production. As an employee, you agree to do a specified job for a given amount of money. These things, you, the employee, agreed to. Now, the beautiful thing about the free labor market as opposed to the left’s slave labor market, is that if at any time you are dissatisfied with the terms of your employment, you have options. You can either step up your game and try to negotiate a better position for yourself. Or, you can serve notice of intent to terminate and then seek your fortune elsewhere.

Personally, given my history with experience in both public and military education, I recommend being a forward thinker. Start by studying fact based history and learn to exercise critical thinking skills. Learn politically who you can rely on as a “friend” and who is in it purely for themselves at your expense - it’s not whom you were told all of your life. Vote accordingly and work to change the education system. At present even those sho graduate at the highest levels of the upper stratosphere, slave for someone above them. Read the last 128 pages of de Tocqueville’s Democracy In America”. Understand that he published this in 1833 when race based slavery was still legal.

[jilllamontagne]

Field Hockey Competition Levels in the US

Field hockey is a popular sport in Europe and Australia, with the latter country winning four Olympic gold medals in men's and women's events since 1988, but it pales in comparison to ice hockey in the United States. Field hockey has been contested at every Summer Olympics since 1928 and American teams have won just two medals, a bronze for the men in 1932 and bronze for the women in 1984. However, field hockey has high participation rates in US high schools, while USA Field Hockey, the sport's national governing body, recently announced a partnership with Skyhawk powered by Stack Sports to expedite its growth at the grassroots level.

According to NCSA College Recruiting, there are more than 60,000 high school field hockey players in the US. While there are 263 college field hockey teams in the country spanning various NCAA divisions, American players have to compete with recruits from other countries, including South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland, for scholarships.

Field hockey is most popular in the US in northeastern states such as Massachusetts and Maine. Many of the top-ranked college programs, including Northwestern, Harvard, Liberty, and Rutgers, are located on the east coast. However, North Carolina and Louisville, among others, also have highly regarded NCAA Division I field hockey programs. Students can also earn scholarships to Division II and III programs at schools like Adelphi University (New York), Clark University (Massachusetts), Connecticut College (Connecticut), and Framingham State University (Massachusetts). These schools tend to offer a more balanced schedule of athletics and academics.

Beyond the college level, the ultimate goal for competitive field hockey players is the Summer Olympics. USA Field Hockey selects the men's and women's national teams, which also compete in Olympic qualifiers and the FIH Hockey Pro League. The fifth season of the FIH Pro League, which featured nine men's and nine women's teams, concluded on June 30, 2024. Speaking to the need for further development at the youth level, the US women's team lost all but one of its 16 games this past season. The champion of the league earns automatic entry into the FIH Hockey World Cup 2026.

USA Field Hockey also has men's and women's development and U-21, U-18, and U-16 national teams, which compete in international events such as the Junior Pan American Championship, U-21 Nexus Championship, and FIH Junior World Cup. Moreover, USA Field Hockey hosts national events to support player development. These include the Summer Bash at the Beach, which is celebrating its ninth year in 2024, and the National Hockey Festival.

Held in partnership with 3STEP Sports, the 2024 National Hockey Festival is scheduled to take place at the Paradise Coast Sports Complex in Naples, Florida, from November 29 to December 1 and will feature tournaments in multiple age groups, including U-10, U-12, and U-14 co-ed as well as U-19 boys and girls and adult co-ed.

Finally, USA Field Hockey is hoping to increase youth participation through its partnership with Skyhawks, which Franchise Magazine lists the as best youth sports franchise. Skyhawks will organize player development camps throughout the US during the next three years, and offer training to prospective youth coaches. USA Field Hockey is hoping this strategic partnership encourages thousands of young people to pick up the sport.

[renee561]

BEHAHHA i know ur procrastinating but will indulge u, give me ur hc about ur beloved Booth and Bones

And also for an unknown character 😌 my beloved girl Tifa Lockhart from final fantasy 7.

I await ur answers 🤣🤣

Seeley Booth:

Demisexual

Plant man after he quit gambling and to deal with the day to day stress of his job, turns out he actually likes plants.

Sid was his friend from the army

He and Rebecca were very bad together

He was taught how to fix cars from his grandmother when him and his brother were taken in

1a) Has never had a one night stand in his life

3a) When Sid opened the restaurant, Booth supported him and ended up there a lot after he finally quit gambling

4a) He only proposed because of catholic guilt even though he knew their marriage would be miserable that's what Catholics are supposed to do.

And he did love her so he just pretended that the bad stuff would eventually go away

5a) His grandfather was on a military pension and his grandmother on a teacher one in a bad economy, so trips to the mechanic shop were rare because it was expensive af

Temperance Brennan aka Bones:

Demiromantic

Plant killer

Hates Psycology because the first psycologist she went to when she entered the foster system blamed her for her family leaving her because she was autistic

Has a dolphin tattoos she got when she was 18 and then got it's skeleton added later

Her and Angela fucked

1a) Trauma aside, she has never shown the deep feelings to want to be in a long term relationship.

She likes casual sex not the commitment.

Her whole marriage is archaic stems from her inability to figure out that people want to get married and have children because she has never had that need to be married to anyone even as a child.

From a young age, girls are told marriage = long-term relationship + children, and so since she doesn't want either, it's bad/archaic and outdated

2a) The woman kills cacti because she forgets about them, so now all of her plants are fake

3)She already knew she was autistic it was the opinion she was the blame for her parents abandonment except after twelve homes she believed them still hates them because of it

5a) It was an experiment because of her emotional bond with Angela vs a sexual one with Michael so she gave it a whirl in the name of experimentation

Tifa:

She does not need a bouncer she is her own bouncer

Is in love with Cloud (have no idea)

Goes on her own adventures and kicks ass, but prefers to be at her bar and training

Kills the big bad at the end

Is a boss bitch 👏

Rant about something related but me just in my feelings about something that rubs me wrong:

When i say both Booth and Brennan are Demi, I am focusing on the Bond they share with their partners.

Booth and Brennan are Demi4Demi just on different sides of the Ace/Aro spectrum because that is how i inturrpt them and yeah, that doesn't negate Booth's high sex libido or Brennan's trauma of abandonment.

I do not mean I think they're straight.

That is YOUR Aphobia showing if you need a qualifier before the word Demi because YOU believe all Demis are automatically straight.

We're not all straight.

I do not need a qualifier when saying Demi, they can fuck any gender as it's the bond that matters more not the parts of the person they fuck.

And no I'm not saying that it's wrong for people to use any other qualifier before Demi but it feels aphobic when you do, because to me you're essentially assuming Ace/Aro Demis are straight people pretending to be queer, unless they use a different qualifier before to describe their sexual attraction to someone else.

That you're putting parts before hearts.

[social-change-blog-unst242]

Stakeholders

When discussing the stakeholders in the issues surrounding DACA I believe it is most important to consider who is affected by the program and how they are affected. The stakeholders who are the most affected are the undocumented immigrants who qualify for DACA. Their position is firmly in support of the program because it grants them important protections. The immigrants who qualify for the program and support it would very likely face a very negative situation if they were to be deported and so to them, DACA is necessary because the trajectory of their life can change based on DACA. 

Another group of stakeholders in issues involving DACA are the employers of DACA recipients. DACA recipients are statistically more likely to be earning lower wages than the average American. The people paying these wages, the employers of DACA recipients, benefit greatly from the fact that they can get away with paying DACA recipients and immigrants in general lower wages. They don’t want to have to spend more money on paying employees and so these employers have an investment in supporting DACA and keeping their employees here. 

One final group of stakeholders are MAGA Republican politicians who are against DACA. There are a lot of politicians that have built a platform off of MAGA ideology that is hateful and racist towards immigrants. They need to succeed in pushing back against DACA or else they will lose support. The main goal of a politician is almost always to maintain the support of their constituents so it makes sense they would feel immense investment in dismantling DACA if their support was dependent on that hateful ideology.

References

Getrich, C. M., Umanzor, D., Burdette, A., & Ortez-Rivera, A. (2023, July 5). DACA Recipient Health Care Workers’ Barriers to Professionalization and Deployment of Navigational Capital in Pursuit of Health Equity for Immigrants. Journal of immigrant and minority health, 1–7. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10903-023-01506-0

Shoichet, C. E. (2020, June 18). This is who's affected by the Supreme Court decision on DACA. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/18/us/supreme-court-daca-by-the-numbers/index.html

Vinopal, C. (2019, November 12). What ending DACA could cost the U.S. economy. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/what-ending-daca-could-cost-the-u-s-economy

[stateofsport211]

[Late Post, Scouting Report] Marrakech Q1: Reda Bennani [WC] def. Vit Kopriva [3] 7-6(4), 7-5 Match Recap + Stats

Reda Bennani in the ITF/CAT African Closed Junior U-18 2023 (📸 saved by Romain)

The first day in Marrakech (250) featured the two Moroccan rising wild cards. Walid Ahouda tries to navigate the main Tour, mostly in his native North African region tournaments (was ranked 73rd in the ITF junior rankings back in 2021), but he got defeated by Dimitar Kuzmanov 1-6, 2-6 earlier that day.

However, Reda Bennani (currently ranked 39 in the ITF junior rankings) shines in the spotlight in his qualifying match today. Facing the more experienced third seed Vit Kopriva, who was a semifinalist in Antalya Challenger several weeks ago, Bennani stormed his way through in spite of some drama in the second set, specifically how Bennani came from 4-0 down there to finally win the whole match.

Here was how everything unfolded. It would be a long read, but this could be a good preparation heading to the second qualifying round (and probably + hopefully, onwards).

Match Recap

Reda Bennani's point at *0-0 15-15 to 15-30, 1st set (📸 Marrakech qualification feed)

One noticeable trait from Bennani is his powerful forehand, which paved the way before his volley enabled him to lead *0-0 15-30 on Kopriva's serve. Subsequently, he took the balls as early as possible, starting agile before he broke to 1-0, then held his service game to 2-0. In the fifth game, Bennani unleashed a forehand return ace to equalize the point (to deuce), confirming the effects of his strong forehand if executed right, but Kopriva ended up holding that game to 2-3.

However, Kopriva found a way to break back to 3-3 after Bennani's shot went wide to level the game. Several games later, Bennani broke to 5-4 because of Kopriva's erratic service game, hence the former had the opportunity to serve for the first set. Unfortunately, tightening up led to him being broken instead (to 5-5), even if he previously saved the break points he faced, having set points midway as well.

Two games later, both Kopriva and Bennani held, and the tie-breaker happened. During the tie-break, it appeared that Kopriva could have been overpowered, hence his notable errors. One resulted in Bennani's 3 set points, and one was saved because of Kopriva's volley. The save was rather insufficient since Bennani ended up taking the first set 7-6(4) out of Kopriva's forehand error. By then, second serves still became the most vulnerable aspect for Kopriva, as he won 30% of his points from there in comparison to Bennani's 70% rate, giving the latter's returns more damage.

Reda Bennani's match point at 6-5* 30-40 to 7-5, 2nd set (🎥 Marrakech qualification feed)

The second set could have been a momentum-shifting moment for Kopriva, but Bennani dug deep to finally prevail in this match. From how it flowed, Kopriva could have pulled a demolition in this set (theoretically), which did not happen in practice.

Bennani started by having to face 3 break points before he blew away a forehand response, hence Kopriva could break 1-0. Kopriva then held his next service game right after a backhand pass that led to Bennani's error. Two games later, Kopriva was ahead a double break, then held to 4-0 before Bennani started to turn the tables.

The turntables started at the early points of 4-0* since Bennani held his serve in the fifth game (4-1). The path opened even further as he scored a forehand pass to 4-1* 15-30 before he broke to 4-2 several points later. Another service hold preceded another break-back at the expense of Kopriva's forehand error, creating the equalizer to 4-4. Kopriva somehow pressed back, which paid off with Bennani's backhand error for the former's chance to serve for the second set (5-4).

This set was indeed a rollercoaster since things happened in the tenth game. Bennani's forehand passing shot did its damage again, pressing Kopriva even further since he should have served for the set. One let-cord moment saved the 2 break points Bennani made (to deuce), but it was not enough as Kopriva got broken anyway to 5-5. Looking at the course of the rallies by then, Bennani's rally tolerance could overwhelm Kopriva at times, which boiled down to the final shots. Even though Kopriva had a decent forehand pass to minimize the gap to 5-5* 30-40, Bennani still managed to hold 6-5.

The tie-breaker almost happened in the second set, but it did not, because Bennani broke for the match (7-5). There was a fear about whether or not Kopriva would crumble, considering he had a lot of fumbled moments throughout the second set. That fear got its answer when Bennani unleashed a successful forehand passing shot to secure his match point before it eventually got converted because of Kopriva's backhand error in a backhand-to-backhand exchange.

Statistics Recap

Match statistics by the end of the match (📸 Marrakech qualification feed)

Considering how the match flowed, Bennani was the better player. Service game-wise, this could be taken as both players having their own strengths in the service game. Bennani looked more stable, relying on his second serves since he won 63% of his points from there than Kopriva's (just) 34%. The 4 double faults from Kopriva did not help either way, while there could be some work to do on Bennani's first serves when facing more difficult oppositions later on, which could be built along the way.

Despite both players having a 50% break-point conversion rate, indicating both tried to drive the other off-balance, Bennani had a decent point construction in this match since the start. His agile cross-court approach often overwhelms Kopriva in addition to his powerful shots, hence the overpowering contest that occurred in the critical points. Furthermore, Bennani was seen as more intuitive with his strokes under pressure, with the forehand winner match point before Kopriva's backhand error as a cherry on top.

In the first timeslot tomorrow, Bennani will face Andrea Vavassori, who advanced to last week's Sanremo Challenger quarterfinal (l. Juan Pablo Varillas). This would be a good test not only for his power game but also for some other aspects (notably the net game, which A. Vavassori also had an advantage of when he is on). Should be an exciting match to follow, so it is highly recommended to tune in/follow!

[bluelockednyx]

Isagirin meta part 6

Part 1, on Isagi’s first meeting and match with Rin here.

Part 2, on the rest of the Second Selection Arc, here.

Part 3, on the 5v5 matchup against the world-class players and Blue Lock Eleven tryouts up until Rin’s kickoff, here.

Part 4, covering the first half of the Blue Lock Eleven vs Japan U20 match here.

Part 5, covering the second half of the Blue Lock Eleven vs Japan U20 match, up until their return to Blue Lock for the Neo-Egoist League, here.

This is the sixth and final part of this long af meta/manifesto, aka the discussion of story themes and relationship trajectories and parallels of Blue Lock. Here, I take a deeper dive into how Rin and Isagi’s character arcs coincide with and foil each other's, the why I ship Isagi Yoichi with Itoshi Rin from Blue Lock, plus some speculations for the manga’s development as of September 2022, which means spoilers for the Neo-Egoist League Arc. This is very long, and entirely text.

1) Blue Lock, egoism, and its encouragement of personal growth in relationships.

The crux of egoism is that it’s a form of self-centeredness – that you, yourself, are the focal point of the world, and your motivation and goal of your own actions are ultimately self-serving. Even the altruistic actions you make, e.g. helping others at the cost of your own self, like voluntarily taking the blame for a fault someone else did, is ultimately egoistic because it’s a fulfilling of your own will, which I think, can be expressed very well with this quote I came across:

“Each man for himself in that desert of egoism which is called life.” ― Stendhal, The Red and the Black

In the greater world of the team sports animanga in general, egoism as a theme very efficiently makes Blue Lock stand out. Football, like basketball, baseball, and volleyball, is ultimately a team sport which requires the skills and cohesiveness of multiple members to win in games. Most traditional sports animanga would focus on team-building, a bunch of quirky personalities coming together and winning the national championships equivalent for high school.

Blue Lock doesn’t bother with that. Blue Lock says: high school football, is only high school football. That’s too small a stage for our story. We want the world. We want a character that becomes the best striker in the world.

The story begins with our underdog main character, Isagi, failing to participate in the national football championships because his team lost fairly early on in the qualifiers. The narrative then cements that fact and ups the stakes by having Isagi kick out Kira Ryousuke, a famous, excellent player who beat Isagi’s team in the prefectural finals and who's being called up for the Japan U-18 team, in the second chapter of the series and the first elimination game, setting the tone there. By doing so it brings a modern and new twist to the genre. Blue Lock does not care for high school championships and Blue Lock will not be limited to only high school Japanese students, as most sports animanga do, and by Blue Lock Phase Two, it’s fully delivered on its premise and promise: the characters are interacting and actively competing with players from other countries for contracts and positions in renowned football clubs.

With this focus on egoism, and becoming the best in the world though, it thus gives an interesting twist towards the traditional relationships that would develop between the characters. A rivalry, even friendly ones, is all but mandatory between them, and Blue Lock takes the usual rivalry tropes and turns it into a theme and statement about how the pursuit of your own ego, your wants and desires, can be a good thing for you and your relationships. In fact, Blue Lock's narrative punishes relationships that have lapsed into personal stagnancy or decline in skills, and routinely punishes the characters who choose to prioritize staying together in relationships over pursuing individual ambitions. I’ve touched on this briefly when I wrote about the Second Selection Arc, and will now develop it further.

Up till chapter 148, the end of the Blue Lock vs U20 match, we see the narrative punishment for personal stagnancy most prominently in 3 different relationships:

Nagi and Reo

Bachira and Isagi

Rin and Sae

I’ve said before that there’s a pattern here. All three of these pairs split up, only to come back stronger, together. The reason they split up, is that at one point, one chooses to pursue a higher level of play, and follow their ambition, or ego. The other is left behind, and made to evolve themselves, their skill and ego (sense of self), or risk losing the relationship entirely.

Second Selection Arc

Reo approached Nagi to play football first (Blue Lock Episode Nagi further develops their backstory, and is very cute, so go read that too). This whole time they’ve played together, though short, they’ve hardly faced a challenge because of how skilled they both are individually and as a pair. When up against Team Z, upon seeing Reo desperate for a way to win, Nagi who has only been pretty much a passive bystander waiting for Reo’s passes for him to score thus far, evolves his plays, taking initiative for once. It’s too little, too late, and they lose, though both of them move on to the Second Selection with the rest of their teammates. Nagi’s ego then tells him to go with Isagi, whom he lost to, and they move on to the 3v3 match. Here, Reo and Nagi’s personal stagnancy has caused them both to split up, as the story now demands that they level up both their skills and ego.

In the first 3v3 match, the reason why Isagi-Nagi-Bachira team loses, besides being behind in sheer skill, is because first and foremost, none of them treated the game as seriously as Rin did (in sports animanga, losing == death, and Blue Lock takes it to an extreme). The initial goal, which depended on solid teamwork between their newly formed three-man team, and the second, Nagi’s goal was the only one where they challenged themselves in the match. Nagi’s ego has developed more here, as do Bachira’s and Isagi’s, but they are unable to push themselves enough to match against, much less win, against Rin, Aryu and Tokimitsu’s abilities. Isagi gets a double blow here, as he loses both the game and Bachira as a teammate. In other words, because both Isagi and Nagi have thus far relied on scoring via Bachira and Reo’s passes, they have stagnated in developing their skills and overall ability, and thus gets handed a loss by the narrative. Bachira, on the other hand, because he evolves via making a new kind of pass that demands Nagi’s skill and mentality growth to respond successfully to it, gets chosen to go on with Rin, Aryu and Tokimitsu.

This point becomes obvious as they head to the 2v2 stage. There, Isagi and Nagi win against Barou and Naruhaya because Barou and Naruhaya’s teamwork stagnated with Barou doing all the scoring, while Naruhaya supported. Neither truly develops their ego, skill and abilities, unlike Isagi and Nagi, who, now without their usual partners, have to both learn to play together in the game and evolve themselves, both in terms of mindset and ability. Naruhaya, whose individual skill is weaker than Barou, and his ego less developed (willingly playing support to Barou), is therefore eliminated from the Second Selection, and, as we know later on, from Blue Lock entirely.

In the second 3v3, the Isagi-Nagi-Barou team initially crumbles against Kunigami-Chigiri-Reo’s teamwork. This comes back to Barou’s personal stagnancy. By refusing to admit his own shortcomings, and his loss, once Isagi stops trying to work together with him he’s essentially left behind as dead weight against the others in the game. Kunigami-Chigiri-Reo’s teamwork fails to evolve against the Isagi-Nagi combo, leading to their loss. Chigiri, who was the only one who meaningfully pushed and challenged himself harder in the game, was therefore chosen to go on with Isagi-Nagi-Barou. Reo, whose fixation had been on winning against Isagi instead of evolving himself, and remains hung up on Nagi’s choice to move on without him, culminates in his fight with Nagi at the end, and this time, he loses both the game and hurts his relationship with Nagi.

Finally, in the 4v4, everyone is pushing themselves to the utmost, except for Bachira. The narrative punishes him for this as well, because in the last few minutes he finds that Rin and Isagi, the two people whom he wants to play with the most, have ignored him entirely and are fully focused on each other. He gets two warnings in fact, one from Chigiri and the second from Nagi. The desperate realisation that if he loses, Isagi’s team will pick Rin, and that he will not get to play with either of them spurs his evolution and ego. He stops focusing on merely passing anymore, and tries to shoot. Isagi, who notices this change, succeeds in stopping Bachira, but once again loses to Rin who makes the final shot. Then because Isagi has finally come far enough into developing his abilities, and developing his ego, the narrative rewards him by allowing him to move ahead to the next stage before Nagi, Chigiri and Barou with Rin’s team. Bachira, too, is rewarded by the narrative for challenging himself: he still gets to play with Isagi and Rin, just as he wanted.

Blue Lock Eleven Tryouts

This trend continues on in the vs U20 tryouts. In team A, Isagi never gives up on developing his skill, combining his plays with Rin and even scoring the last goal before Rin and Shidou could, hence he is rewarded with 1) his goal in the match and 2) being selected for the U20 match as ‘the ideal partner for Itoshi Rin’. Reo, in team C, also develops his ego by aiming to score on his own, but his skills are still not up to par with Nagi’s level of play. He gets the goal, and gets the chance to better rebuild his friendship with Nagi, but still winds up on the bench. Later on in the U20 match though, he gets rewarded through being subbed in for the game.

Blue Lock vs Japan U20 match

In the U20 match, Rin and Sae’s relationship and backstory gets their time and the most development. In this arc, Rin parallels Reo, as he is the one who is left behind by Sae. He also foils Bachira, who does not seem to be as committed to the game itself as he was to the desire to play football together with Sae.

For his first chance at scoring, in attempting to imitate Sae’s own shot, he fails to make the goal, and its Nagi who gets the first point for Blue Lock. When the game restarts, Rin, who’s still more hung up over the fractured relationship he has with Sae, insists on a 1v1 matchup against Sae, then loses. The team’s defense has his back and this time, when Isagi successfully provides ‘noise’/a distraction for Aiku who’s defending Rin, Rin manages to score the second goal. When Blue Lock reinforces their defence for the last 5 minutes of the first half, Rin again gets backup from the team after he stops Sae’s pass to Sendou. In the half-time break, Rin has his flashback. Then when Shidou comes in for the second half, Blue Lock loses their grasp of the gameflow. At this point, Rin is clearly enraged over Sae and Shidou’s successful combination. It’s at this point that he stagnates in the game, somewhat. He loses to Aiku, and it’s Isagi, instead, who spearheads their renewed offense, and in doing so Isagi gains Sae’s attention and interest. This time, Rin becomes the one supporting Isagi, but he once again grapples with Aiku, and it’s Barou who comes in and steals the third goal.

Sae and Shidou’s combination, his consecutive losses against Sae, then trouble with Aiku’s defending, and now Isagi’s growing presence on the field amplifies his stress. Sae’s choice to up the gameplay after Barou’s goal, and Rin’s failed tackle makes him even more desperate. Although he succeeds in ‘synchronizing’ and reading Sae’s thought process, it’s still not quite enough for him to beat Sae. It’s through Isagi linking up with Rin that they stop Shidou from scoring, and Rin realizes that he’s playing with Isagi, and the rest of Blue Lock, he’s not fighting alone.

But, Rin doesn’t like it. It’s this realization that prompts his evolution, and his ‘flow’, coupled with the intention to destroy his past self, his personal stagnancy with regards to his obsession with getting Sae's acknowledgment, to pieces. When he stops playing as a team with the rest, he blitzes past the U20 defenders and even Aiku, but Shidou blocks him, he refuses Isagi's support, and he misses his shot again. He faces off against Sae one last time in the final minute. Only this time, now that he’s no longer letting himself be bound by Sae’s words, not letting his ego be bound to Sae, he wins. And it’s a team win for Blue Lock too, through Isagi’s shot.

Now this is where things get interesting for discussing Isagi and Rin’s relationship in the context of the narrative themes.

2) Rin’s loss to Isagi in the U20 match, and a look at Rin’s character flaws

Even though Rin finally surpasses Sae in the last 1v1 bout they have near the end of the match, he loses the chance to score a goal, loses the chance to secure the win for Blue Lock, and also never gets Sae’s acknowledgement that he so desperately wants. Instead, it’s Isagi who gets everything he wants.

This is because, much like with Nagireo and Bachisagi above, throughout the whole match, Rin was very much fixated on Sae, and on defeating his brother alone. That, unfortunately, stagnates the development of Rin’s ego and thus, his skills, up until he makes the choice to suppress his desire to score solely for himself, and focus on defeating Sae, which he believes that he's the only one skilled enough to do so in Blue Lock.

I’ve mentioned this briefly before in part 4, but Rin has picked up several bad habits from constantly playing together with Sae, and then a few other bad habits after Sae leaves for Spain and he’s left behind to play in Japan. Besides the generally rude attitude he has towards others in general, Rin winds up with an underdeveloped sense of self and ego, as he chooses to emulate Sae in the youth teams he plays for, rather than pursue his own unique playstyle. He has also adopted a mindset of ‘fighting alone’, and doesn’t develop much of a relationship with others in general.

In his flashback, he remains behind alone to practise while his teammates go home. In Blue Lock, when Isagi, Nagi and Bachira first meet Rin, Aryu and Tokimitsu, he dismisses and irritates Aryu enough to the point that Aryu almost started an argument with him. He’s also constantly seen practising and training alone, and it’s Bachira and Isagi who later take the initiative to practise/interact with him. After the U20 match, too, we don’t see him with the rest of Blue Lock either during their Shibuya trip, and unlike, say, Gagamaru or Niko, who have in-story reasons for not being there and are talked about (Gagamaru went off to the mountains, Niko refused to come, Chigiri couldn’t get Kunigami’s contact), no one mentions anything about Rin’s absence. They even come across Barou, but not Rin. When the story cuts to Rin during their mini-holiday, its to Rin, sitting and ruminating alone at the seaside where he used to go with Sae.

Much like Shidou, whose failure to synergize with Blue Lock and the U20 gets him trouble (Ego chooses Rin over Shidou when deciding on the Blue Lock Eleven, U20 threatens to boycott the match if he’s in it so he doesn’t get to start for the match), this isn’t presented as a good thing for Rin in story. His only goal for the match, he succeeded because Blue Lock backed him up and helped recover possession of the ball after he loses to Sae 1v1. Isagi’s backup is also what helps him to get the shot pass Aiku and the goalie. Contrast this to him in his flow state; when he refuses Isagi’s support and forces the shot while being blocked by Aiku and Shidou, he misses.

I think you know what I’m trying to say here, at this point. Rin is currently at the point where most of the others (especially referring to Nagi, Reo, Bachira and Isagi here) were in the Second Selection Arc. He needs to develop his ego, his skill, and his relationships with others independent of Sae. Adopting Sae’s play style is no longer enough. Rin needs to get a handle of his own flow and more importantly his own play style, ‘destroying hideously’, and he needs to be able to play together with others as equals – no longer guiding others around like a puppeteer or marionette as he did in the Second Selection Arc, especially now that we can see the others are evolving further and beginning to catch up to him in terms of skill, and their new opponents on the next stage are only going to be more skilled and experienced than any of the Blue Lock boys.

3) What does Rin have to do with Isagi’s character arc and the narrative?

Isagi is a classic hero, with a necessary un-classic development per Blue Lock’s premise. His greatest strength, and his greatest flaw, is his adaptability born from his consistent compassion and natural inclination towards teamwork. But to succeed as the hero in the story of Blue Lock, to become the best striker in the world, these are the very things he needs to overcome. It’s in confronting others, and in prioritizing himself and his ego over others’ ego, that he gets rewarded by the narrative.

As a character, Isagi starts off with underdeveloped skills, and a tendency to pass when he should score, and overall, tends to prioritize team play over his individual desires. We see this in the first arc of the series, and we also see this occur in the Second Selection Arc over and over. In the 3v3 against Rin-Aryu-Tokimitsu he prioritizes team play initially, and gets the first goal, but ultimately loses the match. In the second 3v3, his attempts to play nice with Barou leads to their team trailing behind until he chooses to devour Barou and use him instead of focusing on cohesive teamwork. In the U20 match too, we see him coordinating with and supporting the others more than going for his own goals, even though he tries to do so. He succeeds only at the very end of the match, and that is when he 1) chooses not to support Rin in the 1v1 against Sae 2) trusts Rin to defeat Sae and 3) ‘creates his own luck and chance to score’, by positioning himself where the stray ball would most likely land once Rin defeats Sae, and 4) make the actual shot, in a mirror of what Rin did in the 4v4.

In contrast to Isagi, Rin begins in-series as a highly-skilled, self-centered striker, who pulls his team together by being the best, and having his team revolve around his moves and his strategies, treating them like puppets on a string -- both a reference to his name and a deeper indication of his attitude. That has mostly worked for him so far in Blue Lock, where he’s the undisputed number 1 – but when up against more skilled players, such as the World 5 and Sae, it no longer works. When he was made to team up with Shidou by Ego for the Blue Lock Eleven tryouts, who is equal/second to him in skill, it’s not enough either, and their lack of teamwork creates more problems than chances for Team A, though they do manage to win all their matches together.

Rin’s basic character arc, as of now, is the development of his ego and by extension, his relationships outside of his fixation on Sae. The narrative has worked that way too thus far. From his initial apathy towards the others, he’s gradually beginning to play nice – or nicer, for a stretch – with others. Beginning with practising with Bachira, then communicating better with his teammates Aryu and Tokimitsu, and to Isagi as well once Isagi joins their team. Very much a Defrosting Ice King trope, and a bit of a tsundere to boot. As captain of the U20, he begins Blue Lock’s offense, but it’s his fixation on defeating Sae one-on-one and getting Sae’s acknowledgment, rather than prioritizing the Blue Lock style of teamwork with the others, that leads to how Isagi has begun to supplant him in importance in the game to his teammates, and his eventual narrative loss.

Through Rin, Isagi not only grows aware of his lack of skill, he also changes his perceptive of what it means to play football. When he first faces off against Rin in the 3v3, it’s still a little hard for him to grasp how Rin perceives soccer as a death match, but by the time the U20 match happens, he’s fully embraced that ideology when he snaps at Ego when U20 takes the lead over Blue Lock. He also learns to think his tactics and strategies through more thoroughly, and further develop his skill in spatial awareness. Now in the Neo Egoist League, Rin still remains as his goal and to an extent, the standard Isagi’s set for himself and wants to surpass in the future, to be able to stand on the world stage.

So they have a very unique relationship in Blue Lock. More than anyone else, they both need to learn and take on each other’s mindset and attitudes better, for the sake of developing themselves into more rounded individuals and better players as a whole. And there’s still plenty of room for both of them to grow.

We are also seeing, interestingly enough, Isagi and Rin developing into an oddly codependent sort of relationship with regards to their on-field performance, despite neither of them intending to do so on purpose. We see them evolve in terms of skill and abilities whenever they play against each other, and we also see them teaming up very well together. Isagi, who’s weaker in a one-on-one in most cases, gets supported by Rin (vs Karasu, vs Sae), and when he starts forming tunnel vision in game it’s Rin that gets him out of it. For Rin, his blind spots in game get covered by Isagi, and Isagi matches up well enough with Rin to distract their opponents and give Rin more movement and freedom – which is also an important motif for Rin with regards to his relationship with Sae. There’s also a fun pattern of people watching one of them to figure out the other’s intentions in matches. And all of this thus culminates into...

4) Reasons why I ship IsagiRin or Rinsagi/why I think they make a good ship AKA the manifesto part

a) They get along off the field and would probably get along better if they try

Isagi and Rin have okay conversations with each other most of the time. Though Rin definitely could be more polite with Isagi, Isagi as a whole isn’t too bothered about Rin’s attitude. In comparison, Isagi gets irritated when he’s ignored by Nagi, Barou and Chigiri when they were sharing rooms, and is distinctly more short-tempered with Barou during games, and as of the recent Neo-Egoist League arc, more aggressive and hostile towards Kaiser and Yukimiya too, off the field.

For other instances: after losing to Rin’s team in the 4v4, Isagi questions Rin about why he loses, and Rin is shirty with him but ultimately answers him as best as he can. When Rin is doing yoga and meditation as physical aftercare, he doesn’t stop Isagi from joining him. While Isagi and co. were studying their English and waiting for the end of the Second Selection Arc, Aryu and Tokimitsu annoyed Rin with tons of questions while Bachira playfully started up a fight by tossing a book at Rin. Isagi sits out of their shenanigans to focus on studying instead. Isagi even feels close enough to Rin that he tries to tackle Rin with a hug after Rin scored a goal in the U20, though Rin dodges him.

b) They have similar thought processes, to the point of being able to understand what each other wants to do on the field

This is something consistently noted upon by the other characters, to the point where ‘watch Isagi to be able to keep up with Rin’ is a whole tactic by itself in matches, a la Nagi in the 4v4, then Nanase in the Blue Lock Eleven tryouts. Barou, as of the U20 match, utilizes ‘watch Rin to figure out Isagi’s evolved plays’, even remarking that ‘Rin is just another Isagi’ to him.

c) They are both invested in their rivalry with each other, and inspire each other to do better

Isagi gets invested first, yes, and after meeting Rin, Rin thus becomes his goal and standard. In the 4v4, Rin begins breaking out of his previously aloof shell and putting effort in to the game, and by the end of it, his on-field rivalry with Isagi has grown so much that Rin does a full 180 from the 3v3 where he couldn't care less who joined him, to selfishly, dictatorially declares that he’s chosen Isagi to join their team. As of the end of the U20 match, we have Rin declaring that Isagi’s his rival too.

d) They work best with each other

Ego, who’s a bit of a pseudo-in-universe omniscient narrator, emphasizes this point. The ideal partner for Itoshi Rin, is Isagi. Spelled out in canon, y’all. There are more than a few instances, too, of other characters remarking how well they work together. Bachira and Aiku, for instance, comes to mind.

e) Their relationship, since Rin’s appearance in the story, has been Isagi’s most important relationship, for no reason other than that Isagi’s ego chooses Rin. No one else has that distinction. And they choose each other.

From their very first matchup, Isagi decides that he wants Rin. At the end of the 3v3 matchup against Rin-Aryu-Tokimitsu, we basically have a full on monologue about Isagi falling in love with Rin’s shoot which, to date, is still the heaviest romance-laced monologue in the whole series for over a hundred chapters, surpassing Reo’s interactions with and monologues about Nagi ever since their split, and Bachira’s personal monologue about Isagi during and at the end of the 4v4 matchup.

Rin’s side is a little more iffy. Although he regards Isagi as someone he needs to beat as early on as the end of the 4v4 match, it’s really only in the U20 match, after realising that the game has begun to revolve around Isagi, that I feel Rin properly begins to regard as someone who can compete with him on equal footing. As ‘twisted’ as the artwork where Rin declares Isagi as his rival looks, it is a declaration and a choice, and ties into what I believe should be Rin’s intended major character arc for the series.

f) I just like the narrative motif they have, of ‘seeing’ each other

There’s something to be said about one of Isagi’s earliest-developed abilities being spatial awareness, a form of mind’s eye viewing of the positioning of players in a match (re: Kuroko no Basket’s Akashi’s Emperor Eye, Ao Ashi's Aoi Ashito with his Eagle Eye), and how Rin recognizes it as a weak point of Isagi’s early on, where before then Isagi had thought of it as one of his few strengths. Isagi’s skill growth and development over the course of the Second Selection, and even well into the U20 stage, had also primarily relied upon his spatial awareness, to the point where his current stats in the Neo Egoist League are heavily skewed towards it. There’s also, you know, the overarching theme of the pursuit of the ‘ego’. Ego, again, is about self-centeredness. And what is a successful egoist if not someone who makes everything revolve around them? Hence, look at them?

Now, let’s take a look at the motifs and descriptors Isagi has with some of his more prominent relationships.

Bachira and Isagi have the ‘monster’ and ‘egoist’, as well as partners.

Nagi and Isagi have the ‘striker’ and ‘genius’.

Barou and Isagi have the ‘king’ and ‘peasant’ (though arguably, Barou treats everyone this way), evolving somewhat into 'villain' and 'hero'.

Kaiser and Isagi have ‘emperor’ and ‘clown’.

Kunigami and Isagi now have 'fallen hero' (per Chigiri's own words) and 'hero'.

Rin and Isagi? Their relationship doesn’t really have any of these kinds of motifs assigned to them, even though they are the central rival pair in Blue Lock. In their short conversation before Ego announces the Neo-egoist League, they call each other 'fake hero' and 'fake villain', but there's not much substance to it. Yet. But let’s take a look at Isagi’s ending monologue for C48 again.

“Even so... why… In spite of the fact that we’re going to lose… my eyes… my heart… I’m completely smitten, by the beauty of the parable that his kick drew --”

The ‘eyes’ come first. They both yelled ‘look at me’ at each other in the U20 match. It’s deliberately written in, both for drama’s sake and also because it is an important part to their relationship with each other. Rin and Isagi having ‘Look at me’, as a symbolic tie-in with each other is just… nice, even without the implicit romanticism of this.

So, the mind’s eye view motif for Isagi is obvious, once you consider that his best ability right now is spatial awareness, but why is ‘look at me’ so important for Rin?

It comes back down to his character arc. He wants Sae’s acknowledgment. He wants Sae, to, essentially, see him as a person, as his brother, to ‘look at him’, but it still hasn’t happened. In Rin’s mind, Sae doesn’t see Rin, the person. Sae sees Rin only in relation to his own football, as a practice partner to improve his football. And when Rin is no longer skilled enough to compete with Sae, Sae throws him away. Rin’s emotional dependency on Sae’s acknowledgement, as I’ve already stressed, is not good for his mental well-being, his ego, and goes against the story’s themes.

Instead, it’s Isagi who looks at him. It’s Isagi who sees Rin as his own person. But Rin's not able to accept that yet. With how the U20 match ended -- with Sae acknowledging Isagi instead of Rin, and Rin himself not getting the final goal, his emotional immaturity has him viewing Isagi as a villain instead. Even in the U20 match, Rin refuses to look at Isagi and accept Isagi's support after he awakens his flow. Rin still has to develop and grow more as a character, to realise and commit to the fact that he doesn’t need Sae’s acknowledgment, for himself or his football. Hence, it’s important for them both that this ‘look at me’ shtick is mutual. So yes, I am very much looking forward to the day that Rin looks back at Isagi the way Isagi looked at Rin in the U20 match.

g) Random other stuff I just find neat

Other than the mind’s eye view shtick, in the U20 match, in the English fan translation, Isagi mulls about finding the 'thread' in the match to score.

And guess whose name has that meaning in it?

糸 – thread, stitch, yarn

師 – teacher

That’s right. The Itoshi brothers.

In the OG Japanese though, Isagi thinks that he's finding the 'design', 「綾」, to score. 「綾」 is read as 'aya', but it has an alternate reading. And if you guessed that the alternate reading is 'rin', congrats! You got it right! And Rin, does, in fact, lead to Isagi's win and goal.

After Blue Lock renews their offense with Karasu backing them up in the Blue Lock vs Japan U20 match, it’s Sae who comes up to block Isagi and destablizies him from making the shoot. Isagi can practically see all the puzzle pieces he’s had fall apart beneath him, himself breaking apart into pieces and artistically awesome symbolic despair, but it’s Rin who comes up to support him after he makes this monologue of , and it’s where the ‘look at me’ occurred. Then of course, it's Rin who leads the team to victory, and it's after Rin manages to get the ball away from Sae that Isagi gets his winning shot for Blue Lock.

A little more on the Itoshi surname: they both live up to their name as well, to a point. Both Rin and Sae have brought to Isagi’s attention critical weaknesses he has in his personal game play, Rin with the ‘eye’ in the Second Selection Arc, and Sae with Isagi’s hastiness and lack of a stable ‘core’ in the U20, though whether or not Sae’s advice is still a throwaway line, or a Chevkov’s Gun waiting to be fired will be built upon in the future is up in the air. Edit: as of the current Bastard Munchen vs Manshine City Neo-Egoist League match, it's come up again, so yay, foreshadowing.

Again, Blue Lock is a sports series, so you’re not really going to get classic action-adventure tropes where the characters and ships save each other from the brink of death, but its interesting that Blue Lock still manages to kind of throw this in with Isagi and Rin. Rin is the more skilled of the two. He ‘saves’ Isagi from Karasu in the Blue Lock Eleven tryout match, and also ‘saves’ Isagi in the U20 match when Isagi was losing to Sae. On the flip side, one consistent aspect of Rin, with regards to his relationship with Sae, and when he's not playing with Sae, is that he finds it ‘restricting’ – fan translations even go out of their way to point this out. And the person who gives him freedom, both from a humanizing viewpoint and in-game, is none other than Isagi. Isagi recognizes Rin as his own person, from that yoga session where he declares Rin his rival, and he both successfully supports Rin’s gameplay, giving him more options as to what to do in game, and covers for Rin’s weak points as well.

To borrow conceptually from BnHA, saving someone is a contract between the rescuer and the rescuee. There needs to be trust from the rescuee that the rescuer will save them. Isagi allows Rin to help him in games, and readily takes it when offered. However, in Rin’s case, neither Isagi nor Rin are at that point yet – Isagi simply lacks the skill to do so well enough, and Rin too, is currently unwilling to accept Isagi’s help. Their relationship has not developed to that point yet.

I know it’s potentially a bit of a stretch, but, eh, *puts on shipping goggles* this is biased and tends towards a shipping meta, and if you’ve read this far, you know what you signed up for.

Also another little fun fact, the reading of the Itoshi brothers’ surname, is a homophone for another fun word, 愛し, which means ‘beloved’. And Rin's name (the kanji) is also a very common and popular name for girls in Japan (I'm talking consistent top 10 spot popular in the past decade), though it's unisex. Definitely not the author hinting anything. Nope.

5) Expectations and guesses on future story plots

Blue Lock is a long way from being over, though it moves pretty fast as a story by skimming over most of the regular ‘training arcs’ and team building periods that other sports animanga tend to have after the first arc, but we’ve had foreshadowing that things will only get harder for Isagi after the U20 match, namely from Tada-chan, that perhaps Isagi has already used up all his luck with that goal in the U20 match. But we also need to remember Rin and Ego’s philosophy on luck, which could also be taken as an omniscient philosophy of the story: luck is something you get to move towards you, to shift in your favour based on all the underlying elements and how you notice and respond to them, grasping a possible ‘chance’ and taking advantage of it in that moment it lands in your hand. A chance becomes a pinch when not properly utilized, just as a pinch becomes a chance when overcome.

As of now (October 8 2022), we are at the Neo Egoist League, with new antagonists and new rivals, and Isagi’s problems has only grown more difficult. He not only has to contend with new, hostile teammates like Kaiser, he also has to tread carefully with old teammates like Kunigami and Yukimiya, all the while ensuring that he makes it into the Japan’s U20 team for the world cup by securing a high offer from existing professional football clubs. If Tada-chan’s prediction comes through, then that means Isagi can no longer simply rely on his luck for his future. He’s going to have to create it. And all of this ties back to Isagi developing both his ego and skills, per his character arc, to fulfil his dream.

He’s still lagging behind the others in terms of personal ability, especially his former teammates/rivals, and it’s exciting to follow Isagi’s journey to become the best striker in the world. He is already getting good advice from Noel Noa about carefully visualizing, planning and managing his time and actions to fulfil his goal. With Kaiser in the same team, there’s another landmark of a player for him to surpass for the most important skill necessary for a striker: his shoot. Kunigami is also his foil and challenge there: Isagi rose to become Blue Lock’s hero, where Kunigami fell from his original ‘heroic’ aspirations and is now an antagonistic character towards Isagi, an inferior ‘copy’ of Isagi’s own hero, Noel Noa. Then there’s Yukimiya, a former teammate now turned rival that’s biting at his heels, without needing to mention all his previous teammates whom he’s on varying levels of friendliness with to beat as well.

I also have high hopes over the fact that Rin and Shidou are both in the French team together within the Neo-Egoist League. From a narrative standpoint, neither of them have fully succeeded in the Blue Lock vs U20 match. Blue Lock’s no. 1 and no. 2 also have a lot to learn from each other – Rin needs to tap further into the self-centered, twisted flow he discovered in the vs U20 match, Shidou's field of expertise, while Shidou still needs to learn to work with others besides Sae both on and off field. Not to say that Rin is that much better than Shidou in that regards, but Rin can at least be on talking terms with the rest when he tries to, whereas Shidou seems to antagonize just about everyone he encounters.

Who better to show Rin self-centered flow than the egoist no one in Blue Lock could handle, Shidou? Who better to impress on Shidou the importance of at least synergizing with your teammates, other than Rin, the only person who kept up with and knows Sae better than anyone else, the first person whom Shidou felt a keen connection to when playing football? That is, if they don’t wind up killing each other first. Karasu probably has a minor stroke from being in the same team with these two, and I'm also curious if more narrative spotlight will be given to him. He did face off against Isagi and Rin in the Blue Lock Eleven tryouts, and then go up against Sae in the U20 match, plus, he's just one of my favourite characters.

I’m looking forward to the Germany vs France match up in the Neo-Egoist League. I’m guessing that it’s going to be the very last match up for the arc, since Isagi’s already said it himself: the day he manages to beat Rin, is the day he gets to stand on the world stage as a player on his own merit.

And Isagi still has more people to defeat on his way of becoming the world’s best striker: Michael Kaiser. Julien Loki. The rest of the ‘top 11’ players for the U20 world cup. Possibly, maybe, Noel Noa himself, if Blue Lock’s author truly intends to take Isagi that far, which I hope they do, especially since Noel was introduced all the way back in the very first chapter of the series too.

TL;DR, shipping Isagirin/Rinsagi is great, they are foils and rivals and spur each other’s growth fantastically in a series where separating from your friendships/partnerships, and becoming better individually, constantly challenging yourself and them, then coming back together, stronger and more mature, both as individuals and as a pair, and choosing each other throughout it all, is a theme. And I’ll end this long, long meta, with this quote.

“The weak are dominated by their ego, the wise dominate their ego, and the intelligent are in a constant struggle against their ego.” ― Hamza Yusuf

[meowdarame]

2012 COLLAB.

STATUS: ACCEPTING CREATORS. JOIN NOW!

Hey y’all! To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Haikyuu!! and my 21st birthday, I’m hosting my first open collab for anyone to join! 

This collab is open to both writers and artists, and I’m really looking forward to seeing all the fun works that everyone creates!

Theme: Anything and everything 2012! From the rise of One Direction, to the fall of the Capitol in The Hunger Games; from Taylor Swift’s monumental Red album, to the end of the world on December 21, 2012— the possibilities are endless. Pick your favorite iconic moment, novel, song, film, or pop culture reference from this year to rewrite our favorites in!

Fandoms: Haikyuu!!, My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer

Rules:

You must be 18+ to join! Please have your age visible on your blog; ageless blogs will not be allowed to join and minors will be blocked.

SFW/NSFW/DC are all allowed! Just please be sure to tag warnings as necessary.

All characters must be canonically 18+ or aged up. No exceptions.

All writing is accepted (headcanons, drabbles, oneshots, fics, series, etc). There is no required word limit; however, please try to write at least 500 words!

To join, send me an ask or a DM, including which character(s) you are writing for, your preferred reader (M, F, GN), and the novel/song/film/moment/etc you are basing your work on. Last day to join will be April 1, 2022.

Each writer can sign up for only one work at a time; I want this to be a fun and low-stress collab! Should you finish and want to write another, you are welcome to sign up again.

There are no limits to how many times a character or AU/trope can be claimed. However, a combination cannot be repeated twice. For example, if Writer A is writing for Atsumu in a zombie apocalypse AU (The Walking Dead video game), Writer B cannot write for him in this trope as well. However, Writer B can sign up to write for a different character in a zombie apocalypse AU or for Atsumu in a different AU.

Threesomes/poly relationships are accepted! 

Please reblog this post after you sign up!

When your work is posted, please tag me or send it to me in my inbox. Please also use the tag #dice.2012 on your submission!

Notes: If you have any questions regarding the technicalities of the collab, need help fleshing out an idea, or just want to know if the trope you want to write for qualifies for the collab, do not hesitate to reach out to me! I’m glad to help!

Due Date: April 23 (my 21st birthday!), but this is not a hard deadline. If you need more time, let me know!

Need a refresher of 2012? Here are just a few iconic moments from that year, plus examples of potential works based on these original works and moments! (Note: These are merely suggestions; your works can have a similar (but not exact) plot to the original piece or it can just be loosely based on the original. Additionally, you can just take an aspect, concept, line, or vibe from the original and create something based on that. It’s really up to you!)

Music: Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange album; Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city album; Lana del Rey’s Born to Die album; “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye and Kimbra; “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen; “Want U Back” by Cher Lloyd + more!

“Off to the Races” by Lana del Rey = dilf or yakuza AU

The Rise of One Direction = boyband AU

Books: Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James; The Fault in our Stars by John Green; The Selection by Kiera Cass; Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn; The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan + more!

Fifty Shades Freed = a smutty work centered around BDSM and/or sub/dom dynamics

The Mark of Athena = demigod AU  

Films and Shows:  The Avengers; The Amazing Spiderman; The Perks of Being a Wallflower;  Les Miserables; Radio Rebel; Haikyuu!!; Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure; Sword Art Online; The Legend of Korra; the final addition to The Twilight Saga + more!

The Avengers = superhero AU

The Twilight Saga = vampire AU

Video Games: Slender: The Eight Pages; Flappy Bird; The Walking Dead, Season 1; Call of Duty: Black Ops II; Dishonored + more!

The Walking Dead = zombie apocalypse AU

Dishonored = steampunk AU

Pop Culture: the supposed apocalypse on Dec. 21; FRED (Youtube star); O2L (Youtube group); London summer Olympics; Prince William and Kate announce royal pregnancy; Overly Attached Girlfriend (internet meme)

O2L = characters as Youtubers or living in a content creator house

The Royal Pregnancy = royal AU

𝑴𝑨𝑺𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑳𝑰𝑺𝑻

𝑯𝒂𝒊𝒌𝒚𝒖𝒖!!

@christeningsakusa | multiple hq boys x f!reader | based on The Hunger Games trilogy

haikyuu boys as your partner in the hunger games

@lou-struck | miya atsumu x f!reader | college AU

“let’s just sit here.” | end of the world keg party

@sweetsbysatori | bloodbender!kenma x f!reader | based on The Legend of Korra

the prettiest puppet

@kirakirasaku | hanamaki takahiro gangnam style art

oppa makki style!

@pazumane | sakusa x reader | pro-bender AU, based on The Legend of Korra

@momochimo | karasuno first years | Take Me Home drawing, one direction AU

@ohtobiors | guitarist!sakusa x f!reader | based on guitarist sungha jung

@lunaevangeline | oikawa x f!reader | scientist AU, based on 2012 apocalypse

@nappingwithyuuji | youtuber!kenma | minecraft youtuber AU

@cherrybabybo | daichi x reader | angst inspired by All Too Well by taylor swift

@mxonigirimiya | osamu x gn!reader | sfw amnesia au inspired by The Vow

“The Vow”

@bokutosmochi | semi x f!reader | inspired by “National Anthem” by Lana del Rey

summer’s in the air (and baby heaven’s in your eyes)

𝑴𝒚 𝑯𝒆𝒓𝒐 𝑨𝒄𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒂

𝑱𝒖𝒋𝒖𝒕𝒔𝒖 𝑲𝒂𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒏

𝑨𝒕𝒕𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒐𝒏 𝑻𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒏

𝑫𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒏 𝑺𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒆𝒓

@cherrykamado | kamado tanjiro | based on “Sing About Me, I’m Dying Of Thirst” by Kendrick Lamar

𝑻𝒐𝒌𝒚𝒐 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒔

@01-20-1992 | spiderman!chifuyu x f!reader | spiderman AU, based on the Marvel franchise

[whatqueen-wildcats]

Answer the evens for the music ask 🤪

Here u go finally hahaha

2: A song you like with a number in the title

6/10 - dodie

4: A song that reminds you of someone you would rather forget about

Sweater weather - the neighborhood

6: A song that makes you want to dance

Beyoncé RENAISSANCE, just all of it lol listened to it a lot this past summer

8: A song about drugs or alcohol

Idk uhh Juice - Lizzo also a very dance-able choice

10: A song that makes you sad

Wolves - Jensen McRae

Don't think I've ever heard this song without crying

12: A song from your preteen years

Stars - Switchfoot (any early sf qualifies tbh, but got to dance and scream to this one live last year with a couple of fellow ex-youth group queers in one of the weirdest and most healing concert experiences I've had yet lmao)

14: A song that you would love played at your wedding

I Wanna Dance with Somebody - Whitney Houston haha every time I hear this song I just picture the reception dancing and singing along with a room full of people I love and my brand new spouse and it being such a moment of joy

I don't have super significant ones I want for ceremony or first dance or whatever cause i feel that's very dependent on the relationship, but this tune is a Must at some point on the dance floor

16: One of your favorite classical songs

Mmmm idk which individual piece would be my fave but i do love to listen to Chopin (To be a bit pedantic, he's a Romantic period composer, not properly Classical period, but in the Colloquial Sense of Classical it counts 🤣)

18: A song from the year that you were born

*hastily googles songs released in 1994*

Basket Case - Green Day

Very strong memories of hearing it for the first time about 10 years after its release from my cousins shiny new mp3 player and being SUPER jealous

20: A song that has many meanings to you

Twenties - Semler

Always a bit of a mindfuck to listen to honestly -- lmao press X to skip this monolog but please do listen to the song, it's excellent.

cause I so easily could have (and indeed for most of my life thought I was going to) follow the path of the ex-friend in the song, the good Christian girl just looking for any nice guy to settle down with and meet all those traditional expectations... it's what I thought I wanted. I'm sure if the first boy I wound up dating had actually been a good person and didn't fully shatter my entire already-fragile sense of self, I would've stayed on that path for decades and a couple of kids before even getting close to figuring out why I was so miserable. It's all I knew. And I think of all the people I know who did take that path, the friends i grew up with and no longer speak to... the repetition of the line "how long will you live until your life is your own?" I think of my mother and grandmothers. I hope they're all happier than I would have been had I stayed. I think of all the ways I still people please, and think with gratitude for all the ways I no longer do. I could go on but I won't lol.

22: A song that moves you forward

Idk what exactly this is even supposed to mean? Like, motivates me? Gives me hope? Who knows but youre getting

City - Thao & The Get Down Stay Down

24: A song by a band you wish were still together

tbh I can't think of one? I'm sure there are some, but several that I would've said a few years ago have either come back already or I no longer care for them lol. And of course there's plenty of Before My Time bands that would've been cool to be around for but feel like that's not the point of this question.

Idk, what keeps coming to mind is Foo Fighters - they aren't actually broken up but Taylor Hawkins, their drummer, passed suddenly last year. For the song I'll pick "But, Honestly"

26: A song that makes you want to fall in love

So maaannyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ughgh

If We Were Vampires - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Makes me absolutely SICK that I haven't met the love of my life yet and every day that passes is one less that I get to spend with them in this mortal existence 😫

Addendum: I've taken so long to finish answering these that I've found a new answer in the meantime that I'd like to share, Kevin Atwater, several of his songs apply, but going with My Blood is Your Blood *foaming at the mouth*

28: A song by an artist with a voice that you love

Probably the best and most ENCHANTING voice I've had the joy of getting to hear live so far in my life is Florence Welch of F+TM, I'll pick the song Cassandra

30: A song that reminds you of yourself

Okay this would be SO EASY but i really don't wanna pick a sad or self-deprecating song. Those have their time and place but I'm practicing them not being my default lol.

Gonna answer with one that, maybe doesn't exactly *remind* me of myself? but helps me embrace myself: Hit or Miss - Odetta

Thank you, as always, for facilitating my long-winded nonsense! 💖