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steve0discusses · 3 years

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S5 Ep 14: So If You Put a Fraction Into a Duel Disk, the Card Explodes

We left on quite the cliffhanger last episode, so I’ll fill you in:

I did not get the haircut.

Like I seriously considered getting a Zigfried for a cool 3 or 4 minutes there, but then I decided to wait a couple of days and I basically forgot.

But, back to the arc finale, Seto has decided to walk, not run, to the Kaiba lab in order to fix the virus rapidly eating his entire company.

I just want to point out that Zigfried went through a LOT of work to get Seto Kiaba to go “uggggh” turn around, and pretend to calmly walk away. I’m used to Seto losing his nut kind of a lot and blowing things up but this season he’s like “be chill be chill be chill” so that the entire world doesn’t think he’s a spaz on TV.

And little aside about Seto’s design choices here, I fell down a hole of interior design videos, and can I just say: apparently these wood frame things on the wall are back in style? Good on you, 2002(3?) Seto Kaiba. Don’t think that current designers are painting them purple but...we’re halfway there to Yugioh fashion.

Meanwhile, Pharaoh decides to remind everyone that these stakes are hella low. The worst that happens is that Zigfried deletes the plane that Yugi needs to fly home...which would be an impressive virus.

Like it’s hard to tell if Yami even has a solid concept of “capitalism” and whether or not he cares about or understands the makeup of Seto’s company (which up till now has operated like a small country and not a business...which is a little more Pharaoh’s understanding. Either way...hard to tell if Yami would shed two tears for the loss of Kaiba corp.)

And, despite what I say in the caps, I feel like Leon and Zigfried are the first villains we’ve ever had that Yugi and Pharaoh didn’t unintentionally disclose that they are 2 people to. Zigfried and Leon are just...completely oblivious to how effed up Yugi’s bean is. They think that’s just a normal kid and lol no dudes...y’all got distracted by Seto Kabia but you have a literal Egyptian God just hovering around in the background and dating 3 people by accident.

Like when the show shelves the main storyline, it is very funny how it’s all “And we’re gonna put the Pharaoh crisis on hold--just put a pin in it. No one will notice this child is two nervous wrecks stitched together” and then Yugi and Yami just kinda hold it in and watch all patiently until it’s their turn to get off the bench.

(read more under the cut)

In the giant computer tower, Seto Kaiba shouts out a string of orders and numbers, admired the many sonar detector looking windows open on every monitor, and then sat down at his desk to like...check the firewall, I guess?

The virus is past the firewall. It’s um...it’s inside the firewall, pretty sure that was the point, but youknow, it’s a kid’s show so they’re just throwing out computer stuff that has no meaning to the writers of this show.

Mokuba thinks fondly of how Seto Kaiba has never screwed him over (which I mean...maybe not on purpose, ((except for that one time he did screw him over on purpose to get Gozaburo Kaiba to accidentally give Seto Kaiba the company, but you could say that was a grander scheme that he knew Mokuba would see through, which...)) but Seto certainly has screwed Mokuba over accidentally. At least once.)

And meanwhile, Yami fixes everything through card shenanigans.

So here’s the shenanigan this episode: I don’t go over cards here but this one requires a limited amount of explanation.

So every round the golden castle deletes half of Yugi’s cards. So he was like...I’ll just draw down to one card. They can’t delete half a card...so that means the card must delete one of the two cards on the field which means it must delete itself.

...which is like the closest Yugioh will probably ever get to abusing a glitch to do a speedrunning tactic like GDQ.

Anyway, like I stated in the title: there are no fractions allowed in Yugioh. If you do that to your priceless one-of-a-kind card you got from winning one of Pegasus’ murder tournies, it will irreparably bust the card.

I’m sure at least one of you will correct me with the proper way to insert a fraction into your duel disk. Cuz like...as I say multiple times so we never forget, I barely pay attention to this card game and I’m just flying by the seat of my pants.

I want to say Seto and Mokuba were in the hacker chairs for like...3 minutes maybe before they realized “oh...Yugi fixed it...” and walked the half a mile back to the duel arena.

and also, as I’m looking at Seto’s glasses here, I just realized...all of Kaiba’s team wears sunglasses all the time. Inside, outside, night, or day...

They haven’t outright said this...but what if those aren’t sunglasses?

Is Roland and that other Roland wearing fancy cyber glasses? They are, right? Because they wear them indoors?

Damn, they can’t take a piss without being on call with Kaiba Corp, can they?

Now the problem is...Yugi played all of his cards (he has two in front of him face down, but none in his deck) and after milling himself, this means he’s now basically a sitting duck for Leon to take the title of “King of Games.”

Leon insists that he defend whatever scraps are left of his card honor and not duel a person who is carrying no cards and Yugi was like “COME AT ME BRO THIS IS THE ONLY WAY I KNOW I’M ALIVE.”

He didn’t even have to do a horror on Leon, he just...played cards good? I skipped it, I’ll be honest, but overall Leon’s card honor was...saved? Maybe? I mean he also go destroyed when his competitor had not a single card in his duel disk so...

...Leon will have to work on his card honor off screen because he’s pretty well humiliated at this point.

But stumbling onto the playing field like he’s half dazed/daydrunk, Zigfried is like “You forgot I already won, bastards!”

Which is when we find out that Zigfried’s “delete all” virus failed to press “enter” and deleted basically nothing. Just like when my Mom attempts to send something in Gmail but doesn’t press “Send” and tells me that Google is down and broken.

Sorry my bro has informed me that he ALSO has had to help my Mother locate the “Send” button and I just...I know she absolutely did that but I’m in denial that this Riddle of the Sphinx has happened to her multiple times.

Honestly, the pep talk we get from Leon at the end to cheer up his bro was a whole lot of “we will pick ourselves up and we’ll do better next time. Together.” and sure you can translate that as “we’ll be honest next time” or you can translate that as “next time we will be not nearly as obvious about inserting a virus into their computer until it is done doing the job, bro.”

Just like Dartz, we didn’t really get a whole lot of retribution or closure when it comes to Zigfried. But, unlike Dartz, Zigfried didn’t do too much murder, so I guess this is fine. He tried to cheat in a card game...

...and I guess tried to delete Kaiba Corp but youknow...

...people let him have that. The police saw the ticket of “this man tried to delete Kaiba Corp” and they just...didn’t arrest him. The judge saw that ticket and didn’t put out a warrant. They just let Zigfried have this, almost like “better luck next time, ya?”

And then Roland clocked out for the day and went home, thus ending this arc.

Look at all these characters, most of which we never saw duel even one card.

We also got one shot of Mai for some reason although she was not in this arc.

AAAHHHH. Every time I’m like “the show is done screwing geography” we get another freakin geography spook!

But we went back to California in order to get a scene of these guys in an airport to get a flight to Japan...

which means Rex and Weevil just...were they shipped home by the Kaibas? Because way to ditch getting arrested by the American Government, hot damn. They are...literally terrorists who destroyed a Caltrain in a plot to kill everyone in the world so like...really surprised Rex and Weevil are in public...but maybe all the FBI were dead at the time so they just didn’t know?

Meanwhile, Duke has to go back to Death Valley and call a tow truck for his car, RIP.

I sure hope he got PTO during this stunt and isn’t going home to a pink slip.

I’m not sure of Dukes life or anything going on with Duke. I’m sure the thing about Serenity is him joking because we have all forgotten about that girl by this point...but also...is Duke...still living in the Tenderloin? The crime rate is very, very high and the ground isn’t solid, so it will liquefy if there’s an Earthquake, but it is one of the few places in the Bay Area that doesn’t light on fire every year. He has that going for him.

I just really hope Duke moves out of the Tenderloin one of these days, he needs a better life.

Meanwhile, Rebecca does one last crime.

This is like a post-epidemic reaction to a hug, but in 2002(3?).

I don’t think I’ll miss Rebecca too much. Wanted to like her more, but she was under-utilized, like most of the characters on Yugioh. Not even just talking girl characters here--most characters on Yugioh are super under-utilized, just Tristan Wallflowers doing nothing, but also being selectively OP as hell about very specific things they never, ever need to do.

Speaking of the devil:

Yugi...just saved his entire company...

But Mokuba is just has to make sure to make it seem like they owed Mokuba and not the other way around. Just in case.

So off they go on this massive plane. It’s probably more to do with the length of the trip as to why the plane is so big but also...

This plane is overcompensating.

But before we analyze that, lets close the book on Seto Kaiba’s very short therapy arc. Overall, it was a nice distraction, but I can see why people call it a filler arc, as it really doesn’t affect...anything going on in the major plotlines, which makes me think it could have been a movie or a game or something. But overall, it’s not bad, it’s just not what you’d expect if you were a Western audience.

Like I’m preaching to the choir, but typically, Western stories are entirely plot focused, and so our arcs always give or take away from that plot. But in a Eastern story arc, it may instead be character focused, where the climax is a character evolving or coming to some sort of cathartic realization, which this arc was, in a big way. We still had some plot, because this is a Shonen, but overall it was about characters, and specifically whether or not Leon and his bro would reconcile or change--which they did.

We did get to see a little more growth on Seto in that he...didn’t go bonkers and hallucinate during a card game. It’s been a while since we’ve had him not do that. Seto was very chill this arc, which makes sense, it was a very chill slice of life arc for everyone involved.

So, next we move on to the next one, which bro has informed me...is

still not Bakura.

According to Bro, the next arc didn’t even air in the Japanese version of the show? Like he’s got a lot of spicy Yugioh headcanons so he could be wrong (He did tell me that he thought that Zigfried was Seto Kaiba’s ex boyfriend when he saw this as a kid which...that sure is a way to interpret this arc, and it probably wasn’t just my little brother who went down that thought tube there...)

(Bro Note: To be fair, I didn’t watch much of this arc as a kid.)

But he says the next arc was originally a movie. But they released it in the States as episodes to be part of S5, just to put more episodes in there. Which, if he’s correct, makes it seem like we’re getting like the Mulan 2 experience kind of shoved in between this arc and the next

But um..

according to bro it has virtually no card games.

.......

I’m so used to only capping 10 minutes an episode, what?

Anyway, until then, here’s the link to read the rest of these from the start in chrono order:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

I’m kinda itching to do a Season Zero, it’s been a hot minute--so those take a little longer to do, especially since I need to go to a different site I haven’t...checked out yet...I’ll be back...eventually? I just know that at some point in Season Zero they fight it out with yo-yo’s and I want to see it.

#yugioh #yu gi oh #ygo #S5 #Ep14 #Seto Kaiba #zigfried von schroeder #leon von schroeder #Yugi Muto #Joey Wheeler #Tristan Taylor #Mokuba #Tea Gardner #Duke Devlin #Rebecca Hawkins #recap #photo recap #episode recap

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ad1thi · 4 years

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2020 fic recs!! [Part 1]

this idea was stolen from @iam93percentstardust cuz i just,,,thought that this year was absolute shit and it would be nice to make a fic rec list of fics from this year that helped me through it. this will be over a range of fandoms and ships, but all fics were written this year.

fics are ordered by the month they were published. ive tried to keep to five fics per month, but this is not obviously all the fics ive read that month - i just didn’t want to make this insanely long.

im releasing the first half of this on the 1st of December, and the second half on the 1st of January 2021 - because otherwise it would just get so long (and also so i will actually have fics for December)

happy reading!! hopefully you find fics on this you haven’t read yet

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January

The cat is mighty dignified (until the dog comes by): @five-wow

Steve and Danny find them on the pillow in the corner of the dining area, where Eddie is on his side, ass half on the floor because the pillow is more cat-sized than lab-sized, and Pickles is nestled between Eddie’s front legs, essentially being spooned and looking very I-got-the-cream about it. Pickles’ head is tucked into the crook of Eddie’s neck and Eddie’s head slots perfectly on top of Mr. Pickles’, like a furry jigsaw puzzle.

“They’re cuddling,” Steve points out, unnecessarily.

Or: There is a love story unfolding under the McGarrett roof.

Captain ‘Socialist Rage Muffin’ America: @baffledkingcomposinghallelujah

It takes three months of dating Steve Rogers for Tony to understand why Aunt Peggy once shot at him in sheer frustration.

Alternately titled, Honey, I committed treason again.

The Best Laid Plans (Of Mice and Men): @arboreal-elm-ash-oak

His Dark Materials AU

It was Annalise who noticed their small visitor first.

“Tony,” the spider daemon said softly, skittering up the collar of his dress shirt, two of her eight legs resting delicately against his cheek, “Don’t startle them, but I believe we have a guest. Look, by the coffee table.”

Fourteen Million to One: @tunastorks

Six months after Thanos, six months after Tony’s death, six months after Steve returns to his own timeline, Tony Stark turns up on their doorstep.

Brewed Awakening: @iam93percentstardust

Two years after he comes out of the ice, Steve is drifting through life. On his teammate's recommendation, he decides to go back to school where he meets the grandson of an old friend. He finds happiness with Tony but Steve won't be in Boston forever and someone is out to hurt the Starks. Will Steve and Tony be able to reach their happily ever after?

February

the young, the reckless and the foolish: @bruciewayne

In most universes, they don't know each other, not in the slightest, or they hate each other, in a way that's perfectly logical for anyone who were to find themselves in a similar situation.

In this one, they've known each other since they were four years old and naively idealistic.

This is them over the years, against the odds.

a giant sign: @areiton

“Think you can get him to open the weapons division up again?” his CO asks, his voice hungry and Rhodey laughs because this--

“No. Tony hung up his weapons.”

“That’s not what the suit says,” his CO objects, and Rhodey shrugs.

Tony has always had rules, rules he expects the entire world to live by.

And then there was Rhodey, slipping under them.

my heart is driftwood, floating down your coast: @nethandrake

Tonight, there’s a stranger in his backseat. That’s not unusual.

He’s also sad. That’s not unusual either.

What is unusual is that the stranger is silent.

(One night, a stranger enters Steve's taxi. Nothing is the same again.)

Just A Cold: @/delighted

There’s a new text waiting for him. It’s from Steve of course, and it’s vaguely threatening as most messages from Steve are these days. Still Danny ignores it, and now he’s really playing with fire. Maybe it’ll burn the cold out of him.

Or, Danny’s sick, and Steve can’t stay away. The usual comfort fluff. With a little cameo from a gently meddling Grace.

An Unexpected Guide: @/Rachel500

Danny Williams has hidden his Guide status to keep being a detective, but his time of hiding is up when he unexpectedly finds his Sentinel, Steve McGarrett in the midst of a tragedy.

March

Why don’t we (Collide the spaces that divide us): @five-wow

When they finally catch sight of each other again through the milling crowds, they’re both a little worse for wear. Danny’s left side is covered in glitter and every time he brushes a hand over his hair, more blue and purple confetti rains down. Steve is- Well, Steve is randomly shirtless, which is all things considered not excessively remarkable, but he’s also covered in smudges of colorful paint and has a very nicely printed bloodred lipstick kiss mark on his cheek.

“What did you do?” Danny asks, because it looks like Steve had a lot more fun than he did.

Or: Steve and Danny accidentally end up in the middle of something entirely new.

A Little Unsteady: @finduilasclln

Written for the Tumblr prompt meme : "Hey! I was gonna eat that!"

Tony lashes out at Bucky for eating his dessert. Only, it really isn't about the dessert.

a national treasure: @starklysteve

Steve isn't looking for an apple and Tony decides his passion is to inspire young souls. -x- OR: the AU where Tony is a Youtuber and Steve is Captain America and somehow they still save the world together.

April

cycle through: @ambivalentmarvel

Twenty-five years ago, Tony Stark disappeared from his family home a month after the tragic deaths of his parents, Howard and Maria Stark, leaving a billion-dollar tech conglomerate without an heir and the world wondering what happened.

Twenty-three years ago, HYDRA gained another super soldier.

Ten years ago, Peter Parker’s parents died in what is ruled as a home invasion gone wrong but he knows was murder, plain and simple, because he spoke to the killer.

And in the present, Project Insight fails, and the Iron Soldier pays the price.

FOREVER-LOVE YOU-I: @/Eudoxia

Tony Stark is twenty-one when he loses his voice. It shouldn't matter, but in a world where the first words your Soulmate says to you are marked on your skin, it can be pretty damn annoying.

Especially for Tony's soulmate.

Companion piece to my fic Thumb, Index, and Pinky Extended. This is Steve's POV, with a few extra scenes, as a treat.

(Edit: Sorry if you guys get multiple notifications for this. I just realized (about two hours after posting it) that I fucked up the grammar in the title and I HAD to fix it. YOLO, I guess.)

come build a home out of me: @maguna-stxrk

Steve clears his throat.

“What if I went with you?” he asks nonchalantly, like his heart isn’t threatening to beat out of his ribcage.

Tony blinks a few times, looking at Steve, his mouth ajar. “As a— As my date?”

“Yeah.” Steve nods, feeling a little breathless.

“You don’t mind?” Tony furrows his eyebrows.

“I don’t. In fact, you can just tell them I’m your boyfriend. I’m sure they’ll back off, wouldn’t they?”

What.

“I— Huh?” Tony stares at him, brown eyes blown wide open.

What. What. What.

“Huh? Uh, I mean— You know, that way people will see that you have definitely moved on. Monica will see that you have moved on. Right?” Steve smiles, hoping that it masks his inner panic, because what?

Steve Rogers, what have you done?

i don’t have a choice (but i’d still choose you): @nethandrake

There’s a name inked onto his chest, a name written in an all-too familiar scrawl. And it’s— It’s—

Steve doesn’t realize his body is quaking until he’s tracing the tattoo with a shaky finger.

Because of course that is the name etched into the skin. Like a brand, a reminder for everything he has done. An appropriate retribution.

Anthony Edward Stark.

(When Thanos snaps half of the universe away, he unknowingly leaves the other half with soulmarks.)

ua haʻalele ʻoe iaʻu (a ua hoʻomālamalama ʻoe iaʻu): @just-fandomthings

"The truth is, I was shot in the chest and nearly died, and not even three days after I was released from the hospital, you up and left-- and of those two, I'm not sure which one hurt me worse!"

(Coda to 10x22 because come on, we all need a better ending than the one given to us.)

Title loosely translates to: "You left me in the dark (you lit me up)" -- inspired by the brilliant song "Say You Won't Let Go" by James Arthur

May

A Piece Of The Past: @hddnone

It had been so many years since Bucky had gone undercover in the Stark family's mob, he thought he'd gotten away clean.

Then Tony Stark slid into the seat across from him at his breakfast diner, and Bucky's boss has a new case for him.

the privilege of loving you: @starklysteve

“Why won’t you let me touch you?”

It’s a desperate plea, half-shouted and half-whispered, Steve’s voice cracking at the end. Tony stops in his tracks, halfway to the stairs. He doesn’t dare to turn back, and he really doesn’t want to fight, or to leave, to spend the last month of his life away from his husband and their son. But Steve can’t know, can he?

-x-

Or: Tony has palladium poisoning, but he doesn't tell Steve and Peter

your pillow feels so soft now (but still you must advance): @firebrands

When Bruce is 13, he decides to go to boarding school. It's an opportunity for him to learn about other people, and how to interact with them.

Bruce has the misfortune of meeting Tony Stark upon his arrival in Roxbury. Bruce is moving into his room, and Tony opens the door of his room to watch. He looks a bit younger than Bruce, hair wild and eyes bright. Bruce has never seen a boy like him before—handsome and confident.

Bruce doesn’t like it.

IMPORTANT: This fic has them meeting at 14, then progresses slowly until they’re 17. Includes underage drinking and kissing.

This is set before Bruce becomes Batman and Tony becomes Iron Man and I have no explanation as to how or why they just DO Canonically, Bruce is 17 when he finishes school and goes around the world to train, so we're sticking with that

The Real MVP: @sword-and-stars (part of a series)

[“I have saved this Tuesday!” Sokka announces, rattling the bag upon reentry.

Zuko doesn’t even look up from his phone as he deadpans, “It’s Thursday.”

Okay, so Sokka is still having trouble getting his days right without checking. At least he’s gone back to sleeping at night! Going to bed at night is way easier when you have a cute, cuddly boyfriend who starts falling asleep around eleven o’clock. It also helps that he and Zuko are on solid gold butt-touching terms.

It’s been a while since Sokka has been on butt-touching terms with someone and it’s amazing.]

Or,

Sokka knows a guy, gets laid, and introduces Zuko to the merits of an afternoon delight.

When is a bed not a bed? (When you’re not in it): @riotwritesthings

There’s a tiny safe house, with one tiny window and one tiny couch.

And one tiny little bed.

June

Nice Fingers: @anthonyed

A single compliment given by Tony stirs Bucky restless until he caves in and asks him out on a date.

With Steve’s help of course (whether he likes it or not).

The Darkest Touch: @starkrogerrs

This is the story of how Steve finds that it has been ordained that he is to marry a monster he cannot resist aka the God of Love himself, Tony.

It's Cupid x Psyche retold, but with thrice the amount of porn.

The Night Shift: @weethreequarter

Welcome to the Emergency Department of San Antonio General where Dr. Tony Stark joins the team fresh from his most recent tour in Afghanistan and - much to the consternation of the other staff - strikes up an instant rapport with Nurse Steve Rogers. Meanwhile, new resident Bruce Banner refuses to give up on his patient, and Dr. Sharon Carter learns something from her own patients. Throw in a pissed off hospital administrator, Clint using the coffee pot as a mug again, and a major car crash and you have, well, just another night shift.

Wind Beneath My Wings: @iam93percentstardust

Sam first meets Tony Stark in 2005 when he joins the EXO-7 Falcon program.

In jest: @/apathyinreverie

“No, babe,” Danny shakes his head with a grin. “If the apocalypse were to go down while I’m elsewhere for some godforsaken reason, then you stay put and I’m coming to wherever you are.” His grin widens. “And I expect you to have cleared any aliens or zombies or whatever else might be messing with us off the island and to have set up a nice, comfortable military dictatorship for us to rule over by the time I get back.”

It’s a joke.

Of course it’s a joke.

Until it isn’t.

(A the-day-after-tomorrow-style apocalypse AU, where the world decides to end right when Danny is visiting one of the other islands with Grace. Because, of course, it does.)

#adi's rec list #mcdanno #stevetony #buckytony #brucetony #rhodeytony #zukka #samtony #january - june #there's so many different ships on this #and different authors #and it spans three fandoms #so hopefully you guys enjoy this!!

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dimonds456 · 4 years

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What was “A Picture Perfect Hollywood Heartbreak” Really About?

What was Zach Callison’s A Picture Perfect Hollywood Heartbreak really about?

Hey all you people out there! How are you surviving quarantine? I had a bunch of spare time, and so I decided to write an essay that focuses on Zach Callison’s album, A Picture Perfect Hollywood Heartbreak. The album has been out for a while, but most people either only know Interlude IV or are really confused about the story it tells. I think I’ve finally got an answer, and I wanted to share it with you all.

If you’re only here to better understand Interlude IV, you can skip down there if you want, but you’ll still be pretty confused. Besides, you should listen to the rest of the album. The whole thing bops.

Personal favorite song is Phantom Love, but I’m pretty sure no one cares about that.

Anyways, on to the show! One song at a time, in order.

WARNING: REALLY, REALLY LONG POST UNDER THE CUT!!

Phantom Love

Phantom Love sets up the whole story for us. Juanita is Zach’s old GF, who appears to only have dated him so she could get ideas for a music album she was writing. However, she had no ideas and/or is a masochist, and so wanted to get Zach to either break up with her, do something horrible to her, or just create drama in general she could write about. Whatever happens happens, and she is successful.

Juanita seems to be suffering from some form of depression, but whether that’s actually the case or she, again, just wanted something to write about is up for debate. But either way, it’s hinted at several times that she slit her wrists and other self-harm-inducing activities.

Many people follow her- she seems to be popular enough (which makes sense, due to the album being about two celebrities dating each other, just like Zach’s irl relationship). However, she has two different faces- her showbiz the-cameras-are-on face and her real face. Zach seems to have the same thing, as hinted at in She Don’t Know, but we’re not there yet. Point is, Juanita used Zach to try and get a tragedy out of the whole deal.

It was a phantom love- it never existed.

“Made me promise I would never break your heart

How was I to know that’s what you wanted from the start?”

Both people got into Hollywood from a young age and grew up with it, and so were surrounded by drama constantly. This takes a toll on Zach, but he tries to deal with it whereas Juanita actively wants to partake in it. She causes drama- little triggers to get him to snap- until one day, he does.

Interlude I - Frantically

This one is pretty straight-forward. After the two break up, it’s the perfect excuse for Juanita to start spreading rumors and stirring tension. She’s quick to make Zach out to be the bad guy, when in actuality, he was the one who was being loyal in their relationship.

We’re clued in that these rumors aren’t true from one line: “I heard he got fired from that cartoon he does. (Nooo wayyy…)” We, as the audience, know for a fact he didn’t, but things get shaky as we realize that some of them are also true.

“I heard he does coke now and, like, screams a lot.”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

[laughter]

Zach overhears them talking about them and runs away, going off somewhere to be alone. Once he’s alone, we get the disturbing audio of him sniffing some drugs, implying that he actually does, indeed, do coke.

DISCLAIMER: Irl Zach Callison did NOT turn to drugs! It’s a metaphor for how many people he knows who have decided to do so, and so he;s aware of what it does to one’s mind. Don’t worry; Zach is okay in that department.

She Don't Know

After gaining the following knowledge, this song is easier to understand. Zach really did love Juanita, and he misses her, even though he knows at this point that she used and abused him.

“There ain’t no drug in all the world like loving you

Cocaine and cigarettes will have to do

Won’t somebody save me? My heart’s beating outta m’ chest

I just wanna hold you with those hands I once possessed.”

Juanita isn’t aware of the effect she had on him, and he laments this quite strongly (hence the title). Once she had her heartbreak, she ran off, leaving a broken lover behind.

Trigger warning: there are hints of suicidal thoughts in this song. They get more prominent as the album goes on, which becomes important later. This is where we really start seeing them, though.

“F***ed up on my bedroom floor

And my first thought’s ‘let’s do some more’

They say it all kills for thrills

And I hope it does!

Can you hear me, love?”

He speaks about “where did I go” later on, meaning that he is losing himself/doesn’t feel like himself. He still wants to be with her, and her absence has utterly destroyed him. He’s still in love with her, and wants her to know that. However, Juanita doesn’t give a bat of the eye in his direction, only caring that she now had the material she needed to write her album.

Interlude II - Christie Only Knows

Here, we are introduced to Zach’s make-believe sister, Christie. Only she is aware that he is going through this, and we find out quickly that she isn’t supportive.

“It’s getting late now, but to me, it’s just beginning

‘Cuz life’s tearing me to pieces and I know I’ve been defeated

Oh, no

And Christie only knows.

Never seen someone like this before

An eight-ball power on the floor

And I’m staring at the ceiling

Wondering if the reaper’s close

But Christie only knows

That there ain’t no drug in all the world like being you

\Glory on the silver screen just had to do

Won’t somebody save me? I am screaming out of breath

And my shadow, he’s holding a gun…

With those hands that I once possessed…”

This is the only time I’ll put all the lyrics in here, I swear. However, this one is important as it paves the way to Nightmare, bridging the gap between the two moods. She Don’t Know is angry, stressed, unsure, and frustrated, whereas Nightmare is just… depression. Interlude II is the middle ground, showing us that once Zach got all that off his chest, he feels… numb. He doesn’t know what to do.

Now, who exactly is Christie? I don’t think she really exists, in the context of the album, that is. I believe that Christie is someone he’s hallucinating, an embodiment of all his most negative thoughts, sugarcoated into something pretty and worth listening to. We’ll explore her character later on in Interlude IV - Showtime, but for now, what you need to know is that his suicidal thoughts are getting more and more intense now that she’s here.

A sister is someone who you’re bonded to, whether it be in blood, relationship, or cause. In this case, I think it’s more relationship. She is telling him to let go, to accept that things are this way and won’t get better. It’d be easier to end it. And Zach is listening to her. We know this because of the line “And my shadow, he’s holding a gun with those hands that I once possessed…” He is seriously thinking about it, and the fact that it’s his shadow shows that the thought is always in the back of his mind. The same thoughts that led him to love Juanita are now ready to kill him- those same, once-steady hands he used to hold her with. And he’s done. He’s holding on by a thread.

Nightmare

This song is told in the 3rd person as Zach really explains what he’s been going through each and every day that lead him to this fateful decision to end it. He is done. He’s decided it.

Every day, he cries. He hates himself, he hates looking at himself, he hates all of it.

“Prosecutor at his own trial,

The floor below him becomes so fertile

by his very own vile, Nile, and exile source

By the pitter-patter of his tears on the bathroom tile…

...you’re nothing more than your feelings

from your floors to your ceilings

and out the all-bloodshot ocular faucets…

Boy vs brain, white noise vs the sane,

always vs the same, cries for help exclaim

that he’s beyond repair. He’ll swear, he’ll despair, he’ll stare

straight ahead in the mirror at the source of his waking nightmare.”

There’s an instrumental break, during which he says “Are you writing this down, Christie? Yeah…” This shows that he’s lamenting to himself, as again, Christie doesn’t really exist. He’s venting to her, jotting down everything that’s wrong with him.

This tells me that he’s writing a note. He is telling someone where he’s going and why he did what he’s about to do. Remember, Christie is in Zach’s head, and so if she is writing this down, that means that Zach is writing this down. His worst, most negative thoughts are writing all this down, showing him that this was the right decision. This will end all his suffering, and whoever reads the note will understand and be happy for him. This was his solution.

“He’s standing on a bluff overlooking the city

The city’s biggest bluff is making itself look so pretty

He tells himself to be tough, isolated and gritty

But gritty’s kinda hard when his brain’s run by committee”

This is how he decides to die. Now with a gunshot like Interlude II hinted at. He is willing to jump for it.

Look at the album cover. Did he go for it? I don’t think so, but we’ll get to that.

The song concludes with him saying this:

“So who do I speak of and why is he grey?

He rejects all his love, see the prices he pays

To his vices he caves, in a crisis of fates

No tragic history, only a mystery

So I say to you, ‘who?’

Why don't’cha tell me?”

This is him confirming to us, the audience, that this is Zach’s character speaking about himself. He’s been hinting and clueing at us to this song all along, and now he is making sure that we know what’s going on in his head. He’s ready to end it.

His love for Juanita broke his heart so severely that it left him broken and bruised beyond repair. And if you can’t fix it, it’s time to throw it away.

So he heads back out to the bluff to jump.

Interlude III - Second Thoughts

He’s standing on a bluff overlooking the city. The bluff’s height is making itself not so pretty. Is this being tough? Or just being petty? But petty’s not likely, it’s a selfish, single entity…

Doe she really want to do this? Looking down, Zach thinks about what made him come here. The drugs? They’re messing him up. He’s aware of it, he’s been aware of it. Would jumping be giving in to their influence? Or Juanita’s?

“We put his record on until he’s bleeding on the needle

And he’s weeping in the street

Cut down on his curtain call

That’s where he’s gonna sleep.”

Standing on top of the bluff now, he looks down onto the road. He can see that there is where he could die, but he’s suddenly not so sure. The idea just slammed into him, reality slapping him in the face. “Do you really want to do this?”

“Take aim with these hands he once possessed

A dozen roses on the pavement laid the rest

Oh, my dear sister Christie, will I feel some remorse?

She says ‘no, pull the trigger, ‘cuz he’s left us no recourse.

His brain has a sickness, so kill it at the source.’”

He steps closer. He can see, in his mind, the image of his dead body lying on the road, forever resting. But, was that the right call? To just throw in the towel like that? So, in true metaphorical fashion, he turns and asks Christie. His inner demons. They’ve been straight with him before, right? And, of course, they say “yes, go for it.”

But Zach still isn’t sure.

I believe he backs off for now, leading the way to Curtain Call.

Curtain Call

This is where it really starts to get difficult when it comes to dissecting this album, and from here on out, I guarantee that I got things wrong. However, stay with me, because I’m open to and want to discuss what everyone else thinks it all could mean. I’m going to share my ideas, and if you have a better one, tell me and I can either agree or argue it with you. Point is, like English class (in high school), if you have the evidence to back it up, you’re not wrong. Let’s have a serious discussion about this.

On with the show! Now, it appears as though Zach is arguing with himself in this one, one wanting to show people that he’s hurt so he can get help- the side that wants to live- but on the other hand, his other half knows that there’s nothing they can do if he does. He’d just weigh them all down. Because all of him agrees that he’s useless and hopeless.

He sends up a prayer (I think Zach is Christian, so this makes sense), asking for, basically, karma of some kind. He’s done feeling this way, and wants it to stop. So he asks for “some price to pay,” hoping that there’s a solution, but knowing that the solution isn’t going to be handed to him on a silver platter. He’d need to work to get better, and this is him saying that he’s willing to do that. He WANTS to live, but he’s just not sure he can anymore. And that’s his main argument. Can he do this? Was it even worth it?

Obviously, with Zach being a famous actor (both irl and in the album), he has a double life. One is bringing joy to others, while the other is a constant internal struggle. The world is a stage, and at this point, Zach is basically admitting- through metaphors- that he has been acting. Pretending.

Consider this lyric, put there- side by side- very intentionally:

“I find that I’m anything but fine.

No, I’m okay. Oh please just look away!”

It’s all a mask. And it’s one he’s tired of wearing. Notice how tired he sounds when he sings those lines. He’s done. He’s been done.

“Bourbon to kill my pain

Curtains to hold my shame

No, they can’t look away

Cannot contain my rage…”

These lines are telling us that people around Zach have started to notice that he’s off, but he wants to believe that he’s okay, that he’ll be okay. So he continues his career (“curtains to hold my shame”), even though it’s hurting him to do so at that point. And people are starting to notice. And that’s making him frustrated. At himself. At them. He’s tired. Let him rest. He just wants to rest and forget. Bourbon, alcohol, kill the pain. Make it go away so they can’t see. But they already see. The mask is old and withering in decay.

Towards the end, Zach’s voice becomes more echoey and distant (discluding the Italian that I have no hope of understanding, which is why I’ve yet to mention it). This shows that he’s distancing himself, running away, if you will.

Running back to the bluff.

And this time, he jumps.

Interlude IV - Showtime

Okay, meme time. This is the one everyone knows. However, we are not going to be talking about a Connverse fight that honestly makes no sense given the limited context of the song (as cool as those animatics are). We will be talking about, however, Zach facing and challenging his inner demons. Christie does not exist. Why should she rule over his life?

Let’s break this one down, since this one is the hardest to fit into the story.

He jumps, but survives the fall. Maybe dazed, maybe broken. Maybe it was just a dream. Maybe this song IS the dream. We can’t be sure. Everything is metaphorical in this one. Perhaps he didn’t jump at all. We can’t be sure.

Christie congratulates him. She tells him that he’s free. He did the right thing, and now it was just the two of them. They could do whatever they wanted without feeling so weighed down!

Zach disagrees, coming to a realization.

He jumped. Christie had said that it’d make everything okay again, that it’d be bliss. Well, he jumped, and it wasn’t. It was worse. He felt anger and fear, and this leads him to finally, for once, counter her.

“The world is ours!”

“No it isn’t.”

“Get in the car.”

“This isn’t finished.”

“...What?”

She’s shocked that Zach openly argues with her, and as their bickering goes on (which I’m sure a lot of you reading this can hear perfectly in your heads, so I won’t write the exact lyrics down), Zach gains more confidence. He accuses her of murdering him. “And they’ll all think that it was suicide, but Christie, I know that it was you inside.” Remember, she’s not real and therefore didn’t really “kill” him, but he blames her as he allowed her to control and manipulate him.

Christie is shocked, stating that everything she did, she did to comfort him. ”I saved him! I held him ‘til the moment he [Zach’s “innocence”] died!”) However, Zach realizes what she really is now, and decides that enough is enough. (“You choked him out of his goddamn mind! Promised the world to him, a goddamn lie!”) He knows what she is, and won’t let himself be manipulated by her again.

Now, the whole time, they’re talking about someone who is dead. Who is that someone? Zach. However, it’s all a metaphor. When Zach jumped, a part of him died. The last of his humanity? His sanity? I think his “innocence,” which I say in quotes because I’m sure there’s a better word for it out there somewhere. He’s done being blind to the truth, blindly following Christie around. The part of him that was naive enough to do that, to listen to her influence and complain about the world, is gone. He’s dead.

And that means Zach isn’t taking anymore s***.

C: “I won’t help you take [Juanita] down.”

Z: “Fine. I’LL DO IT BY MYSELF!”

C: “You don’t need it!”

Z: “Oh, I know that I need it.”

C: “She’s been gone for years, I know you can beat it!”

Z: “Oh, look in the mirror, you know we both fear her…

But you let me kill him, you’re WORSE than Juanita!”

Juanita herself never killed him. She never physically harmed him, not in any way that counts here. However, Christie did. She pushed and pushed him, taking a fragile boy and breaking him even more. Zach is now his own worst enemy, not Juanita, and this is him realizing it. But he doesn’t want to be his own enemy.

C: “I won’t help you take her down.”

Christie doesn’t want Zach to face her, because she knows that that would be him really facing his demons and starting down the path to healing. Juanita is Zach’s biggest obstacle, aside from himself. He has to face himself first, and that’s why this song is so powerful. Zach is taking a step back and realizing what he has to do, who he is, and why things are like this.

Z: “Oh, look in the mirror, you know we both fear her.

We’re one and the same, we’re afraid to be near her!”

There’s that mirror metaphor again, except that he’s not looking at himself with hatred; he’s looking at himself with understanding (and a side of hatred). He’s ready to face her. He’s ready to get everything to stop.

“1, 2, 3, 4

Is this what love is really for?

Is this all I get for being yours?

The kid in front of me in blood and gore?”

The kid is, again, Zach’s “innocence.” He understands, he’s ready to not only move on, but also confront her.

5, 6, 7, 8

Years left to waste for all I hate

They’ll all know Juanita’s fate!

Show’s about to start; don’t be late.”

He knows that it’s going to be a showdown, a big, epic throw down. And Christie isn’t coming with him. He’s leaving her behind. He’s leaving his demons behind, breaking free from them and moving on.

War!

The ultimate throw down begins!

“A wise man once said, ‘time is money’

So how much money did I lose to you, honey?

Find it kinda funny you wanna keep this feud runnin’

But I’m glad I’m on your mind, keep that canon fire coming, woah!”

This is 100% a diss track. Zach confronts Juanita in front of a lot of her friends (we hear multiple girls go “huh?” as they realize that Zach’s here and he’s ANGRY), and immediately starts in. No introductions, no “hey it’s nice to see you again”s, nothing. He’s here to make a statement, and he’s gonna do so.

He realizes Juanita for who she is now, and she has done so many horrible things to him. Spreading rumors and lies to ruin his life, after dating him just to get a story to write about. He’s sick of it and done. He calls her out, and it’s important that he does this in front of other people so they see what she’s really done. He’s hurt, he’s been hurt, and it’s because of Juanita, this amazing person a lot of people looked up to and liked (“I know, Juanita deserves so much more [Interlude I]”. “Step inside the life of the men weak enough to follow you [Phantom Love]).

Juanita also appears to be dating someone else by this time. This is really important, because now due to context clues we got from before, the only reason Juanita dates is to get a heartbreak out of it so she can have the motivation and drive to write her own album. That’s why she dated Zach. So, if she’s dating again, that means she either lost the motivation and drive again, or she never had it in the first place since it wasn’t a real love between them. She didn’t truly experience a heartbreak at all. This is further backed up by the claim that “we’ve been waiting on your album for ages, no traces, and baby, we’ve already run out of patience!” She’s only dating to get that experience again.

This means that, at least in Zach’s eyes, she hasn’t changed. “To your new boy, let he be warned: you’re her new toy for blood and gore! What, you didn’t know?” She is going to destroy him emotionally, and he’s going to go down the same path as Zach, ending in death- blood on the pavement. The gore part is to emphasize how horrific the whole ordeal was.

“Sit down with me and sign this armistice

Get your big proboscis outta my s***, miss”

A proboscis is the butterfly equivalent of a tongue. They use it for sucking nectar out of flowers. So, what he’s saying here is that they need to settle this between them (“sign this armistice”), and that she needs to mind her own business. By her talking about Zach like that, she ruined his life and he’s sick of it. She literally sucked the joy out of him like nectar.

“Welcome to the new me!

Paint your nails black and unscrew me

But that’s okay, Juanita

Know my business is booming”

His business is a reference to his own album, the very one you’re listening to. His music career took off now because of her and the fact that she broke his heart, not the other way around. Juanita can never understand that because she “only loves to be broken [Phantom Love].”

“That’s alright, that’s okay!

You barely wrote them anyway

Half your songs got thrown away

Like ballets on voting day

All my ballads had more to say

Like a bullet through a motorcade”

In a twist, Zach got the story Juanita had wanted. He experienced a heartbreak, while she never really did. So he writes an album instead of her. It’s a cool kind of karma that Zach- or, at least, his character- can’t resist.

The whole song ends with him forcing her/her friends to sing along with him, repeating her name, then yelling. She screams, and it cuts out.

I think he’s lost his sanity (or again, his “innocence”) here. He gets carried away, and either attacks her or makes like he’s about to. I think he makes like he’s about to, but stops. This is the final song; if Zach killed her, there would more than likely be another song depicting the consequences and an Interlude V to show the aftermath of the incident. But because he stopped himself, he’s satisfied. Juanita learned her lesson, Zach got everything off his chest, and the people around them know the truth.

That’s all he’s wanted for longer than we can possibly know.

Final Observations

Zach Callison has gone on record to say that “Juanita” has finally published an album of her own, but that happened months later. I don’t have any specific dates for anything, though. No one knows who the real-life “Juanita” is, which in my opinion, is noble of Zach. He had a lot of anger to get out, but unlike her, he wasn’t going to ruin her life to try and get something out there. He can make a statement without ruining someone else along the way.

With that knowledge, let us all stand and clap for this man.

Not only is the album just a really good listen, but each song tells a cohesive story. The tones each song sets, as well as the far under-appreciated interludes (or over-appreciated in terms of Showtime), really shows how his emotional state changes. Phantom Love is a lament, She Don’t Know is a classic “I’m sad bc my gf broke up with me :(“ which is how Zach perceives that incident at that point in time, whereas Nightmare is him falling into depression stronger than anything he’s ever felt before. Curtain Call is him arguing with himself about whether or not he should even live anymore, and it all comes back around with the upbeat, heavy-rock literal song of War!. The interludes take the tone of the next song and combine it with the lyrics of the previous to show that smooth transition between emotions as he grapples with his mental state, the only exception really being Interlude I, as it has an overall bouncy tone to it.

Zach not only made every single song enjoyable, but also unique and heartfelt. Just listen to how his voice shakes during Christie Only Knows. He is genuinely upset and lost, and because of this, he’s better able to convey the HUGE emotion dump that was his album.

Do I recommend it? Yes. I think there’s something in there for everyone, even if you only enjoy one of the songs. However, doing a review is going to be an entire post in and of itself.

Thanks for reading, guys. Now go listen to the album and tell me your thoughts. Does my explanation make sense? Do you have a better idea? Let me know. I want to have a real discussion about it with other people who have listened to the whole thing, not just Interlude IV.

If you haven’t listened to it yet, it’s on YouTube and ITunes. Do yourself a favor and check it out. The whole thing is ~45 minutes long.

Have a link to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n1rA_1uUBtxoATot0ixiTgvdEHhj3lAn4

#zach callison #a picture perfect hollywood heartbreak #picture perfect hollywood heartbreak #long post #meta post #theory post #pphh #pphh zach callison #zach callison's music #zach callion's album #juanita pphh #Personally I think War! is the best song in the album #but Phantom Love is my favorite to just listen to #War! is the best in terms of vocals and especially the instrumental tho #And Interlude IV is my fav of the four

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blazinbeautywrites · 4 years

Text

Band Wars: Rise of the Phoenix

Note: Due to the rampant uprising of plagiarism on this site and others I am stating once and once only that this is my ORIGINAL work. If I find out that you have stolen/taken any part of my work I will handle you and the situation the way I see fit.

None of the pics or gifs I use belong to me so full credit goes to the originators of said gifs and pics.

Length: 2,356 words

A/N: Sorry it took me so long to get this out guys. I was not happy with the final results and when I was I still was unsure so I rewrote it again and decided to just post it. I’ll let yall be the judge lol.

Genre: Honestly idk lmao

Chapter 1

Universal Music Group (UMG) decides to debut a new girl group, PHOENIX on their first ever reality show “Next Big Thing.” The winners of the show get a 5 year, 5 album recording contract and will tour with CNCO 1 year after they debut. The winner of the show was Zania Reye Bloom, followed by London Monroe Jones, Jolene Maria Sanchez, Siane Rei Choi, and Avery Lynn O'Reilly. The band is composed of 5 talented women with different ethnic backgrounds, ages 24-25.

Since the show served as the girl’s training they were immediately thrusted into the spotlight after the show ended. They went to work on their debut album and as the release date approached the girls were getting antsy. Now only were they about to release their baby onto the world, but they were finally meeting CNCO today and discussing ideas for their tour.

*UMG headquarters in LA*

“Yoooo I’m fucking excited! Can yall believe our debut album is coming out in a couple days?” London said as she led a couple of her members to the elevators.

“Girl this tour bout to be lit as fuck. Bruuuh we’re going to fucking Sweden. I didn’t even think we had fans out there.” Zania said.

“Yeah you can thank that girl Astrid who made the finals. She was Swedish.” Avery said.

The girls finally heard the elevator ding at their floor and immediately got out. The girls walked into a meeting room where they saw their other 2 members Jolene and Siane bonding with the boys of CNCO.

“Finally you bitches show up. What took yall so long?” Siane asked.

“Avery thinks she’s still in Ireland and almost drove us into a damn ditch.” Zania said.

“You’re alive aren’t you? So quit complaining.” Avery said as she took a seat opposite Erick.

“Anyways if yall are done….THIS is CNCO ladies. This is Zabdiel, Christopher, Erick, Joel, and this is Richard.” Siane said as she pointed to each boy as she introduced them. Richard definitely caught Zania’s eye and she quickly averted her eyes so he wouldn’t catch her ogling him. Little did she know, he was checking her out too.

“And I’m Zania, and of course yall met Jolene and Siane. This is London and Avery.” She said as she gestured to her other bandmates. She was about to say something else when a tall, slender woman walked into the room followed by a man wearing the loudest shade of yellow and another woman dressed in all black.

“Okay let’s make this short and sweet. I’m Veronica Pierce, you can call me Vee or Ms. Pierce, never Veronica. Get it? Got it? Good. I am your tour creative director. I’ll be working closely with you all to design your tour. And please, let’s all collectively agree on a specific concept. I will not have my people designing 2 separate stages. To my left is Chez Moa, your set designer. And to my right is Mel Carter she and her team will be styling you all so meet with her some time this week so she can get an idea of what you guys want and need. And ladies you have a busy weekend ahead. Friday you have your album release, press runs, then your album release party later that night. Saturday you’ll be on Good Day LA where you’ll be interviewed and then perform your lead single. Sunday you have a mini showcase where yall will perform some fan fave covers from the show and a few songs from the album, including your single with CNCO. You’ll have tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday to learn choreo for both performances. You’ll meet your choreographer tomorrow. Any questions?”

The whole room was silent as both groups stared at Veronica and her associates. Zania raised her hand and the other members of Phoenix sighed. They knew how this shit was about to play out.

“So do we get to breathe? Or do we have to pencil that in too?” Zania asked. She knew she was being an asshole but this shit was ridiculous.

“Hmmmm you must be Zania Bloom. They told me you had a mouth on you. Listen up sweetie this my show. I call the shots and if they bother you, you can leave.” Veronica said. Zania smirked at her and leaned back in her chair.

“Nah I’m good. You may continue, Ms. Pierce.” Zana said. Sarcasm dripping from her words.

“Anyways that’s all for now. And remember this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It can be taken away in the blink of an eye so watch yourselves.” Veronica spoke. She eyed the room but everyone knew exactly who that was meant for. She, Mel, and Chez exited the room in silence. Once they left, Siane burst out laughing.

“Yo I was clenching my fucking ass cheeks. She’s soo fucking hot.” Siane said.

“Keep it in your pants Siane. And Zania, girl why did you do that? You made that shit more intense than it needed to be.” London asked.

“You know me, I just had to say something. She was a bitch to us when we did the show, now they’re making her the tour director, wtf?” Zania said.

“Am I the only one who noticed that guy had on too much yellow?” Chris said. Everyone turned to him and started laughing.

“Look, I ain’t wanna say anything but he was so wrong for that. And it was a complete contrast to Mel who had on all black.” Jolene said.

“But real shit Vee ain’t no joke, she can make or break you. So just be careful.” Richard said. He made eye contact with Zania and she smiled at him.

“Oh I’m not afraid of her. She’s on a power trip so I’ll entertain her mess for the sake of this tour. You don’t have to worry bout me baby boy.” Zania said. Everyone got up to leave but on her way to the door she was stopped by Richard.

“I don’t know if you realized but I’m a grown ass man so that baby boy shit not gon fly with me.” Richard said. Zania was amused.

“Oh did I bruise your whittle ego babe? Look it’s not that serious-”

“But it is that serious so treat me with respect or keep it moving baby girl.” Richard said as he cut her off. He walked away leaving Zania stunned in silence. She walked back to her group and chuckled.

“Yall…...that guy Richard just lowkey put me in my fucking place. Oh this tour is gonna be so damn fun.” Zania said. She and her bandmates went to find their stylists to get started on designing their perfect tour outfits.

______________

It had been a full 5 hours and the girls were hard at work on their choreo. They were thankful that most of the songs they performed were their covers from their reality show so the moves were ingrained in their heads. They breezed through their choreo for their own singles and just finished running through them a final time before Laurieann Gibson called for lunch. The girls were beyond starved and as they walked to the cafe area of the upscale dance studio they saw CNCO walk through the door.

“Oop the boys are here.” Jolene said as she fixed her slightly messy hair. She made eye contact with Zabdiel as he and the other boys walked into the dance studio they’s just left.

“Ooooohhh do I sense a little crush? London teased.

“See that tall one, Zabdiel? I promise you, I will climb him like a fucking tree.” Jolene said, much to the amusement of her group.

“Woah. Down girl, we have a whole ass tour to get through.” Avery said.

“Look if I can’t fuck Vee, you can’t fuck Zabdiel.” Siane argued.

“Girl. Zabdiel is fair game, Vee is our fucking boss. There’s a difference.” Zania said as the girls found a table near the back of the cafe. Avery went to order them some food and soon a waiter came back with a tray of fruit, some finger sandwiches, and a basket of the cafe’s homemade potato chips.

“This looks so good and I’m starving.” London said. As the girls ate they discussed the difficult choreo.

“I really thought Laureiann was gonna throw her shoe or some shit at you cuz you couldn’t get that one move down.” Siane said.

“I wish she would throw some shit at me.” Jolene said while the others laughed at her.

“What kind of shit yall think they’ll have us do with the boys?” London asked.

“Probably something sexy, ya kno to pander to the fans.” Avery answered.

“I heard that they’re partnering us up with them for the collab so whomever we pick is our dance partner for the song.” Siane added.

“Well. this should be fun.” Zania said. The girls chat a little bit longer before cleaning up and heading back into the dance studio. When they arrived they heard their song with CNCO playing. Laurieann was teaching them their choreo and once saw the girls she turned the music off and immediately began assigning pairs.

“Okay London you’re with Joel, Jolene with Eric, Zabdiel and Siane, Avery and Chris are partners and lastly, Zania, you’re with Richard. Everyone please stand with your partner. I’m only gonna do the dance two times and then you’re gonna do it and we’ll fine tune everything afterwards” Lauriann said as she read off her list. Before the girls could even process anything they quickly got into formation to do the choreo.

______________

A few hours later, both Phoenix and CNCO were spread out on the floor, exasperated. Lauriann told them to rest up and that she’d see them in the morning before she left them all a sweaty mess in the studio.

“I swear there are parts of me that are sweating I ain’t know could sweat.” Siane said as she attempted to lift her head to no avail.

“Girl I feel like my fucking feet are gonna fall off.” Zania said.

“I can’t feel my left asss cheek.” Jolene mumbled.

“Bruh at least yall voices aren’t hoarse as fuck.” Richard said.

“We should probably start heading out because I need an ice bath or some shit.” Avery said as she willed her body to move. Everyone followed suit and struggled getting to their feet. When the girls began packing up to leave, Zabdiel strolled on over to pull Jolene to the side. Zania looked on and smirked to herself. All she hoped was that whatever they had going on didn’t get in the way of her group’s path to success. She snapped out of her little daze just as Jolene made it back.

“Well, what was that about?” Zania asked.

“Girl he asked for my number. I was like no and he said can you really say no to this face. I almost fucking melted so I gave him my number. He’s so fucking cocky. I love it.” Jolene beamed. Zania could tell her friend was happy so she chose to keep her mouth shut. The girls finally made it to the elevator when Zania realized she’d left her phone in the dance studio.

“Shut yall I left my phone. Yall go on I’ll text yall once I get home.” Zania said.

“Girl we’ll wait, just hurry up.” London said. Zania jogged back to the building and ran up the stairs to be quicker. Once she got to the door of the studio she heard the boys talking.

“I really like that girl London. She’s classy, yet has a sexy side. I like that.” Joel said.

“Now see Jolene….them lips. I bet her head game on point.” Zabdiel said.

“Ew bro what the hell!” Eric exclaimed.

“I know you of all people are not talking.” Richard said.

“Even though I think she’s kind of a bitch, Zania fine as fuck too.” Christopher said.

“Yeah she is fine. Yall seen that ass? I’d love to get behind that.” Richard said. Zania had heard enough and walked into the room.

“Yall should really make sure that the door is completely closed before you talk about us. Anyways I left my phone and just came back to get it. Oh and Richard, Zabdiel? I understand that Jolene and I are attractive but please don’t talk about us like we’re pieces of meat mkay?” With that she grabbed her phone and walked out, leaving the boys a little dumbfounded. Once she got back outside she filled her girls on what she heard.

“You know. We should teach them a lesson.” Jolene said.

“Oop I sense an infamous Jolene Sanchez prank.” Siane said.

“Yep. Okay so here’s the plan.” Jolene explains the little prank they’ll play on the boys at the showcase. They’d messed with the wrong girls.

_____________

The rest of the week went by in a blur and before they knew it, their album release day was finally here. It’d only been a few hours and their album was already number 1 on a few of the urban and pop album charts. Siane screenshot the Billboard charts where their album was number 1 and sent it to their group chat. She then called them all on a video chat.

“WAKE UP BITCHES! WE NUMBER 1 BABYYYYYY!!!!1!” She yelled into the phone. The others, as groggy as they were, laughed at how hyped their member was.

“Girl you are so lucky I was up getting ready or I’d curse you the fuck out.” Zania said.

“Bitch whatever. Anyways I love yall so much! We’ve officially ARRIVED! Like we in the fucking building forreal now. WHEW! Let me start getting my shit together. See yall soon. Love ya! Siane said as she hung up the video call. The girls were buzzing and couldn’t be any happier that after almost 6 months, their hard work has finally paid off and that their fans love their album as much as they do. They couldn’t wait to see what lie ahead for them. They knew whatever it was, it was gonna be big.

#cnco #christopher velez #richard camacho #zabdiel de jesus #joel pimentel #erick brian colón #band wars: rise of the phoenix #bwrotp #cnco scenarios #christopher velez scenarios #richard camacho scenarios #zabdiel de jesus scenarios #joel pimentel scenarios #erick brian colón scenarios

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sharkfish · 5 years

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ps i loved this one

(rereading bookmarks edition part 2)

(part 1)

i’ve been rereading stories from my bookmarks as a comfort thing. i’m getting real deep in there to stuff i haven’t (re)read for years, and damn do i have good taste. the ones i’ve read recently that you should, too:

(under the cut so i’m not that asshole that makes you scroll past an endless post)

Best Laid Plans by Persephoneshadow

Things are going well for Dean: he's landed the biggest design job of his architectural career and is about to get final approval on the project despite how difficult the development company, personified by Castiel Novak, has made it. It's not bad for a moody omega...except things are also going terribly for Dean because he has to get in a plane and fly to a meeting, and course ends up in heat a few hours before. Luckily, Castiel is there to help and both men discover the good that can come when nothing goes quite as intended.

i don’t know why i’m such a ho for stories where dean thinks cas hates him, but cas secretly adores him and is just a little “rusty” on his “people skills.” i’m also a ho for stories where dean is a gd skilled genius but his dumb ass still thinks his work sucks and/or anything good is due to other people instead of himself. and also, heat boning.

Confessions of a Cam Boy by MsCaptainWinchester (rons_pigwidgeon)

Dean runs a cam show to pay his way through marketing school, but he's about to start an internship that he doesn't know will change his life. Watching Dean's show is Castiel's favorite way to wind down after a stressful day at Sandover Bridge & Iron. When Cas comes to work one day and finds his favorite cam boy setting coffee on his desk, he is completely thrown. Will Dean finish his internship without knowing his favorite viewer is his new boss, or will he be able to see through Cas' non-existent poker face and figure it out?

omg poor cas is soooo awkward and dean is weirded out about how much his new boss seems to dislike him and then it’s super sexy >:)

For Science by shiphitsthefan

“Think of it like an experiment," says Dean. "You’re testing a hypothesis as to whether or not a desirable response can be achieved through the stimulation of the anus via the application of a willing volunteer’s muscular hydrostat.”

Cas raises an eyebrow. “Are you actually trying to use the scientific method to talk me into letting you lick my asshole?”

everyone is such adorable nerds in this one. it’s a fic about rimming, but it’s also about love and discovering yourself and acceptance. it explores cas’s realization through his connection with dean that he’s not straight up ace but more grey/demi - and that doesn’t mean he was “faking” being ace up until he met dean.

Friends with Benefits with Tentacles by andimeantittosting (Saylee)

Dean's never been embarrassed about his porn collection before, but that was before he found Cas holding his prized copy of Sweet Princess Asuka and the Tentacles of Pleasure. Dean finds himself sweating bullets—because this is Cas, sweet, nerdy Cas. Cas, his friend. Cas, his roommate. Cas, his—only slightly out-of-control—crush.

Cas, with his big, blue eyes and muscular arms and perpetual sex hair.

Cas, with his tentacles.

The last thing he expects is for Cas to suggest they experiment together.

there are not enough tentacle fics out there and i 100000% approve of this addition to the tag. i love that dean is out there legitimately studying porn, and the tentacles are obviously super fun, and there were parts where my heart hurt so bad, all around a damn fine fic.

Grown-Ups Making Grown-Up Choices by Carrieosity

Dean is a grown-ass man - he can take perfectly good care of himself, thank you very much. Except that sometimes the easier or more fun choices aren't always the right or best ones, and, all right, maybe thinking ahead and working the long game isn't his strongest suit. It's fine! He's fine.

When he meets Castiel, he realizes that flying by the seat of his pants may not be the best way to attract the super-serious (gorgeous, funny, genius) Alpha. Dean's shrink has been telling him he needs to start making "grown-up choices," and if that's what he has to think about in order to make Cas fall for him, then he'll give it a whirl.

i LOVE this fic (series). i feel so hard for dean feeling like he’s too old for his life to still be a mess, but i also felt sad for him that he thought he had to make all these hardcore changes - basically turn himself into a different person - to be worthy of cas’s attentions. i fucking adore cas in this, and i nearly cried just thinking about all the damn peppers they eat, and i want to read it again right now.

If I Run by Anonymous

"Dean Winchester is a red-blooded American male. He lifts all the things. He aims for functional strength. He counts his macros and makes fun of curlbros. He is not a member of the Tarahumara tribe and he will not read Born to Run, no matter how many times Sam tells him to, because Starting Strength is the only book Dean will ever fucking need."

***

Wherein a friendly competition with the mysterious ThursdaysAngel turns into a sexy selfie-trading spree that motivates Dean Winchester to train for his first marathon.

i really really love this fic and reread it pretty often tbh. it only became “anonymous” pretty recently and i’m so curious about why!! regardless, this fic is a really great time!!!

It's Always More Than Once (Before It Takes) by squeemonster

The first time it happens, it's because of boredom. Or, at least that's what Dean tells himself to justify it. Boredom and Dean Winchester are a dangerous combination, especially when you factor in beer, a raging libido, and laziness.

dean: my dudes, is it gay to do sexy stuff with your male bff? cuz i’m totally straight. but also, having sex with my male bff.

I Wanna Get Outside (Of Me) by emwebb17

Dean is a novice in the dom/sub world asked by his employer as a desperate last resort to be a sub for his recluse of a brother, Castiel. Castiel is a diagnosed OCD suffering from PTSD and agoraphobia, mysophobia, and dystychiphobia. Needless to say—he’s a mess who hasn’t stepped out of his home in literally seven years. The only times Gabriel can see traces of the way his brother used to be is when he feels in control—specifically when he has control over a sub. However, due to his idiosyncrasies and paranoia, keeping a sub around has been impossible. Enter Dean, who’s not a very traditional submissive, to try his hand at subbing for the hermit.

you know how sometimes you read a fic, and it takes ages to get yourself out of that world? even though you’re finished, you’re still right there with him? this is one of those fics. i reread it a couple weeks ago and fell asleep thinking about it last night. i cry a lot reading this one.

Living in Agony by ChasingRabbits

Dean Winchester's life is... well, it's not great. He's a gym teacher, he's in his thirties, and he can't seem to keep any part of his life straight. When the aftermath of a one-night stand goes awry, Dean is dragged kicking and screaming out of his cozy little closet and into the harsh light of reality.

Enter: Castiel Novak, the new history teacher, who knows full well that life gets crappy when you don't allow yourself to live it in the way it needs to be lived.

there aren’t a lot of stories that deal with themes of mental illness, and a lot of them read like an episode of degrassi where everything wraps up in 30min to never be discussed again. this story is honest in that there’s no easy out. there’s medication and therapy and supportive people, but that’s not always enough. it’s a story about how you don’t have to be mentally ill to be fucked up, and while people can’t fix each other, they can help each other. content note: references to a pre-story suicide attempt.

Oddly Shaped Empty by jemariel

Dean grew up thinking -- knowing -- he'd be an alpha.

Until he failed to present. As a beta, he has no mating cycle, no noticeable pheromones, none of the physical markers that are so important in a world of alphas and omegas. He's out of place. How is he supposed to navigate his relationships and find love when he doesn't fit into the neatly-defined boxes he's used to?

By the time he meets his new roommate, Castiel, he's more or less given up on finding a mate. He wears his secondary gender like a chip on his shoulder. But you never know what the future holds, who will come into your life, and how they might change it forever.....

Queer themes, finding identity, reconciling the past, and a whole lot of smut.

y’all know @jemariel is a gd genius, but i’m particularly obsessed with their fics that use abo to explore queer identify & experiences. i hold my breath reading most of this fic and also cry.

Steal my Breath by Sincestiel

“Tighter, Dean, please,” Cas urges throwing his head back to rest on Dean’s shoulder. Dean squeezes. He doesn’t know why Cas wants this or even what the appeal is, but he always comes harder when he’s struggling to breathe.

what’s on the tin. a quick lil breathplay fic that is thoroughly enjoyable.

Unsolicited by Dangerousnotbroken

In which Dean Winchester gets an unsolicited dick pic from an unknown sender which is both totally not disappointing in that it's a really nice dick pic, and incredibly disappointing in that it's clearly a downloaded picture of his favorite porn star.

There's absolutely no way it's actually this porn star sending it to him, right?

Right?

this is a destiel classic and i feel like anyone who isn’t new here has probably read it. but here’s your reminder that this is a great fic and you should (re)read it.

Wordplay by Dangerousnotbroken @dangerousnotbroken

“I don’t understand why talking dirty is such a big deal for you humans,” Cas complains, apropos of nothing.

it’s a “cas learning about sex” and also dirty talk, which are both things i’m really into!! and DNB is a genius so that’s even better.

if you enjoy these fics (and you should), please give the writer some love via kudos and/or comments. <3

ps - as always, if i didn’t tag the writer and you know their tumblr, please tag in the comments. i don’t think there’s a writer alive who wouldn’t be happy to be on a rec list. :)

#sharklist #sharkrecs

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rasoir-national · 5 years

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This was bound to happen : I’m talking about immigration law

@ghostplantss i don't know v much about french immigration law would you tell me about it? i'm v curious?

Oh wow. First tea, and now this ? Either you are my secret Santa, or my enabler.

So let me tell you about the passion of my life, Immigration and refugee law, and the fuckery this country has made of it.

The way a city, community, country treats the “other” is one of the oldest legal questions in the History of Humanity. From Antique Greek cities to the Jus Gentium of the Roman Empire, laws concerning foreigners might be the first form of international law known to man. In many ways, it’s by acknowledging the existence of “others”, by giving and restricting their rights, that a social group both truly asserts itself as a “political community”, yet acknowledges the transcending quality of “humanity” of the outsider.

Nowadays, this question is as politically charged as ever : the way a country regards foreigners, welcomes them, rejects them, is one of the most interesting ways you can define the country, one of the ways the country sees itself. By the way we treat the one who is not “us”, we highlight which rights we consider to be inherent to humanity in and of itself, as well as which ones we consider intrinsically rooted in our identity as “citizen”.

And all this proud History, all this contemporary tension, makes Immigration law fascinating to FUCKING NO ONE.

Look, one thing you have to know about lawyers is how much they love intellectual wankery. A nicer way to put it would be to say lawyers love systems. And theory. And generalisation. And categorizing. They like to look at a set of rules and see a pattern, a logic, a paradigm. They like to be able to neatly present it in two titles, each divided in two subtitles, each divided in two sections, and repeat that until they run out of microsoft font points.

And Immigration law... It’s not that. It’s not that at all. It’s the opposite of that. It’s a law that’s almost entirely dictated by conjoncture, by what a government needs it to say, by whichever concept they’re going to twist then to suit their needs. Whatever few theoritical concepts Immigration law might have been based on have been destroyed by years of either haphazardous or plainly malignant reforms, often both.

And not only does that mean that this at this point is an intensely, punitively complex law, it has also become - if it hasn’t always been - illogical and incoherent. The only “logic” behind it anymore is how much it can be weaponized against its subjects - foreigners. Because that’s the only thing that politicians care about, and because lawyers and especially academics have pretty much given up on it, leaving the terrain free for the former. You have to realize, in terms of pure numbers, Immigration law is the most practiced law in the country. It represents almost a third of all disputes. Yet it is taught in NO university in France. Not a single one. There are no courses, no grad school, no thesis program about immigration law in all of France. There is no money in Immigration law : almost all involved subjects are destitute. There is no intellectual curiosity, because the discipline, from a theoretical point of view, is pretty uninteresting. There isn’t even public interest, because deceptively, the general public hears so much about immigration from either ignorant or ill-intentioned people, that getting through the complexity of the topic is immensely complicated and unrewarding.

Lawyers, for the most part, have deserted the topic for selfish reasons, despite the fact that this is perhaps where they were most needed to make sure fundamental rules were enforced, that politics didn’t come in the way of good justice. They abandoned the most vulnerable subjects of law to the whims of lawmakers and political interests. That’s unforgiveable.

So as a result, Immigration law today mostly resembles a cat-and-mouse game where the law sets up as many traps as possible for the immigrant to fall into, with dozens of obstacles to navigate to finally, finally be able to legally settle in a country you might be have been living in for several decades. There are specific stay rules for retirees. That’s a thing. Every rule is meant to exclude as many people as possible. As a result, immigrants must get increasingly creative or even downright shifty in order to qualify for a stay. And in turn, public opinion will yell and say they are manipulating the system - well, duh. We’ve made a system in which it’s impossible to win fair and square and then we criticize immigrants for trying to game it.

Let’s have just one example : demands of admission because of sickness. French law categorizes different reasons for an immigrant to be admitted to live on french soil for a little while : study, work, family matters, and health. France has a very good health system compared to the worldwide standard, so many people come here to receive treatment they might not be able to benefit from in their country of origin for various reasons. Some people already don’t think that’s a reason for welcoming them, but fuck those people. Anyway, there are many, many people who will ask for permission to stay on the grounds of an “invisible” illness : depression, PTSD, personality disorder... all of which are very difficult to prove. Before 2017, the prefect had to decide based on the opinion of a doctor from the regional authority after they’d met with the author of the request. But the administration quickly realized that doctors tend to have that pesky thing called deontology or even - perish the thought ! - empathy. So there was a reform, and now the way it works is the ill immigrant goes to a doctor who writes a report, then mails it to the person’s lawyer, who then mails it to a doctor that will do a second report based on that report, and will send that second report to a group of 3 doctors who, on the sole basis of that document, will advise the prefect on whether or not the person is ill, and whether or not they could have access to treatment in their country. And when I say advise, I mean they mail a form with boxes checked. That’s it. No text. So we have a prefect, who’s not a doctor, making a decision about the health situation of a person based on a box-based form filled by doctors who have never met the person, who themselves are judging based on the report of another doctor who has no met the person either, this last doctor writing based on the report of another doctor who might have met the person once. And all of this can take up to a year. That’s time during which the immigrant cannot work, or receive benefits. And then, if the prefect decides against letting the immigrant stay, then they have only 2 months to challenge that decision, otherwise after those 2 months have passed, they can be arrested, incarcerated and deported at any time.

So given all that, is it any wonder that immigrants tend to “discover” illness after illness and constantly ask for stays based on that ? This system is so random and unfair, that all you can really do is try and try again hoping something will eventually stick. So now you have people complaining that immigrants are faking mental illness in mass, causing prejudice to the “real” mentally ill immigrants. And yes, that’s the effect. But make no mistake : the cause is how difficult it is for an immigrant to have their illness acknowledged when it’s not something “extreme” enough to have you cross the border on a gurney. Because it’s not enough to google “availability of x medication in x country” to make sure the person can actually access treatment in their country of origin.

So that’s the hypocrisy infusing (haha, tea joke) the whole system. And on top of that, the procedure is getting more complicated with every reform : miss one deadline, fill out one form wrong, and you’re out. And please remember we’re dealing with people who for the vast majority do not speak french (the ONLY language allowed in administrative matters according to the Constitution) and know nothing of our administrative system. It’s up to the person’s lawyer to basically map out the life of each of their client. And because there is no money in immigration law - you only get paid in judicial aid from the state - there aren’t many immigration lawyers. You have to do this out of conviction, cuz you’re certainly not doing it for the money or career opportunities. In the practice I interned at last year, each lawyer would at all times manage on average 50 to 80 active cases. And let’s be clear, a lot of them are assholes, because lawyers in general tend to be assholes. But the work they do in downright heroic.

So that’s where I come in to fix it all, right ? Yeah, no. This entire system is fucked, and given what the world looks like right now, it might be for a while. I’m under no delusion that I can do anything to change that. My goal is to help the way I can : I want to become an administrative judge, the ones who are in charge of examining administrative decisions regarding immigrants. This type of challenge represents roughly 50% of the activity of any administrative tribunal : every chamber, no matter their specialty, has to do a little of it, otherwise the system is so backed up it would collapse. Some of those judges do amazing work, and are some of the most compassionate people I’ve ever met. Some of them are not. Most of them are plain bored by this type of claim, because they’re repetitive, not really technical from a legal standpoint and always depressing. And a handful of them have ties to the far-right and are there just to expel as many immigrants as possible. So yeah, if all goes well I’ll be a judge in a few years, and I’ll be one of the only ones who came to the job because of immigration law, not in spite of it. It’s not bragging on my part, it’s just a sad fact. Judges at the tribunal where I’ve worked had a schedule for who was supposed to be in charge of new immigration claims arriving, and some judges would hide from court reporters in order not to get attributed cases that arrived right before their shift was over. So yeah, if I can be a small drop in the bucket and be someone who actually looks at these cases with the explicit intent of finding a reason to approve the claim, that’ll be good enough for me. Because Immigration law, or at least what we’ve made of it, might not be “interesting” but it’s goddamn important, and people should pay attention to it.

#law stuff #immigration law #well this got personal #I don't know if any of that was what you were looking for but #yeah #i just love this topic so much #there is so much good to do #and so few people care #it's a national shame

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peachyrm · 6 years

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i feel like a lot of ppl on this site see a callout post for BTS, look at all of the problematic things they did in the past, and immediately ‘cancel’ them or see that as a valid reason to finally hate them or kpop in general, without considering the context of the situations or how the kpop industry works.

im definitely not here to defend the things they said or did, because it WAS gross. but those things are also from 3-5 years ago, have apologized for or had no control over whether it happened or not.

this post serves as a ‘clearing their name’ type of post, and will actually take a look into the problematic things theyve done and how they dealt with it, along with all the positive things they have done in the past few years. it will be pretty lengthy and will have lots of sources/screenshots. before i get into this though, i want to say that no one is obligated to like BTS, or forgive them for what they/their label did. you reserve the right to feel the way you feel, however that may be. that being said, this post is for people who never saw the apologies, who vaguely know who BTS are and saw only bad things about them, who want to get into BTS but aren’t sure if they’re extremely problematic, and more.

starting off, i want to explain the context behind the links of this post. i would link the original, but op has deleted it. so, obviously, yes bts did do all of the above. but like i said before, it was 3-5 (now, technically 6) years ago. when BTS debuted in 2013, they were all 21 or under. 15-16 year old Jungkook being the youngest, and Seokjin being the oldest at 21. they were merely teenagers and on top of this, had no or very little control of their self image. the hairstyles & photoshoots, the boys had no control over. bighit and bts’ stylists are in charge of these things. if you want someone to be angry at, be angry at bighit, bts’ label company. this includes RM’s hairstyle back in the ‘No More Dream’ era / early debut days, Suga’s dreads, and any other hairstyle, clothing, or photoshoot that caused controversy. (in case anyone, who isn’t familiar with kpop, is confused; kpop label companies usually control everything their idols do. from what they wear, to what their songs are about, to if they’re even allowed to date. it’s a very disgusting industry that has a history of abuse, but that’s an entirely different subject i could get into.)

here is an article where BigHit apologizes for the antisemitism + the ‘bombing’ shirt Jimin wore, and they explicitly state that “the band members were ‘in no way responsible’ for the controversy.” which further proves my point that the boys had no control over what they wore/how they looked.

here is a thread about RM’s racist behavior in the past, and admitting + apologizing for what he did, including how he has changed certain lyrics of songs because they could be seen as (or were) misogynist. to this day, RM hates and regrets how his hair looked at the time.

in case anyone doesn’t want to read the entire thread, RM says this: “As I went through the year 2016 I came to think about that. My words or behaviors, regardless of my intentions, could cause troubles or hurt others feelings. In the process, I thought I need to hold responsibility for that and I need to think about such things. What I said or did would not be undone. I thought so. Then I learned how to admit myself. [...] Anyways, to become a better person, I need to hold responsibility for what I do. I need to change my mindset. I need to change my way of thinking if it’s wrong. I learned I need to hear from many people. I mean, I came to think like that. Now when I do something, I think, ‘how would people feel about my act?’”

again, this is not excuses for what they did, but rather how/why it happened or how they had no choice in the matter & what they had to say about it afterwards. BTS are living, growing people who have acknowledged their mistakes and apologized. in RM’s speech at the U.N. he says this: “Maybe I made a mistake yesterday, but yesterday’s me is still me. I am who I am today, with all my faults. Tomorrow I might be a tiny bit wiser, and that’s me, too. These faults and mistakes are what I am, making up the brightest stars in the constellation of my life. I have come to love myself for who I was, who I am, and who I hope to become.”

since the apology part of this post is mostly over, i wanted to talk about the good things that bts has done in the past few years. things like their continuous support of the LGBT community, the powerful messages in their music, the bending of the ‘typical kpop style’, etc.

over the years and as their popularity grew, BTS have actually managed to seemingly take more control over what they stand for and how they present themselves and their music. since around 2017, BTS have made a very impactful social stance with their string of albums & their concept: “Love Yourself”. for people who don’t know, this concept consists of three albums over the course of 2016-2018 and are in order as follows: LOVE YOURSELF 承 'Her', LOVE YOURSELF 轉 'Tear' LOVE YOURSELF 結 'Answer'

the summarized version of the stories are love at first sight, the failing/one-sided-ness of said love, and then learning how to love and accept yourself before you are fully able to love others. along with this concept came the partnership with the anti-violence campaign, UNICEF, who work to protect young people from all over the world. the entire album concept consistently promotes self-love and acceptance, something that is not very explored in kpop or even western pop music in general. while some of the songs in “LY: Her” use female pronouns, almost all the rest of them across all the albums use gender neutral or no pronouns. this was done intentionally by RM (who writes/produces a majority of their songs), as he believes “feelings/love transcend genders, cultures, and barriers between people.” the title song of “LY: Her”, “DNA”, (as stated in the screenshot) further expresses this idea with the lyrics: “None of this is a coincidence Because we’re the two who found our destiny - I only focus on you You steer me a little harder The DNA of the genesis wants you This is inevitable, I love us We are the only true lovers”

and in “Serendipity”, as well:

“The universe has moved for us Without missing a single thing Our happiness was meant to be Cuz you love me, and I love you”

while, obviously, there is one ‘her’ pronoun in the song, most of it expresses what RM says. and bighit being bighit, im sure they had some say in how the lyrics were presented, esp since it was the title song. what i’m trying to say is that i truly believe BTS are doing their best to support the lgbt community, even with the tight restrictions that their label and the kpop genre puts on them. being on the topic of LGBT+ and support of the community, here is suga pretty much saying he’s bi. + and of course, his iconic lyrics in “Cypher Pt.3″

here is the bisexual flag colors in j-hope’s music video for his song “Daydream”.

RM saying he liked “Same Love” twice as much after reading about the lyrics, and Suga outright saying “Nothing is wrong. Everyone is equal.” in the first screenshot.

Jungkook’s love and support for troye sivan + Jimin wearing jeans with lyrics of troye sivan’s “Youth” on them

bts defying gender norms over and over and over.

fondness & friendship with/of multiple lgbt artists

RM referencing the film “Moonlight” in the song “4 O’Clock”

RM wrote the lyrics for GLAM’s song “XXO”, that say “Are you a boy? Girl? I don’t care, passion is the key”

Jungkook and Jimin covering the song “We Don’t Talk Anymore” and not changing the pronouns.

an excerpt from RM’s speech at the U.N. ; “Tell me your story. I want to hear your voice, and I want to hear your conviction. No matter who you are, where you’re from, your skin color, gender identity: speak yourself.” + full transcript here.

and these are just things i can think of off the top of my head. as for their political stance and social messages in their music, & talking about other things considered taboo in kpop (such as mental health/illness), here you go:

suga talking about (his) mental health and struggles in various songs on his mixtape.

their ENTIRE “IDOL” music video is basically a response to how people stereotype them/the kpop genre & have said that they are “too westernized”. the song includes a “traditional African-Korean sound”, the boys wearing hanboks/traditional korean clothing, on top of lots of korean history references & symbolism, and how they take pride in what they do. here is a really good video analyzing & explaining the mv. heres 3 more posts explaining why it sounds/looks the way it does, and how BTS did it intentionally. in case nobody has seen/heard the song, here is the first verse: “You can call me artist (artist) You can call me idol (idol) No matter what you call me I don’t care I’m proud of it”

the song “Epiphany” on “LY: Answer”, is (as you can imagine) a song about having an epiphany about loving yourself. the lyrics are pretty self-explanatory. the chorus: “I’m the one I should love in this world Shining me, precious soul of mine I finally realized so I love me Not so perfect but so beautiful I’m the one I should love”

RM talking about his mental health/depression in “Forever Rain” on his mixtape “mono.” + as well as in “Reflection.” the outro of the song which i wanted to add, is just a repeated “I wish I could love myself.”

the lyrics to the song “I’m Fine” on LY: Answer express being able to love yourself without relying on somebody to fix you or make you happier, because only you can complete yourself.

the outro to the album, “Answer: Love Myself” concludes the Love Yourself album series, and has extremely beautiful lyrics. the full translation here, if anyone wants to read all of them. it’s about, as im sure you can guess, loving yourself even with all your flaws and mistakes & striving to be a better person each day.

SO TLDR; BTS absolutely have made mistakes, like every person does, but have apologized and learned from those mistakes. they have moved on, and have done more good in this world than bad. they have grown over the past 6 years and continue to grow every single day. as a young gay fan, their message and their presence means a lot to me. that fact that they’re so popular and use that power to spread kindness & self-acceptance (no matter Who you are), is really important especially in today’s society. doubly to youth who, themselves, struggle with mental illness and family issues, school/education, and any typical problem young people face in their lives. i have struggled with self-hate, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, trauma, the whole ordeal. their songs have helped me heal, even if only a little. and they give me another reason to keep going everyday. even if you don’t like their music or the boys themselves, there is no denying the positive impact they’ve made on millions of people, adults and children alike. BTS are absolutely not perfect, but they acknowledge this and do their best to BE the best they can be.

#bts #kpop #jeon jungkook #kim taehyung #park jimin #kim namjoon #jung hoseok #min yoongi #kim seokjin #bts v #bts rm #bts suga #bts jhope #bts jin #mine

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eerythingisshaka · 6 years

Text

The Coffee Prince Pt. 4

(T’Challa x Reader)

*Part 1* *Part 2* *Part 3*

Word Count: 7.1k

Plot: Stuck in your ways of living, one day at the coffee shop, you run into a tall dark roast that threatens to wake you up from your romantic hibernation.

*Previously*

You close your room door, tossing T’Challa Jr. on your bed. Kicking your shoes off, taking your hair down, you pull out your phone.

Home safe! You send to him. You put your phone down and unclothe to get comfortable. Suddenly a ding sounds and you dive for your device.

Glory to Bast. Sleep well, umhle.

You read it a couple of times before setting your phone back down. Laying down, you clutch your prized possession T’Challa won you to your chest as the day’s event float in your head: euphorically exhausted.

The next few weeks with T’Challa that follow are some of the best you have experienced in a long time. You guys meet at the coffee shop from time to time when your schedules allow, and take evening walks to vent about your days and life, ending with sweet kisses before you guys part ways. You can’t remember the last time you walked into work on cloud nine, but T’Challa seemed to be doing that for you now.

This day however was particularly tasking. Your company’s online server was down, causing an uptick in calls from begrudging customers wanting answers on when their products would be available again to use. The worst part was that your processors had no clue what the problem is or how long it would take to fix, so you try your best to white lie your way to keeping customers satisfied enough to keep from threatening to revoke their memberships. Just before you are at your wits end however, you see your phone light up with T’Challa’s name calling in. T’Challa wasn’t a big texter; he likes to hear your voice and feels texting is too impersonal which you thought was quite sweet but could be inconvenient at times. You pick up and speak in a low tone.

“Heyyy, Chacha, what’s up?” You were still kind of trying to figure out a nickname for him. You kinda like this one.

“So much, right now, umhle. I could really use a break at the moment. Are you free to meet?”

You look at the queue of calls sitting in your phone line and the stack of paperwork you need to upload and organize.

“Yeah, I can step away for a bit. The usual?”

“If you don’t mind. We could do something else if you’d rather.” His tone tickles your eardrum as you imagine him saying that in another context, but T’Challa was completely pure in his intentions with you most of the time.

“No, no. I could kill for some caffeine right now and it’s closer. My energy is too low to walk far.” you say with a whine.

“Ms. Macchiato, in her true form. I’ll see you there then.”

“Ok, see you!” You’re cheesing as you hang up the phone. You look around at your other co-workers completely ignoring the queue and roll your eyes as you walk out. No way in hell you would be the only person putting in phone work around here. You remind yourself to do some job searching later when possible.

Walking into the shop, the smell of the coffee beans roasting was enough to make you moan audibly. You were so damn ready to wrap your lips on the rim, letting the warm liquid rejuvenate your spirit. As you approach the register, you hear a voice call to you.

“(Y/N)! Over here!” T’Challa waves from a table by the window.

You wave and mime the you are going to order something and he replies, “I’ve got you right here, umhle.”

You squint as you see the extra cup sitting in front of him with your name correctly scrawled along the side. Walking up to him your heart swells with appreciation. T’Challa stands up placing a hand on your arm and a kiss on your cheek.

“You didn’t have to buy it for me. I owe you for a couple other ones already.” you say taking your seat.

T’Challa hisses his disdain for your comment. “You have no reason to pay me back. That’s not how I do things; my treat is seeing you in front of me.”

You feel heat rise to your face from something other than the coffee. You hide your goofy smile in your cup as you take a sip.

T’Challa smirks at you a while before continuing, “A hard days work looks good on you, by the way. I know you said things have been piling up, that’s why I wondered if you would even be able to see me today.” T’Challa sips from his ‘Thomas’ cup.

You tweak your mouth as you shift in your seat, “Yeah, I just figured, the work will still be there whether I take a break now or later. And trust me, the work will still be there for me to do alone.”

“Ahh, so your co-workers aren’t as dedicated as you seem to be.” T’Challa summizes.

“I mean, dedicated is a strong word. I do what I need to do to get things cuz otherwise I’m going to hear someone’s mouth about it, and I don’t needed that added stress, you know?”

T’Challa nods hugging himself in contemplation, “I see what you mean. Your situation seems to be working in comparison with mine. You know of my community work in high-crime areas?”

You nod. T’Challa had spoken of his work with a non-profit to rebuild some areas that were pretty violent and drug ridden that you knew all too well.

“Well, of course it is not so simple as to give people things and expect them to use the materials to create a better situation for themselves with education. So we are trying to do that, educate, but everyone is at a different learning level, and not everyone learns at the same rate or method. So, as much as we would love to be projecting great numbers of progress, they have been slow to come and almost stagnant at times due to us still trying to build a foundation for a successful program.” T’Challa lifts his hands in surrender, shaking his head as he grips his cup up, staring into space.

“I get it. That’s some of the hardest work in the world; helping others in a completely selfless way. It can consume you, corrupt people and forget the mission at large. But I think you have a good head on your shoulders to keep things on track.” You reach for T’Challa’s hand, running your thumb along his slightly rough knuckles.

T’Challa sighs deeply watching your hand on his; his eyelids halfen his eyes. You see his shoulders start to relax as he grips your hand in yours.

“Look at that. It looks funny to me how polar opposite our hands are.” You stretch his out, raising it up to mirror yours, palm to palm. “Mine is stout and chubby, yours long and knuckly.” You chuckle to yourself regarding the assessment,

T’Challa interlaces his fingers in yours, his eyes smizing, “It’s a beautiful combination, I think. I need something soft to rest my hands on.”

Your heart skipped a beat at this statement. T’Challa kept doing things like this. You smile at him and he just smiles back, kissing the back of your hand gingerly, maintaining the hold as he drinks from his cup. Does he really not realize the double entendre or are you just too hot for him at this point? That’s something Tavia has practically put a countdown on: the time when you all fully express yourselves physically.

T’Challa says, “We have a community get-together happening this weekend by the way. You could come by; there will be food, music, games, the works. I’ll be working a little bit of everything, trying to spread the word of our program for people to take advantage of, but I could escort you around.” T’Challa says with a smile.

“Oh yeah! I’d love to see you in action over there. You had me at free food, but you know, the kids are the future as well.” You quip.

T’Challa scoffs, “Well that’s what the food is there for. Cheapest advertising tool known to man.” T’Challa looks at his watch, “I think I may have taken more of your time than I anticipated.”

You look at your phone at get a mini heart attack. Someone may actually notice your absence this time. You could just say you were in the bathroom the whole time. You both get up to leave the coffee shop.

Once outside you guys turn to each other. A thought crosses your mind and you start to speak but decide against it.

T’Challa, always observant, notices. “What’s on your mind, umhle?”

“Uhh...I don’t, mm.” You bite your tongue.

T’Challa rests his hand on your arm, sending an electricity through you that you found to be completely unfair. “If you can’t make the community event, it is alright. Your rest is more important. And I know you have plenty other things to do.”

“No, it’s not that. But um, are...do we…” T’Challa looks at your expectantly. “Are we...exclusive?”

There it is. Something that has been plaguing you for a while is how much you guys have hung out and gotten to know each other, but you couldn’t place if you guys were good friends who just kiss sometimes, or if he was looking for anything more.

“Are we exclusive?” T’Challa parrots back.

You nod, not wanting to say much else out of embarrassment.

T’Challa steps in front of you slowly leaning to whisper in your ear, “I don’t kiss my friends the way I kiss you, umhle.”

His bass snakes your inner ear like the serpent on an apple, as you twinge to keep your juices from flowing on sight.

He pulls from your ear staring you, hand resting on your hip. “And I am a one woman kind of man, (Y/N). Don’t think anyone else could carry a single percent of my attention from you.” Looking to your mouth he hovers his over it before allowing you to close the gap between you. His lips fit with yours perfectly as the suction creates a chorus of smacks, sealing the definition of your relationship.

A low grunt comes from T’Challa as he sighs deeply pulling from you. “So, do you like me? Yes or no?” He smiles goofily at you as you laugh at his childish question.

Stifling your smile, you say, “Maaaybe. But it’s in your favor.”

Heading back to your place, Tavia is posted on the couch with an array of books and papers scattered around her. She is back in school to earn a certification in something you keep forgetting.

Tavia looks at you over her glasses, “Whaddup, doh?”

“Nuthin much, girl. You?” You kick off your shoes and throw your keys in a bowl.

“Hun, you lookin at it. Procrastination remains the death of me. Them white folks still giving you hell at the job?”

“Yeah, they stay lazing around and I’m tending the field like Boss asks.” You exasperate as you plop on the easy chair massaging your scalp.

“You need to get the fuck outta there. They don’t appreciate you. And you too smart for that busy work.”

“Yeah. It would be so much easier if I could just stay and not start all over in a new place, though.”

Tavia wags a finger, “Uh-uh. Cuz then you would be getting more responsibility that does not reflect in your pay. Leave!!”

You marinate on Tavia’s words. It seems like she’s right honestly. You have no position in that job and there is no way to work up because positions get taken quick or just aren’t available.

“At least we can get our frustrations all out on some canvas at the Sip and Paint Saturday. Groupon finally came through with something good.” Tavia says bobbing her neck as she reads her notes.

Your stomach drops as you remember the plan you made last week with her. “Uhh…”

Tavia snaps to look at you, “Uhhh? Uh what?”

You play with your fingers as you speak, “So I ran into T’Challa today…”

“And?” Tavia winds her hand in the air for you to hurry up.

“He has a thing at his non-profit. Like a block party type thing. I said I would help…” You squeak out, waiting for the storm to blown.

Tavia looks at you frozen with blank expression. “Ok, I see.”

You recoil into your body as you continue, “Are you mad?”

“NAH! You good! I get it, dick is important to lock down. I applaud your efforts.” Tavia whips out her phone. “I guess I’ll get back on this app life. The Groupon is only good in for a couple, not single.”

You go over to half hug Tavia, “I’ll make it up to you, I promise. Girl.”

“Tsk, make it up by making that dick dance for you. That’s all I ask.” She pats your head on her shoulder before rolling it to get you off her.

You go to your room as you hear Tavia’s phone pinging on and on. “See? I got options too!”

Saturday comes and you make your way to the park the community party was being held at. Balloons and tables were in abundance; speakers were playing everything you heard on the radio and then some. The smell of burgers and brats filled the air and your stomach instantly caved in with hunger. T’Challa said they were good on set up and really just wanted you to enjoy yourself for the most part.

Making your way through the crowd, you go to the food table to fix a plate. You smile and thank the servers as they pile your plate with the goods. Once you make it to the dessert area, you feel two hands grip sides, making you jump a little.

“I have to admit, the sweets on that table would only disappoint you.” A voice you know too well tickles your hearing as his lips greet the side of your face.

You turn to see T’Challa smiling at you. “They look pretty good to me, what’s the problem?”

“As sweet as your lips are, they’d only taste sour.” he says screwing his lips in disgust before planting his mouth on yours. You didn’t need the plate or dessert if this was all that touched your lips today.

“Brother! This is not the way you introduce me to your girlfriend, eh?” a voice says behind you.

A young lady with braids in a bun shakes her head clicking her tongue at the both of you. “Shame, shame, I must say. We have health codes to maintain, please move the PDA along elsewhere.”

T’Challa smiles speaking to her, “(Y/N), this talkative volunteer is my sister, Shuri. I told you about her a little bit.”

Shuri nods proudly, sticking her hand out. “The pleasure is all mine. I am the subject of many people’s conversations, I’m just that memorable. And don’t let him fool you, I am running this operation, not just volunteering.”

Taking her handshake, you buck your eyes at T’Challa “Oh?”

T’Challa shifts his weight, pursing his lips, “Shuri, you know better than to fib. This isn’t Wakanda, you have a secondary position here.”

Shuri waves her hand in his face, “Ah ah ah! Bump all of that, Brother. Science and tech is the most important aspect of the program, no surprise. The public schools here do nothing to emphasize the importance and hone their knowledge to be able to apply what they learn outside the classroom. Also, I meant the picnic anyway. You barely lifted a finger to decorate.”

“Bast! I did more than life a finger. Anything heavy was my job to handle! Cutting up cake is not ‘doing everything’.” T’Challa exclaims.

Shuri holds a fist up to her face and demonstrates a winding motion next to it. “I wonder what will pop up?” Her middle finger slowly unravels.

“Can I get the apple pie, please?” a person asks.

Shuri drops her hands and puts on a winning smile, “Of course! We have plenty, so don’t hold back!” She says as she hands over a pre-cut slice.

You were getting your life to the back and forth between T’Challa and Shuri. Rubbing T’Challa’s back you dismiss yourselves. “Thank you Shuri, and it was so nice to meet you.”

“Likewise, (Y/N). He can’t shut up about you, so use that to your advantage.”

T’Challa moans in frustration shaking his head as he leads you away to a table to sit.

You sit and start to to smack on your food.

“(Y/N), I’m going to make rounds for a bit. Will you be ok here?”

You nod with a mouth full of food hindering your speech. T’Challa smiles, kissing your forehead as he walks toward some informational tables. The whole party seemed to be a smash hit. Hordes of people walked around enjoying the sites and music. Kids ran after each other and got their faces painted. Shuri moved from the dessert table to the science area where she and others demonstrated simple experiments making fog and foam appear from virtually thin air. There was a mini exhibit on an element called ‘vibranium’ that you hadn’t heard of before so maybe you would check that out.

Finishing your plate, you definitely had The Itis, so you needed to get up and do something. You weren’t sure where T’Challa went, but you went around to enjoy the sights regardless. You played a couple of the carnival games, trying to knock bottles down with a nerf gun and that one cornhole game that’s always a classic.

You waited in line forever to get your face painted and while the clown lady was giving you a gorgeous flower on your cheek, a voice calls out to you.

“Yaaass! Getcho face BEAT for the Gods!”

Turning slightly to not mess up the creation, you see Tavia made it to the party.

“Hey girl! Whatchu doin here? You didn’t say you were coming!” You exclaim taking her hand lovingly.

“I love surprises though, so here I be! I did wanna be nosy too though. Where’s Tobago?”

You roll your eyes, “Tavia, I will knock you clean the fuck out if you get his name wrong in front to his face. T-Cha-lla.”

“Listen, it only matters that you get Thalia’s name right. Don’t worry bout me! Where is he anyway?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. I thought he would be escorting me around but he got caught up in the mix I guess. Why are you here though? Ain’t Sip and Paint tonight?”

Tavia nods, “Uh-huh. I found a willing participant to accompany so I’ll be leaving, like now.”

The lady gives you a mirror to show you the finished art on you. “Ok, well have fun. I know this is about to wrap up too in like 15 minutes, so if I don’t do anything after, I’ll be home.”

“Please, do something else! You made your way out here for the nigga to abandon you for most of it. He owes you somethin!” She raises her eyebrows at you suggestively.

“Ok! Bye!” You say dismissing her.

As Tavia leaves, you look around to see where T’Challa went. Instead, you see Shuri breaking down the science exhibit area and decide to ask her.

“Hey, Shuri. Have you seen your brother around?”

Shuri looks across the way, “I don’t know actually but I hope he is deflating the bounce house. People will keep coming and kids will never leave if that stays up.” Shuri struggles to fold a table and you reach down to bend the leg joint of it so it folds.

“Ugh, thanks (Y/N).”

“No problem! Do you need help with anything else around here? I got nothing else to do.”

Shuri nods looking around, “If you collect some tablecloths and toss them. They are disposable so we aren’t keeping them. After that, we got tables we are loading up in the trucks nearby. Don’t wear yourself out though! Just a couple would be a great start and you can leave whenever you want.”

“Ok, will do. This was an amazing event by the way.”

Shuri laughs with her tongue out, as she brushes her shoulders off, “I does what I can!”

Collecting the tablecloths you think about how beyond her years Shuri appears to be. The girl is a teenager, but is of course so smart and has a great business-head on her shoulders. Plus it was so cute to hear her talking shit with her accent; she really was down! You wanted to be her when you got your life together.

With all of the tablecloths disposed of, you head to tipping a table and getting it folded.

“Eh! My sister has you working now?” T’Challa comes out of nowhere, reaching to fold the legs down.

“No, I volunteered! I wasn’t doing anything else so…”

T’Challa raises the table on its side, walking the table to the truck. “I’m sorry about that, by the way. There was a lot of behind the scenes stuff that I had to help with that was...unexpected.”

You nod, quiet. You couldn’t hide your disappointment. “I still saw a lot though, escorted on not. This place was hopping with shit to do.”

T’Challa steps in front of you, grasping your chin, eyes locked on you suddenly. Your insides jump at the anticipation of what was to come from his touch.

He turns your head slightly to the left, studying your art, “Ahhh, a purple flower. It almost resembles the Heart Shaped Herb from back home.”

Your pace steadies as you realize his intentions. “Yeah? I just wanted something pretty and purple and boom! There it is.”

T’Challa nods, licking his lips as he studies your face. Letting go, he say, “Let me make it up to you. We could get some dinner...or a movie.” You contemplate the options. “Or both? We could really paint the town if you want, so we can catch up.” He says softly caressing your painted cheek. Your center began to throb again. T’Challa was always making it impossible to think clearly when he is talking about completely normal things but not giving you any room to breath. If it weren’t for the people around, you would press up on him right now; that’s what you wanted to do!

“Both is good,” you squeak out before moving away to go back to get another table. You walked with a bounce to ensure he would have a show as you walked away.

T’Challa had three tables down as you had just finished folding your one. Walking it back to the truck, your foot hits a hole in the ground you didn’t see. You lose your balance as you try to hold the table, but it sends you off kilter even more. A sharp pain shoots through your ankle as you land, the table plops on top of you.

You yelp in pain as you try to push the table off and not move your leg. Suddenly the table is clear off of you and you see T’Challa over you, face riddled with worry.

“(Y/N), are you ok? Where are you hurt?” He asks, kneeling and holding your head in his hands.

You point down to your leg. “My ankle! God!”

Shuri has come over to look it over. She presses something on her bracelet causing a stream of light to cascade over your swelling foot. Your skeletal make up in your ankle is revealed for a short period.

“What is that?” you ask, having never seen that kind of technology.

Ignoring you, Shuri says, “It isn’t broken, thank Bast. We can’t handle an OSHA case right now, right brother?” Shuri jabs him, chuckling. T’Challa’s returned expression snaps her back to a professional tone. “Like I said, not broken, just sprained so she needs to lay off of it a while: wrap it, ice it, the works.” She instructs as she heads back to her duties.

T’Challa nods, “Ok, come (Y/N). I’ll take you home.”

You didn’t protest this time. Your ankle hurt like hell, so a free ride couldn’t hurt. T’Challa reaches your arm around his shoulders and reaches his arm under your knees to lift you.

“Whoa, whoa! I don’t like that. Please, I’ll hop.” you say.

T’Challa looks at you incredulously, “It will be faster if I carried you.”

Your body tenses up, “Come on, I don’t wanna...weigh you down or whatever. Please, this is embarrassing enough.”

T’Challa bats his eyes realizing the problem, “Do you think I cannot lift you?”

You lean your head back, mortified. “I know you are strong, I can tell. But I’m a sturdy gal, I’m just trying to warn you.”

T’Challa sucks his teeth, going at lifting you again. You close your eyes tightly as your weight becomes nothing in his arms. You feel the bounce of his stride as you peak to see you are in motion. T’Challa looks ahead, no signs of strain, he looks at you and winks. Your cat could meow with how good he was making you feel right now showing off himself. You hadn’t been lifted since grade school, and your current boo does it like you are a toddler. God bless it.

T’Challa puts you down a moment to get the door to his Lexus open. T’Challa takes your hands as you slowly sit down, folding your legs in, careful to not bump your ankle against the door.

“How are you feeling?” T’Challa asks, resting his hand on your knee, eyes wide with concern.

You nod, “I’m good, don’t worry.” You cup the side of his face, causing him to lean his face into your palm. He turns to kiss your palm before getting up to close your door and make his way to the drivers’ side.

Starting the engine, he asks, “Alright, now what is your address?” as he searches for the GPS program in his dash. You give it to him, praying to God Tavia hadn’t made it home yet.

Once you guys are on the road, T’Challa reaches over for one of your hands in your lap. “Are you still ok?”

“Yeah, more than. Thanks, by the way, for the ride.”

“Ahh, don’t thank me. It’s the least I could do. You were such a big help today.” T’Challa says gripping your hand a little tighter.

“Hardly! I took down two tables and almost broke an ankle. Plus we won’t be able to go out tonight cuz of me.” You say disappointedly.

“If I was by your side like I said I would, there would be known of these issues to begin with.” T’Challa takes your hand, kissing the back of it.

You almost forget your ankle when he warms you up like that. A man admitting fault was a big turn on, you had to admit. And you loved how affectionate he was, without pressure; just enough. Looking at your ankle you remember something from earlier, “What was that device Shuri used? It was like a portable X-Ray device?”

T’Challa nods slowly, “Precisely what it was. Shuri developed it in her lab in Wakanda and it’s been pretty vital to our village.”

You think on this, “Wow, you guys have a lot more to you than I imagined. It’s beautiful.”

T’Challa smirks, “The Western media would make you think we are impoverished but we have handled ourselves without outside help, and I think that says something.” Your mind was churning with so many other questions but before you knew it, you guys made it your your place.

Luckily you all have an elevator, so T’Challa only carried you, without hesitation, to the elevator then your door. Setting you down, you get your keys together to find the one for your door.

“Umm, once I get inside, I should be able to manage if you need to make it back to the park.” you say nervously.

“Oh, they wouldn’t miss one person, I think. If it’s comfortable with you, I want to check your ankle once more before I head back, though.” He looks at you with a serious expression.

You nod, turning to the door to hide your excitement. As you open the door, the apartment is dark and quiet, so Tavia must be having a good night. Turning on the lights, you start hobbling to the couch. T’Challa doesn’t miss a beat, ducking under your arm to support you as you sit down.

T’Challa takes a couple decorative pillows and props them under your ankle, lightly inspecting it.

“Well it doesn’t look worse, which is good. Do you have little baggies and ice?”

You nod and point, “The fridge makes it, yeah. And the drawer under the microwave should have some lunch bags to fill.”

T’Challa gets to work, Macgyvering an ice bag for you. As you lay back, you catch yourself smelling like the outside, and instantly get embarrassed. You can’t get comfortable when you’re funky anyway, plus T’Challa would help you hobble around so might as well use him while he is here.

“Uh, T’Challa, can you hold off on the bag for a second. I need to go to my room, if you can spare your shoulders.” you ask.

“All the more for you to lean on, umhle.” T’Challa says lovingly, as you direct him to the right room. “It’s nice to see how you live on a daily basis. You keep a nice home.” T’Challa says as you reach your room.”

“My roommate gets most of the decorating credit, I gotta say. I do tell her when to reel it in though, so points for creative direction goes to moi.”

As you step into your room, you declare, “So I need to shower, cuz yikes.” You say sniffing yourself. “But did you want to stick around or….”

“I would love to!” He answers a little quicker than necessary. “No problem at all. Do you want me to order something? We could still have our dinner here.”

“Yes! Good idea. Let’s just do a pizza, from that local spot we passed.”

“I am well aware of it. Excellent choice.” He takes his phone out as you get a change of clothes and head for the bathroom.

In the shower you give yourself a pep talk. You are a goddess, queen! With your prince out there lying in wait for this body. He wants ALLADIS, sis! Don’t get nervous, or shy. If you run out of things to talk about, hey, you are on a bed, fill in the blanks. Damn, Tavia really got into you.

You lather your body in berry scents as you rinse, giving yourself a towel off and quick moisturization. You picked some shorts and a baby doll tank to wear. Still pajamas, but with a hint of lingerie appeal. Opening the door you step out to see T’Challa flipping through the TV channels. His head cranes in your direction.

“I didn’t think I’d smell something so heavenly until the pizza arrived.” He says smiling, eyes darting down your body.

“Haha, good one.” You say limping to the bed, sitting back.

“Was it too….”

“Don’t!”

“....cheesy?” T’Challa says scrunching his nose.

You slap his back with an audible thud. He holds takes your calf, placing it on his lap to ice with the bag he made earlier. The cool sensation was relieving, making you moan audibly. You bite your lip when you realize how comfortable you were getting.

T’Challa massages your calf as he holds the bag on your ankle, “Does that relieve you, umhle?”

You nod before answering, “Yeah, it does. Keep doing it.” You say, your vocal cords suddenly laced with honey as your voice dips seductively.

T’Challa rubs your calf some more. “I told you it is nice to have something soft to rest my hands on.” studying your leg as he goes.

You could’ve jumped out of your skin with that comment. So he DID know the double entendre, sly devil!

You chuckle trying to keep from freaking out before saying, “I’m pretty soft just out the shower though, don’t be fooled. Takes a lot to maintain.” You make a face behind T’Challa at your words. Snatching an insult out of the jaws of a compliment, nice.

“You make it look effortless.” he says looking up at you. “You think you could lend me some products?” he says showing all those beautiful teeth to you.

You smile into your chest shaking your head. “You can have whatever you like. But you have to follow the steps or you’ll just be a mess!”

T’Challa squints at you, “Eh? What process are you talking about?”

You swallow, hoping this doesn’t go over his head, “Well, you are on the right track practically. I like to start with my calves, very important. But I have so much more leg to go.”

T’Challa nods slowly, appearing to understand. “I see, so then we go to…” His hand hovers above your thigh. You shiver in anticipation, “The knee!” planting his hand on your kneecap.

You guffaw, “Right! Can’t neglect ashy knees! True! Then what, Chacha?”

He looks at your knee quizzically like its a jigsaw to solve, “The only way to go is the…” and without a word he snakes his hand up your thigh. You bite your lip, elevating your hips under his touch.

T’Challa tucks his lips as he notices your movement, “Is your reaction normal for the process?” he asks as his voice has caught the honey coated timbre of seduction as well. His eyes glaze over, looking from your face to your body, mouthslightly agape to the treats he will hopefully be soon to receive.

His hands grip both your thighs, one working inner, the other outer; his long hands encompass the surface area of your thickness easily. Your walls start to talk back to you, awaiting their turn for a massage.

“When it’s done right, yeah.” you say, unafraid at this point. You pull T’Challa’s face into yours, gripping the back of head. The kiss starts off as your regular ones do, only once did T’Challa try to slip tongue, but you go into a schoolgirl giggle fit when he had. This time was different, there was no ‘will he, won’t he’ because you were both on the same page. Your mouths opened simultaneously to welcome each other in. T’Challa moves your leg away gently as the ice bag falls to the floor. One of his hands grips your booty cheek, spreading it about like dough. You felt the spread in your lips as you moaned against his mouth, gripping his back to wrestle his shirt up, feeling the warmth of his skin.

You lean back on the bed as T’Challa hovers over you, sucking your neck; the sounds sensations of his lips against you could make you climax on its own. Then he got the nerve to pepper your collarbone and chest area with kisses, gripping your titties up like the were ripe for the picking.

“I have been wanting to explore your body for weeks.” He says suckling on your neck in between. “You can’t imagine the torture I have sustained to remain respectful.”

You shiver at this confession. All the feelings you had and that he gave you were mutual. “I think I can, ‘Challa. I feel it, 10 times more.”

You hadn’t gotten this far before, and it was becoming overwhelming for you. You either had to stop or get it in. Reaching for the button of his pants, you were shooting for the latter. T’Challa freezes above you as he watches your hands undo his pants. His breathing is heavily laden as you work the fly down to relieve his growing protrusion.

T’Challa begins to ask, “Umhle, are you sure-” before there is a knock on the front door.

You instantly dry up as you forgot the pizza was on the way, dropping your hands frustratedly. T’Challa rests his head on your shoulder a moment, before unmounting you to gain his composure on the side of the bed.

You don’t see his face but an awkward amount of time passes before you sit up. “I’ll get the door...”

T’Challa waves his hand in protest, “No, you rest your ankle, I’ve got it, I just...need time.” He gets up, buckling and zipping his pants as he walks outside. You cross your arms in wait, thinking about what almost happened. You would have to take another shower with all the preheating he did to your oven.

T’Challa stands at the door with the box in his hand. “Did you want to eat in here?”

He looked at you like a lost puppy. You weren’t sure what he was thinking of, but you figured the moment between you both has passed for now.

You nod, patting the bed. “Yeah, nothing fancy here. Come on.”

T’Challa sits on the edge of the other side, placing the box between you both. He picks up the ice bag to place on your ankle once more, patting your leg like cattle this time.

The fresh smells makes your stomach churn as you remember how hungry you were, grabbing a slice; T’Challa takes one as well, taking a big bite. You turn the TV to one of your tried and true comedies to binge. As the canned laughter fills your room, you look over to T’Challa looking like he is about ready to doze off.

“T’Challa?” you call to him.

His eyes flutter open as he looks to you, a lazy smile spreads across his face. “I’m sorry, umhle. I’m more tired than I thought before.” He gets up to stretch, joints popping, groaning with relief.

“You can sleep over if you want...just sleeping, you know. You’re tired, I’m tired, let’s just...sleep.” you say rambling. You wanted to make sure there was no pressure to spontaneously perform again.

T’Challa leans over the bed kissing you on the side of your face. “You would take in a lost Wakandan to lay his head at your residence?”

You give him a defiant look, “I didn’t say the whole village, now. Just you!” You both laugh as he takes the pizza box and sets it on your table.

“Plus my ankle has felt much better since you been here.” You tell him as if he needed further convincing. He climbs in next to you, resting his head on you, wrapping his arm around your waist.

“Then let’s dream for a speedy recovery.” He says sleepily.

You feel his hand rub your side gently, slowing up until he goes to sleep. The hum of his breathing sounds so sweet to you as you close your eyes to listen to its melody. Turning off the TV, you shimmy down to lay next to him, stirring T’Challa only a little, who adjusts to pull you in for spooning as you call it a night. You thought about how wild the night progressed but you still wouldn’t change a minute of it. His arms beat the panther plushie you have been hugging on any day.

Morning rays flood your room as the sun woke you up. You start to stretch and jerk with alarm when you feel him around you still. You forgot for a second he stayed with you. Adjusting your titties back in your shirt, you hear him waking up behind you as well.

“Mmm, is it morning already?” T’Challa groaned.

“It is, Chacha.” You look back at him, eyes still squinting awake but smiling at nonetheless. “Do you want to do breakfast?” you ask turning to face him.

T’Challa rubs your back as he replies, “I wish I could. But I have to get back to the center to debrief about yesterday’s festivities. It’s already-” he looks at his watch. “9:30 am. I’ll be there around noon, so I’ll go home and freshen up first.”

You whine at his plans, rubbing his chest for coaxing, “I don’t want you to go yet…”

His forehead meets yours, “How about I order you breakfast to enjoy in my absence and we make a date for my place next week?” He looks at you for a reply.

You wipe some sleep out of his eye before answering, “I guess that sounds good.” You exchange smiles before pecking a kiss on each other.

Suddenly music blasts from the living room. Tavia has been on a workout kick that requires a trap soundtrack to stay motivated.

T’Challa winces at the noise, “And we can be free from interruptions...” He twirls a wayward twist in your hair. “Completely free to do...anything.”

You squeeze your thighs at the thought before squirming away to get up. “I’d like that, T’Challa. Let me walk you out.”

Opening your bedroom door, you see Tavia hopping from one side of the room to the other. She sees you come out.

“Hey girl! Listen, when I’m done, let’s do a brunch thing or somethin! I’m starving and got some stories for you!” After one rotation she looks back at you for reply, by now noticing T’Challa. Tavia stops in her tracks, pausing her video.

“Tavia, this is T’Challa.” You make faces, pointing at Tavia from behind him as he walks over to her.

“Nice to meet a friend of (Y/N)’s. I have heard wonderful things.”

“Same here...T’Cha...lla.” Tavia says dumbfounded. You give her a thumbs up.

You and T’Challa walk over to the front door going outside to kiss each other goodbye once more before closing the door.

You and Tavia look at each other in silence for a second before bursting out in shrieks and giggles, jumping around.

“That’s my BITCH! I see you with that morning after glow on you! Talk to me, tell me something GOODT!”

You guys park on the couch before you start, “Ok, so first things first, we didn’t sleep together; like we literally just slept.”

Tavia instantly checked out. “Oh HELL NO! Did he go down on you at least?”

You shake your head.

“Come ON, B! Well what the fuck is there to talk about?? How is he here in the morning but not for getting it in. You need to swipe your card before it expires!”

“It doesn’t expire, hoe! And I’m more than ready to swipe it, cash it, turn it in to the authorities, but if you let me tell the story-”

A knock raps on the door. You both look at each other confused before you get up to answer. Peeping through the hole, you see a delivery man, you think.

Opening the door, the man holds two sacks to you.

“Delivery, miss!”

“We didn’t order anything…” You say looking to Tavia.

The delivery man looks at the receipt. “A….Ms. Macchiato?”

The name rings bells. T’Challa said he would order breakfast for you, but you forgot to turn it down.

Tavia comes up behind you, “What is it?”

“T’Challa got us breakfast,” you say taking the bags and thanking him.

“Bish whet?? Gimme gimme gimme!”

Tavia rips open a bag to see the omelettes, hashbrowns, toast, boiled eggs, sausage, bacon.

Another knock comes to the door. You jump to get it.

“Here are the drinks too, Miss.” the delivery man huffs and puffs.

“Oh thank you!” you reply taking the OJ and apple juice cups.

Tavia is tearing through her spinach omelette when she says, “Ok, I’m ready to hear it. What freaky shit you put on him to do alladis??”

Part 5

Other Works

King Kil’mawalls

T’akia

N’Jadaka’s Helpful Hands

Some Weeks Are Better Than Others

Song of Stevens

Commencement Day

Wakanda Got Y’all

My Ragtag

@sweetpeachjones@scrumptiouslytenaciouscrusade@hairhattedghooligan@universalbri @therevolution-willbelive@you-like-this-chain @sarcastic-sunshines@airis-paris14 @afraiddreamingandloving @kreolemami @lalapalooza718 @syreanne

No mans land Tags

afraiddreamingandloving groovybbyy and nyeebey, yall here too! I just can’t tag you for some reason <3</p>

#t'challa fanfic #t'challa x reader #t'challa x you #coffeeshop au #black panther au #black panther fanfic #marvel fanfiction #shakafic #fanfic

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steve0discusses · 4 years

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S5 Ep 3: Apdnarg is Really Hard to Spell

Yo guys, people are getting vaccinated, the sun is parting through the clouds, and I felt so nice that I even stopped listening to quite so many throwback 00′s BTS mashups (and yet I keep clicking on these dissonant catastrophes thinking “this time it’s got to be better. This time they’ll figure it out.” and like, no. Turns out you can’t match Brittany’s Toxic with BTS’ Black Swan. You can’t do that.)

This must be a sign that things are getting better. If anything, it means my personal tastes are improving. I mean I only clicked on like 3 “Dark Academia” Playlists where I could pretend I’m some sort of spooky witch in an abandoned library with a bad music player and basic taste in classical music (like can we ban Satie from Youtube for a little while?). Hell, I might even do a prompt update to this blog!

Yeah, you heard me, I’m actually going to stay ahead of the update schedule for Yugioh Abridged (maybe. I haven’t actually watched cuz of spoilers, I just noticed the thumbnail pop up on Youtube and was like “Damn it, they came out of hiatus??? I got hurry UP.”)

Anyway, speaking of the sky parting.

I’ll have you know my bro said this is actually more like a circumcision and it was one of the worst thing I have ever heard.

We get a chance to take in this lineup of confusing and varied character designs, and Joey. who is...still Joey.

The animators probably had to hold a strike in order for them to put Yugi in the audience, lets be real. There are TOO MANY PEOPLE in this shot and one is wearing a turban where you draw every single wrap. I hope those artists charged by the line.

Tea has a subplot where she’s just very frustrated with everyone she knows. They have been traveling together for like many weeks and got trapped in a foreign country so I get it. But at the same time, it’s kind of hard to picture Tea with female friends.

Because right now you got this 12 year old child, the other duelist who does not care about anything besides cards, and Kaiba’s 3 dragon cards that we’ve all collectively decided are female.

Hell it’s almost like the writers are asking themselves why Tea is here. Maybe they forgot. There’s no more ghosts to bus, no more people to knock out with her ass with random Olympic feats. Tea’s just sidelining.

(read more under the cut)

Mokuba is a itty bit bit taller this season, and so I guess that means he can legally climb on top of the cherry picker in order to give a riveting speech.

Really says a lot about Mokuba that he is so unphased about talking to, I dunno...an entire planet of people. Kind of a shame we never see this courage from Mokuba used for anything other than talking really, really big and giving everyone around him a really hard time.

Mokuba takes a moment to dunk on Yugi Muto, as is Kaiba tradition.

And then introduce the first pair of duelists, which obviously must be between the few people in this tournament that we actually know and care about.

Thankfully, in between last episode and this episode, Yugi has figured out who his own Grandpa is. This is a relief, because Yugi is such a mess, that I was fully convinced it would take over half a season for him to recognize it. I mean how long did it take him to figure out he shares a body with a ghost? Like half a season?

Instead Yugi recovered gracefully from not recognizing his grandpa, but it’s not like he bothered to tell anyone else, so the rest of our cast is just gonna be like “Is he my hairdresser? The guy who delivers my mail? Who is this guy who made absolutely no significant changes to his outfit or voice?”

Like sometimes this show goes full Spongebob silly kid’s show and you never know when to take it seriously or not. They might be sacrificing the entire cast next episode. I really don’t know. But for now their big concern is who is grandpa??? Like an innocent card version of “Are you my Mother?”

Faced with public speaking, Yugi decides to have a melt down.

We have seen him face monsters, we’ve seen him on TV dozens of times, he’s been in multiple competitions...but give a speech? Of course he can’t do that. The kid doesn’t attend enough school to know how to do that. Them’s learning skills.

And that was when a newly assembled wife-jet spliced through the sky like a souped up razer scooter and deposited 1 fully equipped Seto Kaiba in a Buzz Lightyear jetsuit.

THE RECOVERY.

Seto always watching over his Brother, ready to save this awkward party if it kills him (and it really should, that suit is held together by two seat-belts), making sure to get on that platform before Yugi starts going off about how he’s half an Ancient Egyptian. (Ah, life before social media. You could just be hella famous and also half a dead dude and people would just not know. I kinda miss the time before I knew literally everything about everyone.)

Please admire how close those flames are to setting Mokuba’s heavily hairsprayed mane completely alight. It would be an unforgettable spectacle.

These were absolutely just random ass jet packs that Gozaburo Kaiba made to kill hell tons of people, right? Like Seto found it in the family cabin, clutched to the heart of some crispy fried corpse and was like “neat! Mokuba! I found a cool toy!” and just plucked that thing out of that skeleton’s clutches and has been flying around for months?

Like this is Seto Kaiba’s Butter Glider, right?

Seriously what type of vehicle license do you need for one of these things? RIP My ‘Seto only has a scooter license’ headcanon.

Which I’m only even thinking about because I’ve had to try and make an appt with the DMV for days to get a freakin REAL ID. I went to sleep in 2019 and I could fly on a plane. I woke up in 2021 and it’s like “Want one last screw you?” and just...can 2020 please stop screwing me over? It’s March.

Anyway, the Jet is removed soon after, so no, this is not part of his new outfit. He goes right back to his Post-S4-Trauma-Normcore.

After wrestling this competition out of his brother’s hands and confusing everyone in the audience, Roland must have gotten the memo to cut the microphone before Seto got too excited and we were quickly ushered on to the next stage of the tournament.

One sec...the BTS Mashup playlist I just clicked on did a Black Swan X 7 rings mashup and it’s the worst thing my ears have ever heard.

Holy crap. I had to actually turn down my volume. Like...Ariana Grande already has music that has way too many overlapping singing parts on it--and then lets just stick a 52-person boy band on top? That’ll fix it. Yeah. Go ahead.

Wow. Even I had to change the song and you know how much I enjoy pop culture mistakes.

Spot the Mickey but like a million times easier because it’s a Massive Dick Shaped Dragon.

Yep. That’s my grocery shopping outfit. Except maybe not a lab coat and a duel disk. Wish I had a duel disk, that would make social distancing just a hell ton earlier. Just a “Yo, only one person in checkout, please” and then bap them on the head with a propelled discuss/hologram.

Anyway, Grocery shopping/Doctor man dueled the Purple Hair Boy, and considering that Purple Hair got screen time and shook Yugi’s hand once--I think that Doctor man doesn’t stand a freakin chance.

Good. I hate him.

Also, every time he breathes he’s gonna fog up his glasses. I have experience in this area. He can’t read his own cards in the same way I can’t read my phone if I’m in the refrigerated aisle.

So the way this tournament works, is everyone has to sit in the stadium to watch the show. Kinda like showing up to a football stadium just to watch a recorded TV monitor...but then again...that is how it feels to watch a football game at a football stadium when it’s live (at least with the tickets I usually get.)

And as we watch Grandpa waiting for his competitor, we find out that his competitor (Joey) is too busy eating snacks to give him the time of day.

Why do cartoon hot dogs always have lettuce? Is that seriously supposed to be relish? Or is there a place in the world where you put lettuce on your hot dog?

Sorry, bro has just informed of his favorite hot dog order, which is absolutely terrible so I will share it with you: a Five Guys hot dog with ketchup, mustard, pickle relish, onions, mushrooms, pickled peppers, and you guessed it--topped with freakin lettuce.

My own kin. How am I over 30 and just finding out that my baby brother thinks it’s normal to walk into a restaurant with normal god-fearing law-abiding people and order lettuce and mushrooms on a hot dog?

I have fully failed him.

The rest of this episode is watching both Joey Wheeler and Mokuba have a shared panic attack while Seto does freakin nothing.

Please remember that Seto has both a jetpack and a dragon wife plane and could have easily solved this problem. But nah.

Then again, Seto Kaiba has given this crew so MANY rides, that maybe he’s tired of being the Soccer Mom for the team?

Like they don’t actually say this episode, but Seto was the one in charge of like...this entire place, do you think he made the 2 for 1 special just to get Joey where it hurts the most? Or does it actually not take any subterfuge to screw Joey Wheeler because he’s just naturally this way?

Like Mokuba wasn’t there when Joey was told “stay right here, and then we will all go together to fight Dartz” and Joey was like “I’mma save Mai from herself although she told me not to!” and then he Hella Died. But, Mokuba did see the result, AKA, Joey’s dead body being carried on the back of Tristan. Maybe Mokuba never realized that Joey died because he went out of his way to be late?

Lets do a tally of every time I can recall with my dodgy memory that Joey was threatened to be DQ’d/pretty much was DQ’d either by his own fault or no fault of his own

-When he wasn’t allowed to go on the boat to Murder Island because he was a stupid nobody kid who did not have a dueling glove

-When he wasn’t actually supposed to be in Pegasus’ tourney and was, in fact, secretly using half of Yugi’s entrance ticket the entire time

-when Bandit Keith stole the ticket that Joey got from Yugi so then Joey had to borrow Mai’s ticket although she had just used it so it really shouldn't have counted. Because, really anyone could have just piggy backed off of each other’s ticket until the whole boat went through that castle.

-When his account was hacked to get entered into Kaiba’s tourney when Kaiba very clearly told him he could not apply solely because he was Joey Wheeler.

-When he was late to his sister’s eye surgery because he got mugged by Marik’s Rare Hunters, so she almost refused to do the surgery.

-When Joey got possessed by Marik, and as Marik, threatened to murder everyone else in the tournament including both of the Kaiba brother’s who’s tournament it was, and then chained himself to Yugi Muto to throw both of them to the bottom of the ocean.

-I think there was a point when he threatened to attack Kaiba in Kaiba’s own tourney while not possessed? Like several times?

-when he got struck by Lightning and almost did not stand up fast enough after being struck by lightning, which is apparently a type of DQ in Duel Monsters.

-When he tried to save Mai from getting hit by a fireball, but then Yugi did it instead, and then so many people were standing on the dueling platform that Kaiba couldn’t possibly DQ them all.

-When he entered the restricted area of the blimp in order to hassle Kaiba into landing the Blimp, which Kaiba did not do.

-When Marik killed Joey before Joey could press the “go” button on his duel disk to play the card that should have won Joey the match.

-When he was dueling a lawyer in a digital universe but then the dice was like...weighted? So Noah had to walk over and be like “The hell is this weighted dice? This is my perfect digital world? How did you even do that?” and then Joey won because the match was no longer legit.

-When Joey yelled at Noah too much and so Noah turned Joey to stone for being a rude ass spectator

-When Mai was like “Wheeler and Valon, listen closely: do NOT murder each other” and then Joey did a murder on Valon so she was like “I guess I have no choice, I was very clear” and killed Joey straight up.

-When Joey decided to block Seto’s fireballs while Joey Wheeler WAS a playing card, somehow disrespecting both Dartz and Seto Kaiba at the same time.

-When Joey was playing cards but then got absorbed into a giant Leviathan and basically couldn’t play anymore after that.

-There’s probably hell ton of S0 stuff I just haven’t seen yet.

-This episode

And Joey runs fast for a montage of wacky things that really have no business being in a theme park. Things like this:

(remember when Bakura almost died from a rock that ended up being a balloon? It comes full circle.)

The stuff that the Kaiba brother’s think is normal and fun.

Anyway Joey fights off a bunch of hologram snakes and bats and everyone is like “Should we tell him it’s just holograms???” And it’s like wow, guys, how many times have these ‘holograms’ straight up murdered Joey Wheeler and everyone else on this cast? Too many? Because I have a google doc with so many deaths on it. 7,805,844,048, to be exact.

Anyway, he gets there with five seconds to spare and Mokuba’s like “well at least you were still entertaining while we filmed you in front of a live audience being a total spaz for 15 minutes straight, so I’ll let you go.”

Grandpa and Joey start playing, Joey completely oblivious that this is just an older Muto, while Hawkins walks up awkwardly and is like “hey guys. I’m so sorry about this.”

(welcome to my font choices, for those new here, I have to make weird font color choices to make sure it’s legible for the colorblind and also for the non-colorblind. This one is not much contrast, so I may change it up in the future, but for now, this is Grandpa Muto’s new font. I apologize to every graphic designer reading this. Please don’t tell anyone who has ever hired me for graphic design about this blog.)

What’s funny about this exchange is that after they find out that Yugi’s Grandpa is Apdnarg (HOLY my brain cannot get around the spelling for that, and I will not change it in the caps. I cannot do a ‘pdn’ ever again), they don’t stand on his side of the field or anything. Hawkins is legit Solomon Muto’s only fan during this exchange and like...damn. Way not to back your Grandpa, Yugi.

Yugi immediately strides up to Mokuba to non-confrontation-ally inform him that he has stepped over a line and Mokuba is like “what are these things you say called ‘lines?’”

According to Mokuba, Solomon Muto begged him to be in the competition so he could relive his glory days (glory days making no sense here, because the game has only been released for the past 15 years, so glory days is like...the before times that can only be referring to disgraced archeologists and Pegasus ((who is, in his own way...a disgraced archeologist, too))) and Mokuba was like

“You trained Yugi Muto, right? Hey that’s good enough for me. This drama is gold. People will eat it up. Hell yes. Don’t be afraid to abduct him a little bit. Maybe trap a couple people in a digital hellscape for a little while? Now we go by Pegasus house rules here, so fire as many lasers as you want, but just make sure not to hit anyone in the face. Oh man, we are going to be swimming in cash. Love it, Muto Sr, love it.”

But I dunno, I feel like Grandpa won’t make it past next episode. It is Joey. We kinda need him to make it past Ep 4 of the arc. If Grandpa Muto becomes the new Joey Wheeler, that will be a weird transition for this show to make.

But that’s all for today, as always, here is the link to read these in chrono order becuase there’s SO MANY that you don’t need to read backwards--don’t do it--just use the chrono tag (and I don’t know if you can add compound tags, but I did separate the Season from the Episode, so if you write S4, it should only pop up stuff from S4. I didn't’ do that to seasons 1-3 though because I just...didn’t.)

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

And because I brought it up: here it is, the best BTS Mashup that I found on my deep dive. Like legit--this one isn’t a mess:

youtube

Most of other ones are horrible in a fascinating way. Like I’m not even a BTS fan, I think I sort of age out of that metric, I’m just bored and quarantined. And lets be real, we all appreciate a good bop when we hear it.

#yugioh #ygo #yu gi oh #photo recap #recap #episode recap #yugi muto #seto kaiba #mokuba kaiba #Joey Wheeler #Apdnarg #Grandpa muto #tea gardner #tristan taylor #professor hawkins #and then I ranted about BTS #but please don't quiz me about BTS I know nothing about them aside from the music #I actually thought there were over 12 of them because every time I see them perform it feels like an entire stageplay production of people #like a 101 dalmations situation where every time I saw BTS there were 3 new people #I assumed it was like the Gorrilaz where people just show up and then disappear in a rotation #but no. There's 7 BTS members #that can't be right #there has to be more than 7 #is this a berenstein bears situation?#how is there only 7?#I swear there used to be like 16 #and they would be introduced like here's jimin and Jungkook and red and yellow and green and brown and scarlet and black and ochre and pea #like is google seriously telling me there's only 7 kids in this band?#this is the biggest scam google has ever played on me #this weird alternate timeline that not only has an epidemic but also only 7 members of BTS

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whenimgoodandready · 5 years

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4. What’s the deal with the Blood Moon? Is it evil? Is it alive? Is it a “love potion” spell? Is it the reason Jarco didn’t work out? Is it why Tomstar is having problems? Is it a forceful urge to make two people physically impossible to stay away from each other in a non romantic sense!? IDFK!? Ever since Season 1’s episode of “Blood Moon Ball”, it was known as the BIG Starco episode what with the “Dance of Romance” trope and that beautifully haunting music by Brain H. Kim. From that episode on wards, we’ve been seeing the Blood Moon during major Starco moments, like it’s keeping an eye on them or something, like “Bon Bon the Birthday Clown” where Marco saw it while having his first kiss with Jackie and sensed Star might be in danger, “Face the Music” where it shined on a picture of Star and Marco in a heart for Stars Princess Song on Song Day where the whole world found out about her crush on Marco! And in “Booth Buddies” where they finally had their (controversial) kiss! Hell! It’s even in the f***ing theme song for crying out loud! But what.does.it.MEEEEEEEEEAN!? The anticipation stops here.

*Curse of the Blood Moon-Star and Marco have a midnight breakfast with their favorite cereal, Captain Blanche’s Sugar Seeds, just for funzies (although I think the candelabra was a bit too much for obvious reasons) and Star leaves two marshmallows in a bowl (so they won’t get lonely.Awwwwwwwwwwwww) and Marco can’t help but find it undeniably adorable as it’s getting harder for him to keep his feelings for Star inside. Poor baby.

He goes to talk about it with Eclipsa and she comforts him (nice to see him getting along with her now like it showed in “Butterfly Follies”), but says there’s nothing she can do to make the feelings go away :(. He then finds Janna,-WAIT! Janna’s there? Again!? Why!? I mean, I know she’s a fan favorite, but what’s her purpose!? What, like, is she too proud to admit it’s cuz she missed Marco or something!? Is it cuz she’s livin’ the dream of seeing all the creepy sh*t she loves so much!? WHAT!? She tries to use her hypnosis on Marco to make him forget about his feelings for Star, but not even her “powers” can work to help Marco. You know, in an underhanded sort of way, she’s kinda “helping people”. With that Quest Buy sloth she impersonated, Stu, from “Out of Business”, she said it was to “do him a favor” and with making Marco stop eating nachos, something he likes! Was for the good of his health. So I guess, she does have a purpose to be here? (shrugs). Marco decides it’s just best to admit his feelings for Star and how it’s killing him. Huh, I thought it was in “Booth Buddies”, but I guess they just needed to make it more evident.

Marco finds Star in her room and she’s with Tom. Her boyfriend. That she’s still dating from “Lake House Fever”. In a nice new outfit. Yeah, you could just feel the awkwardness in the room right now. And Janna’s eating it up like popcorn. Marco confesses his feelings anyway and Tom is soooooooooooo............okay with it!? He tells them it’s cuz he believes it was all done by the Blood Moon and explains how it’s power is to bind two souls together and how he failed to do that with Star and regrets it all cuz ever since then, all three of their relationships went to sh*t. He knows Star likes Marco too and it was evident when the two spoke in unison again like from “Blood Moon Ball”. This is why Tom was so cool with the possibility of Starco, he blamed it all on the moon!!! Star and Marco get freaked out by it cuz they didn’t know about it from last year. Guess this is why Tom didn’t bring up the Starco kiss to Star. Wait! Wait! Wait a minute! You mean to tell me Star didn’t know about the Blood Moons power!? She was there when it was announced! What!? Is she just stupid!? In order to fix all this, Tom says there’s a way.

They all go over to Toms place where they search his grandfather Relicors chambers on what to do about the Blood Moon and find out they can get rid of the spell by standing under its light for the next one!..............in 665 years! Plan B? Use the Severing Stone! The stone can help them erase the memory of their bounded souls and dance and all will go back to normal. It’s located in the very depths of the Underworld, so they go there with Relicor cuz he’s Toms grandpa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (Tom are you trying to sing the theme song after the “rainbows and puppies” part?) aaaaaaa and knows where to find it. They reach the bottom, but there’s a “secret test of character” challenge, run by a tower demon, where they have to pass through and then walk over the classically rickety old bridge to get to the stone itself. Marco goes on to point out all the obviousness of the whole thing being all genre savvy about it such as mocking what the demon would say, predicting the many failed attempts they’ll try and concluding it by saying it’s of course him and Star that are the “worthy ones” cuz they’re souls are bounded! (mic drop).

Okay, we’ll skip all that cuz it was too much for the (other) demon guy which was actually a fight to the death and he got annoyed. Yeah, we can’t have our two main characters die again people, C’mon! They pass the bridge, Janna fakes the other cliche of “almost falling” Blah, Blah, Blah, and they get to The Severing Stone! Before they could use it, Relicor admits he used it to erase the memory of the moment he fell in love with his wife a long time ago and had regretted it ever since (it was hinted in his chambers for those with an attention to detail cuz I noticed it. I think it’s obvious what might’ve happened to her). Star and Marco are positive they wanna go through with this since they believe it’s all the Blood Moons fault for cursing them, so they start dancing the waltz (and a callback to Toms, “That dance was meant for me!” quote for lols) and are magically transported to the memory of the Blood Moon from last year. Dressed up, demon audience watching, music playing, the whole Shebang! As they dance, they realize it’s all without Tom c*ckblocking it and how their dance is expanded and they really get into it, but then Star wonders “What if it wasn’t the Blood Moon”!? Cuz they don’t want their love to be magically induced by a magic moon and they loved their first dance together and they do like each other, but was it all from the moon or from themselves? 💔. Before they could think anything else of it, the whole thing ends and they become strictly platonic again. “Problem solved”? Oh yeah, and Janna severes her soul in half. Whatever. IDC.

So I took some time to process all this and at first I was pretty bummed out cuz of what just happened there and I know how all of you have commented on it and I don’t think there’s any need for me to express my feelings here. I mean, I know how some of you must’ve reacted like, “OMG! You mean to tell me that this whole time, Starco was all magically done! And we’ve been shipping a false relationship for the last four years!?” And that you’re also thinking, “Wait! Does this mean Jarco broke up for nothing!? And it’s the reason Star kept bringing up Marco for Tomstar!?” Yeah, I’m sure you’re all thinking that, but after a few days of letting it sink in and rewatching the episode, I’ve come to my own thoughts about it (sigh). I am all for Starco, the “Blood Moon Ball” is my favorite episode ever! It’s cuz of that dance, that beautiful Blood Moon Waltz track that I loved so much I put in my iPod! And the atmosphere of it with two young people dressed up all nice dancing around a bunch of demons. Also, I love red. Every time I look forward to the annual stargazing charts and see a blood moon coming up, I’ll always remember it as “that first Starco dance” with the music and the legend behind it and what not, but it’s sad that it turned out to be a set up for Star and Marcos future relationship problems! Then I thought, wait a minute! I missed something. Rewatching that episode, I realized, Star and Marco said they were gonna severe their souls from the stone by erasing their bounded souls and their first dance. NOT erasing their love for each other! Relicor said he severed the memory he fell in love with his wife, but Star and Marco only severed their memory of their bounded souls and first dance! I don’t think the Blood Moon was the moment they fell in love, they were probably just in the moment and didn’t want to look stupid under the light and just danced. From Season 1, before that episode, Marco was only into Jackie and Star with Oskar, so Tom must’ve assumed it was the moment they fell in love cuz he’s been repressing that idea for over a year now. Idk when the exact moment it was that Star and Marco fell in love, but I don’t think it was the Blood Moon moment. As Star said, “What if wasn’t the Blood Moon?”, cuz if it were, then it would’ve automatically worked instead of building it up for a year between them, unless it was a slow process, but usually love spells work instantly. However, if it was not, then why did Marco and Star sound “platonic” after the severing? I know they thought it was cuz of the Blood Moon they thought they were in love, but at the last minute, they thought otherwise. Were they just happy that they still remembered each other as friends or did they genuinely fall in love right at the last minute before the severing was done? So now Starco is back to being platonic again and Star will continue dating Tom while Marco starts something new with Kelly. I thought he would maybe go back to Jackie again, but I guess not. Since this episode is all done with, I guess the next anticipated episode will be “Beach Day”. Maybe we’ll know what obstacle Star and the gang overcame to make her so happy in that picture with Marco and who took the photo too! With all the trouble she’s goin’ through, I hope she solved all the problems to just finally get some well deserved R&R. Oh! And one last thing, whether or not the Blood Moon was a “love potion” thing, I’ll say this, just cuz Star and Marco don’t love each other anymore, doesn’t mean they can’t fall in love all over again 😉.

#svtfoe #curse of the blood moon #svtfoe curse of the blood moon

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untilrecently · 6 years

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I should really be in bed right about now.

Unfortunately, I know myself. It takes me a really long time to wind down after a bartending shift. I’m so used to being in constant motion and having to multi-task all night that to actually sit down and relax doesn’t feel right for awhile.

Not to mention when I get really tired or haven’t had enough sleep, I get a little overemotional. And when I get overemotional, I get impulsive. And when I get impulsive, there’s no reasoning with me from a logical standpoint. And that said, I’m now a “Humane Hero” donator for the Humane Society of the United States...as of like 30 seconds ago...

In my defense, I feel like there should be a few more barriers before they get to the money information screen. Like at least a short survey along the lines of:

“Have you had less than 5 hours of sleep? Have you worked a 14 hour day? Is there wine in your hand? Did you watch a sad video we posted? Are you sure you want to be a donor even though you’re a broke-ass bitch? Mmk, if you’re sure, money please!”

Whelp. I spend money on dumber shit every month. Go save those animals, Humane Society. I’ll keep slinging drinks and crying at videos you post when I’m done.

Aaaaanyway. I got a couple extra shifts at the hotel bar this week which will greatly help when I have my mouth rearranged next week. It always seems to happen this way that my schedule really ramps up before a surgery. Almost as if subconsciously I want to be as tired and worn out as possible before I get knocked out...huh. (#bestsleepever)

That said, I appreciate the money...but not the idiocy that comes with serving people food and alcohol. Tonight was semi steady and mostly tolerable (thanks to a visit from a friend to make me feel sane!) This was until about the last hour we were open. Then all of a sudden everyone came out of the woodwork and decided they wanted to “turn up” on a fucking Wednesday. Like, I get it. It’s the night before Valentine’s Day. Whether you’re in a relationship or not, this day is fucking obnoxious. I only enjoy the discounts on champagne and the day after sales of chocolate. Otherwise, pretty sure this commercial holiday can suck my nuts.

At one point I had a lonely looking woman drinking red wine at the bar and asking my least favorite question while my coworker was making a fucking long island iced tea. “Ooh, what is THAT?!”

Mmm, get the fuck out of here with that. Unless you’re at a bar where they’re literally making flaming drinks or advertising the fact they make craft cocktails, shut the fuck up about what’s being made. Do you go to McDonald’s and ask the people on the assembly line, “Oooh, what’s THAT?!” Do you watch a janitor mopping the floors with soapy water and go, “OOH, WHAT’S THAT?!”

No! You let them do their fucking job and assume not every fucking part of it is something special that you need to fucking know about. Jesus. I get that in food service it’s slightly different because people always want to see a physical representation of an order. I get that. But fucking what does it matter if you’re not going to order it? Or if it’s just a fucking drink that you somehow don’t know because you’re an idiot? Then you’re basically just asking the monkey “what kind of dance it’s going to do next?”

Like, I DON’T KNOW. WHATEVER THE NICE PEOPLE FLIPPING THE COINS AT ME ASK ME TO DO.

Okay, that rant went a little off the rails. But I meant it! (Dancing monkey tired).

So yeah. People at the bar tonight were a little on the obnoxious side. At one point a very extra white woman waved her arms to get my attention and started ordering drinks. I let her know her server would take care of her order and she started to get abrasive as I tried to walk away. “Oh, NO! WAIT! NO! I mean, YOU can get this stuff for us!”

I wanted to say, “Why yes, yes I could. But I instantly hate you because I’ve been listening to your obnoxious fucking voice over all the other voices in the bar for the last hour. So eat my ass.”

I got bullied into serving a lawyer and his buddies three beers after I’d said the bar was closed. I was immediately chewed out by a guy at the beginning of the night, too because “Do we HAVE to watch the NEWS?! SO DEPRESSING! We don’t need those politics!”

He then proceeded to start a political conversation with the other two men at the bar the second after I changed the channel for him. Adorbs.

Now, I get this complaint all the time. “Ugh, I can’t STAND watching the news.”

Every time I have to bite my tongue. “Ugh, I KNOW. Wanting to know what’s going on in the world around you, UGH. GROSS.”

Or the people that immediately plop down and request a channel change. I’ve said it in the past and I know my smart ass is going to say it again in the future. “You’re welcome to change the channel as much as you want in your room.”

Motherfuckerrrrrrs.

Some guy pulled that the other night and I snapped back, “Well, ALL the other people at the bar are watching the Grammy’s so if you’d like to explain it to them that YOU want to watch hockey…”

That shut him up right quick.

Anyway. I’m going to have to put my nice face on for just a few more nights to get through the rest of this week. The Valentine’s prix fixe dinner is tomorrow night and I’m hopefully not going to have to witness any of it. Our hotel is weird in the way it gets a lot of business but it seems some of the promotional events go south. Last I heard, there were only 15 reservations for the entire night...not great. Not great.

As far as the office job, I had a crazy vivid dream last weekend that I up and quit in a dramatic fashion. While still in the dream, I realized with crushing intensity that I don’t want to be without a job again. Being unemployed sucks and it’s terrifying. I actually woke up scared and have been a much more agreeable employee this week….cuz I like money

Not to mention I went through all this work (and forgery) to apply for this job today and even went in early to use the office amenities to be able to submit it.

I got a rejection within a couple hours. Apparently I didn’t have the right kind of experience and didn’t read the fine print under “office bitch” duties.

Whelp.

Time to keep smiling, be nice, work hard, and bring in baked goods so no one realizes you’re dead inside.

I’m sure I’ll have more glorious stories about a-holes at the bar next week while my mouth is recuperating and I am on a steady diet of soft foods and ice cream. (Read: booze and cold stuff).

Talk next week!

#serverlife #shitshow #clusterfuck #office life #bartender

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arcanelaurels · 7 years

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Can you write something whete Taako does something that makes Madame Director really miss their sibling relationship during the stolen Century...but she has to be the boss now (sorry for the specificity 😅)

Listen,,, I read this ask and was literally like “Is this person reading my goddamn mind right now??” Because I’ve literally had almost a full fic for this exact concept hanging in my drafts for a week now but I haven’t had a chance to edit and post it until you blessed me with this request so thank you.

Please don’t ever apologize for requesting Taako and Lucretia dynamic bc I love that shit and could write a five page paper on why it should’ve been more of a thing in the actual podcast

(also it just occurred to me that this may not be as lighthearted as you might’ve been hoping for but feel free to request a more lighthearted one if you want)

“Taako, are you well?”

“Yeah, I’m fine! You’re not my mom!”

Lucretia bit her tongue to prevent from outwardly reacting to that. It was uncanny how often these boys would react to things the way they used to when the whole crew was together, despite their memory loss. The first few times it had happened - back when they’d first joined the Bureau - she would have moments of panic and wondered if they actually remembered some things, if there were things she’d forgotten to remove.

They didn’t, though. The voidfish did its job well. Still, Taako’s words threw her off a bit. It wasn’t the first time he’d ever said that to her, but she knew he wouldn’t remember the actual first time.

Cycle 4 was the first time Lup died. The world they’d landed in was in a post-apocalyptic sort of state, and was largely unpopulated, save for a few survivors. A couple months in, the crew had decided that the location they’d landed in wasn’t ideal, and moved the Starblaster. When they landed again, Taako and Lup had been sent out on a scouting mission to further detail what surrounded them. The two had unknowingly wandered into a rogue’s territory, and he got the drop on them, stabbing Lup in the heart. Taako had immediately rounded on him and killed him, but the damage was done. Lup was dead before the rogue hit the ground.

Everyone knew by then, of course, that death wasn’t permanent. Not for them. Still, in the early days it was hard to deal with it when someone died. And Lup’s absence was felt more than anyone had previously anticipated.

Back then, four years had seemed like a lot of time to the crew that had yet to know just how much time they were going to spend together. By that point, everyone had thought they knew pretty much all there was to know about each other. What no one knew, though, was how different Taako would be without Lup.

For weeks, he was sullen and stuck to his cabin. Everyone understood. Well, they tried to. No one really knew how to understand the bond that existed between the twins. But they understood that he needed time to come to terms with Lup’s absence, even if it was only temporary.

After about a month, Taako started reappearing, and on most days he seemed almost back to normal. But there was a definite lack of energy from him without Lup to bring him out of his shell. And there was the occasional day where he would retreat into his cabin and refuse to eat or talk to anyone.

On one such day a few months after Lup’s death, it was just Lucretia and Taako on the Starblaster. Everyone else had gone off on separate missions, and the two had been left to stay with the ship, just in case.

Taking a breath to brace herself, Lucretia balanced the tray she was holding in one hand and used the other to knock on Taako’s door. “Taako?”

No response. She let herself in. Taako was lying on his bed, facing the wall that it was up against. He didn’t turn around to acknowledge her as she walked in, but she could tell he was awake.

She hesitated for a moment before speaking. “I...brought you some soup.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You haven’t eaten since yesterday.”

No response. Lucretia frowned and placed the tray on the end table near his bed. She gingerly sat on the edge of his bed, turning her head a bit so she could see him. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine! You’re not my mom!” He sounded annoyed.

“I-I wasn’t-” Lucretia sighed, turning so her back was to him. She folded her hands in her lap and stared at them, trying to figure out how to word what she wanted to say. She was much worse with her words out loud as opposed to in writing. Maybe she should’ve written something out beforehand. No, it probably would’ve seemed less genuine.

She took a breath. “Taako-”

“Save it.”

Surprised at the interruption, Lucretia turned to face him. He was still facing the wall. “Sorry?” She asked.

“I’ve heard the speech a hundred times from everyone else,” He said. After a beat, he twisted around a bit so he could look at her. “I know Lup’s coming back after this cycle, okay? It doesn’t make it any easier.”

Lucretia frowned. “That wasn’t what I was going to say.”

Taako stared at her for a moment before turning back to face the wall. She turned her back to him again.

“I-I was just going to say...” She trailed off, trying to figure out her wording. “I know that none of us can really understand what you’re going through. I’ve never had siblings, myself, but my moms...” She trailed off again. “When we left our homeworld and I left them behind and that...that thing that’s following us attacked, I actually, uh, cried myself to sleep every night for months.”

She heard Taako move - maybe to turn and look at her again - but she didn’t turn around to face him. It was easier to talk when she didn’t have to see other people react.

She continued. “But I, uh, now I think of you - and Magnus, and Lup, and everyone else of course - I think of all of you as my family, now. And that...that makes it just a bit easier for me when I wonder what happened to my parents. What happened to everything that thing consumes. And I-I know that none of us could ever replace Lup for you, but-”

Her words were cut off when Taako unexpectedly threw his arm around her from behind, his head buried in her shoulder. She felt her eyes tear up reflexively, and blinked rapidly in order to quell them. Taako was only a casually physical person; he would prop an elbow on others’ shoulders while standing or even lay across people’s laps when he was bored. But when it came to emotional touching, he preferred to avoid it, so Lucretia knew that this hug wasn’t a small gesture for him.

“I’m sorry,” He murmured into her shoulder, so quiet she almost didn’t hear it.

She swallowed, praying that her voice wouldn’t break when she spoke. “For what?”

He let go of her and she turned to face him as he leaned back against the wall, sitting up now. He crossed his arms and looked away, his ears flattening as if he were embarrassed that he’d just hugged her.

“I’ve never thought of that,” He said. “Of how you - all of you - everyone else had family that was left behind when we had to escape. Family you couldn’t save.”

Lucretia was conscious of how odd it was to hear him speak without his usual added-in phrases. Taako took a breath. “For most of my life, Lup was all I ever had for family, but at least we managed to stay together. I can’t imagine if I’d had to leave her behind.”

Lucretia recalled how the twins had fought to both go on the Starblaster. The IPRE had originally only allowed for six crew members, but when only one of the twins was accepted (the rest of the crew never knew which one), they both fought tooth and nail, arguing that the ship needed two Arcanists/Chefs until the Institute relented.

They were both silent for a while, neither knowing what to say. After a few moments, Taako reached over and picked up the tray that Lucretia had set down on his bedside table. He took a spoonful of it and put it in his mouth, then promptly spat it back out.

“What the hell is in this? It’s awful!” He said, laughing.

Lucretia felt her face burn. “I-I’m not really a cook. I just threw some stuff in the pot.”

Taako made a face and gingerly put the tray back on the table. “Well, we need to fix that immediately, homie.” He pushed past her and stood up. “I know Magnus can make a decent pot roast, but if none of the rest of you chuckleheads can cook and Lup and I both beef it next cycle, you’re all up shit creek.”

Lucretia couldn’t help but chuckle as she stood up to follow him out of the room.

He turned his head slightly as he walked. “And you better bring a fresh journal, ‘cuz I know you love to take notes and apparently I have a lot to teach you.”

After that, Taako was more or less back to normal for the rest of the cycle, though he was still a bit distant. After it ended and Lup was rethreaded back onto the ship, the first thing Taako did was tackle her with a hug while everyone else moved closer to welcome Lup back.

“Aw, what? Did you miss me or somethin’?” Lup asked her brother.

“Pfft, no,” Taako rolled his eyes, letting go of Lup and moving to prop an elbow up on Lucretia’s shoulder. “In fact, I replaced you,” He said.

Looking back, Lucretia realized that she should’ve known how much losing Lup would change Taako. She wished she could redo it somehow, but she knew that wasn’t possible. What’s done is done.

She pulled herself out of her thoughts and back to the present, to the mission she was about to send these three on. Merle was saying something about how she always referred to them as “boys" and they were complaining about all of the training she’d been putting them through.

Lucretia struggled to find her words. “I, I know and I’m… I’m sorry for leaning on you as hard as I have been lately, I just...” She sighed. “I know what’s waiting for you on your next mission and I just want you to be at peak performance.”

She continued on, confessing the truth about what had happened to her in Wonderland and sending them on their way. For a moment, when she’d taken down the illusion on her portrait for them, she was afraid that seeing her younger self would somehow jog their memories. But it didn’t. Of course it didn’t. You can’t jog memories that aren’t there anymore.

She sighed and put her head in her hands after they left. If they came back - no, when they came back, she corrected herself, as if changing the wording of her thoughts would make it more probable. When they came back, she owed them an explanation. They deserved to know the truth, and they were going to find out eventually. It couldn’t stay hidden for much longer.

She looked back on the memories that she had, bonding with each of them on the Starblaster. She knew it would never be the same after they found out what she’d done. Taako would never forgive her, especially after he realized that Lup was...

Lucretia was going to have to live with it. After all, how could she expect Taako to forgive her when she knew she could never forgive herself?

#taz balance #the adventure zone #taako #taz lucretia #taz stolen century #laurelscribbles #fairylightsinautumn

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monaisme · 4 years

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Day 21: torture

Day 21: Torture

They’d had him for two days. That was one thing he was certain of thanks to the window at the opposite end of the room. Well, he’d been conscious and awake for two days. The drug they’d injected him with had been pretty potent, but it wouldn’t have knocked him out for more than a few hours, right?

Then when his mind had started to clear, Peter also realized that he’d been dressed for a wild afternoon of Smash Bros. and pizza rolls with Ned at his place, yet his kidnappers had definitely been ready for Spider-Man; the vibranium cuffs and chains keeping him tightly secured and upright against the wall when he woke were a testament to that.

Yeah. That was not good.

He kept trying to come up with clues as to who would have taken him.

He’d remembered his senses tingling. He’d remembered the feeling of the syringe plunging into his neck. And then he remembered the world swirling... and then black.

Then there was the grey of the room. He’d been so disappointed to see himself in another damned warehouse—he was so tired of them. He’d waken up in the strange smelling room, pressed flat against the wall—chest, wrists, thighs and ankles bound. He’d already been stripped of his phone, Starkwatch and webshooters, which sucked.

And no one came in until—

Well, he was stripped of his clothing, too, after, well—he’d been there for a long time and he wasn’t gonna let himself to be embarrassed by it—no, he wouldn’t. He’d called out, even begged and if they weren’t going to help, well... he was almost grateful that they’d washed him down, though.

Almost.

The pressure of the hose and the cold of the water, it hurt... and how they cleaned the floor after? Peter remembered the time when Uncle Ben and Aunt May had taken him to the zoo, and how disappointed he’d been that the monkeys weren’t in their enclosure. He remembered how a worker was hosing away the filth...

He would never speak of this though, not to anyone.

Nope. This one was going the grave with him.

No one had been in the room since then so he couldn’t be bothered. Really—and when they were they hadn’t even said a word, which was almost as terrifying as when the two gas-masked, silent men had started cutting his clothing off of his body rather than unlocking the restraints—

But he was okay.

Really.

Truthfully, he wasn’t even sure they’d looked at him once he’d stopped trying to fight them... well, after they’d knocked him silly, which was totally fine. If he’d had someone yelling insults about their mother at them, Peter probably wouldn’t have wanted to talk to them either.

He was perfectly okay on his own anyways.

* * * * * *

They’d apparently decided that he wasn’t getting any water or food after that so there wouldn’t be a replay—so he guessed that worked as both a blessing and a curse.

The pressure of the hose has left welts and bruises, after all.

And the room still smelled weird.

* * * * *

Peter really wished he had someone to talk to.

Peter laughed as the thought came to him. Whoever these people were had definitely done their research. They didn’t need guns or fists, even. Stick the socially awkward teenager with abandonment issues and nervous energy coming out of his ears alone in a room forever and watch him lose his mind—well played, bad guys. Well played.

And then it wasn’t funny anymore.

* * * * * *

Had the smell gotten stronger? It was making feel a little sick, if he thought about it.

But that didn’t fix anything, so he didn’t think about it.

* * * * * *

On that first day, Peter had taken comfort in certain things.

He knew that Ned would try calling him when he didn’t show up for their game date. And he knew that when that didn’t work, Ned would call Mr. Stark, who’d maybe be in the mood to answer the phone... or he would send it along to Happy, and Peter’s heart sank. He’d forgiven him but wasn’t sure he could trust him when Happy was in charge of anything Peter related. So maybe Mr. Stark wouldn’t know that he was missing? And maybe no one was coming to get him—

* * * * * *

He found that if he breathed really slow and deep, he could keep from throwing up the nothing in his stomach when the nausea was at its worst. He wasn’t sure if bile would warrant the same treatment as...

And then a thought struck out of nowhere. What if Mr. Stark was expecting him to find his own way home? Maybe that’s why he was taking so long! It all made sense! What if this was a test? Like, Mr. Stark had decided to add this to his training regiment but didn’t say anything about it. He’d talked about some of the messed up stuff the Rogues did as far as training exercises went. What if Mr. Stark had decided that Peter wasn’t good enough and he’d needed to get tough? What if the people that had taken him were SHIELD and maybe Ned was even in on it... but wasn’t SHIELD still HYDRA? Shit! What if Ned was HYDRA?

The thoughts were too much, like ‘loony bin’ too much, but his mind wouldn’t stop racing.

He tried to keep breathing deep. Maybe the air would help clear his mind.

He closed his eyes and clenched his fists—as much as he could for the growing weakness in his limbs. He breathed deep, tried to center his thoughts. He was so hungry and thirsty and cold and tired and he just wanted...

“You know! A little music would be nice, at least!” He called out to the empty room. “Seriously! You’re not very gracious hosts!” He coughed through the dryness in his throat. “

Yeah, maybe the silence was a little unbearable.

* * * * * *

The sun had set on another day and then risen again.

On the first day, he’d try to bend his joints just a little to remind himself that he could. The strain of standing still for going onto his third day had caused his joints to lock; and while the discomfort from the strain of standing for far too long had been unbearable, the swelling of his limbs cutting into his binding was three steps beyond that.

He was definitely failing this training exercise... ‘cuz that had to be what it was. It had been too long, Mr. Stark wouldn’t leave him for so long. Would he?

Mr. Stark was going to be so disappointed in him and his heart was broken for it, but was too dehydrated to cry about it.

* * * * * *

He wondered if, maybe this wasn’t a training exercise after all. The smell that permeated the space was making him nauseous, but that could have been the exhaustion.

* * * * * *

The sun had set on another day and then risen again...

* * * * * *

He wondered when the sun had gone down... he’d been trying so hard to keep track...

* * * * * *

He didn’t... no, he couldn’t react when he heard what might have been gunfire coming from the other side of the door, save for a smile. He did wonder though, if he was finally getting company...

* * * * * *

Tony had been desperate; desperate enough to pull a flip phone out of his desk and call the one person he was certain he’d never call on again. This was Peter though, and he wasn’t fucking around with it.

After the call from Ned, and the initial search for trackers and such from his tech, Tony had FRIDAY pull up CCTV footage and any private security footage that could help him get a lock on his kid.

All he could get was an old licence plate reported stolen from some lady’s minivan in Scranton, Pennsylvania and an emptied syringe discarded in the street near the Parker residence.

There had been no accidents reported, no John Does washing up anywhere—yes, he’d checked, and no ransom calls. He was just gone. He’d done everything he legally (and illegally) could, but nothing was working.

He needed help, and for Peter he would do anything.

Natasha had been at the tower within the hour and accessing things Tony didn’t even know still existed when she’d gotten the hit. Steve and the others were in a conference room waiting for the word— after a brief meeting and introduction to the boy who Tony would give the world to... and who Steve had thrown a gangway at, well, no one was saying anything. They’d hash it out once they got the Peter back.

And they were definitely getting him back.

It had taken them twenty-three minutes by quinjet to get to where he’d been taken—

And three minutes to figure out that this was the work of some desperate leftover AIM scientists determined to pick up where their lunatic leader had left off.

Hollered confessions between kicks and punches had yielded enough information that they were concerned. And it had been so many days.

AIM had been so hopeful. They suspected that the essence of what made Spider-Man was rooted way down at the molecular level—not like some of the others with their hocus pocus and glowy rock experiments... and Captain America was hiding out on the African continent so he’d been useless to them. Truthfully, even with all of Tony’s security and firewalls, finding Peter’s identity had been simple with the right, illegal knowledge—and AIM had it.

Tony would never forgive himself.

After confirming their hypothesis, they’d exposed Spider-Man to an experimental hallucinogenic drug, and were hoping he’d transform into a lethal but absolutely exploitable killer. They were blissfully disappointed in the results. They’d spat out some words about the failed specimen and paranoia and lethargy and revealed that they’d been preparing to vent the room of all air to terminate the specimen in order to dissect and study their findings.

Then the Avengers came calling.

They had some searching to do.

* * * * * *

Steve had been the first one to enter the room, and for the rest of his life, he’d wish that he hadn’t, that someone else had been the first. He’d stopped short when he saw the boy hanging limp on the wall, suspended only by bands of metal cutting into his flesh. It was only a quick thought to his teammate that he shouted out, “Don’t let Tony in here!”

Of course this was the worst thing to say.

Tony, trailed by Sam, Natasha, Wanda, and Clint, came busting through the door. With only a moment’s hesitation, Tony was at the boy, fingers to his neck and checking for a pulse. “Pete? Hey, kid!” He tapped on his cheek to try and wake him.

Steve stopped him; put a restraining hand on his arm. “Tony, we’ve gotta get him down from there. It may be better if he’s not aware for it.” Steve glanced back at Wanda and gestured to the bindings. “Look, Tony? Let Wanda get these things off him and we can get him to help, okay?”

Tony didn’t move and Steve knew it was because they’d only just gotten to him. Natasha stepped forward then to pull him away. “Come on, Tony. She’ll be quick and then we can get your boy home, alright?”

Something about getting Peter home must have clicked in Tony’s panicked brain. With a quick nod, he stepped away from the kid but never took his eyes off of him. Then he waited... hands wringing with impatience or perhaps nervousness? Perhaps the blind trust wasn’t quite what Steve had hoped it would be.

But they’d get there.

Steve was awed at the control Wanda exercised as she removed the bands from the partially healed swelled over skin. Then Tony and Sam were suddenly rushing forward, catching the boy’s limp body as it fell from its confines, while Nat was pulling off her jacket to cover the boy’s body. Clint had already run ahead to fire up the quinjet and start pulling medical supplies for Sam.

The fresh blood from where the boy had been bound was everywhere—Tony and Sam tried desperately to find a place to hold the boy and not cause him any pain.

Wanda saw their struggle and took control.

Steve knew that she’d get the boy to the jet safely... and Tony would learn that, too.

They all started moving as one unit toward the door, when Tony paused and looked at the others. “Look, I know what we should be doing here, but...” Tony drew in a deep breath. “They found my kid. They can’t...” He struggled to find the words—seemed to hope that Steve would understand without it needing to be said. “I need...”

Steve looked at Tony, and then at their young charge—just a boy who was trying to do good. He glanced to Nat and Sam, who both nodded without hesitation. Steve then stared Tony right in the eye, and with a firm nod said, “Tony, you don’t need to say another word. It will be our pleasure.”

@febuwhump

#febuwhump #febuwhump 2021 #fanfiction #torture

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hiverforesteevee · 7 years

Text

Teen Titans Fridge Highlights

My favorite entries from Teen Titans’ Fridge page on TV Tropes

Some of these entries may be edited/abridged/modified, but for the most part, these are copy/pasted directly from the page. I didn’t write any of these, I just compiled them here for my own amusement. Go to the site for even more intelligence and insight on this fantastic show!

SPOILERS

· "Things Change". Season 5's big idea is that Beast Boy has to learn to grow up. We all thought the Brotherhood of Evil, his old nemeses, would do it. We thought his early days with the Doom Patrol would handle it. Nope, by the end of the Doom Patrol cameo, we learned his first name. By the time the Brotherhood was beaten, he made a brain freeze joke (all the Titans groaned at that one). No, the point of the last episode wasn't to sink ships. It wasn't a desperate attempt to write off Terra. It was there to remind you there are more things than heroes and villains out there. Terra lost her powers and she was glad for it; she couldn't handle being a hero or villain. In the last scene, Beast Boy finally gets it through his head that there is more than Black or White morals out there and is finally ready to move onto the next stage of his life.

· The much-maligned episode "Troq" is usually accused of being anvilicious about how racism is bad. And it really is, but there are two subtler, much braver aesops hidden within it. One is that racism isn't always confined to Card Carrying Villains. Val-Yor's presented as a genuine hero who really is (all Alternate Character Interpretations about the Locrix being innocent victims aside) trying to save the galaxy. At one point, he even orders Starfire to leave him behind and save herself - and yet he's also a racist bastard toward Starfire. Now usually, in a television show where an otherwise sympathetic character is a racist, he'll learn his lesson by the end of the episode, which leads to the Broken Aesop that it's somehow up to the victim to win over racists. But Val-Yor doesn't change, and the Titans instead accept that there will always be people like him, and simply refuse to tolerate his behavior and tell him he has to leave. This is actually a much more subdued and realistic aesop than the usual message that either only complete monsters can be racists, or that any racist who's not a complete monster can always be redeemed by the victim working hard enough to prove herself.

· Many people who thought of, when asked if he faced prejudice, Cyborg saying that he was "half robot" as a cop-out from saying that he was black. However, when thinking about it, race isn't the only source of discrimination as what Cyborg could've been referencing is that the handicapped (physically disabled people, amputees), which he's technically a part of, are often discriminated against as well. So it wasn't Cyborg copping out of referencing himself as part of the more-expected minority group rather than referencing a more-overlooked one. Also, considering how little Starfire knows about Earth's culture, customs, and even very language, she probably wouldn't know what "being black" is, not to mention know anything about racism towards blacks, but she'd be much more likely to understand the idea of being handicapped or part robot, and Cyborg realized that.

· "Stranded", despite being a (very fun and cute) filler episode, has this incredibly well done subtle theme of miscommunication and breakdown in communication running all throughout it. The Titans are in space because a satellite space station stopped broadcasting. The Monster of the Week's power is a sonically disruptive scream that breaks up radio waves (among other things), directly leading to the Titans mistakenly separating and being scattered on the alien planet, out of contact from each other. All three conflicts of the episode involve mixed signals regarding communication - Starfire and Robin's misunderstanding of their feelings and the nature of their relationship, Cyborg's feeble attempts to instruct the mechanically inept Beast Boy on how to fix the T-ship, Raven's inability to convey her annoyance to the miniature egg-people following her. The symbolism is particularly noticeable when Robin and Starfire are discussing the definition of 'girlfriend'; not only does obscuring fog spring up concealing the two from each other, but then they discover a wide chasm has appeared between them. It's pretty freaking brilliant.

· In "Snowblind", the team meets the radioactive hero Red Star. The character who spends the most time with Red Star and forms the greatest bond with Red Star is Starfire. Random choice? Probably not. See, Red Star is the hero's second identity. His original hero name in the comics, from his first stint in the Teen Titans comic was Starfire.

· During the theme song, when the lyrics say "when the world needs heroes on patrol," it shows Beast Boy on screen, an ex-member of the Doom Patrol.

· Also, when the lyrics say "With their superpowers they unite," it shows Starfire on screen, who is the reason the Teen Titans formed.

· And when it says "Never met a villain that they liked," it shows Cyborg, who had a crush on Jinx in Season Three, foreshadowing her Heel–Face Turn in Season Five.

· When Raven shows up, the lyrics say "When there's evil on the attack, you can rest knowing they got your back". This foreshadows Trigon's coming to Earth, and how she gives her friends some of her powers, to protect them from his spell.

· For Robin, "They've got the bad guys on the run, they never stop until the job is done" is sung. The latter part hints at the lengths to which Robin will go, particularly against Slade.

· It's debatable, but there's also one for Terra, since her powers are earth-based, and she severely lacks control over them. "'Cuz when the world is losing all control..."

· Raven's frostiness toward Terra is extremely saddening when you realize that the reason for it is that at least partially because Raven, The Empath senses all of Terra's issues and sees a part of herself in Terra. Terra's out of control powers kind of demonstrate the danger Raven could be if she doesn't meditate and it scares her. This is made worse by the fact that with dangerous powers that are really hard to control, Raven could have been exactly what Terra needed to mature into a real hero and the best possible one to teach her to control her abilities.

· In "Lightspeed", Jinx rather aggressively (she pretty much shoved See-More out of her way after he mentioned it) denies—twice—that the Egyptian necklace she was trying to steal from the museum brings good luck. Why? Because she secretly hoped that it did, and that was partly why she was stealing it.

· In Lightspeed, Kid Flash questions why the Hive Five are called such with six members. The villains couldn't think of an answer, even though it was standing right next to them. Billy Numerous is never just one person, physically or mentally. Their numbers are constantly being shifted between six to six hundred. So he's considered a variable rather than a core aspect. Alternatively, it was a subtle way of pointing out that Jinx doesn't really belong there, and foreshadowing her eventual Heel–Face Turn, since that's basically what the whole episode is about anyway.

· In Go, Starfire doesn't fly until after her shackles are removed. This seems odd until you remember that a Tamaranian's flight is powered by joy. It's likely that until Robin removed her shackles, she couldn't muster any joy while being reminded that she was a slave to the Gordanians.

· Why are BB’s prehistoric forms so inaccurate? Because his shifting relies on him having a good idea of what the animal he's shifting into looks like. Since it's unlikely that he's ever seen a real dinosaur (not counting birds), he would have to base dinosaur/pterosaur shifting off of any portrayal he has actually seen. And since he's a nerdy movie buff, chances are those portrayals aren't from books or documentaries.

· In "Winner Take All" Speedy tells wildebeest "may the best man win" before changing to "may the champion win" when Wildebeest seems to take offence at being called a man. The implication in the episode is that he isn't a man because he isn't human, but issue #16 of the tie in comic shows he isn't a man because he is actually a small child.

#teen titans #fridge highlights #tv tropes

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