#(not proud about my country being literally hot and the government)

[miikoissant]

GUESS WHO'S BIRTHDAY (AND INDEPENDENCE DAY) IT IS.

MALIGAYANG KAARAWAN, PILIPINAS 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥‼‼‼‼‼‼🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅 (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PHILIPPINES)

[thespoonisvictory]

“Techno and Wilbur make Cave Better” Key Conversations

Hi, so I’m doing a big Pogtopida Wilbur analysis rn, mainly of this stream, and I basically decided to transcribe all major events, conversations, and quotes for the masses, to reference during said analysis. 

This was such a good stream to look at, and there’s some really interesting stuff to analyze, as Wilbur interacts with almost every portion of the story and develops his character in a really interesting way. I definitely recommend watching the stream if you want to understand Wilbur’s character, or at least read this. If you like to write meta, have fun with this oh boy.

Major quotes and full conversations are bolded for clarity, timestamps are added, and names are shortened when writing dialogue. If the character is not tagged Wilbur is the one speaking (W = Wilbur, TU = Tubbo, F = Fundy, S = Schlatt, and TO = Tommy). 

“Hey Techno. I’m in a better mood today. I’m in a better- do you know I’m- I’m over fucking losing Manburg y’know.” 11.08

“The revolution is coming. the only difference is I’m not gonna be sad while doing it. I’m gonna be happy, while revolting.” 11.20

“Hey Techno, do you wanna see how over Manburg I am, dude? How over L’Manburg I am? You ready for this? *reveals Pogtopia skin*” 11.25

“That filthy, dirty, coat. I didn’t wash it once, I’ll be honest with you, Technoblade.” 11.40

*Techno shows him the farm, Wilbur is concerned but a little frightened by the amount of time he’s spent on this lol*

“First, I think, I wanna make this place look nicer, cause I won’t be able to work in this cavern if it’s just like, if it’s natural generation, y’know?” 14.33

*they join vc with tubbo*

“Tubbo’s one of the few people I trust, Technoblade. Like, I’m still figuring you out right now, but, at the moment, Tubbo seems to be pretty on the ball. He seems pretty keen on the whole spying thing.” 16.13

“See the thing is, Tubster, can I call you Tubster? Cool, cool. See the thing is Tubbony, I need help, today. Tubbo, do you know anything about super smelters.” 16.53

*they meet up in Manburg to go to Pogtopia, Wilbur doesn’t feel safe coming too close*

“Tubbo. You’ve lost the revolutionary gear. I’m so proud of you man, I’m so proud of you. We’ve finally moved on. It’s the next part!” 19.32

*Wilbur is visibly upset by Tubbo wearing the suit, despite it being a “disguise” and him saying Schlatt’s name, however*

“I was sleeping last night, before I changed my clothes, and I thought to myself, I thought to myself Tubbo you’ve done so much for our great nation.”20.17

“Have you heard of the Sunk Cost Fallacy?” *Wilbur explains the fallacy* “So, in that logic, I think you are physically incapable of giving up. I think you’re physcially incapable of giving up L’manburg. Because you’ve put in so much effort! You’ve put in so much work, y’know. So that’s why...” 22.12

*Wilbur shows Tubbo Pogtopia*

“Pogtopia isn’t a nation, as much as Tommy seems to think it is. We’re a commune, now. Don’t call me Mr President anymore, Tubbo, you’ve gotta call me, uh, Wilbs... In the commune, we’re all equal, we’re all comrades. We’re all equal” 24.24

*Wilbur compares them to Russian revolutionaries*

“Except with this Russian revolution, we’re not all gonna die. And also the nation we’re gonna make afterwards will not fail.” (oh god I’m sad) 25.15

*they talk about the super smelter, wilbur and tubbo are wholesome :(*

W: “Welcome to the commune, welcome to Pogtopia. Now, I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking Wilbur- Wilbur-”

TU: “I think it looks lovely”

W: “oh,  see I thought you were gonna say ‘Wilbur Wilbur this looks like shit’, and I was gonna say ‘yes Tubbo, yes it does look shit’”

TU: “I mean, you obviously- I don’t think you’ve seem Manburg lately.”

Wilbur’s tone becomes serious, maybe angry “I haven’t seen Manburg lately. Why do you rub this in.”

TU: “What- no- I didn’t mean it like that-”

W: “No- I heard you man-”

TU: “No, it’s really gone quite in the opposite direction-”

Wilbur’s tone cheers up a bit. “Oh- it’s bad? It looks bad?

TU: “Yeah”

W: “Oh, that’s brilliant, that’s great news, Tubbo, thank you, I-, that means that when we go and fix it- let me show you...” 27.40

*Wilbur wants to add more people to Pogtopia, tells Techno to get more food*

*Wilbur talks about possibly exporting “Pogtopia Potatoes” to L’manburg, and poisoning them. This is never brought up again though and isn’t treated seriously*

“I wanna make sure it looks nice for when the gang gets on.” 31.35

*Schlatt joins the game, and joins vc. Wilbur is immediately panicked, telling him to make an alibi*

“How’s running L’man-Manburg going for you?” “It’s going great.” “Yeah, it’s a lovely place isn’t it, nice situation.” 34.30

*this continues a bit, Wilbur is very obviously not a big fan of this conversation. Schlatt talks about demolishing things. Wilbur’s tone is soft and somber*

W: “Oh- What are you demolishing.”

S: “The Elton John house.”

W: “Oh- that was-”

S: “I reckon we’ll take the rocket down as well, and maybe uh-”

W: “oh- ok”

S:“what is this thing, whad’you call this thing, Tubbo?”

T: “This is that cAHmrvan van”

W: *quietly* “the camARvan”

S: “The cAHmarvan?”

W: *quietly* “The camARvan” 

S: “That’s a stupid name, I reckon we put a big apartment building right over it.” 

*Wilbur moves away from his desk in shock, the conversation continues, Wilbur is shocked by the dress code being suits as Schlatt insults the revolutionary uniforms, leaves vc*

“Techno- I fucking hate him, Technoblade. He’s the fucking worst, you get it, you get it don’t you? He’s everything- he’s everything I cannot stand.” 37.32

*Wilbur talks about dismantling the oppressive government, and quotes Spongebob. They chat for bit, both misunderstanding anarchy dear god*

“One thing I really want to make sure of, cause as much as I’m still not entirely trustful of Tubbo, because he said it was a disguise... Tubbo said that he was wearing the suit as a disguise, right. Turns out that’s true. Turns out it’s the dresscode. So, Tubbo lied to me, which is not the best start for our political relationship, but y’know it’s cool, at least he’s actually online today, unlike- unlike one of my right hand men.”40.26

“Whilst I’m not entirely trustful of Tubbo, I would- still don’t wanna see him get hurt by Schlatt” 41.19

*Wilbur rejoins Schlatt’s vc. He’s still really bitter about being removed from Manburg. The whole Schlatt has diamonds in his furnace conversation happens. Schlatt asks where Niki lives, and Wilbur immediately leaves vc*

“Techno we need to get to the docks, this is your first mission under us, please comrade, please. armor. armor. We need to get to Manburg quickly, this isn’t a drill, this is first thing. We’re not gonna attack we’re just gonna watch, and then see what happens.”45.06

*Techno is mining, and Wilbur says he’ll get there on his own time before leaving. Wilbur arrives in Manburg and is disgusted by the apartment buildings, venturing in while Techno has no clue where Manburg is*

*Wilbur goes into Niki’s bakery*  “I think Schlatt’s just mugged Niki” 49.14

“Which is why I need you here, Technoblade. You’re kinda my last resort.”  50.00

*Wilbur looks over Manburg and watches Niki, Fundy, Schlatt, and Tubbo interact. They join Niki’s vc, Techno isn’t keeping hidden well and Wilbur is stressed. Wilbur is trying to balance both of them and making all the calls.*

W: “Niki I’ve gotta go, Niki I’ve gotta go, I promise- I- look- if- we’re in too much of a hot position right now to take in everyone from every sort of like person we need into our new cave. So you’re gonna have to hold out in Manburg a bit longer. Is that ok?”

N: “Of course. I will.”

W: “Mm k.”

N: “Take care, Wil.”

W: “Thank you.” 

W is obviously distraught at leaving her behind, but leaves vc. 55.05

Techno isn’t in vc, and Wilbur just softly goes “Comrade Technoblade? Is he- I’m on my own. I’m on my own.” 55.38

*Tommy joins the game and Techno joins vc* “I thought he was gone, no it’s Tommy. I didn’t think he’d be coming on, I didn’t think he’d- oh thank god!”

*they join vc with Tubbo Punz and Schlatt. Techno offers to “initiate order Kennedy” and Wilbur freaks out*

*Fundy joins vc*

S: “Fundy- Fundy- I y’know I wasn’t gonna do this so early into my reign, but I think you should have a promotion. I mean this is just such a good idea, this is just such a good idea.”

F: “You’re being very generous here Schlatt.”

W panics. “Don’t give him promotions, he’s too young, he doesn’t understand, he’s- he needs to learn more. No- he needs to learn more, I should know he’s my son.”

S: “I’m promoting him.”

F: “Wilbur, Imma need you to shut up for a second.”

W: “Don’t you speak like that to me, Fundy. Don’t forget where you came from,  Fundy.”

S: “What’s the relationship between you and Wilbur, Fundy?”

F: *sigh* “Wilbur, he’s just a founder, and I was born here, and nothing else. It’s literally everything there is to is to it.”

W, softly and sadly: “You know that’s not-”

Schlatt interrupts: “See, it’s so great to have natural-born citizens of Manburg, taking the country direction into their own hands. I mean, I really over this purple stripe, instead of that ugly blue one.”

*Wilbur has hand over his mouth in disbelief and sadness

F: “I must agree.”

*F and S continue to talk*

W, seemingly on the verge of tears: “I don’t know who you are anymore, Fundy, I don’t know who you are anymore.” he leaves the vc and joins Tommy. 

“I couldn’t be there anymore.”  1.01.36

*Immediately, Tommy tries to talk to him, while Wilbur is obviously angry and upset. Tommy is waiting for his command to burn down the flag.”

TO:“I’m stood here, by the flag with a flint and steel, Wilbur.”

W, panicked. “Tommy control yourself, control yourself, it’s not worth it.”

TO: “Do I take my shot?”

W: “Tommy do not take your shot.”

TO: “Wilbur he disrespected you!”

W, even more panicked: “He disrespected me, yes but we’ve talked about this Tommy. Tommy, if we cast the first stone-”

TO: “Wilbur, I wanna do it Wilbur.”

*now Tubbo shows up, holding a book*

W: “Tubbo, what is that book?”

TO: “I wanna do it!”

TU: “It’s, um, it’s nothing much, it’s not really anything worth worrying about.”

W, softly: “What is it. Why are you holding it.”

TU: “It’s- Schlatt has given me- It’s the papers Schlatt made me. Yeah, it’s what he, yeah.”

W: “Give it to me.”

TU: “Are you sure?”

TO at the same time: “Wilbur tell me now Fundy’s coming up. Do I light the fires of  victory, of independence?”

*W is reading the book MANBURG TO-DO*

TU: “Uh- I’m gonna need that back”

TO at the same time: I could do with a clear yes or no, this isn’t a- as much as silence is-

W interrupts, suddenly angry: “Tommy burn that place to the ground. Burn that place to the ground and try to as many people trapped in it as possible.”

TO laughs

TU: “I’m gonna need that book back- oh- oo.”

*W throws the book back*

TO: “Wilbur do I kill your son?”

W, no longer distracted: “Keep him alive, Tommy.”

TO: “Again- I could do, I’m actually-”

W: “Tommy, we’re comrades here.”

TO: “Wilbur, take one look at Manburg, cause it ain’t no more!”

W: “Tubbo, take me to Manburg.”

TU: “Ok.”

TO: “I could kill Schlatt and Big Q right now.”

W: “Keep them alive, we need them alive Tommy.”

TO: “Can I just shoot em once?”

W, exasperated: “If you want.”

TO: “Yeah, I did. It’s more of my own self fulfillment.”

W: *sighs* “We’ve cast the first stone. Our little ravine is now, it’s now in a difficult spot.” 1.03.30

*Wilbur meets Tubbo at Manburg and they head back to Pogtopia*

TO: “The flags gone, and your son is corrupt.”

W: “I know he is, and I don’t need reminding of that, Tommy.” 1.06.30

*Schlatt joins vc and tells Tommy to leave Manburg, and leaves again. Wilbur tells Tommy again not to burn down the forest, and is legitimately upset at the idea. He says it’s the thing they’re fighting against. Techno rejoins vc*

“Tommy, if you don’t fix the mistake you’ve made here, I don’t know if you’re the best fit for Pogtopia.” 1.10.46

*Wilbur asks Tubbo and Techno if they’ve checked the forest, but they’re both busy*

W: “Alright well I’ll go and looking for the fucking forest, I guess. I have to do everything around here.”

*Tubbo and Techno protest.*

W: “No no no, it’s fine you two are doing much harder work than I am.” 1.12.37

*Tubbo and Wilbur talk about how Quackity isn’t happy under Schlatt, how he’s protesting a lot of Schlatt’s measures.*

“He’s a man who I thought, really cared about his nation, but, hey y’know, I’ve been wrong before.” 1.13.55

*the conversation shifts to Fundy, and Wilbur recounts what Fundy said, clearly upset. Tubbo is shocked by this*

“It’s ok, it’s ok, y’know, cause, it’s fine! I- y’know, bonds are formed in blood, not family blood, the other blood, the blood where you stab shit. Yeah, that’s where bonds are formed.”1.14.55

*Tubbo, Techno, and Wilbur chat more, Schlatt joins vc for a bit. Tubbo and Wilbur keep up the bit that Tubbo is loyal to Schlatt until he leaves. Tubbo says explained his absence to Schlatt*

“Tubbo, you’re- see with Technoblade, right, I have no doubt that Technoblade is on my side, right. Cause with Technoblade, with Technoblade, right, I know that he wants blood, and he wants war. Cause that’s how Technoblade works y’know. He just wants to fight and he wants to kill bad guys, right. Yeah, look at him, he a little libertarian- little anarchist, right. So here’s what I’m saying, right: you however- little, I can’t tell if you’re cozying up to Schlatt to help spy, or if you’re cozying up to Schlatt because you quite like how he treats you. I mean look, Tubbo, I’ll be the first one to say it, I didn’t always treat you the best, on L’Manburg, and I know I didn’t, I- I- I was somewhat of a distant ruler- I pretty much only- don’t agree that fucking excitedly, man- look I wasn’t the best ruler I know I wasn’t. Well I think I was a good ruler, but I, I- Tubbo I don’t know if you are just prefering his rule over mine, and I feel like I gotta win you over.”

TU seems to disagree, but says ok.

TU: “Well I’m making this farm, I wouldn’t be putting in this much time if I wasn’t.”

W: No I know, I know, but that’s probably what’d you be saying to Schlatt as well if you were doing work for him.”

TU: “That is- that is very- yeah that is very true, actually.” 1.25.07

*Tubbo says his excuse is that he was pregnant in the name of being transparent. They discuss plans for the farm, and the stream ends*

Wilbur, raiding Niki: “Now, Niki is currently probably the last person who I know is on our side,, who I know is definitely on our side right now. And she, basically, is just sort of trapped in Manburg, cause I can’t get her out, cause we’ve got Tubbo out that’s fine, but I can’t get Niki out for a while. She’s being taxed and she’s being watched very closely by Schlatt. More closely than Tubbo, weirdly, and Schlatt is just being a horrible person to her as you know. So I’m gonna need you to go over there and I’m gonna need you to give her some love. “ <3 1.31.52

[teruthecreator]

poorly summarize everything that’s happened in grad so far for me, the clown who has only listened to 2 episodes (totally for goofs please don’t stress kbdjdjssk)

nah nah nah okay dont even sweat it i GOT YOU. okay so, the basics: 

we got three whores to focus on. ignore all other npcs only two of them are mentioned regularly. the whores being: 

sniveling little bitch who’s imposter syndrome is almost as fat as his ass 

pirates of the caribbean in scotland 

mossy rock w funny accent 

now you think the main setting would be the school theyre at, right? wrong. this is also barely mentioned, save for the scattered Actual Class Scenes 

currently (as of ep 16) they’re on spring semester freshman year. yknow, the semester of college where u suddenly decide to change ur major and start trying to join a sorority. 

now we got that all covered, we talk Plot (as much plot as i remember): 

think of Sky High. remember the dynamics there? that’s here too. in the beginning eps, all three whores are lame little lackeys just getting through gen eds. imposter syndrome bitch also got a superiority complex over his gifted-kid-related trauma about this

(once again, important to note the classes have No Meaning to the plot.) 

pirates of the caribbean also learns from Mysterious Bird Man that his mother belonged to The Masons: But Make It Fantasy. 

sentient mossy rock also sometimes does things without knowing why. is he dissociating?? no. you’ll find out why in a second.  

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

FIRST MISSION: they issue a subpoena to a rock monster. mossy rock man pick up cool crystal. the whores learn there are some lil holy-holes torn into spacetime that weren’t there before! neat! 

OH YEAH ALSO IMPORTANT. IMPOSTER SYNDROME GETS A SON HIS NAME IS SNIPPERS HE IS ACTUALLY THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTER IN THE SHOW CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE 

anyway, scottish jack sparrow joins the masons and is assigned his first solid snake mission: find out all the hot goss on imposter syndrome.  

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

THEN ITS WINTER BREAK. they fight some imps. travis was way too proud of this bit. imposter syndrome and scot sparrow are a little homoerotic. 

and also a random npc is written out of the story which makes imposter syndrome paranoid. 

somewhere around winter break imposter syndrome gets promoted to Disney Villain by the Main Headmaster. this will be important Kind Of. 

imposter syndrome and sentient moss have a convo and decide they cant trust Disney’s Pirates Of the Caribbean Ride In Scotland bc he sneaks out too much to get schwasty w the masons. 

mossman admits he doesn’t know what he’s doing sometimes (me too buddy) and imposter syndrome clocks his vibe and finds out he’s been brainwashed! swag 

because of the removed npc, the government sends Random Woman With A Nice Name to watch over class proceedings. remember when sometimes the principal would sit in on classes for teacher’s performance reviews?? like that but more Law & Order. 

moss admits to nice woman that he’s afraid bc his brain got yoinked. she gives him a listening device to help. this literally becomes useless within the next episode.  

imposter syndrome talks abt his paranoia w nice woman bc he thinks he’s gonna die. pirate boy talks abt his insecurity complex bc he thinks the hot himbo he lives w doesnt like him. 

these conversations happen in succession. 

also pirates of the caribbean finds out imposter syndrome is....an imposter! sends a nicely written, lightly homoerotic letter home to his imposter’s mom to get the facts. 

those facts being he’s actually a country bumpkin himbo. 

mossy cobblestone gets mindwiped to run to the Other Headmaster, and imposter and pirate follow. they learn that green top actually gave the headmaster permission to wipe his mind clean bc he has a rlly low deception roll, and also the real Main Headmaster is a dog bc travis runs this game. which makes Main Headmaster That Promoted Imposter Syndrome...An Imposter!!! 

Other Headmaster explains in order to un-dog this man (and un-bird the npc who got removed from the plot but is suddenly back) he needs the apple from Snow White. currently two herds of centaurs are fighting over it, so they gotta Nab It.  

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

SECOND MISSION. i can summarize this real quick: 

they talk to the horsepeople and find out the leaders are stubborn exes 

they talk to a forest god who basically gives them the Wonderland Treatment 

they talk to a shitty wizard 

said shitty wizard curses imposter syndrome 

Pirates of the Caribbean 4: The Scotland Story is homoerotic at imposter syndrome’s comatosed body while Minecraft Steve finds out the apple was a lie (haha get it portal joke hahaha--) 

imposter syndrome finds out his magic was given to him by Sexy Deity Person Who My Girlfriend Really Likes Talking About 

a single dirt block learns shitty wizard basically framed them for stealing and trying to incite a war between the herds

imposter syndrome wakes up next to pirate man and its gay, but then theyre both arrested for treason 

Imposter Syndrome Rips A Man’s Hand Off 

they get the apple 

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

THE END :) <3 

[letoscrawls]

What are your Extremely Italian Opinions? Anything from politics to pasta, drop some hot takes

mmmmm good question! even though i'm not a proud italian as i'm very critical of this country and i'd love to live abroad in the future, i do have typical italian opinions that i'm ready to die for. I’m sure these will be mainly about food, but let’s see:

-say whatever you want, but italian food is the best food in the entire world, not only it’s healthy but it’s also delicious and no nation can compare :) no you can’t change my mind :) every time i watch Ratatouille i cringe so bad at the beginning when they say that French cuisine is known to be the best in the world??? that’s so false and i don’t even find it funny, we italians take food so seriously and if you dare criticize something about our food we take it very personal, yes, IT IS THAT DEEP.

-idk if it's a take but i find it funny that we don't use ice that much?? like i was so shocked to learn that smoothies are made WITH ICE?? we almost never use it, we definitely don't put it in coffee and we have this strange belief that ice gives you stomachache, especially if you want to take a bath, we usually wait two or three hours before taking a bath after a meal, especially if there's ice in it somewhere lol i think it's a typical Italian Grandma Advice but we all follow it religiously. Even though i know it's bizarre i can't help but wait at least two hours after my meal before having any kind of contact with water

-No one dubs movies and cartoons like italians. Our voice actors are superior (but the italian Rebels dub is terrible, don’t watch Rebels in italian, everyone sounds very bad except for Thrawn, surprisingly his voice better than the original and i've already talked about this in my ig stories some time ago haha) and i often watch shows and movies in italian even tho it's "trendy" nowadays to watch everything in english. Tbh i think that  a country with a strong tradition of voice acting shouldn't neglect it in favor of the original language, just because something was made in english it doesn't make it better. For example, the prequel trilogy is insanely better in italian, while i love Hayden's performance as Anakin i think that sometimes...it lacks emotion? the italian dub makes up for those parts, i couldn't understand why international fans used to despise the PT so much at first, especially the acting. There isn't one single character in the prequels that sounds bad, really. Same thing goes for Disney classics, i find them 100% funnier in italian (the most memorable example is Emperor's New Groove, the main characters are voiced by some of the funniest comedians we have, they all did an amazing job), even tho some characters are voiced by celebrities who don't do voice acting on a regular basis the result is always phenomenal. Honorable mention to the Genie in Aladdin who is voiced by Gigi Proietti, an actor and comedian of immesurable talent who passed away a few days ago, his performance is on the same level of Robin Williams' imo. So yeah, i'm a huge fan of italian voice acting in case you didn't notice

-regarding politics, lots of people here say that we have the "best democracy in the world" or something like that.........eh, i highly doubt it. I hate this country because there is no meritocracy, you're most likely to succeed if you have good connections or a powerful family. The worst part is that this applies to EVERYTHING and it's terrible. Also there's a big imbalance between North Italy and South Italy, so it's hard to succeed and have access to a good education if you're born in the South and you're poor. And it's a shame. I was lucky enough to live near a very good university so i pay for taxes and nothing else, but only those who are born in wealthy families in the south can afford university in the north as universities in the south are not that good in general. it's really a shame bc south italy is freaking beautiful but the government doesn't spend the same amount of time, energy and money and that's also one of the reasons crime rates are so high there. truly every single issue in Italy could be resolved by funding our education system but most politicians don't give a flying fuck about it and it shows :/

-University in italy is considered a privilege, something that people do because they are too lazy to go to work and get "a real job". we have one of the lowest rates of student getting a degree in europe and yet a lot of people are expected to be jobless for years after graduating uni. it's crazy. there is no respect or consideration for university students since you're not obliged by law to attend one but it's your choice. university professors are terrible, they act like we don't have a personal life and in most cases will make everything so hard that you'll need to take an exam even 15 times before passing it. a friend of mine who is a prodigy in Math attended a really good university in Switzerland and he told me that you can take exams a max of 3 times there but you usually don't need to because they are much easier to pass?? also exams are so hard to pass, my degree is a living hell, you have to take multiple tests, do projects and assignments to pass one freaking exam, while the entire world has the paper system, so you basically write a paper and then the teacher grades it and guess what??? YOU LEARN STUFF ANYWAY. i hate that university in italy takes so much years, tears and mental energy to finish and this leads me to my next point

-healthcare. Italy has one of the best healthcare systems in the world because, well, it's free! You have some kind of bills to pay, but they are not as expensive as in the US, the country got a huge debt at some point in the 60s/70s (i guess??) to afford free healthcare but it was really worth it!! HOWEVER, i think it's pointless to have free healthcare for literally anything besides mental health. sadly, mental health is a tough topic here, if you suffer from a mental illness you're considered crazy, an attention seeker, incapable of being a normal citizen and stuff like that. therapists are super expensive and only wealthy people can afford them. personally, i can't afford one and i would love to since i suffer from anxiety and maybe other things (but i guess i'll never know since my country doesn't give a fuck lmao). and university students are most likely to have mental health issues due to the terrible conditions we live in, yet society ignores us, this results in very high suicide rates among students in their twenties. i honestly hate it so fucking much, especially because studying psychology is considered "easy" and you'll probably be jobless after your degree. psychologists are doctors, they deserve to be paid like any other doctor because they save lives, for real.

So uhm this was supposed to be funny but ended being very critical hahahaha

[werejusttouchingeachother]

Quarantined

Req: I really loved the quarantine fic with exo kai, could you do another quarantine fic with kai where he and you get into an argument (maybe bc he is reckless going out with with friends during this pandemic time and you get worried) and you try to avoid each other which is hard in this situation bc you live together and afterwards you make up. Fluff with a spice of smut in the end please 

Pairing: Jongin x reader Genre: fluff, makeout, slight mentions of smut Words: 1699 A/N: I actually have a good reason for the delay with writing this one, the same day I got this req was when I yelled at my dad cause he’s being really reckless too and keeps going out despite all of us telling him not to (I don’t live with my parents, they’re countries away and i’m hella worried) so it took me a while to write this and I’m sorry for taking too long 😅  To the anon who requested it, I hope you liked it! You can see this as a prequel to the previous quarantine fic lol

“Jongin.” Your tone is accusatory enough by merely uttering his name that you hear him turn the faucet shut to listen to you from the bathroom as you ask, “Why is Wonshik texting you about getting malatang?”

“Ah, that's cause...,” You look up from his phone as he enters the bedroom quickly, eyes falling on your form seated on the bed with his phone in your hand.

“We made plans way before all this happened,” Jongin explains sheepishly, using his hands to make a sweeping gesture that indicated the four walls which was all both of you had seen for about a month now after the government had declared lockdown.

“It’s lockdown,” you state in a deadpan tone, cocking your head at him in confusion. “You can’t go outside for malatang.”

“Babe.” Jongin rolls his eyes, laughing slightly. “Relax. It's just me, Wonshik and two other guys.”

“The situation is unsafe right now,” you say in confusion, wondering why he was so nonchalant about it. “Cases have been increasing rapidly these days and eating out now is really risky.”

“Don't worry about it,” he waved off your concern, still unconvinced as he searched for a shirt inside his closet.

Your voice is firm and deadpan as you say, “Jongin.”

You see the way his shoulders tense and he slowly turns to you, eyebrow rising at the grave seriousness in your face.

“There is a virus making people literally drop dead right now,” you state. “Medical staff around the world are begging people to stay at home, governments have declared lockdown for your own safety and you want me to not worry about you getting malatang with your friends?”

You enunciate all the words slowly, as if he was a child—something that you know aggravated him but you couldn't help it when he was frustrating you with his stubbornness too.

“We made plans, Y/N,” Jongin said in a clipped tone that let you know he was suppressing his annoyance.

“So did the world,” you snort derisively. “Students wanted to graduate, people wanted to get married, idols wanted to go on tours. And you know what? They're still doing it—at home. Cause that's logical.”

“What the hell is your problem?” Jongin finally blurts, looking appalled as he glares at you.

“My problem?” You repeat in fury, standing up from the bed although it did little since your boyfriend was still taller than you, although you didn't have to crane your neck as much.

“My ‘problem’,” you mocked, eyes blazing as you narrow them at the insolent man in front of you, “is that you're being completely reckless. I like you alive, Jongin.”

“I’m not going to die,” he rolled his eyes.

“Said every person who died immediately right after those words.”

“Are you seriously—?”

“I am.” You meet his gaze heatedly. “I’m serious, Jongin. Just cancel your plans or order malatang home and have it together on a zoom call with them or something. I’ll swallow the keys to that front door if I have to but I’m not letting you out of this house. You want to act stupid, do it within these walls.”

You throw his phone back onto the bed and stomp past him, hitting his arm with your shoulder on the way out of the room.

That was almost six hours ago. It was evening now and you laid on the couch, watching a cheesy horror movie on the television as you tried to ignore Jongin sitting at the kitchen counter behind you.

Although you'd told him he could order the malatang online, he hadn't budged much except for sulking in a corner with the defiant spirit to not talk to you. You'd been proud too by deciding against asking him about it again but you did go ahead and order it yourself for both of you—which you felt deserved credit.

Sure, it wasn't verbal and yeah, it wasn't an apology either but it was something. You were trying.

You'd also felt apologetic and reconsidered being so harsh on him in the morning because you knew he was genuinely looking forward to meeting his friends after a long time due to his busy schedules.

Key word here: felt. All feelings of remorse left your body when the stubborn man-child you were dating crossed his arms and pouted, ignoring the bowl of hot malatang that you’d pointedly placed in front of him, insistent to continue his silent tantrum as an act of defiance to your scolding in the morning.

You rolled your eyes as you lowered the volume on the television as the female character screeched, feeling his gaze still on your back. The movie was a lot louder with the silence in the house that both of you were too stubborn to break.

He’d paced around the room and busied himself with his phone there for a while until boredom got the best of him, drawing him out into the living room where you were. You could feel his gaze burning holes into the back of your head but you ignored him, watching the screen although you weren't really paying attention.

The final jump-scare echoed through the speakers as the demon screeched on the screen, making you blink as you realised the movie had ended. You sat up from the couch as the ending credits rolled, stretching slightly and hearing the popping sound as you arched your back. You made a small noise at the back of your throat at the eased tension in your back from lying back on the couch in one position for couple hours now, closing your eyes as you stretched your arms.

You start to lean back into the couch and freeze when your body feels the warmth and hard planes of a familiar chest instead of the leather seat.

You don't turn your head even as his arms slowly circle around your waist, pulling you back further into him until you're comfortably nestled between his long legs that don't even fit fully on the couch.

Damn it. He knew how much you liked cuddling on the couch since both your bodies crowded the small space until you didn't know where he ended and you began.

Still, you held onto your resolve and didn't turn even as his hands came to rest on your stomach, sneaking under your shirt that had hiked up as you stretched.

“Babe.” He muttered into the nape of your neck, pressing a butterfly kiss on your shoulder. “I'm sorry.”

You close your eyes, immediately easing in his grip. Feeling you finally give in, his arms tighten around you as he moulds your body to his, pressing you completely to him and you prompt, “For?”

“Being reckless,” he replies, making a trail of kisses on the back of your shoulder before trailing softly, gently up the curve of your neck. A breathy sigh leaves your lips involuntarily at the feeling of those plush lips against your skin and you close your eyes as he whispers the words right into your ear, “For being annoyed at you when you were looking out for me.”

You wait, leaning your head against the headrest of the couch. When he doesn't continue, you open your eyes and push, “And?”

Jongin stops, pulling away from your neck. You turn to look at him then and he gives you a blank expression, saying, “And nothing.”

You narrow your eyes. “Jongin.”

“Reckless. Being stupid. That's it.”

“One more stupid thing, Kim Jongin.”

You can see the annoyance in his eyes at his internal conflict. He presses his lips together and you shake your head, narrowing your eyes at him in judgement and the universe sides with you as right then his stomach growls.

Loudly.

Not even fighting off the smirk, you raise an eyebrow at your boyfriend as he finally groans in frustration, admitting in defeat, “Fine! I'm sorry for not eating the malatang you bought for me as peace offering.”

You laugh as he covers his face with his hands, turning around in his lap until you're straddling him as you wrap your arms around his broad shoulders, pulling him into you.

“Apology accepted,” you finally say with a smile, running your hands through his hair as you hug him. You pause before muttering, “You know I love you, right? I just want you to stay safe.”

Jongin pulls away then, looking at your face as he nods with an apologetic small smile that you can't help but give into.

“I know,” he says softly before teasing, “You like me alive.”

“Yes, I do,” you affirm, pressing your nose to his. Jongin's hand rises to cup your cheek, holding you in place to press his lips sweetly against yours.

“I love you too, Y/N,” he mutters and you kiss him back, tightening your arms around his shoulders.

Jongin grabs your hips then, kissing you heatedly and you feel the sudden urgency as his fingers dig into your sides, tongue shoving its way past your parted lips.

A low moan sounds at the back of your throat as Jongin quickly repositions both of you—pushing you down onto the couch with his body atop you and your fingers reach for the hem of his shirt, yanking it upwards when suddenly a loud growl interrupts the two of you.

You laugh loudly, unable to control yourself as Jongin hides his face in your neck and you remove your hands from beneath his shirt, pushing him off you.

“Let’s get some food in that growling stomach of yours first, you big baby,” you tease as he pouts, finally allowing you to pull away. “And maybe after that, I’ll give you some reason to enjoy lockdown.”

Jongin raises his eyebrow as you stand up and make your way to the kitchen, giving you a devilish smirk as he asks, “Food related or bedroom related?”

Your voice is slightly muffled as you bend over the fridge, searching for his malatang that you’d placed in the fridge earlier. “Ever considered eating food off of me in the bedroom?”

You hear Jongin curse loudly then as he jumps off the couch and follows you quickly into the kitchen.

A/N to everyone: even if y’all don’t have a Kai to keep you at home or the other way around, please stay safe at home and don’t be a risk to yourself/others! Higher chances of meeting Kai/your bias that way (alive)🙂

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #466

“she is the butcher, she wants the air  /  she hides the scars under her hair”

Who do you think cares the most about you? My mom. What do you do when you’re pissed off? Isolate and cry. Have you ever had unprotected sex? Good luck catchin' me do that. What did your mother study at university? Social work. What was the last thing you took a video of? I have zero idea. What is your least favorite kind of weather? Hot and humid weather can actually fuck off. What was the last housework you did? Does changing my cat's litter count? Have you ever had famous neighbors? Not to my knowledge. Have you ever lived in a small community where everyone knew each other? Nope. Have you ever actually drank warm milk? NO EW EW EW EW EW Do you talk to your pets? If you don't, are you REALLY a pet parent??????? Who is a famous person you could see yourself reading a biography about? He's always said he doesn't want to but I really hope Mark writes an autobiography one day alskdjklafjw;ejr Are there any numbers you dislike for any reason? No. What skill that you have do you make most use of? idk man Have you ever done something sexual that you regret? Nah. Have you ever said anything to the last person you kissed that you regret? No. Have you ever ate so much you puked? No. Do you care about what others think of your physical appearance? Sometimes/some places yes, other times/places, no. Would you rather eat cookies or brownies? It would probably change with what I'm feeling, but I lean towards a nice center piece brownie. :^) If you’re out late, where are you likely to be? This literally never happens. Do you ever visit your mall’s arcade (if it has one)? Our mall is lame as fuck. It definitely doesn't have one. What’s your absolute favorite topic to discuss? Mark, lmao. What is your least favorite topic to discuss? Politics. Have you ever been confined to a wheelchair? "Confined" seems like a strong word, but a nurse did give me one at the doctor's office when I massively tore a ligament in my foot and could barely walk at all. If you have a job, who’s your closest friend at work? Don't remind me that I don't have a job. Have you told anyone you love them today? Not yet, but I'm sure I will later. Have you ever worked in an office? No, but I guess that's what I'm going to wind up going for once I'm ready to job-hunt again... It feels sad that I'm actually aiming for the cubicle life now just because my interaction with people would be much more limited than with most other jobs. Who does the grocery shopping in your house? My mom. Do you prefer margarine or butter, and why? I don't even know if I'd recognize the taste difference. Have you ever been in serious trouble at work or school? No. Do you have any strange fears or phobias that you’re embarrassed of? That I'm embarrassed of, no. Can you smell anything right now? No. Have you ever tried coconut water? No. Which Asian country would you like to visit the most? Idk. Maybe Japan? How old were your parents when they got engaged? I have no idea. Have you ever done a first aid course? No. If so, would you be prepared to perform CPR if necessary? No. Have you ever ‘done it’ in a hotel room? No. Just the idea grosses me out. Where is your next vacation? Couldn't tell ya, buddy. Which are better black or green olives? I'm not a fan of black olives, and I won't even TRY green ones. They just look so fucking disgusting to me. Does your car have a backup camera? Mom's doesn't. Have either of your parents ever been in trouble with the law? No. Do you have a preferred brand of bottled water? Essentia. Is your skin more oily, dry, or combination? It's a combination depending on the location. Where did you meet your current significant other? High school band. What kind of house do you wish you lived in? One that's in the woods. What was the last compliment you received from an old lady? I don't have a clue. Do you know how to cut hair? Properly, no. Have you ever had a classmate die? I believe maybe once? If you have a song stuck in your head, what is it? I recently discovered "Foxy, Foxy" by Rob Zombie and it's Good Stuff. Do you tend to space out a lot? Very much so. What people have changed your life for the better? My parents, my psychiatrist, a PHP therapist, Sara, debatably Jason... Have you ever had any kind of dangerous addiction? What’s this addiction? Caffeine, I guess. Are your parents still married, divorced, or split up? Like this decision? They're divorced, and while it sucks for your parents to split up, it's a decision that I definitely approve of given all they ever did was fight when I was growing up. Them staying together would've been very destructive. Have you ever heard of Hollywood Undead? Do you like them? Well yeah, and I like a large number of songs to where I'd consider myself a fan. I actually had a shirt in high school. Has anyone ever called you a coward before? Who called you that? I don't believe so. Are you a Jeffree Star fan? Or no? Do you think he’s awesome/dumb? Honestly, yes. Like he's done dumb shit, but has more than sufficiently apologized for it in my opinion and changed his behavior for the better. I also - astonishingly - like his music quite a bit. As well, his work ethic is fucking INCREDIBLE, like extremely admirable. Has your grandmother ever made you anything? Not including cookies. I don't think so. I don't even think she ever liked me. Do you disgust anyone? Did they tell you that? Why is this, anyways? Not that I know of. When was the last time you cried, and why (if you want to share)? I don't remember, actually. Probably just about life. Who was the last person who was rude to you? *shrug* Do you have a relationship with God? lol no, and even if I believed in him, I wouldn't have a remotely decent opinion of that entity. Is weed legal in your state? No. Have you ever thrown up in class? In kindergarten, yes. What is something that you used to be ashamed of, but now you’re not? As a kid, being a girl, I was so embarrassed by liking Pokemon. Now, I am literally wearing an Eeveelutions shirt and went out in public lmao. I couldn't care less about loving them cuties. Have you ever walked outside in below zero weather? No; I've never experienced those temperatures. Have you ever held a newborn baby? Yes, but I was sitting down. I would be WAY too scared of dropping a baby otherwise. Are a ton of your Facebook friends getting married and having kids now? I legitimately think most of my friends on there already have kids and/or are married/engaged. It's triggering sometimes and was a massive motivator for me taking a break from there. What’s something you believe in that most people don’t? So uh, I hope this doesn't sound insensitive given how it just passed, but I 100% believe the U.S. government was to some extent involved in 9/11. There is an incredible amount of evidence when you do the research. Is there anyone who’s dear in your heart who’s going down the wrong path? I worry about one of my good friends quite a bit. She is horribly addicted to pot (like, she admits it) in a state where it's not legal, and I'm concerned she'll face legal repercussions eventually. She also dates an absolute lowlife asshole, but they've been together for a very long time, and I just worry about how that might damage her later down the road. Do you get enough sleep? God, it never feels like it. What’s something you wish you would have known sooner? That college wouldn't work for me. Like, I dropped out of three. I do NOT want to know the debt I'm in. What’s the next big project you plan to start? Idk. Possibly something for Girt's birthday because Mom really pissed me off and doesn't want to spend *any*thing to help me get something for him. Is that bad on my end? Like she pointed out he knows I don't work, but like... come on. He's my bf, one of my greatest friends ever, and you can't spare anything? I really don't know if that's selfish or not; it's just that if I get him nothing, I will feel like ACTUAL garbage. So making something may just be my only option. I just dunno what... Do you think you were cute in your baby pictures? omg yes, idk what happened Do you remember pre-school? A lot of it, yes. My long-term memory is pretty damn amazing. Would you allow your children to date prior to 16? Yes. Does your town have a farmer’s market? I think so? Which app on your phone do you tend to get the most notifications from? Pokemon GO, lol. How old were you when you met your current best friend? Around 11. What is something you gave up on after many failed attempts? Photography is coming real fuckin close. I've been trying to go somewhere with that for YEARS. Would you rather read a book, or listen to the audiobook? Physically read. I think my attention would stray listening to an audiobook. Do you think tomorrow will be a better day than today? It's possible, idk. I had a doctor's appointment today that absolutely slaughtered my mood, so I feel fucking horrific, but Girt is also coming over today, and I'm sure he'll cheer me up. I won't see him tomorrow, so that's a bummer. With which friend are you most likely to share a secret? Sara. What is the last thing you complained about? It's hot as shit outside. Is there a show you swear that you will never watch? 13 Reasons Why. What was the last topic that you ranted about? Anti-vax bullshit. Who is the most sensitive person that you know? Bitch, me. Have you ever had a tooth (or teeth) pulled? No. What did you do last Halloween? Literally nothing on the actual holiday. :/ Fire drills: Did you ever wish they were real… just once? ... To get out of school, yes. :x What was the last thing that you felt strongly about? I am still positively livid about Texas' "heartbeat bill." Fuck that place and fuck that law. What is one insecurity you have about your body? Um, everything???? What is one part of your body that you are proud of? Nothing????

[wherearemyglassesbro]

Do you have any headcanons for the Central American countries in hetalia like how they look like and they’re personality’s ( don’t know if your taking requests) I live in Honduras and I hope it becomes Canon

I do have thoughts on what they could look and act like! And before I begin, when I took Spanish classes we discussed culture in South and Central America but we didn’t go into detail so if I get stuff wrong please let me know!! I don’t want to misrepresent anyone’s culture :’)

ALSOOOOOO I finally found my post from a few months ago where I talked about this!!!! Yes!!! I’ll add on so think of this post as part 1!!!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/wherearemyglassesbro.tumblr.com/post/617134414900641792/any-headcanons-for-south-american-countries/amp

^^here I talk about Miss Brazil, Miss Chile, Mr Panama and Mr Bolivia :) (yes I know it’s South American countries not central but I still wanted to attatch this post ;-;)

https://wherearemyglassesbro.tumblr.com/post/617049481701212160/if-you-could-put-any-character-into-hetalia-what

^^And in this post I talk about a handful of other South/central American nations too!!! Jamaica and Mexico uhhhh I think uhhhhh another island, idk I didn’t read the entire thing I saw Jamaica and went THERE WE GOOOO!!! Lmao :)

ANYWAY!!! BACK TO THE ASK!!! (I like to think of a lot of south/Central American nations as women because there are just...so many men...)

Honduras: Miss Honduras is another very strong woman. She lives on her own farm where her neighbors come to work with her. They don’t work FOR her, they work with her. She turns on some music and they all chat while planting veggies or feeding chickens. She’s very proud of her farm!! She plans on giving this farm to her neighbors soon, she loves doing that. She makes a farm successful and passes it on to humans who are nice to her so they can be successful and enjoy the farm themselves :) she thinks that it’s important to treat humans with respect, many nations think they’re better than humans. She thinks humans are better than nations because they have such big hearts :) she’s a woman of few words but she is one hell of a storyteller. She’s written successful books anonymously and she goes to schools to read to kids. She’s just a great role model :)

Belize: Mr Belize is....short man...big temper. He’s the Central American equivalent to Lovino except he’s more stylish than Lovi (shhhh!!!!!). He literally has no reason to be angry all the time but he just finds things and rolls with it. It’s too hot. It’s too cold. His back itches. His eyebrows are uneven. His soup isn’t spicy enough...he’s the one who made it. Other than his temper being a big part of his personality, his musical talent is something to note!! He plays the guitar and drums. All kinds of drums, bongos or rock n roll drums or steel drums or any kind of drum, he’s played it. When he starts to feel disconnected from his people or when modern problems are causing him too much stress, he escapes to visit the ancient temples in his country or to go hang out with elderly people because he feels like he can relate more to the elderly :’) Miss Mexico gets on his nerves cause she’s kinda like an annoying older sister but he puts up with her...cause she often sends him chocolates or candy when he’s in a bad mood. Which is all the time lmao

Nicaragua: Miss Nicaragua is a party girl! She loves modernity because of how parties can happen and music can be so loud. She is a trained stilt dancer! And hella proud of it. She makes her own dresses or costumes and dresses up for every festival, even if it’s a minor one SHES THERE AND SHES READY TO PARTY!!!!!! :) other than her loud, boisterous personality, the public doesn’t know much about her. When she’s not out for fun, her people don’t really see her much. She lives on the west coast by the beach where she lives it up in her small house with her dogs! She fishes for herself and her elderly neighbor. She also travels by bike!! She has a car but prefers to bike when she can. She only really uses her car when she’s doing Government Things...ugh

Costa Rica: Miss Costa Rica is a very tall woman!! She is very laid back and spends a lot of time reading in her home. When she isn’t at home, she’s out and about on the town! She is somewhat a shopoholic so she hangs around markets and shops often so she’s got a lot of buddies!! She lives outside of San Jose, she wants to live in the city but uh...tourists. She isn’t a fan of tourists to be honest. She thinks they’re taking advantage of her country’s beauty but she would never actually say that to anyone. So she lives outside the city in a fancy apartment complex! She could have a house if she wanted but she doesn’t want to have to manage all of that space lol. She enjoys reading, dancing and singing!!! She goes to see traditional dance shows or festivals as often as possible and helps out by singing or dancing with the dancers! She wants to make costumes or traditional clothes but...she’s embarassed to say that she’s not too great at sewing 0-0 she has multiple skirts at home that are shoved under her bed that she tried to make but they just don’t look right!!!! So embarrassing lmao poor girl

[rebelliouslala]

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A post shared by ##𝐝𝐞𝐲♡ (@regeendruppel) on Jun 15, 2020 at 7:50am PDT

I’m so happy to write for this edit and get over my small writers block! It was so fun to write for this edit, maybe I could continue. . .? I already have a few ideas to continue this. . .

(mafia au! oneshot, no pairings yet, some mentions of violence, cursing, 1k words)

(01:27)

The popping of champagne cuts throughout the office floor like a gunshot in the night. Youngho laughs at his leader’s anxious expression, letting the wine glisten and bubble over his hand before pouring the drinks.

It was a wonderful occasion for the 127 mafia. They had sold all of their wares of weapons that the group had been making tirelessly for the past four years. Four; it was a small number yet the profit they had made from only yesterday afternoon reached their dreams.

Taeyong steps on the table in the center as everyone laughs and holds each other, too carefree to even acknowledge their leader clearing his throat.

“Gentlemen,” the party slows down. The leader’s voice is tougher, louder and somehow deeper. Perhaps it was the years that carved his voice to become hoarse; growling and rolling out like a rock being pushed up hill.

“May I say that I am so proud. This weapon,” he shows the prototype, a BB gun that he had made when he had brought everyone together, “Has made more than 10 billion fucking dollars!”

The mafia group cheers, and they laugh as Taeyong raises his glass into the air.

“A toast for Asia’s richest mafia!”

“A toast!” The group laughs, and they drink the sour alcohol, cheering and punching each other, wrestling off and becoming the young kids they once were, before the sins of the world became their rules.

However, only one man of the group was not there.

Lee Donghyuck, the youngest in the mafia, waits outside, grumbling as he hears the cheering and the singing and the slimy voices of his hyungs drinking alcohol.

Why did he have to be on the lookout for the party? Yes because of the rock paper and scissors game against him and his Taeil-hyung, but did it HAVE to be him?

No one was going to come. And if they did they literally have enough weapons to put a hole in anyone’s head.

Yuta is the world champion of ninja stars. Jaehyun has the accuracy of a hawk with his crossbow. And he, the youngest of the bunch could shoot out a man’s heart without even looking.

And that’s only a handful of his group.

He looks up at the sky, letting out a loud, aggravated sigh that anyone from Japan could probably hear.

Which is exactly what the Chinese man, Dong Sicheng heard.

The agent held his own breath, sneaking behind the building, the alleyway. The single dim light illuminates his wide doe eyes and his hand, which lures in his leader, Kun.

“Alright,” he whispers in his native tongue, “Everyone is about to get drunk, this is your chance to get the money and go.”

“Sicheng,” the leader whispers, smiling enough to show his sincerity with his dimples, “thank you so much. WayV owes you.”

The younger turns pink in the midnight light, and he holds up his hands, shaking his head as quick with his palms. “N-No time! Quick, before Donghyuck realizes!”

Kun nods, and goes inside with his five other men.

The plan is simple. Get the USB to their money. Take the money 127 gained. Go back to China. All before dawn.

As a mafia, WayV has only been out for a year, or a little more. Usually hacking for their government, with the blackmail of their boss’ scandals on the line, any money stolen from any country is used for their purposes only.

Half is given to WayV, the other, on the orders of Sicheng and Kun, is given to the people of China.

The young man from 127 has transferred only recently, but was proving to be more powerful. He has amazing combat skills against enemies.

Which was exactly what he was going to use against the guard. Sicneng slowly creeped closer to, stepping on his own dark tie and readying himself to attack.

Kun, on the other hand leads his smaller team into the basement, filled with large machines and electronics that glowed white and tiny red and greens from the buttons.

The leader groans and locks the door, pushing back his bleached white hair, as the others take off their masks, breathing in the murky hot air.

“Jesus Christ I hate this, you told us these outfits would block out the air. But I’m fucking sweating!” Whines the second eldest, the foreigner named Chittaphon.

“Quiet, I’m surprised the old man hasn’t died, yet.” Smirks the youngest of the group, a reckless psychopath called Yangyang.

“Shh!” The tallest and strongest in the group, Xuxi hisses at the others. He points at his best friend, Guanheng sliding into the large computer at the center of it the basement, his eyes focused on the Korean language before it fades to ones of ones and zeros.

“Lucas, Xiaojun, take the exits. Ten, follow them and try to find the entrance.”

The men nod and follow their instructions, Xuxi to the north exit, and Dejun to the south. Chittaphon finds the entrance a long hallway. He walks down, holding back his tongue to hum a tune. Honestly he was very excited to get back at 127, having his own grudge against them.

But right now wasn’t the time.

Usually with any heists like these he would do whatever he likes. But 127 is feared among anyone.

Their weapons.

Their members, they can do almost anything towards someone.

Especially to a fighter like himself.

He finds himself in a large auditorium. But this also had databases, large machines on the stage. Chittaphon frowns, looking around and getting out his thin framed silver spectacles and quietly running towards the stage.

Once he leans in, to inspect the meter tall machine, the lenses glow a light purple. With tiny words to read, the lenses scan the machines of the data being held.

A gasp made the foreigner choke.

There was money.

Chittaphon quickly counts the machines on the stage. One. .two. . .three.

Ten data machines. Each held a billion dollars.

The man widens his eyes and puts his glasses away, running towards the basement but a large iron slide falls before his hand can reach. He pants and slams on it, but the iron was too thick for his other members to hear.

Footsteps, quiet and quick suddenly echo around Chittaphon’s ears. Around the room.

Surrounding him.

It was too late.

The others were going to be trapped and killed.

[meggannn]

Thoughts and analysis on Gen. Armstrong (if you don't mind)

oh absolutely. a lot of this is speculation on my part, but it’s just my reading and theories on how she kind of came to be who she is.

so i vibe with armstrongs being a very traditional, patriarchal family in a very old-fashioned country. they had four daughters, olivier being the oldest and (arguably) most capable, but alex, the second youngest kid but only son, was the one chosen to lead the family. i think that olivier carried a lot of the burdens of being the oldest sibling and oldest daughter.

maybe olivier was the first daughter in the armstrong family in a long list of sons? i like that idea because it kind of has the opportunity harden her to the world as a kid, in my mind. a lot of excitement for the firstborn in an illustrious family, and… it’s a girl. ugh. okay, well, we’ll try again.

except i think olivier really decided to just start doing whatever she thought a male firstborn would get to do, taking her studies seriously, preparing to be the armstrong heir, and her family just kinda sighed and didn’t take her seriously. when she joins the military, i am going to bet that she either had to fight for it, or there was a lot of familial backlash/tsking between her parents because ~a woman shouldnt be in the army~ (i am operating under the belief she’s the only female officer to ever make it to general, because to my recollection i don’t think we’ve ever seen another female officer as high or higher than her). and when alex follows her to the military years later, i’m going to bet she was L I V I D when their parents were like “well of course, he’s the oldest son, he’s going to make us proud.” there were screaming matches of epic proportions when she joined, and when he does, it’s all fine. (even alex as an adult isn’t entirely rid of sexism when he asks when she’s ever gonna change her attitude so she can get a husband. and when she challenges his right to head the family, he arguably loses because he underestimated her. although i’m also going to chalk part of that up to the fact that although alex wanted to head the family, he didn’t NEED to win as badly as olivier needed to, because she needed to kick their family out and use the mansion to house her troops to prepare for the promised day. that’s the kind of person she is, “i need this to happen and so it will happen, i will give myself no other option.”)

i don’t think that olivier is the kind of person who pushes her limits to try to “prove” anything to other people; maybe she started by trying to mostly prove it to herself, but it eventually just became who she is. no nonsense. very protective, but maybe tired of taking care of kids/siblings. highly capable, very savvy. perfect for briggs. i think she takes her role as their leader VERY seriously. she knows she’s earned it, and up north defending the border, she sees how every person matters.

i’ve always wondered if there’s something in how olivier is stationed at briggs, the furthest possible post away from central. i don’t think it’s to get away from anything, exactly; it does seem like the best job suited for her. i think partly this represents her physical distance and distain for politics: she clearly looks down on mustang, possibly because he’s a state alchemist, and maybe part of it is for his reputation of being an annoying flirt who can charm his way up the ranks while maybe she had to fight for every rank she earned, though i think also part of it is because she thinks he’s naive to join the very system he’s trying to abolish. but as we see in late show, she’s not terrible at the politics and backstabbing, i think she just doesn’t like to deal with bullshit. she’s a very blunt person. she’ll play chess if she has to, clearly, but when she pulls the sword on the room full of officers, you know she’s been waiting MONTHS to do that.

she also doesn’t like alchemy. i’ve always wondered if there’s a reason behind this – the wiki says “she views [equivalent exchange] as a mindset promoting easy handouts and unnecessary compromise” so i’m guessing she doesnt like philosophies that base themselves around quid pro quo agreements, especially since it leads very easily to corruption. the armstrongs are a very noble family that take that sort of thing seriously. i think she’s smart enough to realize alchemy is often NECESSARY, but the state alchemists themselves are… ugh. difficult to deal with and probably almost always really bossy. and think they’re so fuckin special. and also all male. so it’s no wonder she doesn’t give a shit about edward elric, some kid who shows up with no warning with a letter from her annoying brother, asking for her help.

so already she has a chip on her shoulder about alex: he’s a younger sibling she had to take care of; he’s a younger BROTHER who got more support and fewer roadblocks than she did for achieving (or even wanting) the same things way before he ever did; he’s also an alchemist, and state alchemist. she’d see that as annoying at best and borderline dishonorable at worst.

and then ishval.

so for the record, i fully believe that by the events of canon, olivier’s intense disgust for alex for his “cowardly” actions in ishval is mostly, if not entirely, an act. i think it’s EASY for her to act like it’s real, because she struggles with real feelings of hostility and annoyance toward alex for the reasons above, and she WOULD probably think he’s a poor soldier for defying orders…… but would she openly advocate for genocide? she’s not perfect, but i don’t think that of her. but she lets absolutely none of that internal questioning show on the outside. externally? “my brother is a disgrace. he failed to protect this country. if i were head of the family, i’d dishonor him publicly.” and alex, you know, i think he sees past this, a little? he knows she has to say these things otherwise she’d lose her reputation and might also be demoted, given she’s on a rickety foundation as a woman general as is. she doesn’t have to be so passionate about her opinions, but she might also have gained a target on her back by his actions in ishval; maybe they’d assume she had ishvallan sympathies because he was her brother. so she’s already got enough baggage against alex, and he inadvertently dumps some more political bullshit on her back just because he didn’t do his job. i think she’d say the things she did to distance herself from alex, not because she’s angry with him or disappointed in him (though there is a bit of that, but for unrelated reasons), to keep her position. she’s very ruthless politically. you could question the morality of this, like i do, but i don’t entirely blame her for feeling like she could lose her position as the only female general in charge of defending a politically hot border position.

fma has a rather annoying “we don’t see color” attitude wrt race at times, but in the case of olivier, whose attitude after all the years in briggs is “we literally cannot afford to be prejucide, there are so few capable people here, and if someone works, they are part of the team and will be treated with respect, full stop” it makes sense why she’d say what she said to miles. it’s not that i think she’s an ishvallan activist behind the scenes because of her lieutenant, but i think she knows the “war” was complete horseshit and fully respects his bitter feelings toward the amestrian government.

privately, though, i think olivier knows clearly that this country is messed up, before “the shape of this country.” but she has a very powerful family, and it’s hard to completely renounce that dedication. she still loves amestris a lot. she feels very protective of the people she’s defending, even if she doesn’t like them very much.

i respect that she swallows her pride, gives up briggs, and joins the political battle in central when it becomes clear that that’s the best way to get to the center of the matter. imo she and roy mustang teaming up, unnoticed, in the heart of the beast could have made an amazing combo, but ofc she’d never let that happen lmao. she is a good person without being a nice person. that’s refreshing. she’s ruthless, pragmatic, ambitious, angry, untrusting, and kind of an asshole, and yet you never doubt that she is, at heart, honorable and trustworthy. she will tell you what she thinks of you. she hates lying. but she will cave and do what the people of amestris needs her to do; we see she IS able to separate her government from her country. i think she always knew, but the events of the show are kind of her “put up or shut up” moment to stand up and show where her loyalties really are, and she delivered. she’d be offended if you ever even thought she might choose differently.

i love olivier a lot because she doesn’t have an arc in the traditional sense; her personality and position don’t change much from the time we meet her to the last time we see her. her biggest change is that she lets herself show pride in her brother, or maybe she’s able to admit that she’s proud of him in the first place. i think for her, that’s enough. i also really, really like that she’s not shown as someone who NEEDS to change. she’s allowed to be an angry, confident, strong woman in charge of a fort who likes things the way she likes them and expects you bend to her rules in her fort or you will leave. i think it’s a great accomplishment and testament to the writing and acting to show that she is not nice, and not always likable, but you never question she is a good person.

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

So, I learned something recently...

Mary Kate Olsen (the top billed twin; I feel kinda bad for Ashley) is married to a man 17 years her senior, who also happens to be the half brother to the former President of France.

That sounds like the plot to one of their movies! Like, there’s a foreign exchange student at their school and they discover that he’s secretly foreign royalty.  I can picture the whole thing in my head, I’ve thought about this a lot:

It has a late 90s/early 2000s aesthetic; kinda grungey and “totally radical, dude!”

Twins Mary Jane and Kelsey are just your average upper middle class teenagers living in multi-million dollar beachfront property with their widower dad, a security guard with dreams of being a detective.  His firm just got a big contract to provide security for the visiting diplomats of the vaguely Eastern European kingdom of Slovotia (it’s generically foreign; funny accents, weird customs, offensive Slavic stereotypes, the works. The writers based it on Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Austria-Hungary, Ruritania, Backwardistan, etc)

At school, the girls are introduced to hunky Slovotian exchange student Nico.  He’s, like, SO cool, but he doesn’t flaunt it.  He’s quiet, tries not to make waves, and sneaks away at lunch to be by himself; the girls follow him and find him talking to a a burly bodyguard.  Turns out, he’s the Crown Prince of Slovotia!  His uncle, Count Bartok (who is clearly the antagonist but SHHH don’t tell anyone, we don’t know that yet) is visiting America as part of the Slovotian delegation; his brother, the King, wants to normalize relations with the west, but the Count doesn’t really like America.

Nico and his bodyguard Dolf (a hulking man of few words) ask the girls not to reveal his secret; he just wants to live a normal life, and be a normal teenager.  The girls decide to show him around town and introduce him to hip American concepts like the mall and beaches and fast food.

They buy a hot dog from a street vendor, and Nico looks appalled.  “My uncle, he say Americans, they are dogs, but I did not know they were to be eating them, yes?”

“They’re not really made out of dog, Nico!  Try it, you’ll like it.”

He takes one bite, and is enraptured.  “This is best thing I have ever to be eating!”  He walks over to the vendor and offers to buy him out.  “You there, meat monger. This dog that is hot, it is food fit for king!  I buy your shop, I pay ten million Slovotian Kronle, good price yes?”

“Sure thing, whatever you say boss!  Good price!  Great price!  My ticket’s finally come it, it’s easy street from here on out!”

They show him around “the city.”  It’s never specified which city that is though; they live on a beach and go surfing, so it might be LA, but there are hotdog vendors and people with Brooklyn accents, so it could just as well be New York.  Maybe there’s a shot in the middle of the film where the bad guys are looking at a satellite map of the USA, and the camera zooms into the center of the country, or there’s a blinking red dot somewhere on a random coast.  The point is that there is no definitive location; it’s just meant to represent whatever city is closest to the viewer’s hometown (the writers didn’t put that much effort into it because this is a no budget direct-to-VHS Mary Kate and Ashley movie.  What did you expect?)

Dolf follows them everywhere they go, and Nico complains that he wants to have some privacy.  “You do not be seeing other kids with bodyguards, yes?”  Wacky hijinks ensue as the trio try to evade him; there’s definitely a chase scene set to a punk rock song like SR-17′s ‘Right Now’ or something by Bowling For Soup.  They sit on a park bench reading newspapers as Dolf runs by, then hightail it in the opposite direction.  They casually steal hats and sunglasses from passersby to blend into the crowd.  They walk in line behind a couple buys carrying a sofa.  The chase ends with them hopping into a taxi and laughing with one another as we see Dolf give chase for a second before giving up in frustration.

Nico confides in the girls that life as a prince is not easy.  His father, King Vladimyr XVI, is always telling him how big a responsibility he has, how important he is to Slovotia’s future.  “My father, he tell me, Nico, you will one day be King, so you must to be acting like one, yes?”  It’s so hard to be royal, he can never just be himself, he has to act a certain way to make his parents happy.  The girls tell him that they know exactly what he means; high school isn’t all it’s cracked up to be either.  They have homework and chores, and they too have to act a certain way or the cool kids will think they’re a couple of losers with a capital L (Nico doesn’t understand what the word cool means, “what does temperature have to be doing with this?”)

Suddenly, the trio is attacked by some dude in a track suit and gold chains with a jersey accent; he tries to kidnap Nico, and just when all hope seems lost Dolf appears from nowhere and lifts the would-be abductor up by the collar.

They interrogate him; Dolf holds him by the ankles from a second story window.  “I ain’t sayins nothin, youse will never get a word outta me.”

Dolf says that if he doesn’t start talking he will disappear.  “Maybe you wake up in gulag, yes?”

He sings like a canary.  He was hired by Count Bartok to kidnap Nico.  Bartok hates America and thinks his older brother Vladimyr is foolish for trying to normalize relations with them.  He hoped that by having Nico kidnapped, he could blame the American government and end the diplomatic mission early.  If anything were to happen to the boy, Bartok would become next in line to be king!  He’s going to blame the girls’ father for Nico’s disappearance because he was supposed to be head of security.

“That’s everything I know. Hey, I’m sorry, okays?  I just needed the money, ya know? I ain’t a bad guy, I’m just in a bad sitchy-ation.”  The girls tell Dolf that he can let the kidnapper go, but he takes this literally and drops him out of the window (onto a bush! He’s fine)

They have to race to city hall to meet the Slovotian delegation and stop Bartok from doing anything drastic.  Mary Kate plays the edgy tomboy, so she teaches Nico and Dolf how to skateboard so they can get across town super fast.  This sequence is filmed with a fish eye lens so it looks “totally bodacious.” As the group barrels down the crowded sidewalk, pedestrians leap out of their way.

They make it just in time to be locked out of the ceremony.  Bartok is giving a big speech condemning the Americans for kidnapping his poor nephew, and the girls have to watch helplessly as their dad is taken away in handcuffs.  Dolf uses his espionage training to break into city hall and get the trio into the sound booth undetected.

“Hey Dolf, where’d you learn to do all this stuff?”

“I have many skills” (he is implied to be ex-KGB and it’s played for laughs)

The girls interrupt Bartok’s speech with video they took of the kidnapper revealing his entire plan.  Bartok denies it, but the girls’ dad pulls some as-yet-unseen sleuthing skills out of his ass to prove that Bartok is lying, finally living his dream of being a detective.  Nico bursts into the room and orders the Slovotian guards to arrest his uncle, but Bartok pulls a pistol and holds one of the twins hostage.  Nico uses some of the American skills he learned to free her (he kicks his skateboard towards Bartok’s feet, and he slips on it)

Bartok is taken away, screaming that he would have gotten away with it were it not for those meddling twins, and the girls break the fourth wall by making a Scooby-Doo joke to the camera.  Nico delivers a heartfelt speech to the gathered crowd at city hall about how much he has come to love America and how he’s proud to be representing Slovotia and normalizing relations with the west.  He wants to open malls and hot dog stands and skateboard parks in Slovotia, and he gets a standing ovation as the mayor awards him the key to the city.

The girls are so proud of their dad, and he is just as proud of them.  Just then, King Vladimyr and Queen Anastasia themselves make a live appearance, apparently having flown all the way from Slovotia (it’s never explained how they got there so fast).  They thank the girls for helping their son, and award their father their kingdom’s highest honor. They even offer him a job as Dolf’s second in command, but he declines, saying he’d rather remain at his humble career and raise his family in the states.

The girls encourage Nico to tell his father how he feels.  He knows he will be king someday, but that is very far off, and he would like some time to just be a kid instead of a prince all the time.  The King decrees that Nico may stay in the United States and have a normal high school experience, “you are to be having twelve bodyguards instead of twenty now, good compromise, yes?”  The girls roll their eyes and laugh; Nico’s dad still has a lot to learn!

Nico tells the girls that they are “very cold” (he meant “cool,” but it’s the thought that counts)  He and Mary Kate kiss, and Ashley jokingly asks if he has a brother.  As it turns out, there’s a nerdy kid at school who is played by the same actor as Nico who’s had a crush on her for years, so she gets with him instead (once he takes off his glasses)

Freeze frame

THE END

Roll credits

80 minute run time

Return the tape to Blockbuster and never watch it again

[tiny-opal-essence]

Pocket Paladin Chpt 2

Downtime

“What’s cooking good looking?” Lance said as he walked into the kitchen.

“Just making some cookies for everyone.  How many times are you going to use that line?” Hunk chuckled.

“As many times as you let me.”  He started walking towards where Hunk was working.  “Need any help?”

“Don’t think so.”  A timer went off.  “Oh!  That’s the next batch.”  Hunk ran over to the oven and grabbed the tray and placed it on the hot-pads on the counter.

“Aww, look how tiny these ones are!”  Lance said as he grabbed one of the smaller cookies on the cooling rack, pinching it between his fingers.

“Those are for the space mice and I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the space mice are tiny.”  Hunk playfully said.  “I’m not about to give them a full-sized cookie each.  Can you imagine Allura’s reaction to the space mice getting sugar rushes?  She’s terrifying when she wants to be.”

“No arguments here.  I’ve been on the receiving end enough times.” A sad look flickered across Lance's face before he flashed a smile and continued.  “I just love how you’re able to make these mini-meals, big guy.  You’re truly a gentle giant.”

“Haha, thanks, but really, it’s not too difficult.”  Hunk sheepishly said.  “All I had to do was recalibrate all of the kitchen systems to accommodate for the smaller food and not burn it to a crisp.  Then it’s just a matter of having a steady hand to get things to be the right size.”

“That’s still impressive.  I don’t think I could do all of that.  Maybe the steady hand part, but that’s about it.  Engineering’s not my strong suit.”

“Don’t I know it.  Remember that project at the Garrison?”

“Hunk!  I thought we agreed never to talk about that again.  I had to pencil in my eyebrows for weeks!”

“Sorry.”  Hunk chuckled.

“Speaking of projects, how is the mouse shower coming along?”

“It’s coming.  There’s just a lot of small parts to figure out how to use.  They don’t exactly have a build-it-yourself one.  I’ve broken so many mini pipes trying to cut them to the right size and fit them together.”  Hunk sighed.

“Pidge could probably help there.  She’s got the smallest hands out of all of us.”  Lance suggested.  “You could even get the space mice to help you.  They’re the ones who are going to be using it.”

“Yeah, but I wanted to build it as a gift for them.  They do a lot to help around here, I don’t want to make them build their own present.  Pidge is busy with her own projects and I don’t want to bother her.  Oh, speaking of Pidge, would you be able to bring this wrench back to her?  I’ve still got a few batches to make.”

“No problem.  Do you want me to bring some cookies around for everyone?”

“If you aren’t busy”

“No worries.” Lance grabbed a plate from a cupboard and loading the cookies on it, including some of the mini ones for the space mice.  “See ya later.  Happy baking!”

———————————————————————————————————–

As Lance approached Green’s hanger, he heard a string of colorful language.

Pidge is definitely in there.

Lance opened the door and walked in.  He didn’t see Pidge at first.  Then he heard the clang of something metal falling near Green.

“Quiznak!”

“Hey Pidge.”

“Aaagh!”  Pidge yelped as she fell from her hiding place.  Luckily, she didn’t have far to fall.

“Sorry.” Lance winced.  “Didn’t mean to scare you.  Are you ok?”

“I’m fine.” Pidge dusted herself off.  “Why are you always like that?”

“Like what?”

“So loud.”

“What can I say, I’m a loud and proud kind of guy.”

“And modest too.”

“Aww.  Thanks, Pidge.”

“Did you need something?” Pidge started walking towards Lance wondering why he would be coming to Green’s hanger.

“Hunk made some cookies for everyone and wanted to return this wrench to you.  Where should I put them?”

“You can just put them on the workbench over there.  I’ll put the wrench away later.”  

Pidge made her way to the workbench and grabbed one of the cookies.  She raised one to her mouth but paused.  

“Hunk didn’t put any skultrite in these, right?”  she questioned the blue color.

“Nope.  No skultrite in these bad boys thanks to you labeling everything in the kitchen.  Hunk appreciates it.”

“I think we all appreciate it.” Pidge snickered before taking a bite of her cookie.

“True.  Hey, are you ok?” Lance looked over and asked seeing Pidge’s eyes tearing up.

“I’m ok.” Pidge rubbed her eyes.  “These just taste exactly like the ones my mom always made.  How is Hunk able to do that?”

“Don’t know.  It’s his gift.  Are you sure you’re ok?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Yeah.”

“You said that they reminded you of your mom’s.”

“My mom would always make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies whenever we had something to celebrate.  Birthdays, anniversaries, when Matt got in the Garrison, when we got Bae Bae.  I think I get my peanut butter addiction from her.  Also my love of computers.” Pidge smiled a bit at that.  “She made a lot of cookies for the Kerberos mission.  So they could have a taste of home.”

“That’s really nice.”

“Yeah, it is.” She sniffed.  “It’s just, she’s all alone back on earth.  Well, alone except for Bae Bae.”

“Bae Bae?”

“Our dog.  He’s a sweetheart.  I don’t think he ever understood where my dad was when he went on missions.  When Matt and Dad went to Kerberos, he waited by the door all day for them to come back.  When they said that the Kerberos mission had crashed, he still waited there.  My mom was heartbroken, but she refused to believe what the Garrison was telling us.  With two of the greatest minds and one of the greatest pilots from the Garrison on board, how could they crash?  That’s when I decided to sneak into the Garrison to find answers.  Iverson caught me and banned me from the premises, but not before I saw enough to know that they didn’t crash and the Garrison was hiding that fact.  I wasn’t able to download anything before I was caught, so I knew that I would have to find another way in to get concrete evidence.  Seeing as I was banned, I decided to register as a boy.”

“You literally pulled a Mulan,” Lance commented.

“Yeah, I guess I did.” She snickered.  “I even used Matt’s nickname for me from when we were little.”

“Wait, Pidge isn’t your name?”

“You thought it was?”

“You never said anything.”

“I didn’t think I had to.  Anyways, I tried to hide what I was planning to do from my mom, but she found out when she saw my first attempt at giving myself a boy haircut.  Nothing gets past her.  I can still hear her saying ‘Kathleen Marie Holt, if you think for one second that I’m going to let you sneak into a government facility on your own, you must be crazy.’  She helped me get everything ready.  Together, we forged all the documents I would need to pass for someone else.  I used her maiden name as my last name.  ‘Pidge Gunderson’ was declared a cousin of the Holts, hence the similar looks.  We called my Aunt Jennifer to let her know about her sudden new child in case the Garrison ever decided to call her to verify anything.  I called her maybe every other week from the payphones at the Garrison to help keep up the façade.  I called my mom every week to give her updates on what progress I was making, but I used my cell phone for that so the Garrison wouldn’t be spying on our conversations.”

“Wait, the Garrison did that?” Lance thought back on all of his conversations with his family when he would start crying from being homesick.

“They’re a government facility working to improve technology for our country.  Of course they’re going to spy on the phones on their grounds.  They don’t want anyone leaking any information.  That’s why I had to call my aunt from their payphones, so the Garrison would see that ‘Pidge’ was talking to her family about completely normal stuff.  That’s also why my mom and I made sure my phone wouldn’t be able to be spied on.  I gave her updates every week.  The last thing I sent her was a picture of all of us with Shiro when we were all in Keith’s shack.  I gave her all of your names in case the Garrison tried to cover this up like they did Kerberos.  I wonder what they did say.  I mean, three cadets all just disappear overnight when there was a code red going on?  What could they possibly say to that?”

“Do you think our families think we’re dead?” Lance asked.

“No.  If any students at the Garrison died, it would launch an investigation into what happened.  That would be the last thing they would want.  Most likely, they’d say we ran away because we couldn’t handle the pressure and didn’t want to face our families.  Remember how our last simulator went?”

“Yep.  We were not a great team back then.  And then Iverson just ripping us apart in front of everyone.  Not fun.”  Lance said remembering what Iverson had said that day.

“Thanks for taking the brunt of what he said.  I get pretty defensive when my family is involved.”

“No problem Pidge, err, Kathleen?”

“I go by Katie, but don’t tell Hunk.  If he doesn’t guess my real name in one movement, this girl’s going to be 20 GAC richer.”

“Got it.  My lips are sealed.” Lance said while doing zip it, lock it, put it in your pocket.

“What are you, 5?”

“On a scale from 1 to 5, yes.”

“You sound like Matt.”

“Is he charming and suave?” he held a finger gun under his chin to emphasize what he was saying.

“No.  He was a big dork, but he was always able to cheer me up.  He’s a great brother.  The best brother a girl could have.”  Pidge wistfully said.

“I’m sure we’ll find him and your dad soon.  Shiro too.”

 “I know.  It’s just… what if they’re…”

“Nope.  Don’t you finish that sentence.  They’re alive and trying to get back home.  Just wait until they find out you’re a paladin!  They’re going to be so proud of you!”

Pidge suddenly latched onto Lance in a hug which he quickly returned.  “Thanks, Lance.”

“What for?”

“For listening.”

“No problem, Pidge.”

A screen over the workbench suddenly turned on and they saw Coran’s face on it.

“Hey, Coran.” Lance and Pidge said.

“Hello, Pidge and Lance.  Wouldn’t have expected both of you to be here.  Anyhoo…Pidge, you wouldn’t happen to have borrowed my impact driver, did you?”

“Oh yeah.  Where did I put that?” Pidge started scanning the workbench for the tool, but Lance beat her to it.

“Is this one yours, Coran?” Lance held up the impact driver to the screen.

“Yes!  Would you be able to bring it to me?  I’m in the med bay by the healing pods right now.”

“No problem.”

“Excellent!  Out and over!”

“Guess that’s my cue,” Lance said as he grabbed the plate of cookies and started for the door.

“Wait.  How did you know what an impact driver is?” Pidge asked.

“I did theatre for years.  The whole cast and crew worked together to build the sets.  Impact drivers are lifesavers.  Anyways, see you later Pidge.”

———————————————————————————————————–

“I got your impact driver, Coran.  Also some of Hunk’s cookies.”  Lance said as he entered the med bay area.

Coran emerged from behind one of the healing pods.

“Thank you, my boy.  Now I can finish this up.”

“What are you working on?”

“Just updating a few things here and there.  This should help speed up the healing process in this healing pod.  Slav has quite a few ideas for upgrading things,” Coran begrudgingly admitted, “but I’d rather not have him be too involved in it, even if he did send over some plans.”

“Same here.”

“Could you give me a hand here for a tic?”

“Sure.  What do you need me to do?”

“Just hold this piece here.  Slav seems to forget that in this reality Alteans only have 2 arms.”  Coran used the impact driver on the part.  “I’m just glad we don’t have to listen to him blabber on about how outdated he believes the castleship is.  Altean technology is second to none.”

“Yeah, I mean, the Galra had 10,000 years to improve their technology and they still aren’t better than your tech.  Though, there is always room for improvement.”

“I know,” Coran lowered the impact driver “but it almost feels wrong to alter things about the castleship.  My grandfather worked so hard to build this.  I would hate to ruin what he created.”

“Coran, you know basically everything about this ship.  There’s no way you could quiznak it up.”

“Oh, you used quiznak correctly.”  Coran wiped an imaginary tear from his eye.  “I feel like a proud father gren.”

“Well, I learned from the best.”

“Haha.  My mother used to say that to my grandfather, and I used to say it to her, and…” Coran’s voice dropped off as he got a distant look in his eyes.

“Are you ok, Coran?”

“Ah, yes.  Just reminiscing a bit.”

“You lost a lot of people on Altea.  I can only imagine what you and Allura are going through.”

“It’s something I hope no one else will ever have to experience.”

“Well, that’s why Voltron’s here to save the day!  Pow pow pow!” Lance said as he did his laser gun impression.

“Haha.  Right you are my boy.” Coran said as he tightened the last screw into place.  “That should do it.  Let’s start it up.”

Coran powered up the healing pod that he was working on.  The light in it sputtered before turning off.

“Oh.”

Suddenly, the lights lit up to full brightness.

“It’s working!  You did it, Coran!” Lance exclaimed.

“No, we did it, my boy.  Now we just need to wait for someone to be injured enough to need it so we can check for sure.  Any volunteers?” Coran joked as he grabbed a cookie from the plate.

“Not today, sorry.  I’ve still got cookies to deliver.  Do you know where Allura is?  I know Keith’s training, cause what else does he do, but I don’t know where Allura is and I don’t want to wander the whole ship looking for her.”

"I believe she’s in the library.”

“Do you need any more help before I go?”

“No, I should be ok.  They don’t call me the Coranic for nothing.” He struck a heroic pose.

“Haha.  Alright.  See ya later, Coran.”

———————————————————————————————————–

When Lance walked into the library he almost tripped on a pile of books and tablets.

“Whoa!” He yelled as he somehow managed to keep the tray from spilling while he regained his balance.

“Lance?  Is that you?”

“Sure is, Princess.  I come bearing cookies.” Lance said as he carefully made his way through the maze of books scattered on the floor.  He found Allura and the space mice at one of the tables with a mountain of knowledge in front of them.  

The space mice were looking at the pages of one of the open books and *squeaking* instructions and encouragement to Allura who was looking determinedly at a pencil in front of her.  She held her hand out and there was a pink aura around her and the pencil.  It started to twitch slightly, but you wouldn’t have noticed if you weren’t looking for it.  The pencil started to float off the table before the aura grew brighter and it shattered into pieces.  Luckily, the space mice had run behind one of the stacks of books, so they weren’t harmed.

Allura sank in her chair with a sigh.  “I feel like I’m never going to get this right.”  She said putting her head in her hands.

“Don’t say that.  So you have a bit of trouble controlling your powers, big deal.  You still have these amazing powers.  You can definitely teach the Galra and Hagger a few things.”

“I just wish I had someone that could teach me how to control these powers.  Everyone who could is either dead or working with the Galra.  Being able to hit a target with a strong attack is good in a fight, but I want to be able to do more with these powers.  All I have to learn from is books and tablets that are over 10,000 years old.  The druids have years of training on me and it feels like I’ll never catch up.”

Kind of like me with Keith.

“Hey, I know what can turn that frown upside-down.  Cookies a la Hunk.” he placed the tray down on the table.

“What kind are they?”

“Peanut butter chocolate chip, or as close as Hunk can get them to taste like that.  Hunk even made some mini ones for you guys.” Lance told the space mice who quickly scurried over to the plate to grab their mini cookies.

“I always wondered what Pidge meant by peanut butter.  Let me try something.”  Allura put her hand out again, this time with her palm facing the tray of cookies.  The cookie on top got a pink aura as well as Allura.  It began floating and slowly started floating towards Allura.  When it was just a foot away from her, the pink grew brighter as the cookie blasted into pieces that flew around the room with one of the larger pieces hitting Allura right on the nose.

“I guess that’s how the cookies crumbles.”  Lance tried to hold in his laughter but eventually couldn’t help it.  “I’m sorry princess.  Your shocked face was just so perfect.” He said between laughs with Allura joining in.

“It’s alright.  It’s good to laugh at one’s self from time to time.  In truth, it’s been quite some time since I’ve had a good laugh, what with Shiro missing and everything else.” Allura said as she reached over and grabbed a cookie from the tray

“Yeah, it’s a lot on all of our shoulders, yours especially.  But your magic is getting better.  The cookie floated longer than the pencil before it broke.  If you ever need any encouragement, you know where to find me.”  Lance picked up the tray once more.  “I’ve got to get these to Keith.  See you, princess.”

———————————————————————————————————–

Lance could hear the clang of metal on metal before he opened the door to the training deck.  

Where else would Keith be?

He opened the door and saw Keith facing off against one of the gladiator bots on the other side of the room.  

Probably should wait until he’s done to let him know I’m here.  I don’t want to be the reason he got a black eye.  Again.

He remembered the last time he burst in and yelled to Keith who had looked over at him and got decked in the face by the gladiator.  Keith had been upset at first but brushed it off as nothing after Lance quickly apologized.

Lance stayed close to the wall and found a ledge to put the plate of cookies on while waiting for Keith to finish.  He leaned against the wall and watched Keith fight the gladiator.  

How is he able to make it look so effortless?

Keith managed to block a strike and slide behind the robot.  With a quick slash of his sword, the gladiator was down for the count.  Keith continued to slash at the robot, yelling in frustration.

“I think you got ‘im,” Lance called out.

Keith looked up at Lance in surprise and brought his sword down.  With the clashing of swords no longer ringing in the air, Lance could hear Keith’s heavy breathing.  Clearly, he’d been at this awhile.

“Oh.  Didn’t see you come in.” Keith said in shock.

“You seemed pretty occupied.  But dude, that was awesome!  You were all like” Lance imitated Keith swinging his sword “and he was all like, and then you…You’ve got to teach me how to do that!”

“Umm.  I don’t really know how to teach.”

“Oh.  Well, that’s ok.”

“Did you come here to train?  I can leave if you want the deck to yourself.”

“Nah.  Hunk made some more cookies, so I volunteered to bring them to everyone.”

“What kind are they this time?”

“Peanut butter chocolate chip.  I feel like I’ve said that too many times today.  Next time, I’m making a sign.”

“It’s probably time I took a break anyway,” Keith said as he came over to where Lance was and sat down, back against the wall.  Lance went and grabbed the plate of cookies from the shelf and sat down next to Keith, placing the plate between them.

“I also wanted to apologize for what I said on the mission yesterday.  I shouldn’t have said that you aren’t as good of a leader as Shiro.” Lance said with his head hanging low.

“It’s ok, Lance.  You were right.  I’m not a great leader like Shiro.  I try to do what I think he would do, but it just seems to go wrong every time.” Keith said as he grabbed a cookie off of the plate.

“Well yeah, you’re not like Shiro.  You’re Keith.  You run in guns blazing, or I guess sword swinging.  You have your own way of leading.  That doesn’t make you any better or worse a leader than Shiro.  There’s nothing wrong with having a different style than him.  You just have to ask yourself ‘What would Keith do?’ instead of worrying about what Shiro would do.”

“What would Keith do?” Keith snickered as he said it out loud.

“Exactly!  Wait, did you just smile?”

“You have no proof.”

“Next time, Kogane.  I can’t believe you’re still training.  I mean, I can, because it’s you, but we had extra training today.  How are you still going?”

Keith shrugged.  “It relaxes me.”

“Oh yeah, cause hitting one of the training bots repeatedly when it isn’t fighting back is so relaxing.”

“Think you could do better?” Keith smirked slightly.

“You know it!” Lance said as he went over to grab the staff from the downed training bot.  “Let’s dance.”

“I’m not going to go easy on you.”

“Wouldn’t expect you to.”

(A few minutes later)

“Oof,” Lance said as Keith pinned him again.

“Had enough?”

“I haven’t even gotten started yet.”

“Could have fooled me.”

Lance tried to fight against Keith, but he wasn’t able to break his hold.  

Maybe a distraction of sorts could work.

“Is that a knife in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”

“It’s a knife.  What else would it be?” Keith responded confused, his grip not letting up.

“I waste my best material on you.”

Suddenly, the PA system in the castle turned on.

“Guys,” Pidge said over the speakers.  “I think I found where they’re keeping Shiro.  Meet me on the bridge.”

“She did it!” Lance exclaimed.

“Last one to the bridge has to clean the healing pods for a week,” Keith said as he got off of Lance and started running.

“No fair.  You got a head start.”

———————————————————————————————————–

Previous          Next          Masterpost

[curemoonliite]

Premiere Nebula Character Profile: President Dimanche Asteria

I just realized that I haven’t really done intros or profiles for my civilian Premiere Nebula characters, and I aim to right this wrong as soon as possible.  This is going to be a little more of a straightforward profile with facts about the character, rather than a self-introduction.  (Since she’s one of Olympia’s three presidents, we can handwave this as her really, really not having enough time to take on personal interviews.)  She’s growing to be one of my favorite civilian characters, so here’s a bit about her:

--Olympia, as a country, tends to have longer 7-year presidential terms with no real term limits.  (This will change over the course of the series after various conspiracies against the presidency come out.)  Therefore, President Asteria has been through about two-and-a-half terms by the time the Premiere Nebula timeline begins.  She’s a very popular politician, and I imagine she could easily be elected for four terms like FDR.

--Asteria herself was a semi-popular athlete who became far more well-known as a politician.  Was probably on one of the lower-tier teams that didn’t get as much public spotlight.  Retired early to go into politics.

--Like many iconic female political leaders, she’s viewed as a glamorous figure, whom many consider to be one of the most beautiful women in the country.  Her family came from France, and while they’ve lived in Olympia for many generations, President Asteria still has the dark wavy hair and Mediterranean complexion you might see on a French model.  (Though, like with Michelle Obama today, there’s probably a group of people who crush on her more for her muscular arms than anything.  She still keeps up an athletic regimen, guys.)

--Almost everyone refers to her on a last-name basis, partially because she’s a president and partially because...when she grew up, it was the hot trend to name babies after the day of the week they were born on, so her name literally translates to “Sunday” in French.  She doesn’t mind it much, but referring to her as “Dimanche” is still seen as a big sign that you’re in her inner circle--and that she very much wants to keep you in her inner circle.

--Asteria holds a precarious position in Olympian politics--while she’s respected as the senior among her fellow presidents, some see her as a flighty type who has had numerous romantic encounters with fellow politicians.  Notably, she’s been associated with two men, Hassow Tsukimura and Alain Sparks, who were at one time vying against each other for a presidential title.  Despite the potential scandal involved with dating two presidential candidates, Asteria was fully chaste with both of them and dated them at different times, eventually marrying the future President Tsukimura.

--She’s married to an up-and-coming senator, Reynaldo Clow, and does not appreciate any conspiracy theories about her past romances or her marrying for power.  Still, since Reynaldo Clow is being considered for future presidency, that doesn’t stop people from making comparisons between him and President Tsukimura.

--Dimanche is about 12-15 years older than Reynaldo, which isn’t really treated as a weird thing in Olympia.  This means that, even though Dimanche is at least a generation older than Omega, the two are still sisters-in-law.

--She has a seventeen-year-old son from her past marriage with President Tsukimura, Leo.  Leo, like his father, was a gifted child, and is already interning at a nearby hospital for an advanced high school program.  Asteria’s very proud of him, but...

--Leo was born a twin.  His sister died mysteriously when they were both five years old, while she was under President Tsukimura’s care.  President Asteria has never forgiven her ex-husband for this, and thoroughly believes that he had something to do with the death.

--Even after twelve years, Asteria is very clearly depressed about her daughter’s death, though she hides it from the media.  In the beginning of her presidency, she was a much more naive, lenient figure, but it’s often said that the death made her more jaded and skeptical.

--For this reason, Asteria’s relationship with her bodyguard clone, Miki, is stronger than the ones any of the other presidents have.  Miki is treated as more of a surrogate daughter than an employee--and Koto has felt jealous about this more than once.  (To the point where I’m even planning a potential AU story where Koto ends up as Asteria’s bodyguard instead of Tsukimura’s.)

--To this day, she’s the only president with any knowledge of the Manufacturer or what he does to Actresses.  This happened somewhat by accident, as she and Leo ended up caught in a Faerie Star trap.  Leo filled her in, since he’d been investigating the Actresses alongside Omega and Valka.  Once she finds out what’s been going on, she becomes determined to launch an independent investigation of her own, thoroughly backed by her contacts in Olympian government.

--For many years, the only person who understood her struggle as a mother who lost her child was Alain Sparks, former presidential candidate and (more importantly) Valka’s father.  The minute she finds out Valka is an Actress, this sets off even more red flags, and she often tries to counsel Valka and Omega...and that odd blue-haired girl who’s often seen by their side, who always seems insistent on refusing her help.

--She doesn’t get the chance to learn about the Manufacturer’s identity organically--she makes the mistake of enlisting Stelle Blaise, a certain “orphaned Actress” who’d spent years under President Tsukimura’s care.  Stelle is known for being a rather rash Actress, and drops the bombshell on Asteria without thinking too much about how it would affect her.  

“Oh, you know, that was all a ton of bull, he drew up adoption forms for me so people wouldn’t get too suspicious, I was kidnapped as a newborn, so I never really got to know who my parents were--”

Meanwhile: *President_Asteria.exe has stopped working*

--Stelle tries her hardest, but she isn’t always the best at understanding people.  President Asteria still accepts the adoption papers as real, if only because she’s a lonely mother who wants to take in as many lost and abused children as possible.

--While she’s very obviously rattled by the revelation that her ex-husband has been doing this, she’s not super surprised either.  She’s always been a little suspicious of him, after all...especially when the blue-haired Actress is severely injured in battle, and the DNA scan matches her to one Io Tsukimura.

--Finding her not-quite-dead daughter is a mixed bag for Asteria.  Obviously, she’s glad to have her in her life and adores her more than anything, but as a woman who values justice above all else, she feels that the way Io has been made into a child soldier and magical tool is almost more painful than death.  Almost immediately after she finds Io, she takes her into her house and fills Reynaldo in on the whole situation.

--Io often feels as though she’s too “rough around the edges” to be the presidential daughter people really want her to be.  As a result, she didn’t want her mother to know of her existence until she had genuinely reached that ideal.  Of course, Asteria doesn’t care if her daughter is an emotionally troubled, gothy film enthusiast who curses like a sailor, because at least she’s back where she belongs.  And as far as she’s concerned, if those good-for-nothing tabloids give a damn about it, they’ll have hell to pay with her lawyers.

[webcomixwastaken]

I’m getting some real emotional fatigue from the protests. Because China’s now doubled down on an attrition strategy, revealing their not-so-hidden hand of not caring at all about the state of the city. I’ve always suspected this; I’ll bet Beijing has wanted to “put HK in its place” for while. They’ll gladly gun the kids down. They don’t have much to lose from it anymore. And they know, just like the protesters also know, that in the long run they will win and we will die.

It sounds like hyperbole but meaning that our way of life will die, our ideals and what formed HK identity that was shaped so much by both pre and post-WWII, but mostly post because of the flood of refugees from Big 6 in the 50s and 60s seeking safety and food under the shade of Lion Rock. If China has its way, and it probably will, history will be pushed aside and rewritten to forget these things. They’re already nitpicking at weird details like our use of English -- you’ve been back to China for 20 years now, why haven’t you renounced the 150+ you spent under British rule?! Not saying anything how 80% of my current primary students speak Mandarin over Canto. Go watch Ten Years, it’s on Netflix now. 

We don’t remember our colonisers as fondly as you think we do -- in fact, the young age of protesters out in the streets means that most of them barely have any memories of the Brits. A friend I sheltered on Aug 5th after he was teargassed a few blocks away from my apartment was born AFTER the handover, for example. They have no nostalgia goggles to speak of at all. They are fighting for THEMSELVES.

And they’re exhausted. Some crossed a line the other day but when I peer into my heart I find something more akin to compassionate pity and apologies that they have been stretched so thin and so desperately that it’s come to this. But they are literally being beaten up week after week after week, their patience, grief and fear has turned into rage. There’s a girl permanently blinded and a guy whose teeth broke. Three suicides if not more? How you gonna say that they’re being PAID for this shit?!

Oh yeah, those “leftist” Twits who point at the American flags (which make up like 3% of the crowd of thousands and is NOT a leading tactic of the protest whatsoever. they’re often just kind of ignored) and whining foreign influence are just as tiring because a) you ain’t never been here ya numbnuts, your opinions are baseless and demonstrate nothing but an acute misunderstanding of actual HK mindset and b) we don’t want them here either and the half-handful of folk waving them about don’t know shit about America other than “hey, they’re a powerful country let’s pander to them”. Seriously, do you think that if they had even a smidgen of clarity about the current US government that they would even bother? A choice moment is our Great Field Commander (of french fries and loud shirts) Hong Kong Hermit telling the literal TWO Proud Boys trying to ingratiate themselves into our affairs to fuck right off. More than anything, these stupid hot takes are free fuel for wumao to retweet and sow more discord and confusion. I fuckin hate it. 

Why is Nationalism a thing at all. It’s the dumbest ideology in the world with zero evidence ever to back it up EVER. You see it happening here. You see it happening there. And over there, too. UGH.

And on a non-political note, the two books I’ve tried to start reading this month are just boring/hint at a pedophilic subplot that if depicted romantically I will immediately NOPE right out of (I bought it only because it was incredibly cheap at book fair and the title amused me). Maybe I just need to mark as DNF and reserve another Peter Mayle from the library because I’d rather be gorging on cheese in the French countryside than dealing with all this

[oldsamshouseoffic]

Southern Sun

Words: 7161

My very first modern AU.

Merry Kristannamas, @epbaker! Based on your recs you seem to appreciate a variety of AUs and character interpretations, so I tried to push out of my comfort zone. And boy, did I. It was meant to be a simple fluffy oneshot but, well, you can see it kind of got away from me and is now double the length I planned with oodles of family angst. I split it into four parts and the fluff doesn’t really start until Part III: Bribery. But they get there, they do get there.

I hope you enjoy my hot mess. It even follows the suggested theme...

To anyone with actual knowledge of Antarctic operations, my apologies in advance for the many, many inaccuracies.

Part I: Lousy Antarctica

Lousy Antarctica.

Anna Arendal threw her covers off and dragged herself to her feet, strangling a howl of frustration as she looked at the clock, her only reliable measure of time on this stupid continent. She opened the shutters, ignoring the recommended closure hours sensibly displayed across them in Norwegian, and let the bright daylight into her room. Her brain kind of knew the light was there anyway, even if she couldn't see it. It felt like daytime, twenty-four seven. And she had got used to it. Mostly. Normally. You couldn't be an intrepid polar researcher if you couldn't manage the weird hours- everyone knew that. But...

Lousy Kristoff.

Lousy storm.

Lousy dated, unreliable equipment, that falls apart if a teensy little gale force wind hits it.

Lousy... actually, this wasn't Elsa's fault at all, not this time.

Lousy Anna. Lousy Anna's lousy big mouth.

Lousy comms blackout, at the worst possible time.

She fell back on top of the mangled bed covers, the ambient chill than pervaded every inch of Troll Station even in summer creeping under her onesie and the pyjamas underneath that, at throat and wrist and ankle, setting her skin tingling. The chill cut through the fog of her insomniac funk, just a little.

It was all her fault. And Kristoff's. And the storm, obviously. And the midnight sun. But mainly hers.

She shouldn't have yelled at him. Kristoff was a big, oblivious... Kristoff, and she was expecting him to be a mind-reader. Of course he didn't get why she'd been pulling out her hair about a few days without Internet. She'd never explained about her family, after all. Not that he'd been very polite about it.

But then neither had Anna. Maybe it was guilt, the reason she was replaying their argument in her head over and over. Or maybe... maybe it was a sign of how few people she actually had, out here, on the underside of the world. How few friends to lose.

Lousy language barrier...

Antarctica is a post-state scientific utopia. In theory.

On December 1st, 1959, the twelve nations with active science bases on the frozen continent signed the Antarctic treaty, dedicating one of the great land masses of Earth to peace and scientific discovery. As of 2006, forty countries are signed up to the treaty and operate research bases and stations. More than forty are permanent, 12 months-per-year settlements, antennae and living pods linked together like moon bases, dozens more are small, summer outposts.

The biggest, McMurdo Station, is American. It is more like a town than an outpost, its population never dropping below two hundred even in the depths of the polar winter, and swelling to over a thousand in the summer research season. That was where Anna had spent her first season in the continent. So many fellow research biologists. So many penguins! She could literally walk to one of the Adélie colonies, except that she had promised never to do that again. Those darn pencil pushers...

This year was different. Particular research had to be collected from other parts of the continent, very specific, penguin-ey data which couldn't be gleaned from what other nations had shared. I can do that one, Anna had said, pointing to where Troll Station had been circled on the map. My parents spoke Norwegian. I'll fit right in...

“It'll be great!” Anna had insisted to Elsa. “No more of the big-base politics and bureaucracy and meetings... Ugh, so many meetings! All the nonsense there was around that congressional visit. None of which was my fault, by the way. Just real researchers, braving the frozen wilds for science!”

Elsa had looked uncertain; she hadn't said anything about how Anna was travelling to the other end of the planet again, and that it was different this time, they were different. But they'd promised to stay in contact- the base had a dish for Internet- and Anna had sworn she wouldn't let them drift apart a second time.

The journey back to the frozen continent had gone smoothly, considering how complicated it all was. Connecting flights down the length of the Americas, an overnight stay at an airfield in Argentina, and then a chartered plane had brought her back to McMurdo. She'd had enough time to say 'See ya later' to a couple of old friends before the equipment she'd need was collected and loaded onto yet another plane, which had carried her to the South Pole.

A pilot had greeted her on arrival, a sharp-featured older woman who had informed her in laboured English that she was to to fly her the rest of the way, and had seemed surprised but delighted when Anna answered her in Norwegian, even complementing her accent. She hadn't known she had an accent. Was that... actually a complement, though?

With an hour or two free once she'd made sure her luggage was safely transferred to the smaller cargo plane, and although she had already felt tired from the long hours in the air, Anna had still got out and walked around the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. Partly to stretch her legs, and partly because she was at the South Pole.

The South Pole... Wasn't that just crazy? Mother Earth's frosty little butt.

It hadn't even been all that cold, being the start of the Antarctic summer. Okay, pretty cold, maybe minus twenty, but she'd come straight from the first frosts of a New York winter and was wrapped up in the finest thermal gear government funding could buy, so she'd felt the sting on the exposed parts of her cheeks and that was about all.

There was... literally a pole there.

Right in front of the base. It was a goofy little thing- red and white striped with a shiny ball on top, sticking up absurdly from the packed white permafrost. To think so many men died to reach the site of some novelty lawn ornament...

She had taken a selfie with it, to send to Elsa as soon as she had Internet.

By the time the final leg had brought her to the little airfield alongside Troll Station, she had been awake for more than twenty hours, which had made it, according to the pilot, only mid morning by Central European Time. A massive man whose ginger muttonchops were sprinkled with white had been standing, waiting for her, by a red minibus fitted with massive winter tyres. Every vehicle in Antarctica looked like a scaled-up kids' toy.  As it turned out that was the station director, Dr Kjøpmann, who insisted on Anna calling him Oaken with the same polite informality which proved to be the norm for... most of the station staff.

On the way from the airfield Oaken had launched into what could well have been the introductory spiel he gave every newcomer. Troll Station was established first by the Norwegians as a summer outpost, and only expanded into a permanent, year-round station in 2003. This was good news in a lot of ways- there were all the modern conveniences. A TV room. Even basic Wi-Fi- although he admitted it wasn't very reliable. A sauna- Anna had tried not to giggle at that. But of course there was a sauna...

And the base now had a wind turbine to generate part of its power. He sounded particularly proud of that. Then Anna remembered being told that a good portion of the Norwegian scientists at the base were environmental researchers. Sustainability was probably close to their hearts.

The base was not much to look at in itself- Antarctic stations never are. A handful of blocky prefabricated buildings, mostly bright red to stand out at a distance to anyone lost nearby, connected by tracks and walkways. What really stood out was that it was all built not on snow, but on bare rock. A huge rock formation rose out of the ice sheet, running up towards a collection of oddly shaped mountains in the near distance, and the Norwegians had planted their flag right on top of it. Oaken explained all this, adding that the mountains were the 'trolls' after which the station had been named.

By the time they had made it to the station, Anna had been half-awake, and they had installed her equipment in one of the lab buildings and installed Anna herself in an empty dormitory room as quickly as possible so she could sleep off some of her extreme jet lag, having gone from EST to New Zealand time then back to European time over the course of one trip.

Left alone to unpack and rest, she'd zipped open her case, changed into her pyjamas, pulled her favourite penguin onesie on over the top because she'd still felt the chill, then remembered just in time to text Elsa.

......

Did you arrive yet? x

Anna, please text me when you're safely there. You know I get jittery when you travel x

Arrived safely! ;)

Thank God. How is your Norwegian holding up?

Xxx

Okey dokey so far.

I'm so out of practice.

Elsa I need my sleep. So do you. It's 4am in NY.

Wait!

???

Forgot this. Lo, ye literal South Pole XD

This... is ridiculous x

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Don't let the bed bugs bite x

Have an adventure, Anna. Skype me. Love you x

Luv u xxx

......

Sisterly duty discharged, Anna had flipped the light switch and collapsed straight onto the bed, instantly asleep...

She'd been woken up again after only a couple of hours, but that was life, wasn't it?

Broken sleep was kind of part of working through the midnight sun, Anna considered, still staring at the ceiling of her room. Maybe they were all feeling a little edgy, shorter tempered...

After another twenty minutes replaying her good and bad choices with increasing frustration, Anna thought: To heck with it. Brooding was Elsa's thing- she was a problem solver.

Well, how to solve her problems, then?

Problem 1: Elsa. Couldn't do anything about her until the storm damage to the comms dish was fixed.

Problem 2: Kristoff.

Kristoff. Anna had the beginnings of a plan to repair that particular burned bridge. Hopping up, she pulled her boots, gloves and coat on over her night clothes. If she remembered the rota right, Olaf was on nights at the moment...

Olaf Snømann was in his element. Three quarters of the staff were asleep and the canteen block was empty, so he could use the kitchen without interruption. Strictly speaking, Troll Station having no official chef, meals were meant to be cooked by the researchers based on a rota, but Olaf often volunteered his down time to bake, mix, prepare. Partly because putting together a lovely stew relaxed him when he wasn't grappling with satellite data, and partly because if he didn't cook, someone else had to- and most of his colleagues struggled to empty a tin of herring onto a slice of bread. It certainly made him popular. Everyone wanted to be friends with the cook.

Of course, with the satellite down he had all the time in the world anyway.

The door swung open which a swish of frozen air which tickled Olaf's scalp through his thin, silver hair, and a lone figure waddled in, wrapped in a thick high vis coat. It wasn't time for the night shift to eat, but there was no mistaking his visitor anyway. Olaf stopped stirring the stew pot and hurried to shut the door as fast as his stumpy legs would allow as American Anna undid her jacket, yawning. Underneath she was dressed in the same bizarre one-piece hooded costume that she'd worn the first time they'd met, her wind-burnt face framed by ginger pigtails sticking out under a goofy plush penguin face...

She had only been at the base a couple of hours at that point, months ago, but according to her she had forgotten to turn off her phone alarm. Now, an early alarm in Latin America is past midday in Europe and, finding herself awake at lunch, she'd decided to brazen out her jet lag and try the canteen.

Everyone had introduced themselves, of course. And it had turned out the base rumour mill was, for once, true and she actually spoke Norwegian, although her accent was so strong Olaf couldn't believe she had ever left the United States before. Although Olaf's own spoken English was atrocious, so it was a relief to know they wouldn't have to rely on it.

In any case, she had sat down, bleary-eyed, clad in her novelty onesie, said thank you very politely for the smørbrød Olaf had placed before her, before devouring a good half of it with her hands- like a toddler. Eventually she'd gone pink in the cheeks, registering that people were staring, and picked up her knife and fork to finish. Someone had jokingly called her 'Pingu' and she'd looked at them blankly. Olaf had shooed them away and sat down to eat with her, feeling a little protective of this young, half-penguin researcher, with her feral American table manners, half asleep and wholly out of her element.

And she was fun, it turned out. A breath of fresh, crazy air. He'd not had a snowball fight in years before Anna had arrived...

Anna coughed, bringing Olaf's mind back to the present before he could .

“Hi Olaf. I'm sorry about the dish.”

He looked back at the pot. “What? Oh, the satellite dish.” He shrugged, smiling serenely. “These things happen. He glanced out one of the little porthole-like windows, sighed, and returned to stirring the pot. “This land is beautiful, powerful, dangerous... that is part of the wonder of it. A little damage, a little delay- it's nothing we can't fix.”

Anna inhaled sharply, wringing her hands. “Yeah... fixing things. About that. Could I ask you a really, really big favour?”

Part II: Penguin Girl

Kristoff shovelled snow.

The base had a snow plough, obviously, but the storm had done more than spread a few feet of powder over the roads. In the driving wind, tonnes had built up in dense drifts against the buildings, burying cables and equipment that had to be dug out by hand. And so, since Lars had called dibs on the plough and he wouldn't be driving Anna anywhere until comms were restored, Kristoff had picked up a shovel and offered a hand.

That was if Anna ever actually wanted to share a cab with him again. The thought that she might insist Oaken assign her one of the other techs bothered him in a way part of him found surprising. He wasn't sure exactly when he'd stopped being annoyed by the ginger menace and started...

He carried on shovelling. He'd been working at it steadily for a while now; Sápmi winters had trained him well and he kept up a clean, rhythmic technique, the exertion warming him against the burning cold of the Antarctic air, efficiently clearing the loose-packed snow into piles that could be swept off by vehicle. Initially the exercise had kept his head clear, stopped him from dwelling on the fight, but now specific impressions kept forcing their way back into his head.

Anna had been so unreasonably angry, Kristoff had thought, about losing Skype when the blackout left the base cut off from other stations if there were an actual emergency, and when the whole TrollSat team's actual jobs rested on the comms mast being fixed, and when actual international treaties existed around Norway sharing that satellite data. And he'd told her so, and he'd not really listened to her...

But now, now he remembered her hands, fidgeting, tying her braids in knots as she'd complained; the tension in her wide blue-green eyes, almost tearful, and that wasn't just Anna being her usual impatient, volatile self. Something had been very wrong, and Kristoff hadn't listened.

Now he was worried, and wondering if it was too late to fix... whatever they had. It wasn't like he could fix comms.

Kristoff remembered when he had first set eyes on her...

He'd been hearing the others gossip about Anna for a couple of days, the strange American penguin girl, but they'd kept missing each other, which suited him fine. 'Kind of hot', apparently, 'in a Pippi Långstrump sort of way'- he hadn't wanted to dwell on that particular disturbing mental image. All Kristoff had known was that some American government agency had cut a deal with some Norwegian government agency, which meant he now had to spend four days a week ferrying some stranger far overland to look at birds.

He had been checking over the snowcat when Anna and Oaken had come strolling up together. The Red Sven was a tracked polar specialist about the size of a tow truck, and the only vehicle they had with the necessary speed and range for Ms Arendal's outings. The director had simply handed Kristoff his revised work schedule and marched back to his office with a wave, leaving his more taciturn countryman to try and make conversation with the newcomer.

It had turned out that making conversation with Anna Arendal was mostly nodding and saying 'Huh'. Her Norwegian was better than he'd heard, although her accent was strong, going high and low in all the wrong places with heavy American 'R's. Still, words, mostly the correct ones, poured bubbling up out of this girl- sweet and effervescent and unrelentingly upbeat, like a human can of Sprite. Questions, follow-up questions, answers to questions he hadn't asked... maybe it was a nervous trait?. She had just arrived after all.

Their first trip had dispelled the theory that Anna only talked too much when she was nervous, as she'd quickly settled into a calm, collected routine of always thinking in her mouth.

Anna was in Troll Station because it was 'close' to penguin colonies she needed to observe and collect data from. However, Antarctica was a continent, and 'close' meant travelling hundreds of miles by snowcat as opposed to thousands by plane. Troll Station being the 'closest' to the colonies she needed to study meant that it was 'only' a three hour drive each way in fine weather, plus an hour or two of driving between the penguin nesting spots themselves. Plus waiting around for Anna to make observations and collect samples.

And through it all, Anna would talk...

Are we there yet?

No.

You don't say much, huh?

No.

…

…

…

If the rock rises through the ice around the station, is the ice thinner? Like, do we have to worry less about falling in cracks?

Actually, you'd think so, but no.  The ice gets thick pretty quick as you move away from the Jutulsessen nunatak.

…

…

…

I've never observed an Emperor colony before. Most of the data I collected last year is from Macaronis, but we need to track the pollution effects on the other Antarctic species and form hypotheses about dietary factors, so... are you listening?

Um, sure.

…

…

…

Are you ever around in winter?

No, it's only really the satellite station team that are needed during the long night.

Twenty-four hours of night. That must suck.

Yes.

…

…

…

Are the nights very long where you come from?

Oh yes.

So, far in the North?

Sápmi.

Sorry?

Sápmi. You know, ugh, 'Lapland'?

Like Santa Claus?

...No, not like Santa Claus.

…

…

…

What's a Pingu?

…

…

…

It had been exhausting at first, chauffeuring their foreign guest from breeding site to breeding site. That first week, the idea of being grounded at Troll Station for a few days would have sounded like a holiday. So why, whatever he did, however much he tinkered with the vehicles in the garage, or cleared snow until his back and shoulders burned and his clothes and beard were dusted white... Why did the day feel so empty now?

He missed the easy smile, the fizzy energy that escaped in bursts of joy, or curiosity, or irritation. He somehow missed the constant barrage of words.

He missed Anna. At some point in all those long, long drives over the ice, she'd grown on him.

Like a terrorist and her hostage...

Part III: Bribery

The sun didn't set during December in Antarctica. But this far from the Pole it did skim lower in the sky for a few hours, swelling into a warmer golden light that smeared itself along the horizon like the glow of a distant fire. Kristoff liked to sit out and watch it sometimes, on his breaks or when there was no work for him. That was how Anna found him, sat on a box by the wall of the garage block and sipping steaming black coffee from a Thermos flask. Alone. Good.

He was looking away from her, scarf loose around his thick blond beard, woolly hat pulled down over his ears, rolling his broad shoulders gently as if working out the aches and pains of the day. Anna saw the shovel propped up against the wall next to him. Clearly Kristoff had been making himself a lot more useful than she had been, sulking in bed, and for a moment she hesitated to bother him.

No, shyness wasn't going to solve anything. If Kristoff didn't want to talk to Anna he could tell her. And the package in her hands wasn't getting any warmer.

“Anna?” She jumped.

“Oh, Kristoff...” Anna swallowed nervously. She'd been spotted, no point in trying to back out now. She stepped up to her colleague, her rehearsed apology completely evaporating from her mind. “So, I...” “I should apologise.”

“What? No! I should apologise.” Anna blinked in surprise. “I yelled at you.”

“I didn't listen to you.”

“No one listens to me!” Anna paused. “I talk too much I know it's a thing.” She held the bag in her hands out to him. “Peace offering. I didn't have time to wrap it.”

“For me?” Kristoff stared at the bag for a couple of heartbeats, then took it and sat back down on the box, shuffling over so Anna could join him. He lifted the box out of the bag, a large plastic tub she and Olaf had found in the kitchen, and...

As Kristoff cracked open the lid of the tub, the smell of sweet fried dough was detectable even in the icy midsummer air. He smiled. “Doughnuts. You got Olaf to make them again.”

“Yep.”

“Everyone has been badgering him to make more since... well, the last time. He said we had to wait for a special occasion.”

“I twisted his arm.”

“They're so good.”

“Yep.” Anna was giggling now. “And they're all yours. Tell no one, or the meteorological team will descend on you like vultures.”

Kristoff laughed, and Anna was finally starting to relax, relieved. “It's a strange world.”

Kristoff reached for a rucksack sitting on the snowy rock, and fiddled with fastenings. Thermal gloves made little things awkward. Eventually, mumbling an apology, he drew out a small package tied up in a cotton rag. “I didn't have time to wrap, either.”

Anna let him place the little parcel in her hands. “And it's not even Christmas yet.” As she pulled the cloth away she saw the gleam of coloured foil. Was it really...

“Chocolate!” Anna jumped up and down, clutching The Precious to her chest, then sat down self-consciously. “Wow, thanks. My stash lasted, like, a week. Not even that.”

She turned back to Kristoff. “I can't believe we both decided to bribe each other with sugar.”

“It's the drug of choice around here.”

“Like cigarettes in prison.”

“We should talk.”

“Yeah...”

“I promise to listen this time.”

It was far too cold to stay outside, so Kristoff led her into the garage. Soon they were sat together in the cab of Kristoff's snowcat, as they had on so many achingly cold, bright 'mornings' since Anna had arrived here.

Anna's chocolate was frozen solid- goodness knows where Kristoff had been hiding it, maybe buried somewhere safe from hungry researchers- so they shared Kristoff's doughnuts as Anna explained a little of her family situation.

How Elsa had increasingly isolated herself from everyone including, most hurtfully, her sister. How they hadn't realised how ill she was, not for years- Pappa hadn't really encouraged them to talk about it.

Eventually, in their twenties, after they had both made some questionable choices- Kristoff didn't need to hear about Anna’s jerkass of an ex just yet- things had reached a breaking point.

After a particularly severe crisis had landed Elsa in the ER, she was finally receiving the medical attention she should have been getting from the beginning. Encouraged by her therapists, she had reached out to Anna.

They were making progress, slowly learning to be sisters again. But things were still fragile between them. Anna could be thoughtless and short-tempered, Elsa was painfully sensitive and sometimes kind of paranoid... it was a volatile combination.

In their last Skype call before the storm had wrecked the mast Elsa had been smiling, proud of herself. She had gone to a Christmas party. Elsa. Elsa Arendal had gone to a party. And enjoyed herself. With people. And dancing.

Anna had asked her where the party had been. Elsa had prevaricated, but Anna had pressed the issue, knowing her sister didn't drink and the blush on her cheeks was not alcohol.

“It... was an office party.”

“Oh really... Whose?”

“Oh, whose office? A, um, friend.”

“A friend took you on a date, huh?”

“Well it doesn't have to be a date, necessarily.”

“Uh-huh...”

“Okay, it was. Maybe.”

“Ooh... Maybe I should check this guy out, ask him his intentions towards my sister. Or do I know him already? You don't meet that many people, no offence.”

“No, no.”

“You hesitated.”

“No, honestly, she's new in town... oh God.”

Kristoff looked wary. “And was that...”

Anna nearly spat out her doughnut. “Oh for God's sake Kristoff, I'm not a homophobe! I'm a scientist! It would be like... hating someone for their shoe size!”

Kristoff's nose scrunched up when he was thinking. It was kind of adorable- Wait, what?

“So, if you're not-”

“There's no if! Geez, one nightmare clown gets elected and everyone thinks the worst of us.”

“So what did you say?”

Anna face-palmed, groaning. “Nothing.”

There was a pregnant pause.

“Nothing? You?”

“I panicked! Said some nonsense about having my lab tests to get back to...”

Anna found herself fidgeting with her hair again. “We're sisters, and I love her, but sometimes it seems like I hardly know anything about her. Elsa pulled away from me so hard all through our teens- I didn't know then about her mental health, I just thought there was something wrong with me, maybe. And it just got worse after Mamma and Pappa passed. We've only really reconnected in the last year after she started getting therapy and meds, and so much is still uncharted territory between us.

There should have been sleepovers and girls' nights in and blanket forts where we talked about our crushes and shared our darkest secrets. But there was none of that. Just a locked bedroom door I passed on my way to the stairs. And being reminded of that made me feel like the lousiest sister in the world all over again.”

She pulled her legs up to her body, hugging her knees. “And you know, I am.”

Anna put her hand up to stay Kristoff's well-meaning protests.

“No, really. I made it about me. I got all weird and made excuses so I'd have time to feel comfortable. I was so scared of saying the wrong thing I said nothing! The one time I didn't talk when I actually should have...

I should have told her that it was okay. I shouldn't have signed off before I was sure she believed that. Elsa never finds it easy to tell me anything. Her issues make her so scared all the time, make her expect the worst. But she's been trying so hard. She's been getting better...”

Anna buried her face in her hands. “But that was when we lost Internet! And phones! Everything! Like, ten minutes later, back at the lab I had started to worry and wanted to send her a quick message, something supportive, even just a stupid little “Luv u Elsa xxx”...

...But no signal. Blackout! So now my only sister's back stateside thinking I freaked out and ghosted her, probably deciding to cut me out of her life for good this time. Or worse, having another breakdown... because of me...”

Kristoff wasn't the most demonstrative guy Anna had ever met, so she was surprised when he shifted the remaining doughnuts to one side and wrapped her in a tight hug.

It was nice, though. It was really nice, even with the gearshift pressing into her hip. She felt adrift in nightmarish uncertainty, no clue what Elsa was doing, no way to fix it, and the feeling of his arms encircling her, thick and strong as tree trunks, was kind of grounding. He was so calm and still most of the time, it was easy to forget how big he was. Two Annas big. Like a bear. A brawny Norwegian bear man.  She couldn't really feel the warmth of him through the layers of insulating clothing they both wore, but... why was she thinking about that?

“Anna, listen to me. The dish will be fixed before you know it. You will call your sister, or Skype or whatever you want. You will tell her exactly what you told me, and she will understand and she will love you. We will carry on collecting data, data and poop alike, I will make you watch Pingu in the TV room so you understand the joke, and everything- that means everything- will be alright. Okay?”

Anna nodded. Something about the sheer, solid presence of Kristoff made it easier to believe his words, to expect good things, as she mumbled his words back to him. “Everything will be alright.”

“That's right.”

They met again the next evening, in the same spot- where Kristoff waited in the freezing wind with a sheepish grin and enough coffee for them both. Anna's chocolate had had time to thaw out and was no longer like trying to bite into a slab of glass, so they took their eating caffeine and drinking caffeine into the garage workshop. Kristoff must have known it would be empty.

“I should explain my behaviour,” Kristoff announced out of nowhere.

Anna put her plastic mug down on the crate that Kristoff had dragged over between their stools to make them a table, with that effortless strength of his. “No offense, but you need to narrow that down.”

“I can often be too...” Kristoff trailed off, his brow furrowing under his woolly hat.

“Laconic?”

He grunted. “Actually, yes. My family are a bit overpowering. It would make sense if you could meet them.”

Anna leaned in, curious. “Your family?”

She'd never thought about him as a family person. But then she'd never asked. Had she really been so self-centred?

“Well, adoptive family. My brother, that's my... hold on.”

Kristoff reached into his coat to retrieve one of the indestructible phones the Norwegian teams were issued with and flicked through a couple of screens, before turning it over to her. It showed a photo of two young men dressed in colourful woollen clothes, smiling and hugging each other while one held up the camera. It took a moment to realise which one was Kristoff- he looked different without the thick beard he'd been wearing since she had arrived.

“My only blood relation. Sven and I lost our folks when we were very little. Then we were adopted by new parents. There were ten of us, altogether, growing up right at the furthest frozen edge of the north of Europe.”

“Ten?” Anna gawked. One sibling had been complicated growing up- seven seemed like, well a zoo.

Kristoff chuckled at the face she was making. “Pappa said it kept the house warm. It was crowded. I never had much time to myself as a boy, except when I was out on the ice. At home, there was always someone talking to me, dragging me off to join in with something. Sometimes there would be songs, all through our little house, just because someone felt like singing and then Mamma joined in, then everyone else joined in...”

“They sound wonderful,” Anna blurted out, before she could stop herself. Compared to the years of her parents always being busy with the company, and Elsa ghosting her- not that they'd known why at the time...

Kristoff snorted. “They are. But also loud, and excitable, and overbearing, and kinda never shut up. I miss them, but at the same time I need to get away for some of the year.”

At that, Anna felt something implode slightly inside of her, a feeling she couldn't exactly account for, but she didn't want to ruin their second actual proper conversation, so she tried to grin and make a joke of it.

“So, you come all the way to the bottom of the world for some peace and quiet, and instead you're driving me two hundred clicks to collect penguin poop, while I talk, and talk, and talk your ear off the whole way? Tough break. Wow.”

Kristoff looked up at her and shook his head. “The whole drive back, too. But that's not quite what I meant. I should relate to people. It is part of life, I want to. But I guess my family has left me too... passive. You come to me, and you sit and talk and I let you, like you're one of my kid sisters. But you are not. I am not home, letting the noise wash over me, where my family know what I feel even if I do not show it. I am here, and you are my... friend, and I should talk to you, let you know that your company is valued.”

Anna wasn't expecting the sudden turn, and the sad look in Kristoff's eyes and the hesitant way he said 'friend', like it was a question, had her head spinning in odd ways. “That's well, I mean, not that- Do you? Value it? My company? I value yours. I think I took that for granted before our fight, which is a thing I do and- sorry.”

Kristoff nodded, radiating sincerity. “I do, Anna.” He held out his gloved hand across the crate, mashing the empty chocolate foil, and Anna took it and held it. “We're all the way out here in fourteen million square kilometres of ice and frozen rock, and only a few thousand complete madmen-”

“And madwomen!”

Kristoff laughed. “-To share it with. It's good we have each other, don't you think?”

Anna squeezed his hand. “Yeah.”

“I have good news.”

“Oh! Hi...” Anna looked up from her breakfast to see Kristoff awkwardly hovering. Checking the hood of her onesie to make sure it hid her bed hair, she wondered for a second why he was looking so uncomfortable if he had good news... before she realised he was just waiting for an invitation. “Sit, sit, come on Kristoff! Tell me.”

Kristoff joined her at the table, grasping a mug of that now familiar thick black coffee. She wondered if he drank it instead of sleeping- he was certainly up at all hours.

“The repairs to the satellite system are almost complete.”

Anna's face lit up. “That's amazing! How long...”

“They'll be able to reintegrate with the satellite and start relaying data back to Europe tomorrow morning.”

“And Internet? Phones?”

Kristoff scratched his beard. “That will take another day or two. Oaken wants to make sure we have everything straightened out before we bring back non-emergency comms, so no Wi-Fi.”

Anna's heart sank.

“But...” Kristoff smiled. “Oaken's office has a direct broadband connection, which will be back straight away, and I told him you had a family emergency and, well, he's really a good boss.”

“Wait, what did you tell him?” Anna's eyes widened.

“Oh, no details, only that you needed to contact your sister urgently. He may or may not think that she's dying.” Kristoff shrugged. “The advantage of not asking for anything for five years is, when you do, people take it very seriously. Just talk to Oaken and arrange when it would be best to use his office tomorrow-”

Kristoff wasn't that surprised when Anna leaped up and threw her arms around his neck in thanks. She was a pretty excitable person. The kiss she pressed into his cheek before she rushed out of the canteen, on the other hand...

He sat still where he was for a moment, just processing. The other driver, Lars, took a seat beside him.

“So, you and Happy Feet, right?”

“Lars, no!” Kristoff hesitated, willing himself not to let his blush rise above the beard line. “I don't know. Maybe.”

Lars snorted with laughter. “Kristoff, you hopeless young idiot. It'll be Christmas eve on Monday. Invite her to the party. A little festive cheer, a little lutefisk, a lot of Oaken's akevitt...”

He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, undeterred by Kristoff's stony silence. “She is the first new person I have seen you happily interact with since... I don't even know. You're at the damn South Pole, do you think you're holding out for someone better?”

“No! Anna's great, really great, she...” Kristoff caught himself. “Oh, I see you.”

“Because if there were someone better, sorry, but she wouldn't date you. You're reaching as it is.”

Kristoff got up, zipping his coat. “I'm leaving now.”

As he walked to the door Lars called after him. “Go, follow the beautiful penguin girl... Confess your true feelings...”

“See you around, Lars.”

Part IV: Julaften

“But he gave you chocolates?”

“Chocolate, Elsa. Chocolate. As in a candy bar. We had an argument...”

“And he didn't have flowers?”

“Hilarious. Kristoff's just a guy I know.”

“Who went out of his way to help get us back in contact. And gave you chocolate, and you spend all day with him. I'm just looking at the facts- he's basically your snow husband.”

“Stooop... A couple of dates and suddenly you're the love expert.”

“'Love' expert? Ha! A confession.”

“I could sign off right now...”

“Wait, Anna. Listen, listen, I'm being serious. You should see the way your eyes soften when you just say his name. Anna, this is me, of all people, telling you to take a chance... Why not just catch him under the mistletoe, see what happens?”

“Elsa, they don't do that in Norway. I think. We don't have mistletoe, anyway. Even if...”

Anna stared at the akevitt in the bottom of her glass, reflecting on her most recent Skype with Elsa. After the initial awkwardness of clearing up misunderstandings- it had turned out Elsa had sent about twenty panic texts and Anna had solemnly sworn to delete all of them unopened once they arrived- their conversation had turned with surprising ease to the warmer, more familial awkwardness of being interrogated about her love life. Not that she actually had a-

The door to the TV room opened, and Kristoff joined her in the hall, rosy cheeked with Christmas spirit and also probably from the rich, dark Christmas ale half-filling his cup. It was not to her taste, but by the rate it was disappearing it clearly suited some of their colleagues. “Not enjoying the film?”

"Three Wishes for Cinderella? They show it every year." Kristoff shrugged.

“Give me It's a Wonderful Life any day.” Anna sipped her drink. “Shall we go out and say hello to the doggie?”

Kristoff tried to frown, but it wasn't working. “It's a goat. A Yule Goat. They're meant to be made out of straw, but Gerda and Lars only had bits of crate to hammer together, which is why it's so...”

Anna grinned. “So... what?”

“So like a robot dog.” Kristoff sighed in surrender. “Sure, let's take a walk.”

A few minutes later, wrapped up warmly, they stood at the centre of the base trying hard to admire what Kristoff's colleagues had constructed. They would not be winning any art prizes.

“So, how's it a goat?”

Kristoff pointed up at some of the messier parts of the beast. “The bent-over parts are meant to be horns.”

“Really? Not ears?”

“Be nice. It would probably look more impressive at night.”

Anna rolled her eyes, giggling. “Sure, at night. Let's just wait a few months.”

Kristoff crossed his arms and pretended to sulk. “Yeah, yeah. Laugh at our ancient traditions. What do you do for Christmas?”

Anna grinned, stepping closer to him. “Give each other gifts...”

“Yeah, we already did that, and I'm out of chocolate.”

She looked up at his face, all bemused patience, eyes dancing. “Eat turkey...”

“Good luck with that. I'm not driving you to the nearest supermarket.”

“Where is that?”

“Cape Town. I hope you can swim.”

“Okay, okay,” Anna laughed, her gloved fingers trailing down the front of Kristoff's jacket. His brown eyes were as dark and heady as the ale he drank. “Well, there is mistletoe. You know how that works?”

“We have Hollywood. But if an American really wants to kiss someone why not just-”

“Yeah, why not?”

The kiss was brief- almost a collision- as Anna grabbed Kristoff's head in both hands and pulled him down, springing up on her toes to meet him halfway. Then she let go and staggered back a few feet.

Yep, she’d actually done that.

Kristoff was bright pink. “Anna...”

“You can't blame me!” Anna yelped. “I'm drunk and I have terrible impulse control!”

Kristoff burst out laughing, which Anna decided could either be good or really, really bad.

“Kristoff?”

That was when he kissed her back. Slow and loving and tender, and the alcohol in her veins could not compete with how that touch warmed her.

What was that bleeping?

Pulling away slightly, Kristoff pulled his phone out of his back pocket. His smile broadened.

“Midnight.”

Anna looked at the bright sunlight gleaming off the ear-horns of the Yule plank-monster. The sun was low over the mountains in the distance, gleaming off the ice flats... “Amazing.”

“Merry Christmas, Anna.”

[keepingupwithlinmanuel]

Lin-Manuel Miranda on "Hamilton" Coming to Washington, D.C., and His First Voting Memory

Before the campaign ends on May 31, Teen Vogue sat down with Lin-Manuel to talk about partnering with Prizeo to benefit BlackPAC, the Latino Victory Fund, the Center for Popular Democracy, and Let America Vote. He also opened up about his memories as a young voter, his hopes for the D.C. production of Hamilton, and who he most hopes visits what he predicts will be a very "meta" show.

Teen Vogue: You've worked with Prizeo before on other ticket drives. How did this specific sweepstakes come about? What about these organizations specifically spoke to you?

Lin-Manuel Miranda: It turns out people want tickets to Hamilton, and that's a lovely thing. So we've tried to leverage that into raising money for organizations that are important to our family. [This time] we wanted to focus on voting. I personally believe that the more of us that vote, the healthier our democracy is, so these organizations are all involved with that. [We're working with] Let America Vote, which is very involved in terms of gerrymandering and voter suppression, and calling it out. Really, Jason Kander has built an organization that is mobilizing people to make people aware of the way people get you to stay home. The Latino Victory Fund is really concerned with getting out the Latino votes, particularly with immigration being so hot-button nowadays. It's so important that the Latino voter base be mobilized. With each organization, we were looking at getting out as much of the vote as possible and contributing to the organizations that are making that happen. Ones that get you to the polls. By contributing to this, yes, you may win tickets to Hamilton, but you're contributing to the organizations that really do the work. Let America Vote is always looking for volunteers. The Latino Victory Fund is always looking for volunteers. Sign up for their newsletter. There's no shortage of ways to get engaged, which is the thing I tell myself constantly.

TV: The midterm elections are coming up, and voter turnout for elections that aren't the presidential election every four years tends to be pretty dismal. How do you hope that this push addresses the need for voting all the time?

LMM: I come by it honestly. My dad was in Democratic politics in New York as long as I can remember. At my 18th birthday party, I made a wish, I blew out the candles, and then I filled out my voter registration form.

I think that more than ever, the issues we face are really engaging young people. To see how focused the Parkland survivors have been on voting, in particular — it has been inspiring to see the people most affected by this leading the charge. There was another school shooting on Friday, May 18. There was an article in The Washington Post [about how] more students have died [in 2018] as a result of gun violence than active military personnel. That is appalling.

TV: When the Parkland shooting happened and the survivors started mobilizing with March for Our Lives, critics were really quick to claim that "they're kids, they don't know what they're doing." It's also easy, we've seen, for people to dismiss young people's votes as being less-than, that their voices don't matter.

LMM: Boy, does it matter. Absolutely, I feel like that goes around every year, but I think it has a greater urgency because we're losing young people to senseless violence. People who should be coming home from school at the end of the day. Kids who should not be afraid of going to school. Parents who should not be afraid of sending their kids to school. Young people have always changed the world. It always comes from them. Our job is to support them and to listen.

TV: What did the first time you actually voted feel like?

LMM: I think my first "vote" was probably '88? I think I turned my mom's vote for [a local election]. I was eight years old, and I got to go in the booth with her, and I remember I got to flip the knobs. The thrill of that as a kid, of "I get to go into this little tented room, and I get to have a say." It was always an exciting thing for me.

The first time I voted in a presidential election was in 2000. I turned 18 in 1998. I've always found [voting] thrilling. I love the follow-up. I love everything about voting. I love the volunteers, I love the sense that you see people from your neighborhood, that people are taking a break from work to go do this, that you're taking time out of your day to have a say in something much larger than yourself.

I deal in larger-than-yourself things. You can't put up a musical by yourself. By necessity in my trade, I work with people who do what I can't do, and we make something that is bigger than the sum of our parts. And I think of voting that way: If we work together, we can affect change that is greater than the sum of our parts individually. I get that rush from working in theater and working in animated movies, when you're working with a crew of thousands, and I get that same rush when I go to the polls, because I know I'm one drop in the bucket, but I know many drops in the bucket is a sea change.

TV: Minority voters are finding themselves in the spotlight more and more by virtue of the rhetoric around issues like immigration, xenophobia, and police brutality against black and brown bodies. Do you have any specific message for young people who feel marginalized by the overwhelmingly white, male, cisgender, straight majority still in office?

LMM: Well, it's a lyric in the show, and I hate to be that guy....

TV: Please be that guy.

LMM: But the quote is, "Tomorrow there'll be more of us." There are more of us. There are more young people than ever before. We all just have to push in the same direction. We all just have to get out and vote. I'm not gonna tell you who to vote for because that's also your choice, and what a glorious thing it is that you have that choice.

TV: Hamilton is opening in Washington, D.C., which feels kind of like art imitating life. Do you imagine this production will be different in any way, simply by virtue of the location?

LMM: "The Room Where It Happens" is gonna be a very surreal number in D.C., because we're in the town where it happens. That song is literally about the establishment of that town, so it's meta on a few levels. It's the origin story of D.C. It's the origin story of our particular politics. That beef between Jefferson and Hamilton is, in varying different hues and shades, our two-party system. Those two fundamentally different views of what our country should be. It's not a clean break down the line; there's not a direct line between Democrats and Republicans. They've swapped positions on various issues over the years, but the notion of a two-party system began with these two guys catching beef. One of the things George Washington warned against in his Farewell Address, which Hamilton wrote, was beware of the rise of factions. We feel more factionalized than we've ever felt. The show is a reminder of those origin stories and a reminder that the past isn't passed, and we have been having these fights for as long as we've been a country.

...

TV: Given that Hamilton is now in their backyard, it's going to be interesting to see if politicians come to see the show. A lot of people remember when Vice President Mike Pence came to the New York show. The way the cast handled it was so beautiful and moving.

LMM: I think people forget the context of that. That was the week after the election. The emotions of the audience were so raw that we had to speak to the moment one way or the other. You couldn't leave it where it was, and I was very proud of our cast and the way they handled it and basically made a call for inclusion and respect for everyone. They said, "I hope you will include all of us as you govern." The way that was mischaracterized later via Twitter by our president is a very different thing. But I was very proud of our cast, and I was impressed with Pence's response, which was he heard us and stayed to listen.

TV: Is there any one politician or any few politicians that you hope come to the D.C. show?

LMM: Not that this show is some definitive text, by no means — it's a musical. But [the show is about] things we grappled with at the founding of our nation — when do we estate? When do we unite as one country? When do we get involved in the affairs of other countries? That's "Cabinet Battle Two." In their case it's the French Revolution; in our case it's insert country here. And when do we tend to ourselves and work on ourselves? The legacy of slavery, which is still being felt today, was still being felt then. Every character in my show — with the exception of George Washington — dies as a result of gun violence. That's another original sin of our country. It's so many years later and it's worse than it's ever been because our founders could never have imagined shooting off 30 bullets in 30 seconds. There was just no universe in which they would've imagined that. So we are dealing with the effects of that as well.

I say all that to say it's a great reminder of the questions that were there at our origin and how our politicians deal with those challenges today. Our message is: We're in your backyard. You know how to get tickets. Honestly, I hope everyone comes, from both sides of the aisle, because I think it's always good to see a show that reminds you the origins of what we are.

[lindoig8]

Friday to Monday, 13-16 August

Friday

Black Friday – but we never realised it until at least a week later.

Another day of basically driving up the highway – 300 kilometres yesterday, 370 today – it’s a Big Country. But every little ‘town’ (tiny settlement) has its own claim to fame and they are very proud of it. Aileron has some giant statues – anatomically correct male and female aboriginal figures set several hundred metres apart. Wycliffe Well claims to be the Australian Capital for UFOs and has a few cheesy models of a flying saucer, an alien and so on along the road.

More believable are the Devil’s Marbles (has he lost his marbles?), a few kilometres of huge rounded boulders that really are impressive – although in my opinion, they are rivalled by those at Tower Hill that we visited out of Gemtree a few months ago. At least Tower Hill wasn’t crawling with tourists – literally hundreds at the Devil’s Marbles. We gave up trying to find a place to stop for just a few minutes in the massive carpark so had to take our long-range photos from the main road.

We had another bush camp off the side of the highway, just far enough away not to be bothered by the traffic barrelling past. In the past few days, I have managed to inflict numerous cuts and nicks on my hands and the dry dusty conditions have created several cracks in my skin too and it is becoming painful, if not too difficult, to do a lot of our daily tasks. I am moisturising my hands and we must have used a full packet of Bandaids trying to protect my poor hands but we still have to do things and the Bandaids keep coming off and needing replacement. Just holding onto the steering wheel has been a minor challenge, much worse all the things necessary to set up the van and do the dishes and all the other things that require dexterous fingers and thumbs. But I am sure that I will be back to normal in a few days.

Saturday – Monday

We continued north on the Highway but stopped at Tennant Creek for at least an hour to complete all the BS required for our WA border passes. It was further complicated because you have to tell them where you will self-isolate in WA and it took numerous phone calls to make a booking and pay the required deposit to enable us to complete our applications. The amount of data we had to provide on the app was simply gross overkill – and access to their site is terrible. (For the first time, I understood how the conspiracy theorists might have come up with the idea that governments are using Covid to capture huge swathes of data about us that they couldn't get by other means.)

We continued on to Dunmarra where we stopped briefly to download our email and send a few others – and found that our border passes had been rejected. We eventually figured out why (there is no possible way to contact the authorities to ask anything – you just have to use their app and wait to see what happens). The whole process is designed to make it as hard as possible to comply. Heather submitted a new application and got approved, but mine was much more difficult. Every time (at least 6 times) I completed all the information they demand, I got to the end of the process only for the Captcha box to fail to appear – and you can’t submit it until it does. Another wasted hour or so, but it eventually appeared and mine was approved as well.

We also got an email advising that our Exmouth/Ningaloo adventure was cancelled because the tour organisers were unable to get out of the Northern Territory due to the sudden lockdown up here. We heard that our originally-planned Fossil Dig in Lightning Ridge did not go ahead due to the regional spread in New South Wales so that confirmed the wisdom of our decision to pull out of that a few weeks ago – but now our remaining anchor for this trip has gone up in smoke. All the routes we have taken, the activities we have done or not done, the decisions we have taken, the things that we have manipulated over the past several months to ensure we would be able to do the Exmouth expedition have gone for nought and we have to start from scratch in planning the rest of our travels. We will continue to enjoy our travels, but Plan Z disappeared into the ether weeks ago and I am not sure how to code our future travel plans.

We then headed a short distance further up the highway to the junction with the iconic Buchanan Highway that we intended taking to Top Springs and Timber Creek. But at Dunmarra, we had learned of yet another lockdown, restricted to Darwin and Katherine (so more than 400 kilometres from us), but occasioning a change to our entry permit to Western Australia. Immediately we cross the order, we have to get tested and self-isolate until we get the results, and we felt there was a risk of an extension to the lockdown or further restrictions to entering WA if the virus spread in the Northern Territory. We decided we had to stay away from any town – not even stop for fuel – and we would probably need at least 3 bush camps before we could cross the border. This meant we needed more generator fuel than we were carrying so after 20-odd kilometres, we turned around and back-tracked to Dunmarra for more petrol. Then we decided that, despite the need to avoid people, we would spend the night at Dunmarra – and as it turned out, we stayed there three nights. It was a really lovely place and I enjoyed the many birds surrounding us, perhaps the most surprising species being the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos – I reckon there were at least 150 in the flock.

I enjoyed the birds, Heather enjoyed the pool – small but refreshing, just a bit too cold for me. On Monday, we ate dinner in the Roadhouse – we shared a seafood basket and some rissoles, both with lots of sides – easily enough for 4 people, but we made the sacrifice and consumed most of it.

It was a very relaxing and enjoyable stopover, pretty hot, but a good opportunity to catch up on a few things (Heather cooked four of her delectable tins of fruit cake!)

One thing that fascinates (and annoys) me is the number of people travelling with dogs – and very often, not just one – there were four big brutes in one car at Dunmarra, and I think they were travelling with another car with three dogs. They are often off-leash just roaming the camp-ground, sniffing around and doing their business on other people’s sites and nobody seems to try to quieten their mutts’ incessant yapping. I know I am seen essentially as an evil person because I am not a dog-lover, but even if I was, there are still limits to one’s patience.