#5 Inspiring Books You Must Read on a Plane

[blouisparadise]

Upon request, today we have a rec list of fics that are inspired by or based on books! We hope you enjoy the fabulous books on this list. If you want us to keep making rec lists like this, please be sure to like and reblog the post to help spread the word. Happy reading!

1) Sweeter Than Wine | Explicit | 15,339 words

When Wizard!Louis goes to a muggle club for a change of pace, his one night stand ends up being much more than he bargained for.

2) Your Certain Charms | Explicit | 20,417 words

Harry Potter AU. Louis is the reserve-reserve seeker, Harry is the Quibbler’s brightest new voice, and the Quidditch World Cup is as good a place to stargaze as any.

3) Burning Through The Shadows | Explicit | 25,990 words

“He’s Louis Tomlinson,” the General spoke from next to Louis. “The Sun Summoner, moi tsar,” the General said, looking at Louis. “He will change the future,” the General said, looking at the king and the queen. “Starting now.” The General raised his hand and shadows creeped up from every corner of the Great Hall, enveloping them all in darkness. Louis was reminded of the time when these shadows had protected him, them, from the harsh winter of Ravka. “Now call the sun,” the General leaned in and whispered in Louis’ ear.

4) Magical Soup | Explicit | 28,580 words

Slytherin prefect Louis Tomlinson’s seventh year at Hogwarts takes an immediate turn for the worse when he’s made to be potions partners with Harry Styles, Hufflepuff’s resident heartthrob and class clown.  Louis has always considered Styles to be a terrible show-off who coasts by on his charm and good looks, but the more they work together, the more he questions that idea.  As term goes on, will Louis be able to admit to himself that he might actually like Harry Styles after all… and maybe, just maybe, as more than a friend?

5) Blue Lotus | Explicit | 29,824 words

Note: The pairing in this fic is Louis/OMC.

After the Second Rebellion and the dismantling of President Cowell’s regime, Louis struggles to make sense of life.

6) Ours Are The Moments I Play In The Dark | Mature | 30,830 words

Jane Austen’s Persuasion AU. Nine years ago Louis Tomlinson was persuaded to break off his engagement to Harry Styles, a poor sailor. Since then Louis has come to regret being so easily convinced to give up his one chance of happiness. Now Louis’ family is in debt and his childhood home is being sold. In a complete reversal of fortune, Harry has returned to England a wealthy bachelor looking to settle down. Events conspire to bring them together once more though Louis is- must surely be- the last man on earth that Captain Styles would think of now.

7) Dangerous Liaisons | Explicit | 42,589 words

Note: This fic is locked and can only be read by AO3 users.

Niall is the master of deceit and Harry is the master of seduction. Louis is just a very strong willed male model who happens to be straight. When Niall tells Harry he wouldn’t be able to seduce Louis, the bet is on, but Niall’s schemes are hard to avoid.

8) Inside Your Bones | Explicit | 43,550 words

Note: The pairing in this fic is Louis/OMC.

Louis keeps trying to make peace with his past, but it’s hard when the past is all too present.

9) A Promise Lives Within You Now | Explicit | 45,925 words

A Lord of the Rings-inspired Middle Earth AU. Louis is an Elven prince, next in line to become King of Mirkwood, and Harry is the orphaned Human boy who grows up alongside him. They fall in love, but Louis’s obligations to the throne, Harry’s mortality, and impending war threaten to tear them apart.

10) Secret’s Safe With Me | Explicit | 59,207 words

When bad turbulence and three glasses of wine have Louis spilling all of his secrets to the man sitting next to him on the plane, it’s embarrassing, sure, but it’s also easy enough to shrug off and block out of his memory forever. Or at least, it was until Louis went into work on Monday morning and realized that the man from the plane is the new CEO of his company.

11) Mead Of Poetry | Mature | 65,053 words

Under the pressure of continuing the Styles viscountcy line now that he is getting older, Harry sets himself three rules to finally settle down and marry: firstly, the omega needs to be reasonably attractive, secondly, they must be of great mind, thirdly, they cannot be anyone he would ever fall in love with. Enters Charlotte Tomlinson, the diamond of the first water of the upcoming season and seemingly the perfect candidate to the viscount’s plan, but her omega brother, Louis, is in Harry’s way. Louis only seeks to protect his sister and he sure is not going to let a rake play with her heart.

12) King Of My Heart | Explicit | 83,712 words

Harry shrugged, his shoulders brushing against Louis’. “I think since I was young, I craved that feeling, though. I didn’t always hate being a prince, but over time, certain aspects of it just bothered me so much. I remember being four years old and realising that every person in the world knew my name, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted that. I told my mum as much and she tried telling me that being a prince is not a punishment. That it was a privilege that I should be happy about it, but no one asked me if I was. But looking up at the sky, I remember that all of this will one day mean nothing, and neither will I. All the pressure will then disappear and I could just be.” Louis stayed quiet, allowing Harry the space to open up because he knew Harry wasn’t looking for advice, but just someone to confide in. What he wished he could tell him was that in the short amount of time that he’d known the prince, in Louis’ eyes, he couldn’t be insignificant if he tried. He was brighter than every star up there in the sky. He was all Louis could look at and think about.

13) A Taste of Desire | Explicit | 104,414 words

“As forward as I have been with you this evening, I am also aware this dinner party isn’t the place to conduct business.” Mr. Tomlinson chuckles quietly to himself, shooting a subtle glance across the table towards their hostess. “And besides, I am sure our hostess would be horribly disappointed to learn that we went away this evening with a business agreement and not a mating one.” Harry, who had been sipping his wine, coughs harshly at this. He splutters, unaccustomed to such blatant statements about mating. Mr. Tomlinson continues to laugh quietly, clearly pleased at Harry’s reaction. “Mrs. Humphreys promised that there was an alpha attending the dinner tonight that I would certainly get on well with,” Mr. Tomlinson continues, voice teasing. “She assured me that we would have much in common since we both work with mills.” Mr. Tomlinson glances at Harry, eyes flashing with mirth. “Little did she know that would be where our mutual interests began and ended.”

14) Our Endless Numbered Days | Explicit | 120,815 words

“Harry?” whispered Louis, his mouth dry, his nose pressing against the other’s warm skin. “Mh?” Harry’s humming was gentle, his fingers lightly caressing the younger boy’s arm, his chest steadily rising and falling beneath Louis’ cheek. A couple of seconds passed, and Louis looked up at him in the darkness of the cave, barely able to make out the expression on his face. When he tried to inhale deeply, his breath hitched. He struggled to find the words to tell Harry what he was thinking about. Another couple of seconds passed, and Louis listened to the reassuring beating of the prince’s heart beneath his cheek. He couldn’t. “Nothing,” he whispered, his voice weak. I think you’re half of my soul.

15) Tainted Saints And Velvet Vices | Mature | 126057 words

A self-fulfilling Hogwarts AU in which Louis is new to seventh year and Harry is the resident devil-may-care Slytherin set to make his entire experience a living misery. Due to less than favourable circumstances they’re forced to forge an unwilling, tentative relationship for their own survival. Repressed emotions, decidedly unromantic ballroom dancing, Triwizard Tournament tasks, creative jinxes and twilight flying above the Forbidden Forest ensue.

Check out our other fic rec lists by category here and by title here.

[kingarthurflourofficial]

december books

i already know i'm about to be missing some since december has simultaneously lasted 800 years and also 8 minutes but here we go!

william again

william the fourth

cue for treason 4/5 (what an absolutely delightful book! thank you darling for recommending it to me! reminded me strongly of emeralds for the king, another of my childhood faves)

william the outlaw

still william

william the rebel 3.5/5 (docked just a Little on all these due to the Product Of Their Times of it all)

Noel Streatfeild's Christmas Stories 4/5 (THE PANTOMIME GOOSE)

dreadful 3.5 (a solid 'modern' fantasy! a Little rough around some edges, but also didn't shy away from the hard implications of being an Evil Wizard while still keeping the tone on the lighter side)

one christmas morning 2.5 (found this one frustrating. the kind of thing that would have been quite good as a novella but was just too long and irritating as a full length book. take a leaf out of Dickens' book and notice how short he kept a christmas carol!)

anne of windy poplars 5/5 (sometimes classics are classics for a reason, it turns out! i missed anne the past few years and was glad to visit with her again)

five red herrings 5/5 (i love a deliberately unlovable book about timetables! what can i say!)

horrible history's guide to oxford 4/5 (thank you for not pandering to children horrible histories writers and also for genuinely interesting facts about oxford!)

i am the walrus 4/5 (unexpectedly poignant if silly middle grade book picked up on a whim!)

Super-infinite : the transformations of John Donne 5/5 (VALAR i love it when you can tell someone has eaten slept and breathed a subject for minimum five years! god bless you katherine rundell! absolutely fascinating and you can see why peter wimsey was Obsessed)

the cleaner 2/5 (once again! interesting premise! love the idea of a worker being so subsumed by the clients she cleans for that they are the only thing real to her and she sees herself as a benevolent god to them! the actual execution was disappointing and i think would have been served by the occasional outsider POV)

mrs harris goes to paris 5/5 (watched the movie on the plane and NO SURPRISE the book is SO much better. why do movie adaptations always have to bring romance into it! it's not ABOUT that!)

mrs harris goes to new york 4/5 (thoroughly enjoyable if a little higher stakes than the first! also loved the author's rejection of the premise that everything must hold some meaning, even as the world's no. 1 meaning-assigner)

exit strategy 5/5 (i miss murderbot all the time. re-reading any one of these books is an exercise in appreciating showing not telling and also in being a person)

our hideous progeny 3/5 (thoroughly readable, not to damn it with faint praise. it actually did something most books of the type are too cowardly to do - e.g., let the main character leave her awful husband and run off with his sister. huge props! sorry i wasn't more interested in the weird science of it all.)

the memory theater 3.5/5 (VERY dream sequence-y! LOVED the main character! wish she had actually been the author's favourite character instead of the secondary mc whom, sorry to this man, i did not actually care about.)

christmas tales 5/5 (LOVEEEEE ruth sawyer love trina schart hyman didn't realist this beloved book from my childhood christmases was their work but it explains much! fave tale of all time the one about the greedy kingson being stripped of all his hoarded food and wealth and having it forcibly re-distributed by divinely inspired animals)

we kept her in the basement 3.5/5 (definitely the most....visceral cinderella re-telling i've ever read. very well written and evocative if not exactly my thing - i ended up passing lightly over some of the more gory descriptions, but it was a solid book!)

pippi runs away 5/5 (i didn't know there was more pippi!!! my childhood hero and deservedly so <3)

chapters 5/5 (listen. i don't know shit about poetry. however! i love tim key's poetry so much. both hilarious and unexpectedly poignant)

unexploded remnants 2/5 (REALLY wanted to like this one! unfortunately despite being a novella it read like it was 300 pages of infodumping)

the ladies of covington send their love DNF (great premise! clunky writing.)

those meddlesome kids 4/5 (for someone who grew up watching scooby doo this would probably have been a 5/5! SUCH an interesting writing style; half prose and half? idk. screenplay style maybe? interesting and funny and impressive as HELL to get to the end and realise english is the author's second language)

grain of knots 4/5 (some were stronger than others - I think I liked buttercup farm the best!)

and some fave fics!

pride

raised by wolves

coming home

a man of honour

take away the glass

how i learned to stop worrying and love my spouse

love in another shape

shen yuan of no relation

love will row you out

contrapuntal

final book count for the year: 200!

[chloemarievaughan]

Winter Weekend in Quebec City!

Sophie and I decided to brush off our dormant French skills, pack all of our warmest sweaters, and jaunt off to Quebec City for a long weekend! there is a Winter Carnaval going on with wintry activities and we plan to keep ourselves busy (and hopefully stay warm) exploring the city for a couple days!

Mom and Dad picked us up for the airport bright and early and Kenny carried Sophie’s suitcase down to the car for her, sadly without Kenny along for the trip Sophie has had to carry her own suitcase the rest of the day but she has borne it like a champ.

Our flight options were somewhat limited so we basically had the option of arriving at 11:30 pm with one layover or arriving at 5:30 pm but with two layovers, so I picked the two layovers and we both have brought along some good reading material for the trip. Interestingly, my backpack got flagged for additional screening while going through TSA- but not due to my portable charger which I assumed was what they were checking. They wanted to look at the physical book in my backpack- which is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in French, which I have been vaguely planning on reading for like the last 10 years since I read the first three in French. Was hoping the French vibes of Quebec City would inspire me to finally read it, but Who reads physical books anymore, must be suspicious 😂 I just got global entry for the first time and this trip was the first time I used the tsa precheck- the columbus airport is so small that it didn’t save me any time at all. But I did get to keep my shoes on. Currently on our last leg of our flight and our plane has propellers! Which is cute. If you’re reading this post our propeller plane must have made it to our destination!

We are staying in an air b n b in the Old city part of Quebec City, which is a walled former fort from the 1600s. It was snowing when we arrived and we grabbed dinner and then enjoyed a snowy evening walk around the city. The majority of this walk was so cute- winter wonderland vibes, and it was actively snowing an inch or so while we walked around. There is an ice skating rink, parks, a really excessive number of Bronze statues of famous Quebecers (some of which were a bit creepy in the dark covered in snow!) we found the location of a few landmarks we may visit tomorrow. Got very chilly and snow covered by the end of our walk. Sophie has purchased a cheap but cute pink digital camera that takes very poor quality pictures so you all have some excellent images to look forward too 😂

Friday morning was our first full day in Quebec City! Neither Sophie nor I usually eat breakfast first thing, so we planned for a stroll around and then a later breakfast. I wake up a lot earlier than Sophie so I enjoyed my trusty travel Starbucks Via coffee and read my e book for a while until Sophie woke up. Both of us had weird snow hair/ bed head from being out in the snow the night before so it was a good thing it was cold and we could get away with full time hat usage to cover that up! We both packed furry leggings, jeans and fully layered up on the coat and jackets, scarves and gloves. I was not a fan of any of the winter attire I brought with me- all relics of my early high school ski club 😂 so I planned to be on the lookout for some new more fashionable winter accessories while we did some window shopping and found some souvenirs.

Once we suited up for the cold, we took a stroll in The opposite direction from the evening before- first stop was to duck into the Catholic Church in downtown Quebec City. Love a beautiful old church, and there was a museum exhibit in a side room discussing St Francois de Levalle who is an important figure in early Quebec history of the church. Then we did a lot of meandering which is my favorite way to explore a new city- up to the fancy hotel, and back through the streets. Did some souvenir shopping- went in a bunch of weird shops, including like a chapelier- or a hat shop that only sells fancy hats- and an artisanal craft store that somehow sold even fancier hats. Then we went in a home goods type store and I found a cute new significantly less expensive new winter hat that was on clearance. And of course lots of souvenir shops selling various items with Canadian flags on them.

Our top destination on this trip was a bus tour to the ice hotel! The ice hotel is only up in Quebec City in the winter, and melts away in the spring. and it’s not really in the city, it’s like 40 minutes away at a winter village with snow tubing and an indoor water park like Great Wolf Lodge. Easiest way to get there from where we were staying in the walled part of the city was taking a bus tour. The tour times seemed tight to me- a bus there at 12:30 and the bus home at 2:45, but they did have a second bus back at 6:00. but that was really plenty of time to see the ice hotel, there is an ice bar and ice slide inside, but other than peeking in each room, there wasn’t too much to do inside the hotel. we learned that if you book a room to stay in the hotel, they provide -30 degree rated sleeping bags for you and they also book a secondary room inside a real hotel room in case you wimp out and can’t make the whole night. The hotel is a balmy -4 degrees Celsius and the instant we walked inside Sophie said, “I COULD not do it”. the rooms are all artistically rendered snow carvings and the beds are made of ice with a mattress on top. There were

“Cheaper” rooms with no carvings just plain snow walls. There is a bathroom in the ice hotel but luckily not made of ice ;)

We definitely enjoyed the ice hotel bar- they serve the drinks as shots in blocks of ice! neither of us packed water proof gloves so I was a bit concerned that my ice would melt onto my glove and get it wet, but it was cold enough that that really did not happen at all. Sophie has a fun looking drink with blue curaçao and that was way more impressive looking in the ice glass than my off white colored amaretto drink with crème- note to self for future ice bars!

Sophie was slowly turning into a human icicle during the ice hotel tour so we managed to snag some coffees before we rode the tour bus home. I don’t really get cold so I was okay- Sophie is an excellent sport for agreeing to come on a winter adventure with me but we made sure she never got *too* cold haha!

I thought the bus ride part to the ice hotel would be more of a tour but it was basically the same highway to the airport and not scenic at all. The couple from

Texas behind us were having a loud chat about how they had never heard of Tim Hortons before and I enjoyed listening to their weird conversations while Sophie snoozed a bit on the bus.

Went back to the airbnb to recharge a bit and add on some more layers for dinner and then going to the actual winter carnival! This year is the 70th anniversary of the carnival and the have events for two weeks including ice canoing, concerts, parades, masked balls, a creepy snowman mascot named Bonhomme. We had an effigy, or a little ticket to get access to

The events, and were thinking we would be doing more carnival activities, but our timing/ location was sort of off so we really only did a couple activities and probably could have skipped the carnival ticket entirely, or come a different weekend to take better advantage of more activities. I also get the sense that the carnival used to be a bit more debauchery/ partying and now is more family friendly with things like ice skating and kids activities. It did make for great people watching all weekend though!

we wound up at a little burger place advertising good cocktails for dinner. I got some poutine- classic Canadian snack with fries, cheese curds, and gravy. the cocktail lists at nearly everywhere we have been are sorely lacking in bourbon or whisky drinks. Lots of gin and vodka, but no whiskey. Canada has a lot of Canadian whiskey/ rye so it makes no sense! Our waitress at the burger place had never heard of a Manhattan and had to check with the bartender that he could make it. (He could and it was actually quite good lol)

After dinner we headed to our only carnival activities which were visiting an ice sculpture garden, igloo, and Bonhomme’s Ice Palace! we had a lot

of fun taking pictures of the sculptures and the ice palace was cool, but the festival crowd was picking up and the line was crazy. It was jam packed shuffling through the ice palace and we didn’t even see Bonhomme, though of course we saw many of his statues. Unlike the ice hotel, which was cool inside but meh outside, the ice palace was cool in both directions but you definitely could not sleep there. We also enjoyed drinking some Carnival Hot Toddy’s and standing by the fire after the ice palace.

In approximately 2012, my parents gave me some random Canadian money ($80) that was dated 1991. I guess they assumed I’d go to Canada someday- I do like to travel. And I’ve had that money in my little coin collection for over a decade now haha. I finally made it to Canada and have now used up the cash, but turns out Canadian money has all changed in design and every time i used the money the Canadian people were so impressed at the old money and wanted to chat with me about it. One girl tried to tell me it was probably worth more than $20- google says poor condition 1991 dollars might go for like $23. The reaction in the US if you used 30 year old money would literally be nothing haha. also the whole point of spending that cash was to get rid of it so mission accomplished!

Our hot toddy’s warmed us somewhat but Sophie was still freezing so back to the air bnb. We both needed to shower and the hot water was amazing- it went down to about 10 degrees last night outside. It was very difficult to get out of the shower after into the cold- our air bnb is cute but old and likely could be warmer haha. We watched a bit of the movie Groundhog Day before bed, otherwise known as “ jour de la marmotte” en francais! Spring is early per Punxsutawney Phil- sure doesn’t feel that way in Quebec City though!

Day 2

We were more tired this morning and got a bit of a later start so I enjoyed my coffee and e book for a couple hours while Sophie slept longer and then we started the day with getting breakfast. Realized I forgot to say that we also had breakfast yesterday, which wasn’t important expect I had crepes that weren’t really very good and so we picked another crepe restaurant and I had much better Nutella and banana crepes this morning :) at yesterdays breakfast we also had a Caribou- which is a little hot spiced wine. Very enjoyeable as a winter cocktail, I don’t know if other people usually drink them at breakfast but we are on vacation! :)

after breakfast we went back to the air bnb to get in our very warmest clothes because we decided to take a round trip ferry ride across the ice in the St Laurence River! Base on our two walks past the boardwalk overlooking the river, which was bitingly cold wind every time we walked past- we were worried the ferry would be absolutely frigid and miserable. So we elected to double all our layers to walk down to the ferry, just in case we would be freezing. Even with our double

Layers, neither of us bothered to wear the extremely fuzzy polar fleece robe/sweater thing that I packed for no reason that took up SO much space in my suitcase 😂 the ferry dock is on the lower part of Quebec City and down from the rest of the walled part that we had been exploring up to this point. To get there it was a truly excessive down hill walk with tons of stairs. The ferry ride itself was just out and back directly across the river to the town of Levis, and only cost $7.50 Canadian and took about 15 minutes each direction, but Sophie and I agreed it was our favorite part of the trip :) love a ferry and we got to watch (and hear!) the boat sliding through the ice on the river, cracking the ice along the way. it was nowhere near as cold as we feared it would be, the sun even came out and the views of the river, the city, and the hills in the distance were unbeatable!

We stopped in Levis for about 20 minutes, walked around an outdoor ice rink that a Zamboni was working on, and enjoyed the view from the opposite river bank, and then headed back on the boat to Quebec City.

We then decided to chill for a bit at a brewery in the lower part of the city (it was called Archibald- almost Sophie’s last name! So we were destined to stop there. ) The beer was good, my go to beer order is whatever wheat beer/ Hefeweizen/ white ale type beer that tastes the most like blue moon and they even served it with an orange like blue moon. I decided I was going to go do a tour of the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac, which is the big picturesque castle looking building that is the quintessential landmark of the city, and Sophie wanted to head back to relax in the air bnb for a bit. So, to get back up to the walled part of the city, we got to ride the Funiculaire! What is a Funiculaire exactly? Well, Columbus is the flattest city ever so would never have need of one, but it’s basically a tiny little elevator that takes you up the large hill without having to take the stairs. 5 dollars for a ride was a bit steep for the 30 second ride but we felt it was well worth it. It’s cash only so I got rid of more Canadian money, and found it funny that they accepted either $5 American or Canadian. That’s a bad deal for the Americans as it’s like $6.70 Canadian for 5 US haha.

I found a guy selling little watercolors along the street and I found one I loved so I had to buy it- not sure where I’ll hang it once I get home but I loved it :) I stopped and drank an espresso for my pastry and waited for my tour to arrive near the Hotel. The guide was an old man dressed as the old governor of Quebec from the 1600s, and the tour was nice- an assortment of the history of the city and the hotel, and getting to walk through various areas of the hotel like the ballroom and the wine cellar . The hotel namesake, Count Frontenac, was in charge when the British demanded a surrender of the then fort, requesting an immediate response or facing war, to which the guy replied, “my only response will be from the mouth of cannons” which is pretty badass. And clearly Quebec stayed French Canadian haha. Also turns out that FDR, Winston Churchill, and the prime minister of Canada met at the hotel and nearby Citadel military base to plan the DDay invasion. Various celebrities have stayed in the hotel, and we also got to see their bottle of Louis the VIII which sells for $250 a half ounce at the bar, and you can get a bottle for your own for like $50000. Apparently there is a famous masked ball hosted in the hotel as well as a very elegant New Years Eve party.

After my hotel tour I went back to the apartment- Sophie and I only had one key, and no data to text when I arrived- though likely could have connected to the WiFi from the street. Our plan was to have me knock on the window of our building so she would let me in, and if she didn’t respond or we would otherwise get separated, we’d meet where we had breakfast in the morning. Backup rendezvous not needed but you never know when traveling! we took a rest to finish watching Groundhog Day and then accidentally wound up eating dinner at a fancy restaurant- I enjoyed some Manhattans, and a very delicious but tiny meal of Canadian Walleye. But I was still hungry after dinner so then we got some late night banh mi from a Bubble tea place near our place😂

other than having to book a surge priced Uber to get us to the airport causing some minor morning stress, we wound up back to the Quebec Airport without issue and made it to our flight connecting through Toronto- writing this from the plane on the last stretch. We thoroughly enjoyed our whirlwind winter wonderland Vacation in Quebec City! Still not sure how I convinced Sophie to come with me somewhere so cold but we had a blast- Love you Sophie! 🌨️☃️❄️

[readitreviewit]

For Once in My Life: A Fun and Heartwarming Adventure If you're looking for a book to make you laugh, cry, and feel all the happy-butterflies in your tummy, then For Once in My Life by Colleen Coleman is the perfect chick-lit read for you. This novel follows the story of Lily Buckley, a 29-year-old woman who planned to be happily married and in her dream job by now but instead is single and working at her local paper, writing about giant vegetables at the village fete and a dog who looks exactly like Chewbacca. Not exactly the life she was dreaming of, huh? But then Lily is given the opportunity to write her own column, and it's what she's always wanted – except for what she has to write about. She has to do one thing every week that scares her. With encouragement from a sexy colleague – and adrenaline-junkie – Christopher, Lily agrees. From sky-diving to haunted houses, Lily is going to be pushed to her limit. And since heartbreak has left her afraid of falling in love again, her growing feelings for Christopher might just push her past it. But then her mum has a crisis, her column is the only thing keeping her – and her colleagues’ – jobs afloat, and Christopher’s ex arrives with her sights set on a romantic reunion. Suddenly jumping out of a plane is the least of Lily’s problems… Can she save her family, her friends, and her heart – or will Lily let her fears hold her back? Filled with humor, heart, and a little bit of romance, For Once in My Life is an uplifting, feel-good story about friendship, love, and finding the hero inside yourself. Fans of Marian Keyes, Mhairi McFarlane, and Sophie Kinsella will love Colleen Coleman's writing style and the relatable characters she brings to life. But this book isn't just about giggles and butterflies. It's about facing your fears, stepping out of your comfort zone, and taking risks. At its core, For Once in My Life is a book about personal growth and finding the courage to chase your dreams. And let's not forget the amazing supporting cast of characters – from Lily's wacky boss to her lovable best friend. They all bring their own unique quirks and personalities to the story, making it even more enjoyable to read. Overall, For Once in My Life is a beautifully written, heartwarming adventure that will leave you feeling inspired, happy, and maybe a little bit brave. So sit back, relax, and join Lily on her journey of self-discovery. You won't regret it. Rated 5 out of 5 stars by Goodreads reviewers and available on Kindle and in paperback, For Once in My Life is a must-read for anyone who loves feel-good chick-lit novels that make you smile from beginning to end. Don't miss out on the captivating story in this book - purchase it today! Or, if you prefer to listen on-the-go, sign up for a 30-day trial of Audible and immerse yourself in the story with ease. Don't wait - start your journey today! Price: [price_with_discount] (as of [price_update_date] - Details)

[theodorrrr192]

Serendipitous Hearts: A Hollywood-New York Love Affair

(this is just a draft)

**Part 1: Chance Encounter**

**Chapter 1: Hollywood Dreams**

In the heart of Hollywood, Jenna Ortega's star was on the rise. Her talent had captured the attention of audiences worldwide, but amidst the glitz and glamour, she yearned for something more—a genuine connection, a love that transcended the spotlight.

The night was ablaze with the flashing lights of cameras as Jenna walked the red carpet for the premiere of her latest film. Her smile was radiant, but her eyes held a hint of longing. The crowd chanted her name, and she graciously waved, but her heart craved more than the adoration of the masses.

Amidst the cheering fans, a homemade sign caught Jenna's eye. It read, "Jenna, you're my inspiration." The sign was held by Alex, a young man who had followed her career with unwavering dedication. His earnest expression touched Jenna's heart.

With her curiosity piqued, Jenna decided to seize the moment. She veered away from the main path, heading toward Alex. The cameras followed her every move.

**Chapter 2: The Fateful Meeting**

Their eyes met, a spark igniting between them amidst the dazzling chaos. Jenna, with her poise and grace, was a vision in her elegant gown. Alex, holding his sign with trembling hands, felt like he was in a dream.

"Hi there," Jenna said, her voice warm and inviting as she approached Alex.

Alex's heart raced, and he stammered, "You're...you're Jenna Ortega."

Jenna chuckled, her laughter genuine. "Yes, I am. And you must be Alex."

He nodded, barely able to believe this was happening.

Jenna signed his poster, her pen gliding smoothly over the paper. "Thank you for your support, Alex. It means a lot."

As she handed the poster back to him, their fingers brushed, and something shifted in the air, something neither of them could ignore.

**Part 2: Crossing Coasts**

**Chapter 3: Virtual Bonds**

Back in his hometown of New York, Alex continued to follow Jenna's career with unwavering dedication. Their initial meeting had left a profound impact on him, and he longed to know more about the woman behind the star.

Late one night, he found himself writing a heartfelt message on social media, pouring out his admiration for Jenna's talent and kindness. To his surprise, Jenna responded with genuine gratitude.

As their online exchanges continued, their conversations deepened. They shared their dreams, their fears, and their favorite books. What had started as a fan's message had blossomed into a genuine connection.

**Chapter 4: The Invitation**

Impressed by Alex's passion and authenticity, Jenna decided to extend an invitation. She sent him a direct message that made his heart race: "Hey Alex, I have an event in Hollywood next month. Would you like to come as my guest?"

Alex stared at the message in disbelief before his fingers flew over the keyboard as he replied, "Yes, I'd love to!"

With that simple exchange, Alex found himself on a plane headed for Hollywood, his heart filled with excitement and anticipation. Little did he know that this journey would change his life forever.

**Part 3: Navigating Love and Fame**

**Chapter 5: Hollywood's Allure**

As Alex arrived in Hollywood, Jenna and he embarked on an adventure through the city. They explored the iconic Walk of Fame, where Jenna pointed out her favorite stars, and Alex couldn't help but feel that he was walking alongside the biggest star of them all.

They dined at charming restaurants tucked away from the prying eyes of paparazzi, savoring each moment together. And when they watched the sunset from the Griffith Observatory, their fingers intertwined, it felt like the world belonged to just the two of them.

Yet, the challenges of Jenna's fame couldn't be ignored. Paparazzi followed their every move, and gossip columns speculated about their relationship. Jenna's public image and the private world of Alex collided, forcing them to address the challenges of merging their lives.

**Chapter 6: New York Serenity**

Seeking refuge from the Hollywood spotlight, Jenna visited Alex in New York. The city that never slept became their playground. They strolled through Central Park, hand in hand, the city's bustling energy providing a backdrop to their blossoming love.

They visited art galleries, their fingers tracing the contours of timeless masterpieces. They sipped coffee at quaint cafes, their laughter blending with the city's symphony of sounds. Every moment was etched into their hearts, a testament to the depth of their connection.

One evening, as they sat on a park bench, overlooking a serene pond, Jenna said, "You know, Alex, being with you here feels like a dream."

Alex smiled, his gaze fixed on Jenna. "It's like something out of a romantic movie."

**Part 4: Trials and Triumphs**

**Chapter 7: Balancing Act**

As their relationship evolved, Jenna and Alex faced the challenge of balancing their careers with their love. Moments of doubt and insecurity crept in, but they learned to communicate openly and support each other's ambitions.

One evening, as they enjoyed a candlelit dinner in New York, Alex confessed, "I worry about how different our worlds are."

Jenna reached across the table, taking his hand. "I know it's not always easy, but I believe in us. We can make it work."

Their love was a delicate dance, a balance between the glitz of Hollywood and the serenity of New York, but they were determined to make it work.

**Chapter 8: Hollywood's Shadows**

With their love story gaining public attention, Jenna

and Alex confronted the harsh scrutiny of the media. Rumors and speculation tested their trust. False stories threatened to undermine their relationship.

One morning, Jenna came across a particularly hurtful headline. She called Alex, her voice trembling. "Alex, they're saying terrible things about us. It's not true, but it hurts."

Alex's voice was firm but gentle. "Jenna, remember why we're together. We know the truth. Let's not let the noise drown out our love."

Together, they faced the shadows of Hollywood, choosing to embrace their love's authenticity.

**Part 5: Love's Culmination**

**Chapter 9: A New Horizon**

Alex's talent as a writer continued to gain recognition. One day, he received an offer that would take him to Hollywood—a city that had once seemed so distant. With Jenna's encouragement, he decided to take the leap of faith.

Jenna met him at the airport with a bouquet of roses, tears of pride in her eyes. "Welcome to Hollywood, Alex."

As they drove through the iconic streets of Hollywood together, Alex said, "I never thought I'd be here like this, with you."

Jenna smiled, "Life has a way of surprising us, doesn't it?"

**Chapter 10: Forever and Always**

Underneath the twinkling stars of Hollywood, Alex knelt down on one knee. He held out a ring, the symbol of their love and journey together. Surrounded by their closest friends, he asked, "Jenna, will you marry me?"

Tears of joy glistened in Jenna's eyes as she said, "Yes, Alex, a thousand times yes."

Their love story, from a chance encounter to a Hollywood-New York love affair, served as a testament to the power of authenticity, connection, and a love that knew no boundaries.

**Epilogue: Love Across Horizons**

Years later, Jenna and Alex stood on a rooftop in New York City, gazing at the iconic skyline. Their love story had defied expectations, transcended coasts, and become an inspiration to all who believed in the magic of love and serendipity.

Alex wrapped his arms around Jenna, and she leaned into his embrace. Together, they knew that no matter where life took them, their love would forever be a beacon of hope, lighting up the horizons of their hearts.

[lybeuh]

Sims 4 Legacy Challenge

a challenge by @chellplays (revisited by @lybeuh)

This is a twelve generation challenge for all of the marriage candidates from concernedape’s stardew valley.

Usual rules apply, meaning no cheats that give you an unfair advantage. Your sims do not have to look or be named after the characters in each generation. do whatever you like!

Generation 1: Abigail:

 You were raised with humble upbringings. Your dad ran a general store, while your mom was best at complaining about your “alternative lifestyle.” You left home looking to start a life free of rules and parents, and with 20 000 simoleons in your pocket, you settled down in a new city.

traits: music lover, adventurous, geek . aspiration: the curator. career: tech guru, esport gamer branch

goals:

⦁ max out the rock climbing skill ⦁ reach at least level 5 of the video game skill. ⦁ reach at least level 5 in any musical instrument. ⦁ complete the frog collection. ⦁ climb the top of the mountain in Mt. Komorebi ⦁ have one “quirky” trait, appearance-wise (e.g. unnatural hair color). ⦁ have two best friends, and marry one of them. ⦁ own a cat named david jr. ⦁ have at least two children.

Generation 2: Emily:

 You’re just working at the bar to make ends meet… but your real passion is tailoring. You make your clothes from scratch.

traits: cheerful, vegetarian, good. aspiration: freelance botanist. career: barista.

goals:

⦁ max out the knitting skill. ⦁ complete the knitted clothes colection. ⦁ must live in the same house as your sibling. ⦁ make a best friend with a sim who lives in another city/world. ⦁ grow your own garden. you like your meals organic. ⦁ decorate your house with clothing racks. you love fashion. ⦁ develop max affinity with another sim in both the green and pink bars, have two or more children with them, then “ask just to be friends.” ⦁ never marry.

Generation 3: Sam:

 You are an outgoing, friendly sim who is brimming with youthful energy. You play guitar and drums, and want to start a band as soon as you have enough songs together. However, you do have a habit of starting ambitious projects and not finishing them.

traits: music lover, outgoing, ambitious. aspiration: musical genius. career: entertainer, musician branch.

goals:

⦁ have a job as a part-time retail employee as a teen. ⦁ reach level 10 of the entertainer career. ⦁ max out the guitar skill. ⦁ reach at least level 5 in the video game skill. ⦁ must not be the youngest child. live with your younger sibling(s) until they are old enough to move out. have a good relationship with them. ⦁ have a strained relationship with your father (if not applicable, with any one parent). ⦁ become best friends with two other entertainers. ⦁ be married twice, and have one child with each spouse.

Generation 4: Sebastian:

 You are a rebellious loner who lives in your parents’ basement. You tend to get deeply absorbed in computer games, comic books, and sci-fi novels, and will sometimes spend great lengths of time pursuing these hobbies alone in your room. You can be a bit unfriendly to people you don’t know.

traits: loner, geek, bookworm. aspiration: computer whiz. career: freelance programmer.

goals:

⦁ reach the top of the freelance programmer career. ⦁ reach level 5 of the keyboard (piano) skill. ⦁ reach level 5 of the video gaming skill. ⦁ max out the programming skill. ⦁ have a negative relationship with your half-sibling and step-parent. ⦁ live in the basement of your parents’ house. ⦁ only have one child, with whom you have a strained relationship. ⦁ eventually let your relationship with your spouse deteriorate and subsequently get a divorce.

Generation 5: Penny:

 You live with your mom in a little trailer. while your mom is out carousing at the bar, you quietly tends to your chores in the dim, stuffy room you are forced to call home. you are shy and modest, without any grand ambitions for life other than settling in and starting a family. You likes to cook (although your skills are questionable) and read books from the local library.

traits: family-oriented, bookworm, neat. aspiration: big happy family career: none.

goals:

⦁ live with your mother (if not applicable, any one parent), with whom you have a negative relationship. ⦁ you must cook for your parent and clean the house every day. ⦁ live in a trailer-esque house. you are by no means wealthy. ⦁ reach level 5 of the cooking skill. ⦁ both you and your parent may not have jobs ⦁ marry the first person you fall in love with. ⦁ your spouse is the only one who may bring in any income, while you are a stay at home mom. ⦁ own a luxury pool at some point in your life.

Generation 6: Harvey:

 You’re a little old for a bachelor, but you have a kind heart and a respected position in the community. You live in a small apartment, but spend most of your time working. There’s a sense of sadness about you.

traits: genius, foodie, good. aspiration: successful lineage. career: doctor.

goals:

⦁ never date throughout your teens or young adulthood. focus on your career instead. get married only as an adult. ⦁ reach the top of the doctor career. ⦁ you love planes and decorate your house with plane related items ⦁ own a coffee machine. drink coffee as much as possible. ⦁ go jogging at least three times a week. ⦁ set up a reading garden in your backyard. ⦁ live in an apartment until you marry ⦁ have at least two children. having spent most of your life single, you want to have a comfortably sized family asap.

Generation 7: Haley:

 Being wealthy and popular throughout high school has made you a little conceited and self-centered. You have a tendency to judge people for superficial reasons. But is it too late for you to discover a deeper meaning to life? Is there a fun, open-minded young person hidden within that shell?

traits: materialistic, snob, outgoing. aspiration: fabulously wealthy. career: none (only get one after you are married).

goals:

⦁ become enemies with your one of your sibling as a teenager. ⦁ max out the photography skill. ⦁ you may only get a career after you are married, and you must follow the same career path as your spouse. they opened your mind and inspired you to have interests beyond shopping. ⦁ earn at least three points in charisma, so you may donate to online charities after you are married. ⦁ bake a cake for every birthday that comes around. ⦁ grow a flower garden. ⦁ become friends with your sibling(s) again after you are married.

Generation 8: Elliot:

You live alone in a cabin. You are a writer who dreams of one day writing a magnificent novel. You are a sentimental “romantic” with a tendency to go off onto flowery, poetic tangents. When you can afford it, you enjoy a strong beverage at the bar.

traits: romantic, bookworm, loner. aspiration: bestselling author. career: writer, author branch.

goals:

⦁ reach the top of the author career. ⦁ live in a cabin-esque house near the beach ⦁ max out the writing skill. ⦁ reach level 5 of the piano skill. ⦁ reach level 5 of the cooking skill. ⦁ own a small garden. ⦁ specialize in romance books and poetry. later, you may also specialize in sci fi or mystery novels. ⦁ write love emails to your love interest at least once a week. ⦁ go to a bar at least once a week

Generation 9: Leah:

 You love to spend time outside, foraging for a wild meal or simply enjoying the gifts of the season. You’re a talented artist with a large portfolio of work… Yet you’re too nervous to display it to the public.

traits: art lover, loves outdoors, foodie. aspiration: painter extraordinaire. career: none (painter, later on).

goals:

⦁ max out the painting skill, and paint at least 5 masterpieces. ⦁ date only one person in your young adulthood and have a child with them, but never marry. your partner is unsupportive of your artistic lifestyle and encourages you to “get a real job.” whether you choose to get a traditional career, that is not as a painter, is up to you. ⦁ eventually marry the love of your life as an adult: someone who is supportive of your art. if you did choose a career, quit and take up a career as a painter. ⦁ have at least one child with your new spouse. ⦁ harvest wild fruits, vegetables, etc. on weekends. ⦁ grow an excellent apple tree. ⦁ attend a flea market and sell your art.

Generation 10: Maru:

 You acquired a passion for creating gadgets at a young age. When you aren’t in your room, fiddling with tools and machinery, you sometime do odd jobs at the local hospital.

traits: ambitious, outgoing, geek. aspiration: nerd brain. career: astronaut, space ranger branch.

goals:

⦁ reach level 10 of the athlete career track. ⦁ max out the handiness skill. ⦁ max out the logic skill. ⦁ have a negative relationship with your half-sibling. ⦁ upgrade at least five objects. ⦁ own a rocket ship. ⦁ your sim’s partner must be friends with your father (if not applicable, with either parent) before you can become engaged. ⦁ eventually, your relationship with your spouse becomes strained and you break up. you die as soon as your eldest child is a young adult.

Generation 11: Alex:

 You love sports. You are quite arrogant and brag to everyone that you are going to be a professional athlete. Is your cockiness just a facade to mask your crushing self-doubt? Are you using your sports dream to fill the void left by the disappearance of your parents?

traits: bro, active, dog lover. aspiration: bodybuilder. career: athlete, professional athlete branch.

goals:

⦁ reach level 10 of the athlete career track. ⦁ max out the athletic skill. ⦁ become enemies with your father, but have had a very close relationship with your mother. ⦁ begin dating in your teens and go on at least three dates with three different people. ⦁ do not marry until you are in the later stages of young adulthood. you’re marrying your soulmate, someone who stuck with you despite your arrogance. ⦁ own a dog named dusty.

Generation 12: Shane:

 You are often rude and unhappy, and suffer from depression and alcohol dependence. However, your attitude starts to change towards your spouse. After work you frequently spend your evenings at the bar. If you could reset your life maybe you’d start a chicken farm. Only free-range eggs of course.

traits: lazy, gloomy, cat lover. aspiration: friend of the animal. career: retail employee.

goals:

⦁ go to the bar after work every day. ⦁ get pizza delivered at least once a week ⦁ only get married as an adult. ⦁ after marriage, quit your job as a retail employee and choose a different career path. you’ve been encouraged by your spouse to give up alcohol. ⦁ after marriage, start a small garden. ⦁ have a maximum of two children. ⦁ max out the pet trainig skill ⦁ adopt a cat named charlie. ⦁ adopt one dog and train them all tricks

[erismerald]

𝑰 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒕 (Jacob Frye x reader) 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 1

Hello, my lovely assassins, I've been away from writing for a while but I'm back! And I bring you a story of our beloved assassin Jacob Frye X F!reader, I don't know yet how many chapters this story will have but I hope you like it and have fun with it, I just want to remind you that I am open to requests if you want to send me a message!

𝑾𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔: Some fluff and Near Rape

𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔: 3306

𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟎

You just got off the plane, you look around you, a feeling of excitement and euphoria fills your chest in a comfortable warmth, your gaze fixed on the incredible sight you had, you are amazed, it was your first time in London, and since you were a little girl you wanted to visit that wonderful city, You listened to the bedtime stories your grandmother told you, about the city, about what happened before it became as free a city as it is now, since you were 5 years old you have tried countless times to convince her to come with you to London, it was just you two against the world, she raised you in place of your parents, since they never cared much for you and your well being, and now you had just turned 18, and on this school trip you finally have the chance to make your greatest wish come true, you were so excited that it was hard to breathe, until you felt a hand lightly resting on your shoulder, it was your best friend F/n, she was looking at you with a huge smile, she knew how much you had asked your nanny to allow you to make this trip, In fact, you smiled as you remembered the conversation you had with her:

𝑭𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒉 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌

"Ahm nanny, can I talk to you? "You said leaning against the frame of the glass door of the living room, the atmosphere around you, was nostalgic, you loved the rain and the cold, your grandmother was sitting in a small brown armchair, old with time, in front of the big fireplace, the glass roof that both of you had built some summers ago allowed you to see the rain falling, even during the night, it was really calming, in her fragile hands was a book, you knew that book well "Ah that book ...." You approached slowly, and like a child you sat on the carpet looking at your grandmother with a gentle but mysterious smile.

"I know that look my dear, do you want to tell me something?" she asked already knowing what your look meant, you sighed through your nose and gave her permission for the trip "Y/n...." she said with a sweet smile, but before she could say something disapproving, you interrupted by putting both your hands on her lap on top of the book.

"Nanny you have told me so many stories about that city, why don't you let me explore, I.... I have saved enough money to be able to afford the trip, besides F/n will be there with me, can I go? I promise to draw everything I see, to show you nanny, but I want to find out who I am, so far I don't know where I belong..." you said sadly, it was true, you had a family legacy that tormented you for nights on end, your grandmother said it was a brotherhood that helped people but in your view they stole people's lives, to protect? It wasn't right, and you never accepted it, and preferred to believe it was just another bedtime story made up by your grandmother to make you a stronger person.

"Y/n... I wouldn't deny it dear, I encourage you to go, I'm too old to keep you here, besides it's only a month, what could go wrong? I just want you to be careful, and not to be fooled by anyone, and take this" she got up from the chair and walked to a wooden box hidden in the shelf, from there she took out a necklace, made with a coin? "This necklace belonged to a very important person, one that you know and that will make you know a better world and discover who you finally are" she gave you the necklace with a smile and let you enjoy it on your fingers.

"Who did it belong to?" you asked, curious about the small necklace that had been handed to you.

"Jacob Frye. That necklace belonged to Jacob" She said would be, but confident, you laughed a little, she looked at you confused.

"Nanny, you know I don't believe in bedtime stories anymore, Jacob Frye and Evie Frye are just characters in your stories, that you told me to put me to sleep, but they didn't exist but thank you for giving it to me, I will wear it proudly, even if it didn't belong to Jacob, it belonged to you and that's worth a lot, and Thank you for letting me go, I'll be eternally grateful," You said kissing her hand and smiling at her "Well now, how about I make you some tea and you read me some of your book of tales, remind me who was who?" she laughed and nodded, watching you disappear into the darkness that surrounded you.

𝑬𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌

"So excited huh?" she smiled and put her arm over your shoulder, as you laughed a little, it was a strange but warm feeling that you were in a place you had dreamed of so much.

"Of course, I am, you've seen the atmosphere! Can you imagine the adventures we'll have in a month here? I'm so excited I can feel my body energetic, I want to know, I want to visit, being here is just a demonstration that my journey to find out who I am, is going to go well!" you said excitedly as you picked up your bag and moved it to your classmates.

"I like seeing you like this, ever since you found out you were coming here, you've talked about nothing else" she laughed, you smiled shyly, grabbing the necklace your grandmother had given you before you left

"Where does that necklace come from anyway? Did your grandmother explain it to you?" F/n asked as she sat in front of you waiting for the teachers and the rest of the class to arrive.

"Well, she told me it would be useful to me in my future, I didn't quite understand, she said it belonged to one of the Frye twins, the ones she tells in the bedtime stories when we were little" you explained watching and twirling the pendant chained around your neck.

F/n smiled and thought for a moment before speaking, she seemed amused in her own thoughts, it was funny to see her like that you thought to yourself as you heard the teachers calling you to go to the bus.

"Do you think it could be true?" She asked getting up, and following the others, you stopped for a small moment, looked at the necklace, and smiled, Nah... it couldn't be true, could it? Since you were little you knew the story of the Frye brothers, their fight to save London from corruption, their adventures, your nanny loved to tell you those stories when you were younger, when she left the room you stayed awake for hours looking at the stars in the sky, closing your eyes and trying to feel the emotion they had, they were your heroes, you always admired them, but they were just bedtime stories, right? it couldn't be true, maybe your grandmother just said that to remind you of old times? You shake your head and go on your way.

*Time skip*

When you arrived at the hotel you were informed that you were going to make a night tour of the streets of London, you couldn't be more excited, you looked at F/n and she noticed your look immediately.

"I know that look," she said a bit teasingly "tell me what do you want to go and see?" you grabbed her hand and stormed out of the room "ahm calm down young lady, you are going to rip my arm off" you laughed a bit as you got into the elevator.

"You know I'd like to go see Big Ben at night and walk around there, what do you think? we could have dinner nearby, I want to draw the streets at night, to show my grandmother" you answered, going through the small backpack you had, confirming that you had everything there, pencils... sketchbook... wallet... watercolors... phone... you got scared when you heard F/n calling you, you were too lost in your thoughts.

"Hello? land call Y/n I've been calling you for 5 minutes" she looked at you with an amused smile on her face, you looked forward and finally noticed that you had arrived embarrassed, you looked to the side and smiled trying to disguise it "Come on let's go I'm hungry" she pulled you out of the hotel while signaling for a taxi.

As you walked through the streets of London, you imagined what it must have been like in 1850, you were always connected to history and literature, you loved to draw and your grandmother always fascinated you with her stories and her adventures here in London, it was here that she had met your grandfather, would the future also await you with unexpected adventures and romances?

*A few hours later

You were in a cafe near the big ban drawing the environment around you, in a way it seemed magical, it seemed that it wasn't real, you sighed happily while you put back the watercolors and your notebook in your bag, you looked at F/n and a group of friends that were with you.

"I'm going to the bathroom, I'll be right back!" you said, getting up and picking up your backpack, heading for the cafe's bathroom.

"Okay, try not to take too long, we'll be going to the hotel soon" F/n warned you as you walked away.

The bathroom was very rustic, it looked like it was from 1880, that was an interesting thing, when you finished doing what you had to do, you went to the small sink and looked at yourself in the mirror, your hair was tied up in a clumsy bun, and your eyes were more sparkling than usual, a small shade of pink adorned your face, you felt free, inspired, you were ready to have this adventure.

you made a little shell with your hand and took some water on your face to refresh it, when you looked in the mirror you saw a shadow behind you and the light had failed for a few seconds, suddenly you looked back afraid, but... there was no one there, could you have imagined it? Were you so tired that you imagined someone behind you? You took a deep breath, picked up your backpack and headed back to your friends' side, but something unexpected happened, when you left the cafe the atmosphere had changed, it didn't even look like the same cafe you had visited, the people were dressed in an old way, they spoke old English, what had happened? You felt fear invading your mind a little, still quite confused, you approached the bartender in an attempt to get an answer, but he seemed a little surprised to see you, he looked at you from top to bottom, with a disapproving look.

"ahm sorry, but what happened to the cafe? And did you happen to see a group of students on the outside terrace, do you know where they went?" He looked perplexed by what you had said.

"I'm sorry miss but, who are you? and what are those clothes you are wearing? And the student girl? I don't know where you come from but I don't want prostitutes or liars in my pub, if you can get out of here, I would appreciate it" you looked at him outraged, what does he meant by a prostitute? Clothes? Ahm you were really lost, but you respected the gentleman's answer and left, when you left you got an even bigger shock, the environment had changed, there were no cafes, the streets were badly illuminated, the people dressed differently, feeling a wave of fear invading your body you started to run like crazy, looking for someone who could help you, after many panicky minutes and without getting any answer you just sat down in an alley and started to cry, where are you? How could you have stopped there? Not even 10 minutes ago you were with your friends, and now you were alone.

You felt the raindrops wet your body and taking advantage that the rain disguised your tears, you hugged your body and tried to breathe, doubts and fears went through your subconscious until you heard the footsteps of someone approaching you, a feeling of hope invaded you but was soon replaced by fear.

"Hey there doll, want some company for tonight?" a man in his forties approached you, and crouched down beside you, he looked you up and down and examined your body, you tried to get up but he pulled you down and pinned you against the wall.

"You look strange, you don't look like you're from here... but I don't care, you'll do for tonight," he said trying to remove your clothes, you screamed and cried, while that pig undressed you and pinned you to the cold wall, the memories of your grandmother, your friends passed in your eyes while you felt your body being abused, you wanted to escape, you wanted to go home, you weren't ready for this... you should never have come .... out of nowhere you felt his body leave yours, he had fallen unconscious on the floor, you looked forward and saw another man, this one looked to be in his early 20's, his costume was different more hidden, he looked at you and helped you to pull yourself together, when you finally finished you looked up at him, his almond colored eyes bewitched you, he put his thumb on your face wiping the tears that were falling.

"I... I don't know... help me..." You fell to your knees on the ground but your body was held by the mysterious man who had saved your life, you felt safe and somehow protected in his embrace, but you weren't strong enough not to cry once again.

"Shhh love, it's ok" he hugged you tightly and pulled you closer to him "You look a little heated, do you have somewhere to stay?" His voice was husky but mesmerizing, but you couldn't answer as you had collapsed in his arms passed out, the fear, the cold, the pain had overcome the last thing you heard was him asking your name.

𝑱𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒃 𝒑𝒐𝒗

With a sigh the assassin took your face lightly, noting every feature of your face, his eyes slid down your body, it was true what he had heard, the rumors that there was a strange traveler roaming the streets was true, but your clothes looked nothing like what he had seen so far.

The rain fell on your bodies, he was afraid you would get sick, even though he didn't know you he couldn't leave you on the street after what had happened, in one movement he gently picked up your body and took your backpack, and went towards the streets calling for a carriage to take you to the station to take refuge on the train, and take care of you.

Getting into the carriage slowly, so you wouldn't be woken up, not that it would be possible to wake you up because you were fainting from exhaustion, but to prevent it, Jacob put your body on top of his, and with his coat wrapped around you, to warm you up.

"Evie will freak when she sees me... what the-" Jacob stopped his words as his gaze was drawn to the necklace that adorned your neck "How come she has this?" he said holding the necklace in his fingers and looking intensely at you "You really are an unexpected traveler."

The streets of London were bustling, the fight against Crawford Starrick, had not been won yet and there was still a long way to go, but still the streets of London was mesmerizing and agitated, the rain was a strange charm of the city, Jacob knew the streets well, he spent most of his time on the streets freeing people from the clutches of the templar.

But he was curious about this strange traveler, during the early evening some Rooks had told him about this mysterious girl who desperately asked crazy questions to people, some even theorized that she had escaped from some asylum, but Jacob had to see with his own eyes this strange girl who had stopped the city with her unusual appearance.

When he arrived at the station, he saw Grennie carrying some boxes of groceries into the train, and when he approached him with a girl in his arms, Henry ran to meet him helping him out.

"What the hell have you been doing now Jacob? Who this girl?" Henry placed his palm over her face, the heavy breathing and the heat she was eradicating were just signs of a strong fever "This girl is burning up we need to get her to a doctor" He said trying to pick up your body but Jacob refused.

"I am sorry my dear Grennie but unfortunately we can't take her to a doctor, she isn't from around here... I found her because of rumors of a strange traveler in town, but I didn't believe it until I saw her lying on the ground with a Blighter on top of her undressing her, the poor thing was terrified, I couldn't leave her there, but look at the way she looks" Jacob removed his coat a little from over you revealing the clothes your real look. "I don't know where she is from but inside her bag, there is some evidence that she isn't from here, I think it might be useful to us, on our mission... just..." Jacob looked at grennie's face with an abandoned puppy dog look.

"I...I don't know Jacob, Miss Evie will freak out about it, but since she might be useful, we can try to wait until she wakes up so we can ask her who she is" Jacob smiled at the answer, Henry opened the door to Jacob's wagon and helped him lay your body down on the small couch, where Jacob use for sleeping.

"Jacob I just got some news... What is going on here?" Evie said abruptly entering the "room" she looked at Jacob with a disapproving look, she walked over to your body examining you, you are burning up with fever.

"She was helpless with a Blighter on top of her doing God knows what, I wasn't going to leave her there alone, besides she's sick, I felt obligated to bring her here, besides Evie.... She is the girl of the rumors, if what they say is really true that she is not from here, she can be useful to us in this fight." Evie stood up and faced Jacob, she knew he was right but she didn't want to admit it, she knew well that her brother sometimes acted before he thought but at this moment he had the right thing to do.

"We'll take care of her until she recovers and we can get answers from her, we won't leave her on the streets, it's really dangerous, but try to consult me before you bring anyone else here, remember that we have a mission to accomplish, and "personal feelings, can compromise the mission" ". Evie said stroking your hair, "Now both of you get out of here, we can't let her sleep in her wet clothes or she'll get even sicker, and Mrs. Green can call a private doctor to come here to examine her?" Evie smiled sweetly in Henry's direction, who replied just as sweetly, walking off with Jacob, leaving you and Evie alone.

[funkymbtifiction]

hey! a few questions regarding S vs N after a few of your asks:

1. i notice a lot of emphasis on sensors (and especially Se) doing things but what sorts of things do sensors do all day compared to intuitives? i imagine most people regardless of type must be busy doing things all day just because as an adult there’s so much to do (cooking, shopping, cleaning, working, laundry etc) all the mundane stuff that generally won’t get done unless you do it, whether you want to/can do it well or not. do intuitives just neglect these things in favor of thinking/dreaming? or when referring to doing things is it more about your spare time?

2. are the day to day tasks of life i was thinking of above more related to S vs N or instinctual variant? will an sp type intuitive will still attend to all those practical concrete matters of life? if so, how do you tell the difference between an sp type intuitive and a sensor?

3. is it possible to be a sensor and get what needs to be done done during the day due to the fact they have to but find it draining and overstimulating and be exhausted from so many tasks and then not have much leftover energy to be “doing” in your spare time? and just wish to spend your free/relaxation time in silence doing nothing and being in your head?

4. are activities like video games, watching movies, listening to music, studying mbti more intuitive or sensory? they seem like they could go either way to me. does it depend on what you’re paying attention to? for instance a sensor focusing on the experience of a movie and an intuitive analyzing the meaning/characters/etc? or a se type feeling immersed in music vs a ne type feeling inspired? a sensor learning mbti for some kind of practical application vs an intuitive not necessarily having a purpose beyond their interest? something like that?

5. i’ve heard of high se types, esp se and fi, thinking how they feel in the moment is how they will feel forever. can the same be said of ne types at all? just as ne types can be impulsive can they also get caught up in the momentary feelings like that?

1. Intuitives stay busy as well, but any sensory activity is an add-on to their real desire for abstract thinking or theories. Sure, they do laundry -- but what they really want to be doing (and actively pursue in their life) is talking about the human soul, or the psyche, or forming a theory about human consciousness, or reading a book on psychology, or theorizing on how things are going to evolve, or what the future might hold with an anticipatory attitude, etc. The abstract/intangible world is what interests them more than reality -- ideas pregnant with POTENTIAL.

2. I tell the difference by asking if they are big picture thinkers or not. Big picture thinkers see the overall rather than the details; they tend to abstract away from specifics into vague generalities or branch out into another topic that veers the conversation off what's being discussed into more "interesting" (to them) territory. For example, you are talking about how your dog just died, and the intuitive starts talking about death as a concept and its affect on us. It's no longer about your dead dog, it's about a conceptual realm -- death as an existing force in your life, or what death means, or how we give Death a personality in fiction. N's can't help deviating from "what's real" into "what's real on another plane of existence." This is why they seem either weird, out of touch, irrational, or "head in the clouds" to sensing types (or, alternatively, the sensing type envies them and wishes they could think more that way). Big picture thinkers are also neglectful of details--like "is this even POSSIBLE?" or "what would need to happen BEFORE my idea could be realistic?" Sensors are attuned to what's real, what's possible, and the sequence of things, what needs to happen to make this other thing possible. They know you can't just leap from A to Q and ignore all the letters in-between.

3. Yes. That is also 9ish. To find life tiring and overwhelming. And introversion in general. I know a 9 INFP who finds life exhausting and just wants to spend all her spare time reading books.

4. They can be either one, yes. The purpose and focus of interest matters.

5. NFPs can get caught up in their feelings, yes. Any type can.

[gummy-dummy]

Warnings: sentimental, Bakugo being Bakugo, a lot of swearing, angst, unrequited love, heartbreak, self monologue, mentions of bullying, Todoroki x Midoriya. (If you think something needs to be added please tell me)

Inspired by a Taylor Swift song (Wildest Dreams/TaylorSwift)

Thanks to my Cydy @cydxcyanide for helping me with grammatical errors and for always reading everything I write, thank you, love.

Bakugo's unrequired love for Midoriya Izuku

WILDEST DREAMS

Say you'll remember me...

It was really funny, to be honest, to think that I became the cliche of the bully who is in love with his victim. A fucking comedic moment if you ask me.

I noticed I had feelings for Deku as a child, but obviously, my little brain didn't recognize it that way. My belly felt full of something inexplicable. I thought it was bad. I wish I never had believed that. It's truly stupid that I realized in my second year at UA that I was in love with my childhood best friend/victim. I had hoped that the feelings would never come back, but they did. It happened at the worst moment; the moment I noticed that Deku was falling for Icyhot. It hurt, but what more can I say? I wasn't in any position to ask for anything. Then, the stupid Todoroki started to look interested. With those sparkling eyes that look at Izuku like he was the most handsome man in the world, and he was, the most adorable-faced guy he ever has seen. I'm sure that he also noted how Deku has 4 symmetrical freckles on each cheek, how his eyes seem to be always sparkling for something exciting. He probably noticed how he rambled about heroes to analyze every move he could use to be the best hero in history. How his hands moved so quick that you almost didn't think he was writing. It looked like he was scribbling really hard, but if you were to take a peek at his notes the letters were perfect, with beautiful writing. He always had pretty handwriting and I never said that to him.

It's not like I didn't have the courage to say something, I was prepared to say it, I was on my way to tell him I loved him, that I adored him, but that I knew I didn't deserve him at all. I just wanted to lift this hard pain that settled on my heart at our second year. As I walk around the corner to his room I see them, fucking Icyhot with his hands on Izuku's cheeks, mumbling something that made Deku blush and smile. The green-haired guy just nodded and gave in to a slow kiss, I felt everything fall around me. It felt like it was the end of the world, with electricity trying to get out of my arms. This is what Kaminari's quirk must feel like.

Even when I didn't want to watch anymore, I couldn't keep my eyes off of them. I wish that it was me. The one to hug his waist closer, to deepen the kiss even more, the one who felt his two strong arms wrap on his neck. I wanted it so much that I couldn't escape what karma wanted me to see. I deserve every moment of this. I have to suffer everything I did to him. I've apologized to him a lot of times before, always with the want of just close the space between us and kiss, but no. The universe didn't want us together cause I don't deserve him at all.

The only thing that made me stop watching was when the two of them separated with a quick peck and noticed my presence, what was I supposed to say?

"Could you two get into a fucking room? I don't want to watch nasty stuff here in the open, tch." Wow, even when I'm about to cry I can be cruel as fuck. I just start to walk away from them, toward to the kitchen. It was a bad idea to head to the kitchen. Karma wanted to punch me in the face again. Only Mina was there, alone eating a snack. The only person who knew I was in love with Izuku. Fuck it's Izuku now, not Midoriya, not Deku, just Izuku roaming through my heart even when I don't want it. Mina just gave me a sad look. I suppose the two love birds are on their way to the living room. I look, and yes, they're walking to the sofa with their hands in a tight grip, and sparkles in their eyes. I went to get water and just started crying, not loud, trying to be the least noticeable possible. I just felt Mina's arms wrapping around me in a comforting embrace.

In our third year the two were a couple in the eyes of everyone. It wasn't rare to see them out and about with their hands joined and every time the season changed Icyhot would change his side, to get to the most comfortable temperature for his boyfriend. We are all actually pretty good friends. I mastered the art of looking like I don't give a fuck about them kissing or cooing sweet nothings to each other. All that while my heart was breaking. Well, by this time, the pieces were breaking, my heart just being almost dust.

Soon enough it was our first year out of UA. I was working at the same agency as the love birds, well, the fiance's now. They're about to get married and apparently they want me to be one of the best men. I just couldn't accept. I used the same excuse for not making it to the wedding. I had to go to America for a job. It wasn't a lie, the agency we three started with Kirishima and Uraraka was at the top. We wanted to open more offices around the world, so I took the job of traveling to America and doing everything. It would take me a couple of years to get everything done which was my opportunity to stop being a masochist little shit and let them be happy in their obliviousness of my feelings.

Everything was fine, until I apparently talked a lot with Todoroki when we had a "couple" of beers. It was like 3 months before the wedding. My flight was booked the same day, an hour before the start of the wedding, because I told Todoroki that I've always been in love with Izuku, that I didn't deserve him, so I did nothing about it. Just accepted my self-imposed exile to America, so they could be happy and I could stop hurting. He didn't look mad, not even a little angry. He just said, "I know, I noticed at the end of the second year".

So maybe I wasn't that good at hiding it, or maybe Icyhot noticed because I acted exactly the same as him before confessing to Izuku. He said he didn't hate me at all. That he still wanted me as his best man, for him and Izuku but I can't handle this anymore.

"Actually, you should tell him"

"What? are you crazy? you're about to get married to him and you want me to confess my love for him?"

"Yeah, you deserve to get rid of that pain on your shoulders. I know you well enough to know you will never let go if you don't. Also, Izuku would want to know you were his childhood crush you know?"

"Why are you so open to this?"

"Because I love you both, in different forms but I do. You deserve your redemption and Izu deserves to know"

And that's how at the last second I ended up meeting with Izuku. Todoroki just nodded and went out the door. I knew this was the last time I would be seeing one of my best friends and the man I've loved so many years.

"Shoto told me that you wanted to talk? its anything serious? If is something about the agency I'm gonna take care of everything. If you need help there you just need to let us kn-"

"Izuku" I stopped his rambling with his given name and a smile, the first time I have smiled at him in years, hell, even since we were 5 o 6 maybe. He looked surprised.

"Yeah sorry"

"This may be shocking to you, but I never hated you"

I took a deep breath like it was the last of my life and said "I've been in love with you since our second year at UA, maybe even earlier. I need to apologize again for everything. I will never forget how you left all the pain I caused you behind and let us be friends again. I needed to say it. Icyhot says I would never get over it if I don't and I'm so sorry-"

"Katsuki" I just stop rambling and look at him, his eyes showing affection, but not even close to what they look like for Toforoki.

"It's okay, you don't need to apologize. I can't say that I noticed because I didn't. I'm sorry you had to suffer all of these years. If I had known things would have been different. I would've been more careful"

"Nah it's okay. You both love each other and I'm actually happy for you two. My only regret is that as kids we never got to practice 'husband kisses'," I say with a laugh, and Izuku smiles at me.

I don't know what the fuck he is doing getting closer to me. With one hand he took my face and gave me a gentle peck on my lips. I felt my heart drop to the fucking floor and then he smiled.

"I couldn't let you go with regrets Kacchan" We hear a low chuckle and turn around to see Todoroki leaning on the wall behind him smiling.

"Wha- I'm so sorry, I can't I couldn't I'm so-" Izuku just started giggling while Todoroki came closer to us and gave me an awkward hug.

"It's okay. He was your childhood crush, I couldn't let you go without the opportunity of getting a kiss from him. I don't want you to go away with regrets"

But the time is running out and I need to get on a plane. I made a promise to come back to our friends, and a promise I made with myself that I would come back when I'm ready. Ready to be a true friend and an honorary best man.

Say you'll see me again, Even if it's just in your wildest dreams.

[scifrey]

WORDS FOR WRITERS: The Value of Fanfiction

There’s been a lot of chatter on social media these last few weeks, recycling that trashy, self-aggrandizing, tired old “hot take” that reading and writing fanfiction is somehow bad for you as a writer.

Before we go any further, let me give a clear and definitive answer to this take:

No, reading and writing fanfiction will not make you and does not make you a bad reader or writer.

 Period.

 Why? Here’s the TL;DR version:

1)      Reading and Writing, any kind of reading and writing, will make you a better reader and writer. And it’s enjoyable, to boot.

2)      Fanfiction has been around as long as Original Fiction, so we’d know if there was any negative impact by now (spoiler alert: there isn’t.)

3)      Practice is Practice, so matter what medium you get that practice in.

4)      Comprehending and writing fanfiction is harder than writing original fiction because you have to hold the Source Media Text in your head at the same time as you’re reading/writing a different story. It improves your understanding of storytelling.

5)      No hobby, no matter what it is, so long as it doesn’t harm anyone else or yourself, is bad. And that goes double for if you decide to keep it a hobby. Not every fanfic writer wants to write original fiction, and that’s just fine. Not every hobby has to be monetized.

 Okay. But what do they mean by “fanfiction”?

 “Fanfiction is fictional writing written by fans, commonly of an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, settings, or other intellectual properties from the original creator as a basis for their writing.”-- Wikipedia

 Basically – it’s when you take elements (setting, characters, major themes or ideas) of a Media Text (a novel, a movie, a podcast, a comic, etc.) and create a different story with those elements. You can write a missing scene, or an extended episode, or a whole new adventure for the characters of the Media Text. You can even crossover or fuse multiple Media Texts, or specific elements, to create a whole new understanding of the characters or their worlds.

 Similar to fanfic, you can also create fanart, fancomics, or fansongs (“filk”), fancostumes (“cosplay”), and fanfilms. These are called Fanworks or Fancrafts.

 Fanfiction is usually posted to online forums, journals, blogs, or story archives and shared for free among the public. Before the advent of the internet, fanfiction was often printed or typed, and hand-copied using photocopiers or ditto machines, and distributed for free (or for a small administration fee to cover materials) among fans at conventions, or through mail-order booklets (“zines”).

 Fanfiction has existed pretty much since the beginning of storytelling (A Thousand and One Nights, Robin Hood, and King Arthur all have different elements attributed to them by different authors retelling, twisting, adding to, or changing the stories; there’s no single-origin author of those tales.)

 There are billions on billions of fanfics out there in the world—and while a majority of them are romance stories, there are also adventures, comedies, dramas, thrillers, stories based on case files, stories about the emotional connection between characters when one is hurt and the other must care for them, historical retellings, etc. There are also stories for every age range and taste, though be sure to take heed of the tags, trigger warnings, and age range warnings as your browse the archives and digital libraries.

 As a reader, it’s your responsibility to curate your experience online.

 So why are people so afraid or derisive of fanfic?

 People who are hard on fanfic say that…

 ·       It sucks.

o   Well of course it sucks! As it’s a low-stakes and easy way to try out creative writing for the first time, the majority of fanfiction is overwhelmingly written by new and young writers. Everything you do when you first try it sucks a little bit. 

I’m sure no figure skater was able to immediately land perfect triple axels ten minutes after they strap on the skates for the first time in their lives. No knitter has ever made a flawlessly perfect jumper on their first try. No mathematician has ever broken the code to send a rocket into space after having just been taught elementary-school multiplication. So why on earth do people think that new writers don’t need to practice? I can promise you that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first rap was probably pretty shaky.

·       It’s lazy or it’s cheating.

o   Listen, anyone who tells you that writing anything is lazy clearly has not sat down and tried to write anything. Writing is tedious. It is boring. It takes hours, and hours, and hours to get anything on the page, and then once it’s on the page you have to go back and edit it. UGH. There is nothing about being a writer—even a fanfic writer—that is lazy.

o   And anyone who tells you that trying to tell a fresh, new story within the limits and confines of a pre-existing world and have it make sense is cheating, then they have no freaking clue how hard it is to be creative with that kind of limitation placed on you. It’s harder when you have a set of rules you need to follow. What you do come up with is often extremely interesting and creative because of those limitations, not in spite of them.

o   The argument that using pre-made characters, settings, tropes, and worlds to make up a new story is cheating is also complete bunk. Do those same people also expect hockey players to whittle and plane themselves a whole new hockey stick from scratch before each game? No, of course not. And yeah, a baker can grow all their own wheat, grind the flour, raise the chickens and cows so they can get eggs and milk, distill the vanilla, etc. Or a baker can buy a box mix. Either way, you get a cake at the end of the process. Whether you write fanfic or original fiction, you still get a story at the end of the process.

·       It makes you a worse writer.

o   * annoying buzzer noise * Practicing anything does not make you worse at it. And reading stories that are not edited, expertly crafted, or “high art” will also not indoctrinate you into being a bad writer. If anything, figuring out why you don’t like a specific story, trope, or writing style is actually a great way to learn what kind of writer you want to be, and to learn different methods of constructing sentences, creating images, and telling tales. Or you know, just how much spelling and grammar matter.

·       It’s not highbrow or thoughtful enough.

o   Sometimes stories are allowed to be just comfort food. Not every book or story you read has to be haute cuisine or boringly nutritious. You are allowed to read stories because they’re exciting, or swoony, or funny, or just because you like them. Anyone who says differently is a snob and worth ignoring. (Besides, fun silly stories can also be packed with meaning and lessons—I mean, hello, Terry Pratchett, anyone?)

·       It makes you waste all your time on writing that can’t be monetized.

o   No time is wasted if you spend it doing something that brings you joy. Not every hobby needs to be a money-maker and not everyone wants to be a professional writer. You are allowed to write, and read, fanfic just for the fun of it.

·       It’s theft.

o   According to Fair Use Law, it’s not. As long as the fanfic writer (or artist, cosplayer, etc.) is not making money on their creation that directly impacts or cuts into the original creator’s profit, or is not repackaging/plagiarizing the original Media Text and profiting off it’s resale, then Fan Works are completely legal. So there.

 How, exactly, does fanfic make you a better writer?

 Fanfiction…

 ·       teaches you to finish what you start.

o   The joy of being able to share your fic, either as you’re writing it, or afterward, is a big motivating factor for a lot of people. They finish because they get immediate feedback on it from their readers and followers. Lots of people have ideas for books, but how many of them do you know have actually sat down and written the whole thing?

o   Fanfic is also low-stakes; there’s nothing riding on whether you finish something or not, so you have to inspire yourself to get there without the outside (potentially negative) motivation of deadline or a failing grade if you don’t get the story finished. You end up learning how to motivate yourself.

o   Fanfic has no rules, so you write as much or as little as you want, stop wherever you think is a good place to end the story, write it out of order, or go back and write as many sequels or prequels as you like. Again, it’s totally low-stakes and is meant to be for fun, so you can noodle around with what it means to write a “whole” story and “complete” it, which teaches you how you like to write, and how you like to find your way to the finish line.

·       teaches you story structure.

o   Before you can sit down and write a story based on one of your favorite Media Texts, you’re likely to spend a lot of time consuming that text passively, or studying it actively. Either way, you’re absorbing how and why Media Text structures the stories it tells, and are learning how to structure your own from that.

o   Once you’re comfortable with the story structure the Media Text you’re working in is told, you’ll probably start experimenting with different ways stories can be told, and find the versions you like to work with best.

·       teaches you how to write characters consistently.

o   Fanfic is really hard because not only do you have to write your fave characters in a way that moves the story along, but they have to be recognizable as those fave characters.

o   This means you have to figure out their body language, verbal and physical tics, their motivations and they way the handle a crisis (fight, flight, or fawn?), and then make up the details you may need for your story that you may never see on screen/the page, like how they take their eggs or what their fave shampoo is, based on what you already know about them. That takes some top-notch detective work and character understanding to pull off.

o   Once you know how to do that, just making up a whole person yourself for original fiction is a breeze.

·       Teaches you how to hear and mimic a character/narrator voice.

o   You have to pay close attention to how an actor speaks, or how a character’s speech patterns, dialect, work choice, etc. is reflected on the page in order to be consistent in your story.

o   And all of this, in turn, teaches you how to build one for yourself.

o   I have a whole series of articles here about building a narrative voice, if you want to read more on constructing an original voice for your narrator.

·       Teaches you how to create or recreate a setting.

o   Again, like achieving character consistency, or mimicking a character or narrative voice, it takes work and paying attention in order to re-create a setting, time period, or geographical region in a fanfic—and if you’re taking your characters somewhere new, your readers will expect that setting to be equally rich as the one the Media Text is based in.

o   Which, again, teaches you how to then go and build an original one for yourself.

·       teaches how to take critique.

o   Professional writing is not a solitary pursuit. In fact, most writing is not entirely the work of an author alone. Like professional authors work with editors, critique partners, and proofreaders, some fanfiction writers will sometimes work with beta-readers or editors as well. This are friends or fanfic colleagues who offer to read your fanfic and point out plot, character, consistency, or story structure errors, or who offer to correct spelling and grammar errors. This is a great way to practice working with editors if you decide to pursue a professional career, and also a great way to make friends and strengthen your community and skill set if you don’t.

o   Many fanfic sites offer readers the opportunity to leave a comment on a fic, rather like a reviewer can leave a review on GoodReads or Amazon, or any other online store or blog, for a novel they’ve read. Sometimes these comments/reviews are 5 star and enthusiastic! Sometimes they are… not. The exact opposite in fact. As you get comments on your fanfic, and learn to ignore the ones that are just mean rather than usefully critical, you gain the Very Important Skill of learning to resist firing back at bad comments or reviews, while enjoying the good ones.  It also teaches you how to ignore drama or haters.

·       Teaches you how to exist within a like-minded community.

o   While the actual writing part of writing is solitary and sometimes tedious, nothing is ever published into a vacuum, whether it be fanfiction or original. Besides your editing/critique/beta reader group, you will also likely develop friendships, a support network, and mutuals. It’s always great to uplift, support, cheer on, and celebrate one another’s accomplishments and victories, whether the writing is fanfic or original.

·       Teaches you that it’s okay to write about things important to you, or your own identity.

o   You can change a characters ethnicity, cultural background, sexuality, religion, or disabilities to match yours, and talk about your lived life through the megaphone of that character. Or, you can insert original characters based on you, your desires, and experiences.

o   Once you’re comfortable writing in your #ownvoice in fanfic, you can approach it in original fiction, if you like.

o   See my article titled Your Voice Is Valid for more on this.

 What if I want to be a professional writer?

 Notice how I didn’t say “real writer”. Any writer who writes any kind of story is a ‘real’ writer. I mean, pinch yourself—you’re real, right? The difference is actually between being an “amateur” writer (a hobbyist who does not write for pay), and a “professional” (who is paid for their writing). Just because you only play shinny on the street with your friends, or in a house league on the weekends, it’s doesn’t mean  you’re not still as much of a hockey player as someone who plays in the NHL.

 Writing fanfiction before or at the same time as writing original fiction that you intend to sell is a great way to learn, or practice, everything I’ve mentioned above. If you read it widely, it will also expose you to different story telling styles, voices, and tropes than your reading of published fiction.

 ·       Can I sell my fanfic?

o   No. For fanfiction to remain under the umbrella of Fair Use Law, you cannot profit off your fanfiction. There’s some grey-area wiggle room around things like charging a small amount for a ‘zine or a PDF to cover administrative costs, but zero wiggleability around, say, selfpublishing your fanfic and charging heaps for it.

·       Can I “file off the serial numbers”?

o   “Filing of the series numbers” is when you take a fanfic you’ve written and essentially pull it apart, remove everything that’s clearly someone else’s Media Text, and reassembling the story so that it’s pretty much a completely original piece of creative writing.

o   Yes, you can sell these, provided your filing is rigorous enough that you aren’t likely to be dinged for plagiarism. It’s widely known that Cassandra Claire’s Shadowhunters was once Harry Potter fanfic, and that Fifty Shades of Gray was once Twilight fanfic. But did you know that my Triptych started life as an idea for a Stargate Atlantis fic? There’s lots of stories out there that were once full fics, or the idea for the novel was originally conceived for a fandom, but written as original instead.

o   So long as you’re careful to really rework the text so that it’s not just a find-name-replace-name rewrite, you should be fine.

o   Be aware, though, that the agents and editors you might pitch this novel to know how to Google. They may discover that this is a filed-off story, and depending on their backgrounds and biases, might be concerned about it. There’s no need to inform them of the novel’s origin straight off in your pitch/query letter, but you may want to have a frank discussion with them about it after it’s been signed so they can help you make sure that any lingering copywrited concepts or characters are thoroughly changed before publication.

o   Should you take down the original fic-version of the novel while you’re querying/shopping it? Well, that’s up to you, and whether you’re comfortable with an editor/agent potentially finding it.

·       Should I be ashamed of my fic, or take it down, or pretend I never wrote fic?

o   What? Why? No! I mean, I have hidden some of my most immature work, but I’ve left pretty much my whole catalogue of fanfic online and I don’t deny that I was/am a ficcer. Why? Because it’s a great repository of free stories that people can read before they buy one of my books, so they can get a taste of how and what I write. Also, you will be in good company. Lots and lots of writers who are published now-a-days started in fandom, including:

Steven Moffat

Seanan McGuire

Rainbow Rowell

Claudia Gray

Cory Doctorow

Marissa Meyer

Meg Cabot.

Naomi Novik

Neil Gaiman

Lev Grossman

S.E. Hinton

John Scalzi

The Bronte Sisters

Andy Weir

Sarah Rees Brennan

Marjorie M. Liu

Anna Todd

...and me, J.M. Frey

 How fanfic can harm.

 Like with anything else, there are ways that reading and writing fanfiction can actually harm you, or others, but it has nothing to do with the reading or writing of fanfiction in and of itself.

 ·       Some creators may prefer that you don’t (and may or may not follow up with legal action).

o   Anne Rice famously went after fanficcers in the 90s who wrote fanfic of her work, handing out Cease & Desist notices like confetti.

o   99% of creators don’t care. Those who do will generally have a notice on their websites or social media politely asking fancreators to refrain. Mostly this is due to their general discomfort over the idea of anyone else getting to play in their worlds. The best thing to do is respect that request, and find a different fandom to write in.

·       Flamewars and fandom fights leading to bullying and doxing.

o   Regrettably, just like any other community filled with people who have different favorites, opinions, and preferences, there will inevitably be clashes. It’s up to you to decide how to react to negative interactions, and how to model positive ones.

o   Don’t forget, you curate your online experience, so don’t be afraid of that block button.

o   Also, don’t be the jerk who goes after people for liking different aspects of the fandom. Everyone is entitled to interact and like a Media Text their own way. “Don’t yuck my yum,” as they say.

·       Trying to make money on other people’s IP/Media Text (law suits, etc.)

o   It doesn’t belong to you, so don’t try to make money on it.

o   There’s a grey area here in terms of selling prints/plushies/jewelry/etc. and there’s no hard line about where one copyright owner will draw the line, and another won’t. Warner Bros. owns the film rights for both Harry Potter and Hunger Games, but I’ve seen Harry Potter-themed bars spring up while fans wanting to make Hunger Game fanfilms have been shut down. A friend of mine sells hand-made fandom-inspired items at cons—there is no rhyme or reason to what she gets told to stop making and what she’s left alone on.

o   Best thing to do if you’re told to stop is just so stop, move on, and find a different fandom to be active in.

·       Writing Real Person Fanfic (“RPF”) can be considered a violation of consent.

o   This article sums it up pretty well, but basically… if you decide to write RPF, be aware that they person you are writing about is a real person, with real thoughts, and emotions, and they may feel violated by RPF. If you decide to write it, never send it to the people it’s about, and always clearly tag it so other can choose to engage with it, or avoid it.

o   Also be aware that it could ruin their love for what they do. For example: the friendships between the members of 1Direciton became strained and the band eventually disintegrated because people wouldn’t stop sending band members smutty stories or art of them having sex with one another, and it made them too uncomfortable to continue in the band.

·       Showing/sharing fanfic & fanart outside of its intended context. Fanworks are for fans, and there are definitely issues if…

o   It’s shown to celebrities/actors/creators.

  Shoving your fantasies onto the people who create or portray your fave characters is rude, and wrong, and also kinda gross. If they seek it out themselves, that’s one thing, but the same way you wouldn’t throw it at a complete stranger, don’t throw it at them. You may love the characters these people play, but they are not their characters, and they are not your friends.

  It may also really weird them out and ruin their love for what they do.

o   it’s shown to writers working on the series.

  There was a famous case where a fanficcer sent a story to a novelist, and the novelist was accused of plagiarism by the ficcer when their next novel in the series resembled the plot of that fanfic. There was a whole court case and everything.

  Because of this, writers of TV shows, books, etc. don’t want to (and often times, legally can’t) read your fanfic. They don’t want to get accidentally inspired by what you’ve written, or worse, have to throw out something because it resembles your fic too closely. Just let them write their stories the way they want, and if they choose to seek out fic, they will.

o   it’s mocked by celebrities.

  I’m not letting Alan Carr and Graham Norton off the hook. If it’s super rude and gross to shove fanworks at actors/writers/creators when you’re a creator, then it’s doubly rude for anyone to take a story or art made for a specific audience (the fans), by a specific community (the fans), lift it out of it’s context, and invite the public to mock it while also shoving it at the actor/celebrity in a place where they are literally cornered and can’t leave (i.e. the chat-show sofa). Man, it really steams me up when they do that. It’s rude and it’s tone-deaf, and it’s not fair.

  And most of the time they do it, they don’t even ask the artist or writer for permission, first, which is just…. Uuuuugggghhhh. It may be fanfic, but it was still created by someone, and you should always ask permission before publicly sharing something created by someone else.

  Grrrrrrr.

 In Conclusion

 If someone tells you that reading or writing fanfic is bad for you as a creator, tell them to get bent.

Famous Fanfic

·       Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda

·       Wicked by Gregory Maguire

·       Wicked: the Musical by Stephen Schwartz

·       The Phantom of Manhattan by Fredrick Forsyth

·       A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman

·       Sherlock by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat

·       The Dracula Tape, by Fred Saberhaugen

·       Paradise Lost, John Milton

·       Inferno, by Dante

·       The Aeneid, by Virgil

·       Ulysses, by James Joyce

·       Romeo & Juliet, by William Shakespeare

·       The Once and Future King by T.H. White

·       A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, by Mark Twain

·       The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas

·       Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith

·       Phantom, a novel of his life by Susan Kaye

·       …and so many more.

[zebraslovescupcakestoo]

Blush Blush Wish List: New Boy edition.

If you read my wish lists from my previous posts, I did my first as random and a second one about clothing, which one of the clothing wish is coming true slowly, I decided to make a THIRD wish list, based on the Boy/Man bundle. We knew that there will be a new guy coming, plausibly the phone fling winner Poe, so here’s some dream ideas of mine that inspired me.

I will mark a disclaimer right here and now so please read it:

Any thing I write here is MY opinion, MY fantasy and JUST A THEORY. They are NON-canon, not project proof and they’re just fan fic/pic related to Blush Blush.

If you don’t like them or disagree, that’s OK! we can talk about it in the comments or ask box like big girls.

Without further ado, here are my Manimal ideas:

1. Racoon Thief!

I’m staring off with what I already mention on my first and my personal favorite.

I used to read one of the first few books of Arsene Lupin by Maurice Leblanc a few years back and I also watched the old French TV series from the 70′s. I also used to own a film based of him from 2004? and I love it. There is also a 90′s animated series from YTV called Night Hood.

I also noticed that there was a PS2 game with a couple of sequels and a PSVita remake with all the games in one. If you ever played Sly Cooper, this would be a very nice compliment to a legendary Gentlemen Burglar.

I imagine about how the player was on a detective mission, like Cole’s, and he/she stumbles a burglary scene from a bakery store. Player noticed some crumbs leading to an alley and soon find a well dressed racoon... Speaking some French accent, the Gentlemen racoon would explained that since he’s somehow got in a situation that prevents him to go to his ‘job’ he had no choice but to ‘borrow’ until he’s back to normal. With past experiences, you’d tell him that you can help him revert back if he’d promised to pay all of the goodies he has taken from.

I can imagine a Persona 5 references or Lupin the 3rd Easter egg dialogs.

2. Beauty Guru BF!

BEFORE anyone has to say about Jeffree, I’m gonna say HERE that I’ll understand if you don’t like or support him, this is just a reference and ideas.

Now, my second idea for a next Manimal, it would be a beauty guru BF.

Now I would go for someone between Jeffree Star and Kimora Blac. Someone’s that’s very influential, a bit controversial but not that serious and very honest.

So imagine a scenario when the player decided to take a break from streaming and just surfing on Youtube when they came across a makeup review tutorial with a face of an animal. Any animal. Player then clicked it and the animal said:

“Hello everybody and welcome back to my channel! Today, I woke up, got to a mirror... beyoch... The Panda Team, is crazy!!!”

Somehow the player texted on the comments and then sends some pictures that proves you can help him, so he flew from his private jet to meet you!

If this gets canon, let the team know about Jeffree Star and try not to copy him too much like they did with Markiplier.

3. Fashionista Drag Queen BF!

Following from the previous, another LGBT representative would be the man with good fashion taste, RuPaul!

I thought about how the Player would one day be shopping for new clothes and then notice an animal giving out fashion advices. He does admit he’s sadden cause of his physical state, he can’t dress up whatever he’d normally wear.

He’d also would reference from high brands like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Guicci, random Italian brands, ect... 

Imagine on his semi or full human form, he’d be wearing RuPaul inspired tuxedos or a dress option DLC. 

4. Royalty Prince charming!

I know that on Phone Fling, we have the self proclaimed Arabian Prince Sascha, but think about an EUROPEAN prince!

Imagine Player was doing gardening and then all of a sudden they heard someone complaining.

“Why are they treating me like I am some pet?! I am a PRINCE!”

You notice the ‘Manimal’ and told them your ‘specialty’ after introducing. “So you’d help your prince from this curse? Should we do true love’s first kiss? Fairly well, but you must prove it!”

This could inspire Disney prince references. ;) You take your pick!

5. Native American Boy.

Before I explain, I just want to say that I respect the Natives and they’re are one of the nicest people, I’m just saying as a character perspective.

If you remembered on my first wish list, I asked for more diversities so here’s one of them!

Player was walking in the nature park and decided to take a rest on a table park when they noticed some thrash that some human dumpster fire was too lazy to put it in the thrash so you did. All of a sudden you head someone said thank you. You turned to see the Manimal in question. “It is so nice of you to think conscious about our home environment when you knew you weren’t the one who done it. May the Great Spirits looks on you.”

I kinda lean towards the Eagle or a Bear cause the Wolf is already taken.

I think it would be a nice reminder for a dialog to us about the environment once in a while and also Disney’s Brother Bear.

6. Frank Sinatra the 2nd! Old school but cool!

THIS is probably one of an interesting idea about an ‘old’ soul. It’s kinda like Myx but classier. Swag are for boys, Class are for men.

Remember the Old Looney Tune cartoons? Remember that character Tweety Bird? Yeah, I go with a canary or maybe a yellow-crested cockatoo with this number.

Imagine Player decided to play a mainstream music from their room, when after about a minute in, you hear someone screaming from next door.

“WILL YOU TURN THAT OFF-TUNE BLIP BLOP?! I’M TRYING TO REGAIN MY SINGING SWING!” 

At first you thought it was probably you neighbor, but come to find out, it was a talking bird in a cage. You asked him and he answered. “I just moved in from my relatives and now I’m stuck with feathers instead of a classic bow tie. You said you had experience with this?”

This Manimal would be one of those nerds with bowties and sweaters on shoulder prep boy. He’s more like Frank Sinatra (Pic 1 and 2 with Elvis), Dean Martin or Sammy David Jr. A bit more old fashioned but about the same age as college kids.

Imagine the dialogs would be more like Tweety birds whenever Cole is change in between and had comedy accidents like the cartoons to prevent being his next un-cook chicken nugget!

7. Ancient temple guardian!

If anyone had played Crush Crush, you know about the Suzu bundle in the shop. She’s a white fox spirt that the player had accidentally broke the statue.

Now imagine the same thing, but this time you notice that one of these statues are not the same cause they don’t breathe.

8. Marine surfer/oceanic enthusiast!

Remember when I said there’s no Marine Animals (Yet?) If they do, I hope to see a hot guy who was turned into one while I was just looking at the waves.

Imagine Little Mermaid in a gender swap perspective. He wants to learn about the ocean like Jacque Cousteau and sometimes collects sea shells or old object from the 18th centuries that was from sunken ships.

9. German Soccer coach!

Remember when the German won the soccer tournament from Brazil by 7-1 a few years ago? Now imagine someone from that country that’s the new soccer/football coach for your team.

Player wanted to try a new sport so they go for it, but noticed the coach is a big German Shepperd. He’s Strict, Disciplined and very Passionate.

We need a good doggo for 2021!

10. Eastern Master Chef

I think I saved a nice one for last, but my random card tells me that we need a chef in that game. CC have Bonnibel, we have a Michelin star chef!

I thought about an old school 90′s Iron Chef stars like Chef Hiroyuki Sakai and Chen Kenichi. But this one is from China, where they eat anything with four legs except tables and anything that flies except planes.

Honorary mentions of Gordon Ramsey in the dialogs but he’s too nice and... I want to see someone else besides him.

AND THAT IS IT!!

That’s all I have for Manimal ideas for now. Do you like any of them? Do you have any other ideas? Please tell me of what you think!

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Treat Your S(h)elf

Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History by Keith O’Brien

Others found jobs but got paid far less than men—a fact not lost on cash-strapped employers. It was, one employer said, the only real reason to hire women: “They produce more and demand less.

- Keith O'Brien, Fly Girls

I wish I had read this book when I was growing up as I was in ignorant bliss to the barriers faced by the early women pioneers of aviation. I count myself fortunate that I had a supportive family that despite being conservative only had one ground rule if I was going to do something than see it through to the end. No whining or making excuses. I’m not into cookie fortune wisdom such as turn obstacles into opportunities (however true that is). But when some people tell me I can’t do something I jolly well go ahead and do it.

Describing the feeling of flying is like describing why one climbs mountains. If you really have to ask then you won’t get it. As Louise Thaden, one of the most iconic pioneering women aviators in this book said, “If you will tell me why, or how, people fall in love, I will tell you why, or how, I happened to take up aviation.”

But from about 14-15 years old I was hooked and by 17 I had my pilot’s license. I would learn to fly out in Asia (because we lived there) and in Kenya and South Africa (on family vacations). Flying was the one thing my other ultra-competitive older siblings could not do. They were better than me in almost everything else - triathlons, mountaineering, hiking, polo, horse riding, parachuting - but not driving cars fast or flying. But beyond a childish and immature source of pride I cannot describe the heavenly bliss of piloting a plane over stunning landscapes. I knew early on I wanted to fly as a career and fortunuately the army gave me that path to succeed flying combat helicopters.

My path was much easier because of the women aviators that had gone before me. For pioneering pilots of the 1920s and 1930s, the challenges were enormous. For women it was even more daunting. In this marvellous history, Keith O’Brien recounts the early years of aviation through a generation of American female pilots who carved out a place for themselves and their sisterhood.

Although Amelia Earhart’s story has been recounted numerous times, the addition of the other female pilots makes for a more thorough and enjoyable read that should appeal to readers interested in history, aviation, and women’s achievements.

Despite the sensation they created, each of these amazing women “went missing in her own way.” This is the inspiring untold story of five women from very different walks of life - including a New York socialite, an Oakland saleswoman, a Florida dentist’s secretary and a Boston social worker - who fought and competed against men in the  high-stakes national air races of the 1920s and 1930s — and won.

Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. Thousands of fans flocked to multi-day events, and cities vied with one another to host them. The pilots themselves were hailed as dashing heroes who cheerfully stared death in the face. Well, the men were hailed. Female pilots were more often ridiculed than praised for what the press portrayed as silly efforts to horn in on a manly and deadly pursuit. The derisive press dubbed the first women’s national air race “The Powder Puff Derby.”

It’s a brisk, spirited history of early aviation focused on 5 irrepressible women. Florence Klingensmith, a high-school dropout who worked for a dry cleaner in Fargo, North Dakota, and who trained as a mechanic so she could learn planes inside and out but whose first aviation job was as a stunt girl, standing on a wing in her bathing suit. Louise McPhetridge Thaden a girl who grew up as a tomboy and later became the mother of two young kids who got her start selling coal in Wichita. Ruth Elder, an Alabama divorcee was determined to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. Amelia Earhart was of course the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled. Ruth Nichols who chafed at the constraints of her blue-blood family's expectations of marrying into wealth and into high society.

In 1928, when women managed to get jobs in other male dominated fields, fewer than 12 had a pilot’s license, and those ambitious for prizes and recognition faced entrenched sexism from the men who ran air races, backed fliers, and financed the purchase of planes. They decided to organise: “For our own protection,” one of them said, “we must learn to think for ourselves, and do as much work as possible on our planes.” Although sometimes rivals in the air, they forged strong friendships and offered one another unabated encouragement.

O’Brien vividly recounts the dangers of early flight: In shockingly rickety planes, pilots sat in open cockpits, often blinded by ice pellets or engine smoke; instruments were unreliable, if they worked at all; sudden changes in weather could be life threatening. Fliers regularly emerged from their planes covered in dust and grease. Crashes were common, with planes bursting into flames; but risking injury and even death failed to dampen the women’s passion to fly. And yet their bravery was only scoffed at by male prejudice. Iconic  oilman Erle Halliburton believed, “Women are lacking in certain qualities that men possess.” Florence Klingensmith’s crash incited a debate about allowing menstruating women to fly.

And yet these women still took off in wooden crates loaded with gasoline. They flew over mountains, deserts and seas without radar or even radios. When they came down, they knew that their landings might be their last. But together, they fought for the chance to race against the men - and in 1936 one of them would triumph in the toughest race of all. And When Louise Thaden became the first woman to win a national race, even the great Charles Lindbergh fell curiously silent.

O'Brien nicely weaves together the stories of these five remarkable women in the spirit of Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff who broke the glass ceiling to achieve greatness.

Between the unreliability of early planes – developed through trial and error and liable to have a wing suddenly sheer off midflight – and the virulent sexism that hampered these pilots’ access to better quality planes and the sponsorship they desperately needed, it was a tough road. A female flier could hardly emerge unscathed – with the possible exception of Amelia Earhart, the one name still familiar today, successful in flight and public persona, until she disappeared.

This book then is a fine testament to their accomplishlments. It’s no feminist screed but a very human story of courage and conviction triumphing over fear and self-doubt. As Ruth Nichols, the most accomplished female aviator once said, “it takes special kinds of pilots to break frontiers, and in spite of the loss of everything, you can’t clip the wings of their hearts,”

Little girls should never have the wings of their dreams clipped for how else can they soar?

[randomguywithwords]

As The Dust Settles: Chapter 19 (Geten X Dabi Slowburn)

Chapter 19: Old Chains

AO3 Link

Previous Chapters: 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

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The girl bowed and left the room in a hurry, nearly tripping over her feet as she did so. Geten watched her go, her lips pursed. Her behaviour reminded her of that messenger at her lodgings, but while she had smirked at the boy’s cowardice just a few days ago, she felt uneasiness coil around her stomach. 

Do they all look at me like that? How long has it been since I’ve been in the city? 

She rarely ever walked down a street, not having any need to with her cryokinesis. Transporting herself with her ice was much preferable to reducing herself by commuting alongside the other soldiers in the MLA. The few times she interacted with them...they always had the same look on their faces. 

She put those thoughts aside and returned to an even more unpleasant subject: the book in her hand that she had requested the girl bring to her. It was familiar to her like a mother to her infant. The same indented red cover with its engraving of the symbol of the MLA. The same title emblazoned with gold. 

Meta Liberation War. 

She knew the book back to front. If prompted by anyone, she could recite the pledge, the paragraphs or the sign off by Destro in a heartbeat. She had spent years memorising every key sentence, every declaration made by the founder of the Army she belonged to, and so on.

So why am I holding it in my hand?

Well, for one, she needed something to keep her distracted while she was stuck in the hospital ward, thanks to a certain fire-user and a dumb pact made just an hour or so ago. 

“Ok, five day hospitalisation, doc’s orders.” Dabi turned to leave the room. 

“No, I’m leaving tomorrow,” Geten shot back, crossing her arms. 

“Uh huh, because you’d be fully recovered, right?” 

She paused, searching for a retort. “You can’t make me stay here.”

Even to her, it sounded childish, and Dabi’s choked laughter told her he was thinking the same way. “Tell you what, what’s your favourite food?”

The question caught her off-guard. She blinked twice, wondering if that question came from him. “I don’t have one.”

“Bullshit. Everyone has one.”

“Unlike you, I’m not that much of an adolescent to show preferences for food. I eat whatever’s there.” 

“It’s something cold, isn’t it? Soba?” 

“How – wha –” She spluttered. “No, no it’s not.”

“You chill here until Friday, and I’ll get you soba.”

“Even if I did like it, I could just get it myself.” She was hoping her expression wasn’t betraying how much she liked the noodles. 

“Not in Deika City, obviously. You think this shithole has any good food?” 

“We can’t just leave –” Her exasperation was overpowered by his when he cut her off with, “Do you want the soba or not?”

A spasm of pain coursed through her ribs, causing her to wince. “Fine,” She muttered, and sat down on the bed. 

“See you Friday then. My god, you’re stubborn.” He left and shut the door. 

The memory, fresh in her mind, was oddly warming to think about, while the metal-engraved title of the book felt cold to the touch, pulling her back to the present. 

The second reason was repetition – too much of it, that is. She compared it to her mastery over her meta ability made it a part of her, that she barely gave a thought whenever she levitated ice. Likewise, she could recant any part of the book with no hesitance. But even though I speak the words out loud, how much thought have I given their meaning?

She flipped open the book. Destro’s words filled Geten’s head like a lullaby a parent might sing to their child, not that the young woman knew what that was like. 

“I am not in a prison. I am in solitude, and in this solitude have I found solace…” She read out loud to herself in the ward. It was habitual to do so, but as she kept reading, her voice trailed off as she studied it, and a growing void inside her gnawed at her heart. 

I dream of a society where the use of our meta abilities is uncontrolled, as the great power that granted the human race this blessing intended. It was, and is, and will always be, a gift. Yet it is also a responsibility to bear. We must show the world the truth the governments try to conceal. They pass human laws that goes against the natural law. I, and my army, tried to show them this truth, but it is with great regret and sorrow that I announce an obstacle in our path towards destiny. My incarceration. 

 …

Strength is survival. Strength is our meta abilities, and honing them to perfection, achieving what we called “apotheosis” in the ancient past. To become god-like. 

“And yet, you died, Destro,” Geten murmured. “And still we...we honour and revere you…” The void grew larger. 

The journey unto death is one I will undertake after I finish writing this, but know that death is not the end for us. While I concede death is a frightening concept, I encourage you to believe that it is an inspiration for others. To die in battle is honourable. I only wish I had done so, but what has happened is set in stone. My death is a protest to the laws that chain us, but it is also your empowerment, to do what I could not. 

“Death,” Geten whispered, the word tasting like poison on her tongue. She remembered both times she was one thread away from it: the barrel of Trumpet’s gun pointed at her, and the fists of Takame. In the first, she was not in combat. It would have been an assassination, would it not? And in the second…

Her chest hurt at the thought. She felt no honour, only emptiness and fear, knowing what the Liberation Army had done to her attacker’s family, and knowing her death was imminent. 

Is it possible that Destro had feared death as well? 

The reminder about Takame’s wife brought her to flip the pages to the section on the powerless, or, as Destro put it...

It is not some genetic disorder as the men in white coats would tell you. They are simply the unfortunate ones to not have received this gift. Pity them, for they, the outcasts, deserve your pity. 

“Mihara…” She looked just like her. If she was wandering around Deika City, Geten would have thought she was some ordinary soldier. An ordinary person, even. How was she an outcast? Why did the MLA start hunting down the quirkless? Out of pity? They deserved it?

She slammed the book shut as the image of her dead body appeared in her mind. She drew deep breaths to calm herself – had she been hyperventilating this entire time? Her fists were trembling, blood pounding in her head in anger of it all. 

The agony was a python writhing on her chest while old memories resurfaced from the aching in her brain. She remembered what Re-destro taught her, and how he did it. 

A growl rose in her throat. 

Kicked. Starved. Left alone to fend for herself, in the name of “liberation”. Everything that she did. Everything that was done to me, was in the name of liberation, but it shackled me more and more. 

“Gah!” She flung the book across the room and buried her head in her hands. 

She sat there upright on the hospital bed for some time, the silence screaming all the answers she did not want to hear, but had to, to her. 

“You don’t find anything wrong with that?” Dabi had said on the plane. She remembered his countenance, a mixture of irritation and pity, whenever she spoke about the MLA. She had chalked it up to the arrogance of the victorious, or just a dislike of her, which was mutual then, so it never bothered her to think further. The pieces started to click together. 

“You dropped this.” A dry voice made her look up, and a paleness spread across her face like permafrost. 

Tomura Shigaraki stood at her doorway, dressed in a crimson jacket whose sleeves ran down his arms and black undershirt, whilst wearing jeans. He looked like any other ordinary person, if not for the severed hand on his face. In his hand was the book. 

Instantly, thoughts of a legless Re-destro, or the piles of dust that once were Shigaraki’s opponents flooded her mind. She gripped the bedsheets tightly. 

“Why are you here? And...I don’t need that.” Geten averted her eyes.

Shigaraki tossed it to the side and shut the door behind her. “I’m not here to kill you or anything, don’t shit yourself. I came here to see how you were doing. I gotta say, you look like you got broken up with.”

His words didn’t reassure her in the least, especially not the way he said ‘kill you’, but his posture didn’t indicate any animosity, so Geten took his word for it. Clearing her throat and steadying herself as best as she could, she responded, “I’m fine.”

“What’s with the book throw? Test tomorrow?” 

“No,” She replied with an edge to her voice. 

“You pissed?”

She exhaled. “Yes,” She said, mustering all the civility and politeness she had left. 

“How nice,” He said, the concern in his tone matching that of his expression. “Anyway, you’re free to do what you want now. I got nothing for Violet Regiment. You’re excused from the council meetings till you’re discharged, whenever the hell that is.”

She blinked. “That’s all?”

Shigaraki cocked his head. “What, you were expecting a celebration of your win?”

“No...never mind. Th – thank you, Commander.” She bowed her head. 

She heard the door slam and looked back up. She let loose a shuddering breath of relief from the sole fact that she was alive and not missing a limb, or an entire torso. He had looked more disinterested, as if she was an ant on his finger, but she would gladly accept that over a smiling Shigaraki. 

Did Dabi actually talk to him? She recalled the promise he had made on the motorbike ride.  

Maybe the consequences were waiting for her once her hospitalization was over, which made goosebumps appear on her skin. She held the sheets closer to her. Still, Shigaraki didn’t seem like the type to grant her catharsis before unleashing whatever hell he wanted upon her. If he was going to punish her, he would have done so just now. 

Geten sighed and sunk back underneath the covers. Or maybe I’m just lying to myself...

It was only mid-afternoon, judging from the sky outside, yet fatigue, both physical and mental, weighed her limbs down as if she had been training the whole day. The bed suddenly felt like the softest, most comforting thing in the world. Unable to fight against her body, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, her thoughts too cluttered to sift through. A few names and words stood out, one of which was, Find Dabi. 

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Had some time to finish this up. Hope you liked it. 

[readitreviewit]

For Once in My Life: A Fun and Heartwarming Adventure If you're looking for a book to make you laugh, cry, and feel all the happy-butterflies in your tummy, then For Once in My Life by Colleen Coleman is the perfect chick-lit read for you. This novel follows the story of Lily Buckley, a 29-year-old woman who planned to be happily married and in her dream job by now but instead is single and working at her local paper, writing about giant vegetables at the village fete and a dog who looks exactly like Chewbacca. Not exactly the life she was dreaming of, huh? But then Lily is given the opportunity to write her own column, and it's what she's always wanted – except for what she has to write about. She has to do one thing every week that scares her. With encouragement from a sexy colleague – and adrenaline-junkie – Christopher, Lily agrees. From sky-diving to haunted houses, Lily is going to be pushed to her limit. And since heartbreak has left her afraid of falling in love again, her growing feelings for Christopher might just push her past it. But then her mum has a crisis, her column is the only thing keeping her – and her colleagues’ – jobs afloat, and Christopher’s ex arrives with her sights set on a romantic reunion. Suddenly jumping out of a plane is the least of Lily’s problems… Can she save her family, her friends, and her heart – or will Lily let her fears hold her back? Filled with humor, heart, and a little bit of romance, For Once in My Life is an uplifting, feel-good story about friendship, love, and finding the hero inside yourself. Fans of Marian Keyes, Mhairi McFarlane, and Sophie Kinsella will love Colleen Coleman's writing style and the relatable characters she brings to life. But this book isn't just about giggles and butterflies. It's about facing your fears, stepping out of your comfort zone, and taking risks. At its core, For Once in My Life is a book about personal growth and finding the courage to chase your dreams. And let's not forget the amazing supporting cast of characters – from Lily's wacky boss to her lovable best friend. They all bring their own unique quirks and personalities to the story, making it even more enjoyable to read. Overall, For Once in My Life is a beautifully written, heartwarming adventure that will leave you feeling inspired, happy, and maybe a little bit brave. So sit back, relax, and join Lily on her journey of self-discovery. You won't regret it. Rated 5 out of 5 stars by Goodreads reviewers and available on Kindle and in paperback, For Once in My Life is a must-read for anyone who loves feel-good chick-lit novels that make you smile from beginning to end. Don't miss out on the captivating story in this book - purchase it today! Or, if you prefer to listen on-the-go, sign up for a 30-day trial of Audible and immerse yourself in the story with ease. Don't wait - start your journey today! Price: [price_with_discount] (as of [price_update_date] - Details)

[unclefungusthegoat]

Where The Light Fractured, I Found Home

Thought I’d share my little contribution to the Far Cry 5/New Dawn fanzine too! Wanted to write about my fave girl Carmina, and instead of rolling with my usual angsty stuff, was suddenly inspired to write a cosy fic about her knitting with Nana! A huge thank you to @celiansartblog​ for your seriously gorgeous artwork, and for being an amazing partner, it’s been a true pleasure working with you! And also, thank you to everyone for getting on board with this little project, I am so freaking proud of everyone <3

My fic can be read under the cut, or here on AO3

The fanzine can be downloaded for free HERE

Title: Where The Light Fractured, I Found Home

Warnings: None

Summary: Carmina wasn't sure that she needed a new hobby. What she was sure of, is that it takes a special kind of friendship for a rainbow to fall from the sky. Carmina and Nana family fluff.

“Girlie, you need t’get yourself a hobby that don’t involve somethin’ dead at the end of it!”

That was rich coming from a gun-toting septuagenarian who could sneeze mid-shot and still snipe a guy’s ear clean off.

“I have hobbies, Nana!” Carmina had laughed back at her.

“Not like this, you don’t!”

Now, sitting with their legs dangling out of the Perch, Carmina and Nana relaxed in the bright, sun-warmed afternoon glow. A mountain of rainbow yarn sat upon their laps, tinged violet by the somehow still flashing Spread Eagle sign.

Fire truck red and saffron yellow, was knotted and twirled between hydrangea blue, woven and twisted amongst rainforest green and a purple not quite the colour of yams, not quite the colour of eggplant. Heaped like psychedelic Himalayas, snikt and persnikt between two sets of needles. The fibres were near weightless, clouds beneath their fingertips, almost unlike anything Carmina had felt before. In fact, it was a stark reminder of how razor sharp the world around her was. Rusted and wind-beaten. Unstitched.

Between them, slowly winding its way to the ground, was the fruits of their labour.

A scarf.

So kaleidoscopic, it appeared the sunlight had fractured without any rain.

Despite her skepticism, (and her, admittedly, half-hearted attempts to confine herself to the garage instead) Carmina had found an unexpected gratification in the art of knitting. An intrinsic sense of joy in holding something that, usually, she’d impale right through an eye socket, only this time to find it be cushioned, caressed by soft wool. She’d diligently practised all the stitches in the book. Garter and stockinette, fisherman’s rib and the basket stitch.

Her sulking had waned even further when the two of them, some 60 years apart in age but soon thick as thieves, had snorted at, mocked and downright abused the unfortunately named ‘Seed’ stitch. And the week where they’d set to working on the waffle stitch, had been laden with misshapen homemade waffles. Buttery and rich. Laced with lashings of oozing maple syrup from a bottle Carmina had found in the rubble of a diner once named ‘Aubrey’s’.

“You know, Nana,” Carmina purled a final violet stitch, and passed it to her companion to begin another row, “I’m really grateful you talked me into this.”

“Don’t you be worryin’ about it, girlie. Keepin’ this kooky ol’ gunslinger company.”

Truth is, Nana, I was lonely too. More than I’d ever admit, even to Mom and Dad. How can the world feel so echoey and vast, when everywhere I look, there’s people I love?

I suppose she saw right through me.

Having no memories must be the loneliest feeling in the world.

“Even gunslingers need friends. Butch Cassidy had the Sundance Kid, right?”

“Right y’are!”

Snikt and persnikt again, as the two worked in comfortable silence. Sometimes they gossiped, letting their laughter fill the valley and join with the birdsong and distant gunfire. But most days, it was just the pleasure of each other’s company. Two friends, passing a lazy afternoon in rare stillness and peace.

“Another stack of pancakes says we’re gonna finish this today.”

“Hoo-hoo, wager not taken, buster! I see whatcha doin’, and I never take a wager I can’t win!”

They giggled, in full certainty that there’d be sweet treats anyway.

“What do you think we should make next?”

Nana gazed at her sternly through jam-jar lenses. Carmina had never known any of her grandparents, but she imagined that this is how they would have stared her down had she misbehaved.

“You gotta noggin’ full o’ yarn if you think I’m gonna answer that, missie! You gotta brain, start usin’ it!”

A flurry of thoughts, snowfall in summer. Mittens, striped like candy, a gift from Santa for the little ones. A blanket for Blade Drubman’s crib - he’s been having trouble sleeping, the gears of the world grinding, deafening, around him. Pouches for screws and bolts, pockets for wrenches and screwdrivers. Or something for Dad to put in the plane… a Maneki-neko to sit on the dashboard for good fortune?

“How about knitting my co-pilot a good luck charm?”

Murmured agreements, and they once again settled back into their silence. It wasn’t long before their work neared its end, as the yarn ran low. Threads of life, weaving into the fabric of the world. Not gone… just renewed.

“Makes a change to the o’l heart, doesnit? Buildin’ something, ‘stead of tearin’ the whole world down. One day, missie, y’gonna be incharga buildin’ this valley up again,” Nana’s steady hands, sculpted by bloodshed, by love and by time, bound-off the final stitch. And carefully, she gathered up the scarf from where it dangled down between them. “I reckon you oughta be lookin’ real swish when y’do it!”

She held it out in offering.

Teenage eyes so earnest, and bright with a humble soul widened in disbelief.

“For me?”

“You earned it, kiddo!”

As though she were cradling a newborn babe, Carmina took hold of her gift, letting it rest gently in her arms. And she whispered a silent thank you. In the hush of the valley, she could almost hear it carry on the breeze, cast out to all the lucky stars across the cosmos, honouring the sky and it’s kindness, for it had given her so many gifts. The cloudless vista under which she sat, each day anew with promise and life. The rainbow had shed a skin for her, one that she held close to her now.

And the sunshine itself, that shone eternally in her Nana.

“You young’uns gotta build,” The old woman’s voice was far gentler than usual. An uncharacteristic weariness sat nestled between words and breath. Yet… there was hope. “An’ you gotta do a better job than we ever did.”

The child of the new world nodded. She wrapped the scarf around her neck, letting her hair tangle and tuck into its folds. Cosy. Cocooned in the warmth of dedication and patience. Distinctly smelling of home. Each lump and bump beneath her fingers was a tangible shrine to every precious moment they had spent stitching it together.

Feeling it embrace her, Carmina Rye’s eyes teared in the corners, glistening with pride.

And she smiled:

“Seems like we made a good start.”

[loquaciousquark]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E64 (May 28, 2019)

Another week, another adventure into the the wild and dangerous minds of BWF and his wacky sidekicks. I have to say, the quality of Critical Recap has increased dramatically since it first started. Awesome job, Dani! Tonight’s preroll is the celebration of the birthdays of Laura & Liam, which is today, May 28. For those who don’t know, this shared birthday is why they decided to create twins in the first campaign.

Tonight’s guests: Taliesin Jaffe & Matt Mercer.

Tonight’s announcements: Next Monday, June 3, the episode with Ashley Johnson of Between the Sheets will finally air at 7PM Pacific. Brian says she hates talking about herself, but he got her to open it up. They’re already filming season 3 of Between the Sheets, and that will drop monthly episodes once it begins airing. The My Little Pony oneshot, led by Mark Hulmes from High Rollers, will air this Friday night, May 31, at 7PM Pacific. Roger Craig Smith will be one of the special guest stars on that episode. Tales of Equestria will be loaded to YT on Sunday. Denver Pop Culture Con will be this coming weekend. Limited photo and autograph tickets are still available.

Episode 64: A Dangerous Chase

CR Stats: The phrase “end of the day” was used 11 times this episode. 5 things were invented: “don’t shoot the messenger,” “don’t beat a dead horse,” “par for the course,” the game of golf, and ravioli. Laura held Jester’s astonished look for 15 seconds. CR has now aired over 800 hours in total.

DMing for Colbert was surreal for Matt. It was a week one pipe dream for Matt, which means he was a little afraid it would be a letdown. As soon as they began talking about Stephen’s history, he started feeling more comfortable, but it wasn’t until he saw the first cut the next day where he realized how great it had been. He hopes it isn’t the last opportunity they have to play together. They managed to raise over $100,000 for Red Nose Day.

Caduceus is taking a Mary Poppins approach to talking to people as a way of teaching by example. He hopes people will realize that you don’t have to always use violence to get the information you want. Taliesin, on the other hand, realizes that will never happen. Matt talks about how much he really likes the the impact Caduceus has had on the game, and both Tal & Matt talk about the 3-4 day planning session they had on what high wisdom/low int looks like. “That’s rough, buddy.” “Ahh, that’s exactly what that looks like.”

The M9′s deception during Speak with Dead was a little better than Matt had anticipated, so he gave away a little more information than he’d originally intended. Tal talks about how this must have been something Clay watched happen many times growing up in a funeral home, seeing his family Speak with Dead in order to give peace to a grieving family. It’s an interesting juxtaposition of seeing something his family used a bunch of times growing up being used in a very different way now.

The Charis DC was just because it was a very very high DC--but not impossible. There are people in the world who know about it, but they wouldn’t have reason to cross paths with the M9. It would be like an archaeologist.

The stern Cad during the interrogation was partly an act, because he was trying to perform, but also because there’s a bit of Cad we haven’t seen yet. They all agree that in the cast of CR Ashley is the most actual zen. Everyone agrees Travis isn’t even in the running.

Cosplay of the Week: @graviteacosplay with this nifty Nott cosplay.

Matt was a little surprised they took a path just straight through the Barbed Fields instead of taking a more circuitous, safer route. He expected the rest of the group to protest and was more surprised when they didn’t. They talk a bit about Fjord as an agent of both order and chaos and about how he’s trying to find his place in the world.

The near-death experience has left Cad in a place where he’s not making the best decisions right now. He knows this is dangerous, but he knows they need to check it out, and since they’re “on a mission from God,” everything they do is right. “His risk assessment is a little off right now.” Matt is delighted remembering Sam’s face; BWF points out it’s rare we get one on Sam like that.

The Sorrowsworn are scary because they’re entirely based on emotion. To further develop them, Matt likes looking at their abilities and basing their movement in a horror-film way off that. He knew he would get Travis; he wasn’t expecting to get the rest of the table. “I was very proud.”

Tal has no idea how Cad will process these horror creatures. He wasn’t frightened or freaked out by the grotesque, but he wasn’t really prepared for it, and having Caleb go unconscious was a bit of a fright.

Brian mentions for probably the third time in this show that the next season of Blindspot will be the last one. I’m getting the feeling he’s very ready for it to be done.

When Matt was developing Xhorhas, he wanted to develop all these other societies without the ties to the dark gods. How would they develop with their clan ties? What about as people were assimilated into the clans? What tropes has he seen in other media that he needs to avoid? He talks about how when you build independent areas of your world, it’s a helpful thought experiment to imagine what would happen if they collided. He developed a lot of Xhorhas in pockets and then put it all together.

Tal asks Matt if he was surprised they’d picked up the dodeca. He wasn’t exactly surprised--he’d planned for pretty much all the outcomes of that particular early encounter. He’d meant it more as an exploration of the intro to the Xhorhas world and the Krynn dynasty.

Tal laughs about his very visible reaction to Laura’s Vex voice coming out of Jester this episode. It had nothing to do with his efforts at diplomacy later; he just realized he hadn’t been paying enough attention and had no idea what part of Jester this was supposed to be coming out of.

Fanart of the Week: Just a couple of bugs flyin around, by @_sunsetdragon.

In talking about Clay’s pranks on his siblings, he thinks at some point they at the very least took the bed of an errant sibling out while they were sleeping and put it in a tree overnight.

Matt talks about how if there’s nothing in the books that suits the monster he needs, he just creates one. Tal & Matt start talking about a monster he made for an old campaign called a Dragon Engine; it was designed to build a disease that turned all dragons in a world to crystal, which in turn slowly destabilized the world/planes. Matt took a Dollar Store doll head and covered it in Saran Wrap & hot glue with wings & tentacle bits in odd places. His inspiration was a fetus god boss from the Dark Stalker series. Tal remembers being so annoyed he made this amazing, horrifying creation out of four dollars’ worth of miscellanea. Matt talks about how you can do a lot of amazing things with a bit of hot glue (veins, paint, skinless surfaces).

Cad is aware that the the Xhorhouse is a stationary point in his quest; he is not measuring his quest via distance. He feels okay being stationary right now.

Dunamancy had nothing to do with Caleb; Matt had that inspiration on his own as he was developing the Krynn dynasty. It just ended up working very very well with Caleb’s backstory. He talks about how when he reads theories on Reddit about things linking up, 60-70% of them are actually complete coincidence.

Caduceus has zero interest in the war. At best he doesn’t really like the Empire, but Tal doesn’t think he has the intelligence to formulate a more complex opinion on the war. He has no stake in or understanding of the war in any deeper capacity.

Shakaste’s current location was made up on the spot. Everyone thinks about who Shakaste would main in Overwatch. Matt pulls out the McCree voice. Bastion’s short is Matt’s favorite. BWF loves Reinhardt’s. All three of them start talking about John Wick 3 which I HAVEN’T SEEN YET, GDI, if they spoil that I’m going to weep bitter tears of bitterness. Okay, good, we get out alive.

And we’re done and done! We linger on a shot of Matt & Tal trying to figure out why Episode #69 is funny... (nice).