#And I wouldn't have invited most of my family members because almost all of them caused problems or started shit

[banannabethchase]

I'm watching two YouTubers going over their wedding issues and regrets and OOH BOY can I second the "spend more than you think you need to on a photographer" recommendation. My photos came out absolutely abhorrent to the degree where my mom cried not-happy tears when she saw them. My friend who is usually the kindest, most gentle, most forgiving person in history said, "You're gonna demand your money back, right? Because if you don't, I will."

Also, if you're casual work friends with the bride and groom and they give the opportunity for people to do a toast, you are likely not the target for that open invitation. Be self aware. And, if you're going to do it, be prepared. Don't just stand up there and cry and say something weirdly romantic about the groom. Just. Just resist the urge.

I can also recommend holding firm boundaries if you need. On your wedding day, you learn that there are people who think it's about them, and you're allowed to make it absolutely clear that they are not the star of the show. And remind them that they are not entitled to your time that day unless and until you give it to them.

And, for the love of Christ, DON'T ANNOUNCE YOUR PREGNANCY AT SOMEBODY ELSE'S WEDDING.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

aita for avoiding my husband on purpose, like, all the time? my husband (m36) and i (f34) have been married for almost 10 years (anniversary in a few months). we have 3 kids (m10, f8, f1) and he works full time while i stay at home. even before we got married i didnt really have friends other than him, and i always had a hard time finding excuses to get out of the house. frequently, he gets to hang out with his buddies who he also works with, and ever since we had kids he's always going out and leaving me home alone even when hes not at work just to idk. hang out at bars and pretend we don't exist. well lately ive been making time for myself to go out when the kids are at school (my youngest is pretty well behaved so i just take her with me instead of paying a babysitter) and i had managed to get kinda friendly with some of the wives of my husbands coworkers (theyre all members of the same union, so we see each other at those functions every once in awhile). i thought it was all going well and i was having fun and enjoying getting to be social for once, but about 2 weeks ago, the whole family was invited out for lunch (a picnic type thing) with his buddies from work's families. all was going well and for the most part even the kids were having fun, but then my husband got absolutely fucking trashed for no reason. none of the other guys were acting like that, and we've had conversations about him not doing that sort of thing, but he NEVER listens. he's always acting like this, but usually i dont have to see when its in public. well he embarrassed me so fucking much. he was trying to start fights, messing up his clothes, and wouldn't listen to me at all. just in his own world as always. i should've known because its been a decade of this, but i could have sworn it wasn't this bad before. he wasn't like this when we dated you know? so we got home and i was just. grossed out and annoyed. i slept on the couch and pretty much ever since then, i haven't been talking to him. i got a text from one of the ladies saying that a wednesday hangout thing i had been invited to had been canceled, but i pretty much KNOW 100% that it wasn't, and that they just don't want to be associated with me now. the kids don't really seem bothered by the tension around the house (i think its sort of normal to them since hes frequently not around anyways). i wouldn't be near as annoyed if there wasn't a part of my brain telling me "he did it on purpose". i know that's just how he acts but i could SWEAR its almost like he just doesnt want me to have friends. he doesn't want to hear about it, he just wants me THERE at home, watching the kids and existing solely for his convenience. i used to consider divorce, before we had our youngest. but i haven't had a job since high school, and i couldnt put the burden of asking for help on my sisters. they hate him, but i couldnt ask them for that support. and i dont even know what the kids would think, i cant do that to them. but yesterday, my husband brought it up (cornered me in our room pretty much) and asked why i was ignoring him. what if he really didnt know why? i TOLD him, but its like he forgot or just expects me to be "over it" by now. all i wanted was just this one thing, to HAVE FRIENDS, have that time away from being just "mom" and do what i want. he gets to do that so why cant i? or AT LEAST he could put some more effort into being around and doing things as a family? but i still wonder if im being the asshole, for giving him the cold shoulder for this long. he didnt have a happy childhood or good examples for parents so maybe he just thinks this is normal? i never asked because i assumed he knew it wasn't. and he does seem like, disappointed that i wont come to bed. maybe ive been driving him off and that's why he doesnt like to come home? idk at this point, im at a loss. aita?

[dotster001]

Headcanons of what if the reader accidentally called the staff members dad?

A/N: Gn! Reader. Hope this is what you're looking for, anon/hope you're still here cause I take forever on these 😂

"Azul asked me to bring you this paperwork," you said, handing him a stack of papers.

"Excellent, prefect. You've been incredibly helpful lately. In my generosity, I have decided to give you the next week off, and take you to a beach house!"

"Really? Thanks dad!"

Preens. You've made a huge mistake. Good luck to you. You will now be smothered by an overexcited crow.

He hasn't touched up his nest in a while. As headmaster he has no time to think about a family. But now that you called him dad, he is going home and touching up his nest so that his little chick will be comfy. Crow's like to keep their babies in the nest, some of them for years at a time. You're gonna have to tell him at some point that no, you will not be staying in a nest, you will be staying in Ramshackle to finish your education. (This will not stop him from subtly directing you in the direction of said nest)

He's picking at your hair, and straightening your outfit. He does that mom thing where he licks a handkerchief and tries to clean the dirt off your face. If you tell him to stop, he'll say something like, "now now, let papa help." God, I don't envy you.

He buys you shiny trinkets that have no value. But  he can't help his genetics. It's how he expresses affection.  You and Grim may trip over them sometimes, cause he just will drop them in the most random of places. (ex. The middle of the floor)

If you ever try to take it back, whether it's out of pure desperation or annoyance, he will sob. He will sob so hard. He's not trying to manipulate you. He just doesn't see what he did wrong.

He'd invited you over to dinner. 

"Yeah, I don't really have plans for the summer holiday yet, because, well, you know.."

He cut a piece of his steak, and said, "You can always stay with me. My daughter's are all grown, so they're rooms are empty. Plus they've been wanting to meet you." He gave you a soft smile, the kind of smile that made you feel safe.

"Sevens, that sounds great dad," you said with a sigh. Both of you froze.

He already knew you felt that way about him. But having you say it out loud fills him with fatherly pride.  It's been a while since his kids were young enough to spoil, and he's definitely missing it. Now that you've opened the box, he has all the permission he needs.

He'll act like everything's totally normal though. He still expects you to get your classwork in on time, and strongly discourages you from getting into trouble with your friends. But it somehow seems more insistent? Like when he sees you going to hang out with ADeuce, and he says to stay out of trouble, it sounds more like, "Dear god, please don't do anything stupid!"

He offers to help you with your homework a lot more often now. He had already offered from time to time before, but now it's a lot more often. Like calling him dad was giving him permission.

He gives you presents every once in a while. Expensive presents, wrapped in a neat box with a perfect bow. He acts like it's nothing. When he hands it to you he says how he just was passing through the store, and saw it, and thought it was something you needed. No biggie.

Lucius follows you around a lot now. You have no idea why…

"You were almost correct here. You need to add mustard seed, or it won't work," Crewel said as he looked over your homework with you. 

He definitely didn't have to go over your homework with you line by line, but you definitely appreciated it. 

"Oh, yeah! Thanks!" You made a note so that you wouldn't forget later.

"Not a problem. Anything for my favorite pup. Don't tell the others though," he gave you a playful wink.

"No problem, no one has to know, dad." 

Oops.

Oh? He might raise an eyebrow, or give you a smirk, but he won't say anything. It'll be like it never happened, and you can convince yourself he didn't hear it.

But he definitely did. He heard it. He goes home to his dogs that night, and picks them up, and cuddles them close, and keeps telling them, "they called me Dad!" 

Like I said, you can convince yourself he didn't hear it. But every once in a while he'll slip and do something that makes you wonder. Like he'll gently rub the top of your head. Or he'll tell you he understands if you don't get your homework in, just don't let it happen again. Or when your idiot friends drag you into a scheme, he'll get you an exemption from the detention that inevitably follows.

Crewel has a habit of adopting students already, without realizing it. Vil's your brother now, by the way.  He'll invite both of you to dinner in the guise of "checking up on my most studious pups" but it's really to just spend time with his little found family.

You won't know for sure he heard it, until after you graduate, when he offers to sponsor you through whatever you want to do. Cosign leases and loans, transportation to an interview, purchasing a uniform, letter of recommendation…. he'll do whatever you need, and when you're like, "Sir, I'm not sure how to repay you!" He'll say, "It's a dad's job to help out his pup." That's when the memory of that fateful day comes rushing back to you.

Sam let you work weekend shifts with him for extra cash. You didn't know how he always knew, but whenever the shop was closing, if you hadn't bought anything to eat that day, he'd get you something and have you eat it while he did closing tasks.

"I can eat this later, Sam. It's no trouble!" 

"You've done enough work, my little imp. You're no use to me if you starve to death," he laughed. "Plus your health is important to me, even outside of you working here."

"God, dad, you're just the best!" 

You've known him long enough to know that if he didn't hear it, his "friends" certainly did. No matter how embarrassed or flustered you are by the mistake, you know that he knows. And he won't easily forget it.

On the whole, your relationship doesn't change. To him, you saw him as Dad already. So that's that.  He doesn't need to change, and you don't need to change.

That said… now that the words have been said…he has his friends specifically watching you at all times. Just in case. If you've ever started to fall, and felt someone catch you, but when you turned around you saw no one there…that's not your guardian angel. That's your dad's shadow.

Okay…not everything stays the same. Merch from your favorite things are always in stock at the store from now on. Neither of you addresses it…but deep down you both know.

"You wanna be as tough as me, right? You need to do at least ten more pushups!"

"God, you're the worst, dad-"

Fuck.

Oh man. You've made a huge mistake. (Part two) the conversation will go as such. "Dad huh?" "Uh, I-" "Ha ha ha! Well,  you're gonna have to bulk up! Just trust your old man, he knows what's best! Fifty squats! Go!" God, you're fucked.

Wakes you up in the morning with a booming laugh, and a green smoothie of unknown origins. Once you chug the smoothie, with indiscernible flavor profile, it's time for your three mile jog. He'll go slow for you. If you complain he'll say, "Dad knows what's best for you! If you want to be as fit as me, this is only the beginning!" If you continue to complain,  he'll make you do a plank until you give in and join him on the run.

You can't look at this man and tell me he doesn't give the best hugs. Before you dropped the d word, his affection was expressed with a pat on the back. Now, when he sees you, he scoops you up in a bear hug. I don't care how tall or short you are, your feet are off the ground when he hugs you. 

Surprisingly? He's the most gung ho about who you want to date. Gym teachers see students at their worst and most desperate. He's seen Azul try to con his way out of flight class, Leona get flaky and take a nap, Cater attempting to split card his way out of laps…none of them are worthy of you! Besides, they can't even lift, bro! You're not from here, how are any of them supposed to protect your magicless, muscle less body? Now that he's dad, he's way more vocal about his opinions. Good luck.

[coupleoffanfics]

How would Batsis! y/n become a villain?

I found this while trying to clean up my writing drafts. Not sure when I wrote this, but I decided to post it because why not.

Jerome Route

If she had no friends, that connection with Barbara, or relationship with Jeremiah then Jerome would have a considerably easier time charming y/n. The emotional neglect from the family makes her desperate for any sort of contention leading her right into the hands of Jerome.

The family would believe that y/n can be saved, but she sees them trying to save face. Trying to stop her from telling Jerome all the big bad Batman's secrets by saying they're sorry and that they care. She doesn't end up telling him about their identities because someone has to keep Gotham safe. She's with Jerome, but she doesn't agree with everything he does.

y/n might purposefully sabotage Jerome's schemes. It's not because she cares for the family, no. It's for Batman and his Robins to keep innocent people safe. She keeps the family and their personas separate. At least she'll try to see them as separate.

Her logic is backwards and hypocritical, but frankly she doesn't care enough anymore. All that matters is Jerome's love. Who needs friends or family when you can have Jerome?

y/n and Jerome probably argued over wedding ideas.. Jerome wants a circus theme with a replica of his mom as a pinata. While y/n wants a traditional, elegant wedding. They compromise by letting y/n have that traditional vibe with the ceremony and Jerome can go batshit with the reception.

Jerome never put so much thought into something before and he never wants to do that again.

The Batfamily was not invited of course. The family most likely hears about it or even sends wedding photos. y/n probably has Joker or some other villain walk her down the aisle. Bruce sulks about it for months.

Post-Spray Jeremiah Route

If y/n had no one else besides Jeremiah and her moral compass was cracked. Then of course she's almost going to believe everything he tells her.

There's no denying that Gotham is a modern day Babylon. Yeah, the world would be better without it. Maybe it would be a good thing if we do get rid of it. Yeah, we could rebuild it!

But she'll run into the same problem of not fully following Jeremiah's ideology. At least how he goes about obtaining the goal of cleaning up Gotham. The cult stuff freaks her out a lot. When his followers bow down to her and praise her, she'll tell them to stop but he orders them to do that.

After expressing her discomfort over the cult and the followers' behavior, Jeremiah will distance her from it. Having her become sheltered in the bunker or a manor hidden away in the woods. Meaning the only relationship she can have with anyone who isn't Jeremiah is Ecco. Even then Ecco is  just another follower that was trained to be a guard dog.

This version of y/n wouldn't be too involved compared to the Jerome route. But if Jeremiah was caught and sent to Arkham, y/n is sneaking in to break him out. It could be by disguising herself as a guard or forcefully entering it with full confidence.

The family would try to reason with her if only they could actually talk to her. Again since she's not hands on it's a rarity for them to see her.

The few times they've met face to face was when their hero personas. Jeremiah and Ecco were busy fighting off the others, giving them time to talk. If they try to convince her to leave him, she'll either ignore it or tell them about how he's all she ever had. The only family member that could possibly break through to y/n would probably be Jason or maybe even Barbara.

Jeremiah and y/n get offended when they're compared to Joker and Harley. They'll clearly be different because they have a healthy and loving relationship. People probably come up with the comparison because of his physical appearance and he hates it. They're not wrong when they say their relationship is loving, but it being healthy is debatable.

y/n is more than willing to kill or torture someone if they were to do anything to Jeremiah. Though once again her hands are off, but doesn't mind getting her hands dirty.

y/n is the type to write like love letters and put them into Jeremiah's pocket before he leaves. He's in the middle of fighting Batman and suddenly a pink paper with a red heart border falls out of his pocket. Seeing it makes him scramble to grab it and shove it back into his pocket. He'll read it later.

This y/n might live a more semi-normal life, but probably struggles with loneliness and depression. Since Jeremiah is often working and Ecco is Ecco.

Sprayed Route

The moment y/n realizes what is happening she goes to Jeremiah and contacts Barbara who informs the family. They'd probably find a cure, but for the sake of story and angst let's say they can't.

Everyone is just forced to watch y/n become what essentially a Joker lookalike. Or she could look completely the same, doesn't really matter because they'll all be horrified by the drastic change.

She'd use the knowledge of their identities against them. Dangling it above their heads, but it isn't long before they realize that she isn't going to say anything. Oh, but she's definitely telling Jeremiah all about this. Of course he swears to never tell anyone and he might start working with the family to lock y/n up.

Not only was she endangering herself, but others as well. The best thing for everyone is to lock her up.

If she learns about Jeremiah working against her. She'd be so heartbroken. Violently throwing and smashing everything in the room she was in before coming up with an idea. 'He'd never be against me, they probably forced him to work for them. It's all their fault. They always ruin everything, but I won't let them take him.'

Out of all of the other possible routes this y/n would be the most vindictive. She'll guilt trip the family with her sob stories of their neglect, their personas won't won't react. But she knows they'll be thinking about what she said hours later. She'll spit out insults and won't hold back fighting.

Her once passive and defensive fighting style has completely flipped to almost recklessly aggressive. The only way she'll stop fighting back is if they restrain or knock her out.

Arkham isn't hard for her to adjust to. She'll explain to her few visitors (Jeremiah, Barbara, and Alfred) that it reminds her of Wayne manor. But less lonely.

Barbara and Alfred are the only family members she'll allow to visit her. As she still has a bit of a soft spot for them. Will not admit it, but she's always pleasantly surprised when Babs visits her or Alfred sends her some of his cooking. It almost makes her tear up and feel immense sadness. Just almost.

Probably besties with Riddler or something. Most Arkham inmates know of the name Jeremiah Valeska by how much y/n will mindlessly ramble about him. They also know not to mess with him because they'll be put on top of her shit list.

Masterlist Here

[ivykim]

WHAT'S IN IVY'S BAG?

SYPNOSIS: ivy has been invited to do a photoshoot for Dior. not only will she be doing a photoshoot. as a promotional video, she would be doing a small q&a and a 'What's In my bag' video. how will it go?

ivy's outfit: miss dior

MASTERLIST

ivy was invited to do a photoshoot for dior. it was actually ivy's first time going through such schedule. there have been multiple offers given to her however, the company ultimately never agreed to sign the contract.

so this was ivy's first ever chance to do so.

"are you nervous?" the interviewer behind the camera asks. ivy laughs a little.

"a little. this is my first time I'm without enhypen so it's a little awkward."

ivy waves to the camera, "hello. this ivy from the kpop group ENHYPEN. today, I will be doing a Q&A along with showing what's in my bag."

she brings out her dior bag, it wasn't a super huge bag just a simple shoulder bag.

"actually, I just recently got this bag, and I was soooo obsessed with it. I own a couple of bags from all the sponsors we have, like prada. however, this is the bag I've been using most. I even bring it to practices because it has enough space to fit in everything I need."

ivy pulls out a pouch. she opens it. "oh okay, there is a Polaroid of enhypen. right! this pouch is where I keep all the Polaroids i took. hence there is a bunch. I was going to put them in the scrap booking journal I have."

— "how long have you been doing scrap booking?"

"mmm, for as long as I was 10. I liked keeping memories. my mom was also someone who loved scrap booking hence she kinda influenced me to take up on the hobby."

ivy shows one of the Polaroids. "this Polaroid is something that I treasure most because this was the first time heeseung and me ever had a friend anniversary. friendsary as I call it."

— "you and heeseung have been friends for almost 10 years. how do you two manage not falling for each other?"

"simple. we are idols. it would ruin our career." she laughs. "I'm kidding. honestly, it is a taboo subject to talk about as idols. between a girl and guy, surely people would think there is something going on. for me and heeseung...we kinda just grew naturally comfortable with each other. we are best friends. friends who care about each other. so I don't think we could ever cross that line."

while it was partially true, she had to keep her relationship a secret. otherwise, a huge scandal would happen. ivy couldn't do that to the group.

she pulls out the next item, her makeup pouch. "oh, I kinda forgot i had this here. this is my makeup pouch. all the essentials."

they showed all of her makeup products that she uses and bought.

— "do you normally wear makeup?"

"on normal days when I don't have schedule, I don't really bother." she giggles. "if I actually bother, I'll just put on light makeup. maybe like lip balm and a little eyeliner."

she pulls out her casing for her jewelry. "ah, this. sunoo actually bought for me this because he saw how my necklaces always got tangled up hence I have this." she points to the ring, "this ring is actually a friendship ring between me and jay. I think ENGENEs have seen me wear it a lot."

"oh and this necklace. a Tiffany and Co. sunghoon bought this for me because he knows I like wearing simple necklaces. it has mine and his initial on it." she points out.

SHVY

— "you seem very close to your members. have you ever thought about dating them?"

"oh umm, no. like as I mentioned before for heeseung. I don't think I could date any of them as they are like family to me. they are people that I care about platonically hence there wouldn't be any romance in that aspect." she answers respectfully. she knew something was up. it was suspicious of them to ask this.

she eyes the staff discreetly. it seemed like they were smirking at her. they spoke to each other as they discussed the next question to ask her. ivy just tries to focus on her main task. she pulls out the next item she had in her bag, her phone, tablet and 2 sets of earbuds.

"as I'm travelling, these two are my biggest essentials. I'm constantly on my phone and tablet as I write songs on them. I also alternate between the two buds. if one of them dies after I use it, I can charge it and use the other one. this also happens a lot in the plane so I bring both of them."

— "as enhypen travels around a lot and you guys are constantly at the airport, what do you do during your free time in the plane?"

okay, decent and okay question. ivy gives them a warm smile, "we usually catch up on the very much needed sleep as our schedules are packed. though it didn't directly say their schedules were pretty much fucked up, in a way she wanted to poke at belift for making them go on tours and practices a lot.

— "do you and the boys usually sit together?"

okay, kinda weird discreet question again. "umm, most of the times. we usually sit two people so we're paired up. most of the times I sit with heeseung and ni-ki."

with no further questions, ivy continues to pull out her last item from her bag.

"this is my favourite perfume. it's the miss dior eau de parfum. I've actually been using this since debut as my mom gifted this to me after I was announced as part of the debut line up."

— "that is really sweet! are your parents also close to the other boys?"

"yes, of course. my mom really treats the boys like their kids and my dad says that he has 7 sons that we wished he had." ivy giggles a little. "I do think that would be a lot for my parents if they had 9 kids. my parents already had a hard time taking care of me and my younger brother since we were rowdy kids back then."

ivy remembers, she pulls out something from her bag and it was a cute keychain. "oh, I just remembered about this. so recently, my younger brother had visited seoul with my mom. I had also tagged along with them and we got matching keychains. these were handmade so it's even more special."

– "as an older sister, do you and your younger brother ever fight?"

"well, instead of fighting. me and my brother used to argue a lot. there were disagreements, and sometimes we hurt each other. in the end, we do make-up. i will say, between me and my younger brother, our sibling relationship has definitely got better as to compared to when we were kids. maybe it's just that we are both adults/almost adults. hence, we realised that maybe we should grow up and cherish our time together. I don't see my younger brother often since he stays in America with my family."

– "thank you for today, ivy. is there anything else that you would like to add?"

"be sure to check out the latest magazine to see me on the cover page! please like and subscribe to the channel. oh and please support us for the next ENHYPEN promotion!" she makes hearts and blows kisses to the camera.

– "and cut."

after the director says so, ivy's lets out a sigh of relief quietly. somehow, this was even more nerve-wracking than performing in front of thousands of ENGENEs. she thanked and bowed to all the staff that helped with the photoshoot and video. she had to keep the sweet idol persona as she didn't want any of the staff to think she was rude in any way. even if the staff that asked the questions were a little suspicious.

ivy walks over to the changing room. she notices heeseung waiting there with a bouquet of flowers. she turns around to check on the door to see if it was open. one of their makeup stylist shuts the door and ivy hugs heeseung.

"hi pretty, how was the photoshoot?" heeseung's sweet voice resonates.

"mmm, it was good. I was satisfied with the photos. I think ENGENEs will like it."

"so this might beat the bite me concept photos?" heeseung teases.

"oh, I don't think so. that photoshoot was like top tier. ENGENEs were calling me goddess." ivy sassily flips her hair. heeseung laughs.

"yes, baby. you are a goddess. my goddess." heeseung pecks her lips. ivy wraps her arms around heeseung's neck.

"do we have any other schedule after this?"

"mmm, we have to go Indonesia for our fate plus tour."

"so airport."

"mhm, have you packed yet?"

"no. it's been hectic." heeseung pats her head.

"I'll help you, how about that?"

"yeah. that would be great."

and so they went back to their dorm and got ready for their flight to Indonesia.

[jokeroutsubs]

[ENG translation] Joker Out at Eurosonic 2024: an interview with Kris for Val 202 radio station

Today, 22.01.2024, Slovenian radio station Val 202 broadcasted an episode of their 'Glasbena zgodba' ('Musical Story') podcast about the Eurosonic 2024 festival that happened last week. Eurosonic is an annual showcase festival and music conference in Groningen, The Netherlands, where emerging European acts perform for industry professionals and festival scouts. Joker Out performed there this year, so today's podcast featured a short interview with Kris Guštin. You can find the original post here or listen to the original audio in Slovenian in the embed above. Here is the translation of the interview, translated by a member of Joker Out Subs and proof read by @flowerlotus8.

Host: The first group we mentioned, Joker Out, performed twice during the festival. First on Wednesday on the MAAS main stage, and the next day, on Thursday, in the Platosonic record shop, where The Strokes also performed in the past. I invited Kris Guštin, who talked to the fans there in Dutch, in front of the microphone.

Kris: Well, my great-grandma and my grandpa's entire side of the family, who are from Indonesia, live in a place called Assen, which is 30 minutes out of Groningen. It's actually the closest big city for them.

Host: Joker Out haven't performed at many showcase festivals, Kris counts Eurovision and the PIN festival in Skopje among them.

Kris: Showcase festivals are maybe not that important or necessary for us anymore, but we still liked doing one or two, to experience it. It is, however… For performers who are really still looking for an international audience, and especially those who would like to present themselves to industry people from abroad, it's a pretty great chance. It's the same with MENT¹, for Slovenia, of course.

Host: Were you thinking about, or were you under any pressure, considering that there were many music professionals in the audience?

Kris: Not really. It's… We were aware that it would be harder to make a good show, because people wouldn't be that oriented towards us and our music, which is totally understandable. I have to say, however, that I was honestly surprised and happy that we had the first three rows or so of our fans, who really made the atmosphere more lively, otherwise it would've been pretty hard. I did, however, also see... The best kind of validation is to see these people who, at the beginning, are standing in the back and not participating in the concert, who are then bobbing their heads by the end. That's always a good sign of a good concert.

Host: The members of Joker Out, who will release a new single in February and go on another European tour soon after that, are currently living in London, where they are getting used to life there and, as Kris says, creating new music outside of their comfort zone.

Kris: But just as a fun fact, well, I will say that now that we are in London, we've made a song that is the most Balkan song we've ever made, so it's… it might have a completely opposite effect. We don't really have any idea yet where it will take us.

Host: In Slovenia, you made a living with music. Now that you've gone abroad and have all these concerts, is it as profitable as laypeople imagine?

Kris: I'll say it like this: if we stayed only in Slovenia, we would be making more money right now than we actually do. But we have, I don't know, some kind of a chronic flaw where we never know how to stop investing in ourselves, well, how to say it. Which is actually a great thing, but such... touring abroad is definitely not a profitable thing for a band at our level, but I will say that it is less of a financial burden than I thought it would be. We are lucky to have so many listeners that in the previous season, the previous tour, we sold out almost everything, which means that it did bring us some money, but with all the... plane tickets, accommodation, transport, it amounts to so much that in the end, we just managed to nicely finance all of it, plus maybe get some money for the album this year. Otherwise, it's not like we're making big money. If we had stayed in Slovenia, we would've just pocketed all that.

¹MENT Ljubljana is one of the leading showcase festivals and music conferences in Central and Eastern Europe and the largest event of its kind in the region.

[gamerbearmira]

More resident Evil stuff!

Antonio 1000% tries to follow Mirable everywhere she goes! And as much as Mirable would love to bring him to the meeting she doesn't want to expose him to Miranda anymore than she has too she's the most protective of Antonio because of his age(it also helps that his adorable and is the sweetest little boy ever) he does follow her everywhere in the house and if she's taking a trip to the village or the orphanage he joins her 9 times out of 10. The only time his not allowed to follow her is when shes going down to her lab in the house or when she's going to a religious service in town.

Of course I have Bruno! in my universe a little bit after Mirabel went missing he came out of the walls to try and help find her he helped with the search and after 4 months when they called off the search because it was clear she wasn't in the area he kept trying to have visions but he just kept seeing the black mold and he couldn't make sense of it. He did keep the original vision hidden in fact before he came back he snuck into his old room and found it and completely destroyed his old vision so no one would know(he was still scared of Alma's reaction.) he also refused to tell what was in the old vision that made him leave.

Mirable tries to keep her family away from the religious aspect of the village she's uncomfortable with the fact that she's worshiped and the whole cult that is the village. Of course the family does find out and they're all very uncomfortable with the idea of Mirable being worshiped and the fact that they are viewed as higher beings by the townsfolk because of the relationship they have with Mirable.

Miranda isn't always punishing Mirable, in fact Maribel out of all of the Lords gets the least amount of punishments the difference is that Mirabel's punishments in comparison to the other Lords are much more severe because more is expected out of her. Miranda actually often tries to force weird little dinners/lunches or tea parties onto Mirabel as well as getting her the odd gift of needles,instruments,paints/art supplies and oddly enough toys still, she views mirabel as younger than she is. Mirable gives the toys to the orphanage and then later Antonio after cleaning them (they sat in a bucket of disinfected for days almost a week then were scrub down).

I haven't actually thought about where Miranda made Mirable experiment on each family member and how that would physically affect them. All I know is that they wouldn't have too many mutations because the miracle protects them from it but in return for that their powers act pretty wonky like sometimes they'll work sometimes they won't and it's kind of up in the air when they do and when they don't. I think she might have made Mirable experiment on dolores's ears and maybe her mother's hands but everyone else I'm not entirely sure. I would actually like your opinion on that matter I do like the idea of Antonio and his eye.

Alcina has invited Mirable and her entire family to the castle for visits, let's just say it was very tense the first time that they actually did go to visit. The sisters were glaring at all of the family the entire time and being pretty passive aggressive/borderline threatening with the family and kinda possessive of Mirable. Alcina was being nicer in comparison she was also glaring though but not at the entire family just at Julieta she was being less passive aggressive but still passive aggressive but she wasn't being borderline threatening and was acting less possessive of Mirabel then the girls were though that was because she was restraining herself. They all were of course constantly calling the men in the family "man things" though they were a little bit nicer than they would have normally been and said that "they didn't seem to be as pest like most men".

MORE RESIDENT EVIL💪💪

Glad Antonio follows Mirabel around, and it’s understandable why she wouldn’t bring him to meetings. Even for how much he begs, she still says no. She’s just not willing to take that risk 😭 also Mirabel keeping her family away from all that worshipping stuff is. So true because Miranda is CRAZY and honestly the service are probably really weird, knowing Resident Evil 😭

ALSO BRUNOOOOO LETS GOOOO 🌚🌚 him coming back to look for her, nice to see he cares so much <333 I feel bad that he couldn’t find her with the vision, I mean yeah, it was hinting her location, but like. He don’t know what the black mold is or where it is 🤠 the fact that he tried though is what counts.

Even if Miranda doesn’t punish her. If THAT is tamed, I feel bad and wonder what the others go through (besides what’s seen in the of game). Her viewing Mirabel as younger than she really is terrible like dawg she is??? 15. 16. Wrap it up 💀💀 but at least the gifts go to some use (after some through cleaning). And Alcina and her daughters need to take it down a notch 🌚 I understand that they are attached to her, but I feel like they haven’t realized they haven’t noticed that Mirabel prefers her family, even if she still does like them to some extent. Rip to the guys of the family 🧌 though I always found it funny with Lady D and her daughters called Ethan "man-thing". Idk why 💀

AS FOR THE EXPERIMENTS UHHHHH. Ok I'll try but feel free to switch it up, these are just suggestions/ideas <333

Ok so obviously Antonio was on his eye. Originally it was his mouth, but the black mold spread to his eye, rendering it essentially useless. Camilo, it really didn't affect him appearance wise, but by far, his gift is ALL out of wack, the worst of the family. He cannot control it, and if he tries to use it, he just?? Turns into something not very pleasant to look at. Kinda painful for him as well; the only thing I'd say he could turn into, ironically, is a Lycan, anything human will just. Look like a balck mold vicitim 👺 Dolores' ears kinda always have this ringing sound, and while she can still hear pretty far, it's just overall not a pleasant experience.

Isabela, quite literally, has vines wrapping around her. Like they are digging into her skin, and she can adjust them and they can move, but they never go away. Luisa's isn't as bad, but the nerves in her arm were taken over by the black mold, and she's kinda in constant pain, so she doesn't use her gift nearly as often; in her arms, you can see where the black mold took over her nerves 😭😭

Julieta's hands were experimented on; told by Miranda to Mirabel to do specifically. She wanted to fugure out if her gift could be taken, and if it could be used to revive people. Well, Julieta had a really BAD reaction to the mold, really bad, and her hands started to burn. They, on a day to day basis, will spontaneously combust at any given point, except when she's asleep. Her hands always look burned, and no matter how much of her own food she eats, it never really goes away. Pepa has a constant cloud, even when she's happy. It's not always thundering, so she never knows when lightning will strike; 9 times out 10, it'll strike her, so she has a lot of lightning scars, and the black mold prevents her from dying; her hair has started to turn white. Bruno's eyes were experimented on, and now he's kinda in this perpetual state of seeing the future (and sometimes the past??? Maybe). His eyes are always glowing and he gets bad migraines. His vision is actually hindered a bit and everything he sees has a green hue around it 🗿

Miranda didn't care too much about the husbands because they didn't have a gift, but you know. Agustín got punished because he was yelling and trying to argue with Miranda; he was experimented on, but it didn't really effect him appearance wise. Felíx actually had some reaction to the mold, but mentally it made him really jumpy, and he's just not as happy as he used to be, though he does try to be optimistic, and is still just as protective.

Alma, I'm actually not sure??? Miranda probably doesn't like her very much, Alma is always picking fights, verbally anyway, and Alma will often be caught just glaring at her. She was experimented on but. Idk, maybe on Miranda and Mirabel know how it truly affected her, physically. Unless you or someone else has an idea LMAOOO

I LOVE THIS AU AND I LOVE RESIDENT EVIL❗❗❗🙏🙏 probably gonna do art of whatever the next ask is (if you have one)

Also. If you have any writing ideas I'd totally love to write a snippet or something <33

[electrosweaters-arts]

Question!

Is Victor in the cryptid college universe? What’s he like, if he is?

Victor IS in CC! In fact, he's already appeared in two pages during the prologue

He's kinda a silly little guy but I'm going to PREFACE real quick by saying: Victor in CC is probably the MOST canon-divergent in terms of personality you're gonna get in CC, at least depending on your interpretations of the OG book characters, but he's pretty different from how either of us actually view him in the book.

CC Victor isn't an exactly an evil mad scientist trope or anything (being a mad scientist in CC is basically like being a mathletes nerd but a bunch of you keep dropping random children off at other peoples houses) but he's just a bit of a general asshole, SPECIFICALLY because placing him in a modern college where EVERYONE is a monster changes who the character is a Lot. A lot of his base traits come from the book, but amplified as a parody like we do with all the CC characters (so yes he does get tropey on purpose) + some changes based on how being in a monster college changes his and the creature's story.

While not uncommon for mad scientists in this universe, he's pretty self-centered, he believes himself to be the superior scientist of his class and can often be rude and dismissive of other students' work. (Though he IS actually incredibly good at what he does, he's top 3 in the class and would most likely be #1 if Griffin didn't have a grading bias towards experiments that can help him with world domination)

(going to be using some LOVELY sketches from @internetwerewolf now <3 theyre the person currently drawing episode 1 of CC <3)

Also, before I forget to mention! CC victor is gay and autistic and both he AND both of the creatures have chronic illnesses that leave them with a lot of joint pain. Their illnesses are based off my own so since *I* don't have a medical diagnosis for my joint issues I can't put an exact name to what they have but ???? maybe Fibromyalgia? again, can't put a name to it but their joints are stiff and HURTY. Adam and Victor's symptoms usually manifest in more invisible ways, from time to time they will need a mobility aid of some sort but most days they get by with painkillers and compression-wear. (Mary almost always uses a crutch or a cane and from time to time will use a wheelchair)

And oh right, the creatures! Let's talk about the creatures, I'd say they're pretty important to Victor's character, wouldn't you? (^another @internetwerewolf doodle of Adam and Mary at Victor's dissertation)

Starting with Adam, Victor made Adam in his first semester of Freshman year at CCU (if you don't know, the school Oracle acts as the head of admissions for the school and is particularly in charge of inviting new mad scientists to the school, which is why characters like Victor or Jekyll were accepted and allowed to know about monsters before having made their experiments themselves, the Oracle knew that they would make them eventually) his reasons for creating and then abandoning the creature are mostly the same as in the book, the death of his mother gave him a fascination with restoring life to the dead but once he actually gave life to the creature he was horrified an ran out on it. Adam was left in Victor's dorm room alone for about 3 weeks before being found by an RA and due to school policy on mad science experiments he was given free room and board for the course of his college degree, he was also taught english directly from classes at the school and found a copy of Paradise Lost among Victor's old things, which gave him the idea for the name Adam.

Adam never actually killed anyone in CC, but he DID ask Victor to make him a family member. He was incredibly lonely from being unable to connect with any of the other students and wanted someone like him, Victor obliged before he and Adam got into an argument which ended with him partially destroying the other creature and leaving Adam to do the rest of the reanimating work himself. (This is why Mary is not quite made right, the stitching on her limbs is very loose and she's missing an eye)

The creatures' and Victor's overall relationship is rocky at BEST, most days they can't STAND each other and squabble any time they pass each other in the halls. Though Victor's family is all still alive AND Adam got his second creature so from time to time they can get along, if a topic in interesting enough for both of them Adam and Victor can hold a conversation for a few hours, and they will sometimes help Victor out if provided a good enough reason to. Mary's less likely to talk to Victor but that's mostly because she just...doesn't like talking to people. They treat him like a shitty dad, and as seen in the prologue they DO like to rough him up a bit from time to time for fun but they wouldn't ever really want to KILL him. (Hyde would. Hyde wants to kill him. Adam has to hold him back from it.)

This was WAY longer than I expected, kinda incoherent, feel free to ask any follow up questions if you'd like! I LOVE talkin about these guys :3

[golbrocklovely]

Well I completely disagree with you. While sharing every single full video would be wrong, sharing smth small is literally not a big deal and it’s nobody’s waste of money. If anything it can even invite someone to that website, if they find the clip interesting.

With that being said. Snc whole brand is surrounded by them making money out of everything. Merch, videos, main channel, react channel, website etc etc. it really won’t hurt their wallets or anyone else’s if someone shares a 15 seconds clip from their website. People are anyway still signing for it, moreover the clip can as i said bring some new people (usually people do not like pay money for something blindly, so in a way those people helps them advertise it… and let’s face it… that members is not cheap), nobody will loose their money that they invested in that website, just bc some user4729$3 decided to share a few seconds clip from xplore. And just to be clear, i don’t really give a damn how snc make their money and how much they have it or wants to have, but because we live in tough times where not all of us have the same opportunities, then being mad as a person that was lucky enough to be born within a family that gave you a roof, food, phone, television and money for your own better future (like better education or even some connections for better job) at people who decided to share A FEW SECONDS CLIP is just stupid. Whether you are a member or not, being mad at such a short clip is stupid, especially that those clips aren’t something idk private or something completely different that snc do. There are really bigger problems on this world than a 15 seconds clip from xplore.com roaming around Twitter

look, i feel like i explained myself enough in my previous response to you. personally, i don't get why you are upset at ppl being upset when others share stuff from a site that clearly you aren't on or apart of since you continue to get the site's name wrong.

and if there are more important things to talk about going on in the world, why are you talking about this? just asking.

when you sign up for the site, you literally agree to NOT SHARING anything from it. otherwise you could get banned. it's really that simple. but hey, you do you. play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

not only that, but as someone that does pay for the site, i don't want to see shit from the site leaked onto twitter or tiktok or insta or any other platform. the entire point of the content is that it is exclusive. meaning that NOT EVERYONE IS MEANT TO SEE THE CONTENT. ppl are going to be excluded, that is the entire point of the platform. and as i stated before, i am by no means rich or well off. i literally live below the poverty line, almost lost my house multiple times, and will most likely have to start working a second job bc i do not make enough to get by whatsoever. that being said, if i couldn't afford it, i wouldn't expect someone to share the info with me just bc i'm a fan of snc. you're not owed exclusive content just bc you're poor and a fan of snc. sorry, that's just the way it is. it isn't life or death information. it's just random fucking videos.

and bffr, if you are someone that is struggling that much; can't afford a house, food, a job, a higher education, and have a shitty fucking family…. i highly doubt you give a single flying fuck about snc or xplrclub. you have bigger fish to fry.

also snc have almost 13 mil subs and advertise xplrclub regularly on their videos. they don't need free promo lmao

[useless-bi-otch]

Cookies'n Cream - Chapter 33

Last chapter / MasterList / both arts by @aneenasevla

Chapter 33 - Better Days

TIMELINE: The last section of this chapter takes place at the same time as Heavy Bakery’s Chapter 35, under a different POV. You can read it here

.

The Uta family as a whole had seen a lot of bizarre things over the years. Being eccentric as they were, unusual situations were commonplace under the roofs of their members.

What none of them had ever seen, however, was a renowned fighter, an undefeated champion of an entire division, bowing before them and touching the mat floor with his forehead so frantically that they feared he'd hit his head too hard and would pass out right there.

"I'm so, so sorry!"

"Naoh, I said you don't have to do this...," Tomori starts to say, a little embarrassed, but Okubo shakes his head.

"No, I have to apologize," he lowers his head again. "If it wasn't for my temper and for accepting Tatsu's challenge, Mr. Uta wouldn't have-"

"No, Mr. Okubo, don't say that!," Mrs. Uta, as embarrassed as her daughter, makes soothing gestures with her hands. "What happened to Naofumi was nobody's fault but his own."

"You don't have to say it like that, woman..."

"Yes I do! How many times has the doctor warned you that there was no point in stuffing yourself with medicine if you didn't complement the treatment with the diet he prescribed?," She shakes her finger at her sullen husband, who at that moment was resting on one of the sofas in the living room, while the rest of the family sat around the tea table. "You almost left your children fatherless, your wife a widow ...!"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it!," Mr. Uta interrupts her impatiently, turning red. "Anyway, you have nothing to apologize for, Okubo. It was a bit of a silly stunt you pulled with Tatsu, but it's not like I didn't have fun too..."

"And I have to apologize too," Tatsuhiko scratches the back of his neck. "Sorry, Okubo, I just thought that was something my father would enjoy seeing, especially on his birthday…"

"And I enjoyed it!," The old man laughs. "It was the most unusual thing that has happened in this house in almost thirty years! It's only behind the disappearance of the Christmas ornaments from Fujiko's car, but only by a hair.

"It's a long story involving a dodgy Uber driver and a car chase. We'll tell you later," Saeko laughs too, seeing Okubo's flustered expression. Tomori smiles at him

"See? I told you they didn't blame you. It was an accident, Naoh," She touches his hand across the tea table. "We're only sorry that your first visit ended like that."

"And that you couldn't eat the cake Tomori made," Mr. Uta completed. "It had fruit, so we needed to eat it quickly…"

"That's okay," He smiles, blushing. "With a cook like Tomoh, it's just a matter of opportunity. Well, I'm a little more relaxed after that. I had to leave in a hurry that day, but I'm glad you're okay."

"As far as possible. I still have to rest and I can't even have my beer...," He snorts, and frowns even more when the whole family glares at him. "I already told you I won't drink, for God's sake! Anyway, it's good that you came, because I also wanted to thank you for your gift."

"Haha, you deserve it," he nods. "Nothing more convenient than me being a fighter and you being a fan of martial arts. Handing out a shirt autographed by SJPW fighters is something I would gladly do."

"And I thank you so much for that," The old man smiles from ear to ear, his eyes shining. "A t-shirt from the official SJPW line, and autographed by the Marvelous Seki himself? You made one of our dreams come true!"

"The other is to meet Marvelous Seki himself," Mrs. Uta cheers, and Tomori laughs.

"I already told you, if you show up more at the bakery, the chances of running into him increase. He appears there from time to time."

“That's how you managed to take all those pictures with them, right? Maaan, I'm so jealous," Tatsuhiko groans, and Saeko laughs.

"Let's see this as an invitation for us to show up more at the bakery too, haha."

"Hahaha… I can say that I already have enough reasons," Okubo smiles sideways. "But yes, he and several others appear there. And now that it's going to be close to a bunch of gyms, there's sure to be famous people showing up there too."

"Oooh, Kanami couldn't have chosen a better location!," Mrs. Uta claps excitedly. "​​And speaking of famous people…," She nudged her husband's leg, who nodded.

"Oh, right. There's something we wanted to ask you. If you don't mind…"

"Of course, just ask, sir," He smiles. "Whatever you need."

"So… we wanted your autograph and a picture with you!," Mrs. Uta asks, blushing a little, and Mr. Complete uta,

"It's for the Album! We wanted to do it at my birthday party, but after what happened..."

"Jeez, Tatsu! They'll pull the Album!," Tomori nudges her brother's shoulder. "This is a big event!"

"I know, right! We can't even touch it without permission, hahaha!"

"Oh, sure!," He smiles a lot. "A photo in this album, a family heirloom, with other big names? Sign me up!"

"Exactly! It's basically our bible!," Mr. Uta nods. "I'll go get it-"

"No, you can stay right there! Let me get it," Mrs. Uta commands, and gives no time for him to argue, getting up from the cushion and heading out the sliding door. Mr. Uta sighs wearily.

“Bossy woman… be nicer to Okubo than your mother is to me, Tomoh,” he jokes.

Tomori laughs, leaning against Okubo and arching an eyebrow.

"If he reciprocates by being equally nice to me..."

"You know that if it's up to me you'll become the most spoiled girl in Tokyo. You didn't got me off the leash only because you didn't want to," he jokes, squeezing her cheeks lightly to tickle her.

She blushes and pats his hand away, puffing out her cheeks.

"Knock it off! They'll think I'm with you only to get free stuff..."

"We would never think that, honey. You are the hardest person to gift in this family," Mr. Uta huffs.

"Dad!"

"What? It's true. You were all embarrassed when your mother and I got you a piece of jewelry for your twentieth birthday..."

"Same thing with us at her college graduation! Don't get offended, Okubo, she's like that with everyone," Tatsu snorts, and Tomori moans.

"Uugh, my own family is roasting me..."

"For real? Aahahaha, that's good to know," he smiles a bit maliciously, but it came out stupid too. "I already know the flowers you like, at least."

"Hunf… I like flowers, indeed," She nods with a pout. "And dark chocolate too. I don't need anything too expensive. I'm the easiest person to gift, actually."

"That's not for you to decide, haha..."

"Quit it, Tatsu!"

"Don't argue in front of the visitor, you two," Mrs. Uta returns, carrying a huge hardcover book in her arms, the kind that grocers used as a ledger. It had a worn look, but you could tell it was well cared for when she put it down on the table. "Here it is! Naofumi and I have been maintaining and updating this album since before we had our children.

"Oohhh, a relic," Okubo nods, opening his eyes. "I won't even touch it, it seems so precious."

"Well, you'll have to, we want your autograph here," Mr. Uta laughs as Mrs. Uta opens the book, flipping through the pages. Holy shit, all those photos, autographs and pasted items! Many were fighters he didn't even know personally, legends from the rings his generation had been inspired by. "And a photo too! Tomoh, go get the polaroid from the closet, please.

"Okay, but you two will still have to learn how to use digital cameras one day, haha."

"Oohhh… a polaroid!," Okubo smiles a lot. "I love these vintage things. I think it's funny. Oh, man...," He vibrates as he contemplates the pages of the Album. Holy shit, a collector would pay a fortune for something like that! "What a family treasure! I'm even a little envious..."

"Don't be, you will be a part of this soon," Mrs. Uta pushes the book towards him, and Mr. Uta offers him a pen. "Here, sign on the blank page, please!"

"Congratulations, you're making these two's day," Tatsuhiko comments, and Saeko completes,

"We can consider it an early wedding anniversary gift, right? Hahaha!"

"Hahaha… I thank you for the honor, sir, ma'am," he bows a little, with the pen in hand, for both of them, and writes a small message:

 “For Mr. and Mrs. Uta. May the heart flutter a little less, but may the joy remain the same.”

He signs his own name underneath, even doing a flourish to make it look nicer. "Done! Now, about the photo...?"

"Here!," Tomori comes back through the sliding door, bringing an old-looking camera in her hands. "So, is everyone ready? Aawn, mommy, daddy...," She suddenly coos. "Don't cry..."

"What? I- I'm not crying!," Mr. Uta exclaims quickly, looking away as Mrs. Uta sniffled and dried her tears with a tissue. "Don't talk nonsense, Tomori. I didn't cry  evenwhen you two were born, why would I cry now?""

"Liar. He did cry..."

"Stop that, woman! Let's just take this photo already..."

"Haha, alright! Settle down there, just let me set the timer... that's it!," She runs to sit next to Okubo, Tatsuhiko, Saeko and Mrs. Uta sitting around them while Mr. Uta sat on the sofa directly behind Okubo. He exclaims:

"Alright, I want everyone screaming like Ultimate Fight's MC! Three, two, one...!"

"IIIIIIIIT’S TIME!," They scream in unison at the same time that the camera flash illuminates them. And Okubo wanted to ask if they could take another one like it later, because he wanted to remember that moment.

 

* * *

They ended up taking another photo, and a much more relaxed one, and Okubo now carried it in a small envelope in his pocket, leaving Tomori's parents' house.

"Man… that second visit went much better," he sighs, after stretching. "Now I'm satisfied."

"Great! I'm very happy too," She sighs, closing her eyes and leaning the side of her head on his shoulder. "Especially because you got along so well with all of them. And you didn't found them tiring..."

"Nah, I thought it was great, for a couple of in-laws," He smiles. "Like I said, they love a lot of the things I like, so it's hard not to."

"Even my brother?," She arches an eyebrow playfully.

"Come on, the guy likes Ultraman!," Okubo shakes his hands. "Ultraman fans must unite!"

She laughs out loud. "Yeah, I guessed that. Just be prepared, because he loved the free armbar sample and will want to challenge you more, just to see more action from a professional fighter without having to pay for a ticket."

"Okay, but I'm going to ask him to bribe me next time, I'm not going to fold that easily," He laughs. "But I hope that fan glow passes too. You know, it's good to have people around you who are your fans, but…," He scratches the back of his head. "You taught me that it's much better to have people to whom I can show all my facets… and not be judged for it. I'd like to be the loudmouthed, smiling, kinda goofy and… well, cute Okubo Naoya with them."

She breaks into a huge smile, clinging to his arm in a side hug.

"I can help with that! It's gonna be a whole process, but it's also gonna be so worth it in the end. They'll learn to like who their daughter's boyfriend really is, like I did."

"Great! I want that," He nods. "And I also want you to feel the same with mine."

"Do you want me to meet your parents too? Wow, this is really serious," She comments, blushing with happiness. "It'd be my turn to be all nervous, hahaha."

"Hahaha, not now…," he smiles. "I still need to see when I can go to Osaka and all that stuff, I'll let you know when we can. But anyway, no need to be nervous, okay?," He takes advantage of the fact that the narrow street where her parents lived was empty at the time and bends down, kissing the top of her head. "I know they will love you, like I do."

She lets out a long contented sigh, closing her eyes.

"I hope so. Hey... I want to take you somewhere."

“I'll go with you anywhere,” He gets in the car. She sits next to him in the passenger seat, putting on the seat belt.

"Better put it in GMaps, it's a bit far from here. But it will be worth it."

And indeed, it was worth it. About thirty minutes later, they had arrived at their destination. Tomori is the first to get out of the car, all excited as she beckons him with a wave of her arm, pointing with the other.

"Come, come! It's right there! The construction was slightly paralyzed while Kanny is not discharged from the hospital, but they've already started."

He gets out of the car and looks at the place. "Wow, that's a big piece of land. How lucky you found this one! I see two gyms, one on each side of the block."

"Yes! And the SJPW headquarters isn't far either," She nods, contemplating with a proud expression the construction that was already being erected. It was clearly not finished, but the structure itself was already standing, being twice the size of the original location. "It will be a real restaurant when it's finished, with much more space. There will even be a veranda for those who like to eat outdoors, just like that bistro!"

"Oh," he blinks. "Nice! Will there be a second floor too?"

"No, it will only be one floor. But according to Kanny, the ceiling will be much higher. And the doors, wider. We're going to have a lot of six to seven feet tall visitors, after all,” She laughs.

"Haha, fair enough," He looks at the place. "I like it, if it has gardens it will be even nicer."

"Hiro will definitely want it, he loves plants more than he loves people," She comments in a playful tone. "This bakery will have space for us to do everything that we couldn't do at the old address. Kanny's dream is coming true...," She puts a hand on her chest. "And mine too, in a way. I just wanted to share this happiness with you..."

He just smiles, pulling her along. "Consider it shared and conquered, Tomori… Thank you."

"I should be the one thanking you… but you're welcome anyway," She brings him down by the shirt so she can reach his lips. "So, looking forward to being able to eat again at your favorite bakery every garbage day?"

“For that… and to see my favorite cook too,” He pecks her, and she giggles against his mouth.

"You've seen me almost every day since my month off started."

"Yeah, and I got used to it. I'll miss this..."

"Me too. But I have to get back to work," She caresses his face, touching forehead to forehead. "And you know where you can always find me," She indicates the building behind him with a nod.

"And you know that I always go there to find you," He kisses her on the cheek. "Whenever I can."

"I know you will. And there'll always be ruby ​​chocolate donuts with sprinkles and sugar cookies waiting for you. Whether or not they look like Kuidaore Taro, you'll have to keep your promise and show up to find out,” She touches the tip of his nose.

"I'd rather see your face. If I want to see a clown, I'll just look in the mirror," he laughs out loud. And she follows suit, her laughter immediately being muffled by his mouth.

Damn, only him could make her laugh after all those hard days. And she hoped it would always be like that from now on.

 

* * *

One month later

"...so, we're all set for our fishing weekend, right? There will be three tents, three fishing rods-"

“Hey, hey, what's up with all these 'three'?," Okubo looks indignant at Rihito, projecting his lower lip forward, while Himuro, Kaneda and they crossed a crosswalk after the stop light. "Are you already counting me out of this again?"

"And will you be able to go?," Rihito looks at him, bored. "It is customary for committed guys to forget about their pals when they found a girlfriend..."

"Fuckin' drama queen," Himuro rolls his eyes, while Kaneda laughs.

"I like to see that you're allowing yourselves to show your feelings more around each other. This whole jealousy thing is cute..."

"Hell no, dude, cut that out!"

"I didn't forget, I still have time for you guys, dammit," Okubo snorted. "Don't stop inviting me to hang out just because I have a girl to call my own. Would you forget about us if you had a girlfriend, you bleached fuck?"

"If she liked to fuck as much as I do? For sure!," He exclaims, and then he laughs aloud when the other three grunt. "It's a joke, chill out! But is it really okay for her, Okubo? If so, we can include one more rod in the baggage."

"Oh yeah, Rihito? You sure like the idea of having lots of rods around, right?"

"Fuck you, Himuro."

Okubo laughed out loud. "You guys are so full of shit. And of course it's okay, Tomori doesn't mind. She has her own friends too. We don't need to always be attached at the hip... not to mention that killing the longing when I get back will be too good," He opens an idiotic smile, ignoring the eye rolls of the other three. And then he pointed, "We're here, guys. There's the new bakery. I know you guys had a busy time and could only see it now, but what do you think?"

The three others saw the new facade. A bright red building with gold accents and the big logo at the top that reads “Heavy Bakery”, in an American style, with the typical logo, and an outdoor area with chairs and sunshades, and a garden of hedges and flowers.

"Man, now this is looking like a restaurant!," Rihito exclaims, smiling approvingly. "It even has a veranda!

"I'd be happy to eat outside, but I still want to see how it looks inside," Himuro comments, and Kaneda nods.

"I bet it looks great too. Wow, they nailed it!"

"Tomori said we helped as best we could," Okubo laughs, passing through the wide and tall glass door, made for people as tall or bigger than him. "Wow, look at that…"

The inner hall was even larger than the old bakery, perhaps twice the area, but it still gave a slight dejavu to anyone who had seen the first version. The difference was that the sofa tables were further away from the counter and in the middle there were more tables, in the same American diner style as the counter. And there was more couches on the other side. Tomoyo, the waitress, was no longer alone; three more employees were riding on roller skates, serving tables. And at the counter were Hiro and Tomori. He immediately went there, smiling.

"Wow, look at all this space! Now we can move around the environment much more freely," Kaneda comments, impressed while the other three idiots stay behind, admiring the new facilities. Himuro looks around and nods.

"I know, right. I wonder if they also updated the menu? Okubo went to order the usual, but it's always good to try the new dishes here-"

"Himurooooo!

"Ow, what the hell, dude?!," Himuro exclaims, almost bumping into Kaneda when Rihito grabs him by the collar of his shirt, his eyes wide and a little desperate. "Whyyyyyyy?!?!"

" 'Why' what?! Be fuckin' specific!"

"WHY DO I HAVE TO BE THE LAST ONE?!?!," He wails, scandalous, pointing to a table at the back. And there were Ohma and Kanami, sitting side by side, while she talked to him animatedly and he just listened, smiling, the peace he exuded being felt from the doorway. "Worse yet, I'll always be remembered as the guy who got a Girlfriend AFTER THE SEAWEED HEAD!!"

"Oww, my ear, dude, get off me!," Himuro pushes him away with a growl, not taking any more of that whining. It had been more than a month since they had discovered that it wasn't just Okubo who had found his better half at that bakery, and even then Rihito still hadn't let it go. "It's your own fault that you don’t have one yet.”

"He's right, Rihito," Kaneda smiles. "How about you be like Ohma and be comfortable on your own?”

"And look on the bright side," Himuro straightens his shirt. "Kaneda and I are single too. There's still a chance to give it a go. But I'll tell you one thing," He raises an eyebrow. "I don’t wanna fight for this.”

Unsurprisingly, turning it into a challenge is enough to assuage Rihito's sadness, which quickly recovers with a sharp smile.

"Bet, you chimney mouth!"

They go to find a table right after with Kaneda, who just smiles in exasperation with the situation. Okubo, who had already ordered and was watching Tomori arranging everything on a tray, watches them over his shoulder.

"Rihito hasn't stopped whining since last month, it's ridiculous…," He sighs. "Anyway, how's it going there, Tomoh? Do you think sales and production are doing well?"

"They're doing great! The clientele has increased a lot now that we have moved to an area frequented by gym rats," She comments excitedly as she arranges two donuts on top of a small plate. "And production has also become faster since we hired two more girls to work with us in the kitchen. Kanny still needs to rest, and Ohma is making sure she respects the doctor's orders," She smiles tenderly at her friend and her boyfriend, at the back of the establishment.

"Yeah, I can see that," He smiles. "I still find it hard to believe that he got a girlfriend. You see, Tomori, the guy wasn't exactly a player..."

"I know, we met him back then," She giggles. "And he hasn't changed that much since then. It's just that when he's next to Kanami... I don't know, it's like he feels like he can let his guard down, relax, because she's here to have his back, just like he does for her. It's so cute...," She sighs. "I'm so happy that my friend found someone! And also happy to share the sentiment, hehe."

"Me too. And to have found someone too," he smiles. "And, honestly? What I said at the beginning still stands…," When she asks herself what it is, he smiles, "My days have become so much better since I met you..."

Her eyes widened a little, bright and fascinated, the flush that rose to her cheeks only making her even prettier. She even stops arranging the tray for a few seconds to reach across the counter, lacing her fingers with his.

"Heh, good to know… because mine too." 

"Awwwnnn… when am I going to find one of these for myself, huh?!," Hiro puts his hands on his cheeks. "Soon all the employees all will have a pair, but not me!"

"We moved the point to an area between two gyms and a dojo, Hiro," Tomori replies immediately, while it was Okubo's turn to turn a little red. "There'll ne no shortage of handsome, muscular and single males showing up here everyday. Who knows, maybe you'll get lucky, hehe."

"Hunf… we'll see about that," Hiro snorts, jokingly, returning to the counter. "Cuteness runs wild around here, there’s still a possibility, who knows…"

"Good luck, dude," Okubo shrugs, and then looks at Tomori. "So, these are our orders, right?"

"Yes, they are-"

"No, something's missing."

"Huh? What?," She looks at the tray. What did she forget…?

"You, of course," He smiles. "See you at lunch break?"

She blinks. And then she snorts in the middle of a laugh, all flushed, her shoulders heaving as she hands him the tray.

"Ahaha, yes, of course! This order will come with a little delay, but the wait will be worth it," She winks at him. "After all, it's exclusively for you. See you then, Naoh."

"I'll be waiting. See ya," he winks at her, taking the tray, and leaving his seat, going to the table where the guys were.

They see him, and Rihito waves with an arm.

"Hey, dude! Did you ask the missus for permission to go fishing with us?"

"I asked, of course, and she also gave me permission to punch you in the face if you keep making these jokes," Okubo rolls his eyes, leaving the tray on the table. "And if you still insist, there won't be any food either."

"As if they'd be willing to lose a paying customer of my caliber, hahaha!," Rihito laughs, not even flinching with the threats. Himuro picks up his soda can, opening it while watching the movement.

"I don't think it would make much difference. The place is full, dammit..."

"I know, right! And I can see that we'll often see a lot of familiar faces too," Kaneda indicates the entrance door of the bakery, and through it, they see Sekibayashi, Haruo, Jose and the rest of the SJPW crew entering, probably after morning training, making a fuss and immediately going to greet the couple at the table far in the back.

That makes Rihito laugh again.

"Jeez… how long until some paparazzi start showing up here, wanting an exclusive interview with Seki or something like that?"

"I don't doubt that. I've already been approached," Okubo says, starting to eat his sandwich. "Imagine him, who technically has been on the road longer than I have."

"One way or another, this is great for the bakery's publicity," Himuro comments, biting into a piece of his katsu sandwich. "We did a great job, didn't we?"

“Yeah, but in the end, it was only Okubo who got anything for it,” Rihito whimpers, and Kaneda looks at him disapprovingly.

"We get great food for a fair price and the esteem of the owner and employees. It's already something..."

"Yeah, but I'd be satisfied with the esteem of one of the employees coming in the form of her friend’s phone number…"

"I can't do anything about that, bro. You'll keep insisting until eternity, but she'll only give her friend's number if she wants to," Okubo shrugs. "And when you stop being an annoying fuck."

"Which means, never," Himuro rolls his eyes, clearly joking.

"You wanna go outside? So let's fuckin' go outside!," Rihito slams his hands on the table, huffing. "Now there's a veranda full of space for me to beat your asses!"

"It's easier for Miss Kanami to take advantage of that space to beat you up," Kaneda grumbles. "Or just outside the bakery, really, so as not to ruin the tables, chairs and sunshades."

And they just stood there, making fun of each other while they ate, and Okubo was happy to know that that particular dynamic would never change. Things didn't have to be all that different, even with him now having a girlfriend. His friends would always be his friends, even with a new addition in his life. She had come to add, not to subtract or divide, after all.

And as promised, about an hour later, this new addition arrives, carrying her lunch on a tray.

"Excuse me! Is there any space left for me at this table?"

"For you? Always," Okubo gives her space. "Hey there," he smiles almost maliciously at her, placing a kiss on the top of her head.

She giggles and snuggles close to him, ignoring the nauseous and playful grunts of the other three.

"Everything's good! The workload just got a little easier to handle since we hired two more cooks..."

"Are they hot?"

“Yes, and they both have boyfriends. Better luck next time, Rihito," She says right away, and they laugh at Rihito's frown.

"I really can't catch a break… but whatever!," He straightens up in his seat. "We wanted to ask you something, Tomori. Can you free Okubo the other weekend, other than the next one?"

"Free him?," She arches an eyebrow at her boyfriend. "Did I put you in semi-open conditions or something? Hahaha!"

"They think you did, like I'm on a leash or something," He shrugs. "Even though I insist that we each have our own things and our own agenda."

"Hey, there's no 'they' here! I already imagined she wouldn't mind," Kaneda snorts, and Himuro explains:

"It's just that summer's almost over, and soon the first autumn fish will start to appear in the rivers. We want to go fishing..."

"Oh, fishing? I didn't know you guys liked it," She smiles. "You didn't have to ask, just let me know, so I wouldn't be worried by his sudden disappearance and think he was stolen from me or something, haha."

"I was gonna let you know when you got here at the table, but this guy loves to get ahead of me," Okubo smiles a little sideways.

"That's the difference between you and me, man. I don't waste time," Rihito mocks, turning to Tomori next. "And speaking of not wasting time…"

There's a chorus of grunts; everyone there already knew what was coming.

"Doesn't someone here deserve a phone number for being such a good friend?"

"Hnnn… Yeah, I think someone deserves it," Tomori says after thinking. Okubo, Himuro and Kaneda almost let their trays full of plates, cups and used napkins fall off the table in shock. But no one there looked more startled than Rihito, who even jumped up in his seat as he sat up straighter.

"Wait, really?," He raises a fist in the air. "Fuck yeaaah, I knew that one day this insistence would pay off-"

"Himuro, two of my friends who commented on my photo on Instagram want your DMs."

"Huh?! Him?!," Rihito chokes on his own saliva and almost cracks his neck as he turns around to face Himuro, who seems just pleasantly surprised.

"Uh- really? Sure, fine be me. What are their usernames?"

"Wait, wait, wait! I've been asking for a number for months, and he, who doesn't ask for anything, is the one who gets one?!," Rihito points to him, indignant. "Are you sure you're not forgetting someone else?"

"Hnnn... Ooh, true," Tomori nods. "I almost forgot."

"I knew it! Fuckin' finally-"

"There was a friend who also asked for your DMs too, Kaneda."

"You gotta be shitting me!," Rihito opens his arms dramatically, almost hitting Himuro's nose, while Kaneda just blushes and laughs shyly.

"Ahaha, wow, I'm flattered. But I'm not interested in dating right now, sorry..."

"Then give me her number!"

"Well, man, I don't think that a girl who liked someone like Kaneda will want anything to do with you," Okubo laughs, crossing his arms. "No offense, Kaneda."

"None taken," Kaneda smiles. "I’m in another league, one that Lihito can’t compete with…"

"And the criteria are beyond his reach," Himuro comments. "If Rihito at least improved the quality of his services…"

"What I'm going to improve is the quality of my punches in your faces, you assholes! Stop laughing at other people's misfortune!," Rihito complained while Himuro and Kaneda continued to laugh and tease him.

Tomori just smiled, delighted with the chaos she had caused. She took advantage of the fact that the three were distracted and called Okubo with a wave of her hand. And when he bends towards her, she says in his ear:

"I'll talk to Akane about him, I promise. But for now, I'll enjoy the torture a little longer, haha."

"Hahaha… you really are a she-wolf in sheep's clothing…," He laughs. "But you know… I've always liked wolves… I'm glad you only show that side of yours to me."

"And I'll keep showing it to you as long as you let me," She gives him a quick peck on the cheek, laughing when he pulls her into an equally quick but tight hug, the kind she loved to get.

He was always talking about how she had made his days better since they met. Did he know he'd been doing the same for her, over and over again?

She couldn't be sure. But she would certainly do her best to show it to him, every day they had together from then on.

THE END

.

And that concludes the second part of the Heavy Bakery Series. Thank you all so much for reading it and enjoying Okubo's torment as much as we did! Stay tunned for the third part of the series, which will come soon 0/

[casspurrjoybell-27]

Moving Forward - Chapter 13

*Warning Adult Content*

Heat

Waking up, the sky had turned dark and the moon was beginning to make an appearance.

Max turned over in Kyle's arms to make it easier to breathe because while Kyle was unrealistically comfortable, Max still needed air.

There was whine but Max just backed into Kyle a bit more.

Another whine made Max try to find Kyle's hand in an attempt to get him to be quiet and yet there was a third whine.

This time, Max opened his eyes and then blinked his eyes tight and then opened them again because dozing around in on the grass were at least ten wolves, most likely more.

"Rivers," Max's voice may have been soft but Kyle's body immediately woke up to the call.

"Yeah?"

Max turned in to face the other man.

"Why are there wolves in my back garden?"

Kyle glanced over Max's shoulder and then lay back down.

"Pack," he answered, as if that answered everything.

"Okay but why are they here?" Max pushed.

The question made Kyle's brow furrow, even with his eyes still shut.

"Why wouldn't they be?" the response halted Max for a second.

He wasn't one to overreact but this was simply confusing him and being more jaguar than lion shifter, he didn't understand, at all.

"Because it's my space."

Kyle blinked his eyes open and the pair stared at each with equally confused faces.

Max couldn't hold the stare for long but continued to feel the unasked questions stirring in both himself and in Kyle and then Kyle made a sound, like a surprised grunt.

"Claw marks?"

Max nodded.

"My marks."

"I saw them the first time I was in your garden but I forgot about them."

Kyle frowned.

"Territory," Max murmured.

"If there was another jaguar shifter in the area, we'd have to come to terms with where we can and can't go and divide the territory up."

"So..." Kyle prompted him to continue.

"So... as I see it, this town and the woods are mine but I'm also part-human, so I'm not completely unreasonable. I can't control who goes where," Max could feel his lips tighten.

"But this house is my den and I didn't invite them here. I don't know them."

Kyle gave Max a gentle smile and nodded.

Sitting up and gently nudging Max into his arms, Kyle howled.

It was instantaneous, the transformation from sleeping wolves to predator with their teeth bared.

At a low growl from Kyle, each one turned their head, baring their neck in submission.

It was quite fascinating to observe and Max found himself studying each one of them like a new project.

"Go home," Kyle said.

It sounded like a suggestion but each of the wolves turned to go, loping off and nipping at each other as they went.

"Where is home for you?" Max murmured, only just realising he'd never been there.

Kyle nodded in the direction the rest of the wolves went.

"I'm sure you could figure it out if you tried."

Max nodded.

'Maybe later,' he thought to himself and let his body relax back into Kyle's embrace.

"They're here because I am," Kyle finally stated.

Max only nodded to let River know he was listening.

"I'm not Alpha but I'm the older brother so it's likely that I will be but pack is family in any case. If I vanish for too long, they come find me. Same with any other member of our pack."

Max took a moment to take it all in and what he understood was that by taking Kyle away for too long was like inviting the other to come look for him.

The idea wasn't too appealing but Max could live with it if it meant getting cuddle up with Kyle like this on a regular basis.

"What if I just want you to myself?" Max mused.

After moments of silence, Kyle trailed his fingers across Max's collarbone, sending a chill up Max's spine.

When Max tilted his head up, Kyle's eyes weren't their usual smothering darkness.

Flecks of gold pierced through, bright against the almost black iris.

There was nothing smothering about them now.

Nothing bottomless.

They reached out to Max in a way that turned his shoulders and parted his lips and shortened his breaths.

"All you have to do is ask," Kyle answered.

He met Max halfway.

The kiss was like nothing Max had ever felt before, heat bursting in his chest and an incredible hunger for more immediately.

It was just a touch of their lips but it quickly became much more.

Their little flame became a glowing fire.

Luke had never, Max hadn't ever, this absolutely burned and Max adored it.

The gentle touch of their lips grew into bruising attacks over and over again, pulling and pushing and biting, trying to get closer, trying not to let desperation take over, trying to take everything the other gave.

Max clawed at everything his hands landed on, Kyle's powerful arms dragging him ever closer until there was nothing between them.

It all felt so right, so familiar but unknown, like walking into a new setting designed for him.

'Welcome home' his body seemed to hum. 'Welcome home.'

'Max wanted this. Max wanted Rivers. Max wanted Kyle.'

As much of Kyle as he could get his hands on.

It was an effort for them to part.

An achievement that surprised both men.

When had they separated?

When did their breathing get so heavy?

When did they get so close?

It was a blur of red and purple and warmth.

Yet, that wasn't what shocked Max.

What made him stop and stare, what made his hands fly to cover his mouth hanging open in a wide 'Oh'.

It started with Max's low, gurgling growl, the one that had 'pleased' written all over it.

He circled around Kyle and nuzzled into the larger man's shoulder, nosing over the fabric of the thin shirt.

His mouth approached the skin of Kyle's neck and, letting his body take complete control, Max pushed his elongated canines into Kyle's pale skin, in the space where his neck and shoulder met.

The most sensitive space on any predatory shifter that caused Kyle to gasp.

"Mine," Max hissed.

[themomsandthecity]

Should I Invite My Racist Family Members Over For the Holidays?

We know that every holiday season, parents have lots of questions - whether it's how to deal with stress-inducing in-laws or ways to keep their kids healthy. That's why, this year, we tapped four advice columnists and experts to help us. Enter: The Holiday Nightline, where we're answering your most burning questions about parenting during the holidays. Keep reading for a Q&A advice column from Doyin Richards, an anti-racism facilitator and the author of several children's books, including "You Matter to Me." --- Dear Doyin, The holidays are approaching, and my uncle and in-laws have been known to have racist viewpoints towards Black people. I'm a white woman married to a white man, and our twins will be 5 in a month. They are definitely old enough to pick up on what the grownups around them are saying, and I don't want them to be influenced by those words and actions. On the flip side, I know my uncle and in-laws are good people, and having a few backwards beliefs won't change that. My question is, should I confront them about their behavior or should I let it pass? They're coming to our house for Thanksgiving and Christmas. - Holiday Hatred Dear Holiday Hatred, Let's say your uncle and in-laws hate puppies. Every time they saw one in person, on television, etc., they would say how disgusting puppies are and how the world would be a better place if dogs never existed. Now, let's pretend that these adults spew their hatred of puppies in front of your kids whenever they visit your house. I'm going to pose your question back to you - would you confront them about their behavior, or would you let it pass? I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you wouldn't hesitate to put your extended family in check if they were acting this way around your kids. Why? Because pretty much everyone loves puppies and dogs (including you, I bet), and you wouldn't sit idly by while all of this canine slander was flying around your airspace. In other words, if your letter included "German Shepherds" in the place of "Black people," you never would've sent it in the first place. It would be a no-brainer for you to stand up for our beloved four-legged companions. As a Black man, I'm not naïve enough to believe that Black people are in the same category as dogs in terms of being endlessly loved by the general public. In fact, if we weren't catching touchdowns, slam-dunking basketballs, dropping bangers for people to dance to, or entertaining people in some way, we would be at the bottom of the list. I'm not just any Black man, though - my day job is to fight against all types of racism as a consultant for corporations and universities across the globe. In doing so, I constantly see people make excuses as to why they won't fight against the world's most pervasive mental illness (and yes, racism is a mental illness), and it usually comes down to one simple phrase: "I don't want to rock the boat." It's so odd to me, because racists have no problem rocking the boat in polite society. They say and do so many vile things - and people are actually concerned about hurting their feelings? Really?! Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described this phenomenon perfectly while sitting in the Birmingham Jail in 1963: "I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says 'I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;' who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a 'more convenient season.'" He wrote that letter 60 years ago, and the shameful… https://www.popsugar.com/family/holiday-nightline-racist-family-49308854?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

hello! saw you tagged me in the comments. i'm also not trying to start a fight, so i want to make it clear that everything i say is just my opinion of this show and you are under no obligation to agree with me etc etc you get the idea. you wanted to know my thoughts tho so here there are:

firstly, i think the show pretty firmly suggests that equating "crew" with "family" is a brand-new, never-before seen pirate management strategy invented by stede bonnet. we don't exactly see a lot of how the typical pirate ship is run, but we have a lot of dialogue to paint us a pretty good picture: "culture of abuse, floggings, keelhaulings" from stede, which is supported by buttons later in the episode when he suggests stede needs to try "an iron fist, something to really sink their teeth into, make them earn their keep." izzy grabbing fang's beard in episode 2 and fang saying that this is something izzy regularly does, that he hates when izzy does it, and that expressing his discomfort probably wouldn't stop izzy from doing it anymore. ed and calico jack in episode 8 recounting how horrible working for hornigold was, and jack later saying that pirates don't even have friends because they're all in various stages of fucking each other over.

and secondly: narratively speaking, the point of ^All That^ in the paragraph above culminates in episode 9, when we actually get a direct contrast between how the crew has come around to stede's captaining style, and how much izzy's captaining style does not include treating the crew as a family. we see the crew band together to save stede's life, and several minutes later we are shown them voting unanimously to mutiny and kill izzy almost as soon as izzy is put in charge.

i also don't consider izzy's line about "losing several of our men, by the way" to be indicative of izzy actually caring about the crew any more than ed does (which, imo, the weight of that responsibility does weigh on ed, as evidenced by what he says to stede when lucius is finishing up his countdown). to me, it sounds like izzy is annoyed they're going to have to hire more staff. if i was writing this show and i wanted to make a point about how much izzy is trying to defend his "family," i would have izzy like, at least name some of the people they lost? or maybe bring up this point again at any point during the rest of the show? but the unnamed dead crew members are never mentioned again.

that's the other thing: i don't "conveniently forget" that ed ordered a bunch of unnamed pirates to their death at the end of e3 so he could rescue this fascinating blond guy. i mostly don't ever bring it up, because the show doesn't bring it up, because it's not really important to the show. ofmd is not about reckoning with the full consequences of violence or about contemplating what it means to have to kill in order to survive. in a different show, ed getting his men killed would be a huge part of the story. in this show, it never comes up again. and the audience is free to analyze this show from whichever angles we want, but really honing in on the death of unnamed background characters is not particularly relevant if we're trying to keep our analysis somewhat aligned with the actual text itself.

so, since you asked me to try and make this make sense for you, here's how i personally read the whole situation with izzy's "safe space" and stede's "safe space" and whether ed's actions jeopardize izzy's "safe space"

in ofmd, piracy As A Whole is not really a "community" so much as it's just an extensive network of career criminals who have resorted to highway robbery at sea in order to survive. they're not radical freedom fighters, they're thieves who for the most part most likely try to avoid interacting with any european navy ships because there's probably not much to loot there but there are plenty of cannons and armed soldiers. also, izzy invites british soldiers into spanish jackie's bar; he's not worried about protecting piracy as a whole

now, if izzy was worried about his "community" as in ed's crew... first of all, why would they only be mentioned in passing once in the entire show. why does izzy never mention them again. second of all, what stede's doing on his own ship doesn't directly affect the safety of anyone except for himself and his own crew. stede's actions don't put any pirates on any other ship in danger at all. the only way that stede's captaincy affects ed's crew at all is in how ed chooses to interact and behave with stede. which is ed's decision, and if ed's decisions put people at risk then stede isn't the one izzy should be taking issue with (which he does, but for most of the show he blames all of ed's behavior on stede). but also...

...ed doesn't even have to be on the ship for blackbeard's crew to stay safe. we know this bc of what ed says in episode 4, and from how the dutch merchants in e6 react just to seeing blackbeard—and while ed is literally in the middle of having a panic attack! these days, the blackbeard flag does most of the work. ed barely has to do anything to maintain blackbeard's reputation

AND speaking of the reputation of blackbeard being the thing that keeps them safe: when ed suggests retirement and letting izzy be the new captain (not letting izzy be the new blackbeard, because remember, the plan is "what if blackbeard turned up dead?"), izzy does not seem worried about survival at all. he's excited for a promotion. the reputation of blackbeard will be gone at that point. and yet izzy does not seem concerned about this at all.

basically tho, the biggest reason i struggle with the interpretation of izzy as a "protector" of his "community" is that we aren't given hard evidence that izzy cares about any sort of "community" or that he's ever really done all that much "protecting." the closest thing to proof of izzy caring is him mentioning that they've lost men, but it really reads to me like he's annoyed by the inconvenience of it more than he's saddened by the death of people he cared about. when interacting with the revenge crew, ivan and fang's only real commentary on izzy is "yeah he's a real dick" and then later voting to mutiny against him. things like "well he must have killed all sorts of navy soldiers in the past!" or "as a first mate, his job would be to take care of the crew" are all perfectly plausible as possible theories and headcanons, but in this show where historical accuracy is a joke and even the laws of physics are often disregarded, anything about the life of piracy that's not explicitly shown or stated on screen can't really be assumed to be accurate.

more importantly: anything that might have happened off-screen or pre-canon that doesn't get mentioned in the show can be assumed to be not nearly as important to the characters or to the story as a whole as what we do see on screen.

and to me, what we see of izzy is someone whose coworkers do not like him (e2 beard grab, e6 ivan agreeing when roach calls him a jerk, e9 ivan and fang agreeing to mutiny), who wants to get promoted to captain (e4), who is annoyed when his boss is taking too long to retire (e6), who lords his power over his subordinates (e5, e9), and who, when he realizes that he doesn't have what it takes to be captain (e9), resorts to insulting and threatening his boss into behaving in a way that he deems acceptable (e10).

and that might change! s2 he might finally open up to the crew and consider them family and protect them fiercely. that would be really cool, i love me a good redemption arc. as of right now tho, i am going to have to continue to disagree with your opinion that izzy is a protector of anyone other than himself

Okay, one more thing re: Izzy being a protector of what he sees as his community.

Yes, he called the cops on Stede and it was a terrible thing to do. He betrayed Edward and got Jack killed in the process. He is fiercely loyal but he’s not very bright, we know that.

The thing is, he just didn’t see Stede and his crew as belonging to his community and deserving a place in his safe space. They were outsiders to him and I can understand being weary of outsiders.

Meanwhile Ed doesn’t care that members of HIS OWN CREW died in the raid to rescue Stede from the Spanish. He considers members of HIS OWN "family" disposable and their deaths unworthy of discussion as long as he gets his prize.

And yet the fandom conveniently forgets about this becasue he's the protagonist. I'm not really surprised Izzy gets terrified Ed is changing becasue his reputation was always a great tool to protect their safe space and yet here he is giving exactly zero fucks about losing people.

Please make this make sense because I am truly perplexed.

[phantomenby]

Open season

kinokomynx

The Lost Boys with a GN!Partner who has no shame or gets embarrassed? Such as they just randomly take off their clothes in the cave, with no warning whatsoever.

Hope you like this one bubba <3

You had zero shame.

Not that it was a bad thing, you had grown up with parents raised on a commune, and being comfortable in your own skin was an important rule directed towards your parents 'self-love' values.

Having lots of siblings and extended family members meant that you always had people to remind you of how perfect you were, no matter what the kids at school said.

When you had met your boys they had been watching you skinny dip late one night, it was your first day in Santa Carla and the sea just looked so inviting.

But you weren't willing to ruin your nice clothes and there was no one around to judge you. Besides you were so far up the beach who would see you?

Four very devious vampires

They saw you

All of you

And from that moment on you were theirs and they were yours, not just because you were walking around them basically nude the first time you met

They realised it was a common trend

Lounging in almost nothing, stealing their clothes

And most importantly: changing in front of them without hesitation

"Hey, babe?"

"Hmm..?"

"Have I ever told you how much I love you?"

"What?-" you turned to look at Paul, who was standing beside Marko, who was also staring at you like you put the stars in the sky. You weren't doing anything in particular, just getting ready to go out, wearing only a pair of boxers donated by Marko as you looked for your comfy jeans, "have you guys done something with my pants? Come on guys you know they're my favorite."

They let out a collective groan as you pulled one of Paul's shirts over your head, hiding most of your body from their view as it went past your ass.

"Boys give them their pants back"

"Awww David, but they' so much cuter in just that, you wouldn't wanna ruin the view-"

"Yeah David, admit it, you were watching too."

Ignoring them you reached under your bed, pulling out your jeans and sending a glare at the two demons, pulling your pants up and grabbing your boots.

"Believe or not, being cold doesn't make much of a view"

"Tell that to your ni- Ow! Dwayne don't be such a prude! We all know the quiet ones are the biggest freaks of them all!"

Paul jumped onto his taller packmate, messing up his luscious mane as he teased him, tightening his thighs around Dwayne's head as they began to wrestle.

Rolling your eyes you grabbed your fleece-lined denim jacket, it was getting colder in Santa Carla and the last thing you needed was to be caught out in the cold with your four man-sized ice-boxes offering you affection. Maybe someday they would learn that hugging them in the cold is akin to cuddling up with a metal pole.

"Marko crouch!" He assumed position as you jumped onto his back, wrapping your legs around his waist and nuzzling into his shoulder, he began purring happily as he carried you towards the cave exit.

"Come on boys! Paul! Dwayne! Stop being little shits, I'm hungry." He fussed your hair before walking ahead of Marko, letting the other two catch up with the three of you by the bikes.

Of course, they messed with you a little bit, always trying to get you to show a little skin in their presence

Usually far from prying eyes since one time you spilled an entire slushie on your shirt and tried to undress in the middle of the boardwalk, David was the only one not dazed enough to stop you and take you back to the cave so no unwanted eyes could see you.

Still, a year into your relationship, knowing what they are and being accepting and loving, they still fucked with you

Marko made it his personal mission to use you like a doll and get you to try on any and all clothing he could get his hands-on

Paul was openly flirting twenty-four-seven

Dwayne was a sneaky bastard, almost always stealing your shirts and insisting shirtless was the way to be, refusing to let you leave the cave and only ever offering his leather jacket.

David was just a possessive brat, he hated the idea of anyone else seeing you in a way only they should. At first, he tried to mark you so you would be too embarrassed to show too much skin

It didn't work

And the day after doing so you were waltzing around the shops by the beachfront in a pair of shorts and a crop top you stole from Marko

The night had been fun so far, the usual schtick of annoying the boardwalk guards, pissing off surf nazis, and letting you wander around with a hundred dollars until you got sick of the smell of humans.

After enough whining at the four of them for a considerable amount of time, you had decided to ditch, waltzing down to the beach, going until you were close to the cave where there would be no humans. Or at least if there was you could make an easy meal out of them.

Once the boys had joined you they helped you build a small bonfire, Marko was happily being the runner to get food so it was mostly just you and Paul finding sticks and throwing them at each other.

Now you were happily munching on fries, leaning back between Dwayne's legs as he fussed with your hair, trying to fix the braid you had loosened earlier.

Marko and Paul were on the other side of the fire, giggling and conversing secretly, shooting glances towards you. David was smiling as he heard snippets of what they said, clearly amused by their antics while Dwayne decided it would be best to zone them out.

They went on like that for a while, up until the point Dwayne had finished combing through the tangles you had accumulated, muttering about how you were going to go bald if you weren't careful.

"There you go little dove now-" the brunette was stunned into silence as cold beer dripped down the side of his face, you were stood beside him, having risen to stretch your legs as soon as it was over.

"Oh fuck."

"Run!"

You moved over to sit with David as the two blondes ran away from their beer-soaked brother, screaming as he lunged at them like a lion to a lamb.

Dwayne tried to be mad, he really did

But it was also kind of his fault

They had a bet going, whoever got you to undress first would win a date night with you where the other three would leave for the whole night

For some reason, you hated the idea of any of them being left out and tended to refuse to have a night without seeing all of them, wanting to enjoy the fuzzy feeling in your chest that came from being surrounded by your boys

But beer fucking stank

Like, it permeated anything it touched. Even worse, the fruity stuff made everything sticky, including his precious jacket which now had a pink patch on his leopard print arm.

But he couldn't be mad

He had to win

"Fucks sake Dwayne did you have to shove sand down there too" Marko was pulling off his pants now they were back in the cave, shaking out the sand clinging to the interior, "it was only like, one can of beer, and it was the fruity stuff too- that shit smells good."

His packmate only glared at him, hair still wet after washing it out in the ocean for an hour.

"Should have thought about throwing beer at me if you didn't want to become one with the beach short stack," Dwayne's eyes kept flashing, his irritation slowly being subdued by the feeling of your fingers running through his hair, fashioning the damp tresses into a braid. You finished it off by wrapping one of your flowery scrunchies at the end, it smelt of you and made him purr pleasantly as you kissed his cheek and moved around the couch to lean beside him.

He smirked as the two blondes scowled, clearly their plan hadn't worked and they would have to watch David and Dwayne battle it out.

Now, Dwayne and David were both gentlemen, mostly because of how freaking old they were.

But not in the same way.

Dwayne was your sweet gentle giant who respected and adored you

David would hold open doors for you and defend your honor, but he could play a lot dirtier than his younger brothers, his powers of illusion and mental influence gave him the upper hand.

You hadn't been focusing on him, usually, you could see the signs of his tricks but you were too busy doting on the brunette to notice the soft golden glow of his irises as he focused on you.

Let's just say the cave felt warm that night, hot even, you being a human made the discomfort set in fast.

"Hey, Marko?"

He turned to you, arching a brow, "ye?"

"How hot is it supposed to be tonight?" He was the only one who watched the news in the early morning hours, taking note of any key weather changes in case they would wanna stay inside.

"Oh um...it's-" he paused, unable to speak, sneaking a look at David who had murder in his eyes, "very hot!"

"What?" the look he shared with David didn't go unnoticed by you and your eyes quickly flitted over to his, seeing his glowing irises, gasping as you realised what he was doing. "David!"

He froze, realising his mistake, as you stood and walked away from all of them, heading to your alcove on the opposite side.

"Ah shit..."

It was down to Dwayne now, though he had pretty much won he still had one last thing to do.

You were pissed, understandably so.

Before you had been enjoying the coolness of the night as the heat of the sun drifted away

It wasn't that you didn't like being warm, it was more the gross clammy feeling that came with it

Now your clothes felt constricting as you plopped down on the bed in the far corner, laying out like a starfish and pulling your socks off with your toes as you tried to cool down.

"Bug?"

You heard Dwayne approach and say one of his pet names for you, not answering as you fanned your face.

"Can I come in little dove?"

"Mhmm.."

He pushed the curtain in front of him aside, climbing onto the bed and placing a cool hand on your cheek, knowing it would take at least an hour before the effects of David's influence to wear off.

"You warm?" You nodded, leaning into him and pressing yourself flush against his cold chest, hugging him tightly.

"Wanna go take a dip in the sea bubba?" You thought on it, it would be a good idea, and would tire you out nicely so you could sleep through the night.

"Can you carry me?" He smiled standing and waiting for you, holding his arms open, "wait- just lemme take off some stuff, don' wanna carry it down."

He fought back a grin, feeling very proud of himself as you shed your clothing, leaving you in a pair of boxers. You stepped forward, letting him grab your thighs so you could jump and wrap your legs around his waist, sighing as his cool skin soothed yours.

Taking you out towards the cave exit he blew a kiss at the boys, ignoring their annoyed looks, and begs to come with the two of you as he took you out into the cool ocean air, not returning until the sun was just about to rise with a very sleepy you in his arms.

[nonokoko13]

SXF Chapter 65

Hi! How are you doing? Hope you are well. It's been a while since I last made review, I kinda missed it haha. I thought it wouldn't take me too much to analyze it but it ended up being longer than I expected, hope you enjoy yourself as much as I did when I read this chapter!

TW: Mild swearing in some parts. Sorry, I'm quite foul-mouthed

Of course, this has spoilers from spy x family's manga, I warned you. Now, let's go onto it!

This analysis continues here and here

Everything starts with Anya asking Yor to buy her "crunchy tea cakes" and then remembering what Damian told her about a cake. Anya seems to think only about pastries last chapters and honestly? Can't blame her lol

Seems like Anya's perception about Damian seems to be the same as usual, because in previous POV flashbacks she always imagine him with the most clown-ish face and an OOC personality. Not Bond having trauma related thoughts after he ate Yor's homemade cookies here 😭😂

While she goes on her way to buy sweets it occurs that habit of hers of thinking that the insignificant, harmless thing is related to killing and/or getting arrested by the SSS, just because she doesn't know where to find the crunchiest tea cakes.

Poor woman doesn't get herself any time to relax and stop overthinking everything, tbh very relatable. I would say it's her signature mood but seems that all the Forgers do it, only that with each one the consequences are different (Yor thinking they'll hand her to the SSS or just thinking everything is related to killing/death, Anya thinking she'll go to the orphanage again and Loid... Loid thinks of almost every type of consequences really, the major one that Operation Strix fails tho)

This panel is obvious foreshadowing, it was seeing it and I thought "So this is where it is going..."

Yor still has doubts about what it's normal, aka accepted by society about who you are or what you have to do in your everyday life to be considered so.

It's sad this is actually something that many people suffers this insecurity irl, the main problem that Yor has is that she hasn't realized yet that there is no universal truth as a "normal" way to act upon or live like and normal is just what a bunch of people from a certain place think it's like. Moreover, it's just a really reaally subjective concept that it's wrongly used to describe what's usual and/or morally acceptable in the eyes of those who use this term. Note to say, these three words are not the same, but they're usually switched with one another.

Hope she'll someday reach that conclusion and just behave as she pleases while she doesn't do anything illegal like letting Anya drive with her age

Heading to the pastry shop, she saves a woman who I knew she will later interact more with. Gotta say, if Yor hasn't gone to the rescue not only those things inside the boxes would have been spoiled/broken, but Melinda could have died or get severely injured falling from the stairs is serious business fr

Also, it will sound silly but when I saw Melinda's face here it reminded me of Sylvia since both have triangular/"teardrop" eye shape. Yor looking cute as usual

Melinda invites Yor to join her and her friends from the lady patriots society to an all-mothers volleyball game,and with this we can the three human members of the Forgers have played at least once in a sports "tournament". Actually 4 counting Yor VS Fiona tennis match, but that was just a "friendly" game. Bond, you're next

Gotta say she looks great on the volleyball uniform, but it called my attention how she blushes and gets all flustered when she realizes she's wearing shorts. Looking back on time she has always been shown wearing dresses, skirts and in one of the "extra: Yor fashion week" outfits a pair of trousers, all of them being at least covering up around the knees.

Is it because of the mentality of that time about not showing too much [leg in this case] or is she just easy to get embarrassed? It might be both idk, it just surprised me her reaction as I didn't think she would be the type to get scandalous about not covering too much, although seeing how easy she got embarrassed with Yuri's speech and Loid's attempt of seduction I should have seen it coming. I wonder how she'd react to someone who wears often like that, but knowing how kind she is she probably wouldn't treat them different from others, only getting embarrassed when she wears something like that. Or I'm just overthinking and it doesn't go that far her reaction and I shouldn't have needed two whole damm paragraphs for this lmao

Getting back at the chapter, seems that despite her strength and overall non-human physical abilities her team lost towards the Northside team, goddammit!

Tbh it was predictable with how many times Yor must have breaken rules, I mean it's remarked twice so

But hey! They had fun, that's all matters!

After the battle Yor opens up a bit with the mommies and confess that she doesn't know what to do neither as mother and wife, which the group relates to and reassures her that not knowing what to do is normal, a light-hearted moment and something that many people should hear (specially those in their 20s when you are turning adult-ish and think that you should have figured out your entire life by then, a big mistake we make, a harmful thought that we as society reinforce and a big struggle that I can relate myself)

With the warm moment comes the unexpected plot twist. I was too emerged on the Yor getting friends scheme to see it coming until they brought up the kids topic and I went from "Ooh" to "OOOOOOH" with this

Being aware that she's a Desmond, I have to say:

1. After reading it I saw many reactions and users talking about this chapter and some were surprised that Mrs Desmond were such a seemingly kind person. Which? Honestly?? I thought it was going to be the case so it didn't surprise me.

I mean, in this post I talked about my theories regarding Mrs Desmond, mostly her marriage and her role in the family, and although I didn't said that she was going to be a saint I speculate she could be the cheerful, loving member that the Desmond's household so much needs.

With this I believed that in order to balance her husband's cold and reclusive behavior she could be the opposite: a woman who in public surrounds herself of people and is or seems to be friendly with everyone, perhaps sharing personality traits with Damian and not only her looks (which now seems possible).

Being nice towards strangers or your friends doesn't define a person as a good parent, good person ≠ good mother, so we'll have to wait until we see more of her and her sons and pray that Damian has at least one good and loving figure in his life.

2. The Illuminati-like symbol in both her earrings and ring makes me believe she may be related with a third party. We know WISE and SSS, and that symbol doesn't belong to any of them, so it may be an organization led or supported by the Desmonds?

SSS technically isn't a spy organization, more like a state service, and I always wonder if there's a East counterpart of the western spy agency, maybe this is the hint of a East WISE's existence? It would be so fun if I got the idea of Melinda being a spy or some sort of physical/strategical trained person right.

3. Talking about symbols and organizations, if you reread the chapter or this post it's said that Melinda is a member of the lady patriots society. Given that patriotism is often how conservative/right wing parties describe themselves I think this could have also been a foreshadowing of Melinda being Mrs Desmond, since Donovan is the leader of the National Unity Party (which seems to be leaning to right wing); also a nice detail that let's you wonder what do the moms do or talk about apart from playing sports and making tea parties. Would be their political ideology as extremist as Donovan's seems to be?

4. When the fuck are we going to meet Demetrius. Seriously, everyone or at least those who remember he exists are waiting to confirm if he got Melinda's looks or if he's going to be the second sleep paralysis demon of this fandom alongside his Frankenstein progenitor. To think I believed he would make his appearance before his mother 🤡🤡🤡

5. Calling Melinda already as Yor's friend and stating how Yor has achieved the goal Anya and Loid searched isn't quite right. Don't get me wrong, I want Yor to make friends (because her coworkers are kinda bitches and as much as Camilla taught her how to make a stew in one occasion doesn't redeem how disrespectful and mean she has been with Yor); Twilight has Frankie, Anya has Becky, it's about time Yor has friends on her own. The fact that she has been able to meet with a Desmond is half of the goal already achieved, true.

But that just hasn't completely happened yet: Melinda and Yor just met, Yor was asked to join them as a way to thank her for her help and because Melinda was amazed by Yor, they are talking to each other rn. It's not finished yet, more like a ongoing first meeting.

Also, did you see what happened when Melinda remembers where she heard the name Forger before? Maybe it's just me, but those three panels focused on her face/eyes. The "dust motes" on the air. The way she leaves the cup of tea and introduces herself, going from shocked to a returned yet different smile.

There was a shift in her behavior. I know it.

As if she's with her guard up, or she's aware who she's dealing with. You cannot convince she didn't change her behavior and switched to a sudden more calm, polite attitude. Doesn't it ring a bell?

It gives similar if not the same vibes as Loid when he met Donovan, knowing he had to be careful with what he says and doesn't let the other what are his intentions. It's just, that smile, THE smile,, I have seen it too many times before and the ones who smile the calmest are usually the ones you shouldn't believe.

"Looks like she can kill you, _______" meme vibes right there. Is she the brain behind the main boss in the series rn? Is she a spy or some kind of manipulate person who disguises their true colors like one? Or not?

Moreover, in both Mr and Mrs Desmond introductions Anya wasn't there so there's no way to know what Donovan was really thinking then, and it seems we won't know Melinda's thoughts either.

This cliffhanger gives more questions than answers, what did Melinda remembered about the Forgers? Did she only think about incident between Anya and Damian, or did also Donovan told her his meeting with Loid and now she's suspicious about how two Forgers, now three, has found a way to meet her family?

That fascination Melinda had about Yor abilities who helped her while she performed maneuvers with boxes can change quickly. From a random kind stranger you have nothing to do with seems pure casualty you met, you think WOW, not much thought about it; but when it's the mother who raised a kid with such strength that they threw your kid to a wall? It's a matter of perceptions and the information you have about the other which distorts the general impression you have.

I hope this is just another of Endo's tricks where he wants to make us suspicious of Melinda and she ends up being as sweet as she was in the beginning, that Yor gets to be genuine friends with her or any of the moms there (although knowing who Melinda is affiliated with I'm not sure if Yor making friends there is a good idea), but as for now I don't trust her, I just, nope. Neither I discard all those ladies may be wonderful as friends, but let's not jump into conclusions and gets our expectations up.

All in all I can't wait to read the next chapter to find out how things will turn out with Yor and Melinda. Praying that it will work out just fine 🛐

[rust-painted-fingers]

really starting to figure out that a lot of my favorite fandoms are where the characters feel like a real family?

maybe not in the tradition role of parent, sister, grandpa, etc. but more so in the togetherness

like, for example, world trigger is a beloved of mine because everyone just, knows each other. I mean this literally, it feels like an actual organization that is united under the same goal to protect humanity from danger. They might not all be friends but they're all aware of the other members.

they're aware of all the characters that get named at least fjdklfjsl . One good example is Natsume I think. She's a newcomer, but when chika and her are in the practice ranges they get to know other higher level snipers. And, spoilers, she gets invited to join a B rank squad.

this might feel very duh, one of the main characters needs a way to find out who these people are, but like!!!! I don't care, Natsume is technically in best friend role, there wasn't technically a reason for her to get invited or whatever. Or maybe I'm not watching enough decent media but my point is, natsume is friends with chika, chika and her get introduced to high level snipers, just like them, and after lots of hard work and plot, natsume gets a level up.

and this is just for one character, a side character at that. All our main boys meet a shitton of people, and it all feels very together, like they're actually working close enough that you just have to remember them. kinda like when you eventually know all of your classmates when you were in school because of how much time spent together, but leveled up by a hundred.

the other media I am currently going feral over is cats, and by god lemme tell you. this musical may not have an i want song, but we get all their characterization from their actions, and there's so many...

the most obvious one is how almost none of the cats actually sing their own song. they have some verses but most of the time the rest of the tribe is singing it. and this in itself gives information about the cats who do sing their own song, ex tugger and rumpleteazer and mungojerrie. and even tugger's song is still filled by the accompaniment of the other cats! I'm pretty sure rumple and mungo's are the only song sung solely by them. Mungo and rumple are obviously sneaky, little shit cats who get up to mischief and general nuisances. they sing about their triumphant schemes and are very proud of it.

tugger is technically singing about how he also is a little shit, but less trickster like and more indecisive in anything and causing trouble bc of it. but you wouldn't even realize it because the way the song is performed is vital for him because he sings it very provocatively. he's very much loved and wanted and he loves that shit.

and this general format follows, they sing a song but what you learn of them is less in the lyrics but the performance, and they all care for each other. they, mostly, follow munks lead and help out the other cats in their song

and then some productions have stellar character choices that make me want to weep with some interactions.

i just... these fuckers grabbed me by the throat and have yet to let go. it's a good thing a i'm all for it