#But the author has a decent track record so it’s probably going to be decent I HOPE AND PRAY

[kittykatninja321]

red hood: the hill is literally giving me everything I could ask for in a Jason story we’ve got:

-Jason in a separate part of Gotham away from the bats

-Rhato original gothamite characters and villain

-Teaming up with and connecting with people he knew pre-Robin (Dana Harlowe my beloved)

like literally everything I could’ve asked for if it’s bad I’m killing myself in front of dc headquarters

[saltysplayt00ns]

Author Weaseling their narratives.

I want to state this now before it leaves my brain, just a small penny of thought. After pages are uploaded and the Author not using a script. He will IMMEDITALTY try to cover up the holes and fix it the next pages or so. Then messes up continuity along those lines.

Yes, cause that's better to wait it out then do anything at all. Ranach and Avanti can sneak in the territory during the night and wait to slaughter EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM. The territory of meteor is vast with minimum eyes, they can't keep watch for 24/7 simultaneously. Like for one, When the Avanti beast came into Home and everyone questioned why he didn't just kill the meteor tribe?? Kiq. made pages to answer the question to the audience, literally Him telling the audience why something is not logically going or going against what doesn't make sense - ya feel me??

I would think knowing a family member dying, would pushed you to make sure your other family member is over their safe, you literally stated it to Rhovanion of them being an oppressive tribe and dangerous group. When Everyone questioned Why Roamer didn't go help Ronja and save her from a inbreeding, oppressing, Sexual assaulting, tribe instead of going swimming and hanging out in midnight guard. Kique had to make an excuse for it.

CH. 13 PG 807 & 809 - Yes, let us give more justification for the tribe to easily state the capitol ' meteor is killing members left and right again' to have the matriarch to annihilate them on the spot. Good idea guys. Have majority of the Tribes' who hates meteor with tangible proof and track record to put more endangerment over Ronja's pups. I might as well left the group after that with Javo, Galti and Alva.

Another is when Roamer murdered bear dog and when people got hurt about that he tried to justify it and praise the Garystu characters. more so having Ronja not do anything cause Roamer literally been disobedient the moment he got separated from the pack and followed two strangers the beginning of Home. Also stopped people from commenting cause he didn't like people pointing it out. He did it before of killing dogs or shunning hem to Justify they are BAD , they are the VILLAINS when they're anything but that. Jonna. Kargo before his death. Fairikh. Ruan. Aira etc. Let me remind you that kique doesn't have a script, and when he does it's by volunteers before he burns the bridges with them and then back to square one again. He has a Patreon that the pages are ahead of the public, so he can produce pages to cover tracks before they present to the public. He already probably doing one now or has not made the pages to Justify the ' Golden ' Lioness to give a starting couple a child without consent. It's already bad when you have to prove what's morally wrong to be right or worse to romanticized it. What's sad the hybrid cubs will be brushed off.

CH. 12 PG 738 & 739

CH. 11 PG 607 & 608

Ronja's kids have been on the way-side and we have only have scenes when Roamer needs comfort involving when Rogio is NOT there or Ronja is involved to do parenting. If this is supposed to be just a slice of life type of comic, I would like to see something that pertains it and not dragged stupidity, and teenage drama on fully grown adults. Diarko now in the mix will be forgotten, cause his purpose was to save Rogio and Kargo. Now to be a child to 3 dogs that are NOT FIT TO BE PARENTS, NOR METEOR and he already has a mother. The author probably already has a page to Have his mother who has a high distrust of dogs and practically everyone else, leaving their only cub to a bunch of strangers. I don't need to look at the blur page of patreon to know he already has one, the repetitive pattern of evidence is on the Public pages on it's own will suffice. She's literally going to a decent tribe in the beaches so why not bring her son with him??!! where she knows they're Safe?? like that's not how mothers and maternity instincts work. The only reason Diarko stays is because the author wants his toxic, soon to be Poly to have a kid around and have them look good, a means to look like saints. It's very obvious its going to be poly, there is too many signs to show it and Rogio is that much of a possessive, manipulative prick to have Roamer and Kargo under his paws.

He did it to Ranach,

CH. 7 PG 293 & CH. 9 356 - Yeah, its all Kargos fault despite Ferah and Rogio was there and kept the secret too. Plus Ferah is the one to start it , but since Kargo had a heart to be honest, he gets the short end of the stick and labeled a bastard. He did to Roamer...

Trust me y'all there's a lot more of these of Ronja seeking Rogio for mostly everything. I guess Vandi, Kargo and Ferah don't hold much weight. Soon it'll be the Larpdog of Whispervale, cause Ronja can't think for herself as a leader. ...and Ronja might as well make Rogio a Leader cause she's laying it on him for everything even to the voice of reason. He's literally a Garystu with plot amour. How does everyone not know anything but Rogio does? I rather trust Vandi and Vigr over Rogio - heck take Shiverfall Eopi.Could easily take the trip their and bring Diarko along so he can visit his mother and not be forgotten.

Shiverfall tribe is BIGGER then meteor, meteor literally did Nothing - NOTHING to show it's a safe place to be. Ronja, Roamer, Rogio, Kargo should know that, The mother is Blind - BLIND!! FOR PETE'S SAKE and it makes me so damn upset that she can't see it and the tribe is not going to tell her and put her only son in danger with a falling tribe. Because everyone is going to be happy and ' d'awww' of Diarko staying with the OTP3.

Akleja already is also forgotten and just in the background in silence without knowing much of who they are as an individual, except they are Vandi's X Fuss's pup and were the first pup to be born free which should be a VERY BIG THING. You need more then just putting traits in Wiki cause a lot of the traits don't correlate to the Webcomic. He probably already doing and did pages to not make Feaf look bad and answer why Zahira and Raimos didn't have the kids. ----- He has done it countless times and has edited pages to Justify them under people's noses and they don't bat an eye of it.

[robustcornhusk]

curious if you have more Opinions on heel-to-toe drop. I've noticed that my ankle mobility is worse after wearing higher-drop shoes and this has me biased against them. but I also do not want to fuck up my everything

again, i'm speaking with all the authority of a 14-year-old who has tried weed like three times, and one of those times may have been oregano:

context: what's higher-drop for you? daily, running, or other athletic endeavors?

caveats/personal experience: i have usually worn 8mm drop shoes (or gone barefoot) for daily shit, 4mm-8mm for running. as far as i can tell, i'm not heelstriking even in the 8mm shoes (but people are notoriously bad at actually knowing what's going on there! possibly i heelstrike. too lazy to record it). i have fantastic ankle mobility in some directions (plantar flexion), and kinda meh in others (dorsiflexion), though not to the extent that it causes me a problem.

i have a bunch of injuries atm, but the pt i'm seeing thinks it looks like it's my hip mobility that's causing it (too much of it, uncontrolled).

some assorted considerations/thoughts/etc for high/low drop in running shoes in particular...

broadly speaking, with lower drops, forces on the foot and ankle get emphasized, and with higher drops, on the knees and hips. it's a spectrum. your everything is affected by every shoe. the forces have to go somewhere.

supposedly, when measured, the injury rate is more or less the same for all kinds of running shoes with respect to drop, it's just that people get injured in different places.

most current shoes are going to be 4mm-8mm. as i understand, just a few years ago, there were oodles at 12mm, but it's dwindled down, and now it's just like one brooks shoe and one mizuno? there's a few more at 10mm.

the current trend is high-stack shoes (let's say 30mm+), and high-stack doesn't play very nicely with high-drop (let's say 8mm+ but it's not a firm border). i'm not totally sure on the reason; it's to do with everything getting unstable when they're both high.

in the other direction, higher stack can encourage being fast, for (handwave) reasons?, so race-day & speed workout shoes sometimes stay up at 8mm. or 6mm. or whatever. track shoes have undefined stack but i guess if we tried to define it, it would be very, very high. (tbf track sprinters apparently have astoundingly high rates of injury-per-mile, but they put so much force into each of those miles.)

very very minimalist shoes (0-4mm drop, low stack like <15mm including the sock liner) exist. they can be kinda rough to run in. i used to run in them! i also ended up injured. they will work some foot muscles that get worked less in non-minimalist shoes, but to some degree it's kinda at the expense of getting better in a straightforward way at running. possibly the majority of these benefits can come from just walking in the minimalist shoes; also possibly the same/at least highly overlapping proprioceptive & and weird foot muscle benefits can come from trail running (uneven surfaces). on the bright side, they're fairly decent to lift in.

if you're running but only a little bit (pulled out of my ass: <<10 miles a week, <2 miles each, like as a warmup or whatever for something else), you can try whatever you want to try as long as it's comfortable. if you're running more than that, you can also do whatever you want, as long as it's comfortable, but probably fewer things will be comfortable.

"as long as it's comfortable" is really the important part there. like, this is the best, most-supported scientific shoe-picking-out process we have. if it's comfortable, then you're less likely to get injured (tendonitis etc).

idk if any of this was relevant or if i totally misread it. but. shoes! i can look up any of the relevant papers but i am being hassled atm by a cat.

[itwas50yearsagotoday]

8/26/23: It was 50 years ago today, August 26th, 1973, the majority of what would become Neil Young's sixth studio album Tonight's the Night was recorded. Yep... unusual that I talk only about recorded dates as opposed to release dates, as this record would not be released until almost two years later in June of '75. Since that's outside of the parameters of this blog I thought it would be a good time to address it now. Along with perhaps a couple earlier albums, Rust Never Sleeps in '79, and maybe Freedom in '89, this is often cited as Mr. Young's greatest creative document... definitely not commercial, as this record is perceived as Young's very negative reaction to the stardom that the Harvest album and prior successes had so recently brought him. As a semi-anonymous Wikipedia author notes, this record is an immediate expression of grief, as within the previous several months both Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whiten and roadie Bruce Berry had both died of drug overdoses; the latter is stated in the opening title track while Whiten shares the lead singing duties with Neil in an earlier live version of the Crazy Horse tune 'Come on Baby Let's Go Downtown' as his representation on the record. This is not a record to listen to at 11 AM on a Saturday... I read that somewhere, and it's totally fucking true. This is either the best or worst record to listen to when you're in a drunken depression. I got this as a cassette after reading about the record in the Rolling Stone Record Guide, as I was just getting into his solo tunes 'Old Man' and 'Southern Man' (although I first heard Young in an MTV video for his retro-rockabilly tune 'Wonderin''... Neil in the '80s was weird)... well this record ain't nothing like those hit tunes, but the directness and despair of the songs are almost awe-inspiring. Note that when I say these songs are 'great' almost none of them are songs you could really singalong to, and certainly are not meant for any Top 40 list. The opening track about Berry is great, as is the second track 'Speakin' Out'... I mean you really feel like you're watching a midnight flick with Neil sharing popcorn with him... and then his mini-duet with Nils Lofgren on piano while he shreds the guitar is just something to behold. I like the perfunctory 'World on a String' too... it's kind of a repulsive reaction to a song with a similar name by Sinatra... if any song gets Neil's state of mind on this record, this one does. I used to not like 'Borrowed Tune'... just Neil and a piano... but hearing it again for the first time in decades gave me some goosebumps... it was the latest song recorded for the record (Dec. '73)... this leads into a sonic blast of 'Downtown' as mentioned above, certainly the first song I liked on the record because it fucking rocks... now I think I might like the original Crazy Horse version better (sans Young), but I'm not sure anymore. 'Mellow My Mind' stretches Young's vocal chords to an extreme you rarely hear... it's kinda rough but not as much as I used to think. The second side opens with two serious mellow songs that almost should go together: 'Roll Another Number' and 'Albuquerque', both desert-driving songs, probably while very stoned. Songs that I definitely did not appreciate at the age of 16 but definitely do now, especially the latter... it's got more great piano from Lofgren, and some sweet harmonies, Neil's harmonica and guitar, everything... just great. I think the best song on the second side is 'Lookout Joe' which was recorded with the Stray Gators, the same group he toured with for the Harvest tour (oh we'll get there with Time Fades Away!)... it is moderately paced but man it rocks. Bookending the record we have a reprise of the title track... there are a couple other decent songs but Tumblr apparently now has a text limit (booo!). Anyway, get it (from YouTube, not Spotify).

[lewdcookies]

Let The Galaxy Burn readthrough (Final Thoughts)

Part 1/Part 2/Part 3/Part 4

So then, that was the Let the Galaxy Burn anthology. What's funny is that the back cover promises "the best SF short stories ever written for the Black Library". Which uuuh, no. Not really. Not by any stretch of the imagination does it have their best ever stories. There are some good ones, obviously, but they're scattered far and between a lot of average ones. Not to mention a couple of really boring and outright bad ones. It doesn't even have Deathwing, which is still one of the classic 40k short stories. So much it got reimagined into a comic at one point.

As a whole I'd give it a C rating. Possibly B- if I was being generous. There are too few really good stories to make me want to raise the score a bit further than that. The lack of interesting Xenos faction stories helps bring it down, although to be honest, the overall lack of non-Imperial POV is a detriment. Chaos does get a smattering of stories, but not enough to shift my final score all that much. The book is far too Imperium centric for its own good, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record once more; Short stories are the perfect vessel to explore other factions and views in the setting as a whole. Not every single story has to be about humans fighting against aliens or chaos. The anthology does stray a bit from that mould, but never really enough and before long you're back to "I must kill the heretic/xenos!".

But let's speak hypothetically now. Let's say that Black Library has tasked me to compile another large anthology of short stories. Here's my few ideas what I'd do:

Diversity: Both when it comes to the authors used, but also the topics and stories featured. The ultimate goal here is to show off more than just the factions of the Imperium and let other groups show themselves off. So an increased attention towards Xenos and Chaos stories. But also give odder stories a chance as well. I'd be far more inclined to include a story about an an office clerk's misadventures than another story about a Guardsman fighting yet another war. Space Marine content is to be kept at a bare minimum. If there's a set mandate of x number of Marine stories, make sure no chapter gets more than one story each. Even there more offbeat stories should be prefered over war stories.

Editing: A lot of the stories could've improved if they had been given more time with an editor. Or at the least someone who could go through it and suggest improvements for lacklustre prose and dialogue, spicing up flat descriptions and so on. Because some of the stories were bad enough, that even I, a not great writer, repeatedly went "Oh wow, that's rough" to certain sections.

Avoid repetition: One annoying part with this book was that a lot of the same authors showed up several times. They could've cut down that to maximum two per author, and allowed more people to be featured and show off their material. It also felt a lot like a boys club, but that is an issue Black Library is still struggling with, they're still not that great at finding, and hiring, female writers. Or retaining them for longer periods of time.

There is probably a lot more I would want to do, if given the chance at making one of these. But those three points are the main ones that has come into mind as I've read this one.

Would I say it's readable in the end? Eh, somewhat.

If you can track down a copy for a decent price? Sure. But at the same time a lot of the good stuff, especially Abnett's stories, are nowadays available as ebooks via the Black Library webstore.

But if you don't care much of ebooks and would rather have a physical copy, then sure.

Just remember this; avoid every single story Gav Thorpe wrote and you'll be fine.

[restlessfandoming]

“the president and the troublemaker” (part 1) (chilumi fic)

“Lumine is the student council president and Childe is the school’s number one troublemaker. They cross paths more than they’d like. Especially when Childe finds out Lumine’s big secret. Highschool AU à la Kaichou wa Maid-sama.”

if anyone has seen maid-sama, Lumine and Childe sometimes reminded me of Misaki and Usui so i had to write it hehe :3 if you haven’t seen it, i highly suggest it, its a very cute anime and if you like chilumi, you’ll definitely like the main couple in it! its on netflix! :D

[Fic Masterlist] // [AO3 Link]

* * *

“the president and the troublemaker” (part 1)

“Childe, for the last time, earrings are against the school uniform code,” Lumine said to him, eyes narrowing at the red jewelry dangling from his ear. He may have towered over her, but she was the student council president—she had to enforce the rules no matter what. 

Childe tilted his head, fingers grazing over his earring. “A tiny thing like this? Surely you can let me off the hook, Madame President?” 

“No exceptions. Remove it now or I will forcibly confiscate it from you.” 

He scoffed, turning away. “I’d like to see you try.”

Lumine clenched her jaw, watching his back retreat down the hallway. Oh, she could easily take it from him. But this wasn’t the place to use brute force. As much as he boiled her blood, she wouldn’t dare reveal her secret here. 

Childe, the school’s number one troublemaker: always getting into fights, never listening to authorities, doing whatever he pleased. And the worst part? He always got away with it. 

The girls of the school fawned over his good looks, the boys envied his strength, and the elders fell victim to his charisma. 

Not Lumine though. She refused to be influenced by him. Maybe that’s why he always seemed so annoyed by her. Good. 

She ripped out a page of her student council notebook, scribbling out Childe’s name and dress code violation, pocketing it to turn in later. 

She practically stomped her way into the student council room, earning a glance from the Vice President—her twin brother Aether. 

“Childe?” he asked, going back to typing on his laptop. 

Lumine slumped in her chair. “Yes,” she nearly growled. “How did you know?”

“Because he always puts you in the worst of moods,” her brother answered. “Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to put him in his place.”

“And get kicked out of school for murder? No thank you; I’m not ruining an absolutely clean record for the likes of someone like Childe.” She flipped through her notebook, seeing all her citations on said troublemaker. “Soon enough, that boy is going to get expelled, mark my words.”

Suddenly, the door burst open, and the student council reporter—a student named Bennett—dashed in, holding the side of his face.

“Madame President!” he announced. “There’s a fight breaking out in the hallway!”

Both Aether and Lumine stood. “What happened to your face, Bennett?” Aether asked. 

The reporter let out a sheepish laugh. “I, uh, tried to break up the fight but ended up getting punched in the face.”

“Okay, c’mon, let’s get you to the nurse,” Aether said, walking Bennett out the door. 

Lumine quickly walked out after them, hearing the commotion down the hallway. As she turned the corner, there was a crowd of students circled around the tussle. 

“Out of the way!” Lumine shouted. 

At the sound of her voice, many students scattered back to their classrooms, leaving only the perpetrators still fighting: a short boy with cropped blue hair and—Childe.

“Hey!” she yelled. “Break. It. Up! Or it’s suspension for the both of you!” 

The short boy gave Childe a harsh shove, adjusting his odd cap with tassels on the sides. “You don’t have to fight me every time you see me, you brute,” the boy hissed. 

Childe laughed. “C’mon, Scaramouche, don’t be like that,” the ginger said. “We were just having some fun, Madame President; no need to make a big fuss out of it.” 

Lumine glared at him. “Why are you always at the center of trouble?” 

Childe shrugged. “Life’s too boring.” 

Taking out her notebook, she scoffed. “Well, it’s about to get a whole lot more boring for you. Detention. After school. Both of you.” 

“It was just some play fighting between friends, Pres,” Childe insisted. “Don’t be so stuck-up.” 

“Not play fighting when one of my council members gets hit in the face,” she retorted angrily. 

“Can I at least be let off the hook?” Scaramouche interjected. “He was the one who attacked me.” 

The blonde sighed. “Fine. This was your first offense anyways.” 

“Today’s his first day after all,” Childe supplied. 

“It’s his first day and you welcomed him by attacking him?” Lumine asked, crossing her arms. 

He smiled. “What can I say? We know each other.” 

I want to punch that smile off his face. “Scaramouche, go back to class. Childe, you’re coming with me to in-school suspension.” 

Scaramouche muttered something under his breath and walked away, while Childe cheerfully waved goodbye to him. 

Lumine started walking down the other way, towards the ISS room, Childe’s footsteps falling in behind her. Most of the way was done in silence. Until—

“Say, Pres, why are you so stuck-up?” Childe asked. 

Lumine grit her teeth. “Have you ever thought maybe I’m not stuck-up, and maybe you’re just a troublemaker?” 

“Hey, at least I make your life a little more interesting, don’t I?”

“Not interesting. So much more unbearable.” 

“Maybe you should loosen up. Being like this won’t make you many friends.” 

“And fighting people will?” 

“Fighting is fun. You’re telling me you’ve never watched a fight and found it entertaining?”

Lumine stopped in her tracks. “Of course not. You only do it when something’s seriously on the line. Not for fun.” 

“Uh-uhm, excuse me,” a timid voice said. 

Lumine turned to find a girl, she looked young, probably a freshman, clutching a card. “Can I help you?” the president asked.

“A-actually,” the girl responded, “can I t-talk to Ch-Childe? A-Alone?” 

The blonde glanced at Childe, who shrugged back at her. Letting out a sigh, she said, “Yes, go ahead.” She was doing this for the girl. Not Childe. 

She walked ahead and turned the corner until she was out of sight and unable to hear. After a minute or so, the freshman girl ran past her, hysterically crying. Brows furrowed, she went back to Childe. 

“So, where are we going?” he asked nonchalantly. 

Asshole. “What the hell did you do to her?” Lumine asked. “Do I really need to write you up again?”  

“What? All I did was reject her confession.”

A glare at him. “Be nicer. Don’t make girls cry.” She continued walking. 

“Or maybe she should just be stronger.” 

“Don’t you dare insult a girl’s strength in front of me.” 

“I’m not insulting the strength of a woman. I’m just saying people in general could do better if only they were stronger.” His strides quickened, and soon he was in front of her. He flicked the earring dangling from his ear. “For instance, if you had the strength, you could easily rip this from my ear, and you could stop stacking up those useless dress code citations for me.” 

Lumine had to clench her teeth to stop herself from murdering him on the spot. “I’m your student council president. I don’t solve things through violence. Which is why you and I are different.” Lie, her gut hissed. 

She stopped, throwing open the door to her left, gesturing into the room. “You’ll spend the rest of the school day here.” She turned in, looking at the teacher. “Mr. Diluc, you have a student here for in-school suspension for the rest of the day.” 

Mr. Diluc glanced up from his book, expressionless. “Childe. Back so soon?” 

Childe sauntered in, taking a seat. “You know our Pres. Always working on cleaning up the school from scum like me.” 

“Good for her,” Diluc said. “Thank you, Lumine.”

Lumine nodded and closed the door behind her. Finally.

At least Childe wouldn’t be causing anymore trouble today. 

* * *

Lumine shivered as the chilling locker room hit her bare skin. Shedding her hoodie, she donned a simple black sports tank top and shorts. 

“Are they ever going to get heaters for these locker rooms?” she muttered. 

“It’s an underground fighting ring,” Aether said, “You think they can afford state-of-the-art locker rooms?” He tossed her a roll of hand wraps. 

She caught it, unraveling it, and started to wrap them around her knuckles. “You’re right. As long as they pay me, I shouldn’t be complaining.” 

Aether nodded, taking her gloves out from her gym bag. “Are you ever going to tell Mom how you get all this cash?”

“Never. She’d probably die of a heart attack.” 

“And your injuries?” 

“I try not to get any,” she said with a smirk. “If I do, then, hey, the restaurant business can be dangerous...and I can be clumsy.” 

And that was her big secret. 

In the night, Lumine was a top tier fighter in Teyvat’s underground fighting ring. She was known as “The Outlander.” 

After their father had walked out on them years ago, Lumine, Aether, and their mother were left with a huge amount of his debt to pay off. Their mother took on two jobs to support them, leaving her exhausted, sickly, and barely home. Lumine and Aether couldn’t find decent paying jobs at their age, so Lumine took matters into her own hands. 

Through her tenacity, she trained hard and started showing up to the underground fights, learning her way through the system, and eventually began fighting herself. Sure, it was illegal due to the violence and betting system, but it made good money—fast. Enough money to support their family, pay off the debt, and save some aside for her and Aether’s future.

Aether of course still worked as a cashier at a local grocery store (next to the restaurant Lumine claimed she worked at); Lumine would never let her dear brother participate in her line of work. He was only allowed to come along to cheer her on.   

She was also good at it. After some training, her instructors all praised her natural fighting instincts. In a matter of months, she had become one of the top fighters in her area. 

It was out of necessity. They needed the money. 

Of course, no one knew who she really was. She always fought with a mask on—she couldn’t let her identity be compromised. A high school student beating up all these grown adults? A chance she could be recognized and reported to authorities? No. Way. Plus, people liked the mysterious Outlander figure. Might as well milk it. 

The cheers above her swelled, and Lumine did her final stretches and prepped to go out on stage. 

“You ready to fight tonight?” Aether asked. 

Lumine slipped her mask on. “Always.” 

She made her way up the staircase, and the buzzing crowd grew louder and louder, until she entered the arena, and the cheers became deafening. 

The arena was probably around the size of her school gym, maybe smaller, but packed to the brim with cheering fans and a boxing cage in the middle. 

She made her way up to the cage, chants of “Outlander” swirling around her, and took her walk around the area, getting a feel for the night. Eventually, her mind blurred out the crowd, focusing on becoming in tune with her body. 

Tonight, her opponent was another member of the Hilichurl gang: a gang notorious for entering lots of members into these types of fights, even if they weren’t good, as a way to try and earn any kind of money for their gang. It was an easy win. Lumine barely got hit. (The Hilichurl on the other hand ended the night sobbing his heart out on stage. Lumine felt kind of bad. Kind of.)

Soon enough, she and Aether were on their way home with a fresh wad of cash in their bag, practically skipping their way past the dim street lights. As they made their way towards their bus home, Lumine rifled through her bag, realizing she had left one of her textbooks in the locker room from when she had been studying before the fight. 

She cursed. Now she had to go all the way back to the arena. “Aether, you need to get home—the next bus won’t be here for another hour.” 

“Lumine, I am not leaving you alone in this sketchy part of town.” 

“And you have to be there when Mom gets back, otherwise she’ll get suspicious.” Lumine was already turning around. “Tell her I had to stay behind at the restaurant to help clean up.” 

Her brother pursed his lips. 

“Aether. I’ll be fine. Did you seriously forget what I did to get that stack of cash?” she reassured. 

He sighed. “Fine, fine. You’re right.” He hugged his sister. “Still. Be careful, please.” 

She held up her fist which was still wrapped in the fighter’s tape. “Of course. See you back home.” 

With that, the twins went separate ways. 

Now maskless, Lumine went the back ways to the arena, entering through a side door, avoiding the still rowdy crowd of spectators gathered for the late night fights. She successfully grabbed her textbook, and walked back out the side door. Straight into somebody. 

Shit. “Excuse me,” she mumbled, keeping her head down, hoping they wouldn’t ask why some little high school girl was sneaking around the underground fighting arena. 

But then the person spoke. 

“Wow,” a familiar voice said. 

Lumine looked up, wide eyed. Shitshitshitshit—

“This is a surprise,” Childe said, “Madame President.”

* * *

[part 2]

[unpredictably-ghostly]

Ghost Explains His Ruby Redfort Playlist At Great Length

(aka the most self-indulgent and probably longest post i’ve ever made, enjoy!)

Also, I’d love to hear any songs you think fit the story/characters! In the tags, replies whatever, I’m 100% down for RR themed song recommendations :D

- Ruby Slippers: Both a reference to her name, and the infamous red clogs from Look Into My Eyes. Also: “Drowning, neck deep in the drama, these catastrophic problems that follow your around” is perfect for her ‘reputation’ at Spectrum.

- Rules: Links to Ruby’s rules, and has themes of questioning/rebelling against authority. “You know you’re never gonna get to find out anyway, the game plays us for fools, you know you’re never gonna get to have the final say, you don’t get to make the rules” matches with Ruby’s defiance of Spectrum, especially her issues with LB.

- Spy?: It’s straight up about spies, what more could you ask for? Also, thought it was good for the mole situation, as well as Ruby’s tendency for self-endangerment.

- Bubblegum Bitch: She wasn’t called “bubblegum girl” by Lorelei for no reason, plus thought it had a fitting amount of attitude.

- It’s A Trap!: It’s a call for action! It’s defiant! Links to wanting to be a field agent rather than a desk job like code cracking, and desire for action instead of waiting around.

- You’re Nobody Till Somebody Wants You Dead: Ruby sure did accumulate a lot of enemies, unfortunately most of them being bloodthirsty killers instead of the standard middle school rivalry. Also reflects a growing paranoia, because isn’t that fun :D “You’re nobody till somebody wants you dead, and the list it grows and grows until it’s everyone you’ve ever known.”

- Blood Red Youth: Ruby’s youth sure has been bloody! About being involved in stuff you probably shouldn’t be at that age.

- Meet Me On the Roof: The roof of the Redfort house is a popular hangout throughout the series, and the line “How high is your low gonna go?” can link to Spectrum potentially lowering standards/relaxing rules to let her work for them. Also! “Taking drowning lessons, secret words and true confessions goes super well with Take Your Last Breath: links to the threat of drowning and the truth serum.

- The Last of the Real Ones: This one I think can be interpreted multiple ways: could be Clancy and Ruby about each other, Ruby about Bradley Baker, or (i think this one is strongest) LB about Baker. About someone who’s had a strong impact on your life: both people feeling set aside from others and connected to each other.

- The Reckless and the Brave: Fits Ruby’s temperament v well, and it’s about wanting a more exciting/meaningful life- wanting to be a part of Spectrum and determination to prover herself as an agent.

- Perfume: This one encapsulates Pick Your Poison for me- Links to the perfume code, Lorelei von Leyden and her signature of Turkish Delight, and “I don’t like his eyes, and I distrust the name” for Ruby’s suspicion of Blacker.

- Bad Decisions: She has quite the track record of making questionable decisions, so,,, 

- The Kids Aren’t Alright: The title alone earnt it a place I reckon, but also “Former heroes who quit too late, just wanna fill up the trophy case again” could fit Buzz and Baker for different reasons, and “I’d do it all again, I think you’re my best friend” is Ruby and Clancy.

- Daniel in the Den: It’s paranoia and betrayal again!! “It’s harder than you think telling dreams from one another” for difficulty discerning genuine concern with paranoia, and “And felled in the night by the ones you think you love, they will come for you” speaks for itself.

- HEY CHILD: Replace child with kid, and I think it’s a decent fit for Hitch to Ruby.

- Don’t Stop Me Now: It’s fun and confident, something nice and upbeat for Ruby.

- RISE: It’s a fighting anthem! Similar to Reckless and the Brave, it links to wanting to prove herself in Spectrum, and her determination to succeed in dangerous situations against the odds.

- Send Them Off!: Really like this song to represent the jealousy dealt with by Clancy and Ruby- Clancy’s jealousy of Ruby, and Ruby’s jealousy of Bradley Baker. The opening lines stuck out to me particularly as being about Baker’s death.

- You’re My Best Friend- Clancy and Ruby are best friends your honour!! I think this song fits their friendship super well. 

- Kung Fu Fighting: I saw this in another RR playlist looking for inspiration/songs outside what I normally listen to, and adfgdfgfh brilliant idea i love it! Fun to imagine the training scenes in Pick Your Poison.

- The Edge: This one is for a very specific scene- At the end of Blink and You Die, where Ruby is on the window ledge as Buzz and Hitch try to convince her to trust them, and that the other is the mole. Lyrics about a balancing act on a high edge as a metaphor for the tipping point in a relationship.

- I’m Still Standing: A fantastic and triumphant song to finish off! “Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid.”

[rp-commandersignas]

"Hi, Commander..." she's exhausted. "It's me again. Sorry for being gone for so long. A lot's been going on." A pause. "Anyway, we got a lot of new members and a lot of them are Reploids. They're spreading the word that there are humans out there that do love and care for them." A smile. "A lot of my pals are running the site and planning the events." She hesitates. "Oh yeah; a few of my friends asked me to ask you if there could be some hunters at our planned events? Our website has the info. Sorry for being a bother. It's for...you know." She sighs. "But, I'm taking a break from everything for a while. I'm a bit overwhelmed. But, if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask me." Another tired smile.

-Female human sympathizer ☮️

Signas was pleased to hear that her movement was still going strong. He had occasionally wondered how she was doing in the time since her last message, but he hadn’t worried. He just figured she would get back to him on her own time.

You couldn’t tell by his expression, but when he heard how tired she sounded, he felt kind of concerned. Being the leader of the movement, it was likely she had been solving its problems on her own. He understood how that sort of responsibility could take a lot out of an ordinary person; especially one who had never done this sort of thing before. Still, if that last bit was true, it seemed she had taken to her role well.

Signas also noticed that she made no mention of the hackers from her last message. Considering that the website was still standing, it was clear that they had been successfully deterred. He did find himself feeling a bit curious about what other opposition she might have encountered though, if any...

Having heard her request, he considered it carefully.

Conveniently, he already had access to the necessary information. When the first donations she had raised started coming in, he noticed that they were all under the same name. Not only did it make them easier to keep track of in the financial records, it was also a clue that led him directly to the website.

It turned out that the city they were based in was a few states away from HQ.

Their local Hunter Base wasn’t under his direct authority, so he would have to check with their Chief first.

Signas knew that she likely had some B to C-rank hunters in mind, but he might be able to surprise her with an A-Rank hunter, depending on who was available. On the other hand, it was probably better to start small for the first event...

Then, a tiny thought in the back of his mind caught his attention: "(...What if I went?)"

It was immediately shot down.

Signas had several reasons why he couldn’t make a personal appearance, but... he didn’t completely dismiss the idea either. “(...Maybe sometime in the future, but not now. I’ll have to see how things turn out.)“ He decided.

Having processed all these thoughts in the blink of an eye, he gave his reply.

"I’d say you’ve definitely earned that break. It sounds like you’ve been working hard.” Signas said.  “It’s good that you’ve gotten a decent amount of reploids on board as well. They'll provide a broader range of perspectives, which should help your message reach more people.”

“As for your request, I’ll see what I can do. I’ll contact you about it later so we can discuss things in more detail.“

[writer-k-pop]

Cousin Test

제가 시험에 합격했다는 말씀이세요? Are you saying that I passed the test?

Description: Your younger cousins are in town for a visit and they are finally meeting your boyfriend, Chan. They insist that he has to pass their test for approval and the test goes smoothly but their answer still needs some deliberations.  Warnings: None Genre: Fluff Word Count: 2.9k

Seventeen Masterlist | Masterlists

"What do you ladies want for lunch?" You ask your two younger cousins as they sit on the couch. They flew in a couple days ago and today they're meeting your boyfriend, Chan, for the first time in person.

The older of the two, Lina, shrugs, "Doesn't matter to me."

"Me neither." The youngest, Grace, says with a smile.

You lean against the counter, phone in your hands, "We kind of have to give Chan some ideas. He is paying for it."

Chan texts you again with another suggestion.

"Pizza?"

"What about pizza?" You ask your cousins and both of them nod quickly.

"I want pepperoni!" Grace tells you.

"And I want cheese." Lina puts in her opinion.

"Grace wants pepperoni and Lina wants cheese." You text Chan.

"We'll get one pepperoni and one cheese." Chan replies, "If we have leftovers then I have late night snacks."

You roll your eyes, "Meet you at the studio in 30?"

"Definitely." Chan texts back and you put away your phone.

"Alright, ladies, we've got 30 minutes to get our butts to the studio." You announce to your cousins, "Think we can do it?"

Lina and Grace stand on their feet, purses already secured around their bodies. "Heck yeah."

You chuckle and pick up your own purse.

As the three of you make your way out of your apartment building, Grace's excitement begins to grow.

"I can't believe we finally get to meet Chan!" She giggles and grips your arm tighter.

"You guys have been dating for like ever, you could've come visit us." Lina complains.

"We've been dating for like a year. And you also could've come visited me earlier. Plus with Chan's schedule..." You trail off.

"He should get a better schedule." Grace pouts.

"That what I keep telling him." You chuckle as the walk sign turns green and you lead the girls across the street.

25 minutes later, you stop across the street from Chan's private studio.

"I don't see the company building anywhere." Lina looks around at the signs that are plastered onto the buildings.

"We're not going to the company. We're going to his private studio." You correct her.

Grace tugs on your arm, "The light's green, come on."

"I'm going to make sure he's the guy for you." Lina says and sets her shoulders in determination.

You chuckle, "And how are you going to that?"

"I'm going to ask him questions." Lina says confidently.

"You're going to interrogate him." Grace rephrases.

Lina mulls the word over for a second, "I'm going to interrogate him." She confirms.

"Oh geez," You laugh, "Well, don't go too hard on him."

"No, we're going to ask him all the hard questions." Grace smiles evilly.

You turn into a building and head down the stairs with the girls following. At the end of the hall is Chan's studio door.

"What are these other doors?" Lina asks as you continue to pass by closed doors.

"Other studios that people rent out." You inform them.

"All these are studios?" Grace says in awe.

"Small private ones, but yeah." You say as you reach Chan's door.

You knock twice but there's no reply. So you punch in the code and slowly open the door. Lina and Grace press against your back, trying to get a peek inside. The lights are dimmed but Chan's nowhere in sight.

"He must be still getting pizzas." You comment and fully open the door, letting your cousins into the space.

Once inside, Lina and Grace begin walking around the space and doing little twirls. They've been dancing since they were little and that's part of the reason they wanted to meet Chan so badly.

You throw your purse onto the couch and lower yourself down while texting Chan.

"We're here. I let us in." You text him.

"This is so neat." Lina comments, setting her purse next to yours.

"I thought it would be smaller than this." Grace says and copies her sister's actions.

You glance around the room. It's about a third of the size of Seventeen's big practice room. And after spending a lot of time in that space, this one always seems small to you but to your cousins, it's a decent size.

"I just got the pizzas. Be there in five." Chan texts you.

"(y/n), do you know how to work this?" Lina asks, standing in front of the stereo system.

You push yourself back onto your feet, "Of course I do."

"This too?" Grace asks, pointing at the standing mic in front of her.

You nod, "I sometimes help Chan with his recordings."

"How does it work?" Grace's eyes light up and you take a seat in the desk chair.

After a few clicks, the computer logs on and you search for the right program.

"We use this program that combines all the different tracks together." You explain, Lina over your right shoulder and Grace over your left. "Pop these headphones over your ears and then Chan does some magic button pressing and hits record and then he starts singin'."

Lina lightly hits your shoulder, "You don't even know what he does."

You chuckle, "I can work the tech, I don't necessarily understand the magic behind the tech."

Grace goes back to stand in front of the wall of mirrors and starts lightly dancing. "I could stay here all day."

"Chan could too." You comment, staring lovingly at the girl as she raises her arms above her head. Her eyes intently watching to perfect the angles.

The door swings open and Chan shuffles through the doorway with two pizzas and a bag of drinks.

"Hey, I didn't know what you wanted to drink, so I guessed." Chan smiles at you. Lina and Grace quickly hide behind you, using your body like a shield.

Chan sets the food down on the small table and then turns his attention to the two girls who are hiding behind you.

"Hi. I'm Chan." He introduces himself. "It's so great to finally meet you two."

You glance down and chuckle at the two girls who are nervously looking at Chan. "This is Lina and this is Grace." You tell Chan their names because they aren't about to say it themselves. You pat them on the shoulders, telling them they should quit hiding behind you but they stay hidden.

"Why don't we eat? You guys must be hungry." Chan suggests and you can detect a hint of unease behind his eyes. You don't blame him. He wants to make a good impression on your closest cousins but they're not making it easy.

You guide the two humans attached to your sides to sit near the couch while Chan slides the table of food over. Sitting across from you makes Chan feel like this is more of an interview that a first meeting.

While he opens the pizza containers, you can't help but laugh at the girls, "You guys were so adamant about grilling him and now you're all shy."

"Shhhh." Grace shoves her finger against her lips, "You can't spoil our plans."

"Grilling me?" Chan asks, handing Grace a cheese slice, "I have to pass another test?"

"This is the most important test." Lina says as if the answer's obvious, "If you don't pass our test, you can't date (y/n)." With her growing confidence, Chan begins to relax slightly and he watches curiously as she picks out her pizza slice. You on the other hand, laugh out loud.

"Who gave you that authority?" You ask.

Lina shrugs while taking a bite.

"Well, I've passed all of (y/n)'s friends' test so I think I can pass one more." Chan says, up for the challenge and hands Lina and Grace napkins.

"Mmm, this pizza is good." Grace says happily with grease around her mouth.

"Better be. Jeonghan hyung's sister's husband owns it." Chan explains.

"Were they busy?" You ask, wondering if business was good.

Chan shrugs and picks up a slice, "The store wasn't packed but they were working like crazy in the kitchen. Probably had a lot of deliveries."

You nod and take a bite of your own slice.

"So." Lina sets her slice down and sips her drink, "Why do you like (y/n)?"

The question throws Chan for a loop and he nearly chokes on his food.

"Wow, you're starting with the hard questions first." He says once he can talk.

"We don't play it easy." Grace wipes her mouth and shakes her head.

"No you do not." Chan smiles, "Well, she's super smart and super amazing. She makes me feel super calm and relaxed and she always helps me whenever she can." Chan looks directly at you and a blush creeps onto your cheeks. "Not to mention she's ridiculously pretty."

"Hmmm." Lina ponders the question while Grace nods with a serious look on her face.

You try to hide your laughter at their tactics with another bite of pizza.

"Is she the prettiest person you've ever seen?" Grace throws another question.

"Of course." Chan replies immediately, "And the prettiest person I've even known."

"What's your favorite movie?" Lina questions him.

"What's yours?" Chan throws the question back at her instead of answering.

"Mine's any of the Harry Potter movies." She tells him straight up.

"I like Enola Holmes." Grace adds in her favorite with a cheesy smile.

You giggle and wipe some of the grease off her face. "You're how old and I'm still wiping your face for you."

Chan gazes at you and smiles, loving the way you interact with your cousins.

"Hello?" Lina waves her hand at Chan, "You still have to answer the question."

"Oh right," Chan returns his attention to the younger female. "My favorite movie, I think, is Inception."

"You think?" Grace questions his answer.

"It's hard to just pick one." You come to your boyfriend's defense, "It can change every now and then."

"Exactly." Chan agrees with you, "Like how your favorite song can change within a day or two."

"Mine doesn't." Lina says a-matter-of-factly.

"So your favorite song is still the Hannah Montana theme song?" Chan teases her.

"It is not!" Lina say, appalled that he would even think that, "I never even watched Hannah Montana."

"I did!" Grace raises a hand happily.

Chan laughs out loud and the sound is like music to your ears.

"(y/n), I'm full." Lina looks to you. On her plate is a half eaten piece of pizza.

"Is that your second?" You ask, making sure she had enough to eat.

Lina nods.

"Alright." You tell her.

"I'm full too." Grace says with yet another round of pizza sauce around her mouth.

"You," You say and grab a napkin, "Have a bit saved for later, don't you?" You wipe her mouth, making sure to wipe up every last trace.

Meanwhile, Lina has moved over to the stereo. "Hey Chan, can we turn this on?"

Chan and you look over before he gives you a questioning look and Grace joins her sister.

You smile at him, "Go ahead, I'll clean up."

Chan warmly smiles at you before standing and walking over to where your cousins were waiting for him. While he fiddled with the system and explained how it all worked, you cleaned up the table. The leftover pizzas fit into one box so in the throw away one, you placed the plates and napkins. Music begins to play through the speakers as you close the pizza boxes.

You wave down Chan and point outside towards the trash bins. Chan says "okay" with his hands and places his gaze on the girls as they clammer around him, asking for him to teach them some dance moves.

You are only gone for literally 3 minutes but when you get back, Lina and Grace are dead focused on copying Chan's body positions as he teaches them one of Seventeen's dance routines.

"Little higher... there." Chan looks at Grace's position through the mirror.

"So many details." Lina breathes out in an attempt to reset.

"Hoshi hyung always says the details have to be perfect so it looks amazing later." Chan repeats the words of his hyung as you take a seat on the couch, legs folded underneath you.

"Okay, what's next?" Grace asks and bounces, anxiously waiting to continue.

"Then you make three circles with your right arm and every time your right arm reaches the bottom of the circle, your left leg makes a small kick to the right." Chan explains slowly and then demonstrates even slower so the girls can follow.

You smile in recognition of the song. He's teaching them the chorus of 'My My.'

"That's it!" Chan says happily with a clap, "Can you do it faster?"

Watching as Lina and Grace speed up the small bit they just learned, you blindly reach for your phone. With the desire to capture some of this moment, you quietly start to video them.

"Yeah! That's it!" Chan exclaims and gives the girls high fives.

"Let's keep going!" Lina says and Grace nods in agreement.

For the next hour and a half, the girls learn the chorus and then proceed to perfect it under the watchful eye of Chan. About halfway through, you kind of lost interest and started scrolling through your phone. But whenever the girls called out to you to watch, you'd lock your phone without a second thought.

"Should we record it and see how good you look?" Chan suggests, your ears perking up to his suggestion.

"(y/n), will you record us?" Grace runs over to you, looking down at you on the couch.

You place a hand over your heart, "It would be my honor."

Grace giggles, "You're weird."

"That's what I've been telling her." Chan agrees, gesturing to himself.

You make your way in front of them and stand ready with your phone in your hands.

"Make sure you get all of us." Lina reminds you and points a finger at you.

"I will, I will." You reassure her.

"Ready?" Chan asks and the girls nod their heads. A second later, the prechorus to 'My My' plays through the speakers and you press record on your phone.

With the upbeat music and your cousins dancing in front of you with your beloved boyfriend, it's really hard to keep the phone steady to film them. All three of them flow through the moves effortlessly and all three look incredible while doing it. Sure, Chan has taught you some of their choreos in the past but seeing him dance with your closest cousins spurs something else.

When the section finishes, Lina, Grace, and Chan all let out a cheer and you stop the recording.

"Let me see, let me see." Grace tugs at your arms.

They watch the video and decide that it was okay but could probably be a little better. Chan gives the girls tips on what to focus on and they do a slow dry run before rerecording the whole thing. This time is even better and Lina and Grace are completely satisfied with it. As is Chan.

"Can we do this again tomorrow?" Lina asks you as you pick up your stuff from the couch to head to the attraction they wanted to see for the day.

"You liked it that much?" You ask in return and both girls give you nods.

"Are you saying that I passed the test?" Chan asks, raising an eyebrow.

"For now." Lina tilts her head upwards, acting mysteriously.

Chan and you chuckle.

"Unfortunately, I have schedules all day tomorrow." Chan gives the girls an apologetic smile.

Lina and Grace's faces fall in disappointment and Chan quickly tries to bring their hopes back up.

"But maybe, the day after, you could come visit the rehearsal studio?" Chan suggests, "And then you could also meet the rest of the members and show them the cool dance you learned."

At this, Lina and Grace light up with excitement while you give Chan a concerned look.

"Are you sure?" You ask him, unsure if he could be allowed to do that.

Chan shrugs, "Hyungs do it all the time so why can't I?" He then places a hand on the girls' shoulders, "How would you guys like that?"

"That'd be awesome." Lina says in awe.

"I wanna meet your members." Grace gives Chan the biggest smile she can manage.

Chan laughs, "I'll double check to make sure with everyone but I'm sure you guys can come visit."

"But if not, it's okay, right Lina? Grace?" You say to make sure they're not thinking it's a certainty.

Lina and Grace nod in understanding.

"Alright, ladies, then, you ready? We've got a palace waiting for us." You hold open the door.

The girls adjust their purses before giving Chan a hug and thanking him.

"You girls are so welcome." Chan ruffles Grace's hair and follows them towards the door.

Chan takes ahold of the door and you step away from it.

"Be careful and have fun." Chan tells you with a smile.

"You too. Thanks." You wink at him and he chuckles softly.

"Anything for you." Chan says and pecks your lips.

"Hey, who said you could kiss her?" Lina peeks out from behind you with an accusing look on her face. Grace is not far behind her, her best imitation of Lina's expression on her own face.

Chan holds his hands up in surrender, "Apologies but she is my girlfriend." He smiles goofily.

"She's our cousin." Lina playfully sticks out her tongue at Chan before grabbing my left hand. Then Grace grabs my right hand and they both start leading me towards the building's exit.

Chan's laughter mixes with yours as you're pulled away.

"See you later!" You call out with a look back.

Chan smiles and waves goodbye from the doorway. He watches until you've left the building and walk away. The smile on his face never leaving for a second.

[skrltwtch]

Starving

Prompt: I work at the butcher shop and we've never spoken, but I recognise you from when you come in to buy fresh meat every month. I don't mind keeping the store open a little past closing since you're running late and seem kind of desperate. This may be weird to mention, but did you know your teeth are getting sharper while we talk? (Source in master list)

Word count: 2,782 words

Genre: Feels, supernatural

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Someone had the bloody cheek to enter as I was getting ready to close up shop. Our opening hours were indicated on the door. The door. You couldn’t get any clearer than that. When did schools and parents stop teaching their charges not to enter business premises two minutes before closing time?

It was her.

I could make an exception this time, I suppose. She came in often enough and bought more than enough for me to consider her a regular. And she was a lovely person to deal with; I couldn’t say the same for a decent amount of my other regulars, whose business I accepted with gritted teeth.

‘I’m sorry. I know you’re closing soon. Just — please, I’ll take any cuts of meat you have left. I can pay extra for the trouble,’ she said.

Oh, God, what had I done to earn that kind of impression?

‘Are you okay?’

‘I’m fine, thank you.’ Her pale skin and quivering form said otherwise. ‘I just — I just lost track of time at work. I got here as quickly as I could once I could leave the office. I’m really sorry.’

‘Don’t — it’s okay.’ I packed whatever I had left that would also match the typical volume of her purchases. From the corner of my eye, I saw her pacing up and down the shop, holding herself tightly. Every breath she made reached my ears. She wasn’t fine. Forget small talk then. Just like it wasn’t my business what she did with enough meat to feed a large animal in a day every month, it wasn’t my business why she looked close to falling over.

Maybe it was.

I called her over to the cashier, where approximately four kilogrammes of raw meat awaited her. Despite her stature, she never had any difficulties making it out of the shop with that much in tow. That might not be the case today. She was having a tough time simply getting her wallet out of her bag, and she looked absolutely sickly. Were those … were those tears in her eyes?

I really shouldn’t.

I really should.

‘Hey, are you alright? You don’t look too good,’ I said. Understatement: she appeared to be deteriorating by the second.

‘I’m fine,’ she insisted as she struggled with her wallet this time. I narrowed my eyes at her for a better look at what I thought I saw: her canines extending and swelling into fangs. A cross between a hiccup and a sob squeaked past her throat and into the open.

‘You can come back for payment tomorrow. I can help you with this to your car.’ No, it was now my social responsibility not to let her get behind the wheel. She was barely able to stand. ‘Or I can drop you off at your place … or somewhere nearby if you’re more comfortable with that.’

‘I’m fine,’ she growled.

Literally.

‘Shit, I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t mean to.’

‘It’s … okay …?’ Sorry, my attention was hijacked by the sight of claws, honest-to-God claws, fucking splitting her fingernails open.

She left £100 on the counter and grabbed the parcels I made for her. ‘Please keep the change. You’ve been so kind. I can’t — I can’t come back here anymore.’

I wasn’t given a chance to question why she felt that way. Whatever was plaguing her — and scaring me a little, I had to admit — didn’t give her a chance either to make it out the door, as she’d collapsed not far from the counter. I had no idea how I could even let her walk out alone in the state she was in. I rushed to the phone. ‘I’m calling for help,’ I said.

She got to her hands and knees. That was … encouraging. I think. ‘No, please don’t. You need to go.’ Her voice was distorted and rumbly. Her blouse started to tear across her back, revealing a thin, but growing, layer of … hair. Fur, more like. Not so encouraging anymore.

‘I can’t leave you here alone. What is happening to you?’

She buried her face in her hands — or whatever they were becoming as they stretched and popped. Her feet burst out of her shoes, the same changes happening to them. ‘Don’t laugh.’

‘I promise.’ The rapid decline of her health from when she came in, the physical changes wracking her body, and the animalistic noises she was making drained what I was witnessing dry of any humour. I doubted there was any to begin with. I felt almost like I was seeing something I wasn’t supposed to.

‘Werewolf. I’m a’ — a bark, involuntary, broke up her sentence — ‘werewolf.’

I went to her. Outside, the shades of violet and orange the sky had been awash with were muddling into a dark blue. I ducked my head a little to verify the shape of the moon tonight. None of the passers-by thought to look inside. At this point, I was more worried about someone else becoming privy to her secret than I was about the image of my shop. I didn’t understand how this was happening. It made sense and no sense at the same time.

‘You can stay in the storeroom tonight. You’ll be safe.’

She kept her head down. ‘Your boss? Okay?’ Her speech was strained.

‘I’m the boss of me.’ I knew my decision not to hire extra help would pay off someday. ‘Come on.’

‘Thank you.’

She stood up. I shifted my gaze elsewhere, as tempting as it was to see what a werewolf looked like mid-transformation. I showed her the way to the storeroom. It was due for a cleanup anyway. Her constant twitching and whining next to me didn’t go unnoticed. I took it to mean that she was controlling herself from either changing completely until I was out of her way or hurting me. I could be completely way off base, of course. The only piece of werewolf media I ever consumed was An American Werewolf in London (I was more of a zombie person myself), and … well, from what I’d seen tonight, the filmmakers got the transformation right, I’d say.

She took off what was left of her clothes once she was inside, and her transformation … accelerated. I closed the door to give her privacy — and to drown out the horrific noises. Nothing about the human body should produce what I was hearing. Things went quiet, eventually. I opened the door ever so slightly. ‘I’ll be here all night,’ I said despite not knowing whether she’d know what I was saying, ‘so you won’t be alone.’ I should be safe on this side of the door: the change had stripped her of opposable thumbs. The keyword was ‘should’.

The darkness coupled with her black fur made it impossible for me to see the creature she had become. Did I want to see? I still couldn’t shake off the feeling like I’d been some kind of voyeur; her appearance mattered naught to me, though I’d understand if she thought — she likely did — it would. Then she threw herself against the door, slamming both the actual thing and the door to my maiden glimpse at a real werewolf shut.

She loosed a howl that drove home the point that I had a werewolf in my storeroom. That I had been selling meat to a werewolf for her consumption. That the sweet, cheery petite lady who came in once a month was a werewolf. I wondered, then, if what she was like as a human carried over to her wolf self. If it did, I should be safe, right?

… There it was again: ‘should’.

I went back to what I was doing before what I knew about this world had been violently upended. I thanked God — should I? Did He or did He not exist? — that tomorrow was my day off. I was going to spend it with a good book and minimal to no human contact in the comfort of my living room. Now I was only interested in contemplating my place in the universe. What else was out there? Were any of the people walking past as I went to advertise the shop’s official closure for the day harbouring similar secrets as well?

Baleful whines transcended the door and filled the air. I picked up the parcels she’d dropped. Could she be hungry? It was worth a shot. I unwrapped one parcel. The closer I got to the storeroom, the more charged she got. I never dreamt I’d get to know the extent of damage a werewolf’s claws could do to a door in this lifetime. I threw the slab of meat as deep inside as I could. While she went to examine what it was that I’d left to her mercy, I turned on the lights to benefit us both.

What I got to see at last was ineffective in reeling in my disbelief. Where I’d left a quaking, infirm woman now stood a massive black wolf rending raw meat like paper. Despite looking almost indistinguishable from an ordinary wolf, there was an unsettling quality to her proportions and demeanour that made it hard for me to remember my manners and stop fucking staring. She was … beautifully horrifying and frighteningly stunning all at once. In some sick, twisted way, it made sense that something like her — something like what she’d become — couldn’t have come about naturally.

She turned to look at me, her jaw dripping with blood and her tail … wagging.

I regained control of my senses quickly enough to leave. The slamming of the door failed to mute her whimper at — missing out on her chance at a tasty human? Being alone in the storeroom again? Best I didn’t read too much into it. I fed her the rest of the meat she bought. She refused to eat the last piece, yet she wailed when I left her be.

‘I don’t think I’d taste very good. I’m lean and stringy,’ I said through the crack in the door. ‘And bland, like most English food.’

I didn’t know what to make of the bark that followed my attempt at a witticism.

I felt bad for her. Wolves were social animals, weren’t they? Then again, who’d feel bad for me upon discovering my mutilated body in my shop? No one had attempted to romanticise werewolves like the likes of Anne Rice and the Twilight author had done with vampires, and probably with good reason, as I willed myself to remember how she, a soft-spoken woman an hour ago, devoured almost four kilogrammes of meat in record time. The ending of An American Werewolf in London wasn’t a happy one, for God’s sake! (Maybe I should stop invoking God’s name for now.)

‘Can you understand me?’ I said. ‘Bark … um, bark twice for yes’, so it wouldn’t be a coincidence.

And she did.

Well, fuck me.

I sighed. ‘Are you … are you lonely? Bark twice for yes.’

Silence.

For the longest time, until she barked again, softly, mournfulness plain to hear in the two notes.

✦✧✦✧

My back! G— fuck, my back. How the fuck did I sleep last night?

Right. I slept in a chair outside the storeroom.

I stretched to get rid of the kinks in my back. Yeah, that was it. That was the spot. No, that one. That other one was definitely it. Relief — sweet, glorious relief. How the hell did I even fall asleep in a chair anyway?

‘Hey, you’re awake.’

I turned to the direction of the voice that had no reason to be here at this time of day. Or at all. No one was allowed here but me. Why was I in the shop? Wasn’t today my day off? What happened last night? Why, of all things instead, did I remember not to use God’s name as a synonym for ‘fuck’? I also didn’t remember finding religion last night. I pinched the bridge of my nose. I needed water.

I focused my eyes on the figure in front of me.

It was her.

Oh.

Oh.

‘Yeah, I am now.’ Without a doubt. ‘How are you?’

She declined my offer to have my seat. My legs demanded that I continue standing to get the blood flowing. ‘I’m fine,’ she said. I could believe her this time. She was wearing one of my aprons over the tattered remnants of her clothes. ‘Thank you for … um.’ Her pause made me think her admission last night was the first time she said those words out loud to someone else. ‘Thank you.’

‘It was nothing. You looked … really sick yesterday’: I took a leaf out of her book

She smiled. ‘It’s okay. You don’t have to be polite. I know what I am.’ Her words were shaded with the same tint of sadness as when she confided in me about her loneliness.

‘No. You — the wolf — you were …’ Tame? She wasn’t an animal. She was … ‘You didn’t hurt — I’m fine.’ I held up both my hands to show her the absence of any marks, and she could very well see I wasn’t missing any limbs. ‘I’m fine,’ I repeated, ‘except for this sudden bout of scrambled egg for brains, but in my defence (or not), this is how I am a fair bit of the time. Who put me in charge of a meat slicer?’

‘You’re very kind. And cute,’ I thought I heard her say under her breath. ‘Thank you. How can I repay you for last night?’

‘You don’t have to. The meat’s on the house, too.’ Nothing to do with what I thought she said. ‘I’ll return you your £100 on the way out.’

‘No. Please. I could’ve done something bad to you.’

‘But you didn’t.’

‘Please. There has to be something I can do for you. I’d feel terrible otherwise.’

I truly wanted nothing from her. I survived a night with a werewolf. That by itself was a fantastic reward. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Well …

‘Were you serious about not coming to my shop anymore?’

‘I … if that’s what you want, I can go elsewhere. If you’re going to tell the other butchers not to sell to me because of what I am, that’s okay, too. I’ll figure something out.’

‘No. G— shit. That’s awful. I’m not —’ Why did she always jump to the worst conclusions about me? ‘No, promise me you’ll come back to my shop. That’s all I ask. And … your name. You’ve been coming here for years, and I don’t even know your name.’ I knew some of my customers’ names — and not necessarily the ones that mattered. Like her. ‘It’s not about the business I get from you, by the way. I don’t care what you are. I don’t know why you are what you are, and I have so many questions, but I do know it’s none of my business. I won’t judge.’

She nodded. ‘Thank you. I promise. I’ll come back. I’ll come back when it’s not the full moon and I didn’t skip lunch because I was too busy with work. And my name’s Eloise.’

‘I’m George.’

‘It’s lovely to meet you, George. Now you know why I buy so much meat on one day of every month. You’re the only person who knows what I am.’

‘I won’t tell anyone. You have my word.’

‘Thank you. I know I’ve said that a lot of times already, but I mean each and every one of them.’ Her eyes roved around the space. ‘I should go now. I have work in a couple of hours at best … or I’m late at worst. And you probably need to get ready, too. You should be opening soon … or I’ve made you late. It’s on your door.’

‘I have the day off today. Great timing, huh? Are you sure you’re good to drive?’

‘Yes, I can definitely manage much better today than I would’ve have yesterday. I don’t know what I was thinking. I was just so hungry …’ She shook her head, expelling a breath signalling disapproval. ‘I’ll return this’ — she yanked at an apron strap — ‘to you tomorrow as well.’

‘Actually … one more thing. So we’re really even.’

‘Yes?’

‘Would you perhaps like to meet for coffee later, please?’ I could only navel-gaze for so long.

She looked taken aback. That and her response, articulated in three softly spoken words — ‘I’d love to’, led me to believe that what she was like as a human did indeed carry over to her wolf self.

[hayscodings]

penelope’s dynamic with hiram has to be one of the most bizarre ones on the show because it’s been made explicitly clear that she’s disliked him ever since they were in high school together but we know that the blossoms were making payments to lodges dating back years and that their families must have been in business together at some point but then clifford sends hiram to prison pre s1 and yet come s2 penelope and claudius inexplicably join forces with hiram (who apparently doesn’t hold a grudge against penelope for clifford’s actions) mere episodes after claudius mentions how he's been wanting to get his revenge on the lodges all these years for some unknown reason though nothing really comes of the alliance save penelope faking a seizure for hiram one time because she exposes his plans to cheryl on several occasions and once it becomes clear that he's not going to deliver on his promise to give her a brothel she immediately peaces out and fucks shit up for him by killing claudius for poisoning the town’s water supply and then in the s3 finale penelope includes veronica in her g&g themed dinner party turned manhunt in the woods which we never see hiram’s reaction to but then come s4 fugitive penelope is helping manage veronica and cheryl’s secret maple rum business in her former brothel while veronica and hiram are at odds and still despite all of this we’re somehow supposed to believe that penelope and hiram were on decent enough terms for penelope to call him while she was still in hiding to ask him to make sure that she would be taken care of in his private prison once she turned herself over to the authorities to pay for (some) of her crimes, one of which was attempting to murder his daughter as some roundabout revenge for his wife not doing anything to help her when she confessed to having been bought as a child bride by the town’s resident creepy gothic family in detention almost 30 years ago. and it’s probably safe to assume that, once again, hiram did not make good on his promise to penelope, given his track record, his general inability to do anything selfless, and the fact that he’s been too busy trying to acquire her family’s maple groves from her daughter for the past 7 years, so naturally penelope must have had a shit time in lock up, and as if that weren’t convoluted enough, the same night that she manages to escape from his prison she comes home to find that her maple groves have been set aflame, which was his henchman’s doing. literally what goes on

[literaticat]

My agent has a decent track record and is with an established agency. He submitted my manuscript to dozens of editors. The editors read the manuscript, but all passed. Was the book doomed from the start, or could a "better" agent have sold it? I can't decide if he's a bad agent, or I'm a bad writer. (Could be both!)

I mean I'd go out on a limb and say, NEITHER?

Lots of books don't sell. That doesn't mean that the books suck, or that the writers suck, or that the agent sucks. Selling books is HARD, actually, even great ones. I know for a fact that I DON'T suck at my job, and I've found a lot of success that proves it -- but also, uh... I definitely don't sell EVERY book, even if I believe in them wholeheartedly and know that they are good.

Sometimes it's because there are extenuating things that we don't know at the beginning (like, Mo Willems already wrote a book like this that is about to come out, or whatever) -- or it's REALLY GOOD but too SOMETHING for the market right now -- or it's just a matter of "right book at the wrong time".

Like, one of the earliest novels I ever worked on, we went on three rounds over the course of a year or more with revisions in between. The editor who ended up buying it hadn't even been an editor when we first started - heck, she was probably still in COLLEGE at that time. The book went on to win awards, the editor is now in charge of her imprint, and the author has a thriving career. So... it all worked out.

Another one: The author wrote the book 20 years ago (before I was ever an agent, obviously.) It didn't go anywhere, she put it in a drawer, but she always believed in it. She wrote and published some books, I became her agent. She showed me the book and we realized that there were some things that made it NOT a middle grade book - she wanted it to be a MG, so she revised. I went out with it, but historical fiction at that time was dead in the water and it didn't sell. We sold some other books. Years passed. She revised some more. The market shifted. She reminded me about that book, and I thought of some more editors who might love it now. I sold it, and it came out this year!

And -- some books DON'T EVER sell. Again - that doesn't mean that they sucked -- they might have served a different purpose. Maybe that's the book that helped shape you into an even stronger writer that will write a bestseller next, you know? It was definitely WORTH WRITING if you got something great out of writing it -- even if that one doesn't end up getting published.

[blueaura]

Lost and Found Ch. 4

A/N: Thank you to everyone who has liked or re-blogged this story so far. I really appreciate it. Sorry for the delay. This chapter is all Sam and Y/N. Dean will be back in the next one. As always, any tips or suggestions are welcome. Feedback would be amazing. Thank you and happy reading!

Summary: Sam and Dean meet a young hunter who is a little rough around the edges and they reluctantly take her under their wing. But she might be a little more connected to them that any of them realise.

Word Count: 1.7k

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

Chapter 4

The door slammed behind Dean, leaving Sam and Y/N in silence in the motel room. She refused to look at him. She didn’t know what to do, how to act. Things had been going well. For the first time in years, her life was somewhat okay. She had even been having a great time hanging out with the Winchesters. Just her luck that it was all screwed to hell now.

The awkward silence continued as Sam finished patching himself up. She went back to looking at the floor, feeling guilty that Dean hadn’t even been able to patch Sam up properly.

This is why you can’t go with them. You will just end up hurting them. That’s what you do.

She forced herself to ignore her thoughts and looked for a distraction. Moving towards Sam, she slapped his hand away from where he was trying to wrap his ribs and took over. Just act normal, she decided. Nothing’s changed yet. Dean isn’t your fa- your anything. These guys are just reaching for something that isn’t there.

Sam observed Y/N as she continued her task, lost in her thoughts. He felt bad about just blurting his suspicions out loud instead of confronting Dean in private. Clearly, he had hit a nerve, and he didn’t know how to fix it.

“I’m sorry,” Sam said softly. Y/N’s grip faltered for a second. She sharply exhaled but gave no response, almost done with the bandages. Sam tried again.

“I’m sorry Y/N. I shouldn’t have sprung this on you –”

“You didn’t,” Y/N said sharply, “you didn’t spring anything because there is nothing to be sprung – or whatever. You’re wrong. So, Dean slept with my mom, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t the only one! I don’t know why you have this idea in your head but it’s –”

She stopped and took a shuttered breath.

“It can’t be true. She told me he died. She told me he abandoned us. If this is true, that means she lied. She lied to me my whole life! When I was little, I dreamed about having a family. A family that loved me, that cared for me. Then I grew up, and I don’t want that anymore. So, I don’t want it to be true. It’s better that way, for everyone.”

She moved away from Sam as she finished patching him up. She could feel his eyes following her, the pity in them making her blood boil. She wasn’t broken. She was a survivor, dammit! And she didn’t need anyone’s pity.

“Stop,” she snapped at him, “Stop looking at me like you want to fix me!”

“I’m not!” Sam defended, “I just… I can’t imagine going through that. I mean, we didn’t have the best childhood but I always had Dean. He pretty much raised me. I don’t know where I’d be without him. I don’t pity you Y/N, I admire you. You’re stronger than I was – than I still am.”

She was speechless. Strong? He thought she was strong? The guy who fought the devil and won, who saved the world a hundred times over, thought she was strong? That was hilarious.

“I’m not strong, Sam. I can barely keep it together on a good day. If you knew some of the things that I’ve done…” she trailed off, averting her eyes.

“You think Dean doesn’t struggle? I don’t? Y/N, just the fact that you’re still going is enough to tell me what kind of person you are. You’re a fighter, and everything you’ve done, you’ve done to survive. You think I’m going to judge you? I’m not the most moral person around, in case you haven’t noticed,” Sam smiled wryly at her, urging her to look at him.

“Whatever you choose, or whatever happens, we won’t just abandon you. You know that, right?”

She saw the sincerity in his eyes and it tugged at her gut. She couldn’t figure out why they cared so much. They barely knew her. They certainly didn’t owe her anything, hell – Sam was hurt because of her. Even after she had tried to make Dean angry, they just wouldn’t let her be, and she couldn’t, for the life of her, understand why. So, she asked him.

“Why?” It was barely a whisper but Sam heard her anyways.

“Is it because you think I’m family somehow? And what happens when you find out that I’m not? I know you’re confident about your assumption. Is that why you both are so dead set on helping me? I don’t get it. I mean, I’m nobody.”

Sam sighed.

“No. I swear, this is half the reason I think you’re Dean’s daughter. You’re just so much like him. Neither of you understand your worth,” Sam said tiredly.

“Kiddo, you don’t need to be family for us to do the decent thing. In case you forgot, Dean offered you a place with us before we even made the connection between your mother and him. And yes, I was hesitant, but it wasn’t because I didn’t want you with us. I was concerned – we don’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to keeping our friends safe. I just didn’t want you to get caught up in something and end up dead,” Sam continued.

Y/N realized the truth in his words. Dean did offer to take her with them before they even found out how young she was.

“Also, you have so much potential. You’re a good kid and we happen to like you. It’s just that simple. Don’t overthink it,” Sam ordered, starting to figure out how her mind worked.

“I’m not overthinking. I’m just looking out for myself, I guess. I’ve met too many people who wanted to ‘help’ me before. They just pawned me off to the authorities the first chance they got. I don’t want that happening again, I’m fine on my own,” she reluctantly admitted.

Sam’s heart dropped. He’d heard the horror stories about foster care before, and from the way Y/N was acting, her experience didn’t seem to have been a pleasant one.

“We’re not going to do that kiddo, I promise,” Sam pleaded with her to believe him.

“And if I decide I don’t want to come with you guys? Will you leave me alone?”

“You know we can’t do that. I said we’re not going to hand to over to the CPS, I never said anything about letting you go off on your own. Even if I wanted to, which I don’t, Dean wouldn’t let me. He gave you two options kiddo, you gotta pick one.”

He walked across the room to the mini-fridge and took out a beer. Walking back to the table, he twisted the cap off and took a drink before setting it down. Y/N eyed his beer and then the fridge, hoping to get one herself. It had been a long day. She started to move towards the fridge.

“Don’t even think about it.”

She glared at him but sat back down on one of the beds.

“I for one, would prefer if you came with us,” Sam carried on their previous conversation, “I know it’s dangerous, specially now, but leaving you with Jody doesn’t feel right. I’m sure Dean would agree. We won’t force you, of course. And even if you do choose Jody, Dean will probably want to check on you from time to time. So, you’re kind of stuck with us now kiddo.”

Sam was entirely to gleeful for her taste as he said his piece. Neither option sounded particularly delightful to her. Either way, she would have to submit to someone’s authority, which would be fine for a normal fifteen-year-old, but she was terrified of not having control. She’d probably also be made to join school again if she chose to go with Jody. The sheriff’s ward couldn’t exactly skip schooling. The thought of school terrified her. She hadn’t been to one in forever.

“Hey, tell me what’s going on inside that head of yours,” Sam urged her to talk to him. He could see the building tension in her shoulders as she got lost in thought, and couldn’t figure out why she was so upset about them being in her life. They weren’t that bad.

“I don’t wanna go to school,” she blurted out, scratching at her rope-burnt wrists. Sam reached out and grabbed her hands, stopping the anxious action. He realised she still hadn’t treated them and went to fetch the medical cream and some bandages.

“Why?” he asked as he started in on her wrists.

“I – I don’t – I just don’t want to,” she was stuttering, which surprised Sam. She had never faltered once in the little time he’d known her. She came across as quite a confident young woman. Maybe they just didn’t know her very well, he realised.

“Okay,” he simply stated. “You don’t have to.”

He didn’t know why she was so opposed to school but he could take a guess. Her mom died when she was 11 and she had been on her own ever since. It wasn’t hard to figure out that she probably hadn’t seen the inside of a school in a while. Whatever it was, she was clearly bothered by it, so he would leave it alone for now. He didn’t want to give the poor kid more anxiety than she already seemed to have.

Y/N was still breathing fast as Sam finished with her wrists. He let go of her hands and gently put his own on either side of her face, urging her to look at him.

“You’re okay kiddo. You’re gonna be okay.”

The tears surprised her. She didn’t normally cry, but she’d had a hell of a day she supposed. So, instead of being embarrassed about crying like a little girl, something she detested normally, she threw herself into the gentle giant’s comforting arms, giving in to the overwhelming emotions she’d been through in the past few hours.

“Shh, it’s okay kid. Everything’s gonna be okay,” Sam consoled her, gently running his hand over her head as she burrowed herself into his chest.

If only she could believe him.

Chapter 5

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[starsbythepocketful12]

headcanons cause i’m in flarrie hours

they are THE couple when it comes to halloween costumes

all their outfits for big events (parties, gigs where dirty candy and/or jatp perform) are coordinated

carrie my femme queen & flynn my nonbinary lesbian darling

go to protests & marches together

flynn lends carrie books by her favorite Black female authors & carrie lends her books by her favorite sapphic poets

they make playlists about each other but the other doesn’t know they do it (julie & kayla are the only ones permitted to know of the existence of these playlists & have been sworn to secrecy, though julie has a strong suspicion carrie also makes playlists about flynn and vice versa)

have a joint pinterest account for their wedding moodboard

carrie adopted a tiger cub and named it flynn for their three month anniversary

they go to the mall together every other weekend and shop, which they both love to do and when they get home they always model the new outfits they bought

flynn squeals every time they see a dog in public and always runs over and asks if they can pet it and carrie always watches her with such a fond look that the owner almost always makes a comment on what a lovely couple they are or asks how long they’ve been together (something that has actually been happening since even before they were dating, and back then you can imagine the flustered ness it caused)

flynn often comes to watch dirty candy rehearsals, cheer them on, make sure they’re staying hydrated/taking snack breaks and that carrie’s not overworking herself

carrie is the first person that flynn tells she wants to DJ professionally and carrie gets her her first gig

eventually flynn gets into producing as well and ends up making a track for carrie, who writes lyrics to it and it becomes dirty candy’s most successful song to date

carrie says i love you first one saturday afternoon while they’re watching a movie on flynn’s computer in her room. flynn laughs at a joke and carrie looks over at her, her beautiful, incredible girlfriend, and simply can’t resist the urge to say it

flynn’s shocked into silence so carrie panics and leaves and doesn’t answer flynn’s messages

that night flynn shows up at the wilson mansion and throws rocks at carrie’s window until she comes out

flynn is upset with carrie for running out and ghosting her and carrie’s trying to defend herself so they argue but then flynn interrupts carrie by kissing her and breathlessly saying, “i love you.” carrie kisses her and not another word on it is said

carrie steals flynn’s hats

they’re not really PDA-y, they just happen to engage in a lot of unconscious, casual affection, like flynn often absentmindedly intertwines their pinkies and carrie doesn’t realize her arm is around flynn’s shoulders until she’s doing it

even after months of dating will still flirt like they’re in their enemies who are secretly very attracted to e/o era

flynn really loves art, particularly murals, so she drags carrie to a lot of gallery openings and museums

at one point when flynn’s going through a hard time carrie enlists all their friends for help making a giant mural full of drawings of things that make her happy

flynn happy cries when she sees it and is pretty much always seen hugging carrie for the rest of that night

only really cuddle when one (or both) of them is sleepy, though flynn does often sit on carrie’s lap

before starting to date, carrie would tease flynn for having stuffed animals during their sleepovers at flynn’s until they started dating and flynn started spending more time at carrie’s and flynn discovers that her girlfriend’s a little hypocrite

flynn has a younger sister and brother (sister is six, brother is four) and they absolutely ADORE carrie and think she’s the coolest and carrie thinks they’re the cutest

flynn’s like no they’re little demons and carrie’s says who says demons can’t be cute? you once called me a demon right, and im cute, aren’t i? and flynn rolls her eyes and fights back a smile

flynn also has a college aged older sister who she looks up to a lot, like that’s her hero and absolute role model, so naturally carrie’s terrified to meet her, and though she tries to appear intimidating at first, she can’t keep up the act for long and starts being friendly with carrie pretty much right away

one day they’re supposed to go on a date but carrie’s sick and forgot to text flynn telling her not to come so flynn shows up at her house but stays anyway to look after her

flynn reads to her and makes her soup

trevor & flynn play video games while carrie naps

flynn makes jewelry in her free time and consults carrie for her thoughts on every piece (in junior year she starts selling them at school & turns out to be quite the entrepreneur)

they have an inside joke about cosmo and wanda

a couple of the dirty candy members sometimes jokingly flirt with flynn and are like “watch out! we’re gonna steal your girl!” and carrie gets possessive and apologizes for it pretty quickly but flynn thinks it’s hot so it works out pretty well

will watch bad rom coms to make fun of straight people and throw popcorn at the screen when they get together

pet/nick names: care, baby, babe, love, (from carrie to flynn who shuts down upon hearing it) honey, (flynn to carrie, who becomes very giddy the first time flynn says it in a text message) sweetheart

if you couldn’t tell before they ofc have an enemies to friends to lovers arc

move in together after graduating, neither planning on going to college (julie goes to berkeley and nick some other place in california where they have lacrosse cause that’s the sport he plays right) and their parents think it’ll be a disaster but it actually goes really well

the first couple of weeks they fight more, all petty arguments mostly out of the stress of moving, but they always talk it out

it doesn’t take long for them to be happy they’re living together and feel really glad they took that step

two years after graduating flynn gives her a promise ring

carrie cries her eyes out and replies “of fucking course, you dumb fuck” when flynn asks if she’ll take it

ten years later carrie’s a successful pop star/choreographer & flynn’s a record breaking producer/DJ and they’re about to buy a house when they realize they never got married

it’s just a moment where they’re relaxing together on the couch and suddenly are like. oh

and proceed to burst out laughing

it’s a small ceremony, thrown together in just three weeks

carrie wears a short, light pink dress with a heart cutout in the back that would probably be more suited for a high school sophomore’s spring fling but no one cares

flynn wears a suit, and is walked down the aisle by her older sister

they both tear up upon seeing each other and sob through the vows (the traditional pre written ones, they wrote vows for each other but they recite them to the other when they’re alone, so it’s something special only they can share)

julie & kayla are the maids of honor, nick and alex are the best men

julie & luke’s five year old hernando is the ring bearer & alex and willie’s three year old umi is the flower child

trevor, flynn’s older sister and parents cry

even flynn’s now teenage younger siblings, who as of late have often been stereotypically cynical and moody shed tears

jatp perform at the reception (they have also become a hit band at this point)

when they get back from the honeymoon the first thing they do is get a dog

they adopt a golden doodle rescue named stella

a couple years later they start talking about kids and look into getting a sperm donor

because they love being competitive they do little games to decide who will be the one to carry the baby

it’s all jokes though, they decided at the start of the process that it would be flynn for the first kid and carrie for the second

but then SURPRISE flynn has twins

a boy and a girl named tyler and ollie (who’s who i won’t tell you cause fuck gender)

they don’t even talk about carrie getting pregnant now cause they’re busy with the babies and trying to manage their careers but one night, when the kids are eight, and flynn has just flopped onto the couch with a dramatic sigh after putting them to bed, carrie puts down her kindle and quietly says that she wants another kid.

they talk for hours because while flynn wants another kid too, when you’re both celebrities with demanding jobs and people constantly trying to peer into your life, that decision involves even more factors

they decide to have another kid and carrie chooses to take a step back from her career for now-she’ll return to it eventually but for now she wants to be able to just be a parent without worrying about work and not have to deal with the guilt that comes with working when she feels like she should be being a parent

though the kids have always been their main priority and they have done quite well dividing their time between work and being with them, and have done decently shielding them from the public eye (majority of the pictures of ollie & tyler that the public has are blurry candids, and the few high quality ones are from when they were three and they no longer look like that anyway so it’s all good)

it’s a harder process for carrie to get pregnant as she’s almost 40 and flynn was 31 when she had tyler and ollie

but it happens though they’re careful about choosing the sperm donor-even briefly consider asking reggie or nick-because with this kind of thing there’s always the risk that other parent could track down where their kid ended up and want to be a part of that kid’s life later on which is uber complicated for many reasons so they get those scary possibilities out of the way by just finding someone who they know wants to be in the child’s life

preston choi, a thai & korean american mathematics professor ends up being their guy

he’s immensely genuine, sweet, respectful, polite, and gentlemanly

when he came out at fifteen his parents kicked him out of the house

it was a long and difficult journey but they’re in a decent place now

but it’s not the family he wants to have and he’s tried but has yet to find a partner

but doesn’t want to wait to have kids so here he is, more than happy to co parent with flynn and carrie

so that’s what they do! tyler and ollie become big siblings to miles wilson-choi on december 10th, 2044

miles grows up in the most multicultural home ever, being fluent in 4 languages (English, AAVE, Spanish thanks to their tia julie, Korean, and Thai) all their life

tyler & ollie welcome preston and miles into the family with open arms, as well as the addition of korean and thai cuisine to the already amazing dinner tables they had of soul and caribbean food

when miles is seven carrie goes back to work full time, with preston’s assurance that he’s got this when her and flynn are busy and tyler and ollie (who are now fifteen) promising they’ll help out as well

at that point the long awaited julie and the phantoms/carrie and flynn wilson collaboration FINALLY happens

flynn wins her 28th grammy for it, leaving her tied with beyoncé for most grammys won by any woman ever (its julie’s 14th, luke’s 6th, and carrie’s 12th, and the band’s collective 10th cause alex never did any solo projects and reggie released one country album but it didn’t win any grammys rip though it was nominated for 2 CMAs)

[writefightandflightclub]

Poke it (Poe Dameron x reader)

What is this? #9 of 14 prompt requests for my now semi-distant 500 follower celebration (sorry that they’re taking me an age to complete)!

Prompt / summary: “Let’s poke it with a stick” + “Do NOT poke it!” + “Let’s be honest. This isn’t the worst thing you’ve caught me doing”

(That 3rd line! I adore Pepperony and I wish I had a comprehensive list of the worst things Pepper caught Tony doing!)

Author’s note: This is just a quick one- hope it hangs together ok. The title is shitty, I’m sorry.

Word count: 1.4k

Warnings: mild sex references and content; references to nudity.

GIF credit: the fabulous @hupperts​ ​!

You stir awake in the interior of the cave as a precise whisper cuts through the relative darkness.

“Let’s poke it with a stick!”

Blearly eyed and still half-asleep, you try to shrug off the layers of sleep. All you can establish, at first, is that you’re surrounded by warmth. By blankets. By warm skin. Then a familiar scent wraps around you, explaining the embrace you’re held in. Poe. You’re surrounded by Poe, snoring lightly beside you.

Then, a second harsh whisper slices through the cave, and you register a flashlight beam trailing over the interior, unsure footsteps scraping along the floor.

“I’m gonna poke it.”

“Do NOT poke it, Rose! It’s probably just a rock.”

“You don’t believe that, Finn, or you wouldn’t mind me poking it. Besides, it was moving around! I heard it growl!”

Evidently, your rescue committe has arrived. “Hello?” you venture into the dimly lit cave. At that, Finn and Rose startle, seemingly colliding with one another and letting out a sharp shriek.They’re not very subtle.

Poe finally shifts awake beneath the blankets, at which point, upon observing the stirring, blanketed shape, Rose yells “AHHH! Kill it! Kill it! For kriff’s sake kill it!!”

“Don’t kill it! Rose! It’s us! It’s just us!” You exclaim, and a flashlight beam finds its way directly into your face. Groggily, you raise an arm to shield your eyes. You offer them a lopsided smile. “Major (L/N), accounted for and present.” Wait, is Finn hiding behind Rose?

Upon realising the mysterious shape is you and not some carniverous, cave-dwelling monster, Finn strides forward and you can just about make out relief washing over his features. “Poe?” he enquires, needing to know immediately that the Commander is also accounted for.

“I’m here, buddy.”, a gravelly, sleep ridden voice announces from behind you. Slinging a hand over your hips and giving you a reassuring and private squeeze beneath the blankets, Poe props himself up on his elbow and squints into the light as the beam now washes over his stubbled face and mussed, inky curls. 

“Thank kriff.” Rose starts, finally reassured and continuing the onslaught with the flashlight as she too paces towards you.

“Rose.” you warn. “Rose.”

She doesn’t heed you and, full of relief that the moving, growling shape was simply the two of you sleeping, she makes her way even closer. “What on earth happened to you two after the crash? We...” But then she comes closer than she would like. “Oh, Maker, my eyes!” she yells, the flashlight beam skimming over the underwear and clothing you have both strewn over the floor. Skimming over Poe’s shirtless form snuggled into yours.

Poe dips his head towards you while Rose swings her flashlight wildly around, providing a momentary distraction. “Oops.” he breathes, with zero genuine regret, before planting a quick kiss to the sweet spot on your neck that he learned all about lastnight. Your body hums with delight.

Finn’s beam follows the path of Rose’s next. “Maker! Are you two naked?!” Did you have...? No. Wait. I don’t even need to ask, do I? You had sex in a cave. You did. I know it.”

“Finn!” you scold, although he’s not wrong, and you tug the blanket firmly up to your armpits to avoid any unintended slips, as if you might be able to salvage some dignity after all. 

“We didn’t think anyone was coming for us, buddy. We may have got in touch with our feelings, some.” Poe defends, his voice momentarily hollowed out with the memory of exactly how stranded you’d believed you were. About the declarations which followed. “Besides, Let’s be honest, Finn. This isn’t the worst thing you’ve caught me doing. Not by far!” 

Finn sighs. “Whatever, just get dressed and meet us over by the entrance. You got your own light?”

“We got our own light.” Poe confirms.

“And (Y/N)?” Rose calls gleefully as she and Finn head out, “Hurry up, so you can tell me absolutely everything there is to know about this hook-up.”

“Rose!” Poe scolds, in a thin attempt at his Commander-ly voice.

The duo leave and Poe shields your eyes with his palm as he powers up the portable light. You swivel beneath the blanket to face him with a tentative smile, the memory of last night still fresh on your skin, on your lips, on your heart.

“Looks like we’re not going to die after all, honey.” He trails his fingertips lazily over your bare back. If you’re not mistaken, he takes a deep, steadying breath before speaking his next words. “Before we’re very unalone: any regrets about last night....?”

Your response is easy, certain. “I regret nothing.”

He can’t hold back the smile upon hearing your words, but he does make some attempt to tame it with a lip bite. He dips to press a soft, affectionate kiss to your lips and looks at you like he can’t believe his luck.

“How about you?” you ask apprehensively. “Any regrets?”

“I only regret that I didn’t have sex with you in a cave a helluva lot sooner.”

“Figures.” you nod, delivering him a warm smile and returning his kiss, momentarily letting it deepen.

“Come on then, Screamer, let’s get dressed and back to base so I can undress you again. Sound good?”

Oh oh. You hope that nickname doesn’t stick. You’d be more embarrassed, but he’d certainly seemed to enjoy how vocal you were last night.

“Yep. That’s emphatically fine by me.” You pick through the mess to find your clothes, tugging them on hurriedly and packing up the few supplies you had remaining. Once everything is gathered and you’re both decent you begin your trudge through the winding tunnels. 

“Wait a minute, though...” you pause as you pick your way out through the dark and towards the cave’s mouth. Poe’s hand is on your waist. In fact, he’s barely stopped touching you since he finally realised that you wanted him to touch you. “I gotta ask. What was the worst thing Finn’s caught you doing?”

Poe stops in his tracks for a moment, his hand still warm and reassuring on the small of your back. “I forget... D’sn’t matter though, you’re by far the best thing he’s caught me doing. Let’s dwell on that. ‘Kay?”

“Technically, he didn’t catch you doing me.” you clarify, for the record.

“A few minutes later and he would have.” Poe smirks, and his face remains mischievous as you enter the light of day. 

Rose is waiting keenly for you to emerge and greets you both with open-armed hugs and easy smiles. You both hold your arms out to Finn, expecting the same. “Nah, bro, I’ll get you later. I know where you two have been.”

You walk together towards the ship, and you allow yourself a sigh of relief. It had been touch and go there for a while. Then, before Rose can siphon you off for much needed gossip, you turn to Poe. “You’re the best thing I’ve been caught doing too, you know.”

His expression turns smug. “I could tell, sweetheart.”

“Sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

He ignores your comment and continues with his self-satisfied train of thought. “Which is wild, because I haven’t even shown you mosta my moves yet.”

You filter on to the rescue vessel, greeting the pilot with gratitude and taking a seat with Poe, Rose, and Finn further down in the cabin.

If you’re honest, as relieved as you are to see your friends, you’re a little distracted wondering what other “moves” Poe might have to offer. Apparently, your lusty looks aren’t lost on your fellow Rebels, either. “Oh, for Maker’s sake, you two.” Rose starts. “Go. Get out of my sight. I’ll cover for you.” You and Poe exchange a glance, and Poe offers you a suggestive eyebrow, the gesture forming a perfectly phrased, unspoken question. He grabs your hand eagerly as your eyes shine in response.

“Thanks, Rose.” he calls, practically yanking your arm out of its socket with enthusiasm and he leads you towards an adjacent door.

“Just don’t touch anything!” she emphasises.

“And don’t let me catch you.” Finn promptly adds a condition. “And never tell me what happened in there.”

You throw a sidelong, helpless look back at Rose as Poe marches you away. “Tell me everything.” She mouths at you before you’re carried off. You give her a wink and turn towards Poe who leads you surreptitiously through another door and into an unused cargo store. His face splits into a grin. “And try not to scream.” He adds as he hikes you up on to the table.

“Oh, Maker. What have I let myself in for with you?” you chide fondly. However, as soon as you feel his touch on you, simultaneously loving and sinful, you recall; you regret nothing. Plus, this man’s not wrong. He has moves. Maker, the way his fingers are-

-Poe’s palm clamps over your mouth just before a loud moan spills from you. “Do you think you can keep quiet for me, honey?”

Nope. No regrets. You couldn’t unearth a single one if you tried. In fact, this might just be the best thing to have happened in a long while.

THE END

Like this? Please consider reblogging, and/or sending feedback in an ask or comment. I LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU AND STORIES ARE NOTHING WITHOUT A READER. YOU ARE EVERYTHING AND ILY.

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[sole-cuore-amore-e-droga]

Croatia brings no men in a hamster wheel to Rotterdam 2021

Now could this be the teddy bear uprising invasion Muse has warned us about 12 years ago?

And LITERALLY, these review series make me feel like Croatia is openly taunting me - I watch the days go, I’m losing track of time, and when another day comes, I’m screaming “oh no I forgot to publish a review sooner than wanted!!”. Guess I’m for one glad there’s a time related song this year, hum?

ARTIST & ENTRY INFO

Repping the Adriatic coast nation that got all the sea instead of Bosnia & Herzegovina is some 22 year old Albina Grčić, who first popped up on X Factor Adria back when that was a thing, and got lumped into a girlgroup in later stages, but to that she said “hvala ne” and moved on with her life, getting eliminated just like that. Queen <3 She did get her second chance to compete as a soloist and make a more prominent mark on her career when she ended up on The Voice in Croatia. She did well, placing third overall in the season, but somehow, during the duel stage, her coach initially favoured her fellow Dora 2021 contestant Filip Rudan:

Her Voice success landed her a record deal with the Croatian division of Universal Music, she released a debut single, sometime later ended up on Dora, and here she is now, on Eurovision.

“Tick-Tock” is the song, a standard upbeat pop song, and one of the ones that talks about a girl leaving a terrible relationship and being so well over it that she “found [her]self and [she’s] finally free”, and the “tick-tock” here is used to represent the time passing by, not the sound of her heart, unlike a fellow ESC entry of a similar title. The tune (or its lyrics only) is co-authored by some dude you might’ve heard of from France’s 2018 preselection Destination Eurovision, and that is Max Cinnamon - some half-English guy with a half English song about love (”Ailleurs”) that did moderately averagely in the final... I don’t even know if his influence shows, I just love how 2021 has sort of become revenge of the NF flops but they’re writing other entries instead (Suzi P, “Adrenalina”).

REVIEW

I often don’t really fully vibe with female bops in Eurovision as much as I want to, like, for the most part they’re overhyped, and I let the “yass queeeeen” audience gorge on the everything their favourite bops give them. But this year there are plenty of great ones to choose from, as I think that it’s safe to say that most, if not all, are tucked in somewhere inside my top 20, top 25 at the very minimum. Croatia managed to even do the impossible and land into my top 10.

Why?

Well, the answer is that the song is just so damn good.

I mean, what’s NOT to like about it? It’s a catchy and upbeat song that incorporates xylophones (or whatever is it that sounds like them), guitars and synths; has a good bassline in the chorus; and it’s just... a very good composition overall, like, all the instruments in it are just in their right place and uplift the song massively. I also like Albina’s performance on it, both live and studio, it clearly shows that she’s a very good singer (also shown on her cover of the scandalous Oscar award snubbery “Husavik”). Sounds like a song a common pop loving Eurofan could gear themselves towards. Besides, it also has possibly my favourite pre-chorus section of the 2021 year? Oh wait, there’s also Switzerland, scratch that. “Tick-Tock” has one of my favourite pre-chorus sections of 2021. It builds up so well instrumentally and the way Albina sings it is even better. I obviously like to believe Albina heard those voices from far away that helped her to escape, has found herself, and she’s finally free from her “partner’s” bad lovin’ and restraint. Yas queen go be free you didn’t deserve his tomfoolery anyway!  👏 (Also I admire a section that’s not quite the pre-chorus but is still before the 1st chorus, the one that goes “If you pull me down then I'll come around” - literally just a lot of the parts of the song are full of nice vocal performance and I don’t regret ranking this in my top 10 not a second.)

If it has any drawbacks, it’s just that it gets a tad too repetitive after the halfway mark... like, the pre-chorus before the second chorus is the one to be repeated once again, and no new verse, nothing - but it does launch itself into something extraordinary, and that is a chorus in Croatian, which I assume she would perform in Eurovision because there’s no Eurovision version on the song promo bundle, I suppose. Comparatively the Croatian chorus is not as complex in lyrics as the English language one, and flows slightly differently too. But the song still has a long chorus by the end, and song with too many choruses is never a good sign for those that look for a song that’s constructed well, but I guess it’s a good factor for those that value the song’s catchiness. I guess that’s what one of the two Eurovision 2005 hosts valued the most when writing the Ukrainian 2006 entry “Show Me Your Love”, which if you ask me, is straight up 75% chorus, lol.

So yeah my verdict is that almost everything about this song, I like. I’m just a little devastated that in a usually very easily gorged on category of female bops, this just tends to lag behind in love, like a fellow song I really like this year, Israel. Instead people tend to prioritize Cyprus (which I get because they’ve established themselves as a girlbanger nation since Fuego swept Eurovision) and... probably even Azerbaijan? (which I might also get because Eurovision rarely has this thing called an ethnobop anymore, and it has more ethno than “Cleopatra” did, but still unnecessarily underwhelming lol.) Well then, in a year of female bangers, I would just like Croatia to not be swept under the rug come semis I guess. Yeah “Tick-Tock” may not sound like it brings something totally never seen before in a Eurovision environment (foreign language lyrics, themes about a break up, hell even her dancers looked like they were wearing the same hats as Tamta’s dancers), but you got to have a lot in you to sell a worn out idea to the new heights, and Albina does exactly that in my eyes.

Approval factor: Yeah! There is a lot of it in here for me. Follow-up factor: A great follow-up, not so great in regards to panini but musically it’s just going up and up from what we had in the past few years. I’ve actually not minded “The Dream” for the most part but I knew it was a chanceless plodding ballad and Roko harboured heaps of wasted potential working with Jacques Houdek and having wings as part of his performance, uff. *_* And then there’s “Divlji vjetre” which I also like a lot - a much better male ballad winner choice! If the Dora re-up winners keep being decent imo just like this, I have a feeling I will follow it a lot more often than I did just this one time this year. I am just saying that panini-wise, it was a sucky move from HRT for not allowing their last year’s winner promote his new song with Tijana (from Serbia 2017) on the Dora night, so we sadly only heard a pre-recorded opening version of “Divlji vjetre” to start off with :( Otherwise I think it’s not Dora’s fault in itself that Damir himself chose not to even submit an entry this year because he hadn’t found a good one - much like with Diodato for Sanremo (he was NOT rejected, if you think he still was, shush). But aside that, musically, it just keeps going up for me. Well done Croatia, for you’ve used to be a Eurovision country I don’t necessarily care about, that you brought two pretty damn good entries in a row. Qualification factor: I can absolutely trust in Albina bringing in a little bit of her charisma and well-likedness, and on top of that, a great vocal performance, in Rotterdam. Don’t ask me why, I just do. She doesn’t really perform her song live on pre-parties as much as I’d like to hope she would, but you heard girlie on the national selection, she didn’t win for nothing. Yeah yeah there might as well be female uptempo songs hungrier for the last spot, but I’d like to think Albina is one of the ones ready to devour than to be devoured. Go girl! Take us all dancing!

NF CORNER

To be honest with you, “Tick-Tock” winning Dora caught me by surprise. Ever since its re-up, the last two editions were kind of won by male ballads, and maaaaybe the dancey females were doing moderately well enough for themselves, but not overall? But look, juries were very keen on Albina, probably because she can SANG and she creates one hell of a fancy presence on her performance. And somehow she ended up snatching a win out of the hands of 5G conspiracy theorist 2016 representative Nina Kraljić, who was at first too drunk to care, but too unexpectedly sober to yell all over the soc. media how she was robbed and how the contest was rigged against her with her being on first and all that. Which is a shame that she is one of THOSE people, because her NF entry “Rijeka” is kinda nice? We did have the Balkan-esque ballads coming from Croatia in recent memory, but we haven’t had a truly proudly folksy one at that from Croatia for a long while, if not ever. Nina could’ve very well brought that to Rotterdam (and another mismatched wardrobe choice oops). But instead she was the one screaming “oh no, oh no, oh no”.

Actually I regarded Nina as one of my faves pre-show, and Albina was on her way, though she didn’t really cement the personal fav status until after all performances, thus making Nina and Albina switch spots for me. But truly, the one song that was my top favourite, iiiiiiiiiiis

GIMME AN OCEAN! OF LOVE!

2021 made me realize that damn, maybe anything that’s funky is my favourite music genre afterall. Up until then I vibed with entries like “Tonight Again” and “What’s the Pressure?” that had this sort of energetic flair and very rhythmic kinda sound to it, but 2021 just simply cemented it to me that my music world has probably been about nice and smooth and funky all along. I owe so much gratitude to ToMa first and foremost along the lines of more to have come in this year’s lineups - I just can’t not want to dance to “Ocean of Love”, and ToMa is quite alright at selling it live as well. There are small gripes with some instrument usages but that doesn’t detract from the fact that I love love LOVE funky guitar tunes.

Aside from that, I can give shout outs to Beta Sudar, whose song not only was underrated, but also had an underrated meme format throughout its performance:

My other props go to Bernarda, who not only competed in a national selection singing a song about seeing “Colors” while blind (and ironically there was a song called “Blind” in that same NF sung by a well-seeing guy!!), but also for finally putting this every country’s reject to rest. Seriously. That particular song was passed on to everyone in need of a competitive Eurovision bop, from Poli Genova to Helena Paparizou as of recently. Oh well, at least the song died a honourable death - well performed slice of good typical Eurovision pop (maybe even overperformed a little towards the end), that got a good rank with the regional juries, but somewhat murdered in televote, fellow Boris Milanov composition “Chameleon” style.

This one Mia Negovetić chick was promising too! Her song was written by the Debs and you might be tired of them trying to continue infiltrating Eurovision at this point, but a lot of their Eurovision songs are usually something I enjoy, “She’s Like a Dream” is no exception. Nothing but 3 minutes of pastel-dressed Croatian Ariana Grande doing what she does best <3

Oh and also some dudes tried to play chess on stage too I guess. But their song is not worth looking into, because one of the acts on it is apparently also a conspiracist, and maybe because oft this their entry is aptly titled “Sing, for the freedom has arrived!” lol I wonder what exactly is the kind of freedom you’re thinking of my guy

Was this the “better mood game” Laura was warning everyone about? Beats me

NF CORNER (NON-COMPETITIVE)

• It’s still hilarious to me as to how one of the acts this year, Brigita Vuco, was planning to bring in backing dancers, only for them to show a fake COVID test or something and outright BARRED from coming with her on stage. <3 Whatever she intended to do with them dancers, I have absolutely no idea, but at least she committed to her song being about drunken nights visually by having all these blurry shots

• Nina Kraljić’s greenroom shenanigans, from the “1-2-3, 1-2-3, drink” to numb the sadness over some results (and the 8 she got from the region Rijeka for the song “Rijeka” lmao), to whatever she saw on the phone that made her smile or go neutral

• Greenroom reactions in general. I swear, this year had cameramen in every single corner everywhere just to make sure something covers up for a human audience instead of severals of Zoom screens permitted to act as an audience. Random people in greenrooms were doing some sort of emotions after random acts, and also randomly they ended up pointing a camera towards an act that lost, but the act didn’t treat losing as if it were such a big deal <3

• All the other memes the Croatian Twitter might’ve noticed me for:

seriously Bernarda was locked in a bluelight mathematical dice contraption. how fucking cool is that

ANY LAST WORDS?

I just fucking hope that Albina shatters any doubts that people have had about her song come rehearsals, and somehow Croatia AND Israel slip through, because never too many female bangers I appreciate in the final, if they all are the bangers I appreciate, lol.